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Uncle Sam is out some $2.3 billion in bailout funding following the bankruptcy of CIT, a major lender to small and medium-size businesses. The Nov. 1 filing by the century-old firm marks the government's first loss stemming from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), designed to stabilize major businesses during the height of the economic meltdown. CIT says it hopes to emerge from bankruptcy by year's end. More government losses could follow as bailout recipients such as Chrysler and AIG continue to struggle. Still, analysts say it could have been worse: CIT sought more bailout funding...
Sure enough, actual politics is proving the left-right spectrum to be inadequate. Three big off-year elections involved major candidates who were independent (New York City mayor and New Jersey governor) or third-party (the congressional election in New York, where the Conservative Party candidate forced out the Republican, who endorsed the Democrat). That's not to say "liberal" and "conservative" are useless, but they're not nearly enough. (See pictures of 60 years of election night drama...
...identity theme to appeal to the right-wing Le Pen voters who flocked to Sarkozy's 2007 presidential campaign once he began promising to get tough on crime and immigration. Le Pen's daughter Marine, the FN vice president, has voiced a similar accusation. "This country is suffering a major crisis of identity that is driving it into chaos," she told the Europe 1 radio station on Oct. 28. "We've been denied this debate for 25 years. We want a (real) national debate, not an electoral gadget...
...Obama Administration has said it altered its approach because sanctions alone have not worked in bringing about change in the isolated and impoverished nation. For their part, the generals are interested in improving relations because they are overly reliant on China, which has major investments in Burma, as an ally. The junta wants sanctions removed and its upcoming elections to be regarded as legitimate...
...this may not be enough to stop the usual E.U. squabbling in the end. The newly empowered leaders will likely have trouble preventing splits on major issues, if the 2003 dispute over the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq is anything to go by. With this in mind, perhaps a mediator is what the institution needs, not a power-player on the world stage, someone who will "stop traffic" in world capitals, as Miliband said last month in support of a Blair presidency. (See pictures of the Bush-Blair friendship...