Word: primed
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...follows mortgage trends, recently reported that the foreclosure rate on homes valued at more than $729,750, also known as the jumbo-mortgage limit, rose 127% in the first ten weeks of this year compared to the same period a year ago. Bloomberg, reports that "about $500 billion of prime-jumbo mortgages are bundled into bonds, according to Memphis, Tennessee-based FTN Financial." The default rate on those bonds may rise as high as 10%, leaving banks with yet another set of substantial write-offs...
...proposed law is seen by Kremlin-watchers as further evidence of Moscow's continued suppression of dissent at a time when the domestic popularity of President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has slipped thanks to the economic crisis, and amid international fears of growing Russian militarism after its successful war against Georgia last summer. (See TIME's special package on the Russia-Georgia...
Iraq: Our Way, or Maliki's Way Even since the U.S. gave Iraqis the right to democratically elect their own leaders, Iraq has been governed by Shi'ite Islamist parties arguably closer to Tehran than to Washington, and reluctant to govern according to the American script. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who succeeded Ibrahim al-Jaafari in April 2006, has proven adept at outfoxing rivals and building the foundations of a strongman regime rooted in the loyalty he has cultivated in the security and intelligence services. But his electoral power base remains rooted in the Shi'ite majority...
...critical to wider U.S. interests across the Middle East to urgently implement a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Indeed, he believes it is vital to Israel's own interest, even as the clock runs out on the viability of such a solution. However, Israel's new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, sees things differently. Netanyahu has until now resisted the idea of an independent Palestinian state, arguing that the Palestinians should enjoy self-governance but without full sovereignty, because that would put Israel at risk. Anyway, he argues, the Palestinians' governance, security capability and level of economic development...
Netanyahu says he wants peace with the Palestinians, but he sees the immediate priority as strengthening economic development and the security capability of the Palestinian Authority. Even that, however, is of secondary importance for the Israeli Prime Minister. Netanyahu sees the overwhelming priority of both Israel and the U.S. as Iran, and he has made stopping Tehran's nuclear program his overarching priority. Defanging Iran, his aides argue, is also the key to any progress with the Palestinians, because the Israelis claim that Hamas is nothing more than an Iranian proxy. And while the Obama Administration has begun unfurling...