Word: sovereign
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...targeting” civilians, he would, no doubt, have to equally condemn America’s deliberate “targeting” of any civilians killed in World War II in its fight against the Japanese and Nazis. This logic is clearly skewed, as it requires a sovereign nation defending its citizens—while simultaneously adhering to the highest standards of ethical warfare (including, in Israel’s case, the sending of text messages and dropping of warning leaflets with evacuation instructions for residents before targeting an area)—to face the frightful prospect that...
...revolution raged in France in the 1790s, its colonial slaves in Hispaniola revolted; in 1804, they declared independence, and Haiti, which was named after the Taino word for "land of mountains," became the world's first sovereign black republic. The Dominican Republic wasn't established until 1844, after not just European rule but also 22 years of Haitian occupation. Strife between (as well as within) the neighbors, rooted in deep class, racial and cultural differences, was constant. Interference by foreign powers was often the norm. The Spanish took back the Dominican Republic in the early 1860s, and for periods during...
Santander still has to prove itself in the U.S., however. In 2006, the Spanish firm spent $2.9 billion to buy 25% of Sovereign Bancorp, a regional bank in the northeast. By October 2008 Sovereign's stock had fallen 85% and Santander exercised its right of first refusal to buy the remaining 75% for $1.9 billion. Now it has to hope Sovereign is worth more than the peanuts Santander paid for it. "If a bank is strong, it is not for sale. Banks are sold, not bought," says Juan Rodríguez Inciarte, Santander's director general and an architect...
Santander would rather be profitable than interesting. Santander's U.K. profits for the first half of 2009 were up 33% from the year before, if you don't count acquisitions, and almost 63% if you do. It remains to be seen if Santander can work similar magic at Sovereign. Inciarte says cost-to-income at the U.S. bank has already fallen from 65% to 57%, but that getting down to 40% "will take us quite a while." (See pictures of the Federal Reserve...
...Andre Sapir, a senior fellow at Bruegel, a Brussels-based economic think tank, is also sympathetic. "The rules on sovereign debt and banking are slightly fuzzy," he says. "The best way to resolve this would have been with arbitration through an impartial court, but the U.K. and the Netherlands refused." The country of Latvia, which suffered its own monumental economic collapse last year, says that Iceland is being ganged up on because of its size and relative unimportance. "Is this reaction due to the fact that Iceland is a small country?" Latvian Foreign Minister Maris Riekstins asked...