From The National Journal:

But one expert on the region is warning against broad predictions today in assessing the impact of bin Laden’s death. “We need to be very cautious… in assuming it will now damage al Qaida and other Islamist extremist networks, or that we can predict the political and strategic consequences,” said Anthony H. Cordesman, in a commentary for the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Strategically, he said bin Laden’s death “might have been a decisive blow in 2001 or 2002” but “may have far less effect today” on al Qaeda’s ability to attack targets. He said nobody today can possibly know how the killing of bin Laden will play with potential terrorists or in Pakistan. “We need to be very careful about what bin Laden’s death will mean for relations with Pakistan and for the war in Afghanistan,” he said.

Far from helping Obama politically, the latest development could increase the pressure on him to get American troops out of Afghanistan. It will, said Cordesman, “raise new questions about whether the Afghan war can really put an end to al Qaida and other terrorist sanctuaries and lead some of those who oppose the war to state that the U.S. and its allies should now withdraw.”

Cordesman said “it will take weeks and possibly months” to assess the strategic impact.

So that new “Mission Accomplished” banner that Democrats would love to unfurl at the next Obama campaign event? Probably best to keep it in George Bush’s attic. Less than 48 hours after such an historic event is a little too early for declarations of victory.

Read the whole thing here.

It was sad to watch Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke being forced to hold a political press conference for the first time in the Fed’s 102 year history. Bernanke nervously defended the merit of the Fed subsidizing $3 trillion in Congressional deficit spending and $2 trillion in Wall Street bail-outs; but he looked tired and defeated. He should have just apologized that the Fed’s policies had the unintended consequences of exporting American jobs, igniting world-wide inflation, impoverishing seniors and now threatening the destruction of the AAA credit rating of the United States. Perhaps then he could he could have honestly asked Americans: “Please allow Congress to raise the debt ceiling, so we can continue to spend money.”

Bernanke was a Princeton academic before serving as a Governor of Fed from 2002 to 2005, where he gained notoriety for developing the “Bernanke Doctrine”. The professor theorized the world had entered a period of “Great Moderation” where brilliant economists, like himself, could reduce fluctuations such as industrial production, unemployment, and GDP by “1) improved government economic stabilization policy, 2) financial innovation and global integration, 3) improved inventory control and supply chain management, and 4) and economic good luck.”

After the “9-11” terrorist attack in New York, Ben Bernanke gave a speech that reassured bankers and hedge funds the Fed could manage any shock to the economy titled: “Deflation: Making Sure “It” Doesn’t Happen Here.” The professor stated the Fed “has sufficient policy instruments to ensure that any deflation that might occur would be both mild and brief”. He stated that “recession, rising unemployment, and financial stress” could be countered by:

1) increase the money supply through the “printing press”;
2) “print money and distribute it willy-nilly”;
3) lower interest rates – all the way down to 0 per cent to “be able to generate inflation”;
4) control corporate bond yields by lending to banks at 0% and accepting bonds as collateral;
5) “devaluation and the rapid increase in money supply”
6) buy foreign currencies on a massive scale to depreciate the dollar;
7) finance the Treasury’s purchase of U.S. companies with “newly created money”.

(more…)

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss the death of Osama Bin Laden – what it means for New York, the President and the markets.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Osama bin Laden Killed: ‘Justice Is Done,’ President Says
40 Minutes That Changed the World: Inside the Operation That Brought Bin Laden Down
Ben: In Osama’s Death, a Vindication of Obama’s Choices
Don’t Get Cocky, America
New labor plan: Nationwide protests
Blair Expresses Gratitude, Relief at Bin Laden’s Death
Musharraf condemns ‘violation of our sovereignty’

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P.J. O’Rourke in The Weekly Standard:

President Obama has contempt for real money. And why not, since his government has the power to print all the fiat money he wants? Power is the politician’s paycheck. Power gets politicians all the good things money can buy and plenty of other things as well. Businessmen work for money because money gives them mastery over their own lives. Politicians work for power because power gives them mastery over the lives of others.

Obama, in pursuit of power, has been as greedy and irresponsible as any Wall Street tycoon in pursuit of money. After short-selling Hillary Clinton, he used the insufficient capital of one term in the U.S. Senate to engineer a highly leveraged buyout of the Democratic presidential nomination followed by a hostile takeover of the Oval Office. His political thinking is full of shady derivatives. His economic policy is a risky collateralized debt obligation. His campaign promises are junk bonds.

(more…)

People who inhabit our nation’s capital get treated entirely differently than those of us in the Real World.

The DC Denizens enjoy a much higher lifestyle – while being held to a much lower standard.

For instance, when we Suckers cheat on our taxes, we go to jail.

When a DC Denizen does, he or she goes on to become Treasury Secretary.  Or Labor Secretary.  Or continues to write tax laws.

And do all of these things in nicer digs, in nicer cars and for much more coin than most of us Suckers have or get.

These, Ladies and Gentlemen, are the people who serve.  Us, ostensibly.

And perhaps never do the DC Denizens do it to us more – and pay for it less – then when they lie to us.  They do it so effortlessly, so often and with such abandon.

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This one goes out to Osama Bin Laden:

Earlier this week I went to University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) to try and get the Chancellor to comment on the controversial videos that had come from Professor Judy Ancel and Don Giljum’s Labor Studies class. I visited Wood’s Hall and spoke to several high-ranking University officials on camera. Never once was I told I was trespassing, or that I could not film.

Because of that positive experience at Wood’s Hall, I felt comfortable returning to UMSL on Saturday, April 30th, in an attempt to interview Don Giljum, arriving at UMSL at approximately 2:15 pm. The class was scheduled to take a break at 2:30. I found Giljum’s classroom, waited outside quietly and not approaching the door so as not to disrupt the class.  I had waited several minutes when Giljum (I recognized him from the videos) and another man exited the classroom, walking by me as they proceeded down a hall.  I stayed put as I realized Giljum would have to return to his classroom at some point.

Giljum and the other man parted ways and he started to head back to his classroom.

I asked, ”Are You Don Giljum?” as he approached. ”Yes,” he responded, coming towards me. A press pass hanging around my neck was cleary visible. He walked up to me and stood in front of my camera with his back to the classroom door. I asked “When was the last time you committed industrial sabotage, or threatened the use of industrial sabotage to gain leverage in a Union negotiation?” “Never, said Giljum, “that was all taken out of context.”

He asked me my name and I told him. He then asked me who I was with. I told him SharpElbows.Net. “Are you the one who did the internet hatchet job on me?” he asked.  “I didn’t see any hatchet job, just your words on video” I said. That’s when Giljum appeared to lose it!

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ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan (AP) – Osama bin Laden was holed up in a two-story house 100 yards from a Pakistani military academy when four helicopters carrying U.S. forces swooped early Monday, killing the world’s most wanted man and leaving his final hiding place in flames, Pakistani officials and a witness said.

They said bin Laden’s guards opened fire from the roof of the compound in the small northwestern town of Abbottabad, and one of the choppers crashed. However U.S. officials said no Americans were hurt in the operation. The sound of at least two explosions rocked Abbottabad as the fighting raged.

Abbottabad is home to three Pakistan army regiments and thousands of military personnel and is dotted with military buildings. The discovery that bin Laden’s was living in an army town in Pakistan raises pointed questions about how he managed to evade capture and even whether Pakistan’s military and intelligence leadership knew of his whereabouts and sheltered him.

Critics have long accused elements of Pakistan’s security establishment of protecting bin Laden, though Islamabad has always denied this. Army and government officials gave no formal comment Monday.

Most intelligence assessments believed bin Laden was holed up somewhere along the lawless border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan, possibly in a cave and sheltered by loyal tribesmen. That region is remote, homes to soaring mountains and the Pakistan state has little or no presence in much of it. (more…)

From The Associated Press:

The six have met in private for several months, even as House Republicans and Obama developed more partisan plans that have little chance of being enacted into law because of Washington’s divided government.

House Republicans passed a nonbinding plan in April that calls for reducing annual deficits by a total of $6.2 trillion over the next decade. It includes no tax increases but calls for transforming Medicare from a program in which the government directly pays medical bills into a voucher-like system that subsidizes the purchase of private insurance plans.

Obama has outlined a plan to reduce borrowing by $4 trillion over the next 12 years. His plan includes $1 trillion in tax increases and is less specific about how he would cut benefit programs.

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Just a year ago, the Obama Administration was on the verge of converting America into a European style social-welfare state. The President had pushed up federal, state and local deficit spending to 41% of our gross-domestic-product (GDP), a level not seen since World War II. He passed healthcare legislation nationalizing 1/6 of the American economy and his Congressional majority was on the threshold of enacting labor and environmental regulations that would have collectivized broad swaths of American production and employment.

Then Greece and a number of other European nations suffered credit rating down-grades, soon followed by debt defaults and economic collapse. Today America stands at the precipice of its own collapse; either halt deficit spending or risk the financial collapse of our nation.

Barak Obama, during his Presidential bid, campaigned across Europe to symbolically express his solidarity with their economic social-welfare model by stating: “In America, there’s a failure to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world.” Once elected, President Obama partnered with European nations on a multi-trillion dollar government spending initiative in hopes of generating a multiple of economic growth.

Unfortunately for America, Greece and the other deficit spenders, the spending was squandered on bureaucratic overhead and crony projects. Now that lenders are demanding repayment, many countries are being forced to default on payment.

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From The Hill:

On Tuesday of next week, a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee will hold a hearing titled “White House Transparency, Visitor Logs and Lobbyists.” The hearing comes after a report by the Center for Public Integrity detailing disclosure gaps in visitor records released by the White House.

In a memo describing the hearing, staff for the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee cite the Center’s report about the visitor records. They also list a number of questions for the Obama administration on how its disclosure policy has come to function.

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In the face of public sector union reforms, leaders within these unions plan on embarking a new strategy to defeat reformist implementations.

On April 28, Newberry Library in Chicago hosted a debate on whether states can stop collective bargaining. Panelist Stephen A. Yokich, an associate general counsel for UAW, unveiled a radical idea for combatting new state restrictions on public sector collective bargaining. His strategy on behalf of the unions is to obtain a Supreme Court ruling stating that collective bargaining by public sector unions is a protecting right under the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution!

The Equal Protection Clause is found in Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. This section states that no state shall “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

The Supreme Court has held that this clause protects classes of race, national origin, gender, or religion from laws which are discriminatory, have discriminatory intent, or have disparate impact. Never has the Supreme Court ruled that this guarantee for “equal protection of the laws” applies to any particular group of organized workers! Such a suggestion lies far outside the judicial mainstream and defies the meaning and intent of this important clause.

When a member of the audience questioned the validity of such a novel constitutional law argument, the UAW lawyer replied, “We change what we think about the Constitution in order to adapt to the times that we are in.” Candid response, indeed.

(more…)

On Tuesday, across the state of Pennsylvania, unions and other Left-wing organizations will be boarding buses and heading to the state capitol in Harrisburg to engage in a mass rally to fight for economic and social justice and against budget cuts.  The rally, is being organized by the Coalition for Labor Engagement and Accountable Revenues (CLEAR) which is comprised of government unions, such as AFSCME, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), PSEA (part of the NEA), SEIU, as well as the AFL-CIO, IAFF, UFCW and others.

The economic agenda of the rally organizing group CLEAR consists of raising taxes on consumers and retailers,  internet shoppers and vendors, corporations and, of course, the wealthy. CLEAR is clear, they do not want any cuts in spending.

Also in attendance will be a diverse group of other organizations, such as:

• Just Harvest, a community-organizing group that has been “sowing the seeds of economic justice since 1986″
• Pittsburghers for Public Transit
• Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania

In addition, there will be elementary schoolchildren bused in from all over the state.
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Today is May 1st, the International Workers Day, a celebration of labor unions. We will make a point to do lots of capital-intensive work today.