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Why Most Kids Are Left Behind

In a radical probe of the functions of US education, Rich Gibson and E. Wayne Ross define the role of schools and of the bipartisan "No Child Left Behind" law in a rotting, militarized, imperial system. How educators should resist. Alexander Cockburn on why and how Wall Street and the Feds finished off Eliot Spitzer. Eamonn McCann on hiow the bel tolled for Ian Paisley. Get your copy today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and gear make great holiday presents.

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Today's Stories

March 24, 2008

Jeffrey St. Clair
Blonde Ambition: Hillary's Berserker Campaign for 2012

March 22 / 23, 2008

Ralph Nader
Bush Blisters the Truth on Iraq

Nicole Colson
Can You Afford to Feed Your Family?

James Petras
The Cost of Unilateral Humanitarian Initiatives

Laura Carlsen
From Bombs to Markets: The Andean Crisis and the Geopolitics of Trade

Greg Moses
Tolerance and the American Pulpit

Andy Worthington
Torture Stories Dog Guantánamo Trials

Michael Dickinson
Art on Trial

John Ross
Bush's Surge Hits Mosul

Missy Comley Beattie
Killer Economics

David Michael Green
Happy Anniversary, America!

Ramzy Baroud
The Coming Uncertain War on Iran

Martha Rosenberg
Easter Egg Shells from Hell

Paul Watson
Evolution is Going to the Dogs in the Galapagos

Isabella Kenfield
Monsanto's Raid on Brazil

James Murren
Logging v. Water in Honduras

Jacob Hornberger
Sex and the Immigration Officer

Kathlyn Stone
Ben Heine, Master of the Art of Resistance

Seth Sandronsky
Rethinking New Mexico's History

Kim Nicolini
Class, Gender and Abortion in Communist Romania

Jeffrey St. Clair
Booked Up: What I'm Reading This Week

Poets' Basement
Wilson, Woods, Gibbons and Orloski

Website of the Weekend
Merci, McCain!

 

March 21, 2008

Marleen Martin
Land Behind Bars: the Hidden Casualties of America's "War on Crime"

Peter Montague
Run Your Car on Coal? Maybe Not

Saul Landau
Monroe's Deadly Doctrine

Anis Hamadeh
Merkel in the Knesset

Jacob Hornberger
McCain's Al Qaeda Scare: Slip or Tactic?

Khalil Nakhleh
Al Nakba of 1948: How Long Will It Persist?

Adam Isacson
Colombia, Paramilitary Threats and Assassinations

Kenneth Couesbouc
Money for Nothing

Madis Senner
Will the Feds Underwrite the Stock Market?

Monica Benderman
The Costs of Freedom: What Are You Willing to Pay?

Website of the Day
Stop Foreclosures and Evictions

March 20, 2008

Damien Millet /
Eric Toussaint
The Triple Failing of the Big Private Banks

Mike Whitney
Winding Up Bear

John Ross
What Do We Owe Iraq?

Dave Lindorff
Paying the Piper: the Bodies and Bills are Piling Up

Wajahat Ali
Pakistan on Fire

Jill Nagle
Memo to Sex Workers: Stop Financing Shock Journalism

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Obama and the Psychic Auto-Shrink-Wrapping Called Race in America

Dan La Botz
Obama's Race Speech

Robert Weissman
Alternative Power: Shutting Down the API

Stella Dallas /
Jennifer Matsui

Apostasy Now! Mamet, Enter Stage Right

Website of the Day
The Angry Monk

 

March 19, 2008

Patrick Cockburn
A War of Lies

Robert Fisk
The Little Men and the Inferno

Jeff Taylor
Five Years of War in Iraq

Ed Ruggero
From Pinkville to Iraq: the Dark Anniversary of My Lai

Ron Jacobs
Who'll Stop the Rain?

Christopher Fons
Obama Takes the Race Bait

Sherwood Ross
In Defense of Rev. Wright

Cynthia McKinney
An Urgent Crisis: Confronting America's Racial Disparities

Joshua Frank
The Kool-Aid That Kills

Robert Weissman
Monsanto's Genetic Food Gamble

Walter Brasch
It's a Welfare State--If You're Rich

Yifat Susskind
Iraqi Women Resist the Occupation

Andrew Wimmer
War Demands Its Due

Website of the Day
Glimpses of Nature

 

March 18, 2008

David Price
The Military "Leveraging" of Cultural Knowledge

Paul Craig Roberts
The Collapse of American Power

Tim Wise
Of National Lies and Racial America: Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama and the Unacceptability of Truth

Patrick Cockburn
One of the Most Disastrous Wars Ever Fought

Conn Hallinan
Afghanistan, a River Running Backward

James T. Phillips
Monsters: Past, Present and Wannabe

Uri Avnery
The Killing in Bethlehem

David Macaray
Could Wal-Mart Revive the Labor Movement?

Marjorie Cohn
Beware an Attack on Iran

Peter Zinn
Obama in New Orleans

Dan La Botz
The Economic Crisis, Labor and the Left

Monica Benderman
Where are We Going?

 

March 17, 2008

Pam Martens
The Fed's Wall Street Dilemma

Sasan Fayazmanesh
The US, Iran and the Policy of Dual Containment

Nelson P. Valdés
The Imperial Branding of Simon Bolivar and the Cuban Revolution

Peter Morici
The Corrosive Consequences of the Trade Deficit

Wajahat Ali
Disrobing the Nine: a Conversation with Jeffrey Toobin on the Supreme Court Since 9/11

Ronnie Cummins
Beyond Progressive Malpractice: Taking Down Big Pharma

Shaun Harkin
Saint Patrick's Day in Fortress America

Ali Khan
No Pardon for Musharraf

Robert Jensen
Beyond Peace

P. Sainath
Oh, What a Lovely Waiver!

Greg Moses
Jeremiah was a Bullhorn

Dr. Susan Block
Advice for Eliot Spitzer

Website of the Day
No Cowboys

 

March 15 / 16, 2008

Patrick Cockburn
How to Destroy a Country in Five Years

Mike Whitney
Bearly Alive: Investment Giant Rushed to ICU by Panicky Fed Chief

Ralph Nader
Of Laws and Men

Robert Pollin
It's Still the Economy, Stupid

Diane Christian
The Poetics of Perversity: From Boccaccio to Spitzer

Wajahat Ali
Faking the Hood: a Conversation with Ishmael Reed

Tom Wright /
Therese Saliba

Rachel Corrie's Case for Justice

Alan Farago
Back to Florida: Where Bushtime Began

Greg Moses
Raiding the Family Room in Texas

Michael Hudson
A Grand Global Bargain?

Martha Rosenberg
Why Hillary's Favorite Chicken Company is Eying China

John Goekler
Fourth Generation Warfare in a Fifth Generation Conflict

Uzma Aslam Khan
A Letter to Barack Obama: Where's the Change, Barack?

Oren Ben-Dor
The Silencing of Gilad Atzmon

David Underhill
Mammon, Morals and the Mobile Tanker Deal

Fred Gardner
The Education of Eliot Spitzer

David Michael Green
Why Spitzer Should Have Resigned (and Why He Shouldn't Have)

Rev. William E. Alberts
Jesus, Entombed in Heaven

Gail Dines
It's All About the John: Prostitution and Male Power

David Yearsley
Conducting, Anarchy and the Problem of When to Begin

Chris Clarke
Walking with Zeke: the Luckiest of Dogs

Poets' Basement
Anderson, Lodge & Subiet

Website of the Day
Deviant Art

 

March 14, 2008

Paul Craig Roberts
Watching the Dollar Die

Don Santina
Vichy Democrats: Pelosi and the Politics of Collaboration

Patrick Cockburn
Iraqi Mother Vows Revenge on US: How She Lost Her Husband and Her Sons

Tim Rinne
StratCom Rules! The Next War Will Start in Nebraska

Robert Fantina
In Torture We Trust

Saul Landau
Letter to the Presidents-in-Waitings

David Macaray
Common Myths About Labor Unions

Franklin Lamb
Is the Bush Administration Switching Horses in Lebanon

Michael Neumann
The One State Illusion: Reply to My Critics

March 13, 2008

Paul Craig Roberts
Republicans and "Free Market" Zealots Bring Disaster to America

Mike Whitney
Meltdown Looms Larger As Credit Markets Freeze

Assaf Kfoury
"One-State or Two State?"- Sterile Debate on False Alternatives

Andy Worthington
Afghan Hero Who Died in Guantánamo: The Background to the Story

Adam Federman
From Autopia to Autogeddon: Cars Reach the End of the Road

March 12, 2008

Dave Lindorff
Bringing Down Spitzer: It's the Big Brother Who Should Bother US

R.F. Blader
The Spitzer Backlash

Yonatan Mendel
How to be an Israeli Journalist. Never Write "Murder" or "Palestine"

Jonathan Cook
One State or Two? Neither. The Issue is Zionism

Bill and Kathy Christison
Fallon and Gates -- At Least One Cheer

James J. Brittain
Was the U.S. Involved in Killing the FARC-EP Leaders

Ron Jacobs
"All the Money You Make Will Never Buy Back Your Soul"

March 11, 2008

Paul Craig Roberts
How to End the Subprime Crisis

Ed O'Loughlin
How Israeli Troops Invade Homes in Gaza, Brutalize, Smash and Steal

Ramzy Baroud
'Unwavering Commitment' to Inequality

Kathy Christison
One State or Two? The Debate Over Israel and Palestine

China Hand
PRC Plays it Cool, as U.S. Tries to Amp Up Pressure on Iran

John Joslin
Thank You, Nafta! Welcome to Weirton, Home of the Discount Cigarette

Mike Averko
Serb Politics, Kosovo and the Moscow-Washington Divide

Ben Rosenfeld
Gavin Newsom's Kneejerk Plan

Thierry Paquot
High Rise, Low Spirits:The Curse of the Tower Block

March 10, 2008

Uri Avnery
"Kill A Hundred Turks and Rest": The Five-Day War in Gaza

Col. Dan Smith
Scoring the "Surge" and What Lies Beyond

R.F. Blader
Why "Lock Them Up and Throw Away the Key" is Losing its Sheen

Michael Neumann
The One-State Illusion: More is Less

Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
Did the Republicans Give Hillary Her Victory in Ohio?

James J. Brittain
Anti-Uribe Protests in Colombia and the World

Missy Comley Beattie
The Passion of John McCain

March 8-9, 2008 Weekend Edition

JoAnn Wypijewski
The Only Way to Fight the Clintons

Mike Whitney
Sorting Through the Rubble in Post Bubble America

Peter Morici
Fed and Treasury Fiddle as Economy Plummets

Ralph Nader
The Silent Violence of Gaza's Suffering that Candidates Ignore

Jonathan Cook
The Meaning of Gaza's Shoah

Steve Niva
Behind the Israeli Escalation in Gaza

Bill and Kathy Christison
Crisis over Teheran's Alleged Nuclear Plans Nearing Climax

Hervé Do Alto and Franck Poupeau
Bolivia: Morales is Checked

Eric Walberg
To Leave and Stay at the Same Time: Putin to Medvedev to…?

Scott Johnson
City of A Thousand Foreclosures

Mark Scaramella
James Brown's Gate

Bill Clinton
President Clinton's Remarks on Naming William M. Daley as NAFTA Task Force Chairman

Poet's Basement
St. Thomasino, Engel, Davies and Willson

Website of the Weekend
Hillary Blackens Barack

March 7, 2008

Patrick Cockburn
Why Iraq Could Blow-Up in John McCain's Face

Robin Blackburn
Question for Barrack Obama: Why Afghanistan is the 'Right War'?

Saul Landau
The Stupid Economy

Binoy Kampmark
When Competition is Good: McCain and the Muddled Democrats

Chris Floyd
Crushing the Ants: Admiral Fallon and His Empire

Andy Worthington
Spanish Drop "Inhuman" Extradition Request for Guantánamo Britons

Will Potter
Before the Smoke Even Clears in Seattle: Bringing Out the T Word

March 6, 2008

 

March 6, 2008

Vincent Navarro
The Next Failure of Health Reform

Forrest Hylton
High Stakes in the Andes: Colombia's Cornered President

Peter Morici
Why the Dollar is So Cheap

George Ciccariello-Maher
Counter-Attack of the Bureaucrats

John Ross
Taxi! Taxi! The Dark Side of the Oscars

Jacob Hornberger
No Standing to Lecture on Justice

Paul Watson
Illegal Japanese Whaling by the Numbers

Dan Bacher
Off the Deep End

Website of the Day
A Katrina Reader Online

 

March 5, 2008

Cockburn / St. Clair
A Great Day for John McCain (and Maybe Nader)

Joanne Mariner
After Guantanamo

Fidel Castro
The Raid on Ecuador: Underestimating Rafael Correa

Christopher Brauchli
The Turkish Invasions

Steven Sherman
Obama and the Prospects for a Renewal of the Left

Dave Lindorff
Busting Bush & Co. in New England

James Murren
Bombing Somalia

Adam Engel
Necropolis Now

Website of Day
Remember Song

 

March 4, 2008

Wajahat Ali
Mumbo Jumbo: Naming Names with Ishmael Reed

William Blum
How Could Hillary Have Known?

Bill Quigley
The Cleansing of New Orleans

Ralph Nader
The Prince Harry Solution

Patrick Irelan
Oil and Health in Venezuela

James J. Brittain /
R. James Sacouman

Uribe's Colombia is Destabilizing a New Latin America

Norman Solomon
The War Election

Jacob Hornberger
Hillary in Waco: the Missing Apology

Andy Worthington
Guantánamo and the European Parliament

Mike Averko
Kosovo and the Press

Website of the Day
Tex-Mex Primary

 

March 3, 2008

Jennifer Loewenstein
Gazan Holocaust

Alan Farago
American Politics and the Faltering Economy

Richard Gott
Colombian Deaths in Ecuador

Wajahat Ali
Who Speaks for a Billion Muslims? Analyzing the World Gallup Poll with John Esposito

Paul Craig Roberts
The Mukasey Conspiracy: a Bi-Partisan Attack on the Constitution

Robert Weissman
When Multinationals Say Adieu

Uri Avnery
Good Morning, Hamas

Martha Rosenberg
When Your Meat is a Downer

Eva Liddell
Leave the Next Dance for Bill

Michael Donnelly
Will Ferrell Does Flint

Website of the Day
Muddy Waters: Train Fare Home Blues

 

March 1 / 2, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
The Race Card

Paul Craig Roberts
The Political Trial of Don Siegelman

Kathleen and Bill Christison
Nader the Best Antidote to American Imperialism

Nelson P. Valdés
Cuba After Fidel

Christopher Brauchli
Meet Mr. Nursultan Nazarbayev: Friend of Bill, George and Dick

Ron Jacobs
Inside the Secret City: Bomb Making at Oak Ridge

John Ross
The New Conquistadores: Spain's Reconquest of Mexico

Robert Fantina
Posturing Over Patriotism: Obama and Those Lapel Pins

Robert Weissman
Hidden in Plain Sight: Human Rights Hypocrisy

Mohammed Omer
Fear in Gaza

Remi Kanazi
Barack Obama and the Politics of Xenophobia

Bob Jackson
Why is Yellowstone Destroying Its Bison Herd?

Richard Rhames
Casual Threats: Loaded with Mercury

Franklin Lamb
Lebanon Awaits the Arrival of the USS Cole

Rannie Amiri
Showboat Diplomacy: US Warships Steam Toward Lebanon

David Michael Green
The Three Faces of Hillary: the Politics of Flim-Flam

Conn Hallinan
Notes from the Southern Cone

Faheem Hussain
Prince Harry of Afghanistan and the Meaning of Normalcy

Poets' Basement
Gibbons, Orloski, Gardner and Ford

Website of the Weekend
The Palestine Chronicle Needs (and Deserves) Your Help!

 

 

February 29, 2008

Matt Gonzalez
The Obama Craze

Jonathan Cook
Academic Freedom? Not for Arabs in Israel

Joshua Frank
Obama and Israel

Anthony DiMaggio
The Unilateral Presidency: Signing Statements and the Rollback of American Law

Linn Washington, Jr.
Cop Abuse in America

Binoy Kampmark
Hubris and Nemesis

Robert Bryce
Energy Efficiency May be a Good Thing, But It Won't Cut Energy Use

Sonja Karkar
Australia's Government Continues Its Love Affair with Israel

Dave Lindorff
A Manchurian Candidate in the White House? Obama or Bush?

Website of the Day
Olduvai George

 

February 28, 2008

Patrick Cockburn
"Iraq" Falls Apart

Fred Gardner
The Birth of NAFTA

Michael Levitin
The Crisis in Kosovo is Just Beginning

William S. Lind
The Fake State of Kosovo

David Macaray
A Ray of Hope for Organized Labor

Stephen Fleischman
Nader's Latest Run: Monkey Wrench or Cattle Prod?

George Wuerthner
The Myths of Forest Health: Why Ecological Logging is an Oxymoron

Laura Carlsen
The North American Union Farce

Carl Finamore
Why the Delta-Northwest Deal Hasn't Taken Off

Michael Dickinson
The Day I Bombed the House of Commons

Website of the Day
Plane Stupid

 

February 27, 2008

David Rosen
Playing the Race Card: Obama, Love Across the Color Line and Political Dirty Tricks

Vijay Prashad
Bomber John: McCain and the 100 Year War

Harvey Wasserman
Incident at Turkey Point: Did Florida Go to the Radioactive Brink?

Andy Worthington
Guantánamo's Shambolic Trials: Pentagon Boss Resigns, Ex-Prosecutor Joins Defense

Wajahat Ali
Pakistan for Sale: an Interview with Ayesha Siddiqa on Pakistan's Military Economy

Peter Morici
The Auction-Rate Securities Fiasco: a Drama of Greed and Betrayal

Stephen Philion
Conspiracy Theory, Fears of Betrayal and Today's Anti-War Movement

Michael Donnelly
Obama by Unanimous Decision

Erica Rosenberg /
Janine Blaeloch
After the Land Deals: Will There be Any Wilderness Left to Protect?

Website of the Day
Dress Blues

 

February 26, 2008

Debbie Nathan
Confessions of a Gitmo Guard

Alan Dershowitz
v. Frank Menetrez

On Finkelstein

Harvey Wasserman
How Ohio Got Nuked

Michael Colby
Ralph Nader vs. the Fundamentalist Liberals

Gary Leupp
Condi vs. Putin on Bullying Belgrade

David Orchard
The New Conquistadors: Canada in Afghanistan

Martha Rosenberg
The Big HRT

Fran Shor
The Electoral Circus and Nader's Sideshow

Serge Halimi
The Dom Perignon Socialist Manifesto: Bernard Henri-Levy's Plan for the French Left

Global Balkans
Neo-Liberalism and Protectorate States in the Post-Yugoslav Balkans: an Interview with Tariq Ali

Website of the Day
Texistentialism

 

February 25, 2008

Roger Morris
A Death in Damascus

Anthony DiMaggio
Military Bases, the Media and the Democrats

Ralph Nader
Why I'm Running

Patrick Cockburn
Iraq Broils

Paul Craig Roberts
Kosovo and the Empire Crazies

Peter Morici
Bernanke's Failing Policies: a Long Recession Looms

Dave Lindorff
General Welch's Whitewash: What We Still Don't Know About That Minot Nuke Incident

Saul Landau /
Farrah Hassen

Fanatics, Mountebanks and Drillers: a Bloody Oil Film

Heather Gray
James Orange, Civil Rights Legend

Robert Weitzel
Accomodating Torture

John Halle
Kucinich Goes Down

Website of the Day
Do the Trunk Monkey!


February 23 / 4, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
The Mushrooming Clouds That Hang Over McCain

Paul Craig Roberts
Obama and Global Trade

Wajahat Ali
Omissions of the Commission: an Interview with Phillip Shenon on the 9/11 Commission

Ralph Nader
Neutering the FDA

Jürgen Vsych
"What Was Ralph Nader Thinking?"

Fidel Castro
Watching the US Presidential Campaign from Havana

Andy Worthington
Britain's Guantánamo

David Macaray
Unions Under Assault

Jeremy Scahill
The Real Story Behind Kosovo's Independence

David Krieger
Stanley Sheinbaum
Caging the Cold War Monster

Ron Jacobs
Building for the Future

Michael Garrity
The Last, Best Hope for the Northern Rockies

Brian McKenna
Higher Ed's "Civic Engagements" Get Dumbed Down

Missy Beattie
Over the Hill with John McCain

Fred Gardner
American College of Physicians Takes Pro-Cannabis Stand (Mostly)

Boris Kagarlitsky
The Growth of the Russian Labor Movement

Mike Ferner
Kick That Barrel

Dan Bacher
On the Trail with the Border Angels

Christopher Ketcham
Hillary Goes Where Obama Fears to Tread

Poets' Basement
Davies and Buknatski

Website of the Weekend
Obama Mariachi

 

February 22, 2008

Mike Whitney
The Bonfire of Capital

Jason Hribal
Elephants and the Circus: The Story of Janet

Liaquat Ali Khan
Arresting Musharraf

Joshua Frank
That Obama Glow: the Nuclear Industry's Golden Child

Dave Lindorff
Vicki's John: Ask Not What She Did for Him, Ask What He Did for Her!

Liliana Segura
When Torture is Old News: McCain's Blonde Diversion

Robert Fantina
Castro, Bush and Cuba: a Fiasco Waiting to Happen?

Yifat Susskind
The ABCs of Death: Bush vs. Africa's Women

Norm Kent
Pushing 60 with Pot

Website of the Day
Bush Gets Down in Liberia

February 21, 2008

Saul Landau
Fidel Steps Aside

Elizabeth Schulte
Left Behind, With No End in Sight: America's Long-Term Unemployed

Helen Redmond
Health Care as a Human Right

Benjamin Dangl
Undermining Bolivia

Michael Levitin
Kosovo's Dilemma

Liam Leonard
Fear and Loathing on the Emerald Isle

Patrick Irelan
Land and Food in Venezuela

Linn Cohen-Cole
Poor Ohio: a Second Letter to Hillary on Her Ties to Monsanto

Michael Simmons
Daydream Believer: John Stewart, the Miles Davis of Folk Music

CounterPunch News Service
A Message from the Women of Okinawa to US GIs

Website of the Day
Cop Abuse in Shreveport

 

 

 


 

 

 

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March 24, 2008

Time to Get Tough with China and the Banks

Digging Out of the Recession

By PETER MORICI

The U.S. economy is in recession with no end in sight. Falling housing prices are blamed, but the root causes are bad economic policies and lousy banking practices.

U.S. imports exceed exports by more than $700 billion, thanks mostly to expensive oil and lopsided commerce with China. To finance this gap, Americans sell bonds and other securities to foreigners, and Wall Street banks, like Citigroup and Merrill Lynch, recycle those funds to American consumers.

U.S. consumers borrow from mortgage companies, local banks and finance companies through mortgages, auto loans and credit cards. Those firms sell the loans to Wall Street banks, who bundle loans into bonds for sale to big fixed income investors. The Chinese government, Middle East royals and other foreign investors purchase huge sums of such U.S. interest bearing securities.

Last year, this scheme started coming unglued, because many homeowners borrowed more than their paychecks and home values could support. Loan officers encouraged home buyers to exaggerate incomes on mortgage applications and hired real estate appraisers that would inflate home values. Wall Street disguised bad loans in complex derivatives, instead of creating simple bonds, which fooled fixed income investors into believing they were buying securities backed by solid loans. Other rouses propagated like aggressive adjustable rate mortgages, and bogus credit default swaps alleged to make risks disappear.

When the worst bonds failed-those backed by subprime adjustable rate mortgages-the fixed income market closed to U.S. banks.

Banks don't have enough deposits to make all the loans the U.S. economy needs, because Americans increasingly by-pass banks, investing directly in mutual funds, retirement accounts and the like. Hence, banks must turn about half of their loans into bonds.

Now investors, ranging from U.S. insurance companies to foreign investors, are not willing to buy bonds from U.S. banks, and banks cannot make enough loans to credit-worthy homebuyers, consumers and businesses. Housing prices plummet, car sales sink, businesses can't invest, and the economy tanks into recession.

The Federal Reserve has cut interest rates and temporarily loaned banks $600 billion dollars, but those steps help little because the bond market is closed to banks.

Moreover, foreign investors are getting nervous about all the money they have loaned Americans to finance huge trade deficits. They are fleeing the dollar by moving cash into euro denominated securities, gold, oil, and other investments.

Fixing the trade deficit will require Americans to use less gasoline and balance commerce with China. Americans must either let the price of gas double to force conservation or accept tougher mileage standards cars. Fifty miles a gallon by 2020, instead of the 35 required by current law, is achievable, but that means more hybrids and lighter vehicles.

China subsidizes exports by selling its currency, the yuan, for dollars at artificially low values in foreign exchange markets, making Chinese goods artificially cheap at Wal-Mart. The U.S. government should tax dollar-yuan conversions at a rate equal to China's subsidy until China stops manipulating currency markets. That would reduce imports from, and increase exports to, China.

Finally, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke are working to clean up the practices of mortgage brokers, loan officers and real estate appraisers but Wall Street banks must be willing to create simple bonds from mortgages and other loans that investors can understand and whose risks can be reasonably accessed. This is less profitable than the complex bonds and derivatives that were sold prior to the subprime meltdown.

Paulson and Bernanke should bring together the largest banks and fixed income investors, among insurance companies and the like, to lay out the requirements for such bonds and require the banks to stick to them.

Banks may resist, because plain vanilla mortgage underwriting doesn't pay outsized fees and bonuses they have been spoiled to expect from complex derivatives. However, Americans need the banks to make mortgages and other loans to get the economy back on track, and Bernanke and Paulson have the leverage to bring them to the table-the $600 billion the Federal Reserve is loaning banks to keep them afloat.

It's time to get realistic about using less oil and to get tough with China and the banks.

Peter Morici is a professor at the University of Maryland School of Business and former Chief Economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission.



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