Crazy Like A Financial Market
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/04/AR2007030401048.html
A Lesson in the Calm After the Storm
By Sebastian Mallaby
Monday, March 5, 2007; Page A15
Four decades ago, a Chicago economist named Eugene Fama proclaimed
that financial markets are efficient. The march of this thesis from
the fringe to the mainstream is one of reason's sweetest triumphs.
Despite periodic bouts of wantonly irrational investor behavior, most
people now accept that financial markets -- indeed, all markets in
which people trade views about the future -- are the least bad way of
processing information. Today, markets are used to predict everything
from influenza outbreaks to the sales of a new Harry Potter book.
To see how complete this triumph has become, consider the reaction to
last week's financial turmoil.
The House's Ottoman Agenda
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/04/AR2007030401047.html
By Jackson Diehl
Monday, March 5, 2007; Page A15
Can a nonbinding congressional resolution really matter? Most are
ignored by everyone except the special interests they are usually
directed at. Even the House's recent resolution on Iraq was dismissed
by both President Bush and Democratic antiwar leader John Murtha. Yet
a vote expected next month on a nonbinding House resolution describing
a "genocide" in the Ottoman Empire beginning in 1915 has the potential
to explode U.S. relations with Turkey, sway the outcome of upcoming
Turkish elections and spill over into several other strategic American
interests, including Iraq and Iran.
So, yes: The Armenian Genocide Resolution sponsored by Rep. Adam
Schiff does matter, logically or not. Turkish Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gul spent several days in Washington last month lobbying
against it, though the Turkish-American agenda is chockablock with
seemingly more important issues. Friends of Turkey in Washington, from
American Jewish organizations to foreign policy satraps, are working
the Hill; so is the Bush team. On the other side is the well-organized
and affluent Armenian American community, 1.4 million strong, and some
powerful friends -- including the new House speaker, Nancy Pelosi.
Doctors Without Refuge
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/04/AR2007030401046.html
By Leonard S. Rubenstein
Monday, March 5, 2007; Page A15
In war, health workers are often heroes and often victims. Though the
Geneva Conventions are supposed to protect them as they fulfill their
ethical duty to provide care to wounded combatants without regard to
affiliation -- what is known as medical neutrality -- they frequently
become targets by attending to the enemies of one side or another.
The United States has always stood up for the protection of health
workers in war, condemning violations of medical neutrality. And until
now, it has offered asylum to doctors, nurses and other health workers
forced to flee their home countries after they complied with their
obligations to treat any and all wounded. But in another instance of
the corrosion of human rights that has been the hallmark of this
administration since Sept. 11, 2001 -- including torture, secret
detention and denial of due process -- the Department of Homeland
Security is contesting asylum requests by health workers whose lives
are at risk for having provided assistance to wounded members of rebel
groups.
No U.S. Backup Strategy For Iraq
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/04/AR2007030401321_pf.html
Outside Experts, Not White House, Discuss Options
By Karen DeYoung and Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, March 5, 2007; A01
During a White House meeting last week, a group of governors asked
President Bush and Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, about their backup plan for Iraq. What would the
administration do if its new strategy didn't work?
The conclusion they took away, the governors later said, was that
there is no Plan B. "I'm a Marine," Pace told them, "and Marines don't
talk about failure. They talk about victory."
'It Is Just Not Walter Reed'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/04/AR2007030401394_pf.html
Soldiers Share Troubling Stories Of Military Health Care Across U.S.
By Anne Hull and Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, March 5, 2007; A01
Ray Oliva went into the spare bedroom in his home in Kelseyville,
Calif., to wrestle with his feelings. He didn't know a single soldier
at Walter Reed, but he felt he knew them all. He worried about the
wounded who were entering the world of military health care, which he
knew all too well. His own VA hospital in Livermore was a mess. The
gown he wore was torn. The wheelchairs were old and broken.
"It is just not Walter Reed," Oliva slowly tapped out on his keyboard
at 4:23 in the afternoon on Friday. "The VA hospitals are not good
either except for the staff who work so hard. It brings tears to my
eyes when I see my brothers and sisters having to deal with these
conditions. I am 70 years old, some say older than dirt but when I am
with my brothers and sisters we become one and are made whole again."
In Canada, the New Rush Is for Diamonds
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/04/AR2007030401481_pf.html
Wealth Beneath the Permafrost Changes the Northwest After the Gold Is
Gone
By Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, March 5, 2007; A01
LAC DE GRAS, Northwest Territories -- Gold opened this northern land,
attracting a rush of prospectors and miners who splayed the earth,
built up towns and then, after seven decades, closed up the last
exhausted gold mine two years ago.
Now there are diamonds.
Domenici Says He Contacted Prosecutor
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/04/AR2007030400507_pf.html
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 5, 2007; A01
Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) acknowledged yesterday that he
contacted the U.S. attorney in Albuquerque last year to ask about an
ongoing corruption probe of Democrats, but said he "never pressured
him nor threatened him in any way."
Domenici also said in a statement that he told the Justice Department
it should replace U.S. Attorney David C. Iglesias, one of eight
federal prosecutors fired in December. But Domenici said the
recommendation came before his call to Iglesias about the criminal
investigation.
Don't Send a Lion to Catch a Mouse
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/04/AR2007030401260.html
By Shankar Vedantam
Monday, March 5, 2007; Page A03
Two centuries ago, Napoleon Bonaparte sent his armies into Spain to
overthrow a monarch who had once been a French ally. Napoleon, who
believed he was touched by the hand of destiny, predicted his troops
would be welcomed as liberators by ordinary Spaniards. He was wrong.
The resulting Peninsular War from 1808 to 1814 seriously undermined
French prestige, handed Napoleon a stinging defeat and produced a raft
of unanticipated consequences that included the outbreak of deadly
civil wars.
Historians would have a field day exploring parallels between
Napoleon's Peninsular War and President Bush's war in Iraq, but that
is not where we are going today. The Peninsular War interests us
because it is one of the earliest examples of an asymmetrical war --
Spanish insurgents faced down the powerful French army by using
stealth, deception and the support of civilians. It is the war that
gave us the term "guerrilla."
Clinton, Obama Link Selma March to Present
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/04/AR2007030400475_pf.html
Civil Rights Cited as Enabling Their Campaigns
By Anne E. Kornblut and Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, March 5, 2007; A05
SELMA, Ala., Mar. 4 -- Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), describing himself
as "the offspring of the movement," paid homage Sunday to the civil
rights protesters whose violent beatings here at the hands of state
troopers and sheriff's deputies 42 years ago sparked national outrage
and led to legislation ensuring the voting rights of African Americans
throughout the South.
Just a few blocks away, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) claimed
the same inheritance, describing the civil rights movement as "the
gift that keeps on giving" as it propels new types of politicians onto
the national stage. Their simultaneous appearances at the annual
commemoration of one of the most famous moments in the civil rights
struggle embodied the historic nature of a presidential race in which
an African American and a woman lead the Democratic field.
China Boosts Military Spending
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/04/AR2007030400401.html
Senior U.S. Official Presses Beijing to Clarify 'Plans and Intentions'
By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, March 5, 2007; Page A12
BEIJING, March 5 -- China announced Sunday that it will increase
military spending at a sharply higher rate this year, budgeting a rise
of nearly 18 percent, and a senior U.S. official immediately called
for clarity on the planned expenditures.
Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte said at a news conference
at the end of his maiden visit to Beijing in his new post that the
Bush administration is dissatisfied with China's unwillingness to
share such information. "We think it's important in our dialogue that
we understand what China's plans and intentions are," he said.
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