Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: steve harris who wrote (636844)	10/2/2004 8:23:28 PM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Cato Policy Analysis No. 526 September 28/2004 Iraq's odious debts by Patricia Adams Patricia Adams is executive director of Probe International and author of Odious Debts: Loose Lending, Corruption, and the Third World's Environmental Legacy (London: Earthscan, 1991). Executive Summary Most debts created by Saddam Hussein in the name of the Iraqi people would qualify as "odious" according to the international Doctrine of Odious Debts. This legal doctrine holds that debts not used in the public interest are not legally enforceable. There is a widespread acknowledgment that the debts created by Saddam Hussein's regime bought weapons, palaces, and instruments of repression. Iraqi legislators should, as a first order of business, establish an arbitral process to determine the legitimacy of the estimated $120 billion in claims against their people. Only after Iraqis have an accurate accounting of these claims against their nation, and determine which are legitimate, should they appeal to creditors for debt relief, if any is required. To do otherwise would allow creditors to evade responsibility for financing Saddam's regime against its people. An odious debts arbitration would demonstrate to Iraqis that justice can be served by the rule of law. An arbitration would also expose the role of foreign creditors and thus help establish accountability in other countries. Fears that an Iraqi debt arbitration would threaten the stability of international finance are misplaced: most claims against Iraq are held by public creditors, not private; furthermore, an arbitral process would establish the due diligence that creditors need to observe in order to protect future loans against odious debt charges. By clarifying the responsibilities of creditors (or borrowers), and thus their rights to repayment (or repudiation), an odious debt arbitration would help reduce the moral hazard that has destabilized international finance for the past 60 years. More profoundly, by giving creditors an incentive to lend only for purposes that are transparent and of public benefit, future tyrants will lose their ability to finance their armies, and thus the war on terror and the cause of world peace will be better served. Full text of Policy Analysis 526: cato.org

To: steve harris who wrote (636844)	10/2/2004 8:31:29 PM
From: CYBERKEN	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

My favorite exposure of the public "pollsters" and their left wing media CUSTOMERS as bullshitters is still the Sunday before 1980, when the best they could dig up for RONALDVS MAGNVS was a 2-point lead in about half the "polls", which claimed a 3-4 point M of E. The journalists were all "split", and trying to look like they were hedging, because it was JUST TOO CLOSE. The Reagan landslide shocked the world-and I haven't paid any attention to the public "pollsters" since. Nor have they gotten any more accurate since. We will see and hear the same "too close to call" bullshit right up to November 1. It explains only why the parties hire their OWN pollsters-at great expense-and they NEVER ask, "Who are you going to vote for?" The DIFFERENCE this year-with the media fractionalized as it is-will be the "big story" of November 3: HOW COULD THE POLLSTERS HAVE MISLED US SO BADLY?-by missing the 50-state Bush landslide. The answer: It's long past time for a WHOLE NEW SET of carnival-berkers, "pollsters" and "journalists" alike...