High stakes: Obama’s ace, Iranian oil and the 2012 election

High stakes: Obama’s ace, Iranian oil and the 2012 election

Sol W. Sanders President Barack Obama has launched new international diplomatic poker with “a trailing hand”. It is impossible to exaggerate the forces at play, economic as well as political, foreign and domestic, and their interplay. When he signed Dec. 31st the latest Iran provisos, Mr. Obama was handed new clout to cut Iran’s energy […]

Amateur hour in year four

Amateur hour in year four

Sol W. Sanders Back in prehistory, during The Cold War, students of arcane Kremlinology — the science and art of trying to unravel what Winston Churchill called “a riddle wrapped in an enigma” — identified a dangerous heresy. “Mirror-imaging”, it was called, defined as attributing to Moscow our own motivations, rather than understanding Soviet Communist […]

In pursuit, globally, of the elusive soft-landing

In pursuit, globally, of the elusive soft-landing

Sol W. Sanders The new year’s worldwide economic downturn has an interlocking effect: every national economy is searching to accommodate itself politically as well as economically to what looks to be an extended period of low growth. After longer or shorter periods of historically unrivaled prosperity, they are feeling for a “bottom” — a level […]

Potentially explosive movements on a volatile Asian chessboard

Potentially explosive movements on a volatile Asian chessboard

Sol W. Sanders A new era of increasing instability is opening in East Asia. The death of North Korean leader Kim Il-Jong is only adding another, if explosive, element to an already volatile equation: China enters a period of substantially slower economic growth, if not a crash, on the eve next autumn of a takeover […]

Keystone XL: A pipeline to …well, almost …eternity

Keystone XL: A pipeline to …well, almost …eternity

Sol W. Sanders Camouflaged by Congressional political badminton and President Barack Obama’s demagoguery, the Keystone XL Pipeline Project represents solutions to economic and security issues far exceeding its general appreciation. Half truths on all sides have obscured the project’s underlying fundamentals. Some are only emerging as additional research and technology is applied — most of […]

Drastic fixes for critical crises or dodgy compromises for bumps in the road?

Drastic fixes for critical crises or dodgy compromises for bumps in the road?

Sol W. Sanders “Moderation in all things”, said a pre-Christian North African Roman dramatist, Terence [Publius Terentius Afer]. But like so many artists, he latched on to a beautiful artifact but got the logic wrong. He’s echoed these days in the oft repeated mantra from talking heads calling for compromise. It usually follows a description […]

And China was going to save the global economy? Guess again

And China was going to save the global economy? Guess again

Sol W. Sanders Creeping up on the outer edges of Wall Street soothsayers’ economic crystal ball, until now dominated by American and Euro crises, is growing concern about China. The inane idea China [and India, which is also in trouble] would somehow rescue the world economy is now, finally, dismissed by the pundits — without […]

Mesmerized by its enemies: U.S. spends trillions of petrodollars to nurture a virulent culture of hate

Mesmerized by its enemies: U.S. spends trillions of petrodollars to nurture a virulent culture of hate

Sol W. Sanders For those who lived through the World War II prelude and the Cold War, the current American dilemma dealing with Islam is all too familiar. To the extent historical analogies are valid, countering Islamic radical infiltration resembles nothing so much as a century of struggle against Communism before the Soviet Union, as […]

Question not on big media’s radar screen: How will America be impacted by the growing EU crisis?

Question not on big media’s radar screen: How will America be impacted by the growing EU crisis?

Sol W. Sanders An old Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times”, has become a bromide. I suspect those old Chinese savants were smarter: Confucius [and his St. Paul, Mencius] codified rules and ceremonies for all princes for all eternity, undoubtedly suspecting, rightfully, all eras would have many if not most of the same […]

It’s only words: With Asian tour, Obama tries to change the subject

It’s only words: With Asian tour, Obama tries to change the subject

Sol W. Sanders The Obama Administration is trying to turn a historical page. The president’s current Pacific tour is promoted as “a return to Asia”, an acknowledgment of its rapidly growing economies, and, of course, recognition of China as a world power. History has a way of dictating its own terms, however. [When asked what […]