October 12, 2017 Over the last forty years China spectacularly lifted hundreds of millions from poverty, a stunning achievement by any measure. In contrast, during the same time frame the United States created more billionaires –it has more than any other nation- and … Continue reading
Category Archives: Government
The North Korea Saga
September 24, 2017 As with Dracaena cinnabari’s labyrinthine, spiny canopy, the ramifications of North Korea’s nuclear program reach everyone on this planet. In fact, it threatens to bring to a boil the simmering rivalry between China and Russia on the one hand, and the United States, NATO (notably, Germany does … Continue reading
Deeds, Not Ineffective Rhetoric
July 14, 2017 The comings and goings of the Trumps and Clintons are but skillful distractions from the grave issues afflicting our country and the world: climate change, the global water crisis, the flat-out refusal of the world’s nuclear powers to eliminate humanity’s sword of Damocles, the lack of commitment … Continue reading
A World in Trouble
May 13, 2017 It’s official: the world is in trouble. A sampling (see the links at the bottom of this website) of scientific, governmental and commercial websites concerned with various pressing issues, including anthropogenic climate change and its progeny –ocean acidification, severe water scarcity, sea level rise, and the current … Continue reading
Banning Nuclear Weapons
April 21, 2017 The ongoing tension between the U.S. and Russia over NATO’s expansion to the Baltic and Black Seas -and Russia’s strategic countermeasures in the Crimea, the Ukraine, Syria, and to a lesser extent Iran- is reminiscent of the powder keg that was Europe just prior to World War … Continue reading
FIRREA
The Federal Financial Institutions Examinations Council (FIRREA) is a formal federal interagency body empowered to make recommendations to promote uniformity in the supervision of financial institutions and to prescribe uniform principles, standards, and report forms for the federal examination of financial institutions by the: 1. Board of Governors of the … Continue reading
Dodd-Frank Frank Law
Subtitle F–Appraisal Activities SEC. 1471. PROPERTY APPRAISAL REQUIREMENTS. Chapter 2 of the Truth in Lending Act (15 U.S.C. 1631 et seq.) is amended by inserting after 129G (as added by section 1464(b)) the following new section: “Sec. 129H. <<NOTE: 15 USC 1639h.>> Property appraisal requirements “(a) In General.–A creditor may … Continue reading
Hate & Trade
November 20, 2016 The U.S. 2016 presidential election laid bare the abysmal rift mocking our cherished Latin motto, e pluribus unum –from many, one. Xenophobia and hatred, its conjoined twin, long dormant, have unabashedly reemerged to threaten anew the very fabric of our nation. This is not … Continue reading
The Winds of Terminal War
September 8, 2016 Lately, focused on the impending presidential election, Syria, the Ukraine and the South China Sea, American mainstream media have all but ignored climate change. It’s as if there’s a consensus that war will inevitably transform Earth into another Mars long before it broils into another Venus. Why … Continue reading
Resetting U.S.-Russian Relations
February 4, 2016 Henry Kissinger’s speech (original link to https://gorbachovfund.ru is broken) at the Gorbachev Fund in Moscow From 2007 into 2009, Evgeny Primakov and I chaired a group composed of retired senior ministers, high officials, and military leaders from Russia and the United States, including some of you present … Continue reading