Obama and Oil..... A love hate relationship.

Reuters reports this week that Obama has promised to slowly cut the US dependence on oil over the next ten years by 1/3. This is directly related to the recent tensions that have been cutting the world in half- such as in Egypt, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, and Libya.

Obama outlined his strategy after spending days explaining the U.S.-led military action in Libya, where fighting, accompanied by unrest elsewhere in the Arab world, has helped push U.S. gasoline prices toward $4 a gallon.


This blog is dedicated to all my classmates who didn't believe me that, in my opinion, the reason why we are fighting in Libya is because of the oil it produces. I do like hearing that the US is wiling to working to being in a position where such a thing wouldn't matter. You'll notice in the quote below that Obama's reassurance is NOT that we'll pump out our own oil, but rather that the US will work towards developing new technology for energy.


"There are no quick fixes ... We will keep on being a victim to shifts in the oil market until we finally get serious about a long-term policy for secure, affordable energy," Obama said.

The original article can be found HERE.

Portugal's Government Potential Collapse

Portugal's government is facing a potential collapse after a debate began on Wednesday that may lead to a change in leadership. The current head of the government is apart of a Socialist party, which is in the minority. The issue in question was if the government would allow/force different government agencies to develop austerity measures to save their the economy.

"All opposition parties have proposed resolutions calling for the rejection of the measures, which reduce pensions and state spending"

The question here is whether this will put Portugal at risk of having to ask to be bailed out, in a similar fashion as Greece and Ireland has recently had to do. Portugal is apart of the European Union and it's financial crisis is affecting the value of the Euro, which is a concern as the Yen is struggling as well currently, following the disaster in Japan.

"The government had hoped to obtain support for its plan before Thursday's EU summit, to reduce market pressure on Portugal's sovereign debt."

This Blog was developed from two Reuters articles, found Here and Here.

Positive take on Japans disaster

Reuters has posted a article about the disaster in Japan that takes a new look at the disaster- how can the Japanese people take the disaster and use it to make themselves a stronger, better people- and improve their economy at the same time?

The hope is that this event will spur the government and the people to do two things- 1) come together as a nation and work together and 2) that having to rebuild their cities and lives that the people will invest in Japan and improve its economic situation.

On of the best sign that this will take place will be in the state of the Japanese gov. bonds. The majority of the Japanese debt is held by the Japanese themselves- either in the different banks or by the public in bonds.

Jeremy Lawson, an economist with the Institute of International Finance, a lobby group for global banks in Washington, agreed. The trajectory of Japan's debt is unsustainable, but, in the short term, "domestic residents may display even greater willingness to lend to the government as an act of national solidarity," Lawson said in a report.

"But out of this crisis affecting a large part of the population, a sense of 'public morality' is already building up," Hamasaki said. "If the country's leaders can harness this spirit in the long term, then I'm sure Japan will move in a positive direction."

This civic duty, an impulse of shared responsibility, is likely to count for more than any spreadsheet in trying to assess the impact on Japan's bond markets of financing the still unknowable bill of rebuilding after the quake, the strongest on record here.

The original article can be found HERE.

BBC reports on US Trade with China

It's interesting to see one country speculate on the trade between another two. In the article "US says China is working towards rebalancing its trade" the BBC shows a optimistic side and suggests that cooperation is going well between the two countries. The article quotes another article from The China Daily Newspaper-

"China understands they can no longer depend on demand from US consumption being such a substantial contributor to growth," Mr Geithner said during testimony to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"They have no alternative but to shift their growth strategy to a growth strategy that relies more on domestic demand," he added.

"They are moving in that direction but it can't happen unless they let their exchange rate move too."

I guess it's nice to see other countries learning to not depend on America so much. The original article can be found HERE.

BP loves Facebook

British Petroleum has discovered the most efficient way to communicate with Americans- Facebook.

This was on my wall today, and I thought that it was interesting that they've decided to be trendy and reach out to American Youth through their most favorite medium- social networking sites. Ha.

Paying for the world....

I know that this issue I'm about to tackle isn't necessarily WORLD news- on the surface at least... It has come to my attention that Obama is considering cutting the funding to community groups such as food banks, NPR, and other community programs.

There's a petition that can be found HERE to help fight against this, it's in support of one group in particular, "Community Services". My question is this: How much of our nations budget are we sending overseas to help support other countries, and why are we sending aid to other countries before making sure that everyone in America is first taken care of?

Sudan Splits

Last month Southern Sudan voted to split from North Sudan. According to their reporting services, this has been a peaceful split.

The chairman of the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission, which organized the vote, said 98.83% voted for separation, while 1.17% voted for unity.



In processing this split, Sudan has been trying to play by the rules, inviting UN officials and other world leaders to witness this process, to show that no laws have been broken.


"It was a peaceful process," said chairman Muhammad Ibrahim Khali at a ceremony in Khartoum attended by Sudanese politicians, international diplomats, U.N. staff, academics and others. "It was a transparent process."




It is important to note however, that while this individual vote has been peaceful, Sudan has been involved in a civil war for the past two decades over this issue. It is estimated that over 2 million people have died during this conflict.



This war has remained in conflict because the North, where the government was located was dominated by black Christians, while the south where the Oil Reserves are located is dominated by Arab Muslims. These two groups disagree on many issues, as is evidenced by their lack of shared commonalities.


The question I post is: When two parts of a country are so obviously different, what is the global responsibility to step in and help them peacefully split? I believe that we SHOULD step in and help countries management their splitting- once they've shown that they can't manage it on their own (and as long as nothing evil- like slavery- is going on). Obviously, the US has gone through its own civil war, but quite frankly with recent technology this is NOT the same situation.


Articles on this can be found on CNN or on NPR.

Who owns the Worlds treasures??

Some of the world's countries have been blessed with a rich wealth of history and archaeological items. These countries have recently been fighting to reclaim their treasures, and asking for the countries that currently hold them, to give them back.

However, should we? These countries are often the most explosive and unsafe locations for these treasures. These other countries (Egypt, Greece, Turkey... etc) dispute this argument and claim that in our modern era, that they are ready to hold responsibility for their history.

I would suggest, that it is not the readiness of their intellectual communites that should be judged, but the readiness of the common man of the country. For it is those commoners that will either respect their own history or they that will destroy it.

This past weekend, an example that cannot be ignored has taken place. The riots in Egypt have caused harm and damage to the treasure kept in the Cairo Museum. Items have been smashed, damaged, and stolen as apart of the violence that was taking place.

Yes, the intellectual community of the region, may be ready and willing to take on the important responsibility of caring for their past, but this is a fine example of how the common man does not respect their own history. Its better to the leave those items that are in Germany, France and Britain and etc where they currently are. Maybe someday they will be ready. But I do not think it is right now.

A copy of this story can be found online at the Time website HERE. Below is another reporting directly from the Egyptian news reporting agency, Al Jazeera.

Dozens dead in Russia

Today, January 24th, Russia was attacked at their International Airport. The original article can be found HERE.

Several Terrorists (exact number unknown) blew themselves up at a cafe near the exit for the international customs at Domodedovo Airport (Moscow's busiest airport). At least 35 are dead and up to 140 were injured.

The Russian President had this to say:

"From the preliminary information we have, it was a terror attack," Medvedev told officials in a televised briefing. He offered condolences to the families of the victims and ordered that security be stepped up at Moscow's two other commercial airports and other transport facilities, including the subway system, the target of past terrorist attacks.

As members of the international community we bear a responsibility to protect the right of those around us. These repeat attacks are not acceptable. We absolutely should do all we can to stop them. I honestly don't know if the best solution would be a kind and gentle one or further military action. I'm not a expert in the subject. But I do believe that we should act on this. All those people who died are leaving behind them loved ones who cherished them. That love deserves respect and action.

Npr, Obama and Hu Emphasize "Mutual Respect"

Today, in NPR was an article about the relations between China and the US. It can be found HERE. In the meeting between Obama and Hu, they agreed to further ties between the two countries that would allow us to continue to peacefully work together.

Just as the summit got under way, the White House announced a slew of trade deals with China, including an announcement that Beijing has agreed to buy $45 billion in U.S. exports — including $19 billion for 200 Boeing airplanes. However, at least some of those orders date back to 2007.

Other companies that will benefit from the package include General Electric, Honeywell and Navistar. The White House said the deals will support up to 235,000 jobs in the U.S.

Britains Embarrassing Libel Law

NPR ran a story today about the status of Britain's libel laws. Apparently, for many years Celebrities and other artists from all over the world, when they can, would always bring their Libel suits in British Courts. This is because the burden of proof is on the defendant, and not the plaintiff (which is opposite of what is normally found in other countries). Below is a quote from the original article:


Libel laws in many countries, including the U.S., generally require plaintiffs to prove a published article was both false and written maliciously. In Britain, the burden of proof falls on the defendant to demonstrate what it published was true.

That has led celebrities and corporations to sue in British courts, even when the case has only a tenuous connection to the U.K. — a form of "libel tourism" the government has vowed to curb.

However, not all authorities on the subject agree. it was suggested in the article that bringing this issue to the front was only a ploy to try to improve the approval polls for the current politicians, which are currently very low, which is attributed to the threat to raise university student's tuition levels.

"The U.S. is not the world, and the fact that they do not like our libel laws should not be interpreted as meaning they are an international laughing stock," said Rod Dadak, head of defamation at law firm Lewis Silkin.


The source for this article can be found HERE.

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This blog is being set up for my International Business course @ UVU. Don't expect anything too thrilling here. :)