We are enjoy Nobel Prize may not help Obama's Fed nominee

Nobel Prize may not help Obama's Fed nominee

AP – FILE -- In a June 18, 2004 file photo Professor Peter A. Diamond smiles prior to the start of a meeting
WASHINGTON – You'd think that having a Nobel Prize under your belt would be a clincher for getting a promotion or a job change. But it may not help economist Peter Diamond win a coveted seat on the Federal Reserve.
Diamond, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, won a Nobel Prize in economics with two other economists on Monday.
Only trouble is, Senate Republicans have so far blocked his nomination. Why? They suggest he lacks the experience to serve on the Fed's board of governors.
Given the partisan rancor that permeates U.S. politics these days, and GOP disdain for some recent Nobel awards, the news from Stockholm won't necessarily lead to a confirmation nod for Diamond.
"While the Nobel Prize for economics is a significant recognition, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences does not determine who is qualified to serve on the Board of Governors," said Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Senate Banking Committee.
Diamond and the two other economists won the prize for their insights into unemployment and the impact of government policies on helping people to find jobs or cushioning their periods of joblessness.
That's certainly a prime topic right now with the jobless rate stuck at 9.6 percent and nearly 15 million Americans out of work from the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Their research found, in part, that programs such as government unemployment benefits can help the process of lining up job seekers with jobs that match their skills and abilities.
"How can economic policy affect unemployment? This year's laureates have developed a theory that can be used to answer these questions," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement.
Republicans in this election cycle have railed against the administration's spending, suggesting the tens of billions of dollars in bank and auto bailouts and stimulus programs have done little to produce jobs. Many have fought extensions of unemployment benefit programs pushed by President Barack Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress, arguing that the extensions have reduced incentives for finding work.
Some of Diamond's research findings may run up against GOP campaign dogma.
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prevented the rape UN 'was not told about DR Congo mass rapes'

UN 'was not told about DR Congo mass rapes'

UN troops could not have prevented the rape of more than 150 women and boys by rebels in DR Congo because they did not know it was happening, a UN envoy said.

Peacekeepers passed through the area twice but were told only that rebels were setting up road blocks, he said.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was "outraged" by the attacks and has sent two envoys to investigate.

The UN has called an emergency session of the Security Council to discuss a response to the violence.

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The rapes happened in Luvungi town and surrounding villages, within miles of a UN peacekeeping base, a US aid worker and a Congolese doctor have said.

Some reports say rebels occupied the area and gang-raped nearly 200 women and some baby boys over four days before leaving.

A UN joint human rights team confirmed allegations of the rape of at least 154 women by fighters from the Rwandan FDLR militia and Congolese Mai-Mai rebels in the village of Bunangiri.

But Roger Meece, a UN official in eastern DR Congo, said that while local people had told the UN patrols about roadblocks, they said nothing about the sexual violence. The UN was only told about it 10 days later by an aid group.

Speaking to journalists by video from Goma, Mr Meece said the villagers may have feared reprisals from the rebels or have been ashamed by the cultural stigma of rape.

But the BBC's Barbara Plett at the UN says there was clearly a serious failure in communications, made all the more significant as the peacekeepers work from a small forward operation base established to increase the UN's contact with civilians in the volatile region.

Mr Meece said the UN was now investigating ways of improving communication with local people.

One idea is for villagers to contact the base daily, "with the default being that if the communication is not made, there would be an assumption of a problem and a patrol despatched," he said.

'Must speak out'
DR Congo has a shocking reputation for sexual violence and rape is commonly used as a weapon of war.

Haunted by Congo rape dilemma
But even by normal standards, the latest attacks were particularly vicious, says our correspondent.

Mr Ban said he had met victims of "appalling crimes of sexual violence" in DR Congo last year and felt compelled to ask whether more could have been done to protect the latest victims.

"Women and children should not have to live in fear of rape. Communities should not suffer the indignity of knowing that human rights abusers and war criminals can continue to behave with impunity," he said.

"We must speak up and we must act."

The UN has previously described Congo as "the rape capital of the world", with more than 8,000 women raped during fighting in 2009.

A report released in April by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative showed that 60% of rape victims in South Kivu province had been gang-raped by armed men.

More than than half of the assaults took place in the victims' homes, the report said, and an increasing number of attacks were being carried out by civilians.

Eastern DR Congo is still plagued by army and militia violence despite the end of the country's five-year war in 2003.

UN peacekeeping troops have been backing efforts to defeat the FDLR, whose leaders are linked to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and who are operating in eastern DR Congo.

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The president is vowing not to privatize Social Security

The president is vowing not to privatize Social Security, but to resolve its enormous cash flow problems permanently, he risks angering liberals who believe a solution can wait. Keith Hennessey on his options.

A Democratic split is coming on Social Security.
On one side is the president, who said Tuesday in Ohio, “I have been adamant in saying that Social Security should not be privatized and it will not be privatized as long as I am president…The population is getting older, which means we’ve got more retirees per worker than we used to. We’re going to have to make some modest adjustments in order to strengthen it… And what we’ve done is we’ve created a fiscal commission of Democrats and Republicans to come up with what would be the best combination to stabilize Social Security not just for this generation, but the next generation. I’m absolutely convinced it can be done.”
On the other side we have Paul Krugman, who wrote in The New York Times earlier this week, “The program is under attack, with some Democrats as well as nearly all Republicans joining the assault. Rumor has it that President Obama’s deficit commission may call for deep benefit cuts, in particular a sharp rise in the retirement age.”
If doing so is the only feasible legislative path to addressing this critical policy problem, will the president be willing to lead?
Krugman continues, “Social Security’s attackers claim that they’re concerned about the program’s financial future… Instead, it’s all about ideology and posturing… To a large extent they rely on bad-faith accounting. But [conservatives] receive crucial support from Washington insiders, for whom a declared willingness to cut Social Security has long served as a badge of fiscal seriousness, never mind the arithmetic.”
While Krugman names Obama fiscal commission co-chairman Alan Simpson, he also is targeting Democrats such as fiscal commission chairman Erskine Bowles and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.
Let’s look at how a Social Security deal might come together, first in the president’s commission and then on Capitol Hill.
A few conservatives who say that personal accounts alone can fix Social Security will oppose any deal that includes changes to benefit spending promises or tax increases, so they’re on the outside no matter what. That group is small but could cause a little trouble by (incorrectly) promising gullible and nervous conservative members of Congress that a free lunch solution is theoretically possible.
For most Republicans, three things are important: permanently solving Social Security’s cash flow problem, not raising taxes, and allowing younger workers to voluntarily redirect some of their current payroll taxes into personal accounts. Republicans know these “carve-out” accounts are anathema to most Democrats and impossible with a Democratic president. To pick up enough Republican support to be viable, a deal must therefore significantly, if not permanently, address Social Security’s long-term cash flow problem and must not raise taxes. If a proposed deal includes tax increases, I think all but a few Republicans will walk away. To get a deal, Republicans might split evenly on carve-out accounts, but they won’t split on tax increases. The president gets a win by blocking “privatization” (carve-out personal accounts), while Republicans get a win by not raising taxes. The reduction in, if not elimination of, Social Security’s long-term financing problem would be a bipartisan win for which both sides would claim credit.
If I’m right about Republicans on personal accounts and taxes, Democrats will split. Many Democrats would naturally oppose a deal that only slows spending growth and does not raise taxes, even if that deal excludes the carve-out personal accounts they oppose.
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