IRAN: Protest Vote - Laura Secor
"(...) Whatever its origins, the Moussavi wave has coalesced with extraordinary speed into a disciplined, tactically sophisticated, and strikingly moderate movement. The protesters are not directly challenging Khamenei, or the constitution that allows him nearly unlimited power, despite the widely shared impression that his hand is behind the apparent manipulation of the election results and the crackdown that has followed. Instead, they are demanding that their votes be counted and, numbers permitting, that they be allowed to elect the candidate of their choice, from among the few whom Khamenei’s Guardian Council had preapproved to run for office. In effect, they insist that the path of legal, internal reform be kept open. Whether this unity and singularity of purpose will survive depends partly on Moussavi’s leadership, and partly on how much pressure Khamenei brings to bear.(...)" LINK
Oil Schock - James Surowiecki
"ow fast the world turns. Only a few months ago, as consumer spending evaporated and commodity prices collapsed, investors and policymakers were haunted by the spectre of deflation. Today, with the economy showing some signs of bottoming and commodity prices back on the rise, the worry du jour has suddenly become inflation. Much of this anxiety is just a matter of looking for a lead lining in every cloud; long-term interest rates, after all, remain historically low, and there’s little evidence of inflationary pressures in the economy as a whole. But there is one bit of inflation that can’t be written off so confidently: oil prices, after falling more than a hundred dollars a barrel last year, have roughly doubled this year, sending gasoline prices up more than sixty per cent and leaving Americans paying about a dollar more per gallon than they were in December. Many worry that higher prices at the pump could end up choking off the economy’s putative green shoots before they’ve even had a chance to grow.(...)" LINK
"(...) Whatever its origins, the Moussavi wave has coalesced with extraordinary speed into a disciplined, tactically sophisticated, and strikingly moderate movement. The protesters are not directly challenging Khamenei, or the constitution that allows him nearly unlimited power, despite the widely shared impression that his hand is behind the apparent manipulation of the election results and the crackdown that has followed. Instead, they are demanding that their votes be counted and, numbers permitting, that they be allowed to elect the candidate of their choice, from among the few whom Khamenei’s Guardian Council had preapproved to run for office. In effect, they insist that the path of legal, internal reform be kept open. Whether this unity and singularity of purpose will survive depends partly on Moussavi’s leadership, and partly on how much pressure Khamenei brings to bear.(...)" LINK
Oil Schock - James Surowiecki
"ow fast the world turns. Only a few months ago, as consumer spending evaporated and commodity prices collapsed, investors and policymakers were haunted by the spectre of deflation. Today, with the economy showing some signs of bottoming and commodity prices back on the rise, the worry du jour has suddenly become inflation. Much of this anxiety is just a matter of looking for a lead lining in every cloud; long-term interest rates, after all, remain historically low, and there’s little evidence of inflationary pressures in the economy as a whole. But there is one bit of inflation that can’t be written off so confidently: oil prices, after falling more than a hundred dollars a barrel last year, have roughly doubled this year, sending gasoline prices up more than sixty per cent and leaving Americans paying about a dollar more per gallon than they were in December. Many worry that higher prices at the pump could end up choking off the economy’s putative green shoots before they’ve even had a chance to grow.(...)" LINK
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