What's Inside America's Banks?

Some four years after the 2008 financial crisis, public trust in banks is as low as ever. Sophisticated investors describe big banks as “black boxes” that may still be concealing enormous risks—the sort that could…

Rupert Murdoch and the Jews

Whoops. Rupert Murdoch’s unchaperoned tweeting was bound to get him into trouble. On Saturday, he slipped into an antisemitic usage: “Why is Jewish-owned press so consistently anti-Israel in every crisis?” What Murdoch was doing was…

Unfolding Human Catastrophe in Iran: West’s Sanctions Could Lead to Another Humanitarian Crisis in the Middle East

Sanctions imposed on Iran’s banks and financial institutions could lead to a humanitarian crisis. During their debate about foreign policy last Monday, President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney both agreed that the crippling unilateral sanctions imposed on Iran by the the United States and its allies must continue, until the Islamic Republic recalibrates its nuclear ambitions. Both seem to have also adopted Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s favoured refrain that “Iran must not be allowed to acquire a nuclear capability” and that such a capability constitutes a “red line” not to be crossed at any cost. Previously the inveterate refrain had been “Iran must not be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon”. The definition of “capability” has continued to remain vague and ill-defined, and a number of analysts have concluded that the Islamic Republic is already nuclear capable and has all the necessary components it would need in order to assemble a bomb if it so desired. Once a country has mastered enrichment technology it is generally accepted that the decision to weaponise largely becomes a political one.