Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says that although the economy is recovering, economic growth will be moderate and increase very slowly into 2010. (0:24)

 

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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says the recession is over but its effects will still be felt in terms of job security and wages. (0:20)

 

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By Learned Foote- Talk Radio News Service

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is weighing the possibility of levying economic sanctions against Iran. During a hearing on Capitol Hill Thursday, the committee discussed ways to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Nicholas Burns, a professor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and former State Department official during the Bush administration, said that Iran’s hotly contested presidential election has compromised the power of its government, and that America “should seek to diminish its strength further.” He said that “Americans should seek to maintain our position as the dominant power in the Middle East, because our influence is positive in that region, and Iran’s is not.”

Burns said that President Obama has generally followed former President’s Bush “basic strategy” by trying to end the nuclear weapons project in Iran through negotiations before applying “draconian” economic sanctions. He said that he did not believe negotiations alone will successfully end Iran’s nuclear program, but said that financial, economic, and energy sanctions would be more effective.

Dr. Suzanne Maloney, a Senior Fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institute, discussed the economic outlook in Iran. She said the country faces “serious economic problems: double-digit inflation, power shortages, a tumbling stock market, stubbornly high unemployment rates,…increasing dependence on volatile resource revenues, and perhaps most ominously for the Iranian leadership, a rising tide of popular indignation about economic frustrations.”

The panelists agreed that unilateral sanctions will not be effective unless other countries join in sanctions against Iran. “We alone in the United States don’t have the capacity to cripple the Iranian economy with our sanctions,” said Maloney. She argued that “multilateral steps represent the only real alternative to a negotiated solution.”

Testifying before the committee, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I- Conn.) praised an amendment added to the Defense Authorization bill, which passed last week. The amendment places a time limit on how long Iran would have to respond to U.S. requests for negotiation before sanctions would be imposed.

“This bill will basically say to companies worldwide who are selling gasoline to Iran, who are shipping it to Iran, or who are insuring or financing those shipments, you got a choice to make. You can continue what you are doing with Iran, or you can do business in the United States of America. You cannot do both,” said Sen. Lieberman. He said that the amendment would not force President Obama to act, but would grant him the authority of enacting economic sanctions.

Sen. Lieberman said that the amendment had bipartisan support. “No matter what may divide us on other issues, we are very united in our concern, our anger about the Iranian program of nuclear weapons development,” he said. “The greatest threat to peace is for Iran to get a nuclear weapons capability.”

Dr. Suzanne Maloney, Senior Fellow at The Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institute, says that negotiations with Iran are necessary, and do not confer legitimacy upon the government. (0:24)

 

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Dr. Suzanne Maloney, Senior Fellow at The Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institute, says that America can exert pressure on Iran without using military action. (0:20)

 

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Dr. Suzanne Maloney, Senior Fellow at The Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institute, says that the United States does not have the ability to use effective economic sanctions against Iran without multilateral support. (0:16)

 

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By Suzia van Swol, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service
Cuba is expected to be a topic at the upcoming Summit of the Americas, which 35 leaders, including President Obama, will attend this week. The meeting comes in the wake of the Presidents decision to partially ease travel and money restrictions with Cuba.

The upcoming summit will provide an opportunity to help Cuba move toward democracy, said Theodore Piccone, Senior Fellow and Deputy Director of Foreign Policy with the Brookings Institute.

Additionally, the summit is an opportunity to help “put (Cuba) on a path toward change so that they can become a member of the OAS,” Piccone said.

The Organization of American States, an independent alliance promoting peace and security for North and South America, leads the summit which will be held in Trinidad and Tobago April 17-19, marking the first meeting between President Obama and many Latin American and Caribbean leaders.

American style education in the Middle East may be a way to improve development and also assist U.S./Middle East relations, suggests David Arnold, President of the American University in Cairo.

The Brookings Institution discussion on “American Education in the Middle East: Smart Power for a New Era” encouraged the creation of American University branches in the Middle East, which have been popular expansion methods for several American Universities in the past decade.

Arnold believes using Liberal Arts education models in the Middle East will best prepare youths for the job market, which he believes is rapidly transitioning from the public sector to the private sector. Although higher education models in the Middle East have been heavily geared towards preparing students for work in government institutions in the past, Arnold believes changing to American models will make students more competitive in the international market and speed economic development.