I have spent the last week traveling through two similar, yet very different countries. After leaving southern Sudan, I traveled to Bhutan and India. Bhutan is a kingdom that has just transitioned into a democracy. It is a small country of 750,000 people, about the size of Switzerland. India is the sub-continent that will most likely surpass China in population. Currently, about 1.3 billion people live in India. I travel to understand the world better and to get other cultures’ perspectives on the United States.

Bhutan was a closed community, and until fairly recently the only way to see it was by invitation. It is slowly joining the modern world. In 2000, its government began allowing television to be broadcast in the country. The fourth king of Bhutan abdicated in favor of his son so that the country could transition from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. Bhutan is a member of the United Nations, but, in an attempt to keep from angering China, it has chosen not to have ambassadorial exchange with any of the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.

My junior high school geography teacher was way ahead of the author of “Guns, Germs and Steel,” as he was a firm believer that geography was destiny. He was certainly right when it comes to India and Bhutan. As our guide led us to a beautiful view of exquisite mountains, he pointed out that the tallest of the mountains was what separated Bhutan from Tibet. Tibet was taken over by China in the late 1940s and the Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet in 1959. One glimpse of the beautiful mountains and it is clear that Bhutan could be overrun in a nanosecond.

Bhutan rests between China and India. It is to India’s advantage to protect Bhutan, which is why the Indian army patrols the border between China and Bhutan. America does a ton of business with China, but between its human rights record, its Taiwan issue and its refusal to let the Tibetan people rule their own country, the Chinese are not exactly the most popular people in Bhutan and India.

Most of the folks I spoke with in both countries have the same views as people in the United States. They watch American television on their satellite dishes, and they see the same news we see at the same time we see it. When news broke last week of the shootings at Fort Hood, the people in Bhutan and India got the news as people in the U.S. did. Even the Indian language stations were showing video instantaneously. Same view, same pictures, but very different views on what needs to happen for the world to improve.

Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin, does not concern them. India trades with Russia and has a good relationship with them. China, on the other hand, is a different story. Most people who engaged in conversation with me had dire warnings for the United States, and they all said roughly the same thing:

1) Get your debt down. All were aware that the sizable debt that the United States has taken on has compromised our policy objectives. It is hard to take on China on Tibet or human rights when America is owned by China to the tune of at least $1 trillion. The Federal Reserve chairman’s advice for healing the U.S. economy is to make more consumers out of the Chinese. If that is the solution for solving our job crisis, then maybe I should teach economics. It is scary to me that this is what our leadership thinks will pull us out of the current mess. Moreover, it is not going to happen at a fast enough rate to change our balance of trade and reverse our economy.

2) Stop your consumption of oil. India gets hydropower from Bhutan and is looking to solar and other alternatives. Oil makes the U.S. dependent on Middle East countries, and the people I talked to view such dependency as fueling not just Americans’ cars, but terrorism in their region of the world. One Indian businessman I spoke with said our reliance on foreign oil was the reason for us getting involved in “silly wars that kill American young people.”

3) Conserve your resources. With the burgeoning world population needing food and water as well as energy, America is viewed as being wasteful. With manufacturing jobs leaving the United States for poorer countries, most people I talked with saw the U.S. as a nation of spendthrifts who will use up more than our fair share of the world’s resources, in the process going bankrupt.

4) Don’t rely on one country to do your manufacturing. China has the United States’ head in a vise, but if American companies spread manufacturing to 20 or more countries around the globe, China would not have the power to control currency and the economic future of the United States.

The bottom line, as one businessman said to me, is America is expecting to live the lifestyle we have grown accustomed to by writing IOUs. But, he added, such a lifestyle will prove to be unsustainable.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

“The extraordinary policy measures we have taken in response to the financial crisis and the recession can be withdrawn in a smooth and timely manner as needed,” Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke said to the House Committee on Financial Services Tuesday. (0:33)

 

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By Courtney Ann Jackson-Talk Radio News Service

Financial industry leaders were in agreement Friday that the Obama administration’s proposed financial regulatory reform is necessary, noting that the reform will renovate and strengthen the financial marketplace and many of its regulations. During a Committee on Financial Services hearing Friday, many of the panelists applauded the administration’s proposal.

“We fully support the Administration’s five key principles for strengthening consumer protection-transparency, simplicity, fairness, accountability, and access-and we are pleased to see the Chairman carry these principles forward as he works to fill the regulatory gaps to protect consumers,” said Diahann Lassus on behalf of the Financial Planning Coalition.

Other panelists highlighted the administration’s “diagnosis of the deficiencies” of the current financial framework. They said it is outdated and some aspects have led to confusion and inefficiencies for years now.

Regulations received much attention with panelist Robert Nicholas, President and COO of Financial Services Forum, saying the framework as it currently stands, “undermines regulators’ ability to ensure institutional and systemic safety and soundness-helping to create the opportunity for, and exacerbating, the current financial crisis.”

Committee member Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) noted a survey by ShareOwners.org that sites 58 percent of investors are now “less confident in the fairness of the financial markets” than they were one year ago. He noted that a major reason for the lack of confidence is due to the failure of regulators.

“We must enact strong new laws,” said Kanjorski.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) accuses Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama of lying to Americans about why the stimulus package hasn’t reversed the nation’s spiraling unemployment rate. Boehner says that we should focus on tax relief to help families and small businesses to keep what they earned in order to reduce the impact of the financial crisis. (1:07)

 

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By Joseph Russell- Talk Radio News Service

National Economic Council Director Larry Summers highlighted the Obama Administration’s plan to improve the economy during a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations’ annual conference in New York.

Summers emphasized that the President has been absolutely clear that “the actions we take are those of necessity, not choice.”

Summers also said, “the President has been unambiguous. . .that any intervention goes with, rather than against, the grain of the market system. Our objective is not to supplant or replace markets. Rather, the objective is to save them from their own excesses and improve our market-based system going forward.”

Summers outlined the President’s position to support additional financial regulatory reform toward individual institutions. While Summers admitted the details are complex and “can blind sophisticated observers to the obvious,” he echoed Obama by saying such reform is necessary to overt future financial crises.

While no examples of possible legislation were given, Summers said the center of the financial crisis was, and continues to be, excessive leverage and systemic risk by banks and other financial institutions. He noted the administration will continue to move forward with its domestic agenda,
even though the effects of these policies may not be known for up to
four years.

By Michael Combier-Talk Radio News Service

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan discussed the possibility of creating new banks, free of any toxic assets. These new institutions would provide less risks than the institutions which have sought federal loans and that still remain a threat to the U.S. economy. (1:22)

 

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Former Vice President Dick Cheney explains why he does not perceive the help GM will receive as the best solution to overcome and recover from the financial crisis. Amongst other reasons, Cheney says that going through the chapter 11 process which allows for the reorganization of a firm might be a good way to start over. (1:02)

 

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By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

Today in a hearing House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said that the federal government must help to bring about regulations in financial institutions which presently are operating unrestrained in the free market. Frank emphasized that these moves are not about “diminishing the role of the private sector as a wealth creator,” but is about placing safeguards on newly developed market entities. (01:44)

 

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Talk Radio News Service, Victoria Jones, interviews Ann Coulter at the 2009 Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C. Coulter talks about President Obama’s new Iraq war strategy saying that President Obama “seems to be following Bush policy on terrorism.” Coulter also talks about how the government has to do something with the banks and that forcing banks to give loans not based on normal business practices is what’s putting the economy in a financial crisis. (04:45)

 

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Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson made remarks about the U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue (S.E.D.) at an event hosted by the World Affairs Council in Washington, DC.

“We have learned that engagement works,” said Paulson, “engagement can help achieve meaningful tangible results that would not have been possible otherwise.” Paulson said that the S.E.D. has yielded results from economics and trade to product safety and transportation.

Paulson stressed the importance of the U.S.-China talks in helping to solve the current financials crisis. “It is critical that the United States, China and other major economies continue our vigorous efforts and take whatever further actions are necessary to stabilize the financial system,” said Paulson.

Paulson also discussed China’s increasing energy needs. “China is…the second largest consumer of oil behind the United States. Building cooperation and trust between our countries can help prevent competition over scarce energy resources.”