Is Obama’s Financial-Reform Plan Bold Enough?

Almost every reference to the financial regulatory plan that was unveiled today by President Obama is prefaced with something along the lines of “the most sweeping overhaul of financial regulation since the 1930s.” Obama himself used such language in his speech this afternoon.

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Analysis: Is Europe facing a threat from the right?

Does trans-national democracy work? Or is Europe about to see a wave of new Far Right politicians and mavericks marching from obscurity to national prominence thanks to an election most voters are neglecting? Between June 4 and June 7 it could happen.

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Refugee Crisis Clouds Pakistan’s Anti-Taliban War

It is in refugee camps like Chotha Lahore, rather than on the battlefields of the Swat Valley, that the outcome of Pakistan’s decisive showdown with the Taliban may be decided. The camp, near the town of Swabi, is sheltering some of the hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis displaced by the government offensive to drive the militants out of the Swat Valley and its surrounds. “The purpose [of the campaign] is to cleanse the areas of these miscreants and militants,” Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told TIME

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Despite Signs to the Contrary, Real Estate Will Get Worse

Warren Buffett said that the real estate business his company Berkshire Hathaway owns is seeing a small improvement in housing demand. The National Association of Realtors seemed to confirm his observations when it announced that the index for pending home sales went up in March

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Taliban push Robin Hood image in Pakistan

In radio broadcasts and sermons, Taliban militants have been promoting themselves as Islamic Robin Hoods, defending Pakistan’s rural poor from a ruling elite that they describe as corrupt and oppressive. That message has been resonating throughout the Pakistani countryside, where the culture is deeply conservative and the people are desperately poor

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Kellermann’s Death Is Latest Shock To Freddie Mac

The sudden death — an apparent suicide — of Freddie Mac’s acting chief financial officer David Kellermann is the latest shock to ripple through the federally backed housing agency. Since essentially being taken over by the government in September, it has been one hit after another for Freddie Mac — a private company that, with sister-agency Fannie Mae, holds or guarantees more than half of all U.S.

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