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Friday, January 14, 2005 |
FinancialTimes: "The US trade deficit widened sharply in November to a record $60.3bn, renewing pressure on the ailing dollar and causing economists to scale back their forecasts for economic growth. The gap between imports and exports grew by $4.3bn over the month and has now risen by almost $10bn since September.
The main culprits were a surge in the volume of imports of oil products and a decline in demand for US capital goods."
YaleGlobal: "I used to have a lot of respect for America; now there is mostly fear," says Mr McInally. "You feel pretty powerless, but the one thing you can do is stop buying American products."
"Foreigners are transferring anger at the US government to anger at the US and anger at US business."
"Early signs of trouble appeared in a 2003 study of 'power brands' by Roper, the market researcher, which showed popularity scores for leading US companies had slipped. NOP World found similar evidence suggesting that US companies were seen as less trustworthy and honest after the Iraq war.
For many multinationals, the answer increasingly seems to be to downplay any US heritage or even a single global identity."
12:15:08 PM 
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SFGate: "Sixteen House Democrats led by Rep. Lynn Woolsey of Petaluma called on President Bush on Wednesday to begin the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, just as some administration supporters are starting to question the wisdom of staying the course in the war."
IPS: "For the second time in as many months, a report by a key Pentagon advisory group has implicitly taken the administration of President George W. Bush to task for major failures in pre-war planning, particularly with respect to Iraq.
A 220-page report, quietly released late last month by the Defense Science Board (DSB), concludes that the administration clearly underestimated the number of troops and cost required to achieve its political objectives in Iraq.
Washington currently has 150,000 troops in Iraq, a presence that translates into only six troops for every 1,000 Iraqis - far short of the roughly 500,000 troops the task force indicates would be necessary in Iraq."
11:58:26 AM
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