Oct. 29, 2008 

FOCUS WITH FAEZA

ARY ONEWORLD TV SHOW

Host: Faeza Dawood, Guest:  Yousuf Nazar

 
October 29, 2008

By Yousuf Nazar

Pakistan’s current economic meltdown is a crisis of competence if judged in light of the recent past. In the context of history, it represents a colossal failure of the establishment’s long-term foreign and economic policies. Pakistan desperately needs four to five billion dollars to avoid default on its external obligations. The government is working on the multilateral institutions and Friends of Pakistan to raise this sum failing which it will go to the IMF. The government does not want to borrow from the IMF to keep its hands relatively ‘free’ and avoid the likely political fall out from following the IMF’s prescriptions. Does Pakistan have an option?  Unfortunately, no.   Read more »

October 25, 2008 

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN –

BEIJING (AP) — Seeking a common approach to the global financial turmoil, Asian and European leaders called for new rules guiding the global economy and a leading role for the International Monetary Fund in aiding crisis-stricken countries.

The 43 nations participating in the Asia-Europe Meeting summit reconvened for a second day of meetings in China’s capital Saturday, a day after adopting a statement calling on the IMF and similar institutions to help stabilize struggling banks and shore up flagging share prices. Read more »

10/23/2008 11:55 PM | By Patrick Seale, Special to Gulf News

Iran’s opposition appears to be a major reason why, after eight months of arduous negotiations, the United States and Iraq have so far failed to reach agreement on a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), although such an agreement is urgently required. The UN Resolution, which authorised the deployment of US and Coalition forces in Iraq, expires on December 31. Read more »

The New York Times

October 23, 2008

By JIM YARDLEY and KEITH BRADSHER

BEIJING — For three decades, China has fueled its remarkable economic rise by becoming the world’s workshop and unleashing a flood of low-priced exports. But faced with a possible global recession and weakening demand for Chinese exports, the question now is whether the ruling Communist Party can prevent the financial crisis from derailing the country’s economic miracle.

Read more »

Financial Times

By David Rothkopf

Published: October 21 2008 18:59

For weeks, the headlines have been dominated by banks faltering and countries propping them up. But we have entered a new phase of this crisis in which countries themselves are starting to struggle. Where these battered countries are first turning for help illustrates that what we are witnessing is different from anything we have seen before. It also lays out a clear challenge for those who are hoping the global financial summit announced over the weekend will produce an effective Bretton Woods II, a new international system reflecting a new financial order.

Read more »

Asia Times Online October 20, 2008

By Syed Saleem Shahzad   KARACHI - Cash-strapped Pakistan, after the failure of operations against militants in Bajaur Agency and the Swat Valley, has had to call off an offensive in the North Waziristan tribal area, and instead negotiate ceasefire deals.

Nevertheless, relentless pressure from the United States will not allow Islamabad to remain inactive for too long. This would have been the message relayed by US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, who made an unscheduled visit to Pakistan at the weekend. The US is all too aware how militant strongholds in Pakistan’s tribal areas fuel the Taliban-led insurgency across the border in Afghanistan. Read more »

By Jon Hemming

KABUL, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Western leaders are reawakening to the reality of Afghanistan — that it is famously unforgiving to foreign forces on its soil and claiming victory there depends on how you measure success. Read more »

Sat Oct 18, 2008  

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The top U.S. diplomat for South Asia began a series of meetings with Pakistan’s leaders on Saturday, with the U.S. ally facing a looming balance of payments crisis as well as rising Islamist militancy. Read more »

October 13, 2008

Brian Wingfield and Deborah Orr

Following a packed weekend of meetings here, many of the world’s top economic officials are returning to their home countries Monday to deal with the next stage in the ongoing financial crisis. Read more »

 
October 15, 2008

By Yousuf Nazar

President Zardari’s visits China at a time when the global economic power balance is undergoing a historic shift. “End of US era - now China calls the tune”, declares a headline of Sydney Morning Herald, Australia’s oldest and most respected newspaper. “Can Chinese Cash Save the World’s Banks? “, runs a lead story in Time. “Is this the end of the American era?” is the title of an op-ed by noted historian Paul Kennedy in the UK’s Sunday Times. Read more »

By Yousuf Nazar

The current received wisdom in the United States is that the militants in northwest Pakistan have provided safe havens to Al Qaeda has along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and the greatest threat to America’s security comes from this region. No US official or journalist or think-tank has ever raised or answered the question that Alan Greenspan posed in his book, The Age of Turbulence: Read more »

By Peter Boone, Effective Intervention
and Simon Johnson, Peterson Institute for International Economics

Op-ed in the Washington Post
October 12, 2008

The global financial outlook grows more dire by the day: The United States has been forced to shore up Wall Street, and European governments are bailing out numerous commercial banks. Even more alarmingly, the government of Iceland is presiding over a massive default by all the country’s major banks. This troubling development points not only to an even more painful recession than anticipated, but also to the urgent need for international coordination to avoid something worse: all-out financial warfare. Read more »

The Times of India

October 12, 2008

No passport has yet been devised that can take one easily across the borderline of fear. Pakistan used to fear annihilation by India; now it fears hegemony. India used to fear invasion across the Line of Control in Kashmir; now it fears the export of terror.

One nation’s freedom-fighter can, of course, be a neighbour’s terrorist. Pakistan may sincerely want peace with India, but it still has not reconciled itself to peace in Kashmir. Politicians, bureaucrats and generals sitting across a walnut table are not the only ones who determine the management of visceral fear. The street also has a say, the Pakistani street being a less than melodious orchestra of mohalla, madrassa and media.

Read more »

Oct. 11, 2008  

By Yousuf Nazar

The IMF has warned that the world’s financial system is on the brink of meltdown. The worst global financial crisis since the 1930s is more than just an economic phenomenon. It may turn out to be the most important event since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. A unipolar world emerged following the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The year 2008 may go down in history as the year in which the Anglo-Saxon financial model collapsed and global economic power shifted from the West to the East.  Read more »