PLAIN DEALER OPINION

Our Views and Yours: Editorials, Columns and Letters

Bailouts are a check to be paid

by Jack Z. Smith

Wednesday December 03, 2008, 5:00 AM

Jack Z. Smith is an editorial writer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. (McClatchy-Tribune)

Washington's enormous, ever-expanding financial bailout effort might indeed prove to be a necessary parachute for the nation's frightening economic free-fall. But the bailout nevertheless poses a sobering financial and moral hazard.

The financial peril comes in greatly bloating already record federal budget deficits, putting our benevolent Uncle Sam and America's taxpayers in an even deeper hole for the long term.

The moral hazard comes in the message that the plethora of bailout aid sends: Many of those who engaged in acts of financial irresponsibility and greed can expect help from Washington, either directly or indirectly. That, of course, entails sacrifices by millions of responsible taxpayers who lived within their means and kept their noses clean during the nation's Avalanche of Avarice.

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India will have to find response to terrorism

by Dmitry Kosyrev

Wednesday December 03, 2008, 5:00 AM

Dmitry Kosyrev is a political commentator for the Russian News and Information Agency Novosti. (McClatchy-Tribune)

MOSCOW -- It is more or less clear what happened in India's largest city, Mumbai. This was a mega act of terror staged by an unusually big and well-trained group of suicide bombers.

It was meant as a show of force. Its purpose was to intimidate Indian society and the authorities. It was designed according to the rules of urban guerrilla warfare and aimed at several targets simultaneously. For this reason, it was bound to succeed initially, although it was also clear the majority of the attackers were doomed to die or be seized within a day or two. Those who planned it wanted the world to learn the name of the new Osama bin Laden and his organization.

The choice of targets is understandable. They are the most famous spots in the city, as if the terrorists were following a tourist guide. The former Victoria Railway Station, which is a masterpiece of colonial architecture, looks like an enormous Catholic cathedral or the Doge's Palace in Venice. Taj is one of the world's best hotels. In a sense, this 15 million-strong city inhabited by all races and religions, including Zoroastrianism, and a national financial center is more important for India than its capital. So, its choice as a target is also clear.

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Strickland's budget warning is softened by the haze

by The editors

Wednesday December 03, 2008, 4:53 AM

The upshot of Gov. Ted Strickland's dramatic but short-on-Ohio-specifics plea Monday for congressional aid: Ohio faces a ballooning budget deficit that he is constitutionally required to erase.

Strickland sketched a picture so dire he won't rule out previously cold-shouldered ideas such as leasing the Ohio Turnpike (Indiana collected $2.8 billion for a 75-year lease of its East-West Toll Road) or even allowing casino gambling, though casinos would require a long-odds statewide vote and wouldn't produce revenue for at least a few years. Some states have also debated leasing lotteries, but a Justice Department ruling would make that tough.

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Young inmates learn valuable academic lessons in Cuyahoga County Jail

by The editors

Wednesday December 03, 2008, 4:52 AM

The Cuyahoga County Jail serves its purpose as a place of incarceration, not enlightenment. But there is a spark of ingenuity flickering within those grim cinderblock walls, thanks to the progressive thinking of head jailer Ken Kochevar.

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Connie Schultz: In the season of giving, store clerks face the ugly mob

by Connie Schultz/Plain Dealer Columnist

Tuesday December 02, 2008, 8:30 PM

Only hours after we celebrated the national holiday for giving thanks, a mob broke through the electronic doors of a Wal-Mart in Mineola, N.Y., and trampled to death a store clerk named Jdimytai Damour.

Damour was 6-foot-5 and weighed 270 pounds, but he was no match for the wave of willful disregard that forced him to the ground and proceeded to stomp him to death.

These people sound like terrorists, but news reports assure us that these were just shoppers looking for a bargain. For Christmas.

You know, "For unto us, a child is born." That Christmas.

So far, no one has come forward to admit a role in this man's death. Officials said it will be hard to identify the hundreds of people who mowed over Damour. Hard to prove recklessness or intent to harm, too.

I'll leave it to those who are trained in such matters to explain how human beings could march across a man's body for a cheaper flat-screen. There are dark spots on some souls that no amount of light can illuminate, and sometimes the only consolation in the wake of such human ugliness is my inability to understand it.

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5 Myths on the Dangers of Dining

by Bee Wilson

Tuesday December 02, 2008, 5:00 AM

Bee Wilson is the author of "Swindled: The Dark History of Food Fraud." (Washington Post)

You made it through Thanksgiving dinner. No one contracted campylobacter from the turkey or E. coli from the creamed spinach. You even survived your mom's famous sweet potato casserole. But now you're eyeing the leftover stuffing in your fridge, feeling vaguely anxious. Is it safe to eat? Is anything safe to eat anymore? It can be so hard to keep up in this world of endless food scares. One minute we're alarmed by salmonella in jalapenos. Now it's melamine in milk from China. What next?

Endless fear of food isn't healthy. During the same period in the 1980s and '90s when the American health establishment was pushing a fear of fat (specifically anything delicious such as butter), the nation got fatter. When all food seems scary, a kind of apathy sets in. We fail to distinguish real frights from bogus ones. And we forget about a little thing called pleasure.

Our food hysteria has spawned numerous myths, most of which take us farther and farther away from the simple pleasures of a good meal.

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Obama's hard choice

by Robert J. Samuelson

Tuesday December 02, 2008, 5:00 AM

Robert J. Samuelson is a columnist for t he Washington Post

WASHINGTON -- As he assembles his economic team, Barack Obama faces a central strategic decision that only he can make. Starting with his "economic stimulus" plan, will he focus mainly on reviving the economy and relieving the financial crisis? Or will he use the economic crisis as a vehicle to advance a more ambitious social and economic agenda? The two approaches are at odds. The first aims at building political consensus and economic confidence; the second would intensify political conflict and economic uncertainty.

The decision ought to be easy. Every new president is assaulted by his own supporters, who want him to put their particular agendas atop his "to do" list. That's already happening, as Obama allies clamor for speedy action to provide universal health insurance, combat global warming and support trade unions. But Obama -- and the nation -- would be better served if he concentrated for his first year on stabilizing the economy while patiently laying the groundwork for more far-reaching proposals.

The hallmark of this economic crisis has been its capacity to surprise: The desperate plight of the Big Three U.S. automakers is the latest reminder. We can expect more surprises, because the U.S. and global economies continue to weaken at a worrying pace. Consumer confidence has plunged. In October, U.S. factory orders for durable goods (machinery, autos, appliances) dropped 6.2 percent. Abroad, signs are no better. Worldwide manufacturing production is declining at an 8 percent rate. Germany is in recession; China's growth has slowed sharply.

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Gov. Strickland and Lt. Gov. Fisher: Wake up and support a tax credit for filmmaking in Ohio

by The editors

Monday December 01, 2008, 9:38 AM

Gov. Ted Strickland and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher are playing hardball to keep Hollywood out of Ohio. Their failure to negotiate with the high-powered proponents of a bill to create new jobs and industry smacks of the short-sighted political game-playing that has kept us behind the economic eight-ball for far too long.

Legislation to woo the $60 billion film industry here with a 25 percent tax incentive is almost certain to pass the Ohio House and Senate by year's end. But instead of celebrating a bill that promises to attract one of the fastest growing industries in the country, Strickland and Fisher -- much like the sinister Dark Lord of the Sith and his henchman Darth Vader -- threaten to lay waste to the legislation with their light sabers.

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Restore TARP to its first purpose

by Peter Ackerman and John Vogelstein

Monday December 01, 2008, 5:00 AM

Peter Ackerman is managing director of Rockport Capital Inc. John Vogelstein is senior adviser at Warburg Pincus LLC, New York. (Washington Post)

Last month, the stock market dropped precipitously after the announcement that the emphasis of the Troubled Assets Relief Program would be shifted to direct equity infusions into banks and away from buying their "toxic" mortgages. This change was especially confounding because, when he first proposed TARP, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson suggested that the financial crisis would not end until the mortgage market stabilized. The favorable reaction to the plan to backstop Citigroup's mortgage portfolio, as well as the government's announcement that it will buy additional mortgage-backed securities, is powerful evidence that Paulson had it right the first time.

The market wants to understand the dimensions of the losses that banks face from their mortgage holdings. We believe that using a significant portion of TARP's remaining assets for its original purpose -- buying distressed mortgage assets -- is the fastest and most reliable way to achieve that.

In 1988, we participated in a fundamental restructuring of the Mellon Bank that holds many lessons for today. At the time, the market had no confidence regarding the size of Mellon's asset problem. Instead of trying to convince investors that Mellon's assets were valued accurately, chief executive Frank Cahouet asked that an entity be designed to hold all of Mellon's nonperforming loans.

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Bush and Obama work diligently toward an orderly transition -- editorial

by The editors

Sunday November 30, 2008, 5:23 AM

The need is acute and the crisis deep- seated and deeply threatening to all Americans' well-being. So it has been extraordinarily heartening to see the degree to which President-elect Obama has shown leadership in tackling the financial meltdown, and the level of genuine cooperation extended to him and his team by President Bush.

Both are to be commended for putting the public interest ahead of any petty partisanship.

There is just one president at a time, but both Bush and Obama know that only an Obama administration that hits the ground sprinting Jan. 20 can command the trust needed to avoid further upheaval. That is why Bush is being so gracious with time and access to a successor who does not take office until January.

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Remember summer's world food crisis?

by Joel Brinkley

Sunday November 30, 2008, 5:00 AM

Joel Brinkley is a former Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent for the New York Times and now a professor of journalism at Stanford University. (McClatchy-Tribune)

With all eyes focused on the global financial crisis, it's not surprising that many of us have forgotten all about another calamity that preoccupied world capitals just a few months ago. Remember the world food crisis?

For much of this year, presidents, prime ministers, the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and other institutions strategized and fulminated about the sharp rise in food prices that pushed 100 million people worldwide into abject poverty.

The West rushed foodstuffs to Africa and Asia. As recently as last summer, demand for help remained so high that the World Food Program began running low on grains, cereals and other foods in several parts of the world. Program officers started talking about serious cutbacks.

Oh, the difference just a few weeks makes. Several days ago, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, generally known as the F.A.O., issued a new alert that sounded discordant to anyone who tuned out of the food-crisis debate after last summer.

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No new torture probes

by Jack Goldsmith

Sunday November 30, 2008, 5:00 AM

Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard Law School professor, is the author of "The Terror Presidency" and a member of the Hoover Institution Task Force on National Security and Law. From 2003 to 2004, he served as assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. (Washington Post)

There has been much speculation about how the Obama administration will deal with what many view as the Bush administration's harsh, abusive and illegal interrogation program. Some have called for an investigation by Congress or the Justice Department, possibly leading to criminal sanctions. Others think such investigations are infeasible or would smack of political retribution, proposing instead that a bipartisan commission look into the matter.

These are all bad ideas. They would bring little benefit, and they would further weaken the Justice Department and the CIA in ways that would compromise our security. (I worked at the Justice Department from 2003 to 2004 on issues that probably would be subject to new investigations, so readers should consider my views accordingly.)

To begin with, all of the relevant facts -- who approved what, what the legal opinions say and what actually happened -- are well known inside the government. The interrogation and related programs have been extensively scrutinized in public sessions of Congress, in many classified sessions by congressional intelligence committees, in several investigations by the CIA inspector general and the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility and by the special prosecutor investigating the destruction of interrogation tapes.

These investigations were politically necessary, and the Obama administration should let them continue. When they are complete, the administration should disclose the facts and documents (including legal opinions) that can be made public without jeopardizing national security. To be credible, the disclosures should include information on the assenting role of congressional leadership as well as Clinton-era actions and legal opinions on issues such as rendition and targeted killing that were precursors to what the Bush administration did.

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Bail out the Big Three, and the sooner the better

by Thomas Suddes

Sunday November 30, 2008, 4:52 AM

Suddes, a member of The Plain Dealer's editorial board, writes from Ohio University.

Congressional dawdling over federal help for Detroit's Big Three automakers is yet another hypocritical attack on the living standards of working Ohioans.

If you wreck a bank -- unless it's a Cleveland bank -- Congress and the Treasury Department rush to mop up. But if your company employs union labor (the United Auto Workers at Big Three plants; the IUE-CWA at Delphi plants), take a number, pal: You're not a priority.

Maybe next time, Ohio's autoworkers and parts builders will have learned their lesson: If you want help from Congress, write crummy mortgages or shaky insurance guarantees, because Ohioans who actually make things with their hands or with machines need not apply. (Of course, when the next time rolls around, Ohio may not have any manufacturing jobs left.)

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Cleveland City Councilman Zack Reed's idea to offer free downtown parking is a good one -- editorial

by The editors

Saturday November 29, 2008, 5:27 AM

Cleveland City Councilman Zack Reed has come up with a good, if modest, idea to entice holiday visitors to come downtown. Too bad he cannot even get a vote on it.

Since 2005, Reed has advocated free parking at downtown meters on the days after Thanksgiving and Christmas. He reckons that would -- for two days at least -- put downtown on equal footing with outlying shopping and entertainment areas that already provide free parking and might persuade suburbanites to check out what the city has to offer.

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