Financial Times News - Clive Crook Column

A risky trial that offers little reward

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:40:13 GMT

From now on, hesitate before you call the Obama administration timid. Its decision to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other alleged 9/11 conspirators in a civilian court in New York City, rather than before a military commission in a far-off place, is brave. It is also unwise.

The American dream needs repair

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:30:23 GMT

Sooner or later the US will find itself grappling with an immense fiscal problem. The recession and stimulus have combined to produce record-breaking deficits, and economic recovery will not come close to restoring balance. US voters have big questions to answer about the entitlements they demand and the taxes they are willing to pay.

Obama has lost sight of the centre

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:25:21 GMT

Barack Obama and the Democrats want you to know they had a good week. Last Tuesday Republicans threw away a New York congressional seat they had held for a century, preferring to fight each other than win an easy contest. Excellent, say Democrats. Civil war in the Republican party augurs well for next year's mid-term elections.

Congress misses the point of reform

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:40:18 GMT

More than a year after the US financial emergency went critical and threatened the global economy with its worst reverse since the 1930s, the underlying causes have yet to be addressed. When it comes to improving financial regulation, the crux of the matter, there has been a lot of talk - usually about the wrong things - and next to no action.

Levon Helm's new musical life

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:45:18 GMT

Obama is dithering on Afghanistan

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:20:24 GMT

After eight years of government by gut instinct, most Americans welcomed the arrival of a deliberative president. Yes, get the experts in. Reflect, weigh their advice. What a good idea.

Passing a bill is just a start for healthcare

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 17:55:26 GMT

Barack Obama called the health bill approved by the Senate finance committee last week a "critical milestone". So it is. Despite its flaws, many remaining uncertainties, and some difficult consequences should it become law, the bill is a breakthrough.

An American polity blinded by rage

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 20:40:26 GMT

Last week, in his column in the New York Times, Thomas Friedman broached a subject that nags at many Americans. "I have no problem with any of the substantive criticism of President Obama from the right or left," he wrote. "But something very dangerous is happening. Criticism from the far right has begun tipping over into delegitimation and creating the same kind of climate here that existed in Israel on the eve of the Rabin assassination."

Deal with the banks while they are down

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:40:18 GMT

Economic summits are always more about messaging than substance. In recent days officials have been striving, they say, to "lower expectations" about what this week's meeting of the Group of 20 leading nations in Pittsburgh might achieve. I had not noticed that expectations were dangerously high. I had supposed they could hardly be lower. Usually this would be no great cause for concern, but 2009 is different.

It is never too early to fear inflation

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 19:55:17 GMT

Is it too soon to worry about rising prices? Inflation hawks have been speaking up in the US lately, but are not getting much of a hearing. "The economy is still limping, job losses are still rising, and consumers are still reluctant to open their wallets. So it's the perfect time to worry about inflation?" asks the New Yorker's James Surowiecki incredulously in a recent column.

Testing Obama's healthcare promises

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:25:19 GMT

Barack Obama's promise to reform the US healthcare system played a big part in his campaign for the presidency. Voters responded warmly to the idea, and in principle still do: most continue to say they want the system changed. Yet barely half way through Mr Obama's first year in office, his effort to keep his promise threatens to derail his administration.

A make or break speech for Obama

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 19:55:22 GMT

The speech that Barack Obama will give to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday could be the most important of his presidency. Mr Obama is fighting to revive his flagging healthcare initiative. But more is at stake than that.

Afghanistan is now Obama's war

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:55:12 GMT

Except for a pause to honour Senator Edward Kennedy, healthcare reform has dominated US news and comment for weeks. It is seen as the make-or-break challenge for Barack Obama's administration. Yet soon it may look unimportant in comparison with an issue that the US public has barely seemed to notice: the war in Afghanistan.

Time to sever healthcare constraints

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 19:30:23 GMT

Barack Obama's presidency is in trouble. Support among centrist and swing voters continues to leak away, his signature domestic initiative is in jeopardy and the prevailing theme of US political commentary is shifting from hope and expectation to explaining what went wrong. Mr Obama's cool is being tested in a way that few predicted - not by force of circumstance, but by the results of his own political bungling.

Obama took wrong turn on health

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:05:14 GMT

The Obama administration had hoped that this month's town hall meetings would smooth the way for healthcare reform. Things do not seem to be working out that way. Across the country, loud and furious protesters have turned up. They accuse the White House of wishing, among other things, to bankrupt the nation, destroy the American way of life and bring in "death panels" to mitigate the excessive healthcare demands of the elderly.

Why Obama will have to raise taxes

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 18:35:16 GMT

"Read my lips. No new taxes." George Bush senior made that fatally memorable promise during his campaign for the White House. Later he saw that for the sake of the economy he would have to break it. When he did the right thing and went back on his word, he was vilified. It was a turning point in his presidency - his one-term presidency.

The Republican healthcare paradox

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 17:50:20 GMT

Support for the administration of US president Barack Obama is fading, and the struggle over healthcare is a main reason. The Democratic party's ambitions for health reform were only recently an electoral asset. No longer. A slim majority of voters - but a majority nonetheless - now says the plans emerging in Congress are unlikely to make them better off. Congressional action on the issue, once promised by the summer recess, has been delayed until the autumn, and some observers expect the whole endeavour to come to nothing.

Obama is failing on health reform

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 17:55:19 GMT

The stakes for the US in the struggle to pass health reform could not be higher. If this project goes down to defeat, Barack Obama's presidency will be irreparably damaged. More important, the country will be stuck with a ruinously expensive and ethically indefensible healthcare system. Who knows how long it will be before another administration summons the courage to try again?

A rocky road for the fiscal stimulus

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 19:25:11 GMT

Unemployment has already risen further in the US than President Barack Obama's economics team expected, and forecasters agree it will rise for quite a while yet. In fact, it has risen further than in the White House projections early this year of what would happen if Congress failed to pass the fiscal stimulus. A huge stimulus was enacted. Now Republicans point to the weakness of the economy and say the policy failed.

Two cheers for US health reform

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 19:20:13 GMT

After a frazzled week, the politics of US health reform looks messier than ever. Yet the odds on a bill passing in the end are improving. It will be an untidy thing, but if it moves the country close to universal health insurance the administration will call it a success. And on the whole, despite the avoidable mistakes this legislation seems bound to embody, that will be a fair assessment.

Obama reaches the limit of a friendly tone

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 18:50:26 GMT

Before the Iranian election, US opinion on Barack Obama's foreign policy divided on predictably partisan lines. Now the picture is more complicated.

Obama is choosing to be weak

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:10:12 GMT

As he promised last year, Barack Obama has brought climate change and healthcare reform to the centre of the nation's attention. As well as evangelising, he is pressing Congress to act. Last week the House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill to curb carbon emissions, a measure that, if enacted, would touch every part of the US economy. Both House and Senate have drafted far-reaching healthcare bills, with stunning price tags.

A thin outline of regulatory reform

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:45:22 GMT

The Obama administration's proposals for US financial regulation are pretty good, as far as they go. The problem is they do not go far enough.

Medicare for all may be the best cure

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:40:28 GMT

For the past few months, Barack Obama and his allies in Congress have been striding towards far-reaching reform of the US healthcare system without the public paying much attention. This is changing. Interested parties are studying draft legislation to see where they stand. In spite of the Democrats' dominance in Washington, reform will not glide through unopposed.

Affirmative action shows the cracks

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 18:10:26 GMT

Barack Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to fill the forthcoming vacancy on the Supreme Court could revive a quarrel about racial politics that once bitterly divided the country. Contrary to what you might think, this would be a good thing. It is time to revisit that quarrel, in a calmer and more enlightened frame of mind, and change the law.