| Latest Commentary: | Volume VI, Number 69 |
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Giuliani, McCain to Skip Iowa Straw Poll -- Wednesday, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced that he wouldn’t participate in the August 11 straw poll in Iowa. Shortly afterward, Arizona’s Senator John McCain made a similar announcement. Since the two are already well-established front-runners, and since Iowa won’t play the crucial role it usually does (so many states have moved their contests to February 2008), neither man loses much by sitting it out. By the same token, they both avoid the possible embarrassment of finishing third, or worse.
G-8 Nations Make Fig-Leaf Deal on Climate Change -- The G-8 Summit held in Germany needed some kind of action on climate change for the domestic political benefit of most of the leaders present. Mr. Bush was not one of them. He turned up to ensure that nothing happened on climate change on his watch. The result was a compromise in which all parties got what they wanted by fudging language rather than agreeing to action. Thus does diplomacy operate. Eurozone Raises Interest Rates, Bank of England Holds Steady -- Interest rates in Europe are on the rise, and this is bad news for the US dollar, for European manufacturers and exporters but good news for Europeans in general and for importers in particular. On Wednesday, the European Central Bank [ECB] raised interest rates for the eurozone to 4% from 3.75%. Although the Bank of England held rates at 5.5%, the consensus is they will rise to 5.75% before the summer is over. Economic growth as well as some inflation are behind the high rates. Anaheim Ducks Win Their First Stanley Cup -- Ice hockey isn’t meant to be played in places where ice thick enough to skate on doesn’t form naturally. Great hockey players wear heavy coats to practice, not shorts. By common sense, the NHL should have a lot more teams in Canada than in the American Sunbelt. However, the world is odd enough that Anaheim, California’s Ducks beat Ottawa, Ontario’s Senators in the latest edition of the Stanley Cup. Geographical biases aside, the Ducks proved they deserved the trophy. © Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux. |
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