George Osborne. congress, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, IMF, Larry Summers, Liaquat Ahamed, Mohamed El Erian, Randall Henning, US House, Yi Gang

Congress Set to Finally Approve IMF Reforms

WASHINGTON: The massive $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill presented to lawmakers Tuesday night contains provisions for new funding and governance reforms at the International Monetary Fund. The House could vote as early as Thursday on the package, which is expected to pass. Approval is also likely in the Senate and President Obama’s signature is assured. The president pushed hard for the IMF deal, calling it vital … Continue reading Congress Set to Finally Approve IMF Reforms

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Antalya, Apec, G20, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Manila, Mugabe, Obama, Putin, Svetlana Lukash, Zimbabwe

Antalya Is a Moveable Feast

ANTALYA, Turkey.  The skies over the Middle East and South Asia were crowded Monday night as no fewer than seven VIP aircraft carried heads of state and government from one summit to another.  It began stage two of a moveable feast. The special planes, most of them 747s, brought President Obama and the leaders of China, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Australia and Canada from the … Continue reading Antalya Is a Moveable Feast

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Buchenwald, Financial Times, Georgetown University, German unification, Goethe, Gorbachev, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, infrastructure, perestroika, Schiller, Theo Waigel, Weimar

In Weimar 25-Years of German Unification Have Worked Wonders

Weimar train station, 1990 and 2015 House at 37 Albrecht Durer Street The Hotel International … is now the Hotel Kaiserin Augusta (all photos: Barry D. Wood) WEIMAR, GERMANY:  While there was still a German Democratic Republic in March 1990, I traveled to Weimar, the town of Goethe and Schiller and of the Buchenwald concentration camp where 56,000 Jews and others perished.  The article I wrote … Continue reading In Weimar 25-Years of German Unification Have Worked Wonders

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angela merkel, bulgaria, czech, European Union, Germany, Greece, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Macedonia, migrants, Mualim, Nazi, refugees, Romania, schengen, slovakia, Turkey

Refugees: Germany Land of Hope

GOTHA, GERMANY:  In welcoming thousands of refugees shunned by others Germany occupies moral high ground. Stories and images of desperate migrants fill television news. Nightly there are informed debates about the challenge of integrating Syrian and other Muslim asylum seekers into German society.  The impulse to help is visceral, shared by the public and elected leaders.  Chancellor Angela Merkel probably speaks for millions when she … Continue reading Refugees: Germany Land of Hope

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1996, Arad, Bucharest, Cubana, Eastern Airlines, Electra, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, IL-18, Romania, Timisoara, Tu-134, Tu-154

Recalling Post-Communism, Romania 1996

BUCHAREST, September 18, 1996: The old Ilyushin 18 (YR-IMF) was built in 1964.  Its five-man crew from Tarom had been together a long time, including a year on contract to Cubana where the transatlantic crossing went Prague, Rekyavik, Gander, Havana.  The crew strolled into the Timisoara airport lobby at dinnertime.  Waiting for the flight to Bucharest, I was delighted to learn that this would be … Continue reading Recalling Post-Communism, Romania 1996

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