Wall Street Journal (February 28)
“Hong Kong authorities moved this weekend to imprison nearly the entire opposition movement. The message is that anyone who runs as a pro-democracy candidate will be treated as a criminal…. China is violating its international obligations as it tramples Hong Kong’s freedoms. So far it has paid little price, which the world may come to regret as President Xi Jinping sets his sights on Taiwan.”
Tags: Candidate, China, Criminal, Freedoms, Hong Kong, Imprison, Obligations, Opposition movement, Pro-democracy, Regret, Taiwan, Tramples, Violating, Xi
New York Times (August 20)
“With each day, President Trump offers fresh proof that he is failing the office that Americans entrusted to him. The rolling disaster of his presidency accelerated downhill last week…. Since the 1930s it has not typically been a challenge for an American leader to denounce Nazism.” But last week, Trump “chose instead to deliver a defense of white supremacists that raised as never before profound doubts about his moral compass, his grasp of the obligations of his office and his fitness to occupy it.”
Tags: Disaster, Downhill, Failing, Fitness, Grasp, Nazism, Obligations, Trump, White supremacists. Doubts. Moral compass
Washington Post (October 17)
“At almost literally the eleventh hour, Congress has approved legislation that will end a costly 16-day partial government shutdown and avert the potentially greater disaster of a default on federal obligations.” Unfortunately, the deal “buys only a short interval of peace.” When that period expires early next year, “it is all too possible that Congress will fail to agree and will deliver the country to the brink of another shutdown or default.”
Tags: Congress, Default, Government, Legislation, Obligations, Peace, Shutdown, U.S.
Financial News (December 24)
In 2013, some U.S. companies will benefit from changes to interest-rate pension liability assumptions, with the newly approved use of a 25-year rate average. This “will generally produce a higher rate, which will lead to a lower overall liability.” Some companies will now be legally able to reduce pension funding. “The catch is that this is a game of smoke and mirrors. The actual pension obligation hasn’t changed. And by putting less into their plans today, companies may end up facing a bigger bill in the future.”
Tags: Assumptions, Corporate pensions, Liabilities, Obligations, U.S.
