Foreign Policy (March 22)
Cuba “is experiencing its worst economic crisis since the end of the Cold War,” and the public is becoming more dismissive to government attempts to assign blame to outside interference. “The fresh demonstrations show that Havana’s role in the economic crisis has become more central in the public eye.” But “whether negative public opinion can lead to political change is another question.”
Tags: Blame, Cold war, Cuba, Demonstrations, Dismissive, Economic crisis, Government, Havana, Interference, Negative, Outside, Political change, Public, Public opinion
Washington Post (November 23)
Fed Chair Jerome Powell has been nominated for another four-year term. If again confirmed, he will face “a daunting challenge: At a time when employment remains several million jobs below pre-pandemic levels, inflation is taking off at a rate not seen for 30 years.” And the blame from all “across the political spectrum” will be pinned on him. “Not since Paul Volcker accepted President Jimmy Carter’s nomination to the position amid double-digit inflation in mid-1979 has any central banker confronted a more difficult situation.”
Tags: Blame, Carter, Challenge, Confirmed, Daunting, Employment, Fed, Inflation, Nominated, Powell, Pre-pandemic, Volcker
Washington Post (June 11)
“There will be joy and drama, glory and grief, among Olympic competitors. But this summer’s pandemic-era Games in Tokyo are destined to go down as the most joyless of modern times with athletes sequestered and cheering banned…. Instead of basking in anticipation of the Opening Ceremonies on July 23, the buildup to the Games sees Japan mired in blame, recriminations and laments that it didn’t have to be this way.”
Tags: Athletes, Banned, Blame, Cheering, Competitors, Drama, Glory, Grief, Japan, Joyless, Mired, Olympic, Opening Ceremonies, Pandemic, Recriminations, Sequestered, Tokyo
Guardian (February 10)
“Across the UK, firms and consumers are discovering costs of Brexit that Mr Johnson denied. That denial was born of a failure to understand the trade-off between regulatory autonomy and market access. The prime minister swapped seamless trade for notional sovereignty and passed the cost on to unsuspecting businesses. Naturally, he wants to blame the EU for any pain. These are not teething troubles in implementation of the deal. They are the deal.”
Tags: Blame, Brexit, Consumers, Costs, Denial, EU, Failure, Firms, Johnson, Market access, Regulatory autonomy, Seamless trade, Sovereignty, Trade-off, UK
The Economist (September 7)
Argentina’s reimposition of currency controls “confirms the horrible reality that Argentina has once again become a financial outcast.” Most are quick to blame the current president Mauricio Macri. “In fact much of the blame for Mr Macri’s failure lies with his populist predecessor, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who …. left behind a gaping budget deficit, artificially low utility prices, statistics that were brazenly manipulated and ruinously high public spending.”
Tags: Argentina, Blame, Budget deficit, Currency controls, Fernández, Financial outcast, Macri, Manipulated, Populist, Reimposition, Statistics, Utility prices
South China Morning Post (September 3)
“Bankers did not cause the 2008 financial crisis…. Instead, blame for the crash lies squarely with the world’s governments. Sure, bankers were both greedy and reckless. But it was government policies that created the conditions in which greed and recklessness were allowed–even required–to flourish.” By ignoring this and “failing to learn from their mistakes, they have made another crash inevitable.”
Tags: Bankers, Blame, Crash, Financial Crisis, Governments, Greedy, Inevitable, Reckless
Wall Street Journal (July 30)
“The retail industry’s woes are often blamed on e-commerce and an excessive number of brick-and-mortar stores. Creditors are now targeting another potential culprit: private-equity investors.”
Tags: Blame, Brick-and-mortar, Creditors, Culprits, E-commerce, Private-equity investors, Retail, Stores, Woes
New York Times (February 3)
“It didn’t take long for tensions to flare between Iran and President Trump, and both sides have to share the blame.”
New York Times (January 4, 2014)
“Five months into the latest American effort to nudge Israelis and Palestinians toward a peace agreement, the one party clearly committed to a deal is the United States.” Over 20 talks have been held, with the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry logging ten trips to the region. Despite these efforts to reach an agreement by the end of April, “there is no evidence of concrete progress, but there are increasing signs that both sides may be positioning themselves to blame the other if negotiations collapse.”
Tags: Agreement, Blame, Collapse, Evidence, Israel, John Kerry, Negotiations, Palestine, Positioning, Progress, U.S.
USA Today (June 20)
“Rather than blaming the Fed for this week’s market fall, people should thank it for nursing stocks back to health since the sickening market bottoms of March 2009. Dr. Bernanke’s challenge in his remaining months as Fed chairman will be to taper off the medication without harming the patient.”
Tags: Ben Bernanke, Blame, Federal Reserve, Health, Market fall, Stocks, U.S.