Hosni Mubarak had reportedly been preparing today's "concession" announcement for days. Man, does he need some new speechwriters! After the briefest nod to "the legitimate worries" of young Egyptians, he basically slammed the ongoing protests as the work of political agitators. Not a good start toward calming the waters and creating dialogue.

Ptolemy
An early Baroque artist's rendition of Claudius Ptolemaeus.

MISS PALIN BACHMANN CONJURING

And : "Free trade agreements are licenses to engage in what used to be called "Labor Racketeering" Give the 6 month notice. Likewise notify the wto that we are out the door " Jolly Roger, in a comment to SleepinJeezus' blog today, "The failure of a thirty year experiment."

It's intuitively convincing, but in my particular case, FWIW supported by observations from  the 20 years of my career which I spent in international business, usually living abroad, that John Maynard and Jolly Roger, are right.

Since the advent of Reaganomics, both Repubs and Dems have fully embraced supply-side, trickle-down economic policy as the course that would provide growth and prosperity for all Americans. Indeed, there was no greater advocate of this than Bill Clinton, who established NAFTA as the standard for our Free Trade policies.

Back when the Soviet Union was the Soviet Union, a friend of mine went there for a year (1976) as a doctor to accompany a group of American young people (all fluent in Russian) as they went from city to city to show how great America was, and to learn what they could about the USSR.  It was a USIA (United States Information Agency) project.  The reason he went was because in previous years people had died from such things as appendicitis, and other treatable medical problems.

Interesting couple of weeks in the Middle East, no? Tunisians take to the streets to depose their country's long-entrenched dictator. WikiLeaks-type revelations destroy the last shreds of credibility Mahmoud Abbas's regime had with Palestinians. Hezbollah (acting entirely within Lebanon's constitution, BTW) installs its own choice for prime minister. George Bush's vision of Arab democracy on the march finally takes form!