Peter M. Beck
11/24/2010

North Korea’s attack on the South yesterday is a sign of internal pressures on the regime in Pyongyang and a warning that America’s current approach isn’t working. Beck considers realistic goals the international community can pursue to maintain stability on the Korean peninsula. He says the problem posed by Pyongyang will only resolve itself permanently once the Kim regime no longer rules. Until then–and despite efforts to destabilize the regime with sanctions, we can’t necessarily assume that day will come soon–the rest of the world needs to adapt to the reality of a North Korean regime in flux and, on yesterday’s evidence, prone to violent outbursts.

Beck is the Council on Foreign Relations-Hitachi research fellow at Keio University in Tokyo.

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Harold Meyerson
11/24/2010

Germany may be small (with a population of only 82 million), but its trade balance is second to China’s. Its unemployment rate is at 7.5 percent, the lowest since Germany’s reunification (and lower than America’s). Wages are rising and the economy is growing. Germany’s “mittelstand,” or family-owned manufacturing businesses, are a key factor in their economic success. In the past, Germany was accused by the US and Britain of being too “locally focused”, but it is precisely this investment in its own manufacturing businesses that has kept Germany thriving. Germany has “stakeholder capitalism, not shareholder capitalism,” says Klaas Hubner, former German parliament member and owner of a successful mittelstand company. Germany’s economy, says Meyerson, is “running rings around America’s.”

Meyerson is a weekly columnist for The Post, writing mainly about politics.

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Maureen Dowd
11/24/2010

Dowd looks at the recent news that the US and Britain had been negotiating for months with a fake Taliban commander. She says this illustrates the futility of the war there because this illustrates the extent of the cluelessness we have about the Afghan culture. The Russians’ failure there should have been a warning to us about the odds of winning a war in Afghanistan because they were far more vicious than we are and were culturally much closer to the region.

Dowd is a New York Times columnist.

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Paul Krugman
11/19/2010

China, Germany, and the Republican Party are all trying to bully the Federal Reserve into calling off its job-creation efforts. Krugman says their motives are suspect. He calls the three the Axis of Depression. China and Germany don’t want the dollar to fall because it would make US goods more competitive, and a smaller US deficit would then cause them to run a deficit. Republicans’ reasons are odd and incoherent since the Fed is following the policies of none other than Milton Friedman. Krugman says Republicans are afraid that if the Fed succeeds and helps the economy, it would foul their election chances in 2012.

Krugman is a New York Times columnist.

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Ian Holliday
11/19/2010

Aung San Suu Kyi’s release has generated important political possibilities for Burma, says Holliday. Beyond Burma’s borders, key powers are generally supportive of change. China seeks above all a stable, prosperous, and friendly Burma, and has long urged military rulers to embrace national reconciliation and incremental reform. India has no problem with this agenda. The US wants faster progress but is pushing too hard after many years of policy failure. The odds therefore remain stacked against Ms. Suu Kyi. However, by signaling that talks are now possible without preconditions and that sanctions may be debated, she has created an important political opening. For generals keen to settle a fractious nation and bring in Burma from the cold, the offer placed on the table could be enticing.

Holliday is dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Hong Kong.

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Benjamin Wittes and Jack Goldsmith
11/19/2010

The conclusion of Ahmed Ghailani’s trial has brought forth considerable criticism of President Obama’s insistence that such cases proceed in civilian federal courts. However, the popular alternative of a military tribunal is equally fraught and problematic; the detractors have not considered the unique difficulties of that venue or the likelihood of a similar result. The real alternative is continued military detention without trial. An acquittal outcome, risked in either venue, would present disastrous alternatives and should not be risked when an acceptable course of action is available.

Wittes is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Goldsmith teaches at Harvard Law School and served as an assistant attorney general in the Bush administration. Both are members of the Hoover Institution’s Task Force on National Security and Law.

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George F. Will
11/18/2010

In 1977 Congress gave the Federal Reserve a “dual mandate” to “promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices and moderate long-term interest rates.” Given this mandate, the Fed has begun to print $60 billion, essentially creating another stimulus under the name of “quantitative easing.” Will points out that “maximizing employment” is a political role that has expanded to include staving off all the social ills that come with unemployment, from low self-esteem to violent crime. A repeal of the dual mandate is essential to prevent the Fed from becoming ruinously intertwined with politics.

Will is a twice-weekly columnist for The Post, writing about foreign and domestic politics and policy.

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Betsy McCaughey
11/18/2010

In 1933, Americans ratified the 20th Amendment to eliminate lame duck Congresses. Yet McCaughey says Washington has been ignoring its intent for two decades, hurrying back to the capital after Election Day to deal with spending bills and controversial legislation they deliberately had avoided before the election. When John Boehner, the presumptive House speaker, takes charge in January, he should introduce a bill providing that Congress will not meet between the November 2012 election and Jan. 3, 2013. That simple change in the law will put the voters back where they always belong: in charge.

McCaughey, a former lieutenant governor of New York state, is the author of “Obama Health Law: What It Says and How to Overturn It” (Encounter Books, 2010).

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Dana Milbank
11/18/2010

Nancy Pelosi has won the minority leader post in the incoming Congress through a bruising process. 68 Democrats preferred to postpone the decision in a clear vote of no confidence in the outgoing Speaker. Departing members spoke frankly to the media of the difficulty she presented them in their bids for re-election and the challenges of leading after presiding over such deep losses. Democrats are concerned that her continued leadership will not connect with American voters who have spoken decisively against the Congress’ record under her watch.

Milbank writes about political theater in the nation’s capital.

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