Gridlocked Congress might respond to docked pay
By Daniel Indiviglio and Richard Beales
The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are their own.
If you don’t do the basics of your job, you shouldn’t get paid. It’s a simple concept, but lately it has been a foreign idea to the U.S. Congress. Federal lawmakers haven’t passed an annual budget in over 1,000 days. A new bill could apply a little financial pressure.
U.S. payroll tax fight shows faux fiscal restraint
By Daniel Indiviglio
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
The fight over U.S. payroll taxes just became exhibit A in political style over substance. Republicans in Congress, who have pounded the table on deficit reduction since last summer’s bruising debt battle, have backed down on a demand that spending be slashed to cover the cost of extending the tax cut. To let it ride for another 10 months will cost $100 billion. So much for fiscal discipline.
It’s time to fight America as it is now. American Airlines is “outsourcing” their maintenance, according their spokesman, and laying off thousands of long-time workers. Wal-mart started the outsourcing movement. There are no tires or copiers or DVDs made in America anymore. Clothing and shoes are not made here, save some of the New Balance, but not all. Men are made to pay child support to the state because of criminal females, who should be in jail themselves. State Attorney Generals should be shot for allowing the practice of collecting money in the name of child support. Fight, fight, fight.
Dreamworks’ China deal won’t be access all areas
By Wei Gu
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own
Dreamworks may soon get an exclusive ticket to China’s closely guarded film industry. The U.S. studio is likely to announce a joint venture with China-based investors during Vice President Xi Jinping’s visit to California on Feb. 17, a person familiar with the situation has told Breakingviews. It should be a good deal for the creators of “Kung Fu Panda”, but does little to lower the Great Wall around film distribution in the People’s Republic.
IMF offers best way for China to save Europe
By Wayne Arnold
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
Beijing will almost certainly say it wants to see the euro zone survive at their joint summit on Feb. 14. If so, it should pony up – not by lending directly, but via the International Monetary Fund’s $1 trillion rescue package. That way China not only has a better chance of getting paid back, but may also win a bigger role at the world’s currency watchdog.
Obama and Xi may make unhappy Valentines
By John Foley
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
The Valentine’s Day summit between Xi Jinping and Barack Obama could make for uncomfortable viewing. China’s likely next president is due to meet the U.S. leader in Washington – as his predecessor did 10 years ago. Only this time the stakes are higher. Obama, facing a November election, is under pressure to talk tough. Xi is under pressure to stay cool, while appeasing hardliners back home.
How in the world do you expect an American public to welcome a Chinese leader-in-waiting, in spite of heckling from GOP misfits, so far.
Given POTUS low profile and intuitive intelligence, I expect him to allow the effusive new Chinese leader to tell him exactly what’s on his mind after membership to WTO and ensuing globalization.
Mainland China is not looking for new enemies – let alone making Obama succeed in getting re-elected, methinks.
New Petrobras CEO needs to flex political muscle
By Kevin Allison and Christopher Swann
The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are their own.
So much for the honeymoon in Rio. Maria das Graças Foster’s confirmation as the new chief executive of Brazil’s Petrobras on Thursday was followed almost immediately by a dismal set of fourth-quarter results. Foster, a company veteran, has her work cut out to get the state-controlled energy behemoth back on track. Petrobras’ biggest problems are more political than operational, and her engineering skills alone won’t solve them.
Pennsylvania sells out cheaply in fracking fight
By Christopher Swann
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
Pennsylvania is selling out cheaply in the fight against fracking. The Keystone State, the nucleus of national opposition to the deep-drilling technique, is poised to levy a gas tax, ostensibly to cover drilling damages. The charge may soften the hostility. But the levy is less than half that of other states, suggesting the industry still has the upper hand.
Political influence purchased through campaign contributions? Shocking! Just kidding. Of course, it’s Pennsyvania, the origins of the oil industry, then the pawns of coal, now the gas industry. And all these great industries have done what? Well, they have made Pennsylvania into one of the slum centers of the US. Please visit Pittsburgh and Harrisburg and Philadelphia to see the squalor produced by these great industries. The word ugly comes to mind. What’s really amazing is that there are people healthy enough to protest.
Harsh IMF approach courts disaster in Romania
By Martin Hutchinson and Christopher Swann
The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are their own.
The IMF is courting disaster in Romania. The fund’s draconian conditions led Bucharest to cut public sector wages by 25 percent, far more than elsewhere. Now Romania’s prime minister Emil Boc has resigned and anti-reform forces have been emboldened. Excessive IMF rigour could do lasting harm.
Four months later we can clearly see that the situation is up-side-down. Now countries like Portugal and Spain have serious financial problems, while Romania has none of this kind. Portugal expects a -3.1% decrease of the economy, while Romania expects for a positive 1.2% to 1.5% growth. That not means the crisis is over, but that does not mean, either, that IMF killed Romania. Overstating a little bit, we can say even that IMF killed Portugal when they treated it so kindly in the past 
As a general remark: the countries with problems (Romania included, of course) are the countries which are not able to collect properly the taxes and which spend inadequately the lent money. IMF just points out to those two diseases while borrowing their money.
Still a long slog ahead for U.S. jobs
By Daniel Indiviglio and Richard Beales
The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are their own.
There’s still a long slog ahead for the unemployed in America. Jobs growth has started picking up. But even at a rate of 250,000 a month, a hair above January’s figure, full employment may not be reached until 2020. A new Breakingviews calculator shows how a faster or slower rate of job creation changes that picture.
China has moral high ground over “dirty skies”
John Foley
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own
China is fighting for its right to pollute. The government has banned Chinese airlines from paying a pointless new European emissions tax. The argument isn’t really about the environment. It’s about China’s “don’t intervene” foreign policy, which also led it to veto a U.N. resolution against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Feb. 4. This time China has the moral high ground.
This author should have taken the trouble to read the judgment of the European Court of Justice, which rejected the complaints of various airlines this past December. The EU is not making airlines pay “for something that happens above other countries”. Airlines are charged for carbon emissions only if they arrive at or leave from a European airport. The pollution charge is applied only within EU jurisdiction – although it is calculated based on the total emissions emitted during an entire flight. This is a reasonable application of the polluter pays principle. Countries have a sovereign right to exercise their own laws within their own jurisdictions. If an airline wishes to fly into or out of the EU, it has to accept EU laws, including laws which impose a penalty on pollution.
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Predictions 2013: Exploring the year ahead.
Edited By Robert Cole
Bridging the Divide: The economic and fiscal challenges facing the next U.S. president
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No sitting President would have the cojones to make this an executive mandate. Especially in an election year. Congress, I feel, in general has the morality and ethical conscience of tapeworms.