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US Defense Chief Carter Offers Turkey Condolences After Istanbul Airport Attack

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US Defense Secretary Ash Carter called Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Isik on Wednesday to express his deep condolences following yesterday’s heinous terrorist attack at Istanbul Ataturk Airport, Deputy Press Secretary Gordon Trowbridge said in a readout of the call.

According to media reports, at least 41 people were killed and another 230 injured in the terror attack, which has yet to be claimed by any group. The State Department said it’s not aware of any U.S. citizens killed or injured in the attack.

Trowbridge said the defense secretary strongly condemned the terrorist attack in Istanbul as a “cowardly assault on a stalwart NATO ally and enduring partner in our efforts to confront the threat of terrorism.”

Carter emphasized that the Defense Department joins with the people of Turkey in mourning the victims of this tragedy, and reaffirmed that the department will work closely and resolutely with Turkish allies to defeat terrorists of any kind, the deputy press secretary said.
The defense secretary also commended Isik on reports of selfless acts by Turkish security personnel at the airport during this attack, Trowbridge said, and the two leaders agreed to confer again at the upcoming NATO Warsaw Summit.


Obama Has Approved Hundreds Of Offshore Fracking Drills In Gulf Of Mexico

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The Obama administration has granted hundreds of offshore fracking permits in the Gulf of Mexico, allowing dangerous fracking chemicals to pollute the Gulf, documents reveal.

Truthout reports the Center for Biological Diversity uncovered documents that reveal the administration approved over 1,200 offshore fracking applications between 2010 and 2014, which took place in hundreds of wells in the Gulf of Mexico, including within the habitat of loggerhead turtles. The administration allowed oil companies to dump over 76 billion gallons of wastewater into the Gulf waters in 2014 alone, the CBD’s press release states.

“The Obama administration is essentially letting oil companies frack at will in Gulf ecosystems and dump billions of gallons of oil waste into coastal waters,” said Kristen Monsell, a CBD lawyer. “Every offshore frack increases the risk to wildlife and coastal communities, yet federal officials have been just rubber-stamping this toxic practice in the Gulf of Mexico for years.”

ruthout reports that the documents also show offshore fracking is being permitted without conducting analysis of the risk to the environment. Over 300 exclusions were issued to exempt drilling plans from environmental reviews, echoing the 2010 revelations that BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig received such exemptions in the lead up to the worst oil spill in US history.

Fracking is a drilling technique that extracts oil and gas from the ground by blasting powerful, high-pressure water, sand and chemicals into shale rock, fracturing it and allowing oil and gas to be accessed.

While the chemicals used in fracking water are largely secret, hydrochloric and hydrofluoric acid are used to break up rock under the sea. Hydrofluoric acid is corrosive and “forms a poisonous vapor cloud when heated,” according to Truthout.

While the effects from fracking are hotly debated, the lack of details that are known about the process is an issue in of itself.

“Nobody can say how much of any type of waste is being produced, what it is, and where it’s ending up,”said Nadia Steinzor of the group Earthworks, which is involved in a lawsuit that seeks to compel the US Environmental Protection Agency to take a larger role in tracking and regulating hazardous drilling waste.

In addition, fracking has a reputation for poisoning drinking water. For example, in a small Wisconsin town, it was discovered that the wastewater from a nearby fracking site had contaminated underground sources of drinking water, making it unsafe to use.

The site that poisoned the water in Pavillion, Wisconsin was located on solid ground. How an offshore fracking site would affect the Gulf Coast is open to speculation.

The CBD accessed the documents after challenging the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) failure to produce documents in response to a Freedom of Information Act request with a lawsuit.

Both BSEE and BOEM were set up by Obama in the wake of the BP oil spill. The Government Accountability Office recently found BSEE had failed to complete “a policy outlining investigative responsibilities or updated procedures for investigating incidents.”

There are more documents still to be released.

“The federal government certainly has no right to give the oil industry free rein to frack our oceans — or to keep coastal communities in the dark about this toxic industrial activity,” Monsell said.

Iraqi Forces Begin Working Toward Mosul Following On Fallujah Victory

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By Cheryl Pellerin

Iraqi forces have begun working toward Mosul after their victory in Fallujah this week against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and the Syrian Democratic Forces are tightening a cordon around Manbij in an operation led by the Syrian Arab coalition, the Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman said Wednesday.

Speaking live via videoconference from a command post in the Middle East, Army Col. Christopher Garver gave an update on the ISIL fight after offering condolences on the U.S.-led coalition’s behalf after deadly attacks yesterday on the Istanbul Ataturk International Airport in Turkey’s capital city.

Also this morning, Defense Secretary Ash Carter called Turkish Minister of Defense Fikri Isik to express his deep condolences following the attack.

Carter strongly condemned the attack as a cowardly assault on a stalwart NATO ally and enduring partner in efforts to confront the threat of terrorism, according to a statement by DoD Deputy Press Secretary Gordon Trowbridge. The defense secretary also reaffirmed that the department will work closely with Turkish allies to defeat terrorists of any kind.

Victory in Fallujah

Beginning with Iraq, Garver said the world watched as Iraqi fighters raised the Iraqi flag over Fallujah June 17, and Iraqi military leaders announced the city’s full liberation June 26.

“Since that time we have seen rapid clearing operations within the city as [Iraq] consolidates its gains and prepares for future operations, which will include handing over the security of Fallujah to the holding force” of local police and Sunni tribal fighters, the colonel added.

The assault phase of the ground campaign began May 21, and during that time the coalition conducted 106 strikes in support of Iraqi operations, he said.

“We know there is interest in the physical state of Fallujah after the battle,” Garver said, adding that press reports indicate that the city is in better shape than Ramadi was last year after its liberation.

“If initial reports [are] accurate, we hope this will bode well for getting the residents of Fallujah back into their homes as quickly as possible. We do not have an estimated timeline from the Iraqi government yet but all parties involved in the care of the displaced citizens are working to develop that now,” he said.

In the Tigris River Valley, Iraqi forces are conducting shaping operations to prepare for the eventual liberation of Mosul. On the western access, Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service forces and 9th Iraqi Army Division brigades continue to push the attack north out of Beiji, Garver said.

Fighting on the western access has ranged been between light and moderate, but Iraqi forces continue to make steady gains toward Qayyarah. Over the past week, the coalition has conducted 34 strikes in the Qayyarah region in support of these operations, the colonel added.

Toward Manbij

In Syria, in addition to progress made by Syrian Democratic Forces and the Syrian Arab Coalition toward Manbij, SAC forces are fighting to establish footholds on the southern and western edges of the city, Garver said.

“They’ve seized the entrances to an intricate tunnel complex on the southern edge, which will reduce [ISIL’s] ability to relocate fighters inside the city,” he added, noting that SAC forces have seized more than 10,000 documents from the outlying edges, including textbooks, propaganda posters, cell phones, laptops, maps and digital storage devices.

“Exploitation of this information is ongoing to better understand [ISIL] networks and techniques, including the systems [used] to manage the flow of foreign fighters into Syria and Iraq,” the colonel said.

To protect citizens inside the city, Garver said SAC leaders have assumed a slower and more deliberate rate of advance to clear booby traps and homemade bombs and to avoid civilian casualties, although ISIL continues to establish fortified defenses in the city.

“We expect the fighting to continue to be intense and progress slow but deliberate due to the strategic importance [ISIL] places on this city for keeping lines of communication between Manbij, Raqqa and outside Syria open,” he said.

Increasing Pressure

In southeastern Syria, Garver said that partner opposition forces running the Tanf Garrison launched an attack in the past 48 hours to seize the town of Abu Kamal in the Euphrates River Valley.

“The announced purpose of this attack by the New Syrian Army, also known as the … KAA, is to liberate Abu Kamal and cut [ISIL’s] military supply lines in the Euphrates Valley between Syria and Iraq,” he said. “Cutting these supply lines will impact the flow of foreign fighters and supplies between the upper and lower Euphrates Valley.”

Garver said that as local fighters with coalition support have worked to interdict lines of communication between Iraq and Syria in the north near Sinjar Mountain on Highway 43 and in the south near Rutbah on Highway 10, “we are now working to interdict the last major line of communication between the two countries.”

Doing so, he added, will better isolate ISIL operations in the two countries, limit high-speed routes to reinforcements, resupply and foreign fighters flowing between the countries, and increase pressure across the so-called caliphate.

Tidal Wave II

Operation Inherent Resolve continues to target ISIL illicit oil and natural gas activities in an operation called Tidal Wave II, Garver said, whose targets include oil sites, equipment and vehicles for transporting oil and natural gas.

Since September 2014, the coalition has conducted about 300 strikes against oil-related facilities, infrastructure and equipment, he said, and last week the coalition conducted eight strikes in support of Tidal Wave II near Raqqa in Syria and Mosul and Qayyarah in Iraq.

Coalition airstrikes have attacked ISIL oil tankers, oil and gas separation plants, wellheads and pumping infrastructure, he said, and the self-proclaimed ISIL ministry of oil headquarters in Mosul, affecting management of illicit oil operations.

“The Tidal Wave strikes affect ISIL’s ability to fund governance activities and terror operations,” Garver added.

Iraq Receives New Batch Of Russian Helicopters

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Russia supplied Iraq with a new batch of Mi-28NE “Night Hunter” military helicopters, the Iraqi Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.

“These helicopters will make a great contribution in support of ground forces in their operations aimed at targeting terrorist positions and destroying [their] armoured vehicle packed with explosives,” the ministry said in a statement published on its website.

On June 3, spokesman for the Iraqi Joint Special Operations Command Yahya Rasul Zubaidi said that Russian-made helicopters including the “Night Hunter” (NATO reporting name Havoc), used by the Iraqi army had demonstrated their effectiveness during the offensive in the city of Fallujah against Islamic State, a terrorist organization banned in Russia, the United States and many other countries.

The ministry also said that the “Night Hunter” helicopters had increased maneuverability and targeting precision of the Iraqi army.

Mi-28NE is a highly effective new-generation helicopter, designed for combat missions in any circumstances. The helicopter is designed to take part in operations against tanks, infantry combat vehicles and armoured personnel carriers among other targets.

Can Moscow Oblast Save Moscow City From Muslims Praying In The Streets This Year? – OpEd

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When Muslims in the Russian capital offer Uraza Bayram prayers at the end of Ramadan on July 5, they may not spill into the streets as they have in the past because of the severe shortage of mosques in the city of Moscow if an agreement between Muslim leaders and officials in Moscow oblast works as planned.

Because there are only five officially registered mosques in Moscow for the city’s estimated 2.5 million Muslims, many of the faithful especially on holidays pray in the streets outside these mosques, blocking traffic and infuriating other Muscovites who object to this public demonstration of growing numbers of Muslims among them.

Muslim leaders in the past have argued that this problem could be solved if the authorities would agree to open more mosques, but Russian officials have refused to do so. Now, some Muslim leaders have come up with a plan that may mean there will be fewer Muslims praying in the streets of the capital this year.

Rushan Abbyasov, the first deputy chairman of the Council of Muftis of Russia (SMR) and of the Muslim Spiritual Directorate of Muslims (MSD) of the Russian Federation, has announced that his institutions have reached an agreement with Moscow oblast officials to handle the expected crowds (tass.ru/moskovskaya-oblast/3408326).

Under the terms of the agreement, oblast officials have authorized Muslim prayers in 37 places in the region, including in the 18 mosques and prayer houses that operate there. According to the TASS report, this “will help reduce the pressure on the capital’s mosques,” perhaps especially because most of the capital’s Muslims live in the oblast rather than the city.

As the Russian news agency reminds, “Uraza Bayram is one of the main days of the Islamic calendar,” one that has been celebrated since the time of the Prophet Mohammed. Typically it involves not only prayers at the mosque but also visits to cemeteries to remember ancestors and giving assistance to the needy.

India: Bishop Who Initiated Mother Teresa’s Canonization Dies

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Retired Archbishop Henry Sebastian D’Souza of Calcutta who initiated the process for the canonization of Blessed Mother Teresa has passed away aged 90.

Archbishop D’Souza headed Calcutta Archdiocese from 1986-2002, where he was a close associate of Blessed Teresa who had her headquarters for the Missionaries of Charity congregation that she founded in Calcutta, now named Kolkata, eastern India.

Blessed Teresa died of cardiac arrest in Kolkata on Sept. 5, 1997. Her canonization process, initiated by Archbishop D’Souza, began two years afterward.

In 2005, retired Archbishop D’Souza said Blessed Teresa “fell in love with God and in that love she spent her whole life.”

According to the archbishop, Blessed Teresa’s initial letters from India to her relatives back home spoke of her difficulties in adjusting to the heat and conditions in this country.

Archbishop D’Souza was born Jan. 20, 1926 and in 1985 became Coadjutor Archbishop of Calcutta before heading the archdiocese the next year. Before that he was Bishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, India, ordained bishop in 1974 at the age of 48.

Blessed Teresa will be canonized a saint by Pope Francis in September.

Orange To Buy Sun Communications, Leading Cable Operator In Moldova

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Orange said Wednesday it has signed an agreement to acquire 100% of Sun Communications’ share capital, the leading cable TV operator in Moldova.

The acquisition of Sun Communications will enable Orange to prepare the market for transformation towards convergence. The Orange ambition is to reinforce its position as the leading convergent operator in Europe providing fixed broadband, fixed and mobile voice services as well as pay TV services. The acquisition of Sun Communications in Moldova is part of this strategy. Orange Moldova is the largest mobile operator in the country with over two million customers, providing the best 4G coverage to 84% of the population.

Sun Communications is the leading Pay TV provider in Moldova by customer base and offers digital and cable TV services under the brand SunTV to customers in Chisinau, Balti and Cahul. With over 172 channels and 25 HD channels on offer, SunTV is one of the largest providers of cable TV services with over 100,000 active customers. Sun also offers internet and VOIP (Voice over IP) services to over 38,000 customers in Moldova, offering up to 300Mbps connectivity.

The transaction will allow Orange to enter the fixed and Pay TV services market and offer new and innovative services to the customers, particularly convergent offers and services across fixed, mobile and pay TV services.

The completion of the transaction remains subject to the approval of competition authorities.

SSPX Says Canonical Recognition Not Primary Concern

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After indications of progress toward reconciliation earlier this year, the head of the Society of St. Pius X stated Wednesday that canonical recognition is not what the priestly society primarily seeks.

“The Society of Saint Pius X, in the present state of grave necessity which gives it the right and duty to administer spiritual aid to the souls that turn to it, does not seek primarily a canonical recognition,” Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of the SSPX, wrote in a June 29 communique.

He added that the SSPX “has a right” to canonical recognition “as a Catholic work.”

The society “has only one desire,” he said: “faithfully to bring the light of the bi-millennial Tradition which shows the only route to follow in this age of darkness in which the cult of man replaces the worship of God, in society as in the Church.”

Bishop Fellay’s statement was issued after a June 25-28 meeting of major superiors of the SSPX.

He stated that “in the great and painful confusion that currently reigns in the Church, the proclamation of Catholic doctrine requires the denunciation of errors that have made their way into it and are unfortunately encouraged by a large number of pastors, including the Pope himself.”

Recalling the motto of St. Pius X, “to restore all things in Christ”, Bishop Fellay said that this “cannot happen without the support of a Pope who concretely favors the return to Sacred Tradition.”

“While waiting for that blessed day, the Society of Saint Pius X intends to redouble its efforts to establish and to spread, with the means that Divine Providence gives to it, the social reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ.”

He added that the SSPX “prays and does penance for the Pope, that he might have the strength to proclaim Catholic faith and morals in their entirety.”

By doing this, Bishop Fellay stated, the Pope will “hasten the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary that we earnestly desire as we approach the centennial of the apparitions in Fatima.”

The bishop’s statement also recalled that the purpose of the SSPX “is chiefly the formation of priests.”

The SSPX was founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1970 to form priests, as a response to what he described as errors that had crept into the Church after the Second Vatican Council. Its relations with the Holy See became particularly strained in 1988 when Archbishop Lefebvre and Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer consecrated four bishops without the permission of Pope John Paul II.

The illicit consecrations resulted in the excommunication of the bishops involved. The excommunications of the surviving bishops were lifted in 2009 by Benedict XVI and since then negotiations “to rediscover full communion with the Church” have continued between the Society and the Vatican.

In remitting the excommunications, Benedict noted that “doctrinal questions obviously remain and until they are clarified the Society has no canonical status in the Church and its ministers cannot legitimately exercise any ministry.”

The biggest obstacles for the Society’s reconciliation have been the statements on religious liberty in Vatican II’s declaration Dignitatis humanae as well as the declaration Nostra aetate, which it claims contradict previous Catholic teaching.

There were indications in recent years of movement towards regularization of the priestly society, which has some 590 priest-members, including a memo apparently meant for circulation among its leadership.

The Feb. 19 memo from Fr. Franz Schmidberger had said it “seems the time to normalize the situation of the Society has come.” The priest is a past superior general of the society who is now rector of its seminary in Germany.

He said the Vatican had been “gradually lowering its demands and recent proposals” regarding the society’s position toward the Second Vatican Council and the Novus Ordo Mass which was implemented after it.

Although the group would be likely to “return from its ‘exile’,” he said, it would expect further discussion and would not be silent in the face of what it considers to be errors.

The priest’s memo noted the society’s need for licit consecration of any future bishops.

Archbishop Guido Pozzo, secretary for the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, spoke about interactions with the society in an April 6 interview with La Croix. The archbishop, whose commission is responsible for discussions with the society, said that discussions over the last few years have led to “an important clarification” that the Second Vatican Council “can be adequately understood only in the context of the full Tradition of the Church and her constant Magisterium.”

He said certain questions can remain “subject to discussion and clarification.”

In April 10 remarks to pilgrims in France, Bishop Fellay said that he saw “profound change” in the society’s relationship with the Vatican. He suggested Church leaders would not force them to accept the Second Vatican Council, having met with Pope Francis and Archbishop Pozzo April 1-2.

In 2015 the Holy See delegated a cardinal and three bishops to visit the seminaries of the SSPX. They were sent to become better acquainted with the society, and to discuss doctrinal and theological topics in a less formal context.

And Pope Francis announced in a September 2015 letter on the Jubilee Year of Mercy that during the jubilee year the faithful can validly and licitly receive absolution of their sins from priests of the SSPX.


Russia: Putin Signs Decree Extending Ban On Western Foods

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree that prolongs economic sanctions on some Western products from August of this year until the end of 2017.

A ban on importing certain agricultural produce, foods and raw materials from countries that have sanctioned Russia was first introduced in the summer of 2014. Moscow extended its counter measures in response to anti-Russia sanctions in June last year.

The latest decree, aimed at “protecting Russia’s national interests,” followed suggestions put forward by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in late May. Medvedev tasked the government with preparing a package of measures that would potentially be in force until late 2017. The draft package was then introduced to the president.

Putin’s decree says that the government may offer proposals to change the ban’s terms “when necessary.”

Despite a number of Western officials opposing an economic stand-off with Russia and saying that it is their economies that suffer, the EU is likely to prolong its sanctions against Moscow through January 2017, Reuters reported last week, citing diplomatic sources. The decision has yet to be formally approved by the bloc’s ministers in Brussels.

RSF Urges EU To Press For Release Of Its Turkey Representative

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Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called on the European Union to insist on respect for European democratic norms by the authorities in Turkey, where RSF representative Erol Önderoglu was placed in pre-trial detention a week ago.

At a press conference at RSF headquarters in Paris on June 27, RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire urged EU political institutions to remind Turkey of its democratic duties during the EU accession talks that are about to resume in Brussels.

Deloire gave the news conference together with Can Dündar, the editor of the leading Turkish daily Cumhuriyet, who has been sentenced to five years in prison in Turkey.

“Turkey definitely does not satisfy the democratic criteria required of accession candidates and is satisfying them less and less, especially as regards respect for media freedom,” Deloire said. “So it would be incomprehensible if the European Union were to give Turkey a positive signal.”

The EU undertook to revive Turkey’s admission negotiations as part of the EU-Turkey agreement on migration. An inter-governmental conference is due to be held tomorrow in Brussels with several Turkish government ministers in attendance.

Implementation of one of the clauses of the migration accord, visa-free access to the Schengen area for Turkish citizens, has been held up by the EU’s insistence that, in return, Turkey must amend its 1991 anti-terrorism law, which the Turkish authorities use to prosecute many journalists. Some have received long jail terms under the law, which does not distinguish between propaganda and objective reporting.

RSF hopes that Johannes Hahn, the EU commissioner for enlargement negotiations, reaffirms the EU position that no concession can be made on visa requirements until Turkey brings it anti-terrorism legislation into compliance with European democratic standards.

RSF also urges to the EU to press Turkey to: Decriminalize press offences and, in particular, amend the law on insulting the chief of state; Stop placing media outlets under judicial administration; Amend the Internet law so that only an independent judicial authority can order the blocking of online content; End illegal measures under which TV satellite operators can be forced to drop TV channels; Stop placing journalists in detention (40 are currently in prison, thousands of prosecutions are pending); and end impunity for those responsible for acts of violence against journalists.

RSF said it also hopes that the French government will press its European partners to make respect for media freedom an explicit prior condition for progress in accession talks, and that France will continue its effort to obtain the release of Önderoglu and the two people arrested with him – journalist Ahmet Nesin and human rights defender Sebnem Korur Fincanci.

“This is the worse period I have ever experienced for media freedom in Turkey (…) there is no respect for the rule of law,” Dündar said at the news conference. He has worked as a journalist for more than 20 years in Turkey, suffering the crackdown of the 1990s, and recently spending three months in prison together with Cumhuriyet’s Ankara bureau chief, Erdem Gül.

Paying tribute to Önderoglu, Dündar added, “Erol was with us all the time, in prison and in court.”

Deloire also praised Önderoglu, who has been defending media freedom for the past 20 years in Turkey, and has French and Turkish dual nationality.

“He has always defended all journalists who are imprisoned or prevented from working freely, whatever their views and whoever they worked for, whether Kemalists, Islamists supporting the [ruling] AKP or leftists,” Deloire said. “Now he is the victim of the same political mechanism by the Turkish government that he has always criticized.”

Önderoglu’s imprisonment has sparked a vast wave of outrage and solidarity both in Turkey and internationally.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, the UE, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, the US State Department and the French and German governments have all called for the swift release of Önderoglu, Nesin and Fincanci, who are charged with “terrorist propaganda” for taking part in a campaign of support for the Kurdish daily Özgür Gündem.

Turkey is ranked 151st out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2016 World Press Freedom Index.

Paul Ryan’s Hot New Idea: More Rank Corporate Giveaways – OpEd

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By Jim Hightower*

Attention people, there’s big news out of Washington: Paul Ryan, the Republican speaker of the House, has announced that he has an idea!

This is news because the GOP leadership hasn’t offered a new idea in years.

Instead, they’ve simply been the party of no, opposing all proposals put forward by Democrats and nixing everything that big majorities of Americans want Congress to act on — like a jobs program to repair our collapsing infrastructure and a raise in the minimum wage to above the poverty level.

So some were excited when Speaker Ryan called a major press conference to present his idea for fixing the economy.

But, sheesh.

It’s a rehash of the same old stale “idea” the GOP has for every issue: Eliminate government protections for consumers, workers, our environment, and so forth, so corporate profiteers can run roughshod over us. That’s the sole idea in the highly hyped, 57-page “economic agenda” that Ryan is peddling like a snake oil salesman.His “fix” is to roll back hundreds of important regulations that restrain corporate rapaciousness. For example, he wants to free Wall Street bankers, for-profit colleges, cable giants, and others from rules that prevent them from ripping off and otherwise harming consumers.

A provision in the plan also repeals “all climate change regulations under the Clean Air Act” — a sweet favor for Big Coal and electric utility companies. Ryan would even cancel ethics rules that require retirement advisers to act in their client’s best interests, rather than taking kickbacks for persuading clients to put their savings in bad investments.

By calling these rank corporate giveaways an “economic agenda,” Ryan himself is committing a shameful, immoral fraud against the American people. His plan would “fix” our economy in the same way a veterinarian fixes your dog.

*OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. He’s the editor of the populist newsletter, The Hightower Lowdown

Saudi Arabia’s FM Al-Jubeir Says Iran Linked To Unrest In Region

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Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and French president have committed their two nations to seeking joint solutions to the crises affecting the Middle East.

This came as Prince Mohammed wrapped up his visit to the country on Wednesday and sent a message to Francois Hollande thanking him for hosting him and holding talks on deepening cooperation on the political, social and economic fronts, SPA reported.

Prince Mohammed had held several meetings on Tuesday in Paris, including a visit to the country’s Parliament, and French Business Council where he briefed members on Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Program 2020, the plans to diversify the country’s economy with a focus on investment income.

He also held a meeting with Irina Bokova, director-general of UNESCO and urged further cooperation in terms of developing education and having more archaeological sites in the Kingdom placed on the World Heritage List.

Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir, speaking at a symposium hosted by the French Diplomatic Academy, said Saudi Arabia and France shared views on how to deal with problems in the Middle East, including Syria, Yemen and Libya.

“There is a sectarian problem in our region created and encouraged by Iran after 1979. After the Iranian revolution a revolutionary system was established in Iran that wanted to act as if it were responsible for every Shiite in the world, and as a result we have seen increasing sectarianism in the Middle East. Then the Hezbollah was founded in Lebanon … Iran is behind the unrest in the region,” he said.

He said that all acts of terrorism and civil wars in the region can be linked to Iran. The country has to change its behavior so that there can be a dialogue. It must stop interfering in the internal affairs of Yemen, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and the Palestinians, he said.

“Saudi Arabia had no interest in conducting a war in Yemen but we had no choice when there was a militia allied with Hezbollah and Iran fighting there, with forces and ballistic missiles only 30 miles away from our borders. It was crucial for us to act,” he said. There was now hope for a political solution because most of the country was controlled by the government, and to rebuild Yemen, he said.

On Syria, Al-Jubeir said a solution must be found without Bashar Assad because he killed and displaced millions of his own people. This has caused the rise in terrorism in that part of the world, he said.

Yemeni Freed From Guantánamo In Montenegro; 29 Cleared Prisoners Remain – OpEd

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Last Wednesday, Abd al-Malik Wahab al-Rahabi (aka Abdel Malik Wahab al-Rahabi), a Yemeni prisoner held at Guantánamo since the day the prison opened on January 11, 2002, became the 690th prisoner to be released, when he was given a new home in Montenegro. He was the second prisoner to be resettled in the Balkan nation, following another Yemeni in January.

Al-Rahabi is also the 10th prisoner to be freed after being approved for release by a Periodic Review Board, a review process set up in 2013 to review the cases of men described as “too dangerous to release” or recommended for prosecution by the previous review process, the Guantánamo Review Task Force that President Obama established shortly after taking office in January 2009. 36 decisions have been taken to date, and two-thirds of those — 24 — have ended up with recommendations for release, a rather damning indictment of the task force’s extreme caution and/or mistaken analyses of the prisoners’ significance.

The task force described 48 men as “too dangerous to release,” despite conceding that there was insufficient evidence to put them on trial (which, in other words, was not evidence at all, but a collection of dubious statements made by the prisoners themselves), and the men recommended for prosecution has their proposed charges dropped after appeals court judges, embarrassingly, threw out some of the few convictions secured in Guantánamo’s permanently troubled military commission trial system, because the war crimes for which they had been convicted had been invented by Congress.

Al-Rahabi’s case was first reviewed on January 28, 2014, and he was approved for ongoing detention on March 5, 2014, but when his case was reviewed again, on November 5, 2014 (see documents here), he was approved for release. This was on December 5, 2014, but he has languished at Guantánamo ever since. See my definitive Periodic Review Board list for all the other prisoners approved for release but, sadly, still held, although the Obama administration has promised to release them by the end  of summer — along with the 15 other prisoners approved for release by the task force in its final report in January 2010.

Reporting on al-Rahabi’s release, Carol Rosenberg of the Miami Herald explained that the government of Montenegro issued a statement that it took in al-Rahabi as a humanitarian gesture, and that both he and the man freed in January — Abdul Aziz al-Suadi — “were applicants for asylum at no cost to ‘Montenegrin taxpayers.’” The statement added that both men “will eventually be free to choose the country they want to live in.”

The US government will not repatriate Yemeni prisoners, because of security fears about their homeland, and, when al-Rahabi was approved for release, the review board “recommended that he be sent to a country where his wife and now teenaged daughter could join him,” as the Miami Herald put it.

His attorney, David Remes, said, “He’s been waiting for 14 years to reunite with his wife and the daughter he’s never met. We are glad he’s been released at last.”

Remes added that al-Rahabi “has seen his daughter, Aisha, in occasional Skype video chats in his years at Guantánamo but last saw her in person when she was three months old in 2001.”

Al-Rahabi, who was regarded as one of the “Dirty Thirty,” a group of men dubiously described as Al-Qaeda bodyguards, had been “a committed hunger striker during the 2013 protests, so much so that Navy medics kept him on a force-feeding list,” as the Miami Herald described it.

With al-Rahabi’s release, 79 men are left at Guantánamo — the 29 approved for release, mentioned above, just ten facing, or having faced trials, and 40 others awaiting PRBs or the results of PRBs.

Lundin Petroleum Board Resolves On Edvard Grieg Transaction

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The Board of Directors of Lundin Petroleum has resolved on the new share issues and share transfer in order to complete the Edvard Grieg acquisition.

On May 3, 2016, Lundin Petroleum announced that Lundin Petroleum and its wholly-owned subsidiary Lundin Norway AS  had entered into agreements with Statoil ASA and its wholly-owned subsidiary Statoil Petroleum AS to acquire Statoil Norway’s entire 15 percent interest in the Edvard Grieg field in PL338, offshore Norway and all associated assets including a nine percent interest in the Edvard Grieg oil pipeline and a six percent interest in the Utsira High gas pipeline (the Edvard Grieg Assets).

With the support of the authorisations at the Extraordinary General Meeting on May 30, 2016 and based upon an agreed average share price of SEK 138 per share and a SEK/USD exchange rate of 8.098, the Board on Wednesday resolved to issue 27,580,806 new shares in Lundin Petroleum to Statoil in consideration for the Edvard Grieg Assets.

In addition, the Board has, in accordance with the authorization from the Extraordinary General Meeting on May 30, 2016, resolved to transfer 2,000,000 shares held in treasury and to issue 1,735,309 new shares to Statoil in exchange for a cash consideration based upon a share price of SEK 145.66 per share (the ten day volume weighted average closing share price prior to and including the date of signing the transaction documents). The reason for the share issues and share transfer is to enable the acquisition of the Edvard Grieg Assets.

Following completion of the transaction, Lundin Petroleum will have 340,386,445 shares outstanding. The dilution amounts to approximately 8.6 percent of the number of shares in Lundin Petroleum.

The transaction is expected to be completed today and the shares will then be registered on or around July 1, 2016.

German FM And OSCE Chair Visits Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia

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(Civil.Ge) — German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose country now holds OSCE’s rotating chairmanship, starts a three-day visit to the South Caucasus countries on June 29.

After visiting Armenia and Azerbaijan, Steinmeier will arrive in Tbilisi, where he will address the opening session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s annual meeting on July 1.

In Tbilisi the German Foreign Minister will also meet his Georgian counterpart Mikheil Janelidze and PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili.

Before his departure, Steinmeier said that despite much turbulence in Europe, one must not lose sight of the situation in the South Caucasus.

“The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict risks to re-escalate at any time,” Steinmeier was quoted in an OSCE press release on Wednesday. “As Chair of the OSCE we have the responsibility to hedge this risk as far as possible.”

He also said that the settlement of territorial conflicts in Georgia has to remain high on OSCE’s agenda.


Brexit Hopes And Fears For Iran – Analysis

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By Hossein Mofidi Ahmadi*

Iran’s political and strategic circles have been monitoring the consequences of Britain’s exit from the European Union, known as Brexit, with special sensitivity. However, it is clear that the shadow of uncertainty about consequences of Brexit has been hovering over Iranian decision-makers as has been the case with their counterparts in other countries and actors within the international system. Of course, there is consensus in Iran that even outside the European Union (EU) Britain will continue to play the role of an important actor in steering the Middle Eastern policies of the West and Europe. However, Iran maintains that the consequences of Brexit would not be one-dimensional and should be assessed from the viewpoint of the opportunities and challenges they offer Iran.

From the viewpoint of Iranian experts, the most important advantage of Brexit for Iran is probable weakening of Britain’s role within the Union as the country which has been most in line with the United States’ security strategies against the Islamic Republic. Furthermore, a Britain outside the EU will be probably a weaker strategic ally for the United States. In the meantime, in view of its possible effect on undermining the European Union, Brexit would possibly scuttle the axis and concept of the “West” as a result of which Russia and China would boost their influence in the Middle East and Iran is possible to further strengthen its “look to the East” policy. From the viewpoint of Iran, bolstering the eastern axis will give Iran an upper hand in developments that may take place following the implementation of Iran’s nuclear deal with the P5+1 group of countries, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), especially with regard to developments in Syria. Of course, the negative side of this issue would be enforcement of a balanced foreign policy with such countries as Russia and China.

Another advantage of Brexit for Iran is that the United States’ Trojan horse will leave the EU. In the meantime, reduced power and effectiveness of possible future sanctions policies adopted by the European Union and Britain is also important to Iran, because London played a major role in forging consensus for the enforcement of these sanctions, while the European Union also played an important part in enforcement of sanctions adopted by Britain and the United States against Tehran. Another advantage is that due to the economic instability in Britain, which is sure to follow Brexit, London’s foreign policy will become more inclined toward the country’s economic priorities as a result of which less significance will be attached to the policy of mounting pressure on Middle Eastern countries in order to change behavior or ruling regimes of these countries.

Despite the importance of the above points, challenges posed by Brexit to Iran will not be limited. Iran has always looked upon the European Union as a leverage by which it could make the most of the advantages of the implementation of the JCPOA, including removal of sanctions. This approach will become more important if a person like the presumptive Republican candidate, Donald Trump, is elected as the US president. Due to its possible short-term effect on weakening the international standing of Europe, Brexit may cause challenges to the realization of the JCPOA.

Another important point is that from Iran’s viewpoint, the European Union has played an important role in drawing the attention of most member states (especially Britain) to taking advantage of soft power tools in its security and foreign policies, and this issue has, to some extent, made Britain’s trans-Atlantic views more balanced. Britain’s exit from the European Union and dominance of this idea that the security of Britain depends more on its special relationship with the United States and its actions within such a military institution as the NATO than the European Union would probably have concerning security consequences for Iran.

Another issue, which can worry Iran, is that due to short-term negative impact of Brexit on the British economy, the country will feel a more serious need to boost its trade interactions and arms deals with the Arab states of the Persian Gulf region. This issue can potentially lead to increased regional clout of Britain in the Persian Gulf, intensification of the arms race in the region, and weakening of Iran’s position in the regional balance. At the same time, Brexit will help Britain get rid of the European Union’s requirements for the regulation of arms trade with third countries.

Negative economic consequences of Brexit for Iran can be viewed from two standpoints. Firstly, Brexit will have a negative effect on the global flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) and this issue would not be beneficial to Iran, which needs such investment. On the other hand, due to high risk of investment in Iran as a result of the United States’ secondary sanctions, Iran will not be probably among investment priorities for Britain.

Another negative consequence of Brexit for Iran is the possible effect of Brexit on rising to power of new leaders in Britain as well as other European countries, whose definition of the European identity would be much more exclusive. This definition would cause Muslims and the entire Islamic world to be looked upon as enemies of Europe as a result of which Iran’s political and economic interactions with European countries would face a serious challenge.

* Hossein Mofidi Ahmadi, Ph.D. in International Relations & Europe Analyst

State Capacity And American Technology: Evidence From The 19th Century – Analysis

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The ‘great inventions’ view of productivity growth ascribes the excellent growth from 1920 to 1970 in the US to a handful of advances, and suggests that today poor productivity performance is driven by a lack of breakthrough discoveries. This column argues instead that the development of an effective governmental infrastructure in the 19th century accounted for a major part of US technological progress and prominence in this period. Infrastructure design thus appears to have the power to reinvigorate technological progress.

By Daron Acemoglu, Jacob Moscona and James A Robinson*

Robert Gordon’s new book, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, argues that rapid technological progress in the US economy between 1920 and 1970 was a result of the availability of ‘great inventions’ that had the potential to drastically change the way individuals lived their lives (Gordon 2016, p. 2). Present day economic growth is slower because inventions that have the transformative power of electricity and the internal combustion engine are no longer emerging.

This perspective runs counter to approaches that emphasise how the pace and direction of technological change respond to incentives and opportunities, often shaped by the institutional environment and policy decisions (see Acemoglu 2009 for an overview).

  • Patents, property rights and functioning judicial institutions, for instance, allow individuals to reap the rewards of their investments and new ideas;
  • Educational institutions and policies and a legal environment ensuring lack of discrimination against specific groups are also key for opportunities in business as well as in innovation to be open to most individuals in society; and
  • Subsidies for research and development or tax credits are important for innovation incentives as well.

These factors have not only been shown to be important in general, but also to have played a critical role in 19th century American innovation (e.g. Sokoloff 1988, Khan 2005).

In a recent working paper, we empirically tests the hypothesis that the US government’s infrastructural capacity helped drive innovation during the 19th century (Acemoglu et al. 2016). Our results suggest that, notwithstanding the view that the American state was weak in the 19th century, a major part of the explanation for US technological progress and prominence is the way in which the US developed an effective state.

State capacity and the Post Office

We measure state capacity by making use of the fact that during this period one of the most widespread and instrumental federal institutions was the post office, established by the Post Office Act of 1792. By 1816, 69% of the federal civilian workforce were postmasters and by 1841 the figure had grown to 79% (John 1995, p. 4). According to John (1895), “[F]or the vast majority of Americans the postal system was the federal government” (p. 4, italics in original).

The scale and significance of the post office during the 19th century was noted by its contemporary observers as well. In his famous travels through the US, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote, “There is an astonishing circulation of letters and newspapers among these savage woods… I do not think that in the most enlightened districts of France there is an intellectual movement either so rapid or on such a scale as in this wilderness” (de Tocqueville 1969, p. 283). In 1852, the New York Times described the post office as the “mighty arm of the civil government” (John 1995, p. 10). In the spirit of the empirical approach in Acemoglu et al. (2015), we use the number of post offices in a county as a proxy for the general infrastructural power and presence of the state, and argue that it was this state presence – not just good timing, randomness, or external factors – that made 19th century innovation and patenting feasible and desirable.

Using historical records compiled by the US Postmaster General, we determined how many post offices were in each US county for several years between 1804 and 1899.1 As a measure of county-level innovative activity, we use the number of patents granted to inventors living in the county (these data are presented in Akcgit et al. 2013).2 There are several reasons for expecting the number of post offices to impact the number of patent grants. First, post offices facilitated the spread of ideas and knowledge. Second, more prosaically, the presence of a post office made patenting much easier, in part because patent applications could be submitted by mail free of postage (Khan 2005, p. 59). Third, the presence a post office is indicative of – and thus the proxy for – the presence and functionality of the state in the area. This expanded state capacity may have meant greater access to legal services and regulation, or greater security of other forms of property rights, all of which are essential conditions for modern innovative activity.

New results

We find a significant correlation between a history of state presence – using the number of post offices as a proxy – and patenting in US counties. We show that the correlation holds either using a sample of the 935 US counties that had been established by 1830, or using a sample to which counties are added as they were established between 1830 and 1890, ultimately reaching 2,644 in total.3 This relationship is not only statistically significant, but also economically meaningful. Our results suggest that the opening of a post office in a county that did not previously have a post office or patents on average increased the number of patents by 0.18 in the long run.

We subject these results to a series of robustness checks. In addition to county and year fixed effects included in all regressions, we control flexibly for a broad range of initial county characteristics – the fraction of the population that were slaves in 1860, the fraction of the adult population that was literate in 1850, and the values of farm and manufacturing output relative to population in 1850.  Despite the inclusion of these 36 controls, the relationship between post offices and patenting remains highly significant. We also include county-level linear trends to check that differential county-level trends do not explain our results.

One concern with this initial set of results might be that they are confounded by the possibility that post offices were built in counties that already had more patenting activity. Though we cannot fully rule out such reverse causality concerns, we find no statistically or economically significant correlation between patenting and the number of post offices in a county in future years. This suggests that post offices led to patenting and not the other way around. Historical evidence also suggests that post offices were established for a range of idiosyncratic reasons during the 19th century, making it unlikely that reverse causality is driving the association. John (1995) [A8] notes that pressure for the state’s services from certain segments of society “guaranteed that the postal network would expand rapidly into the trans-Appalachian West well in advance of commercial demand” (p. 44-5). In his early history of the US Post Office, Cushing (1893)[A9]  wrote that post offices were often established in US territories before the territories were formally settled:

“The establishment of post offices in Oklahoma and in other regions recently opened has often been in advance of actual settlement. Before Oklahoma counties were named they were called by the Department A, B, C, D, E, etc. … Postmasters were appointed upon recommendations of the delegate from Oklahoma and of Senators Plumb, Paddock, and Manderson” (p. 286).

In this context, it seems improbable that post office construction followed patenting activity.

Taken together – while we do not establish unambiguously that the post office and greater state capacity caused an increase in patenting – our results highlight an intriguing correlation and suggest that the infrastructural capacity of the US state played an important role in sustaining 19th century innovation and technological change. In the current economic climate in which pessimism about US economic growth prospects is common, we present a more optimistic historical narrative in which government policy and institutional design have the power to support technological progress.

*About the authors:
Daron Acemoglu
, Professor of Applied Economics, MIT

Jacob Moscona, PhD candidate in Economics, MIT

James A Robinson, University Professor, University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy

References:
Acemoglu, D. (2009), Introduction to Modern Economic Growth, Princeton University Press

Acemoglu, D., C. Garcia-Jimeno and J. Robinson (2015) “State Capacity and Economic Development”, American Economic Review, 105 (8), 2364-2409

De Tocqueville, A. (1969), Democracy in America, ed. J P Mayer, Garden City, Doubleday & Co.

Gordon, R. J. (2016), The Rise and Fall of American Growth, forthcoming, Princeton University Press.

Endnotes:
[1] The years for which we were able to obtain county-level post office data are 1804, 1811, 1819, 1830, 1837, 1846, 1850, 1855, 1867, 1870, 1879, 1891, and 1899.  For the years before 1879, we used United States Post Office Department publications titled List of the Post Offices in the United States (in some years, the publication was referred to as Table of Post Offices in the United States). In 1874, the federal government began publishing post office information more systematically in a publication titled The United States Postal Guide, which is digitised only for some years. This publication is our source for the years 1879, 1891, and 1899.

[2] We are grateful to Tom Nicholas for sharing these data.

[3] The former results in a balanced panel of counties while the latter is an unbalanced panel in which counties are included in the data only for the years after their establishment.

US, EU Envoys Expected To Revive Macedonia Talks

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By Sinisa Jakov Marusic

Victoria Nuland, the US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, is due in Macedonia on July 11, political sources involved in Macedonia’s crisis talks told BIRN.

Although Nuland’s arrival has not been officially confirmed, sources from the main ruling VMRO DPMNE party and from the opposition Social Democrats, SDSM, briefed that they have been informed of her forthcoming visit.

Nuland’s task would be to boost stalled talks between the four main parties that are now being kept alive by the mediation of the EU and US ambassadors to Macedonia, Aivo Orav and Jess Baily.

“I hope her visit will result in a deal or at least in significant progress on implementing reform priorities before the country can set a fresh date for early elections,” a source close to the talks told BIRN under condition of anonymity.

Reform priorities focus on ensuring balanced media reporting, cleaning up the electoral roll and preventing political influence on voters.

In parallel with Nuland’s visit, or soon after, Macedonia’s political parties also expect the arrival of the special German envoy for Macedonia, Johannes Haindl, who is also expected to help boost talks between the four main parties.

On his last visit to Macedonia, in June, after Macedonia postponed June 5 early elections due to unfulfilled reforms, Haindl said there was a way out of the crisis if the guidelines from last year’s EU-brokered agreement were followed, but warned that time was running out.

Mitko Gadzovski, Political Science Professor at Skopje’s FON University, said he hoped the forthcoming visits will also help strengthen the position of the Special Prosecution, SJO, which was formed last autumn as part of the EU-brokered crisis agreement and tasked with investigating high-level crime.

“One of Nuland’s goals will be to strengthen the SJO through mechanisms agreed between the political parties. One of these mechanisms is the formation of a Special Court Department that would handle the SJO cases,” Gadzovski said.

Since its formation, the SJO has complained of serious obstacles from other institutions, including from the Skopje Criminal Court, which has rejected many of its demands to put suspects under house arrest and has questioned the SJO’s authority to handle cases.

After the SJO started opening cases that mainly concerned alleged criminal activities on the part of current and former state officials from the ruling VMRO DPMNE party, the SJO was accused in the media of working under opposition instructions.

The crisis in Macedonia escalated in February 2015, when the opposition started releasing batches of covertly recorded tapes, which it said showed that the VMRO DPMNE-led government was behind the illegal surveillance of some 20,000 people, including ministers. They said the tapes proved many criminal allegations against government members.

VMRO DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski, who was Prime Minister from 2006 until he resigned earlier this year under the EU-brokered crisis deal, has said the tapes were “fabricated” by unnamed foreign intelligence services and given to the opposition in order to destabilise the country.

Report Examines If Lower Private Equity Returns Are New Normal

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US private equity (PE) firms had their best fund raising year ever – reaching $185 billion in 2015. But is this eagerness to invest in new PE funds warranted? A new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) says no.

CEPR Senior Economist Eileen Appelbaum and Cornell University’s Rosemary Batt report that the typical private equity buyout fund launched since 2006 hasn’t beaten the stock market– according to the most recent evidence.

In the report, “Are Lower Private Equity Returns the New Normal?”, the authors review new research showing that most private equity buyout funds fail to deliver outsized returns to investors, and it’s unlikely they will in the future. That’s because the competitive landscape has changed. Too many PE buyout shops compete against too many large corporations with cash on hand for too few good opportunities, making it difficult to buy out companies and sell them later at higher prices. While the industry claims it has bounced back from the financial crisis, the heydays of the bubble years are unlikely to return.

The industry claims that it continues to reap outsized returns because it relies on a widely discredited performance measure, the “internal rate of return” (IRR). By contrast, most finance economists measure fund performance using a metric known as the “public market equivalent” (PME) – a measure that compares returns from investing in private equity with returns from comparable, and comparably timed, investments in the stock market, as measured by the S&P 500 or other stock market indexes. This measure provides limited partners with more reliable information about two things: how much money they get back at the end of their 10-year investment in a private equity fund relative to their initial investment, and how that compares with the return they would have earned if they had invested in some other asset, such as shares of companies that trade on the stock market.

Rosemary Batt pointed out, “High returns may have served as a compelling reason for employee pension funds and university endowments to invest in private equity funds in the past. But now that PE returns more or less match the market, the negative impacts of many private equity leveraged buyouts on workers and Main Street companies – including lower wages and employment growth and the higher likelihood of financial distress and bankruptcy – should loom larger in the investment decisions of these investors.”

The evidence reviewed in this report is in addition to new evidence that a surprisingly high share of private equity funds charge excessive and possibly fraudulent fees to investors – practices that have come to light via examinations by the Securities and Exchange Commission and are documented in a previously-released CEPR report by Appelbaum and Batt (2016). These two reports are critical for private equity investors to consider.

As Eileen Appelbaum noted, “Pension funds, which are responsible for investing the retirement savings of millions of Americans, as well as other institutional investors continue to pour money into private equity funds despite excessive fees and recent poor performance. They should be more cautious: promises of high returns are likely to be disappointed. The typical PE fund launched since 2006 has yielded returns that just mirror the stock market.”

US Democrat Senators Want To Remove ‘Anti-Gun’ Safety Riders From Appropriations Legislation

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As the US Senate considers Fiscal Year 2017 appropriations legislation, Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and 22 other Democratic Senators are urging Senate leadership to remove from appropriations legislation any anti-gun violence prevention research riders, including a rider that is commonly known as the “Dickey amendment”.

A 1996 Republican appropriations rider authored by former Congressman Jay Dickey, R-Ark., prohibits federal funds from being used to “advocate or promote” gun control. Many have misconstrued the rider as banning federal research into the causes of gun violence, argue the Democrat Senators.

According to the Democrat Senators, Rep. Dickey, R-Ark., has publicly stated that he now supports funding gun violence prevention research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“Only the United States government is in a position to establish an integrated public-health research agenda to understand the causes of gun violence and identify the most effective strategies for prevention,” wrote the Senators in a letter to Senate Leaders Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid. “As the Senate considers FY2017 appropriations bills, we urge you to remove this and any other anti-gun safety policy riders, and to support potentially life-saving funding for gun violence prevention research.”

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