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<title><![CDATA[RealClearPolitics - Italy]]></title><link>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/topic/i/Italy/</link><description><![CDATA[ Italy ]]></description><category domain="5648">Topic</category><item>
							<title>Obama: "I Consider Myself An Honorary Italian Because I Love All Things Italian"</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/04/17/obama_i_consider_myself_an_honorary_italian_because_i_love_all_things_italian.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/04/17/obama_i_consider_myself_an_honorary_italian_because_i_love_all_things_italian.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[White House <img src="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/images/icon_video9.gif" />]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[700471843]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Videos]]></category>
							<pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2015 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
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							<media:title>293731</media:title><description><![CDATA[PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: As I said before, I'm not lucky enough to have any Italian ancestry that I know of, but -- but I consider myself an honorary Italian, because I love all things Italian, and the United States would not be what we are, or who we are, without the contributions of generations of Italian-Americans.]]></description>
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							<title>Italy on the Brink Once Again</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2013/09/30/italy_on_the_brink_once_again_316752.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/29/italy-berlusconi-on-brink-again-editorial]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[The Guardian]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[100316752]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Entries]]></category>
							<pubDate>Mon, 30 Sep 2013 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
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							<media:title>111655</media:title><description><![CDATA[What goes on in Silvio Berlusconi's mind is a mystery even to Italy's seasoned analysts. It was, above all, in his interests for his party to stay in the fragile coalition government. With the vote coming up in a senate committee on whether Mr Berlusconi should retain his seat in the upper house of parliament, why infuriate President Giorgio Napolitano, who yesterday vowed he would only dissolve parliament as a last resort? Why pull his five ministers out of government, demanding elections "as soon as possible" on Saturday night, only to backtrack on Sunday morning when he saw how much hostility there was to the idea in his own party? After a full night's sleep (the first, he claimed, in 59...]]></description>
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							<title>Why Europe Should Not Worry About Italy</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/03/05/why_europe_should_not_worry_about_italy_117282.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/03/05/why_europe_should_not_worry_about_italy_117282.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[200117282]]></guid>
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							<pubDate>Tue, 05 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Contrary to what many think, the sick man of Europe is Europe itself, not Italy.
While seemingly a threat to EU stability and at the heart of possible contagion, Italy is historically used to navigating through uncertainty, short-lived governments and catastrophic economic forecasts.
Yet, the world continues to wonder where the Belpaese is heading to with a divided center-left, a never ending dawn of Berlusconi&rsquo;s political influence, and with the impressive rise of the protest-driven party of a former comedian.
Undoubtedly, Italy&rsquo;s elections have produced an uncertain political situation, but the world should be aware by now that uncertainty is the norm, not the exception for...]]></description>
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							<title>Italy and the Year of the Lowest Common Denominator</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/02/26/italy_and_the_year_of_the_lowest_common_denominator_117171.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/02/26/italy_and_the_year_of_the_lowest_common_denominator_117171.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[200117171]]></guid>
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							<pubDate>Tue, 26 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate><description><![CDATA[The next Italian government faces a double challenge. It is expected to keep order in public finance, as the other governments of the past 20 years, and to rekindle growth, as none of the past governments has succeeded in doing. Consequently its agenda will have to be gauged on the basis of three main elements: its adherence to the European fiscal compact; its ability to work with the EU institutions to solve the credit crunch underway; its reform plans aimed at helping Italian producers urgently achieve higher productivity and return to the export performances of the past.
In order to endorse and implement this ambitious as well as indispensable agenda, the political framework of the next...]]></description>
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							<title>Obama&#039;s Remarks on the Retirement of Secretary Panetta</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/02/08/obamas_remarks_on_the_retirement_of_secretary_panetta_116980.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/02/08/obamas_remarks_on_the_retirement_of_secretary_panetta_116980.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[200116980]]></guid>
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							<pubDate>Fri, 08 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Fort Myer, Virginia
4:18 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: In the years between the world wars, a young married couple in Italy packed up what few belongings that they had and boarded a boat for a new world. They passed under the Statue of Liberty and went through the lines of Ellis Island.
Carmelo and Carmelina Panetta had no money and spoke little English. But they had a dream of a better life. They worked hard. They went West, to California. They started a family and taught their sons that if they studied and worked, if they gave back to this country, that they, too, could share in America&rsquo;s promise.
Today we pay tribute to their son -- Leon Panetta -- a man who hasn&rsquo;t simply lived up...]]></description>
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							<title>Spinning With Mexico&#039;s New Gendarmes</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/01/09/spinning_with_mexicos_new_gendarmes__116627.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/01/09/spinning_with_mexicos_new_gendarmes__116627.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[200116627]]></guid>
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							<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate><description><![CDATA[During last year's Mexican presidential campaign, then-candidate and now President Enrique Pena Nieto argued that Mexico needed a new, specially trained and heavily armed police force.
This organization, which Pena dubbed the National Gendarmerie, would have the military organization and equipment to win a high-intensity firefight with cartel gunmen. Its personnel would also be trained to police threatened communities, with the goal of reducing criminal violence.
Pena said these gendarme units would eventually relieve the Mexican Army soldiers and Mexican Navy marines of the complex task of battling the drug cartels. The military could then concentrate on national defense.
It appears Mexico...]]></description>
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							<title>Wounded in War, Inouye Just Kept Serving His Country</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/12/19/wounded_in_war_inouye_just_kept_serving_his_country_116462.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/12/19/wounded_in_war_inouye_just_kept_serving_his_country_116462.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[200116462]]></guid>
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							<pubDate>Wed, 19 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate><description><![CDATA[It's not whom you know that counts; it's whom you're thrust beside.
The Class of 1915 at West Point included Omar Bradley, Dwight Eisenhower, two others who became four-star generals, seven who won three stars and 48 who attained the rank of general.
On the same Silver Lake football team at a small regional high school in Massachusetts in the 1970s were Tim Murphy, now the head football coach at Harvard, Buddy Teevens, now the head coach at Dartmouth, and Jeff Hawkins, the director of football operations at Oregon.
Perhaps the all-time champion center of serendipity was an old Battle Creek, Mich., sanitarium presided over by members of the Kellogg family before being converted during World...]]></description>
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							<title>Secretary Panetta&#039;s Remarks at CNAS</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2012/11/20/secretary_panetta039s_remarks_at_cnas_296463.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=5154]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Leon Panetta]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[100296463]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Entries]]></category>
							<pubDate>Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ 	Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  SECRETARY OF DEFENSE LEON E. PANETTA:Â  Thank you very much, Michelle, for that kind introduction.Â Â 	Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  I'm always reminded of my father who, as I say to many people, was an immigrant from Italy with my mother, and came over, and then eventually, you know ran a restaurant in Monterey during the war years.Â  And my earliest recollections were washing glasses in the back of that restaurant.Â  My parents believed that child labor was a requirement.Â 	Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  And then he bought this farm in Carmel Valley, after the war, and planted walnut trees.Â  And...]]></description>
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							<title>Is the First Balkan War Really Over?</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/10/10/is_the_first_balkan_war_really_over_115726.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/10/10/is_the_first_balkan_war_really_over_115726.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[200115726]]></guid>
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							<pubDate>Wed, 10 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Montenegro's Oct. 8, 1912, declaration of war on the Ottoman Turkish Empire and its Oct. 9 attack on neighboring Albania, an Ottoman protectorate, stunned Europe. Montenegro, a military midget, attacking Albania, another poor and backwater Balkan nowhere? Can a tiny statelet like Montenegro spark great havoc?
When the spark strikes a powder keg of ethnic, sectarian and nationalist conflict, the tragic answer is yes. This week marks the 100th anniversary of the start of the First Balkan War (October 1912 to May 1913). It was the second in a series of three wars that led to the great and not quite settled tragedy of World War I, the first being the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-1912. In that...]]></description>
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							<title>Is a Nuclear Deal With Iran Possible?</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/10/09/is_a_nuclear_deal_with_iran_possible_115712.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/10/09/is_a_nuclear_deal_with_iran_possible_115712.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[200115712]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
							<pubDate>Tue, 09 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate><description><![CDATA[In diplomacy, always leave your adversary an honorable avenue of retreat.
Fifty years ago this October, to resolve a Cuban missile crisis that had brought us to the brink of nuclear war, JFK did that.
He conveyed to Nikita Khrushchev, secretly, that if the Soviet Union pulled its nuclear missiles out of Cuba, the United States would soon after pull its Jupiter missiles out of Italy and Turkey.
Is the United States willing to allow Iran an honorable avenue of retreat, if it halts enrichment of uranium to 20 percent and permits intrusive inspections of all its nuclear facilities? Or are U.S. sanctions designed to bring about not a negotiated settlement of the nuclear issue, but regime change,...]]></description>
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							<title>The Best Presidential Debate Performance</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/10/05/the_best_presidential_debate_performance_115673.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/10/05/the_best_presidential_debate_performance_115673.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[200115673]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
							<pubDate>Fri, 05 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate><description><![CDATA[It's impossible to overstate the effect that Mitt Romney's performance in the first presidential debate has had on conservatives and Republicans. The past four years have been a torment as we've watched a committed left-wing activist grease the skids for America's decline into a socialist state. Our TV screens have featured images of violent protests in Greece, Italy and Spain as their socialist paper boats capsize.
Yet the Obama Administration's resolute march into that dead end has proceeded apace. There was a brief bloom of hope that the Supreme Court would save the country from the worst time bomb of the Obama presidency, but a late betrayal by a conservative justice extinguished...]]></description>
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							<title>Italy Mired in a Death Spiral</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2012/06/14/italy_mired_in_a_death_spiral_282379.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/italian-economy-struggling-as-euro-crisis-visits-rome-a-838598.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Hans Jurgen-Schlamp, Der Spiegel]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[100282379]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Entries]]></category>
							<pubDate>Thu, 14 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
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							<media:title>142286</media:title><description><![CDATA[Claudio Pesaro actually had big plans for this year. The 35-year-old Italian, who still lives at home, wanted to buy his own place, marry his girlfriend and have children. But even though he has saved more than a third of the purchase price for a property, he can't find a bank that is willing to lend him the rest. His job is also at risk, as his company is making losses. As a result, he will have to put his plans on ice for now.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;]]></description>
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							<title>Germany to the Rescue?</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/06/11/germany_to_the_rescue_114432.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/06/11/germany_to_the_rescue_114432.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[200114432]]></guid>
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							<pubDate>Mon, 11 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate><description><![CDATA[WASHINGTON -- Can Germany save Europe?
It's tempting to think so, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been cast as Europe's Scrooge dispensing austerity and discouraging recovery. If Germany would only open its wallet, Europe's instability and suffering would shrink. Well, maybe. But this seductive theory may be wishful thinking, overstating Germany's power and understating Europe's problems. The dark truth may be that even a willing Germany can't rescue Europe.
Let's start with facts. Germany's economy is the colossus of the eurozone (the 17 countries using the euro), representing 27 percent of the total. German unemployment, 5.4 percent in April, is half the eurozone's 11 percent...]]></description>
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							<title>Europe&#039;s Grim Choices</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/06/04/europes_grim_choices_114355.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/06/04/europes_grim_choices_114355.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[200114355]]></guid>
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							<pubDate>Mon, 04 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate><description><![CDATA[WASHINGTON -- Europe is at the abyss -- again. Its turmoil is rattling global stock markets and stoking fear and bewilderment. The obvious question is, what's the solution? The answer is, there is no solution. Europe faces choices, some bad and others worse. Unfortunately, it's unclear which are which. The best that can be imagined is that Europe lurches from crisis to crisis and that its slumping economy weakens the already fragile global recovery. The worst is a massive flight from the euro and an economic free fall that resurrects the dark days of 2008 and 2009.
Can anyone doubt that the euro's creation in 1999 was a huge blunder? It aimed to promote European prosperity and unity, but...]]></description>
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							<title>Arab Summer 2012</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/06/01/arab_summer_2012_114357.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/06/01/arab_summer_2012_114357.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
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							<pubDate>Fri, 01 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate><description><![CDATA[WASHINGTON -- The once highly touted Arab Spring has become the Arab Summer -- scorching hot, unbearably dry and very brutal and bloody. Last weekend, as Americans prepared to celebrate Memorial Day and commemorated the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War, Bashar Assad unleashed tanks, artillery and his Quds force-trained shabiha militia to kill more than 100 Syrian civilians -- most of them women and children. Though the atrocities and carnage in Syria continue, little but bluff and bluster is produced by the United Nations and the Obama administration.
In the aftermath of the May 25 massacre, 11 nations -- the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Canada, France,...]]></description>
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							<title>Obama Pursues Higher Tax Rates, Growth Be Damned</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/05/21/obama_pursues_higher_tax_rates_growth_be_damned_114211.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/05/21/obama_pursues_higher_tax_rates_growth_be_damned_114211.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
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							<pubDate>Mon, 21 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate><description><![CDATA[In the run-up to this weekend's G-8 summit at Camp David, journalists have unfavorably compared European "austerity" with Barack Obama's economic policies.
European spending cuts, the argument goes, have hurt people and are arousing political opposition, while Obama's proposals to keep federal spending at 24 percent of gross domestic product indefinitely are likely to succeed.
Evil Republican spending cuts, in contrast, would deny the economy needed stimulus and wreak havoc on ordinary people.
But the facts undermine the storyline. Veronique de Rugy of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University took a look at what "austerity" in Europe actually means.
What she found is that government...]]></description>
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							<title>The Continent&#039;s Moral Hazard</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/05/18/the_continents_moral_hazard_114194.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/05/18/the_continents_moral_hazard_114194.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
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							<pubDate>Fri, 18 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate><description><![CDATA[WASHINGTON - Europe's economic struggles are a consistent drag on American growth. A eurozone breakup, in chaos and acrimony, could be a Lehman-like shock of incalculable damage.
For years, the stronger European economies have managed to bump along from challenge to challenge -- providing bailouts to the improvident in exchange for fiscal restraint and reform, while reassuring credit markets in an elaborate confidence game. But the fundamental problem has never been resolved. Europe is a monetary union without being a fiscal union. Germany has become the continent's rich uncle, vouching for the credit and covering the debts of distant relations without authority over their spending...]]></description>
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							<title>Four More Years -- of This?</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/01/06/four_more_years_--_of_this_112666.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/01/06/four_more_years_--_of_this_112666.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
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							<pubDate>Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate><description><![CDATA[In what The Washington Post called "a bold act of political defiance," President Obama Wednesday announced the recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Cordray's nomination had been blocked by a Senate filibuster. There was no way he was going to win approval in 2012.
Enraged Republicans denounced the appointment as an affront and a usurpation of power, for the Senate had not formally gone into recess.
The White House airily dismissed the Republican rage, saying no Senate business is being conducted during the Christmas-New Year break, and to argue that the Senate is still in session is a sham.
Obama seemed to delight in his Trumanesque...]]></description>
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							<title>Newt Gingrich Should Own Up to His Mistakes</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/01/05/newt_gingrich_should_own_up_to_his_mistakes_112650.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/01/05/newt_gingrich_should_own_up_to_his_mistakes_112650.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[200112650]]></guid>
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							<pubDate>Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate><description><![CDATA[As the results of the Iowa caucuses dribbled in, Americans got to see how the GOP candidates greeted victory and defeat. Top vote-getter Mitt Romney was gracious toward Rick Santorum, who came in second by eight thin votes, but uninspiring as he pledged to get America back to work. Santorum pronounced, "Game on," and then he hailed his Italian grandfather's decision to leave Italy to dig coal if that's what it took to bring his family to the United States.
Ron Paul, who came in third, saluted the work of his enthusiastic volunteers and credited his success to his role as a keeper of the flame of limited federal government. Fifth-place finisher Rick Perry told his supporters he would return...]]></description>
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							<title>Bye-Bye Keynes?</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/12/19/bye-bye_keynes__112448.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/12/19/bye-bye_keynes__112448.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[200112448]]></guid>
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							<pubDate>Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate><description><![CDATA["Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist."-- John Maynard Keynes, 1936
WASHINGTON -- The eclipse of Keynesian economics proceeds. When Keynes wrote "The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money" in the mid-1930s, governments in most wealthy nations were relatively small and their debts modest. Deficit spending and pump priming were plausible responses to economic slumps. Now, huge governments are often saddled with massive debts. Standard Keynesian remedies for downturns -- spend more and tax less -- presume the willingness of bond markets to finance the resulting deficits at...]]></description>
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							<title>Remember Pearl Harbor?</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/12/09/remember_pearl_harbor_112333.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/12/09/remember_pearl_harbor_112333.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[200112333]]></guid>
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							<pubDate>Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate><description><![CDATA[MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. -- Seventy years ago this week, Japanese Cmdr. Mitsuo Fuchida led an airborne strike force of 49 "Kate" bombers, 40 torpedo bombers, 51 "Val" dive bombers and 43 "Zeke" fighters on the first wave of an attack on Pearl Harbor and plunged America into World War II. At 9:45 that terrible Sunday morning, a second wave of 167 attack aircraft added to the devastation. By the time the surprise attack was over, 3,581 Americans were dead or wounded; the largest naval anchorage in the Pacific was littered with sunken and burning U.S. warships; the best dry dock and ship repair facilities west of California were in shambles; and less than 25 percent of U.S. military...]]></description>
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							<title>The Shattering of Europe</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/12/02/the_shattering_of_europe_112255.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/12/02/the_shattering_of_europe_112255.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[200112255]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
							<pubDate>Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate><description><![CDATA[WASHINGTON -- It is said in Europe that only one politician now stands between President Obama and re-election: Angela Merkel. This may overstate Obama's electoral strength, but it appropriately recognizes the German chancellor's current influence. The health of the world economy, including our own, increasingly depends on the vision and decisiveness of a cautious German leader.
The previous, incremental measures taken by European governments have only delayed their debt reckoning. The stability fund created earlier this year was large enough to bail out Greece but too small to reassure bond investors about the future solvency of Spain and Italy. So the economic contagion has spread from...]]></description>
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							<title>Will Anyone Rescue Europe?</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/11/16/will_anyone_rescue_europe_112086.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/11/16/will_anyone_rescue_europe_112086.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[200112086]]></guid>
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							<pubDate>Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate><description><![CDATA[WASHINGTON -- Amid Europe's economic turmoil, a question nags: Where is the IMF? Created in 1945 -- and reflecting the breakdown of global cooperation in the Great Depression -- the International Monetary Fund was intended to prevent a few countries' problems from dragging down the entire world economy. Countries that got in trouble would borrow temporarily from the IMF. Under IMF supervision, they would adjust their economies gradually so that they wouldn't destabilize the entire system. Well, that's exactly the danger now posed by Europe.
It's tempting to think that new governments in Rome and Athens will resolve Europe's deepening economic crisis. Perhaps they will, but the odds against...]]></description>
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							<title>Addio, Silvio</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2011/11/10/addio_silvio_267104.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.economist.com/node/21538180]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[The Economist]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[100267104]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Entries]]></category>
							<pubDate>Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate>
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							<media:title>110860</media:title><description><![CDATA[AS IN many an opera, the wounded hero took an unconscionable time to die. But on November 8th Silvio Berlusconi, who had been haemorrhaging support for months, went to see Italy&rsquo;s president, Giorgio Napolitano, and promised to resign. The final knife-thrust was the loss of his majority in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of parliament, in a crucial vote on the re-submitted 2010 public accounts. Even if elections are held soon, Mr Berlusconi says he will not be running. He now feels &ldquo;liberated&rdquo;.So does Italy. Mr Berlusconi has governed it for eight and a half of the past ten years, and has probably done more to mould it in his image than anyone since the...]]></description>
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							<title>Italy Is Up Next, and It Can&#039;t Be Bailed Out</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2011/11/10/italy_is_up_next_and_it_can039t_be_bailed_out_267097.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/9/italy-on-the-brink/]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Nita Ghei, Washington Times]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[100267097]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Entries]]></category>
							<pubDate>Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate>
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							<media:title>111153</media:title><description><![CDATA[The next domino is about to fall in the European debt crisis, and it&rsquo;s the biggest yet. Greece, Portugal and Ireland have already received bailouts from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). There&rsquo;s no pot of rescue money big enough to save the European Union&rsquo;s third-largest economy, Italy.The Mediterranean nation&rsquo;s borrowing costs have soared close to the levels that brought down crisis-convulsed Greece. No surprise then that Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi lost his parliamentary majority and faced calls for his resignation. The long-surviving &ldquo;Il Cavaliere&rdquo; has clung to power through allegations of tax fraud, soliciting...]]></description>
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							<title>Euro Fears Spread to Italy as Debt Crisis Deepens</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2011/11/10/euro_fears_spread_to_italy_as_debt_crisis_deepens_267074.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/10/world/europe/euro-fears-spread-to-italy-in-a-widening-debt-crisis.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Steven Erlanger, NYT]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[100267074]]></guid>
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							<pubDate>Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate>
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							<media:title>85252</media:title><description><![CDATA[Since the start of the euro crisis two years ago, the big fear has been contagion, that market unease about the high debt and slow growth in Europe&rsquo;s southern rim would infect the core. On Wednesday, contagion arrived with brute force.Italy, a central member of the euro zone and its third-largest economy, struggled to find a new government as anxious investors drove Italian bond rates well above 7 percent and the markets tumbled worldwide. And although critics have warned of just such an escalation for months, European leaders again were caught without a convincing response.]]></description>
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							<title>Berlusconi Goes, But Italy&#039;s Problems Remain</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2011/11/09/berlusconi_goes_but_italy039s_problems_remain_267030.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/8877146/Berlusconi-goes-but-Italys-problems-remain.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[The Telegraph]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[100267030]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Entries]]></category>
							<pubDate>Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate>
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							<media:title>110972</media:title><description><![CDATA[At the G20 summit in Cannes last week, such was Silvio Berlusconi&rsquo;s lack of interest in talks on how to stop Italy becoming the next victim of the eurozone crisis that he fell asleep and had to be nudged back to consciousness by his officials. The episode was somehow symbolic of the absence of political leadership at the helm of the eurozone&rsquo;s third largest economy as it heads, apparently helplessly, towards calamitous shipwreck.Among other eurozone leaders, there is a widespread assumption, shared to some extent by the financial markets, that Berlusconi is the very personification of the Italian problem &ndash; that the sooner he is gone, the sooner the necessary fiscal and...]]></description>
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							<title>The Michigan Republican Presidential Debate</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/11/09/the_michigan_republican_presidential_debate_112021.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/11/09/the_michigan_republican_presidential_debate_112021.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[200112021]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
							<pubDate>Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Oakland University
Rochester, Michigan
BARTIROMO: And good evening, everyone. I'm Maria Bartiromo.
HARWOOD: I'm John Hardwood.
And welcome to CNBC's Republican Presidential Debate.
(APPLAUSE)
CNBC's "Your Money, Your Vote: The Republican Presidential Debate" Live from Oakland University in Rochester, MI ...
BARTIROMO: Tonight, we are here in the great state of Michigan for a debate that will focus almost exclusively on the economy and how to fix the financial problems of our country.
On the stage tonight from left to right: Senator Rick Santorum.
(APPLAUSE)
BARTIROMO: Congresswoman Michele Bachmann.
(APPLAUSE)
BARTIROMO: Speaker Newt Gingrich.
(APPLAUSE)
BARTIROMO: Governor Mitt...]]></description>
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							<title>For Europe, the Focus of Fear Moves to Italy</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2011/11/07/for_europe_the_focus_of_fear_moves_to_italy_266852.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/07/business/in-europe-anxious-market-shifts-focus-to-italy.html?ref=todayspaper]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Graham Bowley, NY Times]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[100266852]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Entries]]></category>
							<pubDate>Mon, 07 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate>
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							<media:title>110617</media:title><description><![CDATA[European efforts to solve a growing sovereign debt crisis have failed to quell market unease on the Continent, and the skepticism over Greece points to continued volatility this week.Among fresh warning signs, Italy&rsquo;s cost of borrowing has jumped to the highest rate since the country adopted the euro. Others signs include pressures building in the plumbing of Europe&rsquo;s banking system. While those pressures are not yet at the levels experienced during the 2008 financial crisis, when some markets in the United States froze altogether, they are high enough to cause worry, analysts say.]]></description>
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							<title>Berlusconi Burlesque</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2011/11/05/berlusconi_burlesque_266804.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.economist.com/blogs/charlemagne/2011/11/italy-under-imf-supervision]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[The Economist]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[100266804]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Entries]]></category>
							<pubDate>Sat, 05 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
							<media:content url="http://images.rcw.realclearpolitics.com/110274_1_.jpg" type="image/jpeg" height="100" width="100" />
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							<media:title>110274</media:title><description><![CDATA[FIRST Greece. Next Italy? Troubled euro-zone countries get bail-out money with conditions and strict monitoring by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But at the G20 summit that concluded in Cannes today, the troubled euro zone got no more money (more on this in my next post), and Italy was placed under IMF monitoring.Though yields on its bonds have soared alarmingly, Italy has not had to seek a bail-out (not yet anyway). And in an attempt to ensure it does not succumb, bringing down the euro with it, it has been placed under a special preventive regime&mdash;placed on probation to ensure it implements the many promises it made to carry out reforms designed to promote growth and balance...]]></description>
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							<title>Greece Is a Problem, Italy Could Be a Catastrophe</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2011/11/04/greece_is_a_problem_italy_could_be_a_catastrophe_266742.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,795900,00.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Der Spiegel]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[100266742]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Entries]]></category>
							<pubDate>Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
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							<media:title>110308</media:title><description><![CDATA[It was a telling tidbit of news. This week, the French bank BNP Paribas announced that it had slashed its holdings of euro-zone government bonds, including &euro;2.62 billion worth of Greek debt.&nbsp;&nbsp;But it wasn't just bonds from Athens that the bank dumped. BNP Paribas also indicated that it had drastically reduced its holdings of Italian debt. In the three months prior to the end of October, the bank sold off &euro;8.3 billion worth of bonds issued by Rome, reducing its exposure by 40 percent.]]></description>
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							<title>&quot;Arrivederci, Roma&quot;</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/11/04/arrivederci_roma_111944.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/11/04/arrivederci_roma_111944.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[200111944]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
							<pubDate>Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Will popular democracy bring down the New World Order?
A fair question. For Western peoples are growing increasingly reluctant to accept the sacrifices that the elites are imposing upon them to preserve that New World Order.
Political support for TARP, to rescue the financial system after the Lehman Brothers collapse, is being held against any Republican candidate who backed it. Germans and Northern Europeans are balking at any more bailouts of Club Med deadbeats.
Eighty-one members of David Cameron's party voted against him to demand a referendum on whether Britain should leave the European Union altogether, the worst Tory revolt ever against the EU.
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou...]]></description>
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							<title>Sideshow and Sabotage</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/11/04/sideshow_and_sabotage_111945.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/11/04/sideshow_and_sabotage_111945.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[200111945]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
							<pubDate>Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate><description><![CDATA[WASHINGTON -- Our head of state is now in Cannes, France, at the G-20 summit, gallivanting with elites from the planet's most powerful economies. For the first time since his 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama isn't the center of attention. The stars of this week's party on the French Riviera are German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy -- architects of a "bailout plan" to save the European Union's artificial euro currency and keep the PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain) from going bankrupt. It's all a sideshow, designed to convince us that governments can continue to binge on social programs without consequences.
Greek Prime Minister George...]]></description>
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							<title>A Spotlight Now Shines on Italy</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2011/10/30/a_spotlight_now_shines_on_italy_266390.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/29/business/the-spotlight-now-shines-on-italy-common-sense.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[James Stewart, New York Times]]></author>
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							<pubDate>Sun, 30 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
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							<media:title>109488</media:title><description><![CDATA[It finally dawned on me this week that the value of my retirement account might depend on Silvio Berlusconi.You know Mr. Berlusconi. He is the billionaire prime minister of Italy who not only owns much of the Italian media but also provides them with ample material through his escapades. By his count, Mr. Berlusconi has survived 577 police interrogations and 2,500 court appearances related to innumerable legal and political scandals, not to mention enough suspected sexual adventures to top Hugh Hefner.]]></description>
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							<title>Is America Disintegrating?</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/10/21/is_america_disintegrating_111767.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/10/21/is_america_disintegrating_111767.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[200111767]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
							<pubDate>Fri, 21 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate><description><![CDATA[In Federalist 2, John Jay looks out at a nation of a common blood, faith, language, history, customs and culture.
"Providence," he writes, "has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people -- a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion ... very similar in their manners and customs ..."
Are we still that "one united people" today? Or has America become what Klemens von Metternich called Italy: "a mere geographical expression"?
In "Suicide of a Superpower," out this week, I argue that the America we grew up in is disintegrating, breaking apart along the fault lines of politics, race, ethnicity, culture and faith;...]]></description>
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							<title>Can a Geriatric Germany Save Europe?</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/09/30/can_a_geriatric_germany_save_europe_111526.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/09/30/can_a_geriatric_germany_save_europe_111526.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[200111526]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
							<pubDate>Fri, 30 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate><description><![CDATA[As Greece lurches on the precipice of default on its sovereign debt, a default that could bring down banks across Europe and precipitate a global financial panic, a consensus is building that there is but one way out.
First, a structured default on the Greek debt, giving creditors a major haircut, but compensating them with eurobonds of half the face value of the Greek bonds, guaranteed by the European Central Bank.
Second, a huge new European Financial Stabilization Facility of trillions of euros to recapitalize stricken banks and buy up the sovereign debt of Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Spain, should private investors flee their bonds.
Such a solution, however, depends upon Germany, the...]]></description>
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							<title>Repeating Mistakes of the 1930s?</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/09/26/repeating_mistakes_of_the_1930s_111465.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/09/26/repeating_mistakes_of_the_1930s_111465.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[200111465]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
							<pubDate>Mon, 26 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate><description><![CDATA[WASHINGTON -- "We are back in a danger zone," says a top economist at the International Monetary Fund. Though an understatement, it captures the central paradox of this year's annual meeting of the IMF and World Bank. Everyone is alarmed at the swift deterioration of the economic outlook, but there is no leadership -- no consensus on what to do or, even when crude agreement exists, little conviction that practical politics will permit action. There is a hazardous vacuum of ideas and power.
Actually, what needs to be done is not obscure. Europe is now the flash point of global concern. Most of its major countries are heavily indebted. The economy has slowed to a crawl; the latest IMF...]]></description>
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							<title>Italy Flashes Red Warning Signals</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2011/07/14/italy_flashes_red_warning_signals_259330.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8636155/Italy-money-supply-plunge-flashes-red-warning-signals.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[100259330]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Entries]]></category>
							<pubDate>Thu, 14 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
							<media:content url="http://images.rcp.realclearpolitics.com/93829_1_.jpg" type="image/jpeg" height="100" width="100" />
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							<media:title>93829</media:title><description><![CDATA["Real M1 deposits in Italy have fallen at an annual rate of 7pc over the    last six months, faster than during the build-up to the great recession in    2008," said Simon Ward from Henderson Global Investors.Such a dramatic contraction of M1 cash and overnight deposits typically    heralds a slump six to 12 months later. Italy's economy is already    vulnerable &ndash; industrial output fell 0.6pc in May, and the forward looking    PMI surveys have dropped below the recession line.]]></description>
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							<title>Is the Italian Domino Falling?</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2011/07/13/is_the_italian_domino_falling_259242.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/07/euro-in-crisis-is-the-italian-domino-falling/241760/]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Megan McArdle, The Atlantic]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[100259242]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Entries]]></category>
							<pubDate>Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
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							<media:title>93829</media:title><description><![CDATA[There have been some rumbles about Italy  for a while. &nbsp;Italy's budget deficits are relatively modest compared to,  say, Ireland, but their debt is about 120% of GDP. &nbsp;The government has  passed a plan that will balance the budget by 2014, but as with most  such plans, most of the cutting comes later, while the current cuts are  small. &nbsp;This may well be sensible fiscal policy, given the current  economic climate, but it is not reassuring to the markets. &nbsp;Mike Shedlock  estimates that Italy needs to borrow about&nbsp;&euro;356 billion ($500 billion)  in 2011 to cover its deficit, and roll over outstanding debt. &nbsp;Their  10-years are now trading at something north of...]]></description>
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							<title>Israel in a Post-American Era</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/05/20/israel_in_a_post-american_era_109922.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/05/20/israel_in_a_post-american_era_109922.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[200109922]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
							<pubDate>Fri, 20 May 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate><description><![CDATA[In 1918, the United States proved militarily decisive in the defeat of the Kaiser's Germany and emerged as first power on earth.
World War II, ending in 1945, produced two truly victorious nations, the Soviet Union of Joseph Stalin and the America of Harry Truman.
Out of the Cold War that lasted from Truman to the disintegration of the Soviet Empire and breakup of the Soviet Union at the end of Ronald Reagan's term came a lone victor: the last superpower, the United States.
Who emerged triumphant from the post-Cold War era, 1991-2011?
Indisputably, it is China, whose 10-12 percent annual growth vaulted her past Italy, France, Britain, Germany and Japan to become the world's second largest...]]></description>
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							<title>Make 70 the New 65</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/04/13/make_70_the_new_65_109534.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/04/13/make_70_the_new_65_109534.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[200109534]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
							<pubDate>Wed, 13 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate><description><![CDATA[It's time for a 21st-century retirement age. __If 40 is the new 20 and 50 is the new 30, why shouldn't 70 be the new 65? The last time Washington politicians tinkered ever so gingerly with the government-sanctioned retirement age, Ronald Reagan was in office and Generation X-ers were all in diapers. Since then, American life expectancy has increased by half a decade and continues to rise -- while the "traditional" retirement age (established eight decades ago) has only recently begun phasing up to 67 and the official "early" retirement age (established four decades ago) remains stuck at 62. There is simply no good reason 21st-century workers should operate under obsolete 1930s-era...]]></description>
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							<title>How to Save Europe</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2010/12/18/how_to_save_europe_247565.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.slate.com/id/2278459/]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Nouriel Roubini, Slate]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[100247565]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Entries]]></category>
							<pubDate>Sat, 18 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate>
							<media:content url="http://images.rcp.realclearpolitics.com/63177_1_.jpg" type="image/jpeg" height="100" width="100" />
							<media:thumbnail url="http://images.rcp.realclearpolitics.com/63177_3_.jpg" height="100" width="100" />
							<media:title>63177</media:title><description><![CDATA[After the Greek and Irish crises and the spread of financial contagion to Portugal, Spain, and possibly even Italy, the eurozone is now in a serious crisis. There are three possible scenarios: muddle through, based on the current approach of "lend and pray"; breakup, with disorderly debt restructurings and possible exit of weaker members; and greater integration, implying some form of fiscal union.The muddle-through scenario"&rdquo;with financing provided to member states in distress (conditional on fiscal adjustment and structural reforms), in the hope that they are illiquid but solvent"&rdquo;is an unstable disequilibrium. Indeed, it could lead to the disorderly breakup scenario if...]]></description>
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							<title>Italy&#039;s Great Survivor Clings to Power</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2010/12/16/italy039s_great_survivor_clings_to_power_247453.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e3f8b606-0881-11e0-80d9-00144feabdc0.html#axzz18Gwaul6k]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Financial Times]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[100247453]]></guid>
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							<pubDate>Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate><description><![CDATA[]]></description>
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							<title>The World Cup</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/06/16/the_world_cup_105975.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/06/16/the_world_cup_105975.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[200105975]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
							<pubDate>Wed, 16 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate><description><![CDATA[WASHINGTON -- The World Cup kicked off in Johannesburg last week, and once again the connection between politics and soccer has tongues wagging.
There is some exaggeration about the effect of triumph and failure on governments. Brazil's stunning loss to Uruguay in the 1950 final held in Rio de Janeiro did not harm President Gaspar Dutra. The victory some months later by his successor, Getulio Vargas, was unrelated to the soccer debacle. The fact that Italy won the 1982 World Cup held in Spain did not help Prime Minister Giovanni Spadolini, the first non-Christian Democrat of the postwar era, whose party was expelled from power soon after the national team's triumph.
More than any other...]]></description>
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							<title>The Disconnect Behind Europe&#039;s Crisis</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/05/27/the_disconnect_behind_europes_crisis_105750.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/05/27/the_disconnect_behind_europes_crisis_105750.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Array]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[200105750]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
							<pubDate>Thu, 27 May 2010 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate><description><![CDATA[WASHINGTON -- A month ago, many Americans were undoubtedly wondering why they should care about the debt burdens of faraway European nations such as Greece, Spain and Portugal. Now, with U.S. financial markets joining the rest of the world in getting pounded, we have our answer.  It's always a bit of a mystery why fear turns into panic, or why the galloping of a few horses produces a stampede. Europeans and Asians must have asked similar questions about cause and effect two years ago, as they watched a relatively small category of U.S. lending -- subprime mortgage loans -- produce a hysterical bank run on Wall Street that sucked liquidity out of the global financial system.
Once again,...]]></description>
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							<title>Interview with Secretary Gates: Part Two</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/02/09/interview_greta_secretary_gates_part_two_100250.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/02/09/interview_greta_secretary_gates_part_two_100250.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[On the Record]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[100229270]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Entries]]></category>
							<pubDate>Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate><description><![CDATA[GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Now part two of your interview with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in Rome, Italy. Secretary Gates gives you the inside story on working with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) Receive news alertsVAN SUSTEREN: In terms of dealing with all these worldly problems, they're obviously political problems and military problems, how do you work with the State Department on all these? Historically the State Department and Defense Department have been a little at odds.ROBERT GATES, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: I would say that's an understatement.(LAUGHTER)VAN SUSTEREN: I didn't know how to say it politely. You got the big budget, though, compared to...]]></description>
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							<title>Interview with Secretary Robert Gates</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/02/08/interview_with_secretary_robert_gates_100234.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/02/08/interview_with_secretary_robert_gates_100234.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[On the Record]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[100229209]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Entries]]></category>
							<pubDate>Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate><description><![CDATA[GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: First, something you will not see anywhere else. "On the Record" went to Rome, Italy, where Secretary of Defense Robert Gates went "On the Record." First stop, Iran. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)VAN SUSTEREN: Things in -- coming out of Germany about Iran, Iran saying -- the Iranian foreign minister saying that they were close to an agreement with the IAEA about nuclear enrichment. And I noticed that you responded to that. Receive news alertsROBERT GATES, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Well, and apparently, Ahmadinejad, President Ahmadinejad, has since responded to that, saying that he was apparently going to go ahead and enrich, as opposed to the IAEA proposal for the Tehran...]]></description>
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							<title>Secretary Clinton&#039;s Speech at Afghanistan Conference</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/01/28/secretary_clinton_speech_at_afghanistan_conference_100084.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/01/28/secretary_clinton_speech_at_afghanistan_conference_100084.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[100228561]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Entries]]></category>
							<pubDate>Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate><description><![CDATA[London, United KingdomSECRETARY CLINTON: Well, good afternoon, everyone. I think we have just wrapped up a very productive conference and we have seen the results of cooperation in the international community on a number of very important issues. I want to thank Prime Minister Brown and Foreign Secretary Miliband, the Government of Afghanistan, and the United Nations for bringing us all together and sponsoring this important meeting. Receive news alertsAnd I think that what we have seen is a global challenge that is being met with a global response. I especially thank the countries that have committed additional troops, leading with our host country, the United Kingdom, but including Italy,...]]></description>
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							<title>Battered Berlusconi</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2009/12/14/battered_berlusconi_226225.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15105747&source=features_box1]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[The Economist]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[100226225]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Entries]]></category>
							<pubDate>Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Welcome  
  





	
    
 		  
 		
			
		
	

      
     

     
   
 
 

      
      
      
    
  
    
      
    
    
      
            
      
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	Which...]]></description>
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							<title>The Wrong War in the Wrong Place</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2009/09/27/the_wrong_war_in_the_wrong_place_221928.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/27/INSI19QT7F.DTL]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Joel Brinkley, San Francisco Chronicle]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[100221928]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Entries]]></category>
							<pubDate>Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate><description><![CDATA[FBI agents in New York arrested Najibullah Zazi and his father on charges of planning a terror attack in the United States using sophisticated homemade bombs. The agents argued that the case was important because it showed terrorists wandering freely in the United States as they made their plans, just as the Sept. 11 hijackers had. But that overlooks the most frightening feature of this escapade. The defendants, investigators said, received extensive instruction in bomb making and terrorist strategies from al Qaeda - at a training camp in the tribal areas of Pakistan. Yet all the debate today is about Afghanistan.Washington is locked in intensifying arguments over the military's request for...]]></description>
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							<title>Warming Hysteria Road to Economic Ruin</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2009/07/12/warming_hysteria_road_to_economic_ruin_217566.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/5804831/Climate-change-The-sun-and-the-oceans-do-not-lie.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Christopher Booker, Telegraph]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[100217566]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Entries]]></category>
							<pubDate>Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Accessibility linksDigital Publisher of the YearSign in or registerSunday 12 July 2009
						| Christopher Booker feed
					

				| All feeds

			
		By Christopher Booker 
			
		Published: 6:10PM BST 11 Jul 2009 Comments 124
			
				| 	Comment on this article
The moves now being made by the world's political establishment to lock us 
  into December's Copenhagen treaty to halt global warming are as alarming as 
  anything that has happened in our lifetimes. Last week in Italy, the various 
  branches of our emerging world government, G8 and G20, agreed in principle 
  that the world must by 2050 cut its CO2 emissions in half. Britain and the 
  US are already committed to cutting their use...]]></description>
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							<title>Iran&#039;s Nuke Program Hums While World Stews</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2009/07/10/iran039s_nuke_program_hums_while_world_stews_217493.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.suntimes.com/news/huntley/1659982,CST-EDT-HUNT10.article]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Steve Huntley, Chicago ST]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[100217493]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Entries]]></category>
							<pubDate>Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate><description><![CDATA[The G-8 nations are turning up the heat on Iran. While two weeks ago the Group  of 8 industrial nations said they were "concerned" about Tehran's nuclear program, they declared Wednesday at their summit in Italy that now they are "seriously concerned" about Iran's atomic weapon ambitions.Not "seriously concerned" enough to lay down tough sanctions. But "seriously concerned" enough to agree "to take stock of the situation" in Iran at a United Nations meeting in September. OK, I'm too sarcastic. Diplomacy by its nature moves slowly and cautiously. No doubt the G-8 leaders want to halt Iran's weapons drive. That program, say several sources, now alarms even Russia, but, by all accounts, Moscow...]]></description>
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							<title>A New Take on Kyoto</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2009/07/07/a_new_take_on_kyoto_217295.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/07/kyoto-carbon-emissions-obama-g8]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Oliver Tickell, Guardian]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[100217295]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Entries]]></category>
							<pubDate>Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate><description><![CDATA[President Obama is facing a problem at this week's G8 meeting in L'Aquila, Italy. Having promised serious action on climate change, the legacy of GW Bush's inaction will be hard for him to overcome.]]></description>
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							<title>Obama Hopes to Push Through G8 Climate Deal</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2009/07/06/obama_hopes_to_push_through_g8_climate_deal_217222.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/03/obama-g8-climate-change]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[Patrick Wintour, Guardian]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[100217222]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Entries]]></category>
							<pubDate>Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Barack Obama is hoping to restore momentum to the search for a global deal on climate change this year when he chairs a meeting of the major economies next week during the G8 summit in Italy.]]></description>
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							<title>Pres. Obama and PM Berlusconi Take Questions</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/06/15/transcript_obama_berlusconi_june_2009_97019.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/06/15/transcript_obama_berlusconi_june_2009_97019.html]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[The White House]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[100216055]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Entries]]></category>
							<pubDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate><description><![CDATA[5:48 P.M. EDTPRESIDENT OBAMA:  Good evening, everybody.  Buona sera.  I want to welcome Prime Minister Berlusconi here.  He has proved to be a great friend of the United States.  And he and I got to know each other at the G20 summit.  We are now in the process of planning the G8 summit that Italy will be hosting.  We emphasized the strong, historic ties between the United States and Italy.  Our bilateral relationship has been marked by cooperation across the board.  And I am extremely grateful for his friendship.Just a couple of things that we specifically discussed.  First of all, I thanked the Prime Minister for his support of our policy of closing Guantanamo.  This is not just talk. ...]]></description>
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							<title>Geithner Defends Stimulus at Group of 8 Meeting</title>
							<link><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2009/06/14/geithner_defends_stimulus_at_group_of_8_meeting_215895.html]]></link>
							<originalLink><![CDATA[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/business/global/14g8.html?_r=1&ref=politics]]></originalLink>
							<author><![CDATA[New York Times]]></author>
							<guid><![CDATA[100215895]]></guid>
							<category><![CDATA[Entries]]></category>
							<pubDate>Sun, 14 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Despite growing signs that the world economy is stabilizing, it is still too early to begin scaling  back government efforts to support the global financial system, Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, said Saturday after a meeting of the Group of 8 finance ministers in Italy.&#8220;Where we have seen improvements, they are the result of the unprecedented scope and intensity of policy actions to support demand and financial repair,&#8221; Mr. Geithner said in a statement. &#8220;These early signs of improvement are encouraging, but the global economy is still operating well below potential, and we still face acute challenges.&#8221;Talk is already turning to what economists are...]]></description>
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