News Organizations, including foreign ones, are reporting with more and more Frequency on the complicated Situation in Syria.
Below is a rather typical Example from NBC News and Reuters, which appeared on 23 August:
The Headline reads:
More foreign Fighters join rebels in Syria as regional Crisis deepens
The full Article including Photographs and Video can be seen at:
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/23/13431460-report-more-foreign-fighters-join-rebels-in-syria-as-regional-crisis-deepens?lite
What is difficult to understand, in View of this is the Secretary of State's One Dimensional Position regarding the Crisis which is essentially to expel President Assad.
To put it another Way, when resolving a Problem, it is necessary to consider what other Problem will be created as a Result of the Solution.
Recently, former Presidential National Security Adviser Dr. Zbigniew Brzeziński stated the Opinion that it is a prudent and cautious Policy Approach to have in Place what and who will follow, before toppling someone. Recently, a Policy similar to the one in Syria, pursued in Egypt, where President Hosni Mubarak was deposed has resulted in totally unpredictable Results which are still in the Process of unfolding.
The Question, must be emphasized, is not who Mubarak or Assad are or might be but what would follow their Places and to acknowledge the simple Fact that not knowing what will follow can be not only an unpleasant Solution but may lead to totally unpredictable Developments.
It occurs to this Writer that Dr. Brzeziński 's Opinion is one which should be considered and not dismissed out of Hand and the President is giving Weight to the Opinion of others, such as Vice President Biden, Dr. Brzeziński (who unfortunately is not serving in the Administration) as well as others who may be able to formulate something other than the One Dimensional Approach being championed by the Secretary of State.
Reuters reported today, 23 August 2012:
Fed ready to help economy 'fairly soon,' minutes show
By Reuters
The Federal Reserve is likely to deliver another round of monetary stimulus "fairly soon" unless the economy improves considerably, minutes from the central bank's August meeting show.
While the meeting was held before a recent improvement in the economic data, including a stronger-than-expected July reading for U.S. employment, policymakers were pretty categorical about their dissatisfaction with the current outlook.
"Many members judged that additional monetary accommodation would likely be warranted fairly soon unless incoming information pointed to a substantial and sustainable strengthening in the pace of the economic recovery," the Fed said in minutes to its July 31-Aug. 1 meeting.
"We have seen some improvement in the data recently but whether it is enough to qualify as a significant upturn is unclear, but certainly these minutes are dovish and will revive hopes for increased Fed easing," said economist David Sloan at 4Cast Ltd.
Many Fed officials supported extending the central bank's guidance for the likely timing of an eventual interest rate hike, currently set at late 2014, further into the future. But they decided to defer the decision to the Fed's Sept. 12-13 meeting, when the central bank will release a new round of economic forecasts.
Officials also actively debated and tested the possibility of developing a consensus Fed forecast.
A couple of policymakers favored lowering the rate the Fed pays banks to park their excess reserves at the central bank, currently at 0.25 percent. But several participants worried that money market funds could run into trouble if their returns are crimped further.
The Queston which arises out of this planned Action is just how the Financial Institutions are using this Stimulus Money. Is this Money being used to make Loans, create Jobs and build Houses or flowing into enabling Financial Institutions to engage in Financial Transactions which are of little or no Benefit to the General Populace? Previous Rounds of Monetary Stimuli do not reveal a clear Answer to this Question, if they reveal an Answer at all.
An Examination of the Flow Distribution of such Funds might be useful in establishing a Monetary Policy which can genuinely deliver the Economic Stimulus which would have a more favorable and measurable Result than the enormous Amounts of Stimuli already delivered, which have flown into Financial Institutions over the last Five Years and which, many of us, do not know what they were used for or how they benefitted the Economy, outside of propelling the Stock Market into New Highs.
Some have even made the Argument that if the same Amount of Money were to have been evenly distributed to every Man, Woman and Child in the General Populace, either directly, or in the Form of some Benefit(s) or a Combination of these, the Spending of such Money, while, most likely, would not always have been wise but would have nonetheless resulted in such a Level of Spending that it would have undoubtedly achieved at least a temporary beneficial Result; something which has not been achieved by pumping all this enormous Amount of Mega Dollars into Banks and Financial Institutions.
