Daniel Lubetzky

A new poll by Dr. Nader Said confirms that Palestinians are disenchanted with those who govern them.  Even though Palestinians are traditionally very loyal to one political faction or another, they are fed up with corruption and destruction and are increasingly favor independent technocrats.  Below are some of the highlights from the poll:

• A vast majority (82 percent) support an immediate PLC election.
• Two thirds of Palestinians support the position of Fayyad Government to hold local election in July.
• 37 percent in the West bank and 27 percent in Gaza feel that corruption is on the increase.
• 57 percent of Gazans view negatively the performance of the Haniyeh Government in improving the economy.
• 51 percent of Gazans negatively evaluate the performance of the Haniyeh Government in respecting personal and civil freedoms; while 38 percent of West Bank respondents feel the same way about the Fayyad Government.
• Gazans are much more critical of the Haniyeh Government than West Bank respondents; while the Fayyad Government receives lower evaluation in the West Bank than in Gaza.
• 73 percent support the appointment of a woman (Dr. Laila Ghannam) as Governor.
• Only 8 percent feel that Mr. Obama is serious about establishing a Palestinian state.
• A PLO list will win over an Islamist one in an upcoming PLC election.
• Abbas, Fayyad, and Mustafa Barghouti win over Haniyeh in an upcoming presidential election.
• Independents will play a decisive role in local and national elections.

…Republicans lead in the wrong direction and Democrats are unable to lead in any direction at all.
- Lincoln Chafee, “Goodbye to All That,” NYTimes, February 20, 2010

It’s no surprise that some food labels are misleading or contain empty health claims. KIND recognizes all this fluff and our way to be transparent and fight the marketing gimmicks is by just truly using simple ingredients you can see and pronounce. A recent report examines food labeling and calls for changes in labeling policies, but with KIND, what you see is what you get.

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The FDA has issued a warning letter to food companies about the importance of accurate nutrition labeling and reprimanded their false or misleading claims.

A recent study by the journal Health Affairs highlights the substantial increase in children’s snacking habits and analyzes the unhealthy snack foods that they tend to consume. That’s why the right kind of snacking – healthy snacking – is so important.

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It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to be kind to others..

-Anonymous

I’ve shared before how technology, media and politics can be (and often are) hijacked by the passionate extremes. In a recent article, Tyler Cowen argues that the “median voter theorem” posits that politicians can’t ultimately stray too far from the mainstream where citizens live.

by Adeena Schlussel on behalf of Daniel Lubetzky

Tom Friedman wrote an interesting article about a period that he sees as a turning point in Islamism.  He tells the story of Islamic Fundamentalism but strikes a hopeful tone.

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A lot has been written on the "Too Big to Fail" problem: the perception that some firms are so large that their failures would lead to systemic failure for the entire economy; the related conclusion that companies in that category should be bailed out to prevent a massive breakdown of the financial system; and the resulting moral hazard problem – that these big firms then can take all the risks in the world knowing there is no downside to them.  A direct result of this problem has been that many Wall Street insiders profited at the expense of American taxpayers when they were bailed out by the US government.

But a no less serious problem is that some of these firms are "too big to lose." They wield so much influence over the economy that they can manipulate the outcome of their trades.  It’s as if the President of the United States could short a particular market and then use his bully pulpit to scare the market to move in his direction.

A case in point is what Goldman did with mortgage securities.  Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times wrote an incisive article about the Goldman conflict with AIG.  In it, she details how Goldman bet against the mortgage market by buying insurance from AIG on certain products that would pay if the underlying mortgage securities went south.  There is nothing wrong with that – so far.  For years, many (including me) also feared that a bubble had formed in real estate.  Goldman’s Jonathan Egol and Ram Sundaram were smart and arguably even visionary to anticipate it and bet against mortgage securities. But the problem is what they did next.  They proceeded to bully A.I.G., other business partners, and even the Federal Government, to pay them at valuations THEY arbitrarily set.  The perception that Goldman bankers are the smartest bankers in the room helped them create the momentum that led to the devaluation from which they benefited. 

Wall Street sharks will go where they smell the blood, and you cannot change that.  It is a necessary feature of a market economy – which is the worst of all economic models, except for all other options, to paraphrase Winston Churchill.

But Paul Volcker’s call to structurally protect against these financial behemoths must be heeded.   In this opinion piece he walks through some of the prescriptions that are necessary, including regulating which risks the different financial institutions can take, separating commercial banks from investment banks by reversing the recent decision to allow them to perform the same function and gamble with their account-holders’ savings, and limiting the leverage these firms can have.

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Not lost in translation!