Financial Crisis and Geopolitics

The United States reached agreement Tuesday with Russia, China and other major powers on a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that would modestly expand and stiffen sanctions on Iran for its failure to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

China and India stand to lose a lot from reducing their trade with Iran, so the Americans will find it difficult to preserve these giants' commitment to sanctions.

Earlier on Tuesday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the nuclear fuel swap with Iran was a "positive step" and it was waiting for Tehran to provide full written details, as China and Lebanon also voiced their support for the new deal.

Before making a commitment to indefinite recession and slow recovery, Greece may want to consider the alternatives

No curto espaço de uma semana, o Brasil viu-se como protagonista em duas questões centrais para a humanidade. Primeiramente quando Lula é condecorado pela ONU com a medalha pelos esforços no combate à fome, fato que a mídia comercial escondeu, para espanto geral. Segundo porque neste final de semana o presidente do Brasil, após conseguir o apoio da Rússia para suas gestões, desembarca em um Irã ameaçado levando uma mensagem clara ao mundo: os problemas devem ser resolvidos pelo diálogo não por sanções, muito menos pela guerra, que, comprovadamente, veja-se hoje o Iraque e o Afeganistão, só trazem solução para o caixa da indústria bélica, a principal economia dos EUA.

O Brasil soube buscar aliados - Rússia, China, Turquia, França - para abrir um espaço de negociação política, que se revelou possível e correto. A posição brasileira de que os EUA - e outras potências - possuindo imensos arsenais nucleares, não tinham moral para buscar acordos que limitem a disseminação de armamento nuclear, abre caminho para outras iniciativas de paz.

¿Por qué hay enormes déficits presupuestarios en todo el planeta? No es porque, de repente, todos los funcionarios del mundo se hayan convertido en apparatchiki de estilo soviético. Es, y por mucho, porque una economía global en declive ha llevado a menores ingresos y a un mayor gasto público en la red de seguridad social. El colmo de la ignorancia económica es proponer la destrucción de esa red de seguridad social a partir de una extrapolación de las equivocadas lecciones proporcionadas por los particularísimos problemas en que se ha metido a sí propia la eurozona.

Political leaders and central bankers on both sides of the Atlantic struggled over the weekend to persuade jittery investors that Europe would pull through its sovereign debt crisis, saying that it would be helped by a stronger-than-expected economic recovery in the United States.

In a SPIEGEL interview, Jean-Claude Trichet, the 67-year-old president of the European Central Bank, discusses the largest financial rescue package in the history of Europe, the role and importance of speculators in the euro crisis and the weakness shown by politicians in the euro zone member states.

The deal, negotiated by Turkey and Brazil, calls for Iran to ship 1,200 kilograms (2,640 pounds) of low enriched uranium to Turkey, where it would be stored. In exchange, after one year, Iran would have the right to receive about 265 pounds of material enriched to 20 percent from Russia and France.

The pain of the European debt crisis is spreading, with the plummeting euro making Chinese companies less competitive in Europe, their largest market, and complicating any move to break the Chinese currency's peg to the dollar.

Europe's common currency fell to a four-year low against the dollar Monday as fears mounted that deep cuts in government spending to combat the region's debt crisis could severely damage Europe's economic recovery.

The deal widens a divide between a group of countries led by the U.S., on the one hand, and developing nations on the other, over the right of Iran and other developing nations to use nuclear energy.

Brazil and Turkey, which were represented by their presidents in the talks, invested significant diplomatic cache in the negotiations. It is rare for non-permanent members of the Security Council to intervene in a process led by nuclear powers, and in many ways the result could be seen as a revolt by smaller powers over the rights to nuclear power and prestige.

The uranium transfer deal transforms Iran and Turkey into strategic allies without undermining Turkey's standing in the West.

Iran's nuclear fuel swap deal with Brazil and Turkey could be a positive step forward in resolving the international impasse over its nuclear program. Even as the United States is stepping up efforts toward UN-mandated fresh sanctions against Iran, it is praiseworthy that members of the international community have stuck to diplomatic means to defuse the tension.

The EU faced the biggest test in its history last night as it launched a last-ditch effort to save the euro, amid acute fears that markets could unleash a fresh attack on the currency on Monday.

Europe will eventually grow tired of bailing out its weaker countries. The Germans will probably pull that plug first. The longer we wait to see fiscal probity established, at the European Central Bank and the European Union, and within each nation, the more debt will be built up, and the more dangerous the situation will get. When the plug is finally pulled, at least one nation will end up in a painful default; unfortunately, the way we are heading, the problems could be even more widespread.

When Chancellor Angela Merkel's current government came into power, Germany was just emerging from the economic crisis. But despite pledges to curb deficit spending, Merkel's administration has been running up debt at a record pace -- and bailing out Greece will only exacerbate the situation.

Germany balked for weeks over a possible bailout for Athens. Now its delays are coming back to haunt it in the form of intense international criticism of Angela Merkel's crisis management.