Charlie Rose

fjames1000  11/22/2012 05:54 PM Report

The idea of Benjamin Netanyahu stopping the settlements is out of the question. There are many business men in Israel who have major business interests in developing in the settlements -billion $ contracts. They paid heavily for Ben’s election campaign. They need all the development contracts and Ben is obligated to provide it for them. Otherwise he might not last too long!

Any deal for peace has to include their investments and profits.

tabs  10/11/2012 05:44 PM Report

NCP3

Since the Chinese economy is an EXPORT driven economy any slowing of their economy is a function of a slowing of demand in particular of the US and Europe. Thus the US economy is not as dependent on the Chinese economy for its well being as China is on the US and as such if China goes to "Zero growth" the US is in deep trouble already.

However as one has stated many times before the GLOBAL ECONOMY is DEPENDENT on the US economy and its fiscal and monetary policies. This is due to 4 factors.

1. The USD is the Reserve Currency for the world, and as such every nation holds USD to purchase oil.

2. US Treasury Bonds (debt instruments) are held universally, and if there is any Bond crisis the world will be adversely effected.

3. US based financial institutions are intertwined and interdependent on a Global basis

4. The US military acts as the "policeman" to the world, and if the cat is away the mice will play.

tabs  10/11/2012 05:23 PM Report

NCDP2

Huh Mr Friedman? After the Yon Kipper war of 1972 both the US and USSR stepped back from their antagonistic stance over the Israeli and Arab conflict as the region proved to be too volatile, which could have led to a major confrontation between the two super powers. This cooling down culminated in the 1978 treaty between Egypt and Israel. For the next 30 plus years the Israeli, Palestinian issue has not been of a strategic concern of the United States and as such the region has been put on the back burner.

tabs  10/11/2012 05:02 PM Report

Who is Mr Friedman trying to fool when he says Obama isn't a "wimp", this little mess up by the White House of whether or not this Libyan episode is a Terrorist attack or not is further proof of the fact that Obama does not do well in REAL TIME. In other words when pressured by real events and having to make a real decision Obama fumbles the ball. In this case by claiming it was a spontaneous combustion event that led to an Ambassadors death. Now if you can give Obama a week or two, he can figure it out and be able to come up with an appropriate course of action.In other words just don't call him at 3 AM and expect coherency from him.

aripapp  10/11/2012 03:27 PM Report

Mr. Friedman is just an amazing intellectual and i am honored to hear and read his take on our world.I truly enjoyed how he described Greece and the enormous power it has in the U.S. economy.Thank you Mr.Rose

jytdog  10/10/2012 01:41 PM Report

"And in Israel you have a minority government led by Bibi Netanyahu. It's an extremist government… it's Michelle Bachmann twenty times over." (at 15:21) Amazing! How did they get there?

Razor  10/10/2012 08:13 AM Report

Friedman's a pretty straight shooter.

@Shalom Freedom

How would you like Obama to stop the Muslim Brotherhood? Stand with dictators against their own population's quest for political representation? Rig the elections? If you believe in democracy, you can't pick the winners.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  10/10/2012 01:45 AM Report

What do Iran and Germany in the 30's have in common?

"Though the Central Bank of Iran has said the annual inflation rate is about 25 percent, by some outside measures it is much higher. Steve H. Hanke, an economics professor at Johns Hopkins University and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a conservative research group in Washington, said he calculated that the rate was now as high as 196 percent."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/09/world/middleeast/iran-places-new-restrictions-on-currency-trading.h tml

Not a good sign for world stability.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  10/10/2012 01:37 AM Report

Turkey has already invoked NATO's Article 4 twice this year:

"The less potent Article 4, which merely invokes consultation among NATO members has been invoked three times, and only by Turkey: once in 2003 over the Second Iraq War, and twice in 2012 over the Syrian civil war after the downing of an unarmed Turkish F-4 reconnaissance jet and in October 2012 after a mortar was fired at Turkey from Syria.[7]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO

SharkswithfrikingLazers  10/10/2012 01:33 AM Report

What about NATO and Article 5?

http://www.nato.int/terrorism/five.htm

If NATO is real, and not just a cover for the USA, then Turkey might want to call an Article 5 because of what Syria has done.

richard-lipscombe  10/09/2012 10:44 PM Report

Tom Friedman - sums it up beautifully....the big issues for US Foreign Policy is the economy at home, a fiscal cliff, a k-12 education system that is failing next generation, etc... Foreign Policy "is all about leverage" - when you owe China and the world $US trillions then you have no leverage...Tom pointed to a world landscape of failed states - he correctly, in my view, includes America in that picture... he has basically said it all - there is nothing to say while America is in decline because of debt, failure to craft a C21st energy policy, failure to educate the next generation to C21st standards, and so on...

good job Tom Friedman....

cheers, richard.

Dasein  10/09/2012 07:30 PM Report

Why can't we all be smartocrats like Tom? His anger may portend the NYTimes's op-ed page the day after the election.

ShalomFreedman  10/09/2012 06:07 PM Report

Could Charlie Rose have asked a more biased correspondent than Thomas Friedman? Once again Friedman attacks Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Once again he ridiculously touts 'democratic forces'in the Arab world , forces which are unfortunately of minor importance. He fails to see that under Obama's time in government the Muslim Brotherhood has taken over a number of countries. He makes up some abstract agenda for U.S. interaction with Middle East countries. This is unrealistic given where these countries are.

Max83  10/09/2012 03:33 PM Report

Loved it :-) Thank you Mr. Friedman.

Finally somebody who calls things like they are.

Benjamin Netanyahu is Michelle Bachmann on steroids, right on hahahahaha

REMant  10/09/2012 11:53 AM Report

Yes, Romney tried to put some distance between his and the president's position, but I, and I think most ppl, feel there isn't. It didn't in any case say anything different from what he said in his acceptance speech.

Like the president, he makes the mistake of thinking we are the ones who are civilized, the people of principle. That we must be the world's leader. But it is fairly clear he has no intention of being the world's policepersons. He does not seem keen even on drones and covert operations. Indeed, it would appear he's already adopted Tom's program of emulation.

He proposes no significantly different course except to increase our budget, which is unlikely to happen. Even less so among our NATO allies. Nor will any wise nation enter into free trade agreements with us until we stop printing money.

For the rest he offered gratuitous advice to the new govts in the Middle East, and promised to take aid away if they didn't follow it; the thought that only a new president can restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks; and some Cold War shibboleths along with a little of Condi Rice's rhetoric.

But he might as well have quoted McClellan as Marshall (and there was, BTW, as little love lost between the latter and Churchill as between the former and Lincoln). And that might, like promising to balance the budget, assuming they believe he can do both, be enough to attract libertarians. If Romney acts in office like H W Bush they ought to be happy enough, even with an increase in taxes. The Pew poll showed he picked up a lot of support from independents as a result of his debate performance.

BTW, I don't think the Iranian currency's dollar exchange value makes much difference unless there's a surge in the black market. Especially not with the BRICS now in the tank.