Sebastian Mallaby in today’s Washington Post: China has accumulated at least $1.5 trillion in dollar assets, according to my Council on Foreign Relations colleague Brad Setser, so a (highly plausible) 30 percent move in the yuan-dollar rate would cost the country around $450 billion — about a tenth of its economy. And, to make the dilemma even more painful, China’s determination to control the appreciation of its currency forces it to buy billions more in dollar assets every month. Like an addict at a slot machine, China is adding to …
I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life. – President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, federal appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor, October 2001. Read the full text of Judge Sotomayor’s speech “A Latina Judge’s Voice” in the New York Times.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfC99LrrM2Q&feature=player_embedded[/youtube] Follow Heritage’s continuing coverage of the Sonia Sotomayor nomination to the Supreme Court.
This morning, President Barack Obama announced the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court of the United States. While this may seem like the culmination of a long process, it actually marks just the beginning–really, the very first step–of the confirmation process laid out in our Constitution. President Obama’s aggressive confirmation timetable–he is demanding hearings and a vote before Congress leaves for its August recess–risks shortchanging the Constitution’s commands. The Appointments Clause (in Section 2 of Article II) states that the President “shall nominate, and by and with …
Today, President Obama announced Sonia Sotomayor as his nominee to replace Justice Souter on the Supreme Court. Any nomination for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court deserves careful review by the Senate. Nominations should be judged by a common standard: will they apply the Constitution of the United States and the law as it is written and according to its original meaning, or will they use the lifetime appointment to enact policy preferences from the bench. This standard is particularly important for Judge Sotomayor, who has made disturbing statements …
U.S. intelligence agencies are still collecting data from an array of high-tech equipment, but analysts have little doubt that North Korea did detonate a nuclear device yesterday. The Pyongyang regime also test-fired two missiles today despite a U.N. Security Council condemnation of their nuclear test. These actions come just five days after Iran tested a two-stage ballistic missile and just six weeks after North Korea fired their own ballistic missile, the Taepo-Dong-2, which landed 2,390 miles from the launch site. Since President Barack Obama was sworn in, North Korea has refused …
Pyongyang ’s eagerness to conduct a nuclear test so quickly after its long-range missile launch shows it has abandoned its previous façade of negotiations and is instead striving to achieve a viable nuclear weapon and ICBM delivery capability. North Korea ’s unflinching efforts to develop the means to threaten the US and its allies with nuclear weapons underscores the ongoing need to continue to develop and deploy a missile defense system. The rapid pace of Pyongyang ’s provocations since January indicates it has altered its objectives and is no longer …
A new poll released this week by McLaughlin and Associates shows that Americans understand better than Congress that Iran is a serious a threat to our national security and is a dangerous actor amongst its neighbors. According to Joel Rosenberg’s Weblog, the poll found: Nine in ten voters (91%) say that Iran supplying a nuclear umbrella for terrorists is a serious threat to the United States. Seven in ten voters (71%) say the United States will not be safe with a nuclear Iran. Eight in ten voters (80%) say it …
As we have discussed before, President Obama’s fiscal year 2010 defense budget suffers from serious conceptual flaws concerning the nature of future warfare and the force structure the American military needs to fight and win. But there is another related issue that must merit the serious consideration of Congress as it prepares to make lasting decisions about the future: the stability and health of America’s defense industrial base. Since World War II, the United States has benefited from the skills of a robust defense manufacturing workforce. America’s Air Force and …
This Memorial Day, Heritage honors those who serve in the United States Armed Forces, their families, and all military retirees and veterans. From the battlefields of the Civil War–after which the first Memorial Day was observed–to the Forest of Argonne, the beaches of Normandy, the islands of the Pacific, the Chosin Reservoir, the jungles of Vietnam, the deserts of Iraq, the mountains of Afghanistan, and all the other fields, territories and theaters American soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen have fought bravely, we remember those fallen men and women …
