This month marks the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the U.S. declaration of war on Japan, Germany and Italy. December 1941, according to historian Craig Shirley, transformed America in ways that might be unimaginable today. In a new book called “December 1941: 31 Days that Changed America and Saved the World,” Shirley documents the rapid shift of a war-weary country to one that mobilized instantly after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. Each chapter of the 656-page book documents the events of one day during the …
Yesterday the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment unanimously approved legislation to ban the importation of foreign radioactive waste for disposal in the U.S. Congressman Bart Gordon (D-TN) introduced H.R. 515: Radioactive Import Deterrence Act in January of 2009 and the bill could soon be up for a vote in the House of Representatives. The full committee will vote on the bill tomorrow with a full House at some future point after that. When the subcommittee approved the legislation Gordon said, We’re the only …
Dangerous currents advocating protectionism are alive and well on both sides of the Atlantic. A “Buy American” clause in the latest U.S. stimulus package may have been eased to avoid violation of bilateral trade agreements, but its protectionist intentions remain. But the European Union is in no position to lecture America about protectionism. In what the Financial Times describe as the biggest European auto bail out, France will give Renault and Peugeot-Citroën €3bn ($3.9bn) each in preferential loans in exchange for keeping jobs in France. Italy has quickly followed suit …
