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Originally Posted by roachboy
it looks like the obama administration finally decided to do something beyond be pusillaminous and pull the plug on mubarak...but not quite...read on:
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Obama Urges Mubarak Not to Run Again
By MARK LANDLER
WASHINGTON — President Obama has told the embattled president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, that he should not run for another term in elections in the fall, effectively withdrawing American support for its closest Arab ally, according to American diplomats in Cairo and Washington.
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Read more: http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/newrepl...#ixzz1Cq7GyWrw
but what do you think? |
I think we have failed to hear the message. Mubarak is not the problem, him leaving will not address the problem and in an international economy with failed economic policies that have unintended consequences the dominoes start to fall - and we end up with scapegoat responses.
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Low wages and rising prices have sparked protests in Egypt since 2004. The economy in the country of 80 million people, the most populous in the Arab region, probably grew 6.2 percent in the last quarter of 2010, compared with 5.5 percent in the previous three months. The government says it needs growth of at least 7 percent to create enough jobs every year.
Economic growth was expected to accelerate to that level next year, the country’s former Finance Minister, Youssef Boutros Ghali, said on Dec. 13.
Headline inflation in urban areas, the rate that the central bank monitors, picked up to 10.3 percent in December from 10.2 percent the previous month. Core inflation, which excludes the prices of fruit and vegetables as well as regulated prices, accelerated to 9.65 percent as the costs of items such as rice, sugar and poultry increased.
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Egyptians Face Food Inflation by Day, Roaming Looters at Night - Businessweek
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Egypt exported US$2.4 billion worth of merchandise to the United States in 2006, up 14.4% from 2005 and up 76.5% since 2002.
Egyptian imports from the U.S. rose 29.9% to $4.1 billion in 2006, up 43.1% since 2002.
In terms of the merchandise flow between the two countries, America’s trade surplus with Egypt was $1.7 billion in 2006, up 13.1% from 2002. The U.S. trade surplus with Egypt increased 60.1% in 2006 – a reversal from the 40.5% surplus decrease in 2005 from the year earlier.
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Read more at Suite101: Top Egyptian Exports & Imports: Most Popular Products Traded Between Egypt & America
Top Egyptian Exports & Imports: Most Popular Products Traded Between Egypt & America
The US's artificially low interest rates, US dollar devaluation and money supply management is severely hurting nations like Egypt with or without Mubarak. The price of corn alone is up over 80% in Egypt in the past year (thanks global warming fanatics and ethanol). So, what was the point in Obama requesting Mubarak to step down, and what good does he expect from it?