America s Interest Rate Puzzle

The Elusive Search for Global Financial Rules

The big puzzle is what Assad wants with Lebanon.

It was puzzling that such activities were listed each year as part of DPA's mandate.

The Dalai Lama s curious position has complicated India s diplomatic dance with China.

And no, I don't know how it works into the whole puzzling scheme of things, but obviously I know a coded message when I see one.

So it is something of a puzzle why people started using the term so much in 2005.

Yet all of this leaves out the possibility of change, particularly change influenced by the United States unsettling role in the world.

The conundrum that advisers to authoritarian regimes face is akin to a long standing problem in moral philosophy known as the dilemma of dirty hands.

Gandhi's reaction to the Lahore Resolution was muted he called it baffling , but told his disciples that Muslims, in common with other people of India, had the right to self determination.

The key uncertainty is whether an Afghan government that includes the Taliban would and could prevent al Qaeda from reestablishing bases in regions under Taliban control.

Another indirect indication of an ongoing struggle is the uncertain behavior of the Russian military in Georgia, which apparently is the result of contradictory orders from the Kremlin.

But, in this increasingly confusing world, we need to spend a little more time laboring to ensure our own intellectual integrity a task that we cannot outsource to governments or even to media.

The puzzle is not only that long term rates are too low when viewed in the international context, but also that they are too low when viewed in America s domestic context.

The Dalai Lama s curious position has complicated India s diplomatic dance with China. He is simultaneously the most visible spiritual leader of a worldwide community of believers, a role that India honors, and a political leader, a role that India permits but rejects in its own dealings with him.

The conundrum of global reform is that the proposals that go far enough, such as establishing a global financial regulator, are wildly unrealistic, while those that are realistic, such as reform of the IMF, fall far short of what is needed.

The confused situation faced by the Caroline Institute in 1950 reminds us that all prize committees face difficult choices after four indecisive rounds of preliminary voting, three primary alternatives emerged, but the out come was still uncertain.