- Mon. Sep. 8, 2008
|
Search Sponsor:
|
Going, Going ...
The Internal Revenue Service announced this week that it will start accepting tax payments in euros, Chinese yuan, and Swiss francs. "Given the steep decline in the value of the U.S. dollar, it is only prudent for the agency to move to more-stable currencies to protect its financial responsibilities to the United States Treasury," an IRS spokesman said.
On Tuesday, the Barack Obama campaign trumpeted that it had out-fundraised Hillary Rodham Clinton by 8,641,509 Israeli shekels in the first two weeks of March. And panhandlers in Lafayette Square are now taking only Starbucks gift cards. OK, so maybe not. But the once-mighty greenback has lost more than one-third of its value against leading currencies since 2002. How bad is the slide going to get?
"No one has a good sense," said John Williamson, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "It's likely to go somewhat further before authorities intervene" by buying up dollars.
Meanwhile, the U.S. national debt stands at 29,850,684,492,024.67 Malaysian ringgits.
-- Randy Barrett
Murmurs
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., has put a hold on James Glassman's nomination to be undersecretary of State for public diplomacy, the job recently vacated by Karen Hughes. Glassman chairs the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees the Voice of America. For some time, Coburn has worried publicly that VOA broadcasts -- especially into Iran -- are undermining U.S. policy. Coburn believes that Glassman hasn't done enough to fix the problem, we hear ... Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., granted an interview to sports journalist Bryant Gumbel for his HBO show, Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, that is likely to air before the Pennsylvania primary. No word on whether hoopster Obama went one-on-one with Gumbel on the basketball court ... Sometimes, covering the U.S. Senate requires the skills of a Kremlinologist. That was true on March 13, as the Senate engaged in one of its infamous "vote-o-ramas" -- a seemingly endless string of yeas and nays. One of the interesting sights on the Senate floor, perhaps ominously for presidential wannabe Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., was the 20-minute chat between her rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, an uncommitted superdelegate ...
Vital Statistics
793: Federal inmates released in the first two weeks of March under reduced sentencing rules for crack cocaine
-- Federal Bureau of Prisons
19,500: Federal inmates potentially eligible for reduced crack-cocaine sentences
-- Federal Bureau of Prisons
Rum and Calls
On May 30, members of the Service Employees International Union will flock to sunny Puerto Rico for their quadrennial convention. Two days later, Puerto Ricans will go to the polls for a primary election never expected to be more than a tropical victory lap. But with every last delegate to the Democratic National Convention now being meticulously counted, members of the Obama-backing labor union are ready to drop their daiquiris and knock on doors for their man. "It certainly would be something that we would plan to do if the race hasn't been decided at that point," said SEIU spokeswoman Stephanie Mueller, who notes that a whopping 3,500 members will be in San Juan for the six-day conference.
-- Carrie Dann
No TV for Granny?
Hell hath no fury like a senior deprived of Dancing With the Stars. Washington bureaucrats have repeatedly warned that the elderly are vulnerable to losing television reception when the nation switches to digital transmission in February 2009. But they still managed to exclude most nursing home residents from obtaining $40 coupons toward the purchase of devices that will prevent analog sets from going dark. The $1.5 billion effort uses the Census Bureau's definition of a household, which counts most nursing centers as a single address. In other words, a facility with 500 geriatrics gets two coupons. The National Association of Broadcasters warns that more than 20 percent of citizens age 65 and over rely on analog reception. The Commerce Department says it is trying to fix the coupon shortage -- two and a half months after the program launched.
-- David Hatch
Money Loves Power
It's no secret that Democrats are raising a lot more campaign dough than Republicans these days. Being in the majority is a money magnet -- even attracting businesses that have long lavished dollars on the GOP. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, industries tilting from red to blue include health professionals, hospitals, credit, retail, recreation, alcohol, and real estate. In 2004, the securities and investment industry gave 52 percent of its contributions to Republicans. So far this cycle, the sector has funneled 60 percent of its money to Democrats. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, for example, has taken in more than $7 million from securities and investment companies, compared with $1.3 million for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the center reported as of February 28. Also shorting the GOP's coffers are its own lawmakers. Democratic House members have given their campaign committee twice as much as their Republican counterparts have ponied up, while Senate Democrats have been five times as generous as have GOP senators.
-- Brian Friel
Ron Planting,Economist, American Petroleum Institute
NJ: Why is gasoline so expensive?
Planting: The No. 1 factor is the high cost of crude oil, which has gone up the equivalent of 55 cents per gallon since early in February. However, retail prices have only gone up 33 cents per gallon.
NJ: So gas prices could get even higher?
Planting: It depends on what happens to crude oil prices. Historically, changes in crude prices have eventually been reflected in retail prices.
NJ: What's causing oil prices to skyrocket?
Planting: For the last four or five years, the world demand for oil has been increasing, but supplies have not quite been keeping up. That's put upward pressure on prices. The strong demand is coming from China, Asia, and the developing countries where the economies are growing. Even though we've had sharply higher prices, demand is still growing. On top of that, we've had all these fluctuations due to political uncertainty in major producing countries and concern about the value of the dollar. That has created price swings in the short term. That's why oil prices today are about three times higher than they were four years ago.
NJ: Is America using more oil?
Planting: In recent years, U.S. oil demand has changed very little. Last year the United States consumed 20.7 million barrels per day. We've been at about that level since 2004.
-- Margaret Kriz
Taking It for Granite
As head of Holland & Knight's government section, Gerry Sikorski helps clients try to mold legislation more to their liking. After hours, he spends much of his free time reshaping a less malleable medium: stone.
Since taking his first class in the art form nearly a decade ago, the former House member from Minnesota has made a serious hobby of sculpting. He has produced numerous pieces, some that offer natural or abstract shapes and others that incorporate old farm or forestry implements and rough-hewn wood. Several of his creations adorn his office.
In sculpting, Sikorski finds a counterbalance to a professional world that he says has gotten increasingly frenetic: "I don't think patience is prized as much as it should be." Each new generation of technology, he says, speeds up the work cycle, with BlackBerrys and cellphones being the latest offenders. Stone-carving is different. "You can spend days looking at a stone to figure out what it should be," he says, "If you're not careful, a hawk becomes a pigeon. You can't put stone back on."
Over time, Sikorski says, he has used more than 10 tons of stone, almost all of which he has moved himself -- with the assistance of a "wheelbarrow and a chiropractor."
-- Julie Kosterlitz