Chet Nagle

The European Union (mainly German taxpayers) and the International Monetary Fund (mainly American taxpayers) cobbled together a trillion dollars of loans and loan guarantees for Greece. That bummer bailout was supposed to save the Euro, the EU’s common currency. But the Euro is still in a nosedive and global stock markets are falling too. Why? In a word, the answer is debt. (more)

The United States is broke and in debt. The only people who refuse to understand that reality, and who refuse to care, are the big spenders in congress and the White House. Disaster approaches, and what informed citizens want to know is exactly when the hammer will fall on our currency and economy. Now Moody’s Investor Service has given us a clue. First, some background. (more)

Persistent odors of hypocrisy and cynicism waft through the Oval Office. Campaign promises to abandon warmongering policies of President Bush have been conveniently forgotten. Worse, those dreadful and embarrassing strategies have been adopted by President Obama. Why is mainstream media silent? Where is the outrage? (more)

Things are happening in Europe, and those things will not help our sick economy. Government bonds of Greece were downgraded to junk status and interest spiked at 23 percent. That is the interest on a loan a Greek with excellent credit would pay. If he could get a loan. (more)

The PIIGS of the European Union are broke. Today’s clever acronym for the EU nations of Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain—PIIGS—is quite apt. They have been living high on the hog for years, propping up socialist programs with borrowed money. Now their debts are mountainous, their economies are slowing, and their lenders are leery. Moreover, if we examine the European crisis carefully, we find it has already arrived in America. (more)

The Trojan Horse inside the world’s financial fortress is the European Union. Lurking in it are Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland. When they finally spring into the daylight and are seen by multinational banks and lenders, a second financial meltdown will begin. (more)

Media ignore the disasters, praying they will go away, but two effects of White House foreign policy are already on display this week. Traffic jams caused by Washington’s ballyhooed “Nuclear Summit” are missing two cavalcades. It seems that Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have something better to do than meet with Mr. Obama. Oh dear. (more)

The lapdog congress, tailor to our imperial president, gave him a garment made of health care. Unfortunately, the expensive suit may come apart at the seams and he finds himself needful of new clothing material. So he decided foreign affairs are just the stuff. As a result, and because President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton are leaders and statesmen in name only, American foreign policy is now in shambles on every continent. Why do the incompetents persist? (more)

If the king of Saudi Arabia were to be invited to the White House, President Obama would make the usual deep bow, have a long conversation with lots of photo ops, and then give the king a grand halal dinner. But it was not a Muslim king who was the honored guest last week. It was the Jewish Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, here to provide the president with another opportunity to embarrass himself and the United States. (more)

Dazzled by yesterday’s vote on health care, Washington media dropped the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu into the business as usual box. As this column is being posted, Bibi begins his Washington agenda with a visit to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Tonight he dines with Vice President Biden. Tomorrow evening he has the fourth meeting with President Obama since they have been in office. After all this happens, commentators around the world will focus on the recent spat over Israeli housing in the Ramat Shlomo sector of East Jerusalem, and how the prime minister smoothed it over with Washington. But there is an undercurrent in this visit far more significant to the United States and world peace than a mere 1,600 houses. (more)

The White House, the Pentagon and Congress fear the surge. Not the recent shipment of a few troops to Gen. Stanley McChrystal, but the surge of angry American voters in November. Not only are those voters afraid that the Obama administration and the Democrat-led Congress will bankrupt the nation, they are also impatient with the endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. So how will President Obama and his congressional cronies survive the coming November tsunami? Simple. Declare victory and get out of the Near East. Retreat from Afghanistan will be well underway before November this year, and the Stars and Stripes will be on a fast freight out of Iraq before the U.S. presidential election in 2012. (more)

The business of politicians is getting re-elected, and business is bad for President Obama and his cronies in congress. Failing domestic policies and two endless wars have White House and Pentagon spin doctors working overtime, especially on Afghanistan and recent “victories” over the Taliban. But the inconvenient truth is that there is no Taliban, and the victories belong to Pakistan. (more)

Gen. George Casey, silver-haired Army chief of staff, the White House, and mainstream media are dancing fast and singing loud. They are convincing us the Fort Hood massacre was the act of a lone and sadly deranged gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who just incidentally happens to be a devout Muslim. They are doing a great whitewash of that November day when Hasan shouted Allahu Akbar as he shot and killed 13 and wounded 30 in the worst terror attack since 9/11. But a month later, on Dec. 15, 2009, the “Jackson Five” appeared and threatened to upstage the whole show. How could five nameless upstarts force Gen. Casey and Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) into damage control? (more)

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men have bamboozled the public again. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, the CIA, the Pentagon, and the Pakistanis told you Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was captured, or seized, or arrested. Not a shot fired. (more)

Everyone has suddenly noticed an elephant in the room: Play the War Card! So right after Daniel Pipes’ column in National Review Online last week, “How to Save the Obama Presidency: Bomb Iran,” pundits from Arnaud de Borchgrave, to Pat Buchanan, to Sarah Palin rushed to approve or disapprove of the idea. They all bring their agendas to the debate, but they all agree a U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities would significantly raise Obama’s disastrous approval poll ratings. Like politics, all warfare is domestic. (more)