Arshad M Khan

Mr. President:  Just three weeks ago (August 31, 2012), this letter asked the question, "How long will it be before these groups turn on their erstwhile supporters as they have in Afghanistan?"  The question referred to our support for religious fundamentalist (even fanatic…

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Arshad M Khan

News Item:  Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan picked by Mitt Romney as his Vice Presidential running mate.

Yep!  I'll admit it.  I am a Wisconsin muskrat.  I love to hunt and I love to fish ...and I eat what I hunt and I eat what I fish.

That's the way… Read full post »

 Arshad M Khan

The military exercises held jointly with the Philippines off Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea were, if not provocative, certainly thought provoking.  We have made public this new strategy of "re-balancing", that is an increased military presence in the Pacific aim… Read full post »

 Arshad M Khan

Babylonians — oh yes! it’s the Iraqis again — developed a zero about 300 B.C. It was represented by two slanted wedges on their clay tablets and served as a place holder in the sexagesimal (base 60 unlike our current base 10)… Read full post »

Arshad M Khan

Mr. President:  In the late 1950s, I remember a fellow student at King's College (University of London), traveling to the United States for a summer job, then reporting back that it was a land of milk and honey.  Here is the question:  If the… Read full post »

 Arshad M Khan

The recent riots in Afghanistan following the disposal of Korans in…

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 Arshad M Khan

 Sun Tzu's admonition that war is a failure of policy rings ever more true.

The latest from Afghanistan has dozens of demonstrators and several ISAF personnel killed since reports surfaced of Korans being sent to incinerators for disposal.  That is the trouble with occup… Read full post »

 Arshad M Khan

Here is a frightening statistic:  In 1980, almost 98 percent of traded financial assets met transparency guidelines, exchange-based rules and anti-fraud requirements.  By 2008, over 90 percent did not.  Yet, nothing has been implemented to restructure this prec… Read full post »

 Arshad M Khan

 News Item:  Obama delivers his third State of the Union address

"Let me be clear" ..."Change isn't easy".  "Make no mistake".  "It won't happen overnight."

"Let me be clear.  Bankers don't need another vote in the United States Senate.  They've got pl… Read full post »

By Arshad M Khan

A featured topic in the State of the Union address is expected to be "insourcing" -- manufacturing jobs returning to the U.S.  The figure being quoted is 374,000 in the last two years.  Siemens, the German electrical giant, is given as an example.… Read full post »

Arshad M Khan

New plans and cuts in the Defense budget announced last Thursday reflect the consequences of Iraq and Afghanistan.  It is clear we will henceforth be relying on a  much smaller footprint -- special forces and drones to the fore - recalling the concept of "offshore… Read full post »

 Arshad M Khan

Year end is time for summaries and if one can summarize this administration's achievements on the economic front, it would be thus:  It has bankrupted the institution of bankruptcy for the banks that matter.  As a consequence, interest rates, calculated on the probab… Read full post »

Arshad M Khan

While the headlines scream unemployment is down to 8.6 percent, the fine print tells us it is due in good measure to the 315,000 people too discouraged to look for work last month.

But buried in the back pages (p.21 in the Washington Post last… Read full post »

Arshad M Khan

Yes, it is happy times, especially for the little ones, so it is painful for me to bring you this tale of woe.  You will not believe this, but Santa has become a global capitalist. He is outsourcing or something like that -- I… Read full post »

Arshad M Khan

News Item:  Newt Gingrich soars past Mitt Romney in Republican polls after Herman Cain suspends campaign.

Yes, I am a Newt, dinosaurian in thought, meteoric in rise -- as in climbing walls, or making others do so after what I say -- and precipitous in… Read full post »

Arshad M Khan

The whole world revolves around banks and bankers these days.  The G-20 meeting was ample demonstration.  Mr. Papandreou, the Greek Prime Minister, tried to hold a referendum on the deal struck with the French and Germans but he was quickly brought back in line --… Read full post »

 Arshad M Khan

A little over two centuries ago, 1795 to be exact, Immanuel Kant published a political pamphlet Zum ewigen Frieden (To a Perpetual Peace).  It was a practical alternative to war and an approach to conflict resolution but human nature remains unrestrained.  I am remind… Read full post »

 A friend sent this, and it's too good not to share ...

The English language has some wonderfully anthropomorphic collective nouns for the various groups of animals. We are all familiar with a Herd of cows, a Flock of chickens, a School of fish and a Gaggle of… Read full post »

 Arshad M Khan

Interesting news from Britain:  The UK Independent Commission on Banking led by Sir John Vickers, a former Chief Economist at the Bank of England, issued its report.  Tasked to propose structural banking reforms in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, its prin… Read full post »

Arshad M Khan

In our present world of religiously held economic beliefs, agnosticism might be prudent.  On one side, the advocates just want to cut taxes and reduce spending; on the other we have seen a stimulus package of dole-outs and "shovel-ready" projects that has done little to move the une… Read full post »

 Arshad M Khan

The latest jobs report released today is about as bad as it could be -- no new jobs created in August (a first since WWII) and a revision downwards of the jobs created in July from 117,000 to 85,000.  The debt ceiling bill limits effective fiscal expansion… Read full post »

Arshad M Khan

I am known as Kat-o-san but my friends call me Tom.  I have quite a story to tell you ...

I was sitting quietly at the upper story window minding my own business, licking my fur between catnaps.  It's not that I am vain, I just like to… Read full post »

Arshad M Khan

 

April 26, 2011, was the twenty-fifth anniversary of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl nuclear power station when one of the reactors exploded. A safety experiment where the operators powered up the reactor went awry, and the subsequent release of radiation affected an area not/…

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 Arshad M Khan

Like the proverbial bull in a china shop, why is it the U.S., despite its size, keeps blundering into tribal, ethnic or sectarian strife leaving behind devastation and hatred not just between factions but also of us?

In Afghanistan, we used the minority Northern Alliance of… Read full post »

Arshad M Khan

On March 19, military operations against Libya commenced.  Operation Odyssey Dawn fired a hundred Tomahawk cruise missiles at $1 million a pop.  That alone would cover the average salaries of 2,000 school teachers for a whole year.  Since then, numerous sorties, anoth… Read full post »