Obama Talking About Something Or Other
Oh Dear: Obama Endorses Prosperity Through Economic Liberalization and Reform, At Least for... Other Countries

Quote of the Speech: He said this. He really said this.

Prosperity requires tearing down walls that stand in the way of progress. The corruption of the elites who steal from the people. The red tape that stops a business. The patronage that distributes wealth based on tribe or sect.

Hey, that sounds pretty awesome, Prez! Any chance we could get some of that here in America? You may have heard, we're not doing so good.

...

The Oh, another speech. It's been days. Thank God. I had begun to worry.

This one is about change in the Middle East, and how awesome it is. And self-determination, and our own humility and inability to shape events.

In other words, he is pre-excusing himself for a Muslim Brotherhood takeover of Egypt, and an ongoing stalemate for Libya.

Preview? Well, it's on now, so this isn't a preview anymore, but Captain Ed answered some of Politico's questions about what the speech would contain.

Look, he's making this up as he goes. His attempts at post-hoc rationalization are feeble and designed for the 2012 elections, not as any genuine doctrine.

Oh Great, More Spending, This Time On Foreign Countries: curious sends a pair of tips about the White House push for "initiatives," which I'm just going to shorthand as "$."

The United States has designed initiatives [$] to support the stabilization process and to lay the foundation for longer term prosperity. We are galvanizing financial support from international financial institutions and Egypt and Tunisia’s neighbors to help meet near term financial needs.

We will also help bilaterally. In response to numerous requests from the Egyptian government and the Egyptian people, the United States will relieve Egypt of up to $1 billion in debt by designing a debt swap arrangement, and swap it in a way that allows Egypt to invest these resources in creating jobs and fostering entrepreneurship. As another part of our effort to help Egypt invest in its people and regain access to global capital markets, we will lend or guarantee up to $1 billion in borrowing needed to finance infrastructure and support job creation. We will do this via our Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).

Support for economic modernization. We realize that the modernization of the MENA economies will require a stronger private sector. To address that, we are committed to working with our international counterparts to support a reorientation of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to support countries in the region. That Bank played a crucial role in the democratization and economic transition in Central and Eastern Europe and can make a great contribution in MENA as well. The International Financial Corporation will scale up its investments to strengthen the private sector in transition countries. We also seek to establish Egyptian-American and Tunisian-American Enterprise Funds to stimulate private sector investment, to promote projects and procedures that support competitive markets, and to encourage public/private partnerships. And as Secretary Clinton announced in Cairo, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation will provide up to $2 billion dollars in financial support for private sectors throughout the MENA [Middle East North Africa] region.

Everytime this guy opens his yapper it costs us $10 billion (at a minimum).

posted by Ace at 12:28 PM

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