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In this issue
March 19, 2010
Rabbi Berel Wein: The Divine is in the details
JWisdom.com Stewards of sacrifice with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Why Obama is waging war on Israel
March 18, 2010
Cal Thomas: Israel's New Enemy: America?
JWisdom.com Love me not? with Rabbi David Aaron (5 minutes)
Jonathan Rosenblum: Washington Throws a Tantrum
March 17, 2010
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Orwell, Santayana, and Me
Jonathan Tobin: How Many Lives Is Biden's Pride Worth?
March 16, 2010
Steven Emerson: Combating Lawfare
JWisdom.com How to perform a miracle with Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair (4 minutes)
Anne Bayefsky: Behind Obama's Dangerous Overreaction on Israel
March 15, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Father's obligations toward minor children
JWisdom.com Moody, Grumpy, Irritable Children with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Judith Graham: Get the whole picture before a CT
March 12, 2010
Rabbi David Aaron: You CAN have Heaven on Earth
JWisdom.com Manufacturing mediums with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: The march of the Red-Green brigades
March 11, 2010
Glenn Garvin: Conspiracy theories, why people believe them and how they spread
JWisdom.com For Yourself, Not By Yourself with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer : Turn leftovers into tasty New England hash
Paul Richter: Biden promises 'viable Palestine' is in the offing
March 10, 2010
Paul Greenberg: Death Checks In
JWisdom.com How To Get A (Real) Life with Rabbi Warren Goldstein ( EXTENDED EPISODE)
Paul Richter: Israel exerts soverign right to its capital as Biden looks on astounded
Richard A. Serrano: 'Jihad Jane' indictment alleges threat from within U.S.
March 9, 2010
Wesley Pruden: Joe's Israeli adventure
JWisdom.com Free To Be (Responsibly) You and Me! with Rabbi Naftali Brawer ( 8 MINUTES)
David G. Savage: Supreme Court to rule on free speech in case of soldier's funeral
March 8, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Make a fuss about those who cuss?
JWisdom.com Finding or Losing Yourself? Here's How! with Rabbi David Aaron ( 5 MINUTES)
Steven Emerson: America must learn from the UK about the future of Islamist subversion
March 5, 2010
Rabbi Berel Wein: Golden Calf still with us --- except it has multiplied
JWisdom.com The Limits of Eternity with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: Biden's lost cause
March 4, 2010
Alan M. Dershowitz: How About A Real Campaign Against Abuses?
JWisdom.com Using Things, Loving People with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff ( 7 MINUTES)
Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel's Everything's Relative
March 3, 2010
JWisdom.com Grasping The Name of Your Life Game with Rabbi Warren Goldstein ( 8 MINUTES)
The Kosher Gourmet by Marialisa Calta : A cowboy's recipes for really good grub
March 2, 2010
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Someone's there
Diane Toroian Keaggy : Have we misunderstood Michelangelo?
March 1, 2010
JWisdom.com Whole in One with Rabbi David Aaron ( 5 MINUTES)
Michael Muskal: Hillary meets with Israeli official, discusses gefilte fish dispute
Feb. 26, 2010
Rabbi Francis Nataf: The Megilla of Spring
JWisdom.com A Biblical Secret for a More Powerful You with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: When rhetoric rules the roost
Feb. 25, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: When walking away from your mortgage is both economically sound and makes ethical sense
JWisdom.com The Second Most Important Question in Your Life with Rabbi Yehoshua Karsh ( 5 MINUTES)
Seema Mehta : U.S.-Israel relations raised in California's Senate race --- by conservatives
Feb. 24, 2010
Rabbi Avi Shafran: The gift of the ‘prayer bomber’
Steven Emerson: Why Religious Freedom Commission is under attack
Feb. 23, 2010
Dennis Prager: Government, Yes! The Divine and Parents, No!
JWisdom.com The Last Laugh of Enlightenment with Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair ( 5 MINUTES)
Anne Applebaum: Prepare for war with Iran --- in case Israel strikes
Feb. 22, 2010
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Is it not refreshing Tiger Woods' career has crashed and burned so dramatically?
JWisdom.com Esther and the third Truth with Rabbi David Aaron ( 9 MINUTES)
Kelly Brewington: Going smoke-free may raise diabetes risk
Feb. 19, 2010
Rabbi David Aaron: Is the Divine beyond us or within us?
JWisdom.com Olympic Faith with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: Israel and the West are perpetrators of a myth that endangers the Jewish State
Feb. 18, 2010
Cal Thomas: Who is Rashad Hussain?
JWisdom.com A Wedding Disaster to Remember with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein ( 3 MINUTES)
Feb. 17, 2010
JWisdom.com Think your life is messed up? with Rabbi David Aaron ( 11 MINUTES)
Greg Logan: 'Greatest Jewish sporting event of all time since David versus Goliath' may be postponed because of bar mitzvah
Feb. 16, 2010
Anya Martin : Boy's 'cerebral palsy' fixed with diet
JWisdom.com Feet On The Street Spirituality with Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 8 MINUTES)
Marty Peretz: Let Europe Mind Its Own Business. It Brings Nothing To The Table Save For Mischief
Feb. 15, 2010
Herb Geduld: Lincoln and the Jews
JWisdom.com Are Our Children Really Ours? with Rabbi Mordechai Becher ( 5 MINUTES)
Susan King: 'Wolf Man' reflected writer's wartime Jewish experience

Jewish World Review May 7, 2008 / 2 Iyar 5768

Personal and Economic Recovery

By Tony Blankley


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Note to My Readers: I want to thank the many readers who e-mailed me over the weekend to thoughtfully inquire about my health after my Friday evening television appearance in which I was clearly having physical trouble. Many of you wondered whether I had a stroke. Blessedly, no. But over the weekend, I was diagnosed with a case of Bell's palsy — a temporary weakening of facial muscles on the right side, which is caused by either a bacterial or viral infection of the seventh cranial nerve, usually from contact with a bug or bird. In my case, it may have been one of my peacocks, who scratched and pecked me as I was carrying him back to his aviary after he had escaped. The symptom of Bell's palsy is a drooping of the right side of the face — eyelid and mouth, in particular. As a result, until the recovery is complete (from weeks to months), I will be talking out of one side of my mouth (and the left side, no less) — which in this political season, may be better than talking out of both sides of my mouth.


If there is one assumption about this presidential election shared by both Republican and Democratic strategists, it is that the election campaign will be played out in the backdrop of an economy in recession. And that may yet be the case. But during the past week, evidence has begun to mount that suggests that amazingly there may be no recession this year.


Of course, as I discussed last week, the long-term prospects for our economy are dubious and will depend on how the next president, Congress and the Federal Reserve deal with the value of the dollar, inflation, international trade and tax, and regulatory and fiscal policies.


But in the short term, if happy days are not quite here again, at least the agony of a contracting economy may not be with us, either. The first indicator was the report from the Commerce Department last week that in the first quarter of 2008, just as in the last quarter of 2007, the gross domestic product did not contract as most Americans and economists expected. Rather it grew at an admittedly anemic 0.6 percent.


The second revealing statistic was job losses. Only 20,000 jobs were lost last month; most experts expected a drop of more than 70,000. The unemployment rate actually went down 0.1 percent to 5 percent, rather than the expected increase to 5.2 percent. In the first four months of 2008, job losses averaged only 65,000 per month (on a downward path), compared to the average 181,000 jobs lost per month during the 2001 recession. That is also good news.


Moreover, with the stimulus tax rebates just beginning to come to taxpayers and the economic stimulus from the Federal Reserve's interest rate reductions to 2 percent during the past few months to take effect with a typical four- to six-month delay, there is a reasonable expectation that these forces will provide some steady, if modest, lift to the economy through the summer and fall.


But perhaps the most hopeful sign for the near term is not to be found in statistics, but rather in the judgment of two prominent experts who are well-known political opponents of George W. Bush. In the past few days, both the nation's richest (and arguably shrewdest) businessman, Warren Buffett, and The New York Times' Princeton economist columnist, Paul Krugman, announced their belief that the worst of the financial crisis may (repeat: may) be past. Of course, as Buffett pointed out, there is much agony left for homeowners facing foreclosure and ruin. But if at least the short-term crisis is past, then the financial institutions will be able to get back to their function of providing regular liquidity for sound business activity. In recent months, banks have been afraid to lend money even for solid business plans. So with business able to borrow and invest and with consumers not losing their jobs, economic life may progress at least at a modest pace through the year.


If this comes to pass — and the public confidence in the economy stabilizes or improves a little — although high gas and food prices will continue to rankle, the acute bite of economic fear may dissipate and thereby deny the Democrats the full power of their economic argument against John McCain and the Republican candidates.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

Tony Blankley is executive vice president of Edelman public relations in Washington. Comment by clicking here.

© 2008, Creators Syndicate

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