Early Headlines: Senators Commit Treason, Federal Medical Marijuana Law, China’s Global Military Dominance and More

Early Bird Headlines 11 March 2015

Econintersect: Here are some of the headlines we found to help you start your day. For more headlines see our afternoon feature for GEI members, What We Read Today, which has many more headlines and a number of article discussions to keep you abreast of what we have found interesting.

U.S.

• GOP Senators Probably Broke Law With Iran Letter (U.S. News & World Report) The Logan Act of 1799 bans U.S. citizens from engaging “without authority of the United States” in “correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government … with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government … in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States.” House Speaker Boehner also broke the same law inviting Israel PM Netanyahu to the U.S. But the law is never enforced (the last prosecution was in 1803) and is almost certainly unconstitutional. (Of course, Democratic spin doctors are out with charges of treason. See next article.)
• File charges against the 47 U.S. Senators in violation of The Logan Act in attempting to undermine a nuclear agreement. (We the People) This would create a constitutional challenge to the Logan Act if followed through to a conclusion, a challenge which the Logan Act would fail to survive according to most constitutional scholars.
• Major Pot Reform Bill Introduced in Senate (U.S. News & World Report) Three senators (Rand Paul, R-KY, Corey Booker, D-NY and Kristen Gillibrand, D-NY) have introduced a bill to legalize medical marijuana in all states that approve it and reclassify marijuana as a Schedule II drug under the Controlled Substances Act.
  

Greece

• Greek government presses social security funds to hand over cash (Financial Times) About 1/6 of the total debt repayments scheduled for Greece come due this month. See more discussion in ‘What We Read Today‘ this afternoon.
• Athens must stand firm against the eurozone’s failed policies (Financial Times) Almost a month old but we were alerted by an old Tweet from Stephanie Kelton below. For latest details from Rob Parenteau see GEI Opinion today.

Wolfgang Münchau discovers Rob Parenteau’s “tax anticipation notes” published at NEP in 2013. #Greece http://t.co/2YUjjQtynE

— Stephanie Kelton (@StephanieKelton) February 16, 2015

Israel

• David and Goliath (Personal Liberty) The author says that “Bibi begs for war” and “conservatives … are itching for war with Iran now that Iraq is in shambles“. Personal Liberty is a conservative and liberatarian site? Well, we can see some Libertarianism in this article but that’s it.
  

Russia

• Russia ‘completely ending’ activities under Conventional Armed Forces in Europe treaty (RT) Last and final “quit”. Process 0f ending participation was started in 2007

India

• ET GBS: PM Narendra Modi is God’s gift to India, says economist Jagdish Bhagwati (The Economic Times) Hat tip to Sanjeev Kulkarni who says Indian economists live in the dark ages.
• Modi heads to IOR states on charm offensive (IHS Jane’s 360) IOR = Indian Ocean Region.
  

China

• Chinese ore demand strong: BHP, Rio (Dow Jones Newswires, China Spectator)
• Don’t Invest in China’s Stock Market: Slowing Growth and Massive Debt Raise Risk (Phil DeAngelo, TheStreet.com) Phil DeAngelo has contributed to GEI.
• China’s path to global military dominance (China Spectator) A radical rewrite of the globe’s military hierarchy is under way, and China will likely end up on top as defense budgets keep growibng at more than 10% per year.

BECOME A GEI MEMBER – IT’s FREE!

Every every afternoon What We Read Today featured column is available only to GEI members.

To become a GEI Member simply subscribe to our FREE daily newsletter.