A little politically incorrect humor...

Obama's Drone Warfare

Drone strike increases.  This data only extends to partway though 2011. 

President Obama came into office promising a turn away from the Bush Administration's policies in the War on Terror, but once elected, has kept (or expanded) almost all of the Bush policies.  One area he has expanded is the use of unmanned aircraft (drones) to kill people the administration suspects might be terrorists.

In a further step, this spring the Obama Administration asserted that it had the right to kill US citizens without any judicial oversight, if it felt they might be involved in terrorism (you might remember Senator Rand Paul's filibuster about this).  Apparently, the US military has already killed four Americans outside of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Tonight, Obama plans to give a speech justifying his "targeted killing" strategy--in other words, explain why he thinks is okay for the US to have ongoing air wars in more than half-a-dozen countries (some with the host government's permission, some without).

Politically, this should be interesting.  The "Neo-Cons"--the group that pushed to invade Iraq in 2003, such as former VP Dick Cheney--all like his strategy.   The progressives that voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012, however, claim to be anti-war.  So how does he sell them on this idea?

Abenomics

Japanese Prime Minister Abe

The political battles in this country about government spending are going on in other countries as well.  Japan, which has been stagnant since its own real estate bubble burst in 1991 (!), has decided to bet its economic health on more inflation. 

The new policy of "Abenomics," named for Prime Minster Shinzo Abe, involves

...pushing fiscal and aggressive monetary stimulus while jacking up a debt load that is more than twice the size of its GDP.

In other words, borrowing lots of money for the government to spend, and printing even more.

In contrast, Germany is preventing other European countries from promoting inflation in Europe, based in part on their fear of the hyperinflation that occurred in Germany in the 1920s and contributed to the rise of Adolf Hitler.

German bills became so worthless they were swept up as trash.

As of right now, Abenomics seems to be working:

The 0.9 percent quarter-on-quarter growth — or 3.5 percent if the data were stretched over a year — confirmed Japan’s exit from recession after a decade of lost growth and deflation.

Whether that continues, and whether it leads Japan into yet another cycle of bubble and collapse, remains to be seen.  If it does work for Japan, expect other countries to follow suit.