Former Prime Minister (Great Britain) - September 2010

RESPONSE TO FORMER PRIME MINISTER BLAIR'S LAST COLUMN IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (INFORMALLY.)




That the latest financial crisis has called for people like the former British Prime Minister to comment that the mortgage - backed and other asset - backed products that were being sold were too complex and too difficult to track through the financial system we have does not speak to the merits of the invention and market in financial and other products that promise to improve the quality of life, and that people, investors, want in the first place. The problem the products were too complex, as proposed by Mr. Blair, indicates the investing public, otherwise rule - abiding and sophisticated, is ignorant, and that he has called for additional regulation on such matters re - enforces the idea that many leaders, of great amplitude themselves, do not understand Wall Street. It is perhaps one fault of our lawmakers they themselves did not make attempts to understand the mortgage crisis and have fallen back on rule - making: The derivatives market in the financial centers can be difficult to understand for some people, especially those having to deal with somewhat illiquid assets like housing, and other factors such as interest rates.



Blair also devotes considerable currency in his latest column to the subject of Iraq and Afghanistan, and gives an interesting post - soviet analysis of the Middle East with respect to these two countries. He gives no analysis nor does he clearly state how much in conflict certain factional areas of the Middle East are at cultural and other loggerheads with western countries at this point in time. There is valid discussion of Mr. Blair's long - standing point that terrorism is a provocation and can drive armed conflict as it has in the above two countries, and any victory in the war on terror has its price, it is above all evident, though Mr. Blair does avoid discussion of the expenses of the military deployments, etc., in Iraq and Afghanistan to date. There is, however, in the article a very cogent discussion of the merits of western values that is valid for every one of us, either in learning about them as a foreign person, or upholding them as a citizen of one western country or another. It is a danger that the imams are pursuing greater Islamic orthodoxy, sometimes in the face of public opinion in their own countries, and the hazards of this are discussed with respect to modernity and the current climate of world society, not just western culture. That Mr. Blair has either had governments, or had influence, in the administrations of three U.S. presidents indicates the obvious power of the labour party in England at one time, much as perhaps was at one time the influence of the British conservatives in the America during the late 1950's and early 1960's.



Islamic orthodoxy needs be discouraged, as needs be the voracious and insatiable appetite of some Middle East nations on the nuclear weapons and proliferation issues: The imams have Israel, other European and Middle Eastern countries and the Americas, not to mention other countries in the southern hemisphere as openly sworn or uncommitted opposition to theocracy of any kind, and the admonishment against theocracy in his article is followed by some words on "soft power." Mr. Blair does propose that western democracy is a little complacent with respect to international conflict at this point, and this is probably true with regard to the nine grueling years of war some peoples have had to deal with.