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Written by jay on September 29th, 2005 with no comments.
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Arabs-I

The drumbeats against Iraq that originate from the League of Arab States and its Egyptian apparatchiks betray the panic of an old Arab political class afraid that there is something new unfolding in Iraq–a different understanding of political power and citizenship, a possible break with the culture of tyranny and the cult of Big Men disposing of the affairs–and the treasure–of nations. It is pitiable that an Egyptian political class that has abdicated its own dream of modernity and bent to the will of a pharaonic regime is obsessed with the doings in Iraq. But this is the political space left open by the master of the realm. To be sure, there is terror in the streets of Iraq; there is plenty there for the custodians of a stagnant regime in Cairo to point to as a cautionary tale of what awaits societies that break with “secure” ways. But the Egyptian autocracy knows the stakes. An Iraqi polity with a modern social contract would be a rebuke to all that Egypt stands for, a cruel reminder of the heartbreak of Egyptians in recent years. We must not fall for Cairo’s claims of primacy in Arab politics; these are hollow, and Iraq will further expose the rot that has settled upon the political life of Egypt.
fouad ajami, opinion journal

The logic of the American intervention in Iraq was to destabilize the disfunctional existing order in the Middle East. In this the Americans have succeeded. Perhaps more than they would have ideally hoped.

The ability of the Arab world to reinvent itself is being played out in Iraq and Lebanon and, sadly, in Gaza. The question is whether that world can embrace modernity. The essentiallists such as the dreadful Juan Cole are convinced that the Arabs simply are incapable of democracy or modernity. The neo cons are far more optimistic.

Written by jay on September 29th, 2005 with no comments.
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SUV sales decline

Daiman Penny points to this:

John Mathews of Universal Toyota in San Antonio has witnessed the day that auto industry executives in Detroit said would never come.

“We are seeing people who are driving $40,000 Suburbans trading them in on $15,000 Corollas,” said Mathews, who manages a dealership in a state where big trucks and sport-utility vehicles rule the roads. “The last 30 days have been unlike anything I’ve ever seen in the automotive industry.”
washington post

Well, duh.

People who pay attention to economics have known that the effect of higher gas prices would be to make gas guzzlers obsolete. The fact this is happening as gas prices are rising is not really news. The fact that SUV resale prices are cratering…not news.

Consumers are smart. They don’t want to stop driving and they don’t wat to pay a couple of hundred dollars to fill up a land boat. You don’t need a Nobel Prize to figure that small car sales are going to rocket and a lot of big SUVs are going to be sitting on the lots for a very long time.

Written by jay on September 29th, 2005 with 3 comments.
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