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The US Senate passed the $700 billion economic bailout plan on Wednesday, in stark contrast to the House rejection of the plan on Monday.
- By Joseph Marques, Chief Sub-Editor
- Published: 00:13 October 3, 2008
The US Senate passed the $700 billion economic bailout plan on Wednesday, in stark contrast to the House rejection of the plan on Monday. It is likely to end the uncertainty that has prevailed the markets in the past few weeks. In another landmark decision, the US Senate ratified the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, thereby ending three decades of nuclear apartheid that India was subjected to following its testing of a nuclear device in 1974. The other main event that made headlines this week was China's space mission and the first spacewalk performed by a Chinese astronaut. These events were contemplated, analysed and commented on. We present here excerpts of editorials from the regional and the international press
US bailout
In one of the largest financial bailout in American history, the Senate approved the Treasury to purchase $700 billion in troubled debt from ailing firms in an extraordinary intervention to prevent widespread economic collapse. The Bill was initially rejected by the House of Representatives, but later a consensus was arrived at due to the worsening economic situation and the meltdown which effected markets worldwide. The Bill will give a new lease of life to distressed mortgage-backed securities to make more aggressive efforts to prevent home foreclosures.
Commenting on the bailout package as a victory for the lenders and a defeat for the mortgage defaulters, The New York Times said that the falling house prices are driving the collapse of the financial system. But the bailout bill, even the "sweetened" version that was approved by the Senate Wednesday night, does little to avert the defaults and foreclosures that are pushing house values ever downward.
"At last count, six million people were expected to default on their mortgages this year and next, putting them at risk of losing their homes unless they can catch up in their payments or catch a break on their loan terms. And they're not the only ones at risk. As prices drop, millions of people who have never missed a mortgage payment stand to lose their home equity, it elaborated.
It explained that leaving these Americans out of the bailout bill is unwise and unfair, but neither Congress nor the Bush administration has ever shown anywhere near the sense of urgency to rescue homeowners at the bottom of the collapse as they have for the financiers at the top of it.
Saudi Arabia's Arab News stated that the Bush presidency is ending in the chaos that so many people predicted it would. While stressing on the failure to get the $700-billion financial rescue through US House of Representatives, it said that it is symbolic of its failure in so many other spheres.
"But it is not just President Bush and his team who are going to be labelled as catastrophically incompetent as a result of the astounding House vote. The failure of the bill shows just how wide is the gulf between the political elite in the USA, both Democrat and Republican, and the American public."
Indo-US nuclear deal
India joined a select group of countries with access to dual use nuclear technology when the US Senate passed the Indo-US nuclear civilian deal. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due to visit India to sign the pact in a day or two. Although there was jubilation in New Delhi, Pakistan and other countries criticised the deal as they feared that it would fuel an arms race in the subcontinent.
The New York Times flayed the deal and questioned the rationale of President George W. Bush to push it through, especially at a time when the US is reeling under severe economic problems and growing anti-American feeling.
Commenting on the deal it stated that President Bush and his aides were so eager for a foreign-policy success that they didn't even try to get India to limit its weapons programme in return. They got no promise from India to stop producing bombing-making material, no promise not to expand its arsenal and no promise not to resume nuclear testing.
"India is a democracy, a rising power that has sent many thousands of talented people to live and work in the United States. Bush has correctly chosen to build a new relationship with India. But he erred in making the nuclear deal the centrepiece of that relationship. And he erred in assuming that he could selectively break the nuclear rules for India and still argue that other countries had to do a lot more to rein in Iran. The deal approved by the House fails to meet legal requirements set previously by Congress," it added.
China's spacewalk
It was a red letter day for China when its astronaut walked in the space. The event was televised live and the crew of the space shuttle were accorded a hero's welcome. However, there were questions raised in some quarters about the real motive of Beijing's space programme.
The Independent warned that China's rise so far may have been as peaceful as its leaders and ideologists contend, but Beijing's plans for space should be cause for vigilance.
"With the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty now in abeyance, thanks to President Bush and his ambitions for national missile defence, there is now no international regulatory framework that China could be invited to join. The argument for some updated treaty that would constrain the militarisation of space is compelling. The unpalatable alternative is the start of a new competition for supremacy in space," it remarked.
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