Needless to say, I couldn’t agree more. Every day is like shouting into the void, but we have to keep making these points. Everyone spent years talking about how important the 3Ds were to America power. And it evaporated in the blink of an eye.
Noem did the one unforgivable thing: She embarrassed him and made him look bad. She's been on the bubble ever since Bovino got tossed.
What happened in MN was a tragedy and obscene. But now - you're seeing consequences. That's good. Take the W.
Given the Kurds place in the Iranian state and the relevant history this seems like a pretty huge risk for them to get involved on this basis.
So pleased he nominated a member of the troika of stupidity in the Senate.
Indefensible.
Playing in the big leagues now, Bridge.
Do yourself a favor and subscribe to @talkingpointsmemo.com. I’ve been reading it for over 20 years and it continues to be one of my favorite sources of political analysis and news.
Bottom line: this could get very expensive for DFC if the White House pushes them to provide coverage or a backstop. In reality, this was also something that needed to be planned and not just thrown out there on a whim by the President. This will take time to put together. 9/x
Even with a potential DFC backstop or DFC directly providing insurance coverage, it will be difficult to get ships moving with Iran actively targeting with drones and missiles. Moreover, absent naval escorts, there is a high likelihood that ships will still be hit and this could cause payouts. 8/
The current situation in the Persian Gulf is far more challenging and my sense is DFC will struggle to provide the kind of coverage needed. Private insurers have largely canceled existing war risk coverage and are charging a premium for new policies. 7/
Lloyd's of London ultimately did provide an insurance backstop for the Black Sea grain corridor, which to the best of my knowledge did not require DFC or others to provide any support. (Probably did help that Ukraine sank most of Russia's Black Sea Fleet...) 6/
After the Russian invasion, there was significant discussion on how DFC, the World Bank's Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and others could help create a pool of war risk insurance. This proved difficult both for the private sector and DFC and MIGA. 5/
DFC has also sought to invest in Ukraine (not always successfully) providing much needed liquidity to keep the private sector going. In this case, DFC has looked at how it could use its political risk insurance tools to provide coverage in an active war zone. This has been hard needless to say. 4/
That's the theory at least. DFC also operates under a dual mandate, where it also is meant to further US foreign policy objectives. When DFC was created in 2018/2019, it was largely sold in Congress as a tool to counter China's Belt and Road Initiative, for example. 3/
Essentially DFC operates as an investment bank backed by the full faith and credit of the US government. It uses direct loans, loan guarantees, equity, and political risk insurance to support private sector projects. Ideally, DFC is operating in markets that the private sector avoids due to risk. 2/
Following up on this post from last night. The US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is an important USG agency, but one that generates a lot of interest and confusion. Its primary mission is to mitigate risk to increase private investment in developing and emerging markets. 1/
Gosh maybe having unqualified, unconfirmed special envoys isn’t a good idea…
DFC can provide political risk insurance but not entirely sure it can do this kind of thing. They looked at this in Ukraine and couldn’t make it work. But sure Trump says it so must make it so…
Nothing makes me happier than Bridge "Young Kissinger" Colby getting fried in a hearing.
Again they really rolled out the A Team yesterday to make their case.
“The Hunt for Red October” premiered today in 1990.
So basically leave the entire region? Cool, well done guys.
@devex.com reported on this a few weeks ago. This isn’t surprising given the incompetence of the politicals who are in charge and their pure hatred toward former USAID staff. It also means that there will be major errors in the wind down. Congress needs to take note…
Warner: "There was no imminent threat to the United States by the Iranians. There was a threat to Israel. If we equate a threat to Israel as the equivalent of an imminent threat to the US, then we are in uncharted territory."
Hillary Clinton has more than her share of flaws, but when it comes to "showing congressional Republicans the proper level of contempt" she is flawless.
And this is why I always scoffed at smart people in DC who argued Rubio was some foreign policy genius. This is word salad. He’s an ambition obsessed empty suit.
Senate Republicans are really sending out the A Team of idiocy today.
It’s a real race to the bottom.
Mullin and Tubervile really duke it out for dumbest member of the senate. Then Ron Johnson shows up and says hold my beer…
