Alaska Senate race:  Incumbent Ted Stevens (R) is up by only 2 over challenger Mark Begich.  Stevens is the longest serving Republican in the Senate, is 84 years old, but is hambered by an ongoing bribery investigation.  Begich is the mayor of Anchorage.

The Food and Agriculture Organization thinks reducing barriers will help the food problem today.  Here is a very serious rebuttal.

Here is an excerpt.  The full piece is below the fold.

On the contrary, the proposals made by the general secretary of the UN, Ban Ki-Moon, to increase food production by 50% and to eliminate the export limits imposed by some of the countries affected, only reinforces the root causes of this crisis rather than addressing and guaranteeing the food security of the majority of the people in the global South.

Current Account Deficit Surges in First Quarter

Henry Paulson's Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED®) may not be working.  

Chinese officials seem to be galled by the apparent hypocrisy of Americans telling them what to do while the American economy is at best stagnant. China, on the other hand, has maintained its feverish growth.

Some officials are promoting a Chinese style of economic management that they suggest serves developing countries better than the American model, in much the same way they argue that they are in no hurry to copy American-style multiparty democracy.

Hmmm.  Certainly the U.S. developed best by taking care of our own economy and people.  Ditto the Asian Tigers.  I can't think of any country that developed without managing its economy.