Here are today's must read opinon and editorial columns.
WAL-MART WINS. WORKERS LOSE. EDITORIALNEW YORK TIMESWithout a class action, it will be very difficult for most of the women potentially affected to pursue individual claims. The average wages lost per year for a member of the rejected Wal-Mart class are around $1,100 — too little to give lawyers an incentive to represent such an individual. For the plaintiffs, for groups seeking back pay in class actions, and for class actions in general, it was a bad day in court.
BANKING'S MOMENT OF TRUTH BY JOE NOCERANEW YORK TIMESIf Europe began insisting that its banks begin holding enough capital to cushion against all the risk on their books — starting with Greek debt — the truth would be out: Their insolvency would suddenly be apparent. If Europe wants to keep kicking the can, by turning its back on the surest measure to increase the safety of its financial system, why on earth would we want to go along?
SMART POWER SETBACK BY DAVID BROOKSNEW YORK TIMESWhen she became secretary of state, Hillary Clinton sketched out a very attractive foreign policy vision that would use “the full range of tools at our disposal: diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal and cultural.” But it could be that cultural and economic development works on a different timetable than traditional foreign policy. Perhaps we don’t know enough, can’t plan enough, can’t implement effectively enough to coordinate nation building with national security objectives.
OBAMA'S NOVEL DEFINITION OF 'HOSTILITIES' BY EUGENE ROBINSONWASHINGTON POSTObama, with uncommon disregard for both language and logic, takes the position that what we are doing in Libya does not reach the “hostilities” threshold for triggering the War Powers Act, under which presidents must seek congressional approval for any military campaign lasting more than 90 days. ... An intellectual president such as Obama should be able to lead a search for answers to these tough questions. As soon as he gets a better grasp on the definition of “hostilities.”
TIME TO QUIT AFGHANISTAN BY RICHARD COHENWASHINGTON POSTAfghanistan is an odd, irrelevant place to get bogged down. We can kill terrorists but not the culture that produces them. The corruption is staggering, our lack of understanding is humbling and our war aims are incoherent. It’s time to say goodbye and save our powder for what really matters — the demons of sleepless nights to come.
A REPUBLICAN FOREIGN POLICY BY BRET STEPHENSWALL STREET JOURNALWhat would help is a Republican who says: Mr. Obama's failure in Libya isn't that he intervened to stop mass murder; it's that he's intervened so half-heartedly. It would help to explain that bin Laden's death does not mean Mission Accomplished in Afghanistan and that an abrupt U.S. withdrawal would simply turbo-charge the Taliban on both sides of the AfPak border. Credibility requires that wars should be fought to a winning conclusion or not at all.
FAREWELL TO GOP INTERVENTIONISM? BY JOE SCARBOROUGHPOLITICOThe fact that a few Republicans are rediscovering the wisdom of the restrained foreign policy conservatives championed before George W. Bush began a decade of Wilsonian nation-building is a reason to cheer. The United States of America cannot continue to exhaust its limited resources on being a occupying power while China invests in business, education and infrastructure. A new battle has begun and it has nothing to do with missiles.