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The Empty Chair at the Iraq Hearings

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The Empty Chair at the Iraq Hearings THE WASHINGTON POST R THURSDAY, NOVEMBER I, ~oo7 A21 4: ~. John B. Taylor The Empty Chair at the Iraq Hearings Effective foreign policy requires paying happy to report that the central bank has im- newspaper stories were in error. the economic part of our mission. Help busi- close attention to economics, not just security plemented the recommendations of the The actual amount was 282 million dinars, nesses reopen and hire people, especially and politics. Policy often falters in practice Baker-Hamiltoncommission in this area. It not dollars. Currently, a dinar is worth less young people who might otherwise join the because the economic or.financial aspect is has raised the interest rate all the way to 20 than one-tenth of a penny, so the robbery was enemy. overlooked. percent to control inflation,and through such only half of 1 percent of the size of the Brink's Establish organizations of entrepreneurs Recall the hearings on Capitol Hill in Sep- actions the inflation rate has come down robbery. to tell us and the Iraqi government what they tember concerning progress in Iraq. Testify- sharply.The new Iraqi dinar, which was in- When the story broke, NBC asked if I need. Build industrial enclaves if necessary. ing on security issues was Gen. David Pe- troduced in2003,has provedpopularand has would explain it on the nightly news. But Workwith Iraqis to provide securityfor ship- traeus, offering his expertise on counter- appreciated nicelyin the past year.The Cen- when they discovered the actual size of the ments of products and key raw materials for insurgency warfare in theory and in practice. tral Bank of Iraq now has $21 billion in re- robbery, they canceled my appearance, say- manufacturingor agriculture. Next to him was Ambassador Ryan Crocker, serves, manytimes more than it hadjust after ing it was no longer newsworthy. I agreed. Youhave heard much aboutthe need to se- able to answer virtually any question, no mat- Saddam Hussein stole a billion dollars from Committee Member: Certainly things cure an area before significantpoliticalprog- ter how detailed, on the politicalmach- its vaults in March 2003. This summer the can't be going as well financially as you claim. ress can be made; the same is true for ec0- inationswithinIraq.Andnextto themwas Baghdad Stock Exchange opened to foreign We hear very little about it. nomic progress. But economics is quicker the seasonedexperton economicissuesin investors,rose 85 percent in Julyand held its Empty Chair: Occasionally there are sto- than politics.Weshouldmovein economical- Iraq. own in August. As the closely watched ries. Last December, for example, Newsweek ly even beforeour teams start helpingon p0- Oops. Actually, no one was next to them. Grant's Interest Rate Observernoted Sept. 7, reported that the Iraqi economy was the liticalreconciliation.Hthe environmentis se- An empty chair, perhaps. But had an expert "Iraq has turned into a capital magnet. "mother. of all surprises." But,that story did cure, entrepreneurs - both Shiite and Sunni been at the witness table, the testimony Money is sometimes misinformed, but it is not get in the echo chamber like the robbery - can create jobs much more quicklythan might have gone. never insincere. Something is afoot in Iraq." this summer. politicoscan reach agreement, let alonepass Empty Chair: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, So there are measurable signs of economic Committee Member: So there is nothing legislation. Job creation, the economic in- for inviting me to testify on economic issues and financialprogress. more to do in terms of economics? tegration of communities and the taste of in Iraq. I ask that my written testimony be en- Chairman: Just this summer guards stole Empty Chair: On the contrary, there is prosperity will acceleratepoliticalreconcilia- tered in the record. I will give just the high- $282 millionfrom a private bank in Baghdad. much more that we and the Iraqis should be tion and the achievement of our ultimate lights here. We have been working with Iraqi I am referring to news reports on July 11. H doing. I appreciate the opportunity to testify objectivein Iraq. economic officials, including the governor of the financial sphere is doing as well as you today on the unportance of this third pillar of the Central Bank of Iraq. He has a very tough claim, could you tell me how such an aston- ourpolicy. The writer, an economics professor at job conducting monetary policy, perhaps ishinglylarge heist - a hundred times great- My strong recommendation is: As soon as Stanford and senior fellow at the Hoover tougher than the chairman of the Federal Re- er than the famous Brink's robbery - could Gen. Petraeus and his coalition forces secure Institution, was Treasury undersecretary serve Board has here in the United States, have happened? an area - a neighborhood or a town - we for international affairs from 2001to even with our current market turmoil. I am Empty Chair: Well,Mr. Chairman, those should immediately focus as. best we can on 2005..
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