Search
Displaying results 801 - 810 of 2062
IMF Director Predicts Economic Recovery by July 2010
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, predicted recovery from the global economic crisis during the first half of 2010, provided “right policies” were enacted. He spoke at the Club April 16. His necessary policies include financial sector reform and regulation, global stimulus spending and aid to emerging economies. He approved the U.S. plan for addressing banks and the stimulus plan agreed upon for 2009 at the G20 meeting earlier this month. The G20 meeting supported the IMF by pledging $500 billion in potential loans from central banks, in addition…
Type: News
Balloons Become Rabbits at Annual Magic Night
Coins from the air and from a child’s body. A boy sliced in half when a strap passed through his body. “Abe Lincoln” helped produce an American flag. A crew member from the Starship Enterprise “beamed” into a tiny glass bottle. A rabbit appeared where a balloon had been, and NPC General Manager Bill McCarren lost his coat to a woman who was completely tied up. These were some of the scenes at Wednesday night’s free magic show with members of the Society of American Magician’s Larry West Assembly. The assembly has been entertaining Club members and guests for decades as a way of…
Type: News
Samuelson Links Today's Economy to Inflation's Ups and Downs
Robert J. Samuelson, columnist for Newsweek and The Washington Post, tied the rise of inflation and its demise from 1960 to the 2000s to the present economic crisis in a speech at the Club April 21. He referred to his 2008 book, “The Great Inflation and Its Aftermath,” citing its thesis that the rise and fall of inflation was the major economic event of the last half century. He called that rise and fall “more important than globalization and the Internet.” He noted that inflation rose from 1 percent per year in 1960 to 13 percent in the 1980s and then declined in the 1980s and has remained…
Type: News
Toby Keith Waves the Flag, Praises the USO, Disses the Press
Hours before he embarked on his eighth USO-sponsored tour of Iraq and Afghanistan, country-western singer-songwriter Toby Keith told stories, waved the flag and railed against the news media at a luncheon Tuesday. Keith, named by Forbes magazine as the nation’s highest-earning county music star with a restaurant franchise, lucrative product endorsements and million-seller hits that include “Should Have Been A Cowboy,” “American Soldier,” and “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue,” appeared as a good ol’ boy from Oklahoma in his Army-issue combat fatigues and black cap with black shades on…
Type: News
Board Approves Membership Applications
Active Sandra Abrams - Thomson Reuters, Producer; Alegra Hassan - CBN News, Producer; Charles Leocha - Tripso.com, Columnist; Robin Mazyck - Christian Broadcasting Network, Executive Producer; Molly Peterson - Bloomberg News, Reporter; Richard J. Simon - Los Angeles Times, Congressional Correspondent Active Non-Resident Janet A. Begley - Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers, Reporter; Douglas R. Currin - Nexstar Broadcasting Group, WBRE-TV, News Anchor Active Under 35 Leigh Ann Caldwell - Free Speech Radio News - Pacifica Radio, DC Editor/Correspondent; Jacqueline C. Palank - Dow Jones, Reporter…
Type: News
Latvians Predict Economic Recovery
Though hard hit by the global financial crisis, as were many other countries, Latvia is "well positioned to recover," two of the Baltic nation's top financial officials told an April 24 Newsmaker. Minister of Finance Einars Repse and Bank of Latvia Governor Ilmars Rimsevics traced the financial ups and downs of the country from a period of "excessively rapid" economic growth since joining the European Union in 2004 to an "abrupt hard landing" in 2008. Rimsevics said weaknesses in the Latvian banking system "brought one of our largest banks to the point where the government had to step in"…
Type: News
S. Africa Promises to be Ready for 2010 World Cup
Despite a severe global recession, South African officials told aNewsmaker audience on April 27 that the country will be prepared to host the 2010 World Cup -- an event that they hope will underscore the country’s political progress and draw millions of visitors. “All (South African) financial institutions are well,” said Ambassador Welile Nhlapo. “We’re not taking bailouts for anybody.” He said that the country is meeting all the economic requirements for hosting the World Cup. South Africa will have two practice runs before next summer. It is currently running a major criquet tournament…
Type: News
Owls Honor Helen Thomas; Everyone has a Hoot
Helen Thomas, dean of the White House press corps, was inducted into the Order of the Owls Thursday night during the Spring Hoot of the Club's Silver Owls. The night was heavy on nostalgia, in words and music. Newer Club members (Owlets) shared thoughts with the 25-years-plus members about the past and the future. The ceremonial award bestowed on Thomas recognizes "birds of a unique species, weathered and wise, who have nested at the National Press Club and demonstrated that they give a hoot for Washington journalism." In her response, Thomas lamented that the newspaper business isn't…
Type: News
Former White House Photographer Describes "Helluva Ride"
As the official White House photographer during the 1990s, Sharon Farmer got to know President Bill Clinton in a way few others did. He jumped over security barriers to shake hands with ordinary Americans. He wept when the Deputy Chief of Staff Harold Ickes informed him that Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin had been assassinated. And, on a state visit to Ghana, he draped himself in the traditional cloth over his suit. “I thought I died and went to heaven when Clinton wore the Kente cloth,” Farmer told members at a retrospective of her photos of the Clinton era arranged by the…
Type: News
Non-Profit Tech Company Provides Books for Vision-Impaired Students
College students who are blind or have a reading disability will have greater access to textbooks through an initiative announced at an April 29 Newsmaker. Benetech, a non-profit technology company based in Palo Alto, Calif., said that it has established an agreement with schools around the country to pool the books that they have scanned and digitization. Through the initiative, Bookshare, the online accessible library run by Benetech, connects schools so that when one of them completes the labor-intensive process of scanning and proofreading an educational text, it is available to all…
Type: News