Are we at war in Somalia?

In response, Lt. Col. Joe Sowers, a Pentagon spokesman, provided a statement indicating that the government has still not deemed the Shabab to be an “associated force” in the Qaeda war. Nevertheless, he said, the airstrike was “authorized by the 2001 A.U.M.F.” — as were three smaller airstrikes last year in Somalia, on June 28, July 29 and Nov. 21, that have received scant attention.
All four strikes were undertaken “in the tactical defense of U.S. and partner ground force units,” he said, referring to the African Union peacekeeping force known as Amisom. Its mandate is to stabilize Somalia, and several dozen American troops are embedded with it as advisers.
...
Ms. Deeks noted that by citing the authorization in order to deploy counterterrorism advisers even when Al Qaeda was not the main focus, the executive branch would avoid any fight over whether the mission was subject to the War Powers Resolution’s 60-day legal limit for certain dangerous missions that lack congressional authorization.
And Mr. Chesney said the government’s arguments could “boot strap” any presidential dispatch of military advisers to trouble spots into authority for a direct combat role — including missions with no connection to the authorization for force, like assisting African forces battling the Lord’s Resistance Army.
“Where couldn’t the president just decide to use force on that model?” he asked. “According to this logic, if you have got a ‘continuing and imminent threat’ to those advisers, it sounds like you have a really broad aperture for pre-emptively attacking the threat.”

When do we follow Russia's lead?

In a surprise announcement on March 14, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced that the Russians were withdrawing “most of our military” from Syria beginning immediately.
According to the TASS news agency, Putin said he hoped the withdrawal “will become a good motivation for launching negotiations” and “instructed the foreign minister to intensify Russia’s participation in organization of peace process in Syria.”
The withdrawal, along with Putin’s restated support for a political settlement, could help move forward the fragile UN-brokered Geneva talks on ending the Syrian crisis that began on the same day – as well as the tenuous UN-negotiated cessation of hostilities. “Those Russian servicemen who will stay in Syria will be engaged in monitoring the ceasefire regime,” TASS reported, indicating that the pilots and crews of the 50 Russian warplanes and helicopters that have been based in Syria would be withdrawn....
In the meantime, Washington should follow Russia’s lead and pressure its own proxy forces to shift towards diplomacy. The withdrawal of US troops, special forces, drones, and warplanes from Syria, paralleling the Russian move, would be an important first step. Further moves must include an end to both the CIA’s and the Pentagon’s programs to train and arm rebel forces in Syria. Finally, the US should pressure its regional allies to stop arming Syrian opposition forces, which could also keep those U.S.-supplied arms out of the hands of ISIS and the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.
All of those moves would, like the Russian withdrawal, reduce the proxy war raging in Syria – and give Washington greater leverage to urge Russia and Iran to go even further and stop arming the Syrian regime.

Fed admits the economy is weak

Federal Reserve officials held off from raising borrowing costs and scaled back forecasts for how high interest rates will rise this year, citing the potential impact from weaker global growth and financial-market turmoil on the U.S. economy.
The Federal Open Market Committee kept the target range for the benchmark federal funds rate at 0.25 percent to 0.5 percent, the central bank said in a statement Wednesday following a two-day meeting in Washington. The median of policy makers’ updated quarterly projections saw the rate at 0.875 percent at the end of 2016, implying two quarter-point increases this year, down from four forecast in December.

Nope to NIRP

German reinsurer Munich Re is boosting its gold and cash reserves in the face of the punishing negative interest rates from the European Central Bank, it said on Wednesday.
The world's largest reinsurer is far from alone in seeking alternative investment strategies to counter the near-zero or negative interest rates that reduce the income insurers require to pay out on policies.

The end of foreclosures fallout

“Affordability is a challenge this spring,” Duncan said. Prospective buyers “would have gotten their credit in shape and they’ll have a job. But they will be frustrated because, in their market, there simply won’t be affordable homes.”
...Starter-home buyers on average now need to devote 38 percent of income to housing costs, up from 32 percent four years ago, he said.
Starter homes made up 27.7 percent of the market’s inventory through February this year, down from 28.7 percent a year earlier, McLaughlin said. That’s the smallest share for the start of the year since 2012, he said.

NIRP = No Free Lunch

The central banks of Switzerland, Denmark and Sweden (all rated Aaa stable) have been among the first to push policy rates into negative territory. A year into this novel experience, Moody's Investors Service concludes that, from among the three countries, Sweden is most at risk of an -- ultimately unsustainable -- asset bubble...
"At the same time, the unintended consequences of the ultra-loose monetary policy are becoming increasingly apparent -- in the form of rapidly rising house prices and persistently strong growth in mortgage credit", adds Ms Muehlbronner. In Moody's view, these trends will likely continue as interest rates will remain low, raising the risk of a house price bubble, with potentially adverse effects on financial stability as and when house prices reverse trends. In all three countries, households are highly leveraged, and while they also have high levels of financial assets, returns on these assets will be under increasing pressure if the negative interest and yield environment persists.

Syrian Kurds to announce autonomy

Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Syria are expected to declare a federal system imminently, Kurdish officials said on Wednesday, taking matters into their own hands after being excluded from talks in Geneva to resolve Syria's civil war.
The step aims to combine three Kurdish-led autonomous areas of northern Syrian into a federal arrangement and will be sure to alarm neighboring Turkey, which fears a growing Kurdish sway in Syria is fuelling separatism among its own minority Kurds.

What's wrong with Iraq's military?

Auditors in the Iraqi parliament say that the defense ministry has spent $150 billion on weapons in the last decade but only a fraction of that has gone to buying weapons and the rest is missing.
Iraq’s defense ministry “is one of the most corrupt ministries,” the spokesperson for the parliamentary auditing committee, Adil Nuri, told Rudaw.
“Only around $20 billion worth of arms has been bought and the other $130 billion has disappeared in corruption, such as giving bribes to officials of countries they signed the deals with, or falsifying the prices,” he said.