Power and Policy Team update (English)

Isabel Gil y Patrick Signoret

War in Iraq
By August 31st America´s mission in Iraq will end, said president Obama. According to the promises made during his campaign, by the end of this month there will only be 50,000 troops in Iraq, which will be in charge of supporting and training Iraqi security forces. These troops will leave Iraq at the end of 2011. Meanwhile, Iraq is in political deadlock, five months after the parliamentary elections. Here’s a link to Obama's full speech: http://tinyurl.com/24w3j95 (NYT, FT, White House)

Israel
Ban Ki-moon formally announced the creation of a commission to investigate the incident of the Gaza flotilla. Israel, who had previously been reluctant, announced its cooperation on Monday.
(NYT)

Bernanke speech
One week before the next interest rate setting meeting, Bernanke gave a speech in South California where he argued that even though the financial crisis seems to have passed, the U.S. has still a long way to go in order to achieve full economic recovery. “A long way to go” and “caution” were the main words that stuck in markets and newspapers.
(FT)