Metan Gurcan writes:  Mules are known for their tenacity and stamina. Now they have also become “accessories to crime” targeted by the Turkish army. For hundreds of years for the people living in the Turkey-Iraq border’s hard climate and rough terrain, mules have been the primary mode of moving cargo on the ancient trade routes. With the demarcation of the Turkey-Iraq border in 1926, this traditional cross-border trade was re-branded as cross-border smuggling and the mules were made accessories to the crime of smugglling.

Decadeslong socio-economic dynamics clashed with political dynamics recently in disturbing events on the Turkey-Iraq border. Kurdish-origin villagers living there said that near the village of Ortasu, not far from Uludere (also known as Roboski) Turkish soliders killed eight mules.  At Uludere and nearby villages, people demonstrated for three days, but soldiers, armed with a court order, continued to shoot the mules.

Since the end of February there has been significant growth in smuggling on the Turkey-Iraq border.. It has become massive and organized, using mule trains of 200 to 300. To keep psychological pressure on security forces serving the area, the PKK makes good use of smuggling operations and constantly provokes villagers against soldiers. There are also allegations that guns are sometimes smuggled to terrorists strapped under bellies of mules.

The Turkish security sources point to visibly improved living conditions of the villagers along the border as evidence of their allegations. They said that in front of every village tenement there are two or three cars, at least one a luxury model. According to the sources, mules have been shot when clashes broke out after smugglers reacted to the soldiers’ order to halt by opening fire.

HDP Deputy Chairman Aydan Bilgen said the issue is not only about mules. “Borders have become an obstruction to peoples’ interests.”

The solution is simple. The state can legalize this trade, now classified as cross-border smuggling. Local people always point to the existence of a legal crossing point at Habur, which is about 300 kilometers (186 miles) away i Customs officials and security officials posted there can then regulate the cross-border trade and collect taxes. He said, “If the state wants it, this can be done in one day.”

According to a retired military officer who has served in border units and become an expert on smuggling, the people running mules are laborers who make little money. The real profit-makers are the middlemen.

Border operations require a bit of diplomatic soldiering,” adding that no matter what the soldiers do, they won’t be able to stop smuggling. To the contrary, the tougher the soldiers are, the worse their relations with the people of the area will be. The state must target the smuggling barons at the top. He warned, “The state should not tamper with the bread of the people living here. In these parts, people die for two causes: The first is honor and the second is his bread.”

Elizabeth Warren writes:  For too long, the opponents of financial reform have cast the debate as an argument between the pro-regulation camp and the pro-market camp. They generally put Democrats in the first camp and Republicans in the second.

But that so-called “choice” gets it all wrong.

Rules are not the enemy of markets. Without some basic rules and accountability, financial markets don’t work. People get ripped off, risk-taking skyrockets, and markets fall apart. Rolling back the rules or firing the cops can be profoundly anti-market.

Republicans claim – loudly and repeatedly – that they support competitive markets, but their approach to financial regulation is pure crony capitalism. It helps the rich and the powerful protect and expand their wealth and their power – and leaves everyone else behind.

This week, I gave a big policy speech which boils down to two principles:

First, financial institutions shouldn’t be allowed to cheat people. Markets work only if people can see and understand the products they are buying, only if people can reasonably compare one product to another, only if people can’t get fooled into taking on far more risk than they realize just so that some fly-by-night company can turn a quick profit and move on. That’s true for families buying mortgages and for pension plans buying complex financial instruments.

Second, financial institutions shouldn’t be allowed to get the taxpayers to pick up their risks. That’s true for using insured deposits for high-risk trading, and it’s true for letting Too-Big-to-Fail banks get a wink-and-a-nod guarantee of a government bailout.
We know what changes we need to make financial markets work better. Strengthen the rules to prevent cheating. Make the cops do their jobs. Cut the banks down to size.  Change the tax code to promote more long-term investment. Tackle shadow-banking done by non-bank firms and subsidiaries.

Changes like these can make a real difference. They can help protect hard-working families from cheats and liars. They can help rein in the lawless practices that are still too common on Wall Street. They can end Too Big to Fail.

The secret to better markets isn’t turning loose the biggest banks to do whatever they want. The secret is smarter, more structural regulation that forces everyone to play by the same rules and doesn’t let anyone put the entire economy at risk.

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The treasurer of Brazil’s ruling Workers’ Party, Joao Vaccari, has stepped down, after being arrested over corruption at oil giant Petrobras.

Mr Vaccari is  charged with an alleged scheme in which the party received dirty money from inflated deals between oil executives and construction firms.

Party president Rui Falcao said he still had confidence in Mr Vaccari.

He is the closest ally of President Dilma Rousseff to have been arrested in the broadening scandal.

The arrest places further pressure on the president, who has faced street protests, impeachment calls and plummeting opinion ratings since her re-election four months ago.

Ms Rousseff served as the head of Petrobras for much of the period when the corruption took place, but she has not been implicated in the scandal.

More than 40 politicians, including the heads of both houses of congress, are being investigated over the affair.

Prosecutors say Mr Vaccari served as the Workers’ Party’s liaison in a scheme where oil officials colluded with construction firms to artificially inflate billions of dollars worth of contracts.

According to oil officials who are testifying for the prosecution, some of the cash skimmed from the deals was diverted to the party and its allies.  The party remains sure of Mr Vaccari’s innocence, “not only because of his conduct, but because in a democratic state everyone has the fundamental right to be considered innocent until proven guilty”.

When he was first questioned in February Mr Vaccari said in a statement that the Workers’ Party only receives legal contributions and that he would co-operate with investigators.  He said he answered their questions “with transparency”.

Mr Vaccari was charged last month, becoming one of the most powerful political figures to have been named in the scandal.His arrest was reportedly ordered because of concerns that he may influence the investigation or flee the country.

Walter Russell Mead writes:  Italy has made some progress on spending cuts, but reform seems to be slowing down at just the point when real gains could be locked in. The FT reports on Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s announcement that the country will see spending cuts of €10 billion next year. That number, however, still leaves the country €6 billion behind the target savings the government was originally aiming at. Future savings gained by making the Italian government more efficient are promised, but the FT reports that some are skeptical these savings will materialize.

There’s a reason why many advanced governments today have trouble meeting budget cut targets. At the end of the day, the cuts that would be least painful for Italian society would be unbearably painful for special interests that are well-entrenched in the political system. Making government procurement more effective, with less room for waste and corruption, for example, wouldn’t harm any of those who depend on government services — but it would reduce the profits of the well-connected crony capitalists and the local politicians who are hand in glove with them.

Similarly, reducing bloated staffing, rationalizing government administration, and otherwise making government more transparent and effective would enable taxpayers to enjoy the same level of services with less debt and taxes. A clear gain, you would think, but politics (and not just in Italy) has a hard time delivering this kind of result.

In the U.S. as well as in Italy, many of our debt and spending problems don’t come from the ‘greed’ of those who receive government services. They come from government ineptitude and from those who profit from bloated and irrational delivery systems. From our defense procurement system to infrastructure to the health care system to higher ed, our country—like many of the other advanced industrial democracies—suffers from the high costs of a badly-run state.

The left characteristically attacks all forms of spending discipline as a cold-hearted assault on the poor even while it continues to serve the special interests in the governance machine. For its part, the right howls rhetorically about the evils of spending, but is also unwilling to go after deep-pocketed special interests who profit from government inefficiency (think, for example, of state politicians everywhere who suck up to crony capitalist highway construction firms, or presidential candidates bowing to the Iowa ethanol lobby).

The left—in Italy as in the U.S.—needs to learn that budget discipline properly done helps the poor rather than hurts them. The right needs to learn the importance of governing well so as to govern less intrusively and less expensively. There is an agenda here that could electrify voters and put us on the road to better societies with less debt. Let’s hope that a new generation of real reformers will come along to give us the government we need at a price we can pay.