I was pleased to see progress with North Korea and some form of an agreement. I am hopeful that it is successful and the people in the Korean peninsula, both north and south are able to live peaceably and prosperously. Enough of the happy talk! I don’t see much difference between the current deal announced with North Korea and any of the past deals. Maybe Secretary Rice and President Bush feel its different because they are the ones negotiating and signing. However, when I consider their criticisms of the Clinton administration’s similar agreement with Pyongyang, it just doesn’t make sense. North Korea did not live up to the Nuclear Non-proliferation treaty it signed in 1985. It didn’t live up to the Agreed Framework in 1994. It did not live up to the Joint Statement in September of 2005. So forgive me if I am doubtful, but just click here and see that I am not alone. Google for these and read the optimistic quotes from both sides. If it wasn’t so sad and serious, it would almost be worth it to poke fun at how similar those comments are. I think the news of this new “agreement” spurred the market a bit yesterday and it should. Not because it means lasting peace and hope for the abused people of North Korea, but because of some indefinite period of time when we can believe that real progress is being made. Some of the past accords, lasted as long as one day, so I guess I should be happy it has held out this long. But please don’t throw a permanent peace premium into market valuations. We have rewarded them with economic aid and energy in exchange for their promises to de-nukify in the past. That’s all I saw in the current agreement and other than putting our head back in the sand, I don’t think it solved anything. We have no choice but to be “optimistically skeptical”.