These are excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers from around the world:

The Blade, Toledo, Ohio, on General Motors buyouts (March 27):

The generous buyouts offered to union employees at General Motors and Delphi represent a calculated risk, both for the struggling auto manufacturer and for the workers, many of whom once believed they could count on jobs for life.

GM is using the buyouts to put its years of high labour costs behind it and to restructure for the 21st Century, while 126,000 blue-collar workers at the two companies are getting a bittersweet glimpse of what life may offer beyond the shop floor.

This is a high-stakes gamble and not a sure thing for either party, nor for the economies of Ohio, Michigan, and other states with large numbers of GM employees. ...

The Greenville (South Carolina) News, on government spending (March 26)

The US government is facing enormous fiscal pressures. The evidence suggests that unless the government changes its spendthrift ways, the nation will be in for a rude awakening that could hurt seniors and the poor — and perhaps drag down the entire economy. We can't say we weren't warned.

Entitlements are growing at an unsustainable rate while the national debt has ballooned past $8 trillion. ...

Social Security and Medicare, meanwhile, will see enrolments explode beginning in 2008 as 79 million baby boomers begin to become eligible for those costly programmes.

The irony: This coming fiscal calamity has been set into motion by a Republican president and Congress. President Bush and the GOP Congress, far from cutting Medicare, expanded it via a $729 billion prescription drug plan for seniors.

At a time of war, the nation should be trying to pare back spending, not increase it.

Instead of paying all of these expenses, Bush adds much of the cost to the federal credit card. During his time in office, Bush has overseen a 46 percent increase in the federal debt, from $5.6 trillion to more than $8 trillion.

The remedy is simple though difficult to achieve. Bush and Congress have to spend less. Otherwise, the nation will fall far short of its obligations to seniors, the poor and students in the future.

Financial Times, London, on the resignation of Andrew Card (March 29):

Andrew Card might be best remembered as the man who whispered into George W. Bush's ear, "a second plane hit the second tower — America is under attack", as he was reading to children on September 11, 2001. On that occasion the White House chief of staff had no choice but to keep his president informed. But on too many others those working for the president have felt unable to pass on home truths.

By all accounts Mr. Card was a competent administrator. So too is Josh Bolten, Mr. Bush's new chief of staff who was previously director of the Office of Management and Budget. But replacing one dedicated administrator with another is unlikely to restore Mr. Bush's tattered fortunes.

Mr. Bush faces the prospect of almost three years of a lame duck presidency. Once considered an asset, the president is now spurned by fellow Republicans who are facing a tough battle to retain control of Congress in the November midterm elections.

Mr. Bush's problems extend far beyond growing public doubts about the wisdom of his administration's decision to invade Iraq or the ineptitude of post-war planning. They also extend beyond the controversy about his fiscal record, in which deficit spending has been fuelled by tax cuts at a time when the nation is told it is engaged in a long-term war to defend its values.

At the root of Mr. Bush's low credibility is a reputation for incompetence. It now disables almost everything he does. It was reinforced by his administration's poor handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster last year and the ill-judged nomination of Harriet Miers — Mr. Bush's personal lawyer — to the Supreme Court.

The president can still retrieve his credibility and public trust if he acts decisively to reinvigorate his administration. This means appointing experienced and independent figures to important White House positions — people with the stature to tell the president when he is wrong. It would mean recruiting people on the basis of their experience and not necessarily their record of loyalty to Mr. Bush.