Sunday, March 11, 2007

Market Failure; Pentagon Spy Work; Civil Liberties/ Patriot; Iran Attack; Russian Journalist/Iran/Syria; Neurolaw

"The Biggest Market Failure the World Has Ever Seen"
US Seeks to Put Anti-Missile Radar in Caucasus
US Economy Leaving Record Numbers in Severe Poverty

Ahmedinejad's First Trip to Saudi Arabia
Gates May Scale Back Pentagon Spy Work
Civil Liberties Advocates' Worst Fears Realized with Patriot Act
This is what FTW predicted in Mike's article 'The 'F' Word" J.O.

Study Says Iran Attack Would Backfire
Russian Journalist Who Died in Fall Reportedly Investigated Weapons Sales to Iran and Syria
Neurolaw
The implications of these experiments for government abuse are scary, particularly from Section V on. J.O.

From the Daily Reckoning: Ben Bernanke explains how inflation got to be so low:
...Mr. Bernanke explained that they lied their heads off by saying that if the price of something in the basket of goods and services they measure goes up in price (to which I scream "Which IS inflation, isn't it?"), then they assume that the average consumer will buy less of it!
I am agog! What in the hell the penny-pinching shopping behaviors of cash-strapped consumers has to do with existing prices is totally, totally beyond me, but it apparently makes some stupid kind of sense to this Bernanke idiot, and apparently also to the Congressional idiots on the banking committee, who sat around stupidly nodding their heads at this outrage - I assume because they are not bright enough to know when their intelligence is blatantly being insulted! Jeez!
Then, he explained to these Congressional halfwits, your average consumer will settle for a basket of goods and services containing less satisfaction (but at the same cost) by not getting what they want, because the price is too high, but happily substituting something else that is cheaper but less desirable, and thus, at the end of the asinine mumbo-jumbo, the consumer did not end up spending more money to buy the aggregate basket of goods and services! So (they figure), no inflation! Hahaha!

13 comments:

Jenna Orkin said...

thanks, butch, for the heads-up on the software difficulty. the problem should be fixed now.

Rice Farmer said...

US Economy Leaving Record Numbers in Severe Poverty -- This is another "mission accomplished." In my view, the whole idea behind the neocon economic program is to shift as much wealth as possible upwards to the elites, then crash the economy, declare martial law, and make the US into a kind of fascist neo-feudalist state. The elites, who have concentrated most of the wealth and power in their own hands, will be the new aristocracy. The rest of us will be the new serfdom: disposable labor for the factories and tomato fields, and cannon fodder for the battlefields of endless war. So everything we see going on now is the elites getting their ducks lined up.

Rice Farmer said...

I see that Halliburton is moving its corporate HQ to Dubai.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070311/emirates-halliburton

It's amazing that some people still hold fast to the fiction that the US did not attack Iraq for the oil.

Michael Anderson said...

Don't know if this fits this particular post or not, but I want to bring up a book I'm reading. First heard about it in a bulletin from Solari.com. Available from Red Pill Press in Canada, it's called "Political Ponerology---A science on the nature of evil adjusted for political purposes", by Andrew M. Lobaczewski. It talks about the nature of evil from a psychological standpoint, using scientific psychoanalysis to define the genesis, maturation, and end effects of evil from a personal all the way up to a societal level---micro to macro. It is written in European scholar-ese, so it's a bit ponderous to get through at times, but I highly recommend it if you can make the attempt. It just might be the "missing link" in our knowledge base to understanding the sickness and psychopathic personas that seem to rule us, where we are now--and where we may end up.

Thanks, Michael

gaelicgirl said...

A fascinating and poignant article on Peak Oil....got rave reviews on The Oil Drum:

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/2364#more

Rice Farmer said...

Mohammed says responsible for 9/11 attacks
http://rawstory.com/showarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reuters.com%2Farticle%2FtopNews%2FidUSN1433573220070314

Oh, brother...

Rice Farmer said...

Energy Bulletin came through with their promised collection of comments on the rosy NYT peak oil article.

http://www.energybulletin.net/27028.html

And thanks to gaelicgirl for the tip on Oil Drum article!

A peon said...

Another heads up,I was trying to access Stan Goff's "Encroachment" article,and was sucessful except for Part 3.It says the link may be out of date.

gaelicgirl said...

Rice Farmer, thanks for the link to the Energy Bulletin responses to the NYTimes article. It would be nice if they could get some of those into the NYTimes.

Rice Farmer said...

Several of the Energy Bulletin comments on the NYT peak oil article made the same points I did about price and EROEI. Ignoring these doesn't make peak oil go away! And one commenter said, with regard to the "iron triangle," "some exporters are afraid of military takeovers." This seems almost like an offhand remark that many people would skim over and think nothing more about, but this is actually a seminal observation! What if oil exporting nations were frank about peak oil and said, "Hey the easy oil is pretty much gone, so what are we gonna do now?" It would be like leading with one's chin. This is likely one big reason that the Saudis aren't forthcoming with their data. Further, the fear of military takeover is also an inducement for oil exporting countries to inflate their reserves data (to make it look as if there's still lots of oil left), which of course will only make matters worse.

gaelicgirl said...

Good point, Rice Farmer, about oil exprters and the fear of military takeover. When I read that, it did seem like a jarring note, but I didn't follow it through to its logical conclusion. On another topic, here is an incisive article on KS Mohammed's recent "confessions" from Global Research. It references Mike Ruppert and quotes from "Crossing the Rubicon".:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CHI20070316&articleId=5091

Rice Farmer said...

Yea, this KSM "confession" story is so ludicrous I can't stop laughing! And it seems to be timed to deflect attention from the attorney firing scandal. KSM, who is likely long dead, "confessed" to things he couldn't possibly have been involved in, even if he were alive. What does this mean when the government brazenly releases a story that is patently false?

Rice Farmer said...

China Rebuilds "Energy Route" to India
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4960