Tuesday, March 24, 2009

From Jenna Orkin:

China Urges New Money Reserve to Replace Dollar
China Takes Aim at Dollar
Beijing's Barriers in Efforts to Supplant Dollar
Geithner Plan Will Rob American Taxpayer: Stiglitz
Gorbachev Calls US "Ripe for Perestroika of Your Own"
US Treasury "White Paper" on Buying Legacy Assets
Top Pension Funds Aim to Lead Bank of America Suit
As Credit Markets Froze, Banks Loaned Millions to Insiders (from Rice Farmer)
US SEC Halts Warren Buffett Investment Fraud

Recession Batters Immigrants at All Economic Levels
Neighborhoods Fear Gang Unrest Over Spring Break
But fear not. Help is on the way:
Record Numbers of People Signing Up To Be Police
Smart Grid Hackers May Cause Blackouts

UK Population Must Fall to 30 Million, Says Porritt
French Ports Face Fresh Unrest
Commerzbank Says German Economy to Shrink as Much as 7% in 2009
...and the German response to the above:
German President Says Democracy at Stake in Economic Crisis
ECB's Papademos: Quantitative Easing Is An Option
Where have we heard this before?

Austrian Economy Contracts Far More Than Expected in Q109
Poll Shows 53% Poles Against Anti-Missile Shield
Time Warner Buys Stake in Central European Media Company
Ukraine Seeks $5.5 Billion to Upgrade Gas Pipeline System
Eastern Europe's Forecasts Keep Getting Revised Downwards
Emerging Market ETFs Come Unhinged
Fears of Social Unrest in Tajikistan

From Tehran to Tel Aviv
Olive branch to Iran signals divergence between US and Israeli Policies.

India Could Be the Next Target for Angry Americans
Pakistan "Perilously Close" to Being a Failed State, Says India
S. Korea Announces New Spending to Fight Economic Slowdown
Posted by at

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is only one way to protect oneself against inflation. Buy commoddities with the new inflation causing money before it causes the inflation. Then hold those commidities until the inflation stabalizes.

I am pretty sure this is why the banks loaned themselves all that money. In fact i'm positive.

I am also positive the reason banks won't lend is because of looming inflation. Imagine you have a $1200 house payment and suddenly jobs at the convienience store pay $75 an hour. A mortgage could be paid off in months instead of decades. The bankers do not want to let this happen at any cost.

We have known for thousands of years that money changers are scum. I wonder when we will get around to doing something about it?

10:04 AM
ecosutra said...

How can Obama transition this country without exposing the tax free sustainable journey?
They must only be planning for die off. State managed die off. The paradigm cultural shifts awaiting inside the green energy integrations are not part of the consumption train cargo culture profit economic growth model.
How are the economic models of growth going to treat the sustainable people? Like Indians? I cant wait for the shift.

I wonder if you heard about Obama getting accused of misprinting Sarkosy's name as Chirac in a letter? That was not a mistake. IT was meant for the Chirac foundation. I know of this foundation. They are sponsoring permaculture earth works in Africa.


The voices in the room are being heard.

10:10 AM
Peter J. Nickitas said...

Jenna:

You got the drop on me:

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idINPEK18455820090323?rpc=44

Peter J. of Minneapolis

10:12 AM
Peter J. Nickitas said...

Jenna:

An article by Chris Hedges merits inclusion.

But for the absence of discussion of peak oil and the nature of money, the article would be comprehensive.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22280.htm

Peter J. of Minneapolis

10:30 AM
Unknown said...

RE: Pakistan "Perilously Close" to Being a Failed State, Says India

Never mind that it’s India talking about its rival. I want to talk about the potent myth of

THE FAILED STATE.

The Center for American Progress was founded in 2003 by John Podesta, formerly Chief of Staff to Bill Clinton and more recently Chairman of the Obama-Biden Transition Project. In November, 2007, as election fever was just catching hold, CAP released a big policy paper on Pakistan and Afghanistan. The authors were Caroline Wadhams, a Senior Policy Analyst at CAP, and a much heavier foreign policy commentator, Lawrence J. Korb.

Korb was Assistant Secretary of Defense under Reagan, a director of National Security Studies at CFR and a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at Brookings Institution.

I lay this out to show the credentials of people making the bizarre but telling remarks on pages 46 and 47 of The Forgotten Front, which lays out a detailed case for dramatic intervention into northwest Pakistan:

"FATA has been a chronically ungoverned space..."
"...Few economic opportunities exist in this region, there is no banking system...People’s livelihoods depend on subsistence agriculture and smuggling items such as opium and weapons."

Break it down, and what are they saying? What is “ungoverned”? When I grow up, I want to be ungoverned.

I think that means that people are doing whatever they want, and this is disturbing to people who want them to do something different. My God in Heaven, no banking system! They probably can’t make a good hamburger either. Perhaps the worst crime is that they make their livelihood on subsistence agriculture. Can’t let that happen. Put their farmers out of business, make them work in cities, then sell them expensive packaged foods. Good idea. With enough government, I’m sure this could be arranged.

As for the crimes of smuggling opium and weapons, who taught them that trick?

And all of THIS is to introduce the idea, perhaps the hottest foreign policy trick these days: THE FAILED STATE. What is a failed state? It is like a failed man.

A man’s not a man if he can’t afford a big house and a big car. A man’s not a man if he can’t drink a fifth of whiskey and still fight with his fists. A man’s not a man if he doesn’t serve in the Army. A man’s not a man if he doesn’t eat red meat. And so forth.

Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks, was quoted in the New York Times recently, saying that “Americans are just genetically opposed to socialism”. So I guess socialists are not genetically American. Remember the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities?

If you can successfully lock in a narrow definition of a term, then everything that does not live up to that definition must be deficient, less than good. A state should have banking. A state should not have a bunch of people growing wheat and keeping chickens. A state should not have unauthorized arms dealers or be passing drugs around. States just don’t do that sort of thing.

And a hidden assumption is that we must, absolutely must, have a State. Nobody must be ungoverned. And that is a main foreign policy goal of the new administration: find people not defended by strong regimes, who can easily be dominated at a great profit, then go thou and govern them. Mexico is already being mooted as a Failed State.

Susan Rice, the new Ambassador to the UN, is an expert in Failed States, and has lectured extensively on the subject. Basically, if a state is weak or failed, the Western Powers have an obligation to sort out that country and keep it from exporting its menacing behavior to other countries. After all, folks in Britain and America might decide that they were far too governed, and start planting crops in their lawns.

This is a very potent form of newspeak, and I had to call attention to it.

And F. Kamilov, I AM interested in the opinions of a Russian on issues he knows something about. Do chime in, eh?

11:17 AM
Robert said...

To Eyeballs:
Amen Brother!(Sister?)

12:56 PM
OregonSurvivor said...

Gee but it's great to be back home...

I just returned from a brief trip to Long Beach CA. My wife and I were very curious to see what the urban world looks like there. Well, the homeless are a bit more visible; yet it appears the formerly middle class homeless are living in motels while their funds hold up. Commerce continues, albeit on a much reduced scale.

There are billboards emphasizing the need to conserve water, and the news is running items about ratting out your neighbor for washing the car or watering on the wrong day.

Other than that, folks seem pretty unaffected and unaware. The Hummers and Suburbans abound on the difficult terrain of the Interstates, which are now full of potholes.

Yet aside from the rage at the banks, life goes on largely unaffected by the global meltdown.
If you live there, all of what is discussed on this blog is like some as yet unreleased disaster movie.

During the trip we read Vincent Bugliosi's book on the prosecution of GWB for murder. While the premise is intriguing, I got the feeling this is just more disinfo. In particular, the author's steadfast and uninquistive insistence that Bin Laden and Al Queda are solely responsible for 9/11 led me to believe that he has not read Rubicon!

He is as strident in his criticism of anyone who questions the official story on the JFK assassination (lone gunman with magic bullet) as he is insistent that Bin Laden was solely responsible for 9/11. In fact, he states that Bin Laden is wanted by the FBI for the 9/11 murders; when in fact according to the FBI's Most Wanted List this is not the case.

Another point of potential interest - I know someone who is an ammunition dealer on a small scale. A few weeks back, I told him that ammunition was disappearing from the stores and there appears to be a lack of production despite soaring demand. He had initially poo-pooed my claim. Now, he finds it impossible to purchase any small arms ammo in quantity or even small amounts. The store shelves are empty.

Everything is through the looking glass in Southern California. A border war is brewing with Mexico, perhaps due to the impending legalization of medical pot and the prospect of taxing California's largest cash crop. Kidnappings and abductions near the southern border are becoming more commonplace. Road rage is beginning to be accompanied by gunfire from vehicles. A stray bullet killed a baby near where we were staying in Long Beach.

Thanks MCR, JO, and all of the savvy posters here for keeping us informed.

1:13 PM
Paul said...

Chemical or nuclear attack threat 'more realistic'

Quote: "Home Secretary Jacqui Smith highlighted the danger posed by new technologies and failed states around the world as she published an updated counter-terror strategy."

Its those failed states again that we have to worry about...

Quote: "Ms Smith called for the use of "civil challenge" to those who hold extremist viewpoints."

Sounds a lot like divide and conquer to me - get different sections of the community to fight it out. Extremist viewpoint does tend to = Muslim viewpoint these days.

I wonder how much "civil challenge" will be evident at the G20 meeting in London next week? It is rumoured to have the potential for civil unrest. Will anyone carrying an anti-global slogan be considered as having an extremist viewpoint by TPTB?

4:15 PM
D! said...

Oregon Survivor,

I know a fair quantity of "mexican" herb comes through the border, but the fact remains that people would rather spend their money on high quality herb, not the south of the border variety. The drug trade is really about cocaine, heroin, designer drugs, underage children, banking, government, et all.

I think the Emmanuel decision is the best decision made yet by this adminstration. Damn near everything else they have said one thing, done another. This is like a right hook of logic, that sadly accomplishes very little in terms of a presidential adminstration. I am sure that no one takes the oath of office hoping that they be remembered for bringing SOME liberty to SOME Americans by laxing a constitutionally illegal policy that has been enforced since the passage of H.R. 215.

Bullets and blueberries,

D!

9:30 PM
Jeff said...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-border25-2009mar25,0,7329800,full.story
It looks like they are wanting to secure our southern border with every goon squad we can find,before the actual military is needed,I wonder how long it will take?Anyone live down by the border,what is it looking like?

11:35 PM
Unknown said...

An interesting pair of articles from today’s Guardian:
George Monbiot : The latest miracle mass fuel cure, biochar, does not stand up

AND

James Lovelock: What we have to do is turn a portion of all the waste of agriculture into charcoal and bury it

1:59 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)