Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Rise of the IMF

From Jenna Orkin:

Economic Crisis
ECB Warning on Banks Rattles Markets
Worst Days of US Crisis May Lie Ahead, IMF Warns
BRIC to Focus on Raising IMF Clout
Hedge Funds in Cayman Islands Withdraw from UK Banks
British Airways asks staff to work for free
Conoco Chief Says Replacing Oil May Take a Century
Krugman Warns of Japanes Style Stagnation
Three from Rice Farmer:
U.S. credit card defaults rise to record in May
California to miss budget deadline, "meltdown" nears
Supreme Court refuses to stop US-Mexico fence construction

Military/Intelligence/Asia/NeoFascism
N Korea in 'early phase of all-out confrontation with US'
Troops mass for onslaught on Taleban
Legal shield for Army chiefs in Afghanistan
British commanders offered indemnity from prosection if they make a decision that leads to the death of a soldier
Indian nuclear expert missing
Pakistan to release 'terrorist' linked to attacks
Recession toughens up the Army
Influx of new recruits has pushed the drop-out rate on the infantry's gruelling, basictraining course below 30 per cent
Neo-Nazis are in the Army now (from Rice Farmer)
Citizen Patrol's Fascist Uniform Sparks Outcry
Spooks get permission to buy off Taliban
UK Names New MI6 Boss

Climate Change
Spain warns of jellyfish invasion
Portuguese Men O' War invade the Mediterranean
Jellyfish head for UK in bumper numbers
Climate change divides the Alps down the middle
Global warming is already causing flooding in the north and water shortages in the south, report says.
Crops under stress as temperatures fall Australia's damaged wildlife
Hundreds of animals were victims of the worst bushfires in history.

Power Shortages/Africa
Power Rationed Amid Saudi Electricity Shortage
Harsh Austerity Measures Implemented in Ethiopia
Power Shortage Hits Zambia
Zimbabwe Faces More Power Cuts Due to Debt
Recession Blamed for Sharp Increase in Number of Abandoned South African Babies

And...
Mayor of New Orleans Quarantined in China
Court Clears TV Station of Extremism for "South Park"Asia News

9 comments:

Paul said...


Definancialisation, Deglobalisation, Relocalisation



Excellent transcript of a talk by the always interesting and relevant Dmitry Orlov

sandman said...

This goes back to the piece done a few days ago, on Mexico's cartel.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/17/mexico-cocaine-sharks-drugs

Thks.

Sebastian Ernst Ronin said...

Re the Economic Crisis, over the course of an email exchange on last week's WSJ secessionist article, Divded We Stand, with eyeballs (a frequent contributor to this space), I offered the following:

Yeah, no doubt, you get no argument from me. The secessionist community is going ga-ga over the WSJ exposure. Like you, my original take was: Why this? Why now? And why via the WSJ? I have some murky thoughts along the lines that you're thinking. My most concrete thought is directly related to Post-Peak Oil collapse, i.e. with a financially bankrupt federal state, the public is being prepped on its having to bail out, ergo my entire notion of secession-by-default. I think we have discussed in the past that this makes me a bit of a freak even within the secessionist community. For the most part, they're all States' Rights, go-get-'em types...no understanding of systemic and entropic collapse.

Then I dug up this piece by Chris Hedges, The American Empire Is Bankrupt. Of particular interest is the following paragraph in the article:

It is the first formal step by our major trading partners to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. If they succeed, the dollar will dramatically plummet in value, the cost of imports, including oil, will skyrocket, interest rates will climb and jobs will hemorrhage at a rate that will make the last few months look like boom times. State and federal services will be reduced or shut down for lack of funds. The United States will begin to resemble the Weimar Republic or Zimbabwe. Obama, endowed by many with the qualities of a savior, will suddenly look pitiful, inept and weak. And the rage that has kindled a handful of shootings and hate crimes in the past few weeks will engulf vast segments of a disenfranchised and bewildered working and middle class. The people of this class will demand vengeance, radical change, order and moral renewal, which an array of proto-fascists, from the Christian right to the goons who disseminate hate talk on Fox News, will assure the country they will impose.

It would seem that it was no accident that the WSJ article appeared when it did and where it appeared. As a complimentary article to the Hedges article, see:

De-Dollarization: Dismantling America’s Financial-Military Empire, by Prof. Michael Hudson.

North American Secessionist Congress, October 2010

gildone84 said...

Here's one to post in your next "update" of articles:

Are the Japanese trying to quietly unload US treasuries?

Suitcase With $134 Billion Puts Dollar on Edge: William Pesek
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=a62_boqkurbI

Don Hynes said...

"Mayor of New Orleans quarantined in China" - too bad this didn't happen pre-Katrina. This guy defines incompetence and political opportunism.

Rice Farmer said...

Power shortages are serious across a vast region including Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. India and Pakistan are chronically short of power. In the US, the availability of sufficient power for server farms is a matter of growing concern. Keep watching for those brownouts and blackouts.

businessman said...

Why is it that so many people in Iran think that their election results were tampered with, and they're taking to the streets in protest...But when election results are tampered with here in the United States, our citizens are almost all oblivious to it and dismiss anyone's discussion around it as just being conspiracy theories?

Are there covert operations being orchestrated In Iran to make their people aware of what has happened, and get them to stand up and protest against the election results?

anton v said...

Businessman -
Or is the Western media creating an appearance of an uprising inside Iran?
http://www.chartingstocks.net/2009/06/proof-israeli-effort-to-destabilize-iran-via-twitter/

businessman said...

anton v...Thanks for that article. Here's a follow-up article that I also found on that Web site after the Jerusalem Post had responded to the original article that you posted:

Click here for the Article