THE GLOBAL INSURRECTION AGAINST WESTERN OCCUPATION
Norway Bombing Causing Israel Govt.Collapse
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Well, let's say David Duke is David Duke and what he says about immigration apart, he makes a solid point about the Zionists and their global agenda of World Government.
The second video was a new take on the present unrest in Israel and I listened to it with a great deal of interest. The connection with Norway sounded very well thought out. Though at a high price, indeed, if it does lead to a change in government to more reasonable policies, some small good will have been wrested from the Norwegian tragedy.
Duke is what he is, as said above, and we simply fellow-travellers, no party members. So, all right, his views on immigration, which he persists in calling "massive, might be myopic, but the rest of it is spot on.
Today in Israel, some 150.000 people demonstrated against the government. So perhaps the Norway was the cutting off point for Likud's murderous activities. Though one does tend to wonder whether any change of government can turn Israel into a more palatable entity.
Breaking: NO DEAL! Last Minute Debt Ceiling Bill To Avoid Default Defeated In Senate - 31.7.11
Live From Washington: The U.S. Senate has just defeated a last minute debt ceiling bill deal to avoid a U.S. default.
The bill was defeated by a vote of 50 Yeas to 49 nays which is far short of the 60 vote 3/5ths majority needed to pass. It was the last vote before Asian markets open in just a few hours.
So what next? A massive sell off on the markets of bonds, etc. tomorrow?
A game of chicken is being run in Washington by two groups of politicians run and owned by the same group of people behind the scenes. They all want enabling debt extension with a small touch of austerity. They want a deal that has the legs to keep the economy going until after the next election. The most important thing they want is a reduction in Social Security and Medicare, so those funds can be used to reduce debt and fund the military industrial complex. They also want starvation and the inability to buy drugs by the elderly to hasten their demise. That means less Social Security and Medicare spending. In two years there will also be the Obamacare death panels, where massive elimination will be put into motion. There is nothing the powers that be despise worse than useless eaters. There is ample evidence that these elitists, by their own words, want to reduce world population by 60% to 90%, dependent on which of these persons you listen too. Last week Ted Turner opted for 90% on CNN. That is what the fight regarding debt extension is all about.
This morning's news so far is nothing to write home about:
- US has come to yet another debt ceiling agreement. No need for details. It should be passed during the course of the day.
- From Syria comes the usual disinformation about so many deaths. And that creep Hague is panting for US military interventon in Syria. Well, time will tell.
- And this, in spite of the mess up in Libya, but Hague will never learn. And neither will the others.
- It's August 1, 2011. To all the Muslims worldwide, embarking on the month of Ramadan, our best wishes. And Switzerland gears up to celebrate its own National Day. More power to them, though that won't save them from the prolapse either. Perhaps then they'll stop funding all these wars behind the scenes.
The ultimate fiasco is unfolding before us. NATO are keeping dangerous company with these CIA, salafist networks or is it the CIA, Salafist networks which are keeping dangerous company with NATO. Of course, NATO kept similar company in Kosovo, but at that time they were still able to spin everything to order. Now there game is falling apart- time for Hague to answer for himself in the House of Commons: was he warned about the criminal connections of these groups before he appointed them as Libya’s official representatives? Anyway he can only look away in horror as these words are written on the wall
“We want Muammar to come back! We want the green flag back!”
N.B. Salafis or Wahabis belong to the Brit-engineered sect in Saudi Arabia whose unending money supply has created so many problems for most Muslim countries.
From what we've just heard NATO is invading that country, the reason being that after the killing of General Younes, his own tribe, the largest in Libya is in the process of marching on Benghazi to exact revenge. The Libyan army might join them in that. Meanwhile, NATO, panic-stricken, no doubt, has begun sending out helis packed full with their soldiers to defend Benghazi. With a bit of luck, this will turn out to be the end game for the west in Libya.
The Vespa Has Crashed Into The Mountain: Italy Burning - 1.8.2011
Italy is undergoing a slow motion crash, with bank after bank getting halted, first Intesa, then Monte Paschi, and most recently, main bank Unicredit. The FTSEMIB is now down a whopping 5.5% from intraday highs, led by the financial sector which may or may not last the week absent another EFSF expansion as we have speculated before. Of course, should that happen, Italy becomes a liability and not a funder, meaning the proportional obligations of Germany and France will surge, just as we explained two weeks ago. And more bad news: the spread between the 10 year Italy - Bund just hit an all time wide of 349, +16 bps on the session, as Italy CDS are now trading 328, +12, and Spain is 9 bps wider to 374. Time for bailout #3, this time to rescue Italy, then Belgium and Spain, then France and the UK, until finally the Fourth Reich, in the darkness, shall bind them.
Saudi-backed forces attack Bahrainis: The Monday attack comes as protesters have demanded an end to the Al Khalifa regime, complaining about injustice and discrimination.
(This is one Muslim "revolution" the MSM will not touch. The blogs alone report on it faithfully. When Bahrein is finally free, the west reign over the area's Muslims will have come to an end.)
Iceland’s loud No: The people of Iceland have now twice voted not to repay international debts incurred by banks, and bankers, for which the whole island is being held responsible. With the present turmoil in European capitals, could this be the way forward for other economies?
As if not enough, here's another danger threatening the country: Israel accuses Iceland of "anti-semitism." Similar charges by the Jewish state presaged the Mossad attacks in Oslo. Reykjavik and Akureyri should be on full alert for non-Arab "Middle Eastern looking," "Mediterranean looking," and "dark-haried non-Nordic-looking" individuals. All three are "politically-correct" international law enforcement code phrases for Israelis.
I'd keep an eye open, too, for the blonde, blue-eyed, no less dangerous Breivik types.
Sacking of Turkish top military officers appears to have been something more serious -- perhaps the suppression of an attempted military coup by Ergenekon holdouts. Reuters/Rothschild calls Ergenekon an "alleged conspiracy." There's nothing alleged about the Rothschild/Israeli connection to Ergenekon and the Turkish Donmeh. Turkey's situation linked to Breivik and his Zio-Nazi network: Breivik had a keen interest in Ergenekon's tactics. A European-wide set of coups appears to have been in the Zio-Nazi playbook -- Breivik also sought to launch a coup against Norwegian government and King Harald V. Breivik refuses to divulge other cells but he had traveled to several countries: Sweden, Denmark, UK, Germany, Poland, Belarus (where he underwent paramilitary training), France, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Switzerland, Spain, Cyprus, Malta, US (where he allegedly visited for two months last year Lake Elmo, Minnesota, the home of Bachmann & Associates, the "de-gaying" clinic owned by Marcus Bachmann, husband of GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann), Turkey, Mexico, China, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire and Liberia. Cyprus has seen political instability since a massive explosion of a weapons cache at its main naval base, which also destroyed Cyprus's main power plant forcing blackouts. President Demetris Christofiasis the first president from the Communist AKEL Party. From Norway to Turkey and Cyprus, a connected network, with links to Israel, appears to be targeting nations that support Palestinian sovereignty.
Putin says U.S. is "parasite" on global economy 1.8.11
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused the United States Monday of living beyond its means "like a parasite" on the global economy and said dollar dominance was a threat to the financial markets.
"They are living beyond their means and shifting a part of the weight of their problems to the world economy," Putin told the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi while touring its lakeside summer camp some five hours drive north of Moscow.
The force that is rapidly entering into this conflict is the leadership of Libya’s more than 2000 tribes. In a series of meetings in Libya, Tunisia and elsewhere, the Tribal Council is speaking out forcefully and forging a political block that is demanding an end to Libyans killing Libyans.
Generally considered Libya’s largest tribe, are the Obeidis to which the Younnis family belongs. Some of the tribal leaders and members have vowed revenge against rebel leaders and as they carried the coffins of Abdul Fatah and his two companions they chanted, under the gaze of security forces, “the blood of martyrs will not go in vain."
Libya’s Tribal Council has issued a manifesto which makes clear that it intends to end this conflict, help expel “the NATO crusaders”, achieve reforms while supporting the Gaddafi, Tripoli based government. Before Ramadan is over, it intends to end Libya’s crisis even if it needs to rally its hundreds of thousands of active members to march on Benghazi.
NATO, according to various academics at Al Nasser and Al Fatah University, and Libya’s Tribal leadership, appear surprisingly ignorant and even contemptuous of this country’s tribes and their historic roles during times of crises and foreign aggression and occupation. One tribal leader well known to Italy was Omar Muktar.
As NATO and its backers contemplate their End Game they may want to consider some excerpts from the Libyan Tribal Council’s manifesto issued on July 26. Speaking for Libya’s 2000 tribes, the Council issued a Proclamation signed by scores of tribal leaders from eastern Libya.
"What is called the Transitional Council in Benghazi was imposed by NATO on us and we completely reject it. Is it democracy to impose people with armed power on the people of Benghazi, many of whose leaders are not even Libyan or from Libyan tribes but come from Tunisia and other countries.”…
“The Trial Council assures its continuing cooperation with the African Union in its suggestions aimed at helping to prevent the aggression on the Libyan people”.…
“The Tribal Council condemns the crusader aggression on the Great Jamahiriya executed by the NATO and the Arabic regressive forces which is a grave threat to Libyan civilians as it continues to kill them as NATO bombs civilian targets.”…
“We do not and will not accept any authority other than the authority that we chose with our free will which is the People’s Congress and Peoples Committees, and the popular social leadership, and will oppose with all available means, the NATO rebels and their slaughter, violence and maiming of cadavers. We intend to oppose with all the means available to us the NATO crusader aggressors and their appointed lackeys”.
According to one representative of the Libyan Supreme Tribal Council, “The tribes of Libya have until today not fully joined in repelling the NATO aggressors. As we do, we serve notice to NATO that we shall not desist until they have left our country and we will ensure that they never return.”
The hypothesis that the US is planning a partial relocation of its military infrastructures from Afghanistan to Central Asia appears to be gaining momentum. A dead giveaway, according to columnist Aleksandr Shustov, is the heigthened intensity of Washington’s diplomatic transactions with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan and the consequent loss of Moscow’s influence in the region.
»Fired Bahraini workers demand jobs August 1, 2011 PressTV
Hundreds of workers in Bahrain have assembled outside the Ministry of Labor, demanding the government reinstate all unlawfully dismissed workers.
The recently-fired workers, who have been sacked for taking part in anti-regime demonstrations, gathered in front of the ministry in the Bahraini capital, Manama, on Monday, Press TV reports.
The Bahraini government and state-linked firms have fired more than two thousand workers since late March, according to Human Rights Watch.
Meanwhile, people in the southern Bahraini city of Sitra held a funeral service for a protester who was killed on Sunday when regime troops fired tear gas to disperse anti-government demonstrators.
On Monday, Saudi-backed security forces in Bahrain abducted a teenager from his home and tortured him for two hours.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates deployed military forces to Bahrain in mid-March to assist the Manama government in its brutal crackdown on the popular protests.
Scores of people have been killed and hundreds more arrested in Bahrain since mid-February. Numerous protesters have also been detained and transferred to unknown locations during the brutal onslaught on protesters.
Bond markets are now flashing warning signs about Italy and Spain. As Europe's sovereign debt crisis has unfolded over the past 15 months, markets have sensed a country is in trouble when the yield (interest rate) on its 10-year bonds has risen above 6%. The trigger for a bailout has been when yields have topped 7%. In Spain, the peak for yields yesterday was 6.45%; in Italy it was 6.14%.
"We are on the brink of a major sovereign debt crisis," said one analyst. He added that there were similarities between Europe in the summer of 2011 and the US mortgage meltdown four years ago. Greece and Portugal were akin to America's sub-prime borrowers, who were the first to run into problem, but subsequently the crisis spread to borrowers with slightly better prospects. In the context of Europe, that was Italy and Spain, with Italy's national debt of 130% of GDP making it a more pressing problem.
A very critical month of August predicted for the two major European countries. And thereafter for the rest of the Eurozone?
Greece In Panic: Masses Race To Pull Cash From Banks Causing A Great Depression Style Bank-Run 2.8.11
The Guardian reports that while Western media has been silent on the issue Greece is in an absolute state of panic facing a Great Depression style run on the banks as people race to withdraw their cash. The first serious bank run since the Greek crisis began.
Please to note, as the video prognosticated, mass demos in Israel, only sparsely reported in MSM, carry on against the government. Cosmetic or for real? Only time will tell. I personally think it might be a good sign of some kind of change in the air.
And now to Syria's "Colour Revolution". This particular manifestation of street violence has so far mainly been fought by the Mainstream Media which has taken every occasion to report wrongly on Syrian events. What Syria is actually facing is a fully-armed insurgency led by that notorious band called the Muslim Brotherhood, more rightly termed the Muslim Mercenaries, US-funded, London-directed, with tremendous backing from neighbouring Turkey which has suddenly shown its true colours as a precious west asset. So not to believe a word of what MSM thunders out about Hama massacres of the poor and undefended on the part of the Assad government.
It looks more and more as though the overall aim might be to drag Iran into a war on behalf of Syria and to get Lebanon into the picture as well. Hard times ahead, friends, hard times ahead.
Europe NOT considering rescue plans for Italy, Spain - 2.8.11
BRUSSELS (MarketWatch) — The European Union has no plans to provide rescue loans to Italy and Spain, despite the rising borrowing costs facing these countries, a European Commission spokeswoman said Tuesday.
The US debt ceiling farce ended as expected: with the worst of "deals" imaginable. So what now? More of the same. The wars, which account for 75% of US expenditure, will carry on unabated, reinforced: Have a look at this:
US Military To Be Based In Australia To Confront China
Call To Expand American Counterinsurgency Operations In Philippines
US Could Upgrade Polish Warships For Baltic Sea
Bulgaria: Pentagon Continues Upgrading Military Bases
US Uses Romanian Air Base To Supply Afghan War
America’s Africa Partnership Station In East Africa
Mongolia: US Leads NATO, Asian NATO Allies In Military Exercise
Libyan War: Over 17,000 NATO Air Missions, Nearly 6,500 Strike Sorti
The Big Picture: War on Libya is War on Africa
What in the world is a country facing bankruptcy and default doing conducting military exercises in Mongolia and Central Asia? What is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, designed to counter a Soviet thrust into Western Europe, doing in Mongolia?
"To each his own mystery, The secret inviolate for all."
Israeli Credit Rating May Be Cut by S&P in Line With U.S. Action - 2.8.11
Israel may have its AAA credit rating on U.S.-guaranteed sovereign bonds cut by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service in line with a similar action it has warned of taking on U.S. debt.
S&P put Israel’s rating on “CreditWatch” today, meaning there is a 50 percent chance it may be cut in the next 90 days. It said the action should have been taken July 14 when the U.S. rating was placed on “CreditWatch,” attributing the lapse to an administrative error.
Chinese agency downgrades U.S. credit rating 3.8.11
Although the United States narrowly avoided an unprecedented default following congressional approval of a last-minute compromise plan to raise the debt ceiling, China's leading credit rating agency Wednesday downgraded U.S. sovereign debt after putting it on negative watch last month.
The Dagong Global Credit Rating Company, which lowered the United States to A+ last November after the U.S. Federal Reserve decided to continue loosening its monetary policy, announced a further downgrade to A, indicating heightened doubts over Washington's long-term ability to repay its debts. : This means that the interest rates on the debt China holds have just increased. Technically, the US Government has just gone into default. We may well see a "bird on a wire" effect as the other global credit ratings agencies, also start to downgrade the credit rating of the US Government.
Ten tenacious beliefs held by people regarding 9/11:
1. They believe that 4 young pilots who love money, alcohol and sex, could be convinced to kill themselves for a religious purpose. 2. They believe that four teams of four to five rather smallish men could subdue 40 to 80 passengers without using firearms and without raising the suspicion of the pilots. 3. They believe it is possible to subdue a pilot and co-pilot in their flight cabin before either can transmit a hijacking code, a verbal Mayday message, or raise the suspicion of the crew. 4. They believe a person who could hardly control a one-engine Cessna can fly a Boeing passenger airliner on instruments alone for more than an hour in a foreign country and crash this airliner at 500 mph into the side of a building 20 feet above ground. 5. They believe the capital of the United States, Washington, D.C. , is undefended against approaching unidentified aircraft. 6. They believe crashing aircraft can disintegrate, leaving no visible debris such as fuselage, wings, tail or engine. 7. They believe an airliner with 45 passengers can crash without leaving visible bodies and blood. 8. They believe debris from a crashing airplane can be found eight miles away. 9. They believe it is possible to induce a free-fall collapse of a skyscraper by hitting it with an airplane (even if the skycraper was designed to withstand such a strike) and then letting the resulting fire bring it down. 10. They believe that 19 Arab terrorists actually boarded the four aircraft that crashed on 9/11.
The most shcoking thing of all is, as has been recently reported, Vladimir Putin seems to hold similar views, strenuously denying it was an inside job. Perhaps Putin should return to school and learn his abc again.
There is something to be said for the view that the downfall of the US empire (and subsequently of the entire west) began 21 years ago when, on 2nd August 1990, the US launched its Coalition- of-the-Willing attack Desert Storm against Iraq. The war-taboo once broken, the invasion of other countries became the norm in the west, a fitting substitute in their eyes for all other forms of economic activity.
FTSE drops as EU chief warns of euro crisis spread - 4.8.11
The President of the European Commission has warned that the eurozone debt crisis is spreading and suggested that future bailout funds may need to increase in size. In a letter to European Governments, José Manuel Barroso also criticised the July 21 bailout package agreed by EU leaders. He added that that Europe urgently needs to assess many aspects, including the size of the European Financial Stability Facility. “I ... urge a rapid reassessment of all elements related to the EFSF, and concomitantly the ESM [European Stability Mechanism], in order to ensure that they are equipped with the means for dealing with contagious risk,” Mr Barroso said. The FTSE 100 sank again this afternoon, shedding 130 points, or 2.3 per cent, to 5,456 after heavy losses yesterday.
Further to above, 16:19, the Dow lost 350 points today and is said to be in the grip of total fear. Well, I ask you, you have such bad nerves and you play the stockmarket. Better the people there found themselves another job. Oops, sorry, I'd forgotten. No other jobs available at the moment.
If Italy's gold and that belonging to France is held in the same place as German gold, i.e. Fort Knox, US, there is no way they are ever going to get it back, the gold having been used up by the host country sometime back and replaced by gold-plated tungsten bars. Ditto for Swiss gold.
As for the IMF, Christiane Lagarde has a criminal case against her on in France. With a bit of luck, she, too, goes the way she sent her predecessor, Dominique Strauss Kahn.
For once the Plunge Protection Team (PPT) got hit over the head:
Global Stock Sell-Off Follows Today's 512 Point Crash Of The DOW - 4.8.11
Massive global stock sell-off follows today's 512 point crash of the DOW, which was the worse drop since the 2008 Financial Crisis and the 9th worse ever.Dow Crashes 512 Points - Worse Since 2008 Financial Collapse, 9th Worse Drop Ever.
MSCI Asia Pacific index dropped 3.8 per cent, Nikkei 225 down 3.8 percent, fell 3.5 per cent, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 3.8 per cent to a two-year low.
China’s Shanghai Composite index shed 2.3 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index off 4.8 per cent, Taiwan’s Taiex index plunged 4.3 per cent with Chimei Innolux, and In Indonesia, the Jakarta Composite down 5 per cent.
FTSE slides to fifth biggest weekly fall on record - 5.8.11
Index closes 146 points down despite rally on US job figures, with £149bn wiped out in week. From what we hear, the Dow is also down as are the Asian markets.
And while one is keeping an eye on Israel, let's not forget the student protests in Chile and the clashes between the indignados and riot police in Madrid.
What is the amount of the outstanding debt of Greece? 367 billion euros. Who does Greece owe this money to? Mainly to other European countries.
Right. Ireland now: Debt: 865 billion owed to other European countries mainly.
Spain? Owes one trillion to: France, Britain and Germany.
Italy, ditto
Spain owes Italy one billion and Italy owes Spain 27 billion.
So what does it all boil down to? Bankrupt nations scramble to bailout other bankrupt nations. So where does all this lead us, how is the whole thing going to end? Anyone's guess.
Oh, yes, definitely. Let's raise our glasses merrily to the Great Demise! Also to the courage shown by S&P. Moody's was just talk. S&P, following Dagong on this not to forget, put its money where its mouth is. A blessed day for us all!
So where is NATO at today? We hear they are gearing up to attack Syria through the good offices of fellow Muslim country Turkey, further to dragging Iran, Syria's military alliance partner, into the conflict. Good. And what of Libya and Afghanistan?
In Libya, the tribes have captured some 15 senior NATO personnel active on Libyan soil and will no doubt use them as bargaining chips.
As for hardy Afghanistn, they brought down yet another enemy heli in Eastern Afghanistan yesterday. And as for French troops there, to quote the Afghan National Resistance:
"23 French invaders killed as 2 huge enemy tanks eliminated in Kapisa Aug. 05 – There are reports from Kapisa province that two powerful detonations struck two huge armored tanks of the French invaders near the capital of the province on Friday night at about 11:00 pm, tearing the invaders’ gigantic double-decker military apart and killing at least 23 French invading troops besides wounding many others. Witnesses reported seeing the ambulance helicopter landing the blast scene and airlifting the dead and wounded from the site of the explosion."
We haven't fogotten. We will never forget. We salute the memory of those who died in Hiroshima on this day as the first nuclear bomb the world had ever known was callously, casually dropped down on that city. this act of ruthlessness being repeated three days later, on Aug 9, on Nagasaki. We the children of generations following those who died in those two explosions will never forgive what was done to you then.
World's financial markets closed for business nursing losses of more than $2.5 trillion (£1.53tn) after a week of selling - 5.8.11
Global financial markes are on the brink of crisis after a week of turbulent selling.
The world's financial markets closed for business nursing losses of more than $2.5 tn (£1.53tn) after a week of turbulent selling not seen since the dark days of late 2008, when the big beasts of banking were forced to beg for government help and the global economy was gripped by its worst recession since the 1930s.
Hundreds of billions of pounds have been wiped off share prices in London. Across the Atlantic, Wall Street alone was staring at losses of $2tn or more after a fortnight of almost incessant selling. Front pages again carried pictures of traders with their heads in their hands looking at a sea of red on their computer screens.
The jagged downward lines of share price indices pointed the way in which the world economy seems to have turned after a week that has left the financial system on the brink of another global crisis. It seems that the problems that first emerged at the outset of the credit crunch four years ago almost to this very day – the unofficial anniversary is this coming Tuesday, 9 August – never went away despite billions of taxpayer support for the system.
China tells U.S. "good old days" of borrowing are over - 6.8.11
China bluntly criticized the United States on Saturday one day after the superpower's credit rating was downgraded, saying the "good old days" of borrowing were over.
Standard & Poor's cut the U.S. long-term credit rating from top-tier AAA by a notch to AA-plus on Friday over concerns about the nation's budget deficits and climbing debt burden.
China -- the United States' biggest creditor -- said Washington only had itself to blame for its plight and called for a new stable global reserve currency.
"The U.S. government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone,"
Insurgents shot down a U.S. military helicopter during fighting in eastern Afghanistan, killing 31 Americans, most of them belonging to the same elite unit as the Navy SEALs who killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, U.S. officials said Saturday. It was the deadliest single loss for American forces in the decade-old war against the Taliban.
One might wonder why this was made public whereas other similar deaths were carefully hushed up. Would it be because one wished to cover up on the deaths which had occurred in Pakistan when one of the US copters crashed or was shot down or were the SEALS deliberately lured to their deaths because some of them had decided to tell the true story of the non-killing of Osama bin Laden, dead these past ten years already?
France and Italy stand by to bail out biggest banks as euro crisis worsens 7.8.11
Fears are growing this weekend that two of Europe’s largest banks may require a bailout, having been hugely damaged by the worsening crisis across the eurozone.
In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy is having to confront the possibility that the country’s second-biggest bank, Societe Generale -commonly known as SocGen - is on the brink of disaster after huge losses over loans made to Greece.
The chilling possibility of the largest bank in Italy, UniCredit Banca, suffering a similar collapse if a bailout is not implemented comes as Silvio Berlusconi already faces an increasingly dangerous national economic situation.
Violence, vandalism and looting spread beyond Tottenham and Enfield to reach Brixton, leaving 35 police injured
There has been a second night of rioting across London, with violence erupting in several of the capital's boroughs, from Brixton in the south to Enfield and Islington in the north and Walthamstow to the east...
- In Spain, police and demonstrators battled on the streets of Madrid. The indignados now plan to march on Brussels, joining up with French dissidents on the way.
- In Israel, 300 thousand marched through various cities in anger at and disagreement with the government.
- Nothing in the US so far. But as this short item points out:
"Finally there is this: 'If you think this can't happen in the United States - you're dreaming! What happens in London makes it to the US, in short order, every time. This is the price that the thugs in US police Departments are about to have to pay, for what they've been doing, in places like Oakland and Tucson and Phoenix, and a lot of other cities now for the last year plus! The people in London have figured it out."
After a week that saw $2.5 trillion wiped off global stock markets, European policymakers held a series of emergency conference calls on Sunday to discuss the twin debt crises in Europe and the USA that are causing market turmoil, and stoking fears that the Depression might actually affect some members of the plutocracy (e.g. bondholders).
Because Spain’s and Italy’s economies are in severe trouble (i.e. overloaded with debt), yields on Italian and Spanish debt (i.e. bonds) have soared to 14-year highs. That’s great for investors, but they hold $2.57 trillion worth of Italian bonds alone, which is 120 percent of Italy’s national output. Hence Italy is already bankrupt, and must inevitably default. Spain will too -- in which case investors will end up getting less than they expected.
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services on Monday lowered the ratings on U.S.-guaranteed bonds issued by the Israeli government to AA+ from AAA. The downgrade comes in the wake of the ratings agency's move on Friday to strip the U.S. of its triple-A rating. However, Israel's sovereign rating is unchanged at A with a stable outlook. The decision affects about $6 billion in debt
Not content with that, S & P went on to downgrade Warren Buffet,fellow ratings agency Moody's and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. All this is going to have a tremendous effect on municipal bonds.
Greece In Panic: Masses Race To Pull Cash From Banks Causing A Great Depression Style Bank-Run
The Guardian reports that while Western media has been silent on the issue Greece is in an absolute state of panic facing a Great Depression style run on the banks as people race to withdrawal their cash.
British police say violence and looting has spread to a third city, with authorities handling outbreaks of violence in the northern city of Liverpool.
Liverpool's police department said officers were responding to a "number of isolated outbreaks of disorder," including vehicles set ablaze and buildings attacked in the city's southern neighborhoods.
So far affected: London, Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool.
Before the day is much older, please to spare a thought for Nagasaki, its victims and its survivors. Please to remember who bombed whom and on what flimsy grounds. And please to vow that everything will be done for such a thing never to be repeated again or else the planet along with all it carries will vanish from the world.
Rising Horus, we grieve along with you today as we did only three days ago. We hope Fukushima news is only the MSM giving us its usual baloney, but you know best how Japan might be affected today.
Germany is a country that does not have a national minimum wage, and where 2 million workers are now paid around €5 (£4.35) an hour. Most other comparable European countries have a minimum wage – from France to the Netherlands to Greece – and in the UK the hourly rate is about to go up to £6.08. As Germany's leading expert on pay and inequality, Gerhard Bosch, observes, workers in manufacturing (BMW and VW, say) still get good wages and conditions, thanks to their strong trade unions. And there are lessons to be learned from how to use banks to foster decent small-business growth and maintain a manufacturing supply chain. As for the rest, he says: "The German social model is really like a Swiss cheese where the holes are getting larger and larger."
Put in big-picture terms, this means that Germany is really the No 1 problem economy in Europe. Again, that sounds plain wrong: surely the bad cases are on the southern periphery of the eurozone?
But consider: German workers saw their wages (after inflation) actually fall by 4% in the 2000s, so they were hardly in a position to consume a growing proportion of those products turned out by German businesses. Which means that the country exported more to the go-go economies of the south of Europe, and lent Spain, Greece and the rest the cash to buy their goods. Put in simple terms, it's a bit like buying a kitchen and the showroom arranging a loan so you can make the purchase. And German banks were only too happy to shovel credit to the countries that couldn't really afford to buy all this stuff. In effect, Germany blew the bubbles that popped up in the rest of Europe.
When a borrowing crisis comes along, it's better to be the bank than the debtor, which is why Germany (like China, which has played a similar game) is so lauded now. But if the eurozone crisis is to be sorted out, continental governments need to recognise that Germany's business model can't continue to rely so heavily on lending and selling abroad. As Engelbert Stockhammer of Kingston University points out, it would make more sense for German workers to be taken off their strictly rationed wages, than for Greece, Spain and Portugal to be consigned to their own regional great depression.
Two conclusions flow: first, the problems of the eurozone are way bigger than a few small countries that spent too much. And second, Germany isn't a cut-out-and-keep model of how to manage a sound, socially just economy. We need to think a bit harder.
GEAB N°56-Special Summer 2011 - Contents - Published on June 16, 2011 - Global systemic crisis – Last warning before the Autumn 2011 shock, when $15 trillion of financial assets go up in smoke We estimated in 2009 that the world had about 30 trillion USD in ghost assets. Almost half went up in smoke in the six months between September 2008 and March 2009. For our team, it's now the other half’s turn, the 15 trillion USD of ghost assets remaining, purely and simply vanishing between July 2011 and January 2012…
(This was posted once before, I remember. I'm posting this again to remind everyone how accurate GEAB's June predictions have turned out to be.)
Late last year, Big Brother Watch conducted the first study of the true cost burden of CCTV to local councils in the United Kingdom. Of the 342 local councils who responded to our information request, a total of £321,331,453.18 was spent on installing and operating CCTV cameras during the 2007 to 2010 period.
Hidden in the small print of the report was a crude calculation, based on the average starting salary of a Police Constable, as to how many officers could have been provided for the figure of £321 million. The figure equated to 13,536 over three years – or more than 4500 a year.
The British government replaced police officers with TV cameras, and now all they can do is watch as the British youths, angry at being born into a lifetime of debt-slavery, revolt!
For next rating downgrade, S&P may look at France Commentary: France has lots of debt, and dysfunctional politics
LONDON (MarketWatch) — The U.S. is broke? Been there. Italy is bankrupt. Done that. Spain is teetering on the edge? Got the T-shirt. There is, however, one major industrial country that has so far managed to sail through the market turmoil without anyone seriously questioning its credit-worthiness: France.
And yet, if you‘re looking for the next downgrade, and the source of the next shock to the global markets, it’s France you should be looking toward. The country’s debt is exploding. It is steadily losing competitiveness against Germany, and running up huge trade deficits. Its political system is every bit as dysfunctional as America’s. And, of course, it is about to be presented with a massive bill for bailing out Italy and Spain.
A French downgrade may only be a matter of time. If it happens, it’s going to be a huge blow to already-fragile markets. The country has the fourth largest debt in the world, and its paper is heavily traded by global investors. There would be some nasty losses on a French downgrade.
It's not yet for today, but a hot possibility in the days ahead.
Dollar at lowest against Swiss Franc in 40 years August 10, 2011
The dollar tumbled the most in at least 40 years against the Swiss franc after the Federal Reserve pledged to keep its key interest rate at a record low at least through mid-2013 to revive the flagging economic recovery.
The greenback declined versus the majority of its most- traded peers as the Fed said growth was “considerably slower” than it expected and it’s prepared to use a range of policy tools to boost the economy. The meeting came a day after economic weakening and a Standard & Poor’s U.S. credit-rating cut spurred a global stock rout. Commodity currencies recouped losses sustained just after the meeting. Stocks and gold surged.
“With the Fed saying they have tools available that they are willing to use and giving a more definitive time frame, that is overall going to be a dollar negative,” said John Doyle, a strategist in Washington at the currency-trading firm Tempus Consulting Inc. “Swiss franc and gold have absolutely been the beneficiaries of uncertainty.”
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fear returned to Wall Street on Wednesday, sending the S&P 500 to another 4 percent decline, triggered by worries that Europe's debt crisis could engulf French banks and spill onto the U.S. financial sector.
Trading was once again marked by sharp moves on heavy volume. For a fifth straight day, the Dow industrials fluctuated in a range of more than 400 points.
The Dow Jones industrial average slid 520.29 points, or 4.63 percent, to 10,719.48. The S&P 500 fell 51.81 points, or 4.42 percent, to 1,120.72. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 101.47 points, or 4.09 percent, to 2,381.05.
The next massive debt bubble to crush the US economy – the upcoming implosion of the student loan market. $1 trillion in student loans and defaults sharply increasing. (10.8.11)
In the land of predatory bubbles it looks like higher education is now fully caught up in the credit market implosion. In the same debt produced vein as housing, college used to be a relatively cheap bet with decent results in the long-term. Even if you went to public universities and picked up a degree in a field with low job prospects, at least you didn’t have the cloud of student loans hanging over your head when you graduated. Today it is a very different ballgame and the mythology behind college is being used to lure people into institutions that are little more than paper mill factories and that at extremely high cost.
MSM trying to play down last night's troubles. They were less, a lot less, but still occuring.
Besides, the shops need to be restocked! :-)
I think these rioters are pretty clever to have targeted shops. That's an integral part of the west wealth accumulation and dissolution system. Tomorrow they'll go after the banks maybe.
Tens of billions of pounds were wiped off the value of shares on both sides of the Atlantic amid renewed fears about the world economy and the solvency of big European banks.
The FTSE 100 Index slumped 3.05 per cent to its lowest point in a year and falls elsewhere were even bigger. The Dow Jones Index in the US ended 4.62 per cent down, while France's Cac 40 plunged by 5.45 per cent and Germany's Dax by 5.13 per cent.
Shares in London alone had £41bn wiped from their value, taking the total loss to investors and pension funds in the recent losing run to £226bn, and more than $3trn globally. The FTSE 100 ended the day almost 158 down leaving it at 5,007 points. The Dow fell almost 520 points.
The losses eradicated all of Tuesday's gains and left the markets reeling as they veered towards what analysts regard as classic "bear" territory – a decline of about a fifth since they peaked earlier this year.
Panic selling of shares in Italy's largest bank, Unicredit, even had to be suspended because of the scale of the sell-off. When dealing resumed the shares were 10 per cent lower than their opening price.
And in France mistaken rumours that Société Générale, the country's second-biggest bank, was a distressed seller of gold caused it to lose 20 per cent of its value. The fall was stemmed only when the bank put out an official denial: "SocGen categorically denies all the market rumours." It ended up 14 per cent down on the start of the day.
All the French banks have suffered in recent weeks because they have lent large sums to the Greek government and businesses – SocGen and Crédit Agricole own Greek subsidiaries. They are also exposed to Portugal, Spain and Ireland, all rated poor risks.
Worse still for the French groups is the persistent speculation about a re-assessment of French Treasury bonds by the credit-rating agencies.
France is widely regarded as the next nation likely to lose its AAA status, after America's downgrade. As the core "safe" holding for all French financial institutions, any devaluation of government bonds would have serious implications.
At best it would mean cash loans from the European Central Bank, or a an injection of new capital from the French government, which would have to be borrowed from the markets. That would put France's creditworthiness under yet more pressure.
A similar process could overwhelm Unicredit and the Italian government, already relying on the ECB to help to fund its public borrowings. The threat of this vicious cycle is a nightmare for policymakers. Highlighting the interdependency of the big banks, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and HSBC shares extended losses. At worst, this process could trigger another sovereign-debt crisis or a Europe-wide credit crunch, and freeze money markets again, as happened in 2007, when banks refused to lend to each other at virtually any interest rate. That choked off the supply of credit to the wider economy and helped to trigger the great recession.
Europe is telling itself one cockamamie story after another. We’ve got a rescue fund! Only it has no money! But we will bail out Italy nonetheless! But Italy is too big to bail out – and we tried stuffing it under the carpet, but there’s no more room with Greece, Ireland, and Portugal already suffocating in there. The whole G-20 is yakking on the phone as I write, hatching fresh cockamamie stories. Oh, now it looks like the European Central Bank will ride to the rescue with a dispatch satchel full of good intentions. They said the same thing last time, a month or so ago, when a caryatid fell on Greece’s head. They are not so sure what money is either. Is a bond like money? Maybe not so much anymore. A stock portfolio? Feh! A Euro? The damned thing is starting to look like a ball-and-chain custom-crafted to weigh down Germans. All I know is I hope the whole gang printed up some fresh lira, francs, marks, drachma, pesetas, punts, and whatnot.
Did you admire Standard and Poor’s sly, Friday night downgrade of the United States Treasury bond rating? However, I’m not the only one in America asking where do these S and P punks get off downgrading US bonds when three years ago they wore out their Triple-A rubber stamps on the cartloads of stinking offal that Angelo Mozillo and other mortgage rustlers were pawning off as bond-fodder on every Frankenstein “investment opportunity” pumped out of the Wall Street CDO mills.
I’m not convinced that the US bond rating will even matter that much because nobody knows what anything is worth anymore – especially when governments teeter and the folks in the public square (or the parking lot in America’s case), start yelling for blood. Merkel, Sarkozy, Berlusconi, Zapatero, will soon be swept away by that selfsame rolling torrent of dreck-strewn woe, while poor Obama looks like one of those hapless, floating creatures in the second-to-last scene of O Brother, Where Art Thou. Even the gold bugs are scared the price will collapse in a debt deflation, or that the federal government will slap a giant extra-special punitive capital gains tax on precious metal sales, or will try to confiscate it from the public altogether like Franklin Roosevelt did – though, given the vast arsenals of private firearms across the US, and the martial spirit lingering in many pissed-off factions of the Tea Party ilk, nothing would invite a revolution, or civil war, or civic upheaval as surely as trying to snatch folks’ gold.
Everybody is broke now: national treasuries, giant banks, pension funds, insurance companies. The wonder so far is that credit default swaps have not yet been triggered by interest rate changes or some other silly shit, but when that comes to pass there is no way the counterparties can settle their contracts. Ruin will thunder through the financial system like winged death. Everybody is broke and there’s a lot less real “money” (whatever it is) out there. Everybody’s quailing at the prospect of QE 3, in all its cosmic futility. The United States has already half killed itself at the steam-table of deep-fried debt. I guess we could go all the way and shoot what remains of the dollar in its pitiful, lolling head.
When civil unrest comes to US, it will come first to Chicago now that Wisconsin has petered out.
Post S&P Downgrade, Chicagoans Take to Streets, Demand Arrest of Bankers (08/09/2011)
Immediately following the announcement of the S&P downgrade, defiant Chicagoans took the the streets and demanded the arrest of the Bankers and an the end of the Federal Reserve system. This was never covered on any news outlet.
Outside of the market madness, the biggest global news this week might be China sending its first aircraft carrier to sea.
The launch was not unexpected and China sought to downplay its significance, saying "it will not pose a threat to other countries."
Still, "it is the most potent symbol yet of China's desire to develop the power both to deny U.S. naval access to Asian waters and to protect its global economic interests, including shipping lanes," The WSJ reports.
All the conditions seem to be met for hostilities between the two major powers. I personally think the Koreas will set it off, if war there is. And it may well end in a nuclear conforntation as poiuytr used to predict.
The second prediction comes from us by the best analyst in the money business, Max Keiser
2. World War III ongoing between the Banks, Hedge Funds and Rating Agencies and the Sovereign Debts of west countries
He is certain, says Keiser, that the French debt will be downgraded through the use of the weapons of mass financial destruction which are the derivatives US banks and hedge funds sold everyone else. Where victory lies in this Countries versus the Banks war is anyone's guess for the moment.
Blueprint For NATO Attack On Syria Revealed 12.8.11
Nato member countries would begin by using satellite technology to spot Syrian air defences. A few days later, warplanes, in larger numbers than Libya, would take off from the UK base in Cyprus and spend some 48 hours destroying Syrian surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) and jets. Alliance aircraft would then start an open-ended bombardment of Syrian tanks and ground troops.
The scenario is based on analysts in the French military, from the specialist British publication Jane's Defence Weekly and from Israel's Channel 10 TV station.
The Syrian air force is said to pose little threat. It has around 60 Russian-made MiG-29s. But the rest - some 160 MiG-21s, 80 MiG-23s, 60 MiG-23BNs, 50 Su-22s and 20 Su-24MKs - is out of date
(Making the world safe for compound interest.) WRH
- Let's begin with Syria. We are told people have been demonstrating in Aleppo as well now, the city which along with Damascus, had so far held back from street protests. MSM have now taken to posting videos as well to back up the words we've stopped paying attention to. Alas, these ultra short videos show feet for the main part, sounds of protest and then - the big bang, implying bullets. To be dismissed out of hand, please.
- Something similar for Iran this morning, complete with video. No comments here, except to say MSM do get together to decide what their next PR move will be.
- Bahrain gladdened the heart where it was claimed a village demo managed to injure 8 policemen! More power to the Shias of Bahrain, then.
- And the best of them all: Israel where the dissatisfied in Tel Aviv raised a giant guillotine in their tent city. This one is ongoing apparently and street protests are scheduled for today. Let's see.
- Besides the above, *riots" have been reported in China and Russia. Why leave them out of the picture?
- London is as calm as a sleeping baby by all accounts.
Now what to make of this? Britain needs a USan to clear up its police mess? Carry on, Cameron. Pay back time will also come soemday.
America's reverse-colonization of Britain continues: Cameron wants former LAPD and NYPD chief Bill Bratton to head up London Metropolitan Police. Bratton headed up the LAPD during the Anthony Pellicano investigation. Pellicano was caught with illegal federal and local police wiretap recordings of Hollywood celebrities, just the kind of material that was of interest to Rupert Murdoch in the UK. It's quite clear who and what was behind the recent English riots that have improved the image of the British police and taken the public eye off Murdoch to the point where Cameron can install Bratton, an American, as their chief. London Mayor Boris Johnson, a Tory, was born in New York City.
Tens of thousands take to streets in social protests across Israel 13.8.11
Social protests took place throughout Israel on Saturday, with demonstrators turning out en masse in Haifa, Be’er Sheva and Afula. This was the first time since the start of the social protests nearly a month ago that Tel Aviv did not hold a march.
Protests also took place in Eilat, Rosh Pina, Nahariya, Dimona, Modi'in, Petah Tikva, Ramat Hasharon, Hod Hasharon, Netanya, Beit She’an as well as other cities throughout Israel.
(We'll take these protests seriously on the day the government falls. Till then, we retain our right to feel suspicious of what's taking place.)
After England, the following coutries also have the potential of seeing their youths go on rampages:
Germany, France, Italy, Greece and Spain. For the last named, two dates to bear in mind: Sept 25 and Oct 15 when the indignados will come out on the streets again. But I suppose we are all waiting to see what the youth of France will do and then, of course, the Italian soccer "hooligans". The way ahead seems long and perilous for all these countries as the prolapse becomes clearer for all to see.
ECB is euroland's last hope as bail-out machinery fails to resolve crisis - 13.8.11
The leaders of Germany and France have three bad choices as they decide whether to save EMU this week, or pretend to do so.
They can agree to fiscal fusion and an EMU debt union, entailing treaty changes and a constitutional revolution. This implies the emasculation of Europe's historic nation states.
They can tear up the mandate of European Central Bank and order Frankfurt to go nuclear with €2 trillion of `unsterilized' bond purchases until the M3 money supply in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and Greece stops contracting at depression rates and starts to grow again at recovery speed (5pc). This might destabilize Germany.
Or they can try to muddle through with their usual mix of half-measures and bluster. This will lead to a rapid disintegration of monetary union and a banking collapse. It risks a repeat of 1931 if executed badly, as it most likely would be.
They have days or weeks to make up their minds, not months.
The EFSF rescue fund was never more than a stop-gap device to avoid grappling with the core issue: the economic chasm between North and South. It has failed. Insistence that it could handle a dual crisis in Spain in Italy was a bluff, and last week that bluff was called when France too was sucked into the maelstrom.
After the US downgrade the S&P index fell 6.66% while the Dow Jones fell 5.55%
On Monday, 8/08 2011 the Standard & Poors stock index fell by the Satanic number of 6.66% while the Dow Jones average fell 5.55%. During the “Lehman shock,” of September 29, 2008, the Dow Jones index fell by $777 (indicating it is a casino) while the S & P fell by 8.8% (the Asian lucky number). There is high level financial warfare going on. The good guys are winning.
Thinking the unthinkable: Sell U.S. Treasuries 15.8.11
The idea that Japan would ever dump the $900 billion it holds in U.S. Treasuries, the second-largest foreign ownership after China, has long been just that — an idea never seriously entertained.
The long-standing argument paints a horrific picture of the consequences: The dollar would crash, world markets would be sent into a tailspin and the postwar military and political alliance between the U.S. and Japan would be shaken.
But after Washington's credit rating was downgraded for the first time ever earlier this month — from AAA to AA+ by Standard & Poor's — some daring advocates are voicing that taboo idea: Why not sell Treasuries?
(Indeed, why not? All good actions begin with a single thought.)
German economic slowdown raises fresh eurozone fears• German growth at 0.1% for last quarter • Eurozone-wide growth at just 0.2% • Markets fall with FTSE 100 down 73 points 16.8.11
The German economy has come to a near-standstill in the last quarter as the global slowdown hit Europe's biggest player.
In the latest blow to the eurozone, Germany grew by just 0.1% between April and June. Economists had expected growth of 0.5% during the quarter. Germany's Federal Statistical Office also revised down growth in the first quarter of 2011, to 1.3% from its initial estimate of 1.5%.
With France's economy failing to grow during the quarter, Germany's GDP data shows that the eurozone economy has worsened as its debt crisis entered a new, dangerous phase. The weak performance of the two countries dragged growth across the eurozone down to only 0.2%, Eurostat reported, with the wider European Union also growing by 0.2%.
The German slowdown was blamed on a fall in domestic consumption and construction work during the quarter. There was also a sharp fall in energy production after the government shut down eight nuclear plants in the aftermath of the Fukushima reactor disaster in Japan.
The slowing economy is a blow to Angela Merkel as she prepares to meet the French president Nicolas Sarkozy to discuss the euro debt crisis.
Spanish GDP grew by 0.2% during the quarter, down from 0.3% in the first three months of 2011.
The UK economy also grew by 0.2%, according to preliminary data issued last month.
Kyrgyzstan is not going to prolong its agreement with Washington, which entitles the US to use Manas Transit Center to supply its forces in Afghanistan, after it expires in 2014, the republic's Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev has said.
Merkel and Sarkozy propose euro-zone “government” to tackle debt crisis 16.8.11
Germany and France are calling on all euro-zone members to enshrine a balanced budget in their constitution, as well proposing a collective “government” led by the EU president.
In one of the most dramatic expansions of state power since the onset of the EU debt crisis, France and Germany have proposed a united euro-zone government to guide the bloc’s finances as well as having power to overrule national governments.
The new collective economic 'government' would be lead by Herman Van Rompuy and consist of heads of state or government that would meet at least twice a year.
(There, now they've shown their hand. Not euro-bonds, but a euro-government is what it's been about all along).
Yesterday, we were assured by the MSM that Gadhafi had lost Libya. Today, the denials are coming fast and furiously:
Breaking News: Gadhaffi Retakes Key Towns 17.8.11
Is Gadhaffi losing? Au contraire. In total contradiction to the propaganda push on CNN, sources inside Libya say Gadhaffi soldiers have retaken a number of key towns.
In a surprise announcement, sources inside Libya say that most of Misurata has been taken back by Libyan forces last night and today. In the process, Gadhaffi soldiers have liberated 1250+ Libyan prisoners of war. According to tribal leaders, Libyan forces now control the port city.
Tribal leaders also declare that Zawia, Garyan, Sorman, and Sabratha are secure, in contrast to claims by foreign reporters in Tripoli and Djerba (Tunisia) that they have been seized by rebels.
Russia seeks UN probe into Nato airstrikes Posted by seumasach on August 17, 2011
16th August, 2011
Russia is “deeply disturbed” about Nato’s aerial campaign in Libya because it has overstepped the intent of the UN resolution that authorized the strikes, a Russian official said on Tuesday.
Attacks on nonmilitary targets such as the main TV station and Tripoli airport call into question Nato’s ability to implement the resolution that authorized the use of force to protect civilians, the diplomat said on condition of anonymity in keeping with his job’s rules.
He said Russia is “deeply disturbed by the destruction of infrastructure and especially power supplies on territory controlled by the government.”
The diplomat said in a telephone interview that Russia wants the UN to investigate an airstrike that allegedly killed 85 civilians earlier this month. Nato has denied the Libyan government’s claim that the alliance killed civilians in the attack on an agricultural building allegedly being used for military purposes, saying the casualties were soldiers and mercenaries.
During the past month, Nato’s conduct of the 5-month-long campaign has come under increasing international condemnation. Critics claim the daily bombings have gone far beyond the limited mandate provided by a Security Council resolution, which authorized a no-fly zone and the protection of civilians caught up in the civil unrest.
Russia, China, India, Brazil and South Africa have denounced the bombing of forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi, even when they are fighting defensive battles against advancing rebels.
In addition, the UN’s cultural and educational agency and several human rights and media protection groups have lambasted Nato over the daily airstrikes and particularly the raid against the state-run TV station.
A Nato spokesman denied that the alliance was overstepping its mandate.
“We take the side of the people of Libya,” Col. Roland Lavoie said Tuesday. “When we strike a tank, it is because we understand it does represent a threat to the local population.”
Venezuela may move billions of dollars of Gold and Cash out of U.S. - 17.8.11
I can't imagine the U.S. just letting the gold go, because they most likely have leased or sold it. The gold the U.S. will eventually ship (unless they decide to go to war with Venezuela before hand, just so they can freeze and keep the cash and gold) will most likely be tungsten filled. I would advise Chavez to have the gold tested when/if they get it back in the country.
So, now the question comes, what is the U.S. going to think of to freeze Venezuela's assets (11 billion gold and 6 billion cash) in the United States, before they actually have to ship it back to Venezuela?
Venezuela Makes A Huge Transfer Of Gold From Switzerland To Banks In China, Russia, And Brazil: 18.8.11
Documents released by Venezuala's foreign minister also mention "the powers of the North" have "pillaged" Libya's European held reserves and notes a plan should be made to avoid a similar fate.
Here's one of the "leading" Brit analysts giving us his take on the Euro-zone government story above (Cf: 16.8.11 21.09).
Readers have asked for a quick verdict on the Merkel-Sarkozy deal. (18.8.11)
I have nothing to say. There was no deal. It was a vacuous restatement of clauses that already exist in the Lisbon Treaty, or an attempt to pass off retreads such as the Tobin Tax and harmonization of the corporate tax base as if they were new.
No eurobonds, no fiscal union, no boost to the EFSF rescue fund, no change of policy on the ECB’s mandate. Zilch.
More fiscal austerity for laggards, without even the Marshall Plan we had on July 21. It is all a step backwards into the black hole.
As for appointing EU president Herman van Rompuy head of a eurozone panel, I find it remarkable that anybody should take this seriously (much as I like the poet Van Rompuy, among the best of the lot). There is already a Eurogroup, headed by Jean-Claude Juncker.
The emptiness of the summit – coupled with Sarkozy’s deliciously absurd theatrics – tells us all we need to know. Neither Merkel nor Sarkozy seem capable of rising to the occasion. Europe is drifting towards its existential crisis.
The ECB can hold the line for now by purchasing €20bn of Spanish and Italian bonds each week. But once the ECB nears €150bn or so, the markets will brace for the next crisis.
Italy alone has to raise or roll-over €68bn by the end of September. You can be sure that a great number of investors will take advantage of ECB intervention between now and then to lighten their holdings, and switch the risk to eurozone taxpayers. The ECB may have to buy at least €100bn of Italian bonds alone by late September to cap the 10-year yield at 5pc.
Perhaps the Chinese and Gulf states will keep buying. Perhaps not.
Aug 17, 2011 Hugo Chavez Nationalizes Venezuelan Gold Industry, Demands 211 Tons Be Returned From Abroad - JPMorgan, Bank Of England & ETFs Scramble For Physical Metal
Toronto-listed Rusoro, owned by Russia's Agapov family, is the only large gold miner operating in Venezuela. It produced 100,000 ounces last year.
The gold industry will be just the latest part of the economy to be put under state control by the socialist leader, who said he would issue the necessary decree in the coming days and called on the military to help control the sector.
"I have here the laws allowing the state to exploit gold and all related activities ... we are going to nationalize the gold and we are going to convert it, among other things, into international reserves because gold continues to increase in value," Chavez said in a phone call to state television.
Plans to transfer billions of dollars in cash reserves from abroad to banks in Russia, China and Brazil and tons of gold from European banks to its central bank vaults.
The planned moves would include transferring $6.3 billion in cash reserves, most of which Venezuela now keeps in banks such as the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, and Barclays Bank in London to unnamed Russian, Chinese and Brazilian banks, one document said.
Venezuela also plans to move 211 tons of gold it keeps abroad.
The problem for Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan is that they hold only 10.6 tonnes of gold, and all of it belongs to Venezuela, though they have pledged approximately 100 times that amount in various paper markets.
While Venezuela is a relatively minor player on the world stage, this could be a big game changer here in the United States because one of the banks that holds 10.6 tons of Venezuela’s gold is none other than JP Morgan. In a recent audit of JP Morgan’s holdings it was reported that they held 338,303 ounces of gold or roughly 10.6 tons. While this is a modest size deposit it is sure to cause some jitters at JP Morgan as they scramble to find the replacement gold which has already been pledged about 100 times across various paper markets to ETF’s like the SPDR Gold ETF (NYSE:GLD).
- French stock market plummets French stocks nosedived on Thursday in line with exchanges across Europe amid fears of a new global recession.
Bank stocks plunged in afternoon trade, with Societe General down more than 12 percent on reports of US Federal Reserves concerns about the health of European banks.
- Tokyo stocks close under 9000
Stock prices in Tokyo fell sharply on Thursday, with the key Nikkei index declining below the 9,000 mark.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average dropped 113 points from Wednesday to end the day's trading at 8,943.
The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange lost 9 points to close at 767.
- Stockholm stock exchange plummets
The Stockholm stock exchange was down 6.2 percent on Thursday afternoon when trading closed, making the drop the steepest since August 2008. A broad fall among other European stock markets means fears of a recession are mounting.
Markets in meltdown amid new global recession fearsFrenzied selling wipes £62bn off value of FTSE and Dow Jones plummets in another tumultuous day for world economy - 18.8.11
Financial markets on both sides of the Atlantic were convulsed by a fresh wave of selling amid fears that the world economy is sliding back towards recession.
The FTSE 100 closed down 239 points, or 4.5%, at 5092, wiping more than £62bn off its value. In the US, the Dow Jones closed down 419 points, or 3.7%, at 10,991.
Growing disarray in the eurozone over the latest bailout for Greece, weak American manufacturing figures and a warning from Wall Street bank Morgan Stanley that the US and Europe are "hovering dangerously close to recession" all contributed to the mood of panic.
A closely watched gauge of the US manufacturing sector produced by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve plunged, underlining fears that the recovery has ground to a halt.
The yield on benchmark 10-year US Treasury bonds, which measures the cost of borrowing for the American government, slipped below 2%, as investors sought a haven from the storm. Gold, which has soared in value this year, hit another new record of $1,825 (£1,106) an ounce.
Sal Catrini, managing director for equities at Cantor Fitzgerald in New York, said: "The market is in meltdown mode; the data continues to stink. I don't know that there's much more to be said."
In Europe, investors were spooked by news that at least five eurozone countries had asked the Greek government to put up collateral against their share of the latest emergency bailout for Athens.
Austria, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Slovakia joined Finland in insisting that the Greeks put up assets as security, before they sign off on the €109bn (£95bn) emergency loan agreed in July. Their demands underline fears that eurozone countries have little confidence in the latest plans to shore up the single currency.
(Dress it up as you like, this is prolapse with no disguises. Plus, the usual instinct to loot, Greece in question here, which they will display even when in their coffins).
Putin Calls U.S. ‘Parasite’ as Russia Buys Its Debt - August 19, 2011
For Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the U.S. is a “parasite” because its rising debt weighs on the global economy. For his government, the same debt is the safest possible investment.
Russia, the world’s largest energy producer, has boosted its holdings of U.S. debt by more than 1,600 percent since September 2006, according to U.S. Treasury Department data. Russia used surging commodity prices to build the world’s third- largest reserves pile, boosted in part by return on Treasuries.
Putin, 58, who oversaw the largest buildup of U.S. debt holdings in Russia’s history as president from 2000 to 2008, may return to the post after elections next year. The country is now one of the world’s 10 largest holders of the securities with $110 billion at the end of June, about 70 percent more than when Putin left the Kremlin.
“They are sending out a message” largely for domestic consumption, Edwin Gutierrez, who helps manage about $7 billion in emerging-market debt at Aberdeen Asset Management in London, said in a phone interview on Aug. 17. “It’s ironic that these voices of complaint come as they experience massive capital appreciation.”
US troops may stay in Afghanistan until 2024 20.8.11
They think big don't they? Well, the US economy will not last until 2014, if that. Forget about 2024. The prolapse is as much a certainty as defeat in Afghanistan.
And noe for this Saturday's summary of the news from the Wars.
- Afghanistan: we hear of more US troops being sent to Afghanistan, departure dates being pushed from 2011-12 to 2024, etc. As for drone attacks on Pakistan, they are ongoing. Conclusioné utter chaos and these people are so benighted, they are not going anywhere quietly. After yesterday's attack on Kabul, expect the capital to become the centre of future fighting.
Syria: Gearing up for war there. Obama has asked Bashar al-Assad to step down, chorused by a lot of other Europeans. But Turkey has said no to joining in at the moment? Last minute face-saving? And Russia has also been making dissenting noises. Where, I ask again, is China in all this? I may be wrong, but I still think Syria will weather the storm.
Libya, but then, till yesterday, I also thought Libya would and now we hear NATO's troops, the rebels and among them Germans galore as reported this morning, are approaching Tripoli from three sides. MSM rubbish or the truth?
Israel's latest false flag against Gaza has apparently brought their own demos to a standstill. How all this escalates is anyone's guess.
And that's enough of war news for any thinking being. Just remember, whichever way the wars go, the final battle will be fought on the economic field as the "pox on humanity", the West (to quote a friend)is finally forced to admit defeat.
Friday afternoon Japan was rocked by a magnitude 6.8 earthquake. This comes 5 months after the deadly quake struck in mid March that released a tsunami that swept the land destroying the Fukushima Diachi Nuclear Plant and polluting over 100,000 square miles of ocean with radiation over 300 times the normal limit near China.
The first stories to hit today already sound like cover stories, instantly reporting no damage to nuclear facilities.
The fact that 11 or more facilities were admittedly damaged back in March raises questions as to if the media is even reporting the truth, not to mention the known lies and cover-ups surrounding the Fukushima disaster.
What was left out of 10:18 above was Iraq. Let us make up for the omission.
Of course we are going to stay on indefinitely, says the US, instead of leaving by the end of the year as originally promised. And the Iraqi "government" agrees, they add. No, we don't proclaims a government spokesman. No way says Muqtada al Sadr. So warfare to go on. After all we are in that trap called: Perpetual War for perpetual peace. A taipan snake is a friend of humanity compared to the insane west.
London’s index of leading shares plunged below the psychologically important 5000 mark at one stage but reclaimed some of the falls to close at 5040.76, just over 1pc down on the day.
Traders and investors dumped stocks amid continued fears over bank funding, the spread of the European debt crisis and the fragile US economy. Having endured the worst stock market fall since the financial crisis of 2008 on Thursday, traders fled from equities to less risky assets. The FTSE All-World equity index has fallen almost 20pc since May.
Morgan Stanley yesterday warned that the US and Europe were “dangerously close to recession” despite co-ordinated efforts to revive growth.
One trader said: “We’ve seen nothing that’s convinced us that another global recession can be avoided: the indecisiveness of Europe’s leaders over its debt crisis and America’s stalling recovery [means] you’ve got a pretty potent mix.”
Gold was pushed to yet another record high – up 1.4pc to $1,850 an ounce, having earlier touched $1,877.
Sovereign bonds of countries perceived to be safe havens – including the UK – also saw heavy demand, pushing German, US and UK yields sitting near record lows. The Japanese yen is at its highest level against the dollar since the Second World War.
European and US markets also fell – Germany’s Dax lost another 2.2pc; the CAC 40 in Paris shed 1.9pc, while the Madrid IBEX exchange lost 2pc, even as Spain announced further austerity measures designed to boost confidence.
The Dow Jones shed 1.6pc to close at 10,817.65 in New York, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq gave up early gains to also lose 1.6pc as traders dumped shares in late trading.
In Britain, bank shares led the market falls. The collapse in bank stocks has shocked the market and there were few signs of confidence returning. The credit default swaps (CDS) of UK banks, which provide buyers with protection should a company miss an interest payment, widened yesterday highlighting increased market concerns about their funding.
Syria: Obama Threatens U.S. Military Intervention 20.8.11
Syria is also targeted by imperialism — because of its refusal to recognize the Zionist occupation, its assistance to Hezbollah in their struggle to end the Israeli occupation of Lebanon and its strategic alliance with Iran.
The colour revolution complete in Libya? This morning brings the sad news that the "rebels" have reached the capital Tripoli. Saif-ul-Islam, Gaddhafi's son has been arrested as has another son, while a third surrended. Some form of fighting is ongoing in Libya amidst tremedous NATO bombing. If all this turns out to be true, we bloggers stand exposed for having spread the wrong information, backed the wrong side. I myself feel injured to the core. And violated in my blogger vocation. Perhaps I'm going to give up on the whole thing. James, please to take note. I may completely stop writing on this blog and elsewhere. It's the one defeat too many.
Oof! We breathe again. Saif-ul-Islam was supposed to have fallen into "rebel" hands. That is until he, safe and sound, appeared last night at Tripoli's leading hotel, home to much of the foreign journalist population in Libya today. So if that was a lie, much of the rest might be that as well. So Gadhafi lives to fight on another day. Pehaps he will do what we had hoped for all along: defeat NATO.
There have been a lot of news reports lately describing “flash mobs” raiding shops in U.S. cities. The defining feature of these groups is that they’re presumed to have been organized via the internet.
But internet communication is not the sole characteristic of a flash mob. Though the term is currently ill-defined, we can rule out some acts because other words describe them more accurately.
A sudden raid of a shop is called a heist. When there are many such raids in a short time, it is called looting. And when the looting is largely motivated by poverty and discontent, it’s called a bread riot. That is what we are seeing in the news: not flash mobs, but organized bread riots in the United States.
If this comes to pass, apart from all the foreign mercernaries already in the country, we shall say thank you to Russia and China in the first place. And then we'll sit back and wait to see what this latest war effort will do for the European and US economies. We predict here nad now that whatever happens, this war will be won by the people of Libya and by that is not meant the traitors one has graced with the name of "rebels".
Kan's resignation to bring Japan its sixth PM in five years - 24.8.11
Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan has told his cabinet he will step down and dissolve his government next week, signalling another turn of the country's political merry-go-round. Analysts say Japan will have a new leader by next Tuesday.
Mr Kan has tied his resignation to the passage of key legislation that would compel the nation's utilities to buy renewable energies, including solar and wind power.
China criticises foreign pressure on Syria Tue Aug 23, 2011
China's foreign ministry on Tuesday decried foreign pressure on Syria following calls from the United States and Europe for President Bashar al-Assad to step down, saying the country's future should be decided internally. All sides in Syria should exercise maximum restraint and abandon violence, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a statement on the ministry's website (www.mfa.gov.cn), repeating Beijing's standard line.
"Syria's future should be decided by Syria itself," Ma said.
"The international community's relevant actions ought to be conducive towards pushing the Syrian government's promises of reform, and encourage all sides to constructively participate in the political process, to help an early return to stability."
The U.N. Human Rights Council launched an international commission of inquiry on Tuesday into Syria's crackdown on anti-government protesters, including possible crimes against humanity, despite objections by Russia, China and Cuba.
Market crash 'could hit within weeks', warn bankers - 24.8.11
A more severe crash than the one triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers could be on the way, according to alarm signals in the credit markets.
Insurance on the debt of several major European banks has now hit historic levels, higher even than those recorded during financial crisis caused by the US financial group's implosion nearly three years ago.
Credit default swaps on the bonds of Royal Bank of Scotland, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and Intesa Sanpaolo, among others, flashed warning signals on Wednesday. Credit default swaps (CDS) on RBS were trading at 343.54 basis points, meaning the annual cost to insure £10m of the state-backed lender's bonds against default is now £343,540.
The cost of insuring RBS bonds is now higher than before the taxpayer was forced to step in and rescue the bank in October 2008, and shows the recent dramatic downturn in sentiment among credit investors towards banks.
"The problem is a shortage of liquidity – that is what is causing the problems with the banks. It feels exactly as it felt in 2008," said one senior London-based bank executive.
"I think we are heading for a market shock in September or October that will match anything we have ever seen before," said a senior credit banker at a major European bank.
Germany fires cannon shot across Europe's bows German President Christian Wulff has accused the European Central Bank of violating its treaty mandate with the mass purchase of southern European bonds.
In a cannon shot across Europe’s bows, he warned that Germany is reaching bailout exhaustion and cannot allow its own democracy to be undermined by EU mayhem.
“I regard the huge buy-up of bonds of individual states by the ECB as legally and politically questionable. Article 123 of the Treaty on the EU’s workings prohibits the ECB from directly purchasing debt instruments, in order to safeguard the central bank’s independence,” he said.
“This prohibition only makes sense if those responsible do not get around it by making substantial purchases on the secondary market,” he said, speaking at a forum of half the world’s Nobel economists on Lake Constance to review the errors of the profession over recent years.
Mr Wulff said the ECB had gone “way beyond the bounds of their mandate” by purchasing €110bn (£96.6bn) of bonds, echoing widespread concerns in Germany that ECB intervention in the Italian and Spanish bond markets this month mark a dangerous escalation.
He did not explain what else the ECB could have done once the bond spreads of these two big economies began to spiral out of control in early August, posing an imminent threat to monetary union and Europe’s financial system.
German Constitutional Court decision on the legitimacy of all this: 7 Setember, 2011.
Japan Prime Minister Naoto Kan has announced his resignation as head of the Democratic Party of Japan, effectively ending his tenure as the country's fifth leader in five years.
China announces support for Palestinian UN statehood bid - 25.8.11
Special Chinese envoy to the Middle East Wu Sike shares the news at a meeting with Palestinian leaders in Ramallah on Thursday.
China says it supports a Palestinian plan to seek full membership in the United Nations next month.
Negotiations with Israel on the terms of Palestinian statehood have been frozen since 2008. As an alternative, the Palestinians have decided to seek UN recognition of an independent "Palestine" in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, the areas Israel captured in the 1967 Six Day War.
Angela Merkel Faces Attack From Her Mentor Ahead Of Crucial Vote - 26.8.11
September is stacking up as crunch time. The euro could collapse if Merkel loses this vote. Her policies have 15% support in polls. There will be a lot of bank runs, currency runs, bank foreclosures and maybe a bank holiday in Europe even if she wins the vote. Then there is the September 20th UN vote on Palestinian statehood. And Hugo Chavez will either get his first shipment of gold from the Bank of England or his first bombing from NATO.
There is also a vote on NATO agression against Libya in September. Somewhere, somehow, one of these we must win. But which one it will be would need more brains than I have to figure out.
El Salvador Recognizes Independent Palestinian State: The President of El Salvador, Mauricio Funes, stated Thursday that his country officially recognizes Palestine as an independent and sovereign state, and that it supports the efforts of the Arab League to upgrade the Palestinian UN status into a full membership. (27.8.11)
Bolivia's president accuses US of sparking protest: More than a thousand indigenous Bolivians have been marching against a highway being built across their land. Evo Morales says the US is behind the opposition. (26.8.11)
115 comments:
Well, let's say David Duke is David Duke and what he says about immigration apart, he makes a solid point about the Zionists and their global agenda of World Government.
The second video was a new take on the present unrest in Israel and I listened to it with a great deal of interest. The connection with Norway sounded very well thought out. Though at a high price, indeed, if it does lead to a change in government to more reasonable policies, some small good will have been wrested from the Norwegian tragedy.
Duke is what he is, as said above, and we simply fellow-travellers, no party members. So, all right, his views on immigration, which he persists in calling "massive, might be myopic, but the rest of it is spot on.
Today in Israel, some 150.000 people demonstrated against the government. So perhaps the Norway was the cutting off point for Likud's murderous activities. Though one does tend to wonder whether any change of government can turn Israel into a more palatable entity.
Breaking: NO DEAL! Last Minute Debt Ceiling Bill To Avoid Default Defeated In Senate - 31.7.11
Live From Washington: The U.S. Senate has just defeated a last minute debt ceiling bill deal to avoid a U.S. default.
The bill was defeated by a vote of 50 Yeas to 49 nays which is far short of the 60 vote 3/5ths majority needed to pass. It was the last vote before Asian markets open in just a few hours.
So what next? A massive sell off on the markets of bonds, etc. tomorrow?
Another way of looking at the US debt situation:
A game of chicken is being run in Washington by two groups of politicians run and owned by the same group of people behind the scenes. They all want enabling debt extension with a small touch of austerity. They want a deal that has the legs to keep the economy going until after the next election. The most important thing they want is a reduction in Social Security and Medicare, so those funds can be used to reduce debt and fund the military industrial complex. They also want starvation and the inability to buy drugs by the elderly to hasten their demise. That means less Social Security and Medicare spending. In two years there will also be the Obamacare death panels, where massive elimination will be put into motion. There is nothing the powers that be despise worse than useless eaters. There is ample evidence that these elitists, by their own words, want to reduce world population by 60% to 90%, dependent on which of these persons you listen too. Last week Ted Turner opted for 90% on CNN. That is what the fight regarding debt extension is all about.
This morning's news so far is nothing to write home about:
- US has come to yet another debt ceiling agreement. No need for details. It should be passed during the course of the day.
- From Syria comes the usual disinformation about so many deaths. And that creep Hague is panting for US military interventon in Syria. Well, time will tell.
- And this, in spite of the mess up in Libya, but Hague will never learn. And neither will the others.
- It's August 1, 2011. To all the Muslims worldwide, embarking on the month of Ramadan, our best wishes. And Switzerland gears up to celebrate its own National Day. More power to them, though that won't save them from the prolapse either. Perhaps then they'll stop funding all these wars behind the scenes.
The ultimate fiasco is unfolding before us. NATO are keeping dangerous company with these CIA, salafist networks or is it the CIA, Salafist networks which are keeping dangerous company with NATO. Of course, NATO kept similar company in Kosovo, but at that time they were still able to spin everything to order. Now there game is falling apart- time for Hague to answer for himself in the House of Commons: was he warned about the criminal connections of these groups before he appointed them as Libya’s official representatives? Anyway he can only look away in horror as these words are written on the wall
“We want Muammar to come back! We want the green flag back!”
N.B. Salafis or Wahabis belong to the Brit-engineered sect in Saudi Arabia whose unending money supply has created so many problems for most Muslim countries.
Libya
From what we've just heard NATO is invading that country, the reason being that after the killing of General Younes, his own tribe, the largest in Libya is in the process of marching on Benghazi to exact revenge. The Libyan army might join them in that. Meanwhile, NATO, panic-stricken, no doubt, has begun sending out helis packed full with their soldiers to defend Benghazi. With a bit of luck, this will turn out to be the end game for the west in Libya.
Egypt's revoltionaries in the doldrums
Egyptian army retakes Tahrir Square
Units smash tents and make arrests as Egypt prepares for trial of former ruler Hosni Mubarak.
The Vespa Has Crashed Into The Mountain: Italy Burning - 1.8.2011
Italy is undergoing a slow motion crash, with bank after bank getting halted, first Intesa, then Monte Paschi, and most recently, main bank Unicredit. The FTSEMIB is now down a whopping 5.5% from intraday highs, led by the financial sector which may or may not last the week absent another EFSF expansion as we have speculated before. Of course, should that happen, Italy becomes a liability and not a funder, meaning the proportional obligations of Germany and France will surge, just as we explained two weeks ago. And more bad news: the spread between the 10 year Italy - Bund just hit an all time wide of 349, +16 bps on the session, as Italy CDS are now trading 328, +12, and Spain is 9 bps wider to 374. Time for bailout #3, this time to rescue Italy, then Belgium and Spain, then France and the UK, until finally the Fourth Reich, in the darkness, shall bind them.
Saudi-backed forces attack Bahrainis: The Monday attack comes as protesters have demanded an end to the Al Khalifa regime, complaining about injustice and discrimination.
(This is one Muslim "revolution" the MSM will not touch. The blogs alone report on it faithfully. When Bahrein is finally free, the west reign over the area's Muslims will have come to an end.)
Iceland’s loud No: The people of Iceland have now twice voted not to repay international debts incurred by banks, and bankers, for which the whole island is being held responsible. With the present turmoil in European capitals, could this be the way forward for other economies?
As if not enough, here's another danger threatening the country: Israel accuses Iceland of "anti-semitism." Similar charges by the Jewish state presaged the Mossad attacks in Oslo. Reykjavik and Akureyri should be on full alert for non-Arab "Middle Eastern looking," "Mediterranean looking," and "dark-haried non-Nordic-looking" individuals. All three are "politically-correct" international law enforcement code phrases for Israelis.
I'd keep an eye open, too, for the blonde, blue-eyed, no less dangerous Breivik types.
Sacking of Turkish top military officers appears to have been something more serious -- perhaps the suppression of an attempted military coup by Ergenekon holdouts. Reuters/Rothschild calls Ergenekon an "alleged conspiracy." There's nothing alleged about the Rothschild/Israeli connection to Ergenekon and the Turkish Donmeh. Turkey's situation linked to Breivik and his Zio-Nazi network: Breivik had a keen interest in Ergenekon's tactics. A European-wide set of coups appears to have been in the Zio-Nazi playbook -- Breivik also sought to launch a coup against Norwegian government and King Harald V. Breivik refuses to divulge other cells but he had traveled to several countries: Sweden, Denmark, UK, Germany, Poland, Belarus (where he underwent paramilitary training), France, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Switzerland, Spain, Cyprus, Malta, US (where he allegedly visited for two months last year Lake Elmo, Minnesota, the home of Bachmann & Associates, the "de-gaying" clinic owned by Marcus Bachmann, husband of GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann), Turkey, Mexico, China, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire and Liberia. Cyprus has seen political instability since a massive explosion of a weapons cache at its main naval base, which also destroyed Cyprus's main power plant forcing blackouts. President Demetris Christofiasis the first president from the Communist AKEL Party. From Norway to Turkey and Cyprus, a connected network, with links to Israel, appears to be targeting nations that support Palestinian sovereignty.
Putin says U.S. is "parasite" on global economy
1.8.11
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused the United States Monday of living beyond its means "like a parasite" on the global economy and said dollar dominance was a threat to the financial markets.
"They are living beyond their means and shifting a part of the weight of their problems to the world economy," Putin told the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi while touring its lakeside summer camp some five hours drive north of Moscow.
The latest from Libya - 2.8.11
The force that is rapidly entering into this conflict is the leadership of Libya’s more than 2000 tribes. In a series of meetings in Libya, Tunisia and elsewhere, the Tribal Council is speaking out forcefully and forging a political block that is demanding an end to Libyans killing Libyans.
Generally considered Libya’s largest tribe, are the Obeidis to which the Younnis family belongs. Some of the tribal leaders and members have vowed revenge against rebel leaders and as they carried the coffins of Abdul Fatah and his two companions they chanted, under the gaze of security forces, “the blood of martyrs will not go in vain."
Libya’s Tribal Council has issued a manifesto which makes clear that it intends to end this conflict, help expel “the NATO crusaders”, achieve reforms while supporting the Gaddafi, Tripoli based government. Before Ramadan is over, it intends to end Libya’s crisis even if it needs to rally its hundreds of thousands of active members to march on Benghazi.
NATO, according to various academics at Al Nasser and Al Fatah University, and Libya’s Tribal leadership, appear surprisingly ignorant and even contemptuous of this country’s tribes and their historic roles during times of crises and foreign aggression and occupation. One tribal leader well known to Italy was Omar Muktar.
As NATO and its backers contemplate their End Game they may want to consider some excerpts from the Libyan Tribal Council’s manifesto issued on July 26. Speaking for Libya’s 2000 tribes, the Council issued a Proclamation signed by scores of tribal leaders from eastern Libya.
"What is called the Transitional Council in Benghazi was imposed by NATO on us and we completely reject it. Is it democracy to impose people with armed power on the people of Benghazi, many of whose leaders are not even Libyan or from Libyan tribes but come from Tunisia and other countries.”…
“The Trial Council assures its continuing cooperation with the African Union in its suggestions aimed at helping to prevent the aggression on the Libyan people”.…
“The Tribal Council condemns the crusader aggression on the Great Jamahiriya executed by the NATO and the Arabic regressive forces which is a grave threat to Libyan civilians as it continues to kill them as NATO bombs civilian targets.”…
“We do not and will not accept any authority other than the authority that we chose with our free will which is the People’s Congress and Peoples Committees, and the popular social leadership, and will oppose with all available means, the NATO rebels and their slaughter, violence and maiming of cadavers. We intend to oppose with all the means available to us the NATO crusader aggressors and their appointed lackeys”.
According to one representative of the Libyan Supreme Tribal Council, “The tribes of Libya have until today not fully joined in repelling the NATO aggressors. As we do, we serve notice to NATO that we shall not desist until they have left our country and we will ensure that they never return.”
From Afhanistan to Central Asia?
Moscow (Russia)
The hypothesis that the US is planning a partial relocation of its military infrastructures from Afghanistan to Central Asia appears to be gaining momentum. A dead giveaway, according to columnist Aleksandr Shustov, is the heigthened intensity of Washington’s diplomatic transactions with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan and the consequent loss of Moscow’s influence in the region.
»Fired Bahraini workers demand jobs
August 1, 2011
PressTV
Hundreds of workers in Bahrain have assembled outside the Ministry of Labor, demanding the government reinstate all unlawfully dismissed workers.
The recently-fired workers, who have been sacked for taking part in anti-regime demonstrations, gathered in front of the ministry in the Bahraini capital, Manama, on Monday, Press TV reports.
The Bahraini government and state-linked firms have fired more than two thousand workers since late March, according to Human Rights Watch.
Meanwhile, people in the southern Bahraini city of Sitra held a funeral service for a protester who was killed on Sunday when regime troops fired tear gas to disperse anti-government demonstrators.
On Monday, Saudi-backed security forces in Bahrain abducted a teenager from his home and tortured him for two hours.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates deployed military forces to Bahrain in mid-March to assist the Manama government in its brutal crackdown on the popular protests.
Scores of people have been killed and hundreds more arrested in Bahrain since mid-February. Numerous protesters have also been detained and transferred to unknown locations during the brutal onslaught on protesters.
Bond markets are now flashing warning signs about Italy and Spain. As Europe's sovereign debt crisis has unfolded over the past 15 months, markets have sensed a country is in trouble when the yield (interest rate) on its 10-year bonds has risen above 6%. The trigger for a bailout has been when yields have topped 7%. In Spain, the peak for yields yesterday was 6.45%; in Italy it was 6.14%.
"We are on the brink of a major sovereign debt crisis," said one analyst. He added that there were similarities between Europe in the summer of 2011 and the US mortgage meltdown four years ago. Greece and Portugal were akin to America's sub-prime borrowers, who were the first to run into problem, but subsequently the crisis spread to borrowers with slightly better prospects. In the context of Europe, that was Italy and Spain, with Italy's national debt of 130% of GDP making it a more pressing problem.
A very critical month of August predicted for the two major European countries. And thereafter for the rest of the Eurozone?
Greece In Panic: Masses Race To Pull Cash From Banks Causing A Great Depression Style Bank-Run
2.8.11
The Guardian reports that while Western media has been silent on the issue Greece is in an absolute state of panic facing a Great Depression style run on the banks as people race to withdraw their cash. The first serious bank run since the Greek crisis began.
Please to note, as the video prognosticated, mass demos in Israel, only sparsely reported in MSM, carry on against the government. Cosmetic or for real? Only time will tell. I personally think it might be a good sign of some kind of change in the air.
And now to Syria's "Colour Revolution". This particular manifestation of street violence has so far mainly been fought by the Mainstream Media which has taken every occasion to report wrongly on Syrian events. What Syria is actually facing is a fully-armed insurgency led by that notorious band called the Muslim Brotherhood, more rightly termed the Muslim Mercenaries, US-funded, London-directed, with tremendous backing from neighbouring Turkey which has suddenly shown its true colours as a precious west asset. So not to believe a word of what MSM thunders out about Hama massacres of the poor and undefended on the part of the Assad government.
It looks more and more as though the overall aim might be to drag Iran into a war on behalf of Syria and to get Lebanon into the picture as well. Hard times ahead, friends, hard times ahead.
@07:35
Europe NOT considering rescue plans for Italy, Spain - 2.8.11
BRUSSELS (MarketWatch) — The European Union has no plans to provide rescue loans to Italy and Spain, despite the rising borrowing costs facing these countries, a European Commission spokeswoman said Tuesday.
The US debt ceiling farce ended as expected: with the worst of "deals" imaginable. So what now? More of the same. The wars, which account for 75% of US expenditure, will carry on unabated, reinforced: Have a look at this:
US Military To Be Based In Australia To Confront China
Call To Expand American Counterinsurgency Operations In Philippines
US Could Upgrade Polish Warships For Baltic Sea
Bulgaria: Pentagon Continues Upgrading Military Bases
US Uses Romanian Air Base To Supply Afghan War
America’s Africa Partnership Station In East Africa
Mongolia: US Leads NATO, Asian NATO Allies In Military Exercise
Libyan War: Over 17,000 NATO Air Missions, Nearly 6,500 Strike Sorti
The Big Picture: War on Libya is War on Africa
What in the world is a country facing bankruptcy and default doing conducting military exercises in Mongolia and Central Asia? What is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, designed to counter a Soviet thrust into Western Europe, doing in Mongolia?
"To each his own mystery,
The secret inviolate for all."
Israeli Credit Rating May Be Cut by S&P in Line With U.S. Action - 2.8.11
Israel may have its AAA credit rating on U.S.-guaranteed sovereign bonds cut by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service in line with a similar action it has warned of taking on U.S. debt.
S&P put Israel’s rating on “CreditWatch” today, meaning there is a 50 percent chance it may be cut in the next 90 days. It said the action should have been taken July 14 when the U.S. rating was placed on “CreditWatch,” attributing the lapse to an administrative error.
Chinese agency downgrades U.S. credit rating
3.8.11
Although the United States narrowly avoided an unprecedented default following congressional approval of a last-minute compromise plan to raise the debt ceiling, China's leading credit rating agency Wednesday downgraded U.S. sovereign debt after putting it on negative watch last month.
The Dagong Global Credit Rating Company, which lowered the United States to A+ last November after the U.S. Federal Reserve decided to continue loosening its monetary policy, announced a further downgrade to A, indicating heightened doubts over Washington's long-term ability to repay its debts.
:
This means that the interest rates on the debt China holds have just increased. Technically, the US Government has just gone into default. We may well see a "bird on a wire" effect as the other global credit ratings agencies, also start to downgrade the credit rating of the US Government.
Ten tenacious beliefs held by people regarding 9/11:
1. They believe that 4 young pilots who love money, alcohol and sex, could be convinced to kill themselves for a religious purpose.
2. They believe that four teams of four to five rather smallish men could subdue 40 to 80 passengers without using firearms and without raising the suspicion of the pilots.
3. They believe it is possible to subdue a pilot and co-pilot in their flight cabin before either can transmit a hijacking code, a verbal Mayday message, or raise the suspicion of the crew.
4. They believe a person who could hardly control a one-engine Cessna can fly a Boeing passenger airliner on instruments alone for more than an hour in a foreign country and crash this airliner at 500 mph into the side of a building 20 feet above ground.
5. They believe the capital of the United States, Washington, D.C. , is undefended against approaching unidentified aircraft.
6. They believe crashing aircraft can disintegrate, leaving no visible debris such as fuselage, wings, tail or engine.
7. They believe an airliner with 45 passengers can crash without leaving visible bodies and blood.
8. They believe debris from a crashing airplane can be found eight miles away.
9. They believe it is possible to induce a free-fall collapse of a skyscraper by hitting it with an airplane (even if the skycraper was designed to withstand such a strike) and then letting the resulting fire bring it down.
10. They believe that 19 Arab terrorists actually boarded the four aircraft that crashed on 9/11.
The most shcoking thing of all is, as has been recently reported, Vladimir Putin seems to hold similar views, strenuously denying it was an inside job. Perhaps Putin should return to school and learn his abc again.
The secret ally of the US? It would appear so. Here comes Libya Two:
"Russia Ready to Condemn Syria: — Russia said it would not oppose a UN resolution to condemn the violence." - 3.8.11
There is something to be said for the view that the downfall of the US empire (and subsequently of the entire west) began 21 years ago when, on 2nd August 1990, the US launched its Coalition- of-the-Willing attack Desert Storm against Iraq. The war-taboo once broken, the invasion of other countries became the norm in the west, a fitting substitute in their eyes for all other forms of economic activity.
FTSE drops as EU chief warns of euro crisis spread - 4.8.11
The President of the European Commission has warned that the eurozone debt crisis is spreading and suggested that future bailout funds may need to increase in size. In a letter to European Governments, José Manuel Barroso also criticised the July 21 bailout package agreed by EU leaders. He added that that Europe urgently needs to assess many aspects, including the size of the European Financial Stability Facility. “I ... urge a rapid reassessment of all elements related to the EFSF, and concomitantly the ESM [European Stability Mechanism], in order to ensure that they are equipped with the means for dealing with contagious risk,” Mr Barroso said. The FTSE 100 sank again this afternoon, shedding 130 points, or 2.3 per cent, to 5,456 after heavy losses yesterday.
Further to above, 16:19, the Dow lost 350 points today and is said to be in the grip of total fear. Well, I ask you, you have such bad nerves and you play the stockmarket. Better the people there found themselves another job. Oops, sorry, I'd forgotten. No other jobs available at the moment.
DOW IN MAJOR SLIDE. HAS PPT LOST THEIR MAGIC TOUCH? - 4.8.11
Dow, halfway through the day, down as much as 287 points. Stocks skid on renewed fear about the global economy.
Canada down 2.65%, Germany down 3.01%, the Un-united States down 2.01%,
'Italy's 2400 Tons Of Gold Are The Real Target Of IMF Terrorists' - 4.8.11
Italy has the third-largest gold stockpile in the EU behind France and Germany, and the IMF wants all of it according to Keiser.
Also 3 new stories from Italy today:
** Run On Italian Banks - Interbank Lending FREEZES
** Italy Cancels Debt Auctions For The Rest Of 2011
** Italy Seizes Documents Of S&P, Moody's Over Suspected Market Manipulation
If Italy's gold and that belonging to France is held in the same place as German gold, i.e. Fort Knox, US, there is no way they are ever going to get it back, the gold having been used up by the host country sometime back and replaced by gold-plated tungsten bars. Ditto for Swiss gold.
As for the IMF, Christiane Lagarde has a criminal case against her on in France. With a bit of luck, she, too, goes the way she sent her predecessor, Dominique Strauss Kahn.
For once the Plunge Protection Team (PPT) got hit over the head:
Global Stock Sell-Off Follows Today's 512 Point Crash Of The DOW - 4.8.11
Massive global stock sell-off follows today's 512 point crash of the DOW, which was the worse drop since the 2008 Financial Crisis and the 9th worse ever.Dow Crashes 512 Points - Worse Since 2008 Financial Collapse, 9th Worse Drop Ever.
MSCI Asia Pacific index dropped 3.8 per cent, Nikkei 225 down 3.8 percent, fell 3.5 per cent, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 3.8 per cent to a two-year low.
China’s Shanghai Composite index shed 2.3 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index off 4.8 per cent, Taiwan’s Taiex index plunged 4.3 per cent with Chimei Innolux, and In Indonesia, the Jakarta Composite down 5 per cent.
FTSE slides to fifth biggest weekly fall on record - 5.8.11
Index closes 146 points down despite rally on US job figures, with £149bn wiped out in week. From what we hear, the Dow is also down as are the Asian markets.
The Israeli Awakening? True of False? Take a look at it yourself.
http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/the-israeli-lobby-controls-america-but-the-jewish-state-is-f.html
And while one is keeping an eye on Israel, let's not forget the student protests in Chile and the clashes between the indignados and riot police in Madrid.
Let's take a closer look at this:
What is the amount of the outstanding debt of Greece? 367 billion euros. Who does Greece owe this money to? Mainly to other European countries.
Right. Ireland now: Debt: 865 billion owed to other European countries mainly.
Spain? Owes one trillion to: France, Britain and Germany.
Italy, ditto
Spain owes Italy one billion and Italy owes Spain 27 billion.
So what does it all boil down to? Bankrupt nations scramble to bailout other bankrupt nations. So where does all this lead us, how is the whole thing going to end? Anyone's guess.
S&P has just downgraded rating of USTreasury to AA+. Let's have a celebration.
Oh, yes, definitely. Let's raise our glasses merrily to the Great Demise! Also to the courage shown by S&P. Moody's was just talk. S&P, following Dagong on this not to forget, put its money where its mouth is. A blessed day for us all!
So where is NATO at today? We hear they are gearing up to attack Syria through the good offices of fellow Muslim country Turkey, further to dragging Iran, Syria's military alliance partner, into the conflict. Good. And what of Libya and Afghanistan?
In Libya, the tribes have captured some 15 senior NATO personnel active on Libyan soil and will no doubt use them as bargaining chips.
As for hardy Afghanistn, they brought down yet another enemy heli in Eastern Afghanistan yesterday. And as for French troops there, to quote the Afghan National Resistance:
"23 French invaders killed as 2 huge enemy tanks eliminated in Kapisa Aug. 05 – There are reports from Kapisa province that two powerful detonations struck two huge armored tanks of the French invaders near the capital of the province on Friday night at about 11:00 pm, tearing the invaders’ gigantic double-decker military apart and killing at least 23 French invading troops besides wounding many others. Witnesses reported seeing the ambulance helicopter landing the blast scene and airlifting the dead and wounded from the site of the explosion."
We haven't fogotten. We will never forget. We salute the memory of those who died in Hiroshima on this day as the first nuclear bomb the world had ever known was callously, casually dropped down on that city. this act of ruthlessness being repeated three days later, on Aug 9, on Nagasaki. We the children of generations following those who died in those two explosions will never forgive what was done to you then.
Global markets on the brink of crisis
World's financial markets closed for business nursing losses of more than $2.5 trillion (£1.53tn) after a week of selling - 5.8.11
Global financial markes are on the brink of crisis after a week of turbulent selling.
The world's financial markets closed for business nursing losses of more than $2.5 tn (£1.53tn) after a week of turbulent selling not seen since the dark days of late 2008, when the big beasts of banking were forced to beg for government help and the global economy was gripped by its worst recession since the 1930s.
Hundreds of billions of pounds have been wiped off share prices in London. Across the Atlantic, Wall Street alone was staring at losses of $2tn or more after a fortnight of almost incessant selling. Front pages again carried pictures of traders with their heads in their hands looking at a sea of red on their computer screens.
The jagged downward lines of share price indices pointed the way in which the world economy seems to have turned after a week that has left the financial system on the brink of another global crisis. It seems that the problems that first emerged at the outset of the credit crunch four years ago almost to this very day – the unofficial anniversary is this coming Tuesday, 9 August – never went away despite billions of taxpayer support for the system.
China tells U.S. "good old days" of borrowing are over - 6.8.11
China bluntly criticized the United States on Saturday one day after the superpower's credit rating was downgraded, saying the "good old days" of borrowing were over.
Standard & Poor's cut the U.S. long-term credit rating from top-tier AAA by a notch to AA-plus on Friday over concerns about the nation's budget deficits and climbing debt burden.
China -- the United States' biggest creditor -- said Washington only had itself to blame for its plight and called for a new stable global reserve currency.
"The U.S. government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone,"
Copter downing in Afghanistan kills 31 Americans
Insurgents shot down a U.S. military helicopter during fighting in eastern Afghanistan, killing 31 Americans, most of them belonging to the same elite unit as the Navy SEALs who killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, U.S. officials said Saturday. It was the deadliest single loss for American forces in the decade-old war against the Taliban.
One might wonder why this was made public whereas other similar deaths were carefully hushed up. Would it be because one wished to cover up on the deaths which had occurred in Pakistan when one of the US copters crashed or was shot down or were the SEALS deliberately lured to their deaths because some of them had decided to tell the true story of the non-killing of Osama bin Laden, dead these past ten years already?
France and Italy stand by to bail out biggest banks as euro crisis worsens
7.8.11
Fears are growing this weekend that two of Europe’s largest banks may require a bailout, having been hugely damaged by the worsening crisis across the eurozone.
In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy is having to confront the possibility that the country’s second-biggest bank, Societe Generale -commonly known as SocGen - is on the brink of disaster after huge losses over loans made to Greece.
The chilling possibility of the largest bank in Italy, UniCredit Banca, suffering a similar collapse if a bailout is not implemented comes as Silvio Berlusconi already faces an increasingly dangerous national economic situation.
London riots spread south of Thames
7.8.11
Violence, vandalism and looting spread beyond Tottenham and Enfield to reach Brixton, leaving 35 police injured
There has been a second night of rioting across London, with violence erupting in several of the capital's boroughs, from Brixton in the south to Enfield and Islington in the north and Walthamstow to the east...
The insurrections:
- In Spain, police and demonstrators battled on the streets of Madrid. The indignados now plan to march on Brussels, joining up with French dissidents on the way.
- In Israel, 300 thousand marched through various cities in anger at and disagreement with the government.
- Nothing in the US so far. But as this short item points out:
"Finally there is this: 'If you think this can't happen in the United States - you're dreaming! What happens in London makes it to the US, in short order, every time. This is the price that the thugs in US police Departments are about to have to pay, for what they've been doing, in places like Oakland and Tucson and Phoenix, and a lot of other cities now for the last year plus!
The people in London have figured it out."
Rasmussen Poll: American Sentiment is "Pre-Revolutionary" ... Only 17% Say U.S. Government Has Consent of the Governed. (7.8.11)
Europe On The Brink (7.8.11)
After a week that saw $2.5 trillion wiped off global stock markets, European policymakers held a series of emergency conference calls on Sunday to discuss the twin debt crises in Europe and the USA that are causing market turmoil, and stoking fears that the Depression might actually affect some members of the plutocracy (e.g. bondholders).
Because Spain’s and Italy’s economies are in severe trouble (i.e. overloaded with debt), yields on Italian and Spanish debt (i.e. bonds) have soared to 14-year highs. That’s great for investors, but they hold $2.57 trillion worth of Italian bonds alone, which is 120 percent of Italy’s national output. Hence Italy is already bankrupt, and must inevitably default. Spain will too -- in which case investors will end up getting less than they expected.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Dow Falls 635: Worst Plunge Since 2008, 6th Biggest Stock Market Crash Ever
The Dow crashed 635 points today.
This is the worst plunge since 2008, and the sixth biggest crash in history:
Largest daily point losses
Rank Date Close Net Change % Change
1 &2008-09-29 10,365.45 −777.68 −6.98
2 &2008-10-15 8,577.91 −733.08 −7.87
3 &2001-09-17 8,920.70 −684.81 −7.13
4 &2008-12-01 8,149.09 −679.95 −7.70
5 &2008-10-09 8,579.19 −678.91 −7.33
6 &2011-08-08 10,809.85 −634.76 −5.55
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services on Monday lowered the ratings on U.S.-guaranteed bonds issued by the Israeli government to AA+ from AAA. The downgrade comes in the wake of the ratings agency's move on Friday to strip the U.S. of its triple-A rating. However, Israel's sovereign rating is unchanged at A with a stable outlook. The decision affects about $6 billion in debt
Not content with that, S & P went on to downgrade Warren Buffet,fellow ratings agency Moody's and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. All this is going to have a tremendous effect on municipal bonds.
UK growth falls again (9.8.11)
Growth in the UK deteriorates for sixth month running, says OECD.
UK ‘faces credit rating cut and more money-printing’.
Riots in Britain ongoing and spreading from city to city.
Greece In Panic: Masses Race To Pull Cash From Banks Causing A Great Depression Style Bank-Run
The Guardian reports that while Western media has been silent on the issue Greece is in an absolute state of panic facing a Great Depression style run on the banks as people race to withdrawal their cash.
UK riots spread to the northern city of Liverpool
British police say violence and looting has spread to a third city, with authorities handling outbreaks of violence in the northern city of Liverpool.
Liverpool's police department said officers were responding to a "number of isolated outbreaks of disorder," including vehicles set ablaze and buildings attacked in the city's southern neighborhoods.
So far affected: London, Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool.
Before the day is much older, please to spare a thought for Nagasaki, its victims and its survivors. Please to remember who bombed whom and on what flimsy grounds. And please to vow that everything will be done for such a thing never to be repeated again or else the planet along with all it carries will vanish from the world.
Rising Horus, we grieve along with you today as we did only three days ago. We hope Fukushima news is only the MSM giving us its usual baloney, but you know best how Japan might be affected today.
Europe's Problem Economy Number One
Germany is a country that does not have a national minimum wage, and where 2 million workers are now paid around €5 (£4.35) an hour. Most other comparable European countries have a minimum wage – from France to the Netherlands to Greece – and in the UK the hourly rate is about to go up to £6.08. As Germany's leading expert on pay and inequality, Gerhard Bosch, observes, workers in manufacturing (BMW and VW, say) still get good wages and conditions, thanks to their strong trade unions. And there are lessons to be learned from how to use banks to foster decent small-business growth and maintain a manufacturing supply chain. As for the rest, he says: "The German social model is really like a Swiss cheese where the holes are getting larger and larger."
Put in big-picture terms, this means that Germany is really the No 1 problem economy in Europe. Again, that sounds plain wrong: surely the bad cases are on the southern periphery of the eurozone?
But consider: German workers saw their wages (after inflation) actually fall by 4% in the 2000s, so they were hardly in a position to consume a growing proportion of those products turned out by German businesses. Which means that the country exported more to the go-go economies of the south of Europe, and lent Spain, Greece and the rest the cash to buy their goods. Put in simple terms, it's a bit like buying a kitchen and the showroom arranging a loan so you can make the purchase. And German banks were only too happy to shovel credit to the countries that couldn't really afford to buy all this stuff. In effect, Germany blew the bubbles that popped up in the rest of Europe.
When a borrowing crisis comes along, it's better to be the bank than the debtor, which is why Germany (like China, which has played a similar game) is so lauded now. But if the eurozone crisis is to be sorted out, continental governments need to recognise that Germany's business model can't continue to rely so heavily on lending and selling abroad. As Engelbert Stockhammer of Kingston University points out, it would make more sense for German workers to be taken off their strictly rationed wages, than for Greece, Spain and Portugal to be consigned to their own regional great depression.
Two conclusions flow: first, the problems of the eurozone are way bigger than a few small countries that spent too much. And second, Germany isn't a cut-out-and-keep model of how to manage a sound, socially just economy. We need to think a bit harder.
GEAB N°56-Special Summer 2011 - Contents
- Published on June 16, 2011 -
Global systemic crisis – Last warning before the Autumn 2011 shock, when $15 trillion of financial assets go up in smoke
We estimated in 2009 that the world had about 30 trillion USD in ghost assets. Almost half went up in smoke in the six months between September 2008 and March 2009. For our team, it's now the other half’s turn, the 15 trillion USD of ghost assets remaining, purely and simply vanishing between July 2011 and January 2012…
(This was posted once before, I remember. I'm posting this again to remind everyone how accurate GEAB's June predictions have turned out to be.)
LONDON RIOTS: THE SURVEILLANCE STATE HAS FAILED
Late last year, Big Brother Watch conducted the first study of the true cost burden of CCTV to local councils in the United Kingdom. Of the 342 local councils who responded to our information request, a total of £321,331,453.18 was spent on installing and operating CCTV cameras during the 2007 to 2010 period.
Hidden in the small print of the report was a crude calculation, based on the average starting salary of a Police Constable, as to how many officers could have been provided for the figure of £321 million. The figure equated to 13,536 over three years – or more than 4500 a year.
The British government replaced police officers with TV cameras, and now all they can do is watch as the British youths, angry at being born into a lifetime of debt-slavery, revolt!
Hundreds more arrested as riots spread
Violence overnight in Manchester, West Bromwich and Wolverhampton
• Murder inquiry after car hits and kills three men 'defending neighbourhood' in Birmingham
• Relative calm in London after 16,000 police deployed to maintain order
First Oslo, then Britain and, in between, Spain. Is this the UK's "colour revolution", one wonders.
For next rating downgrade, S&P may look at France
Commentary: France has lots of debt, and dysfunctional politics
LONDON (MarketWatch) — The U.S. is broke? Been there. Italy is bankrupt. Done that. Spain is teetering on the edge? Got the T-shirt. There is, however, one major industrial country that has so far managed to sail through the market turmoil without anyone seriously questioning its credit-worthiness: France.
And yet, if you‘re looking for the next downgrade, and the source of the next shock to the global markets, it’s France you should be looking toward. The country’s debt is exploding. It is steadily losing competitiveness against Germany, and running up huge trade deficits. Its political system is every bit as dysfunctional as America’s. And, of course, it is about to be presented with a massive bill for bailing out Italy and Spain.
A French downgrade may only be a matter of time. If it happens, it’s going to be a huge blow to already-fragile markets. The country has the fourth largest debt in the world, and its paper is heavily traded by global investors. There would be some nasty losses on a French downgrade.
It's not yet for today, but a hot possibility in the days ahead.
Dollar at lowest against Swiss Franc in 40 years
August 10, 2011
The dollar tumbled the most in at least 40 years against the Swiss franc after the Federal Reserve pledged to keep its key interest rate at a record low at least through mid-2013 to revive the flagging economic recovery.
The greenback declined versus the majority of its most- traded peers as the Fed said growth was “considerably slower” than it expected and it’s prepared to use a range of policy tools to boost the economy. The meeting came a day after economic weakening and a Standard & Poor’s U.S. credit-rating cut spurred a global stock rout. Commodity currencies recouped losses sustained just after the meeting. Stocks and gold surged.
“With the Fed saying they have tools available that they are willing to use and giving a more definitive time frame, that is overall going to be a dollar negative,” said John Doyle, a strategist in Washington at the currency-trading firm Tempus Consulting Inc. “Swiss franc and gold have absolutely been the beneficiaries of uncertainty.”
Banks drag Wall Street lower as fear returns
On Wednesday August 10, 2011
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fear returned to Wall Street on Wednesday, sending the S&P 500 to another 4 percent decline, triggered by worries that Europe's debt crisis could engulf French banks and spill onto the U.S. financial sector.
Trading was once again marked by sharp moves on heavy volume. For a fifth straight day, the Dow industrials fluctuated in a range of more than 400 points.
The Dow Jones industrial average slid 520.29 points, or 4.63 percent, to 10,719.48. The S&P 500 fell 51.81 points, or 4.42 percent, to 1,120.72. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 101.47 points, or 4.09 percent, to 2,381.05.
The next massive debt bubble to crush the US economy – the upcoming implosion of the student loan market. $1 trillion in student loans and defaults sharply increasing. (10.8.11)
In the land of predatory bubbles it looks like higher education is now fully caught up in the credit market implosion. In the same debt produced vein as housing, college used to be a relatively cheap bet with decent results in the long-term. Even if you went to public universities and picked up a degree in a field with low job prospects, at least you didn’t have the cloud of student loans hanging over your head when you graduated. Today it is a very different ballgame and the mythology behind college is being used to lure people into institutions that are little more than paper mill factories and that at extremely high cost.
Watch out for this one.
UK Riots
MSM trying to play down last night's troubles. They were less, a lot less, but still occuring.
Besides, the shops need to be restocked! :-)
I think these rioters are pretty clever to have targeted shops. That's an integral part of the west wealth accumulation and dissolution system. Tomorrow they'll go after the banks maybe.
Tens of billions of pounds were wiped off the value of shares on both sides of the Atlantic amid renewed fears about the world economy and the solvency of big European banks.
The FTSE 100 Index slumped 3.05 per cent to its lowest point in a year and falls elsewhere were even bigger. The Dow Jones Index in the US ended 4.62 per cent down, while France's Cac 40 plunged by 5.45 per cent and Germany's Dax by 5.13 per cent.
Shares in London alone had £41bn wiped from their value, taking the total loss to investors and pension funds in the recent losing run to £226bn, and more than $3trn globally. The FTSE 100 ended the day almost 158 down leaving it at 5,007 points. The Dow fell almost 520 points.
The losses eradicated all of Tuesday's gains and left the markets reeling as they veered towards what analysts regard as classic "bear" territory – a decline of about a fifth since they peaked earlier this year.
Panic selling of shares in Italy's largest bank, Unicredit, even had to be suspended because of the scale of the sell-off. When dealing resumed the shares were 10 per cent lower than their opening price.
And in France mistaken rumours that Société Générale, the country's second-biggest bank, was a distressed seller of gold caused it to lose 20 per cent of its value. The fall was stemmed only when the bank put out an official denial: "SocGen categorically denies all the market rumours." It ended up 14 per cent down on the start of the day.
All the French banks have suffered in recent weeks because they have lent large sums to the Greek government and businesses – SocGen and Crédit Agricole own Greek subsidiaries. They are also exposed to Portugal, Spain and Ireland, all rated poor risks.
Worse still for the French groups is the persistent speculation about a re-assessment of French Treasury bonds by the credit-rating agencies.
France is widely regarded as the next nation likely to lose its AAA status, after America's downgrade. As the core "safe" holding for all French financial institutions, any devaluation of government bonds would have serious implications.
At best it would mean cash loans from the European Central Bank, or a an injection of new capital from the French government, which would have to be borrowed from the markets. That would put France's creditworthiness under yet more pressure.
A similar process could overwhelm Unicredit and the Italian government, already relying on the ECB to help to fund its public borrowings. The threat of this vicious cycle is a nightmare for policymakers. Highlighting the interdependency of the big banks, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and HSBC shares extended losses. At worst, this process could trigger another sovereign-debt crisis or a Europe-wide credit crunch, and freeze money markets again, as happened in 2007, when banks refused to lend to each other at virtually any interest rate. That choked off the supply of credit to the wider economy and helped to trigger the great recession.
Europe is telling itself one cockamamie story after another. We’ve got a rescue fund! Only it has no money! But we will bail out Italy nonetheless! But Italy is too big to bail out – and we tried stuffing it under the carpet, but there’s no more room with Greece, Ireland, and Portugal already suffocating in there. The whole G-20 is yakking on the phone as I write, hatching fresh cockamamie stories. Oh, now it looks like the European Central Bank will ride to the rescue with a dispatch satchel full of good intentions. They said the same thing last time, a month or so ago, when a caryatid fell on Greece’s head. They are not so sure what money is either. Is a bond like money? Maybe not so much anymore. A stock portfolio? Feh! A Euro? The damned thing is starting to look like a ball-and-chain custom-crafted to weigh down Germans. All I know is I hope the whole gang printed up some fresh lira, francs, marks, drachma, pesetas, punts, and whatnot.
Did you admire Standard and Poor’s sly, Friday night downgrade of the United States Treasury bond rating? However, I’m not the only one in America asking where do these S and P punks get off downgrading US bonds when three years ago they wore out their Triple-A rubber stamps on the cartloads of stinking offal that Angelo Mozillo and other mortgage rustlers were pawning off as bond-fodder on every Frankenstein “investment opportunity” pumped out of the Wall Street CDO mills.
I’m not convinced that the US bond rating will even matter that much because nobody knows what anything is worth anymore – especially when governments teeter and the folks in the public square (or the parking lot in America’s case), start yelling for blood. Merkel, Sarkozy, Berlusconi, Zapatero, will soon be swept away by that selfsame rolling torrent of dreck-strewn woe, while poor Obama looks like one of those hapless, floating creatures in the second-to-last scene of O Brother, Where Art Thou. Even the gold bugs are scared the price will collapse in a debt deflation, or that the federal government will slap a giant extra-special punitive capital gains tax on precious metal sales, or will try to confiscate it from the public altogether like Franklin Roosevelt did – though, given the vast arsenals of private firearms across the US, and the martial spirit lingering in many pissed-off factions of the Tea Party ilk, nothing would invite a revolution, or civil war, or civic upheaval as surely as trying to snatch folks’ gold.
Everybody is broke now: national treasuries, giant banks, pension funds, insurance companies. The wonder so far is that credit default swaps have not yet been triggered by interest rate changes or some other silly shit, but when that comes to pass there is no way the counterparties can settle their contracts. Ruin will thunder through the financial system like winged death. Everybody is broke and there’s a lot less real “money” (whatever it is) out there. Everybody’s quailing at the prospect of QE 3, in all its cosmic futility. The United States has already half killed itself at the steam-table of deep-fried debt. I guess we could go all the way and shoot what remains of the dollar in its pitiful, lolling head.
When civil unrest comes to US, it will come first to Chicago now that Wisconsin has petered out.
Post S&P Downgrade, Chicagoans Take to Streets, Demand Arrest of Bankers (08/09/2011)
Immediately following the announcement of the S&P downgrade, defiant Chicagoans took the the streets and demanded the arrest of the Bankers and an the end of the Federal Reserve system. This was never covered on any news outlet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtHP1bWmc8I
Two Different Versions of World War III
1. US War with China "Inevitable"?
Outside of the market madness, the biggest global news this week might be China sending its first aircraft carrier to sea.
The launch was not unexpected and China sought to downplay its significance, saying "it will not pose a threat to other countries."
Still, "it is the most potent symbol yet of China's desire to develop the power both to deny U.S. naval access to Asian waters and to protect its global economic interests, including shipping lanes," The WSJ reports.
All the conditions seem to be met for hostilities between the two major powers. I personally think the Koreas will set it off, if war there is. And it may well end in a nuclear conforntation as poiuytr used to predict.
The second prediction comes from us by the best analyst in the money business, Max Keiser
2. World War III ongoing between the Banks, Hedge Funds and Rating Agencies and the Sovereign Debts of west countries
He is certain, says Keiser, that the French debt will be downgraded through the use of the weapons of mass financial destruction which are the derivatives US banks and hedge funds sold everyone else. Where victory lies in this Countries versus the Banks war is anyone's guess for the moment.
French GDP figures reveal cut in consumer spending - 12.8.11
Economy failed to grow in last quarter in sign that European economy is stumbling.
Blueprint For NATO Attack On Syria Revealed
12.8.11
Nato member countries would begin by using satellite technology to spot Syrian air defences. A few days later, warplanes, in larger numbers than Libya, would take off from the UK base in Cyprus and spend some 48 hours destroying Syrian surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) and jets. Alliance aircraft would then start an open-ended bombardment of Syrian tanks and ground troops.
The scenario is based on analysts in the French military, from the specialist British publication Jane's Defence Weekly and from Israel's Channel 10 TV station.
The Syrian air force is said to pose little threat. It has around 60 Russian-made MiG-29s. But the rest - some 160 MiG-21s, 80 MiG-23s, 60 MiG-23BNs, 50 Su-22s and 20 Su-24MKs - is out of date
(Making the world safe for compound interest.) WRH
The "Insurrections" - Where are they at today?
- Let's begin with Syria. We are told people have been demonstrating in Aleppo as well now, the city which along with Damascus, had so far held back from street protests. MSM have now taken to posting videos as well to back up the words we've stopped paying attention to. Alas, these ultra short videos show feet for the main part, sounds of protest and then - the big bang, implying bullets. To be dismissed out of hand, please.
- Something similar for Iran this morning, complete with video. No comments here, except to say MSM do get together to decide what their next PR move will be.
- Bahrain gladdened the heart where it was claimed a village demo managed to injure 8 policemen! More power to the Shias of Bahrain, then.
- And the best of them all: Israel where the dissatisfied in Tel Aviv raised a giant guillotine in their tent city. This one is ongoing apparently and street protests are scheduled for today. Let's see.
- Besides the above, *riots" have been reported in China and Russia. Why leave them out of the picture?
- London is as calm as a sleeping baby by all accounts.
Now what to make of this? Britain needs a USan to clear up its police mess? Carry on, Cameron. Pay back time will also come soemday.
America's reverse-colonization of Britain continues: Cameron wants former LAPD and NYPD chief Bill Bratton to head up London Metropolitan Police. Bratton headed up the LAPD during the Anthony Pellicano investigation. Pellicano was caught with illegal federal and local police wiretap recordings of Hollywood celebrities, just the kind of material that was of interest to Rupert Murdoch in the UK. It's quite clear who and what was behind the recent English riots that have improved the image of the British police and taken the public eye off Murdoch to the point where Cameron can install Bratton, an American, as their chief. London Mayor Boris Johnson, a Tory, was born in New York City.
Tens of thousands take to streets in social protests across Israel
13.8.11
Social protests took place throughout Israel on Saturday, with demonstrators turning out en masse in Haifa, Be’er Sheva and Afula. This was the first time since the start of the social protests nearly a month ago that Tel Aviv did not hold a march.
Protests also took place in Eilat, Rosh Pina, Nahariya, Dimona, Modi'in, Petah Tikva, Ramat Hasharon, Hod Hasharon, Netanya, Beit She’an as well as other cities throughout Israel.
(We'll take these protests seriously on the day the government falls. Till then, we retain our right to feel suspicious of what's taking place.)
After England, the following coutries also have the potential of seeing their youths go on rampages:
Germany, France, Italy, Greece and Spain. For the last named, two dates to bear in mind: Sept 25 and Oct 15 when the indignados will come out on the streets again. But I suppose we are all waiting to see what the youth of France will do and then, of course, the Italian soccer "hooligans". The way ahead seems long and perilous for all these countries as the prolapse becomes clearer for all to see.
ECB is euroland's last hope as bail-out machinery fails to resolve crisis - 13.8.11
The leaders of Germany and France have three bad choices as they decide whether to save EMU this week, or pretend to do so.
They can agree to fiscal fusion and an EMU debt union, entailing treaty changes and a constitutional revolution. This implies the emasculation of Europe's historic nation states.
They can tear up the mandate of European Central Bank and order Frankfurt to go nuclear with €2 trillion of `unsterilized' bond purchases until the M3 money supply in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and Greece stops contracting at depression rates and starts to grow again at recovery speed (5pc). This might destabilize Germany.
Or they can try to muddle through with their usual mix of half-measures and bluster. This will lead to a rapid disintegration of monetary union and a banking collapse. It risks a repeat of 1931 if executed badly, as it most likely would be.
They have days or weeks to make up their minds, not months.
The EFSF rescue fund was never more than a stop-gap device to avoid grappling with the core issue: the economic chasm between North and South. It has failed. Insistence that it could handle a dual crisis in Spain in Italy was a bluff, and last week that bluff was called when France too was sucked into the maelstrom.
The rest of it is simply touch and go.
After the US downgrade the S&P index fell 6.66% while the Dow Jones fell 5.55%
On Monday, 8/08 2011 the Standard & Poors stock index fell by the Satanic number of 6.66% while the Dow Jones average fell 5.55%. During the “Lehman shock,” of September 29, 2008, the Dow Jones index fell by $777 (indicating it is a casino) while the S & P fell by 8.8% (the Asian lucky number). There is high level financial warfare going on. The good guys are winning.
Thinking the unthinkable: Sell U.S. Treasuries
15.8.11
The idea that Japan would ever dump the $900 billion it holds in U.S. Treasuries, the second-largest foreign ownership after China, has long been just that — an idea never seriously entertained.
The long-standing argument paints a horrific picture of the consequences: The dollar would crash, world markets would be sent into a tailspin and the postwar military and political alliance between the U.S. and Japan would be shaken.
But after Washington's credit rating was downgraded for the first time ever earlier this month — from AAA to AA+ by Standard & Poor's — some daring advocates are voicing that taboo idea: Why not sell Treasuries?
(Indeed, why not? All good actions begin with a single thought.)
German economic slowdown raises fresh eurozone fears• German growth at 0.1% for last quarter
• Eurozone-wide growth at just 0.2%
• Markets fall with FTSE 100 down 73 points
16.8.11
The German economy has come to a near-standstill in the last quarter as the global slowdown hit Europe's biggest player.
In the latest blow to the eurozone, Germany grew by just 0.1% between April and June. Economists had expected growth of 0.5% during the quarter. Germany's Federal Statistical Office also revised down growth in the first quarter of 2011, to 1.3% from its initial estimate of 1.5%.
With France's economy failing to grow during the quarter, Germany's GDP data shows that the eurozone economy has worsened as its debt crisis entered a new, dangerous phase. The weak performance of the two countries dragged growth across the eurozone down to only 0.2%, Eurostat reported, with the wider European Union also growing by 0.2%.
The German slowdown was blamed on a fall in domestic consumption and construction work during the quarter. There was also a sharp fall in energy production after the government shut down eight nuclear plants in the aftermath of the Fukushima reactor disaster in Japan.
The slowing economy is a blow to Angela Merkel as she prepares to meet the French president Nicolas Sarkozy to discuss the euro debt crisis.
Spanish GDP grew by 0.2% during the quarter, down from 0.3% in the first three months of 2011.
The UK economy also grew by 0.2%, according to preliminary data issued last month.
US to lose its base in Kyrgyzstan - 16.8.11
Kyrgyzstan is not going to prolong its agreement with Washington, which entitles the US to use Manas Transit Center to supply its forces in Afghanistan, after it expires in 2014, the republic's Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev has said.
Merkel and Sarkozy propose euro-zone “government” to tackle debt crisis
16.8.11
Germany and France are calling on all euro-zone members to enshrine a balanced budget in their constitution, as well proposing a collective “government” led by the EU president.
In one of the most dramatic expansions of state power since the onset of the EU debt crisis, France and Germany have proposed a united euro-zone government to guide the bloc’s finances as well as having power to overrule national governments.
The new collective economic 'government' would be lead by Herman Van Rompuy and consist of heads of state or government that would meet at least twice a year.
(There, now they've shown their hand. Not euro-bonds, but a euro-government is what it's been about all along).
Yesterday, we were assured by the MSM that Gadhafi had lost Libya. Today, the denials are coming fast and furiously:
Breaking News: Gadhaffi Retakes Key Towns
17.8.11
Is Gadhaffi losing? Au contraire. In total contradiction to the propaganda push on CNN, sources inside Libya say Gadhaffi soldiers have retaken a number of key towns.
In a surprise announcement, sources inside Libya say that most of Misurata has been taken back by Libyan forces last night and today. In the process, Gadhaffi soldiers have liberated 1250+ Libyan prisoners of war. According to tribal leaders, Libyan forces now control the port city.
Tribal leaders also declare that Zawia, Garyan, Sorman, and Sabratha are secure, in contrast to claims by foreign reporters in Tripoli and Djerba (Tunisia) that they have been seized by rebels.
Russia seeks UN probe into Nato airstrikes
Posted by seumasach on August 17, 2011
16th August, 2011
Russia is “deeply disturbed” about Nato’s aerial campaign in Libya because it has overstepped the intent of the UN resolution that authorized the strikes, a Russian official said on Tuesday.
Attacks on nonmilitary targets such as the main TV station and Tripoli airport call into question Nato’s ability to implement the resolution that authorized the use of force to protect civilians, the diplomat said on condition of anonymity in keeping with his job’s rules.
He said Russia is “deeply disturbed by the destruction of infrastructure and especially power supplies on territory controlled by the government.”
The diplomat said in a telephone interview that Russia wants the UN to investigate an airstrike that allegedly killed 85 civilians earlier this month. Nato has denied the Libyan government’s claim that the alliance killed civilians in the attack on an agricultural building allegedly being used for military purposes, saying the casualties were soldiers and mercenaries.
During the past month, Nato’s conduct of the 5-month-long campaign has come under increasing international condemnation. Critics claim the daily bombings have gone far beyond the limited mandate provided by a Security Council resolution, which authorized a no-fly zone and the protection of civilians caught up in the civil unrest.
Russia, China, India, Brazil and South Africa have denounced the bombing of forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi, even when they are fighting defensive battles against advancing rebels.
In addition, the UN’s cultural and educational agency and several human rights and media protection groups have lambasted Nato over the daily airstrikes and particularly the raid against the state-run TV station.
A Nato spokesman denied that the alliance was overstepping its mandate.
“We take the side of the people of Libya,” Col. Roland Lavoie said Tuesday. “When we strike a tank, it is because we understand it does represent a threat to the local population.”
Venezuela may move billions of dollars of Gold and Cash out of U.S. - 17.8.11
I can't imagine the U.S. just letting the gold go, because they most likely have leased or sold it. The gold the U.S. will eventually ship (unless they decide to go to war with Venezuela before hand, just so they can freeze and keep the cash and gold) will most likely be tungsten filled. I would advise Chavez to have the gold tested when/if they get it back in the country.
So, now the question comes, what is the U.S. going to think of to freeze Venezuela's assets (11 billion gold and 6 billion cash) in the United States, before they actually have to ship it back to Venezuela?
Look at this:
Eastern, northeastern Japan rocked by string of earthquakes
TOKYO, Aug. 17, Kyodo
Then look at the news item above entitled: Thinking the unthinkable: Selling US treasuries.
Osted on 16.8.11.
Any link between the two? Are they up to their tricks again? I sincerely hope not. Japan has suffered enough as it is.
Venezuela Makes A Huge Transfer Of Gold From Switzerland To Banks In China, Russia, And Brazil: 18.8.11
Documents released by Venezuala's foreign minister also mention "the powers of the North" have "pillaged" Libya's European held reserves and notes a plan should be made to avoid a similar fate.
Here's one of the "leading" Brit analysts giving us his take on the Euro-zone government story above (Cf: 16.8.11 21.09).
Readers have asked for a quick verdict on the Merkel-Sarkozy deal. (18.8.11)
I have nothing to say. There was no deal. It was a vacuous restatement of clauses that already exist in the Lisbon Treaty, or an attempt to pass off retreads such as the Tobin Tax and harmonization of the corporate tax base as if they were new.
No eurobonds, no fiscal union, no boost to the EFSF rescue fund, no change of policy on the ECB’s mandate. Zilch.
More fiscal austerity for laggards, without even the Marshall Plan we had on July 21. It is all a step backwards into the black hole.
As for appointing EU president Herman van Rompuy head of a eurozone panel, I find it remarkable that anybody should take this seriously (much as I like the poet Van Rompuy, among the best of the lot). There is already a Eurogroup, headed by Jean-Claude Juncker.
The emptiness of the summit – coupled with Sarkozy’s deliciously absurd theatrics – tells us all we need to know. Neither Merkel nor Sarkozy seem capable of rising to the occasion. Europe is drifting towards its existential crisis.
The ECB can hold the line for now by purchasing €20bn of Spanish and Italian bonds each week. But once the ECB nears €150bn or so, the markets will brace for the next crisis.
Italy alone has to raise or roll-over €68bn by the end of September. You can be sure that a great number of investors will take advantage of ECB intervention between now and then to lighten their holdings, and switch the risk to eurozone taxpayers. The ECB may have to buy at least €100bn of Italian bonds alone by late September to cap the 10-year yield at 5pc.
Perhaps the Chinese and Gulf states will keep buying. Perhaps not.
So enough on the summit.
Aug 17, 2011
Hugo Chavez Nationalizes Venezuelan Gold Industry, Demands 211 Tons Be Returned From Abroad - JPMorgan, Bank Of England & ETFs Scramble For Physical Metal
Toronto-listed Rusoro, owned by Russia's Agapov family, is the only large gold miner operating in Venezuela. It produced 100,000 ounces last year.
The gold industry will be just the latest part of the economy to be put under state control by the socialist leader, who said he would issue the necessary decree in the coming days and called on the military to help control the sector.
"I have here the laws allowing the state to exploit gold and all related activities ... we are going to nationalize the gold and we are going to convert it, among other things, into international reserves because gold continues to increase in value," Chavez said in a phone call to state television.
Plans to transfer billions of dollars in cash reserves from abroad to banks in Russia, China and Brazil and tons of gold from European banks to its central bank vaults.
The planned moves would include transferring $6.3 billion in cash reserves, most of which Venezuela now keeps in banks such as the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, and Barclays Bank in London to unnamed Russian, Chinese and Brazilian banks, one document said.
Venezuela also plans to move 211 tons of gold it keeps abroad.
The problem for Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan is that they hold only 10.6 tonnes of gold, and all of it belongs to Venezuela, though they have pledged approximately 100 times that amount in various paper markets.
While Venezuela is a relatively minor player on the world stage, this could be a big game changer here in the United States because one of the banks that holds 10.6 tons of Venezuela’s gold is none other than JP Morgan. In a recent audit of JP Morgan’s holdings it was reported that they held 338,303 ounces of gold or roughly 10.6 tons. While this is a modest size deposit it is sure to cause some jitters at JP Morgan as they scramble to find the replacement gold which has already been pledged about 100 times across various paper markets to ETF’s like the SPDR Gold ETF (NYSE:GLD).
Revolution Spreads To Germany: Cars Of Hundreds Of "Fat Cats" Burned - 17.8.11
The Revolution Against The Global Economic Elite Spreads To Germany As Protestors Torch The Cars Of Hundreds of "Fat Cats'" Across The Country.
Also, please note, though it should come as no surprise to all poiuytr-trained readers and writers:
Silent Run On Greece Banks Spreads To Banks Across Europe
Economic data shows the silent run on Greece banks has spread into a massive number of people pulling their money out of banks all across Europe.
Today's Stockmarket news - 18.8.11
- French stock market plummets
French stocks nosedived on Thursday in line with exchanges across Europe amid fears of a new global recession.
Bank stocks plunged in afternoon trade, with Societe General down more than 12 percent on reports of US Federal Reserves concerns about the health of European banks.
- Tokyo stocks close under 9000
Stock prices in Tokyo fell sharply on Thursday, with the key Nikkei index declining below the 9,000 mark.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average dropped 113 points from Wednesday to end the day's trading at 8,943.
The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange lost 9 points to close at 767.
- Stockholm stock exchange plummets
The Stockholm stock exchange was down 6.2 percent on Thursday afternoon when trading closed, making the drop the steepest since August 2008. A broad fall among other European stock markets means fears of a recession are mounting.
Markets in meltdown amid new global recession fearsFrenzied selling wipes £62bn off value of FTSE and Dow Jones plummets in another tumultuous day for world economy - 18.8.11
Financial markets on both sides of the Atlantic were convulsed by a fresh wave of selling amid fears that the world economy is sliding back towards recession.
The FTSE 100 closed down 239 points, or 4.5%, at 5092, wiping more than £62bn off its value. In the US, the Dow Jones closed down 419 points, or 3.7%, at 10,991.
Growing disarray in the eurozone over the latest bailout for Greece, weak American manufacturing figures and a warning from Wall Street bank Morgan Stanley that the US and Europe are "hovering dangerously close to recession" all contributed to the mood of panic.
A closely watched gauge of the US manufacturing sector produced by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve plunged, underlining fears that the recovery has ground to a halt.
The yield on benchmark 10-year US Treasury bonds, which measures the cost of borrowing for the American government, slipped below 2%, as investors sought a haven from the storm. Gold, which has soared in value this year, hit another new record of $1,825 (£1,106) an ounce.
Sal Catrini, managing director for equities at Cantor Fitzgerald in New York, said: "The market is in meltdown mode; the data continues to stink. I don't know that there's much more to be said."
In Europe, investors were spooked by news that at least five eurozone countries had asked the Greek government to put up collateral against their share of the latest emergency bailout for Athens.
Austria, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Slovakia joined Finland in insisting that the Greeks put up assets as security, before they sign off on the €109bn (£95bn) emergency loan agreed in July. Their demands underline fears that eurozone countries have little confidence in the latest plans to shore up the single currency.
(Dress it up as you like, this is prolapse with no disguises. Plus, the usual instinct to loot, Greece in question here, which they will display even when in their coffins).
Putin Calls U.S. ‘Parasite’ as Russia Buys Its Debt - August 19, 2011
For Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the U.S. is a “parasite” because its rising debt weighs on the global economy. For his government, the same debt is the safest possible investment.
Russia, the world’s largest energy producer, has boosted its holdings of U.S. debt by more than 1,600 percent since September 2006, according to U.S. Treasury Department data. Russia used surging commodity prices to build the world’s third- largest reserves pile, boosted in part by return on Treasuries.
Putin, 58, who oversaw the largest buildup of U.S. debt holdings in Russia’s history as president from 2000 to 2008, may return to the post after elections next year. The country is now one of the world’s 10 largest holders of the securities with $110 billion at the end of June, about 70 percent more than when Putin left the Kremlin.
“They are sending out a message” largely for domestic consumption, Edwin Gutierrez, who helps manage about $7 billion in emerging-market debt at Aberdeen Asset Management in London, said in a phone interview on Aug. 17. “It’s ironic that these voices of complaint come as they experience massive capital appreciation.”
US troops may stay in Afghanistan until 2024
20.8.11
They think big don't they? Well, the US economy will not last until 2014, if that. Forget about 2024. The prolapse is as much a certainty as defeat in Afghanistan.
And noe for this Saturday's summary of the news from the Wars.
- Afghanistan: we hear of more US troops being sent to Afghanistan, departure dates being pushed from 2011-12 to 2024, etc. As for drone attacks on Pakistan, they are ongoing. Conclusioné utter chaos and these people are so benighted, they are not going anywhere quietly. After yesterday's attack on Kabul, expect the capital to become the centre of future fighting.
Syria: Gearing up for war there. Obama has asked Bashar al-Assad to step down, chorused by a lot of other Europeans. But Turkey has said no to joining in at the moment? Last minute face-saving? And Russia has also been making dissenting noises. Where, I ask again, is China in all this? I may be wrong, but I still think Syria will weather the storm.
Libya, but then, till yesterday, I also thought Libya would and now we hear NATO's troops, the rebels and among them Germans galore as reported this morning, are approaching Tripoli from three sides. MSM rubbish or the truth?
Israel's latest false flag against Gaza has apparently brought their own demos to a standstill. How all this escalates is anyone's guess.
And that's enough of war news for any thinking being. Just remember, whichever way the wars go, the final battle will be fought on the economic field as the "pox on humanity", the West (to quote a friend)is finally forced to admit defeat.
6.8 Quake Hits Japan - 19.8.11
Friday afternoon Japan was rocked by a magnitude 6.8 earthquake. This comes 5 months after the deadly quake struck in mid March that released a tsunami that swept the land destroying the Fukushima Diachi Nuclear Plant and polluting over 100,000 square miles of ocean with radiation over 300 times the normal limit near China.
The first stories to hit today already sound like cover stories, instantly reporting no damage to nuclear facilities.
The fact that 11 or more facilities were admittedly damaged back in March raises questions as to if the media is even reporting the truth, not to mention the known lies and cover-ups surrounding the Fukushima disaster.
What was left out of 10:18 above was Iraq. Let us make up for the omission.
Of course we are going to stay on indefinitely, says the US, instead of leaving by the end of the year as originally promised. And the Iraqi "government" agrees, they add. No, we don't proclaims a government spokesman. No way says Muqtada al Sadr. So warfare to go on. After all we are in that trap called: Perpetual War for perpetual peace. A taipan snake is a friend of humanity compared to the insane west.
Stockmarkets - Friday, 19.8.11
London’s index of leading shares plunged below the psychologically important 5000 mark at one stage but reclaimed some of the falls to close at 5040.76, just over 1pc down on the day.
Traders and investors dumped stocks amid continued fears over bank funding, the spread of the European debt crisis and the fragile US economy. Having endured the worst stock market fall since the financial crisis of 2008 on Thursday, traders fled from equities to less risky assets. The FTSE All-World equity index has fallen almost 20pc since May.
Morgan Stanley yesterday warned that the US and Europe were “dangerously close to recession” despite co-ordinated efforts to revive growth.
One trader said: “We’ve seen nothing that’s convinced us that another global recession can be avoided: the indecisiveness of Europe’s leaders over its debt crisis and America’s stalling recovery [means] you’ve got a pretty potent mix.”
Gold was pushed to yet another record high – up 1.4pc to $1,850 an ounce, having earlier touched $1,877.
Sovereign bonds of countries perceived to be safe havens – including the UK – also saw heavy demand, pushing German, US and UK yields sitting near record lows. The Japanese yen is at its highest level against the dollar since the Second World War.
European and US markets also fell – Germany’s Dax lost another 2.2pc; the CAC 40 in Paris shed 1.9pc, while the Madrid IBEX exchange lost 2pc, even as Spain announced further austerity measures designed to boost confidence.
The Dow Jones shed 1.6pc to close at 10,817.65 in New York, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq gave up early gains to also lose 1.6pc as traders dumped shares in late trading.
In Britain, bank shares led the market falls. The collapse in bank stocks has shocked the market and there were few signs of confidence returning. The credit default swaps (CDS) of UK banks, which provide buyers with protection should a company miss an interest payment, widened yesterday highlighting increased market concerns about their funding.
Syria: Obama Threatens U.S. Military Intervention
20.8.11
Syria is also targeted by imperialism — because of its refusal to recognize the Zionist occupation, its assistance to Hezbollah in their struggle to end the Israeli occupation of Lebanon and its strategic alliance with Iran.
The colour revolution complete in Libya? This morning brings the sad news that the "rebels" have reached the capital Tripoli. Saif-ul-Islam, Gaddhafi's son has been arrested as has another son, while a third surrended. Some form of fighting is ongoing in Libya amidst tremedous NATO bombing. If all this turns out to be true, we bloggers stand exposed for having spread the wrong information, backed the wrong side. I myself feel injured to the core. And violated in my blogger vocation. Perhaps I'm going to give up on the whole thing. James, please to take note. I may completely stop writing on this blog and elsewhere. It's the one defeat too many.
Oof! We breathe again. Saif-ul-Islam was supposed to have fallen into "rebel" hands. That is until he, safe and sound, appeared last night at Tripoli's leading hotel, home to much of the foreign journalist population in Libya today. So if that was a lie, much of the rest might be that as well. So Gadhafi lives to fight on another day. Pehaps he will do what we had hoped for all along: defeat NATO.
US Street Warfare Terminology
There have been a lot of news reports lately describing “flash mobs” raiding shops in U.S. cities. The defining feature of these groups is that they’re presumed to have been organized via the internet.
But internet communication is not the sole characteristic of a flash mob. Though the term is currently ill-defined, we can rule out some acts because other words describe them more accurately.
A sudden raid of a shop is called a heist. When there are many such raids in a short time, it is called looting. And when the looting is largely motivated by poverty and discontent, it’s called a bread riot. That is what we are seeing in the news: not flash mobs, but organized bread riots in the United States.
BOOTS ON THE GROUND? NATO
Prepares “Humanitarian” Occupation Of Libya
Thousands of NATO troops on standby. (24.8.11)
If this comes to pass, apart from all the foreign mercernaries already in the country, we shall say thank you to Russia and China in the first place. And then we'll sit back and wait to see what this latest war effort will do for the European and US economies. We predict here nad now that whatever happens, this war will be won by the people of Libya and by that is not meant the traitors one has graced with the name of "rebels".
Kan's resignation to bring Japan its sixth PM in five years - 24.8.11
Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan has told his cabinet he will step down and dissolve his government next week, signalling another turn of the country's political merry-go-round. Analysts say Japan will have a new leader by next Tuesday.
Mr Kan has tied his resignation to the passage of key legislation that would compel the nation's utilities to buy renewable energies, including solar and wind power.
China criticises foreign pressure on Syria
Tue Aug 23, 2011
China's foreign ministry on Tuesday decried foreign pressure on Syria following calls from the United States and Europe for President Bashar al-Assad to step down, saying the country's future should be decided internally.
All sides in Syria should exercise maximum restraint and abandon violence, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a statement on the ministry's website (www.mfa.gov.cn), repeating Beijing's standard line.
"Syria's future should be decided by Syria itself," Ma said.
"The international community's relevant actions ought to be conducive towards pushing the Syrian government's promises of reform, and encourage all sides to constructively participate in the political process, to help an early return to stability."
The U.N. Human Rights Council launched an international commission of inquiry on Tuesday into Syria's crackdown on anti-government protesters, including possible crimes against humanity, despite objections by Russia, China and Cuba.
India gets a new revolution:
Apart from its ongoing 14 insurgencies, India gets a full blown revolutionary movement against corruption:
Indian PM urges Anna Hazare to end fast
Manmohan Singh asks parliament to debate activist's reform proposals and says nine-day hunger strike has made its point and should be put an end to.
Market crash 'could hit within weeks', warn bankers - 24.8.11
A more severe crash than the one triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers could be on the way, according to alarm signals in the credit markets.
Insurance on the debt of several major European banks has now hit historic levels, higher even than those recorded during financial crisis caused by the US financial group's implosion nearly three years ago.
Credit default swaps on the bonds of Royal Bank of Scotland, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and Intesa Sanpaolo, among others, flashed warning signals on Wednesday. Credit default swaps (CDS) on RBS were trading at 343.54 basis points, meaning the annual cost to insure £10m of the state-backed lender's bonds against default is now £343,540.
The cost of insuring RBS bonds is now higher than before the taxpayer was forced to step in and rescue the bank in October 2008, and shows the recent dramatic downturn in sentiment among credit investors towards banks.
"The problem is a shortage of liquidity – that is what is causing the problems with the banks. It feels exactly as it felt in 2008," said one senior London-based bank executive.
"I think we are heading for a market shock in September or October that will match anything we have ever seen before," said a senior credit banker at a major European bank.
Crisis - 24.8.11
Germany fires cannon shot across Europe's bows
German President Christian Wulff has accused the European Central Bank of violating its treaty mandate with the mass purchase of southern European bonds.
In a cannon shot across Europe’s bows, he warned that Germany is reaching bailout exhaustion and cannot allow its own democracy to be undermined by EU mayhem.
“I regard the huge buy-up of bonds of individual states by the ECB as legally and politically questionable. Article 123 of the Treaty on the EU’s workings prohibits the ECB from directly purchasing debt instruments, in order to safeguard the central bank’s independence,” he said.
“This prohibition only makes sense if those responsible do not get around it by making substantial purchases on the secondary market,” he said, speaking at a forum of half the world’s Nobel economists on Lake Constance to review the errors of the profession over recent years.
Mr Wulff said the ECB had gone “way beyond the bounds of their mandate” by purchasing €110bn (£96.6bn) of bonds, echoing widespread concerns in Germany that ECB intervention in the Italian and Spanish bond markets this month mark a dangerous escalation.
He did not explain what else the ECB could have done once the bond spreads of these two big economies began to spiral out of control in early August, posing an imminent threat to monetary union and Europe’s financial system.
German Constitutional Court decision on the legitimacy of all this: 7 Setember, 2011.
Japan's prime minister resigns
25.8.11
Japan Prime Minister Naoto Kan has announced his resignation as head of the Democratic Party of Japan, effectively ending his tenure as the country's fifth leader in five years.
China announces support for Palestinian UN statehood bid - 25.8.11
Special Chinese envoy to the Middle East Wu Sike shares the news at a meeting with Palestinian leaders in Ramallah on Thursday.
China says it supports a Palestinian plan to seek full membership in the United Nations next month.
Negotiations with Israel on the terms of Palestinian statehood have been frozen since 2008. As an alternative, the Palestinians have decided to seek UN recognition of an independent "Palestine" in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, the areas Israel captured in the 1967 Six Day War.
Angela Merkel Faces Attack From Her Mentor Ahead Of Crucial Vote - 26.8.11
September is stacking up as crunch time. The euro could collapse if Merkel loses this vote. Her policies have 15% support in polls. There will be a lot of bank runs, currency runs, bank foreclosures and maybe a bank holiday in Europe even if she wins the vote. Then there is the September 20th UN vote on Palestinian statehood. And Hugo Chavez will either get his first shipment of gold from the Bank of England or his first bombing from NATO.
There is also a vote on NATO agression against Libya in September. Somewhere, somehow, one of these we must win. But which one it will be would need more brains than I have to figure out.
El Salvador Recognizes Independent Palestinian State: The President of El Salvador, Mauricio Funes, stated Thursday that his country officially recognizes Palestine as an independent and sovereign state, and that it supports the efforts of the Arab League to upgrade the Palestinian UN status into a full membership. (27.8.11)
Bolivia's president accuses US of sparking protest: More than a thousand indigenous Bolivians have been marching against a highway being built across their land. Evo Morales says the US is behind the opposition. (26.8.11)
For further comments, please to write them under the above David Duke video. Thanks.
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