Weekday NEWS to Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.
Thurs 05.14.2009
Paulson forced 9 bank CEOs to take TARP Paulson told 9 bank CEOs they were required to take TARP money, gov't documents confirm The chief executives of the nine largest U.S. banks had no choice but to accept capital infusions from the Treasury Department in October, government documents have confirmed. Obtained and released by Judicial Watch, a nonpartisan educational foundation, the documents revealed "talking points" used by former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson during the Oct. 13 meeting between federal officials and the executives that stressed the investments would be required "in any circumstance," whether the banks found them appealing or not.
US 'sham' bank bail-outs enrich speculators, says buy-out chief Mark Patterson The US Treasury’s effort to stabilise the banking system through the TARP programme is a hopelessly ill-conceived policy that enriches speculators at public expense, according to the buy-out firm supposed to be pioneering the joint public-private bank rescues. “The taxpayers ought to know that we are in effect receiving a subsidy. They put in 40pc of the money but get little of the equity upside,” said Mark Patterson, chairman of MatlinPatterson Advisers. The comments are likely to infuriate Tim Geithner, the US Treasury Secretary, because MatlinPatterson took advantage of the TARP’s matching funds to buy Flagstar Bancorp in Michigan. His confession appears to validate concerns that the bail-out strategy is geared towards Wall Street.
Asian markets tumble amid fears about US consumer Asian markets tumble as worries about US consumers halt rally; Tokyo, HK off about 3 pct Asian stock markets tumbled Thursday as signs of distress among U.S. consumers dashed hopes for a faster end to the worst global economic slump in generations. Every major market was hit by sharp losses, with Japan and Hong Kong indexes down around 3 percent, as an aggressive nine-week rally that's lifted shares from Asia to the U.S. 30 percent or more started to reverse course.
Chinese imports could bring GM political troubles Chinese import plans could bring political troubles in US for General Motors As thousands of General Motors workers await word on more U.S. plant closures, reports that the company plans to import Chinese-made vehicles to the U.S. have created a political problem for the automaker and the White House. The reports, which GM will neither confirm nor deny, could mean trouble because GM is supported by $15.4 billion in U.S. government loans, largely due to the Obama administration's desire to preserve the company's 90,000 U.S. jobs. The United Auto Workers charged last week that the Detroit automaker intends to almost double over the next five years the number of vehicles it imports to the U.S. from Mexico, South Korea, China and Japan.
Rising gold price a "virtual certainty" In separate talks to the New York Hard Assets meeting analysts Adrian Day and Martin Murenbeeld concurred in many aspects on their view of where the gold price was likely to go in the short to medium term and both were positive, but not inordinately so. Day chose to compare the current global financial recession with the Great Depression and with Japan's more recent problems, pointing out that recovery in each case took many years not months. He felt that monetary authorities have little idea of what they are doing and that measures to bring the world out of recession are experimental at best. At least the Europeans have a plan, he said, but they don't know where to find it!
Why a Commodities Super-Boom is Inevitable As we watch the roller-coaster ride that the markets are on, we consider the next moves. Where do you put your money? In these unsettling and uncertain markets, where are the "bubbles" waiting to pop and…where are the markets waiting for a true bullish run? First, in what investing venues should you be wary? What markets look bearish or (at the very least) don't look bullish? In short…what should you consider avoiding today?
Gold & the Euro: Metal vs. Money Gold has now doubled since the Euro first got where it stands against the Dollar today... SINCE THIS decade's Dollar Decline first pushed the Euro above $1.35 in late 2004 - a level it reclaimed this week - the price of gold has gone on to double for both US and Eurozone citizens. American investors and savers would have been much better off Buying Gold instead of Euros, in other words, as would everyone else. And looking ahead, "These days, currency weakness, relative to other currencies, matters less for gold," reckons Standard Bank's Walter de Wet.
Excellent! It takes 41,000 years to count a Trillion Dollars We're headed for hyper-stagflation; gov spending 40 billion/day
Gold, Silver, Economy + More The Secrets of the Federal Reserve: The Federal Reserve Act was legislated in 1913 to end recessions, panics and depression. Over that almost 100-year period they have been eminently no more successful then their predecessors. The Fed is a private corporation, which guides US monetary policy. Its staff is from Wall Street, banking, and transnational conglomerates and occasionally from academia. Of the 12 Federal Reserve banks the New York bank is the most powerful. The staffing of the Fed at the least is incestuous, because the member banks take part in the staffing, as they filter to the Fed what actions they should take. That is done by the FOMC, The Federal Open Market Committee.
Not Good as Gold The case against global currency schemes, whether Chinese or American Late last March, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner stunned world financial markets by stating that the U.S. is "quite open" to Chinese proposals to replace the dollar as the primary world reserve currency. In the Chinese proposal, a "super-sovereign reserve currency" would be run by the International Monetary Fund. Geithner's remarks instantly caused the dollar to plunge against the Chinese RMB. The Treasury secretary had to retreat. He stated that he expected the dollar to remain the world's dominant reserve currency for "a long period of time," and even the Chinese officials claimed that their proposal was only intended for some indefinite future.
All Eyes Are On Huey! The HUI index is poised to break out above 350. The importance of this breakout is evident in the following chart. . . . . . . . . On the fundamental side, we have a US government deficit that is clearly out of control. In the words of William Black, associate professor of Economics at the University of Missouri: "We have 'failed bankers' giving advice to 'failed regulators' on how to deal with 'failed assets'". The US Budget Office estimates the 2009 budget deficit at 1.8 trillion dollars or four times the 2008 record deficit. We're talking 'monetary inflation in spades'! While it can be said that it takes time for monetary inflation to turn into price inflation, you can be sure that more and more investors are going to anticipate whopping price inflation. Such price inflation will result in increased demand for gold and silver, and the stock of companies that produce gold and silver.
Gold Pattern Finally Revels Itself As some one who has been bullish on gold since 2003 and documented it's rise from the ashes of the $300 lows and has followed the work of other like mined gold bulls such as Jim dines, Doug Casey, Adam Hamilton, Jim Puplava, Bob McHugh, Jim Sinclair, Jim Willie, Matthew Frailey and many others it is very exciting to see how the current pattern in gold is unfolding, and here is the exciting part! It looks like the pattern has fully reveled its self and it is breathtaking!
Gold May Extend Gain as Resistance Breached Gold may extend its two-week advance after breaching the so-called resistance level that defined the precious metal's bear trend since this year's peak in February, Standard Bank Group Ltd. said, citing trading patterns. This indicates the "corrective phase has ended," Darran Grabham, the bank's technical analyst, wrote in a note yesterday. "This is a positive development, but we are not currently forecasting a move to a new high." A resistance level is where sell orders may be clustered.
Gold's Haven Status Eclipsed by Precious Rivals: Chart of Day Gold, traditionally a haven in times of economic turmoil, is trailing silver, platinum and palladium this year on a jump in bullion recycling and expectations the worst of the recession may be over. The CHART OF THE DAY shows the price of gold, in orange, has risen 4 percent this year, compared with gains of at least 21 percent for the other precious metals. Bullion added 5.8 percent last year as investors sought a store of wealth.
Ron Paul's rEVOLution Versus the "One Ring" of the Federal Reserve "One Ring to Rule them All... and in the Darkness Bind Them." - from J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings' When I talk to people who have never even heard of the Federal Reserve, I often use an analogy based on the above quote from The Lord of the Rings trilogy. (That is after I first disavow them of the notion that the dollar is loosely backed by gold, which even I will admit believing was true just two years ago.) (Photo courtesy Playadura license) Today's FED is a group of bankers who have the "Money Power" over all other banks and the money supply. This awesome power is like that of Tolkien's One Ring, which controlled all of the other Rings of Power worn by men, elves, and dwarves.
Forensic Examination of the Gold Carry Trade Is There A Supply Deficit? If you ask the World Gold Council or their "official numbers keeper" - GFMS - they'll say there is no persistent gold supply deficit. If you ask the folks at GATA - they'll claim there is an annual 1,000 - 1,500 tonne gold supply deficit. So who's telling the truth?
Peter Schiff Vlog Report 12 May 2009
Wells Fargo Is Broke Poor Forecasting Slays Another Giant The Financial Times is reporting that Wells Fargo expects [it's] earnings to fill [its stress test] deficit. "Wells Fargo, deemed to need $13.7bn of capital by the US government's stress test last week, claims to have the earning power to fill its capital deficit by November and apply to repay "as soon as practical" $25bn of government funds. "We think we already have a lot of capital and, with our earnings, we are accumulating regulatory capital at a very high rate," said Howard Atkins, chief financial officer." …after a good first quarter most banks thought they could earn their way out of the crisis by using rising profits to reduce the need for fresh capital."
Wells Fargo May Need $50 Billion in Capital Wells Fargo & Co., the second- biggest U.S. home lender, may need $50 billion to pay back the federal government and cover loan losses as the economic slump deepens, according to KBW Inc.’s Frederick Cannon. KBW expects $120 billion of “stress” losses at Wells Fargo, assuming the recession continues through the first quarter of 2010 and unemployment reaches 12 percent, Cannon wrote today in a report. The San Francisco-based bank may need to raise $25 billion on top of the $25 billion it owes the U.S. Treasury for the industry bailout plan, he wrote.
U.S. banking crisis may last until 2013 A day after saying big U.S. banks probably needed to raise only one-fourth the capital demanded by the government, Standard & Poor's said the nation's banking crisis has "merely entered a new phase" and might not end before 2013. The credit rating agency said the industry is being propped up by hundreds of billions of dollars of government support, especially for lenders considered too important to the financial system to fail.
The Bad Old days are Here Again Commodities are rising, the dollar is falling and the trade deficit is growing. Everything bad is good again, thanks to the Feds. All of the pernicious factors that brought us to the brink of financial Armageddon are now once again returning and are still-amazingly enough--being embraced as both normal and healthy for the long term viability of the U.S. economy. Factors such as a strengthening U.S. dollar, shrinking trade deficit, a surging savings rate and falling commodity prices were all being viewed as the bane of the U.S. economy. And now, unfortunately, what had been the budding re-emergence of economic sanity is being obliterated by a killing frost thanks to the Fed and the Administration.
Global banks sue MBIA over split Claim bond insurer hurt policyholders Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan and 15 other large financial institutions filed suit on Wednesday against MBIA, claiming the bond insurer reduced its ability to pay policyholders by splitting its business in two. The suit, which includes Barclays and HSBC of the UK as well as European banks, is the second legal challenge to MBIA's restructuring since the bond insurer in February received regulatory approval to split into two: a "good bank" business responsible for guarantees of municipal bonds and a "bad bank" that had insured structured bonds backed by mortgages and other assets.
Fiscal Meltdown Will Test the Bond and the Dollar to the Breaking Point Don't blame the Democrats alone for this. Instead blame a political system that is corrupted by Wall Street and lobbyist money, and a mainstream media dominated by four corporations feeding a stream of managed news and perception spin to gullible US households. The day of reckoning is nearly at hand, in which the currency crisis in the US will shake the financial foundations of the global economy.
Geithner: Bailout money to go to small banks The Obama administration will use bailout money repaid by large U.S. banks to provide additional capital infusions to smaller banks, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Wednesday. Banks with less than $500 million in assets will have six months to apply for the funds, Geithner said in remarks to the annual meeting of the Independent Community Bankers of America. They also will be able to apply for larger amounts than banks were allowed to request during the current round of investments.
Breathing easier after bank stress tests? You shouldn't Largely unnoticed in last week's government report on the condition of the nation's biggest banks was the disclosure that five of them, topped by Bank of America, could lose $99 billion from the kinds of exotic bets that sank the global economy. Even that figure, however, could prove to be exuberantly optimistic if the economy hits new depths, a McClatchy analysis has found. Moreover, the regulators' recent "stress tests" on bank holding companies didn't fully measure the cash squeeze those institutions could face if souring conditions forced them to post tens of billions of dollars in additional collateral on some of their insurance-like bets, known as derivatives.
* Important - (see Freedom Watch Part 2 below) Obama wants to make America more like Europe Barack Obama is unhappy with much that preceded his occupation of the White House, and not only his predecessor's foreign policy, for which he is a serial apologiser. Pre-Obama domestic policy also displeases him: any prosperity the nation enjoyed, he says, was built on a foundation of sand. That, won't happen again: the trillions of debt he is loading on the nation's books will enable us to erect our post-recession house on solid rock. Our world will never be the same again.
Of course, it never has been: the march of technology has enabled us to travel faster, age more slowly, entertain ourselves differently, and build air-conditioned homes in the miserably hot south and southwest, and in our nation's steamy capital. But the president has something more in mind and, with control of both houses of Congress, the power to change the way we live now. Let's make a few guesses as to where those changes will take us.
Top of the president's change list is the way we consume energy. He believes our use of carbon-based fuels is causing the globe to heat up, with all the dire consequences conjured up by Al Gore as he sits in the library of his home, probably the largest single consumer of energy of any private residence in America. By one means or another, the president will make the use of oil, natural gas and especially coal so expensive that consumers will be forced to use less energy, and rely more for the energy we do use on costly wind and solar power, paid for with tax-funded subsidies or higher utility bills.
Also, the day of spacious, safe cars is to end, with the exception of the limousines favoured by congressional leaders and White House appointees. . . .
Nouriel Roubini Stress Tests not stressful enough
Bankers Told by Paulson to Accept U.S. Aid or Be 'Vulnerable' Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said nine U.S. banks would have to accept $125 billion in government investments or be forced to by regulators, according to a memo prepared for a meeting with the lenders' chief executive officers in October. "If a capital infusion is not appealing, you should be aware that your regulator will require it in any circumstance," the one-page list of talking points said. "We don't believe it is tenable to opt out because doing so would leave you vulnerable and exposed."
Documents on Paulson, bankers' meeting released Documents made public on Wednesday confirm former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson gave nine major banks no choice but to allow the government to take equity stakes in them as the Bush administration moved to address turmoil in the financial industry. The documents, obtained by the public interest group Judicial Watch under a Freedom of Information Act request, include "talking points" used by Paulson at the October 13, 2008, meeting with the banks' CEOs in Washington.
SEC may charge Angelo Mozilo with fraud The staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission has decided to recommend that the agency bring civil fraud charges against Angelo Mozilo, the former chief executive of mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp., according to a published report Wednesday. The SEC staff sent a Wells notice to Mozilo a few weeks ago informing him of possible charges, The Wall Street Journal reported online, citing unnamed people familiar with the investigation. The report said the charges include illegal insider trading and failing to disclose significant information to Countrywide shareholders.
Treasury seeks oversight of derivatives market The Obama administration moved Wednesday to shed more light on the over-the-counter derivatives market, a once-booming shadow banking system that is now closely linked to the global credit crisis. Authorities proposed subjecting all over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives dealers to "a robust regime of prudential supervision and regulation," including conservative requirements for capital, reporting and margins. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro and Mike Dunn, acting chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, announced the proposal at a news conference.
US calls for OTC derivatives regulation Plan would require contract clearinghouse The Obama administration on Wednesday unveiled a sweeping plan to regulate over-the-counter derivatives in an attempt to seize greater control over an opaque market that has been blamed for exacerbating the financial crisis. The move is intended to increase transparency and reduce risk in a market that is worth more than $680,000bn but has so far been largely unregulated because of the laisser-faire regime sanctioned by US authorities at the start of the decade.
Recovery ? What Recovery Nouriel Roubini
Obama Urges Rules on Investments Tied to Crisis In its first detailed effort to overhaul financial regulations, the Obama administration on Wednesday sought new authority over the complex financial instruments, known as derivatives, that were a major cause of the financial crisis and have gone largely unregulated for decades. The administration asked Congress to move quickly on legislation that would allow federal oversight of many kinds of exotic instruments, including credit-default swaps, the insurance contracts that caused the near-collapse of the American International Group.
Alarm Sounded On Social Security Report Also Warns Of Medicare Collapse The financial health of the Social Security system has eroded more sharply in the past year than at any time since the mid-1990s, according to a government forecast that ratchets up pressure on the Obama administration and Congress to stabilize the retirement system that keeps many older Americans out of poverty. The report, issued yesterday by the trustees who monitor the government's two main forms of help for the elderly, shows that Medicare has become more fragile as well and is at greater risk than Social Security of imminent fiscal collapse. Starting eight years from now, the report says, the health insurance program will be unable to pay all its hospital bills.
Obama says House eyes July healthcare bill President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that the US House of Representatives is working to approve a comprehensive overhaul of the US healthcare system by the end of July. Obama spoke after a White House meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other influential Democrats who will take the lead on shaping the healthcare legislation. "We don't have any excuses. The stars are aligned," said Obama, who has devoted much of this week to his drive to spur momentum behind the healthcare legislation. The legislation is expected to generate a partisan battle in Washington. Republicans say Obama's proposal to create a new public health plan to cover millions of uninsured Americans would undermine the private health care market and exacerbate already huge budget deficits.
What health care legislation could mean for everyone President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that they expect to have a health care package before Congress by the end of July. Their aim is to make medical coverage cheaper and more widely available, while reining in costs throughout the $2.5 trillion health care system. The Senate could act even sooner. The insurance and pharmaceutical industries, which helped kill a similar effort championed by the Clinton administration 15 years ago, appear to be on board.
General Aviation Sounds Mayday as Fat Cats Ditch Their Jets Nothing symbolizes corporate excess in this economy like a private jet, and scores of companies are ditching them to bolster their images and hold the bottom line. It's a trend that could hurt the aviation industry, undermining one of the last manufacturing sectors the U.S. still dominates. Corporate giants ranging from Bank of America to Time Warner are grounding planes amid a faltering economy and pressure from critics who say jets are a luxury they cannot afford and taxpayers should not subsidize. Shareholders and pundits aren't the only ones telling CEOs to fly commercial with the rest of us. A judge recently told Ritz Camera, which is closing more than 400 stores, to get rid of the jet it started leasing a few months before filing for Chapter 11.
Retail Sales Unexpectedly Fell in April Retail sales in the U.S. unexpectedly dropped in April for a second month, indicating that rising unemployment is prompting consumers to conserve cash. The 0.4 percent decrease followed a revised 1.3 percent drop in March that was larger than previously estimated, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. Other reports showed companies continued to cut stockpiles as demand slowed, and climbing oil costs pushed up prices for imported goods.
Congress aims to jump-start cash for clunkers program Consumers could get up to $4,500 each to help replace old gas-guzzling cars - as long as they turn in their old ones - under a plan that's gained strong support from the White House and leaders of Congress. The "cash for clunkers" movement has proved so strong that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is seriously considering making it part of the emergency Iraq and Afghanistan war-spending bill. The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the war-funding measure by Friday, probably without the "cash for clunkers" language, which the Senate is expected to add next week when it debates the legislation. " 'Cash for clunkers' is really important," Reid said.
If You Disagree With Obama, Are You Anti-American? If you attack President Barack Obama’s policies, are you attacking America? According to today’s left, the answer is yes: Barack Obama is America. And opposition to Barack Obama or any of his policies is therefore, by definition, anti-American. Just listen to alleged comedienne Wanda Sykes at the White House Correspondents Dinner this past week: "Rush Limbaugh said he hopes this administration fails … He just wants the country to fail. To me, that’s treason. He’s not saying anything differently than what Osama bin Laden is saying."
Napolitano: A Nation Of Sheep Illegality of the Patriot Act - part 1
April foreclosures rise 32 percent The number of U.S. households faced with losing their homes to foreclosure jumped 32 percent in April compared with the same month last year, with Nevada, Florida and California showing the highest rates, according to data released Wednesday. More than 342,000 households received at least one foreclosure-related notice in April, RealtyTrac Inc. said. That means one in every 374 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing last month, the highest monthly rate since the Irvine, Calif.-based foreclosure listing firm began its report in January 2005.
Freddie Mac Loses $10 Billion for Quarter Mortgage Giant's Bailout Tops $50 Billion Freddie Mac yesterday reported that it lost $10 billion in the first three months of the year, as investments in mortgages continued to fall in value at the federally run housing finance giant. The disclosure automatically prompts a $6 billion investment from the Treasury Department to keep the company solvent, bringing Freddie Mac's bailout total to $51 billion in the first nine months of its government rescue.
GM, Chrysler to cut up to 3,000 dealers General Motors Corp and Chrysler aim to drop as many as 3,000 U.S. dealers and are expected to begin sending notifications as early as Thursday, three people briefed on the still developing plans said. GM, facing a U.S. government-imposed deadline of June 1 to restructure or file for bankruptcy, is expected to send termination notices to up to 2,000 dealers -- a third of its roughly 6,000 U.S. dealers, the sources told Reuters.
Car dealers fight rapid closures; 180,000 workers could lose jobs Car dealers from around the nation will be in Washington Wednesday to urge President Obama's automotive task force to let the economics, not the government, decide which car dealers should shut down, and when. The task force has been pushing General Motors(gm) to trim its dealer ranks faster than the several years originally planned as part of its overall restructuring. Speeding up that process will only dump 180,000 more workers onto unemployment rolls in a recession, the dealer group argues.
Chrysler Seeks to Reject 789 Dealership Agreements Chrysler LLC is seeking to reject 789 automotive dealership agreements, including seven contracts with AutoNation Inc., according to court papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. The bankrupt company wants to reject its contracts with less than a quarter of its approximate 3,188 retail outlets, according to today’s filing with U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez seeking approval of the move. Fiat SpA, not Chrysler, decided which dealers will be brought along to the new company to be formed under the U.S. automaker’s bankruptcy process, according to people familiar with the situation. Trimming the bulk of dealers from urban areas will increase profitability at the remaining dealers, lawyers for Chrysler said.
Panasonic seen posting $1.1 billion loss in 2009/10 Japan's Panasonic Corp (6752.T) is likely to post a net loss of more than 100 billion yen ($1.1 billion) for the year ending in March 2010, the Yomiuri newspaper reported, as the consumer electronics maker grapples with a stronger yen and slowing demand. That is in line with an average estimate of a 105.4 billion yen net loss in a poll of 17 analysts by Thomson Reuters. Analysts expect the company to suffer a second straight year of losses this financial year, as the industry is mired in a global slump that is shaping up to be nastier than the last major downturn in 2001 after the IT bubble.
Retail sales dip raises worries about recovery Retail sales fell in April for a second straight month, dashing hopes that consumer spending was starting to revive and would help end the recession. Economists said families who are worried about layoffs and unpaid job furloughs are saving more and spending less, delaying the start of a sustained recovery. The disappointing report helped send stocks down on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones industrial average slid 184 points - more than 2 percent. Other major indexes fell even more sharply.
U.S. shoppers reticent, stall global recovery hopes U.S. consumers took the wind from the sails of optimists looking for a swift end to the recession on Wednesday as April retail sales fell, signaling they are not yet ready to lead the world back to growth. Following a report of diving European industrial output and a Bank of England forecast saying Britain needed a long period of healing, hopes slipped for a quick rebound for the global economy.
Republican lawmakers back carbon tax (yes, that's right) Reps. Bob Inglis of South Carolina and Jeff Flake of Arizona on Wednesday became the first Republican lawmakers to introduce legislation imposing a carbon tax on producers and distributors of fossil fuels. The bill, co-sponsored by Democratic Rep. Dan Lipinski of Illinois , would set a tax of $15 a ton of carbon dioxide produced in its first year in effect, with the tax rising to $100 a ton over three decades. "The first axiom of economics is if you want less of something, you tax it," said Flake, a leading fiscal conservative, in an interview. "Obviously, we want less carbon, so we tax it."
[it ALWAYS starts out with a worthwhile purpose, but where will it stop?] States to Microchip Criminals to track them.
Tsunami 'could annihilate data cables' AUSTRALIAN tsunami scientists will meet officials from the federal Attorney-General's office next month to discuss research vital for understanding risks to the nation's undersea data links. The scientists, from the nation's leading tsunami authority, believe that 70 per cent of Australia's undersea cable capacity would be destroyed in a single stroke if a tsunami similar to the one that devastated coastal Thailand and Sri Lanka in 2004 were to strike Hawaii. Hawaii is the main thoroughfare for cables linking Australia to the rest of the world. . . . . . . . . A major cable breakage in Hawaii would have a catastrophic effect on the Australian economy, he said.
In the UK. . .coming to a hospital or nursing home near you, your parents, or grandparents RCN to give nurses guidance on discussing assisted dying with patients Nurses are to receive detailed guidance for the first time on how to help terminally ill patients end their own lives. Assisted suicide remains illegal in Britain but the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) says that many nurses are being asked by desperate patients about travelling abroad, such as to the Swiss clinic Dignitas, to end their lives. The RCN has been opposed since 2004 to assisted suicide - actively helping people to die - but is consulting its 400,000 members about whether to reconsider this stance in the light of calls to change the law.
Israel: Why the Two-State Solution Will Not Work The international community wants Israel to commit suicide. The State of Israel was born 61 years ago today. Israel’s delivery was not without complication and drama. For months, the life of the newborn state hung in the balance, under constant threat from and at a significant strategic disadvantage to the Arab armies that surrounded it on three sides. Miraculously, Israel survived. Victorious and worn out, yet still independent, Israel remained imperiled and strategically disadvantaged for the next 19 years.
Obama's green light to attack Iran Arctic winds are blowing into Jerusalem from Washington these days. As Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's May 18 visit to Washington fast approaches, the Obama administration is ratcheting up its anti-Israel rhetoric and working feverishly to force Israel into a corner. Using the annual AIPAC conference as a backdrop, this week the Obama administration launched its harshest onslaught against Israel to date. It began with media reports that National Security Adviser James Jones told a European foreign minister that the US is planning to build an anti-Israel coalition with the Arabs and Europe to compel Israel to surrender Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem to the Palestinians. According to Haaretz, Jones was quoted in a classified foreign ministry cable as having told his European interlocutor, "The new administration will convince Israel to compromise on the Palestinian question. We will not push Israel under the wheels of a bus, but we will be more forceful toward Israel than we have been under Bush." He then explained that the US, the EU and the moderate Arab states must determine together what "a satisfactory endgame solution," will be.
Vladimir Putin signals return as president with court reform The Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, has been accused of plotting his return as president after the Kremlin announced plans to strip judges of the right to elect the head of the country's powerful constitutional court. The loss of the judiciary's last quasi-independent position would remove any lingering potential for a legal challenge should Mr Putin make an early presidential comeback. After serving consecutive four-year terms, Mr Putin was obliged to step down as president last year. He became prime minister instead and shoehorned his long-term protege, Dmitry Medvedev, into his old job.
Freedom Watch Part 1 05/13/2009
Freedom Watch Part 2 05/13/2009 [IMPORTANT lessons and advice from across the pond about socialism leading to world government] (see article above about *Obama wanting to make US more like Europe)
Freedom Watch Part3 05/13/2009 government wants to control and take over private sector - egalitarianism [i.e. heading to communism]
Freedom Watch Part 4 05/13/2009
Freedom Watch Part 5 05/13/2009 on protectionism; but not much industry left to protect
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