Weekday NEWS to Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.
Thurs 02.18.2010
Greece, America and Money: The Federal Reserve's dealings with foreign countries
Muni Threat: Cities Weigh Chapter 9 By IANTHE JEANNE DUGAN And KRIS MAHER - WSJ Just days after becoming controller of financially strapped Harrisburg, Pa., in January, Daniel Miller began uttering an obscure term that baffled most people who had never heard it and chilled those who had: Chapter 9. The seldom-used part of U.S. bankruptcy law gives municipalities protection from creditors while developing a plan to pay off debts. Created in the wake of the Great Depression, Chapter 9 is widely considered a last resort and filings under it are more taboo than other parts of bankruptcy code because of the resulting uncertainty for everyone from municipal employees to bondholders.
Fed thinking of selling debt to withdraw stimulus Pedro da Costa and Mark Felsenthal - Reuters Several Federal Reserve policy makers want to begin selling securities relatively soon to cut back the U.S. central bank's massive help to the financial system as the economy finds a footing, the Fed said on Wednesday. Minutes of the Fed's latest policy meeting in January suggested officials remain positive about the economy's prospects even as they worry about the impact of an elevated unemployment rate, which they see holding near the current 9.7 percent through 2010. To combat the worst recession and financial crisis since the 1930s, the U.S. central bank has cut benchmark interest rates to near zero and bought more than $1.5 trillion in government and mortgage bonds to pump money into the economy.
We're "Absolutely" Headed for Another Crisis Without Reform, Economist Stiglitz Says More than a year after the global credit crisis, what's changed? Not much, says our guest, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. "In many ways, things are worse now than they were before," says Stiglitz. As outlined in his new book, "Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy," Stiglitz argues we're headed for another financial disaster without meaningful reform.
Fed says has been reinvesting maturing Treasuries NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve has been reinvesting proceeds of maturing Treasuries by acquiring new issues, the U.S. central bank said on Wednesday. "The (Fed's open market) Desk had continued to reinvest the proceeds of maturing Treasury securities by acquiring newly auctioned Treasury securities issued on the same day its existing holdings matured," the minutes to the Fed's January meeting said. "Participants agreed that the Desk should continue this practice for now, but the Committee would consider further its policy for redeeming or reinvesting maturing Treasury securities."
US bank lending falls at fastest rate in history By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph Bank lending in the US has contracted so far this year at the fastest rate in recorded history, raising concerns that the Federal Reserve may have jumped the gun by withdrawing emergency stimulus. David Rosenberg from Gluskin Sheff said lending has fallen by over $100bn (£63.8bn) since January, plummeting at an annual rate of 16pc. "Since the credit crisis began, $740bn of bank credit has evaporated. This is a record 10pc decline," he said. Mr Rosenberg said it is tempting fate for the Fed to turn off the monetary spigot in such circumstances. "The shrinking in banking sector balance sheets renders any talk of an exit strategy premature," he said.
Europe's PIGS Gorging on Free Euros as ECB Bankrolls the Incontinent Subcontinent By: Gary_North via Market Oracle . . . . The European Central Bank now faces its moment of truth: how to finance the European Union's rumored bailout of Greece. Why was the bailout agreed to – assuming that the details can be worked out? Because of the threat to the commercial banks of Northern Europe. A default would have busted some big banks all over Europe. The issue did not turn on the issue of whether to help the national treasuries of the profligate PIIGS: Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain. The European Central Bank does not answer to, or have any concern for, the elected governments of the PIIG nations. It answers to, and has a great deal of concern for, the large commercial banks of Northern Europe. That is to say, it is a central bank. It feathers the nests of large commercial banks under its jurisdiction.
CHINA FLEXES FINANCIAL MUSCLE TruthDig News that China sold $34 billion in U.S. government bonds at the end of last year has raised the fears of analysts, some of whom think that the move—which involved less than 5 percent of the overall amount of bonds held by China—is meant to signal a loss of confidence in U.S. economic policy.
China sells $34.2bn of US treasury bonds Tania Branigan and Heather Stewart - guardian.co.uk Analysts fear Beijing's move may suggest a loss of faith in American government's economic policy China sold $34bn (£21.5bn) worth of US government bonds in December, raising fears that ?Beijing is using its financial ?muscle to signal that it has lost confidence in American economic policy. US treasury figures for the period ending in December 2009 show that, following the sale, China is no longer the largest overseas holder of US treasury bonds. Beijing ended the year sitting on $755.4bn worth of US government debt, compared to Japan's $768.8bn.
Chinese Whispers in Treasury Market By ANDREW PEAPLE - WSJ As China's current-account surplus cooled last year, did its ardor for U.S. Treasurys? That is the headline story from the latest data on foreign ownership of U.S. government debt. Mainland China's holdings fell to $755.4 billion at the end of December from a peak of $801.5 billion last May. The country also shifted into longer-dated Treasurys. Japan is, on paper, again the largest foreign holder of U.S. government debt.
Gold - It's Still a Safe Haven John Diplacido, oil trader and president at Energex says he remains long on gold as it is probably the world's only healthy currency left. He also speaks on IMF's planned gold sale with guest host Simon Rutherford of Nortthward Capital and CNBC's Amanda Drury and Sri Jegarajah.
Gold continues to gain on Greece concerns FXstreet.com (Sydney) – Gold climbed to 4-week high in New York on continued speculations that further budget deficits will result in greater demand for the metal. Investors are moving away from the euro and into gold and it is possible that both gold and the dollar may trend together.
Gold-backed currency in New World Order By Jim Roache I believe the discipline of Economics has a fatal flaw - it assumes a degree of rationality of which our specie is devoid. It also assumes you can reason with power - you cannot. Finally, and fatally, it has failed to integrate globalization into any of its fundamental schools of thought. All the rational argument in the world will not convince those in power (by wealth, social position or politics) to act rationally because 1. it would not be in their interest to do so 2. because that minority, elite, rich, powerful, many sociopaths and/or - already know the rational positions of the various schools, and they have made it their business to circumvent them or bend them to serve their own purposes, and 3. they hold the rest of us in complete and utter contempt - expressed in private often using terminology that is shocking, demeaning and exasperating to the listener.
Gold falls sharply in Asia on IMF gold sale SINGAPORE (Commodity Online) : Gold fell sharply in Asian trade Thursday mainly on IMF’s announcement to sell 191.3 metric tons of gold on the open market rather than to central banks. Spot gold was seen trading at $1100.78 an ounce, down 0.5 percent from Wednesday’s close of $1106 an ounce. It had hit a peak of $1,126.85 an ounce on Wednesday ahead of the IMF statement, its highest since Jan. 20.
IMF to Start Open-Market Sales of Its Gold ‘Shortly’ By Sandrine Rastello Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- The International Monetary Fund, which set out in September to sell about 13 percent of its gold reserves, said it will “shortly” expand sales to the open market after central banks bought 212 metric tons in private deals. “In accordance with the priority of avoiding disruption of the gold market, the on-market sales will be conducted in a phased manner over time,” the Washington-based IMF said in an e-mailed statement today.
International Monetary Fund to sell another 191 tons of gold By Michael Kitchen, MarketWatch The International Monetary Fund said Wednesday that it plans to sell 191.3 tons of gold, likely on the open market, pushing spot prices and gold-miner shares lower. The value of the planned sales would be worth about $6.19 billion at current prices, according to CNBC. The sales would follow the unloading of 212 tons of IMF gold to central banks, part of a gold-sale program approved by the IMF's executive board in September of last year. The latest planned sales would complete the IMF's program to reduce its holdings of the precious metal by about one-eighth.
Marc Faber: Commodities and Emerging Markets Marc Faber, managing director of Marc Faber Ltd and Barron's Roundtable member, anticipates meaningful market correction in 2010. Mining and agriculture will be top performers within commodity sector.
Gold Strength Due to Risk of International Monetary Crisis By: GoldCore via Market Oracle Gold rose another 3% in US trading yesterday to finish the day at $1,119.35/oz. It has since moved upwards to as high as $1,123.50/oz Asian trading so far this morning. Gold is currently trading at $1,118.00/oz and in Euro and GBP terms, gold is trading at €815/oz and £711/oz respectively. Technically gold is looking healthier again and has broken above the 50 day and 100 day moving averages and trend line resistance identified (see Chart). While the fear that gripped markets last week regarding a European sovereign default have abated, warnings regarding the long term viability of the multi currency union, long dismissed, are now being taking more seriously. The crisis in the Eurozone and the recent sharp fall in the Euro show clearly why a small allocation to gold remains important
The Aden Sisters: Outlook for Gold by Steven Halpern - BloggingStocks . . . . "Remember, gold rises during economic uncertainty. In the early 1930s, for example, during the Great Depression, President Roosevelt raised the price of gold almost 70% from $20.65 to situation. It needs a weaker dollar to compete and stimulus measures must continue, which are both ultimately bullish for gold. "This is one important reason why we do not think gold or commodities are in a bubble. We believe they are rising within a mega trend that could last several more years, perhaps a decade.
George Soros buys gold despite dubbing it 'ultimate bubble' By James Quinn - Telegraph George Soros doubled his investment in the world's largest gold fund – just weeks before claiming investing in the precious metal is now the "ultimate bubble". Mr Soros – a legend in investing circles for his $10bn (£6.37bn) bet against the pound in 1992 which forced sterling out of the European exchange rate mechanism – increased his stake in the SPDR Gold Trust in the last quarter of 2009. Regulatory filings show that his $8.8bn investment vehicle, Soros Fund Management, raised its stake in exchange-traded fund SPDR by 3.7m shares to 6.2m shares in the three months ending December 31, 2009.
Soros More Than Doubled His Gold Position in 4Q '09 JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN Regulatory filings disclose that Soros more than doubled the gold position in his Soros Fund Management LLC at the end of 2009. There is a lag in official reporting in regulatory filings, so he *could* have sold his entire position before he called gold 'a bubble' at Davos last month. Then again, he might not have. In which case what would that make him? We will have to wait for the next round of filings to see.
The euro's plunge shows why you should hold gold By Dominic Frisby - Money Week It's quite astonishing how quickly sentiment can change. In early December, the euro was trading at all-time highs against the US dollar, somewhere north of $1.50. Across the continent, be it in Rome, Frankfurt or Paris, US nationals were seen to wince each time they reached into their wallets. Meanwhile German exporters grumbled about their lack of competitiveness.
US Dollar: The Unsafe Safe Haven By Joel Bowman - The Daily Reckoning Stocks in, dollar out. That was the mood in the markets yesterday. One half we can understand. The other has us flabbergasted. That investors would sell the dollar seems like a no brainer. That they would buy stocks seems like a got-no-brainer. So, what gives? First, the comprehensible: The greenback slipped about half a percent during yesterday’s trading. The papers attributed the selloff to allayed fears over Greece’s implosion and stronger economic data out of the States. For the sake of illustration, let’s pretend that Greece really is back to beach parties and ouzo-fueled debt orgies and that what passes for government “data” in the US is actually tenable (rather large concessions, you’ll surely agree). Why would people take the news as a signal to sell the dollar?
BlueGold’s Jen Says China May Revalue Yuan By 5% Next Month By Anchalee Worrachate Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- China may let its currency appreciate by 5 percent as early as next month to prevent economic growth from stoking inflation, according to Stephen Jen of BlueGold Capital Management LLP. Policy makers may also raise interest rates this year to cool an economy that expanded by 10.7 percent in the fourth quarter, the fastest increase in two years, Jen said in an interview this week. The central bank last week ordered lenders to boost the amount of cash they must put aside as reserves for the second time this year in an attempt to curb growth in loans.
Thinking the unthinkable about the euro Dan Roberts - Guardian UK No one knows what would happen if a country tried to pull out of the single currency because it hasn't happened before Conspiracy theorists are having a field day with the question of what might happen to Greece's membership of the euro should its financial woes continue. British hedge fund manager Hugh Hendry has been touring BBC studios in recent days recounting a tale of German bank customers rejecting euro notes with Southern European serial numbers for fear that these might be withdrawn from circulation.
Complete Crisis Coordination By: Jim Willie CB The subprime debt issue of 2007 blossomed into a global credit crisis. Likewise, the Dubai sovereign debt issue will blossom into a global sovereign debt crisis in similar pathogenesis. The start and end points are located in the Untied States and Untied Kingdom. With the global climax come disruption, restructure, and chaos. The subprime mortgage problem was grossly under-estimated. The Hat Trick Letter called it the beginning of an absolute bond contagion, a global credit market collapse correctly forecasted. Central bankers, led by the clueless USFed Chairman Bernanke, minimized the degree and depth of the credit crisis, and made every conceivable wrong forecast. His reward was reappointment, since his service to the syndicate has been steadfast, loyal, and inventive. Every phase of global finance has entered a crisis mode, as the financial structures are coordinated, linked in complete fashion by the tightening noose using a US$ brand of rope.
The Consequences of Economic Terrorism are Poverty and Mass Unemployment By: Global_Research via Market Oracle -- Yes, of course, we all have very strong differences of opinion on many issues. However, like our Founding Fathers before us, we must put aside our differences and unite to fight a common enemy. It has now become evident to a critical mass that the Republican and Democratic parties, along with all three branches of our government, have been bought off by a well-organized Economic Elite who are tactically destroying our way of life. The harsh truth is that 99% of the US population no longer has political representation. The US economy, government and tax system is now blatantly rigged against us.
Agreement Near on Regulating Banking Risks By SEWELL CHAN - NY Times WASHINGTON — The Senate and the Obama administration are nearing agreement on forming a council of regulators, led by the Treasury secretary, to identify systemic risk to the nation’s financial system, officials said Wednesday. The issue is one of the most fundamental in the contentious effort to overhaul regulation after the financial crisis, and addresses one of the primary lessons of the near debacle: that no one had been assigned to ensure the stability of the system as a whole and detect the kinds of excessive risk-taking and imbalances that could rock an entire economy.
‘Size Matters’ as EU Weighs Up Greek Rescue Bill By Frances Robinson Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Europe may need to stump up as much as 320 billion euros ($441 billion) if it decides to bail out Greece because it would open the door to rescuing other countries in financial distress, according to BNP Paribas. “To come up with a bailout plan that would be reasonably certain of success, it would have to cover all the most likely candidates, and it would have to be big,” said Paul Mortimer- Lee, global head of market economics at BNP in London. “Size matters when you are trying to scare off speculators and to comfort nervy bondholders.”
Goldman Sachs, Greece Didn’t Disclose Swap Contract By Elisa Martinuzzi Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. managed $15 billion of bond sales for Greece after arranging a currency swap that allowed the government to hide the extent of its deficit. No mention was made of the swap in sales documents for the securities in at least six of the 10 sales the bank arranged for Greece since the transaction, according to a review of the prospectuses by Bloomberg. The New York-based firm helped Greece raise $1 billion of off-balance-sheet funding in 2002 through the swap, which European Union regulators said they knew nothing about until recent days.
It’s Greek to Goldman Sachs By Robert Scheer - TruthDig “What is this Goldman Sachs and why has it caused us so much grief?” is a question they must be asking in even the most remote of Greek villages, as they are throughout much of this economically troubled world. The Greek financial scandal in which Goldman Sachs stands accused of selling dubious derivatives that concealed enormous government debt has sent the Greek economy and European markets into a tailspin. But that’s just part of a made-in-the-USA banking hustle that has haunted folks at home and abroad.
Is the Recession Over Yet? The Fed Seems to Think So By DAN BURROWS - Daily Finance Anyone waiting on official word proclaiming the end of this lousy, stinking recession would do well to find a comfortable seat. It turns out the signals -- and there are a lot of them -- are contradictory. Besides, a recession isn't officially over until the National Bureau of Economic Research says so, and they can take a very long time to decide.
Bernanke Admits Truth About Money, it’s Just Scraps of Paper By Rocky Vega - The Daily Reckoning The Onion has just released the defining story of the 21st century… money is in fact nothing more than worthless scraps of paper. The realization came about at a recent Bernanke testimony before Congress. According to the Onion: “What began as a routine report before the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday ended with Bernanke passionately disavowing the entire concept of currency, and negating in an instant the very foundation of the world’s largest economy.
Paper Hangers By: John Browne At a time when more and more offices are going paperless, governments in most of the developed world are doing the opposite. Finance ministers from Washington to London, Tokyo, Madrid, and, most pointedly, Athens, are attempting to paper over gaping financial chasms in the global economy by issuing ever greater quantities of currency and debt. But paper can only stretch so far. The key problem facing the western world is the 80-year decline in central banking discipline. In truth, these banks have become little more than the private piggy banks of their parent governments. Often furtively, central banks have "bought" ever larger amounts of government debt, which has allowed a consequence-deferred spending spree. The result has been decades of apparent economic growth and prosperity.
STIMULUS: ONE YEAR LATER TruthDig Some say it was too modest, others feel it was about $800 billion overboard. In any event, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is a year old, and, according to ProPublica, still has a few hundred billion dollars’ worth of stimulation left in the tank. Check out ProPublica’s mega-stimulus coverage page, which has handy tools for monitoring stimulus spending. ProPublica: The White House is marking today’s anniversary with a stimulus progress report [2] (PDF), which claims the Recovery Act has created or saved 2 million jobs; extended unemployment benefits for almost 20 million Americans; and cut taxes for more than 95 percent of working families. The administration says that by the end of last month, the combination of tax cuts and obligated funds came to a total of $453 billion.
Unhappy Stimulus Anniversary
Obama Praises the Stimulus for Preventing "a Second Depression" By DAN BURROWS - Daily Finance President Barack Obama vigorously defended his administration's $787 billion stimulus package on its one-year anniversary Wednesday. The president said the initiative has saved or created at least 2 million jobs and blunted the impact of the worst recession since at least World War II. "One year later, it is largely thanks to the recovery act that a second depression is no longer a possibility," Obama said.
China in a dilemma as home prices soar James Pomfret and Lee Chyen Yee SHENZHEN, China (Reuters) - In the hard, exhaust-choked reality of his days trawling Longhua's clogged roads, taxi driver Zhang Bo's ambition to buy a small flat for his young family has slipped out of reach for now. Like many Chinese who covet real estate as a symbol of stability and social stature, Zhang is dismayed at the alarming climb of apartment prices in his adopted city of Shenzhen in southern China. "People can't afford new flats anymore," said Zhang, 28, who drives a taxi to make ends meet after his small electronics factory went belly-up during the financial downturn last year.
Fannie, Freddie Housing Goals May Exclude Subprime By Theo Francis - Business Week Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would no longer be able to rely on subprime mortgages to meet their government-mandated goals for helping lower-income Americans obtain home loans, according to proposed regulations. The rules offered by the Federal Housing Finance Agency would restrict the companies from using private-label bonds backed by Alt-A and subprime mortgages, or commercial mortgage- backed securities, to meet affordable-housing targets.
Short sales grow as a cheaper alternative to foreclosure By Alejandro Lazo - LA Times Banks' resistance to the tricky transactions is softening as the number of distressed properties increases. Nineteen months ago, the recession took Bob Walker's job. Then, creditors lined up to take the three-bedroom hilltop home that the computer consultant shared with his wife, Stephanie, a playwright still looking for her first break. Avoiding the stigma and financial fallout of foreclosure became an obsession for the Walkers. They talked to the banks, found multiple jobs, put their Silver Lake house on the market and tried to stitch together a plan to repay their debts. Finally, they turned to a short sale, chronicled in a popular blog: Love in the Time of Foreclosure.
Zillow: West’s homeowners more pessimistic about value Denver Business Journal Western homeowners’ confidence that their homes are retaining value went from “highly optimistic” in 2009’s third quarter to “pessimistic” in last year’s final quarter, according to a Zillow Inc. report. Colorado is in Zillow’s western region, but so are states such as Arizona, Nevada and California, whose housing markets have been hit a lot harder than this state’s. States rounding out the area include Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
California, other states face problem of growing pension liabilities By Marc Lifsher - LA Times State governments can help ease a $1-trillion shortfall by reducing future benefits, requiring greater employee contributions and raising retirement ages, a Pew report says. Reporting from Sacramento - California has plenty of company when it comes to not being able to pay its growing public pension costs, a Washington think tank says in a report to be released Thursday. Coming up with the money to pay for future obligations is expected to burden state and local governments and school districts with huge retirement costs that could translate into higher taxes and fewer basic services for the next generation of taxpayers.
US states face $1,000bn retirement gap By Nicole Bullock in New York - FT US states face a funding gap of at least $1,000bn for the retirement benefits they have promised teachers, firefighters and other public sector employees, threatening already strained budgets, according to research released on Thursday. The Pew Center on the States found that, at the end of fiscal year 2008, states and localities had set aside $2,350bn to pay for pension, healthcare and other non-pension benefits, such as life assurance, that were estimated to cost $3,350bn.
FDA Invades Non-Commercial Amish Farm in PA NICFA / Food Freedom - Deborah Stockton Kinzers, PA – At 9:40 a.m. Thursday, February 4, only a few miles from the scene of the Nickel Mines Amish massacre of 2006, another drama against the Amish began as agents of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) came onto the property of Amish farmer Dan Allgyer, without permission, claiming to be conducting an investigation. Agents Joshua Schafer and Deborah Haney, from the Delaware FDA office, drove past Allgyer’s “No Trespassing” signs and up his driveway almost to his barn, where Allgyer happened to be outside. Allgyer approached the car, the agents got out and Allgyer asked them why they were there. They produced a piece of paper, asked Allgyer if he was Dan Allgyer, which Allgyer confirmed, asked him his middle initial and phone number, entered the information on the paper, told Allgyer they were there to do an inspection and started reading the paper to him, saying it gave them jurisdiction to be there.
Brick by brick, American business loses edge By Jeffrey Anderson THE WASHINGTON TIMES Army chooses German firm Since its founding in 1912, Summitville Tiles has been a proud family company with a legacy of service to the government. F.H. "Pete" Johnson, the company's founder and a World War I veteran, stood proudly by the company's motto, "American Made, American Owned" - and true to his word, Summitville tiles cover the roof of the White House and the floors of Washington, D.C., Metro stations.
U.S. Cracks Down on ‘Contractors’ as a Tax Dodge By STEVEN GREENHOUSE - NY Times Federal and state officials, many facing record budget deficits, are starting to aggressively pursue companies that try to pass off regular employees as independent contractors. President Obama’s 2010 budget assumes that the federal crackdown will yield at least $7 billion over 10 years. More than two dozen states also have stepped up enforcement, often by enacting stricter penalties for misclassifying workers. Many workplace experts say a growing number of companies have maneuvered to cut costs by wrongly classifying regular employees as independent contractors, though they often are given desks, phone lines and assignments just like regular employees. Moreover, the experts say, workers have become more reluctant to challenge such practices, given the tough job market.
Monetary Inflation and the 32-Cent Gallon of Gas By The Mogambo Guru - The Daily Reckoning I got an email from Junior Mogambo Ranger (JMR) Steve, who writes about “a quickie from the show Pawn Stars”, which startled me into Instant Mogambo Alert (IMA) because I thought he said, “a quickie from the show Porn Stars”. Alas, it was not, and it was, as the name implies, a TV show about the things that happen in a pawn shop where people who are desperately in need of a little money bring in stuff as collateral for a loan. “A guy brings in,” Steve says, “an old gas pump from the 1960s. The price per gallon is 32 cents. I go to coinflation.com, and the metal in 32 cents from that time is worth $2.87 now. That’s pretty close to the price of gas per gallon today!!”
American Airlines union seeks first step toward strike By David Koenig AP via Washington Times DALLAS -- The union representing ground workers at American Airlines wants to take a big step toward a strike against the nation's second-largest airline. The Transport Workers Union said Wednesday it will ask federal mediators to let the employees walk away from contract talks if there is no deal by March 8. If federal mediators agree, it could start the countdown toward a strike this spring. The president or Congress can block strikes, which have become very rare in the airline industry.
The red-hot scam unravels By Wesley Pruden - Washington Times You can fool some of the people some of the time, as Abraham Lincoln observed, and you even can fool all the people some of the time. But you can't fool all the people all the time. Al Gore and his friends got so excited about points one and especially point two that they forgot point three. Not everybody is on to the global-warming scam, not yet, but all the people — or enough of them — are getting there. "Global warming," or even "climate change" as Al's marketing men now insist that it be called, is becoming the stuff of jests and jokes. Sen. James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, a Republican, built an igloo of that hot stuff that buried Washington last week on the Capitol lawn and dubbed it "Al Gore's new home."
Nevada Tea Party Bolts the GOP and Glenn Beck by Jane Hamsher - FireDog Lake The Tea Party is evidently cutting its ties with the GOP in Nevada and pitching its own political tent. Certainly the best news Harry Reid has had all year:"Sun columnist Jon Ralston is reporting that the Tea Party has qualified as a third party in Nevada and will have a candidate in the Senate race to battle for the seat held by Majority Leader Harry Reid. The party has filed a Certificate of Existence but needs to get 1 percent of the electorate to vote for its candidate in November to permanently qualify, according to the report. Ralston reported that Jon Ashjian will be the Tea Party’s U.S. Senate candidate on the November ballot. Ashjian still must declare his candidacy." Reid might actually have a chance if a Tea Party candidate can split the vote on the right, where Reid is currently down 10 points to most of his Republican opponents.
SA@TAC - Interview with Tom Woods 2/16/10 Part 1
SA@TAC - Interview with Tom Woods 2/16/10
Rubio takes 'tea,' but says movement is no party By Ralph Z. Hallow - Washington Times Marco Rubio, a rising star in conservative Republican circles, said he sees the exploding "tea party" movement as a political energy source to be tapped, not a political party to be led. Mr. Rubio's underdog race for the Senate against Gov. Charlie Crist in Florida's Republican primary has become a rallying point for conservatives nationwide. He has been called the potential first "tea party senator," but he's quick to note that the anti-big-government movement is a symbol of mounting voter frustration with the records of both major parties in Washington.
Environmental Advocates Are Cooling on Obama By JOHN M. BRODER - NYTimes WASHINGTON — There has been no more reliable cheerleader for President Obama’s energy and climate change policies than Daniel J. Weiss of the left-leaning Center for American Progress. But Mr. Obama’s recent enthusiasm for nuclear power, including his budget proposal to triple federal loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors to $54 billion, was too much for Mr. Weiss.
After Dubai hit, Israelis question Mossad methods Dan Williams JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The quiet assassination of a Hamas commander gets unexpectedly messy. Exposed and forced to atone before angry allies, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders the spymaster responsible to fall on his sword. That was in 1997, when the Mossad director resigned after his men botched the poisoning of Khaled Meshaal in Jordan. Now premier a second time, Netanyahu faces a similar crisis over the death of another Hamas figure, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, in Dubai. Israel's official silence on the January 20 killing has been outpaced, in the popular imagination, by UAE police footage of the suspected assassins and revelations some of them had copied the European passports of actual immigrants to the Jewish state.
Obama risks China's wrath to meet Dalai Lama Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian Tibetan leader's visit to the US threatens to further damage shaky relationship with Beijing Barack Obama is to go ahead with talks with the Dalai Lama at the White House today and risk inflicting more damage on the already strained relations between the US and China. The Tibetan leader flew into Washington from India yesterday for the start of a 10-day US tour, which coincides with serious rows over the proposed US sale of military equipment to Taiwan and the US-China trade imbalance.
Obama’s Nuclear Option By Amy Goodman - TruthDig President Barack Obama is going nuclear. He announced the initial $8 billion in loan guarantees for construction of the first new nuclear power plants in the United States in close to three decades. Obama is making good on a campaign pledge, like his promises to escalate the war in Afghanistan and to unilaterally attack in Pakistan. And like his “Af-Pak” war strategy, Obama’s publicly financed resuscitation of the nuclear power industry in the U.S. is bound to fail, another taxpayer bailout waiting to happen.
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