Image via WikipediaJust A Dream by Nelly Sam Tsui & Christina Grimmie
( I subscribed to KurtHugoSchneider's channel )
Perfect Day - Susan Boyle
Tropical Cyclones Attacking Australia: Big Pic
Tropical Cyclone Yasi, recently upgraded to a category 5, the highest level of threat, is bearing down on Queensland Australia and the Great Barrier Reef with wind speeds likely exceeding 175 mph. Heavy precipitation resulting from a combination of Tropical Storm Tasha in late 2010, monsoon rains, and the strongest La Niña to hit the planet in 35 years – have inundated the region with floods deep enough for sharks to visit.
The Surrender of Economic Policy
To accept a balanced budget and the unchallenged monetary judgment of the Federal Reserve is, by definition, to remove macroeconomics from the political sphere.Macroeconomics, not microeconomics, is the active center of power. Practical conservatives understand this. It is no accident that conservatives always seek to control the high ground of deficit and interest rate policy, nor any surprise that liberals defeat themselves from the beginning when they concede it.
Yet, the economics behind this consensus is both reactionary and deeply implausible. It springs from a never-never-land of abstract theory concocted over 25 years by the disciples of Milton Friedman and purveyed through them to the whole profession. Liberals--and anyone else concerned with economic prosperity--should now reject this way of looking at the world.
The conservative macroeconomic creed is built on three basic elements. They are, first, monetarism--the idea that the Federal Reserve's monetary policy controls inflation, but has little effect on output and employment except perhaps in the very short run. Second, there is rational expectations, which is the idea, for which Robert Lucas just won the Nobel Prize, that individual economic agents are so clever, so well informed, and so well educated in economics that they do not make systematic errors in their economic decisions, especially the all-important choices of labor supply. And third, there is market clearing: the idea that all transactions, including the hiring and firing of workers, occur at prices that equate the elemental forces of supply and demand.
No part of present inflationary pressure, such as it is, stems from wages. Wage compensation, two-thirds of all costs, remains flat. The whole of today's modest inflation stems from a boom in profits and investment income, and from the effects of this boom on commodity prices and other incidentals of the inflation process.
How Egypt Is Gypped By The West
The solutions for the world financial crisis that the CEOs and Big Pols are massaging in a posh conference center in snowy Davos, Switzerland have turned into a global economic catastrophe in the streets of Cairo, the current ground zero of a certain-to-spread wave of international unrest.
Yes, the tens of thousands in the streets demanding the ouster of the cruel Mubarak regime are there now pressing for their right to make a political choice but they are being driven by an economic disaster that has sent unemployment skyrocketing and food prices climbing.People are out in the streets not just to meet but by their need to eat.
As Nouriel Roubini (who was among the first to predict the financial crisis while others were pooh-poohing him as “Dr Doom”) says, don’t just look at the crowds in Cairo but what is motivating them now, after years of silence and repression.
He says that the dramatic rise in energy and food prices has become a major global threat and a leading factor that has gone largely unreported in the coverage of events in Egypt.
“What has happened in Tunisia, is happening right now in Egypt, but also riots in Morocco, Algeria and Pakistan, are related not only to high unemployment rates and to income and wealth inequality, but also to this very sharp rise in food and commodity prices,” Roubini said.
Prices in Egypt are up 17% because of a worldwide surge in commodity prices that has many factors but speculation on Wall Street and big banks is a key one.
Here’s a key fact buried in a CNN Money report—the kind intended for investors, not the public at large: “About 40% of Egypt’s citizens live off less than $2 a day, so any price increase hurts.”
Egypt is central to U.S. interests in the Middle East as a moderate state and a key player in both counterterrorism operations and regional peace negotiations, said Helima L. Croft, a geopolitical analyst at Barclays Capital.If street protests were to end President Hosni Mubarak’s nearly 30-year hold on power, “I think there would be a fear that you could see radicalism sweeping across the Middle East,” Croft said, adding that the fear might be unfounded.
Beyond its political significance, Egypt controls the Suez Canal, an important shipping lane.”
Suddenly, there are worries about Egypt being able to pay off its debt, it suddenly was pronounced riskier than Iraq, according to Asia Times:
“The cost of protecting Egyptian debt against default for five years with the contracts jumped 69 basis points, or 0.69 percentage points, this week to 375 today, compared with 328 for Iraq, according to prices from CMA, a data provider in London. Just last week, Iraqi swaps cost 19 basis points more than Egypt’s, and in June, an average 240 basis points more, as Iraq recovered from the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.While most of the increases in food prices are due to droughts and floods, US policy contributed to it mightily, argues Mike “Mish” Shedlock on his Global economic blog, revealing a reality the media has missed:
The unrest, inspired by the revolt that toppled Tunisia’s leader, “does raise political risks,” said Eric Fine, a portfolio manager in New York who helps Van Eck Associates Corp. oversee $3 billion in emerging-market assets. “If this is a revolution, the price of risk for Egypt could go much higher, and if it’s a failed one” the cost will drop to 300 basis points and probably 250, Fine said in a phone interview.”
“Bernanke’s “Quantitative Easing” policies combined with rampant credit growth in China and India has led to increased speculation in commodities. That speculation has forced up food prices.Michael Fitzsimmons says that US energy policy is also contributing to the problems in Egypt, but agrees that monetary policy is a prime culprit. He writes, “ to sum things up: Ben Bernanke’s implementation of “QE2″ has directly led to food inflation across the world. In many developing and poor countries (i.e. Egypt and elsewhere) food makes up a much larger percentage of an individual’s income and is felt much more severely than in the U.S.
Please note that speculation in commodities is not a cause of anything. Rather commodity speculation is a result of piss poor monetary policies not only the Fed, but central bankers worldwide.”
Why have most media outlets ignored this? The financiers schmoozing at the World Economic Forum in Davos know all about it and are worried as well as Bloomberg News reported.
“This protest won’t end in North Africa; it will spread in many countries because of high unemployment and increasing food prices,” Hamza Alkholi, chairman and chief executive of Saudi Alkholi Group, a holding company investing in industrials and real estate, said in an interview in Davos, Switzerland.
In an age of globalization, a hike in global prices will spread unrest globally. Egypt had its own “bread riot” in l977 when prices went up suddenly on the orders of the World Bank so it is no stranger to the need to fight back.
The question is why aren’t Americans up in arms too as inflation at the pump and the grocery store drives princes higher here. Part of the reason is that they don’t know that the US has worse economic inequality according to a scientific measure: The Gini Coefficent
recent disinformation
- 2012: Science or Superstition
- 50 Things You're Not Supposed To Know
- Hidden Wisdom
- Plunder: The Crime of Our Time
- RIP! A Remix Manifesto
- Sisterhood of the Rose
- Democracy Without Politicians or Elections (As We Currently Know Them)…
- 11-Year-Old Boy Is The Youngest Person To Face A Life Sentence Without Parole
- Next Gen Biological Computers Use Gold And DNA
- Why a Gruesome Pennsylvania Abortion Clinic Had Not Been Inspected for 17 Years
www.youtube.com
Grand Deception. K-rino exposing the secret societies of the world.
Our Angel of Death
They sent a solid Princeton man to tell Hosni Mubarak that the jig is up. Who better to play the role of Grim Reaper of the Great American Empire than the son of Frank Wisner? For the uninitiated, Frank Wisner Sr. cut his teeth as the OSS liaison to the Gehlen Organisation in post-war Germany. He then became the first Director of the Office of Policy Coordination, a precursor of the CIA's Directorate of Plans. He and/or Richard Helms headed up the CIA's dirty tricks operations during the worst periods of CIA abuse (later chronicled in the Church Committee reports).
Wisner is most famous for launching Operation Mockingbird, and coining the term "Mighty Wurlitzer" to describe how he played the media like an instrument.Bush, the Great Democratizer
It's kind of understandable that conservatives are remembering that George W. Bush talked about a democracy agenda for the Middle East, are seeing a movement towards democracy in Tunisia and Egypt, and are drawing the conclusion that Bush is responsible for the present crises in the Arab world. Of course, this is supposed to be a good thing.
It should be remembered that the elections that took place during the Bush era were not exactly successful. The elections in Iraq brought to power a bloc of pro-Iranian, religiously conservative Shi'ites, much to the alarm of the rest of the Sunni-dominated Arab world. The Sunnis in Iraq initially boycotted the elections, making the problem even worse and leading to massive ethnic cleansing with dozens of headless bodies littering the streets of Baghdad each morning.Elections in Lebanon led to increased power for Hizbollah and, ultimately, a destabilization of the central government. Within a year, Israel would invade Lebanon and essentially lose in their battle to disarm Hizbollah. This was hardly the outcome the neo-cons were looking for.
In Palestine, the elections were won by Hamas. When Israel refused to accept such an outcome and began arresting Palestine's newly-elected officials, the U.S. went along with them. Within a year, Hamas took over the Gaza Strip and threw Fatah officials out. Then we witnessed the Battle of Gaza. Hamas remains in control of Gaza today.
The elections in Egypt and Afghanistan were rigged. The municipal elections in Saudi Arabia didn't amount to much.
The one thing we can say is that the Middle East is experiencing a lot more democracy than ever before. We may not have liked the outcome, but Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine did have relatively fair elections. Maybe Tunisia and Egypt will soon be able to say the same thing. I don't think Bush deserves much credit for this, except, perhaps, in an unintentional and ironic way. But I never opposed or disagreed with Bush when he said that the Middle East needs more democracy. I just thought he was a fool for thinking it would lead to any short-term advantage for Israel or the United States.
( Who would seriously think that the PNAC plans were 'short term'..except apologists. The U.S. builds bases. Giving them up.. someday after the 12th of Never )
Anger in Egypt
As violence erupted, thousands of inmates, including political prisoners, escaped from jail.
Palestinians from the Gaza Strip among those who manage to escape.
California Prisoners Sentenced to Death by Water
The water at Kern Valley State Prison contains twice the federally accepted level of arsenic, a known carcinogen. But the 4,800 men imprisoned at the “state-of-the-art” Central California facility have no choice: they have to drink it.
And it's not as if prison officials just learned about the issue last week. In fact, tests on the water discovered the problem soon after the prison opened in 2005. The powers that be have just chosen to do nothing about it.An Experiment in Futility
The president is going after fossil fuel subsidies for the third straight year. He probably won't have any more success this time.
WAR? APPARENTLY GOOD FOR THE MENTAL HEALTH INDUSTRY
We should probably try to remember, now that we may have a few moments to think about it, that multiple deployments are ruining the lives of many Americans. Next time you voice support for the effort, think about who is paying the price.http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/67/6/614
Alarming NOAA data, Rapid Pole Shift
Since 1860, the magnetic pole shift has more than doubled every 50 years. That is pretty significant. In geological terms, that seems to be pretty ‘rapid’.
Here is another very interesting fact…During the past 150 years, the pole shift has been in the same direction.
The following fact is even more astonishing…
During the past 10 years, the magnetic north pole has shifted nearly half of the total distance of the past 50 years! In other words, the pole shift has apparently sped up substantially.
Data of sea level measured at Sibolga, Padang and Cilacap stations in Indonesia show that the sea level has lowered in those points, suggesting that the edge of west of Sumatra and the edge of south of Java are lifted. http://www.ioc-sealevelmonitoring.org/index.php
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