Sunday, July 26, 2009
Grassroots Heroes: Tell Us What YOU'RE Doing to Spread the Message!
Check this from You Tube ........ http://bit.ly/ry5K9
Ion engine could one day power 39-day trips to Mars
Video: See the rocket in action
There's a growing chorus of calls to send astronauts to Mars rather than the moon, but critics point out that such trips would be long and gruelling, taking about six months to reach the Red Planet. But now, researchers are testing a powerful new ion engine that could one day shorten the journey to just 39 days.
Traditional rockets burn chemical fuel to produce thrust. Most of that fuel is used up in the initial push off the Earth's surface, so the rockets tend to coast most of the time they're in space.
Ion engines, on the other hand, accelerate electrically charged atoms, or ions, through an electric field, thereby pushing the spacecraft in the opposite direction. They provide much less thrust at a given moment than do chemical rockets, which means they can't break free of the Earth's gravity on their own.
But once in space, they can give a continuous push for years, like a steady breeze at the back of a sailboat, accelerating gradually until they're moving faster than chemical rockets.
Several space missions have already used ion engines, including NASA's Dawn spacecraft, which is en route to the asteroids Vesta and Ceres
But a new engine, called VASIMR (Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket), will have much more "oomph" than previous ones. That's because it uses a radio frequency generator, similar to transmitters used to broadcast radio shows, to heat the charged particles, or plasma.
The engine is being developed by the Ad Astra Rocket Company, which was founded in 2005 by plasma physicist and former space shuttle astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz.
As hot as the sun
VASIMR works something like a steam engine, with the first stage performing a duty analogous to boiling water to create steam. The radio frequency generator heats a gas of argon atoms until electrons "boil" off, creating plasma. This stage was tested for the first time on 2 July at Ad Astra's headquarters in Webster, Texas.
The plasma could produce thrust on its own if it were shot out of the rocket, but not very efficiently. To optimise efficiency, the rocket's second stage then heats the ions to about a million degrees, a temperature comparable to that at the centre of the sun.
It does this by taking advantage of the fact that in a strong magnetic field – like those produced by superconducting magnets in the engine, ions spin at a fixed frequency. The radio frequency generator is then tuned to that same frequency, injecting extra energy into the ions.
High power
Strong magnetic fields then channel the plasma out the back of the engine, propelling the rocket in the opposite direction.
Thanks to the radio frequency generator, VASIMR can reach power levels a hundred times as high as other engines, which simply accelerate their plasma by sending it through a series of metal grids with different voltages. In that setup, ions colliding with the grid tend to erode it, limiting the power and lifetime of the rocket. VASIMR's radio frequency generator gets around that problem by never coming into contact with the ions.
"It's the most powerful superconducting plasma source ever, as far as we know," says Jared Squire, director of research at Ad Astra.
Scientists at Ad Astra began tests of the engine's second stage – which heats the plasma – last week. So far, team members have run the two-stage engine at a power of 50 kilowatts. But they hope to ramp up to 200 kW of power in ongoing tests, enough to provide about a pound of thrust. That may not sound like much, but in space it can propel up to two tonnes of cargo, reaching Jupiter in about 19 months from a starting position relatively close to the sun, says Squire.
Orbital boosts
Ad Astra and NASA have agreed to test fire the rocket in space, attached to the International Space Station in 2012 or 2013. Potentially, VASIMR could provide the periodic boosts needed to keep the ISS in its orbit.
At its current power level, VASIMR could be run entirely on solar energy. Squire says it would make a good Earth-orbit tugboat, pulling satellites to different orbits. It could also shuttle cargo to a lunar base, and because it could travel relatively quickly, it could be deployed to dangerous asteroids to gravitationally nudge them off course years before they would reach Earth.
To travel to Mars in 39 days, however, the engine would need 1000 times more power than solar energy could provide. For that, VASIMR would need an onboard nuclear reactor. Early versions of the reactor technology were used from the 1960s to the 1980s by the Soviet Union, but have not been used in space since and would take time to develop. "That would be quite a ways down the line," Squire says.
'Game changer'
But the possibility of such a short trip to Mars was recently lauded by Charles Bolden, NASA's new chief. He said NASA had provided a small stipend towards VASIMR's development, and said the collaboration was a good example of a partnership with private industry that could help the agency meet its goals after the space shuttles are retired in 2010.
John Muratore of the University of Tennessee Space Institute and a former lead engineer for NASA's space shuttle programme, says engines like VASIMR could enable the first human trips to Mars.
"The bottom line is with the current propulsion technology, Mars missions are undoable for humans," he says, explaining that such long trips outside of the Earth's protective magnetic field would expose astronauts to greater amounts of dangerous space radiation.
If engines, such as VASIMR, could be developed to take people to the Red Planet in 40 days, "that puts it inside the range of what we feel comfortable of doing with humans," he told New Scientist. "Something like VASIMR – that's a game changer."
Bernanke: About 25 mega-firms are systemically significant
The Fed opposes legislation seeking to audit the central bank's monetary policy
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Friday said that he expects that roughly 25 financial firms would be considered systemically significant as part of legislation giving the central bank authority to oversee large, interconnected, financial firms whose collapse could cause collateral damage to the markets.
Bernanke told lawmakers at a House Financial Services Committee hearing about bank regulatory restructuring that "virtually all of those firms" are already organized as bank holding companies, which already gives the Fed supervisory and lender of last resort authority to these institutions.
After Lehman Brothers collapsed last year, many large investment banks either registered with the Fed as bank holding companies or were acquired by retail banks that already fell under the central bank's supervision.
"I would not envision the Fed's oversight going beyond many more firms than those already registered as bank holding companies," Bernanke told lawmakers. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner also testified at the hearing, followed by other key regulators.
However, some large insurance companies, hedge funds and buyout shops are not registered with the Fed but could be considered systemically significant if legislation giving the central bank new authorities is approved.
Legislators could decide to grant the Fed and Treasury the authority to identify how many financial institutions are considered systemically significant, as a White House proposal recommends. However, lawmakers could imbue a council of regulators with the authority to make that determination.
In any case, GOP lawmakers took issue with the proposition that any institution could be designated as systemically significant; arguing that it would make observers believe the institution was too-big-to-fail.
Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, argued that whatever institutions would be designated as systemically significant would "send a signal to the market that they can always receive taxpayer bailouts to keep themselves afloat." He added that "we are creating a perpetual bailout nation."
However, Bernanke argued that a process envisioned in the White House regulatory reform proposal creating a process for unwinding large mega-institutions would eliminate the perception that a large systemically significant firm is too-big-to-fail.
The White House proposal would establish a process to resolve large insolvent systemically significant financial institutions in a way that their collapse does not cause collateral damage to the financial markets.
The goal would be to pay off counterparties of an insolvent institution to deter any such damage arising in the markets. The proposal said the mechanism would be modeled after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s approach to dismantling insolvent smaller banks, but it would be for larger systemically significant financial institutions.
"Creation of a mechanism for the orderly resolution of systemically important non-bank financial firms, should help remediate this problem," Bernanke said.
Bernanke opposes audit of Fed monetary policy
Bernanke also said he opposed legislation moving on Capitol Hill that would allow the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, to audit the central bank's monetary policy goals.
"We are more than happy to work with the GAO and open to giving them broad authority to look at various aspects of our operations, including our responses to the financial crisis, but we are worried that an audit of monetary policy would result in a reduction of the independence of the Fed," Bernanke said.
Two pieces of legislation in the House and one in the Senate would compel the GAO to conduct a monetary-policy audit at the Fed and issue a report. One GAO audit bill, introduced by Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, has 245 co-sponsors, and would require an audit of every aspect of the Fed, including its interest rate policy as well as its wide-variety of programs responding to the financial crisis such as its lender of last resort authority.
Ronald D. Orol is a MarketWatch reporter, based in Washington.
By Ronald D. Orol, MarketWatchPeer-Reviewed Study Rocks Climate Debate!
'Nature not man responsible for recent global warming...little or none of late 20th century warming and cooling can be attributed to humans'
'Surge in global temps since 1977 can be attributed to a 1976 climate shift in the Pacific Ocean'
A new peer-reviewed climate study is presenting a head on challenge to man-made global warming claims. The study by three climate researchers appears in the July 23, 2009 edition of Journal of Geophysical Research. (Link to Abstract)
Full Press Release and Abstract to Study:
July 23, 2009
Nature not man responsible for recent global warming
Three Australasian researchers have shown that natural forces are the dominant influence on climate, in a study just published in the highly-regarded Journal of Geophysical Research. According to this study little or none of the late 20th century global warming and cooling can be attributed to human activity.
The research, by Chris de Freitas, a climate scientist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, John McLean (Melbourne) and Bob Carter (James Cook University), finds that the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a key indicator of global atmospheric temperatures seven months later. As an additional influence, intermittent volcanic activity injects cooling aerosols into the atmosphere and produces significant cooling.
"The surge in global temperatures since 1977 can be attributed to a 1976 climate shift in the Pacific Ocean that made warming El Niño conditions more likely than they were over the previous 30 years and cooling La Niña conditions less likely" says corresponding author de Freitas.
"We have shown that internal global climate-system variability accounts for at least 80% of the observed global climate variation over the past half-century. It may even be more if the period of influence of major volcanoes can be more clearly identified and the corresponding data excluded from the analysis.”
Climate researchers have long been aware that ENSO events influence global temperature, for example causing a high temperature spike in 1998 and a subsequent fall as conditions moved to La Niña. It is also well known that volcanic activity has a cooling influence, and as is well documented by the effects of the 1991 Mount Pinatubo volcanic eruption.
The new paper draws these two strands of climate control together and shows, by demonstrating a strong relationship between the Southern Oscillation and lower-atmospheric temperature, that ENSO has been a major temperature influence since continuous measurement of lower-atmospheric temperature first began in 1958.
According to the three researchers, ENSO-related warming during El Niño conditions is caused by a stronger Hadley Cell circulation moving warm tropical air into the mid-latitudes. During La Niña conditions the Pacific Ocean is cooler and the Walker circulation, west to east in the upper atmosphere along the equator, dominates.
"When climate models failed to retrospectively produce the temperatures since 1950 the modellers added some estimated influences of carbon dioxide to make up the shortfall," says McLean.
"The IPCC acknowledges in its 4th Assessment Report that ENSO conditions cannot be predicted more than about 12 months ahead, so the output of climate models that could not predict ENSO conditions were being compared to temperatures during a period that was dominated by those influences. It's no wonder that model outputs have been so inaccurate, and it is clear that future modelling must incorporate the ENSO effect if it is to be meaningful."
Bob Carter, one of four scientists who has recently questioned the justification for the proposed Australian emissions trading scheme, says that this paper has significant consequences for public climate policy.
"The close relationship between ENSO and global temperature, as described in the paper, leaves little room for any warming driven by human carbon dioxide emissions. The available data indicate that future global temperatures will continue to change primarily in response to ENSO cycling, volcanic activity and solar changes.”
“Our paper confirms what many scientists already know: which is that no scientific justification exists for emissions regulation, and that, irrespective of the severity of the cuts proposed, ETS (emission trading scheme) will exert no measurable effect on future climate.”
--
McLean, J. D., C. R. de Freitas, and R. M. Carter (2009), Influence of the Southern Oscillation on tropospheric temperature, Journal of Geophysical Research, 114, D14104, doi:10.1029/2008JD011637.
This figure from the McLean et al (2009) research shows that mean monthly global temperature (MSU GTTA) corresponds in general terms with the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) of seven months earlier. The SOI is a rough indicator of general atmospheric circulation and thus global climate change. The possible influence of the Rabaul volcanic eruption is shown.
Excerpted Abstract of the Paper appearing in the Journal of Geophysical Research:
Time series for the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) and global tropospheric temperature anomalies (GTTA) are compared for the 1958−2008 period. GTTA are represented by data from satellite microwave sensing units (MSU) for the period 1980–2008 and from radiosondes (RATPAC) for 1958–2008. After the removal from the data set of short periods of temperature perturbation that relate to near-equator volcanic eruption, we use derivatives to document the presence of a 5- to 7-month delayed close relationship between SOI and GTTA. Change in SOI accounts for 72% of the variance in GTTA for the 29-year-long MSU record and 68% of the variance in GTTA for the longer 50-year RATPAC record. Because El Niño−Southern Oscillation is known to exercise a particularly strong influence in the tropics, we also compared the SOI with tropical temperature anomalies between 20°S and 20°N. The results showed that SOI accounted for 81% of the variance in tropospheric temperature anomalies in the tropics. Overall the results suggest that the Southern Oscillation exercises a consistently dominant influence on mean global temperature, with a maximum effect in the tropics, except for periods when equatorial volcanism causes ad hoc cooling. That mean global tropospheric temperature has for the last 50 years fallen and risen in close accord with the SOI of 5–7 months earlier shows the potential of natural forcing mechanisms to account for most of the temperature variation.
Received 16 December 2008; accepted 14 May 2009; published 23 July 2009. [End Abstract Excerpt]
Related Links:
More Than 700 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims
Gore's claim of 10 year climate 'tipping point' was already made by the UN -- in 1989!
Climate Depot Report: Gore's path to become the first 'Carbon Billionaire' - May 2, 2009
Climate Depot Factsheet on the 'Gore Effect' Phenomenon – July 9, 2009
By Marc Morano – Climate Depot*****US Gov't Completely out of Wheat*****
US Gov't out of wheat. Completely.
Government Holdings of Wheat are at Zero
IDAHO FALLS, ID - Quietly, the last of the U.S. government's wheat reserves, held in the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust, were sold in late May onto the domestic market for cash. The cash was put in a trust for food aid. With no other government wheat holdings, U.S. government wheat stocks are now totally exhausted.
The following recent statements by Rebecca Bratter, director of policy for U.S. Wheat Associates, provides insights:
"While U.S. wheat industry strongly supports the administration's goal of maintaining current food aid programs to prevent rampant hunger worldwide, there is concern regarding the impact of selling reserve wheat on the domestic market and over the lack of commitment from the administration to replenish the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust. U.S. Wheat Associates has shared these concerns with high officials at USDA and on the President's staff and has asked about the Administration's intent regarding replenishment of the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust.
Staff from the office of the President's Special Agricultural Assistant noted that while there is no commitment at this time, the administration intends to replenish the Trust once the supply and price scenario stabilizes." (Note: U.S. Wheat Associates works in 90 countries promoting U.S. wheat exports.)
The Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust was established in 1980 by an act of Congress and is authorized to hold up to 4 million metric tons of wheat, corn, sorghum and rice as a reserve for global food crises. The wheat is purchased and managed by the Commodity Credit Corporation and included in the total amount of wheat owned and held by the U.S. government. Holdings by the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust for corn, sorghum and rice are also zero.
For the decade of the '80s, government wheat holdings (including those in the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust) averaged 358 million bushels. For the decade of the '90s, government wheat holdings averaged 133 million bushels. Since 2000, government wheat holdings dropped steadily until recently when the last of the government-owned wheat was sold.
With no formal plan for wheat stocks by the U.S. government, wheat stocks have defaulted to the arena of the private free-market sector. Unfortunately, the private sector has no plans for any kind of minimum wheat stocks that would protect from a price and/or availability standpoint the American public.
Private wheat stocks are divided into two major categories — on-farm wheat stocks owned by farmers and off-farm wheat stocks owned by warehouses and grain companies. These two together held 305.6 million bushels of wheat as of June 1 — or roughly 1 bushel per person living in the United States — the lowest level in 60 years.
Of these stocks, on-farm wheat stocks are at 25.6 million bushels, the lowest level of on-farm wheat stocks since the USDA started keeping tabs back in 1934. So as you are driving in rural America before wheat harvest, the farmer's bins have never been so empty.
The USDA, projects America to have a bumper wheat crop in 2008 — producing 2.43 billion bushels and consuming and exporting 2.30 billion bushels. This leaves a meager 133 million bushels (5.5 percent of production) as a margin for error. Globally, the USDA projects wheat production to be 24.36 billion bushels, consumption to be 23.74 billion bushels for a relatively smaller margin of 622 million bushels or 2.6 percent of production.
The recent wheat crises in America was sparked by the nation exporting more wheat than it produced. This means the true 2008 wheat margin for Americans is really the global margin of 2.6 percent. Any decline from global projections could precipitate greater wheat exports from America and further draw down already low domestic and global wheat stocks.
Food security is emerging as a global focal point. With the U.S. government and the private sector lacking visions for stocks, food security is poised to grow as a grass-roots issue around the nation.
Government Holdings of Wheat are at Zero
IDAHO FALLS, ID - Quietly, the last of the U.S. government's wheat reserves, held in the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust, were sold in late May onto the domestic market for cash. The cash was put in a trust for food aid. With no other government wheat holdings, U.S. government wheat stocks are now totally exhausted.
The following recent statements by Rebecca Bratter, director of policy for U.S. Wheat Associates, provides insights:
"While U.S. wheat industry strongly supports the administration's goal of maintaining current food aid programs to prevent rampant hunger worldwide, there is concern regarding the impact of selling reserve wheat on the domestic market and over the lack of commitment from the administration to replenish the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust. U.S. Wheat Associates has shared these concerns with high officials at USDA and on the President's staff and has asked about the Administration's intent regarding replenishment of the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust.
Staff from the office of the President's Special Agricultural Assistant noted that while there is no commitment at this time, the administration intends to replenish the Trust once the supply and price scenario stabilizes." (Note: U.S. Wheat Associates works in 90 countries promoting U.S. wheat exports.)
The Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust was established in 1980 by an act of Congress and is authorized to hold up to 4 million metric tons of wheat, corn, sorghum and rice as a reserve for global food crises. The wheat is purchased and managed by the Commodity Credit Corporation and included in the total amount of wheat owned and held by the U.S. government. Holdings by the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust for corn, sorghum and rice are also zero.
For the decade of the '80s, government wheat holdings (including those in the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust) averaged 358 million bushels. For the decade of the '90s, government wheat holdings averaged 133 million bushels. Since 2000, government wheat holdings dropped steadily until recently when the last of the government-owned wheat was sold.
With no formal plan for wheat stocks by the U.S. government, wheat stocks have defaulted to the arena of the private free-market sector. Unfortunately, the private sector has no plans for any kind of minimum wheat stocks that would protect from a price and/or availability standpoint the American public.
Private wheat stocks are divided into two major categories — on-farm wheat stocks owned by farmers and off-farm wheat stocks owned by warehouses and grain companies. These two together held 305.6 million bushels of wheat as of June 1 — or roughly 1 bushel per person living in the United States — the lowest level in 60 years.
Of these stocks, on-farm wheat stocks are at 25.6 million bushels, the lowest level of on-farm wheat stocks since the USDA started keeping tabs back in 1934. So as you are driving in rural America before wheat harvest, the farmer's bins have never been so empty.
The USDA, projects America to have a bumper wheat crop in 2008 — producing 2.43 billion bushels and consuming and exporting 2.30 billion bushels. This leaves a meager 133 million bushels (5.5 percent of production) as a margin for error. Globally, the USDA projects wheat production to be 24.36 billion bushels, consumption to be 23.74 billion bushels for a relatively smaller margin of 622 million bushels or 2.6 percent of production.
The recent wheat crises in America was sparked by the nation exporting more wheat than it produced. This means the true 2008 wheat margin for Americans is really the global margin of 2.6 percent. Any decline from global projections could precipitate greater wheat exports from America and further draw down already low domestic and global wheat stocks.
Food security is emerging as a global focal point. With the U.S. government and the private sector lacking visions for stocks, food security is poised to grow as a grass-roots issue around the nation.
The Infinite Unknown reports that the US has no remaining grain reserves.
The U.S. Has No Remaining Grain Reserves
Posted On Jun 10 Economy, Politics Add comments
WASHINGTON - Larry Matlack, President of the American Agriculture Movement (AAM), has raised concerns over the issue of U.S. grain reserves after it was announced that the sale of 18.37 million bushels of wheat from USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust."According to the May 1, 2008 CCC inventory report there are only 24.1 million bushels of wheat in inventory, so after this sale there will be only 2.7 million bushels of wheat left the entire CCC inventory," [As stated in article above, the US has no grain inventory left] warned Matlack. "Our concern is not that we are using the remainder of our strategic grain reserves for humanitarian relief. AAM fully supports the action and all humanitarian food relief.
Our concern is that the U.S. has nothing else in our emergency food pantry. There is no cheese, no butter, no dry milk powder, no grains or anything else left in reserve.The only thing left in the entire CCC inventory will be 2.7 million bushels of wheat which is about enough wheat to make 1/2 of a loaf of bread for each of the 300 million people in America." [Nothing left in CCC inventory]
The CCC is a federal government-owned and operated entity that was created to stabilize, support, and protect farm income and prices. CCC is also supposed to maintain balanced and adequate supplies of agricultural commodities and aids in their orderly distribution.
"This lack of emergency preparedness is the fault of the 1996 farm bill which eliminated the government's grain reserves as well as the Farmer Owned Reserve (FOR)," explained Matlack. "We had hoped to reinstate the FOR and a Strategic Energy Grain Reserve in the new farm bill, but the politics of food defeated our efforts. As farmers it is our calling and purpose in life to feed our families, our communities, our nation and a good part of the world, but we need better planning and coordination if we are to meet that purpose. AAM pledges to continue our work for better farm policy which includes an FOR and a Strategic Energy Grain Reserve."
AAM's support for the FOR program, which allows the grain to be stored on farms, is a key component to a safe grain reserve in that the supplies will be decentralized in the event of some unforeseen calamity which might befall the large grain storage terminals.
A Strategic Energy Grain Reserve is as crucial for the nation's domestic energy needs as the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. AAM also supports full funding for the replenishment and expansion of Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust.
CCC Inventory numbers
The Farm Service Agency gives us current and past CCC inventory numbers.
Year | CCC Inventory |
1975/76 | 0.4 |
1976/77 | 0.1 |
1977/78 | 19.0 |
1978/79 | 49.5 |
1979/80 | 50.1 |
1980/81 | 199.0 |
1981/82 | 194.0 |
1982/83 | 189.5 |
1983/84 | 311.7 |
1984/85 | 300.3 |
1985/86 | 456.9 |
1986/87 | 791.2 |
1987/88 | 708.6 |
1988/89 | 237.3 |
1989/90 | 162.4 |
1990/91 | 125.9 |
1991/92 | 160.8 |
1992/93 | 151.3 |
1993/94 | 150.2 |
1994/95 | 145.5 |
1995/96 | 140.6 |
1996/97 | 104.8 |
1997/98 | 93.1 |
1998/99 | 111.2 |
1999/00 | 121.0 |
2000/01 | 105.0 |
2001/02 | 97.0 |
2002/03 | 86.4 |
2003/04 | 61.8 |
2004/05 | 60.1 |
2005/06 | 49.0 |
Price of wheat
My reaction: The US government is completely out of wheat.
1) the last of the US government's wheat reserves, held in the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust, were quietly sold in May 2008 onto the domestic market for cash.
2) US government wheat stocks are now totally exhausted.
3) The US has nothing else in our emergency food pantry. There is no cheese, no butter, no dry milk powder, no grains or anything else left in reserve.
4) This lack of emergency preparedness is the fault of the 1996 farm bill which eliminated the government's grain reserves as well as the Farmer Owned Reserve (FOR).
5) Government wheat holdings over time:
A) Averaged 358 million bushels for the decade of the '80s.
B) Averaged 133 million bushels for the decade of the '90s.
C) Dropped steadily until zero in May 2008
6) With no formal plan for wheat stocks by the US government, wheat stocks have defaulted to the arena of the private free-market sector
7) The private sector has no plans for any kind of minimum wheat stocks that would protect from a price and/or availability standpoint the American public.
8) In July 2008, on-farm wheat stocks are at 25.6 million bushels, the lowest level of on-farm wheat stocks since the USDA started keeping tabs back in 1934.
9) The recent wheat crisis in America was sparked by the nation exporting more wheat than it produced.
10) Any decline from global production could precipitate greater wheat exports from America wiping out already low domestic wheat stocks.
Conclusion: The US has done the same thing to wheat as it has to gold (though perhaps to a lesser degree). Since 1987, the US has sold nearly 800 million bushels of wheat, emptying its reserves. These sales, besides making the US vulnerable to a food crisis, have depressed wheat prices below what they would otherwise have been.
US transfers $200 million in aid to PA
The United States has announced transferring a $200 million aid package to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority to help ease a growing budget deficit.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made the announcement in a video conference with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad based in the West Bank.
Fayyad was appointed prime minister by acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas after the democratically-elected Hamas government took control of the Gaza Strip. People in the already impoverished Palestinian sliver have been suffering from a tight Israeli-blockade following the takeover for their steadfast support of Hamas resistance movement.
Fayyad said that the reasons for the shortfall include Israel's restrictions on the Palestinian economy, the border blockade of the Gaza Strip and the failure of some donor countries to make good on their aid pledges.
The money is not new assistance, but part of 900 million U.S. dollars in U.S. funds that Clinton pledged at a donors conference in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in March, an official told Reuters.
With Friday's aid transfer, donor countries have given the Palestinian government $606 million in budget support this year, covering only about one-third of the estimated deficit of $1.45 billion for 2009, Fayyad said.
"We have received aid, but not enough to deal with our needs, and we faced sharp economic difficulties throughout the last months," Fayyad told reporters.
During the conference Clinton expressed support for the Palestinian Authority and called on all nations to support Mahmoud Abbas' government.
"I call on all nations that wish to see a strong, viable Palestinian state, living in peace and security with its neighbors to join us in supporting the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority has proven to be a reliable partner for peace," she said.
Washington pledged in March during a donor's conference in Egypt to transfer $900 million to Palestinian Authority.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made the announcement in a video conference with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad based in the West Bank.
Fayyad was appointed prime minister by acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas after the democratically-elected Hamas government took control of the Gaza Strip. People in the already impoverished Palestinian sliver have been suffering from a tight Israeli-blockade following the takeover for their steadfast support of Hamas resistance movement.
Fayyad said that the reasons for the shortfall include Israel's restrictions on the Palestinian economy, the border blockade of the Gaza Strip and the failure of some donor countries to make good on their aid pledges.
The money is not new assistance, but part of 900 million U.S. dollars in U.S. funds that Clinton pledged at a donors conference in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in March, an official told Reuters.
With Friday's aid transfer, donor countries have given the Palestinian government $606 million in budget support this year, covering only about one-third of the estimated deficit of $1.45 billion for 2009, Fayyad said.
"We have received aid, but not enough to deal with our needs, and we faced sharp economic difficulties throughout the last months," Fayyad told reporters.
During the conference Clinton expressed support for the Palestinian Authority and called on all nations to support Mahmoud Abbas' government.
"I call on all nations that wish to see a strong, viable Palestinian state, living in peace and security with its neighbors to join us in supporting the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority has proven to be a reliable partner for peace," she said.
Washington pledged in March during a donor's conference in Egypt to transfer $900 million to Palestinian Authority.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)