Monday, June 21, 2010
Gulf Fisherman: "It's Heartbreaking "
Click this link ..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rTz6w0uuF4
The Israeli Role in the Plundering of Iceland
The discovery of large amounts of Super-Thermite in the dust of the World Trade Center is solid scientific proof that the government and media version of 9-11 is nothing but a pack of treasonous lies. The evidence indicates that the Twin Towers were exploded using sophisticated nano-composite forms of Thermite and cutter charges. Thanks to the Internet, the truth about 9-11 is out and understood by millions of people across America and around the world.
Although it may come as an unpleasant surprise to some, it is a proven fact that the same network of Zionist Jews is behind the false-flag terrorism of 9-11 and the huge financial crimes of the past few years. Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, for example, the disgraced former CEO of the fraudulent A.I.G., is a member of this criminal network. The first airplane flew directly into the secure computer room of Marsh McClennan (MMC), a Greenberg-owned company (headed by his son Jeffrey) on 9-11. Another Greenberg-owned company, Kroll Security, was responsible for security at the World Trade Center.
Maurice Greenberg is involved in both 9-11 and the A.I.G. bail-out.
I have pointed out these connections in "The Architecture of Terror: Mapping the Network Behind 9-11", a key chapter of my book, Solving 9-11 – The Deception that Changed the World:
Kroll Associates was responsible for "revamping security at the World Trade Center after the 1993 terrorist bombing," Douglas Frantz of the New York Times reported in 1994. This is a crucial point because those who controlled security at the WTC are prime suspects in the demolition of the Twin Towers. It was directly into the computer room of Marsh (Kroll) USA in the North Tower that the first plane struck -- or was precision-guided -- on 9-11. The light orange flame and whitish smoke that exploded out of the burning computer room of Marsh USA are indicative of a Thermite reaction. Burning jet fuel produces darker orange flames and blackish smoke.
John O'Neill, the former chief of counterterrorism with the FBI, who had investigated Al Qaida, was the head of security for the World Trade Center complex, and was reportedly killed on his first day of work - on 9-11. O'Neill had been appointed to this position by the managing director of the Kroll security company, Jerome M. Hauer. Evidently, Kroll continued to manage security for the WTC complex from 1993 until 9-11.
The first plane flew directly into the secure computer room of Greenberg's Marsh McClennan Company. The explosions and white smoke that accompanied the crash are indicative of Thermite having been preplaced in the computer room.
Later, Maurice Greenberg's fraudulent insurance company A.I.G. was the key player in the Bush-Obama bail-out of 2008-2009, receiving more than $180 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds. Much of the taxpayer money paid out to A.I.G. was then distributed to equally criminal private investment banks like Goldman Sachs, whose profits from dodgy financial schemes/instruments had been insured by A.I.G. Fear tactics were employed as the U.S. taxpayer was robbed while being told that the bail-out of the network of financial criminals was for the public good.
We then find the same Zionist criminal network behind the Bernard Madoff scam in which tens of billions of dollars disappeared into thin air. The fact that Madoff's business partner Sy Syms was also a director of a private Israeli bank called Israel Discount Bank (New York), a bank with a documented history of money laundering and a branch in Switzerland, did not seem to interest Lev Dassin, the Zionist prosecutor. Most remarkably, Dassin, the prosecutor of Madoff, failed to even file charges of conspiracy in a financial criminal case in which more than $26 billion is reported to have disappeared.
Behind all of these mega-crimes we find one common denominator: a network of individuals connected to Israeli intelligence, the Mossad. The Israelis are well known to have a penchant for audacity. Seemingly immune from prosecution, the Mossad's crimes have only become more audacious. The evidence of Israeli involvement in these crimes is clear and indisputable. The only reason the Israelis get away with their outrageous crimes is because there is no political will to prosecute them.
PLUNDERING ICELAND
The looting of much of the wealth of Iceland is one such mega-crime in which we find Israelis involved at the highest level. The First Lady of Iceland, Dorrit Moussaieff, is an Israeli Jew, which adds a significant wrinkle to the whole plot.
The Israeli Dorrit Moussaieff is the "fabulously wealthy socialite wife of the President of Iceland." So why did a "fabulously wealthy" Israeli Jew marry the president of a small Nordic nation in the North Atlantic?
Iceland recently arrested several executives of the former Kaupthing bank, the largest Icelandic bank involved in the collapse of the Icelandic economy in the fall of 2008. Kaupthing and a couple other banks were responsible for the looting of much of the wealth of Iceland (and other nations). Two of the former executives of the bank were recently held in solitary confinement to facilitate the Icelandic investigation.
Iceland's special prosecutor is investigating a number of former Kaupthing executives for alleged market manipulation and forgery. Before its collapse, Kaupthing lent more than $12 billion in shady deals that were "if not illegal, completely unethical," Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir said. When Kaupthing, Glitnir Bank, and Landsbanki Islands collapsed in October 2008 they had amassed debts equivalent to 12 times Iceland’s gross domestic product. After taking control of the three banks, the government was forced to seek a $4.6 billion International Monetary Fund-led loan to stay afloat. If an intelligence agency of a foreign government were involved in bankrupting Iceland, a member of NATO, it should be considered an act of war.
Kaupthing's loan book (leaked on the Internet) shows that around one third of its $20 billion in corporate loans went to a small elite connected to the bank's owners and management. One of Kaupthing's owners and the bank's largest debtor when it collapsed is an Iraqi-Iranian Jew named Robert Tchenguiz (pronounced like Genghis, as in Khan). The bank's leaked loan book shows that Tchenguiz borrowed some $3 billion from the bank to finance his private investments. Tchenguiz and his brother Vincent are London-based business tycoons. Robert was an owner of Kaupthing as one of the largest shareholders in Exista, a company that was the largest shareholder of the bank.
Robert Tchenguiz - "I can't comment on what Hreidar did or didn't do. It is very difficult for me to discuss this. I don't know why he was arrested. I don't know anything about the case."
Tchenguiz siblings Vincent and Lisa
Tchenguiz claims that he lost everything with the bank's collapse. "I lost all my money with the collapse of Kaupthing and I am suing the bank so I have to watch what I say," he said recently. High-profile "losers" like the Tchenguiz brothers, who lose billions of dollars, are typical of Mossad financial scams. Like Bernard Madoff, the Tchenguiz brothers claim to have lost billions of dollars, but where did the money really go?
As I pointed out in the Madoff scam, the missing billions probably went to secret Zionist-controlled bank accounts, for example at the Swiss branch of Israel Discount Bank where Madoff's friend and business partner Sy Syms (a.k.a. Seymour Merinsky) was a long-time director. In the Tchenguiz case, the Israeli partner-in-crime was probably his father, Victor, whose original surname is reported to be Kedourie Molaaem, and who has lived in Israel since at least 2003.
Victor Tchenguiz, an Iraqi Jew from Baghdad, has evidently worked with the Israeli Mossad for decades, and was reported in the British press in 2003 to be "the brains" behind the Tchenguiz business empire: "One reason that Victor Tchenguiz was long supposed to be the brains behind Rotch was that his Ferrari-driving sons didn't seem to spend much time at their desks," Conal Walsh wrote in the Observer of May 25, 2003.
The Tchenguiz kids, Vincent, Lisa, and Robert are well known for living high on other people's money. As the Observer noted in 2003: "The [Iranian Jewish] community is also legendary when it comes to shopping and partying. One reason that Victor Tchenguiz was long supposed to be the brains behind Rotch was that his Ferrari-driving sons didn't seem to spend much time at their desks."
About the Israeli connection with the Tchenguiz family, Walsh wrote:
Victor Tchenguiz, 80 and now living in Israel, is a larger-than-life figure who apparently traded in his original surname of Kedorie for Tchenguiz, Persian for 'Genghis', in honour of the great Mongol warlord.
An Iraqi-born Jew, he reportedly fled Baghdad to avoid persecution in 1948, landing in Iran and swiftly becoming a favourite of the Shah. How Victor did this is unclear - Robert has hinted that he married well - but by the Seventies he was jeweller to Iran's royal family and, it has been reported, in charge of the royal mint. When the Shah was deposed in 1979, Victor fled to London, with his fortune seemingly intact.
The British press seems to be quite clueless about Victor Tchenguiz's high-level connections to the Shah of Iran and how he got there, as Chris Blackhurst wrote in his MT interview with Robert Tchenguiz:
Somehow, despite being a foreigner, Victor became a member of the Shah's inner circle, becoming the royal jeweller and also head of the country's mint. The family were in the elite of Iranian society - the children were pupils at the International School in Tehran and the sons went to university abroad - Robert to Pepperdine in California.
Then the Shah fell. Victor moved the family to London, again displaying enormous dexterity by managing to bring their money over as well.
While the press reports are quite sketchy, the name suggests that the Tchenguiz family may originally be Iranian Jews, perhaps named Molayem (i.e. soft), which would fit the unusual "Molaaem" spelling of the family name. Although Victor and Violet met in Baghdad, they were married in Iran after a very short courtship, apparently in 1955 according to a 2009 interview with their daughter Lisa. There would be no reason for Iraqi Jews to be married in Iran if they did not have family there:
Lisa's own parents, who are both Iraqi Jews by origin, had a semi-arranged marriage. Her father spotted her mother walking beside the canal in Baghdad, and introduced himself to her father at a café. Several coffees later, the deal was done. 'My mother was at home when her mother came in and told her that she was having an engagement party the following week.' The couple 'dated' for five days, heavily chaperoned, then married in Iran.
Fifty-four years later, they are still together and, says Lisa, happily so.
It is well known that the Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, played a key role in supporting the Shah of Iran and his secret police, the SAVAK, as the Wikipedia article on the Mossad notes:
Prior to the Iranian Revolution of 1978–79, SAVAK (Organization of National Security and Information), the Iranian secret police and intelligence service was created under the guidance of United States and Israeli intelligence officers in 1957 to protect the regime of the shah by arresting, torturing, and executing the dissidents (especially Leftists). After security relations between the United States and Iran grew more distant in the early 1960s which led the CIA training team to leave Iran, Mossad became increasingly active in Iran, "training SAVAK personnel and carrying out a broad variety of joint operations with SAVAK."
As the Jew who headed the Iranian mint and served as court jeweller for the Shah, Victor Tchenguiz would have worked closely with the Mossad. The Mossad connection would explain why Victor lives in Israel while his "billionaire" children and grandchildren all live in Britain. Why would Victor leave his family and home to retire in a country where he has never lived? The evidence suggests that Victor is indeed "the brains" behind the looting of Iceland and probably needed to be in Israel - close to his Israeli partners-in-crime - to pull off the mega-heist.
(To be continued...)
Sources and Recommended Reading:
"I want £200m from The Man From Del Monte in Britain's biggest divorce (but he isn't saying Yes)" by Elizabeth Sanderson, Daily Mail Online (U.K.), February 4, 2010
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1247389/I-want-200m-The-Man-From-Del-Monte-Britains-biggest-divorce-isnt-saying-Yes.html
"Robert Tchenguiz: I lost everything with Kaupthing", by Jóna Ann Pétursdóttir, Pressan (Iceland) May 7, 2010
http://www.pressan.is/News/ReadIcelandicNews/robert-tchenguiz-i-lost-everything-with-kaupthing---i-dont-know-what-hreidar-did-wrong
"Persian playboy goes shopping", by Conal Walsh, The Observer, May 25, 2003
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2003/may/25/theobserver.observerbusiness6
"The Tchenguiz sister", by Lydia Slater, London Evening Standard (U.K.), May 15, 2009
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/article-23691957-the-tchenguiz-sister.do
Wikipedia article on Mossad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mossad
"Madoffs Victims", partial list compiled by Barry Ritholtz, December 15, 2008
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2008/12/madoffs-victims/
http://www.bollyn.com/the-israeli-role-in-the-plundering-of-iceland
Although it may come as an unpleasant surprise to some, it is a proven fact that the same network of Zionist Jews is behind the false-flag terrorism of 9-11 and the huge financial crimes of the past few years. Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, for example, the disgraced former CEO of the fraudulent A.I.G., is a member of this criminal network. The first airplane flew directly into the secure computer room of Marsh McClennan (MMC), a Greenberg-owned company (headed by his son Jeffrey) on 9-11. Another Greenberg-owned company, Kroll Security, was responsible for security at the World Trade Center.
Maurice Greenberg is involved in both 9-11 and the A.I.G. bail-out.
I have pointed out these connections in "The Architecture of Terror: Mapping the Network Behind 9-11", a key chapter of my book, Solving 9-11 – The Deception that Changed the World:
Kroll Associates was responsible for "revamping security at the World Trade Center after the 1993 terrorist bombing," Douglas Frantz of the New York Times reported in 1994. This is a crucial point because those who controlled security at the WTC are prime suspects in the demolition of the Twin Towers. It was directly into the computer room of Marsh (Kroll) USA in the North Tower that the first plane struck -- or was precision-guided -- on 9-11. The light orange flame and whitish smoke that exploded out of the burning computer room of Marsh USA are indicative of a Thermite reaction. Burning jet fuel produces darker orange flames and blackish smoke.
John O'Neill, the former chief of counterterrorism with the FBI, who had investigated Al Qaida, was the head of security for the World Trade Center complex, and was reportedly killed on his first day of work - on 9-11. O'Neill had been appointed to this position by the managing director of the Kroll security company, Jerome M. Hauer. Evidently, Kroll continued to manage security for the WTC complex from 1993 until 9-11.
The first plane flew directly into the secure computer room of Greenberg's Marsh McClennan Company. The explosions and white smoke that accompanied the crash are indicative of Thermite having been preplaced in the computer room.
Later, Maurice Greenberg's fraudulent insurance company A.I.G. was the key player in the Bush-Obama bail-out of 2008-2009, receiving more than $180 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds. Much of the taxpayer money paid out to A.I.G. was then distributed to equally criminal private investment banks like Goldman Sachs, whose profits from dodgy financial schemes/instruments had been insured by A.I.G. Fear tactics were employed as the U.S. taxpayer was robbed while being told that the bail-out of the network of financial criminals was for the public good.
We then find the same Zionist criminal network behind the Bernard Madoff scam in which tens of billions of dollars disappeared into thin air. The fact that Madoff's business partner Sy Syms was also a director of a private Israeli bank called Israel Discount Bank (New York), a bank with a documented history of money laundering and a branch in Switzerland, did not seem to interest Lev Dassin, the Zionist prosecutor. Most remarkably, Dassin, the prosecutor of Madoff, failed to even file charges of conspiracy in a financial criminal case in which more than $26 billion is reported to have disappeared.
Behind all of these mega-crimes we find one common denominator: a network of individuals connected to Israeli intelligence, the Mossad. The Israelis are well known to have a penchant for audacity. Seemingly immune from prosecution, the Mossad's crimes have only become more audacious. The evidence of Israeli involvement in these crimes is clear and indisputable. The only reason the Israelis get away with their outrageous crimes is because there is no political will to prosecute them.
PLUNDERING ICELAND
The looting of much of the wealth of Iceland is one such mega-crime in which we find Israelis involved at the highest level. The First Lady of Iceland, Dorrit Moussaieff, is an Israeli Jew, which adds a significant wrinkle to the whole plot.
The Israeli Dorrit Moussaieff is the "fabulously wealthy socialite wife of the President of Iceland." So why did a "fabulously wealthy" Israeli Jew marry the president of a small Nordic nation in the North Atlantic?
Iceland recently arrested several executives of the former Kaupthing bank, the largest Icelandic bank involved in the collapse of the Icelandic economy in the fall of 2008. Kaupthing and a couple other banks were responsible for the looting of much of the wealth of Iceland (and other nations). Two of the former executives of the bank were recently held in solitary confinement to facilitate the Icelandic investigation.
Iceland's special prosecutor is investigating a number of former Kaupthing executives for alleged market manipulation and forgery. Before its collapse, Kaupthing lent more than $12 billion in shady deals that were "if not illegal, completely unethical," Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir said. When Kaupthing, Glitnir Bank, and Landsbanki Islands collapsed in October 2008 they had amassed debts equivalent to 12 times Iceland’s gross domestic product. After taking control of the three banks, the government was forced to seek a $4.6 billion International Monetary Fund-led loan to stay afloat. If an intelligence agency of a foreign government were involved in bankrupting Iceland, a member of NATO, it should be considered an act of war.
Kaupthing's loan book (leaked on the Internet) shows that around one third of its $20 billion in corporate loans went to a small elite connected to the bank's owners and management. One of Kaupthing's owners and the bank's largest debtor when it collapsed is an Iraqi-Iranian Jew named Robert Tchenguiz (pronounced like Genghis, as in Khan). The bank's leaked loan book shows that Tchenguiz borrowed some $3 billion from the bank to finance his private investments. Tchenguiz and his brother Vincent are London-based business tycoons. Robert was an owner of Kaupthing as one of the largest shareholders in Exista, a company that was the largest shareholder of the bank.
Robert Tchenguiz - "I can't comment on what Hreidar did or didn't do. It is very difficult for me to discuss this. I don't know why he was arrested. I don't know anything about the case."
Tchenguiz siblings Vincent and Lisa
Tchenguiz claims that he lost everything with the bank's collapse. "I lost all my money with the collapse of Kaupthing and I am suing the bank so I have to watch what I say," he said recently. High-profile "losers" like the Tchenguiz brothers, who lose billions of dollars, are typical of Mossad financial scams. Like Bernard Madoff, the Tchenguiz brothers claim to have lost billions of dollars, but where did the money really go?
As I pointed out in the Madoff scam, the missing billions probably went to secret Zionist-controlled bank accounts, for example at the Swiss branch of Israel Discount Bank where Madoff's friend and business partner Sy Syms (a.k.a. Seymour Merinsky) was a long-time director. In the Tchenguiz case, the Israeli partner-in-crime was probably his father, Victor, whose original surname is reported to be Kedourie Molaaem, and who has lived in Israel since at least 2003.
Victor Tchenguiz, an Iraqi Jew from Baghdad, has evidently worked with the Israeli Mossad for decades, and was reported in the British press in 2003 to be "the brains" behind the Tchenguiz business empire: "One reason that Victor Tchenguiz was long supposed to be the brains behind Rotch was that his Ferrari-driving sons didn't seem to spend much time at their desks," Conal Walsh wrote in the Observer of May 25, 2003.
The Tchenguiz kids, Vincent, Lisa, and Robert are well known for living high on other people's money. As the Observer noted in 2003: "The [Iranian Jewish] community is also legendary when it comes to shopping and partying. One reason that Victor Tchenguiz was long supposed to be the brains behind Rotch was that his Ferrari-driving sons didn't seem to spend much time at their desks."
About the Israeli connection with the Tchenguiz family, Walsh wrote:
Victor Tchenguiz, 80 and now living in Israel, is a larger-than-life figure who apparently traded in his original surname of Kedorie for Tchenguiz, Persian for 'Genghis', in honour of the great Mongol warlord.
An Iraqi-born Jew, he reportedly fled Baghdad to avoid persecution in 1948, landing in Iran and swiftly becoming a favourite of the Shah. How Victor did this is unclear - Robert has hinted that he married well - but by the Seventies he was jeweller to Iran's royal family and, it has been reported, in charge of the royal mint. When the Shah was deposed in 1979, Victor fled to London, with his fortune seemingly intact.
The British press seems to be quite clueless about Victor Tchenguiz's high-level connections to the Shah of Iran and how he got there, as Chris Blackhurst wrote in his MT interview with Robert Tchenguiz:
Somehow, despite being a foreigner, Victor became a member of the Shah's inner circle, becoming the royal jeweller and also head of the country's mint. The family were in the elite of Iranian society - the children were pupils at the International School in Tehran and the sons went to university abroad - Robert to Pepperdine in California.
Then the Shah fell. Victor moved the family to London, again displaying enormous dexterity by managing to bring their money over as well.
While the press reports are quite sketchy, the name suggests that the Tchenguiz family may originally be Iranian Jews, perhaps named Molayem (i.e. soft), which would fit the unusual "Molaaem" spelling of the family name. Although Victor and Violet met in Baghdad, they were married in Iran after a very short courtship, apparently in 1955 according to a 2009 interview with their daughter Lisa. There would be no reason for Iraqi Jews to be married in Iran if they did not have family there:
Lisa's own parents, who are both Iraqi Jews by origin, had a semi-arranged marriage. Her father spotted her mother walking beside the canal in Baghdad, and introduced himself to her father at a café. Several coffees later, the deal was done. 'My mother was at home when her mother came in and told her that she was having an engagement party the following week.' The couple 'dated' for five days, heavily chaperoned, then married in Iran.
Fifty-four years later, they are still together and, says Lisa, happily so.
It is well known that the Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, played a key role in supporting the Shah of Iran and his secret police, the SAVAK, as the Wikipedia article on the Mossad notes:
Prior to the Iranian Revolution of 1978–79, SAVAK (Organization of National Security and Information), the Iranian secret police and intelligence service was created under the guidance of United States and Israeli intelligence officers in 1957 to protect the regime of the shah by arresting, torturing, and executing the dissidents (especially Leftists). After security relations between the United States and Iran grew more distant in the early 1960s which led the CIA training team to leave Iran, Mossad became increasingly active in Iran, "training SAVAK personnel and carrying out a broad variety of joint operations with SAVAK."
As the Jew who headed the Iranian mint and served as court jeweller for the Shah, Victor Tchenguiz would have worked closely with the Mossad. The Mossad connection would explain why Victor lives in Israel while his "billionaire" children and grandchildren all live in Britain. Why would Victor leave his family and home to retire in a country where he has never lived? The evidence suggests that Victor is indeed "the brains" behind the looting of Iceland and probably needed to be in Israel - close to his Israeli partners-in-crime - to pull off the mega-heist.
(To be continued...)
Sources and Recommended Reading:
"I want £200m from The Man From Del Monte in Britain's biggest divorce (but he isn't saying Yes)" by Elizabeth Sanderson, Daily Mail Online (U.K.), February 4, 2010
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1247389/I-want-200m-The-Man-From-Del-Monte-Britains-biggest-divorce-isnt-saying-Yes.html
"Robert Tchenguiz: I lost everything with Kaupthing", by Jóna Ann Pétursdóttir, Pressan (Iceland) May 7, 2010
http://www.pressan.is/News/ReadIcelandicNews/robert-tchenguiz-i-lost-everything-with-kaupthing---i-dont-know-what-hreidar-did-wrong
"Persian playboy goes shopping", by Conal Walsh, The Observer, May 25, 2003
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2003/may/25/theobserver.observerbusiness6
"The Tchenguiz sister", by Lydia Slater, London Evening Standard (U.K.), May 15, 2009
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/article-23691957-the-tchenguiz-sister.do
Wikipedia article on Mossad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mossad
"Madoffs Victims", partial list compiled by Barry Ritholtz, December 15, 2008
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2008/12/madoffs-victims/
http://www.bollyn.com/the-israeli-role-in-the-plundering-of-iceland
Will currency float help U.S.-China relations?
Will China’s move to float its yuan actually decrease the value of the currency?
Hong Kong, China (CNN) – China’s surprise announcement that it will continue floating its currency after a nearly two-year hiatus is catching the financial world by surprise.
After Chinese leaders denied for months they would cave to international pressure, the Saturday announcement by China’s central bank is widely seen as a way to defuse the issue from being raised at next week’s G-20 summit in Toronto, especially since China’s May exports shot up nearly 50 percent year-on-year. But is that the whole story?
China is notorious for playing its cards close to its chest. In an interview with state-run news agency Xinhua in December, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said China would “absolutely not yield” to international pressure to raise the trading value of the yuan, which the Peterson Institute for International Economics had claimed was 40 percent under its market value against the dollar at the time. Wen echoed his refusal to budge at the March Chinese parliamentary meeting.
But now, China clearly sees an advantage to floating the yuan. Why?
The World Bank released a report on Friday that again urged China to strengthen its currency as a way to encourage domestic consumption and reduce inflation. A stronger yuan also would cut import costs for resource-hungry China.
Still many expected the euro's recent dramatic decline would forestall China’s move to end its peg to the U.S. dollar. Collectively, the eurozone is China’s largest trading partner and its weaker currency keeps Chinese goods competitive.
But now a different story line is emerging – we may actually see China’s yuan drop in value once it is allowed to float.
The Peterson Institute last week revised its estimates on the yuan to say it believes the yuan is now 24 percent overvalued against the dollar. Over the weekend, economist Nouriel Roubini told Reuters that if the euro continues its slide the yuan “would have to be allowed to depreciate relative to the dollar, a paradoxical outcome."
So will this help defuse economic tensions between the U.S. and China? So far, Western leaders are giving very broad applause to the move. If the yuan, however, begins to move down, that applause is sure to be short-lived.
Australian Unions act to isolate Israel
The movement for Australian union action against Israel is gaining strength after the apartheid state’s latest murderous attack on the unarmed aid flotilla to Gaza.
The South Coast Labour Council (SCLC) and the New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory branches of the Australian Services Union have joined the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union in committing to the international boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against the aggressive Israeli state.
Australian unions and peak bodies have also called on members to attend the many protest actions.
The union campaign demanding an active boycott of Israel began in this country with the January 2009 ban on Israel cargo imposed by the Western Australian branch of the Maritime Union of Australia. The ban came after the Durban branch of the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union refused to unload cargo from Israel.
SCLC secretary Arthur Rorris said: “A boycott of Israeli goods produced in the illegal settlements is a good way for the international community to send a strong message to the Israeli leadership that humanity will not turn a blind eye to the injustice … inflicted on the Palestinian people.”
We must now make the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions)campaign the policy of the entire union movement, just as in the days of the anti-apartheid bans against South Africa.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and state trades and labour councils have so far avoided taking meaningful action against Israeli interests, restricting themselves to calls for restraint.
To make a difference, the Australian union movement should follow the lead recently set by the British University and College Union.
Its 2010 congress last week voted overwhelmingly to “sever all relations with [the Israeli trade union federation] Histadrut, and to urge other trade unions and bodies to do likewise”.
It also proposed to: “Seek in conjunction with other trade unions, nationally and internationally, to establish an annual international conference on BDS (Boycott. Divestment and Sanctions), a trade union-sponsored BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions)website and a research centre on commercial, cultural and academic complicity with Israeli breaches of international law.
This is the only sort of action the Israeli government understands.
Other Australian unions can make a difference for Palestine by supporting the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) campaign and demanding that the ACTU do the same.
More Australian trade unions join Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel
In the wake of the murderous Israeli commando attack on an unarmed aid flotilla to Gaza on May 31, more trade unions in Australia are joining the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel. Here Andrew Ferguson, the NSW Secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining & Energy Union (CFMEU) addresses the Sydney June 5, 2010 Gaza solidarity rally. He is introduced by Pip Hinman of the Stop The War Coalition.
Source: http://www.greenleft.org.au/
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Watch Small Business for Employment Forecasts
Today’s 472,000 jobless claims print once again emphasizes how poor the employment outlook has been. What the macroeconomists all have missed is the creative-destruction character of the US economy: jobs are permanently lost and big companies and replaced by startups — except this time, there are no startups.
Small business was still contracting in May, albeit at a somewhat slower pace of contraction than previously, according to Discover Small Business Watch:
- 35 percent of small businesses surveyed said they believe the economy is getting better, up from 31 percent in April; 51 percent say the economy is getting worse, down a point from the previous month; and 12 percent see the economy as the same, down from 14 percent in April.
- The percentage of small business owners rating the current economy as good or excellent was 12 percent in May, compared to 13 percent in April. The April and May ratings on the current state of the economy are the highest since June 2008. Thirty-two percent rate the economy as fair in May, while 56 percent still think it’s poor.
- Small businesses reporting cash flow issues held steady at 45 percent, the lowest number in seven months. Forty-eight percent reported no cash flow issues, and 7 percent were unsure.
- 28 percent of small business owners say economic conditions for their businesses are getting better, down from 30 percent in April; 44 percent said conditions are getting worse in May, down from 48 percent in April; and 24 percent said things are staying the same, up from 19 percent in April.
- 25 percent of small business owners indicated they were increasing business spending in May, up from 23 percent in April, while 46 percent said they were reducing spending this month, compared with 43 percent in April, and 31 percent said they are spending the same, up from 25 percent in May.
Despite the surging stock market, venture capital investments during the first quarter of 2010 fell by 9% compared to the fourth quarter of 2009.
There simply are no signs of life in the startup sector–not surprising given that the US government is sucking up all the financial sources of the economy along with all the available balance sheet of the US and global banking system to finance its deficit.
Until this changes employment is going to remain dead in the water. The manufacturing boomlet simply has no impact on employment.
Emergency Department Visits Involving Nonmedical Use of Selected Prescription Drugs --- United States, 2004--2008
" Rates of overdose deaths involving prescription drugs increased rapidly in the United States during 1999--2006 (1). However, such mortality data do not portray the morbidity associated with prescription drug overdoses. Data from emergency department (ED) visits can represent this morbidity and can be accessed more quickly than mortality data. To better understand recent national trends in drug-related morbidity, CDC and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) reviewed the most recent 5 years of available data (2004--2008) on ED visits involving the nonmedical use of prescription drugs from SAMHSA's Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN). This report describes the results of that review, which showed that the estimated number of ED visits for nonmedical use of opioid analgesics increased 111% during 2004--2008 (from 144,600 to 305,900 visits) and increased 29% during 2007--2008. The highest numbers of ED visits were recorded for oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone, all of which showed statistically significant increases during the 5-year period. The estimated number of ED visits involving nonmedical use of benzodiazepines increased 89% during 2004--2008 (from 143,500 to 271,700 visits) and 24% during 2007--2008. These findings indicate substantial, increasing morbidity associated with the nonmedical use of prescription drugs in the United States during 2004--2008, despite recent efforts to control the problem. Stronger measures to reduce the diversion of prescription drugs to nonmedical purposes are warranted.
DAWN is a public health information system that tracks the impact of drug use, misuse, and abuse in the United States by monitoring drug-related hospital ED visits. In a manner similar to the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System,* DAWN uses a sample of EDs to estimate national ED visit rates (2). DAWN collects data from a stratified, simple random sample of approximately 220 nonfederal, short-stay, general hospitals that operate 24-hour EDs in the United States. DAWN's sampling frame is based on the American Hospital Association annual survey database and is updated annually to reflect new, closed, merged, and demerged hospitals, and to give new hospitals an opportunity to be selected into the sample."
-------
Note: I searched this document for cannabis, pot, THC - and found nothing. I wonder why? As usual the "war on drugs" is a non-specific war - like "war on terror" and other wars on things like poverty, stupidity. They never work. Eventually the money runs out and people have to fall back on discussion and reasonable courses of action that address the specifics - and face their wasteful over-reliance on generalities.
Perhaps a return to SPECIFICS and reasonable use of marijuana to address some of the maladies these "prescription drugs" are used for would result in fewer emergency room visits - as the patient benefiting from a now-banned and effective drug may never come into contact with the more dangerous and addicting ones.
DAWN is a public health information system that tracks the impact of drug use, misuse, and abuse in the United States by monitoring drug-related hospital ED visits. In a manner similar to the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System,* DAWN uses a sample of EDs to estimate national ED visit rates (2). DAWN collects data from a stratified, simple random sample of approximately 220 nonfederal, short-stay, general hospitals that operate 24-hour EDs in the United States. DAWN's sampling frame is based on the American Hospital Association annual survey database and is updated annually to reflect new, closed, merged, and demerged hospitals, and to give new hospitals an opportunity to be selected into the sample."
-------
Note: I searched this document for cannabis, pot, THC - and found nothing. I wonder why? As usual the "war on drugs" is a non-specific war - like "war on terror" and other wars on things like poverty, stupidity. They never work. Eventually the money runs out and people have to fall back on discussion and reasonable courses of action that address the specifics - and face their wasteful over-reliance on generalities.
Perhaps a return to SPECIFICS and reasonable use of marijuana to address some of the maladies these "prescription drugs" are used for would result in fewer emergency room visits - as the patient benefiting from a now-banned and effective drug may never come into contact with the more dangerous and addicting ones.
Obama's liberal critics find their voice
We on the left have been in numb denial about President Obama's failures. But as the crises pile up we can't remain silent
Until President Obama's first ever Oval Office address-to-the-nation the other night BP's chief executive Tony Hayward was winning the booby prize as "America's most clueless man" for his gaffe-prone TV interviews. But Obama is gaining fast. His self-exonerating speech, full of sparkling generalities and with no hint of frank accountability for his administration's culpability in the nation's worst environmental disaster, was like the man himself, bloodless and emotionally detached from the human costs of an oil invasion that's now spreading from Louisiana to Texas, Florida and as far north as the Carolinas.
Instead, to cover his impotence to cope with the seemingly unstoppable 60,000 barrel a day spillage, and his deference to BP he's appointing – what else? – one of those tired old wheezes, a "tsar" to oversee the Gulf spill effort and a "commission" to investigate its causes which by now are well known by everyone except the clueless White House. Don't they listen to their own scientific advisers?
Tony Hayward must feel a little relief that the spotlight on him as a 24-karat fool shifted momentarily on Tuesday night to our do-nothing-except-make-war president.
But the dogs are waking up and barking in the night.
Until BP's blowout in the Gulf eight weeks ago the American left (what there is of it) trailed poodle-like after Barack Obama, refusing to criticise, let alone, attack "our guy in the White House". We had worked our butts off for his election, and now we were punched out or perhaps felt we had nowhere else to go – and isn't it nice for a change to have a president who can parse a complicated sentence? Any lingering doubts we had were stifled after one scary look at Obama's yowling enemies – racist and crazy about Palin – which was enough to send us whimpering back to our kennels.
But like tiny buds of spring little fragile flowers of dissent are springing up all over the place, sometimes unexpectedly. I live in West Los Angeles, an incubator for the Obama-voting intelligentsia. A few days ago I drove past an ultra-liberal private academy in Santa Monica for the children of affluent Obama-ites, and the lawn sign in big letters proclaimed a snide reference to Obama's dismal failure get a handle on BP's environmental crime. Garry Trudeau's daily cartoon Doonesbury, which bashed Bush for years, now satirises the Obama presidency for its incomprehensible torpor in the national emergency. "The White House grows more passive every day," a Doonesbury character says in a dig at No Drama Obama's habit of lofty detachment.
Once faithful Obama retainers like syndicated columnists Maureen Dowd and Frank Rich are turning on the president for his crushing indifference to the simple human predicament of the disaster's victims. Even TV's Keith Olberman, until now virtually an Obama PR man, complains that the Oval Office speech "was great … if you were on another planet for the past 67 days". And Rachel Maddow, until now a fervent Obama cheerleader, has criticised his way-off-the-mark speech.
George W Bush gave the (false) impression, fostered by his flacks, of actually liking ordinary people. Obama prefers photo ops to human contact, such as the ridiculous posed pictures of him earnestly examining "tar balls" washed ashore in LaFourche Parish and promising Gulf residents, "I'm here to tell you that you are not alone. You will not be abandoned, and you will not be left behind" – only to promptly leave for a Chicago vacation.
He's not only tone deaf but also growing hostile to public criticism. Indeed, Obama goes after whistleblowers with more punishing venom than ever did George W Bush who whined about leaks but did not indict. In Obama's 17 months in office he has outdone all his Oval Office predecessors in going after anyone in government who dares spill the beans to the media. For example, instead of ordering court-martials for the army helicopter gunmen who murdered unarmed Baghdad civilians – a video shown worldwide by Wikileaks – the young GI leaker, 22-year old Bradley Manning, has been arrested, and the Pentagon cops are frantically trying to smoke out, and shut down, Wikileak's Pimpernel-like founder, Julian Assange. I did not think it possible, but our President Obama has an even thinner skin than Bush.
With each passing day, as crises pile up, from out-of-control unemployment to the Gulf to Gaza to the failed Afghanistan adventure, the underlying liberal authoritarianism of the Obama White House becomes clearer. We, Obama's "liberal base", of which I'm a charter member, were in numb denial that our former community organiser, who elicited such an outpouring of love from his vast network of volunteers, is actually just another Illinois pol – but with a better vocabulary.
But the dogs of dissent are waking up and starting to howl.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)