edcell Wall
Street protest live stream: http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution MAX KEISER THE ONLY TRULY OUSPOKEN FINANCE ANALYST
Protesters plan to occupy
London Stock Exchange: A group of protesters are
organising an occupation of the London Stock Exchange to
bring attention to what they see as unethical behaviour
on the part of banks, following a similar demonstration
on Wall Street.
Eurozone countries hold series of crucial votesToday @ 09:28 Related
A swathe of European parliaments are this week due to decide on the strengthened temporary bailout fund, the EFSF, but the eurozone debate is moving faster than the political process. MPs in Finland, Germany, Slovenia, Estonia and Austria will in the coming days all cast their vote on whether to accept a July agreement of eurozone leaders to enhance the 440bn fund so that it can loan pre-emptively and buys bonds of struggling eurozone countries on the secondary market. While eight of the 17 eurozone countries have already greenlighted the fund - which needs the approval of all to get off the ground - the states where the new powers and the merits of eurozone bailouts have been most hotly contested still have to vote. This is especially so in Germany, due to vote Thursday. While the bailout fund is expected to be approved, analysts are already wondering at what political cost to German chancellor Angela Merkel, whose authority is being tested by fellow conservatives in Bavaria and by members of the liberal party, the junior coalition partner. Much is expected to be made of whether the fund scrapes a majority or gets an absolute majority. Finland, another country where the debate has strongly focussed on whether fiscally prudent countries should be required to loan money to trouble fellow euro members, is set to vote on Wednesday. However national politicians in these countries are in the awkward position of voting on a fund that is likely almost immediately to be substantially altered. Over the weekend it emerged that the EU, under immense pressure from Washington, is considering considerably enhancing the European Financial Stability Facility to finally give it the power to tackle all aspects of the crisis - including under-capitalised banks and contagion to Italy and Spain. Under the mooted plans EFSF money would be leveraged through the European Central Bank to give it up to 2 trillion euros in fire-fighting aid. Politicians are already on the defensive about the new proposals, with it unclear whether they in turn would also require parliamentary approval. "There are no plans in the Netherlands, and as far as I know none in Finland either, to raise the amount in the EFSF," Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Monday (26 September) following a meeting with his Finnish counterpart Jyrki Katainen, reports Dutch News. "We need the package of 21 July and are, both in Finland and in the Netherlands, extremely busy on ensuring it can be implemented. The rest is speculation," said Rutte. Opposition politicians in Germany are already protesting the potential plans, which may also including establishing the permanent bailout fund - the European Stability Mechanism - a year earlier than planned. "The chancellor must very quickly make clear that there are no change to the basic workings of the EFSF," said Christian Lindner, secretary general of the liberal party, on Monday. The "character of the provisional bailout fund" must not be changed later and that should be politically and legally clear, he said. Hermann Otto Solms, finance expert for the liberals, told Die Welt newspaper that if finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble does not immediately clarify that "there is no leverage, then we will not vote in favour of the law." The last eurozone to vote on the fund is Slovakia on 11 October. It is also the state considered to be most likely to reject the fund's new powers. Until this date, policy makers in the eurozone will have to continue the difficult juggling act of letting parliamentary process take its course while hurrying to keep up with the pressure of doubting markets. Baudrillard
refers to the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes:
In several powerful books, based on careful research of formerly secret UK government documents, historian Mark Curtis has laid bare the motivations and realpolitik of British foreign policy. Ethics and morality are notable in these internal state records by their absence. Curtis observes: a basic principle is that humanitarian concerns do not figure at all in the rationale behind British foreign policy. In the thousands of government files I have looked through for this and other books, I have barely seen any reference to human rights at all. Where such concerns are evoked, they are only for public-relations purposes. (Unpeople, Vintage, 2004, p. 3) POEMS BY AN IRISH
BUSDRIVER
Hampton Sides, a writer with Men's Vogue in the U.S., witnessed the divers' discovery. He said: 'They are bullets that were expressly manufactured to kill Germans in World War I - bullets that British officials in Whitehall, and American officials in Washington, have long denied were aboard the Lusitania.' The discovery may help explain why the 787ft Lusitania
sank within 18 minutes of a single German torpedo
slamming into its hull. Some of the 764 survivors reported a second explosion which might have been munitions going off. Gregg Bemis, an American businessman who owns the rights to the wreck and is funding its exploration, said: 'Those four million rounds of .303s were not just some private hunter's stash. 'Now that we've found it, the British can't deny any more that there was ammunition on board. That raises the question of what else was on board. 'There were literally tons and tons of stuff stored in unrefrigerated cargo holds that were dubiously marked cheese, butter and oysters. 'I've always felt there were some significant high explosives in the holds - shells, powder, gun cotton - that were set off by the torpedo and the inflow of water. That's what sank the ship.' Mr Bemis is planning to commission further dives next year in a full-scale forensic examination of the wreck off County Cork.
OBAMA WIPES
OUT ANTI-POLLUTION BILL
President Obama overruled EPA science and blocked crucial new protections against smog pollution that have been years in the making. The decision came after a major campaign by corporate polluters and Republicans to kill the rules. The result, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, is likely to be tens of thousands of premature deaths, as well as increased illness among seniors, kids with asthma, and people who have lung problems. Iran Offers New Nuclear Deal By Ramin Mostaghim Iran says it will open its nuclear
program to five years of 'full supervision' by the U.N.
atomic energy agency if the world body lifts its
sanctions. WE MUST
ACHIEVE AN END TO AMALGAM IN DENTISTRY (THE USE OF
MERCURY IN FILLINGS) HERE IS A LITTLE NEWS:
Dots Information Service Hotline Even though the most recent unemployment numbers fail to capture the true nature of the jobs situation, they illustrate the uneven economic struggle of those in the labor market. For instance, the unemployment rate for whites actually fell one-tenths of one percent from 8.1 to 8.0, while the black unemployment rate rose nearly one percent from 15.9 to 16.7 percent. In the case of men, the unemployment rate for white men fell two-tenths of one percent from 7.9 to 7.7 percent, while the rate for black men rose one percent from 17 to 18 percent. Oddly, the unemployment rate for black and white women remained unchanged at 13.4 and 7.0 percent, respectively. The rate for white teens rose six-tenths of one percent from 28.3 to 28.9 percent. However, for black teens, the rate grew significantly from 39.2 to 46.5 percent. This means that nearly half of black teens seeking work cannot find a job. For the black population, even these numbers, which significantly under-represent the situation on the ground, are not recession numbers. Does President Obama realize or care that black people are in a deep depression? Over forty and unemployment people are being told not
to bother applying for jobs because the few employers
that are hiring want young, college-educated workers
willing to take ten dollars an hour without complaints
and no benefits. Even should an older worker be willing
to endure such exploitation, employers are not hiring
them. Everyone, including the federal government, is well
aware this type of discrimination is happening, but they
are treating it as an acceptable business practice. I am
reminded of Franz Kafkas The Metamorphosis in which
a familys breadwinner changes overnight into a bug,
is injured by an apple thrown by a family member in fear
and loathing that lodges in his back, dies without
medical assistance and is discarded with the trash. The
family learns it did okay without the bugs income.
This is unlikely to be the outcome for the US; this
nation cannot expect to prosper after having carelessly
discarded so many of its most productive workers. |