David Cameron's 'Golden' Lecture

"It was hard to stomach David Cameron preaching austerity from a golden throne"

[The Guardian] At a state banquet for the new Lord Mayor on Monday, David Cameron gave a speech about his commitment to the cause of permanent austerity. He stood up to speak from a golden chair, and read his notes from a golden lectern.

As it happens, I was at the banquet too and heard the news about permanent spending cutbacks for myself. Sadly I was not there as a dignitary, a foreign diplomat, a captain of industry or the director of a big City firm. I was there as a waitress. The contrast between what he was saying and where he was saying it seemed initially almost too laughable to get worked up about. But actually, it reflected something chilling in Cameron's attitude towards the people he purports to be working for.

I work evenings and weekends at an events company. The company is great and the hours are flexible, which allows me to combine it with my main job of an internship. It's tough, and I've been in a state of semi-tiredness for the last two months. I do get to work at interesting events, though, and the fanciness of the Guildhall banquet was breathtaking. Although, as one of my colleagues said: "I thought Boris Johnson was the lord mayor, that's the only reason I agreed to work!"

The guests enjoyed a champagne reception, and then were served a starter ("a celebration of British mushrooms"), a fish course and main course of fillet of beef, all served with wine of course. In the break before dessert, coffee, dessert wine, port, brandy and whisky were served, Cameron gave his speech. We retreated downstairs to a steam-filled kitchen, where we polished the cutlery. Most of us were exhausted by this point. Dinner service is physically demanding, and I am by no means the only person who combines two or three jobs. The contrast of the two worlds was striking; someone said it was like a scene from Downton Abbey.

Maybe Cameron didn't see the irony; perhaps he forgot about the army of waiting staff, cleaners, chefs and porters who were also present at the banquet. Perhaps he thought he was in a room of similarly rich people, who understood the necessity for austerity. Perhaps it didn't occur to him that this message might not be as easily comprehended by those who hadn't just enjoyed a four-course meal. Perhaps he forgot about those of us, disabled or unemployed or on the minimum wage, for whom austerity has had a catastrophic and wounding effect.

In his speech, Cameron talked about a "leaner, more efficient, more affordable state". He argued that austerity could be a permanent government policy; a way of trimming down the administrative excesses of some public services. He framed it in the context of the current tough living conditions – a minimising of state spending, as it "comes out of the pockets of the same taxpayers whose living standards we want to see improve".

No word yet, of course, on what changes will be made to the banquet he was speaking at. Perhaps next year there will only be three courses, or the dessert wine will be ruthlessly culled.

I wonder how Cameron and his government can do these things. Aside from the idiocy of calling for cuts while wearing a white tie – has the man never heard of Twitter – does he not see what welfare cuts are doing to the vulnerable in society? He enjoys a banquet, while the number of people using food banks has tripled in the past year. As someone on the shift with me said, "It gets annoying that we always serve free food to the people who really don't need free food."

The political content of what Cameron is saying is obviously more important than where he was saying it, but I don't think the latter is irrelevant. I have a fundamental problem with a man who sits on a golden throne and lectures us about spending less, like a modern-day, white-tie clad sheriff of Nottingham. And all around him, the insidious stain of austerity creeps across the country, manifesting in the bedroom tax, rising tuition fees and the closure of public services that vulnerable people depend on.

Each of us has just one chance at existence, and so many people's lives are being blighted by these cuts. If this is the cruel and damaging reality of permanent austerity, then we should be telling Mr Cameron we don't want it.

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Weather wars here already???

"Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business"
~~ Jonah Goldberg quoting Michael Ledeen, a former consultant to the United States National Security Council, the United States Department of State, and the United States Department of Defense.

[aangirfan] Reports have emerged that the typhoon which hit the Philippines was caused by a microwave beam. The microwave beam was observed in the West Pacific and it appears to have created the typhoon. Reportedly, a U.S. Airforce base is located near the source of the microwave beam. The U.S. base is reportedly a satellite communications hub.

After the microwave beam emission, satellite images showed a "heavy rotation" begin to develop, eventually becoming a large tropical storm. Reports say that weather modifications have been done using a microwave pulse.

PLAY VIDEO FOR SHOCKING DETAILS


* * * * * *

[Global News] TACLOBAN, Philippines – As many as 10,000 people are believed dead in one Philippine city alone after one of the worst storms ever recorded unleashed ferocious winds and giant waves that washed away homes and schools. Corpses hung from tree branches and were scattered along sidewalks and among flattened buildings, while looters raided grocery stores and gas stations in search of food, fuel and water.

Officials projected the death toll could climb even higher when emergency crews reach areas cut off by flooding and landslides. Even in the disaster-prone Philippines, which regularly contends with earthquakes, volcanoes and tropical cyclones, Typhoon Haiyan appears to be the deadliest natural disaster on record.

Haiyan hit the eastern seaboard of the Philippine archipelago on Friday and quickly barrelled across its central islands before exiting into the South China Sea, packing winds of 235 kilometres per hour (147 miles per hour) that gusted to 275 kph (170 mph), and a storm surge that caused sea waters to rise 6 metres (20 feet).


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Swiss traders’ opaque deals in Nigeria run into billion-dollar theft

“Vitol and Trafigura alone took respectively 13.44 % and 13.49 % of Nigerian crude oil exports in 2011 for a cumulative value of 6.7 billion dollars.” {the Report asserts}

A new report has detailed how the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, in cohort with major Swiss oil trading companies, is draining Nigeria of billions of dollars of revenue through the sale of crude oil below the market value.

The report, titled Swiss Traders’ Opaque Deals in Nigerian, released on Monday by Swiss non-governmental advocacy organization, the Berne Declaration, also described the schemes employed by Nigerian and foreign fuel importers, such as creating offshore subsidiaries referred to as “letterbox companies”, ship-to-ship transfer to create untraceable paperwork, payment of subsidy money to phantom and non-existing importers, and partnering with politically exposed fraudsters to defraud the country over $6.8 billion from 2009 and 2011.

Berne Declaration describes the Nigerian oil scam as the greatest fraud Africa has ever known.

The report narrates the specific roles played by seven major oil marketers and fuel importers through their shell companies in Switzerland and notorious offshore tax haven, Bermuda, to deny Nigeria billions of naira in tax earnings.

NNPC opaque deals
Describing the NNPC as the “all-powerful,” the report says the government owned corporation “plays a significant role in maintaining the ‘resource curse.”
According to the report, oil, which makes up 58 per cent of Nigeria’s revenue, is not contributing to the country’s development as much as it should. The report blames the engrained poverty and inequalities in the country partly on the siphoning of the nation’s resources through the NNPC and other shady deals by fuel importers in collusion with foreigners, especially Swiss commodity trading firms.

Prominent among these shady deals are the partnership between the NNPC and two Geneva-based commodity trading firms, Vitol and Trafigura, registered in Bermuda.

Through NNPC partnership with Vitol (the largest oil trader in Switzerland) and Trafigura (the third largest) described as ‘operational and financial black boxes’ billions of Naira that should have accrued to the government are wired to Bermuda where the joint venture is established.
“In reality, the profit generated by these entities escapes State coffers, first, because no taxation in Bermuda is paid, since the tax on profits is zero,” the report stated.

“Vitol and Trafigura alone took respectively 13.44 % and 13.49 % of Nigerian crude oil exports in 2011 for a cumulative value of 6.7 billion dollars.”
More than 56 per cent of oil put up for sale by the NNPC in 2011 valued at $14.004 billion were sold to Swiss companies or Nigerian companies with “letterbox” subsidiaries in Switzerland.

The report shows how NNPC is cashing in on the disrepair of the country’s refineries to feed its fraudulent partnership with these oil dealers. Despite the fact that local refineries operate at less than 40 per cent capacity, the NNPC still allocates crude to them as if they were operating at full capacity. The excess allocations are then sold to Geneva-based companies or Nigerian oil marketers through their letterbox subsidiaries in Switzerland at knockdown prices or exchanged for refined petroleum products in shady swap contract.

“Nigeria is the only major producing country that sells 100% of its crude to private traders rather than market it itself and benefiting from the resulting added value. A number of beneficiaries of export allocations are nothing but letterbox companies whose sole merit is that they are linked to high-ranking political officials or their entourage,” the report stated, a view similar to that by a Nigerian government investigation team headed former anti-graft boss, Nuhu Ribadu.

The report suggested that Politically Exposed Persons (PEP) and their fronts are also cashing in on the absence of money laundering legislation in Switzerland to hide their loots. In fact, many of the “letterbox” subsidiaries may have been set up for that specific reason.

“Politically-linked holders of such letterboxes are known, in banking terminology, as ‘politically exposed persons’ (PEPs), towards whom any financial intermediary must exercise particular duties of due diligence by virtue of the law on money laundering in order to ensure the legality of the funds. In Switzerland traders are not subjected to such duties and have no obligation to question the credibility of their partners. This leaves them with full latitude to trade with such fake entities. But in Nigeria such entities represent a major part of the ‘market’,” the report explains.
Geneva, a haven for Nigerian Fraudsters

Read Full Report

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An Amnesty International Report: Bad Information - Oil Spill Investigations in the Niger Delta

The human rights impacts are serious – both the cause of a spill and the volume spilt affect the compensation a community receives. If the spill is recorded as caused by sabotage or theft, the affected community gets no compensation, regardless of the damage done to their farms and fisheries.

This is based on a provision in Nigeria’s oil legislation which Amnesty International and the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development believe needs to be amended. Oil companies should be held responsible for a spill that is due to sabotage or theft if they have failed to take sufficient measures to prevent tampering with their infrastructure.

A Summary

Hundreds of oil spills occur in Nigeria every year, causing significant harm to the environment, destroying local livelihoods and placing human health at serious risk.

These spills are caused by corrosion, poor maintenance of oil infrastructure, equipment failure, sabotage and theft of oil. For the last decade oil companies in Nigeria – in particular Shell – have defended the scale of pollution by claiming that the vast majority of oil spills are caused by sabotage and theft of oil.

There is no legitimate basis for this claim. It relies on the outcome of an oil spill investigation process - commonly known as the Joint Investigation
Visit or JIV process - in which the companies themselves are the primary investigators.

This report exposes several serious deficiencies and abuses within the JIV process that render it wholly unreliable as a basis for making claims about the cause of oil spills, the volume of oil spilt or the area impacted. The report is based on an examination of the JIV process and – critically – of how data are recorded during the process. It draws on expert analysis obtained from a US pipeline specialist who reviewed JIV investigation documents
and data provided by oil companies and regulators to researchers in the course of investigations.

The report presents evidence not only of serious and systemic flaws in the oil spill investigation process, but also specific examples of instances where the cause of an oil spill appears to have been wrongly attributed to sabotage.

The evidence includes a secretly filmed video of an oil spill investigation. In addition, the report exposes serious problems with how the volume of oil spilt is assessed and recorded; it is likely that the volume of oil recorded as spilt in many cases is incorrect.

The human rights impacts are serious – both the cause of a spill and the volume spilt affect the compensation a community receives. If the spill is recorded as caused by sabotage or theft, the affected community gets no compensation, regardless of the damage done to their farms and fisheries.

This is based on a provision in Nigeria’s oil legislation which Amnesty International and the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development believe needs to be amended. Oil companies should be held responsible for a spill that is due to sabotage or theft if they have failed to take sufficient measures to prevent tampering with their infrastructure.

The majority of the report’s findings relate to the Shell Petroleum Development Company, which is the major onshore operator in the Niger Delta. The report acknowledges improvements in Shell’s JIV process since 2011, when the company began to publish JIV reports on its website. Other companies have yet to do this.

However, serious flaws remain within Shell’s post-2011 oil spill investigation process. These include weaknesses in the underlying evidence used to attribute spills to sabotage and the fact that the JIV reports are filled out by Shell after the joint investigation process – not as
part of the joint investigation process.

There is, consequently, a lack of transparency and oversight in terms of what is recorded on the new JIV reports.

Read Full Report

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Escape from the Dollar

In this explosive interview with Mike Whitney, Paul Craig Roberts asserts that the FED has backed itself into a corner where a rise in interest rates would stop the drift from dollar holdings to gold while forcing a collapse in the bond and stock markets and reducing the value of derivatives on the banks’ balance sheets.

Mike Whitney: Is the US dollar at risk of losing its position as reserve currency? How would this loss affect US leadership and other countries?

Paul Craig Roberts: In a way the dollar has already lost its reserve currency status, but this development has not yet been officially realized; nor has it hit the currency markets. Consider that the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) have announced their intention to abandon the use of the US dollar for the settlement of trade imbalances between themselves, instead settling their accounts in their own currencies. (There is now a website, the BRICSPOST, that reports on the developing relations between the five large countries.) There are also reports that Australia and China and Japan and China are going to settle their trade accounts without recourse to the dollar.

Different explanations are given. The BRICS imply that they are tired of US financial hegemony and have concerns about the dollar’s stability in view of Washington’s excessive issuance of new debt and new money to finance it. China, Australia, and Japan have cited the avoidance of transaction fees associated with exchanging their currencies first into US dollars and then into the other currencies. They say it is a cost-saving step to reduce transaction costs. This may be diplomatic cover for discarding the US dollar.

The October 2013 US government partial shutdown and (exaggerated) debt default threat resulted in the unprecedented currency swap agreements between the Chinese central bank and the European central bank and between the Chinese central bank and the Bank of England. The reason given for these currency swaps was necessary precaution against dollar disruption. In other words, US instability was seen as a threat to the international payments system. The dollar’s role of reserve currency is not compatible with the view that precautions must be taken against the dollar’s possible failure or disruption. China’s call for “a de-Americanized world” is a clear sign of growing impatience with Washington’s irresponsibility.

To summarize, there has been a change in attitudes toward the US dollar and acceptance of US financial hegemony. As the October deficit and debt ceiling crisis has not been resolved, merely moved to January/February, 2014, a repeat of the October impasse would further erode confidence in the dollar.

Regardless, most countries have come to the conclusion that not only has the US abused the reserve currency role, but also the power of Washington to impose its will and to act outside of law stems from its financial hegemony and that this financial power is more difficult to resist than Washington’s military power.

As the world, including US allies, made clear by standing up to Washington and blocking Washington’s military attack on Syria, Washington’s days of unchallenged hegemony are over. From China, Russia, Europe, and South America voices are rising against Washington’s lawlessness and recklessness. This changed attitude toward the US will break up the system of dollar imperialism.

Mike Whitney: How is the Federal Reserve’s Quantitative Easing impacting the dollar and financial instruments?

Paul Craig Roberts: The Federal Reserve’s policy of creating large amounts of new money in order to support the balance sheets of “banks too big to fail” and to finance continuing large budget deficits is another factor undermining the dollar’s reserve currency role. The liquidity that the Federal Reserve has pumped into the financial system has created enormous bubbles in bond and stock markets. US bond prices are so high as to be incompatible with the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet and massive creation of new dollars.

Moreover, central banks and some investors have realized that the Federal Reserve is locked into the policy of supporting bond prices. If the Federal Reserve ceases to support bond prices, interest rates will rise, the prices of debt-related derivatives on the banks’ balance sheets will fall, and the stock and bond markets would collapse. Therefore, a tapering off of quantitative easing risks a financial panic.

On the other hand, continuing the policy of supporting bond prices further erodes confidence in the US dollar. Vast amounts of dollars and dollar-denominated financial instruments are held all over the world. Holders of dollars are watching the Federal Reserve dilute their holdings by creating 1,000 billion new dollars per year. The natural result of this experience is to lighten up on dollar holdings and to look for different ways in which to hold reserves.

The Federal Reserve can print money with which to purchase bonds, but it cannot print foreign currencies with which to purchase dollars. As concerns over the dollar rise, the dollar’s exchange value will fall as more dollars are sold in currency markets. As the US is import-dependent, this will translate into higher domestic prices. Rising inflation will further spook dollar holders.

READ FULL INTERVIEW

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Bill Gates and Monsanto Bully Africa to Grow Defective Bt Maize

[Namaste Publishing] Independent scientists have shown that Monsanto’s GM/GE maize variety, MON810 – which has been growing in SA for 15 years – has completely failed due to the development of massive insect resistance, leading to the GM/GE maize being withdrawn from the SA market. Monsanto has compensated farmers who were forced to spray their crops with pesticides to control the pests, calling into serious question the very rationale for GM/GE crops.

According to the Director of the ACB, Mariam Mayet, ‘Monsanto got the science completely wrong on this one. Independent biosafety scientists have discovered that the inheritance of resistance in African stem borers is a dominant, not recessive, trait as erroneously assumed. Hence the insect resistance management strategies that Monsanto developed, and accepted by our regulators, based on these erroneous assumptions, were utterly ineffective.’

Undeterred, Monsanto is now pushing its flop GM/GE maize onto the rest of the continent. According to the ACB report, Monsanto has now donated its MON810 GM/GE technology ‘royalty-free’ to a Gates Foundation/Monsanto funded ‘philanthropic’ project, Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA). WEMA is being rolled out in Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The defective GM/GE maize is set to be approved for commercial growing by 2015.

WEMA was first touted for a good number of years, with much fanfare, as a charitable project intent on bringing drought tolerant maize varieties to resource poor African small farmers. However, with a sleight of hand and stony silence, WEMA has included MON810 into the mix. Field trials with MON810 are already running in Kenya and Uganda. In response to the project, the Mozambican government is now changing its biosafety laws to allow for the cultivation of GM/GE crops while WEMA is pressurising the Tanzanian government to change the country’s biosafety law that will hold Monsanto strictly liable for damages that may arise.

According to researcher with the ACB, Haidee Swanby, ‘WEMA is a convenient vehicle for Monsanto to gain regulatory approval for its controversial technology in African countries. However, “royalty-free” seed simply means that resource strapped commercial farmers will get the seed at the same price as hybrid seed, which means that these seeds will be prohibitively expensive. The patents on the gene sequences still reside with Monsanto, and farmers will have to pay premium prices for the GM/GE seeds.’

The ACB report also highlights that Monsanto’s MON810 GM/GE trait has been genetically engineered into a local Egyptian maize variety called Ajeeb. ‘Ajeeb Yieldgard’ has now been patented by Monsanto and ‘approved’ for commercial growing through circumvention of the Egyptian biosafety law. Significantly, the report highlights that the Egyptian government has published peer reviewed independent and publically funded biosafety studies on MON810 showing serious risks to human and animal health.

Said Swanby, ‘The scariest revelation is that GM/GE producers and regulatory authorities are making it all up as they go along, while the massive biotech PR machinery spreads the myth that these crops are connected to feeding the poor in Africa.’

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No Woman, No Drive

Hilarious!!! Jigging up the "No woman, no drive" ban (religious edict) in Saudi Arabia
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AMERICA: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap

Two CEOs were paid more than $1 billion, and the worst paid among the top ten took home $100 million. When the presstitutes speak of economic recovery, they mean recovery for the one percent.~~ Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

[4th Media] The year 2014 could be shaping up as the year that the chickens come home to roost.

Americans, even well-informed ones, don’t know all of the mistakes made by neoconized and corrupted Washington in the past two decades.

However, enough is known to see that the US has lost economic and political power, and that the loss is irreversible.

The economic cost of this lost will be born by what remains of the middle class and the increasingly poverty-stricken lower class. The one percent will have offshore gold holdings and large sums of money in foreign currencies and other foreign assets to see them through.

In the political arena, the collapse of the Soviet Union presented Washington with the grand opportunity to reallocate the Pentagon budget to other uses. Part of the reduction could have been returned to taxpayers for their own use. Another part could have been used to improve worn out infrastructure.

And another part could have been used to repair and improve the social safety net, thus insuring domestic tranquility.

A final, but perhaps most important part, could have been used to begin repaying the Treasury IOUs in the Social Security Trust Fund from which Washington has borrowed and spent $2 trillion, leaving non-marketable IOUs in the place of the Social Security payroll tax revenues that Washington raided in order to fund its wars and current operations.

Instead, influenced by neoconservative warmongers who advocated America using its “sole superpower” status to establish hegemony over the world, Washington let hubris and arrogance run away with it.

The consequence was that Washington destroyed its soft power with lies and war crimes, only to find that its military power was insufficient to support its occupation of Iraq, its conquest of Afghanistan, and its financial imperialism.

Now seen universally as a lawless warmonger and a nuisance, Washington’s soft power has been squandered. With its influence on the wane, Washington has become more of a bully. In response, the rest of the world is isolating Washington.

The prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh, recently declared China and Russia to be India’s “most important partners” with whom India shares “common strategic interests.” Prime Minister Singh said: “ India and Russia have always had a convergence of views on global and regional issues, and we value Russia’s perspective on international developments of mutual interest.”

India joined China in expressing concerns about the Federal Reserve’s practice of printing money in order to cover Washington’s vast red ink.

The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) are taking steps to create their own method of settling trade accounts in order to protect themselves from the looming dollar implosion,

China has forcefully called for a “de-Americanized world.” After watching the “superpower” offshore a large part of its GDP to China and then add to the diminished tax base the burden of $6 trillion in wars that brought no booty and served no US interest, China has concluded that American power is spent.

The London Telegraph thinks “it is only a matter of time before the renminbi replaces the dollar as the primary currency for trading commodities and resources.”

The Obama regime attempted to attack Syria based on the sort of lies that the Bush regime used to invade Iraq, only to be slapped down by the British Parliament and Russian government. This rebuke was followed by the childishness of the government shutdown and threat of default.

Consequently, the Washington morons have lost their monopoly on economic and political leadership.

A few days ago the British government announced a historic agreement that permits British investors direct access to China’s markets and allows Chinese banks to expand their operations in Great Britain.

In Australia, the US dollar will no longer be used as the currency in which to settle the Australian trade accounts with China. Instead of dollars, trade will be settled in the Chinese currency.

Washington served as cheerleader, as did most economists and libertarians, while US corporations, greedy for short-term profits and executive bonuses, offshored US industry and manufacturing, calling it free trade.

The obvious and predicted result is that China’s demand for resources needed to fuel its industrial and manufacturing power now dominates markets.

This means that the US dollar is being displaced as world currency. The only market that America dominates is the market for financial fraud.

When industrial, manufacturing, and tradeable professional service jobs are offshored, they take US GDP and tax base with them. The foreign country gets the benefit of the relocated economic activity. Due to the revenues lost from jobs offshoring, there is a large gap between federal revenues and federal expenditures.

As Washington’s irresponsible behavior has raised so many doubts about the dollar’s value and the government’s commitment to stand behind its massive debt, foreign countries with trade surpluses with the US are less and less willing to recycle those surpluses into the purchase of US Treasury debt.

Today the two largest holders of US Treasury debt are not investors or even foreign central banks. The two largest holders are the Federal Reserve and the Social Security Trust Fund.

As for those $6 trillion wars, that’s to pay for national defense to protect us from women, children, and village elders in far away countries devoid of air forces and navies, and to provide those recycled taxpayer monies from the military/security complex that find their way into political contributions.

The Wall Street gangsters sighed for relief over the last minute debt ceiling agreement. This shows how short-term Wall Street’s outlook is.

All the October agreement did was to push off the crisis to January and February. The “debt ceiling agreement” did not produce a new debt ceiling that would last beyond February, and it did not resolve the large difference between federal revenues and expenditures.

In other words, the can was again kicked down the road. A repeat of the October fiasco won’t play well.

Obamacare is causing the premiums on private insurance polices to rise substantially, almost doubling in some situations unless people move to the uncertain exchanges, and Obamacare’s raid on Medicare payroll tax revenues has resulted in a cut in Medicare payments to health care providers. The result is a further reduction in consumer discretionary income and a further drop in the economy.

This in turn means a larger federal budget deficit and the need for the Federal Reserve to purchase more debt.

Another reason the Federal Reserve is faced with increasing, not tapering, quantitative easing (money printing) is the decline in foreign purchases of US Treasury bills, notes, and bonds.

As the instruments pay interest that is less than the rate of inflation, holding Treasury debt makes no sense when the dollar’s value and the potential of default are open questions.

According to reports, not only are foreign governments, such as China, ceasing to buy US Treasury debt, China has started to sell off its holdings, substituting gold in the place of US Treasury debt.

This means that the bonds must be purchased by the Fed or interest rates will rise as the increased supply of bonds on the market drives down bond prices. The only way the Fed can purchase a larger supply of bonds is by printing more money, that is, by more quantitative easing.

With the world moving away from using the dollar to settle international accounts, as the Fed prints more dollars the rate at which foreign holders of dollar assets sell off their holdings will rise.

To get out of dollars requires that the dollar proceeds from selling Treasuries, US stocks and US real estate be sold in the currency markets.

The selling of dollars drives down the exchange value of the US dollar and results in rising US inflation. The Fed can print money with which to purchase Treasury debt, but it cannot print foreign currencies with which to purchase dollars.

The decline in the dollar’s exchange value and the domestic inflation that results will force the Fed to stop printing. What then covers the gap between revenues and expenditures? The likely answer is private pensions and any other asset that Washington can get its hands on.

Initially, private pensions will be taxed at a rate to recover the tax-free accumulation in the pensions. The second year a national emergency will be used to confiscate some share of pensions. Those relying on the pensions will find themselves with less income. Consumer spending will decline. The economy will worsen. The deficit will widen.

You can see where this is going, and there seems to be no way out. Policymakers, economists, and corporation executives are in denial about the adverse effects of offshoring, which they still, despite all the evidence, maintain is good for the economy. So nothing will be done about offshoring.

Republicans will blame the budget deficit on welfare and entitlements, and if those are cut consumer spending will decline further, widening the budget deficit. Inflation will rise as incomes fall, and social cohesion will break down.

Now you know why Homeland Security purchased 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition, enough ammunition to fight the Iraq war for 12 years, has its own para-military force and 2,700 tanks.

If you think the “terrorist threat” in America warrants a domestic armed force of this size, you are out of your mind. This force has been assembled to deal with starving and homeless people in the streets of America.

Read More

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. His latest book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West is now available. http://paulcraigroberts.org/

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American Economist: US already third world economy

“America is in the toilet, and the rest of the world knows it,” he wrote, noting, “More small businesses close, as memberships decline in golf clubs, as more university graduates return home to live with their parents, who are drawing down their savings to live.”~~ Paul Craig Roberts

[PressTv] A prominent American economist says the United States has already become a Third World economy as the world superpower continues to offshore its gross domestic product (GDP).

"If jobs offshoring continued, the US would be a Third World economy in 20 years,” Paul Craig Roberts wrote in a column for the Press TV website on Thursday.

“America is in the toilet, and the rest of the world knows it,” he wrote, noting, “More small businesses close, as memberships decline in golf clubs, as more university graduates return home to live with their parents, who are drawing down their savings to live.”

“With the world moving away from using the dollar to settle international accounts, as the Federal Reserve prints more dollars, the rate at which foreign holders of dollar assets sell off their holdings will rise,” wrote Roberts.

The economist added that the US neocons who rule in Washington and their Israeli ally are, however, determined that “Washington start yet more wars to create Lebensraum for Israel.”

A new jobs report released on Tuesday showed the US economic recovery continues to be sluggish and many economists warn that the constant fiscal fights in Washington only threaten to make the situation worse.

The US economy added 148,000 jobs in September while the unemployment rate dropped slightly to 7.2 percent, federal economists reported Tuesday. The report fell short of expectations as economists had estimated the number of jobs added would come in at 185,000.

“The decline in the dollar’s exchange value and the domestic inflation that results will force the Fed to stop printing. What then covers the gap between revenues and expenditures? The likely answer is private pensions and any other asset that Washington can get its hands on,” noted Roberts in his article.

Analysts say that the recent US government shutdown could cloud the value of the next two monthly reports, meaning that a clear picture of the jobs market may not appear until the December report is released in January.

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Said the Spider to Toyota "Jump right ahead in my web"

The auto manufacturer has recalled Camrys - the best-selling car in the U.S. - as well as Venzas and Avalons that were built from 2012 onwards. The reason the company gave was that the arachnid's sticky webs could cause a blockage, which could in turn activate the driver-side airbags as well as cut the cars' power steering - potentially resulting in a nasty accident.

[Mail Online] Toyota has recalled 885,000 cars for the unlikely reason that spider webs could cause airbags to accidentally inflate and cause drivers to lose control at the wheel.

Toyota's Venza

The auto manufacturer has recalled Camrys - the best-selling car in the U.S. - as well as Venzas and Avalons that were built from 2012 onwards. The reason the company gave was that the arachnid's sticky webs could cause a blockage, which could in turn activate the driver-side airbags as well as cut the cars' power steering - potentially resulting in a nasty accident.

The problem lies with the air conditioning condenser unit housing - an area of the car that can get warm and is dark and damp - ideal spider habitat. Toyota explained the spider webs can cause a blockage in a drainage tube that comes from the cars' air conditioning condenser.

While the result is not immediately dramatic, the blockage causes water to drip down into the airbag control module, which short circuits and can lead to a worrying warning light to display on the dashboard, or more seriously, cause the airbag to inflate suddenly. The company warned that there is even a risk of complete loss of power steering and "loss of steering assist results in increased steering effort".

Toyota is in the process of notifying owners of the affected vehicles and said its dealers simply need to apply sealant and install a cover to the air conditioning condenser unit housing seam located above the airbag control module, to fix the problem.

Toyota's Camry

One of the models which needs repair is the Camry, which is the best selling car in the United States, having already sold 318,990 cars so far this year. Of the massive number which need fixing, 847,000 are in North America with the remainder in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. According to Toyota, there have been no crashes due to the error as yet.

Toyota's Avalon 2013/14

A Toyota spokesman told CNN Money the company is aware of three cases of airbags suddenly inflating and 35 cases of warning lights showing. The company said that in the cases it has investigated, the cause has been spiderwebs, but they cannot confirm that every instance has been created by the troublesome arachnids.

This is not the first time that spiders have been blamed for car recalls. In 2011, Mazda recalled 52,000 Mazda 6 sedans because spiders built webs inside a vent for the petrol tank, which could have led to vent blockages and even fires.

According to Gwen Pearson's blog for Wired, the culprit in the Mazda recall was the tiny yellow sac spider, which is commonly found in gardens. The creatures spin tubular webs in which they hide during the daytime and as their silk creations are quite dense and water repellent, they can clog an opening in a vent fairly easily.

Toyota has already issued two major recalls in recent months, asking for the return of around around 2.2 million vehicles. In September, the company called back around 780,000 Lexus and Rav4 models. That was a second recall of the same models after an initial call back in 2012 did not fix problems with the cars suspension systems.

Last month, it also recalled 615,000 Sienna minivans in the US after a problem with the gear box was discovered. Analysts said the recalls could have an impact on its reputation with the customers. A statement on the car maker's American site, said: Owners of the involved vehicles will be notified by first class mail to return their vehicles to a Toyota dealer for the repair.

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Fake fainting at the Rose Garden? You be the judge


Lady Patriots believe the woman who fainted behind the president at his Obamacare speech earlier in the week was part of a Whitehouse fraud. Have a listen:

"It is obvious that there are quite a few people involved in this latest fraud put out by the Whitehouse. Why did Obama think it was necessary to “catch” a fainting woman just when he said the words, “To free families from the pervasive fear that one illness….” And down she went? Well not actually down. She just weaved and wobbled a little and never quite fainted. And, consequently, Obama never actually caught her. He turned around and put his hand on her shoulder as if to steady her and turned back to the camera to make sure it got a clear shot of his “rescue” efforts... Whatever the reason was that Obama and his advisers had to dream up this silly scheme it certainly smacks of desperation. If I was him I would fire them all. But, who knows? As stupid as this idea was, it could have been his. Maybe he’ll fire himself."

Now watch the video and you decide.

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Nigeria: When you look in the mirror...

Suddenly, they are no longer armed robbers. Your son is now a rebel with a cause! Don’t matter what you call it; Boko Haram, MEND, OPC, MASSOB whoever, whatever. There are plenty of causes to die for or make plenty of money from while trying hard to die. So soon, they are celebrities grabbing headlines. A somebody. A dream come true! Then BANG! It is no more. Just a dead dream.~~ Michael .O. Dibiaezue

by Michael .O. Dibiaezue

I look at our youth and I’m so despondent. Nigeria has never had it so bad. The giant of Africa is such a joke. And we were never like this. Seventy-nine percent of medical practitioners in the United States are Nigerians. They are not considered by our youth examples worth emulating. They think D’banj and 2-face. Genevieve and Omo Sexy. The adventurous ones turn Ade Bendel/Fred Ajuduah wannabes or Aninih/Osunbor James Bond daredevils. How did it get so bad?

D'banj and his lapel made of dollars suit

Defiant. They show it. Perverts in schools, killers at the bar. A gun in your face or a missing daughter. Body parts and the magic of wealth. Culture shock. It’s not Africa, not Nigeria. They turned their backs a long time ago because we refused to listen. It is our demons that did this to them. They found decadence abroad and at home; beautiful kids ensnared.

Now, they are looking to really ‘spoil’ something. They look around and there is nothing they can call their own. They see who has stolen their future and they know why they are without dreams. They wonder why their parents’ generation don’t care; where parental care and love had gone. They wonder why their parents are such gluttons. And they were such good kids.

Defiance. They apply examples from their environment in expressing it. Screw school, D’banj go school? Abeg, give me that thing make I smoke. Shock therapy. Players and actors, making believe. A game played with lethal consequences. A play staged from fury. A script written in blood. An army waiting to be called upon. And now, dogs of war and mayhem unleashed.

My country is being infiltrated by an army bred from all our decadence, an army abused, molested and abandoned stares at us through a bloody haze. Red in the eyes and dripping blood. An army being conscripted from within, our very own, to slaughter and mutilate us. And we do not even see them coming.

Our Northern leaders and elite failed their youth but so did the South. I am terrified because our youth have found a vent; a release that deflates into unspeakable terror. They come for us; a throwback of the demons we infected them with. It is not anger but a joyful suicidal streak bred from a welcomed insanity; because we made them mad.

It is the picture of a future, our future. Drug lords, scammers and armed robbers. Arsonists, bombers and murderers. Gunrunners, addicts of all forms and rapists. Youth laid waste. Societal degenerates. Children of the streets. Raped by demons of the night, even as they prayed to die. Behold our inheritors and descendants! A reflection of all our future names. And we dare to say it is their fault? Truly, we have no shame. Look in the mirror and see they have become you.

Signature House in Abuja
They know the source of your wealth. They know Daddy stole government money big time! No, scratch that, they know Daddy stole his people's money big time! You know they know. And yet, you wonder at what they call you??? You buy them choice presents, they giggle and hug. They want to be like Daddy. They know they will be called thieves but who cares? Look in the mirror, they are who you are!

Why do you think they do not have the right to make that choice, to be like Daddy? Where do you find the moral clout to tell them they can’t steal from their mates or from the old lady next door??? You didn’t have the guts to rob a bank, why won’t they pull one better over you??? They don’t see that they are any different from you, just better. Yes, they consider themselves better men; they did that you couldn’t do! Look in the mirror, it’s you on steroids!!!

Suddenly, they are no longer armed robbers. Your son is now a rebel with a cause! Don’t matter what you call it; Boko Haram, MEND, OPC, MASSOB whoever, whatever. There are plenty of causes to die for or make plenty of money from while trying hard to die. So soon, they are celebrities grabbing headlines. A somebody. A dream come true! Then BANG! It is no more. Just a dead dream.

And you wonder, how did my boy get to be and die like that? You hypocrite!!! But of course, you are no thief. Just some smart guy. It’s not like you are a convict or stuff like that. You have never been arrested or even accused of theft for that matter. You have loads of money to write your own history with. You have the ‘citations’ and ‘trophies’ that say who you are. Meritorious discharge and the fake ‘Rolex’ presented to you by a greater crook and thief: your boss. How dare anyone call you a thief!

It must be from his mother’s end; this type of thing is not in our genes or our family. And it’s true, look at him; he’s Rosa’s carbon copy. See his nose now. After all, when I keep N15 million in her account, Rosa will tell me it’s 14 and that she spent another N3 million to keep the boys quiet. I swear, that wife of mine is a real first class rogue. The kettle never called the pot black, it was the water that did. Na true bros, na water talk am.

But still, you have to come; to bury a son. You must come down the aisle, to the place your son lays. You must walk through the parade and see the faces. Faces that know who you are, not there to sympathize but to mock the irony of the life you led. My beloved country, my brothers, my sisters, sorry for your loss.

May the soul of our dearly departed rest in peace... Amen!

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Give the World a Break! America the Pest

The people in Washington just can’t stand the idea that someone, somewhere might be having a normal, happy life without getting bombed to death in drone attack or shunted off to some black site where the CIA can rip out their fingernails or beat them black and blue.

That’s what this whole global war on terror-thing is all about. It’s about sticking your big fat nose in other people’s business 24-7. Some people just get a kick out of that.!!~~ Mike Whitney

[The 4th Media] The United States is the world’s biggest pest. It doesn’t matter where you live or what you do, the US will find some excuse to poke its nose in your business and make your life miserable.

That’s why the US has so many enemies, because its the world’s biggest budinski.

The people in Washington just can’t stand the idea that someone, somewhere might be having a normal, happy life without getting bombed to death in drone attack or shunted off to some black site where the CIA can rip out their fingernails or beat them black and blue.

That’s what this whole global war on terror-thing is all about. It’s about sticking your big fat nose in other people’s business 24-7. Some people just get a kick out of that.

Why? Because they’re obnoxious people, that’s why. Like the drunk who shows up at your dinner party and slops red wine all over the rug. That’s the US in a nutshell, a first-rate pain-in-the-ass.

Everyone knows this is true, even the flag wavers. They know we shouldn’t be in Afghanistan or Iraq or Somalia or Yemen or wherever. We just go to be annoying, because that’s who we are, The Irritating States of America.

I get tired of leftist writers droning on and on about the Empire-this and the Superpower-that. It’s all baloney, and it misses the point. In fact, it dignifies US behavior as though it was all part of some grand plan.

It’s not. There is no plan. The plan is to hector people until they can’t stand it anymore. That’s not really a plan at all. It’s just being a pest. It’s like the brat who keeps kicking the back of your seat when your flying across country or the wasp that shows up at the company picnic.

Are you going to tell me the wasp has a plan? No. The wasp has no plan and neither does the US. The US is just doing what it does best; making a first class nuisance of itself.

So now the government is going to shutdown, right? And all the liberal pundits are wringing their hands moaning that the world’s going to come to an end because this lumbering, annoying giant is going on holiday. Is that it?

Let me tell you something: The world needs a little breather from the US, you know, nothing permanent, just a five or ten year sabbatical so we can all chill out and catch our breath.

Does that sound so bad? I mean, wouldn’t it be nice to get a break from all the killing, the spying, and the meddling. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine what life on this planet would be like if you could just snap your fingers and “poof”, the US vanished for a couple years?

Who knows, there might even be some cooperation on the big issues, like global warming, or environmental destruction or global pandemics. Then again, maybe there wouldn’t be. Maybe relations between countries would be as fractious as they are today.

Either way, things would be a lot better than they are now because there’d be a heckuva lot less killing, a heckuva lot less maiming and a heckuva lot less troublemaking. Because the world’s biggest pest would be out of the picture.

Call me crazy, but I can’t see the downside to that.

Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition. He can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com.

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