Category Archives: Business/Economics

Business/Economics, International

Britain Burning: Iran ready to send troops, calls U.K. leaders autocratic oppressors

“The Ashura brigades of Basij forces are ready to be deployed to London as peacekeeping forces.”- Brigadier General Mohammad-Reza Naqdi

Since the beginning of the riots in England, Iran has been critical of the U.K. government’s handling of the crisis.

Iranian officials pointed out that London police have Big Brother style surveillance cameras all over the city.  At last count, there are 4.6 million security cameras, and only one million people living in London.  So why is it so difficult for them to track down the “thugs”?  Why, with all those security cameras on just about every street, didn’t police react sooner?

Iranian officials also point out that most of the “thugs” are the deprived lower classes of Britain.

Iranian military commanders say that if the United Nations decides to send peacekeepers to the U.K., Iranian troops are ready to go now.

 

Business/Economics, International

United Police Kingdom, England Burning: British Bobbies shot first, official inquiry says no evidence that father of four ever shot at police

The shot that started the riots, that have been going on since this past weekend, was fired by cops, and cops only!

The Independent Police Complaints Commission says there is no evidence that a father of four, who was shot in a taxi and killed by police, was armed or even shot at police.

The police who shot him claimed, as usual, that he shot at them first, and that a gunfight ensued, in which he was killed.  As usual the police claim self defense.

Also, at least a day ago the police claim they had recovered a “non-police” issue gun belonging to the “gang leader”.  The Independent Police Complaints Commission says that’s a bold faced lie!  The Commission found no such gun!

The Commission says the father of four was killed by one shot to the chest.  A Scotland Yard (London Met) bobbie fired two shots in total.  That sure doesn’t sound like a gun battle.  Unfortunately the investigation is being given six months to make a final report.

Maybe the poor people of Merry Old Police State England are justified?  The bobbies thought they were taking out a modern day Robin Hood, now there are thousands of Robin Hoods swarming the streets!

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? China will stop selling U.S. bonds, and they will stop buying them as well, beginning to realize just how much power they truely have

“In my opinion, at this moment, the best strategy is no buy, no sell. At this moment, it’s very difficult to shift (investment), to change fundamentally, because we hold such a big amount.”-Cheng Siwei, former senior Chinese lawmaker

Cheng Siwei, is advising the Chinese government to take a “no buy, no sell” attitude towards U.S. Treasury bonds.  Cheng is telling the government that it needs to hold off on investing it’s $3.2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves.

Many European countries have been knocking down China’s door, begging China to bail them out by buying their bonds, instead of more U.S. bonds.

Cheng says the situation for China has become more of a political one, than an economic one.  In other words, with so many countries, including the United States, hoping to be saved by China’s cash, the Chinese are starting to realize just how much power they have.

Business/Economics, International

Looting and violence spreads outside London, ignorant British newspapers blame video games

BBC is reporting that the city of Birmingham, England, has been hit by looting and violence.

According to the BBC: Cars were set on fire in Lewisham.  A bus and shop were set alight in Peckham.  Several fires broke out in Croydon, including one at a large furniture shop which spread to neighboring buildings and tram lines.  In Hackney police 200 riot officers with dogs and mounted police were located around Mare Street where police cars were damaged.  Looters raided a Debenhams store and a row of shops in Lavender Hill in Clapham.    In Birmingham, police said officers had made 35 arrests, including six juveniles, on Monday evening.    Buses were diverted as the violence spread to Bromley High Street.    There were reports of looting of phone shops in Woolwich High Street, in south London, and a torched police car.   Shops and restaurants were damaged in Ealing, west London, and there was a fire in Haven Green park opposite Ealing Broadway Tube.

Some British newspapers are avoiding the more plausible reasons for the rioting, like a bad economy and police brutality, and actually blamed video games.  One newspaper claims to have seen ten year olds taking part in the looting, and quotes an unnamed police officer as saying the rioters are motivated by the video game Grand Theft Auto.

If you’ve played Grand Theft Auto then you would know that in no way does it involve mass rioting and looting.  The game is centered around a single player, you, who’s goal is to steal cars.  Somehow the ignorant British media and authorities equate an individual stealing cars in a video game to mass rioting, vandalism and looting in real life.  It’s proof that the ‘better off’ in Britain are the ones living in a fantasy world.

Business/Economics, International, Opinion

Violent Riots spreading through London, started by police shooting, continuing because there are no jobs, British leaders on luxury vacations

“Officers responding to sporadic disorder in a number of boroughs made more than 100 arrests throughout last night and early this morning.” Scotland Yard statement, August 8

The violence that started in Tottenham has spread to Enfield and Brixton.  The riots started on Friday August 5, after police shot and killed a man in the back seat of a taxi the day before.  Police say he was a gun runner, locals say it was police brutality. Tottenham, a borough of London, has a decades long history of police brutality.

The riots are spreading and become more about the lack of jobs, and the severe cuts to social programs made by the British Parliament.

Another factor could be that British Prime Minister, David Cameron, is on a luxury vacation in Italy, while Chancellor of the Exchequer (kinda like the U.S. Treasury), George Osbourne, is on vacation in California.  This after they told British taxpayers to make more financial sacrifices.

Police feel targeted, and who wouldn’t be surprised at that since London police have powers even U.S. cops don’t.  The United Kingdom uses Orwellian tactics in their law enforcement.  One bobby said: “Officers are shocked at the outrageous level of violence directed against them.”

An immigrant from Africa said: “I can imagine this kind of thing happening in Somalia but to see it in London was strange.”

Of course the elected and appointed officials in Britain are calling the rioters “petty criminals”, but local residents say people are finally fed up with the system: “Unemployment is very, very high … they are frustrated.” Uzodinma Wigwe, age 49, recently laid off

History shows that peaceful protest does not work.  History shows that it always takes violent protest to make the leaders realize the people want change.  In some cases leaders are so arrogant they end up going to their death thinking there is nothing wrong (French Revolution). The Civil Rights laws in the United States did NOT come about because of the peaceful protests led by Martin Luther King Jr, but because of the violence that took place after Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated.  That’s the part they don’t teach about in the United States, but the info is there, do your own research.

Business/Economics, U.S.

After being taken over by the U.S. taxpayers, and constantly being bailed out, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac finally get downgraded

When the credit crisis hit in 2007/2008 the biggest mortgage lenders in the U.S., Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, suddenly became too big to fail and were taken over by the U.S. government.  The move had U.S. taxpayers providing the mortgage giants with almost consistent quarterly bailouts.

Now Standard & Poor’s has downgraded their credit rating, from triple A, to double A+.  ‘Bout time!

The two mortgage companies, along with a third called Ginnie Mae, guarantee 80% of the mortgages in the United States.  Fannie and Freddie have received $141 billion in taxpayer bailouts, so far.

Standard & Poor’s is also downgrading U.S. Federal Home Loan banks.  Federal Home Loan banks support consumer credit by providing money to other banks, in the form of bank to bank loans.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Group of 7 decide to answer the U.S. debt problem by flooding markets with liquidity, won’t that create Hyperinflation?

The European Central Bank, and the Group of 7 top industrialized countries, decided to deal with the credit rating downgrade of the United States by flooding international markets with liquidity.

Liquidity=cash and bank deposits.

One of the problems with this recession is that banks, and other financial institutions as well as big corporations, have been money hording.  Lending has not taken place as President Obama had hoped (at least to small businesses and individuals).  The result is that the ‘big guys’ have a lot of liquidity sitting around doing nothing (by the way something like this happened right before the Great Depression).

Now the international community has decided to flood the international markets with that liquidity.

So far we’ve seen inflation, albeit a mild inflation for most of the world, but get ready to see inflation like you’ve never seen before when all that money hits the markets.  You see, when there is a lot of money available to buy a lot of things, it automatically drives up prices.

Some people might think the stories of Germans using wheelbarrows full of cash to buy a loaf of bread, during their Hyperinflation of the 1920s (which helped lead to the Great Depression in the United States), is just an exaggeration.  It is not.  I’ve read the accounts, and I’ve even seen silent newsreels showing people lining up with wheelbarrows full of worthless Deutschmarks at bakeries.

This happened because the Weimar government thought by printing more money, in essence flooding the public with liquidity, that people would be able to buy the products they needed, products that were already experiencing inflation.  The flooding of money into the German consumer market made the situation worse, creating hyperinflation.

The following is from Wikipedia, on hyperinflation: Hyperinflation becomes visible when there is an unchecked increase in the money supply… also… Hyperinflation is often associated with wars (or their aftermath), currency meltdowns, political or social upheavals, or aggressive bidding on currency exchanges. Mmmm, sound familiar?

 

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Japanese economist predict negative GDP for Japan, blames the United States

Several private economic research firms, in Japan, are predicting GDP for Japan will go south for the 3rd quarter.

As many as ten research firms say Japan’s GDP could contract by as much 4.7% for the next economic quarter.  They blame the decline on a huge reduction in consumer spending, both in Japan, and in other countries, made worse by the U.S. debt.

A few economist predict positive GDP for Japan, but that is totally dependent upon the debt problems of the United States.  It’s the international concern over the debt of the U.S. that has most Japanese economists warning of a crash in Japan’s economy.

Business/Economics, International

What Economic Recovery? Germany says no more bailout money for Italy

Der Spiegel is reporting that German government officials doubt any more bailout money can save Italy, even if the current European Financial Stability Fund was tripled in size.

German officials have consistently said government finance reforms must come through spending cuts, and tax reform, not taking on more loans.

Currently the European Financial Stability Fund has $627 billion (440 billion Euros), and Germany says even if that was somehow tripled it wouldn’t be enough to save Italy.

Earlier in the week the European Central Bank started buying more government bonds from smaller European countries, but refused to buy any bonds from Italy and Spain (an indication that the bank has little confidence in those countries paying them back).

 

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Emergency World meeting over U.S. credit downgrade, China says no more U.S. dollar, Germany says finally the U.S. gets what it deserves

“The U.S. government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone.”-Chinese government/media commentary

The European Central Bank will hold an emergency meeting on Sunday, August 7.  The issue; the credit rating downgrade for the United States.

Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 7 major industrialized nations will meet by telephone on Sunday.  The broader Group of 20 were due to hold a conference call Saturday evening.

China and Japan are calling for coordinated action to avoid a new worldwide financial crisis.  One issue that’s being looked at is whether the world can continue to use the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency: “International supervision over the issue of U.S. dollars should be introduced and a new, stable and secured global reserve currency may also be an option to avert a catastrophe caused by any single country.”-Chinese government/media commentary

Another issue to be discussed is the amount of secure debt versus risky debt: “It will weigh on secure assets. The bigger reaction will be on risky assets, including equities and on agencies and states backed directly by the federal government. U.S. Treasuries will remain a benchmark. This is a ship which takes a long time to turn around.”-Ciaran  O’Hagan, Societe Generale in Paris.

Germany, the economic powerhouse of Europe, says it’s about time the U.S. got what it deserves: “I’m not surprised about the U.S. rating downgrade, rather I am astonished that, for weeks, international rating agencies have focused their attention on the European debt situation but not the American one. For a while, there have been clear worries about America’s economic woes but also the fact the U.S. is heavily indebted.”-Norbert Barthle, a budget expert for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party