Tag Archives: europe

Business/Economics, International, Opinion, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? IMF says world economy to suck for at least 10 more years, says recovery relies on Japan & China! Inflation must take place!

“…it will surely take at least a decade from the beginning of the crisis for the world economy to get back to decent shape.”-Olivier Blanchard, IMF Chief Economist

“The current status of the economy and the global economy needs both Japan and China fully engaged.”-Christine Lagarde, IMF Managing Director

Officials with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are making some very concerning statements.

While the U.S. main stream media seems focused on the economic disaster unfolding in Europe, the IMF says look to Asia.  Maybe that’s because it’s looking more and more like the IMF policies in Europe are failing big time.

In fact, on 04 October 2012, the IMF just warned the European Union to get its rear in gear: “No one has the luxury of time, this is really urgent!”-Christine Lagarde, IMF Managing Director

Despite the urgent call to action by the IMF, some European leaders say the U.S. based IMF is actually delaying action: “There are circles, by which I mean the IMF, who are pressing for a delay until after the U.S. election in November…”-Dimitris Hadzisokratous, Democratic Left, one of three political parties running the Greek government

What about China and Japan? The IMF seems to think the two countries are the Holy Grail in saving the World economy.  There are major problems with that!

Japan’s economy is in the toilet!  Japanese factories have been laying people off, and offshoring what ever they can. Japan is in bigger debt than any European country (yet where’s the U.S. media coverage).

China is no longer the economic wunderkind it was just a few years ago.  GDP growth is dropping.  The Asia Development Bank (ADB) predicts it’ll drop almost two percentages, from 9.3% in 2011 to 7.7% for 2012, and even lower after that: “The years of two digit growth in Asia are coming to an end!”-Changyong Rhee, ADB chief economist

And why is the economy in China going down?  Firstly the Chinese government imposed economic restrictions in the hopes of holding off inflation.  But here’s the big reason; orders from Europe and the United States are way down.

Some of those orders are down because of the bad economies in Europe and the U.S., but also because of protectionist policies.

Many European countries have banned specific products made in China, and  U.S. President Barack Obama imposed ridiculous tariffs on Chinese made solar power products (that move also killed the Hoku polysilicon factory in southeastern Idaho, that was hoped to provide hundreds of good paying jobs.  smooth move exlax!).

The IMF is also expecting the cash flushed Chinese banks to help bailout Europe!  Can you believe that?  The Europeans are screwing over Chinese businesses and then the IMF expects the Chinese to help bail out the Europeans?

As expected the Chinese banks said hell no! Several major Chinese banks have cancelled their plans to attend the largest ever IMF/World Bank meeting, to be held in Tokyo, Japan, next week!

But get this, IMF chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, told Hungarian media that Japan would take decades to get its debt problems straightened out, and that the United States has become a financial deadweight:  “It remains the case that, in a number of advanced countries, notably the U.S., a return to full health requires replacing some of the domestic demand that fueled growth before the crisis by external demand. But, the arithmetic is again unforgiving here.”

Blanchard also said inflation was “…necessary and desirable…”

So, in a round-a-bout way officials with the IMF are expecting any World economic recovery to be messy (are they expecting World War 3?), and they’re placing their bets on China and Japan (two countries on the verge of war with each other over some tiny barren islands)!

Like the Colonial Marine, Hudson, said in the kick ass 1986 movie Aliens: “Oh dear lord Jesus, this ain’t happening, man… This can’t be happening, man!”

International, U.S.

World War 3: U.S. occupation of Afghanistan; 28 – 30 September 2012. Afghan troops do battle with NATO troops! More drone strikes! USMC General ‘mad as hell’!

30 September 2012

In Maidan Wardak Province, there is a report that NATO called in a U.S. drone strike, which killed four civilians and wounded several others.  It could be vengeance for yesterday’s Green on Blue attack.

In Nangarhar Province,  four people killed, three wounded, after a motorcycle bomb exploded near a Mosque.

The National Coalition of Afghanistan announced they were opposed to any planned military pact between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

29 September 2012

In Maidan Wardak Province, the provincial governor reporting that Afghan National Army (ANA) troops have attacked NATO occupation forces!  So far three ANA troops have been killed. ISAF said: “An International Security Assistance Force service member and an ISAF civilian contractor died following a suspected insider attack in eastern Afghanistan…”

The Department of Defense has revealed that the number of U.S. personnel killed in Afghanistan since the invasion, has reached 2,000.

Ignorant U.S. Marine Corps General, John Allen, had this to say: “I’m mad as hell about them, to be honest with you. We’re willing to sacrifice a lot for this campaign, but we’re not willing to be murdered for it.”

Numb nuts U.S. Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta, said this: “I expect that there will be more of these high profile attacks and that the enemy will do whatever they can to try and break our will using this kind of tactic.”

Hello! It’s called War; you invaded them, they are defending their territory which is their legal right under international law.  And by the way, the people of Afghanistan had nothing to do with 11 September 2011!!!

In Herat Province, two cops were killed, and two wounded, after they drove over a mine. Also, four people were killed by U.S. led airstrike.

The Afghan Interior Ministry announced that at least 20 Mujahideen were killed, and 21 captured in battles in the provinces of Kabul, Kandahar, Zabul, Uruzgan, Logar, Ghazni, Khost, Paktika, Paktiya and Helmand.

In Kunar province, three people were killed by U.S. airstrike.

In Helmand Province, 12 people were killed by two U.S. led airstrikes.

28 September 2012

In Farah Province, Mujahideen claim they killed seven U.S. personnel after the huge mine they planted exploded when a U.S./NATO armored vehicle drove over it.

In Helmand Province, a U.S./NATO armored fighting vehicle (AFV) ran over a woman and her child. The father, mother and their son were riding a motorcycle when they were hit by the AFV.  The boy was killed, his mother wounded.  Witnesses say a policeman at an intersection waved the family on, but the AFV did not stop.

 

Business/Economics, International, Opinion, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Wars on Terror, anti-Islam movies, sanctions against Iran, all part of conspiricy to jack up oil prices beyond $150 per barrel? The real shadow war?

16 September 2012, get ready for higher oil prices!

Iranian officials in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said the real price per barrel of oil should be around $150 USD.  Their reasoning varied from the time of the year, to comparisons of prices by inflation (1970s compared to 2000).  They even said the World economy can handle much higher prices.

Not sure if they are talking about British Brent crude prices, or U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil.

On 14 September 2012, Brent crude went over $117 USD per barrel.

Reading a Canadian report, turns out that’s still not high enough!  The Canadian province of Newfoundland/Labrador have set their government budget in the hopes that Brent crude will go over $124 USD per barrel.  The province makes most its money off oil production.

In fact, because Brent hasn’t hit the magic money mark, yet, the provincial Premier, Kathy Dunderdale, had to cut their budget: “I’m not so worried about this year. I’m more worried about next year. Because if oil stays where it is, our deficit could be around $1 billion [CAD] next year.”

In other words, some governments, who’s major money making industries happen to be the oil industries, want oil prices to skyrocket!!!

However, Iranian OPEC officials say the United States is trying to bring down oil prices, by demanding OPEC members increase oil production.

A few years ago I read an article that explained that most oil producing countries (including members of OPEC) would be losing money if oil were less than $90 per barrel.

So, the reason why the U.S. wants to bring down prices, while other countries want prices to go up, could be that the U.S. domestic oil industry can handle lower oil prices (except for shale oil).  Most other countries have higher oil production costs (like Canada) because of the type of oil and labor costs.

The U.S. model is a kind’a WalMart tactic; keep prices cheap and sell as much in volume as you can until your competition quits.

So what we have are those who want oil prices even higher than they are now, and those who want them to drop.  Is this the real shadow war taking place behind the deadly facade of War on Terror, sanctions and insulting other people’s religions?

International, U.S.

World War 3: Australians, Belgians & French join protests. Plot twists on anti-Islam movie, now there’s a porn connection! FBI cancels trip to Libya! Evacuations ordered in Sudan & Tunis! U.S. Congress lack of action could reduce funding for security. Burger King next on hit list! Libya attacks were set up!

“They call us the terrorists? But everyone is terrorizing our people!”-Sarah Jacob, Australian protestor

15 September 2012, in Australia, police tear gassed hundreds of protestors. At least six cops and several protestors were wounded.  Eight people arrested.

The producer of the movie, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, surrendered himself to Los Angeles county sheriff’s deputies, in California. He is being questioned about violating his federal probation.

It also turns out that he did not actually direct the anti-Islam movie.  Gawker.com claims they’ve talked to many of the actors in the movie, and they say it was directed by porn man Alan Roberts.

In Belgium, 120 people detained during protests.

The U.S. Department of State has ordered all non-essential diplomatic personnel to evacuate Sudan and Tunisia!

The Federal Bureau of Investigation put on hold their trip to Libya, citing the ongoing violence!  This after the Obama administration said they would comment no longer on the anti-U.S. violence: “I’m going to frustrate all of you, infinitely, by telling you that now that we have an open FBI investigation on the death of these four Americans, we are not going to be in a position to talk at all about what the U.S. government may or may not be learning about how any of this happened, not who they were, not how it happened, not what happened to Ambassador Stevens, not any of it, until the Justice Department is ready to talk about the investigation.”-Victoria Nuland, spokeswoman

U.S. Representatives on the House Intelligence Committee revealed that this was not the first time the U.S. consulate in Libya was attacked, in fact they said it was attacked four previous times in the past few months: “It’s clearly a target that they wanted to hit and they wanted to cause casualties…..It’s just too many coincidences here.”–Mike Rogers, Representative for Michigan’s 8th congressional district

President Obama had said that there was no “actionable intelligence” that the consulate was going to be attacked. 

On 14 September a report by the Office of Management and Budget said budget cuts under sequestration will reduce funding for U.S. embassy/consulate security by $129 million USD: “Members of Congress should work together to produce a balanced plan that achieves at least the level of deficit reduction agreed to in the BCA that the President can sign to avoid sequestration.”

The United Nations evacuated personnel from Libya, for security reasons.

A few days ago the airport in Benghazi, Libya, had been closed to allow U.S. drones to patrol.  Apparently the airport was closed again, for several hours, this time due to security issues.

In France, dozens of people were detained for questionable identifications, during protests outside the U.S. embassy.

Al Qaeda in Yemen is demanding the deaths of all U.S. diplomats!

In Lebanon,  police surrounded a Burger King when they heard it was going to be attacked.

In China, an official government statement said they would never piss off Muslims: “We are against of any actions to vilify the image of Islam or to hurt the feelings of Muslims. We believe the dignity of a religion should not be vilified or defamed.”–Hong Lei, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman

However, there are thousands of Muslims (even Buddhists) in China that would dispute that claim.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Government Hypocrisy: United States renews Iran sanctions exemptions for 11 countries! Sign that the U.S. isn’t ready for war with Iran, yet.

14 September 2102, U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, revealed that eleven countries are being exempted from U.S. sanctions against Iran.

They are: Japan, Belgium, Britain, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain.

As in the first round of exemptions, these latest exemptions are good for 180 days.  This smacks of a government trying to buy time; time to prepare for war, and time to allow allies to stock pile oil.

Hillary Clinton made a statement that sounded like a broken record: “We have brought significant pressure to bear on the Iranian regime, and we will continue to work with our partners to ratchet up the pressure on Iran to meet its international obligations.”

International, U.S.

World War 3: Anti-Islam movie producer wanted for probation violation! Instead of removing video from internet YouTube tries to block viewers from the Middle East! U.S. becoming isolated!

“This video — which is widely available on the web — is clearly within our guidelines and so will stay on YouTube. However, given the very difficult situation in Libya and Egypt we have temporarily restricted access in both countries.”-Google statement

14 September 2012, reports had said the Obama administration was asking YouTube to remove the preview of the anti-Islam movie.  Instead YouTube (owned by Google) simply blocked viewers from predominately Muslim countries.

In fact YouTube must be suspected of allowing the video to be posted knowing full well it would spark world wide riots. The reason to suspect such a claim is that YouTube began blocking Middle Easterners from viewing the video within a few hours of the assassination of the U.S. ambassador to Libya.

More info about the con man who made the movie.  Nakoula Basseley Nakoula served one year in Federal prison near Lompoc (pronounced lom-poke), California.  He is now serving a five year probation, which he is now in violation of since going into hiding.  Federal officials were not able to tell reporters if Nakoula paid the court ordered $794,700 restitution, as part of his bank fraud conviction.

In Egypt, 10,000 protestors are demanding their new government end relations with the United States.  Egyptian police erected concrete walls around the U.S. embassy.

Tens of thousands of Iranians took to the streets protesting the United States and Israel. They also asked all Muslim nations to become united against the empirical West.

In the Indian controlled portion of Kashmir, thousands of protestors warned that any U.S. citizens in the country needed to leave now.

In Bahrain, a U.S. puppet and home of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, the government did not call out police to stop the protestors.  Protests were peaceful, the government asked its security agency to block internet access to the movie.

In Afghanistan, protestors demanded President Hamid Karzai end relations with the United States.  The government has banned YouTube.

In Iraq, thousands of Sunni and Shi’a took to the streets.  One banner said “Freedom doesn’t mean offending two billion Muslims!”

In Nigeria, protestors clashed with police, and chanted “To Hell With America, To Hell With Israel!”

In Pakistan, police barricaded the U.S. embassy, in an attempt to protect it.

In Syria, protestors said “He who curses the Prophet doesn’t seek democracy!”

In Qatar, a thousand protestors called for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from their small country.  Police have barricaded the U.S. embassy.

In United Kingdom, hundreds of people protested at the U.S. embassy.

Hundreds of people began protesting in Turkey.

In Palestinian territories (which are really Israeli run death camps on massive scale) hundreds of people began protesting.

Hundreds of protestors surround the U.S. embassy in Indonesia.  The government is trying to block internet access to the movie.  They have barricaded the U.S. embassy.

Protests are beginning in Malaysia, Bangladesh and Mauritania.

France and Austria have issued warnings to U.S. citizens. They believe large scale protests will spread through Europe, and turn violent, especially against U.S. citizens.

Since 11 September, the U.S. Department of State has issued warnings to 65 embassies and consulates.

U.S. political leaders have been demanding foreign governments protect U.S. embassies, but the image of dozens of embassies being barricaded is metaphorical for the United States becoming isolated from the World!

International, U.S.

World War 3: German embassy burning! Obama asks YouTube to remove anti-Islam movie trailer. United Nations outposts attacked! New wall being erected around embassy in Egypt! Obama says U.S. empire will not retreat from World! Iran says this is last days for Zionists!

“The United States of America will never retreat from the world!”-Barack Obama, President of the United States

14 September 2012, Egyptian police are erecting an Israeli style concrete wall around the U.S. embassy!

Egyptian nomads take over UN Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) compound in the Sinai. Two Colombians and one Egyptian soldier wounded.

Reports say the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood actually canceled planned protests!

The German embassy in Sudan is on fire!  Despite U.S. media claims that no protestors entered the U.S. embassy, an unnamed embassy staffer admitted such when they said: “They were all expelled. They didn’t get far.”

The Obama administration is asking YouTube to investigate the possibility that the Innocence of Muslims preview violates YouTube posting policies.

Another protestor killed in Yemen!

“I am confident that Zionists are goners and the world will be freed from their existence and justice will be established!”-Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran

 

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Romney’s Bain Capital at it again, this time it’s Alcoa vs Glencore!

Mitt Romney claims he’ll create “12 million” jobs as president of the United States, but his own creation, Bain Capital, is still hard at work destroying jobs.

This time it’s Alcoa (Aluminum Company of America) Incorporated, the number three aluminum producer in the world!

Today, 01 September 2012, Alcoa began shutting down its Italian operation on the island of Sardinia, despite weeks of protests by their employees, including on camera suicide attempts.

In the U.S. state of Texas, Alcoa sold land and assets from its Rockdale operation.  Smelting has been reduced, and two production lines closed.  Alcoa has reduced the number of Rockdale employees to about 70.

Why is Alcoa shutting down operations around the world, laying off thousands of employees, when back in July 2012 it claimed it’s sales were up more than expected due to increased demand for aluminum?

But that’ just it, demand is up, but prices are down, that’s right industrial metal prices are crashing!  So how does Alcoa deal with that? “I want to make one thing crystal clear here, the market is working…..people are moving forward with curtailing [production] and responding by slower build as we see in China and that’s clearly a function of the low LME [London Metal Exchange] pricing that we currently have in the market.”-Klaus Kleinfeld, CEO Alcoa

So the wise corporate leaders, in their greed, increased production so much that there is now too much metal on the market causing prices to crash, killing their hopes for high profits.  But who gets hurt? Why the lowly employees, of course.

(The number one aluminum company Rusal, and the number two, Rio Tinto, are also cutting back on production. Small companies are in trouble, credit wise, with the Too Big to Fail Banks, so expect hundreds of thousands of aluminum industry employees around the world to become unemployed!)

Reuters has just reported that Swiss investment giant (the biggest in the world), Glencore, wants to buy Alcoa’s Sardinia mining operation.  Here’s the Bain Capital connection.  Bain Capital is considered a ‘cornerstone investor’ in the world’s biggest investment company, Glencore!

The reason why the general public is only now hearing about the world’s largest investment company, Glencore, is that it finally went public with an IPO (Initial Public Offering) in May 2011.  Other investment companies bought into Glencore, such as Aabar, BlackRock Fund, Credit Suisse, Fidelity Investment Fund, UBS, Zijin Mining and others.  The IPO was handled by Too Big to Fail Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse.

Here’s another trivial Romney connection to Alcoa; George Romney, Mitt’s father, worked for Alcoa as a lobbyist in the 1940s.

Alcoa is too big to be totally destroyed by vulture, I mean venture, capitalists (like Bain Capital), but it is being forced to sell off little bits of itself here and there.  And investors love it when people lose their jobs, stock prices for Alcoa Inc have been going up!  And Mitt Romney says he’ll do for America what he did with Bain Capital.

 

International, U.S.

World War 3: USS Stennis sets sail for Persian Gulf, 4 months early. U.S. says “world calls” for war with Syria & Iran

“…we are not in the habit of repeating a warning and we warn only once.”-Major General Ataollah Salehi, Iranian Army, 03 January 2012 threat against USS Stennis

“We’re asking an awful lot of each of you.  And frankly, you are the best I have, and when the world calls we have to respond.”-Leon Panetta, U.S. Secretary of Defense, 22 August 2012 statement regarding early deployment of USS Stennis

22 August, the aircraft carrier USS Stennis will set sail for the Persian Gulf.  Back in July it was announced the USS Stennis would return to the Persian Gulf four months earlier than planned.  The aircraft carrier will also stay in the region for eight months, four months longer than originally planned.

The Pentagon wants to keep at least two aircraft carrier groups on station in the Persian Gulf at all times. Panetta said it was to fight threats and “Obviously Iran is one of those threats that we have to, we have to be able to focus on……Secondly, it is the turmoil in Syria….”

Back in January 2012, Iranian officials singled out the USS Stennis, threatening military action against that specific aircraft carrier if it ever returned to the Persian Gulf.  They claimed the aircraft carrier deliberately sailed through Iranian naval war games in December 2011.  They also accuse the U.S. Navy of sailing ships dangerously close to Iranian oil platforms.

 

Business/Economics, International, Technology

What Economic Recovery? Sony cuts 1,000 jobs in cell phone division!

23 August 2012, after buying back control of its Swedish cell phone operation, Sony announced it will lay off 15% of the employees.

Sony will also move most of the Mobile Communication division back to Japan.

Until Sony’s buyback, the Mobil Communication division was a joint venture with Sweden’s Ericsson.  The cuts are on top of planned lay offs in Sony’s television division.