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Labels: assassination, Barack Obama, extrajudicial executions, Keith Olbermann
Submit To Propeller
posted by profmarcus at
4/10/2010
The debt crisis that has taken root in Greece, sparking an investor panic and talk of a national default in the heart of Europe, is at the leading edge of a problem expected to roll through the economically developed world as government borrowing rises into uncharted territory.
This mounting government debt poses a painful choice for developed countries such as Britain, Japan and the United States: either a deep reordering of public expectations about everything from the retirement age to tax rates, or slower growth as record levels of borrowing crimp economic activity.
Economists at the International Monetary Fund project that the amount of government debt held in the world's advanced economies will soon be so great that it surpasses the value of what they produce in a year.
Bernanke says policymakers prevented 'cataclysm' worse than Great Depression
The world's economic policymakers successfully learned the lessons of the Great Depression, helping to avert a horrendous economic outcome from the 2008 financial crisis, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said Thursday.
[...]
Separately, Fed Vice Chairman Donald L. Kohn said Thursday that a "moderate" economic recovery is underway and that the uncertainty around the economy has dissipated in recent months.
"The economy appears to be moving in the right direction, though not as quickly as we all would like," Kohn said in a speech in San Francisco. The fact that conditions have evolved as he and other forecasters had expected last fall "suggests that the future may, just may, be a bit less uncertain than before," he said.
Labels: Ben Bernanke, depression, Donald Kohn, economic collapse, European Union, Federal Reserve System, financial meltdown, Greece, recession
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/09/2010
The American economy appears to be in a cyclical recovery that is gaining strength. Firms have begun to hire and consumer spending seems to be accelerating.
That is what usually happens after particularly sharp recessions, so it is surprising that many commentators, whether economists or politicians, seem to doubt that such a thing could possibly be happening.
Usually you can depend on the White House to view the economy with the most rose-tinted glasses available. But it was not until last week, after a strong employment report, that President Obama started to sound a little optimistic.
“The tough measures that we took — measures that were necessary even though sometimes they were unpopular — have broken this slide and are helping us to climb out of this recession,” he said in a speech at a factory making battery components in North Carolina.
Note, however, that he seemed to believe the country remained in recession. It is virtually certain that is not accurate, as least as will be determined by the arbiters of recession at the National Bureau of Economic Research. “The recession is over,” one of those arbiters, Jeffrey Frankel of Harvard, wrote this week.
But the White House is unwilling to make that claim.
Why is good news being received with such doubt? Why is “new normal” the currently popular economic phrase, signifying that growth will be subpar for an extended period, and that the old normal is no longer something to be expected?
Today five US banks according to data in the just-released Federal Office of Comptroller of the Currency’s Quarterly Report on Bank Trading and Derivatives Activity, hold 96% of all US bank derivatives positions in terms of nominal values, and an eye-popping 81% of the total net credit risk exposure in event of default.
The five are, in declining order of importance: JPMorgan Chase which holds a staggering $88 trillion in derivatives (€66 trillion!). Morgan Chase is followed by Bank of America with $38 trillion in derivatives, and Citibank with $32 trillion. Number four in the derivatives sweepstakes is Goldman Sachs with a ‘mere’ $30 trillion in derivatives. Number five, the merged Wells Fargo-Wachovia Bank, drops dramatically in size to $5 trillion. Number six, Britain’s HSBC Bank USA has $3.7 trillion.
Labels: Bank of America, Citibank, derivatives, economic collapse, financial meltdown, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, New York Times, recovery, Wells Fargo
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/09/2010
Labels: golf, Nike, Tiger Woods
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/08/2010
Israeli FM warns Palestinians not to declare state
Israel's hard-line foreign minister warned Palestinians on Tuesday against plans to unilaterally declare independence next year, saying such a move could prompt Israel to annex parts of the West Bank and annul past peace agreements.
The remarks by Avigdor Lieberman took aim at a Palestinian policy that has emerged as U.S. attempts to restart peace talks have stalled.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, whose Western-backed government has a limited governing role in the Israeli-controlled West Bank, has announced plans to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state, possibly as early as the summer of 2011 — even without a peace deal.
Toward that aim, Fayyad has begun ambitious reforms of the government and security forces, building up Palestinian institutions and developing the economy in preparation for independence.
The international community has welcomed Fayyad's reform efforts, raising fears in Israel that a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood could win international recognition.
Lieberman warned that Israel would not tolerate such a step, and could revoke a series of agreements made under the so-called Oslo interim peace accords of the 1990s or even annex parts of the West Bank.
"Any unilateral decision will release us from all of our commitments and will allow us also to make unilateral decisions," Lieberman was quoted as saying by the Ynet news Web site.
Labels: Avigdor Lieberman, Israel, Palestine, West Bank
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/06/2010
A federal appeals court has ruled that the Federal Communications Commission lacks the authority to require broadband providers to give equal treatment to all Internet traffic flowing over their networks.
Tuesday’s ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is a big victory for the Comcast Corporation, the nation’s largest cable company. It had challenged the FCC’s authority to impose so called “net neutrality” obligations.
It marks a serious setback for the F.C.C., which needs authority to regulate the Internet in order to push ahead with key parts of its national broadband plan.
Labels: broadband, Comcast, FCC, internet, internet neutrality, Verizon
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/06/2010
US military personnel apparently mistook the cameras slung over the backs of two Reuters journalists for weapons when they opened fire on them and a group of people in a Baghdad suburb in 2007, recently released video footage purportedly shows.
The whistleblower Web site Wikileaks on Monday released a 17-minute video of footage from an Apache helicopter that was reportedly one of two helicopters involved in a fight against insurgents in the neighborhood of New Baghdad on July 12, 2007.
The video purportedly shows the deaths of Reuters journalists Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22 and Saeed Chmagh, 40, along with six other people on a street corner. It also shows US forces firing on a minivan in which two injured children were found.
"The military did not reveal how the Reuters staff were killed, and stated that they did not know how the children were injured," Wikileaks states.
The two reporters arrived in the area after reports of skirmishes between US forces and insurgents. According to media news site The Baron, "there was no fighting on the streets in which Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh were moving about."
The video seems to substantiate that report, as it shows Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh (identified on the tape by arrows) walking around in a group of people who don't appear to be engaged in fighting. "Although some of the men appear to have been armed, the behavior of nearly everyone was relaxed," Wikileaks notes, suggesting that the men weren't involved in the fighting reportedly taking place in the area.
The video shows the Apache helicopter's camera focusing in on Noor-Eldeen with a camera slung over his back.
"That's a weapon," a voice can be heard saying on the video. Moments later, the US service member announces he has "five to six individuals with AK-47s. Request permission to engage."
"Roger that," comes the response.
The video then shows a massive volley of gunfire from the helicopter at the group of people including the two reporters. "We just engaged eight individuals," the US service member is heard saying.
The camera then shows a person, identified by Wikileaks as Chmagh, running frantically away from the gunfire. The camera follows the reporter down a city block, and Chmagh can be seen falling in a hail of gunfire.
[...]
In its press release on the incident, the US military announced it had killed nine insurgents during a firefight. "Two civilians were killed during the firefight," the statement added. "The two civilians were reported as employees for the Reuters news service."
But Wikileaks offers the video as evidence there was no firefight in the location where US forces launched the attack. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, witnesses said there were no gunfights in the area at the time of the attack.
Labels: civilian casualties, collateral damage, Iraq, U.S. military, Wikileaks
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/05/2010
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