America In The News
NATO Says Russia Has Cut All Military Ties With Western Alliance
Fox News
(August 21, 2008) - Russia has halted all
military cooperation with NATO, the Western alliance said Thursday, in
the latest sign of East-West tension over the invasion of Georgia. NATO
spokeswoman Carmen Romero said the alliance had received notification
through military channels that Russia's Defense Ministry had taken a
decision "to halt international military cooperation events between
Russia and NATO countries until further instructions." She said NATO
"takes note" of the decision, but had no further reaction. On Tuesday,
NATO foreign ministers said they would make further ties with Russia
dependent on Moscow making good on a pledge to pull its troops back to
pre-conflict positions in Georgia. However, they stopped short of
calling an immediate halt to all cooperation. Under a 2002 agreement
that set up the NATO-Russia Council, the former Cold War foes began
several cooperation projects. They include sharing expertise to combat
heroin trafficking out of Afghanistan, developing battlefield
anti-missile technology, joint exercises and help with rescue at sea.
Romero said she was unaware of any specific events under the cooperation
agreement scheduled before early September. NATO itself decided last
week to suspend plans for a Russian warship to join NATO
counterterrorism patrols in the Mediterranean Sea, deciding it was
inappropriate in the wake of the eruption of fighting in Georgia.
Norway: Russia to cut all military ties with NATO
Associated Press
(August 20, 2008) - Russia has informed
Norway that it plans to suspend all military ties with NATO, Norway's
Defense Ministry said Wednesday, a day after the military alliance urged
Moscow to withdraw its forces from Georgia. NATO foreign ministers said
Tuesday they would make further ties with Russia dependent on Moscow
making good on a pledge to pull its troops back to pre-conflict
positions in Georgia. However, they stopped short of calling an
immediate halt to all cooperation. The Nordic country's embassy in
Moscow received a telephone call from "a well-placed official in the
Russian Ministry of Defense," who said Moscow plans "to freeze all
military cooperation with NATO and allied countries," Espen Barth Eide,
state secretary with the Norwegian ministry said. Eide told The
Associated Press that the Russian official notified Norway it will
receive a written note about this soon. He said Norwegian diplomats in
Moscow would meet Russian officials on Thursday morning to clarify the
implications of the freeze. "It is our understanding that other NATO
countries will receive similar notes," Eide said. The ministry said the
Russian official is known to the embassy, but Norway declined to provide
a name or any further identifying information. A Kremlin official
declined to comment on the report, and the Russian ambassador to NATO
did not reply to messages left on his cell phone. But the Interfax news
agency, citing what it called a military-diplomatic source in Moscow
whom it did not identify, reported that Russia is reviewing its 2008
military cooperation plans with NATO. Officials at NATO headquarters in
Brussels said Moscow had not informed the alliance it was taking such a
step. Washington described the reported move as unfortunate. more...
As US Looks to Improve Ties, Libya Positions Itself in Russia’s Corner
CNS News
(August 19, 2008) - At a time when the U.S.
is moving towards full normalization of relations with Libya, Muammar
Gaddafi’s son has made it clear that the North African nation is looking
to Russia as its strategic partner. In a little-noticed interview with
Russia’s Kommersant business daily, Seif al-Islam Gaddafi said Moscow’s
resurgence, demonstrated by this month’s military incursion into
Georgia, was a positive development for the Arab world. “What happened
in Georgia is a good sign, which means America is no longer the sole
world power setting the rules of the game,” Gaddafi said. “Now there is
balance in the world. Russia is being reborn, and we value that. It is
very good for us, for all of the Middle East,” he said. Gaddafi, who
runs a charity called the Gaddafi Foundation, has frequently undertaken
diplomatic missions on behalf of his father. The second oldest of seven
sons, the 35-year-old is sometimes named as a possible successor to the
unpredictable Libyan leader but has denied ambitions to rule the north
African country – a position he reiterated in the Kommersant interview.
The published interview appeared on the same day that the U.S.
government announced a breakthrough agreement with Libya on compensation
for terror victims, paving the way for the full normalization of
bilateral ties. Asked whether his strong statements were not risking
Libya’s newly-improved ties with the U.S., Gaddafi told the Russian
paper that although his country has good relations with both the West
and Russia, “Libya chose Russia as its strategic partner.” “Of course,
Russia is our strategic partner, and we cannot compare it with any other
country for closeness. That’s obvious.” Gaddafi said Libya backed
Moscow’s position that Georgia had initiated the recent conflict – by
mounting an offensive against separatists in a Russian-backed breakaway
province – and forced a Russian military response. Libya would back
Russia in the U.N. Security Council, he said. Libya, which has been
improving relations with the West since pledging to stop supporting
terrorism and shutting down its non-conventional weapons programs, in
January began a two-year stint on the council. Its conduct there has at
times drawn strong criticism. more...
Russia: Poland risks attack due to U.S. missiles
MSNBC
(August 15, 2008) - A top Russian general
said Friday that Poland's agreement to accept a U.S. missile interceptor
base exposed the ex-communist nation to attack, possibly by nuclear
weapons, the Interfax news agency reported. The statement by Gen.
Anatoly Nogovitsyn was the strongest threat that Russia issued against
the plans to put missile defense elements in former Soviet satellite
nations. Poland and the United States on Thursday signed a deal for
Poland to accept a missile interceptor base as part of a system the
United States said was aimed at blocking attacks by rogue nations.
Moscow, however, felt it was aimed at Russia's missile force. "Poland,
by deploying (the system) is exposing itself to a strike — 100 percent,"
Nogovitsyn, the deputy chief of staff, was quoted as saying. He added,
in clear reference to the agreement, that Russia's military doctrine
sanctions the use of nuclear weapons "against the allies of countries
having nuclear weapons if they in some way help them." Nogovitsyn that
would include elements of strategic deterrence systems, he said,
according to Interfax. At a news conference earlier Friday, Nogovitsyn
had reiterated Russia's frequently stated warning that placing
missile-defense elements in Poland and the Czech Republic would bring an
unspecified military response. But his subsequent reported statement
substantially stepped up a war of words. more...
Europe's major
economies contract
BBC News
(August 14, 2008) - The 15 economies of the
eurozone contracted by 0.2% between April and June, heightening fears
that the euro area is sliding towards recession. The eurozone's first
decline since it was created in 1999 was driven by a slowdown in exports
and consumer spending. The German economy, Europe's largest, shrank by
0.5% in the second quarter compared with the previous quarter. And in
both France and Italy GDP shrank by 0.3% in the second quarter. The
slowdown was less pronounced in the wider European community of 27
nations including the UK, which contracted by 0.1%. However Estonia,
where the economy contracted for the second consecutive quarter, is now
considered to be in recession. Ireland, whose economy contracted in the
first quarter of the year, has not yet released its second quarter
growth figures. Compared to the second quarter of 2007, the eurozone
economies grew by 1.5% and the 27 European Union countries grew by 1.7%.
The news weakened the euro, which was already well down from its recent
highs against the dollar. But high eurozone inflation, which was
unchanged on the month, made it unlikely that the European Central Bank,
which raised interest rates last month, will reverse its stance. Spain
was the only one of the major eurozone economies to see its economy
expand between April and June. It grew by 0.1% compared with the
previous quarter. Figures also released on Thursday showed that prices
across the euro area rose by 4% in July compared to a year earlier. The
European Central Bank increased interest rates in July by 025% to 4.25%
in a bid to combat rising prices. The July figure is the same as June's
inflation rate, but although the rate of increase is not quickening,
economists said rising prices were still a concern. "Although inflation
has been stable at 4.0 % in July, it is still way above target," said
Jörg Radeke from the Centre for Economics and Business Research. "Hence,
the possibility that the European Central Bank is cutting interest rates
in 2008 to support the sickening economy is remote." more...
Report: Judge Says University Can Deny Course Credit to Christian
Graduates Taught With Creationism Texts
Fox News
(August 13, 2008) - A federal judge has
ruled the University of California can deny course credit to Christian
high school graduates who have been taught with textbooks that reject
evolution and declare the Bible infallible, the San Francisco Chronicle
reported. U.S. District Judge James Otero of Los Angeles ruled Friday
that the school's review committees did not discriminate against
Christians because of religious viewpoints when it denied credit to
those taught with certain religious textbooks, but instead made a
legitimate claim that the texts failed to teach critical thinking and
omitted important science and history topics. Charles Robinson, the
university's vice president for legal affairs, told the Chronicle that
the ruling "confirms that UC may apply the same admissions standards to
all students and to all high schools without regard to their religious
affiliations." But a lawyer for the Association of Christian Schools
International, two Southern California high schools and several students
who brought about the initial lawsuit in 2005 told the Chronicle that
the ruling would be appealed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
San Francisco. "It appears the UC is attempting to secularize private
religious schools," attorney Jennifer Monk told the Chronicle. The paper
said rejected texts include a book for the course Christianity's
Influence on America, published by Bob Jones University, which
"instructs the Bible is the unerring source for analysis of historical
events" and "Biology for Christian Schools," whose first page says "if
[scientific] conclusions contradict the Word of God, the conclusions are
wrong," Otero wrote in his ruling.
U.S. green lights anything into oil
WorldNet Daily
(August 13, 2008) - A Georgia company
looking to solve America's energy problem has finally teamed up with the
federal government, hoping to make millions of barrels of oil every day
from virtually anything that grows out of the Earth.
Bell Bio-Energy,
Inc. says it has reached an agreement with the U.S. Defense
Department to build seven test production plants, mostly on military
bases, to quickly turn naturally grown material into fuel. "What this
means is that with the seven pilot plants – the military likes to refer
to them as demonstrations – with those being built … it gives us the
real-time engineering data that we need to finish the designs for a
full-scale production facility," J.C. Bell, the man behind the project,
told WND today. "In 18 months or so, we will start manufacturing oil
directly from waste and we will build up to about 500,000 barrels a day
within two years. In another six months, we'll reach a million barrels a
day." As the United States now imports about 13 million barrels of oil a
day, the only obstacle then to total energy independence from foreign
sources will be the money needed to develop the processing plants, he
said. "Working with the USDA we've identified enough waste material
around the country, we truly believe we can make the United States
totally energy independent of foreign countries in about five years," he
said.
WND originally reported on the project in March as Bell, an
agricultural researcher, confirmed he'd isolated and modified specific
bacteria that will, on a very large scale, naturally and rapidly convert
plant material – including the leftovers from food – into hydrocarbons
to fuel cars and trucks. That means trash like corn stalks and corn cobs
– even the grass clippings from suburban lawns – can be turned into oil
and gasoline to run trucks, buses and cars. He said he made the
discovery standing downwind from his cows at his food-production
company, Bell
Plantation, in Tifton, Ga. "Cows are like people that eat lots of
beans. They're really, really good at making natural gas," he said. "It
dawned on me that that natural gas was methane."
WND also
reported how the national news media more or less ignored his
announcement of a potential solution to America's dependence on Middle
East nations for its oil. But the U.S. military was listening. And Bell
now confirms his agreement with the Department of Defense, the Defense
Energy Support Center and the Army will have seven demonstration
facilities built at Fort Benning and Fort Stewart in Georgia, Fort Bragg
in North Carolina, Fort AP Hill in Virginia, Fort Drum in New York and
Fort Lewis in Washington, as well as one more installation in San Pedro,
Calif. "We should have all of the plants running within 60 days," he
said. "This is a big step in our growth, from the engineering that we
develop with these plants, we will be able to build our full-scale
production facilities and be in full production in the next 12 to 18
months. "Everyone now accepts the fact that we can make oil through
bacterial action and now it is just a matter of time and money until we
are turning out one million to two million barrels per day," he said.
more...
Fed holds first auction for 84-day loans
Yahoo Finance News
(August 12, 2008) - The Federal Reserve has
auctioned another $25 billion in loans to the nation's banks and given
them more time to pay the money back in an effort to combat a serious
credit squeeze. The Fed announced Tuesday that the money would be loaned
at a rate of 2.754 percent. In the latest auction, the Fed offered the
loans for an extended period of 84 days, rather than the 28-day period
for the previous loans. It marked the Fed's latest attempt to be
innovative in providing the nation's banking system with the cash it
needs to combat a serious credit crisis stemming from mounting mortgage
loan losses. The credit squeeze hit with force a year ago and the
central bank has shoveled out billions of dollars in loans. From
September through April it also was aggressively cutting interest rates
to keep the financial turmoil from pushing the country into a deep
recession. The Fed's interest-rate setting panel met again last week and
for the second meeting held interest rates unchanged amid concerns that
lowering rates further could stoke inflation pressures. Fed policymakers
instead indicated that they are likely to hold rates steady for an
extended period. That signal bolstered financial markets that had been
worried higher inflation pressures might prompt the Fed to start raising
rates even though the economy remains weak. The latest Fed auction was
held on Monday with the results announced Tuesday. It saw 64 bidders
seeking a total of $54.8 billion in funds. The Fed had announced that it
would auction off $25 billion for 84 days. In two weeks the Fed will
auction $75 billion in loans for 28 days. The Fed began the auction
process last December in an effort to increase use of its discount
window borrowing facility, believing that the auctions would help remove
the stigma that banks feared was attached to their petitioning for
direct loans from the Fed's discount window.
Russia Deploys Ships, Expands Georgia Bombing Blitz
Fox News
(August 10, 2008) - Russia battled Georgian
forces on land and sea, reports said late Sunday, despite a Georgian
cease-fire offer and its claim to be withdrawing from South Ossetia, the
separatist Georgian province battered by days of intense fighting.
Russia claimed to have sunk a Georgian boat that was trying to attack
Russian vessels in the Black Sea, and Georgian officials said Russia
sent tanks from South Ossetia into Georgia proper, heading toward a
strategic city before being turned back. Russian planes on Sunday twice
bombed an area near the Georgian capital's airport, officials said. The
violence appeared to show gargantuan Russia's determination to subdue
diminutive, U.S.-backed Georgia, even at the risk of international
reproach. Russia fended off a wave of international calls to observe
Georgia's cease-fire, saying it must first be assured that Georgian
troops have indeed pulled back from South Ossetia. International envoys
were heading in to try to end the conflict before it spreads throughout
the Caucasus, a region plagued by ethnic tensions. But it was unclear
what inducements or pressure the envoys could bring to bear, or to what
extent either side was truly sensitive to world opinion. Georgian
President Mikhail Saakashvili said one of the Russian raids on the
airport area came a half hour before the arrival of the foreign
ministers of France and Finland — in the country to try to mediate.
Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Temur Yakobashvili said Russian
tanks tried to cross from South Ossetia into the territory of Georgia
proper, but were turned back by Georgian forces. He said the tanks
apparently were trying to approach Gori, but did not fire on the city of
about 50,000 that sits on Georgia's only significant east-west highway.
Russia also sent naval vessels to patrol off Georgia's Black Sea coast,
but denied Sunday that the move was aimed at establishing a blockade.
The ITAR-Tass news agency quoted a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman as
saying that Georgian missile boats twice tried to attack Russian ships,
which fired back and sank one of the Georgian vessels. South Ossetia
broke away from Georgian control in 1992. Russia granted passports to
most of its residents and the region's separatist leaders sought to
absorb the region into Russia. Georgia, whose troops have been trained
by American soldiers, began an offensive to regain control over South
Ossetia overnight Friday, launching heavy rocket and artillery fire and
air strikes that pounded the regional capital Tskhinvali. Georgia says
it was responding to attacks by separatists. In response, Russia
launched massive artillery shelling and air attacks on Georgian troops.
Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said more than 2,000
people had been killed in South Ossetia since Friday, most of them
Ossetians with Russian passports. The figures could not be independently
confirmed. The scope of Russia's military response has the Bush
administration deeply worried. "We have made it clear to the Russians
that if the disproportionate and dangerous escalation on the Russian
side continues, that this will have a significant long-term impact on
U.S.-Russian relations," U.S. deputy national security adviser Jim
Jeffrey told reporters. The U.S. military began flying 2,000 Georgian
troops home from Iraq after Georgia recalled them, even while calling
for a truce. "Georgia expresses its readiness to immediately start
negotiations with the Russian Federation on a cease-fire and termination
of hostilities," the Georgian Foreign Ministry said in a statement,
adding that it had notified Russia's envoy to Tbilisi. But Russia
insisted Georgian troops were continuing their attacks. Alexander
Darchiev, Russia's charge d'affairs in Washington, said Georgian
soldiers were "not withdrawing but regrouping, including heavy armor and
increased attacks on Tskhinvali." "Mass mobilization is still under
way," he told CNN's "Late Edition." President Bush sought to contain the
conflict in Georgia on Sunday as the White House warned that "Russian
aggression must not go unanswered." Bush, in Beijing for the Olympics,
has pressed for international mediation and reached out Sunday to French
President Nicolas Sarkozy, who heads the European Union. The two agreed
on the need for a cease-fire and a respect for Georgia's integrity, a
White House spokesman said. more...
Michael Savage vows to take Islam fight to Supreme Court
WorldNet Daily
(August 10, 2008) - Talk-radio host Michael
Savage has announced he will bring his recently dismissed copyright
infringement lawsuit against the Council on American-Islamic Relations
to the U.S. Supreme Court in hopes of making public the Islamic group's
sources of funding. Savage's suit – originally filed in San Francisco
district court – alleged CAIR illegally published singled-out quotes and
audio excerpts from his show regarding Islam, misappropriated his words
and used the clips for its own fundraising purposes, damaging the value
of his copyrighted material. CAIR last year waged a public campaign
using excerpted Savage remarks to urge advertisers to boycott his
top-rated program. CAIR stated its campaign successfully resulted in
Savage losing $1 million in advertising. Part of Savage's lawsuit
alleged CAIR received millions in foreign funding and that it may have
been wrongfully acting as a lobbyist or agent for a foreign government,
violating the Islamic group's nonprofit status. Savage also alleged CAIR
was engaged in racketeering, describing the group as a "mouthpiece of
international terror" that helped fund the 9/11 attacks, a contention
strongly denied by CAIR. But his lawsuit was tossed last month by San
Francisco District U.S. Judge Susan Illston, who argued it is legal to
use excerpts of a public broadcast for purposes of comment and
criticism. Illston, nominated to her position by President Bill Clinton,
wrote in her ruling that Savage could try to rewrite the racketeering
portion of his suit to better fit the specifics of his case. Savage's
attorney Daniel Horowitz told WND he is reworking the suit to directly
address Illston's "respectful" ruling. He said the new suit includes
over 200 pages of supporting documents, including 200 pages of
transcripts of the meeting in which CAIR was founded. In May 2007, CAIR
was identified by the government as an unindicted co-conspirator in a
case involving the Holy Land Foundation, a charity allegedly affiliated
with Hamas. Federal prosecutors in the case listed CAIR under the
category: “Individuals/entities who are and/or were members of the US
Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee and/or its organizations.” The
government also listed Omar Ahmad, CAIR's founder and chairman emeritus,
under the same category. CAIR is registered as a nonprofit organization
recognized as tax-exempt under IRS codes, which restrict "lobbying on
behalf of a foreign government." CAIR's website claims it receives no
foreign government support. But CAIR's headquarters near the U.S.
Capitol until recently was owned by the ruler of Dubai, United Arab
Emirates, and the ruler's foundation has pledged $50 million to
capitalize a long-term CAIR public-relations campaign. The UAE formally
recognized the Taliban, and Dubai reportedly acted as the transit point
for cash for the 9/11 hijackers. Two of the hijackers were from the
Emirates, and one served in the UAE military. Until 2005, the Al Maktoum
Foundation run by Dubai's ruler Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid held the deed
to CAIR's headquarters just three blocks from the Capitol. The same
foundation reportedly has held telethons to raise money for families of
Palestinian "martyrs" during the intifada – or terrorist war – started
in September 2000 against Israel. It recently pledged a $50 million
endowment for CAIR. CAIR argues that any assertions it receives money
from foreign governments is "disinformation." "This is yet another
attempt to invent a controversy," the group said. "CAIR's operational
budget is funded by donations from American Muslims." CAIR, however, has
never publicly acknowledged $1 million controlling interest that the
ruler of Dubai's foundation took in its national headquarters just one
year after 9/11. The group also received $500,000 from Saudi Prince
Al-Waleed bin Talal, the sheik whose $10 million relief check after 9/11
was rejected by then-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani after he blamed U.S.
policy toward Israel for the attacks. "There is nothing criminal or
immoral about accepting donations from foreign nationals," CAIR
asserted. "The U.S. government, corporations and non-profit
organizations routinely receive money from foreign nationals." "Bin
Talal is not a member of the Saudi Arabian government," the group added
in a statement. "He is a private entrepreneur and international
investor." This may be a distinction without a difference, Savage's
lawyers argue, since bin Talal is a member of the Saudi ruling family.
"CAIR is proud to receive support of every individual," CAIR argued, "as
long as they are not an official of any foreign government and there are
no strings attached to the bequest." The UAE endowment to CAIR was
specifically earmarked for public relations efforts to repair the image
of Arabs and Muslims in America after public outrage doomed a Dubai bid
to run U.S. ports. Lawyers for Savage argue that CAIR may have used UAE
funds and other foreign support to attack the radio host. more...
Credit crisis triggers unprecedented response
The Washington Post
(August 8, 2008) - Since the credit crisis
erupted a year ago, the Bush administration has presided over one of the
broadest expansions of the government into private lending in U.S.
history, risking public money to prop up financial firms both large and
small. The administration has transformed federal agencies into dominant
players in such diverse realms as student lending and mortgage finance
while exposing itself to trillions of dollars in loans. The scope of
these commitments demonstrates the unprecedented nature of the challenge
facing the nation. Not since the Great Depression have so many debt
markets been in turmoil at the same time, financial historians say.
During the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s,
for example, the financial upheaval was largely contained to banks and
thrifts, though the real estate market also felt the impact. Now, the
contagion has rapidly spread from mortgages to bonds and exotic
securities, student and corporate lending, credit cards and home equity
loans, and residential and commercial real estate. The disruption has
buffeted investment and commercial banks, mortgage finance agencies, and
insurance firms of different stripes. "We have a banking crisis and an
agency crisis and a mortgage crisis and a coming credit card crisis.
We've never seen anything like that before. And it all seems to be
coming home to roost at the same time. That's never happened either,"
said Charles Geisst, professor of finance at Manhattan College. He said
the Great Depression was the last time financial markets were hammered
by such a variety of factors. "But we did not even have credit cards in
the 1930s; there were no such thing as student loans," he added. The
breadth and speed of events have sent federal officials scrambling to
plug leaks in the financial system. In the process, the government
has bound taxpayers to the fate of a wide variety of banks and borrowers
and could ultimately be responsible for losses in the tens of billions
of dollars or more, according to estimates by congressional reports and
interviews with regulators. But the government may also end up
paying nothing at all, largely because it received collateral in return
for backing much of these debts and could recoup some money if borrowers
stop making their interest payments. No one knows for sure because much
of the government's response involved novel programs designed to contain
an unpredictable crisis. As the credit crisis worsened, Treasury
Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., a strong proponent of free markets and
the architect of much of the administration's response, began to push
initiatives that enlarged the government's involvement on Wall Street
and in the housing industry. "What I've said is that I'm playing the
hand that was dealt and that my responsibility is to protect the U.S.
economy and the American people," Paulson said in an interview. The pace
of these interventions accelerated as the credit crisis spread across
the capital markets. At first, the administration avoided programs that
exposed taxpayers to potentially large losses. The Federal Housing
Administration, for instance, offered struggling mortgage holders a
chance to refinance into low-cost loans backed by the government with
any losses borne by the agency's insurance fund. Last summer, Paulson
also pressed private mortgage lenders to form an alliance called Hope
Now to rework mortgages. The initiative did not require public funds,
except to set up a hotline, and it may have prevented lawmakers at that
time from pursuing more expensive initiatives, he said. Within months,
however, Paulson was directing more significant intrusions into the
markets. In March, he strongly endorsed the Fed leaders' decision to put
$29 billion in public money on the line to facilitate the takeover of
the crippled investment firm Bear Stearns by Wall Street bank J.P.
Morgan Chase. In April, Paulson helped the Department of Education set
up emergency programs to ensure students could get loans as private
lenders fled the business because of trouble in the credit markets.
Education officials ramped up their direct lending, which some analysts
say could reach $75 billion, and got new authority from Congress to buy
loans outright from lenders. Then, last month, Paulson pushed for new
authority to lend or invest in mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac, which the Congressional Budget Office said could impose a wide
range of costs to taxpayers, from nothing to more than $100 billion.
Along the way, the Fed was injecting money into the banking system,
including through several new, unusual programs. In negotiations over
the Bear Stearns rescue, the Fed agreed to back $30 billion worth of
risky mortgage assets but persuaded J.P. Morgan to absorb the first $1
billion of any losses. At the end of July, the portfolio was worth $29.1
billion, according to the central bank. Because the Fed can be patient
and sell the assets gradually over time, officials believe taxpayers
are highly unlikely to lose more than a couple billion dollars and
the central bank may ultimately make some money. more...
Third Aleutian Volcano Erupts Explosively
USGS
(August 8, 2008) - Kasatochi Volcano in
Alaska's Aleutian Islands erupted explosively Aug. 7, sending an ash
plume more than 35,000 feet into the air and forcing two biologists from
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to evacuate the island. "Kasatochi
went from a quiet volcano to an explosive eruption within 24 hours and
with very little warning," said USGS volcano scientist Marianne Guffanti.
"We are thankful our colleagues were able to get out before the eruption
began. They were rescued just in time by a local fishing boat."
Kasatochi is the third volcano to erupt in the Aleutian Islands in three
weeks. Okmok Volcano erupted unexpectedly and explosively on July 12,
followed by Cleveland Volcano, 100 miles away, on July 21. Both
volcanoes sent ash plumes skyrocketing and caused commercial airline
flights to be diverted or cancelled. Scientists relied on seismic
instruments on other volcano networks in the area to detect activity at
Kasatochi volcano. "Fortunately, the existing seismic networks on nearby
volcanoes picked up the activity at Kasatochi volcano," said Tom Murray,
scientist-in-charge of the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO). "They were
installed with funding from the Federal Aviation Administration to
reduce the hazard to aviation from volcanic ash. These networks were
crucial in recognizing that this volcano had entered the first stage of
a major eruption." "Our hope is to have monitoring equipment on all
volcanoes that pose the greatest threats to public safety," said
Guffanti. "Satellite imagery is useful to see the big picture of what is
happening and what is going into the atmosphere. But direct
instrumentation, such as placing seismic monitors around a volcano, will
help give an early warning and give people more time to plan for
hazardous events." Scientists are working around the clock to monitor
the volcanoes and keep the public and emergency responders informed.
'2 US aircraft carriers headed for Gulf'
The Jerusalem Post
(August 7, 2008) - Two additional United
States naval aircraft carriers are heading to the Gulf and the Red Sea,
according to the Kuwaiti newspaper Kuwait Times. Kuwait began finalizing
its "emergency war plan" on being told the vessels were bound for the
region. The US Navy would neither confirm nor deny that carriers were en
route. US Fifth Fleet Combined Maritime Command located in Bahrain said
it could not comment due to what a spokesman termed "force-protection
policy." While the Kuwaiti daily did not name the ships it believed were
heading for the Middle East, The Media Line's defense analyst said they
could be the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the USS Ronald Reagan. Within
the last month, the Roosevelt completed an exercise along the US east
coast focusing on communication among navies of different countries. It
has since been declared ready for operational duties. The Reagan,
currently with the Seventh Fleet, had just set sail from Japan. The
Seventh Fleet area of operation stretches from the East Coast of Africa
to the International Date Line. Meanwhile, the Arabic news agency Moheet
reported at the end of July that an unnamed American destroyer,
accompanied by two Israeli naval vessels traveled through the Suez Canal
from the Mediterranean. A week earlier, a US nuclear submarine
accompanied by a destroyer and a supply ship moved into the
Mediterranean, according to Moheet. Currently there are two US naval
battle groups operating in the Gulf: one is an aircraft carrier group,
led by the USS Abraham Lincoln, which carries some 65 fighter aircraft.
The other group is headed by the USS Peleliu which maintains a variety
of planes and strike helicopters. The ship movements coincide with the
latest downturn in relations between Washington and Teheran. The US and
Iran are at odds over Iran's nuclear program, which the Bush
administration claims is aimed at producing material for nuclear
weapons; however, Teheran argues it is only for power generation.
Kuwait, like other Arab countries in the Gulf, fears it will be caught
in the middle should the US decide to launch an air strike against Iran
if negotiations fail. The Kuwaitis are finalizing details of their
security, humanitarian and vital services, the newspaper reported. The
six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) - Kuwait, Saudi
Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Oman - lie just across the Gulf from
Iran. Generals in the Iranian military have repeatedly warned that
American interests in the region would be targeted if Iran is subjected
to any military strike by the US or its Western allies. Bahrain hosts
the US Fifth Fleet, while there is a sizeable American base in Qatar. It
is assumed the US also has military personnel in the other Gulf states,
The Media Line's defense analyst said. Iran is thought to have
intelligence operatives working in the GCC states, according to
Dubai-based military analysts. The standoff between the US and Iran has
left the Arab nations' political leaders in something of a bind, as they
were being used as pawns by Washington and Teheran, according to The
Media Line analyst. Iran has offered them economic and industrial
sweeteners, while the US is boosting their defense capabilities. US
President George W. Bush and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have
paid visits to the GCC states in a bid to win their support.
Are feds stockpiling survival food?
WorldNet Daily
(July 25, 2008) - A Wall Street Journal
columnist has advised people to "start stockpiling food" and an ABC News
Report says "there are worrying signs appearing in the United States
where some … locals are beginning to hoard supplies." Now there's
concern that the U.S. government may be competing with consumers for
stocks of storable food. "We're told that the feds bought the entire
container of canned butter when it hit the California docks.
(Something's up!)," said officials at Best Prices Storable Foods in an
advisory to customers. Spokesman Bruce Hopkins told WND he also has had
trouble obtaining No. 10 cans of various products from one of the
world's larger suppliers of food stores, Oregon Freeze Dry. He said a
company official told him on the telephone when he discussed the status
of his order that it was because the government had purchased massive
quantities of products, leaving none for other customers. That, however,
was denied by Oregon Freeze Dry. In a website statement, the company
confirmed it cannot assure supplying some items to customers. "We regret
to inform you Oregon Freeze Dry cannot satisfy all Mountain House #10
can orders and we have removed #10 cans from our website temporarily,"
the company tells frustrated customers. "The reason for this is sales of
#10 cans have continued to increase. OFD is allocating as much
production capacity as possible to this market segment, but we must
maintain capacity for our other market segments as well." The company
statement continues, "We want to clarify inaccurate information we’ve
seen on the Internet. This situation is not due to sales to the
government domestically or in Iraq. We do sell products to this market,
but we also sell other market segments … The reason for this decision is
solely due to an unprecedented sales spike in #10 cans sales. "We expect
this situation to be necessary for several months although this isn’t a
guarantee. We will update this information as soon as we know more. We
apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your patience. We
sincerely hope you will continue to be Mountain House customers in the
future," the company statement said. But Hopkins wasn't backing away
from his concerns. "The government just came in and said they're buying
it. They did pay for it," he told WND about the summertime shipment of
long-term storage butter. "They took it and no one else could have it.
"We don't know why. The feds then went to freeze dried companies, and
bought most of their canned stock," he said. more...
IMF Contemplates System Failure. Could it be the 1.2 Quadrillion in
Derivatives? McAlvany Weekly
Commentary
(July 30, 2008)
U.S. companies vulnerable to foreign buyers
Reuters
(July 29, 2008) - With a record volume of international takeovers
of U.S. companies, it almost appears America itself is up for sale. The
weak dollar and slumping stock prices of U.S. companies has created a
window of opportunity for international buyers to snatch up American
icons such as beer brewer Anheuser-Busch Cos Inc and the landmark
Chrysler Building in New York. "The dollar has depreciated so much that
America is on the sale rack," said Sung Won Sohn, a professor of
economics at California State University. "America has such an appetite
for foreign goods -- Chinese imports and oil -- that U.S. dollars have
gone overseas. Now, many Americans aren't happy that foreign companies
are buying pieces of America with the money we gave them in the first
place," Sohn said. In the second quarter, acquisitions of U.S. companies
by international buyers totaled $124.3 billion, marking the highest
total for any second quarter on record and jumping 23 percent over the
year-earlier quarter, according to research firm Dealogic. International
takeovers represented 22 percent of all U.S. merger activity in the
first half of the year, up from 17 percent in the first half of 2007,
according to research firm Dealogic. InBev NV's deal to acquire
Anheuser-Busch for $52 billion gave Belgium the distinction of being the
most active foreign buyer of U.S. assets in the first half of this year,
followed by Spain and Canada, Dealogic said. The Anheuser-Busch deal
ranked as the second-biggest cross-border acquisition of a U.S. company
in history, following Vodafone Group Plc's $60.3 billion
acquisition of AirTouch Communications in 1999, according to Thomson
Reuters. Other U.S. assets recently falling into international hands
include Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc, which agreed to be acquired by
Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, the world's largest generic
drug company, for $7.46 billion; and eye care company Alcon Inc which is
being bought by Switzerland's Novartis AG for about $27.7 billion.
Earlier this month, Swiss drugmaker Roche AG made a bid to acquire the
shares of its U.S. partner Genentech Inc it does not already own for
$43.7 billion. Even the Pennsylvania Turnpike awarded long-term leasing
rights to a Spanish-led investor group for $12.8 billion. Although some
investment bankers and analyst pin the spike in cross-border activity to
the weak dollar, others contend that strategy and the desire to expand
globally were the motivators behind many of these recent corporate
deals. "Strategic buyers don't wake up in the morning and say: 'This
currency is cheap. I'm going to go do a deal.' They do a deal because
it's strategic and makes sense," said Herald Ritch, president and
co-chief executive officer of investment bank Sagent Advisers. "There's
no question that, on the margin, currency levels tend to influence
decisions, but strategic deals get done because they fit a company's
strategy," Ritch said. European companies have been the most active
buyers of U.S. assets, with 314 deals so far this year, compared with
117 deals by Asian acquirers, and 33 by African and Middle Eastern
buyers, according to Thomson Reuters. "Europe and the U.S. dominate deal
activity globally, so it makes sense that deals between those areas
would predominate," Ritch said. Although some investment bankers view
the second quarter's record pace of U.S. takeovers as an anomaly, Sohn
said the 13-percent depreciation of the dollar against major currencies
over the past 18 months should fuel more acquisitions. "There are
trillions of dollars overseas that have to be put to work. This is just
the tip of the iceberg," Sohn said.
California 'dodges bullet' as 5.4 earthquake rocks region
Breitbart.com
(July 29, 2008) - A 5.4 magnitude earthquake shook Southern
California on Tuesday, spooking millions from Los Angeles to San Diego
in a juddering reminder of the region's vulnerability to seismic shocks.
No major injuries or damage were reported following the quake, which
struck at 11:42 am (1842 GMT) near the town of Chino Hills, 33 miles (50
kilometers) east of Los Angeles at a depth of 7.6 miles (12 kilometers),
the US Geological Survey said. The tremor was felt across Los Angeles,
with the office block housing AFP's bureau on Sunset Boulevard in
Hollywood swaying and shuddering after the quake. Offices and
restaurants could be seen evacuating workers and customers. The quake,
which was followed by 27 minor aftershocks, rippled across California
and Nevada, rattling city officials in San Diego, tourists in Disneyland
and residents as far east as Las Vegas, officials said. California
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said the region had been lucky to avoid a
major disaster.
U.S. Intel: Iran Plans Nuclear Strike on U.S.
Newsmax
(July 29, 2008) - Iran has carried out missile tests for what
could be a plan for a nuclear strike on the United States, the head of a
national security panel has warned. In testimony before the House Armed
Services Committee and in remarks to a private conference on missile
defense over the weekend hosted by the Claremont Institute, Dr. William
Graham warned that the U.S. intelligence community “doesn’t have a
story” to explain the recent Iranian tests. One group of tests that
troubled Graham, the former White House science adviser under President
Ronald Reagan, were successful efforts to launch a Scud missile from a
platform in the Caspian Sea. “They’ve got [test] ranges in Iran which
are more than long enough to handle Scud launches and even Shahab-3
launches,” Dr. Graham said. “Why would they be launching from the
surface of the Caspian Sea? They obviously have not explained that to
us.” Another troubling group of tests involved Shahab-3 launches where
the Iranians "detonated the warhead near apogee, not over the target
area where the thing would eventually land, but at altitude,” Graham
said. “Why would they do that?” Graham chairs the Commission to Assess
the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack,
a blue-ribbon panel established by Congress in 2001. The commission
examined the Iranian tests “and without too much effort connected the
dots,” even though the U.S. intelligence community previously had failed
to do so, Graham said. “The only plausible explanation we can find is
that the Iranians are figuring out how to launch a missile from a ship
and get it up to altitude and then detonate it,” he said. “And that’s
exactly what you would do if you had a nuclear weapon on a Scud or a
Shahab-3 or other missile, and you wanted to explode it over the United
States.” The commission warned in a report issued in April that the
United States was at risk of a sneak nuclear attack by a rogue nation or
a terrorist group designed to take out our nation’s critical
infrastructure. "If even a crude nuclear weapon were detonated anywhere
between 40 kilometers to 400 kilometers above the earth, in a
split-second it would generate an electro-magnetic pulse [EMP] that
would cripple military and civilian communications, power,
transportation, water, food, and other infrastructure," the report
warned. While not causing immediate civilian casualties, the near-term
impact on U.S. society would dwarf the damage of a direct nuclear strike
on a U.S. city. “The first indication [of such an attack] would be that
the power would go out, and some, but not all, the telecommunications
would go out. We would not physically feel anything in our bodies,”
Graham said. As electric power, water and gas delivery systems failed,
there would be “truly massive traffic jams,” Graham added, since modern
automobiles and signaling systems all depend on sophisticated
electronics that would be disabled by the EMP wave. “So you would be
walking. You wouldn’t be driving at that point,” Graham said. “And it
wouldn’t do any good to call the maintenance or repair people because
they wouldn’t be able to get there, even if you could get through to
them.” The food distribution system also would grind to a halt as
cold-storage warehouses stockpiling perishables went offline. Even
warehouses equipped with backup diesel generators would fail, because
“we wouldn’t be able to pump the fuel into the trucks and get the trucks
to the warehouses,” Graham said. The United States “would quickly revert
to an early 19th century type of country.” except that we would have 10
times as many people with ten times fewer resources, he said. more...
Home prices drop by record 15.8 pct. in May
Associated Press
(July 29, 2008) - Home prices tumbled by the steepest rate ever
in May, according to a closely watched housing index released Tuesday,
as the housing slump deepened nationwide. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller
20-city index dropped by 15.8 percent in May compared with a year ago, a
record decline since its inception in 2000. The 10-city index plunged
16.9 percent, its biggest decline in its 21-year history. No city in the
Case-Shiller 20-city index saw price gains in May, the second straight
month that's happened. The monthly indices have not recorded an overall
home price increase in any month since August 2006. Home values have
fallen 18.4 percent since the 20-city index's peak in July 2006. Nine
metropolitan cities — Las Vegas, Miami, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Diego,
San Francisco, Seattle, Wash., Portland, Ore., and Washington, D.C. —
posted record declines in May. And the value of housing in Detroit is
now lower than it was in 2000. But a possible bright spot in an
otherwise dismal report, seven metros — Tampa, Fla., Boston, Detroit,
Minneapolis, New York, Dallas and Atlanta — showed smaller annual
declines. Las Vegas recorded the worst drop, with prices plunging 28.4
percent in the month. Miami came in a close second, with prices down
28.3 percent. Charlotte, N.C., posted the smallest drop at 0.2 percent.
Until April, the North Carolina city had been the last metro still
showing price gains.
Israel to build new settlement in West Bank
Associated Press
(July 24, 2008) - A key committee has approved construction of
the first new Jewish settlement in the West Bank in a decade, an Israeli
official said Thursday. The news infuriated Palestinians, who said the
decision could cripple peace efforts. The only hurdle that remains is
Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who plans to approve the Maskiot settlement
within weeks, the official said. Barak had signaled to the national
planning committee that it should authorize the plan, the official said.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the Defense
Ministry did not officially announce the settlement would be built in
the Jordan Valley Rift, an arid north-south strip that forms Israel's
eastern flank with Jordan. Asked why Israel was moving ahead with the
politically charged plan, the official said that it has been in the
pipeline for years. Israel originally announced in 2006 that it would
build Maskiot, then froze the plan after international outcry. But
earlier this year, nine Israeli families settled in mobile homes at the
site, which Palestinians claim as part of a future state. A number of
Israeli politicians however, have said Israel needs to retain control of
the Jordan Valley as a buffer between a future Palestinian state and
Jordan. The issue remains to be resolved in negotiations between Israel
and the Palestinians. Settlers say around two dozen more families are
waiting to join them. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat accused Israel
of undermining U.S.-backed peace talks. "This is destroying the process
of a two-state solution," Erekat said. "I hope the Americans will make
the Israelis revoke the decision. I think they can make the Israelis do
this." The U.S. Embassy had no comment. But on her last visit to the
region in June, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said settlement
building "has the potential to harm the negotiations."
Jim Deeds: End of the World? No, Not Really. Just Time to Adjust Your
Thinking McAlvany Weekly
Commentary
(July 23, 2008)
Dinars for Dollars: Arabs Buying Out Collapsing Western Banks
Israel National News
(July 16, 2008) - First it was Citibank.
Now it's Barclay's and New York City's Chrysler Building skyscraper.
Muslim Arabs are buying out collapsing Western banks and businesses and
gaining growing international power, but some Arab investors are worried
their investments may go down the drain with the American economy. The
current financial crisis in the United States has spread to other
countries because of a massive debt that was not backed by enough real
and liquid collateral. Banks and businesses gasping for financial breath
are up for sale at basement prices, but no one is certain if the
basement is the bottom. "The possibility remains that more Arab white
knights will be sought to rescue ailing financial institutions," wrote
Dr. Mohammed Ramady, a former banker and Visiting Associate Professor at
the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in the Financial
Adviser magazine. He said he fears that Arab investors will end up
chasing their investments with more money to keep them from going under.
The Abu Dhabi Investment Council of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates
kingdom of Abu Dhabi last November announced it was bailing out the
mammoth Citibank financial institution, formerly headed by Bank of
Israel Governor Prof. Stanley Fischer, with $7.5 billion. Next in line
was Britain's Barclay's Bank, which raised $9 billion from investors in
the oil-rich kingdom of Qatar and in Asian countries. The Abu Dhabi
Investment Council last month forked out approximately $800 million for
a 75 percent stake in New York City's 1,046-foot-tall Chrysler Building,
which was the world's tallest building for a year until the Empire State
Building surpassed it in the 1930's. The purchase of American banks by
foreigners has been blocked in the past by security and political
considerations, but the barriers have come down, wrote Dr. Ramady. "How
long this lasts is only a matter of guesswork, as once again, the
specter of foreign takeovers of 'national' symbols will be hard to
accept," he added. In a more serious vein, The Australian
editor-at-large Paul Kelly wrote earlier this month that the foreign
investments, headed by Arabs, signal a major change in international
power. "The energy, financial and political woes that grip the U.S.
signal a decisive shift in world power, mocking the liberal delusion
that Barack Obama or John McCain can return American prestige and power
to its pre-Bush year 2000 nirvana," he wrote. "There is no such nirvana.
There is instead a new reality: the greatest transfer of income in human
history [and] the rise of a new breed of wealthy autocracies that
cripple U.S. hopes of dominating the global system and demands on the
U.S. to make fresh compromises in a world where power is rapidly being
diversified." more...
Americans may be losing faith in free markets
Los Angeles Times
(July 16, 2008) - For a generation, most people accepted the idea
that the core of what makes America tick was an economy governed by free
markets. And whatever combination of goods, services and jobs the market
cooked up was presumed to be fine for the nation and for its citizens --
certainly better than government meddling. No longer. Spurred by the
continued housing crisis, turmoil in financial markets, spiking oil
prices, disappearing jobs and shrinking retirement savings, the nation
and its political leaders have begun to sour on the notion that the
current market system is the key to a fair, stable and efficient
society. "We're at a hinge point," said William A. Galston, a senior
fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington who helped craft
President Clinton's market-friendly agenda during the 1990s. "The strong
presumption in favor of markets, which has dominated public policy since
the late 1970s, has been thrown very much into question." Now, to a
degree not seen in years, politicians and outside experts are looking
with favor at more, not less, government involvement in the economy. Of
course, Americans always grouse during troubled times. And as market
advocates are quick to point out, the current run of bad economic breaks
has yet to result in the throwing over of free-market principles in
favor of some drastically different approach -- such as a
government-directed economy. "There may be a backlash against markets at
the moment," acknowledged Kevin A. Hassett, economic studies director at
the American Enterprise Institute in Washington and an advisor to
presumed Republican presidential nominee John McCain. "But the backlash
doesn't seem to be informed by any alternative view of how the world
works." more...
Euro soars to $1.60 against U.S. dollar, a new record high
Associated Press
(July 15,
2008) - The European single currency leapt to a record high above
1.60 dollars here on Tuesday as investor fears grew over the state of
the US economy and its financial services sector, dealers said. In late
morning London deals, the euro jumped to 1.6038 dollars, which beat the
previous all-time peak of 1.6019 that was set on April 22.
Fannie Mae, Freddie Rescue a 'Disaster,' Rogers Says
Bloomberg
(July 14,
2008) - The U.S. Treasury Department's plan to shore up Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac is an "unmitigated disaster" and the largest U.S.
mortgage lenders are "basically insolvent," according to investor Jim
Rogers. Taxpayers will be saddled with debt if Congress approves U.S.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's request for the authority to buy
unlimited stakes in and lend to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Rogers said
in a Bloomberg Television interview. Rogers is betting that Fannie Mae
shares will keep tumbling. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analyst Daniel
Zimmerman said the mortgage finance companies' shares may fall another
35 percent and lowered his share-price estimate for Fannie Mae to $7
from $18 and for Freddie Mac to $5 from $17. Freddie Mac fell 64 cents,
or 8.3 percent, to $7.11 in New York Stock Exchange trading, while
Fannie Mae fell 52 cents, or 5.1 percent, to $9.73. "I don't know where
these guys get the audacity to take our money, taxpayer money, and buy
stock in Fannie Mae," Rogers, 65, said in an interview from Singapore.
"So we're going to bail out everybody else in the world. And it ruins
the Federal Reserve's balance sheet and it makes the dollar more
vulnerable and it increases inflation." The chairman of Rogers Holdings,
who in April 2006 correctly predicted oil would reach $100 a barrel and
gold $1,000 an ounce, also said the commodities bull market has a "long
way to go" and advised buying agricultural commodities. Rogers, a former
partner of hedge fund manager George Soros, predicted the start of the
commodities rally in 1999 and started buying Chinese stocks in the same
year. He traveled the world by motorcycle and car in the 1990s
researching investment ideas for his books, which include "Adventure
Capitalist" and "Hot Commodities." Billionaire investor Soros said today
that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac face a "solvency crisis," not a
liquidity one, and that their troubles won't be the last financial
disruption, Reuters reported. "This is a very serious financial crisis
and it is the most serious financial crisis of our lifetime," Soros told
Reuters in a telephone interview. "It is an idle dream to think that you
could have this kind of crisis without the real economy being affected."
"These companies were going to go bankrupt if they hadn't stepped in to
do something, and they should've gone bankrupt with all of the mistakes
they've made," Rogers said. "What's going to happen when you Band-Aid
and put some Band-Aids on it for another year or two or three? What's
going to happen three years from now when the situation's much, much,
much worse?" Paulson's proposal, which the Treasury anticipates will be
incorporated into an existing congressional bill and approved this week,
signals a shift toward an explicit guarantee of Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac debt. The Federal Reserve separately authorized the firms to borrow
directly from the central bank. more...
Analysts say more U.S. banks will fail
International Herald Tribune
(July 14,
2008) - As home prices continue to decline and loan defaults
mount, U.S. regulators are bracing for dozens of American banks to fail
over the next year. But after a large mortgage lender in California
collapsed late Friday, Wall Street analysts began posing two crucial
questions: Just how many banks might falter? And, more urgently, which
one could be next? The nation's banks are in far less danger than they
were in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when more than 1,000 federally
insured institutions went under during the savings-and-loan crisis. The
debacle, the greatest collapse of American financial institutions since
the Depression, prompted a government bailout that cost taxpayers about
$125 billion. But the troubles are growing so rapidly at some small and
midsize banks that as many as 150 out of the 7,500 banks nationwide
could fail over the next 12 to 18 months, analysts say. Other lenders
are likely to shut branches or seek mergers. "Everybody is drawing up
lists, trying to figure out who the next bank is, No. 1, and No. 2, how
many of them are there," said Richard Bove, the banking analyst with
Ladenburg Thalmann, who released a list of troubled banks over the
weekend. "And No. 3, from the standpoint of Washington, how badly is it
going to affect the economy?" Many investors are on edge after federal
regulators seized the California lender, IndyMac Bank, one of the
nation's largest savings and loans, last week. With $32 billion in
assets, IndyMac, a spinoff of the Countrywide Financial Corporation, was
the biggest American lender to fail in more than two decades. Now, as
the Bush administration grapples with the crisis at the nation's two
largest mortgage finance companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a rush
of earnings reports in the coming days and weeks from some of the
nation's largest financial companies are likely to provide more gloomy
reminders about the sorry state of the industry. more...
Ahmadinejad: We'll sever enemies' hands
The Jerusalem Post
(July 13,
2008) - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatened on Sunday
to "cut off the hands" of any would-be attackers of the Islamic
Republic. "Before the enemies touch the trigger, the armed forces will
cut off their hands," the state-run IRNA news agency quoted the leader
as saying. Ahmadinejad said that missile tests conducted last week
exhibited "only a small part" of Iran's defense capabilities, and that,
if necessary, further capabilities would be revealed. Ahmadinejad's
statement comes amid a report that US President George W. Bush has given
Israel the "amber light" to carry out an attack on Iran if diplomatic
efforts are unsuccessful in causing the Islamic Republic to back down
and relinquish its nuclear program. According to a senior Pentagon
official quoted by the British Sunday Times on Sunday morning, Bush has
given Israel free rein to attack Iran's nuclear sites if sanctions fail
in spite of opposition from US generals and regardless of the possible
economic and political repercussions of such a strike. "Amber means get
on with your preparations, stand by for immediate attack and tell us
when you're ready," the official said, adding however, that Israel had
been told that it could not count on the US to lend it military support.
Contradicting recent reports to the contrary, he also said that the IAF
would not be permitted to take off from American military bases in Iraq.
The Jerusalem Post could not confirm the report. Ahmadinejad's
aggressive statements contrasted strikingly with a report on Iranian
state TV Sunday, which quoted him as saying that Iran would welcome the
idea of setting up a US diplomatic office in Teheran. The report quoted
the firebrand Iranian leader as saying he would consider an American
request to set up an interests section in Iran. He said he "welcomes any
move to expand ties." But Ahmadinejad said his government hasn't
received any official request for such an office. Last month, US
officials floated the idea but no formal requests were made. more...
Feds take over mortgage lender IndyMac. May become most expensive bank
collapse ever CNN Money
(July 12,
2008) - In what could turn out to be the most expensive bank
failure ever, troubled mortgage lender IndyMac Bank was taken over by
federal regulators on Friday. The operations of the Pasadena,
Calif.-based bank - once one of the nation's largest home lenders - were
shut down at 3 p.m. by the Office of Thrift Supervision and transferred
to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. According to the FDIC, 10,000
IndyMac customers could lose as much as $500 million in uninsured
deposits. The agency says the failure will cost the Deposit Insurance
Fund between $4 billion and $8 billion, based on preliminary estimates.
"It's possible this will be the most costly bank failure in history, but
it's too soon to say," FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said in a conference
call late Friday night. The failure could also affect premiums paid by
all banks for deposit insurance, she added. IndyMac, with assets of
$32.01 billion and deposits of $19.06 billion, is the fifth bank to fail
this year. Between 2005 and 2007, only three banks failed. And in the
past 15 years, the FDIC has taken over 127 banks with combined assets of
$22 billion, according to FDIC records. "There will be increased
failures, but it will be within range of what we can handle," Bair said.
"People should not worry." IndyMac marks the largest bank collapse since
1984, when Continental Illinois, which had $40 billion in assets,
failed, according to FDIC records. The two most expensive failures were
in 1988: American Savings and Loan Association in California ($5.4
billion) and involved First Republic Bank in Texas ($4 billion).
more...
Congress' approval plunges to 9 percent
WorldNet Daily (July 8, 2008)
- A major tracking poll for the first time shows Americans' approval of
Congress has dipped below 10 percent.
The most recent Rasmussen Reports survey calculates a mere 9 percent
say Congress is doing a good or excellent job, while a majority of
Americans, 52 percent, believe it is doing a poor job, which also ties a
record high. Against President Bush's much-publicized poor approval
ratings, today's poll shows Congress' numbers have plunged to less than
a third of the president's. The Democrat-controlled Congress enjoys its
highest rating among Democrat respondents, 13 percent of whom rated the
Congress favorably. Only 8 percent of Republicans were willing to say
Congress is doing a good job, while an almost non-existent 3 percent of
unaffiliated voters gave Congress a positive rating. The polling company
also asked respondents if they thought Congress has passed any
legislation in the last six months to improve life in the U.S.. Just 12
percent said yes, while 62 percent said Congress has done nothing to
improve life in America. A further 55 percent said it was unlikely that
Congress would do anything in the near future to address
important problems facing the nation. Despite dismal ratings for the
Democratic Congress,
another Rasmussen Report released today shows Americans are
unwilling to vote the majority party out of office. When given the
choice, 47 percent of voters said they would vote for their district's
Democratic candidate, while 34 percent said they would vote Republican.
In a related Rasmussen Reports survey, Democratic presidential candidate
Barack Obama holds a 6 percent lead over rival John McCain (46 percent
to 40 percent) in a poll released today, and President Bush scored a 32
percent approval rating in a poll released last week.
Report: Emirates calls on GCC countries to depeg currencies from US
dollar The Jerusalem Post (July
6, 2008)
- A newspaper in the United Arab Emirates says the tiny Gulf state's
government is lobbying neighboring countries to depeg their currencies
from the US dollar to curb inflation. The National, which is owned by
the Abu Dhabi ruling family, reported Sunday that the UAE is calling on
all six Gulf Cooperation Council member states to "rethink" their
monetary policy amid soaring inflation in the oil-rich region. It cited
an internal report by Abu Dhabi's Department of Planning and Economy.
The GCC members are Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab
Emirates, Bahrain and Oman. All of their currencies are pegged to the
dollar except Kuwait, which depegged its currency, the dinar, from the
dollar in May 2007 in favor of a basket of currencies. Satan Now Appearing Naked In Human History? Constance Cumbey (July 3, 2008) - From time to time I have seriously recommended Fr. Seraphim Rose's excellent book. It is published by the St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood. It is entitled Orthodoxy And The Religion of the Future. He wrote the book from a Russian Orthodox perspective, but with a directness and a clarity that will benefit all seeking the truth. I wish I could have discussed the book with its author, but he died of pneumonia in a San Francisco hospital in 1982, the year my own work went national. A friend of mine, Marie Fisher, who then lived in Seattle checked the group out for me on a trip she made in the late 1980s to northern California. The difficult primitive living conditions of the author's monastic order no doubt made him more susceptible to the pneumonia that claimed him. He undoubtedly saw the same trends I viewed then with alarm -- the alarm that caused me to write The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow. He wrote that the years ahead promised to be more terrible than anyone could comprehend -- "it would appear that Satan is now entering naked into human history." Today, ABC news reported a startling story. (WorldNet Daily story here) I don't know how much notice it obtained -- I had no opportunity to watch the news apart from just grasping what I could on the internet before retiring for the night (ok, the rest of the early morning at least -- it is now nearly 1 a.m.!). A former local Democratic party leader for Durham, North Carolina was arrested along with her husband. She was reportedly a former Vice-Chairman. Both were accused of torture and sex crimes through their Order of the Golden Dawn type Satanic cult, Order of the Morning Star. Pictures shown on the TV clip further indicated a link to something calling itself "Indigo Dawn." Here is a link to its site. You may view it for yourself by going to ABC News and viewing "world news" videos. It was further alleged that the couple trapped, chained and starved their victims first. This local Democratic party leader was an activist in the New Age Movement. She headed the local UN association. She wrote articles claiming that she had been told by her spirit guides that her role was to help usher in the New Age. Her articles detailing that may be read by clicking here. Here is a particularly interesting excerpt:
I wonder what Fr.
Seraphim Rose would have said about that? I suspect he would not be
surprised. I also suspect he would tell us we should face these times
with prayerful sobriety. I further wonder how his religious order is
faring in the Northern California fires? Perilous times are clearly
here. Stay tuned!
U.S. and EU near deal on sharing data
International Herald Tribune
(June 28, 2008) - The United States and the
European Union are nearing completion of an agreement that would allow
law enforcement and security agencies to obtain private information -
including credit card transactions, travel histories and Internet
browsing habits - about people on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Seeking to improve information-sharing to fight crime and terrorism,
government officials have been meeting since February 2007 to reach a
pact. Europe generally has more-stringent laws restricting how
governments and businesses can collect and transfer personal data, which
have led to high-profile disputes over American demands for such
information. Negotiators have largely agreed on draft language for 12
major issues that are central to a "binding international agreement"
making clear that it is lawful for European governments and companies to
transfer personal information to the United States, and vice-versa,
according to an internal report obtained by The New York Times. American
and European Union officials are trying to head off future
confrontations "by finding common ground on privacy and by agreeing not
to impose conflicting obligations on private companies," said Stewart
Baker, the assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Homeland
Security, who is involved in the talks. "Globalization means that more
and more companies are going to get caught between U.S. and European
law." Paul Schwartz, a law professor at the University of California,
Berkeley, said such a blanket agreement could transform international
privacy law by eliminating a problem that has led to negotiations of
"staggering" complexity between Europe and the United States. "The
reason it's a big deal is that it is going to lower the whole
transaction cost for the U.S. government to get information from
Europe," Schwartz said. "Most of the negotiations will already be
completed. They will just be able to say, 'Look, we provide adequate
protection, so you're required to turn it over."' But the prospect that
the agreement might lower barriers to sending personal information to
the U.S. government has alarmed privacy-rights advocates in Europe. The
Bush administration and the European Commission, the EU's executive
body, have not publicized the talks. But in a little-noticed paragraph
deep in a joint statement following a summit meeting between President
George W. Bush and European leaders in Slovenia this month, the leaders
hailed their progress. Issued June 10, the statement declared that "the
fight against transnational crime and terrorism requires the ability to
share personal data for law enforcement," and it called for the creation
of a "binding international agreement" to facilitate such transfers
while also ensuring that citizens' privacy is "fully" protected. In
addition, businesses that operate on both sides of the Atlantic are
pushing to eliminate the prospect of getting caught between conflicting
legal obligations. "This will require compromise," said Peter Fleischer,
the global privacy counsel for Google. "It will require people to agree
on a framework that balances two conflicting issues - privacy and
security. "But the need to develop that kind of framework is becoming
more important as more data moves onto the Internet and circles across
the global architecture." more...
Muslim Terrorists May Be Trying To Sink the Dollar
Israel National
News
(June 27, 2008) -
Mujahideen Muslim terrorists may be behind the sinking American dollar
as part of a campaign to cripple the American economy, the Middle East
Media Research Institute (MEMRI)
reported. The media watch group, which specializes in tracking Arabic
language websites, said that postings on websites the past two years
reflect a move toward waging an economic war against the United States.
Mujahideen terrorist groups that operate in Afghanistan, Pakistan and
other countries "have come to the conclusion that it is financial,
rather than military, losses that will prompt the U.S. to change its
policies in the Middle East and elsewhere," according to MEMRI. An
article recently posted in Sada Al-Jihad (Echo of Jihad) magazine and
posted on several Muslim websites, discusses the September 11, 2001
attacks on the U.S. as having influenced the decline in the dollar. It
also cited the cost of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan as draining the
American economy. Another recent posting stated, "The dollar can expect
two additional blows that will break its back... [namely] the
announcement of the return of the [religious rule of the] Caliphate..."
and the reinstatement of the gold standard in international monetary
trade. It urged Mujahideen "to get rid of American dollars" before an
"imminent" terrorist attack that "will put an end to the so-called
United States of America and destroy its economy completely." MEMRI
concluded, "Given that it is highly atypical for Al-Qaeda to give prior
warning of its attacks, the message is probably an attempt to pressure
Muslims to sell dollars, in order to generate pessimism in the dollar
market and thus accelerate the drop in its value."
PLO Sees Bush's Exit as Chance for EU To Take Over
One News Now
(June 24, 2008) - Hind Khoury, French
ambassador of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said Monday
that next year's exit of American President George W. Bush from office
will allow France and the rest of the European Union (EU) to exercise a
more powerful role in the Middle East. Khoury noted that French
diplomats have expressed they are prepared to "shake hands with
Hizbullah." French President Nicolas Sarkozy met on Monday with
Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders, including Khoury, at the French
consulate in Jerusalem.
Chinese renew interest in U.S. property
Reuters
(June 23, 2008) - Chinese interest in U.S.
commercial property is back, and this time Chinese investors may become
significant players as the nation devises a vehicle to divert large
amounts of funds for foreign investment, a Cushman & Wakefield executive
said on Monday. Flush with dollars from a huge trade imbalance, Chinese
sovereign wealth funds are beginning to test the waters in New York real
estate, said Scott Latham, executive vice president, Capital Markets
group for real estate services company Cushman & Wakefield. "They are
coming. We've seen them in the bidding process over the past four months
on a number of assets we've handled," Latham said at the Reuters Global
Real Estate Summit in New York. They were recently among the throng of
bidders for three of seven former Equity Office properties marketed
after Harry Macklowe defaulted on loans he used to buy them last year,
he said. Latham is one of the most powerful commercial real estate
brokers in Manhattan, the largest U.S. commercial real estate market. He
has shepherded deals such as the $1.72 billon sale of the MetLife
Building, the $1.8 billion sale of 666 Fifth Avenue and the $675 million
sale of The Plaza Hotel. "I think that unlike the Middle Eastern
sovereign wealth funds, they have not yet figured out an efficient way
to get the money out of their country," he said. Back in the depths of
the real estate depression in the early 1990s, private individuals from
Hong Kong were big players in New York real estate. A group headed by
Henry Cheng, for example, was able to buy a distressed loan and control
of the property from Donald Trump for less than $100 million along the
West Side and make a killing when they recently sold it for $1.8
billion. "Almost every one of those investments was an absolute home
run," Latham said. more... Religious Americans: My faith isn't the only way One News Now (June 23, 2008) - America remains a deeply religious nation, but a new survey finds most Americans don't believe their tradition is the only way to eternal life -- even if the denomination's teachings say otherwise. The findings, revealed Monday in a survey of 35,000 adults, can either be taken as a positive sign of growing religious tolerance, or disturbing evidence that Americans dismiss or don't know fundamental teachings of their own faiths. Among the more startling numbers in the survey, conducted last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: 57 percent of evangelical church attenders said they believe many religions can lead to eternal life, in conflict with traditional evangelical teaching. In all, 70 percent of Americans with a religious affiliation shared that view, and 68 percent said there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of their own religion. "The survey shows religion in America is, indeed, 3,000 miles wide and only three inches deep," said D. Michael Lindsay, a Rice University sociologist of religion. "There's a growing pluralistic impulse toward tolerance and that is having theological consequences," he said. Earlier data from the Pew Forum's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, released in February, highlighted how often Americans switch religious affiliation. The newly released material looks at religious belief and practice as w |
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