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Archive for January, 2009

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Israel war crimes case gains momentum

Posted by seumasach on January 24, 2009

PressTV

24th January, 2009

The case for Israeli war crimes in Gaza gathers momentum as a prominent UN official calls for legal action against the assault architects. 

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A crazy, exhausting week- A great report on unfolding Icelandic drama!

Posted by seumasach on January 24, 2009

Iceland Weather Report

24th January, 2009

TUESDAY – major protests begin. People gather in front of the parliament buildings at 1.30 pm and bang pots and pans and drums and generally make as much noise as possible in order to disrupt parliament and get MPs to listen to the people. Rather than dissipating after an hour or two, protester numbers increase as the day wears on. There are clashes with police and people are incensed, particularly as parliament’s agenda has nothing to do with the economic situation but rather includes such relative trivia as selling liquor in supermarkets and what to do about smoking areas in restaurants. By eveningthere are around 3,000 people in front of the building. Protesters light a fire on the street in front and throw anything they can find to burn onto it. The riot police is out. Some protesters go out of their way to provoke a reaction from the cops, throwing eggs at them, banging wooden spoons on their helmets, spitting, etc. The building, too, is pelted with food and windows are broken.

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Darling kept in dark as FSA lifted ban on short-selling

Posted by smeddum on January 24, 2009

Larry Elliott and Jill Treanor
The Guardian
 Thursday 22 January 2009;

A rift has opened up between the government and the financial authorities after a furious Alistair Darling was kept in the dark over the lifting of the ban on short-selling, which may have contributed to this week’s tumultuous crash in the value of banking shares. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Great Crash of 2008

Posted by smeddum on January 24, 2009

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What’s really wrong with Sterling?

Posted by smeddum on January 24, 2009

 

The pound is suffering its worst ever fall in value. Why is it happening and what are the implications? Edmund Conway, Economics Editor, has the answers

 

Last Updated: 10:57AM GMT 23 Jan 2009

What's really wrong with Sterling?

Taking a pounding: UK currency is in crisis

How bad is this fall in the pound? In a word: hideous.

Measured against a basket of other currencies – the best way in this globalised era to test a currency’s strength – the pound has fallen in the past year by around a quarter.

This is more than any previous devaluation in the past century – greater even than in 1931, when, under Ramsay MacDonald, the UK was forced to abandon the gold standard and saw the pound plummet by more than 24 per cent against the dollar. Greater than after Black Wednesday and the abandonment of the Exchange Rate Mechanism; worse than in 1967, when Harold Wilson was forced to make an extraordinary televised statement to the nation claiming that the “pound in your pocket” would not be worth any less after his devaluation. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Financial crisis | 1 Comment »

Abandoning euro is a nil sum game

Posted by smeddum on January 24, 2009

 

 

Irish Times 

 23/01/09

A decision to leave the euro zone would run the risk of Ireland being expelled from the EU, writes Jim O’Leary

MIGHT IRELAND abandon the euro? This question, the mere articulation of which would have invited ridicule a year ago, is now receiving some attention among international economic commentators. The reason is clear. A good, old-fashioned devaluation would be an obvious response to the awful conditions facing the economy, were this option available. Read the rest of this entry »

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Warning economic collapse

Posted by smeddum on January 24, 2009

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Russia deny NATO military supply lines

Posted by seumasach on January 23, 2009

Mathaba

MOSCOW, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) — “No official documents were submitted to Russia’s permanent mission in NATO certifying that Russia had authorized the United States and NATO to transport military supplies across the country,” Alexei Maslov was quoted commenting on some media reports, which cited Commander of the U.S. Central Command Gen. David Petraeus assaying that an agreement on alternative transit routes had been reached with Russia.

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Obama’s orders leave framework of torture, indefinite detention intact

Posted by seumasach on January 23, 2009

 

Tony Eley

WSWS

23rd January, 2009

On Thursday, President Barack Obama issued executive orders mandating the closure of the Guantánamo Bay prison camp in a year’s time, requiring that Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and military personnel follow the Army Field Manual’s prohibitions on torture, and closing secret CIA prisons overseas.

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Iceland’s government is on the point of collapse as angry protesters stake out the parliament in Reykjavik

Posted by seumasach on January 23, 2009

 

Eirikur Bergmann

Guardian

21st, January, 2009

While Barack Obama was being sworn in to office on Capitol Hill yesterday, the people of Iceland were starting the first revolution in the history of the republic. The word “revolution” might sound a bit of an overstatement, but given the calm temperament that usually prevails in Icelandic politics, the unfolding events represent, at the very least, a revolution in political activism.

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LaRouche Denounces Hyperinflationary Bail Out Scheme: “This is a Fraud!”

Posted by seumasach on January 23, 2009

 

January 21, 2009 (LPAC)–Yesterday, American statesman Lyndon LaRouche denounced the City of London’s continuing insistence on cooking up desperate bail-out schemes for the bankrupt international financial system, which they are trying to impose on the United States as well, such as the absurd idea of creating a “bad bank” loaded down with toxic assets. “This is a bunch of hyperinflationary nonsense,” LaRouche said. “We should put these things through bankruptcy reorganization.”

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