In These New Times

A new paradigm for a post-imperial world

Tread softly, US-Russia dalliance is resuming

Posted by seumasach on April 3, 2013

M.K.Bhadrakumar

Indian Punchline

2nd April, 2013

The Russian-American dalliance is one of the most enchanting moments for any longtime observer of the tumultuous relationship. Things can be very misleading unless one goes real slow in making judgments. To be sure, our pundits who see the spectre that is haunting India to be a Sino-Russian alliance and the antidote being anIndian alliance with the US and Japan had better take out their abacus for a quick recount. Great-power politics never runs along straight lines. In fact, the curves are what really matter.

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Time bomb to the next crash

Posted by seumasach on April 2, 2013

Time bomb to the next crash is ticking as debt sales surge

Telegraph

1st April, 2013

When dotcoms crashed, sub-prime imploded and banks collapsed it was not hard to find the markets’ Cassandras who had spotted the problem and either made millions betting against the bubble or written a book explaining how it was all going to go wrong.

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The other currency war

Posted by seumasach on March 31, 2013

Dollar Collapse

29th March, 2013

Most of the recent “currency war” talk refers to countries trying to lower the value of their currencies to gain a trade advantage and/or make their debts more manageable. But this war has another theater, where a weaker currency is not the main goal.

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EU aims to take bailout pressure off taxpayers

Posted by seumasach on March 31, 2013

“We want to reach a situation where taxpayers no longer have to pay for the banks,” said a spokeswoman for Barnier Tuesday.

Amidst the near universal condemnation of the Cyprus “bailout” it is necessary to point out that it is not a bailout. A bailout is what happened in the UK in 2008 when massive amounts of public money were given to banks without conditions. The Cypriot banks have not been indulged in this way: one of them no longer exists and the other has been completely restructured. Behind all this is the strategic thinking of Michel Barnier: nemesis of Anglo-Saxon finance.

EU Business

27th March, 2013

(BRUSSELS) – The Cyprus debt rescue and its ‘bail-in’ provision to make large bank depositors pay part of the cost is largely in line with European Commission plans to ensure taxpayers no longer carry the can when banks fail.

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Opposition leader denounces Turkey’s Syria policy

Posted by seumasach on March 31, 2013

‘Turkey shot self in foot with its hostile anti-Syria policy’

PressTV

30th March, 2013

The leader of Turkey’s main opposition party Kemal Kilicdaroglu says that Ankara has shot itself in the foot with its hostile anti-Syria policy.

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Has the Arab League mortally wounded itself by declaring war on Syria?

Posted by seumasach on March 30, 2013

ABNA

30th March, 2013

Frankly, it never was much of a “League” of Arab states. And arguably it never really achieved a whole lot but two dozen lavish ‘summits’ offering inflated rhetoric, often calculated to assuage the Arab people about their central cause, Palestine. 

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Armistice agreement withdrawal: North Korean belligerence?

Posted by seumasach on March 30, 2013

Stephen Gowans

What’s Left

18th March, 2013

Why has North Korea withdrawn from an armistice agreement that has kept overt hostilities on the Korean peninsula at bay since 1953? Does the withdrawal portend an imminent North Korean aggression? Hardly. North Korea is in no position to launch an attack on its Korean neighbour, or on the United States, at least not one that it would survive. North Korean forces are dwarfed by the US and South Korean militaries in size, sophistication and fire-power. The withdrawal serves, instead, as a signal of North Korean resolve to defend itself against growing US and South Korean harassment, both military and economic.

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France backtracks on arming Syria’s rebels

Posted by seumasach on March 29, 2013

Al Jazeera

29th March, 2013

France will uphold the EU embargo on weapon deliveries for Syrian rebels after all, changing course from just two weeks ago, according to comments by President Francois Hollande.

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FBI arrests al-Qaeda-linked US army veteran

Posted by seumasach on March 29, 2013

FBI arrests al-Qaeda-linked US army veteran as he returns from Turkey

Hurriyet

29th March, 2013

FBI agents have arrested a U.S. army veteran at Dulles International Airport in Virginia as he was returning from Turkey on accusations that he joined an al-Qaeda-linked group in Syria.

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Egan-Jones downgrades UK to A+ from AA-

Posted by seumasach on March 29, 2013

Nasdaq

27th March, 2013

FXstreet.com (San Francisco) – Egan-Jones, the independent agency, has decided to cut down its United Kingdom sovereign debt rating from AA- to A+.

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5th BRICS Summit- Declaration

Posted by seumasach on March 28, 2013

This statement is well worth reading in its entirety as an outline of the emerging trends of the coming years as seen by the emerging powers

V Cúpula do BRICS – Durban, 27 de março de 2013 – Declaração de eThekwini

27th March, 2013

Itamaraty

Versão em português será divulgada oportunamente)

1. We, the leaders of the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Russian Federation, the Republic of India, the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of South Africa, met in Durban, South Africa, on 27 March 2013 at the FifthBRICS Summit. Our discussions took place under the overarching theme, “BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Development, Integration and Industrialisation”. The Fifth BRICS Summit concluded the first cycle of BRICSSummits and we reaffirmed our commitment to the promotion of international law, multilateralism and the central role of the United Nations (UN). Our discussions reflected our growing intra-BRICS solidarity as well as our shared goal to contribute positively to global peace, stability, development and cooperation. We also considered our role in the international system as based on an inclusive approach of shared solidarity and cooperation towards all nations and peoples.

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