Posted by seumasach on April 29, 2012
Pakistan Observer
Kwasi Kwarteng
29th April, 2012
THE Arab Spring, the threat of Iran as an emerging nuclear power, the continuing violence in Syria and the American reluctance to get involved there have all signalled the weakness, if not the end, of America’s role as a world policeman. President Obama himself said in a speech last year: “America cannot use our military wherever repression occurs.” America’s position today reminds me of Britain’s situation in 1945. Deep in debt and committed to building its National Health Service and other accoutrements of the welfare state, Britain no longer could afford to run an empire.
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Posted in Multipolar world | Tagged: End of empire | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on April 29, 2012
Telegraph
28th April, 2012
Fears for a slide in property values emerged after new figures revealed last week that the UK has “double-dipped” into a fresh downturn.
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Posted in UK economy | Tagged: bankrupt Britain, housing slump | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on April 28, 2012
He batted in particular as the leader of BRICS. But hardly had Mukherjee landed back in the Indian capital, news broke that Standard & Poor has lowered India’s sovereign credit outlook to ‘negative’ from ‘stable’. Within hours, bonds fell in Mumbai, stocks declined and the rupee slumped.
It is indeed no surprise that the empire seeks to punish those who challenge it, but the West’s game is far too transparent, far too bereft of finesse to impress anyone. S&P have no serious standing as they are entirely at the service of the Wall Street/City of London gang whose game is reduced to a series of entirely predictable moves which the whole world is learning to counter. Look to the establishment of new rating agencies, perhaps on the basis of Euro-Brics collaboration over the next year or two.
M.K.Bhadrakumar
Indrus
26th April, 2012
‘What goes up must come down’ is an elementary principle in physics ever since Isaac Newton wrote about the law of gravity. But the variant, ‘The feather in the wind will come to earth’, may in this case be more applicable. From various accounts, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee seemed a star performer at the meetings of the finance ministers of the World Bank, IMF and the G24 – and the BRICS, of course – in Washington. Things were looking really good.
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Posted in Multipolar world | Tagged: BRICS(Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa), european rating agency, rating agencies | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on April 28, 2012
Kaveh Afrasiabi
Asia Times
28th April, 2012
With less than a month to the much-anticipated meeting in Baghdad between Iran and the “P5+1” nations, indications are that the two sides are seriously contemplating successful talks that could yield a mutually acceptable breakthrough and pave the way to a gradual resolution of the Iran nuclear crisis.
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Posted by seumasach on April 28, 2012
Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
28th April, 2012
Goldman Sachs – via economist Jim O’Neill – invented the concept of a rising new bloc on the planet: BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa). Some cynics couldn’t help calling it the “Bloody Ridiculous Investment Concept.”
Not really. Goldman now expects the BRICS countries to account for almost 40% of global gross domestic product (GDP) by 2050, and to include four of the world’s top five economies.
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Posted in Battle for Europe, Drive to Global War, Multipolar world, New Cold War | Tagged: BRICS(Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa), EuroBrics, Zbigniew Brzezinski | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on April 28, 2012
Telegraph
27th April, 2012
The final-salary pensions shortfall of the FTSE 350 companies has swollen from £20bn at the end of March 2011 to £80bn at the end of last month, according to pensions firm Hymans Robertson.
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Posted in UK economy | Tagged: dwindling pensions | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on April 28, 2012
PressTV
28th April, 2012
“I think that the banking system situation breaches the IMF Charter, which demands that all of IMF member states ensure uninterrupted bank services to trade and economic contacts,” Lavrov said in an interview with the Russia 24 on Friday.
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Posted in Iran | Tagged: Russian diplomacy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on April 27, 2012
Market Watch
22nd March, 2012
SYDNEY — Australia’s central bank Thursday signed a currency swap deal with the People’s Bank of China, in another example of the growing internationalization of China’s currency and the burgeoning trade links between both countries.
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Posted in Currency Wars, Multipolar world | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on April 26, 2012
Huffington Post
25th April, 2012
JERUSALEM — Israel’s military chief said in an interview published Wednesday that Iran will ultimately decide against building a nuclear weapon – putting him at odds with Israel’s more pessimistic prime minister.
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Posted in Iran | Tagged: End of empire | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on April 26, 2012
‘Economists are scared’
Lars Schall
Asia Times
37th April, 2012
Recently, I had published at Asia Times Online an exclusive investigation, Insider Trading 9/11 … The Facts Laid Bare (March 21, 2012).
In this article I presented evidence of informed trading activities prior to the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 on areas of New York City and Washington that resulted in the death of 2,996 people, including the 19 hijackers of four commercial jets. (The four aircraft hijacked on September 11 were American Airlines Flight 11, American Airlines Flight 77 and UAL flights 175 and 93.)
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: 9/11, 9/11 commission, 9/11 put options | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on April 25, 2012
New York Mag
24th April, 2012
The high-stakes game of lost-and-found for the missing $1.6 billion MF Global funds apparently reached a conclusion on Tuesday.
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Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: financial fraud, MF Global | Leave a Comment »
In These New Times 