Posted by seumasach on December 28, 2010
These are some of the hidden debts which make Britain the world’s leading economic basket case, its AAA rating notwithstanding. Here we have a cool £15,000 per head for a lot of tenth rate new schools and hospitals some of which are unlikely to be still standing while the debt is still being paid off.
27th December, 2010
Posted in UK economy | Tagged: "public private partnership" | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on December 28, 2010
Posted in Ecological and Public Health Crisis | Tagged: swine flu | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on December 28, 2010
3rd December, 2010
Al-Manar, television station affiliated with Hezbollah, rendered a detailed account of the revelations made by Russian magazine Odnako regarding the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.
Posted in Drive to Global War | Tagged: Hariri assasination | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on December 28, 2010
25th December, 2010
South Africa announced on Friday it has been formally invited to join the Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) group of key emerging nations, bolstering its image as the economic gateway to Africa.
Posted in Multipolar world | Tagged: BRIC alliance, BRICS(Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on December 28, 2010
Because many of the larger banks are now in good health and have been able to repay bailout funds, the TARP program may itself not turn out to be as large a burden on taxpayers as once feared. According tothe New York Times, the program — which ended this fall — could end up costing “a fraction” of the original cost, “and could conceivably earn taxpayers a profit.”The larger banks are not, of course, in good health- they are insolvent and we await merely for the day when the true state of Anglo-American finance can no longer be concealed.
More collapsing banks could mean more ‘too big to fail’ banks
The $700-billion bank bailout, launched in the final months of the Bush administration, was meant to save US financial institutions from a systemic collapse. But an analysis of banks’ earnings statements concludes that nearly 100 bailed-out banks are at risk of collapsing all the same.
Despite receiving a total of $4.2 billion in bailout cash, 98 US banks are at risk of failing, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The banks are suffering from “eroding capital levels, a pileup of bad loans and warnings from regulators,” the Journal reports, and the nature of the problem indicates that these banks were in trouble before the 2008 crisis hit — a sign that the US’s regulatory structure for banks may have been insufficient for years or decades before the collapse.
So far, seven bailed-out banks have already collapsed, costing taxpayers $2.7 billion. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by seumasach on December 28, 2010
Stephen Gowans
24th December, 2010
There are three key facts that place the brinkmanship being played out on the Korean peninsula into perspective. With these facts providing the context, the recent behavior of south Korea is revealed to be that of a local bully acting on behalf of a much larger global one.
Canadian journalist Stephen Gowans dissects the fast-unraveling crisis between the two Koreas.
The first key fact is that north Korea is a military pipsqueak in comparison with the militaries that have taken an actively hostile stance towards it. South Korea’s military budget is many times larger than north Korea’s, and the south Korean military is integrated into the world’s preeminent military machine, the US armed forces. Close to 30,000 US troops are stationed on Korean soil; 40,000 in nearby Japan can be deployed quickly to increase US military power on the peninsula. US submarines lurk on the edges of north Korea’s territorial waters. US spy planes fly high over its territory. And US strategic nuclear missiles are targeted on north Korean sites. To think that north Korea poses a danger to south Korea is to think that a flyweight boxer is a threat to a middleweight backed by the world’s superheavyweight champion. The best a flyweight can do is strike back if attacked and inflict some damage, knowing he’ll be pulverized in the conflict.
Posted in Drive to Global War | Tagged: korea | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on December 28, 2010
In the year 2010, the leaders of all of the permanent members of the security council of the United Nations visited India. President Obama of America, President Medvedev of Russia, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China, President Sarkozy of France, and Prime Minister David Cameron of the UK. It is obvious that India’s importance in the world in transition from a unipolar to a multipolar world is rapidly growing. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by smeddum on December 28, 2010
Posted in Financial crisis | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on December 28, 2010
By Ian Hamilton QC
The News of the World has at last won its vendetta against a left wing politician. It has done so with the connivance of the Lord Advocate. If at first you don’t succeed keep trying. Scottish justice has notched up another political miscarriage of justice alongside that of Al Megrahi and Muir of Huntershill. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Tommy Sheridan | 3 Comments »
Posted by seumasach on December 28, 2010
Netfa Freeman
14th December, 2010
When Zimbabwe initiated fast track land redistribution in 2000 it was big news for corporate media to echo several patented denunciations, characterizing the process as rife with corruption, violence, and inefficiency and doomed to fail. More than eager to join the fray was the liberal left whose pseudo analysis reiterated the same line accompanied by an aversion to anything that seemed even remotely favorable to Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU PF party.
Posted in Zimbabwe | Tagged: End Zimbabwe sanctions | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on December 28, 2010
28th December, 2010
A Senior Iranian lawmaker has reiterated that Britain’s failure to tolerate non-political protest rallies flies in the face of its claim of advocating human rights.
Chairman of Iran’s Majlis (parliament) Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy Alaeddin Boroujerdi made the remarks in reference to the violent suppression by British police of student protesters that rallied against government plans to cut state financing of university education and raising tuitions three fold.
The Iranian lawmaker urged the British government to reconsider its aggressive approach in dealing with student protesters, saying,” Britain cannot even tolerate non-political and union protests.”
Such conduct reflects the notion that countries like the US and UK only think about their own interests with no regard for public interest, Boroujerdi told IRNA on Monday.
“That’s why a selective approach dominates their policies and when dealing with issues such as human rights, terrorism and even drug smuggling, they follow this double-standard policy,” Boroujerdi stressed.
Massive student protest rallies, which even brought ordinary people to the streets, did not stop British officials from carrying through with their “reform” plans.
The student protests started in November and left more than 43 protesters injured and another 40 arrested.
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In These New Times 