Posted by smeddum on September 17, 2009
Ghost Towns May Haunt Ireland in Property Loan Gamble (Update2)
By Dara Doyle
Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) — The skeleton of an eight-story Dublin office block lays deserted on the north bank of the River Liffey, just next to the financial district that less than two years ago was the heart of Ireland’s economic boom. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: Ireland | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on September 16, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
“You Have to Learn Lessons from History” by Cindy Sheehan
Cindysheehan.soapbox
I was just watching a report on CNN and after the commentator said that support for Afghanistan is rapidly dwindling (58 percent now think it’s not worth fighting), an interview with Obama was shown.
The interviewer asked the president if he was afraid that because war-weary America is growing impatient with the wars, that failing to withdraw and, in fact, sending more troops would look like what Johnson did in Vietnam, and therefore make Obama a “One term president.” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Afghanistan, Drive to Global War | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on September 16, 2009
Tues Sept 15
By Juan Lagorio
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc customers defaulted on their credit card debts in August at the highest rates since the onset of the recession, a sign that the banks’ consumer lending woes are far from over. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: phony recovery | 1 Comment »
Posted by smeddum on September 15, 2009
The New York Times‘ Ross Douthat argues, uncontroversially, that the tea-party protests, townhall outbursts and related appendages aren’t about specific health care proposals but, instead, are motivated by a more generalized anger over what is happening in Washington:
At the same time, [the health care protests have] become the vessel for a year’s worth of anxieties about bailouts, deficits and Beltway incompetence.
This August’s town-hall fury wasn’t just about the details of health care. Neither were the anti-Obama protests that crowded Washington over the weekend. They were about the Wall Street bailout, the G.M. takeover, the A.I.G. bonuses, and countless smaller examples of middle-income Americans’ “playing by the rules,” as [GOP pollster Frank] Luntz puts it, “and having someone else benefit.” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: bailout, Health Care Reform, neo-feudalism, Tea parties | 2 Comments »
Posted by smeddum on September 15, 2009
The drug industry’s trade group plans to roll out a series of television advertisements in coming weeks specifically to support Senator Max Baucus’s health care overhaul proposal, according to an industry official involved in the planning.
via Drug Makers to Back Baucus Plan With Ad Dollars – Prescriptions Blog – NYTimes.com.
I’ve been completely out of the loop with the health care story these last week and half or so, out of touch actually with the entire earth (I’ve been on a deadline on another story), but upon returning to work today I began getting calls about some alarming maneuverings in congress. We’re apparently finally seeing delivery of the Big Bribe that President Obama and Rahm Emanuel extracted from that pharmaceutical industry in exchange for dropping drug-pricing reform in the health care bill. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Ecological and Public Health Crisis | Tagged: Health Reform Bill, Matt Taibbi | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on September 15, 2009
Posted in Financial crisis, Multipolar world | Tagged: BRIC alliance | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on September 15, 2009
Is Karzai’s massive election fraud the final nail in the COIN strategy’s coffin?
Has the U.S. lost the Afghan war, even before President Obama’s “surge” is plugged in and the “COIN” strategy is put in place?
“Clear, hold, and build”: – that’s the “new” counterinsurgency doctrine [.pdf] being touted by the Center for a New American Strategy (CNAS), Obama’s favorite national security think-tank, as the salvation of our faltering Afghan campaign. The idea is to build “democratic” institutions and give the Afghans a stake in defending their government and society from the Taliban onslaught that is supposedly threatening them at every turn. Yet what if their democracy turns out to be not worth defending? What if their president, a preening fashion plate with ties to organized crime figures (including his brother), decided to steal an election, proclaim himself chief of state in spite of massive evidence of election fraud, and refused to even speak to his American sponsors, let alone go along with a U.S.-brokered compromise with his chief election rival? Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by smeddum on September 15, 2009
US troops ‘stormed through Afghan hospital’
By Kay Johnson, Associated Press
Monday, 7 September 2009
A Swedish charity accused American troops today of storming through a hospital in central Afghanistan, breaking down doors and tying up staff in a search for militants. The US military said it was investigating. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Afghanistan | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on September 14, 2009
14/9/o9
The ‘ghost fleet’ near Singapore. The world’s ship owners and government economists would prefer you not to see this symbol of the depths of the plague still crippling the world’s economies. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: shipping crisis | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on September 14, 2009
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: derivatives, Max Keiser | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on September 14, 2009
Derivatives still pose huge risk, says BIS
The global market for derivatives rebounded to $426 trillion in the second quarter as risk appetite returned, but the system remains unstable and prone to crises, according to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor
13 Sep 2009
Telegraph
US insurer AIG was able to write nearly “half a trillion dollars” of unhedged insurance through credit default swaps
The BIS said in its quarterly report that total turnover of derivatives rose 16pc, mostly due to a surge in futures and options contracts on three-month interest rates. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: derivatives | Leave a Comment »
In These New Times 
