Posted by seumasach on September 18, 2010
Neil Faulkner
17th September, 2010
The aim of Operation Moshtarak in February was to capture the city of Marjah in Afghanistan’s war-torn Helmand province. Fifteen thousand troops, mainly American, British and Afghan, were to take on between 400 and 1,000 Taliban insurgents holed up in a city of 80,000 people.
Posted in Afghanistan | Tagged: End of empire | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 16, 2010
This looks like an outbreak of realism amongst the British elite but for the continued demonization of Iran who would be central to any resolution of the situation in Afghanistan. This could be interpreted as follows: they know the game is up in Afghanistan but they can’t do without an enemy, namely Iran and the “Islamic threat” in general. This ties in with the deployment of the imbecile Blair to hype the Iranian threat. So the message is that we have to withdraw from Afghanistan because we’re losing but the war against terror, i.e. Iran goes on. It remains to be seen whether they are mad enough to attack Iran: in all probability their bark is worse than their bite.
Eric Margolis
17th September, 2010
The London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), is the world’s leading think tank for military affairs. It represents the top echelon of defence experts, retired officers and senior military men, spanning the globe from the United States and Britain to China, Russia and India.
Posted in Afghanistan | Tagged: Afghanistan, End of empire, Iran | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 6, 2010
As the US/UK faces oblivion it is hardly coincidental that they are trying to reactivate a key “asset” with a view to stirring up further evil: I refer to the inimitable liar and charlatan Tony Blair who is not only still at large but is being presented as a senior statesman. This is the epitomy of desperation.
6th September, 2010
Some of the warning signs that indicate America’s fantastic fall from a First World nation include rising unemployment and poverty.
Posted in Iran | Tagged: economic collapse, End of empire | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 6, 2010
Note that 5% of Chinas currency reserves are held in pounds sterling, presumably received in payment for imports to Britain and reinvested in UK government bonds. The pound, like the dollar, acts as a reserve currency, a privilege as crucial to British prosperity as it is incompatible with quantitative easing i.e. money printing to fund UK debt. On the other hand, the programme of cuts which will hasten the collapse of Britian’s consumer economy, and hence of imports from China, will undermine the source of debt funding which that 5% represents. What a wonderful free ride we’ve had purchasing imports with pounds and seeing them reinvested on our government bonds and what a lamentable state we’ll be in as it comes to an end!
5th September, 2010
Roughly 65pc of China’s foreign currency reserves are held in dollars, according to a report. Photo: AFP The Chinese Government holds the largest stockpile of currency reserves at $2.45 trillion (£1.59 trillion), with 65pc held in dollars, 26pc in euros, 5pc in pounds, and 3pc in yen.
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Posted by seumasach on September 6, 2010
Mr Ferguson said the “Chimerica” marriage of recent years is on the rocks. China is no longer willing to fund the US Treasury bond market, cutting its share of holdings from 13pc to 10pc of the total debt stock.
While China must find ways to recycle its trade surplus and hold down the yuan, it is doing this by stockpiling commodities, buying hard assets around the world, or rotating into Asian bonds.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
5th September, 2010
“The US has run out of bullets,” said Nouriel Roubini, professor at New York University, and one of a caste of luminaries with grim forecasts at the annual Ambrosetti conference on Lake Como.
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Posted by seumasach on September 2, 2010
Posted in Afghanistan | Tagged: End of empire, Obama agenda | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 1, 2010
Paul Craig Roberts
31st August, 2010
Have economists made themselves irrelevant? If you have any doubts, have a look at the current issue of the magazine, International Economy, a slick endorsed by former Federal Reserve chairmen Paul Volcker and Alan Greenspan, by Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, by former Secretary of State George Shultz, and by the New York Times and Washington Post, both of which declare the magazine to be “ahead of the curve.”
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: End of empire | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on August 30, 2010
Posted in Drive to Global War | Tagged: End of empire | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on August 17, 2010
Without a revolution, Americans are history
Paul Craig Roberts
16th August, 2010
The United States is running out of time to get its budget and trade deficits under control. Despite the urgency of the situation, 2010 has been wasted in hype about a non-existent recovery. As recently as August 2 Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner penned a New York Times Column, “Welcome to the Recovery.”
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: End of empire | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on August 6, 2010
Paul Craig Roberts
31st July, 2010
It is not unusual for members of the diminishing upper middle class to drop $20,000 or $30,000 on a big wedding. But for celebrities this large sum wouldn’t cover the wedding dress or the flowers.
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: End of empire | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on August 5, 2010
Paul Craig Roberts
3rd August, 2010
It was 2017. Clans were governing America.
The first clans organized around local police forces. The conservatives’ war on crime during the late 20th century and the Bush/Obama war on terror during the first decade of the 21st century had resulted in the police becoming militarized and unaccountable.
As society broke down, the police became warlords. The state police broke apart, and the officers were subsumed into the local forces of their communities. The newly formed tribes expanded to encompass the relatives and friends of the police.
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In These New Times 