Weekday NEWS to Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.
Mon 05.11.2009
Cheney: Obama endangers the nation Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday continued his verbal attack against President Obama, saying that the country is more vulnerable to a potential terrorist attack since the Obama administration took power. Mr. Cheney said that administration's dismantling of many of the policies and protections instituted by President George W. Bush after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks - including the planned closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba and halting controversial prisoner interrogation techniques - have made the country more vulnerable to future attacks.
Liddy's urgent message on Middle East 'Read Aaron Klein's 'Late Great State of Israel' immediately' Everyone seeking to understand the urgent dangers facing Israel must immediately read the blockbuster new book "The Late Great State of Israel." So says radio host G. Gordon Liddy in an interview with the crucial book's author, WND Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein. The subtitle of Klein's book - released this past week as Israel celebrated its independence - reads, "How enemies within and without threaten the Jewish nation's survival." "The greatest threat, the one that magnifies all others exponentially, is that only a few in Israel or abroad are aware of the real extent of the dangers facing the Jewish country - both from within and without," writes Klein.
Westsound Bank of Bremerton, Wash., seized, sold Government regulators have seized Bremerton-based Westsound Bank and sold it to Kitsap Bank of Port Orchard, Wash. OLYMPIA, Wash. - Government regulators have seized Bremerton-based Westsound Bank and sold it to Kitsap Bank of Port Orchard, Wash. The state Department of Financial Institutions says Westsound Bank's main office and eight branches will open again on Monday, but some online banking services may not be available over the weekend. Officials point out that most bank deposits are insured by the federal government up to $250,000. State officials say they do not anticipate losses by Westsound Bank depositors. The state announced its seizure of Westsound Bank on Friday evening, citing "severe asset problems, significant losses and inadequate capital."
Don't Be Fooled by Inflation Strike up the band, boys, happy days are here again! Recently released short-term economic data, including unemployment claims, non-farm payrolls, home sales, and business spending, which had been so unambiguously horrific in February and March, are now just garden-variety awful. With the Wicked Witch of Depression now apparently crushed under the house of Obamanomics, the Munchkins of Wall Street have sounded the all clear, pushing the Dow Jones up 25% from its lows. But the premature conclusion of their Lollipop Guild economists, that the crash of 2008/2009 is now a fading memory, is just as delusional as their failure to see it coming in the first place.
Peter Schiff The Collapse Barely Begun 08 May 2009
Gold in the Face of Government Stupidity “Gold Isn’t Going To $2,000 An Ounce” is both the headline and the announcement of Jeff Clark at CaseyResearch.com, a conclusion he apparently reached after he “decided to take a fresh look at calculations that could be used to appraise gold’s upside potential.” Confirming rumors that I am “always disagreeable,” I am absolutely sure that gold will soar in price, as in To The Freaking Moon (TTFM), as a result of the fiscal and monetary malfeasance as we see today, as that is what has ALWAYS happened in the last 4,500 years of governments acting like grubby, corrupt morons, particularly when using a fiat currency, which always expands too, too much and for too, too long.
Gold $915, Silver $14, Dollar Index Falls, What Next? The euphoria of Wall Street over the bank stress tests and the mere $75 billion in new money required to shore up balance sheets failed to stop precious metals advancing again last week. Gold closed at $915 and silver above $14 an ounce, while the US dollar index fell to 82.4 below the level that some technical analysts held as being an important support. There is some logic in the contention that dollar weakness is due to stock market strength, with money coming out of bonds and cash and into equities. Last autumn the dollar rally and market crash showed that the reverse also seems to apply.
Upside Down Gold "The U.S. and world economies are on the threshold of a deflationary crash that will make the 1930s look like a boom. Gold will be the single best investment to own. Buy it now while it's still cheap."- John Exter . . . . At the bottom of the debt pyramid sits gold, the asset that needs no bank, Fed, or human "blessing" of any kind to be valued by both the individual and the banking system (although they hate to admit it) alike. Has the rush to gold started? Yes, but barely, because only recently have we seen a nation admit they are moving into gold. China and of course the gold bugs have been buying since the recent bottom in 2000, but this pales in comparison to what this writer sees ahead; now that the structure is failing, more and more nations, institutions, and individuals will be heading to the bottom for safety and liquidity (gold).
Gold and Economic Freedom: Reinterpreted for the 21st Century I do not profess that the main structural arguments of the following essay are mine. Rather they belong to a rather famous former Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve named Alan Greenspan as noted in his rather seminal 1966 essay titled “Gold and Economic Freedom”. However, I have taken the specific arguments of that very prescient essay and modified and reinterpreted them to fit into the contemporary situation of our current global and financial crisis.
All That Glitters is NOT Gold: the truth about counterfeit gold You probably remember movies about the Old West, wherein a shady-looking character would offer to exchange a gold coin for a horse, and the seller would bite down on the coin to verify its authenticity. That was about all you could do if you lacked proper assaying equipment and had to make a snap judgment: depend on your teeth to tell you whether the metal in your hand was sufficiently soft to be genuine gold. The bite test is actually a pretty good one since gold, despite being among the heaviest metals, is also very soft. If you chomp down and shatter a tooth, it ain't gold. But before you go munching on your coin collection, you might want to ask yourself, why bother? Well, because of the Internet.
Dollar Index May Extend Loss, Drop 5.7% The Dollar Index, which tracks the currency against those of six major trading partners, may slump a further 5.7 percent based on technical analysis, according to Forecast Pte in Singapore. The Index traded on ICE Futures in New York broke the 200- day moving average on May 8 and closed below it. The index also dropped through a major trend-line that ran from July 15 to Dec. 18 on the same day. "This is a very strong bearish signal," said Pak Lai Ng, a technical analyst at Forecast. "It is a corrective move from the major uptrend that began since March 2008."
What Recovery? . . . . A drop-headline put it in better perspective: “13.7 Million Americans Are Still Unemployed.” Elsewhere on the page, in the News Briefs section, a slightly more skeptical tone obtained: “As far as Wall Street is concerned there is no bad news anymore. At least for now, traders are seeing news about longtime trouble spots like banking and unemployment in a strictly positive light.” Not to impugn the sage judgment of traders or cast doubt on their prescience, but there must be at least twenty-five million homeowners who see things differently. Very differently. After all, how optimistic about the economy can one be if one owes $50,000 to $300,000 more on one’s home than it’s worth? A conservatively estimated third of U.S. homeowners are in this boat, and we doubt any of them are quite so confident as “Wall Street traders” that a recovery is at hand. To the contrary, Main Street remains deeply troubled by something that bullish traders are straining to ignore -- i.e., that a reported $12.8 trillion worth of fiscal and monetary stimulus has failed to lift the prices of homes by even a dime. Even worse, prices are continuing to fall.
Ron Paul:Stress Test is Propaganda 5/7/09
Geithner Plan Is An "Unconscionably Large" Rip-Off Jeffrey Sachs, one of the early critics of Tim Geithner's Public-Private Investment Partnership scheme, is admitting he was wrong about the program--it's far worse than he thought. The worst problem is that it is completely open to being scammed by banks because it allows the banks selling the toxic assets to be buyers as well. This creates the potential for a daisy-chain scam: a bank creates an off-balance-sheet entity that buys bad assets for far more than they're worth, using money borrowed from taxpayers. When the assets turn out to be worthless, the bank-created entity then defaults on the loan. Because the loan is non-recourse, the government is left holding the worthless assets and is out the entire amount of the loan. In effect, the plans lets banks write themselves checks straight from the US taxpayers.
Why The US Shouldn't Be An Active Bank Investor Matthew Yglesias is one of a number of pundits who think that if the US is going to own a big chunk of bank common stock -- and in the case of Citigroup they certainly will, perhaps not Bank of America though -- then it should act like any other big fund. Yglesias wants the US to be active, with board representation and a say in how the company is run. There's certainly something to be said for this idea from a fairness point of view. At least it seems fair. And he thinks that if the government were to remain a passive shareholder, it would be a strange institution where the largest shareholder remained passive.
Geithner's warning on speed of economic recovery US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said that there is a risk that US economic recovery could take a long time, but vowed to take all necessary steps to speed it up. "Well, that's the risk," Geithner said in a PBS television interview on Friday when asked if the recovery could take several years. "I mean, people -- economists generally worry that a recession that comes after a long period where people borrowed too much, banks took on too much risk -- requires a slower, longer recovery, because people have to reduce debt, they're going to have to save more," the treasury secretary pointed out.
Recovery Still Depends On Bold Actions, Officials Say With Banks Needing Less, Treasury Can Fund Other Fronts The Obama administration still plans to spend tens of billions of dollars reviving the nation's financial system, even after the government's unexpected finding that major banks need only a little bit more direct government aid. The initiatives being crafted include helping municipalities borrow money, providing insurers with new capital and after a long delay buying troubled assets from financial firms. Senior officials see signs that the recession may be bottoming out, but they say they continue to think big actions are necessary to spark an economic revival.
US banks claim line softened on $74bn US banks have been given government assurances they will be allowed to raise less than the $74.6bn in equity mandated by stress tests if earnings over the next six months outstrip regulators' forecasts, bankers said. The agreement, which was not mentioned when the government revealed the results on Thursday, means some banks may not have to raise as much equity through share issues and asset sales as the market is expecting. It could also increase the incentive for banks to book profits in the next two quarters.
The Big Lie: Stress Test Optimism Just Wall St. Propaganda, Former Bank Regulator Says Results of the stress test brought a collective sigh of relief from Washington D.C. to Wall Street Friday, and stocks were rallying again on a growing sense the financial crisis has past. Don't you believe it, says William Black, an Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri - Kansas City. "It's in the interest of the financial community to send this propaganda out," Black says. "It's remarkable not that they do it but that it still works." In other words, this isn't the first time we've been told "the crisis is over" and that "banks are well capitalized" - and probably won't be the last.
Banks Bludgeoned Fed Into $50+ Billion Of Stress-Test Concessions One reason the final stress test tab for the banks was lower than expected was that the banks persuaded the Fed to drastically reduce its estimate of capital shortfalls. Bank of America saved $20 billion this way. Citigroup saved $30 billion. The other reason was that the regulators ended up using "Tier 1" capital as the solvency metric instead of Tangible Common Equity. According to some estimates, this saved the banks $70 billion.
Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole? [note: homeschoolers - this is a satire, minor foul language]
Ailing Banks Need $75 Billion, U.S. Says After subjecting the nation's biggest banks to the most public scrutiny in decades, federal regulators ordered 10 of them on Thursday to raise a total of $75 billion in extra capital and gave the rest a clean bill of health. The long-awaited results of the "stress tests" set off an immediate scramble by major institutions for more capital. By June 8, they must give regulators their plans for raising the money, and raise it by November.
Enjoy the rally while it lasts - but expect to take a sucker punch Our delicious spring rally is nearing the limits. The 40pc rise on global bourses since March assumes that central banks have conjured away the debt overhang by slashing rates to zero and printing money. Nothing of the sort has occurred. Two thirds of the world economy will be in deflation by July. Bear market rallies can be explosive. Japan had four violent spikes during its Lost Decade (33pc, 55pc, 44pc, and 79pc). Wall Street had seven during the Great Depression, lasting 40 days on average. The spring of 1931 was a corker. James Montier at Société Générale said that even hard-bitten bears are starting to throw in the towel, suspecting that we really are on the cusp of new boom. That is a tell-tale sign.
Stress tests signal more intervention The stress tests on the 19 biggest US banks pave the way for an ongoing interventionist approach to regulation, Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, signalled on Thursday. Hours before the publication of the results of the tests, which are expected to show that banks including Citigroup and Bank of America will need to raise equity, Mr Bernanke told the Chicago Fed that the "exercise has been comprehensive, rigorous, forward-looking, and highly collaborative… Undoubtedly, we can use many aspects of the exercise to improve our supervisory processes in the future."
In Battle With Fed, Banks Won Details surrounding the bank stress tests continues to make headlines, with the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times leading with how the U.S. government has, and will continue, to make concessions to the banks. According to the WSJ, the Federal Reserve's initial estimate of capital deficits was much larger than the $75 billion or so reported Thursday. But the agency, toeing a fine line between trying to restore confidence with the tests while also maintaining its credibility, finally agreed to scale back some of the findings "following two weeks of intense negotiations." A senior executive at one of the banks actually described the early numbers as "mind-numbing," while another detailed Bank of America's (BAC) reaction to a more than $50 billion capital hole as "shocked." Eventually, BofA's capital deficit was pegged at $33.9 billion, which, according to a bank spokesperson, was reached through an "adjustment for first-quarter results and errors made by regulators in their analysis" and not as a result of lobbying.
Capitalism Goes Out Of Tune From Oct. 18 to Dec. 3, 1961, 116,000 people visited New York's Museum of Modern Art before anyone noticed that Henri Matisse's painting "Le Bateau" had been hung upside down. Modernity is supposed to "transgress" standards of the traditional, which is why Paul Hindemith, while rehearsing one of his dissonant orchestral compositions, said to the musicians, "No, no, gentlemen -- even though it sounds wrong, it's still not right." Proponents of today's world-turned-upside-down economic policies say the policies might seem wrong but really are boldly modern in their rejection of markets in favor of pervasive government intervention in economic life. Hence New York, which until eight months ago was the financial capital of the world, is no longer even the financial capital of the United States. Washington is.
Global Crisis 'Vastly Worse' Than 1930s, Taleb Says The current global crisis is "vastly worse" than the 1930s because financial systems and economies worldwide have become more interdependent, "Black Swan" author Nassim Nicholas Taleb said. "This is the most difficult period of humanity that we're going through today because governments have no control," Taleb, 49, told a conference in Singapore today. "Navigating the world is much harder than in the 1930s."
very revealing panel discussion . . . Davos Annual Meeting 2009 - Update 2009: The New Economic Era In the opinion of many pundits, the global economic collapse that began in 2008 rivals the Great Depression of the 1930s. In partnership with Time Magazine, members of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Councils and Time magazine's Board of Economists examine the new fundamentals of the global economy that will emerge in 2009.
The American Dream Is Dying Shocker: Most people are just a couple of paychecks away from financial ruin. The American dream is fading. For many Americans, the idea is this: Simply survive. The borrow-and-spend-your-way-to-happiness model has evaporated. Now the harsh light of economic reality is pouring through the windows. In its latest “Study of the American Dream” survey, MetLife reports that the country has “experienced major changes” that will likely leave “a lasting impact on how Americans achieve and sustain the dream.” The American dream has “once again been revised—possibly to a greater extent than could have been imagined just one year ago.”
Bank of England braced for third wave of financial crisis Surprise £50bn cash injection is attempt to avert new phase of credit crunch The Bank of England is concerned that the UK's banking system is heading for a third wave of crisis that could snuff out fragile signs of recovery in the economy. On Thursday the Bank surprised the City by announcing that it would pump an extra £50bn of new money into the economy despite recent stockmarket rallies. Now the Guardian has learned that this increase in quantitative easing was driven by fears in Threadneedle Street that the credit crunch is still sucking the life out of the British economy and the banking sector remains in deep trouble.
U.S. Orders GMAC to Raise $9.1 Billion in Capital The federal government reported yesterday that the financing arm of General Motors will need to raise $9.1 billion in new capital to ensure the firm's stability in the face of heavy losses in mortgage and auto lending and, sources said, possibly as much as $4 billion more to cover costs related to loans for Chrysler. The sum is among the biggest required for any U.S. financial institution subjected to the government stress test, and could prove difficult for GMAC Financial Services to raise because of the limited nature of its business and the poor quality of its loans. The firm has struggled to raise money from private investors in the past and has already received $5 billion in federal assistance.
Experts say GM bankruptcy almost inevitable Experts say GM bankruptcy almost inevitable; too much work left with too little time For General Motors Corp., the task at hand is so difficult that experts say a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing is all but inevitable. To remake itself outside of court, GM must persuade bondholders to swap $27 billion in debt for 10 percent of its risky stock. On top of that, the automaker must work out deals with its union, announce factory closures, cut or sell brands and force hundreds of dealers out of business -- all in three weeks. "I just don't see how it's possible, given all of the pieces," said Stephen J. Lubben, a professor at Seton Hall University School of Law who specializes in bankruptcy.
U.S. may face years of sluggish economic growth At an Aug. 7, 2007, meeting of the Federal Reserve's policymaking committee, staff economists identified disturbing signs that the economy's growth potential was downshifting to a lower gear. American workers and factories hadn't been as productive in recent years as initially believed, a realization that caused the Fed's green eyeshade corps to lower fractionally its estimate of the economy's future trajectory.
Federal benefits now face Senate A record number of pro-federal worker, pro-retiree proposals are in play on Capitol Hill. Most are embedded in the so-called tobacco bill, which easily passed the House. Many of the new civil service benefits were assumed to be favored by the Obama administration. Or not. … In the first place, the tobacco bill faces a much tougher time in the Senate than it did in the House. That's because the legislation would give the Food and Drug Administration regulatory control over tobacco and tobacco products. Tobacco is the biggest money-maker (and tax revenue generator) in at least a dozen states.
The Disturbing Gap Between The Rich And The Super-Rich Since it's a slow Friday afternoon, we thought we'd put up another one of The Onion's hilarious "In The Know" segments. This one, about the growing gap between America's rich and super-rich is awesome, in part because you could almost see this discussion happening circa 2007. Of course now, with the wealthiest elites seeing their wealth vanish violently, the problem seems to have taken care of itself.
Congress Plans Incentives for Healthy Habits In its effort to overhaul health care, Congress is planning to give employers sweeping new authority to reward employees for healthy behavior, including better diet, more exercise, weight loss and smoking cessation. A web of federal rules limits what employers and insurers can do now. Congress is seriously considering proposals to provide tax credits or other subsidies to employers who offer wellness programs that meet federal criteria. In addition, lawmakers said they would make it easier for employers to use financial rewards or penalties to promote healthy behavior among employees.
Ex-Hospital CEO Battles Reform Effort Ads Cite Long Waits In Canada and Britain The television ads that began airing last week feature horror stories from Canada and the United Kingdom: Patients who allegedly suffered long waits for surgeries, couldn't get the drugs they needed, or had to come to the United States for treatment. "Before government rushes to overhaul health care, listen to those who already have government-run health care," intones Rick Scott, founder of a group called Conservatives for Patients' Rights. "Tell Congress to listen, too."
Upfront costs complicate Obama's health care plan Senate ponders how to pay for expanded health coverage; cost could go as high as $1.5 trillion Costs are emerging as the biggest obstacle to President Barack Obama's ambitious plan to provide health insurance for everybody. The upfront tab could reach $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion over 10 years, while expected savings from wringing waste and inefficiency from the health care system may take longer to show. Details of the health legislation have not been written, but the broad outlines of the overhaul are known. Economists and other experts say the $634 billion that Obama's budget sets aside for health care will pay perhaps half the cost.
Shortages stir coffee and sugar prices Caffeine addicts face higher prices for their daily fix as the wholesale cost of both coffee and sugar rise sharply because of poor crops and robust demand. We are in a dangerous situation," Andrea Illy, chief executive of Italy's leading coffee ?company, told the Financial Times, warning that prices could "explode" due to supply shortages. His comments echo those of other industry players - and point to a sharp shift in sentiment among analysts. Until recently, it was widely assumed that the global economic crisis would damp consumption and prices for coffee. However, that forecast proved wrong, since demand for coffee has remained high, even while consumers have moved from cafés to home drinking.
Anger about credit cards Maximums cut, fees rise as bad debts hit banking Prabhudev Konana traveled to Paris in December and used his Citigroup Inc. credit card to pay for hotel and restaurant bills. When he got home to Austin, Texas, he was upset to see two currency exchange rates for charges made the same day, and one was 3.6 percent higher than the other. He e-mailed Citigroup to complain. "The response was, 'Go read your contract,'" says Mr. Konana, 47, a professor at the University of Texas' McCombs School of Business. "The arrogance was just unbelievable."
Rising Credit Card Losses Are Next Challenge for Banks It used to be easy to guess how many Americans would have problems paying their credit card bills. Banks just looked at unemployment: Fewer jobs meant more trouble ahead. The unemployment rate has long mirrored banks' loss rates on card balances. But Eddie Ward, 32 and jobless, may be one reason that rule of thumb no longer holds. For many lenders, losses are now starting to outpace layoffs. Mr. Ward, of Arkansas, lost his job at a retail warehouse in April and so far has managed to make minimum payments on his credit card debt, which he estimates at $15,000 to $20,000. Asked whether he thinks he will be able to pay off his balance, he said, "Not unless I win the lottery."
Boomers Going Bust People have accused the baby boomers of being whiners almost since we were born. But just wait until we get to retirement age and discover that we don't have nearly enough money to take care of our "golden years." That's going to be the ultimate generational bummer. I've been gathering some data about what I'll call, with the usual boomer understatement, the "retirement crisis." My mentors have been Eugene Ludwig, the head of the consulting firm Promontory Financial Group, and his colleague Michael Foot. The numbers show a genuinely frightening gap between what people have saved for retirement and what they will need. And many of these studies don't take into account last year's stock market crash, which will make the problem worse.
The Problem with Bankruptcy Laws When faced with a collapsing housing market and mounting real burden of debt, it's entirely rational for households suffering negative equity to simply walk away. This is a major problem in the United States, and has exacerbated the banking crisis caused by defaulting borrowers. Many of these consumers might suffer a terrible credit rating as a result, but it still makes sense for them. It seems odd that the market would allow such an insidious example of moral hazard to wreak havoc with the banking system. The guilt of the real culprit is less surprising. In the United States, defaulting homeowners can walk away from their problem after declaring bankruptcy under Chapter 7. There are significant advantages to this option. It allows these people to make a new start, and return to the labor market free from debt. The risk of such defaults is built into banking models, and the costs are distributed among other borrowers. However, this system has never been tested under the extremely stressful conditions of a bursting asset-price bubble.
In Toledo, Downturn Empties Offices White-Collar Workers Reeling as Layoffs Force Them to Remake Their Lives Rob Noonan's friends think he's a sucker. Laid off from his $140,000-a-year construction management job when the credit markets froze, he still shows up at work, one man working without pay in a cluster of vacant cubicles, trying to make something out of nothing. While friends are mystified that he would toil for the developer who fired him after 16 years, Noonan figures voluntary work is his best path to a real job at real pay. And in an employment market this awful, he adds, "I really don't have anything better to do."
U.S. Jobless Rate Hits 8.9%, but Pace Eases The American job market remains dreadful and is still worsening, but at a slower pace than before - good news given the stomach-churning events of recent months. The government's monthly employment report buoyed hopes that the longest, most punishing recession since the Great Depression may be relenting. Another 539,000 jobs disappeared from the economy in April, and the unemployment rate jumped to 8.9 percent, its highest level in a quarter century, the Labor Department reported Friday. Yet the deterioration was milder than expected, prompting encouraging talk.
Meltdown 101: Unemployment report, by the numbers 13.7 million: People unemployed in April 2009, the most ever in records dating to 1948 13.2 million: People unemployed in March 2009 12.1 million: People unemployed in December 1982, record before the current recession, although labor force was smaller back then
Layoffs might ease, but firms in no mood to hire Employers are letting up a bit on the mass layoffs they resorted to earlier this year to cope with the recession, but the unemployment rate is climbing because many businesses remain wary of hiring given all the economic and financial uncertainties. The Labor Department on Friday is slated to release a report expected to show that a net total of 620,000 jobs were lost in April. If analysts are correct, the figure - while still big - would be an improvement from March's 663,000 job losses and mark the fewest reductions since November. The deepest job cuts of the recession, which started in December 2007 and is now the longest since World War II, came in January: 741,000 jobs vanished then, the most since the fall of 1949.
'Electronic Police State' report cites U.S. Ultimate Big Brother 'basics are in place' In what may be the first assessment of its kind, a private company that offers a range of privacy products for computers and other technology is ranking the United States No. 6 in the world for having the most aggressive procedures for monitoring residents electronically. The report, called The Electronic Police State, assesses the status of governmental surveillance in 52 nations around the globe for 2008. The document was released Cryptohippie, Inc., which was set up in 2007 through the acquisition of several little-known but highly regarded providers of privacy technologies.
Anti-tax crusade to storm Capitol Grassroots 'tea parties' build strength The grass-roots "tea party" movement that swept across the country April 15 to protest federal tax and spending hikes will hold demonstrations in Washington and elsewhere this summer and fall when Congress will be battling over President Obama's biggest budget proposals. Leaders of the Tax Day rallies that drew an estimated 600,000 people in nearly 600 cities and towns say the seemingly spontaneous local protests have grown into a more muscular movement concerned that the escalating growth and cost of government threatens to undermine economic freedom.
Pakistan won't tell US where the Nukes are Zardari Says Pakistan Isn’t Adding Nuclear Weapons Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said his country isn’t adding to its nuclear arsenal and doesn’t have to disclose the location of its weapons to the U.S. Pakistan is “not adding to our stockpile as such,” Zardari said today on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. “Why do we need more?” Asked whether Pakistan would tell U.S. intelligence officials where all its nuclear weapons are located, to allow for a joint strategy to keep them secure, Zardari said Pakistan is a sovereign country. “Why don’t you do the same with other countries yourself?” Zardari said in the interview taped May 7. “I think this is a sovereignty issue, and we have a right to our own sovereignty.”
Middle East World Economic Forum 2009 - John P. Drzik John P. Drzik, President and Chief Executive Officer, Oliver Wyman Group (MMC), USA for the World Economic Forum on the Middle East 2009
Secret U.S.-Israel nuclear accord in jeopardy President Obama's efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons threaten to expose and derail a 40-year-old secret U.S. agreement to shield Israel's nuclear weapons from international scrutiny, former and current U.S. and Israeli officials and nuclear specialists say. The issue will likely come to a head when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Mr. Obama on May 18 in Washington. Mr. Netanyahu is expected to seek assurances from Mr. Obama that he will uphold the U.S. commitment and will not trade Israeli nuclear concessions for Iranian ones.
Obama Picks Egypt as Speech Venue Addressing World's Muslims From Nation of an Autocratic Ally Could Bring Criticism President Obama will travel to Egypt next month to deliver his promised address to the Muslim world, culminating a long and politically sensitive selection process by choosing as his venue an Arab nation governed by an autocratic U.S. ally who faces strong internal Islamist opposition. Those elements will present challenges to Obama as he delivers a speech his advisers described yesterday as the next step in his effort to dispel perceptions in the Muslim world that the United States is in conflict with Islam. It will be the first stop in a trip that will also take him to Buchenwald, the former Nazi concentration camp in Germany, and then to Normandy, in France, to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landing.
Has Obama cut off information to Israel? Lack of communication 'not normal practice' Unlike the Bush administration, the staff of President Obama is not coordinating its policy on Iran or the greater Middle East with Israel and has not been informing the Jewish state of its plans or recent diplomatic developments in area, according to sources in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office. The silence extends to U.S. talks with the Palestinians, the sources said. "Our intention and our hope as we go to Washington is to establish close intimate cooperative relationships on these sensitive matters," a top Netanyahu official told WND yesterday.
Netanyahu meeting with Obama decides Mid-East's future, says Abdullah President Obama's critical meeting with Binyamin Netanyahu next week has become the acid test for the Administration's commitment to peace in the Middle East, King Abdullah of Jordan said yesterday. The monarch does not conceal his feelings about the Israeli leader. He described their last encounter - 10 years ago when he had just come to the throne - as the "least pleasant" of his reign. But he, and President Mubarak of Egypt, are expected to meet the Israeli leader before his trip to Washington, where the future course of the region could be decided.
King Abdullah of Jordan's ultimatum: peace now or it's war next year America is putting the final touches to a hugely ambitious peace plan for the Middle East, aimed at ending more than 60 years of conflict between Israel and the Arabs, according to Jordan's King Abdullah, who is helping to bring the parties together. The Obama Administration is pushing for a comprehensive peace agreement that would include settling Israel's conflict with the Palestinians and its territorial disputes with Syria and Lebanon, King Abdullah II told The Times. Failure to reach agreement at this critical juncture would draw the world into a new Middle East war next year. "If we delay our peace negotiations, then there is going to be another conflict between Arabs or Muslims and Israel in the next 12-18 months," the King said.
Obama puts his global popularity towards Middle East peace process When he was running for the White House, Barack Obama warned that a swift resolution to the Israel-Arab conflict might be beyond even his powers. "It's unrealistic to expect that a US President alone can suddenly snap his fingers and bring about peace in this region," he said. Such truths have not prevented President Obama throwing himself with characteristic urgency into an effort to succeed where many of his predecessors have failed. He regards his early peak of global popularity as a time of maximum opportunity. Yesterday General James Jones, his National Security Adviser, told ABC News that there was an "expectation around the world that we are in a moment when we can make progress" in the Middle East, providing America offered "leadership".
Chávez Seizes Assets of Oil Contractors CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chávez asserted greater control over the country's energy industry on Friday by seizing the assets of some foreign and domestic oil contractors while his government grapples with a sharp decline in oil revenue and mounting debts. The move points to a greater concentration of power by Mr. Chávez, who is busily exerting sway over important industries and political institutions during the economic crisis. In recent weeks, his government has also hounded top rivals, stripping the mayor of Caracas of financing for the city budget while forcing the mayor of Maracaibo to seek asylum in Peru after he was confronted with corruption charges.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Archived Page Link
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
RSS
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/images/quotes_7a.gif)