News Stories

[Ithekro]

I don't expect him to last very ling with all those nations pushing in around down there anyway, Let's see: Chile, Argentina, Australia, France, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom have current claims, and the United States, Peru, Brazil, Russia, Spain, and South Africa, also have claims that are not in effect due to treaties.

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Libya is a desert and is very hot, how do expect him to adapt to the cold polar Southern regions so easily?

Who talked abour fitting his need ?

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

I don't expect him to last very ling with all those nations pushing in around down there anyway, Let's see: Chile, Argentina, Australia, France, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom have current claims, and the United States, Peru, Brazil, Russia, Spain, and South Africa, also have claims that are not in effect due to treaties.

David Stirling, the founder of the modern SAS, had a plot to remove him from power after his revolution. It was then called off by M on behalf of the CIA who think that he is anti-communist enough to worth supporting.

Talking about a shitty mistake. His troops are trained by the Stasi and armed by Orussia.

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Who talked abour fitting his need ?

I do actually feel a little sorry for him with all his sons vying for his place. Somehow with all that statements, he is probably have Alzheimer's disease.

Then again, he reaped what he sow right?

[bladeofdarkness]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Then again, he reaped what he sow right?

Sic semper tyrannis

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Then again, he reaped what he sow right?

Actualy, for now it's the peoples than are reaping what he sow...

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Actualy, for now it's the peoples than are reaping what he sow...

He offered 500 dinars to each citizen to cushion the inflation. Apparently it didn't work.

EDIT : Now back to the stupid on the regular side of the world....

The Fed needs to free the market

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission issued its finding that the devastating economic events of the past few years were “preventable.” The FCIC heaped the blame on many parties, but drew the wrong conclusion when it faulted the government and Federal Reserve for lax oversight.

On the contrary, the government and Fed encouraged the bubble and crash, and current policies are doing the same.

Nobel laureate Friedrich Hayek said that in order to understand how things can go wrong with the economy, we must first understand how they ever go right. In the view of Hayek, markets use the price system to coordinate the actions of producers with the desires of customers and the available resources. The interest rate is a special price that helps ensure a balance between how much households are saving and how many long-term investment projects businesses start.
U.K.’s facing stagflation

Weak growth and high inflation have raised the ugly prospect of stagflation for the U.K. economy. The Bank of England's likely response: Raise interest rates, but so slowly that they're unlikely to have much of an impact on growth or inflation.

According to Hayek, this “regulatory” function of interest rates is distorted when the central bank — the Federal Reserve in the United States — pushes down interest rates through an injection of artificial credit. This “easy money” policy appears to stimulate the economy, but the growth is unsustainable and the prosperity an illusion. The boom period inevitably ends in a crash, where resources and workers have to be redirected to more appropriate niches. This period of retrenchment is what we recognize as a recession.

The Hayekian explanation for the business cycle applies to our recent boom and bust in housing. After the dot-com crash and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, then-Fed chairman Alan Greenspan brought interest rates down to (inflation-adjusted) lows not seen since the late 1970s. At the time, people praised Greenspan for providing a “soft landing,” but in retrospect many analysts realize he simply postponed the day of reckoning and made the adjustment process that much more painful.

In this respect, the FCIC is correct to say the financial crisis was avoidable. Yet in their summary of conclusions, their first main point states: “The sentries were not at their posts, in no small part due to the widely accepted faith in the self-correcting nature of the markets and the ability of financial institutions to effectively police themselves.” They go on to argue that if only the SEC, Federal Reserve, and other regulators had exercised their existing powers more properly, the financial sector’s growing vulnerability to risky derivative assets could have been nipped in the bud. Read our news coverage of the FCIC report.

Such government intervention will always appear superior to private investors, after the fact. In reality, government and Fed officials denied that a housing bubble was in progress. Ben Bernanke himself was wrong at every stage; a YouTube search of “Bernanke was wrong” leads to a cringe-worthy compilation of his botched predictions to the media and Congress.

As the FCIC report itself indicates, various regulators already had the necessary power to avert the developing bubble, and yet they chose not to use it. Why would we expect “reforms” that give even more control to bureaucrats to achieve better results going forward? Why should we trust that the wise experts at the SEC — who didn’t stop Bernie Madoff despite years of warnings from people in the private sector — will spot the next bubble before it gets too big?
Every trick in the book

The government and the Fed are currently doing the same things that got us into trouble. Bernanke has pushed interest rates lower and pumped in far more money than his predecessor Greenspan did. And rather than letting the housing market self-correct and find its natural bottom, the federal government is using every trick in the book to boost home prices.

Two strategies aim to contain imprudent risk-taking and speculation: One is to have the Fed inject boatloads of new money, while the government bails out banks that make bad loans, but hope that regulators can spot and defuse any trouble before it gets out of hand. We’ve already tried that and it didn’t work.

The other strategy is for the Fed and government to stop trying to steer the economy, and let private investors reap the benefits — or the losses — in a free and open market. Let’s try this approach this time around.

If the Fed lets go, Big Corp takes over. And that inflation is just going to move upwards until it becomes hyperinflation because Big Corp needs profits as the cost of their luxuries increase too - even if they are selling necessities.

Fancy US$10 for a bowl of instant ramen? *sarcastic*

[Jinto]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Fancy US$10 for a bowl of instant ramen? *sarcastic*

Well, if you cannot raise your overturn to reach your 5% increase in profit, you have to raise the prices. Its the law of the economies and markets must grow at any cost mantra. ^^

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

He offered 500 dinars to each citizen to cushion the inflation. Apparently it didn't work.

EDIT : Now back to the stupid on the regular side of the world....

The Fed needs to free the market



If the Fed lets go, Big Corp takes over. And that inflation is just going to move upwards until it becomes hyperinflation because Big Corp needs profits as the cost of their luxuries increase too - even if they are selling necessities.

Fancy US$10 for a bowl of instant ramen? *sarcastic*

It's amazing how these anti-regulation people can still sell their idiocy after it contributed to the global financial crisis.

[Vexx]

They seem to be drooling at the prospect of having this sort of world: http://ng.neocron.com/
A collection of transnational corporations and plutocrats that flatline the rule-of-law, republics, city-states... no citizens, just "consumer units".

[Anh_Minh]

"Consumer units" is fine. It's "worker drones" that worries me...

[Solace]

Originally Posted by Kamui4356

It's amazing how these anti-regulation people can still sell their idiocy after it contributed to the global financial crisis.

How do you think they were enabled? Special interests threw money at everyone in government they could, and it worked. They not only crashed the market, they are profiting from that crash. The Dow is almost back to pre-crash levels, companies are sitting on large coffers of Fed money given near interest free, the payouts and packages for management are even higher than they were pre-crash, and no one in government really wants to do a thing about it because it's a essentially a revolving door between public service and a cushy corporate job.

The regulators didn't regulate, the government repealed, and the fed conspired. The system broke, and the same people who did it are still running it.

Do a search for Citigroup Plutonomy if you want to see some scary stuff. Here's one part of the memos:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/6674234/Ci...-Report-Part-1

[ganbaru]

World raises pressure on Libya, rebels hold key towns
http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNew...71G0A620110228

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Vexx

They seem to be drooling at the prospect of having this sort of world: http://ng.neocron.com/
A collection of transnational corporations and plutocrats that flatline the rule-of-law, republics, city-states... no citizens, just "consumer units".

Originally Posted by Jinto

Well, if you cannot raise your overturn to reach your 5% increase in profit, you have to raise the prices. Its the law of the economies and markets must grow at any cost mantra. ^^

Originally Posted by Solace

How do you think they were enabled? Special interests threw money at everyone in government they could, and it worked. They not only crashed the market, they are profiting from that crash. The Dow is almost back to pre-crash levels, companies are sitting on large coffers of Fed money given near interest free, the payouts and packages for management are even higher than they were pre-crash, and no one in government really wants to do a thing about it because it's a essentially a revolving door between public service and a cushy corporate job.

Originally Posted by Kamui4356

It's amazing how these anti-regulation people can still sell their idiocy after it contributed to the global financial crisis.

And that the government isn't doing anything other than playing power games :

Republican says won't back down in union battle

(Reuters) - Wisconsin's Republican Governor Scott Walker said on Sunday he would not back down in his confrontation with state public sector unions and repeated his threat to lay off state workers if the standoff continued.

Walker urged the 14 Senate Democrats who fled Wisconsin to block a vote on his plan to curb public union collective bargaining rights to return, and said he hoped to avoid layoffs.

"If we do not get these changes and the Senate Democrats do not come back, we're going to be forced to make up the savings in layoffs and that to me is unacceptable," Walker said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Tens of thousands of protesters marched against Walker's plan in Wisconsin on Saturday and solidarity rallies for labor rights were held around the country. More protesters were expected at the state capital on Sunday.

Opponents see Walker's proposal as an attempt to break the union movement and the Wisconsin fight has become a flashpoint in a growing national struggle over labor union power.

Wisconsin's state Assembly approved the plan on Friday but Senate Democrats have fled to prevent a vote in that chamber, which also must pass the bill. Walker says the plan is vital to close a budget deficit of $137 million for this fiscal year.

The Democrats left the state because they feared they could be compelled to attend the Senate if they remained. Asked when they would return from various locations in Illinois, Mike Browne, spokesman for Democratic state senate minority leader Mark Miller, said on Sunday, "Not today."

Other states have drawn inspiration from Walker's effort, with similar measures pending in Ohio, Tennessee, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa and Kansas.

In Indiana, Democratic lawmakers also have left the state to deny Republicans a vote on Republican-backed bills that restrict worker rights. Indiana's Republican governor, Mitch Daniels, said he would not consider Democratic concerns about the bill until the lawmakers return.

"While they are subverting the democratic process, there is nothing to talk about," he said on "Fox News Sunday." "When they come back to work, we will talk about their concerns."

HIGH STAKES

The stakes are high for labor groups. More than a third of U.S. public employees, including teachers, police and civil service workers, belong to unions, while only about 6 percent of private sector workers are unionized.

Daniels said the pendulum had swung too far in support of unionized public workers.

"There may have been a time, a century ago, where public employees were mistreated and vulnerable and underpaid. If that was ever a problem, we have over-fixed it," he said.

"Public employees in America -- most decidedly federal employees, but everywhere -- are better paid than the taxpayers that pay their salaries," he said.

Walker's proposal would make state workers contribute more to health insurance and pensions, end government collection of union dues, let workers opt out of unions and require unions to hold recertification votes every year.

Collective bargaining would be allowed only on wage increases up to the rate of inflation.

Walker said a union offer to increase pension and healthcare contributions rang hollow because some were trying to rush through contracts with local authorities that did not include them.

"If they were serious about it, they would have offered up contracts that paid something for healthcare and something more for pensions, but they're not," Walker said.

In a reference to last week's prank call from a blogger posing as billionaire conservative David Koch, an influential backer of Walker and the anti-union effort, Walker said his office discussed but ultimately rejected an idea to send people to disrupt and break up the protests against his plan.

Thinking he was talking to Koch, Walker was caught on tape in the call discussing the idea to disrupt the protests as well as his tactics to lure the runaway Democratic senators back to the state.

Wait....these people elected him, and he turns on them in favour of kissing up to Washington?

If he really wants to save money, give the civil servants temporary paycuts and reimburse them when the economy booms. You don't treat the people who work for you like trash - even HR managers in Big Corp knows that basic rule.

And here is some good news :

Special Report: U.S. cables detail Saudi royal welfare program

By February 2007, according to a second cable entitled "Crown Prince Sultan backs the King in family disputes", the reforms were beginning to bite. "By far the most widespread source of discontent in the ruling family is the King's curtailment of their privileges," the cable says. "King Abdullah has reportedly told his brothers that he is over 80 years old and does not wish to approach his judgment day with the 'burden of corruption on my shoulder.'"

The King, the cable states, had disconnected the cellphone service for "thousands of princes and princesses." Year-round government-paid hotel suites in Jeddah had been canceled, as was the right of royals to request unlimited free tickets from the state airline. "We have a first-hand account that a wife of Interior minister Prince Naif attempted to board a Saudia flight with 12 companions, all expecting to travel for free," the authors of the cables write, only to be told "to her outrage" that the new rules meant she could only take two free guests.

Others were also angered by the rules. Prince Mishal bin Majid bin Abdulaziz had taken to driving between Jeddah and Riyadh "to show his annoyance" at the reforms, according to the cable.

Abdullah had also reigned in the practice of issuing "block visas" to foreign workers "and thus cut the income of many junior princes" as well as dramatically reducing "the practice of transferring public lands to favored individuals."

The U.S. cable reports that all those reforms had fueled tensions within the ruling family to the point where Interior Minister Prince Naif and Riyadh Governor Prince Salman had "sought to openly confront the King over reducing royal entitlements."

But according to "well established sources with first hand access to this information," Crown Prince Sultan stood by Abdullah and told his brothers "that challenging the King was a 'red line' that he would not cross." Sultan, the cable says, has also followed the King's lead and turned down requests for land transfers.

It is interesting how the Quran can change the perspectives of even the most powerful people in the Mideast.

Better late than never. Thank you, King Abdullah.

[Vexx]

I think the spotlight on all these spoiled brats and thugs of the Royal Family is not going to do the little "Marie Antoinettes, etc" any favors.

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

And that the government isn't doing anything other than playing power games :

Republican says won't back down in union battle



Wait....these people elected him, and he turns on them in favour of kissing up to Washington?

If he really wants to save money, give the civil servants temporary paycuts and reimburse them when the economy booms. You don't treat the people who work for you like trash - even HR managers in Big Corp knows that basic rule.

My personal theory on his stubbornness is he wants to crush the unions and make his state a model for tea party ideals so he can run for president using that as the base of his platform in 2016, or maybe even 2012 though that might be a bit soon considering he was just elected governer. If he gives in here, that plan is dead in the water before it really even got a chance to set sail.

[Solace]

Originally Posted by Kamui4356

My personal theory on his stubbornness is he wants to crush the unions and make his state a model for tea party ideals so he can run for president using that as the base of his platform in 2016, or maybe even 2012 though that might be a bit soon considering he was just elected governer. If he gives in here, that plan is dead in the water before it really even got a chance to set sail.

It's a bit more devious than that. What most MSM (I've only really seen this in a few places, and barely at that) haven't touched on is the other provision in Walkers budget plan. It essentially gives him sole power to sell off public assets to private corporations. Public utilities for example.

Republicans are essentially enacting the old "starving the beast" strategy, and scratching the backs of their corporate donors while doing it. To use Grover Norquist's famous quote:

"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."

[flying ^]

Canadian Hospital Reportedly Receiving Threats Over 'Baby Joseph'

"South of the border people seem to be quite emotional and happy to share their opinions."

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Kamui4356

My personal theory on his stubbornness is he wants to crush the unions and make his state a model for tea party ideals so he can run for president using that as the base of his platform in 2016, or maybe even 2012 though that might be a bit soon considering he was just elected governer. If he gives in here, that plan is dead in the water before it really even got a chance to set sail.

Given the Big Corp has the ability to payroll and lobby for people to rule the country, I think the plan might set off.

I remember the last good Republican politician was Bill Clinton (other than that intern scandal). It seems that the GOP is really heavily bogged by Big Corp. What he is doing is good for profits of the private companies, and indirectly, growth of the state, but it is going to screw everyone living there because :

1. The companies now have the right to underpay workers and overwork them.

2. The companies can now sack workers and sue them to prevent them from lobbying for severance pay.

3. The companies are able to reduce working conditions to Victorian era. Heck, they can even go Cambodia-style where the worker (mostly child labour over there) is chained to the machine and worked to death.

Anyone living in Wisconsin is so fucked. Nonetheless, this is a good time to prove that "American Gun Rights" has its uses :

Wisconsin's Walker to absent Democrats: 24 hours to return

(Reuters) - Wisconsin's Republican Gov. Scott Walker said on Monday that absent senate Democrats have 24 hours to return and vote on a measure to reduce the power of public sector unions or the state will miss out on opportunity to refinance its debt.

"Now they have one day to return to work before the state loses out on the chance to refinance debt, saving taxpayers $165 million this fiscal year," Walker's spokesman Cullen Werwie said in a statement.

"Failure to return to work and cast their votes will lead to more painful and aggressive spending cuts in the very near future," the statement said.

Walker's budget proposal has sparked nationwide protests from labor unions who fear it could be a harbinger of things to come in other states. To balance the state's budget, Walker wants to require public sector employees to pay more for pensions and health care, and to strip their unions of bargaining rights except for wages up to the rate of inflation.

The measure has passed the state Assembly but is stalled in the Senate because the 14 Democrats have fled the state to avoid a vote.

Under Walker's proposal, Wisconsin's general obligation bonds would be restructured and that would push debt service payments due by March 15 into future years to save the current state budget $165 million. The deadline is because it takes a couple of weeks for the state to prepare to go to the bond market and implement the refinancing before the payment is due on March 15.

In a separate interview broadcast on Sunday, Walker said he hoped to delay sending layoff notices to state workers if the legislature makes progress on fixing the budget deficit, according to website wispolitics.com.

"It's not just a number. It's not just a budget," Walker said, on "UpFront with Mike Gousha," a statewide TV news magazine. "It's ultimately a real person with a real family, so I'm going to push that back as far as I can."

But to postpone the layoffs, Walker said that it will be necessary that his budget repair bill, including the move to end collective bargaining, go into effect by April 1.

Walker also said that he would propose a new budget on Tuesday that cuts $1 billion to state aid for schools and local governments.

There has been speculation that Walker would send out layoff notices to more than 1,000 state workers if no progress was made soon on the budget.

I hope the Democrats will do the right thing. The plan may make the place sound good for investment, but I don't think I can sleep well at night if I invest there.

If they leave, it doesn't look good on the Democrats. But then, it is a good political move to force this little spoilt kid to meet at the negotiation table.

[Anh_Minh]

Can someone tell me why the Democratic senators have to flee to another state instead of just voting "no"?

[Asuras]

From what I got, their combined 'no' isn't enough to prevent it from passing.