2012-07-08, 20:22 | Link #22421 | |
Sayaka★Magica
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Under the piercing blue sky
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2012-07-08, 20:43 | Link #22422 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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Exactly... rare earth minerals. Tap down into global interest in many regional conflicts and you'll find strategic resources that "must remain accessible".
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2012-07-08, 21:38 | Link #22423 | |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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2012-07-08, 22:16 | Link #22424 | |
formerly ogon bat
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Mexico
Age: 53
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2012-07-08, 22:34 | Link #22425 | ||
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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Anyone paying attention to Barclay's explosion in the spotlight over in the UK? Well... that's peanuts to the corruption about to roll out onto the stage:
http://www.nationofchange.org/wall-s...als-1341753800 Quote:
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2012-07-08, 22:58 | Link #22426 |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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This week's Economist entitled its editorial on the LIBOR scandal "Banksters!" I was surprised they'd use a term more commonly associated with the Occupy movement.
Joe Nocera had an op-ed in Saturday's Times wondering why Americans don't seem to be paying the same level of interest to the LIBOR scandal as they did to the financial collapse in 2007. My own take is that rather than suffering from an surfeit of scandal, we're suffering more from an absence of meaningful prosecutions. When JPMorgan Chase can lose a few billion dollars and say it won't matter to their bottom line, institutional fines in the hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars (see GlaxoKline) won't change behavior. Only by assessing fines of that magnitude on the executives involved, the ones making tens of millions of dollars per year, or by sending some of them to prison, might we effect some change in behavior.
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2012-07-08, 23:12 | Link #22427 | |
Not Enough Sleep
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: R'lyeh
Age: 48
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2012-07-09, 08:13 | Link #22429 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Age: 38
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2012-07-09, 09:41 | Link #22430 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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Personally, I find the almost total blanket of silence about the Iceland Solution for the Bankster Heist instructive:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt4Z3rm4r-4 (Young Turks Editorial) http://itmakessenseblog.com/2012/06/...child-bankers/ http://www.dailypaul.com/241101/icel...schild-bankers Sorry, I had to go Way Off Mainstream Media to follow this story in Iceland...
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2012-07-09, 10:37 | Link #22431 | |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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South China Sea: Now it's Vietnam's Turn
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Just as a reminder, China and Vietnam engaged in a naval battle over the Spratleys as recently as 1998, when over 70 Vietnamese sailors were killed by Chinese gunfire. The Vietnamese and the Americans have been conducting talks for over a year now about forging a "strategic partnership." I found this paper particularly informative on the Vietnam/China/US triangle. Thayer argues that Vietnam does not really want to hitch its wagon to the Americans but use them to "balance" Chinese power in Southeast Asia. For those of us who studied European international relations in the 1870-1914 period this all sounds rather familiar.
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Last edited by SeijiSensei; 2012-07-09 at 10:49. |
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2012-07-09, 11:22 | Link #22432 |
I don't give a damn, dude
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: In Despair
Age: 37
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So that's why my girl was telling me recently about how her countrymen have expressed nationalistic dissatisfaction with China, with lots of claims being thrown around about how China apparently wants to invade Vietnam. Huh. You know, I can hardly blame them.
It's not just Vietnam either; I can't reveal my sources, but Myanmar's recent political reforms and subsequent opening up, leading to closer ties with the United States? Yeah, it seems that Chinese pressure may have possibly been a contributing factor to that turn of events as well. It could very well be the case that economic factors were only a secondary consideration; I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to be the case for the Philippines as well. The way things are going, it's almost like China is recruiting the United States' strategic partners for them. |
2012-07-09, 11:30 | Link #22433 | |
NYAAAAHAAANNNNN~
Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 35
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2012-07-09, 12:03 | Link #22434 | ||
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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The linked article mentions the problem of the different track gauges used in China and Myanmar. This might sound like a technical issue, but it has important strategic implications. Right now the differing gauges provide protection against potential Chinese troop movements into or through Myanmar. Standardizing the rail network on the Chinese gauge removes this barrier. Similar "gauge politics" are at work in northeast Asia. While China uses "standard" gauge, both Russia and Mongolia use the "Russian" gauge. New Mongolian rail developments will continue to be incompatible with Chinese standards despite pressures from international investors to build to standard gauge. Quote:
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2012-07-09, 12:14 | Link #22435 | |
(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2006
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2012-07-09, 12:27 | Link #22436 | |
formerly ogon bat
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Mexico
Age: 53
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2012-07-09, 13:06 | Link #22437 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2007
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As for Mongolia, I found any nationalistic stuff coming out of them funny since they are the ones who gave up their own written language for Cyrillic. |
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2012-07-11, 02:02 | Link #22439 |
Komrades of Kitamura Kou
Join Date: Jul 2004
Age: 39
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Lol. They ignored it because they thought only the underclass got infected by M. tuberculosis. This is precisely the way the US government handled HIV, and everyone knows what happened next.
Why again did you vote those people into Florida office?
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2012-07-11, 07:34 | Link #22440 | |
Sensei, aishite imasu
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Hong Kong Shatterdome
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current affairs, discussion, international |
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