British View: We need to be freed from the EU

"British jobs for British workers" simply cannot happen while we're still in the prison of nations that is the European Union. For we've signed away, without any consultation with the British people or, whisper it if you dare, any vote or referendum on the subject, our right as a country to decide who comes to this country or who works in this country...


Read entire article:
British View: We need to be freed from the EU

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" The Church of God has always said Britain will not be a part of the final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire. Write for the free booklet: The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy and Prophecy Fulfilled: God's Hand in World Affairs"

The BDI Index Points To Worldwide Disaster

By James Wickstrom
07 Feb 2009

Excerpts:

If we can use the Baltic Dry Index (BDI) as a guide for the next 12 months of product delivery and food availability in the stores we shop in then the BDI says shelves will be virtually empty of almost every product we use each and every day...

The BDI has dropped 94% in a short few weeks which means raw materials, grains, ores, steel, iron, cement and all imported products for food manufacturing and product manufacturing even though we actually do very little of that here in the US. We do make bread and other products that require grains, like cereals. We import clothing, gasoline, various fuels and, well, just about everything these days and the BDI says global shipping has shut down. NOTHING is moving. Because this spells disaster for a country that produces little and imports everything

...The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) is an indicator of how much product is actually out for delivery throughout the world. It cannot be cheated or manipulated because it deals with actual products that are either actively being shipped, or are on docks awaiting to be shipped as Freight On Board (FOB). As the chart below proves, back in June, 2008 the BDI stood at a reasonably healthy 11,600. As of today, the BDI has plummeted to 791. That's about a 94% drop in goods actually being shipped worldwide.

This portends unprecedented disaster around the world, especially as it relates to food. Products are simply not being shipped. They aren't being shipped because there aren't any orders for them. This will translate into massive, unprecedented unemployment worldwide and, as things get worse, massive food shortages...

The social breakdown that is coming is unparalleled in modern history. We are going to suffer on an order of magnitude greater than folks suffered during the Great Depression.
..

Read the entire article: The BDI Index Points To Worldwide Disaster


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Peter Schiff: Stimulus Bill Will Lead to "Unmitigated Disaster"

Posted Feb 06, 2009 08:05am EST by Aaron Task in Investing, Newsmakers, Recession



The fiscal stimulus bill being debated in Congress not only won't help the economy, it will make the recession much worse, says Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital.

Schiff scoffs at the notion the economic decline is starting to level off and concedes no government action means a "terrible" recession. But the path of increased government intervention will lead to "unmitigated disaster," says Schiff, who gained notoriety in 2007-08 for his prescient calls on the housing bubble and U.S. stocks.

The problem, he says, is the government is trying to perpetuate a "phony economy" based on borrowing and spending. With the U.S. consumer tapped out, the government is "now taking on the mantle" of consumer of last resort, he continues, predicting the bond bubble will soon burst - if it hasn't already - ultimately leading to a collapse of the dollar and an "inflationary depression worse than anything any of us have ever seen."If nothing else, Schiff is an nonpartisan critic of American policymakers, comparing President Bush to Herbert Hoover and President Obama to FDR, and neither in a favorable way.

Note: Stay tuned for part 2 of my interview with Schiff, where he addresses recent criticism of his investing prowess.

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker

What Would the President Say About this Child?

by Phil on Fri, Feb 6, 20094 Comments

Both Gina Cobb and Jeff Schreiber have reported on how a Florida doctor has lost his license to practice after a baby born at an abortion clinic breathes and is then thrown into the trash (this makes me wonder how many other situations like this exist).

Here’s Gina’s repost of the story (it’s rather grotesque, for those of you with a conscience)…

What Would the President Say About this Child?

GOD says: Thou shalt not MURDER (Exodus 20.13)

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Kyrgyzstan says U.S. air base decision is final

February 6, 2009, 10:56 pm

BISHKEK (Reuters) - Kyrgyzstan said on Friday its decision to shut a U.S. air base was final, dealing a blow to Washington's efforts to retain what has been an important staging post for U.S. forces fighting in Afghanistan .

The United States said it was still "engaged" with Kyrgyzstan about keeping the Manas base in the poor, former Soviet republic and traditional Russian ally. But one senior Kyrgyz official said no talks were currently taking place.

Kyrgyzstan's stance has set a tough challenge for new U.S. President Barack Obama , who plans to send more troops to Afghanistan to try to boost NATO efforts to defeat Taliban and al Qaeda insurgents.

The standoff over the tiny but strategically placed nation marks a new twist in an escalating power struggle in Central Asia reminiscent of the 19th-century "Great Game" between tsarist Russia and the British Empire.

"The air base's fate has been decided," Adakhan Madumarov, Secretary of the Kyrgyz Security Council, told reporters.

"I see no reason why the air base should remain in place now that this decision has been taken ... We are not holding any talks on this," he added, hinting there will be no further discussions with Washington on the air base.

Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev announced the closure of the base this week after securing more than $2 billion in financial aid and credit from Russia at talks in Moscow .

The announcement left the United States scrambling to find alternative supply routes through other parts of Central Asia for shipments bound for landlocked Afghanistan .

Speaking in Tajikistan, another ex-Soviet republic in Central Asia, the U.S. envoy to Dushanbe said Tajikistan had agreed to offer its air space for transport of non-military NATO supplies to Afghanistan .

A Western diplomatic source told Reuters separately on Thursday the United States was close to a deal with Uzbekistan that would also allow Washington to open a new railway supply route for its troops in Afghanistan .

The United States, also seeking to reinforce supply routes to Afghanistan that bypass Pakistan where convoys face security risks, says it is still hopeful the base can be retained. "We're still very much engaged," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.

Asked if Washington had made any additional offers over the base, Kyrgyz Prime Minister Igor Chudinov said: "We have not received any proposals." He says Kyrgyzstan wants to shut the base because it disagrees with U.S. methods in Afghanistan .

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described Kyrgyzstan's actions as "regrettable" on Thursday. "We will proceed in a very effective manner no matter what the outcome of the Kyrgyzstan government's deliberations might be," she said of military operations in Afghanistan .

RUSSIAN POSITION
Russia , irked by the U.S. military presence in Kyrgyzstan which it regards as part of its strategic sphere of interest, has long exerted pressure on the landlocked and mountainous Central Asian country to evict the U.S. forces.

NATO says it is concerned about Russia's possible involvement in the Kyrgyz decision. Moscow , which operates its own military base in Kyrgyzstan, has strongly denied any link between its aid package and the move to shut Manas.

Moscow says it is ready for cooperation over Afghanistan . Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia had agreed to allow non-military NATO cargo to transit through its territory.
"We expect that when our U.S. partners are ready to send us a concrete request with the volume and type of cargo, as soon as we receive it we will give our permission," he told Russia's Vesti-24 television.

The Russian aid package, unanimously approved by the Kyrgyz parliament on Friday, includes a $1.7 billion discounted loan to help Kyrgyzstan build a hydroelectric power plant.
The Kyrgyz government needs parliamentary approval to proceed with the closure, but this is seen as a formality as the chamber is controlled by a pro-presidential party. It is expected to vote next week.

(Writing by Maria Golovnina; Additional reporting by Roman Kozhevnikov in Tajikistan, Conor Humphries in Moscow )

US-China currency war threatens world

...This has the makings of an almighty superpower bust-up. It is fast becoming the theme of Davos 2009. It may soon be the burning issue of our times. We will all learn how to pronounce Renminbi.

The Bush Administration -- in its day -- deflected all attempts by Congress to crack down on China's currency policy. Perhaps sagely, perhaps not.

There is no question that Beijing has pursued a mercantilist strategy of conquering US and European markets by holding down the yuan/renminbi. It has a monthly trade surplus of $40bn, the highest ever recorded by any country. Or put another way, China is exporting its surplus capacity to the rest of the world. It has become a global deflation machine.

Even so, Mr Geithner is playing with fire. Beijing has amassed reserves of $1.9 trillion. From what we know, most of this money is held in the form of US Treasuries and other bonds. Creditors exercise power. Don't be fooled by claims that China could not deploy this weapon without damaging its own interests. All kinds of things can and do happen when tempers flare, and they were flaring today...

Read entire article: US-China Currency War Threatens World
Posted By: Ambrose Evans-Pritchard at Jan 28, 2009 at 17:46:34 [General]
Posted in: Davos

How Can the World Be Blind to Israel's Existential Threat?

Published: 01 February 2009
Michael Yon

I heard Benjamin Netanyahu, the person who could soon become Israel’s new prime minister, speak this week at the Jerusalem Conference. The most pressing point that he talked about was that under no circumstances should Jerusalem be divided. Many believe that if Jerusalem were to divide, the terrorist group Hamas would set up a headquarters here, which would result in Iranian agents — who also wish to see genocide against the Israelis — setting up shop within the confines of Jerusalem.

It is amazing to me, as an American who travels the world on a near-constant basis, that there is so much confusion over who the terrorists are. Hamas is a terrorist organization that condones and facilitates suicide bombings and will kill every Jew on the planet if they have the chance. Meanwhile, Israel is an energetic democracy with a vibrant press. I could sit right here in Jerusalem and write bad things about Israel and Jews, and nothing would happen. Maybe I wouldn’t get invited somewhere or would be called an anti-Semite, but that would be it. Neither the Jews nor the Israelis would harm me, though they likely would write bad things about me. I came to Israel with no press accreditation and at the airport they knew that I was a writer. Yet they let me in and have allowed me to freely roam the country...

Israel is a free country that abides by the rule of law. By contrast, if a writer were to go to Gaza or Iran, for instance, and start writing bad words, he might wind up on the news, dead. Israel allows Christians and Arab Muslims to worship freely, while Hamas wants to see us all at the bottom of the sea. Hamas, supported by Iran, is clear about their goals: they want to wipe out Israel completely, utterly, with finality. But it’s not just Israel that Hamas wants to kill; they want to kill all Jews everywhere. Complete genocide.
And when Iran has the capacity to launch rockets...

It is simply astounding that many foreign governments do not see this for what it is. Good Muslims are murdered by Muslim extremists in probably dozens of countries, yet certain European governments insist that there is some sort of moral equivalence between Hamas and the democracy called Israel...

Read entire article: How Can the World Be Blind to Israel’s Existential Threats?
Read the booklet: The Middle East in Prophecy (available free on request)

U.S. Treasury Bond Bubble About to Pop

Shah Gilani writes: Frighteningly, like the rush into tech stocks, then the rush into real estate, and then the rush into commodities, the rush into U.S. government bonds has created a Treasury bubble. In a cruel twist of economic fate, passage of an aggressive Obama administration stimulus plan could further inflate that bubble - before popping it.

The United States of America is an expensive household to run. In order to pay the nation's bills, the U.S. government levies taxes. When expenditures exceed tax revenue, the government has to borrow money. The United States borrows money by ordering the Treasury Department to sell government IOUs to investors in the form of Treasury bills, notes and bonds, known as “Treasuries.”

How much does the government owe? As of Friday, according to TreasuryDirect.gov , total U.S. public debt stood at $10,620,397,126,433.54 ($10.62 trillion) - and counting.

The Case for Treasuries
Investors throughout the world - including those here in the United States - buy Treasuries because they pay interest and, moreover, because they are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States...The extraordinary flow of money into Treasuries caused their prices to rise. When prices rise on fixed-income investments like Treasuries, their yields fall...

Troubled Assets, Troubled Times
Last October, as part of the so-called Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), Congress allocated $700 billion to buy “troubled assets” from banks that were losing money. Those institutions were truly troubled...

The initial TARP outlays - about $350 billion - went to suffering banks, in a few cases so they could buy lipstick and pretty themselves up before courting other wallowing institutions ...

None of the TARP bailout money actually went to buying troubled assets from floundering banks...Instead, most of the capital given to banks went onto their balance sheets as a capital asset and most of those institutions bought the highest-yielding government and agency paper they could find...

The other $350 billion that Congress authorized from the original bailout package was released last week , without any clear plan as to where it should go...

Stop the Presses?
As if it isn't frightening enough that the Treasury is selling huge amounts of cheap debt to investors to bail out bloated, insolvent banks and inefficient industries, the Federal Reserve is printing money to buy commercial paper and illiquid assets from just about everybody to facilitate lending in almost every corner of the economy - and is then carrying these “assets” on its balance sheet.

Isn't that how the credit crisis got started, with banks holding illiquid “troubled assets” on their balance sheets?

A Blueprint for a Burst Treasury Bubble

...Boosting debt even as we print more money will have a devastating effect on the U.S. dollar. While a devalued dollar makes U.S. manufactured goods and services cheaper overseas, it also makes the goods and services we import more expensive, as it takes more dollars to buy the same amount of imported products - especially oil..

...There is a much quicker and safer way out of the credit crisis that takes us forward toward an economic recovery. The problem is that no one wants to hear it because no one wants to swallow the politically devastating harsh medicine that's necessary to cure the plague we've infected ourselves with. As usual, there are too many vested interests protecting the same old turf.
Throwing good taxpayer money after badly wasted taxpayer money will not fix anything. But throwing out overly leveraged, overly greedy, overly dependent banks and bankers is a good start...

Read the entire article:
U.S. Treasury Bond Bubble About to Pop - 28th Jan 09
By Shah Gilani Contributing Editor
Money Morning/The Money Map Report

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Obamas Stimulus Bill -

By Joel SkousenEditor - World Affairs Brief 1-30-9

...So, far the bailouts aren't working--unless you consider bailing out the nation's wealthiest and best connected insiders as the actual purpose of these programs. Each new bailout simply begets another round of bailouts as every sector of the economy takes its turn at the government trough.

No matter how many billions the PTB throw at the problem, each month the worsening figures accelerate. Even the appointment of Timothy Geithner to be Treasury Secretary is an affirmation of more of the same rather than change. As World Net Daily pointed out, Geithner, as head of the NY Federal Reserve bank, presided over all of the worst financial debacles of the last year. He was part of the problem.

Only Ron Paul of Texas has taken on the evils of Obama's stimulus package head on. He not only decries the entire bailout concept, but points out how the actual bill is full of bad provisions trying to hitch a ride on the stimulus wagon.

"This bill is just an escalation of a government-created economic mess. As before, a sense of urgency and impending doom is being used to extract mountains of money from Congress with minimal debate. So much for change. We are again being promised that its passage will help employment, help homeowners, help the environment, etc. These promises are worthless. This time around especially, Congress should know better than to pass anything of this magnitude without first reading the fine print."...

THE RON PAUL SOLUTION:

Nothing in this bill stimulates the freedom and prosperity of the American people. Politician-directed spending is never as successful as market-driven investment. Instead of passing this bill, Congress should get out of the way by cutting taxes, cutting spending, and reining in the reckless monetary policy of the Federal Reserve."...

..."This approach to the economic crisis stands in marked contrast with the approach of the gangsters running US economic policy. The gangsters are using the crisis as an opportunity to steal from taxpayers and to finance their misdeeds and exorbitant salaries with Federal Reserve loans. Their shills among economists and the financial press tell the people that the solution is to fatten up the banks with funds so they will resume lending to an over-indebted public that will then return to the shopping malls.

This unrealistic approach to a serious crisis indicates a leadership crisis on top of an economic crisis." It's not a leadership crisis in terms of lack of understanding or lack of competence. This is a conspiracy of greed and power. A little review of the nature of this conspiracy is in order.

Read more

Obamas Stimulus Bill - The Fine Print

Cite source as Joel Skousen's World Affairs Brief http://www.worldaffairsbrief.com/

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