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03 August 2010

Forgotten Fed Mission - maintain reasonable level of employment

http://www.federalreserve.gov/BOARDDOCS/SPEECHES/2002/20021121/default.htm
the Bernanke Speech re deflation..not here has  many interesting technical points..recommend a look. It also displays how the fed is off mission regarding benefitting society...price stability is the primary concern it seems and all else is other - which includes maintaining a reasonable level of employment. Directing almost all bailout money to banks which have kept the money as excess reserves has done nothing for money supply and velocity of money. A clue is this quote, " Deflation per se occurs only when price declines are so widespread that broad-based indexes of prices, such as the consumer price index, register ongoing declines." You see here that reality for these economists is at least once removed from the actual economy where people need to work to spend money to increase "aggregate demand" and to live; but the talk, mathematical, methodological, theoretical never descends to the underlying reality of the economy where unprecedented numbers of workers are unemployed, underemployed, part-timed or just statistically forgotten. The reality for Bernank is price indices. If the thinking doesn't even touch the reality, these guys should not be in any position to "run" anything that affects reality; they are failing and will fail since they are functioning in an unrelated delusional-theory-world unrelated to the actuality that is transpiring. While they fiddle with their shit ideas and ignore their assigned mission which is far broader than price stability, America smolders slowly to the ground.  Perhaps the American economic engine will pull us out of this one; it will be in spite of the Fed and Bernanke and Obama and BP and it will be a shame that if it does pull out, an after effect will be falsely validating the actions of imbeciles which in any terms are amounting to crimes against the people.
      The reason employment at reasonable levels is important is that without employment at reasonable levels demand suffers most; there is little reason for employers to hire once this stage is reached -- this is worse than the housing price deflation which was really an asset/credit deflation which could have been fixed by marking the losses to market and closing all the banks or the divisions that made bad credit decisions instead of giving money to the very institutions that screwed up, at tax payer expense with no benefit ultimately for anyone-- including the bailed banks which too will fail in a deflated economy.
    All the tools the fed has are useless if they are not directed towards increasing employment...this is where the tools fall short since they are market manipulative tools and not tools to redistribute money. Arbitrarily low rates in the name of inflation control constrict all capitalist action which ultimately seeks yields. The Fed is now the liquidity trap and should be abandoned or taken under control of the government --a new government that has a clue.

17 July 2010

Other Views on BP Capping Well in July 2010 -back-out-logic -editorial

If you want to plug the leak in the well below the top of the well, once you get the "relief" wells drilled
well then, you cap the well so the mud and cement flows out the breaks in the well below the surface....-you had to do it anyway rational for the latest BP BS.(also you now know pressure level which when exceed means the middle-kill is closing the leaks...& all it takes is a v-shaped "roof'" adjacent and above the leak and and the oil can migrate elsewhere to emerge from the sea bed miles away...)

...BP stock recovers (it has a bit) when BPUSgov lie there is no oil flowing out of the well (i.e. not out the capped top a diversion lie) while asserting there is no apparent leak in the well even though the pressure does not rise to the expected level...this benefits British pensioners a bit whose pensions depend on BP stock price...before some other company buys out BP, in effect killing off the "corporate person" BP now is...how do the liabilities transfer? Immense liabilities if not brushed under the rug as it seems will be the case...

When now, the U.S. governement seems to be calling the shots (Secretary of Energy Chu) does that then somehow absolve BP of responsibility hereon since they are not calling the shots?

Our Government, oh what the heck lets say Obama, seem to be treating BP rather favorably considering
they effectively destroyed most, if not all of our southern coast, for some time if not forever..because they are greedy stupid bastard criminals.

Reminder: Oil Companies should not drill where they do not know how to and where in fact it may be impossible to drill safely at all, ---a mile deep under water into huge gas oil reserves tenuously capped with a layer of salt...GOM. There is no national security concern that should allow drilling which endangers national security and already has destroyed portions of the country - not "threatened to." The U.S. Government is now merely a corporate pawn felon ongoing until it is replaced...and still the sheeple chew their cud. Policy based on "threats" anyone see a problem with that?

Our British All-Lies: Business Before Lockerbie, Shell Oil, Senator McCain too


U.S. and British Governments work for Oil Companies not their Nations' People....

    Seems since last September http://newztekmisk.blogspot.com/2009/09/britains-own-euro-mediterranean.html the British Embassy web site in Tripoli has been "sterilized" as then as I recall it rather gloried in the new found intimacy between Britain and Libya around the time of the release of the Lockerbie bomber prisoner....the archive is not accessible either since the archives seem only to go up to 2008....

This article has so far not been tampered with:

Europe August 24, 2009, 12:19PM EST Trade Between Britain and Libya Set to Soar
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/aug2009/gb20090824_183632.ht
   Britain's trade with Libya could soar following the release of the Lockerbie bomber, as the North African country embarks on a massive building programme.
    In the first five months of 2009, UK exports to Libya were already up by 48 per cent to £165.4m on the same period in 2008, while UK imports from Libya—mainly oil—were up 48.5 per cent on 2008 at £966m, a rise of 66 per cent on 2007.
    Most of the companies already exporting to Libya are involved in supplying industrial machinery and engineering services and include Biwater, AMEC, Halcrow, JCB, Rentokil (RTO.L) and Corus as well as oil companies such as BP (BP). The oil giant is one of the most involved in Libya, having launched a $1.3bn gas exploration programme last year, and having recently signed a £545m deal to drill for Libyan oil. Fellow giant Shell is also one of the largest investors in Libya. Analysts say that if the oil fields reach their target yield, then BP could spend more than £10bn over the next decade on exploration and drilling. --
Shell Oil which Obama recently asked to consider buying BP....

UK and Libya kick off double taxation convention.April 2008

http://www.accountancyage.com/accountancyage/news/2262058/uk-libya-kick-double-taxation


Secret documents uncover UK's interest in Libyan oil Negotiations fuel rumours of commercial deal behind Megrahi's release
Terry Macalister The Observer, Sunday 30 August 2009 

   Libya has been courted by government ministers and Foreign Office mandarins on a dozen or more occasions in pursuit of lucrative oil and gas contracts.
    Documents obtained by the Observer show ministers and senior civil servants met Shell to discuss the company's oil interests in Libya on at least 11 occasions and perhaps as many as 26 times in less than four years.
Foreign secretary David Miliband and the former Labour leader Lord Kinnock were involved in the meetings with Shell about its business in Libya or Egypt.
    The revelations, showing that the government invested large amounts of political capital in securing North African oil, lend weight to claims that commercial interest lay behind last week's decision to release the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, from jail in Scotland to receive a hero's welcome in Libya.
    Gordon Brown has insisted that Whitehall had no involvement in the release, but critics of the government say the information obtained by the non-governmental organisation, Platform, via a Freedom of Information Act request, raises fresh questions. "These documents show the deep and long-term foreign policy backing provided by the British government to Shell in its efforts to break into Libya. Corporate executives have easy access to the highest level of Whitehall, while democracy advocates and social movements remain shut out on the street," said Mika Minio-Paluello, a campaigner with Platform.
    "Yet again, the Foreign Office has prioritised securing new oil reserves for private corporations over human rights, the environment or democracy. Foreign policy should represent people's interests, not corporate interests. As a first step, the government must open its files and disclose the true level of oil influence on government decision-making."
     http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/30/libya-oil-shell-megrahi                                                                                             
From The Sunday Times August 23, 2009
The Libyan Ultimatum Despite denials, talk persists of pressure and plots behind the freeing of the Lockerbie bomber

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6806482.ece
 The reality is that Megrahi’s freedom is a product of the effort to bring Libya out of dangerous isolation. This is as much to America’s advantage as Britain’s, but Washington has too much baggage to be openly involved...

...a congressional delegation led by Senator John McCain, the former Republican presidential candidate, was in Libya.
McCain reported on Tuesday via Twitter, the instant internet messaging site, that he had met Gadaffi, whom he described as “an interesting man”. McCain was reported by the Libyan news agency to have praised Gadaffi’s peace-making efforts in Africa and to have called for expanded US ties with Libya. Exxon and Chevron, the American oil giants, are among companies vying for lucrative new exploration contracts.  
  


from the sanitized Tripoli Embassy today
http://ukinlibya.fco.gov.uk/en/about-us/working-with-libya/shared-tradition

25 October 2009

When crooks rule they rule poorly.

Guest Post: Capitalism, Socialism or Fascism? - Naked Capitalism 25 Oct 2009 "Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. They are just different brand names for the same basic type of economy. All three systems allow giant businesses which are friendly to the government to keep enormous private profits but to pass the losses on to the government and ultimately the citizens."

24 October 2009

Now that New American Century closed well meaning Fascists can gather here

http://www.aei.org/ American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research this whole non-profit setup to be a propoganda voice for the corporations funding it thing has to be revisited.
Was NAC closed because it provided clear evidence the latter Bush administration had an agenda to invade the Middle East before 9/11? --I wonder.

16 October 2009

Think you are getting ahead financially eh?

Try out the BLS inflation calculator and see how that goes....works in either direction. Sometimes it helps doing it both ways to get a feel for inflation's pernicious nibbling away.

06 October 2009

I wondered in the 80's why retail borrowing rates didn't go down when the wholesale rates did....

The Largest U.S. Banks Have Repeatedly Gone Bankrupt Due to Wild Speculation, and the Fed Blessed the Speculation and then Helped Cover Up Their Bankruptcies

Volcker's covert rescue of the American banks using secrecy and a high fat spread didn't cost U.S. taxpayers a cent -Koo

The latter statement ignores the fact that American Taxpayers are also bank credit card users and apparently were paying an undisclosed fee in the form of the increased spread to pay for the money center banks losses.

27 September 2009

"The increase in liquidity is not available for growth – it is needed to offset losses inside of the banking system."

Leading Economic Indicator Isn't Indicating the Real Recovery  -SeekingAlpha
"My position is that if a recovery were under way (we even have government rebates for first time buyers in play) – this discussion would not be taking place. The increase demand would be clear and obvious" "The economy is not creating jobs." "The surprising data this week was the increase in mass layoffs in August 2009. Because it was believed the worst was behind us..." "Our Great Recession is a wealth and debt driven recession which turned into a enormous world wide recession. Structurally, recovery is dependent on wealth restoration and resolution of credit defaults." " The average Joe is not seeing any green or purple shoots." -- some excerpts

Cue the Kipling: Re Afghanistan

Lessons of history: Spirit of defiance lives on in a land no outsider has tamed  - Times Online Logo 222 x 25

When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains And the women come out, to cut up what remains Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains And go to your Gawd like a soldier.

Good read.

26 September 2009

The Perestroika Deception:Fact or Opportunistic Interpretation?

The Perestroika Deception  -American Thinker

Review of the book by 'Golitsyn was a high-ranking KGB official involved in espionage and counter-espionage who defected to the United States in 1961.'  - The Fatima Network

Explores the notion that the cold war never ended and was in fact a ruse to allow the revolution overthrowing capitalism to go on....

Curiously similar to some of my speculative ravings that the conversion to the Euro was an action plan under a similar ruse...so these guys are nuts I suppose. However, see next post above....

20 September 2009

Iran Crux

"It is a certainty to all of our secret services. Iran is working today on a nuclear [weapons] program," Sarkozy told lawmakers from his UMP party on Tuesday, according to Press TV. 
-The Jerusalem Post via The Jawa Report 16 Sep 09

- Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak was quoted on Thursday as saying he does not view Iran as a threat to the existence of the Jewish state, a view that would seem to depart from Israeli statements of the recent past.
-Reuters via TPM 17 Sep 09 Nodes of term Caspian Sea Zero Hedge Submitted by Keyser Soze 19 Sep 09 

Do these mean the Caspian Sea is now Russia's new lake?- a done deal? -The 'Arctic Sea' melted into the Caspian Sea? Iran already sanctioned before sanctions and more geographically contained?


16 September 2009

'Understanding the Securitization of Subprime Mortgage Credit' sr318

A beauty. Alternate titles 'Everything you wanted to know about the 2006 vintage'  'Everybody is Guilty no one's to blame'

click the link for the pdf from New York Fed
http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/sr318.pdf

Table 2 - Who's here now? A gem. Though its rumored Countrywide 'privately' call their new company BOAC.

Who sells the most CHICKENS in the World?

     Brazil does. They sell a lot to China. A recent move in commodities markets a couple of years ago Brazil invested in the latest chicken raising technology (the late comer's advantage) and proceeded to move to the forefront of the chicken biz.Brazilian beef producer to be bigger than Tyson also note in this article at MSNBC the purchase of Pilgrim's Pride also puts JBS in the position to sell chicken meat to the U.S. market.

'JBS said the newly minted JBS-Bertin will be the world's largest meat producer with an annual income of $28.7 billion, just edging out Springdale, Arkansas-based Tyson Foods Inc.'

   Gotta love Brazil. - while America (U.S.) sleeps. Then there is their exquisite derivatives exchange...