The Big Lie of Recession Politics: ‘Shared Sacrifice’

The phenomenon of shared sacrifice is equally infectious to public workers, becoming immediately relevant because of the budget crises affecting nearly every state. The Governor of Oregon, in preparing to unveil his anti-worker budget proposal, first announced a pay cut for himself and thousands of state managers.

The next step, of course, was asking public workers to share in the sacrifices being made. The difference between the two, however, is that the Governor and the bosses make significantly more than workers, and while the Governor might enjoy a bit less luxury in his life, the workers may have to forego daycare for their children, or paying the electric bill.

If this reminds you of something and you want to know how this works perhaps you might like to watch this video called the shock doctrine.

It’s everywhere you look and in every speech you listen to. Every time a politician or businessmen talks about the recession, an almost in-synch, repetitive mantra can be heard: “Shared sacrifice, equality of sacrifice, hard choices.” Oh my.

There must be something to it, since EVERYBODY seems to be regurgitating the phrase in harmony. Even union bureaucrats have caught the shared sacrifice fever, using it to subdue their members in contract negotiations.

Obama himself has turned this once-extinct phrase into the linchpin of his economics policy: “We will, each and every one of us, have to compromise on certain things we care about but which we simply cannot afford right now.”

Obama has used this reasoning to reduce the wages of auto workers, while also talking about so-called “entitlement programs” like social security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

When asked about how this applied to the 28 new helicopters planned for the White House — costing $11.2 billion — Obama gave a heroic lead to the American people, saying that he “could do without them.”

Likewise, corporate CEO’s are being asked to give up their corporate jets, and they too are making brave sacrifices.

Examples like these are then shown to workers, who are told to share in the sacrifices, since “these are hard times.”

The worker, however, isn’t immediately sold on the idea. Haven’t wages and benefits gone down for decades, while the workload has gone up? Are these not sacrifices?

“No,” we are told, “this is a deep recession, and if you do not agree to work for less, the company will fail and you will lose your job.”

This scare tactic IS effective. And conversations like these are taking place all over the country in an attempt to scare workers into submission.

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PLAYING THE BANKING GAME: HOW CASH-STARVED STATES CAN CREATE THEIR OWN CREDIT

“North Dakota is a sparsely populated state of less than 700,000, known for cold weather, isolated farmers and a hit movie – Fargo. Yet, for some reason it defies the real estate cliché of location, location, location. Since 2000, the state’s GNP has grown 56%, personal income has grown 43%, and wages have grown 34%. This year the state has a budget surplus of $1.2 billion!”

Still, you may ask, how does that solve the solvency problem? Isn’t the state still limited to spending only the money it has? The answer is no. Certified, card-carrying bankers are allowed to do something nobody else can do: they can create “credit” with accounting entries on their books.

On February 19, 2009, California narrowly escaped bankruptcy, when Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger put on his Terminator hat and held the state senate in lockdown mode until they signed a very controversial budget.¹ If the vote had failed, the state was going to be reduced to paying its employees in I.O.U.s. California avoided bankruptcy for the time being, but 46 of 50 states are insolvent and could be filing Chapter 9 bankruptcy proceedings in the next two years.²

One of the four states that is not insolvent is an unlikely candidate for the distinction – North Dakota. As Michigan management consultant Charles Fleetham observed last month in an article distributed to his local media:

“North Dakota is a sparsely populated state of less than 700,000, known for cold weather, isolated farmers and a hit movie – Fargo. Yet, for some reason it defies the real estate cliché of location, location, location. Since 2000, the state’s GNP has grown 56%, personal income has grown 43%, and wages have grown 34%. This year the state has a budget surplus of $1.2 billion!”

What does the State of North Dakota have that other states don’t? The answer seems to be: its own bank. In fact, North Dakota has the only state-owned bank in the nation. The state legislature established the Bank of North Dakota in 1919. Fleetham writes that the bank was set up to free farmers and small businessmen from the clutches of out-of-state bankers and railroad men. By law, the state must deposit all its funds in the bank, and the state guarantees its deposits. Three elected officials oversee the bank: the governor, the attorney general, and the commissioner of agriculture. The bank’s stated mission is to deliver sound financial services that promote agriculture, commerce and industry in North Dakota. The bank operates as a bankers’ bank, partnering with private banks to loan money to farmers, real estate developers, schools and small businesses. It loans money to students (over 184,000 outstanding loans), and it purchases municipal bonds from public institutions.

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Forecast: U.S. dollar could plunge 90 pct

RHINEBECK, N.Y., Nov. 19 (UPI) — A financial crisis will likely send the U.S. dollar into a free fall of as much as 90 percent and gold soaring to $2,000 an ounce, a trends researcher said.

“We are going to see economic times the likes of which no living person has seen,” Trends Research Institute Director Gerald Celente said, forecasting a “Panic of 2008.”

“The bigger they are, the harder they’ll fall,” he said in an interview with New York’s Hudson Valley Business Journal.

Celente — who forecast the subprime mortgage financial crisis and the dollar’s decline a year ago and gold’s current rise in May — told the newspaper the subprime mortgage meltdown was just the first “small, high-risk segment of the market” to collapse.

Derivative dealers, hedge funds, buyout firms and other market players will also unravel, he said.

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Aid plan aims to use super millions

Well, that didn’t take them long did it? I said it here months ago that if we voted a banker in it would be one big grab fest for the bankers and voila. Only to save sound big businesses in need a temporary injection of course.

Superannuation funds, which could include the Cullen Fund, will play a major role in the multibillion-dollar equity investment pool proposed at last week’s Jobs Summit as a salve to recession-hit firms’ balance sheets. (Graham Hodges, chief executive of New Zealand’s biggest bank ANZ National Bank)

Superannuation funds, which could include the Cullen Fund, will play a major role in the multibillion-dollar equity investment pool proposed at last week’s Jobs Summit as a salve to recession-hit firms’ balance sheets, says the country’s top banker.

Graham Hodges, chief executive of New Zealand’s biggest bank ANZ National Bank, attended last week’s summit where bankers proposed a joint fund with the Government to inject capital into firms that were temporarily stressed but essentially sound.

Given Prime Minister John Key’s previous comments hinting that a Government bailout of “iconic” or strategic local companies was a possibility, much of the coverage of the proposal has focused on its potential to aid larger companies.

However Hodges yesterday told the Herald that while planning was still at a very early stage, a two-tier strategy was likely. With an “interventionist” Government and bank-funded model for equity stakes in large companies, a mechanism to allow super funds to invest more easily in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) was also part of the plan.

Hodges said that at last week’s summit it was made clear that a number of superannuation fund investors including KiwiSaver providers and potentially even the New Zealand Superannuation or Cullen Fund “would dearly love to be able to invest into part of the SME sector but there aren’t easy mechanisms for them to find partner businesses in which to invest”.

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Obama Must Fire Geithner and Summers

What is important to understand is that bankers don’t give a flying fuck about banks. They care about bankers. This is why banks are collapsing one after another. Especially the big invesment banks such as Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Lehman Brothers and USB, While this may seem contradictory let me excplain in short how that is possible. Once banks where owned by a banker. It was in his interest to be prudent to whom he loaned and how he maintained his business. If he failed he went bankrupt. This is how it works:

I’ve previously pointed out that the head of Obama’s council of economic advisors – Larry Summers – is the worst possible guy for the job.

Two new articles show why Tim Geithner is the treasury secretary from hell.

As Robert Kuttner writes:

Geithner has … come up with the idea of subjecting the largest banks to “stress tests” to determine just how badly damaged their balance sheets are. This has been advertised as government examiners crawling all over bank records, but much of this belated effort will rely on the banks’ own risk models–the same risk models that got the banks into this mess.

Come to think of it, where have the examiners been all along? Why wasn’t there serious investigation of bank balance sheets all along? Why should stress tests be performed only after disaster has struck (shades of Hurricane Katrina)?

The worst culprit among the feeble regulators is the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, whose examiners are responsible for assessing the safety and soundness of the holding companies of Wall Street’s largest banks. It was high risk speculative activities by holding company affiliates that put the big banks under water.

Who dropped the ball? You may recall that Secretary Geithner, before he assumed his present post, was president of the New York Fed Bank. According to a withering feature piece from Bloomberg, he was asleep at the switch, and far too cozy with the banks. Heckuva job, Timmy.

And in his must-read piece from today, Cenk Uygar writes:

Tim Geithner and Larry Summers and many others are missing the fundamental flaw in the system. The bankers don’t care about the banks; they care about the bankers. …

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Celente: U.S. Has Entered “The Greatest Depression”

With the forecast that the DOW will break through the 5000 floor soon the die is cast and the US economy is in freefall. This is what Celente has to say about it.

Trends research analyst Gerald Celente, who has risen in prominence on the back of his deadly accurate economic predictions, says that the collapse of financial markets heralds the start of “The Greatest Depression”.

In his latest Trend Alert bulletin, Celente attacks mainstream pundits who falsely predicted a market bottom and the start of a recovery, noting that conventional analysts have been proven “dead wrong” again and that, “There will be no turn around in the second quarter of 2009 or 2010 or 2011.”

“The global financial system, built on endless supplies of cheap money, rampant speculation, fraud, greed, and delusion is terminally ill and will not be coaxed into remission by stimulus packages nor restored to health by government buyouts and bailouts,” writes Celente.

The most positive prediction that Celente makes is that the Dow will not reach zero, a tongue in cheek reaction to yesterday’s record plunge which saw the Dow rolled back to 1997 levels well below 7,000.

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Israel draws ‘red lines’ for Obama on Iran

Israel prepares a set of red lines for Washington to inject into its Iran policy as the current US approach toward Tehran rankles Tel Aviv.

The revelation that the White House will be briefed on its ‘red lines’ came ahead of a visit by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Israel and the West Bank, during which she is scheduled to meet with various high-ranking Israeli officials.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry and the defense establishment have been working together to formulate a set of redlines for the newly-established US administration of President Barack Obama.

President Obama’s pledge to untangle 30 years of enmity toward Iran and engage the country with diplomacy over its long-disputed nuclear case has become a cause for concern in Tel Aviv.

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Mascot Finance first to fail under guarantee

Is this why Farmers Mutual Finance stopped lending on Friday?

South Island property lender Mascot Finance, which owes debenture investors $70 million, yesterday became the first financial institution covered by the Government’s Retail Deposit Guarantee to fail but Treasury says “there may well be others”.

A source close to the company believes the shortfall between what Mascot owes investors and what receivers collect on its loan book is unlikely to be large and will easily be met by what Treasury has collected in fees – mostly from the large banks – for the guarantee scheme to date.

Mascot’s trustee Louise Edwards called in receivers yesterday morning after the company informed her last week that a major loan was unlikely to be recovered and a breach of the company’s trust deed was imminent.

Mascot, which owes $70 million to 2558 investors and lends mostly to the property sector, was one of the first finance companies to gain coverage under the Retail Deposit Guarantee introduced last year. Treasury Secretary John Whitehead moved quickly to assure eligible Mascot investors they would get all their money back.

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Farmers Mutual Finance to stop lending

This is bad. According to their website the are closed to both lending and investment and while the government guarantees will be extended to the existing investments and debenture holders will continue to receive payments the investment banking sector of the is closed and Farmers Mutual Group said ownership of a finance company was no longer part of its strategy.

What does this mean? It means that group who for over 104 years have build up considerable knowledge on the financial needs of rural borrowers have hit a massive brick wall: the credit crunch and that farmers relying on the know-how and the possibility to borrow for their farms can no longer rely on the FMG. That is very bad because other banks will not lend to farmers who might be in for the chop with mortgages under water and overextended to modernise have no place left to go.
Palmerston North based finance company Farmers Mutual Finance announced late on Friday it had stopped lending and would stop taking new investments immediately.

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America’s Fiscal Collapse

America is the most indebted country on earth. The US (federal government) public debt is currently of the order of $14 trillion. This does not include mounting public debts at the state and municipal levels.

“Strong economic medicine” with a “human face”

“Promise amid peril.” The stated priorities of the Obama economic package are health, education,

How to bankrupt a Nation

renewable energy, investment in infrastructure and transportation. “Quality education” is at the forefront. Obama has also promised to “make health care more affordable and accessible”, for every American.

At first sight, the budget proposal has all the appearances of an expansionary program, a demand oriented “Second New Deal” geared towards creating employment, rebuilding shattered social programs and reviving the real economy.

Obama’s promise is based on a mammoth austerity program. The entire fiscal structure is shattered, turned upside down.

To reach these stated objectives, a significant hike in public spending on social programs (health, education, housing, social security) would be required as well as the implementation of a large scale public investment program. Major shifts in the composition of public expenditure would also be required: i.e. a move out of a war economy, requiring a movement out of military related spending in favour of civilian programs.

In actuality, what we are dealing with is the most drastic curtailment in public spending in American history, leading to social havoc and the potential impoverishment of millions of people.

The Obama promise largely serves the interests of Wall Street, the defence contractors and the oil conglomerates. In turn, the Bush-Obama bank “bailouts” are leading America into the a spiralling public debt crisis. The economic and social dislocations are potentially devastating.

Obama’s budget submitted to Congress on February 26, 2009 envisages outlays for the 2010 fiscal year (commencing October 1st 2009) of $3.94 trillion, an increase of 32 percent. Total government revenues for the 2010 fiscal year,  according to preliminary estimates by the Bureau of Budget, are of the order of $2.381 trillion.

The predicted budget deficit  (according to the president’s speech) is of the order of $1.75 trillion, almost 12 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product.

War and Wall Street

This is a “War Budget”. The austerity measures hit all major federal spending programs with the exception of:  1. Defence and the Middle East War: 2. the Wall Street bank bailout,  3. Interest payments on a staggering public debt.

The budget diverts tax revenues into financing the war. It  legitimizes the fraudulent transfers of tax dollars to the financial elites under the “bank bailouts”.

The pattern of deficit spending is not expansionary. We are not dealing with a Keynesian style deficit, which stimulates investment and consumer demand, leading to an expansion of production and employment.

The ” bank bailouts” (involving several initiatives financed by tax dollars) constitute a component  of government expenditure. Both the Bush and Obama bank bail outs are hand outs to the banks. They do not not constitute a positive spending injection into the real economy. Quite the opposite. The bailouts contribute to financing the restructuring of the banking system leading to a massive concentration of wealth and centralization of banking power.

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Gamers to fly drones over Afghanistan

Brilliant, now every gamer who knows how to fly a virtual plane can get a job killing people in far away places without getting of his gaming butt. How sick is this.

According to the RAF there’s a top gun in every adolescent gamer with a penchant for destruction.

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Britain plans to replace its highly trained pilots controlling drones flying surveillance missions over Afghanistan with lower grade staff.

The Royal Air Force (RAF) announced Saturday that pilots without full combat training will replace top guns in controlling unmanned Reaper planes in ‘frontline missions’ in Afghanistan as part of a plan to reduce costs.

Currently the drones, capable of carrying laser-guided bombs and air-to-ground missiles, are flown by highly trained fighter pilots, who have undergone the GBP 4m fighter pilot program — 8,000 miles away in Nevada, western US.

Although a small mistake by the remote-controlled pilot can be lethal for civilians or friendly forces nearby, RAF chiefs, believe that ‘lower grade’ pilots with 30 hours’ basic flying training can fly sensitive missions over Afghanistan.

“‘We don’t necessarily need highly trained pilots,” the Daily Mail qouted Wing Commander Richard McMahon as saying.

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Ukraine Teeters as Citizens Blame Banks and Government

KIEV, Ukraine – Steel and chemical factories, once the muscle of Ukraine’s economy, are dismissing thousands of workers. Cities have had days without heat or water because they cannot pay their bills, and Kiev’s subway service is being threatened. Lines are sprouting at banks, the currency is wilting and even a government default seems possible.

Ukraine, once considered a worldwide symbol of an emerging, free-market democracy that had cast off authoritarianism, is teetering. And its predicament poses a real threat for other European economies and former Soviet republics.

The sudden, violent protests that have erupted elsewhere in Eastern Europe seem imminent here now, too. Across Kiev last week, people spoke of rising anger about the crisis and resentment toward a government that they said was more preoccupied with squabbling than with rallying the country.

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Evolution under threat as ‘gender bending’ chemicals are turning males into females

The soaring number of gender bending chemicals in our food, water and air are triggering an infertility time bomb which could disrupt evolution, scientists are warning.

They say wildlife is being ‘feminised’ by a host of common man-made pollutants which escape into the environment and mimic the female sex hormone oestrogen.

The chemicals – found in food packaging, cleaning products, plastics, sewage and paint – trigger genital deformities, reduce sperm count and even turn males into females.

Polar bears are among the dozens of species being ‘feminised’ by man-made pollutants being released into the air

Dozens of species – including polar bears, fish,  bald eagles, otters and whales – are suffering, they say.

Although the report, published by the environmental group ChemTrust, only looked at the impact of gender bending chemicals on the animal world, its authors say the findings have disturbing implications for human health.

Gywnne Lyons, a former Government advisor on chemical pollution and author of the report, said: ‘Urgent action is needed to control gender bending chemicals and more resources are needed for monitoring wildlife.

‘If wildlife populations crash, it will be too late. Unless enough males contribute to the next generation there is a real threat to animal populations in the long term.’

The report looks at the effect of hormone disrupting chemicals  – including phthalates added to plastics such as PVC and glues, and bisphenol A used in the linings of food cans, plastics bottles and dental sealants.

‘Males of species from each of the main classes of vertebrate animals (including bony fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) have been affected by chemicals in the environment,’  the report said.

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Change Bill of Rights, says 3-strikes MP

Meine kameraden, Sieg heil,

Wiz regards to ze schree strike law:

Fuhrer David Garrett

“It seems ve have hit eines kleines schnag; Ze bill of rights vill not allow us to lock people up and schrow avay ze key.

Na und?

I propose a zimple solution. Ve vill shange ze biell of rrrights. Ganz Einfach!

Und tan ve vill lock people up venever ve vant for life because zey violated ze law schree times. Eh? Problem solved, who needz a biell of rights anyvay.”

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The Act MP who designed the proposed “three strikes and you’re out” law says if it breaches fundamental human rights, the solution is simple – change the Bill of Rights.

David Garrett dismissed a report by Attorney-General Chris Finlayson that found three strikes had an apparent inconsistency with the section of Bill of Rights protecting New Zealanders against cruel, degrading or disproportionately severe punishment.

Mr Garrett had not read the report, but told of its findings yesterday said: “So what?”

“Alter the Bill of Rights Act. We’ve got too hung up on people’s rights.”

Three strikes would see those convicted of a third serious offence sentenced to life imprisonment with a 25-year non-parole period.

As Attorney-General, Mr Finlayson is required to report on any bill that appears inconsistent with the Bill of Rights. The report is not his views as a National MP or minister.

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Britain shivers through its coldest winter for 13 years… and another big freeze is on the way

It’s what we suspected as the deep freeze set in and the country was hit by heavy snow.

Now forecasters have confirmed that Britain shivered through the coldest winter for more than a decade.

The last three months have been the chilliest for 13 years, with an average temperature of only 37f (2.9c).

A man makes his way across Westminster Bridge as heavy snow hit the capital last month

The winter temperature has been calculated up to February 23, but it would have needed an impossibly high average temperature in the last few days for this winter not to be the coldest since 1995-1996.

Although we are now in March, the recent mild weather is not expected to last. Wintry conditions are about to return with a vengeance.

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Wall Street tumbles anew as financials slide

NEW YORK (AP) — The Dow Jones industrial average plunged below 7,000 Monday for the first time in more than 11 years as investors grow even more pessimistic about the health of banks, and in turn the economy.

A staggering $61.7 billion in quarterly losses at insurer American International Group Inc. touched off fresh fears about the health of the nation’s financial system.

The worries pushed the blue chips below 7,000 for the first time since Oct. 28, 1997. The credit crisis and recession have now slashed half the average’s value since it hit a record high over 14,000 in October 2007.

Investors are fleeing financials after the government said it would give AIG another $30 billion in loans, be

sides the $150 billion it has already given the company. Investors are worried about European financial companies, too. HSBC PLC, Europe’s largest bank by market value, reported a 70 percent drop in 2008 profit and said it needs to raise $17.7 billion and cut 6,100 jobs.

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Conspiracy 911

If you are in Auckland and want to meet other people who are interested in the events of 911 or if you are a downright cynical about the official story and in fact if you really believe that 19 Young men with a manic Guru in the Afghan hills could have attacked the twin towers and the Pentagon then perhaps you might want to go to this performance

Alan turned 21 on the 11th of September 2001, no one came to his party … this is his story.

Conspiracy 911 is a comedy, written by James Amos and starring  Nik Smythe, Sia Tronkenheim and James Amos. Directed by Katrina Chandra. This amusing story plots the years between the events of “9/11″ until sometime in the near future. The main character, Alan, goes crazy with worry after no one comes to his 21st birthday party. As a coping mechanism he begins to research the events surrounding that day. But he finds that the information he uncovers is more than he bargained for. Can he “handle the truth?”. Come and see the show to find out!

Iran threatened with economic meltdown

How convenient. First you collapse the economy than you bomb the shit out of them and then you steal their oil. it worked in Afghanistan and Iraq and it will work in Iran.

The sharp downward spiral of oil prices has prompted economists to predict that Tehran is facing severe financial hardship within the space of a few months.

Iran’s presidential contenders have to address the budget deficit brought about by the plummeting oil prices and the world banking crisis.

The country’s economy is almost totally dependent on oil, which accounts for 80% of the country’s foreign exchange receipts, while oil and gas make up 70% of government revenue.

Cash rolled in when the price of oil was above $140 a barrel and the country amassed huge foreign currency reserves, but with the price falling to around $40, that revenue has dried up accordingly.

For the first time since the Islamic revolution in 1979, Iranians will turn away from geopolitics and focus instead on the state of their economy when they go to the polls in June.

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Multi-billion Dollar Mining Boom: The economics of war and empire in Afghanistan.

In Bamiyan province, the very province where the Kiwi troops are stationed the very reason why we “the West” wanted to get our hands on the treasures of Afghanistan is coming to light. I ask you are you still proud to be part of this war of conquest your troops are involved in?

On a brilliant sunny afternoon, in July 2007, my research partner Hamayon Rastgar and I climbed Shahr-e Gholghola, a tiny but strategically located mountain that incongruously juts upward in the center of the Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan’s central province, Bamiyan. Our guide was a geologist I’ll call Aziz.

Aziz led us through the minefields that guard the approach to Shahr-e Gholghola to reach the strategic lookout above. From the mountaintop we surveyed the incredibly verdant Bamiyan Valley bounded by the famous cliffs of Bamiyan to the north, the snow-capped mountains of the Koh-e Baba Mountains to the south, and looking downstream along the Bamiyan River to the east, the red cliffs of Shahr-e Zohak. A chain-smoking Afghan soldier, posted on sentinel duty to keep watch over the NATO-ISAF airbase below and guard the BBC broadcasting equipment installed atop the mountain, kept us under his bored gaze.But we didn’t climb Shahr-e Gholghola just to admire the spectacular view. Aziz wanted to tell us his story of war, empire, and mining in Afghanistan with the Bamiyan Valley as his dramatic backdrop.

Some of the richest mineral deposits in the world, said Aziz, exist within a few kilometres of where we stood. Many more deposits are scattered throughout the rest of Afghanistan. A promotional brochure distributed by the Afghanistan Ministry of Mines claims the Hajigak iron deposit in Bamiyan contains 1.8 billion tonnes of ore with a concentration of 62 percent iron [<a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/AfghanMinerals/docs/Hajigak_A4.pdf">pdf</a>]. There is also abundant coal nearby that can be used for the coking process and to generate electricity making this a world class site for mine development.

Since antiquity, Afghanistan has been a source for gems and semi-precious stones, metals, and marble. Small-scale artisanal mining has always existed to supply jewellers and metal industries. A Soviet geological survey conducted in the 1970s led to some development of large-scale industrial mining, but most of these developments stalled, after 1992, during the upheavals of the American-backed Mujaheddin regime and then the Taliban regime, after 1996. The Soviets also developed natural gas extraction, which helped to fuel the Soviet economy and provided the Afghan economy with a significant portion of its foreign trade.

In 2002, the US Geological Survey (USGS) published a list of more than 1000 deposits, mines, and occurrences in Afghanistan to confirm the country’s wealth of mineral and hydrocarbon resources. Among the minerals found in abundance are gold, copper, iron, mercury, lead, and rare metals such as cesium, lithium, niobium, and tantalum. Tantalum, which is also known as coltan, is a rare element essential in the manufacture of cell phones, computers, and digital cameras. Lithium is necessary for high-tech batteries, specialty glasses and ceramics, and for some high-performance metal alloys. Niobium is used in steel alloys. According to Afghan geology expert, John Shroder, writing in a 2007 GeoJournal article, oil and natural gas reserves identified by the USGS far surpass earlier Soviet estimates.

Aziz said he fears most Afghans could be condemned to even greater suffering if these resources are developed by giant transnational companies. Looking over the Bamiyan Valley, we can see that productive and sustainable agriculture fills every available niche in a delicate balance of nature. It is an extremely fragile environment, similar to the arid American southwest. Building a railway through the valley, spewing toxic waste into the atmosphere during the smelting process, and dumping tons of slag onto the watershed would have an incredibly destructive impact on the delicate ecological balance that has been maintained for millennia by the local farmers.Aziz reminded us of the genocidal slaughter of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas as they were displaced to make way for economic development and the ecological destruction that resulted from resource extraction. Recognizing that, to this day, resource extraction practices continue to disrupt social and environmental systems, Aziz fears for the future of the Hazara people of Bamiyan and all Afghans throughout his country.* * *As part of its economic liberalization and privatization strategy, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is directing the sale of every Afghan state enterprise in transportation, communications, manufacturing, and resource extraction. Any potentially profitable sector of the Afghan economy is overseen by the agency.

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Obama announces 18-month troop withdrawal schedule

Of course 50.000 troops will still be in Iraq so that whole idea of no more occupation is a bit of a joke. I mean somebody has to guard the biggest ambassee in the world right?

(Update: Obama made mysterious call to former President Bush prior to speech)

President Barack Obama officially announced his plan to withdraw troops from Iraq during a speech to military troops and officers at Camp LeJeune in North Carolina Friday afternoon.

While he has apparently garnered wide Republican support for the plan, not all Democrats appear to be on board.

Obama says he’ll withdraw America’s combat brigades from Iraq over the next 18 months but that his administration would “proceed cautiously” on the withdrawal and that U.S. commanders will bring it about in close consultation with the Iraqi government.

“During his campaign for the presidency, Obama had advocated pulling troops out within 16 months of taking office,” the AP notes. “The timeline he announced Friday, involving roughly 100,000 troops, was two months longer. It still hastens the U.S. exit, nevertheless.”

The AP adds, “Obama also said that between 35,000 and 50,000 troops will initially remain there to help train Iraqi forces and undertake counter-terrorism missions.”

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Economic crisis in European Union

Just in case you are thinking that Europe will order our precious dairy and beef think again this is the reality in Europe. For a bigger version of this graph click here

more about “Economic crisis in European Union“, posted with vodpod

French professor looses job over 911 conspiracy theory