Which is closer to your vision of North America? Vision A: Three interdependent countries with vibrant social movements, respect for labor rights, and environmentally sustainable economies anchored in provision of social needs and respect for cultural autonomy? Or Vision B: An unequal alliance dominated by the United States, complete with pumped up oil and gas […]
Category Archives: Free trade agreements
This is so sad. The US joins in negotiation with he P4 group. They are going to talk about free trade and financial and investment services. Finally there will perhaps be a free trade agreement with the powerful US of A. Except, there is no more powerful US of A. America was once a powerful creditor nation with […]
WASHINGTON (AP) – Alarmed by slipping support for free trade even among Republicans, President Bush is arguing that protectionism will cut Americans out of chances for more – and better – jobs.Bush has launched a blitz on behalf of pending free trade pacts with four nations. He continued the push Saturday in his weekly radio […]
By Paul Craig Roberts 10/09/07 “ICH” — – On August 28 the Cato Institute in Washington DC published a report, “Thriving in a Global Economy: The Truth about US Manufacturing and Trade.” The report confuses a company’s offshored products with its import competition and wrongly concludes that US companies with the most import competition are […]
The World Bank encouraged foreign companies to destructively log the world’s second largest forest, endangering the lives of thousands of Congolese Pygmies, according to a report on an internal investigation by senior bank staff and outside experts. The report by the independent inspection panel, seen by the Guardian, also accuses the bank of misleading Congo’s […]
Helen Clark, on a tour of Europe, yesterday met NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer (left) and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana. Photos / Reuters BRUSSELS – Prime Minister Helen Clark today raised the prospect of a free trade deal between New Zealand and the European Union (EU) Miss Clark said she […]
By Andrew Hurst and Christian Plumb ZURICH/NEW YORK (Reuters) – The credit crisis struck at the heart of the global financial industry on Monday as Swiss bank UBS AG said it faced a shock loss in the third quarter and Citigroup warned its profits had collapsed. UBS’s chief domestic rival Credit Suisse Group also said […]
I wonder how much of John Key’s $50 mill. are invested in these companies. Or in Rio Tinto, or some of the other big Corporations currently vying for NZ resources (Exxon, Shell etc). And I also wonder if Kiwi’s want to elect a man who may not wish to defend NZ’s best interests but instead those […]
Posted by Bill Bonner on Sep 28th, 2007 Now we’ve finally figured it out. We were sitting in a pub, listening to a crazy woman. All of a sudden, it was clear…what went wrong with the US economy, we mean.The dollar has dropped so low that America is becoming a shopping paradise for foreigners. Of […]
Lots of promises, lower tax for the rich, privatazation of healthcare (like in America) yep John Key and nats are finally showing their true colors Public health groups are angry at National Party plans to remove caps on doctors’ fees if it wins next year’s election. National announced yesterday it would scrap the Government’s controls […]
Billions for the Bankers – Debts for the People (An indictment of the Federal Reserve System) by Sheldon Emry Thanks for posting my father’s book on your page. It is posted on another page that states it was written in 1989. My dad, Pastor Sheldon Emry, died in 1985 and the book was written around […]
By Ian Chua HONG KONG, Sept 18 (Reuters) – Credit fears flared in Asia on Tuesday prompting Australia’s central bank to quash speculation that one or more regional banks had asked for emergency funding, a day after savers rushed to withdraw deposits from a British lender. Japan’s finance minister provided soothing words to investors, saying […]
By Brian O’Mahony, Chief Business Correspondent ON a black day for Irish shares a total of €4.5 billion was wiped off the value of the Irish Stock Exchange yesterday. Market sentiment was certainly not helped by fears that investors in one of Britain’s biggest mortgage lenders, Northern Rock, might lose their life’s savings as the […]
y Anne Gibson A bank survey of residential real estate sector sentiment has presented a pessimistic picture, with many professionals saying the market has turned down fast. BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander released the monthly confidence survey this week. The survey went to 11,500 people, who were asked how their sector was going and […]
The Reserve Bank has “definitely overdone” interest rate rises this year and should slash the rates in line with Australia, economic forecasting group Berl says. Instead of being on “perpetual inflation alert”, rates should be lowered to encourage investment, productivity improvements or business expansion, Berl says. “The psychotic fear of inflation is clouding the need […]
From The Times September 18, 2007 Suzy Jagger and Gabriel Rozenberg Investors should brace themselves for a prolonged period of market turmoil, Henry Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary, said yesterday as he held emergency meetings with the Chancellor and the French Finance Minister. Mr Paulson flew to London to discuss the financial crisis with Alistair […]
Posted by Dan Denning on May 25th, 2007 Finding the lowest-cost producer is becoming increasingly important in the mining industry. Prices for base metals are high. Some of this comes from supply/demand dynamics. And some is the result of inflation (a deteriorating U.S. dollar.) Either way, the price signals in the resource market are telling […]
The United States is not the only nation confronting a household debt crisis. We, too, have a subprime lending market and it is managed by our collective bag of finance companies. The collective sum of savings at risk in this sector is reported to be $16 billion. Put another way, that’s nearly a third of […]
By Mike Whitney 09/17/07 “ICH” — – Alan Greenspan’s appearance on 60 Minutes was preceded with all the pomp and ceremony of a royal wedding. The public relations blitz dragged out for a whole week. What profound truisms would the elusive former-fed master divulge to the News Magazine’s withered-coquette, Leslie Stahl? Would he produce his […]
Graeme Wearden and Ashley Seager Monday September 17, 2007 Guardian Unlimited Photograph: AP Britain faces the prospect of falling house prices and rising inflation within a few years, according to Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve.In a series of interviews to promote his memoirs, the respected US economist warned that the […]
The Government planned to deliver $1 billion in personal tax cuts at the last budget, but shelved the plan due to fears it would fuel inflation, official papers show. The papers, issued under the Official Information Act, show the Government last year considered a package of personal tax cuts that would have equalled the $1 […]
The Federal Reserve is preparing to meet to decide whether US interest rates should be reduced from 5.25%. Most analysts believe the Fed will cut rates to try and prevent a housing market downturn and the credit crunch from severely denting the economy. By making money cheaper to borrow, people would spend and invest more, […]
Economist warns of sharp downturn · Tory leader attacks Brown over crisis Heather Stewart and Lisa Bachelor Sunday September 16, 2007 The Observer Britain’s house price growth will be halved next year as the global financial crisis exacerbates the impact of rising mortgage rates, according to Nationwide, the biggest mortgage lender.After the dramatic bail-out of […]
The cost of buying a home has blown out to a record high. In August it took 81.6 per cent of a median weekly income to pay the mortgage on a median-priced house. That is more than twice the amount considered affordable, according to the latest Fairfax Media home loan affordability report. That makes the […]
Northern Rock forced to seek emergency funding · Savers are assured that their money is secure Ashley Seager Friday September 14, 2007 The Guardian The Bank of England was last night forced to hand emergency funding to one of Britain’s biggest mortgage providers – Northern Rock – as it became the first major financial institution […]
Posted by Dr. Kurt Richebacher on Sep 14th, 2007 “America’s income-short, consumer-led recovery is the aberration – not the norm – in this Brave New World. It is all about ever-declining saving rates, ever-widening current account deficits, mounting debt burdens and increasingly wealth-dependent consumers. It personifies what I believe is one of the most precarious […]
Published: 13 September 2007 Have we reached the moment when the contagion in the rarefied world of the credit markets finally begins to infect the real economy? This week two well-known fashion retailers, French Connection and Next, warned that trading conditions are likely to become a lot more difficult in the coming months. And yesterday, […]
Even if the central bank starts to cut rates aggressively, many of the risks for the U.S. economy are beyond its reach. By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer September 13 2007: 1:35 PM EDT NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Problems in housing, the financial markets and the first job decline in four years have made a […]
By Audrey Young Richard Armitage Former US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage likens US relations with New Zealand at present to “dating”. “It’s just like dating. I think we are on a date now,” he said at the second US-NZ Partnership Forum in Auckland, which finished yesterday. “We’re going to see if this works.” […]
Those who say eating local is not always the best choice for the planet are forgetting one very important part of the equation: community. Some 30 years ago NASA came up with another BIG idea. Assemble vast solar electric arrays in space and beam the energy to earth. The environmental community did not dismiss NASA’s […]
