Maori are increasingly recognising the importance of their traditional cultural values, according to latest research. A survey of 1500 Maori, conducted by The Nielsen Company, found a sharp rise in the importance of traditional cultural values among them. Three-quarters of those surveyed said traditional values were really important to them, compared with under half in […]
Monthly Archives: October 2007
By Grant Ferrett BBC News Food prices have risen as more land is used to produce biofuels A United Nations expert has condemned the growing use of crops to produce biofuels as a replacement for petrol as a crime against humanity. The UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, said he feared […]
I appologise for not being able to embed the video properly but this link will lead you to a media player file from Press TV with an item on the US dollar.
by Nityanand Jayaraman, Special to CorpWatch October 24th, 2007< More than 5,000 people converged this month in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu to protest a deal that set the stage for the state government to appropriate almost 10,000 acres of land and hand it over to Tata Steel Corporation, a subsidiary of India’s largest conglomerate. […]
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Sales of US homes and apartments tumbled a hefty eight percent in September extending one of the nation’s worst housing slumps in decades, an industry group said Wednesday. The National Association of Realtors said in a monthly snapshot that sales of existing homes and apartments fell to a seasonally adjusted rate of […]
The dollar is no longer the world’s reserve currency. This is the statement you heard twice in one day if you were checking out the news on Bloomberg over the past 24 hours. First, we heard it from economist Clifford Bennett of Sonray Capital, who said the Euro was the world’s new reserve currency and […]
In fact it would be prefect if it wasn’t for those Greenies pointing out obvious risks. Greens Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons says a Taranaki oil spill should ring alarm bells in Government about the potential risks and costs of mooted oil exploration in the Great South Basin. Work on cleaning up tar balls discovered on […]
The Australian company running the offshore Tui oilfield says it would be its first “environmental blemish” if an oil spill on the Taranaki coast came from the field. Authorities are trying to find out if the sticky black blobs of oil found on a 10-kilometre stretch of coast south of New Plymouth came from the […]
Doesn’t it feel good to be considered one of the most industry-friendly countries by a Petroleum CEO? Petroleum explorers have laid claim to over 15,000 square kilometres of the offshore West Coast basin, as oil hits record prices and nears peak production. Crown Minerals has granted the New Zealand subsidiary of a United States oil […]
Merrill Lynch & Co was the bank John Key last worked for before coming back to NZ. NEW YORK – US financial giant Merrill Lynch & Co today reported the biggest quarterly loss in its history after writing down US$8.4 billion, mostly from bad investments related to risky subprime mortgages. “The bottom line is we got it […]
University lecture by author Naomi Wolf
Medea Benjamin from America’s Code Pink get’s arrested for showing the peace sign by sticking two fingers in the air.
“Allow me to point out the irony of this situation,” Guido Mantega, the Brazilian finance minister, told reporters at a recent global pow-wow. “Countries that were references of good governance, of standards and codes for the financial systems” were now the same countries where financial problems were threatening to wreck global prosperity. Whoever could he […]
Would you like your parents to be taken care of by the Carlyle group? A caravan of over 200 healthcare workers organized by the SEIU arrived in Washington DC today to demonstrate outside the Carlyle Group headquarters. What does that have to do with Jeralyn Merritt’s mom? Jeralyn’s mom lives in a Manor Care facility. […]
More intimidation and stifling of dissent. A 72-year-old socialist worker who has been protesting against the “anti-terror” raids had his own home searched by police yesterday over an alleged kidnapping. Jimmy O’Dea, a veteran trade unionist who has prostate cancer, said he had no idea why eight carloads of police arrived in the afternoon at […]
Are these to curtail Nuclear activity of to punish Iran for dumping the dollar? The Bush administration is imposing sweeping new sanctions against Iran’s defense ministry, its Revolutionary Guard Corps and a number of banks to punish them for purported support for terrorist organizations in Iraq and the Middle East, missile sales and nuclear activities, […]
Could this be the beginning of the end of Dollar Hegemony? The Central Bank of Iran says the process of converting the country’s dollar reserves to other foreign currencies has been completed. The process of diversifying Iran’s foreign exchange reserves by converting reserves held in dollars to other currencies is almost complete, Fars news agency […]
The world is burning, more storms in New Zeland with never before seen Tornados. Flooding is on the increase world wide due to increased storms, Billions of damage, coastal areas drowning, ecorefugee numbers rising but John Key says it is better to follow than to lead. Well, I guess now we know were National stands. They still […]
Last week was a tough one for the markets. Oil rose over US$88 and the Dow got clobbered. It fell 366 points on Friday. The euro rose to almost US$1.43. The Boston Globe gives us a quick update on the housing picture: “‘You can see that it’s a crisis,’ said John L. O’Brien, registrar of […]
Offshore is the last great frontier in the oil business, the only undiscovered country out there, unless you think there’s oil on the moon. The trouble with going offshore is that it’s incredibly expensive and ridiculously hard to do. There are a handful of firms in the world with the engineering know-how to find and […]
Vice President Dick Cheney cut a deal with the prime minister of Australia to orchestrate a plea bargain with an Australian terror suspect that would keep him out of sight until after Australia’s national elections next month, an Australian television station reported. Cheney “interfered directly” to secure Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks’ guilty plea to […]
Overwhelming demand has led an advocacy group to organise a second meeting of disgruntled Bridgecorp investors, this time in Christchurch. Exposing Unacceptable Financial Advice (Eufa) has received many calls from burnt South Island investors unable to attend a meeting it has organised in Auckland tomorrow. “I think there is a demand from people in the […]
Workers on the average wage are at the centre of a political row after figures show thousands of dollars in pay rises have been whittled back to a few hundred by higher taxes and inflation. A “Joanna Average” is at the centre of the tussle, with National’s figures showing she is only $500 a year […]
A man arrested in the terror raids has been badly beaten in prison but is refusing to name his attacker. The Corrections Department confirmed that a prisoner – understood to be Jamie Lockett, who faces three Firearms Act charges – was taken to hospital after an assault but was now back in prison. He had […]
The average American has only gained wealth in the last five years because his house rose in price. Now even that is going away. And unfortunately for him…and for the US economy generally…he already spent the wealth that is now disappearing. Each year, the MEW (Mortgage Equity Withdrawal) grew higher…until it reached a peak in […]
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation has become the largest capitalized media corporation in the world, surpassing rival Time Warner, $67.79 billion to $67.32 billion.At close Friday, News Corp. was first at $67.79 billion, followed by Time Warner ($67.32 billion), Disney ($65.62 billion), Sony ($45.29 billion), Viacom ($26.98 billion) and CBS ($21.11 billion), according to Hollywood Reporter. […]
European shares lost ground on Monday, mirroring falls in Asia as concerns grew about the US economy. The UK’s FTSE 100 index ended 1.1% lower at 6,459 while Germany’s Dax lost 1.2%, and France’s Cac shed 1.4%. However on Wall Street, shares reversed earlier losses to close ahead – clawing back a little of Friday’s […]
An unusually high degree of risk-taking across asset classes made recent financial market turmoil all but inevitable, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said. “The financial crisis that erupted on August 9th was an accident waiting to happen,” Greenspan said in a speech on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings. […]
Stock markets around the world were braced for fresh falls today despite attempts by the G7 leading industrial nations and the International Monetary Fund to boost confidence after Friday’s plunge in share prices on Wall Street.The IMF’s key policy-making committee said at the weekend that the recent turmoil in financial markets would lead to slower […]
By Mike Whitney 10/22/07 “ICH” — – -Friday’s bloodbath on Wall Street proved that the troubles in the credit markets have not been relieved by the Fed’s rate cuts. The Dow Jones slipped 367 points on the 20th anniversary of Black Monday, the stock market’s biggest one-day loss in history. Since Friday, Asian markets have […]
Aotearoa: A Wider Perspective 