stoppress stoppress stoppress stoppress !!!
money 23rd Oct.The cycle of debt deflation is just getting rolling. The banks were only the first bailout and already the federal deficits are ballooning unsustainably. What will be the recourse when municipalities and states face default through catastrophic tax and revenue shortfalls? What will be the recourse when large commercial employers, industries and infrastructure confront failure from collapsing consumption expenditure? What will be the consequence when unemployment, homelessness, political disaffection and crime are resurgent and threaten the political fabric?

We are at the end of the beginning. Hank Paulson has played a clever game for the past decade of exporting dodgy paper to the US creditors abroad while forcing a middle class subsidy of the tax exempt corporatists at home. Now he plays a clever game of devaluing all currency and paper assets, exporting the pain to foreign taxpayers and investors. But this is not a game that America can win without the debasement of everything America once represented as holding value in its formerly prosperous market economy.

In my experience, there is nothing so permanent as a temporary expedient. It is hard to see how partially nationlised banks will ever be more than the means of political redistribution of wealth and power, and so corrupt both the economy and political system. www.londonbanker.blogspot.com

Normal Protestant Household objects would you say?

70 Guns, ammunition found in Belfast

Friday, 17 October 2008 16:24

More than 70 guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition were found during an investigation into the sudden death of a man in Belfast last weekend.The weapons cache was found in the man's home in a loyalist area of north Belfast and then in follow-up searches.It is believed that the weapons belong to the UVF.

A smaller number of guns were found in a lock-up area in the Ballysillan area.Police say that while investigations into the man's death are ongoing they are not treating it as suspicious..........Speaking of the find, interlocutor to the decommissioning body Billy Hutchinson said: 'First and foremost a man has died and his family will be grieving at this time, it is important we acknowledge and respect that.'In relation to the weapons, I have made initial enquiries and will continue to pursue that throughout the day with the hope of making a full statement at a later time.'

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POLITICIANS HANDLING FINANCES.....
OPINION: Twice in a generation the political class has mismanaged the public finances. Radical change is needed to ensure it never happens again, writes Dan O'Brien 

HAD THE public finances been well managed during the years of extraordinary plenty, the Government would now be in a position to mitigate the effects of recession by cutting taxes and increasing spending. Such steps would have the additional effect of boosting confidence by providing reassurance that those at the helm are capable of navigating a course back to stability and growth.

But the public finances were grossly mismanaged during the boom years. As a result, the Government and its finances are now a part of the problem rather than the solution. This is as appalling as it is tragic.

..........................A majority of euro zone members have registered a narrowing of budget imbalances since 2006. Ireland has not only bucked the trend, but the deterioration in its public finances has been far worse than that recorded in any euro zone country over the past quarter century.If this extraordinary failure was a one-off event, then one could possibly make the case that the lessons of today will be learned and not repeated. But it is no such thing. It is the second time in a generation that the country has inflicted such harm upon itself.

In the 1970s and early 1980s, the world suffered its deepest slump since the 1930s. Countries everywhere faced similar challenges. Some rose to those challenges. Others muddled through. Three rich countries - Belgium, Ireland and Italy - floundered.Prior to 1987, Ireland floundered most. By 1985 it was alone among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and development countries to have a public debt greater than its GDP.Belgium and Italy have dysfunctional political systems. Belgium is corrupt, grossly over-governed and unable to overcome its communal tensions. Italy is inherently ungovernable.Ireland's problems are not nearly of the same order as those of Belgium and Italy, but to fail so catastrophically to manage the public finances twice in a generation does demonstrate a grave deficiency in the Irish system.

The answer would seem to lie in the calibre of elected representatives. School teachers, publicans and small-town accountants are deeply rooted in their local communities and ensure the political system avoids the kind of disconnection with voters that many other mature democracies suffer. This is the enduring strength of Ireland's system. But it is also its greatest weakness. Such people are rarely even remotely qualified to run a finance ministry...............

Instead of the Department of Finance generating its own economic forecasts and projections, the entire function should be handed to the Economic and Social Research Institute, with additional safeguards to further bolster its independence.The minister and his officials would then base budgets on a given set of assumptions and would not be able to succumb to the temptation to massage the figures for political ends.

The second function ripe for depoliticisation is the evaluation of spending programmes before implementation. Ireland lags far behind the European norm in this regard. Subjecting spending proposals to scrutiny is needed both to ensure that the objective is not political (eg decentralisation) and is being achieved at the lowest cost to the taxpayer.Such a function would require a new free-standing institution peopled by auditors and economists. To be effective it would need statutory powers to amend, delay and perhaps even block proposals for which a minister cannot make a coherent and costed case.

The final function that lends itself to depoliticisation is the auditing of spending after it has taken place. The Comptroller and Auditor General in Ireland already does this, but his office is less resourced and has fewer statutory powers than in many other jurisdictions. It should be beefed up and given more and sharper teeth.

The political class has shown that it simply cannot be trusted to manage the public finances responsibly in the current framework. Real checks and balances are needed to constrain future finance ministers from repeating the recklessness of many of their predecessors.

Dan O'Brien is a senior editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit © 2008 The Irish Times

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The United States won't be the world's financial superpower in the wake of the banking crisis, German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said Thursday, according to news reports. Steinbrueck told the lower house of Germany's parliament he would push for a global ban on speculative short selling and limits that would prevent banks from fully securitizing loans and selling them on to third parties, Dow Jones Newswires reported. Steinbrueck criticized the U.S. government for a late response to the crisis and laissez-faire market policies. "The U.S. will lose its status as the superpower of the global financial system," he said. "The global financial system will become more multi-polar."

US to sell Israel Air Force new bunker-buster bombs
Aluf Benn and Amos Harel, Haaretz

Despite reservations in Washington regarding a possible Israeli strike on Iran, the American administration will supply Israel with sophisticated weapons for heavily fortified targets, the US administration announced. The US Department of Defense announced it would sell the Israel Air Force 1,000 new smart bombs, rumored to significantly enhance the IAF’s military capabilities. The deal was approved amid public and secret messages from Washington, with the Americans expressing their reservations about a possible Israeli strike against the Islamic Republic’s suspected nuclear sites. The Pentagon’s announcement, which came on Friday, said the US will provide Israel with 1,000 units of Guided Bomb Unit-39 (GBU-39) - a special weapon developed for penetrating fortified facilities located deep underground. The $77m shipment, which includes launchers and appurtenances, will allow the IAF to hit many more bunkers than currently possible.

Although each bomb weighs 113 kg, its penetration capabilities equal those of a one ton bomb, according to professional literature. Most US Air Force aircraft are able to carry a pack of four of these bombs in place of a single one-ton bomb. The bomb’s small size allows a single-strike aircraft to carry more of the munitions than is possible utilizing currently available bomb units, thus increasing firepower, or, alternatively, allowing the aircraft to fly longer distances to deliver a single bomb. During demonstrations, the GBU-39 - labeled by the manufacturer, Boeing, as a Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) - has successfully penetrated more than 1.8m of thick reinforced concrete with a 23-kg warhead. The GPS-guided weapon is said to have a 50% probability of hitting its intended target within 5-8m, which should minimize collateral damage. The estimated value for the bomb’s GPS version, which military experts have called the latest development in the bunker-buster line, is around $70k-$90k for each individual bomb. The US has already supplied Israel with earlier versions of bunker busters. In 2005, the Pentagon authorized the sale of GBU-28 to Israel, in a move that commentators construed as a hinted threat aimed at Iran. Haaretz reported earlier this month that the US was hesitant about selling Israel heavier busters. The Pentagon’s announcement also said that the US would help upgrade the Israel Defense Forces’ Patriot anti-aircraft missiles, which Israel uses as part of its missile-interception array. Israel will also receive 28,000 LAW (Light Anti-Tank Weapon) tube launchers for land forces.
Rowan Berkeley |XYMPHORA BLOGSPOT

FURY AT PLAN TO ABOLISH USA

As the first steps are taken to abolish the United States of America, In case you have forgotten a vital piece of news earlier this year,

Thursday, March 13, 2008 was only the fourth time in history that Congress closed its doors to the public. Some members of Congress were so furious about what was discussed, that they “leaked” the information they were forbidden to speak about.

There was outlined the New World Order plan for these and other events to occur:

      1. the financial system collapse to begin by September 15.

      2. the collapse of US federal government finances by February 2009.

      3. the necessary “and unavoidable” merger of the United States with Canada and with Mexico.

      4. the issuance of a new currency – the Amero” -- for all three nations as the proposed solution to the coming economic Armageddon.                      

As you know, the first of these events has begun.