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YouTube Added: 06.02.2012

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The United States has escalated tensions with Iran once again, this after President Obama called for a freeze of all Iranian assets held in the US. The executive order signed on Monday was in reaction to what the US is calling “deceptive practices” by Iran. Israel has also joined in by stepping up threats against Iran, and US Secretary Defense Leon Panetta has acknowledged Israel may attack Iran in the next 90 days. Vijay Prashad, director of International Studies at Trinity College, takes a deeper look on the escalated possibility of war.

Flashback:

- George Galloway: The Case Against War With Iran (Must-Listen!!!)

‘Iran Hasn’t Invaded Another Country In More Than 300 Years.’

More on Iran:

- Commander-In-Thief Obama Signs Executive Order Freezing Iran Assets In US (Video)

- Former Member Of The Russian Joint Chiefs Of Staff: Russia Is Ready to Defend Iran and Syria

– DEBKAfile Reports: Massive US Military Buildup Around Iran; Up to 100,000 Troops Ready By March – ‘US Foresees May As Tentative Date For Clash With Iran. Floating SEALs Base For Gulf’

- Iran, Gold and Oil – The Next Banksters War
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Tags: Assassination, Barack Obama, Economy, Global News, Government, IAEA, India, Iran, Obama administration, Politics, Scientists, U.S., War

- GlaxoSmithKline clears cash from eurozone on a daily basis (Telegraph, Feb. 7, 2012):

GlaxoSmithKline is clearing cash out of eurozone countries on a daily basis to protect itself against a potential banking and liquidity crisis in the region.

Sir Andrew Witty, chief executive of Britain’s biggest drug maker, said that early last year the company had started emptying “tens of millions of pounds” in cash every day out of most eurozone countries into accounts in Britain.

“We don’t leave any cash in most European countries. We sweep any cash we raise during the day out of local banks into banks we think are robust and secure,” he added. “You do your best to actively manage the risk.”

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Tags: Banking, Collapse, Economy, EU, Euro, Europe, GlaxoSmithKline, Global News

- Spiegel: “It’s Time To End The Greek Rescue Farce” (ZeroHedge, Feb. 7, 2012):

Back in July of 2011, when we first predicted the demise of the second Greek bailout package, even before the details were fully known in “The Fatal Flaw In Europe’s Second “Bazooka” Bailout: 82 Million Soon To Be Very Angry Germans, Or How Euro Bailout #2 Could Cost Up To 56% Of German GDP” we asked, “what happens tomorrow when every German (in a population of 82 very efficient million) wakes up to newspaper headlines screaming that their country is now on the hook to 32% of its GDP in order to keep insolvent Greece, with its 50-some year old retirement age, not to mention Ireland, Portugal, and soon Italy and Spain, as part of the Eurozone? What happens when these same 82 million realize that they are on the hook to sacrificing hundreds of years of welfare state entitlements (recall that Otto von Bismark was the original welfare state progentior) just so a few peripheral national can continue to lie about their deficits (the 6 month Greek deficit already is missing Its full year benchmark target by about 20%) and enjoy generous socialist benefits up to an including guaranteed pensions? What happens when an already mortally wounded in the polls Angela Merkel finds herself in the next general election and experiences an epic electoral loss? We will find out very, very shortly.” Alas, it has not been all that very “shortly”, as once again we underestimated people’s stupidity and willingness to pay the piper of a crumbling economic and monetary system. But our prediction is finally starting to come true. Spiegel has just released an article, which encapsulates what well over 50% of Germans think, who say that the time to let Greece loose, has come.

From Der Spiegel

It’s Time To End the Greek Rescue Farce

Whether it be an escrow account or a budget commissioner, the latest demands by Germany show just how absurd negotiations over Greece’s future have become. It is high time to bring an end to this tragicomedy.

Tags: ECB, Economy, EU, Europe, GDP, Germany, Government, Greece, IMF, Politics, Society

- IMF Urges Beijing to Prepare Stimulus (Wall Street Journal, Feb. 7, 2012):

China should be prepared to sharply stimulate its economy if Europe’s growth falls more than anticipated, the International Monetary Fund said, adding to expectations that Beijing could turn to spending if conditions significantly worsen.

In its China economic outlook report released on Monday, the IMF urged China to run a deficit of 2% of GDP rather than looking to reduce the country’s deficit as planned, given the uncertainty in the global economy.

If Europe’s problems turned out to be worse than expected, China should hit the fiscal gas pedal harder. In that case, “China should respond with a significant fiscal package” of about 3% of GDP, the IMF said, including reductions in consumption taxes and new subsidies for consumer-goods purchases and for corporate investments in pollution-control equipment.

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Tags: China, Economy, EU, Europe, Global News, Government, IMF, Politics

- A “Quality Assessment” Of US Jobs Reveals The Ugliest Picture Yet (ZeroHedge, Feb. 7, 2012):

Over the past week we have repeatedly exposed the BLS’ shennanigans to both keep the headline unemployment rate suppressed and to generate an upward bias in the market courtesy of a “bigger than expected beat” of expectations. Granted, various semantics experts continue to scratch their heads in attempting to explain a collapsing labor force when even Goldman’s Sven Jari Stehn just predicted that it will drop to 63.1% by the end of 2012 (and 62.5% by the end of 2015). Funny then that the US will have no unemployment left when the participation rate drops to 58.5%. And no, the “population soared argument based on revised data” doesn’t quite cut it when the bulk of said surge not only did not get a job, but was not even counted toward the labor force. Yet what the biggest flaw with all these arguments that vainly (and veinly) attempt to defend the US economy as if it is growing, is that they focus exclusively on the quantity of jobs, doctored or not, and completely ignore the quality. We have decided to step in and fill this void.

By now, most of our readers know that every incremental dollar of public debt leads to less than one dollar of GDP growth, courtesy of the debt/GDP ratio having surpassed 100% a month ago. Yet what most don’t know is that the marginal utility of public debt is not the only thing that may have peaked: as of January 31, 2012, the date of the most recent BLS jobs report, it appears that the “marginal utility” of job formation (if such a concept existed) also turned negative. And since it doesn’t exist, yet, allows us to explain.

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Tags: Barack Obama, Economy, Global News, Government, Obama administration, Politics, Society, U.S., Unemployment

- Fed’s Record Setting Money Supply Splurge Spurs Gold’s Rally (ZeroHedge, Feb. 7, 2012):

Fed’s Record Setting Money Supply Splurge Spurs Gold’s Rally

The surge in the U.S. money supply in recent years has sent gold into a series of new record nominal highs.

Money supply surged again in 2011 sending gold to new record nominal highs.

Money supply has grown again, by more than 35% on an annualized basis, and this is contributing to gold’s consolidation and strong gains in January.

The Federal Reserve’s latest weekly money supply report from last Thursday shows seasonally adjusted M1 rose $13.2 billion to $2.233 trillion, while M2 rose $4.5 billion to $9.768 trillion.

Tags: Economy, Fed, Federal Reserve, Global News, Gold, Government, M2, money supply, Politics, Silver, U.S.

- Shipping Rates Go… Negative (ZeroHedge, Feb. 6, 2012):

Following the endless collapse in the Baltic Dry, it was only a matter of time before the shipping industry one-upped the Chairsatan, and was the first to introduce, dum dum dum, negative rates. That’s right: you are now paid to hire a ship. Via Bloomberg:

• GLENCORE HIRES SHIP AT MINUS $2,000 A DAY, GMI SAYS
• GMI TO CONTRIBUTE $2,000 A DAY TO GLENCORE’S FUEL COSTS
• GLOBAL MARITIME’S U.K. MD STEVE RODLEY CONFIRMS DEAL BY PHONE

Why is this happening? Perhaps because ships have to be kept seaworthy and in motion or else they become scrappage in as little time as 3 months. Think sharks. Needless to say, this will play havoc with shipping company (and affiliated entities’) liquidity, as the biggest default wave in the history of the industry is about to be unleashed and tens if not hundreds of billions of European secured loans are about to be “impaired.”

Tags: Baltic Dry Index, Collapse, Economy, Global News

- Fukushima’s Leaf Tobacco Farmers Secured Contract with Japan Tobacco for 2012 Crop (EX-SKF, Feb. 5, 2012):

494 leaf tobacco farmers in Fukushima will grow leaf tobacco this year and sell it to Japan Tobacco (JT), a monopoly in Japan (50% of shares owned by the Ministry of Finance) and the 3rd largest tobacco and cigarettes manufacturer in the world, next to British American Tobacco.

Did you know that there is no national safety standard for radioactive materials in leaf tobacco?

From KFB Fukushima Broadcasting Co. (2/5/2012):

原発事故を受け去年、葉タバコの作付けを断念した県たばこ耕作組合は、来年度に県中、県南、会津地方を中心に４９４戸の計４７４ヘクタールで栽培を再開する。

After the nuclear plant accident last year, the tobacco producers’ union in Fukushima Prefecture gave up planting the tobacco. In the next growing season [2012], 494 farms in central, southern and Aizu region of Fukushima Prefecture will resume planting on 474 hectares.

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Tags: Economy, Environment, Farmers, Global News, Health, Japan, Nuclear, Nuclear reactors, Radiation, smoking, Tobacco

See also:

- Message To The People Of Greece: Prepare For Collapse, Chaos And Currency Devaluation! – IMF Official Admits Austerity Is Harming Greece!

- National Confederation of Greek Commerce (ESEE): Greece Warns It Will Soon Be In ‘Condition Of ABSOLUTE POVERTY’

“When people lose everything they lose lt.”
- Gerald Celente

- Angry Youths Attack House Of Greek President Papoulias; Hurl Rocks, Molotov Cocktails (ZeroHedge, Feb. 3, 2012):

Instead of defaulting a long time ago (when we first suggested it should) when it could have pulled an Iceland, taken a bitter pill, hyperinflated the drachma and in the process delevered overnight, if at a big social cost of losing its welfare safety net (which it is about to lose anyway courtesy of the PSI and OSI), and not be held captive to bigger geopolitical interests, and hostage to the banker superclass, Greece very likely could have been on the road to recovery now, granted with a totally different political regime. Instead, the political regime is the same, Greece is more in debt than ever before, the economy is in shambles, the banks have seen two straight years of bank runs, and most importantly the people now are poorer and more disenchanted than ever, and as the following story indicates, about to get far angrier than any Syntagma square riot cam (which is about to come back with a PayPerView vengeance) has shown to date. According to Kathimerini, late on Saturday evening, “A group of between 30 and 50 youngsters attacked the house of President Karolos Papoulias.”

“The result of the attack was some minor damage to the entrance of the house at Asklipiou Street in central Athens and to the car that Papoulias uses. The hooded youngsters, who arrived by motorbike and on foot just after 8 p.m, hurled a Molotov cocktail, rocks and paint at the house but stopped short of attacking the two guards at the President’s house. Continue reading »

Tags: Crime, Economy, EU, Europe, Global News, Government, Greece, Karolos Papoulias, Politics, Society, Violence

Full Ron Paul Interview On Piers Morgan 02/03/12 von SaveOurSovereignty
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Tags: Bill of Rights, Congress, Constitution, Economy, Global News, Government, Law, Politics, Ron Paul, Society, U.S.