Infinite Unknown

Blackwater Worldwide created a web of more than 30 shell companies or subsidiaries in part to obtain millions of dollars in American government contracts after the security company came under intense criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq, according to Congressional investigators and former Blackwater officials.

While it is not clear how many of those businesses won contracts, at least three had deals with the United States military or the Central Intelligence Agency, according to former government and company officials. Since 2001, the intelligence agency has awarded up to $600 million in classified contracts to Blackwater and its affiliates, according to a United States government official.

The Senate Armed Services Committee this week released a chart that identified 31 affiliates of Blackwater, now known as Xe Services. The network was disclosed as part of a committee’s investigation into government contracting. The investigation revealed the lengths to which Blackwater went to continue winning contracts after Blackwater guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in September 2007. That episode and other reports of abuses led to criminal and Congressional investigations, and cost the company its lucrative security contract with the State Department in Iraq.

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Tags: Blackwater, Economy, Government, Military, Politics, U.S., Xe

Just that there never was a defense. This entire financial crisis has been engineered.

This will also not be a double-dip recession, but the Greatest Depression ever.

The United States, Japan and large parts of Europe have exhausted their policy arsenal, leaving them defenceless against a double-dip recession as recovery slows to ’stall speed’.

Nouriel Roubini said the US growth rate was likely to fall below 1pc in the second half of the year Photo: BLOOMBERG

“The US has run out of bullets,” said Nouriel Roubini, professor at New York University, and one of a caste of luminaries with grim forecasts at the annual Ambrosetti conference on Lake Como.

“More quantitative easing (bond purchases) by the Federal Reserve is not going to make any difference. Treasury yields are already down to 2.5pc yet credit spreads are widening again. Monetary policy can boost liquidity but it can’t deal with solvency problems,” he told Europe’s policy elite.

Dr Roubini said the US growth rate was likely to fall below 1pc in the second half of the year, despite the biggest stimulus in history: a cut in interest rates from 5pc to zero, a budget deficit of 10pc of GDP, and $3 trillion to shore up the financial system.

The anaemic pace compares with rates of 4pc-6pc at this stage of recovery in normal post-war recoveries.

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Tags: China, Debt, Economy, EU, Europe, Global News, Government, Japan, Nouriel Roubini, Politics, Recession, U.S.

Greece should have defaulted on its debt and have the banksters and stupid investors eat the losses.

Instead the people in Greece and the EU will be presented with the bill of this crisis, that was created by corrupt elite criminals.

- Former Bundesbank Head Karl Otto Pöhl: Bailout Plan Is All About ‘Rescuing Banks and Rich Greeks’

The people of Greece know this:

- Max Keiser on Greece: ‘The IMF is a Financial Mafia’:

“The only solution for Greece is to arrest the Goldman Sachs bankers immediately and all those involved in the fabrication of Greek economic data in 2000, when you became a member of the eurozone. The next step is to nationalize all banks like Sweden did in 1993. The International Monetary Fund is that last thing you need. You will lose your sovereignty. It exercises terrorism. You will be raped in such a way, that it will be the worst pain you have ever felt.

If someone burns down your house in order to sell you charcoal, would you consider this logical? That is exactly what Goldman Sachs did to the Greek economy. They burned you down like arsonists and then they tell you not to worry they’ll give you charcoal. It’s outrageous. The IMF has said that it can provide Greece with help. The Wall Street investment hedge funds are attacking Greece’s bond market so that the Greek economy collapses. And they’re doing this for a simple reason; to force the Greek people to ask for help from the IMF. The IMF will say, we came because you asked for our help. Wall Street bankers work very closely with the IMF. It’s a financial mafia and the hedge funds are the assassins. Research conducted on Goldman Sachs in the USA and in Europe show how big a mafia it is. They are involved in illegal activity throughout the world.

The entire bailout was totally unconstitutional.

Greece’s austerity measures cannot prevent default and will lead to a breakdown of the political order if continued for long, a leading German economist has warned.

Hans-Werner Sinn, head of Germany’s prestigious IFO Institute, said it was impossible to cut wages and prices by 30pc without major riots. Photo: EPA

“This tragedy does not have a solution,” said Hans-Werner Sinn, head of the prestigious IFO Institute in Munich.

“The policy of forced ‘internal devaluation’, deflation, and depression could risk driving Greece to the edge of a civil war. It is impossible to cut wages and prices by 30pc without major riots,” he said, speaking at the elite European House Ambrosetti forum at Lake Como.

“Greece would have been bankrupt without the rescue measures. All the alternatives are terrible but the least terrible is for the country to get out of the eurozone, even if this kills the Greek banks,” he said.

Dr Sinn said Greece is an entirely different case from Spain and Portugal, which still have manageable public debts and can bring their public finances back into line with higher taxes.

“Greece would have defaulted in the period between April 28 and May 7, had the money not been promised by the European Union,” he said, describing the failure of the EU’s bail-out strategy to include a haircut for the banks as an invitation to moral hazard.

“There should be a quasi-insolvency procedure for countries. Creditors have to accept a haircut before any money flows for rescue plans, otherwise we’ll never have debt discipline in the eurozone,” he said.

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Tags: Civil war, Economy, Global News, Government, Greece, Politics

Cheers!

See also:

- UK: Winter fuel payment cuts to hit millions of pensioners, despite pre-election promises

- UK: Pensioners are burning books to keep warm

Consumers drank on average five bottles of wine fewer last year as health concerns and the recession combined to bring biggest drop in alcohol consumption since records began.

There were 821 million fewer pints of beer drunk in 2008 compared with 2009, according to the British Beer and Pub Association Photo: ALAMY

The average person drank the equivalent of 89 bottles of wine during the year, down from more than 94 bottles, according to new statistics.

It was the largest drop in alcohol consumed since 1948, as health concerns and the recession encouraged consumers to cut back.

This 6 per cent fall in alcohol consumption is the largest annual drop since records began in 1948, when the British Beer and Pub Association started collecting figures. The figures include all alcohol sales, both from supermarkets and at pubs.

It is the fourth annual decline in the last five years, with the average person consuming the equivalent of 8.4 litres of pure alcohol, down from 8.9 litres.

The data, compiled from Government tax receipts, back up Office for National Statistics figures published earlier this year, which suggested that after many years of people drinking less at pubs, they had also started to cut back at home for the first time.

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Tags: Consumers, Economy, U.K.

Yes, the elite will stage a global food crisis, which is why I have told you to prepare for it a long time ago.

Vladimir Putin has announced Russia will not lift a ban on grain exports before next year’s harvest, extending the embargo for another year, sparking fears over a global food shortage.

A combine harvests on a field in a village 50km south of Moscow. The drought in Russia has led to rising world grain prices Photo: GETTY

The Russian prime minister said that it was “necessary to note that we will only be able to consider lifting the grain export ban after next year’s harvest … and we have clarity on the balances”.

His announcement came after deadly protests in Mozambique and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation calling an emergency meeting to discuss the shortages.

The export ban is aimed at keeping the Russian domestic market well supplied with grain after Russia, which the world’s third largest wheat exporter last year when it sold 21.4 million tonnes of grain, after the country suffered a record drought which destroyed a quarter of its harvest.

Forest and brush fires flared up again on Thursday, killing two people and burning down more than 160 houses and buildings. Mr Putin is keen to avoid any signs of social unrest ahead of elections due in 2012.

The export ban from such a key global exporter sent wheat prices to 231.5 euros a tonne, just short of last month’s two-year high of 236 euros, sparking worries of a crisis in global food supplies.

A rise in the price of state-controlled food, water and electricity prices have sparked protests in Mozambique where seven people have been killed and hundreds left injured after clashes with police. The price of a loaf of bread is due to rise by 25 per cent on September 6.

The Rome-based FAO said that their emergency meeting was called due to “an enormous number” of inquiries over concerns “about a possible repeat of the 2007-08 food crisis”

Abdolreza Abbassian, of the FAO, said: “This is quite serious. Two years in a row without Russian exports creates quite a disturbance”.

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Tags: Economy, Food, Food Prices, Food shortages, Global News, Government, Politics, Russia, Vladimir Putin

Just wait for the currency markets meltdown!

Expect another ‘Problem - Reaction - Solution’ scenario created by the elite anytime soon.

Here is some background on the BIS (Bank for International Settlements):

- BIS: Currency Collapse May Stimulate Economic Expansion (Bloomberg)

Remember?

- President Medvedev Shows Off Sample Coin of New World Currency at G8 (Bloomberg)

Percentage share of the U.S. dollar has continued its (not so) slow decline

FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) — Daily turnover in the world’s foreign-exchange markets has soared to $4 trillion, the Bank for International Settlements said Wednesday.

In its survey, conducted every three years, the Basel, Switzerland-based BIS found that global turnover in April 2010 was up 20% from $3.3 trillion in April 2007.

Spot transactions led the rise, increasing to $1.5 trillion a day in 2010 from $1 trillion in 2007. Other forex instruments saw turnover rise 7%, for an average daily turnover of $2.5 trillion.

Britain retained its title as the top player in the forex market, with British-based banks accounting for 36.7% of daily turnover, up from 34.6% in 2007.

The United States followed with 18%, while Japan accounted for 6%. Rounding out the top players, Switzerland, Singapore and Hong Kong accounted for 5% each, while Australia-based banks accounted for 4%.

The percentage share of the U.S. dollar has continued its slow decline witnessed since the April 2001 survey, while the euro and the Japanese yen gained relative to April 2007.

Among the 10 most actively traded currencies, the Australian and Canadian dollars both increased market share, while the pound sterling and the Swiss franc lost ground. The market share of emerging-market currencies increased, with the biggest gains for the Turkish lira and the Korean won.

The U.S. dollar had a share in 85% of all transactions, continuing a “slow retreat” from its 90% peak in 2001 just after the introduction of the euro, the BIS said.

The euro gained two percentage points since the 2007 survey to account for 39% of all transactions. The Japanese yen also increased its market share by two percentage points to 19%, but remained below its 2001 peak of 23.5%.

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Tags: BIS, Dollar, Economy, Global News, U.S.

See also:

- Moody’s Downgrades Ireland’s Credit Rating

- Anglo Irish Bank losses are the worst in the entire world

This is totally absurd!

Nationalised Anglo Irish Bank today posted losses of 8.2 billion euro (£6.7 billion) for half of 2010, claiming it was still battling through an exceptionally difficult period.

The state-run bank, which has been funded by 23 billion euro (£18.9 billion) of taxpayers’ money, said it expects further losses as more assets are shifted off the bank’s books.

“The new management of Anglo Irish Bank is working to significantly restructure the bank’s balance sheet, risk profile and culture in order to restore viability,” the bank said.

A breakdown of the six monthly returns showed it transferred 10 billion euro (£8.2 billion) of assets to Ireland’s so-called state controlled bad-bank, the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), set up to try to clean up troubled loan books of Irish lenders.

The bank said it suffered loan impairment charges of 4.8 billion euro (£3.9 billion) and a loss of 3.5 billion euro (£2.8 billion) over the transfer.

Anglo Management said it was grateful for the continuing support of Finance Minister Brian Lenihan.

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Tags: Anglo Irish Bank, Banks, Economy, Ireland, Taxpayers

See also:

- US: Record 1 in 6 Americans in Government Anti-Poverty Programs

Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) — U.S. auto sales in August probably were the slowest for the month in 28 years as model-year closeout deals failed to entice consumers concerned the economy is worsening and they may lose their jobs.

Industrywide deliveries, to be released tomorrow, may have reached an annualized rate of 11.6 million vehicles this month, the average of eight analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. That would be the slowest August since 1982, according to researcher Ward’s AutoInfoBank. The rate would be 18 percent below last year’s 14.2 million pace, when the U.S. government’s “cash for clunkers” incentive program boosted sales.

“Home sales are way down, the stock market is way down, the unemployment report is very disappointing and consumer confidence is sputtering,” Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends at TrueCar.com, said in an interview. “People just don’t want to make big-ticket purchases because they’re uncertain about their jobs and the value of their homes.”

While automakers increased discounts by 1 percent from July to an average of $2,864 per vehicle, sales to individuals probably fell 7 percent from last month, according to Santa Monica, California-based TrueCar.

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Tags: Cars, Chrysler, Economy, Ford, General Motors, GM, U.S.

Smoking it does destroy the brain, BUT …

(Watch the video “Hemp For Victory below.”)

They say marijuana is dangerous. Pot is not harmful to the human body or mind. Marijuana does not pose a threat to the general public. Marijuana is very much a danger to the oil companies, alcohol, tobacco industries and a large number of chemical corporations. Big businesses, with plenty of dollars and influence, have suppressed the truth from the people. The truth is, if marijuana was utilized for its vast array of commercial products, it would create an industrial atomic bomb! The super rich have conspired to spread misinformation about the plant that, if used properly, would ruin their companies.

Where did the word ‘marijuana’ come from? In the mid 1930s, the M-word was created to tarnish the good image and phenomenal history of the hemp plant - as you will read. The facts cited here, with references, are generally verifiable in the Encyclopedia Britannica which was printed on hemp paper for 150 years :

1) All schoolbooks were made from hemp or flax paper until the 1880s. (Jack Frazier. Hemp Paper Reconsidered. 1974.)

2) It was legal to pay taxes with hemp in America from 1631 until the early 1800s. (LA Times. Aug. 12, 1981.)

3) Refusing to grow hemp in America during the 17th and 18th centuries was against the law! You could be jailed in Virginia for refusing to grow hemp from 1763 to 1769 (G. M. Herdon. Hemp in Colonial Virginia).

4) George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other founding fathers grew hemp. (Washington and Jefferson Diaries. Jefferson smuggled hemp seeds from China to France then to America.)

5) Benjamin Franklin owned one of the first paper mills in America, and it processed hemp. Also, the War of 1812 was fought over hemp. Napoleon wanted to cut off Moscow’s export to England. (Jack Herer. Emperor Wears No Clothes.)

6) For thousands of years, 90% of all ships’ sails and rope were made from hemp. The word ‘canvas’ is Dutch for cannabis. (Webster’s New World Dictionary.)

7) 80% of all textiles, fabrics, clothes, linen, drapes, bed sheets, etc., were made from hemp until the 1820s, with the introduction of the cotton gin.

The first Bibles, maps, charts, Betsy Ross’s flag, the first drafts of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were made from hemp. (U.S. Government Archives.)

9) The first crop grown in many states was hemp. 1850 was a peak year for Kentucky producing 40,000 tons. Hemp was the largest cash crop until the 20th century. (State Archives.)

10) Oldest known records of hemp farming go back 5000 years in China, although hemp industrialization probably goes back to ancient Egypt.

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Tags: Benjamin Franklin, Conspiracy, Corporations, Economy, Environment, George Washington, Global News, Health, Hemp, Marijuana, Politics, Science, Society, Technology, Thomas Jefferson, U.S.

The Greatest Depression!

WASHINGTON (USA TODAY) — Government anti-poverty programs that have grown to meet the needs of recession victims now serve a record one in six Americans and are continuing to expand.

More than 50 million Americans are on Medicaid, the federal-state program aimed principally at the poor, a survey of state data by USA TODAY shows. That’s up at least 17% since the recession began in December 2007.

“Virtually every Medicaid director in the country would say that their current enrollment is the highest on record,” says Vernon Smith of Health Management Associates, which surveys states for Kaiser Family Foundation.

The program has grown even before the new health care law adds about 16 million people, beginning in 2014. That has strained doctors. “Private physicians are already indicating that they’re at their limit,” says Dan Hawkins of the National Association of Community Health Centers.

More than 40 million people get food stamps, an increase of nearly 50% during the economic downturn, according to government data through May. The program has grown steadily for three years. Continue reading »

Tags: Barack Obama, Economy, Food stamps, Government, Obama administration, Politics, Poverty, Society, U.S.