Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Mike N, missed the midnight comment cutoff to the UBS Stockholders thread. So here it is the next day.
Actually, ed, I am happy with the economy.
Have you gone into the repo business?
And how are Americans going to earn the money to buy Mexican drugs and Chinese steel? Have you noticed the US is already in hoc for $13 trillion? What industry and jobs do you propose to leave to your kids?
I take it you are a sales guy. What sales are you going to make to a tapped out citizenry? Are you going to sell them Hope, made in China? Can they pay you in Change?
Ever notice we haven't had one since we began embracing free trade?
The 1929 stock market collapse triggered the Great Depression. But the mechanism was a collapse of world currency circulation, not trade barriers. US trade tariffs were very high all through the Roaring Twenties and worked to increase industrial capacity.
After WW1, US dollars were lent to Weimar Germany who then paid reparations to the Euro Allied nations who then used them to buy American manufactured goods, who then lent dollars to Germany. All good as long as American dollars flowed to fund this pyramid scheme. When the stock market, build on 10X leverage, collapsed, all those dollars got wiped out, banks got wiped out. No more dollars to lend to Germany to send to France to buy US manufactured goods. Factories close, massive unemployment, depression. Break one link and the whole money circulation chain collapsed.
Post WW2, the US had more than one half of the world's remaining industrial capability. For 20 years the US had a trade surplus as it was the only real source of manufactures. That was the golden age. In addition, our major trading partners were limited to Canada, Europe, Latin America and Japan. Quite a small group compared to the 7 billion today clamoring to sell their wares in the US.
Only when Europe and Japan's industrial infrastructure was built up did the US, now with a wide open market, feel pressure from other producers. More recently, the US Market has been laid open to 3 billion more people and the deterioration of the US industrial base as sped up exponentially.
But there was no event to stop the flow of money, though the 1973 oil crisis was a good try. That is until now. The common thread of all the depressions was over speculation and leveraging of financial markets that wiped out money circulating in the real economy.
Today, the government enforced Ponzi pyramid housing scheme is threatening to cause the collapse of the money supply. No one wants to lend dollars, imports in free fall, factories closing worldwide, supporting industry and financial layoffs worldwide, feeding back on itself. That is why world governments are pouring trillions of dollars into financial markets. But it's not US industry, since little remains, that will bear the brunt of the fallout this time.
Good night.
Posted by: ed ||
11/24/2008 0:27 Comments ||
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#2
Looks like she might be sitting on more than his lap. Looks so good to us watching them, but you don't know the pressure he's under.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/24/2008 10:26 Comments ||
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#3
After WW1, US dollars were lent to Weimar Germany who then paid reparations to the Euro Allied nations
Nope. Actually Germans never paid for what they destroyed in France and Belgium. The only ones who paid anything wer precisely Allid countrioes. Their debt to America who at the same time was suporting Germany on the matter of reparations. That is why with its competitors burdened by heavy financial charges and with key fabrics out of business after being destroyed by the Geramn Army that Germany had its sper-economic boom in the second half of the twenties.
#4
Wilkipedia: Great Depression in Central Europe The sources of the problem can be traced back to World War I and the rise of international indebtedness. At the conclusion of the war the United States had become the world's banker. Under the Dawes Plan the German economy had boomed in the mid-1920s, paying reparations and increasing domestic production. But the whole thing came to a sudden halt in 1929-30, when Dawes Plan loans dried up. This was not just a problem for Germany; for Europe at large had received almost 8 billion dollars in American credit between 1924 and 1930, on top of pre-existing war time loans.
The problem of credit financing was compounded by slavish adherence by governments to the gold standard, the great economic shibboleth of the day.[citation needed] Falling prices and demand induced by the crisis created an additional problem in the central European banking system, where the financial system had a particularly close relationships with business. In 1931 the important Creditanstalt bank in Vienna collapsed, causing a financial panic across Europe and the rest of the world.
Germany's Weimar Republic was hit hard by the depression, as American loans to help rebuild the German economy now stopped. Unemployment soared, especially in larger cities, and the political system veered toward extremism. Hitler's Nazi Party came to power in January 1933. In 1934 the economy was still not balanced enough for Germany to work on its own. Repayment of the war reparations due by Germany were suspended in 1932 following the Lausanne Conference of 1932. By that time Germany had repaid 1/8th of the reparations.
Posted by: ed ||
11/24/2008 11:30 Comments ||
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#5
BTW, $8 billion back then was worth 400 million ounces of gold or $332 billion today loaned by a population of just over 100 million people.
Posted by: ed ||
11/24/2008 11:34 Comments ||
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#6
Oh, please, you guys. Can't you just stop for a moment to appreciate the look on Buster Keaton's face?
#8
Edj if you still believe in Wikipedia (and in CNN or in the New York Times) then I have a reveletion to you: it is the parents not Santa Claus who brings toys at Christmas. The very formula of the Wikipedia ensures it obly will bring "common knowledge" who in everything but hrd scaience can be far away from truth. In this particular theme it was polluted by Keynes nefarious book "The economic consequences of peace"
BTW did you notice that Germany only ever pais a filthy 12,5% of what it owed (who had been already waaaaaay watered down respective to what it should have paid) while France and Belgium paid not only what they owed to the USA but also those 87.5% Germany never paid despite havong smaller economies?
"The French linked debt repayment to reparations: the reparations payed by Germany would be used to pay the American debt. The British suggested that both reparations and debt be canceled."
By 1932, 3 billion payed in reparations.
Germany stopped reparation payments in 1932.
France and England then immediately stopped repaying loans from the US.
3 billion gold Marks (6% of total reparations) would have been about $800 million back then.
Another source, though not as academic: Weimar Germany Finally, in 1924 German inflation was brought to a sudden end with the help of a Chicago banker, Charles Dawes. Dawes was the chief architect behind what came to be known as the Dawes Plan, one that left the Reichsbank partially under the direction of an American commissioner who was to oversee German reparation payments. It did not lower the amount Germany was expected to pay, but the U.S. reduced the debt obligations of its Allies by 30-80%. The plan helped improve relations between the Allies and Germany and, for this, Dawes earned a share of the 1925 Nobel Peace Prize (the other recipient being Sir Austen Chamberlain of Britain).
But the Dawes Plan wasn't without cost. The banking consortium he put together reaped 10% of the face value for underwriting costs, the motto being, "business, not politics."
Over the next 5 years, Germany paid out about $1 billion in reparations and received loans of $2 billion, a sizable portion from the U.S. In effect, America was paying Germany's reparations, while Germany used the surplus from American loans to modernize its industry.
Posted by: ed ||
11/24/2008 12:47 Comments ||
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#10
Sort of like Pakistan buying more jets from China while getting IMF aid.
#11
Anyway, before getting off a tangent on whether Weimar Germany paid reparations, the point was American loans were fueling the European economy which were then back to the US as manufactured goods orders and loan repayment. When the stock market crashed and banks went under, the loans to Europe dried up and loan repayment repudiated. In addition stock market losses, this had the effect of removing the equivalent of $2 trillion (today's value) from the US economy ($10B war loans + $8B postwar loans converted to gold value and sized for 3X the population today).
By coincidence the US government has pledged to add up to $2 trillion in liquidity/bailouts to keep the financial system and commerce from grinding to a halt. Scary.
Posted by: ed ||
11/24/2008 13:08 Comments ||
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#12
I gotta use a word processor to write long comments. PIMF.
Posted by: ed ||
11/24/2008 13:10 Comments ||
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#4
buwaya, the way I understand it they start with Dhows and upgrade, then upgrade again when they catch a bigger boat. The mothership was probably one that was big enough but not valuable enough to ransom.
DALLAS A jury convicted five former officials at the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) on all counts [apprx 100 counts] in the Hamas-support case after 8 days of deliberations [following 15 years of investigations and two trials costing millions in legal cost].
The men, Shukri Abu-Baker, Ghassan Elashi, Mohamed El-Mezain, Mufid Abdulqader and Abdelrahman Odeh, could face up to 20 years in prison for their convictions on conspiracy counts, including conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. The verdicts, read Monday afternoon, ended a two-year saga in what is considered the largest terror financing case since the 9/11 attacks....
#1
This is outstanding news and a great victory for our country. The bleating from CAIR will commence immediately, of course, but as an unindicted co-conspirator, they will have much to wave away.
At least five Taliban fighters were killed in a military operation in Nawagai and Mamoond tehsils of Bajaur Agency on Sunday, according to officials, as troops pounded Taliban positions with artillery, gunship helicopters and fighter jets.
Official sources said several Taliban positions were destroyed in the offensive, and troops were now advancing towards Nawagai and other areas. The fighting has forced hundreds people to leave the area in search of safer locations.
In Landikotal, sources said security forces clashed with Taliban fighters who were on their way to Jamrud from Shelam. A Taliban vehicle was damaged in the fighting in Charwazgai area, but the fighters managed to escape. The Taliban had on Saturday distributed pamphlets in Landikotal that claimed they were not behind the kidnappings and killings of innocent people.
Meanwhile, unidentified men reportedly kidnapped two Khasadars from the Arkhandey checkpost near Kam Shelman. The abducted men, identified as Kamal Khan and Sabeel Khan Shelmani, were on duty when they were kidnapped.
Checkpost attacked: In Bannu, Online reported that 60 to 70 Taliban fighters attacked a police checkpost near the Bannu airport, and fled following a clash with troops. The news agency, however, reported no casualties in the attack or the ensuing clash.
Music centre blown up: Meanwhile in Mingora, unidentified assailants blew up a music centre, and the ensuing fire spread to two nearby shops, according to Online. Fire brigade units arrived at the scene, and managed to control the fire.
Separately, NNI reported that security forces pounded Taliban hideouts in Kabal and Matta overnight.
In Hangu, Online said that two rockets were fired into the city from an unknown location -- on landed in the mountains while the other hit a former tehsil nazim's house. The agency reported no casualties in the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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"The US soldiers who took me along were from the battle-hardened 10th Mountain Division; about half the platoon were combat veterans from Afghanistan and/or Iraq. . . .None had even fired a weapon during this entire tour, which so far has lasted more than eight months, in what previously was one of the most dangerous areas of Iraq."
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/24/2008 12:59 ||
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Three bombings, including one outside the heavily fortified Green Zone, killed at least 19 people in Baghdad on Monday, officials said.
A female suicide bomber detonated her explosives outside one of the main entrances to the Green Zone, killing at least five people and wounding 12 others, an interior ministry official said. Iraqi soldiers and civilians were among the casualties.
Also Monday morning, a roadside bomb struck a bus in eastern Baghdad, killing at least 13 people and wounding seven others, the interior ministry said. The victims were on their way to work at the Ministry of Trade.
In the morning's third deadly attack, another roadside bomb went off in eastern Baghdad. It targeted a police patrol, the interior ministry said. One civiliian was killed and five injured. Three of the wounded were police officers.
Aswat al-Iraq: Nine people were wounded on Sunday when two improvised explosives devices went off separately in central Baghdad, an Iraqi police source said. "The first IED went off on Sunday evening on al-Nidal street, near the Musa Ibn Nusseir fuel station, leaving five people wounded," the source told Aswat al-Iraq. "In another incident, a second IED targeted the vehicle of Col. Dhafir Abdelmajid, the embassies police director, in al-Masbah intersection in al-Karada area, central Baghdad," the source added. "Abdelmajid was not inside his vehicle during the time of the explosion, which left four civilians wounded," he said.
The source noted that the two explosions caused damage to several nearby stores and buildings.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: An Iraqi force arrested 16 persons in central Kut city while they were handing out a release issued by Shiite cleric Sayyid Mahmoud al-Hassani al-Sarkhi, a security source from Wassit province said on Sunday. "The release, which was about the Iraqi-U.S. security pact, contained a demand to the U.S. president-elect to end the occupation in Iraq," the source told Aswat al-Iraq. "It also demands Iraqi officials to release the pact to the public to enable them to learn about its details," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: An improvised explosive device blast near an Iraqi army patrol in southern Mosul left one soldier and six civilians wounded, a source from the Ninewa Operations Command said on Sunday.
"An IED blast targeted an Iraqi army patrol at the al-Ghazaliya intersection, southern Mosul, leaving one soldier and six civilians close to the explosion scene injured," the NOC source told Aswat al-Iraq. "The explosion also caused damage to nearby vehicles and buildings," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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Suspected separatist terrorists militants shot dead three people and seriously wounded a teacher in attacks throughout Thailand's insurgency-hit far south, police said Monday.
On Sunday a 28-year-old man was killed in Yala province and a 42-year-old man shot dead in Pattani province, while suspected terrorists militants also killed a 49-year-old village chief in a drive-by shooting in Narathiwat province. A 29-year-old teacher was shot and seriously wounded on his way to school in Pattani early Monday, local police said.
Helicopter gun ships attacked Tamil Tiger rebel positions in northern Sri Lanka as battles shifted onto a key highway leading to the rebels' political capital, the defence ministry said.
Helicopters were deployed to pound rebel bunkers that make up the western defences of the town of Kilinochchi, the political headquarters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the ministry said. "Sri Lanka army offensive divisions... are now marching towards Kilinochchi built up in three frontiers," the ministry said. "Pitched battles are going on." One of the columns was marching on Kilinochchi from the southern flank and heavy fighting raged along the main A-9 highway that runs through the six-kilometre length of the town, the ministry said. Troops were engaged with Tiger rebels in the Therumurikandi area, 10 kilometres south of the town centre, the ministry said, adding that guerrillas had built an earth barrier around Kilinochchi in a bid to block the military advance.
"The air raids were launched on Saturday evening in support of troops of the 57th division advancing towards Kilinochchi," a defence ministry official said. The latest thrust came as the Tigers marked their "Heroes' Week."
Pro-rebel websites reported that the guerrillas were holding religious services as part of the commemoration of thousands of cadres killed in the drawn-out conflict. The Tigers launched their separatist drive in 1972, while the first Tiger cadre was killed by government forces 10 years later on November 27, 1982. The week of commemoration ends Thursday with a speech by their supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran, who turns 54 on Wednesday.The defence ministry has stopped releasing details of casualties among its own troops, but it is reporting heavy fighting in the north of the island with the guerrillas said to be offering stiff resistance.Sri Lanka's government has vowed to take the Tiger political capital and dismantle the LTTE's mini-state.
Sri Lankan troops have been engaged in a massive offensive against the Tigers since the government pulled out of a Norwegian-brokered truce at the start of the year.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
sounds like things aren't going so well for Mario
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/24/2008 8:07 Comments ||
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So far more than 20 Somali youths have left for Somalia to join the ICU. They have left without telling their families and most have not contacted them since arriving in Somalia. The Twin Cities Somali community is very concerned since travel to Somalia is very expensive and no one knows who is recruiting them or providing the money.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/24/2008 11:55 ||
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#3
I used to live in the Twin Cities. That's one of the reasons I got out. They will have problems with the Somalis in the Twin Cities for the rest of our lives.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
11/24/2008 17:56 Comments ||
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#4
"So far more than 20 Somali youths have left for Somalia to join the ICU."
20? That's all?
What can we do to encourage more of them to leave and not come back?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
11/24/2008 18:05 Comments ||
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#5
Can someone answer a ? for me? Where the ppl the FEDS raided in GA a few years back i GA with the pyramids and stuff built on their property Somalians?
Posted by: chris ||
11/24/2008 18:23 Comments ||
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#6
Well, to be honest, if I were from a tropical country and ended up in Minnesota, I would probably soon disappear too. They'll probably be back in the Spring.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
At least five Taliban fighters were killed in a military operation in Nawagai and Mamoond tehsils of Bajaur Agency on Sunday, according to officials, as troops pounded Taliban positions with artillery, gunship helicopters and fighter jets. 
