The average temperature across both the contiguous U.S. and the globe during climatological winter (December 2007-February 2008) was the coolest since 2001, according to scientists at NOAAs National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. In terms of winter precipitation, Pacific storms, bringing heavy precipitation to large parts of the West, produced high snowpack that will provide welcome runoff this spring. Not to worry, using the term "Climate Change" will cover this cooling problem.
#2
We will need a gulag outside Great Falls, MN for the global warmening preists and preistesses. Uniform will be thong and cut off t-shirt year round, no heat in the barracks, they can rely on "catastrophic global warmening" to stave off death by exposure...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/14/2008 8:29 Comments ||
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#3
Little Falls (and Ferges Falls, International Falls and some others) are in MN
#4
Whatever, mhw. MT, MN - they're just northern flyover states. Who cares which is which?
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
03/14/2008 11:55 Comments ||
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#5
My bad. Somewhere cold. Colder the better...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/14/2008 13:24 Comments ||
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#6
As reported elsewhere today, Jim Coleman, founder of The Weather Channel wants to sue Al Gore and others for fraud regarding global warming. it will be interesting to see if he does and if the court tosses it as 'frivolous.'
A conference aimed at easing tensions with Germanys 3.4 million Muslims began in Berlin on Thursday with the interior minister calling for schoolchildren to learn more about Islam. We are tackling hate preachers with all possible methods. With religious studies about Islam we are giving them some competition, so to speak, Wolfgang Schaeuble told the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitungs online edition.
Any requirement that the Muslim kids learn anything about Martin Luther?
Because if we send children to religious education in state schools, this will be different from religious practice in mosques, the conservative minister said. At present the content of lessons about religion is worked out by schools in coordination with religious officials, but at present only with Christian and Jewish ones something which Schaeuble said he planned to rectify..
Bekir Alboga, head of a German Muslim council, said that children should be taught about Islam throughout the country and criticised the lack of teachers qualified to do so. This is a failure in Germany a failure of the state, Alboga told the regional Ruhr Nachrichten daily.
The comments came as the German government on Thursday held the third in a series of meetings on improving relations with the Muslim community, the vast majority of whom are of Turkish origin. The conference was expected to be marked by tensions between the various Islamic groups attending over a proposed joint statement stressing that Muslims living in Germany should adhere to the countrys laws and basic values.
A recent official study showing one in seven Muslims in Germany and one in four among young Muslims has a radical political outlook, although 90 percent oppose terrorism.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#1
Germany got its butt kicked twice in the past 100 years for its leanings towards facism. And now it is headed for Islamo-Facism.
#2
A conference aimed at easing tensions with Germanys 3.4 million Muslims
...
A recent official study showing one in seven Muslims in Germany and one in four among young Muslims has a radical political outlook, although 90 percent oppose terrorism.
So 340,000 German muslims support terrorism. How reassuring.
#3
"Bekir Alboga, head of a German Muslim council, said that children should be taught about Islam throughout the country and criticised the lack of teachers qualified to do so."
Yes, how dare teachers in Germany not teach Islamic doctrine such as the following verses from the Koran.
Fight strenuously against the unbelievers. . . .
Fight those who believe not in Allah. . . .
Verily, Allah loves those who fight in his cause. . . .
The sword is the key to heaven. . . .
A drop of blood shed in the cause of Allah. . . .
A night spent in arms is of more avail than two months of fasting. . .
Whosoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven. . . .
Allah loveth not the transgressors; kill them wheresoever you find them. . .
Take not a Jew or a Christian for your friend or protector. . . .
It hath not been granted unto any prophet that he should possess captives; until he hath made a great slaughter of the infidels in the earth. .
#4
An impartial and objective tract on Islam could only be negative. For example, at the end of his wretched life, Muhammad sent thousands of jihadis on a Summer desert search for "Romans" in the farcical "Tabak Campaign." None were found, and thousands of soldiers deserted. Muhammad was so humiliated that he had no choice but to pardon them. Reality dictates that a "prophet" would be privy to foreign troop locations. Maybe the "Angel Gabriel" was on Pluto at the time, and couldn't contact his revelation-boy. Or maybe the koran is fiction, wrapped in historicial narrative, made possible by the fiction.
As for the comment on studying Luther; they don't. Only scholars are permitted to conduct comparative religion research. The average muslim is conditioned to believe that Jewish and Christian sacred texts, are Satanic distortions. The "Satanic Verse" incident - as described in the Tirmidh hadith - illustrates that even Muhammad was vulnerable to Satanic possession. Try giving a muslim colleague a Bible; other than for taqiyah ends, they won't touch it. You have been conditioned to believe in social pluralism; muslims believe in unitarianism.
#5
The conference was expected to be marked by tensions between the various Islamic groups attending over a proposed joint statement stressing that Muslims living in Germany should adhere to the countrys laws and basic values.
Sounds to me like maybe they should be teaching German lessons in Islamic schools.
#6
I am all for iot. Withe Rantburgian-like teachers basing on the very own text of the Koran and of Muhammad's life.
First resistants were people who had read Mein Kampf. I know of French resve naval officer who came close to be killed (and lost many comaredes) when the battleship Bretagne was sunk by the British at Mers el Kebir (July 3, 1940). Despite this, just a few hours later he was wishing for a British victory and later spying for them (his condition of victim of Mers el Kebir placed him above every suspicion). Such was the magical effect of reading Mein Kampf.
#7
the nazis supported the middle estern countries in WW2 and now it's biting them in the ass, seems they should have directed the holocaust at that group instead of the jews, and yes i did say that they should have let Milosevic finish what he started too
The Senate rejected calls from both parties' presidential candidates to take an election-year break from pork-barrel spending as a Democratic-run Congress passed budget plans that would torpedo hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts won by President Bush.
John McCain, the GOP nominee-to-be, couldn't attract even a majority of Senate Republicans to vote with him Thursday night behind the earmark moratorium touted by party conservatives as a way to restore the GOP's credibility with voters.
It failed on a 71-29 vote. Only three Democrats joined with Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama in voting for it.
The underlying House and Senate Democratic federal budget plans for 2009, though nonbinding, drew blasts from Republicans for allowing some or all of Bush's tax cuts to die in about three years.
The House passed its $3 trillion budget plan by a 212-207 vote. It would provide generous increases to domestic programs but bring the government's ledger back into the black, but only by letting all of Bush's tax cuts expire at the end of 2010 as scheduled.
The Senate passed a companion plan by a 51-44 vote. It endorsed extending $340 billion of Bush's tax cuts but balked at continuing all of them. The competing versions head to talks in which the House is all but certain to accept the Senate's position endorsing tax cuts for the working poor, married couples, people with children and for those inheriting large estates.
All three major presidential candidates interrupted their campaigns for a Senate vote-o-rama that began before noon and included more than 40 roll calls. Maine Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe crossed over to support the bill; Evan Bayh of Indiana was the sole Democrat to vote no.
Budget plans are nonbinding, but they highlight the difficult choices on taxes and spending facing the next president and Congress. Binding votes on the expiring Bush tax cuts will be left to his successor and the Congress that's elected in November.
The practice of inserting "earmarked" spending into legislation is seen by lawmakers in both parties a birthright power of the purse awarded to Congress by the Founding Fathers.
Earmarks have exploded in number and cost in recent years, accompanied by charges of abuse and public outrage over egregious examples like the proposed "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska, which would have cost more than $200 million to serve an island with a population of about 50.
McCain, who has battled with members of both parties over them for years, blamed pork barrel spending for the Republicans losing control of Congress in the 2006 elections.
"This may be the last bastion in America where they don't get it," he told reporters after Thursday night's vote. "Americans are sick and tired of the way we do business in Washington. As president, I promise the American people ... the first earmarked, pork-barrel bill that comes across my desk, I'll veto it."
However, on taxes, the Arizona Republican voted to extend the full roster of Bush's tax cuts, which he opposed seven years ago as being tilted in favor of the wealthy.
Democratic rivals Clinton of New York and Obama of Illinois both voted to extend only some of Bush's tax cuts while allowing cuts in income tax rates and investments expire. They joined other Democrats in a 52-47 vote against extending $376 billion of them.
Republicans hope to use the votes as fodder for the heated presidential campaign and for congressional races. "Democrats are quietly but very assuredly paving the way for a massive, economy-choking, tax increase," said Rep. Jim McCrery, R-La.
Democrats said the plans would reverse years of deficits that have piled up during Bush's tenure. They said he squandered trillions of dollars in projected surpluses that he inherited in 2001.
"The Democratic budget continues to move our nation in a new direction and to clean up the fiscal train wreck caused by failed Republican economic policies over the last seven years," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.
Democrats argued that when the time comes, they'll renew tax cuts aimed at the middle class by closing billions of dollars worth of corporate and other tax loopholes. They also say billions more can be raised by cracking down on tax cheats.
In the House, Democrats defeated a GOP plan that would have extended Bush's reductions. The Republican plan also would have eliminated the alternative minimum tax, which was originally designed years ago to make sure rich people pay at least some tax but now threatens more than 20 million additional taxpayers with increases averaging $2,000.
Some 38 mostly moderate Republicans voted against their party's plan, which would have made cuts in popular programs like Medicare, housing, community development and the Medicaid health care program.
Congress' annual budget debate involves a nonbinding resolution that sets the stage for later bills affecting taxes, benefit programs such as Medicare and the annual appropriations bills. Unless such follow-up legislation is passed, however, the budget debate has little real effect and is mostly about making statements about party priorities.
This is such a year. Congress rarely tackles difficult budget issues as elections loom, and a standoff with Bush means that Democrats may even take a pass on advancing the 12 annual appropriations bills.
The first year of an administration is typically when heavy lifting on the budget is done, but all the candidates' campaign plans seem to promise more than they can deliver. McCain's tax cuts would require applying a meat cleaver to spending, while the Democrats promise spending that would enlarge the deficit or require large tax increases.
The White House forecasts the deficit for the current year at $410 billion, a near record.
Democrats trumpeted their plan for putting the budget back in balance while also making investments in infrastructure, education, community development, clean energy and other programs. It also would avoid $196 billion worth of Bush-proposed cuts to Medicare and the Medicaid health care program for the poor and disabled.
#1
As long as the RNC is manned by good o'boys who are not hungry [particularly given the depth of the self inflicted wound is on the opponent] does it make any difference?
#2
John McCain, the GOP nominee-to-be, couldn't attract even a majority of Senate Republicans to vote with him Thursday night behind the earmark moratorium
Do the Senatorial Republicans then think Mr. McCain will not become president, or if he does, that John McCain will not remember exactly what they did? The man is known for holding a grudge for a very long time, from what I understand.
#3
Until the Republicans develop internal party discipline, in which the leadership can and does reward and punish members for their behavior, it will be ineffectual.
#4
Just what we need - a HUGE chunk of money taken out of middle income taxpayers pockets.
Will knock us deep into a recession.
$2000 increase in taxes above and beyond current, for an average family. Marriage penalty returns.
Then there is the business impact. Have to start tax planning NOW to anticipate the loss of certain business help that the cuts put in - meaning less money to hire workers or expand business with.
All kinds of bad stuff.
And these idiots in Congress are just going to continue to demolish the economy.
#6
Democrats argued that when the time comes, they'll renew tax cuts aimed at the middle class by closing billions of dollars worth of corporate and other tax loopholes. They also say billions more can be raised by cracking down on tax cheats.
The pathetic thing about this is there are millions of people that are all too willing to believe this load of crap. Most of whom wont even take five minutes out of their lives to investigate the validity of such fantastic claims. Never mind that the Congressional Budget Office doesnt figure such mythical projections such as closing tax loopholes or proposed amendments to existing tax law in order to crack down on tax cheats when figuring budgets. The CBO is bound by law to use real figures. (Or as real as it gets anyway.) The other, a more sad, aspect is they dont understand that these mythical dollars do nothing to pay down the debt or tackle the looming entitlement crisis. These new revenue streams (Dontcha just love that little euphemism?) are already spent on new programs as well as expansion of existing ones. And of course, more earmarks to make things more palatable for those politicians who may be on the fence. I dont know if it meets the threshold of being Orwellian but raising taxes by over $2K on 43 million families doesnt sound like a middle class tax cut to me.
#8
APr for the course, the Speaker of our state Senate wants to add a 6% tax on oil refined in the state. I don't remember in my econ classes the model where the state can tax itself into prosperity. Is there a tutor out there?
#9
Do these idiots not know or not care that you don't really tax corporations?
Corporations collect the higher "taxes" from consumers in the form of higher prices, and pass them along to the gummint.
Idiots.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/14/2008 18:18 Comments ||
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#10
Apparently New York spends its tax money well.
Its what I call the 'Cell Phone Number Theory'.
Everyone I know who has a cell phone has lost the ability of 'number retention' to a degree, including myself. As the cell phone takes on more functions the user becomes more dependant - that is leaving messages for oneself, texting oneself a grocery list, important date scheduling whatever. Great and all, humans using technology as they always have. Until: bom bom bam - the cell phone breaks, stolen, lose recharge chord, etc. That person is helpless not even able to remember the number for their parents.
Now, get people dependant on the government etc.."we know how to spend your money better" As it was said, we are just custodians of freedom, it is not our to give away." This 'congress' seems to be a procurement committee which I am not enthusiastic about.
(AKI) - By Ahmad Rafat - The prospect of voters shunning the ballot box appears to be the greatest threat to Friday's parliamentary elections. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, on Thursday for the fourth time this week urged voters not to stay away. "This time, more than in past elections, the population must turn out to vote in large numbers in order to thwart the plans of domineering world powers, which want to weaken our countries with their diabolical schemes," he said.
The fresh sanctions against Iran recently approved by the United Nations Security Council, were "an attempt to induce Iranians not to participate in the electoins," Khamenei stated. "This attempt will fail miserably, given that everyone will stick to their duty to choose the most capable people to take forward policies that guarantee honour and prosperity to our country," he warned.
Only a day earlier, a Iran's former president and leader of the reformist opposition, Mohammad Khatami launched a similar appeal in which he urged people to vote in order to save the country. "Our enemies hope polling stations will be empty in order to claim that the Islamic Republic has lost the support of the people," Khatami said, speaking at the Ali ibn Musa mosque. "A massive turnout at the election will enable you to have a wise parliament, with representatives who are faithful to Allah and to the values of the Revolution. Today, we are threatened and only if people vote in droves will we be able to be able to protect ourselves from the atatcks that aim to destroy us."
In the last two elections, the 2006 presidential polls that brought hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power, and in last year's local polls, less than 60 percent of electors voted. In the 1990s, electoral turnout was around 80 percent.
Those who have been staying away from the ballot box are not only supporters of Iran's opposition, who at each election call for voters to abstain as a form of struggle against the Islamic Republic.
Voter who have boycotted recent polls also include women and young people, who had placed their hopes in Khatami and the reformists and feel "betrayed" and abandoned.
Ordinary Iranians remain sceptical of Friday's parliamentary polls, which do seem more than anything to be a referendum on Ahmadinejad's presidency. His term concludes in a year's time, and he has already lost many many of his allies.
If the list headed by Ahmadinejad performs disastrously once again, as it did in last year's local elections, he will fail to get re-elected to serve a second term as president.
This prospect fascinates many of the conservative, pragmatic and reformist factions, but is of no interest to the majority of Iranians, who are more concerned about issues such as petrol rationing and having enough money to celebrate Iran's new year next week.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
TOPIX > RAJAVI: KHAMEINI CLEARS THE WAY FOR EXPEDITED DRIVE TOWARDS NUCLEAR WEAPONS, EXPORT OF TERRORISM, IRAN'S DISILLUSIONED REFORMERS STAND ON THE SIDELINES.
Also from TOPIX > US SAYS NORTH KOREA MUST GIVE EVERYTHING IN DECLARATION IN GENEVA TALKS, + US PATIENCE WITH NORTH KOREA NOT UNLIMITED.
*STARS-N-STRIPES OP-ED > ONLY ONE AMERICA FEELS THE THREAT FROM TERRORISTS.
* KOMMERSANT > PNN:MOSCOW NEWS - RUSSIA READY FOR "PREVENTIVE NUCLEAR STRIKE", + NOR IS ABSKHAZIA UNIQUE + NATO AKS/TELLS RUSSIA TO TONE DOWN FIERY RHETORIC.
It was certainly not a match made in heaven at first. He was an American soldier newly arrived in Baghdad at the start of the US-led invasion. She was a young Iraqi doctor. But against the odds they fell in love and were married. They were the first mixed couple to emerge from the bloodshed and terror of the Iraq war, and only a handful more have joined their ranks since.
Five years later the couple now live in Florida with their 15-month-old baby girl, Norah. But life has been far from easy and the costs have been high for this couple who had to overcome a huge cultural gap and look beyond the fear and distrust forged in the Iraq war. "I think it was not easy at all. It's not that smooth," said Ehda'a Blackwell from their Florida home.
In 2003, she was a young doctor looking for work when she met Sergeant Sean Blackwell, a new recruit to Iraq who had been there for just two weeks and charged with overseeing security in hospitals. The couple were married in August 2003 in a 15-minute civil ceremony in a Baghdad restaurant, for which Sean first had to convert to Islam.
On paper the US Army is prepared for this kind of liaison which is not illegal. But the reality proved very different. "I hate to sound like we were the pioneers for this, but I do think maybe it made the road a little easier for those who followed," said Sean Blackwell. "I was persecuted by my military chain of command," he explained. "They tried to have me court martialed for dereliction of duty, saying that I forsake my mission to go get married instead. But nothing came of it because that was not true."
"Once they figured out that he was going to really marry me, they wouldn't permit him to go to the court to finish the marriage," said Ehda'a. "We had to ask the judge to meet us somewhere on the way of their daily patrol because they wouldn't let him go to another area and marry me." So Sean took a quick break from his patrol and the couple were married. "That was the fastest marriage I've ever seen. I wish we could make it again," she said longingly.
The couple were forced to live apart for several months. Sean left the country in December 2003, and returned to Jordan in February 2004 to collect his bride who had been secretly smuggled out of Iraq by a CBS television crew. They spent six months in Amman getting to know each other, before finally heading to United States. Ehda'a, who now works as a medical assistant, has not seen her family since she was smuggled out of Iraq. She does not want to talk about those she left behind, fearing for their safety as they have received several threats.
It is hard to say how many such marriages have taken place. Sean, who has now quit the army, thinks there may be only about 20. Neither the army nor the State Department keep the figures. Some 1,400 visas for Iraqi spouses have been issued since 2003, but that figure is largely made up of couples with double-nationality.
Sean concedes that cultural differences and differences in religion pose large hurdles to mixed marriages. Converting to Islam caused him some problems at the beginning. "I considered myself to be a Christian at the time and it was a little bit a struggle for me personally, but it was just something I had to do to marry her. It wasn't something that I believed," he said. "Religion is not relevant in my life, it's not something I really worry about. America is one of the most Christian countries in the world so it's definitely not well received to marry a Muslim ... we've always painted a negative image of the Arab culture."
Cultural differences remain one of the main reasons why US-Iraqi marriages occur less frequently than US-Vietnamese marriages during the Vietnam war. "During the Vietnam war, the soldiers were more integrated in the society. In Iraq they are more isolated. And with the major differences in religion, we can expect the number of marriages to be much lower," said military sociologist David Segal, from the University of Maryland.
"I married her for love and a lot of reasons," said Sean Blackwell. But he added: "We both agree that we would trade our marriage for (an end to) the war any time. Our personal happiness with each other is not worth all of the lives that have been lost." You gotta be impressed by the spitball spin the AFP puts on this story. They even bring in an "expert" to make the crucial Vietnam reference.
#1
I don't mean to poke my finger at someone who performed their service and within all right, but something about this story stinks, could the be writer spin.
"I married her for love and a lot of reasons," said Sean Blackwell. But he added: "We both agree that we would trade our marriage for (an end to) the war any time. Our personal happiness with each other is not worth all of the lives that have been lost."
Well scoobiddy doo its like the whole war was fought just for them; hows the head banging and reciting classes going?
"America is one of the most Christian countries in the world so it's definitely not well received to marry a Muslim ... we've always painted a negative image of the Arab culture."
Unlike a Chrisitan marrying a muslim in Iraq, huh. 15 minute secret ceremony, smuggled out of the country. Yeah sure evil America. My Shakespeare might be a tad rusty but wouldn't this be more like R&J if: he went to Jordan to pick up his wife from the CBS crew and found she wasn't with them and he killed himself over grief when in reality she was with a CNN crew and showed up the next day to find him dead. Trapped in Jordan, a religous enforcer finds out her story and has her killed.
Cultural differences remain one of the main reasons why US-Iraqi marriages occur less frequently than US-Vietnamese marriages during the Vietnam war.
IIUC, there were a lot of persecuted Christians who fled the North, plus Christianity had been practiced in the south for a number of years. Perhaps that was an influence..oh and Vietnamese women are allowed to talk to strangers.
#2
"I considered myself to be a Christian at the time and it was a little bit a struggle for me personally, but it was just something I had to do to marry her. It wasn't something that I believed," he said. "Religion is not relevant in my life, it's not something I really worry about."
#3
"We both agree that we would trade our marriage for (an end to) the war any time. Our personal happiness with each other is not worth all of the lives that have been lost."
WTF does that mean, anyway? propaganda nonsense drivel
Gold traded above $1,000 an ounce for the first time in New York today on the sliding dollar. Silver, platinum and palladium also advanced. The U.S. currency fell against a basket of six major trading partners to the lowest since the index began in 1973. The Dollar Index traded on ICE Futures in New York declined as low as 71.795.
``There's nothing fundamental in the market, people are reacting to the dollar,'' said Christopher Edmonds, the managing principal of FIG Partners Energy Research & Capital Group in Atlanta. ``We aren't only seeing the arrival of pension fund and insurance money. There's been a wave of sloppy money coming from small investors trying to take part in the commodity rally.''
The California Public Employees' Retirement System, the largest U.S. pension fund, may increase its commodity investments 16-fold to $7.2 billion through 2010 as raw-materials prices rise to records. Calpers, which has about $240 billion in assets, agreed to the reallocation at a Feb. 19 board meeting, spokesman Clark McKinley said on Feb. 28.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/14/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Leave it to the Unions to short the dollar with whatever money they can scratch together.
#2
Better be careful. A lot of this is derivative driven. When the speculation bubble bursts, you'll see commodities dump (unless the mush-heads in Congress bail out their hedge fund buddies again)
March 13 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose to a record $111 a barrel in New York as the sinking value of the dollar attracted investors to commodity markets. The dollar dropped below 100 yen earlier today for the first time since 1995 and declined to a record low against the euro. Investors looking for higher returns have flocked to commodities. Oil surged 90 percent over the past year as the Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 4.4 percent.
``Energy trading continues to be dollar dominated,'' said John Kilduff, senior vice president of energy at MF Global Ltd. in New York. ``The reverberations from the credit markets and U.S. economic policies are creating an inflation wave in hard assets and traditional inflation havens.''
Crude oil for April delivery rose 41 cents, or 0.4 percent, to settle at a record $110.33 a barrel at 2:49 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures began trading in 1983. Brent crude for April settlement rose $1.27, or 1.2 percent, to $107.54 a barrel on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange, a record close. Futures reached an intraday record of $107.88 a barrel today.
Energy and metals prices have surged over the past year as the U.S. currency plunged, prompting investors to seek a hedge against inflation. The euro rose over the past year as the Federal Reserve cut rates amid the worst housing slump in a quarter of a century, and $190 billion of U.S. subprime-mortgage- related losses and markdowns by financial institutions. ``Unless and until the dollar policy changes, energy prices will continue to soar,'' Kilduff said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/14/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I've read elsewhere that the price of crude is rising only in terms for the USD. When considered in terms of Euros, Swiss Francs, etc., the price hasn't changed much since last year. If that's the case, a record price for crude in $ and the falling value of the $ are the same phenomenon. Can't find a reference or graph for this.
I wish Australia, Canada and the USA withold Grain Sales for two months.
That means withold sales of the following foods, WHEAT [winter and spring; Soft/Hard/White/Durum/Red], Barley, Rye, Soy Beans, CORN, etc. untill prices shoot to 20 X times current prices or until OPEC snap, crackle pops.
#3
I think we will sell every bit we can grow at premium prices then the feds will hand out farm support on top. Gonna be a lot of rich "farmers" in congress this year.
#4
Oddly, Refined Gasoline is trading in a twenty cent range while crude sky rockets. something about a 15 year high in stored gasoline, and a 6% drop in sales over last year.
The same folks who gave us the Tech Bubble and the Housing Bubble are now giving us a Commodities Bubble. Perhaps we should be enraged at them rather than OPEC?
#7
If that's the case, a record price for crude in $ and the falling value of the $ are the same phenomenon.
Commodities prices in the US most definitely demonstrate a strong inverse correlation with the relative value of the dollar. The current cycle is, however, something of a perfect storm.
With the dollar in free-fall expect commodities to continue their upward march, at least in the very short term. Soon, however, either commodities prices will push the US economy into a deep recession and, as always, the rest of the world will fall at least as far and as fast or the speculative bubble in commodities will burst sparing us most of the long-term damage.
The talk these day ssure sounds a lot like the talk that immediately preceded the bursting of such bubbles in this an other sectors in the past.
#8
This is all due to excess monetary growth by the fed to fight one "financial crisis" after another. Sooner or later we're going to have to face the music. The longer we put it off, the worse the pain. Just wait till this summer when some manufactured crisis around the Olympics gets the Chinese po'd and they start dumping dollars to really drive down the dollar in anticipation of the election. Much more to come.
#9
or the speculative bubble in commodities will burst
This would cause huge financial losses in the speculator business and the government will have to step in and bail them out. (I wish I was sure I was being sarcastic.)
#10
Any surprise with the Fed kicking in another couple billion into the market? More money chasing a limited [by human design] commodity, the basics of inflation.
#13
It is well known that the speculators, which hedge funds are by definition, is behind this commodity runup. They went there after they decimated real estate. Make them take physical delivery of their purchases for 60 days. This stops the world wide speculation scheme. If they have to buy and hold, only legitmate traders can remain. Oil would drop like a rock, back to $40/bbl range overnight.
#18
Requiring delivery and hold for 30 days would end this manipulation of the economy by hedge funds with too much influence and too much borrowed money distorting the market.
I still say they should outlaw the trade in derivatives with ANY margined cash. You buy a derivative, it must be liquid.
That would also stop a lot of the hedge funds dead in their tracks with the arbitrage on the margins, and the huge overruns in price followed by collapses when the margin calls come in and they cannot be met once prices top out.
The fiscal games are out of hand. Revoke the entire concept and legality of margins. Cash ONLY.
Demand cash liquidity in the market, and make it the law for anyone other than individual investors.
Punish the fat cats that are doing this.
Either now, or when the economy collapses, we the people will hunt them down and shoot them.
(Xinhua) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Thursday called for stronger regulatory oversight of mortgage lenders to ensure that the current credit crisis is not repeated. "As we continue to address current market stress, we must also examine the appropriate policy responses," Paulson said in a speech at the National Press Club.
"The President's Working Group on Financial Markets, the PWG, has been reviewing policy issues to help reduce the likelihood that mistakes of the past are repeated," he said. "The objective here is to get the balance right regulation needs to catch up with innovation and help restore investor confidence but not go so far as to create new problems, make our markets less efficient or cut off credit to those who need it," said Paulson, chairman of the PWG, which includes the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The PWG is recommending that the federal and state regulators should strengthen oversight of all mortgage originators. The state financial regulators should implement strong nationwide licensing standards for mortgage brokers and the Federal Reserve will issue revised rules for consumer protection and disclosure requirements, said Paulson.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
This is like closing the barn door after your horse has run out & been hit by a train, and anyway the barn is on fire.
#2
I respect Ronnie, but the banking reform done during the great/infamous Savings and Loan bailout in the 80s removed the restraints that were put in place during the Great Depression to restrict banks from engaging in speculative market practices. We've had the Dotcom Bust and now the Housing Bust thanks to shell corporations set up by the banking industry. Think we've learned the same lesson again? Nah.
Time to recharter the Bank of the United States to act as the receiver of any failed financial institution. That way instead of just getting stuck with the liability of these organizations we at least get the assets as well. It's existence will act as a deterrent to any paper holder that if their corporation plays fast and loose with the monetary system, they'll lose and lose just as big as any run in Vegas. Further the CEOs and board will know they won't get either a golden parachute and will be hounded for any funds seen as nothing more than looting the business for their lifestyle in the final accounting.
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.
The average temperature across both the contiguous U.S. and the globe during climatological winter (December 2007-February 2008) was the coolest since 2001, according to scientists at NOAAs National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. In terms of winter precipitation, Pacific storms, bringing heavy precipitation to large parts of the West, produced high snowpack that will provide welcome runoff this spring. 
It was certainly not a match made in heaven at first. He was an American soldier newly arrived in Baghdad at the start of the US-led invasion. She was a young Iraqi doctor. But against the odds they fell in love and were married. They were the first mixed couple to emerge from the bloodshed and terror of the Iraq war, and only a handful more have joined their ranks since.
Gold traded above $1,000 an ounce for the first time in New York today on the sliding dollar. Silver, platinum and palladium also advanced. The U.S. currency fell against a basket of six major trading partners to the lowest since the index began in 1973. The Dollar Index traded on ICE Futures in New York declined as low as 71.795.
March 13 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose to a record $111 a barrel in New York as the sinking value of the dollar attracted investors to commodity markets. The dollar dropped below 100 yen earlier today for the first time since 1995 and declined to a record low against the euro. Investors looking for higher returns have flocked to commodities. Oil surged 90 percent over the past year as the Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 4.4 percent.
(Xinhua) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Thursday called for stronger regulatory oversight of mortgage lenders to ensure that the current credit crisis is not repeated. "As we continue to address current market stress, we must also examine the appropriate policy responses," Paulson said in a speech at the National Press Club. 
