“China says it wants a new global currency that is weighted with the values of the major currencies of the world including the dollar, the yen, and the sterling, among others.

China is believed to have at least $1.2 trillion in US currency of its $2 trillion strong currency reserves.

China’s concern is if the U.S. begins to print money to pay debt and stimulate the economy, its own currency will lose significant value.

Most recently, about a week ago, the top Russian bank was also pushing for a new global reserve currency for the same reasons and to also strengthen Russian influence in the world.” (business2press.com)

If this is what they’re saying publicly, imagine what they’re saying privately.

by Stephen J. Sniegoski

“Many Americans, in fact, many people in the world, have been under the impression that Obama’s approach to foreign policy, especially as it pertains to the Middle East, would be the antithesis of that of the Bush administration. This dichotomy, however, is increasingly questionable as the professed advocate of change looks more like a proponent of continuation.

In fact, even during the Presidential campaign Obama did not present a consistently peaceful foreign policy. For example, immediately after becoming the de facto Democratic presidential nominee he addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a powerful pro-Israel lobby. He not only pledged full support to Israel but also expressed strong words against Iran – promising to do everything in his power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and demanding an end to Iranian support for Hezbollah and Hamas, the militant enemies of Israel, as the price for ending American economic warfare.

All of this can reasonably lead to the question: Will Obama’s Middle East policy differ significantly from that of the neoconservatives who were the driving force for the war on Iraq and have fashioned a broader Israelocentric Middle East war agenda? (The neoconservatives are the subject of my recent book: The Transparent Cabal: The Neoconservative Agenda, War in the Middle East, and the National Interest of Israel). Obama himself does not appear to be completely aligned with the neocon position as was John McCain. However, the President’s close advisors, such as David Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel, Dennis Ross, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton, tend to be ardently pro-Israel and hawkish, reflecting a neocon orientation, even though none of these individuals are actually neocons.” (Read more from antiwar.com)

“If he fires and replaces his economic and military teams, and announces both a quick end to the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and the immediate break-up of the country’s big failed national banks and financial institutions, he has a chance to become a great president. If he does not, it is as predictable as the rising of the seas that his presidency will be a failure. We are nearing a point where the American public is going to lose patience with the half measures, the continuing pouring of national treasure down the twin sinkholes of the failed financial institutions and the two endless wars in the Middle East, and the tone-deaf behavior of cabinet secretaries and advisors who don’t have a clue about how average Americans are living these days.” (Read more from commondreams.org)

The crooks are in charge.
Obama = more of the same

“WASHINGTON — Obama administration special envoy Richard Holbooke was on the American International Group Inc. board of directors in early 2008 when the insurance company locked in the bonuses now stoking national outrage. Holbrooke, a veteran diplomat who is now the administration’s point man on Pakistan and Afghanistan, served on the board between 2001 and mid-2008.

During that period, AIG undertook the aggressive investment strategies that led to a near-collapse and forced a multibillion-dollar federal bailout.” (Read more from huffingtonpost.com)

“But the credibility of both western governments and their currencies is waning, and has been ever since the gold standard was abandoned in 1971, says Mr Paul. And that means even ’safe’ investments are far from safe, he claims. . . .

Unfortunately, cashing out will not protect the value of investments, he insists, because ‘fiat’ currencies will all decline over the coming years as measures to try to haul the world economy out of recession fail. ‘The current stimulus measures are making things a lot worse,’ says Mr Paul.

‘The US government just won’t allow the correction the economy needs.’ He cites the mini-depression of 1921, which lasted just a year largely because insolvent companies were allowed to fail. ‘No one remembers that one. They’ll remember this one, because it will last 15 years.’

At some stage – Mr Paul estimates it will be between one and four years – the dollar will implode. ‘The dollar as a reserve standard is done,’ he says. He sees little hope for other currencies where central banks have also created too much liquidity dating right back to the early 1970s.” (Read more from infowars.com)

“American sources told the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan that Israel Defense Forces chief Gabi Ashkenazi provided fresh intelligence to the United States concerning Iran’s nuclear facility in Arak during his visit to Washington earlier this week, according to Israel Radio.

Ashkenazi on Monday said that while Israel was interested in exhausting diplomatic options against Iran’s nuclear program, the army must nevertheless prepare itself for a military attack. . . .

During a visit to Washington, D.C., Ashkenazi met with Dennis Ross, the designated U.S. envoy to the Persian Gulf, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss the Iranian issue.

The IDF chief told Ross that Israel would not tolerate a nuclear Iran. He said that a diplomatic approach to Iran’s contentious nuclear program must be taken first, but said Israel must also prepare for other possibilities. ” (Read more from haaretz.com)

Have we already forgotten the bad intelligence about Iraqi WMDs provided by Israel, as reported here, here, here, and here?

“WASHINGTON (Reuters) – With many U.S. newspapers struggling to survive, a Democratic senator on Tuesday introduced a bill to help them by allowing newspaper companies to restructure as nonprofits with a variety of tax breaks.” (Read more from reuters.com)

BULLSHIT!!!

1) U.S. newspapers almost unanimously lied us into Iraq, and ignored predictions of the crash. My liberal friends, do you remember how your NY Times and Washington Post helped sell the war?

2) We the people are the center. We the people decide what businesses and industries succeed and fail. WE make this decisions by spending OUR money on goods and services WE desire. The decisions do not belong to the central planners.

3) This represents an even closer marriage between media and power – very, very bad.

“The United Nations has ramped up pressure on Israel by issuing a raft of reports in which it formally accuses the Jewish State of committing war crimes during its 23-day war in the Gaza Strip.” (Read more from riverscrap.typepad.com)

“WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration on Tuesday mounted a full-scale push for government authority to shut down troubled institutions like insurer AIG to avoid the need for future bailouts.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, testifying before lawmakers still fuming about big bonuses for executives at bailout recipient AIG, called on Congress for new powers to take over big non-bank financial firms that run amok.” (Read more from news.yahoo.com)

First government gives itself the power to redistribute our money to AIG (despite the Constitution). Now they want to give themselves the power to shut down a private company.

WTF!?!?!?!!?!?

If the assholes in government would have simply done NOTHING, then AIG would be shut down – probably by a bankruptcy court. The net effect would be identical, but we’d have more of our money, and governments would have no new powers.

“Kurt Hauser is a San Francisco investment economist who, 15 years ago, published fresh and eye-opening data about the federal tax system. His findings imply that there are draconian constraints on the ability of tax-rate increases to generate fresh revenues. I think his discovery deserves to be called Hauser’s Law, because it is as central to the economics of taxation as Boyle’s Law is to the physics of gases. Yet economists and policy makers are barely aware of it. . . .

[Hauser writes:] ‘No matter what the tax rates have been, in postwar America tax revenues have remained at about 19.5% of GDP.’”

“As Mr. Hauser said: ‘Raising taxes encourages taxpayers to shift, hide and underreport income. . . . Higher taxes reduce the incentives to work, produce, invest and save, thereby dampening overall economic activity and job creation.’

Putting it a different way, capital migrates away from regimes in which it is treated harshly, and toward regimes in which it is free to be invested profitably and safely. In this regard, the capital controlled by our richest citizens is especially tax-intolerant.” (Read more from online.wsj.com)

“The House passed a bill yesterday which includes disturbing language indicating young people will be forced to undertake mandatory national service programs as fears about President Barack Obama’s promised ‘civilian national security force’ intensify.

The Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act, known as the GIVE Act, was passed yesterday by a 321-105 margin and now goes to the Senate.

Under section 6104 of the bill, entitled ‘Duties,’ in subsection B6, the legislation states that a commission will be set up to investigate, ‘Whether a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people could be developed, and how such a requirement could be implemented in a manner that would strengthen the social fabric of the Nation and overcome civic challenges by bringing together people from diverse economic, ethnic, and educational backgrounds.’

Section 120 of the bill also discusses the ‘Youth Engagement Zone Program’ and states that ’service learning’ will be ‘a mandatory part of the curriculum in all of the secondary schools served by the local educational agency.’” (Read more from infowars.com)

Also, see Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-S.C.) thoughtful critique of bill. He addresses chartiy, America, Civil Society, the Constitution, the budget, the the tendency toward misdirected altruism by the government.

“I recently received an e-mail from Sen. Tom Harkin expressing outrage over the AIG bonuses and vowing to ‘pass legislation that completely taxes those bonuses away’ and ’send a message to AIG and other companies who received bailout money.’

While I think the anger is well-founded, I fear it misses the point.

Government should never have entered the business of giving our money to failing companies. The line between government and private enterprise is now perverted. Because of the bailouts, politicians are now posturing by interfering in businesses they know little about, and businessmen (bankers in this case) now have more reason than ever to lobby and influence politics.

The whole process is outrageous. Bad companies should simply go bankrupt. There are plenty of banks here in the Midwest that have been responsible. If we lived in a free society, they would find themselves in a position to buy assets from the hugely irresponsible and incompetent New York banks. Instead, money is taken from the competent and given to the incompetent.

At the same time, politicians are pretending to have stuck it to the man. Scolding AIG over several hundred million in bonuses after handing them several hundred billion is ridiculous.

If Congress wants to scrutinize something, they should scrutinize the Federal Reserve. Instead of worrying about AIG’s millions, they should provide transparency to the Fed’s trillions.” (from press-citizen.com)

“The call by some right wing leaders for rebellion and for the military to refuse the commander in chief’s orders is joined by Chuck Norris who claims that thousands of right wing cell groups have organized and are ready for a second American Revolution. During an appearance on the Glen Beck radio show he promised that if things get any worse from his point of view he may ‘run for president of Texas.’ The martial artist/actor/activist claims that Texas was never formally a part of the United States in the first place and that if rebellion is to come through secession Texas would lead the way.” (Read more from examiner.com)