Watchdogs need not bark together
By Joseph Stiglitz
In the years before the crisis, there was a race to the bottom, with countries competing on the "lightness" of regulation. Iceland may have been the winner of that race, but its citizens were the losers. As the consequences of these failures continue to manifest themselves and discussions of the new regulatory regime proceed, the problem of global co-ordination has moved centre stage.
Banks within any jurisdiction threaten to take their business elsewhere if tough regulations are imposed (or even if they are asked to pay for a fraction of the costs they have imposed on others). Modern finance is a footloose industry, so the threat seems at least partially credible. If regulations are different in different jurisdictions, there is a real risk of regulatory arbitrage. With finance moving to the least well regulated jurisdiction, there is a danger that the problems that marked the global financial system before the crisis will persist.
These are among the reasons that there is a consensus on the need for global co-ordination. But progress in creating an effective global regulatory regime has been remarkably slow. The Financial Stability Forum, created for that purpose after the last global financial crisis, did little - obviously too little to prevent an even worse meltdown a decade later. This body has now been entrusted with guiding the international community towards a new regulatory regime.
Gangster Government
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Goldman Sachs made billions by pushing AIG to bankruptcy
An investigative report published Sunday by the New York Times provides a glimpse of the predatory practices of major Wall Street banks that played a central role in the financial meltdown and global economic crisis.
The article, headlined “Testy Conflict With Goldman Helped Push AIG to Precipice,” documents the role of Goldman Sachs, the biggest and most profitable US investment bank, in pushing the insurance giant American International Group (AIG) to the brink of bankruptcy.
At the height of the financial crisis, in mid-September 2008, the Bush administration stepped in to rescue AIG with $85 billion in taxpayer money. Since then, under Bush and then Obama, government aid to the company has grown to $182.3 billion. The firm is currently 80 percent owned by the US Treasury.
AIG has used its government bailout to award its top traders and executives hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses. In the face of public outrage, the Obama administration has intervened to shield the company and block any moves to limit these pay awards.
The Times article, by Gretchen Morgenson and Louise Story, is based on a review of internal AIG documents and a recording of a January 29, 2008, conference call between Goldman Sachs executives and AIG. It describes how Goldman, in the two years preceding AIG’s bailout, worked to undermine investor confidence in the insurer, then the biggest seller of credit default swap contracts, and drive down the market value of mortgage-backed securities.
Bob Kerrey: 9/11 was part of a 30 year old Conspiracy
Dan Noel who is also an engineer member of Architects and Engineers for 9-11 Truth hands Bob Kerrey a card of information directing him to the proof of controlled demolition of the three WTC towers http://www.ae911truth.org. Paul Wittenberger asks Kerrey about Building 7. Jeremy confronts Kerrey about the aspects of treason involved with covering up the truth about 9-11, and Kerrey responds "It's (9-11) a 30 year conspiracy".
French Government Queries US, 1950s Secret LSD Experiment
By F. William Engdahl
Author of Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian
Democracy in the New World Order
2-9-10
A major diplomatic and political scandal is erupting that could have significant import for French-American relations. It involves new research into the mysterious outbreak of "mass insanity" in a village in southern France that affected some 500 people and resulted in five deaths.
According to reliable US sources, the US State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research has been given a confidential inquiry from the office of Erard Corbin de Mangoux, head of the French intelligence agency DSGE (Directorate General for External Security). According to the report the inquiry regards a recently-published account of U.S. government complicity in a mysterious 1951 incident of mass insanity in France in the village of Pont-Saint-Esprit in southern France.
The strange outbreak severely affected nearly five hundred people, causing the deaths of at least five, two by suicide. For nearly 60 years the Pont-St.-Esprit incident has been attributed either to ergot poisoning, meaning that villagers consumed bread infected with a psychedelic mold or to organic mercury poisoning.
Scientists with the highly respected British Medical Journal were quickly drawn in September 1951 to what it dubbed the "outbreak of poisoning."
Exposing possible NASA cover-up
EXAMINER
Breakthroughs in new imaging technology developed by the firm of Ron Stewart/Ron Nussbeck may now permit human observers to identify what appear to be planet-sized extraterrestrial UFOs exiting from dimensional portals in the Sun (See images and slideshow in article below). A giant solar UFO wave commenced January 18, 2010, as predicted by the singularity theory of physicist Nassim Haramein that postulates that planet-sized UFOs access our solar system using the Sun as a star gate.
Images of the Sun taken by NASA Stereo spacecraft independently on January 21, 2010 and again on January 23, 2010 were submitted by this Examiner.com reporter to a demonstration test using this new proprietary imaging technology. The resulting images and analysis arguably visually confirm the existence of extraterrestrial or interdimensional giant UFOs exiting from what the images show as portals or tunnels on the Sun, in both sets of images from independent NASA Stereo photos dated Jan. 21 and 23, 2010, respectively. These results were released by the Ron Stewart/Ron Nussbeck firm in a report, parts 1 and 2 dated February 2 and 3, 2010.
According to communications with this reporter from film director Jose Escamilla and Mike Bird, director of Exopolitics Canada, NASA has acted to remove Stereo images of the Sun containing giant UFOs from their website. Dr. Joe Gurman, NASA Stereo Project scientist, stated the giant solar UFOs are “compression artifacts.
Japanese Split on Exposing Secret Pacts With U.S.
NY Times
They were Tokyo’s worst-kept diplomatic secrets: clandestine cold war era agreements with Washington that obligated Japan to shoulder the costs of United States bases and allow nuclear-armed American ships to sail into Japanese ports.
For decades, Japanese leaders have gone to great lengths to deny the pacts’ existence, despite mounting proof to the contrary from the testimony of former diplomats and declassified documents in the United States. The most sensational instance came in 1972, when a reporter who unearthed evidence of one of the treaties was arrested on charges of obtaining state secrets, reportedly by means of an adulterous affair.
Now, the so-called secret treaties are causing problems again, this time in how Japan is handling its suddenly rocky relationship with the United States.
The new administration in Tokyo, whose election last summer ended a half-century of nearly unbroken control by the Liberal Democrats, wants to expose the treaties as a showcase of its determination to sweep aside the nation’s secretive, bureaucrat-dominated postwar order. Last fall, the foreign minister appointed a team of scholars to scour Japanese diplomatic archives for evidence of the treaties. Its findings are due this month.
Iran anniversary 'punch' will stun West: Khamenei
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that Iran is set to deliver a "punch" that will stun world powers during this week's 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution.
"The Iranian nation, with its unity and God's grace, will punch the arrogance (Western powers) on the 22nd of Bahman (February 11) in a way that will leave them stunned," Khamenei, who is also Iran's commander-in-chief, told a gathering of air force personnel.
The country's top cleric was marking the occasion when Iran's air force gave its support to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a key event which led to the toppling of the US-backed shah on February 11, 1979.
His comments came as Iran said it would begin to produce higher enriched uranium from Tuesday, in defiance of Western powers trying to ensure the country's nuclear drive is peaceful.
This year's anniversary is expected to become a flashpoint between security forces and supporters of opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who charge that the June re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was rigged.
Opposition supporters are expected to stage anti-government protests on Thursday when the traditional regime-sponsored marches to mark the revolution take place across the country.
Mousavi renewed his call for demonstrations on the February 11 anniversary.
Afghan deaths take death toll above Falklands level
The deaths brought the total dead since operations began in October 2001 to 256.
Two of the unnamed soldiers, from the Royal Scots Borderers, 1st Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, died on a foot patrol in Helmand province on Sunday night while serving with the 3 Rifles battle group in the town of Sangin.
A third was killed in an explosion in the Nad-e-Ali district of Helmand.
The deaths mean the campaign against the Taliban-led insurgency has taken more lives than the 74-day campaign to regain the Falkland Islands following Argentine invasion in 1982.
The Falklands campaign lasted ten-and-a-half weeks and British forces suffered days of terrible casualties as ships faced air attack from Argentine jets and troops fought to dislodge opponents dug into hillsides.
On June 8 alone, 48 died and more than 150 were wounded when Argentine aircraft attacked ships landing troops at Bluff Cove.
The Afghan campaign has instead seen a steady trickle of dead as Britain wages an eight-year-long counter insurgency campaign.
As the politically-sensitive milestone was passed, Bob Ainsworth, Defence Secretary, said it was now "imperative" for Britain to hold its resolve.
Poll: 90% of Middle East views Jews unfavorably
In the predominantly Muslim nations surveyed, views of Jews were overwhelmingly unfavorable. Nearly all in Jordan (97 percent), the Palestinian territories (97%) and Egypt (95%) held an unfavorable view. Similarly, 98% of Lebanese expressed an unfavorable opinion of Jews, including 98% among both Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims, as well as 97% of Lebanese Christians.
By contrast, only 35% of Israeli Arabs expressed a negative opinion of Jews, while 56% voiced a favorable opinion.
The survey was conducted between May 18 to June 16, 2009.
The sample size of each of the countries surveyed was over 1,000 people and the margin of error was 3%. Results for the surveys in these nations are based on face-to-face interviews conducted under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International. All surveys are based on national samples, except in Pakistan where the sample was disproportionately urban.
In Turkey, which has seen tense relations with Israel since Operation Cast Lead last January, the number of people who said they had a “very unfavorable” attitude towards Jews jumped from 32% in 2004 to 73% in the spring of 2009.
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No Exit in Sight for U.S. As Fannie, Freddie Flail
WSJ
When Charles E. Haldeman Jr. became Freddie Mac's chief executive officer in August, the ailing housing-finance giant had already consumed $51 billion of government money to stay afloat. It's likely to need even more.
Freddie's federal overseers nevertheless have instructed Mr. Haldeman to focus on something that isn't likely to make the bleak balance sheet look any better: carrying out the Obama administration plan to allow defaulted borrowers to hang onto their homes.
On a recent afternoon, employees at Freddie's headquarters here peppered Mr. Haldeman with concerns about the company's future. He responded that they were "fortunate" to have such a clear mission—the government's foreclosure-prevention drive. "We're doing what's best for the country," he told them.
Freddie and its larger rival, Fannie Mae, were among the first big financial institutions to receive massive federal bailouts after the financial crisis hit in 2008. Government officials have been racing to fix bailed-out car makers and banks and are pushing to reshape the financial-services industry. But Fannie and Freddie remain troubled wards of the state, with no blueprints for the future and no clear exit strategy for the government.
Nearly a year and a half after the outbreak of the global economic crisis, many of the problems that contributed to it haven't yet been tamed.
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