eeyores news and views

This week Prep Talk item is still talking about tools. As you can see from the last few Saturdays, tools are a big deal. Especially not having them when they are needed, is a bigger deal. So this week it is kitchen tools and Firearms.

Kitchen Tools
The easiest way to cover this topic, is to go into your kitchen and figure out what you would need to prepare, cook and serve a meal, without electricity. You need to look at your pots and bowls first. If you have a earthquake, how much of your dishes, bowls, pots and pans would make it through?

Serving dishes
Plates, bowls get a cheap set of plastic back up dishes. For something that really last metal (pewter or stainless steel) would work well.
Same goes for the dishes like big bowls and mixing bowls.
Kitchen knives, serving spoons and mixing utensils. Go with one that has a lifetime warranty. What every you can afford. Make sure you have a way to sharpen them also (without electricity).

Firearms are just a tool like anything else. But they are one that if abused will hurt you quickly. I would recommend anyone that is going to buy them go a firearms class and or a hunters safety course at the least. But what you need to remember is that like any tool unless you use it and practice with it you can not expect it to do it's job to it's ability. Firearms breaks down into two catagories, the first is utility and the second is protection. There are very few that over lap.

Do you hunt shoot skeet? those would be utility.

Do you want to protect yourself? Those are the protection ones.

For protection i would get a shotgun, 12 gauge if you can handle the recoil. 20 gauge if you can't.
For utility i would get a shotgun, 12 gauge if you can handle the recoil. 20 gauge if you can't. If you wanted to hunt deer size animals i would opt for a 3006 or 308 caliber bolt action rifle.

Jericho at FRC brought up an interesting article on the Russian Economy with some thoughts
http://www.news.com.au/business/money/story/0,25479,24359118-31037,00.html The Russian stock market, Mices, suffered 11.47%, 54% below its highest point. Their fuel giant Gazprom, lost 17.2% Oil fuels their growth, and build their military. I'm just hoping that they get hit much harder than us... ****************************** RUSSIA'S main stock market suspended trading today after plummeting more than 11 per cent, having lost more than half its value since May, as failing Wall Street banks caused panic on global markets. The benchmark RTS index halted trade after a fall of 11.47 left it 54 per cent below its record close on May 19. The ruble-denominated Micex was also suspended for an hour after dropping 16.6 per cent. "Panic has gripped the Russian stock market," read a headline on the Interfax news agency. Those hardest hit on the RTS were energy companies, with state-controlled gas giant Gazprom falling 17.2 per cent and oil firm Rosneft losing 19.12 per cent. "The turmoil on Wall Street and worries about fall in the oil price are keeping buyers away despite the cheap prices," said analyst Chris Weafer in a note from Moscow-based investment bank Uralsib. "The only feeling is one of numbness, shock," he said. "The hope is that this is the final clear-out, that this week we will find a floor." The fall came after repeated attempts by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to calm market fears. Yesterday he told a meeting of top businessmen that "we do not have a crisis", and ordered the government to pump money into the markets. Before the latest wave of turmoil on Wall Street, investors were selling Russian stocks on falling commodity prices, turmoil in international markets and political uncertainty, analysts said. Increasing tensions with the West stoked by Moscow's military intervention in Georgia last month have also hit prices - the RTS has fallen more than a third since the conflict began. President Medvedev estimated last week that a quarter of the market's losses were due to the war, in part due to fears a stand-off with the West would hurt business. The market collapse has so far had little impact on tens of millions of Russians whose lives have been transformed by a five-year economic boom. The fall has revived uncomfortable memories of the August 1998 financial crisis, which cut short an earlier boom exactly 10 years ago. But Mr Weafer said the market turmoil appeared unlikely to spread into the wider economy. "There is a risk that if this persists, it could spread into consumer confidence, but so far it is being seen as a market event." But traders on the Internet site quote.ru, many of whom have seen their investments fall in value by half, found it hard to see the bright side. "This isn't Black Tuesday. This is worse," said one forum contributor. "There's only one kind of paper that can be sold now. Toilet paper," wrote another.
Oh... China also said that we need a new financial order not dependent on the United States. Can you say one-world-currency?
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My responce was this
It does seem like the next logical step. We talked about this a couple of times in chat, but from what i remember we were talking about it on a conteintal scale ie the America's and Canada going to a common currency like the Amero.
China paper urges new currency order after "financial tsunami"Wed Sep 17, 2008 1:45am BEIJING (Reuters) - Threatened by a "financial tsunami," the world must consider building a financial order no longer dependent on the United States, a leading Chinese state newspaper said on Wednesday.
The commentary in the overseas edition of the People's Daily said the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (LEH.P: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) "may augur an even larger impending global 'financial tsunami'."
The People's Daily is the official newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party, and the overseas edition is a smaller circulation offshoot of the main paper.
Its pronouncements do not necessarily directly reflect leadership views, but this commentary by a professor at Shanghai's Tongji University suggested considerable official alarm at the strains buckling world financial markets....
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSPEK4365020080917?sp=true

This what appears to have turned the markets around.
Fed announces $180 billon cash flood to fight crisis
The US Federal Reserve announced a 180-billion-dollar cash line to fight the racing fires of global financial crisis Thursday, as leading central banks said they would join in.
The Federal Reserve said it was expanding its temporary arrangements for banks to obtain dollars by 180 billion "to provide dollar funding for both term and overnight liquidity operations by other central banks."
The move was to fight "continued elevated pressures in US dollar short-term funding markets," the Federal Reserve said.
The Fed's statement concerned "reciprocal arrangements", which several central banks had authorised to run up to January 30, 2009, or for another four and a half months.
Central banks have intervened massively with direct cash injections since financial disaster struck Wall Street at the weekend.
The Fed said those actions, and the latest more technical measures to relieve tension on the dollar money market, "are designed to improve the liquidity conditions in global financial markets."
The Fed acted minutes after the Bank of England announced that leading central banks around the world would make a concerted onslaught through intervention in money markets.
These extraordinary statements came after wild falls on stock markets and US Treasury bond yields, a surge in the price of gold, reports that investment bank Morgan Stanley is looking for help after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and uncertainty after the nationalisation of AIG insurance.
The Fed said in a statement that it had "authorized increases in the existing swap lines with the ECB and the Swiss National Bank."
It said the Japanese, British and Canadian central banks had also increased their arrangements giving access to dollars through so-called "swap" arrangements
It gave the amounts as 60 billion dollars for the Japanese bank, 40 billion dollars by the Bank of England and 10 billion dollars by the Canadian bank.
The Fed said its own latest massive liquidity window for the banking system would back up such support of 110 billion dollars by the European Central Bank, marking an increase in its facility of 55 billion dollars, and 27 billion dollars by the Swiss bank, an increase of 15 billion dollars.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080918083207.wh5hl7iv&show_article=1


Corn flops as energy source
Mario Parker BLOOMBERG NEWSThursday, September 18, 2008
Ford Heights Ethanol LLC applied in June 2006 to build a distillery in the Illinois town whose name it bears, promising an economic revival to replace abandoned houses and closed stores. Two years later, no work has begun.
For Ford Heights and other agricultural towns, the "green-collar" job revolution envisioned by federal biofuel mandates is a dream deferred. Knee-high grass and old tires cover the site as record prices for corn, the main ingredient in ethanol, discourage investment in new plants.
The $20.8 billion industry may have itself to blame. Breakneck construction led to 168 ethanol plants, already producing more than U.S. mandates require for the fuel additive this year. The distilleries buy so much corn - as much as a third of the U.S. crop this year - that they have contributed to price increases, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says.
"I kept saying they're going to kill the golden goose," said Jim Jordan, president of Jim Jordan & Associates LP, a Houston fuel-consulting company. "We have in fact overbuilt. This thing is pretty devastating."
President Bush and Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate from Illinois, have backed ethanol as a way to support American farmers and reduce dependence on imported oil. Ethanol is distilled from corn kernels in the United States and blended into gasoline. One corn bushel yields 2.75 gallons of ethanol.
Initial enthusiasm has given way to concern that diverting crops for fuel is accelerating a rise in food costs. Riots have erupted over shortages from Haiti to Egypt.
Some U.S. food companies, including chicken producer Tyson Foods Inc., formed a Food Before Fuel coalition in June to oppose ethanol mandates.
Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the Republican presidential candidate, has "traditionally been opposed to ethanol subsidies that distort the market," spokesman Tucker Bounds said.
Ethanol may account for 20 percent of the gain in the rate of U.S. food inflation, said Ephraim Leibtag, an agriculture department economist. U.S. food prices may climb 6 percent this year, the most since 1980, the department estimates.
The overcapacity prevents lenders from financing ethanol plants that distill ethanol from corn kernels, said Mike Tian, an analyst at Morningstar Inc. in Chicago.
"A lot of these towns that hoped to get an ethanol plant probably [won't]," he said.

A vacant field beyond a small intersection in Ford Heights, Ill, is where Ford Heights Ethanol LLC hoped build a distillery to produce ethanol from corn, bringing the town an economic revival. The proposed $130 million plant was scheduled to begin production by the first quarter of 2009, but two years after the application was filed, no building has begun. (Bloomberg News)
Ford Heights Mayor Saul Beck said he was ecstatic in 2006 about having a distillery in his town of 3,300, where the U.S. Census Bureau found that 49 percent of residents live in poverty.

An unused basketball court surrounded by knee-high grass and covered with old tires remains in the location where Ford Heights Ethanol LLC hoped to build a distillery in Ford Heights, Ill. Record prices for corn, ethanol's main ingredient, is discouraging investment in new plants. (Bloomberg News)
At least three ethanol producers went public that year, including Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings Inc. of Pekin, Ill., VeraSun Energy Corp. of Brookings, S.D., and Green Plains Renewable Energy Inc. in Omaha, Neb. At one point, the American Coalition for Ethanol tracked 500 planned plants, said Ron Lamberty, a vice president at the Sioux Falls, S.D., trade group.
Corn prices rose 58 percent to $5.3675 a bushel in the year through Sept. 10. When Ford Heights Ethanol applied for the permit for its proposed $130 million plant in 2006, producers were pocketing an average of $2.64 on every gallon made. By Sept. 10, rising corn prices had reduced that margin to 57 cents, Bloomberg data show.
Lenders balked at funding the project, said Jonathan Kahn, president of Ford Heights Ethanol: "One of our biggest regrets is that we couldn't get manufacturing in a community that so desperately needs it."
Abandoned homes pepper the plant site's neighborhood.
"It would have brought some jobs," Mr. Beck said. "They got the permit, and we haven't heard anything else."
Across Illinois, 795 million gallons of ethanol are on hold, the Chicago-based investment firm William Blair & Co. estimates.
That has slowed construction and growth in permanent ethanol-related jobs, said Tom Hauser, vice president of CoBank, an Omaha-based lender to ethanol companies. Each plant employs about 50 people, who earn $40,000 a year on average, he said.
The country's 168 plants had capacity for 9.96 billion gallons as of Aug. 26, almost 1 billion more than the U.S. requires this year, the Washington trade group Renewable Fuels Association said. Another 43 plants scheduled to be built or expanded would raise capacity to 13.8 billion gallons. Most make ethanol from corn.
Even established corn-ethanol producers put more emphasis on making "cellulosic" ethanol from alternate sources such as wood chips. The still-imperfect process doesn't promise immediate benefits for towns with nearby corn growers.
Asked whether Mr. Obama may reduce his support for corn-based ethanol as president, spokesman Tommy Vietor referred to an April speech in Indiana:
"We have to recognize that corn-based ethanol is a transitional technology," the candidate said then.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/18/corn-flops-as-energy-source/

Eeyore's Important News and Views

You think about how much of this country is own by forigen investment it is scary, if you are worried about stuff like that. But now with the Government making inroads into the mortagage companies and security companys. Which poses the more serious threat?

Morgan Stanley Said to Be in Talks With China's CIC By Christine Harper Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest independent U.S. securities firm, may sell a larger stake to China Investment Corp. and is in talks about a possible merger with Wachovia Corp., a person familiar with the matter said. China's state-controlled fund may buy as much as 49 percent of the New York-based investment bank, said the person, who declined to be identified because the talks aren't public and may end in no agreement. Morgan Stanley resumed its decline on the New York Stock Exchange, falling as much as 22 percent. Morgan Stanley, led by Chief Executive Officer John Mack, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the biggest U.S. securities firm, tumbled the most ever yesterday as the deepening credit crunch fueled concern their funding sources are drying up. Morgan Stanley shares plunged 42 percent this week through yesterday after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch & Co. sold itself to Bank of America Corp. ``Morgan Stanley must be talking to any suitor,'' said Roger Lister, a credit analyst at the DBRS Inc. rating firm in New York. ``But I'm not sure whether a merger with a bank will solve the problems. It's not a deposit-base issue but a crisis of confidence. And getting a capital infusion from the Chinese or somebody else brings huge dilution due to the depressed stock price, which scares investors even more.'' Morgan Stanley fell $4.32, or 20 percent, to $17.43 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading at 11:57 a.m. Wachovia rose 11.3 percent to $10.15. Gao Xiqing in U.S. China Investment Corp. bought a 9.9 percent stake in Morgan Stanley in December after the firm reported a quarterly loss. CIC's president, Gao Xiqing, is in the U.S. with Wei Christianson, who runs Morgan Stanley's business in China, the Financial Times reported today. If Morgan Stanley ``could come out and say we're raising this slug of capital to stabilize our balance sheet and operate at a lower level of leverage going forward, that would help,'' said Ben Wallace, a securities analyst at Grimes & Co. in Westborough, Massachusetts, which manages $850 million. ``They're so levered that they need to have the confidence of the market, and they don't have that right now.'' Mack, 63, addressed employees this morning in a crowded meeting in New York, saying the firm's earnings and balance sheet were sound, according to people who attended or watched the firm- wide video broadcast. He said Morgan Stanley was in stronger shape than Lehman or Bear Stearns Co., which was forced to sell itself to JPMorgan Chase & Cos. earlier this year. Talk With Pandit Two of the attendees, who declined to be named because they weren't authorized to speak to the press, said Mack sounded upbeat and confident. Mark Lake, a spokesman at Morgan Stanley in New York, declined to comment. Mack tried unsuccessfully earlier this week to persuade Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citigroup Inc., to combine their two companies, the New York Times reported today, citing people briefed on the talks. A Citigroup spokeswoman, Christina Pretto, said comments the Times attributed to Mack were ``never stated.'' Mack got a call from Wachovia yesterday indicating interest, said a person with knowledge of the matter. Talks about a deal with Wachovia have ``advanced,'' CNBC reported today. A merger with Wachovia could involve dividing the assets of both companies into two separate entities, a ``good bank'' and a ``bad bank,'' the Wall Street Journal reported, citing an unidentified person familiar with the matter. Wachovia Costs ``The smartest people at this firm are focused on solutions,'' Lake, the Morgan Stanley spokesman, said yesterday. Wachovia spokeswoman Christy Phillips-Brown said it was bank policy not to comment on ``market rumors or merger speculation.'' Wachovia, the fourth-largest U.S. bank, plunged 21 percent yesterday after saying it would support $494 million of Lehman credits held by its Evergreen Investments money market funds. The lender, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, had a market value of $19.7 billion yesterday, 18 percent less than Morgan Stanley's $24.1 billion. Wachovia Chief Executive Officer Robert Steel, hired in July to replace Kennedy Thompson, is cutting $1.5 billion of expenses and reducing risk to cope with mounting losses from Wachovia's $122 billion of option adjustable-rate mortgages. Merrill analyst Guy Moszkowski called a deal with Wachovia ``unlikely'' and said in a note today that a combination with Wachovia would ``saddle Morgan Stanley with considerable credit risk.'' ``It is difficult for us to perceive a strategic benefit for Morgan Stanley, which would be merging with the weakest of the five major U.S. banks,'' Moszkowski wrote. Short Sellers Morgan Stanley and Goldman have defended their business model, saying they have adequate capital and don't need the deposit funding that banks have. Mack lambasted short sellers for pushing his firm's shares lower. In a memo to employees yesterday, Mack said the management committee is ``taking every step possible to stop this irresponsible action in the market,'' and he urged employees to contact clients to reassure them that the firm is performing strongly and has plenty of capital. ``There is no rational basis for the movements in our stock or credit-default spreads,'' Mack wrote in the memo. ``We're in the midst of a market controlled by fear and rumors, and short sellers are driving our stock down.'' The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission may require hedge funds to disclose their short-sale positions and plans to subpoena the funds for their communication records, Chairman Christopher Cox said in a statement late yesterday. Default Swaps Short sellers try to profit by betting stock prices will fall. In a short sale, traders borrow shares from their broker that they then sell. If the price drops, they buy back the stock, return it to their broker and pocket the difference. Credit-default swaps on Morgan Stanley rose to 900 basis points after falling earlier to 870 basis points, according to broker Phoenix Partners Group. Contracts on Charlotte, North Carolina-based Wachovia, the fourth-largest U.S. bank, rose to 695 basis points after falling to as low as 685 basis points. They are down from 747 basis points yesterday, CMA data show. Credit-default swaps are financial instruments based on bonds and loans used to speculate on a company's ability to repay debt or to hedge against losses. The value of the contracts increases when investor sentiment deteriorates and the cost of protection rises. Morgan Stanley's plunge may add impetus to calls from Democrats in Congress for a broader effort by policy makers to address the financial crisis, including setting up a government agency to take on devalued assets. `Unscrew It' ``The private market screwed itself up and they need the government to come and help them unscrew it,'' House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, told reporters late yesterday after top lawmakers met with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke. Frank this week proposed considering an agency to ``deal with all the bad paper out there'' and get financial markets ``out of the box'' they are in. To contact the reporter on this story: Christine Harper in New York at charper@bloomberg.net.

Mortgage Failures has Spurred Gold and Silver Buying
Freddie and Fannie are now nationalized, mortgage issuance will continue as usual, details of the mortgage bank failure, new threats for fiat currencies and new reasons to buy precious metals We, the taxpayers, through the advice of our peerless leaders in Washington, have just nationalized Fannie and Freddie. In doing so, we have created the perfect fraud machine, thereby extending the life of one of the biggest Ponzi-schemes of all time, and giving it a lifetime warranty to boot, courtesy of the sheople. No longer will we see even the slightest trace of private sector accountability for poor business judgment, or of private sector efficiency in the operation of business, although certainly both of these concepts were little more than a joke in the way that Fannie and Freddie were being run as agencies, which are considered as being quasi-governmental in nature. Now, even the illusion of private sector, quasi-governmental agencies has been cast aside in order to reveal what was really the plan all along, the intentional destruction of the old government sponsored enterprise (GSE) programs through fraud and mismanagement, and the use of insane leverage and risk, in order to pave the way for the creation of a fascist system of mortgage finance which permanently partners our corrupt government with the equally corrupt fraudsters on Wall Street. This bailout staves off, for the moment, the fire-sale of GSE paper by its big holders, and provides a renewed source of agency paper, and of agency-insured paper, for purposes of absorbing all the excess dollars being produced by massive trade deficits, which are growing by the minute as the dollar continues yet another bogus, PPT-orchestrated rally. But this time, the agency paper and guarantees get an express warranty instead an implied warranty, as was the case with the former Fannie and Freddie business models. A fire-sale of GSE paper would have resulted in the repatriation of dollars to the US via the purchase of US assets, which would be highly inflationary. Much of the fire-sale proceeds would have been rolled into treasuries, reducing their yields to unacceptable levels and pushing investors toward tangible assets like precious metals and commodities. Also, some of the fire-sale proceeds would have found their way directly into precious metals, because investors are shunning the increasingly negative real rate of return of treasuries, and that is a big Illuminist no-no. Hence the shortage of physical gold and silver. The new, fascist Ponzi-Powerhouse will now continue to provide the sheople with fraudulently underwritten mortgages, thus perpetuating the issuance of mortgage loans to those who cannot afford to buy a house in the first place. That way, Wall Street can continue to earn their big fees, commissions and spreads, and never mind the resulting defaults and losses, since the sheople taxpayers will now take care of that for them. This will enable the dreamers among the sheople to continue to overpay for outrageously bubble-priced real estate, thus extending the decline of the real estate market, and hopelessly flooding it with more inventory than it already has. Prices must come down so people can afford to buy houses again and so they can once again qualify for fixed rate mortgage payments that won't send them careening into default. Trying to stop the jingle mail by preventing people from getting into negative equity situations caused by falling prices is not going to work. People can now see that any attempt to cushion the fall in prices is like trying to catch a falling knife. Keeping prices artificially high is just another bogus manipulation that will backfire, and further, it will exacerbate an already dire situation by keeping otherwise qualified buyers on the sidelines as inventories continue to mount from ever-accelerating foreclosures. Until prices come down dramatically, the number of foreclosures will continue to outpace the number of purchases, and we now predict that because of the Fannie and Freddie bailouts, the 30% estimate for the overall decline in prices may have been far too conservative. We can now see value losses of 35% to 40% across the board, with 50% to 60% losses in the ten former hot areas. Congratulations idiots! Over the next four to five years, we could see as much as an entire year's worth of US GDP blown out of our back-ends by real estate losses and by the loss of purchasing power that will be suffered by what little real estate value remains on account of hyperinflation. All these ludicrous bailouts are going to greatly exacerbate the rate of inflation as the printing presses start flying at mach speed. The private dealers will be doing overtime trying to unload all the fresh new treasury bonds being created to absorb the trillions in losses that will be suffered and eaten by taxpayers. Already, both Fannie and Freddie have been authorized to underwrite another $100 billion a piece in mortgage loans to be held by them in their own portfolios. But that does take into account the toxic mortgage paper that they will guaranty instead of owning it outright, which will be much higher than a measly hundred billion a piece, and without which the mortgage markets would totally shut down. Of course, the press forgot to mention that, because that is the paper being produced by the fraudsters and their toxic waste fascist-fraud-factory. That factory pumped out paper products that were going to produce little more than defaults and losses for their sucker-dupe client-investors, who used to have to face the possibility that they were going to have to eat the toxic mortgage securitizations before that privilege was passed on to the taxpayer sheople in the latest scheme to impoverish the US middle class. Now, the sheople get to eat all the losses emanating from this bogus mortgage paper that will continue to be produced by means of deceitful underwriting, over-appraisals and bogus AAA credit ratings. Wall street is now singing: "Ah, fraud without end, amen." Incidentally, the press forgot something else. What did they forget? A zero, that's what. The Treasury will purchase a billion worth of senior preferred stock in each of Fannie and Freddie, with authorization to acquire up to $100 billion a piece of such senior preferred stock, to ensure that a positive net worth is maintained. Is this some sort of a joke, because it is certainly laughable? You might wish to note that one out of every four new foreclosures is a prime ARM loan. Fannie and Freddie now own, or have guaranteed, over five trillion dollars worth of mortgage loans, and a good chunk of that is not only toxic waste, but prime loans waiting to go bad as people lose their jobs, as borrowers get upside down in their homes, as ARM's reset and as the largest and deadliest of all mortgage loans, known as Option ARM loans, go into thermonuclear meltdown. And then there are all the many hundreds of billions in toxic waste that will be added over the next couple of years, either by direct ownership or by guarantees. HELLO!!! We could be looking at losses from Fannie and Freddie of one trillion - EACH!!! Put that in your pipe and smoke it! Do you suppose the bonds we have to create out of nothing for the Fed to monetize in order to pay for the upcoming Fannie-Freddie-Fiasco is going to stoke inflation? Ya think! The big losers in the Fannie/Freddie bailout, besides the taxpayers, are the various common and preferred shareholders, who have all just been vaporized. There will not be any profits for anyone, including the senior preferred shareholders who are now the US taxpayers. Only stupendous losses are on the way for all but the GSE bondholders as Wall Street continues to buy time so they can continue their rampant system of real estate derivative fraud and keep rates from going up for a little while longer. Next come the bank failures and the resulting under-funded pensions which were foolish enough to get involved with these investments. Those losses will go to the under-funded FDIC and PBGC, who the taxpayers will also get to bail out. As you may recall, the bail pumps on the Titanic did not quite cut it. And so it will be with the Fannie and Freddie bailouts. We have to wonder if the fired CEO's will be given, severance pay and bonuses for their outstanding management of Scylla and Charybdis? As usual, we saw the PPT's manipulative hand, spinning the government's decision to nationalize Fannie and Freddie by boosting markets to make it look like everyone thought it was a great idea, when no one in their right mind, especially the pros, could possibly think that this is some sort of a magic bullet. Many did not notice it, but the yen had weakened substantially on Monday against the euro, with the yen going from about 151 yen per euro this past Friday to almost 157 in the early hours on Monday, and then strengthening again back down to about 151 gradually near midday before weakening again to almost 154 in the later afternoon. The yen also weakened against the dollar, moving from about 107 to 108 yen per dollar. This was done to support the PPT intervention in the markets to put a good face on the gargantuan bailouts. We have seen them do this over and over again, especially when the Fed makes a decision concerning its funds rates at an FOMC meeting. The Dow gained about 290 points on Monday, only to lose virtually all of it the next day, showing you that the rally on Monday was bogus. Everyone knows we are headed for big trouble and the de-leveraging is relentless. The fane-stream media used Lehman for the excuse on Tuesday's big drop, but little more changed for Lehman other than the fact that someone let slip that the South Koreans were no longer interested in bailing them out, a wise move on their part if that is what they decided. We all know Lehman is toast, and no one but our corrupt government, through its ever-more-screwed taxpayers, are going to end up bailing them out. Lehman's situation was hardly a big market-mover, although there is some fear that they could take the whole system down due to the many entanglements they have with many of the big players. But let's face it, our corrupt government will give them a free meal ticket in the end, because they are an Illuminist company, so what's all the fuss about. Yellow fever also accounted for some of Tuesday's big drop in the stock markets, as the yen was strengthened once again to keep pressure on gold and silver. Based on the estimated losses projected thus far for troubled bank failures, that being 78 billion in losses for 117 troubled banks, and based on the fact that there will be some 700 or so total failures, not just the 117 banks our lying government officials have discussed, we project total losses for bank failures at one half of one trillion dollars, which is on par with the subprime derivative losses that have been recognized thus far. So much for an economic recovery in the financial sector. Hail, hyper-inflation and treasury monetization. Well, gold and silver are under pressure from falling oil prices, and by the perception of support that the Fannie/Freddie bailout will give to the dollar by preventing a GSE bond sell-off and by improving certain aspects of the real estate markets. And never mind the trillions in sheople bailout money, the monetizations of Treasuries to keep the trillions in deficits and bailouts funded, the hyper-stagflation, the double-digit interest rates that will soon follow, the real estate markets which will continue to tank despite Paulson's bazooka, the negative rates of return on treasuries, the rapidly declining corporate earnings on account of a tapped-out US consumer, the frozen worldwide financial and credit system, rampant worldwide inflation, nations disgusted with dollar pegs, the high likelihood of wars and conflicts, shortages of physical gold and silver, heavy jewelry and investment demand for gold and silver and the likelihood of a lower Fed funds rate that will be implemented to push up bond values and increase bank spreads in a vain attempt to prevent the insolvency of the fraudsters. Heck, other than such unimportant issues, why buy gold and silver? Also powering the dollar rally is the manipulation of the USDX futures market. Open interest on Tuesday exploded to a new all-time high of 67,239 contracts, shattering the previous record by over 8,000 contracts. As this transpired, oil hit a low of 101.74 while the USDX moved to a high of just under 80. The manipulation is almost complete now, as we predicted that a push below 100 on oil and a rise above 80 on the USDX would signal a reversal in gold and silver in a matter of days, or perhaps in a week or two. With this kind of open interest on the USDX, you can expect to see some dollar support in the coming days. The dollar shorts are being papered to death just like the gold and silver longs. We believe that the dollar is being pushed up, and that the precious metals are being pushed down, to raise and to lower the bar, respectively, in preparation for a big Fed cut. The fraudsters are on the ropes, despite profligate Fed money and credit, and we see the Fed moving M3 up to well over 20% soon. If they don't, the system will collapse. The losses are mounting faster than the fraudsters can recover them, and they still aren't lending to one another, so the fractional reserve leverage is not working. This is a big reason for the Fannie/Freddie bailout also, to stop the bleeding in the real estate markets, and therefore on fraudster balance sheets, not to mention the credit default swaps on Fannie and Freddie that might have imploded as a result. We wonder what may have happened to the counterparties on swaps written on the Fannie/Freddie stock that just got vaporized. And all that mark-to-model stuff is about to implode. Wait until you see what will eventually happen to JP Morgan Chase and their almost $100 trillion in mostly marked-to-model derivative notional value. It will rock your world! Meanwhile, the blue light specials are still on for gold, silver and their related shares - SO LOAD UP!! In order to understand what is transpiring in today’s financial world you have to understand financial history. What you are seeing and experiencing has happened many times in the last thousand years. The upheaval we are in today could well be as bad if not worse than those of the collapse of the Lombard System in 1348 and the fall of the Hanseatic League in the 1600s. Few want to know what is going on because human nature is opposed to change. Unfortunately those who do not listen will pay in a way they never imagined possible. The failure of a fiat money system is accompanied by extreme social upheaval and eventual economic collapse. What is unique is that this event we are facing is going to be worse than anything experienced in the past. What is interesting is that economic and financial writers and academics threat these problems in isolation, just studying the corpus. They fail to connect the people and events and why such events occur. They cannot believe people act in concert to bring about such events in order to continue in power and wealth. They so often do not understand the real reason for events. Historically the only safe haven for assets during these times of economic trouble has been gold and silver. In the last 40 years silver has been considered more to be an industrial rather than a monetary metal. Thus, gold has been considered more the asset of safety. When we broke over $850 gold we pierced the old 1980 high of $850 an ounce, we began stage 2 of a 3 or perhaps 4 stage bull market. Gold attained $1,033 in March and due to government intervention we have tested the $775-$800 range three times putting in what we see as a trading bottom. At these levels it is probably the best time to invest because you should be able to buy cheaper than in this current zone. This could be the last inexpensive train out of the station. The current debt-based, fiat-money global economy is in the process of collapse. This monetary abomination and its accompanying manipulation will soon come to an end. No fiat currency has ever survived and when it does it will be catastrophic.http://www.theinternationalforecaster.com/International_Forecaster_Weekly/Mortgage_Failures_Will_Drive_Gold_And_Silver_Buying



'Delicate' situation politically in Latin America
A senior policy analyst with the Heritage Foundation says the U.S. is facing one of the worst crises between Latin American nations in ten years.
The political situation in Bolivia is deteriorating as conflicts arise and Bolivians protest against their government. In response, Bolivia has kicked out the U.S. ambassador, and in a show of solidarity Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has done the same. All this as Russia is sending ships and bombers to Venezuela in preparation for joint military exercises. Ray Walser is the senior policy analyst for Latin America with the Heritage Foundation. He believes Russia's presence is in retaliation for the U.S. presence in the Black Sea. "It's a show that they can stir the pot, that they can distract us," says Walser. "[C]learly, the military assets they are talking about sending are not directly threatening to U.S. security, but they indicate a difficult trend and could lead to further provocations." Another factor Walser notes is oil. Chavez has threatened to cut off oil shipments if the U.S. retaliates. Walser says the U.S. gets about 10 to 12 percent of its oil supply from Venezuela, which owns the CITGO Petroleum Corporation. "It's a very delicate [situation]," he cautions. "We are totally moving in different directions ideologically, but we still remain economically interdependent. So it's one of those complexities of modern economies, of the moderns of globalized worlds." Walser thinks the situation warrants a response from both presidential candidates.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Security/

A great opportunity to stock up on over the counter meds: This week's sale at CVS is buy 20 count of Excedrin Extra Strength gelcaps for $3.99 and receive $3.99 of Extra bucks coupon back on your receipt. No tax uinvolved. You do need a CVS card though (which is free to get for the asking). So part with $3.99 cash and walk out with a 20 count of Excedrin gelcaps and a coupon for $3.99 of your next CVS purchase. Walk back in and spend the coupon if you like. But they don't give change on the extra bucks coupons.

Why the Fed Didn't Cut the Funds Rate
Surprise: Bernanke & Co. are still worried about inflation, not just the Wall Street credit crunch
by Peter Coy
Scratch that rate cut. Despite a severe credit crunch, Chairman Ben Bernanke and other members of the Federal Reserve's interest-rate-setting committee voted unanimously on Sept. 16 to leave the federal funds rate at 2%, disappointing bankers who had expected a cut of a quarter or even half a percentage point to stimulate the U.S. economy and lower their borrowing costs. The Federal Open Market Committee acknowledged growing troubles in the financial and labor markets but said: "The downside risks to growth and the upside risks to inflation are both of significant concern."
Wall Street took the Fed's brush-off in stride, possibly reading the Fed's refusal to cut rates as a signal that the financial situation is less dire than feared. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, after falling about 1.5% immediately after the Fed's 2:15 p.m. EDT announcement, bounced upward about 2.5% and was trading near its daily highs toward the end of the session.
The Fed's continued "significant concern" with inflation was the biggest surprise in its announcement, because headline inflation numbers have turned extremely mild. Earlier in the day, the Labor Dept. announced that the consumer price index actually fell 0.1% in August, led by a steep decline in energy prices. After hitting $145 a barrel in early July, crude oil has plummeted on concerns that a global economic slowdown will decrease demand. On Sept. 16 oil fell $4.91, to $90.80 a barrel, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Doing Plenty
In a week of deep uncertainty on Wall Street, the Fed is doing plenty to keep the gears turning in the financial system, even though it didn't cut rates. The Fed injected a bigger-than-usual $70 billion into the U.S. banking system on Sept. 15 to satisfy a cash-hoarding surge among banks. It pumped in a further $50 billion on Sept. 16. The injection of funds limited a spike in the federal funds rate, which is the rate that banks charge each other for overnight loans.
Analysts said that by voting against a rate cut, the Fed seems to be focusing on ensuring that borrowing is freely available rather than making borrowing cheaper. Stuart Hoffman, chief economist of PNC Financial Services Group, said in an interview that cutting rates would have been "the wrong weapon aimed at the wrong target." Paul Ashworth, senior U.S. economist of Capital Economics, said in a statement after the vote: "The Fed is now more than ever determined to tackle the funding problems in financial markets by widening the scope of its liquidity programs rather than lowering interest rates."
In this credit crunch the Fed has vastly expanded its lending programs, accepting more kinds of assets as collateral and even opening lending to investment banks for the first time. Those moves are apart from whatever the lending rate is. Before the vote, Robert McTeer, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, told Bloomberg Radio: "We have a very concentrated problem in housing that's not really a rate problem, and we've got a financial crisis that's really not a rate problem."'
But if the credit crunch causes further weakness, the Fed is likely to be forced to cut the federal funds rate. Hoffman, the PNC economist, said: "They've at least opened the door to a rate cut, even if they're not ready to step across the threshold."
Coy is BusinessWeek's Economics editor.
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/sep2008/db20080916_417024.htm?chan=top%2Bnews_top%2Bnews%2Bindex%2B-%2Btemp_top%2Bstory

Beats there man with heart so tuff
That would not say one woman is enough?

Nigerian with 86 wives arrested under Sharia laws September 16, 2008 - 9:01am
By BASHIR ADIGUN Associated Press Writer
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) - Police in northern Nigeria have arrested a Muslim preacher who claims 86 wives and 107 children, charging him with breaking Islamic laws governing marriage.
Authorities detained Mohammed Bello Masaba, 84, on Monday after an order from northern Niger state's Islamic court, according to police spokesman Richard Oguche. The preacher was charged with "infringing on Islamic laws," Oguche told The Associated Press by telephone from the state.
It was unclear when the man would appear before the court, or what the potential punishment could be. Muslim principles forbid men to take more than four wives.
Around half of Nigeria's 140 million people are Muslim, and Niger was one of twelve majority-Muslim states that adopted the Islamic Sharia criminal code after Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999. The move sparked religious riots throughout the country that left thousands dead.
But severe corporal punishments imposed by the Sharia courts are rarely carried out and no executions have taken place. Nigeria's secular, federal government, which controls the national security forces, has said it won't allow the most serious Sharia punishments.
Analysts say Sharia was implemented for political reasons as well as religious conviction _ as a show of strength by the Muslim northerners and as an acknowledgment that secular courts had failed to stem years of crime.
Nigeria has 24 other states that do not follow Sharia law.
Masaba says God enables him to maintain such a large family.
"A man with 10 wives would collapse and die, but my own power is given by Allah. That is why I have been able to control 86 of them," he has been quoted as saying in Nigeria's local media.
http://wtop.com/?nid=387&sid=1479106

Eeyore's News and Views (Sometimes)

The Battle of Athens, Tennessee

As Recently As 1946, American Citizens Were
Forced To Take Up Arms As A Last Resort
Against Corrupt Government Officials.

Published in Guns & Ammo October 1995, pp. 50-51

On August 1-2, 1946, some Americans, brutalized by their county government, used armed force as a last resort to overturn it. These Americans wanted honest open elections. For years they had asked for state or federal election monitors to prevent vote fraud (forged ballots, secret ballot counts and intimidation by armed sheriff's deputies) by the local political boss. They got no help.

These Americans' absolute refusal to knuckle under had been hardened by service in World War II. Having fought to free other countries from murderous regimes, they rejected vicious abuse by their county government.

These Americans had a choice. Their state's Constitution -- Article 1, Section 26 -- recorded their right to keep and bear arms for the common defense. Few "gun control" laws had been enacted.

These Americans were residents of McMinn County, which is located between Chattanooga and Knoxville in Eastern Tennessee. The two main towns were Athens and Etowah. McMinn County residents had long been independent political thinkers. For a long time they also had: accepted bribe-taking by politicians and/or the sheriff to overlook illicit whiskey-making and gambling; financed the sheriff's department from fines-usually for speeding or public drunkenness which promoted false arrests; and put up with voting fraud by both Democrats and Republicans.

The wealthy Cantrell family, of Etowah, backed Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1932 election, hoping New Deal programs would revive the local economy and help Democrats to replace Republicans in the county government. So it proved.

Paul Cantrell was elected sheriff in the 1936,1938 and 1940 elections, but by slim margins. The sheriff was the key county official. Cantrell was elected to the state senate in 1942 and 1944; his chief deputy, Pat Mansfield, was elected sheriff. In 1946 Paul Cantrell again sought the sheriff's office.

At the end of 1945, some 3,000 battle-hardened veterans returned to McMinn County; the GIs held Cantrell politically responsible for Mansfield's doings. Early in 1946, some newly returned ex-GIs decided to challenge Cantrell politically by offering an all-ex-GI, non-partisan ticket. They promised a fraud-free election, stating in ads and speeches that there would be an honest ballot count and reform of county government.

At a rally, a GI speaker said, "The principles that we fought for in this past war do not exist in McMinn County. We fought for democracy because we believe in democracy but not the form we live under in this county" (Daily Post-Athenian, 17 June 1946, p.1 ). At the end of July 1946, 159 McMinn County GIs petitioned the FBI to send election monitors. There was no response. The Department of Justice had not responded to McMinn County residents' complaints of election fraud in 1940, 1942 and 1944.

FROM BALLOTS TO BULLETS

The primary election was held on August 1. To intimidate voters, Mansfield brought in some 200 armed "deputies." GI poll-watchers were beaten almost at once. At about 3 p.m., Tom Gillespie, an African- American voter was told by a sheriff's deputy that he could not vote. Despite being beaten, Gillespie persisted. The enraged deputy shot him. The gunshot drew a crowd. Rumors spread that Gillespie had been shot in the back; he later recovered (C. Stephen Byrum, The Battle of Athens, Paidia Productions, Chattanooga, TN, 1987; pp. 155-57).

Other deputies detained ex-GI poll-watchers in a polling place, as that made the ballot counting "Public" A crowd gathered. Sheriff Mansfield told his deputies to disperse the crowd. When the two ex-GIs smashed a big window and escaped, the crowd surged forward. The deputies, with guns drawn, formed a tight half-circle around the front of the polling place. One deputy, "his gun raised high...shouted: 'If you sons of bitches cross this street I'll kill you!'" (Byrum, p.165).

Mansfield took the ballot boxes to the jail for counting. The deputies seemed to fear immediate attack by the "people who had just liberated Europe and the South Pacific from two of the most powerful war machines in human history" (Byrum, pp. 168-69).

Short of firearms and ammunition, the GIs scoured the county to find them. By borrowing keys to the National Guard and State Guard armories, they got three M-1 rifles, five .45 semi-automatic pistols and 24 British Enfield rifles. The armories were nearly empty after the war's end. By 8 p.m. a group of GIs and "local boys" headed for the jail but left the back door unguarded to give the jail's defenders an easy way out.

Three GIs alerting passersby to danger were fired on from the jail. Two GIs were wounded. Other GIs returned fire.

Firing subsided after 30 minutes; ammunition ran low and night had fallen. Thick brick walls shielded those inside the jail. Absent radios, the GIs' rifle fire was uncoordinated. "From the hillside fire rose and fell in disorganized cascades. More than anything else, people were simply shooting at the jail" (Byrum, p.189).

Several who ventured into the street in front of the jail were wounded. One man inside the jail was badly hurt; he recovered. Most sheriff's deputies wanted to hunker down and await rescue. Governor McCord mobilized the State Guard, perhaps to scare the GIs into withdrawing. The State Guard never went to Athens. McCord may have feared that Guard units filled with ex-GIs might not fire on other ex-GIs.

At about 2 a.m. on August 2, the GIs forced the issue. Men from Meigs County threw dynamite sticks and damaged the jail's porch. The panicked deputies surrendered. GIs quickly secured the building. Paul Cantrell faded into the night, having almost been shot by a GI who knew him, but whose .45 pistol had jammed. Mansfield's deputies were kept overnight in jail for their own safety. Calm soon returned. The GIs posted guards. The rifles borrowed from the armory were cleaned and returned before sunup.

THE AFTERMATH: RESTORING DEMOCRACY

In five precincts free of vote fraud, the GI candidate for sheriff, Knox Henry, won 1,168 votes to Cantrell's 789. Other GI candidates won by similar margins.

The GI's did not hate Cantrell. They only wanted honest government. On August 2, a town meeting set up a three-man governing committee. The regular police having fled, six men were chosen to police Etowah. In addition, "Individual citizens were called upon to form patrols or guard groups, often led by a GI... To their credit, however, there is not a single mention of an abuse of power on their behalf" (Byrum, p. 220).

Once the GI candidates' victory had been certified, they cleaned up county government, the jail was fixed, newly elected officials accepted a $5,000 pay limit and Mansfield supporters who resigned were replaced.

The general election on November 5 passed quietly. McMinn County residents, having restored the rule of law, returned to their daily lives. Pat Mansfield moved back to Georgia. Paul Cantrell set up an auto dealership in Etowah. "Almost everyone who knew Cantrell in the years after the Battle' agree that he was not bitter about what had happened" (Byrum pp. 232-33; see also New York Times, 9 August 1946, p. 8).

The 79th Congress adjourned on August 2, 1946, when the Battle of Athens ended. However, Representative John Jennings Jr. from Tennessee decried McMinn County's sorry situation under Cantrell and Mansfield and the Justice Department's repeated failures to help the McMinn County residents. Jennings was delighted that "...at long last, decency and honesty, liberty and law have returned to the fine county of McMinn.. " (Congressional Record, House; U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1946; Appendix, Volume 92, Part 13, p. A4870).

THE LESSONS OF ATHENS

Those who took up arms in Athens, Tennessee, wanted honest elections, a cornerstone of our constitutional order. They had repeatedly tried to get federal or state election monitors and had used armed force so as to minimize harm to the law-breakers, showing little malice to the defeated law-breakers. They restored lawful government.

The Battle of Athens clearly shows how Americans can and should lawfully use armed force and also shows why the rule of law requires unrestricted access to firearms and how civilians with military-type firearms can beat the forces of government gone bad.

Dictators believe that public order is more important than the rule of law. However, Americans reject this idea. Brutal political repression is lethal to many. An individual criminal can harm a handful of people. Governments alone can brutalize thousands, or millions.

Law-abiding McMinn County residents won the Battle of Athens because they were not hamstrung by "gun control " They showed us when citizens can and should use armed force to support the rule of law.

http://www.jpfo.org/filegen-a-m/athens.htm

Government steps in again, bails out AIG with $85B September 17, 2008 - 6:17am WASHINGTON (AP) - Another day, another bailout. The U.S. government stepped in Tuesday to rescue American International Group Inc., one of the world's largest insurers, with an $85 billion injection of taxpayer money. It was the second time this month the feds put taxpayer money on the hook to rescue a private financial company, saying its failure would further disrupt markets and threaten the already fragile economy. AIG said it will repay the money in full with proceeds from the sales of some of its assets. Under the deal, the Federal Reserve will provide a two-year $85 billion emergency loan to AIG, which teetered on the edge of failure because of stresses caused by the collapse of the subprime mortgage market and the credit crunch that ensued. In return, the government will get a 79.9 percent stake in AIG and the right to remove senior management. The move was similar to government's seizure on Sept. 7 of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, where the Treasury Department said it was prepared to put up as much as $100 billion over time in each of the companies if needed to keep them from going broke. The Fed said it determined that a disorderly failure of AIG could hurt the already delicate financial markets and the economy. It also could "lead to substantially higher borrowing costs, reduced household wealth and materially weaker economic performance," the Fed said in a statement. The decision to help AIG marked a reversal for the government from the weekend, when it refused to use taxpayer money to bail out Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Lehman, which filed for bankruptcy protection Monday, collapsed under the weight of mounting losses related to its real estate holdings. The White House said it backed the Fed's decision Tuesday. "These steps are taken in the interest of promoting stability in financial markets and limiting damage to the broader economy, " White House spokesman Tony Fratto said. After meeting with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke in a late-night briefing on Capitol Hill, Congressional leaders said they understood the need for the bailout. "The administration is approaching an unprecedented step, but unfortunately we are living in unprecedented times. Hearing of these plans, you have to stop to catch your breath. But upon reflection, the alternatives are much worse," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. In a statement late Tuesday, AIG's board of directors said the loan will protect all AIG policy holders, address concerns of rating agencies and buy the company time to sell off assets. "We expect that the proceeds of these sales will be sufficient to repay the loan in full and enable AIG's businesses to continue as substantial participants in their respective markets," the statement said. "In return for providing this essential support, American taxpayers will receive a substantial majority ownership interest in AIG." New York officials said the deal helps stave off a fiscal crisis for the state. AIG is based in New York. "Policy holders will be protected, jobs will be saved," New York Gov. David Paterson said Tuesday night. The Fed's move was part of a concerted push to help calm jittery markets and investors around the world. On Tuesday, the Fed decided to keep its key interest rate steady at 2 percent, but acknowledged stresses in financial markets have grown and hinted it stood ready to lower rates if needed. The central bank also pumped $70 billion into the nation's financial system to help ease credit stresses. In emergency sessions over the weekend, the Fed expanded its loan programs to Wall Street firms, part of an ongoing effort to get credit flowing more freely. The stock market, which Monday posted its largest point loss session since the Sept. 11 attacks, recovered Tuesday after the Fed's decision on interest rates. The Dow Jones industrials rose 141 points after losing 500 points on Monday. AIG's shares swung violently, though, as rumors of potential deals involving the government or private parties emerged and were dashed. By late Tuesday, its shares had closed down 20 percent _ and another 45 percent after hours. The problems at AIG stemmed from its insurance of mortgage-backed securities and other risky debt against default. If AIG couldn't make good on its promise to pay back soured debt, investors feared the consequences would pose a greater threat to the U.S. financial system than this week's collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers. The worries were heightened Monday after Moody's Investor Service, Standard and Poor's and Fitch Ratings lowered AIG's credit ratings, forcing AIG to seek more money for collateral against its insurance contracts. Without that money, AIG would have defaulted on its obligations and the buyers of its insurance _ such as banks and other financial companies _ would have found themselves without protection against losses on the debt they hold. http://wtop.com/?nid=111&sid=1478589

It did not (at least yet) help the (all) Asian Markets

Asian markets mixed after US bails out insurer AIG September 17, 2008 - 6:18am HONG KONG (AP) - Asian stocks turned in a mixed performance Wednesday, giving up early gains as a U.S. plan to rescue troubled insurer AIG failed to persuade many investors that recent financial turmoil would soon ease. European shares were higher in early trade. Asia's markets opened mostly higher as Wall Street's rise overnight lifted sentiment after Tuesday's huge sell-off. Japan's Nikkei 225 average added 1.2 percent to 11,749.79 after sinking nearly 5 percent the day before to its lowest finish in more than three years. South Korea's Kospi climbed 2.7 percent and Taiwan's benchmark rose 0.8 percent. But Hong Kong's blue-chip Hang Seng Index dropped 3.6 percent to 17,637.19, dragged by Chinese banks to its worst close since October 26. China's Shanghai benchmark fell 2.9 percent, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.6 percent. Investors sent the region's stocks spiraling downward Tuesday, reacting with alarm to the upheaval on Wall Street that saw investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. file for bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch & Co. sell itself to Bank of America Corp. The Federal Reserve helped allay some fears about the financial system with an $85 billion emergency loan to shore up insurance giant American International Group Inc., still reeling from billions of dollars in risky mortgage debt. The Fed said Tuesday it acted because a disorderly failure of the company, whose financial dealings stretch around the world, could hurt the already delicate markets and the economy. But there were lingering fears across the region of more trouble ahead should bank stocks sink further and credit losses continue to pile up. "AIG helped stabilize the market earlier, but there could be more turmoil. You don't know who's next to go," said Francis Lun, general manager of Fulbright Securities Ltd. in Hong Kong. While somewhat disappointed by the Fed's decision to leave interest rates unchanged, markets were buoyed by an overnight advanced on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 141.51 points, or 1.30 percent, to 11,059.02. The index plunged 504-points Monday, its biggest point drop since the September 2001 terror attacks. In early European trading, Britain's FTSE-100 rose 0.5 percent, Germany's DAX 30 added 0.2 percent and Paris' benchmark CAC-40 index was 0.05 percent higher. In Russia, the RTS index retreated 3.4 percent. In Japan, the central bank kept a key interest rate unchanged. Hoping to boost confidence, the Bank of Japan also pumped an extra 3 trillion yen ($28.4 billion) into money markets on top of Tuesday's 2.5 trillion ($24 billion) injections. Japanese financial issues, which had been battered Tuesday, started higher but lost steam. Mizuho Financial Group, Inc. fell 0.7 percent. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, the world's largest bank by assets, rose 1.01 percent. Banks elsewhere in the region fared worse. Macquarie Group Ltd., Australia's biggest securities firm and investment bank, nose-dived 7.8 percent. In Hong Kong, China Merchants Bank plunged more than 7.7 percent after revealing its was carrying $70 million in Lehman debt. Leading lender ICBC dropped 9.9 percent. The greenback bought 105.72 yen Wednesday afternoon in Asia, compared with just above 106 yen late Tuesday. The euro rose to $1.4244 from $1.4151. Oil prices rose in Asian trading but remained well below $100 a barrel. Light, sweet crude for October delivery rose $3.5 to $94.00 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after dipping as low as $90.51 Tuesday, its lowest level since Feb. 8. http://wtop.com/?nid=111&sid=630962

Russian Markets Halted as Emergency Funding Fails to Halt Rout
By Alex Nicholson and William Mauldin

Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Russian markets stopped trading for a second day after emergency funding measures by the government failed to halt the biggest stock rout since the country's debt default and currency devaluation a decade ago.
The ruble-denominated Micex Stock Exchange suspended trading indefinitely at 12:10 p.m. after its index erased a 7.6 percent gain and plunged as much as 10 percent within an hour. The benchmark fell 17 percent yesterday, the biggest drop since Bloomberg started tracking the gauge in May 2001. The dollar- denominated RTS halted trading after similar declines.
The government yesterday injected $20 billion into the interbank lending market via central bank and Finance Ministry auctions in a bid to contain soaring borrowing rates as credit dried up in the wake of the Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. bankruptcy. The one-day MosPrime overnight rate, a gauge for monitoring liquidity demand, leapt 25 basis points to a record 11.08 percent today.
The Finance Ministry attempted to stop the selloff by offering 1.13 trillion rubles ($44 billion) of budget funds to the country's three biggest banks, OAO Sberbank, VTB Group and OAO Gazprombank, for at least three months. That measure came as KIT Finance, a Russian brokerage, said it's in talks to find a buyer after failing to meet some financial obligations related to repurchase agreements.
Bond Market `Closed'
``The bond market remains effectively closed and banks are reluctant to lend to one another,'' said Julian Rimmer, head of sales trading at UralSib Financial Corp. in London. ``The problems experienced by KIT Finance have heightened counterparty risk and reduced liquidity further.''
Finance Ministry Minister Alexei Kudrin said on state television that the decision to increase the amount of budget funds available to three state-controlled banks would ``smooth over the shock changes'' in the markets and enable the banks to make loans to smaller competitors.
``We must soften such shock changes connected with the market falling,'' Kudrin said. ``With foreign borrowing stopping, we must soften the impact with additional funds, then the situation will stabilize.''
Sberbank, eastern Europe's biggest bank, can borrow as much as 754 billion rubles, VTB has a limit of 268.5 billion rubles and Gazprombank can get 103.9 billion rubles. About 400 billion rubles more of unspent budget funds is available to other banks.
``These are market-making banks capable of insuring the liquidity of the banking system,'' the Finance Ministry said in a statement today. The government and central bank will take more measures to improve liquidity this week, the ministry said.
Sberbank dropped 2.1 rubles, or 6.1 percent, to 32.55 rubles. VTB sank 0.44 kopek, or 14 percent, to 2.73 rubles, a record low.
``The primary objective of these measures is to inject liquidity to calm nervousness,'' Alexander Morozov, chief economist at HSBC Bank in Moscow, said by telephone. ``Hopefully other banks will be able to get this money via the interbank market and this should prevent the rise of rates,'' he said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aIRza4.azeC4&refer=worldwide

Rancher posted this article at FRC

Real-estate agents bail out As the housing market slumps, thousands of agents across the country are being forced to go back to their former careers or start looking for new ones. By Patrik Jonsson, The Christian Science Monitor after three years showing houses in Atlanta's hilly suburbs, Dee McMahon is finished with real estate. Yanking up her custom-made "For Sale" signs in her North Lake neighborhood rattled her ego, she admits. But when McMahon closed her final sale, a house in Snellville, Ga., in late November, the mother of two felt a swell of relief. "Now I can finally get my own house back together," she says. "I'm nervous about the future, but I feel happy." McMahon is one of thousands of real-estate agents across the U.S. wandering with mixed emotions and uncertain prospects through the debris of a real-estate gold rush. As many train for new careers, return to old ones or wait tables until prices rebound, the plight of the real-estate agent -- average age, 51 -- reveals the human dimension of how loose lending, raw opportunity and self-determination produced a housing bust that has stunned the U.S. economy. "They've tasted success and big money, and now their standard of living has been rocked and reality has set in," says John Baen, a real-estate professor at the University of North Texas in Denton. "The whole (economy) has been built on real estate. When the music stops, what is left?" Americans are still drawn to working in real estate, according to the National Association of Realtors, which says its membership was more than 1.3 million at the end of 2007. That growth in the ranks may be attributed to unaffiliated agents scrambling for clout in a tough market rather than an indication that the total number of agents is rising, the NAR acknowledges. Evidence is growing that agents, especially in hard-hit markets such as Florida, California and Georgia, are closing up shop in large numbers, experts say. In Atlanta, the number of agents letting their licenses lapse is growing at a faster pace than the number of overall licenses held. Nationally, an average agent's income dropped from $49,300 to $47,900 between 2004 and 2006. Not helping that trend is the cold fact that, according to Standard & Poor's house price index, home prices dropped precipitously in 2007, breaking the record 6.1% annual decline in 1991. In Cape Coral, Fla., where only 30% of agents sold even a single home last year, real-estate agents are "dropping out" daily, says local agent Ginette Young. The Oregon Association of Realtors reports an 11.5% decline in licensed agents statewide in the past year. Many of those who leave quietly shelve their signs. Others go out big: In Gilbert, Ariz., the fastest-growing city in the fastest-growing state, RE/MAX 2000 closed 13 offices throughout the Valley of the Sun, laying off at least 20 employees and scores of contract agents right before Christmas. The company couldn't meet its expenses. Real estate is a line of work filled with mothers returning to the work force, older workers squeezed out of lifetime careers and young opportunists looking to trade sweat equity for potentially big cash-outs. Indeed, the industry norm is that only 4% of agents choose real-estate sales as a first career. In Georgia, realty ranks had swelled to 48,000 at the peak of the market. In the end, many say, there were too many inexperienced agents hawking houses. "There's a lot of money being spent (on real-estate classes) teaching agents how to waste a year of their life," says Atlanta agent Sandy Koza. "Then you get a downturn and a bunch of people get bumped. To (experienced agents like) us, it cleans out the business a little bit." Florida's Cape Coral, a canal-sliced beach community, saw 800 building permits a month fall to 25 to 30 in the past year. The rapid slowdown left real-estate agents, investors and brokers holding the bag on big-money deals. "It's a gold-rush mentality," says Michael Davis, an economist at Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business in Dallas. He has been struck by how many agents, brokers and investors, acting against conventional wisdom of portfolio management, converted large percentages of cash holdings into only a single and somewhat risky investment: property. "I don't know whether they're ignorant or optimistic; perhaps a little of both," says Davis. Many others became the foot soldiers in the housing boom, second- or third-careerists drawn to the self-determination, relatively low entrance costs and perhaps even the allure of the trade as embodied by novelist Richard Ford's legendary character Frank Bascombe, an angst-driven agent who wanders the Jersey Shore for deals and revelations. Thomas Banecke, of Sandy Springs, Ga., a former computer developer, spent most of the summer baby-sitting a new condo development -- usually a plum assignment. But when the Atlanta condo market tanked, foot traffic dwindled to almost zero. Banecke is now back in the computer business and is putting his real-estate career on hold. In some ways, he says, the cold housing market forced real-estate agents, especially rookies, to confront their own abilities, schemes and dreams. Upfront costs, marketing, association fees and the crucial contacts are either more costly or harder to procure than an aspiring real-estate agent usually expects, Banecke says. "This kind of thing will wipe up a whole bunch of people who thought they could do this to make a living," he says. As for McMahon, the Atlanta agent, she still had a nice listing book and plenty of leads when she called it quits. In the end, unreliable buyers, surly sellers and a lack of office camaraderie contributed to a decision that solidified when home sales and prices dipped. "I was waiting for a time to kind of swing out," she says. She's planning to become a high-school science teacher. One problem for out-of-work agents is that their skills may not transfer easily to other careers. California is waiting to hear on a $9 million federal retraining grant after 6,000 people lost their jobs in the housing industry since September. But Baen of the University of North Texas is optimistic about their futures. "These people are hustlers, hard workers. They're used to getting on the phone," he says. "They'll end up in insurance, in mutual funds, in retirement planning and commodities." http://realestate.msn.com/buying/Article_csm.aspx?cp-documentid=6009539

Patient Contracts Hepatitis-C From Dialysis Center
NYC Clinic Shut Down, Nearly 700 Urged To Get Tested For Hepatitis, HIV; Blood Found On Chairs, MachinesNEW YORK (CBS) ― An Upper West Side dialysis center was shut down by the state Health Department and hundreds of patients were urged to be tested after at least one patient contracted hepatitis C from treatment at the center. The Health Department notified 657 patients of the Life Care Dialysis Center at 221 W. 61st St. that they should be tested for both hepatitis B and C strains, as well as HIV. Nearly 200 patients were forced to be transferred to other centers to continue dialysis, a treatment that filter's a patients blood through a machine when the kidneys can no longer function properly. After a week-long inspection of the center, Health Department officials said they uncovered poor infection control practices, including "blood on the treatment chairs and dialysis machines, lack of proper hand hygiene, and inadequate disinfection of equipment," according to a release. Officials say anyone treated at the center at any time after Jan. 23, 2004 should contact their physicians and get tested. Hepatitis C is a chronic disease contracted through sex or contact with blood of an infected person. The department has established a toll-free information hotline for LCDC patients at 1-800-278-2965 that will receive calls 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for the foreseeable future.

http://wcbstv.com/local/hepatitis.dialysis.center.2.819021.html

Audit: ATF lost 76 weapons, hundreds of laptops
By LARA JAKES JORDAN – 1 hour ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — The ATF lost 76 weapons and hundreds of laptops over five years, the Justice Department reported Wednesday, blaming carelessness and sloppy record-keeping.
Thirty-five of the missing handguns, rifles, Tasers and other weapons were stolen, as were 50 laptops, the internal audit found. Two of the stolen weapons were used in crimes.
The audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found "inadequate" oversight of weapons and laptops resulted in "significant rates of losses" at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
"It is especially troubling that that ATF's rate of loss for weapons was nearly double that of the FBI and DEA, and that ATF did not even know whether most of its lost, stolen, or missing laptop computers contained sensitive or classified information," he added.
In a Sept. 10 letter responding to the audit, ATF acting Director Michael J. Sullivan said his agency "agrees or partially agrees with most of the recommendations."
"We are revising our procedures of reporting losses of weapons or laptops," Sullivan said.
The audit looked at ATF's inventory of weapons, laptops, ammunition and explosives between Oct. 1, 2002 and Aug. 31, 2007.
It found that ATF lost three times more weapons each month than it had in a similar 2002 audit by the Treasury Department, which used to oversee the agency. It also lost 50 times as many laptops as reported in the earlier audit.
Of the 76 weapons, 35 were reported stolen, 19 lost and 12 missing from inventories, investigators found. Of the 418 missing laptops, 50 were stolen, 8 lost and 274 could not be found during inventory. Another 86 laptops were unaccounted for because ATF had either destroyed or lost documents showing where they were, the audit concluded.
Two weapons reported stolen were used to commit crimes. In one instance, a gun was stolen from an ATF car parked outside the agent's home and later used to shoot through the window of another residence, the audit found. In the other, a stolen ATF gun was taken from a burglary suspect.
Additionally, ATF employees did not report 13 of the 76 lost weapons, or 365 of the 418 missing laptops, to internal affairs as required. ATF officials also did not report much of the lost equipment to the Justice Department.
Investigators could not conclude what was on 398 of 418 missing laptops — except that few were encrypted. That means any sensitive material on the laptops could have been exposed.
Moreover, "we found that ATF did not regularly attempt to determine whether the lost, stolen or missing laptop computers contained sensitive or classified information," the audit said.
But few — only 18 of 7,500 — ATF laptops were authorized to hold classified information.
Compared to weapons loss rates for the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration, the ATF misplaced almost twice as many guns. The audit found that the ATF lost .52 weapons per 1,000 employees, compared to .29 at the FBI and .28 at the DEA.
Fine's investigators concluded there were proper controls and oversight of explosives in ATF's possession, and good security for ammunition. However, nine of 20 ATF field offices surveyed did not have proper accounting methods for ammunition.
In a statement responding to the audit, ATF Assistant Director W. Larry Ford said the agency disciplined employees whose carelessness or improper handling of equipment resulted in losses.
"ATF is committed to safeguarding its inventory of weapons and laptop computers in the interest of public safety," Ford said. "ATF agrees that rigorous and thorough internal controls will enhance its ability to account for, and most importantly prevent, thefts and losses of weapons and laptop computers."
On the Net:
The Justice Department's report can be found at: http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/reports/ATF/a0829/final.pdf

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h6GUCa3juJ4EtOVNbY0PnNvwjf9QD938H5AG0

Oil rises again
Oil rebounds in Asia after 2-day tumble September 17, 2008 - 1:45am
By ALEX KENNEDY Associated Press Writer
SINGAPORE (AP) - Oil prices rebounded Wednesday in Asia as traders viewed a two-day $10 drop as overdone and driven more by market jitters than by fundamentals.
Sentiment got a boost on news that the U.S. Federal Reserve agreed to provide an $85 billion emergency loan to rescue insurance giant American International Group, helping stabilize global markets rattled by the failure of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers.
Light, sweet crude for October delivery rose $3.50 to $94.65 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange midday in Singapore. Overnight, the contract fell $4.56 to settle at $91.15, after dropping $5.47 on Monday.
At one point Tuesday, oil touched $90.51, its lowest since Feb. 8, and down 39 percent from a record $147.27 on July 11.
"Prices had really fallen off a cliff," said Peter McGuire, managing director at investment firm Commodity Warrants Australia in Sydney. "When a market falls 25 percent in 3 weeks and 40 percent in two months, it tends to find some support for a bounce back."
The Federal Reserve said in a statement Tuesday it determined that a disorderly failure of AIG could hurt financial markets already reeling from a year-long credit crisis that led to the bankruptcy of investment bank Lehman Brothers earlier this week.
It also could have "lead to substantially higher borrowing costs, reduced household wealth and materially weaker economic performance," the Fed said.
The Fed said in return for the loan, the government will receive a 79.9 percent equity stake in AIG.
With so much uncertainty surrounding the U.S. financial system and fears that slowing economic growth will undermine crude demand, Wednesday's jump in oil prices probably hasn't broken the recent downward trend, McGuire said.
Events that would usually boost prices _ such as OPEC cutting output by 520,000 barrels a day last week or damage to oil installations on the Texas coast by Hurricane Ike last weekend _ haven't done so.
"The OPEC cut didn't have any impact," McGuire said. "Then Ike didn't slow the market either."
Investors were also waiting for the U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration to release later in the day its report on U.S. oil stocks for the week ended Sept. 12. The petroleum supply report was expected to show that oil stocks fell 3.7 million barrels, according to the average of analysts' estimates in a survey by energy information provider Platts.
The Platts survey also showed that analysts projected gasoline inventories fell 3.6 million barrels and distillates went down 1.7 million barrels during last week.
In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures rose 6.17 cents to $2.7814 a gallon, while gasoline prices dropped 6.92 cents to $2.47 a gallon. Natural gas for October delivery fell 12.1 cents to $7.4 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, October Brent crude fell $3.58 to $92.80 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. http://wtop.com/?nid=111&sid=577994

German Nationalist group to rally against Islam

COLOGNE, Germany (AP) — A nationalist German group said Friday it has invited leading members of the European right to take part in a "anti-Islamification" conference against the planned construction of a large mosque.French far-right firebrand Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the anti-immigration National Front party, Filip Dewinter, leader of Belgium's nationalist Flemish Interest party and Christian Strache, leader of Austria's right-wing Freedom Party are all expected to attend next week's conference said Markus Beisicht, head of the Pro-Cologne nationalist movement.Beisicht said he expected 1,500 people to turn out for the group's demonstration on Sept. 20 against the city's decision to allow construction of a new, domed mosque — complete with two 55-meter-tall (177-foot-tall) minarets — in the city's heavily immigrant Ehrenfeld district.Leftist groups are organizing counter-protests, including a week-long blockade of Cologne's historic downtown square, which fans out from the city's massive Roman Catholic Cathedral — German-born Pope Benedict XVI's first stop abroad as pontiff and traditional symbol of the nation's deeply Christian roots.News of the nationalist conference, officially called "No to Islamification," has provoked anger in Islamic countries. Last week the Iranian Foreign Ministry urged France as the current European Union president to block the gathering and complained that it reflects a "growth of anti-Islamic sentiments in Europe."Pro-Cologne's leaders, however, insist they support Muslims' right to live in Germany, provided they learn the language here and "actively demonstrate" a willingness to integrate.But they say that such a large mosque has no place in traditionally Roman Catholic Cologne."Of course we want to guarantee Muslims' right to freedom of religion," said Pro-Cologne deputy leader Judith Wolter. "But building a large mosque is not part of that."Besides protesting the mosque, Beisicht said the conference is aimed at strengthening pan-European efforts among rightist and populist movements across the continent with an eye toward forming a "serious European right-wing party."The group insists that, while it is nationalist and populist, it rejects racism, violence and any links to Germany's traditional right-wing parties, including the far-right National Democratic Party, or NPD."We represent a new political approach," said Beisicht.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-09-12-Islam_N.htm

BRITAIN is facing an explosion of violent crime and illegal immigration sparked by Labour’s economic crisis, a leaked Home Office memo to Gordon Brown revealed last night.Violent attacks are set to soar by up to a fifth in a growing climate of disorder on the streets, the Prime Minister has been warned. Smuggling is tipped to rise significantly and unscrupulous employers are expected to turn increasingly to illegal foreign workers to cut costs.Ministers are also being warned of potential inter-racial strife, an upsurge in racist extremism and even terrorism as community relations come under strain in difficult economic times.
Budgets for policing and border control are expected to be slashed by falling tax revenues, potentially leading to cuts in police officers and border guards.
The disturbing portrait of spiralling social anarchy is set out in a document prepared by staff in Home Secretary Jacqui Smith’s office specifically for Mr Brown’s eyes.Last night the Tories seized on the leak as evidence that the Home Office remains in crisis, while law and order could be further undermined by Labour’s economic mismanagement.
Senior Tory Damian Green said: “This rips the veil off the complacent comments we have been getting from Home Office ministers about how their performance is improving. “It is clear that in almost all areas of the Home Office things are going to get worse.”
The leaked memo from the Home Office is titled: “Responding to Economic Challenges.” It is thought to be among a number of documents commissioned from Whitehall departments by Number 10 to examine potential consequences of the worsening economy.
The leak follows Chancellor Alistair Darling’s claim at the weekend that the economy is facing its biggest challenge “for 60 years”. The memo warns that the strength of the economy and its performance compared to other countries “are key drivers of crime and migration respectively”.
It says: “Officials anticipate that a harsher economic climate will see a rise in criminality, including burglaries, robberies and violence. An economic downturn could mean an increase in illegal working if migrants’ opportunities for legal working decline and employers are seeking to save costs.”
Anger toward migrants could breed extremism and encourage neo-Nazi organisations. And the backlash could fuel radicalisation among immigrant communities, such as young Muslims turning to Islamist terrorism.
There is a possibility that it will increase the pool of those susceptible to radicalisation,” the memo says.
Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve said last night: “It is deeply disturbing that a department as shambolic as the Home Office already is facing such problems as a result of the economic downturn. It is patently not equipped to cope. Why haven’t they prepared for this?
“Now we see that the consequences of Gordon Brown’s complete mismanagement of the economy will not just hit hard-working families in the pocket but will also threaten their security and safety.”
The Home Office claimed the leaked version was an early draft. A spokeswoman said: “We are confident that we have the right systems in place to respond flexibly to changing economic needs.”
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/59364/Home-Office-predicts-anarchy-in-leaked-memo

New FBI protocols feed profiling fear Anti-terror rules to start Oct. 1 FBI Director Robert Mueller. Associated Press. Justice Department officials say new FBI protocols only give agents the same tools to fight terrorism that they already have to combat crime. But civil libertarians argue the guidelines give the bureau unprecedented authority to investigate anyone it wants. The revamped, so-called "Attorney General's guidelines" promise to be a major focus of FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III's appearance next week in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Justice Department has briefed lawmakers, civil libertarians and Arab-American groups about the changes, an unusual move that department officials say reflects the importance of the changes. The department also expects to make some adjustments to the guidelines as a result of those meetings. On Friday, a senior Justice Department and senior FBI officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, briefed reporters about the changes, which are expected to take effect Oct. 1. They said the changes are part of the FBI's efforts since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to become more proactive in the areas of national security and intelligence gathering. The officials said there has been illogical and inconsistent differences between how agents are allowed to handle typical criminal cases - and how they address national security cases in their earliest stages before a formal investigation is opened. In the early stages of a potential criminal case, agents are allowed to query sources, conduct physical surveillance of potential targets and even gather information without identifying themselves as FBI agents or explaining the purpose of their questioning. But agents in the earliest parts of potential investigations into spies or terrorists are prohibited from using such techniques. The new guidelines change that and give the same tools to agents investigating criminal and national security cases. "We're not getting any new power," an official said. Michael German, policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, disagreed, saying the changes allow the FBI to essentially conduct undercover investigations into anyone on the flimsiest of evidence. "They can do it even before they suspect anything," he said. "It's just really an extraordinary claim of authority that I don't think is really consistent with the Constitution." The FBI official said such preliminary assessments must be based on tips or information from analysts, but concerns persist that people could be targeted because of race or political views. Justice officials said the guidelines prohibit targeting people because of protected First Amendment activities, and insist they will not result in racial profiling. "But it is simply not responsible to say that race may never be taken into account when conducting an investigation. The reality is that a number of criminal and terror groups have very strong ethnic associations. For example, the IRA was Irish, La Cosa Nostra is Italian; Hezbollah is largely Lebanese," Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said. "Nevertheless, the department is sensitive to the fact that transitioning the FBI into an intelligence-driven organization that seeks proactively to identify potential threats must be done carefully: while most members of a terror group may be of a particular ethnic background that does not mean most people of that ethnic background are members of the terror group."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/13/new-fbi-protocols-feed-profiling-fear/

Warning: 30 airlines will go bust this year
By David Prosser, Deputy Business Editor, and Martin HickmanSaturday, 13 September 2008
Up to 30 more airlines will go bankrupt before Christmas, the chief executive of British Airways warned yesterday, as the biggest rescue of stranded passengers in travel industry history began.
Willie Walsh said the scenes of chaos in which 85,000 passengers have been stranded at locations around the world after the collapse of XL, Britain's third largest holiday company, would become a familiar sight as the travel industry struggled with soaring fuel costs and the effects of a global economic downturn.
"We are in the worst trading environment the industry has ever seen", said Mr Walsh. "We have already seen 30 or so airlines go bust this year and it would be fair to expect a similar number of casualties worldwide over the next three to four months."
Mr Walsh also announced up to 1,400 redundancies at his own airline yesterday.
Travel industry experts said smaller airlines and tour operators were most at risk and warned passengers to book in a way that ensured they got their money back if an airline went bankrupt.
Joseph Thomas, a travel and leisure analyst at Investec, the City stockbroker, said: "XL will not be the last: there have been a number of similar issues recently of smaller tour operators hitting financial difficulties."
John Strickland, an aviation consultant with JLS Consulting, added: "There are carriers in the UK that are not cash-rich like BA or Ryanair and who have not been able to hedge their oil costs. I think there will be other failures in coming months."
The travel sector is particularly vulnerable at this time of year because operators have to begin paying suppliers, such as hoteliers just as the number of bookings begins to dwindle.
This year, however, is especially difficult because the UK's economic slowdown has begun to damage sales. At the same time, the costs of airlines and other travel companies remain high, primarily because of the hugely inflated price of jet fuel, which has doubled in a year.
Britain's biggest tour operators, TUI Travel and Thomas Cook, have already announced they are cutting by about 8 per cent the number of holidays on offer next summer to avoid being caught out by falling demand. Most leading airlines, including national carriers such as BA and budget airlines such as Ryanair, have also announced reductions in capacity, particularly during the winter months. But smaller players may have insufficient resources to survive. XL is understood to have had large borrowings, which left it especially vulnerable to a rise in costs.
Kenny Ezard, of Airline Business magazine, said she was sure other airlines would go bust, following Zoom, Silverjet and XL. "It's an ever-growing list," she said. "It will be the ones that don't have strong balance sheets, probably the start-ups. There will also be a lot more consolidation, which is already happening in Europe."
Some bookmakers are now taking bets on which airline or tour operator will be the next to go bankrupt, though transport analysts are reluctant publicly to name those considered most vulnerable for fear of sparking a panic that would seal their fate.
Gert Zonneveld, a transport analystm, said: "Companies that have gone under in the UK have tended to be younger, smaller companies; the larger companies have a lot more cash and are well established and it takes a long time to achieve that."
Alitalia, the Italian national airline, could be the next high-profile victim of the downturn, having been given one more day by the Italian government yesterday to come to an agreement with trades unions. Ministers said that if the unions did not sign up to a rescue plan for the ailing airline its assets would be liquidated.
British Airways said its programme of redundancies, which are – for now – voluntary rather than compulsory, was the final stage of a restructuring plan launched in 2005. A spokesman for BA said it had intended to complete the restructuring by next March but was now bringing forward the final phase.
Staff have been told that anyone who applies for redundancy will be offered a severance package, though the airline has not set a formal target for the number of people it wants to shed.
"The airline industry faces exceptionally difficult circumstances," BA's spokesman said. "We'll see what response we get from these managers."
The airline has already unveiled a series of measures designed to counter a crippling rise in its jet fuel bills, which are expected to total £3bn this year, 50 per cent more than in 2007.
Last month, it revealed profits during the first three months of the year were 88 per cent lower than in the same period last year and warned price increases and cuts to capacity were inevitable. http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/warning-30-airlines-will-go-bust-this-year-928774.html

Head for the hills
U.S. economy collapsing under debt
By LINDA LEATHERDALE, TORONTO SUN

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Or find a cave to hide in.
As the United States collapses under a mountain of debt worth trillions, another Wall Street investment bank struggles to stay afloat and global economies start to crumble -- the Bay Street guru who warned oil would skyrocket to US$200 a barrel has suddenly changed his tune.
Jeff Rubin, CIBC World Markets chief economist, is no longer talking about $200 oil by 2010 and in his latest Canadian Portfolio Strategy Outlook Report scales back other predictions for crude. Instead of crude averaging $125 this year, followed by $150 next year, Rubin now says it will be at $115 this year and $130 next year.
To me that's still overly optimistic. But peak oil advocates -- who paint a Mad Max future where we kill our fellow man for a drop of precious black gold -- would say I'm wrong.
Rubin says his about-face is only temporary, and once we get through economic downturn (he wouldn't dare utter the "GR" words ... global recession) -- we'll be back to prices heading even higher.
Yesterday, even as OPEC announced it would reduce output by 520,000 barrels a day, prices kept gyrating their way down, with light, sweet crude for October delivery falling 68 cents to $102.58 a barrel in New York -- its lowest level since April 1.
But don't expect a break at the gas pumps. Prices in the GTA today will be up 1.6 cents to $1.237 a litre for self-serve, regular -- while in his Rip-Off Alert Liberal MP Dan McTeague warns major refiners and marketers are now charging 10 cents more than the U.S. wholesale price for gasoline.
In Calgary the mark-up is 15.4 cents, Edmonton 13.2 cents and Vancouver, 12.8 cents, according to McTeague's website.
Meanwhile, an independent study released yesterday by U.S. lawmakers blames institutional investors, who poured $60 billion US into commodity markets from January to May, for the rapid rise in oil which hit a record of $147 US a barrel in July.
"The bottom line here is that with regard to commodities, money going in pushes prices up, money going out pushes prices down," says hedge fund manager Michael Masters, a co-author of the report.
The commodities freefall has hit markets hard, with Bay Street's S&P/TSX index on a losing streak since the first of September, losing more than 1,600 points. But yesterday, markets rebounded sharply -- after Wall Street heavy hitter Lehman Brothers, in a desperate bid to survive after losing almost $4 billion US in the third quarter, said it would sell a majority stake in its prized investment management business. It didn't even rule out a sale of the entire company, after recently cutting 1,500 jobs.
So far this year, the 158-year-old investment bank has lost $6.5 billion US, which CEO Richard Fuld describes as "one of the toughest periods in the firm's history."
In Toronto, the S&P/TSX climbed 350.39 points to close at 12,497.15, as investors shopped for bargains after the index lost almost 500 points Tuesday. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 38.19 points to 11,268.92, after climbing by as much as 127 points earlier in the day.
Bay Street's Rubin, by the way, has also scaled back his outlook for stocks, lowering his year-end target for the S&P/TSX from 14,300 to 13,000, and cutting his 2009 prediction from 15,250 to 14,000. As recently as June, Rubin was so bullish he predicted a 15,200 TSX by year-end.
Meanwhile, the European Union slashed its economic growth outlook, now admitting that Germany, Spain and Britain have suffered brief recessions. In fact, the euro zone's GDP shrank between April and June, the first quarter of negative growth since the currency bloc was created in 1999.
And the subprime fallout continues, with Washington Mutual Inc. stock losing 30% of its value yesterday sinking to its lowest level in 17 years.
With U.S. debt at $9.6 trillion and growing by billions by the second with the war machine and continuous bailouts, a financial Armageddon is in the works.
Like I said, find that cave and hide.

http://www.torontosun.com/money/2008/09/11/6730701-sun.html