Eeyore's News and View

Jim Rogers: Food Prices Will Skyrocket
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 12:21 PM
By: Dan Weil Article Font Size
Renowned investor Jim Rogers says that the rally in stocks and the dollar will soon end, thanks to the Federal Reserve’s massive easing policy.
“I’m not buying shares anywhere,” he tells Bloomberg TV.
“I’m not selling short yet. But…if it keeps going like this, I’ll have to start selling short eventually. I don’t see the stock market as a great place to be in the next two to three years, maybe even the next decade.”
As for the dollar, “we’re going to have a currency crisis probably this fall or the fall of 2010,” Rogers says.
“It’s been building up for a long time. We’ve had a huge rally in the dollar, an artificial rally. …
The U.S. dollar is a very flawed currency.”
Bonds also are overvalued, he says.
And where does Rogers see investment opportunities? Commodities, as he has argued for months.
“The only place I know where the fundamentals are getting better is raw materials,” he explains. “We’re going to have serious food shortages. … Prices are going to go through the roof.”
Whether the economy rebounds or not, “commodities are going to lead it,” Rogers says.
“Commodities are still the best place to be because supply is declining, and governments are printing huge amounts of money.”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, famous for his prescient financial forecasts, agrees with Rogers.
With governments around the world wildly printing money, gold and copper may “rally massively,” he told a recent conference.
http://moneynews.newsmax.com/streett...mo_code=7FCC-1
http://frc4u.org/phpbb/index.php?topic=1343.0;topicseen

Pakistan Is Rapidly Adding Nuclear Arms, U.S. Says
WASHINGTON — Members of Congress have been told in confidential briefings that Pakistan is rapidly adding to its nuclear arsenal even while racked by insurgency, raising questions on Capitol Hill about whether billions of dollars in proposed military aid might be diverted to Pakistan’s nuclear program.
Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed the assessment of the expanded arsenal in a one-word answer to a question on Thursday in the midst of lengthy Senate testimony. Sitting beside Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, he was asked whether he had seen evidence of an increase in the size of the Pakistani nuclear arsenal.
“Yes,” he said quickly, adding nothing, clearly cognizant of Pakistan’s sensitivity to any discussion about the country’s nuclear strategy or security.
Inside the Obama administration, some officials say, Pakistan’s drive to spend heavily on new nuclear arms has been a source of growing concern, because the country is producing more nuclear material at a time when Washington is increasingly focused on trying to assure the security of an arsenal of 80 to 100 weapons so that they will never fall into the hands of Islamic insurgents.
The administration’s effort is complicated by the fact that Pakistan is producing an unknown amount of new bomb-grade uranium and, once a series of new reactors is completed, bomb-grade plutonium for a new generation of weapons. President Obama has called for passage of a treaty that would stop all nations from producing more fissile material — the hardest part of making a nuclear weapon — but so far has said nothing in public about Pakistan’s activities.
Bruce Riedel, the Brookings Institution scholar who served as the co-author of Mr. Obama’s review of Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy, reflected the administration’s concern in a recent interview, saying that Pakistan “has more terrorists per square mile than anyplace else on earth, and it has a nuclear weapons program that is growing faster than anyplace else on earth.”
Obama administration officials said that they had communicated to Congress that their intent was to assure that military aid to Pakistan was directed toward counterterrorism and not diverted. But Admiral Mullen’s public confirmation that the arsenal is increasing — a view widely held in both classified and unclassified analyses — seems certain to aggravate Congress’s discomfort.
Whether that discomfort might result in a delay or reduction in aid to Pakistan is still unclear.
The Congressional briefings have taken place in recent weeks as Pakistan has descended into further chaos and as Congress has considered proposals to spend $3 billion over the next five years to train and equip Pakistan’s military for counterinsurgency warfare. That aid would come on top of $7.5 billion in civilian assistance.
None of the proposed military assistance is directed at the nuclear program. So far, America’s aid to Pakistan’s nuclear infrastructure has been limited to a $100 million classified program to help Pakistan secure its weapons and materials from seizure by Al Qaeda, the Taliban or “insiders” with insurgent loyalties.
But the billions in new proposed American aid, officials acknowledge, could free other money for Pakistan’s nuclear infrastructure, at a time when Pakistani officials have expressed concern that their nuclear program is facing a budget crunch for the first time, worsened by the global economic downturn. The program employs tens of thousands of Pakistanis, including about 2,000 believed to possess “critical knowledge” about how to produce a weapon.
The dimensions of the Pakistani buildup are not fully understood. “We see them scaling up their centrifuge facilities,” said David Albright, the president of the Institute for Science and International Security, which has been monitoring Pakistan’s continued efforts to buy materials on the black market, and analyzing satellite photographs of two new plutonium reactors less than 100 miles from where Pakistani forces are currently fighting the Taliban.
“The Bush administration turned a blind eye to how this is being ramped up,” he said. “And of course, with enough pressure, all this could be preventable.”
As a matter of diplomacy, however, the buildup presents Mr. Obama with a potential conflict between two national security priorities, some aides concede. One is to win passage of a global agreement to stop the production of fissile material — the uranium or plutonium used to produce weapons. Pakistan has never agreed to any limits and is one of three countries, along with India and Israel, that never signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Yet the other imperative is a huge infusion of financial assistance into Afghanistan and Pakistan, money considered crucial to helping stabilize governments with tenuous holds on power in the face of terrorist and insurgent violence.
Senior members of Congress were already pressing for assurances from Pakistan that the American military assistance would be used to fight the insurgency, and not be siphoned off for more conventional military programs to counter Pakistan’s historic adversary, India. Official confirmation that Pakistan has accelerated expansion of its nuclear program only added to the consternation of those in Congress who were already voicing serious concern about the security of those warheads.
During a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Senator Jim Webb, a Virginia Democrat, veered from the budget proposal under debate to ask Admiral Mullen about public reports “that Pakistan is, at the moment, increasing its nuclear program — that it may be actually adding on to weapons systems and warheads. Do you have any evidence of that?”
It was then that Admiral Mullen responded with his one-word confirmation. Mr. Webb said Pakistan’s decision was a matter of “enormous concern,” and he added, “Do we have any type of control factors that would be built in, in terms of where future American money would be going, as it addresses what I just asked about?”
Similar concerns about seeking guarantees that American military assistance to Pakistan would be focused on battling insurgents also were expressed by Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the committee chairman.
“Unless Pakistan’s leaders commit, in deeds and words, their country’s armed forces and security personnel to eliminating the threat from militant extremists, and unless they make it clear that they are doing so, for the sake of their own future, then no amount of assistance will be effective,” Mr. Levin said.
A spokesman for the Pakistani government contacted Friday declined to comment on whether his nation was expanding its nuclear weapons program, but said the government was “maintaining the minimum, credible deterrence capability.” He warned against linking American financial assistance to Pakistan’s actions on its weapons program.
“Conditions or sanctions on this issue did not work in the past, and this will not send a positive message to the people of Pakistan,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because his country’s nuclear program is classified.
http://www.theledger.com/article/20090518/ZNYT03/905183012?Title=Pakistan-Is-Rapidly-Adding-Nuclear-Arms-U-S-Says

WHO annual meeting dominated by swine flu
GENEVA (AP) - Swine flu and the possibility of a vaccine topped the agenda Monday as the World Health Organization opened its annual meeting amid concern that the virus continues to spread - and kill - around the globe.
WHO said health experts are examining newly reported cases in Spain, Britain and Japan, where more than 120 people have been infected, prompting school closures and cancellations of public events.
In the New York borough of Queens a school assistant principal became the city's first death linked to the disease.
The five-day meeting in Geneva, which involves health officials from the agency's 193 member states, will focus on fighting the swine flu outbreak and efforts to produce a vaccine.
WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan will give experts' recommendations on which companies should produce a vaccine, how much they should make and how it could best be distributed.
The issue of producing a vaccine is sensitive, particularly for southern hemisphere countries where the annual flu season is about to begin. Seasonal flu can claim as many as 500,000 lives a year globally. But to have enough vaccine to confront a pandemic from a new strain such as swine flu, companies would switch production from vaccine production for seasonal flu.
WHO estimates up to 2 billion doses of swine flu vaccine could be produced yearly, though the first batches would not be available for four to six months.
As of Sunday, the swine flu virus - which WHO calls the A (H1N1) virus - has sickened at least 8,480 people in 40 countries, killing 75 of them, mostly in Mexico.
Chile was the latest country to announce its first case of swine flu on Sunday.
Japan's Health Ministry confirmed dozens of new cases Sunday, prompting the government to close schools and cancel events such as Kobe's annual festival. By Monday, Japan's tally rose from five confirmed cases to more than 120.
Most of the new cases involved high school students in the western prefectures of Hyogo and Osaka who had not traveled overseas. Health officials said they were recovering in local hospitals or at home.
WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said in-country transmission rates were a key factor in whether the global body decides to increase its pandemic alert level. Right now, the world is at phase 5 - out of a possible 6 - meaning a global outbreak is "imminent."
"We already know about the UK and Spain, that they have a relatively high number of cases compared to other European countries. So by simple virtue of the fact that they have more cases they need to be kept an eye on," Hartl said in an interview Sunday with AP Television News.
"There seems to have been activity in the last few days in Japan so we need to watch that, too," he said.
Spain and Britain have had the highest numbers of cases in Europe, reporting 103 and 101 cases, respectively. Britain on Sunday announced 14 new cases - 11 of them transmitted within the country.
A pandemic could be triggered if the virus starts to be transmitted from person to person on a large scale outside the Americas, WHO experts have said. But it would have to jump among people outside schools, hospitals and other institutions that typically pass on such viruses quickly.
"We don't want to prejudge anything, but certainly this is something we are watching with interest," Hartl said of the weekend developments in Japan.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will visit WHO on Tuesday to meet with senior representatives from the vaccine industry, but the U.N. declined to name the companies.
WHO's health assembly will run through May 22, five days shorter than initially planned because health ministries are busy fighting the swine flu outbreak.
Taiwan received an observer seat on the World Health Assembly and is taking part for the first time in 38 years.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090518/D988JC080.html

Developments on swine flu worldwide
May 18, 2009 - 7:03am By The Associated Press
(AP) - Key developments on swine flu outbreaks, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization and government officials:
_Deaths: Global total of 76 _ 68 in Mexico, six in U.S., one in Canada and one in Costa Rica. Officials said Canadian, U.S. and Costa Rican victims also had other medical conditions.
_Confirmed cases: WHO says 40 countries have reported more than 8,829 cases, mostly in U.S. and Mexico.
_CDC says 46 U.S. states plus District of Columbia have combined 4,714 confirmed and probable cases. Most probable cases are eventually confirmed.
_The World Health Organization opens its annual meeting in Geneva amid concern that swine flu continues to spread _ and kill _ around the world.
_A high school assistant principal has become the first New York City death linked to the outbreak. He had been sick for nearly a week before his school was closed on Thursday.
_A wave of new confirmations sends the number of swine flu cases in Japan soaring to 135, health officials say, prompting the government to order the closure of nearly 2,000 schools and the cancelation of community events.
_South Korea quarantines Vietnamese traveler after preliminary tests show she probably has swine flu.
_Chile confirms its first two cases of swine flu in two women who arrived from the Dominican Republic. The women, ages 25 and 32, are hospitalized and in good condition, Health Minister Alvaro Erazo said.
_Officials in Peru say a U.S. man living in that country has become the South American nation's second confirmed case of swine flu. Health Minister Oscar Ugarte says the 37-year-old man is a resident of the southern city of Arequipa.
___
On the Net:
CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu
WHO: http://sn.im/who-flu


'Killer Chip' tracks humans, releases poison
Saudi inventor applies for rights to GPS-linked lethal security device
Posted: May 16, 200911:00 pm Eastern
By Jay Baggett© 2009 WorldNetDaily
You can run, but you cannot hide ... and if you try, one push of a button will cause a lethal poison to immediately begin flowing through your body.
That's the Orwellian future a Saudi inventor was seeking to bring to Germany until that nation's patent office announced last week it was rejecting his request to patent what has been dubbed the "Killer Chip."
The tiny semiconductor device is intended to be surgically implanted or injected into the body, according to the patent application, for the purpose of tracking visitors from other nations by global-positioning satellites and preventing them from overstaying their visas.
A German Patent and Trademark Office spokeswoman told Deutsche Presse Agentur the inventor's application, titled "Implantation of electronic chips in the human body for the purposes of determining its geographical location," was submitted in October 2007 and published 18 months later, as required by law, in a patents database.
Under Germany's patent law, inventions that are unethical or a danger to the public are not recognized.
In recent times the number of people sought by security forces has increased," the Jeddah-based inventor wrote in his application.
Patent application diagram
The device would emit encrypted radio waves that would be picked up by satellites and "used to track fugitives from justice, terrorists, illegal immigrants, criminals, political opponents, defectors, domestic help, and Saudi Arabians who don't return home from pilgrimages," Sweden's The Local reported.
The application included a request to patent a model B of the device that could release poison to "eliminate" the individual if he or she became a security risk.
"I apply for these reasons and for reasons of state security and the security of citizens," the statement reads.
German law allows foreigners to apply for patents in the country through a local representative. In the case of the "Killer Chip," a Munich law firm
was used.
"Most people apply for a patent in several countries, and this inventor probably did too," Stephanie Krüger of the Patent Office said.
That leaves open the possibility the Saudi inventor will find success in another country.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=98386

This guy reminds me of Jimmy Carter, without the face lift
Biden Reveals Location of Secret VP Bunker
Vice President Joe Biden, well-known for his verbal gaffes, may have finally outdone himself, divulging potentially classified information meant to save the life of a sitting vice president.
According to a report, while recently attending the Gridiron Club dinner in Washington, an annual event where powerful politicians and media elite get a chance to cozy up to one another, Biden told his dinnermates about the existence of a secret bunker under the old U.S. Naval Observatory, which is now the home of the vice president.
The bunker is believed to be the secure, undisclosed location former Vice President Dick Cheney remained under protection in secret after the 9/11 attacks.
Eleanor Clift, Newsweek magazine's Washington contributing editor, said Biden revealed the location while filling in for President Obama at the dinner, who, along with Grover Cleveland, is the only president to skip the gathering.
According to the report, Biden "said a young naval officer giving him a tour of the residence showed him the hideaway, which is behind a massive steel door secured by an elaborate lock with a narrow connecting hallway lined with shelves filled with communications equipment."
Clift continued: "The officer explained that when Cheney was in lock down, this was where his most trusted aides were stationed, an image that Biden conveyed in a way that suggested we shouldn't be surprised that the policies that emerged were off the wall."
In December 2002, neighbors complained of loud construction work being done at the Naval Observatory, which has been used as a residence by vice presidents since 1974.
The upset neighbors were sent a letter by the observatory's superintendent, calling the work "sensitive in nature" and "classified" and that it was urgent it be completed "on a highly accelerated schedule."
Residents said they believed workers were digging deep into the ground, which would support Biden's report of a secret bunker, but officials never confirmed the purpose of the work performed.
The revelation is the latest from Biden, who has a long history of political blunders.
Most recently, he said in a televised interview that if a family member asked him about traveling he'd advise staying away from public transportation or confined spaces to avoid swine flu -- a remark described as "borderline fearmongering" by an airline spokesman.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/17/oops-biden-reveals-location-secret-vp-bunker/?test=latestnews