The Obama Administration will put forth new peace initiatives only if Israel wants it to, said Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in his first comprehensive interview on foreign policy since taking office.
...just as long as Israeli decisions don't COST too much.
Without a thorough cleansing of banks’ balance sheets of impaired assets, accompanied by restructuring and, where needed, recapitalization, risks remain that banks’ problems will continue to exert downward pressure on economic activity. Though subject to a number of assumptions, our best estimate of writedowns on U.S.-originated assets to be suffered by all holders since the outbreak of the crisis until 2010 has increased from $2.2 trillion in the January 2009 Global Financial Stability Report (GFSR) Update to $2.7 trillion, largely as a result of the worsening base-case scenario for economic growth. In this GFSR, estimates for writedowns have been extended to include other mature market-originated assets and, while the information underpinning these scenarios is more uncertain, such estimates suggest writedowns could reach a total of around $4 trillion, about two-thirds of which would be incurred by banks.
Let’s say this slowly: the Bush administration wanted to use 9/11 as a pretext to invade Iraq, even though Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. So it tortured people to make them confess to the nonexistent link. There’s a word for this: it’s evil.
Yes, its evil, and bastards like Bush, Cheney, Pearl, Condoleeza Rice, Collin Powell, etc., ought to be in jail if there was any true justice and accountability at all. But of course, you will never hear any concern about these flagrant shortcomings in US corporate media. I wonder how is the Obama administration going to address these issues if there ever is any direct talks with the Cuban leadership, and questions concerning justice, checks and balances, accountability, human rights, freedom of the press, habeas corpus, torture, right to privacy, violation of international law, mass murder and genocide, violation of another country's sovereingty, etc., are brought up.
The global financial system is being inflated through monetization on a scale never seen before. It's Keynes on steroids, but if it didn't work well almost eighty years ago, and a huge war was needed to fix capitalism, it will work even less today in a transnational economy. Thus the bubble will eventually pop, because economic fundamentals are rotten. So now I'm ready to say this: I used to think this depression would be as bad as 1929-1936, now I KNOW it will be a lot worse and more protracted.
nand:To my knowledge the Bush administration only authorized the torture of 3 people (KSM, and two other top AQ/Lashkar e Toiba leaders.)
Aren't you aware of the documents that have come out in the last few weeks anand? Your willful ignore-ance is just astounding. If you are going to keep your head in the sand, then quit posting like you know, or even want to know, any of these dark deeds.
Anand, My first post in this thread has a link (COST) to a voluminous International Monetary Fund Report on the state of the financial system. I have only been able to read the executive summary so far, but I have circulated it around in my department. I guess the busy person can get the gist of the IMF report from CALCULATED RISK.
Gotta go. Must prepare a report for Citibank executives.
To my knowlege Bush never said there was a link between 9/11 and Iraq. -------- Really? Then what was Colin Powell's famous speech about? To my knowledge, WMDs AND links al Qaida-Iraq!
It wasn't the war that fixed the Depression, it was FDR's extremely interventionist direct-aid policies, the very ones that when you mention them made (and still make) the 'wingers faint and scream and clutch their pearls and go running to rewrite the history books, by hand if necessary, because it simply can't be true that that SOCIALIST saved America! Except he did, and the whole reason we were able to enter WWII at all after the crushing years of the Depression was because of the solid infrastructure and well-trained workforce that his policies put into place.
If Obama had adopted some of those same policies we would be well on our way out of this current mess, but he won't, because he's no FDR -- who said of his right-wing enemies, the equivalent of today's Wall Street gangsters and Republican pols: "Yes, they hate me. And I welcome their hatred.
Truly I love hearing Republicans attempt to revise history. If it weren't for them I would never have known that Hoover was the most successful president in history, before Reagan of course, and that the peace and prosperity of the Clinton years were just a wild collective hallucination.
...just as long as Israeli decisions don't COST too much.
ReplyDeleteWithout a thorough cleansing of banks’ balance sheets of impaired assets, accompanied by restructuring and, where needed, recapitalization, risks remain that banks’ problems will continue to exert downward pressure on economic activity. Though subject to a number of assumptions, our best estimate of writedowns on U.S.-originated assets to be suffered by all holders since the outbreak of the crisis until 2010 has increased from $2.2 trillion in the January 2009 Global Financial Stability Report (GFSR) Update to $2.7 trillion, largely as a result of the worsening base-case scenario for economic growth. In this GFSR, estimates for writedowns have been extended to include other mature market-originated assets and, while the information underpinning these scenarios is more uncertain, such estimates suggest writedowns could reach a total of around $4 trillion, about two-thirds of which would be incurred by banks.
Damn straight!
ReplyDeleteLet’s say this slowly: the Bush administration wanted to use 9/11 as a pretext to invade Iraq, even though Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. So it tortured people to make them confess to the nonexistent link. There’s a word for this: it’s evil.
Yes, its evil, and bastards like Bush, Cheney, Pearl, Condoleeza Rice, Collin Powell, etc., ought to be in jail if there was any true justice and accountability at all. But of course, you will never hear any concern about these flagrant shortcomings in US corporate media. I wonder how is the Obama administration going to address these issues if there ever is any direct talks with the Cuban leadership, and questions concerning justice, checks and balances, accountability, human rights, freedom of the press, habeas corpus, torture, right to privacy, violation of international law, mass murder and genocide, violation of another country's sovereingty, etc., are brought up.
ReplyDeleteThe global financial system is being inflated through monetization on a scale never seen before. It's Keynes on steroids, but if it didn't work well almost eighty years ago, and a huge war was needed to fix capitalism, it will work even less today in a transnational economy. Thus the bubble will eventually pop, because economic fundamentals are rotten. So now I'm ready to say this: I used to think this depression would be as bad as 1929-1936, now I KNOW it will be a lot worse and more protracted.
ReplyDeletenand:To my knowledge the Bush administration only authorized the torture of 3 people (KSM, and two other top AQ/Lashkar e Toiba leaders.)
ReplyDeleteAren't you aware of the documents that have come out in the last few weeks anand? Your willful ignore-ance is just astounding. If you are going to keep your head in the sand, then quit posting like you know, or even want to know, any of these dark deeds.
Anand,
ReplyDeleteMy first post in this thread has a link (COST) to a voluminous International Monetary Fund Report on the state of the financial system. I have only been able to read the executive summary so far, but I have circulated it around in my department. I guess the busy person can get the gist of the IMF report from CALCULATED RISK.
Gotta go. Must prepare a report for Citibank executives.
To my knowlege Bush never said there was a link between 9/11 and Iraq.
ReplyDelete--------
Really? Then what was Colin Powell's famous speech about? To my knowledge, WMDs AND links al Qaida-Iraq!
It wasn't the war that fixed the Depression, it was FDR's extremely interventionist direct-aid policies, the very ones that when you mention them made (and still make) the 'wingers faint and scream and clutch their pearls and go running to rewrite the history books, by hand if necessary, because it simply can't be true that that SOCIALIST saved America! Except he did, and the whole reason we were able to enter WWII at all after the crushing years of the Depression was because of the solid infrastructure and well-trained workforce that his policies put into place.
ReplyDeleteIf Obama had adopted some of those same policies we would be well on our way out of this current mess, but he won't, because he's no FDR -- who said of his right-wing enemies, the equivalent of today's Wall Street gangsters and Republican pols: "Yes, they hate me. And I welcome their hatred.
Truly I love hearing Republicans attempt to revise history. If it weren't for them I would never have known that Hoover was the most successful president in history, before Reagan of course, and that the peace and prosperity of the Clinton years were just a wild collective hallucination.