Only ten days prior to the blowout, Halliburton conveniently snapped up a giant marine firefighting corporation for $250.00 million. Persistent suggestions that Goldman Sachs shorted Transocean immediately ahead of the blow-out refuse to be erased from the record, although we removed our initial reference to this pending further research. Most tellingly of all, as always occurs after these atrocities, the stories keep a-changing. There was no Deadman switch. Now, all of a sudden, it is reported that there WAS a Deadman blowout preventer. And to rub in BP’s humiliation, corporation executives are now reported to have been on board at a party to celebrate BP’s safety record, and the first explosion occurred in the room next to where the party was being held. This would have been known days ago, one would have thought.
Given former US criminal Vice President Richard B. Cheney’s integration with Halliburton, what are the odds that this was indeed a malicious sabotage operation against this prime British,(more here)
The Angry Exile, upside down correspondent.
A couple of nights ago the ABC's Foreign Correspondent program covered the legal use of cannabis for medical purposes in California and how, given the huge financial hole the state is in, this could be expanded to provide a useful cash crop if the state grasped the nettle (or weed, as it were) and simply repealed the prohibition on adults smoking it. A few years ago I saw an episode of Penn & Teller: Bullshit! that also dealt with drug prohibition, which if I recall claimed that there were only a handful of people in the whole US who were allowed to smoke cannabis for medical reasons. Judging by Tuesday night's Foreign Correspondent things have moved on a bit since then. The program, appropriately titled 'High Finance', is worth a look and is on the ABC's iViewer here, though I have no idea if that thing will work for anyone outside Australia or if, like Auntie Beeb's iPlayer, will show you the electronic door. If it doesn't work or you don't want to watch a half hour TV program the next best thing is the transcript, which is available here.
Interesting stuff.
From ukws
For those of you that have followed this blog and it's predecessor ukwebspider I must apologise for the distinct drop off in posts in recent weeks. Things have happened recently that have challenged my world view.
When I first started ukws last year and even the uknewsnetwork, 3 months ago, we lived in the halcion days of a booming stock market, promises of 'green shoots' and relatively few immediate dangers.
All that has changed.
Anyone following the gulf oil disaster will know it is going to change the world forever.
Anyone following the flotilla crisis will know that more ships are coming and confrontation, even war, is on the horizon.
Anyone following the 'Iran problem' must know that a military strike is now highly likely and with it the onset of ww3.
And anyone following the continuing economic collapse must realise what will soon unfold.
The World is changing my friends and not for the better.
I'm no longer interested in provincial politics and irrelevent stories of 'over-bearing' councils and H&S departments gone crazy. These things are irrelevent when there are so many greater problems and disasters unfolding. The UK blogosphere has lost my interest- too much focus on irrelevent stories, little real analysis, few warnings of what is now happening in the world.
I'm abandoning the blog and starting another called 'the crisis report' where I will focus on those things that really matter; Economic Collapse, Peak Oil, the New World Order, Middle East War, The Gulf Oil Disaster etc with a special emphasis on how to survive what is now unfolding.
I will need a few days to set it up and for those of you that want to keep in touch I'll post the link here.
I also want to set up a forum where those of you that realise what is happening and are trying to prepare can discuss events and strategy.
The new blog will be better than this one as I will be freed from the constraints of reporting everything that might affect the UK and instead I can post those things that really matter on a global scale.
The world's changing- things are getting much worse- and rapidly.
The new blog won't be pretty and it won't be for the faint hearted but if you want to know whats really going on in the world- stop by sometime.
Stay informed. Stay Alert. Keep in touch.
ukws
The Liberal-Conservative coalition government have made good on their promise to release the full list of special advisers - including details of what they earn.
The number of special adviser posts has also been cut from 78 – the number under Gordon Brown – to 68, which includes seven vacancies. It is thought this could reduce the pay bill by as much as £2m. Last year's bill was £6.8m.
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Of the 93 people who were infected by the potentially deadly 0157 strain of the bacterium, 28 will argue that Godstone Farm was negligent in the way it handled the outbreak.
Jill Greenfield, a personal injury lawyer, is representing 27 children and one adult who were affected.
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Phil Gormley, Chief Constable of Norfolk Police, told his 1,700 officers to tackle the county’s most serious problems – even if some crime figures grow as a result.
Norfolk has the lowest crime rate in England, according to Home Office figures released in April, despite bucking the national trend by recording increases in violent crime and robbery.
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At least 16 people were killed when floodwater tore through a campsite in Arkansas, US officials have said.
The flood also washed away records of who was there, making the daunting search for dozens missing in heavily wooded forest even more difficult as anguished families waited for word of their loved ones.
Rescue crews planned to resume their search this morning in the Ouachita National Forest, where heavy rain caused the normally quiet Caddo and Little Missouri rivers to burst their banks. The search was expected to take several more days - and perhaps even weeks.
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It will likely surprise you but like a trolley car we are now locked into economic tracks that determine our financial destination. Unfortunately, it isn’t a place anyone would choose knowingly other than possibly the Bilderberg elite.
Financially and economically we are lurching along, rocking from side to side with the occasional unexpected jarring flash crash jolt. But unlike a trolley line, for some reason no one seems to know what the destination is. Many are asking but few are willing to tell. more
David Cameron has been forced to abandon a visit to British troops in a frontline base amid fears that the Taliban were trying to bring down his helicopter.
The Prime Minister had been due to fly in to the patrol base at Shahzad in Helmand province to meet troops from the 1st Battalion Duke of Lancaster's Regiment.
But at the last minute the RAF Chinook helicopter carrying Mr Cameron and his entourage was diverted to the main operating base in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.
A Government source said that mobile telephone "chatter" had been intercepted in the area referring to a possible attempt to bring down a helicopter.
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Thousands of people could be in line for compensation after they were illegally stopped and searched by police using controversial counter-terrorism legislation.
An urgent review is under way after officials discovered 14 police forces failed to get the correct authorisation for operations that allow them to stop members of the public without reason.
They found 40 operations dating back to 2001 where police who were granted powers to use section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 had no legal basis after they applied for an invalid timescale or were not countersigned quickly enough.
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A newborn baby has been found abandoned in a village pub.
The baby boy, who is less than a day old, was found in a bag at 11.15pm on Wednesday at the Hawk and Buckle pub in Etwall, Derbyshire.
He was taken to Derby Royal Hospital where he was named Jack by staff. He is described as being in good health.
A spokeswoman for Derbyshire Constabulary said: "Police are urgently trying to trace the baby's mother as they are concerned for her welfare.
"Officers want to stress that anyone providing information can do so in confidence."
Three Britons, including two female students, have been killed in a bus crash in South Africa, officials said.
The executive mayor of Mbombela, Lassy Chiwayo, confirmed a third fatality, hours after police said two passengers had died.
The crash happened a few miles from Barberton on the Bulembu road, near Nelspruit, at lunchtime when the driver apparently lost control of the bus and it overturned.
The bus was carrying 22 students and a member of staff from the Brooksby Melton College, in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, who were on a field trip. They had arrived in the country on June 1 and were due to return home to the UK tomorrow. The casualties ranged in age from 19 to 25.
Sport is to get a £50 million a year boost by 2012 from the National Lottery as part of reforms to try to secure a strong legacy from hosting the London Games, Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson has announced.
The aim of the plan, backed by order in Parliament, will be to "deliver a mass participation sports legacy from London 2012", he said, after outlining his vision to executives of Olympic sports bodies at the British Olympic Association's central London headquarters.
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Former defence secretary Geoff Hoon has described footage of hooded Iraqi prisoners being abused by a British soldier as "appalling".
One of the prisoners is believed to be hotel receptionist Baha Mousa, 26, who died in Basra, southern Iraq, in September 2003 after allegedly being beaten to death by British soldiers.
Mr Hoon claimed he had never seen the footage before, despite its previous widespread circulation in the press. Giving evidence to an inquiry into Mr Mousa's death, Mr Hoon described the behaviour of the soldier in the video as "reprehensible".
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A senior commander in the the Israeli military has stated that he believes that action taken by the Turkish government in protecting an upcoming flotilla to Gaza would be considered an act of war.
Major General (Res.) Uzi Dayan stated, whilst speaking with the army radio station that, "If he [Prime Minister Erdogan] comes here with Turkish warships there can be no doubt that it would amount to a declaration of war. We need to draw a clear line and say that whoever crosses it will not be boarded but sunk." more
As the global bankers’ plan to bring down the American and world’s economy continues (so that they can acquire as much of our wealth as possible at ‘fire sale’ prices ~ an old strategy; and herald the introduction of their New World Order), the world is facing another much worse danger. A regional war in the Middle East that will involve global strategic weapons of mass destruction with deaths in the hundreds of millions to billions in North America, Europe, the Middle East and globally. more
Four American troops died today when a Black Hawk helicopter believed to be on a mission to rescue British soldiers was shot down in Afghanistan.
The Taliban claimed they carried out the attack, at about midday in Sangin in Helmand province, firing two rocket-propelled grenades. At least two helicopters are understood to have been sent to pick up soldiers who had suffered serious
injuries.
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A father and daughter today denied attacking BBC investigative reporter Donal MacIntyre and his wife.
Thugs set upon the couple in a wine bar and punched the reporter's wife in the face, arms and legs.
MacIntyre was having a quiet drink before his wife, Ameera de la Rose, underwent a brain scan for a tumour the following morning.
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A week after his guns finally fell silent, thousands stopped to remember the victims of Derrick Bird.
His murderous rampage across west Cumbria killed 12 and wounded 11. Today the towns and villages which suffered Britain's worst massacre for 14 years paid silent tribute to their dead.
Many gathered at war memorials in places previously unknown to the wider public. Frizington, Whitehaven, Seascale and Egremont came to a halt at 11.45am, their residents having never wished for such infamy or attention. “It still doesn't feel real,” one Whitehaven resident told the BBC.
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Immigrants coming to Britain to marry or join their partner will soon be asked to take an English language test first.
All non-European migrants will have to demonstrate basic communication skills that enable them to deal with everyday life before receiving a visa.
The measure, due to come into force this autumn, will apply to spouses and unmarried couples who are already in Britain as well as overseas applicants. Anyone wishing to come to Britain must first demonstrate they can speak English at the same level required for skilled workers admitted under the points-based system.
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Another strike ballot of British Airways cabin crew will be held although their leaders are trying "very hard" to reach a settlement with the airline as the final stage of industrial action ends, a union official said today.
Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of Unite, said the sticking point in the long-running row was now a "silly one", about the removal of travel concessions from those who have taken action.
Union members walked out for the 22nd day today in the long-running dispute which has cost the carrier more than £150 million, with further action threatened for the summer unless the deadlock is broken.
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They held on, but only just. The courage of 16 Air Assault Brigade’s defence of the “platoon houses” is now the stuff of military folklore.
But the first six months of the Helmand campaign were a disaster for a British mission beset from the start by poor planning and resourcing, weak intelligence, departmental infighting, charges of tactical recklessness, a dysfunctional command structure and an unforeseen Taleban resurgence.
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England remains a country of health and wealth divides, with those in the North likely to be poorer and live shorter lives more prone to serious illness.
The disparity — which the previous Government pledged to reduce — has shown little change according to the Office for National Statistics.
The North East, North West and Yorkshire and the Humber have lower life expectancy and higher mortality rates from cancer, respiratory and circulatory diseases compared with the England average.
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Thousands of foreigners who want to marry a British person will have to pass an English test before being allowed to enter the country.
The new rule will come into force in the autumn and will mean that non-EU migrants seeking a visa to marry will need to be able to understand English at the level of a child of 5 or 6. Skilled workers, who already have to be able to speak and listen to English at that level, may have to meet a higher standard.
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He has been the Sir Alex Ferguson of British retailing — the man who turned a sleeping giant into a winner, the most feared and sometimes the most hated competitor in its field.
Sir Terry Leahy is so undeniably Tesco that he is referred to as “Terry Tesco” in the grocery industry.
While his rival Justin King at Sainsbury’s rated Sir Terry’s departure “the end of an era in supermarket retailing”, Sir Philip Green, the boss of Arcadia, was more complimentary, saying: “He’s built a world-class business and he’s built a great management team.”
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Guess the British Attendees- click here to find out
DAVID CAMERON will today warn that Britain’s economic problems are “even worse than we thought”. more
The Dow closed the week sharply lower on Friday at 9932 against last weeks close of 10,136. The stock market had exhibited a tightening of its trading range for most of the week following a bounce off an early week low of 10,014 into a rally peak of 10,315 Thursday, as the market marked time ahead of the Fridays Jobs Report that disappointed market participants and resulted in a 333 point drop on the day right from the opening gap down and trend lower all the way into the close. more
If US energy policy continues on its present path, legendary oilman T. Boone Pickens told Cramer on Friday, the price for a barrel of crude could jump more than five times its present level in a decade. more
The effects of peak oil, including high energy prices, will not be gentle, said Mr. Angelantoni, a Web designer whose company, Post Peak Living, offers the telephone class and a handful of online courses for life after a collapse. more
Asian shares and the euro plummeted Monday as traders took their lead from a slumping Wall Street and worries that Hungary's public finances face a Greece-style meltdown. more
Basically what the world central banks are doing is increasing their money by devaluing it (printing more than it’s worth) and giving it to banks so that they can lend it. Then, when things pick up, simply take the money back and destroy it. more
Other presidents get the picture on paper currency. Obama should have his picture on food stamps. There are now 40 million Americans who choose to have the government feed them rather than feed themselves. This is almost 1 in 7 people who depend on government food. Now do you see how totally and completely hopeless things are? By Christmas 50,000,000 Americans will be eating at the government trough. more
BP’s latest oil spill response update for June 4th says the total amount of the dispersant used in the Gulf of Mexico more than 1,021,000 gallons.
But what most people don’t know is that the active ingredient of the toxic chemical dispersant, which is up to 60% by volume, being sprayed by BP to fight the Gulf oil spill is a is a neurotoxin pesticide that is acutely toxic to both human and aquatic life, causes cancer, causes damage to internal organs such as the liver and kidneys simply by absorbing it through the skin and may cause reproductive side effects. more
A powerful lobbying organisation representing agribusiness interests helped draft a key government report that has been attacked by environmentalists for heavily favouring the arguments of the genetically modified food industry. more
As the economic crisis approaches the two-year point, it is apparent that “this time is different.” Few analysts believe that we are going to recover from this Great Recession in a fashion that resembles prior recoveries. Most argue about how long it might run (Japan’s recovery is now two decades old), and whether inflation or deflation results. Two years into the problem, these issues are still unclear. more
Crazed killer Derrick Bird's murky finances appeared to hold the key to why he launched a massacre that left 12 people dead.
He was apparently resentful about his twin brother's inheritance and feared being jailed for tax evasion when he set out on his 45-mile trail of destruction across Cumbria.
Police revealed taxi driver Bird, 52, first shot dead his twin brother David and the family's solicitor, Kevin Commons, 60, in a distinct phase before murdering 10 others in a frenzied hour of killing.
Cumbria Police Chief Constable Craig Mackey insisted officers could not have stopped the rampage. "At no stage did any police officer have the chance to end this any sooner," he said.
More....
My column this week tries to address the question of whether Britain really deserves to be considered a “safe haven” destination for investors’ money. The condensed answer is: not entirely. At the moment markets seem to be working on the assumption that any country with its own currency should be favoured – presumably because those countries can inflate their debt away rather than having to default on it directly. Although no-one particularly approves of inflation, markets like the fact that at least this leaves a country rather more in control of its own destiny. more
While most analysts and commentators in the Western world are working to affirm that the recovery progresses, Europe seems to live in a relapse of the global economic crisis. There are few stories that account for the implementation of austerity plans to reduce fiscal deficits and public debts in Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal and even the UK. more
Most Americans know that the U.S. economy is in bad shape, but what most Americans don't know is how truly desperate the financial situation of the United States really is. The truth is that what we are experiencing is not simply a "downturn" or a "recession". What we are witnessing is the beginning of the end for the greatest economic machine that the world has ever seen. Our greed and our debt are literally eating our economy alive. Total government, corporate and personal debt has now reached 360 percent of GDP, which is far higher than it ever reached during the Great Depression era. We have nearly totally dismantled our once colossal manufacturing base, we have shipped millions upon millions of middle class jobs overseas, we have lived far beyond our means for decades and we have created the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world. A great day of financial reckoning is fast approaching, and the vast majority of Americans are totally oblivious. more
Police are searching for two teenage girls who have been missing for more than 48 hours.
Friends Corrina Stirland, 15, and 14-year-old Rebecca Armer were reported missing on Wednesday from their homes in Scunthorpe.
Humberside Police said their disappearance was out of character and they were concerned for their welfare.
They were last seen when a friend spotted the girls at around 9.35pm on Thursday in the Cole Street area of the town.
More....
We've got more CCTV cameras trained on us - four million and rising - than any other country on earth. And they never sleep.
Britain's the third most surveillance-heavy society behind Russia and China. And thanks to internet monitoring, customer loyalty schemes in shops, online medical records and vehicle databases, there is little we do that someone doesn't know about. more
We’re falling into a double-dip recession.
The Labor Department reports this morning that the private sector added a measly 41,000 net new jobs in May. (The vast bulk of new jobs in May were temporary government Census workers.) But at least 100,000 new jobs are needed every month just to keep up with population growth. more
Neeraj Chaudhary writes: With the mainstream media focusing on the country's leveling unemployment rate, improving retail sales, and nascent housing recovery, one might think that the US government has successfully navigated the economy through recession and growth has returned. But I will argue that a look under the proverbial hood reveals a very different picture. I believe the data shows that the US economy is badly damaged, and a modern-day depression has begun. In fact, just as World War I was originally called The Great War (and was retroactively renamed after World War II), Peter Schiff has said that one day the world will refer to the 1929-41 era as Great Depression I, and the current period as Great Depression II. more
Britain will enjoy the last day of a mini-heat wave today before showers move in for the weekend. Temperatures yesterday topped those in Rome and parts of the Spanish Mediterranean — and London is expected to experience highs today of up to 27C. Yesterday’s highest temperature was 23.8C in Crosby, Merseyside, with northern areas having much of the best of the weather.
However, it was a fine day across most of the country, with almost 100,000 people flocking to Bournemouth, where the beach was packed with children on their half-term break.
More....
The Rabbinical Council of Judea and Samaria issued a statement Thursday in which it said that the results of the incident in which Israel intercepted a flotilla trying to break the naval blockade of Gaza seem like the Biblical description of "the beginning of the Gog and Magog process where the world is against us, but which ends with the third and final redemption." more
"The present situation of the Korean peninsula is so grave that a war may break out any moment," Ri Jang Gon, North Korea's deputy ambassador in Geneva, told the United Nations-sponsored Conference on Disarmament. more
Hey, Tea Party. A foreign navy boarded an unarmed ship flying the flag of a NATO member in international waters and shot dead an American citizen with four bullets to the head and one in the chest on Memorial Day. It did this while the head of the belligerent state was on his way to a state visit to Washington, DC, to be awarded a further $200 million in aid on top of the $3 billion of American taxpayer money the US gives away to him every year.
If you are not upset by this, your tea is weak, man. Weak. Source
With each passing day, the environmental horror being caused by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill becomes more apparent. Some of the most unique wildlife habitats in the world are being obliterated, entire species are being threatened with extinction and scientists are telling us that the Gulf of Mexico will never be the same again during any of our lifetimes. This is not just another Exxon Valdez or Hurricane Katrina. This is the end of an entire way of life for millions of people and for millions of birds, animals and fish. It is impossible to even put a price tag on what we are all losing as a result of this spill. BP will never make enough money to repay the damage that has been done already. And yet the oil just keeps gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. It is a nightmare that we can't wake up from and from which there is no escape. more
Top historians, social and financial analysts, along with police bodies are all predicting that Europe and America are set to experience a summer of rage, with scenes mirroring the chaos we have seen unfold in Greece in reaction to draconian austerity measures now being imposed by governments in the west. more
A growing reliance on imported food and other necessities is making First World nations such as the United Kingdom increasingly vulnerable to social collapse, warns Andrew Simms, policy director of the "think-and-do tank" of the New Economic Foundation, writing in The Guardian. more
Labour's supposedly tough points-based immigration system actually led to huge increases in foreign workers and students cleared to live in Britain, it emerged last night.
Experts said the new Government had a 'mountain to climb' to bring migration under control. more
As recently as 2007, the EIA saw a rosy future of oil supplies increasing with demand. It predicted oil consumption would rise by 15 mbpd to 2020, an ample amount to cover most eventualities. By 2030, the oil supply would reach nearly 118 mbpd, or 23 mbpd more than in 2006. But over time, this optimism has faded, with each succeeding year forecast lower than the year before. For 2030, the oil supply forecast has declined by 14 mbpd in only the last three years. This drop is as much as the combined output of Saudi Arabia and China. more
A small band of hedge funds is now building up a series of sizeable bets on Britain defaulting. In the past few weeks, they have placed more than $3 billion worth of bets on that precise outcome in the credit default swap market. History – three centuries without default – suggests that they will be proved wrong. But these are unprecedented times. Had Britain joined the euro, it would certainly have shared Greece's fate, and would have been too big to be bailed out. more
Researchers from Chandigarh's Punjab University claim they have found the cause which could be the first step in reversing the decline: They have established that radiation from mobile telephones is a key factor in the phenomenon and say that it probably interfering with the bee's navigation senses.
They set up a controlled experiment in Punjab earlier this year comparing the behaviour and productivity of bees in two hives – one fitted with two mobile telephones which were powered on for two fifteen minute sessions per day for three months. The other had dummy models installed.
After three months the researchers recorded a dramatic decline in the size of the hive fitted with the mobile phon, a significant reduction in the number of eggs laid by the queen bee. The bees also stopped producing honey. more
Welfare has replaced the provider, "creating a glut of unemployed, unwanted, unmarriageable men." more
The next three big big shoes are about to hit the floor. The bang will reverberate around the world. The Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian banks will next go belly up and quickly, as they sink with PIGS debt and other credit assets tied to fallen property. Spain will make the most shrill sounds, for a simple reason. They were the worst offender in holding onto mindless unreasonable lofty property values. Their bank books have the biggest drop to realize, after re-entry to reality. The crises underway in the remainder of PIGS nations will continue unabated, and usher in magnificent events where a legitimate gold-backed currency arrives, urgently needed to provide stability. more
A woman and her 23-year-month old son were murdered in their cottage in a sleepy rural village, it has been disclosed.
Their attacker, a 44-year-old man believed to be the woman's partner or ex-partner, then killed himself at the house in Holbrook, Derbyshire.
Police said they received a call from a concerned neighbour at about 11am on Wednesday. When officers arrived at the cottage on Well Yard they discovered the 38-year-old woman and the man dead.
More....
A taxi driver has gone on the rampage, killing 12 people and wounding at least 25 before taking his own life.
Derrick Bird, 52, brought terror to the idyllic Lake District as he drove his cab through the Cumbrian countryside, blasting victims through the window apparently at random.
Britain's worst mass shooting since the 1996 Dunblane tragedy began when the divorced father-of-two shot fellow taxi drivers in the town of Whitehaven, killing at least one.
More.....
When Karl Marx wrote in the Communist Manifesto that “a spectre is haunting Europe,” he did so on the eve of the revolutionary eruptions that began in Italy and France in 1848 and engulfed much of the European continent.
In recent days, a number of media commentaries have predicted a similar eruption of social unrest of revolutionary dimensions as a direct result of the worsening economic crisis. These warnings are accompanied by dire predictions that Europe will suffer the return of nationalist tensions, the emergence of fascist movements and even war. more
Over three hundred thousand people (more than three per cent of the Portuguese population) marched today in central Lisbon in a mega-demonstration against the socially insulting policies of the conservative, right-wing Government provided by the Socialist Party, an insult to Socialism, an insult to Government and the epitome of laboratory politics practised by professional politicians who have never had a real job. more
The presence of Spain’s heavyweight political and financial leaders at this year’s Bilderberg conference is not just because the secretive annual confab is taking place just outside Barcelona – it’s because the Bilderberg elitists are panic stricken at the possibility that their embryonic global currency – the euro – could be heading for total collapse. more
Earlier we reported that the US Mint has run out of American Eagle silver coins. It turns out the Mint is also out of gold American Eagles. more
The Central Bank of Iran is set to dump a whopping 45 billion euros in exchange for gold bullion and dollars as Gulf states also prepare to flee from the ailing single currency amidst debt turmoil in Europe that threatens to disintegrate the entire region. more
As we look forward we see money supply plunge to the same levels of the 1930s. This is the same thing the Fed did between 1929 and 1933... Unfortunately, we are following the path of the “Great Depression.” That means gold and silver are being purchased in a flight to quality. Yes, we believe inflation is on the way in bigger numbers, but unless things change dramatically it won’t be long before that inflation is overcome and deflationary depression takes hold. more
The European Union could seize control of green taxes across the continent in order to make low-carbon energy cheaper. more
And so the US joins the distinguished list of pretty much everyone else in the world in running out of silver and soon, gold. The US Mint has just announced it has run out of silver bullion blanks, and is suspending American Eagle Silver Proof coins, until further notice. more
The states are so broke they're borrowing from the federal government to make burgeoning unemployment insurance benefits – prompting the federal government to borrow the funds from communist China. more
One of the most famous quotations of Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises is that “There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency involved.” In fact, the US economy is in a downward spiral of debt deflation despite the bold actions of the federal government and of the US Federal Reserve taken in response to the financial crisis that began in 2008 and the associated recession. Although the vicious circle of debt deflation is not widely recognized, precisely what von Mises described is happening before our eyes. more
You don’t have much time. I want to stress from the outset, however, that this is more than a mere forecast. It’s a solemn warning:
The U.S. stock market is showing the kind of extreme volatility and severe strains that typically precede major implosions.
There is very little time left to get your money to safety. The collapse could come at literally any moment now. more
The expulsion of activists - including more than 40 Britons - detained during the storming of an aid flotilla heading for the Gaza Strip is under way.
All the 679 detainees taken off the ships during the Israeli military-led action which saw nine civilians killed will be deported within 48 hours, but about 50 will be held for questioning, a statement from the Israeli government said.
Earlier, Foreign Secretary William Hague said 31 British nationals and a further 11 with dual nationality were known to have been detained after the seizure of the vessels as they attempted to breach the Israeli blockade of the territory.
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The two-year scheme at Bristol City Council is only open to candidates from black or ethnic minority backgrounds because the "normal recruitment process was not rectifying" under-representation.
The authority said the programme, which takes on two people a year, is lawful under race relations legislation because it is only a traineeship and does not guarantee a job at the end of it.
But one white jobseeker, who did not want to be named, said it was "totally racist" and would have been "an excellent opportunity for me to make use of the skills and qualifications that I have acquired".
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A schoolboy obsessed with drawing pictures of bombs is among hundreds of young people who have been reported to the police as terrorism suspects.
A couple who kept their curtains closed were also flagged up to the Channel Project, an anti-terror warning programme designed to stop vulnerable people becoming radicalised.
At least £3 million has already been spent on the scheme, which was set up in the wake of the 7/7 London bombings in 2005, and more than 230 people have been identified by police as being at risk. More....
Former Cabinet minister David Laws said he plans to get back to work as a local MP after his dramatic resignation from the coalition Government.
The Liberal Democrat stood down as Chief Secretary to the Treasury after he admitted channelling tens of thousands of pounds of public money in rent to his long-term partner.
Mr Laws said he would now see whether he still had the "confidence" of his constituents in Yeovil, Somerset.
In a statement to local media, he said: "I have paid a high price for trying to keep my sexuality a secret. Losing your privacy, your Cabinet job and your perceived integrity within 48 hours isn't very easy.
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The Prince of Wales is opening up his gardens at Clarence House for the first time this summer - with a little help from Alan Titchmarsh, Jools Holland and Dame Vivienne Westwood.
There is, however, a catch. While visitors will have an unprecedented opportunity to relax in the Prince’s London garden - inspecting his vegetable patch and rose garden while they are there - they will also be exposed to a barrage of eco-conscious information as the Prince’s friends, associates and fellow green campaigners tell them how to lead more sustainable lives.
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Relatives of a Royal Marine killed in Afghanistan have told how they had been left with a void "that can never be filled".
Marine Scott Taylor, 21, of Buxton, Derbyshire, died in an explosion on Sunday while on foot patrol near Sangin with Alpha Company, 40 Commando.
His family said: "Scotty was the perfect son, brother, grandson, nephew and friend who would do anything for anybody no matter who they were, always caring and respectful.
"He loved his family and lit up the room with his smile."
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A martial arts expert who masterminded the £53 million Securitas robbery has been jailed for 10 years in Morocco.
Cage fighter Lee Murray, 30, was told he will spend the next decade in prison at a hearing in Rabat, Kent Police said.
The sentence was for his role co-ordinating the audacious raid at the cash depot in Tonbridge, Kent, on February 21, 2006.
Last June the Moroccan authorities refused to extradite Murray, originally from Sidcup, after establishing his Moroccan nationality.
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The father of Chelsea and England footballer John Terry has been spared jail for supplying cocaine to an undercover newspaper reporter.
Edward Terry, of Chafford Hundred, Essex, admitted supplying 3.5 grammes of the class A drug to a News of the World journalist, posing as a chauffeur, last November.
But Judge Christopher Mitchell said: "It is a very, very clear case of entrapment solely to create a newspaper story."
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Climate change now represents so urgent a threat to mankind that the only way to deal with it is by suspending democracy. more
Ministers have ordered a review of looming global shortages of resources, from fish and timber to water and precious metals, amid mounting concern that the problem could hit every sector of the economy.
The study has been commissioned following sharp rises in many commodity prices on the world markets and recent riots in some countries over food shortages. more
Morgan Kelly, an economics professor with University College Dublin, make clear that Ireland’s budgetary situation is, in fact, set to decay rapidly. According Kelly, who is credited with having predicted the collapse of the Irish housing bubble, “It is no longer a question of whether Ireland will go bust, but when”. more
The sovereign debt crisis in Greece and many other European nations has, at least for the moment, opened a gap in the wash of financial disinformation that has prevailed in the mainstream media for the past year. The average American is now more aware of the terrible costs of living in an artificially driven and widely manipulated “global economy”, and has also been exposed (at least for the moment) to the very real frailties in our own markets, which have been hidden or downplayed by the government as well as disingenuous establishment economists. Events in the EU, however, are only a glimpse of the greater and more imminent threats we face in the near future. In this article we will look at some of the latest and most disturbing moves by governments and financial institutions, as well as tell-tale signs in our own local cities, which signal that a full-spectrum collapse of world markets and possibly our own currency is not only in progress, but nearing completion. more
The largest financial crisis in history is spreading from private to sovereign entities. At best, Europe’s recovery will suffer as the collapsing euro subtracts from growth in its key trading partners. At worst, a disintegration of the single currency or a wave of disorderly defaults could unhinge the financial system and precipitate a double-dip recession... more
The European Central Bank sent tremors through financial markets last night when it warned that banks in the eurozone nations faced having to write off another €195 billion in bad loans over the next 18 months. more
In one of the early issues of my newsletter, I wrote an article about the Kondratiev Cycle, an economic cycle which was first identified by Nikolai D. Kondratiev (1892-1938) an eminent Russian economist. The famous economist, Joseph Schumpeter, once said that the Kondratiev Wave is “...the single most important tool in economic forecasting.” more
The politicians as evidenced during the sovereign debt crisis bailouts continue to show that they are firmly in the back pockets of the bankster elite. Instead of countries such as Greece defaulting on their debts, they are being forced to become debt slaves to finance their debt masters (the bond market) in perpetuity, as power continue to drift from the debt slave sovereign states to the their debt masters i.e. the debt providers, the IMF and now the German Government which through its bailout holds countries such as Greece by the balls, and is fully willing to squeeze governments that show dissent and disobedience to the New German European Order. Off course looking at the bigger picture, the German state itself is enslaved to the banking elite. more
Make no mistake about it, what is happening in Greece and Thailand right now will be coming soon to a theatre near you as well, with a war between our bloated bureaucracy and the public at center. It’s important to understand that the weaker periphery states in the Western alliance is just the beginning in a global affair, as Martin Armstrong points out in his latest, and that while being ‘big daddy’ of the sovereign debt debacle will postpone crisis in the US briefly as capital seeks safety in her markets, once this reaction is exhausted the U$$ Titanic America will be going down too. Therein, after the panic into US bonds (and stocks as a result of artificially lower rates) is done, rates will rise in the States as well, forcing the same budget cuts and austerity measures now being imposed on what is being described by the Western media sources (in justifying trading action) as the economic basket case, better known as Europe. more
People spent less going out in the past three months as the service sector failed to build on the momentum evident at the start of the year, according to the CBI.more
The summer of 2010 promises to be the most tumultuous summer in the short history of the European Union. The sovereign debt crisis sweeping the continent threatens to cause economic and political instability on a scale not seen in Europe for decades. The truth is that governments across the eurozone have accumulated gigantic piles of debt that simply are not sustainable. Prior to the implementation of the euro, these European governments often "printed" their way out of messes like this, but now they can't do that. Now they either have to dramatically cut government expenses or they have to default. But the austerity measures that the IMF and the ECB are pressuring these European governments to adopt are likely to have some very painful side effects. Not only will these austerity measures cause a significant slowdown in economic growth, they are also likely to cause the same kinds of protests, strikes and riots that we saw in Greece to erupt all over Europe. more
“Europe’s top job-creator only two years ago, Spain now has the region’s highest unemployment rate, at just over 20 percent, and is the slowest of the major economies to emerge from the global recession. Meanwhile, the ratings agency dealt a blow to state efforts to shore up confidence in its finances by cutting the country’s rating one notch from AAA to AA plus” more
We had expected the broad stockmarket and the resource sector to stabilize and start to recover last week and they did, and while we are likely to see further recovery in the days and perhaps weeks ahead, there have been some ominous developments in the recent past that we would be most unwise to ignore. The market did not go into full crash mode because it was not technically ready to, although it got close to it, and crucial support held - for now. However, heavy technical damage was inflicted and a broad review of long-term charts reveals that a blood-curdlingly dangerous setup has developed across a wide spectrum of markets. more
Euro under new pressure after Spain's debt rating is downgraded ... Markets set to fall after ratings agency Fitch strips Spain of AAA score ... French debt rating also threatened, says budget minister Francois Baroin ... Spain's Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero (left) struggled to gain support for austerity measures. His government may also face a general strike. ... The euro is expected to come under further pressure tomorrow as Spain's minority government teeters on the brink of collapse and traders fear contagion throughout the eurozone after a senior French minister admitted that his country's top-notch credit rating was under threat. Stock and debt markets are likely to take a battering after the decision on Friday by the ratings agency Fitch to strip Spain of its coveted AAA credit score, the second downgrade in a month. Fitch's decision was announced after the markets in closed, so traders will have their first chance tomorrow to react, although London and New York will be sidelined by bank holidays. more
So just how bad is the U.S. economy? Well, the truth is that sometimes it is hard to put into words. We have squandered the great wealth left to us by our forefathers, we have almost totally dismantled the world’s greatest manufacturing base, we have shipped millions of good jobs overseas and we have piled up the biggest mountain of debt in the history of mankind. We have taken the greatest free enterprise economy that was ever created and have turned it into a gigantic house of cards delicately balanced on a never-ending spiral of paper money and debt. For decades, all of this paper money and debt has enabled us to enjoy the greatest party in the history of the world, but now the bills are coming due and the party is nearly over. more
On the weekend of May 7-9, the European Union gazed into the abyss of historical failure. The fate of the euro was at stake and with it European unification as a whole. Not since before the signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957 had Europe been in such grave political danger. On the surface, the matter at hand was the financial stabilization of Greece and of the Europe’s common currency, but the real title of the play was “Saving the Banks, Part II.” more
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