Is this Global Meltdown part II? Unsurprisingly, most economists say no: stop that alarmist talk, ignore fresh signs of trouble in Spain, and look at the improving data. But with Britain and other countries barely back on their feet after the deepest downturn in decades, the doomsayers see double-dip recession, contagion, market mayhem and no easy way out.
They warn that shares will plummet as investors take stock of the unprecedented scale of a swathe of sovereign debt crises. They see confidence-shattering debt defaults, a eurozone in a perpetual identity crisis and years of financial pain as households ultimately foot the bill for the bailouts ushered through in Meltdown part I. more
The magnitude of current private and government debt, coupled with massive unfunded contingent liabilities for promises of future services to their citizens, will prove to be impossible for many nations to fund. Massive inflation in the money supply will become the preferred vehicle to deflect the default monster and will result in vastly devalued currencies and price inflation as a prelude to default. Such action will be a desperate attempt to buy time to stave off the inevitable and will result in social unrest caused by persons whose comfortable lifestyle and elevated standard of living is about to disintegrate before their very eyes. more
The U.S. military is reviewing options for a unilateral strike in Pakistan in the event that a successful attack on American soil is traced to the country's tribal areas, according to senior military officials. more
U.S. stocks slid, capping the worst May for the Dow Jones Industrial Average since 1940, while the euro slumped and Treasuries rose as a downgrade of Spain’s debt rating and escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula triggered a flight from riskier assets. more
As we’ve discussed recently, persistent deflationary forces do not augur for a repeat of Japan circa 1990s or the US in the 1930s. Instead, because of the inability of governments to finance their current and future debt burden (there is a dearth of domestic savings and global capital), deflationary forces will ultimately lead to severe inflation or hyperinflation. In today’s missive, we explain how this will happen but in various stages. more
The global credit system is flashing the most serious warning signals in almost a year on triple fears of a Spanish banking crisis, escalating political risk in Asia, and a second leg to the US housing slump. more
The Spanish Inquisition used to burn Englishmen in Sevilla's Plaza de San Francisco when they had the chance. There must have been some nostalgia for this practice when the news hit that Fitch Ratings had stripped the country of its AAA status. more
A month ago, with the market charging ever higher, climbing the "wall of worry," most bearish voices had been silenced. Now they're back with a vengeance. more
Threats of a general strike in Spain intensified this weekend following Friday's decision by the credit agency Fitch Ratings to downgrade the country's debt from AAA to AA+. more
One of Spain’s biggest banks was this weekend negotiating a merger with five smaller rivals as part of a desperate government effort to restore confidence in the faltering economy, which threatens to drag down the rest of the eurozone. more
Israel has allegedly deployed a permanent submarine presence in the Persian Gulf to keep an eye on Iran, according to media reports published Sunday. The three German-built submarines are reportedly equipped with nuclear cruise missiles. more
The dollar's recent strength has been explained by most market analysts as a result of the euro weakness rather than any fundamental support for the greenback. In fact, a closer look at the dollar's chart - particularly the dollar index - suggests the currency may be primed for a collapse. more
THE Greek government has been advised by British economists to leave the euro and default on its €300 billion (£255 billion) debt to save its economy. more
Apart from everything else that is going on in the World; The Oil Crisis, The Korean Crisis, The Euro Crisis, The Greek Crisis, The Spanish downgrade etc these indicators represent the greatest threat to the world economy.
It was these same indicators that heralded the Lehman induced Credit Crisis of 2008. The World overcame the freezing of the credit markets at that time through a massive infusions of Government money.
If the Credit markets freeze again there's no more Government money to solve the problem-that's it game over. If the credit markets freeze now it will be PERMANENT.
What can you expect, should this happen? Firstly the stock markets will shut down, then the banks will declare a holiday and you will be limited to the amount you can withdraw. The world economy and financial system will collapse in a matter of days. We will enter a new and totally alien world. It's not definate but these indicators point towards it. If they keep going up Collapse is unavoidable.
If you sense real danger get your money out of the bank and stock up on fuel and food. Watch the markets closely this week, check in at Business Insider several times a day(they're the best for up to the minute news). A full blown collapse is now a very real possibilty.
The new coalition Government is engulfed in its first crisis after Chief Secretary to the Treasury David Laws was forced to apologise over parliamentary expenses running into tens of thousands of pounds.
The Liberal Democrat Cabinet minister's job looked to be hanging in the balance after it emerged he channelled more than £40,000 of taxpayers' money to his long-term partner.
Senior US officials and military officers have been interviewed for the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War.
Members of the independent Iraq Inquiry Committee spoke to key players including Paul Bremer - who administrated the country as George Bush's "vice-consul" from 2003-04 - during a series of meetings in Washington and Boston last week.
Others questioned included the former US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and the leaders of the Iraq Survey Group which conducted a fruitless search for weapons of mass destruction in the aftermath of the 2003 war, David Kay and Charles Duelfer.
Three teenagers who killed a woman by pushing a firework through her letterbox following a string of bullying attacks on her son have been jailed.
Mary Fox, 59, died in the fire in Bodmin, Cornwall on Bonfire Night last year after the Silver Dart was thrust inside to "frighten" the family as part of a prank aimed at her son Raum, then 17, who escaped through a window of the blazing council home in Wallace Road.
Former deputy prime minister John Prescott, ex-Tory leader Michael Howard and former Northern Ireland first minister Ian Paisley are among more than 50 senior figures who have been elevated to the House of Lords.
Children's television presenter Floella Benjamin is being made a Liberal Democrat peer, while Sue Nye, a key adviser to Gordon Brown, will join for the Labour Party.
Eastern Europeans who sleep rough on the streets of central London could be deported in a clampdown on anti-social behaviour today.
Migrants from rough sleeping “hot spots” around Westminster and Victoria are being targeted after council chiefs said they had received “repeated complaints” from residents.
If the sleepers cannot prove they are seeking work they will be referred to the UK Border Agency for deportation. More....
A Saudi prince appeared in court today to deny murdering a servant in a five-star London hotel.
Saud bin Abdulaziz bin Nasir bin Abdulaziz al Saud, 33, is accused of beating 32-year-old Bandar Abdullah Abdulaziz at the Landmark Hotel in Marylebone.
The multi-millionaire also denied inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent on his servant on January 22, three weeks before the killing.
Al Saud spoke only to confirm his name and enter his not guilty pleas on both counts at the High Court. Mr Justice Bean remanded him in custody until his trial on 4 October at the Old Bailey.
Friends have paid tribute to a schoolboy who died after jumping into a deepwater Thames dock to cool off on one of the hottest days of the year.
Kafi Ibrahim, 12, from Deptford, is believed to have drowned while swimming with friends at Rainbow Quay in Greenland Dock, Rotherhithe. He was a Year 8 pupil at Prendergast-Ladywell Fields College, formerly known as Crofton School, in Brockley.
An illegal immigrant who conned the former Attorney General into hiring her as a cleaner has been jailed for a total of eight months at the Old Bailey.
Loloahi Tapui, who had overstayed her student visa by four years, duped former chief law officer Baroness Scotland into hiring her as her housekeeper for just £6 per hour.
The 27-year-old Tongan was found guilty of fraud last month at Southwark Crown Court in London. She was bailed to Thursday.
Former spy chief Dame Pauline Neville-Jones is carrying out a review of security for the 2012 London Games, Sports and Olympic Minister Hugh Robertson has announced.
The fact that Dame Pauline, a former chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, has been asked to lead the Home Office security review shows "just how serious" an issue Olympics safety is for the Government, Mr Robertson said.
He said: "The new Government regards this (the London 2012 Games) as a top priority. The Home Office has announced they will review security planning - that is as much about procedure as build.
A man has been charged with the murders of three prostitutes.
Stephen Griffiths, 40, was charged with the murders of Suzanne Blamires, Shelley Armitage and Susan Rushworth.
The remains of Ms Blamires, 36, were found in the River Aire at Shipley on Tuesday. She disappeared from Bradford last week.
At a press conference outside Trafalgar House police station in Bradford, Peter Mann of the Crown Prosecution Service said there was sufficient evidence to charge Griffiths with all three murders.
Big rises in public sector pay in the eurozone contributed to collapses in EU countries' public finances, a senior European Central Bank official said today.
ECB executive board member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi said average eurozone public sector pay had risen 36% in the last 10 years compared with a 24% rise in the private sector.
“The pay trend has strongly contributed to the deterioration of public finances. If public sector salaries had increased in line with private ones, Greece's deficit last year would have been more than three percentage points of GDP less,” he wrote in Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper.
The pay rises over the last 10 years have not only weighed on public finances but also on the growth potential of the European economy, he said: “Without a rapid and drastic reversal of the trend public finances will not become healthy again and growth will not pick-up.”
A university student suspected of murdering three prostitutes in Bradford was arrested after detectives obtained CCTV footage of the moment when a killer fired a crossbow bolt into a woman’s head.
The film, obtained from a block of flats, shows Suzanne Blamires being chased along a corridor by a man who attacked and knocked her to the ground.
The BBC’s expenses policy contains “overly generous” allowances that would “leave the BBC open to criticism if scrutinised by the man on the Clapham omnibus”, according to a report.
The review by the auditor KPMG for the BBC Trust, the corporation’s governing body, found that rules allowing staff to claim taxis home late at night or early in the morning for journeys of up to 40 miles “may not be in line with current best practice”.
Another senior Tory has joined the party's growing backbench revolt over proposed rises in Capital Gains Tax (CGT), warning it risked "punishing the virtuous" and "destroying aspiration".
Former shadow home secretary David Davis argued such a move may not even raise more money, citing evidence from the US which shows a rate cut actually boosts public coffers.
His comments come amid fears the new coalition Government could raise the current 18% levy on certain windfalls such as share and second home sales to the same level as income tax - up to 40% and 50%.
Talks aimed at resolving the bitter British Airways cabin crew dispute have been adjourned.
Chief executive Willie Walsh met with the joint leaders of the Unite union, Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson, in an attempt to break the deadlocked row which has caused travel problems for thousands of passengers.
The two sides held talks for over six hours and it is believed they will resume negotiations on Friday.
BP has said everything was going as planned as the oil giant began pumping heavy mud into a leaking Gulf of Mexico well.
The "top kill" procedure is the company's boldest attempt yet to plug the gush that has spewed millions of gallons of oil over the last five weeks.
BP hoped the mud could overpower the steady stream of oil, but chief executive Tony Hayward said it would be at least 24 hours before officials knew whether the attempt worked.
Doctors will be allowed to forcibly sedate the 55-year-old woman in her own home and transport her to hospital for surgery. She will then be operated on, despite having asked not to undergo surgery for her cancer, and could then be forced to remain on a hospital ward afterwards.
The case – only the second ever in the little-known Court of Protection to be made public - sparked an intense ethical and legal debate last night.
Some of the world’s most endangered rainforests will be saved under a $1 billion deal inspired by the Prince of Wales, due to be announced today.
Indonesia, the country with the highest rate of deforestation, will sign an agreement under which it will stop issuing new licences for forest clearance and establish a new unit to tackle illegal logging.
Former cabinet minister Patricia Hewitt has been appointed to a £150,000-a-year directorship with BT.
The firm, which is facing possible strike action over pay claims by its staff, made Ms Hewitt a "senior independent director".
The former trade and industry secretary was earlier this year caught up in the "lobbygate" affair when she and fellow Labour MPs Geoff Hoon and Stephen Byers were caught on camera discussing their possible hire by lobbyists. More...
Travellers were caught in a terrifying mid-air drama as a London to Los Angeles flight plunged when it hit severe turbulence.
Four passengers suffered broken bones and a flight attendant sprained her ankle as they were thrown around the cabin of the United AirlinesBoeing 777. One person on board described the drama as "very, very scary".
An animal rights activist has vowed to carry on her protest outside ITV's studios after being hit on the head with a bottle thrown by a stranger.
Wendy Wells, 49, a mother of one from Hackney, has been living in a tent on the Southbank for more than a week to protest against alleged animal cruelty during I'm a Celebrity... bushtucker trials.
She said: “He [her assailant] said his wife was a fan of the programme and shouted at me, Why are you doing this?'.”
The man had fled by the time police arrived.
Doctors at A&E advised her to go home and rest but she refused.
The family of a London graduate killed on a film set in India have spoken of their distress after the movie director blamed for her death walked free from court.
Nadia Khan, 26, was struck by a train in Mumbai six years ago yesterday on her first day working as an assistant director on the Bollywood film, Mumbai Central. Kaizad Gustad, 42, was found guilty of causing Ms Khan's death by a “rash and negligent act” and was sentenced to a month's imprisonment.
Britain is prepared to press ahead alone with a tax on banks to insure against future collapses, new Business Secretary Vince Cable has said.
He was speaking in Brussels on Tuesday on the eve of the launch of European Commission proposals for an EU-wide levy to form a multibillion-pound bailout fund.
Mr Cable said support for such a scheme was already part of the coalition Government agreement, adding: "The more countries that join, the better."
A Briton arrested in Thailand after being filmed inciting people to burn down a shopping centre during the Red Shirt protests has claimed he is “being stitched up”.
Jeff Savage, 48, from Tonbridge in Kent, was captured on video exhorting protesters to set fire to the Central World shopping centre in central Bangkok, days before it was torched and destroyed.
The Commons expenses watchdog is to hand MPs up to £4,000 more cash up front in a bid to calm complaints about the new system.
And the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) has also abandoned plans to automatically treat 15% of phone calls as private and refuse to reimburse them.
Ipsa is in charge of a tougher new system introduced in the wake of the pay and perks scandal which rocked Westminster and provoked public anger last year.
David Cameron faces a serious test of Conservative backbench opinion of the coalition deal with the Liberal Democrats when his MPs choose a new "shop steward".
The vote for the chairmanship of the influential 1922 Committee is expected to be close.
And the Prime Minister's retreat on surprise moves that could have given ministers and whips a vote may favour a candidate seen as a potential focal point for dissent.
Investigations are continuing into the cause of a crash which killed two schoolchildren and a pensioner.
Kieran Goulding, 15, and Chloe Walker, who was celebrating her 16th birthday, died when the bus taking them home from school hit a car on the A66 near Keswick, Cumbria.
Both youngsters were studying at Keswick School in the Lake District and were on their way home on a 49-seater coach on Monday afternoon.
The smash also claimed the life of Patrick Short, 68, from Braithwaite, who was behind the wheel of the only other vehicle involved.
Donations of money to British universities have exceeded £500 million for the first time as more graduates and philanthropists respond to campus fundraising campaigns.
Despite the decline in charitable giving during the recession, the number of people and organisations donating to universities rose by 12 per cent to exceed 163,000 in 2008-09, according to research by the Ross Group of university fund-raisers and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.
More than one in three social workers and police officers have felt powerless to intervene in cases of suspected child neglect, a survey has found.
Half said earlier intervention was needed to ensure cases of possible neglect are dealt with more effectively, according to research for the charity Action for Children.
Some 41% of the professionals said they were under greater pressure now to intervene when children are being neglected than five years ago and 16% reported encountering more cases than last year.
"My Government’s legislative programme will be based upon the principles of freedom, fairness and responsibility...
The tax and benefits system will be made fairer and simpler... People will be supported into work with sanctions for those who refuse available jobs and the timetable for increasing the State Pension Age will be reviewed."
Thus spake Her Majesty today.
As we mentioned a couple of days ago, the welfare bill is now running at £200bn pa, around 15% of GDP, and increasing rapidly. The chart above shows how it has soared over the last century since the Liberals began the huge expansion of welfare just before WW1. More...
Dr Wakefield, the doctor who was struck off this week, for condemning the MMR vaccine, vows make public all the documentation he has uncovered during his legal battle with the British government.
He says that now that he is not constrained by legal processes, he can expose the government's shenanigans and its criminal links with British Big Pharma.
Dr Wakefield makes his entry at about 2.5 minutes in.
Solar Cycle: CHICAGO – A new "Little Ice Age" could begin in just four years, predicted Habibullo Abdussamatov, the head of space research at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia.
Abdussamatov was speaking yesterday at the Heartland Institute's Fourth International Conference on Climate Change in Chicago, which began Sunday and ends today.
The Little Ice Age, which occurred after an era known in scientific circles as the Medieval Warm Period, is typically defined as a period of about 200 years, beginning around 1650 and extending through 1850. More...
The Register: Each and every member of the European Parliament (MEP) may soon receive a brand-spanking new, "magical and revolutionary" Apple iPad.
And no, they wouldn't pay for them out of their own pockets. According to The Times, the 736 MEPs would each receive an iPad as part of a £4.3m ($6.2m) taxpayer-funded "IT mobility project".
But the iPad purchases would be just a small slice of that pie: even if the MEPs decided to gift themselves with the juiciest iPad, the 64GB Wi-Fi + 3G, 736 of those £699 magical and revolutionary devices would suck up only a bit over a half-million pounds. More...
NaturalNews: The H.J. Heinz company, most famous for producing Heinz brand ketchup, has been reprimanded by the United Kingdom's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over an ad for its Nurture-brand infant formula.
According to the ASA, Heinz made "unsubstantiated" and "unacceptable" claims that its product could support the growth of infant brains, bodies and immune systems. More...
Guardian: The Red Cross in Afghanistan has been teaching the Taliban basic first aid and giving insurgents medical equipment so that fighters wounded during battles with Nato and Afghan government forces can be treated in the field, it was revealed today.
More than 70 members of the "armed opposition" received training in April, the Red Cross said, in a move likely to anger the government of Hamid Karzai, which is losing large numbers of police and soldiers in insurgent attacks. More...
Telegraph Blogs: I must be doing something right. In her column in today’s Guardian, Polly Toynbee takes a swipe at me in the course of attacking the coalition’s educational reforms. “Forget the things the chattering classes never knew about,” she says, referring to George Osborne’s decision to axe the Every Chid a Reader and Every Child Counts schemes, “and focus on parents creating their own little schools to suit their foibles or their faiths or the Toby Young school of ethics or whatever.” More...
Business Insider: A memo discovered by The Daily Beast shows that BP blithely chose cost over safety for workers.
The memo, which was sent in 2002, describes plant construction in terms of the Three Little Pigs fable. BP concluded that a brick home presented a better cost-value ratio than a blast resistant home.
A BP spokesperson said to The Daily Beast that the company has "fundamentally changed the culture of BP" since a rig explosion in 2005. More...
UK News Network: The former Africa Minister who has also held the role of deputy secretary-general of the UN, Lord Malloch-Brown, has taken up a role as advisor to an Ethiopian oil company.
He will be paid in shares for his latest role at the Ethiopian firm rather than a flat salary for his role at Southwest Energy.
Big Brother Watch: As reported today by STV today, 18 police officers in Aberdeen are to wear small CCTV cameras mounted on their shoulders from next month:
Chief Inspector Nick Topping said potential offenders are more likely to behave if they know they are being filmed.
“Not only will they provide potentially crucial evidence, they will be a deterrent and make it less likely that offenders will deny their involvement in crime”, he said.
More CCTV and more surveillance. If someone is guilty they should be proven guilty by their actions, not by covert camera recording. More...
Union leaders have issued a fresh plea to resolve the bitter British Airways cabin crew dispute after claiming that a series of strikes had now cost the airline £63 million.
Tony Woodley, joint leader of Unite, also warned that BA will lose business when passengers "look elsewhere" for flights during the peak summer period.
Union members were on strike for the second day of a five-day walkout, claiming the action was being strongly supported, with shorthaul and longhaul flights being grounded.
BA countered that it had more crew than it needed to operate its contingency schedule and as a result was adding flights.
A local authority has been found not guilty of breaching health and safety laws after a 14-year-old schoolboy died on a caving trip.
Joe Lister drowned when water swept through Manchester Hole Cave in the Yorkshire Dales during a school trip in November 2005.
North Yorkshire County Council, which owns and operates the outdoor education centre involved in the trip, has been cleared of two charges of failing to ensure the health and safety of its staff and others. A jury at Leeds Crown Court took around nine hours to reach the not guilty verdicts.
Daily Mail: A group of travellers has set up camp with 30 caravans in a school's playing field, forcing hundreds of children to stay at home.
Education bosses immediately set up an exclusion zone at Smithills School, Bolton, after the extraordinary convoy moved in on Sunday evening.
Around 300 Year 8 pupils have been told to work from home because their classrooms are next to the playing fields and it was feared the travellers' presence could cause disruption to classes. More...
Jamaican police say at least 26 civilians and four members of the security forces have died as police and soldiers battle defenders of a powerful Jamaican gang leader sought by the US.
Thousands of heavily armed forces are raiding the capital's most violent down town slums in a hunt for underworld boss Christopher Coke, known as "Dudus."
Apologies to regular readers for lack of posts. This is due to circumstances beyond my control as I'm having severe personal difficulties and ongoing disasters that for the moment require my full attention. Is there anybody else out there that will be willing to share the burden of searching and posting news? please email if you can help. Hopefully I will have resolved these problems by early next week and can resume posting, but there is a possiblity that I may be soon be enjoying a 3 month respite from posting at her majesties pleasure. That's life. If I'm not posting it's not because I don't want to it's because I'm unable. Best Wishes ukws
Subrosa: Today was the State Opening of Parliament which all elected MPs should attend. Yet there was one very obvious absentee.
Gordon Brown is the MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath yet he was nowhere to be seen. I'm informed he's been out and about in Fife so why couldn't he not represent the people who elected him at this traditional ceremony? More...
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The myriad of facts, conjecture, perspectives, viewpoints, opinions, analyses, and information in the articles, stories and commentaries posted on this site range from cutting edge hard news and comment to extreme and unusual perspectives. We choose not to sweep uncomfortable material under the rug - where it can grow and fester. We choose not to censor skewed logic and uncomfortable rhetoric. These things reflect the world as it now is - for better and worse. We present multiple facts, perspectives, viewpoints, opinions, analyses, and information.
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Merry Christmas
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My apologies for not posting for the past few months but I’ve had eye
problems and being on the computer or iPad for any length of time is nigh
impossi...
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Although we are powerless to stop the destruction of our society, we can at
least chronicle for the information of future generations how it happened,
a bi...
Amusing Bunni: Urgent Update
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*I can't believe I almost missed this.......*
*AMUSING BUNNI - CAROL MACKIE*
*Re-posted from Opie's blog.......*
*(5/5/13) I will be on an airplane to...
A plea
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A plea to both of my readers (hi, Mum). I have been quiet for a while,
which is partly due to connection problems but mostly because early in the
New Year ...
To the Fatuous Twat in the seat of POWER!
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*HEY FATUOUS ONE! look below your game has been unveiled and you can no
longer hide behind your pretense that nothing is wrong in the world you are
intent...
