Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Britain: VAT to 20%?
February 13th, 2010Via: Times Online: A rise in VAT is looming whichever party wins the general election, as Labour and the Conservatives draw up plans to balance Britain’s books. Alistair Darling and George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, are both considering raising VAT to as high as 20 per cent — the European average — from the current […]
700 Military Bases Spread Across Afghanistan
February 12th, 2010Via: Alternet: Today, according to official sources, approximately 700 bases of every size dot the Afghan countryside, and more, like the one in Shinwar, are under construction or soon will be as part of a base-building boom that began last year. Existing in the shadows, rarely reported on and little talked about, this base-building program […]
U.S. Dollar Rallies After China Increases Reserve Requirements
February 12th, 2010Via: Market Watch: Gold and other metals futures fell on Friday, as China’s hike of reserve requirement ratios triggered a rally in the U.S. dollar and a sell-off in commodities. Gold for April delivery, the most actively traded contract, dropped $9.90, or 0.9%, to $1,084.80 an ounce in electronic trading on Globex. The People’s Bank […]
How Goldman Sachs Helped Greece to Mask its True Debt
February 11th, 2010Via: Spiegel: Goldman Sachs helped the Greek government to mask the true extent of its deficit with the help of a derivatives deal that legally circumvented the EU Maastricht deficit rules. At some point the so-called cross currency swaps will mature, and swell the country’s already bloated deficit. Greeks aren’t very welcome in the Rue […]
Just Released 9/11 Images Taken by NYPD Helicopter Pilot
February 11th, 2010Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth Niels Harrit: “Once you have realized this, there is no way back.” Via: Telegraph: The images were taken by a police helicopter pilot, Detective Greg Semendinger, who was first into the air after the attacks and on the scene within minutes. Mr Semendinger took the pictures as his co-pilot […]
Family Spends $5000 Per Year on Screen Related Services
February 10th, 2010You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it. —Morpheus, The Matrix Don’t breathe the air, don’t drink the water, don’t eat the food, but, being saturated with endless electronic […]
Senior Chinese Military Officers: Sell U.S. Bonds
February 9th, 2010Via: Reuters: Senior Chinese military officers have proposed that their country boost defense spending, adjust PLA deployments, and possibly sell some U.S. bonds to punish Washington for its latest round of arms sales to Taiwan. The calls for broad retaliation over the planned U.S. weapons sales to the disputed island came from officers at China’s […]
Canada: Sales Halt Ordered for Thousands of Natural Health Products
February 9th, 2010Via: National Post: Makers of natural-health products say they are bracing for widespread layoffs and millions of dollars in losses after Canada’s pharmacy regulators issued a surprise directive recently urging druggists to stop selling unlicensed natural remedies. The order affects thousands of herbal treatments, multi-vitamins and other products, most of them waiting for approval from […]
Lies, Damn Lies, and Avatar Box Office “Records”
February 9th, 2010Via: Los Angeles Times: Everyone in the world in the past couple of days has been writing about how “Avatar” has now surpassed “Titanic” to become the highest-grossing film of all time. But most of the stories have left out the tricky part: You can only make the claim for “Avatar” being the all-time box […]
Biggest Bubble in History Is Growing Every Day
February 8th, 2010Via: Bloomberg: Real estate, stocks, credit. China sure has its share of bubbles. Oddly, little attention is paid to the biggest one of all. China’s currency reserves grew by more than the gross domestic product of Norway in 2009. Its $2.4 trillion of reserves is a bubble all its own, one growing before our eyes […]
