Tony Blair Visited Libya to Lobby for JP Morgan
September 19th, 2011Via: Telegraph:
A senior executive with the Libyan Investment Authority, the $70 billion fund used to invest the country’s oil money abroad, said Mr Blair was one of three prominent western businessmen who regularly dealt with Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the former leader.
Saif al-Islam and his close aides oversaw the activities of the fund, and often directed its officials on where they should make its investments, he said.
The executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, said officials were told the “ideas” they were ordered to pursue came from Mr Blair as well as one other British businessman and a former American diplomat.
“Tony Blair’s visits were purely lobby visits for banking deals with JP Morgan,” he said.
He said that unlike some other deals – notably some investments run by the US bank Goldman Sachs – JP Morgan’s had never turned “bad”.
But he added: “Saif and his father played these people like musical chairs. At the end the reputation of the LIA was really damaged because of these interventions.”
Documents found by The Sunday Telegraph published this weekend showed Mr Blair had made at least three visits to Tripoli, twice in the lead-up to the release of the alleged Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Megrahi in 2008 and 2009 and once last year. On the first two occasions he was flown to the country on planes arranged by Col Gaddafi.
Quebec: “We finance organized crime with taxpayers money to the tune of $4-billion a year”
September 17th, 2011It sounds like there are some admirers of Boston’s Big Dig up there.
Via: Globe and Mail:
The allegations of rot have dripped out piecemeal for years, and now they’ve been confirmed by investigators in black-and-white: Organized crime’s grip on the Quebec construction industry has created a system of corruption and influence-peddling in the awarding of lucrative government contracts.
The leaked report of a government-ordered probe fell like a bombshell on the province on Thursday, dealing a serious blow to Liberal Premier Jean Charest as he tries to persuade a dubious public that his anti-corruption measures are enough to clean house.
The report from the probe, headed by former Montreal police chief Jacques Duchesneau, outlined a covert culture of intimidation, fear and illegal practices reaching from construction and engineering firms into political parties through cash donations.
Research Credit: LDXX
Mayor Bloomberg: Jobs Crisis Could Spark Riots
September 17th, 2011Via: CNN:
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is worried that high U.S. unemployment could lead to the same kind of riots here that have swept through Europe and North Africa.
“You have a lot of kids graduating college, [who] can’t find jobs,” said Bloomberg, during his weekly radio show on Friday. “That’s what happened in Cairo. That’s what happened in Madrid. You don’t want those kinds of riots here.”
That was the mayor’s response when asked about the poverty rate, which rose to 15.1% in 2010, its highest level since 1993, according to census data released Tuesday. About 46.2 million people are now living in poverty, 2.6 million more than last year.
“The public is not happy,” he said. “The public knows there is something wrong in this country, and there is. The bottom line is that they’re upset.”
Riots have gripped various countries in European cities, including Athens and London, fueled by young people infuriated by high unemployment and austerity measures, which in some cases has led to looting. High unemployment among youth is also one of the driving forces behind the Arab Spring, as impoverished protestors in North Africa and the Middle East rose up against their heavy-handed governments.
“The damage to a generation that can’t find jobs will go on for many, many years,” said Bloomberg.
CALIFORNIA: 12 YEAR OLD CHILDREN CAN GIVE CONSENT TO BE VACCINATED
September 17th, 2011Even Californians who vaccinate their children should see this as a slap in the face. What else will the state have your children consent to?
Via: Mercola:
The state of California has just passed bill AB499, which will permit minor children as young as 12 years old to be vaccinated with sexually transmitted disease vaccines like Gardasil without parental knowledge or parental consent. This means that if you live in California, school or medical personnel would be allowed to vaccinate your child against an STD without your ever knowing it.
At issue, of course, is whether 12-year-olds are mature enough to fully analyze the benefits versus risks of vaccination (or any medical treatment for that matter), or recognize the alternatives to STD prevention, such as abstinence. Meanwhile, a child could suffer a vaccine reaction and the parent, not knowing the child had been vaccinated, could mistake it for the flu or another condition, delaying getting help until it is too late.
But, perhaps the greatest issue of all is whether this law violates your basic right to be involved in important decisions regarding your child’s health.
Research Credit: noncompliant
U.S. Taxpayers Could Be On Hook For Europe Bailout
September 17th, 2011Via: MSNBC:
The U.S. is coming to Europe’s financial rescue.
So far, America’s role is fairly limited. But if the crisis continues to grow and the U.S. takes on a wider role, U.S. consumers and taxpayers could feel a bigger impact. The biggest exposure could come from America’s status as the single largest source of money for the International Monetary Fund.
The latest round of American financial assistance came Thursday with a promise by the Federal Reserve to swap as many dollars for euros as European bankers need. In the short run, those transactions won’t have much impact because the central banks are simply swapping currencies of equal value. If the move helps avert a wider crisis, it could help spare the global economy from another recession.
But over the long term, consumers could feel the impact of central bankers flooding the financial system with cash, according to John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics.
“This is a lender of last resort function,” he told CNBC. “With the dollar injections that the Fed has done, it’s like giving a patient medicine with really bad side effects.” Ryding said the bad side effect in the U.S. has been inflation, which has picked up to 3.8 percent year over year.
Fed policymakers meet next week to decide whether the flagging U.S. economy needs another round of easy-money measures that could include buying more Treasury bonds to push more cash into the financial system.
APMEX Terminating Affiliate Program
September 17th, 2011APMEX informed their affiliates (including Cryptogon) that their affiliate program will end on 22 September. Some of you have been buying precious metals from them, so I just thought I’d let you know that if you want future purchases to earn Cryptogon a commission, the 22nd is the last day.
From APMEX:
After careful consideration, American Precious Metals Exchange, Inc. has made the decision to draw down the APMEX Affiliate Program. As of September 22, 2011 the program will be closed. As our business priorities continue to evolve we may consider re-engaging in an affiliate initiative in the future. We wish all of our affiliates nothing but the best in their future endeavors.
Europe’s Debt Crisis Prompts Central Banks to Provide Dollar Liquidity
September 16th, 2011Via: Guardian:
Fears of a deepening of Europe’s debt crisis have prompted the world’s leading central banks to pump US dollars into the financial system, in a co-ordinated action designed to boost market confidence.
The Bank of England joined the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Swiss National Bank and the Bank of Japan on Thursday to announce that they would flood money markets with dollars over the coming months.
The move, on the third anniversary of the collapse of the US investment bank Lehman Brothers, sent shares soaring in banks heavily exposed to debt default by Greece and the other struggling members of the 17-nation eurozone. The euro, which had been falling in recent days, rebounded, rising roughly 1% in European trading on Thursday.
Speaking in Washington, Christine Lagarde, the president of the International Monetary Fund, said: “They [the banks] are getting together and acting together. To me, that is the most important message.”
Lagarde warned that more action was needed.
“We have entered into a dangerous phase of the crisis,” she said. There is still a path to recovery, Lagarde said, but it is a “narrow” one.
Under the terms of the deal, banks will be able to bid for unlimited amounts of US dollars at fixed interest rates in three separate auctions. The first of these will be on 12 October.
Nick Parsons, head of strategy at National Australia Bank, said the decision to provide unlimited liquidity well into 2012 was a big show of support to the global banking system.
But he added: “If Greece were to default, an announcement that there would be unlimited liquidity available from central banks is one of the things you would want to have in place beforehand.”
NFL Wants Pat-Downs from Ankles Up at All Stadiums
September 16th, 2011Via: USA Today:
The NFL wants all fans patted down from the ankles up this season to improve fan safety.
Under the new “enhanced” pat-down procedures, the NFL wants all 32 clubs to search fans from the ankles to the knees as well as the waist up. Previously, security guards only patted down fans from the waist up while looking for booze, weapons or other banned items.
The stricter physical screening policy impacts the 16.6 million fans expected to attend live regular season NFL games this season. The more thorough searches will spell longer lines for ticket-holding fans seeking entry to games. It’s sure to raise the ire of some fans who consider it an invasion of privacy.
Gold: Weekly Interval
September 16th, 2011Warning: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
On gold, I’m focusing on the weekly interval after the unwinding of the recent double top on the daily.
As of now, there is no damage to the long term bullish technical picture on gold. It’s debatable where long term damage would occur, but the three supporting trendlines on the chart below offer rough guidelines. Nearer term, I think support is likely ahead as the relevant Fibonacci retracement levels are reached.
Spot Gold, Weekly Interval
On the standard retracement levels, I see the 50% at ~$1700 as having a better chance of providing a good swing low than either the 38.2% at ~$1751 or the 61.8% at ~$1647.
A move below the 61.8% at ~$1647 sets up the trendline support that’s about to pass through $1600.
What Will Video Games Will Be Like in a Few Decades?
September 16th, 2011Here’s an example of a video game that I thought was fun when I was young: Choplifter (1982):
Now, nearly three decades later, take a look at some gameplay footage from the upcoming, Battlefield 3:
As I was watching that Battlefield 3 trailer, I found myself squinting, blinking and setting the volume to mute. (Maybe my parents would have done the same thing if I had tried to sit them down to play Choplifter back then.) But look at the difference between Choplifter and Battlefield 3. Woh!
This led me to wonder what video games might be like in another 30 years? (Assuming humans aren’t extinct, of course, and that indulgences like video games are still common.)
For me, the big question is not so much about the nature of the games, but whether the action will take place on a computer screen at all, or in the mind’s eye, so to speak, using some form of neurocomputing interface. Sci-fi has been prepping us for this for a long time with films like The Matrix, 13th Floor, Avatar, Surrogates, Inception, and Source Code.
What do you think? Is a Matrix-like neurocomputing interface any more likely in the next 30 years than other sci-fi staples like teleportation (not quantum teleportation, which is real) and time travel?
