Obama Nominates Goldman Sachs Executive for State Department’s Undersecretary for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs
July 20th, 2009If the Obamatards think I’m enjoying this, they’re wrong.
Via: Wall Street Journal:
The Obama administration picked Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Vice Chairman Robert Hormats to be the State Department’s undersecretary for economic, energy and agricultural affairs, the White House announced Friday.
Mr. Hormats, if confirmed by the Senate, will buttress Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign to use economic, trade and environmental issues to redefine Washington’s relationship with nations such as China, India and Russia, said administration officials.
Mr. Hormats also will play a central role in managing Washington’s “strategic and economic dialogue” with Beijing, a diplomatic exchange overseen by Mrs. Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. The first Obama administration U.S.-China dialogue is slated for this month in Washington, according to the State Department.
Mr. Hormats “will be key in Secretary Clinton’s efforts to bring more visibility to the work of the department on economic matters,” a senior U.S. official said Friday.
Mr. Hormats said he couldn’t comment — standard practice for nominees before and during the confirmation process.
Before joining Goldman Sachs, Mr. Hormats had a career in public service, holding posts in Republican and Democratic administrations.
He served during the 1970s as an economic adviser in the White House to former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski. Mr. Hormats helped to manage the Nixon administration’s opening of diplomatic relations with China’s communist government.
EU666 Biodefense Stockpile and US666 Biodefense Stockpile
July 20th, 2009This one is absolutely exploding around the intertubes this morning.
I don’t know where it started but someone found a datasheet about a vaccine called Prepandrix that’s made by GlaxoSmithKline.
This thing contains the following entries:
Regulatory/Status Index:
biodefense stockpile (U.S.)
biodefense stockpile, European countries
controlled/gov’t distribution in European counties
controlled/gov’t distribution in U.S.
EU200 Currently Approved in EU
EU666 Biodefense stockpile
UM100 Controlled/Gov’t Distribution in US
US666 Biodefense stockpile
EM160 Controlled/Gov’t Distribution in EU
Now, I’m not taking any vaccine regardless of what number sequences are associated with it, but let’s clear something up:
PREPANDRIX IS A BIRD FLU VACCINE. Bird flu. H5N1.
Not swine flu, H1N1.
The EU666 and US666 status codes are also associated with a smallpox vaccine, and on a more individual basis, about two dozen other substances.
Maybe it’s interesting that vaccines that are stockpiled for “biodefense” purposes carry the 666 designation, but for purposes of the swine flue H1N1 vaccination that will be coming out in a few months, this US666 and EU666 wouldn’t apply because it hasn’t been stockpiled; it’s new.
Out of curiosity, I tried to determine what EU666 and US666 mean beyond the phrase “Biodefense stockpile” that appears next to the entries.
This is the reference for the Regulatory/Status index codes.
Here are the entries for biodefense stockpiles for the U.S. and European countries:
biodefense stockpile (U.S.) — 104; 105; 321; 392; 393; 394; 395; 396; 446; 447; 448; 450; 451; 452; 573; 574; 575; 618; 619; 650
biodefense stockpile, European countries — 312; 392; 393; 449; 452
There’s no reference for 666 listed. I don’t know why the 666 code isn’t listed here, but when you click on any of those codes above and then look down, though the text, it says US666 Biodefense stockpile, or EU666 Biodefense stockpile or both on all of those.
I don’t know what the implications of all of that are, but there you have it.
White House Delaying Release of Budget Update
July 20th, 2009WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
The U.S Dollar Index is sharply lower on this news, and gold is sharply higher. This news actually broke the dollar down and out of its recent range.
Via: AP:
The White House is being forced to acknowledge the wide gap between its once-upbeat predictions about the economy and today’s bleak landscape.
The administration’s annual midsummer budget update is sure to show higher deficits and unemployment and slower growth than projected in President Barack Obama’s budget in February and update in May, and that could complicate his efforts to get his signature health care and global-warming proposals through Congress.
The release of the update — usually scheduled for mid-July — has been put off until the middle of next month, giving rise to speculation the White House is delaying the bad news at least until Congress leaves town on its August 7 summer recess.
The administration is pressing for votes before then on its $1 trillion health care initiative, which lawmakers are arguing over how to finance.
The White House budget director, Peter Orszag, said on Sunday that the administration believes the “chances are high” of getting a health care bill by then. But new analyses showing runaway costs are jeopardizing Senate passage.
“Instead of a dream, this routine report could be a nightmare,” Tony Fratto, a former Treasury Department official and White House spokesman under President George W. Bush, said of the delayed budget update. “There are some things that can’t be escaped.”
The administration earlier this year predicted that unemployment would peak at about 9 percent without a big stimulus package and 8 percent with one. Congress did pass a $787 billion two-year stimulus measure, yet unemployment soared to 9.5 percent in June and appears headed for double digits.
Obama’s current forecast anticipates 3.2 percent growth next year, then 4 percent or higher growth from 2011 to 2013. Private forecasts are less optimistic, especially for next year.
Any downward revision in growth or revenue projections would mean that budget deficits would be far higher than the administration is now suggesting.
Setting the stage for bleaker projections, Vice President Joe Biden recently conceded, “We misread how bad the economy was” in January. Obama modified that by suggesting the White House had “incomplete” information.
The new budget update comes as the public and members of Congress are becoming increasingly anxious over Obama’s economic policies.
Dollar Finally Breaking Down
July 20th, 2009WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
After several weeks of sideways slop, the USDX is finally falling over. While it still needs to clear a couple of lows to the downside to really build some momentum, I thought I’d provide a big picture look at the challenges ahead for dollar shorts and gold longs.
In summary: If the dollar takes this leg down, don’t get too happy just yet. While there’s some decent money to be made between here and the low 70s, I’d get really flat around 71 on the USDX. The nightmare scenario is that gold closes in on $1032, but doesn’t clear it, and then USDX somehow bounces around 71. Strong pivots off these levels would be an “oh shit” moment for gold longs (double top) and dollar bears (double bottom).
I’m not saying that gold is going to double top and that the dollar is going to double bottom, but that’s a very possible scenario for gold longs and dollar shorts. The Them must keep gold under $1032 and the USDX above 70.792. Those are probably “THE” technical support and resistance levels of a generation. Those silly numbers mark out the lines between condition yellow and condition red in the international economic system. The people who run the show will do anything to keep those numbers intact. Nothing—and I mean nothing—will of off the table if USDX gets down around 71 again.
As usual, I won’t be selling even one gram of gold. However, I might consider buying some puts on GLD as a hedge if we approach the event horizon of $1032/70.792.
I’ll start monitoring the data very closely if we get near “THE” numbers. I can tell you now, the thing to look for will be divergence patterns on indicators such as slow stochastic, RSI and MACD in the daily and longer intraday periods. Perhaps, either gold or the dollar will lead the way through the corresponding critical level, giving us a hint as to what the other is going to.
The next few months are going to be extremely interesting.
Cryptogon Reader Sends Contribution
July 20th, 2009MW sent $20. Thank you.
Cliff Stearns vs. Henry Paulson
July 20th, 2009In a sane world, Paulson would be sitting in a cage and wearing an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs as he gave this testimony before congress.
School Kids May Have to Get up to 4 Flu Shots in the Fall
July 20th, 2009Via: Palm Beach Post:
School children who have never had a flu shot may need to get vaccinated four times in the fall – twice for seasonal flu, twice for pandemic swine flu – officials at the CDC told health professionals on Wednesday.
Most everyone else should expect three shots.
Five manufacturers are now making vaccines against the pandemic H1N1 swine flu virus, said Dr. Tom T. Shimabukuro at the CDC’s Immunization Services Division, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
They are well on their way to having between 40 million and 160 million doses of egg-based vaccine available in the United States by October, added Dr. Pascale Wortley the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s pandemic vaccine coordinator.
On the high end, that would be enough vaccine for everyone in the United States who wanted it by January. But on the low end, it would require prioritizing distribution to health care workers and those at higher risk for complications – including children, pregnant women, and people with chronic diseases and asthma, Wortley said.
“This vaccine campaign will unfold quite differently than seasonal flu,” said Wortley, in a conference call with health care professionals nationwide on Wednesday. “This is a huge endeavor we’re gearing up for.”
U.N. Will Not to Name Culprits in Bhutto Assassination
July 20th, 2009Via: Reuters:
The U.N. team conducting an inquiry into the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto will not seek to name culprits, the commission’s head said Friday, lowering expectations from the outset.
The three-member team arrived in Pakistan Thursday for its first visit as part of a probe into the circumstances surrounding the attack that killed Bhutto after an election campaign rally in Rawalpindi city on December 27, 2007.
Conspiracy theories abound over who was behind the assassination, but the head of the commission, Chile’s U.N. ambassador Heraldo Munoz, sought to play down expectations about what it would ultimately publish in its findings at the end of December.
“If you think that there will be smoking guns in terms of names, our report is not that,” Munoz told reporters in the Pakistani capital.
“We will try to establish the truth….anything else is beyond our realm,” he said.
Kiwi Rapper Gets it Right: NZTrillion, Say No to the Vaccine
July 20th, 2009Nice one.
Youtube: youtube.com/user/NZtrillion
Home: trillion.co.nz
BA and Virgin to Stop Suspected Swine Flu Victims from Flying
July 19th, 2009Via: Guardian:
Passengers with swine flu will be stopped from boarding flights, two major airlines confirmed today, as the Department of Health warned tourists who contract the illness abroad not to travel home until their symptoms have gone.
Both British Airways and Virgin Atlantic said they had provided check-in staff and cabin crew with guidance on how to act if they believe a passenger is unwell. Medical advice would be taken to assess the condition of passengers exhibiting symptoms, including having a headache, sore throat, runny nose, and aching muscles.
Virgin Atlantic said those suffering from the condition would be prevented from flying until they could provide a fit-to-fly certificate from their doctor or a hospital.
The new measures come at the height of the summer tourist season, with thousands of families either already on holiday or about to go.
So far, though, BA said there had only been a “very small number of cases” where passengers displaying symptoms of H1N1 had been advised not to travel, and all had complied. The airline said it has a “wide range of contingency plans in place which we can use depending on how the situation may evolve”.
Passengers who catch swine flu abroad, are also being advised not to travel home until they have recovered.
