Monthly Archives: October 2009

New Market Bubble Is Brewing | Newsweek Business | Newsweek.com

Posted by on October 31, 2009 Comments Off

Where is Robert Shiller (the bestselling author of Irrational Exuberance) when you need him? In fact, the Yale professor, who accurately foretold the crash of 2001, has just finished tallying the latest Case-Shiller index of top U.S. housing markets, which shows that home prices fell 7.2 percent between December and April, before rising 5 percent between April and August. While historical gaps in data make it tough to track perfectly, Shiller believes we have just seen the sharpest turnaround in American house prices in a century. British and Australian markets are starting to swing up, too, and in many Asian cities, real estate is positively buoyant. How is it possible that home prices are going up again even as employment is going down in most parts of the world, wage growth is nonexistent, and public debt levels are reaching record highs? “We’ve just gotten very speculative in our behavior, and it’s a change that will likely last. I’m inclined to say that we’re seeing a new bubble,” says Shiller.

New Market Bubble Is Brewing | Newsweek Business | Newsweek.com

Pakistan’s Coming Horror | Foreign Policy

Posted by on October 31, 2009 Comments Off

Now, the Taliban are threatening to unleash an even grander assault. “The more Taliban feel hemmed in by the Pakistani military presence around South Waziristan, where the Taliban has strongholds, the more they fight back like cornered animals,” explains Haroon Rashid of BBC Urdu.

What the attackers are after is alarmingly clear: to terrorize the Pakistani state and people into submission.

Pakistan’s Coming Horror | Foreign Policy

Korea: Uppity Women Threaten The North

Posted by on October 31, 2009 Comments Off

Defectors from the north, and frequent visitors there, believe that opposition of a Kim family dynasty is growing. Kim Jung Ils youngest son is being groomed as the third generation of Kims to run the communist police state. But many North Korean officials agree with the Chinese that economic reform is the only thing that wills save the north. Thus when the sickly Kim Jung Il dies (soon, according to many northerners), there will be a move, and perhaps violence, to block Kim’s son from taking power.

Korea: Uppity Women Threaten The North

The Missiles of October

Posted by on October 31, 2009 Comments Off

In the summer of 1962, the leader of the great Soviet empire, Nikita Khrushchev, faced a serious problem. His huge intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) didn’t work. Their launchers were unreliable, their aim was off and the fuel used to rocket them skyward was so volatile that they had to be stored empty. In case of an attack, they would first have to be tanked up before being fired. The Soviet premier understood that since his ICBMs were a crucial part of his nuclear balance with the U.S., this put him at a major disadvantage.

However, Khrushchev did have a smaller, intermediate-range missile that was dependable, accurate and quite deadly. But it was too small to hit the U.S. all the way from Russia. So Khrushchev, the chess enthusiast, thought up a bold countermove. He decided to secretly place his smaller but more reliable missiles within range of the United States and, thus, in one stroke, completely level the playing field.

History News Network

U.S. and Israel prepare for military action against Iran

Posted by on October 31, 2009 Comments Off

I do not believe that the U.S. and/or Israel are preparing for military action against Iran. This is probably psychological warfare.

I expect that we have more time (a couple of years) before Israel alone takes action. The U.S. will be missing in action.

Yet, change might be in the air because, according to STRATFOR global intelligence, the U.S., Israel and other Western allies are taking steps that appear eerily similar to war preparations. These actions include the Administration trying to get authorization to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) which is something that would only happen during a time of war; U.S. and Israel conducting large scale military and ballistic missile exercises; and direct personal messages being delivered from senior U.S. and Israeli officials to Moscow that the military option is on the table as a path to halting Iran’s nuclear program. However, the mystery remains as to whether or not these movements are legitimate threats or simple posturing.

U.S. and Israel prepare for military action against Iran

India is preparing for possible war with China and Pakistan

Posted by on October 31, 2009 1 comment

Tensions have flared between both China and India militaries along their disputed 2,175 mile-long border, with both sides alleging more frequent troop incursions in recent weeks. China is upset when the Indian prime minister recently visit the disputed region. China considers an Indian-occupied piece of it’s own Tibetan Autonomous Region, has added flames to the fire.

China of course already deeply resents the fact that the top Tibetan leader, and several hundred thousand exiled Tibetans, are allowed to reside in India.

India is preparing for possible war with China and Pakistan

Turkey PM: If you don’t want Iran to have nukes, give yours up – Haaretz – Israel News

Posted by on October 31, 2009 Comments Off

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that countries opposed to Iran’s atomic program should give up their own nuclear weapons, and attacked as “arrogant” the sanctions imposed on Ankara’s neighbor.

He also said he wanted the Middle East, and then the whole world, to rid itself of nuclear weapons.

Turkey PM: If you don’t want Iran to have nukes, give yours up – Haaretz – Israel News

Russia to launch Arctic Sea shelf mission

Posted by on October 31, 2009 Comments Off

Russia is planning extensive research to help uphold its claim to the energy-rich Arctic Sea shelf, which the country believes is an extension of the Eurasian continent, an official says.

At a conference in Moscow Friday, Andrei Smirnov of the state-run company Atomflot said Russia is planning icebreaker missions in the Arctic over the next three years to conduct a detailed geological analysis of the seabed.

CBC News – World – Russia to launch Arctic Sea shelf mission

DEBKAfile – US and Israel reiterate to Moscow: Military option is on the table

Posted by on October 31, 2009 Comments Off

DEBKAfile’s US intelligence sources report indications of impending war preparations against Iran after Tehran’s rejections of the UN-brokered proposal to ship its enriched uranium overseas for further enrichment. These sources reveal that the administration is seeking congressional authorization to open America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). Furthermore, the US-Israeli joint US-Israel Juniper Cobra ballistic exercise is in full swing. Finally, US and Israel officials have been instructed to warn Moscow that the military option is still on the table if Iran’s nuclear program is not halted by diplomatic means.

DEBKAfile – US and Israel reiterate to Moscow: Military option is on the table

Bolivia’s witches market

Posted by on October 30, 2009 Comments Off

The witches here, in this market located uphill from the historic San Francisco Church, make offerings for luck, love and health. But if you know the right people you can also find black magic — the kind that aims to destroy a person’s health, or hurt a business, said Luz Pacheco, a professor of Aymara culture at the Universidad Catolica Boliviana.

In pre-Catholic Andean cultures, a shaman was an important intermediary between humans and the gods — good and evil, Pacheco says. Only with the rise of the Catholic Church were shamans associated strongly with the devil and witchcraft.

Bolivia’s witches market