Vladmir Putin forging ahead with vision of Eurasian empire – Times Online

Posted by Matt in March 10th, 2010 | no comment

Published in Europe, Russia, Ahead, Catastrophe, Collapse, Communist State, Empire Online, Empire Times, Empire Vision, EurasianEmpire, kremlin, New Empire, Soviet Union, Vladimir Putin

The Soviet Union is gradually being rebuilt as Vladimir Putin eyes a return to the Kremlin. The man who declared the collapse of the Communist state to be the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century” appears determined to forge a new empire.
Vladmir Putin forging ahead with vision of Eurasian empire – Times Online

‘State of Catastrophe’ After Chile Quake – NYTimes.com

Posted by Matt in February 27th, 2010 | no comment

Published in Americas, Disasters, Catastrophe, Central Chile, Chile, Earthquake, Highways And Bridges, Magnitude Earthquake, Nytimes, Pacific Basin, Path, Quake, Rubble, Swath, Waves

A deadly 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck central Chile early Saturday, ripping apart buildings, highways and bridges and leaving a path of smoky rubble across a long swath of this earthquake-tested country before sending waves rumbling across the Pacific Basin.
‘State of Catastrophe’ After Chile Quake – NYTimes.com

Fiscal Death Spiral – Council on Foreign Relations

Posted by Matt in February 3rd, 2010 | no comment

Published in Economy, Budget News, Budget Proposal, Bush Tax Cuts, Catastrophe, Congress, Council On Foreign Relations, Death Spiral, Federal Debt, Interest Payments, Next Decade, Treasury, United States, Windfall

To understand the fiscal catastrophe that awaits the United States, consider a single number from Monday’s budget proposal by President Obama: $700 billion. That is the revenue windfall to the Treasury over the next decade if Congress allows the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy to expire, as Obama wants. Yet by 2020 that entire [...]

Nuclear 9/11: A Failure to Imagine the Worst | Foreign Policy

Posted by Matt in January 25th, 2010 | no comment

Published in Terrorism, 9 11 Commission, Catastrophe, Conclusion, Failure, Foreign Policy, Imagination, Imagine, National Security Establishment, Northwest Airlines, Northwest Airlines Flight, Principal, Risk, Sept 11 2001, Terrorist Attack

The first step toward preventing a nuclear 9/11 is believing it could happen.
…
Thinking about risks we face today, we should reflect on the major conclusion of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission established to investigate that catastrophe. The U.S. national security establishment’s principal failure prior to Sept. 11, 2001, was, the commission found, a “failure of imagination.“ [...]

Simon Johnson: We’re Setting Ourselves Up For A Big Catastrophe, ‘Crisis Is Just Beginning’ (VIDEO)

Posted by Matt in January 7th, 2010 | no comment

Published in Economy, Financial, 12 Months, Banks, Catastrophe, China, Cnbc, Conventional Wisdom, Economist, Emerging Markets, Financial Crises, Financial Crisis, Institutions, Mit, Simon Johnson, Video Professor

Simon Johnson, the MIT professor and economist who’s long been a strident critic of “too big to fail” institutions, appeared on CNBC this morning and predicted that the next phase of the financial crisis could be precipitated by banks exploiting emerging markets like China.
“The conventional wisdom is you can’t have back-to-back major financial crises. I [...]

Will China ‘Amnesty’ Birth the Black Swan?

Posted by Matt in December 9th, 2009 | no comment

Published in Financial, Amnesty, Banks, Bearing, Black Swan, Catastrophe, Chat Room, China, Derivatives, Gold Dealer, Longtime Subscriber, Metals, Swan

For those who have been unsettled by gold’s corrective weakness in recent days, I’ve reprinted a reassuring letter below from a friend and longtime subscriber who also happens to be a U.K.-based gold-dealer and metals trader. Andy, as he is known in the Rick’s Picks chat room, is bullish as ever on gold and sees [...]

Iran Is No Existential Threat | Foreign Policy

Posted by Matt in December 5th, 2009 | no comment

Published in Iran, Authors, Catastrophe, Cooperation, European Partners, Foreign Policy, Futility, IAEA, Insistence, Intransigence, Iran Nuclear, Nuclear Diplomacy, Nuclear Issue, Nuclear Program, Nuclear Technology, Nuclear War, sanctions, tehran, United States, Uranium Enrichment

The authors imply that Iran’s intransigence is effectively the fault of the West. If the West could just be a little nicer then the problem will go away.
The West’s inability to solve the Iranian nuclear problem will ultimately be a catastrophe for the West along the lines of nuclear war.
These developments again demonstrate the counterproductive [...]

The Impact Of Trillion-Dollar Deficits

Posted by Matt in November 13th, 2009 | no comment

Published in Economy, Financial, Catastrophe, Creditworthiness, Current, Dollar, International Confidence, Jim Cooper, Lot, Recession, Senate Hearing, Sideshow, Tenn, Tipping Point, Trillion

There was a lot of talk at the Senate hearing about the U.S. nearing a fiscal tipping point that could lead to catastrophe. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., among others, warned that the loss of international confidence in U.S. creditworthiness “could even make the current financial recession look like a sideshow.”
The Impact Of Trillion-Dollar Deficits

Plague: A New Thriller of the Coming Pandemic | Foreign Policy

Posted by Matt in November 1st, 2009 | no comment

Published in Disease, Catastrophe, Flu, Foreign Policy, Fp, Global Proportions, High Risk, Novel, Outbreak, Pandemic, People, Plague, Robin Cook, Swine Flu, Thriller

The best-selling author of Outbreak has an exclusive tale for FP about a catastrophe of global proportions. And by the way, it’s not fiction.
Today, there is a crying need for a new such socially conscious novel to shake up the complacent public about the high risk of an imminent, serious pandemic. And I don’t mean [...]

Lessons of Georgia – Telegraph

Posted by Matt in August 11th, 2009 | no comment

Published in Russia, 20th Century, Bluster, Catastrophe, Collapse Of The Soviet Union, Countries, Foray, Land Of Lost Content, Political Appeal, Russia, Russian Prime Minister, Soviet Empire, tanks, Telegraph, Vladimir Putin, Wake Up Call, West Georgia

When Vladimir Putin described the collapse of the Soviet Union as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century, his remarks were seen as part and parcel of the nationalist bluster that is an integral part of his domestic political appeal. When, one year ago, the Russian prime minister sent his tanks into Georgia, he [...]