Investment managers view intervention as buying opportunities.
Comments »Monthly Archives: November 2011
Global Markets & U.S. Futures Trade to The Downside; Not Destruction, Just Digestion
Iran Ready to Have a Nuke Party
Intelligence provided to U.N. nuclear officials shows that Iran’s government has mastered the critical steps needed to build a nuclear weapon, receiving assistance from foreign scientists to overcome key technical hurdles, according to Western diplomats and nuclear experts briefed on the findings.
Documents and other records provide new details on the role played by a former Soviet weapons scientist who allegedly tutored Iranians over several years on building high-precision detonators of the kind used to trigger a nuclear chain reaction, the officials and experts said. Crucial technology linked to experts in Pakistan and North Korea also helped propel Iran to the threshold of nuclear capability, they added.
The officials, citing secret intelligence provided over several years to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the records reinforce concerns that Iran continued to conduct weapons-related research after 2003 — when, U.S. intelligence agencies believe, Iranian leaders halted such experiments in response to international and domestic pressures.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog is due to release a report this week laying out its findings on Iran’s efforts to obtain sensitive nuclear technology. Fears that Iran could quickly build an atomic bomb if it chooses to has fueled anti-Iran rhetoric and new threats of military strikes. Some U.S. arms-control groups have cautioned against what they fear could be an overreaction to the report, saying there is still time to persuade Iran to change its behavior.
Iranian officials expressed indifference about the report.
“Let them publish and see what happens,” said Iran’s foreign minister and former nuclear top official, Ali Akbar Salehi, the semiofficial Mehr News Agency reported Saturday.
Salehi said that the controversy over Iran’s nuclear program is “100 percent political” and that the IAEA is “under pressure from foreign powers.”
‘Never really stopped’
Although the IAEA has chided Iran for years to come clean about a number of apparently weapons-related scientific projects, the new disclosures fill out the contours of an apparent secret research program that was more ambitious, more organized and more successful than commonly suspected. Beginning early in the last decade and apparently resuming — though at a more measured pace — after a pause in 2003, Iranian scientists worked concurrently across multiple disciplines to obtain key skills needed to make and test a nuclear weapon that could fit inside the country’s long-range missiles, said David Albright, a former IAEA official who has reviewed the intelligence files.
“The program never really stopped,” said Albright, president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security. The institute performs widely respected independent analyses of nuclear programs in countries around the world, often drawing from IAEA data.
“After 2003, money was made available for research in areas that sure look like nuclear weapons work but were hidden within civilian institutions,” Albright said.
U.S. intelligence officials maintain that Iran’s leaders have not decided whether to build nuclear weapons but are intent on gathering all the components and skills so they can quickly assemble a bomb if they choose to. Iran has consistently maintained that its nuclear activities are peaceful and intended only to generate electricity.
The IAEA has declined to comment on the intelligence it has received from member states, including the United States, pending the release of its report.
But some of the highlights were described in a presentation by Albright at a private conference of intelligence professionals last week. PowerPoint slides from the presentation were obtained by The Washington Post, and details of Albright’s summary were confirmed by two European diplomats privy to the IAEA’s internal reports. The two officials spoke on the condition of anonymity, in keeping with diplomatic protocol.
Albright said IAEA officials, based on the totality of the evidence given to them, have concluded that Iran “has sufficient information to design and produce a workable implosion nuclear device” using highly enriched uranium as its fissile core. In the presentation, he described intelligence that points to a formalized and rigorous process for gaining all the necessary skills for weapons-building, using native talent as well as a generous helping of foreign expertise.
“The [intelligence] points to a comprehensive project structure and hierarchy with clear responsibilities, timelines and deliverables,” Albright said, according to the notes from the presentation.
Key outside assistance
According to Albright, one key breakthrough that has not been publicly described was Iran’s success in obtaining design information for a device known as an R265 generator. The device is a hemispherical aluminum shell with an intricate array of high explosives that detonate with split-second precision. These charges compress a small sphere of enriched uranium or plutonium to trigger a nuclear chain reaction.
Creating such a device is a formidable technical challenge, and Iran needed outside assistance in designing the generator and testing its performance, Albright said.
According to the intelligence provided to the IAEA, key assistance in both areas was provided by Vyacheslav Danilenko, a former Soviet nuclear scientist who was contracted in the mid-1990s by Iran’s Physics Research Center, a facility linked to the country’s nuclear program. Documents provided to the U.N. officials showed that Danilenko offered assistance to the Iranians over at least five years, giving lectures and sharing research papers on developing and testing an explosives package that the Iranians apparently incorporated into their warhead design, according to two officials with access to the IAEA’s confidential files.
Danilenko’s role was judged to be so critical that IAEA investigators devoted considerable effort to obtaining his cooperation, the two officials said. The scientist acknowledged his role but said he thought his work was limited to assisting civilian engineering projects, the sources said.
There is no evidence that Russian government officials knew of Danilenko’s activities in Iran. E-mails requesting comment from Russian officials in Washington and Moscow were not returned. Efforts to reach Danilenko through his former company were not successful.
Iran relied on foreign experts to supply mathematical formulas and codes for theoretical design work — some of which appear to have originated in North Korea, diplomats and weapons experts say. Additional help appears to have come from the father of Pakistan’s nuclear program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, whose design for a device known as a neutron initiator was found in Iran, the sources said. Khan is known to have provided nuclear blueprints to Libya that included a neutron initiator, a device that shoots a stream of atomic particles into a nuclear weapon’s fissile core at the start of the nuclear chain reaction.
One Iranian document provided to the IAEA portrayed Iranian scientists as discussing plans to conduct a four-year study of neutron initiators beginning in 2007, four years after Iran was said to have halted such research.
“It is unknown if it commenced or progressed as planned,” Albright said.
The disclosures come against a backdrop of new threats of military strikes on Iran. Israeli newspapers reported last week that there is high-level government support in Israel for a military attack on Iran’s nuclear installations.
“One of the problems with such open threats of military action is that it furthers the drift towards a military conflict and makes it more difficult to dial down tensions,” said Peter Crail, a nonproliferation analyst with the Arms Control Association, a Washington advocacy group. “It also risks creating an assumption that we can always end Iran’s nuclear program with a few airstrikes if nothing else works. That’s simply not the case.”
Special correspondent Thomas Erdbrink in Tehran contributed to this report.
Japan Stocks Weak in Early Trading
Japanese stocks ticked lower in early Monday trading, with tech and pharmaceutical shares among the decliners. The Nikkei Stock Average JP:NIK -0.35% lost 0.4% to 8,764.87, with the Topix shedding 0.5%. Some tech exporters lost ground after strong gains on Friday, with Toshiba Corp. JP:6502 -1.94% TOSYY +0.59% down 1.7%, Elpida Memory Inc. JP:6665 -2.14% ELPDF -1.80% dropping 2.6%, and NEC Corp. JP:6701 -1.16% NIPNF -4.65% losing 1.7%. Shares of Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.JP:4502 -2.28% TKPHF -0.11% gave up 2.3% after the company posted a 6% fall in first-half net profit, with disappointing sales for its Actos diabetes drug. Rival pharma firm Daiichi Sankyo Co. JP:4568 -1.64% DSKYF -0.88% lost 1.9%
Comments »The Vanishing Little Star of Bethlehem
News coming out of the Middle-East in the last few months has focused on two principal areas: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the so-called “Arab Spring”. The headlines have been restricted to these two topics. Buried deep within the bodies of such prestigious papers as the New YorkTimes, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, if covered at all, are stories of the on-going destruction and persecution of millennia-old Christian communities within the cradle of Christianity: the Middle-East. The phenomenon is not exactly new; it’s been going on for decades if not centuries, but the growth and spread of Islamic fundamentalism within the last decade and the overthrow of Western-oriented Arab dictatorships has set in motion a rising tide of anti-Christian behavior that threatens to wipe out Christianity in the Middle-East in what amounts to a repetition of what has occurred to Jewish communities throughout Islamic nations within the past six decades since the creation of the Jewish State of Israel.
Five nations that demonstrate the ongoing obliteration of Christianity in the region will serve to illustrate the point: Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, and Iran.
We start with Egypt, a nation of eighty million with a 10 % minority population of eight million Coptic Christians. The Coptic Church is one of the world’s oldest, and its appearance in Egypt precedes Islam by at least half a millennium. Earlier this past month, Copts throughout Egypt organized demonstrations to protest the fire-bombing of a church in upper Egypt the prior week, as well as one back in mid-March, and the on-going campaign of harassment by Islamists in the region. At the October 9, 2011 demonstration in front of the Maspero district headquarters of the national television network, attended by a reported figure of 10,000 Copts, the Egyptian army opened fire with live ammunition, killing Copts indiscriminately. Then armored military vehicles appeared driving into the crowds randomly, causing widespread mayhem. Final tally: 24 dead and over 300 wounded. The on-going Islamist attacks against the Copts are causing many to consider seeking refuge in the West.
Let’s move on to Iraq. Twenty years ago, Iraq’s Christian community numbered over a million members. A decade ago, out of a total population of almost 24 million, 850,000 identified as Christians. Today, with a population of 30.7 million, the Christian population appears to be less than 335,000. What has happened? Although the new Iraqi constitution guarantees freedom of religion, there is no provision in the Iraqi system for those that wish to convert, especially if it is from Islam to Christianity. And radical Islam has been launching attacks on Christian Iraqis ever since Saddam Hussein’s ouster. This past year has seen the level of violence increase, starting with last year’s al-Qaeda attack on Our Lady of Deliverance Syrian Catholic Church in Baghdad which left 52 dead. Anti-Christian persecution continues, unabated.
In Afghanistan, along with the country being virtually “Judenfrei” or “Judenrein”, it is now free of any overt symbol of Christianity with the destruction of the last remaining church in March 2010. The U.S. State Department’s recently released report on religious freedom indicates that the small native Christian population feels tremendous pressure to remain out of sight, and the case of the Moslem who converted to Christianity and was nearly executed under Afghanistan’s Sharia law for Islamic apostasy demonstrates that freedom of conscience does not exist in present day Afghanistan despite the presence of American and NATO forces in that country for a decade.
When we turn to the Palestinian Territories, we are looking at the birthplace of Christianity. To see this two millennia community threatened with disappearance must be gut-wrenching for devout Christians. But like it or not, the Christian Arab population of the Holy Land faces the threat of extinction. The causes are many, but explosive Muslim birth rates compared with bare replacement rates among Arab Christians have caused the Christian percentage of the Palestinian Territories to diminish sharply. In actuality, the Palestinian Christian population has increased in the past forty-four years from 42,494 in 1967 to slightly more than 50,000 today. However, because of the changing percentage ratios of Christians to Muslims in the greater Bethlehem area—a region traditionally associated with very high percentages of Christian populations (70-95%)—the decreases to 28-60% appear as precipitous declines.
Along with the huge Muslim population explosion in the West Bank and Gaza there is now a phenomenon that does not bode well for the Christian Arab populations of these two areas. The radicalization of Islam, especially in Gaza where HAMAS controls the government, has resulted in pressure on the Christian community. But even in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority, such as Bethlehem, Christian Arabs feel persecuted by the Moslem majority. Whether or not the persecution is officially sanctioned by the PA and/or HAMAS in their respective regions of control, it is clear that neither is doing enough to root out anti-Christian vigilantism.
The final country that we examine in this brief survey is Iran. Although the Islamic Republic of Iran enshrines freedom of religion in its constitution and has seats each for a Jewish and Armenian Christian representative in the national legislature (Majlis), because of Islamic (Sharia) law, conversion from Islam to Christianity is considered apostasy and as such is a capital crime. The result is that both converts to Christianity, and those Christians that aid them, find themselves under severe persecution, imprisonment, and occasionally, threat of execution. The current case of Pastor Yusef Nadarkhani is a perfect example. Nadarkhani is currently scheduled for execution for apostasy from Islam. Over 250 Christians were arrested in the last year for their religious beliefs and more than one has been release from prison only to disappear until his or her body parts show up in different locations.
In conclusion, it was revealed recently that some 105,000 Christians are killed annually because of their religious convictions, the vast majority at the hands of radical Muslims. At the end of his article, Elwood McQuaid makes a poignant statement, raising several pertinent questions that deserve repetition here: “In America, Muslims are protected, much more so than evangelical Christians. Protecting Muslim citizens is an honorable pursuit that raises America’s standards far above those in so many other parts of the world. Yet why are the same leaders who so passionately protect Muslim rights in America doing nothing for Christians who are dying in record numbers? Why do so many of our leaders hold their tongues as the world turns a blind eye? And there is another question—one we must all ask ourselves: Why has the church been virtually silent about the suffering of our brethren?” Why, indeed?
Comments »Flash: Euro Holds Steady After Greek Deal
The euro was little changed against the dollar on Monday after Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and opposition leader Antonis Samaras agreed on a new coalition government to approve a euro zone bailout deal before elections.
The euro was at $1.3781 in early Asia-Pacific trade, versus around $1.3764 in late trade in New York.
The agreement came after the two leaders held talks with the president in an effort to break a political deadlock and thrash out a deal for a national unity government demanded by the country’s European partners.
Comments »Commentary: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Herman Cain Lynching
Herman Cain’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week ended on a discordantly high note. Addressing a packed ballroom in Washington’s Convention Centre, the former pizza mogul prompted whoops and cheers when he referred obliquely to the sexual harassment storm that had at times threatened to sweep away his White House candidacy.
“You know, I’ve been in Washington all week, and I’ve attracted a little bit of attention,” he boomed. “And there was an article in The New York Times today that has attempted to attract some more attention. You know, that’s kind of what happens when you start to show up near or at the top of the polls. It just happens that way.”
The article in question was one of the few that had not been about allegations that Cain, the unlikely Republican front runner in national polls, had behaved inappropriately with women while he was president of the National Restaurant Association.
Instead, the article sought to bracket Cain with the Koch brothers, the billionaire bogeymen for liberals who founded the Americans for Prosperity group and pump money into conservative and liberal causes. Rather than seek to wriggle out of the association, Cain embraced it, declaring, as the room erupted: “I am the Koch brothers’ brother from another mother.”
The address by the former motivational speaker, at the Americans for Prosperity annual conference, was vintage Cain – strong on rhetoric, short on policy detail, powerfully delivered and unashamedly politically incorrect.
Hours earlier, an ABC/Washington Post poll had found that Cain’s national popularity had improved during a week that, by any conventional standards, had been disastrous.
Mitt Romney, the best-funded, most-disciplined and most experienced candidate, was stuck on 25 percent while Cain was up six points from a month at 23 percent and breathing down his neck. As every student of American politics knows, national polls matter little in a primary race. But the surveys in early-voting states like Iowa and South Carolina are also indicating that Cain has not been damaged.
There’s no way this should be happening. The 65-year-old grandfather’s response to the sexual harassment claims that have emerged out of the woodwork after a dozen years has been miserable. At least two cases were settled for a total of $80,000 after allegations were made against him.
Rather than being prepared for the inevitable disclosure of the cases, he was caught flat-footed, claiming at first not to remember what had happened and then dribbling out details and shifting explanations over the ensuing days. He fuelled more controversy by blaming Governor Rick Perry’s campaign for planting the story, lost his temper with the press and was barely able to talk about the US economy until his speech on Friday.
By any normal rules of politics, Cain should be toast. So what’s going on?
Simply put, the media and Cain’s detractors have over-played their hand. By Friday night, Politico, which broke the original story, had published 94 articles on the allegations in under six days. Every other major publication had followed suit. Every time he stepped out of a room, Cain was mobbed by reporters.
Yet despite the maelstrom, Cain’s accusers remain anonymous and the details of the allegations oddly vague. With many conservatives believing that sexual harassment lawsuits are an industry and that frivolous cases are often settled to avoid more expensive litigation, there was a growing sense that Cain was being treated unfairly.
Cain’s very amateurishness became almost endearing. Rather than mouthing slick talking points, Cain got angry with the journalists (a profession loathed by most Republican activists) and claimed that he was the victim of a “high-tech lynching”.
That was the phrase used by Clarence Thomas during the ugly confirmation hearings for his seat on the Supreme Court in 1991. Thomas had been accused by Anita Hill, a former subordinate, of making crude sexual comments.
Vilified and mocked by the Left, Thomas’s righteous anger boiled over as he condemned the hearings as “a circus” and “a national disgrace” in which “uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves” would be destroyed. “You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the US Senate rather than hung from a tree.”
Cain, of course, is also a black conservative. As such, he sends many on the Left crazy because he defies the standard categories of politics. White conservatives are eager to support conservatives of colour partly to combat allegations of racism but also because they appreciate the courage it takes for blacks to break out of the Democratic party straitjacket.
Despite his anti-politician message and his campaign gaffes (he did not know China had nuclear weapons, had not heard of the Palestinian right of return and suggested he would free Guantanamo Bay prisoners if terrorist hostage-takers demanded it, to name but three) Cain is a shrewd operator.
While decrying race-based politics, Cain has been happy to compare himself to Haagen Dazs black walnut ice cream, joke that he’s a “dark horse” or quip that his Secret Service codename should be “Cornbread” . By Friday, a Cain Super PAC had cut a television ad entitled: “High-tech lynching”.
Just as Barack Obama’s race was a key part of his appeal in 2008, Cain is a more attractive candidate for Republicans because he is black. Obama’s supporters responded with fury and lobbed accusations of racism when their candidate came under legitimate attack from the Clintons. Cain backers have been similarly vehement.
Sexual allegations against a black man are rightly treated with great suspicion by many Americans because they play on the kind of fears and taboos examined in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird. With the case against him thin and the accusation so incendiary, Cain’s predicament is prompting more sympathy than opprobrium.
Those who leaked the details of the 1990s sexual harassment cases might have thought that they’d destroy Herman Cain and leave his campaign dangling from a tree. But, as befits this strange and unpredictable election campaign, a funny thing happened on the way to the lynching.
Comments »Papa Greek and Opposition Reach Deal
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and opposition leader Antonis Samaras have agreed on a new coalition government to approve a euro zone bailout deal before elections, the office of the country’s president said on Sunday.
The agreement came after the two leaders held talks with the president in an effort to break a political deadlock and thrash out a deal for a national unity government demanded by the country’s European partners.
A presidency statement said they will meet again on Monday to discuss who would head the coalition government, but that Papandreou would not lead the new administration.
“Tomorrow there will be new communication between the prime minister and the opposition leader on who will be the leader of the new government,” the statement said.
The statement made no mention of how long the interim government would last.
The European Union gave Greece 24 hours on Sunday to explain how it will form a unity government to enact a bailout agreement.
Papandreou and his opponents have been scrambling to hammer out a deal ahead of a meeting by finance ministers of euro countries on Monday, to show that Greece is serious about taking steps needed to stave off bankruptcy.
Comments »One-Term Obama? A Year Until US Election Day
bama could be a one-term president.
The election in 2008 may have been the most exciting for years culminating in the country’s first black president but three years on, most Americans believe he will not be re-elected, according to some polls.
We followed Mr Obama’s route through North Carolina last month to gauge his chances.
Winning the state, albeit with the slimmest majority, was a crucial part of his election strategy in 2008.
Asheville builder Brad Rice, whose company Bellwether Design and Build has contracted in the Obama economy and laid off workers, remembers Obamamania well.
“It was just exciting. Just something new. He had a lot of good ideas and it just seemed after eight years of George Bush everybody was ready for a change.”
But he says the excitement has “worn off” and America has come down to reality: “He said some things and he just hasn’t been able to get them done.”
In February 2009 Mr Obama himself doubted his chances of re-election if he could not get the economy back in shape.
“A year from now I think that people are going to see that we’re starting to make some progress,” he told NBC News.
“But there’s still going to be some pain out there. If I don’t have this done in three years then there’s going to be a one term proposition.”
So far the economy President Obama inherited from George Bush, already in poor shape, has not improved on his watch.
Growth is a sluggish 2.5%, unemployment a politically radioactive 9% at least.
Local banker David Wooten met the President at the barbecue restaurant he dropped in on in North Carolina and reckons Mr Obama should be worried.
“This area has been hit by unemployment, factories closing. We’ve had 10% unemployment for a long time and it’s the economy in a lot of cases that affects the election. He’ll probably have an uphill battle here.”
Since Mr Obama toured the state, economic figures have improved but only marginally and, more worryingly, the long-term outlook is equally depressing.
A few days after he swept through the mountain town of Boone, we talked to Philip Ardoin, politics professor at the Appalachia State University.
Mr Obama will not want to hear his analysis.
“I would give him a less than 10% chance of re-election right now.
“Because of the dire situation America is in, and the American people, and that is not necessarily justified, hold the President responsible for the economic situation. And as a result they’re going to look for an alternative.”
Comments »Flash: 5.8 Earthquake Reported in Oklahoma
{VIDEO} Violent OWS Protesters Prevent Woman in Wheelchair From Leaving Event
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1K1r_w8u38
Comments »ECB May End Italy Bond Buys if No Reforms Come
The European Central Bank often discusses the possibility ending the purchase of Italian government bonds if it concludes Italy is not adopting promised reforms, ECB Governing Council Member Yves Mersch said.
“If we observe that our interventions are undermined by a lack of efforts by national governments then we have to pose ourselves the problem of the incentive effect,” Mersch said according to extracts of an interview with Italian daily La Stampa to be published on Sunday.
Asked if this meant the ECB would stop buying Italy’s bonds if it did not adopt reforms it has promised to the European Union, Mersch, who heads Luxembourg’s central bank, replied:
“If the ECB board reaches the conclusion that the conditions that led it to take a decision no longer exist, it is free to change that decision at any moment. We discuss this all the time.”
Since the ECB resumed its bond buying programme (SMP) around three months ago it has purchased some 100 billion euros of government bonds, a majority of which are thought to be Italian BTPs.
Mersch said the ECB did not want to become a lender of last resort to help the euro zone solve its debt crisis and said it was concerned that its job could be made more difficult by governments that “don’t meet their responsibilities.”
“Our job is not to remedy the errors of politicians,” he said.
Mersch also defended the right of Italian Lorenzo Bini Smaghi to remain on the ECB board even though this means Italy now has two members and France has none, much to the annoyance of French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
“He (Bini Smaghi) has an eight year mandate, the treaties do not say that if someone comes from a specific Treasury ministry he has a right to a place on the ECB board,” he said.
“The spirit of the treaties is that everyone leaves his passport in the wardrobe when he participates in ECB meetings.”
Comments »Hot Luxury Gifts for the Holidays in 2011
Greek Political Parties Continue to Bicker and Posture
Prime Minister George Papandreou launched his campaign on Saturday for a coalition to save Greece from bankruptcy, but rival parties showed little willingness to cooperate in tackling the nation’s economic, political and social crisis.
Papandreou said negotiations would start soon to form a broad-based government, tasked with ensuring parliament backs a euro zone bailout vital to keeping Greece afloat and preventing its crisis from bringing down much bigger economies.
But a government source said Papandreou’s deputy, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, was already negotiating behind the scenes to win support from smaller parties for a government that Venizelos himself wants to lead.
“Venizelos is having contacts with party leaders to secure their agreement,” said a government official who requested anonymity.
Greece’s two top political forces — the ruling socialist PASOK party and conservative opposition New Democracy — displayed little appetite for working together to tackle a crisis that has driven Greece deep into recession, sent unemployment soaring and living standards tumbling.
REJECTION
New Democracy chief Antonis Samaras flatly rejected Papandreou’s proposal of a coalition which would rule for several months and shepherd the 130 billion euro bailout, Greece’s last financial lifeline, through parliament.
But in snubbing Papandreou, who survived a parliamentary confidence vote in the early hours of Saturday, the conservative opposition acknowledged the leading role being played by his financeminister in the maneuvering for power.
“Whenever we try to find a way out, the Papandreou-Venizelos government invents new obstacles to block it,” New Democracy chief Antonis Samaras said. “We made our offer and he (Papandreou) shut the door. The offer is still on the table. I hope he realizes his mistake.”
Samaras repeated his demand for Papandreou to make way for a short-lived national unity government before snap elections. “We did not seek a role in this government, only that Mr Papandreou, who has become dangerous for the country, resigns.”
Two opinion polls showed Greeks appeared to favor Papandreou’s option. One commissioned by Proto Thema newspaper showed 52 percent of respondents supported the coalition idea while 36 percent wanted snap elections as proposed by Samaras.
Another poll commissioned by Ethnos newspaper put support for the rival proposals at 45 and 41.7 percent respectively.
Papandreou, whose father and grandfather were famous Greek prime ministers, defeated Venizelos for the PASOK leadership in 2004. But as Greece’s economic crisis created political turmoil, he turned for support to Venizelos, a burly former law professor with a reputation as a political bruiser.
Sources close to negotiations insist that Papandreou — by contrast an athletic, U.S.-educated member of an elite family — is going through the motions of trying to form a coalition, and will eventually make way for Venizelos.
Far from being competing political forces, the sources say, the two are aware of what each other is doing under a deal allowing Papandreou to depart with honor after two years in which the government has imposed pay and pension cuts plus tax rises at the behest of Greece’s international lenders.
The cabinet is due to meet informally on Sunday afternoon.
UNLIKELY BEDFELLOWS
Venizelos appeared to be reaching out to some unlikely bedfellows in his hunt for support. George Karatzaferis, who heads the far right LAOS party, said he had spoken to Venizelos in parliament during the confidence debate.
However, he played down the significance of their encounter, saying he would not join any coalition without New Democracy being there too and urged Samaras to change his mind.
“We need to realize that we haven’t got a prime minister. It’s all a formality. Papandreou resigned yesterday in parliament and the applause in the room was divided equally, for his speech and for his departure,” Karatzaferis said.
Papandreou officially opened his search for a coalition after meeting President Karolos Papoulias, saying Greece had to establish a political consensus to prove it wanted to keep the euro, while European leaders try to persuade the outside world that the currency bloc can overcome its huge problems.
“In order to create this wider cooperation, we will start the necessary procedures and contacts soon,” he told reporters. “A lack of consensus would worry our European partners over our country’s will to stay in the euro zone.”
Without saying when he might quit, Papandreou said during the confidence debate he was ready to discuss who should lead the new government. “The last thing I care about is my post. I don’t care even if I am not re-elected,” he said.
Under heavy domestic and international pressure, the prime minister retreated from a proposal for a referendum on the euro zone rescue. Greek voters could well have rejected the deal, potentially torpedoing euro zone leaders’ attempts to stop the debt crisis devastating economies such as Italy and Spain.
THINGS MAY TURN UGLY
Weary Greeks expressed disgust at the political wrangling.
“I’m sick of politicians in Greece, and feel that things will now turn ugly. If only they could cooperate, everything would be much better,” said Tassos Pagonis, a 48-year-old Athens taxi driver. “But will Greece be saved? I’m afraid not. Europeans don’t trust us anymore, they will throw us out.”
Pensioner Yiannis Vlahos, 83, compared the fates of Greece and Germany, which occupied the country in World War Two.
“When the Germans left we had some hope. They were ruined by World War Two but they worked hard and became the strongest economy. We Greeks haven’t learned our lesson, we only steal,” he said. “We ourselves hate our beautiful country.”
The leaders of France and Germany told Papandreou this week that Greece would not get a cent more of aid if it failed to approve the bailout, meaning that the state would run out of money in December.
Comments »SHOCK VIDEO: MORE VIOLENCE IN #OCCUPY OAKLAND
{VIDEO} Learn More About Nice-Guy Jon Corzine’s Fine Life
REVENGE AGAINST WOODSHEDDER! Obama Snubs World Series Champs
Due to iBankCoin’s own @Woodshedder being both an ardent political conservative/libertarian and St. Louis Cardinals baseball fan, President Obama has sought and carried out revenge.
_____________________
Was President Barack Obama too busy watching the “Operation Repo” marathon or something else last Friday night?
When KMOX host Charlie Brennan asked now-retired St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa how the traditional call of congratulations from the White House went, La Russa suddenly realized that…it never happened.
“That’s a good point, I hadn’t really even thought about that,” replied a surprised-sounding La Russa, who can be forgiven for having a few other things on his mind over the past week. “As we were getting into the World Series we had a call from the White House to make sure they had the correct number for my office.”
But as the wild, champagne-drenched celebration of the team’s 11th World Series title was going on in the locker room, that phone never rang.
“We never did get a call,” La Russa said.
And all this despite the fact that the First Lady, Michelle Obama, was in town for Game 1 of the World Series.
“Very impressive, too.” La Russa recalled of his meeting with the First Lady.
Obama didn’t immediately phone last year’s World Series champions, either. But the San Francisco Giants did hear from him eventually:
And the President also hosted the Giants at the White House this summer, where he congratulated them personally.
Whether or not President Obama picks up the phone, or invites him and his team to Washington, TLR doesn’t seem too worried about the apparent slip in postgame protocol.
He’s packing up his things and getting ready to “head west” for the next phase of his life.
La Russa will vacate his office at Busch Stadium as of Friday.
He’s contemplating his next step, which could be buying a minor league ballclub, writing his memoirs, or simply pursuing one of his passions…reading.
He’s currently checking out “The Affair” by Lee Child.
La Russa also said that if asked, he would come back to manage the National League squad during next summer’s All-Star Game, which he earned by guiding the Cardinals to the NL pennant.
Comments »Old Man Buffett’s Profit Falls on…wait for it…DERIVATIVES
Warren Buffett’s conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc reported a smaller third-quarter profit on Friday after losing more than $2 billion on derivatives related to stock market performance.
That was nearly three times what Berkshire lost on the same instruments a year ago. Buffett has sharply criticized derivatives in general, but has said these particular contracts were safe and would ultimately be lucrative.
But Berkshire was hurt, like many other insurance companies in particular, by sharp declines in a broad range of market values. In a quarterly report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Berkshire said the indexes covered by the contracts fell anywhere from 11 percent to 23 percent in the quarter.
“It’s a noneconomic event,” said David Rolfe, chief investment officer of Wedgewood Partners, which has about $900 million under management and has held Berkshire shares for about 13 years. “Operating (was) in-line to terrific, the derivatives always need explaining.”
Berkshire reported a net profit of $2.28 billion, or $1,380 per Class A share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $2.99 billion, or $1,814 per share.
Cash at the end of the quarter was $34.78 billion, down from $47.89 billion at the end of June. During the third quarter Berkshire funded the purchase of chemical maker Lubrizol and a $5 billion investment in Bank of America Corp, which accounted for the decline.
OPERATING PROFITS RISE
Operating income rose across segments, except for the company’s finance business, where it fell slightly.
Profits in the insurance business rose as a rebound in reinsurance results offset sharp declines at auto insurer Geico. The reinsurance unit benefited from a reduction in liabilities related to a contract with one unnamed company, while Geico’s profits fell on higher catastrophe losses.
Earnings were also nearly 10 percent higher at Berkshire’s next-biggest unit, the Burlington Northern railroad, as revenue per car rose by double digits.
Berkshire’s MidAmerican Energy utility business saw earnings rise more than 10 percent as well. Profits rose sharply in the manufacturing, service and retailing group due to growth at the industrial businesses of the mini-conglomerate Marmon, offsetting ongoing weakness in housing-related units.
Last month, Buffett said he expected record profits this year for Burlington Northern, MidAmerican, manufacturer Iscar and for the Marmon companies.
But at the same time he said Berkshire’s housing-related businesses were doing as poorly as at any point during the financial crisis.
Book value rose to $96,876 per Class A share. Berkshire recently launched a share buyback program, its first ever, with an upper price limit set at 110 percent of book value.
That would suggest a ceiling of roughly $106,560, whereas Class A shares closed at $115,806 on Friday. Berkshire indicated it bought back about $18 million in stock during the third quarter.
“I think Buffett could have spent more on Cherry Coke than he did on shares,” said Wedgewood’s Rolfe, in a nod to the 81-year-old investor’s favorite beverage.
Comments »{VIDEO} Live Feed of #OccupyDC
What Do Corporations Pay In Income Tax? (You Will Be Very Surprised)
This research shows an overall effective corporate income tax rate of between 32.1% and 33%. Be sure to view the slideshow.
—————————————————————————————————————————-
October 13, 2011
Capitol Hill Briefing: What Do Corporations Pay in Income Tax?
View the slide presentation from this event.
Much attention has been focused lately on American corporations “not paying their fair share” in taxes. Some members of the media as well as elected officials have gone through great effort to point out that although the U.S. corporate statutory rate, at 35%, is the second highest in the world; U.S. companies pay a much lower rate. The latest Tax Foundation research and IRS data however says otherwise.
Join us for a lunch briefing on October 17th as Scott Hodge and Will McBride present our latest findings using IRS data and shed some light on the myths that exist regarding U.S. corporations.
Highlights:
- As is often the case in tax discussions, anecdotes do not tell the whole story.
- The largest corporations pay the lion’s share of taxes. In 2008, the 1,937 largest companies were responsible for 68 percent of corporate tax revenue
- The overall effective corporate income tax rate on the worldwide income of U.S. corporations is between 32.1 and 33 percent, which is close to the statutory rate of 35 percent. (Emphasis mine)
