The BBC – the only MSM outlet to report it so far – heralds the news with "EU reaches deal on farm reforms", telling of "marathon all-night talks" between member states before a hotly contested deal was reached by a qualified majority vote.

Of the agencies, AFP also reports it but the rest of the media seem entirely uninterested.

That tells you a great deal about modern governance, but it also tells as much about the EU. Originally, it was extremely nervous about using the r-word, calling it a "health check". Then, agriculture commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel was telling us that the process underway was a more "nuanced" approach aimed at a way of achieving "a better way of handling available resources."

So little did the general body politic – to say nothing of the media – actually care though that, yesterday the "colleagues" had abandoned the euphemism and come right out with the spin, openly declaring that they were, once again, reforming the Common Agricultural Policy.

But, as we pointed out earlier, this is tinkering at the margins, with some technical alterations and tweaks, continuing the process started almost as soon as the CAP was introduced, some time in the long distant past - 1968 or thereabouts.

So it was that on Brussels yesterday, totally anonymous officials discussed arcane and technical detail, coming blinking into the sunlight, or whatever, waving their bits of paper, claiming another "triumph" – to universal indifference. No doubt our agriculture minister was there – I am not sure I even know who he (or she) is any more, of even if we still have one. It hardly seems to matter any more.

The "colleagues", however, obviously care enough to spin the result, but very few other people do. This once great agricultural nation, which still has a massive and vital agricultural industry, no longer has an agricultural policy. That is "done in Brussels" so we, and especially that sad little institution called parliament, don't need to bother about it anymore.

In the fullness of time – at this rate – everything of any importance will be "done in Brussels", relieving our politicians of the need to do any serious work at all, or take any responsibility for their actions, other than hold great debates on their salaries and expenses, the latest round of failures of Hackney social services - and the next steps in legalisating or banning prostitution. Don't tell the "colleagues" though. The Strasbourg whores might get very angry.

But the truth is, when it comes to what used to be great matters of state, no one really cares. And that is why we're going down the tubes.

COMMENT THREAD

November 20, 2008 01:36 PM

Dear friends,

I received this from a Chicago pro life activist named Jeff, and am posting it to you.

Please forward this information to your pro life contacts.


God bless,
Amy

- - -

Assault of peaceful pro-lifers - please call to assist!!!

See the e-mail below about some friends of mine who were arrested recently. I know these guys (met them at a pro-life conference earlier this year and hung out with them), and know they are GREAT guys.




Video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG4gBLLlZ8E




Please call the police department to voice a complaint:

Chaffey College Police Department

Phone number: (909) 652-6632



Thanks,

JeffA blog with relevant information for the world.

November 20, 2008 10:04 AM

… and laughing all the way to the bank.

But, as always when dealing with "climate change" the media lose what little sense they have (which is not a great deal) as their brains dribble out of their backsides and they comprehensively miss the point.

Thus does The Guardian complain about the government's first auction of the EU's "carbon permits" under its fatuous Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) in terms of the UK "undermining" the climate fight by keeping the cash. "Receipts of up to £60m should be earmarked for 'green' projects as in other European nations," it tells us some "observers" are saying.

In similar terms, the Times retails a headline proclaiming, "Protests as carbon permits auction raises £54m", telling us that: "The Government has provoked anger by saying proceeds of sale will not necessarily be used to tackle climate change issues."

With all the blather about tax cuts to kick-start the economy and drive the nation out of recession, though, what neither of these idiot newspapers tells us is that this money (which seems to vary between £54-60 million) is a tax – a brand new tax that will be clawed from everybody's electricity bills, just at a time when they can least afford it.

The money comes from the electricity generating companies who have been forced to buy four million permits at a rate of £13.60 per ton of carbon dioxide they expect to produce, money they will have to claw back from us.

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said ministers should not keep the money – which is going into the general pot - and use the cash specifically for projects such as improving energy efficiency of homes, investing in low-carbon technologies and helping poorer countries cope with climate change.

"This is a great opportunity to help poorer households make their homes both cheaper to heat and warmer, and create jobs through investment in new green technologies," said Lisa Harker, IPPR co-director. But, either way she cuts it, it is still a tax.

Still, at least we are getting closer to understanding how all this global warming comes about. WWF-UK, it appears, has a man called Keith Allott, who is "head of climate change". One speculates that, if he was fired, perhaps the climate change would stop. On second thoughts, fire him anyway.

As for the The Times it gaily informs us that this is only the start of the bonanza, telling us that from 2013, the EU, which has committed to cutting its carbon emissions by 20 per cent by 2020, is expected to move towards 100 per cent auctioning of the permits.

From this we learn that it will raise tens of billions of pounds a year for member states. Er … tens of billions of pounds in tax. And next year, we are also informed, the British Government plans to auction 25 million permits - a process that would raise £335 million at yesterday's prices.


It takes The Daily Telegraph to use the "t-word", even if it can't spell "emission" (see above) – what is that paper coming to?

At the end of its report, it has Per Lekander, an analyst at UBS, saying: "Someone else is paying and the Government doesn't even have to argue that taxation has increased". Then we get Andreas Arvanitakis, an analyst at Point Carbon, saying, "Auctioning is seen as a way of killing windfall profits, particularly in the electricity sector".

Ah! So, it is a windfall tax, which is exactly what we said it was in August, when there was all that kerfuffle about increased energy costs. But now those costs are poised to go down again, the government – with the aid of the EU – is pushing them back up again, with a regressive tax that hurts the lowest-paid most.

Funnily enough, even The Financial Times noticed how the self-appointed champion of the poorly paid, David Cameron, was silent during the ongoing debate on the windfall tax – although his then energy spokesman, Alan Duncan, did eventually object to it.

But, now the government has levied this tax, which will increase year-on-year, there are absolutely no prizes for correct guesses about what Mr Cameron will now do. It appears that it is not only the media suffering diarrhoeal brain loss when it comes to climate change.

COMMENT THREAD

November 20, 2008 10:03 AM

From http://www.prisonplanet.com/paulson-was-behind-bailout-martial-law-threat.html

 

Paulson Was Behind Bailout Martial Law Threat

Inhofe says Treasury Secretary made dire warnings in conference call on September 19th

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Thursday, November 20, 2008

Senator James Inhofe has revealed that Henry Paulson was behind the threats of martial law and a new great depression prior to the passage of the bailout bill, having made such warnings during a conference call on September 19th, around two weeks before the legislation was eventually approved by both the Senate and Congress.

As we reported at the time, on October 2, Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman gave a stunning speech on the House floor during which he decried the fact that, “Many of us were told in private conversations that if we voted against this bill on Monday that the sky would fall, the market would drop two or three thousand points the first day, another couple of thousand the second day, and a few members were even told that there would be martial law in America if we voted no.”

A few days before, Rep. Michael Burgess also told the House, “Mr. Speaker I understand we are under Martial Law as declared by the speaker last night,” referring to a temporary suspension of the rules and procedures of Congress by its leaders so that a bill can be passed quickly.

But the origin of the most dire warnings about physical martial law in America, to which Sherman was likely referring, has now been exposed.

(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)

 

Speaking on Tulsa Oklahoma’s 1170 KFAQ, when asked who was behind threats of martial law and civil unrest if the bailout bill failed, Senator James Inhofe named Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson as the source.

“Somebody in D.C. was feeding you guys quite a story prior to the bailout, a story that if we didn’t do this we were going to see something on the scale of the depression, there were people talking about martial law being instituted, civil unrest….who was feeding you guys this stuff?,” asked host Pat Campbell.

“That’s Henry Paulson,” responded Inhofe, “We had a conference call early on, it was on a Friday I think – a week and half before the vote on Oct. 1. So it would have been the middle … what was it – the 19th of September, we had a conference call. In this conference call – and I guess there’s no reason for me not to repeat what he said, but he said – he painted this picture you just described. He said, ‘This is serious. This is the most serious thing that we faced.’”

Inhofe said that Paulson told members of Congress the crisis would be “far worse than the great depression” if Congress didn’t authorize the bill to buy out toxic debt, a proposal “which he abandoned the day after he got the money,” added Inhofe.

Inhofe is referring to the controversy last week when it emerged that the bailout money was not going to buy up toxic debt but instead Paulson, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, had pulled a bait and switch and ordered the money be injected directly into banks.

Senator Inhofe has slammed the secrecy surrounding the destination of the bailout money, saying that Hank Paulson could have given it to his friends and that the “blank check” must be cancelled now.

Inhofe is now trying to rally support for a freeze on what’s left of the initial $350 billion of bailout money with his “roll back the bailout” proposal, which will also require an affirmative vote on the part of Congress to approve Treasury’s plan for the remaining $350 billion.

Watch the clip from Inhofe’s interview below.

src="http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/eyeblast.swf?v=e4qG2G6UkU"
allowfullscreen="true">

A blog with relevant information for the world.

November 20, 2008 09:56 AM

http://www.newswithviews.com/Daubenmire/dave135.htmA blog with relevant information for the world.

November 20, 2008 09:54 AM

http://www.infowars.com/?p=6090A blog with relevant information for the world.

November 20, 2008 09:46 AM

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2008/11/19/behar-lot-homeschooled-kids-are-dementedA blog with relevant information for the world.

November 20, 2008 08:25 AM

http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2008/11/hamiltons-curse-and-death-of-dollar.htmlA blog with relevant information for the world.

November 20, 2008 08:22 AM

From http://www.prisonplanet.com/donald-drivers-dad-beaten-by-houston-police-after-dispute.html


Donald Driver’s dad beaten by Houston police after dispute
Sportsillustrated

Thursday, Nov 20, 2008

HOUSTON — The father of Green Bay Packers wide receiver Donald Driver was beaten by Houston, Texas, police officers as they arrested him for outstanding traffic warrants, Driver’s family members claimed Wednesday.
As they beat him and forced him to swallow something, the officers told Marvin Driver Jr. he was “going to see Jesus,” according to relatives and community activist Quanell Evans, who identified himself as Quanell X.
“Mr. Marvin Driver Jr. is now at Hermann Hospital in ICU where he can’t even speak,” relatives said in a statement. “Doctors say there is some bleeding on his brain from blunt force trauma.”
(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)

Police said Driver was arrested for outstanding traffic warrants and was found to be “unresponsive” upon his arrival at jail. Paramedics transported him to the hospital, they said. The Houston Police Department said in a written statement it takes the assault allegations “very seriously, and will begin a thorough investigation into the matter.”
The two officers involved remain on duty pending further investigation, police said. However, relatives and Evans called for the officers involved to be suspended or placed on administrative leave until the investigation is complete.
The incident began late Sunday when Driver was dropping his brother, Winston Driver, off after the two had moved furniture, family members said.
Full article hereA blog with relevant information for the world.

November 20, 2008 07:47 AM

http://mises.org/story/3223A blog with relevant information for the world.

November 20, 2008 07:44 AM

Reuters
FILE: A Gulfstream luxury jet sits on an airport tarmac.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

The CEOs of the Big Three automakers reportedly flew private luxury jets to Washington to plead for a $25 billion taxpayer bailout to save their debt-ridden industry — ringing up tens of thousands in charges even as they cried poverty.

Recipients of eight-figure bonuses in 2007, the corporate cowboys used their executive perks — which for GM's Rick Wagoner include the run of a $36 million Gulfstream IV jet — to arrive in style as they went begging before Congress.

Wagoner, whose flight reportedly cost $20,000 round-trip — about 70 times more than a commercial airline ticket — told Congress he expected about $10-$12 billion from the requested bailout.

"This is a slap in the face of taxpayers," Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, told ABC News. "To come to Washington on a corporate jet, and asking for a handout is outrageous."

Joined by Robert Nardelli of Chrysler and Alan Mulally of Ford, Wagoner told the Senate that a collapse in Detroit could cost 3 million jobs in just a year and put the hurt on communities across the country.

But the prospective bailout is getting held up in the Senate, where lawmakers don't appear keen to save the ailing industry. "Just giving them $25 billion doesn't change anything," Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., told FOX News. "It just puts off for six months or so the day of reckoning."


Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,454844,00.html

November 20, 2008 07:32 AM

Here are a few of the highlights in the progression of the Hard Sell Era:

After the destruction that took place during September 11, 2001; Bush called for the capture of Osama Bin Laden. The Hard Sell began with the calls for Bin Laden: WANTED DEAD or ALIVE; And, "Shock and Awe"; Bush pressed that we "would not waiver, falter, or fail". This was The Dawn of the Hard Sell.
The Prez quipped:
"You are either with us, or with the Terrorists".
At the U.N. Bush said that if it didn't invade the culprits of our attacks: Iraq and Afghanistan; It would be "irrelevant"; We will go it alone!




Afterwards, it was bomb Afghanistan ASAP, where Osama was "supposedly hiding" with the Taliban.


Then, the focus changed to Saddam Hussein, and Iraq. Get Saddam, his Bath Party, and Uday and Qusay Hussein. Get Saddam and his henchmen PDQ. The Hard Sell continued.




The rationale was then hatched that "it was better to fight TERRORISM over there, than to have to fight it here". This became a repetitive mantra. Act now, or risk another 911.


Next, after the Afghanistan Blitzkrieg, and the 'triumphant invasion' of Iraq, came a constant clamor for a "Surge": Another way of saying escalation of occupying forces in Iraq. Send more troops, yesterday. More, more troops needed! Hurry up and send 'em.

The Hard Sell continued with repeated suggestions that we "Stay The Course". Time will prove that the President and His Men, were right in following their bellicose track. We must stay on this course, no equivocations. No doubt about it.

The High Pressure Sales Techniques continued with one issue turning into another. Still, the Sense of Urgency was always stressed. Act now, or else!

• The Iraq Study Group;





• The Petraeus Report;
  

Then, last year the fruits of this hell-bent, haphazard lust for control began to reflect itself in the nation's economy. When President Bush was question during one of those "press conferences", he responded: The Economy is fine, and in good shape.

The Economy took a turn for the worse when major firms and corporations began to go bankrupt:

• Global Crossing Ltd.





• WorldCom Inc.





• Conseco Inc.





• Nationwide





• Bear Stearns





• IndiMac Bank





• Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.





• Washington Mutual





• Fannie Mae





• Freddie Mac

Here's a list of Banks that went bankrupt during the Financial Crisis:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bankrupt_or_acquired_banks_during_the_subprime_mortgage_crisis

The Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis hit the public where it hurts, in the pockets.

Suddenly, it was stressed that it was urgent to approve a Bail-Out Extravaganza, ranging from $700 Billion, to the actual $850 Billion that was finally approved. $850,000,000,000 Dollars that the American Tax-Payers have to pay (back) the Federal Reserve with interest*.

This was imperative; Bush remarked or else the Economy would crash. What a reversal of opinions in a matter of months. What was he thinking? The Hard Sell is "ratcheted-up a few notches", to include: Riots and unrest if the 'neat' bail-out package wasn't approved.

Henry Paulson of the Treasury Department, and Ben Bernanke of the FED (Not Federal, and has no reserves), stepped into the mix to add their professional expertise. They also called for immediate approval of a corporate infusion of cash. More, more, more money.

If credit got us into this mess; How can borrowing money that we don't have, and "doesn't exist, remedy the situation". There will be hades to pay!

The most recent clamor is for bailing-out the Big Boys: GM, Ford, and Chrysler (formerly known as Daimler-Chrysler). Bail out the Sales Force (Car Sales) with the Hard Sell of cantankerous vehicles that have become less economical in spite of the 1973 Oil Embargo. What have they done for the last 35 years? Grown fat and rich? Forgotten the days of rationing gas, odd and even days? Yet, the build their escapist SUV's for a clientele that has lost touch and fallen asleep at the wheel mesmerized by the Hard Sell.

The Selling Continues!

Are you going to continue buying this delusion of prosperity, when a collapse and the bill collectors are around the bend.

When will it end January 20, 2009? I doubt it: I see a pattern here.

And the band plays on: It's the heartbeat of America, Today's Chevrolet.



Don't forget to buy your Cadillac Pick-up Truck. Going Fast! P.S. I forgot AIG! Arsenio

November 20, 2008 07:26 AM

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=13785A blog with relevant information for the world.

November 20, 2008 07:22 AM

1In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,

2And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

3For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

4And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.

5Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan,

6And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.

7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

8Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:

9And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

10And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

11I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:

12Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.





13Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.

14But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?

15And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.

16And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:

17And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.




Matthew 3

November 20, 2008 07:21 AM

Former president and CEO of the Dime Bank of New Jersey, Thomas H. Van Arsdale. Photo By Mike Spencer To this day, the reigining British monarch serves as “sovereign head” of the Knights of St. John. The queen’s cousin, Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, serves as “grand prior,” or chief executive. Wilmington retiree proclaimed a knight starnewsonline.com | [...]

November 20, 2008 05:19 AM

From councillor Tony Sharp on his blog. This is not a million miles from our view.

COMMENT THREAD

November 20, 2008 12:26 AM

The contract was just handed out to IBM, but it's certain that cognitive computing already exists in the classified sector. DARPA works that way.

- Art Saxophone Mouthpiece

By Daniel Terdiman
news.cnet.com
November 19, 2008

IBM and several university partners have gotten a DARPA grant to work on a cognitive computing project designed to simulate the brain's sensation, action, interaction, perception and cognition abilities. At the same time, the project's leaders will be attempting to recreate the brain's low-power consumption and size.

IBM and five university partners have been awarded a DARPA contract to work on a cognitive computing project that will, essentially, attempt to simulate the brain's power and efficiency.

According to Dharmendra Modha, the manager of IBM's cognitive computing initiative, the idea is for him and his team to try to re-create the brain's perception, cognitive, sensation, interaction, and action abilities, while also simulating its efficient size and low-power consumption.

"The mind has an uncanny ability to integrate information from a variety of sensors, such as sight, hearing, touch, smell and can create categories of time, space and interrelationships effortlessly," said Modha. "There are no computers that can even remotely approach the capabilities of the mind. The mind arises from the wetware of the brain."

But he and his team feel that the time has finally arrived for computer scientists to at least begin to approach the brain's abilities. That's because, he said, of the convergence of three things.

First, neuroscience has made incredible strides forward. Second, supercomputing technology has reached the ability to create massive simulations in real time. And third, nanotechnology has made it possible to imagine creating simulated synapses, the very element of the brain that enables it to work at speeds and efficiencies computer scientists have so far only dreamed of.

"Together, these three trends allow us to uncover the function, computation function of the brain," he said, "while rivaling its remarkably low-power consumption and its small size."

The IBM project, just the first phase in DARPA's long-term contract, is expected to last nine months.

Already, Modha said, scientists have managed to create computing tools that have rivaled the abilities of a rat's brain.

But is it a good thing for science to try to re-create the brain's power?

"The questions are so technically challenging and it is so engaging at this point to begin to put the puzzle together, and the whole part is still not completely visible," Modha said. "I think it is premature to worry about what if."

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10103355-52.html

November 19, 2008 11:48 PM

For many months now I have been saying the CPI was going to go negative and stay there for quite some time. This was an easy call to make given the plunge in commodity prices in general and gasoline prices specifically.

The effect would be even greater if housing prices were properly reflected in the CPI. For more on housing in the CPI please see CPI and CS-CPI vs. Fed Funds Rate.

Here is the BLS Consumer Price Index October 2008

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the CPI-U decreased 1.0 percent in October following very little change in September and August. The large October decline was the largest one month decrease since publication of seasonally adjusted changes began in February 1947. Compared to a year ago, the October index was up 3.7 percent. The energy index fell 8.6 percent in October following declines of 1.9 percent in September and 3.1 percent in August.

Motor fuel prices continued to decline in October, with the gasoline index falling 14.2 percent. Despite the decline, gasoline prices remain 12.0 percent above their October 2007 level. The index for household energy items declined 0.9 percent following a 3.4 percent decrease in September. Petroleum based household fuel prices continued to decline, but the October decreases were moderated by an increase in the electricity index. The food index increased 0.3 percent in October, a smaller advance than the average monthly increase of 0.7 percent during the June through September period.

Compared with a year earlier, the food index was up 6.3 percent. The index for all items less food and energy turned down in October, declining 0.1 percent to a level 2.2 percent above October 2007. Contributing to the decrease in October were declines of 1.0 percent in the apparel index, 4.8 percent in the airline fare index, 1.6 percent in the index for lodging away from home, and 0.7 percent in the index for new and used motor vehicles.

click on chart for sharper image

The CPI is still rising year over year, but this may be the last month for it to do so. Looking ahead year over year comparisons will become increasingly easy to beat, especially in energy and transportation. And with the drop in food prices at the commodity level some relief in food prices may be coming, possibly with a lag.

Gasoline Futures



Gasoline futures are back at 2004 prices.

Heating Oil Futures



Heating oil futures are back at 2005 prices.

Live Cattle Futures



Live cattle futures have been in a rising flag pattern since 2003. The recent channel break could be a headfake as in 2005 or it could be the real deal. I suspect the latter given falling grain prices.

Corn Futures



Weather and harvest dependent, there is no reason corn prices couldn't or even shouldn't fall back to $3.00 or lower.

Looking at food, energy, and transportation, as well as easy year over year comparisons, expect to see increasing talk of deflation in the mainstream media. They are way late to the ballgame of course, because

1) Prices are a very lagging measure of monetary policy
2) Inflation and deflation are about money supply and credit, the latter being more important.

After predicting deflation for several years, on March 17th 2008 I stated it had arrived.

Deflation Call Timeline

March 17, 2008 Now Presenting: Deflation!

Current accounting rules allow banks to pretend. And certainly the Fed is going out of its way to bend the rules to allow new forms of pretending. Expect to see still more accounting rules that allow broker dealers to pretend.

However, all the pretending and misdirection about the sinking dollar and the price of gold cannot stop the fact that deflation is about contraction of money supply and credit. The former is not growing and the value of the latter is collapsing no matter how many pretend otherwise.

It's time to face the facts: Deflation is right here right now.

April 22, 2008 Deflation In A Fiat Regime?

The mad scramble by some corporations to raise capital, the scramble by others to play "hide and seek" with level 3 assets, and the scramble by virtually
everyone to play swap-o-rama with the Fed supposedly just to prove the process works tells the real story. The real story is deflation.

August 10, 2008 The Future Is Frugality

We are in deflation now, but few see it because they do not understand what deflation is: a contraction in money supply and credit.

The only question now is how long deflation lasts, not whether it gets here.

October 10, 2008 Roubini Discusses the Double D's, Deflation and Depression

So far, none of the liquidity measures taken by the Central Bankers have worked.
The reason is simple: You Cannot Patch a Busted Dam With Water no matter how hard you try.

November 11, 2008 Industrial Bond Yields Strongly Support Deflation Thesis

Those harping about prices of consumer goods, food, services, etc., are missing the boat about what deflation is and what one should expect in deflation. Trillions of dollars of debt are being wiped off the books via bankruptcies and foreclosures while inflationistas worry about the price of eggs going up by 35 cents.

The data are crystal clear. We are not in a period of inflation, we are not in a period of stagflation, we are not in a period of disinflation. If you exclude all the options proven to be impossible, the remaining option no matter how unlikely it may seem at first glance, must be the correct answer. That answer is deflation. We are in it, and have been for some time.

The S&P 500 is down about 45% this year, credit is collapsing, foreclosures are at all time highs, credit card defaults are soaring, unemployment has risen from 4.4% to 6.5%, short term treasury yileds have collapsed to 0%, and the long bond yield has fallen like a brick, yet only in the last couple weeks has anyone in the mainstream media been talking about deflation. That alone should tell you how silly it is to be focusing on prices as a measure of deflation.

Auto manufacturers, insurance companies, banks, and brokerages are all effectively bankrupt. Banks have lent out 10 times more than can be paid back, and brokerages are in even worse shape

Those who focused on Peak Credit and its counterpart Peak Earnings saw this coming. Those blindly looking at prices or money supply alone are still trying to figure out how and why treasury yields are where they are, the stock market has collapsed, commodities have plunged, and banks are scared to death to lend.

Looking ahead, there is every reason to expect increasing foreclosures, rising unemployment, rising bankruptcies, rising defaults, and rising corporate bond yields. Yet Bernanke cannot cut rates other than symbolically as the Fed Funds Rate is effectively trading at zero.

Welcome to deflation Ben Bernanke. You, Greenspan, and the Fed caused it with your serially bubble blowing activities.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Mike Shedlock / Mish is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com to learn more about wealth management for investors seeking strong performance with low volatility.

November 19, 2008 11:21 PM

http://umbl0g.blogspot.com/2008/11/pro-life-response-to-feministe-blog.html (Feministe blog refuted)

http://wheatandweeds.blogspot.com/2008/11/i-dont-believe-in-kathleen-parker.html

http://www.jillstanek.com/archives/2008/11/adult_stem_cell_2.html

A blog with relevant information for the world.

November 19, 2008 11:09 PM

" ... Barnbrook and his eager leafleteers have reason to be cocky. ... "

Brendan O'Neill
New Statesman
01 May 2008

The rapid growth in support at the ballot box for a nationalist party of the right has gone hand in hand with voter cynicism and disillusion with the main parties

On a sunny day in Stanmore, north London, a motley crew of people gathers at the Tube station. An elderly man leans on a walking stick, a faded blue, white and red tattoo saying "Proud to be British" just about visible on his forearm. The tattoo might be older than I am. Bert, a sixty-something retired heavy-machine worker, is inappropriately dressed in a woollen jumper and beige overcoat. He lets out a yelp of approval when a truck with a Union Jack on its side - carrying "British Meat" - hurtles by.

Housewives in jeans and short-sleeved tops talk animatedly about the beautiful weather. Charlotte Lewis, a 35-year-old unemployed woman from Croydon, is wearing a loud gold lamé jacket and black jeans. She speaks with a south London twang: "Sometimes I get on a bus and I'm the only white person on there," she complains. "It's a bit distressing."

A white van swerves into view, beeping at the group of 15 men and women to move out of the way. Out steps Richard Barnbrook, dressed in a khaki suit and with a roll-up between his fingers. He has the look and swagger of an old colonialist. I can picture him leaping out of a jeep in white-ruled Rhodesia in the same manner he leaps out of his white van in multi-ethnic Stanmore. His two helpers, big men in T-shirts, unload boxes of leaflets headlined "The Changing Face of London". They show a group of smiling white women at a street party in the 1940s (the good old days) next to a picture of three women wearing burqas, one of whom is giving a two-fingered salute to the camera (the bad new days).

This is the London wing of the British National Party. Five days before the local and London mayoral elections, it has come to Stanmore and Edgware in north London - which have large Indian and Jewish communities - for some last-minute electioneering. Its members are confident, even cocky, about their chances of a seat on the London Assembly. "We'll definitely get one, maybe two," says Barnbrook, who is the BNP's mayoral candidate.

Barnbrook is a graduate of the Royal College of Art, who worked with the gay film-maker Derek Jarman in the 1980s ("Me and Derek and Tilda [Swinton] hung out together, and there was never a problem," he says). His fiancée is Simone Clarke, former prima ballerina of the English National Ballet and a fellow BNP member, who has a mixed-race child. "How can I be racist when I adore that child?" he says, when I ask if the BNP is anything more than a Johnny Foreigner-baiting party. Barnbrook, who leads the BNP's 12 councillors in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, insists the BNP is "concerned about lots of things".

"If I had to put our concerns in order of importance, I would say: housing, transport, health, education, the environment and law and order." So immigration isn't a concern at all? "Well, immigration impacts on all of those things," he says. "It causes overcrowding in housing, strain on the transport system, more pollution in the environment and it disrupts law and order."
I see. Behind Barnbrook's "respectable issues" there lurks the odious far-right idea that immigrants are the root cause of every social ill.

Cocky leafleteers

Barnbrook and his eager leafleteers have reason to be cocky. At the time of writing, many predict that the BNP will make important gains in the local and London mayoral elections. In London, parties must win 5 per cent of the vote in order to get a seat on the 25-member Assembly. That threshold was introduced by the government to allow minor parties such as the Greens to be represented, while keeping out the far right. In the last London elections in 2004, the BNP won 4.7 per cent of the vote - only 6,000 votes short of the threshold for gaining a seat. This time it is expected to win bigger, especially since the UK Independence Party (which won 8 per cent in 2004) is in disarray.

Around the country, the BNP has grown in local electoral strength over the past ten years. Under its founder, John Tyndall, the party was a racist menace but electorally insignificant, only ever winning handfuls of votes.

That began to change with the election of the slick Nick Griffin as party chairman in 1999. He set about trying to improve the BNP's image. The party had won its first-ever council seat in the east London borough of Tower Hamlets in 1993. After the local elections of May 2006, it had over 50 council seats: 12 in Barking and Dagenham, and a smattering of seats in the north of England: mainly in Stoke-on-Trent, Burnley and West Yorkshire.

"The BNP has tended to prosper in segregated poor, white communities in the north, and in parts of the south-east where there have been unexpected infusions of new immigrants," sa