XIAM007 - Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Saturday, 9 July 2011

US Taxpayers Just Paid $780 Million To Fund The Latest Greece Bailout Tranche -

The IMF is delighted to announce that it just approved a €3.2 billion disbursement of cash for Greece, its fifth, as part of the €12 billion in money that Greece needs in order to continue operating in the months July and August. And just for what purpose will this money be used, one may ask? Well, as explained a few weeks ago, in Greek Math: €12 Billion In, €18.2 Billion Out the entire amount will be promptly recycled by global financial institutions in the form of debt maturities and interest payments, which amount to €18.2 billion in the months of July and August. Simply said ECB, EU and IMF money in, money owed to bankers out. The kicker: 17.09% of the money coming from the IMF, comes from, that’s right dear US taxpayer, you (and since 21% of the quota contributions allocated to the IMF are deemed “non-usable”, the actual number funded by the US is likely much higher). But this plot has a bonus kicker: as we reported on Wednesday, the actual Greek debt is no longer owed by European banks to the extent it had been previously expected: a development that threatens to scuttle the entire second Greek bailout plan as currently proposed. So as the banks have been selling Greek debt, who has been buying? Mostly hedge funds, such as everyone’s favorite John Paulson. So to recap: US taxpayers have just paid out about $780 million of the $4.6 billion in order to fund interest owed to… hedge funds.
The WSJ provides a pretty chart explaining who is responsible for what:

[IMFGREECE]

Has the U.S. Turned Against Consumers? - Federal Reserve, the government, and Wall Street are all bleeding the consumer -

"It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. They can invent reasons why oil prices go to $130 or $150, but history shows that these people are capable of moving markets. It is not Exxon (XOM) or BP (BP) or Shell (RDS.A) that moves the oil markets. It is the financial players. It is theGoldman Sachs (GS), the Morgan Stanley (MS), or the other guys. It is a shame on the government that allows them to get away with that." —Oppenheimer oil analyst Fadel Gheit, Bloomberg TV, May 25, 2011

I recently explained here how excess liquidity lent to investors by the Federal Reserve at virtually no interest—helping investors use leverage as never before—created a maelstrom of activity in the commodities market. All that cheap money has pushed oil prices much higher than actual supply and legitimate demand would dictate. Covered also was the fact that during the campaign of 2008, when oil was nearing a new high of $147 a barrel, Presidential candidates Barack Obama and Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) knew why and promised to fix it.

Both candidates recognized what was happening in the markets and promised to repeal the Enron loophole that was created in 2000 by the Commodities Futures Modernization Act. This essentially deregulated financial products known as over-the-counter derivatives and loosened capital requirements. It allows traders to run roughshod over our economy, pocketing excessive profits and slowing the pace of recovery.

Amazingly, many continue to debate whether or not commodity traders are even responsible for today’s outrageous oil pricing. To industry professionals—among them Fadel Gheit, one of the most respected oil analysts; key members of OPEC; Rex Tillerson, chairman and chief executive of ExxonMobil; and the heads of Petronas (PTG:MK) of Malaysia and Total (TOT) of France—what is taking place is obvious.

Not long after these columns were published, Gary Gensler, head of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, slammed the commodities markets with his sharpest criticisms yet. Gensler pointed out that as of today, 88 percent of recent trades for benchmark West Texas Intermediate Crude are made solely by speculators, not by the real end-users of crude.

When speculators make 88 percent of all trades, they’re not just heavily influencing the market. They have absolute control.

SPECULATORS CONTROL FOOD, TOO

Gensler went on to state that creeping control of the market was similarly occurring in food commodities. He said speculators accounted for a whopping 90 percent of recent trades for wheat on the Chicago Board of Trade. A recent column in Foreign Policy magazine concurred. The market has gone from $13 billion in total contract holdings early in the last decade to $318 billion in contracts as of July 2008 (the same month oil peaked at $147 a barrel), driving food prices up 80 percent from 2005 to 2008. Foreign Policy quoted Kendell Keith, president of the National Grain and Feed Assn., as saying: "It’s unprecedented how much investment capital we’ve seen in the commodities market."

Is it any wonder that the average American working family is holding back on consumer purchases, thereby throttling the economic recovery? Two critical monthly expenses—energy and food—keep rising, steadily draining what little disposable income consumers might otherwise be able to spend on consumer goods.

Why?

As McClatchy’s Washington Bureau pointed out in a column covering the CFTC’s announcement: "… these [commodities] markets have driven up prices to the speculators’ profits and to the punishment of the public."

Friday, 8 July 2011

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Presidential candidate promised to ban "all forms of pornography..." -

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) became the first presidential candidate to sign a pledge created by The Family Leader, a conservative, Iowa-based Christian group that opposes same sex marriage, Sharia law and pornography.

By signing the pledge (PDF), Bachmann vowed to support a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage, as well as agreeing that same sex marriage was akin to polygamy.

The document also implies that homosexuality is a choice.

"No peer-reviewed empirical science or rational demonstration has ever definitively proven, nor has even shown an overwhelming probability that homosexual preference or behavior is irresistible as a function of genetic determination or other forms of fatalism," according to the Christian group.

With her signature, Bachmann seemed to be implicitly agreeing that black children were better off during slavery.

"Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President," the document said.

"Given that families were broken up regularly for sales during slavery and that rape by masters was pretty common, this could not be more offensive," Jack & Jill Politics' Cheryl Contee noted.

Sweden Is Planning To Teach Every Schoolchild Chinese In The Next 10 Years -

Sweden’s education minister said Wednesday that all schoolchildren will be taught Chinese within 10 years, reports AFP.

If Jan Björklund’s plan goes ahead, Sweden will be the first country in Europe to make Chinese compulsory.

“Chinese will be much more important, from an economic perspective, than French or Spanish,” Björklund told the Dagens Industri newspaper.

“Not everyone in the business world speaks English,” said Björklund. “Very qualified businesses are leaving Europe to move to China.”

12 Signs That The World Is Running Out Of Food -

The following are 12 signs that the world is running out of food….

#1 More than 3 billion people, close to half the world’s population, live on less than 2 dollar a day.

#2 Over the past year, the global price of food has risen by 37 percent.

#3 Just about every major agricultural commodity has been skyrocketing in price. Check out what a recent Bloomberg article had to say about what has been happening to many key agricultural commodities over the past year….

Corn futures advanced 77 percent in the past 12 months in Chicago trading, a global benchmark, rice gained 39 percent and sugar jumped 64 percent. There will be shortages in corn, wheat, soybeans, coffee and cocoa this year or next, according to Utrecht, Netherlands-based Rabobank Groep. Prices also rose after droughts and floods from Australia to Canada ruined crops last year. European farmers are now contending with their driest growing season in more than three decades.

#4 According to the World Bank, 44 million more people around the globe have been pushed into extreme poverty since last June because of rising food prices.

#5 Sadly, rising food prices is not a new trend. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the global price of food has gone up by 240% since 2004.

#6 To a large extent, this global food crisis has been brought on by the greed of the wealthy. A study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research discovered that the bottom half of the world population ownsapproximately 1 percent of all global wealth.

#7 The average income per person in the poorest countries on the continent of Africa has fallen by one-fourth over the past twenty years.

#8 It is estimated that over 80 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where the income gap between the rich and the poor is widening.

#9 Approximately 1 billion people throughout the world go to bed hungry every single night.

#10 Every 3.6 seconds someone starves to death and three-quarters of them are children under the age of 5.

#11 It is estimated that the entire continent of Africa only owns approximately 1 percent of the total wealth of the world.

#12 According to the most recent “Global Wealth Report” by Credit Suisse, the wealthiest 0.5% of the global population controls over 35% of all the wealth on the planet.

Those of us that live in wealthy countries have it really good.

We get to shovel huge amounts of food into our faces whenever we want.

Disneyland has a speakeasy - Hidden in New Orleans Square - $10,000 in initiation fees and another $3,500 each year -

Hidden behind a dull green door in Disneyland’s New Orleans Square is one of the park’s most exclusive and mysterious attractions: a VIP lounge called Club 33.

Walt Disney built the club as a secret hideaway for dignitaries and celebrities, and he even went to New Orleans to personally pick out the knickknacks for the interior. During the 44 years that Club 33 has been operational, it’s served the likes of Johnny Depp, Elton John, and scads of executives from companies such as Boeing, Chevron, and AT&T.

But if you’re hoping to join, you’ll have to be patient. It takes about 10 years to get off the waiting list, after which you’ll have to fork over $10,000 in initiation fees and another $3,500 each year that you’re a member.

But it’s worth it; Club 33 is the only place at Disneyland where you can ditch the kids for a cocktail.

Thursday, 7 July 2011

Thanks Monsanto: Agent Orange Being Used to Clear Rainforrest in Brazil - 440 acres of Rainforest that had been sprayed -

Agent Orange is one of the most devastating weapons of modern warfare, a chemical which killed or injured an estimated 400,000 people during the Vietnam War -- and now it's being used against the Amazon rainforest. According to officials, ranchers in Brazil have begun spraying the highly toxic herbicide over patches of forest as a covert method to illegally clear foliage, more difficult to detect that chainsaws and tractors. In recent weeks, an aerial survey detected some 440 acres of rainforest that had been sprayed with the compound -- poisoning thousands of trees and an untold number of animals, potentially for generations.

Officials from Brazil's environmental agency IBAMA were first tipped to the illegal clearing by satellite images of the forest in Amazonia; a helicopter flyover in the region later revealed thousands of trees left ash-colored and defoliated by toxic chemicals. IBAMA says that Agent Orange was likely dispersed by aircraft by a yet unidentified rancher to clear the land for pasture because it is more difficult to detect than traditional operations that require chainsaws and tractors.
Last week, in another part of the Amazon, an investigation conducted by the agencyuncovered approximately four tons of the highly toxic herbal pesticides hidden in the forest awaiting dispension. If released, the chemicals could have potentially decimated some 7,500 acres of rainforest, killing all the wildlife that resides there and contaminating groundwater. In this case, the individual responsible was identified and now faces fines nearing $1.3 million.

Read more - http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/07/vietnam-era-weapon-being-used-to-clear-the-amazon.php

16 Reasons To Feel Really Depressed About The Direction That The Economy Is Headed -

The following are 16 reasons to feel really depressed about the direction of the economy….
#1 A newly released National Federation of Independent Business polldiscovered that U.S. small businesses let go of more workers than they hired in June. Previously, the poll had registered four monthly gains in net jobs in a row. Some analysts believe that this may be another indication that the employment market is getting softer once again.
#2 Another newly released jobs report found that the number of job cuts being planned by U.S. employers increased by 11.6% in June.
#3 There are fewer payroll jobs in the United States today than there were back in 2000 even though we have added 30 million people to the population since then.
#4 There are officially 6.2 million Americans that have been unemployed for more than 6 months. There are millions of others that have also been out of work that long but they have become so discouraged about looking for work that the U.S. government considers them “to no longer be in the workforce”.
#5 It now takes the average unemployed worker in America nearly 40 weeksto find a new job.
#6 Paychecks are not keeping up with inflation. In May, the average hourly wage in the United States was 1.6 percent lower than 12 months earlier.
#7 Food and gas prices have been absolutely soaring over the past year. McDonald’s, Hershey and Coca-Cola have all announced price increases this year. One recent survey found that 9 out of 10 U.S. workers do not expect their wages to keep up with soaring food prices and soaring gas prices over the next 12 months.
#8 There are disturbing indications that the business community expects the economy to slow down even more in the months ahead. For example, pre-orders for Christmas toys from China are way down.
#9 As of April, there were 6.39 million home loans in the United States that were either delinquent or in foreclosure. Included in that were 675,000 home loans that had not had a single payment made on them in two years.

#10 Approximately 28 percent of all home loans in the United States are currently “underwater”.
#11 Overall, American households are about 7.7 trillion dollars poorer than they were back in early 2007.
#12 As a percentage of GDP, the total amount of debt in the United States is now far higher than it ever has been in any other era of U.S. history. Things were not even close to this bad during the Great Depression.
#13 One of the key measures of consumer confidence in the United States has hit a seven-month low.
#14 According to Gallup, the percentage of Americans that lack confidence in U.S. banks is now at an all-time high of 36%.
#15 According to one recent poll, 39 percent of Americans believe that the U.S. economy has now entered a “permanent decline”.
#16 Another recent survey found that 48 percent of Americans believe that it is likely that another great Depression will begin within the next 12 months.
So what is the United States going to look like if we do have another major economic downturn?

Read more - http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/16-reasons-to-feel-really-depressed-about-the-direction-that-the-economy-is-headed

A glass of milk can contain a cocktail of up to 20 painkillers, antibiotics and growth hormones -

A glass of milk can contain a cocktail of up to 20 painkillers, antibiotics and growth hormones, scientists have shown.

Using a highly sensitive test, they found a host of chemicals used to treat illnesses in animals and people in samples of cow, goat and human breast milk.

The doses of drugs were far too small to have an effect on anyone drinking them, but the results highlight how man-made chemicals are now found throughout the food chain.

the highest quantities of medicines were found in cow’s milk.

Researchers believe some of the drugs and growth promoters were given to the cattle, or got into milk through cattle feed or contamination on the farm.

The Spanish-Moroccan team analysed 20 samples of cow’s milk bought in Spain and Morocco, along with samples of goat and breast milk.

Their breakdown, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, revealed that cow’s milk contained traces of anti-inflammatory drugs niflumic acid, mefenamic acid and ketoprofen – commonly used as painkillers in animals and people.

City using goats as lawnmowers...- goats will be in an electrified fence which will be moved to cover the entire property -

If you hear some “baa’s” instead of the rumble of a lawnmower in Gaithersburg, you're hearing the city's new grounds crew.

Two herds of goats, supplied by Eco-Goats (yes, it’s a real business), will be grazing on the property of the Izaak Walton League headquarters on Muddy Branch Road. It will take 16 days for the herds to cover the property in an effort to remove invasive species of plants like Japanese Stiltgrass, Mile-A-Minute Vine, Autumn Olive and Oriental Bittersweet.

After the goats use their talents to trim back the plants, an herbicide will be sprayed and then a new planting plan will be put in place by the Izaak Walton League to keep the invasive plants from coming back.

According to Gaithersburg officials, goats are an effective way to eradicate invasive species and have been used in Anne Arundel County, St. Mary’s County and Maryland State Highway Administration. Eco-Goats will provide all the shelter, food and water for the goats during their lawn mowing duties.

And remember that little incident when a goat ran free across Gaithersburg in May, eluding police. There will none of that here. All the goats will be enclosed in an electrified fence which will be moved throughout the week to cover the entire property.