April 2009 – Page 3 – Infinite Unknown

An Asset Bubble for the History Books

April 10, 2009 by Infinite

By Bob Chapman:

Big bank money bombs will blow up money supply, economic data distorted beyond recognition, Fed magically conjures money, dollar set to lose its status in world currencies, zombie banks suck in healthy banks, just like in the movie, mark to market rules still hiding trillions in losses

Many of you may recall that there was a tulip mania in Holland in the 1630’s that has become synonymous with asset bubbles. Just to give you an idea of how over-the-top this mania became, the price for a single tulip bulb at one point during this mania was in the tens of thousands of dollars in terms of today’s prices. And believe it or not they were writing futures contracts on tulip bulbs! Now, courtesy of our new Treasury Secretary, Kissinger protégé Little Timmy Geithner, who is on loan from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Little Timmy’s sidekick, Buck-Busting-Ben, chairman of the privately owned Fed, we are about to experience a hyperinflationary money bubble as Little Timmy and Buck-Busting-Ben create and unleash a money supply mania. That money supply mania will cause many other manias, including gold and silver manias, as tangible asset prices skyrocket.

Global News (04/10/09)

April 10, 2009 by Infinite

– US military blew up pigs to test body armour (Telegraph):
American military researchers have blown up live pigs dressed in body armour in an attempt to study the link between roadside bomb blasts and brain injury.

– Fed Said to Order Banks to Stay Mum on ‘Stress Test’ Results (Bloomberg)

– IMF: German economy to contract by 5% in ‘09 (Inquirer):
BERLIN — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) now sees the German economy shrinking 5.0 percent this year, a sharp downward revision from the 2.5 percent contraction forecast in January, the weekly Der Spiegel reported Friday.

– The dark side of Dubai (Independent):
Dubai was meant to be a Middle-Eastern Shangri-La, a glittering monument to Arab enterprise and western capitalism. But as hard times arrive in the city state that rose from the desert sands, an uglier story is emerging.

– Russia furious with EU over Twitter revolution (Independent):
Moscow backs Moldovan President after he accuses Romania of supporting coup

– GM, Chrysler Ratings Are Cut by S&P as Deadlines Loom (Bloomberg):
April 10 (Bloomberg) — General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC had ratings cut on some of their debt by Standard & Poor’s as the automakers face government deadlines to restructure or file for bankruptcy.

– Microsoft fined $388 million over patent breach (Times Online)

– EU warns China over increasing steel exports (Telegraph):
A simmering trade conflict between Europe and China is nearing the boil as state-supported Chinese steel companies ramp up capacity despite drastic cuts by the rest of the world.

– Aso’s $153 Billion Boost to Japan Economy May Incur `Massive’ Future Cost (Bloomberg):
“Aso is very optimistic” on that jobs creation number when you compare it with Obama’s plan, Daley said. “When you throw $150 billion at an economy in one year, you will see an effect. It will not be long term, nor sustainable.”

– Obama to Push Immigration Bill as One Priority (New York Times)

– Gold price to break $1000 as people scrap gold jewellery for cash (Telegraph):
Gold may reach a record this year as demand for a hedge against inflation outpaces an expanding scrap supply and weaker usage by jewellers, according to researcher GFMS.

Pentagon preps for economic warfare

April 10, 2009 by Infinite

The Pentagon sponsored a first-of-its-kind war game last month focused not on bullets and bombs — but on how hostile nations might seek to cripple the U.S. economy, a scenario made all the more real by the global financial crisis.

The two-day event near Ft. Meade, Maryland, had all the earmarks of a regular war game. Participants sat along a V-shaped set of desks beneath an enormous wall of video monitors displaying economic data, according to the accounts of three participants.

“It felt a little bit like Dr. Strangelove,” one person who was at the previously undisclosed exercise told POLITICO.

But instead of military brass plotting America’s defense, it was hedge-fund managers, professors and executives from at least one investment bank, UBS – all invited by the Pentagon to play out global scenarios that could shift the balance of power between the world’s leading economies.

Their efforts were carefully observed and recorded by uniformed military officers and members of the U.S. intelligence community.

In the end, there was sobering news for the United States – the savviest economic warrior proved to be China, a growing economic power that strengthened its position the most over the course of the war-game.

The United States remained the world’s largest economy but significantly degraded its standing in a series of financial skirmishes with Russia, participants said.

The war game demonstrated that in post-Sept. 11 world, the Pentagon is thinking about a wide range of threats to America’s position in the world, including some that could come far from the battlefield.

And it’s hardly science fiction. China recently shook the value of the dollar in global currency markets merely by questioning whether the recession put China’s $1 trillion in U.S. government bond holdings at risk – forcing President Barack Obama to issue a hasty defense of the dollar.

Solar-powered cooker nabs climate prize

April 10, 2009 by Infinite

Prize for ‘Sun in the box’ cooker

At the heart of the idea is a simple black painted box…

A cheap solar cooker has won first prize in a contest for green ideas.

The Kyoto Box is made from cardboard and can be used for sterilising water or boiling or baking food.

The Kenyan-based inventor hopes it can make solar cooking widespread in the developing world, supplanting the use of wood which is driving deforestation.

Other finalists in the $75,000 (£51,000) competition included a device for streamlining lorries, and a ceiling tile that cools hot rooms.

Organised by Forum for the Future, the sustainable development charity founded by Jonathan Porritt, the competition aims to support concepts that have “moved off the drawing board and demonstrated their feasibility” for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but have not gained corporate backing.

With as many people as there are in the developing world today, they can’t just cook using trees – they’ll finish off all the trees

Jon Bohmer, Kyoto Energy

“The Kyoto Box has the potential to transform millions of lives and is a model of scalable, sustainable innovation,” said Peter Madden, the forum’s chief executive.

It is made from two cardboard boxes, which use reflective foil and black paint to maximise absorption of solar energy.

Covering the cooking pot with a transparent cover retains heat and water, and temperatures inside the pot can reach at least 80C.

As many as two billion people in the world use firewood as their primary fuel.

Dublin archbishop: Sex abuse report will shock

December 2, 2017April 10, 2009 by Infinite

And how many were abused since the dark ages? This report did not shock me at all. Such behavior can be considered “normal” within the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church also killed millions of innocent people in the name of Christ.

He says it will show that thousands of youths were abused from 1975-2004

DUBLIN – The Archbishop of Dublin said Thursday that an upcoming report on child sexual abuse involving Catholic priests will likely reveal that thousands of youngsters were abused from 1975 to 2004.

The report “will shock us all,” said Diarmuid Martin, during Mass at Dublin’s Pro-Cathedral.

The archbishop said the report, compiled by the Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation, is expected to show that “thousands of children or young people across Ireland were abused by priests in the period under investigation and the horror of that abuse was not recognized for what it is.”

The government-appointed commission was set up to investigate abuses within the Dublin archdiocese in 2006, the same year the diocese admitted that up to 102 of its priests were suspected of abusing children. The report is studying how complaints of child sexual abuse were handled.

The commission has also now begun an investigation into the Diocese of Cloyne, in County Cork. Commission member Ita Mangan said that could potentially delay the publication of the Dublin report which had been planned for this summer.