June 2009 – Page 3 – Infinite Unknown

Obama proposals to greatly increase the power of the Federal Reserve

June 17, 2009 by Infinite

… who caused the crisis in the first place and will now cause the ‘Greatest Depression’ together with the government:

– Marc Faber: Bernanke Is An Economic Criminal And In My Opinion He Is A Madman (06/06/09) (Video)

– Marc Faber: U.S. will go into Hyperinflation, Approaching Zimbabwe Levels (Bloomberg)

– Get Ready for Inflation and Higher Interest Rates: The unprecedented expansion of the money supply could make the ’70s look benign (Wall Street Journal)

– Jim Rogers on CNBC: I expect a currency crisis (06/04/09) (Video):
“The U.S. is the largest debtor nation in the history of the world.”
“Never in the world has a country gotten itself into this kind of a situation.”
“The Chinese don’t wanna get trapped in long bonds if something does happen to the dollar, which I expect and they expect. They don’t wanna get stuck and they’re sitting there with 30 year bonds, they’re dead.”

– JIM ROGERS WAS RIGHT (05/06/09) (Video):
“There is a possibility that the American government under this new President will default on its loans sometimes in the next four years. The situation is precarious.”
“The American government has more than tripled its own debt in the last six months.”
“The Federal Reserve in America has tripled its balance sheet in the last six months.”
“There is a very good chance that America will default on its government debt sometimes during this administration.”
“And there is an extremely good chance that the currency will be very debased and weakened a lot during this presidency.”
“These are not good times. This is not over yet. It is far from being over yet. Prepare yourself.”
“What America is doing now is consuming an increasing debt as a way to solve their problems. Listen, that’s what caused the problems.”
“America has been going deeper and deeper into debt for 25 years, that is what caused the problems.”
Now this genius (Obama) comes along and says: ‘We are doing more of the same’!”
“It’s not going to work.”

– Jim Rogers: We are going to have another Depression in the U.S. (Video):
“Mr. Obama doesn’t understand that he is making things much worse.”
“Mr. Bernanke has never been right. He has been in the government for six or seven years, he has never been right.”
“It is astonishing to me that Mr. Obama ran on a platform of change and he has brought in people who caused the problems and are there now supposed to resolve the problems.“

Obama Blueprint Deepens Federal Role in Markets

barack-obama
President Obama is expected to unveil the plan to overhaul the financial regulatory system today.

Plan to Overhaul Financial Regulation Focuses on Consumer Protection, Risk

The Obama administration last night detailed a series of proposals to involve the government more deeply in private markets, from helping to steer borrowers into affordable mortgage loans to imposing new limits on the largest financial companies, in a sweeping effort to curb the kinds of reckless risk-taking that sparked the economic crisis.

The plan seeks to overhaul the nation’s outdated system of financial regulations. Senior officials debated using a bulldozer to clear the way for fundamental reforms but decided instead to build within the shell of the existing system, offering what amounts to an architect’s blueprint for modernizing a creaky old building.

The White House makes its case for this approach in an 85-page white paper that describes the roots of the crisis. Gaps in regulation allowed companies to make loans many borrowers could not afford. Funding came from new kinds of investments that were poorly understood by regulators. Big firms paid employees massive bonuses, while setting aside little money to absorb potential losses.

“While this crisis had many causes, it is clear now that the government could have done more to prevent many of these problems from growing out of control and threatening the stability of our financial system,” the white paper says.

The plan is built around five key points, according to a briefing last night by senior administration officials and a copy of the white paper obtained by The Washington Post.

The proposals would greatly increase the power of the Federal Reserve, creating stronger and more consistent oversight of the largest financial firms.

Children may get swine flu vaccine shots first this fall; Schools might even be turned into shot clinics

June 17, 2009 by Infinite

If you are ‘totally’ healthy you just cannot get sick. This is in accordance with TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine).

You probably haven’t heard much of the horrific studies that Adolf Hitler, Josef Wissarionowitsch Stalin and Mao Tse-Tung did in the 40ties.

Here is one study of what they did to three groups of still healthy people (translated from German):

The first group was drinking cholera water without knowing it.
The second group was told that it was cholera water, that they are drinking.
The third group was drinking clean water, but was told that it was cholera water.

The result is stunning and defies conventional thinking/doctrine/dogma and is in total accordance with what I know.

Results:
The first group: Not one died.
The second group: Almost all died.
The third group: More than 50% died!

The milieu is everything. Attitude is everything.

Healthy people that have been told that they have terminal leukemia and that chemotherapy would not work anymore (it never works anyway) died faster than people that were exposed to a deadly dose of radiation. This study was conducted to examine changes in the blood count.

If you are still afraid of swine flu consider this:
– Homeopathy Successfully Treated Flu Epidemic of 1918

Here is what you really should be afraid of, if you still want to be afraid of something:

Government:

– New flu combines pig, bird, human virus:
Unusually, the viruses all appear to carry genes from swine flu, avian flu and human flu viruses from North America, Europe and Asia.
– CDC to mix avian, human flu viruses in pandemic study (2004):
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will soon launch experiments designed to combine the H5N1 virus and human flu viruses and then see how the resulting hybrids affect animals. The goal is to assess the chances that such a “reassortant” virus will emerge and how dangerous it might be.”

and Big Pharma:

– Baxter expects to soon begin work on flu vaccine:
BOSTON, April 29 (Reuters) – Baxter International Inc said on Wednesday that it could have the first dose of its pandemic flu vaccine ready within 12 to 16 weeks of the start of the manufacturing process for the product.
– Baxter: Product contaminated with live H5N1 avian flu virus:
The company that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses.
The contamination incident, which is being investigated by the four European countries, came to light when the subcontractor in the Czech Republic inoculated ferrets with the product and they died. Ferrets shouldn’t die from exposure to human H3N2 flu viruses.

Please take a closer look at vaccinations (Here) and read some books about the subject.

Related video: Ron Paul on the Swine Flu Scare

Newsmaker Sebelius
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius answers questions about health care during an AP newsmaker interview in Washington, Tuesday June 16, 2009. (AP Photo/J. David Ake)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Schoolchildren could be first in line for swine flu vaccine this fall — and schools are being put on notice that they might even be turned into shot clinics.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday she is urging school superintendents around the country to spend the summer preparing for that possibility, if the government goes ahead with mass vaccinations.

“If you think about vaccinating kids, schools are the logical place,” Sebelius told The Associated Press.

No decision has been made yet on whether and how to vaccinate millions of Americans against the new flu strain that the World Health Organization last week formally dubbed a pandemic, meaning it now is circulating the globe unchecked. But the U.S. is pouring money into development of a vaccine in anticipation of giving at least some people the shots.

While swine flu doesn’t yet seem any more lethal than the regular flu that each winter kills 36,000 people in the U.S. alone, scientists fear it may morph into a more dangerous type. Even in its current form, the WHO says about half of the more than 160 people worldwide killed by swine flu so far were previously young and healthy.

Germany Prepares For Internet Censorship

June 17, 2009 by Infinite

Germany is on the verge of censoring its Internet: The government – a grand coalition between the German social democrats and conservative party – seems united in its decision: On Thursday the parliament is to vote on the erection of an internet censorship architecture.

The Minister for Family Affairs Ursula von der Leyen kicked off and lead the discussions within the German Federal Government to block Internet sites in order to fight child pornography. The general idea is to build a censorship architecture enabling the government to block content containing child pornography. The Federal Office of Criminal Investigation (BKA) is to administer the lists of sites to be blocked and the internet providers obliged to erect the secret censorship architecture for the government.

A strong and still growing network opposing these ideas quickly formed within the German internet community. The protest has not been limited to hackers and digital activist but rather a mainstreamed effort widely supported by bloggers and twitter-users. The HashTag used by the protesters is #zensursula – a German mesh up of the Ministers name and the word censorship equivalent to #censursula.

As part of the public’s protest an official e-Petition directed at the German parliament was launched. Within three days 50,000 persons signed the petition – – the number required for the petition titled „No indexing and blocking of Internet sites” to be heard by the parliament. The running time of an e-Petition in Germany is 6 weeks – within this time over 130,000 people signed making this e-Petition the most signed and most successful ever.

During the past weeks, protests became more and more creative – countless blogs and twitter-users followed and commented the discussions within governments and opposing arguments. Many mainstream media picked up on this and reported about the protest taking place on-line. A working group on censorship was founded and the protest coordinated with a wiki, mailing lists, chats and of course employing twitter and blogs. One website „Zeichnemit.de” created a landing page explaining the complicated petitioning system and making signing the petition easier and more accessible for non net-experts.

British Airways asks 40,000 staff to work for nothing in desperate fight for survival

June 16, 2009 by Infinite

british-airways-planes-heathrow-airport
British Airways planes on the tarmac at Heathrow Airport. BA ground staff have already rejected the company’s proposals by six to one

British Airways boss Willie Walsh is asking his 40,000 staff to work for nothing to save the airline.

The astonishing plea comes as BA faces what Mr Walsh says is a ‘fight for survival’.

The company has written directly to its 40,000 employees asking them to volunteer for up to four weeks of unpaid work.

Mr Walsh announced last week that he would work unpaid for the month of July – forgoing £61,000 in salary. His chief financial officer Keith Williams is also working unpaid for the month.

The appeal to staff goes much further than earlier requests for a pay freeze or unpaid leave.

It also undermines the unions with whom BA is negotiating a wider package of cost- cutting measures.

But it infuriated cabin crew. One said: ‘BA now stands for “B***** all” because that’s what they want to now pay us. That’s the calibre of management we have at British Airways.’

Neo-Fascist ‘Blackshirts’ fear prompts inquiry into Italian National Guard

June 16, 2009June 16, 2009 by Infinite

Mussolini’s militia used the Roman fasces symbol — a bundle of rods bound with an axe

Fasces symbol (Wikipedia): The fasces in the United States

A neo-Fascist group that claims it has thousands of recruits has announced plans to start anti-crime foot patrols on the streets of Milan.

The resemblance between their outfits and those of Benito Mussolini’s Blackshirts has triggered a judicial inquiry.

The Italian National Guard says that it has 2,500 recruits. It claims that a third are drawn from former members of the police and Armed Forces.

The Guard revealed its oufits and kit in Milan at the weekend: khaki shirts with armbands bearing the Nazi symbol of the Black Sun, black belts and shoulder straps, black ties, heavy black boots and military style caps decorated with the eagle, symbol of the Roman Empire. They are also equipped with black helmets, black gloves and torches.

Related article: Italy right-wing guard sparks outrage (AP)

Milan prosecutors yesterday opened an inquiry into the Guard, which has been dubbed “the Black Patrols” because of its Fascist-style insignia and uniforms. Fascist and Nazi symbols and slogans are forbidden in Italy under laws passed after the Second World War and the fall of the Fascist dictatorship of Mussolini. Maurizio Monti, deputy head of the Guard, said that the organisation was properly registered. “We do not believe we have committed any crime.”

A law allowing for local patrols to help police to combat street crime is in its final stages in parliament. Patrols have, however, already begun to operate in Italian cities, some organised by the anti-immigrant Northern League, a key ally in the ruling centre-right coalition of Silvio Berlusconi.

Gaetano Saya, the leader of the Guard, is already under investigation for allegedly disseminating racial hatred. He told Corriere della Sera that the Guard was based on the Roman legions. He said that he had taken his cue from Mr Berlusconi’s recent remark that Italy was not and should not be a “multi-ethnic society”.

China, Russia, India and Brazil shed U.S. dollar reserves

June 16, 2009June 16, 2009 by Infinite

dollar

China, Russia, India and Brazil, collectively known as the Bric countries, are holding their first formal summit in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg.

Brazil, Russia, India and China are considering buying each other’s bonds and swapping currencies to lessen dependence on the U.S. dollar.

The BRIC countries are among the biggest holders of U.S. Treasuries and have combined reserves of $2.8 trillion.

China, Russia and, to a lesser extent, Brazil have expressed a desire to see the dollar one day replaced as the world’s main trading currency.

And fears that these big holders of dollar assets may be looking to switch from the US currency have unsettled financial markets and US politicians.

Related article: Dollar slides after Russia comments, BRIC summit (Reuters)

The summit will be “a launch pad for our future talks,” Medvedev said at the start of the meeting. The talks would give the countries the opportunity to “implement new economic programs and reform international financial relations,” he said.

The Russian leader reiterated his intention to push for the creation of a “supranational currency” to challenge the dollar and encouraged China and called on other Shanghai group members to use each other’s currencies for trade.

“There can be no successful global currency system if the financial instruments that are used are denominated in only one currency,” Medvedev said. “Today this is the case and the currency is the dollar.”

International purchases of U.S. assets shrank between March and April as China, Japan, Russia and Brazil trimmed their holdings of Treasuries.

China cuts US Treasury bond holdings by US$4.4b

According to the data posted on the web site of the US Department of Treasury, China holds US$763.5 billion in US Treasury bonds by end of April, down by US$4.4 billion from previous month’s US$767.9 billion. This was the first time that China had decreased its US Treasury bond holdings this year.

Confirmed by Bloomberg:

Graph: Bloomberg News

U.S. likely to lose AAA rating

June 16, 2009 by Infinite

But, but … S&P Ratings: Why the US Government Is Still Rated AAA (BusinessWeek)

If you are still trusting Standard & Poor’s for one moment you are doomed and deserve to lose a lot more of your money.

Of course I agree with Robert Prechter:
The economy “is obviously heading toward a depression.”

“The banking sector is in severe trouble,” as more loans turn bad, he said.

“It’s the next leg down (in stocks) that will make it clear that these things (that the Fed has avoided disaster and that the economy has hit bottom) are not true,” Prechter said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Technical analyst Robert Prechter on Monday said he sees the United States losing its top AAA credit rating by the end of 2010, as he stuck by a deeply bearish outlook on the U.S. economy and stock market.

Prechter, known for predicting the 1987 stock market crash, joins a growing coterie of market heavyweights in forecasting the United States will lose its top credit rating as the government issues trillions of dollars in debt to fund efforts to bail out the economy.

Fears about the long-term vulnerability of the prized U.S. credit rating came to the fore after Standard & Poor’s in May lowered its outlook on Britain, threatening the UK’s top AAA rating. That move raised fears that the United States could face a similar risk, with the hefty amounts of government debt issued in both countries to pay for financial rescues causing budget deficits to swell.

Richard Fisher: Fed Can’t Offset Treasury-Borrowing Flood

June 16, 2009 by Infinite

June 15 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve isn’t capable of offsetting the “flood” of U.S. Treasury borrowing with its bond-purchase program, which is helping to revive credit markets, Dallas district-bank President Richard Fisher said.

“The program has had its impact,” Fisher said today in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “At the same time, you cannot counter this enormous flood” of borrowing “coming from the United States Treasury.”

The Fed’s efforts to stimulate the economy are complicated by rising Treasury yields, which push up the cost of mortgages even after policy makers have lowered short-term interest rates near zero. Fed district bank presidents including Janet Yellen of San Francisco, Dennis Lockhart of Atlanta and Thomas Hoenig of Kansas City are among those who say higher yields may reflect concerns about inflation and imbalances such as the budget deficit.

The Fed won’t “monetize” the fiscal deficit by effectively printing money to finance the shortfall, and there’s been no “pressure” from the Obama administration to do so, said the Dallas bank chief, who doesn’t vote on rates this year. Fisher, 60, also dismissed the concerns of some central bank watchers that its record purchases of assets will cause inflation to soar.

The Saga Of The Bearer Bonds; Smuggled Bonds Are Probably Genuine

June 20, 2009June 15, 2009 by Infinite

Update:
– The Japanese Bond Smugglers Are Missing (The Business Insider)
– US Treasury says bonds seized in Italy are fakes (Reuters)
– The US Bearer Bonds ‘Coincidence’ (Must-read)

The German newspaper ‘Die Welt’ (The World) reports:
(Original article: Welt Online , Translation courtesy of Google: Here)

Smuggled Bonds are probably genuine
Geschmuggelte Anleihen sind wohl echt

Bull’s eye for the customs officers:
Volltreffer für die Zöllner:

The smuggled bonds valued at 134 billion U.S. dollars are apparently authentic.
Die geschmuggelten Wertpapiere im Wert von 134 Milliarden Dollar sind offenbar echt.

The Italian financial police caught two Japanese, trying to carry multi-billion bonds in the false bottom of their suitcase to Switzerland.
Die italienische Finanzpolizei hatte zwei Japaner ertappt, die im doppelten Boden eines Koffers milliardenschwere Anleihen in die Schweiz schaffen wollten.

Note that this has received very little coverage in the so-called “mainstream US media” – but it is everywhere in Europe and Asia.

Japan, for its part, oddly said the following as soon as this story started to hit the press:

“We have complete trust in the fact that the U.S. views its strong-dollar policy as fundamental,” Yosano, 70, said in an interview in Tokyo on June 10 before attending a Group of Eight meeting of finance ministers starting today in Italy. “So our trust in U.S. Treasuries is absolutely unshakable.”

Uh huh. And the Japanese said in December of 1941 that all was well too. Anyone remember what happened on the morning of the 7th?

Let’s apply a little “Occam’s Razor” to this entire story.

You’re not going to walk into a bank with $130 billion in bearer bonds and cash them. Nor are you going to sell a bond with a $500 million face value to someone without them authenticating it. They will be authenticated before you get one dime out of them – no matter who you think you’re going to “give” them to.

So if they’re fakes and you’re “just screwing around”, there is no reason to hide them. Nor is there any particular reason to have authentic and recent original bank documents in your luggage with them, as has been reported.

Scotland Yard officers are suspected of defrauding taxpayers of millions

June 15, 2009 by Infinite

More than 300 elite Scotland Yard detectives are suspected of defrauding the taxpayer of millions of pounds by abusing their corporate credit cards, the Observer can disclose.

Auditors who have examined the American Express accounts of 3,500 officers involved in countering terrorism and organised crime have reported almost one in 11 detectives to the Metropolitan Police’s internal investigators.

A senior officer appears to have spent £40,000 on his Amex card in one year, without authorisation. Items bought by others without permission include suits, women’s clothing and fishing rods.

The scale of the suspected fraud, disclosed in an internal Metropolitan Police Authority report, will send shock waves through the force. Until now, the investigation into expenses fraud was thought to have focused on fewer than 40 officers. It comes days after Sir Paul Stephenson, the Met Commissioner, faced the potentially damaging disclosure that six officers face investigation over claims that a drug suspect’s head was forced into a lavatory that was flushed repeatedly.

Authority members expressed their dismay last night. Jenny Jones, a Green Party member, said: “Taxpayers have every right to be angry about this. Well done to the current auditing team for uncovering this, but what on earth was happening before? Why was there no accountability?

“It beggars belief that our police, who are supposed to be solving crime, are suspected of fraud on a grand scale.”

The Ug99 fungus: A time bomb for world wheat crop

June 15, 2009 by Infinite

Related articles:
– Airborne fungus Ug99 threatens global wheat harvest (The Guardian):
“The US army produced wheat rust as part of its biological weapons programme in the 1960s.”
– UN alert: One-fourth of world’s wheat at risk from new fungus (World Tribune)
– Billions at risk from wheat super-blight (New Scientist)

ug99-wheat-rust-science
Oregon State scientist Mary Verhoeven is among those working to develop wheat varieties resistant to a strain of “stem rust” that a colleague calls “a time bomb.”

The Ug99 fungus, called stem rust, could wipe out more than 80% of the world’s wheat as it spreads from Africa, scientists fear. The race is on to breed resistant plants before it reaches the U.S.

The spores arrived from Kenya on dried, infected leaves ensconced in layers of envelopes.

Working inside a bio-secure greenhouse outfitted with motion detectors and surveillance cameras, government scientists at the Cereal Disease Laboratory in St. Paul, Minn., suspended the fungal spores in a light mineral oil and sprayed them onto thousands of healthy wheat plants. After two weeks, the stalks were covered with deadly reddish blisters characteristic of the scourge known as Ug99.

Nearly all the plants were goners.

Crop scientists fear the Ug99 fungus could wipe out more than 80% of worldwide wheat crops as it spreads from eastern Africa. It has already jumped the Red Sea and traveled as far as Iran. Experts say it is poised to enter the breadbasket of northern India and Pakistan, and the wind will inevitably carry it to Russia, China and even North America — if it doesn’t hitch a ride with people first.

ug99-wheat-rust

“It’s a time bomb,” said Jim Peterson, a professor of wheat breeding and genetics at Oregon State University in Corvallis. “It moves in the air, it can move in clothing on an airplane. We know it’s going to be here. It’s a matter of how long it’s going to take.”

British troops at mercy of Taliban surge; Nato fatalities rise by 78 per cent

June 15, 2009 by Infinite

Related article: Afghanistan: Northern Supply Lines Under Attack

Average of 12 attacks a day by insurgents in Helmand, new figures show

Troops of 3rd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland and soldiers from the Afghan National Army in the Upper Sangin Valley, Helmand province

British troops fighting the Taliban are facing three times as many attacks as any other Nato force in Afghanistan amid spiralling violence across the country which has seen insurgent bombings and shootings rise by 73 per cent.

Official Nato figures reveal that fatalities among the international force, including British, have risen by 78 per cent while the targeting of officials serving the beleaguered Afghan government has increased by 64 per cent.

The details of the ferocity of the conflict emerged as Nato ministers meeting in the Netherlands acknowledged that the tide must be turned in the conflict. The US Defence Secretary Robert Gates stressed the urgent need to “shift the momentum”, saying “the patience of the American people and Congress would wear pretty thin… if in a year or so it appears we are in a stalemate and we’re taking even more casualties”.

General David Petraeus, the US commander in charge of Afghan operations, pointed out that violence reached an all-time high last week. He bluntly said that there was no question that security had deteriorated over the past two years and that “there are still tough times ahead” as the country prepares for national elections in August.

No change: Obama ambassadorships still go to fundraisers, friends

June 14, 2009 by Infinite

obama-donors-get-embassy-gigs

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama promised change, but he’s following one time-honored tradition: doling out plum ambassadorships to friends and big-money party donors.

So far, Obama’s contributors and friends have been awarded with plum posts in Canada, France, England, Japan, South Africa, Ireland, the Bahamas, Denmark, Argentina and the Vatican.

The Obama administration says that all of its appointees are qualified, but critics say the jobs should go to career diplomats instead of party loyalists.

“It is the last vestige of the spoils system,” said Ronald Neumann, president of the American Academy of Diplomacy.

“We made it illegal to do this for our civil service on the basis that merit was important,” Neumann said. “We don’t do it for our military. And it is a little perplexing why we think that we should we able to sell ambassadorships.”

According to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks money in politics, Obama has rewarded some of his largest fundraisers and donors with posts abroad.

Some examples:

His ambassador to the United Kingdom, Louis Susman, is a lawyer and investment banker who bundled at least $100,000 for Obama’s presidential campaign and at least $300,000 for his inauguration.
His ambassador to Ireland, Dan Rooney, is the chairman of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team and, with his wife, has contributed at least $152,400 to federal candidates, committees and parties since the 1990 election cycle.
Charles Rivkin, nominated to be the ambassador to France, is the head of an entertainment company who bundled at least a half-million dollars for Obama’s campaign and another $300,000 toward his inaugural committee.
John Roos, nominated to be the ambassador to Japan, is a lawyer who bundled at least $500,000 to Obama’s presidential campaign and, with his wife, has contributed at least $77,500 to Democrats since the 1992 election cycle, including $6,900 to Obama.

Obama’s appointments would appear to contradict statements he made as a presidential candidate. Promising the most sweeping ethics changes in history, Obama said he’d impose a “litmus test” in his administration, where employees are hired based on their qualifications and experience, not on their party or ideology.

NASA orders $19 million space toilet from Russia

June 14, 2009 by Infinite

Moscow, June 14: The US space agency NASA was forced to spend a whopping USD 19 million on a new toilet in their section of International Space Station (ISS), after repeated breakdown of the American lavatory due to “rich diet” of Russian cosmonauts.

Cosmonauts from both the countries had been using each others’ toilets, but the American astronauts recently denied access to their Russian colleagues to their lavatory, sparking a ‘space scandal’ between the two former Cold War rivals.

“The US astronauts were sick and tired of toilet breakdowns and unpleasant odours. NASA was eventually forced to order a toilet system from Russia. US tax payers paid USD 19 million for the space toilet. The new construction was installed in the US segment of the ISS,” Pravda.ru website reported.

Big Pharma: Eli Lilly Sold Drug for Dementia Knowing It Didn’t Help, Files Show

June 14, 2009 by Infinite

The documents also revealed Lilly officials wrote medical journal studies about Zyprexa and then asked doctors to put their names on the articles, a practice called “ghostwriting.”

Lilly employees compiled a guide to hiring scientists to write favorable articles, complained to journal editors when publication was delayed and submitted rejected articles to other outlets, according to the documents.

Criminals!

The drug has never been approved for use with dementia patients, according to the FDA’s Web site.

zyprexa-eli-lilly
A file photograph of Eli Lilly & Co.’s schizophrenia medication, Zyprexa, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Photographer: JB Reed/Bloomberg News

June 12 (Bloomberg) — Eli Lilly & Co. urged doctors to prescribe Zyprexa for elderly patients with dementia, an unapproved use for the antipsychotic, even though the drugmaker had evidence the medicine didn’t work for such patients, according to unsealed internal company documents.

In 1999, four years after Lilly sent study results to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration showing Zyprexa didn’t alleviate dementia symptoms in older patients, it began marketing the drug to those very people, according to documents unsealed in insurer suits against the company for overpayment.

Regulators required Lilly and other antipsychotic drug- makers in April 2005 to warn that the products posed an increased risk to elderly patients with dementia. The documents show the health dangers in marketing a drug for an unapproved use, called off-label promotion, said Sidney Wolfe, head of the health research group at Public Citizen in Washington.

“By definition, off-label means there is no clear evidence that the benefits of a drug outweigh the risks,” Wolfe said. “The reason why off-label promotion is illegal is that you can greatly magnify the number of people who will be harmed.”

In 1999, when Lilly began its marketing push, Zyprexa’s only approved use was for patients suffering from schizophrenia, according to the FDA. In 2008, Zyprexa was Lilly’s best-selling drug, with $4.7 billion in sales, while antipsychotics as a group topped U.S. drug sales last year, with $14.6 billion.

Seven Studies

In a request for a December 2003 meeting over a proposed label change, Lilly told the FDA that data from seven studies showed Zyprexa didn’t alleviate symptoms of Alzheimer’s or other dementia.

The studies found death rates among older dementia patients taking Zyprexa were “significantly greater” than those who didn’t get the medicine, the company said, according to the unsealed documents.

The Greatest Economic Collapse Is Coming

June 14, 2009 by Infinite

“John Williams of www.shadowstats.com notes that official US deficit statistics do NOT include net present value of unfunded social security OR Medicare expenses. A lot of folks have made a big deal about the US running a $1 trillion deficit this year. Well, if you included the net value of those unfunded Social Security and Medicare expenses we cleared a $1 trillion deficit in 2007, a $5 TRILLION deficit in 2008 and are on course to clear a $9 TRILLION deficit this year.”

“To give you an idea of how big a problem these deficits are, consider that the US government could tax its citizens 100% of their earnings and NOT have a balanced budget.” (!)

Today’s essay details the ongoing collapse of the US economy with a focus on why this coming fall will prove the “worst is over” crowd wrong yet again. Earlier this week, I detailed three major developments. They were:

The US’s economic shift from manufacturing to services (mainly financial)
The massive drop in US incomes
The beginning of the debt bubble

Today, we’re addressing how the debt bubble encapsulated the US government as well as why Obama’s Stimulus Plan won’t fix anything.

To revisit the above three points, the US began outsourcing jobs in earnest soon after we re-opened trade with China in 1971. As outsourcing spread to higher and higher skilled jobs, this meant fewer jobs in the US market. This resulted in US consumers having to use credit to maintain their standard of living. It also meant more than one parent working to make ends meet.

On a national level, the US government began living beyond its means as well. Adjusted for inflation, gross tax receipts have only risen 40% in the last 39 years. However, over the same time period, total government spending increased 2,600%!!!

To fund this insanity, the US issued debt in the form of Treasuries. Foreign governments (most notably China) which were generally getting richer selling us stuff loaded up. The whole scheme is similar to buying a toy from the store, then having the store lend you money to buy another toy… ad infinitum: hardly a sensible long-term plan for financial solvency.

Unrest in Iran after election; Mousavi lodges legal appeal against Ahmadinejad victory

June 14, 2009 by Infinite

Opposition candidate goes to country’s guardian council after supporters claim result was manipulated

iran-unrest-smoke-billows-from-a-burning-bus
Smoke billows from a burning bus behind a supporter of Mousavi. Photograph: Olivier Laban-mattei/AFP/Getty Images

The defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi today launched a formal appeal against the election result as his supporters took to the streets of the capital again, raising the prospect of more violent clashes.

Mousavi, who claimed his defeat by the hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was manipulated, said in a statement on his website that he had appealed to the ruling guardian council to overturn the result, and urged his supporters to continue protests “in a peaceful and legal way”.

With temperatures at 35C, the situation in the Iranian capital threatened to run out of control as special forces in riot gear chased protesters through side streets near Fatemi Square. In a sign of the anger among Mousavi’s supporters, they chanted “the president is committing a crime and the supreme leader is supporting him”, highly inflammatory language in a regime where the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, is considered irreproachable. Shops, government offices and businesses closed early as tension mounted.

Crowds also gathered outside Mousavi’s headquarters but there was no sign of Ahmadinejad’s chief political rival. Supporters waved their fists and chanted anti-Ahmadinejad slogans. Mousavi’s wife denied rumours that her husband had been placed under house arrest.

“People are tired of dictatorship,” she told Reuters. “People are tired of not having freedom of expression, of high inflation, and adventurism in foreign relations. That is why they wanted to change Ahmadinejad.”

Judgment Day: Broke California Faces Shutdown

June 13, 2009 by Infinite

California’s famed redwood forests will have to close to visitors

The state of California is in crisis and time has almost run out. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor, has spent this week haggling with state legislators to agree cuts to basic services in one of the world’s largest economies.

The state’s top finance officials warned that unless an emergency austerity plan is agreed by Monday – and there is little chance that it will be – they will not be able to borrow the billions of dollars needed to keep the current government functioning. If California was a company, it would have gone bust months ago.

The breadth and depth of Mr Schwarzenegger’s cuts are unprecedented and no one in the state, not even its dozens of billionaires, will be unaffected. His more radical proposals include wiping billions of dollars from the education budget, with the school year shortened and larger classes.

Hundreds, possibly thousands, of police and firemen will be laid off, and state employees who keep their jobs face pay cuts of at least 10 per cent.

Parks will close, shutting access to thousands of square miles of beaches, redwood forest and other attractions that draw 80 million visitors a year. Thousands of prisoners will be released early and the notorious St Quentin penitentiary will be among state buildings put up for sale.

All financial aid for university students, affecting 200,000 people from low-income families, will end.

Local governments will no longer have to provide absentee ballots in elections, nor run programmes to help infants exposed to drugs. Even stray animals will no longer be kept alive for the statutory three days.

ACLU hits Obama administration hard over torture controversies

June 13, 2009 by Infinite

“The Obama administration has now fully embraced the Bush administration’s shameful effort to immunize torturers and their enablers from any legal consequences for their actions,” said Ben Wizner, an ACLU lawyer representing the five men, in a press release. “The CIA’s rendition and torture program is not a ‘state secret;’ it’s an international scandal. If the Obama administration has its way, no torture victim will ever have his day in court, and future administrations will be free to pursue torture policies without any fear of liability.”

Change you can believe in!

change

The American Civil Liberties Union had strong words on Friday for the Obama administration’s efforts to block the release of torture photos and its attempts to end a lawsuit over extraordinary rendition.

The ACLU criticized the White House’s deal with Congress, struck on Thursday, which eliminated a provision in a military financing bill that would have blocked the release of torture photos – but only after President Barack Obama promised to “use every legal and administrative remedy” available to keep the photos from the public.

“Keeping the photos secret while letting the high level perpetrators off the hook cannot be tolerated if we are to get an America we can be proud of again,” said Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU. “This information is necessary to create an accurate historical record and to force an increasingly recalcitrant Justice Department to undertake a criminal investigation of those who authorized and implemented the Bush administration’s torture program.”

US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive

June 13, 2009 by Infinite

Dozens of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of drastic “shrink to survive” proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline.

House under demolition, USA: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
The US government is looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature Photo: GETTY

The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature.

Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area.

The radical experiment is the brainchild of Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County, which includes Flint.

Having outlined his strategy to Barack Obama during the election campaign, Mr Kildee has now been approached by the US government and a group of charities who want him to apply what he has learnt to the rest of the country.

Mr Kildee said he will concentrate on 50 cities, identified in a recent study by the Brookings Institution, an influential Washington think-tank, as potentially needing to shrink substantially to cope with their declining fortunes.

Venezuela bans Coke Zero, cites “dangers to health”

June 13, 2009 by Infinite

ECUADOR/

CARACAS, June 10 (Reuters) – The Venezuelan government of U.S.-critic President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday ordered Coca-Cola Co to withdraw its Coke Zero beverage from the South American nation, citing unspecified dangers to health.

The decision follows a wave of nationalizations and increased scrutiny of businesses in South America’s top oil exporter.

Health Minister Jesus Mantilla said the zero-calorie Coke Zero should no longer be sold and stocks of the drink removed from store shelves.

“The product should be withdrawn from circulation to preserve the health of Venezuelans,” the minister said in comments reported by the government’s news agency.

Despite Chavez’s anti-capitalist policies and rhetoric against consumerism, oil-exporting Venezuela remains one of Latin America’s most Americanized cultures, with U.S. fast-food chains, shopping malls and baseball all highly popular.

Mantilla did not say what health risks Coke Zero, which contains artificial sweeteners, posed to the population.

Ron Paul: Audit the Fed Update (06/12/09)

June 12, 2009 by Infinite

Congressman Ron Paul gives the latest exciting news on his legislation to audit the Federal Reserve and explains the possible next steps for the bill.

Ron Paul: Global Warming Petition Signed by 31,478 Scientists

June 12, 2009 by Infinite

Statement before the US House of Representatives, June 4, 2009

By Ron Paul:

Madam Speaker, before voting on the “cap-and-trade” legislation, my colleagues should consider the views expressed in the following petition that has been signed by 31,478 American scientists:

“We urge the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto, Japan in December, 1997, and any other similar proposals. The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind.

There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.”

Circulated through the mail by a distinguished group of American physical scientists and supported by a definitive review of the peer-reviewed scientific literature, this may be the strongest and most widely supported statement on this subject that has been made by the scientific community. A state-by-state listing of the signers, which include 9,029 men and women with PhD degrees, a listing of their academic specialties, and a peer-reviewed summary of the science on this subject are available at www.petitionproject.org.

The peer-reviewed summary, “Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide” by A. B. Robinson, N. E. Robinson, and W. Soon includes 132 references to the scientific literature and was circulated with the petition.

Signers of this petition include 3,803 with specific training in atmospheric, earth, and environmental sciences. All 31,478 of the signers have the necessary training in physics, chemistry, and mathematics to understand and evaluate the scientific data relevant to the human-caused global warming hypothesis and to the effects of human activities upon environmental quality.

In a letter circulated with this petition, Frederick Seitz – past President of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, President Emeritus of Rockefeller University, and recipient of honorary doctorate degrees from 32 universities throughout the world – wrote:

Read moreRon Paul: Global Warming Petition Signed by 31,478 Scientists

US House to debate Ron Paul’s ‘Audit the Fed’ bill

June 12, 2009 by Infinite

After months of activism and lobbying by Congressman Ron Paul’s supporters, House Resolution 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, will move out of committee to be debated by the full House of Representatives.

In a show of cross-party unity, Ohio Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich became the bill’s 218th co-sponsor, pushing it over the threshold for debate in Congress.

The bill, which achieved its 222nd co-sponsorship on Thursday, has been in consideration by the House Financial Services Committee since Feb. 26.

Congressman Kucinich, along with Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY), announced Tuesday that the House Financial Services Committee will subpoena the Federal Reserve to ascertain the details of the Fed’s agreements with Bank of America in the institution’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch.

“The full committee and Domestic Policy Subcommittee, under the leadership of Chairman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), have been investigating the circumstances surrounding the federal government’s bailout of the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch transaction,” Kucinich’s office noted in a Tuesday release. “Specific documents subpoenaed include emails, notes of conversations and other documents.”

While the bill enjoys some Democratic supporters, the vast majority of H.R. 1207 co-sponsors are Republican.

“The tremendous grass-roots and bipartisan support in Congress for HR 1207 is an indicator of how mainstream America is fed up with Fed secrecy,” said Congressman Paul in a Thursday media advisory. “I look forward to this issue receiving greater public exposure.”

European industrial production plunged most on record, 21.6 % from a year earlier

June 12, 2009 by Infinite

European industrial production plunged by the most on record in April as the impact of the global recession was at its height. In the Eurozone, production tumbled 21.6 percent from a year earlier, the most since the data series commenced in 1986, Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said today.

In recent weeks, PMI (Purchasing Managers’ Index) data; German industrial orders and the announcement that the global economy has bottomed from the German Kiel Institute and a similar upbeat outlook on the UK economy, from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, has encouraged hope that a low-level recovery has begun.

In the month of April 2009, seasonally adjusted industrial production fell by 1.9% in the Eurozone (EA16) and by 0.9% in the EU272 . In March production decreased by 1.4% and 1.3% respectively.

In the year to April 2009, industrial production declined by 21.6% in the Eurozone and by 19.4% in the EU27 .