October 14, 2008 archive

1. McClatchy Newspapers report according to Iraq’s Sunni vice president, the U.S. and Iraq won’t reach accord on troops this year. “The United Nations mandate that authorizes the U.S. military presence in Iraq will expire on Dec. 31 and without a so-called status of forces agreement, it’s questionable whether the U.S. will have a legitimate right to maintain its troops in Iraq, Vice President Tariq al Hashimi” said. He is concerned violence will increase as the U.N. mandate expires.

   The main point of contention is jurisdiction. Maliki has been pressing for jurisdiction to prosecute U.S. troops when they aren’t on their bases, which the U.S. has so far refused to permit.

   “The impression of the Iraqi people is that American troops from time to time exaggerate their reactions, use excessive force and irresponsible behavior,” Hashimi said. “We would like to put an end to that. When this happens in the future there must be prosecution of those who are exceeding the limit of the authorities given to them.”

   The U.S. government has said that the mandate must be renewed if no agreement is reached, or U.S. forces will withdraw, Hashimi said. But it takes time to pull out more 130,000 troops, presenting a new problem about who’d have jurisdiction during a technically illegal occupation.

   The Washington Post adds that with time running out and Lacking an accord On troops, the U.S. and Iraq seek a Plan B.

   Neither side finds the options attractive. One possibility is an extension of the United Nations mandate that expires at the end of the year. That would require a Security Council vote that both governments believe could be complicated by Russia or others opposed to the U.S.-led war. Another alternative would amount to a simple handshake agreement between Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Bush to leave things as they are until a new deal, under a new U.S. administration, can be negotiated…

   U.S. officials do not dispute that the absence of an agreement would probably require an immediate end to combat operations and, at a minimum, confinement to bases on Jan. 1.

   Meanwhile, McClatchy Newspapers report Iraqis are being attacked and killed for returning to their homes. Only a small number of the nearly 5 million Iraqi refugess have made an attempt to return home. Many are being attacked upon their return or having “their homes blown up.”

   Sectarian cleansing has helped to reduce the violence in Iraq to a four-year low, but the small number of returnees who’ve been targeted so far could be a warning that the violence could return, too.

   I wonder if Iraq, like the markets, will implode too before Bush escapes office. The “surge” was designed to buy Bush enough time to get clear, but their are signs of the lid coming off the pot.

Four at Four continues with election day in Canada, Brazil’s dam projects, Paraguay’s landless, protecting forests instead of cutting greenhouse emissions, and a bonus graphic of the stock markets compared under Democratic and Republican administrations.

Sarah Palin A Political Disaster Area

Where’s Brownie?  

U.S. Investing $250 Billion in Banks

 

By MARK LANDLER

Published: October 13, 2008  

WASHINGTON – The Treasury Department, in its boldest move yet, is expected to announce a plan on Tuesday to invest up to $250 billion in banks, according to officials. The United States is also expected to guarantee new debt issued by banks for three years – a measure meant to encourage the banks to resume lending to one another and to customers, officials said.

And the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will offer an unlimited guarantee on bank deposits in accounts that do not bear interest – typically those of businesses – bringing the United States in line with several European countries, which have adopted such blanket guarantees.

London and Asian markets continue world-wide rally of shares after bailouts

 

From Times Online

October 14, 2008

Leo Lewis in Tokyo, Suzy Jagger in New York, Francis Elliott and Gráinne Gilmore

London and Asian markets continued the world-wide rally of shares today after governments committed trillions of dollars to stop collapse of the financial system – with America set to unveil its bailout plan in a few hours.

The FTSE 100 share index posted a 4 per cent rise in early trading today after Japanese dealing floors led the way in Asia, unleashing an unprecedented frenzy of buying to post the Nikkei’s biggest one-day gain.

France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, India, South Korea, Japan and Qatar all took measures to guarantee deposits or improve bank liquidity.

USA

At least 1 dead, more than 10,000 acres burned in two San Fernando Valley fires

Governor declares a state of emergency. A fire in Porter Ranch has scorched more than 5,000 acres and 19 homes. The Marek fire near Lake View Terrace has burned 5,300 acres.

  By Julie Cart,, Ari B. Bloomekatz and Mitchell Landsberg, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

October 14, 2008  

With treacherous Santa Ana winds as their bellows, twin wildfires raced through populated canyons, forests and brushlands on the northern fringes of the San Fernando Valley, claiming at least one life and 49 structures, and prompting authorities to suggest a hair-raising, worst-case scenario — that one of the blazes, which began near Porter Ranch, could burn all the way to the Pacific Ocean about 15 miles away.

“This fire has the potential to move from where it is now . . . perhaps as far as Pacific Coast Highway,” Los Angeles County Fire Chief Michael Freeman said Monday afternoon as he assessed what he called “a design for disaster.” Freeman said winds of up to 60 mph were expected to push the fire down through canyons at least through this morning.

Original article, by Pat Buchanan, via antiwar.com:

“Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers.”

So Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon advised Herbert Hoover in the Great Crash of ’29.

Hoover did. And the nation liquidated him – and the Republicans.

Cross posted at kos

I wasn’t going to write this because I didn’t want to jeopardize anyone else any more than I already have.

You are all at risk! And it is all my fault! So Please forgive me.

I wasn’t entirely truthful and now you are in danger!

You are all doomed…..and it is because I am here that you are doomed.

Kai, over at Zuky, has a post up, Time to Throw the Traders Out the Temple (Part 1) wherein he opines about our most recent economic catastrophe:

Every action that the US government is currently undertaking to supposedly “rescue” our economy has more theatrical effect than structural impact. The bailouts, the debt buyouts, the interest rate cuts, all appear designed to artificially prop up certain nosediving assets and mildly encourage a loosening of credit markets without substantially addressing or mitigating the immediate or eventual social costs of financial meltdown.

……

Most trades these days don’t even involve stocks or bonds, but derivatives, which are contracts establishing conditions and rules for the buying and/or selling of stocks, bonds, or other derivatives. For example, a common derivative would be a stock option; which, say, gives me the right to buy GimongoCorp stock at $5 per share by a certain date; and if GimongoCorp stock hits $10 per share by that date, I get to double my money by executing the option. But here’s where it starts getting funky: the option contract itself can be assigned a current dollar value according to market conditions (using a tricky little piece of calculus known as the Black-Scholes model) and traded on that basis. So for the most part, investment banks have ended up trading not merely stocks and bonds but derivatives of derivatives of derivatives of…and so on. The result is an impenetrable layer of multi-dimensional mathematical abstraction between the allocation of physical resources (i.e. actual societal investment) and the free-market mechanisms which steer that allocation, the proverbial invisible hand.

…….

The most tangible asset that a US citizen can “own” is a plot of land with a house on it. The single biggest historical driver in the accumulation of US wealth has been the theft, redistribution, and subsequent inheritance of real estate. From plantations to Indian reservations, from the Homestead Act to post-Civil War ethnic cleansings, from Jim Crow redlining to the covert racism of modern mortgage practices, the dominant culture has worked tirelessly to build multi-generational economic structures that enrich and advantage white communities while obstructing and disrupting the accumulation of wealth by communities of color. I don’t have to explain to readers here how African Americans and Native Americans and other people of color have waged long and bloody battles to knock down many obstacles. The Fair Housing Act, the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and the Community Reinvestment Act all marked legal victories in anti-racist struggle; yet we all know that it takes more than legislation to reform centuries of racist cultural practice. Nevertheless, over the years many people of color succeeded in beating the odds, managing to acquire and defend real estate holdings, building thriving families and communities in largely hostile environments.

Open Thread Away!