Will California become America's first failed state?

Patients without medical insurance wait for treatment in the Forum, a music arena in Inglewood, Los Angeles. The 1,500 free places were filled by 4am. Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images

California has a special place in the American psyche. It is the Golden State: a playground of the rich and famous with perfect weather. It symbolises a lifestyle of sunshine, swimming pools and the Hollywood dream factory.

But the state that was once held up as the epitome of the boundless opportunities of America has collapsed. From its politics to its economy to its environment and way of life, California is like a patient on life support. At the start of summer the state government was so deeply in debt that it began to issue IOUs instead of wages. Its unemployment rate has soared to more than 12%, the highest figure in 70 years. Desperate to pay off a crippling budget deficit, California is slashing spending in education and healthcare, laying off vast numbers of workers and forcing others to take unpaid leave. In a state made up of sprawling suburbs the collapse of the housing bubble has impoverished millions and kicked tens of thousands of families out of their homes. Its political system is locked in paralysis and the two-term rule of former movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger is seen as a disaster – his approval ratings having sunk to levels that would make George W Bush blush. The crisis is so deep that Professor Kenneth Starr, who has written an acclaimed history of the state, recently declared: "California is on the verge of becoming the first failed state in America."

Outside the Forum in Inglewood, near downtown Los Angeles, California has already failed. The scene is reminiscent of the fallout from Hurricane Katrina, as crowds of impoverished citizens stand or lie aimlessly on the hot tarmac of the centre's car park. It is 10am, and most have already been here for hours. They have come for free healthcare: a travelling medical and dental clinic has set up shop in the Forum (which usually hosts rock concerts) and thousands of the poor, the uninsured and the down-on-their-luck have driven for miles to be here.

The queue began forming at 1am. By 4am, the 1,500 spaces were already full and people were being turned away. On the floor of the Forum, root-canal surgeries are taking place. People are ferried in on cushions, hauled out of decrepit cars. Sitting propped up against a lamp post, waiting for her number to be called, is Debbie Tuua, 33. It is her birthday, but she has taken a day off work to bring her elderly parents to the Forum, and they have driven through the night to get here. They wait in a car as the heat of the day begins to rise. "It is awful for them, but what choice do we have?" Tuua says. "I have no other way to get care to them."

G24 nations urge significant IMF vote shift

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The Group of 24 nations on Saturday called for a significant shift in IMF voting power to developing nations and a doubling of members' quotas to raise more resources for the global financial institution.


The G24, which includes emerging and developing countries from Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, called for a "political commitment" to shift 7 percent of quota shares from rich to developing countries.

That is larger than the 5 percent shift announced by Group of 20 major nations in Pittsburgh last week ahead of a January 2011 target for overhauling the voting system of the IMF, which has long been dominated by Europe and the United States.

The G24 also called for a seat at the G20 to make it more representative of developing countries. Most of the G24 countries, such as Iran, Nigeria, Colombia and the Philippines, are not G20 members.

"The redistribution of quotas must not be at the expense of other developing countries and must be based on a reformed quota formula which addresses the present deficiencies and bias against developing countries, including inadequate reflection of the potential need for Fund resources," the G24 said in a communique before IMF and World Bank meetings in Istanbul.

The G24 has been vocal about the need for a major rebalancing of IMF voting power to reflect the rise of emerging market countries in the world economy.

The G24's call for a doubling of IMF members' quotas, which determines their voting power in the Fund, mirrored a speech by IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Friday in which he called for a further increase in IMF resources that would allow it to become a "credible" global lender of last resort.

The IMF received a $500 billion boost in its resources in April but emerging market countries China, Brazil and Russia have made it clear their contribution is not permanent unless they are given a greater say in the institution and also in how the funds are used.

Amar Bhattacharya, director of the G24 Secretariat, said more resources for the IMF would also discourage nations from trying to self-insure by accumulating large currency reserves.

Asian countries have been wary of the IMF's handling of the region's financial crisis in the 1990's and have amassed trillions of dollars in savings to avoid ever going back to the IMF.

The G24 also said the threat of a deep and prolonged global recession appears to be receding. But it noted the crisis had exacted a heavy toll on developing countries and called on the IMF to pay closer attention to advanced economies, which were at the center of the crisis and have often ignored the Fund's advice.

"In this connection surveillance of systemically important countries should be even handed and more effective," G24 chairman Adib Mayaleh, who is also Syria's central bank governor.

The G24 also called for an expanded role for IMF Special Drawing Rights, the fund's internal unit of account, in the international monetary system.

- Via Reuters

Comcast's talks with NBC Universal get thumbs down

 NEW YORK (Reuters) - Comcast Corp shareholders may be justified in thinking they're watching the repeat of a show they didn't like much the first time around.

The top U.S. cable service provider, blasted five years ago for making a $54 billion bid for Walt Disney Co, is again in talks to buy a major media conglomerate. This time, negotiations center on a majority stake in General Electric Co's NBC Universal, sources familiar with the matter said.
The news sent Comcast shares tumbling 7 percent on Thursday, dredging up fears that Chief Executive Brian Roberts is making a risky bet on a film and television business that has been hard hit by the recession and is going through seismic changes in the digital age.

"People are scared, they don't trust Brian, he's seen as an empire builder," said Glenn Greenberg of Chieftain Capital Management, which owns 29 million Comcast shares.

Greenberg pointed to Comcast's past acquisitions such as Adelphia in 2005 and AT&T Broadband in 2002 as examples of management paying too much.

According to the current talks, the sources said, Comcast would pay between $4 billion and $7 billion in cash and contribute its cable programing assets to take 51 percent of a new NBC Universal that is jointly owned with GE.

"The problem is that they have low credibility for overpaying for assets," said Greenberg.
Worries that Comcast has been hoarding cash to spend on a big media company have weighed on its shares, pushing valuations close to historical lows over the summer.

"Investors have long pressed Comcast for an aggressive return of cash to shareholders," said Craig Moffett, analyst at Bernstein Research. "An acquisition of a major content studio, even if consummated at an attractive price, is most decidedly not what Comcast investors had in mind."
To be fair, Comcast has been upfront with Wall Street and investors about its interest in acquiring more cable programing assets.

The talks with GE do not involve Comcast issuing any debt or equity, and do not involve boatloads of cash, as Chief Operating Officer Stephen Burke promised last month. "I don't think that means doing a big $50 billion acquisition," he told investors when discussing Comcast's content plans.

NBC Universal is 80 percent owned by GE and 20 percent owned by Vivendi, which is widely expected to exercise an option to sell that stake this year.

The deal under discussion, according to the sources, would value Comcast's cable networks like E!, Golf Channel and Versus at up to $7 billion. GE would own 49 percent of the new company -- which would hold all of NBC Universal's film, television and theme park businesses -- though the idea is for Comcast to increase its stake over time.

"It's a more attractive structure than initially thought," said Chris Marangi, analyst for Gabelli & Co, a long-term holder of Comcast shares.

"It doesn't require the issuance of new equity and limits the amount of cash used so it's a more manageable transaction," he said, adding that Comcast appears to be getting a relatively good valuation for its cable networks.
Others on Wall Street are yet to be convinced, pointing to debt that the venture will be saddled with as part of the expected deal with GE. Comcast already has $32 billion debt on its books.

Standard & Poor equity analyst Tuna Amobi downgraded Comcast's stock to 'sell' on Thursday, citing what he called "overhang of merger execution risk."

"With $4 billion cash and $32 billion debt, we are wary of significantly higher financial leverage under any deal permutation likely entailing sizable equity dilution," Amobi said.

- Via Reuters

Gotta love Fox News ability to conduct Journalism

Nerd surge: Tech execs flock to ballot

High-tech industry executives and entrepreneurs are surging into 2010 House, Senate and governors’ races, sensing that a punishing recession has created an electorate hungry for outsider candidates with management and job creation expertise.


Some of these would-be politicians are leaving companies at the pinnacle of their careers, some are the bored rich who are ready for the next big challenge, and some have dabbled in public service but are now looking to dive in full time.

 California gubernatorial candidates

Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner

are two of the several candidates

running in 2010 with tech-industry

credentials. Photo: AP photo 

composite by POLITICO

In almost every case, their ability to pour large sums of their own money into the contest makes them competitive enough to warrant notice.


“Who better to start with than a group of hyper-ambitious men and women with millions of dollars burning a hole in their pocket, all looking for the next big thing to do in their life?” said Bill Whalen, an expert on state and national politics at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. “These are all people who have achieved and overachieved.”

Jack McDonald, a Democratic House candidate in Texas who until recently ran a 1,200-employee information technology consulting firm, said it was local business leaders who urged him to run.

“I’ve had a good run in business,” said McDonald, who is challenging incumbent Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas). “What I’ve heard from people is that we need to get folks with real world experience involved. The problems that we face are too big to leave to career politicians of either party.”

McDonald is joined by likeminded hopefuls in at least a dozen states across the country.

These high-tech execs-turned-candidates told POLITICO they believed the economic slump that has endangered the political fortunes of many incumbents might actually boost their own.

“I think it’s no coincidence that business people are beginning to step up and want to apply their skills to politics,” said Steve Poizner, a Republican candidate for governor of California and a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur.

Poizner, the state’s elected insurance commissioner who spent two decades running technology companies before entering politics, said that although the transition from the private sector to public life can be jarring, it’s one that more and more tech executives are willing to make.

“It all fits together really,” Poizner said. “People who are good at innovation, people who are entrepreneurial would naturally believe they have the skills and the vision to try to get their states back on track.”

Poizner said he was driven to run for office by the fact that “California is a fantastic state that was heading off a cliff.” Now he’s asking voters to elect him, in part on his track record in the business world.

The same can be said of Poizner’s main rival in the GOP gubernatorial primary, Meg Whitman, the billionaire former eBay CEO. She is perhaps the most prominent high-tech executive to launch a political career this year, along with the ex-CEO of Hewlett Packard, Carly Fiorina, who is a potential challenger to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).

Whitman has already poured $19 million of her own money into the race, and earlier this month she pledged to contribute $250,000 to the state GOP for voter registration efforts. Fiorina, who has not officially announced her candidacy, also has a significant personal fortune at her disposal—a critical asset in a large and expensive state like California.

In neighboring Oregon, Allen Alley, the former CEO of a global semi-conductor company and venture capitalist, is vying for the Republican nomination for governor. Alley said that he finds running a startup company and running a political campaign to be “amazingly similar” endeavors.

“You start out with an idea, you have no brand awareness, no name recognition,” he said. “You get people to believe in your idea and hopefully you can convince them that you’ve got the right product at the right time.”

Dick Green, a Republican candidate in an open Chicago-area House seat, said he has not found the transition quite that seamless. Green, who founded the financial information website Briefing.com, likened the move from business to politics to “jumping into a cold swimming pool.”

“It’s a whole different ball game,” Green said. “When you run a business, you’re in charge. I’m trying to run for a position where the voters are in charge of me.”

Green has entrusted the day-to-day management of his Internet business to his wife while he campaigns full time for Congress. He said that after talking it over with his family, he decided that it was the right time to run as an outsider candidate. Though Green said he was aggressively fundraising, he acknowledged that he planned to dip into his own bank account too.

This year’s crop of candidates are trying to follow in the footsteps of others who have used their success in high-tech fields to launch political careers—pols like Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), who made his money running cellular phone companies, and Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), who founded several Internet startups before going into politics.

Mike Dennehy, a New Hampshire-based political consultant who in 2002 ran the successful gubernatorial campaign of Republican Craig Benson, who founded a the now-defunct Cabletron Systems, a company that designed and manufactured computer networking equipment, said that high-tech industry executives aren’t always a natural fit for politics.

“CEOs are used to getting their way in the business world. They typically have a profile that’s hard-nosed, that in many cases is ‘my way or the highway,’” Dennehy said. “They often don’t have a collaborative, consensus-building profile that politicians run on. So they enter the process with a different mindset.”

He also cautioned that these candidates—like any others from the private sector—bring their own vulnerabilities, including previous campaign contributions to members of other parties, which can raise questions about their party loyalty. Then there is the perception that they are using their personal wealth to “buy” political office, and their own business records, which are not always spotless.

In California, recently, Meg Whitman got a taste of the difficulties outsider candidates can face when newspaper reports revealed that she had a long history of failing to vote in state and national elections. In 2008, when Alley ran for Oregon state treasurer, Democrats put up a website criticizing what they said were his business failures.

“Allen Alley: experience you can’t trust,” the site read.

The risks have not deterred former Gateway Computers executive Rick Snyder, a Republican candidate for governor of Michigan, who said that going into politics was always part of his life plan. He said he was comfortable enough financially to give politics a try and also provide his campaign with $340,000 of seed money.

Snyder said he wanted to run not only because of his experience at technology and venture capital firms but also because, “I’ve got one of those personality profiles -- a lot of times when people say, you cant do something, I just have to go for it.”

Jack McDonald in Texas makes a similar argument. He contends that 2010 is the right time to “get some folks in government who know how to create jobs, who know how to balance a budget, who understand a global economy and the investments we need to make.”

McDonald, who remains chairman of the board of the Austin-based company that he helped take public in 2001, said that the career change has been invigorating.

“I love startups,” McDonald said, echoing Oregon’s Alley. “In a sense, a political campaign is like a startup. There’s that adrenaline, that energy, you get young people involved, you create a sense of mission and purpose and enthusiasm. It’s exhilarating.”

- Via Politico

The Inevitable Collapse Of The Dollar

Weekly Address: Health Reform Urgent for the Economy

Geithner: World not ready for end of stimulus

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- The global economy is not yet strong enough to allow governments to end their fiscal and monetary stimuli to boost demand and growth, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Saturday.

"Planning for an eventual exit is the responsible and necessary thing to do, but we are not yet in the position where it would be prudent to begin to withdraw fiscal and monetary policy support," he said in a statement issued from the Group of Seven meeting in Istanbul, Turkey.

Geithner echoed a similar call by finance ministers from the G7 nations.

"Exit will not be like flipping a switch," Geithner said. "Instead, as conditions stabilize and growth strengthens, we will unwind the extraordinary policy measures we've taken, phasing them out carefully to avoid a damaging cliff."

At the G7 meeting, finance ministers and central-bank governors also vowed to keep support measures in place until recovery was assured, and to boost international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, according to reports.

Weak dollar

In their common statement, G7 countries stopped short of mentioning the weak dollar, which some countries have singled out as hurting exports to the U.S.

The U.S. has instead been calling for the global economy to be rebalanced via increased spending from countries, such as China, that sport a trade surplus.

In its statement, the G7 repeated countries would continue to monitor foreign-exchange rates and welcomed China's "continued commitment to move to a more flexible exchange rates, which should lead to continued appreciation of the Renminbi in effective terms."

After the dollar slumped to this year's lows against the euro last month has prompted European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet to voice support for a stronger dollar.

But with rising unemployment in the U.S., the Federal Reserve is unlikely to lift interest rates from near zero anytime soon, which keeps downwards pressure on the dollar. On Friday, the Labor Department reported that the nation's economy lost 263,000 jobs in September as the unemployment rate rose to 9.8%, a 26-year high. See full story.
 
The yen has also strengthened against the dollar, prompting some concerns from Japan, which heavily relies on exports. Speaking on the sidelines of the G7, Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii said the government would intervene if the yen's moves become excessive, according to media reports.

Three more U.S. banks closed, nearly 100 for year

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three U.S. banks failed on Friday, bringing the total to 98 this year, as regulators continue to shutter financial institutions that are overwhelmed by bad loans and liquidity problems.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said that Warren Bank in Michigan was closed, with Huntington National Bank of Ohio taking over its deposits. It had $538 million in assets and $501 million in deposits.

Jennings State Bank in Minnesota was also shut down, with Central Bank in that state assuming its deposits. It had $56.3 million in assets and $52.4 million in deposits.

The third bank closed by bank regulators was Southern Colorado National Bank, with Legacy Bank in the state taking over its deposits. It had $39.5 million in assets and $31.9 million in deposits.

All the branches of the institutions will open on Saturday under their new owners and customers can continue to use checks, automated tellers and debit cards to access their funds.

Combined, the three latest failures are expected to cost the FDIC's insurance fund a total of about $293 million.

Earlier this week the FDIC took steps aimed at shoring up the depleted insurance fund by proposing that banks prepay three years of their regular assessments.

The insurance fund's balance dipped negative as of this week, as a spike in bank failures have been draining the FDIC's resources. The agency said it expects the total bill for bank failures to come to $100 billion from 2009 through 2013.

The prepayment of assessments will give the FDIC an additional $45 billion in liquidity, and was seen as an attractive alternative to charging banks a hefty special fee.

Banks will prepay the assessments at the end of this year, but not have to recognize the fees as an expense on their books until they are normally due.

The FDIC insures accounts up to $250,000, and notes that those deposits are fully protected, despite a negative insurance fund balance.

The agency also has the option of tapping a $500 billion line of credit with the U.S. Treasury. It last borrowed from Treasury during the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The FDIC said it expects failures to peak in 2009 and 2010, and that industry earnings will recover in 2011. Chairman Sheila Bair has said failures are a lagging indicator, and that the banking industry will continue to suffer, even as the economy shows encouraging signs of healing.

- Via CNBC

Ahmadinejad to Obama: You Made Big Mistake

 AP

Sept. 7: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad waits to meet the Iraqi parliament speaker, Ayad al-Samarraie.

TEHRAN, Iran —  Iran's president hit back Saturday at President Barack Obama's accusation that his country had sought to hide its construction of a new nuclear site, arguing that Tehran reported the facility to the U.N. even earlier than required.

The Iranian president defended his government's actions as the head of the U.N.'s nuclear monitoring agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, arrived Saturday to arrange an inspection of the uranium enrichment facility near the holy city of Qom.

The revelation that Iran has been building a new nuclear plant has heightened the concern of the U.S. and many of its allies, which suspect Tehran is using a civilian nuclear program as a cover for developing a weapons-making capability. Iran denies such a claim, saying it only wants to generate energy.

Obama and the leaders of France and Britain accused Iran of keeping the construction hidden from the world for years. President Obama said last month that Iran's actions "raised grave doubts" about its promise to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes only.

ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has also said Tehran was "on the wrong side of the law" over the new plant and should have revealed its plans as soon as it decided to build the facility.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad challenged that view in a speech Saturday, saying that Iran voluntarily revealed the facility to the IAEA in a letter on Sept. 21. He said that was one year earlier than necessary under the agency's rules.

Why the Government Fails to Maintain Anything

As the mad scramble to pass President Obama’s stimulus bill reminded us, politicians love to start new government programs. They gain things they can brag about during their reelection campaigns. But there’s little to be gained by maintaining programs somebody else started. No surprise, then, that in budget battles, maintenance tends to be under-funded.

Moreover, as power is centralized, those further down the chain of command, who are nominally responsible for maintaining government assets, have less and less authority to do so. Since nobody really owns government assets, nobody has a personal stake in protecting their value. Consider a few cases.

Why Can’t Government Maintain New Orleans’s Levees?

The nearly half-million people of New Orleans wanted to live in their big bowl below sea level, and they entrusted politicians with the job of maintaining more than 125 miles of levees. These large walls, typically made of earth and/or stone, surrounded the city to keep out water from the Mississippi River (to the south and southeast of the city), Lake Borgne (to the east), Lake Pontchartrain (to the north), and various canals. Since water continuously leaked into the city, there were floodwalls, about 200 floodgates, plus pumps and drainage canals for additional protection.

Then Hurricane Katrina hit. It crossed Florida on Thursday, August 25, 2005, as a Category 1 (weakest category) hurricane, then gathered strength as it reached the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Wind velocities accelerated, and by Sunday, August 28, Katrina was a Category 5. It weakened somewhat to a Category 4 when it made landfall east of New Orleans the next day, with winds of up to 145 miles per hour. We all know what happened next.

But why did it happen? There seemed to be problems almost everywhere in New Orleans’s levee system. Dr. Peter Nicholson, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Hawaii, headed a study of the levee failures on behalf of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He reported, “We found literally dozens of breaches throughout the many miles of levee system. A number of different failure mechanisms were observed.” Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of Louisiana State University’s Hurricane Center, criticized the design and suggested that inadequate construction could also be an issue. Forensic teams that studied these levees generally agreed with the assessment.

The Militarization of American Police

In the summer of 2006 a frail, troubled 18-year-old girl named Ashley MacDonald ran through a nearly empty Huntington Beach, California, city park in the early morning holding a small knife. An onlooker called the police and soon two large male officers showed up. They shot the girl to death with 18 bullets, claiming she had lunged toward them and put their lives in danger. It was just another day for law enforcement in suburban Orange County, where—despite low crime rates—police have become increasingly aggressive and militaristic.

The MacDonald killing sparked an unusual amount of public outrage. This shooting, in particular, was hard to grasp. An empty park and a tiny teenager hardly make for a life-threatening situation for the officers. Couldn’t they just have backed away and used nonlethal alternatives such as pepper spray? The police admitted that they were readying a beanbag gun in the parking lot when the officers claimed that “time ran out.”

Angry that anyone would question their “split-second decisions,” the law enforcement “community” said it was wrong to jump to conclusions before the details of the investigation were complete. The sheriff defended the police publicly before any investigation even started, so he apparently was jumping to conclusions, but never mind. The consensus: calm down and wait for the department to see what happened.

Lifes Handbook

Health:
1. Drink plenty of water.
2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
4. Live with the 3 E’s — Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy.
5. Make time to pray.
6. Play more games.
7. Read more books than you did in 2008.
8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
9. Sleep for 7 hours.
10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk daily. And while you walk, smile.

Personality:
11. Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
12. Don’t have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
13. Don’t over do. Keep your limits.
14. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
15. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip.
16. Dream more while you are awake.
17. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
18. Forget issues of the past. Don’t remind your partner with His/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don’t hate others.
20. Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present.
21. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
22. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
23. Smile and laugh more.
24. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

Society:
25. Call your family often.
26. Each day give something good to others.
27. Forgive everyone for everything.
28. Spend time w/ people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6
29. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
30. What other people think of you is none of your business.
31. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

Life:
32. Do the right thing!
33. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
34. GOD heals everything.
35. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
36. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
37. The best is yet to come.
38. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it.
39. Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy.

- Via Deep Silent Blog

e-WOLF e2 seeks to electrify, succeeds

Woah. Looks like the Shelby Aero finally has some competition on its hands in the EV supercar stakes. Weighing in at less than 2,000 pounds, but generating north of 736 foot-pounds of torque, the e2 should be, uh, kinda fast, while claims of a half hour charging time and a 187-mile cruising range are just too stupefying to contemplate. Power is stored in 84 lithium-ion battery packs from CERIO, and unleashed via four 134-horsepower motors -- one for each wheel. If you liked e-WOLF's e1, but thought it needed a dash of spicy Lamborghini-inspired styling and the acceleration to reach 60 miles per hour in less than four seconds, well here's your answer. Production is set for 2011, and you can ogle the car's rear end after the break.

- Via Engadget

Brian Cowen heralds Ireland's 'yes' to EU

Irish prime minister Brian Cowen has announced Ireland’s acceptance of the EU Lisbon treaty today.
Early results and exit polls from yesterday’s referendum indicate Ireland has decisively voted “Yes”, paving the way for a radical shake-up of the EU.

Irish Taoiseach Brian Cowen, whose government has backed the treaty, heralded the victory saying it would bring about “a stronger and fairer Ireland and Europe”.

In a brief statement to reporters Cowen said: "The Irish people have spoken with a clear and resounding voice,"

"It is a good day for Ireland and a good day for Europe."

"The Irish people showed an Ireland embracing her future with Europe."

Just 18-months ago the country voted against the treaty in the first referendum.
However today an informal exit poll by the main opposition Fine Gael party estimated a 60% "Yes" vote, compared to the 46.6% last year.

The official tally is not expected until about 5pm today, but regional results are already coming in.
The first official result, for Tipperary South in southern Ireland, showed 68.4% voting "Yes" and 31.6% "No".

Later, the result from Kildare North showed 76% in favour and in Tipperary North the "Yes" vote was 70%.

As expected, Donegal North East rejected the treaty again, but only narrowly, with 52% to the "No" camp.

Anti-Lisbon campaigners have already conceded defeat with the leader of the lobby group Libertas, Declan Ganley, admitting they had failed to sway the vote a second time.

The millionaire businessman blamed people’s fears over the economy for the result, saying: “I’m surprised how big the Yes vote is. It just shows how scared people are.”

“I’d like to say it was inspired by hope but I fear that it was not but I respect the outcome, I respect the result and the people have spoken.”

Ganley went on to praise the pro-Lisbon campaign spearheaded by Cowen.
“He fought, from a political standpoint, a phenomenal campaign.”

“This is a very convincing win, a mandate, and I wish him the best of luck.”
Out of the 27-member states only the Czech Republic, Ireland and Poland are still to ratify the Lisbon treaty.

However as Ireland was the only country holding a referendum, a win for the "Yes" vote is expected to pave the way for the radical shake-up proposed.

Ten years in the planning, the treaty creates the new post of President of the European of Council, a position likely to be taken by former British prime minister Tony Blair.

- Via The Times UK

Fujii Says Japan Will Act If Yen Moves in ‘Biased Direction’

Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii said the government will intervene if the yen shifts in a “biased direction.”

“If currencies show some excessive moves in a biased direction, we will take action,” Fujii told reporters after meeting counterparts and central bankers from the Group of Seven in Istanbul today. He declined to comment on whether the yen is moving in such a way.

The yen rose to an eight-month high of 88.24 against the dollar this week after Fujii said he opposed currency intervention in principle, spurring speculation the government wouldn’t step into the foreign exchange market. The 77-year old minister later revised those comments, saying he wasn’t an advocate of a strong currency and that Japan was open to intervention should the currency market move “abnormally.”

Fujii today said his comments about the yen “have been a bit misunderstood.” The minister said he faced no criticism from other G-7 officials at today’s meeting.

“Fujii’s comments have become more flexible as he adapts them to current circumstances,” Makoto Utsumi, who led Japan’s currency policy from 1989 to 1991 as deputy finance minister for international affairs, said in an interview this week. “What’s been made clear is that Japan won’t conduct massive intervention” to keep the yen at certain levels, he said.
‘Complicated Reasons’

Japan hasn’t entered the foreign exchange market since the central bank, at the request of the Finance Ministry, sold a record 14.8 trillion yen ($164 billion) in the first quarter of 2004 to restrain the currency’s gains.

Fujii today reiterated that stable currencies are important for global economic growth and they should be set by economies’ fundamentals. The minister said there are “complicated reasons” behind the yen’s strength.

The yen’s appreciation threatens to undermine Japan’s export-driven economic recovery as the jobless rate hovers near a record and deflation continues.

Japan’s large manufacturers expect the yen to trade at 94.50 per dollar in the year ending March 31, the Bank of Japan’s quarterly Tankan survey showed this week. The Japanese currency traded at 89.80 per dollar in late New York trading yesterday.

Fujii also said the government has no plans to provide additional stimulus spending, though he added the world’s second-largest economy is still in a “severe” state.

- Via Bloomberg

I'd be pissed if I lived in Japan. Get in the streets and show your disapproval.

Excreted Tamiflu found in rivers

The premier flu-fighting drug is contaminating rivers downstream of sewage-treatment facilities, researchers in Japan confirm. The source: urinary excretion by people taking oseltamivir phosphate, best known as Tamiflu.

Concerns are now building that birds, which are natural influenza carriers, are being exposed to waterborne residues of Tamiflu’s active form and might develop and spread drug-resistant strains of seasonal and avian flu.

For their new study, Gopal Ghosh and his colleagues at Kyoto University sampled water discharged from three local sewage treatment plants and water at several points along two rivers into which the treated water flowed. Sampling started early in December 2008, as flu season got underway. The researchers sampled again at the height of the seasonal flu’s onslaught in early February and again as infection rates waned.

Dollar Carry Trade in “Eight Inning”

The performance of virtually every currency against the Dollar (with the lone, major exception being the British Pound) in the last quarter has been downright impressive. Put another way, the performance of the Dollar has been downright pathetic.



The Dollar’s under-performance is no mystery. While some critics have pointed to long-term weaknesses such as the trade and budget deficits, most of the current impetus continues to come from low US interest rates. As I have reported recently, US short-term rates (based on the 3-month LIBOR rate for Dollars) is already the lowest in the world, and is still moving lower.

As a result, investors have been able to comfortably borrow in Dollars, and invest the proceeds in (comparatively) risky assets, predominantly outside the US. “Low rates have weighed on the dollar as equities have rallied over the summer, leading risk-based traders to buy the higher-yielding euro and commodity-based currencies, such as the Australian dollar, over the safe-haven greenback,” summarized the WSJ.

For most of the last 20 years, such a carry trade strategy would have been most profitable if funded using Yen or Swiss Francs. Since the stock market rally in May, however, buying a basket of emerging market currencies using the Dollar as a funding currency would yield the highest returns, as much as 10% higher than if the same trade had been funded using Yen. Moreover, the Sharpe-ration for such a trade (which seeks to measure the invariability of returns) is the highest when shorting the Dollar, implying that not only is this strategy lucrative, but also comparatively stable.

For a few reasons, however, analysts are beginning to wonder whether the Dollar carry trade has (temporarily) run its course. Technical indicators, for example, suggest that the Dollar may have appreciated too far, too fast. “The U.S. currency rose…after the 14-day relative strength index on the euro- dollar exchange rate climbed yesterday to 74, the highest level since March. A reading of 70 may indicate a rally is approaching an extreme and a reversal is imminent.” Stochastic indicators yield similar interpretations. “Traders have placed an unusually high volume of bearish bets against the U.S. dollar in recent weeks and may want to lock in profits by reversing those trades.” Besides, anecdotal evidence implies that anti-Dollar sentiment may be reaching irrational levels, as every other investors now seems to be betting against the Dollar.

From a rates perspective, the Dollar carry trade may soon become less viable. The markets (as reflected in futures prices) largely expect the Fed to be the first major Central Bank to hike rates, perhaps as soon as 2010 Q2. The ECB, by comparison, is not expected to hike until at least two quarters later, while the Bank of Japan is nowhere even near close to tightening monetary policy. The Fed is also beginning to contemplate possible exit strategies for its quantitative easing programs, which suggests that it is becoming concerned about inflation. One analyst connects this to a decline in the carry trade: “There might be a little bit of nervousness going into the FOMC if they start signaling any potential unwind of quantitative easing. There is a bit of risk over the next couple of days of the dollar starting to recover a little bit of ground.”

Finally, there are concerns that another crisis could trigger a pickup in risk aversion, in which case investors would likely return to the Dollar en masse. Recall that in 2007, when the Japanese Yen carry trade was in vogue, the main concern was volatility. Traders weren’t ever afraid that the BOJ would hike rates. Rather, they feared that some kind of event would inject uncertainty into the markets, making their returns (via the Yen) erratic. If investors suddenly got nervous about the ongoing stock markets rally, then the Dollar could conceivably become more volatile, which would make carry traders think twice.

At the same time, emerging market currencies will continue to offer much higher interest rates than the Dollar. While the Dollar, then, could conceivably become more attractive relative to the Yen, for example, it will remain extremely unattractive compared to high-yielding currencies. The yield differentials are currently so enormous that even if the Fed raised rates tomorrow, it would still be immensely profitable to short the Dollar relative to the Brazilian Real or South African Rand. While the Dollar slump may be reaching an endpoint, a Dollar rally will not necessarily follow. Brace yourself for sideways trading.

- Via Forex Blog

Secession movement spreads well beyond Texas

AUSTIN — As head of the Texas Nationalist Movement, Daniel Miller of Nederland believes it’s time for the Lone Star State to sever its bond with the United States and return to the days when Texas was an independent republic.

"Independence. In our lifetime," Miller’s organization proclaims on its Web site.

When Gov. Rick Perry suggested that some Texans might want to secede from the Union because they are fed up with the federal government, the remarks drew nationwide news coverage and became fodder for late-night comedians.

But to Texas separatists like Miller and Republican gubernatorial candidate Larry Kilgore of Mansfield, secession is no laughing matter. Nor is it exclusive to the nation’s second-largest state.
Fanned by angry contempt for Washington, secession movements have sprouted up in perhaps more than a dozen states in recent years. In Vermont, retired economics professor Thomas Naylor leads the Second Vermont Republic, a self-styled citizens network dedicated to extracting the sparsely populated New England state from "the American Empire."

And on the other side of the continent, Northwestern separatists envision a "Republic of Cascadia" carved out of Oregon, Washington and the Canadian province of British Columbia.

While most Americans dismiss the breakaway sentiments, sociologists and political experts say they are part of a larger anti-Washington wave that is rapidly spreading across the country.

Challenging Washington

More commonplace are states’ rights movements to directly challenge federal laws, a citizen revolt that one scholar says is unparalleled in modern times. Among the actions in which states are thumbing their nose at Washington:

Montana and Tennessee have enacted legislation declaring that firearms made and kept within those states are beyond the authority of the federal government. Similar versions of the law, known as the Firearms Freedom Act, have been introduced in at least four other states.

Arizona lawmakers will let voters decide a proposed state constitutional amendment that would opt the state out of federal healthcare mandates under consideration in Congress. The amendment will be placed on the November 2010 ballot. State Rep. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, said five other states considered similar versions of the amendment this year and at least nine others are expected to do so next year.

Nearly two dozen states have approved resolutions refusing to participate in the Real ID Act of 2005, which requires that driver’s licenses and state ID cards conform to federal standards. A similar resolution was introduced in the 2009 Texas Legislature but died in committee.

A campaign called "Bring the Guard Home" is pushing legislation in 23 states that would empower governors to recall state National Guard units from Iraq on the premise that the federal law authorizing such deployments has expired. "It’s gaining momentum, to say the least," said Jim Draeger, program manager for Peace Action Wisconsin. He said the initiative has a respectable chance of passing the Legislature in his state.

Rising public anger over the way Washington does business has produced a growing outcry for state sovereignty and strict adherence to the 10th Amendment, which says powers not specifically delegated to the federal government by the Constitution belong to the states.

Texas was an epicenter for this year’s "tea party" protests, in which thousands of Americans displayed their contempt for rising taxes and federal intrusion.

'Unprecedented’ defiance

Michael Boldin, founder of the Tenth Amendment Center in Los Angeles, a think tank that monitors states’ rights activity, said defiance of federal policy is "unprecedented" and cuts across the philosophical spectrum, ranging from staunch conservatives to anti-war activists to civil libertarians. Legislatures in 37 states, he said, have introduced state sovereignty resolutions and at least seven have passed.

Perry, who faces a hard-fought Republican primary challenge from U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, has made state sovereignty one of his signature themes. During the 2009 Legislature, he endorsed an unsuccessful resolution supporting the 10th Amendment, asserting that "our federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of our citizens, and its interference with the affairs of our state."

After a tea party rally in April, Perry told reporters that secession might be on the minds of some Texans disgusted with the federal government. He later stressed that he wasn’t advocating secession, telling the Star-Telegram, "America is a great country, and Texas wants to stay in that union and help our way out of" the nation’s economic downturn.

But others are advocating secession.

In a poll of 1,209 respondents conducted by Zogby International last year, 22 percent said they believed that "any state or region" has the right to secede and become an independent republic, and 18 percent said they would support a secessionist movement in their state. Conversely, more than 70 percent expressed opposition to secession.

Kirk Sale of Mount Pleasant, S.C., formed the Middlebury Institute in 2004 for the study of "separatism, secession and self-determination." The institute conducted the Third North American Secessionist Convention in New Hampshire in 2008, drawing delegates from about two dozen secessionist organizations in the United States and Canada.

Secessionist organizations are operating at various levels of activity in Texas, Vermont, New Hampshire, Alaska and Hawaii. Breakaway sentiments and anger at Washington also run high within the Southern National Congress, a 14-state organization to "express Southern grievances and promote Southern interests."

Chairman Tom Moore, who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia, says the group is "not explicitly a secessionist organization" although "most of our people probably do favor that option."

For many, the mention of secession brings to mind the most turbulent years in American history, when 13 Southern states broke away from the Union in 1860 and ’61, plunging the country into a Civil War that claimed at least 618,000 lives but put an end to slavery. In contrast, modern-day secessionists stress that they advocate a peaceful departure and emphatically dismiss criticism that their organizations embrace racism and white supremacy.

- Via Star-Telegram

Obama agrees to keep Israel's nukes secret

President Obama has reaffirmed a 4-decade-old secret understanding that has allowed Israel to keep a nuclear arsenal without opening it to international inspections, three officials familiar with the understanding said.

The officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because they were discussing private conversations, said Mr. Obama pledged to maintain the agreement when he first hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in May.

Under the understanding, the U.S. has not pressured Israel to disclose its nuclear weapons or to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which could require Israel to give up its estimated several hundred nuclear bombs.

 Israel had been nervous that Mr. Obama would not continue the 1969 understanding because of his strong support for nonproliferation and priority on preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The U.S. and five other world powers made progress during talks with Iran in Geneva on Thursday as Iran agreed in principle to transfer some potential bomb fuel out of the country and to open a recently disclosed facility to international inspection.

Mr. Netanyahu let the news of the continued U.S.-Israeli accord slip last week in a remark that attracted little notice. He was asked by Israel's Channel 2 whether he was worried that Mr. Obama's speech at the U.N. General Assembly, calling for a world without nuclear weapons, would apply to Israel.

"It was utterly clear from the context of the speech that he was speaking about North Korea and Iran," the Israeli leader said. "But I want to remind you that in my first meeting with President Obama in Washington I received from him, and I asked to receive from him, an itemized list of the strategic understandings that have existed for many years between Israel and the United States on that issue. It was not for naught that I requested, and it was not for naught that I received [that document]."

The chief nuclear understanding was reached at a summit between President Nixon and Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir that began on Sept. 25, 1969. Avner Cohen, author of "Israel and the Bomb" and the leading authority outside the Israeli government on the history of Israel's nuclear program, said the accord amounts to "the United States passively accepting Israel's nuclear weapons status as long as Israel does not unveil publicly its capability or test a weapon."

There is no formal record of the agreement nor have Israeli nor American governments ever publicly acknowledged it. In 2007, however, the Nixon library declassified a July 19, 1969, memo from national security adviser Henry Kissinger that comes closest to articulating U.S. policy on the issue. That memo says, "While we might ideally like to halt actual Israeli possession, what we really want at a minimum may be just to keep Israeli possession from becoming an established international fact."
Mr. Cohen has said the resulting policy was the equivalent of "don't ask, don't tell."

The Netanyahu government sought to reaffirm the understanding in part out of concern that Iran would seek Israeli disclosures of its nuclear program in negotiations with the United States and other world powers. Iran has frequently accused the U.S. of having a double standard by not objecting to Israel's arsenal.

Mr. Cohen said the reaffirmation and the fact that Mr. Netanyahu sought and received a written record of the deal suggest that "it appears not only that there was no joint understanding of what had been agreed in September 1969 but it is also apparent that even the notes of the two leaders may no longer exist. It means that Netanyahu wanted to have something in writing that implies that understanding. It also affirms the view that the United States is in fact a partner in Israel's policy of nuclear opacity."
Jonathan Peled, a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, declined to comment, as did the White House National Security Council.

The secret understanding could undermine the Obama administration's goal of a world without nuclear weapons. In particular, it could impinge on U.S. efforts to bring into force the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, two agreements that U.S. administrations have argued should apply to Israel in the past. They would ban nuclear tests and the production of material for weapons.

A Senate staffer familiar with the May reaffirmation, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, said, "What this means is that the president gave commitments that politically he had no choice but to give regarding Israel's nuclear program. However, it calls into question virtually every part of the president's nonproliferation agenda.The president gave Israel an NPT treaty get out of jail free card."

Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, said the step was less injurious to U.S. policy.

"I think it is par for the course that the two incoming leaders of the United States and Israel would want to clarify previous understandings between their governments on this issue," he said.
However Mr. Kimball added, "I would respectfully disagree with Mr. Netanyahu. President Obama's speech and U.N. Security Council Resolution 1887 apply to all countries irrespective of secret understandings between the U.S. and Israel. A world without nuclear weapons is consistent with Israel's stated goal of achieving a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction. Obama's message is that the same nonproliferation and disarmament responsibilities should apply to all states and not just a few."

Israeli nuclear doctrine is known as "the long corridor." Under it, Israel would begin to consider nuclear disarmament only after all countries officially at war with it signed peace treaties and all neighboring countries relinquished not only nuclear programs but also chemical and biological arsenals. Israel sees nuclear weapons as an existential guarantee in a hostile environment.
David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, said he hoped the Obama administration did not concede too much to Israel.

"One hopes that the price for such concessions is Israeli agreement to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty and an acceptance of the long-term goal of a Middle East weapons-of-mass-destruction-free zone," he said. "Otherwise, the Obama administration paid too much, given its focus on a world free of nuclear weapons."

- Via Washington Times

La Raza President Wants Health Care Reform for ‘Everyone,’ Including Illegal Aliens

Janet Murguia, president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza, said that universal health care should be available to all people in the United States, including those who are in the country illegally. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)

(CNSNews.com) – National Council of La Raza President Janet Murguia said that health care reform should include “everyone,”  and this means illegal immigrants as well because with more people paying into the system it might lower the costs of health care.

Speaking to reporters Thursday at a press conference in support of President Barack Obama’s efforts to pass a government-led overhaul of the nation’s health care system, Murguia said that while the issue of illegal immigrants was politically difficult, there were “strong” arguments for covering the illegals.

“From our perspective there’s a strong case to be made in this country for us to reform health care [and] it ought to include everyone,” said Murguia. “There’s a lot of different reasons why we should try to reform this system once and for all so that everyone is covered. The more people who are covered, the more cost-effective and the more and better health outcomes we’re going to have.”

“We know that politically it’s very difficult right now to take on the issue of undocumenteds [but] there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be trying to cover as many people as possible, certainly when it comes to undocumented children,” she said. “Our goal should be to have health care reform for everyone.”

Both of the current House and Senate versions of health care reform legislation restrict the availability of federal health insurance subsidies to U.S. citizens and legal residents. Title II, Subtitle C, Section 246 of the House health care bill (H.R. 3200), for example, stipulates “no federal payment for undocumented aliens.”

The Senate bill says that beneficiaries of federal health care programs must be a citizen or national or an alien lawfully admitted to the United States. But neither bill apparently has a provision for verifying citizenship status.

At a speech before the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute in September, President Obama said, “I want to be clear: If someone is here illegally, they won’t be covered under this plan. That’s a commitment I’ve made.”

Republican attempts to amend the health care legislation to require a photo ID and Social Security number and similar safeguards to receive federally subsidized health benefits have been defeated, largely along party lines.

The National Council of La Raza is the nation’s oldest Hispanic organization.

Murguia joined the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda on Capitol Hill on Thursday to lobby for Obama’s health care policy, saying that the way to resolve the issue of illegal aliens and health care was to pass comprehensive immigration reform, which would stop the “segmenting” of American society.

“We support health care reform and we support comprehensive immigration reform,” said Muguira. “Once we take on that issue we’re hoping that we can be done with the issue of trying to segment this country into certain segments of population.”

Comprehensive immigration reform would convert illegal immigrants into legal immigrants who would be permanent legal residents of the United States with an opportunity to be naturalized as U.S. citizens.

At that same speech in September, Obama said: “I also want to make this clear: Even though I do not believe we can extend coverage to those who are here illegally, I also don't simply believe we can ignore the fact that our immigration system is broken.”

“If anything, this debate underscores the necessity of passing comprehensive immigration reform and resolving the issue of 12 million undocumented people living and working in this country once and for all,” Obama said.

Muguira said on Thursday: “From our perspective, when it comes to comprehensive immigration reform, we need to settle that issue once and for all [because] there’s a group of 12 million individuals who’ve been making important contributions to this country, we need to find a resolution for them.”

When asked exactly what that “resolution” would be, Murguia said it was a pathway to legalization, adding that once it is passed, the issue of illegal immigrants will not come up again.

Leaders of Hispanic communities in the United States and Puerto Rico chanted for health care reform, including reform that includes a government run health care plan (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)

“We need a path to legalization,” said Murguia. “We can make it happen. Once we do that, we can resolve this issue and won’t see it come up issue after issue, bill after bill. There’s a strong case to be made even today for why health care reform should include everyone.”

When asked by CNSNews.com to clarify whether a pathway to legalization was the solution to getting insurance coverage for illegal immigrants, Murguia said it was “a solution” and that immigration reform was needed so that all reform proposals would not face this potential roadblock.

“It would be a solution,” she said. “What we have argued all the time is that we should tackle the issue of comprehensive immigration reform once and for all because it may not be health care reform, it could be any other major reform, but these issues of the status of undocumenteds in this country and what’s right and fair are going to continue to come up.”

“If we can resolve that,” she said, “I think we’ll go a long way to being able to address these broader reforms without these issues being distractions.”

CNSNews.com asked Murguia whether her “solution” meant that illegal immigrants would be eligible for federal health insurance subsidies if comprehensive reform is passed. She responded that illegal aliens should be covered along with everyone else, but that who was eligible for which federal programs would depend on the specific reform proposals.

“Right now, there’s a case to be made in the long term for including as many people as possible because it’s more cost-effective and because there’s better health results and all of that,” said Murguia. “In terms of fairness and cost efficiencies I think it’s in the interest of health care reform to have access to as many people as possible.”

“If we can deal with comprehensive immigration reform and once and for all deal with what the status change would be for those folks, then I think there’ll be a lot of clarity as to what access they would have to any federal government programs or to any subsidies,” she said. “We just want to make sure we can deal with comprehensive reform so we can have more clarity.”

- Via CNS News

DHS Doles Out Fed Cash to Deploy Military LRADs in U.S. Cities

The LRAD devices used against protesters and the residents of Pittsburgh last month were a beta test for things to come. As reported by the Washington Times on October 1, the Department of Homeland Security is doling out federal money to get police departments around the country stocked up on the LRAD weapons.

“With the help of Homeland Security grants, police departments nationwide looking to subdue unruly crowds and political protesters are purchasing a high-tech device originally used by the military to repel battlefield insurgents and Somali pirates with piercing noise capable of damaging hearing,” write Jerry Seper and Chuck Neubauer.

 

Cops use LRAD against people in Pittsburgh for the crime of assembly.

According to San Diego-based American Technology Corp., the company that makes the devices, LRADs are not weapons. American Technology insists LRADs are to be used in order to “influence the behavior and gain compliance” from people.

“It is designed to get people to do what police want. It makes them uncomfortable but does not hurt them,” he said Raymond DeMichiei, Pittsburgh’s deputy director of emergency management and homeland security.

In other words, as was the case in Pittsburgh, LRADs will be used prevent people from engaging in the First Amendment and the right to peacefully assembly and protest government policies.
American Technology stated in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing in September 2008 that the device is “capable of sufficient acoustic output to cause damage to human hearing or human health,” expressing concern that its misuse could lead to lawsuits. It is said the decibel range of the LRAD used in Pittsburgh was similar to standing next to an exploding IED.

“The association said that at 130 to 140 decibels, damage to the ear can be instantaneous, adding that the 145 to 151 range of the LRADS is ‘the kind of sound that can cause tinnitus and hearing damage immediately.’ Tinnitus is a condition that causes ringing in the ears, sometimes permanently,” the Times reports.

In 2006, The Discovery Channel described LRAD as a psychological weapon.

Trends forecaster Gerald Celente has an uncanny ability to predict the future. In 1987, he predicted the stock market crash and the fall of the Soviet Union. In November of last year he predicted revolution in America, food riots, tax rebellions, and angry people taking to the streets as the economy implodes and the nation is wracked by mass unemployment.

“America’s going to go through a transition the likes of which no one is prepared for,” said Celente.
It looks like the government will be prepared — to assault the desperate hordes that will gather and make demands on the government — and that is why the Department of Homeland Security is doling out wads of cash to militarized and federalized cops around the country for high-tech weapons.

- Via Infowars

Peter Schiff U S Rally Is Doomed, Gold Will Hit $5000

Glenn Beck on Michelle Obama's 'Personal Sacrifice': Leftist Egomaniac Psychopath

GB on Obama's Biggest Priority: NOT Afghanistan, NOT the Economy, NOT Health Care—the Olympics

Sigourney Weaver Talks About ACID TEST

LRAD Used at the G20

2012

CIT Debt Prices Signal Concerns Exchange May Fail

CIT Group Inc. bond and credit- default swap prices show that investors are speculating the 101- year-old commercial lender’s offer to exchange about $29 billion of its debt won’t prevent it from filing for bankruptcy protection.


Bonds due within the next few months dropped, moving closer in price to longer-dated obligations, a sign that bondholders aren’t convinced the company will be able to restructure outside of bankruptcy court as $1.15 billion of debt comes due by year- end.

CIT Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Peek is seeking to cut at least $5.7 billion of debt through a swap of unsecured obligations for preferred shares and new secured notes maturing later. Should the exchange fail, the lender will seek protection from creditors through a pre-packaged bankruptcy, the company said yesterday in a statement.

“We believe CIT may need to reduce its debt burden by approximately $9.3 billion to regain access to the unsecured capital markets,” CreditSights Inc. analyst Adam Steer said in an e-mail yesterday. By targeting $5.7 billion, “we question whether CIT is improving its profile enough,” he said.
Tim Lynch, a CIT spokesman, declined to comment on the exchange.

The lender needs to cut debt after posting more than $5 billion in losses during the past nine quarters and losing access to the unsecured debt markets it relied on for funding. About $9.14 billion of CIT loans and bonds mature through 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The company has $43 billion of loans and bonds, Bloomberg data show.

Deflation is coming.

On September 22, I wrote a lengthy summary of arguments for deflation. 5 weeks later, there's a lot to add.
Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says:

Deflation is definitely a threat right now.

Alan Greenspan said on September 30th:

We are still, by any measure, in a disinflationary environment.

And the President of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank, Charles Evans, said on September 9th:

Disinflationary winds are blowing with gale-force effect.

Flattening Yield Curve Points Toward Deflation
PIMCO's Bill Gross said:

There has been significant flattening on the long end of the curve,” Gross said in an interview from Newport Beach, California, with Bloomberg Radio. “This reflects the re- emergence of deflationary fears. The U.S. is at the center of de-levering as opposed to accelerating growth.

Gluskin Sheff's David Rosenberg, Tyler Durden and Mish also believe that a flattening yield curve indicates deflation.
Bloomberg notes:

The difference in yield between nominal and inflation-protected Treasury securities maturing in one year is negative 0.4 percent, suggesting investors expect deflation during the next 12 months.

Unemployment
Job losses are accelerating.
JPMorgan Chase’s Chief Economist Bruce Kasman told Bloomberg:

[We've had a] permanent destruction of hundreds of thousands of jobs in industries from housing to finance.

A new report from Advance Realty and Rutgers - America’s New Post-Recession Employment Arithmetic - argues that we will not have a full recovery in unemployment until until 2017, and that:

• The Great 2007–2009 recession is the worst employment setback in the United States since the Great Depression.
• In the twenty months from December 2007 (the start of the recession) to August 2009 (the last month of available data as of this analysis), the nation lost more than 7.0 million private-sector jobs.
• The recession followed a very much-below-normal economic expansion (November 2001–December 2007) that was characterized by relatively weak private-sector employment growth of approximately 1 million jobs per year.
• This was less than one-half of the job-growth gains of the two preceding expansions (1982–1990 and 1991–2001), when average annual private-sector employment grew by 2.4 million jobs per year and 2.2 million jobs per year, respectively.
• In the preceding two expansions combined, private-sector employment growth per year was approximately 435,000 jobs higher than the annual growth in the number of people in the labor force.employment deficit.
• The weak economic expansion sandwiched between two recessions (2001, and 2007–2009) produced a lost employment decade.
• As of August 2009, the nation had 1.3 million (1,256,000) fewer private- sector jobs than in December 1999. This is the first time since the Great Depression of the 1930s that America will have an absolute loss of jobs over the course of a decade.
• From 1980-2000, the US gained a 35.5 million private-sector jobs. During the current decade, America has lost more than 1.7 million private-sector jobs.
• Total “employment deficit” could approach 9.4 million private-sector jobs by December 2009.

New jobs aren't being created.
Even Larry Summers says unemployment will remain 'unacceptably high' for years.
The New York Times points out that U.S. job seekers exceed openings by record ratio.
2 out of 5 Californians out of work.
Almost half of 16-24 year olds are unemployed.

Credit Still Constrained

US credit has shrunk at Great Depression rate prompting fears of double-dip recession:

Professor Tim Congdon from International Monetary Research said US bank loans have fallen at an annual pace of almost 14pc in the three months to August (from $7,147bn to $6,886bn).
"There has been nothing like this in the USA since the 1930s," he said. "The rapid destruction of money balances is madness."
The M3 "broad" money supply, watched as an early warning signal for the economy a year or so later, has been falling at a 5pc annual rate.
Similar concerns have been raised by David Rosenberg, chief strategist at Gluskin Sheff, who said that over the four weeks up to August 24, bank credit shrank at an "epic" 9pc annual pace, the M2 money supply shrank at 12.2pc and M1 shrank at 6.5pc...

US banks are cutting lending by around 1pc a month. A similar process is occurring in the eurozone, where private sector credit has been contracting and M3 has been flat for almost a year.

The Independent notes:

A second credit squeeze and a £200bn national "funding gap" threatens to sabotage the recovery in the British economy, the IMF warned yesterday.

In its latest Global Financial Stability Report, the fund said that a combination of a soaring government deficit and the borrowing needs of British companies and consumers – coupled with a still broken banking system – would leave the UK with a national "funding gap" of 15 per cent of GDP, or around £200bn next year, much higher than in either the US or the euro area.

Housing
Moody's forecasts that housing won't return to pre-bust levels until 2020, "Florida and California will only regain their pre-bust peak in the early 2030s"

Treasury says millions more foreclosures are coming.
Fannie Mae's serious delinquency rate is skyrocketing.
Half of all borrower who are getting help with loan modifications end up redefaulting.
And apartment rental prices are falling world-wide.
Business
The creation of small businesses is way down.

Experts are projecting unprecedented corporate defaults.

Ghost fleets of unused ships lie rusting in port.
States

State tax revenues have plunged 17%.

More Signs of Deflation

Bloomberg writes:

The U.S. faces the possibility of deflation for the first time since the Eisenhower administration...

Consumer prices are experiencing deflation, with the consumer price index sliding for six straight months from year- earlier levels, the longest stretch of declines since a 12-month drop from September 1954 to August 1955, according to the Labor Department...

While the economy contracted 2.7 percent during the 1953 recession, it shrank 3.8 percent in the current recession, the most since the 1930s. Economists at New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the second- and fifth- biggest U.S. banks by assets, say there’s so much deflationary excess labor and plant capacity in the economy that the Fed won’t raise interest rates until at least 2011.

Paul Krugman writes:

A new report from the International Monetary Fund shows that the kind of recession we’ve had, a recession caused by a financial crisis, often leads to long-term damage to a country’s growth prospects. “The path of output tends to be depressed substantially and persistently following banking crises.”

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 40 million Americans are living in poverty.

Albert Edwards makes the case for balance sheet-based deflation, arguing that - even as the government tries to inflate its way out of all its problems and printing trillion in new treasuries - it is unable to catch up with the non-governmental balance sheet collapse:

The US Federal Reserve recently published their comprehensive flow of funds data for the US. This showed that the household sector continued to pay down debt for the fourth consecutive quarter. Corporates also started to pay down debt sharply in Q2 at a similar $200bn pace. The non-financial private sector paid down debt at a $435bn pace in Q2. This compares to a $2,116bn pace of expansion in 2007 (see chart below). Add to that the financial sector unwind and the total private sector is unwinding debt faster than the government is able to pile it up (hence the red line is still negative)! The lesson from the balance sheet recession in Japan is that the massive private sector headwind to growth has a long, long way to run.

If that is the case, we can expect, just like Japan, frequent relapses back into recession. The market now understands how an end of inventory de-stocking can boost GDP, i.e. it is the change in the change that matters. Similarly as Dylan Grice points out - link, it is the change in the fiscal deficit that is a net stimulus or drag to GDP. A massive 6pp stimulus last year is likely to turn into a 2pp drag on growth next year (see chart below). With continued private sector de-leveraging likely next year and beyond, how can one seriously not expect the global economy to relapse back into recession next year taking nominal GDP deep into an abyss?

AP writes:

As in the 1980s, much of that shift will be driven by baby boomers. For the 78 million people born from 1946 through 1964, the Great Recession hit at a particularly inopportune time – during peak years of earning and saving before retirement. Boomers range from 44 to 63 today – the youngest is nearly 10 years older than the oldest was in 1982. They are running out of time and are most likely to remain cautious spenders and become aggressive savers even as the economy improves.
The housing bubble mistakenly led boomers and millions of others to believe their home was their retirement nest egg. If they left their home equity alone during the boom, they've taken a hit the last couple years but are still ahead. But many treated their home like a personal bank and spent the gains by tapping a home equity line of credit.

Alix Partners finds:

While American industry is struggling to get through what could become the worst recession since the Great Depression, Americans say that even after the recession ends, their spending will return to just 86% of pre-recession levels, which would take a trillion dollars per year out of the U.S. economy for years to come. According to this in-depth survey of more than 5,000 people, Americans plan to save (and therefore not spend) an astounding 14% of their total earnings post-recession, with the replenishment of their 401(k) and other retirement savings leading the way among their biggest long-term concern.

As Huffington Post notes:

"There will be a fundamental shift in the kind of cars we buy, a fundamental shift in the homes we buy, and a fundamental shift in consumption generally," says Matt Murray, an economist at the University of Tennessee. "And that is not something that took place in the 1980s."

 - Via Washingtons Blog