Saturday, December 25, 2010

中國‧比美預測提前一年‧首艘航母或明年下水

(中國‧北京23日訊)中國軍方及政治消息人士週四說,中國第一艘航空母艦或能在2011年下水,比美國軍事分析家的預測要提前一年。

分析家預料,中國的第一艘航母,將用來確保其在印度洋和具爭議南沙群島附近的石油供應路線的安全。不過,中國航母要在數年後才能發揮全面功能。

和領導層有關係的一名消息人士告訴路透社,首艘航母的下水期,或落在中國共產黨在明年7月1日慶祝建黨90週年時。

國防部發言人拒對有關報導置評。

分析指出,前蘇聯“瓦良格”號航母可能在明年下水受訓和測試技術,這將使中國向擁有國產服役航母群的目標邁進一步。

美國海軍情報部曾估計,“瓦良格”號有望在2012年加入中國海軍,成為訓練平台;而中國將在2015年後,擁有國產服役航母。

中研究航母發展迅速

美國海軍學院的埃里克森及威爾遜寫道,可以想像,中國有關航母的研究、發展,甚至投產活動,可以在讓西方分析家為之驚奇的速度下進行。

中國將是繼印度與泰國之後,第三個擁有自己航母的亞洲國家。

消息人士稱,300公尺長的“瓦良格”號,目前在大連市某國營船廠進行改裝。

一家中國公司於1998年用2千萬美元,向烏克蘭買下不附引擎的“瓦良格”號,計劃將之改裝成澳門的水上賭場,但中國解放軍之後買下這艘船艦。

新加坡‧婦女為當乩童棄婚姻‧成全丈夫另組家庭


死者李亞歷生前和丈夫、孩子等的合照。


(新加坡24日訊)一名結了婚的婦女,突然有一天告訴她的丈夫,她要當乩童,不能有感情的牽絆,也不能有雜念。

她和丈夫沒有離婚,但是,後來丈夫在外面認識了另一個女人,她卻很大方的成全丈夫和那個女人,讓丈夫在外面另外組織一個家庭。過去20年來,婦女和丈夫及丈夫的同居小老婆之間,和睦相處。

這名婦女的丈夫就是本地著名旅行社達利旅遊的老闆陳永龍(65歲)。

睡夢中去世

而這名為了當乩童而舍棄婚姻的婦女李亞歷(64歲),本星期二(21日)中午,在睡夢中去世。

死者的丈夫陳永龍(65歲)說,妻子患有糖尿病七八年,也有心臟衰弱的現象。

陳永龍說,妻子在38歲那年,有一天突然暈倒、口吐白沫,被送入醫院急救,她甦醒後不斷告訴周圍的人,她被牛頭馬面帶走,出院後,她就說要專心修行,不能有雜念。

兩家成員關係融洽

“我們雖然沒有離婚,但感情不免受影響,後來,在街坊的介紹下,我認識了我現在的同居女友,我們也生了一個兒子。我的太太知道這件事後,沒有說甚麼,甚至要求我帶女友和當時未滿周歲的兒子回家,認祖歸宗。”

陳永龍和妻子育有1男1女,雖然他和女友同住,但他還是有跟妻子及一對兒女來往,兩頭家的成員關係十分融洽。

陳永龍說,女友這麼多年來也十分體諒他,願意無名無分跟著他。

“我的妻子和女友曾結伴到中國旅遊,當時,我的女友還跟在我的妻子後面、幫她撐傘,讓外人覺得十分驚訝。”

意大利‧瑞士和智利駐意使館郵包炸彈爆炸‧各有拆包裹僱員受傷

(意大利‧羅馬23日訊)瑞士與智利駐意大利大使館週四先後發生郵包炸彈爆炸,各有1人受傷。

意斥“可悲的暴力行為”

意大利外交部形容郵包炸彈事件,是“可悲的暴力行為”。

在瑞士大使館,一名僱員在打開郵包時突然爆炸,雙手受重傷,在幾個小時後,智利大使館也發生類似爆炸事件,造成一名僱員受傷。

瑞使館僱員雙手重傷或殘廢

意大利媒體報導,該名53歲的大使館瑞士籍男僱員,可能面對失去雙手的危險,他已送院救治。

報導說,該男僱員是大使館管理人,負責處理郵件。

官員說,消防員及警方拆彈專家已到位於羅馬北部的大使館調查。

報導說,智利大使館的僱員受輕傷。

德國‧希特勒1941年慶聖誕節照片曝光

(德國‧柏林24日訊)據英國《每日郵報》報導,美國《生活》雜志近日刊登了希特勒及納粹軍官1941年慶祝聖誕的照片。這張照片攝於12月18日,照片中的人物表情都顯得很陰沉,節日的歡樂氣氛也顯然不足。

報導稱,納粹的聖誕節與傳統聖誕節有很大不同,希特勒甚至將聖尼古拉圖像替換為北歐神奧丁,同時呼吁德國人以“冬至”而不是以聖誕的名義進行慶祝活動。

希特勒身後“聖誕樹”的頂部懸掛著納粹黨徽而不是天使像,許多裝飾品都印著鐵十字標誌。這些照片是由希特勒的一名私人攝影師雨果‧傑格拍攝的。他隨後將這些照片賣給了美國的《生活》雜志。

意大利‧積雪癱瘓交通‧恐襲陰影籠罩‧歐美聖誕迎白色恐怖

(意大利‧羅馬24日訊)歐洲多地和大半個美國週六將迎來冬雪覆蓋的白色聖誕節,但雪花紛飛的浪漫背後,卻是被積雪癱瘓的交通,以及聖誕佳節期間可能發生恐怖襲擊的恐慌。

智利與瑞士駐意大利大使館週四遭到郵包炸彈襲擊,造成2人受傷。由於事件發生在聖誕節前,因而增添了緊張氣氛。

意大利官員稱,襲擊性質可能同希臘之前的類似事件一樣,即由無政府主義者發動。

警方說,在首都羅馬的所有外國大使館都在展開檢查;羅馬市長阿萊馬諾說:“這是針對大使館的恐怖主義浪潮。”他補充,正從國際方面追蹤調查。

安莎通訊社報導,自稱是“非正式無政府聯盟”(FAI)的組織,週四晚宣稱對此案負責。

瑞典地鐵站發現可疑包裹

與此同時,約兩週前才發生了國內首宗自殺式炸彈襲擊的瑞典,首都斯德哥爾摩市中心一座地鐵站國王花園站,週四晚因為發現可疑包裹而清空人員。

這座地鐵站靠近政府大樓。

12月11日,一名自殺式炸彈客在斯德哥爾摩市中心的一條擁擠人行道,先引爆自己的汽車,接著引爆身上炸彈。

美提醒航空公司戒備

在華盛頓,美國國土安全部提醒航空公司,留意諸如熱水瓶的飲料保溫容器,它們可能是新的恐襲手段。但警告強調,目前沒有情報指出現恐襲陰謀。

國安部發言人佩恩披露,恐怖份子可能運用的手段,包括將炸藥藏在保溫容器內運上飛機。

去年聖誕美國發生炸機未遂案,促使各國在聖誕期間加強了保安。

印度追緝4人防範襲擊

另一方面,印度警方週四通緝4名男子,指他們隸屬巴基斯坦“虔誠軍”武裝組織,並已經抵達孟買發動襲擊。

警方說,“虔誠軍”成員密謀在聖誕節及新年前後發動攻擊。

不具名美國反恐官員承認,“虔誠軍”或在年杪假期發難。

歐美多地迎白色聖誕

氣象預報顯示,今年美國將有半數地區會迎來“白色聖誕”,這意味著孩子們會開心地度過一個邊堆雪人、邊吃聖誕大餐的美好假日,但大雪冰封的道路,卻為大人們增加了不少煩惱。

氣象官員稱,“白色聖誕節”的定義為12月25日當天積雪超過1吋。

由於最近連續大雪和降溫,目前美國本土48個州中,只有7個州還在聖誕節前未下雪,但一場冬季風暴即將席捲而來,覆蓋密蘇里州、伊利諾伊州,印第安納州,俄亥俄州和肯塔基州的廣大地區,並於周末抵達美國東部大西洋沿岸的紐約等地。

即使是往年冬季較為溫暖的地區,如位於美國中東部的肯塔基州,今年聖誕節都會覆蓋近1吋厚的積雪。

料140萬輛車或拋錨

美國汽車協會預期,由於今年經濟好轉,聖誕節期間將有9千230萬美國人開車外出旅行,但由於雪天路滑等各種原因,預計會有140萬輛汽車,因為惡劣天氣或其他事故拋錨路上,需要救援。

至於近日遭暴風雪襲擊的歐洲,早已是白雪皚皚,早前的交通混亂局面雖有所好轉,但惡劣天氣依然持續,令這個白色聖誕節有點舉步艱難。

法逾半航班取消
2000旅客滯留機場

法國民航當局宣佈,由於嚴寒天氣,取消巴黎戴高樂機場升降的一半航班,預計會有2千名旅客滯留。

歐洲多個機場之前出現嚴重混亂,導致憤怒的乘客與警方發生衝突。

全球最繁忙的英國倫敦希思羅機場已基本恢復正常,但目前仍有延誤和取消情況,據悉,當地苦候機位的中國人仍有逾千,中國駐英國大使館表示已聯絡中國航空、東方航空等疏導。

歐洲之星高鐵則將恢復運行,但由於法國的限制措施,多趟火車被迫取消。

台灣山區將降聖誕雪

中國今年聖誕節氣氛十足,受到新一輪強冷空氣來襲,從南到北都在聖誕節期間大幅降溫,普通降溫超過10度,台灣海拔2千公尺以上山區,更可能會降下聖誕雪,民眾可以享受白色聖誕。

台灣中央氣象台已發出寒潮警報,不少地區開始降下雨雪,路面結冰,多條主要高速公路封閉,有數百人被困在路上。

澳洲過“溼潤聖誕節”

與此同時,位於南半球的澳洲將遭遇“溼潤聖誕節”,聖誕節期間大部份地區將雨水不斷,甚至遭遇惡劣天氣,一些計劃進行戶外活動的家庭恐怕要失望了。

根據氣象預報,週五至星期日聖誕節假期期間,悉尼、布里斯班、達爾文等著名旅遊城市將暫別“澳洲標誌性”的陽光,迎來降雨甚至暴風雨天氣;南部霍巴特、阿德萊德和墨爾本也將遭遇多雲天氣。

新加坡‧謀殺體障女童‧女傭才16歲逃死刑

(新加坡24日訊)被控謀殺12歲體障女童的女傭,原來只有16歲,而非24歲,她即使罪名成立,也會逃過死刑!

印尼女傭努哈雅蒂,身材嬌小,樣貌清秀,蓄短發。

護照“報大”8歲

她的護照上,注明出生日期是1986年8月22日。實際上,她出生於1994年8月22日,足足“報大”8歲。

警方經調查並確定她的真實年齡後,今天提呈修改控狀,將她的年齡改正為16歲。

在這起案件中,不幸墜樓身亡的是殘疾女童李意琳,生前就讀於亞洲婦女福利協會在楊厝港開辦的特殊教育中心。

女童身體瘦弱,行動困難,需要他人攙扶才能行走,日常需要他人特別照料。

控狀指女傭於今年11月24日清晨5時半到6時零7分之間,在後港51街第573座組屋,謀殺女童李意琳,造成她死亡,觸犯謀殺罪名。

根據法律,在謀殺罪名下被控者,一旦罪成,將被判處死刑。

但法律規定,18歲以下的被告可豁免死刑。

根據刑事訴訟法條文,任何人若觸犯死罪案件,若他犯案時年齡在18歲以下,可豁免死刑。因此,當他被法庭判罪名成立後,將一直被扣留,以等候總統定奪。

新加坡‧車禍損壞公物罰司機‧撞倒路燈須賠4800

(新加坡24日訊)司機在車禍中撞倒路燈,代價是得賠償至少2000元(約4800令吉)。

上個星期二,後港91街發生了一起嚴重車禍,一輛轎車與巴士相撞,導致轎車撞壞了附近的一支燈柱。

網民林先生(48歲,德士司機)質問,如果司機撞壞了燈柱,需要作出賠償嗎?

針對網民的問題,陸交局表示過去3年裡,當局每年從本地的490起交通意外中,索取了35萬元的維修費。

公園局則表示,本地每年約發生100起的車撞樹的意外,而當局從這些意外中,向車主追討了10萬至15萬的罰款。

換言之,陸交局和公園局每年從交通意外中,向司機或保險公司收取了50萬元的的賠償費。

陸交局︰
依損壞情況索賠償額

陸交局告訴《新報》,如果街頭設施如燈柱、交通燈或圍欄在事故中被撞壞時,當局會通過司機所屬的保險公司起獲這筆賠償數額。

陸交局發言人說,賠償數額是依撞壞的設施和受損的程度來計算賠償數額。

例如,如果是拉直一個被撞斜的圍欄及沒有更換其他配件的情況下,賠償費是少過200元。

發言人說,維修一個被撞壞的交通燈的控制箱則需賠償至少1萬元。

公園局︰撞路邊樹木
每棵賠4800

公園局的發言人表示,如果調查結果證實,如果司機在危險駕駛、或誤判路況的情況下,撞上路邊的樹木,那司機至少的為一棵樹作出2000元(約4800令吉)的賠償。

發言人說,這項條例從1995年實施,不過依據個別情況所定,罰款的數額有可能在司機的上訴的情況下減額。

發言人說︰“新加坡是一個花園城市,所以大樹是讓這個城市有綠意的重要植物。

車禍撞壞公物,需賠多少錢?

燈柱(若需更換)︰2000元
馬路圍欄︰少過200元
交通燈︰1萬元
樹木︰罰款至少2000元

新加坡‧買兩件附送“脫褲短片”‧少女博客賣穿過內褲

(新加坡23日訊)一名19歲的少女在博客上促銷她穿過的內褲,一條內褲賣45元,如果買兩條,還能免費獲得她的“脫褲短片”。

這名洋名Felicia的19歲少女,是在11月開始,利用她的博客公開兜售她所穿過的內褲。

起初,她的開價是每條內褲30元,但在12月1日開始,她卻“起價”,大部份的內褲都賣45元。

同一段期間,少女開始展開特別促銷,只要向她買兩件內褲,她就會免費贈送一段她本人的“脫內褲短片”。

未在博客上露臉

記者今早遊覽少女的博客,發現上面放了很多張她穿上各式內褲的照片,但沒有露臉。

這些內褲包括性感的丁子褲以及印上可愛圖樣的普通內褲。

其中一名購買內褲的顧客向《新報》出示他所收到的短片。短片確實看得到女郎脫褲,但卻看不到她的面貌。

另外,該買主收到的內褲,也確實和短片中脫下來那條內褲一模一樣。

從博客上所見,少女已賣出16件穿過的內褲,也有近200人在她的博客上留言。

聲稱為了賺學費

少女聲稱,所有的內褲都會穿至少12小時才出售,並解釋自己售賣內褲是為了賺錢付學費。

少女在博客上指出,除了會把內褲穿上12小時才出售,她也會嘗試滿足客戶的其他要求。

有網民詢問她的聯絡號碼,並要求她提供性服務,卻被她拒絕。

她說,父母並不知道她這麼做,而她這麼做是為了賺零用錢和繳付學費。

怕暴露身份拒受訪

少女怕暴露身份,拒絕受訪。3天前,她也改變主意不再送免費短片。

《新報》聯絡上這名少女,對方起初願意受訪,但後來卻改變主意,說︰“我不能冒險讓任何人知道我是誰。”

另外,律師受詢時也指出,少女在短片中暴露私處是犯法的。同樣的,那些擁有短片的人,也可被罰款高達1千元或坐牢1年,或兩者兼施。

美國‧一家四口送命‧奪命車禍豐田賠3113萬

(美國‧紐約24日訊)美國《洛杉磯時報》報導,日本豐田汽車同意向2009年一宗車禍的4名遇難者家人,支付1000萬美元賠償(3113萬令吉)。

車禍在美國加州聖迭戈發生,造成一名加州警官和他的妻子、13歲女兒以及內弟共4人死亡。

調查人員發現,車禍的原因,是肇事的LexusES車內腳墊,卡住了加速器踏板。

豐田公司隨後大規模召回汽車更換腳墊,還為了更換可能存在故障的加速踏板,而召回更多汽車。

豐田就這宗意外,於今年9月與遇難者家人達成庭外和解,但豐田支付的金額對外保密。

不過,本周一當地法官決定不再將和解協議細節內容保密。《洛杉磯時報》週四報導,豐田共支付了1000萬美元賠償。

豐田對和解協議內容公開,表示失望。

英國‧威廉米德爾頓紀念幣‧不像本人挨批

威廉王子的側面肖像和他之前的樣子還有些相似之處,但米德爾頓卻看起來腫了一圈。(圖:星洲日報)


(英國‧倫敦24日訊)英國威廉王子和米德爾頓的訂婚紀念幣週四亮相,但有人抱怨幣上肖像與他們本人一點也不像。威廉王子的側面肖像和他之前的樣子還有些相似之處,但米德爾頓卻看起來腫了一圈。

兩人肖像周圍鑄有一圈字:“慶祝威廉和凱薩琳(米德爾頓名)訂婚。”紀念幣設計獲得威廉和英女王認可。

英國王家鑄幣廠發言人表示,傳統肖像造型是威廉王子必須以側面示人,暗示他身為王位第二順位繼承人的地位。

紀念幣有4種材質,最便宜的銅鎳合金要價9.99英鎊(48令吉),最貴的22K金要價1550英鎊。

中國‧60億只能買到77粒米

這張巨額紙幣正面上方有“新疆省銀行”字樣,左邊是孫中山頭像,右邊寫著“陸拾億圓”,下方則是“折合金元券一萬元”,發行年是1949年。(圖:新華社)


(中國‧廣州24日訊)中國史上最大面值的1949年“60億元”紙幣(圖)在廣州亮相,倍受注目。

這張巨額紙幣正面上方有“新疆省銀行”字樣,左邊是孫中山頭像,右邊寫著“陸拾億圓”,下方則是“折合金元券一萬元”,發行年是1949年。

據專家介紹,這種紙幣是新疆在極度通貨膨脹情況下所發行,發行時間最多半年,面世不久就已經銷聲匿跡。

在拍賣市場上出現“新疆省銀行60億元”紙幣的次數不出10次,最高成交價為人民幣6600元(約3000令吉)。

展出會場同時展出一份舊報導,其標題是《世界面額最大紙幣.六十億元值幾何.僅買七十七粒米》。這段報導指,“60億元”是世界上面值最大的單張紙幣,但因為極度通脹,其購買力低得可憐,“當時,在上海,也只能買到77粒米!”

美國‧聖誕節前夕倫常慘案‧青年射殺女友及2兒

(美國‧密西西比州24日訊)在普天同慶的聖誕節前夕,美國密西西比州揭發一宗倫常慘案,一名年輕父親突然大失常性,射殺一對稚齡兒子和同居女友,之後吞鎗自盡身亡。

事發於周四清晨7時至7時半,現場是勞德代爾縣默里迪恩市郊一座房屋,屋內已佈置了聖誕裝飾。警方指26歲的疑兇懷疑先在客廳開鎗打死25歲的同居女友,之後在走廊射殺一名兒子,然後再走入睡房向另一名兒子開鎗。

疑兇行兇後再自轟斃命,至於遇害的兩名男童分別年僅4歲及5歲。這宗謀殺及自殺案由疑兇的父親揭發,他在當天下午下班回家後赫然各人已死,立刻報警。

警員接報到場後,在疑兇身旁發現一把手鎗。

勞德代爾法醫官科布勒說:“這宗命案撕裂了各人的心。”他指其中兩名受害人身中多鎗,都是近距離中鎗死亡。一名男童當時還企圖逃走。

香港‧升任總主教‧韓大輝成教廷最高職華裔

(香港24日訊)梵蒂岡委任香港的韓大輝神父為萬民福音部秘書長,同時升為總主教,是在教廷的最高職位的華人。

韓大輝周五下午會見記者,他表示,若有機會將全力以赴改善中梵關係。中梵關係處於低潮是因內地的祝聖主教問題,在涉及中國的問題上,向教宗提出意見。

不擔心不能返回中國

60歲的韓大輝是慈幼會神父,在香港出生。他表示,他不擔心日後不能返回中國內地。

他指出,自己1978年開始在意大利讀書,1981年上一任教宗已經開始希望建立良好的中梵關係,當年教宗特別為中國舉行祈福會,他也有上祭台唱歌。

韓大輝提到,內地在任命主教的問題上干預較大,雖然2006年開始可以在大家同意的名單上擢升主教,但上月內地突然自行任命主教,此舉教廷絕不能接受。

但他強調,假如有機會拉近中梵距離,他一定會全力以赴。韓大輝預計將會在1月中後前往教廷履新。

俄羅斯‧重申擁有南千島群島

(俄羅斯‧莫斯科24日訊)俄羅斯總統梅德韋傑夫週五說,日本應該瞭解俄羅斯不會放棄南千島群島(日稱北方四島),他建議在該處建自由貿易區。他在年終接受電視訪問時稱,南千島群島全部屬於俄羅斯的領土。

他指出,兩國應該考慮聯合開發項目,可以建立自由貿易區,讓人人賺錢。

« Video: Christmas Card From Bernanke, Geithner, Bush, Obama & Jim Cramer »

You pretty much just need to watch this one. Happy Holidays to Bail readers.

I posted this clip last year at Christmas, and one of our readers had the following caustic comment:

  • I think Geithner as an elf is scary. He's too grumpy looking. What do you think he's doing in that toy shop? I think he dismembers dollies' limbs before boxing them up, bends up the axles on all the hot wheels cars, and purposefully doesn't sand down the wooden railroad track parts so children will get splinters. Yeah, that's what I think he does. Evil elf!

Thanks to SNK for the laugh.

---

This is one of my favorite clips from 2010...

Video - Gin, a border collie that dances...backwards

Interesting How These Stories Go Back To Back...?

Professor Paul Connett: Your Toxic Tap Water

« Tim Geithner - I Used Turbo Tax! »

Blame it on TurboTax - A clip of Geithner playing the fool...

Congressional Video - Geithner explains why he "accidentally" missed paying taxes on his income from the IMF. I've never posted this before and thought today would be a good day to add it to the public record. Happy Holidays.

---

The ballad of Timothy Geithner...

This is excellent...

Song - Lady Sings The Blues annihilates Geithner...

She's an accountant from Nashville.

Must See - Geithner was an 'utter failure' at the IMF...

---

« Whitewash On Wall Street: How Henry Paulson Created The Financial Crisis That Brought Down The World »

This is a monster story and I'll wager that many of you have never heard of it. And I'm not blaming you, rather the mainstream financial press.

Paulson's role in a rarely-mentioned 2004 SEC decision...

Regular Bail readers know my thoughts on Krugman's god-forsaken love of useless government stimulus, and his hypocrisy on deficits - they only matter to him when the GOP runs the show - newsflash for Krugman - deficits always matter - but, he's been consistent and correct on the Wall Street heist, and so we post his latest op-ed.

We rejoin the Hank Paulson story below.

#

Reprinted with permission.

Source - NYT

Wall Street Whitewash

By Paul Krugman

When the financial crisis struck, many people — myself included — considered it a teachable moment. Above all, we expected the crisis to remind everyone why banks need to be effectively regulated.

Which brings me to the case of the collapsing crisis commission.

The bipartisan Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission was established by law to “examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States.” The hope was that it would be a modern version of the Pecora investigation of the 1930s, which documented Wall Street abuses and helped pave the way for financial reform.

Instead, however, the commission has broken down along partisan lines, unable to agree on even the most basic points.

It’s not as if the story of the crisis is particularly obscure. First, there was a widely spread housing bubble, not just in the United States, but in Ireland, Spain, and other countries as well. This bubble was inflated by irresponsible lending, made possible both by bank deregulation and the failure to extend regulation to “shadow banks,” which weren’t covered by traditional regulation but nonetheless engaged in banking activities and created bank-type risks.

Then the bubble burst, with hugely disruptive consequences. It turned out that Wall Street had created a web of interconnection nobody understood, so that the failure of Lehman Brothers, a medium-size investment bank, could threaten to take down the whole world financial system.

It’s a straightforward story, but a story that the Republican members of the commission don’t want told. Literally. Last week, reports Shahien Nasiripour of The Huffington Post, all four Republicans on the commission voted to exclude the following terms from the report: “deregulation,” “shadow banking,” “interconnection,” and, yes, “Wall Street.”

When Democratic members refused to go along with this insistence that the story of Hamlet be told without the prince, the Republicans went ahead and issued their own report, which did, indeed, avoid using any of the banned terms.

In the world according to the G.O.P. commissioners, it’s all the fault of government do-gooders, who used various levers — especially Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored loan-guarantee agencies — to promote loans to low-income borrowers. Wall Street — I mean, the private sector — erred only to the extent that it got suckered into going along with this government-created bubble.

It’s hard to overstate how wrongheaded all of this is. For one thing, as I’ve already noted, the housing bubble was international — and Fannie and Freddie weren’t guaranteeing mortgages in Latvia. Nor were they guaranteeing loans in commercial real estate, which also experienced a huge bubble.

Beyond that, the timing shows that private players weren’t suckered into a government-created bubble. It was the other way around. During the peak years of housing inflation, Fannie and Freddie were pushed to the sidelines; they only got into dubious lending late in the game, as they tried to regain market share.

But the G.O.P. commissioners are just doing their job, which is to sustain the conservative narrative. And a narrative that absolves the banks of any wrongdoing, that places all the blame on meddling politicians, is especially important now that Republicans are about to take over the House.

Last week, Spencer Bachus, the incoming G.O.P. chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, told The Birmingham News that “in Washington, the view is that the banks are to be regulated, and my view is that Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks.”

He later tried to walk the remark back, but there’s no question that he and his colleagues will do everything they can to block effective regulation of the people and institutions responsible for the economic nightmare of recent years. So they need a cover story saying that it was all the government’s fault.

In the end, those of us who expected the crisis to provide a teachable moment were right, but not in the way we expected. Never mind relearning the case for bank regulation; what we learned, instead, is what happens when an ideology backed by vast wealth and immense power confronts inconvenient facts. And the answer is, the facts lose.

---

Paulson's testimony is here...

---

Ratigan goes off Paulson's rarely mentioned role in the crisis...

Awesome short clip. Runs 3 minutes.

Make sure to read the story below from the NY Times on Henry Paulson's role in the SEC rule change (2004) that allowed leverage to expand from 12:1 to 100:1 for only the 5 largest investment banks.

Besides Ratigan's occasional outburst, it is still the event most ignored by CNBC and the rest of the mainstream news media.

From the New York Times:

What was the most relevant factor in the blow-up.

Leverage.

Until 2004 U.S. investment banks had a leverage limit of 12:1. After Paulson led the multi-year effort to sway the SEC to drop these rules entirely, allowing 5 banks to utilize unlimited leverage, all 5 became effectively insolvent within 4 years.

It's the most important piece to understanding how this banking crisis was so devastating compared to previous blow-ups, and why it was so widespread -- European banks were (and remain) even more leveraged than our own.

And, it's the easiest part to fix. Just turn the rule back to pre-2004.

UPDATE - After some research, I confirmed that Dodd-Frank made no changes with regard to leverage; there are still no limits and the issue has been consigned to the Federal Reserve for further study.

Nice work. They blew up the world, and still avoided any adjustments to their leverage-based business models.

Latest Wikileaks Psyop Maneuver: Providing Israel With Another Useful Existential Threat

UPDATE: New Fake Israeli “leak” exonerates Israel, condemns North Korea (see end of original article)

UPDATE 2: From ridiculous to the sublime – Bradley wants you to wish the troops and his “torturers” a Merry Christmas

——

Julian Assange has stated on al Jazeera that he will release some 3,700 secret (and even “top-secret”) documents pertaining to Israel in 6 months.

Why would he wait if he had “truth” that needed to be revealed to the world?

What he is doing is providing an existential threat to the state of Israel; one that can and will be used by AIPAC to pressure members of the House of Representatives and the Senate to pass legislation effectively shutting down the open internet as we know it.

The 6 month pending deadline should be just enough time for Israel’s massive propaganda machine.

After Israel’s Dec. 2008-Jan. 2009 attack on Gaza, their more recent attack on the humanitarian aid flotilla, and the assassination of a Palestinian public official, their public opinion rating has taken a nose-dive. Their megaphoned apologists and their public relations efforts failed in the face of an open and uncensored internet.

Assange’s new, unexplainable, 6 month deadline creates just enough of a pending existential threat to the state of Israel to justify AIPAC influenced U.S. congressmen to pass a draconian internet censoring bill in the same vein as the U.S. Patriot Act.

This serves not only the state of Israel, but also the U.S. state department. After Hillary Clinton’s failed efforts to frame North Korea for the sinking of the Cheonan, it is in the best interest of the imperial U.S. that the freedom of the internet and the rapid exchange of information is curbed. This is ultimately the point of the Wikileaks psyop and at least now we have a definitive time-line.

(The following Julian Assange quotes taken from an interview on al Jazeera and published by Information Clearinghouse)

topic: holding “leaks” pertaining to Israel for 6 months

There are 3,700 files related to Israel and the source of 2,700 files is Israel. In the next six months we intend to publish more files depending on our sources,”

“We will publish 3700 files and the source is the American embassy in Tel Aviv. Prime Minister Netanyahu was traveling to Paris to talk to the US ambassador there. You will see more information about that in six months.”

Why would Assange hold important leaks about Israel for 6 months while knowingly allowing establishment newspapers to publish misleading information about North Korea, Iran, Pakistan, and nearly every other Middle East country immediately?

topic: Assange aware that papers he gave “leaks” to are filtering the truth about Israel

files pertaining to the 2006 Lebanon War (Condi Rice’s war) – ”Yes there is some information about that and these files were classified as top secret.

files pertaining to the assassination of a Palestinian leader - “Yes there are some indication to this and may be some special reports published by newspapers. Mossad agents used Australian, British and European passports to travel to Dubai and there are diplomatic files about that.”

The Guardian, El-Pais and Le Monde have published only two percent of the files related to Israel due to the sensitive relations between Germany, France and Israel. Even New York Times could not publish more due to the sensitivities related to the Jewish community in the US,”

Assange is blaming these entities for filtering the “leaks” yet these cables are in his possession and he could do with them as he pleases. He’s allowing this to happen. Why? If getting out the “truth” is what Wikileaks is all about, why this convoluted and manipulated process?

topic: Official U.S. funding??!?

“We were the biggest institution receiving official funding from the US but after we released a video tape about killing people in cold blood in Iraq in 2007, the funding stopped and we had to depend on individuals for finance.”

What “official funding” is he talking about? Has this money been in place since even before Wikileaks started officially leaking anything? If you read the John Young emails, that would certainly seem to be the case.

Conclusion

It is my sincere hope that this latest ploy by Julian Assange finally exposes this Wikileaks psyop to journalists like Pilger and Greenwald.

By giving this arbitrary and pointless deadline, by creating an existential threat which can only benefit AIPAC lobbyists, Assange has finally exposed his purpose in such a way as there cannot be any more question as to what that purpose ultimately is: the end of the free and open internet.

——

UPDATE: A Raw Story headline completely misrepresents the substance of the article.

Israel destroyed Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007, leaked cable reveals

But the facts within the article show us how the Wikileaks psyop is still working to the advantage of Israel by promoting old, tired propaganda as “fact”.

“On September 6, 2007, Israel destroyed the nuclear reactor built by Syria secretly, apparently with North Korea’s help,” then US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice wrote in the cable published in Yediot Aharonot newspaper.

Our intelligence experts are convinced that the attack targeted by the Israelis is in fact an atomic reactor of the same type built by North Korea in Yongbyon,” she wrote in the message dated April 2008.

We have good reason to believe that the reactor was not built for peaceful purposes,” she said, adding the attack came only weeks before the reactor was to become operational. Raw Story

Here is some “truth” being revealed by Wikileaks - a statement by Condi Rice which exonerates Israel for the aggressive and illegal strike on a Syrian facility in 2007 which also serves the dual purpose of implicating North Korea at a time when the U.S. and South Korea are doing everything they can to create a reason to “regime change” that nation.

This cable exposes nothing that we didn’t already know about the 2007 attack on the Syrian facility and actually promotes the previously debunked U.S. and Israeli claim that it was a reactor being made for weapons manufacturing purposes.

Clearly this is just more pro-Israel, anti-North Korea propaganda.

UPDATE 2: This shit is so f*cing stupid, it must be being written by a 12-year-old. Now Manning the Magnanimous, is hoping that you will wish for a Happy Christmas for all the troops AND his captors at the detention center who, according to him, are torturing him. Gimmie a fucking break.

“I ask that everyone takes the time to remember those who are separated from their loved ones at this time due to deployment and important missions.

“Specifically, I am thinking of those that I deployed with and have not seen for the last seven months, and of the staff here at the Quantico Confinement Facility who will be spending their Christmas without their family.” Raw Story

I guess the propagandists writing this drivel figure they got everyone eating out of their hands because of writers like Greenwald and Pilger swallowing this shit hook line and sinker, so they might as well pepper all their sappy propaganda with even more sappy propaganda.

Has The Financial Collapse Of Europe Now Become Inevitable?

What in the world is happening over in Europe? Well, it is actually quite simple. We are witnessing the slow motion collapse of the euro and of the European financial system. At this point, many analysts are convinced that a full-blown financial implosion in Europe has become inevitable. Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France and Belgium are all drowning in an ocean of unsustainable debt. Meanwhile, Germany and the few other "healthy" members of the EU continue to try to keep all of the balls in the air by bailing everyone out. But can Germany keep bailing the rest of the EU out indefinitely? Are the German people going to continue to be willing to hand out gigantic sacks of cash to fix the problems of other EU nations? The Irish were just bailed out, but their problems are far from over. There are rumors that Greece will soon need another bailout. Spain, Portugal, Italy and France have all entered crisis territory. At the same time, there are a whole host of nations in eastern Europe that are also on the verge of financial collapse. So is there any hope that a major sovereign debt crisis can be averted at this point?

One would like to think that there is always hope, but each month things just seem to keep getting worse. Confidence in European government debt continues to plummet. The yield on 10-year Irish bonds is up to 8.97%. The yield on 10-year Greek bonds is up to an astounding 12.01%. The cost of insuring French debt hit a new record high on December 20th.

Bond ratings all over Europe are being slashed or are being threatened with being slashed. For example, Moody’s Investors Service recently cut Ireland's bond rating by five levels. Now there is talk that Spain, Belgium and even France could soon all have their debt significantly downgraded as well.
But if the borrowing costs for these troubled nations keep going up, that is just going to add to their financial problems and swell their budget deficits. In turn, larger budget deficits will cause investors to lose even more confidence.
So how far are we away from a major crisis point?
Professor Willem Buiter, the chief economist at Citibank, is warning that quite a few EU nations could financially collapse in the next few months if they are not quickly bailed out....

"The market is not going to wait until March for the EU authorities to get their act together. We could have several sovereign states and banks going under. They are being far too casual."
Many analysts are even calling for some of these troubled nations to stop using the euro for a while so that they can recover. In fact, Andrew Bosomworth, the head of portfolio management for Pimco in Europe says that Greece, Ireland and Portugal must all quit the euro at least for a little while if they expect to survive....
"Greece, Ireland and Portugal cannot get back on their feet without either their own currency or large transfer payments."
Sadly, most Americans don't realize just how bad the situation in Europe is becoming. This is truly a historic crisis that is unfolding.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared earlier this year that this is the biggest financial crisis that the EU has ever faced....

"The current crisis facing the euro is the biggest test Europe has faced for decades, even since the Treaty of Rome was signed in 1957."
So what is the answer?
Well, many are speculating that the EU could actually break up over this whole thing, but another possibility is that we could eventually see much greater integration.
In fact, for the first time the idea that "euro bonds" could be issued is gaining some traction. This would spread the risk of European government debt throughout the European Union. At this point, Andrew Bosomworth says that things have gotten so bad that it now seems inevitable that we will soon see the creation of euro bonds....
"Whether now or later, there is no way around a euro bond."

So just how bad are things going to get in Europe? Well, earlier this year Anthony Fry, the senior managing director at Evercore Partners had the following to say about the emerging bond crisis in Europe....
"I don’t want to scare anyone but I am considering investing in barbed wire and guns, things are not looking good and rates are heading higher."
So why should Americans care about all this?
Well, what is happening to these troubled European states is eventually going to happen to us.
If rates on U.S. government debt eventually hit 8 or 12 percent it will literally be financial armageddon in this country. The U.S. government has piled up the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world, and if we continue piling up debt at the pace that we are, then it will only be a matter of time before the IMF is demanding that we implement our own "austerity measures".
As I have written about previously, there are already numerous indications that confidence in U.S. Treasuries is dying. If that happens, we could literally see interest costs on the national debt double or even triple.

But it is not just the U.S. government that is in trouble. A bloodbath in the municipal bond market has already started. Hundreds of state and local governments across the United States are on the verge of bankruptcy.
So don't laugh at what is going on in Ireland or Greece. The next victims could be financially troubled states such as California and Illinois.
In the history of global finance, we have never faced a sovereign debt crisis like we are seeing now. All over the globe governments are being suffocated by absolutely crushing debt loads. Once a couple of dominoes fall, it is going to be really hard to keep the rest of the dominoes from falling.

This is the biggest crisis that the euro has ever faced. At some point Germany will either be unwilling or unable to continuing rescuing the rest of the EU countries from the unsustainable mountains of debt that they have accumulated. When that moment arrives, it is going to throw world financial markets into turmoil.
But this is what happens when we allow long-term debt bubbles to be created. Eventually they always burst.
So keep your eye on the euro, because if a financial collapse does happen in Europe it is going to have a dramatic impact on the United States as well.
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Terrorist may poison the food supply (but the food companies already have)

(NaturalNews) Always on the terror streak, the mainstream media is now warning Americans that terrorists may strike the food supply by dumping poison into restaurant salad bars and buffets, for example. CBS News broke the story, quoting anonymous "intelligence" sources who insist that terrorists might use ricin or cyanide to poison foods in salad bars.

I have news for CBS, the federal government, and the terrorists: If you really want to poison the U.S. food supply, just use aspartame. It causes neurological disorders and yet remains perfectly legal to dump into foods such as diet sodas and children's medicines. You don't even have to dump it into the food supply in secret, either: You can do it right out in full view of the public. Heck, you can even list this chemical right on the ingredients label!

Or get into the MSG business. MSG, which is often hidden on "natural" foods under an ingredient called yeast extract, is a potent neurotoxin that promotes obesity and even cancer, according to some experts. Feed people enough MSG and they'll probably die of cancer sooner or later, and that counts toward the goal of terrorism too, doesn't it?

If you really want to get nasty and up the body count, start a hot dog company and dump sodium nitrite into your processed meat like all the other hot dog companies do. Sodium nitrite promotes aggressive cancers -- even in children -- and yet the USDA and FDA allow its use in the food supply (http://www.naturalnews.com/007133.html).

Better yet, feed the population genetically modified corn and then wait for the mutations to kick in. GMOs might actually be called a biological weapon because they cause so much harm to humans and the environment. (http://www.naturalnews.com/GMO.html)

Why be a terrorist when you can do so much more damage as a processed food company?

If you're a terrorist looking to poison the U.S. food supply, get in line, buddy! The food companies have beat you to it!

In the U.S. food supply right now, you can find toxic mercury, BPA, acrylamides, petrochemicals, dangerous preservatives, synthetic chemicals like aspartame, pesticide residues and artificial colors that alter brain function. The FDA doesn't seem to care about any of this, of course: All these poisons in the food supply are legal!

So here's a message to Al-Qaeda and all the other terrorists trying to kill Americans: Don't bother with bombs and missiles... just get into the processed food business!

Or, heck, if you really want to kill Americans with poison, get into the cancer industry! The "Al-Qaeda Cancer Clinic" could really rack up some body bags by doing what all the other cancer clinics do: Inject patients with chemotherapy and watch them die (http://www.naturalnews.com/029996_c...).

Seriously, if you want to kill Americans, all you really need to do is keep supporting conventional medicine and the FDA with its do-nothing position on dangerous chemicals that threaten the health of Americans right now. FDA-approved drugs kill well over 100,000 Americans each year -- a statistic that dwarfs the body count of any terrorist group.

Come to think of it, how do we know the FDA isn't already being run by terrorists? Their actions, which blatantly endanger American lives, are entirely consistent with the aims of a terrorist organization. (http://www.naturalnews.com/001894.html)

By the way, this is all depicted in a CounterThink cartoon I created in 2006 called The Food Terrorists: http://www.counterthink.com/The_Foo...

This cartoon anticipated today's terror news alerts by four years. That's because when it comes to the U.S. government's rhetoric on terrorism, it's not that difficult to see where they're taking it.

Want to know what the next four years will bring us? I'll soon be publishing a list of predictions for 2011 and beyond. Watch NaturalNews.com for that announcement.

In the mean time, you might want to steer clear of FDA-approved foods and drugs, because you just never know what's really in them.


Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/030811_terrorists_food_supply.html#ixzz192zGQilW

UK plan to block online pornography ‘not possible,’ ISPs say

Plans to set up an online age verification scheme in the United Kingdom to limit access to pornography is not possible, according to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the country.

Trefor Davies, chief technology officer at the ISP Timico, told BBC News that it is "technically not possible" to block all online pornography because of its sheer volume.

"You end up with a system that's either hugely expensive and a losing battle because there are millions of these sites or it's just not effective," he said. "The cost of putting these systems in place outweigh the benefits, to my mind."

Critics of the proposed pornography ban say it's one more step in an effort by governments around the world to seize control of the Internet. They say the system would inevitably be used to restrict access to non-pornographic websites.

"If we take this step it will not take very long to end up with an internet that's a walled garden of sites the governments is happy for you to see," Davies said.

Nicholas Lansman, secretary general of the Internet Service Providers Association (IPSA), said that ISPs currently block illegal content such as child pornography, but that blocking lawful pornography "is less clear cut" and "will lead to the blocking of access to legitimate content."

"IPSA firmly believes that controls on children's access to the internet should be managed by parents and carers with the tools ISPs provide, rather than being imposed top-down," Lansman added.

Under the proposed plan, which appears to have the backing of Britain's major Internet service providers, the government would provide ISPs a list of objectionable websites, which the ISPs would automatically block. An Internet surfer would then have to "opt in" to be allowed to see the content.

"This is a very serious matter," Culture Minister Ed Vaizey said. "I think it is very important that it's the ISPs that come up with solutions to protect children. I'm hoping they will get their acts together so that we don't have to legislate, but we are keeping an eye on the situation and we will have a new communications bill in the next couple of years."

Vaizey said it's a useful step in preventing the premature sexualization of children. He cited a report earlier this year that showed three in 10 British children aged 10 had seen pornography online.

Vaizey is expected to meet with ISPs, including BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk, to discuss the ban.

"Our objective was not to do what the politicians want us but to do what is right for our customers," Andrew Heaney, TalkTalk's executive director of strategy and regulation, told The Sunday Times. "If other companies aren't going to do it of their own volition, then maybe they should be leant on."

"This is not about pornography, it is about generalized censorship through the back door," Mr Killock, chair of the Open Rights Group, told BBC News.

"This is the wrong way to go," he said. "If the government controlled a web blacklist, you can bet that WikiLeaks would be on it."

Spoiled Nations Reflect A Spoiled Economy

Germany is supplying a great deal of money to the EU’s bailout of Greece and Ireland and perhaps Portugal, Spain, Belgium or even Italy. The German people are against the bailout and they have told their leadership that they refuse to contribute any further. We have friends in Wiesbaden and the 42-year old father of the family, university educated, took 1-1/2 years to find a job making less than he had before. The position is in Cologne, about two hours away by car on the Autobahn, so he has to stay at a hotel during the week and gets to be with his family on weekends.

We are sure the family doesn’t like the arrangement nor do they relish bailing out other members of the EU and euro zone. Germans never wanted to be in the EU and nor did they want to be in the euro zone, which entailed giving up their beloved D-mark. Germany tells us unemployment is 8%. In checking out their numbers we find this hard to believe, especially in Eastern Germany. As we see it, even though Germany is the economically and financially strongest nation in the EU and the euro zone, all is still not peaches and cream. In this coming year German resolve will be tested to the maximum, as they consider thinking outside the box politically and in many other ways. Europe and Germany are going through a realization that there is life beyond Marxism, fascism and liberalism and a time is soon coming when classical free-market finance and economics will take their rightful place not only among the Germans but all thinking people of the world. It is time for Europeans to break out of the mode and again achieve the remarkable things they have in the past.

After WWII Germany believed a middle way was the path for their future so they chose socialism, the halfway house between communism and fascism. Under much pressure from the West they extended that into the future by being the leading part of the European Union and later the euro zone, both of which the German’s were hesitant to join, particularly the euro zone. Over the past 50 years they accepted multiculturalism in the form of Turkish Muslims, which has resulted in a touch and go relationship. It must be said that relationship has worked out better than that of other European countries.

We lived in Germany during this process in the 1950s. The Marshall Plan and the discipline of the labor unions allowed Germany to perform an economic miracle in the rebuilding of Western Germany. This success spread throughout Europe. Prosperity and Peace were the result along with the assistance and presence of the American military, which we were part of there for several years.

Evaluation of the EU and the euro zone was a megalomaniac effort foisted upon Europe to bring about a stepping-stone for world government and a world currency. What was created was an unnatural anthropological disaster, which you now see being unravelled. The concept of the merging of tribes, an amalgamation, or Balkanization of peoples has not homogenized and never will, even if by force. This is also the result of one interest rate for all despite different states of development and different economic and financial structures.

The Soviet Empire is now gone as is Pax Americanus. The plan mainly designed by the UK and Britain is now after 65 years in serious trouble and will probably finally end up in failure. Again, the villain is one interest rate fits all.

Six countries are on the edge of insolvency: Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Belgium, Spain and Italy. We have strikes, demonstrations and riots in many of these countries and it is going to get worse before it gets better. The original plan for Europe is coming unglued irrespective of who is to blame. Millions are living on welfare and unemployment and the most employable have a hard time keeping their jobs and if they lose them it is very difficult to find another job. In addition, the large amount of Muslims is overwhelming England and the Continent. Low indigenous birth rates and out of control breeding by Muslims guarantee in years to come the destruction of what once was European culture. The Muslims absolutely refuse to assimilate. Europe has more problems than simply financial failure.

Sovereign default is nothing new – it goes back to the fourth century BC in Greece and here we are 2,400 years later in the same predicament.

Last week Germany signalled its distaste to extending government – financed aid for debt mired EU partners. That means all EU nations have to participate if they want to keep fighting the crisis in this manner. Germany did endorse an ECB boost in capital. In addition, the latest idea is to create a euro bond, which hasn’t a hope of success, because it would engender a further loss of sovereignty. The EU continues to move in the wrong direction such as further economic integration, which the Germans certainly do not want. Other socialist – one-world types – have told the Germans they are unpatriotic for not paying most of the bills created by these spendthrift near-do-wells. Germany is making all the right noises concerning the euro, but most Germans want the D-mark back. Europe has pushed Germans as far as they are willing to go. Worldwide investors are bailing out of bonds issued by countries in financial trouble in Europe. The ECB is buyer of last resort. The beat goes on as banks worldwide refuse to play the new world order game and continues to bury the ECB. They do not get it, yet, the dream of world government is over. No nation or investor wants to be left holding the bag.

As a result of this mayhem the ECB wants to provide unlimited liquidity for commercial banks, which caused these problems in the first place. They simply cannot give up the ghost. Hundreds of elitist controlled banks are going to go under and there is little that can be done to save them. This is succinctly pointed out in the case of Ireland and what the bankers have done to the Emerald isle.

There is no question that almost all of Europe is bankrupt, but so are the US and UK. German politicians dare not push the German public too far for fear of seeing Germans in the streets in reaction to being forced to bail out Europe’s banks single handedly. Do they really want to put up two or three trillion for a bailout, hardly? What is very concerning is on top of the fiscal mess will Germany be subjected to a false flag terrorist attack as many other countries have? We see some things beginning that we have seen in America, the removal of freedoms from the German people. If this continues we could see Germany sliding into areas we haven’t seen since the early 1930s.

As expected we are witnessing Republicans refusing to cut spending in order to obtain an extension of the Bush tax cuts, and the funding of health care reform. There were only some 96 changes in Congress and 1/3rd of them were resignations. The supposed irate public returned the worst of the worst to the House and the Senate. As a result you can expect even more corruption and scandals, as America sinks further into the great dark pit. Reform of health care could have been de-funded, but these whores are going to allow it to continue and in that process destroy the American medical system. Probably 1/3rd of doctors will retire or leave the country or find other professions. The affect on the availability of medical care will be staggering, as will the rationing of medical care, which will mean all older people and those with chronic problems will be allowed to die, as all useless eaters will be removed from society. What you are going to see will be horrible.

The death tax will be back in vogue to destroy American businesses, so further concentration can take form as the corporatist fascist government moves further to control America’s services and industry. This result was as usual the result of secret meetings with the financial hand of the elitists hidden from view. It wasn’t bad enough to see this happen but there is absolutely no effort to stop runaway spending that will be in part funded by such actions. In just 2011 we’ll see $75 to $100 billion in new spending. We can promise you your politicians are not listening to you, but to the elitists who control them with their money. The Republican pre-election pledges are a joke, already long forgotten. If you extend the new spending it could be as much as $200 billion and the loss in jobs as a result of some cutbacks in tax breaks could cost 80,000 jobs a year. As major corporations continue to lay off workers, and are sitting on almost $2 trillion in cash, they will now be allowed to write off 100% of capital investments for a year. They will also continue to get research and development tax credits. The pork continues to flow and the generations of taxpayers to come will have to pay for it.

A big question is how effective will the $858 billion stimulus package be? This is a bill that started out as an extension of the Bush tax cuts and morphed into a pork laden stimulus program. There is no question in our minds that Republicans and Democrats knew long before joint meetings, what this bill would become. If we add $600 billion that is in the process of being spent by the Fed between now and June the Fed we have $1.458 being spent to keep the economy from faltering. We expect that Fed spending will exceed that level by 9/30/11 moving up to a net $1.4 billion in the creation of money and credit by the Fed. The result should be GDP growth of 2 to 2-1/2 percent for the fiscal year. From what we have seen of the contraction in the credit market recently we could see stimulus being used to reduce debt, or go into savings. The market has put too much faith into a stronger recovery, as has the public and business, which could very well be disappointed. The current firm market could last into February and surprise us, but the rest of 2011 could produce downward market pressures. Present professional bullish statistics could prove a hindrance as well, as the majority is almost always wrong. As a result of this and other things gold, silver and commodities probably will do quite well.

The spending bill is still up for grabs as we write, as is the debt ceiling. That means Republicans may have gone as far as they are willing to go on spending for now and may pursue cuts in other areas. If that is the case the market would not react favorably. That leaves the economy’s liquidity in the hands of the Fed, which is always more than happy to comply, an on demand money machine. They’ll be needed if a budget battle occurs and we believe conservative freshmen congressmen and women will lead it.

There are some developments that are positive and one is the awakening of the public to what the Fed has been up too. The positioning of Rep. Ron Paul in the House and Bernard Sanders in the Senate should present formidable opposition to the elitists who run the Fed from Wall Street. More than 60% of Americans want to get rid of the Fed and that is positive. The Fed’s purchases of bonds over the last few years has suppressed interest rates and increased bond prices. Those low rates make quantitative easing easier. This monetization heads straight through the open doors of Wall Street to produce ever more leveraged profits in derivatives, options, foreign exchange, stocks and commodities and shorting gold and silver, in what is now nothing more than a vast casino. In this process the Fed stands by to absorb the losses in behalf of the American taxpayer. When it looks like the Fed cannot handle it anymore then the elitist think tanks can supply war on demand as a diversion to cover up financial problems. In all likelihood that will be accompanied by the call for currency controls in and out of the country and rules regarding restriction of travel. We lived in currency blocked Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) and South Africa and so we know what it is like. We found it similar to living in a financial prison. You have to understand the corporatist fascist mind. It believes all of the wealth of the country and its citizens belongs to the fascists.

If IRA’s, 401Ks, pension plans and government retirement plans are not taken over in whole or in part, then you can expect these plans to be forced to acquire a certain percentage of Treasury, Agency and toxic bonds. Foreign travel will have so many rules, like the TSA, that people will refuse to use planes, trains and buses. There may even be price controls that won’t work. The use of cash will be discouraged as government phases in credit and debit card usage. They may go even so far as to demand the return of foreign investments to the US. If Americans do not comply they may confiscate these assets. Remember, they believe all your assets belong to them.

If you want to understand why Wall Street, banking and corporate America think the way they do, just look at the poor Keynesian education they get. They cannot see the forest for the trees. Look at Bernanke, he has never worked in the real world in his life. Does he understand what he is doing and its consequences, of course he does. Keynesianism has been a failure over and over again, as the economic and monetary model for corporatist fascism. This is the path Mr. Bernanke has chosen, as did Sir Alan Greenspan. We were in the vanguard of exposing what has been going on in the US and world economy for many years, since 1960. Finally a few are speaking up today, but we need hundreds and thousands more to assist us. Due to the lack of those who will expose what is going on we have to do this at 75 years old. The reason we continue is to let people know, who will listen, what a precarious situation we are in. The elitists are in a very precarious position, but they are not going to tell you that. They have lost total control but yet, still have partial control. There will be concern, but do not expect panic. We have got to show them that they can be beaten and that is exactly what we have to do. The system has to be purged of its excesses and malinvestment. That is a painful process that everyone must endure, whether they like it or not. That means no more fiat currencies, only gold backed currencies.

Fed extends swap lines, scheduled to expire on January 1, 2011, through August 1, 2011. The swap arrangements are with the Banks of Canada, England, Japan, Switzerland and ECB. The extension is to improve liquidity in the global currency markets and minimize risk that global strains could spread to the US. The swap lines with the banks are similar to arrangements that had previously been in place.

Led by declines in employment-related indicators, the Chicago Fed National Activity Index decreased to – 0.46 in November from –0.25 in October. Three of the four broad categories of indicators that make up the index deteriorated from October to November, with only the production and income category improving. http://www.chicagofed.org/digital_assets/publications/cfnai/2010/cfnai_december2010.pdf

$2tn debt crisis threatens to bring down 100 US cities Overdrawn American cities could face financial collapse in 2011, defaulting on hundreds of billions of dollars of borrowings and derailing the US economic recovery. Nor are European cities safe Florence, Barcelona, Madrid, Venice: all are in trouble

Since 1937, 619 local US government bodies, mostly small utilities or districts, have filed for bankruptcy, Bloomberg News recently reported. US cities tend to default more than European municipalities as they usually rely on bonds issued to investors, which enter into a default if the creditor misses payments. European towns, by contrast, traditionally depend on bank loans and government bailouts. http://www.guardian.co.uk/…

State Budgets: The Day of Reckoning (CBS’s “60 Minutes”)

“The most alarming thing about the state issue is the level of complacency,” Meredith Whitney, one of the most respected financial analysts on Wall Street and one of the most influential women in American business, told correspondent Steve Kroft…

“It has tentacles as wide as anything I’ve seen. I think next to housing this is the single most important issue in the United States, and certainly the largest threat to the U.S. economy,” she told Kroft.

Asked why people aren’t paying attention, Whitney said, “‘Cause they don’t pay attention until they have to.”…And nowhere has the reckoning been as bad as it is in Illinois, a state that spends twice much as it collects in taxes and is unable to pay its bills.

http://www.cbsnews.com…

Last week the Dow gained 0.7%, S&P rose 0.3%, the Nasdaq 100 rose 0.1% and the Russell 2000 rose 0.3%. Consumers rose 1.4%; utilities 1.1%, as banks fell 1.7% along with broker/dealers off 0.4%. Cyclicals gained 1.1%, while transports fell 0.9%. High tech fell 0.2%, semis 0.3%, Internets 1.4%, as biotechs jumped 10.1%. Gold bullion gave back $10; the USDX rose 0.4% to 80.36.

The two-year T-bill fell 4 bps to 60, the 10-year T-notes rose 1 bps to 3.33% after having traded as high as 3.54%. The German 10-year bund rose 6 bps to 3.01%.

Freddie Mac’s 30-year fixed rate mortgage jumped 22 bps to 4.83%, the 15’s surged 21 bps to 4.17%, the one-year ARMs rose 8 bps to 3.35% and the 30-year jumbos jumped 17 bps to 5.63%.

Fed credit jumped $22.8 billion to a record $2.374 trillion. It is up 7.2% annualized and 8.4% yoy. Fed foreign holdings of Treasury and Agency debt fell $3.6 billion to $3.337 trillion. Custody holdings for foreign central banks have increased $381.7 billion ytd, or 13.4%, and up 13.2% yoy.

M2 narrow money supply added $1.0 billion to a record $8.813 trillion. It is up $280 billion ytd or 3.5% annualized. Year-on-Year M2 rose 3.0%.

Total money market fund assets fell $33.2 billion to $2.803 trillion; yoy it has fallen 14.3%.

Total commercial paper fell $26.3 trillion to $981.7 billion, that is the first time we have seen it below $1 trillion.

Yields on top-rated tax-exempt securities due in 30 years climbed twice as fast as those on U.S. Treasuries, reaching the highest level in almost 16 months. ‘Nobody’s bidding,’ Tony Shields, a principal in the public-finance department at Williams Capital Group said There’s ‘an avalanche of bid-wanteds, and there is just not enough liquidity to accommodate this much sell-side pressure.’”

“Federal Reserve policy makers indicated that signs of economic strength won’t deter them from pumping money into the financial system so long as unemployment remains elevated. The Federal Open Market Committee said… growth is ‘insufficient to bring down unemployment’ and inflation has ‘continued to trend lower.’ U.S. central bankers affirmed a plan to buy $600 billion of bonds through June and renewed their pledge for an ‘extended period’ of low interest rates.”

“A slump in government-backed mortgage bonds that’s sent yields to the highest level since May is threatening a recovery in the U.S. housing market… Yields on Fannie Mae-guaranteed securities that most affect loan rates jumped as high as 4.21% yesterday, an increase of 1 percentage point from an all-time low in October… Higher loan rates ‘won’t be fun’ for a fragile housing market, said Scott Simon, head of mortgage bonds at… Pacific Investment Management Co. ‘If you were looking at buying a house a few weeks ago, the same house, to you, looks as much as 9% more expensive,” he said.”

The gift that keeps on giving: Congressman Paul says Fed transparency is his goal “And then they can still hide behind the law if I want to demand every transaction with foreign banks,” he said, adding that it would benefit Americans to know who was getting bailed out.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BI1BD20101219

A key cooperating witness working for the U.S. in a major insider-trading investigation made more than 60 calls with corporate managers, seeking to gather evidence for the government, a person familiar with the probe says. The activity by the witness who was identified by prosecutors in a complaint unveiled

Thursday only as “CW-2″ suggests that the insider-trading investigation could grow significantly from the initial charges.

http://online.wsj.com/article/…

Investors who forget what they paid for shares of stock will get help starting next year, courtesy of the Internal Revenue Service.

That’s when the U.S. tax-collection agency will require brokerages to track the cost basis on equities bought after Jan. 1, and send taxpayers and the government an annual form recording it when investors sell shares.

Brokerages already are required to report the proceeds from sales of securities to the IRS. Next year, they’ll also have to provide information on the purchase price, known as the cost basis, of stocks.

“We’ve been really hammering it home with our clients,” said Brian Keil, director of cost basis and reporting at San Francisco-based Charles Schwab Corp. “We expect our clients are going to get a 1099-B form in 2012 and they could have an outcome that they don’t expect.”

Investors who buy shares of the same company on different dates or prices will see the biggest change, said Eric Smith, a spokesman for the IRS. They’ll need to identify which shares they’re selling before the sale settles, which typically means within three days for stocks.

About 46 percent of U.S. households owned equities in 2010, including stocks, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and variable annuities, according to the Investment Company Institute, a Washington-based mutual-fund trade group.

Nigeria withdrew corruption charges against former vice president Dick Cheney and companies including Halliburton after the company agreed to pay a fine and repatriate funds, a spokesman for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said.

Halliburton, where Cheney was chief executive until 2000, offered to pay $120 million in fines and repatriate an additional $130 million to Nigeria, he said. A person who answered a call to Halliburton’s Houston office said no one was available to comment.

Nigerian prosecutors filed bribery charges on Dec. 8 against Cheney; Albert “Jack’’ Stanley, former chairman of KBR Inc., a former unit of Halliburton; current KBR chairman William Utt; and Halliburton chief executive David Lesar, according to court documents. Companies charged include Technip SA of France; Snamprogetti SpA, a unit of Eni SpA; KBR; and JGC Corp. of Japan.

Nigeria, Africa’s biggest crude oil producer, alleges that the companies, which were part of group known as TSKJ, paid $180 million in bribes to Nigerian officials between 1994 and 2004 to win a $6 billion liquefied natural gas plant contract.

Di Giovanni Gianni, a spokesman for Eni, said by e-mail that the company has no comment, while Gabriela Segura, a KBR spokeswoman, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

KBR agreed in February 2009 to pay a $402 million fine in the United States after admitting it bribed Nigerian officials, and Halliburton paid $177 million to settle allegations by the US Securities and Exchange Commission without admitting wrongdoing.

The estate of Jeffry Picower agreed to forfeit $7.2 billion that the investor got from Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, bringing the amount collected by authorities for victims of the fraud to $9.8 billion.

Irving Picard, the trustee liquidating Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, sued Picower in May 2009, claiming he withdrew $7.2 billion more than he invested. Picower died in October 2009 at age 67. Picard and U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who is probing the Madoff fraud, yesterday announced the settlement with Picower’s widow, Barbara.

“I commend Barbara Picower for agreeing to turn over this truly staggering sum, which really was always other people’s money,” Bharara said at a news conference in New York. “This settlement provides a significant measure of hope to the many victims of Bernard Madoff’s horrific crimes.”

Picard said that investors in Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, the largest in U.S. history, lost $20 billion in principal. Account statements at the time of Madoff’s arrest in December 2008 showed total balances of $65 billion. Picard, who filed hundreds of lawsuits seeking $50 billion, has now recovered $9.8 billion.

Picower began investing with Madoff in the late 1970s, controlling dozens of accounts. He had a heart attack and drowned in his swimming pool in Palm Beach, Florida.

The settlement “honors what Jeffry would have wanted,” Barbara Picower said in a statement by her lawyer, William Zabel of Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP.

Regulators shuttered six banks holding a total of $1.23 billion in assets, including three in Georgia and one each in Arkansas, Minnesota and Florida, as real-estate losses drive this year’s bank failures to 157.

Florida has lost 29 lenders this year while 21 banks in Georgia were seized, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said today in statements on its website. Regulators have closed 322 banks since the start of 2008. Today’s six closures cost the FDIC’s deposit-insurance fund a total of $267.6 million.

“We’re over the hump in terms of number of failures and the average size, and potentially in the cost of them,” Bert Ely, a banking consultant in Alexandria, Virginia, said in an interview. The crisis is “far from over but we’re making headway.”

This week’s failures may be the final closures for 2010 because regulators seldom shut down banks on holiday weekends, Ely said. The next two Fridays are Christmas Eve, a market holiday in the U.S., and New Year’s Eve.

More than 500 banks may fail before the cycle that started in 2007 comes to a close, “given the severity of the problems and the prolonged nature of the recovery,” Ely said.

The FDIC said last month that its list of “problem” banks — those at heightened risk of failure — rose 3.7 percent to 860 in the third quarter, the most in 17 years. Banks on the confidential list had $379.2 billion in assets as of Sept. 30, down from $403 billion at the end of the second quarter.

Payrolls decreased in 28 U.S. states and the unemployment rate climbed in 21, showing most parts of the world’s largest economy took part in the November labor- market setback.

North Carolina led the nation with 12,500 job cuts last month, followed by Massachusetts with 8,600 dismissals, and Ohio with 7,800, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. Joblessness increased most in Georgia and Idaho, while workers in Nevada faced the highest rate in the country at 14.3 percent.

The report is consistent with figures on Dec. 3 that showed unemployment increased last month for the first time since August. The Federal Reserve’s pledge to buy an additional $600 billion of Treasuries by June and the $858 billion bill passed by Congress extending all Bush-era tax cuts for two years may help boost growth and cut unemployment.

The report shows “an uneven distribution of improvement with some disappointing results,” said Russell Price, a senior economist at Ameriprise Financial Inc. in Detroit. “We’ve seen pretty clear evidence that demand is starting to improve and with the tax program that was passed last night it should further accelerate. That increased demand is going to pull forward further improvements in employment.”

Senate Democrats deflected an initiative by Republicans yesterday that would have forced US and Russian negotiators to reopen an arms treaty reducing stockpiles of nuclear warheads.

But the 37-59 vote against an amendment by Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, exposed doubts about whether President Obama can win Senate ratification of the treaty before a new, more Republican Congress assumes power in January.

Treaties require a two-thirds majority of those voting in the Senate, or 67 votes if all 100 senators vote.

Led by McCain, Obama’s GOP opponent in the 2008 presidential election, Republicans tried to strike words from the treaty’s preamble that they say would allow Russia to withdraw from the pact if the United States developed a missile defense system in Europe.

The treaty is a foreign policy priority for Obama, who signed it in April with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

It would limit each country’s strategic nuclear arsenal to 1,550 warheads, down from the current ceiling of 2,200, and establish a system for monitoring and verification. US weapons inspections ended a year ago with the expiration of the 1991 arms control treaty.

Obama used his weekly radio and Internet address yesterday to call for ratification.

He also tried to allay GOP doubts with a letter yesterday to Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, pledging to carry through with planned US missile defense facilities in Romania and Poland that would be capable of intercepting a missile from Iran aimed at the United States.

The treaty has received the backing of current and former military and national security officials, as well as former Republican President George H.W. Bush.

Democrats said a reference in the treaty’s preamble on missile defense systems is nonbinding and has no legal authority. In his letter, Obama said the United States disagrees with Russian statements about the threat that a missile defense poses to the strategic balance between the two countries.

“If you change it, it requires this treaty to go back to the Russian government, and then we don’t have any treaty,’’ said Senator John F. Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Republican critics said Russia is using the treaty to continue its opposition to a US missile defense shield.

The use of food stamps has increased dramatically in the U.S., as the federal government ramps up basic assistance to meet the demands of an increasingly desperate population.

The number of food stamp recipients increased 16% over last year. This means that 14% of the population is now living on food stamps. That’s about 43 million people, or about one out of every seven Americans.

In some states, like Tennessee, Mississippi, New Mexico and Oregon, one in five people are receiving food stamps. Washington, D.C. leads the nation, with 21.5% of the population on food stamps.

“The high unemployment rate caused the high participation rate,” said Dottie Rosenbaum from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank.

But it’s not just the nation’s stubbornly high unemployment rate of 9.8% that’s driving the increase in food stamp use. Some states are expanding their definitions of poverty to include more people.

At the same time, the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act boosted annual funding to the nationwide food stamp program, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, by $10 billion.

The average recipient receives $133 in food stamps per month, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That amount varies from state to state; in Hawaii the average is $216, while it’s $116 in Wisconsin.

But the Recovery Act funding increased the maximum food stamp benefit by 13.6%, which translates to about $20-24 dollars per person per month.

The U.S. government considers food stamps to be effective stimulus for the economy, because the recipients usually spend them right away.

Idaho saw the biggest increase in its food stamp program, with a spike of 39% compared to last year, followed by Nevada, at 29%, and New Jersey, at 27%.

New Jersey’s food stamp program expanded at least in part because the state raised its poverty level in April, according to Nicole Brossoie of the state Department of Human Services. That let the state add 35,000 people to its food stamp rolls, an increase of 5%.

Also, Brossoie said that program has been made more accessible to poverty-stricken residents.

“Through newsletters, posters, counseling and other outreach, the stigma associated with food stamps has diminished and more individuals and families are seeking assistance,” she said.

The government is also beefing up unemployment benefits. The unemployed will get a 13-month extension to file for additional unemployment benefits, which can last as long as 99 weeks in states hit hardest by job loss.

As the job market continues to dog the economy, the increase in food stamp funding is set to remain in place for nearly three years.

Dottie Rosenbaum said the hike in food stamp benefits is set to expire Nov. 1, 2013. Typically, food stamp funding increases every year to match inflation. But if Congress does not extend the stimulus funding beyond the 2013 cutoff, then food stamp benefits will revert to their original levels, but still be adjusted for inflation.

She said the budget office is forecasting a potential drop of $49 a month in food stamp benefits for a family of three, or $59 for a family of four, if the stimulus program is not continued.

President Obama, while signing a child nutrition bill on Dec. 13, said he was working with members of Congress to extend the food stamp funding. [All of the control and operation of the Food Stamp Operation is controlled by JPMorgan Chase and is one of their largest profit centers.]

Metro Phoenix bankruptcy filings have hit an all-time record this year, with another month of filings still to go.

The filings, a major indicator of economic stress, reflect the dual effects of the housing and financial meltdowns on the Arizona economy.

Still, there are signs the worst could be over. For example, bankruptcies both for metro Phoenix and the state have dropped in seven of the past eight months.

Another 2,501 consumer and business filings logged in November pushed the year-to-date total for metro Phoenix to 28,849, according to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Phoenix. That exceeds the 28,277 filings recorded for all of 2005, when thousands of people rushed to seek protection before a tightening in the federal bankruptcy laws took effect.

This year’s total through November also tops the 25,104 filings for all of 2009.

“My guess is that 2011 will be equal or greater for filings than 2010, but it’s just a gut feeling,” said Diane L. Drain, a Phoenix bankruptcy attorney.

Forty-eight percent of workers in the financial services industry consider changing jobs if annual bonuses disappoint, said recruiter Astbury Marsden, which advises companies in Europe and Asia.

Forty-five percent of the 1,122 bankers surveyed said they expected bonuses to be higher this year than last, the London- based recruitment firm said in an e-mailed statement today. Collective bonuses are likely to be less than the 7.3 billion pounds ($11.3 billion) paid last year.

“Employers could see unprecedented levels of staff attrition,” Jonathan Nicholson, managing director at Astbury Marsden, said in the statement. “We could see large numbers of staff defect to rivals.”

Pay in the sector increased 17 percent this year to compensate for reduced bonuses, the recruiter said. Forty-five percent of the workers anticipating a higher bonus this year expect it will amount to 47 percent of their base salary, according to the survey.

Naked emperor and a conspiracy of silence

Spengler
Asia Times

America is exceptional - utterly and absolutely exceptional - because the rest of the world depends on American guns, American money and American mediation in a way that no other country or combination of countries possibly might replace. Any other power that suffered the setbacks that America sustained during 2010 under the Barack Obama presidency would have been pushed off the top of the hill. The reason America still has diplomatic currency to spend in Asia as well as actual currency to borrow demonstrates its indispensable role: no one, least of all Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao or Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, wants America to fail.

That is why a conspiracy of silence surrounds the observation that the emperor is naked. But the facts are depressingly clear.

After one trillion dollars and 5,000 casualties, America will leave Iraq with nothing to show for its Quixotic commitment to build a nation in the Mesopotamian sand. As Steven Lee Meyers reported on December 18 in The New York Times, "The protracted political turmoil that saw the resurgence of a fiercely anti-American political bloc here is casting new doubt on establishing any enduring American military role in Iraq after the last of nearly 50,000 troops are scheduled to withdraw in the next 12 months, military and administration officials say." The pro-Iranian government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will eliminate America's role in Iraq after America's scheduled withdrawal.

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« Greece Passes Austerity Budget Amid Rancor »

These new pictures from last week's riots are pretty amazing - 27 total...

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The story on the Greek austerity budget is detailed inside.

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Source - WSJ

ATHENS -- The Greek Parliament early Thursday approved the Socialist government's 2010 austerity budget, which aims to slash Greece's fiscal deficit through a mixture of spending cuts and higher taxes.

Parliament passed the measure along party lines, with the Socialist 160-seat majority voting in favor and Greece's four opposition parties voting 139 against, with one lawmaker absent.

The vote comes amid pressure from the financial markets and other European Union countries for Greece to fix its public finances, and just days after the country was slapped with its third ratings downgrade in a month.

"This budget is not just about reordering our economy, but also about rebuilding our credibility," said Prime Minister George Papandreou just ahead of the vote.

Greece has been under intense scrutiny since it disclosed two months ago a ballooning budget deficit that is on track to reach 12.7% of gross domestic product this year.

The 2010 budget aims to cut that deficit to 9.1% of GDP next year through a combined €8 billion ($11.46 billion) in spending cuts and tax increases.

However, the budget has been criticized by the EU and the ratings agencies for relying too much on one-off measures, and too little on permanent reforms like cutting the public sector wage bill or stamping out widespread tax evasion.

On Tuesday, Moody's Investors Service cut its sovereign debt rating for Greece to A2 from A1, following similar moves this month by peers Standard & Poor's Corp. and Fitch Ratings, and warned of further downgrades ahead.

"A further downgrade will depend on the Greek government's plan being followed through -- as demonstrated, for instance, by a sustained increase in tax revenues and/or the effectiveness in reining in expenditure," Moody's said.

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You Are Being Warned! Freezing Temps Worldwide May Lead To Food Shortages