Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
BMW says 2007 sales soared more than 14% as buyers clamored for its mix of BMW sedans, sporty Mini and luxury Rolls-Royce cars. And the German automaker says it's on track for higher sales this year.
German press review
A day after NATO formerly requested that Germany send combat troops to Afghanistan and two days after Canada warned it would leave if more help didn't come south, Germans are debating whether sending more troops means more danger. The German media looked at the implications of the NATO request, which could see Germany further embroiled in Afghanistan.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, along with the members of the German cabinet, is to visit Israel in March to mark 60 years since the founding of the Jewish state, officials in Berlin said. The two cabinets are to hold a joint session as an indication of Germany's close relations with Israel. This will be the first time that the German cabinet has met outside Europe.
ASSyrian Air?...
An online travel Web site in eastern Germany will offer a clothes-optional flight to a lucky few this summer. Given the German love for all things naked, chances are it's already sold out.
[Europress] / [Russopress]
President Napolitano has asked center-left Senate speaker Franco Marini to try to form an interim government to reform voting rules blamed for the collapse of Prodi's coalition last week. With calls by former prime minister and current opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi for early elections and lingering fears of a prolonged power vacuum dragging down Italy's economic performance, Marini faces tough challenges in carrying out Napolitano's wishes.
European companies were able to save roughly €500 million in 2007 alone thanks to EU action to reduce overly bureaucratic administrative procedures, according to a progress report on the Commission's Better Regulation strategy. A 2nd package of fast-track actions should be established later this year, with the help of the newly established "High-Level Group on Administrative Burdens" chaired by Edmund Stoiber, the Commission said.
Chancellor Merkel repeated her criticism of President Sarkozy's plans for a Mediterranean Union, saying that any such move must be carried out within the European Union. Cooperation with countries on the Mediterranean rim must be "a pan-European task," and not restricted to EU nations adjoining the Mediterranean basin, she said in Paris at the European Congress of Sarkozy's UMP party. "We are ready to assume responsibility, dear Nicolas," Merkel said, with a glance at the French president.
Many bereaved families have joined together in their grief and are spearheading a movement to try to get Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to take personal responsibility for the 2006 Lebanon war's failures and resign. In its 2nd and final report on the Israel establishment's behavior in the war, the state-appointed Winograd Commission said it discovered "grave failings" in Israel's most senior institutions.
The US said it is time for Syria to stop its alleged abuses of human rights and support for terrorism, toughening its stand toward a country it has courted for a new US peace drive. "It is time for the Syrian government to modify its behavior, end its support for terrorism in the region, and provide its citizens with the rights they deserve."
Partitionstan?...
The chief of Pakistan's Muttahida Qaumi Movement has warned that the US is planning to partition the country. "We want to save Pakistan. The big powers are casting evil eyes over the country."
The 3-day summit of leaders from the 53-nation African Union opened Thursday in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, with the post-election violence in Kenya expected to dominate the agenda. The leaders are also expected to discuss peacekeeping missions in Somalia and Sudan's Darfur region.
A Turkish official has refused a US request to scrutinize and then suspend the activities of the Turkey-based Iran's Bank Mellat. "What binds Turkey are the resolutions of the UN and not US presidential decrees or Congressional decisions," a Turkish diplomat said.
Iran's defense minister says Tehran poses no threat to other countries but a crushing response will await any attackers. "The US is trying to portray Iran as a threat to the peace and security of the Middle East, yet our armed forces are not threatening any country."
Russian Space Forces experts are reporting in the Kremlin today that the sudden, and catastrophic, loss of one of the United States most sophisticated spy satellites was due to a newly launched Israeli spy satellite that upon reaching the same polar orbit of its American counterpart ejected thousands of ball bearings which shredded the KH-13, believed to be the US military's most advanced reconnaissance satellite.
These reports state that Israel had become alarmed over this American spy satellite since its launching in December, 2006, (which the US then reported had failed to reach its assigned orbit) due to its orbit which brought it over their secretive Negev Nuclear Research Center located at Dimona.
To the greatest danger of these events facing Russia, however, these reports state, is the loss to the US of its ability to track the movement of Israel's nuclear weapons, and which many World powers fear could soon be targeted at Iran, and if used would plunge our World into Total War.
George Bush has resumed his practice of disregarding portions of new laws, quietly reserving the right to build permanent military bases in Iraq, keep Congress in the dark on spying activity and block two accountability measures aimed at private security firms accused of wartime abuses.
As he signed a defence bill into law yesterday, Bush quietly added a "signing statement" that asserts his ability to ignore several parts of the measure. Bush's predilection for politically provocative signing statements has been especially alarming to both legal scholars and the Democratic majority in Congress.
"President Bush seems to forget that Congress is a co-equal branch of government, not a body whose decisions he can simply dismiss out of hand when he finds them inconvenient."
Eurozone inflation surged to a new record in January at 3.2%, official data showed. The rate is much higher than the European Central Bank's target of 2%. The ECB faces the tough challenge of controlling inflation, which can be done by raising interest rates, at a time when the economy is slowing. "This is shocking stuff. The worrying thing is there seems to be no end to this."
UBS is by far the most badly damaged of the big European banks by the credit crisis. But its disclosures are symptomatic of how this drama has unfolded in Europe: a steady drip of bad news, stoking fears of more to come and raising doubts about risk management
The US Federal Reserve cut its target Federal Funds rate by .5% down to 3% Wednesday, following the release of weaker-than-expected US growth statistics and amid concerns that more debt write-offs are on the horizon. US stocks failed to respond positively to the announcement.
Overall, there is a sense that the Federal Reserve is stuck between a rock and a hard place, and that the depth of the rate cut is indicative of the desperate predicament that the Fed finds itself in.
According to many analysts, the Federal Reserve Board is attempting to re-implement its old tactic of avoiding a potentially explosive situation by pumping excessive liquidity into the financial system
While the Federal Reserve tried to soothe the nerves of Wall Street, a hedge fund boss managed to fray them by warning that 2 pillars of the financial markets might crumble. Even while the Fed delivered another big cut in interest rates on Wednesday, William Ackman, a prominent money manager, fanned growing fears that the bond insurance industry might suffer crippling losses.
Davos 2008 has laid bare a world in which no superpower seems to be in charge. The unipolar American moment is deemed over. The consensus at Davos seems to be that we now live in a "nonpolar" world, with America too strong to stand on the sidelines, but too weak to implement its agenda alone.
None of the rising powers is ready for a global leadership role. International institutions have little power. And without a conductor to lead the global orchestra, there will be no concert.
The world crisis of capitalism (part 1)
Today, we are confronted not simply with the crisis of American capitalism, but a world crisis which has erupted in the US. Every day brings further news of losses by the major finance houses and warnings that more are to come. Major financial institutions are scrambling to ensure large injections of cash from anywhere they can find them. The basic problem was that the fundamental credit operations of the global capitalist system were being affected by a collapse of confidence.
The weak dollar and weakening US economy have made the US a bargain for overseas companies shopping for investments. In 2007, acquisitions in the US by foreign ventures hit $407 billion, up 93% from the previous year.
Sovereign Wealth Funds in 6 Persian Gulf countries have now amassed $1.7 trillion, positioning them for attempts to control major banks and securities firms in the US. Increasingly, US investment bankers are traveling to the Middle East to meet what Business Week calls the "New Kings of Wall Street."
Along with the prominent emergence of sovereign wealth funds on the global scene, some key questions arise. The first revolves around the issue of "multiple motives." What is the primus of capitalism?
Ever wonder why Christian men are so emasculated? Or why most normal red-blooded men find it absolutely impossible to relate to today's clergy? God didn't send girly-men to preach the Gospel, build churches and reform society back in the days of the early church. And He certainly won't do that today either.
Men don't feel welcomed in churches anymore because Christianity has been feminized. The solution is simple. Start encouraging men in the church to be men – not women in drag.
Our pastors are either quaint, odd, harmless pushovers, or they are slick metrosexual types who can cry at the drop of a dime – literally – but have absolutely no courage to stand up against real evil or teach the unequivocal truth with authority. They've suppressed godly male assertiveness, opting instead to "be nice."
They have abdicated their calling to "speak the truth" in the interest of political correctness. And they have decided that manipulating people with emotional self-help books and anecdotal sermonizing is better for the bottom line than training and teaching the men in their congregations to be leaders and warriors.
(Read 'em!: Wild at Heart and Way of the Wild Heart)
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