Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
The director of the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Paolo Mieli, said last week Pope Pius XII was a Pontiff "in line with the history of the Catholic Church of the 20th century," who during the Nazi persecution did not doubt in extending a hand to the Jews hiding in churches, convents, seminaries, and therefore the black legend surrounding him does not have any historic basis.
Benedict XVI says he is hoping that a meeting between Christians and Muslims will give rise to a renewal in mutual commitments and dialogue.
The conference is focused on "Love and Mercy in the Bible and in the Koran." The meeting has gathered at Castel Gandolfo some 200 Muslims and Christians since last Thursday.
The world's Orthodox leaders, coming together under the leadership of Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, have joined in a strong statement of support for Orthodox unity. Setting aside disputes that have strained relations among them -- and between Constantinople and Moscow -- the Orthodox leaders affirmed, in a joint statement released Sunday.
A top official of the Vatican bank has offered assurances that its deposits are safe from the world financial meltdown, an Italian Catholic magazine said Monday.
The bank's depositors are religious orders, dioceses, Roman Catholic charities, other religious organizations and the Vatican itself. The bank makes no loans and as a result "we have no uncollectable losses."
Bavaria is demanding amendments to the federal government's banking rescue package before the Bundesrat, the upper house of parliament, votes on the measures on Friday.
Bavaria is just one of Germany's 16 federal states and many others have expressed support, making it unlikely that the conservative southern state will be able to hinder the plans.
(Update: Bavaria signalled today it would support the package after earlier demanding changes and criticising government handling of the plan. "We're not going to let it fail," said Erwin Huber, chairman of Bavaria's ruling Christian Social Union.)
There is an air of desparation in European capitals and in the United States as politicians try to stop the global financial meltdown. The crisis has grown into a major test for the government of Angela Merkel. On Monday, Berlin signed off on a major bailout package.
Following Sunday's emergency meeting of European leaders in Paris, Germany announced a €500 billion financial sector rescue plan. German commentators are split in their response to the latest move.
Germany's state-owned banks are emerging as winners from the financial tumult that has rocked Europe's largest economy and its neighbours in the last 2 weeks.
Sparkasse savings bank and other state-run banks like it are awash in new business since late September, as Germans rush to deposit money where they perceive it will be safest.
Germany's economy is on the brink of recession and will only expand by 0.2% in 2009, the country's leading economic think tanks have warned. They said that the country's export sector could be hit just as hard as the financial sector.
In theory, Alliance and Freedom could unite now that Haider's personal feuds are removed from the picture. In practice, though, there are obstacles.
The death of Jörg Haider has cast a light on the resurgence of facsist politics in Austria and Italy.
What drives the radical politicians of the new Right is, in the first place, hostility to immigrants, a feeling that is likely to get worse as the European economy slides into recession. Added to this are fears of the collapse of law and order.
The French Presidency wants an EU summit on 15-16 October to back the establishment of a "group of wise men" to lead reflections on Europe's future, but there is still no agreement on its composition.
European Union countries were divided Monday over whether to resume talks on a political and economic pact with Russia that was frozen in protest of its war with Georgia.
Germany and Italy led the campaign to resume discussions on trade, energy and political ties. But some EU foreign ministers, headed by David Miliband of Britain, said they wanted to see progress in talks on the future of the disputed Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia before pressing ahead with closer ties.
The main partners in Israel's departing government, the Kadima Party of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and the Labor Party of Defense Minister Ehud Barak, signed a draft coalition agreement on Monday, moving Livni an important step closer to forming a new government, representatives of the parties said.
Assuming that Barak and Livni sign off on the entire agreement — which they have not yet done — her principal remaining task will be to bring on board the ultra-Orthodox party Shas to reach a majority in Parliament.
President Assad of Syria has issued a decree establishing diplomatic relations with Lebanon. A Syrian embassy will be established in neighboring Lebanon for the first time since the 2 countries gained independence in the 1940s.
President Ahmadinejad says Lebanese independence and stability will halt Israel's conspiracies in their tracks. "The Zionist regime's raison d'etre depends on war. That is the reason why global hegemony supports this regime."
Middle East peace pacts will not solve the dilemma in the Middle East, President Ahmadinejad told former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and several former heads of Western states. Annan and the Western dignitaries were in Tehran for attending a religious conference.
Those who know Afghanistan best say we've reached rock bottom and they don't understand why we keep on digging. So the Saudis are looking for an honorable way out for NATO.
Pakistan's president warns the US on strikes against Pakistan, saying the violation of the country's border would not be tolerated.
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution says 'lust for power' has significantly contributed to the persistence of all the ills of the world.
Ayatollah Khamenei said that for generations, Western imperialism has been the root cause of all problems around the globe. He advocated the strengthening of dialogue among world leaders in order to ease simmering global tensions.
Iran's Ambassador to Baghdad says the Pentagon's recent propaganda against Iran inside Iraq is doomed to failure.
"The media propaganda the United States is using against Iran in Iraq runs counter to the interests of the Iraqi nation and government. Four large media companies are contributing to the Pentagon's plan to provoke the Iraqi public opinion against the Islamic Republic and strain Tehran-Baghdad relations."
A senior Iranian nuclear official says the nuclear power plant in Bushehr will become operational this year as previously planned.
In the Crash of 2008, 40% of stock value has vanished, almost $9 trillion. Some $5 trillion in real estate value has disappeared. A recession looms with sweeping layoffs, unemployment compensation surging and social welfare benefits soaring.
America's first trillion-dollar deficit is at hand. The budget is going to have to go under the knife. But what gets cut? It is the American Empire that is going to be liquidated -- it has become a vast extravagance.
With modernity crumbling, our thoughts turn to antiquity. The decline and fall of the American Empire echoes the experience of the Romans, who also tumbled into the trap of becoming overleveraged empire hussies.
During deliberations over the $700 billion federal bailout of banks and financial institutions, several members of Congress were threatened with the prospect of martial law if they did not act quickly and decisively to approve the measure.
"Many of us were told in private conversations, that if we didn't pass this bill on Monday, the sky would fall, the market would drop 2 or 3 thousand points, another couple thousand the 2nd day, and a few members were even told that there would be martial law in America if we voted no."
"It is time to break the silence on derivatives. The true, hyperinflationary factor in the situation is the unregulated, insanely leveraged derivatives trade. This is what is killing us. This is the great crime of Alan Greenspan. Until you just shut down the whole derivatives trade — wipe these gambling obligations off the books of the financial system — you are just kidding yourself."
The derivatives market is far larger than the world's stock and bond markets combined, with bets in the quadrillions of dollars compared to the trillions of stocks and bonds.
This massive buildup of leverage has just begun to unwind. If this is just the beginning of the great leverage unwind, then the pain will be tremendous when it really gets going.
The average American is living paycheck to paycheck and can't maintain a lifestyle without borrowing. The unwinding of this unbelievable debt load could lead to the next Great Depression.
The phrase "financial tsunami" has been used a lot during this crisis, but I have a feeling that for most of us the wave is still towering above us. We know it's going to hit, we are frightened, but we haven't yet felt the impact.
The US government is to follow in the footsteps of the British and European governments by unveiling a $250 billion rescue plan designed to bolster the country's banking sector. At the heart of the plan, which the US Treasury is expected to announce today, will be a move to take stakes in 9 leading banks.
(And: US siezure of bank stakes)
(And: The evil of bailout)
The 936 point rise on the US stock market yesterday was the American ruling elite's initial verdict on the extraordinarily favorable terms the government is granting to financial firms in the $700 billion bailout passed by Congress on October 3.
Far from heralding improving economic conditions for working people, the Wall Street surge reflects the financial establishment's success in extorting massive sums of money from taxpayers.
The result of this bailout — a major consolidation and restructuring of the US banking industry — will be quite harmful to the interests of the population. The smaller number of surviving banks will have even more market power to set interest rates and control access to credit for working people, students and small businesses.
The stock market's rise yesterday is not the advent of a new era of prosperity for the American people. Rather, the bourgeoisie is celebrating the Great Heist of 2008.
Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Holland and Austria have joined forces to launch the greatest bank bail-out in history, offering over $2 trillion in guarantees and fresh capital in a "shock and awe" blitz to halt the credit panic.
The move – unveiled simultaneously in the 6 states to maximise the show of unity – throws the full weight of the eurozone behind global efforts to stem the crisis.
The pan-European plan completes the 3rd leg of a dramatic restructuring of finance across the Western world. Sovereign states have now absorbed the brunt of the credit risk in half the global economy.
Germany's rescue package totals €500bn, far bigger in per capita terms than America's scheme. "We have placed the first foundation stone of a new financial order," said Chancellor Merkel, underlining that nothing would ever be the same again in banking.
She also warned that the US government's "massive support" for the Detroit car industry would create a major headache for Germany's producers, who are already struggling.
Built into the European bailout is a subtle but unmistakable anti-American touch. For the Europeans are taking a very different tack from the US in mounting their bailout, and quite deliberately so: they think US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson badly messed up his bailout.
This plan succeed in preventing a financial market meltdown on Monday, and that's good. But that's the best thing I could say about it. But since we are already living in the long-run from the perspective of Sunday, it is worth looking at some of the plan's economic consequences.
If the goal of the rescue plan was to avert in imminent financial meltdown, it worked.
But economists warn against too much enthusiasm, as financial crisis and the economic slowdown are both going to get a lot worse. There are reports of a dramatic worsening of credit card and auto debt - as our next subprime crisis is now only months away.
It is by no means certain that these banks will have the freedom to make the independent decisions necessary to ensure that taxpayers' funds are returned as quickly as possible.
Governments have literally handed over the keys to their treasuries to the banks. The massive redistribution of wealth from working layers of the population to the rich elite during the last 3 decades is to be continued and accelerated in the course of the current financial crisis.
By pledging to guarantee that no important bank will be allowed to collapse, governments have publicly turned themselves into the hostages of the most powerful financial interests. Bankers and government officials have cooperated closely in all of the committees formed to prepare and implement the rescue packages.
Gordon Brown threw his weight behind calls for "a new Bretton Woods" agreement to set the rules and direction for global trade and finance in the 21st century.
Fresh from pumping £37bn into emergency bank nationalisations, the Prime Minister told a City audience that he would be pushing his fellow European leaders this week on the need to rewrite the rules of the international financial system.
(Op-ed: Has capitalism failed?)
Spiegel spoke with German President Köhler about the causes of the international banking crisis, the need to reform the financial sector and efforts to introduce effective rules of conduct for the global economy.
Globalization may be its own worst enemy, driving a new trend of regionalization. There are several very strong trends that are now in the process of reshaping the terrain of the global economy in a very unglobal way.
Billionaire investor George Soros predicted on Sunday that the financial crisis would mean the end of a US-led market system that has dominated the global economy with debt and deregulation since the 1980s.
"Globalization, America as the center of the globalized financial markets, was sucking up the savings of the world. This is now over. The game is out. It does mean a very serious adjustment for America."
The US is to lose its power to appoint the president of the World Bank after the UK's development secretary brokered a deal to throw open the post to candidates from any country.
Washington has had the right to hand-pick the president since the institution was founded after WW2, with Europe choosing the managing director of the International Monetary Fund.
Is Hong Kong really a financial rival to New York? Wall Street's Asian rivals have been gaining ground for some time now. As the current credit crisis brings America's and Britain's most storied financial institutions to their knees, some analysts see Asia poised to grab the influence that Wall Street is losing.
Morgan Stanley got a much-needed cash infusion Monday, raising $9 billion by selling preferred shares to the Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc.
Paul Krugman, an American professor, has been awarded the Nobel prize for economics - hours after writing that Gordon Brown might have saved the world financial system.
(Op-ed: Gordon does good)
(But: Krugman and the Nobel fraud)
Despite the dramatic fall in gold prices from Friday's high of around $930 an ounce to today's current low of $830, sales of actual physical gold continues to trade for anything up to $300 over spot price, proving again that official COMEX gold future numbers are completely divorced from reality and banker manipulation is rife.
Panic buying of physical gold has gripped Europe as consumers fear their savings accounts are no longer safe in light of numerous bank failures, prompting dealers to run dry on gold bullion which in turn is driving up premiums.
Iraq has moved to put itself at the centre of the global oil industry as it launches its first sale of production rights to Western companies at a summit in London.
With almost a billion people worldwide going hungry, the German aid organization Welthungerhilfe has warned that the financial crisis should not push their suffering in the background.
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[Latest edition of The Religion WAR]
A private citizen doesn't have the right to tell his neighbor what to do with his money but the public does have the right to tell corporations what to do with their money.
Why? Because corporations couldn't exist without government and, in the case of democracies at least, the authority of our government comes from the people, the majority.
The people own the franchise of government! Corporations are special legal entities that have rights, privileges, and protections given by government that ordinary and individual business owners do not have.
Therefore, the public has a right to demand something from corporations in exchange for giving corporations the right to exist.
The full Hunter's Moon turns precisely full at 20:02 Universal Time or 3:02 p.m. Central Daylight Time today.
As the moon rises above our (North American) horizon around sunset tonight, it'll be a touch past full moon. But the moon will look plenty full as it lights the sky from dusk till dawn for the next few nights.
The full Hunter's Moon is the full moon that immediately follows the full Harvest Moon. Both of these full moons are known for ushering several nights of dusk-till-dawn moonlight. In olden times, farmers and hunters took advantage of this seasonal boon of moonlight to compensate for the diminishing autumn daylight.
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