Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
[WAR: Sorry for the length of today's WAR, but it's 3 days worth of news. The fall appointed times are now over (the "turn of the year"), and now we head into the winter pagan festivals. So now is the time to look into the issue of the calendar -- in order to prepare to observe the appointed times next spring at their correct time...]
Pope Benedict ended a synod of Roman Catholic bishops today announcing his first trip to Africa as pontiff. He told the closing Mass of the 3-week gathering he would travel in March to Cameroon to deliver the working document of next year's Vatican synod on Africa and to Angola to celebrate 500 years of evangelisation there.
Vatican officials are furious over Minister Isaac Herzog's statement that the planned beatification of Pope Pius XII is "unacceptable."
"Israel's interference in the matter of Pius XII must stop. We've had it with this interference. Outside opinions are liable to disrupt [the process], and they look like an attempt to force Pope Benedict XVI to make a decision. The decision to declare someone a saint is an internal decision of the church."
The relationship between the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox is very complex, acknowledged an archbishop from Moscow. But, he said, with good will, there is no problem "among brothers" that cannot be overcome.
"It cannot be denied that the relationship between the Catholic Church and the most numerous of the Orthodox Churches today continues to be very complex. But with good will, irreparable problems between brothers do not exist."
The intervention from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople at the synod of bishops marked an ecumenical milestone, says a representative of the Orthodox Church of Greece.
Here is a summary of the concluding message of the 12th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. The theme of the assembly was "The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church."
(And: FULL TEXT OF FINAL MESSAGE)
Here is the final statement of the Christian-Muslims European Conference, which ended Thursday. The conference was organized by the Conference of European Churches and the Council of European Bishops' Conferences. The statement is titled "Being a Citizen of Europe and a Person of Faith: Christians and Muslims As Active Partners in European Societies."
Horst Seehofer, who is expected to be appointed premier of Bavaria on Monday, has promised his party, the Christian Social Union, he will exert heavy pressure on Chancellor Merkel. "We, the CSU, are a bundle of muscle. My desk is possibly going to be Munich. But my fighting skills will also extend to Berlin."
(And: 5 FACTS ABOUT SEEHOFER)
Social Democrats and Greens in the state of Hesse agreed a coalition deal that will enable them to oust Chancellor Merkel's conservatives there with the backing of a far-left party.
In a separate deal, the Christian Social Union hammered out a coalition deal with the liberal Free Democrats in the southern state. It is the first time in almost 50 years that the CSU has been forced to share power.
The massive difficulties at Bavaria's state bank BayernLB have resulted in the spilling of political blood. Erwin Huber announced his resignation as the state's finance minister. Rightly so, say German commentators. While some have harsh words for Huber, others see him as just another player in what has turned out to be a very dirty game.
German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck warned in an interview that it would be wrong to give the all clear on the global financial crisis and misleading to claim everything was under control.
"The danger of a collapse (on financial markets) is far from over. Any all clear would be wrong. We are still in a dangerous situation. I am not going to mislead anyone and say we have got everything under control."
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is to fly to Pakistan on Monday at the start of a 4-day diplomatic tour also taking in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
A North African terrorist ring with deep connections to al Qaeda could pose a threat to Western Europe, the head of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND) said.
Uh-oh...
The widow of Joerg Haider believes the far-right Austrian politician's death in a car crash may not have been an accident and has saved his body from cremation for a second post mortem.
Theories that the charismatic politician was assassinated have simmered in Austria since the crash. Party sources pointed to the fact that there were no tyre skid marks as evidence Haider was unconscious when he crashed.
Last week, a Volkswagen spokesman said the speed at which Haider was driving (88mph) although nearly double the speed limit, should ''not have been a problem for the car's physics'' on the curved road.
Jörg Haider's last hours - involving an argument with his boyfriend and a search for solace in a gay bar - has surprised those who thought the late far-right demagogue and father of 2 was a pillar of respectability.
His party, the Alliance for the Future of Austria, will not be honouring his wish that his boyfriend, Stefan Petzner, should take the helm. Now deputy leader, Petzner has nonetheless revived an old tradition of the nationalistic Right. For his relationship with Haider had a parallel in the Nazi Brownshirt movement.
"It was quite well behaved but thoroughly gay." Indeed, many of the formative meetings of Germany's right-wing extremists took place in gay pick-up joints.
A huge rally has been held in Rome to protest against the government of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. Opponents accuse Mr Berlusconi of taking Italy too far to the right.
Estimates of the exact numbers taking part vary from hundreds of thousands to more than 2 million. Its leader, Walter Veltroni, told the crowd that Italy was becoming more fascist under Berlusconi
Nicolas Sarkozy has been accused of making a power grab to install himself as president of the European Union, a post that no longer exists after the Irish rejected the Lisbon Treaty in June.
One Brussels diplomat said: "Sarkozy is trying to become, by the back door, President of the EU. It also seems he wants to be President of France at the same time."
How the French president has overturned the normal rules of diplomacy.
This week will be relatively quiet in the EU, with the main event being an extraordinary meeting of the European Commission on the financial crisis. The 27 EU commissioners will meet on Wednesday to discuss the issue and the EU's responses to both the financial and the economic turmoil.
More than 340 pounds of weapons-grade uranium was transported secretly over thousands of miles by truck, rail and ship on a month-long trip from a research reactor in Budapest, Hungary, to a facility in Russia so it could be more closely protected against possible theft.
Shortly after Vladimir Putin was elected president of Russia in 2000, the murdered family of Czar Nicholas was beatified.
Until quite recently, the centers of Jewish power had hoped to preserve some idealized memories of the murderous Soviet system in the minds of the Russians, but it turned out to be a vain hope.
Because Bolshevism was formulated and executed by Jews, their power centers had retained fond hopes of being able some day to reconnect and reinstall some sort of Jewish lobby leverage in the Kremlin. These fond hopes were dashed by Vladimir Putin.
Israel appears to be heading for early elections after a key coalition partner refused to join the government of prime minister-designate, Tzipi Livni.
The religious-nationalist Shas party is testing her resolve by announcing it will not join, angered by her refusal to rule out talks with the Palestinians concerning the future of Jerusalem. "Shas cannot be bought and Shas will not sell out on Jerusalem."
If the election does happen, polls suggest that Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party would gain significantly, and could be returned to power. Israeli media suggests that a renewed alliance between Netanyahu and Shas may have played a role in the decision.
Netanyahu is considerably more hawkish than Livni. He has called for attacking Iran, claiming the nation is unique in the world in being completely immune to deterrence. He has also vowed to resume settlement building if he retakes the prime ministry, and has publicly condemned the Gaza ceasefire and peace talks with Syria.
For the SATF...
Contrary to common perception, Jewish anti-Zionism is not restricted exclusively to the well know Jewish anti-Zionist movements such as Satmar and Neturei Karta.
There are in fact many Jewish movements, groups and organizations whose ideology regarding Zionism and the so-called "State of Israel" is that of the unadulterated Torah position that any form of Zionism is heresy and that the existence of the so-called "State of Israel" is illegitimate.
Britain's Buckingham Palace is considering awarding President Shimon Peres honorary knighthood during his expected visit next month.
At the gates of the military base in Karantina, just north of Beirut, groups of soldiers drive in and out all day in new American Humvees and trucks, some of them toting gleaming new US rifles and grenade launchers.
The weapons are the leading edge of a new American commitment to resupply the military of this small but pivotal Middle Eastern country, which emerged 3 years ago from decades of Syrian domination.
The US invasion of Iraq created an opportunity for al-Qaida to expand into the Levant, leaving the regime in Damascus under considerable strain, analysts say.
The rulers of the Arab world's most conservative monarchy are taking the war to al-Qaeda — and may be succeeding.
American military chiefs are to send up to 9,000 troops to Helmand next year, potentially sidelining the UK's 5,000-strong force in the southern Afghanistan province. The first of 3 US brigade combat teams is expected to be operational by the spring.
President Bush is expected to announce a surge of US troops into southern Afghanistan after next month's White House election.
Pakistan, a nation of 150 million people, 30+ nukes and delivery systems and the holder of the main supply corridor to Afghanistan, is about to collapse both economically and politically and yet again, this is the fault of DC. As far as catastrophes go, this one is a big one.
With the government absolutely bankrupt, with no cash on hand, begging a silent world; with Islamic attacks increasing; with the political and military elites fractured and with 30 nuclear warheads up for grabs any day, this is about as bad as it gets.
How of course did the world get to a point where hard line Islamic militias may soon become nuclear powers?
A senior Iranian cleric, and former president, has urged an inquiry into a report that the US dropped a small nuclear bomb on an area near the Iraq-Iran border. "The bomb blast killed many people and spread cancer and other diseases in the area but no news items have been published about it."
Rafsanjani noted that the footage of the attack, which allegedly took place in a region between Iraq's Basra and Iran's border in 1991, was broadcast by an Italian television channel earlier this month.
A string of cancelled appearances has led to speculation about the health of President Ahmadinejad.
The Bush administration is imposing new sanctions on Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, accusing the elite military unit of illegal trade in missile technology and weapons of mass destruction.
Two former Senators -- conservative Democrat Chuck Robb and conservative Republican Dan Coats -- have a jointly authored Op-Ed in The Washington Post decreeing what the US must do towards Iran.
The essence: Iran must be prevented, using any means necessary, from not only obtaining nuclear weapons, but also denied even "the ability to quickly assemble a nuclear weapon," which means "the complete cessation of enrichment activities inside Iran," even for civilian purposes.
They conclude with this grave warning: "Time may be shorter than many imagine, and failure could carry a catastrophic cost to the national interest."
Iran will target Israel if there is a US attack on the Islamic state's nuclear facilities, a senior Iranian official said.
The US Air Force plans to establish a new Global Strike Command responsible for nuclear bomber and intercontinental ballistic missile forces, senior air force officials announced Friday.
Under the changes, the air force plans to establish the new Global Strike Command by September 2009 under the leadership of a 3-star general.
All nuclear-capable B-52 and B-2 bombers will be shifted to the new command from the Virginia-based Air Combat Command. The air force's intercontinental ballistic missile force, which is currently under the air force space command in the western state of Colorado, also would be placed under the new command.
The location of the new command's headquarters has yet to be determined.
The prospect of an electoral rout has unleashed a bitter bout of recriminations both within the McCain campaign and the wider conservative movement, over who is to blame and what should be done to salvage the party's future.
(And: WHAT NEXT FOR CONSERVATIVES?)
John McCain has read the riot act to members of his own campaign staff for their defeatist attitude, making clear that they must join him in fighting all out to win the presidential election.
(And: PALIN'S "GOING "ROGUE")
Lua's account of that day – along with Vietnamese accounts of the 5 1/2 years that John McCain spent as a prisoner of war – differ significantly from the presidential candidate's own record.
Tran Trong Duyet, the former prison director, first met McCain a year after he had been shot down. He recalls a defiant rule-breaker, the patriotic son of an admiral and a fervent believer in the war. What he does not recall, however, is a victim of torture or violence.
"I never tortured or mistreated the PoWs and nor did my staff. ... It's up to the Americans to decide whether or not he counts as a hero. He was very brave, very manly, he dared to argue with me and he was very intelligent. But all the talk of being tortured is for the sake of votes."
Nguyen Tien Tran, another of the directors at the prison, confirms his colleague's story: "We had a clear code of taking care of the injured. We did our best to patch McCain up and he was treated by a good doctor. Why would he say that he was tortured?"
John McCain has dramatically shortened the his deficit with Barack Obama, taking a significant lead among Catholics.
The heated debate around abortion and the stepping up of bishops' statements on the incompatibility of pro-choice positions with Catholic doctrine is believed to be one of the possible reasons for the Republican candidate's surge among Catholics.
Shut-up and sit down!...
Many pulpits in America are thundering the real truth – as Catholics we must stand for life when we vote.
Right now, nothing separates our 2 presidential candidates more than the issue of life. While there are many other important differences between them, when we view each through the lens of our Churches teachings, this position stands out significantly.
As momentum continues to gather toward Election Day in November, Catholic voices are thundering even more loudly. The voices are coming from across the entire tapestry of the Church.
Here is an excerpt of the homily given Sunday by Bishop Samuel Aquila of Fargo.
[WAR: Yes, America has lost its way. But the answer is NOT to turn to Xianity (especially Catholicism!), but to return to the faith of our ancient forefathers and the truth contained in the Scriptures.]
Terrorist strikes on four American cities. Russia rolling into Eastern Europe. Israel hit by a nuclear bomb. Gay marriage in every state. The end of the Boy Scouts.
All are plausible scenarios if Obama is elected president, according to a new addition to the campaign conversation called "Letter from 2012 in Obama's America," produced by the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family Action.
The imagined look into the future is part of an escalation in rhetoric from Christian right activists who are trying to paint Obama in the worst possible terms.
Barack Obama took a break from the campaign trail to visit his gravely ill grandmother, fearing she may not survive until polling day. With a 14-hour flight each way, he was planning to spend just 12 hours on the ground before returning to campaigning today. It is a highly unusual move just 11 days before an election.
Or is it really because of...
The Pennsylvania Democrat who has sued Barack Obama demanding he prove his American citizenship – and therefore qualification to run for president – has confirmed he has a recording of a telephone call from the senator's paternal grandmother confirming his birth in Kenya.
He said the telephone call was from Obama's paternal grandmother affirming she "was in the delivery room in Kenya when he was born Aug. 4, 1961."
Or could it even be that...
Russian Military Analysts are reporting that America's Top Generals are continuing their race to avert right-wing fascist forces within the United States from destroying their country. Towards that end, these reports continue, these Top US Generals have 'summoned' the presumed future American President Barack Obama to an 'urgent' meeting.
And with Ahmadinejad?...
Russian Military Intelligence reports to Prime Minister Putin are stating that President Ahmadinejad has joined Barack Obama in Hawaii at an emergency conference ordered by America 's Top Generals in their effort to avert WW3 and the collapse of the US
As we had reported earlier, Obama is currently incommunicado in Hawaii
[WAR: Oh, the disinformation!! Who's lying, and who isn't?!]
Law enforcement officials say the intense public interest and historic nature of the vote could lead to violent outbreaks if people are unhappy with the results, encounter problems casting their ballots or suspect voting irregularities.
Police departments say they cannot rule out disorder and are mobilising extra forces and putting SWAT teams on standby
"Theres going to be a crisis which will come along on the 21st, 22nd of January which we don't even know about right now!"
For the past 8 years, Republicans have diligently cultivated the doctrine of Fuhrerprinzip and nurtured the Cult of the Imperial Presidency.
Between the passage of the post-9/11 Authorization for Use of Military Force (aka the Enabling Act) in 2001, and enactment of the Military Commissions Act just before the 2006 mid-term elections, the Republican Party demolished every remaining restraint on executive power.
Among my fondest hopes is that eventually this political conflict becomes an irreconcilable split between the "Red" and "Blue" Americas, and that this rupture would provide opportunities for regional secession by those of us who want nothing more to do with the Empire, its wars, its corruption, and its collapsing economy.
Painful as it would be for the USA to disintegrate, this may well be the only way that we can avoid descending irretrievably into undisguised tyranny – and Obama might just be the figure to precipitate such a breakup.
The ongoing economic meltdown has left little space for serious consideration of issues of American global power and influence. America's global stance will soon be history. Not only is the nation's financial framework unsustainable, its political architecture seems seriously flawed.
The US today stands in a position somewhat reminiscent of imperial Great Britain after WW2: its currency is no longer the pillar of global financial stability, its armies and navies are no longer capable of enforcing its policy desires, and its reputation has been battered by formally successful but functionally catastrophic military conflicts.
The most obvious temptation remains an attack on Iran, which would almost certainly fail. It would just mark the end of American global imperial pretensions.
A cut in oil output by the OPEC producers' group failed to halt the slide in the price of crude, which fell sharply on fears that the global economic crisis will reduce demand.
The oil price fell a hefty $5 a barrel at one stage yesterday despite OPEC agreeing to take 1.5m barrels a day of crude - about 4% of its supply - off the world market.
Hard line members of the organisation, such as Iran and Venezuela, wanted a cut of up to 3m barrels in a bid to stop the continuing fall in oil prices - which reduces the revenues countries earn.
But other OPEC states, including Saudi Arabia, feared that higher prices will be self-defeating and only reduce demand from the major consuming nations in Europe and America.
Wall Street clawed back heavy early losses to close down 312.3 points on the 79th anniversary of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 as investors reacted to a global stock market rout driven by rising fears of a worldwide recession.
Before the market even opened, futures trading in all 3 indices was suspended after each market fell by its maximum daily limit.
Volatility ruled the day as short-term traders and long-term investors fled major markets on fears over the health of the US economy amid rising job losses, a fall in house prices and worries that gross domestic product data out next Friday might confirm that America is also in the grips of a recession.
The day started off with a massive drop in stock futures after a sell-off overseas. The drop was large enough to trigger a trading halt but that halt appears to have helped Wall Street to avoid a market meltdown.
High borrowing and the credit crisis are bad enough for hedge funds. Panicky clients are worse.
Investors around the world fled stocks and rushed to the relative safety of the U.S. dollar by pouring money into 30-year Treasury bonds, a refuge in times of uncertainty. That drove down the value of foreign currencies, from the ruble to the rupee and the zloty to the peso, forcing central banks to spend billions of dollars to prevent even further deterioration. The turmoil in currency markets threatened to reorder trade relations and complicate recovery efforts.
(And: WORLD'S RICHEST JEW LOST $10BN IN OCTOBER) :-)
While the economic sun was shining, most other economists scoffed at Nouriel Roubini and his predictions of imminent disaster. Dubbed Dr Doom for his gloomy views, this lugubrious disciple of the "dismal science" is now the world's most in-demand economist.
What does Roubini think is going to happen next? Rather worryingly, he predicted that hundreds of hedge funds will go bust and stock markets may soon have to shut – perhaps for as long as a week – in order to stem the panic selling now sweeping the world.
Roubini said the world economy was "at a breaking point". He believes the stock markets are now "essentially in free fall" and "we are reaching the point of sheer panic".
Note how the European nations are swapping their currencies for the dollar, and then using the dollar to support their financial system and institutions. These nations are buying dollars with their domestic currencies. Their currencies are being parked with the Fed, thus preventing their currencies from being debased at the expense of the dollar.
Also, the PPT has driven oil down, both by direct intervention in the oil markets, but also via SEC strong-arming of specs by threatening to take away their profits from shorting and by forcing them to publicly disclose their short positions.
The number of petrodollars being converted to euros, the preferred currency of OPEC nations, has been essentially cut in half, taking a huge amount of pressure off the dollar. This is known as the "euro effect."
The euro was at $1.60 at one point, now it is at $1.28. This downturn in oil has lent tremendous support to the dollar, but it has devastated the Russians and the OPEC nations who also happen to be big gold buyers, which is hardly a coincidence.
Former presidential candidate Ron Paul was interviewed Friday morning by CNN anchor John Roberts on "American Morning."
The love of money...
According to internal documents released at a congressional hearing Tuesday, while rating agencies strenuously defended their independence publicly, some of their top executives acknowledged privately that they faced fundamental conflicts.
As one executive at Moody's, a major credit rating agency, put it following an internal discussion on the implosion of the subprime mortgage market, "These errors make us look either incompetent at credit analysis, or like we sold our soul to the devil for revenue."
The documents lend credibility to charges by Wall Street executives that the rating agencies deserve part of the blame for the current financial crisis.
Speakin' of blame!...
Today (June 17, 2002), President Bush announced a new goal to help increase the number of minority homeowners by at least 5.5 million before the end of the decade.
The President's aggressive housing agenda will help dismantle the barriers to homeownership by providing down payment assistance, increasing the supply of affordable homes, increasing support for self-help homeownership programs, and simplifying the home buying process & increasing education.
The President also issued "America's Homeownership Challenge" to the real estate and mortgage finance industries to join in his effort to increase the number of minority homeowners by taking concrete steps to tear down the barriers to homeownership that face minority families.
[WAR: I've heard about "the lazy/stupid minorities who bought homes they couldn't afford" and "the Democrats and their socialist programs." But who is really to blame? Who started this ball rolling? This press release is the smokin' gun!
Thanks goes to "Pops" of the SATF for the heads-up on this press release.]
The Housing Bubble & Its Crash were Engineered by the US Government, the Fed & Wall Street.
Jeffrey Saut of Sentinel Asset Management says "Illuminati" behind stock market crash and economic pain.
The co-CEO of Europe's biggest hedge fund has warned that thousands of hedge funds are on the brink of failure as the global economy contracts with unexpected severity.
His views were echoed by Professor Nouriel Roubini, a former US Treasury and presidential adviser known for his accurate prediction of financial crises, who estimated that up to 500 hedge funds would fail within months.
Both men were speaking at the same hedge fund conference in London, and Prof Roubini said he would not be surprised if the US and other countries soon had to close their stock markets for more than a week to halt descent into "sheer panic."
Foreign-denominated debt is squeezing countries from Romania to South Korea as their local currencies falter.
(And: SOME CURRENCIES PLUNGE)
Losing ground to the dollar and extending a 7-day long slide, the euro has become the latest victim of the financial chill. Angst about recession and future rate cuts have hit hard, but some see a feint silver lining for export-focused Germany.
The financial crisis spreading like wildfire across the former Soviet bloc threatens to set off a second and more dangerous banking crisis in Western Europe, tipping the whole Continent into a fully-fledged economic slump.
Currency pegs are being tested to destruction on the fringes of Europe's monetary union in a traumatic upheaval that recalls the collapse of the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992.
"This is the biggest currency crisis the world has ever seen," said a strategist at Bank of New York Mellon. Experts fear the mayhem may soon trigger a chain reaction within the eurozone itself.
It is just blood in the water for hedge funds sharks, eyeing a long line of currency kills. Traders are paying close attention as contagion moves from the periphery of the eurozone into the core.
They are tracking the yield spreads between Italian and German 10-year bonds, the stress barometer of monetary union. The spreads reached a post-EMU high of 93 last week. Nobody knows where the snapping point is, but anything above 100 would be viewed as a red alarm.
The currency chief at BNP Paribas, says there is an imminent danger that East Europe's currency pegs will be smashed unless the EU authorities wake up to the full gravity of the threat, and that in turn will trigger a dangerous crisis for EMU itself.
"The system is paralysed, and it is starting to look like Black Wednesday in 1992. I'm afraid this is going to have a very deflationary effect on the economy of Western Europe. It is almost guaranteed that euroland money supply is about to implode."
In a fresh surge of economic patriotism, French president Nicolas Sarkozy announced plans to create a "sovereign wealth fund" to aid French businesses in the wake of the global financial crisis. It would inject money into French companies in difficulty, and in exchange, the French state would be allowed to temporarily buy stakes in the firms.
Meanwhile, another of Sarkozy's recent proposals -- to set up an "economic government" for the EU countries using the euro -- has also ruffled some feathers.
(And: SARKOZY LAUNCHES FRENCH SWF)
Almost 3 years after stepping down as chairman of the Federal Reserve, a humbled Alan Greenspan admitted that he had put too much faith in the self-correcting power of free markets and had failed to anticipate the self-destructive power of wanton mortgage lending.
"Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders' equity, myself included, are in a state of shocked disbelief. ... This modern risk-management paradigm held sway for decades. The whole intellectual edifice, however, collapsed in the summer of last year."
Dozens of world leaders are gathered in Beijing for the Asia-Europe summit this week. The question on everyone's mind is: Will China cooperate in facing down the global financial crisis?
European and Asian nations have agreed to work more closely together to deal with the global economic crisis, the British Foreign Secretary said after the first day of talks at a summit in China.
He said the meeting had highlighted the significant shift in economic power towards the east but also how interlocked everybody's interests were in tackling "deep imbalances" in the system.
"I don't think it's just the fact that we are meeting in The Great Hall of the People and we listened to the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party talking about the need to prop up global capital markets that brings home to one that there is this big shift in economic power."
The Bretton Woods framework is one of the more misunderstood developments in human history.
Bretton Woods was part of a broader American effort to extend the wartime alliance — sans the Soviets — beyond Germany's surrender. It was more than an attempt to shape the global economic system, it was an effort to grow a military alliance into a broader US-led and dominated bloc to counter the Soviets.
Fundamentally, the Europeans are not simply hoping to modernize Bretton Woods, but instead to Europeanize the American financial markets. This is ultimately not a financial question, but a political one.
The French are trying to flip Bretton Woods from a system where the US is the buttress of the international system to a situation where the US remains the buttress but is more constrained by the broader international system. The European view is that this will help everybody.
The United States has plundered global wealth by exploiting the dollar's dominance, and the world urgently needs other currencies to take its place, a leading Chinese state newspaper said on Friday.
The front-page commentary in the overseas edition of the People's Daily said that Asian and European countries should banish the dollar from their direct trade relations for a start, relying only on their own currencies.
A phase of world history may now be coming to an end.
The changes we are seeing in the global economy are not only a threat and a challenge to the unique power of the United States. They may also be a watershed for the political, cultural and economic domination that Europe and America have enjoyed for centuries.
A major new ingredient in the world economic order has been the sovereign wealth funds. Other countries, friendly or hostile to the US, now have an unprecedented ability to buy bits of America.
How the emerging world copes with the tempest will affect the world economy and politics for a long time.
With commercial bank financing tight, Europeans have been taking a closer look at Islamic banking.
Islamic banking has already been integrated into the British and German banking systems, and banking executives at the conference said efforts were under way to allow Muslims in France to bank and invest under regulations that conform to Shariah, the legal code of Islam.
Islamic banking regulations generally require investors to be "very prudent and careful with your money, and you only put your money to very good uses."
One general principle that has proved useful of late is that banks are not allowed to be heavily leveraged or to take too many risks. The lender and the borrower share the risks and the rewards of a loan - which means loans can have no interest rates attached.
[WAR: Hey, where can I open an Islamic account?!
"If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not be like a moneylender; charge him no interest." (Exo 22:25).
"Do not take interest of any kind from him, but fear your ELOHIM, so that your countryman may continue to live among you. You must not lend him money at interest or sell him food at a profit." (Lev 25:36,37)
"Do not charge your brother interest, whether on money or food or anything else that may earn interest. You may charge a foreigner interest, but not a brother Israelite..." (Deu 23:19,20)]
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[Latest edition of The Religion WAR]
Russia, Iran and Venezuela have been making common cause. A plunging oil price may stay their hand, but the West should still watch out.
As the era of US hegemony comes to an end, great power politics is making a comeback. The world will need to figure out how to deal with a new global system in which power is dispersed and variable.
The Vikings are traditionally known for leaving destruction in their wake as they travelled around Europe raping, pillaging and plundering. But Cambridge University has launched a campaign to recast them as "new men" with an interest in grooming, fashion and poetry.
Academics claim that the old stereotype is damaging, and want teenagers to be more appreciative of the Vikings' social and cultural impact on Britain. They say that the Norse explorers, far from being obsessed with fighting and drinking, were a largely-peaceful race who were even criticised for being too hygienic.
Why do we wonder where our mind goes when the body is dead? Shouldn't it be obvious that the mind is dead, too? And yet people in every culture believe in an afterlife of some kind or, at the very least, are unsure about what happens to the mind at death.
[WAR: "For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing." (Ecc 9:5)]
Quantum physics and ancient spiritual teachings agree that our experience of reality is determined by our beliefs and thought patterns. Neuro-plasticity continually reinforces the patterns of thought that we are comfortable with, causing information that runs counter to one's beliefs to be ignored, while information that supports those beliefs is embraced.
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