Friday - March 12, 2010

Those Who Ignore History …

Posted by Drew458     on 03/12/2010 at 11:13 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics • Obama, The One •  
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   Thursday - March 11, 2010

Vilmar’s version of Aesop’s Antz and Grasshoppers

I thought of Vilmar immediately upon recovering from Mountain Dew shooting from my nose:

Once upon a time, there was a happy-go-lucky grasshopper who lived only to have fun. All through the long summer days, he would sing and dance, and laugh at the industrious ants who were busily preparing for winter. But then cruel winter came, and the grasshopper was starving. In desperation, he approached the ants’ nest and begged for food. “You should have danced less and worked more,” the ants scolded him, but then, being basically kind-hearted creatures, they decided to give him a few of their hard-won crumbs.

The next summer was exactly like the one before: Once more, the ants worked without pause, while the grasshopper sang and danced. When winter came, he appealed to the ants again, only this time, he brought his 10,000 children along with him. “It’s thanks to your kindness,” he said, “that I made it through the winter, and was able to father these little ones. Surely, you won’t let us all starve to death.”

The ants convened a meeting of their Council to decide what to do. On the one hand, they felt a certain responsibility for the grasshopper and his huge brood; on the other hand, feeding 10,000 growing grasshoppers could make a serious dent in their winter provisions.

Finally, one Council member had a brilliant idea. “Let’s just take some food from the hardest-working ants. They’ve got more than enough, and won’t mind sharing their good fortune with the needy grasshoppers.”

The Council-of-Ants thought this was a splendid plan, and quickly acted on it. As a result, the grasshoppers survived the winter, the ants congratulated themselves on their compassion, and hardly anyone noticed that the hardest-working ants, whose food had been seized, left the nest in disgust.

Summer came around once again, and once again the grasshoppers danced and sang, while the ants toiled and saved. But without the hardest-working ants to do the heavy-lifting, the ants did not get very much accomplished, and barely accumulated enough food to get themselves through the winter.

And then, one cold and snowy day, the ants heard an ominous rumble approaching ever-closer. It was the sound of a million grasshoppers, all converging on their tiny ant-hill. “Since time immemorial,” Grandfather Grasshopper solemnly declared, “the ant people have shared their winter provisions with the grasshopper people. We demand that you do so now, immediately, or we’ll destroy your nest, and take by force what is rightfully ours.”

This is how the Dilemma of the Welfare State, aka the Entitlement Crisis, came into the world.

Oh, read the source here.

Posted by Christopher     on 03/11/2010 at 10:45 PM   
Filed Under: • Commies • Democrats • Economics •  
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   Sunday - February 28, 2010

SNOFU

Yep. Situation Normal, Obama F*cked UP.

If I ever needed any single proof that Professor Obama is clueless about the real world, this is the proof I would offer. He has no idea of the purpose of insurance.

Did you get it? The ‘Acme’ insurance ‘laughed’ at him for one reason. He, I assume, only bought liability insurance. Maybe they teach something different in Ivy League schools, but reputable financial advisors all say buy only the insurance you need. Beat-up clunker=liability only.

In my case, I carry more than the legal minimum insurance. Why? Despite the fact that I do drive a 15-yr-old clunker, I personally have acquired other assets over the years. I don’t want those assets targeted in case I’m at fault in an accident. Note: this is liability insurance. I don’t carry collision or other. It’s not about getting my old car fixed. That’s why the guy that rear-ends me better have insurance. It’s his liability.

Insurance is sold for one, and only one, reason. It is an attempt to indemnify yourself against catastrophic financial liability. It is NOT sold to fix your beat-up clunker, or your sick child. Insurance can’t do that. It just transfers money to the insured from others who’ve paid into the same insurance pool. It is hoped that your insurance company can recoup such payouts by getting the money back from those responsible for the loss. In the event that the company can’t recoup the losses, your premiums go up.

Most people understand this.

What really pisses me off is that The One thinks that the American people are dumb enough to believe Him.

Sadly, I’m afraid He’s right. 

Posted by Christopher     on 02/28/2010 at 10:39 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats • Economics • Obama, The One •  
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   Thursday - February 25, 2010

Greek deputy PM’s extraordinary attack on Germany over debt crisis. It’s the Nazis fault.

I guess it isn’t funny and some are saying that the euro could fall if Germany doesn’t help to prop up the Greeks and see em through this disaster.

I haven’t done a lot of reading on this and don’t know what all the ramifications would be.  It’s surely nothing to bother the US, or might it?

Anyone with knowledge on this topic, welcome please.  I’d really like to understand it better. I find things like this quite interesting, especially living so close to things. 

You might want to see the comments at the end of the article at the MAIL.  Very interesting.  Also, I happen to think while reading this earlier today, isn’t it nice for a change, going from it’s Bush fault to , It’s the Nazis fault.

‘The Nazis took our gold, they should at least thank us’: Greek deputy PM’s extraordinary attack on Germany over debt crisis
By MAIL FOREIGN SERVICE

Nazi theft of Greek gold during the Second World War is to blame for the country’s faltering finances, Athens claimed yesterday.

It came as new protests about the economy turned violent.

Greece said the real culprit for its problems were the Nazis, whose occupation lasted from 1941 to 1945.

‘They took away the Greek gold that was at the Bank of Greece, they took away the Greek money and they never gave it back,’ said Deputy prime minister Theodoros Pangalos.

‘I don’t say they have to give back the money necessarily but they have at least to say “thanks”.’

Germany had failed to offer enough compensation for the economic impact of the Nazi occupation, he added.

Germany swiftly rejected the accusation, saying it paid £50million in compensation by 1960 and more to forced labourers of the Nazi regime.

The economy was crippled, as foreign trade was suspended, agricultural output ground to a halt, and the treasury had to loan Germany money.

The EU has asked Greece to explain reports that it engaged in derivatives trades with U.S. investment banks that may have allowed it to mask the size of its debt and deficit from authorities ahead of its entry into the euro zone.

But Mr Pangalos said Italy did more than Greece to mask the state of its finances to secure euro zone entry.

ARTICLE AND PHOTOS HERE

Posted by peiper     on 02/25/2010 at 01:27 PM   
Filed Under: • Economics • Finance and Investing • International •  
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   Monday - February 15, 2010

Hayek Verses Keynes Rap Anthem

Just for the record, I’m with Hayek.

H/T Sean Hackbarth

People are beginning to realize that the apparatus of government is costly. But what they do not know is that the burden falls inevitably on them.
– Frederic Bastiat

Posted by Christopher     on 02/15/2010 at 06:31 AM   
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   Friday - February 12, 2010

Germany gets to call the shots in Greece ….. which is what LyndonB said days ago …

I’m not sure about German and the word ‘shots’ in the same line tho.

This was the official Telegraph line this morning on their editorial page.
Interesting stuff.

it has never been more comforting to be outside this particular club.

Germany gets to call the shots in Greece
It has never been more comforting to be outside the euro.

By Telegraph View

Those who imagined that Greece would be allowed to go to the wall, or that the Washington-based International Monetary Fund would be called in to finance its rescue, ignored the self-regard of the European elites, and their global ambitions for their currency. Although the details of the rescue plan agreed yesterday are still nebulous, what is clear is that Greece will be supported by its partners in the eurozone - but only in return for the imposition of a real austerity package, rather than the milk-and-water measures proposed by the Papandreou government.

This act of economic imperialism - how else to describe the supervision of a country’s economy by an outside authority? - will have sweeping ramifications. It is, of course, in flagrant breach of the Maastricht Treaty. But ever since the single currency was created, its rules have been more honoured in the breach than the observance (especially in the fudging of the entrance criteria, which laid the foundations for this crisis). Yet far from weakening the eurozone, these events will give added momentum to the federalist cause. The very act of coming together to save one of the weaker brethren transforms the dynamics of monetary union as, to oversee the rescue, a central treasury function will have to emerge.

How will the Greeks react to an austerity package imposed from Berlin?

READ THE REST HERE

This act of economic imperialism - how else to describe the supervision of a country’s economy by an outside authority? - will have sweeping ramifications.

In fact, I believe this is exactly what happened to Germany in the 1920s. If not this then something very,very close to it.

Posted by peiper     on 02/12/2010 at 12:18 PM   
Filed Under: • Economics • News-Briefs •  
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   Friday - January 15, 2010

EU LAW CHIEF SAYS BRITS MUST PAY BENEFITS TO FAMILY AND WIVES OF TERRORISTS.

Betcha many Brits would just love to whack this bleeding heart.  Hell, I’m not a Brit and I’d like to.  I kinda doubt the Brit govt. bad though it is, will go along.  But who knows?  The govt. is one of the left and nothing they do would surprise anyone anymore.
Just another nail in coffin of the UKs sovereignty if they approve this opinion.

Yes I know I keep banging on and repeating myself on the subject but .... Keep ur eyes opened America, and clean ur ears.  There are folks at home who are very happy to give up some American sovereignty in exchange for what they think is world harmony and peace etc.  You won’t find em on the right so that should narrow the field a bit.

Meanwhile txpayers, chew on this excerpt from my embassy newsletter. 

New USAID Chief Dr. Rajiv Shah, Sees U.S. Forging Deeper Partnerships Overseas

Shah says the U.S. government now wants to give foreign countries more control over how American aid is spent. But, he also says measures will be in place to make sure that money is used wisely. “As we, and if we, give up control to some extent in order to support country leadership, we should have high standards and we should have strong ability to track outcomes to monitor resources and how they flow and to ensure that we’re generating real results in a sustainable way for American taxpayers,” he said.

USAID currently provides $20 billion in annual aid to development projects around the world. The Obama administration plans to expand that to $50 billion a year by 2012 for healthcare, education and agriculture.

By William Ide
VOA News

The U.S. Agency for International Development has sworn in a new administrator, Dr. Rajiv Shah, at a ceremony January 7 in Washington. In an exclusive interview with Voice of America, Shah talked about the Obama administration’s plans to deepen its partnerships overseas and listen more to the countries the agency serves.

A 36-year-old medical doctor by training, Shah comes to USAID with expertise in agriculture. He previously served as the director of agricultural development with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and later in a top post at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

But, he says, the mission of USAID is his passion.

As a son of Indian immigrants, Shah says that he started visiting India and other parts of the world at a young age and saw firsthand the kind of extreme conditions of poverty and human suffering that exist across the globe. “The opportunity to join an agency that has as its core mission working on that problem, working in a way that it’s respectful of the people who live in those environments and learns from them, is a great, great honor,” he said.

As head of USAID, Shah says he plans to hire several hundred new development experts and individuals with technical expertise to expand the agency’s work capacity.

Very busy next several hours so I’ll leave you with this article I just found in our paper.  Madness! Lunacy! MOONBATS everywhere.

WIVES OF TERRORISTS MUST GET THEIR BENEFITS BACK:  IT’S A HUMAN RIGHT, SAYS EURO LAW CHIEF.

By James Slack
Last updated at 7:02 AM on 15th January 2010

Wives of suspects who Britain says have links to Osama bin Laden have appealed against Treasury restrictions

Europe’s law chief wants Britain to reinstate the payment of tens of thousands of pounds in State handouts to the wives of suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban fanatics.

Ministers have halted benefit payouts made to the families of suspected terrorists to prevent the money falling into the hands of banned groups.

The Treasury says the power is a vital weapon in the war against terrorism. It stems from a crackdown on terrorist financing launched in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

However, the senior advocate of the European Court of Justice, Paolo Mengozzi, yesterday declared the decision to stop the payments was unfair on the grounds of human rights.

His opinion is likely to prove crucial when Europe’s highest court considers three test cases brought by the wives of British-based terror suspects later this year.

In eight out of every ten cases, the court has agreed with the Advocate General - making it highly likely the UK taxpayer will soon begin forking out hundreds of pounds a week to the families.

Whitehall officials have refused to name the families involved in the test cases - but all three of the husbands are foreign nationals on the United Nations list of international terror suspects.

They have been linked by security officials to Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden and the Taliban

The payouts to their wives include income support, child benefit and housing assistance worth ‘several hundred’ pounds a week.

Last night, campaign groups said it would be outrageous for the European courts to once again water down Britain’s anti-terror laws.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘It is absurd that this unaccountable European court is trying to dictate to the British Government how we spend our own money. British taxpayers are already sick of bankrolling the lifestyles of people who preach hate against our country, and there is no way that they should be able to fund their activities or their families through milking the welfare system.

‘Whether you agree with the judgment or not, it is a choice that should be made by our country, not these lawyers who are answerable to nobody.’

Under the Treasury’s rules, social security payments cannot be made available ‘directly or indirectly, to, or for the benefit of’ anyone who is on the UN terrorism sanctions list.

This has been applied to the wives of as many as ten terror suspects, who have been hit with licences restricting their access to state funds.

In the case due before the EU court, the three women claim this amounts to a violation of their human right to a family life.

Their first appeal was rejected. But in a second appeal to the House of Lords, Britain’s highest court, judges had concerns about how the law was being applied.

In April 2008, they asked the European Court of Justice to provide a ruling.

Any decision by the European court, which is expected to issue a final judgment in three to six months, will be binding on the House of Lords and on courts throughout the EU.

In advance of this decision, Mr Mengozzi issued a 26-page written opinion in which he argued the phrase ‘directly or indirectly, to, or for the benefit of’ suspected terrorists was very widely drawn.

He acknowledged that the payments made to the wives could benefit their husbands, but disputed whether those benefits could easily be converted into funds to finance terrorism.

Mr Mengozzi advised the European Court of Justice to rule that the extra restrictions were unjustified and violated the right to respect for family life.

Earlier this week, the European Court of Human Rights dealt a separate blow to UK anti-terror policy when it ruled the stopping and searching of suspects without grounds for suspicion was unlawful.

The searches had been a key plank of policing for over a decade.

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 01/15/2010 at 06:48 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics • EU SUPER STATE • Insanity • International • Obama, The One • UK • USA •  
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   Tuesday - January 12, 2010

A MOST EXPENSIVE PARTY LAUNCH. BUT THE PARTY’S OVER.

I don’t suppose many of you have followed this story much if at all.  Being somewhat closer to this, Dubai has figured in the news here quite often since this SPECTACULAR opening of the resort for billionaires.  We’ve been buried in beautiful photos of the place and at the beginning there were all these very positive comments and promises for the bright future ahead.
Well, Aladdin’s lamp has gone darkish as the place has all but gone bust.  Empty and decaying (already) apt. complexes, restaurants that either never opened as scheduled or if they did have now closed.  Nowadays the photos we see of this grandiose dream are sadly not so forward looking and the future does indeed look grim.  The developers had hoped that one of the rich Arab countries might shovel in some needed cash, and they did indeed get some from one of the Arab states.  I forgot which one.

Dubai is a place where a person goes to jail for an offense like a bounced check. They are very serious about that.
Photos we see now show expensive cars simply left in the street to collect dust as the owners have walked away, broke. They have left homes and apts the same way.  Simply abandoned and very many have had to sneak out of the country. Not that they were involved in any criminal activity mind you.  But they found the bubble had burst and their funds were either non existent or near to being so.  They could no longer pay the staggering bills and faced jail, and so left.  Many others have stayed trying as best they can to salvage something.  The people one really has to feel sorry for, are the many who were recruited to work there as waiters and maids and low level jobs, who came from foreign countries and are now at the mercy of ppl who don’t have a large supply of that.  While the money wasn’t huge by our standards, it was by the standards of the countries they were recruited from. 

Until today, I hadn’t seen this 2008 video.  In ‘08 I was busy 27/7 helping the wife with a bed ridden elderly mother and I guess I missed a lot.
Better late then never though because this really is a sight to see.  Notice the cost of the party.  They didn’t.

Dubai resort The Atlantis stages most expensive launch party ever
The global recession may be biting, but try telling that to the Hollywood celebrities and billionaire business moguls who attended the opening of Dubai’s latest luxury resort, The Atlantis.

By Anita Singh, Showbusiness Editor
Published: 4:07PM GMT 20 Nov 2008

More than 2,000 guests attended the event on the man-made Palm Jumeirah island in the Persian Gulf. Robert De Niro, Janet Jackson, Denzel Washington and Lindsay Lohan were among them, while the British contingent included the Duchess of York, Sir Richard Branson, Dame Shirley Bassey, retail boss Sir Philip Green, television presenter Trinny Woodall and the singer Lily Allen.

They feasted on lobster and Middle Eastern mezze and the Veuve Clicquot champagne flowed freely, although the presence of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, and a sizeable number of other Muslim guests ensured that the drinks bill was relatively modest.

Security at the party was so tight that a two-mile exclusion zone was thrown around the island.

Kylie Minogue performed on stage for a reported £1.5 million fee but the real entertainment of the night was provided by the pyrotechnics. One million fireworks – almost 10 times the scale of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony – lit up the Palm, with the organisers claiming the display was visible from space.

Even in Dubai, a part of the world renowned for excess, there had never been a party like it.

“We built something that’s quite extraordinary. We’ve got to tell the world about it,” said Sol Kerzner, the South African billionaire hotelier and casino tycoon.

The 1,539-room Atlantis took two years to build and cost £1 billion. Mr Kerzner admitted that the global economic downturn would have an effect on business.

“We are in a challenging time. The economy is basically in a recession and we have to adjust to the changing circumstances. We have to be careful with our cost levels” he said, although he did not believe he had splashed out too much on his guests: “I didn’t lay on private jets. They either came in their own private jets or by regular airline.”

Colin Cowie, the party planner, likened the logistics of organising the beachside party to the Normandy landings. He added: “People say, ‘How do you have a party like this in these economic times?’ But the funds were allocated a year ago, and you have to dream big to get a big result.”

THE PARTY’S OVER

From The Times
November 28, 2009

The spectre of “Financial Crisis 2” continued to loom over global markets yesterday after Dubai’s revelation that it may not be able to meet its debt obligations.

Stock markets in Asia and the United States fell sharply while the dollar and Japanese yen rose as investors shifted their money to their perceived safety.

UK banks were also revealed to be the biggest lenders to the United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai, with more than $50 billion owed by the Gulf state’s residents.

In another blow to the beleaguered UK banking sector, the Royal Bank of Scotland emerged as the largest single loan-arranger to Dubai World, the state-owned conglomerate that sparked this latest financial crisis when it sought a standstill on its debt repayments on Wednesday.
Related Links

RBS, which is owned by British taxpayers, has arranged loans worth up to $2.3 billion to Dubai World.

The Financial Services Authority, the regulator, is understood to have sought assurances from banks that their exposure to Dubai will not threaten their financial strength. The FSA said it would continue to keep a close eye on the situation.

Dubai World, which owns a range of assets including the Turnberry golf club in southwest Scotland, sparked panic when it asked for the debt standstill. The company has liabilities of $60 billion and its Nakheel property division, which built the Palm Jumeirah development where the footballers David Beckham and Michael Owen own houses, was due to repay a $3.5 billion bond next month.

The standstill has raised the prospect that Dubai World and, by extension, the government of Dubai might default on their debt.

TIMES

Here’s a link for a lot of other links on the subject.  Makes for some fascinating reading.

BYE-BYE-DUBAI

notice the dates on these two stories. didn’t take long.

Posted by peiper     on 01/12/2010 at 11:03 AM   
Filed Under: • Big Business • Economics • Finance and Investing • International • Middle-East •  
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   Saturday - December 05, 2009

The French, in the person of Mr. Sarkozy, have managed to anger the Brits this past week.

Just so you know, Sarko is referring to London when he says “city.”
Woo-Hoo and another Hoo.  That caused a bit of a flap this week I must say.  Whatcha gonna do? Brits and French have this love/hate thing. But really, Brits do not I don’t think, actually dislike the French. I may be wrong on that score.  I think they laugh at em a lot though and the French know it.

War has not been declared.

We are in charge now, Sarkozy tells the City

Francis Elliott, Suzy Jagger, Martin Waller and David Charter
The Times

Alistair Darling has delivered a blunt warning to the EU’s new French finance chief against meddling with the City of London.

As Nicolas Sarkozy gloated over impending curbs on the City, the Chancellor said that such moves would drive financial services out of Europe.

The French President’s glee at the appointment of Michel Barnier as Commissioner for the Single Market took on an edge of menace when he said that unfettered City practices must end.

“Do you know what it means for me to see for the first time in 50 years a French European commissioner in charge of the internal market, including financial services, including the City [of London]?” he said yesterday.

One of the very bothersome things about the new French EU finance chief is .... he is very left wing and much given to govt. control.
He hasn’t been very big on capitalism either, and has made no bones about that in the past.
The Brits I think were hoping to get that post btw.  At some point in time, either the EU will solidify and RULE supreme, or else collapse in upon itself. 

“I want the world to see the victory of the European model, which has nothing to do with the excesses of financial capitalism,” he said.

His implicit threat was just what Downing Street had feared when Mr Barnier, formerly an agriculture minister, was given the portfolio last week.

Mr Darling, writing in The Times , said that it would be a “recipe for confusion” if firms were supervised by the EU as well as national watchdogs and that Britain would not accept new laws that could lead to taxpayers picking up the bill for bailouts ordered by Brussels.

He rejects claims that the economic crisis was the fault of the “Anglo-Saxon” model, pointing out that French and German banks were among the biggest creditors of the failed US insurance giant AIG.

Terry Smith, a prominent banker, said that the threat of increased regulation was already threatening the City’s future.

“I’ve never seen so much work going on by companies, individuals and teams of people to evaluate relocation out of the UK,” he said.

SOURCE

SOMETHIN TELLS ME THAT THIS IS THE ONLY SARKOZY THE BRITS WANT TO SEE FOR AWHILE!  LOL

Posted by peiper     on 12/05/2009 at 08:00 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics • EU SUPER STATE • Eye-Candy • Finance and Investing • FRANCE • International • UK •  
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   Tuesday - November 24, 2009

Not so sure this is a great idea.  Except for MSFT (mis-fit) if it works.

Microsoft (MSFT) kinda reminds me of the old Al Capp cartoon with General Bullmoose.
“If it’s good for General Motors, it’s good for the USA.” Bah.  Most of you too young to recall that.

Hey ... finally felt well enough to get my butt in gear and go see the doctor.  They have just moved to new and more modern offices less then a mile down the road. Or maybe almost a mile. Trouble is, there isn’t any bus from our general area that goes anywhere near there. Forget walking in this weather and anyway, all the damn coughing has played havoc with ribs and stomach. Not to mention chest. Walking is not an option as well when your feet don’t alway perform the way nature intended them to.  So, the wife had to drive me there and sorry to say, she’s now developing what I just had. And she refuses to see a doctor.  Who kind of gave me what for, for waiting so long to see him as I have this chest infection for which the over the counter stuff does nothing.  I’m being long winded again but the reason for all this is my way of leading up to what I read in the instructions that came with the 50mg Doxycycline I was given. I think it’s funny. Here’s exactly what they say.  You couldn’t make it up.

YOU SHOULD TAKE THE CAPSULES EITHER SITTING DOWN OR STANDING UP. 

So I guess I can’t take em while laying flat on my back while reading a book. Which isn’t at all how I read a book anyway.
Standing up or sitting down.  ???  What exactly have I missed?  Must be here somewhere.

OK, bad news on the leaky roof thing and btw, we have a bad “rising damp” problem too. More on those later.

Microsoft makes move on the news

23rd November 2009

Rupert Murdoch has accused search engines such as Google of ‘stealing the news’
Microsoft has held secret talks with some of the world’s biggest media groups over a plan that could see millions of news stories pulled from Google.
In its most direct attack on Google yet, the software giant is understood to have offered to pay news organisations for providing their content exclusively through Microsoft’s Bing search engine.

Microsoft has held discussions with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, which owns The Times and The Sun newspapers, along with a number of other media groups, sources said.
The move would see millions of news stories and feature articles blocked from the Google News service.
Severing his links with Google would represent a huge gamble for Murdoch, who like many other media owners is struggling to adapt to a world where consumers are used to getting news for free.

Google brings millions of visitors to News Corp sites, which in theory should boost the conglomerate’s online revenues.
But Murdoch believes that Google gets the better end of the deal, recently accusing search engines of ‘stealing our stories’.
‘It costs us a lot of money to put together good newspapers and good content,’ the media mogul said last week.

The Times will start charging visitors to its website in the spring, with other titles across the Murdoch empire expected to follow suit.
Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times already charge hefty subscription fees for access to their websites. But experts say this works only because business executives are prepared to pay for their specialised content.

The case for getting consumers to pay for general news is less clear cut.

Online advertising revenues have so far come nowhere near to off-setting the collapse in newsstand and advertising revenues.
One possible solution is a system of micro-payments, where consumers would pay a small sum for each article or story they view.
For Microsoft, the friendly approach to the media industry is a bold statement of intent.

Microsoft re-launched its search engine as Bing this year and looks to be prepared to pay out hundreds of millions to unseat market leader Google.
Microsoft and News Corp declined to comment.

SOURCE

Not too sure about Mr. Murdoch. Are you? 

Posted by peiper     on 11/24/2009 at 11:00 AM   
Filed Under: • Big Business • Economics • USA •  
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   Monday - November 02, 2009

JUST ONE OF THE BENEFITS OF BELONGING TO THE EUROPEEON UNION

Provided of course you’re willing to hand over a bit of national sovereignty.  Which you do if you happen to be England.

At first glance I thought this was going to be a boring story, but I read it and found it to be interesting after all, and frustrating as well.

Meanwhile, construction continues next door on what has to be (when done and paid for) a million pound project.  As in, £1,000,000. I think at today’s rate of exchange, in American dollars it comes to something in the way of $1,600,000. 
Our water supply sits very scarily only a few inches below the surface and at one point is above ground, and runs across the property next door. It’s how they did it when these places were built.  But something happening, or will when they fill in the driveway area in a few weeks time.  Our water pipe will be covered of course BUT .... based on what I see of the area to be covered, that water line is going to be dangerously close to the surface.
Spoke to the foreman this morning who could only shrug and say he didn’t know what was going to happen outside of simply tossing some dirt on top of the line.

So ......  We have called the Water Dept. and they are sending out an inspector on the morning of the fifth.

We’re now 7 or 8 months into probate and still no freekin end to it AND ... the postal service is calling out more strikes while (it is reported) 130 million envelopes are stacking up undelivered.  The service has hired thousands of workers to fill in for the strikers.  But we had mail delivered today.

Notice from our credit card folks we’ve been charged $15 late payment on our USA card for the last statement period.  Not surprised. It arrived at our door only four days before it was due, and the statement showed the payment was only three days late.

Taxpayers give £20m benefits to Polish children - even if they have never stepped foot in Britain

By Andy Dolan
02nd November 2009

Taxpayers are funding child benefit for more than 50,000 children of migrant workers - even though the youngsters still live in their home countries.

Treasury figures show that Poles make up the vast majority of the payments made under a loophole in EU legislation.

Benefits are paid to 37,941 children in the former Eastern Bloc country, who have one or both parents working in the UK.

The cost is estimated at more than £24million a year.

The number of Polish children being subsidised by British taxpayers has jumped by 6,542 in two years despite a slowdown in immigration because of the recession.

Under ‘social responsibility coordinating regulations’ drawn up in Brussels, EU migrant workers who pay taxes in their host country are able to claim benefits and tax credits as soon as they start work, even if they have left their families behind.

The tax credits could produce an additional £100 a week to a migrant with children.

Workers from Poland and seven other Eastern European countries who joined the EU in 2004 are entitled to out-of-work benefits only after 12 months of taxed work.

British handouts are much higher than many other countries’ payments - particularly in Eastern Europe.

In some EU countries, such as Poland and France, child benefit is means-tested.

Migrants living and working in the UK claim the benefit in their home country, but if that works out to be less than the UK allowance, the Treasury tops up the difference.

Where a family is ineligible for child benefit in their homeland - possibly because they earn too much - they can claim the full UK rate of £20 a week for the first child and £13.20 for others.

In Poland, the equivalent of child benefit amounts to between £3 and £5 a week.

The Treasury has refused to put a figure on the total cost of supporting youngsters abroad through child benefit and tax credits.

But even if most of the Polish claimants are not getting the full rate from Britain, the total cost of the payouts to Polish families alone is estimated at more than £24million a year.

The total for all 50,586 EU children would come to around £33million.

Philip Hammond, the Tory Treasury spokesman, said: ‘With Britain facing a debt crisis and the Government’s child poverty strategy in tatters, it beggars belief that Gordon Brown is continuing to send millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money to children who don’t even live in this country.

‘It’s yet more evidence that he is completely out of touch with the concerns of ordinary families struggling to make ends meet.’

Ania Heasley, who runs a website which helps Poles settle in Britain, said: ‘Originally people were surprised and said “This is great”, but now there is so much information in Poland about the benefits that they all know about it.

They are so happy about the welfare system.’

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 11/02/2009 at 10:20 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics • UK •  
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   Monday - October 26, 2009

Biofuel refineries in the US have set fresh records for grain use every month since May.

Well, yet again I have to H/T LyndonB but this time there’s more.  Got my eyes opened WIDE on a subject that frankly I had given no thought to.

I don’t recall exactly what I wrote to Lyndon but his reply was this:

The US may be down (with an ass clown at the helm) but it is not out. It is still a superpower. Not just militarily but in terms of agriculture. Years ago I worked on Mississippi river barges which came up to Iowa empty and went back down to New Orleans full of soy beans and maize. Unless you have seen this first hand the sheer scale of this industry it is hard to get across. We loaded up barges with maize. Each of them were 200’ long and we then moved them out to the line boats which took them on to the gulf fifteen at a time. I therefore found this article by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard very interesting. The arabs and Chinese think they have the US by the balls. One through oil dependancy, the other through their dollar holdings. When I worked on the river one of the owners of the company once remarked that hunger was the most important factor to consider, because at the end of the day you can’t eat gold or drink oil. Something I feel a few of these piss pots would do well to remember.

And the link he provided me was the following which I found quite surprising not just for the info. What surprised me lots was the fact that I found it so interesting.  It isn’t a subject to set the blood rushing lets face it.  Like the rolling movements of the Qs on NASDAQ. But darn if I wasn’t glued to every line.  I had no idea.

Thanks L.

Food will never be so cheap again
Biofuel refineries in the US have set fresh records for grain use every month since May. Almost a third of the US corn harvest will be diverted into ethanol for motors this year, or 12pc of the global crop.



By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

The world’s grain stocks have dropped from four to 2.6 months cover since 2000, despite two bumper harvests in North America. China’s inventories are at a 30-year low. Asian rice stocks are near danger level.
Yet farm commodities have largely missed out on Bernanke’s reflation rally in metals, oil, and everything else. Dylan Grice from Société Générale sees “bargain basement” prices.

Wheat has crashed 70pc from early 2008. Corn has halved. The “Ags” have mostly drifted sideways over the last six months. This divergence within the commodity family is untenable, given the bio-ethanol linkage to oil.
For investors wishing to rotate out of overstretched rallies – Wall Street’s Transport index and the Russell 2000 broke down last week – this is a rare chance to buy cheap into a story that will dominate the rest of our lives.

Barack Obama has not reversed the Bush policy on biofuels, despite food riots in a string of poor countries last year and calls for a moratorium. The subsidy of 45 cents per gallon remains.
The motive is strategic. America is weaning itself off imported energy at breakneck speed. It will not again be held hostage by oil demagogues, or humiliated by states that cannot feed themselves. Those Beijing students who laughed at US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner may not enjoy the last laugh. The US is the agricultural superpower. Foes will discover why that matters.

The world population is adding “another Britain” every year. This will continue until mid-century. By then we will have an extra 2.4bn mouths to feed.
China and Southeast Asia are switching to animal-protein diets as they grow wealthy, as the Koreans did before them. It takes roughly 3-5kgs of animal feed from grains to produce 1kg of meat.

A report by Standard Chartered, The End of Cheap Food, said North Africa and the Middle East have already hit the buffers. The region imports 71pc of its rice and 58pc of its corn. It lacks water to boost output. The population is growing fast. It will have to import, and cross fingers.
The UN says global farm yields must rise 77pc, which means redoubling Norman Borlaug’s “green revolution”. It will not be easy. China’s trend growth in crops yields has slipped from 3.1pc a year in the early 1960s to 0.9pc over the last decade.

“We’ve all heard the stark anecdotes: precious topsoil weakened by over-farming, dust clouds darkening the Asian skies, parched land becoming desert and rivers running dry,” said Mr Grice.
Since 2000, China has lost nearly 1,400 square miles each year to desert. Urban sprawl is paving over fertile land in the East. Water supply from Himalayan glaciers is ebbing. The Yellow River has been reduced to “an agonising trickle”. It no longer reaches the sea for 200 days a year.

Farmers are draining the aquifers. Environmentalist Ma Jun says in China’s Water Crisis that they are drilling as deep as 1,000 metres into non-replenishable reserves. The grain region of the Hai River Basin relies on groundwater for 70pc of irrigation.

China’s water troubles are not unique. North India lives off Himalayan snows as well. Nor can we take fertiliser supply for granted any longer since “peak phosphates” threatens.

One can be Malthusian about this. Grizzled commodity guru Jim Rogers certainly is. “The world is going to have a period when we cannot get food at any price, in some parts.” He advises youth to opt for a farm degree rather than an MBA, if they want to make serious money.

Mr Grice remains an optimist, believing that human ingenuity will rescue us. You can trade the “Ag” rally by investing in exchange traded funds (ETFs), but this amounts to speculation on food. There are ancient taboos against this practice.

Or you can invest in the bio-tech, fertiliser, and land services companies that will both make money and help to solve the problem. Monsanto, Syngenta, and Potash are popular, but trade at high price to book values. Golden Agri-Resources, Yara, Agrium, and Bunge are at better multiples.

Kingsmill Bond at Moscow’s Troika Dialog suggests the Baltic company Trigon Agri as a way to play the catch-up story in the Eurasian steppe. He likes sunflower processor Kernel, grain group Razgulay, and fertiliser firm Uralkali.

Strictly speaking, the world has enough land to feed everybody. The Soviet Union farmed 240m hectares in Khrushchev’s era. The same territory now farms 207m hectares. Troika says crop yields could be doubled in Russia, and tripled in the Ukraine using modern know-how. Africa’s farms could come alive with land registers, allowing villagers to use property as collateral for credit.

None of this can be done with a flick of the fingers. What seems certain is that the terms of trade between country and city will revert to the norms of the Middle Ages. Landowners will be barons again.

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 10/26/2009 at 09:19 AM   
Filed Under: • Arabs • CHINA in the news • Economics • Editorials • Environment • International •  
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   Thursday - October 15, 2009

RATS THAT HAVEN’T LEFT THE NEST ….

And you should see yesterday’s headline.  Worse yet because the thieving so and soz have refused the PMs order to return monies.
They say no way Jose.

Just about when I thought things were more or less settled with regard to the dishonest representatives of the people themselves, the Telegraph has opened fire again with banner headlines raking over not just old coals but they have apparently discovered some new scams by MPs.

Oh yeah, and the former speaker, Michael Martin, who was forced to resign but has friends in high places, has been made a “Labour Peer.” A people’s peer the lefties like to say. What it means is that a disgraced speaker now comes back to draw a salary PLUS perks. And all he has to do is show up and sign in. There isn’t any sign out I am informed so he can do as quite a number do.  Come in for a chat with friends and leave for the day. He’ll still be paid and boy he’ll be paid well. 

None of us here at BMEWS are members of Mr. O’s fan club BUT I bet even back home neither he nor almost anyone else (ok, that old bastard Robert Byrd comes to mind) would even dream of getting away with the things the Brit MPs do.  Or am I being naive?

Meanwhile, the wife and I have just today written out another check for house deed and have been reading the lawyers instructions for our signatures
which must be sent back. We’ve been stressed all day but alls well. There’s gonna be a mail strike and we don’t trust the mail so a friend is driving me to Southampton tomorrow morning where I will hand deliver the papers. Whew. 

Don’t have a clue yet how we are gonna work out getting back home.  Sell this place first I guess. When we can and of course once out of probate.
Then what?  Maybe back to warm climes like So Calif desert which we loved but may no longer be able to afford?  And live someplace while looking for something permanent.  ???  Decisions - decisions.  But FIRST ....

Gotta see if they’ll let her back into the states.  Oh Boy!

Another thing to consider ...  LYNDON.  Will they let me back in on my visa if I have to return for legal and or banking reasons?
I paid for the darn thing but don’t know if I can come and go at leisure.  Any ideas?

So then, Today’s Morning Headline.  My scanner not really big enought. Will correct with next one I buy.
The full headline reads as follows.

MP PAYS £100,000 TO THE COMPANY HE OWNS WITH HIS GIRLFRIEND

One the things that are so damn pathetic about this continuing scandal, is that many of these shysters are already millionaires. In fact, one is a BILLIONAIRE and even he fiddled and cheated the taxpayer.

Posted by peiper     on 10/15/2009 at 09:21 AM   
Filed Under: • CULTURE IN DECLINE • Daily Life • Economics • Government • Corruption and Greed • UK •  
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   Monday - October 05, 2009

BBC wins bid to keep star salaries under wraps (and it only cost us £200,000)

The big deal about this bit of business, is that the BBC is publicly funded.  For those who don’t know, people here pay a yearly TV license and they do try and collect using whatever means necessary.  So why shouldn’t the salaries be made public?

Thankfully, just last week we gave away the perfectly good (for now) TV set as anything I want to see is not shown on television. The set belonged to the wife’s mom who didn’t even use it the final two yrs of her life.  It just stood there in her room, silent. Truth to tell, we don’t miss TV and haven’t watched but one program in five years here.  Thank heaven for You Tube.

Even if we hadn’t given the set away, I’d have fought tooth and nail and refused to pay as others have.  Use my money to help pay millions a year to ONE foul mouthed,rude and crude individual? (pictured) Not bloody likely!

The surprise is how many folks simply buckle down and give up and pay.  I guess addictions are like that and I can only assume it is an addiction as why else would so many watch what’s on offer?  No thank You.

Think of it this way.  What if you were required to pay a license (USA) for a channel hosting Howard Stern? Even if you weren’t demented enough to think he was funny or talented or whatever.  Yes, I know millions do and millions are also tasteless and possibly very sick as well. But that’s not the point.  At least in the US you aren’t forced to get a TV license to fund things you think are gross and in very poor taste. Like the fellow pictured here who thought it quite funny when he and his sidekick made public calls to a well known actor, on air, telling the old guy all about the enjoyable sex one of em had with his grand daughter.  That’s what passed for entertainment, and this guy gets paid millions a year. Well, not with any of our money.

BBC wins bid to keep star salaries and Middle East report under wraps (and it only cost us £200,000)

By Liz Thomas
Daily Mail

Big earner: Jonathan Ross earns a reported £6million a year

The BBC has won a High Court battle to keep the salaries of its stars a secret.

The corporation spent more than £200,000 ensuring those who fund the service never know how their cash is spent.

Three years of appeals and legal wrangles mean it will not now have to disclose what it pays on-screen talent, production staff or how much money shows cost.

Mr Justice Irwin concluded that the ‘BBC has no obligation to disclose information which they hold to any significant extent for the purposes of journalism, art or literature, whether or not the information is also held for other purposes’.

Although insiders insist that details of executive pay will continue to be publicly released, the BBC could still use this ruling as a further tool to ensure it does not have to disclose the salaries of top talent.

The BBC has come under fire for the eye-watering sums it pays stars such as Jonathan Ross, Graham Norton and Chris Moyles.

Ross earns a reported £6million a year and around 40 other stars are paid more than £1million annually.

Jeremy Hunt, Tory culture spokesman, said: ‘We have long called for the BBC to open their books to the National Audit Office so licence-fee payers can be sure they are getting value for money.

‘If the BBC was more transparent about its finances then court cases like these could be avoided.’

Matthew Elliott, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘The BBC’s behaviour is shocking and incredibly disappointing.

‘Firstly, the fact that the Corporation has blown a fortune on lawyers trying to obscure the truth shows they see zero need for accountability, even when it’s rightfully required of them.

‘Secondly, the BBC should be entirely open and honest about how it spends licence-fee payers’ money. If they can’t justify the amount they are spending, they shouldn’t do it in the first place.

‘This is yet another example of the BBC being out of touch with the concerns of the people it is supposed to be entertaining, and who pay its keep.’

The case went to the High Court because the BBC consistently refused to comply with freedom of information requests from newspapers and members of the public.

The broadcaster was taken to the Information Commissioner, and the Information Tribunal, who both ruled that it should release the information.
Ruling: The BBC will not be forced to disclose an internal report on its Middle East coverage, or details of staff salaries

Ruling: The BBC will not be forced to disclose an internal report on its Middle East coverage, or details of staff salaries

But the BBC appealed to the High Court, which found previous hearings had not properly taken into account its evidence.

It also ruled that the broadcaster was exempt from sections of the Act as a public body, and therefore did not have to give out information relating to its programming in journalism, arts or literature.

A spokesman for the BBC said: ‘The BBC was entitled to decline to disclose the information on the basis that the Freedom of Information Act did not apply to it.’

SOURCE

Macker and BMEWS… I didn’t have this when originally posted but, here’s the other sick no talent turd who once worked for the BBC and was in on the sick joke I wrote about. And this bit of filth btw is doing well I understand, in the USA. GAK!

Posted by peiper     on 10/05/2009 at 08:00 AM   
Filed Under: • Big Business • Celebrities • CULTURE IN DECLINE • Economics • Television • UK •  
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