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What China Thinks of the Shutdown | China Power | The Diplomat

October 14, 2013 3:53 pm / Leave a comment

What China Thinks of the Shutdown | China Power | The Diplomat. (FULL ARTICLE)

In the midst of a domestic crisis, it is easy to forget that the rest of the world is watching. Now that the U.S. federal government has shut down for the first time since the mid 1990s, the talk of the town is the political problems of the world’s largest economy and sole superpower. In China, most media reports about the shutdown have been merely informative, but every now and then they offer a rare insight into what the Chinese have learned about America’s shortcomings.

“As far as the Chinese populace is concerned, the government shutdown is like the Arabian Nights,” writesWang Xuejing of Hong Kong Daily News. Evidently, for the citizens of a totalitarian state, the prospect of a government shutdown seems otherworldly. The newspaper Qilu Wanbao complains, “To us, far on the other side of the ocean, the information appears contradictory. Some say Americans are furious […] Some say [everyday] life remains unchanged. Have or haven’t Americans been affected by the federal shutdown?”

The notion of a government shutdown is strange for the average Chinese person because its consequences in the People’s Republic would go far beyond closed federal agencies and parks. In mainland China, and increasingly Hong Kong, every school and every agency (national and local) answers to a party minder. Banking and internet traffic are also closely monitored by Beijing. Should the party overseers be absent one day, many organizations crucial to China’s social structure would suddenly find themselves without official guidance. The effects of such an abrupt and unfamiliar decentralization are impossible to predict….

US Army has no money to receive PLA delegation (wantchinatimes.com)
Asia Reacts With Caution, Surprise to US Government Shutdown (voanews.com)
China swaps pandas for uranium in trade deals (money.cnn.com)
Analysis: China state media blasts US shutdown (behindthewall.nbcnews.com)

Native American tribe battles corporations – Al Jazeera Blogs

October 14, 2013 8:14 am / Leave a comment

Native American tribe battles corporations – Al Jazeera Blogs. (FULL ARTICLE)

A highway twisting through the wilderness of northern Idaho lies at the heart of a battle pitting some of America’s most powerful corporations against a small tribe of native Americans and their allies. And the corporations are losing.

“We are not gonna stand by and let this happen,” declares Nez Perce tribal chairman Silas Whitman.

“We are not gonna go away. It affects our homeland, and our resources, and our way of life, our treaty culture, everything that we are about, and we are not going to see a re-visit of what happened to us in the past. No more.”

US Highway 12 runs through the Nez Perce reservation and the tribe’s historic cultural territory, along the Clearwater and Lochsa rivers. It’s also the cheapest route for the Exxon Mobil, Conoco Phillips and General Electric corporations to transport giant oil-processing equipment, from manufacturers in Asia for use in the tar sands of Alberta, in Canada. The shipments, called “mega-loads”, are too big to fit beneath overpasses on larger highways. They take up the entire width of the two lane highway.

The highway 12 corridor is protected from development under Federal law as a place of unique natural beauty and environmental value. Plans to run hundreds of mega-loads through the corridor appalled Lin Laughly and Borge Hendrickson, who’ve live nearly all their lives along the river….

Native Americans Take Lead in Tar Sands Resistance (ipsnews.net)
Judge halts tarsands megaloads through Nez Perce land! (bsnorrell.blogspot.com)
Govt. Shutdown ‘Wake-Up Call’ To Native Americans (npr.org)

The “Hard” Data Doesn’t Lie | Zero Hedge

October 11, 2013 12:01 pm / Leave a comment

The “Hard” Data Doesn’t Lie | Zero Hedge.

Over the last several months, “hard” economic data have been telling a much different story than “soft” economic data. On the one hand, soft surveys such as the ISM manufacturing index have pointed to robust economic growth. On the flip side, hard economic data have been disappointing. We previously pointed out Goldman’s view of the “soft” surveys relatively weak ability to project growth, but as BofAML warns, even before the government shutdown cut off the flow of hard economic data, they were tracking just 1.6% qoq saar for third quarter growth. Confidence is already taking a nose-dive as the shutdown continues and BofAML warns of the potential for significant and lasting shocks to growth if things do not improve quickly.

Now That There’s No Government Economic Data, Here’s A Chart You Need To Be Watching – And It’s Fallen Off A Cliff (businessinsider.com)
US government shutdown could cancel economic data releases next week (forexlive.com)
U.S. Rethinks How to Release Sensitive Economic Data (online.wsj.com)
Follow the Fed to 50% Losses Again (theburningplatform.com)
U.S. exploring ways to modify release of sensitive economic data – WSJ (scooprocket.com)

12 Very Ominous Warnings About What A U.S. Debt Default Would Mean For The Global Economy

October 7, 2013 9:34 pm / Leave a comment

12 Very Ominous Warnings About What A U.S. Debt Default Would Mean For The Global Economy.

A U.S. debt default that lasts for more than a couple of days could potentially cause a financial crash unlike anything that the world has ever seen before. If the U.S. government purposely wanted to damage the global financial system, the best way that they could do that would be to default on U.S. debt obligations. A U.S. debt default would cause stocks to crash, would cause bonds to crash, would cause interest rates to soar wildly out of control, would cause a massive credit crunch, and would cause a derivatives panic that would be absolutely unprecedented. And that would just be for starters. But don’t just take my word for it. These are the things that top financial experts all over the planet are saying will happen if there is an extended U.S. debt default.

Because they are so close together, the “government shutdown” and the “debt ceiling deadline” are being confused by many Americans.

As I wrote about the other day, the “partial government shutdown” that we are experiencing right now is pretty much a non-event. Yeah, some national parks are shut down and some federal workers will have their checks delayed, but it is not the end of the world. In fact, only about 17 percent of the federal government is actually shut down at the moment. This “shutdown” could continue for many more weeks and it would not affect the global economy too much….

Financial analyst warns U.S. debt default would trigger a Great Depression (patriotrising.com)
China Warns U.S. About Debt Crisis (aworldchaos.wordpress.com)
Government Shutdown Careens Toward Oct. 17 U.S. Debt Blowout (12160.info)
Debt ceiling: Understanding what’s at stake (cbsnews.com)

Government Lies About Spying Again and Again … Here’s What’s REALLY Going On | Washington’s Blog

October 4, 2013 2:40 pm / Leave a comment

Government Lies About Spying Again and Again … Here’s What’s REALLY Going On | Washington’s Blog. (FULL ARTICLE)

US Government Fails Honesty Standards of 12 Year Olds

Government leaders have been caught in lie after lie about spying … but keep on spouting new lies:

The heads of the intelligence services have repeatedly been caught lying about spying … again andagain and again and again. Security expert Bruce Schneier writes: “This is getting silly … Now they’re just looking shiftier and shiftier.” It has gotten so bad that a leading groups concludes: “US Government Fails Honesty Standards of 12 Year Olds“. And even liberal publications are forced to conclude that Obama is intentionally lying about spying

Obama says he’ll rein in spying … but his words and deeds indicate that he won’t. Indeed, Obamaappointed the fox to guard the chicken coop

While the Obama administration is spying on everyone in the country – it is at the same time themost secretive administration ever (background). That’s despite Obama saying he’s running the most transparent administration ever…

Government Shutdown: The Next Step In The Collapse Of The Dollar?

October 1, 2013 8:59 am / Leave a comment

Government Shutdown: The Next Step In The Collapse Of The Dollar?.

There is a considerable amount of debate in alternative economic circles as to whether a federal government shutdown would be a “good thing” or a “bad thing”. Frankly, even I am partially conflicted. I love to read mainstream news stories about how a shutdown in the capital would be “horrible” because Barack Obama might have to reduce the White House cleaning staff and wash his own laundry:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-27/obama-stripped-to-skeleton-staff-in-a-government-shutdown.html

It’s about time that sellout bastard did something to clean up his own act. I also love the idea of the federal government out of the picture and removed from the U.S. dynamic. Americans need to learn again how to live without the nanny state, even if only for a few weeks, and what better way than to go cold turkey. I can hear the tortured sobs of the socialists now, crying for their SNAP cards and low grade government healthcare. It’s like…beautiful music…

Every government shutdown ever, in one chart (washingtonpost.com)
Government shutdown? Marco Rubio gets ‘slowdown’ turbulence on flight (miamiherald.typepad.com)
Government Shutdown – What Does it Mean? (guardianlv.com)
Government Shutdown Showdown (wnyc.org)
How the Government Shutdown Will Affect You (or Not) (everyjoe.com)

US House defies Obama on funding bill – Americas – Al Jazeera English

September 29, 2013 1:37 pm / Leave a comment

US House defies Obama on funding bill – Americas – Al Jazeera English.

The US House of Representatives has brought the federal government closer to a shutdown as it voted to delay President Barack Obama’s landmark health care law for a year as part of an emergency spending bill.

There is now less than 48 hours to avert a shutdown, which will begin on Tuesday if no spending bill is passed.

The Senate is not due to meet again until Monday afternoon.

In a statement issued on Sunday, US Senate Majority leader Harry Reid said that “after weeks of futile political games from Republicans, we are still at square one”.

He added that Republican efforts to change the bill – that would delay the healthcare law for a year and repeal a tax on medical devices – were pointless.

At 11:59pm local time on Monday (03:59 GMT on Tuesday), the US government technically runs out of money to fund many of its programmes in the new fiscal year that starts on Tuesday, unless Congress can agree on a funding bill.

If Congress cannot come to a compromise by midnight on Monday, as many as 800,000 federal workers would be furloughed as part of a partial government shutdown.