Weekend Economists Depart for Brazil! August 21-23, 2015

[Demeter]

Well, where else can one go, when the US is in the gutter?

Go somewhere vibrant, lively, young and growing....(sorry, no such place)

The BRICS nations (a concept tm by Goldman Sachs) are supposed to be the places to go, and the first of these is Brazil.

The US is not happy with Brazil. Something to do with Brazil throwing a fit when Dilma found out the NSA was wiretapping her....and oil. It's always about oil, and when it's in the Western Hemisphere, throw in sugar, too. And then, Glenn Greenwald calls Brazil home...which takes us back to the NSA...

Let's try to sort out this mess by getting better acquainted with the "land where the nuts come from".






Brazil dominates South America, bordering every other nation except Chile and Ecuador. And due to the vicissitudes of Fate, it is the only one not speaking Spanish but Portuguese, a similar tongue, but not close enough for all practical purposes.

Oh, the places we'll go! All aboard!

[Demeter]

1. In case you missed it, here's Fuddnik's late Friday post on the markets

Stock Market Plunge: Dow Plunges to Lowest Level in a Year on China Fears

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/markets/stock-market-plunge-dow-plunges-lowest-level-year-china-fears-n413916


Stocks were clobbered Friday on Wall Street — a brutal finish to the worst week in the market in almost four years. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 530 points, the ninth-biggest point decline in its history.

Investors were worried about signs of a slowdown in the Chinese economy that could hammer companies and countries around the world. The stock of Apple, which depends heavily on demand from China, fell more than 6 percent.

The Dow finished at 16,459. It has fallen more than 1,200 points in August alone and more than 10 percent decline from its all-time high in May — the definition of a market correction. That has not happened in four years.

The Dow's decline came to 3.1 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 index, a broader gauge of the stock market, finished down 3.2 percent and closed below 2,000 for the first time since early this year.

(snip)----------------------------------------------------------

Is the party over yet?--Fuddnik

I DON'T THINK SO, THE FUN IS JUST BEGINNING.

I WOULD BET MY SHIRT THAT THERE WILL BE NO INTEREST RATE INCREASE, HOWEVER.

[Demeter]

9. Richmond Fed’s Lacker to make ‘case against further delay’ By Ben Leubsdorf

TOUGH LUCK, JEFF....MAY I CALL YOU JEFF?

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/richmond-feds-lacker-to-make-case-against-further-delay-2015-08-21-11103517?siteid=YAHOOB

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Jeffrey Lacker will deliver his first speech in more than three months on Sept. 4, ahead of the Fed’s Sept. 16-17 policy meeting. The title, according to a Richmond Fed announcement Friday: “The Case Against Further Delay.”

Lacker earlier this year voiced support for raising short-term interest rates sooner rather than later.

But when the Fed kept its benchmark federal-funds rate pinned near zero at the June and July policy meetings, Lacker didn’t dissent, and he hasn’t delivered a speech since late May.

Still, minutes of the June and July meetings revealed one member of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee--unnamed in the documents, but possibly Lacker--was ready on both occasions to raise rates but also expressed a willingness to wait for additional data.

Significantly, Lacker’s Sept. 4 speech to the Retail Merchants Association in Richmond is scheduled for the morning that the Labor Department will release its August jobs report, one of the last major pieces of economic data to come before the September policy meeting.

GET ME REWRITE, STAT!

[Demeter]

2. The US Economy Continues Its Collapse By Paul Craig Roberts

Do you remember when real reporters existed? Those were the days before the Clinton regime concentrated the media into a few hands and turned the media into a Ministry of Propaganda, a tool of Big Brother. The false reality in which Americans live extends into economic life. Last Friday’s employment report was a continuation of a long string of bad news spun into good news. The media repeats two numbers as if they mean something—the monthly payroll jobs gains and the unemployment rate—and ignores the numbers that show the continuing multi-year decline in employment opportunities while the economy is allegedly recovering.

The so-called recovery is based on the U.3 measure of the unemployment rate. This measure does not include any unemployed person who has become discouraged from the inability to find a job and has not looked for a job in four weeks. The U.3 measure of unemployment only includes the still hopeful who think they will find a job.

The government has a second official measure of unemployment, U.6. This measure, seldom reported, includes among the unemployed those who have been discouraged for less than one year. This official measure is double the 5.3% U.3 measure. What does it mean that the unemployment rate is over 10% after six years of alleged economic recovery?

In 1994 the Clinton regime stopped counting long-term discouraged workers as unemployed. Clinton wanted his economy to look better than Reagan’s, so he ceased counting the long-term discouraged workers that were part of Reagan’s unemployment rate. John Williams (shadowstats.com) continues to measure the long-term discouraged with the official methodology of that time, and when these unemployed are included, the US rate of unemployment as of July 2015 is 23%, several times higher than during the recession with which Fed chairman Paul Volcker greeted the Reagan presidency.

An unemployment rate of 23% gives economic recovery a new meaning. It has been eighty-five years since the Great Depression, and the US economy is in economic recovery with an unemployment rate close to that of the Great Depression.

The labor force participation rate has declined over the “recovery” that allegedly began in June 2009 and continues today. This is highly unusual. Normally, as an economy recovers jobs rebound, and people flock into the labor force. Based on what he was told by his economic advisors, President Obama attributed the decline in the participation rate to baby boomers taking retirement. In actual fact, over the so-called recovery, job growth has been primarily among those 55 years of age and older. For example, all of the July payroll jobs gains were accounted for by those 55 and older. Those Americans of prime working age (25 to 54 years old) lost 131,000 jobs in July.

Over the previous year (July 2014 — July 2015), those in the age group 55 and older gained 1,554,000 jobs. Youth, 16-18 and 20-24, lost 887,000 and 489,000 jobs.

Today there are 4,000,000 fewer jobs for Americans aged 25 to 54 than in December 2007. From 2009 to 2013, Americans in this age group were down 6,000,000 jobs. Those years of alleged economic recovery apparently bypassed Americans of prime working age.

As of July 2015, the US has 27,265,000 people with part-time jobs, of whom 6,300,000 or 23% are working part-time because they cannot find full time jobs. There are 7,124,000 Americans who hold multiple part-time jobs in order to make ends meet, an increase of 337,000 from a year ago.

The young cannot form households on the basis of part-time jobs, but retirees take these jobs in order to provide the missing income on their savings from the Federal Reserve’s zero interest rate policy, which is keyed toward supporting the balance sheets of a handful of giant banks, whose executives control the US Treasury and Federal Reserve. With so many manufacturing and tradable professional skill jobs, such as software engineering, offshored to China and India, professional careers are disappearing in the US.

The most lucrative jobs in America involve running Wall Street scams, lobbying for private interest groups, for which former members of the House, Senate, and executive branch are preferred, and producing schemes for the enrichment of think-tank donors, which, masquerading as public policy, can become law.

The claimed payroll jobs for July are in the usual categories familiar to us month after month year after year. They are domestic service jobs—waitresses and bartenders, retail clerks, transportation, warehousing, finance and insurance, health care and social assistance. Nothing to export in order to pay for massive imports. With scant growth in real median family incomes, as savings are drawn down and credit used up, even the sales part of the economy will falter.

Clearly, this is not an economy that has a future.

But you would never know that from listening to the financial media or reading the New York Times business section or the Wall Street Journal.

When I was a Wall Street Journal editor, the deplorable condition of the US economy would have been front page news.


Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West and How America Was Lost.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article42587.htm

[Demeter]

10. San Francisco's Minimum Wage Is Already Causing Job Losses Tim Worstall FORBES

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/08/21/san-franciscos-minimum-wage-is-already-causing-job-losses/

Noah Smith had this about right when he commented upon the effects of substantially higher minimum wages. His comment being that the research into the effects of modest raises in the minimum wage didn’t seem to show anything other than modest, if any, effects upon employment. But economics is something that works at the margin: thus we generally don’t expect to see entirely linear results as we do more of something. Thus it’s still entirely possible that substantial raises in the minimum wage will lead to substantial unemployment effects. And so we should welcome a few cities imposing substantial minimum wage rises because this means we can study them and see, before we all dive in and drive millions into unemployment (possibly).

I tend to be rather harsher in my estimation of these measures like the $15 minimum wage. On the grounds that we’re given three reasons as to why there won’t be unemployment effects, the three to me adding up to mean kittens! That is, we’re told that business will reduce profit margins, or raise prices, or simply use labour more productivily, rather than employing less labour. But all three of those actions actually mean employing less labour. Lower profit margins means less capital investment into that industry in the future: that’s less labour employed. And raising prices will, ceteris paribus, mean less demand for those products: less labour employed. And finally, raising productivity is the very definition of employing less labour. So, thus my marking of the combination of the three arguments as kittens! For it does in fact make as much sense to say a rising minimum wage won’t reduce employment because kittens! as it does to say it won’t because of three processes each of which reduce the employment of labour. So, those of us who think this way are rather on the look out for that evidence. A reasonable guide to the theoretical set up is here:

Fortunately, economists have a handy tool for gauging the likely impact of minimum-wage increases: the ratio of the minimum wage to the wage of workers in the very middle of the income distribution, known as the median wage. The higher the ratio of the minimum to the median, the greater the boost to workers.

But the higher that ratio, the greater risk of job losses, too. Where is the point at which job loss risk exceeds the benefit to workers? There is some evidence that cities and states have managed to absorb increases when the minimum wage is in the neighborhood of 50 percent of the median, even a bit higher. But economists have very few historical examples of increases that go beyond 60 percent. And even some economists who are at ease with moderate increases in the minimum wage worry that a minimum wage in that 60 percent range or higher could produce significant job losses.

Quite so. There’s still argument around the edges here: I take from the literature that the 45-50% of median level is where unemployment effects become pronounced. The EPI tends to say 50% of the median full year full time median wage is the inflexion point and I’m using the general median wage including part timers etc. But most are in this general sort of range. At which point we can go and look at the empirical evidence of these latest rises. As my colleague here at Forbes has done, Stephen Bronars:

The following table presents annual percentage changes in second quarter employment in several restaurant categories in the San Francisco metro division as well as the remainder of the U.S., and in San Francisco outside the food services industry. The table shows a slowdown in job growth in brick and mortar restaurants in the past year.[4] The all restaurants industry group, which includes full service and limited service restaurants, snack bars, and cafeterias, saw job growth of only 0.31% in the past year. Restaurant employment grew much less rapidly than in other sectors in San Francisco in the past year. In addition, had restaurant employment grown at the same rate as in the rest of the U.S., there would be 2,520 more restaurant jobs in the San Francisco metro division.

The background is that we study the restaurant industry because it’s the major concentration of minimum wage labour. Not quite but about 50% of those on minimum wage are in that industry and about 50% of those in the industry are on minimum wage. So, whatever the effects of raising the minimum are we expect to see them there.

And the method to use is to look at changes in that industry where they have raised the minimum as against places where they have not. In this manner we can strip out the larger effects of more general economic changes. For example, we’ve all noted that the unemployment rate has been falling around the country in general these past few years. So, our noting that unemployment has fallen in an area that has raised the minimum wage isn’t all that useful: we want to strip out the general effect from the specific. Which is what Bronars has done there. He’s compared growth in restaurant industry employment in San Francisco with that in the country more generally. And the result is as standard theory would predict. The higher minimum wage is leading to fewer jobs being created than in places without that higher minimum wage.

That is, higher minimum wages do destroy jobs. Or, if you prefer, there are no kittens!

[Demeter]

3. Mexico wraps $1.1 billion oil options hedge to lock in $49 floor

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/20/us-mexico-oil-idUSKCN0QP0X020150820

Mexico has concluded its vast oil hedging program for next year, paying more than $1 billion to guarantee it will get at least $49 a barrel for about half of its exported crude in 2016. Announcing the unusually early completion of the biggest sovereign oil derivatives trade in the world, Mexico's finance ministry said late on Wednesday it had bought options based on Maya and Brent crude oil prices that will cover 212 million barrels of oil, at a cost of $1.09 billion. Mexico is "very unlikely" to reopen the hedge, a source close to the operation told Reuters, adding the program centered on Maya crude. Counterparties to the program included Barclays and JPMorgan, the source added.

The program, a longstanding part of the country's strategy for safeguarding oil revenues from market volatility, ended on Aug. 14, the ministry said, suggesting it had purchased most of the options as oil prices entered a second deep slump. Oil traders who watch the market carefully for any signs of Mexico-related trades, which can be large enough to affect prices, said they first noticed the hedging in late July, at least a month earlier than it usually enters the market. With U.S. crude plumbing six and a half year lows at nearly $40 a barrel and many analysts bracing for a prolonged downturn, Mexico paid a higher premium for lower-priced options this year. In its hedge program for 2015, Mexico ensured an average oil price of $76.40 per barrel, covering 228 mln barrels of crude oil at a cost of $773 million.

Mexico has long been one of the few major oil producing nations that uses derivative markets to hedge, a policy that paid off handsomely after the 2008 oil price crash and has also helped protect this year's budget revenues. Oil sales have traditionally made up about a third of Mexico's budget. The current price of crude oil is $38.15 per barrel, the ministry said, significantly below the $79 per barrel that the government had estimated for its 2015 budget. Buying put options, rather than simply selling forward production, costs more up front for Mexico, but also allows it to enjoy the upside if prices rebound next year.

The trading is also a boon for the banks involved in executing the deals. The finance ministry does not comment on its counterparties, but another person familiar with the transactions said this year's banks included Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Mexico, the world's 10th biggest crude producer, pumps about 2.3 million barrels per day (bpd) and exports around half of that. The 2016 hedge is equivalent to around 580,000 bpd. In March, Mexico announced that it would cut 2016 spending by 4.3 percent because of lower crude production and a drop in oil prices. Last week, a finance ministry official told Reuters that Mexico will need to make additional cuts to the 2016 budget amid lower crude output.


I DUNNO, BUT DOESN'T THIS MEAN THE END OF "Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Goldman Sachs Group Inc."?

SERIOUSLY, ARE THEY CRAZY? OR ARE THEY SELLING THIS BAD DEAL TO UNSUSPECTING PENSION FUNDS?

[Demeter]

8. Oil suffers longest weekly losing streak since 1986

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oil-prices-under-pressure-in-asia-after-weak-chinese-manufacturing-data-2015-08-21?siteid=YAHOOB

U.S. oil futures on Friday settled below $41 a barrel for the first time since the Great Recession to suffer an eighth straight weekly loss—the longest streak of weekly losses since 1986. Prices sank to intraday lows under $40 after data from Baker Hughes BHI, -3.58% showed that the number of active U.S. oil drilling rigs rose 2 to 674 as of Aug. 21.

Weaker-than-expected Chinese manufacturing data and a plunge in the U.S. stock market spurred worries about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery CLV5, -2.47% fell 87 cents, or 2.1%, to settle at $40.45 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The October contract, which become the front month at Thursday’s settlement, posted a weekly decline of 6.2%. Based on the most-active contracts, futures prices marked their lowest settlement since March 2, 2009 and saw weekly loss of 4.8%, their eighth weekly decline in a row.

Nymex prices haven’t seen a streak of that many weekly losses since the 10-week stretch of losses that ended on March 7, 1986, according to FactSet data. The string of losses for WTI crude has sparked increasing comparisons with the major bear market in 1986, said Tim Evans, an energy analyst at Citi Futures, in a note.

“The key takeaway from both the 1986 and 1999 bear market cycles…is that it took a change in OPEC policy to help the market reverse the slide,” said Evans. In 1999, it actually “took more than one round of cuts in order to fully rebalance the market.” But output from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries was at roughly 31.5 million barrels a day during July, he said. “It looks like the market will remain in a supply/demand surplus at least through 2016.”

*****************

In the Atlantic, Hurricane Danny was headed toward the Caribbean. But James Williams, energy economist at WTRG Econmoics, said that even if a hurricane was to cause all Gulf of Mexico oil production to go offline, “the world would still be over supplied by at least a half million barrels and day—and this is before the additional oil to come from Iran.”

Gasoline prices turned higher on Nymex following news of a fire at a refinery in Delaware...

HOW DAMN BLOODY CONVENIENT IS THAT?

[Demeter]

4. VICE News: “Why Pay Your Taxes?”

[Demeter]

5. “How Complex Systems Fail”

YVES SMITH SAYS ...It discusses how complex systems are prone to catastrophic failure, how that possibility is held at bay through a combination of redundancies and ongoing vigilance, but how, due to the impractical cost of keeping all possible points of failure fully (and even identifying them all) protected, complex systems “always run in degraded mode”. Think of the human body. No one is in perfect health. At a minimum, people are growing cancers all the time, virtually all of which recede for reasons not well understood.

The article contends that failures therefore are not the result of single causes.

This is really a profound observation – things rarely fail in an out-the-blue, unimaginable, catastrophic way. Very often just such as in the MIT article the fault or faults in the system are tolerated. But if they get incrementally worse, then the ad-hoc fixes become the risk (i.e. the real risk isn’t the original fault condition, but the application of the fixes). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windscale_fire#Wigner_energy documents how a problem of core instability was a snag, but the disaster was caused by what was done to try to fix it. The plant operators kept applying the fix in ever more extreme doses until the bloody thing blew up.

But I wonder about the validity of one of the hidden assumptions of this article. There is a lack of agency in terms of who is responsible for the care and feeding of complex systems (the article eventually identifies “practitioners” but even then, that’s comfortably vague). The assumption is that the parties who have influence and responsibility want to preserve the system, and have incentives to do at least an adequate job of that.

There are reasons to doubt that now. Economics has promoted ways of looking at commercial entities that encourage “practitioners” to compromise on safety measures. Mainstream economics has as a core belief that economies have a propensity to equilibrium, and that equilibrium is at full employment. That assumption has served as a wide-spread justification for encouraging businesses and governments to curtail or end pro-stabilty measures like regulation as unnecessary costs.

To put it more simply, the drift of both economic and business thinking has been to optimize activity for efficiency. But highly efficient systems are fragile. Formula One cars are optimized for speed and can only run one race.

Highly efficient systems also are more likely to suffer from what Richard Bookstaber called “tight coupling.” A tightly coupled system in one in which events occur in a sequence that cannot be interrupted. A way to re-characterize a tightly coupled system is a complex system that has been in part reoptimized for efficiency, maybe by accident, maybe at a local level. That strips out some of the redundancies that serve as safeties to prevent positive feedback loops from having things spin out of control.

To use Bookstaber’s nomenclature, as opposed to this paper’s, in a tightly coupled system, measures to reduce risk directly make things worse. You need to reduce the tight coupling first.

A second way that the economic thinking has arguably increased the propensity of complex systems of all sorts to fail is by encouraging people to see themselves as atomized agents operating in markets. And that’s not just an ideology; it’s reflected in low attachment to institutions of all sorts, ranging from local communities to employers (yes, employers may insist on all sorts of extreme shows of fealty, but they are ready to throw anyone in the dust bin at a moment’s notice). The reality of weak institutional attachments and the societal inculcation of selfish viewpoints means that more and more people regard complex systems as vehicles for personal advancement. And if they see those relationships as short-term or unstable, they don’t have much reason to invest in helping to preserving the soundness of that entity. Hence the attitude called “IBY/YBG” (“I’ll Be Gone, You’ll Be Gone”) appears to be becoming more widespread.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/08/how-complex-systems-fail.html

http://web.mit.edu/2.75/resources/random/How%20Complex%20Systems%20Fail.pdf

[Demeter]

6. Wolf Richter: It Starts – Broad Retaliation Against China in Currency War

http://wolfstreet.com/2015/08/20/asia-retaliates-against-china-in-currency-war/

The biggest global “tail risk” is China’s deteriorating economy and an emerging market debt crisis, according to BofA Merrill Lynch’s monthly poll of fund managers. And 48% of them were expecting the Fed to raise rates, despite languid growth and low inflation expectations.

Hot money is already fleeing emerging markets. Higher rates in the US will drain more capital out of countries that need it the most. It will pressure emerging market currencies and further increase the likelihood of a debt crisis in countries whose governments, banks, and corporations borrow in a currency other than their own.

This scenario would be bad enough for the emerging economies. But now China has devalued the yuan to stimulate its exports and thus its economy at the expense of others. And one thing has become clear today: these struggling economies that compete with China are going to protect their exports against Chinese encroachment.

Hence a currency war.

It didn’t help that oil plunged nearly 5% to a new 6-year low, with WTI at $40.55 a barrel, after the EIA’s report of an “unexpected” crude oil inventory buildup in the US, now, during driving season when inventories are supposed to decline!

And copper dropped to $5,000 per ton for the first time since the Financial Crisis, down 20% so far this year. Copper is the ultimate industrial metal. China, which accounts for 45% of global copper consumption, is the bull’s eye of all the fretting about demand. 5,000 is the line in the sand. A big scary number. Other metals fared similarly.

Copper powerhouse Glencore, whose shares plunged nearly 10% today, blamed “aggressive and synchronized large-scale short selling” for the copper debacle, instead of fundamentals. But fundamentals have been whacking copper for years, and shorts have simply been joyriding the trend.

Kazakhstan saw what’s happening to oil, its main export product, and to the currencies in China and Russia, its biggest trading partners. The yuan devaluation was relatively small, compared to the ruble, which is now allowed or encouraged to drop with oil. It has plunged 14% against the dollar over the past 30 days and 45% over the past 12 months, to 66.7 rubles to the dollar. With the Russian economy losing its grip, the ruble is dropping perilously close to the panic levels of last December and January.

And Kazakhstan freaked out and devalued the tenge by 4.5% today, to 197.3 per dollar, the biggest drop since that infamous day in February 2014 when the central bank let the tenge plunge 20%. So today’s move is likely just a foretaste of what is still to come.

The Turkish lira dropped 1.3% today to a new record low of 2.93 per dollar, now down 4% since the yuan devaluation, and 8% for the past month. Political turmoil in Turkey and its proximity to a war zone are adding totally unneeded spice to the already difficult fundamentals in its economy and in the broader emerging market.

Vietnam lowered the reference rate by 1% today and widened the reference band to 3% on either side. In response, the dong fell 1.2%. After similar devaluations in January and May, the dong is down 4.4% against the dollar for the year.

Then there’s Japan. Shinzo Abe had announced in late 2012, just before he came to power, that his official policy would be to crush the yen, and that he would get the Bank of Japan to do it for him. He succeeded wonderfully. Since then, the yen has lost 36% against the dollar, annihilating over a third of the yen-denominated wealth of the Japanese.

The shenanigans of the Bank of Japan have driven the Koreans nuts. The two countries compete directly with each other in numerous areas. And last year, Korea lost its patience and retaliated. Now China has added fuel to the fire. The Korean won is down 2.9% against the dollar in 30 days and 15% over the past 12 months.

The Indian rupee which had swooned badly during the Taper Tantrum in 2013, but then recovered, has been re-swooning starting a year ago and is now back to the Taper Tantrum levels of 65.2 rupees to the dollar, having lost another 1.5% since the yuan devaluation.

The Taiwanese dollar dropped 1.2% since the yuan devaluation; the Malaysian ringgit 2.7%, now down 6.4% for the month and 15% for the year. The Indonesian rupiah lost 1.4% since the yuan devaluation and is down 11% so far this year. Other Asian countries, such as Azerbaijan and Georgia, have already devalued their currencies over the past year.

But devaluations are not free lunches. They’re desperate measures that demolish domestic consumption and real incomes (see Japan), business investment, and overall credibility. And capital flees. They can also heat up inflation. But many emerging market countries and their banks and corporations borrow in other currencies to get access to lower interest rates. That foreign-currency debt can’t be devalued or inflated away.

Instead, the opposite happens. Their struggling or battered economies have to service foreign-currency debt with their own devalued currencies. Commodity exporters are getting sapped additionally by plunging commodity prices. Then that foreign currency debt, that cheap easy money everyone got to used playing with, becomes an insurmountable pile of expensive debt in a currency they can’t control and whose exchange rate might run away from them.

This is when a debt crisis begins to spiral elegantly through the emerging markets, taking down banks, entire economies, and gobs of investors as it goes – or taxpayers in other countries if there is a bailout. It’s always the same story. But this time, it’s different: after years of global QE, low interest rates, and hot money sloshing through the system, the sums are larger, and the risks are higher.

[Demeter]

7. Debt Is Good PAUL KRUGMAN

POOR DR. KRUGMAN, A DAY LATE AND A DOLLAR SHORT

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/21/opinion/paul-krugman-debt-is-good-for-the-economy.html

Rand Paul said something funny the other day. No, really — although of course it wasn’t intentional. On his Twitter account he decried the irresponsibility of American fiscal policy, declaring, “The last time the United States was debt free was 1835.” Wags quickly noted that the U.S. economy has, on the whole, done pretty well these past 180 years, suggesting that having the government owe the private sector money might not be all that bad a thing. The British government, by the way, has been in debt for more than three centuries, an era spanning the Industrial Revolution, victory over Napoleon, and more.

But is the point simply that public debt isn’t as bad as legend has it? Or can government debt actually be a good thing? Believe it or not, many economists argue that the economy needs a sufficient amount of public debt out there to function well. And how much is sufficient? Maybe more than we currently have. That is, there’s a reasonable argument to be made that part of what ails the world economy right now is that governments aren’t deep enough in debt. I know that may sound crazy. After all, we’ve spent much of the past five or six years in a state of fiscal panic, with all the Very Serious People declaring that we must slash deficits and reduce debt now now now or we’ll turn into Greece, Greece I tell you!

But the power of the deficit scolds was always a triumph of ideology over evidence, and a growing number of genuinely serious people — most recently Narayana Kocherlakota, the departing president of the Minneapolis Fed — are making the case that we need more, not less, government debt. Why? One answer is that issuing debt is a way to pay for useful things, and we should do more of that when the price is right. The United States suffers from obvious deficiencies in roads, rails, water systems and more; meanwhile, the federal government can borrow at historically low interest rates. So this is a very good time to be borrowing and investing in the future, and a very bad time for what has actually happened: an unprecedented decline in public construction spending adjusted for population growth and inflation. Beyond that, those very low interest rates are telling us something about what markets want. I’ve already mentioned that having at least some government debt outstanding helps the economy function better. How so? The answer, according to M.I.T.’s Ricardo Caballero and others, is that the debt of stable, reliable governments provides “safe assets” that help investors manage risks, make transactions easier and avoid a destructive scramble for cash.

Now, in principle the private sector can also create safe assets, such as deposits in banks that are universally perceived as sound. In the years before the 2008 financial crisis Wall Street claimed to have invented whole new classes of safe assets by slicing and dicing cash flows from subprime mortgages and other sources. But all of that supposedly brilliant financial engineering turned out to be a con job: When the housing bubble burst, all that AAA-rated paper turned into sludge. So investors scurried back into the haven provided by the debt of the United States and a few other major economies. In the process they drove interest rates on that debt way down. And those low interest rates, Mr. Kocherlakota declares, are a problem. When interest rates on government debt are very low even when the economy is strong, there’s not much room to cut them when the economy is weak, making it much harder to fight recessions. There may also be consequences for financial stability: Very low returns on safe assets may push investors into too much risk-taking — or for that matter encourage another round of destructive Wall Street hocus-pocus.

What can be done? Simply raising interest rates, as some financial types keep demanding (with an eye on their own bottom lines), would undermine our still-fragile recovery. What we need are policies that would permit higher rates in good times without causing a slump. And one such policy, Mr. Kocherlakota argues, would be targeting a higher level of debt. In other words, the great debt panic that warped the U.S. political scene from 2010 to 2012, and still dominates economic discussion in Britain and the eurozone, was even more wrongheaded than those of us in the anti-austerity camp realized. Not only were governments that listened to the fiscal scolds kicking the economy when it was down, prolonging the slump; not only were they slashing public investment at the very moment bond investors were practically pleading with them to spend more; they may have been setting us up for future crises.

And the ironic thing is that these foolish policies, and all the human suffering they created, were sold with appeals to prudence and fiscal responsibility.

THE COMMENTS TO THIS ARTICLE WERE EXCEEDINGLY SCORNFUL...THE PUBLIC WELL HAS BEEN POISONED.

[rogerashton]

54. And Larry Summers --

the hereditary High Priest of economics, and about as established as an economist can get -- worries that when interest rates on safe debt are low, asset bubbles tend to arise.

http://www.voxeu.org/sites/default/files/Vox_secular_stagnation.pdf

[Demeter]

56. Larry Summers has a lot to answer for

Welcome aboard! Thanks for the post!

[rogerashton]

57. Yeah -- and here is Larry again, more recently:

http://larrysummers.com/2015/04/01/on-secular-stagnation-a-response-to-bernanke/

I seem to remember having been taught most of this in econ 101 back in the 1960's -- too bad (as Joan Robinson noted) that unlike science, economics does not accumulate knowledge.

[Demeter]

11. Listen Up America: You Need to Learn How to Recycle. Again.

OH, I EXPECT WE'LL GET A CRASH COURSE IN IT, NOW THAT THE GREATER DEPRESSION IS COMING TO THE FORE....

http://www.wired.com/2015/08/listen-america-need-learn-recycle/

Recycling is one of the first post-industrial successes that mixed environmentalism with business. Instead of being buried underground, certain types of waste stream from consumer’s homes to special facilities to be sorted by type, broken down, and shipped off to manufacturers to begin life anew. Recycling makes environmental and economic sense.

Or at least, it did. Sure, Americans are recycling more than ever before, but the business side of things is in a lull. Some recycled goods just aren’t worth as much as they used to be, and the downturn has hit the industry hard. Companies have reported losses in the millions, some have shuttered facilities, and several are talking about renegotiating contracts so cities help foot the bill. There’s no easy solution. But it sure would help if Americans relearned how to recycle. Don’t believe me? Listen, you don’t know how to recycle:

“I just think we need to be focusing more on the education.” — Amy Perlmutter, Perlmutter Associates, a recycling consulting firm.

“It always goes back to education.” — Steve Sargent, director of Rumpke Recycling.

“Maybe a better way to look is if we can better educate everybody that what they can put in their bin is recyclables that would be better.” — Jason Pelz, vice president of recycling projects with the Carton Council of North America.

How the heck do you mess up recycling?

Selling out

It’s best to start from the other side, the output. Recycled goods are used to make new products. That means they have to compete in commodities markets, and right now those markets aren’t doing so hot. “We’re experiencing the longest historic drop in commodities values in the residential recycling market,” says Sargent, of Rumpke. In the last five years, the average price for all the recyclables Rumpke sells back to the market has dropped from $140 to $70 or less.

Aluminum is down. Paper is down. Plastics are down. The whole industry is down. In its second quarter earnings statement, recycling industry behemoth Waste Management posted a $59 million loss. And just like in any business, the best way to solve that is leaner operations. The company has closed down several sorting plants. Them’s the breaks.

On top of that, second hand commodities is a buyer’s market, which means the goods have to be top quality. But recyclables that aren’t well sorted become contaminated—flattened pieces of plastic getting mixed in with the paper, for instance. So sorting plants, where all the things you throw into your recycling bins get conveyer-ed into various categories, compressed, and baled for sale, are crucial. Sorting plants are formally known as materials recovery facilities—or “murfs” (MRFs) if you’re in the biz. Go ahead and giggle. I did.

Cross contamination in these plants is a big problem, so much so that some have tried to trace back all of recycling’s issues to the ubiquitous blue bin. “Single stream recycling results in a doubling of contamination rates,” says Susan Robinson, Waste Management’s director of public affairs. But it also gets more people to participate, which is the main reason why fewer and fewer cities are asking you to sort. In the end, the big blue bin is still boss.

But sorting’s biggest menace isn’t cross-contamination, it’s non-recyclables that come along for the ride. “The single biggest problem material at recycling facilities are plastic bags,” says Robinson. “We get a surprising number of garden hoses, Christmas lights, and shower curtains,” says Robinson. “All those materials wrap around equipment, sometimes for hours,” resulting in hours of lost productivity while the material is fished out.

It’s not even that people are being lazy. Rather, Americans are in some ways too enthusiastic about recycling. “One thing we’ve learned is that people do a lot of wishful recycling, where folks want so bad to recycle so they throw things in by default,” says Anderson.

Which means it’s the recycling industry that’s not doing a good enough job at letting people know what is not allowed. Part of this is messaging. “Sure, plastic bags can technically be recycled, by taking them back to the supermarket,” says Amy Perlmutter, the recycling consultant. But she says a lot of people think it’s equally OK to put them in the bin. Likewise, the recycle symbol on the bottom of your plastic soda bottle is a code so manufacturers know where the bottle came from, not instructions for you about where to put it when it’s empty.

Added to the mixed messages are absent messaging. Hoses and shower curtains are plastic, too, so hey why not? And Christmas lights are… Ok, c’mon seriously who’s putting fricking Christmas lights in the recycle bin?

Sorting right

Which brings us back to you, the American who needs a recycling reeducation. Company after company, spokesperson after spokesperson, all told me that they were toiling away at how to keep consumers up to date on what is and is not allowed in the bin. The industry is focused on educating consumers, because their livelihood depends on it. They mentioned fliers, newspaper ads, websites, and social media, but none had a good way to reach you, nor did they have a comprehensive list of what-is-or-is-not-recyclable. Why aren’t you getting the message?

Partly, because what-is-or-is-not-recyclable is always changing. Some of this is market driven. “My job would be so much easier if every couple of months I wasn’t telling people ‘Oh no that’s not recyclable anymore because the market has changed’,” says Tony Hair, Portland State University’s waste management coordinator.

And some of it is geographic, because every community has different standards for what can and can’t be recycled. “I think a standardized, nationwide list of what’s recyclable would be great, but every community is different,” says Derric Brown, vice president of sustainability at the Carton Council (PROTIP: Don’t crush your cartons before you recycle them, otherwise they’ll get sorted in with normal paper!)

The recycling industry is justifiably concerned about how to keep their profits intact. But you should care, too, and not just for environmental reasons. Those recycling economics could come full circle, back to you. In many places, recycling is part of the cultural identity. In many others, it’s the law. Even in the worst case scenario—commodity values stayed low, contamination rates high—cities won’t abandon the practice. Instead, they’ll have to help with the bottom line.

Already, Waste Management and Rumpke have renegotiated contracts with some cities where commodities sales are no longer offsetting operating costs. “Who is going to pay that cost? It’s going to be the government through taxes,” says Jerry Powell, executive editor of Resource Recycling, an industry magazine. And in some places, these costs will go directly to rate payers, depending on how much they recycle.

Of course, it’s not just up to you to get smarter. The recycling industry at large is still relying on low tech gadgets like magnets, fans, and human hands to sort the myriad—and changing—streams of recyclable waste. The biggest trend in modernization is new technology, like optical scanners. Which should help sort out all your bad recycling habits, even if you don’t manage to unlearn them.

[kickysnana]

20. And stop thinking you need to replace your granite counter tops with quartz in two years!

Downtown Minneapolis commissioned a work of urban art block park they called Peavy Plaza that had interesting geometric concrete forms, trees, gardens, walks, seating areas and lots of water features areas in 1975. They stopped maintaining it about 10 years ago but just by a hair they got it Preserved under some designation so they have just hired a company to rehab it.

In Europe they have some things thousands of years old. In America we scrap anything that is 20 years old, even art.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peavey_Plaza

[DemReadingDU]

59. Does The Stuff You Throw In Your Recycling Bin Really Get Recycled?

Our local NPR station, WYSO, investigated, and recycling depends what you throw out!

A pizza box is recyclable, but if it has grease on it, then it is not recyclable.

Never recycle plastic bags, they jam up the sorting machine.
If there is a plastic bag with recyclable papers, the entire bag gets rejected and sent back to a landfill!

This is a really interesting article, or listen to the podcast, appx 5.5 minutes

article
8/17/15 Does The Stuff You Throw In Your Recycling Bin Really Get Recycled? WYSO Curious Lifts The Lid
http://wyso.org/post/does-stuff-you-throw-your-recycling-bin-really-get-recycled-wyso-curious-lifts-lid#stream/0

podcast
http://cpa.ds.npr.org/wyso/audio/2015/08/RecyclingWEB.mp3

[Demeter]

12. I'm going to take an 8 hour nap, now.

This WEE is barely started, but I am bushed. It wasn't the gardening that did me in, but what I did afterwards...so in the early hours, after some well-deserved rest, the saga continues. Good night, all! Get some sleep.

Remember, it's only money. We can always get some more, even if it's at gunpoint....

[bbgrunt]

13. thanks for all the great articles. You are a treasure!

[Fuddnik]

14. Yes she is. Works her ass off for us.

And we really appreciate it.

Thank you Demeter for all the hard work. We get caught up in our daily lives, and don't really take the time to express our appreciation.

[Mojorabbit]

71. +1000 nt

[Demeter]

47. Thanks for stopping in!

Bring your friends!

[MattSh]

15. Would have been perfect for last week's WEE...

But it only came out two days ago.

Top 10 Highly-Desired Skills You Can Teach Yourself

We’re all about do-it-yourself here at Lifehacker. But just because you don’t have the skills to do something doesn’t mean you can’t learn them. In the next installment of Lifehacker’s 10th anniversary celebration, we’re revisiting some guides we’ve written on learning some highly-desired skills.

Check out the full list below, and see more of our 10th anniversary look back at lifehacker10.lifehacker.com.

On countless occasions, you’ve likely said to yourself “I wish I knew how to do ______.” Then, of course, life got in the way and you put it off until you could find the time. Maybe you wanted to become fluent in a language, learn a new instrument, start performing your house repairs, or a master a myriad of other skills. With the vast amount of knowledge online, you’re now your only excuse. Here are the top ten most highly desired skills that you can teach yourself—and should.


10. Repair Just About Anything

Sure, you don’t need to repair anything anymore. You can just pay someone else to do it. But where’s the ingenuity in that? Plus, who wants to waste a bunch of money on simple tasks you can handle on your own? If you’ve adopted the DIY spirit, learning to repair your own stuff is one of the easiest and more rewarding skills you can acquire. It’s especially fruitful because as you learn new things, you can put them to use right away. So how do you teach yourself? We’ve outlined tons of repairs you can learn on your own to get you started, but if you’re looking for something specific there is no shortage of how-to videos available on YouTube and VideoJug. You’ll find everything from home repairs to outdoor repairs, plumbing repairs, and even electrical repairs. There will be occasions when you do need to call a professional, as you’re not going to be a master repairman (or woman) instantly, but do remember that there is an opportunity when things break: you can learn how to fix them.


9. Pick Up an Artistic Skill Like Illustration, Painting, or Photography

Although it often won’t earn you the big bucks, artistic skills are highly desired because they provide you with the technical abilities required to create something beautiful. You’re going to have to find your own inspiration and subject matter, but the skill you’ll need is really just a matter of technical aptitude and practice. Picking up a book of anatomy and drawing different bones and muscles will teach you how to draw people. Drawing grids over photographs can show you basic perspective. Obviously it isn’t as simple as that, but focusing on learning to draw one simple thing, like the petals of a flower or the human hand, will help you learn how it works and get in a reasonable amount of practice. When you’re ready to move on from the basics and start illustrating on your computer, check out our digital painting lessons. For those of you interested in photography, we have lessons for you, too.

Whatever you’re looking to learn, just set aside 15-30 minutes every day to practice a very small part of that skill. It’ll take awhile to teach yourself how to draw, paint, take better photos, make hamburger sculptures out of clay, or whatever it is you want to do, but breaking the daunting task into pieces and practicing each part slowly will do the trick. Plus, it’s a really nice way to unwind at the end of the day.

8. Learn to Defend Yourself

7. Improve Your Design Skills (or At Least Acquire a Sense of Style)

6. Pick Up Just About Any Subject You Missed In College

5. Build and Hack Electronic Hardware

4. Play a (New) Instrument

3. Cook Like a Pro

2. Become Fluent in a New Language

1. Make a Web Site, Create an App, or Just Learn to Code

Complete story at - http://lifehacker.com/5905835/top-10-highly-desired-skills-you-can-teach-yourself/1725168054

[MattSh]

16. Brazil is where the nuts come from?

I beg to differ on that!

(Of course, somebody had to say that. Might as well be me).

[Demeter]

28. Charley's Aunt was written before America lost its nut

Charley's Aunt is a farce in three acts written by Brandon Thomas. It broke all historic records for plays of any kind, with an original London run of 1,466 performances.

The play was first performed at the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds in February 1892. It was produced by former D'Oyly Carte Opera Company actor W. S. Penley, a friend of Thomas's, who appeared in the principal role of Lord Fancourt Babberley, an undergraduate whose friends Jack and Charley persuade him to impersonate the latter's aunt. The piece was a success, and it then opened in London at the Royalty Theatre on 21 December 1892 and quickly transferred to the larger Globe Theatre on 30 January 1893 to complete its record-breaking run.

The play was a success on Broadway in 1893, where it had another long run. It also toured internationally and has been revived continually and adapted for films and musicals.

Synopsis
Act I

Jack Chesney and Charley Wykeham are undergraduates at Oxford University in love, respectively, with Kitty Verdun and Amy Spettigue. Charley receives word that his aunt, Donna Lucia d'Alvadorez, a rich widow from Brazil whom he has never met, is coming to visit him. The boys invite Amy and Kitty to lunch to meet her, also intending to declare their love to the girls, who are being sent away to Scotland with Amy's uncle, Stephen Spettigue, who is also Kitty's guardian. They seek out another Oxford undergraduate, Lord Fancourt Babberley (known as "Babbs&quot , to distract Donna Lucia while they romance their girls. While they are out, Babbs breaks into Jack's room to steal all his champagne, but Jack and Charley intercept him and persuade him to stay for lunch. Babbs tells the boys about his own love, the daughter of an English officer called Delahay, whom he met in Monte Carlo, although he does not remember her name. Babbs also uses Jack's room to try on his costume for an amateur play in which he is taking part.

Amy and Kitty arrive to meet Jack and Charley, but Donna Lucia has not arrived yet, and so the girls leave to go shopping until she shows up. Annoyed, Jack orders Charley to go to the railway station to wait for Donna Lucia. Jack soon receives an unexpected visit from his father, Sir Francis Chesney, a former colonel who served in India. Sir Francis reveals that he has inherited debts that have wiped out the family's fortunes; instead of going into politics as he had intended, Jack will have to accept a position in Bengal. Horrified, Jack suggests that Sir Francis should marry Donna Lucia, a widow and a millionaire, in order to clear the family debts. Sir Francis is hesitant but agrees to meet Donna Lucia before he makes a decision.

Charley receives a telegram saying that Donna Lucia will not be arriving for a few days. The boys panic: the girls are coming, and they won't stay without a chaperone. Fortunately Babbs's costume happens to be that of an old lady. Jack and Charley introduce Babbs as Charley's aunt. His strange appearance and unchanged voice (he had never acted before) do not raise any suspicions. Babbs annoys the boys by accepting kisses from Amy and Kitty; the boys respond to his flirtations with violence.

Sir Francis soon enters to meet Donna Lucia. He takes one look at Babbs and tries to leave, but Jack retrieves him. Spettigue arrives, angered that Kitty and Amy are lunching with the boys without his permission. However the penniless Spettigue soon learns that Charley's aunt is Donna Lucia D'Alvadorez, the celebrated millionaire. He decides to stay for lunch to attempt to woo "Donna Lucia".

Act II

Outside Jack's rooms, in the grounds of St Olde's College, the boys are trying to get their girls alone so that they can confess their love. However, Babbs is in the way, charming the girls as Donna Lucia. Jack's father, Sir Francis, has decided to propose marriage to Donna Lucia, purely for money. Jack urgently corners Babbs and orders him to let his father down gently. Babbs does so, which Sir Francis finds to be a relief. Spettigue still wants to marry "Donna Lucia" for her money.

Meanwhile, the real Donna Lucia, who turns out to be an attractive woman of middle age, arrives with her adopted niece, Miss Ela Delahay, an orphan. The money left to Ela by her father is enough to make her independent for life. Ela reveals that her father had won a lot of money at cards from Fancourt Babberley, for whom Ela still holds a great deal of affection. Donna Lucia recounts the story of a colonel named Frank who she once met more than twenty years ago, of whom she was similarly fond. However, he was too shy to propose, and he left for India before he could tell her how he felt. Sir Francis enters, Donna Lucia recognizes him, and the two rekindle their affection. However, before she can introduce herself, she discovers that someone is impersonating her. To investigate, she introduces herself as "Mrs Beverly-Smythe", a penniless widow.

Jack and Charley finally make their declarations of love to their girls. However, they discover that they need Spettigue's consent to marry. The girls enlist Babbs to get the consent from the greedy Spettigue. Spettigue invites the entire party, including the real Donna Lucia and Ela, to his house, so that he can talk to "Donna Lucia" in private. Babbs, recognizing Ela as the girl he fell in love with in Monte Carlo, tries to escape, but he is caught by Spettigue.

Act III

Babbs is upset by being in the same room as the girl he loves without being able to talk to her. Jack and Charley try to calm him down. Babbs spends time with the real Donna Lucia, Ela, Amy and Kitty, during which the real Donna Lucia embarrasses Babbs by showing how little he really knows about Donna Lucia. Ela takes a liking to the fake Donna Lucia, who sounds like the man she loves, and pours her heart out to Babbs, telling him of the anguish of losing her father and of the man who cared for him in his dying days, Lord Fancourt Babberley. She admits that she loves him and longs to see him again.

Babbs tricks Spettigue into giving the letter of consent for the marriages of Charley to Amy and Jack to Kitty by accepting marriage to Spettigue. (Kitty's father's will specified that if she marries without Spettigue's consent, Spettigue would inherit all of the money.) Charley can no longer keep up the lie and admits that "Donna Lucia" is not really his aunt. Babbs, now dressed in a suit, confirms that he had been playing the part of Charley's aunt. As he is about to return to Spettigue the letter of consent, the real Donna Lucia reveals her identity and takes the letter, stating that it "is addressed to and has been delivered to Donna Lucia d’Alvadorez".

Spettigue storms off, threatening to dispute the letter. Amy is upset at everyone for making a fool of her uncle. Donna Lucia reassures her and gives the girls the letter. Sir Francis and Donna Lucia are engaged (he made the proposal before he realized her identity); the young couples can marry; and Babbs confesses his feelings to Ela.



During the original London run, seven companies toured the United Kingdom with the play. The piece was successfully staged throughout the English-speaking world and, in translation, in many other countries. It had a major success on Broadway, opening on 2 October 1893 at the Standard Theatre, starring Etienne Girardot, where it ran for another historic long run of four years. It was revived on Broadway several times until 1970. Charley's Aunt was given in a German translation as Charleys Tante at Weimar in August 1894. The first French production (La Marraine de Charley) was at the Théàtre Cluny in Paris the following month. The play was produced in Berlin every Christmas for many years. In 1895, The Theatre recorded that Charley's Aunt had been taken up in country after country. "From Germany it made its way to Russia, Holland, Denmark and Norway, and was heartily welcomed everywhere." Charleyova teta, a Czech translation of the play was produced by the Brno City Theatre in 2007

Thomas and Penley quarrelled and went to law over the licensing of an 1898 American production. Penley contended that the original idea for the play had been his, and that Thomas had merely turned it into a playscript. Penley had, on this pretext, secretly negotiated a deal with the American producer, Charles Frohman, which gave Thomas only one third of the royalties. Penley told a journalist, in 1894: "The play was my idea and Brandon Thomas wrote it. Later on, we went down into the country and worked at it. Then we worked it out on the stage." Despite this rift, Penley continued to play Fancourt Babberley in frequent West End productions until he retired from acting in 1901.

Thomas revived the play at the Comedy Theatre in London in 1904, once again playing Sir Francis Chesney. He revived it again in 1905, 1908 and in 1911, when his daughter, Amy Brandon Thomas, played Kitty. In her later years, Amy played the role of Donna Lucia in revivals. Thomas's son, Jevan Brandon-Thomas played Jack in three London revivals of the play and directed the annual London revivals from 1947 to 1950. Amy Brandon-Thomas insisted on setting the play in the present at each revival, despite protests from critics that it would be better played in the period in which it was written. Eventually, for a West End revival in 1949, Victorian dresses and settings were introduced, designed by Cecil Beaton. Nearly continuous revivals have played "somewhere in London" since the original production. Foreign language productions have included a 2007 Czech production.

Actors who have played Lord Fancourt Babberley in the West End include Richard Goolden, Leslie Phillips, John Mills, Frankie Howerd, Tom Courtenay, and Griff Rhys Jones. Performers who played the juvenile roles early in their careers include Noël Coward, John Gielgud, Rex Harrison, Betty Marsden, Ralph Michael and Gerald Harper. In the US Babbs has been played in various revivals by such actors as José Ferrer, Roddy McDowall and Raúl Juliá.


Adaptations

Silent film versions of the play were released in 1915 and 1925, the latter featuring Sydney Chaplin (brother of Charlie Chaplin) and Ethel Shannon.

A well-received sound film version starring Charles Ruggles was released in 1930. Arthur Askey took the leading role in a 1940 British film Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt that developed themes from the original play. Perhaps the best known film version was released in 1941, directed by Archie Mayo and starring Jack Benny in the title role. This version slightly alters the plotline from the original version (for instance, Babbs is framed for accidentally setting off a fire alarm at Oxford University and faces expulsion).

Jevan Brandon-Thomas wrote a pantomime version, Babbs in the Wood, for the amusement of the 1930 London cast and their friends. The Observer commented, "It is quite clear that Mr Brandon-Thomas could earn a handsome living at any time in low – very low – comedy."

A Broadway musical version, Where's Charley?, with a book by George Abbott and music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, starred Ray Bolger as Charley. It ran between 1948 and 1950 at the St. James Theatre and featured the song "Once in Love with Amy" for Bolger. The musical was made into a 1952 film (with Bolger repeating his stage role) and had a successful run in London beginning in 1958 at the Palace Theatre.

A German film version was released in 1956. In 1957, CBS television in the U.S. aired a live production as part of the Playhouse 90 series, starring Art Carney as Babbs, and Orson Bean as Charley and Jeanette MacDonald as the real Donna Lucia. It was directed by Arthur Penn. A 1959 Danish film version starred Dirch Passer in the principal role and featuried Ove Sprogøe, Ghita Nørby and Susse Wold. In the film, Passer sings the song "Det er svært at være en kvinde nu til dags" (English: "It is hard to be a woman nowadays&quot . Passer had first played the role in Charley's Tante in 1958 at the ABC Theatre where it was a hit and played for 1½ years. In France, an updated version of the play was directed by Pierre Chevalier: La Marraine de Charley, starring Fernand Raynaud, with young Jean-Pierre Cassel among the supporting cast. An Austrian film version was made in 1963. As part of their Play of the Month series, BBC television broadcast an adaptation in November 1969 by Richard Waring, starring Danny La Rue, Coral Browne and Ronnie Barker. The producer was Cedric Messina, and director was John Gorrie.

A Soviet version was made for television in 1975, entitled Hello, I'm Your Aunt!. It was also a musical, but had nothing to do with the Broadway version. The film's title is a Russian exclamation used when someone receives shocking news (similar to the English phrase, "Well I'll be a monkey's uncle!&quot . The play's story also proved to be popular in Germany and Austria, with at least four different film versions being released in 1934, 1956 (starring Heinz Rühmann), 1963 (starring Peter Alexander) and a television version in 1976. In Spain, there is a 1981 film version starring Paco Martínez Soria, titled La Tía de Carlos. Two film adaptations have appeared in Egypt: a silent version in 1920 titled al-Khala al-Amrikiyya, and a sound film in 1960 titled Sukkar Hanim, starring Samia Gamal.

[Demeter]

31. US version with Jack Benny

BBC VERSION--1969

I COULD GO ON, BUT I'LL SPARE YOU---THERE IS NOTHING AT THE CINEMA THIS WEEKEND WORTH SEEING, SO I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT LIKE AN ALTERNATIVE

[MattSh]

17. How $1.8 billion in aid to Ukraine was funneled to the outposts of the international finance galaxy

My notes in italics.

By Andrew Cockburn

Arriving home from a recent trip to Ukraine, former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle reported his joy at witnessing “the Ukrainian people . . . coming together to rebuild their country from scratch.” Ukrainians had, he wrote, moved him with their dreams of joining the European Union, fighting corruption, and rebuilding their shattered economy, inspiring Daschle, now a highly paid lobbyist, to endorse the ominously strengthening Washington consensus on escalating the fighting with “$3 billion in lethal and nonlethal military assistance.” (Daschle sells out, like they all do).

Daschle’s trip was sponsored by the National Democratic Institute, an affiliate of the congressionally funded National Endowment for Democracy, headed by ur-neoconservative Carl Gershman, who some time ago identified Ukraine as “the biggest prize” for Russia and deployed considerable amounts of the taxpayer dollars at his disposal to securing it for the West. However, it has been Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland who has played the most active role in pursuit of the prize. Therefore, her interventions in Ukrainian politics and the realities of politics and business in that country deserve closer attention than they have so far received.

“Toria” Nuland, as I reported in the January 2015 issue of Harper’s Magazine, has enjoyed a remarkable career, occupying a succession of powerful positions through changing administrations, despite her close neocon associations over the years both marital—her husband being leading neocon ideologue Robert Kagan—and political, notably as a national-security adviser to former vice president Dick Cheney. In the buildup to the 2008 Russo-Georgia war, for example, Nuland, at the time ambassador to NATO, urged George Bush to accept both Georgia and Ukraine as NATO members. Since Georgia’s then president and neocon favorite, Mikheil Saakashvili, had high hopes of drawing the United States in on his side in the coming conflict, this was a dangerous initiative. Fortunately, Bush, by that time leery of neocon advice, stood firm against her pleas. (Mikheil Saakashvili, former president of Georgia (the country), currently wanted by Georgia on charges of abuse of power and corruption, and now hiding out as Governor of the Odessa Region of Ukraine. Faithful tools of the empire will always find someone and someway to stuff their pockets).

Despite her ongoing proximity to power, Nuland attracted little public attention until the leak of an intercepted phone call gave the rest of us a taste of how she operates. Incautiously chatting on her cell on January 28, 2014, with U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, as the Kiev street protests against elected Ukrainian Viktor Yanukovych gathered momentum, Nuland and the diplomat mulled over who should now rule the country. Their candidate was “Yats,” the opposition politician Aseniy Yatsenyuk, as opposed to another opposition candidate, former world heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, favored by various European powers. Nuland was determined to keep Klitschko out and, as she infamously remarked on that call, “fuck the E.U.”

However, despite her enthusiasm for Yatsenyuk, Nuland was clearly well aware of who was really pulling the strings in Ukrainian politics: the oligarchs, who had assembled enormous fortunes out of the wreckage of the Soviet economy. Chief among these were those connected to the import of Russian natural gas, on which Ukraine was heavily dependent, most especially Dmitry Firtash, a multimillionaire and key supporter of the government Nuland hoped to displace. This may explain why, at the end of 2013, Firtash found himself the subject of a U.S. international “wanted” notice, charged with attempting to bribe local officials in distant India. He happened to be in Vienna, and a request was accordingly submitted to the Austrian government for his extradition back to the United States to stand trial.

.....

As for Firtash, the State Department has been less forgiving. In April this year a Vienna court presided over by Judge Christoph Bauer finally got around to hearing Firtash’s appeal against the extradition request in the Indian bribery case. In a daylong hearing, a crowded courtroom received a fascinating tutorial on the inside story of recent Ukrainian political events, including the background to Washington’s on-again, off-again with the Firtash extradition requests according to the status of Ukraine’s E.U. negotiations, not to mention Firtash’s role in the Poroshenko-Klitschko negotiations. Firtash’s lawyers argued that the case had little to do with bribery in India and everything to do with United States meddling in Ukrainian politics. The judge emphatically agreed, handing down a withering verdict, stating that “America obviously saw Firtash as somebody who was threatening their economic interests.” He also expressed his doubts as to whether two anonymous witnesses cited by the United States in support of its case “even existed.” The State Department announced it was “disappointed” in the verdict and maintained its outstanding warrant for Firtash, should he leave Austria and travel to some country with a legal system more deferential to U.S. demands.

Complete story at - http://harpers.org/blog/2015/08/undelivered-goods/

[Demeter]

29. WOW! US foreign policy slapped down in an American Court!

That I should live to see this day....

[MattSh]

30. Nope, check that again...

Slapped down in an Austrian court, not American...

[Demeter]

32. My eyes are only half open, still

Trying to goad myself into another over the top day....old age, it's not for the weak-minded.


Still, that Austrians won't truckle under to the anything-but-subtle Obama State Department speaks well of the Austrians.

It's the worst-kept secret since W.

[MattSh]

18. Sorry to bring "The Donald" into this thread, but there's this...

Trump’s Triumph: Billionaire Blowhard Exposes Fake Political System

Last night’s FOX News GOP Presidential Debate Extravaganza featured the most riveting two minute political exchange ever heard on national television. During a brief colloquy between Republican frontrunner Donald Trump and Fox moderator Brett Baier, the pugnacious casino magnate revealed the appalling truth about the American political system, that the big money guys like Trump own the whole crooked contraption lock, stock, and barrel, and that, the nation’s fake political leaders do whatever they’re told to do. Without question, it was most illuminating commentary to ever cross the airwaves. Here’s the entire exchange direct from the transcript:

FOX News Brett Baier (talking to Trump): Now, 15 years ago, you called yourself a liberal on health care. You were for a single-payer system, a Canadian-style system. Why were you for that then and why aren’t you for it now?

TRUMP: As far as single payer, it works in Canada. It works incredibly well in Scotland. It could have worked in a different age, which is the age you’re talking about here.

What I’d like to see is a private system without the artificial lines around every state. I have a big company with thousands and thousands of employees. And if I’m negotiating in New York or in New Jersey or in California, I have like one bidder. Nobody can bid.

You know why?

Because the insurance companies are making a fortune because they have control of the politicians, of course, with the exception of the politicians on this stage. (uneasy laughter) But they have total control of the politicians. They’re making a fortune.

Get rid of the artificial lines and you will have…yourself great plans…

BAIER: Mr. Trump, it’s not just your past support for single-payer health care. You’ve also supported a host of other liberal policies….You’ve also donated to several Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton included, and Nancy Pelosi. You explained away those donations saying you did that to get business-related favors. And you said recently, quote, “When you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do.”

TRUMP: You’d better believe it.

BAIER: — they do?

TRUMP: If I ask them, if I need them, you know, most of the people on this stage I’ve given to, just so you understand, a lot of money.

Complete story at - http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/08/07/trumps-triumph-billionaire-blowhard-exposes-fake-political-system/

Of course, those of us who hang out at SMW and WEE have understood this for quite a while.

[MattSh]

19. And some Mr. Fish. Because... Mr. Fish

[MattSh]

21. Peculiarities of Russian National Character

I've been off in East Europe for close to 10 years now, and I'm still learning stuff and getting blindsided by some of the peculiarities. I guess you can say I highly recommend this article!

Recent events, such as the overthrow of the government in Ukraine, the secession of Crimea and its decision to join the Russian Federation, the subsequent military campaign against civilians in Eastern Ukraine, western sanctions against Russia, and, most recently, the attack on the ruble, have caused a certain phase transition to occur within Russian society, which, I believe, is very poorly, if at all, understood in the west. This lack of understanding puts Europe at a significant disadvantage in being able to negotiate an end to this crisis.

Whereas prior to these events the Russians were rather content to consider themselves “just another European country,” they have now remembered that they are a distinct civilization, with different civilizational roots (Byzantium rather than Rome)—one that has been subject to concerted western efforts to destroy it once or twice a century, be it by Sweden, Poland, France, Germany, or some combination of the above. This has conditioned the Russian character in a specific set of ways which, if not adequately understood, is likely to lead to disaster for Europe and the world.

Lest you think that Byzantium is some minor cultural influence on Russia, it is, in fact, rather key. Byzantine cultural influences, which came along with Orthodox Christianity, first through Crimea (the birthplace of Christianity in Russia), then through the Russian capital Kiev (the same Kiev that is now the capital of Ukraine), allowed Russia to leapfrog across a millennium or so of cultural development. Such influences include the opaque and ponderously bureaucratic nature of Russian governance, which the westerners, who love transparency (if only in others) find so unnerving, along with many other things. Russians sometimes like to call Moscow the Third Rome—third after Rome itself and Constantinople—and this is not an entirely empty claim. But this is not to say that Russian civilization is derivative; yes, it has managed to absorb the entire classical heritage, viewed through a distinctly eastern lens, but its vast northern environment has transformed that heritage into something radically different.

Since this subject is of overwhelming complexity, I will focus on just four factors, which I find essential for understanding the transformation we are currently witnessing.

http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2015/08/peculiarities-of-russian-national.html

[MattSh]

22. Getting on-topic (briefly) before going off-topic again!

10 Ways To Become Part Of Brazilian Culture | GoAbroad.com

by DANA CARMEL BELL 17 August 2013

Brazil is South America’s largest country and the fifth largest country in the world so you’ll be hard pressed to run out of places to see and things to do. Additionally, Brazil is a melting pot of cultures as it’s been influenced by Portuguese, African, and indigenous peoples. When volunteering in Brazil, don’t merely observe the country’s colorful culture – absorb it! Here are ten ways to become immersed in the dance, food, and fun that make Brazil unforgettable.

1. Learn Brazilian Portuguese

Although Portuguese is Brazil’s official language, Brazilian Portuguese is written and spoken by most Brazilians, and the differences between the two are most notable when spoken. Brazilian Portuguese is heavily influenced by indigenous or Amerindian languages. It also has traces of African and Asian languages. If you want to engage in conversation with a local Brazilian, chances are that you’ll need to learn some basic Brazilian Portuguese. It is a good idea to study some Portuguese prior to arrival then learn the Brazilian influences during your stay.

2. Discover the History of Brazil’s Slave Trade

From 1700-1800, 1.7 million slaves were imported from Africa to Brazil to work on Portuguese-owned cattle ranches, coffee and sugar plantations, and in diamond mines. The last country in the Western world to abolish slavery in 1888, Brazil received about 4 million slaves from Africa. That is nearly 40 percent of the total number of slaves brought to America. Brazil’s slave trade history is very important because it has greatly impacted Brazilians’ ethnic makeup. The population largely influenced many aspects of Brazil’s culture from religion and music to dancing and food.

3. Dance Samba

Samba is both a dance and a musical genre that originated in Bahia, Brazil and descended from Cape Verde in West Africa. The word samba refers to prayer. Slaves in Brazil danced the style to invoke their personal gods and as a means of expressive freedom. Former slaves who migrated from Bahia introduced the dance to Rio de Janeiro where it has since been influenced by indigenous and European dance forms. In Rio, you’ll find many samba schools that compete annually in Carnival. Today samba is considered a staple of Brazilian identity.

4. Go With The Flow: Try Capoeira

5. Visit A Favela

6. Eat Brazilian Cuisine

7. Island Hop

8. Watch a Soccer Game

9. Experience Brazilian Nightlife

10. Get Out of Town

Complete story at - http://www.goabroad.com/articles/volunteer-abroad/10-ways-to-become-part-of-brazilian-culture

[MattSh]

23. Brazil - Matador Network

BRAZIL

The fifth largest country in the world, Brazil is also home to the most ecologically diverse rainforest on the planet, though visitors don’t often make it to the northwestern part of the country. In addition to being large, Brazil is also populous, with 190 million inhabitants spread among megacities such as Sao Paulo and Rio de Janiero, and smaller but still sizeable cities such as Recife and Salvador de Bahía. Brazil is very racially diverse, with many people with African and/or European roots, and one of the largest Japanese colonies outside of Japan.

Many people come to Brazil for Carnival, which for foreigners tends to center around Salvador de Bahía, though in truth, the holiday is celebrated all over the country, and those looking for a somewhat quieter experience may choose Olinda, which is close to Recife.

With links to many other articles about Brazil

Complete story at - http://matadornetwork.com/destinations/south-america/brazil/

[MattSh]

24. Russia Science & Technology Roundup - July 2015

This is something I started to put together for another site I frequent. Thought I'd add it here too.

To read the complete story, click on the individual links.

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Intel launches IoT Lab in Russia | EWDN

Intel is announcing the opening of an “IoT Ignition Labs” in Moscow. With a focus on Smart building, Smart City, and Retail, the Moscow lab “offers tools, technology and engineering know-how to those in the industry keen to take IoT projects into commercial deployment.”

The US corporation is simultaneously announcing IoT labs in Ireland and the UAE, augmenting those already open for business in the UK, Germany, Sweden, Israel, and Turkey.

These labs provide Intel’s partners, developers and integrators with advanced technological solutions. Companies may get acquainted with proofs of concepts and use cases, receive advice on new product roll-out, and integrate Intel’s ecosystem.

Among the Moscow IoT Lab’s first partners is RTSoft, which is developing a transport monitoring system adapted to environments with limited Internet access. The solution executes preliminary analysis of collected data and transmits only relevant information in order to reduce Internet traffic.

Another partner is Synesis, a developer of video data analytics and object recognition solutions. In the field of retail, these solutions generate quantitative and behavioral data on consumers.

-----> http://www.ewdn.com/2015/07/01/intel-launches-iot-lab-in-russia/

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Russian tech players develop new ties with Singapore | EWDN

In late June, illustrating the growing interest of Russian tech players in Asian markets, Skolkovo, the international tech hub under completion on the outskirts of Moscow, took an active part in the Echelon Asia Summit. This major innovation event in Singapore provided Skolkovo startups with a chance to expand into the Asian markets, while Skolkovo offered Asian startups access to the Russian market.

Ten companies from Skolkovo’s IT cluster took part in the road show, as well as one from the energy-efficient cluster. They were: Ivideon, 3DiVi, Nanosemantics, Flexbby Solutions, Artquant, SPB TV, BoardMaps, Intelligent Social Systems, Logistic IT, SDNvideo – and Bravo Motors of the energy cluster.

“Most of the companies that took part in the road show had no experience in the region, while three companies – Ivideon, SPB TV and SDN Video – looked into the possibility of expanding their business in Asia,” said Skolkovo vice president Igor Bogachev, who led the delegation as executive director of the IT cluster.

“The other companies had two aims: To gauge interest in their products and, as far as possible, find potential sales partners in the region, and also to find investors and discover what support programs are on offer in Singapore to access the southeast Asian market,” he added.

-----> http://www.ewdn.com/2015/07/06/russian-tech-players-develop-new-ties-with-singapore/

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Russia's VKontakte to Launch Rival to Instagram | Business | The Moscow Times

Russian social network VKontakte is on the verge of releasing a mobile application along the lines of popular photo-sharing service Instagram, news agency RBC reported Tuesday, citing two unidentified people familiar with the company's plans.

VKontakte applied to Apple a few days ago to have the application distributed through the U.S. tech giant's online App Store, the report said. VKontakte is also developing a version of the application for the Android mobile operating system, the sources told RBC.

“The project team is indeed working on the application, but we can't talk about the launch date or other details. Soon, very soon,” VKontakte's press secretary Georgy Lobushkin told the news agency.

VKontakte's lead designer Pavel Shumakov first announced plans for the new mobile application at an industry conference in late May.

-----> http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/russias-vkontakte-to-launch-rival-to-instagram/525646.html

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Why does Russian-made Telegram messaging app irritate its competitors? | Russia Beyond The Headlines

In the middle of July the Telegram messenger created by Pavel Durov, founder of Russia's largest social network, Vkontakte, was subjected to a series of large-scale DDOS attacks. They caused the application to breakdown all over the world. Shortly before, the application had been deleted from the Google Play store for several hours due to complaints from Korean competitor, Line.

According to Durov, the attacks occurred because of the application's growing popularity. In the last two months alone Telegram user activity had increased threefold, and about 2 billion daily messages are now sent with the service.

Protected, free, dangerous

Telegram was created in 2013, and it was immediately oriented towards the international market and had an English interface. In an interview with the New York Times, Durov said the idea of the messenger service came to him after Russia's Federal Security Service demanded that he delete opposition communities from his Vkontakte social network. After the demands were refused special service agents tried putting pressure on the programmer and searched his apartment and that of his parents. The entrepreneur then understood that he doesn't have a safe channel for communicating with friends and family, and so he decided to create a secure messaging app.

To protect the data that users exchange Durov created the MTProto protocol. It uses several encryption systems, and the app also offers a secure chat option. Thanks to this option even the app's developers themselves cannot decipher the user data and gain access to someone's correspondence.

-----> http://rbth.com/science_and_tech/2015/07/29/why_does_the_russian-made_telegram_messaging_app_irritate_it_48095.html

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IBM and Russian partners want to create high tech personalized medicine in Russia | MarchmontNews.com

IBM, Russia’s Skolkovo Foundation and the Moscow-based First Oncology Research and Advisory Center are forming a partnership to focus on the development of a platform for high tech personalized medicine in Russia, the Skolkovo Foundation website announced.

According to an MoU inked just recently, the partnership will pursue a number of shared strategic, technological and marketing goals in advancing the platform that will offer physicians innovation technologies in order to add health and productivity to the lives of oncology patients and people with age-related degenerative problems.

It is expected that the platform will enable doctors to quickly choose the best possible therapy for a specific case and apply new techniques to fighting a disease, the partners said.

IBM Watson Health, a time-tested U.S. system, and OncoFinder, a solution developed at the First Oncology Research and Advisory Center in Russia, will lend physicians a hand in making clinical decisions.

-----> http://www.marchmontnews.com/Technology-Innovation/Central-regions/21327-IBM-and-Russian-partners-want-create-high-tech-personalized-medicine-Russia.html

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Nobel Prize winner purportedly amazed at high level of cancer R&D at Russian biotech firm | MarchmontNews.com

James D. Watson, an American molecular biologist, geneticist and zoologist who in 1962 was awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine as the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, on June 20, 2015 visited the laboratories of a Russian innovation company, Biocad. The Nobel Prize laureate “didn’t expect” to see how advanced Biocad’s anti-cancer solutions are, the Biocad website announced.

Mr. Watson toured the Biocad labs located in Neudorf in the St. Petersburg special economic zone. This group of laboratories is said to be Russia’s largest R&D complex to date; it required more than $100m to build and equip, Biocad said.

In Neudorf, Biocad researchers are working on a project called MabNext, aimed at the development of Russia’s pioneering drugs to fight the severe forms of cancer and autoimmune diseases. For this monoclonal antibody based effort, special methodology has been developed which brings together the techniques of a molecule’s computer modeling and de novo gene synthesis.

-----> http://www.marchmontnews.com/Technology-Innovation/North-West/21328-Nobel-Prize-winner-purportedly-amazed-high-level-cancer-RD-Russian-biotech-firm.html

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Russian researchers develop next gen cardiograph scanning | MarchmontNews.com

The Russian Quantum Center (RQC) is developing ultrasensitive sensors based on monocrystal garnet ferrite film to diagnose possible infarction developments in a patient, RQC announced.

Just recently, the Center began using a unique magnetic field free room with iron-nickel alloy walls that are said to be able to reduce penetrating magnetic fields by a factor of 1,000. The room is expected to enable researchers to calibrate and fine-tune their ultrasensitive sensors, a solution which the scientists want to bring to market to replace ultraconductive magnetic sensors physicians currently utilize in magnetic cardiograph scanning. The new room cost RQC a reported 275,000 euros.

The effort led by a group of Dr. Vladimir Belotelov is said to have borne fruit already. The pioneering sensor samples are developed and need calibration for the product to be able to ‘ignore’ external magnetic fields.

-----> http://www.marchmontnews.com/Technology-Innovation/Central-regions/21336-Russian-researchers-develop-next-gen-cardiograph-scanning.html

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Russo-Indian partnership to focus on diagnostics of hereditary diseases | MarchmontNews.com

The ReadSense genome center based in Troitsk just outside Moscow and India’s Strand Life Sciences, a global leader in bioinformatics for personalized medicine, are pooling efforts in the development of tests for hereditary disease diagnostics, reported Rusnano, Russia’s largest nanotech company.

According to an MoU signed recently by the parties, Strand and ReadSense will be jointly developing tests based on the NGS sequencing method to diagnose genetic pathologies, such as hereditary forms of epilepsy and primary immunodeficiency.

In addition, Strand appears to be ready to transfer its genome data analysis technology, and share with the Russian partner its unique experience in the development of diagnostics business in the U.S. and India.

As part of their joint effort, ReadSense will focus on doing DNA analysis of patients’ blood samples, using Strand’s solutions to interpret results. Areas to target in this activity include neurology, gastroenterology, and pulmonology.

-----> http://www.marchmontnews.com/Technology-Innovation/Central-regions/21340-Russo-Indian-partnership-focus-diagnostics-hereditary-diseases.html

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Patient in Siberia walks with new Russian nanoceramics hip; German market dominance to be challenged | MarchmontNews.com

Surgeons in Novosibirsk, in Siberia, earlier this summer performed a successful implantation of a nanoceramics-based hip joint prosthesis in a 53-year-old male, Russia’s first such surgery ever. The Russian endoprosthesis has been produced by NEVZ-Ceramics, a local innovation company, the Russian news agency Interfax reported.

The patient, a resident of Birobidjan in the Evreiskiy Autonomous District in Southeast Siberia, is said to be up and about again after the surgery with his Russian-made artificial hip. The surgeons claim the surgery was successful, and currently seek ways of taking their expertise to other hospitals and other Russian regions.

Since June 2, 2015, doctors at the Novosibirsk Tsivyan Research Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics are reported to have performed about 40 such operations, with the service life of a prosthesis like that believed to be 20 years.

-----> http://www.marchmontnews.com/Technology-Innovation/Siberia/21333-Patient-Siberia-walks-with-new-Russian-nanoceramics-hip-German-market-dominance-be-challenged.html

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Russia to have 15 brand new nanotech-based drugs within 7 years | MarchmontNews.com

Russia may expect to have 15 brand new nanotech-based drugs developed within the next seven years, portal Svopi.ru reported.

NovaMedica, one of Russia’s leading pharmas specializing in the creation of innovation drugs and pharmaceutical business development in Russia, has announced plans to extend its line of brand products. That will reportedly follow the opening of a new laboratory.

It is expected that most of the 15 new solutions announced by this portfolio company of Rusnano, Russia’s nanotech giant, will be packed with nanotechnologies, which are used to modify the biological, physico-chemical and chemical properties of substances researchers utilize.

-----> http://www.marchmontnews.com/Technology-Innovation/Central-regions/21344-Russia-have-15-brand-new-nanotech-based-drugs-within-7-years.html

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With new Russian drug, leg ischemia surgery can be avoided | MarchmontNews.com

Human Stem Cells Institute (HSCI), a leading Russian biotech company, has developed a drug to treat ischemia which has had high appraisals from international vascular surgeons, the HSCI website announced.

Neovasculgen, the innovation drug, is considered “the world’s first drug with therapeutic angiogenic action” for use in lower extremities ischemia treatment. This severe incapacitating disease is caused by atherosclerosis of blood vessels in the legs, a condition in which blood vessels get narrow and their throughput capacity is considerably lessened.

Research and tests have proved that Neovasculgen can help increase the number of traversable capillaries in tissue affected by ischemia, thus improving blood supply and making it possible for some patients to avoid the amputation of a leg.

-----> http://www.marchmontnews.com/Technology-Innovation/Central-regions/21351-With-new-Russian-drug-leg-ischemia-surgery-can-be-avoided-.html

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Drawing blood without pain and infection: new solution from Russian developer | MarchmontNews.com

NSL, a Russian developer and resident of the biomed cluster at Skokovo and the Technospark Nanotech Center just outside Moscow, has come up with its portable laser perforator for contactless piercing of a finger’s soft tissue when drawing blood for tests, the Skolkovo Foundation announced.

“We have developed what appears to be the most compact laser perforator ever, weighing just over 100 grams. A battery fully charged is enough to power the device for more than 100 tissue penetrations. We believe our instrument will become the first-ever example of how a solid-state laser could be used in household conditions. Particles which the device emits are absolutely innocuous for the eyes,” said Ekaterina Savchuk, the CEO of NSL, in a comment on the emergence of this new gadget.

The developers are positive that a laser piercer like theirs is the only cost-effective alternative to metal lancets and needles. Using it in modern express diagnostics techniques will protect both patients and medical staff against any exposure to infection while also minimizing a patient’s painful experience during the drawing of blood, NSL said.

-----> http://www.marchmontnews.com/Technology-Innovation/Central-regions/21354-Drawing-blood-without-pain-and-infection-new-solution-Russian-developer.html

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Geneticists create simpler, cheaper test to determine baby's gender | Russia Beyond The Headlines

Just 7-10 milliliters of a pregnant woman’s venous blood is needed to ascertain whether she is expecting a boy or a girl, whether there is a probability of Rh incompatibility (Ed.: an Rh factor is a type of protein on the surface of red blood cells) or if genetic disorders are present, such as Down syndrome. Specialists at TestGen, a subsidiary of ULNANOTECH Nano Center (Ulyanovsk Technology Transfer Center), have developed a new method for a non-invasive genetic diagnosis.

The kits provide results within 2-3 hours. A new generation of tests has already been introduced in perinatal centers and private laboratories in 20 Russian regions throughout the country, as well as in Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan. In Kazakhstan the testing has even been included as part of state health care programs. Today this Ulyanovsk firm has plans to enter the global market. The test developers told RBTH that the test has already aroused interest in the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Iraq.

-----> http://rbth.com/science_and_tech/2015/07/07/new_test_can_determine_a_babys_gender_using_mothers_blood_47517.html

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Siberian scientists develop artificial heart technology | Russia Beyond The Headlines

Only 10 percent of patients in need of heart transplants in Russia receive a donor organ (in the United States, for example, the figure is 58 percent), said the country's chief transplant doctor Sergei Gauthier.

About 60 percent of patients on transplant waiting lists die before the organ is available, despite “presumed consent” policies for posthumous organ donation in Russia. This means that if a person has not expressed disagreement against the removal of organs after death when alive, then they are recognized as a donor. But in reality the transplantation process is often opposed by relatives of the deceased. In 2014, the Levada Center conducted a survey that revealed that the majority of Russians do not trust doctors, because they do not believe that they will try to save the life of a potential donor.

“Russian Health Care needs artificial ‘engines’ for the heart,” Dmitry Bogdanov MD, a practicing cardiovascular surgeon, told RBTH. “However, such devices increase the risk of thromboembolic events (editor’s note: a blood clot that gets loose in the blood stream), which may lead to death.”

However, the developers of the new implant, which will pump blood from one area of the heart to another, promise that such problems will not occur in their version.

-----> http://rbth.com/science_and_tech/2015/07/08/siberian_scientists_develop_artificial_heart_technology_47567.html

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Fixing the genome: Scientists discover a way to repair damaged DNA | Russia Beyond The Headlines

Human cells can experience up to 20,000 small-scale DNA failures in the chromosome daily. Scientists refer to them as double-strand breaks (DSBs), and they are usually caused by UV light, ionizing radiation, oxidative stress, various harmful substances and other factors.

Those DNA failures can result in mutations that cause serious diseases, including Alzheimer's, Louis-Bar syndrome and cancer. In June, a group of researchers from Moscow State University led by professor Vasily Studnitsky, and the Fox Chase Cancer Center of Temple University in Philadelphia, discovered a new method of DNA repair. The scientists claim their findings will help cure and prevent several disorders in the future.

A special enzyme that repairs damaged DNA

It is hard to exaggerate how important DNA repair is for any kind of life form. Indeed, life itself would be unimaginable without a whole plethora of proteins and signal-responsive molecules attending to DSBs, not only detecting them, but also evaluating the extent to which they can be repaired and fusing the lesions if possible.

-----> http://rbth.com/science_and_tech/2015/07/28/fixing_the_genome_scientists_discover_a_way_to_repair_damage_48061.html

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Up, up and away: Russian women preparing for mock-up moon mission | Russia Beyond The Headlines

From October 27 to November 4, the Russian Academy of Science’s Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBP) in Moscow will conduct the experiment, “Moon 2015”, which is the first isolation experiment exclusively involving women.

The project’s goal is to study the psychology and physiology of female humans during deep space missions in order to ultimately understand which line-ups would be the most suitable for such tasks. Ten volunteers – postgraduate students, laboratory assistants, junior and senior research associates – are getting ready for the experiment, but only six of them will be selected to participate.

According to Sergei Ponomarev, one of the project managers, “Moon 2015” will lay the foundation for a series of similar tests. “We would like to collect as much data on the early stages of the female body’s adaptation to enclosed spaces as we can. We are talking about a somewhat distinctive microbiota – no new strains of microorganisms can emerge there. Therefore, the immune system goes into what we call hibernation. But we still have no information on when and how exactly this happens – abruptly or gradually,” the researcher said.

-----> http://rbth.com/science_and_tech/2015/07/24/up_up_and_away_russian_women_preparing_for_mock-up_moon_miss_48009.html

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Space suit of the future will go into orbit in 2015 | Russia Beyond The Headlines

The Orlan-MKS space suit was the main attraction at the Innoprom International Industrial Trade Fair held in Yekaterinburg from July 8-11. Companies hailing from 70 countries around the world participated in the event, however, the Russian space suit set an expo record for popularity as measured by the quantity of people that wanted to take selfies with it. The organizers lost count, but believe the number was somewhere in the thousands.

The space suit was ordered by RKK Energia, the main supplier of components and equipment of the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS). The testing of the new system, which is supposed to end by the end of 2015, is being done according to 50 parameters.

System will control body temperature

The creator of the new space suit, the Russian Technodynamica Holding (a subsidiary of the state Rostech corporation) brought the suit to the exhibition straight from Zvezda’s – the suit’s developers – testing facilities.

Presenting the novelty, Maxim Kuzyuk, the holding's general director, said that today this is "the most perfected space suit in the world."

-----> http://rbth.com/science_and_tech/2015/07/16/space_suit_of_the_future_will_go_into_orbit_in_2015_47813.html

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Russian emergencies watchdog can now gauge asteroid disaster risks | MarchmontNews.com

Specialists at EMERCOM of Russia, Russia’s emergencies ministry, have developed a special computing facility that is said to enable the modeling of disaster scenarios linked to asteroid and comet threats, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported.

According to EMERCOM, their R&D results also include some asteroid-caused disaster scenarios and methodological recommendations to assess the effectiveness of rescue operations in populous areas in an emergency like that.

The fall of a huge meteorite is linked by scientists to the purported mass extinction of most of living species an estimated 250 million years ago. Another similar meteorite is believed to have caused the annihilation of dinosaurs about 65 million years ago.

-----> http://www.marchmontnews.com/Technology-Innovation/Central-regions/21338-Russian-emergencies-watchdog-can-now-gauge-asteroid-disaster-risks.html

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Russian region and Iran ink cooperation in technology and innovation | MarchmontNews.com

Russia’s Tatarstan, a highly developed region in the mid-Volga area, and the Islamic Republic of Iran have paved the way for cooperation in technology and innovation. This was made possible in early July following talks in Tatarstan between the region’s government officials responsible for industrial and trade development, aided by leading scientists and industrial captains, and a high-profile delegation from Iran, the website of the Tatarstan Ministry of Industry and Commerce announced.

The parties are said to be establishing a joint Iran-Tatarstan Working Group to support cooperation and carry out agreements reached at the talks. Documents signed in July call for not only collaboration in technology and applied innovation but also for exchange of scientific discoveries between the two partners.

-----> http://www.marchmontnews.com/Finance-Business/Volga/21353-Russian-region-and-Iran-ink-cooperation-technology-and-innovation.html

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Unlikely solution potentially discovered to clean up nuclear waste | Russia Beyond The Headlines

According to the Nuclear Technology Review 2015, published by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in July, more than 68 million cubic meters of nuclear waste with varying degrees of activity has been generated worldwide as of the end of 2014. It often takes years for many radioactive substances to disintegrate.

Recently, a research team led by Georgy Shafeyev from the Prokhorov General Physics Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences (IOFAN) said that it has come close to solving the problem of nuclear waste. These researchers state that certain radioactive elements can be quickly and easily converted into a neutral substance if placed in a special solution and exposed to a laser.

Progress by chance

The discovery was made by accident during the laboratory's experiments to make nanoparticles using a laser. Radioactive substances were literally knocked out of metal when placed in a special aqueous solution. The researchers then decided to experiment with various metals and solutions.

When Shafeyev and his colleagues placed gold in the solution of radioactive thorium 232, they found that the latter ceased to emit radiation with the advent of nanoparticles.

-----> http://rbth.com/science_and_tech/2015/07/20/unlikely_solution_potentially_discovered_to_clean_up_nuclear_47885.html

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Top 5 Russian inventions at Innoprom exhibition | Russia Beyond The Headlines

Here RBTH will present a few of the latest Russian inventions showcased at the Innoprom exhibition. Many of these innovations were developed with the recently adapted import substitution policy in mind.

Brain-computer interface

Russia’s Bruk Electronic Control Machines Institute collaborating with scientists from Lomonosov Moscow State University have created a neural interface that permits anyone to control electronic and electromechanical devices using the “power of thought.”

Anthropomorphic robotic prosthesis

The same developer also presented an innovative anthropomorphic robotic prosthesis - a first for Russia.

Energy efficient electric engines

One of the most groundbreaking inventions demonstrated at the fair was the prototype family of a new generation of brushless DC electric motors, which significantly outperforms models available on the international market at the moment. The motors were presented by Vladimir Milov, a senior fellow at the Physics Department at Lomonosov Moscow State University.

An intensive care chamber for newborn babies

Rostec’s Schwabe holding company showcased a unique device for newborns, combining all the features of an incubator for infants with those of a neonatal warming system.

Helicopter pilot goggles

Schwabe holding company also presented night vision goggles with an advanced optical system designed specifically for helicopter pilots.

-----> http://rbth.com/science_and_tech/2015/07/22/top_5_russian_inventions_at_innoprom_exhibition_47955.html

[MattSh]

25. Musical Interlude: The Girl From Ipanema- 1964

[MattSh]

26. The Impossible Co-Bubbles: Stocks and Bonds | Zero Hedge

In the past, readers have been alerted to numerous “impossible” trends in our markets and economies, all manufactured by the Western banking crime syndicate. Here are just a few of those highlights (low-lights?)

a) It’s impossible for Western bond prices to be at all-time highs. Western nations have never been less-solvent (i.e. obviously bankrupt). The less-solvent the debtor, the higher the rate of interest the debtor is (supposed to be) forced to pay, and bond prices and interest rates are precisely inverse to each other. Interest rates should be at all-time highs, bond prices should be at all-time lows. Obvious fraud.

b) It’s impossible for our markets to move like one, gigantic, synchronized yo-yo, every minute of every hour of every day. Markets diverge, it’s what they do. When we see prices move together in near-perfect clockwork, we know we no longer have “markets”. Obvious fraud.

c) It’s impossible for precious metals prices to fall below the cost of production – and stay there – with large supply-deficits in both the gold and silver market. There is literally only one, possible “cure” for a supply-deficit: higher prices. These markets are being (permanently) prevented from doing what theymust do. Obvious fraud.

Note also that all of these “impossible” trends are separate from the multi-billion and multi-trillion dollar mega-crimes which these same financial criminals are caught perpetrating, on a near-daily basis (and are allowed to continue to perpetrate):

1) They were caught conspiring to serially rig the $500 trillion LIBOR debt market.

2) They were caught conspiring to serially rig the $5 trillion/day global currency market.

3) They were caught conspiring to serially rig the “gold fix”.

4) They were caught conspiring to serially rig the “silver fix”.

5) They were caught conspiring to serially rig base metals markets.

6) They were caught conspiring to serially launder $TRILLIONS for the drug cartels and “terrorist” organizations. Isn’t there supposed to be a “War on Drugs”? Isn’t there supposed to be a “War on Terror”? Why do these criminals get a free pass?

(Meanwhile, the Lemmings continue to scoff at “conspiracy theories”.)

But all of these “impossible” (i.e. fraudulent) developments in our economies, and all these mega-crimes that are swept under the carpet by our puppet governments pale in significance next to the greatest impossibility/insanity of all: the co-bubbles in Western stocks and bonds, and more specifically the incredibly gigantic (simultaneous) stock- bubble and bond-bubble in the U.S.

Complete story at - http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-08-21/impossible-co-bubbles-stocks-and-bonds

[Demeter]

33. Short of rolling out and polishing up the guillotine, what can an average person do?

That is the problem here...there is no give and take. Just Take, Take, Take....

[MattSh]

27. Musical Interlude: Bellini - Samba De Janeiro (Brazilian Carnival Song)

[Demeter]

34. China's is the First Central Bank to Lose Control… It Won't Be the Last

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-08-21/chinas-first-central-bank-lose-control%E2%80%A6-it-wont-be-last

ALL of the so called, “economic recovery” that began in 2009 has been based on the Central Banks’ abilities to rein in the collapse. The first round of interventions (2007-early 2009) was performed in the name of saving the system. The second round (2010-2012) was done because it was generally believed that the first round hadn’t completed the task of getting the world back to recovery.

However, from 2012 onward, everything changed. At that point the Central Banks went “all in” on the Keynesian lunacy that they’d been employing since 2008. We no longer had QE plans with definitive deadlines. Instead phrases like “open-ended” and doing “whatever it takes” began to emanate from Central Bankers’ mouths. However, the insanity was in fact greater than this. It is one thing to bluff your way through the weakest recovery in 80+ years with empty promises; but it’s another thing entirely to roll the dice on your entire country’s solvency just to see what happens.

In 2013, the Bank of Japan launched a single QE program equal to 25% of Japan’s GDP. This was unheard of in the history of the world. Never before had a country spent so much money relative to its size so rapidly… and with so little results: a few quarters of increased economic growth while household spending collapsed and misery rose alongside inflation. This was the beginning of the end. Japan nearly broke its bond market launching this program (the circuit breakers tripped multiple times in that first week). However it wasn’t until last month that things truly became completely and utterly broken.

A month or so ago, China lost control of its stock market. Despite freezing the market, banning short-selling, arresting short-sellers, and injecting billions of Dollars per day into the markets, China's stock market continues to implode. Please let this sink in: a Central bank, indeed, one of the largest, most important Central Banks, has officially "lost control."

This will not be a one-off event. With the Fed and other Central banks now leveraged well above 50-to-1, even those entities that were backstopping an insolvent financial system are themselves insolvent. The Big Crisis, the one in which entire countries go bust, has begun. It will not unfold in a matter of weeks; these sorts of things take months to complete. But it has begun.

[Demeter]

35. I'll be back later...starvation calls. Post on!

[Demeter]

36. CORPORATE WELFARE IN CALIFORNIA

Corporate welfare is often camouflaged in taxes that seem neutral on their face but give windfalls to big entrenched corporations at the expense of average people and small businesses. Take a look at commercial property taxes in California, for example. In 1978 California voters passed Proposition 13 – which began to assess property for tax purposes at its price when it was bought, rather than its current market price. This has protected homeowners and renters. But it’s also given a quiet windfall to entrenched corporate owners of commercial property.

Corporations don’t need this protection. They’re in the real economy. They’re supposed to compete on a level playing field with new companies whose property taxes are based on current market prices. This corporate windfall has caused three big problems.

First, it’s shifted more of the property tax on to California homeowners.

Back in 1978, corporations paid 44 percent of all property taxes and homeowners paid 56 percent. Now, after exploiting this loophole for years, corporations pay only 28 percent of property taxes, while homeowners pick up 72 percent of the tab.

Second, it’s robbed California of billions of dollars to support schools and local services. If all corporations were paying the property taxes they should be paying, schools and local services would have $9 billion dollars more in revenues this year.

Third, it penalizes new and expanding businesses that don’t get this windfall because their commercial property is assessed at the current market price – but they compete for customers with companies whose property is assessed at the price they purchased it years ago.

That’s unfair and it’s bad for the economy because California needs new and expanding businesses. Today, almost half of all commercial properties in California pay their fair share of property taxes, but they’re hobbled by those that don’t. This loophole must be closed. All corporations should be paying commercial property taxes based on current market prices.

The giant corporations that are currently exploiting the loophole for their own profits obviously don’t want it closed, so they’re trying to scare people by saying closing it will cause businesses to leave California. That’s baloney. Leveling the playing field for all businesses will make the California economy more efficient, and help new and expanding businesses. Besides, California’s property taxes are already much lower than the national average. So even if corporations pay their full share, they’re still getting a great deal. Right now, a grassroots movement is growing of Californians determined to reform this broken commercial property tax system, and who know California needs more stable funding for its schools, libraries, roads, and communities.

[Demeter]

37. Iraq War General Ray Odierno Cashing In With New Job at JPMorgan Chase

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/08/20/iraq-war-surge-general-ray-odierno-gets-new-job-jp-morgan-chase/

Four-star General Ray Odierno retired from his position as U.S. Army chief of staff on Friday. Now, less than a week after mustering out, he’s cashing in. The former general has taken a job as a senior adviser to the investment firm JPMorgan Chase.

In a press release posted on JPMorgan’s website on Thursday, the firm announced that Odierno is joining the company in “a senior advisory capacity,” providing “strategic advice and global insights” to CEO Jamie Dimon as well as the company’s board of directors. The announcement also said Odierno “will represent JPMorgan Chase through engagement with clients, government officials and policy makers in the U.S. and internationally.”

Odierno, who led the U.S. 4th infantry division during the initial stages of the occupation of Iraq, has been criticized for the allegedly heavy-handed and brutal behavior he permitted as a commander. While troops under his command were credited with the capture of Saddam Hussein, they were also criticized for their extremely harsh tactics in dealing with the local population. In Thomas Ricks’ 2006 book Fiasco, Odierno was characterized as helping enable indiscriminate mass detentions, prisoner abuse, and extrajudicial killings of Iraqi civilians in the area under his control.

In one particularly brutal 2003 incident documented in the book, Odierno overruled a recommendation that a soldier under his command be court-martialed for the killing of a Iraqi detainee who had turned himself in to U.S. forces, saying that the soldier accused of the murder was “a cook, he didn’t get proper training,” and that the detainee was “very aggressive, a bad guy.” The detainee, an Iraqi man named Obeed Radad, had turned himself in to U.S. forces after learning that they had been looking for him. He was shot and killed while being held in an isolation cell at a U.S. detention center in Tikrit, after allegedly trying to escape through a barbed wire fence.

The kind of behavior exhibited by Odierno’s forces would be said to have fostered the insurgency against U.S. troops in the country...

*****************



Odierno is far from being the only top military official to retire and take on a high-level position with a private sector firm. In 2013, shortly after retiring as the head of U.S. Central Command, former Marine Corps General James Mattis took a position on the board of directors of military defense contractor General Dynamics. A 2010 Boston Globe report documented that 80 percent of retired 3- and 4-star generals who retired between 2004 and 2008 went on to take positions as consultants or executives in the private sector shortly after retirement, primarily in the defense industry.

In the press release announcing his new role with JPMorgan Chase, Odierno stated, “I’m excited to work with Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon and to have the opportunity to contribute to JPMorgan Chase — a globally recognized industry leader.”

[Demeter]

38. The War Against the Third World: What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy

CIA Covert Operations and US Military Interventions Since World War II

[Demeter]

39. Why Is The West Reluctant to Cut Ties With Saudi Arabia?

[Demeter]

42. How Much Longer Can Saudi Arabia's Economy Hold Out Against Cheap Oil?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-21/how-much-longer-can-saudi-arabia-s-economy-hold-out-against-cheap-oil-

The oil price was near its lowest in more than a decade, cash reserves were being depleted, emerging markets were in turmoil and Saudi Arabia was beginning to panic.

“It was a very scary moment,” said Khalid Alsweilem, former head of investment at the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, the country’s central bank. “And luckily at that point, oil prices started going up. Not by design, by good luck.”

That was 1998, and now Saudi Arabia’s fortunes threaten to turn again. This time, luck might not be enough as the government tries to protect the wealth of a nation whose economy has swelled by five times since then. The bastion of conservative Sunni Islam also is paying for an expanding role in regional conflicts in the face of a resurgent Iran and Islamic State extremists who have bombed Saudi mosques.

Economists are predicting a budget deficit of as much as 20 percent of gross domestic product and the International Monetary Fund forecasts a first Saudi current-account deficit in more than a decade. Reserves at the central bank tumbled 10 percent from a year ago, or by more than $70 billion.

As a result, bets on the devaluation of the riyal are surging....

[Demeter]

40. World’s Richest People Lose $182 Billion in Market Rout

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-21/world-s-richest-people-lose-182-billion-as-market-rout-deepens








The world’s 400 richest people lost $182 billion this week from their collective fortunes as weak manufacturing data from China and a rout in commodities sent global markets plunging.

The weekly drop for the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a group that includes Warren Buffett and Glencore Plc’s Ivan Glasenberg, was the biggest since tracking of the expanded list began in September 2014. The combined net worth of the index members fell by $76 billion on Friday alone, when the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of U.S. stocks ended its worst week since 2011.

“For them that’s a fractional percentage, even though $182 billion is a big number,” said John Collins, director of investment advisory at Aspiriant, which oversees more than $8 billion for high net worth clients. “A week like this feels really bad, but when you take a step back, in a big picture view it’s not a disaster by any means.”

Friday’s losses put the world’s richest 400 into the red for the year to date. They’re now down $74 billion in 2015, with a collective net worth of $3.98 trillion.

The week’s largest setback in dollar terms was experienced by Buffett, who saw his fortune drop by $3.6 billion as Berkshire Hathaway Inc. slipped more than 5 percent. The investor is the world’s third-wealthiest person, with a fortune of $63.4 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The slump in oil, which had its longest weekly losing streak since 1986 amid signs of an extended supply glut, contributed to $15.2 billion in losses for the world’s wealthiest energy billionaires. Continental Resources Inc. Chairman Harold Hamm saw $895 million, or 9 percent of his net worth, vanish this week.

Glasenberg, chief executive officer of mining company Glencore Plc, lost $237 million during the week as commodity prices slid to their lowest levels in 13 years. Glencore reached a record low in London on Friday, down more than 8 percent from a week earlier, after the trading house reported its profit sank 56 percent in the first half of the year. Glasenberg’s fortune has decreased more than 40 percent in 2015, to $3.1 billion.

China’s 26 wealthiest people, pummeled by Hong Kong’s bear market and a weaker yen, lost $18.8 billion during the week. Wang Jianlin of Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties Co. was hit hardest, losing $3.5 billion.

Eleven billionaires added to their fortunes in spite of the market turmoil. The week’s biggest dollar gainer was Sun Pharmaceuticals’ Dilip Shanghvi. The world’s 39th-richest person became $467 million wealthier, elevating his net worth to $18.9 billion.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index takes measure of the world’s wealthiest people based on market and economic changes and Bloomberg News reporting. Each net-worth figure is updated every business day at 5:30 p.m. in New York and listed in U.S. dollars.

[Demeter]

41. These Charts Show How Hard China Has Hit Global Markets

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-21/these-charts-show-how-hard-china-has-hit-global-markets

The damage is everywhere...SEE CHARTS AT LINK

[Demeter]

43. German Wage Repression: Getting to the Roots of the Eurozone Crisis

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/08/german-wage-repression-getting-to-the-roots-of-the-eurozone-crisis.html

Germany has been insistent that the so-called peripheral countries increase their competitiveness through slower wages rises or even wage cuts. Wage increases in Germany are an equally important, and symmetrical, part of this necessary adjustment process.

The wage increases are steps in the right direction, but relatively small steps. More gains for German workers in the future would be both warranted and a win-win proposition for Germany and its trade partners.

— Ben Bernanke, “German wage hikes: A small step in the right direction,” Brookings Institution, April 13, 2015.

Ben Bernanke not only supports recent German wage increases, he also thinks further wage increases for German workers are “warranted and a win-win proposition for Germany and its trade partners”? Now that’s a jaw-dropper. Has the former head of the Federal Reserve Board—the guardian of “price stability,” which makes policy designed to keep U.S. wages in check—switched sides in the class war, now that he is retired? Hardly. Rather, it’s that catering to the demands of German high finance and other elites has been so disastrous that even the former chair of the Fed cannot deny the undeniable: unless Germany changes course and boosts workers’ wages, the euro crisis will only worsen.

Let’s look more closely at just how German wage repression and currency manipulation pushed the eurozone into crisis, ignited a conflict between northern and southern eurozone countries (with Germany as the enforcer of austerity), and left Greece teetering on the edge of collapse.

From “Sick Man” to Export Bully

In 2000, Germany was widely considered “the sick man of Europe.” Through much of the previous decade, the German economy had grown more slowly than the European Union average, its manufacturing base had shrunk, and its unemployment rate had risen to near double-digit levels. Nor was Germany an export powerhouse, with its current account (the mostly widely used and most comprehensive measure of a nation’s financial balance with the rest of the world) showing a modest deficit in 2000.

Adopting the euro as its sole currency, in January 2002, was no panacea. For the next two years, Germany’s economy continued to stagnate. But converting to the euro—whose value was more or less an average of that of the stronger and weaker former currencies of the member countries—soon did improve Germany’s competitive position internationally. German exports, no longer valued in strong deutschmarks, but in weaker euros, became cheaper to buyers in other countries. At the same time, the exports of countries that used to have weaker currencies, such as the Greek drachma and the Spanish peseta, became more expensive. That alone transformed Germany’s current account deficit into a surplus.

China is widely accused of “currency manipulation,” keeping the renminbi weak to boost its exports. But few see that the eurozone—the now 19- country bloc sharing the euro as its common currency—has functioned for Germany as a built-in currency manipulation system. And much like China, Germany used a lethal combination of wage repression and an undervalued currency to boost its exports and output at the expense of its trading partners.

Following the adoption of the euro, Germany instituted a set of “labormarket flexibility” policies intended to further improve its international competitiveness. Known as the “Agenda 2010 Reforms,” the new policies reduced pensions, cut medical benefits, and slashed the duration of unemployment benefits from nearly three years to just one. They made it easier to fire workers, while encouraging the creation of parttime and short-term jobs. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reports that, from the mid-1990s to 2008, the incomes of the poorest 30% of Germans actually declined in real (inflation-adjusted) terms. Germany’s repressive labor policies kept a lid on wage growth. In every year from 2000 through the onset of the financial crisis in 2009, German compensation per employee increased more slowly than the eurozone average, and less even than in the United States.

During the 1990s, German workers’ real (inflation-adjusted) wages rose along with productivity gains, meaning that employers could pay the higher wages without facing higher labor costs per unit of output. After 1999, wage gains no longer kept pace with productivity, and the gap between the two widened. As wages stagnated, inequality worsened, and poverty rates rose. Total labor compensation (wages and benefits) fell from 61% of GDP in 2001 to just 55% of GDP in 2007, its lowest level in five decades.

German wage repression went even further than necessary to meet the 2% inflation target mandated by the eurozone agreement, and insisted upon by German policymakers. Unit labor cost (workers’ compensation per unit of output) is perhaps the most important determinant of prices and competitiveness. Unit labor cost rises with wage increases but falls with gains in productivity. From 1999 to 2013, German unit labor cost increased by just 0.4% a year. The reason was not German productivity growth, which was no greater than the eurozone average over the period; rather, it was that German labor-market policies kept wage growth in check.

This combination of a built-in system of currency manipulation afforded by the euro and labor-market policies holding labor costs in check turned Germany into the world’s preeminent trade-surplus country. As its competitive advantage grew, its exports soared. Germany’s current account surplus became the largest in the world relative to the size of its economy, reaching 7.6% of the country’s GDP, more than twice the size of China’s surplus compared to its GDP.

Beggar Thy Neighborhood

Germany’s transformation into an export powerhouse came at the expense of the southern eurozone economies. Despite posting productivity gains that were equal or almost equal to Germany’s, Greece, Portugal, Spain, and Italy saw their labor costs per unit of output—and in turn prices rise— considerably faster than Germany’s. Wage growth in these countries exceeded productivity growth, and the resulting higher unit labor costs pushed prices up by more than the eurozone’s low 2% annual inflation target (though by only a small margin).

The widening gap in unit labor costs gave Germany a tremendous competitive advantage and left the southern eurozone economies at a tremendous disadvantage. Germany amassed its ever-larger current account surplus, while the southern eurozone economies were saddled with worsening deficits. Later in the decade, the Greek, Portuguese, and Spanish current account deficits approached or even reached alarming double-digit levels, relative to the sizes of their economies.

In this way, German wage repression is an essential component of the euro crisis. Heiner Flassbeck, the German economist and longtime critic of wage repression, and Costas Lapavistas, the Greek economist best known for his work on financialization, put it best in their recent book Against the Troika: Crisis and Austerity in the Eurozone: “Germany has operated a policy of ‘beggar-thy-neighbor’ but only after ‘beggaring its own people’ by essentially freezing wages. This is the secret of German success during the last fifteen years.”

While Germany’s huge exports across Europe and elsewhere created German jobs and lowered the country’s unemployment rate, the German economy never grew robustly. Wage repression subsidized exports, but it sapped domestic spending. And, held back by this chronic lack of domestic demand, Germany’s economic growth was far from impressive, before or after the Great Recession. From 2002 to 2008, the German economy grew more slowly than the eurozone average, and over the last five years has failed to match even the sluggish growth rates posted by the U.S. economic recovery. With low wage growth, consumption stagnated. German corporations hoarded their profits and private investment relative to GDP fell almost continuously from 2000 on. The same was true for German public investment, held back by the eurozone budgetary constraints.

At the same time, Germany spread instability. Germany’s reliance on foreign demand for its exports drained spending from elsewhere in the eurozone and slowed growth in those countries. That, in turn, made it less likely that German banks and elites would recover their loans and investments in southern Europe.

Wage Repression and the Crisis

No wonder Bernanke now describes higher German wages as an important step toward reducing Europe’s trade imbalances. More spending by German workers on domestic goods and imports would help Germany and its trading partners grow, and improve the lot of working people throughout the eurozone.

Of course, much more needs to be done. Putting an end to the austerity measures imposed on Greece and the other struggling eurozone economies would boost their demand as well. In fact, it would also better serve the interests of Germany and the profit-making class, by helping to stabilize a system from which they have benefited so greatly at the expense of much of the region’s population.

Still, raising the wages of German workers to match productivity gains is, as Bernanke recognizes, surely a step in the right direction. Raising U.S. wages to match productivity gains would help defuse U.S. wage repression and boost economic growth here as well. If Bernanke throws his weight behind that proposition, we’ll truly wonder which side is he on.

[Demeter]

44. Greece – Distomo – the German Massacre and Beyond By Peter Koenig

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article42586.htm

Distomo is a small town of about 5,000 souls, nestled in the rolling hills of central Greece. Its access road is hardly visible from the main road to Delphi, the historic place, in the heart of the country and the heart of Greek philosophy, where in the temple of Apollo, it is said the concept of democracy was born some 2,500 years ago. Entering Distomo, less than 20 km away from Delphi, one can feel an air of deep sorrow. At the outskirts of the village, to the left of the main road on top of a small hill a memorial had been erected for the victims of the horrifying massacre perpetrated by Nazi German SS troops.

The bushes and small trees around the hill leading up to the monument were freshly burned. The sooty smell was still in the air. In the village people appeared depressed, resigned. Nobody wanted to talk, let alone to foreigners. When asked who set the hill ablaze, one elderly man consulted with his friends in Greek, and then said, ‘we know but we don’t want to talk about it.’ – On reflection, the deliberate and horrific hill fire must have brought back livid memories of the bloody horrors that were committed to their village 71 years ago by Nazi Germany. No wonder, they don’t want to revive that memory...In nearby Delphi a similar air of resignation permeated the small town. Delphi, today a renowned tourist town, was almost empty. A restaurant owner sadly said – there is no more democracy in Greece – there is no more democracy in Europe – and he added – in the world, period. With all the extra taxes the government is levying on real estate property, he lamented, I may lose this restaurant which has been owned by my family for hundreds of years. He has no good word for Germany in particular and Europe as a whole and concluded, with this turn-about by Tsipras against the overwhelming will of the Greek people, the left is promoting the right – and that will lead to even more disaster. “What can we do? We are in shock. Nobody dares to move.”

On 10 June 1944, German Waffen SS-troups of the 4th SS Polizei Panzergrenadier Division went door to door and butchered Greek civilians, 218 in all – babies, children, elderly, women and men – no discrimination. Then they burned the village down to the ground. According to survivors, they were “bayonetting babies in the cribs, stabbing pregnant women, and beheading the village priest.” – Their ‘justification’ (sic) was an act of revenge for the villagers participation in a partisan attack on the German unit – which later was proven to be a lie. The most illustrative account of the mass murder is documented in the book, “My Odyssey” by the then Head of the International Red Cross in Greece, the Swede Sture Linner (Min Odysse (Stockholm: Norstedt, 1982). He writes:

We were married on June 14 (Sture Linner and his wife Cleo). Emil Santrom, chair of the Greek Committee, organized a wedding banquet for the occasion. Late in the evening he approached me and pulled me aside to a corner, away from the laughs and voices, to talk privately.

He showed me a telegram he had just received: The Germans had been slaughtering for three days the people of Distomo, near Delphi, and then they burned the village down. If there were any survivors, they would be in need of immediate assistance.

Distomo was within the region of my responsibility for the supply of food and medicines. I passed on the telegram to Cleo to read. She winked and we immediately departed discretely from the festivity.

About an hour later we were on our way in the darkness of the night. It took several agonizing hours to travel the ravaged roads and pass several roadblocks. It was dawn by the time we finally reached the main road that led to Distomo.

Vultures were rising slowly and hesitantly at a low height from the sides of the road when they heard us coming. For hundreds of yards along the road, human bodies were hanging from every tree, pierced with bayonets – some were still alive.

They were the villagers, who were punished this way – they were suspected of providing help to the guerillas of the region, who had ambushed an SS unit.

The odor was unbearable.

In the village the last remnants of the houses were still burning. Hundreds of dead bodies of people of all ages, from elderly to newborns, were strewn around on the dirt. Several women were slaughtered with bayonets, their wombs torn apart and their breasts severed; others were lying strangled with their own intestines wrapped around their necks. It seemed as if no-one had survived…

There! An old man at the end of the village! He had miraculously survived the slaughter. He was shocked by the horror around him, with an empty gaze, his utterances incomprehensible. We descended in the midst of the disaster and yelled in Greek: “Red Cross! Red Cross! We came to help!”

From the distance a woman approached with hesitation. She told us that only a handful of villagers managed to escape before the attack begun. Together with her we started searching for them. It was after we had set off in this search that we realized she was shot in the hand. We operated on her immediately with Cleo performing the surgery.

It was our honeymoon!

Not long after this horrific massacre, our connection with Distomo would conclude with this remarkable epilogue.

When the German occupation forces were forced to leave Greece [after the defeat of Nazi Germany], things did not go as planned for them. A German unit was surrounded by guerillas exactly in the same area, at Distomo. I thought that this might be taken by the Greeks as an opportunity for a bloody revenge, especially when considering that for quite a while the region had been cut off from any food supplies. I loaded with food necessities a few lorries, I wired to Distomo word of our planned arrival, and we found ourselves on the same road, once again, Cleo and I.

When we reached the outskirts of the village, we were met by a committee led by the elderly priest. He was an old fashioned patriarch, with a long, wavy, white beard. Next to him the guerilla captain, fully armed. The priest spoke first and thanked us on behalf of everybody for the food supplies. Then he added: “We are all starving here, both us and the German prisoners. Now, though we are famished, we are at least in our land. The Germans have not just lost the war; they are also far from their country. Give them the food you have with you, they have a long way ahead.”

At this phrase Cleo turned her eyes to me. I suspected what she wanted to tell me with that look, but I could not see clearly any more. I was just standing there weeping….

This story tells more about Greece, the Greek people, than thousands of words could say.

Relatives of the victims initiated legal proceedings against the German government for reparation payments. In October 1997 a Greek court awarded them damages of 28 million euros, a judgment confirmed by the Greek High court in 2000. However, the ruling was not enforced because under Greek law a judgment against a sovereign state requires prior consent of the Ministry of Justice – which was not given. The victims’ families took the case to court in Germany. The case was rejected at all levels of German courts, referring to a 1961 bilateral agreement concerning enforcement and recognition of judgments between Germany and Greece, and Section 328 of the German Code of Civil Procedure. These legislations require Greece to have jurisdiction – which it does not have. The horrific mass-murders carried out by the Nazi troops are considered ‘sovereign acts’ by a state. Following “fundamental principles of international law, each country is immune from another state’s jurisdiction.” Similar principles were applied to other reparation payments Germany should have made to brutally assailed countries by the Nazi troops, including the overall reparation payments Germany owed Greece of about 170 billion dollars (in today’s terms at least 350 billion euros). Germany got literally away with murder. Why is that? Why are such international laws not adjusted to realities on the ground? Why do they allow the strong to butcher the weak without consequences?

Could not, under such international ruling, Greece claim that her entire debt is a sovereign debt (which the troika claims it is) and that nobody, least Germany, has a right to legally pursue Greece for reimbursement? – It is even better; international law also proclaims that any contract concluded under duress, coercion, corruption or blackmail is illegal. All of Greece’s debt, including the latest € 86 billion of which details are being negotiated in secret as I write these lines, were acquired under duress, coercion, blackmail and corruption. Thus, it is illegal. Why does Greece not seize this international legal protection and claim its debt illegal and null? – And start afresh, with a clean slate? – Outside of the Eurozone, gaining respect from her southern fellow-countries and the rest of the world for having the backbone to stand up against the globalized looters and the banksters?

Greece has lost 8% of its population during the WWII by Nazi Germany, proportionally the most of any country fighting the Nazis.

Greece is still vulnerable; their people’s friendliness, their attitude of non-confrontation, has put them again in the fangs of the same predators – a Germany that slaughters with banks instead of tanks, a Germany of no scruples, a Germany with heartless leaders – a Germany that again strives for dominance for hegemony for their place in the sun alongside the Washington led neoliberal empire. Have they, the Germans, not noticed that they may be used again by the master hegemon as forerunner to absorb Europe? It would ‘only’ be the third time in 100 years. Weapons change. The modes of wars change – but the objective stays the same. We are doomed to fall into the US trap yet again, lest we wake up and sidestep the German wannabe European hegemon. Greece could be the eye-opener. Greece could create a precedent for others to follow.

Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a former World Bank staff and worked extensively around the world in the fields of environment and water resources. He writes regularly for Global Research, ICH, RT, Sputnik News, TeleSur, The Vineyard of The Saker Blog, and other internet sites. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the Resistance

[Demeter]

45. This might be the correction investors are looking for

OR AT LEAST, WHAT THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE LOOKING FOR...

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-might-be-the-correction-investors-are-looking-for-2015-08-22

The next month may be rocky, but investors should hold on...

TO THEIR WALLETS, JOBS, CASH AND PRECIOUS METALS....IT'S GOING TO BE MUCH MORE THAN A MONTH, ESPECIALLY IF THE STUPID FED TRIES TO RAISE INTEREST RATES REGARDLESS....

?uuid=14caba7a-4849-11e5-812d-0015c588e0f6

If you didn’t sell your stocks at the beginning of the week, it might be too late to unload now. Instead strategists are advising to buy into quality stocks and then hold on for the ride...MORE BRASHNESS AT LINK

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46. Picking Apart One of the Biggest Lies in American Politics: “Free Trade” MUST READ!

By Thom Hartmann, an author and nationally syndicated daily talk show host. His newest book is “The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America — and What We Can Do to Stop It."

http://www.alternet.org/economy/picking-apart-one-biggest-lies-american-politics-free-trade

In 1992, Ross Perot won almost 20% of the entire presidential vote on the single issue of stopping so-called “free trade.” Today, several presidential candidates are gaining huge traction with similar opposition to NAFTA, CAFTA, and the upcoming Southern Hemisphere Asian Free Trade Agreement (SHAFTA, now called the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP).

Time has proven Perot right, and his arguments were consistent with a long history of American industrial success prior to the “free trade” era of the past 30+ years. Our radical experiment of so-called “free trade” has clearly failed America, although few Americans know why or how. Here’s the back-story.

George Washington on “Made In America” Goods

On April 14, 1789, George Washington was out ... finding a suit of clothes made in America. For that, he sent a courier to his old friend and fellow general from the American Revolutionary War, Henry Knox. Washington couldn’t find a suit made in America because in the years prior to the American Revolution, the British East India Company (whose tea was thrown into Boston Harbor by outraged colonists after the Tea Act of 1773 gave the world’s largest transnational corporation a giant tax break) controlled the manufacture and transportation of a whole range of goods, including fine clothing. Cotton and wool could be grown and sheared in the colonies, but had to be sent to England to be manufactured into clothing. This was a routine policy for England, and is why until India achieved its independence in 1947, Mahatma Gandhi (who was assassinated a year later) illegally sat with his spinning wheel for his lectures and spun daily in his own home. It was, like his Salt March, a protest against the colonial practices of England and an entreaty to his fellow Indians to make their own clothes to gain independence from British companies and institutions.

Fortunately for George Washington, an American clothing company had been established on April 28, 1783, in Hartford, Connecticut by a man named Daniel Hinsdale, and they produced high-quality woolen and cotton clothing, and also made things from imported silk. It was to Hinsdale’s company that Knox turned, and helped Washington get – in time for his inauguration two weeks later – a nice, but not excessively elegant, brown American-made suit. (He wore British black later for the celebrations and the most famous painting.)

When Washington became president in 1789, most of America’s personal and industrial products of any significance were manufactured in England or in its colonies. Washington asked his first Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton, what could be done about that, and Hamilton came up with an 11-point plan to build American manufacturing, which he presented to Congress in 1791. By 1793, most of its points had either been made into law by Congress or formulated into policy by either Washington or the various states. Those strategic proposals built the greatest industrial powerhouse the world had ever seen, and were only abandoned, after more than 200 successful years, during the administrations of Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, and Bill Clinton (and remain abandoned to this day, as President Obama prepares to further expand “free trade”). China, instead of following our recent path, implemented most of Hamilton’s plan, and it brought about a remarkable transformation of that nation in just a single generation.

Hamilton’s 11-point plan for “American Manufactures” laid out how to do it ...He looked at the nation and determined what needed to be done to rebuild the country after the Revolutionary War had devastated it, and subservience to England’s Tudor Plan “free trade” policies had left us without any significant domestic industrial base....For about 200 years, we understood well the benefits of tariffs, subsidized exports and protectionist policies in the United States. Had the fathers of the United States like Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Andrew Jackson or Ulysses Grant applied for IMF loans, they would have been denied: All of them believed in high tariffs and a heavy control of foreign investment, and considered “free trade” to be absurd. But it was another Founding Father—Alexander Hamilton—who knew best how to spawn American industry to make the country independent and competitive. As the nation’s first Treasury Secretary, Hamilton submitted his Report on the Subject of Manufactures in 1791 to the US Congress, outlining the need for our government to foster new industries through “bounties” (subsidies) and subsequently protect them from foreign imports until they become globally competitive. Additionally, he proposed a roadmap for American industrial development. These steps included protective tariffs on imports, import bans, subsides, export bans on selected materials, and the development of product standards. It was this approach of putting America first that our government followed for most of our history, with average tariffs of 30 percent through the 19th and 20th centuries. There is no denying that it helped turn America into an industrial and economic juggernaut in the mid-20th century and beyond.

The three periods when we radically dropped tariffs – for three years in 1857, for nine years in 1913, and by Reagan in 1987 – were all followed by economic disasters, particularly for small American manufacturers. The post-Reagan era has been particularly destructive to our economy because not only did we mostly eliminate the tariffs, but we became “free trade” proponents on the international stage. After Reagan blew out our tariffs in the 1980s, and Clinton kicked the door totally open with GATT, NAFTA, and the WTO, our average tariffs are now around 2 percent. And the predictable result has been the hemorrhaging of American manufacturing capacity to those countries that do protect their industries through high import tariffs but allow exports on the cheap – particularly China and South Korea. The irony is that we have abandoned Hamilton’s advice—and our own history—while China, South Korea, Japan and other nations are following his prescriptions and turning into muscular and prosperous economic entities.

It’s high time we re-learned Alexander Hamilton’s lessons for our nation.

SEE THE DETAILS AT LINK

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48. Depraved Masochist Enjoys Following The News

IF THE SHOE FITS---FROM THE ONION, OF COURSE!

http://www.theonion.com/article/depraved-masochist-enjoys-following-the-news-33849

CALDWELL, ID—Calling it a vital part of his daily routine, local man and utterly depraved masochist Richard Petrillo revealed to reporters Friday that he enjoys keeping up with the news. The sick man, who confirmed that he makes a concerted effort to follow all manner of current events, evidently derives pleasure from torturing himself in this way, saying he likes to know as much as possible about the world in which he lives.

“There’s a lot going on these days, and I like to stay on top of things,” Petrillo said of his disturbing desire to follow news stories, including those about the Middle East, the state of the U.S. economy, and the recent activities of the National Security Agency. “With such a wealth of knowledge at our fingertips, it just makes sense to keep abreast of the latest developments.”

“It’s important to stay informed, you know?” the degenerate continued while perusing a news website. “Oh, look, here’s an update on what’s happening in Somalia.”

According to those close to Petrillo, the 36-year-old web designer devotes several hours each week to this vile form of self-abuse. He reportedly indulges his twisted obsession by seeking out news articles and videos on everything from politics and international affairs to health care and the environment—often multiple times a day. In the past, sources said, Petrillo only gratified this unsettling need for punishment in the privacy of his own home, where he consults the internet, television, and various news magazines to find out about the world’s most pressing issues. Now, however, he often engages in his perverse behavior publicly, using a smartphone to see what’s currently happening in Syria, Egypt, Greece, Russia, and even North Korea.

“I follow a lot of major news outlets on Twitter so I can check in throughout the day and catch all the updates,” said Petrillo, who reportedly can’t go half an hour without reading the latest headlines, all of which contain explicit details about what is actually happening in the world at this moment, details that sources confirmed only a human being with a sick, psychosexual enjoyment of pain and suffering could possibly derive gratification from. “But on the other hand, I’ll sit in the evening with a copy of The New Yorker and read an in-depth article on the situation in Lebanon.”

“I guess you could say I’m a bit of a news junkie,” added the individual who can apparently read about millions of displaced Syrians before bed and still manage to sleep.

Petrillo went on to add that he enjoys spending his Sunday mornings drinking coffee and reading the newspaper, presumably a horrifying and painful act, yet also a “favorite weekend ritual” that the deviant man seems to get off on.

Sources confirmed that Petrillo makes no effort whatsoever to conceal his insatiable desire for self-inflicted torment, going so far as to take pride in his familiarity with issues such as America’s distribution of wealth, the latest jobs report, what’s happening in Congress recently, and the nation’s current incarceration rate. In fact, he is reportedly not content with simple masochism, and often spreads the anguish of his knowledge to his fellow citizens.

“Whenever I come across an interesting article online, I like to email it to my friends and try to get a conversation going,” said Petrillo, his voice betraying no shame. “For example, a while back I sent around a story about how hundreds of Rohingya Muslims have been [omitted for sake of decency] by the Myanmar government. It’s really important stuff, but there’s just not much awareness of the issue.”

“I love finding something like that and sharing it with people,” the sicko added. “I really do.”

I WONDER IF THERE'S A 12 STEP PROGRAM FOR THAT

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49. BRAZIL: AN OVERVIEW

Last edited Sun Aug 23, 2015, 09:08 AM - Edit history (2)

Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: República Federativa do Brasil), is the largest country in both South America and the Latin American region. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population. It is the largest Portuguese-speaking country in the world, and the only one in the Americas.

Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of 7,491 km (4,655 mi). It borders all other South American countries except Ecuador and Chile and occupies 47.3 percent of the continent of South America. Its Amazon River basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to diverse wildlife, a variety of ecological systems, and extensive natural resources spanning numerous protected habitats. This unique environmental heritage makes Brazil one of 17 megadiverse countries, and is the subject of significant global interest and debate regarding deforestation and environmental protection.

Brazil was inhabited by numerous tribal nations prior to the landing of traveler Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500, who claimed the area for the Portuguese Empire.

Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until 1808, when the capital of the empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro after French forces invaded Portugal.

In 1815, it was elevated to the rank of kingdom upon the formation of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.

Its independence was achieved in 1822 with the creation of the Empire of Brazil, a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system.

The country became a presidential republic in 1889, when a military coup d'état proclaimed the Republic, although the bicameral legislature, now called the National Congress, dates back to the ratification of the first constitution in 1824.

An authoritarian military junta led the nation from 1964 until 1985.

Brazil's current Constitution, formulated in 1988, defines it as a federal republic. The Federation is composed of the union of the Federal District, the 26 states, and the 5,570 municipalities.

The country's economy is the world's eighth largest by nominal and seventh largest by GDP as of 2015. A member of the BRIC group, Brazil until 2010 had one of the world's fastest growing major economies, with its economic reforms giving the country new international recognition and influence. Brazil's national development bank plays an important role for the country's economic growth.

Brazil is a founding member of the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, Unasul, Mercosul, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States, CPLP and the Latin Union.

Brazil is a regional power in Latin America and a middle power in international affairs, with some analysts identifying it as an emerging global power.

Brazil has been the world's largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years.


Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world, and third largest in the Americas, with a total area of 8,515,767.049 km2 (3,287,956 sq mi), including 55,455 km2 (21,411 sq mi) of water. It spans four time zones; from UTC−5 comprising the state of Acre and the westernmost portion of Amazonas, to UTC−4 in the western states, to UTC−3 in the eastern states (the national time) and UTC−2 in the Atlantic islands. Brazil is the only country in the world that lies on the equator while having contiguous territory outside the tropics. Brazilian topography is also diverse and includes hills, mountains, plains, highlands, and scrublands. Much of the terrain lies between 200 metres (660 ft) and 800 metres (2,600 ft) in elevation. The main upland area occupies most of the southern half of the country. The northwestern parts of the plateau consist of broad, rolling terrain broken by low, rounded hills.

The southeastern section is more rugged, with a complex mass of ridges and mountain ranges reaching elevations of up to 1,200 metres (3,900 ft). These ranges include the Mantiqueira and Espinhaço mountains and the Serra do Mar. In the north, the Guiana Highlands form a major drainage divide, separating rivers that flow south into the Amazon Basin from rivers that empty into the Orinoco River system, in Venezuela, to the north. The highest point in Brazil is the Pico da Neblina at 2,994 metres (9,823 ft), and the lowest is the Atlantic Ocean.

Brazil has a dense and complex system of rivers, one of the world's most extensive, with eight major drainage basins, all of which drain into the Atlantic. Major rivers include the Amazon (the world's second-longest river and the largest in terms of volume of water), the Paraná and its major tributary the Iguaçu (which includes the Iguazu Falls), the Negro, São Francisco, Xingu, Madeira and Tapajós rivers.

The climate of Brazil comprises a wide range of weather conditions across a large area and varied topography, but most of the country is tropical. According to the Köppen system, Brazil hosts five major climatic subtypes: equatorial, tropical, semiarid, highland tropical, temperate, and subtropical. The different climatic conditions produce environments ranging from equatorial rainforests in the north and semiarid deserts in the northeast, to temperate coniferous forests in the south and tropical savannas in central Brazil. Many regions have starkly different microclimates.

An equatorial climate characterizes much of northern Brazil. There is no real dry season, but there are some variations in the period of the year when most rain falls. Temperatures average 25 °C (77 °F), with more significant temperature variation between night and day than between seasons.

Over central Brazil rainfall is more seasonal, characteristic of a savanna climate. This region is as extensive as the Amazon basin but has a very different climate as it lies farther south at a higher altitude. In the interior northeast, seasonal rainfall is even more extreme. The semiarid climatic region generally receives less than 800 millimetres (31.5 in) of rain, most of which generally falls in a period of three to five months of the year and occasionally less than this, creating long periods of drought. Brazil's 1877–78 Grande Seca (Great Drought), the worst in Brazil's history, caused approximately half a million deaths. A similarly devastating drought occurred in 1915.

South of Bahia, near the coasts, and more southerly most of the state of São Paulo, the distribution of rainfall changes, with rain falling throughout the year.[147] The south enjoys subtropical conditions, with cool winters and average annual temperatures not exceeding 18 °C (64.4 °F);[149] winter frosts and snowfall are not rare in the highest areas.[147][148]
Biodiversity and environment
Main articles: Wildlife of Brazil, Deforestation in Brazil and Conservation in Brazil

Brazil's large territory comprises different ecosystems, such as the Amazon rainforest, recognized as having the greatest biological diversity in the world,[155] with the Atlantic Forest and the Cerrado, sustaining the greatest biodiversity.[156] In the south, the Araucaria pine forest grows under temperate conditions.[156] The rich wildlife of Brazil reflects the variety of natural habitats. Scientists estimate that the total number of plant and animal species in Brazil could approach four million, mostly invertebrates.[156]
The Amazon rainforest, the richest and most biodiverse rainforest in the world.
The jaguar is a wild animal typical of Brazil, mainly in the Amazon jungle.

Larger mammals include carnivores pumas, jaguars, ocelots, rare bush dogs, and foxes, and herbivores peccaries, tapirs, anteaters, sloths, opossums, and armadillos. Deer are plentiful in the south, and many species of New World monkeys are found in the northern rain forests.[156][157] Concern for the environment has grown in response to global interest in environmental issues.[158] Brazil's Amazon Basin is home to an extremely diverse array of fish species, including the red-bellied piranha. Despite its reputation as a ferocious freshwater fish, the red-bellied piranha is actually a generally timid scavenger. Biodiversity can contribute to agriculture, livestock, forestry and fisheries extraction. However, almost all economically exploited species of plants, such as soybeans and coffee, or animals, such as chickens, are imported from other countries, and the economic use of native species still crawls. In the Brazilian GDP, the forest sector represents just over 1% and fishing 0.4%.

The natural heritage of Brazil is severely threatened by cattle ranching and agriculture, logging, mining, resettlement, oil and gas extraction, over-fishing, wildlife trade, dams and infrastructure, water pollution, climate change, fire, and invasive species.[155] In many areas of the country, the natural environment is threatened by development.[159] Construction of highways has opened up previously remote areas for agriculture and settlement; dams have flooded valleys and inundated wildlife habitats; and mines have scarred and polluted the landscape.[158][160] At least 70 dams are said to be planned for the Amazon region, including the controversial Belo Monte hydroelectric dam.[161]

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50. WHERE THE NAME BRAZIL CAME FROM--A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME

The word "Brazil" comes from brazilwood, a tree that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast.

In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word brasil commonly given the etymology "red like an ember", formed from Latin brasa ("ember&quot and the suffix -il (from -iculum or -ilium).

As brazilwood produces a deep red dye, it was highly valued by the European cloth industry and was the earliest commercially exploited product from Brazil. Throughout the 16th century, massive amounts of brazilwood were harvested by indigenous peoples (mostly Tupi) along the Brazilian coast, who sold the timber to European traders (mostly Portuguese, but also French) in return for assorted European consumer goods.

The official Portuguese name of the land, in original Portuguese records, was the "Land of the Holy Cross" (Terra da Santa Cruz), but European sailors and merchants commonly called it simply the "Land of Brazil" (Terra do Brasil) on account of the brazilwood trade. The popular appellation eclipsed and eventually supplanted the official Portuguese name. Early sailors sometimes also called it the "Land of Parrots" (Terra di Papaga).

In the Guarani language, an official language of Paraguay, Brazil is called "Pindorama". This was the name the indigenous population gave to the region, meaning "land of the palm trees".

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51. BRAZIL BEFORE EUROPE--AND AFTER

One of the earliest human remains found in the Americas, Luzia Woman, were found in the area of Pedro Leopoldo, Minas Gerais and provide evidence of human habitation going back at least 11,000 years. The earliest pottery ever found in the Western Hemisphere was excavated in the Amazon basin of Brazil and radiocarbon dated to 8,000 years ago (6000 BC). The pottery was found near Santarém and provides evidence that the tropical forest region supported a complex prehistoric culture.

Around the time of the Portuguese arrival, the territory of current day Brazil had an estimated indigenous population of 7 million people, mostly semi-nomadic who subsisted on hunting, fishing, gathering, and migrant agriculture. The indigenous population of Brazil comprised several large indigenous ethnic groups (e.g. the Tupis, Guaranis, Gês and Arawaks). The Tupí people were subdivided into the Tupiniquins and Tupinambás, and there were also many subdivision of the other groups.

Before the arrival of Europeans, the boundaries between these groups and their subgroups were marked by wars that arose from differences in culture, language and moral beliefs. These wars also involved large-scale military actions on land and water, with cannibalistic rituals on POWs.

While heredity had some weight, leadership status was more subdued over time, than allocated in succession ceremonies and conventions.

Slavery among the Indians had a different meaning than it had for Europeans, since it originated from a diverse socio-economic organization, in which asymmetries were translated into kinship relations.

The land now called Brazil was claimed for the Portuguese Empire on 22 April 1500, with the arrival of the Portuguese fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral. The Portuguese encountered indigenous peoples divided into several tribes, most of whom spoke languages of the Tupi–Guarani family, and fought among themselves. Though the first settlement was founded in 1532, colonization was effectively begun in 1534, when King Dom João III of Portugal divided the territory into the fifteen private and autonomous Captaincy Colonies of Brazil.

However, the decentralized and unorganized tendencies of the captaincy colonies proved problematic, and in 1549 the Portuguese king restructured them into the Governorate General of Brazil, a single and centralized Portuguese colony in South America.

In the first two centuries of colonization, Indigenous and European groups lived in constant war, establishing opportunistic alliances in order to gain advantages against each other.

By the mid-16th century, cane sugar had become Brazil's most important exportation product, and slaves purchased in Sub-Saharan Africa, in the slave market of Western Africa (not only those from Portuguese allies of their colonies in Angola and Mozambique), had become its largest import, to cope with plantations of sugarcane, due to increasing international demand for Brazilian sugar.

By the end of the 17th century, sugarcane exports began to decline, and the discovery of gold by bandeirantes in the 1690s would become the new backbone of the colony's economy, fostering a Brazilian Gold Rush, attracting thousands of new settlers to Brazil, from Portugal and all Portuguese colonies around the World, which in turn caused some conflicts between newcomers and old settlers.

Portuguese expeditions known as Bandeiras gradually advanced the Portugal colonial original frontiers in South America to approximately the current Brazilian borders. In this era other European powers tried to colonize parts of Brazil, in incursions that the Portuguese had to fight, notably the French in Rio during the 1560s, in Maranhão during the 1610s, and the Dutch in Bahia and Pernambuco, during the Dutch–Portuguese War, after the end of Iberian Union.

The Portuguese colonial administration in Brazil had two objectives that would ensure colonial order, and the monopoly of its wealthiest and largest colony: both keep under control and eradicate all forms of slaves' rebellion and resistance, such as the Quilombo of Palmares, as well as repress all movements for autonomy or independence, such as the Minas Conspiracy.

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52. United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves--NAPOLEON'S THE PEST

In late 1807, Spanish and Napoleonic forces threatened the security of continental Portugal, causing Prince Regent João, in the name of Queen Maria I, to move the royal court from Lisbon to Brazil. There they established some of Brazil's first financial institutions, such as its local stock exchanges, a National Bank, and ended the monopoly of the colony trade with Portugal, opening it to other nations. In 1809, in retaliation for being forced into exile, the Prince Regent ordered the Portuguese conquest of French Guiana.

With the end of the Peninsular War in 1814, the courts of Europe demanded that Queen Maria I and Prince Regent João return to Portugal, deeming it unfit for the head of an ancient European monarchy to reside in a colony. In 1815, in order to justify continuing to live in Brazil, where the royal court had thrived for the past six years, the Crown established the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves, thus creating a pluricontinental transatlantic monarchic state.

However, such a ploy didn't last long, since the leadership in Portugal, resentful with the new status of its larger colony, continued to require the return of court to Lisbon (as postulated by the Liberal Revolution of 1820), as well as groups of Brazilians, impatient for practical and real changes still demanded independence and a republic, as showed by the 1817 Pernambucan Revolt.

In 1821, as a demand of revolutionaries who had taken the city of Porto, D. João VI was unable to hold out any longer, and departed for Lisbon. There he swore oath to the new constitution, leaving his son, Prince Pedro de Alcântara, as Regent of the Kingdom of Brazil.

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53. THE INDEPENDENT EMPIRE OF BRAZIL

Tensions between Portuguese and Brazilians increased, and the Portuguese Cortes, guided by the new political regime imposed by the 1820 Liberal Revolution, tried to re-establish Brazil as a colony.

The Brazilians refused to yield, and Prince Pedro decided to stand with them, declaring the country's independence from Portugal on 7 September 1822. A month later, Prince Pedro was declared the first Emperor of Brazil, with the regnal title of Dom Pedro I, resulting in the foundation of the Empire of Brazil. Pedro declared the independence of Brazil and, after waging a successful war against his father's kingdom, was acclaimed on 12 October as Pedro I, the first Emperor of Brazil. The new country was huge but sparsely populated and ethnically diverse.

The Brazilian War of Independence, which had already begun along this process, spread through northern, northeastern regions and in Cisplatina province. With the last Portuguese soldiers surrendering on 8 March 1824, Portugal officially recognized Brazil on 29 August 1825.

THAT'S 190 YEARS NEXT WEEKEND! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BRAZIL! Feliz anivérsario

The Empire of Brazil was a 19th-century state that broadly comprised the territories which form modern Brazil and Uruguay. Its government was a representative parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the rule of Emperors Dom Pedro I and his son Dom Pedro II.

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Unlike most of the neighboring Hispanic American republics, Brazil had political stability, vibrant economic growth, constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech and respect for civil rights of its subjects, albeit with legal restrictions on women and slaves, the latter regarded as property and not citizens. The empire's bicameral parliament was elected under comparatively democratic methods for the era, as were the provincial and local legislatures.

This led to a long ideological conflict between Pedro I and a sizable parliamentary faction over the role of the monarch in the government. He faced other obstacles. The unsuccessful Cisplatine War against the neighboring United Provinces of the Río de la Plata in 1828 led to the secession of the province of Cisplatina (later to become Uruguay). In 1826, despite his role in Brazilian independence, he became the king of Portugal; he immediately abdicated in favor of his eldest daughter. Two years later, her throne was usurped by Pedro I's younger brother. Unable to deal with both Brazilian and Portuguese affairs, Pedro I abdicated on 7 April 1831 and immediately departed for Europe to restore his daughter to her throne. Worn down by years of administrative turmoil and political dissensions with both liberal and conservative sides of politics, including an attempt of republican secession, as well as unreconciled with the way that absolutists in Portugal had given to the succession of King John VI, Pedro I went to Portugal to reclaim his daughter's crown, abdicating the Brazilian throne in favor of his five-year-old son and heir (who thus became the Empire's second monarch, with the regnal title of Dom Pedro II). As the latter was still a minor, a weak regency was created. The power vacuum resulting from the absence of a ruling monarch as the ultimate arbiter in political disputes led to regional civil wars between local factions.

As the new Emperor could not exert his constitutional powers until he became of age, a regency was set up by the National Assembly. In the absence of a charismatic figure who could represent a moderate face of power, during this period a series of localized rebellions took place, as the Cabanagem, the Malê Revolt, the Balaiada, the Sabinada, and the Ragamuffin War, which emerged from the dissatisfaction of the provinces with the central power, coupled with old and latent social tensions peculiar of a vast, slaveholding and newly independent nation state. This period of internal political and social upheaval, which included the Praieira revolt, was overcome only at the end of the 1840s, years after the end of the regency, which occurred with the premature coronation of Pedro II in 1841. Having inherited an empire on the verge of disintegration, Pedro II, once declared of age, managed to bring peace and stability to the country, which eventually became an emerging international power. Brazil was victorious in three international conflicts (the Platine War, the Uruguayan War and the Paraguayan War) under Pedro II's rule, and the Empire prevailed in several other international disputes and outbreaks of domestic strife. With prosperity and economic development came an influx of European immigration, including Protestants and Jews, although Brazil remained mostly Catholic. Slavery, which had initially been widespread, was restricted by successive legislation until its final abolition in 1888. Brazilian visual arts, literature and theater developed during this time of progress. Although heavily influenced by European styles that ranged from Neoclassicism to Romanticism, each concept was adapted to create a culture that was uniquely Brazilian.

Even though the last four decades of Pedro II's reign were marked by continuous internal peace and economic prosperity, he had no desire to see the monarchy survive beyond his lifetime and made no effort to maintain support for the institution. The next in line to the throne was his daughter Isabel, but neither Pedro II nor the ruling classes considered a female monarch acceptable. Lacking any viable heir, the Empire's political leaders saw no reason to defend the monarchy.

During the last phase of the monarchy, internal political debate was centered on the issue of slavery. The Atlantic slave trade was abandoned in 1850, as a result of the British' Aberdeen Act, but only in May 1888 after a long process of internal mobilization and debate for an ethical and legal dismantling of slavery in the country, was the institution formally abolished.

In March 1871, Pedro II named the conservative José Paranhos, Viscount of Rio Branco as the head of a cabinet whose main goal was to pass a law to immediately free all children born to female slaves. The controversial bill was introduced in the Chamber of Deputies in May and faced "a determined opposition, which commanded support from about one third of the deputies and which sought to organize public opinion against the measure." The bill was finally promulgated in September and became known as the "Law of Free Birth". Rio Branco's success, however, seriously damaged the long-term political stability of the Empire. The law "split the conservatives down the middle, one party faction backed the reforms of the Rio Branco cabinet, while the second—known as the escravocratas (English: slavocrats)—were unrelenting in their opposition", forming a new generation of ultraconservatives.

The "Law of Free Birth", and Pedro II's support for it, resulted in the loss of the ultraconservatives' unconditional loyalty to the monarchy. The Conservative Party had experienced serious divisions before, during the 1850s, when the Emperor's total support for the conciliation policy had given rise to the Progressives. The ultraconservatives led by Eusébio, Uruguai and Itaboraí who opposed conciliation in the 1850s had nonetheless believed that the Emperor was indispensable to the functioning of the political system: the Emperor was an ultimate and impartial arbiter when political deadlock threatened.

By contrast, this new generation of ultraconservatives had not experienced the Regency and early years of Pedro II's reign, when external and internal dangers had threatened the Empire's very existence; they had only known prosperity, peace and a stable administration. To them—and to the ruling classes in general—the presence of a neutral monarch who could settle political disputes was no longer important. Furthermore, since Pedro II had clearly taken a political side on the slavery question, he had compromised his position as a neutral arbiter. The young ultraconservative politicians saw no reason to uphold or defend the Imperial office.

On 15 November 1889, worn out by years of economic stagnation, attrition with the majority of Army officers, as well as with rural and financial elites (for different reasons), stirred turmoil. After a 58-year reign a clique of military leaders, whose goal was the formation of a republic headed by a dictator, overthrew the monarchy.

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55. Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil

Dona Isabella; 29 July 1846 – 14 November 1921), nicknamed "the Redemptress", was the heiress presumptive to the throne of the Empire of Brazil, bearing the title of Princess Imperial. She also served as the Empire's regent on three occasions.

Isabel was born in Rio de Janeiro, the eldest daughter of Emperor Pedro II and Empress Teresa Cristina and thus a member of the Brazilian branch of the House of Braganza (Portuguese: Bragança). After the deaths of her two brothers in infancy, she was recognized as her father's heiress presumptive. She married a French prince, Gaston, Count of Eu, in an arranged marriage and they had three sons.

During her father's absences abroad, Isabel acted as regent. In her third and final regency, she actively promoted and ultimately signed a law, named Lei Áurea or the Golden Law, emancipating all slaves in Brazil. Even though the action was broadly popular, there was strong opposition to her succession to the throne. Her gender, strong Catholic faith and marriage to a foreigner were seen as impediments against her, and the emancipation of the slaves generated dislike among powerful planters. In 1889, when her family was deposed in a military coup, she spent the last 30 years of her life in exile in France.

Isabel was born at 6:30 p.m. on 29 July 1846 in Rio de Janeiro's Paço de São Cristóvão (Palace of Saint Christopher). On 15 November the infant princess was baptized in an elaborate ceremony in Igreja da Glória (Church of Glory). Her godparents, both represented by proxy, were her uncle, King Ferdinand II of Portugal, and her maternal grandmother María Isabella of Spain.

She was christened Isabel Cristina Leopoldina Augusta Micaela Gabriela Rafaela Gonzaga. Her last four names were always bestowed upon the members of her family, and Isabel and Cristina honored Isabel's maternal grandmother and mother, respectively.

She was a member of the Brazilian branch of the House of Braganza through her father, and from birth was referred to using the honorific Dona (English: Dame or Lady). She was the granddaughter of Brazil's Emperor Pedro I (who also briefly reigned as Portugal's King Pedro IV), and the niece of Portuguese Queen Maria II (wife of Ferdinand II). Through her mother, she was a granddaughter of Francis I and niece to Ferdinand II, both kings of the Two Sicilies in turn.

At the time of her birth, she had an elder brother named Afonso who was heir to the Brazilian throne. Two other siblings followed: Leopoldina in 1847 and Pedro in 1848. Afonso's death in 1847, at the age of 2 1⁄2, propelled Isabel to the position of Pedro II's heiress. She briefly lost the position with the birth of Prince Imperial Pedro. After his death in 1850, Isabel became the definitive heir as Princess Imperial, the title given to the first in the line of succession.

Isabel's early years were a time of peace and prosperity in Brazil. Her parents provided a happy and healthy upbringing. She and her sister "grew up in a stable, secure environment dramatically different from the one her father and aunts had known, and light years away from the childhood chaos of Pedro I."

Unsuitable heiress

The early death of both of his sons had an enormous impact on Pedro II. Aside from his personal grief, the loss of his sons affected his future conduct as monarch and would determine the fate of the Empire. In the Emperor's eyes, the deaths of his children seemed to portend an eventual end of the Imperial system. The future of the monarchy as an institution no longer concerned him, as he increasingly saw his position as being nothing more than that of Head of State for his lifetime.

The Emperor's words revealed his inner conviction. After learning of the death of his son Pedro in 1850, he wrote: "This has been the most fatal blow that I could receive, and certainly I would not have survived were it not that I still have a wife and two children whom I must educate so that they can assure the happiness of the country in which they were born." Seven years later, in 1857, when it was more than clear that no more children would be born, the Emperor wrote: "As to their education, I will only say that the character of both the princesses ought to be shaped as suits Ladies who, it may be, will have to direct the constitutional government of an Empire such as Brazil".

Although the Emperor still had a legal successor in his beloved daughter Isabel, the male-dominated society of the time left him little hope that a woman could rule Brazil. He was fond and respectful of the women in his life, but he did not consider it feasible that Isabel could survive as monarch, given the political realities and climate. To historian Roderick J. Barman, the Emperor "could not conceive of women, his daughters included, playing any part in governance. [...] In consequence, although he valued D. Isabel as his daughter, he simply could not accept or perceive her in cold reality as his successor or regard her as a viable ruler." The main reason for this behavior was his attitude toward the female gender. "Pedro II believed, as did most men of his day", says Barman, "that a single woman could not manage life's problem on her own, even if she possessed the powers and authority of an empress."

Upbringing

Isabel began her education on 1 May 1854, when she was taught how to read and write by a male instructor, who was openly republican. As the Portuguese (and later Brazilian) court tradition demanded, the heir of the throne was supposed to have an aio (supervisor, tutor or governess) in charge of his education once he achieved the age of seven. After a long search, Pedro II chose the Brazilian-born Luísa Margarida Portugal de Barros, the Countess of Barral, daughter of a Brazilian noble and wife of a French noble. Barral assumed her position on 9 September 1856, when Isabel was ten years old. The 40-year old Countess was a charming and vivacious woman who soon captured the heart of Isabel and became to the young princess a kind of a role model.

In Pedro II's own words, his daughters' education "should not differ from that given to men, combined with that suited the other sex, but in a manner that does not distract from the first." He "provided his daughters with a broad, democratic and rigorous education, through both its curriculum and the teachers who taught it." For over nine and a half hours per day and six days per week, Isabel and her sister were in class. Subjects were broad and included Portuguese and French literature, astronomy, chemistry, the history of Portugal, England and France, drawing, piano, dancing, political economy, geography, geology, and the history of philosophy. As an adult, beyond her native Portuguese, Isabel became fluent in French, English and German.

Among her teachers were Barral, some who taught her father as a child, and even Pedro II himself, who gave classes of Latin, geometry and astronomy. The education provided to Isabel was lacking, however. All she assimilated were abstract ideas which did not teach her "how to integrate" them "with practical application". Her tutors and parents did not prepare her to rule Brazil, nor to understand its political and social issues. A way of preparing her for a role as future Empress "would have been to give her from an early age personal experience of the tasks she would face and to relate it to what she learned in the classroom." That did not happen. Pedro II "showed her no state papers. He did not discuss politics with her. He did not take her with him on his constant visits to government offices. He did not include her in the despacho, the weekly meetings with the cabinet members, nor did he allow her to attend the public audiences that took place twice a week." She might have been officially heiress to the throne, "but by his treatment of her Pedro II deprived the honor of any meaning."

Domestic life

Pedro II's behavior as a father was completely different as an emperor. A "man remarkable for his self-control, was at his most affectionate and most outgoing with children, above all his daughters." His daughters, "whom I love deeply", as Pedro II wrote in his diary in 1861, "both loved and admired him." He "was a strict father who demanded obedience", but who, at the same time, was very kind and concerned with his children. However, Pedro II "found difficult if not impossible" to grant intimacy to not only Isabel, but "to any member of his family."

During her upbringing Isabel "absorbed from her instructors conformity to traditional gender roles. She accepted women as dependent and obedient, and indeed her mother's and her governess's behavior did not justify anything else." She "did not lack powers of observation and a certain shrewdness, but she was very accepting of existence as it was and certainly not given to pondering the justification of existence for the established order." All this meant that Isabel would not attempt "a position in life autonomous of her father", even less rival him.

That happened because the Princess Imperial was "at an essential disadvantage with her father. She had a strong personality but she could not turn it to account. As a child she did not share Pedro II's seriousness, his single mindedness, or his interest in the larger world. The coming of adolescence did not improve matters." In fact, she lacked introspection and had a "tendency to take a cheerful view of life". Also, Isabel "did not naturally possess much patience or notable powers of endurance. She moved from one interest to another as each in turn caught her fancy. She was not afraid to speak her mind, and she held strong views. However, when she encountered something she did not like, she found it difficult to focus and organize her resistance so as to make her view prevail. She tended to flare up and then to submit or to lose interest." Isabel's mother, Teresa Cristina, "lived for her family and found fulfillment in making her spouse and her daughters happy." She "created for her family a home life that was secure, safe and predictable." Isabel and her sister "loved their gentle mother and worshipped their demanding but emotionally distant father."

From both parents, Isabel inherited a lack of racism. Pedro II surrounded himself with men "regardless of their race." Historian James McMurtry Longo said that as "her father's student, daughter, and heir Princess Isabel followed his example. Race never played a role in her social life, political relationships, alliances or disagreements." And concludes: "It may have been the most important lesson learned from him."

The Imperial family lived in São Cristóvão palace but during the summer (from December to April) went to Pedro II's palace in Petrópolis (nowadays the Imperial Museum of Brazil). Isabel lived an almost completely secluded life from the outside world, far away from the eyes of the Brazilians. She and her sisters had a few friends. Three of them would remain lifelong friends of Isabel: Maria Ribeiro de Avelar (whose mother was a childhood friend of Pedro II's sisters), Maria Amanda de Paranaguá (daughter of João Lustosa da Cunha Paranaguá, the 2nd Marquis of Paranaguá, a member of the Liberal Party and later Prime Minister) and Adelaide Taunay (daughter of Pedro II's former teacher Félix Émile Taunay and sister of Alfredo d'Escragnolle Taunay, Viscount of Taunay). The sole male child who was part of Isabel's all female group was Dominique, the only son of the Countess of Barral, who was regarded by the Princess Imperial and her sister as "the younger brother they never had".

Isabel was short, had blue eyes, blond hair, was a little overweight and lacked eyebrows. Her father sought a match among the royal house of France, and initially Pierre, Duke of Penthièvre, the son of the Prince of Joinville, was considered. His mother was Isabel's aunt Princess Francisca of Brazil. Pierre, however, was not interested and declined. Instead, Joinville suggested his nephews, Gaston, Count of Eu, and Prince Ludwig August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as suitable choices for the imperial princesses. The two young men travelled to Brazil in August 1864 so that the prospective brides and grooms could meet before a final agreement to the marriage. Isabel and Leopoldina were not informed until Gaston and August were mid-Atlantic. Arriving in early September, Gaston described the princesses as "ugly", but thought Isabel less so than her sister. For her part, Isabel in her own words "began to feel a great and tender love" for Gaston. Gaston and Isabel, and August and Leopoldina, were engaged on 18 September.

On 15 October, Gaston and Isabel were married at the Imperial Chapel in Rio by the archbishop of Bahia. Although Gaston encouraged his wife to read broadly, and the Emperor took her on tours of government offices, her outlook remained one of narrow domesticity. She led a life typical of aristocratic women of her generation. For the first six months of 1865, she and her husband toured Europe. As Brazil had broken off diplomatic relations with Britain, and her French relations had been deposed in France, they travelled as private citizens and met Queen Victoria as relatives not as official state guests. On their return to Brazil, Gaston was called to the battle front of the Paraguayan War by the Emperor, leaving Isabel lonely at Rio.

After the conclusion of the war in 1870, Gaston and Isabel again toured Europe. In early 1871, they were in Vienna, where her sister Leopoldina fell fatally ill and died, leaving Isabel the sole surviving child of her parents.[72]

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58. Isabella, Regent of The Empire of Brazil

Gaston and Isabel returned to Brazil on 1 May 1871, just three weeks before the Emperor and Empress embarked on their own tour of Europe. Isabel was appointed regent with full powers to govern Brazil in the Emperor's absence, though prime minister José Paranhos, Viscount of Rio Branco, and Gaston were expected to hold the reins of power in reality. Following the abolition of slavery in the United States, Pedro II was committed to a gradual program of liberation. On 27 September 1871, with the Emperor still abroad, Isabel signed a new anti-slavery act, passed by the Chamber of Deputies. The Law of Free Birth, as it was called, freed all children born of slaves after that date. On Pedro II's return to Brazil in March 1872, Isabel was once again excluded from government, and resumed private life.

Throughout the first years of her marriage, Isabel was eager to have children, but her first pregnancy ended in miscarriage in October 1872. Worried about her apparent inability to conceive, during a visit to Europe in 1873 she consulted a specialist doctor, and visited the shrine at Lourdes. By December 1873, she was pregnant. Despite Isabel's pleas to remain in Europe until after the birth, the Emperor insisted she returned to Brazil so that the child, who might inherit the throne, would not be born abroad. They arrived at Rio in June 1874. After a labor of 50 hours in late July, the baby died in the womb. Her Catholic faith provided some solace, but her association with ultramontanism, which emphasized the authority of the Church over the government, drew criticism from those who thought the Church should defer to temporal authorities.

Isabel remained concerned throughout her third pregnancy, in 1875, fearful that it would again end in failure. A doctor and midwife from France were brought over for the birth, to the dismay of local physicians whose pride was wounded by Isabel's use of foreign practitioners. After a labor of 13 hours, a boy, baptized Pedro de Alcântara after his grandfather, was delivered with the aid of forceps. Possibly as the result of the difficult delivery, Pedro was born with a disabled left arm.

Second regency

The Emperor embarked on a major tour of North America, Europe and the Middle East in March 1876, and Isabel was again made regent. Elections later in the year returned the incumbent government (led by the Duke of Caxias) but fraud and violence during the campaign damaged both its and Isabel's reputations. Her popularity also suffered as a result of continued tension between the Church and State. Adding to her stress, she miscarried on 11 September 1876, and was weakened by loss of blood. At the same time, her husband was also ill with bronchitis, as a result of which he was virtually bed-ridden for three weeks.

The couple decided to withdraw from public life, as Gaston explained, "When the princess is no longer seen every day in the streets of Rio, she is forgotten for a while and there is less temptation to denounce each of her acts and decisions to a discontented public." Their seclusion, however, left them isolated and unable to influence public opinion. Throughout the middle of 1877, during a serious drought in northeastern Brazil that threatened public order, Isabel largely remained at home resting because she was again going through a difficult pregnancy.

On Pedro II's return to Brazil in late September 1877, he avoided speaking to Isabel, and distanced himself from the government's actions during the regency by declaring that throughout his entire journey he had not sent "a single telegram on the country's affairs" to any minister or Isabel. Isabel retired to her estate at Petrópolis where she gave birth to a second son, Luiz, in late January 1878. Three months later, Gaston, Isabel and their two sons left Brazil for an extended stay in Europe, where Pedro was to receive medical treatment for his arm. Throughout their stay of three and a half years, Isabel avoided politics and showed no interest in current affairs. Pedro's treatment proved futile, and the couple made plans to return after the birth (with the assistance of forceps) of their final child and third son, Antônio, in August 1881. Isabel and her family returned to Brazil in December 1881.

Abolitionism and the Golden Law

From November 1884 to March 1885, Isabel toured southern Brazil with her husband, and in January 1887 they left Brazil for a six-month visit to Europe. Their trip was cut short, however, as Pedro II fell ill in March, and they returned in early June. The Emperor was advised to seek medical help in Europe, as a result of which he left Brazil on 30 June, leaving Isabel as regent.

Abolitionism in Brazil was growing in strength, but the government of Conservative João Maurício Wanderley, Baron of Cotegipe, attempted to slow the pace of reform. Isabel, in her own words, "became ever more convinced that some action had to be taken" to expand the emancipation program, and pressured Cotegipe, unsuccessfully, to free more slaves. After the Rio police's mishandling of a pro-abolition demonstration in early 1888, Isabel acted, and appointed João Alfredo Correia de Oliveira in Cotegipe's place.

Oliveira's government supported unconditional abolition, and swiftly introduced legislation. On 13 May 1888, Isabel signed the Golden Law (A Lei Áurea), as it was known, which enabled the complete cessation of slavery. Isabel was popularly acclaimed as "the Redemptress" (A Redentora), and was given a Golden Rose by the Pope for her actions.

Exile

Republican coup d'état

In August 1888, to Isabel's relief, Pedro II returned from Europe and her regency ended.

Gaston wrote:

The avidity and the enthusiasm of the public for the Emperor have been very great, more even more marked, it appears to me, than on previous arrivals. But it is a totally personal homage; because, as I think I have already written, the republican creed has made since his departure last year enormous advances that impress everybody; and, notwithstanding the economic prosperity during the present year, never, for the past 40 years, has the situation of the Brazilian monarchy appeared more shaky than today.

With the Emperor ill and Isabel withdrawn from public life, no effort was made to capitalize on the public popularity engendered by the end of slavery. They had lost the support of slave-owning plantation owners, who held great political, economic and social power. Isabel was uninterested in politics and did not cultivate politicians or public support. Her religious zeal was distrusted, and it was widely assumed that if she became Empress Gaston would hold power, but Gaston was isolated because of his increasing deafness, and was unpopular because of his foreign birth.

Her position was further weakened by the intrigues of her nephew Prince Pedro Augusto of Saxe-Coburg, who was maneuvering to be recognized as Pedro II's heir. Pedro Augusto was told bluntly by his younger brother, "the succession does not belong to her (Isabel), nor to the maimed (Isabel's eldest son Pedro), nor to the deaf (Gaston), nor to you either."

On 15 November 1889, Pedro II was deposed in a military coup. He dismissed all suggestions for quelling the rebellion that politicians and military leaders put forward, and simply commented: "If it is so, it will be my retirement. I have worked too hard and I am tired. I will go rest then." Within two days, he and his family were on their way to exile in Europe.

Isabel released a public statement that read:

It is with my heart riven with sorrow that I take leave of my friends, of all Brazilians, and of the country that I have loved and love so much, and to the happiness of which I have striven to contribute and for which I will continue to hold the most ardent hopes.

Later years

The imperial family arrived at Lisbon on 7 December 1889. Three weeks later, Isabel's mother died at Porto, while Isabel and her family were in southern Spain. Back in Portugal, Isabel fainted at her mother's lying in state. Further bad news came from Brazil, as the new government abolished the imperial family's allowances, their only substantial source of income, and declared the family banished. On the back of a large loan from a Portuguese businessman, the imperial family moved into the Hotel Beau Séjour at Cannes.

In early 1890, Isabel and Gaston moved into a private villa, which was far cheaper than the hotel, but their father refused to accompany them and remained at the Beau Séjour. Gaston's father provided them with a monthly allowance. By September, they had taken a villa near Versailles and their sons were enrolled in Parisian schools. Isabel's father died in December 1891, and his property in Brazil was sold with much of the proceeds used to pay off his debts in Europe. Isabel and Gaston purchased a villa in Boulogne-sur-Seine, where they lived an essentially quiet life. Attempts by Brazilian monarchists to restore the crown were unsuccessful, and Isabel lent them only half-hearted support. She thought military action unwise and unwelcome, and correctly assumed that it was unlikely to succeed.

Gaston's father died in 1896, and Gaston's inheritance gave him and Isabel financial security. Their three sons enrolled at a military school in Vienna, and Isabel continued her charitable work associated with the Catholic Church. In 1905, Gaston purchased the château d'Eu in Normandy, the former home of King Louis Philippe I, and the couple furnished it with items received from Brazil in the early 1890s.

By 1908, Isabel's eldest son Pedro wanted to marry an Austro-Hungarian aristocrat Countess Elisabeth Dobržensky de Dobrženicz, but Gaston and Isabel withheld consent because Elizabeth was not a princess. Their consent was only forthcoming when their second son, Luiz, who had travelled to Brazil but had been forbidden to land by the authorities, married Princess Maria Pia of Bourbon-Naples and Pedro renounced his claim to the Brazilian throne in favor of his brother. Luiz and his youngest brother Antônio both served in the British army during World War I (as members of the French royal family they were forbidden to serve in the French military). Luiz was invalided from active service in 1915, and Antônio died from wounds sustained in an air crash shortly after the armistice. Isabel wrote to Gaston that she "went out of her mind" with grief "but the Good Lord restored it." Just three months later, Luiz died after a long illness. Isabel's own health was deteriorating, and by 1921 she was barely able to walk. She was too ill to travel to Brazil when the republican government lifted the family's banishment in 1920. Gaston and Pedro revisited Brazil in early 1921, for the reburial of Isabel's parents in Petrópolis Cathedral. Isabel died before the end of the year, and was buried in her husband's family tomb at Dreux. Gaston died the following year. In 1953, the remains of Gaston and Isabel were repatriated to Brazil, and in 1971 they were interred in Petrópolis Cathedral.

Legacy

Historian Roderick J. Barman wrote that "in the view of posterity, Isabel acted decisively only once on a single issue: the immediate abolition of slavery". It is for this achievement that she is remembered. As explained by Barman, paradoxically this "principal exercise of power by which posterity alone remembers her ... contributed to her exclusion from public life". Isabel herself wrote, on the day after the republican coup d'état that deposed her father, "If abolition is the cause for this, I don't regret it; I consider it worth losing the throne for."

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60. WHY ENGINEERS AND LIBERTARIANS DON'T REPRODUCE

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61. The Fed is at risk of repeating one of the biggest mistakes in the history of the US economy

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-federal-reserve-is-at-risk-of-repeating-its-1937-mistake-2015-8?r=UK&IR=T

Everything seems to be going wrong in the global economy right now.

Chinese growth is slowing, Hong Kong's Hang Seng is officially in a bear market, Greece is heading into elections, and emerging markets around the world are feeling the strain of the strong US dollar. In the advanced world, the United States and United Kingdom are seeing some decent growth, while Japan and the eurozone are expanding modestly at best. And the next important question for everyone is whether the US Federal Reserve thinks the backdrop it's looking at is good enough to raise interest rates for the first time in nine years. The Fed funds rate has sat at 0.25% since December 2008. September has been penciled in as a strong possibility for a long time now, though markets are now starting to reconsider. What's the worst that could happen?

Well, it could be like 1937 again.

In late 1936, the US economy was looking relatively good for the first time in a while. The unemployment rate had fallen by between 5 and 10 percentage points from its post-crash high (accurate estimates weren't kept at the time), the economy was growing, and markets had rebounded considerably. There were a bundle of different things that then contributed to the 1937 recession — including tax hikes; a change in the US Treasury's policy on gold, and an increase by the Federal Reserve in bank reserve requirements. The hike only caused a pretty small spike in Treasury yields, in comparison to the levels that were common before the 1929 crash. Bank of America Merrill Lynch produced these charts for a note back in June:



But that tiny jump following the rate hike did not have small effects on stocks or the economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was cut in half, falling by 49% in 1938:



The real economy took a beating, too. After a prolonged period of falling unemployment in the mid-1930s, jobless numbers began to climb again after the rate hike.



The 1937 episode had a huge influence on economic policy in the future. It's one of the episodes that Milton Friedman argued that shocks to the monetary base of an economy, which are ultimately controlled by central banks, are the general cause of recessions.

So what's the risk for the world today?

The tools are slightly different, but the situation bears many similarities. After a major financial crisis and recession, the US was trying to find a way to normalize economic policy, just as it is today. In recent years other parts of the world have already had the problem that the Fed may soon face. The eurozone, for example, hiked interest rates in the middle of 2011, before having to backtrack quickly afterward. No central bank wants to do that at the moment. Those that want to hike rates soon — like the Fed and Bank of England — want to keep doing so slowly over the following couple or few years. A slow, gradual upward increase is what they're aiming for, so they need the economy to be strong enough to manage that.

Back in September 2014, US financial economist Robert Shiller warned about the parallels between the state of the global economy now and in 1937. You could sum up the reasons that the world doesn't look ready for a rate hike by the Federal Reserve easily:

• Growth in Europe and Japan is still pretty anemic. Their central banks look more likely to ease than hike interest rates and won't prop up global demand if the US falters.
  
  
• US interest rate hikes usually mean a stronger dollar. US currency has already strengthened considerably, and countries with dollar-denominated debt will struggle more to service it.
  
  
• The US recovery looks good, but not amazing. Wages are rising, but not at the sort of pace generally seen before the crisis. Retail sales rose by 2.4% in the year to July. Economic growth is solid rather than stellar.
  
  
• Inflation is nowhere to be seen. Tumbling oil prices have sent inflation to basically zero across the world's advanced economies. For good reason, the Fed wants to hike interest rates before inflation is back at its 2% target, since small rate hikes won't immediately slow down the rising prices. But the Fed needs to really be quite sure that rates are headed in that direction before it pulls the trigger.

Some of these things matter to the Fed and some of them don't. Janet Yellen, the Fed chairwoman, won't change her mind based on whether an Indonesian business can repay its dollar-denominated loans. But it is relevant for the world as a whole. The dollar is the world's reserve currency, and what happens in Washington absolutely does not stay in Washington...If it all goes wrong for the Fed this time, it can't say history didn't warn it.

MORE SPECULATION AT LINK

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62. Bean Counters to the Rescue: Can Accounting Save Capitalism From Itself? By Diane Coyle

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/bean-counters-rescue

What is a company worth? On its latest balance sheet, Apple showed assets of $261 billion, including $8.7 billion of “intangibles,” such as the positive views of the company held by consumers and investors. In recent months, the U.S. stock market has valued Apple at around $720 billion; the reasons for the gap between the company’s balance-sheet valuation and its market capitalization are intangible, too, in a sense. Coca-Cola has one of the world’s most valuable brands and counts $26 billion of the $91 billion in assets on its balance sheet as intangible; that, too, is far exceeded by the company’s market capitalization of around $170 billion. Much of the accumulated wealth in the world’s leading economies takes this undefined form.

But intangible value can evaporate overnight. In recent times, Enron, Lehman Brothers, and a host of other firms have suffered that fate when their actions destroyed their reputations—and their future business prospects. Any responsible corporate board should therefore be keen to find a way of measuring and thus managing the true value of the firm it oversees, including its sometimes evanescent intangible components. Yet too many boards and executives still see reputation management as mostly a matter of public relations, rather than as a central element of their business.

To save contemporary capitalism from this dangerous myopia, Jane Gleeson-White’s insightful book Six Capitals suggests a set of unusual prospective heroes: accountants, who can capture and quantify the factors that determine a firm’s reputation and thus its short-term financial value to shareholders and its long-term value to society. A “true and fair view” of a modern company, Gleeson-White argues, must take into account not only financial and physical assets but four other forms of capital as well: intellectual, human, social, and natural. Do this, she claims, and businesses will know and report their true worth and therefore operate more sustainably. No longer will they be able to report profits or assets that depend on the depletion of nonrenewable resources, or damage biodiversity, or pour emissions into the atmosphere, without factoring in those harmful effects. And no longer will firms seek solely to boost their share prices and quarterly earnings; instead, they will take a longer-term view of their goals...

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63. THE EARLY REPUBLIC OF BRAZIL

In half of the first 100 years of republic in Brazil, the Army exercised power directly or through figures designated by it. Getúlio Vargas, for example, was the military's confidence man brought to power in October 1930.

The "early republican government was little more than a military dictatorship, with army dominating affairs both at Rio de Janeiro and in the states. Freedom of the press disappeared and elections were controlled by those in power". In 1894, following the unfoldings of two severe crises, an economic along with a military one, the republican civilians rose to power.

Little by little, a cycle of general instability sparked by these crises undermined the regime to such an extent, that by 1930 in the wake of the murder of his running mate, the defeated opposition presidential candidate Getúlio Vargas supported by most of the military, led a successful revolt. Vargas was supposed to assume power temporarily, but instead closed the Congress, extinguished the Constitution, ruled with emergency powers and replaced the states' governors with his own supporters.

In the 1930s, three major attempts to remove Vargas and his supporters from power occurred: in the second half of 1932, in November 1935, and in May 1938. Being the second one, the communist revolt, used as an excuse for the preclusion of elections, put into effect by a coup d'état in 1937, which made the Vargas regime a full dictatorship, noted for its brutality and censorship of the press.

In foreign policy, the success in resolving border disputes with neighboring countries in the early years of the republican period, was followed by a failed attempt to exert a prominent role in the League of Nations, after its involvement in World War I. In World War II Brazil remained neutral until August 1942, when the country entered on the allied side, after suffering retaliations undertaken by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, due to the country having severed diplomatic relations with Axis powers in the wake of the Pan-American Conference.

With the allied victory in 1945 and the end of the Nazi-fascist regimes in Europe, Vargas's position became unsustainable and he was swiftly overthrown in another military coup, with Democracy being "reinstated" by the same army that had discontinued it 15 years before. Vargas committed suicide in August 1954 amid a political crisis, after having returned to power by election in 1950.

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64. BRAZIL'S GOVERNMENT TODAY

Several brief interim governments succeeded after Vargas's suicide. Juscelino Kubitschek became president in 1956 and assumed a conciliatory posture towards the political opposition that allowed him to govern without major crises. The economy and industrial sector grew remarkably, but his greatest achievement was the construction of the new capital city of Brasília, inaugurated in 1960.

His successor was Jânio Quadros, who resigned in 1961 less than a year after taking office. His vice-president, João Goulart, assumed the presidency, but aroused strong political opposition and was deposed in April 1964 by a coup that resulted in a military regime.

The new regime was intended to be transitory but it gradually closed in on itself and became a full dictatorship with the promulgation of the Fifth Institutional Act in 1968. The oppression was not limited to only those who resorted to guerrilla tactics to fight the regime, but also reached institutional opponents, artists, journalists and other members of civil society, inside and outside the country (through the infamous "Operation Condor").

OPERATION CONDOR

Operation Condor has been the codename of a number of military operations; the Latin American Operation Condor (Spanish:Operación Cóndor), was a campaign of assassination and intelligence-gathering conducted jointly by the security services of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay in the mid-1970s.

Operation Condor (Spanish: Operación Cóndor, also known as Plan Cóndor, Portuguese: Operação Condor) was a campaign of political repression and state terror involving intelligence operations and assassination of opponents, officially implemented in 1975 by the right-wing dictatorships of the Southern Cone of South America. The program was intended to eradicate communist or Soviet influence and ideas, and to suppress active or potential opposition movements against the participating governments.

Due to its clandestine nature, the precise number of deaths directly attributable to Operation Condor is highly disputed. Some estimates are that at least 60,000 deaths can be attributed to Condor, and possibly more. Condor's key members were the governments in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil. The United States government provided technical support and supplied military aid to the participants until at least 1978, and again after Republican Ronald Reagan became President in 1981. Such support was frequently routed through the Central Intelligence Agency. Ecuador and Peru later joined the operation in more peripheral roles. These efforts, such as Operation Charly, supported the local juntas in their anti-communist repression.

According to American historian Patrice McSherry, based on formerly secret CIA documents from 1976, in the 1960s and early 1970s plans were developed among international security officials at the US Army School of the Americas and the Conference of American Armies to deal with perceived threats in South America from political dissidents. A declassified CIA document dated 23 June 1976, explains that "in early 1974, security officials from Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia met in Buenos Aires to prepare coordinated actions against subversive targets." Condor was an operation similar to Operation Gladio, the strategy of tension used in Italy in the 1970s, of which Licio Gelli was a member.

The program was developed following a series of government coups d'états by military groups, primarily in the 1970s:

General Alfredo Stroessner took control of Paraguay in 1954.
The Brazilian military overthrew the president João Goulart in 1964.
General Hugo Banzer took power in Bolivia in 1971 through a series of coups.
A civic-military dictatorship seized power in Uruguay on June 27, 1973.
Forces loyal to General Augusto Pinochet bombed the presidential palace in Chile (La Moneda) on 11 September 1973, overthrowing democratically elected president Salvador Allende.
A military junta headed by General Jorge Rafael Videla seized power in Argentina on 24 March 1976.

According to American author, journalist and educator A. J. Langguth, the organization of the first meetings between Argentinian and Uruguayan security officials, concerning the watching (and subsequent disappearance or assassination) of political refugees in these countries, can be attributed to the CIA, as well as its participation as intermediary in the Argentinian, Uruguayan and Brazilian death squads meetings.

The dictatorships and their intelligence services were responsible for tens of thousands of killed and missing people in the period between 1975 and 1985. Analyzing the political repression in the region during that decade, Brazilian journalist Nilson Mariano estimates the number of killed and missing people as 2,000 in Paraguay; 3,196 in Chile; 297 in Uruguay; 366 in Brazil; and 30,000 in Argentina. According to John Henry Coatsworth, a historian of Latin America and the provost of Columbia University, the number of victims in Latin America alone far surpassed that of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc during the period 1960 to 1990.

On 22 December 1992, torture victim Martín Almada and José Fernández, a Paraguayan judge, visited a police station in the Lambaré suburb of Asunción to look for files on a former political prisoner. They found what became known as the "terror archives" (Portuguese: Arquivos do Terror), documenting the fates of thousands of Latin Americans political prisoners, who were secretly kidnapped, tortured and killed by the security services of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. The archive has a total of 60,000 documents, weighing 4 tons and comprising 593,000 microfilmed pages. Southern Cone Operation Condor resulted in up to 50,000 killed; 30,000 "disappeared"; and 400,000 arrested and imprisoned. Some of these countries have relied on evidence in the archives to prosecute former military officers.

According to these archives, other countries, such as Peru, cooperated by providing intelligence information in response to requests from the security services of the Southern Cone nations. While Peru had no representatives at the secret November 1975 meeting in Santiago de Chile, there is evidence of its involvement. For instance, as late as June 1980, Peru was known to have collaborated with Argentine agents of 601 Intelligence Battalion in the kidnapping, torture and "disappearance" of a group of Montoneros living in exile in Lima.

The "terror archives" also revealed a degree of cooperation by Colombia and Venezuela. (For instance, Luis Posada Carriles was probably at the meeting that ordered Orlando Letelier's car bombing). A Colombian paramilitary organization known as Alianza Americana Anticomunista may have cooperated with Operation Condor. Brazil signed the agreement later (June 1976), but refused to engage in actions outside Latin America.

Mexico, together with Costa Rica, Canada, France, the UK, Spain and Sweden received many people fleeing as refugees from the terror regimes. Operation Condor officially ended when Argentina ousted the military dictatorship in 1983 (following its defeat in the Falklands War) and restored democracy.

Brazil

President Fernando Henrique Cardoso ordered the release of some military files concerning Operation Condor in 2000. That year Italian attorney general Giancarlo Capaldo, who was investigating the "disappearances" of Italian nationals in Latin America, likely due to actions by Argentine, Chilean, Paraguayan and Brazilian military, accused 11 Brazilians of involvement. According to the official statement, the Italian government "could not confirm nor deny that Argentine, Brazilian, Paraguayan and Chilean militaries will be submitted to a trial." As of December 2009, nobody in Brazil has been convicted of human rights violations for actions committed under the 21 years of military dictatorship.

Kidnapping of Uruguayans

The Condor Operation expanded its clandestine repression from Uruguay to Brazil in November 1978, in an event later known as "o Sequestro dos Uruguaios", or "the Kidnapping of the Uruguayans." With the consent of the Brazilian military regime, senior officers of the Uruguayan army secretly crossed the border and entered Porto Alegre, capital of the State of Rio Grande do Sul. There they kidnapped Universindo Rodriguez and Lilian Celiberti, an activist Uruguayan couple of the political opposition, along with her two children, Camilo and Francesca, five and three years old.

The illegal operation failed because two Brazilian journalists, reporter Luiz Cláudio Cunha and photographer Joao Baptista Scalco from Veja magazine, had been warned by an anonymous phone call that the Uruguayan couple had been "disappeared." To check on the information, the two journalists went to the given address: an apartment in Porto Alegre. When they arrived, the journalists were at first taken to be other political opposition members by the armed men who had arrested Celiberti, and they were arrested in turn. Universindo Rodriguez and the children had already been clandestinely taken to Uruguay.

When their identities were made clear, the journalists had exposed the secret operation by their presence. It was suspended. The exposure of the operation is believed to have prevented the murder of the couple and their two young children, as the news of the political kidnapping of Uruguayan nationals in Brazil made headlines in the Brazilian press. It became an international scandal. The military governments of both Brazil and Uruguay were embarrassed. A few days later, officials arranged for the Celiberti's children to be taken to their maternal grandparents in Montevideo. After Rodriguez and Celiberti were imprisoned and tortured in Brazil, they were taken to military prisons in Uruguay, and detained for the next five years. When democracy was restored in Uruguay in 1984, the couple were released. They confirmed all the published details of their kidnapping.

In 1980, Brazilian courts convicted two inspectors of DOPS (Department of Political and Social Order, an official police branch in charge of the political repression during the military regime) for having arrested the journalists in Lilian's apartment in Porto Alegre. They were João Augusto da Rosa and Orandir Portassi Lucas. The reporters and the Uruguayans had identified them as taking part in the kidnapping. This event confirmed the direct involvement of the Brazilian government in the Condor Operation. In 1991, Governor Pedro Simon arranged for the state of Rio Grande do Sul to officially recognize the kidnapping of the Uruguayans and gave them financial compensation. The democratic government of President Luis Alberto Lacalle in Uruguay was inspired to do the same a year later.

Police officer Pedro Seelig, the head of the DOPS at the time of the kidnapping, was identified by the Uruguayan couple as the man in charge of the operation in Porto Alegre. When Seelig was prosecuted in Brazil, Universindo and Lílian were still in prison in Uruguay and were prevented from testifying. The Brazilian policeman was acquitted for lack of evidence. Lilian and Universindo's later testimony revealed that four officers of the secret Uruguayan Counter-information Division – two majors and two captains – took part in the operation with the consent of Brazilian authorities. Captain Glauco Yanonne, was personally responsible for torturing Universindo Rodriquez in the DOPS headquarters in Porto Alegre. Although Universindo and Lilian identified the Uruguayan military men who had arrested and tortured them, not one was prosecuted in Montevideo. The Law of Impunity, passed in 1986, provided amnesty to Uruguayan citizens who had committed acts of political repression and human rights abuses under the dictatorship.

Cunha and Scalco were awarded the 1979 Esso Prize, the most important prize of the Brazilian press, for their investigative journalism of the case. Hugo Cores, a former Uruguayan political prisoner, was the one who had called Cunha in warning. In 1993 he said to the Brazilian press:

"All the Uruguayans kidnapped abroad, around 180 people, are missing to this day. The only ones who managed to survive are Lilian, her children, and Universindo".

Assassination of João Goulart

After being overthrown, João "Jango" Goulart was the first Brazilian president to die in exile. He died of an alleged heart attack in his sleep in Mercedes, Argentina, on 6 December 1976. Since his body was never submitted to an autopsy, the true cause of his death remains unknown.

On 26 April 2000, former governor of Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande do Sul Leonel Brizola alleged that ex-presidents João Goulart and Juscelino Kubitschek (who died in a car accident) were assassinated as part of Operation Condor. He asked for investigations to be opened into their deaths.

On 27 January 2008, the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo printed a story with a statement from Mario Neira Barreiro, a former intelligence service member under Uruguay's dictatorship. Barreiro said that Goulart was poisoned, confirming Brizola's allegations. Barreiro also said that the order to assassinate Goulart came from Sérgio Paranhos Fleury, head of the Departamento de Ordem Política e Social (Department of Political and Social Order) and the licence to kill came from president Ernesto Geisel. In July 2008, a special commission of the Legislative Assembly of Rio Grande do Sul, Goulart's home state, concluded that "the evidence that Jango was willfully assassinated, with knowledge of the Geisel government, is strong."

In March 2009, the magazine CartaCapital published previously unreleased documents of the National Intelligence Service created by an undercover agent who was present at Jango's properties in Uruguay. This revelation reinforces the theory that the former president was poisoned. The Goulart family has not yet identified who could be the "B Agent," as he is referred in the documents. The agent acted as a close friend to Jango, and described in detail an argument during the former president's 56th birthday party with his son because of a fight between two employees. As a result of the story, the Human Rights Commission of the Chamber of Deputies decided to investigate Jango's death.

Later, CartaCapital published an interview with Jango's widow, Maria Teresa Fontela Goulart, who revealed documents from the Uruguayan government that documented her complaints that her family was being monitored. The Uruguayan government was monitoring Jango's travel, his business, and his political activities. These files were from 1965, a year after the coup in Brazil, and suggest that he could have been deliberately attacked. – say that he could have been the victim of an attack. The Movement for Justice and Human Rights and the President João Goulart Institute have requested a document referring to the Uruguayan Interior Ministry saying that "serious and responsible Brazilian sources" talked about an "alleged plot against the former Brazilian president."

THE SLIPPERY, SLIMY, NEVER BEEN CAUGHT (YET) Henry Kissinger

Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State in the Nixon and Ford administrations, was closely involved diplomatically with the Southern Cone governments at the time and well aware of the Condor plan. According to the French newspaper L'Humanité, the first cooperation agreements were signed between the CIA and anti-Castro groups, and the right-wing death squad Triple A, set up in Argentina by Juan Perón and Isabel Martínez de Perón's "personal secretary" José López Rega, and Rodolfo Almirón (arrested in Spain in 2006).

On 31 May 2001, French judge Roger Le Loire requested that a summons be served on Henry Kissinger while he was staying at the Hôtel Ritz in Paris. Le Loire wanted to question the statesman as a witness regarding alleged U.S. involvement in Operation Condor and for possible US knowledge concerning the "disappearances" of five French nationals in Chile during military rule. Kissinger left Paris that evening, and Loire's inquiries were directed to the U.S. State Department.

In July 2001, the Chilean high court granted investigating judge Juan Guzmán the right to question Kissinger about the 1973 killing of American journalist Charles Horman. (His execution by the Chilean military after the coup was dramatized in the 1982 Costa-Gavras film, Missing.) The judge's questions were relayed to Kissinger via diplomatic routes but were not answered.

In August 2001, Argentine Judge Rodolfo Canicoba sent a letter rogatory to the US State Department, in accordance with the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT), requesting a deposition by Kissinger to aid the judge's investigation of Operation Condor. On 10 September 2001, a civil suit was filed in a Washington, D.C., federal court by the family of Gen. René Schneider, murdered former Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army, asserting that Kissinger ordered Schneider's murder because he refused to endorse plans for a military coup. Schneider was killed by coup-plotters loyal to General Roberto Viaux in a botched kidnapping attempt. As part of the suit, Schneider's two sons filed for civil damages against Kissinger and then-CIA director Richard Helms for $3 million.

On 16 February 2007, a request for the extradition of Kissinger was filed at the Supreme Court of Uruguay on behalf of Bernardo Arnone, a political activist who was kidnapped, tortured and disappeared by the dictatorial regime in 1976.

AND STILL, HE WALKS FREE AND UNMOLESTED--POCKETS BULGING WITH THE WAGES OF HIS CRIMES

Despite its brutality, like other totalitarian regimes in history, due to an economic boom, known as an "economic miracle", the regime reached its highest level of popularity in the early 1970s.

Slowly however, the wear and tear of years of dictatorial power that had not slowed the repression, even after the defeat of the leftist guerrillas, plus the inability to deal with the economic crises of the period and popular pressure, made an opening policy inevitable, which from the regime side was led by Generals Geisel and Golbery. With the enactment of the Amnesty Law in 1979, Brazil began its slow return to democracy, which would be completed during the 1980s.

Civilians returned to power in 1985 when José Sarney assumed the presidency, becoming unpopular during his tenure due to his failure in controlling the economic crisis and hyperinflation inherited from the military regime. Sarney's unsuccessful government allowed the election in 1989 of the almost unknown Fernando Collor, who was subsequently impeached by the National Congress in 1992. Collor was succeeded by his Vice-President Itamar Franco, who appointed Fernando Henrique Cardoso as Minister of Finance. In 1994, Cardoso produced a highly successful Plano Real, that, after decades of failed economic plans made by previous governments attempting to curb hyperinflation, finally granted stability to the Brazilian economy, leading Cardoso to be elected that year, and again in 1998.

The peaceful transition of power from Fernando Henrique to his main opposition leader, Luís Inácio Lula da Silva, who was elected in 2002 and re-elected in 2006, proved that Brazil had finally succeeded in achieving its long-sought political stability. Lula was succeeded in 2011 by the current president, Dilma Rousseff, the country's first woman president and as such one of the most powerful women in the world.

In June 2013, following the viral phenomenon of worldwide manifestations (such as the "Arab Spring", the "Occupy Wall Street" and the "Spanish Indignados&quot , numerous protests erupted in Brazil. For days, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in several cities to protest. Initially a movement against the increase in public transport fares, it assumed gigantic proportions, sparked by the excessive use of force by the state police, turning into a series of huge demonstrations by groups and individuals, angry about a range of issues (including new stadium projects for international sports events, demands on quality of public services, anger about corruption, and opposition to a constitutional amendment proposal, PEC 37, which is interpreted by some as an attempt to curb repression of corruption). Thus it became a movement containing conflicting ideologies, with so far no single political agenda nor recognizable leadership.

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65. United States involvement DURING BRAZIL'S MILITARY JUNTA PHASES

Throughout 1963 and 1964, Brazil gave moral support to the United States. Ambassador Lincoln Gordon later admitted that the embassy had given money to anti-Goulart candidates in the 1962 municipal elections, and had encouraged the plotters; many extra United States military and intelligence personnel were operating in four United States Navy oil tankers and the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal, in an operation code-named Operation Brother Sam. These ships were positioned off the coast of Rio de Janeiro in case troops required military assistance during the 1964 coup. A document from Gordon in 1963 to US president John F. Kennedy also describes the ways João Goulart should be put down, and his fears of a communist intervention supported by the Soviets or by Cuba.

Washington immediately recognized the new government in 1964, and hailed the coup d'état as one of the "democratic forces" that had allegedly staved off the hand of international communism. American mass media outlets like Henry Luce's TIME also gave positive remarks about the dissolution of political parties and salary controls at the beginning of Castello Branco mandate.

Indeed, the hard-liners in the Brazilian military pressured Costa e Silva into promulgating the Fifth Institutional Act on December 13, 1968. This act gave the president dictatorial powers, dissolved Congress and state legislatures, suspended the constitution, and imposed censorship.

In 1968 there was a brief relaxation of the nation's repressive politics. Experimental artists and musicians formed the Tropicalia movement during this time. However, some of the major popular musicians Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, for instance were arrested, imprisoned, and exiled. Chico Buarque left the country, in self-proclaimed exile.

In the military milieu, a series of geopolitical formulations inspired by the ideas of general Golbery do Couto e Silva reached their pinnacle. The valorization of the country's territorial attributes was accompanied by an increase in its defensive capacity. The need for a more effective occupation of the Amazon Rainforest was prioritized. The construction of the Trans-Amazonian highway (1970) began as part of the National Integration Plan (PIN).

French General Paul Aussaresses, a veteran of the Algerian War, came to Brazil in 1973. General Aussaresses used "counter-revolutionary warfare" methods during the Battle of Algiers, including the systemic use of torture, executions and death flights. He later trained U.S. officers and taught military courses for Brazil's military intelligence. He later acknowledged maintaining close links with the military.

Included among the "emerging powers," together with Mexico, Nigeria and India, the Brazilian government tried to dilute its identity as a Third World country. Its foreign policy began to be labeled "national interest diplomacy" based on the expectation that Brazil was becoming a world power.

The expansion of Brazil's international agenda coincided with the administrative reform of the Ministry of External Relations. Its move to Brasília in 1971 was followed by internal modernization. New departments were created, responding to the diversification of the international agenda and the increasing importance of economic diplomacy. Examples include the creation of a trade promotion system (1973) and the Alexandre de Gusmão Foundation (1971) to develop studies and research foreign policy.

Foreign policy during the Gibson Barboza mandate (1969–74) united three basic positions. The first one, ideological, defended the presence of military governments in Latin America. To achieve that, the OAS fought terrorism in the region. The second one criticized the distension process between the two superpowers, condemning the effects of American and Soviet power politics. The third requested support for development, considering that Brazil, with all its economic potential, deserved greater responsibility within the international system.

New demands and intentions appeared, related to the idea that the nation was strengthening its bargaining power in the world system. At international forums, its main demand became "collective economic security". The endeavor to lead Third World countries made Brazil value multilateral diplomacy. Efforts in this direction can be observed at the UN Conference on Environment (1972), the GATT meeting in Tokyo (1973) and the Law of the Sea Conference (1974).[citation needed]

This new Brazilian stance served as a base for the revival of its relationship with the United States. Differentiation from other Latin American countries was sought, to mean special treatment from the United States. Nevertheless, not only was this expectation not fulfilled but military assistance and the MEC-USAID educational cooperation agreement were interrupted. Washington held itself aloof at the time of President Médici's visit to the United States in 1971. In response, especially in the military and diplomatic spheres, nationalist ideas were kindled and raised questions about the alignment policy with the United States.

The presence of J.A. de Araújo Castro as ambassador to Washington contributed to the re-definition of relations with the American government. The strategic move was to try to expand the negotiation agenda by paying special attention to the diversification of trade relations, the beginning of nuclear cooperation, and the inclusion of new international policy themes.

In 1971 the military dictatorship helped rig Uruguayan elections, which Frente Amplio, a left-wing political party, lost. The government participated in Operation Condor, which involved various Latin American security services (including Pinochet's DINA and the Argentine SIDE) in the assassination of political opponents. In a 2014 report by Brazil's National Truth Commission which documented the human rights abuses of the military government, it was noted that the United States "had spent years teaching the torture techniques to the Brazilian military during that period."

During this period, Brazil began to devote more attention to less-developed countries. Technical cooperation programs were initiated in Latin America and in Africa, accompanied in some cases by State company investment projects – in particular in the fields of energy and communication. With this pretext, an inter-ministerial system was created by Itamaraty and the Ministry of Planning, whose function it was to select and coordinate international cooperation projects. To foster these innovations, in 1972 foreign minister Gibson Barboza visited Senegal, Togo, Ghana, Dahomey, Gabon, Zaire, Nigeria, Cameroon and Côte d'Ivoire.

However, the prospect of economic interests and the establishment of cooperation programs with these countries was not followed by a revision of the Brazilian position on the colonial issue. Traditional loyalty was still towards Portugal. Attempts were made to consolidate the creation of a Portuguese-Brazilian community.

Brazilian diplomats began to support the demands of the Arab League in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

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66. from aug. 4: Ukraine gets second IMF loan tranche worth $1.7 billion

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/04/us-ukraine-crisis-imf-tranche-idUSKCN0Q91V020150804

Ukraine has received a second tranche of financial aid from the International Monetary Fund, worth $1.7 billion, central bank governor Valeriia Gontareva said on Tuesday.

"The funds we received today from the IMF will be used to replenish foreign reserves," she said in a statement.

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67. Wolf Richter: Foreign “Smart Money” Frets about Turmoil at Home, Flees, Plows into US Housing Bubble

Wolf Richter: Foreign “Smart Money” Frets about Turmoil at Home, Flees, Plows into US Housing Bubble 2, Thinks it’s a “Safe Haven”

http://wolfstreet.com/2015/08/21/foreign-smart-money-sees-us-housing-as-global-safe-haven-pours-into-trophy-cities-drives-up-prices/

Just what we need; more 1%-ers. And if turmoil in emerging markets keeps up, we’ll have more of ’em, as conditions “at home” sharpen....

By Wolf Richter, a San Francisco based executive, entrepreneur, start up specialist, and author, with extensive international work experience.

Wealthy, very nervous foreigners are yanking their money out of their countries while they still can and pouring it into US residential real estate, paying cash, and driving up home prices – that’s the meme. But it’s more than a meme as political and economic risks in key countries surge. And home prices are being driven up. The median price of all types of homes in July, as the National Association of Realtors (NAR) sees it, jumped 5.6% from a year ago to $234,000, now 1.7% above the totally crazy June 2006 peak of the prior bubble that blew up in such splendid manner. But you can’t even buy a toolshed for that in trophy cities like San Francisco, where the median house price has reached $1.3 million.

And the role of foreign buyers?

Never have so many Chinese quietly moved so much money out of the country at such a fast pace. Nowhere is that Sino capital flight more prevalent than into the US residential real estate market, where billions are rapidly pouring into the American Dream. From New York to Los Angeles, China’s nouveau riche are going on a housing shopping spree.

So begins RealtyTrac’s current Housing News Report.

“For economic and political reasons, Chinese investors want to protect their wealth by diversifying their assets by buying US real estate,” William Yu, an economist at UCLA Anderson Forecast, told RealtyTrac. “The best place for China’s smart money to invest is the United States.”

In the 12-month period ending March 2015, buyers from China have for the first time ever surpassed Canadians as the top foreign buyers, plowing $28.6 billion into US homes, at an average price of $831,800, according to the NAR. In dollar terms, Chinese buyers accounted for 27.5% of the $104 billion that foreign buyers spent on US homes. It spawned a whole industry of specialized Chinese-American brokers. Political and economic instability in China along with the anti-corruption drive have been growing concerns for wealthy Chinese, Yu said. “China’s real estate market has peaked already. Their housing bubble has popped.” So they’re hedging their bets to protect their wealth. And more than their wealth….

“China’s economic elites have one foot out the door, and they are ready to flee en masse if the system really begins to crumble,” explained David Shambaugh Professor at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. China has capital controls in place to prevent this sort of thing for the average guy. But Yu said there are ways for well-connected Chinese to transfer money to the US, particularly those with business relationships in Hong Kong or Taiwan.

But in the overall and immense US housing market, foreign buying isn’t exactly huge. According to NAR, foreign buyers acquired 209,000 homes over the 12-month period, or 4% of existing home sales. But foreign buyers go for the expensive stuff, and in dollar terms, their purchases amounted to 8% of existing home sales. In most states, offshore money accounts for only 3% or less of total homes sales. But in four states it’s significant: Florida (21%), California (16%), Texas (8%), and Arizona (5%). And in some trophy cities in these states, the percentages are huge.

“On the residential side, Chinese buyers are looking for very specific things,” Alan Lu, owner of ALTC Realty in Alhambra, California, told RealtyTrac. “They are looking for grand houses with large footprints. And they want lots of upgrades. It’s a must. They also like new homes.”

Among California cities that are hot with Chinese investors: Alhambra, Arcadia, Irvine, Monterey Park, San Francisco, San Marino, and in recent years Orange County, “a once heavily white middle-class suburb that is now 40% Asian and becoming increasingly expensive,” according to RealtyTrac:

Buyers from China, including investors from Hong Kong and Taiwan, are driving up prices and fueling new construction in Southern California areas such as Arcadia, a city of 57,000 people with top-notch schools, a large Chinese immigrant community, and a constellation of Chinese businesses.

For example, at a new Irvine, California development Stonegate, where homes are priced at over $1 million, upwards of 80% of the buyers in the new Arcadia development are overseas Chinese, according to Bloomberg….

Similar dynamics are playing out in New York.

“In Manhattan, we estimate that 15% of all transactions are to foreign buyers,” Jonathan Miller, president of New York real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel Inc., told RealtyTrac. “Luxury real estate is the new global currency,” he said. “Foreigners are putting their cash into a hard asset.” And they see US real estate as “global safe haven.”

And then there’s Florida, where offshore money accounts for 25% of all real estate sales, twice as high as in California, according to a join report by the Florida Realtors and NAR. In 2014, foreigners gobbled up 26,500 properties for $8 billion. Based on data by the Miami Downtown Development Authority, offshore money powered 90% of residential real estate sales in downtown Miami.

In other places it isn’t quite that high….

“About 70% of our buyers are foreign, but recently there’s definitely been a slowdown in the international buyer market,” explained Lisa Miller, owner of Keller Williams Elite Realty in Aventura, Florida. “We still have a large amount of Latin American buyers, but the Russian buyers have dropped off,” she said, pointing at the fiasco in the Ukraine, the plunging ruble, and the sanctions on Russia.

But there’s a little problem:

“We have an enormous amount of condo inventory in South Florida,” Miller said. “We have 357 condo towers either going up or planned in South Florida. We have a ton of condo inventory.”

Brazilians are among the top buyers in South Florida’s luxury condo market. “Brazilians like the water,” explained Giovanni Freitas, a broker associate with The Keyes Company in Miami. “They love to shop. They want high-end properties. They also buy the most expensive properties. And they love brand-name products.” Capital flight accounts for 80% of his Brazilian business, he said; Brazilians are fretting over the economy at home and the left-leaning policies of President Dilma Rousseff. Miami Beach is a magnet for them. For instance, according to NBC, they own nearly half of the condos at the W South Beach.

Other nationalities, including Canadian snowbirds, play a role as well. Even the Japanese. They’re increasingly worried about their government’s dedication to resolving its insurmountable debt problem by crushing the yen. Miyuki Fujiwara, an agent with the Keyes Company in Miami, told RealtyTrac: “Many of my Japanese customers buy two or three condo units at a time.”

[Demeter]

68. Trump Change: Is Donald Trump Broke? Doug Litowitz

http://www.thealphapages.com/content/trump-change-is-donald-trump-broke

SHORT ANSWER: NOBODY CAN TELL BY HIS ELECTION FILING...IT WILL PROBABLY TAKE A FORENSIC AUDIT BY THE IRS TO FIND OUT

[Demeter]

69. Something Is Still Ridiculously Wrong

http://www.nasdaq.com/article/something-is-still-ridiculously-wrong-cm508796

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." - Arthur Schopenhauer

The endless debate over when the Federal Reserve will raise rates is not only myopic, but misguided. It needs to stop, and more serious analysis must be done on the current state of financial markets and the transmission of monetary policy to the real economy. Looking at the S&P 500, you would think we had one of the greatest economic and societal booms in history. Yet, the only bull market trillions of dollars in stimulus has created is one in the wealth gap between rich and poor, as the "wealth effect" only ends up affecting the wealthy.

It needs to stop folks. The discussion should not be about when the Fed will raise rates, but why they haven't been able to for so long and likely can't in an aggressive way in the future. Take a look below at the price ratio of the iShares Barclays TIPS Bond Fund ETF relative to the PIMCO 7-15 Year Treasury Index. As a reminder, a rising price ratio means the numerator/TIP (inflation protection buying) is outperforming (up more/down less) the denominator/TENZ (non-inflation protection buying). The chart below essentially tracks market expectations. Notice that as everyone is endlessly talking about the Fed's first rate hike, inflation expectations are utterly collapsing on the far right of the chart.



Some will attribute this to oil, but inflation expectations have faltered really since the summer crash of 2011 took place despite a booming U.S. stock market.

Stocks, by the way, are not meant to be a disinflation/deflation hedge, yet investors have piled into them so aggressively on the hopes that growth and inflation are about to ramp up. They simply have not, and yield curve flattening remains a massive issue for central bank tightening. That behavior in the yield curve, confirmed by collapsing inflation expectations, tends to be an omen of bad things to come...

Something is ridiculously wrong here. It isn't just the discussion over Fed policy. It's the reality that all the money printing in the world isn't translating into reflation. That is dangerous on many levels, and if the stock market begins to care about the fact that all of these tools central banks are using aren't actually filtering to the economy, then the future is likely to be extraordinarily more volatile than the past... For those looking at the stock market as proof of Federal Reserve power, the popping of the Last Great Bubble - faith in central banks - might make you challenge that belief soon enough.

[Demeter]

70. THERE'S SO MUCH MORE TO LEARN ABOUR BRAZIL

I think I'll continue with its economics and politics next weekend...

But for now, that's all folks!

Have a good week and try not to get tombstoned.

[Hotler]

72. I'm starting to have ads pop up and cover a big chunk of the page I'm reading,

anyone else have trouble with that here on DU?

[Demeter]

73. I use adblock with my firefox

Haven't been bothered with ads since (except when I downloaded a free game JewelQuest, but some tweaking with spybot got rid of that parasite....)

It's warfare, and you have to have effective weapons.

I'm seriously considering never downloading Windows 10, and making the long-advised switch to Linux....much as I'm not a software geek, and I divorced the one I had...

Spybot Search and Destroy: https://www.safer-networking.org/

Cheap and effective, well worth the money

AdBlock Plus for Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/adblock-plus/

I believe they also have a Chrome version....I just hate Chrome. It seems to have more fatal crashes than Firefox.

I crash Firefox all the time---or perhaps Firefox crashes Windows, because I'm trying to do too many things simultaneously....but it comes right back up.


Use protection!