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marmar
marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
September 5, 2013
from Der Spiegel:
The collapse of Lehman Brothers shook the global financial system to its core five years ago. Nevertheless, lawmakers continue to shy away from making the necessary reforms.
Andreas Dombret has to laugh out loud when he recalls the weekend preceding what some thought would be the end of the world as we know it. It was the weekend before Sept. 15, 2008, and Dombret was the head of Bank of America's German operations at the time. On Friday, Sept. 12, he learned from CEO Ken Lewis that the bank planned to negotiate the takeover of investment bank Lehman Brothers that weekend, and that all top executives were to make the necessary preparations.
Dombret spent that Saturday digging through Lehman files. On Sunday, he received another call from the United States, informing him that Bank of America was not going to acquire Lehman, after all, but another US investment bank, Merrill Lynch, instead. Dombret felt that Merrill was a better fit, but he also sensed that Lehman was about to drag his industry and the rest of the world to the brink of ruin on the very next day.
Lehman declared bankruptcy on Monday. On Tuesday, it was clear that the shock waves from the Lehman collapse were going to affect everyone, including Dombret's Bank of America and Merrill Lynch, which required billions in bailout funds from the US government. In Germany, Hypo Real Estate (HRE) and Commerzbank were also caught up in the turmoil, and throughout Europe entire governments sought to avert the impending meltdown of the financial system by nationalizing banks. ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/bank-reforms-needed-five-years-after-financial-crisis-a-919725.html
Five Years After Crisis, Banks No Better Off
from Der Spiegel:
The collapse of Lehman Brothers shook the global financial system to its core five years ago. Nevertheless, lawmakers continue to shy away from making the necessary reforms.
Andreas Dombret has to laugh out loud when he recalls the weekend preceding what some thought would be the end of the world as we know it. It was the weekend before Sept. 15, 2008, and Dombret was the head of Bank of America's German operations at the time. On Friday, Sept. 12, he learned from CEO Ken Lewis that the bank planned to negotiate the takeover of investment bank Lehman Brothers that weekend, and that all top executives were to make the necessary preparations.
Dombret spent that Saturday digging through Lehman files. On Sunday, he received another call from the United States, informing him that Bank of America was not going to acquire Lehman, after all, but another US investment bank, Merrill Lynch, instead. Dombret felt that Merrill was a better fit, but he also sensed that Lehman was about to drag his industry and the rest of the world to the brink of ruin on the very next day.
Lehman declared bankruptcy on Monday. On Tuesday, it was clear that the shock waves from the Lehman collapse were going to affect everyone, including Dombret's Bank of America and Merrill Lynch, which required billions in bailout funds from the US government. In Germany, Hypo Real Estate (HRE) and Commerzbank were also caught up in the turmoil, and throughout Europe entire governments sought to avert the impending meltdown of the financial system by nationalizing banks. ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/bank-reforms-needed-five-years-after-financial-crisis-a-919725.html
September 5, 2013
Published on Aug 31, 2013
In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the potholes in the economy causing young people to go deeply into debt for education, property and retirement. In the second half, Max talks to Iona Bain of youngmoneyblog.co.uk about students debts in the UK and the merits of raising interest rates in order to encourage savings.
Keiser Report: Debt Zombie Students
Published on Aug 31, 2013
In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the potholes in the economy causing young people to go deeply into debt for education, property and retirement. In the second half, Max talks to Iona Bain of youngmoneyblog.co.uk about students debts in the UK and the merits of raising interest rates in order to encourage savings.
September 5, 2013
Published on Sep 3, 2013
In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert present an American Labor Day special in which they compare the situation for the American worker and consumer with that of the Chinese. They also look at the headlines from China regarding 'secret gardens' and contaminated soil. In the second half, Max talks to Dan Collins of TheChinaMoneyReport.com about housing bubbles, infrastructure, food safety and more in China.
Keiser Report: Ego-Nazi Nation
Published on Sep 3, 2013
In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert present an American Labor Day special in which they compare the situation for the American worker and consumer with that of the Chinese. They also look at the headlines from China regarding 'secret gardens' and contaminated soil. In the second half, Max talks to Dan Collins of TheChinaMoneyReport.com about housing bubbles, infrastructure, food safety and more in China.
September 5, 2013
Pt. II
Published on Sep 3, 2013
http://www.democracynow.org - The White House has launched what it describes as a "flood the zone" campaign to persuade Congress to authorize bombing Syria days after President Obama surprised many by announcing he would seek congressional approval before taking action against the Syrian government. On Saturday, the White House released a proposed military resolution that authorizes the president to use the armed forces "as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in connection with the use of chemical weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in the conflict in Syria." Critics of military intervention say the draft resolution could open the door to possible use of ground troops or eventual attacks on other countries. "It would intensify sectarian tensions inside Syria and neighboring states in particular in Lebanon and Iraq," says Fawaz Gerges, professor of international relations and Middle East studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
"It would deepen the involvement of regional powers further in Syria, particularly Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar on the one hand, and Iran, Hezbollah and to a smaller extent, Iraq. It would rekindle the collective memory of Arabs and Muslims of previous Western hegemonic attacks. The Iraq model is very much alive in the Arab imagination." While Washington debates the use of military force, the United Nations has revealed the number of refugees who have fled Syria has topped two million. The tide of children, women and men leaving Syria has risen almost 10-fold over the past 12 months.
Could U.S. Military Action Turn Syrian Civil War Into a "Widespread Regional War"?
Pt. I
Pt. II
Published on Sep 3, 2013
http://www.democracynow.org - The White House has launched what it describes as a "flood the zone" campaign to persuade Congress to authorize bombing Syria days after President Obama surprised many by announcing he would seek congressional approval before taking action against the Syrian government. On Saturday, the White House released a proposed military resolution that authorizes the president to use the armed forces "as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in connection with the use of chemical weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in the conflict in Syria." Critics of military intervention say the draft resolution could open the door to possible use of ground troops or eventual attacks on other countries. "It would intensify sectarian tensions inside Syria and neighboring states in particular in Lebanon and Iraq," says Fawaz Gerges, professor of international relations and Middle East studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
"It would deepen the involvement of regional powers further in Syria, particularly Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar on the one hand, and Iran, Hezbollah and to a smaller extent, Iraq. It would rekindle the collective memory of Arabs and Muslims of previous Western hegemonic attacks. The Iraq model is very much alive in the Arab imagination." While Washington debates the use of military force, the United Nations has revealed the number of refugees who have fled Syria has topped two million. The tide of children, women and men leaving Syria has risen almost 10-fold over the past 12 months.
September 5, 2013
Building the Commons as an Antidote to the Predatory Market Economy
Wednesday, 04 September 2013 00:00
By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, Truthout | Opinion
These are times of radical change. We are in the midst of an evolution. As David Bollier writes, "We are poised between an old world that no longer works and a new one struggling to be born. Surrounded by centralized hierarchies on the one hand and predatory markets on the other, people around the world are searching for alternatives."
The old world is one of concentrated economic power that hoards wealth; that creates corrupted and hierarchical governance to serve and further concentrate wealth through exploitation of people and the planet. People are experiencing the ravages of this global neoliberal economy in which the market reigns supreme and everything is a profit center, no matter the human and environmental costs.
We are at a crossroads in the global economic order. If not stopped, the two massive "trade" agreements under negotiation at present, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (known as TAFTA), will cement this globalized neoliberal market economy through greater deregulation, profit protection and an extra-judicial trade tribunal in which corporations can sue sovereign nations if their laws interfere with profits.
There is another way. We've reached a tipping point in awareness of the effects of the current global economy that has erupted in a worldwide revolt as we can see in the Occupy, Arab Spring, Idle No More and Indignado movements. People are searching for alternative ways of structuring the economy and society that are empowering and more just and sustainable. Part of this work includes understanding and building the "commons," which is the opposite of the predatory market economy. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/18582-building-the-commons-as-an-antidote-to-the-predatory-market-economy
Building the Commons as an Antidote to the Predatory Market Economy
Building the Commons as an Antidote to the Predatory Market Economy
Wednesday, 04 September 2013 00:00
By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, Truthout | Opinion
These are times of radical change. We are in the midst of an evolution. As David Bollier writes, "We are poised between an old world that no longer works and a new one struggling to be born. Surrounded by centralized hierarchies on the one hand and predatory markets on the other, people around the world are searching for alternatives."
The old world is one of concentrated economic power that hoards wealth; that creates corrupted and hierarchical governance to serve and further concentrate wealth through exploitation of people and the planet. People are experiencing the ravages of this global neoliberal economy in which the market reigns supreme and everything is a profit center, no matter the human and environmental costs.
We are at a crossroads in the global economic order. If not stopped, the two massive "trade" agreements under negotiation at present, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (known as TAFTA), will cement this globalized neoliberal market economy through greater deregulation, profit protection and an extra-judicial trade tribunal in which corporations can sue sovereign nations if their laws interfere with profits.
There is another way. We've reached a tipping point in awareness of the effects of the current global economy that has erupted in a worldwide revolt as we can see in the Occupy, Arab Spring, Idle No More and Indignado movements. People are searching for alternative ways of structuring the economy and society that are empowering and more just and sustainable. Part of this work includes understanding and building the "commons," which is the opposite of the predatory market economy. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/18582-building-the-commons-as-an-antidote-to-the-predatory-market-economy
September 5, 2013
Published on Wednesday, September 4, 2013 by Hullabaloo
The Oxymoron of the Day: 'Humanitarian War' in Syria
by Digby
That's very compelling. This article in Jacobin Magazine by Greg Shupak explains why humanitarian war is a contradiction in terms:
If people want to make a moral argument for military intervention they have to reckon with this in some way. And as far as I can tell the only way to do that is to say you hope you don't kill quite as many people as the "bad guys" would have killed if you didn't intervene. That's not good enough. ..........................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/09/04-6
Digby: The Oxymoron of the Day: 'Humanitarian War' in Syria
Published on Wednesday, September 4, 2013 by Hullabaloo
The Oxymoron of the Day: 'Humanitarian War' in Syria
by Digby
"I would argue that when I see 400 children subjected to gas, over 1,400 innocent civilians dying senselessly . . . the moral thing to do is not to stand by and do nothing.” --- President Obama earlier today
That's very compelling. This article in Jacobin Magazine by Greg Shupak explains why humanitarian war is a contradiction in terms:
Liberal interventionists thought they had this one. Their doctrine had seemingly triumphed in Libya. Not only were the usual suspects, the Christopher Hitchenses, the Bernard-Henri Levys, peddling the notion that NATO could be a global constabulary for the enforcement of human rights, but more careful commentators like Juan Cole and Gilbert Achcar had also backed Western intervention. If NATO’s war in Libya has now lost some of its initial luster, it is primarily because the murder of US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other Americans brought worldwide attention to the nature of the forces the war unleashed and to the chaotic state in which Libyans now find themselves.
But the shine was, from the start, an illusion, as Maximilian Forte proves in his important new book, Slouching Towards Sirte: NATO's War on Libya and Africa. Forte thoroughly chronicles NATO’s bombing of Libya and the crimes against humanity for which NATO is responsible. The author takes us on a tour of Sirte after it had been subject to intense NATO bombardment by chronicling journalists’ impressions of the city in October 2011. Reporters observed, “Nothing could survive in here for very long,” that the city was “reduced to rubble, a ghost town filled with the stench of death and where bodies litter the streets,” that it was a place “almost without an intact building,” whose infrastructure “simply ceased to exist,” and resembled “Ypres in 1915, or Grozny in 1995,” or postwar “Leningrad, Gaza or Beirut.”
Forte describes numerous NATO operations which, he argues, rose to the level of war crimes. For example, he discusses a NATO strike on a farming compound in the town of Majer on 8 August 2011. A Human Rights Watch investigation concluded that NATO fired on the compound twice, the second time killing 34 civilians who had come to look for survivors —a tactic familiar to those who follow US drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen—and found no evidence that the target had been used for military purposes. In its examination of five sites where NATO caused civilian casualties, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) found that at four of those sites NATO’s characterization of the targets as “‘command and control nodes’ or ‘troop staging areas’ was not reflected in evidence at the scene and witness testimony.” In view of these and other killings of civilians by NATO, Palestinian lawyer Raji Sourani remarks that the Independent Civil Society Mission to Libya of which he was a part has “reason to think that there were some war crimes perpetrated” by NATO. Through this method, Forte shows the fundamental contradiction of humanitarian wars: they kill people to ensure that people are not killed.
If people want to make a moral argument for military intervention they have to reckon with this in some way. And as far as I can tell the only way to do that is to say you hope you don't kill quite as many people as the "bad guys" would have killed if you didn't intervene. That's not good enough. ..........................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/09/04-6
September 5, 2013
from truthdig:
Syria and the Return of Dissent
Posted on Sep 4, 2013
By E.J. Dionne, Jr.
The debate over Syria is a jumble of metaphors, proof that every discussion of military action involves an argument about the last war. Yet beneath the surface, the fight in Congress over President Obama’s proposed strike against Bashar al-Assad’s regime is a struggle to break free from earlier syndromes to set a new course.
Obama himself is using the imperative that he back up his “red line” against chemical weapons as an occasion for revisiting his Syrian strategy. And both of our political parties are emerging from a post-9/11 period of frozen foreign policy thinking to a more natural and intellectually honest exchange over America’s long-term role in the world.
The mood of the public and of many in Congress is summarized easily: “No more Iraqs.” It’s a sensible impulse because the Iraq War never delivered on the promises of those who urged the country to battle. Especially among Democrats who initially endorsed the war, there is a lingering guilt that they never asked the Bush administration the questions that needed to be posed. Belatedly, those queries—about what the intelligence shows and what our goals are—are now being directed to Obama on Syria.
Still, there is another reaction among Democrats and liberals, including Obama. It is a return to a pre-Iraq view that shaped the Clinton administration’s policies in Bosnia and Kosovo after it failed to stop the Rwandan genocide: There are times when American power can be used to keep local wars from flying out of control, to prevent or limit humanitarian catastrophes and, yes, to advance the country’s interests. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/syria_and_the_return_of_dissent_20130904/
E.J. Dionne: Syria and the Return of Dissent
from truthdig:
Syria and the Return of Dissent
Posted on Sep 4, 2013
By E.J. Dionne, Jr.
The debate over Syria is a jumble of metaphors, proof that every discussion of military action involves an argument about the last war. Yet beneath the surface, the fight in Congress over President Obama’s proposed strike against Bashar al-Assad’s regime is a struggle to break free from earlier syndromes to set a new course.
Obama himself is using the imperative that he back up his “red line” against chemical weapons as an occasion for revisiting his Syrian strategy. And both of our political parties are emerging from a post-9/11 period of frozen foreign policy thinking to a more natural and intellectually honest exchange over America’s long-term role in the world.
The mood of the public and of many in Congress is summarized easily: “No more Iraqs.” It’s a sensible impulse because the Iraq War never delivered on the promises of those who urged the country to battle. Especially among Democrats who initially endorsed the war, there is a lingering guilt that they never asked the Bush administration the questions that needed to be posed. Belatedly, those queries—about what the intelligence shows and what our goals are—are now being directed to Obama on Syria.
Still, there is another reaction among Democrats and liberals, including Obama. It is a return to a pre-Iraq view that shaped the Clinton administration’s policies in Bosnia and Kosovo after it failed to stop the Rwandan genocide: There are times when American power can be used to keep local wars from flying out of control, to prevent or limit humanitarian catastrophes and, yes, to advance the country’s interests. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/syria_and_the_return_of_dissent_20130904/
September 5, 2013
[font size="4"]..... exceptionally virtuous, admirable, superior.
If our starting point for evaluating the world around us is the firm belief that this nation is somehow endowed by Providence with unique qualities that make it morally superior to every other nation on Earth, then we are not likely to question the president when he says we are sending our troops here or there, or bombing this or that, in order to spread our values -- democracy, liberty, and let's not forget free enterprise -- to some God-forsaken (literally) place in the world."[/font] -- Howard Zinn
The complete piece, "Lessons of the Iraq War start with U.S. history", is at: http://progressive.org/media_mpzinn030806
"There is an even bigger lie: the arrogant idea that this country is the center of the universe ....
[font size="4"]..... exceptionally virtuous, admirable, superior.
If our starting point for evaluating the world around us is the firm belief that this nation is somehow endowed by Providence with unique qualities that make it morally superior to every other nation on Earth, then we are not likely to question the president when he says we are sending our troops here or there, or bombing this or that, in order to spread our values -- democracy, liberty, and let's not forget free enterprise -- to some God-forsaken (literally) place in the world."[/font] -- Howard Zinn
The complete piece, "Lessons of the Iraq War start with U.S. history", is at: http://progressive.org/media_mpzinn030806
September 4, 2013
from Der Spiegel:
The collapse of Lehman Brothers shook the global financial system to its core five years ago. Nevertheless, lawmakers continue to shy away from making the necessary reforms.
Andreas Dombret has to laugh out loud when he recalls the weekend preceding what some thought would be the end of the world as we know it. It was the weekend before Sept. 15, 2008, and Dombret was the head of Bank of America's German operations at the time. On Friday, Sept. 12, he learned from CEO Ken Lewis that the bank planned to negotiate the takeover of investment bank Lehman Brothers that weekend, and that all top executives were to make the necessary preparations.
Dombret spent that Saturday digging through Lehman files. On Sunday, he received another call from the United States, informing him that Bank of America was not going to acquire Lehman, after all, but another US investment bank, Merrill Lynch, instead. Dombret felt that Merrill was a better fit, but he also sensed that Lehman was about to drag his industry and the rest of the world to the brink of ruin on the very next day.
Lehman declared bankruptcy on Monday. On Tuesday, it was clear that the shock waves from the Lehman collapse were going to affect everyone, including Dombret's Bank of America and Merrill Lynch, which required billions in bailout funds from the US government. In Germany, Hypo Real Estate (HRE) and Commerzbank were also caught up in the turmoil, and throughout Europe entire governments sought to avert the impending meltdown of the financial system by nationalizing banks. ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/bank-reforms-needed-five-years-after-financial-crisis-a-919725.html
Five Years After Crisis, Banks No Better Off
from Der Spiegel:
The collapse of Lehman Brothers shook the global financial system to its core five years ago. Nevertheless, lawmakers continue to shy away from making the necessary reforms.
Andreas Dombret has to laugh out loud when he recalls the weekend preceding what some thought would be the end of the world as we know it. It was the weekend before Sept. 15, 2008, and Dombret was the head of Bank of America's German operations at the time. On Friday, Sept. 12, he learned from CEO Ken Lewis that the bank planned to negotiate the takeover of investment bank Lehman Brothers that weekend, and that all top executives were to make the necessary preparations.
Dombret spent that Saturday digging through Lehman files. On Sunday, he received another call from the United States, informing him that Bank of America was not going to acquire Lehman, after all, but another US investment bank, Merrill Lynch, instead. Dombret felt that Merrill was a better fit, but he also sensed that Lehman was about to drag his industry and the rest of the world to the brink of ruin on the very next day.
Lehman declared bankruptcy on Monday. On Tuesday, it was clear that the shock waves from the Lehman collapse were going to affect everyone, including Dombret's Bank of America and Merrill Lynch, which required billions in bailout funds from the US government. In Germany, Hypo Real Estate (HRE) and Commerzbank were also caught up in the turmoil, and throughout Europe entire governments sought to avert the impending meltdown of the financial system by nationalizing banks. ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/bank-reforms-needed-five-years-after-financial-crisis-a-919725.html
September 4, 2013
....... During US Open coverage, all she does during a match is long for the days of serve-and-volleyers AND one-handed backhands. ...... I wish Chris Evert would stuff a tennis ball in her mouth.
Pam Shriver is soooooo annoying.......
....... During US Open coverage, all she does during a match is long for the days of serve-and-volleyers AND one-handed backhands. ...... I wish Chris Evert would stuff a tennis ball in her mouth.
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