"The end of Growth", Richard Heinberg's new book

The world's biggest economy will expand between 2.7pc and 2.9pc this year, weaker than it expected just two months ago. The latest evidence from manufacturing, the housing market and the consumer – still the engine of the economy – all suggest the deterioration that started in the first quarter of this year has extended into the second.
"Part of the slowdown is temporary, part of it may be longer lasting," said Fed chairman Ben Bernanke. "We don't have a precise reading on why this slower pace of growth is persisting." "Economists insist that recovery is at hand. Yet, unemployment remains high, real estate values continue to sink, and governments stagger under record deficits. The End of Growth proposes a startling diagnosis: humanity has reached a fundamental turning point in our economic history. The expansionary trajectory of industrial civilization is colliding with non-negotiable natural limits."The End of Growth describes what policymakers, communities, and families can do to build a new economy that operates within Earth’s budget of energy and resources. We can thrive during the transition if we set goals that promote human and environmental well-being, rather than continuing to pursue the now-unattainable prize of ever-expanding GDP." http://richardheinberg.com

Is the beginning of a new era of progress without growth?

The obscure disease of the West

Yesterday I was leafing through some newspapers on the net when a China Daily's article caught my eye. I couldn't believe it was true.

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOC) spokesman Yao Jian said Chinese companies invested $20.35 billion in non-financial sectors in 110 countries and regions during the first five months, up 42.3 percent year-on-year. Chinese companies investing overseas should abide by local laws and should not be discriminated against, he added.

Well, what can I say?

I guess we will have big big troubles with China in the next few years.

"The Truth of the Apple iPad Behind Foxconn's Lies"

Foxconn is the largest electronics manufacturing in the world.  It’s also one of the most profitable companies with $ 79 billion.

The company mainly works for such a notable company as Apple, Hp and Dell.

Internationally,  Foxconn is best known because in 2010 at least 18 of its workers tried to end their lives.

Therefore a number of Foxconn’s customers like Apple have publicly pledged to “work with Foxconn” to live up to higher international labour standards.

Unfortunately, Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (Sacom), a Hong Kong-based labour organization, still denounces the false statement by Foxconn and its custumers.

A short video on working conditions at Foxconn's iPad production site in Chengdu, “the Truth of the Apple iPad Behind Foxconn's Lies”, has been released to unveil the exploitations at Foxconn to Apple's consumers. 

The footage was taken in March and April 2011 during Sacom's investigations. It documented labour rights abuses at Foxconn's plants in Chengdu, including misleading job advertisement, dangerous working environment, inadequate measures on work safety, excessive and forced overtime work, and deprived of social life. Foxconn's plants in Chengdu exclusively produce for Apple. Regrettably, Apple condones the labour rights violations at Foxconn.

How is it possible?

Chilean students get naked in the name of education

In Valparaiso, about 121 km (75 miles) northwest of Santiago, students marched through the streets to demand the government change the public state education system. The banners say: "Free Education now".

From Europe to Midlle East to America people are asking for the same things: Rights, Freedom, Future, Health.

Since the panic of 2008 Britain, US, European Union and Japan spent $5 trillion in quantitative easing to save those "self-styled masters of the universe" from Wall Street. 

Why do we never find money for what people really want?
In the meanwhile, China has allocated a total of 10.3 billion yuan ($ 1.58 billion) this year to reward outstanding college students and provide aid to those with financial difficulties.
Who is wrong?

30 years of HIV, it's long enough

On June 5, 1981, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a report on a rare and deadly illness affecting five young, gay men in Los Angeles.

In many countries it's still a shame. Here comes the story of Magid.



An estimated 34 million people are living with HIV and AIDS across the globe. Many do not even know they have it, but of those who do more than nine million are still not getting vital treatment.
That ratio is particularly bad in countries where the virus is stigmatised, such as Egypt. The UN estimates that about 11,000 people there have HIV, but only 400 are seeking treatment.
But now one man is trying to change that. Magid is the first HIV positive person to speak out in Egypt about his experience. He told Al Jazeera his story.

G8 France 2011: Berlusconi to ask Obama to intervene in Italy!?

Generation 2.0: Do you want to make more money? A good friend is all you need

Are you tired to watch your money go up and down?... keep in touch with your schoolmates.

Harvard Business School's Lauren Cohen and Christopher J. Malloy, along with University of Chicago colleague Andrea Frazzini, investigated the ties between more than 1,800 sell-side analysts and the management of public firms, and the subsequent performance of stock recommendations. The study is titled "Sell-side school ties" and suggests that agents in financial markets can gain informational advantages through social networks. Data on the educational background of sell-side analysts and senior corporate officers shows that analysts outperform by up to 6.60% per year on their stock recommendations when they have an educational link to a company.

It seems to be what happened with Raj Rajaratnam.

In 2009 he was arrested by the FBI on allegations of insider trading and on May 11, 2011 was found guilty of conspiracy and securities fraudnews. With more than $60 million, it was the largest hedge fund insider trading case in United States history. Rajaratnam allegedly profited from information received from Robert Moffat, an IBM executive, Rajiv Goel, an Intel Capital executive, and Anil Kumar, a McKinsey & Company executive. It was reported that Rajaratnam, Goel and Kumar were all of class of 1983 from Wharton business school.

According to a famous saying, who finds a friend, finds a treasure! 

Capitalism at it's finest

A 78 percent return. $726 million profit. John Paulson, the hedge fund king, put his money on the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Paulson, in fact, bought Lehman bonds after the collapse of the bank at an average price of 13 cents per dollar.
Now with any plan to get some compensation to creditors, according to Wall Street Journal, Paulson will come out with his pockets full of money. 

If, therefore, even the rival plan sponsored by Goldman Sachs was approved, Paulson would earn $350 million. However, at least another hedge fund still could contend the prize for the most profitable bet on Lehman: the unknown Owl Creek Asset Management may make a profit of $71.6 million, a yield of 94% on the initial investment. Money makes money

John Paulson is not related to former Goldman Sachs CEO and U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson.

"Work will make you free"

In China hundreds of millions of “peasants” from the countryside are on the move. Workers-of-rural-origins are preferred as a low cost source of labor and considered better fit for training and adaption to the competitive pressures of the market.

Since the beginning of 2010, a startling ten Foxconn employees in Shenzhen tried to end their lives. Therefore a number of Foxconn’s customers, notably Apple, HP and Dell, have pledged to “work with Foxconn” to live up to higher international labour standards.

But till today in Shenzhen Foxconn’s employees are housed in dormitories surrounded with “anti-suicide” nets.

Will we ever see anyone caring for our poor asses?

Many people from Wall Street think inflation is now the biggest threat to the U.S. economy. In Brooklyn many more than Wall Steet's rather think the biggest threat is falling into another recession. 

Who is right?

Meanwhile the most significant economic news from the first quarter of 2011 is the decline in real wages. 

In fact, millions of Americans, in order to keep their jobs, are accepting lower wages. 

What do you get like this?

The only thing you get is consumers who can't buy enough to keep the economy going.

Why doesn't Wall Street get it?

How Asia Copes with America’s Zombie Consumers

NEW HAVEN – Asia needs a new model consumer. A post-crisis generation of zombie consumers in the United States is likely to hobble growth in global consumption for years to come. And that means that export-led developing Asia now has no choice but to turn inward and rely on its own 3.5 billion consumers.

Of course, this is not the first time that Asia has had to cope with the walking economic dead. Japan’s corporate zombies were at the epicenter of its first lost decade in the 1990’s. Sclerotic companies were put on life-support credit lines by their zaibatsu – like banking partners – delaying their inevitable failure and perpetuating inefficiencies and disincentives that resulted in a post-bubble collapse in Japanese productivity growth.

Similarly, the crisis of 2008-2009 led to zombie-creating bailouts in the West. From Wall Street to AIG to Detroit, the US was quick to rescue corporate giants that would have failed otherwise. Britain and Europe did the same, throwing lifelines to RBS, HBOS-Lloyds, Fortis, Hypo Real Estate, and others. In the West, the excuse was too big to fail. How different is that from Japan’s mindset nearly 20 years ago?

The War you see: wag the dog

"Truth is the first casualty of war" (Aeschylus, Greek Tragic Dramatist, 525 BC-456 BC) . It's as old as history. 
Who remembers the pictures of the fake mass grave in Rumania that everybody broadcast in 1989?
This was one of the many horror stories published by media and that's similar to other fake events such the Iraqi incubatores and the non-existent mass graves in Kosovo. 

Something like that seems to have happened in Libya. I am talking about the burial site discovered in Tripoli by the supporters of OneDayOnEarth.org. It's the "Timisoara syndrome".
It's highly probable that, rather than "mass grave", those are one of many "collective burials" of african migrants whose boats capsize frequently near the Libyan coast and whose bodies are then carried by the tide on the beach. What we can seen clearly from the video of the "mass graves" is that they're not "common". Those seems to be single-hole, dug out calmly and even with some care. Media and newspapers speak of "makeshift cemetery"on the beach. Cemetery certainly, but actually not improvised.
It is propably a cemetery at Sidi Hamed, who is close to the beach near the residential district of Gargaresh in Tripoli.
There are too conflicting reports on the number of killed, airstrikes by Gaddafi forces, the number of cities controlled by the opposition - about literally everything

In brief, the entire Western narrative is misleading people again. 

see also The War you don't see by John Pilger

US shutdown: regrettably, yes. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race

Sometime ago Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called Chinese President Hu Jintao a "dictator". It was surely right but it wasn't ok. Why?.
When questioned on congressional Democrats' end-of-year compromise with Republicans that gave tax cuts to America's highest earners, Reid spoke about the need for Democrats to work within the system as it exists - a system, he said, that is very different than that of China. That was all right too,  so what's the matter? I myself agreed on it, if he would mean just that but he didn't unfortunately.

NO OIL-NO CARE: escaping from the Arab Spring (English subtitles)

In the name of Feedom! please, don't say it again (part 2)

Sarkozy’s humanitarian war had already begun in early March. The onset of hostilities can be dated with the arrival in a cargo of 105 mm guns and anti-aircraft batteries in Benghazi, disguised as humanitarian aid to civilians. The sender was the French government, which accompanied the consignment with its military instructors, whom started training the rebels as soon as they touched the ground
Everybody knows it in Paris. French weekly Le Canard enchaîné gave the news on 16 March, hidden between its insider pages.
The reporter Claude Angeli wrote on the delivery of weapons by a DGSE’s action, (French intelligence).
Therefore, any deployment of weapons and military personnel took place before the resolution 1973, adopted by the UN Security Council on 17 March that called for "an immediate cease-fire" and authorized the international community to establish a no -fly zone in Libya and to use all necessary means to protect civilians.

In the name of Freedom!, Please, don't say it again

I am not surprised that the USA, the UK and France have just chosen to free Libya among many current conflicts in the world.

We must be honest, this is another war for oil. There is not Freedom in Sarkozy's dreams but oil  and a  new mandate which are why he is taking dangerous risks. “Sarkozy has a huge investment in seeing Qadhafi go,” said Justin Vaisse, the director of research for the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings in Washington. “He’s going to be a constant force in favor of hardening the stance and the action.” Once we’ve eliminated the air defense sites — then what next?.....

On Libya, "Free countries" should shut the fuck up

After Bush's preemptive war, in 2010 "free countries" made a joke of our laws again. In fact, Libya was voted to join U.N. Human Right Council. Despite appeals by numerous human rights advocacy groups for a clear rejection of Libya’s candidacy for the world body’s top human rights body, only 33 countries did so in a secret ballot election. Muammar Gaddafi’s regime garnered 155 votes out of 188 cast, far more than the minimum 97 required. Five countries abstained. 

Make it in America - Andrew Liveris

"America used to make things, Americans were the innovatores, the undisputed world economic leaders, and with our success, we built a thriving, high-achieving middle class. Now, with policies that are indifferent or hostile to domestic manufacturing, and with other nations on the rise, America’s long-term prosperity is at risk. Our only chance to turn things around is to remember, revive, and revolutionize what made us great for so long, the manufacturing sector" 

Liveris's book explains why production is of such central importance to revitalizing the economy of the United State. Manufacturing sector creates economic value at a scale unmatched by any other. It‘s central to creating jobs both inside and outside factories.  Other nations are building their manufacturing sectors to stay competitive in the global economy, the book describes how America has failed to keep up.

Andrew N. Liveris is President, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Dow Chemical Company, a $45 billion global specialty chemical, advanced materials, agrosciences and plastics company based in Midland, Michigan

also see:

• Andrew Liveris's audio interview on Re-invetinting America's Economy
• Book's preview

Behind World's inflation

U.S. consumption increased by 3.2 % over the fourth quater of 2010. Although Somebody has hailed it as a sign of economic growth, this is nothing more than pure inflation determenated by deficit and monetary stimulus of the Federal Reserve.

Monetary expansion created by the FED has again shown its destructive effects: inflation has begun to be exported overseas. U.S. dollar is enjoying an enviable position of reserve currency that doesn't follow the rules of other currencies and allows the U.S. to borrow, spend and consume with money that the FED simply creates "out of thin air". In this way the U.S. can expropriate resources from the world by buying other's goods and services abroad like a counterfeiter who spends his fake money at a shop. Unfortunately, the excess of dollars return back home to be converted into Treasury bonds whereas U.S.  partners with this same amount of dollars finance their deficits and encourage an irresponsible consumption of resources. In fact they haven't any incentive to use their dollar surplus to buy goods and services as in recent decades American industry completely lost its competitiveness. 

So, What does it happen to U.S. partners currencies? 

The dollars obtained by exchanging for exported goods must be converted to be spent in these countries. 

If markets did freely, the excess of dollars would raise the price of currencies with which U.S. dollar was exchanged. But, actually it doesn't work like that and to prevent worsening of their exporting, U.S. partners have no other choice but to keep their currencies competitive with a new monetary expansion. 

In fact, to maintain a stable exchange rate, they must buy the dollar surplus by resorting to a quantitative easing. Therefore, when the Federal Reserve prints fresh money "out of thin air", other central banks make the same thing. In this way, the amount of dollars sold is parked as Treasury bonds, allowing the U.S. to keep their interest rates low and to continue selling its debt. This whole process is an untold damage to economies in terms of inflation. 

In summary, the  G-20 central banks have flooded the economy with liquidity without any relation to the real global production. All this is the cause of rising food price, speculative investment and ephemeral illusion of prosperity. 

In North Africa, this economic system based on fraud now starts to kill people too.