FOOD FOR THOUGHT

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan". All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (Substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. It could not be any simpler than that.

These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

The truth about Greece

An open letter to international public opinion

The truth about Greece

 

by Míkis Theodorákis

 

Composer and resistance icon Mikis Theodorakis lambastes the joint strategy devised by Greek politicians and financial institutions with the objective of pillaging the country. He explains how Greece was gradually put under IMF tutelage by Dominique Strauss-Khan and former Prime Minister Papandreou. While the Western media point the finger at Syria, Russia and China, a financial government has taken over the reins of power in Greece and in Europe.

There is an international conspiracy whose target is the complete destruction of my country. They began in 1975 aiming at Modern Greek civilization, continued with the distortion of our modern history and our national identity and they are now trying to eliminate us biologically as well through unemployment, hunger and impoverishment. If Greek people don’t rise as one in order to prevent them, the danger of Greece becoming extinct is evident. I place it within the next ten years. There will be nothing left of us but the memory of our civilization and our battles for freedom.

Until 2009, there was no serious economic problem. The major wounds of our economy were the enormous expenses related to the purchase of war material and the corruption of a part of the political and economic-journalistic sector. For both of these wounds, foreigners are jointly responsible. Germans, for instance, as well as French, English and Americans, earned billions of Euros from annual sales of war material, to the detriment of our national wealth. That continuous hemorrhage brought us to our knees and did not permit us to move forward, while at the same time it made foreign nations prosperous. The same was true of the problem of corruption. The German company Siemens, for instance, maintained a special department for buying off Greek stakeholders in order to place its products in the Greek market. Hence, the Greek people have been victims of that predatory duo of Greeks and Germans, growing richer at their expense.

It is obvious that these two big wounds could have been avoided if the leaders of the two pro-American parties in power hadn’t been eroded by corrupt elements who resorted to excessive loans in order to cover the leakage of wealth (the product of the Greek people’s labor) into the hands of foreign countries, resulting in the public debt reaching 300 billion Euros, i.e. 130% of GDI (Gross Domestic Income).

Due to that confidence trick, the foreigners I mentioned before made a double profit: firstly from the sales of the weapons and their products. Secondly, from the interest on the money they lent to the governments and not to the people. As we have seen, the people were the primary victims in both cases. A single example should convince you: the interests on the one billion dollar loan that Andreas Papandreou received in 1986 from a big European country reached 54 billion Euros and was eventually paid back in … 2010!
Mr Juncker declared a year ago that he had realized the Greeks’ financial hemorrhage caused by the excessive (and compulsory) expenses in buying war materials exclusively from Germany and France. And he concluded that our sellers were leading us on a path to destruction. However, he confesses that he didn’t take any action in order not to hurt the interests of friendly countries!

In 2008 came the big financial crisis in Europe. It was therefore only logical that the Greek economy should be affected. However, our living standards, high enough for Greece to be ranked among the 30 richest countries in the world, remained unaffected. There was an increase, though, in public debt. But public debt doesn’t necessarily lead to financial crisis. There are big countries, like the U.S. and Germany, with debts amounting to trillions of Euros. The key is in economic growth and production. In that case, one can borrow from large Banks with an interest rate of up to 5%, until the crisis ends.

That was exactly our position in 2009, when the government shift took place in November and G. Papandreou took over as prime minister. In order for the current opinion of the Greek to become clearer I cite two figures: in the elections of 2009 PASOK gained 44% of the votes. Today the polls give PASOK 6% of the public support.

Mr. Papandreou could have dealt with the financial crisis (which as I have said reflected the European one) by borrowing from foreign Banks under the usual interest rate of under 5%. If he had done that, there wouldn’t have been the slightest problem for our country. In fact, the opposite would have occurred; because we were on an economic growth path, our standard of living would certainly have risen.

However, Mr. Papandreou had already begun his conspiracy against the Greek people since the summer of 2009, when he secretly met with Strauss-Kahn, with the objective of driving Greece under the domination of the IMF. The information concerning this meeting was released by the former President of the IMF himself.
For the situation to reach that end, the country’s real financial status had to be distorted, so that foreign Banks would become nervous and raise the loan interest rates to prohibitive figures. That odious project began with the phony raising of the Public Deficit from 9,2% to 15%. For that felonious deed, the District Attorney, Mr. Peponis indicted Messrs Papandreou and Papakonstantinou (Minister of Finance) 20 days ago. What followed was the systematic campaign by Mr. Papandreou and the Ministry of Finance throughout Europe that lasted 5 months, during which they tried to persuade the foreigners that Greece was a Titanic about to sink, that Greeks were corrupt, lazy and therefore incapable of dealing with the country’s needs. After each of their declarations the interest rates increased, so that it became impossible for us to borrow any more, giving IMF and the European Bank the appearance of being our slavation, when in reality it was the beginning of our death.

In May 2010 a single Minister signed the notorious Memorandum, our complete subservience to our lenders. Greek law stipulates, in such situations, that the adoption of such an important agreement must be decided by three fifths of the Parliament. Therefore, in essence, the Memorandum and the Troika that essentially govern us today, operate illegally not only under Greek but also under European law.
By now since then, if the steps leading us to our death are twenty, we are already more than half way there. Imagine that with this Memorandum we concede to foreigners our National Independence and our National Property. That is, our harbours, airports, road networks, electricity, water supply, subterranean and underwater wealth, etc., etc. Add to that our historical monuments, like the Acropolis, Delphi, Olympia, Epidaurus and such sites, since we have waived all our legal defenses.

Production has come to a standstill, the unemployment rate has reached 18%, 80.000 shops have closed down, along with thousands of small businesses and hundreds of industries. In total, 432.000 enterprises have shut down. Tens of thousands of young scientists are abandoning the country, which is every day sinking into medieval darkness. Thousands formerly wealthy citizens are scavenging on rubbish heaps and sleeping on the pavement.

In the meantime, we are supposed to be surviving thanks to the magnanimity of our lenders, the Europe of the Banks and the IMF. In reality, every package deal which charges Greece with tens of billions of Euros is repaid in full, while we are burdened with new unbearable interest rates. And since it is necessary to maintain the State, the Hospitals and the Schools, the Troika is burdening the middle and lower economic strata of society with excessive taxes, leading directly to starvation. A famine took place at the beginning of the German occupation in 1941, with 300.000 people dead in a period of 6 months. Since then, the ghost of hunger is now returning to our defamed and unfortunate country.

If one considers that the German occupation cost us one million people dead and the total destruction of our country, how is it possible for us Greeks to accept Ms Merkel’s threats and the Germans’ intention to impose on us a new Gauleiter… This time wearing a tie…
And to prove just how rich a country is Greece and how hard working and conscious the Greek people (conscious of their Debt to Freedom and love of their country), I cite as an example the time of the German occupation from 1941 until October of 1944. When the SS and hunger killed one million citizens and the Wehrmacht was systematically destroying the country, and stealing all its agricultural production and the gold from the Banks, Greeks saved the people from hunger by creating the National Solidarity Movement and a partisan army of 100.000, which tied down 20 German divisions in our country.

At the same time not only did Greeks manage to survive thanks to their hard work, but there was also a large growth in Modern Greek art -especially in literature and music- under the terrible conditions of the occupation. Greece chose the path of self-sacrifice for the sake of freedom and simultaneously of survival.
That is when we were unnecessarily punished, and we responded with Solidarity and Resistance and we survived. Now we are doing exactly the same thing, with the certainty that the Greek people will be the ultimate victors. This is the message I am sending to Ms Merkel and Mr Schäuble, declaring that I remain always a friend to the German People and a fan of their great contribution to Science, Philosophy, Art, and especially Music! And the ultimate evidence of that is probably that I have entrusted the whole of my musical work to two German Publishers, Schott and Breitkopf, who are among the greatest publishers of music in the world and my co-operation with them is extremely friendly.

They are threatening to throw us out of Europe. If Europe doesn’t want Greece to be a part of it, Greece, for her part, is 10 times more unwilling to be a part of this Merkel- Sarkozy Europe.
Today, Sunday February 12, 2012, I am about to take part in the demonstrations, along with Manolis Glezos, the hero who, in the past, took the swastika down from the Acropolis, signaling the beginning of resistance against Hitler, not only in Greece but throughout Europe. Today, our streets and our squares will be flooded with hundreds of thousands of citizens who will demonstrate their rage against the government and against the Troika. I heard, yesterday, the banker-prime minister proclaiming to the Greek people that “we have reached point zero”. 
But who has led us to this ZERO point within two years? Those same people, who instead of having been imprisoned, blackmail the members of the parliament to sign the New Memorandum, which is even worse than the first one and which will be implemented by the same people following the same methodology which brought us to this point ZERO. Why? Because this is what the IMF and the Euro-Group dictates, blackmailing us that if we disobey, we will go bankrupt…This is a play of the theater of the absurd. All these parties who in fact hate us (foreigners and Greeks) and are the only ones responsible for the dramatic situation to which they have led our country, threaten and blackmail, aiming at continuing their devastating work, i.e. to lead us even beyond point ZERO, to our final elimination.

We have survived very difficult situations throughout the centuries and it is certain that if they lead us to the brink of death by force, Greeks will not only survive but they will be reborn.
At this point in time, I have devoted all my efforts to an attempt to dynamically unify the Greek people. I am trying to convince them that IMF and Troika is not a one-way street, that there is an alternative solution. And that solution is to radically change the course of our nation and turn towards Russia for economic co-operation and the setting up of joint ventures in order to exploit our natural wealth under beneficial terms that will safeguard our national interests.

As for Europe, I suggest we stop buying war material from Germany and France. And that we do everything in our power so that Germany pays back the war reparations they owe us and which currently amount to approximately–including the appropriate interest- 500 billion Euros.
The only force capable of effecting all these revolutionary changes is the Greek people, unified under a huge Front of Resistance and Solidarity in order to remove the Troika (the IMF and the European banks) from our country. At the same time all their illegal actions (loans, debts, interest, taxes, privatization of national wealth) should be considered as if they never took place. Naturally, their Greek partners, already condemned in our conscience as traitors, will have to be punished.

I am totally dedicated, body and soul, to this cause (the unification of the People in one Front) and I believe that I will be proved right in the end. I have fought, gun in hand, against Hitler’s occupation. I have experienced the Gestapo’s dungeons. I have been sentenced to death by Germans and have miraculously survived. In 1967 I founded PAF (The Patriotic Anti-dictatorial Front), the first resistance organization against the military junta. I fought underground, was caught and imprisoned in the junta’s “slaughterhouse”. Once again I survived.

I am today 87 years old and it is very possible that I will not live to see the salvation of my beloved country. But I will die with a clear conscience, because I will continue doing my Duty towards the ideals of Freedom and Justice until the end.

Athens, February 2012 Mikis Theodorakis

NEW MEDITERRANEAN OIL AND GAS BONANZA

CHANGING THE GEOPOLITICAL BALANCE OF POWER IN THE MIDDLE EASTERN REGION

With this article F. William Engdahl reiterates what I have claimed numerous times on this Blog.
See:
 http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com/2012/02/eastern-mediterranean-sea.html
 http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com/2011/12/energy-games-in-eastern-mediterranean.html

The MIDDLE EAST could soon see new battles over rights to oil and gas beneath the EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN in the LEVANT BASIN and AEGEAN SEA. The discovery of huge reserves off ISRAEL'S coast is changing the geopolitical balance of power in the region.

Energy self-sufficiency had eluded the state of ISRAEL since its founding in 1948. Abundant oil and gas exploration was repeatedly undertaken with meager results. Unlike its energy-rich ARAB neighbors, ISRAEL seemed out of luck. Then, in 2009, ISRAEL’S exploration partner NOBLE ENERGY discovered the Tamar field in the LEVANTINE BASIN, some 50 miles west of Israel’s port of HAIFA and with an estimated 8.3 tcf (trillion cubic feet) of highest-quality natural gas. Tamar was the world’s largest gas discovery in 2009.

At the time, total ISRAELI gas reserves were estimated at only 1.5 tcf. Government estimates were that ISRAEL'S sole operating field, Yam Tethys, which supplies about 70 per cent of the country's natural gas, would be depleted within three years.
With Tamar, prospects began to look considerably better. Then, just a year after Tamar, the same consortium led by NOBLE ENERGY struck the largest gas find in its decades-long history at Leviathan in the same Levantine geological basin. The gas field was discovered in October 2010 and Israel declared it its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

The find is some 84 miles west of the port of HAIFA and three miles deep. They named it Leviathan after the Biblical sea monster. Three ISRAELI energy companies, in cooperation with the HOUSTON TEXAS NOBLE ENERGY, announced initial estimates that the field contained 16 trillion cubic feet of gas—making it the world's biggest deep-water gas find in a decade. To put the number in perspective, that one gas field, Leviathan, would hold enough reserves to supply ISRAEL'S gas needs for 100 years. ISRAEL went from a gas famine to feast in a matter of months.

With the Tamar and now Leviathan discoveries, ISRAEL was beginning to discuss how to become a major natural gas export nation, as well as whether to significantly tax gas and oil revenues and place them into an ISRAELI Sovereign Wealth Fund that would make long-term investments in the ISRAELI economy as CHINA and many ARAB OPEC nations do.

Perhaps sensing that major oil and gas discoveries were being confirmed with the potential to change the geopolitics of the entire region, the US Geological Survey (USGS) launched its first-ever estimate of the total reserves of oil and gas in the broad region encompassing the EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN including the AEGEAN BASIN offshore GREECE, TURKEY and CYPRUS, the Levant Basin offshore LEBANON, ISRAEL and SYRIA, and the Nile Basin offshore Egypt. Their conclusion was impressive to put it mildly.
The USGS calculated the total for the EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN as a whole currently at 345 tcf of gas and 3.4 billion barrels of oil. Suddenly the entire region is facing completely new geopolitical challenges and conflict potential.

To put the numbers in perspective, the USGS estimates that RUSSIA’S WEST SIBERIAN BASIN, the world’s largest known gas basin, holds 643 tcf of gas. The MIDDLE EAST and NORTH AFRICA regions have several natural gas-rich areas, including the Rub Al Khali Basin (426 trillion cubic feet) in southwestern SAUDI ARABIA and NORTHERN YEMEN; the Greater Ghawar Uplift in eastern SAUDI ARABIA (227 tcf) and the Zagros Fold Belt (212 tcf) along the PERSIAN GULF and into IRAQ and IRAN.
Just months earlier, securing foreign gas was a national security priority of ISRAEL as existing domestic gas supplies dwindled dangerously low. Further adding to the energy crisis were the so-called Arab Spring protests sweeping across EGYPT into LIBYA in early 2011. The revolts toppled Mubarak, under whose regime EGYPT had supplied some 40 per cent of ISRAELI natural gas.

With Mubarak toppled and the ban lifted on EGYPT’S Islamic parties, especially the MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD and the radical Salafist Al-Nour Party, the gas pipeline delivering EGYPT’S gas to ISRAEL was the target of repeated sabotage and disruptions. The most recent was in February of this year in northern SINAI. ISRAEL was becoming more than nervous about its future energy security.
The discovery of Leviathan by ISRAEL in the waters offshore immediately triggered a new geopolitical conflict as LEBANON claimed that part of the gas field lay in LEBANESE territorial waters in the country’s EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE (EEZ). LEBANON delivered maps to the UN to back its claim, to which ISRAELI Foreign Minister Lieberman retorted, “We won’t give an inch.” 

The fly in the Mediterranean energy soup is the fact that ISRAEL, like the USA, has never ratified the 1982 UN Convention on Law of the Sea dividing world subsea mineral rights. The ISRAELI gas wells at Leviathan are clearly within undisputed ISRAELI territory as LEBANON affirms. But LEBANON believes the field extends over into their subsea waters as well. The LEBANESE HEZBOLLAH claims that the Tamar gas field, which is due to begin gas deliveries by the end of this year, belongs to LEBANON.

WASHINGTON has lost no time adding political gasoline to the natural gas dispute between LEBANON and ISRAEL. In July of 2011, Israel was preparing to submit its own proposal to the UN as to where the offshore demarcation line between LEBANON and ISRAEL should run. At the same time, Frederick Hof, the US diplomat responsible for special affairs regarding SYRIA and Lebanon, told LEBANON that the Obama administration endorsed the LEBANESE document. This added to the growing tensions reported since the outbreak of the Arab Spring between ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU and OBAMA.

Netanyahu has reportedly recently urged AMERICA’S eighth-wealthiest person, his close friend Las Vegas casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson to pour millions directly into the campaigns of Republicans, including Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney. This would represent an unprecedented direct ISRAELI intervention into US presidential candidates’ campaigns, in order to try to avert a second Obama term. 
New issues of control of the vast energy reserves being discovered off ISRAELI and LEBANESE, CYPRIOT, TURKISH and GREEK shores will clearly play a growing role in one of the most entangled political regions on Earth.

­F. William Engdahl

No Comment

Britain

Lord James of Blackheath $15,OOO,OOO,OOO,OOO FRAUD EXPOSED

THE ECONOMIST, A FAR CRY FROM OBJECTIVE JOURNALISM

THE ECONOMIST, THE POODLE OF ANGLO SAXON FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND  POLITICIANS?

The fact that The Economist lacks objectivity is a known fact, especially when it comes to reporting on issues concerning Argentina and Israel. The notorious “Argentine bashing”, The Economist seems to have set as its top priority, makes the situation even more precarious, considering that a British economic magazine has the guts to lash out at Argentine s economy, when Britain's economy is in shatters. 

AS IF BRITAIN HAS NEVER “COOKED” ITS ECONOMIC DATA

The Economist latest article on Argentina’s economy, as always paints a bleak future for the country and its “cooked books” regarding inflation figures. As if Britain has never “cooked” its economic data!!!! Granted, the topic regarding Argentine inflation data has legitimacy, what causes growing concern is how such “alleged” reputable British economy magazine lacks objectiveness, when “reporting” about Argentina. 

ARGENTINA DEFIES ORTHODOX ECONOMY AND ACHIEVING ECONOMIC GROWTH, SOMETHING BRITAIN IS APPARENTLY UNABLE TO...

This time The Economist lowered its ethic one level further, reaching that of a struggling second class boulevard magazine, seeking desperately to draw attention, thus using offensive caricature of the Argentine President on its online edition, which differs to the printed edition. It seems as if The Economist is used as the propaganda tool of certain entities in the UK who believe to benefit from such distortions in the long run, be it the current Malvinas – Falkland saber rattling which in reality is about natural resources, or the Anglo Saxon financial institution who are appalled by the fact that Argentina managed to achieve economic growth despite of being excluded from the International Financial markets and defying the doctrines of powerful International Financial Institutions such as the IMF etc.

BRITISH ARROGANCE 

The Economist's caricature of the South American leader portrayed as a WITCH is provocative, appalling and distorts the essence of a person. The fact that the magazine fails to portrait the South American leader as a person in itself is British arrogance at its best one would say. The caricature of the Argentine President is just another insult by British media since a couple of weeks ago a Falkland newspaper referred to the Argentine president as a BITCH. (see http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com/2012/02/british-multiple-offensive.html ) 

JUST TO RECALL:

Britain has the highest rate of unemployment in 17 years, affecting a 2.67 million people, and welfare being reduced to only those already in poverty; capitalism is at its most discriminatory, as the middle-classes are sectioned off with the rest of the population under the breadline. And though the working class may have changed in appearance, they still bear the sign of a disgruntled mob with the police being the government’s own army of soldiers.

The British economy is expected to grow at a rate of just 0.6% this year, instead of the predicted 1.6%.

UK'S NATIONAL DEPT REACHED ABOVE £1TRILLION FOR THE FIRST TIME

 
Figures released by the Office for National Statistics showed that debt has risen to £1,003.9bn, or 64.2% of GDP, up from £883bn a year ago.
The UK economy will come under increased focus end of January, when gross domestic product (GDP) figures are published for the fourth quarter of 2011 - revealing how close the country is to falling into recession. The UK will fall behind the US and Japan, which are expected to grow 1.8% and 1.7% apiece.

Given these facts The Economist should first clear its own backyard before pointing fingers at other countries.

The Economist article reads as follows:

Argentina’s inflation problem

The price of cooking the books

An extraordinarily elaborate deception may come back to haunt the government as the economy deteriorates

Feb 25th 2012 The Economist

HISTORY has left Argentines with more than their share of economic trauma. Having twice suffered destructive bouts of hyperinflation in the late 1980s, they are sensitive to rising prices. When they spot inflation their instinct is to dump the peso and buy dollars. But after the economy collapsed in 2001-02, horror at mass unemployment temporarily eclipsed the public’s fear of inflation. That has been the successful political calculation of the president, Cristina Fernández, and her late husband and predecessor, Néstor Kirchner. For years they stoked an overheating economy with expansionary policies. Faced with the resulting rise in inflation, their officials resorted to price controls—and to an extraordinarily elaborate deception to conceal the rise.


Since 2007, when Guillermo Moreno, the secretary of internal trade, was sent into the statistics institute, INDEC, to tell its staff that their figures had better not show inflation shooting up, prices and the official record have parted ways. Private-sector economists and statistical offices of provincial governments show inflation two to three times higher than INDEC’s number (which only covers greater Buenos Aires). Unions, including those from the public sector, use these independent estimates when negotiating pay rises. Surveys by Torcuato di Tella University show inflation expectations running at 25-30%.


PriceStats, a specialist provider of inflation rates which produces figures for 19 countries that are published by State Street, a financial services firm, puts the annual rate at 24.4% and cumulative inflation since the beginning of 2007 at 137%. INDEC says that the current rate is only 9.7%, and that prices have gone up a mere 44% over that period (see chart).
INDEC seems to arrive at its figures by a pick-and-mix process of tweaking, sophistry and sheer invention. Graciela Bevacqua, the professional statistician responsible for the consumer-price index (CPI) until Mr Moreno forced her out, says that he tried to get her to omit decimal points, not round them. That sounds minor—until you calculate that a 1% monthly inflation rate works out at an annual 12.7%, whereas 1.9% monthly compounds to 25.3%.


Threatening letters sent by the government to independent economists also shed light on INDEC’s methods. One was told that since the cost of domestic service was “a wage, not a price”, he should not have included it in his CPI calculations. “They have put a lot of effort and lawyers into such arguments,” he says.


Ana María Edwin, INDEC’s current boss, is unrepentant. In Ms Bevacqua’s day, INDEC artificially boosted the inflation rate, perhaps to benefit holders of inflation-linked bonds, she claims. She hints at underhand, possibly criminal, dealings between former INDEC staff, independent Argentine economists and international financiers. The evidence? That agreements between Mr Moreno and retailers to cap prices of basic products were not reflected in INDEC’s calculations before 2007. That suggests INDEC is now using some government-mandated prices rather than those that consumers actually pay.


When a product’s price spikes, INDEC takes it out of the CPI basket. “Poor people don’t just keep buying things if their price goes up a lot,” Ms Edwin explains. “They think: I will leave those tomatoes for the rich.” A proper CPI calculation does indeed involve rules for dealing with changes in buying patterns. But the potential for abuse is clear.


Some Argentine government bodies seem well aware of the true inflation rate. Foreign investors report presentations by the Central Bank mentioning a real (ie, inflation-adjusted) exchange rate that implies annual inflation of around 20%. Economists who have picked through the somewhat suspect figures for economic growth say they can discern a similar rate in the “deflator” used to correct some prices. Perhaps most intriguingly, INDEC’s and PriceStats’ inflation rates accelerate and decelerate in tandem.


The government has gone to extraordinary lengths, involving fines and threats of prosecution, to try to stop independent economists from publishing accurate inflation numbers. The American Statistical Association has protested at the political persecution faced by its Argentine colleagues, and is urging the United Nations to act, on the ground that the harassment is a violation of the right to freedom of expression.
At the government’s request, last year the IMF sent experts to help it plan a new national CPI. Ms Edwin says that the new index will not be ready until early 2014.
The longer this deception goes on, the trickier it is for the government to end. Faced with deteriorating fiscal accounts, Ms Fernández has begun to trim subsidies amounting to 5% of GDP. Their removal will push prices up further—as would a weakening of the peso. So Mr Moreno’s latest wheeze involves responding to a vanishing current-account surplus with strict import controls, which will undermine growth. Argentina has created a statistical labyrinth that might have been dreamed up by Jorge Luis Borges, the country’s greatest writer. This story is unlikely to have a happy ending.


CORRECTION: This article originally described State Street as an "investment bank". A "financial services firm" is a more accurate description of what it does. 

General Reader Comments:

When I read this kind of articles I find myself impressed. Can The Economist swear to me that it was written by an “Argy” in a top floor of a building in Puerto Madero? If so, I still think that the INDEK  affair is a bad thing, but I doubt about the objectiveness of the writer.

The Economist is a business magazine of prestige. Remember the fifth of November when Lehman Brothers broke and the worst economic crises destroy thousands of lives of "little" people (not the bank executives, of course). Well, The Economist keep the AAA rating for Lehman Brothers to the end helping the oblivion to come. Who is the liar? Argentina is not perfect but when her crisis explode (if explode), the harm will be negligible in comparison with the crises of LB.

The Economist observation is simple ridiculous compared to the inflation the us citizens are suffering since the 4 years of Obama's cooking. The Atlantic of March 2012 page 68 clearly states the Obama's cooking has bankrupted the US economy and no solution is presented by The Economist. The Economist sees Obama liking the Chinese’s bottoms every day for more loans but fails to present a solution to the US inflation. The Economist favors Obama’s cooking recipe for disaster which is the continued liking of the Chinese’s bottoms.

The Argentina economy is not as bad as the USA. Argentina economy never will reach the deficit of 15 trillion debts as the USA. On July 31, 2011 President Obama desperate demanded another 3 trillion dollars borrowed from foreign countries as the Department of Treasury did not have sufficient funds to pay the foreign debt placing the USA in a critical situation that can happen again this year. On July 31, 2011 President Obama desperation forced him to announce publicly that senior citizens on social security might not receive their checks on August 3, 2011. That is corruption. The social security funds are for the retirees not to pay the foreign debt. As you can see the economists have failed to identify what caused the USA economy to reach such deficit. Presently, the USA economy is in the same situation than July 31, 2011. No improvement has been made to relieve the 24 millions unemployed, the 44 million citizens on food stamps, the housing market, the high price of gasoline, the healthcare insurance that only a few can afford to pay. The USA economy doesn’t present a good future for me. I am planning to move to Argentina because I know I can buy fish and any other food I like to eat, have economical transportation and economical health services.

Monsanto Part 2

Open Seeds: Biopiracy and the Patenting of Life

Leaked documents reveal US diplomats actually work for Monsanto

Article by Anthony Gucciardi via Natural News

(NaturalNews) Biotech giant Monsanto has been genetically modifying the world's food supply and subsequently breeding environmental devastation for years, but leaked documents now reveal that Monsanto has also deeply infiltrated the United States government. With leaked reports revealing how U.S. diplomats are actually working for Monsanto to push their agenda along with other key government officials, Monsanto's grasp on international politics has never been clearer.

Amazingly, the information reveals that the massive corporation is also intensely involved in the passing and regulations concerning the very GM ingredients they are responsible for. In fact, the information released by WikiLeaks reveals just how much power Monsanto has thanks to key positions within the United States government and elsewhere. Not only was it exposed that the U.S. is threatening nations who oppose Monsanto with military-style trade wars, but that many U.S. diplomats actually work directly for Monsanto.

What the leaked documents reveal -- Military style trade wars, government corruption

In 2007 it was requested that specific nations inside the European Union be punished for not supporting the expansion of Monsanto's GMO crops. The request for such measures to be taken was made by Craig Stapleton, the United States ambassador to France and partner to George W. Bush. Despite mounting evidence linking Monsanto's GM corn to organ damage and environmental devastation, the ambassador plainly calls for 'target retaliation' against those not supporting the GM crop. In the leaked documents, Stapleton states:

"Country team Paris recommends that we calibrate a target retaliation list that causes some pain across the EU since this is a collective responsibility, but that also focuses in part on the worst culprits. The list should be measured rather than vicious and must be sustainable over the long term, since we should not expect an early victory. Moving to retaliation will make clear that the current path has real costs to EU interests and could help strengthen European pro-biotech voices."

The undying support of key players within the U.S. towards Monsanto is undeniably made clear not only in this release, but in the legislative decisions taken by organizations such as the FDA and USDA. Legislative decisions such as allowing Monsanto's synthetic hormone Posilac (rBGH) to be injected into U.S. cows despite being banned in 27 countries. How did Monsanto pull this off?

The biotech juggernaut managed to infiltrate the FDA positions responsible for the approval of rBGH, going as far as instating the company's own Margaret Miller as Deputy Director of Human Safety and Consultative Services. After assuming this position, Miller reviewed her own report on the safety and effectiveness of rBGH.

Many US diplomats pawns of Monsanto's GM agenda

While it may be shocking to you if you are not familiar with the corrupt influence of Monsanto, the cables also show that many US diplomats are pushing GMO crops as a strategic government and commercial imperative. Interestingly enough, the U.S. focused their efforts toward advisers to the pope specifically, due to the fact that many Catholic figureheads have openly voiced their opposition to GM foods. With this kind of political influence, is it any wonder that many food staples are now predominantly GM? Nearly 93% of U.S. soybeans are heavily modified conservatively, with many other staple crops coming in at similar numbers.

U.S. diplomats have unique opportunities to spread honest and intellectual campagins that can serve to better mankind and end suffering, however they are instead spreading the roots of Monsanto deeper and deeper into international territory. As a substitute for the betterment of mankind, these paid-off diplomats are now spreading environment desecration and health destruction.

As if there wasn't already enough information to reveal Monsanto's corruption, the biotech giant also spends enormous amount of money lobbying government each year. Monsanto spent an astonishing $2 million lobbying the federal government in the 3rd quarter of 2011 alone, according to mainstream sources. Why so much cash? The government lobbying focuses on issues like regulations for GM crops and patent reforms. This 'legal' form of persuasion is the reason government agencies like the USDA and FDA let Monsanto roam freely.

Satisfying government officials' financial vested interest is all that matters when dealing with corrupt mega-corporations like Monsanto. As long as these financial ties continue to exist, Monsanto will continue to reign over the food supply and continue to wreak devastation to the environment, ecosystem, and humankind.

Sources for this article include:
http://naturalsociety.com/us-start-trade-wars-with-nations-opposed-to-monsanto-gmo-crops/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/03/wikileaks-us-eu-gm-crops
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9RL51J81.htm
http://213.251.145.96/cable/2007/12/07PARIS4723.html
http://www.fastcoexist.com/1677871/fearful-of-genetically-modified-crops-youre-too-late