Grand Theft Economics
By David Barboza
The New York Times
DECEMBER 21, 2005
By David Barboza
The New York Times
DECEMBER 21, 2005
Thu, 29 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
SHANGHAI China said Tuesday that its economy was far bigger than previously estimated and that new figures suggested it had probably passed France, Italy and Britain to become the world's fourth-largest economy.
The announcement sent economists and financial prognosticators scrambling to rethink their assessments of the rise of China and its role on the world stage. Many of them even brought forward their estimations of when China might eclipse the United States as the world's biggest economy.
Economyincrisis.org
28 Dec 2005
Economyincrisis.org
28 Dec 2005
Thu, 29 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
The following staggering amount of our wealth producing companies has been sold to foreign owners in the 10 years from 1995 through 2005. It is critical to understand that even if these are not all familiar corporate names, they are all very valuable strategic companies with vast amounts of technology, assets, production facilities, tax base, and employment attached to each one. In fact, many of the smallest, most unfamiliar acquisitions represent some of the most significant strategic and proprietary technology losses to this country. Many of these companies took decades, and in some cases generations, to build to their size and scope prior to acquisition. Not only does the US lose control of the assets and technologies of these companies as of the date they were acquired, the US also loses all future profit and title to all future advancements of these companies.
These companies were the means through which America created much of its present wealth. With the loss of these companies and having no comparable replacement, it's easy to see that our future will not be as good as our past, especially since the countries that acquired these companies are now able to compete with us in almost all industries. Why are we doing this? Don't we have alternatives? Who is responsible, demand answers from your congressperson.
The following table lists only a few of the 8,600 foreign acquisitions during this period. The $1.3 Trillion figure and complete list can be verified at the US Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Click link to original article to see the list.
By Paul Craig Roberts
28 Dec 2005
By Paul Craig Roberts
28 Dec 2005
Thu, 29 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
The US continues its descent into the Third World, but you would never know it from news reports of the Bureau of Labor Statistics July payroll jobs release.
The media gives a bare bones jobs report that is misleading. The public heard that 207,000 jobs were created in July. If not a reassuring figure, at least it is not a disturbing one. On the surface things look to be pretty much OK. It is when you look into the composition of these jobs that the concern arises.
Comment: Comment: Pathocrats achievement of absolute domination in the government of a country cannot be permanent, since such a system of government has nowhere to go but down.
Any leadership position - down to village headman and community cooperative mangers, not to mention the directors of police units, and special-services police personnel, and activists in the pathocratic party - must be filled by individuals whose feeling of linkage to such a regime is conditioned by corresponding psychological deviations, which are inherited as a rule. However, such people become more valuable because they constitute a very small percentage of the population. Their intellectual level or professional skills cannot be taken into account, since people representing superior abilities with the requisite psychological deviations - are even harder to find. After such a system has lasted several years, one hundred percent of all the cases of essential psychopathy are involved in pathocratic activity; they are considered the most loyal...
Under such conditions, no area of social life can develop normally, whether in economics, culture, science, technology, administration, etc.
Pathocracy progressively paralyzes everything. Pathocracy progressively intrudes everywhere and dulls everything.
Germs are not aware that they will be burned alive or buried deep in the ground along with the human body whose death they are causing. [
Political Ponerology]
By Jeff Franks
Dec 28, 2005
Reuters
By Jeff Franks
Dec 28, 2005
Reuters
Thu, 29 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
HOUSTON - Enron's former chief accountant, Richard Causey, on Wednesday pleaded guilty to securities fraud in exchange for a maximum seven-year jail sentence for his role in the financial scandal that led to the 2001 collapse of the power-trading giant.
Causey, 45, had been scheduled to go on trial next month with former Enron chief executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, facing the possibility of more than 20 years behind bars, but now may cooperate with federal prosecutors against them in a switch legal experts said could hurt his former bosses.
By MIKE WHITNEY
December 27, 2005
By MIKE WHITNEY
December 27, 2005
Wed, 28 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
Four months ago I wrote an article, "Doomsday; the Final Months of the Housing Bubble" that predicted a dramatic fall in housing prices that would have a catastrophic effect on the American economy.
In truth, I'm a lousy forecaster and simply collected the relevant data from a number of sources that convinced me that the end was quickly approaching. Now, it seems that dismal day is upon us and the Grim Reaper has begun churning out the disappointing statistics that we've dreaded from the very beginning.
Ian Sample, science correspondent
Tuesday December 27, 2005
The Guardian
Ian Sample, science correspondent
Tuesday December 27, 2005
The Guardian
Tue, 27 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
At 3am tomorrow morning a Russian Soyuz rocket is set to streak into the skies over Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying a satellite that is purpose built to break one of the most ubiquitous monopolies on Earth.
If all goes according to plan, the rocket will soar to a height of 14,000 miles before releasing Giove-A, a wardrobe-sized box of electronics, into orbit. Once in position it will gently unfold its twin solar panels and begin to loop around the planet twice each day. In doing so, Europe's most expensive space project, a rival to the US military-run global positioning system GPS, will have taken its first step.
Reuters
Mon Dec 26, 2005 12:28 AM ET
Reuters
Mon Dec 26, 2005 12:28 AM ET
Mon, 26 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
TOKYO - The Nikkei share average rose to fresh five-year highs on Monday as retail stocks advanced on bright prospects for the industry after Seven & I Holdings Co. Ltd. said it planned to buy a department store group. [...]
The Nikkei rose 0.83 percent, or 131.79 points, to 16,073.16 as of 0436 GMT. It earlier rose to 16,098.59, its highest intraday level since October 2000.
Donald Hunt
SOTT.net
Mon, 26 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
Gold closed at $505.90 an ounce on Friday, up less than 0.1% from $505.50 the week before. The dollar closed at 0.8425 euros last week, up 1.2% from 0.8323 at the previous Friday's close. That put the euro at 1.1869 dollars, compared to 1.2015 the week before. Gold in euros would be 426.24 euros an ounce, up 1.3% from 420.72 euros an ounce the Friday before. Oil closed at 58.43 dollars a barrel Friday, up 0o.6% from $58.06 the week before. Oil in euros would be 49.23 euros a barrel, up 2.1% from 48.23 euros a barrel the Friday before last. The gold/oil ratio closed at 8.66 Friday, down 0.6% from 8.71 at the previous Friday's close. In U.S. stocks, the Dow closed at 10,883.27 on Friday, up less than a tenth of a percent for the week from 10,875.59. The NASDAQ closed at 2,249.42, down 0.1% from 2,252.48 the week before. The yield on the ten-year U.S. Treasury note closed at 4.38%, down six basis points from 4.44 the week before.
Friday saw the release of the U.S. new housing sales numbers for November. The numbers were surprisingly bad:
By Mark Weinraub
Reuters
Sat Dec 24, 5:47 PM ET
By Mark Weinraub
Reuters
Sat Dec 24, 5:47 PM ET
Mon, 26 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
CHICAGO - U.S. retailers faced slower-than-expected traffic in stores on the last shopping day before Christmas as extended hours and steep discounts failed to draw a big crowd of shoppers.
"I don't think the day is the kind of day that retailers thought it would be," said Britt Beemer, head of America's Research Group, which surveys consumer spending habits.
Editorial
NY Times
December 26, 2005
Editorial
NY Times
December 26, 2005
Mon, 26 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
It might seem counterintuitive that many credit card companies would inundate the recently bankrupt with solicitations for new cards. It's especially perplexing that those same companies would do so after having spent more than eight years and $100 million lobbying Congress to protect them from irresponsible borrowers with a draconian new bankruptcy law.
But the truth is that credit card companies aren't all that interested in customers who pay their bills in full every month. They really want the so-called revolvers, people who don't cover their balances and pony up those juicy interest payments and fees. The tighter repayment provisions in the new law will encourage companies to trawl for even less-qualified customers.
238,676 people have viewed this page since Tue, 02 Jan 2007
Emails sent to Signs of the Times, Ark, Laura, or Cassiopaea become the property of Quantum Future Group, Inc and may be republished without notice.
Some icons appearing on this site were taken from KDE-look.org, Afterglow, Mayosoft, Everaldo, IconDrawer, VisualPharm, IconFactory, Klukeart, Icons-land, TpdkDesign.net, and IconShock.com.
Remember, we need your help to collect information on what is going on in your part of the world!
Send your article suggestions to: 
Original content © 2009 by SOTT.net/Signs of the Times. See: Fair Use Policy
![[Valid Atom 1.0]](/images/valid-atom.png?1222505720 "Validate my Atom 1.0 feed")
![[Valid RSS 2.0]](/images/valid-rss.png?1222505756 "Validate my RSS 2.0 feed")
Any leadership position - down to village headman and community cooperative mangers, not to mention the directors of police units, and special-services police personnel, and activists in the pathocratic party - must be filled by individuals whose feeling of linkage to such a regime is conditioned by corresponding psychological deviations, which are inherited as a rule. However, such people become more valuable because they constitute a very small percentage of the population. Their intellectual level or professional skills cannot be taken into account, since people representing superior abilities with the requisite psychological deviations - are even harder to find. After such a system has lasted several years, one hundred percent of all the cases of essential psychopathy are involved in pathocratic activity; they are considered the most loyal...
Under such conditions, no area of social life can develop normally, whether in economics, culture, science, technology, administration, etc.
Pathocracy progressively paralyzes everything. Pathocracy progressively intrudes everywhere and dulls everything.
Germs are not aware that they will be burned alive or buried deep in the ground along with the human body whose death they are causing. [Political Ponerology]