Puppet MastersS


Cloud Lightning

Financial collapse: A perfect storm

John Rubino
DollarCollapse.com
Thu, 07 Jan 2016 21:59 UTC
Hurrican Isabel
© Mike Trenchard, Earth Sciences & Image Analysis Laboratory , Johnson Space Center
One of the (many) fascinating things about this latest global financial crisis is that there's no single catalyst. Unlike 2008 when the carnage could be traced back to US subprime housing, or 2000 when tech stocks crashed and pulled down everything else, this time around a whole bunch of seemingly-unrelated things are unraveling all at once.

China's malinvestment binge is crashing global commodities, an overvalued dollar is crushing emerging markets (most recently forcing China to devalue), the pan-Islamic war has suddenly gone from simmer to boil, grossly-overvalued equities pretty much everywhere are getting a long-overdue correction, and developed-world political systems are being upended as voters lose faith in mainstream parties to deal with inequality, corporate power, entitlements, immigration, really pretty much everything. For one amusing/amazing example of the latter problem, consider Germany's response to the mobs of men that suddenly materialized and began molesting women: Cologne mayor slammed after telling German women to keep would-be rapists at arm's length.
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Wall Street

China, oil and the markets is all the same story

Raúl Ilargi Meijer
The Automatic Earth
Thu, 07 Jan 2016 21:36 UTC
gold currency gears
If there's one thing to take away from this year's developments in markets and economies so far, it's that they are all linked, they're all part of the same thing. If you can't see that, you're not going to understand what's happening.

Looking at falling oil prices as a separate thread is not much use, and neither is doing the same with Chinese stocks, or the yuan, or the millions of Americans who are one paycheck away from poverty, for that matter. It's all one story.

And the take-away from that, in turn, is that focusing too much on 'narrow' conditions in your particular part of the globe has only limited value. We're very much all in this together. In the UK today, it matters very little what George Osborne says or does, or Mark Carney, because they don't shape the future of the economy.
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Telephone

Gaddafi accused Blair of 'colonization' of Libya in revealed phone transcripts


RT
Thu, 07 Jan 2016 21:10 UTC
British Prime Minister Tony Blair with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi
© Madeleine Chambers / ReutersBritish Prime Minister Tony Blair (L) shakes hands with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in a tent outside Tripoli, March 25. 2004.
Transcripts of two phone calls between Tony Blair and Colonel Muammar Gaddafi reveal the Libyan dictator forced the former prime minister to confirm he did not support Al-Qaeda, as civil war engulfed the North African state.

On Thursday, the ex-PM submitted a transcript of the calls he made to Gaddafi on February 25, 2011, to MPs as part of their investigation into the UK's policy on Libya.

Comment: These transcripts really highlight Blair's maneuvering to get Gaddafi out of the way for the 'planned invasion' of Libya.

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Magnify

Ron Paul: North Korea testing hydrogen bomb a reaction to US foreign policy of interventionism


Sputnik
Thu, 07 Jan 2016 19:11 UTC
north korea hydrogen bomb
© AFP 2015/ JUNG YEON-JE
On Wednesday, South Korean media reported an earthquake near a North Korean nuclear facility. Later in the day, Pyongyang announced it had tested a hydrogen bomb. The incident has received widespread international condemnation.

Meanwhile, US Republican presidential candidates claimed that North Korea's alleged nuclear weapons test is a direct result of US President Barack Obama's weak foreign policy.

Although Kim Jong Un managed to grab the world's attention, "the nuclear explosion is looking less likely as powerful as the North Korean government initially said but that is not stopping vested US interests in playing up the threat," political analyst Daniel McAdams said in an interview for the Ron Paul Institute.

Former Republican congressman Ron Paul in his latest Liberty Report noted that the North Korean 'problem' is a direct result of US interventionism and the uncertainty it produces.

"The issue is the interventionism. The US policy has driven North Korea to where it is. Look at the countries that have turned over their nukes. Libya turned in its nuclear program and had a regime change," Daniel McAdams noted.

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Stock Down

Global oil prices could be lowest ever in 2016


Sputnik
Thu, 07 Jan 2016 19:05 UTC
oil barrels
© Flickr/ Sergio Russo
Price for crude oil shrunk close to 33 dollars a barrel on Thursday and slumped to its fresh record low in over the decade. Earlier on Wednesday, it sank by more than four per cent - below 35 dollars per barrel - and surpassed its late December fall, reaching the lowest level since July, 2004.

Many analysts say that the recent drop in oil prices can be explained by the stand-off between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

On Monday, Riyadh formally severed diplomatic ties with Iran following Saturday's attacks on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and the Consulate in the city of Mashhad. The attacks were triggered by the execution of prominent Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr by Riyadh.

"It is certainly a big factor behind the drop in oil prices," Michael Poulsen, Oil Analyst at Global Risk Managemen, told Radio Sputnik.

According to the expert, both countries are currently fighting for market share, with Iran having quite strong positions as result of lifting of the sanctions.

"The oil market is not expecting any armed conflict, and thus a direct impact on oil supply, but rather a fight for market share, and thus, potentially even more oil being available in an already oversupplied market," Poulsen argued.
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Vader

Obama's foreign policy fiasco of ruined ties with Russia will be his lasting legacy


Sputnik
Thu, 07 Jan 2016 18:59 UTC
Obama
© AFP 2015/ Saul LOEB
With Barack Obama's second presidential term approaching an end, his failure to successfully deal with Russia could be one of the three mistakes that could wreck Obama's legacy, defining his presidency with major foreign policy errors for years to come, US journalist Patrick Smith wrote for the Fiscal Times.

According to Smith, Obama's other two foreign policy mistakes include his Middle Eastern policies, namely the Syrian crisis and a possible failure to secure a nuclear agreement with Iran.

The peculiar thing is that by establishing warmer relations with Russia from the get go, the Obama Administration could have probably avoided foreign policy failures in the Middle East; or at least made them less grim than they currently are.

By needlessly provoking Russia, the Obama Administration "missed opportunities for cooperative action with Russia on everything from terror to global warming," Smith argued.
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Bulb

Human rights NGO: International community must condemn Saudi use of cluster bombs in Yemen

Anastasia Levchenko
Sputnik
Thu, 07 Jan 2016 18:24 UTC
yemen destruction
© REUTERS/ Abduljabbar Zeyad
Parties to the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions must publicly condemn the Saudi-led coalition's usage of cluster munitions in Yemen and pressure it to stop the practice, a spokesman for an international civil society campaign told Sputnik Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Human Rights Watch accused the Saudi-led coalition of dropping cluster bombs on a residential area of Yemen's capital city of Sanaa.

"The Cluster Munitions Coalition (CMC) strongly condemns the use of cluster munitions in Yemen and urges Saudi Arabia and all members of the coalition to immediately halt the use," Firoz Ali Alizada said, calling on all parties to the Convention, to which Saudi Arabia is not party, to "publicly condemn the continued use of this indiscriminate weapons in Yemen."

Comment: Will it matter if Saudi Arabia is brought to task for their disgraceful bombing in Yemen? Probably not, but at least the people in Yemen will know that there are people in the world who are speaking out about the evil that Saudi Arabia is conducting against the Yemen population.

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Jet3

Iran to UN: Multiple Saudi air raids on Tehran's Sana'a embassy deliberate violations of international law


Press TV
Thu, 07 Jan 2016 03:56 UTC
Abdollahian
© AFPIranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian
A senior Iranian official says the Islamic Republic is set to submit a report to the United Nations over the Saudi air raid on Tehran's mission in the Yemeni capital, Sana'a.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said the overnight Saudi raid on the Iranian embassy has seriously wounded one of the security guards at the site. "In the coming hours, we are set to inform the United Nations on the details of this issue in an official report," said the Iranian diplomat, stressing that the Islamic Republic would pursue the Saudi crime through legal channels at the international level. He added that Saudi Arabia is responsible for any measures that undermine the security of Iranian diplomatic missions in Yemen, which has been under relentless Riyadh's attacks since late March 2015.

Late on Wednesday, Saudi jets targeted Iran's embassy in Sana'a, damaging the mission's building and wounding a number of security forces guarding the place. The Saudi military has said it will launch an investigation into the issue.
The official further referred to the violence that erupted on January 2 near two Saudi missions in Iran during angry protests against Riyadh's execution of top opposition cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, saying it is regrettable that the kingdom has made a "political brawl" out of an "unforeseen" act carried out by a handful of people.
Earlier in the day, the Iranian Foreign Ministry sharply condemned the "deliberate" Saudi attack on Tehran's embassy in the Yemeni capital, describing the move as a "violation of all conventions and international regulations" on protecting diplomatic missions under all circumstances. Jaberi Ansari [Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman] said Tehran reserves the right to follow up on the Saudi aerial attack.

The Iranian mission in Sana'a has time and again come under Saudi attacks since the beginning of Riyadh's military campaign against Yemen on March 26, 2015.

Comment: The Iran/Saudi conflicts add yet another layer to the already complicated fabric of the Middle East. Is it a pesky side scrap or might it be a significant omen of worse things to come?

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Snakes in Suits

US puppet Merkel working to destroy Europe from within


Sputnik
Tue, 05 Jan 2016 18:18 UTC
Merkel
© REUTERS/ Fabrizio Bensch/Files
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is working to gradually destroy the EU and European civilization from within, French lawyer Gabriel Robin wrote for Boulevard Voltaire.

As Merkel continues to push her migration policy, allowing the large number of North African and Middle Eastern refugees to enter the EU, dissatisfaction within Europe's largest countries and Germany itself is also rising.

"[Merkel's] migration policy is questioned in Europe and now even at the heart of German institutions," Robin said, as quoted by Boulevard Voltaire.

The author questions what it could be that pushes Merkel to follow her migration policies. Is it her desire to help German companies that seek to keep wages down by employing more migrants? Or perhaps Merkel's ideas of Soviet-like internationalism and cosmopolitanism which she learned while growing up in East Germany, Robin asked.
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Jet1

U.S. shutting down drone base at Ethiopia's request


RT
Thu, 07 Jan 2016 11:57 UTC
drone
© Tech. Sgt. Ricky Best / Reuters
US Air Force drone operations from Ethiopia are "not required at this time" and have been ceased at the request of Addis Ababa, Washington officials have confirmed.

The news of the base closure in Arba Minch, 450 kilometers (280 miles) south of Addis Ababa, has been confirmed by US diplomats who said the cessation of US surveillance activities from the facility was a "mutual decision."

"This was done upon request by the Ethiopian government," government spokesman Getachew Reda told Reuters on Wednesday. "In the first place, this was a project with a limited timespan and both governments had long prepared themselves for this eventuality," he added without elaborating on details.

Comment: While Ethiopia has traditionally been a US proxy state for decades, it has recently become more closely allied with China due to the latter's funding of large infrastructure projects. Perhaps the closing of this base can be attributed to this, as well as the growing recognition by African nations that the U.S. / NATO merely use them to extract resources and to expand global hegemony.

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