Welcome to Sott.net
Mon, 08 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Puppet Masters
Map

Dollars

When will the bubbles burst? Russian economy expert says: The world is balancing on the edge of financial shock

Image
Yakov Mirkin, Doctor of Economics, Professor, Head of the International Capital Markets Department, Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Russian Academy of Science

The global financial system is again pushing the global economy into the pit of the crisis: even deeper than in 2008. Russia will also have hard times. We are connected to the U.S. and the EU with one umbilical cord. As before, on the European Union accounted for 50 percent of Russia's exports and imports (the figure for January-April 2014). The trade with the U.S. has even increased by 9 percent. If these economies suffer, Russia will suffer as well. If they have problems with their finances, we'll see bankruptcies on our home soil too.

Red lights on the dashboard

The biggest risk is the bubble in U.S. stock market. Dow Jones increased by 25 percent within 1.5 years. And it raised 2.6x since the bottom of spring 2009. A bit too much for the "developed market" of the USA, isn't it? It is usually stable, not so fluctuating and bouncing as the raging emerging markets. Yet another red light is the "stock market capitalization to GDP" indicator. And again, it is too high for the United States together with the UK: the pre-crisis value in 2008 is already exceeded. Once the markets reached them six years ago, everything collapsed. What is really going on with the finance of these famous kingdoms? Almost the same as during the flood in August 2002 in Europe.

Propaganda

Bad liars: Kiev denies shelling Russian territory

kiev
© ITAR-TASS
Ukraine has refused to admit that it shelled Russian territory. The country's Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Sunday in which it said that Ukrainian soldiers did not deliver fire in the region mentioned by Russia.

"Ukrainian servicemen have never shelled, are not shelling and will not shell territories of a neighboring state or residential quarters," the statement said.


Comment: Liars. They've been shelling residential quarters for months.


The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry expressed its condolences "over the death and injuries of Russian nationals in the town of Donetsk in [the southern Russian] Rostov Region."

The Ukrainian army shelled the Russian town of Donetsk on the border between the two countries with high-explosive projectiles early on Sunday. A shell hit a private house killing one Russian resident and seriously wounding another two.

The Russian foreign policy department expressed protest to Ukraine's charge d'affaires in Russia over the shelling.

Comment: Russia has apparently responded to this provocation:

Ukraine military plane shot down from Russia as warning to US puppet regime in Kiev

Kiev may deny the initial attack, but they seem to have gotten the hint:

Tired of losing aircrafts? Ukraine's military suspends combat aviation flights in offensive area


Airplane Paper

Tired of losing aircraft: Ukraine's military suspends combat aviation flights in offensive area

Ukrainian fighter jet
© ITAR-TASS/EPA/KONSTANTIN IVANOV
A Ukrainian fighter jet seen in eastern Ukraine, Apr. 2014

The Ukrainian armed forces conducting a military operation in the country's embattled southeast have suspended combat aviation flights in the area to investigate a recent crash of a military plane, the operation's press center said on Tuesday.

"Aviation flights have been suspended until a special order due to the investigation of Ukrainian Armed Forces' An-26 military transport plane crash in the Luhansk Region on July 14, 2014," the press center said on its Facebook page.

Ukrainian military aircraft involved in the operation have been at their permanent bases since July 14, the statement said.

These measures have been taken to establish the causes of the An-26 plane crash and carry out an operation to find the plane's six crew members, the statement said.

Black Magic

War business is good! US sells $11bn worth of arms to Qatar

Chuck Hagel (L) and Qatar's Hamad bin Ali al-Atiyah
© AFP Photo / Mandel Ngan
US War Secretary Chuck Hagel (L) and Qatar's Minister of State for Defense Affairs Hamad bin Ali al-Atiyah (C) arrive for a weapons sales signing ceremony at the Pentagon on July 14, 2014 in Washington, DC.
Washington and Doha have signed the largest arms deal of the year, preparing to enhance Qatar's military capabilities with $11 billion-worth of Apache assault helicopters, PAC-2 missile defense complexes and Javelin man-portable anti-tank missiles.

The deal has been signed on Monday in Pentagon by US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Qatari Defense Minister Hamad bin Ali al-Attiyah. Altogether Qatar is buying 10 batteries of Patriot missile defense systems and 500 Javelin anti-tank missiles manufactured by US defense industry giants Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, and 24 Apache helicopters made by Boeing, an anonymous US official told the AFP.

 AH-64 Apache assault helicopter
© Reuters / Erik De Castro
A U.S. military AH-64 Apache assault helicopter
The Patriot complexes with 247 PAC-3 missiles cost over $7 billion, the Apache helicopters and related gear are worth over $3 billion, and the Javelin anti-tank missiles cost additional $100 million.


Comment: The U.S. don't do defence, they do wars of aggression. The title of defence minister is outdated and orwellian double-speak in nature.


Comment: Qatar is an important U.S. ally in sowing chaos in the Middle-East and for that reason is it rewarded. Qatar is probably also aware that if it doesn't obey the U.S. then regime change will be next and discontent will be easy to find, as democracy, free speech and human rights are as rare as the sand in the Saharan desert is common.


Bomb

US legacy continues: 89 people reportedly killed in two bombing attacks in Afghanistan

Bombing in Afghanistan
© REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail
At least 89 people were killed and 45 injured in two bombing attacks in Afghanistan Tuesday, officials said. A suicide bomber detonated a car bomb near a police checkpoint in the eastern province of Paktika.

The attack at 10:30 am (06:00 GMT) in a crowded area of Orgun district killed 38 people, mostly civilians, district governor Mohammad Reza Kharoti said.

It was the deadliest single attack in Afghanistan this year, and came in the middle of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

No group had yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Separately, two employees of the presidential office were killed when a roadside bomb was exploded by remote control as their vehicle passed it in the capital city of Kabul.

President Hamid Karzai's office said five were wounded.

Karzai condemned the attack on his staff, calling it "against all religious and human values, and cannot be justified by any means."

Taliban rebels claimed responsibility for the bombing, and said they had targeted a vehicle of the president's press office.

Security in Afghanistan has worsened by the increase of the rebel attacks since the second round of the presidential election on June 14.

Comment: The U.S. is keen to sign a contract with the new president to be for an ongoing presence in Afghanistan. Karzai has not been willing to do it, but now that another president is due a message is needed to remind the new president why he needs the U.S.
See:


Blackbox

Forced? William Hague steps down as UK foreign secretary

William Hague
© Unknown
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague has announced he is standing down from his post to serve as leader of the House of Commons.

He has announced that he will not stand as an MP in the May 2015 general election. "After 26 years as an MP, the time will be right for me to move on," Hague said.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said he would like to pay an enormous tribute to Hague, adding that he will remain the PM's de facto political deputy and "play a key campaigning role and be leader of the House of Commons."

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond will most likely become the new foreign secretary according to multiple sources, including Sky News and the Guardian.

Hague's departure comes as a surprise to most, who expected the foreign secretary to remain at his post until the election. However, a few expected him to take on further political roles. The outgoing minister confirmed as much during his comments on Monday.


Star of David

Whitewashing the Gaza massacre: Yet another online propaganda squad set up by Israeli students

Image

It's Gaza invasion season again, and the trolls are out in force!
As the death toll from Israel's savage bombardment of Gaza continues to climb, Israel has once again turned to students to sell the slaughter online.

"Although they haven't been called up to the army yet, they've decided to enlist in a civilian mission that is no less important - Israeli propaganda [hasbara]," Ynet's Hebrew edition reported about a massive initiative organized by the Israeli student union branch at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (IDC Herzliya), a prestigious private university.

Hasbara war room

"Hasbara," literally "explaining," is the term used in Israel for government propaganda aimed at overseas audiences.

"The goal is to deliver a very clear message to people abroad - Israel has the right to defend itself," Lidor Bar David told Ynet.

Bar David, a student, and one of the organizers of the "war room," adds, "We want people abroad who don't know our reality to understand exactly what is going on here."

Comment: If you're wondering where much of the online "debate" actually comes from, this is it. There simply aren't enough people who are psychologically sick enough to support the Israeli machine, despite their revered status in western newspapers and televisions. Therefore, groups like this must work tirelessly to create the illusion of popular support for genocide.
  • US military caught manipulating social media, running mass propaganda accounts



Arrow Down

Blood for gas: Why Bibi is punishing Gaza

Gaza City_1
© AFP Photo/Jack Guez
Smoke billowing from buildings following an Israeli air strike as a projectile falls in the background in Gaza City.
So Bibi's got his brand new war. Operation Protective Edge, the current slow motion ethnic cleansing super production conducted in Gaza by the Israeli Attack, sorry, Defense Forces (IDF), is Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu's wet dream.

A quick recap is essential. US Secretary of State John "Bullhorn" Kerry was conducting a sham exercise known as "peace talks" between Israel and Palestine. As expected, it failed miserably. Hamas and the PLO in Palestine then formed a technocratic unity government. Bibi was, predictably, furious.

Then two Palestinians - not Hamas - kidnapped three Israeli teenager settlers hitchhiking at night near Hebron. One of the hitchhikers somehow managed to call an Israeli police emergency number on his mobile. The kidnappers freaked out and shot the hitchhikers on the spot, dumping their bodies.

Attention

Big Corporations have an OVERWHELMING amount of power over our food supply

Corporations controlling Food Supply
© theeconomiccollapseblog.com
From our fields to our forks, huge corporations have an overwhelming amount of power over our food supply every step of the way. Right now there are more than 313 million people living in the United States, and the job of feeding all of those people is almost entirely in the hands of just a few dozen monolithic companies.

If you do not like how our food is produced or you don't believe that it is healthy enough, it isn't very hard to figure out who is to blame. These mammoth corporations are not in business to look out for the best interests of the American people. Rather, the purpose of these corporations is to maximize wealth for their shareholders.

So the American people end up eating billions of pounds of extremely unhealthy food that is loaded with chemicals and additives each year, and we just keep getting sicker and sicker as a society. But these big corporations are raking in big profits, so they don't really care.

If we did actually have a capitalist system in this country, we would have a high level of competition in the food industry.

Pistol

More dead bankers: Three new JP Morgan IT deaths include alleged murder-suicide

Image

Julian and Alita Knott: From Alita Knott’s Public Facebook Page
Since December of last year, JPMorgan Chase has been experiencing tragic, sudden deaths of workers on a scale which sets it alarmingly apart from other Wall Street mega banks. Adding to the concern generated by the deaths is the recent revelation that JPMorgan has an estimated $180 billion of life insurance in force on its current and former workers.

Making worldwide news last week was the violent deaths of JPMorgan technology executive Julian Knott and his wife, Alita, ages 45 and 47, respectively, in Jefferson Township, New Jersey. However, two other recent, sudden deaths of technology workers at JPMorgan have gone unreported by the media.

The bodies of the Knott couple, who have a teenage daughter and two teenage sons, were discovered by police on July 6, 2014 at approximately 1:12 a.m. According to a press release issued by the Morris County Prosecutor's office, Jefferson Township Police Officers Tim Hecht and Dave Wroblewski responded to the Knott home located in the Lake Hopatcong section following a "report of two unconscious adults."

Who made the call to police and whether the children were home at the time has not been announced by the police or the prosecutor's office. After a preliminary investigation, the police announced on July 8 that they believe Julian Knott shot his wife repeatedly and then took his own life with the same gun.

Comment: Lots of dead bankers in a very short time, and all from JP Morgan. Seems suspicious when you consider the life insurance policies...