Confronted with a stumbling U.S. recovery and a financial crisis in Europe, the Federal Reserve decided Wednesday that it would extend a program known as "Operation Twist" aimed at pushing down long-term interest rates and boosting the economy.
The Fed said in a statement that while the economy has been expanding modestly throughout the year, growth in employment has slowed recently and unemployment remains elevated.
The Fed expects economic growth to continue to grow moderately over coming quarters and then to pick up gradually. "Consequently, the Committee anticipates that the unemployment rate will decline only slowly toward levels that it judges to be consistent with its dual mandate," the statement said.
The Fed voted to keep interest rates unchanged at historic lows.
Puppet Masters
© Unknown
United Nations Seal
United Nations Seal
"The goal of Russia's negotiations was that the two groups reach a common point, but it seems that the (the G5+1's) negotiating team is not so interested in reaching a common point," member of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Seyed Hossein Naqavi Hosseini told FNA on Wednesday.
"The negotiations between Iran and the G5+1 in Russia showed that the group uses the tactic of double-standard practice against Iran's nuclear policies," he said, and reiterated "This tactic is evidently on their agenda."
Naqavi Hosseini reiterated that the world powers want to protract the time of the negotiations so that they can justify imposition of fresh sanctions against Iran.
His remarks followed two days of hectic negotiations between Iran and the G5+1 in the Russian capital on Monday and Tuesday.
Comment: It's unfortunate to see the continued deterioration of talks as Iran is further bastardized by the Western World. Iran has attempted to prove that it has no military nuclear ambitions. Sadly, world leaders are not interested in what is going on with the poor, while creating more war and destitution globally.
Banks and traders must prepare for a devastating market seizure as governments grapple with the escalating economic crisis in Europe, a Bank of England policymaker has warned.
Cheap and ready access to the liquid assets that oil the financial markets are under threat from both state-imposed capital controls and flagging confidence in the euro, Robert Jenkins, a member of the Bank's Financial Policy Committee, told the Global Alternative Investment Management conference in Monaco.
Without easy access to liquidity, markets could seize in a re-run of the credit crunch after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, he warned.
"Those of you who traded asset backed securities in 2008 can testify to the speed with which liquidity can disappear," he said. "Yet despite these examples, many continue to assume that ... 'liquidity' is free and will be freely available.
"Short-selling bans in Europe and bond purchase penalties in Brazil are a foretaste of the future. I recommend that you send your best and your brightest to the library to research state intervention in the post war period. It could come in handy. For like clean air and water, market liquidity is no longer limitless and no longer free."
© PA
The Bank has prepared emergency liquidity arrangements to prevent a re-run of the last credit crunch.
The Bank has prepared emergency liquidity arrangements to prevent a re-run of the last credit crunch.
Cheap and ready access to the liquid assets that oil the financial markets are under threat from both state-imposed capital controls and flagging confidence in the euro, Robert Jenkins, a member of the Bank's Financial Policy Committee, told the Global Alternative Investment Management conference in Monaco.
Without easy access to liquidity, markets could seize in a re-run of the credit crunch after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, he warned.
"Those of you who traded asset backed securities in 2008 can testify to the speed with which liquidity can disappear," he said. "Yet despite these examples, many continue to assume that ... 'liquidity' is free and will be freely available.
"Short-selling bans in Europe and bond purchase penalties in Brazil are a foretaste of the future. I recommend that you send your best and your brightest to the library to research state intervention in the post war period. It could come in handy. For like clean air and water, market liquidity is no longer limitless and no longer free."
© WikiMedia Commons
This isn't a secret. The synthesis below is derived from: Lawrence Summers, Nouriel Roubini, Simon Johnson, Niall Ferguson, and Paul Krugman to name just a few. This crisis is not happening quickly.
It's more of a slow-motion train wreck - Greece's crisis started in 2009. But that leaves a puzzle - why is the American stock market not reacting to obvious warning signs?
Greece and Spain already have unemployment rates exceeding 20 percent. If that isn't a depression, what is?
Greece is in very deep trouble. Spain (the Euro's fourth largest economy) just needed a $125 billion bank bailout. The weaker economies (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain) face severe credit crunches as local banks lose deposits (withdrawn because of credit concerns and fear of forced devaluations following a Euro exit).
Three U.S. service members, their Afghan interpreter and 17 Afghan civilians were killed by an apparent suicide bomber on a motorbike in the eastern Afghan city of Khost Wednesday, officials said.
The United States Embassy in Afghanistan issued a statement saying it "strongly condemns this cowardly attack," which is the second on foreign forces in the troubled province this month.
A U.S. official, speaking anonymously to The Associated Press, said the foreign troops killed were Americans.
However, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said the nationality of the troops would not immediately be confirmed.
A local official told NBC News that women and children were among the civilian casualties in the attack, aimed at an American-Afghan military convoy passing through the town.
The official said the death toll was likely to rise, and that 32 Afghans suffered injuries.
The United States Embassy in Afghanistan issued a statement saying it "strongly condemns this cowardly attack," which is the second on foreign forces in the troubled province this month.
A U.S. official, speaking anonymously to The Associated Press, said the foreign troops killed were Americans.
However, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said the nationality of the troops would not immediately be confirmed.
A local official told NBC News that women and children were among the civilian casualties in the attack, aimed at an American-Afghan military convoy passing through the town.
The official said the death toll was likely to rise, and that 32 Afghans suffered injuries.
© The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
Bowing to protocol. The Bureau investigates apparent breaches of House of Lords rules.
Bowing to protocol. The Bureau investigates apparent breaches of House of Lords rules.
In our investigation into apparent breaches of House of Lords rules by peers it has emerged that the Conservative peer Lord Plumb was involved with a Brussels based lobbying company while sitting on a Lords' select committee that scrutinises draft EU law.
Lord Plumb, who spent 12 years as an MEP, is described as a 'team member' of Alber & Geiger which describes itself as a 'political lobbying powerhouse'. His relationship with the firm is not declared on the House of Lords register of interests.
Other peers, including the hereditary peer Lord St John of Bletso also appear to have outside interests which are not declared in the register.
The Labour party wrote to the House of Lords Commissioner for Standards to ask him to investigate the Conservative Party Treasurer Lord Fink after revelations by the Bureau published in The Independent yesterday.
Morgantown, West Virginia -- Authorities say a gas drilling operation in the Sardis area hit an aquifer and inadvertently repressurized a handful of old water wells Wednesday, creating a backyard geyser at least 10 feet high and several smaller gushers.
The house with the 10- to 12-foot geyser was flooded, said Paul Bump, chief of the Harrison County Bureau of Emergency Services. At three or four other homes, the water flooded yards and garages.
"It looked like Old Faithful moved out East," said Dale Sturm, a 63-year-old retired carpenter who noticed his patio was wet shortly before 7 a.m.
The house with the 10- to 12-foot geyser was flooded, said Paul Bump, chief of the Harrison County Bureau of Emergency Services. At three or four other homes, the water flooded yards and garages.
"It looked like Old Faithful moved out East," said Dale Sturm, a 63-year-old retired carpenter who noticed his patio was wet shortly before 7 a.m.
© Associated Press
Image from video made available by the Vandenberg Air Force Base shows the X-37B unmanned spacecraft landing at Vandenberg Air Force Base. The spacecraft, which was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in March 2011, conducted in-orbit experiments during the 15-month clandestine mission, officials said.
Image from video made available by the Vandenberg Air Force Base shows the X-37B unmanned spacecraft landing at Vandenberg Air Force Base. The spacecraft, which was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in March 2011, conducted in-orbit experiments during the 15-month clandestine mission, officials said.
An unmanned Air Force space plane steered itself to a landing early Saturday at a California military base, capping a 15-month clandestine mission.
The spacecraft, which was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in March 2011, conducted in-orbit experiments during the mission, officials said. It was the second such autonomous landing at the Vandenberg Air Force Base, 130 miles northwest of Los Angeles. In 2010, an identical unmanned spacecraft returned to Earth after seven months and 91 million miles in orbit.
The latest homecoming was set in motion when the stubby-winged robotic X-37B fired its engine to slip out of orbit, then pierced through the atmosphere and glided down the runway like an airplane.
Image from video made available by the Vandenberg Air Force Base shows the X-37B unmanned spacecraft landing at Vandenberg Air Force Base. The spacecraft, which was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in March 2011, conducted in-orbit experiments during the 15-month clandestine mission, officials said.
War games for media show?
"Russia has denied reports in media that it allegedly planned joint military exercises with China and Iran on Syrian territory.Syria has also denied the reports: "This information is out of synch with reality," said Buseina Shaaban, political advisor to the Syrian president".
'This is absurd', Mr. Igor Dygalo, aide to Russia's Navy commander said.
Earlier this week the Dubai-based Al Arabiya TV channel reported that Russia, China and Iran were planning joint exercises, the largest in the Middle East, comprising some 90,000 ground, naval and air forces, as well as 400 aircrafts, 1,000 tanks and Russian submarines, destroyers and an aircraft carrier.
The report said that Egypt had allowed 12 Chinese navy ships to go through the Suez Canal to arrive in Syria.
This false report also claimed that Syria was going to test its anti-ship missiles and air defense system."
But it's no coincidence that this denial comes on the heels of another denial about yet another report which first appeared last week in the non-governmental Russian news agency, Interfax. As reported by the Guardian:
Comment: Indeed, with the US backtracking on claims that Russia is arming Syria, it seems clear that psy-ops is in play here. It seems that the PTB are trying to foment a 'Cold War' stand-off with suggestions that Russia and China are preparing to 'meet the US Empire in battle', so to speak. But to date Russia and China have shown no real interest in confronting the US and the West, at least not on their terms of engagement. So what is really going on here?
© foodfreedom.wordpress.com
Since 2007, Beeologics has been studying CCD, as well as Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV), for the purpose of coming up with intervention-based ways to mitigate these conditions. And based on the way the company describes both CCD and IAPV on its website, Beeologics has largely taken the approach that intervention, rather than prevention, is the key to solving the global bee crisis.
Comment: Read the following articles to understand WHY colony collapse in bee populations is a serious issue for the planet as a whole:
Colony Collapse: Do Massive Bee Die-Offs Mean an End to Our Food System as We Know it?
Silent Hives: Colony Collapse Disorder and Pesticides
Genetically Modified Crops Implicated in Honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder
A Last (Chemical) Gasp for Bees?
Harvard Study Links Pesticides to Colony Collapse Disorder in Bees
Comment: The illusion of Economy is the Economy of Illusion. -Unknown