Welcome to Sott.net
Wed, 03 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Society's Child
Map

Dollar

No happy ending for the Eurozone debt crisis

debt crisis
© Chris Madden
This week we bring back Alasdair Macleod, publisher of Finance and economics.org, because, as he puts it "every horror that we discussed last time we spoke is coming about". Especially scary since our previous conversation with him was less than three weeks ago...

Today's interview continues building on his excellent synopsis from last month that detailed the origins of the Eurozone crisis. The fundamental shortcomings warned of at the Euro's creation in 1997, combined with the excessive sovereign debts run up since then, have finally expressed themselves at a scale too large to be contained any longer.

Today, Alasdair details in-depth the huge and serious challenges facing Greece and the major Eurozone countries, and the likely impacts of the fast-dwindling options left remaining.

He sees no happy ending to this story, no outcome in which serious pain and permanent behavior change can be avoided. And for those looking for shelter from the unfolding economic storm, he sees few options besides the precious metals (which he believes are severely under priced at the moment):

Che Guevara

People Power: Youth protest former Mexican ruling party's rise in mass demonstration

mexico demonstration
© AP Photo/Marco Ugarte
Thousands of college-age demonstrators arrive at the Angel of Independence monument at the end of a march to protest a possible return of the old ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI, Saturday, May 19, 2012. PRI presidential candidate Enrique Pena Nieto is said to lead in polls ahead of the July 1 elections.
Mexico City - Thousands of college-age demonstrators marched down Mexico City's main boulevard Saturday to protest a possible return of the old ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI, which held Mexico's presidency without interruption from 1929 to 2000.

PRI presidential candidate Enrique Pena Nieto leads in polls ahead of the July 1 election, but he was heckled by young protesters during a recent appearance at a university. Students blamed him for a violent crackdown on protesters outside Mexico City in 2006. Later, some PRI members suggested the hecklers weren't really students, further enflaming passions.


Comment: Anyone familiar with Mexico's shameful history of fraudulent elections knows that the polls are routinely tampered with in favor of the candidate who has been appointed to win; usually the candidate of PRI. Recently, Mexican newspaper Milenio published a poll on its website that gave a wide lead to Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the candidate of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) - only to replace it a few hours later by figures that gave Pena Nieto the lead.


In a move unusual for Mexico, the demonstrators did not carry banners for any of the other three candidates in the presidential race, instead shouting slogans against what they don't want, a return of the PRI, whose 71-year-rule was marked by repression, corruption and periodic economic crises.

Light Saber

Government backtracks on fracking

The fracking plant in Lancashire which has been blamed for earth tremors
© Getty
The fracking plant in Lancashire which has been blamed for earth tremors
Ministers decide there is not enough gas under UK to justify controversial 'earthquake' drilling


The Government has rejected shale gas technology as a solution to Britain's energy crisis, conceding it will do little to cut bills or keep the lights on.

Supporters of the fracking technology - which blasts water, sand and chemicals at extreme pressures to release gas trapped deep in rock - argue it could be the single greatest factor in transforming Britain's energy market, reducing our reliance on foreign imports and dramatically reducing costs.

But The Independent on Sunday has learned that industry experts made clear at a meeting attended by senior ministers, including David Cameron and Ed Davey, the Lib Dem energy secretary, that the UK's reserves were smaller than first thought and could be uneconomical to extract.

Now senior coalition figures have agreed that shale gas has the potential to be deeply controversial without securing major benefits in lowering carbon emissions or reducing energy costs.

Heart

Rankin Paynter Buys Everything in Kentucky Kmart, Gives it to Needy

Image
Besides having a super-cool name, Rankin Paynter may just be the coolest man in Kentucky. When Paynter heard that the Kmart in his hometown was closing its doors, he got to work.

He entered the store, went for his wallet and bought everything in sight.

And when we say everything, we mean the entire $200,000 worth of inventory the store had left. And then -- here's the best part -- he gave it all away to Clark County Community Services, a nonprofit that helps families in Winchester, Kentucky.

Paynter's reasoning was rather simple: "It's time to give back."

Wow. According to news reports, the gift of goods was the largest donation the nonprofit group ever received. And, thanks to one man, the local children in need will have enough coats and hats during the next winter.

According to MSNBC: Paynter, who runs a jewelry-exchange business known as Rankin Paynter Buying Center, also rented out a building to store all the items.

Bad Guys

NATO Activists "disappeared" Without Warrant or Charges, Claims Lawyers Guild

National Lawyers Guild spokesman Kris Hermes says Chicago police officers unjustly raided a Bridgeport apartment complex on Wednesday evening and detained several people without cause.

Pills

BigPharma and Wall Street Profit from the Drugging of Children and Elderly

Image
© cchrint.org
Pediatric psychopharmacology is a billion-dollar business that sustains Pharma and Pharma investors on Wall Street.

In his book Psychiatryland, psychiatrist Phillip Sinaikin recounts reading a scientific article in which it was debated whether a three-year-old girl who ran out into traffic had oppositional-defiant disorder or bipolar disorder, the latter marked by "grandiose delusions" that she was special and cars could not harm her.1

How did the once modest medical specialty of child psychiatry become the aggressive "pediatric psychopharmacology" that finds ADHD, pediatric conduct disorder, depression, bipolar disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, mood disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, mixed manias, social phobia, anxiety, sleep disorders, borderline disorders, assorted "spectrum" disorders, irritability, aggression, pervasive development disorders, personality disorders, and even schizophrenia under every rock? And how did this branch of psychiatry come to find the answer to the "psychopathologies" in the name of the discipline itself: pediatric psychopharmacology? Just good marketing. Pharma is wooing the pediatric patient because that's where the money is. Just like country and western songs about finding love where you can when there is no love to be found at home. Pharma has stopped finding "love" in the form of the new blockbuster drugs that catapulted it through the 1990s and 2000s. According to the Wall Street Journal, new drugs made Pharma only $4.3 billion in 2010 compared with $11.8 billion in 2005 - a two-thirds drop.2

Laptop

Facebook faces US $15 billion lawsuit

Image
© Reuters/Shannon Stapleton
Facebook faces US $15 billion lawsuit
Tracking users after they log out and violating US wiretapping laws - these are the allegations behind a 15-billion-dollar nationwide class-action lawsuit filed against Facebook in California.

­The suit, combining 21 cases of alleged privacy violations by the social networking giant, was filed on Friday in the Federal Court in San Jose, Emil Protalinski writes on ZDNet.com. In their consolidated complaint, the plaintiffs claim that Facebook used cookies to track them across the Internet.

And yet, where does the staggering sum of the lawsuit come from? Violation of the Federal Wiretap Act provides suggests compensation of US $100 per day per user for every case of violation, up to a maximum of US $10,000 per user. The accusations also fall under the Computer Fraud and Abuse act, the Stored Communications Act, as well as various California Statutes and California common law.

"This is not just a damages action, but a groundbreaking digital-privacy rights case that could have wide and significant legal and business implications," said David Straite, a partner at Stewarts Law. The firm is one of the plaintiffs leading the claim.

Che Guevara

Tens of Thousands of Protestors march against NATO in Chicago


Thousands of protesters took to Chicago's streets ahead of the NATO summit due to kick off there on Sunday. National Nurses United teamed up with trade unions and the Occupy movement to form a mass rally in the Windy City.

­The NNU members demanded a Robin Hood tax to be introduced on banks' financial transactions. That demand was rather a supplement to the protest against proposals to cut back nurses pensions.

"We've worked 30 years for them and don't want to get rid of them," said Deb Holmes, a nurse at a hospital in Worcester.

Former Rage Against the Machine guitarist and Occupy activist Tom Morello performed live at the event.

Despite the largely peaceful nature of the event, one man was arrested for aggravated battery of a police officer.

Che Guevara

Police arrest 400 "Blockupy" activists as tensions rise at European Central Bank in Frankfurt

Image
© Reuters / Kai Pfaffenbach
Frankfurt police have detained 400 anti-capitalist protesters ahead of a key conference on monetary policy scheduled for the weekend. With thousands more heading into the city in the coming hours, new clashes are expected.

­Authorities say anti-capitalists were erecting barricades, vandalizing road signs and blocking traffic at various locations across the city.

Frankfurt - Germany's financial capital - is home to the European Central Bank (ECB). As the eurozone faces a deepening of the economic crisis following fears that Greece can no longer remain part of the currency bloc, policymakers from EU member states have arrived in the city for two days of intense talks.

Meanwhile, up to 30,000 protesters are expected to make their way into the Frankfurt over the weekend.

Their chief demand is an end to austerity - cuts in government spending, often made by sovereign governments in exchange for offers of loans from the EU - which activists say is leading to "Europe-wide impoverishment."

In homage to the Occupy Wall Street protests last year, the movement labels itself "Blockupy."

Stormtrooper

All-White Jury Acquits Houston Ex-Police Officer in Videotaped Beating of Black Teen Chad Holley

Hundreds of people rallied in Houston on Thursday to protest the acquittal of a former police officer in the videotaped beating of an African-American teenager. On Wednesday, the officer, Andrew Bloomberg, was found not guilty by an all-white jury in the beating and stomping of 15-year-old burglary suspect Chad Holley. Video taken of the March 2010 incident shows Holley being stopped by a police vehicle. After Holley falls to the ground, he is clearly seen surrendering and putting his hands behind his head. But instead of placing him in handcuffs, Bloomberg and six fellow officers proceed to attack Holley with stomps and kicks. "It seems we have become jaded, willing to accept in too many instances, young black people being grossly mistreated," says NAACP President Ben Jealous.