Week of December 14, 2008 - December 20, 2008
December 19, 2008, 2:42PM
Former Costa Rican president, José María Figueres Olsen, with Bubba and a redhead, August 2000
Yesterday
I attended a round table discussion about the world "crisis" which was
held in one of Spain's largest banks. There were economic and political
analysts from the Spanish government, banks, foundations, embassies,
etc. The round table was chaired by the former president of Costa Rica,
José María Figueres-Olsen, educated at West Point and Harvard, who, in my opinion, said some of the most interesting things of the whole afternoon.
Some of the themes of concern mentioned were the possibilities of:- Less funds for aid to developing countries
- Change in the balance of world power
- Lack of leadership in the European Union
- Destabilization of China and Russia
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December 17, 2008, 2:47PM
We can't tax or spend our way out of this mess. The bad
debt must be defaulted, and this will mean bankruptcies among both
people and companies (including banks) - lots of them. This is
inevitable. Market-Ticker
"I have abandoned free-market principles to save the free- market system" George W. Bush
It
is hard to avoid the conclusion that the U.S. and China are becoming
two countries, one system. How so? Easy, in the wake of our massive
bank bailout, one can now look at China and America and say: "Well,
China has a big-state-owned banking sector, next to a private one, and
America now has a big state-owned banking sector next to a private one.
China has big state-owned industries, alongside private ones, and once
Washington bails out Detroit, America will have a big state-owned
industry next to private ones." Thomas Friedman
Masters
of the craft often insist that it is essential to write every day if
you are going to build any writing muscles, there seem to be neural
paths that need to be blazed between brain and hand in order to write
and the only way to blaze and nurture them is by steadily putting words
onto a white space. My brief experience tells me that this is true.I
came to writing late: analyzing world affairs meant having to write on
a daily basis and having to write turned into loving to write and that
helps me to write every day: a beneficent circle.The
problem in facing the white space is usually where to begin, but world
news has always provided me with a wide variety of themes: every
morning there was some new event to start the flow of words and ideas
moving. The last few weeks have been heavy going though. Bush to Blago to Madoff
is not the kind of triple play to have the fans on their feet, hoarse
from cheering. A steady diet of writing about nothing but criminal
stupidity and decadence on a massive scale is finally as appetizing as
chugging a barium shake.
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December 16, 2008, 1:54PM
Zaidi's action won him
widespread plaudits in the Arab world where Bush's policies have drawn
broad hostility. The Lebanese television channel NTV, known for its
opposition to Washington, went as far as offering a job to the
journalist. In its evening news bulletin on Monday, it said that if he
takes the job, he will be paid "from the moment the first shoe was
thrown". Zaidi A manager at the channel told AFP that it had made its
offer known to Zaidi and was ready to post bail on his behalf.(...) In
Gaza, around 20 Palestinian gunmen from the Popular Resistance
Committees, a hardline militant group that has been behind a spate of
rocket attacks on Israel in recent weeks, staged a demonstration in
support of Zaidi. Wearing fatigues and brandishing Kalashnikov assault
rifles, they stamped on photographs of the US president and held
banners in support of the journalist. Egyptian independent daily
Al-Badeel carried a frontpage caricature of the US flag with the sole
of a shoe replacing the stars in the top corner. Even government-owned
newspapers in Cairo praised Zaidi's actions. "Pelting the American
president with shoes was the best way for expressing what Iraqis and
Arabs feel toward Bush," wrote Al-Gomhuria editor Mohammad Ali Ibrahim.
AFP
Bush is lucky they don't play baseball in Iraq. If Americans start throwing shoes at politicians this could get serious.
It
was a beautiful moment though and I wish I knew the Arabic for "it's about
bloody time"; however, with the way things are going, if this catches
on, we could soon have a barefoot world.http://seaton-newslinks.blogspot.com/
December 14, 2008, 2:15PM
Now
thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of investors confront losses
that range from serious to devastating. Some families said on Friday
that they believed they had lost all their savings. A charity in
Massachusetts said it had lost essentially its entire endowment and
would have to close. According to an affidavit sworn out by federal
agents, Mr. Madoff himself said the fraud had totaled approximately $50
billion, a figure that would dwarf any previous financial fraud. At
first, the figure seemed impossibly large. But as the reports of losses
mounted on Friday, the $50 billion figure looked increasingly
plausible. One hedge fund advisory firm alone, Fairfield Greenwich
Group, said on Friday that its clients had invested $7.5 billion with
Mr. Madoff. The collapse of Mr. Madoff's firm is yet another blow in a
devastating year for Wall Street and investors.(...) Investigators have
not explained when they believe the fraud began, how much money was
ultimately lost and whether Mr. Madoff lost investors' money in the
markets, spent it, or both. It is not even clear whether Mr. Madoff
actually made any of the trades he reported to investors. New York Times
On
Friday, rumours were rife that well-known European families had put
large amounts of money with Madoff, and could be facing huge losses -
although those contacted all declined to comment. Financial Times
It
is all getting so wearily familiar: Iraq, Enron, the bubble, Blago...
What they add up to is an ocean of fraud where some fish swim and all
others have drowned, are drowning, will drown.History
is full of swindlers and swindles, but they seem to be coming thicker
and faster now and they all seem to center around things that are
supposed to exist but don't, be they financial assets, weapons of mass
destruction or the honor of high office.Most of us like to make fun
of the "End of Days" and "Rapture" crowd, but I think that there is
something healthy in their rebelliousness, in their desire to infuse
meaning and transcendence into something we all know stinks. At least
they give the garbage we are forced to feed on its proper importance.
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