I have often thought that our economies should have crashed thru the floor several years back, either because of declining net energy, or the debt burg. Yet, here we are, limping along, with very little blood in the streets...
"Now many people, particularly the economic experts, believed that by the end of 1938 the Nazi economic policies would fail. We all, myself included, underestimated what could be achieved through state power; through pay freezes, through price freezes, through exchange controls, and
though the use of concentration camps. It lasted longer than one would have thought."* - Johannes Zahn, Economist & Banker since 1931, on the situation of a looming, second German hyperinflation due to loans taken out to rearm Germany.
The Nazis - A Warning From History, Episode 3 Part 2
radiolab | There's no scientific metric for measuring a city's personality. But step out on the sidewalk, and you can see and feel it. Two physicists explain one tidy mathematical formula that they believe holds the key to what drives a city. Yet math can't explain most of the human-scale details that make urban life unique. So we head out in search of what the numbers miss, and meet a reluctant city dweller, a man who's walked 700 feet below Manhattan, and a once-thriving community that's slipping away.
antimedia | Dr. Ron Paul says the American electoral system is rigged to keep “independent thinkers” from succeeding.
“I see elections as so much of a charade,” the former Texas congressman said during an April 11 appearance on RT America’s “The Fishtank.” “So much deceit goes on.”
Paul is no stranger to the twisted rules of the American presidential
horse race. He ran for the highest office as a Libertarian in 1988, and
in 2008 and 2012 as a Republican.
He arguably came closest to the nomination in 2012, when the GOP
amended its party regulations to prevent the former Texas representative
from stealing Mitt Romney’s thunder.
Rule 40(b) of “The Rules of the Republican Party” was changed so the Republican National Committee could “limit
the visibility and power of libertarian-minded Texas Rep. Ron Paul at
the convention and thus present a unified front behind Mitt Romney, the
presumptive nominee,”
according to David Byler,
an elections analyst at RealClearPolitics. The rule requires that, in
order to win the nomination, a candidate must have the support of a
majority of delegates from eight states.
Although recent wins have tipped Sen. Ted Cruz past the cut off,
the rule as written came close to helping Trump take the nomination.
Paul warned that the GOP’s machinations to block Donald Trump are a sign
of a corrupt, undemocratic system.
theintercept |FOR YEARS, THE Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in Citizens United was
depicted by Democrats as the root of all political evil. But now, the
core argument embraced by the Court’s conservatives to justify their
ruling has taken center stage in the Democratic primary between Hillary
Clinton and Bernie Sanders — because Clinton supporters, to defend the
huge amount of corporate cash on which their candidate is relying,
frequently invoke that very same reasoning.
The crux of the Citizens United ruling was that a legal ban
on independent corporate campaign expenditures constituted a limit on
political speech without sufficient justification, and thus violated the
First Amendment’s free speech guarantee. A primary argument of the
Obama Justice Department and Democrats generally in order to uphold that
campaign finance law was that corporate expenditures are so corrupting
of the political process that limits are justified even if they
infringe free speech. In rejecting that view, this was the key argument
of Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the five-judge conservative
majority (emphasis added):
For the reasons explained above, we now conclude that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.
Does that sound familiar? It should. That key argument of the right-wing justices in Citizens United
has now become the key argument of the Clinton campaign and its media
supporters to justify her personal and political receipt of millions
upon millions of dollars in corporate money: “Expenditures, including
those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the
appearance of corruption” — at least when the candidate in question is
Hillary Clinton.
Indeed, the Clinton argument actually goes well beyond the Court’s conservatives: In Citizens United, the right-wing justices merely denied the corrupting effect of independent
expenditures (i.e., ones not coordinated with the campaign). But
Clinton supporters in 2016 are denying the corrupting effect of direct campaign donations by large banks and corporations and, even worse, huge speaking fees paid to an individual politician shortly before and after that person holds massive political power.
Another critical aspect of the right-wing majority argument in Citizens United was
that actual corruption requires proof of a “quid pro quo” arrangement:
meaning that the politician is paid to vote a certain way (which is,
basically, bribery). Prior precedent, said the Citizens United majority, “was limited to quid pro quocorruption,” quoting a prior case as holding that “the hallmark of corruption is the financial quid pro quo: dollars for political favors.”
Does that sound familiar? It should. That, too, has become a core Clinton-supporting argument: Look, if you can’t prove that Hillary changed her vote in exchange for Goldman Sachs speaking fees or JPMorgan Chase donations (and just by the way, Elizabeth Warren believes she can prove that),then you can’t prove that these donations are corrupting. After all, argue Clinton supporters (echoing the Citizens United majority), “the hallmark of corruption is the financial quid pro quo: dollars for political favors.”
WaPo | A small core of super-rich individuals is responsible for the record
sums cascading into the coffers of super PACs for the 2016 elections, a
dynamic that harks back to the financing of presidential campaigns in
the Gilded Age.
Close to half the money — 41 percent — raised by
the groups by the end of February came from just 50 mega-donors and
their relatives, according to a Washington Post analysis of federal
campaign finance reports. Thirty-six of those are Republican supporters
who have invested millions in trying to shape the GOP nomination contest
— accounting for more than 70 percent of the money from the top 50.
In
all, donors this cycle have given more than $607 million to 2,300 super
PACs, which can accept unlimited contributions from individuals and
corporations. That means super PAC money is on track to surpass the
$828 million that the Center for Responsive Politics found was raised by such groups for the 2012 elections.
The
staggering amounts reflect how super PACs have become fundraising
powerhouses just six years after they came on the scene. The
concentration of fundraising power carries echoes of the end of the 19th
century, when wealthy interests spent millions to help put former Ohio
governor William McKinley in the White House.
alhambrapartners | The Wall Street Journal reported a few days ago (h/t ZeroHedge)
on the status of the ongoing disruption in domestic production of long
haul trucks and vehicles. In what can only be confirmation of the state
of US manufacturing, the huge drop in orders for new trucks matches
shippers’ perceptions of the actual economic flow in goods. While
economists want that to be an isolated circumstance of only
manufacturing, goods activities account for a significant proportion of
services as well. And it is getting bad:
Orders for new big rigs plunged and inventories of unsold
trucks soared to their highest levels since just before the financial
crisis, as uncertainty about future demand and a weak market for freight
transportation weighed on truck manufacturers.
About 67,000 Class 8 trucks are sitting unsold on dealer lots, after
sales in March dropped 37% from a year earlier to 16,000 vehicles,
according to ACT Research. Class 8 trucks are the type most commonly
used on long-haul routes. Inventories haven’t been this high since early
2007, said Kenny Vieth, president of ACT.
It leaves no doubt that “something” is very wrong now in manufacturing and normal economic flow.
“Fleets are being very cautious in the current uncertain
economic environment,” wrote Don Ake, a vice president with FTR
Transportation Intelligence, which reported similar order numbers for
March. “Freight has slowed due to the manufacturing recession, so they
have sufficient trucks to meet current demand.”
Some of this reduction in 2016, as the Journal reports, is due to
companies over-ordering in 2014 and 2015 based on the narrative that the
economy was actually healing, or at worse would stay in its “new
normal.” It raises the issue as to whether these conditions and the
manufacturing recession they reflect are cyclical or structural; or
both.
As I wrote yesterday,
the contraction in goods and the US economy’s basis for them may or may
not be heading toward recession. It is clear, however, that whatever
the ultimate cycle reality there are deeper imbalances that run back
several years, likely traced to decades of financialization that is now
overturning, and thus really supersedes cyclical discussion. What we see
in the US is not limited to the US, however; it is a global phenomenon,
which can only mean one possible explanation.
aljazeera |Steel is found everywhere from bridges to sinks, but the global steel industry is going through the worst downturn in 50 years.
An unbalanced supply and demand equation has left even China,
the world's largest producer and consumer of steel, calling for global
cooperation to try and tackle the industry's problems.
But while China is calling for cooperation, many blame China's steel mills for flooding the market with cheap supply.
Over in the UK, Tata Steel, an Indian company, put its entire
business up for sale, blaming cheap Chinese imports for its decision.
The UK boasts the world's oldest steel industry and Port Talbot in south Wales is home to Britain's largest steel plant.
With the UK steel industry on the verge of collapse, we see how tens of thousands
of jobs are at risk with the imminent closure, or at least significant
downsizing, of the Port Talbot steelworks, which has already been on the
decline for decades.
Although many blame the cheap steel making its way from China,
others are also say the UK government has not offered the steel industry
enough protection to help it stay competitive.
Steelmakers in China are also suffering. When China outlined its
latest five year plan it said that job cuts in the steel sector were
likely.
In China, we see how job losses in the steel industry have become
more commonplace. With the economy growing at its slowest pace in 25
years and steel mills producing at overcapacity with the lack of demand
for raw materials, China has been exporting steel at low prices.
Economists say, however, this is only a short-term solution and
companies will need to restructure to be efficient.
zerohedge | We now introduce you to someone who may be one of these rich kids' dad.
Or rather was, because Gang Yuan, a 42-year-old mining tycoon is no
longer alive. His corpse was found chopped into 100 pieces in his Vancouver home.
According to a civil lawsuit, Yuan came to Canada in 2007 with permanent
resident status and made his money by investing in real estate and
Saskatchewan farmland, in the process becoming the owner of a at least
one abandoned multimillion-dollar Vancouver home... and much more.
As The Province reports,
Yuan has been linked to a government corruption scandal in southwestern
China. He is also a shining example of how most of the billions in hot
money flooding Vancouver real estate funds are sourced: illegally. This
story helps to shed some light on the origina of at least a modest
amount of that money.
The scandal led to a 19-year jail term for Yunnan province official
Lin Yunye. Yunye was jailed last November for selling $234 million in
state mining assets to a number of businessmen from whom he accepted
tens of millions in bribes - including gold bars, luxury watches and rhinoceros horns.
The full details follows:
Yunnan, where Yunye was deputy director of land and resources, is a
province of lush, bamboo-covered mountains. It is also known as China’s
gem-trading hub because of its border with Myanmar, a failed state with
bounties of ruby and jade stones that are illicitly smuggled into
Yunnan.
Gem exchanges, $50,000 gold bars, a $500,000 bribe, and deals
benefiting two Vancouver-area tycoons feature in the lengthy record of
charges proven against Yunye in Yunnan Provincial Court. The verdict
states Yunye abused his power from 2007 until his arrest in 2014.
oftwominds |Fraud as a way of life caters an extravagant banquet of consequences.
This can't be said politely: the entire status quo in America is a fraud.
The financial system is a fraud.
The political system is a fraud.
National Defense is a fraud.
The healthcare system is a fraud.
Higher education is a fraud.
The mainstream corporate media is a fraud.
Culture--from high to pop--is a fraud.
Need I go on?
We have come to accept fraud as standard operating practice in America, to the detriment of everything that was once worthy. why is this so?
One reason, which I outline in my book A Radically Beneficial World: Automation, Technology and Creating Jobs for All, is that centralized hierarchies select for fraud and incompetence. Now
that virtually every system in America is centralized or regulated by
centralized hierarchies, every system in America is fraudulent and
incompetent.
The three ingredients of fraud are abundant: pressure
(to get an A, to please your boss, to make your sales numbers, etc.),
rationalization (everybody's doing it) and opportunity.
Taleb explains why failure and fraud become the status quo: admitting
error and changing course are risky, and everyone who accepts the
servitude of working in a centralized hierarchy--by definition,
obedience to authority is the #1 requirement-- is averse to risk.
As as I explain in my book, these systems select for risk aversion and the appearance of obedience to rules and authority while maximizing personal gain: in other words, fraud as a daily way of life.
Truth is a dangerous poison in centralized hierarchies: anyone caught telling the truth risks a tenner in bureaucratic Siberia. (In the Soviet Gulag ,a tenner meant a ten-year sentence to a labor camp in Siberia.)
And
so the truth is buried, sent to a backwater for further study,
obfuscated by jargon, imprisoned by a Top Secret stamp, or simply taken
out and executed.Everyone in the system maximizes his/her personal
gain by going along with the current trajectory, even if that trajectory
is taking the nation off the cliff.
guardian | The leaders of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have warned that the industrial scale of international tax avoidance
revealed by the Panama Papers represents a “great concern” for the
global economy and is having a “tremendously negative effect on our
mission to end poverty”.
Jim Yong Kim, the president of the World Bank,
said the revelations that many of the world’s richest and most powerful
people are avoiding paying millions in taxes by hiding money from the
taxman in offshore havens is a “great, great concern” and “very, very
damaging” to the bank’s “mission to end extreme poverty”.
“When taxes are evaded, when state assets are taken and put into
these havens, all of these things can have a tremendous negative effect
on our mission to end poverty and boost prosperity,” Kim said as he
opened the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and IMF in Washington.
Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the IMF, said the Panama Papers, an unprecedented leak of 11.5m files from offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca, showed that “the [international tax] rules appear to be skewed towards” the global rich.
“Clearly what has resulted from the review of these Panama Papers
indicates that however important [international tax rules to prevent]
base erosion and profit shifting … it is unfinished business,” she said
in an opening address to the meeting.
Lagarde said more global cooperation is needed to stop tax avoidance
and to ensure “the net does not have little loopholes here and there”.
“A lot of things have gone global but there is one thing that has not
gone global and that is tax. It is still very much a local affair,” she
said. “International cooperation really has to be significantly improved
and we are happy to play our part.”
uprootedpalestinians | For a while there have been incessant rumors, from London to New York, and across the Middle East, of a possible coup in Riyadh.
Now a policy-making source with intimate knowledge not only of the
House of Saud but its real masters in the Washington/Wall Street axis
has offered an unprecedented glimpse into the current, groundbreaking
power play in the Kingdom.
According to the source, «Prince Mohammed bin Salman really does
realize what is happening. He is being set up. He is surrounded by
consultants going over the entire Saudi economic system aiming for its
reorganization – which is certainly necessary. And some of these
consultants at the same time are organizing the data for the CIA. This
would make any transition away from the monarchy – which the CIA loathes
– much easier, towards a favored military officer».
And this would also imply that some of Aramco’s Western employees –
hired to hold the place together – are your proverbial CIA agents; a
classic cover for clandestine ops.
The whole process started a while ago, in April 2014, when there were
rumblings in Riyadh about a move to get rid of King Abdullah.
Eventually a compromise was struck; Bandar bin Sultan, a.k.a. Bandar
Bush – who badly bundled the war in Syria via his sponsorship of an army
of Jihadis – was fired as the real culprit in this Saudi-led
war of terror. And Prince Mohammed bin Nayef was promoted to number two
in the Kingdom – duly under the orders of His Masters’ Voice in
Washington. As he was anointed Crown Prince, Nayef was all but enshrined
as the next King in the succession of King Salman.
What the publicity-savvy young Salman wants is to turn the tables. He
sees himself as his father’s successor. Yet internal resistance is
fierce. According to the source, «it does not play well among the
poor masses of the Kingdom that he brags about a two-trillion-dollar
stock value of Aramco when they are suffering the removal of House of
Saud subsidies». As for the Saudi oil wealth, the young Salman
deceptively does not believe «the decline in oil prices poses a threat
to us, for us it’s a free market that is governed by supply and demand».
NYTimes |Saudi Arabia
has told the Obama administration and members of Congress that it will
sell off hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American assets held
by the kingdom if Congress passes a bill that would allow the Saudi
government to be held responsible in American courts for any role in the
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The
Obama administration has lobbied Congress to block the bill’s passage,
according to administration officials and congressional aides from both
parties, and the Saudi threats have been the subject of intense
discussions in recent weeks between lawmakers and officials from the
State Department and the Pentagon. The officials have warned senators of
diplomatic and economic fallout from the legislation.
Adel
al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, delivered the kingdom’s message
personally last month during a trip to Washington, telling lawmakers
that Saudi Arabia would be forced to sell up to $750 billion in treasury
securities and other assets in the United States before they could be
in danger of being frozen by American courts.
Several
outside economists are skeptical that the Saudis will follow through,
saying that such a sell-off would be difficult to execute and would end
up crippling the kingdom’s economy. But the threat is another sign of
the escalating tensions between Saudi Arabia and the United States.
The
administration, which argues that the legislation would put Americans
at legal risk overseas, has been lobbying so intently against the bill
that some lawmakers and families of Sept. 11 victims are infuriated. In
their view, the Obama administration has consistently sided with the
kingdom and has thwarted their efforts to learn what they believe to be
the truth about the role some Saudi officials played in the terrorist
plot.
“It’s
stunning to think that our government would back the Saudis over its
own citizens,” said Mindy Kleinberg, whose husband died in the World
Trade Center on Sept. 11 and who is part of a group of victims’ family
members pushing for the legislation.
theintercept | THE DEMOCRACY SPRING, a protest movement calling on Congress to “end the corruption of big money in our politics” and “ensure free and fair elections,” converged on Capitol Hill on Monday, staging a nonviolent sit-in that resulted in over 400 arrests — a massive number by Washington sit-in standards.
While the action, dubbed #DemocracySpring, garnered wide coverage on social media and over 136,000 tweets, cable news programs found little time to cover the political protests, instead focusing largely on horse-race coverage of the presidential candidates for most of the day.
During daytime and afternoon news segments, CNN did not devote any coverage to the actions. MSNBC mentioned the protests for approximately 12 seconds, while Fox News mentioned the arrests and discussed the protests for about 17 seconds.
MSNBC and Fox News not only provided minimal coverage, but hosts on both networks misrepresented the protests, claiming they were narrowly focused only on “voting rights issues.” The focus on systemic political corruption, an issue that was widely criticized during the rally yesterday, was ignored.
Later in the day, CNN posted a short item on its website. The protests were widely covered by CSPAN, Al Jazeera, and NPR, among other outlets. But cable news programs, which specialize in American political news, were another story.
acting-man | The revelations about the prime ministers account are connected to the so-called 1MBD scandal involving Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund. The fund has been an utter disaster, “mislaying” some $4 billion in total – and its advisory board is chaired by none other than Najib Razak.
Two things have piqued our interest: for one thing, we were beginning to wonder about the fact that Najib Razak actually remains in office and has so far successfully deflected all attempts to unseat him over the scandal, including massive public protests (however, the air is clearly getting thinner now).
Secondly, ABC has recently sent a team of investigators to Malaysia, who were briefly arrested after attempting to ask the prime minister a few questions. For a while it looked like they may actually face jail time, but that was probably considered one step too far and they were let go after two weeks. They were in Kuala Lumpur while filming a documentary on the still burgeoning scandal.
The documentary – “State of Fear: Murder and Money in Malaysia” – is truly fascinating. As the blurb at ABC’s web site says:
“It’s a story of intrigue, corruption and multiple murders, stretching from the streets of Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur, to Switzerland, France and the US as well as Hong Kong and Singapore, all the way to Australia’s doorstep.”
libertyblitzkrieg |The increased use of eminent domain to transfer property
to powerful political interests, the ramifications of the wars on
terrorism and drugs, and the violation of the property rights of
bondholders in the auto-bailout case have weakened the tradition of
strong adherence to the rule of law in United States. We believe these
factors have contributed to the sharp decline in the rating for the
legal-system area.
To a large degree, the United States has experienced a
significant move away from rule of law and toward a highly regulated,
politicized, and heavily policed state.
The American public should be out in the streets by the hundreds of
thousands demanding the resignation of President Barack Obama in
response to the total sham settlement just announced by the U.S.
government with Goldman Sachs. This farce should be seen for what it
really is; a gigantic establishment middle finger waving
contemptuously in the face of the reliably neutered and long-suffering
American public.
A criminal financial organization that engaged in billions upon
billions in fraud against the “muppet” public is once again getting off
with barely a slap on the wrist and nobody’s going to do a thing about
it. As I’ve said for years and years, until the public says enough is
enough nothing is going to change. I suppose that’s simply not going to
happen until the next economic downturn, which could emerge in earnest
any day now.
David Dayan knows as much about this issue as anyone, and he just
penned a scathing assessment of this perversion of justice at the New Republic. Here are a few excerpts from his piece, Why the Goldman Sachs Settlement Is a $5 Billion Sham:
reuters | When Cubic Energy Inc's bankruptcy plan took effect on March 1, shareholders of the
Dallas-based oil and gas company were wiped out. Among the losers was
Wells Fargo & Co.
The
bank had a nearly 10 percent stake in Cubic Energy at the end of 2015 -
worth more than $25 million at the company's peak - through a private
equity-style unit called Wells Fargo Energy Capital.
The
No. 3 U.S. bank by assets, like its rivals, has billions of dollars'
worth of exposure to the struggling energy industry through regular
loans that are souring. But the case of Cubic Energy shows that Wells
Fargo went further into risky areas than other banks, and may now face a
reckoning.
The whole sector has
been devastated by a 60 percent plunge in oil prices from highs of over
$100 a barrel in 2014. The price drop has squeezed energy firms,
especially smaller ones, and made it harder for them to pay back loans.
Some
of Wells Fargo's most volatile exposure sits within Wells Fargo Energy
Capital, a unit that sought fat returns through equity investments and
high-risk loans to small companies like Cubic Energy, assuming the
energy boom would last.
On top of
the equity investment, Cubic owed Wells Fargo nearly $30 million in debt
as of Nov. 30, according to its reorganization plan. The bank received
land and other assets in Louisiana as part of the reorganization.
What
those Louisiana assets are worth today is anyone's guess, said Jon
Ross, who was Cubic's vice president of operations until it collapsed.
spiegel | Over 40 million tonnes of electric and electronic waste (also known as e-waste) are produced worldwide every year. That is boundless heaps of refrigerators, computers, television sets, ovens, telephones, air conditioning units, lamps, toasters and other electric and electronic devices, with a total weight equal to seven times that of the Great Pyramid of Giza. The greatest producers of e-waste per person are the United States and the European Union, while developing countries, such as China, are producing an ever-increasing amount. Only a small part of this waste – about 15.5% in 2014 – is recycled with methods that are efficient and environmentally safe.
The West African country of Ghana, currently undergoing intense economic growth, is an important centre for receiving, re-using, recovering and disposing of electronic waste. Accra, the capital, hosts a thriving second-hand market, a sprawling network of repair shops, and a range of activities which attempt to tap into the full potential of e-waste. And yet, it is also the location of an enormous and heavily polluted electronic waste dumpsite.
A European family deciding to buy a flat-screen TV. A government office disposing of its old printers. A school replacing the computers in its computer lab. A teenager switching his smartphone to a newer model. A non-profit renewing their IT equipment. All operations which – when multiplied by the actual amount – produce the millions of tonnes of electronic waste that flood the planet each year. Many of these abandoned electric and electronic devices still have commercial value, some because they are still functioning and others because they contain valuable materials which can be recycled. This is why they are loaded onto containers, shipped from the ports of developed countries and sent to developing countries, like Ghana. Awaiting them at their destination is a widespread network of middlemen, dealers, repairmen and second-hand salesmen who choose the devices, test that they are operational and put the e-waste from rich countries back into circulation in the local economy.
This large market supplies enterprises, offices and households with second hand electrical appliances and electronic devices, which is how devices which have already lived a first life can start a second one in Africa. But all those objects that are already broken on arrival – in violation of the Basel Convention, which bans the transportation of hazardous waste, including non-operational electronic devices, between countries – and those that die out after their second use end up in the local dumping grounds.
systemicdisorder | Yet another standoff between clean drinking water and mining profits
has taken shape in Colombia, where two corporations insist their right
to pollute trumps human health and the environment. As is customary in
these cases, it is clean water that is the underdog here.
Two million people are dependent on water from a high-altitude
wetlands, which is also a refuge for endangered species, that a Canadian
mining company, Eco Oro Minerals Corporation, wants to use for a gold
mine. The wetlands, the Santurbán páramo in the Andes, has been declared
off-limits for mining by Colombia’s highest court due to the area’s
environmental sensitivity. Eco Oro is suing the Colombian government
because of this under the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.
The dispute will likely be heard by a secret tribunal that is an arm
of the World Bank, even though the World Bank has provided investment
capital for Eco Oro to develop the mine.
Eco Oro has not said how much money it intends to ask for, but
another mining company, the U.S.-based Tobie Mining and Energy Inc., has
separately sued Colombia for US$16.5 billion because the government
refused to allow it to establish a gold mine in a national park. To put
that $16.5 billion in perspective, the total represents more than 20
percent of Colombia’s budget.
To the north, El Salvador is still awaiting the decision of another
secret tribunal in a case heard in September 2014. An Australian mining
company, OceanaGold, sued El Salvador for $301 million because it was denied a permit to create a gold mine that would have poisoned the country’s biggest source of water.
Under “free trade” agreements (which have little to do with trade and
much to do with enhancing corporate power), governments agree to the
mandatory use of “investor-state dispute mechanisms.” What that
bland-sounding phrase means is that any “investor” can sue a signatory
government to overturn any law or regulation
it does not like because the law or regulation “confiscates” its
expected profits, with no limitations on who or what constitutes an
“investment.” These cases are not heard in regular judicial systems, but
rather in secret tribunals with no oversight, no public notice and no
appeals. The judges who sit on these tribunals are corporate lawyers
whose regular practice is representing corporations in these types of
disputes.
NYTimes | Even as drought and the effects of climate change
grew visible across this land, the Kariba Dam was always a steady, and
seemingly limitless, source of something rare in Africa: electricity so
cheap and plentiful that Zambia could export some to its neighbors.
The power generated from the Kariba — one of the world’s largest hydroelectric
dams, in one of the world’s largest artificial lakes — contributed to
Zambia’s political stability and helped turn its economy into one of the
fastest growing on the continent.
But
today, as a severe drought magnified by climate change has cut water
levels to record lows, the Kariba is generating so little juice that
blackouts have crippled the nation’s already hurting businesses. After a
decade of being heralded as a vanguard of African growth, Zambia, in a
quick, mortifying letdown, is now struggling to pay its own civil
servants and has reached out to the International Monetary Fund for
help.
aljazeera | Malawi has declared a state of disaster over worsening food shortages caused by a severe drought as concerns grow over a hunger crisis spreading across much of southern Africa.
Malawi's
maize production has dropped by 12 percent, leaving it short of about
one million tonnes of maize needed to feed the population, President
Peter Mutharika said in a statement on Tuesday.
About 2.8
million Malawians - nearly 20 per cent of the population - face food
insecurity, making the country one of the worst hit in southern and
eastern Africa, where the current drought affects 50 million
people, according to United Nation figures.
"I declare Malawi [to
be in] a state of national disaster following prolonged dry spells
during the 2015/16 agriculture season," the Malawian president said.
"With the increased maize deficit, it is expected that an
increased number of people will be food-insecure and will require
humanitarian relief assistance for the whole 2016-17 consumption year,"
he said.
Unfrosted: The Pop-Tarts Story [Media Notes 119]
-
Was it funny? Yes. Worth watching? I suppose. But it wasn’t the
laugh-out-loud hilarity fest I was hoping for. It wasn’t Duck Soup for the
21st century. ...
A Foundation of Joy
-
Two years and I've lost count of how many times my eye has been operated
on, either beating the fuck out of the tumor, or reattaching that slippery
eel ...
April Three
-
4/3
43
When 1 = A and 26 = Z
March = 43
What day?
4 to the power of 3 is 64
64th day is March 5
My birthday
March also has 5 letters.
4 x 3 = 12
...
Return of the Magi
-
Lately, the Holy Spirit is in the air. Emotional energy is swirling out of
the earth.I can feel it bubbling up, effervescing and evaporating around
us, s...
New Travels
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Haven’t published on the Blog in quite a while. I at least part have been
immersed in the area of writing books. My focus is on Science Fiction an
Historic...
Covid-19 Preys Upon The Elderly And The Obese
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sciencemag | This spring, after days of flulike symptoms and fever, a man
arrived at the emergency room at the University of Vermont Medical Center.
He ...
