Quarter million jobs could be lost

MarketWatch, Jun 1, 2009

Quarter million jobs could be lost in bankruptcies

Economic impact depends on how quickly the automaker emerges

By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Once upon a time, the failure of General Motors Corp. would have shaken the entire U.S. economy to its foundation. But the once-mighty auto giant has already shrunk so much that its bankruptcy may be hardly noticed by an economy that has much bigger problems.

If all goes according to plan, the bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler, which went bankrupt in late April, could cost about a quarter million people their jobs over the next year and a half, according to one researcher.

GM formally filed for bankruptcy protection Monday morning. See related story.

Whether GM's bankruptcy turns out to be a major or minor chapter in U.S. economic history will depend greatly on how quickly and painlessly it emerges as a new company, ready to compete, said Sean McAlinden, a top researcher at the Center for Automotive Research, a nonprofit research organization funded in part by the industry.

In its reorganization as it comes out of bankruptcy, GM will employ fewer workers, operate fewer plants and produce fewer cars, even in the best-case scenario.

Much of the required downsizing has already taken place as GM's position as the pre-eminent car maker in the world has eroded over the past three decades. During that time, GM's U.S. workforce has fallen from a high of 620,000 in 1979 to about 120,000 now.

Immediate impact

The company, the government and the United Auto Workers union hope GM can emerge from bankruptcy quickly, without hurting its key suppliers too much. If the bankruptcy isn't quick, however, the economic damage could be widespread.

When Chrysler declared bankruptcy, it shuttered its plants and furloughed its 27,000 hourly production workers. Those workers are expected to be called back later in the summer if all goes well in court and in the economy.

GM's bankruptcy could also lead to temporary layoffs of most or all of its 61,000 production workers. The company already has plans to temporarily shut 13 plants to reduce inventories, affecting about 25,000 GM workers and a comparable number who work for suppliers.

The statistical treatment of those workers, which determines when and where they show up in unemployment data, is complicated.

Furloughed workers show up in weekly jobless claims data, but won't be counted in the monthly payroll survey. Because they remain on the payroll while they receive severance payments, the company will report them as employed. However, they may show up in the unemployment figures, which are based on a separate survey of households.

The lost production at Chrysler and GM will reduce gross domestic product by about 0.7 percentage points in the second quarter, not a "dramatic" effect, said Abiel Reinhart, an economist for JPMorgan Chase Bank. Falling auto production cut 1.4 percentage points in the first quarter, he said.

Longer impact

A quick detour into court and back out would probably leave GM's relations with suppliers, dealers and customers largely intact even as it slowly loses market share. In that case, the economic impact would be relatively minor, if auto sales and production slowly recover over the next two years as expected.

In the best case, about 21,000 hourly GM workers are expected to lose their jobs by the end of 2010 as GM shutters 14 to 16 plants, according to the company's reorganization plan.

GM also plans to close dealerships, but the overall employment impact of those franchises closing should be minor, because any sales or maintenance business lost at one dealer would be picked up at another lot or garage. The average dealer has about 50 employees; remaining dealers would probably get larger.

Including jobs lost at suppliers and those lost at other companies indirectly because of reduced income, total jobs lost from the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies would total about 250,000 over the next 19 months, according to a study written by McAlinden.

That's a lot of jobs, but it pales in comparison with the 5.7 million jobs lost nationwide since the recession began. It doesn't even match the 281,000 jobs that the auto industry alone has lost since December 2007.

Counting the jobs at suppliers and at companies that have lost business because laid-off workers aren't spending so much, an estimated 1 million jobs across all sectors have already been lost due to the troubles in the industry, McAlinden said.

What GM loses in market share over time would largely be replaced by Ford and the foreign automakers' U.S. operations, said Haig Stoddard, an auto analyst for IHS Global Insight. That means jobs lost in GM plants could be offset by positions added at Ford, Toyota or Honda plants elsewhere as the industry rebounds.

That's if everything goes according to plan.

But if the bankruptcy isn't smooth, a protracted legal battle in court could have dire consequences that could be felt across the economy, with about 1.8 million jobs lost over the next 19 months, according to the CAR study.

A protracted legal battle could nearly destroy GM as a company and take down many of its suppliers, who also supply parts to Ford, Toyota and other automakers, said McAlinden. It would take time to establish new supply chains if major parts suppliers failed.

Rex Nutting is Washington bureau chief of MarketWatch.

From the June 2009 Scientific American Magazine

Rethinking the Global Money Supply

Less reliance on the U.S. dollar by international reserves would be widely beneficial

By Jeffrey D. Sachs

The People’s Bank of China jolted the financial world in March with a proposal for a new global monetary arrangement. The proposal initially attracted attention mostly for its signal of China’s rising global economic power, but its content also has much to commend it.

A century ago almost all the world’s currencies were linked to gold and most of the rest to silver. Currencies were readily interchangeable, gold anchored exchange rates and the physical supply of gold stabilized the money supply over the long term.

The gold standard collapsed in the wake of World War I. Wartime financing with unbacked paper currency led to widespread inflation. European nations tried to resume the gold standard in the 1920s, but the gold supply was insufficient and inelastic. A ferocious monetary squeeze and competition across countries for limited gold reserves followed and contributed to the Great Depression. After World War II, nations adopted the dollar-exchange standard. The U.S. dollar was backed by gold at $35 per ounce, while the rest of the world’s currencies were backed by dollars. The global money stock could expand through dollar reserves.

President Richard Nixon delinked the dollar from gold in 1971 (to offset the U.S.’s expansionary monetary policies in the Vietnam era), and major currencies began to float against one another in value. But most global trade and financial transactions remained dollar-denominated, as did most foreign exchange reserves held by the world’s central banks. The exchange rates of many currencies also remained tightly tied to the dollar.

This special role of the dollar in the international monetary system has contributed to the global scale of the current crisis, which is rooted in a combination of overly expansionary monetary policies by the Federal Reserve and lax financial regulations. Easy money fed an unprecedented surge in bank credits, first in the U.S. and then elsewhere, as international banks funded themselves in the U.S. money markets. As bank loans flowed into other economies, many foreign central banks intervened to maintain currency stability with the dollar. The surge in the U.S. money supply was thus matched by a surge in the money supplies of countries linked to the U.S. dollar. The result was a temporary worldwide credit bubble, followed by a wave of loan defaults, falling housing prices, banking losses and a dramatic tightening of bank lending.

China has now proposed that the world move to a more symmetrical monetary system, in which nations peg their currencies to a representative basket of others rather than to the dollar alone. The “special drawing rights” of the International Monetary Fund is such a basket of four currencies (the dollar, pound, yen and euro), although the Chinese rightly suggest that it should be rebased to reflect a broader range of them, including China’s yuan. U.S. monetary policy would accordingly lose its excessive global influence over money supplies and credit conditions. On average, the dollar should depreciate against Asian currencies to encourage more U.S. net exports to Asia. The euro should probably strengthen against the dollar but weaken against Asian currencies.

The U.S. response to the Chinese proposal was revealing. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner initially described himself as open to exploring the idea; his candor quickly caused the dollar to weaken in value—which it needs to do for the good of the U.S. economy. That weakening, however, led Geithner to reverse himself within minutes by underscoring that the U.S. dollar would remain the world’s reserve currency for the foreseeable future.

Geithner’s first reaction was right. The Chinese proposal requires study but seems consistent with the long-term shift to a more balanced world economy in which the U.S. plays a monetary role more coequal with Europe and Asia. No change of global monetary system will happen abruptly, but the changes ahead are not under the sole control of the U.S. We will probably move over time to a world of greater monetary cooperation within Asia, a rising role for the Chinese yuan, and greater symmetry in overall world monetary and financial relations.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jeffrey D. Sachs is director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University (www.earth.columbia.edu).

Op-Ed Columnist

Reagan Did It

Paul Krugman, The New York Times, May 31, 2009

“This bill is the most important legislation for financial institutions in the last 50 years. It provides a long-term solution for troubled thrift institutions. ... All in all, I think we hit the jackpot.” So declared Ronald Reagan in 1982, as he signed the Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act.

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

He was, as it happened, wrong about solving the problems of the thrifts. On the contrary, the bill turned the modest-sized troubles of savings-and-loan institutions into an utter catastrophe. But he was right about the legislation’s significance. And as for that jackpot — well, it finally came more than 25 years later, in the form of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

For the more one looks into the origins of the current disaster, the clearer it becomes that the key wrong turn — the turn that made crisis inevitable — took place in the early 1980s, during the Reagan years.

Attacks on Reaganomics usually focus on rising inequality and fiscal irresponsibility. Indeed, Reagan ushered in an era in which a small minority grew vastly rich, while working families saw only meager gains. He also broke with longstanding rules of fiscal prudence.

On the latter point: traditionally, the U.S. government ran significant budget deficits only in times of war or economic emergency. Federal debt as a percentage of G.D.P. fell steadily from the end of World War II until 1980. But indebtedness began rising under Reagan; it fell again in the Clinton years, but resumed its rise under the Bush administration, leaving us ill prepared for the emergency now upon us.

The increase in public debt was, however, dwarfed by the rise in private debt, made possible by financial deregulation. The change in America’s financial rules was Reagan’s biggest legacy. And it’s the gift that keeps on taking.

The immediate effect of Garn-St. Germain, as I said, was to turn the thrifts from a problem into a catastrophe. The S.& L. crisis has been written out of the Reagan hagiography, but the fact is that deregulation in effect gave the industry — whose deposits were federally insured — a license to gamble with taxpayers’ money, at best, or simply to loot it, at worst. By the time the government closed the books on the affair, taxpayers had lost $130 billion, back when that was a lot of money.

But there was also a longer-term effect. Reagan-era legislative changes essentially ended New Deal restrictions on mortgage lending — restrictions that, in particular, limited the ability of families to buy homes without putting a significant amount of money down.

These restrictions were put in place in the 1930s by political leaders who had just experienced a terrible financial crisis, and were trying to prevent another. But by 1980 the memory of the Depression had faded. Government, declared Reagan, is the problem, not the solution; the magic of the marketplace must be set free. And so the precautionary rules were scrapped.

Together with looser lending standards for other kinds of consumer credit, this led to a radical change in American behavior.

We weren’t always a nation of big debts and low savings: in the 1970s Americans saved almost 10 percent of their income, slightly more than in the 1960s. It was only after the Reagan deregulation that thrift gradually disappeared from the American way of life, culminating in the near-zero savings rate that prevailed on the eve of the great crisis. Household debt was only 60 percent of income when Reagan took office, about the same as it was during the Kennedy administration. By 2007 it was up to 119 percent.

All this, we were assured, was a good thing: sure, Americans were piling up debt, and they weren’t putting aside any of their income, but their finances looked fine once you took into account the rising values of their houses and their stock portfolios. Oops.

Now, the proximate causes of today’s economic crisis lie in events that took place long after Reagan left office — in the global savings glut created by surpluses in China and elsewhere, and in the giant housing bubble that savings glut helped inflate.

But it was the explosion of debt over the previous quarter-century that made the U.S. economy so vulnerable. Overstretched borrowers were bound to start defaulting in large numbers once the housing bubble burst and unemployment began to rise.

These defaults in turn wreaked havoc with a financial system that — also mainly thanks to Reagan-era deregulation — took on too much risk with too little capital.

There’s plenty of blame to go around these days. But the prime villains behind the mess we’re in were Reagan and his circle of advisers — men who forgot the lessons of America’s last great financial crisis, and condemned the rest of us to repeat it.

LA CAPITALE MONDIALE DEL SISTEMA BANCARIO SEFARDITA

Da: SVIZZERA Connection

LA CAPITALE MONDIALE DEL SISTEMA BANCARIO SEFARDITA

L'integrazione delle famiglie Safra, de Picciotto, Gaon e Dweck - analogamente all'accoglienza degli Ugonotti alcune centinaia di anni prima - sottolineò la tradizionale capacità di assimilazione di Ginevra. Con ciò la città ospita oggi oltre al gruppo locale dei tradizionali banchieri privati un secondo centro decisionale globale nel cosiddetto "Private Banking", il business della gestione patrimoniale per gente ricca: Una potenza autonoma con la quale anche gli organi decisionali delle tre grandi banche svizzere residenti a Zurigo debbono fare i conti. Senza tener conto delle radici comuni di una parte dell' aristocrazia ginevrina del denaro nell' ebraismo sefardita, non si possono prendere in esame i misteri dell'ascesa della TDB nè l'avvenire di Ginevra come centro decisionale nella piazza finanziaria Svizzera. E bisogna considerare che religiosità personale e impegno politico delle grandi famiglie sefardite di Ginevra sono diversi. Mentre Nessim Gaon era presidente del Congresso mondiale sefardita, i de Picciotto e i Dwecks mantennero un basso profilo. Il ricchissimo e potentissimo Edmond Safra non fa mistero della sua religiosità personale e del suo impegno per gli interessi terreni dell' ebraismo sefardita. (12) Nato nel 1932, è il patriarca della famiglia Safra, di cui fanno parte i suoi fratelli più giovani che vivono in Brasile, Joseph, Moise, Evelyn, Ughette, Gabi e Arlette. Ci asono poi i figli che Edmond ha adottato sposando Lily Monteverde e la numerosa prole dei suoi fratelli e sorelle. Safra che ha definito una volta le banche i suoi figli, ha sempre sottolineato che guadagnr denaro non era per lui fine a se stesso. Voleva piuttosto fondare una banca che sopravvivesse mille anni. (13) Il primo traguardo l'ha raggiunto il discendente di quei mercanti sefarditi che 150 anni fa nella Aleppo allora osmanica avevano cominciato a commerciare in denaro e oro. Si può affermare che la famiglia Safra abbia superato oggi i Rothschild, la dinastia di banchieri ebrei finora preminente. Negli anni '90 sembrava in declino soprattutto la stella del ramo inglese dei Rothschild. La NM Rothschild di Londra fu superata dalle banche d'affari Schroders e Fleming, tradizionali concorrenti, cosa di cui il "Sunday Times" incolpò il capo dei Rothschild, Sir Evelyn. (14) Il tragico suicidio del successore designato di Sir Evelyn, Amschel Rothschild, nel luglio 1996, dopo una seduta decisiva a Parigi, sottolineò ulteriormente la profonda crisi della casa. Ma anche i Rothschild francesi avevano conosciuto giorni migliori. Dopo che nella famiglia non era stato possibile trovare nessun successore adeguato, nel settembre 1995 Gérard Worms passò infine alla guida della società in accomandita Rothschild et Cie. Banque (Parigi). Nell'estate 1995 Worms era stato destituito da presidente della finanziaria Compagnie de Suez (Banque Indosuez, Sociétè Générale de Belgique) in gravi difficoltà e ricevette il compito di organizzare il rilancio dei Rothschild - costi quel che costi. Il ramo franco-svizzero dei Rothschild, la ginevrina Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild del padre Edmond e del figlio Benjamin de Rothschild faceva ancora, per lo meno esteriormente, un'ottima figura.

Note:

12) Sebbene Safra nel 1947 avesse rinunciato a passare nello stato ebraico appena fondato, ne ha sostenuto sempre la costruzione. Si dice che Safra abbia assegnato più di 7.000 borse di studio a giovani sefarditi, e anche negli USA i sefarditi possono contare sul suo aiuto finanziario. Negli USA ha potuto profittarne soprattutto il defunto Rebbe Lubavitch Menahem Schneerson, eminente personalità dell'ebraismo statunitense, di cui Safra ha ammirato la militanza. Alla Wharton Business School dell'Università di Pennsylvania a Philadelphia Safra donò una ricca biblioteca. L'istituto Safra ha sovvenzionato la traduzione francese del libro di Stephan Keller su Paul Grüniger, che durante il nazismo fece entrare di nascosto profughi ebrei in Svizzera, per questo fu licenziato dalla polizia, presso la quale prestava servizio, condannato con sentenza del tribunale, e venne riabilitato solo nel 1955.

13) "Business Week", 7 3 94

14) "Sunday Times", 1 10 95

SWISS Connection: LA MISTERIOSA TRADE DEVELOPMENT BANK

Da: SVIZZERA Connection

3 LA MISTERIOSA TRADE DEVELOPMENT BANK

Seconda stazione svizzera di transito del denaro da narcotraffico, nel percorso che dalla mafia portava al cartello di Medellìn, era il conto Oficina de Cambio Internacional presso la Trade Development Bank di Ginevra (TDB). E come alla Fimo anche alla TDB nessuno, secondo le sentenze di Carla del Ponte, sapeva qualcosa di proventi da traffico da droga. A giudicare dalle ordinanze di archiviazione delle indagini sulla Fimo, Victor Dana e Thierry Dana, due membri dei quadri TDB, credevano in buona fede che le banconote in lire, consegnate dal riciclatore Giancarlo Formichi Moglia di Chiasso, provenissero dalla vendita di oro venezuelano negli USA. (1) Conclusione: La TDB non si era resa colpevole di concorso in riciclaggio di denaro come la Fimo o il servizio postale ferroviario che aveva trasportato i sacchi valore con le banconote italiane da Chiasso a Ginevra.(2) Mentre la giustizia ticinese aveva archiviato il dossier TDB subito dopo averlo aperto, vale la pena considerare in questo libro con particolare attenzione la banca ginevrina in buona fede a cui si appoggiava per le sue operazioni il riciclatore di denaro da narcotraffico Formichi Moglia. Perchè questa banca ginevrina era stata il perno e il cardine dell'ascesa di Edmond Safra a "banchiere di maggior successo da Morgan e Rockfeller".(3) Edmond Safra è un ebreo sefardita di Beirut con passaporto brasiliano.(4) Insieme con altre tre famiglie sefardite medio-orientali egli ha fatto di Ginevra la capitale del settore bancario sefardita. Senza questo retroscena la storia della TDB non può essere analizzata. Perciò bisogna presentare brevemente le famiglie de Picciotto, Gaon e Dweck prima di cominciare a parlare della TDB di Safra. Edgar de Picciotto, un finanziere libanese emigrato in Svizzera da Beirut passando per l'Italia, ha fondato insieme ai suoi due figli Guy e Daniel una nuova potente dinastia di banchieri ginevrini.(5) Diversamente dal suo connazionale levantino Edmond Safra, che non ha mai voluto prendere la cittadinanza svizzera, Edgar de Picciotto nel 1972 è diventato cittadino di Waadt. Insieme con i protagonisti del mondo bancario locale è membro anche dell'istituto "Gèneve Place Financière" (6). Già nel 1969 De Picciotto aveva fondato con il banchiere privato zurighese Nicolas Baer la Compagnie de Banque et d'Investissements (CBI). Nel 1978 Baer diede le dimissioni dal Consiglio di amministrazione CBI e fu sostituito dal ginevrino Michel Brunschwig. (7) Nel 1989 entrò nel consiglio di amministrazione CBI Rodolfo de Benedetti, figlio del presidente dell'Olivetti, Carlo de Benedetti (8), mentre de Picciotto deteneva quote di minoranza delle holding familiari di De Benedetti CIR (Parigi) e Sofigen (Ginevra). Nel 1990 infine la CBI, suscitando lo stupore degli specialisti del settore, comprò la TDB, dieci volte più grande, fondata da Safra. Se ne parlerà ancora più avanti. Nessim Gaon, presidente del congresso sefardita mondiale, era nato nel 1922 in una famiglia di ebrei turchi in Sudan, dove suo padre era un alto funzionario coloniale britannico. Nel 1957 venne a Ginevra e ottenne più tardi la cittadinanza ma senza essere mai veramente accettato. Si occupava di commercio e di operazioni immobiliari. Il direttore cantonale dei lavori edili Chistian Grobet (PS) si oppose ad alcuni dei suoi progetti edilizi. All'inizio degli anni '90 la famiglia Gaon controllava due dozzine e più di società, ad esempio la Sècheron Holding SA (9) e la Noga SA con il direttore Joel Herzog, figlio dell'ex presidente israeliano Chaim Herzog. Nel febbraio 1995 Gaon arrivò sull'orlo della bancarotta, perchè era stato coinvolto nel crac immobiliare di Ginevra con un grande progetto nel settore industriale della Sècheron dietro la stazione ferroviaria Cornavin. Sebbene non confermato ufficialmente, Gaon potrebbe essere stato aiutato da Safra ; il manager di Safra Isaac Ormyron fa parte del consiglio di amministrazione della Noga SA di Gaon. Nel dicembre 1994 il tribunale di Ginevra concesse a Gaon, dopo una richiesta di riscossione della Olympia & York, Toronto (Fratelli Reichmann), un rinvio del fallimento di per lo meno due anni (10). La terza potente dinastia sefardita di Ginevra è rappresentata dagli Dwecks. Questi sono originari come i Safra di Aleppo e sono giunti più tardi a Ginevra passando per Beirut prima e per l'Italia poi. Giacomo Dweck aveva lavorato dall'inizio degli anni '60 per la TDB di Safra. Maurizio Dweck fondò agli inizi degli anni '70 la Soditic di Ginevra , che più tardi divenne la Banca privata SG Warburg Soditic e dopo la vendita della Warburg SG al Bankverein nel 1995 fu chiamata di nuovo Soditic.(11) Maurizio Dweck fa parte anche del comitato direttivo della Borsa di Ginevra.

Note:

1) "Corriere del Ticino", 27. 11. 93

2) La Trade Development Bank era già comparsa prima dello scandalo Fimo in un altro affare di riciclaggio di denaro in Svizzera, la cosiddetta Libanon Connection, che nel 1990 era terminata con la condanna dei fratelli Magharian per riciclaggio a favore dei trafficanti di droga colombiani e sospetto di rapporti con narcotrafficanti turchi a 4 anni di prigione. Nell'incartamento del processo Magharian, datato 5 dicembre 1988, la procura federale constatava che il nome TDB appariva in quasi tutti gli affari di riciclaggio, citati nella relazione. ("Le Nouveau Quotidien ", 24. 4. 92)

3) "Business Week", 7.3.94

4) Si chiamano sefarditi gli ebrei che prima della fondazione dello stato di Israele vivevano in paesi islamici. La parola deriva dall'ebraico Sefard (Spagna), perchè la regina Isabella la Cattolica nel 1492 aveva cacciato gli ebrei spagnoli in Marocco e nell'impero osmanico.

5) I de Picciotto hanno buoni rapporti con la Banca Cantonale di Ginevra : Renè de Picciotto ha rilevato nel 1995 dalla SBG una partecipazione del 40 % alla Cantrade Banque Privée Lausanne, a cui è sostanzialmente collegata anche la Banca Cantonale di Ginevra. Altri azionisti di questa Cantrade Banque Privée (da non confondersi con la banca Cantrade, affiliata alla SBG zurighese) sono il libanese Adel Kassar e Philippe Setton.

6) Ad es. con Thierry Lombard e Nicolas Pictet delle banche private con lo stesso nome. Georges Urban, consigliere d'amministrazione della banca privata Darier, Hentsch & Cie. e il presidente VR del "Journal de Gèneve", così come Anton Affeltranger, direttore della SBG e Jean Louis Delachaux, direttore della Schweizerische Kreditanstalt.

7) La famiglia Brunschwig lavora soprattutto nel settore tessile (Bon Génie/Grieder, Ermenegildo Zegna) e in base al bilancio del dicembre '95 viene valutata tra i 200 e i 300 milioni.

8) Anche i De Benedetti sono di origine sefardita, i loro avi sono comunque emigrati in Italia già nel secolo scorso. Oltre alle italiane CIR (Compagnie Industriali Riunite) e Cofide (Compagnia Finanziaria De Benedetti) la famiglia possiede in Francia la Cerus Holding, diretta da Michel Cicurel, in Svizzera la Cicurel presieduta pure dal francese Sofigen ( Société Financiére de Genève). A metà degli anni '90 Cerus e Sofigen si trovavano in una cattiva situazione finanziaria. Questo dopo le grandi perdite con la banca ginevrina Duménil Leblé alla fine di dicembre 1991. Allora la Cerus dovette versare dalla sera alla mattina 120 milioni di franchi del proprio recente capitale per impedire il ritiro della licenza bancaria da parte della commissione delle banche. De Benedetti incolpò il finanziere torinese Roberto Caprioglio con la sua finanziaria Dominion Trust di fallimento fraudolento. Si dice che Caprioglio sia responsabile del buco nero alla Dumènil Leblè. Per tenersi la Dumènil Leblè De Benedetti dovette nell'ottobre 1992 vendere il suo pacchetto di minoranza del 10 % della CBI Holding.

9) Sècheron Holding SA: proprietari: Banque Cantonale de Genève, Ginevra (86%; solo ad interim); Famiglia Gaon, Ginevra (14 %); Management: Helfland Henry (Commugny); Cohen Aslan (Genéve); Graves Clément (Ginevra); Consiglio di amministrazione: Gaon Nessim (Ginevra); Chapuis Maurice (Ginevra); Coen Danielle (Ginevra); Coen David (Ginevra); Gaon David-Nessim (Ginevra); Gaon Renée (Ginevra); Herzog Joel (Ginevra); Herzog Marguerite (Bernex); Partecipazioni: Autométers Sécheron Ltd., Noida New Dehli (51%); CKD Sécheron spol SR. O, Praha (61,5 %); Sécheron SA, Ginevra (100 %); Shangai Sécheron Electrical Apparatus Corp.Ltd. (Shangai); Skoda Sécheron spol SR. O (Pilsen). (Fonte: Orell Füssli /Teledata: I CD-ROM. dell'economia svizzera. Release 1996/ 1, giorno fissat : 1.8.95)

10) Per i suoi commerci internazionali, Gaon è stato anche bersaglio della critica di Jean Ziegler. Nell'ottobre 1995 Ziegler ha dovuto pagare a Gaon 7500 franchi di ammenda, dopo che il tribunale federale aveva respinto il suo ricorso. Secondo una sentenza della suprema corte Ziegler aveva definito ingiustamente Gaon trafficante di cotone africano e di petrolio.

11) Partner dei Dwecks alla Soditic erano la Mercury Holding inglese e la Smith Barney Holding.

Court Can't Quit DOJ's Tobacco Case

Court Can't Quit DOJ's Tobacco Case
The National Law Journal

In 92 pages last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit dug into one of the largest civil racketeering cases the Justice Department has ever brought: the mail and wire fraud suit against major cigarette manufacturers. The appeals court's opinion in U.S. v. Philip Morris USA largely upheld a landmark ruling against a group of tobacco companies for a decades-long conspiracy to dupe consumers about the health effects of smoking. But the judgment on that judgment has been mixed. [more]

Goodbye, GM

Goodbye, GM
by Michael Moore

June 1, 2009

I write this on the morning of the end of the once-mighty General Motors. By high noon, the President of the United States will have made it official: General Motors, as we know it, has been totaled.

As I sit here in GM's birthplace, Flint, Michigan, I am surrounded by friends and family who are filled with anxiety about what will happen to them and to the town. Forty percent of the homes and businesses in the city have been abandoned. Imagine what it would be like if you lived in a city where almost every other house is empty. What would be your state of mind?

It is with sad irony that the company which invented "planned obsolescence" -- the decision to build cars that would fall apart after a few years so that the customer would then have to buy a new one -- has now made itself obsolete. It refused to build automobiles that the public wanted, cars that got great gas mileage, were as safe as they could be, and were exceedingly comfortable to drive. Oh -- and that wouldn't start falling apart after two years. GM stubbornly fought environmental and safety regulations. Its utives arrogantly ignored the "inferior" Japanese and German cars, cars which would become the gold standard for automobile buyers. And it was hell-bent on punishing its unionized workforce, lopping off thousands of workers for no good reason other than to "improve" the short-term bottom line of the corporation. Beginning in the 1980s, when GM was posting record profits, it moved countless jobs to Mexico and elsewhere, thus destroying the lives of tens of thousands of hard-working Americans. The glaring stupidity of this policy was that, when they eliminated the income of so many middle class families, who did they think was going to be able to afford to buy their cars? History will record this blunder in the same way it now writes about the French building the Maginot Line or how the Romans cluelessly poisoned their own water system with lethal lead in its pipes.

So here we are at the deathbed of General Motors. The company's body not yet cold, and I find myself filled with -- dare I say it -- joy. It is not the joy of revenge against a corporation that ruined my hometown and brought misery, divorce, alcoholism, homelessness, physical and mental debilitation, and drug addiction to the people I grew up with. Nor do I, obviously, claim any joy in knowing that 21,000 more GM workers will be told that they, too, are without a job.

But you and I and the rest of America now own a car company! I know, I know -- who on earth wants to run a car company? Who among us wants $50 billion of our tax dollars thrown down the rat hole of still trying to save GM? Let's be clear about this: The only way to save GM is to kill GM. Saving our precious industrial infrastructure, though, is another matter and must be a top priority. If we allow the shutting down and tearing down of our auto plants, we will sorely wish we still had them when we realize that those factories could have built the alternative energy systems we now desperately need. And when we realize that the best way to transport ourselves is on light rail and bullet trains and cleaner buses, how will we do this if we've allowed our industrial capacity and its skilled workforce to disappear?

Thus, as GM is "reorganized" by the federal government and the bankruptcy court, here is the plan I am asking President Obama to implement for the good of the workers, the GM communities, and the nation as a whole. Twenty years ago when I made "Roger & Me," I tried to warn people about what was ahead for General Motors. Had the power structure and the punditocracy listened, maybe much of this could have been avoided. Based on my track record, I request an honest and sincere consideration of the following suggestions:

1. Just as President Roosevelt did after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the President must tell the nation that we are at war and we must immediately convert our auto factories to factories that build mass transit vehicles and alternative energy devices. Within months in Flint in 1942, GM halted all car production and immediately used the assembly lines to build planes, tanks and machine guns. The conversion took no time at all. Everyone pitched in. The fascists were defeated.

We are now in a different kind of war -- a war that we have conducted against the ecosystem and has been conducted by our very own corporate leaders. This current war has two fronts. One is headquartered in Detroit. The products built in the factories of GM, Ford and Chrysler are some of the greatest weapons of mass destruction responsible for global warming and the melting of our polar icecaps. The things we call "cars" may have been fun to drive, but they are like a million daggers into the heart of Mother Nature. To continue to build them would only lead to the ruin of our species and much of the planet.

The other front in this war is being waged by the oil companies against you and me. They are committed to fleecing us whenever they can, and they have been reckless stewards of the finite amount of oil that is located under the surface of the earth. They know they are sucking it bone dry. And like the lumber tycoons of the early 20th century who didn't give a damn about future generations as they tore down every forest they could get their hands on, these oil barons are not telling the public what they know to be true -- that there are only a few more decades of useable oil on this planet. And as the end days of oil approach us, get ready for some very desperate people willing to kill and be killed just to get their hands on a gallon can of gasoline.

President Obama, now that he has taken control of GM, needs to convert the factories to new and needed uses immediately.

2. Don't put another $30 billion into the coffers of GM to build cars. Instead, use that money to keep the current workforce -- and most of those who have been laid off -- employed so that they can build the new modes of 21st century transportation. Let them start the conversion work now.

3. Announce that we will have bullet trains criss-crossing this country in the next five years. Japan is celebrating the 45th anniversary of its first bullet train this year. Now they have dozens of them. Average speed: 165 mph. Average time a train is late: under 30 seconds. They have had these high speed trains for nearly five decades -- and we don't even have one! The fact that the technology already exists for us to go from New York to L.A. in 17 hours by train, and that we haven't used it, is criminal. Let's hire the unemployed to build the new high speed lines all over the country. Chicago to Detroit in less than two hours. Miami to DC in under 7 hours. Denver to Dallas in five and a half. This can be done and done now.

4. Initiate a program to put light rail mass transit lines in all our large and medium-sized cities. Build those trains in the GM factories. And hire local people everywhere to install and run this system.

5. For people in rural areas not served by the train lines, have the GM plants produce energy efficient clean buses.

6. For the time being, have some factories build hybrid or all-electric cars (and batteries). It will take a few years for people to get used to the new ways to transport ourselves, so if we're going to have automobiles, let's have kinder, gentler ones. We can be building these next month (do not believe anyone who tells you it will take years to retool the factories -- that simply isn't true).

7. Transform some of the empty GM factories to facilities that build windmills, solar panels and other means of alternate forms of energy. We need tens of millions of solar panels right now. And there is an eager and skilled workforce who can build them.

8. Provide tax incentives for those who travel by hybrid car or bus or train. Also, credits for those who convert their home to alternative energy.

9. To help pay for this, impose a two-dollar tax on every gallon of gasoline. This will get people to switch to more energy saving cars or to use the new rail lines and rail cars the former autoworkers have built for them.

Well, that's a start. Please, please, please don't save GM so that a smaller version of it will simply do nothing more than build Chevys or Cadillacs. This is not a long-term solution. Don't throw bad money into a company whose tailpipe is malfunctioning, causing a strange odor to fill the car.

100 years ago this year, the founders of General Motors convinced the world to give up their horses and saddles and buggy whips to try a new form of transportation. Now it is time for us to say goodbye to the internal combustion engine. It seemed to serve us well for so long. We enjoyed the car hops at the A&W. We made out in the front -- and the back -- seat. We watched movies on large outdoor screens, went to the races at NASCAR tracks across the country, and saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time through the window down Hwy. 1. And now it's over. It's a new day and a new century. The President -- and the UAW -- must seize this moment and create a big batch of lemonade from this very sour and sad lemon.

Yesterday, the last surviving person from the Titanic disaster passed away. She escaped certain death that night and went on to live another 97 years.

So can we survive our own Titanic in all the Flint Michigans of this country. 60% of GM is ours. I think we can do a better job.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MichaelMoore.com

Chinese students laugh at Geithner's assurances

Geithner Tells China Its Dollar Assets Are Safe

By Glenn Somerville
Reuters
Monday, June 1, 2009

http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSPEK14475620090601

BEIJING -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Monday reassured the Chinese government that its huge holdings of dollar assets are safe and reaffirmed his faith in a strong U.S. currency.

A major goal of Geithner's maiden visit to China as Treasury chief is to allay concerns that Washington's bulging budget deficit and ultra-loose monetary policy will fan inflation, undermining both the dollar and U.S. bonds.

China is the biggest foreign owner of U.S. Treasury bonds. U.S. data shows that it held $768 billion in Treasuries as of March, but some analysts believe China's total U.S. dollar-denominated investments could be twice as high.

"Chinese assets are very safe," Geithner said in response to a question after a speech at Peking University, where he studied Chinese as a student in the 1980s.

His answer drew loud laughter from his student audience, reflecting skepticism in China about the wisdom of a developing country accumulating a vast stockpile of foreign reserves instead of spending the money to raise living standards at home.

The Beijing-based Global Times greeted Geithner by publishing a survey of Chinese economists who called big holdings of U.S. debt "risky."

Geithner renewed pledges that the Obama administration would cut its huge fiscal deficits and promised "very disciplined" future spending, possibly including reintroduction of pay-as-you-go budget rules instead of nonstop borrowing.

"We have the deepest and most liquid markets for risk-free assets in the world. We're committed to bring our fiscal deficits down over time to a sustainable level.

"We believe in a strong dollar ... and we're going to make sure that we repair and reform the financial system so that we sustain confidence," he said.

Geithner also offered strong backing for a bigger Chinese role in international policymaking.

"China is already too important to the global economy not to have a full seat at the international table," he said.

Geithner, who is due to meet President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao during two days of talks, described the recession as still "powerful and dangerous" in much of the world.

Recent signs of improvement were not enough to change an International Monetary Fund prediction that world output would shrink this year for the first time in 60 years. And credit was likely to be tight for some time, Geithner said.

But he added: "The global recession seems to be losing force."

Moreover, the U.S. financial system was healing and it now seemed assured that the world would avoid financial collapse and deflation.

But Geithner said there could be no return to business as usual either for the United States or China: Both must change their growth strategies as U.S. consumers pay down debt after years of living beyond their means.

For China, which he said was in "an enviably strong position" that meant reducing its dependence on export-oriented growth.

"Purchases of U.S. consumers cannot be as dominant a driver of growth as they have been in the past," he said.

"In China ... growth that is sustainable will require a very substantial shift from external to domestic demand, from an investment and export-intensive growth to growth led by consumption."

To that end, Geithner said, a more flexible exchange-rate regime for the yuan, which would almost certainly see the value of the Chinese currency rise against the dollar, was particularly important because it would spur more Chinese demand.

A stronger yuan would make imports cheaper for China and Chinese exports more costly for foreign buyers.

Geithner offered U.S. backing for a higher-profile role for China in running global institutions including the IMF -- a controversial proposition since it raises the sensitive issue of reducing Europe's voting share in the global lender.

"The United States will fully support having China play a role in the principal cooperative arrangements that help shape the international system, a role that is commensurate with China's importance in the global economy," he said.

In words clearly intended to soothe Chinese concerns that its vibrant export economy might be targeted by U.S. lawmakers who are feeling pressure from soaring American joblessness, Geithner said the Obama administration would resist any such moves.

"As we go through the severe stresses of this crisis, we must not turn our backs on open trade and investment," he said. "In return, we expect increased opportunities to export to and invest in the Chinese economy."

Geithner said he was hopeful that General Motors Corp. and Chrysler would be able to stand on their own feet once they emerge from bankruptcy.

GM will file for bankruptcy on Monday, U.S. officials said, forcing the 100-year-old automaker once seen as a symbol of American economic might into a new and uncertain era of government ownership.

"We want a quick, clean exit as soon as conditions permit," Geithner said. "We're very optimistic these firms will emerge (from restructuring) without further government assistance."

Fed in trappola e borse al bivio

Fed in trappola e borse al bivio
di Michele Spallino
Live Sicilia, lunedì 1 giugno 2009

ECONOMIA: l’inflazionamento

Questa settimana ha fornito ampia conferma che è in atto un processo inflazionistico portentoso. Il dollaro ha perso un altro punto percentuale, l’oro si approssima a quota mille, il petrolio ha fatto un balzo di quasi il 10% ai massimi da sei mesi (con il maggior guadagno mensile dal 1999, +27%), l’indice Goldman Sachs Commodities è salito del 5%, il Baltic Dry Index ha fatto 19 sedute consecutive al rialzo. I mercati azionari emergenti sono in piena bolla, la Russia ha guadagnato oltre il 7%, l’India oltre il 5%, portando gli incrementi annui rispettivamente al + 72% e al + 51%, mentre la Cina è a + 45%, il Brasile a + 42%. Le valute delle nazioni “commodity” hanno messo a segno altri incrementi settimanali : il Sud africa+ 4%, la Nuova Zelanda + 3%, il Brasile + 3%, l’Australia + 2%, il Canada + 2,7%. Nel frattempo i rendimenti sui decennali USA sono balzati di 30 cts. fino al 3,74%, prima che una manipolazione della Fed li riportasse nel finale al 3,5%; il mercato ipotecario è diventato tumultuoso, le obbligazioni di Fannie sono salite di mezzo punto percentuale di colpo, concludendo con un rialzo di 20 cts. nonostante la Fed; vi sono mercati per le coperture sui tassi d’interesse in difficoltà con prezzi discontinui, in preda a volatilità anomale. [continua]

Obama Ought to Go to Korea

Obama Ought to Go to Korea

By Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive, May 29, 2009

Barack Obama has been caught flat-flooted by Kim Jong-Il.

The North Korean nuclear and missile tests this week have heightened tensions on the Korean subcontinent and throughout the Pacific.

Obama had let the issue of North Korea slide when he came into office.

But that was a bad mistake, since Kim Jong-Il has been in failing health, there may be a power struggle brewing, and South Korea has taken an increasingly hostile approach to the North.

The latest belligerent acts by North Korea may be designed to grab Obama’s attention.

But now that he’s awake to the issue, Obama shouldn’t jump out of bed and overreact.

“North Korea doesn’t want a war,” Bruce Cumings of the University of Chicago said on Democracy Now! on Friday.

Army chief of staff George Casey said the United States could win a war against North Korea, but that would be at an unacceptable cost: the deaths of many if not most of the 70 million people on the Korean peninsula, and tens of thousands of U.S. troops, if things went nuclear.

Cumings, one of the leading Korea scholars in America, faults Obama for not paying more attention to North Korea, and Hillary Clinton for pursuing a neocon strategy.

“The Obama Administration, and especially Secretary of State Clinton, are running on the same tracks as George Bush did in ’07 and ’08,” he says. “They’re even talking about the Proliferation Security Initiative, PSI, which is something that was handcrafted by John Bolton to put pressure on North Korea.”

Cumings notes that since 1950, the United States has threatened North Korea with nuclear annihilation, and that it’s natural for the North Koreans to be concerned about this, which is one reason they may be in such a hurry to demonstrate their nuclear possessions.

“If I or you were in North Korea, uppermost in our mind would be American nuclear weapons,” he said. “I think the ultimate way to solve this is to actually implement the Non-Proliferation Treaty by the major nuclear powers drawing down their nuclear weapons eventually and hopefully to zero. In the meantime, it’s just an unequal treaty, where we get to have nuclear weapons, but other countries don’t.”

For the time being, the best approach would be for Obama to do what he pledged to do during the campaign: speak to any foreign leader, without preconditions, including Kim Jong-Il. After all, we talked with Stalin, Khrushchev, and Mao.

If Kim’s nuclear saber-rattling was a cry for attention, Obama should answer it, and should go to Pyongyang with his Chinese and Russian counterparts.

This not a time for war. It is a time for diplomacy. And disarmament, all around.

La breve storia segreta dell’Impero Americano

AgoraVox, lunedì 1 giugno
La breve storia segreta dell’Impero Americano
Recensione di Damiano Mazzotti

“La storia segreta dell’impero americano. Corruttori, sciacalli e sicari dell’economia” è l’incredibile libro dell’avventuriero economico John Perkins (www.minumfax.com, settembre 2007).

John Perkins (www.johnperkins.org) è il famoso autore del bestseller internazionale “Confessioni di un sicario dell’economia” che grazie alla sua esperienza di consulente economico americano ha vissuto tutte le fasi della trasformazione del capitalismo liberale nel capitalismo da killer seriale.

“Negli anni Cinquanta e Sessanta gli Stati Uniti contrassero debiti sui mercati esteri per finanziare il crescente consumismo, le guerre di Corea e del Vietnam… Quando gli uomini d’affari stranieri tentarono di riscuotere dagli Stati Uniti i loro crediti sotto forma di beni e servizi, scoprirono che l’inflazione aveva ridotto il valore dei loro dollari, insomma avevano pagato una tassa indiretta”. La storia fondamentale dell’ultimo sistema di economia mondiale inizia quindi “il 15 agosto 1971 quando l’amministrazione Nixon rifiutò e abbandonò del tutto il regime aureo. Washington si diede da fare per convincere il mondo ad accettare il dollaro come moneta di scambio. Con l’affare riciclaggio di denaro saudita (SAMA), che contribuì ad architettare nei prima anni settanta, la casa reale saudita s’impegnò a vendere petrolio soltanto in dollari statunitensi” (p. 18), ancorando così i diritti di signoraggio del dollaro al valore del petrolio. Infatti i sauditi controllano l’OPEC (Organizzazione dei Paesi esportatori di Petrolio) e il mercato petrolifero che garantisce il dollaro come moneta di scambio internazionale. Inoltre la famiglia Saud si impegnò a investire in titoli di stato americani, a dar lavoro a imprese americane e a contenere i prezzi del petrolio in cambio dell’alleanza americana a mantenere inalterato il grande potere della famiglia proprietaria dell’Arabia Saudita. La tassazione indiretta del signoraggio del dollaro potrebbe quindi essere messa in crisi dall’aumento del contributo petrolifero di paesi come la Russia, il Venezuela, il Brasile e la Cina (che controlla indirettamente l’attività petrolifera di molti paesi africani).

Inoltre l’Impero Americano è in realtà gestito da un piccolo numero di persone che controllano i media e finanziano le campagne elettorali dei due schieramenti: sono funzionari o consulenti che fanno avanti e indietro dalle “porte girevoli” della burocrazia economica e politica statunitense a prescindere dal governo repubblicano e democratico in carica. Perciò non sono soggetti a volontà popolare e il loro mandato non è limitato per legge (p. 19). Nasce così la “Corporatocrazia” e può succedere che gran parte di un esercito nazionale come quello indonesiano può essere comprato dalle corporation straniere che finiscono per possedere le materie prime e l’esercito di una nazione (p. 73). Anche l’economista Joseph E. Stiglitz che ha lavorato alla Banca Mondiale è un pentito del fondamentalismo della Globalizzazione: applicare la stessa ricetta per tutte le nazioni è una semplificazione che riduce il lavoro e favorisce i guadagni di consulenti e burocrati, che però causa danni a volte irreparabili alle diverse economie (La globalizzazione e i suoi oppositori, 2002). Inoltre Washington usa “l’indebitamento nazionale ed estero di altri paesi come un’arma per costringere i loro governi a cedere alle richieste della Corporatocrazia, pena la bancarotta, sanzioni economiche o severe “condizionalità” imposte dall’FMI (Fondo Monetario Internazionale); eppure gli Stati Uniti sono la più grande nazione debitrice del mondo” (Perkins, p. 344).

Tra i vari racconti presenti nel libro ce ne sono alcuni interessanti riguardanti le popolazioni indigene del pianeta. Ad esempio c’è un mito della popolazione dei Shuar dell’Amazzonia che racconta di come sono diventati cacciatori di teste: erano scesi in guerra poiché la popolazione umana era cresciuta in maniera incontrollata e aveva messo in pericolo molte forme di vita (Dio gli avrebbe ordinato “di diserbare il tuo stesso giardino”, cioè di eliminare altri uomini). Oppure pensiamo a ciò che ha detto Pepe Jamarillo (indios del Guatemala): “Il mondo diventa quello che sogni. La tua gente ha sognato enormi fabbriche, edifici imponenti, tante auto quante sono le gocce di pioggia in questo fiume. Ora cominciate a capire che il vostro sogno è un incubo… Basta cambiare il sogno… Non dovete far altro che piantare un seme diverso, insegnare ai vostri figli a sognare sogni nuovi”. C’è anche questo pensiero di un membro di una tribù himalaiana del Tibet: “Guardi oggi. Tutto è governato dagli uomini. Una volta vivevo in città e ho provato il buddismo, ma ho visto che tutti gli incarichi importanti erano ricoperti da uomini, proprio come al governo. Un tempo le donne ci tenevano sotto controllo. Noi uomini siamo capaci di scatenarci quando cacciamo o abbattiamo foreste o roba del genere. Una volta le donne ci dicevano quando avevamo fatto abbastanza” (vecchio saggio, p. 88). Del resto molti studi dimostrano che nelle società dove le donne godono di uno status elevato e sono molte rappresentate nei governi come in Nord Europa, la qualità generale della vita e dell’economia di una nazione è molto più alta (Riane Eisler, The Real Wealth of Nations). Interessanti anche le parole rivolte all’autore dal Dalai Lama: “Non diventate buddisti. Il mondo non ha bisogno di più buddisti. Praticate la compassione. Il mondo ha bisogno di più compassione” (p. 83). Infine riporto la “visione” di una donna sciamano delle Ande: “Il mondo non ha bisogno di essere salvato. Il mondo non è in pericolo. Siamo noi a esserlo. Noi uomini. Se non cambiamo modo di fare, la Madre Terra ci scuoterà via come mosche”.

Comunque molti paesi stanno uscendo dai vincoli americani: in America Latina ben l’ottanta per cento delle nazioni ha deciso democraticamente per presidenti contrari alla Corporatocrazia, che in passato e forse tuttora utilizza metodi di lotta a 360 gradi: le donne, l’alcool e la droga vengono utilizzati già nelle università per inguaiare e tenere sotto ricatto anche i leader dei movimenti più radicali e antiglobalizzazione. Speriamo che l’Occidente non ripeta l’errore delle Crociate quando l’alta aristocrazia di un’Europa piena di conflitti, sovrappopolata e colpita dalla peste “decise” di dirottare la rabbia incalzante nella conquista di nuove terre in Medio Oriente.

Dunque il principale problema moderno è che le Corporation sono riuscite ad acquisire i diritti delle persone fisiche, ma non rispettano quasi nessun dovere. “Anzi, hanno la licenza di rubare. Rapinano i poveri e le generazioni future per arricchire i benestanti” (Perkins, p. 324). Perciò è meglio ricordarsi di lottare sempre per i propri diritti e le proprie convinzioni, perché la penna può essere più potente della spada e anche i potenti sono essere umani: “il loro cuore si spezza, come il vostro e il mio. Sanguinano. Possono essere convinti, o abbattuti” (Jack Woodbury, p. 374).

Parlamento sporco, Europa infetta

Beppe Grillo, 31 Maggio 2009

Parlamento sporco, Europa infetta

Terremotat boat

Carlo Vizzini mi ha convocato il 10 giugno per illustrare le tre leggi di iniziativa popolare: "Parlamento Pulito". Lo farò in Commissione Affari Costituzionali. Io non mollo, voi non mollate e quasi due anni dopo la raccolta di 350.000 firme è stato fatto un passo avanti. Sarà un discorso semplice: i condannati vanno espulsi dal Parlamento, chi è stato eletto per due legislature non può essere rieletto, i cittadini devono poter scegliere il loro candidato. E' prevista la diretta televisiva se non si rivolgono al Garante della Privacy per non essere ripresi. Il passo successivo è la presentazione della legge in Senato.
Il numero di condannati è aumentato dall'inizio della legislatura. Erano 18 e ora sono 20. Ho perso il conto degli indagati, dei prescritti, dei condannati in primo e secondo grado. Il Parlamento è l'ultima risorsa per non finire in galera. Il Lodo Alfano ha salvato lo psiconano da una condanna per corruzione. Altri, come Cuffaro e Dell'Utri, 14 anni in due in primo grado, sono parlamentari per meriti processuali. Altri ancora, come D'Alema, si avvalgono dello scudo spaziale del Parlamento italiano e europeo per non farsi interrogare dalla Forleo.
Se mettete una mela marcia in un cesto, col tempo tutte le mele marciranno. Gli onesti in questo Parlamento sono espulsi o emarginati. I cesti della Camera e del Senato sono pieni di mele marce, è difficile non farsi contaminare. Il verme cammina comprandoti con i soldi o con l'intimidazione. Sette persone hanno nominato 993 deputati e senatori. Ogni segretario di partito ha fatto la sua lista chiusa di fedelissimi, avvocati, leccaculo e mignotte. Il Parlamento è illegale, incostituzionale, immorale. Le mele marce hanno infettato il Paese. Lo hanno ipnotizzato con l'informazione.
L'occupazione crolla e i morti sul lavoro sono 3/5 al giorno e chi è alla guida del Paese giura che non avuto un rapporto piccante con una minorenne, sequestra le foto di ragazze in topless e del premier ceco Topolanek nudo ospiti nella sua Villa. Offre crociere ai terremotati. Attacca la magistratura, la Gandus. E, non contento, inquina l'Europa con i candidati Mastella, indagato, e Pomicino, condannato in via definitiva. La moglie di Blair ha confessato che il marito era terrorizzato di farsi fotografare vicino al nano bandanato. Temeva di perdere la reputazione.
Il tanfo dei nostri parlamentari è sempre più forte e in Europa cominciano a prendere le contromisure. Quotidiani come il Financial Times, El Pais o Le Figaro descrivono un'Italia fuori controllo, pericolosa. La Germania ha scelto Magna. Le nostre mafie sono un attentato per l'Europa. Le uniche grandi imprese che si sono affermate fuori dai confini nazionali. Da noi crescono, sono allevate con cura. Con leggi ad mafiam e con miliardi di contributi europei. Un mostro si aggira per l'Europa, si chiama Italia. E' contagioso. Il focolaio sta a Roma, dentro al Parlamento. Fischia il vento, urla la bufera. Non so perchè lo dico, ma me lo sento addosso. Loro non si arrenderanno mai (ma gli conviene?). Noi neppure.

"Something very bad is looming"

Bob Chapman-- "Something very bad is looming"
Posted By: Watchman, RMNews
Date: Sunday, 31-May-2009 09:33:41

The mass conscience has been literally screaming at everyone possible to "get out of Babylon" for the past several months.

For some, it has not been months, but years. And, in some cases, decades.

The only ones excused from this personal action should be those who have absolutely no means to do so.

Even so, no one is exempt from the coming storm, from the economically and physically infirm to the elite and the powers that (are soon to be) were.

Bob Chapman's piece:

What we are about to tell you may be the most important information that we have imparted in almost 50 years. something very bad is looming – we don’t know the exact configuration yet, but we think the key is the collapse of the dollar, which will send gold and silver to considerably higher prices. These events could unfold over the next 2 to 4 months. There could be devaluation and default of the US dollar and American debt. You must have at least a 6-month supply of freeze dried and dehydrated foods, a water filer for brackish water, and assault weapons with plenty of ammo and clips. You should put as much of your wealth as you can in gold and silver coins and shares. You should not own any stocks in the stock market except gold and silver shares, you should not own bonds the exception being Canadian government securities, you should not own CDs, cash value life insurance policies and annuities. And, needless to say, except for your home you should be totally out of real estate, residential and commercial because it will remain illiquid for many years to come.

The rest at:
http://www.theinternationalforecaster.com/International_Forecaster_Weekly/Gold_To_Stand_Against_Big_Devaluations

Tax officials on trail of hidden wealth

Tax officials on trail of hidden wealth

By Vanessa Houlder

Financial Times, May 29 2009

A worldwide crackdown on avoidance and evasion by the wealthy was launched on Friday by more than 30 countries, which promised a joint pursuit of individuals hiding money offshore.

Describing some rich individuals as posing “a major risk” to revenue bodies, the tax authorities said that greater opportunities for aggressive tax planning were available to the wealthy. In a report published on Friday, they cited estimates that 70 per cent of the 500,000-odd Britons in the very wealthy bracket received advice from a financial expert.

Some hedge fund managers and private equity executives posed particular risks, according to the study published by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. “By the very nature of their business activities, these individuals are often well versed in finance and tax matters and tend to deploy relatively aggressive strategies.”

The report also highlighted sports stars and entertainers as posing challenges because of their international mobility, along with entrepreneurs who “are by their nature risk takers and may therefore have an increased appetite for tax risk”.

At a meeting in Paris on Friday, tax officials heaped further pressure on tax havens by promising greater scrutiny of individuals using offshore arrangements.

Recent moves to increase transparency in offshore centres was “helping revenue bodies unravel more quickly the use of international tax shelters for aggressive tax planning and tax evasion, reinforcing the integrity of tax systems as well as helping revenue bodies unlock substantial sums of money that will be of help to governments in reviving the global economy”, the officials said in a statement.

But the report distanced itself from the suggestion that the wealthy as a group are less compliant than other tax payers. The public expect rich people to come under enhanced scrutiny from tax authorities because of a common perception that they pay the least tax, it said. But it added this was “not necessarily the case”, citing data showing that the richest 0.5 per cent of taxpayers in the UK pay 17 per cent of total income tax.

It also said the development of a closer, more co-operative approach to dealing with the tax affairs of the wealthy should be considered. It urged tax authorities to “explore strategies which rely on the co-operation of the taxpayer to volunteer relevant information and that aim to influence his or her behaviour to reduce the prevalence of aggressive tax planning arrangements”.

The report also highlighted the risk that the wealthy, especially those who are internationally mobile, might leave the jurisdiction.

Douglas Shulman, commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service in the US, said: “Individuals, particularly those hiding assets overseas can expect to see a continuation and ramped-up co-ordination of information sharing among revenue bodies to ensure, worldwide, individuals are contributing their fair share of funding to governments.”

Pravin Gordhan, the South African finance minister who chaired the Paris meeting of tax authorities, said: “Aggressive tax avoidance is a serious cancer eating into the fiscal base of many countries.”

EDITOR’S CHOICE

Shadowy deals exposed to ‘sunlight’ - May-29

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009

The Big Collapse Could Be Very Near

The Big Collapse Could Be Very Near

by Robert Wenzel

EconomicPolicyJournal.com

The Federal Reserve appears to be increasingly nervous about the long term bond market. This is serious. How panicked are they? After leaking a story on Friday, they are back at it on Sunday.

The Federal Reserve leaked to CNBC's Steve Liesman on Friday that they weren't targeting long rates. Why such a leak? Probably because the Fed did not want to appear impotent in controlling the long rate. So they put out the word through Liesman that they weren't targeting the long rate. Can you imagine what would happen to the markets if it sensed long rates were beyond the control of the Fed?

The Fed can of course print money to buy up every Treasury bond in existence, but the inflationary ramifications would be Zimbabwe like, and crush the dollar on international currency markets. Are we near the phase where all hell breaks loose? I have never even answered, maybe, to this question before. It's always been, "no." Now it's maybe.

What really has me spooked is another article out this afternoon (on a Sunday) that Drudge has even picked up. It's a Reuters story by Alister Bull. The headline: Federal Reserve puzzled by yield curve steepening.

Translation, the Fed doesn't know what is going on, but they are really scared.

Here's more from Bull:

The Federal Reserve is studying significant moves in the U.S. government bond market last week that could have big implications for the central bank's strategy to combat the country's recession.

But the Fed is not really sure what is driving the sharp rise in long-dated bond yields, and especially a widening gap between short and long term yields.

Do rising U.S. Treasury yields and a steepening yield curve suggest an economic recovery is more certain, meaning less need for safe haven government
bonds and a healthy demand for credit? If so, there might be less need for the
Fed to expand the money supply by buying more U.S. Treasuries.

Or does the steepening yield curve mean investors are worried about the deterioration in the U.S. fiscal outlook, or the potential for a collapse in the U.S. dollar as the Fed floods the world with newly minted currency as part of its quantitative easing program. This might be an argument to augment to step up asset purchases.

Another possibility is that China, the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury debt, has decided to refocus its portfolio by leaning more heavily on shorter-term maturities...

An obvious culprit for the move in bond yields is the country's record fiscal deficit, which will generate a massive amount of new government issuance.

The U.S. Treasury must sell a record net $2 trillion in new debt in 2009 to fund a $1.8 trillion projected fiscal deficit, resulting from falling tax revenues, an economic stimulus package and sundry bank bailouts.

It's the Chinese, and any other Treasury bond buyer who follows the markets, who have pulled away, to varying degrees from buying Treasury long securities. No one wants to be the last one holding bonds, where the new debt about to be issued is in the trillions.

Bull continues with the part of the message the Fed really wanted to get out:

With officials still grappling to divine the factors steepening the yield curve, a speedy decision on whether to ramp up the Treasury debt purchase program or the related plan to snap up mortgage-related debt seems unlikely.

"I'm in wait-and-see mode," said one Fed official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "We laid out the asset purchase plan and we're following it. That is going to have some affect on various interest rates, but together with a hundred other things. So I don't think we should be chasing a long-term interest rate," the official said.

The Fed does not want to spook the world into thinking that it can't push long term rates down, so it says it is not trying. But if rates continue to climb, a panic out of Treasury securities is a very likely scenario. And Bernanke has only one play to force long rates back down, buy every long bond in sight, which of course is highly inflationary and puts upward pressure on rates. How's that for a dilemma?

The end of the current financial system, as we know it, maybe eminent. If you would have asked me even two weeks ago if collapse was imminent, I would have said it was highly unlikely, now I am saying it is possible. Bernanke may be able to patch things up short-term, if he is lucky, but long term the U.S. financial structure is in serious trouble. There is just too much Treasury debt that needs to be raised. An international panic out of Treasury securities, even a slow controlled panic, means the Fed will be the major buyer. This will ultimately mean record inflation.

And keep this in mind, we have never seen a collapse of a currency like the dollar. Even the Weimar inflation can not serve as an example. Since the dollar is the reserve currency of most of the world, a panic out of the dollar means more dollars will return to the U.S, shores than any country has ever experienced.

Other countries have had collapsed currencies, but never in the history of world of finance has so much currency been held outside a country of issue that could come flying back, almost on a moments notice. If the panic out of the dollar starts, even if Bernanke stops printing money (unlikely), all the dollars flying back into the U.S. could cause a huge price inflation all on its own.

Texas claims state sovereignty

Texas claims state sovereignty (passes the house)

Affirming that the State of Texas claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the U.S. Constitution, serving notice to the federal government to cease and desist certain mandates, and providing that certain federal legislation be prohibited or repealed.

The Bill:
http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=81R&Bill=HCR50

Voting:
http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=81R&Bill=HCR50

Legislative Session: 81(R) Unofficial
Bill: HCR 50

Disclaimer:This vote has not been certified by the House Journal Clerk. It is provided for informational purposes only. Once the vote is certified, it will be recorded in the journal according to Rule 5 of the House Rules and made available on this web site.

RV# 1544 - Unofficial Totals: 99 Yeas, 36 Nays, 4 Present, not voting

Yeas - Anderson; Aycock; Berman; Bohac; Bonnen; Branch; Brown, B.; Brown, F.; Button; Callegari; Chisum; Christian; Cohen; Cook; Crabb; Craddick; Creighton; Crownover; Darby; Davis, J.; Dunnam; Edwards; Eissler; Elkins; Fletcher; Flynn; Frost; Gallego; Gattis; Geren; Guillen; Gutierrez; Hamilton; Hancock; Hardcastle; Harless; Harper-Brown; Hartnett; Hilderbran; Homer; Hopson; Howard, C.; Hughes; Hunter; Isett; Jackson; Jones; Keffer(C); King, P.; King, S.; King, T.; Kleinschmidt; Kolkhorst; Laubenberg; Legler; Lewis; Lucio; Madden; Maldonado; Martinez; McCall; McReynolds; Merritt; Miklos; Miller, D.; Miller, S.; Moody; Morrison; Oliveira; Orr; Ortiz; Otto; Parker; Patrick; Paxton; Peña; Phillips; Pickett; Pitts; Quintanilla; Riddle; Rios Ybarra; Ritter; Rose; Sheffield; Shelton; Smith, T.; Smith, W.; Smithee; Solomons; Swinford; Taylor; Thibaut; Truitt; Turner, C.; Vaught; Weber; Woolley; Zerwas

Nays - Allen; Alonzo; Anchia; Burnam; Castro; Chavez; Coleman; Davis, Y.; Deshotel; Dukes; Dutton; Eiland; Farias; Farrar; Flores; Gonzales; Gonzalez Toureilles; Hernandez; Herrero; Hodge; Leibowitz; Mallory Caraway; Marquez; Martinez Fischer; McClendon; Menendez; Naishtat; Olivo; Raymond; Rodriguez; Thompson; Turner, S.; Veasey; Villarreal; Vo; Walle

Present, not voting - Mr. Speaker; Bolton; Howard, D.; Strama
Absent, Excused - Alvarado; Driver; Farabee; Giddings; Kent; Kuempel
Absent, Excused, Committee Meeting - Corte
Absent - England; Heflin; Hochberg; Pierson

GM: Banks Plays Grand Theft Auto Pension

Grand Theft Auto: How Stevie the Rat bankrupted GM

by Greg Palast
Monday, June 1, 2009

Screw the autoworkers.

They may be crying about General Motors' bankruptcy today. But dumping 40,000 of the last 60,000 union jobs into a mass grave won't spoil Jamie Dimon's day.

Dimon is the CEO of JP Morgan Chase bank. While GM workers are losing their retirement health benefits, their jobs, their life savings; while shareholders are getting zilch and many creditors getting hosed, a few privileged GM lenders - led by Morgan and Citibank - expect to get back 100% of their loans to GM, a stunning $6 billion.

The way these banks are getting their $6 billion bonanza is stone cold illegal.

I smell a rat.

Stevie the Rat, to be precise. Steven Rattner, Barack Obama's 'Car Czar' - the man who essentially ordered GM into bankruptcy this morning.

When a company goes bankrupt, everyone takes a hit: fair or not, workers lose some contract wages, stockholders get wiped out and creditors get fragments of what's left. That's the law. What workers don't lose are their pensions (including old-age health funds) already taken from their wages and held in their name.

But not this time. Stevie the Rat has a different plan for GM: grab the pension funds to pay off Morgan and Citi.

Here's the scheme: Rattner is demanding the bankruptcy court simply wipe away the money GM owes workers for their retirement health insurance. Cash in the insurance fund would be replace by GM stock. The percentage may be 17% of GM's stock - or 25%. Whatever, 17% or 25% is worth, well ... just try paying for your dialysis with 50 shares of bankrupt auto stock.

Yet Citibank and Morgan, says Rattner, should get their whole enchilada - $6 billion right now and in cash - from a company that can't pay for auto parts or worker eye exams.

Preventive Detention for Pensions

So what's wrong with seizing workers' pension fund money in a bankruptcy? The answer, Mr. Obama, Mr. Law Professor, is that it's illegal.

In 1974, after a series of scandalous take-downs of pension and retirement funds during the Nixon era, Congress passed the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. ERISA says you can't seize workers' pension funds (whether monthly payments or health insurance) any more than you can seize their private bank accounts. And that's because they are the same thing: workers give up wages in return for retirement benefits.

The law is darn explicit that grabbing pension money is a no-no. Company executives must hold these retirement funds as "fiduciaries." Here's the law, Professor Obama, as described on the government's own web site under the heading, "Health Plans and Benefits."

"The primary responsibility of fiduciaries is to run the plan solely in the interest of participants and beneficiaries and for the exclusive purpose of providing benefits."

Every business in America that runs short of cash would love to dip into retirement kitties, but it's not their money any more than a banker can seize your account when the bank's a little short. A plan's assets are for the plan's members only, not for Mr. Dimon nor Mr. Rubin.

Yet, in effect, the Obama Administration is demanding that money for an elderly auto worker's spleen should be siphoned off to feed the TARP babies. Workers go without lung transplants so Dimon and Rubin can pimp out their ride. This is another "Guantanamo" moment for the Obama Administration - channeling Nixon to endorse the preventive detention of retiree health insurance.

Filching GM's pension assets doesn't become legal because the cash due the fund is replaced with GM stock. Congress saw through that switch-a-roo by requiring that companies, as fiduciaries, must

"...act prudently and must diversify the plan's investments in order to minimize the risk of large losses."

By "diversify" for safety, the law does not mean put 100% of worker funds into a single busted company's stock.

This is dangerous business: The Rattner plan opens the floodgate to every politically-connected or down-on-their-luck company seeking to drain health care retirement funds.

House of Rubin

Pensions are wiped away and two connected banks don't even get a haircut? How come Citi and Morgan aren't asked, like workers and other creditors, to take stock in GM?

As Butch said to Sundance, who ARE these guys? You remember Morgan and Citi. These are the corporate Welfare Queens who've already sucked up over a third of a trillion dollars in aid from the US Treasury and Federal Reserve. Not coincidentally, Citi, the big winner, has paid over $100 million to Robert Rubin, the former US Treasury Secretary. Rubin was Obama's point-man in winning banks' endorsement and campaign donations (by far, his largest source of his corporate funding).

With GM's last dying dimes about to fall into one pocket, and the Obama Treasury in his other pocket, Morgan's Jamie Dimon is correct in saying that the last twelve months will prove to be the bank's "finest year ever."

Which leaves us to ask the question: is the forced bankruptcy of GM, the elimination of tens of thousands of jobs, just a collection action for favored financiers?

And it's been a good year for Señor Rattner. While the Obama Administration made a big deal out of Rattner's youth spent working for the Steelworkers Union, they tried to sweep under the chassis that Rattner was one of the privileged, select group of investors in Cerberus Capital, the owners of Chrysler. "Owning" is a loose term. Cerberus "owned" Chrysler the way a cannibal "hosts" you for dinner. Cerberus paid nothing for Chrysler - indeed, they were paid billions by Germany's Daimler Corporation to haul it away. Cerberus kept the cash, then dumped Chrysler's bankrupt corpse on the US taxpayer.

("Cerberus," by the way, named itself after the Roman's mythical three-headed dog guarding the gates Hell. Subtle these guys are not.)

While Stevie the Rat sold his interest in the Dog from Hell when he became Car Czar, he never relinquished his post at the shop of vultures called Quadrangle Hedge Fund. Rattner's personal net worth stands at roughly half a billion dollars. This is Obama's working class hero.

If you ran a business and played fast and loose with your workers' funds, you could land in prison. Stevie the Rat's plan is nothing less than Grand Theft Auto Pension.

It doesn't make it any less of a crime if the President drives the getaway car.

******

Economist and journalist Greg Palast, a former trade union contract negotiator, is author of the New York Times bestsellers The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Armed Madhouse. He is a GM bondholder and card-carrying member of United Automobile Workers Local 1981.

Palast's latest reports for BBC Television and Democracy Now! are collected on the newly released DVD, "Palast Investigates: from 8-Mile to the Amazon - on the trail of the financial marauders." Watch the trailer here.

Card skips on the rise

Card skips on the rise
25 May 2009

Some banks are seeing up to 2,500 customers leave the UAE every month without paying off their credit card bills, a number that could rise in June, a senior bank official said.
RAK Bank business advisor David Martin said most of those leaving without settling their credit card bills were linked to the construction sector in Dubai. RAK Bank said it had around 20 per cent share of the card market.

© 7Days 2009

Dutch Court Approves Landmark Shell 'Class Action'

Dutch Court Approves Landmark Royal Dutch Shell Shareholder 'Class Action'
The American Lawyer

Europe may not have a class action mechanism, but a securities fraud settlement approved Friday by a Dutch court comes pretty darn close. The Amsterdam Court of Appeals issued a binding declaration ordering Royal Dutch Shell to begin payment of $381 million to a foundation representing a group of more than 150 institutional investors from 17 European countries, plus Canada and Australia. The settlement resolves securities fraud claims stemming from Shell's overstatement of its proven oil and gas reserves. [more]