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The Big Red Bear is Waking up and It Will Affect Us All

June 7, 2010

NASA Science

Coronal Mass Ejection

Earth and space are about to come into contact in a way that’s new to human history. To make preparations, authorities in Washington DC are holding a meeting: The Space Weather Enterprise Forum at the National Press Club on June 8th.

Richard Fisher, head of NASA’s Heliophysics Division, explains what it’s all about:

“The sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and in the next few years we expect to see much higher levels of solar activity. At the same time, our technological society has developed an unprecedented sensitivity to solar storms. The intersection of these two issues is what we’re getting together to discuss.”

The National Academy of Sciences framed the problem two years ago in a landmark report entitled “Severe Space Weather Events—Societal and Economic Impacts.” It noted how people of the 21st-century rely on high-tech systems for the basics of daily life. Smart power grids, GPS navigation, air travel, financial services and emergency radio communications can all be knocked out by intense solar activity. A century-class solar storm, the Academy warned, could cause twenty times more economic damage than Hurricane Katrina.

Much of the damage can be mitigated if managers know a storm is coming. Putting satellites in ‘safe mode’ and disconnecting transformers can protect these assets from damaging electrical surges. Preventative action, however, requires accurate forecasting—a job that has been assigned to NOAA.

“Space weather forecasting is still in its infancy, but we’re making rapid progress,” says Thomas Bogdan, director of NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado.

Bogdan sees the collaboration between NASA and NOAA as key. “NASA’s fleet of heliophysics research spacecraft provides us with up-to-the-minute information about what’s happening on the sun. They are an important complement to our own GOES and POES satellites, which focus more on the near-Earth environment.”

Among dozens of NASA spacecraft, he notes three of special significance: STEREO, SDO and ACE.

STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) is a pair of spacecraft stationed on opposite sides of the sun with a combined view of 90% of the stellar surface. In the past, active sunspots could hide out on the sun’s farside, invisible from Earth, and then suddenly emerge over the limb spitting flares and CMEs. STEREO makes such surprise attacks impossible.

SDO (the Solar Dynamics Observatory) is the newest addition to NASA’s fleet. Just launched in February, it is able to photograph solar active regions with unprecedented spectral, temporal and spatial resolution. Researchers can now study eruptions in exquisite detail, raising hopes that they will learn how flares work and how to predict them. SDO also monitors the sun’s extreme UV output, which controls the response of Earth’s atmosphere to solar variability.

Bogdan’s favorite NASA satellite, however, is an old one: the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) launched in 1997. “Where would we be without it?” he wonders. ACE is a solar wind monitor. It sits upstream between the sun and Earth, detecting solar wind gusts, billion-ton CMEs, and radiation storms as much as 30 minutes before they hit our planet.

“ACE is our best early warning system,” says Bogdan. “It allows us to notify utility and satellite operators when a storm is about to hit.”

NASA spacecraft were not originally intended for operational forecasting—”but it turns out that our data have practical economic and civil uses,” notes Fisher. “This is a good example of space science supporting modern society.”

2010 marks the 4th year in a row that policymakers, researchers, legislators and reporters have gathered in Washington DC to share ideas about space weather. This year, forum organizers plan to sharpen the focus on critical infrastructure protection. The ultimate goal is to improve the nation’s ability to prepare, mitigate, and respond to potentially devastating space weather events.

“I believe we’re on the threshold of a new era in which space weather can be as influential in our daily lives as ordinary terrestrial weather.” Fisher concludes. “We take this very seriously indeed.”

For more information about the meeting, please visit the Space Weather Enterprise Forum home page at http://www.nswp.gov/swef/swef_2010.html

Filed under World Tagged with ACE, advanced composition explorer, communications, Coronal Mass Ejections, damage, earth, emergency, flares, GPS, Heliophysics Division, history, mitigate, NASA, national academy of sciences, NOAA, operational forecasting, radio, Richard Fisher, satellites, SDO, sensitivity, services, societal economic impacts, society, Solar activity, solar dynamics observatory, solar terrestrial relations observatory, space, Space Weather Enterprise Forum, space weather events, space weather forecasting, STEREO, Sun, technology, Thomas Bogdan

21st Century Culture: Free Enterprise vs Government Control

May 28, 2010

Arthur C. Brooks

This is not the culture war of the 1990s. It is not a fight over guns, gays or abortion. Those old battles have been eclipsed by a new

Free Enterprise needs to exist for the gears to move.

struggle between two competing visions of the country’s future. In one, America will continue to be an exceptional nation organized around the principles of free enterprise — limited government, a reliance on entrepreneurship and rewards determined by market forces. In the other, America will move toward European-style statism grounded in expanding bureaucracies, a managed economy and large-scale income redistribution. These visions are not reconcilable. We must choose.

It is not at all clear which side will prevail. The forces of big government are entrenched and enjoy the full arsenal of the administration’s money and influence. Our leaders in Washington, aided by the unprecedented economic crisis of recent years and the panic it induced, have seized the moment to introduce breathtaking expansions of state power in huge swaths of the economy, from the health-care takeover to the financial regulatory bill that the Senate approved Thursday. If these forces continue to prevail, America will cease to be a free enterprise nation.

I call this a culture war because free enterprise has been integral to American culture from the beginning, and it still lies at the core of our history and character. “A wise and frugal government,” Thomas Jefferson declared in his first inaugural address in 1801, “which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.” He later warned: “To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.” In other words, beware government’s economic control, and woe betide the redistributors.

Now, as then, entrepreneurship can flourish only in a culture where individuals are willing to innovate and exert leadership; where people enjoy the rewards and face the consequences of their decisions; and where we can gamble the security of the status quo for a chance of future success.

Yet, in his commencement address at Arizona State University on May 13, 2009, President Obama warned against precisely such impulses: “You’re taught to chase after all the usual brass rings; you try to be on this “who’s who” list or that Top 100 list; you chase after the big money and you figure out how big your corner office is; you worry about whether you have a fancy enough title or a fancy enough car. That’s the message that’s sent each and every day, or has been in our culture for far too long — that through material possessions, through a ruthless competition pursued only on your own behalf — that’s how you will measure success.” Such ambition, he cautioned, “may lead you to compromise your values and your principles.”

I appreciate the sentiment that money does not buy happiness. But for the president of the United States to actively warn young adults away from economic ambition is remarkable. And he makes clear that he seeks to change our culture.

The irony is that, by wide margins, Americans support free enterprise. A Gallup poll in January found that 86 percent of Americans have a positive image of “free enterprise,” with only 10 percent viewing it negatively. Similarly, in March 2009, the Pew Research Center asked individuals from a broad range of demographic groups: “Generally, do you think people are better off in a free-market economy, even though there may be severe ups and downs from time to time, or don’t you think so?” Almost 70 percent of respondents agreed that they are better off in a free-market economy, while only 20 percent disagreed.

In fact, no matter how the issue is posed, not more than 30 percent of Americans say they believe we would fare better without free markets at the core of our system. When it comes to support for free enterprise, we are essentially a 70-30 nation.

So here’s a puzzle: If we love free enterprise so much, why are the 30 percent who want to change that culture in charge?

It’s not simply because of the election of Obama. As much as Republicans may dislike hearing it, statism had effectively taken hold in Washington long before that.

The George W. Bush administration began the huge Wall Street and Detroit bailouts, and for years before the economic crisis, the GOP talked about free enterprise while simultaneously expanding the government with borrowed money and increasing the percentage of citizens with no income tax liability. The 30 percent coalition did not start governing this country with the advent of Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. It has been in charge for years.

Filed under World Tagged with abortion, administration, ambition, AMerica, arizona, bailout, big government, bill, bureaucracies, Citizens, competition, culture, decisions, demographics, economic control, economic crisis, Economy, entrepreneurship, European, expansion, forces, free enterprise, gamble, gays, GOP, government, gun c, gun control, guns, harry reid, health care, history, industry, leadership, liability, market, money, nation, Obama, pelosi, prevail, principles, redistribution, regulatory, security, statism, success, takeover, tax, thomas jefferson, united states, vision, Wall Street, washington

…And Now For a Global Bank and a Global Currency

May 18, 2010 3 Comments

By Luis R. Miranda
The Real Agenda
May 18, 2010

Since I was a child I hear about the possibility of one world currency. Back then no one around me knew how to explain how thatwould come about or who would control it. The answer to those questions are now clear. Dominic Strauss-Kahn answered my childhood questions. A Global Currency managed by a Global Central Bank. The IMF chief said so in Zürich, Switzerland, during a meeting in which he confirmed his view that this crisis “is an opportunity”.

According to Kahn, the Global Central Bank and Currency would be a thing of last resort, in cases when the global economy is in shambles. He said the new currency would be a “risk-free asset for the system independent of national currencies,” and that a “global central bank could also serve as a lender of last resort”. How smart of Mr. Kahn. The problem is that this ideas aren’t new and aren’t his. The push for a global financial body has been in the works for decades.

The idea of a global body that controls the issuance of currency and all financial policy was created before the United Nations, the League of Nations and the European Union were born. This principle of concentrating power and policy originally intended to amass control with the excuse it would avoid economic corruption and disaster. However it doesn’t take too long to find out it is exactly the opposite. Just as the creation of the League of Nations, the United Nations and the European Union did not end war, neither will a centralized supranational organization end economic unrest. In fact, it will perpetuate it.

Let’s take a look at past events. Since the United Nations was born, we experienced conflicts in every continent. Those conflicts were not the works of countries against countries, but the destabilization came in the form of rogue groups sponsored by governments or their intelligence agencies. Mossad, MI6, CIA, Taliban and the IRA are just a few examples. Country-sponsored wars are a thing of the past, and in their letters of intent, the countries that pushed for the creation of the League of Nations and the U.N. knew they would not need such a tool because they also controlled terrorist organizations that would do the work for them.

In the world of economics and finances, the empires, or the countries that aspire to become empires also have their tools to carry out economic and financial terrorism. The Corporations that initially were outside governments hired financial institutions to carry out their fraudulent activities. Then, the Corporations became government and it got even easier to carry out financial terrorism. Multinational Banking Corporations established a new order controlled by themselves, ended oversight and created policies that effectively turned them into the masters of the world’s economy.

So, the bankers did not need Al-Qaeda, MI6, Mossad or the CIA to bring the world to its knees. That goal could be achieved from and through Wall Street, the IMF and Bank of International Settlements. The creation of regional blocks to promote commerce and exchange was an excuse to consolidate power and resources. This idea would later be tested at a global level by promoting the creation of a global financial entity which will control the issuance of money and the terms under which that money is lent.

What were the results of the concentration of financial and economic policy in Europe? We are seeing them right now. Iceland, Greece and now Spain, Portugal and England are in shambles. Why? Because financial homogenization is not meant to provide stable economies and sound policies, but to tighten controls and carry out policies that will allow the bankers even more. The goal of the bankers has never been to have a stable economy with sound monetary policy, because in that kind of world they have less control and the wealth is not concentrated in their hands.

Let’s look at another example history provides us: The creation and adoption of globalist policies like the free trade agreements. NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT to mention a few, were the troops on the ground for the bankers. The end of the industrial world, the end of Capitalism -as it successfully worked for some time-, gave way to open borders for cheap, toxic products to flow and illegal aliens to migrate. Not only did the free-trade agreements ended industry, but also annihilated the social safety net in the nations of the western world. While cities’ and towns’ monies were robbed and divested to imaginary financial products, illegal aliens sucked dry the already battered social services in every nation of the Americas and Europe.

Nowadays, the most influential politicians and pop culture stars plead for the nations to disrespect their constitutions and laws by allowing not only free-trade agreements, but the continuous flow of illegals through every possible place at the borders. Enforcing immigration and constitutional laws is seen as racist and those proposing legal immigration are labeled as unjust, inhumane and simply lunatics. This is exactly the result the banking globalists hoped for. Dividing and conquering has never looked better. Sound immigration policies are sure radical in a world where everyone unconsciously believes open borders are the normal thing and cheap slave-made goods are the best bang for their buck.

Now that we have taken a look back, let’s take a look forward. What would a world with more concentrated power and control in the hands of the makers of the current crisis look like? Let’s be optimistic and say it could not look better, it will not look better. The centralization of power and governance at regional levels is what caused the mess we are in right now, so further centralization in the hands of those who financed Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Noriega, Pinochet, Saddam and who now control and finance the shadow governments of the United States, Great Britain, Asia and Africa, will spin the world even more out of control. For their benefit, of course. History doesn’t lie, does it?

Those who promised the end of wars, only brought more of it, and those who promised financial stability only created more inequality, poverty and misery. Would you trust your house keys to the thief who stands outside your property to take care of it? You wouldn’t. You shouldn’t. In the next election, wherever you live, vote yourself in and vote the crooks out. That is the only way to defeat their agenda of conquest and slavery. Many people are already actively working to end the global tyranny they created decades ago, so you are not alone.

Now, enough talk! Let’s act! Next, there is a list of some of the corporations in fraudulently in charge of the world today. I am hoping you can deny them the privilege of running your life. Stop using, buying or in any way consuming their products. Let’s use their globalism against them. A global boycott of their cheap, toxic and fraudulent products will be the first step.

Disney Adidas Time Warner IBM

Merck Napa Holiday Inn ACE

Old Navy Ford Seven Eleven USPS

Comcast Chevrolet Citgo VISA

CNN Dyncorp Pepsi Chevron

Coca Cola True Value Kraft Chrysler

Exxon Mobile General Electric Starbucks Westinghouse

Taco Bell Wells Fargo America Online KFC

NBC Universal American Airlines Royal Dutch Shell Bank of America

CBS The Carlyle Group GAP Master Card

Master Card Stop&Shop HBO ABC

Nike Wal Mart Jiffy Lube JP Morgan

GM Volkswagen Fox News Channel Monsanto

Du Pont NASA Pizza Hut Syngenta

Microsoft Mc Donald’s Home Depot Safe Way

Burger King Sony Dodge Intel

Staples Verizon Toro John Deere

Firestone Bechtel MSNBC Goodyear

Amoco AT&T Mitsubishi Nestle

Feel free to suggest names of more corporations through the comment section. Also, respond to our poll regarding corporate control of government below.

Filed under World Tagged with africa, AMerica, Americas, asia, borders, CAFTA, capitalism, centralization, commerce, conflict, constitution, control, corporations, countries, crooks, currency, destabilization, Dominic Strauss Kahn, economic corruption, election, empires, europe, European Union, exchange, financial body, financial terror, financial terrorism, fraud, fraudulent, free-trade agreements, GATT, global bank, global boycott, global currency, global economy, global tyranny, Great Britain, history, Hitler, illegal aliens, illegal immigration, IMF, immigration, industrial world, inequality, IRA, League of Nations, Mao, MI6, misery, monetary policy, Mossad, multinational banking corporation, NAFTA, national currencies, Noriega, Pinochet, policies, policy, pop culture, poverty, power, racism, racist, regional, regional blocks, Saddam, social services, Stalin, supranational, Taliban, terror, terrorists, toxic, UN, united nations, united states, unrest, War

Business and Technology 101

May 6, 2010

The use of non-original content in this site is protected by the Fair Use Clause created in 1976, which allows for the reproduction of copyrighted materials for the purposes of commentary, criticism and education.

Filed under World Tagged with business, collective enterprise, consumers, Economy, enterprise, history, individual enterprise, manufacturing, technology

A Financial Conflagration of Immense Proportions

May 3, 2010

Fiat money buckling, an inflationary depression, years of reckless spending, Greek debt unpayable, Euro zone in jeopardy, a loss of integrity in US markets, criminal charges for Goldman Sachs, side pockets a new hedge fun trick, Banks on subprime offensive, Fed works the printing presses overtime…

International Forecaster

America and the world face a financial conflagration of immense proportions. The world of fiat money and massive credit is buckling under the pressure of unpayable debt. Each day the safe haven of gold and silver related assets become more attractive. We ask where else do you go for safety? A conflagration is a fire out of control and that is exactly the conditions the world faces today. The inflationary depression has smoldered for 14 months and it will soon accelerate.
For the last 15 years the world has lived far beyond its means especially the US, UK and Europe and as we all know that cannot continue indefinitely. The federal government continues to hire when it should be firing. Having lost 80% of our industrial base we struggle in a service economy that cannot service 300 million plus people, never mind supply exports to offset the cost of imports that we no longer manufacture. We now supply indefinite unemployment benefits, which in reality cannot go on forever. The fiscal debt spirals ever higher and the Fed creates money and credit with no end in sight, which devalues the dollar. Taxation on individuals and businesses continues relentlessly higher. This is the way of corporatist fascism. This is now the way of America.
Officially the destruction of America began on August 15, 1971 when the US abandoned the gold standard. The Council on Foreign Relations said years ago, that 2012 would be the year for the implementation of world government.
In Europe we see the manifestations of years of reckless spending in Greece., a nation that will have to be bailed out by the IMF and other European countries, especially by Germany that holds much of the worthless bonds issued by Greece. Greek bonds are now yielding 17%. Such a premium will not save the economy. The debt service is unpayable. Greece should leave the euro zone; reissue the drachma and default, now. Their position is untenable. We said this on Athens International, French International, BBC worldwide and Deutsch Welle radio a few weeks ago. The Greeks certainly are not blameless, but 80% of the blame lies with the bankers. The outcome is Inevitable, whether it’s now or 1-1/2 years from now. These problems affect all euro zone nations and all will suffer accordingly. For the time being most of the damage to the euro is over, but in time the euro will break up, probably in the next two years. As a result official EU unemployment will hit 14%.
We do not believe the powers that be want Greece to bite the dust just yet, as we pointed out previously. We believe they envision a simultaneous collapse of many nations and multilateral devaluation and debt default. This is their style. This way they believe they can control things and cover up one of the biggest transfers of wealth and power in history. The elitists expect to then usher in world government, as they create another world war.
Those who recognize what the elitist plays are can safeguard their assets and perhaps become very wealthy in that process. Those who ignore the signs and warnings are doomed to lose most everything. Political solutions won’t work now and they won’t work later.
The life of the euro zone and the EU, which consistently have been wrong, at least for now, are trying to make us believe all is well. All is not well. We are told over and over again the crisis won’t spread and it will spread and is spreading. Borrowing costs are already rising in Portugal, Spain, and Germany and throughout Europe.
The euro zone is in jeopardy as Greek contagion affects Portugal and Spain. Sovereign debt is the new subprime paper. We could perhaps see a domino effect as bond yields use in the weaker countries and eventually spread to the stronger European countries, and to the UK and US. The problem will eventually affect the entire world if it rolls out that way. Such a situation could cause a crisis of confidence, which would most certainly drive gold and silver prices higher. Bond markets would already have been affected and world stock markets would be falling. We are perhaps seeing that already with a topping in the US and European equities suffering their largest losses this year. In Europe, Greek bond losses are onerous. A bailout of Greece will probably come and their debt rescheduled. If the bailout doesn’t come watch out. The fallout of a Greek default, the exit from the euro, and the reintroduction of the drachma could force the other 18 nations in trouble to the edge if not into insolvency. These ideas are what we expressed this week in an interview with Greece’s largest newspaper. In addition we could see the dumping of PIIGS bonds and stocks. This could cause major losses and freeze markets. It could also lead to the demise of the euro zone and deeply damage the EU. Another unexpected outcome could be the withdrawal of Britain from the EU followed by the imposition of tariffs on goods and services by the UK, which would be followed by the US.
Another aspect to the Greek problem is that rating cuts are going to force Greek banks to post more collateral, which would force them into a liquidity trap and that could spread the contagion through the global financial system. If more collateral is not forthcoming the banks’ bonds would be downgraded. This also could cause Greek banks to sell assets, putting more pressure on an already weak system. Is it no wonder that gold and silver prices are rising?
In spite of all this the euro zone has the fiscal capacity to backstop banks within the region and to support the PIIGS. The question is will they? Germany seems to be in no hurry to do so. Greece needs loans or to float bonds in the amount of $350 billion over the next five years, which is a tall order. The present approach is to solve this year’s problems of some $80 billion, but bondholders are looking out five years. They are saying to themselves what is going to happen next year and up to five years from now. One good thing is if the Greeks stay in the euro zone they cannot monetize debt away and ruin bond values. Seventy percent of Greeks oppose dealing with the IMF, or accepting loans from the EU. We ask then what do they propose? This is why many investors are throwing their hands in the air and opting to buy gold throughout Europe. No matter which way Greece takes gold is really the only good hedge against a devaluing euro. Gold is not only a hedge against the euro, but also against commodity inflation. A recovery, if it did take place in Europe, would cause higher inflation as well. Causing conflict on the inflation issue is the ECB’s opinion that there is no inflation, when even officially there is. Germany had best not press Greece too hard, because if Greece leaves the euro it would rock global markets. We believe a deal will be done and that will temporarily solve the problem, perhaps for 1 or 1-1/2 years. That is when all the financial derelicts will be taken down together.
We in switching gears must look at the sovereign debt problems of many nations, the US as well. We see a fierce loss of integrity in US markets, due to the play unfolding in the US House and Senate via inquiry and actions by the SEC against Goldman Sachs and others. The US is not Greece, but it has many similar problems. These terrible events unfolding have to eventually reflect lower dollar values as well as a lower market, higher interest rates and higher gold and silver prices. It is apparent and transparent that Goldman has been charged civilly by the SEC in order to protect the firm and its employees from criminal charges, to divert attention away from the passage of a new financial regulatory bill that would make the Fed a despotic power and to make the administration and the Democrats look good going into the November election. Then there is the ongoing mortgage fallout and all the Fed and Treasury giveaways. Making matters worse is the refusal to answer important questions by the Fed for spurious reasons. Then worse yet the SEC told Goldman they were going to be charged two weeks before the announcement was made. Sixty percent of the toxic waste was sold in Europe, mostly to Germans and they are not happy about that. We cannot understand why the Germans did not sue 2-1/2 years ago, and still haven’t. More…