| |
 |
Sunday, December 17, 2006 |
Scotsman: "Ministers were last night accused of undermining international efforts to reduce bribery after they pressed the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to drop a corruption investigation into an arms deal with Saudi Arabia.
Transparency International UK, an anti-corruption watchdog, said the decision to abandon the case involving BAE smacked of 'double standards' at a time when Britain was trying to convince developing countries to clean up their regimes."
Raisons d'état seem to overrule national laws, but when other nations we consider our 'enemies', do the same we shout foul. If they are our 'friends', we shut up.
Also here we see that foreign nations seem to dictate European policies. Saudi Arabia has oil and money, and this means power.
Scotsman: "The era of Tony Blair, it seems, is ending not with the bang of fireworks celebrating unprecedented political and economic success, but with the whimperings of a prime minister mired in sleaze allegations."
12:13:10 PM 
|
|
HalTurnerShow: "Sources with a U.S. Delegation in Beijing have told The Hal Turner Show the Chinese government has informed visiting Bush Administration officials they intend to dump One TRILLION U.S. Dollars from China's Currency Reserves and convert those funds into Euros, gold and silver!
China was allegedly asked to withhold the announcement until Bullion Markets closed for the weekend to prevent an instant spike in gold and silver prices. This delay will give the world the weekend to consider appropriate actions rather than have a knee-jerk reaction which could see the U.S. Dollar totally collapse in value Monday.
According to this Senior source, China told the U.S. delegation they no longer have faith in U.S. Currency for several reasons:
1) The Federal Reserve Bank ceased publishing 'M3' data in March, making it nearly impossible for anyone to know how much cash is being printed. China said this act made it impossible to tell how much a Dollar is worth.
2) The U.S. Dollar has lost upwards of thirty percent (30%) of its value against other foreign currencies in the recent past, meaning China has lost almost $300 Billion simply by holding U.S. Dollars in its reserves.
3) The U.S. has no plans whatsoever to reduce deficit spending or ability pay down any of its existing debt without printing money to pay it off.
For these reasons China has decided to implement an aggressive sell-off of U.S. Dollars before the rest of the world does so. China reportedly told the US delegation; 'we are the largest holder of U.S. Currency and if the rest of the world unloads theirs before we unload ours, we will lose our shirts'.
Early this week, in an unusual move, the Bush administration sent virtually the entire economic 'A-team' to visit China for a 'strategic economic dialogue' in Beijing Dec. 14 and 15.
The Bush administration wanted to get China's cooperation in preventing a dollar collapse. The Hal Turner Show has been told the effort failed.
According to the source, Fed Chairman Bernanke left the meeting 'pale and in a cold sweat' as the implications of China's decision seemed to sink in.
The implications are enormous: The U.S. Dollar is likely to collapse in value against all other major currencies as early as Monday, December 18.
This would cause a worldwide sell-off of dollars, create almost immediate 'hyper-inflation' in the US and also impact world markets at a level 'worse than the Great Depression of 1929'.
In a strange twist of fate, Arabs and OPEC may come to the rescue of the U.S.!
Senior officials in OPEC made clear that they too would be severely harmed if the U.S. Dollar collapsed, and hinted they 'would not be inclined to sell oil to any particular nation that intentionally caused such a collapse'.
Arabs and OPEC will want something in return for saving the U.S. from economic collapse and it is already widely speculated what they want will be a complete change in U.S. backing of Israel in the Middle East.
If such demands are made by the oil-rich Arabs, the U.S. would be left with little choice but to virtually abandon the jewish state to preserve itself."
Of course, the above must be seen in the light of the ongoing negotiations between China and the US and probably belongs to the game of throwing one's weight around and impressing the opponent. But, the facts are there, the US is at the mercy of other nations as far as its currency is concerned. The dollar has been going down for some time and this will continue. Any nation that truely wants to safeguard its assets will consider dumping US dollar currency reserves before it's too late. Until now the European drive to save the dollar in Europe's own interest has kept the dollar from falling even lower, but a breaking point is bound to happen when it is no longer in our interest to support the dollar.
As long as investments continue to flow into the US, there is no great danger. But foreign investors are beginning to worry. If their investments are endangered by the drop of the dollar, they might reconsider and pull out.
Fact is that the US dollar hegemony is being challenged by China. The US want a revaluation of the Yuan. They accuse China of 'currency manipulation' of all things. The crux is that the US wants to be the only one to manipulate all currencies.
Spiegel: "Investors worldwide are becoming sceptical and starting to pull their money out of the United States. They have realized that a people and a country cannot live beyond their means in the long term. The US dollar's exchange rate is starting to crumble as a result of this withdrawal."
The oil-producers of the middle east have been diversifying their reserves away from the dollar for a couple years now, but as long as their currencies are linked to the dollar and the oil they sell is priced in dollars then no major changes will happen.
The direction is clear, but as long as the change is gradual and America does not antagonize the major players, the losses will be limited.
But one thing is sure, and that is that the power of the US is waning. Their present military preponderance will only prove to be the extra burden that will break the camel's back.
11:57:29 AM
|
|
© Copyright 2008.
|
|
|
|
|
