“Watching the pot come to a boil” Liberal journalists conspired on racism charges

“Watching the pot come to a boil”

21-Jul-10 News — Liberal journalists conspired on racism charges

PIIGS to the slaughter

Liberal mainstream journalists conspired to call Obama opponents racist

In a happening reminiscent of last fall’s release of the “Climate-gate,” some e-mail messages exchanged on a list server for liberal and left journalists, professors and analysts only have been released.

The formerly secret “Journolist” e-mail list server came to light last month, when it was revealed by the conservative Daily Caller web site, revealing that Washington Post David Weigel was guilty of biased reporting. Weigel resigned, and the Journolist list server was shut down.

Now in a new story, the Daily Caller has released additional e-mail messages showing that there during the 2008 presidential election there was widespread bias among mainstream reporters, who conspired to aid the Obama campaign by targeting Obama opponents and smearing them as racists.

In one case, there was a discussion of Obama’s pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who had given sermons in which he yelled, “God Damn America! God Damn America!” Left-wing reporter Spencer Ackerman posted the following on the Journolist list server:

“And I think this threads the needle. If the right forces us all to either defend Wright or tear him down, no matter what we choose, we lose the game they’ve put upon us. Instead, take one of them — Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists. Ask: why do they have such a deep-seated problem with a black politician who unites the country? What lurks behind those problems? This makes *them* sputter with rage, which in turn leads to overreaction and self-destruction.”

In fact, as we recall, this is exactly the strategy that was followed, not only by journalists, but by members of the Obama campaign itself. Even Bill and Hillary Clinton were labeled racist when they disagreed with Obama. And the strategy continues to this day, as we saw recently when the NAACP accused the Tea Party of being a racist organization.

To be fair, only a small group of liberal journalists took part in this smear campaign, but apparently the ones who didn’t participate were not offended enough to blow the whistle on the smear campaign.

This is just one more example of a sickness that we see over and over again. Here are some other examples:

• Financial engineers at investment banks created trillions of dollars of synthetic securities that turned out to be “toxic assets,” and defrauded investors in order to collect fat fees and commissions.
• Financial regulators ignored or encouraged fraud, and are still encouraging it to this day, by telling banks not to mark toxic assets to market prices, thus continuing to defraud investors with bloated balance sheets.
• Financial journalists at CNBC, WSJ, and other mainstream outlets present only positive news in order to please sponsors.
• The health care legislation passed by Congress was based on misrepresentations and many lies, resulting in something of economic insanity, as I’ve said many times.
• The climate change researchers have been largely exonerated of making up data, but they’re still guilty of hiding unfavorable results from the media and skeptics.

This is only a small fraction of the things that I’ve written about over the years, and that’s only a fraction of the things you can read about in the mainstream media.

There’s something like this happening almost every day. Is there anyone in any leadership position who can say anything that we should believe?

More evidence of stock market analyst incompetence

This is really amazing, and shows how incompetent financial analysts are.

The following graph from the McKinsey newsletter compares estimated earnings growth with actual earnings growth for the stock market:

Estimated vs actual earnings growth (Source: McKinsey)

As you can see, stock market analysts almost always estimate annual earnings growth to be 10-12% annually. However, the actual annual earnings growth has been only 6%.

What should we make of this? These guys always make the same estimates, year after year, and their estimates are, on the average, 100% wrong. Don’t these guys ever learn?

PIIGS to the slaughter

The acronym PIIGS refers to the countries Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain — the European countries in greatest financial trouble, and considered most likely to need a bailout. In fact, these countries were already bailed out by the trillion dollar bailout in May. (See “11-May-10 News — Europe’s super-nuclear bailout.”) Much of the bailout money came from Germany.

A lengthy analysis in the Asia Times points out that the PIIGS countries are going to need further bailouts, but that they won’t be coming.

According to the article,

• Germany’s unemployment rate is much lower than that of the PIIGS countries.
• The Germans hated the bailout package. To the German public, it appears that “Thrifty, hard-working Germans in May bailed out dissolute, corrupt, feckless, spendthrift and lazy Greeks, Spaniards, Italians and Portuguese.”
• Germany doesn’t need Europe as much as it used to. Germany has an export-driven economy, but now Germany is shipping a lot more to Poland, Russia and China.

The conclusion is that when “the next round of European debt crisis erupts, Germany will not come to the rescue.”

Additional links

In the last two months, street protests have been growing in Egypt for a variety of reasons — demanidng higher wages and better working conditions, and condemning the government’s role in the blockade of Gaza. With Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak near death, it’s feared that Egypt may be on the brink of chaos. Global Post

It seems that the days of a Chinese foreign policy based on not ‘rocking the boat’ are over. Over the next few years, expect Beijing to increasingly assert itself as a global power. Geopolitical Monitor

There is evidence that Pakistani nationals were involved in the recent suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda. The Somali terrorist group Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility. CS Monitor

Direct democracy is so deeply rooted in Switzerland that almost every decision to change the law is taken by public referendum. Thus, Switzerland has refused to agree to allow itself to be ruled by Brussels, or to automatically accept European Union laws. Officials are looking for a compromise. EuObserver

PKK terrorists have notified Turkish government officials that they will disarm Turkey will agree to certain demands granting Kurds with political and cultural rights. BBC

Snakes need love too. Omaha.com

(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, see the 21-Jul-10 News — Liberal journalists conspired on racism charges thread of the Generational Dynamics forum. Comments may be posted anonymously.) (21-Jul-2010) Permanent Link

20-Jul-10 News — Hungary and Ireland face new financial problems

Stress tests for Europe’s banks to be released on Friday

Hungary rebuffs IMF on austerity and will no longer receive aid

Hungary has split with the International Monetary Fund by refusing to honor the austerity commitments that it made in 2008 in return for a $25 billion bailout package. Now that the bailout money is running out, Hungary’s Prime Minister Victor Orban told an IMF representative over the weekend that he will not approve further austerity measures demanded by the IMF. As a result, the IMF walked out of the meeting, and announced that no more aid will be provided to Hungary, according to Bloomberg.

“The austerity policy of the last 4-5 years, introduced at the cost of growth and competitiveness cannot be continued,” said Hungary’s Economy Minister Gyorgy Matolcsy, according to Budapest Business Journal.

Without further IMF funding, Hungary will not be able to pay its bills unless it finds another source of money, and that source will be an “extraordinary financial sector tax,” according to the article.

Hungary’s financial situation is not as bad as Greece’s, but the IMF’s firm response to Hungary’s rebellion will send a strong signal to Greece, according to Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, writing in the Telegraph. The Greek government is facing enormous political pressure to ease its own austerity program, and the governing party may splinter over the issue.

Whether Hungary can survive without IMF money is highly doubtful, according to the article. Tim Ash of RBS is quoted as saying that Hungary is playing a “dangerous game,” and that, “If there is another bout of global risk aversion, Hungary is the first target. It has $40bn of reserves, or five months import cover, but in the end it probably can’t survive without IMF money,”

What I find most interesting about this story today is that many people, including some analysts, are applauding Hungary’s government for standing up to the mean ol’ IMF.

Reuters blogger Felix Salmon says that, “all of this is good news, I think: global markets are less prone to panic, and even Hungarian markets seem to have made peace with the idea that there might not be an IMF backstop for the time being. Maybe the ‘new normal’ is, slowly, becoming normal.”

The Hungarian Social Forum welcomed the Hungarian government’s actions regarding the IMF, according to the Budapest Business Journal:

“The government proved to be responsible towards Hungarian citizens living from their work by not giving in to the European Union’s demands on introducing further austerity measures in exchange for receiving the remaining part of the stand-by loan. …International creditors should acknowledge that Hungary’s stability is not only a budgetary issue but also a social one, which also affects the international financial systems and the stability of Europe as well.”

At times like this, I’m always reminded of the story of the man who jumps out the window on the 50th floor of a skyscraper. As he’s going by the 20th floor, someone yells out the window, “How are you doing?” He shouts back, “Everything’s great so far!”

Moody’s downgrades Ireland’s debt

Moody’s Investor Service lowered its rating on Irish government bonds on Monday. The Irish Times quotes Moody’s Ireland analysts as saying, that the “downgrade [was] primarily driven by the Irish Government’s gradual but significant loss of financial strength, as reflected by its deteriorating debt affordability.”

This downgrade is a bitter disappointment to the Irish. They’ve taken very aggressive austerity measures — raised taxes and slashed public sector pay — in the wake of a destructive real estate bubble, according to Fortune.

Unemployment in Ireland has reached 13%, compared with 10% overall in the European Union. Interest rates on Irish bonds have been going up, forcing the government to pay more to bond investors.

According to London’s Daily Mail, the situations in Ireland and Hungary have alarmed investors at the prospect of Europe plunging back into recession.

This would be particularly painful for Britain, which is counting on a business-led export boom to bring growth back to Britain’s economy.

From the point of view of Generational Dynamics, this is wishful thinking, as the financial crisis has much farther to go.

European Union will release results of stress tests on Friday

EU financial analysts are actually in quite a tizzy this week, holding their breath to see what will happen on Friday afternoon, when the results of stress tests for 91 European banks are released.

The stress test results could have major effects on the stock markets. If the banks do well, then stocks may rise; but if they do too well, then investors will assume that the tests weren’t tough enough, according to the AP. On the other hand, if the banks do poorly, then stocks may fall sharply.

Additional links

Concern is growing for the health of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who is thought to be terminally ill, dying from cancer. Mubarak became president after Anwar Sadat was assassinated by terrorists in 1981, and has been a close American ally. Egypt is in a generational Crisis era, and a succession crisis could destabilize the country. Washington Times

Xinhua is claiming that Afghanistan’s Taliban insurgents are training monkeys to use AK-47 rifles and other weapons to attack American troops, and is attributing this story to an unnamed British media agency. Xinhua

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Monday that Afghanistan will need Nato troops for many years to come. “After nine years of international involvement it has become painfully clear that the price we have to pay is much higher than expected — especially regarding the international and Afghan soldiers killed. It cannot be disputed that the international community underestimated the size of this challenge in the beginning.” Spiegel

Leaders of former Soviet republics Belarus and Georgia are teaming up against the Kremlin. Moscow Times

Somalia’s al-Shabaab terrorists were following a cynical but well-known strategy when they bombed civilians in Uganda last week. The strategy is to provoke more foreign intervention, especially from the United States, and then portray itself as fighting a nationalist struggle. ISN Security Watch

Last week’s drug cartel car bomb that killed two officers in Ciudad Juarez indicates that the ‘Colombianization’ of Mexico nearly complete. CS Monitor

Now that the United Nations has failed to blame North Korea for the torpedoed sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan, the South Koreans are hoping to get a condemnation of North Korea this week at a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Tensions are still very high on the Korean peninsula, and many people believe that South Korea will make some revenge military strike. AFP

Syria’s Education Minister has issued a decree banning women from wearing full Islamic veil on university campuses. The decision was taken “at the request of a number of parents” who do not want their children to be educated in an “environment of extremism.” VOA

Many law firms are cutting back on their summer internship programs. LA Times

According to the IRS, the IRS will need a great deal more funding to implement “the most extensive social benefit program the IRS has been asked to implement in recent history.” The IRS will need many new employees to conduct audits of citizens to determine who has the health insurance “as required by law,” and collecting penalties from Americans who don’t. WSJ (Access).

Financially troubled towns are ripping up street pavement and turning paved roads into gravel roads, in order to save money. WSJ (Access).

Big-breasted women are more intelligent than small-breasted women — by 10 IQ points. Beyond Jane

(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, see the 20-Jul-10 News — Hungary and Ireland face new financial problems thread of the Generational Dynamics forum. Comments may be posted anonymously.) (20-Jul-2010) Permanent Link