Barron's Nonsense

Barron's weekly newspaper printed some nonsensical thoughts from MRG Institutional Update.


The focus on debt is useful. Austerity (budget cuts) must be part of the solution.

Austerity's Not the Answer
Total Debt's the Problem MRG Institutional Update, by MRG
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June 15: Cross-European contagion risk...threatens the very existence of our banking system. European bank balance sheets are stuffed with nonperforming loans that should have been written off in 2009. European regulators, however, allowed the banking industry not to come clean, in a repeat of the policy mistakes made by Japan in the 1990s.

Austerity measures will only exacerbate the banking-system problems, by leading to defaults in the massive private-sector debts of troubled countries. Attempts to use rapid and large fiscal retrenchment to avoid public-debt defaults virtually assure an escalation in private-debt defaults.

It is total debt which matters, not just public debt, something which European Union authorities seem to not yet grasp. In fact, the rapid rise in public debt in recent years is not so much the cause of this crisis as it is the result of excessive growth in private-sector debt over the last decade or so. (Note: private debt excludes nonfinancial corporates).

Greece and about 10 other euro-zone members desperately need a cheaper currency, but a falling euro doesn't necessarily do the trick, as much of Greece's exports go to other euro-zone members. Alternatively, the Greeks may choose to go for an "internal devaluation" by cutting salaries On the order of 20% to 25%. [But remember that] people died in the streets of Athens following a decision to reduce salaries by 5%.

Government Knew Of Oil Well Problems

The federal government knew about problems with BP's oil well in the Gulf of Mexico a full two months before it exploded. Around the world, government is failing.

Cracks Show BP Was Battling Gulf Well as Early as February

In early March, BP told the minerals agency the company was having trouble maintaining control of surging natural gas, according to e-mails released May 30 by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is investigating the spill.

Taxpayers Pay For Banker Bonuses

After accepting TARP money from the federal government in 2008, banks paid out record bonuses (over $100 billion) in 2009.

The federal government now reports the TARP losses will be at least $105 billion.

TARP was a direct transfer of wealth from average Americans to the elite bankers.

Geithner estimated that TARP would end up costing taxpayers $105 billion.

IPCC Insider Says Climate Change Not Real

An insider says the IPCC report does not represent the majority of scientists.

The IPCC consensus on climate change was phoney, says IPCC insider

The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change misled the press and public into believing that thousands of scientists backed its claims on manmade global warming, according to Mike Hulme, a prominent climate scientist and IPCC insider. The actual number of scientists who backed that claim was “only a few dozen experts,” he states in a paper for Progress in Physical Geography, co-authored with student Martin Mahony.
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Illinois Is Insolvent

Markets have lost confidence in Illinois' ability to continue to tax and spend.

Illinois Sells Build America Bonds as Premium to Treasuries Increases 40%
Illinois sold $300 million of Build America Bonds at a yield premium over Treasuries about 40 percent higher than two months ago after lawmakers failed to close a $13 billion budget deficit for the year starting July 1...

USA War Crimes

USA morality is becoming an oxymoron. This will take generations to heal.

Human Experimentation at the Heart of Bush Administration's Torture Program
by: Jason Leopold
High-value detainees captured during the Bush administration's "war on terror," who were subjected to brutal torture techniques, were used as "guinea pigs" to gauge the effectiveness of various torture techniques, a practice that has raised troubling comparisons to Nazi-era human experimentation ...

"Such acts may be seen as the conduct of research and experimentation by health professionals on prisoners, which could violate accepted standards of medical ethics, as well as domestic and international law. These practices could, in some cases, constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity." ...


Meanwhile, General Patraeus says torture is unnecessary and hurts America.

Threat of H1N1 Exaggerated

Reports accuse WHO of exaggerating H1N1 threat, possible ties to drug makers
By Rob Stein
European criticism of the World Health Organization's handling of the H1N1 pandemic intensified Friday with the release of two reports that accused the agency of exaggerating the threat posed by the virus and failing to disclose possible influence by the pharmaceutical industry on its recommendations for how countries should respond.
...


Vaccine manufacturers gave payments to people who had some influence on the WHO's threat assessment and pandemic decision.

http://www.naturalnews.com/028936_WHO_vaccines.html
The report was authored by Deborah Cohen (BMJ features editor), and Philip Carter, a journalist who works for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London. In their report, Cohen states, "...our investigation has revealed damaging issues. If these are not addressed, H1N1 may yet claim its biggest victim -- the credibility of the WHO and the trust in the global public health system."

In response to the report, WHO secretary-general Dr Margaret Chan defended the secrecy, saying that WHO intentionally kept the financial ties a secret in order to "...protect the integrity and independence of the members while doing this critical work... [and] also to ensure transparency."

Dr Chan apparently does not understand the meaning of the word "transparency." Then again, WHO has always twisted reality in order to serve its corporate masters, the pharmaceutical giants who profit from disease.

Gulf Leak Much Larger Than Reported?

Matt Simmons, a well-known oil industry analysts, says there is a much larger and leak nearby.  He says the other leaks have plumes that indicate leaks of over 120,000 barrels per day.  He also says the Soviets over the past 30 years have had huge well leaks and had stopped the weeks by detonating nuclear weapons a couple miles into the well to seal in the well.