Category Archives: Economy

SWIFT Iranian Eviction

Economy, Ethics, Fascism, Foreign Policy, Iran, Media, Propaganda

CNN’s inane wishy-washy Fareed Zakaria boasted the other day about the foreign-policy achievements of Barack Obama. Since the president’s reign of terror abroad began, the Iranian currency had lost 65 percent of its value. Like all fixtures of mainstream media, Zombie Zakaria has some appetite for destruction.

So how is Obama accomplishing this great feat against innocent Iranian economic actors? Via RT:

US wants Iran evicted from SWIFT [Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication], an independent financial clearinghouse that is crucial to the country’s oil sales. This could immediately cripple Tehran’s financial lifeline, but would come with its own costs for the world economy.
Iran’s eviction from SWIFT could drive forward the current slow pressure campaign of sanctions aimed at persuading Iran to drop its nuclear program. It might also buy time for the US to persuade Israel not to launch a pre-emptive military strike on Iran this spring.
The bitter truth is, the plan might actually backfire on western nations themselves as it could send oil prices soaring and undercut the reputation of Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT). The Brussels-based organization is a banking hub used by virtually every nation and corporation around the world. …
More than 40 Iranian banks and institutions use SWIFT to process financial transactions, and losing access to that flow of international funds could badly damage the Islamic republic’s economy. It would also probably hurt average Iranians more than the welter of existing banking sanctions already in place since prices for household goods would rise while the value of Iranian currency would drop.

Barry Soetoro Frankenstein (Reply From The Man Who Will Be President)

Affirmative Action, Barack Obama, Constitution, Economy, Intelligence, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Military, Political Economy, Propaganda, Regulation, Republicans, The State

The following is excerpted from “Barry Soetoro Frankenstein,“ my new weekly column:

In Obama’s simplistic scheme of things—as measured by the Flesch-Kincaid readability test, “for the third straight Address, the President’s speech was written at an eighth-grade level”—to recreate the glory of America, it is thus essential to continue to reinvent the state. …

In the spirit of brute-force statism, the POTUS promised a Trade Enforcement Unit to police “unfair trading practices,” and a “Financial Crimes Unit to “crack down on large-scale fraud.” …

Il Duce’s next derring-do? Send him the bill, and the Divine One will even instruct the provinces to incarcerate local kids in high school “until they graduate or turn 18.”

Having used the military to great political effect, Obama now intends to deploy the Department of Defense, no less, in the “clean energy business.” In Obama’s very elementary thinking, the DOD is bound to do a bang-up job.

… From financial aid (for foreign students, no less) to an affirmative-action placement in Harvard Law School, Barry Soetoro is a Frankenstein of the state’s creation. If not for government, Obama would have never managed to write himself into history. As a product of the state, Barry Soetoro sees it as the source of all possibilities. …”

Read the complete column, Barry Soetoro Frankenstein, now on WND.com,

My book, “Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa,” is available from Amazon. (Don’t forget those reviews; they help this cause.)

A Kindle copy is also on sale.

Still better, shipping is free and prompt if you purchase Into the Cannibal’s Pot from The Publisher.

UPDATE (Jan. 31): Sen. Paul Delivers State of the Union Response – Jan. 24, 2012

Recent Fed Revelations Should Shoo-In Ron Paul

Economy, Federal Reserve Bank, Media, Political Economy, Ron Paul

I wonder if the king of Keynesianism, economist Paul Krugman, is reading the report by his New York Times colleague, BINYAMIN APPELBAUM. The report revolves around the utter ignorance evinced in the 1,200 pages of transcripts of the “conversations between Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues at the Fed Board of Governors in 2006.” Krug should!

As PBS’s RAY SUAREZ’s reports, “They discussed the changing conditions surrounding an overheated housing market.”

The question really is this: Why, in the presence of a presidential candidate such as Paul, does APPELBAUM and his interlocutor find the complete lack of understanding of the housing crisis among the Board so “striking”? Isn’t it time to admit that one current frontrunner spoke to these facts and to the economic truths they portend?

HERE ARE SOME particularly jarring excerpts from the exchange between these two blind mice of mainstream media, jarring because of the half truths they represent. The man missing from this report is also the reason the minutes are now available:

“… these minutes show us the extent of their misunderstanding of the health of the economy. They show us how badly they misunderstood the way that the economy was working, how badly they misunderestimated the impact of the housing crash.

And it shows, you know, a group of very intelligent, very thoughtful people, you know, talking about the economic situation in the country in a considered way, evaluating what might happen, and having a discussion that, it turns out in retrospect, was far removed from the reality of the actual situation.

… it’s so striking. If you kept reading from that quote, what you would see is that she went on to say, basically, but this is a small problem. The market as a whole is doing fine. The overall quality of these securities is very good. I’m not worried about the housing market.

In fact, at one point, she said that if there was a mild correction in housing, it would benefit the economy by moving resources to healthier sectors of the economy. You’re right. They saw it. They saw that housing was crashing. They joked about the problems that home builders were having in selling homes

…To be fair, a lot of other economists at the same time were talking about blue skies, soft landing, moderation in the coming years. It wasn’t like there were just a bunch of clods sitting around this table, and everybody else could see it, right?

MORE.

Paul Financial Portfolio

Business, Debt, Economy, Federal Reserve Bank, Ron Paul

OF COURSE RON PAUL IS INTO METAL BIG TIME. Naturally, Austrians in economics will be gold bugs and/or general metalheads.

It should be no surprise that, “Twenty-one percent of [Ron Paul’s] $2.4 to $5.5 million was in real estate, 14 percent in cash. He owns no bonds. Only 0.1 percent is invested in stocks, and Paul bought these ‘short,’ betting the price will plunge. Every other nickel is sunk into gold and silver mining companies.”

“This portfolio,” said [financial analyst William Bernstein], “is a half step away from a cellar-full of canned goods and 9-millimeter rounds.” [Dah!]
“You can say this for Ron Paul,” conceded [the Wall Street Journal]. “In investing as in politics, (Paul) has the courage of his convictions.”

MORE.