The "New" Anti-Semitism

"The new anti-semitism" is the name given to the more pathological forms of anti-Zionism often found in the Middle East, in Europe and alas on North American university campuses. Obsessive hatred of Israel serves the same purpose as the more explicit hatred of Jews that went out of style with the end of World War II.

Sad, but true.

Bear Trap Rally snaps shut?

Collapse of the SUN/IBM deal negotiations also contributed to the market softening.

The markets fizzled today, soon after George SOROS was quoted as saying "U.S. banks 'basically insolvent': Soros" It looks like he is recommending shorting the US$.

This was further underlined by results of "stress-test" by Office of Currency Comptroller that showed ALL major US Money Center banks are underwater.

Sending SMS via email?

At some point in the past I used this service to send SMS messages (to someone's mobile phone) from the web. But the free service www.TeleFlip.com has gone bust.

This site has a pretty comprehensive list of North American and other International mobile operators email/sms gateway addresses.

However I am still looking for one to Telstra.com.au mobile users (Telstra is the dominant wireline/mobile service provider in Oz).

Let me know your suggestions (apart from the obvious one above that doesn't work).

Nortel Pensioners at risk?

"May lose 40%; Plan 'might have to be liquidated and wound up"

A sad day. The sad developments in this story support the idea of greater oversight and perhaps more stringent regulation of private sector pension plans. As I recall how this once great pension plan organization has now fallen into such a state.

DB plans operate on the premise of a promise to pay - and as such are contingent on the continued health and prosperity of the sponsor company. For some time many of these large industrial companies have been at risk. The real burden of company failures is borne by those pensioners already retired and closest to retirement. It should be law that such retiree's pension obligations are "locked down" by insurance contracts at age 55 and older to guarantee their pension payouts. It should also be clarified that COLA adjustments for retirees must be separated and funded when granted and can not be amortized over all pension plan members, as is often the case. This would remove a huge burden that often plagues CAW negotiations and is a defacto expectation that there are "no second class" pensioners, when in fact they are.

The other solution is just to move to DC and forget about DB altogether.

Asteroid to have close brush with Earth

Not since 1973. Asteroid a "few meter" across will whiz by only 63,000km from earth - or closer. It has been deemed a "harmless risk" to anyone. Put into perspective our Moon is 384,000km away. This space rock discovered on Feb 27 is officially called DD45-2009 and is being tracked by the jet Propulsion Lab, Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysics Observatory and others. Its size matches the Tunguska asteroid which blew up in the atmosphere over Siberia RUS in June 17, 1908 at 0014h GMT flattening thousands of sq kilometers (see photo). Astronomers used to make these announcements all the time - along with danger ratings - until the noticed people started to panic.



The devastation toppled trees in a 50km radius but there was no crater. The most likely explanation is that the 10m asteroid exploded on entry in the Earth's atmosphere. The heart built up in front of the rock is immense and would likely be equivalent to a 20mt blast - about the same as Nagasaki JAP at the end of WWII. The U.S Dept of Defense has also revealed that there are a couple of these blasts in the upper atmosphere every year.

Here is list of all "asteroid-like" objects that have been recorded.

Conrad Y1P (or Year 1 in Prison)

Peter WORTHINGTON reports on Conrad BLACK's 1st Anniversary at Coleman Minimum Security Prison in Florida. Most disturbing - and which WORTHINGTON makes evident - is the the dehumanizing aspect for all involved, inmates, guards and especially visitors. The treatment WORTHINGTON receives is sure to make anyone think twice about making such a trip. But the indignity's are shared as after the visit Conrad BLACK receives a body cavity search before being allowed back into his quarters.

Among the intriguing observations by WORTHINGTON it that the U.S prison population has exploded on the past 30 years - 300,000 in 1972 to over 2million in 2007. As a poster to the article noted, WORTHINGTON's new found sympathy is surprising. Given that he sowed his journalistic reputation in the early days of the Toronto Sun and was known for years as a "hard-ass" against crime this seems a tad remorseful. Has he grown a conscience in the past 5 years watching one of his best buddies humiliated by the U.S Justice system.

What is going on here?

I suspect that WORTHINGTON - who started as a hard-nosed crime reporter - is starting to realize that some of those stories he brought to front page in exchange for better access to Crown prosecutors and Toronto Police Services are beginning to haunt him. Disgraced Ontario pathologist Charles SMITH, the Karla HOMOLKA fiasco, as well as a growing number of high profile, overturned homicide convictions. A very sage MRA told me not long ago that Men's Chivalry has done as much damage to Men's Rights as Feminism. Shake your world, Pete.

Utah's 4 day work week catches fire

Apparently, in September 2008 Utah adopted an experimental 4 day 10hr work week Monday to Thursday in a bid to save money when faced with increased budget shortfalls. It is now being looked at by other states such as Washington, Hawaii and New Mexico. Not all government services are affected. Obviously State Colleges, and Emergency services have not closed. Only 900 of 6,000 buildings have been completely effected but direct savings are estimated to be $3 million (per month?). The indirect advantages are reduced heating/lease costs, as well as lower employee travel expenses. The Department of Motor Vehicles has actually seen an increase in activity due to more favourable hours.

There will be blood

Interview by Heather Scoffield in G&M with Harvard economic historian Niall Ferguson who predicts prolonged financial hardship, even civil war, before the ‘Great Recession' ends. There are some great quotes but I have summarized some of his comments by theme.

• Economic Recovery - Policy makers and forecasters who see a recovery next year are probably lying to boost public confidence, he said. And the crisis will eventually provoke political conflict, albeit not on the scale of a world war, but violent all the same.

• Canadian Economy - Canada is [considered] a winner because its banks are less leveraged, bank regulation here has been tighter, because its housing market hasn't been in a bubble quite the same way. Because this is a very unfair crisis.

• Globalization - [But as] The epicentre [of this crisis] is the United States, ... America's trading partners will get hit harder than the U.S. This is a crisis of globalization. Therefore, the more an economy depends on the global system, the harder it hurts. ... virtue is its own reward. You don't get any reward beyond the self-satisfaction of having been virtuous.

• US Currency - It's almost paradoxical that an American crisis ... reinforces the status of the United States as a safe haven. In a global crisis, investors want to increase their exposure to the U.S. Hence, the dollar rally. Hence 10-year Treasuries down below 3 per cent yields.

• China - Chimerica – the fusion of China and America – is one of my big ideas. Both sides stand to lose from a breakdown of Chimerica, which is why both sides are affirming a commitment to it. The Chinese believe in Chimerica maybe even more than Americans do. They have nowhere else to go. They want to keep, as far as possible, the U.S. importing Chinese goods. They want to keep currencies stable. Chimerica is intact. But I stress ‘officially' because there's considerable public disquiet. This [implosion of trade] poses the biggest challenge that the Chinese administration has faced since they embarked on reforms 30 years ago.

• Global Conflicts - A crisis of this magnitude is bound to increase political as well as economic [conflict]. It is bound to destabilize some countries. It will cause civil wars to break out, that have been dormant. It will topple governments that were moderate and bring in governments that are extreme.
  

• Russia - If Russia is looking for trouble the way Mr. Putin seems to be, I still have some doubt as to whether it can really make this trouble, because of the weakness of the Russian economy. It's hard to imagine Russia invading Ukraine without weakening its economic plight. They're desperately trying to prevent the ruble from falling off a cliff. They're spending all their reserves to prop it up. It's hardly going to help if they do another Georgia.”

• IMF - I think the IMF has been consistently wrong in its projections year after year. Most projections are wrong, because they're based on models that don't really correspond to the real world. If anything good comes of crisis, I hope it will be to discredit these ridiculous models that people rely on, and a return to something more like a historical understanding about the way the world works.”

• The Great Repression - [This crisis began in] August, 2007. when the various hedge funds started to hemorrhage. The stock markets carried on until October. consumer behaviour in the U.S. did not change until the third quarter of 2008. So there was a massive denial problem. [in October 2008] Bush calls for panic. I love it because it completely called the situation. There he was calling for panic ... to make people come out of denial. It took ages, ages, for people to realize this thing had fallen apart. Now, people have to try to unscare them before this thing becomes a self-perpetuating downward spiral. I think that's why you have to say ‘growth will return in 2010' with your fingers crossed behind your back.”
  

• Housing - Property ownership is something that our societies, particularly English-speaking societies, seem to be drawn towards. The notion that the majority of people should own their own homes dated from the 30s. It didn't really become a reality until the 50s. [The U.S] tax code privileges this asset class to take out mortgages and invest in property. I think that's a mistake. Canada doesn't have mortgage interest relief, and the home ownership rate is the same as the U.S. [So] we've sort of pushed the home ownership rate up to what seems to be its maximum, and beyond. It will clearly come down. The lesson of the subprime crisis is that you shouldn't give mortgages to people who can't afford them. Duh …

• Markets - There are some fantastic investment opportunities that pretty soon are going to start attracting buyers. The returns on the super-safe, highly-liquid U.S. Treasury portfolios are next to nothing. The potential returns from buying distressed assets or from buying companies that can't roll over their debt, are double digit. And it doesn't take a lot of imagination to see that the buyers will be sovereign wealth funds or other entities in surplus countries. The world divides in two, the debtors and the creditors. The debtors … (U.S., Europe) ... are going to have to sell of their assets. Call it the global foreclosure. They're going to be selling their assets cheaply to those who have the surpluses. “It's revenge of the sovereign wealth funds. They got burned. And this time, no more Mr. Nice Guy.”

• Bonds - $2-trillion worth of debt is going to hit the market this year, maybe more. Supply is exploding just when demand is contracting. You don't need to be a Nobel laureate to see that that has to impact on the price. The difference is there is this thing called the Fed that can step in and start buying the stuff if the foreign demand fades.

• Bubbles - In the Ascent of Money, I argue that you can't really have a bubble if you don't have a monetary authority that has been excessively generous. From John Law in 1719 to Alan Greenspan in the late 90s, there's always a banker, there's always a central banker making credit too readily available.

• Inflation - When the central bankers got together at Jackson Hole [in the 1990's], the view that emerged ... was, we shouldn't really pay attention to asset prices in the setting of monetary policy. I thought it was a mistake at the time because it seemed to me crazy to ignore asset prices. Why differentiate? What's the difference between pricing a loaf and pricing a house? Why do we care about one and not the other? [So] I think there was a flaw in the theory there, that essentially you could call the Jackson Hole consensus.
  

• Europe - European banks are far more leveraged than American banks. I don't see Europe as offering up any particularly good model in any respect. In fact, Europe's prospects could get a whole lot worse this year, [as] it could be very, very hard indeed to keep the Euro zone together. There will be howling anguish, all kinds of pain, conflict between Germans and the others. It's going to get very uncomfortable indeed. Spain [may be an exception]

• U.S Protectionism - No administration with Larry Summers in the White House is going to be a protectionist administration. Here's a man whose commitment to free trade and free capital movements nobody doubts.

• Positives? - Yes 1) Chimerica is holding up. The Chinese don't seem to want to get divorced from their American spouse and 2) this isn't leading to World War Three or Four, depending on how many world wars you think there have been [but] there will be instability. But it's hard to see a simple and quick macroeconomic happy ending.

• Canada is not going to suffer as badly as many other economies around the world. The biggest fault lines in the global system are in Asia ... and maybe in Eastern Europe. That's where things are going to be really unpredictable.

• There was a time when if you said the United States was going to suffer a lost decade like Japan did in the 1990s, everybody would have said you were a mad pessimist. That begins to look like quite a good scenario. And I think it's a realistic scenario.

• One of the facts is if you subtract mortgage equity withdrawal from the Bush years, the real underlying rate of growth of the U.S. economy was 1 per cent. So much of the consumption has been fuelled by mortgage equity withdrawal. So that seems like a reasonable growth rate for 10 years. … We just don't have an improvement of standard of living of the sort we're grown used to. And indeed if you have a more equitable redistribution through the tax system. If we simply go back to where we were, in 2005, that's surely not the worst thing that could happen to us.

Warren KINSELLA Doubles-Down

In a suicidal effort to save his Liberal hack reputation, Warren KINSELLA appears to have decided to go "all-in" and double-down on his Defamation lawsuit against Ezra LEVANT. Ezra has all the details on his blog today (with a 2 Alarm code) entitled:


"Ignatieff campaign files $5-million lawsuit to cover up Adscam involvement"


This seems to be turning into a legal skirmish by ideological proxy's for the Conservative and Liberal Partys battling with each other over insults invoked while discussing free speech at the Canadian Human Rights Commission. What a party!

At KINSELLA's blog there were 2 items of intersect 1) David AHENAKEW has been found Not GUILTY of Hate Crime - which he uses an an example why Criminal Code prosecutions are to ineffective against Hate Crime and 2) KINSELLA - as an advisor to The Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) are aghast at Sid RYAN' sponsored CUPE votes to boycott Israeli universities. KINSELLA calls for decertification retaliation. Wow.

Black History Month - Tuskegee Institute

Yesterday President OBAMA made his first foreign "state visit" to Canada to meet with Prime Minister HARPER. This has been always been a great tradition, reflecting the unique relationship we have been fortunate to form with The United States of America but in typically Canadian fashion to my knowledge, we have never stood on ceremony about this issue. Nonetheless, it was a historic meeting and one much celebrated in the press. I think Martin Luther KING Jr. would have been enjoying the moment when OBAMA was greeted by Governor General Michelle JEAN and they both strolled down the carpet.

However invoking the name of MLK was not what I intended to focus on for Black History Month. It was this story that I came across at the U.S Center For Disease Control website.

U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee

From 1932 to 1972, the Public Health Service conducted a study on black men with syphilis, who were not offered treatment. In 1972 the US Government started a health benefit program for participants and families and in 1997 apologized for the study. The last widow receiving benefits died last month (January 2009).

In 1932, the Public Health Service, working with the Tuskegee Institute (now known as Tuskegee University), began studying syphilis in a group of black men in hopes of learning more about syphilis and trying to justify treatment programs for blacks. The study initially involved 600 black men – 399 with syphilis, 201 who did not have the disease. The study was conducted without the benefit of patients' informed consent.

During the study, participants were told that they were being treated for "bad blood," a local term used to describe several ailments, including syphilis, anemia, and fatigue. In truth, they did not receive the proper treatment needed to cure their illness.

In the wake of the U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee and other studies, the federal government took a closer look at research involving human subjects and made changes to prevent the moral breaches that occurred in Tuskegee from happening again.

In 1997, President Bill Clinton made a formal apology to the survivors and the wives, family members, children and grandchildren of study participants. He said, "The American people are sorry -- for the loss, for the years of hurt. You did nothing wrong, but you were grievously wronged. I apologize and I am sorry that this apology has been so long in coming."

This is a chilling reminder that many of the "eugenic" theories and practices which were fairly commonly expressed in America, Canada, England, Europe and elsewhere - became the Jewish "Final Solution" under the Nazi's. And it is also a sad reminder of the extent of racial abuse in American History, but I admire that the Americans have faced it and do not "sweep it under the rug".

This is the honourable purpose behind commemorating Black History every February.