"David Sirota"- China's Making Everything in the US From Bridges to Civil Rights Memorials: That's a Huge Problem and China's Not to Blame

Posted on September 4, 2011, Printed on September 5, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/152280/china%27s_making_everything_in_the_us_from_bridges_to_civil_rights_memorials%3A_that%27s_a_huge_problem_and_china%27s_not_to_blame

Many economic Nostradamuses have long predicted that the epitaph on America's tombstone will ultimately read, "Made In China." But casual observers probably didn't think the funeral procession would happen this fast. In the last year, though, most have wised up. Thanks to a spate of mind-blowing headlines, we are learning that the Chinese invasion isn't just a distant possibility — it's happening right now.

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"Peter Bacque" - Earthquake Caused Massive Nuclear Storage Casks to Move

Published on Thursday, September 1, 2011 by the Richmond Times-Dispatch (Virginia)

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/business/state-news/2011/aug/31/8/earthquake-caused-massive-nuclear-storage-casks-to-ar-1277791/

by Peter Bacque

Last week's central Virginia earthquake caused 25 spent-fuel storage casks — each weighing 115 tons — to move on their concrete pad at Dominion Virginia Power's North Anna nuclear power plant.

The shifting of these massive casks holding used nuclear fuel was the first caused by an earthquake in the U.S., according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

None of the metal cylinders was damaged and no radiation was released, Dominion Virginia Power said.

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Sarah Laskow" - European farmers spend millions on knock-off pesticides

http://www.grist.org/list/2011-08-26-european-farmers-spend-millions-on-knock-off-pesticides

by Sarah Laskow / 26 Aug 2011

Buying a knock-off Louis Vuitton bag is one thing, but in Europe, farmers are buying knock-off pesticides. Counterfeit pesticides have become a multimillion industry over there, and if that sounds like bad news, it is: According to the Wall Street Journal, these knock-offs contain a solvent that the European Union banned because it's a huge problem for pregnant women.

The WSJ's article also makes the E.U.'s efforts to deal with the problem sound like a giant clusterf*ck. There are loopholes in counterfeiting laws that mean customs can't seize the fake pesticides. The company that's been ripped off has to deal with the goods and try to recoup costs from counterfeiters, who are obviously the sort of people who'll say, "Whoops, you found me! Here are the millions of euros I made selling nasty, dangerous goods under your name!" (Or, as the WSJ puts it: "[P]ractically this can prove complicated and even impossible, as many of these companies are beyond EU jurisdiction or completely bogus.")

This stuff makes it into the food supply, too. In 2006, Spanish farmers used the pesticides, grew a bunch of vegetables, and shipped them out to the rest of Europe before anyone noticed something was amiss. And in Eastern Europe, 50 percent of all pesticides are counterfeit, and some farmers buy them on purpose:

Farmers who responded to a questionnaire from the European Business Association in Kiev on behalf of The Wall Street Journal said that half had bought counterfeit pesticides in the past -- a fifth of them knowingly, because they are cheaper than the branded goods or because they didn't realize the risks. In 10%-20% of cases, farmers said they lost their entire crop because of the chemicals.

straight to the source

• Fake Pesticides Are a Growing Danger, Wall Street Journal

"Mike Whitney"- The Eurozone Crackup

By Mike Whitney

Global Research, August 22, 2011

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=26138

"We believe that the market has now entered a major downtrend. It is a mistake to dismiss the slide we’ve seen to date as mindless and devoid of fundamentals as many strategists maintain. These are not just scary headlines—-they are scary fundamentals.... There will undoubtedly be some more sharp rallies that will be interpreted as new bull markets. In our view, however, the bear market has only begun, and has a long way to go." -- Comstock Partners, "Bear Market Rally Far From Over", Pragmatic Capitalism

A toxic combo of poor economic data in the US and a widening credit crunch in the eurozone has sent stocks plunging for a 4th consecutive week. On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrials fell 172 points as jittery investors exited equities for the safe haven of cash and government debt. Global equities have lost more than $6 trillion in the last month alone while the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury dropped to a record 1.99 per cent on Thursday. The low yields on Treasuries indicate the growing fear that troubles in the EU are reaching a crisis-phase. Political gridlock has increased volatility and triggered a slow-motion run on the EU banking system. The same process unfolded in the US for a full year before Lehman Brothers collapsed (from July 2007 to Sept 2008) putting the financial system into a death-spiral. Now it's Europe's turn. This is from the Wall Street Journal:

"A dramatic sell-off in European financial markets on Thursday renewed fears that Europe's banks are too weak to withstand the Continent's debt crisis, increasing the chances that the region's leaders will be forced to pursue radical steps toward fiscal union in order to preserve their single currency....

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"Alex Hawkes"- Report: UK Riots Were Product of Consumerism

by Alex Hawkes

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/aug/22/uk-riots-economy-consumerism-values

The recent riots in London and other big cities were the product of an "out-of-control consumerist ethos" which will have profound impacts for the UK economy, a leading City broker has said.

The report by Tullett Prebon warns: "The consumerist ethos, in which a materialist vision is both peddled and, for the vast majority, simultaneously ruled out by exclusion, has extremely damaging consequences, both social and economic."

The report, the firm's global head of research Tim Morgan, the report is part of a series one of in a series put out by in which the brokerage in which it analyses bigger issues for the UK. Last month, the broker Tullett Prebon issued a report on the UK's economic situation as part of Morgan's Project Armageddon.

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Bob Burnett: 5 Reasons Capitalism Has Failed

By Bob Burnett, The Smirking Chimp
Posted on August 21, 2011, Printed on August 22, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/152118/5_reasons_capitalism_has_failed

We live in interesting times. The global economy is splintering. U.S. voters hate all politicians and there's political unrest throughout the world. The root cause of this turmoil is the failure of the dominant economic paradigm -- global corporate capitalism.

The modern world is ruled by multinational corporations and governed by a capitalistic ideology that believes: Corporations are a special breed of people, motivated solely by self-interest. Corporations seek to maximize return on capital by leveraging productivity and paying the least possible amount for taxes and labor. Corporate executives pledge allegiance to their directors and shareholders. The dominant corporate perspective is short term, the current financial quarter, and the dominant corporate ethic is greed, doing whatever it takes to maximize profit.

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"Steven Hill" - Europe's Quiet Revolution

Published on Wednesday, August 17, 2011 by Roots Action

http://www.rootsaction.org/news-a-views/206-europes-quiet-revolution

by Steven Hill

The overarching challenge in the world today is: how do we advance the institutions and practices capable of enacting a desirable quality of life for a burgeoning global population of 6.5 billion people?  And how do we accomplish that in a way that does not burn up the planet in a Venus atmosphere of our own creation?  That is a tall order to fill, yet it is the defining task of the 21st century. 

More than anywhere else, Europe has fostered the types of innovations that point the way forward for the world to meet these challenges. Europe's brand of "social capitalism" is better suited for the 21^st century than  America's "Wall Street capitalism" because it has developed itself on several major fronts.

* Real family values:  healthcare and supports for families and workers.  European nations score at the top on social and health indicators, with Europeans today enjoying universal health care for all, generous retirement pensions, an average of five weeks paid vacation (compared to two in the U.S.), paid sick leave, paid parental leave, kiddy stipends (about $200 per month for children's needs), affordable childcare (Americans pay at least six times more for child care), low-cost higher education (in some countries it's free), and a shorter work week with comparable wages for their workers. Social spending in Europe runs 35 percent per capita above that in the United States; even in Greece, which has been beset by debt troubles recently, people still have more of these supports than most Americans.

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"International Business Times" - World Bank Head Warns Markets Heading to New Danger Zone

International Business Times, Sunday, August 14, 2011 9:28 AM EDT

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/197537/20110814/world-bank-head-warns-markets-heading-to-new-danger-zone.htm

The loss of market confidence in economic leadership in key countries like the United States and Europe, coupled with a fragile economic recovery have pushed markets into a new danger zone, something that policymakers have to take seriously, the head of the World Bank said on Sunday.

Speaking at the Asia Society dinner in Sydney, Australia, Robert Zoellick also said the global economy was going through a multi-speed recovery, with developing countries now the source of growth and opportunity.

"What's happened in the past couple of weeks is there is a convergence of some events in Europe and the United States that has led many market participants to lose confidence in economic leadership of some of the key countries," he said.

"I think those events combined with some of the other fragilities in the nature of recovery have pushed us into a new danger zone. I don't say those words lightly ... so that policymakers recognize and take it seriously for what it is."

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Raul de Sagastizabal: "Europe Is On The Verge Of Collapsing"

By Raul de Sagastizabal

Global Research, August 8, 2011

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=DE%2020110808&articleId=25932

Europe is on the verge of collapsing and the world is again in the quagmire, the reason being Europe, rather than just Greece, is the planet's soft belly, and the impact of Europe's eventual downfall would make itself felt throughout the world, even if Germany, or France, could somehow be spared.

The scale of impact is unpredictable, but potentially worse than that of the recent toxic assets crisis. The European bloc is the second largest economy, the first trade partner of China, the largest importer of Russian energy and the first buyer of high quality raw materials (it still holds the Hilton quota, the world's most expensive meat quota).

All over the world European debt holders and many states maintain their reserves in euros. China, for example, has one-fourth of its reserves in such currency and holds a large amount of Greek, Portuguese and Spanish debt bonds....

Without debt restructuring involving important debt amount reductions and extended maturities, Greece will not be able to meet her commitments, just like the rest of Europe's debt-overhung Europe's periphery economies - Ireland, Portugal, Spain, and Italy, and the effects would certainly contaminate the rest of Europe including the region's strongest economies.

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Eric Walberg: Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) versus Bilderberg -- Where are Real Decisions Being Made?

As the Western elite gathered in picturesque St Moritz to grapple with pressing world crises, the outsiders met in the bleak steppes of Central Asia.

Last week’s 10th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in the Kazakh capital Astana highlighted how the major rivals to empire, led by Russia and China -- themselves rivals, are trying to fashion an alternative to US hegemony.

The SCO is the only major international organisation that has neither the US nor any close US ally among its members, and its influence is growing across Eurasia. Leaders of member states Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan were joined by leaders from observers Iran, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Mongolia. Belarus and Sri Lanka have been admitted as dialogue partners, and prior to his arrival in Astana to attend the summit, Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Ukraine.

With a Chinese rhetorical flourish, the Astana Declaration stressed the goal of combatting the "three forces" of "terrorism, extremism, and separatism". The summit called for a "neutral" Afghanistan (read: no permanent US bases), supported by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, even as the US is actively discussing a post-2014 strategic partnership agreement with him. The prospect of permanent US military bases in Afghanistan lies at the core of current US-Pakistan tensions. India has indicated its aversion to "new cold war" tensions appearing in the region.

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