Nuke Nanoseconds and Unprecedented Victory for Indian Peasantry. being Integral Part of US Corporate Imperialist Economy, Vulnerable Hindu India Has

Nuke Nanoseconds and Unprecedented Victory for Indian Peasantry. being Integral Part of US Corporate Imperialist Economy, Vulnerable Hindu India Has to Share the Destiny of United States of America!

Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 81


Palash Biswas

Nuke Nanoseconds is the Prime story in Indian Media along with Big Durgapuja Big business. But indigenous communities worldwide have to celebrate something! State Power with Money, Muscle and Media power failed miserably to defend corporate Interests in Singur!

West Bengal branded Brhminical Ruling Marxist Bazzar Hegemony performs a Perfect Rudali as Tata Motors Relocates Nano into the fascist genocide master`s empire. The Genocide culture in West Bengal is defeated for the first time and Indian peasantry has registered an unprecedented Victory to save Nature and man!

Inflation is likely to fall to single digits within a couple of months, the deputy chief of the country's planning commission said on Wednesday.

"Inflation has softened and the price graph is flat. I hope that inflation will come down to high single-digits in a couple of months," said Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

The United States and India will sign a civil nuclear deal on Friday that opens up nuclear trade between the two countries, the US State Department announced on Wednesday. State Department spokesman said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would sign it along with Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Washington.

How the Periphery might be untouched by the wildest fire?

India's economic growth rate may slip further and decline to 6.9 per cent in 2009, as countries in emerging Asia are not totally immune to the financial crisis in the US and its subsequent fallout, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said today.

India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is likely to slowdown to 7.9 per cent in 2008 and slide further to 6.9 per cent in the next year, said the IMF's World Economic Outlook (WEO) released here ahead of the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank.

According to the IMF data, India recorded a GDP growth of 9.8 per cent in 2006 and 9.3 per cent in 2007.

"In India, growth in the second quarter came down to about 8 per cent, on the back of weakening investment", the report said, adding private consumption and export, however, continued to do well.

For Asia as a whole, the report said, economic growth rate was likely to slip to 7.7 per cent in 2008 and 7.1 per cent the next year in 2009.

The report further said that financial markets have weakened in recent months, driven by increasing concerns about the global outlook and declining investor risk appetite, particularly in the context of the September market turbulence.

Oil prices rose off earlier lows on a rate cut by the world's major central banks Wednesday, recovering after investor concerns that t
he U.S. credit crisis was enveloping the globe and would hurt crude demand _ drove prices down.

For people worldwide worried about the erosion of their investments as stock markets plummet and more and more financial institutions are threatened by meltdown, oil's recent and relative affordability brings a small measure of comfort. Prices have fallen about 40 percent since peaking near $150 in July.


With US President George W. Bush expected to sign the bill enabling civilian nuclear cooperation with India later on Wednesday , New Delhi and Washington are readying to ink the 123 pact later this week - the final step that will reopen atomic trade between the two countries after a gap of over three decades.

Being integral part of US Corporate imperialist Economy, Vulnerable colonised Hindu Indian Economy, despite its Marxist ways of Capitalism, has to share the Destiny of United States of America!

But the Asian economists are such bankrupt agencies of Post Modern Manusmriti Apartheid Zionist Brahminical White Galaxy Order that they are never ready to think in terms of social realism while making national Policies and deciding the dynamics of development.

Tens of thousands Homes in United States of America Closed!A new AARP study found that because of the economic downturn, one in five workers 45 and older has stopped putting money into a company-sponsored retirement account, Individual Retirement Account (IRA) or other retirement savings account during the past year, and nearly one in four has increased the number of hours he works.


Millions face Unemployment, Food Insecurity, Calamities and Starvation.More than half the people surveyed in an Associated Press-GfK poll taken Sept. 27-30 said they worry they will have to work longer because the value of their retirement savings has declined. Orszag indicated the fear is well-founded. Public and private pension funds and employees' private retirement savings accounts have lost some 20 per cent overall since mid-2007, he estimated.


Commodity Prices hit Rocket high!

And it is not the story all about the meltdown or the Global Financial Crash!

Capitalism in USA seeks escape route in Socialism. But Bailout fails miserably. MSCI's benchmark world index was down 2 per cent compared with losses of 2.9 per cent when the cuts were announced. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 was down 1.4 per cent some 10 minutes after the move compared with losses of around 3.8 per cent beforehand.

The Fed said that while inflation has been high, recent declines in energy and other commodity prices had tempered inflation risks.

It said the vote to cut US rates was unanimous and that inflation expectations appeared to be diminishing which could help support price stability.

"The recent intensification of the financial crisis has augmented the downside risks to growth and thus has diminished further the upside risks to price stability," the Fed said.

Hong Kong earlier slashed the borrowing rate it charges banks by a full percentage point, a day after Australia's central bank delivered its biggest interest rate cut in 16 years, also a full point.

Zionist Economy breaks down in the Core state.

For weeks, markets have been battered by fears that frozen money markets will stall business activity and send industrialised nations spiraling deep into recession.

Americans' retirement plans have lost as much as $2 trillion in the past 15 months, Congress' top budget analyst estimated Tuesday.

The upheaval that has engulfed the financial industry and sent the stock market plummeting is devastating workers' savings, forcing people to hold off on major purchases and consider delaying their retirement, said Peter Orszag, the head of the Congressional Budget Office.

As Congress investigates the causes and effects of the financial meltdown, the House Education and Labor Committee was hearing from retirement savings and budget analysts on how the housing, credit and other financial troubles have battered pensions and other retirement funds, which are among the most common forms of savings in the United States.




If the Nature is allowed to be intact and Natural Resources with its environment continue to sustain the life cycle on this earth, the Human civilisation would never starve and no calamity would be translated as predestined , inherent death for mankind. agriculture remains the main Source of Livelihood, and the Lifeline for Asian Economy as a whole. But the Ruling Harmonies with its Bloody Bastard policy makers enact the developmental Drama with such surgical precision that all the indigenous, majority rural communities perish untimely, effected by Slow poison, The weapons of mass destruction, Chemical, Biological and nuclear Warfare have to decide the destiny of the people all over Latin America, Asia, East and Central Europe covering each and every third world geopolitics cutting across the political borders!

In India, Agriculture is itself persecuted most.

Pantnagar university in Uttarakhand is stripped off five thousand acres of land almost free!

In Gujarat, Aanad agricultural university has to give away 2,220 acres for the Industrialists! Ratan tata gets One thousand Acres of land for the relocated Nano Project there. Tata claims that the deal is even better than west Bengal. We may just calculate how good is the deal as Uttarakhand has given Tatas land at the rate of Rupee One only. West Bengal Government is quite reluctant to publish the details of the deal despite RTI obligation quoting third party involvement.

In Gujrat also, nobody knows the minutes and details of the deal!

But the Premier institutions of Indian green revolution Pantnagar as well as Anand have to pay for the industrialist corporate Interests quite against the Public interests!

I have been talking to the Activists, Women leaders and educationists in Uttarakhand these days. I am astonished to see that they seem to be rather detached with this devastating trend against Agriculture as a whole. Retail Chain, SEZ, Chemical Hubs, Nuclear Parks, Captured Farming. GM seeds , fertilisers and pesticides are debated , but no one realises how the back bone of Indian Agriculture is being destroyed!


We never know what happened to kalayni University in west Bengal as the kalayni highway has become the epicentre of Promoter Builder Raj in the Marxist ruled state! Coincidentally, kalyani Mayor belongs to the Agriculture University. our dear friend Dr Shantanu Jha is a real gentlemen and understands well politics, social fabrics and economics as I know him. Dr Jha is a man deeply involved with sports and cultural activities. But he is not going to decide the destiny of kalyani University and neither he may help us to stop whatever bad things happens in Kalayani!

Bengali daily Anand Bazaar Patrika has published an edit on the Crashing sensex and echoes the voices of Chidambaram and Ahloowalia. For them, globalisation is the only option available for development. Indian economy is quite intact and the Meltdown phase would go over. India will emerge stronger once the international markets steadies!

Ratan Tata has singled out Ms Mamta Bannerjee for Singur Insurrection and Nano debacle! So the Indian FDI fed toilet Media is demonising Mamata. Earlier Desh patrika has published a cover story titled with `Lest we become Farmers Once again!’

Vivek Debroy and Sujit Marjit the Minnows of Bengali economics have been leading The Mourning for Nano. The RUDALEES of Bengali ruling class see the Bengal`s destiny as Zero to Zero just after the departure of Tatas!

Nano, the revolutionary small car from Tata Motors has a new home. The chairman of the Tata Group Ratan Tata on Tuesday announced the relocation of the Rs 2,000-crore Tata Nano project to Gujarat from Singur in West Bengal.

Amid smiles and exchange of bouquets, the Tatas inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in the form of a ‘state support agreement’ at the Sachivalay premises at Gandhinagar. The Tatas will set up the ‘mother plant’ for the Nano on 1,100 acres at Sanand, about 35 kilometers from Ahmedabad. Members of the state cabinet and senior officials of the Tata group were present during the signing of the agreement. The mother plant was earlier meant to be located at Singur.

The mother plant, which will begin producing 2,50,000-3,00,000 cars per annum, has the capacity to expand its production to 5,00,000 cars in the coming years. The Tatas also have plans to build electric cars and CNG variants from this plant. The Tata complex at Sanand will initially house 60 ancillary units.


IAF will spend Rs 500 crore for its base repair depots spread across the length and breadth of the country.The maintenance command of the Indian Air Force (IAF) has taken up a large scale infrastructure development programme worth Rs 500 crore, for its base repair depots (BRDs) spread across the length and breadth of the country, a top IAF official said on Tuesday.


The US Federal Reserve led a coordinated round of official rate cuts on Wednesday, easing by a half percentage-point along with the European Central Bank, Bank of England, Switzerland, Canada and Sweden. In an attempt to stem unprecedented global market turmoil, the Fed cut its key federal funds lending rate by half a percentage point to 1.5 per cent and lowered its discount rate by the same amount to 1.75 per cent.
The ECB also cut by a half-point to 3.75 per cent as did the Bank of England, taking its rate to 4.5 per cent.

China cut its key rate 27 basis points and its reserve requirements for banks by half a percentage point.

The Bank of Japan, with rates at just 0.5 per cent, did not ease but the Fed said the BOJ expressed its strong support for the coordinated policy action.


In DUBAI, Finance ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) said on Wednesday the region's banking systems were resilent, and t
hat economic fundmamentals were sound even though growth will slow.

"ASEAN finance ministers reaffirm confidence in the resilience of the region's banking and financial systems," according to an ASEAN statement seen by Reuters.

"Regional GDP (gross domestic product) growth is expected to moderate slightly from the 6.7 percent achieved last year. We recognise that the ASEAN economic fundamentals remain sound."

In NEW DELHI: Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh on Wednesday asked the government not to grant export-oriented unit status to Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Industries' Jamnagar refinery, but said he was not an emissary of Anil Ambani.

"The domestic refinery was overnight converted into an SEZ (sic) by a designated authority... on the one hand, government is short of revenue and is raising money through bonds, but (on the other, it is) giving tax advantages," he told reporters after meeting Finance Minister P Chidambaram here.

He said he would take up the issue of giving special status to RIL at the coordination committee meeting of the Samajwadi Party and the UPA on October 14. The SP now props up the UPA, after its Left allies withdrew

What happens to US capitalism and Globalisation after this glabl financial Crisis, it may be understood. The source of all this financial instability are the bad loans
made by the banks and mortgage brokers over the last 10 years. They
have a responsibility to only make loans to people who can afford to
make the payments. The banks and mortgage brokers misled the public
about what the public could afford with offers of adjustable rate
mortgages, minimum or no down payments and even interest only loans
with balloon payments. Every scam artist in the world was trying to
make money off the inflated home prices and flipping homes during the
recent bubble in the home market prices.

Other financial institutions bought into this folly through
unregulated credit default swaps which are similar to insurance. The
greedy bankers would slice up these fraudulent loans and sell the
default risk to other financial institutions who would get in return
an income stream. That's how the poison spread and we are reaping the
result of incompetent Republican leadership these last eight years.

John McCain doesn't even understand what's going on. He freely admits
he doesn't understand economics and with his advancing years cannot
make the correct choices for our country. When McCain first entered
politics he was embroiled in a Savings and Loan scandal that cost the
American taxpayer $3.4 BILLION dollars. He improperly interceeded with
government banking regulators on Keating's behalf after receiving
tens of thousand's of campaign dollars from Keating. Then and ever
since he has advocated less and less financial regulations. McCain/
Palin will bring our country to its knees if we elect them.

Barack Obama threatens Pakistan for Osama Bin Laden!

It means Americanism has no choice but to opt for Global war and civil War at the cost of entire Asia and Third World countries worldwide!

WASHINGTON: US Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama today renewed his commitment to go after Al Qaeda militants on Afghan-Pakistan border if
Islamabad is "unable or unwilling" to flush them out, while Republican John McCain warned the measure would create adverse public opinion.

Facing each other in their second Presidential debate at the Belmont University, the White House hopefuls stuck to their stated positions on combating terrorism, with Obama vowing to "kill Osama bin Laden" and "crush the Al Qaeda" terming it America's security priority.

"If we have Osama bin Laden in our sights and the Pakistani government is unable or unwilling to take them out, then I think that we have to act and we will take them out," the 47-year old senator from Illinois said.

"We will kill bin Laden. We will crush Al-Qaeda, that has to be our biggest national security priority," he vowed.

Trailing behind the Democratic candidate in the latest polls, McCain accused Obama of announcing a war on Pakistan and cited former US president Theodore Roosevelt's statement that the commander-in-chief should "talk softly, but carry a big stick."

Obama had "announced that he will attack Pakistan," McCain said, adding that cross border attacks would rally public opinion in the South Asian country against the US.

"Senator Obama likes to talk aloud," the 72-year-old said, advocating an approach of cooperation with the long-standing US ally.

"We need to get them to work with us and turn against the Taliban and others... by coordinating our efforts together, not threatening to attack them," the Arizona senator said.

Obama, meanwhile said McCain's hardline stand on Iran and North Korea itself contradicted his advocation of soft speaking.

Incoming economic data suggests that the pace of economic activity has slowed markedly in recent months," the Fed said in a statement.

"Moreover, the intensification of financial market turmoil is likely to exert additional restraint on spending, partly by further reducing the ability of households and businesses to obtain credit."

Market reaction was surprisingly muted with stock markets only trimming deep losses in response.

Meanwhile,every government in Europe is at panic stations and taking their own
action to saveguard their own economies. This two days after a
meeting in which they agreed common action. The banking system in
Iceland is near total collapse. Germany, Denmark, Austria, Greece and
Ireland are doing their own thing. So much for the "European Union"!
Here in the UK the government has decided bailouts are no good. It's
rumoured they are going to take shares in our major banks as a means
of re-capitalising them. This is a form of nationalisation. 10%
stake is the guess, meaning government civil servants will sit in on
board meetings and be privy to commecially sensitive information.
Stockmarket here lost 8% in a day, greatest loss in 40 years.


The 123 pact will be signed Friday afternoon or Saturday morning," a highly placed official source told the media in New Delhi, pleading anonymity. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee will formally ink the 123 agreement that will implement the landmark atomic pact accord allowing trade in nuclear reactors, fuel and technologies between the two countries.

Mukherjee, who has played a key role in bringing the nuclear deal to fruition, leaves for Washington Thursday. He returns to India Sunday. Both New Delhi and Washington have, however, yet to make a formal announcement about the signing of the 123 pact.

"Let me just say the agreement will be signed at some point by both sides. I just can't tell you when at this point, but the agreement will be signed," State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters in Washington Tuesday.
The 123 pact will overturn the ban imposed on India after it conducted its first nuclear test in Pokhran, described by New Delhi as a "peaceful explosion", in 1974.

The two countries were earlier planning to sign the 123 pact, the sole bilateral document that defines terms of nuclear trade between them, during Rice's day-long visit to India Saturday. However, the pact could not be signed as India insisted that it first wanted Bush to sign a bill to ratify the India-US civil nuclear deal and address some of its concerns on fuel guarantees in his presidential signing statement.

Rice, who was keen to sign the deal during the visit, however, had to put off the much-awaited signing and attributed it to "administrative details" which remained to be sorted out. With Bush signing the bill enabling civilian nuclear cooperation with India in Washington later Wednesday, that hurdle will be removed. Bush's signing statement is expected to address some of India's concerns.

The state department, however, chose to be more circumspect on this sensitive issue of India's concerns.
Asked if India had conveyed to the US that it would sign the nuclear deal once Bush has signed the statement, Wood said: "We're trying to work out, you know, a date whereby a signing can take place. But again, I would just say to you the agreement is done and the agreement will be signed."

During her trip to New Delhi, Rice, a key US interlocutor for the nuclear deal who has relentless championed nuclear entente with India, had emphasised that there are "no open issues" left in the way of the signing of the 123 pact.
The White House has invited lawmakers, prominent members of the Indian American community, and leading businessmen of the two countries besides officials and diplomats, who all played a major role in pushing the deal, for the signing ceremony in the East Room at 2.50 p.m. Wednesday (12.20 a.m. IST Thursday).

The signing of the 123 pact will mark the culmination of over three years of tortuous negotiations aimed at giving India one-time exception from the global rules which forbid nuclear trade with a country which has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

In a historic decision, the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) Sep 6 adjusted its guidelines to resume nuclear commerce with India, paving the way for the fruition of the India-US civilian nuclear deal.

Bush is likely to allay India's concerns regarding nuclear fuel assurances, technology transfers for uranium enrichment and reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel with a signing statement as he did over certain "extraneous and prescriptive" provisions in the Hyde Act in December 2006.

US presidents have often used such signing statements to interpret a law the way they choose without taking the extreme step of rejecting a bill outright with a veto. Usually these are quietly listed in the Federal Register recording all executive actions without a public announcement.

After signing into law the legislation passed by Congress approving the 123 agreement, Bush is also required to certify that the accord is consistent with US obligations under the NPT. He also has to certify that it is the policy of the US to work with members of the NSG to further restrict transfers of equipment and technology related to uranium enrichment and reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. After these certifications, India and the US will exchange diplomatic notes pursuant to Article 16(1) of the 123 Agreement, the last procedural step that will turn the historic nuclear deal envisioned by Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on July 18, 2005 into reality.

In the midst of a financial turmoil, raising questions over fat executive pay packets, a media report on Tuesday listed out 12 top bankers of Wall Street who collectively took home over one billion dollars in thepast five years including Lehman Brothers' Chief Richard Fuld.

The total take-home pay of the 12 bankers, current and former chiefs of some of the biggest names in the US financial space, stands at USD 1,053.15 million during 2003-07, as per data compiled by the New York Times.

The report listed out Citigroup's India-born Chief Executive Vikram Pandit, JP Morgan Chase's James L Dimon and Goldman Sachs' Lloyd C Blankfein, among others.

Fuld, who is also the Chairman of Lehman Brothers', took home USD 256.41 million.

"As recently as June 2008, Fuld said he was confident that Lehman was sound even as the bank posted a second-quarter loss of USD 2.8 billion. But on September 15, Lehman filed for bankruptcy and began sliding towards an eventual liquidation," the report said.

According to the report prepared with data provided by executive compensation research firm Equilar, Bank of America Chairman and Chief Executive Kenneth D Lewis took home USD 133.36 million, while Dimon pocketed USD 108.72 million.

However, Pandit's salary is calculated only for a month, since he joined the banking behemoth only in December 2007. He received a compensation of USD 250,000 in that month.

Blankfein, Chief Executive and chairman at Goldman Sachs pocketed USD 102.74 million.



Nano to open doors for realty corridor
8 Oct, 2008, 0056 hrs IST,Avinash Nair, ET Bureau

AHMEDABAD: At a time when the property markets in the country are witnessing downswing, Tatas’ decision to park Nano at Sanand will not just boost la
nd prices in and around Ahmedabad by almost 25%, it will also create a brand new “realty” corridor between Sanand and Ahmedabad, global, experts say.

Global real estate consultant Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj (JLLM) feels that Nano plant will not only propel realty growth, but it will also create new avenues for retail and hospitality sector. “If such a plant is located close to a major city, the potentially short commute will cause a new realty corridor to develop and prosper”, says Ashutosh Limaye, associate director, strategic consulting, (JLLM).

“Most Indian markets are currently in a low phase. The arrival of an industrial plant of such size and scope will definitely help the location in question to reflect positive trends faster than other areas. There will be an influx of manpower from other states, and the market in question will become more cosmopolitan and more interesting in real estate terms on a national scale,” he said while talking about Tata’s decision to relocate its Rs 2,000-crore Nano plant to Sanand from Singur (West Bengal).

“Real estate and its value is a function of employment. When any big industrial plant comes into a locality, it catalyses direct employment in the actual plant and indirect employment in the associated feeder units (ancillary industries will also be located near the plant.) Moreover, there will be indirect employment for various other support service providers. For all of them, residential spaces across all typologies (affordable and mid-income to luxurious) are essential. Once a residential district is planned, retail, schools, hospitals, recreational centres etc. are natural add-ons”, Limaye told ET.

“Apart from direct demand generation from actual end-users, such developments in any particular location also attract the interest of investors, who will seek to buy properties for renting out. Hospitality and retail will also be boosted”, he says.

An official of GIHED (Gujarat Institute of Housing and Estate Developers), a city-based body of developers, feels that that the Tata Nano project will provide the necessary boost to the property markets in and around Ahmedabad. “The ripple effect of the Tata Nano project will be seen in the Ahmedabad property market in the next three years. The project will attract new manpower and definitely power the growth of the housing segment in Ahmedabad”, Suresh Patel, vice-president of GIHED said.

“The land prices between Ahmedabad and Sanand are also expected to rise by about 25% in the coming days”, he said adding the prices which were about Rs 1,000 for an square yard is bound to leap-frog in the coming days. “Once Dholera port in Ahmedabad district develops, the entire region will grow by leaps and bounds”, Patel remarked.

The biggest beneficiaries are developers like Savvy Infrastructures Ltd who are already in the process of building large residential projects in nearby places like Dev Dholera and Nal Sarovar.

Similar views were aired by Cushman & Wakefield, another global real-estate solutions provider. “The economic activity (in form of the Tata Nano project) will enhance capital value of land in and around this corridor of Sanand. Positive sentiments in times we live in today, which are not so encouraging, would witness definite lift the spirits for investors. Hospitality, retail, logistics, transporters are likely to benefit in the medium to long term”, said Sanjay Dutt Joint Managing Director, India, C&W.

“Nothing will happen in the short term but for some lift in land valuations n around proposed Tata site.

However medium to long term impact would lead to generation of demand in Ahmedabad, which is highly under leveraged vis-a-vis other top cities in India. It is about time the world sees it and the Tata deadeal would certainly help”, Dutt remarked.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/Auto/Automobiles/Nano_to_open_doors_for_realty_corridor/articleshow/3571463.cms

California father, despondent over financial losses, kills family and
himself
By Kate Randall
8 October 2008

According to a new study by the American Psychological Association
(APA), close to half of those surveyed say they are increasingly
stressed about their ability to provide for their basic needs and
those of their family.

People of all age groups are increasingly worried about job security,
housing costs, medical costs, rising college tuitions and providing
for retirement, and this stress is taking a toll on their mental and
physical well-being. Eighty percent of Americans say that the economy
is a significant cause of anxiety in their lives.

These statistics tragically found flesh and blood expression last
weekend when a 45-year-old former financial planner in the San
Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles killed his wife, mother-in-law
and three sons before taking his own life, despondent over his
family’s financial situation.

Some time between Saturday night and Monday morning, Karthik Rajaram
shot and killed his wife, Subasri, 39; his mother in law, Indra
Ramasesham, 69; and his three sons—Krishna, 19, a business economics
major at UCLA; Ganesha, 12; and Arjuna, 7. Rajaram was found dead in
his younger sons’ bedroom, the gun still in his hand.

Police found the bodies in the family’s 2,800-square-foot rented home
in a gated community in the Sorrento neighborhood of Porter Ranch
after a neighbor reported that Rajaram’s wife had not shown up for her
carpool Monday morning. Subasri had worked as a bookkeeper at a local
pharmacy.

According to police, Rajaram left behind three letters. In one
addressed to the police, he took responsibility for the killings and
blamed his actions on his economic situation. A second letter was
addressed to family and friends, and a third contained a last will and
testament.

LAPD Deputy Chief Michael Moore commented, “This is a perfect American
family behind me that has absolutely been destroyed, apparently
because of a man who just got stuck in a rabbit hole. It is critical
to step up and recognize we are in some pretty troubled times.”

In his letter to police Rajaram said he had weighed two options:
killing only himself, or killing himself and his entire family, and
that he felt the latter option was more “honorable.”

Karthik Rajaram’s fortunes had taken a nosedive recently. The once
successful financial planner and businessman was unemployed with no
job prospects and had been hard hit by losses on the stock market. He
had not been able to hold onto a job over the past several years.

Just seven years ago, however, he had made more than a million dollars
in a voluntary liquidation of NanoUniverse, a Los Angeles- and London-
based venture fund. According to the Los Angeles Times, Rajaram, one
of the company’s founders, made $1.2 million on a £12,500 investment
when the fund was taken public on the London Stock Exchange.

In 1997, the Rajarams purchased a home in Northridge, another
community in the San Fernando Valley, for $274,000. In 2006, they sold
it for $750,000 and moved into the rented home in Porter Ranch. Sue
Karns, a former Northridge neighbor, told the Times, “The market was
going down and he [Karthik Rajaram] wanted to get out before the
bottom dropped out.” He told her, “I feel I did a good thing by
selling when I did.”

Rajaram held a Master of Business Administration degree from UCLA. In
2003 and 2004, he worked at Azur Partners LLC, a management consulting
agency. His boss, Greg Robinson, told the Times that he had fired
Rajaram because “his life wasn’t moving in the right direction.”

Rajaram also worked with Robinson at the Century City office of the
accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers. He was also unable to keep
that job. “He was not an emotionally stable person,” Robinson said.
“It was a real problem and would affect any business he was involved
in.”

More precise details about Karthik Rajaram’s financial situation at
the moment he made the decision to carry out the murder-suicide are at
this point unavailable. It is clear, however, that the profits from
the London stock liquidation and proceeds from his home sale were long
gone and that he was fraught with anxiety over his family’s future.

Individual psychological factors play a significant part in such a
tragic decision. According to his former neighbors, the Karns, Rajaram
was “very high-strung, very intense.” “The man was never relaxed,” Sue
Karns told the Times. But she also recalled his devotion to the
children whose lives were claimed in the tragedy: “He loved those kids
more than any man I’ve ever seen love his sons.”

There are growing signs that the kind of financial and psychological
pressures that gripped the Rajaram family are becoming a widespread
phenomenon in US society as the economic crisis deepens. While Karthik
Rajaram’s response was a particularly violent one, and psychological
problems clearly played a role, these pressures are taking a heavy
toll on the mental and physical health of millions of Americans.
Inevitably, these pressures will have the greatest impact on those
with an emotional susceptibility.

The report released this week by the APA—“Stress in America”—indicated
that nearly half of those surveyed (47 percent) report that their
stress has increased in the past year. Women aged 44 to 62 are the
most likely to report the economy as a significant source of stress.

According to the APA survey, this increased stress is manifested in
feelings of irritability or anger, lying awake at night, lack of
interest or motivation, feelings of depression and sadness, poor
eating habits, headaches, muscular tension and other physical
symptoms. Respondents also reported increased use of alcohol and
smoking to manage their stress.

Ironically, as stress rises and mental health problems increase, many
people are forced to cut back on therapy. According to the Wall Street
Journal, psychiatrists and psychologists across the country are seeing
increasing numbers of patients who are worried about paying for mental-
health treatment. In New York, therapists are seeing more and more
patients from the financial-services industry.

The APA’s recommendations for dealing with stress? Psychologist
Katherine Nordal, the APA’s executive director for professional
practice, comments: “Pay attention to what’s happening around you, but
refrain from getting caught up in doom-and-gloom hype. Take stock of
your particular situation and what causes you stress. Reach out to
family, friends and trusted advisers. Research shows that receiving
support from others is effective in managing stress. If you continue
to feel overwhelmed by stress, then consider seeking professional
help.”

Sound common sense perhaps, but of questionable value to the growing
numbers of Americans who are faced with the loss of their jobs and
homes, struggling to pay for food and utilities and unable to fund
their retirements or pay college tuition. It’s hard not to get caught
up the “doom and gloom” when it’s enveloping you.

A recent incident focused attention on the human toll resulting from
one of the most devastating manifestations of the current financial
crisis—home foreclosures.

Ninety-year-old Addie Polk of Akron, Ohio, shot herself at least twice
in the upper body on October 3 as sheriffs came to evict her from the
home she had lived in since 1970. She was unable to make payments on
the 30-year, $45,620 mortgage she took out in 2004 with Countrywide
Home Loans. Countrywide filed for foreclosure last year, and the home
was sold at auction to Fannie Mae.

Deputies had attempted to serve the elderly woman’s eviction notice 30
times previously. When she didn’t answer the door this time, Polk’s
longtime neighbor, Robert Dillon, climbed through her window and found
her bleeding, lying in bed, with a gun next to her. The incident took
place the same day that the US House of Representatives was preparing
to vote on the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street.

In July, a Taunton, Massachusetts, woman, mother of one, killed
herself in her home after sending a fax to her mortgage company
alerting officials of her intention. The company was planning to sell
her foreclosed home that day at 5 p.m.

Following exposure of Addie Polk’s plight, Fannie Mae announced that
it was dismissing the foreclosure action and forgiving Polk’s
mortgage, and would allow her to return to her home. She remains in
Akron General Medical Center recovering from her wounds.

Carmakers feel the pinch as crisis pains Wall St
8 Oct, 2008, 1845 hrs IST, AGENCIES

BERLIN: Europe's carmakers are cutting production and reporting falling sales in a clear sign that the global financial crisis is spreading from ban
ks to other sectors of the economy.

On Wednesday BMW, the German luxury auto firm, said it had sold almost 15 percent fewer vehicles in September, a plunge that it blamed on the "increasingly challenging economic situation.

"The crisis in the financial markets is currently making consumers highly reluctant to purchase, especially in the United States," the Bavarian firm said. "The situation remains challenging. The recent escalation in the financial crisis is also affecting consumer confidence in the premium segment," it said.

The United States, BMW's largest market, saw deliveries fall by a quarter and by 30 percent for BMW-branded cars -- it also owns Mini and Rolls-Royce and makes motorbikes -- while in Western Europe, sales were off 17 percent.
The Munich-based firm, which has 17 production facilities in six countries, announced on Tuesday that it would produce between 20,000 and 25,000 vehicles less than originally planned this year.

"If we have to, we will cut it further," a BMW spokesman said. BMW is by no means alone, with other auto companies also feeling the pinch, not just makers of expensive vehicles like BMWs.

Sweden's Volvo, a unit of US auto giant Ford, said Wednesday it was cutting more than 3,000 jobs in Sweden and abroad in addition to 2,000 layoffs announced earlier this year. "These are difficult times for the car industry in general, including Volvo," Volvo's chief executive Stephen Odell said.

"The unstable economic environment has resulted in a very unpredictable situation and the downturn in the global car industry is more drastic than expected," he said. Ford said on Tuesday it would "reduce slightly" production at its Saarlouis plant, where it makes Focus, C-Max and Kuga cars, and lay off 200 temporary employees early.

Porsche is preparing to cut output too and although at Volkswagen the production lines were still running as normal its Skoda and Seat units have already announced reductions. Opel, a unit of General Motors, the world's biggest automaker, said on Tuesday that it was suspending production at two German factories, Bochum and Eisenach.

Opel wants to lower production by 40,000 vehicles by the end of the year and also wants to cut output at its other plants around Europe including in Spain, Poland and Britain, where it sells cars with the Vauxhall brand. "As a result of the financial crisis we have the situation where people are holding onto their money and are ordering fewer cars than normal," a spokesman for Opel told the media.

But life for carmakers is also being made harder by the fact that banks have become far less willing to lend money to buyers and to companies to help cover their day-to-day operations. According to Carlos Ghosn, chief executive of French carmaker Renault, companies are trapped in a vicious circle that could lead to a "prolonged and strong" recession.

"Credit markets are practically frozen. Even healthy companies are having trouble finding financing," the Financial Times quoted Ghosn as saying. "This is leading to the fact that we have to be very cautious in the use of cash by slowing down investments, reducing inventories and activities. That means losses and this will add to the financial burden."

"There is unprecedented turmoil in financial sectors and sooner or later, more pain will be felt in the real economy," Adam Cordery, a fund manager at investment company Schroders in London, told Dow Jones Newswires.
"As lending declines, everyone has less money to spend and this impacts the economy."

Hundreds of Lehman investors protest in HK
8 Oct, 2008, 1739 hrs IST, AGENCIES

HONG KONG: Hundreds of angry Lehman Brothers investors protested in Hong Kong Wednesday to demand a full refund of their investment backed by the fai
led U.S. bank.

The rally came after the Hong Kong government proposed Monday a buyback scheme under which local banks and distributors of Lehman-backed bonds would buy back the products at a value to be decided on.

However, most investors rejected the plan which they said would only help recover a small part of their investments.

Chanting slogans ``Return my blood money'' and ``Stealing elderly money,'' protesters rallied outside the territory's legislature building in the downtown Central financial district to urge newly elected lawmakers to investigate the sales of Lehman-backed bonds in Hong Kong.

The investors, many of them near or at retirement age, also swarmed several major banks, including Bank of China and Standard Chartered, in small groups in hopes to recoup their money.

Organizers said about 1,000 people attended the rally. Police did not offer an estimate.


[ McCain linked to Nazi collaborators and ultra-right-wing death
squads in Central
America ] McCain Link
to Private Group in Iran-Contra Case
http://www.truthout.org:80/100708C
Washington - John McCain's campaign is criticizing Barack Obama
for his ties to a former radical who engaged in violent acts four
decades ago, but McCain himself was closely connected to a private
group that supplied aid to rebels trying to overthrow the leftist
government of Nicaragua during the Iran-Contra affair.

The U.S. Council for World Freedom was part of an international
organization linked to former Nazi collaborators and ultra-right-wing
death squads in Central America. The group was dedicated to stamping
out communism around the globe.

The council's founder, retired Army Maj. Gen. John Singlaub, said
McCain became associated with the organization in the early 1980s as
McCain was launching his political career in Arizona. Singlaub said
McCain was a supporter but not an active member in the group.

"McCain was a new guy on the block learning the ropes," Singlaub
told The Associated Press in an interview. "I think I met him in the
Washington area when he was just a new congressman. We had McCain on
the board to make him feel like he wasn't left out. It looks good to
have names on a letterhead who are well-known and appreciated.

"I don't recall talking to McCain at all on the work of the
group," Singlaub said.

The renewed attention over McCain's association with Singlaub's
group comes as McCain's Republican presidential campaign steps up
criticism over Obama's dealings with William Ayers, a college
professor who co-founded the Weather Underground and years later
worked on education reform in Chicago alongside Obama. Ayers held a
meet-the-candidate event at his home when Obama first ran for public
office in the mid-1990s.

Obama was roughly 8 years old when Ayers, now at the University of
Illinois at Chicago, was working with the Weather Underground, which
took responsibility for bombings that included nonfatal blasts at the
Pentagon and U.S. Capitol. McCain's vice presidential nominee, Sarah
Palin, has said that Obama "pals around with terrorists."

In McCain's case, Singlaub knew McCain's father, a Navy admiral
who had sought Singlaub's counsel when McCain became a prisoner of war
and spent 5 1/2 years in North Vietnamese hands.

"John's father asked me for advice about what he ought to do now
that his son had been shot down and captured," Singlaub recalled in
one of two recent interviews. "I said, 'As long as you don't give any
impression that you care more about him than you care about any of the
other prisoners, he won't be treated any differently.'"

In the Iran-Contra affair, the Reagan White House arranged covert
arms shipments to the Contra rebels financed in part by secret arms
sales to Iran.

Iran-Contra proved to be the undoing of Singlaub's council.

In 1987, the Internal Revenue Service withdrew the tax-exempt
status of Singlaub's group because of its activities on behalf of the
Contras.

Elected to the House in 1982 and at a time when he was on the
board of Singlaub's council, McCain was among Republicans on Capitol
Hill expressing support for the Contras, a CIA-organized guerrilla
force in Central America. In 1984, Congress cut off CIA funds for the
Contras.

Months before the cutoff, top Reagan administration officials
ramped up the secret White House-directed supply network and put
National Security Council aide Oliver North in charge of running it.
The goal was to keep the Contras operational until Congress could be
persuaded to resume CIA funding.

Singlaub's private group became the public cover for the White
House operation.

Secretly, Singlaub worked with North in an effort to raise
millions of dollars from foreign governments.

McCain has said previously he resigned from the council in 1984
and asked in 1986 to have his name removed from the group's
letterhead.

"I didn't know whether (the group's activity) was legal or
illegal, but I didn't think I wanted to be associated with them,"
McCain said in a newspaper interview in 1986.

Singlaub does not recall any McCain resignation in 1984 or May
1986, nor does Joyce Downey, who oversaw the group's day-to-day
activities.

"That's a surprise to me," Singlaub said. "This is the first time
I've ever heard that. There may have been someone in his office
communicating with our office."

"I don't ever remember hearing about his resigning, but I really
wasn't worried about that part of our activities, a housekeeping
thing," Singlaub said. "If he didn't want to be on the board that's
OK. It wasn't as if he had been active participant and we were going
to miss his help. He had no active interest. He certainly supported
us."

Subprime Devastation Retraces Path of S&L Crisis in U.S. States

By Jonathan Keehner and Bob Ivry

Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The $700 billion bailout of Wall Street's
subprime-tainted securities harkens back to the real- estate bets that
sparked the savings and loan crisis in the 1980s. The geography's the
same, too.

Then, as now, the government created a taxpayer-funded enterprise to
absorb the fallout from bad real-estate investments. A Bloomberg map
of the hardest-hit areas shows that, with the exception of Nevada,
regions with the highest foreclosure rates also had the most savings-
and-loan failures, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The overlap shows that the aggressive lending and speculation that
ignited the savings-and-loan meltdown persisted, at least in those
areas, according to Paul E. Johnson, who was mayor of Phoenix from
1990 to 1994.

``From where I sit, the areas that were hit by the S&L crisis and
those struggling with subprime look pretty much the same,'' said
Johnson, now president of Southwest Next Capital Management, a real
estate investment fund based in Arizona.

Texas, where failed thrifts in the Dallas and Houston areas had assets
of more than $45 billion in the 1980s and 1990s, has largely
sidestepped the subprime crisis by learning a lesson from the S&L
scandal and ratcheting up regulation.

``We had no regulation of mortgage brokers before 1990 and now we have
some of the most robust requirements in the country,'' said Doug
Foster, commissioner of the Texas Department of Savings and Mortgage
Lending in Austin.

Criminal Background

Texas is one of 32 states that require criminal background checks for
mortgage brokers and one of 12 states that administer tests that
prospective brokers must pass, Foster said. The state has a 42 percent
failure rate on that test, he said. Texas also requires 90 hours of
training for new brokers and 15 hours of continuing education every
two years. Only Wisconsin mandates more, he said.

Granted, home prices in Texas didn't rise as high as those in
California, Arizona and Florida, according to the S&P/Case- Shiller
Home Price Index.

Los Angeles, Phoenix and Miami home prices doubled from 2002 to 2006
and have slipped by about one-third since, according to the S&P Case-
Shiller Home Price Index. Home prices in Dallas rose 12 percent from
2003 to 2007 and have dropped 3.2 percent since then, according to the
Case-Shiller index.

``Deterioration of property values in other states is the result of
the run-up,'' Foster said. ``We didn't have the run- up.''

California, by contrast, was hit hard by both financial meltdowns.
Failed thrifts based in the regions of Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los
Angeles, Orange County, San Diego and Stockton had combined assets of
more than $95 billion in the 1980s and 1990s.

Failed Thrifts

Now, the state is home to all five of the top metropolitan areas for
foreclosures, according to RealtyTrac Inc., a real estate database in
Irvine, California.

California, Arizona and Florida rank second, third and fourth by
percentage of households in the foreclosure process, behind Nevada,
RealtyTrac said.

Borrowers with subprime mortgages fell behind on their monthly
payments at a rate more than four times that of prime borrowers,
according to the Washington-based Mortgage Bankers Association.
Subprime home loans went to people with bad or incomplete credit
histories.

Some of the names from the era of Resolution Trust are familiar as
well. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley were among the
underwriters of products created by the RTC, which recovered almost
$400 billion in assets from about 750 failed savings and loans. They
may be among the biggest beneficiaries of the new bailout plan as
sellers of devalued assets, according to a Sept. 21 report by Bank of
America Corp.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jonathan Keehner in New York
at jkeehner@bloomberg.net; Bob Ivry in New York at
bivry@bloomberg.net.

In Blow to Bush, Judge Orders 17 Guantánamo Detainees Freed
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/washington/08detain.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Bush
administration to release 17 detainees at Guantánamo Bay by the end of
the week, the first such ruling in nearly seven years of legal
disputes over the administration’s detention policies.

Related
Evidence Faulted in Detainee Case (July 1, 2008)
Times Topics: UighursThe judge, Ricardo M. Urbina of Federal District
Court, ordered that the 17 men be brought to his courtroom on Friday
from the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where they have been held
since 2002. He indicated that he would release the men, members of the
restive Uighur Muslim minority in western China, into the care of
supporters in the United States, initially in the Washington area.

“I think the moment has arrived for the court to shine the light of
constitutionality on the reasons for detention,” Judge Urbina said.

Saying the men had never fought the United States and were not a
security threat, he tersely rejected Bush administration claims that
he lacked the power to order the men set free in the United States and
government requests that he stay his order to permit an immediate
appeal.

The ruling was a sharp setback for the administration, which has waged
a long legal battle to defend its policies of detention at the naval
base at Guantánamo Bay, arguing a broad executive power in waging war.
Federal courts up to the Supreme Court have waded through detention
questions and in several major cases the courts have rejected
administration contentions.

The government recently conceded that it would no longer try to prove
that the Uighurs were enemy combatants, the classification it uses to
detain people at Guantánamo, where 255 men are now held. But it has
fought efforts by lawyers for the men to have them released into the
United States, saying the Uighurs admitted to receiving weapons
training in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan at the time of the Sept.
11, 2001, attacks.

The White House press secretary, Dana Perino, said the administration
was “deeply concerned by, and strongly disagrees with” the decision.
She added that the ruling, “if allowed to stand, could be used as
precedent for other detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, including sworn
enemies of the United States suspected of planning the attacks of
9/11, who may also seek release into our country.”

Justice Department lawyers said they were filing an emergency
application on Tuesday night for a stay from the federal appeals court
in Washington.

Judge Urbina’s decision came in a habeas corpus lawsuit authorized by
a landmark Supreme Court ruling in June that gave detainees the right
to have federal judges review the reason for their detention. Speaking
from the bench in a courtroom crowded with Uighur supporters of the
detainees, Judge Urbina suggested that the government was seeking a
stay as a tactic to keep the men imprisoned.

“All of this means more delay,” he said with evident impatience, “and
delay is the name of the game up until this point.” The centuries-old
doctrine of habeas corpus permits a judge to demand production of a
prisoner, a power Judge Urbina sought to exercise with his order that
the men be brought to him.

“I want to see the individuals,” he said.

The Uighurs have long been at the center of contentious legal cases
because they said they were swept into detention in Afghanistan in
2001 by mistake. They said they were in Afghanistan to seek refuge
from China, where the Uighurs, Turkic Muslims, often bridle at Han
Chinese rule.

The Bush administration has fought the Uighurs in court for years,
contending that their encampment in Afghanistan had ties to a Uighur
terror group. Last summer, a federal appeals court ridiculed as
inadequate the government’s secret evidence for holding one of the
men. In the months since, the government has said that it would “serve
no useful purpose” to continue to try to prove that any of these 17
men were enemy combatants.

Lawyers for the Uighurs said the men would be persecuted or killed if
they were returned to China. The administration said that since
transferring five Uighur detainees to Albania in 2006, it had been
unable to persuade governments to accept the other 17. Diplomats say
many governments fear reprisal by China, which considers Uighur
separatist groups terrorists.

The administration insisted during arguments on Tuesday that the
courts did not have the power to release the men into the United
States.

Judge Urbina, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, underscored the
significance of his ruling with repeated references to the
constitutional separation of powers and the judiciary’s role.

He rejected Justice Department arguments as assertions of executive
power to detain people indefinitely without court review. He said that
“is not in keeping with our system of government.”

More than 40 Uighurs, a few in native dress that included sequined
velvet caps, watched in anxious silence. Only when the judge rose to
leave the bench did they break into applause.

HSBC, RBS Face Financing Double Whammy as Rates Rise (Update2)

By Ben Livesey and Shelley Smith

Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) -- HSBC Holdings Plc, Royal Bank of Scotland Group
Plc and the biggest U.K. banks face the most debt coming due in at
least 10 years as the credit market seizure raises borrowing costs to
the highest on record.

The six largest British banks have 54 billion pounds ($95 billion) of
debt to refinance by April, triple the amount of the year-ago period,
according to data compiled by Bloomberg. HSBC, the U.K.'s biggest
bank, and RBS each have about 11.5 billion pounds of debt due, while
Barclays Plc has 15.9 billion pounds maturing, the data show.

Financing costs are soaring as banks hoard cash after the credit
crunch triggered by the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis a year ago. The
three-month London interbank offered rate in dollars rose to 4.32
percent from 2.64 percent in March, while the equivalent rate for
euros increased to a record 5.38 percent, from 4.74 percent six months
ago.

``The banks have no idea how they are going to manage rolling over
their debt,'' said Kornelius Purps, a Munich-based bond strategist at
UniCredit SpA. ``The central banks will have to intervene.''

Rates rose this month even as the U.K. announced a cash injection to
prevent a collapse of the banking system, Europe's policy makers
provided emergency funding and U.S. President George W. Bush approved
a $700 billion rescue plan.

Government Rescue

Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government will invest about 50 billion
pounds in the U.K.'s banks, the Treasury said in a statement today.

The government will buy preference shares and the Bank of England will
make at least 200 billion pounds available for banks to borrow under
the so-called special liquidity plan. The government will also provide
a guarantee of about 250 billion pounds to help refinance debt, the
statement said.

Banks need more capital after the worst U.S. housing slump since the
Great Depression and $593 billion in worldwide losses and writedowns
caused their stocks to tumble, forced Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
into bankruptcy and pushed the U.K. government to nationalize Bradford
& Bingley Plc.

The U.K. bank debt includes bonds, commercial paper and equity-linked
notes and compares with 18 billion pounds repaid in the year-earlier
period.

Investors are demanding an average 4.02 percentage points more in
yield to buy bank bonds rather than government securities, up from
0.95 percentage point last year, according to indexes compiled by
Merrill Lynch & Co. The so-called spread on investment-grade corporate
bonds overall averages about 3.35 percentage points.

Lloyds TSB Debt

Rising yields may cost the banks as much as $5.6 billion more in
annual interest compared with a year earlier should they refinance all
of the debt in the bond market, Merrill data show.

``Bond investors are the guys that will decide the future of these
banks and at the moment they're not prepared to roll over their
financing,'' said Simon Maughan, a London-based bank analyst at MF
Global Securities Ltd. ``If you can't roll over you're in an awful lot
of trouble.''

Lloyds TSB Group Plc, the London-based bank that agreed to buy HBOS
Plc in a stock swap on Sept. 18, has about 512 million pounds of bonds
to refinance by the end of March, Bloomberg data show. HBOS, based in
Edinburgh, has 11.9 billion pounds of debt due in the next six
months.

Lloyds spokesman Emile Abu-Shakra in London declined to comment, as
did a spokesman for HBOS. Lloyds TSB will pay about 10.2 billion
pounds in a stock swap for HBOS, based on yesterday's closing share
prices.

`Normal Business'

Standard Chartered Plc, the London-based bank that earns most of its
money in Asia, needs to repay about 2.4 billion pounds of debt.

``The outstanding 2.4 billion pounds in the context of a 400 billion-
pound balance sheet is not material,'' spokesman Arijit De said.
``Standard Chartered is not dependent on wholesale funding markets.''

Barclays has no debt that counts as regulatory capital maturing before
the end of March, according to Simon Eaton, a London-based spokesman.
``Any other financing represents our normal course of business,'' he
said.

HSBC's maturities aren't a reflection of funding requirements, London-
based spokesman Patrick McGuinness said. ``In parts of our business we
are managing down the balance sheet, and in others we are seeing
strong deposit growth.''

RBS spokeswoman Carolyn McAdam declined to comment.

The U.K. central bank will cut its benchmark interest rate a quarter-
percentage point to 4.75 percent tomorrow, according to the median
estimate of 61 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke yesterday signaled a cut in
U.S. interest rates to shore up the economy and reduce funding
pressure on banks. The European Central Bank said this month it will
allow more banks to participate in its unscheduled cash auctions.

``If confidence returns there is less of a liquidity issue and the
debt can be rolled over,'' said Neil Smith, an analyst at WestLB AG in
Dusseldorf. ``Three months should be enough.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Livesey in London
blivesey@bloomberg.net; Shelley Smith in London at
ssmith118@bloomberg.net

Money-Market Rates Rise to Records as Bank Paralysis Worsens

By Gavin Finch

Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) -- European money-market rates climbed to records
as banks balked at lending amid speculation more financial
institutions will collapse.

The euro interbank offered rate, or Euribor, that banks charge each
other for three-month loans in the currency increased 1 basis point to
an all-time high of 5.39 percent today, the European Banking
Federation said. The two-week rate jumped to a record 5.04 percent.
The European Central Bank offered one-day dollar loans at 9.5 percent
today, 556 basis points higher than yesterday's overnight rate.

``We're clearly in a situation of excess pessimism and it's very
difficult to see what can really jolt these markets out of the current
malaise,'' said Sean Maloney, a fixed-income strategist in London at
Nomura International Plc.

Interbank lending rates have soared as financial institutions store
cash to meet anticipated funding needs, defying the efforts of central
banks around the world to revive the frozen credit markets. The U.K.
said today it plans to invest about 50 billion pounds ($87 billion) in
an unprecedented step to stave off a collapse of the country's banking
system.

The London interbank offered rate, or Libor, for overnight loans in
dollars surged 157 basis points yesterday to 3.94 percent,
underscoring the difficulty that banks are having in borrowing even
for a day. The corresponding rate for euros climbed 22 basis points to
4.49 percent.

ECB Auction

Libor, set by 16 banks in a daily survey by the British Bankers'
Association at about noon in London, determines rates on $360 trillion
of financial products worldwide, from home loans to derivatives.
Member banks provide estimates on how much it would cost to borrow in
10 currencies for periods ranging from a day to a year. Euribor, set
in a survey of more than 30 institutions by the European Banking
Federation, is published about 90 minutes earlier.

The Frankfurt-based ECB said it loaned banks $70 billion of one-day
loans today, up from $50 billion yesterday. Banks bid for $122
billion. The 9.5 percent marginal rate at which 96 percent of the
funds were borrowed compares with yesterday's Libor of 3.94 percent
and the Federal Reserve's target rate of 2 percent.

The deepening credit crisis forced the U.K to join the U.S., Ireland,
Iceland, Belgium and Spain in rushing out untested bailout measures to
save banks. As part of the plan, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's
government will buy preference shares, and the Bank of England will
make at least 200 billion pounds available for banks to borrow under a
so-called special liquidity plan, the Treasury said in a statement
today.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Barclays Plc said they plan to
participate in the government rescue.

Libor-OIS Spread

The Libor-OIS spread, a gauge of cash scarcity among banks that
measures the difference between the three-month dollar rate and the
overnight indexed swap rate, increased to 294 basis points today. It
was at 167 basis points two weeks ago and 81 basis points a month
ago.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke signaled yesterday policy
makers are ready to lower interest rates as the credit freeze poses an
escalating danger to the economy.

The world financial system is under ``extraordinary stress'' and
history shows that severe instability ``can take a heavy toll on the
broader economy if left unchecked,'' Bernanke said in a speech in
Washington. ``The Fed will need to consider whether the current stance
of policy remains appropriate.''

Ted Spread

President George W. Bush signed a $700 billion U.S. bailout bill into
law last week to help stem the crisis, which has claimed financial
companies including Bear Stearns Cos. and Lehman Brothers Holdings
Inc. The legislation enables the government to purchase tainted assets
from institutions. European leaders meeting in Paris over the weekend
pledged to bail out their own nations' banks, while stopping short of
a regional rescue effort.

The difference between what banks and the Treasury pay to borrow money
for three months, the so-called TED spread, was at 355 basis points.
It reached 393 basis points two days ago, then the most since
Bloomberg began compiling the data in 1984.

Writedowns and losses worldwide tied to the U.S. mortgage market have
reached $592 billion since the start of last year, according to data
compiled by Bloomberg.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gavin Finch in London at
gfinch@bloomberg.net


Darkness Falls on America

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

America has become a pretty discouraging place. Americans, for the most part, will never know what happened to them, because they no longer have a free and responsible press. They have Big Brother's press. For example, on September 28, 2008, a New York Times editorial blamed the current financial crisis on "antiregulation disciples of the Reagan Revolution."

What utter nonsense. Every example of deregulation that the New York Times editorial provides is located in the Clinton Administration and the George W. Bush administration. I was a member of the Reagan administration. We most certainly did not deregulate the financial system.

The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial from investment banking, was the achievement of the Democratic Clinton Administration. It happened in 1999, over a decade after Reagan left office. It was in 2000 that derivatives and credit default swaps were excluded from regulation.
The greatest mistake was made in 2004, the year that Reagan died. That year the current Secretary of the Treasury, Henry M. Paulson Jr, was head of the investment bank Goldman Sachs. In the spring of 2004, the investment banks, led by Paulson, met with the Securities and Exchange Commission. At this meeting with the New Deal regulatory agency tasked with regulating the US financial system, Paulson convinced the SEC Commissioners to exempt the investment banks from maintaining reserves to cover losses on investments. The exemption granted by the SEC allowed the investment banks to leverage financial instruments beyond any bounds of prudence.

In place of time-proven standards of prudence, computer models engineered by hot shots determined acceptable risk. As one result Bear Stearns, for example, pushed its leverage ratio to 33 to 1. For every one dollar in equity, the investment bank had $33 of debt!

It was computer models that led to the failure of Long-Term Capital Management in 1998, the first systemic threat to the financial system. Why the SEC went along with Paulson and set aside capital requirements after the scare of Long-Term Capital Management is inexplicable.

The blame is headed toward SEC chairman Christopher Cox. This is more of Big Brother's disinformation. Cox, like so many others, was a victim of a free market ideology, itself a reaction to over-regulation, that was boosted by academic economic opinion, rewarded with Nobel prizes, that the market "always knows best."

The 20th century proves that the market is likely to know better than a central planning bureau. It was Soviet Communism that collapsed, not American capitalism. However, the market has to be protected from greed. It was greed, not the market, that was unleashed by deregulation during the Clinton and George W. Bush regimes.

I remember when the deregulation of the financial sector began. One of the first inroads was the legislation, written by bankers, to permit national branch banking. George Champion, former chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, testified against it. In columns I argued that national branch banking would focus banks away from local business needs.

The deregulation of the financial sector was achieved by the Democratic Clinton Administration and by the current Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson, with the acquiescence of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Paulson bailout saves his firm, Goldman Sachs. The Paulson bailout transfers the troubled financial instruments that the financial sector created from the books of the financial sector to the books of the taxpayers at the US Treasury.

This is all the bailout does. It rescues the guilty. The Paulson bailout does not address the problem, which is the defaulting home mortgages. The defaults will continue, because the economy is sinking into recession. Homeowners are losing their jobs, and homeowners are being hit with rising mortgage payments resulting from adjustable rate mortgages and escalator interest rate clauses in their mortgages that make homeowners unable to service their debt.

Shifting the troubled assets from the financial sectors' books to the taxpayers' books absolves the people who caused the problem from responsibility. As the economy declines and mortgage default rates rise, the US Treasury and the American taxpayers could end up with a $700 billion loss.
Initially, the House, but not the Senate, resisted the bailout of the financial institutions,whose executives had received millions of dollars in bonuses for wrecking the US financial system. However, the people's representatives could not withstand the specter of martial law and Great Depression with which Paulson and the Bush administration threatened them. The people's representatives succumbed as they did during the New Deal.

The impotence of Congress traces to the Great Depression. As Theodore Lowi in his classic book, The End of Liberalism, makes clear, the New Deal stripped Congress of its law-making power and gave it to the executive agencies. Prior to the New Deal, Congress wrote the laws. After the New Deal a bill is merely an authorization for executive agencies to create the law through regulations. The Paulson bailout has further diminished the legislative branch's power.

Since Paulson's bailout of his firm and his financial friends does nothing to lessen the default rate on mortgages, how will the bailout play out? If the $700 billion bailout is based on an estimate of the current amount of bad mortgages, as the recession deepens and Americans lose their jobs, the default rate will rise. The $700 billion might not suffice. The Treasury will have to go hat in hand to its foreign creditors for more loans.

As the US Treasury has not got $7, much less $700 billion, it must borrow the bailout money from foreign creditors, already overloaded with US paper. At what point do America's foreign bankers decide that the additions to US debt exceed what can be repaid? This question was ignored by the bailout. There were no hearings. No one consulted China, America's principal banker, or the Japanese, or the OPEC sovereign wealth funds, or Europe. Does the world have a blank check for America's mistakes?

This is the same world that is faced with American demands that countries support with money and lives America's quest for world hegemony. Europeans are dying in Afghanistan for American hegemony. Do Europeans want their banks, which hold US dollars as their reserves, to fail so that Paulson can bail out his company and his friends?

The US dollar is the world's reserve currency. It comprises the reserves of foreign central banks. Bush's wars and economic policies are destroying the basis of the US dollar as reserve currency. The day the dollar loses its reserve currency role, the US government cannot pay its bills in its own currency. The result will be a dramatic reduction in US living standards.

Currently Treasuries are boosted by the habitual "flight to quality," but as Treasury debt deepens, will investors still see quality? At what point do America's foreign creditors cease to lend? That is the point at which American power ends. It might be close at hand.

The Paulson bailout is predicated on cleaning up financial institutions' balance sheets and restoring the flow of credit. The assumption is that once lending resumes, the economy will pick up. This assumption is problematic. The expansion of consumer debt, which kept the economy going in the 21st century, has reached its limit. There are no more credit cards to max out, and no more home equity to refinance and spend. The Paulson bailout might restore trust among financial institutions and enable them to lend to one another, but it doesn't provide a jolt to consumer demand.

Moreover, there may be more shoes to drop. Credit card debt could be the next to threaten balance sheets of financial institutions. Apparently, credit card debt has been securitized and sold as well, and not all of the debt is good. In addition, the leasing programs of the car manufacturers have turned sour. As a result of high gasoline prices and absence of growth in take-home pay, the residual values of big trucks and SUVs are less than the leasing programs estimated them to be, thus creating more financial problems. Car manufacturers are canceling their leasing programs, and this will further cut into sales.

According to statistician John Williams who measures inflation, unemployment, and GDP according to the methodology used prior to the Clinton regime's corruption of these measures, the US unemployment rate is currently at 14.7 per cent and the inflation rate is 13.2 per cent. Consequently, real US GDP growth in the 21st century has been negative.

This is not a picture of an economy that a bailout of financial institution balance sheets will revive. As the Paulson bailout does not address the mortgage problem per se, defaults and foreclosures are likely to rise, thus undermining the Treasury's estimate that 90 per cent of the mortgages backing the troubled instruments are good.

Moreover, one consequence of the ongoing financial crisis is financial concentration. It is not inconceivable that the US will end up with four giant banks: J.P. Morgan Chase, Citicorp, Bank of America, and Wachovia Wells Fargo. If defaulting credit card debt then assaults these banks' balance sheets, who is there to take them over? Would the Treasury be able to borrow the money for another Paulson bailout?

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Home Owners' Loan Corporation refinanced one million home mortgages in order to prevent foreclosures. The refinancing apparently succeeded, and HOLC returned a profit. The problem then, as now, was not "deadbeats" who wouldn't pay their mortgages, and the HOLC refinancing did not discourage others from paying their mortgages. Market purists who claim the only solution is for housing prices to fall to prior levels overlook that rising inventories can push prices below prior levels, thus causing more distress. They also overlook the role of interest rates. If a worsening credit crisis dries up mortgage lending and pushes mortgage interest rates higher, the rise in interest rates could offset the fall in home prices, and mortgages would remain unaffordable even in a falling housing market.

Some commentators are blaming the current mortgage problem on the pressure that the US government put on banks to lend to unqualified borrowers. However, whatever breaches of prudence there may have been only affected the earnings of individual institutions. They did not threaten the financial system. The current crisis required more than bad loans. It required securitization and its leverage. It required Fed chairman Alan Greenspan's inappropriate low interest rates, which created a real estate boom. Rapidly rising real estate prices quickly created home equity to justify 100 percent mortgages. Wall Street analysts pushed financial companies to improve their bottom lines, which they did by extreme leveraging.

An alternative to refinancing troubled mortgages would be to attempt to separate the bad mortgages from the good ones and revalue the mortgage-backed securities accordingly. If there are no further defaults, this approach would not require massive write-offs that threaten the solvency of financial institutions. However, if defaults continue, write-downs would be an ongoing enterprise.

Clearly, all Secretary Paulson thought about was getting troubled assets off the books of financial institutions. The same reckless leadership that gave us expensive wars based on false premises has now concocted an expensive bailout that does not address the problem, which will fester and become worse.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.


Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens For Legitimate Government
07 Oct 2008
http://www.legitgov.org/
All items are here:
http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news


Pakistan facing bankruptcy, West to discuss bailout in Abu Dhabi --Ali Zardari: Pakistan needs bail out worth $100 billion from international community 06 Oct 2008 Officially, the central bank holds $8.14 billion (£4.65 billion) of foreign currency, but if forward liabilities are included, the real reserves may be only $3 billion. Nine months ago, Pakistan had $16 bn in the coffers. The government is engulfed by crises left behind by [Bush's] Pervez Musharraf, the military ruler who resigned the presidency in August. President Asif Ali Zardari is expected to ask the international community for a rescue package at a meeting in Abu Dhabi next month. This gathering will determine whether the West is willing to bail out Pakistan. [Guess where some of your $700 billion is going? See also: US renting Pakistan army for $100 million a month 14 Jul 2007; Aid to Pakistan in Tribal Areas Raises Concerns 16 Jul 2007; US Senate approves Pakistan aid worth $785m 20 Dec 2007 --Incidentally, three days later: Medicaid Funding for Schools Cut 23 Dec 2007; Billions in U.S. Aid to Pakistan Wasted, Officials Assert 24 Dec 2007.]
Days after AIG's $85bn rescue, insurer hosted banquets 08 Oct 2008 The world's largest insurance company, AIG, spent $440,000 on a lavish corporate retreat at one of California's top beachside resorts a few days after accepting an $85bn emergency loan from the US government to stave off bankruptcy. Details of the week-long getaway enraged legislators at a congressional hearing yesterday where AIG's former bosses were accused of spending taxpayers' money on pedicures, golf games and cocktails. [I got your golf games right here.]
Lehman sought millions for execs while seeking aid 06 Oct 2008 The now-bankrupt investment bank Lehman Brothers arranged millions in bonuses for fired executives as it pleaded for a federal lifeline, lawmakers learned Monday, as Congress began investigating what went so wrong on Wall Street to prompt a $700 billion government bailout.
U.S. Debt Too Big for National Debt Clock 06 Oct 2008 The National Debt Clock, launched in 1989 when the nation's debt was less than $3 trillion, cannot keep pace with the growing national debt, now at more than $10 trillion. NBC News reports. (Video)
Mega barf alert! Fed's new tool: Business loan bailout --Federal Reserve to buy loans crucial to business to unfreeze markets. 07 Oct 2008 The Federal Reserve announced a new program to help the battered market for short-term business loans - taking its closest step yet to lending directly to businesses.
Fed Considers Plan to Buy Companies' Unsecured Debt --Move would put more taxpayer dollars at risk 07 Oct 2008 As pressure built in the credit markets and stocks spiraled lower around the world on Monday, the Federal Reserve was considering a radical new plan... Under a proposal being discussed with the Treasury Department, the Fed could buy vast amounts of the unsecured short-term debt that companies rely on to finance their day-to-day activities, according to officials familiar with the discussions. If this were to happen, the central bank would come closer than ever to lending directly to businesses.
Pensions lose $2 trillion --Congressional budget analyst says many workers may need to delay retirement. 07 Oct 2008 Americans' retirement plans have lost as much as $2 trillion in the past 15 months, Congress' top budget analyst estimated Tuesday. The upheaval that has engulfed the financial industry and sent the stock market plummeting is devastating workers' savings, forcing people to hold off on major purchases and consider delaying their retirement, said Peter Orszag, the head of the Congressional Budget Office.

U.S. Stocks Drop; S&P 500, Dow Post Worst Retreats Since 1937 07 Oct 2008 U.S. stocks fell, sending the Standard & Poor's 500 Index below 1,000 for the first time since 2003, on speculation banks and real-estate companies are running short of money as the credit crisis worsens.
Bernanke Signals Fed May Cut Rates as Crisis Deepens 07 Oct 2008 Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke signaled policy makers are ready to lower interest rates as the credit freeze poses an escalating danger to the economy.
McCain linked to private group in Iran-Contra affair 07 Oct 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain has past connections to a private group that supplied aid to guerrillas terrorists seeking to overthrow the leftist government of Nicaragua in the Iran-Contra affair. The U.S. Council for World Freedom was part of an international organization linked to former Nazi collaborators and ultra-right-wing death squads in Central America. The council's founder, retired Army Maj. Gen. John Singlaub, said McCain became associated with the organization in the early 1980s as McCain was launching his political career in Arizona.
John McCain's ties to Charles Keating --The Obama campaign raises the Republican's connection to the convicted S & L scandal figure in reference to today's financial crisis. 07 Oct 2008 McCain's ties to a convicted S&L owner: Probably the biggest political embarrassment of John McCain's career emanated from his close ties to Charles H. Keating Jr., the high-flying owner of Lincoln Savings & Loan who later went to federal prison. Lincoln's failure would ultimately cost taxpayers $3.4 billion, the most expensive rescue of the S&L crisis in the late 1980s.
Barack Obama unveils 13-minute Keating Five documentary 06 Oct 2008 Barack Obama's campaign unveiled... a 13-minute documentary on John McCain's ties to Charles Keating, the chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Assn. who was charged with fraud, racketeering and conspiracy in the savings-and-loan scandal of the late 1980s. It debuted at noon EDT (9 a.m. PDT) today on a website specifically created for it.
KEATING ECONOMICS: John McCain & The Making of a Financial Crisis --Posted by BarackObama.com 06 Oct 2008 (Video)
The ABCs of John McCain, Charles Keating & the Savings & Loan (S&L) Crisis (keatingeconomics.com) 06 Oct 2008 (.pdf)
Obama camp cites SC school invites to Ayers 07 Oct 2008 Barack Obama's campaign is citing the University of South Carolina's speaking invitations to William Ayers and Republican Gov. Mark Sanford's role as school trustee to counter GOP efforts to link the presidential candidate to the 1960s radical. In an e-mail to reporters, the Obama campaign said Ayers is a "distinguished scholar" at the University of South Carolina, where Sanford serves as the ex-officio trustee while governor.
Obama camp: McCain would gut health coverage for old and poor 06 Oct 2008 Barack Obama's White House campaign Monday accused John McCain of plotting to impose savage cuts on government-run health care programs that insure the elderly and the poor. The Obama campaign seized on a Wall Street Journal report that cited independent analysts as estimating the Republican's policies would cut 1.3 trillion dollars over 10 years from Medicare and Medicaid.
McCain Plans Federal Health Cuts --Medicare, Medicaid Spending Would Be Reduced to Offset Proposed Tax Credit 06 Oct 2008 John McCain would pay for his health plan with major reductions to Medicare and Medicaid, a top aide said, in a move that independent analysts estimate could result in cuts of $1.3 trillion over 10 years to the government programs. The Republican presidential nominee has said little about the proposed cuts, but they are needed to keep his health-care plan "budget neutral," as he has promised. The McCain campaign hasn't given a specific figure for the cuts, but didn't dispute the analysts' estimate.
Is Palin Trying to Incite Violence Against Obama? McCain Camp Talks 'Character Assassination,' Supporters Shout for Real Assassination By Jeffrey Feldman 07 Oct 2008 At her last rally in Florida, Sarah Palin told the audience that Barack Obama "palled around with terrorists" adding,"I am just so fearful that this is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America." Upon hearing the Republican VP candidate's concern that Sen. Obama might be a terrorist, a voice in the crowd cried out 'Kill him!'
Press kept under a watchful eye --'Negative things had been written.' 06 Oct 2008 (Clearwater, FL) Constantly under the watchful eyes of security, the media wasn't permitted to wander around inside Coachman Park to talk to Sarah Palin supporters. When reporters tried to leave the designated press area and head toward the bleachers where the crowd was seated, an escort would dart out of nowhere and confront him or her and say, "Can I help you?'' and turn the person around. When one reporter asked an escort, who would not give her name, why the press wasn't allowed to mingle, she said that in the past, negative things had been written.
Pentagon denies reports about U.S. aircraft's landing in Iran 07 Oct 2008 The Pentagon denied news reports Tuesday that a U.S. military aircraft was forced to land in Iran after violating Iran's airspace. Pentagon Bryan Whitman said he hasn't "heard anything like that."
U.S. warplane forced down in Iran 07 Oct 2008 Iranian jet fighters have forced a U.S. warplane to land in one of Iran's airports after it entered Iran's air space without permission, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported on Tuesday. The U.S. warplane has eight passengers, including five high ranking generals and three civilians, Fars said without specifying when the incident happened.
Two bombs explode at Iraqi foreign ministry as US diplomat visits Baghdad 07 Oct 2008 Two bombs exploded outside the Foreign Ministry in Baghdad and close to the fortified green zone where a visiting US diplomat [John Negroponte, the visiting US Deputy Secretary of State] was preparing to give a press conference. [What a shame!] At least five Iraqis were injured in the blasts, which broke windows in the upper floors of the ministry building. They occurred despite a tightening of security across the capital after an increase in bomb attacks over the past fortnight.
Rice: Iraq 'harder' than she 'personally imagined' 07 Oct 2008 Secretary of State [war criminal] Condoleezza Rice said Monday the road for the U.S. in Iraq has been "harder, longer, and more difficult than I personally imagined" and warned that despite some recent progress, success in Iraq is "not a sure thing."
Immunity for U.S. troops, mercenaries a barrier in Iraq talks 07 Oct 2008 The United States' insistence that its troops and mercenaries remain immune from Iraqi law is a key obstacle to reaching a status of forces agreement, the Iraqi foreign minister said Tuesday. The status of forces agreement would define and govern U.S. military operations in Iraq, including criminal and civil jurisdictions. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said he also wanted the United States to refrain from military operations in Iraq without the prior approval of the Iraqi government. The two sides also disagree over how long detainees can be held, al-Maliki said.
Turkey threatens Iraq raid after deadly Kurdish rebel attack 07 Oct 2008 Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened Tuesday to launch a fresh incursion into northern Iraq as warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel targets across the border after a deadly attack killed 17 troops. Speaking a day before parliament was to vote on extending the government's mandate to order cross-border operations, Erdogan said his government was determined to crush the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), using all available means, including an incursion into Iraq.
U.S. soldier, Iraqi policeman killed in northern Iraq 07 Oct 2008 One U.S. soldier and one Iraqi policeman were killed in overnight shootout in the city of Mosul, the U.S. military said on Tuesday.
Ex-IDF, Mossad officials praise Obama 05 Oct 2008 A Jewish group in the United States has recruited a number of retired IDF and high-ranking Mossad officials to appear in a video supporting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, saying he would be a better partner for Israel in the White House. In the video, released by the pro-Obama Jewish Council for Education & Research, Brig.-Gen (Ret.) Shlomo Brom, former IDF commander of strategic planning, said that the Bush administration caused major damage to Israel's interests.
US Defence Secretary accuses UK officials of 'defeatism' 07 Oct 2008 America's Defence Secretary Robert Gates has accused the British ambassador and top military commander in Afghanistan of being "defeatist" for saying the Taliban could not be beaten. He was speaking in reaction to comments from Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, who said in a newspaper that the war against the Taliban could not be won, and the ambassador, Sherard Cowper-Coles, who said an "acceptable dictator" would be the best political solution for Afghanistan.
US anger at Guantanamo Bay ruling --Analysts say ruling is a rebuke for US government --White House said ruling could set a precedent that would allow "sworn enemies" to seek US entry 07 Oct 2008 The US has reacted angrily after a judge ordered that 17 Chinese Muslims held at Guantanamo Bay should be released into the United States. District Judge Ricardo Urbina said the US could not hold the 17 as they were no longer considered enemy combatants. Lawyers for the Bush regime have argued that federal judges do not have authority to order the release into the US of Guantanamo prisoners.

Judge: Release cleared Guantanamo detainees into US --Prisoners, cleared for release since 2004, have been in custody for almost seven years 07 Oct 2008 A federal judge has ordered the release of a small group of Chinese Muslims from Guantanamo Bay into the United States. In a landmark decision, U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina said it would be wrong for the Bush administration to continue holding the detainees, known as Uighurs, since they are no longer considered enemy combatants. They have been in custody for almost seven years and have been cleared for release since 2004.
Govt, News colluded against me: Habib 07 Oct 2008 Former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Mamdouh Habib will argue that the government colluded with publisher Nationwide News to attack his credibility in a defamation suit ahead of his high-profile compensation claim. Federal Court judge Nye Perram on Tuesday allowed the former terrorist suspect to amend his case to include allegations that the federal government helped Nationwide News, which publishes The Daily Telegraph, fight a defamation suit against him earlier this year. Mr Habib lost the case after extensive evidence was produced to prove the truth of an article in The Daily Telegraph in 2005, which implied he lied about his torture.
Airport bomb scans tested in busy terminals 07 Oct 2008 Fearing that terrorists with suicide vests may blow up crowded sections of airports, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for the first time is looking at ways to scan people as they walk through terminals. Machines recently tested at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and Denver International Airport could pave the way for more airports to get the technology.
US to limit oil development in polar bear habitat 06 Oct 2008 The U.S. Interior Department will designate within two years protected areas of the Arctic that are considered critical habitat for polar bears and cannot be harmed by oil development as part of a legal settlement with environmental groups on Monday. The Interior Department formally listed polar bears as threatened in May, but did not create protected areas for them.
Stop the Eleventh-Hour Assault on Endangered Species --It may be the eleventh hour of the Bush/Cheney Administration, but that’s not stopping their efforts to undermine the Endangered Species Act. 03 Oct 2008 The Administration wants to make serious changes to this landmark law that would eliminate some of the most important checks and balances that protect our polar bears, wolverines, whales and other imperiled wildlife. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is taking public comments on this proposal until October 15th.
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Expressindia » Story
'98% in XII, 19 lakh-job, went to US many times'
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Sagnik Chowdhury
Posted: Oct 07, 2008 at 0950 hrs IST
Mumbai, October 6 The arrest of 31-year-old Mohammed Mansoor Asgar Peerbhoy alias Munawar alias Mannu along with 14 others in connection with a string of bomb blasts and terror plots in recent months has alarmed security agencies not only because he was a brilliant student and a well-paid computer engineer who worked with a global Internet firm, but also because he had managed to visit the United States on work several times without arousing any suspicion.
Peerbhoy, sources told 'The Indian Express', held a senior position at the Internet firm’s office in Pune and earned an annual salary of Rs 19 lakh. He is alleged to have headed the “media cell” of Indian Mujahideen which drafted and sent e-mails that spewed venom at the government and politicians minutes before bomb blasts.
A “brilliant student” who came from a “very well-to-do” family, he was working as a principal software engineer in the MNC when he was picked up on September 28. “It is really shocking that someone with Peerbhoy’s profile is also being arrested by us in terror cases. He hails from a very well-to-do and educated Muslim family in Pune. Preliminary enquiries have revealed that Peerbhoy himself is brilliant in academics,” one officer said.
Peerbhoy finished his schooling from Rosary School in the Camp area of Pune. He scored 93 percent marks in his 10th standard exams and 98 percent in his 12th standard. He studied computer engineering at a Pune college and has been working with the MNC since 2003, the officer added.
“We have learnt that Peerbhoy’s radicalisation began in late 2006 when Riyaz Bhatkal spotted him at a local mosque. Bhatkal introduced him to mechanical engineer Asif Bashir Shaikh, arrested for his role in planting the bombs in Surat, who then indoctrinated Peerbhoy through sustained brainwashing. He was made to read jihadi literature and see footage of the Palestine conflict, Iraq, Godhra and the 1993 Mumbai riots. Besides this, he was also taken to meet several ideologues and hear their speeches,” said the officer.
In May 2007, Bhatkal provided Rs 70,000 each to Peerbhoy and computer science graduate Mubin alias Salman Kadar Shaikh (also arrested) for attending a one-week course in hacking organised in Hyderabad. According to police, Bhatkal and his brother Iqbal used to hand over material for the terror e-mails to Asif, who would then make a rough draft along with Mubin. They would then take this draft to Peerbhoy for final changes as “he was very well versed in English”. The e-mails were sent by hacking into unsecured WiFi networks that had already been randomly located by the group.
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/98-in-XII-19-lakhjob-went-to-US-many-times/370288/






Central bank to central planning?


According to the followers of Knut Wicksell, the central bank must keep the market rate of interest near the natural rate of interest. No, said the followers of John Maynard Keynes, it must offset swings in business animal spirits in order to stabilise aggregate demand.


India also vulnerable to global turmoil: IMF


As the international economy grapples with the worst credit crisis in recorded economic history, multilateral agency International Monetary Fund has identified India as “vulnerable” - among the many other emerging markets around the world.

Don’t blame fair value accounting for the crisis


Politicians in the US as well as UK have blamed fair value accounting, also known as mark-to-market accounting, for the current financial crisis.



Editorial
RBI needs to think interest rate cuts
The rupee is clearly undervalued by 10 to 15% today. With inflation and commodity prices heading southward, the central bank could afford a small interest rate cut, if only to improve sentiment for growth in the real economy.
Slowdown fears singe emerging markets
Investors across the globe are more concerned about the return of their money than returns on money. We can expect some sanity to return to the markets once the deleveraging process is complete. Yet, that does not mean that the market will bounce back as fast as it tumbled.
Hairdressers For Kindergarten
When Rahul walked into class the other day with spikes all over his head, his colleagues howled in appreciation, notes an article in a Bangalore tabloid. Rahul and his classmates are all six years old. Garden City teacher Nisha says she was startled by the sight of her young students coming to class in different hairstyles almost every other day.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinionshome/897228639.cms

Nice knowing you, DADA and NANO
Sourav to quit after Aussie Tests
For much of his career, Sourav Ganguly has been hated by the Australians, chiefly because of his “don’t-mess-with-me” attitude, which they believe is solely their preserve. ... | Read..


Tatas opt for ‘good M’
Moving from a “bad M to a good M”, Ratan Tata today dealt a knockout punch to the tottering image of Brand Bengal by deciding to relocate the Nano plant in Nare ... | Read..


What Modi has shown
The Tatas’ abandonment of Singur inspired much reflection on the sins of Bengal and Bengalis; their flight to Gujarat should inspire similar thoughts on the virtues of G ... | Read..


Sanity signs in Bodo belt
For the first time since communal clashes broke out in the Bodo belt four days ago, there were no reports of violence today. ... | Read..


KYKL leader killed
The body of Wangba Khamancha, a senior leader of the Kangleipak Yawol Kana Lup (KYKL), was found on an isolated stretch on the Gurgaon-Delhi border near Mundela village o ... | Read..



‘The right time’: Sourav Ganguly during a practice session in Bangalore on Tuesday. (AFP) n See Sport
Nice knowing you, DADA and NANO






I hope that there is a bad M and a good M. We need that transition
Ratan Tata

Full Scorecard




Land of Na-mo ready to park Nano
Forced out of Singur, the Nano has travelled at lightening speed to Sanand in the land of Na-mo ... | Read.. Kidnap, death threats to Sana
Sourav Ganguly received not one but two letters threatening daughter Sana, one allegedly from t ... | Read..

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Today Sourav Ganguly made his purportedly surprise announcement ~ that he'll retire from Test cricket at the end of the four matches series against Australia beginning on Thursday. Sourav Ganguly (right) with Gautam Gambhir at a practice session in Bangalore on Tuesday. - AFP




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