19 Sept 2011

Profit from Punishment


Prison lobby locking 'n' loading up on cash

Palestinian Statehood to Kill Israel's Immunity

The Arab Spring has destroyed Israeli narrative of ungovernable Arabs. Israel now looks like (and is) the biggest human rights abuser in the region.

This Is Going To Hurt

The worldwide bond bubble will burst and Britain is not prepared  
There is much to be terrified about in today’s global economy. The eurozone’s death dance, China’s slowdown and America’s inability to create jobs are enough to make the most upbeat investors gloomy. But even these problems pale in comparison with the biggest threat, one with implications so hideous that financiers are reluctant to talk about it even now. The truth is that the economies of rich countries, including the UK, are being kept alive by another and astonishingly under-reported bull market — in government debt. This is the bond bubble; and when it bursts, as it surely will, the result will be a recession far deeper than the crash from which we are trying to recover.

This danger is ignored for a very understandable reason: government bonds are so boring that most people pay them no attention. Yet they fulfil a vital role, crucial to Britain’s nascent economic recovery. Bonds are, in effect, the IOU notes issued by debt-hungry governments. America, unsurprisingly, is the biggest issuer. The bond market is the pipeline of debt, flowing into the British economy and setting the price at which banks lend to mortgage holders and small businesses, as well as the cost of borrowing for the large multinationals that employ so many Britons. Bonds have also become the drug to which the political establishment is now addicted. Reports Allister Heath of the Spectator. (Click here for complete story at original source)

Anonymous Occupy Lower Manhattan

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered near Wall Street in New York City to protest against the existing financial system, which they say is the cause of the economic crisis and is fueling social injustice. reports rt.com
The organizers planned the rally on Wall Street for months to express anger over the rule of the “capitalist political system” and the rule of the rich. Some referred to the movement simply as September 17, after the date of the rally. Others dubbed it the “United States Day of Rage.” The “Occupy Wall St.” movement had stated beforehand that its mission was to bring 20,000 people “to flood into Lower Manhattan, set up beds, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months.” According to the organizers, the demonstration was inspired by the massive protests that took place in Egypt, Greece, Spain and Iceland. An “Occupy Wall St.” group on Facebook calls on followers to “deploy this emerging stratagem against the greatest corrupter of our democracy: Wall Street, the financial Gomorrah of America.”
The protesters claim that they are “the 99 percent that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1 percent.”

The activists have been coordinating the event through social media. However, much of the protesters’ targets were blocked by police, who prepared for the demonstration and shut down sections of Wall Street near the New York Stock Exchange and Federal Hall, The New York Times reported. Throughout the day, hundreds of people gathered in Lower Manhattan debating and waving signs with messages such as “Democracy Not Corporatization” and “End the Oligarchy.” The protesters say they are going to rally all night long and are calling on people to join the demonstration on Sunday and Monday.