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Category Archives: Economics
A Futile Bailout as Darkness Falls on America By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
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.
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Posted in Economics, Empire
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A Powerful Trap – The Recurring Myth of Peak Oil By ISMAEL HOSSEIN-ZADEH
The Peak Oil theory maintains that world production of conventional oil will soon reach a maximum, or peak, and decline thereafter, with grave socio-economic consequences. Some proponents of the theory argue that world oil production has already peaked, and is now in a terminal decline [1].
Although, on the face of it, this sounds like a fairly reasonable proposition, it has been challenged on both theoretical and empirical grounds. While some critics have called it a myth, others have branded it as a money-making scam promoted by the business interests that are vested in the fossil fuel industry, in the business of war and militarism, and in the Wall Street financial giants that are engaged in manipulative oil speculation. Continue reading
Posted in Conspiracy, Economics, Empire
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An Islamic Perspective – Meltdown in American Markets By LIAQUAT ALI KHAN
Call it the consequences of irresponsible American invasions, call it the irrational exuberance of short sellers, call it the catastrophe of subprime lending, call it the mismanagement of leveraged products, blame it as you may, American markets are facing unprecedented meltdown and doomsayers see little promise in the federal bailout package. Ironically, the Wall Street has noticed that Shariah-compliant investments–which avoid speculative risk and debt-ridden greed–have fared much better in these troubled markets. In the past few years, Shariah-compliant investments in Western markets have grown to more than half a trillion dollars. Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Empire, Religion of Abraham
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Q&A: The US financial meltdown
Several categories of individuals and institutions stand accused for the current financial crisis in the US. We examine the blame game and how it all got this bad.
What is happening in the financial sector of the United States?
The investment bank Bear Stearns was bailed out by the Federal Reserve (the central banking system) for $29 billion, and the US Government has since taken over the home mortgage titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, at a potential total cost to the taxpayers of $200 billion. Yet, the turmoil in the financial markets continues.
Updated 30 Sep.08
Posted in Economics, Empire
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The “Demonization” of Muslims and the Battle for Oil
Muslim countries possess three quarters of the World’s oil reserves. In contrast, the United States of America has barely 2 percent of total oil reserves. Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Empire
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The End of the Anglo-American Empire?
Economic crime has occurred on an epic scale, including currency manipulations, privatization of public resources, the aforesaid financial bubbles, involvement of governments in the illicit drug trade, attacks by financiers on national economies, the creation of offshore tax havens, money laundering, destruction of entire industries to benefit global capitalism, human trafficking, cornering of markets on food and other vital commodities, speculative hedge funds whose managers earn a billion dollars a year, and looting of private companies and pension funds by highly-paid CEOs and executives.. Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Empire
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Oil and Racism By REZA FIYOUZAT
“Non-OPEC countries produce 60% of the oil available on the world market. Canada, for example, is the biggest exporter of oil to the U.S. Yet, do you ever read any headlines demanding the Canadians increase their oil production, or threatening to sue Canada for withholding higher levels of oil production and driving up the prices? Not very likely!”
“Peak Oil is a scam. When looked at superficially and if one’s outlook is that of the status quo, it sounds logical: when you have a finite resource, and your way of life burns that resource much faster than your way of life can replenish it; and once you get past the halfway point of what remains of that resource, your access to that resources will go into decline. Common sense enough. But, common sense is not always the best sense. In this case, the explanation provided doesn’t even add up to common sense. ” Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Empire, Middle East
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Deals with Iraq are set to bring oil giants back
BAGHDAD: Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power.
Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s largest fields, according to ministry officials, oil company officials and an American diplomat.
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Posted in Economics, Iraq
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Peak oil hits new heights and the view is not pretty – SMH – 26 May.08
China’s devastating earthquake gave the people of Sichuan an early taste of a world that is running out of fuel.
Thousands of families slept in their cars outside petrol stations because the province’s oil infrastructure had been disrupted and its remaining fuel supplies diverted to the rescue effort. Truck drivers loitered patiently for local officials to raise their diesel rations beyond a paltry 100 yuan ($14), while taxi drivers refused to take reporters from Mianyang city to the earthquake disaster zone because they could not get enough petrol for the ride.
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Posted in Economics, Empire
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Iran Ends Oil Transactions In U.S. Dollars – 30 Apr.08
OPEC’s Second-Largest Producer Now Pegs Petroleum To Euros And Yen
(AP) Iran, OPEC’s second-largest producer, has completely stopped conducting oil transactions in U.S. dollars, a top Oil Ministry official said Wednesday, a concerted attempt to reduce reliance on Washington at a time of tension over Tehran’s nuclear program and suspected involvement in Iraq.
Iran has dramatically reduced dependence on the dollar over the past year in the face of increasing U.S. pressure on its financial system and the fall in the value of the American currency. Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Empire, Iran
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