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Eight Strategic Factors to Consider in 2012

WarOnYou — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 05:15:50 +0000

Eight Strategic Factors to Consider in 2012

Written by Strategic Studies

Wednesday, 04 January 2012 03:23

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Rarely in the past six decades has global context counted for as much in strategic forecasting — trend analysis — as it does at the dawn of 2012. Reliance on stove-piped analysis of “strategic sectors” — such as economic and financial issues, security issues, politics, geopolitics, resources and energy, sociology and religion, and so on — will produce skewed and unreliable estimates, and will tend to favor linear extrapolations of recent experience. A study of broad contextual factors, including an expanded view of history, will show how cycles and confluences of trends potentially play a greater disruptive role than at any time since the end of World War II.

We have, in recent writings, stressed the longer-term trends and outlook, but it is important to see how the strategic environment is likely to play out during 2012. Equally, it is important that these trends (and others) are seen collectively, and not separately.

1. Global Economic and Financial Trends: Economic fragility is everywhere, even in fairly robust and growing economies. Some of the new engines of economic and financial growth — Brazil, India, and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) — face significant hurdles in 2012. Indeed, it is likely that we may see economic growth couple with instability, and with an inability of even substantial growth to meet social (and therefore political) expectations. Absent major surprises, watch for India to fall still further behind the PRC in terms of economic, and therefore strategic, competitiveness. But the delicacy of the global situation, as well as the PRC’s leadership transition in 2012, means that the PRC is unlikely, during this year, to see its yuan (renminbi) transform into a major global currency. Three of the major global economic lynchpins — the United States of America, the European Union, and Japan — remain in economic and financial difficulties, and this will constrain their strategic capabilities significantly. The rising debt-to-GDP ratio in both the US and the EU will hollow economic recovery efforts. This situation also means that the US dollar and the euro will retain their status as global trading currencies only by default, and will help reinforce a continuation of a fundamentally inflationary situation in the global marketplace. National statistics, which are biased politically, will continue to obscure real, underlying inflation, and this will continue to be pervasive and exported from the US and eurozone.

2. Global Energy Supply and Demand: 2012 will see the start of a transformation in fossil fuel supply and demand patterns, driven to an increasing extent by technological capabilities (such as the increasing possibility of delivering fuels derived from shale deposits in Europe, North America, and elsewhere). Changing strategic power reach (such as the decline in US influence in the Middle East, Central Asia, and, increasingly, Africa; and the rise in the PRC’s and India’s acquisitiveness) will also change control and logistical patterns for oil and gas distribution. The US has the ability to move much of its fossil fuel dependence away from the Middle East and Africa through transforming political approaches to the exploitation of domestic oil and gas fields and through cooperation with Canada in the exploitation of Alberta’s shale deposits, but is unlikely to make headway in this arena in the short term, due to political inertia. Based on present evidence, the US energy dependence pattern will remain slow to change in 2012, and significant change is only likely to occur with a change in US political leadership, which could occur at the beginning of 2013. As a result, the US will continue to face high costs, and high security vulnerability, because of its ongoing dependence on the maritime delivery of its oil and gas imports. This dependence comes at a time of declining US ability to project power to protect or — through strategic influence — ensure security of supply from, say, the Gulf of Guinea or the Middle East. Declining US strategic reach has already ensured the loss of control over, for example, Central Asian/Caspian oil and gas supplies.

Part of the changing fossil fuel logistical framework which will affect the strategic balance — apart from the exploitation of shale deposits in Europe, North America, and elsewhere — will be the clarity which will begin to emerge during 2012 in the future importance of oil and gas fields being developed in the Eastern Mediterranean. This will be a major driver in determining the economic creditworthiness (and therefore eurozone reliability) of the South-Eastern European countries such as Cyprus and Greece and, potentially, Italy. This will be a significant factor in the strategic behavior of Turkey, which is now seen as being outside the European Union bloc, and which is struggling to retain a major role in the energy marketplace. It lacks control over viable energy fields, and its influence over Central Asian/Caspian energy transportation to European markets (or even to the Mediterranean transshipment market) is, in relative terms, declining. Turkish economic fragility is, as a result, beginning to show, and this has generated an “equal and opposite” rise in Turkish strategic adventurism, designed to ensure a re-growth of neo-Ottoman influence over the Levant (particularly Syria and parts of the Palestinian Authority) and even Egypt. This adventurism seems likely to come to a head in 2012, even though the current Turkish Islamist political leadership is unsure how to effectively realize its adventurism given its concern over the reliability and loyalty of the Turkish Armed Forces to support an approach which goes so strongly against the secularist Kemalism of the Armed Forces.

The growing uncertainty of hydrocarbon supplies from the Persian Gulf, North Africa, and the Gulf of Guinea has sent the EU into an even greater reliance on Russia-origin and Russia-dominated for its energy supplies. What started as an economic driven default option will keep evolving in 2012 into a grand-strategic transformation. Brussels’ ambivalence about continued reliance on the NATO-based Euro-Atlanticism versus shift to the Mackinderian “Common Eurasian Home” doctrine advocated by Berlin and Moscow will be decided in favor of the latter, primarily on energy supply grounds and irrespective of the brewing political instability in Russia. Cognizant, the Kremlin will increasingly trade artificial lowering of energy price for Europe’s political-strategic pliability. This realignment will have major impact on the EU’s policy in key issues outside the immediate bilateral relations such as interventionism in third-party conflicts on the European periphery.

The strategic impact during 2012 of new energy-related technologies, apart from shale cracking, which will be worth watching are those related to energy transmission and storage. On the one hand, fixed, terrestrial electricity grids will become more efficient through interactive energy management computing, but at the same time they will become strategically more vulnerable, as noted repeatedly by this writer. On the other hand, 2012 will see a growth in the development to strategic scale (a significant change) of viable storage devices — batteries — which can act as stand-alone support for increasingly efficient local communications and computing networks, and be sustained by the newly-strategic-scale solar power technologies. It is the growth of these self-sustaining local networks which will serve as the guarantor of stability in the event of widespread interference with conventional terrestrial grids by natural disasters or human-sponsored disruptions.

3. Strategic Recovery by the US. The US will not, in 2012, show signs of any recovery of its global strategic credibility or real strength. Its manufacturing and science and technology sectors will continue to suffer from low (even declining) productivity and difficulty (for political reasons, primarily) in capital formation. A significant US recovery is not feasible in the timeframe given the present political and economic policies and impasse evident. US allies will, as they did in 2011, increasingly look to their own needs while attempting to sustain their alliance relationship with the US to the extent feasible. Those outside the US alliance network, or peripheral to it, will increasingly disregard US political/diplomatic pressures, and will seek to accommodate the PRC or regional actors. The continued economic malaise of the US during 2012, even if disguised by modest nominal GDP growth, will make economic (and therefore strategic) recovery more difficult and ensure that it will take longer.

In any event, the fact that the US national debt exceeds the GDP hollows the dollar and thus makes meaningful recovery impossible. The attractiveness of a low dollar value in comparison to other currencies in making US manufacturing investment more feasible than in recent years is offset by declining US workforce productivity and political constraints which penalize investment in manufacturing, or even in achieving appealing conditions for capital formation. Banks are as afraid of such investment as are manufacturing investors themselves.

4. EU/Eurozone Prospects. The unwillingness of eurozone leaders Germany and France to decouple economic and financial issues within the currency zone will continue to extract a growing cost on the Continental European economies. This, potentially coupled with a plateauing of demand from the PRC and India (among others) for German manufactured goods, could bring the eurozone to a period of stagnation. The option of a break-up of the eurozone, and the reversion to national currencies by some euro states (such as Greece, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Portugal [the PIIGS states], etc.) may be dampened by the fact that such a move may not address the underlying fiscal structures. But tempers are fraying within the EU, and moves toward the creation of Europe as a nation-state have slowed commensurately. Indeed, the desire for EU unity seems mainly driven by German and French fears of a return to 19th and 20th century nationalism and its potential to generate military competitiveness on the Continent. Claims that this fear is no longer a factor in German and French desires to sustain the eurozone miss the visceral underpinning of Franco-German policy in this regard. In the meantime, EU strategic projection has also come, in relative terms, to a standstill, and those EU and other European states active in the Coalition war in Afghanistan are anxious to withdraw from that engagement and to reduce military costs as rapidly as possible. All that this will do will be to further reduce the EU’s diplomatic influence on Turkey, the Middle East, Africa, and on global issues.

5. Iran-US-Israeli Military Engagement. 2011 drew to a close with Iran, the US, and Israel posturing themselves confrontationally over the question of Iran’s pursuit of an indigenous nuclear weapons production capability. All parties to the disagreement have postured themselves badly, through diplomatic bluster, and find the search for face-saving difficult. Equally, there is a distinct lack of understanding of each of the players by each other. The reality, however, is that military solutions to the crisis are not feasible given the lack of sufficient military and economic resources available to any of the parties, including the US. By withdrawing unconditionally from Iraq and turning against Bahrain at the height of the Iran-sponsored turmoil, the US effectively demonstrated to friends and foes alike that, rhetoric to the contrary notwithstanding, that Washington was no longer committed to the Greater Middle East as a zone of vital interests.

This may mean that any “military confrontation” between any of the players would — ideally for all parties — be limited to a short, sharp jab or series of jabs, without getting into major strikes against significant land targets. Symbolism in engagement would be the order of the day, allowing honor to be satisfied on all sides. Indeed, a US naval confrontation with an Iranian naval element in or near the Straits of Hormuz might even obviate any need for an Iranian-Israeli spat. Iran has been careful to ensure that any provocation of Israel in direct terms up to this point has been via HizbAllah elements in Lebanon, and even this option is less secure for Iran in the opening months of 2012 given the instability of Iran’s major conduit to HizbAllah, Syria.

Any engagement of forces between any of these players is high-risk, however, given the prospect of a misstep, or over-reach, by a politician for whatever reason.

The matter is further dampened by the knowledge in US policy circles — tangentially confirmed by the US Director of National Intelligence (DNI) at the beginning of 2011 — that Iran already had a number of nuclear weapons acquired since about 1991 from a number of international sources. Given that the US and Israel have “pledged” never to allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, any open acknowledgement of the reality of Iranian nuclear weapons possession either invites the US or Israeli governments to take decisive military action against Iran, or look foolish. The answer has been — as it was with the US denial of North Korean nuclear weapons possession for so many years — to pretend the evidence does not exist, but to act cautiously nonetheless.

6. The Arab “Spring Break”. Concerns over the positive or negative prospects for “democracy” in the Middle East as a result of the rash of examples of popular unrest (Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria) should be seen in the light of the removal of a firm superpower authority figure in the region following the collapse of the Cold War and subsequent decline of the US. They should also be seen in light of the reality of the maturing and stagnation of some of the political systems which did not have the flexibility and legitimacy of traditional systems. The very peaceful and stable transformation of Morocco in 2011 — with a new Constitution and subsequent parliamentary elections — showed the value of a respected, historical leadership and governance process which was inherently rooted in local values. But how the governance systems evolve in Egypt and Syria, in particular, and also elsewhere in the region, is of strategic importance, but the process is natural and inevitable, and the US and Europe have demonstrated in the past few years that they are unwilling and incapable to influence events.

The PRC and Russia lack the capability to enforce any outcomes in the region, and Iran has an influence by virtue of being such an overwhelming presence in the Persian Gulf. Indeed, what happens in Syria is also of profound concern for Iran and its rise or fall as a major regional power. This, and some of the other disputes, highlights the competition which runs parallel to the cooperation between Iran and Turkey.

Not unrelated to this is the tenuous nature of the attempt by the Turkish political leadership’s bid to rebuild the neo-Ottoman status of Turkey in the Levant and Eastern Mediterranean, the Greater Black Sea Basin and Balkans, and Eastward into the Caspian Basin and Central Asia. Turkey has also strongly promoted itself as a patron of the Arab states, on the Arabian Peninsula, as well as of Egypt. But memories of the Ottoman domination of the region are not merely reposited in Turkish minds; they are also, with negative connotations, embedded in the minds of their former subject peoples. So Turkey’s bid for major regional power status seems likely to come to a head in 2012, possibly through forced attempts to change the leadership of Syria on Turkey’s terms, or through confrontations with Israel and Cyprus (and possibly Greece) over Eastern Mediterranean energy deposits and maritime boundary claims.

The beginning of 2012 finds Iran desperately fighting the formation of a Sunni Turkish-Saudi Arabian bloc which, if successful, would reverse and contain the historic ascent of Shi’ite Iran and its consolidation of hold over Iraq, Lebanon and parts of Syria; that is, consolidating a Shi’ite land-bridge to the shores of the Mediterranean. In recent months, as the tectonic shifts in the Greater Middle East were becoming more pronounced, Tehran has repeatedly used the specter of US-Iranian rapprochement and Iranian tacit facilitation of the safe withdrawal of US troops from neighboring Iraq, the Persian Gulf, and Afghanistan as inducement for the US to not side with the Sunni bloc led by Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Because of these higher priorities, Tehran elected to lick its wounds and refrained from escalating the Shi’ite insurrection in Bahrain even though Tehran definitely has the capacity to do so at will.

In 2012, Tehran will remain confounded by the contradictory US policy toward Iran and the Middle East. On the one hand, the Obama White House continues to project great interest in rapprochement with Tehran over Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Persian Gulf, as well as willingness to compromise over Iranian influence in post-Mubarak Egypt and post-Qadhafi Libya. The Obama White House is also the primary supporter of tiny Qatar’s ascent as a regional interventionist Islamist power which seeks to enshrine regional stability by assisting the formation of jihadist types of government with which Iran can co-exist, first in Libya and now in Syria. On the other hand, the Obama White House remains committed to the political ascent of the Muslim Brothers (Ikhwan al-Muslimin) and the Turkish Islamists who are anti-Shi’ite. Moreover, the US supports the Syrian opposition and urges Turkey to topple the Assad Government in the name of demography-based-democracy: that is, the ascent of a Sunni-Islamist government in Damascus.
Hence, while it seems to be too late to reverse the US encouragement of, and commitment to, the Turkish-Saudi Sunni bloc, the zealous unleashing of an all-out “anti-Iranian” campaign in this context is filled with great danger. Any military attack on Iran would result in a region-wide conflagration which would include Israel. This would play into the Mahdivists’ hands. Irrespective of the extent of the Arab military defeat, the real winners would be the Islamists-jihadists who would rise to power in the name of redeeming Arab-Islamic honor from the failed and now defeated Arab nationalism and statehood. The US penchant to encourage and exploit the ascent of Sunni-Islamist blocs in the Middle East (Turkey-Saudi Arabia-Egypt) and South Asia (Pakistan-Afghanistan) in order to stifle Iran might pressure Tehran but would also result in the radicalization of Central Asia and the soft underbelly of Russia to the detriment of vital Western interests such as what remains of its access to the region’s energy resources.

7. A Return to Chaos in Nigeria. What happens in Nigeria affects the global energy market, and the strategic stability of the EU and the US, and other states. By the beginning of 2012, Nigeria was falling rapidly toward civil war, or at least uncontrollable insurgency, and there seems little which Nigeria’s major trading partners can do to prevent the slide. Indeed, for the first time since the Nigerian Civil War of 1967-70, Nigeria is facing the prospect of a polarizing north-south schism. The experience of the Civil War is imprinted on the minds of older Nigerians, and so, too, is the basic framework to avoid a repetition of that war. But Pres. Goodluck Jonathan — who came to office from the “South-South”, the oil-producing Niger Delta region, with the promise of an ability to heal north-south divisions — has exacerbated the security situation in Nigeria by promoting a political culture bedeviled by two principles: corruption and indecisiveness. Increasingly, there has been talk of the military removing Pres. Jonathan as a means to prevent a new civil war, but the former Army Chief of Staff and former National Security Advisor, Lt.-Gen. (rtd.) Aliyu Mohammed, has been a voice calling for constraint and legal solutions.

As the situation now stands in Nigeria, no Western power has the capacity to intervene militarily to stave off a further security decline in the country, but the US and other allies have been attempting to help train Nigerian security forces to do the job. This, in fact, is unlikely to work, but Nigerian security and military agencies could do the job under the right leadership, and — as US and European officials know — this is Gen. Mohammed. But Gen. Mohammed, a strict democrat, will not countenance an unconstitutional military intervention in government. Hence the only solution in Nigeria would be for Pres. Jonathan to be forced into making the decision he has constantly promised to make: to put Lt.-Gen. Mohammed into a super ministerial portfolio with authority to address the crisis.

Here we see the fate of the stability of the Gulf of Guinea — emerging as perhaps the most important fossil fuel export zone in the world after Russia and the Middle East — hinging on the inability of a single man, Goodluck Jonathan, to make a decision: a corrupt and inept politician in fear of an honest and capable figure.

8. Stability on the Korean Peninsula. All indicators point to the probability that the new leadership of the Democratic People’s Republic of (North) Korea (DPRK), under Kim Jong-Un, will pursue a cautious (albeit with strong propaganda) policy toward adventurism on the Korean Peninsula for much or all of 2012. The new DPRK Administration can be expected to make some significant image-building initiatives, such as missile launches, and possibly even a further demonstration of a nuclear weapon, to demonstrate deterrence to the US and the Republic of Korea (RoK) and to demonstrate that Kim Jong-Un and his military team are firmly in control. However, the major cause for concern would be if the political transition and economic factors triggered popular unrest in the country. But this is not anticipated.

There are many major issues which run beneath the surface, or in parallel, with these short-term trend issues. For example, PRC Pres. Hu Jintao will step down from the Presidency in 2012, and this will trigger a new era in Chinese politics. This transfer of power, like the US Presidential and Congressional elections later in 2012, will be of enormous long-term significance, but these changes are part of the evolving continuum. The watershed changes — such as transforming energy patterns, or the changes in the way most wars are likely to be fought over the coming decades — are, however, the ones which should figure strongly when analyzing global risks and opportunities.

It is worth bearing in mind that 2012 is not expected to be a year of “big wars”, largely because most societies in the world are at a point where they lack the basic resources to sustain such activities on an inter-state scale. This will not prevent “short, sharp wars”, or clashes between sovereign powers, and the danger always exists that these can escalate, regardless of the preparedness levels or economies of the parties. The potential for clashes between Turkey and Israel or Cyprus, or the potential for a clash between Iranian and US forces fall into this category. But, conversely, a greater likelihood exists that the depressed, or even desperate, economic and social conditions of some states will exacerbate domestic unrest to the point of civil war. Nigeria falls into this category, but so do many other states. Indeed, the domestic situation in Pakistan is itself delicate, but also (as with Nigeria) potentially ripe for stabilizing actions by the domestic players.

The strategic consequences of an implosion in such states as Nigeria or Pakistan are profound, and, as noted earlier in this report, the “major powers”, such as they are at the moment, cannot think of intervening in their conventional heavy fashion if they hope to stabilize the situations.

This is a year which will call for greater skills than those required in the Cold War era, or even the post-Cold War age of wealth. It is a year of Great Power Impotence.

Analysis. By Gregory R. Copley, Editor, and Yossef Bodansky, Senior Editor, GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs.

Furious at Latest U.S. Attack, Pakistan Shuts Down Resupply Routes to Afghanistan “Permanently”

WarOnYou — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 00:51:53 +0000

Furious at Latest U.S. Attack, Pakistan Shuts Down Resupply Routes to Afghanistan “Permanently”

Written by John Daly

Thursday, 01 December 2011 02:52

NATO recently literally shot itself in the foot, imperiling the resupply of International Assistance Forces (ISAF) in Afghanistan by shooting up two Pakistani border posts in a “hot pursuit’ raid.

Given that roughly 100 fuel tanker trucks along with 200 other trucks loaded with NATO supplies cross into Afghanistan each day from Pakistan, Pakistan’s closure of the border has ominous long-term consequences for the logistical resupply of ISAF forces, even as Pentagon officials downplay the issue and scramble for alternative resupply routes.

Pakistan, long angry about ISAF/NATO cross border raids, has apparently reached the end of its tether. Following the 26 November NATO aerial assault on two border posts in Mohmand Agency in Pakistan’s turbulent NorthWest Frontier Province, Islamabad promptly sealed its border with Afghanistan to NATO supplies after the allied strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

The U.S. military insists a joint patrol with Afghan forces was fired upon first and only responded with return fire and calling in airstrikes on the posts, which a commander mistakenly identified as Taliban training camps, after reportedly checking that there were no Pakistani military forces nearby. Pakistan Major General Ishfaq Nadeem, director general of military operations, rebutted Washington’s assertions one by one, commenting, “The positions of the posts were already conveyed to the ISAF through map references and it was impossible that they did not know these to be our posts.”

So, what does this mean for logistical support of ISAF forces? According to Nesar Ahmad Nasery, the deputy head of Torkham Customs, around 1,000 trucks cross into Afghanistan on a daily basis, nearly 300 of which are NATO contractors carrying NATO supplies in sealed containers. Khyber Transport Association chief Shakir Afridi said that each oil tanker has a capacity of 13,000-15,000 gallons. In October 2010 Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen said that fossil fuels are the number one import to Afghanistan.

Noting the obvious, as Afghanistan has no indigenous hydrocarbon supplies, every drop must be brought in, with transit greatly increasing the eventual cost. For 2001-2008, almost all U.S. and NATO supplies were trucked overland to Afghanistan through parts of Pakistan effectively controlled by the Taliban.

Ground supplies are shipped into Pakistan’s Arabian Sea Karachi port and offloaded onto trucks before being sent to one of five crossing points on the Afghan border, the most important being Torkham at the Khyber Pass and Baluchistan’s Chaman. The recent attack has put all these routes at risk, perhaps permanently. Pakistan, being the shortest and most economical route, has been used for nearly a decade to transit almost 75 percent of the ammunition, vehicles, foodstuff and around 50 percent of fuel for coalition forces fighting in Afghanistan.

On 27 November Interior Minister Rehman Malik, addressing journalists at the Ministry of the Interior’s National Crisis Management Cell, after strongly condemning the NATO attack on Pakistani forces, stated that the resupply routes for NATO via Pakistan have been stopped “permanently,” adding that the decisions of the Defense Cabinet Committee (DCC) on the NATO forces attack inside Pakistan would be implemented in letter and spirit, stressing that “The decisions of the DCC are final and would be implemented.”

The major issue at stake here for ISAF and U.S. forces is fuel, all of which must be brought in from abroad at high cost. In October 2009 Pentagon officials testified before the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee that the “Fully Burdened Cost of Fuel” (FBCF) translates to about $400 per gallon by the time it arrives at a remote Forward Operating Base (FOB) in Afghanistan. Last year, the FBCF reached $800 in some FOBs following supply route bombings in Pakistan, while others have claimed the FBCF may be as high as $1,000 per gallon in some remote locations. For many remote locations, fuel supplies can only be provided by air – one of the most expensive ways being in helicopter fuel bladders.

The majority of U.S. tonnage transported into Afghanistan is fuel – 70 percent, according to Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Alan Haggerty. The Marines’ calculate that 39 percent of their tonnage is fuel, and 90 percent is either fuel or water.

According to ISAF spokesman Colonel Wayne Shanks, there are currently nearly 400 U.S. and coalition bases in Afghanistan, ranging from the massive Bagram airbase outside Kabul down to camps, forward operating bases and combat outposts.

The Pakistani supply lines have come under increasing attack by militants. Baluchistan Home Secretary Akbar Hussain Durani noted that last year, 136 NATO tankers were destroyed in 56 attacks in the province, with 34 people killed and 23 wounded in the assaults.

But NATO and the Pentagon have a backup plan – since 2009 they have been shifting their logistics to the Northern Distribution Network (NDN), a railway link running from Latvia’s Riga Baltic port through Russia and Kazakhstan terminating in Uzbekistan’s Termez on the Afghan border.

The NDN is a joint initiative of multiple Department of Defense agencies, including the US Transportation Command, CENTCOM, the US European Command, the Defense Logistics Agency and the Department of State. The NDN’s first shipment was sent on 20 February 2009 from Riga 3,212 miles to Termez, with U.S. commanders stating that 100 containers daily would be transported via the NDN. The supply trains have been given preferential right-of-way to speed the trip to about nine days. According to Pentagon officials, its goal is eventually to be able to bring 75 percent of its equipment into Afghanistan from the north.

But the true number of forces to be resupplied is far higher. Last year the Pentagon’s Central Command put the number of contractors for the U.S. military at 107,000.

According to ISAF spokesman Lieutenant Gregory Keeley in Kabul, the NDN now accounts for 52 percent of coalition cargo transport and 40 percent for the U.S., which also receives around 30 percent of its supplies by air.

Cost?

According to the FMN Logistics, the Washington DC-based logistics company that oversees the NDN and provides “full supply-chain management to ensure the smooth transit of(European Union) government cargo from various Ports of Entry including Riga, Latvia;
Poti, Georgia; Mersin, Turkey and Bandar Abbas, Iran, through to multiple NATO/ ISAF camps in North and South Afghanistan,” in January Russian Railways increased rail tariffs for freight by 10 percent and is suggesting an additional increase of 11.7 percent in 2011 to cover “operating costs.” Further east, Uzbekistan increased rail tariffs twice last year.

Bringing supplies overland on the NDN costs two or three times as much as shipping them by sea and moving them up through Pakistan.

And the NDN is not without problems of its own. On 16 November Uzbek media reported an explosion on an NDN railway line on a railway bridge on the Galaba-Amuzang section of track on Uzbekistan’s border with Afghanistan.

Besides the NDN, the Pentagon also uses a supply route through Georgia’s Black Sea Poti port via Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, where goods are transshipped across the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan, where the goods are carried by truck into Uzbekistan to Afghanistan. While shorter than the NDN, it is also more expensive because of the constant on-and-off loading from trucks to ferries and back onto trucks. A third supply route, a spur of the NDN, bypasses Uzbekistan from Kazakhstan via Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, but poor road conditions in Tajikistan limit its usefulness.

So, given Pakistan’s shutdown, can the NDN absorb the increased railway traffic?

Probably, but it won’t be cheap, and will take some time to implement.

NATO’s investigation of the Mohmand attack, led by a one-star general, will release its findings on 23 December. What does Pakistan want to resolve the issue? A formal apology and resolute action taken against those responsible for the deadly cross border air strike.

The U.S. military’s Transportation Command deputy commander Vice Adm. Mark Harnitchek said of resupplying Afghanistan, “This is the logistics challenge of our generation.”

If the Pentagon does not issue an apology, then the U.S. military had better expect “the logistics challenge of our generation” to continue.

Or get out and push and push the HUMVEES and helicopters.

By. John C.K. Daly of Oilprice.com

Wall Street Protesters Plan ‘Millionaires March’ to Tycoons’ New York City Homes

WarOnYou — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 01:42:35 +0000

Wall Street Protesters Plan ‘Millionaires March’ to Tycoons’ New York City Homes

October 11, 2011

Print Version

Source: Fox News

NEW YORK – Protesters from the Occupy Wall Street movement plan to leave their downtown Manhattan headquarters Tuesday and head uptown as part of a “Millionaires March” visiting the homes of some of New York City’s wealthiest residents.

Between 400 and 800 people are expected to take part in the demonstration targeting the homes of JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, billionaire businessman David Koch, financier Howard Milstein, hedge fund maven John Paulson and News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, Crain’s New York Business reported.

The marchers will hold oversize checks they say demonstrate how much less the wealthy will pay when New York State’s 2 percent tax on millionaires expires at the end of the year.

“Ninety-nine percent of the residents of New York are going to suffer from this tax giveaway so the 1 percent who already live in absolute luxury can put more money in their pockets,” Doug Forand, one of the march organizers, told the New York Daily News. “This is fiscally, economically and morally wrong.”

Occupy NOLA Bullhorns The Federal Reserve In New Orleans

WarOnYou — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 19:12:11 +0000

Occupy NOLA Bullhorns The Federal Reserve In New Orleans

Roughly 400 protesters left Orleans Criminal Court around noon Thursday for a mile and a half march though the business district of New Orleans.

If You Cannot Make it to Occupy Wall Street or the Federal Reserve? Occupy the Zombie Banks in Your City.

WarOnYou — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 19:09:34 +0000

If You Cannot Make it to Occupy Wall Street or the Federal Reserve? Occupy the Zombie Banks in Your City.

If you cannot go to occupy Wall Street or a Federal Reserve Branch near you in one of the 12 districts or satellite locations. Well what about the zombie banks that are the share holders of the Federal Reserve who got so much bailout money at our expense. These are the too big to fail financial institutions that is a parasite on our economy. So who are these Zombie Banks? These banks might have a branch in walking or a short driving distance form your front door.These Zombie Banks would have went under long ago if it had not been for the bailouts and Uncle Ben and his printing press.

These Zombie Banks are Bank of America who is stealing home they do not own. There is Wells Fargo too that the sign with a horse and buggy looks more like a get away coach running away with the loot. There is JP Morgan Chase too who finances the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. Even go occupy the Rockefeller Residence in New York City There is Goldman Sachs who is one of the biggest thieves of them all. People in Europe need to stop protesting in the center of town square about austerity, but right at the Rothschild Mansion who is one of the ruling families responsible for much misery in the world.

Many of you live too far away and your schedule will not permit you to, or you are short on cash to pay for gas and meals for the drive. If you cannot make it, go occupy one of these Zombie Banks in your city to send a message this bank is a shareholder in the Federal Reserve and a Zombie Bank. Let the people know who is responsible for our economic demise. Have a good time and meet like minded people in your community. All I ask is we do not interfere with the business of the bank branches. We must allow account holders access coming in and out. If they do not want us on their property, than stay on the sidewalk.

We all have a right to freedom of speech and to express our grievances to these banks and their practices that has affected our livelihoods. If you decide to do this, you must no interfere with the patron going in ad out of the banks. With every right we have a responsibility to conduct ourselves in a peaceful civil manner. Remind the employees it is not against them, but their bosses. Be courteous ,civilized and educate. This will be the difference we will need to make the change we want.Go out and make history happen.

CNN Reporter Says Purpose Of #OccupyWallStreet Is to Bang On The Bongos And Smoke Weed

WarOnYou — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:15:38 +0000

CNN Reporter Says Purpose Of #OccupyWallStreet Is to Bang On The Bongos And Smoke Weed

Posted by Alexander Higgins – October 5, 2011 at 6:31 am – Permalink – Source via Alexander Higgins Blog

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Corporate media journalists are coming out in full force discrediting the Occupy Wall Street movement from every which angle.

I kept seeing tweets on Twitter asking why CNN’s Alison Kosik deleted her Occupy Wall Street post.

Just when I thought it couldn’t get anymore outrageous than this sign on the Chicago Trade building today, Calton sent me over to this link on tumbler which contained a screen shot of her tweet.

Here she is explaining the purpose of the Occupy Wall Street movement in 140 characters or less, which is the limit of posts to twitter.

A CNN Business reporter, Alison Kosik, says the purpose of Occupy Wall Street is to ‘bang on the bongos and smoke weed’

A CNN Business reporter, Alison Kosik, summarizes what she thinks the purpose of Occupy Wall Street is.

Here is her Twitter post.

UPDATE: Kosik deleted her tweet. That’s the kind of confidence she had in her observation, I guess. The New York City police are fairly visible at Occupy Wall Street. They are also strict about smoking weed in public. So I wonder if Kosik’s observation has any factual basis at all.

MORE: Alison and another CNN-er yuck it up about those whining protestors at Occupy Wall Street. This one hasn’t been deleted yet.

BONUS: And to further unfold the attitude at CNN, do watch this clip of Erin Burnett reporting on Occupy Wall Street. (“What are they protesting? No one seems to know.”)

As, pointed out in the post above, in another post this beloved CNN reported is discussing the Occupy Wall Street protestors list of whines with another CNN-er.

While that tweet hasn’t been deleted yet, here’s a screen shot just in case it disappears.

CNN Reporters Discuss Occupy Wall Street Protestors List Of Whines

In case you haven’t seen the list of whines, check them out for yourself at http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com.

For good measure, here is one of those whining, bongo banging, pot smoking, dirty hippies, tell his story about how he has been screwed by Wall Street.

62 Year Old Mean Tells How Wall Street Has Destroy His Life Twice

It gets even better, as we look through the tweets of these CNN staffers and examine the kind of page they are linking to.

For example this tweet links to this story.

Occupy Wall Street? Do you even understand Wall Street?

[...]

As your Occupation of Wall Street continues, you may want to grasp a few things. First, it is not going to change anything in the short term and probably not much in the long-term either.

I hate to be the bearer of that news, but money makes the world go round and “Wall Street” is all about money. Second, the top traders, banks and hedge funds are still going to out earn and generate substantial profits from speculating on the disconnects in the prices of things generated from all the moving parts in the global economy and it has nothing to do with why you lost your house or job or can’t find a job. If anything the successful ones are helping you, your pensions funds, retirement savings and the economy in general. If Wall Street stops. The world stops. Period.

[...]

Source: Forbes

Really? Forbes is going to sit here say those fuckers speculating on Wall Street “has nothing to do with why you lost your house or job or can’t find a job”. Those fuckers shipping jobs to slave laborers in China and India has everything to do with why most Americans can’t find a job you asshole.

Here’s a challenge for you Doug Hirschhorn, the dickhead who wrote that bullshit, will you make that statement before Congress under oath where the penalty for lying is going to prison? Will you?

In case you missed it, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was just put to that exact test. He looked like he was about to shit his pants as in guilt as Senator Bernie Sanders forced him to admit under oath that Wall Street speculation and failure of government regulators was to blame.

Of course, the Forbes article links to this dandy of a source, which comes right out and says bluntly “Wall Street Doesn’t Care” and the protestors can’t sway Congress.

5 Reasons Why ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Won’t Work

[...]

Wall Street Doesn’t Care

There’s a key difference between the Occupy Wall Street movement and the Tea Party movement. The Tea Partiers’ anger is directed squarely at the U.S. government. It began due to dismay at the bailouts and the massive Obama stimulus package. The Tea Party wanted less government interference in the economy.

But the Occupy Wall Street movement’s anger is directed at bankers. Here’s the problem: they really don’t care. These protesters are not Wall Street’s customers. In many cases they aren’t even their customers’ customers.

Over the weekend, I saw a YouTube video of some Wall Streeters sipping champagne as they watched the protests from a balcony above. This is an extreme example, but such bankers who fit the stereotype that the protesters hate obviously aren’t moved by the demonstration. In reality, the vast, vast majority of bankers, traders, and investors aren’t out to rob the poor to feed caviar to the rich. They are doing honest work that holds together the global financial industry. That large majority of Wall Streeters will walk by the protesters and shake their heads at the crowds’ misunderstanding of what they do.

The Protesters Can’t Sway Congress

The Tea Party accomplished something very key: it helped to significantly alter the makeup of Congress through the 2010 election. It had a goal — to put out of power the big government candidates — and it accomplished that goal. The Occupy Wall Street cannot hope for any result as significant.

As mentioned, it doesn’t have a clear set of objectives. But let’s say, for argument’s sake, that it has some general fringe-left goals. Some that have been suggested include new taxes on Wall Street and much stronger financial regulation. The problem is that these views aren’t likely to catch on in Congress: even when the mix was much further to the left in 2009 through 2010, a relatively mild financial regulation bill was passed and even the Bush tax cuts remained intact.

The reality is that the U.S. is a center-right nation, and Congress reflects that. While some cities are farther to the left than others, they already have very progressive representatives. Meanwhile, the message of Occupy Wall Street isn’t likely to catch on and affect any change in more center-right regions like the Tea Party did.

[...]

Source:The Altantic

Yep, the corporations have their corporate media trolls out in full forces putting out there bullshit. Of course, we know Wall Street doesn’t care. That’s why Wall Street is being occupied.

Of course, the protestors can’t sway Congress, and it has nothing to do with the political goals of the movement being unpopular. I’ll explain it with a photo I took at Liberty Square.

too broke 2 speak to my rep

Again, this is why we are occupying Wall Street. It is also why the Occupy Wall Street movement has spread across the nation.

Here’s absolute proof the middle class and the poor are being robbed at the expense of you elitist scum.

How Rich Are the Superrich?

A huge share of the nation’s economic growth over the past 30 years has gone to the top one-hundredth of one percent, who now make an average of $27 million per household. The average income for the bottom 90 percent of us? $31,244.

Advertise on MotherJones.com

Note: The 2007 data (the most current) doesn’t reflect the impact of the housing market crash. In 2007, the bottom 60% of Americans had 65% of their net worth tied up in their homes. The top 1%, in contrast, had just 10%. The housing crisis has no doubt further swelled the share of total net worth held by the superrich.

Winners Take All

The superrich have grabbed the bulk of the past three decades’ gains.

Out of Balance

A Harvard business prof and a behavioral economist recently asked more than 5,000 Americans how they thought wealth is distributed in the United States. Most thought that it’s more balanced than it actually is. Asked to choose their ideal distribution of wealth, 92% picked one that was even more equitable.

Capitol Gain

Why Washington is closer to Wall Street than Main Street.

member	max. est. net worth
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.)	$451.1 million
Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.)	$435.4 million
Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.)	$366.2 million
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.)	$294.9 million
Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.)	$285.1 million
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.)	$283.1 million
Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.)	$231.2 million
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas)	$201.5 million
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.)	$136.2 million
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)	$108.1 million
combined net worth:	$2.8 billion

Congressional data from 2009. Family net worth data from 2007. Sources: Center for Responsive Politics; US Census; Edward Wolff, Bard College.

Who’s Winning?

For a healthy few, it’s getting better all the time.

YOUR LOSS,THEIR GAIN

How much income have you given up for the top 1 percent?

For Chart Sources See This

More Mother Jones charty goodness: How the rich get richer; how the poor get poorer; who owns Congress?

No Related Posts

“Occupy Boston” protesters set up tent city

WarOnYou — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 15:12:16 +0000

“Occupy Boston” protesters set up tent city

October 5, 2011

Print Version

Source: WSWS

“Occupy Boston” protesters have set up a tent city in response to the Wall Street protests in New York. About 200 people have been camping out overnight in Dewey Square, opposite South Station and the Federal Reserve building in Boston’s financial district.

Many more people are joining the protest during the daytime and on the weekends, and the group is holding assemblies in the morning and the evening to discuss the occupation. “Occupy Boston” reached an agreement with the Conservancy Trust, which owns the private land where the action is taking place, to set up the camp.

Last Friday, 24 protesters not directly connected to “Occupy Boston” were arrested when they sat in at Bank of America’s Boston office to protest the bank’s foreclosure policies. On Tuesday, criminal charges against them were reduced to misdemeanors.

Steph and Chrissy, both from Worcester County, heard reports about the arrests and have been participating in the protest for several days. They spoke to the WSWS about what motivated them to join the action.

Steph, a student at Framingham State, said, “We heard about the arrests and decided to come down. My mom works at a food pantry and she has seen so many more people needing attention these days.”

Chrissy, from Emanuel College, said, “I agree with a lot of what people here are saying. There is a lot of negative being said about what’s going on, that it’s not that effective. But I think it’s an important first step.”

Read Full Article Here…

Nader, Ron Paul, Kucinich Speak to Occupy Wall Street: Repeal the Federal Reserve Act

WarOnYou — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 06:01:40 +0000

October 3, 2011

Print Version

Source: Youtube

Ralph Nader, Ron Paul, and Dennis Kucinich offer words of wisdom to the Occupy Wall Street movement. The Occupy Wall Street movement has tremendous potential, but only if we can resist the wedges that the corporate/government cabal continues to try to drive between us.

There are differences of philosophy between progressives and libertarians, but we CAN agree on at least four issues upon which we can make immediate and concrete demands. Success on these demands would go a very long way toward saving the United States and prevent us from falling deeper into serfdom and slavery.

We may never have a better chance than right now.

Ralph Nader Hearts Ron Paul, Hails Potential Left-Libertarian Alliance

Matt Welch
Reason
September 28, 2011

Michael Tracey, who wrote about restrictive teen-driving laws in the June issue of Reason, catches up with the consumer crusader for The American Conservative:

Looking ahead to the 2012 presidential race, one might assume that Nader has little to be cheerful about.

“Libertarians like Ron Paul are on our side on civil liberties. They’re on our side against the military-industrial complex. They’re on our side against Wall Street. They’re on our side for investor rights. That’s a foundational convergence,” he exhorts. “It’s not just itty-bitty stuff.” [...]

There are nascent movements underway to bring disaffected progressives into Ron Paul’s fold. A new organization called Blue Republican, advertised on the Huffington Post and elsewhere, urges Democrats to pledge their support for Paul. While Nader isn’t willing to endorse Paul’s candidacy at this point, during our interview his praise grew increasingly effusive. “Ron Paul has always been anti-corporate, anti-Federal Reserve, anti-big banks, anti-bailouts,” Nader says. “I mean, they view him in the same way they view me on a lot of these issues. Did you see the latest poll? He’s like two points behind Obama.”

Read full article

September then (2008) September now (2011)

WarOnYou — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 03:11:23 +0000

September then (2008) September now (2011)

September 26th, 2011

By Robert Singer

The year is 2011 and to anyone not in denial, the industrialized nations have entered the greatest calamity the world has ever known:

35 Million Americans on Food Stamps: 12 Percent of U.S. Population on Food Stamps, the highest since records kept in 1969, and that’s before the Obama administration announced a planned three-year budget freeze on government discretionary spending. (My Budget 360)
18 Million empty houses in the United States and 39 million Americans who are no longer working or looking for work, and that’s before Federal Reserve finishes rewriting the rules of American “capitalism” as US Housing, the Automobile Industry and the American Dream are dismantled. (The 31-Year-Old in Charge of Dismantling G.M., David E. Sanger)

“There are now well over 150 million Americans who feel stress over these things on a consistent basis. Over 60 percent of Americans now live paycheck to paycheck.” (The Economic Elite vs. People of the USA, David DeGraw)

So then, why are Exxon, Rosneft and Shell pouring out billions into potentially huge, risky prospects above the Arctic Circle? Arctic Riches Lure Explorers

An economy in a state of rigor mortis doesn’t need oil to lubricate an engine that blew up on October 29, 2008, and our way of life won’t come back if the oil industry creates a handful of jobs or we reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Exxon Mobil Corp.’s blockbuster $2.2 billion deal to drill for oil in the frigid waters north of Russia with OAO Rosneft makes no cents.

Drill, Drill, Drill hasn’t made economic sense for at least the last 20 years!

Matt Simmons, an investment banker, considered to be a mover and shaker in the oil industry [before he “apparently” drowned in his bathtub] thought he, “spent his career in the wrong kind of barrels.”

“It will take 16 trillion dollars to replace the production we now have on line and add to it by 2030. Oil or another form of energy is an indispensable requisite for life as we know it. But over the past 20 years, oil has been a terrible investment. A 15% return on investment (ROI) is what one expects to get from a building. Oil’s ROI has largely been less than 15%. Scotch returns 50% ROI, wine returns 15%.

Why has oil given such a lousy return?

Because spot energy pricing, where oil is bought and sold like a commodity has destroyed long term value for the oil industry. Spot markets make all contracts short term, so no one is looking out for the future.”

[From a presentation by Matt Simmons at the 2004 Offshore Technology Conference [1]]

“The not-so-invisible hand of JP Morgan Chase is guilty of the ongoing intentional, not accidental, great crime of manipulating the spot markets, lower, not higher as you would expect. So you could, prior to 2008, ‘save money and live better’ while at the same time pollute the environment.” (Silver, But No Silver Lining)

Why has Oil been a “terrible investment”?
Inexplicably, the industry picks the most expensive places on the earth to drill for oil.

Chevron spent $2.7 billion over 10 years on just the first phase of a deep-water oil project in the Gulf. Other sub-salt discoveries involve drilling more than 30,000 feet, some of the most expensive wells ever drilled.

On January 7, 2010, the Wall Street Journal published, “Cramped on Land, Big Oil Bets at Sea”

“Big Oil never wanted to be here, in 4,300 feet of water far out in the Gulf of Mexico, drilling through nearly five miles of rock. It is an expensive way to look for oil.”

September 2011, Exxon Mobil announced their latest $2.2 billion blockbuster deal to drill for oil in one of the most dangerous places in the world.

“Another sign that of the energy industry’s white-hot interest in exploring above the Arctic Circle despite the challenges. The company hopes to drill their first exploratory well by 2015 and, if everything goes well, could begin production in the region by early next decade. The extreme weather and ice floes during colder months could wreak havoc on oil-industry platforms. Cleaning up an oil spill would be a huge effort. The seas there don’t support the microbes that can break down oil droplets.” Russell Gold russell.gold@wsj.com

You really don’t need to know a lot about geology or oil to figure out something is wrong here: people living in homeless shelters don’t need cheap oil to go shopping and if they did, “why not go back to the old days and drill oil wells onshore?” Buy Oil Stocks… No Matter What, by Chris Mayer

Or if oil companies insist on drilling offshore, why not use up the 70 million “offshore acres leases” remaining from the total of 90 million?

Drill, Drill, Drill didn’t make environmental sense in 1973 or 2008
In 1973, America’s solution to the Arab oil embargo and long gas lines wasn’t mass transit, high mileage cars or alternative energy…it was the 800-mile Trans-Alaska Pipeline through some of the most pristine country in Alaska.

Fast forward to September 2008, when the American people, against all logic, (according to the EIA) agreed to drill for oil in the ANWR and give up their last Arctic wilderness because they couldn’t stand paying $4.55 for a gallon of gas.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), an independent statistical agency within the Department of Energy, estimated that new oil from ANWR would have only a negligible impact on the world price of oil.

The EIA projection for oil production in the ANWR would amount to 0.4 to 1.2 percent of total world oil consumption in 2030, assuming the U.S. congress approved legislation to drill, back in 2008. [Appendix A]

Gasoline prices then and now
Last week (September 5, 2001) gas prices edged higher and are approaching levels we haven’t seen since September 2008. During the past week, prices were $1.01 higher than the same day one year ago.

A recurring controversy here in the United States revolves around the question, “should we mine the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska?”

The debate crops up every time oil prices [and gasoline] spike and to my mind seems more appealing every time it’s broached. The region is indisputably beautiful, a pristine wilderness populated by endangered species of wildlife living peacefully in unspoiled natural splendor.” Oil Drilling in the Arctic

Could the spike in oil and gasoline prices be related to the irrational need to drill in the pristine and untouched places on the Earth? Click here to read how they were related in September 2008.

Robert Singer writes about Secrets, Sentient Creatures and The Federal Reserve at The Peoples Voice and The Market Oracle (rds2301@gmail.com)

Some Offshore Drilling Humor

Drilling offshore & in the ANWR, are there benefits?
Why did President Bush and his buddies want to drill, drill, drill (in 2008)? Hot Flat Friedman wonders, “what planet are they on?” Vote for the best explanation or post your own in comments.

President Bush was concerned about American families,
The President cites tough times for families in urging lawmakers to allow a vote on the bill to open ocean drilling: “American drivers are counting on Congress to lift the ban and so are American workers.” Bush said that high gas prices are cutting into consumers’ food and housing budgets. “The time for action is now, this is a difficult period for millions of American families,” July 30, 2008 [Gasoline $4.32, Oil $122.46]

Psychological effect on speculators
Even though the drilling would not produce results, “It Would Help America Now!”

Oil prices are high now because of the speculators. From a psychological point of view, if news came out that we were going to open up offshore drilling or even ANWR, prices would start to drop because the speculators would have to start selling off their position knowing that prices wouldn’t be able to go much higher. I think we would start to see a decrease within weeks of an announcement.

Psychological effect on Bush’s buddies
So, the thinking goes if we relax federal prohibitions against drilling offshore and in the ANWR, knowledge of this fact will cause Bush’s Oil buddies to change their pumping decisions today. Though the additional barrels from ANWR wouldn’t physically hit the market for years, it will lead to immediate relief at the pump. Beyond that, the ideal solution would be to completely privatize federal lands.

SWW
The members of a club were getting bored and thought it would be interesting to see how high the price of gasoline would have to go to get Americans to give up their last Arctic wilderness: a 1.5 million-acre habitat for seabirds, caribou, and polar bears. The winning ticket had $4.79 a gallon. In 1973 (the Oil Embargo) the same members of the club had a bet to see if long gas lines would get the public to agree to the Alaskan Pipeline. Within weeks of the Arab oil embargo, President Nixon signed into law the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act, which authorized the completion of 800 miles of pipeline through the frozen passes of the Brooks Range, and through some of the most pristine country in North.

Local control and jobs in Alaska
Governor Palin stressed the need (in 2008) to enact an energy policy that includes oil and gas production from domestic sources, since failure to enact a sound energy policy is having real-life consequences. Alaskan residents pay higher prices for their gas than residents in other states do, and everything is far away. The state is as big as a third of the continental US, which means Alaskans have to drive further to get their gas than most people do in other states. Finally, because of the rugged terrain up there, everybody has big cars. If ANWR were opened for business, Alaskans might see a decrease in oil and gas prices or, at the very least, receive reimbursements because of the stipends.The people in Alaska overwhelmingly want it. “In my opinion, if they want to look at an oil well outside their back door, that’s their decision, not mine. I find that part of this argument persuasive.”

Reduce our dependence on foreign oil
The oil companies and the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), an independent statistical agency within the Department of Energy, estimate that new oil from ANWR could lower the world price of oil by a minimum of .44 cents and as much as a whopping $1.44 per barrel but, that won’t take effect for 20 years. The EIA projection for oil production in the ANWR is 0.4 to 1.2 percent of total world oil consumption in 2030 and that amount would reduce our foreign oil dependence.

Oil companies are greedy and hoarding
Oil companies only have 70 million “offshore acres leases” remaining from a total 90 million; they are concerned they will run out of places to drill for oil in 3030 (yes, I meant 3030). Some Democrats also charge that oil companies are deliberately not drilling on the land to limit supply and drive up oil prices.

Oil companies prefer to drill in cold climates. Huh?

I don’t have an answer but neither does Hot Flat Friedman
Thomas Friedman author of Hot Flat and Crowded doesn’t know about any wager because when interviewed on NPR about drilling in the North Slope to promote the burning of coal, oil and gas exclaimed loudly:
drill, drill – what am I missing here
drill, drill – what planet are they on?
It’s crazy, the Ohio senator actually voted against it (tax credits)

Pollution
Maybe President Bush wasn’t joking when, after rejecting the global climate change targets of the July 2008 G8 summit, he said, “Goodbye, from the world’s biggest polluter.” Maybe he covets and wants to retain that title?

“Give Us the ANWAR and Keep Shopping”-They Found They Can’t Have Both [Essay released in 2008]

[1] Matt Simmons at the 2004 Offshore Technology Conference

Appendix A
The oil companies and the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), an independent statistical agency within the Department of Energy, estimate that new oil from ANWR could lower the world price of oil by a minimum of .44 cents and as much as a whopping $1.44 per barrel but, that won’t take effect for 20 years. The EIA projection for oil production in the ANWR is 0.4 to 1.2 percent of total world oil consumption in 2030 and that amount would reduce our foreign oil dependence.

Chronology of the price of Gasoline and Oil
April 29, 2008 [Gasoline $3.89, Oil $113.86][1]
President George W. Bush in his speech in the Rose garden

“Americans are concerned about energy prices, and I can understand why. The past 18 months, gas prices have gone up by $1.40 per gallon. I’ve repeatedly submitted proposals to help address these problems. Yet time after time, Congress chose to block them. They repeatedly blocked environmentally safe exploration in Alaska National Wildlife Reserve ANWR.”. Later the president says, “If you mention ANWR it means you don’t care about the environment. Well, I’m hoping now people, when they say “ANWR,” means you don’t care about the gasoline prices that people are paying”.

June 12-14 [Gasoline $4.43, Oil $132.11]
Zogy takes a poll about drilling offshore and the ANWR

June 26 [Gasoline $4.59, Oil $136.82]
Zogby poll Released. Three in four likely voters – 74 percent – support offshore drilling for oil in U.S. coastal waters and more than half (59 percent) also favor drilling for oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge

July 3 [Gasoline $4.55, Oil $143.95]
Makes for a depressing July 4th

July 14 [Gasoline $4.49, Oil $142.43]
Bush lifted a presidential moratorium on drilling for oil and natural gas on the Outer Continental Shelf

July 16, 2008 [Gasoline $4.52, Oil $133.11]
The Federal Reserve reported holding $2,349 billion of US government paper in custody for central banks.

July 30, 2008 [Gasoline $4.32, Oil $122.46]
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — President Bush called Wednesday for Congress to allow offshore oil drilling, citing an “urgent” need to reduce pressure on crude and gas prices.
President cites tough times for families in urging lawmakers to allow vote on bill to open ocean drilling. “American drivers are counting on Congress to lift the ban and so are American workers,” “I’ve lifted the ban, I’ve done my part,” Bush said. Bush said that high gas prices are cutting into consumers’ food and housing budgets. “The time for action is now, this is a difficult period for millions of American families,”

July 30, 2008 [Gasoline $4.32, Oil $122.46]
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — As the nation struggles to meet its energy needs, a majority of Americans think offshore drilling for oil and natural gas is a good idea, according to according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Wednesday. The debate over offshore drilling has become an increasingly important political issue in the era of $4 a gallon gas. The bans prohibiting offshore drilling, which were put in place decades ago, are outdated and should be lifted, proponents say. But opponents argue that more drilling offshore could damage sensitive ecosystems.
Lifting the ban would send a “strong signal” to the oil futures market, which could help bring the price of crude down immediately, she said. (Is this possible, lifting a ban on drilling oil that would take 15 years to access could affect the price of oil in the next 7 days?)

August 1, 2008 [$4.36, Oil $124.16]
In some key battleground states, (like Florida) voters are shifting toward support of offshore drilling to reduce dependence on foreign oil and to ease those bug-eyed shocks at the pumps as the numbers keep moving upward,

August 5 [$4.21, Oil $116.50]
During his speech, Obama admitted he is no longer opposed to expanding offshore oil drilling if it is part of a broader energy plan. Sen. John McCain: “I call on Senator Obama to call on Congress to come back into town and come back to work. Democrat joining together: And a very vital part of that is nuclear power, and another vital part of that is offshore drilling. We have to drill here and drill now.”

August 7 [$4.23, Oil $116.94]
The Federal Reserve reported holding $2,401 billion, a 38.4% annual rate of growth.

August 12 [$4.16, Oil $108.98]
Democrats’ stance against offshore drilling has shifted more.
Pelosi’s radio remarks were the latest to hint that the energy debate in Congress is still evolving, and that Democrats are budging on the issue.

August 13 2008 [$4.22, Oil $111.33]
Retail sales fell in July, the weakest performance in five months, as shoppers shunned autos and other big ticket items. The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that retail sales dipped 0.1 percent last month when a variety of economic woes combined to blunt the impact of billions of dollars in government stimulus payments to U.S. households. “Cautious and uncertain consumers are watching their wallets and with the back-to-school shopping season under way, that does not bode well for retailers,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist for Naroff Economic Advisors.

August 14, 2008 [$4.20, Oil $110.16]
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signaling her willingness to consider opening up more coastal areas to oil and gas exploration. Just weeks ago Pelosi seemed resolved to block any votes to allow offshore drilling.

Conclusion
Once the last holdout Pelosi signaled her willingness to drill the markets responded. The U.S. Energy Information Administration says it would take about 20 years for increased offshore drilling to have an effect on world oil prices, and even then it would be a small one. To step up domestic drilling now when we wouldn’t see the results until 2030 would be like investing in steamboats after the invention of the nuclear submarine. Therefore there is no other conclusion other than the Administration wants to drill in the most environmentally sensitive places on the planet.

‘Occupy Wall Street’ protest slowly spreads across the United States

WarOnYou — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:02:51 +0000

‘Occupy Wall Street’ protest slowly spreads across the United States

September 27, 2011

Print Version

Source: RawStory

Small groups of demonstrators in major American cities have started their own “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrations and organizers are planning further actions in more cities across the United States.

A diverse coalition of people have pledged to occupy Wall Street until something is done about corporate greed and the financial system’s undemocratic influence on the U.S. government.

The protesters have been camped out in New York’s old Liberty Plaza, one block from the Federal Reserve, since Saturday.

“The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99 Percent that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the one percent,” said a statement on the Occupy Wall Street website.

At least 80 to 100 people were arrested over the weekend in the first big crackdown since the demonstration began. Police accused the protesters of blocking traffic and resisting arrest.

Video recordings showed female protesters being rounded up in an orange-colored mesh pen by police and subsequently sprayed with mace, seemingly without any provocation, and other protesters being dragged across the street by police. Another protester said she was arrested for trying to film the demonstration and locked in a police van for over two hours.

The protest spread to other cities over the weekend.

A small group of “Occupy Los Angeles” demonstrators marched through the streets of downtown Los Angeles on Saturday to show their support for the protesters in New York City.

“Corporate interests seem to be controlling both parties,” one protester told LAActivist.com. “The ‘little man,’ the ‘American every man,’ just isn’t getting their voice heard. When you need $35,000 to donate to a campaign to get your voice heard, to have a meeting, that’s not democracy.”

“Occupy Los Angeles” protesters plan to begin a demonstration at City Hall on October 1. The “Occupy Los Angeles” Facebook page had nearly 2,000 likes as of Tuesday afternoon.

Another demonstration popped up in Chicago over the weekend. Around 20 “Occupy Chicago” protesters gathered at Willis Tower, formerly known as the Sears Tower, on Friday and then marched to the Federal Reserve Bank. Some protesters have remained camped out in front of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and the organizers said the “occupation” had grown from 4 people to about 50.

Other “occupation” protests are being planned for Detroit, Denver, Cleveland, Boston, Phoenix, Seattle, Kansas City, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. The site occupytogether.org has been set up in hopes of coordinating the protests.

Read Full Article Here…

Soros: US Is Already in Double-Dip Recession

WarOnYou — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 06:07:15 +0000

Soros: US Is Already in Double-Dip Recession

September 22, 2011

Print Version

Source: CNBC.com

Billionaire investor George Soros said he believed the United States was already experiencing the pain of a double dip recession and that Republican opposition to Obama’s fiscal stimulus plans was to blame for sluggish growth.

Asked by CNBC if he believed the US risks falling into a double-dip recession , Soror said: “I think we are in it already.”

“We have a slowdown and basically a conflict about whether the rich ought to pay taxes to create jobs or not and there was a deal in the making which would have balanced the budget over the long term, but would have allowed short-term fiscal stimulus, which would have been the right policy,” Soros said in an interview late Wednesday.

“That was rejected, it fell apart… so it will come to the electorate next year to decide what they want,” he added.

Full article here

Solyndra’s Whorehouse Lender

WarOnYou — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 01:30:06 +0000

Solyndra’s Whorehouse Lender

Submitted by Bruce Krasting on 09/17/2011 13:42 -0400

If you want to find out what happened with Solyndra you have to follow the money. I did. The half billion dollars of taxpayer dough that is probably lost in Sol came from the Federal Financing Bank (“FFB”). It’s worth a look at this bank to see what else is going on.

FFB is a bank that is owned and controlled by the US Treasury. The chairman of the Board is the TSec. (Tim Geithner). With the (big) exception of the Post Office all of the loans at FFB are guaranteed by government agencies. Technically speaking, FFB has no risks on loans guaranteed by an agency like the DOE. But I don’t think that should absolve Tim Geithner of any responsibility regarding the losses the country faces with Solyndra. If he, (or anyone else at Treasury) puts their pen to a ½ billion loan, they better well know where the taxpayers money is going. That didn’t happen.

FFB has been around for 40+ years. I believe it has always been a bank that has been used and abused by whoever happened to be running the show at Treasury. For example; from 9/30/2008 (Pre – Tim and O) to 9/30/3009 (Post – Tim and O) the FFB lent out $17.1 billion to the nice folks at the National Credit Union Administration’s “Liquidity Fund”. NCU is the guarantor of the deposits in the country’s Credit Unions (similar to FDIC). They were up against it in 2009. They had had no money left in the till to insure that those deposits would be safe. A bailout was needed to avoid a crisis. But rather than have a public debate about this, the FFB just borrowed some money and wrote a check to NCU. Problem solved.

The following are the balance sheet assets of the FFB for fiscal year end 2008 and 09. Note that there were no outstanding loans guaranteed by the DOE in 08. But a year later the number had jumped up to nearly a Bil. It was clear back then that the FFB was rapidly becoming a policy tool of the new administration. By June 30th 2011 the DOE guaranteed loans at FFB has grown to $5.2B. Clearly the Administration is (was?) using the bank to facilitate it’s objectives.

The borrowers identified as the beneficiaries of the FFB’s deep pockets include:

Abound Solar

Arizona Solar – UNC

Beacon

Great Basin Transmission

Kahuku Wind Power

Solyndra

Solar Partner I

Solar Partner II

And Solar Partner(s) III – VIII

The names on this list are the problems to be for the DOE. (I can’t wait to find out who we are partnering up with on the I – VIII deals)

The FFB/DOE has also been lending big bucks to some well know names.

Fisker Automotive, Inc.

Tesla Motors, Inc.

Ford Motors

These successful companies owe the FFB a total of $3.8 billion. There is one company that I don’t recognize. But they got $35mm in May at a real fine rate:

The Post Office has $12.9 large out with FFB. The PO has a debt limit of $14b. They will hit that in 2012 (and then go broke). The FFB has been funding the operating deficits at the PO for years. When O took office it was $7b. Playing, “Hide the losses at the PO” is a very old game in D.C.

The FFB also has an active role in providing the much needed lucre for Foreign Military Sales. As of June 30 there was $349mm of IOU’s. (I wonder who those “I”s are. Probably stable governments, right?) If you’re keeping score, the amount outstanding when Bush left office was 50% higher than today.

$33 billion (61% of FFB’s book) is out to Rural Electrics. It would appear that many parts of the country don’t have adequate utilities. Nor do they have the resources to fix the problems. The solution has been to lend them dirt-cheap money with functionally no maturity. This is just a silly accounting game to avoid recognizing that needed infrastructure expense(s) should have been on the budget long ago. This is a close-up of a section of the FFB report:

Note the long maturities and % rates. 35-year money for Lake Land (sounds like a nice place) at Treasuries +30. The following is a pic of all the re-financing’s for May and June. I shrunk it because it would just clutter the page; it’s that long. Blow it up on your own or go to the FFB site and look up Press Releases. This goes on every month of the year. This stinks of boondoggle and pork. What are the administrative costs to oversee this? There has to be a better way.

I’m all for education. We’re dead in the water without it. I think there is a role for the government to assist in this. But the FFB? Why are they making loans? Is this just another way to avoid an expense? What are these guy’s in D.C. thinking? Is everything “on the arm” down there? Again, a close up and the totals for two months. This is silly, right?

A minor bad loan is the $493mm of Hope Now Bonds. A good chunk of this is still in cash. But not for long. Treasury is going to use some of this money for the big mortgage ReFi that is in the offing. When that happens there will be no hope of repayment of the Hope Bonds.

There is one more attractive feature for the Chairman of the FFB. With the exception of the notes from the PO, it’s all off balance sheet. When the “Debt to the Penny” calculation is made by the Treasury, the (net of PO) $33b at FFB borrowings are excluded.

In Wall Street terms, that makes the FFB a SPIV and it’s a whorehouse.

Note: I’ve written about the FFB before. I smelled trouble with this bank. My nose was working.

Here, here, here or here.

GE Dumps Offshore Wind-Power Plans AFTER Collecting $125 Million In Stimulus From Taxpayers For Wind Projects

WarOnYou — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 06:14:59 +0000

GE Dumps Offshore Wind-Power Plans AFTER Collecting $125 Million In Stimulus From Taxpayers For Wind Projects

September 14, 2011

Print Version

Source: Daily Bail

Best friends Obama and Immelt applaud as GE screws taxpayers once again.

Source – Gateway Pundit

GE was awarded 44 contracts totaling over $46,000,000 and 44 grants totaling more than$79,000,000 from the Obama-Pelosi $757 billion dollar stimulus package. Millions of dollars in stimulus funds were used by GE in green energy projects.

Today GE announced that it was going to gut its offshore wind-power plans.

Forbes reported:

General Electric, the U.S.-based industrial giant and leading manufacturer of wind-power turbines, is scaling back efforts to expand its presence in the offshore wind power market.

The rationale: there is no meaningful offshore wind market to speak of – at least not yet. Given slower-than-expected industry growth, the offshore market may not mature as rapidly as many wind boosters once believed. In 2009, GE moved into the offshore market by acquiring Norway’s ScanWind, a developer of direct-drive turbines, based in the city of Trondheim.

GE is considering laying off about 40 employees in Norway as it scales-back its offshore operations there, according to reports in Recharge. The company has also suspended plans to construct a manufacturing facility in the United Kingdom indefinitely.

Immelt also said the stimulus would work way back in April 2009.

GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt, the head of Barack Obama’s Economic Advisory Panel, was invited to sit with the First Lady during the president’s speech to Congress this past week. He’s been a strong supporter of the president since he took over the White House and his companies have received plenty of government funds as well.

First lady Michelle Obama (4th L) and Vice President Joe Biden’s wife, Jill, (2nd R) clap from the front row of the First Lady’s Box before the start of President Barack Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington September 8, 2011. Others in the box are: (top row 3rd L- 2nd R) General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt, American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault, AOL co-founder Steve Case, Permac Industries CEO Darlene Miller and Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, and (front row L-R) Philip Maung, Gracey Ibarra, Kelcie Fisher,Obama, Joseph Kidd, Biden and Marlena Clark. (REUTERS/Jim Bourg)

10 Reasons Why Devastating U.S. Jobs Famine Will Suck Hope Out Of America

WarOnYou — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 19:47:49 +0000

10 Reasons Why Devastating U.S. Jobs Famine Will Suck Hope Out Of America

August 24, 2011

Print Version

By Michael Synder – The Economic Collapse

Do you have friends, neighbors and relatives that can’t find work? Well, unfortunately the current U.S. jobs famine is about to get a whole lot worse. Right now there are approximately 13.9 million unemployed Americans. That does not count those that “are not looking for work”. That does not count those that are working part-time jobs but that are desperate for full-time work. The truth is that we need tens of millions more full-time jobs in order to give one to everyone that wants one. Sadly, the long-term trends that have caused this mess continue to get worse. Unless truly dramatic changes are made, the U.S. economy is going to continue to bleed jobs and that is going to suck the hope right out of this country. It is time to wake up America! It is not a big mystery why we don’t have enough jobs. But sadly, very few of our leaders are talking about the real issues.

Something has got to be done. Unemployment is already at epidemic levels, and this country can’t afford for things to get much worse. Just check out how a recent article in The Wall Street Journal summarized our current predicament….

There are more unemployed than the combined populations of Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota, Alaska, South Dakota, Delaware, Montana, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire, Idaho and the District of Columbia.

If they were a country, the 13.9 million unemployed Americans would be the 68th largest country in the world, bigger than the population of Greece or Portugal (each of which has 10.8 million people) and more than twice the population of Norway (4.7 million.)

Isn’t that incredible?

The number of unemployed Americans is larger than the entire population of Greece.

There are millions of Americans that will be sitting at home in front of their televisions tonight wondering why they can’t find jobs. Last month, only 58.1% of Americans over the age of 16 were employed. Our economy should be able to do far better than that.

All over the Internet there are stories of people that have sent out hundreds (or even thousands) of resumes and nobody even wants to interview them. One recent survey found that approximately 80 percent of all Americans believe that it is “difficult” to find a job right now.

Unfortunately, things are going to get much, much worse before all this is over.

The following are 10 very obvious reasons why the devastating U.S. jobs famine is going to suck the hope right out of America….

#1 Our politicians simply do not care that America is bleeding jobs. Amazingly, even with rampant unemployment plaguing this nation, Obama administration officials continue to declare that it is okay that we are losing manufacturing jobs because a lot of cheaper products are things that “we don’t want to make in America” anyway. The following is what U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk told Tim Robertson of the Huffington Post the other day….

Let’s increase our competitiveness… the reality is about half of our imports, our trade deficit is because of how much oil [we import], so you take that out of the equation, you look at what percentage of it are things that frankly, we don’t want to make in America, you know, cheaper products, low-skill jobs that frankly college kids that are graduating from, you know, UC Cal and Hastings [don't want], but what we do want is to capture those next generation jobs and build on our investments in our young people, our education infrastructure.

The economic negligence that recent administrations have demonstrated has been absolutely mind boggling. Blue collar male workers in particular are being absolutely devastated by the loss of manufacturing jobs. Back in 1967, 97 percent of men with a high school degree between the ages of 30 and 50 had jobs. Today, that figure is down to 76 percent.

#2 The Obama administration has now instituted a policy of “backdoor amnesty” for illegal immigrants by executive fiat. Janet Napolitano has announced that from now on there will be a case-by-case review of all deportation cases. Cases involving criminals will be prioritized and most others will be thrown out. A list of 19 factors that will allow government officials to use “prosecutorial discretion” in immigration cases has been distributed. Recently, I listed a few of those “factors” on The American Dream website….

-arrival in the U.S. as a young child

-actively “pursuing an education”

-serving or served in the U.S. military

-spouse of someone in the U.S. military

-18 years old or younger

-”elderly”

-pregnant or nursing

-victim of a “serious crime”

-serious disability or health problem

-caring for a family member with a serious disability or health problem

Obviously, it is not going to be too difficult for most illegal immigrants to fit into at least one of those categories.

On top of everything else the Obama administration has announced that it will now allow illegal immigrants to apply for work permits….

Illegal aliens living in the United States typically don’t apply for work permits for fear of deportation, but under the new policy, they could apply for work permits if granted deferred action or parole and compete with 22 million Americans who can’t find a full-time job.

So now blue collar Americans workers will have even more competition for the dwindling number of jobs.

#3 State and local governments all over the country are dead broke, and an atmosphere of austerity is sweeping the nation. Right now state and local governments are slashing jobs at an unprecedented rate.

In the past, government jobs were considered to be very secure and they definitely paid a lot higher than average. But now that era is coming to an end, at least on the state and local government levels.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, state and local governments have eliminated more than half a million jobs since August 2008. UBS Investment Research is projecting that state and local governments in the U.S. will cut 450,000 more jobs by the end of 2012.

#4 U.S. businesses are being absolutely crushed by mountains of nightmarish regulations, and yet the federal government, the state governments and local governments just continue to pile them on. For example, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is projecting that the food service industry will have to spend an additional 14 million hours every single year just to comply with new federal regulations that mandate that all vending machine operators and chain restaurants must label all products that they sell with a calorie count in a location visible to the consumer. Due to these kinds of ridiculous regulations, many business owners have simply given up and many other potential business owners figure that owning a business is just not worth the hassle.

#5 As I have written about so many times before, the “global economy” is really bad for American workers. When we merged our economy with the economies of nations where it is legal to pay slave labor wages, we made it inevitable that we would start losing massive amounts of jobs.

Why would a giant corporation pay a U.S. worker 10 to 20 times as much as a worker on the other side of the globe? Investors actually expect big companies to have an “outsourcing” strategy today. When more jobs get shipped out of the country, profits go up, stock prices go up and executive bonuses go up.

Big corporations don’t exist to provide you with jobs. They exist to maximize shareholder wealth. If taking your job away and giving it to someone in Asia will make more money for them, then that it exactly what they are going to do.

#6 Unfair trade is absolutely killing our economy. It would be one thing if the U.S. was running a massive trade deficit solely because we were incompetent. But the truth is that a big factor is that a number of our “trade partners” are economic predators that are purposely trying to prey on us.

The other day, I wrote about some of the things that China does to steal our jobs, our factories and our wealth….

China massively subsidizes their biggest corporations, they brazenly steal technology from anyone that they can, they openly manipulate exchange rates and they allow their workers to be paid slave labor wages.

Today, we spend about 4 dollars on imports from China for every 1 dollar that China spends on imports from us. China now even makes more beer than we do. Even the new Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on the National Mall was made in China.

Until our politicians start insisting on a level playing field, all of this is going to continue.

#7 Small businesses are traditionally one of the primary engines of job growth in this country. But right now, small businesses all over America are having a really hard time getting anyone to loan them money. A big reason for this is that the Federal Reserve is actually paying banks not to make loans. Unfortunately, if small businesses can’t get the money that they need, then they can’t hire people.

#8 A lot of people may not want to hear this, but businesses in the United States are being absolutely taxed into oblivion. The U.S. now has the highest corporate tax rate in the world, but that is only a very small part of the story.

Michael Fleischer, the President of Bogen Communications, wrote an op-ed last year for the Wall Street Journal entitled “Why I’m Not Hiring”. The following is how Paul Hollrah of Family Security Matters summarized the nightmarish taxes that are imposed when Fleischer hires a new worker….

According to Fleischer, Sally grosses $59,000 a year, which shrinks to less than $44,000 after taxes and other payroll deductions. The $15,311 deducted from Sally’s gross pay is comprised of New Jersey state income tax: $1,893; Social Security taxes: $3,661; state unemployment insurance: $126; disability insurance: $149; Medicare insurance: $856; federal withholding tax: $6,250; and her share of medical and dental insurance: $2,376. Roughly 25.9 percent of Sally’s income is siphoned off by Washington and Trenton before she receives her paychecks.

But then there are the additional costs of employing Sally. In addition to her gross salary, her employer must pay the lion’s share of her healthcare insurance premiums: $9,561; life and other insurance premiums: $153; federal unemployment insurance: $56; disability insurance: $149; worker’s comp insurance: $300; New Jersey state unemployment insurance: $505; Medicare insurance: $856; and the employer’s share of Social Security taxes: $3,661.

Over and above her gross salary, Bogen Communications must pay an additional $15,241 in benefits and state and federal taxes, bringing the total cost of employing Sally to approximately $74,241 per year. Sally gets to keep $43,689, or just 58.8% of that total.

After reading all that, can you really blame business owners for not wanting to hire additional workers?

#9 The national debt is like a giant albatross around the neck of the economy. The U.S. national debt has increased by more than 4 trillion dollars since Barack Obama took office. The rampant government spending that has been going on has not done much to create new jobs, but it will be a massive burden that will weigh down economic growth for many years to come.

When a nation is drowning in debt, a tremendous amount of economic resources must go to servicing that debt. Right now, hundreds of billions of dollars a year that could be used to build up our economy are instead being used to pay interest on the national debt. If interest rates go up significantly, we could soon be paying over a trillion dollars a year just in interest on the national debt.

#10 Right now America is very deeply divided and a tremendous sense of pessimism has set in. One recent survey found that 48 percent of Americans believe that it is likely that another great Depression will begin within the next 12 months. With such a negative feeling in the air, it is going to make it even less likely that business owners will be in the mood to hire people.

I know that I pick on Detroit a lot, but it really is a microcosm of what is happening to America. The following video contains some absolutely amazing footage of the ruins of Detroit….

Sadly, what is happening to Detroit is happening in hundreds of other communities across the United States.

All over America, neighborhoods that were once teeming with hope and prosperity are now falling apart. Hopelessness is rampant and it is spreading. The number of Americans on food stamps has increased 74% since 2007. If not for our increasingly overwhelmed “safety net”, we would already have mass rioting in the streets.

Sadly, we are already seeing all sorts of signs that society is collapsing. As the economy continues to fall apart, the violence in our neighborhoods is going to get even worse.

The following is one very shocking recent example from the Chicago Tribune….

Moments before she was slain last week on Chicago’s Southwest Side, 17-year-old Charinez Jefferson begged the gunman not to shoot because she was pregnant, prosecutors said today.

Despite her plea, Timothy Jones, 18, opened fire on Jefferson anyway, yelling an expletive at her as he shot her in the head, prosecutors said. He then stood over her as she lay on the ground and fired several more times, striking her in the chest and back.

America is changing. The country that so many of us have loved all of our lives is becoming unrecognizable. Large numbers of communities have had all of the hope sucked right out of them. Tens of millions of Americans that want to do things the “right way” are rapidly losing faith in the system.

When you can’t get a decent job after months and months of trying it can be absolutely soul-crushing.

What do you tell someone that has spent a year sending out resumes and has used up all of their savings?

The era of endless prosperity for America is at an end. The cold, hard consequences of decades of bad decisions are starting to set in.

Unless a dramatic change of course happens, the long-term trends noted above are going to get progressively worse. It won’t matter who is running Congress and it won’t matter who is in the White House.

Right now our economy is rapidly hurtling downhill on a bus without breaks and we are headed directly for a cliff.

Please wake up America.

20 Signs That The World Could Be Headed For An Economic Apocalypse In 2012

WarOnYou — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:46:39 +0000

20 Signs That The World Could Be Headed For An Economic Apocalypse In 2012

August 18, 2011

Print Version

By Michael Snyder – BLN Contributing Writer

If you thought that 2011 was a bad year for the world economy, just wait until you see what happens in 2012. The U.S. and Europe are both dealing with unprecedented debt problems, the financial markets are flailing about wildly, austerity programs are being implemented all over the globe, prices on basics such as food are soaring and a lot of consumers are flat out scared right now. Many analysts now fear that a “perfect storm” could be brewing and that we could actually be headed for an economic apocalypse in 2012. Hopefully that will not happen. Hopefully our leaders can keep the global economy from completely falling apart. But right now, things don’t look good. After a period of relative stability, things are starting to become unglued once again. The next major financial panic could literally happen at any time. Sadly, if we do see an economic apocalypse in 2012, it won’t be the wealthy that suffer the most. It will be the poor, the unemployed, the homeless and the hungry that feel the most pain.

The following are 20 signs that we could be headed for an economic apocalypse in 2012….

#1 Back in 2008 we saw major rioting around the world due to soaring food prices, and now global food prices are on the rise again. Global food prices in July were 33 percent higher than they were one year ago. Price increases for staples such as maize (up 84 percent), sugar (up 62 percent) and wheat (up 55 percent) are absolutely devastating poverty-stricken communities all over the planet. For example, one expert is warning that 800,000 children living in the Horn of Africa could die during this current famine.

#2 The producer price index in the U.S. has increased at an annual rate of at least 7.0% for the last three months in a row. We are starting to see huge price increases all over the place. For example, Starbucks recently jacked up the price of a bag of coffee by 17 percent. If inflation keeps accelerating like this we could be facing some very serious problems by the time 2012 rolls around.

#3 The U.S. “Misery Index” (unemployment plus inflation) recently hit a 28 year high and many believe that it is going to go much, much higher.

#4 Jared Bernstein, the former chief economist for Vice President Joe Biden, says that the unemployment rate in this country will not go below 8% before the 2012 election. In fact, Bernstein says that “the most optimistic forecast would be for about eight-and-a-half percent.”

#5 Working class jobs in the United States continue to disappear at an alarming rate. Back in 1967, 97 percent of men with a high school degree between the ages of 30 and 50 had jobs. Today, that figure is 76 percent.

#6 There are all kinds of indications that U.S. economic growth is about to slow down even further. For example, pre-orders for Christmas toys from China are way down this year.

#7 One recent survey found that 9 out of 10 U.S. workers do not expect their wages to keep up with the rising cost of basics such as food and gasoline over the next year.

#8 U.S. consumer confidence is now at its lowest level in 30 years.

#9 Today, an all-time record 45.8 million Americans are on food stamps. It is almost inconceivable that the largest economy on earth could have so many people dependent on the government for food.

#10 As the economy crumbles, we are also witnessing the fabric of society beginning to come apart. The recent flash mob crimes that we are starting to see all over America are just one example of this.

#11 Some desperate Americans are already stealing anything that they can get their hands on. For example, according to the American Kennel Club, dog thefts are up 32 percent this year.

#12 Small businesses all over the United States are having a really difficult time getting loans right now. Perhaps if the Federal Reserve was not paying banks not to make loans things would be different.

#13 The U.S. national debt is like a giant boulder that our economy must constantly carry around on its back, and it is growing by billions of dollars every single day. Right now the debt of the federal government is $14,592,242,215,641.90. It has gone up by nearly 4 trillion dollars since Barack Obama took office. S&P has already stripped the U.S. of its AAA credit rating, and more downgrades are certain to come if the U.S. does not get its act together.

#14 Tensions between the United States and China are rising again. A new opinion piece on chinadaily.com is calling for the Chinese government to use its holdings of U.S. debt as a “financial weapon” against the United States if the U.S. follows through with a plan to sell more arms to Taiwan. The U.S. and China are the two biggest economies in the world, so any trouble between them would mean economic trouble for the rest of the globe as well.

#15 Most state and local governments in the U.S. are deep in debt and flat broke. Many of them are slashing jobs at a feverish pace. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, state and local governments have eliminated more than half a million jobs since August 2008. UBS Investment Research is projecting that state and local governments in the U.S. will cut450,000 more jobs by the end of 2012. How those jobs will be replaced is anyone’s guess.

#16 The U.S. dollar continues to get weaker and weaker. This is renewing calls for a new global currency to be created to replace the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency of the world.

#17 The European sovereign debt crisis continues to get worse. Countries like Portugal, Italy and Greece are on the verge of an economic apocalypse. All of the financial problems in Europe are even beginning to affect the core European nations. For example, German industrial production declined by 1.1% in June. There are all kinds of signs that the economy of Europe is slowing down and is heading for a recession. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are proposing that a new “economic government” for Europe be set up to oversee this debt crisis, but nothing that the Europeans have tried so far has done much to solve things.

#18 The Federal Reserve is so desperate to bring some sort of stability to financial markets that it has stated that it will likely keep interest rates near zero all the way until mid-2013. The Federal Reserve is operating in “panic mode” almost constantly now and they are almost out of ammunition. So what is going to happen when the real trouble starts?

#19 Central banks around the world certainly seem to be preparing for something. According to the World Gold Council, central banks around the globe purchased more gold during the first half of 2011 than they did all of last year.

#20 Often perception very much influences reality. One recent survey found that 48 percent of Americans believe that it is likely that another great Depression will begin within the next 12 months. If people expect that a depression is coming and they quit spending money that actually increases the chance that an economic downturn will occur.

There is already a tremendous amount of economic pain on the streets of America, but unfortunately it looks like things may get even worse in 2012.

The once great economic machine that was handed down to us by our forefathers is falling to pieces all around us and we are in debt up to our eyeballs. The consequences of our bad economic decisions are hurting some of the most vulnerable members of our society the most.

It is a crying shame what is happening out there on the streets of America today.

Please say a prayer for all of those that are sleeping in cars or tents or under bridges tonight.

Soon even more Americans will be joining them.

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