STAFF NEWS & ANALYSIS
DB Briefs: Europe Bans Shorters / Krugman Wants More Spending / CIA Defends Drone Killings
By Staff News & Analysis - August 12, 2011

Four European Nations Ban Shorters as Markets Bounce Back … France, Italy, Spain and Belgium have resorted to the desperate measure of banning short-selling of banking stocks in the wake of this week’s market chaos. … The ban has echoes of 2008, at the height of the financial crisis, when confidence was in freefall. However, it ultimately had little effect as the fundamentals proved that the shorters were right. – Uk Telegraph

Paul Krugman: The Hijacked Crisis … “For the fact is that right now the economy desperately needs a short-run fix. When you’re bleeding profusely from an open wound, you want a doctor who binds that wound up, not a doctor who lectures you on the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle as you get older. When millions of willing and able workers are unemployed, and economic potential is going to waste to the tune of almost $1 trillion a year, you want policy makers who work on a fast recovery, not people who lecture you on the need for long-run fiscal sustainability. … What would a real response to our problems involve? First of all, it would involve more, not less, government spending.” – Paul Krugman/NY Times

C.I.A. is Disputed on Civilian Toll in Drone Strikes … American officials, who will speak about the classified drone program only on the condition of anonymity, say it has killed more than 2,000 militants and about 50 noncombatants since 2001 — a stunningly low collateral death rate by the standards of traditional airstrikes. The officials say C.I.A. drone operators view their targets for hours or days beforehand, analyzing what they call a “pattern of life” and distinguishing militants from others. They use software to model the blast area of each proposed strike. Then they watch the strike, see the killed and wounded pulled from the rubble, and track the funerals that follow. – NY Times

Four European Nations Ban Shorters as Markets Bounce Back

France, Italy, Spain and Belgium have resorted to the desperate measure of banning short-selling of banking stocks in the wake of this week’s market chaos. … The ban has echoes of 2008, at the height of the financial crisis, when confidence was in freefall. However, it ultimately had little effect as the fundamentals proved that the shorters were right. Late last night, the European Securities & Markets Authority released a statement saying the ban was imposed “to restrict the benefits that can be achieved from spreading false rumours or to achieve a regulatory level playing field, given the close inter-linkage between some EU markets.” – UK Telegraph

Dominant Social Theme: The financial system is healthy. Bank stocks are plummeting because of those nasty rumour-spreading speculators.

Free-Market Analysis: This wasn’t unexpected by many who have been watching the unfolding events in Europe’s backyard. Just as in 2008, when US regulators stepped in to protect the “Holy Grail of banking,” here we have another blatant attempt by the central planners to try to “force” people to have confidence in an over-leveraged fiat money empire that is on the verge of collapse. In fact, we don’t think it matters much what the regulators do at this point. We think the US dollar and the Federal Reserve are both on their deathbeds — the euro, too, for that matter. The entire world is experiencing an awakening, which exposes the fraudulent nature of a global monetary system that’s been used by international Money Power to collectivize and enslave a large swath of the world’s population under authoritarian rule. Imposing a ban on people’s ability to profit from the downfall of a corrupt system will not keep the funeral from occurring.


Paul Krugman: The Hijacked Crisis

“… For the fact is that right now the economy desperately needs a short-run fix. When you’re bleeding profusely from an open wound, you want a doctor who binds that wound up, not a doctor who lectures you on the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle as you get older. When millions of willing and able workers are unemployed, and economic potential is going to waste to the tune of almost $1 trillion a year, you want policy makers who work on a fast recovery, not people who lecture you on the need for long-run fiscal sustainability. … What would a real response to our problems involve? First of all, it would involve more, not less, government spending.” – Paul Krugman/NY Times

Dominant Social Theme: There’s a way out of this mess: Keynesian economic policies, of course.

Free-Market Analysis: This is typical jaw-jaw from the Nobel Prize winning economist, Paul Krugman. And surprise, surprise… Krugman’s the NY Times‘ leading economic mouthpiece. Well, we totally disagree with his Keynesian pronouncements and feel that he should spend a little more time at the Mises Institute where he may be able to redeem himself – if he studies really hard and decides to tell the truth. But we don’t think he’ll be embracing the teachings of Ludwig von Mises anytime soon, as he is most certainly aware of them already. The fact that Austrian economists have been accurately forecasting this financial disaster for several decades now is irrelevant for state servants like Krugman. He’ll just keep on uttering his nonsensical support for more government stimulus – more money printing – and his devotion to statist-led solutions. It is because of the “expert” preachings of those like Krugman – and mainstream media publications like the NY Times that enthusiastically promote such sentiments – that the elite have had their way with confused and misinformed Western societies throughout the 20th century. But that was before the truth-telling empowered by the Internet Reformation. Krugman is but an actor who is partially responsible for assisting with the hijacking of America’s wealth and productivity. Nothing more. Nothing less.


C.I.A. is Disputed on Civilian Toll in Drone Strikes

American officials, who will speak about the classified drone program only on the condition of anonymity, say it has killed more than 2,000 militants and about 50 noncombatants since 2001 — a stunningly low collateral death rate by the standards of traditional airstrikes. The officials say C.I.A. drone operators view their targets for hours or days beforehand, analyzing what they call a “pattern of life” and distinguishing militants from others. They use software to model the blast area of each proposed strike. Then they watch the strike, see the killed and wounded pulled from the rubble, and track the funerals that follow. – NY Times

Dominant Social Theme: Modern warfare is remarkably compassionate. Democracy is worth the price of a few “noncombatants.”

Free-Market Analysis: Since when is murder in the name of installing your faith on another culture acceptable? Is some cold-hearted techno-nerd sitting in the Pentagon with a video game-like console any less responsible for his actions because the government says it is okay to kill? Real people are being slaughtered and real people are responsible. The CIA and its minions can call them “noncombatants” all they like. Maybe that makes them feel better. But we think of them as living, breathing people with families, hopes and ambitions not so unlike ours. In fact, our elves have travelled extensively throughout the world and tend to find that, regardless of the “good guy/bad guy” dynamic endlessly pounded into the brains of the masses by mainstream media and establishment mouthpieces, people, generally speaking, just want to live their lives in peace. It is the governments of the world, especially those controlled by an Anglosphere Money Power, that create the endless conflicts that destroy so many lives. The US military-industrial complex, and the people running the video-death-games, should be ashamed of their murderous actions and be held responsible.

Posted in STAFF NEWS & ANALYSIS
loading
Share via
Copy link
Powered by Social Snap