man this is really hilarious. The Chinese English or rather ChinGlish entanglement and lost in translations innuendo. Enjoy!

The aircraft flights around the world..the aiplane flights path interconnected different airports in different cities, countries as well as the continent..so travel as we might!

This is an actuall large airplane flights path around the world, recorded by the airplane's flight transponders via Geo-stationary orbital satelites in the span of 24 hours, patches together and condensed down from space into a single minutest. A single yellow dot represent an aircraft. Therefore everything yellowish and bright in color could be translate into a heavy air traffics route over that region, bear in mind  that all of this take place in 24 hours not in a single minute timeframe, otherwise we might need a bigger airport....BTW, It's very interesting to see how's some people from some part of the world travelled heavily in aircraft while the other's from the different part of the world is not (so fortunate perhap?).

So tell me are you happen to be in the region in bright collor or the one least travel?

"I Am Not Dr. Doom"
Monday, April 27, 2009

Q. You are the economist known for predicting the economic downturn in 2008. What do you believe is happening to the economy today? 

A. The consensus among economists is that they see the economy that was contracting for the last two quarters at 6 percent going into positive economic growth by the second half of this year. . . . I believe that the rate of economic contraction is going to slow from negative 6 percent in the last two quarters to negative 2 percent by the fourth quarter. 

Next year, I believe that the growth rate is going to be low -- 0.5 percent for the U.S., compared to the consensus view of [plus] 2 percent. I believe the unemployment rate this year is going to go well above 10 percent and will be well above 11 percent next year, so even if we are technically out of a recession, we are going to feel like we are in a recession. 

 

I do agree that there is an improvement in the sense that the rate of contraction is not going to be as much as it has been in the last couple of quarters, but I still believe that the bottom of the economy [will be seen] toward the beginning or middle of next year. So my views are more bearish than the consensus. 

I believe things are going to be very mediocre throughout the world; in particular, in Europe and in Japan. They will only get out of their recession toward the end of next year. 

So you are still Dr. Doom? 

No, I am not Dr. Doom. I am Dr. Realist. I don't believe we are going to end up in a near-depression. Six months ago I was more worried about an L-shaped near-depression. Today, after the very aggressive policy actions taken by the U.S. and other countries . . . we are, instead, in the middle of a U. 


You think the Obama administration is on the right track with the stimulus packages and Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernacke pumping money into the system? 

Yes, I have to give credit to the administration. Within 30 days of coming to power, they did an $800 billion stimulus package, a new program to deal with mortgages and foreclosures, and also a bank plan that, when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner came with details, made the markets rally sharply . . . Again, the glass is only half full because in order to do things with speed, they did not do them perfectly. Each one of these three programs has some flaws. The fiscal stimulus could have been more front-loaded. For the mortgages, eventually you are going to need the reduction of the face-value principal of the mortgages. And on the banks, I believe the PPIP [Public-Private Investment Program] plan can work for banks that are solvent. But . . . after the stress tests, it is going to be obvious that even some of the largest banks are so fundamentally in trouble that you cannot buy their toxic assets. You need to take over these banks on a temporary basis, clean them up and then sell them back to the private sector.

You have to nationalize these banks? 

Yes, if you do not like the dirty N-word, you can call it a temporary takeover. Nobody is in favor of permanent government ownership of the financial system. But we might need to do it on a temporary basis. 

 

How do you feel about the deficit that the Obama administration is building up? 

In the short term I am supportive of it, because if we didn't have these fiscal deficits, the recession would become a depression. I think we need to stimulate demand in a situation in which every component of aggregate demand is sharply falling -- consumption, residential, inventory, exports. On the other side, I do agree that this is not a free lunch. 

What is going to fuel the next growth cycle? 

That is a difficult question because the periods of high growth in the United States in the last 25 years have been characterized by an asset and credit bubble. The real estate bubble of the '80s ended up with pain in the [savings-and-loan] crisis. Then came the tech bubble, which ended up in another crash and led to a recession. And now we have this more generalized housing and credit bubble, which ended up in a big disaster. . . . We have to switch our capital into things that are more productive and more stable in terms of social growth. That is going to be a challenge. And the potential growth rate might fall to a much lower rate. 

Do you believe this is a bear-market rally or do you think it is the market anticipating an economic recovery? 

I do believe it is a bear-market rally. . . . We have seen this cycle of bear-market rallies. It is true that as time goes by, it is possible that the latest low is going to be the true low. . . . As we reach newer lows we may be closer to a level of the market that is fundamentally right. A year ago we were not as close to a true bottom. Today we are closer to it. 

Do you worry about China getting tired of holding our bonds? 

In the short run, China has no option but to accumulate dollar reserves. Why? Because if they stop doing that, their currency would appreciate sharply while their exports are plunging. China cannot afford to let its currency appreciate any further, and to prevent the appreciation given their current and capital accounts they have to buy another $300 [billion] or $400 billion of reserves this year alone. 

But I have seen a huge number of new initiatives in the last month after China expressed its worries that suggest they are pushing for the yuan to become an international currency and a reserve currency. . . . 

They want to create a yuan zone in Asia. They are pushing for inter-Asian trade to be conducted in yuan. They are taking several steps that will lead their own currency to become an international currency. 

Over time, they are moving away from the dollar? 

Yes, slowly they will. In order to move away from the dollar, first they have to establish their own currency as an international currency. That will take years, but already in a month they have done more than in the last 10 years.

By Laura MacInnis and Sue Pleming

GENEVA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will boycott a United Nations conference on racism next week, the U.S. State Department said on Saturday, citing objectionable language in the meeting's draft declaration.

The United Nations organized the forum in Geneva to help heal the wounds from the last such meeting, in Durban, South Africa. The United States and Israel walked out of that 2001 conference when Arab states tried to define Zionism as racist.

The Obama administration, which kept its distance from preparations for the "Durban II" meeting, has come under strong pressure from Israel not to attend.

"With regret, the United States will not join the review conference," said State Department spokesman Robert Wood, ending weeks of deliberations inside the Obama administration over whether to attend.

Wood said significant improvements were made to the conference document, but the text still reaffirmed "in toto" a declaration that emerged from the Durban conference which the United States had opposed.

"The United States also has serious concerns with relatively new additions to the text regarding "incitement," that run counter to the U.S. commitment to unfettered free speech," he added.

The announced boycott came about three months after President Barack Obama became the first African-American to lead the United States.

Canada also has said it will not go next week because of fears of a repeat of the "Israel-bashing" that occurred at the last conference. The European Union is still deliberating.

The Czech Republic, which holds the rotating EU presidency, has called a meeting for Sunday evening to evaluate the bloc's stance on attending.

"There are still several member states of the EU that are not decided yet," Czech foreign ministry spokeswoman Zuzana Opletalova said. "We are in touch with them and there will be a decision on a common position before the conference starts."

Britain, however, confirmed that it would send a delegation to the conference, albeit without a high-level official.

RIGHTS GROUPS CONCERNED

Juliette de Rivero of Human Rights Watch said the meeting in Geneva would lack needed diplomatic gravitas without Washington's presence.

"For us it's extremely disappointing and it's a missed opportunity, really, for the United States," she said.

A draft declaration prepared for the conference removed all references to Israel, the Middle East conflict and a call to bar "defamation of religion" -- an Arab-backed response to a 2006 controversy over Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that Western states see as a way to quash free expression.

Wood conceded there had been improvements to the document, but he said it was not enough.

"The United States will work with all people and nations to build greater resolve and enduring political will to halt racism and discrimination wherever it occurs," he said.

Diplomats said the high-profile presence of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the forum made it probable that touchy subjects would still dominate the proceedings.

Ahmadinejad, who has previously said Israel should be "wiped off the map" and questioned whether the Nazi Holocaust happened, will address the plenary and hold a news conference on Monday -- coinciding with Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Iran's sentencing of U.S.-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi to eight years in prison on Saturday may also have dampened White House enthusiasm about the chance of direct diplomatic contact with Tehran at the conference.

Ahmadinejad is one of only a handful of heads of state who have confirmed they will attend the conference at the U.N.'s Palais des Nations.

Iranian dissidents on Saturday expressed dismay about his taking center stage, saying his participation "would only serve to discredit the conference."

Western officials have said they are preparing for a response if Ahmadinejad were to make "unacceptable" comments in his Monday remarks. Some said they would respond with rebuttals on the spot, and others signaled they could leave the forum.

One diplomat said: "We don't normally walk out of conferences run by the United Nations and we'd rather avoid doing it. But that doesn't mean that there aren't red lines that if breached would prompt us to take action."

(Writing by Sue Pleming and Laura MacInnis; editing by Paul Simao)

(Additional reporting by Kate Kelland in London, Holger Hansen in Berlin, Jan Strupczewski in Brussels; editing by Robert Woodward)

Conference Discusses Obama’s Birth Certificate

Group Begins Movement To Boycott Hawaii
By JOHN P. CONNOLLY, The Bulletin
Publish:Monday, April 06, 2009
Washington — A group seeking to force the State of Hawaii to release President Barack Obama’s birth certificate met this past weekend to discuss the prospects of getting the state to make it public as well as the involved legal issues.

So-far, efforts to get Hawaii to release the birth certificate have been hampered by the doctrine of legal standing, which requires a plaintiff to show how he or she has been directly harmed by another person’s actions. In this case, courts have repeatedly ruled ordinary citizens cannot sue Mr. Obama to obtain his birth certificate because they lack standing.

The lack of standing mainly stems from the fact the plaintiffs did not raise legal objections to the president’s birth certificate and his place on the ballot before the 2008 primaries. Consequently, the right to legally object was considered to have been legally waived by the courts that have already ruled on the standing issue.

Andy Martin, the lawyer and author who is trying to get Hawaii to release Mr. Obama’s birth certificate, led the two-day conference. A long-time critic of Mr. Obama, Mr. Martin is credited with being the first person to raise questions about his religious upbringing and question if he was a Muslim.

“There’s never been a meeting where people got together and talked about this controversy, kicked it around,” said Mr. Martin. “We might even stimulate some people to go to Hawaii and take up their own cases.”

Mr. Martin, who has written a book about Mr. Obama, argues the president’s birth certificate and school records should be released for historical purposes.

Hawaii has laws that prevent unauthorized persons from accessing the birth certificate, with an exception for those who have a tangible interest in its contents, an interest Mr. Martin claims he has as a writer, writing about the man who is arguably one of the most public figures in the world.

Mr. Martin said his case has a much better chance to succeed because the definition of standing that has kept other cases from proceeding is much more liberal in a state court than a federal court.

Interest in the contents of Mr. Obama’s birth certificate intensified in 2008, when his campaign released a print off of his birth data, calling it his birth certificate.

While the document is legal, it was not his birth certificate. Mr. Obama’s lengthy legal efforts to prevent the document from being released have generated questions and speculations over what he might have to hide. Speculation has varied from the possibility he could be ineligible to be president to the idea Barack Obama Sr. was not his father.

Mr. Martin is critical of the many theories that have flown about in recent months, saying they are understandable, but they should be rooted in the evidence. He is working to get the birth certificate released because he says the American people want the truth.

“Why doesn’t he just sit down and tell his story to the American people?” asked Mr. Martin. “He’s an extraordinary person. He would have more legitimacy as a leader, credibility as a leader, and respect as a leader if he did.”

Mr. Martin has met with resistance from Hawaii authorities in his pursuit of records and other evidence to corroborate a story published by WorldNetDaily reporter Jerome Corsi, saying that Gov. Linda Lingle had sealed off Mr. Obama’s birth certificate.

Mr. Martin requested interdepartmental documents from the governor and attorney general’s offices, only to receive back materials that did not fit the description of what he requested. Instead of getting inter-departmental communications, Mr. Martin received 500 e-mails from citizens concerned about the secrecy surrounding Mr. Obama’s birth certificate.

“Friday, I exposed how the Hawaii governor, Linda Lingle, had mailed me a package of empty materials, without the particularized documentation I had requested,” said Mr. Martin. “She violated Hawaii law. I don't understand why Ms. Lingle thinks she is helping herself by subordinating her office to the Hawaii Attorney General. Ms. Lingle is an independent constitutional officer.”

In response to the resistance of government and school officials to releasing records about Mr. Obama’s past, Mr. Martin and the conference announced a boycott of Hawaii tourism, products and businesses. Any citizen can join in the boycott by going to the Web site, BoycottHawaii.com.

“The BoycottHawaii.com movement will afford every person anywhere in the world a powerful new weapon to punish the State of Hawaii for concealing historical records concerning Mr. Obama,” said Mr. Martin. “I will be writing to the Punahou School, asking them to obtain permission to release his Punahou records.”

Mr. Martin’s case is currently being appealed after being denied in its initial hearing.

John P. Connolly can be reached at jconnolly@thebulletin.us

Comment:

I dunno whether this hold ground or what, but I'm aware that during the 2008 campaign, there is a strong Israeli intelligence element behind some of the most absurd and exaggerated attacks to smear and discredit Barack Hussein Obama II, as a muslim opostate. Although  some of the facts presented is correct but the ways they put it clearly to shape the public opinion away from this particular US presidential contender.

Anyways, let keep a weather eye on this or what say you?

This essay was written by John Maynard Keynespre in 1930 about the general economy teory and the Great Depression; as he was groping toward an integrated framework for thinking about depressed economies his observations on the crisis remain stunningly insightful, while we are not quite there yet, it's enlighten to read what he says almost eight decades before. I know it a bit long piece but perhaps you might want to spend a few minutes to understand the economy as most of his words fit current events all too well. Pluss it's in simple english, as not much financial jargon, thus the layman could digest it pretty easily than those from Paul Krugman/Nouriel Roubini or anyone their stature. Economics is central to everyones lives and yet very few have a grasp on their basic fundamentals/understanding, how strange? Finally, for those of you working on economic/finance papers, term papers and so forth, I hope these article help.

The Great Slump of 1930.  

I. 

The world has been slow to realize that we are living this year in the shadow of one of the greatest economic catastrophes of modern history. But now that the man in the street has become aware of what is happening, he, not knowing the why and wherefore, is as full to-day of what may prove excessive fears as, previously, when the trouble was first coming on, he was lacking in what would have been a reasonable anxiety. He begins to doubt the future. Is he now awakening from a pleasant dream to face the darkness of facts? Or dropping off into a nightmare which will pass away? 

He need not be doubtful. The other was not a dream. This is a nightmare, which will pass away with the morning. For the resources of nature and men's devices are just as fertile and productive as they were. The rate of our progress towards solving the material problems of life is not less rapid. We are as capable as before of affording for everyone a high standard of life—high, I mean, compared with, say, twenty years ago—and will soon learn to afford a standard higher still. We were not previously deceived. But to-day we have involved ourselves in a colossal muddle, having blundered in the control of a delicate machine, the working of which we do not understand. The result is that our possibilities of wealth may run to waste for a time—perhaps for a long time. 

I doubt whether I can hope, in these articles, to bring what is in my mind into fully effective touch with the mind of the reader. I shall be saying too much for the layman, too little for the expert. For—though no one will believe it—economics is a technical and difficult subject. It is even becoming a science. However, I will do my best—at the cost of leaving out, because it is too complicated, much that is necessary to a complete understanding of contemporary events. 

First of all, the extreme violence of the slump is to be noticed. In the three leading industrial countries of the world—the United States, Great Britain, and Germany—10,000,000 workers stand idle. There is scarcely an important industry anywhere earning enough profit to make it expand—which is the test of progress. At the same time, in the countries of primary production the output of mining and of agriculture is selling, in the case of almost every important commodity, at a price which, for many or for the majority of producers, does not cover its cost. In 1921, when prices fell as heavily, the fall was from a boom level at which producers were making abnormal profits; and there is no example in modern history of so great and rapid a fall of prices from a normal figure as has occurred in the past year. Hence the magnitude of the catastrophe. 

The time which elapses before production ceases and unemployment reaches its maximum is, for several reasons, much longer in the case of the primary products than in the case of manufacture. In most cases the production units are smaller and less well organized amongst themselves for enforcing a process of orderly contraction; the length of the production period, especially in agriculture, is longer; the costs of a temporary shut-down are greater; men are more often their own employers and so submit more readily to a contraction of the income for which they are willing to work; the social problems of throwing men out of employment are greater in more primitive communities; and the financial problems of a cessation of production of primary output are more serious in countries where such primary output is almost the whole sustenance of the people. Nevertheless we are fast approaching the phase in which the output of primary producers will be restricted almost as much as that of manufacturers; and this will have a further adverse reaction on manufacturers, since the primary producers will have no purchasing power wherewith to buy manufactured goods; and so on, in a vicious circle. 

In this quandary individual producers base illusory hopes on courses of action which would benefit an individual producer or class of producers so long as they were alone in pursuing them, but which benefit no one if everyone pursues them. For example, to restrict the output of a particular primary commodity raises its price, so long as the output of the industries which use this commodity is unrestricted; but if output is restricted all round, then the demand for the primary commodity falls off by just as much as the supply, and no one is further forward. Or again, if a particular producer or a particular country cuts wages, then, so long as others do not follow suit, that producer or that country is able to get more of what trade is going. But if wages are cut all round, the purchasing power of the community as a whole is reduced by the same amount as the reduction of costs; and, again, no one is further forward. 

Thus neither the restriction of output nor the reduction of wages serves in itself to restore equilibrium. 

Moreover, even if we were to succeed eventually in re-establishing output at the lower level of money-wages appropriate to (say) the pre-war level of prices, our troubles would not be at an end. For since 1914 an immense burden of bonded debt, both national and international, has been contracted, which is fixed in terms of money. Thus every fall of prices increases the burden of this debt, because it increases the value of the money in which it is fixed. For example, if we were to settle down to the pre-war level of prices, the British National Debt would be nearly 40 per cent. greater than it was in 1924 and double what it was in 1920; the Young Plan would weigh on Germany much more heavily than the Dawes Plan, which it was agreed she could not support; the indebtedness to the United States of her associates in the Great War would represent 40-50 per cent. more goods and services than at the date when the settlements were made; the obligations of such debtor countries as those of South America and Australia would become insupportable without a reduction of their standard of life for the benefit of their creditors; agriculturists and householders throughout the world, who have borrowed on mortgage, would find themselves the victims of their creditors. In such a situation it must be doubtful whether the necessary adjustments could be made in time to prevent a series of bankruptcies, defaults, and repudiations which would shake the capitalist order to its foundations. Here would be a fertile soil for agitation, seditions, and revolution. It is so already in many quarters of the world. Yet, all the time, the resources of nature and men's devices would be just as fertile and productive as they were. The machine would merely have been jammed as the result of a muddle. But because we have magneto trouble, we need not assume that we shall soon be back in a rumbling waggon and that motoring is over. 



II. 

We have magneto trouble. How, then, can we start up again? Let us trace events backwards:— 

1. Why are workers and plant unemployed? Because industrialists do not expect to be able to sell without loss what would be produced if they were employed. 

2. Why cannot industrialists expect to sell without loss? Because prices have fallen more than costs have fallen—indeed, costs have fallen very little. 

3. How can it be that prices have fallen more than costs? For costs are what a business man pays out for the production of his commodity, and prices determine what he gets back when he sells it. It is easy to understand how for an individual business or an individual commodity these can be unequal. But surely for the community as a whole the business men get back the same amount as they pay out, since what the business men pay out in the course of production constitutes the incomes of the public which they pay back to the business men in exchange for the products of the latter? For this is what we understand by the normal circle of production, exchange, and consumption. 

4. No! Unfortunately this is not so; and here is the root of the trouble. It is not true that what the business men pay out as costs of production necessarily comes back to them as the sale-proceeds of what they produce. It is the characteristic of a boom that their sale-proceeds exceed their costs; and it is the characteristic of a slump that their costs exceed their sale-proceeds. Moreover, it is a delusion to suppose that they can necessarily restore equilibrium by reducing their total costs, whether it be by restricting their output or cutting rates of remuneration; for the reduction of their outgoings may, by reducing the purchasing power of the earners who are also their customers, diminish their sale-proceeds by a nearly equal amount. 

5. How, then, can it be that the total costs of production for the world's business as a whole can be unequal to the total sale-proceeds? Upon what does the inequality depend? I think that I know the answer. But it is too complicated and unfamiliar for me to expound it here satisfactorily. (Elsewhere I have tried to expound it accurately.) So I must be somewhat perfunctory. 

Let us take, first of all, the consumption-goods which come on to the market for sale. Upon what do the profits (or losses) of the producers of such goods depend? The total costs of production, which are the same thing as the community's total earnings looked at from another point of view, are divided in a certain proportion between the cost of consumption-goods and the cost of capital-goods. The incomes of the public, which are again the same thing as the community's total earnings, are also divided in a certain proportion between expenditure on the purchase of consumption-goods and savings. Now if the first proportion is larger than the second, producers of consumption-goods will lose money; for their sale proceeds, which are equal to the expenditure of the public on consumption-goods, will be less (as a little thought will show) than what these goods have cost them to produce. If, on the other hand, the second proportion is larger than the first, then the producers of consumption-goods will make exceptional gains. It follows that the profits of the producers of consumption goods can only be restored, either by the public spending a larger proportion of their incomes on such goods (which means saving less), or by a larger proportion of production taking the form of capital-goods (since this means a smaller proportionate output of consumption-goods). 

But capital-goods will not be produced on a larger scale unless the producers of such goods are making a profit. So we come to our second question—upon what do the profits of the producers of capital-goods depend? They depend on whether the public prefer to keep their savings liquid in the shape of money or its equivalent or to use them to buy capital-goods or the equivalent. If the public are reluctant to buy the latter, then the producers of capital-goods will make a loss; consequently less capital-goods will be produced; with the result that, for the reasons given above, producers of consumption-goods will also make a loss. In other words, all classes of producers will tend to make a loss; and general unemployment will ensue. By this time a vicious circle will be set up, and, as the result of a series of actions and reactions, matters will get worse and worse until something happens to turn the tide. 

This is an unduly simplified picture of a complicated phenomenon. But I believe that it contains the essential truth. Many variations and fugal embroideries and orchestrations can be superimposed; but this is the tune. 

If, then, I am right, the fundamental cause of the trouble is the lack of new enterprise due to an unsatisfactory market for capital investment. Since trade is international, an insufficient output of new capital-goods in the world as a whole affects the prices of commodities everywhere and hence the profits of producers in all countries alike. 

Why is there an insufficient output of new capital-goods in the world as a whole? It is due, in my opinion, to a conjunction of several causes. In the first instance, it was due to the attitude of lenders—for new capital-goods are produced to a large extent with borrowed money. Now it is due to the attitude of borrowers, just as much as to that of lenders. 

For several reasons lenders were, and are, asking higher terms for loans, than new enterprise can afford. First, the fact, that enterprise could afford high rates for some time after the war whilst war wastage was being made good, accustomed lenders to expect much higher rates than before the war. Second, the existence of political borrowers to meet Treaty obligations, of banking borrowers to support newly restored gold standards, of speculative borrowers to take part in Stock Exchange booms, and, latterly, of distress borrowers to meet the losses which they have incurred through the fall of prices, all of whom were ready if necessary to pay almost any terms, have hitherto enabled lenders to secure from these various classes of borrowers higher rates than it is possible for genuine new enterprise to support. Third, the unsettled state of the world and national investment habits have restricted the countries in which many lenders are prepared to invest on any reasonable terms at all. A large proportion of the globe is, for one reason or another, distrusted by lenders, so that they exact a premium for risk so great as to strangle new enterprise altogether. For the last two years, two out of the three principal creditor nations of the world, namely, France and the United States, have largely withdrawn their resources from the international market for long-term loans. 

Meanwhile, the reluctant attitude of lenders has become matched by a hardly less reluctant attitude on the part of borrowers. For the fall of prices has been disastrous to those who have borrowed, and anyone who has postponed new enterprise has gained by his delay. Moreover, the risks that frighten lenders frighten borrowers too. Finally, in the United States, the vast scale on which new capital enterprise has been undertaken in the last five years has somewhat exhausted for the time being—at any rate so long as the atmosphere of business depression continues—the profitable opportunities for yet further enterprise. By the middle of 1929 new capital undertakings were already on an inadequate scale in the world as a whole, outside the United States. The culminating blow has been the collapse of new investment inside the United States, which to-day is probably 20 to 30 per cent. less than it was in 1928. Thus in certain countries the opportunity for new profitable investment is more limited than it was; whilst in others it is more risky. 

A wide gulf, therefore, is set between the ideas of lenders and the ideas of borrowers for the purpose of genuine new capital investment; with the result that the savings of the lenders are being used up in financing business losses and distress borrowers, instead of financing new capital works. 

At this moment the slump is probably a little overdone for psychological reasons. A modest upward reaction, therefore, may be due at any time. But there cannot be a real recovery, in my judgment, until the ideas of lenders and the ideas of productive borrowers are brought together again; partly by lenders becoming ready to lend on easier terms and over a wider geographical field, partly by borrowers recovering their good spirits and so becoming readier to borrow. 

Seldom in modern history has the gap between the two been so wide and so difficult to bridge. Unless we bend our wills and our intelligences, energized by a conviction that this diagnosis is right, to find a solution along these lines, then, if the diagnosis is right, the slump may pass over into a depression, accompanied by a sagging price-level, which might last for years, with untold damage to the material wealth and to the social stability of every country alike. Only if we seriously seek a solution, will the optimism of my opening sentences be confirmed—at least for the nearer future. 

It is beyond the scope of this article to indicate lines of future policy. But no one can take the first step except the central banking authorities of the chief creditor countries; nor can any one Central Bank do enough acting in isolation. Resolute action by the Federal Reserve Banks of the United States, the Bank of France, and the Bank of England might do much more than most people, mistaking symptoms or aggravating circumstances for the disease itself, will readily believe. In every way the more effective remedy would be that the Central Banks of these three great creditor nations should join together in a bold scheme to restore confidence to the international long-term loan market; which would serve to revive enterprise and activity everywhere, and to restore prices and profits, so that in due course the wheels of the world's commerce would go round again. And even if France, hugging the supposed security of gold, prefers to stand aside from the adventure of creating new wealth, I am convinced that Great Britain and the United States, like-minded and acting together, could start the machine again within a reasonable time; if, that is to say, they were energized by a confident conviction as to what was wrong. For it is chiefly the lack of this conviction which to-day is paralyzing the hands of authority on both sides of the Channel and of the Atlantic. 

Currency Defense Drops on Ringgit, Won on Exports
March 9 (Bloomberg) -- Asian central banks are abandoning a six-month campaign of defending their currencies, reversing course to cheapen exports that are falling the most in a decade.

Policy makers from India to Malaysia to Taiwan are letting their currencies depreciate after South Korea gave companies an edge by allowing the won to weaken 19 percent against the dollar this year. Shipments from South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan and Malaysia fell 17 percent in January to $79 billion, twice the drop of April 1998, when the Asian financial crisis was wiping out a third of the region’s economy, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“Export markets have been forced to let their currencies weaken to try and keep up with the competitive depreciation in the won,” said Dwyfor Evans, a strategist in Hong Kong at State Street Global Markets LLC, which has $12 trillion under custody.

The won, India’s rupee and Taiwan’s dollar will decline against the U.S. dollar by 12, 13 and 6 percent, respectively, by the end of June, according to Stephen Jen, a Morgan Stanley currency strategist. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says Singapore’s dollar will depreciate 3 percent by April. Malaysia’s ringgit will slip 5 percent by Sept. 30, says Calyon, a Credit Agricole SA unit in Paris.

Devalued currencies may throw a lifeline to exporters getting clobbered by South Korean competitors. Oppenheimer & Co. predicts Taiwan-based AU Optronics’s share of the global market for liquid-crystal displays in television sets and computers will drop to 15 percent this year, from 16.8 percent in 2008. The company posted a record loss of NT$26.6 billion ($764 million) for the fourth quarter.

Outperforming Taiwan

Its South Korean rivals, Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Display Co. will boost their combined LCD share to 44.9 percent, from 41.9 percent, Oppenheimer said in a research report to clients last month. Shares of those two companies have outperformed their Taiwan competitor by at least 21 percentage points since Sept. 30.

“There will no longer be meaningful interventions to prevent Asia-outside-Japan currencies from falling,” Jen said in a March 2 report from London. “There’s a genuine change in the currency policies of many Asian economies. A severe contraction in the trade surpluses clearly affects the relative supply and demand for dollars in these countries.”

Central banks intervene when they buy or sell currencies to influence exchange rates.

‘Stable’ and ‘Functioning’

Malaysia’s Bank Negara bought ringgit four months ago, helping it strengthen 4.5 percent against the dollar in December. The central bank said March 5 that the currency is now “stable” and “functioning on its own.” The ringgit fell 6.8 percent this year to 3.7203 today as it slipped toward the 3.80-per-dollar peg abandoned in 2005.

The Philippines won’t intervene to shore up the peso, Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said March 4 as it approached the lowest level since Dec. 5. The peso ended a three-month slide in November after the central bank drew down its reserves by 2 percent the previous month, the biggest drop since 2005. The currency declined 2.5 percent to 48.620 per dollar this year.

Foreign reserves in India barely changed in February at $239 billion, indicating the central bank didn’t sell dollars to prop up the currency as the rupee shed 4.7 percent in its worst monthly performance since October.

Adnan Akant, foreign exchange chief in New York at Fischer Francis Trees & Watts, which oversaw $22 billion as of December, predicts Singapore’s central bank will widen its trading band to let the currency fall when policy makers hold their biannual meeting in April. He’s selling the city-state’s dollar, which depreciated 6.5 percent this year to S$1.5442 per greenback.

‘Engine’ for Growth

South Korea was the catalyst for the shift away from defensive intervention. After spending 22 percent of foreign reserves from August to November to stem won losses, South Korean Finance Minister Yoon Jeung Hyun said Feb. 25 that its weakness may be an “engine for export growth.”

The won’s 17 percent slide this year versus Asian counterparts is its steepest annual start since 1995, when Westpac Banking Corp. started to track the value of the currency on a traded weighted basis.

China’s $585 billion stimulus plan may halt or reverse Asian currency losses by spurring growth across the continent. Christy Tan, a currency strategist at Bank of America Corp. in Singapore, said the region’s economies and currencies are ready for a recovery.

‘Positive Implications’

“Asia as a whole continues to enjoy rather healthy trade surpluses,” Tan said. “We have an above-consensus forecast for China growth at 8 percent. That’ll probably have positive implications for the Asian currencies going forward.”

Malaysia, Southeast Asia’s second-largest oil and gas producer, has had trade surpluses every month since 1997. Singapore’s current account surplus will fall to 15 percent of its economy this year from 24 percent in 2007, according to forecasts of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Akant said China’s stimulus will have limited impact because that country “can only help itself, but not enough to help all non-Japan Asia.”

The region is twice as dependent on exports as other parts of the world. Excluding imported components, international sales account for two-thirds of Singapore’s $161 billion gross domestic product, almost half of Malaysia’s $181 billion and Thailand’s $246 billion and a third of Taiwan’s $356 billion and South Korea’s $970 billion, according to Credit Suisse Group AG.

Malaysia’s exports fell the most in 15 years in January, down 27.8 percent from a year earlier after slipping 14.9 percent in December, the trade ministry said March 6.

Falling Exports

A Taiwan government report today showed exports fell 28.6 percent last month from a year earlier, following January’s record 44 percent drop, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea, once called the Asian Tigers, have entered recessions as Westerners cut spending on cars, TVs and semiconductors.

Singapore’s Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd., the world’s third-largest maker of customized chips, said in January it may report record losses of between $142 million and $152 million in the first quarter and will cut 600 employees, 8 percent of its workforce.

The export-fueled “boom is going bust,” said Henrik Pedersen, the London-based chief investment officer at Pareto Investment Management Ltd., which oversees $46 billion. “The countries will survive, but not without a big adjustment in their currencies. They don’t mind seeing their currencies weaker.”

Leveraged to Growth

Singapore’s economy contracted at an annualized 16.4 percent rate in the fourth quarter, the most in at least 33 years. It will shrink another 3.5 percent in the first quarter, according to the median prediction in a Bloomberg survey of four economists. Taiwan’s gross domestic product is forecast to slow 2.7 percent this year, following a record 8.4 percent decline in the final three months of 2008.

“There’s a realization that the region is leveraged to global growth,” said Paresh Upadhyaya, who helps manage $50 billion in currency assets as a senior vice president at Putnam Investments in Boston. “Exports and industrial contraction are worse than the Asian crisis in 1997, 1998. They may have to debase their currencies.” He said he has “underweighed” the Taiwan dollar, the won and other Asian currencies since January.

After the bust of the housing bubbles in the region and the devaluation of Thailand’s baht prompted investors to flee the markets in 1997, industrial production in South Korea declined 13.5 percent in July 1998, from a year earlier. This past January, output dropped 25.6 percent, the statistics office said March 2.

Lower Interest Rates

Central banks from Indonesia to the Philippines are also weakening currencies by lowering interest rates. Though intended to boost growth, rate cuts also dim the appeal of their assets. The Reserve Bank of India reduced its benchmark repurchase rate to a record low of 5 percent from 5.5 percent on March 4, and from a seven-year high of 9 percent in September.

Investors are shunning emerging markets amid concern that the global recession will hurt these countries more than bigger economies. A combined $643 million evaporated in the South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand stock markets on March 2 alone, the most in three months, according to Calyon. The MSCI World Index fell 24 percent this year, compared with 14 percent for the MSCI World Index of developed nations.

“The same-old demand won’t come for the next five, 10 years,” said Scott Ainsbury, a money manager at FX Concepts, the world’s largest currency fund at $12 billion. “People may underestimate how far these currencies can fall.” Ainsbury said he’s selling the Taiwan and Singapore dollars and the won.

Worst Performers

The weaker won helped Seoul-based carmaker Hyundai Motor Co. increase U.S. sales 4.9 percent this year, while Toyota Motor Corp. in Tokyo, the world’s biggest auto manufacturer, saw sales drop 36 percent in the same period. The won depreciated 12 percent versus the Japanese yen this year, following a 40 percent drop last year.

So far in 2009, the won is the only Asian currency among the 10 worst performers in emerging markets, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Hungary’s forint dropped 23 percent versus the dollar and Colombia’s peso lost 13 percent.

Central banks started to support currencies after the credit freeze that followed the collapse of the subprime mortgage market in August 2007, prompting foreign investors to withdraw funds. The defense intensified when Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed in September, sending financial assets into a tailspin.

Foreign Reserves

As policy makers propped up exchange rates last year, foreign reserves in South Korea, India, Malaysia and Indonesia decreased to $589 billion on Dec. 31, from $745 billion on June 30.

For now, central banks have stopped fighting the depreciation.

South Korea’s foreign reserves were little changed at $201 billion in February as the won slumped 10 percent against the dollar, its worst month since November. The won also declined 19 percent this year against China’s yuan and 14 percent against Taiwan’s dollar on concern that a possible credit contraction would starve the nation of dollars needed to pay debts.

Weaker currencies alone won’t spur recoveries as the global recession deepens, said Mark Dow, a money manager at Pharo Management LLC, a New York-based hedge fund with $2 billion under management.

The International Monetary Fund sees a “serious risk” of a contraction in the worldwide economy this year and will probably cut its 0.5 percent growth estimate in April, Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on March 3.

“If you lose your job and buy a flat-screen TV just because it’s 70 percent off, I bet your wife won’t be happy,” said Dow, who is selling currencies of Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan and South Korea. “Price doesn’t matter. It’s a mistake for Asia to devalue their currencies. The thinking is wrong, but it’s happening.”
Comment.

uh! they did it again!! wasting billions of tax payers money to defend the currency just to abandon it at later stages..why can't they restored what was put in place by the previous administration which make Malaysia, the only survival in post 1997 financial meltdown without subscribe  to the shark loan from the IMF! Despite the whole lots of the world financial guru and expert spell doom for those unconventional pegging and many cursed the bailouts as an act of mockery to the free market!But they are wrong!Malaysia has proved it all and behold! Those who's bad-mouth the policy strangely doing the same in bailing out even at bigger proportion in the US, the UK and the Ireland and elsewhere.
In strong language, just re-peg you moron! Peg the ringgit to relieve pressure from the global economic crisis. I just wondering what happen to those oldie economists?? Perhaps those great mind and think tank has been sideline by those inept and inadequate professional intall by non other than their new saddos political master.




Currency Defense Drops on Ringgit, Won on Exports
March 9 (Bloomberg) -- Asian central banks are abandoning a six-month campaign of defending their currencies, reversing course to cheapen exports that are falling the most in a decade.

Policy makers from India to Malaysia to Taiwan are letting their currencies depreciate after South Korea gave companies an edge by allowing the won to weaken 19 percent against the dollar this year. Shipments from South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan and Malaysia fell 17 percent in January to $79 billion, twice the drop of April 1998, when the Asian financial crisis was wiping out a third of the region’s economy, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“Export markets have been forced to let their currencies weaken to try and keep up with the competitive depreciation in the won,” said Dwyfor Evans, a strategist in Hong Kong at State Street Global Markets LLC, which has $12 trillion under custody.

The won, India’s rupee and Taiwan’s dollar will decline against the U.S. dollar by 12, 13 and 6 percent, respectively, by the end of June, according to Stephen Jen, a Morgan Stanley currency strategist. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says Singapore’s dollar will depreciate 3 percent by April. Malaysia’s ringgit will slip 5 percent by Sept. 30, says Calyon, a Credit Agricole SA unit in Paris.

Devalued currencies may throw a lifeline to exporters getting clobbered by South Korean competitors. Oppenheimer & Co. predicts Taiwan-based AU Optronics’s share of the global market for liquid-crystal displays in television sets and computers will drop to 15 percent this year, from 16.8 percent in 2008. The company posted a record loss of NT$26.6 billion ($764 million) for the fourth quarter.

Outperforming Taiwan

Its South Korean rivals, Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Display Co. will boost their combined LCD share to 44.9 percent, from 41.9 percent, Oppenheimer said in a research report to clients last month. Shares of those two companies have outperformed their Taiwan competitor by at least 21 percentage points since Sept. 30.

“There will no longer be meaningful interventions to prevent Asia-outside-Japan currencies from falling,” Jen said in a March 2 report from London. “There’s a genuine change in the currency policies of many Asian economies. A severe contraction in the trade surpluses clearly affects the relative supply and demand for dollars in these countries.”

Central banks intervene when they buy or sell currencies to influence exchange rates.

‘Stable’ and ‘Functioning’

Malaysia’s Bank Negara bought ringgit four months ago, helping it strengthen 4.5 percent against the dollar in December. The central bank said March 5 that the currency is now “stable” and “functioning on its own.” The ringgit fell 6.8 percent this year to 3.7203 today as it slipped toward the 3.80-per-dollar peg abandoned in 2005.

The Philippines won’t intervene to shore up the peso, Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said March 4 as it approached the lowest level since Dec. 5. The peso ended a three-month slide in November after the central bank drew down its reserves by 2 percent the previous month, the biggest drop since 2005. The currency declined 2.5 percent to 48.620 per dollar this year.

Foreign reserves in India barely changed in February at $239 billion, indicating the central bank didn’t sell dollars to prop up the currency as the rupee shed 4.7 percent in its worst monthly performance since October.

Adnan Akant, foreign exchange chief in New York at Fischer Francis Trees & Watts, which oversaw $22 billion as of December, predicts Singapore’s central bank will widen its trading band to let the currency fall when policy makers hold their biannual meeting in April. He’s selling the city-state’s dollar, which depreciated 6.5 percent this year to S$1.5442 per greenback.

‘Engine’ for Growth

South Korea was the catalyst for the shift away from defensive intervention. After spending 22 percent of foreign reserves from August to November to stem won losses, South Korean Finance Minister Yoon Jeung Hyun said Feb. 25 that its weakness may be an “engine for export growth.”

The won’s 17 percent slide this year versus Asian counterparts is its steepest annual start since 1995, when Westpac Banking Corp. started to track the value of the currency on a traded weighted basis.

China’s $585 billion stimulus plan may halt or reverse Asian currency losses by spurring growth across the continent. Christy Tan, a currency strategist at Bank of America Corp. in Singapore, said the region’s economies and currencies are ready for a recovery.

‘Positive Implications’

“Asia as a whole continues to enjoy rather healthy trade surpluses,” Tan said. “We have an above-consensus forecast for China growth at 8 percent. That’ll probably have positive implications for the Asian currencies going forward.”

Malaysia, Southeast Asia’s second-largest oil and gas producer, has had trade surpluses every month since 1997. Singapore’s current account surplus will fall to 15 percent of its economy this year from 24 percent in 2007, according to forecasts of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Akant said China’s stimulus will have limited impact because that country “can only help itself, but not enough to help all non-Japan Asia.”

The region is twice as dependent on exports as other parts of the world. Excluding imported components, international sales account for two-thirds of Singapore’s $161 billion gross domestic product, almost half of Malaysia’s $181 billion and Thailand’s $246 billion and a third of Taiwan’s $356 billion and South Korea’s $970 billion, according to Credit Suisse Group AG.

Malaysia’s exports fell the most in 15 years in January, down 27.8 percent from a year earlier after slipping 14.9 percent in December, the trade ministry said March 6.

Falling Exports

A Taiwan government report today showed exports fell 28.6 percent last month from a year earlier, following January’s record 44 percent drop, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea, once called the Asian Tigers, have entered recessions as Westerners cut spending on cars, TVs and semiconductors.

Singapore’s Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd., the world’s third-largest maker of customized chips, said in January it may report record losses of between $142 million and $152 million in the first quarter and will cut 600 employees, 8 percent of its workforce.

The export-fueled “boom is going bust,” said Henrik Pedersen, the London-based chief investment officer at Pareto Investment Management Ltd., which oversees $46 billion. “The countries will survive, but not without a big adjustment in their currencies. They don’t mind seeing their currencies weaker.”

Leveraged to Growth

Singapore’s economy contracted at an annualized 16.4 percent rate in the fourth quarter, the most in at least 33 years. It will shrink another 3.5 percent in the first quarter, according to the median prediction in a Bloomberg survey of four economists. Taiwan’s gross domestic product is forecast to slow 2.7 percent this year, following a record 8.4 percent decline in the final three months of 2008.

“There’s a realization that the region is leveraged to global growth,” said Paresh Upadhyaya, who helps manage $50 billion in currency assets as a senior vice president at Putnam Investments in Boston. “Exports and industrial contraction are worse than the Asian crisis in 1997, 1998. They may have to debase their currencies.” He said he has “underweighed” the Taiwan dollar, the won and other Asian currencies since January.

After the bust of the housing bubbles in the region and the devaluation of Thailand’s baht prompted investors to flee the markets in 1997, industrial production in South Korea declined 13.5 percent in July 1998, from a year earlier. This past January, output dropped 25.6 percent, the statistics office said March 2.

Lower Interest Rates

Central banks from Indonesia to the Philippines are also weakening currencies by lowering interest rates. Though intended to boost growth, rate cuts also dim the appeal of their assets. The Reserve Bank of India reduced its benchmark repurchase rate to a record low of 5 percent from 5.5 percent on March 4, and from a seven-year high of 9 percent in September.

Investors are shunning emerging markets amid concern that the global recession will hurt these countries more than bigger economies. A combined $643 million evaporated in the South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand stock markets on March 2 alone, the most in three months, according to Calyon. The MSCI World Index fell 24 percent this year, compared with 14 percent for the MSCI World Index of developed nations.

“The same-old demand won’t come for the next five, 10 years,” said Scott Ainsbury, a money manager at FX Concepts, the world’s largest currency fund at $12 billion. “People may underestimate how far these currencies can fall.” Ainsbury said he’s selling the Taiwan and Singapore dollars and the won.

Worst Performers

The weaker won helped Seoul-based carmaker Hyundai Motor Co. increase U.S. sales 4.9 percent this year, while Toyota Motor Corp. in Tokyo, the world’s biggest auto manufacturer, saw sales drop 36 percent in the same period. The won depreciated 12 percent versus the Japanese yen this year, following a 40 percent drop last year.

So far in 2009, the won is the only Asian currency among the 10 worst performers in emerging markets, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Hungary’s forint dropped 23 percent versus the dollar and Colombia’s peso lost 13 percent.

Central banks started to support currencies after the credit freeze that followed the collapse of the subprime mortgage market in August 2007, prompting foreign investors to withdraw funds. The defense intensified when Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed in September, sending financial assets into a tailspin.

Foreign Reserves

As policy makers propped up exchange rates last year, foreign reserves in South Korea, India, Malaysia and Indonesia decreased to $589 billion on Dec. 31, from $745 billion on June 30.

For now, central banks have stopped fighting the depreciation.

South Korea’s foreign reserves were little changed at $201 billion in February as the won slumped 10 percent against the dollar, its worst month since November. The won also declined 19 percent this year against China’s yuan and 14 percent against Taiwan’s dollar on concern that a possible credit contraction would starve the nation of dollars needed to pay debts.

Weaker currencies alone won’t spur recoveries as the global recession deepens, said Mark Dow, a money manager at Pharo Management LLC, a New York-based hedge fund with $2 billion under management.

The International Monetary Fund sees a “serious risk” of a contraction in the worldwide economy this year and will probably cut its 0.5 percent growth estimate in April, Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on March 3.

“If you lose your job and buy a flat-screen TV just because it’s 70 percent off, I bet your wife won’t be happy,” said Dow, who is selling currencies of Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan and South Korea. “Price doesn’t matter. It’s a mistake for Asia to devalue their currencies. The thinking is wrong, but it’s happening.”
Comment.

uh! they did it again!! wasting billions of tax payers money to defend the currency just to abandon it at later stages..why can't they restored what was put in place by the previous administration which make Malaysia, the only survival in post 1997 financial meltdown without subscribe  to the shark loan from the IMF! Despite the whole lots of the world financial guru and expert spell doom for those unconventional pegging and many cursed the bailouts as an act of mockery to the free market!But they are wrong!Malaysia has proved it all and behold! Those who's bad-mouth the policy strangely doing the same in bailing out even at bigger proportion in the US, the UK and the Ireland and elsewhere.
In strong language, just re-peg you moron! Peg the ringgit to relieve pressure from the global economic crisis. I just wondering what happen to those oldie economists?? Perhaps those great mind and think tank has been sideline by those inept and inadequate professional intall by non other than their new saddos political master.

RECESSION: 35.7 trillion' lost by recession 

The global crisis wiped a staggering $50 trillion (£35.7 trillion) off the value of financial assets last year including $9.6 trillion (£6.8 trillion) of losses in developing Asia alone, the Asian Development Bank has said.

"This is by far the most serious crisis to hit the world economy since the Great Depression," said ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda.

But he predicted Asia would be "one of the first regions to emerge from it".

In a study commissioned by the Manila-based lender on the impact of the financial crisis on emerging economies, it estimated the value of financial assets worldwide - currency, equity and bond markets - to have dropped by $50 trillion (£35.7 trillion) in 2008.

It said developing Asia was hit harder - losing the equivalent of just over one year's worth of gross domestic product - than other emerging economies because the region has expanded much more rapidly. In Latin America, losses were estimated at $2.1 trillion (£1.5 trillion).

According to the study, the figures provide clear proof of the close connections between markets and economies around the world, leaving few, if any, countries immune to financial or economic fallout. A recovery can only now be envisaged for late 2009 or early 2010, it said.

A sprawling region, developing Asia includes 44 economies from the central Asian republics to China to the Pacific islands. The bank had earlier projected the region's growth to slow to 5.8% this year from an estimated 6.9% last year.

The worldwide downturn has hit export-driven economies particularly hard. From South Korea to Taiwan to Singapore, exports have plunged by double digits in recent months as American and European consumers spent less on cars and gadgets.

Kuroda said the impact of the crisis could result in a spike in unemployment, slower growth rates and depressed stock markets.

Tight liquidity and credit could also hit small and medium enterprises, while a drop in remittances from overseas workers, which has been fuelling domestic consumption in countries like the Philippines and Indonesia, could remove important social safety nets, Kuroda said.

The Press Association

Comment.

35.7 trillion?? How did this crisis happen? Why is it so widespread?Well, many already fear/forecasted this especially looking at the US economy back then, but not many subscribe to their teory/prediction as they argue the US is too big to fail and many others jargon which I shouldn't list here for the sake of this article. 

Perhaps the speech from one of financial wizard in the name of Ben Shalom Bernanke(The US Federal Reserve chairman) would gave you some idea into this whole mess. Ben Bernanke succeeded Alan Greenspan in 2006.

here I reproduce:

The depth and sophistication of the country’s financial markets (which, among other things, have allowed households easy access to housing wealth). Mr Bernanke 2005

Which Paul Krugman (yet another heavyweight in financial world) comment early this month;

Depth, yes. But sophistication? Well, you could say that American bankers, empowered by a quarter-century of deregulatory zeal, led the world in finding sophisticated ways to enrich themselves by hiding risk and fooling investors.

Elie Wiesel says he can't forgive Bernie MadoffCNN – February 27, 2009 Elie Wiesel, the Nazi concentration camp survivor who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize, showed little inclination this week to make peace with accused swindler Bernie Madoff, whom he called "one of the greatest scoundrels, thieves, liars, criminals." "Could I forgive him? No," the 80-year-old told a panel assembled Thursday by Conde Nast's Portfolio Magazine at New York's 21 Club to discuss Madoff, whose alleged victims included Wiesel and his foundation, The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. "To forgive, first of all, would mean that he would come on his knees and ask for forgiveness," the Auschwitz survivor said. "He wouldn't do that." Madoff, 70, is accused of running a Ponzi scheme that may have cost investors up to $50 billion. He faces one charge of securities fraud in connection with an international scheme that has cost some investors their life savings and could land him in prison for up to 20 years. Wiesel said a wealthy friend who has known Madoff for 50 years introduced them. The two men met twice over dinner, and Wiesel checked with financial experts whom he trusted before investing all of his and his wife's personal money. Then, once Madoff had gained his trust, Wiesel invested all $15.2 million that his foundation had amassed, he said. "We thought he was God, we trusted everything in his hands," the Boston University humanities professor said. Wiesel put his friend's loss at $50 million. Wiesel rejected the suggestion that "affinity fraud," the tendency for people to trust others of similar background, played any role in leaving him vulnerable to Madoff. Both men are Jewish. "It's not the Jewishness in him, it's the inhumanity in this man who simply believed he can go around depriving people of their livelihoods. What he has done to certain people, it breaks my heart," he said. "At the end, he went down to swindle thousands and thousands of people, and hurt thousands and thousands of people. Take our little foundation. My wife takes care of 1,000 Ethiopian children in Israel. What he does to them -- we were going to open a third center in Jerusalem. We cannot do it now. What [he has] done to others, to hospitals, to educational institutions, my God! Didn't he think?" Wiesel said he is planning legal action against Madoff but called for the federal government to bail out charities just as it has bailed out carmakers and banks. "I think it would be a great gesture that the Obama administration should show, we really think of those who are helpless and who are doing with their money only good things." Wiesel offered a punishment he would like to see meted out to the financier, who is under house arrest but has not been indicted. "I would like him to be in a solitary cell with a screen, and on that screen, for at least five years of his life, every day and every night there should be pictures of his victims, one after the other after the other, always saying, 'Look, look what you have done to this poor lady, look what you have done to this child, look what you have done.' "But nothing else -- he should not be able to avoid those faces, for years to come. This is only a minimum punishment." Madoff's attorney, Ira Sorkin, said he understands Wiesel's point of view, but said Madoff must be presumed innocent. Sorkin said the financial debacle is a tragedy, but added that his client is doing everything he can to help the government recover the funds. Despite what he called his family's "personal tragedy," Wiesel said he is organizing a benefit concert for his foundation and has been overwhelmed by unsolicited donations. "It shows, again, a human being is capable of both very great, good things, and very horrible things," he said.

comment:

Well I bet differ a bit here, for Jewish people, they will definitely trust anothers jews more than non-jew or what they call goyim.

The wave of Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) and skilled workers from overseas from many prosperous years beginning to exit China in thousands as companies around the world retreat to lick their wounds from the current recession.

This article from the Financial Times gives a snapshot of how the events outfold in China.

Downturn drives expat exodus from Shanghai
By Patti Waldmeir in Shanghai and Kathrin Hille in Beijing

Until recently, half the 100,000 Koreans who had made Shanghai their home lived clustered together on the outskirts of the city in “Little Korea”, a neighbourhood where the street signs are in Korean and the shops are full of LG products and kimchi food.

But with the economic crisis hitting the South Korean economy and currency hard, Little Korea is being rapidly vacated.

Korean companies are shipping workers home, cutting off school fees and repatriating wives and children without their menfolk to cut costs. They are the first large wave of expatriates to have begun leaving China’s financial capital as a result of the global economic crisis but their departure raises the prospect of a broader exodus of foreigners who may take investment, skills and job creation opportunities with them.

The press officer of the Korean consulate in Shanghai could not answer questions about the exodus of her countrymen – because her post had just been abolished and she was being sent back to Korea.

Kim Heewon, president of Seoul Plaza, Little Korea’s central shopping complex, estimates that 20 per cent of the Korean population has returned home, many of them in the past few weeks.

“Almost no one comes in any more,” says a clerk in Seoul Plaza’s golf boutique. Throughout Ms Kim’s 4,000-squ-m department store, Korean-speaking staff loiter next to Korean-branded toys, clothing and furniture, with no customers in sight.

Japanese relocation companies, meanwhile, say there has been a marked rise in Japanese families returning home from Shanghai compared with last year and they expect the pace to pick up further during the traditional peak relocation months of March and April.

Each of the Japanese housewives minding toddlers at the vast Mandarin City housing complex, where an estimated 70 per cent of residents are Korean or Japanese, say they know at least one family that has been sent home while the breadwinner remains in China.

The Japanese consulate estimates there were 48,000 nationals in Shanghai 18 months ago, but says it has no figures for the number that might have left since.

The pain has not been limited to Shanghai. A parent with children enrolled in an expensive Beijing international school says most of her daughters’ Korean classmates have left the school almost overnight.

A labour activist in the northern province of Shandong, where Korean investment has totalled $23.4bn (€18.4bn, £16.2bn) since 1988 and has accounted for 40 per cent of total foreign inflows, says the owner of a Korean-invested furniture factory left before the Chinese lunar new year in January and it has yet to reopen.

Local authorities that previously published regular data on absconding factory owners halted such reporting after thousands were left jobless when the entire Korean management of Yantai Shigang Fibre vanished last year.

“I would guess that even more have been closing since then given the worsening macroeconomic environment,” says Yuan Xiaoli, a professor at Qingdao University of Science and Technology.

Back in Little Korea, Ms Kim says the flow of Koreans is not one way. “Workers are going home, but entrepreneurs are coming here from Korea,” she says. “Our Korean people think [since] China is bigger than Korea, there must be more opportunities here than in Korea. There is no dream in Korea, but our Korean people think there is still a dream in China.”

Ms Kim is putting her money where her mouth is. She is planning to open a large golf goods store in Seoul Plaza early next month.

So Mountainview now have a problem,Yupp the fatso moster and everbody lover finally bow out to pressure..sigh. Just part of the problem for being successfull me think.

The Official Line from Google:

If you’ve tried to access your Gmail account today, you are probably aware by now that we’re having some problems. Shortly after 10am GMT our monitoring systems alerted us that Gmail consumer and businesses accounts worldwide could not get access to their email.

We’re working very hard to solve the problem and we’re really sorry for the inconvenience. Those users in the US and UK who have enabled Gmail offline through Gmail Labs should be able to access their inbox, although they won’t be able to send or receive emails.

We’re posting updates to the Gmail Help Centre at http://mail.google.com/support/ and Google Apps users can visit the Google Apps help centre at www.google.com/support/a.

Thanks for bearing with us while we sort this out. We'll report back as we make progress.

Posted by Acacio Cruz,
Gmail Site Reliability Manager

when the technology struck layman's sense, the creativity will set to spurt at no time.
Watch's Phil Baumman's presentation.

what do you think?

Tzipi Livni's Kadima Party is in first place with 29 of the Knesset's 120 seats, while her hard-line rival Benjamin Netanyahu's hawkish Likud Party follow closely behind with 28 seats.Voters in Jerusalem and other parts of Israel braved pouring rain and strong winds Tuesday morning.

It's really interesting to see the campaign materials from all parties involved in this election. The broadcast authority however allots each party a certain amount of air time for its campaign advertisements. In this election season, some are using the YouTube online video repository as well as their party websites to broadcast and reach out to the voters. Below is a selection of a few campaign and ads that caught my attention:

Livni has featured a ‘Livni Boy’ video on YouTube, echoing the Obama Girl

 I Got a Crush...On Obama, the Obama Girl video clip.

Likud response and gets really nasty with negative campaigning against Tzipi Livni.

A ad attacking Lieberman and Tzipi

It's the first time the Israeli rivals in the election campaign outbidding each other in ultra-extremism and it could'nt be uglier than this to gain more votes ,radicalize the Israeli voters by displaying extremism racist remarks.

Tzipi invites Israelis to “vote for change.” Her campaign distributes T-shirts emblazoned with the made-up word “Believni.” And she brags that unlike the race’s front-runner, former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, she could partner with Obama in pursuing a peace accord with the Palestinians. “The American people voted for hope,” Livni told an audience of college students recently. “This is also possible in the state of Israel.” In response to those campaign, the Netanyahu camp, answers with its own T-shirt with, “No, She Can’t” T-shirts.

The Kingmaker Avigdor Lieberman, who campaigned on a platform to deny citizenship to Israeli Arabs he considers disloyal and others small party will be subject to heavily lobby for a coalition patner. Each party even the small ones expect to gain lots of cabinet posts or anything to that nature as precondition to join a coalition. Anyways there is high chances that Netanyahu would be the one to form a coalition purely because Tzipi Livni lack of negotiation skill. Well a few months ago she had more seats (after Olmert resigned) together with the Labor party and she failed to form a new governmet and resort to an early elections.  

So in this few days the horse trading will begin. At the end of days political compromise would surely take place. Untill then, political stalemate and status quo as well as heavily negotiation behind the scene certainly be the order of the days. But of course anything could happen in politics. Those who got the upper hand will lead a government. Fragile or not its depend who's going to be in the coalition. 

Needless to say that Israeli politics is indeed very complicated than elsewere. The Israeli's President in the others hand can invites one of the candidates to form a coalition government. In a normal circumstances (just like any democratics system) it goes to the candidate with the most seats, but it in Israel's constitution it does not necessarily be that way only. The president can choose whoever base on his discretion and assumption that the person can (read:capable of) forming a goverment. SO looking at this option and Livni history, she is indeed vulnerable. Again anything could happen in politics, even to some entent, really hard to digest nor justify by the masses.

Anyways, what ever the outcome is, it will definetely effecting the ongoing peace negotiation significantly.

This is a story of yesteryear from a Swedish site that I like to share, so hold your breath...  lol 

Rushing.

A lady was scheduled for a pap-smear that morning. With so many things going on, time was running out. Although normally she would have a thorough top to toe wash, that morning she just opted for a quickie using the face towel that already happened to be near the wash basin, hoping that that would do.

She arrived at the medical center, registered and was asked a few minutes later by the gynae to go in and lie on the bed. It was all a routine. As her legs were lifted and placed on the holder-thingy, the gynae mumbled ; "oh! we make an effort today...". It was an embarrasing situation to be in, she took a deep breath and think of the Eiffel Tower.

She left the medical center 30 minutes later feeling relieved that she got that done and proceeded to the next tasks on the list...bank, grocery shopping, post office and other mundane tasks that housewives do.

When she got home, her daughter was already back from school. 

"Mommy, where is my face towel...the one that was here on the wash basin?", shouted the girl, from the bathroom.

"I've thrown that into the wash. Take a new one!"

"But mom, I have all my glitters in there..."

GULP!

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's speech at the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum Davos, Switzerland January 28, 2009

Good afternoon, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank the forum's organisers for this opportunity to share my thoughts on global economic developments and to share our plans and proposals.The world is now facing the first truly global economic crisis, which is continuing to develop at an unprecedented pace.The current situation is often compared to the Great Depression of the late 1920s and the early 1930s. True, there are some similarities.However, there are also some basic differences. The crisis has affected everyone at this time of globalisation. Regardless of their political or economic system, all nations have found themselves in the same boat.There is a certain concept, called the perfect storm, which denotes a situation when Nature's forces converge in one point of the ocean and increase their destructive potential many times over. It appears that the present-day crisis resembles such a perfect storm.Responsible and knowledgeable people must prepare for it.

Nevertheless, it always flares up unexpectedly.The current situation is no exception either. Although the crisis was simply hanging in the air, the majority strove to get their share of the pie, be it one dollar or a billion, and did not want to notice the rising wave.In the last few months, virtually every speech on this subject started with criticism of the United States. But I will do nothing of the kind.I just want to remind you that, just a year ago, American delegates speaking from this rostrum emphasised the US economy's fundamental stability and its cloudless prospects. Today, investment banks, the pride of Wall Street, have virtually ceased to exist. In just 12 months, they have posted losses exceeding the profits they made in the last 25 years. This example alone reflects the real situation better than any criticism.The time for enlightenment has come. We must calmly, and without gloating, assess the root causes of this situation and try to peek into the future.In our opinion, the crisis was brought about by a combination of several factors.

The existing financial system has failed. Substandard regulation has contributed to the crisis, failing to duly heed tremendous risks.Add to this colossal disproportions that have accumulated over the last few years. This primarily concerns disproportions between the scale of financial operations and the fundamental value of assets, as well as those between the increased burden on international loans and the sources of their collateral.The entire economic growth system, where one regional centre prints money without respite and consumes material wealth, while another regional centre manufactures inexpensive goods and saves money printed by other governments, has suffered a major setback. I would like to add that this system has left entire regions, including Europe, on the outskirts of global economic processes and has prevented them from adopting key economic and financial decisions.Moreover, generated prosperity was distributed extremely unevenly among various population strata. This applies to differences between social strata in certain countries, including highly developed ones. And it equally applies to gaps between countries and regions.A considerable share of the world's population still cannot afford comfortable housing, education and quality health care. Even a global recovery posted in the last few years has failed to radically change this situation.And, finally, this crisis was brought about by excessive expectations. Corporate appetites with regard to constantly growing demand swelled unjustifiably. The race between stock market indices and capitalisation began to overshadow rising labour productivity and real-life corporate effectiveness.Unfortunately, excessive expectations were not only typical of the business community. They set the pace for rapidly growing personal consumption standards, primarily in the industrial world. We must openly admit that such growth was not backed by a real potential. This amounted to unearned wealth, a loan that will have to be repaid by future generations.This pyramid of expectations would have collapsed sooner or later. In fact, this is happening right before our eyes.

Esteemed colleagues,

One is sorely tempted to make simple and popular decisions in times of crisis. However, we could face far greater complications if we merely treat the symptoms of the disease.Naturally, all national governments and business leaders must take resolute actions. Nevertheless, it is important to avoid making decisions, even in such force majeure circumstances, that we will regret in the future.This is why I would first like to mention specific measures which should be avoided and which will not be implemented by Russia.We must not revert to isolationism and unrestrained economic egotism. The leaders of the world's largest economies agreed during the November 2008 G20 summit not to create barriers hindering global trade and capital flows. Russia shares these principles.Although additional protectionism will prove inevitable during the crisis, all of us must display a sense of proportion.Excessive intervention in economic activity and blind faith in the state's omnipotence is another possible mistake.True, the state's increased role in times of crisis is a natural reaction to market setbacks. Instead of streamlining market mechanisms, some are tempted to expand state economic intervention to the greatest possible extent.The concentration of surplus assets in the hands of the state is a negative aspect of anti-crisis measures in virtually every nation.In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state's role absolute. In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated.Nor should we turn a blind eye to the fact that the spirit of free enterprise, including the principle of personal responsibility of businesspeople, investors and shareholders for their decisions, is being eroded in the last few months. There is no reason to believe that we can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto the state.And one more point: anti-crisis measures should not escalate into financial populism and a refusal to implement responsible macroeconomic policies. The unjustified swelling of the budgetary deficit and the accumulation of public debts are just as destructive as adventurous stock-jobbing.

Ladies and gentlemen, unfortunately, we have so far failed to comprehend the true scale of the ongoing crisis. But one thing is obvious: the extent of the recession and its scale will largely depend on specific high-precision measures, due to be charted by governments and business communities and on our coordinated and professional efforts.In our opinion, we must first atone for the past and open our cards, so to speak.This means we must assess the real situation and write off all hopeless debts and "bad" assets.True, this will be an extremely painful and unpleasant process. Far from everyone can accept such measures, fearing for their capitalisation, bonuses or reputation. However, we would "conserve" and prolong the crisis, unless we clean up our balance sheets. I believe financial authorities must work out the required mechanism for writing off debts that corresponds to today's needs.Second. Apart from cleaning up our balance sheets, it is high time we got rid of virtual money, exaggerated reports and dubious ratings. We must not harbour any illusions while assessing the state of the global economy and the real corporate standing, even if such assessments are made by major auditors and analysts.In effect, our proposal implies that the audit, accounting and ratings system reform must be based on a reversion to the fundamental asset value concept. In other words, assessments of each individual business must be based on its ability to generate added value, rather than on subjective concepts. In our opinion, the economy of the future must become an economy of real values. How to achieve this is not so clear-cut. Let us think about it together.Third. Excessive dependence on a single reserve currency is dangerous for the global economy. Consequently, it would be sensible to encourage the objective process of creating several strong reserve currencies in the future. It is high time we launched a detailed discussion of methods to facilitate a smooth and irreversible switchover to the new model.Fourth. Most nations convert their international reserves into foreign currencies and must therefore be convinced that they are reliable. Those issuing reserve and accounting currencies are objectively interested in their use by other states.This highlights mutual interests and interdependence.Consequently, it is important that reserve currency issuers must implement more open monetary policies. Moreover, these nations must pledge to abide by internationally recognised rules of macroeconomic and financial discipline. In our opinion, this demand is not excessive.At the same time, the global financial system is not the only element in need of reforms. We are facing a much broader range of problems.This means that a system based on cooperation between several major centres must replace the obsolete unipolar world concept.We must strengthen the system of global regulators based on international law and a system of multilateral agreements in order to prevent chaos and unpredictability in such a multipolar world. Consequently, it is very important that we reassess the role of leading international organisations and institutions.I am convinced that we can build a more equitable and efficient global economic system. But it is impossible to create a detailed plan at this event today.It is clear, however, that every nation must have guaranteed access to vital resources, new technology and development sources. What we need is guarantees that could minimise risks of recurring crises.Naturally, we must continue to discuss all these issues, including at the G20 meeting in London, which will take place in April.

Our decisions should match the present-day situation and heed the requirements of a new post-crisis world.The global economy could face trite energy-resource shortages and the threat of thwarted future growth while overcoming the crisis.Three years ago, at a summit of the Group of Eight, we raised the issue of global energy security. We called for the shared responsibility of suppliers, consumers and transit countries. I think it is time to launch truly effective mechanisms ensuring such responsibility.The only way to ensure truly global energy security is to form interdependence, including a swap of assets, without any discrimination or dual standards. It is such interdependence that generates real mutual responsibility.Unfortunately, the existing Energy Charter has failed to become a working instrument able to regulate emerging problems.I propose we start laying down a new international legal framework for energy security. Implementation of our initiative could play a political role comparable to the treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community. That is to say, consumers and producers would finally be bound into a real single energy partnership based on clear-cut legal foundations.Every one of us realises that sharp and unpredictable fluctuations of energy prices are a colossal destabilising factor in the global economy. Today's landslide fall of prices will lead to a growth in the consumption of resources.On the one hand, investments in energy saving and alternative sources of energy will be curtailed. On the other, less money will be invested in oil production, which will result in its inevitable downturn. Which, in the final analysis, will escalate into another fit of uncontrolled price growth and a new crisis.It is necessary to return to a balanced price based on an equilibrium between supply and demand, to strip pricing of a speculative element generated by many derivative financial instruments.To guarantee the transit of energy resources remains a challenge. There are two ways of tackling it, and both must be used.The first is to go over to generally recognised market principles of fixing tariffs on transit services. They can be recorded in international legal documents.The second is to develop and diversify the routes of energy transportation. We have been working long and hard along these lines.In the past few years alone, we have implemented such projects as the Yamal-Europe and Blue Stream gas pipelines. Experience has proved their urgency and relevance.I am convinced that such projects as South Stream and North Stream are equally needed for Europe's energy security. Their total estimated capacity is something like 85 billion cubic meters of gas a year.Gazprom, together with its partners – Shell, Mitsui and Mitsubishi – will soon launch capacities for liquefying and transporting natural gas produced in the Sakhalin area. And that is also Russia's contribution to global energy security.We are developing the infrastructure of our oil pipelines. The first section of the Baltic Pipeline System (BPS) has already been completed. BPS-1 supplies up to 75 million tonnes of oil a year. It does this direct to consumers – via our ports on the Baltic Sea. Transit risks are completely eliminated in this way. Work is currently under way to design and build BPS-2 (its throughput capacity is 50 million tonnes of oil a year.We intend to build transport infrastructure in all directions. The first stage of the pipeline system Eastern Siberia – Pacific Ocean is in the final stage. Its terminal point will be a new oil port in Kozmina Bay and an oil refinery in the Vladivostok area. In the future a gas pipeline will be laid parallel to the oil pipeline, towards the Pacific and China.

Addressing you here today, I cannot but mention the effects of the global crisis on the Russian economy. We have also been seriously affected.However, unlike many other countries, we have accumulated large reserves. They expand our possibilities for confidently passing through the period of global instability.The crisis has made the problems we had more evident. They concern the excessive emphasis on raw materials in exports and the economy in general and a weak financial market. The need to develop a number of fundamental market institutions, above all of a competitive environment, has become more acute.We were aware of these problems and sought to address them gradually. The crisis is only making us move more actively towards the declared priorities, without changing the strategy itself, which is to effect a qualitative renewal of Russia in the next 10 to 12 years.Our anti-crisis policy is aimed at supporting domestic demand, providing social guarantees for the population, and creating new jobs. Like many countries, we have reduced production taxes, leaving money in the economy. We have optimised state spending.But, I repeat, along with measures of prompt response, we are also working to create a platform for post-crisis development.We are convinced that those who will create attractive conditions for global investment already now and will be able to preserve and strengthen sources of strategically meaningful resources will become leaders of the restoration of the global economy.This is why among our priorities we have the creation of a favourable business environment and development of competition; the establishment of a stable loan system resting on sufficient internal resources; and implementation of transport and other infrastructure projects.Russia is already one of the major exporters of a number of food commodities. And our contribution to ensuring global food security will only increase.We are also going to actively develop the innovation sectors of the economy. Above all, those in which Russia has a competitive edge – space, nuclear energy, aviation. In these areas, we are already actively establishing cooperative ties with other countries. A promising area for joint efforts could be the sphere of energy saving. We see higher energy efficiency as one of the key factors for energy security and future development.We will continue reforms in our energy industry. Adoption of a new system of internal pricing based on economically justified tariffs. This is important, including for encouraging energy saving. We will continue our policy of openness to foreign investments.I believe that the 21st century economy is an economy of people not of factories. The intellectual factor has become increasingly important in the economy. That is why we are planning to focus on providing additional opportunities for people to realise their potential.We are already a highly educated nation. But we need for Russian citizens to obtain the highest quality and most up-to-date education, and such professional skills that will be widely in demand in today's world. Therefore, we will be pro-active in promoting educational programmes in leading specialities.We will expand student exchange programmes, arrange training for our students at the leading foreign colleges and universities and with the most advanced companies. We will also create such conditions that the best researchers and professors – regardless of their citizenship – will want to come and work in Russia.History has given Russia a unique chance. Events urgently require that we reorganise our economy and update our social sphere. We do not intend to pass up this chance. Our country must emerge from the crisis renewed, stronger and more competitive.

Separately, I would like to comment on problems that go beyond the purely economic agenda, but nevertheless are very topical in present-day conditions.Unfortunately, we are increasingly hearing the argument that the build-up of military spending could solve today's social and economic problems. The logic is simple enough. Additional military allocations create new jobs.At a glance, this sounds like a good way of fighting the crisis and unemployment. This policy might even be quite effective in the short term. But in the longer run, militarisation won't solve the problem but will rather quell it temporarily. What it will do is squeeze huge financial and other resources from the economy instead of finding better and wiser uses for them.My conviction is that reasonable restraint in military spending, especially coupled with efforts to enhance global stability and security, will certainly bring significant economic dividends.I hope that this viewpoint will eventually dominate globally. On our part, we are geared to intensive work on discussing further disarmament.I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the economic crisis could aggravate the current negative trends in global politics.The world has lately come to face an unheard-of surge of violence and other aggressive actions, such as Georgia's adventurous sortie in the Caucasus, recent terrorist attacks in India, and escalation of violence in Gaza Strip. Although not apparently linked directly, these developments still have common features.First of all, I am referring to the existing international organisations' inability to provide any constructive solutions to regional conflicts, or any effective proposals for interethnic and interstate settlement. Multilateral political mechanisms have proved as ineffective as global financial and economic regulators.Frankly speaking, we all know that provoking military and political instability, regional and other conflicts is a helpful means of distracting the public from growing social and economic problems. Such attempts cannot be ruled out, unfortunately.To prevent this scenario, we need to improve the system of international relations, making it more effective, safe and stable.There are a lot of important issues on the global agenda in which most countries have shared interests. These include anti-crisis policies, joint efforts to reform international financial institutions, to improve regulatory mechanisms, ensure energy security and mitigate the global food crisis, which is an extremely pressing issue today.Russia is willing to contribute to dealing with international priority issues. We expect all our partners in Europe, Asia and America, including the new US administration, to show interest in further constructive cooperation in dealing with all these issues and more. We wish the new team success.

Ladies and gentlemen, the international community is facing a host of extremely complicated problems, which might seem overpowering at times. But, a journey of thousand miles begins with a single step, as the proverb goes.We must seek foothold relying on the moral values that have ensured the progress of our civilisation. Integrity and hard work, responsibility and self-confidence will eventually lead us to success.We should not despair. This crisis can and must be fought, also by pooling our intellectual, moral and material resources.This kind of consolidation of effort is impossible without mutual trust, not only between business operators, but primarily between nations.Therefore, finding this mutual trust is a key goal we should concentrate on now.Trust and solidarity are key to overcoming the current problems and avoiding more shocks, to reaching prosperity and welfare in this new century.Thank you.

comment:

For the first time in the history of the World Economic Forum, keynote speech deliver by a Russian politician. I concur with Putin's called for the end of the dollar as the world's reserve currency as well as his his views on the world financial system.  Although it's not the first time I heard some of it but coming from Russia PM is definetely something I must say.

Personaly I like this the most; "The entire economic growth system, where one regional centre prints money without respite and consumes material wealth, while another regional centre manufactures inexpensive goods and saves money printed by other governments, has suffered a major setback." Refering to the US and China relationship which somehow or rather part of the problems. A bit cunning and reasonable I must say.

Gee man, suddenly I love this guy..