Love of profits vs. the Love of the Prophet (part 2)

[moeen yaseen]

THE GRIM REAPER PAYS A VISIT TO WALL STREET
http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=30&pid=1331#pid1331

[blackcat]

I urge you to take a look at this thread and download Alex Jones interviews with Craig Roberts. Alex himself can be hard work sometimes but if you navigate to the interviews with Roberts you will be entertained.

http://www.nineeleven.co.uk/board/viewtopic.php?t=10536&highlight=

[moeen yaseen]

A TIME FOR REVOLUTION
http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=132&pid=1334#pid1334

[moeen yaseen]

DOUBLE WHAMMY LOOMS ON AUGUST 15
CREDIT CRISIS WORSENING DESPITE CENTRAL BANKS' BAILOUTS
http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=132&pid=1337#pid1337

[moeen yaseen]

WE ARE AT THE POINT OF SINGULARITY
http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=132&pid=1353#pid1353

[moeen yaseen]

BIPARTISAN GUARANTEE OF MORE WAR IN IRAQ NO LIGHT, JUST TUNNEL

HOW THE DEMOCRATS BLEW IT IN ONLY 8 MONTHS
FIGHTING THE DEMOCRATS COMPLICTY WITH BUSH

http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=249&page=4

[moeen yaseen]

SILBER's LAST WORD ON THE WAR AGAINST IRAN

MOB RULE: GEARING UP FOR THE TEHERAN HIT

AN ATTEMPT TO DECEIVE AMERICANS INTO ANOTHER WAR
LABELLING IRAN's REVOLUTIONARY GUARDS: ANOTHER STEP TOWARDS MILITARY CONFRONTATION [/color][/b]

http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php? tid=260&pid=1363#pid1363

[moeen yaseen]

PANIC IS IN THE AIR AS THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM IMPLODES

THE GLOBAL HOUSE OF CARDS IS COLLAPSING

http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=132&pid=1364#pid1364

[moeen yaseen]

HOW FAR WILL THE CRASH GO AND WHAT DO WE DO NOW?
http://www.larouchepac.com/news/2007/08/21/end-our-delusion.html

ECONOMIC COLLAPSE AS PRECURSOR TO OPEN PLAN FOR MARTIAL LAW
http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=342&pid=1373#pid1373

[moeen yaseen]

DIVIDE ET IMPERA


FOLLOWING CHURCHILL'S FOLLY IN IRAQ

PITCHING THE IMPERIAL REPUBLIC: BONAPARTE AND BUSH ON DECK

MORE WAR ON THE HORIZON
http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=249&page=4

[moeen yaseen]

ACTION MUST BEGIN IMMEDIATELY DURING SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER
http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=132&page=last

UK FACES GENERATION OF CONFLICT
http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=249&page=last

[moeen yaseen]

WESTERN BARBARIANS AND THE END OF WESTERN CIVILISATION
http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=249&pid=1407#pid1407


LIBERALS, BUSH UNITE IN ETHNIC CLEANSING OF IRAQ
MARINES ORDERED TO EXECUTE CIVILIANS IN NAZI LIKE SLAUGHTER
CRACKPOT REALISTS AND PERMANENT WAR
HISTORY WILL NOT ABSOLVE US
THE MORAL ROT INFECTING THE SOUL OF AMERICA
MORE SHAME, MORE SORROW

[moeen yaseen]

WELCOME TO THE DEADLY COCKTAIL OF FINANCIAL MELTDOWN, CREDIT FREEZE AND IMPENDING SHOCK AND AWE

http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=132&pid=1419#pid1419

http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=260&page=last

[Emmanuel]

The red titles are far too dramatic. Red doesnt represent peace

[moeen yaseen]

IS THERE A GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRASH HAPPENING? WHAT IS THE ANSWER?

http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=411&pid=1609#pid1609

see also http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=83&pid=1604#pid1604

[moeen yaseen]

THE CENTRAL BANK: SILENT PARTNER IN THE BLOODLETTING
http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=19&pid=1628#pid1628

[moeen yaseen]

THE DEMONIC CABAL RESORTS TO ECONOMIC CANNIBALISM OF IT'S OWN PEOPLE

http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=132&pid=1632#pid1632

[moeen yaseen]

RECONCILING FASCISM WITH REALITY

http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=249&pid=1640#pid1640

THE NEW TOTALITARIANISM

http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=249&pid=1641#pid1641

[moeen yaseen]

DEATH OF THE DOLLAR
http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=30&pid=1694#pid1694

[moeen yaseen]

LAROUCHE ASSAILS BRITISH ROLE IN BHUTTO MURDER

http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=132&page=9

[moeen yaseen]

NWO GLOVES COME OFF AND WARNS
OF FINANCIAL MELTDOWN


AN ECONOMIC * SPEAKS OF CHAOS
http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=132&pid=1669#pid1669

American statesman Lyndon LaRouche said today that Alan "Bubbles" Greenspan's dire New Year's Eve warning that "something unexpected" will happen soon, which will "knock us all down," provides the true setting for the unleashing of chaos by a faction of the Anglo-Dutch financial oligarchy, which is now occurring around the world. LaRouche pointed to Pakistan, Southwest Asia, Kenya, South Africa, Yemen, and the FARC/Chavez moves in Ibero-American as in-progress chaos operations run by the Anglo-Dutch financier crowd. Greenspan's NPR interview, reported in MoneyNews.com today, quoted him, "What I have to forecast is that something will happen which is unexpected, which will knock us down ...The odds of that happening, I think, are rising, because we are getting in vulnerable areas."

Greenspan added, "What I point out is that we're in a turning phase, and that the extraordinary improvements that have occurred in the world economy in the last 15 years are transitory, and they're about to change ... So, I think this whole process will begin to reverse." Interest rates, Greenspan said "now are set by the supply of investment money worldwide; a force much larger than the concerted efforts of central banks, including the Fed ... We and all other central banks lost control of the forces directing higher prices in homes."

Greenspan admitted his miserable record at forecasting, despite sitting at the helm of the Fed for nearly two decades: "The record of forecasting not only of myself and of companies I have developed, but of the profession as a whole, is not particularly spectacular," Greenspan said. "Ive been forecasting since the early 1950s. I was as bad then as I am now." Apparently, a belated confession of an economic *.

[moeen yaseen]

PANIC IN THE AIR
http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=132&pid=1790#pid1790

WORLD GOING OVER THE PRECIPICE
YOU HAVE A SINGLE, GLOBAL FINANCIAL COLLAPSE, NOT HOTSPOTS
BANK LENDING WILL SHRINK $4 TRILLION
THE NEXT DOMINO IN THE CRASH IS THE BIGGEST- FINANCIAL DERIVATIVES

[moeen yaseen]

GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS TV BROADCAST

http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=391&pid=1835#pid1835

This is the year when the global economy has been plunged full steam ahead into uncharted turbulent waters. The situation is similar to a crash which has occurred with the driver having hit something big and nasty but there is a delay before the driver who doesn't even have a seatbelt goes flying through the window. The banks have collapsed and they are bankrupt and are in denial due to the vested interests of bankers and economists. The secular democratic neoliberal order is resorting to economic cannibalism. In this crisis there is an urgent need for the demystification of money and terminology and the false science of economics exposing the false religion of economics disguised as a science. We may have no other choice but to imitate Jesus chasing the Moneylenders from the Temple in earlier times. The religion of the day is the Free Market and Market economy which needs exposure. The situation we are in resembles the Middle Ages wherein the Priesthood spoke a language namely Latin which though the ordinary people could not understand was the medium through which eternal salvation and damnation was pronounced. Now what we have is the enthronement of an Financial Priesthood which has made Economics,the Market and Homo Economicus are Mammon which we all need to worship and be prepared to be sacrificed.
We are at the start of a financial tsunami heading for the perfect storm of a housing bubble, credit bubble and the decline of the imperial dollar. The subprime mortgage crisis merges into a "credit crunch," which itself merges into a solvency crisis of the international banking system. Central banks initially stressed asserting market discipline and letting speculators take their losses are now backing bailouts to keep the whole system afloat.
The illusion of a successful free market economy has depended upon the accumulation of vast amounts of debt, with households, businesses, governments, and financial markets all depending upon debt. The ability to finance that debt depended in turn upon the ability of the banks to turn loans into securities that could be sold to speculators, moving the loans off the banks' balance sheets to the investment community. The end of securitization will wreak havoc with the ability of the economy to finance itself with debt. The collapse will devour into the balance sheets of the commercial banks, the investment banks, the insurance companies and other financial institutions and the lives of people.
This has led to the dollar nosediving and despite 750 billions injected by Central banks is leading to a hyperinflationary situation like 1923 in the Weimar Republic in Germany and run on the banks. This isn't just a credit crunch but a bankruptcy crisis. As shown by the bailouts of commercial banks by the Central Banks. Bankers are frantically trying to waken a dead system which died in the summer. The banks are bankrupt. The banks are admitting to writing off billions of debt in the form of toxic waste and junk paper. Leveraged lending is discredited as there is unsalable financial paper and noone trusts anyone over whether loans can be paid back. Investor banks are being investigated such as Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and Bear Sterns on whether they sold risky mortgage backed securities to investors globally in bad faith. The greatest casino economy established by Greenspan is over and out. The bubble is now going inwards and this artificial economy will impact on the real economy.
The situation we find ourselves in is complex as peeling the skin of an onion. There are layers of history underpinning this crisis. The Kondratieff cycle occurring every 60 years is on the horizon. Since 1987 printing money was injected into the economy under Greenspan which was intensified after the dotcom bubble in 2002-2007. Since 1987's deregulation there has been the development of volatile financial instruments such as credit derivatives, derivative futures and collaterallised debt obligations, SIVs. In which reselling debt is new and leading to casino capitalism. The saturation point of debt and leverage has arrived. The US is buoyed on 10 trillions of borrowed money which has created an unfortunate sense of prosperity. Prior to this was the dollar's move from the Gold Standard and Fixed exchange to the floating exchange in 1971 and the rise of the petrodollar i.e. the use of the dollar peg for oil trading. Since 1963 with the assassination of JFK there has been a criminal mafia in control of the USA. Underpinning this was the Breton Woods agreement in 1944 which established the dollar as the Universal reserve currency. Underlying this is the establishment by a criminal mafia since 1913 of the US Federal Reserve Bank which means that under the regime of the world's all powerful central banking system money has been brought into existence as debt bearing loans with Fractional reserve banking and fiat money. This racket needs massive exposure fast. The origins can be pinned back to 1694 with the establishment of the Bank of England in the city of London.
It is in this context that the Bush administration has engineered wars to corner the global oil trade in Iraq and Iran which is to forestall the demise of the dollar as the world's reserve currency. The US dollar hegemony is being maintained so that fiat money is traded for precious resources. Bush wars are about retaining the dollar as the premier world trading currency which requires the physical control of oil resources. The dollar is a fiat currency monopolising the trading of oil. 9/11(An inside job) and oil resource wars(illegal and unjust wars) actually signal the economic weakness of the USA. The American strategy is to retain the hegemonic dollar system by the military control of Eurasia. It needs to be noted that the 1944 Breton Woods was broken in 1971 when the dollar peg to the gold standard was broken. This was when the dollar was not fixed to gold but the printing press of the Treasury/ US FRB. The Imperial dollar is a political currency. The powerful financial elite realised that they could have more global influence via debt but that oil needed to be traded in dollars. Given countries need for dollar reserves US Fed/Treasury knew that more US debt will be bought to retain global financial stability. ie. the debts of the USA are the assets of the rest of the world which is the basis of their credit system.
It is only now a question of time before it loses it's status as the world's reserve currency. The oversupply of dollars is due to budget and trade deficits created by the offsourcing practices of US corporations has converted US GDP into US imports. There has been a consumer focussed growth strategy with low interest rates on debt and on a transfer of ownership of assets. The US has been living beyond it's means with consumption greater than production and foreign ownership. Cheap money followed by injecting new money will lead to inflation. Devaluation of dollars will increase trade deficits leading to falling living standards. The US financing wars(debt) and cheap money(debt) has led to oil price rises and has made the dollar peg to oil difficult to sustain.
The OPEC countries can not adopt the monetary policies of a reserve currency. Kuwait broke off the dollar and GCC States will break off the dollar to control inflation. Indeed the Iranian Oil Bourse is now scheduled to be officially launched in February 2008 to coincide with the 29th anniversary celebrations of the Islamic Revolution. It will trade oil, gas and petrochemicals in nondollar currencies. The peg to the dollar will break and oil trading will be pegged to a basket of curencies and oil will not be priced in dollars. Also Wahabbi scholars in Saudi Arabia have issued what amounts to be a fatwa against the dollar which the Saud ruling dynasty needs to heed seriously. There will also be divestment from dollar denominated holdings by sovereign wealth funds.It appears that the dollar will end up in the fiat currency graveyard. It has not been backed up by gold/silver since 1971 which has led to fiscal monetary crises. The arrogance of dominance has led to the current predicament in the collapse of the dollar.
It is clear now that the IMF, World Bank and the Federal Reserve are colluding to impose a stranglehold over the world economy and how the subprime mortgage and credit crisis is simply a means by which the global elite can bankrupt and seize America. The globalists manufactured the fake fiat money system to create artificial bubbles which were then popped so the elite could consolidate wealth,collect and own the tangible infrastructure of the world.
We are indeed at the end of history mentioned by Francis Fukuyama but the end of history will be marked not by the triumph of capitalism. The financier class's accumulated purely fictitious financial gains from predatory speculation are collapsing mimicking the experience of Weimar Germany in 1923. The predatory power of the financial elite has to be defeated via a coalition of powerful nation states and monetary reformers.
The real battle is between those who know the system is gone, and want to decide the nature of its replacement. On the one side are the forces which place welfare and interests of the people who want to put the financial system through bankruptcy, putting up firewalls to protect the general welfare of the citizenry, stopping home foreclosures and freezing the mass of financial claims until the wheat can be separated from the chaff. The speculative claims and fictitious values can be written off over time, while the elements necessary to protect the proper functioning of the economy can be protected, and the economy rebuilt. On the other side are the forces of the international financial oligarchy, organized around the Anglo-Dutch rentier-financier model. Their intent is to use the crisis to destroy the power of the nation-states and to restore the power of the empires, in a world dominated by imperial financiers and their trading cartels. To this crowd, people are but expendable peasants, little more than herds of cattle to be managed, sometimes slaughtered. What motivates the oligarchy is power, the ability to rule the world for the benefit of a small ruling class. In their view, the nation-states, in particular the historic United States, usurped their power, and they intend to reclaim it. They have, in fact, already made large steps in that direction.
This is a political fight rather than a financial one. The financial system is already gone and cannot be resurrected, and there are no serious attempts to do so. The moves by the central banks and the regulators are not intended to bring back the bubble, but rather to attempt to control its disintegration and buy the time to establish the replacement system. The money is already gone. London became the financial center of the new derivatives game. The City positioned itself as the casino, profitting from the gambling of others and, through its network of offshore centers like the Cayman Islands, it lured its rivals into the trap. Murdoch's launching of the Fox Business channel and the Wall Street Journal provide the City with a platform to undermine the credibility of U.S. institutions.
Pending which party wins the world would descend into a fascist nightmare: Governments stripped of what little remains of their abilities to protect their populations from imperial looting, corporate cartels gouging populations in an age of austerity, population reduction, and utter chaos—with the City of London ruling over whatever pile of rubble is left.There is another option or PLAN B wherein the security and prosperity partnership could be the cover for a North American Union with an unified currency called the Amero created by the shadowy globalists such as the Bilderbergers, Trilateral Commission and CFR. This is aother building block in their plans for a World Government. This agenda will be fully exposed soon in another editorial.
Having painted an impending picture of doom and gloom Global Vision 2000 remains available to render it's services to the restructuring of the new global financial architecture for the 21st century which works for ALL. The crisis exposed is a threat and an opportunity.

Solutions

Freeze everything and have a Bankruptcy re-organisation here all Central Banks are brought under control of the National sovereign government. The present world monetary system must be placed under the status of bankruptcy reorganisation given the bankruptcy of the US FRB and a New Breton Woods Agreement to restructure the global financial architecture.

All central banking systems independent of sovereign
Governments are placed under sovereign powers of Constitutional government. FRB no longer as a bank of issue.

Banning of bank credit and the cancellation of debt.

Moeen Yaseen
Managing Director
Global Vision 2000

RECENT POSTS ON THE FORUM

LAROUCHE
THE SYSTEM IS DEAD, NOW WHAT? http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread....19#pid1819

THE MODERN UNIVERSAL PARADIGM
http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread....52#pid1752

DEMISE OF THE IMPERIAL DOLLAR
http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread....;page=last

CAPITALISM AND WAR
http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread....amp;page=7

WEST's LANGUAGE OF IMPERIALISM
http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=413>

BOOK REVIEWS
THE TRUE STORY OF THE BILDERBERGERS
http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=397

CURRENCY WARS
http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=374

MULTIMEDIA
THE MONEYMASTERS
http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=557

THE CORPORATION
http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=509

SELECTED TV BROADCASTS WITH GLOBAL VISION 2000
Although Global Vision 2000 has or participated in about 10 hours of satellite tv broadcasts this year we are pleased to share some recent broadcasts which can be downloaded and viewed.

BETWEEN THE HEADLINES : REVIEW OF 2007
Presented by Amina Taylor
http://www.presstv.com/pop/wmp.aspx?id=36501

AGENDA : GLOBAL MONEY CRISIS:JUST WHERE DOES THE BUCK STOP?
Presented by Yvonne Ridley
http://www.presstv.com/prg_detail.aspx?SectionID=3510509

[moeen yaseen]

GLOBAL MONEY CRISIS: JUST WHERE DOES THE BUCK STOP?

http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=502&pid=1904#pid1904

[moeen yaseen]

GLOBAL FINANCIAL MELTDOWN , SOCIOECONOMIC INJUSTICE AND WAR: CAUSE AND REMEDY

Saturday April 5th 2008 9-6
http://www.gv2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=411&pid=1643#pid1643


Global Vision 2000 will be hosting a special one day conference on, " The Global Financial Meltdown, Socioeconomic Injustice and War: Cause and Remedy " on Saturday 5th April 2008 in London. As an independent international Islamic thinktank it will be building on previous events focussing on these issues. This time it will bring together some of the UK's leading independent political and economic thinkers, writers and campaigners to focus on these issues at a time of crisis and turbulence in the global financial markets and impending recession and ongoing wars raging around the world.

The significance of the event is underlined as it is clear that the credit bubble has combined with the housing bubble and the falling dollar to lead to an unfolding deepening economic crisis centred in the USA but rippling across the world. The speakers will be offering an alternative holistic diagnosis and prescription on what needs to be done urgently to address this crisis. This is desperately needed as vested interests such as mainstream bankers and financial journalists are clearly disguising the nature of the crisis as confidence in the capital markets and banks will result. The connection with socioeconomic injustice will be highlighted with why poverty and underdevelopment persists globally. Also the connection with war will be examined by throwing light on the military industrial complex's relationship with this system.

This event brings together both leading Muslim and Western thinkers and movements seeking monetary and political reform at a time when Western democracies credibility is being questioned post 9/11. The Global War of Terror has given rise to a discourse of a "long war" and the rise of McCarthyism and the surveillance State sold to the public on the rhetoric of counterterrorist policies. It is time to steer the discussion on the real crisis and issues of the age which is the legitimacy and nature of the system we are in living and transacting within.

This special event is guaranteed to enlighten and inspire the people with the knowledge, tools and networks to be the change. A must attend event for the perplexed seeking guidance for themselves, their families , communities and nations. There will be opportunities to interact with the panellists in Q & A sessions.

Highlights and speakers of the event include-

Hosted by Moeen Yaseen Managing Director Global Vision 2000

A special rap artist

A special film on debt and liberation from it will be screened.

IslamicFinance.com Tareq Diwany Islamic finance expert
Author of the Problem with Interest

Christian Council for Monetary Justice/
Global Justice Movement Canon Peter Challen
Co-author of Seven steps to justice

Forum for Stable Currencies Sabine O Neill Monetary reformer

Global Vision 2000 Dr.Muhammad Ahsan
Author of Globalisation or Recolonisation
of the Muslim world

International Islamic reformer Daud Pidcock ex head of Islamic
Party of Great Britain
Author of the forthcoming book on
the Road to Serfdom

Bandung2 Dr.Mustafa Ali Critical theorist of
Western imperialism and racism


Open Capital Chris Cook former director of the
London International Petroleum Exchange

Movement for the Abolition of War Chairman Dr.Tony Kempster

Campaign Against Arms Trade

TGL.tv Peter Forrest

At Abrar House
45 Crawford Place, London WIH 4LP
£10 attendance fee
For Further information contact 07818 082011
Due to limited spaces reserve your seat.

[moeen yaseen]

TIME TO QUARANTINE THE BRITISH BULLDOG


Miliband reaffirms Britain's commitment to impose its values on the world -by force if necessary

London, UK, February 12 2008
http://www.hizb.org.uk/hizb/press-centre/press-release/miliband-reaffi rms-britain-s-commitment-to-impose-its-values-on-the-world-by-force-if -necessary.html

Foreign secretary, David Miliband argued in a speech today that there is a "moral imperative" to intervene - sometimes militarily - to help spread democracy throughout the world. Miliband seems intent on committing the UK to more disastrous interventions, that will inevitably lead to civilian deaths. Given its two century track record, we would argue that there is a "moral imperative" for the UK to stay out of the affairs of Muslim world.

In his speech titled The Democratic Imperative, he also argued that fostering democracy in the Middle East "is the best long-term defence against global terrorism and conflict" despite the "mistakes" in Iraq and Afghanistan. The facts do not support his case, with the world less secure and more divided since the launch of the 'war on terror'.

Commenting on the speech Dr Imran Waheed, media representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, said, "Gordon Brown said that British laws must be based on British values. Today, Miliband is saying that the rest of the world's laws must also be based on British values - imposed by force if necessary. To insist on imposing secular liberal democracy despite recent polls that show that the vast majority of people in the Muslim world want an Islamic form of government, is arrogant supremacist and doomed to failure. The Muslim world has seen the numerous attempts to establish secular systems over many decades. All have failed. The British government, so emphatic in its rejection of accomodating even a morsel of Islamic law into its civil code, cannot expect a successfully imposition of a system foreign to Muslims in their countries."

"To talk of ‘mistakes' in Iraq and Afghanistan is an amazing understatement. Iraq has been weakened by sanctions, had its infrastructure and institutions destroyed, and been victim of an invasion that has killed over 650,000 innocent Iraqis."

"In Afghanistan, corruption, poverty and insecurity have all worsened under occupation and violent incidents are up 20% in the past year. This ‘free, democratic' Afghanistan has levels of poverty comparable to sub-Saharan Africa and now has 120,000 women and 60,000 children who are amongst its new drug users, giving a meaning to ‘liberation' that is entirely in keeping with intervention by liberal capitalist states."

"Western governments show no sign of wanting to leave the Muslim world to shape its own future and political destiny. Stability can only come when a system of government enjoys the trust and confidence of the people and that will only come when Islam lies at the heart of that system. The people of the Muslim world want to remove their repressive regimes and establish the Caliphate - a representative and accountable system of Islamic governance."


DEMOCRACY'S DRACULA TENTACLES

How many more lies from the UK government in this war on terror

London, UK, February 22 2007 -
http://www.hizb.org.uk/hizb/press-centre/press-release/rendition-how-m any-more-lies-from-the-uk-government-in-this-war-on-terror.html

Yesterday's extraordinary confession by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband about Britain's role in extraordinary rendition is hardly surprising given the politically expedient record of lies and spin from successive British governments. Rather than apologising to the victims of torture and extraordinary rendition, Miliband merely apologised for the inaccurate denials by the British government of their complicity in the CIA's rendition programme.

Commenting on this, Dr Imran Waheed, media representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, said, "When it comes to the 'war on terror', politicians believe that they can say and do what they like because the 'ends justify the means'. That is why we have seen the use of secret detention, detention without trial, extraordinary rendition and torture. A dodgy dossier and non-existent WMDs were used to occupy Iraq, with the deaths of over half a million Iraqi civilians."

"Yesterday's admission by Miliband is hardly surprising. Over a year ago a report by MEPs expressed 'serious concern about the 170 stopovers made by CIA-operated aircraft at UK airports, which on many occasions came from or were bound for countries linked with extraordinary rendition circuits and the transfer of detainees'. The report also deplored 'the stopovers at UK airports of aircraft which have been shown to have been used by the CIA', on other occasions, for 'extraordinary renditions'".

"According to the Foreign Office adviser Michael Wood, receiving or possessing information extracted under torture, as long as there is no direct participation in the torture, is not prohibited. Under the Caliphate the ends do not justify the means - the principles of its judicial system dictate that torture is outlawed and citizens are innocent until proven guilty irrespective of the wishes of politicians."


BRIT MEDIA BLOODHOUNDS FEAR OF DISCUSSING "BRUTISH BRITISH VALUES"

Hizb al Tahrir calls for debate on Secularism and Shariah

London, UK, February 8 2008
http://www.hizb.org.uk/hizb/press-centre/press-release/hizb-ut-tahrir- calls-for-debate-on-secularism-and-shariah.html

Despite the Archbishop of Canterbury's request for a sensible debate on the matter of Shariah in civil law, the response in the media can only be described as a fanatical and emotional outpouring of exaggeration, misrepresentative statements, untruths and sometimes vitriolic hatred.

Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain will be writing to politicians, journalists, academics and opinion formers over the coming week proposing an open, sensible and rational debate about secularism and the Islamic Shariah, in the context of problems in today's world.

Commenting on this, Taji Mustafa, media representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, said, "The response to Dr William's comments illustrate both the profound level of ignorance in Britain about the Islamic Shariah and the near total blindness of some to the flaws within secularism and the harms it has caused in its implementation across the world. Xenophobia, the inherent assumption of superiority, and poor treatment of minorities is sadly part of Europe's tradition. Tolerance and pluralism are hollow slogans alongside this barrage of abuse, characterising the limited ability of this secular society to accomodate difference. By contrast, the rights of minorities were protected in the Islamic tradition. The Shariah law protected the right of citizens of other minorities to live according to their faith traditions within their personal lives. Though many in the west claim to approach issues rationally, many utterly fail to respect the opinions of those they disagree with."

"Although the context of Hizb ut-Tahrir's work is, and always has been, to work for an Islamic state in the Muslim world, the debate thus far has neglected the fact that it is not Muslims campaigning for Shariah in Britain that is a cause of tension. It is the policies of western governments to deny people's desire to live by Shariah in the Muslim world. Indeed, it is the height of hypocrisy that politicians and media who approved the bloodshed in Iraq and Afghanistan to export a secular system to the Muslim world, cry about protecting Britain's traditions and heritage, whilst obstructing the desire in the Muslim world to have laws that reflect their Islamic beliefs, heritage and system. For Muslims the world over, the Islamic Shariah is what brought civilisation and learning that characterised a golden age, such as that in Muslim Spain; it is the Shariah that guarantees an end to dictatorship, oppression and torture; it is the Shariah that protects family values in society; it is the Shariah that works to redistribute wealth and end poverty; it is the Shariah that restores the honour and dignity of women, allowing them to participate in society as human beings and not as commodities; it is the Shariah that protects people's privacy; it was the Shariah that allowed Muslim, Jew and Christian to live side by side for centuries in relative harmony; it was the Shariah that brought justice and stability to what are now some of the world's most trouble regions."

"By contrast, when Muslims the world over look at secularism, liberal democracy and the capitalist free market they see enormous problems that some in the west simply fail to acknowledge. They see the century that secularism dominated was the arguably the bloodiest in human history, causing instabilty and conflict across the world; they see record gaps between rich and poor within and between states; they see the breakdown of family life and record numbers of broken families; they see a rampant individualism and consumerism; they see people increasingly disinterested in their own political process; they see rising social problems of drugs and alcohol abuse; they see an increasingly intrusive state and a surveillance society; they see an inability to bring about societal cohesion and to tolerate difference in society; they see an aggressive and militaristic foreign policy for material resources and political dominance. These are only a few things that have contributed to the failure of secularism to gain a foothold across the Muslim world. These are all very much in need of debate and discussion."

"It is our intention to open such a debate. We hope others will join us in it. However, we expect many will run away from such an honest appraisal of both systems, prefering abuse and generalisation to debate and discussion."

[moeen yaseen]

"THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEMIC CRISIS AND THE ROOSEVELTIAN WAY OUT"

"The International Systemic Crisis and the Rooseveltian Way Out," held in rooms provided by the Italian Senate. Other speakers included with Alfonso Gianni, Undersecretary in the Ministry for Economic Development, and Cati Polidori, President of the Young Entrepeneurs' Association (CONFAPI).

Helga Zepp-LaRouche, president of the German political party Civil Rights Movement Solidarity, spoke on the urgency of stopping the Lisbon European Union Treaty, designed to replace Europe's nation-state system with a supranational dictatorship, run from Brussels on behalf of the financier oligarchy. The event was attended by around 40 people of various institutional, political and economic stating. It was introduced and moderated by Claudio Celani, and included several questions from the audience. Interpretation between Italian and English was sequential.

The two-hour event was recorded by Radio Radicale.it, and is posted on their website in mp3 format (62MB); it can be listened to or downloaded from www.radioradicale.it

CELANI: [introduces Lyn and Helga, in Italian]

LYNDON LAROUCHE: On the 25th of July last year, I gave an international webcast, announcing that we were on the edge of the immediate collapse, of the greatest collapse in modern history, of the world present financial-monetary system. Within a week, that collapse began. It began particularly with the collapse of a real estate bubble which had been building up in the United States for some time.

But that bubble was only a weakest point in the entire world system. The entire international financial system is now in the process of disintegrating. There is no possibility for the continued survival during the period of months ahead. And there are certain reactions by leading forces which recognize, exactly, that months ahead, this whole system in its present form will disappear. The development of the election campaign in the United States currently, and also the developments around the Lisbon 2 agreement being proposed, which would eliminate the existence of nation-states in Continental Western Europe, are symptoms of this kind of preparation.

This has a long history, which I could explain, but we have limitations of time here, and also since we have to do the sequential translation, I will play down some things which are extremely important, which may come up in discussion.

I'll indicate what the two great problems are: First of all, you have both events are being steered from London, not from the United States, but from London. Both represent the fact that, especially since 1971, the United States' dollar has nominally been a leading factor in the world, but it has not been a U.S. dollar, it has been an international dollar. I'll describe the one well-known feature defining that difference between the 1968 picture of the dollar, and the 1971-72 picture. Up to the middle of 1971, the U.S. dollar had been a keystone of a fixed-exchange-rate system. Up until the assassination of John Kennedy in the United States, that has been a solid arrangement. A wave of assassinations, including that of Kennedy, changed the world situation politically, and the result of the assassination of Kennedy, we had the so-called prolonged Vietnam War, Indo-China War.

Then we had, in 1968, the breakdown of the political system in part with the 68er phenomenon. The political structure of the system began to crumble with '68. Nineteen seventy-one, the floating of the dollar, led to another big swindle, which, most people have not recognized yet: Most people should know that the British paid the Saudis $3 for each barrel of oil the British take from the Saudis. And by the time that oil reaches the market in Amsterdam and similar places, it's now $100 or approximately that. A very unmagical trick.

So, the entire system is fraudulent, but what happened was, to cause this, was that we had a so-called "oil price crisis," in the early 1970s as a result of the '71-'72 change in the monetary system. Then we had the orchestrated "oil price shock" of the '72-'73 period. As a result of that, we had the creation of the "Amsterdam dollar," and we can say, in an English pun, that was the beginning of the "damn dollar" to replace the U.S. dollar. So, from that point on, the U.S. dollar was no longer U.S. property, in effect, but became an Anglo-American dollar, controlled through the oil spot market out of Amsterdam and similar places. There were chain reactions centered largely on London, in the international markets on all kinds of commodities, which erupted from that point on.

And in this process, you had a fundamental shift occurring, between 1968 and 1975, in which, instead of having the nations of Europe and the United States as being the prime drivers of the world physical economy, there was now a great shift in progress. You've seen that in Italy, where in northern Italy at least, there was a significant improvement in industrial and agricultural activities into the late 1970s. Since the 1968 period-1975 period, there has been a general decline in the physical productivity in agriculture and industry in Europe and North America, in particular. What has happened is, production has been shifted to the cheap labor markets of the world. In fact, China, for example, is actually losing money on its relationship with the United States. Because the money that China as a nation gets for producing for the United States, is less than what it costs China to produce that product.

You have a similar situation, but a different one, in India. India has 1.1 billion people, which is compared to 1.4 billion people in China. In India about 70% of the population is extremely poor, as poor as it was years ago, and the most acute expressions of poverty are increasing and spreading. It's like Africa: We have parts of the world which are producing products cheaply for the world market: But! if you look at the population of the countries which are doing this, they are not able to sustain their own population from this production.

There has been no success in the world economy since the end of the 1960s. There has been contentment for some people who are very rich, and a diminishing quality of life for those who are not very poor. For example, just looking at the price and availability of health-care in countries such as Italy and Europe, or the United States: We have, for example, the Mayor of New York, who in my view never earned any money at all, was confronted with the fact that he alleged is worth $11 billion. He protested: "I am not worth $11 billion! I'm worth $40 billion!"

Now, I should tell you that this same Mayor of New York, which is to come to another part of this point, is by Italian standards of the 1930s: He is a fascist. His policy is that of corporativism, the same thing as Mussolini and Volpi di Misurata. The same program that was brought into Hitler through Schacht. There's a similar policy that's coming out of London under different names right now. And London is also running Bloomberg in New York. London is also working now, in the public press, actually, to destroy one of the leading candidates in the United States: Barack Obama. But at the same time, London is also supporting Obama against Hillary Clinton. The intention is to make Bloomberg the leading national candidate in the United States.

Well, this is not unusual for European experience, for those who know the history of Europe in the 20th century. Periods of great financial crisis, particularly financial breakdown crisis, lead to desperate measures by those relevant financier interests who have political power. And throughout the euro system, that is already present, at the same time, that it's happening inside the United States. However! There's a problem: The present financial crisis can only be compared to what happened in Europe when the Bardi bank from Lucca collapsed, and Europe went into a dark age, the so-called new dark age, where half the parishes of Europe disappeared, and one-third of the population disappeared. We face potentially a greater crisis than that, today.

But there are alternatives. There are solutions: What I propose in particular, to all relevant circles, is that the United States government undergo a change of heart, and of personnel, in which, in this year, in the first half of the year, the United States government should be induced to approach Russia, China, and India, to enter into a new agreement on a fixed-exchange-rate system.

You have to look at two key facts about the world situation to understand this: First of all, there has been no global prosperity in the past 20 to 30 years. There have been pockets of actual income, and some artificial income, which is purely monetary but not real. For example, the housing boom in the United States and Europe is totally fraudulent. But the cost of housing is greater than the salary-incomes of the people who can sustain it. And these prices are not real prices, they're inflated prices. As you see now, the prices of real estate will tend to collapse back to one-quarter or one-fifth of what they are today. And even that amount of economic activity, is not based on reality, it's based on credit. It's based on credit which is purely fictitious. It's on bills that could never be paid, credit that could never be repaid. On top of that, the total nominal income or obligations of the world, are in hundreds of trillions of dollars, and in dollars it's up in the quadrillions. So that, under these conditions, there's no possibility that you could ever resolve this debt in its present form.

All right, at the same time that we've got a worse crisis than in the 14th century, we have the major producing countries of the world, like China, India and so forth, operating below breakeven for the population as a whole. In other words, the shift of production from Europe and the United States, into the developing sector, was not based on competitive considerations! What the conditions were, that production was exported from Europe and the United States, to countries which had not received sufficient income to maintain their own populations. So therefore, the collapse of Europe and the U.S. in particular, would mean a chain-reaction collapse of the economies of Asia, as well as Africa and South America. You have to look at Europe in the terms of the 14th century, to understand this phenomenon.

This is a 21st century new dark age potential!

Now, if you study the rate of collapse of population in the Middle Ages, in the middle of the 14th century, which is something Italian historians ought to be able to master, when the chain-reaction collapse of the Lombard banking system occurred. The collapse of credit resulted in a beginning of an increased death rate in the population of Europe as a whole. This rate of decay, this rate of shrinkage of the population, then accelerated into a steep decline in population. Half the parishes of Europe vanished! The population of Europe collapsed by one-third, within a period of about a generation. And then, continued to collapse at a more leveled-off rate. This is the typical S-curve of collapse of a population of this type: a slow decline, then a steep decline, then a slower decline. The world population today, under these conditions, is between 6.5 to 7 billion people. What happens with this kind of collapse? You get a global new dark age collapse if we allow it to occur. Civilization as we know it now would disappear. The level of population would ebb toward about 1 billion people.

But there are solutions for it, as the Renaissance showed, and that's why my proposal for the United States to Russia, China, and India, is very important. As you know, Europe no longer—that is, west of Russia and so forth—no longer has any real sovereign independence in dealing with these kinds of problems. Globalization has undermined, grievously, the sovereignty of the European states.

But we have an irony at the same time: China knows, more clearly than any other country, its vulnerability to this kind of crisis. India has a slightly greater resilience in its system. But the threat is existential, nonetheless. The basic problem is, that the world is not presently producing the amount of physical wealth, including infrastructure required to sustain a population of over 6.5 billion people.

But! In Europe and in North America in particular, we have the potential in terms of technology, embedded in the people, embedded in the culture, to have a revival of physical economic output. As you look at the history of the Mussolini regime, you know you can't do it with just infrastructure. You have to do with the kind of infrastructure, which is based on increasing manufacturing and agriculture output. It means high-technology innovation. European civilization has still the ability, under emergency conditions like Roosevelt used, to reactivate the potential of productivity in the European population: a reversion to modern, mass-transportation as opposed to reliance on the automobile; unleashing the now-largely suppressed nuclear energy potential. The actual cost of nuclear power, which is reported to be high is a fraud: It is not that high, it's artificially high! If you actually put a mass investment into nuclear power, you will convert the world from dependency upon petroleum into developing not only nuclear power for local use, but for the generation of synthetic hydrogen-based fuels, to replace petroleum.

We have, admittedly, a population which has lost production skills—they've been out of work for 25 to 30 years. They depend upon old men, you know, like me to get production going again. But, we know how to do that, from past experience. Roosevelt did that, with the recovery in the United States.

So therefore, if we have 30- to 50-year agreements, with China, with India, and with other countries—long-term monetary and financial treaty agreements—China in particular has a great need for European technology, to deal with its own internal population crisis. And since Deng Xiaoping, this has been their policy. India is committed to going to the thorium cycle in nuclear power, for small-scale thorium plants. Because the people in India are very poor and very unskilled, as you find, generally, in Africa. The African farmer is productive by African standards, but he lacks the infrastructure to make his productivity efficient. So we in Europe, if we are wise, and in the United States, can make agreements with these countries: We have a great need for imaginative leaders, who will react to the stupidity of much of our politics over the past 30 years, for programs we already have developed, but we know exist. There is no problem that humanity has which is not potentially solvable under good leadership of a tradition type that we used to have in the United States.

Now the problem is this—my concluding point here—is this, we have a crisis in elections and government in Europe and in the United States. We have it on both sides of the ocean. It's acute. We have a threat of a return to fascism on a scale far beyond anything that we've known before in the past: You have a dictatorship threatened for Europe, under the new treaty agreement, the Lisbon agreement— no longer will there be any government control over the government of Europe. At the same time, we face that in the United States in the current election campaign.

All right: Obama is not going to be elected. Obama is being backed by London to bring down Hillary Clinton, and then they're going to put him out of business. Look at the leading British press: The scandal is brewing, they're going to bring him down. They've been backing up Obama to bring down Hillary Clinton. If they think that Hillary Clinton is brought down, they bring him down. Then the Mayor of New York becomes the Democratic Presidential candidate. And his program is fascist, just as fascist as you can imagine from past European experiences. So naturally, I'm part of the organization inside the United States, determined to make sure this sure this does not happen. And there are a great number of people in the United States of influence who share my concern, including senior figures who've been part of government or the institutions of government over a long period of time. I'm determined to crush this. And I'm doing everything possible to goad my friends into joining me in doing it.

My concern, also, at the same time, is, though I admit that Western Continental Europe does not have much political power any more, and if this Lisbon agreement goes through, we'll have a lot less. But I think we can mobilize things, and build up the confidence to take the measures which are needed to lead the world out of this nightmare, by methods of Franklin Roosevelt. The nations which represent European civilization must awaken to their mission, of restoring the kind of technological progress, which made Europe great in the past.

And you can count on one thing: We can all go to Hell, in a sense, but we have a chance to win. The chance to win lies in the achievements of our culture, and if we can awaken ourselves to confidence in our cultural legacy, we can win! It is a war we can win, but it is a war we could lose! Do we have the will to win? That's my message.

[moeen yaseen]

WE CAN NO LONGER AFFORD VULTURE CAPITALISM
http://www.new-enlightenment.com/capitalism_afford.htm

[moeen yaseen]

THE COMING HUMILIATION OF AN ARROGANT SUPERPOWER

BUSH SAYS IRAQ WAR WAS WORTH IT

Terence Hunt
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19564.htm

President Bush says he has no doubts about launching the unpopular war in Iraq despite the ``high cost in lives and treasure,'' arguing that retreat now would embolden Iran and provide al-Qaida with money for weapons of mass destruction to attack the United States.

Bush is to mark the fifth anniveresary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq on Wednesday with a speech at the Pentagon. Excerpts of his address were released Tuesday night by the White House.

At least 3,990 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the war in 2003. It has cost taxpayers about $500 billion and estimates of the final tab run far higher. Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglizt and Harvard University public finance expert Linda Bilmes have estimated the eventual cost at $3 trillion when all the expenses, including long-term care for veterans, are calculated.

Democrats offered a different view from Bush's.

``On this grim milestone, it is worth remembering how we got into this situation, and thinking about how best we can get out,'' said Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich. ``The tasks that remain in Iraq - to bring an end to sectarian conflict, to devise a way to share political power, and to create a functioning government that is capable of providing for the needs of the Iraqi people are tasks that only the Iraqis can complete.''

In his remarks, Bush repeated his oft-stated determination to prosecute the war into the unforeseen future.

``The successes we are seeing in Iraq are undeniable, yet some in Washington still call for retreat,'' the president said. ``War critics can no longer credibly argue that we are losing in Iraq, so now they argue the war costs too much. In recent months, we have heard exaggerated estimates of the costs of this war.

``No one would argue that this war has not come at a high cost in lives and treasure, but those costs are necessary when we consider the cost of a strategic victory for our enemies in Iraq,'' Bush said.

Bush has successfully defied efforts by the Democratic-led Congress to force troop withdrawals or set deadlines for pullouts. It is widely believed he will endorse a recommendation from Gen. David Petreaus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, for no additional troop reductions, beyond those already planned, until at least September.

The U.S. now has about 158,000 troops in Iraq. That number is expected to drop to 140,000 by summer in drawdowns meant to erase all but about 8,000 troops from last year's buildup.

``If we were to allow our enemies to prevail in Iraq, the violence that is now declining would accelerate and Iraq could descend into chaos,'' Bush said. ``Al-Qaida would regain its lost sanctuaries and establish new ones fomenting violence and terror that could spread beyond Iraq's borders, with serious consequences to the world economy.

``Out of such chaos in Iraq, the terrorist movement could emerge emboldened with new recruits ... new resources ... and an even greater determination to dominate the region and harm America,'' Bush said in his remarks. ``An emboldened al-Qaida with access to Iraq's oil resources could pursue its ambitions to acquire weapons of mass destruction to attack America and other free nations. Iran could be emboldened as well with a renewed determination to develop nuclear weapons and impose its brand of hegemony across the broader Middle East. And our enemies would see an American failure in Iraq as evidence of weakness and lack of resolve.''

Looking back, Bush said, ``Five years into this battle, there is an understandable debate over whether the war was worth fighting ... whether the fight is worth winning ... and whether we can win it. The answers are clear to me: Removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision and this is a fight America can and must win.''

Bush said the past five years have brought ``moments of triumph and moments of tragedy,'' from free elections in Iraq to acts of brutality and violence.

``The terrorists who murder the innocent in the streets of Baghdad want to murder the innocent in the streets of American cities. Defeating this enemy in Iraq will make it less likely we will face this enemy here at home,'' Bush said.

Bush said anew that the war was faltering a little more than a year ago, prompting him in January 2007 to order a big troop buildup known as the ``surge.''

``The surge has done more than turn the situation in Iraq around; it has opened the door to a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror,'' he said.

``In Iraq, we are witnessing the first large-scale Arab uprising against Osama bin Laden, his grim ideology, and his terror network. And the significance of this development cannot be overstated ,'' the president said.

``The challenge in the period ahead is to consolidate the gains we have made and seal the extremists' defeat. We have learned through hard experience what happens when we pull our forces back too fast - the terrorists and extremists step in ... fill the vacuum, establish safe havens and use them to spread chaos and carnage.''


INVISIBLE FACES

Layla Anwar
http://arabwomanblues.blogspot.com

I had to go again to have some "paperwork" done, authenticated, officialized, approved, signed...

Again the * queue. One would have thought that I'd be used to it by now...

Again, all of them were Iraqis. One was limping, the other holding an infant, an elderly woman so frail, I felt she was going to collapse any minute, a man perspiring carrying around 10 passports, he was trembling so much, all his papers fell dispersing themselves like white flakes on the grey, dirty, floor...

He apologized to the "official" a thousand times for wasting 3 minutes of his precious time, he needed to get approval, he needed that signature...

Your name?
Your father's name ?
Your mother's name ?...

Go and get your security check !

I've had my security check.

Not enough, more ...

The basement with thick metal doors. It actually looks like a prison.

I could have sworn I saw cells there...

Went into a bare room. A desk and a machine made in the USA.

Again the same questions

Your name?
Your father's name ?
Your mother's name ?...

Sit down !

Look into the machine. Look at the circle. Wrong ! I said look at the circle!

There were two circles but the idiot did not even know it.

Wrong! Tilt your head to the left. No, tilt it to the right...Yalla look at the circle...there is one circle !

"Actually there are two circles" I said...one for each iris.

Yalla, give me your fingers said another. She was very heavy, perspiring under her polyester veil and the odor emanating from her armpits was making me nauseous.

She gripped my fingers one by one, with her pudgy hand, and she could not even work the * machine...made in the USA.

I wanted to shout, "can't you see what the computer screen is telling you, it is telling you CANCEL you * idiot..." but I said nothing.

She kept repeating, why can't you lay your fingers properly, on the scanner?

"But I am, I am laying my fingers on your scanner..."

No you are not !

And she would take each finger and press it so hard, I felt my tendons about to snap...and all I wanted to shout was "look at your * screen you moron, it says CANCEL...you can't work the damn thing before you click CANCEL..."

Now look into the camera. click, click, click....

And here I was. They had my eyes, my fingers, my face...thanks to the "security" machine made in the USA.

Another elderly man was there with his cane and he was blind, his daughter in black was helping him, she looked so pale, so lost...how is he going to look at the circle?

And then came another couple and I saw the woman anxiously tearing little pieces from the tissue she was holding in her hands and stuffing them into her pocket.

And there was a woman with a little girl wearing slippers and no socks.

And there was a man with stained trousers.

And another woman carrying a handbag with holes in it, as if perforated by a machine gun.

And another woman covering her head with a woolen hat, hiding her chemotherapy.

And another elderly man badly limping.

and another, and another, and another ...

All numbers...

Number: 154, 155, 156, 157, 158...

All Iraqis. All here because of You.

All waiting to sit in front of the machine made in the USA.

Fingers, eyes and invisible faces....

And as I saw more of them approaching the thick metal gates, I prayed.

I prayed that you all become exiled, displaced...

I prayed that you lose all your belongings, your livelihoods, your homes, your parents, your children, your families, your loved ones...

I prayed that you get invaded and occupied by China, or anyone else...

I prayed that they appropriate your wealth, your resources, your work, your country, your lives...

And the longer the queue, the harder I prayed...

And my prayer took a life of its own, breathing by itself, beyond my control...
My prayer shrank to one sentence, and I kept repeating it like a mantra, over and over, compulsively repeating it until...

Until, I forgot the queue, forgot the faces, forgot the holes in the shoes and in the handbags, forgot the little girl in plastic slippers with no socks, forgot the bald elderly woman, forgot the lost young woman dressed in black, forgot the numbers....and I kept on repeating it over and over...

May you not find a day of Peace in your lives.

Then a voice called out

158! 158! where is 158 ? Yalla, it's your turn!

Your name ?
Your father's name ?
Your mother's name ? ...

[moeen yaseen]

FINANCIAL CRISIS -BEAR STEARNS-BERNANKE-KERVIEL- GAMBLERS FOLLY?
Thursday, 20 March 2008


The past few weeks have seen extreme drops in world stock markets, emergency action by central banks to prop up investor confidence, and over the past weekend the virtual collapse of Bear Stearns (the 5th largest US Investment bank). The US Federal Reserve took the unprecedented decision to lower US interest rates by .75% for the second time since January in addition to an emergency cut over the weekend of .25% in order to try and loosen up the deepening gloom of the credit crunch. FX rates continued to gyrate wildly led by the drop in the US dollar as the "carry trade" speculating on higher yielding currencies unwound, the fall out from the sub-prime debacle continued with the government announcing that the UK taxpayer could be liable for up to £55 billion (£2,000 per taxpayer) in guarantees the government has made to shore up Northern Rock. In January Societe Generale, France's second largest bank, announced Euro 5 billion in losses associated with a rogue trader (Jerome Kerviel) incident. One would be forgiven for questioning the current stability of global capital markets, and for good reason.



There are three main flaws in the capitalist liberal market system which have all contributed to the crisis in markets. Fiat currencies, Credit creation and the growth of Derivatives markets. Rather than pointing fingers at those who administered or watched over the latest crisis - Brown/Darling, Bernanke and Kerviel, root and branch reform of the markets would be required to re-establish confidence in a rapidly deteriorating situation.



Fiat Currencies

Ever since Nixon took the US off the gold standard in 1971 when the dollar was freely exchangeable for gold at the fixed rate of $35 per ounce the dollar and the other freely floating (not exchangeable for any tangible asset) currencies of the world, indeed all of them have consistently and rapidly depreciated versus Gold which has intrinsic value when compared to other tangible commodities. Perhaps the best example of the depreciation of fiat currencies is the fact that it now takes over $950 US to buy one ounce of gold, compared to $35 in 1971 when it became free floating. That all governments are using fiat currencies only heightens the problem.



With fiat currencies, control over the printing and circulation of the currency falls to central and main clearing banks. Whilst some countries have been more austere in controlling the creation of money (post war Germany prior to European monetary union maintained strict money supply/inflation limits) others led by the US have opened the floodgates. With US and UK money supply numbers increasing by 8 to 12% yearly, and little sign of it lessening, the impact on inflation is tangible. With the Federal Reserve now making available a $200 billion facility to banks in crisis similar to Bear Stearns, the inflationary pressure and standing of the US dollar declines further. An emergency offer of 5 billion pounds to UK banks was eagerly oversubscribed this week 5 times over. That Bear Stearns was declared technically bankrupt and sold to JP Morgan for a nominal amount together with Federal Reserve guarantees of over $30 billion, only further highlighted the air of despondency and gloom.



Credit Creation and the Credit Crunch

But central governments are not the only institutions creating money out of thin air. The fragility of the financial markets is systematic, since it occurs when firms take on more and more risky ventures; and no amount of regulation can stop that fragility. This is why markets crash regularly, and every boom is followed by a crash or a downturn.



Greed is enshrined within the system. Greed is the motivation that led to predatory mortgage brokers selling mortgages to people that have no way in paying it back, and then increasing the rates of interest until the buyer defaults. Greed is also the motivation that led the credit ratings agencies to rate the investments as much less risky than they were, and also to conceal that the risk was based on prime mortgage debt. Hedge funds demonstrate greed in the way they seek to provide astonishing returns to the customers, and greed is the motivation even for individual shareholders that want to capitalise on the falling share prices across the economy, even though it can lead to problems for thousands of people.



The effect of this is devastating; since each element within the system puts their benefit before ethics, morals and the impact on the wider economy, this is why we have a situation where even though the effect of investment decisions can lead to a downturn in the economy, companies are prepared to make those decisions anyway. The biggest problem here is that this motivation is seen as a virtue. Greed is good; so we are told, and hence we can see that this is a systematic problem; i.e. it is enshrined in the financial system.



Bear Stearns fell due to massive holdings of credit derivatives, particularly collateralised debt obligations - highly leveraged loan structures. With the real estate bubble bursting this market has dramatically fallen away, and those companies most highly leveraged are now paying the price. But the price is also being paid by taxpayers and the common man in the street who shares in the government bailouts which the central banks are so happy to put up - everyone suffers as the currency is diluted by these bailouts, and taxpayers ultimately must balance the budget, if not with this government then in the time of future generations.




The Growth of Derivatives

The world economy equates to $50 trillion of gross domestic product, whereas derivatives, generally created from within the banking system, now is over $500 trillion. Financing exceeds economic output by at least a factor of 10 - and for what purpose?



The financial system serves an economic function of its own: Additional finance is needed to grow the real economy (loans, investment in business or foreign exchange). But credit has expanded far faster than production. This has impaired the ability of those living in the real economy to service debt. The banks produced trillions of dollars of derivative instruments and sold them to hedge funds. Hedge funds produced more and sold them back to banks. Generally little capital backed these promises. So when it fails it fails spectacularly.



George Soros once appeared before the House Banking Committee and stated: "There are so many (derivatives), and some of them are so esoteric that the risks involved may not be properly understood even by the most sophisticated of investors, and I'm supposed to be one of them." After Congress completed its study, then Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan dismissed it as unnecessary. He described the risk of derivatives as "negligible." Congress chose to believe the testimony of Greenspan and ignore Soros.


In May of 2003 Greenspan said: "Derivatives have permitted financial risks to be unbundled in ways that have facilitated both their measurement and their management... As a result, not only have individual financial institutions become less vulnerable to shocks from underlying risk factors, but also the financial system as a whole has become more resilient."


The writer Henry Kaufman viewed the development differently: "Institutions with aggressive (derivative) models will get the business and garner the profits. Senior managers will find it more difficult to resist increasing pressures to compete using riskier models, especially if doing so would cause the earnings and stock process to lag behind those of institutions deploying riskier models. Ongoing financial intermediation and balance sheet leveraging also will continue to support riskier modeling on the near horizon."


One should not be surprised that Jerome Kerviel of Societe Generale "bet the firm" on the direction of the stock market to the tune of several billion Euros earlier this year, he was merely attempting to maximise profits and hence his bonus. If everyone else is doing it the pressure is on - merely to keep up. In March of last year, before the current round of crises, Kaufman viewed the preferable solution as impractical.


"One [solution] is to let competitive forces discipline market participants," Kaufman said. "In this scenario, the managers who perform well will prosper, while those who do not will fail. [But] the failure of behemoth financial conglomerates not only exacts enormous social costs, but also poses systemic risks for markets around the world."


But the market is trembling and to shore up any remaining confidence has required massive intervention.

Conclusion

An independent thinker would be entitled to ask where is the free market? Surely, if banks are going to involve themselves in such risky instruments they should carry the consequences.

The argument the custodians of the system bring is that "certain" banks are too big to fail, the risk of systemic counterparty meltdown is just too great, hence the need for bailouts. Yet, the public is not party to the approval of bailing out these large "gambling" houses and is funding them during tough times, yet does not benefit from the massive bonuses paid in the good years.

As long as the laws are so lax to allow unrestrained credit creation, derivatives which are not based in the real economy, and fiat currencies, we will all suffer from these contradictory policies (all matters forbidden in Islam). The so called "free market" is not looking so free anymore.