Bilderberg.org

[marektysis]

RICHARD HOLBROOKE A LONG TIME INVITED TO BILDERBERG MEETINGS
DECEASED LAST YEAR
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Let us all make a big mac prayer for the peace of his soul following the rite of Olivier Roy-see article a bit above
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Senior US diplomat Richard Holbrooke dies
Robert D Mcfadden, New York Times, Updated: December 14, 2010 14:17 IST
Washington: Richard C Holbrooke, the Obama administration's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan since 2009 and a diplomatic troubleshooter in Asia, Europe and the Middle East who worked for every Democratic president since the late 1960s, died on Monday evening at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, DC.

He was 69 and lived in Manhattan.

His death was confirmed by an Obama administration official.

Mr. Holbrooke was taken to the hospital on Friday afternoon after becoming ill while meeting with Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton in her Washington office. Doctors found a tear to his aorta, and he underwent a 21-hour operation that ended early Saturday. Mr. Holbrooke had additional surgery on Sunday and had remained in very critical condition until his death.

Mr. Holbrooke's signal accomplishment in a distinguished career was his role as the chief architect of the 1995 Dayton peace accords, which ended the war in Bosnia. It was a diplomatic coup preceded and followed by his peacekeeping missions to the tinderbox of ethnic, religious and regional conflicts that was formerly Yugoslavia.

More recently, Mr. Holbrooke wrestled with the stunning complexity of Afghanistan and Pakistan: how to bring stability to the region while fighting a resurgent Taliban and trying to cope with corrupt governments, rigged elections, fragile economies, a rampant narcotics trade, nuclear weapons in Pakistan and the presence of Al Qaeda, and presumably Osama bin Laden, in the wild tribal borderlands.

His tenure in the Obama administration had mixed reviews. President Obama sent in more troops, as Mr. Holbrooke had wanted, but there was little military or civic progress. Mr. Holbrooke's relationship with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan was icy. He clashed with Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the commander fired last June. Some experts said that merely avoiding disaster would have been a triumph. But many said the tenacious Mr. Holbrooke was the right man for the job.

A brilliant, sometimes abrasive infighter with a formidable arsenal of facts, bluffs, whispers, implied threats and, when necessary, pyrotechnic fits of anger, Mr. Holbrooke dazzled and often intimidated opponents and colleagues around a negotiating table. Some called him a bully, and he looked the part: the big chin thrust out, the broad shoulders, the tight smile that might mean anything.

But admirers, including generations of State Department protégés and the presidents he served, called his peacemaking efforts extraordinary.

When he named Mr. Holbrooke to represent the United States at the United Nations, President Bill Clinton said, "His remarkable diplomacy in Bosnia helped to stop the bloodshed, and at the talks in Dayton the force of his determination was the key to securing peace, restoring hope and saving lives." Others said his work in Bosnia deserved the Nobel Peace Prize.

Few diplomats could boast of his career accomplishments. Early on, Mr. Holbrooke devoted six years to the Vietnam War: first in the Mekong Delta seeking the allegiance of the civilian population, then at the embassy in Saigon as an aide to Ambassadors Maxwell Taylor and Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., and finally in the American delegation to the 1968-69 Paris peace talks led by W. Averell Harriman and Cyrus R. Vance.

Mr. Holbrooke was the author of one volume of the Pentagon Papers, the secret Defense Department history of the Vietnam War that catalogued years of American duplicity in Southeast Asia. The papers were first brought to public attention by The New York Times in 1971.

As assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs in the Carter administration, Mr. Holbrooke played a crucial role in establishing full diplomatic relations with China in 1979, a move that finessed America's continuing commitment to China's thorn in the side Taiwan and that followed up on the historic breakthrough of President Richard M. Nixon's 1972 visit to China.

During the Clinton presidency, Mr. Holbrooke served as ambassador to Germany in 1993-94, when he helped enlarge the North Atlantic alliance; achieved his diplomatic breakthroughs in Bosnia as assistant secretary of state for European affairs in 1994-95; and was chief representative to the United Nations, a cabinet post, for 17 months from 1999 to 2001.

At the United Nations, he forged close ties to Secretary General Kofi Annan, negotiated a settlement of America's longstanding dues dispute, highlighted conflicts and health crises in Africa and Indonesia and called for more peacekeeping forces. After fighting erupted in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1999, he led a Security Council delegation on a mission to Africa. He also backed sanctions against Angolan rebels in 2000.

While he achieved prominence as a cabinet official and envoy to many of the world's most troubled arenas, Mr. Holbrooke's was frustrated in his ambition to be secretary of state; he was the runner-up to Madeleine K. Albright, Mr. Clinton's choice in 1997, and a contender when Mr. Obama installed Hillary Rodham Clinton in the post in 2009.

Foreign policy was his life. Even during Republican administrations, when he was not in government, he was deeply engaged, undertaking missions as a private citizen traveling through the war-weary Balkans and the backwaters of Africa and Asia to see firsthand the damage and devastating human costs of genocide, civil wars and H.I.V. and AIDS epidemics.

And his voice on the outside remained influential -- as the editor of Foreign Policy magazine from 1972 to 1977, as a writer of columns for The Washington Post and analytical articles for many other publications, and as the author of two books. He collaborated with Clark Clifford, a presidential adviser, on a best-selling Clifford memoir, "Counsel to the President" (1991), and wrote his own widely acclaimed memoir, "To End a War" (1998), about his Bosnia service.

Mr. Holbrooke also made millions as an investment banker on Wall Street. In the early 1980s, he was a co-founder of a Washington-based consulting firm, Public Strategies, which was later sold to Lehman Brothers. At various times he was a managing director of Lehman Brothers, vice chairman of Credit Suisse First Boston and a director of the American International Group.

Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke was born in Manhattan on April 24, 1941, to Dr. Dan Holbrooke, a physician, and the former Trudi Moos. He attended Scarsdale High School, where his best friend was David Rusk, son of Dean Rusk, the future secretary of state. Richard's father died when he was 15, and he drew closer to the Rusk family.[Dean Rusk was a
globalist too and long time protected by them]

At Brown University, he majored in history and was editor of the student newspaper. He intended to become a journalist, but after graduating in 1962 he was turned down by The Times and joined the State Department as a foreign service officer.

In 1964, Mr. Holbrooke married the first of his three wives, Larrine Sullivan, a lawyer. The couple had two sons, David and Anthony. They were divorced. His marriage to Blythe Babyak, a television producer, also ended in divorce. In 1995, he married Kati Marton, an author, journalist and human rights advocate who had been married to the ABC anchorman Peter Jennings until their divorce in 1993.

After language training, he spent three years working in Vietnam. In 1966, he joined President Lyndon B. Johnson's White House staff, and two years later became a junior member of the delegation at the Paris peace talks. The talks achieved no breakthrough, but the experience taught him much about the arts of negotiation.

In 1970, after a year as a fellow at Princeton, he became director of the Peace Corps in Morocco. He quit government service in 1972 and over the next five years edited the quarterly journal Foreign Policy. He was also a contributing editor of Newsweek International and a consultant on reorganizing the government's foreign policy apparatus.

He worked on Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign in 1976, and was rewarded with the post of assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs. When Ronald Reagan and the Republicans took over the White House in 1981, Mr. Holbrooke left the government and for more than a decade focused on writing and investment banking.

When President Clinton took office in 1993, Mr. Holbrooke was named ambassador to Germany. He helped found the American Academy in Berlin as a cultural exchange center.

He returned to Washington in 1994 as assistant secretary of state for European affairs. His top priority soon became the horrendous civil war in the former Yugoslavia, a conflict precipitated by the secession of Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Bosnia. Massacres, mass rapes and displaced populations, among other atrocities, were part of campaigns of "ethnic cleansing" against Muslims.

After months of shuttle diplomacy, Mr. Holbrooke in 1995 achieved a breakthrough cease-fire and a framework for dividing Bosnia into two entities, one of Bosnian Serbs and another of Croatians and Muslims. The endgame negotiations, involving the Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, President Franjo Tudjman of Croatia and President Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia, unfolded in Dayton, Ohio, where a peace agreement was reached after months of hard bargaining led by Mr. Holbrooke.

It was the high-water mark of a career punctuated with awards, honorary degrees and prestigious seats on the boards of the Asia Society, the American Museum of Natural History, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Council on Foreign Relations, Refugees International and other organizations. He was 59 when he left the United Nations as the Clinton administration drew to a close.

But there was to be one more task. As Mr. Obama assumed office and attention shifted to Afghanistan, Mr. Holbrooke took on his last assignment. He began by trying to lower expectations, moving away from the grand, transformative goals of President George W. Bush toward something more readily achievable.

But his boss and old friend, Mrs. Clinton, expressed absolute confidence in him. "Richard represents the kind of robust, persistent, determined diplomacy the president intends to pursue," she said. "I admire deeply his ability to shoulder the most vexing and difficult challenges."

Story first published: December 14, 2010 07:24 IST

http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/senior-us-diplomat-richard-holbrooke-dies-72452

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So, this instrument of the illuminati will never been seen at their summit.
it is a pity because he brought some respectability in hypocrit image of this honourable institution.
Hopefully our sympathic dear Henry will restablish, because both were/are
the bottom of seriousness and not rendering them as a circus.On the other side they were/are really dangerous for the future of humanity mankind. ...

Marek Tysis

[marektysis]

Eni SpA (ENI), the biggest foreign oil producer in Libya, warned against allowing Libya to end up as a failed state.

“What would be the worst potential outcome is to have a kind of Somalia situation in Libya that has no government for a long period of time,” Chief Executive Officer Paolo Scaroni said in an interview with Bloomberg Television late yesterday. “But if this happens, this will not just be Eni’s problem. It will be a problem for Europe, for everybody.”

The uprising against the rule of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi has intensified, sending oil prices to a 2 1/2-year high. The division of the country into two wouldn’t “necessarily be bad for us,” Scaroni said, since a prolonged power vacuum would be the worst possible outcome.

As the biggest energy producer in Africa, Rome-based Eni has had plenty of experience in dealing with revolutions in the past, the CEO said.

“And normally contracts are respected, simply because everyone who is in power needs” the income generated by oil exports, he said.

Eni said it will halt all remaining oil output from Libya in the next few days. Production has already been cut by two- thirds. The Italian company pumped 280,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day from Libya before the crisis.

Output Target

Eni is targeting output growth in excess of 3 percent through 2014, led by projects in Iraq, Venezuela, Angola and Russia. That forecast depends on the suspension of Libyan production being temporary, Scaroni told analysts at the company’s strategic plan presentation in London yesterday.

The company said that the impact of lower output in the north African nation has been more than offset by higher oil prices.

Facilities are on “hot standby” in Libya ready to restart quickly, it said in a presentation. None of the company’s oil infrastructure has been damaged by the violence. Eni is currently producing 10 million cubic meters of gas a day to supply the domestic market.

Speculation about a Libyan stake in Eni is a “legend,” Scaroni told a press conference. “We found only one entity which owns 0.5 percent of the company, has Libya in its name but is based in Bahrain,” he said. The producer has since informed the market regulator about the shareholding.

Investment
Eni plans 53.3 billion euros ($74 billion) of investments in the next three years, most of which will be focused on upstream operations. The company said its overall production in 2014 will exceed 2.05 million barrels of oil equivalent a day. It had previously targeted annual output growth of 2.5 percent from 2010 to 2013.

“Our confidence is underpinned by progress on giant projects in Venezuela, Russia, and Angola,” Scaroni said. “We are now entering a very positive productive phase.”

The current dividend estimate is based on oil prices at $70 a barrel, Scaroni said. Eni would consider changing the base for the estimate if oil prices remain higher, the CEO said.

Eni will keep its 33 percent stake in Galp Energia SGPS unless it gets a premium to the share price performance of Portugal’s biggest oil company in the past three months, according to Scaroni.

Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4), Brazil’s state-controlled oil producer, last month ended talks with Eni to buy a 4.1 billion- euro stake in Galp.

Eni would also consider the sale of its stake in Snam Rete Gas SpA, the owner of Italy’s natural-gas grid, Scaroni said.

“If we had approval of the government and found a buyer willing to pay a premium on the market price we would consider the sale,” he said


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-11/eni-chief-scaroni-warns-against-allowing-libya-to-become-a-failed-state

[marektysis]

Trade Rules to Curb Foreign Subsidies


(Reuters) The European Union should rely on international trade rules, rather than protectionist tools, to ensure that foreign bids for EU companies are not backed by state aid, the EU's antitrust chief said on Thursday.

EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia's comment came amid rising debate about whether and how the 27-country group should vet a wave of overseas takeover bids for European assets, some of which are seen as "crown jewels".

Concerns over foreign acquisitions of Europe's industrial champions intensifed last year when Chinese company Xinmao made a bid for Dutch cablemaker Draka, the principal automotive cable supplier of Airbus.

Antonio Tajani and Michel Barnier, EU commissioners in charge of industry and the single market, recently wrote to EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, suggesting that the EU should consider a centralised body to review foreign bids on strategic grounds.

Such centralised committees exist in the United States, Canada, Japan, China and Australia.

"Of course, we must remain vigilant (for) state support granted for the purpose of making acquisitions -- whether it benefits EU or foreign companies," Almunia told an International Bar Association conference.

He said to this end, it was crucial to use the right tools.

"We should rely on the WTO rules and on Free Trade Agreements, such as the one with Korea, to prevent illegitimate investment subsidies used for the purpose of making acquisitions," Almunia said.

http://currents.westlawbusiness.com/Article.aspx?id=9291bb42-186d-4c68-bd71-2e3763f3abad&cid=&src=&sp=

[marektysis]

Deutsche Bank Discriminates Against Indian Rainmaker


It is March 10, 2011, and today I read that a German bank is discriminating against a top banker, a “rainmaker,” because he is Indian. Anshu Jain is a 48 year old head of investment banking at Deutsche Bank and has generated hundreds of millions of Euros in fees for the bank since 1995.

Anshu was born in 1963 in the humble town of Jaipur, India and later studied economics at Shri Ram College of Commerce at Delhi University. He earned a bachelor’s degree with honors in 1983 and then pursued a Masters in Finance at UMASS Amhert. He then started as an analyst in derivatives research at Kidder Peabody (now UBS), from 1985 to 1988. Anshu joined Merrill lynch in 1989, where he started the first hedge fund coverage group.

By 1995, Anshu joined Deutsche’s markets business and stared a unit focusing on hedge funds and institutional derivatives, later becoming the head of fixed income sales and trading and global head of derivatives and emerging markets. In 2002, he joined the Deutsche Bank Group Executive Committee and became the head of Global markets and joint head of the Corporate & Investment Bank in 2004. Anshu’s segment of Deutsche Bank’s business generates 80% of the Company’s revenues, and he still may be passed over for CEO.

Mr. Jain has been in the media under speculation that he could succeed Josef Ackerman, but the Company’s Board of Directors won’t have it. Key members of the bank’s supervisory board are not in favor of an Indian born banker at the helm. They want to see the bank under more “traditional” leadership. The bank also wants to diversify revenues away from the profitable investment banking segment. Is this just an excuse to pass over Mr. Jain?

The next CEO of the 141 year old bank needs a 2/3 majority vote and approval by the 20 member advisory board. The board has 10 German labor representatives and 10 shareholder representatives.

According to Reuters, “In a written statement Deutsche Bank said selecting the CEO is a task which the “supervisory board is pursuing in an orderly and professional manner. A decision will be taken when the time is right. There is no urgency, given that Dr. Ackermann’s contract runs for another two years.”

BARCLAYS SOLUTION?

Investors, though, are sure to worry that the move could alienate the hard-charging Jain. Supervisory board chairman Clemens Boersig knows this, according to two people familiar with the supervisory board’s thinking, and is working on ways to retain Jain and his colleague, Chief Risk officer Hugo Baenziger. In the end, however, “the supervisory board believes everybody is replaceable,” a member of the supervisory board said on condition of remaining anonymous. The board feels it is too dangerous for the bank to rely on any one person. “You cannot be held to ransom,” another person, who is familiar with the supervisory board’s thinking, said.

Jain, who would not comment on the issue of succession, could well stay. He has had a hand in hiring most of the key staff at the investment bank, and his considerable stake in Deutsche in the form of shares and options gives him a vested interest in the place. But if he does walk, the bank hopes one of his proteges will step up in the same way that Jain himself emerged after his mentor Edson Mitchell died in a plane crash in December 2000. Most of Deutsche’s top 15 investment bankers have been with the firm for more than a decade, something that should instill loyalty toward the firm and not only its leader, the person close to the supervisory board said.

In private conversations between supervisory board members and Deutsche Bank executives, there has been talk of a “Barclays” solution, named after a recent arrangement at British bank Barclays where John Varley, a Briton with connections to the political establishment, took the title of chief executive, while Robert Diamond, a powerful American investment banker, held de facto power in the background. Diamond finally took the reins from Varley two months ago.

“Perhaps one could whet Jain’s appetite for a similar solution,” one of the people close to the supervisory board said. “In the end we may have to divide up the role among different sets of shoulders,” a supervisory board member said adding. “But we’re not yet at that stage.”

A decision on succession won’t be made this year, another supervisory board member, who declined to be named, said.

The German establishment has long been skeptical of investment banking, a conviction that has hardened since the subprime debacle and the ensuing financial crisis. When the German government stepped in to bail out a raft of lenders including Hypo Real Estate, IKB and Commerzbank, many Germans pointed to “casino” style investment banks as the main culprits. Deutsche Bank, Germany‘s biggest, did not require a bailout itself, but had long been a lightning rod for criticism as Europe’s largest economy moved away from old-fashioned “Rhineland Capitalism,” in which a close-knit clique of bankers, politicians and company executives fostered business and dictated change in corporate Germany, toward a more cut-throat “Wall Street” model where shareholder return is the main driver of change.

A raft of supervisory board members believe Deutsche should focus solely on providing simple financial services to corporations and the “real economy,” rather than dabbling in more complex and higher margin financial products. “Wall Street style capitalism doesn’t have many friends on the supervisory board,” a person close to the supervisory board said.

The opposing camp believes that Deutsche should be a place where gifted and risk-hungry bankers can make outsized bets to generate profits for themselves and shareholders. That view is often associated with Jain, who oversees some of the world’s most talented bankers.

Perhaps crucially, members of the board’s four person chairman’s committee, which is formally tasked with drawing up the shortlist of CEO candidates, consists of only Germans: two labor representatives, chairman Boersig, and Tilman Todenhoefer, former deputy chairman of the board of management at Robert Bosch, an engineering company that specializes in high-tech automotive technologies and is known for its skeptical view of Wall Street-style capitalism.

Although not bestowed with formal powers to appoint the next leader, chief executive Ackermann and shareholder representatives on the supervisory board will have considerable influence over who makes it on to the shortlist, a person close to the supervisory board added.

A PILLAR OF THE GERMAN ESTABLISHMENT

For decades the system that helped steer Europe’s largest economy was controlled by Deutsche Bank and insurer Allianz. Working with large German corporations in which the two financial institutions held stakes, the network of bankers and executives formed what became known as “Deutschland AG”.

The system worked, in its own way. By holding large stakes in companies like Daimler-Benz, Siemens and Thyssen, Deutsche protected German industry from foreign takeovers and provided a system of mutual support in the event of large-scale bankruptcies. Market forces were an afterthought. When German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt decided Germany’s aerospace companies needed to consolidate to stay competitive, he simply talked to then Deutsche boss Alfred Herrhausen, who promptly nudged Daimler-Benz to absorb the big aerospace and defense companies and form German aerospace company DASA.

Deutsche Bank’s seats on corporate boards meant it could win mandates for bond and stock issuances and force changes when it saw the need. In one infamous incident, in 1987, Herrhausen dismissed Daimler-Benz chief Werner Breitschwerdt and installed another executive, Edzard Reuter in his place.

But by the 1990s, as German companies pushed more aggressively into global markets, they needed more sophisticated products even to meet simple needs such as currency or oil price hedging. When Ackermann joined Deutsche in 1996 he was tasked with transforming Germany’s corporate fixer into a “global champion”.

“Joe,” as Ackermann is known by colleagues, had worked at SKA — later to become Credit Suisse — and liked to use tactics and strategy he learned as a Swiss army officer. He decided to accelerate a selloff of industrial stakes — which made up half of Deutsche Bank’s market value as late as 1998, and were proving a drag on the company’s share price — and use the proceeds to build up its core business of banking. The last significant holding — a stake in Daimler — was sold in October 2009.

GLOBAL EXPANSION WEAKENS LOCAL TIES

When Ackerman became the first non-German in the top job in 2002, his academic background and gentle demeanor masked an ambition to shake up the lender. He embarked on a radical program to boost the profitability of bread-and-butter corporate loans, even if that meant alienating established customers.

In early 2003, Ackermann, together with investment banking co-chiefs Jain and Michael Cohrs, and Baenziger, then head of credit risk, introduced the “loan exposure management group” to ensure that each loan to be approved was priced in accordance with international market standards, rather than traditional German ones, and to guarantee that the “overall customer relationship” was generating a 25 percent pre-tax return on equity. The move helped lift Deutsche’s pre-tax return on equity to 14.7 percent today from just 1.1 percent back in 2002.

Competitors like Commerzbank also quietly introduced profitability targets for corporate loans. But it was — and still is — Deutsche that attracted the most criticism for abandoning the old system. Ackermann remains unrepentant. “As a bank with global operations that conducts more than 75 percent of its business outside of its home market, we have obligations to numerous stakeholders around the world,” he told shareholders at Deutsche Bank’s annual general meeting last May. “We have to carefully weigh up these obligations. Sometimes, in Germany, this can lead to criticism by the political community. We have to be able to take it.”

One of Deutsche’s key stakeholders is internal: golden boy Jain. A keen cricket fan, he built up what has become known within Deutsche as “Anshu’s Army” from the original core of mostly American bankers who defected from Merrill Lynch in 1995. The defectors had followed Edson Mitchell, a brash American who demanded fierce loyalty from those who served under him.

Mitchell’s team was instrumental in introducing a more aggressive Anglo-Saxon style of management which sacrificed long-term job security for eye-popping pay packages. Ackermann later cemented the new culture by transferring decision-making power away from the German “Vorstand”, or management board, to a new committee known as the Group Executive Committee, dominated by London-based investment bankers.

The power of the investment banking arm became clear in 2000, when its senior officials sabotaged a signed 30 billion euro merger deal with Deutsche Bank’s main rival, Dresdner Bank, because of overlaps in investment banking. Following a strategy meeting in Florida, Deutsche told Dresdner that of the 6,500 investment bankers at its investment banking unit Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Deutsche could only take 1,000, a person familiar with the conversation said.

Another clash between the Deutsche’s management board and the supervisory board came in February 2004, when it emerged that Ackermann and senior executives had met Citigroup’s chairman Sanford “Sandy” Weill, and chief executive Charles Price a few months earlier to discuss a takeover of Deutsche Bank. When Ackermann raised the possibility of a sale, members

http://www.businessinsider.com/deutsche-bank-discriminates-against-indian-rainmaker-2011-3

[marektysis]

IT S ECONOMY STUPID...NOT IN GOOD SHAPE SEEMS TO SAY OUR
CRISTAL BALL READER FELDSTEIN - SO DO BILDERBERG BELIEVE
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Quantitative easing fits profile in American rebound mystery Martin Feldstein
March 2, 2011
THERE is no doubt the American economy rallied strongly at the end of last year. But how much of that was due to the US Federal Reserve's temporary policy of so-called "quantitative easing"? And what does the answer mean for the US economy this year?

Until the fourth quarter of last year, the US economic recovery that began in the northern summer of 2009 was decidedly anaemic. Annual GDP growth in the first three quarters of 2010 averaged only about 2.6 per cent - and most of that was just inventory building. Without the inventory investment, the growth rate of final sales averaged less than 1 per cent.

But the fourth quarter was very different. Annual GDP rose by 3.2 per cent and growth of final sales jumped to a remarkable 7.1 per cent year-on-year rate. True, much of that was due to a sharp decline in imports, but even the growth rate of final sales to domestic purchasers rose at a healthy 3.4 per cent pace.

Advertisement: Story continues below The driver of the increase in final sales was a boost in consumer spending. Real personal consumer spending grew at a robust 4.4 per cent as spending on consumer durables soared by 21 per cent. That meant the acceleration of growth in consumer spending accounted for nearly 100 per cent of the GDP increase, with the rise in durable spending accounting for almost half that increase. But the rise in consumer spending was not due to higher employment or faster income growth. Instead, it reflected a fall in the personal savings rate. Household savings had risen from less than 2 per cent of after-tax incomes in 2007 to 6.3 per cent in the northern spring last year. But then the savings rate fell by a full percentage point, reaching 5.3 per cent in December.

A likely reason for the fall and resulting rise in consumer spending was the sharp increase in the sharemarket, which rose by 15 per cent between August and the end of the year. []That, of course, is what the Fed had been hoping forAt the annual Fed conference in August, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke said that he was considering a new round of quantitative easing (dubbed QE2), in which the Fed would buy a substantial volume of long-term Treasury bonds, thereby inducing bondholders to shift their wealth into equities. The resulting rise in equity prices would increase household wealth, providing a boost to consumer spending.

To be sure, there is no proof that QE2 led to the sharemarket rise, or that the sharemarket rise caused the increase in consumer spending. But the timing of the market rise, and the lack of any other reason for a sharp rise in consumer spending, makes that chain of events look very plausible.

The magnitude of the relationship between the sharemarket rise and the jump in consumer spending also fits the data. Since share ownership (including mutual funds) of American households totals about $US17 trillion, a 15 per cent rise in share prices increased household wealth by about $US2.5 trillion. The past relationship between wealth and consumer spending implies that each $US100 of additional wealth raises consumer spending by about $US4, so $US2.5 trillion of additional wealth would raise consumer spending by roughly $US100 billion.

That figure matches closely the fall in household savings and the resulting increase in consumer spending. Since US households' after-tax income is $US11.4 trillion, a 1 percentage-point fall in the savings rate means a decline of savings and a corresponding rise in consumer spending of $US114 billion - close to the rise in consumer spending implied by the increased wealth that resulted from the gain in share prices.

None of this appears to augur well for this year. There is no reason to expect the sharemarket to keep rising at the rapid pace of 2010. Quantitative easing is scheduled to end in June, and the Fed is not expected to continue its massive purchases of Treasury bonds after that. [REMARK OF MAREK/ THIS WILL BE THE REWARD OF THIS 2011
BILDERBERG MEETING ATTENDANTS= A BONUS FOR THEIR PRECIOUS PRESENCE AND MAKING THEM MORE RICHER AND POWERFUL.PLEASE,
DONT BE CANDID, TAKE THE MONEY OF THE RICHEST NOW !!! SPECULATE BEFORE THEY BEGAN. LET THEM THE BONES TO EAT.DON T CARE THEY WILL BE ANGRY WITH ME.I AM ACCUSTOMED]

Without that increase in sharemarket wealth, will the savings rate continue to decline and the pace of consumer spending continue to rise more rapidly than GDP? Will the strong economic growth at the end of 2010 be enough to propel more spending by households and businesses in 2011, even though house prices continue to fall and the labour market remains weak? And does artificial support for the bond market and equities mean that we are looking at asset-price bubbles that may come to an end before the year is over?

Only time will tell. But these are the questions investors and policymakers alike should be asking.

Martin Feldstein, professor of economics at Harvard University, was chairman of Ronald Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers, and is former president of the National Bureau for Economic Research. Source: Project Syndicate.

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http://www.businessday.com.au/business/quantitative-easing-fits-profile-in-american-rebound-mystery-20110301-1bd5r.html

MAREK TYSIS

[marektysis]

Philantrophy is meaning ' friend of the men'.
Look how the Gates are:

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Melinda Gates Suggests How To Lay Off Teachers
14 March 2011 13:43


Melinda Gates Suggests How To Lay Off Teachers


Melinda Gates has offered her opinion on how schools should decide which teachers to fire.

Melinda Gates, the American philanthropist and wife of Microsoft's Bill Gates, says schools should look at firing their least effective teachers and not the most recently hired, reports Yahoo News. In an interview with Anna Robertson, Gates reiterated her criticism of "last hired, first fired" policies and instead offered a new way of looking at the system. School administrators who want to reduce staff are currently obligated to lay off teachers who have been on staff the shortest amount of time, but the 46-year-old says this method should be changed. Melinda noted that schools should lay off poorly performing teachers regardless of how long they've been in their profession, saying, "What we're trying to say is don't take the things that look easy, furloughing teachers, that's not a great way to change your education system", adding, "And we're saying, look at who the most effective teachers are and keep those in the system, those are the ones you want to fight for and keep in the system".

Melinda Gates is the co-founder and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, an organisation which aims to enhance healthcare and reduce poverty as well as enhance access to information technology.

http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/melinda-gates-suggests-how-to-lay-off-teachers_1207204

Marek Tysis

PS: taking the best option should be " don t leave a teacher behind you'
but they are considering the effectiveness of people, not the possibilities that somedy improve.
people are just citrus in their hands.
I would remark that Bill has enough capacity and money to improve the people, but that is not their goal in the global plantation.
A good pupil should be an obeying futur pantin.
Not more.

[marektysis]

News here

http://www.outsourcing-pharma.com/Preclinical-Research/Bill-Gates-invests-in-computational-drug-discovery-firm

Marek Tysis

[marektysis]

As Muammar Khadafy tightens his grip on Libya amid heavy fighting against rebels opposed to his authoritarian regime, emerging details of a multi-million dollar lobbying effort in the United States increasingly point to a violation of the Foreign Agent Registration Act.

The Boston-based Monitor Group international consulting firm did not register with the United States government as a Foreign Agent for its work with Libya unlike the Livingston Group in Washington, D.C.

Livingston Group lobbying on behalf of Libya concentrated on Congress and was duly reported under FARA disclosure requirements. Monitor Group did not register its work for Libya despite briefings to high-level administration officials through its “visitor” program.

Internal Monitor Group documents released by a Libyan opposition group do not detail which of Monitor’s paid “visitors” briefed President George Bush but Monitor does identify one of its visitors, Richard Perle, who briefed Vice President Dick Cheney.

“Many of the visitors brought to Libya have individually briefed all levels of the United States government including specifically the President, Vice President, Heads of National Security and Intelligence as well as the Secretary of State,” boasted a Monitor proposal summary.

Monitor described Richard Perle and his paid work: “Perle is an American political advisor and lobbyist. A former Secretary of Defense (Reagan administration) Perle worked on the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee (1987 to 2004) and was Chairman of the Board under the second Bush Administration (2001-2003).”

The Monitor summary of its visitor program summarized Perle’s work for the firm: “Perle made two visits to Libya (22-24 March and 23-25 July 2006) and met with Qadahafi on both occasions. He briefed Vice President Dick Cheney on his visits to Libya.”

Monitor Group outlined to Khadafy what he would be getting for his money with the Monitor visitor program: “Monitor briefed each individual on Libya; planned their visit and accompanied them to Libya; debriefed the individuals in order to delineate clear opportunities for follow-up and collaboration, as well as help them make sense of their experience. Monitor provided the client with a report summarizing the visits to Libya of the individuals.”

The Monitor summary continued: “Monitor continues to act as a conduit between the visitors and Libya, maintaining regular contact with all of the individuals. This is a vital contribution towards reinforcing the network and ensuring that it continues to develop and flourish.”

The Foreign Agent Registration Act requires registration for “any activity that the person engaging in believes will, or that the person intends to, in any way influence any agency or official of the Government of the United States…with reference to the political or public interests, policies or relations of a foreign country.”

Perle is no stranger to controversy over his business deals and has been accused of conflict of interest on several occasions including a massive corporate financial scandal at Hollinger International, Inc.

The Breeden Report, written in the wake of the scandal, stated Richard Perle’s performance on the Hollinger Executive Committee “falls squarely into the “head-in-the-sand” behavior that breeches a director’s duty of good faith.”

The Breedon Report continued, “Perle’s own description of his performance on the Executive Committee was stunning.” Perle admitted signing important corporate documents without even reading them costing the company millions of dollars.

The damning report said Perle placed his own interests ahead of shareholders he was tasked with protecting



Continue reading on Examiner.com:
http://www.examiner.com/progressive-in-boston/richard-perle-briefed-dick-cheney-for-monitor-group-despite-foreign-agent-act
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the prince of darkness is deserving his name, no?

Marek

[marektysis]

Novartis committed to provide equivalent of more than USD 3 million in relief aid to Japan earthquake victims Friday, 18 March 2011

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Novartis has committed to providing the equivalent of over USD 3 million in immediate relief aid to the victims of the recent earthquake in Japan. The support includes both direct financial aid to relief agencies as well as donations of essential medicines, including pain relieving drugs.
"It is still difficult to fully comprehend the human impact of the recent natural disaster in Japan as well as the continued uncertainty hanging over the citizens and residents of that country," said Dr. Daniel Vasella, Chairman of Novartis. "We are committed to provide humanitarian relief to those affected. We are also working closely with our team in Japan to maintain the continuity of our business operations, to ensure that physicians and patients continue receiving the medicines they need."

Novartis employees worldwide are encouraged to make cash contributions to nationally recognized relief organizations in support of the victims of the earthquake. These donations will then be matched by the company.

The company will also work with relief organizations as well as the Japanese authorities to identify where assistance can be provided on a longer-term basis to ensure that there is sustainable support for people impacted by this tragic natural disaster.

About Novartis
Novartis provides healthcare solutions that address the evolving needs of patients and societies. Focused solely on healthcare, Novartis offers a diversified portfolio to best meet these needs: innovative medicines, cost-saving generic pharmaceuticals, preventive vaccines, diagnostic tools and consumer health products. Novartis is the only company with leading positions in these areas. In 2010, the Group's continuing operations achieved net sales of USD 50.6 billion, while approximately USD 9.1 billion (USD 8.1 billion excluding impairment and amortization charges) was invested in R&D throughout the Group. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis Group companies employ approximately 119,000 full-time-equivalent associates (including 16,700 Alcon associates) and operate in more than 140 countries around the world.

http://www.worldpharmanews.com/novartis/1617-novartis-committed-to-provide-equivalent-of-more-than-usd-3-million-in-relief-aid-to-japan-earthquake-victims

Marek Tysis

[marektysis]

Curiously Bill ( &Melinda) does like a place in Croatia near an old Krk
(read Krak= fortress) of the other times Templars knights.
A link to another dimension?
the article hereunder
***The Mail discovers where the Forbes' rich list billionaires spend their holidays, and Croatia is among preferred places

Ever wondered where do the rich go for holidays? Well, their choice of holiday destinations may surprise you. The Mail discoveres where the Forbes' rich list billionaires spend their spare time. Bill Gates, once the world's richest man, prefers Croatia.


Bill Gates, Microsoft owner and second-richest man in the world is a regular visitor to Croatia for holidays. After his first visit in 2004, he has been coming there on numerous occasions. Prefering quiet places for vacation he likes to stay with his family in a small town of Skradin in central Dalmatia, about 17 kilometres from Sibenik, just north of Split.



Skradin has fewer than 4,000 residents and it is a quiet and privat place which is certainly one of the reasons why Gates choses it. It is situated at the entrance to the Krka National Park where visitors can see ruined fortresses, waterfalls and a 15th century monastery on Visovac Island.


To show his appreciation for privacy of this hideaway, Gates recently donated money to a charity clearing landmines left over from the Croatia's 1991-95 war for independence.


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http://www.guide2croatia.net/news/722/The-Mail-discovers-where-the-Forbes-rich-list-billionaires-spend-their-holidays-and-Croatia-is-among-preferred-places

Marek tysis

[marektysis]

if not belonging to the Forbes list you have to go to croatia,
and travelling near Sarajevo, you imperatively have to go fifteen miles east of this capital to the existing but non reckognized by our scientific
who are knowing anything about nothing, i mean the site of Vissoko
where you 'll find the biggest pyramids in Europe.
As 'science' is always occupied with old knowledge ,never reckognizing
facts that are new to them, the mandarins are always denying what your eyes are seeing and they oblige people to stop talking about that although the facts are without any explanations.
These professors have to die to make the science move.
I only add that egyptian officials in charge of Gizeh site of the plateau
of Gizeh are reckonizing them as true monuments.
Some prehistoric professors ( in England notably) should have to revise their knowledge made of caverns and Crow mignons men...and return to the neant dertal where they are coming from

just for tourist info

Marek tysis

[marektysis]

HOPING HIS CARREER WILL NOT FINISH IN THE CARNAL ARRIVAL OF RIO
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--JET builder Airbus has been accused of involuntary manslaughter over the deaths of 228 people in the Rio-Paris crash in 2009.

Preliminary charges have been laid by a judge to start a formal investigation into the crash of the Air France flight.

Airbus said there was an “absence of facts supporting the charge” and chief executive Thomas Enders said it was premature. He added it would be better to focus on finding the cause of the crash and making sure it never happened again.

Investigators found automatic messages from the Airbus A330-200’s flight computers indicating an electrical fault. The pilots may have been receiving false speed readings from sensors.

Air safety authorities ordered the pitot tube sensors to be replaced on other aircraft after the disaster, although the problem had been known about since 2002.

Franco-German company Airbus says that only finding the black box flight data recorders will give answers to what happened when Flight 447 crashed into the Atlantic during a storm.

A fourth phase of searching for the black box is due to begin this weekend, with Air France and Airbus paying the seven million euro cost. It will use a mini-submarine searching in the south Atlantic crevices, which can be as deep as 13,000ft.

Just three per cent of the plane has been recovered, including a large part of the tailfin. Fifty bodies have been found.

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THE BLACK BOXES! WE ALL TRY TO FIND THEM !


Marek Tysis

[marektysis]

And the shadow of old Russia German alliance is surfacing again
explaining the retenue of Merkel in the 'Tsunami' NATO operation
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interesting article on

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704608504576208321890417608.html

explaining that germany does not want the future(when?) Nabucco project
but the real actual russian one.
a freezing between members of the babel tower???

Marek Tysis

[marektysis]

yEP, your governement is at work about the global health...
I hope that the story that happened to Japan will not be an american
problem also in a day, a few days , weeks or month.
Have a nice night; a nice day and...perhaps a nice week !

*http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2011/03/158589.htm


****Marek Tysis
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[marektysis]

Posts Tagged: Timothy Collins
Investors, not to worry: Ole Miss has got your back
By Ned Hodgman | Mar 14 2011 at 11:19 | Your take
Two law students at the University of Mississippi have decided to step in where the entire U.S. government has not: in the regulation of investment advisers. As Jason Zweig reports in the Wall Street Journal, the $38-trillion (that’s $38,000,000,000,000.00) that is held in investment accounts overseen by private investment advisers is more or less unregulated because the SEC and state regulators don’t have the budgets to inspect the work of any but the largest investment advisory companies. (more…)


http://understandinggov.org/tag/timothy-collins/

MAREK