The government mental hospital where John Hinckley Jr. has spent most of the last 30 years since he shot and tried to kill President Ronald Reagan is asking a federal court to allow Hinckley's eventual release to live with or near his aging mother in Williamsburg, Virginia.
The prosecution, in its own filing with the court on Friday, described Hinckley as "a man capable of great violence" and said his mental condition has not improved to the point of eliminating concerns "that this violence may be repeated."
U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman has scheduled up to a week of court hearings on the issue to start November 28, the Monday after Thanksgiving.
Hinckley is now 56. He was committed to St. Elizabeths Hospital in 1982 after a jury found him innocent by reason of insanity in the shooting of President Reagan and three others, including the president's severely wounded press secretary, James Brady.
The hospital's lawyers and doctors filed their motion under seal, withheld from the public, when they asked at the end of this past July that Hinckley eventually be placed on "convalescent leave."
But government lawyers quoted the hospital's proposal, making it part of the court's public record, in their response Friday in opposing his release.
The day that changed presidential security forever
According to the government, the hospital has asked first for a series of extended visits to Williamsburg and then, "it be given the sole discretion to place Hinckley on convalescent leave in his mother's hometown."
His widowed mother, Jo Ann Hinckley, is now 85. She lives in a gated resort development not far from the James River in Williamsburg. Hinckley has been allowed several visits with her for up to a week and a half at a time over the last couple of years.
But he has been required to carry a GPS tracking device when away from the house and the Secret Service has kept watch on his movements. That surveillance would be loosened under the hospital's proposal.
Gallery: The attack on Ronald Reagan
Under the hospital's current proposal, Hinckley would be permitted eight longer visits to Williamsburg, the first two for 17 days each, the rest for 24 days each. After that, the prosecution filing said, the hospital wants to release Hinckley on leave "without any further review" by the court.
Hinckley was a college dropout, drifting around the country, living off his family's money, when he waited for President Reagan to walk out of a Washington hotel where he had been speaking on March 31, 1981. Hinckley emptied his six-shot .22 revolver at the president.
He wounded Brady, a policeman and a Secret Service agent before his last shot ricocheted off the president's armor-plated limousine and struck Reagan beneath his left armpit as he was being shoved into the car by other agents.
The bullet penetrated within an inch of the president's heart. One lung flooded with blood. Reagan lost half his body's blood supply. Doctors said that had the Secret Service not rushed the president to a nearby hospital as quickly as they did, he might well have died.
Brady suffered a serious brain injury and never was able to return to his White House duties.
In his hotel room that day, Hinckley left behind a letter addressed to child actress Jodie Foster, with whom he was infatuated. It began:
"There is a definite possibility that I may be killed in my attempt to get Reagan." Hinckley wrote he was doing this to try to win her love. Foster would later say she didn't even know who Hinckley was.
A federal judge committed Hinckley to St. Elizabeths Hospital after a jury found him not guilty by reason of insanity in the spring of 1982.
Doctors have told the court in previous hearings that Hinckley's mental problems are in remission. Government lawyers disputed that in their latest filing, saying:
"There is recent evidence of deception toward his treating physicians as well as narcissism, both of which are significant risk factors for future violence."
By James Polk taken from http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/01/us/hinckley-release-request/index.html
Monday, 3 October 2011
Majority of IEDs are traced to Pakistan
Pakistan is the source of explosives in the vast majority of makeshift bombs insurgents in Afghanistan planted this summer to attack U.S. troops, according to U.S. military commanders.
From June through August, U.S. troops detected or were hit by 5,088 improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the most for any three-month period since the war began in 2001.
Those bombs killed 63 troops and wounded 1,234, Defense Department records show.
More than 80% of the IEDs are homemade explosives using calcium ammonium nitrate fertilizer produced in Pakistan, said Navy Capt. Douglas Borrebach, deputy director for resources and requirements at the Pentagon's Joint IED Defeat Organization.
"The border is a sieve," Borrebach said. "You can do your checkpoints, but that's not going to help stem the supply."
The military is working with the State Department, other U.S. agencies and Pakistan's government to prevent fertilizer from reaching the insurgents' bomb factories.
Bomb casualties
U.S. troop casualties from improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan*:
* June through August; Source: U.S. Defense Department
The U.S. government increasingly has been blaming Pakistan for failing to corral insurgents. Two weeks ago, Adm. Michael Mullen, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Haqqani terror network linked to attacks in Afghanistan had ties to Pakistan's spy agency.
A Senate bill includes funds to train border guards and customs officials in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It also supports agricultural extension programs that encourage Pakistani farmers to use alternative fertilizers.
Sen. Robert Casey, D-Pa., met with top civilian and military leaders in Pakistan in August to urge them to stop the flow of bomb-making materials into Afghanistan. They promised to help, but did not reveal a sense of urgency, Casey told USA TODAY after the trip.
Choking off the source of fertilizer is critical, Borrebach said. "How do we work with Pakistan to be able to reduce the amount of calcium ammonium nitrate coming across the border?" he said. "That's the key to this."
Not necessarily, said Seth Jones, an expert on Afghanistan at the RAND Corp. who has advised the special operations forces there. "You could bang your head against a wall for eternity trying to keep ammonium nitrate from crossing the border," Jones said.
The Taliban and other insurgent groups operate out of a border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan, over which the Pakistani government has little control.
Beefing up local security forces in Afghanistan, he said, shows more promise in defeating the IED problem. He pointed to areas of Kandahar province where homegrown security forces, assisted by the U.S. troops, had made life better for local citizens. They, in turn, rejected insurgents, sided with the security forces and pointed out bomb caches. The IED problems subsided, he said.
By Tom Vanden Brook taken from http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/story/2011-10-02/ieds-traced-to-pakistan/50638686/1
Israel must restart talks with its neighbours or face isolation
The US has warned that Israel is becoming increasingly isolated in the Middle East, and said the country's leaders must restart negotiations with the Palestinians and work to restore relations with Egypt and Turkey.
In a blunt assessment made by Leon Panetta, the US defence secretary, as he was travelling to Israel, he said the ongoing upheaval in the Middle East made it critical for the Israelis to find ways to communicate with other nations in the region in order to have stability.
"There's not much question in my mind that they maintain that [military] edge," Panetta told reporters travelling with him. "But the question you have to ask: is it enough to maintain a military edge if you're isolating yourself in the diplomatic arena? Real security can only be achieved by both a strong diplomatic effort as well as a strong effort to project your military strength."
Panetta is scheduled to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders this week, and then travel to a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Brussels. His visit comes as negotiators push for a peace deal by the end of next year, increasing pressure for the resumption of long-stalled talks.
The Pentagon chief said Israel risks eroding its own security if it does not reach out to its neighbours. "It's pretty clear that at this dramatic time in the Middle East, when there have been so many changes, that it is not a good situation for Israel to become increasingly isolated. And that's what's happening," he said.
Panetta said the most important thing was for Israel and its neighbours "to try to develop better relationships so in the very least they can communicate with each other rather than taking these issues to the streets".
His visit comes at a particularly critical and fragile time. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has asked the UN to recognise an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, areas captured by Israel in the 1967 six-day war. The US opposed the UN bid, saying there is no substitute for direct peace negotiations. But with Israel continuing to build settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, Abbas says there is no point in talking.
About 500,000 Jewish settlers now live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
The US, Britain, France and other UN security council members are likely to try to hold up consideration of the application while they press for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, diplomats said.
Negotiators for the Quartet (UN, US, EU and Russia), are asking the Israelis and the Palestinians to produce comprehensive proposals on territory and security within three months. Israeli officials have welcomed parts of the proposal, but have also expressed concerns about the timetable for some discussions. They also have refused to endorse the 1967 prewar borders as a basis for the future Palestinian state – something President Barack Obama has endorsed.
The Palestinians, meanwhile, have said they will not return to talks unless Israel freezes settlement building and accepts the pre-1967 war frontier as a baseline for talks. The Quartet is urging both sides to avoid "provocative actions". Last week, Israel approved the construction of 1,100 new housing units in an area of Jerusalem built on land captured in 1967, a move that drew widespread international condemnation.
Panetta said he wanted to stress to both sides that instead of setting conditions or pursuing other approaches, "the most important thing they can do is go to the negotiating table. That would be a tremendous signal to the world that both the Israelis and the Palestinians want to try to find a solution to these problems. I don't think they really lose anything by getting into negotiations."
Panetta is scheduled to meet the Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, and the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, as well as Abbas and the Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad.
His visit to Israel comes six months after his predecessor, Robert Gates, travelled to the region to meet Israeli leaders and make a journey to the West Bank to talk to Fayyad.
The US has said it would veto the Palestinians' UN request, despite the high political cost in the Arab world. However, Washington would not need to use its veto if the Palestinians fail to get the support of at least nine of 15 council members. Palestinian officials have said they believe they have eight yes votes, and are lobbying for more support.
taken from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/03/israel-talks-neighbours-isolation-us
In a blunt assessment made by Leon Panetta, the US defence secretary, as he was travelling to Israel, he said the ongoing upheaval in the Middle East made it critical for the Israelis to find ways to communicate with other nations in the region in order to have stability.
"There's not much question in my mind that they maintain that [military] edge," Panetta told reporters travelling with him. "But the question you have to ask: is it enough to maintain a military edge if you're isolating yourself in the diplomatic arena? Real security can only be achieved by both a strong diplomatic effort as well as a strong effort to project your military strength."
Panetta is scheduled to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders this week, and then travel to a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Brussels. His visit comes as negotiators push for a peace deal by the end of next year, increasing pressure for the resumption of long-stalled talks.
The Pentagon chief said Israel risks eroding its own security if it does not reach out to its neighbours. "It's pretty clear that at this dramatic time in the Middle East, when there have been so many changes, that it is not a good situation for Israel to become increasingly isolated. And that's what's happening," he said.
Panetta said the most important thing was for Israel and its neighbours "to try to develop better relationships so in the very least they can communicate with each other rather than taking these issues to the streets".
His visit comes at a particularly critical and fragile time. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has asked the UN to recognise an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, areas captured by Israel in the 1967 six-day war. The US opposed the UN bid, saying there is no substitute for direct peace negotiations. But with Israel continuing to build settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, Abbas says there is no point in talking.
About 500,000 Jewish settlers now live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
The US, Britain, France and other UN security council members are likely to try to hold up consideration of the application while they press for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, diplomats said.
Negotiators for the Quartet (UN, US, EU and Russia), are asking the Israelis and the Palestinians to produce comprehensive proposals on territory and security within three months. Israeli officials have welcomed parts of the proposal, but have also expressed concerns about the timetable for some discussions. They also have refused to endorse the 1967 prewar borders as a basis for the future Palestinian state – something President Barack Obama has endorsed.
The Palestinians, meanwhile, have said they will not return to talks unless Israel freezes settlement building and accepts the pre-1967 war frontier as a baseline for talks. The Quartet is urging both sides to avoid "provocative actions". Last week, Israel approved the construction of 1,100 new housing units in an area of Jerusalem built on land captured in 1967, a move that drew widespread international condemnation.
Panetta said he wanted to stress to both sides that instead of setting conditions or pursuing other approaches, "the most important thing they can do is go to the negotiating table. That would be a tremendous signal to the world that both the Israelis and the Palestinians want to try to find a solution to these problems. I don't think they really lose anything by getting into negotiations."
Panetta is scheduled to meet the Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, and the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, as well as Abbas and the Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad.
His visit to Israel comes six months after his predecessor, Robert Gates, travelled to the region to meet Israeli leaders and make a journey to the West Bank to talk to Fayyad.
The US has said it would veto the Palestinians' UN request, despite the high political cost in the Arab world. However, Washington would not need to use its veto if the Palestinians fail to get the support of at least nine of 15 council members. Palestinian officials have said they believe they have eight yes votes, and are lobbying for more support.
taken from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/03/israel-talks-neighbours-isolation-us
Protectionism beckons as leaders push world into Depression
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects the savings mountain to rise yet further next year as the governments of Europe, Britain, and the US tighten belts, in unison, by up to 2pc of GDP.
This is double the intensity of the last big synchronized squeeze in 1980.
They will do so before the private sector is ready to grasp the baton, and without stimulus from the trade surplus states (Germany, China, Japan) to offset the contraction in demand.
Put another way, there is a chronic lack of consumption in the world. "This probably comes as a surprise to most people, gorged on propaganda about excessive debt and the need for retrenchment," said Charles Dumas from Lombard Street Research.
The inevitable outcome of one-sided austerity polices in the Anglo-sphere and Club Med is a self-feeding downward slide for the whole global system, a variant of 1930s debt-deflation. "Excess savers refuse to acknowledge that if world savings are demonstrably too high, healthy recovery depends on the surplus countries saving less," he said.
Mr Dumas said China's "grotesque and destructive" policies of over-investment (50pc of GDP) and under-consumption (36pc of GDP) are unprecedented in history, but at least China's currency advantage is being eroded by wage inflation.
His full wrath is reserved for the "fallacious and malignant policies" of Angela Merkel and Wolfgang Schauble in Germany. They are enforcing a Gold Standard outcome on the whole eurozone. "Suffused with self-righteousness, they insist that the imbalances must be put right only by deficit-country deflation."
The sheer scale of global imbalances is made clear in a paper by Stephen Cecchetti at the Bank for International Settlements.
His paper contains a chart showing that combined surplus/deficits reached 6pc of world GDP in the boom, far beyond the extremes that led to the US losing patience in 1985 and imposing the Plaza Accord. The gap narrowed post-Lehman but is widening again.
Money flows are even more out of kilter. Cross-border liabilities have jumped from $15 trillion to $100 trillion in fifteen years, or 150pc of global GDP. This creates a very big risk.
"Gross financial flows can stop suddenly, or even reverse. They can overwhelm weak or weakly regulated financial systems," said Mr Cecchetti.
Well, yes, this is now happening. Did anybody think about this when they unleashed globalisation with its elemental deformity, free trade without free currencies?
The self-correction mechanism is jammed. China holds down the yuan against the dollar through a dirty peg. Germany and its satellites hold down the D-mark against Club Med covertly through the mechanism of EMU.
This outcome in Europe is not deliberate (I hope); it is not a German plot; it is the unintended effect of a currency union created by ideologues against Bundesbank advice, and which has calamitous implications for German foreign policy and for Latin social stability.
My sympathies go to the hard-working citizens of Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Ireland for being led into this impasse by foolish elites.
A global system biased towards export dumping has had unhappy effects on the US, UK, and Club Med. These countries have faced a Morton’s Folk over recent years: an implicit choice between job losses at home, or accepting credit bubbles to mask the pain.
They chose bubbles. That was a mistake. This strategy of buying time cannot safely be repeated because fiscal woes are already near "boiling point", in the words of the BIS. “Drastic improvements will be necessary to prevent debt ratios from exploding," it said.
Bank of England Governor Mervyn King called recently for a "grand bargain" of the world's major powers to break the vicious circle and ensure that the burden of adjustment does not fall on debtors alone.
"The need to act in the collective interest has yet to be recognised. Unless it is, it will be only a matter of time before one or more countries resort to protectionism. That could, as in the 1930s, lead to a disastrous collapse in activity around the world," he said.
We are not there yet, but a global double-dip would take us to the edge. US democracy cannot allow America’s precious stimulus to leak out to countries that have bent their exchange rates, tax systems, and industrial structures towards predatory export advantage. It cannot let broad (U6) unemployment ratchet up to 20pc or more.
If the White House will not do it, Congress will. Capitol Hill is already launching its latest bill to label China a currency violator, and open the way for retaliatory sanctions.
"They get away with economic murder and thus far our country has just said, 'Oh, we don't care. This legislation will send a huge shot across China's bow,” said Senator Chuck Schumer.
The risk – or solution? – is that the US will opt for a variant of Imperial Preference, the pro-growth bloc created behind tariff walls by the British Empire with Scandinavia, Argentina and other like-minded states in 1932. This experiment has been air-brushed out of history by free trade hegemonists.
One can imagine how this might unfold. North America would clamp down on dumping, at first gingerly, before escalating towards a cascade of Smoot-Hawley tariffs and barriers. Mexico and Central America would join. Brazil and Mercosur would find it irresistible because that is where the demand would be, and BRIC solidarity would wither on the vine.
By then you would have the US recovering behind its wall, while surplus states were recoiling from severe shock. Britain would face the moment of truth, offered salvation in the `Pact of the Americas’ or slow asphyxiation by trade ties to EMU’s deflation machine. Portugal and Spain would face the same fateful choice. This is how the EU might end.
Ultimately, America would get its way. Korea and the Asian Tigers would come knocking. The austerity brigade and mercantilists would be shut out until they capitulated. The rules of world trade system would be redrawn.
The IMF's Christine Lagarde understands the risks intuitively. The global economy is entering a "dangerous new phase", she warns. Leaders must prepare for "bold and collective action to break the vicious cycle of weak growth and weak balance sheets feeding negatively off each other". Central banks must stand ready to "dive back into unconventional waters as needed."
But how many infantry divisions does the IMF command, to paraphrase Stalin? Power resides in the G20, where debtors and creditors have radically contrasting views. The body cannot even start to offer a solution.
A US double-dip is not yet a foregone conclusion. America’s M3 money supply is last growing decently again at 5.6pc, which would in normal circumstances signal some recovery next year. The latest GDP and confidence data in the US have not been as bad as feared.
Ajay Kapur from Deutsche Bank said investors have to decide whether the market slump of recent weeks is a “panic like the LTCM sell-off in late-1998 that proved to be a great buying opportunity, or the first leg in what could eventually be a pervasive global recession. We believe it is the latter.”
He said the triple warnings from US leading indicators (ECRI, the Philly Fed’s 'Anxious Index', and the earnings revision index) all point to recession, while China is “probably over-tightening” into a global slump.
In Europe, policy is still on deflationary settings, with Italy and Spain having to tighten fiscal yet further to meet their budget targets. The European Central Bank is overseeing a collapse in real M1 deposits in Italy of around 6pc, annualized over the last six-months.
Michael Darda from MKM Partners said the ECB has made such a hash of monetary policy that nominal GDP for the whole eurozone may even start to contract.
That is astonishing. If correct, there is no hope of averting a debt spiral in Italy and Spain. Any such outcome will test the EU’s bail-out machinery to destruction within months.
Mr King’s “disastrous collapse” is staring policy-makers in the face.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard taken from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/8802462/Protectionism-beckons-as-leaders-push-world-into-Depression.html
His full wrath is reserved for the "fallacious and malignant policies" of Angela Merkel and Wolfgang Schauble in Germany. They are enforcing a Gold Standard outcome on the whole eurozone. "Suffused with self-righteousness, they insist that the imbalances must be put right only by deficit-country deflation."
The sheer scale of global imbalances is made clear in a paper by Stephen Cecchetti at the Bank for International Settlements.
His paper contains a chart showing that combined surplus/deficits reached 6pc of world GDP in the boom, far beyond the extremes that led to the US losing patience in 1985 and imposing the Plaza Accord. The gap narrowed post-Lehman but is widening again.
Money flows are even more out of kilter. Cross-border liabilities have jumped from $15 trillion to $100 trillion in fifteen years, or 150pc of global GDP. This creates a very big risk.
"Gross financial flows can stop suddenly, or even reverse. They can overwhelm weak or weakly regulated financial systems," said Mr Cecchetti.
Well, yes, this is now happening. Did anybody think about this when they unleashed globalisation with its elemental deformity, free trade without free currencies?
The self-correction mechanism is jammed. China holds down the yuan against the dollar through a dirty peg. Germany and its satellites hold down the D-mark against Club Med covertly through the mechanism of EMU.
This outcome in Europe is not deliberate (I hope); it is not a German plot; it is the unintended effect of a currency union created by ideologues against Bundesbank advice, and which has calamitous implications for German foreign policy and for Latin social stability.
My sympathies go to the hard-working citizens of Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Ireland for being led into this impasse by foolish elites.
A global system biased towards export dumping has had unhappy effects on the US, UK, and Club Med. These countries have faced a Morton’s Folk over recent years: an implicit choice between job losses at home, or accepting credit bubbles to mask the pain.
They chose bubbles. That was a mistake. This strategy of buying time cannot safely be repeated because fiscal woes are already near "boiling point", in the words of the BIS. “Drastic improvements will be necessary to prevent debt ratios from exploding," it said.
Bank of England Governor Mervyn King called recently for a "grand bargain" of the world's major powers to break the vicious circle and ensure that the burden of adjustment does not fall on debtors alone.
"The need to act in the collective interest has yet to be recognised. Unless it is, it will be only a matter of time before one or more countries resort to protectionism. That could, as in the 1930s, lead to a disastrous collapse in activity around the world," he said.
We are not there yet, but a global double-dip would take us to the edge. US democracy cannot allow America’s precious stimulus to leak out to countries that have bent their exchange rates, tax systems, and industrial structures towards predatory export advantage. It cannot let broad (U6) unemployment ratchet up to 20pc or more.
If the White House will not do it, Congress will. Capitol Hill is already launching its latest bill to label China a currency violator, and open the way for retaliatory sanctions.
"They get away with economic murder and thus far our country has just said, 'Oh, we don't care. This legislation will send a huge shot across China's bow,” said Senator Chuck Schumer.
The risk – or solution? – is that the US will opt for a variant of Imperial Preference, the pro-growth bloc created behind tariff walls by the British Empire with Scandinavia, Argentina and other like-minded states in 1932. This experiment has been air-brushed out of history by free trade hegemonists.
One can imagine how this might unfold. North America would clamp down on dumping, at first gingerly, before escalating towards a cascade of Smoot-Hawley tariffs and barriers. Mexico and Central America would join. Brazil and Mercosur would find it irresistible because that is where the demand would be, and BRIC solidarity would wither on the vine.
By then you would have the US recovering behind its wall, while surplus states were recoiling from severe shock. Britain would face the moment of truth, offered salvation in the `Pact of the Americas’ or slow asphyxiation by trade ties to EMU’s deflation machine. Portugal and Spain would face the same fateful choice. This is how the EU might end.
Ultimately, America would get its way. Korea and the Asian Tigers would come knocking. The austerity brigade and mercantilists would be shut out until they capitulated. The rules of world trade system would be redrawn.
The IMF's Christine Lagarde understands the risks intuitively. The global economy is entering a "dangerous new phase", she warns. Leaders must prepare for "bold and collective action to break the vicious cycle of weak growth and weak balance sheets feeding negatively off each other". Central banks must stand ready to "dive back into unconventional waters as needed."
But how many infantry divisions does the IMF command, to paraphrase Stalin? Power resides in the G20, where debtors and creditors have radically contrasting views. The body cannot even start to offer a solution.
A US double-dip is not yet a foregone conclusion. America’s M3 money supply is last growing decently again at 5.6pc, which would in normal circumstances signal some recovery next year. The latest GDP and confidence data in the US have not been as bad as feared.
Ajay Kapur from Deutsche Bank said investors have to decide whether the market slump of recent weeks is a “panic like the LTCM sell-off in late-1998 that proved to be a great buying opportunity, or the first leg in what could eventually be a pervasive global recession. We believe it is the latter.”
He said the triple warnings from US leading indicators (ECRI, the Philly Fed’s 'Anxious Index', and the earnings revision index) all point to recession, while China is “probably over-tightening” into a global slump.
In Europe, policy is still on deflationary settings, with Italy and Spain having to tighten fiscal yet further to meet their budget targets. The European Central Bank is overseeing a collapse in real M1 deposits in Italy of around 6pc, annualized over the last six-months.
Michael Darda from MKM Partners said the ECB has made such a hash of monetary policy that nominal GDP for the whole eurozone may even start to contract.
That is astonishing. If correct, there is no hope of averting a debt spiral in Italy and Spain. Any such outcome will test the EU’s bail-out machinery to destruction within months.
Mr King’s “disastrous collapse” is staring policy-makers in the face.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard taken from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/8802462/Protectionism-beckons-as-leaders-push-world-into-Depression.html
Obama Fried Chicken! OFC pops up in China
Is Obama abandoning his bid for a second term in the White House and is giving Colonel Sanders a run for his money by opening a chain of fried chicken joints?
Now that's change you can't really believe in.
But in Beijing, China, a restaurant is actually calling itself OFC with a logo that looks alarmingly like the President dressed in the colonel's clothes.
Scroll down for video
The catchphrase underneath, apparently says 'We’re so cool, aren’t we?'
The Obama Fried Chicken could be a response to the U.S. filing a complaint with the World Trade Organization about Chinese tariffs on American chicken exports.
According to the New York Times, the tariffs affect an industry that employs about 300,000 people and range from 50 to 100 per cent, which means some Chinese importers paid as much as twice the price for American chicken.
Maybe the Chinese have something of an Obama-chicken obsession.
Earlier this year in Hong Kong, an Obama lookalike was employed to advertize KFC.
The restaurant's sign was first spotted by TheShanghaiist.com and picked up by msnbc.com.
There are, of course, New York versions that caused quite a stir.
There is one in Harlem and one in Brooklyn.
Some people have complained the name plays into old racial stereotypes.
Now that's change you can't really believe in.
But in Beijing, China, a restaurant is actually calling itself OFC with a logo that looks alarmingly like the President dressed in the colonel's clothes.
Scroll down for video
The presidential eatery: The Obama Fried Chicken restaurant in Beijing
Broad smiles: President Obama and the original master of Southern Fried Chicken Colonel Sanders
The Obama Fried Chicken could be a response to the U.S. filing a complaint with the World Trade Organization about Chinese tariffs on American chicken exports.
According to the New York Times, the tariffs affect an industry that employs about 300,000 people and range from 50 to 100 per cent, which means some Chinese importers paid as much as twice the price for American chicken.
Maybe the Chinese have something of an Obama-chicken obsession.
Earlier this year in Hong Kong, an Obama lookalike was employed to advertize KFC.
The restaurant's sign was first spotted by TheShanghaiist.com and picked up by msnbc.com.
There are, of course, New York versions that caused quite a stir.
There is one in Harlem and one in Brooklyn.
Some people have complained the name plays into old racial stereotypes.
Ex-Model Who Killed and Ate Hubby Seeks Parole
A former model who killed, cooked and ate her husband 20 years ago will make a bid for freedom next week.
Omaima Aree Nelson is slated to appear before a California parole board to plead for an early release from Chowchilla State Prison, where she is serving 27 years to life, according to KTLA-TV.
Nelson killed her 56-year-old husband, William Nelson, over Thanksgiving weekend in 1991, just amonth after they married. She had come to the U.S. five years earlier from Egypt, where she worked as a model and nanny.
"It was the most gruesome case I saw," Former Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Bob Phillips told the Los Angeles Times. "She did not seem like a person that was coherent."
At the time of her arrest, Phillips told the Times, "Omaima Nelson is the most bizarre and sick individual I've had the occasion to meet. No one needs to look to the Dahmers of Milwaukee or the Hannibal Lecters of the screen. A new predator has emerged, named Omaima."
Nelson claimed at trial she had been abused and her husband had raped her the night before she killed him in their Costa Mesa apartment, according to the Los Angeles Times. After murdering him, Nelson boiled her husband's head on the stove and fried his hands in oil, the Daily Pilot reported.
She once admitted, but now denies, dipping his body in barbecue sauce. Neighbors at the time said the garbage disposal was on for "a long time" and "constant chopping sounds" were coming from the home, according to the Daily Pilot newspaper.
"Of course, she says that [she doesn't remember] because the parole board doesn't want to let a cannibal out," Senior Deputy District Attorney Randy Pawloski told the Daily Pilot.
Nelson offered ex-boyfriends $75,000 to help her dispose of some of the body parts, according to police. She found no takers and was arrested Dec. 2, 1991, after police found trash bags containing human body parts in the couple's apartment and in the victim's Corvette.
By Greg Wilson
By Greg Wilson
taken from http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/weird/Ex-Model-Who-Killed-and-Ate-Huby-Seeks-Parole-130862888.html
Denmark Introduces ‘Fat Tax’
Denmark has introduced what’s believed to be the world’s first fat food tax, applying a surcharge to foods with more than 2.3 percent saturated fats, in an effort to combat obesity and heart disease.
Danes hoarded food before the tax went into effect Saturday, emptying grocery store shelves. Some butter lovers may even resort to stocking up during trips abroad.
The new tax of 16 kroner ($2.90) per kilogram (2.2 pounds) of saturated fat in a product will be levied on foods like butter, milk, cheese, pizza, oils and meat.
“Higher fees on sugar, fat and tobacco is an important step on the way toward a higher average life expectancy in Denmark,” health minister Jakob Axel Nielsen said when he introduced the idea in 2009, according to The Associated Press, because “saturated fats can cause cardiovascular disease and cancer.”
But some Danes are not happy about the ‘big brother’ feeling that comes with the tax.
“Denmark finds every sort of way to increase our taxes,” said Alisa Clausen, a South Jutland resident. “Why should the government decide how much fat we eat? They also want to increase the tobacco price very significantly. In theory this is good — it makes unhealthy items expensive so that we do not consume as much or any and that way the health system doesn’t use a lot of money on patients who become sick from overuse of fat and tobacco. However, these taxes take on a big brother feeling. We should not be punished by taxes on items the government decides we should not use.”
The Nordic country isn’t known for having a grossly overweight population — only about 10 percent of Danes are considered obese, compared to about one-third of adults (33.8 percent) and approximately 17 percent (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents age 2—19 years in the United States, according to a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
But perhaps Denmark has its obesity rate relatively under control because of its policies. In 2004, Denmark made it illegal for any food to have more than 2 percent trans fats. In July 2010, the country increased taxes on ice cream, chocolate and sweets by 25 percent. At the same time, Denmark increased taxes on soft drinks, tobacco and alcohol products, beyond the minimum levels established by the EU.
“Denmark will not only increase general health amongst the population but will also ease the burden on the public health care system and increase its resources at a time of recession when Member States are cutting public expenditure,” Monika Kosinska, the secretary general of the European Public Health Alliance, said in 2010.
Kosinska said the tax increases should be complemented by measures to make nutritious food more affordable.
“We get the taxes, but never a reduction on anything to complement the increases, such as on healthy foods,” said Clausen.
taken from http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2011/10/02/denmark-introduces-fat-tax-on-foods-high-in-saturated-fat/
Danes hoarded food before the tax went into effect Saturday, emptying grocery store shelves. Some butter lovers may even resort to stocking up during trips abroad.
The new tax of 16 kroner ($2.90) per kilogram (2.2 pounds) of saturated fat in a product will be levied on foods like butter, milk, cheese, pizza, oils and meat.
“Higher fees on sugar, fat and tobacco is an important step on the way toward a higher average life expectancy in Denmark,” health minister Jakob Axel Nielsen said when he introduced the idea in 2009, according to The Associated Press, because “saturated fats can cause cardiovascular disease and cancer.”
But some Danes are not happy about the ‘big brother’ feeling that comes with the tax.
“Denmark finds every sort of way to increase our taxes,” said Alisa Clausen, a South Jutland resident. “Why should the government decide how much fat we eat? They also want to increase the tobacco price very significantly. In theory this is good — it makes unhealthy items expensive so that we do not consume as much or any and that way the health system doesn’t use a lot of money on patients who become sick from overuse of fat and tobacco. However, these taxes take on a big brother feeling. We should not be punished by taxes on items the government decides we should not use.”
The Nordic country isn’t known for having a grossly overweight population — only about 10 percent of Danes are considered obese, compared to about one-third of adults (33.8 percent) and approximately 17 percent (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents age 2—19 years in the United States, according to a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
But perhaps Denmark has its obesity rate relatively under control because of its policies. In 2004, Denmark made it illegal for any food to have more than 2 percent trans fats. In July 2010, the country increased taxes on ice cream, chocolate and sweets by 25 percent. At the same time, Denmark increased taxes on soft drinks, tobacco and alcohol products, beyond the minimum levels established by the EU.
“Denmark will not only increase general health amongst the population but will also ease the burden on the public health care system and increase its resources at a time of recession when Member States are cutting public expenditure,” Monika Kosinska, the secretary general of the European Public Health Alliance, said in 2010.
Kosinska said the tax increases should be complemented by measures to make nutritious food more affordable.
“We get the taxes, but never a reduction on anything to complement the increases, such as on healthy foods,” said Clausen.
taken from http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2011/10/02/denmark-introduces-fat-tax-on-foods-high-in-saturated-fat/
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