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Senator Lindsay Graham Warns Of War With Iran, Confrontation With "Cheating" China
With republicans back in control, it was only a matter of time before the military-industrial complex reminded the world of its existence. It took about 72 hours: republican senator Lindsay Graham, who apparently has not received the memo that all modern wars are now waged in binary, and are won by those who can push the FX bid/ask the furthest and the fastest away from equilibrium, spoke at the Halifax International Security Forum, giving a very distinct taste of what US foreign policy is about to look like: "Iran is a major threat to any conceivable world order" and that he sees an almost inevitable confrontation with Iran. As AP reports, the South Carolina Republican saw the United States going to war with
the Islamic republic "not to just neutralize their nuclear program, but
to sink their navy, destroy their air force and deliver a decisive blow
to the Revolutionary Guard, in other words neuter that regime." And the Democrats, still in shock over their recent pummelling, will likely not have the resolve to respond palliatively to such warmongering, which they likely deem as supported by the broad population: "US Democratic Senator Mark Udall, who joined Graham during a panel
discussion at the forum in Halifax, Nova Scotia, urged continued
sanctions against Iran. But he also noted that "every option is on the
table," a thinly veiled reference to possible military action." And just when the world was getting along so well, and all the international bickering appeared to be taking place over various Forex terminals...
More from AP:
The United States faces a possible war with Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions and a "period of confrontation" with China over its currency, a top US lawmaker warned Saturday.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said his fellow conservative, fresh from their historic elections romp this week, support "bold" action to deal with Iran.
If President Barack Obama "decides to be tough with Iran beyond sanctions, I think he is going to feel a lot of Republican support for the idea that we cannot let Iran develop a nuclear weapon," he told the Halifax International Security Forum.
"The last thing America wants is another military conflict, but the last thing the world needs is a nuclear-armed Iran... Containment is off the table."
Furthermore, the fact that Iran recently converted 15% of its $100Bn+ in reserves into gold did not win it any brownie points with the global central banking cartel.
Yet perhaps war may be avoidable:
Democrats may gain surprise support for continued diplomacy from some ultra-conservative Tea Party newcomers to Washington who diverge on foreign policy matters with their Republican brethren.
Various UN resolutions and sanctions have sought to halt Iran's uranium enrichment activities, so far having little effect.
Then again, maybe not. It has been a while since assorted logistic and military airplane manufacturers reported blowout quarters. Time to change that.
And if Graham has his way, soon the US may need to send an aircraft carrier or 17 over to the South China Sea.
Graham also warned of a forthcoming "period of confrontation" with China over its "cheating" currency manipulation.
US and European lawmakers have called for a stronger Chinese currency as their economies struggle to recover from the global financial crisis. US lawmakers claim the yuan is grossly undervalued and causes global trade imbalances.
Several countries ranging from Japan to Colombia have intervened in recent weeks to make their currencies cheaper in the hope of exporting their way out of the downturn, fueling fears of a global currency war.
Currency tensions boiled over at the recent annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund in Washington, with China rejecting calls for a quick revaluation.
Surely, those cheating Chineses will be delighted to be called cheats again, just two days after advisors to the PBoC called unbridled printing of dollars "the biggest risk to the global economy and said China should use currency policy and capital controls to cushion itself from external shocks." We can't wait to read the glowingly favorable, two thumbs up rebuttal in tomorrow's China Daily.
Perhaps before we hit the launch button, we should familiarize ourselves with the following chart which shows that for the first time ever China is now ahead of the US in number of warships.
Last but not least, we are eagerly awaiting the release of a tape by Al Qaeda, spotlighting bin Laden's congratulations to the republican party over their victory.
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We should mothball everything related to Gasoline and Desiels so that the Middle east will be out of the oil pumping business with prices at 2.00 a barrel.
Ninety percent of folks on the planet would starve if that happened. Is it worth it just to spite Iran? See, this is why I suggested that you might want to unpack the old grey matter and blow it clean.
Our govt doesn't give one hoot about Iran, but they do want to cut off oil supplies to China. Iran supplies much of China's oil.
Geezer:
You have it totally wrong. The only reason we're in the Land Of Sand in the first place is to ensure the safety and reliability of China's oil supply.
After all, China is where our industrial base is located.
Just when I thought I had enough gold and silver and oil. Iran will back down before the big event. China? we could never win that one. We have spineless congressmen and a civilian militia that allows the Mexican drug lords to take over parts of our country. Imagine what China would do if it had a chance to sacrifice 300 million citizens in the name of defense. We can't defeat a tribe of 4,000 baboons fighting us with rocks and sticks. How will we defeat and enemy who would not miss more citizens than exist in all of the US?
Time to cut more pine trees and prepare another 1/4 acre for food growing. Damn north wind is getting colder.
An interesting take from the Singapore Business Time from a Peking University Professor:
Another take on China's rate hike
On Oct 19, the Chinese central bank announced a series of rate increases. Yiping Huang examines the significance of the decision
THE People's Bank of China announced a series of rate hikes on Oct 19. Although economists have been arguing for monetary tightening for months, this move was a surprise to many in the market.
This policy adjustment tells us several things: 45China's monetary policymakers see greater inflation risks than the headline CPI inflation data;
· the government is probably trying to avoid the mistake made by Japan in the 1980s: loosening domestic monetary policy in order to reduce pressure for currency appreciation;
· therefore currency appreciation is likely to continue, if not accelerate; and
· the authorities might adopt certain measures to control the capital account temporarily in order to discourage 'hot money' inflows.
China's headline CPI rose to 3.5 per cent year on year in August, up two-tenths of a percentage point from the previous month. A look at the disaggregated data reveals that inflation is mainly driven by food prices.
This is the reason why some officials argue that monetary tightening was neither needed nor effective. Nevertheless, during the 30 years' reform period, almost every major inflation problem (those of 1988, 1993, and 2007) was initially caused by food inflation. Monetary policymakers have learnt not to treat food inflation lightly.
Inflation momentum
The current momentum of inflation is already pretty serious. CPI rose by 0.6 per cent month on month in August, which can be translated into an annualised rate of 7.2 per cent. This certainly is way above the central bank's target. More importantly, the headline number is probably grossly underestimated due to under-represented service prices in the basket.
Some economists suggest CPI is currently closer to 5 to 6 per cent, compared with the official number of 3.5 per cent. The Ministry of Commerce collects market prices for agricultural food every week. These numbers confirm that food prices already rose during the past three months at an annualised rate of above 30 per cent.
But that's not all. Two more factors shadow the outlook for China's inflation picture.
One, loan growth is slowing; this year's new loans will likely surpass the central bank's target of 7.5 trillion yuan (S$1.4 trillion).
This is about 50 per cent more than in a normal year. With negative real deposit rates, liquidity holders desperately look for opportunities to invest. They first pushed up stock prices and then housing prices. When these prices stabilised, they shifted their focus on certain types of commodities, such as beans, cotton, garlic, and sugar. As long as liquidity is abundant, some prices will rise dramatically.
Two, wages are rising by 20 per cent. Economists and government officials still dispute the notion that China is rapidly approaching the Lewis turning point. But every business person in China agrees that it is happening. It is increasingly difficult to find additional workers and labour costs are skyrocketing.
Increases in wages are actually a positive development for China today. It has already led to improvement in consumption and therefore should be good for rebalancing the economy. But inevitably, it will be inflationary.
Avoiding asset bubbles
The rate hike on Oct 19 is not only an effort to combat potential inflation, it is also an important departure from the typical Japanese approach of fighting currency appreciation. In the months following the implementation of the Plaza Accord in 1985, Japan lowered interest rates and increased its money supply in order to reduce pressure for appreciation and mitigate its impacts. That approach, however, caused an even more devastating consequence - a bubble, which eventually collapsed in 1989.
Some Chinese policymakers had a similar mindset in the early days, believing that China could not raise rates because to do so would exacerbate currency pressures. But since the beginning of this year, the asset bubble has been a persistent source of worry. Indeed, the government has already implemented a number of tightening measures aimed at the housing markets. Yet these measures, unfortunately, have not had much impact since they have not addressed the root cause of the bubble risk: liquidity.
The rate hike on Oct 19 is unlikely to lead to a collapse of housing prices, which have a potential to go up further in the coming years given the healthy balance sheets of households and banks. But the latest change in the mindset of government officials may be able to help China avoid major asset bubbles like those experienced by Japan in the late 1980s and by the US during the early years of this century.
There is a worry that a rate hike might lead to more inflows of 'hot money'. This is probably true, given that all major central banks and those in Asia are in a 'pause' mood, if not a 'loosening' mood. But if the rate hike adds downward pressure on asset prices, it may also discourage hot money inflows. The net impact is not clear, but hot money is not something the government can completely eliminate.
Growth outlook
In the near term, China's government is probably safe to allow the currency to continue to appreciate. With risks of a double dip receding, China's policymakers are probably more confident about the growth outlook. There is also a possibility that China may be tightening controls over certain types of capital inflows in order to reduce 'hot money' flows. These, however, should be viewed as temporary responses to volatile market conditions. The long-term trend of capital account liberalisation remains on track.
· The author is Professor of Economics at the China Center for Economic Research, Peking University. This comment was sourced from VoxEU.org, a web portal that features the views of prominent economists.
Second occupying Iran would take at least 750,000-970,000 troops. Iran has active military personnel of 545,00. Reserves of 350,000. However their irregular forces is 11,390,000! They have enough men and woman to engage guerrilla war for ever. The Taliban has a force of 100,000 and they are giving us trouble. Now couple the fact of 11.4 million insurgents is the geography. It is heavily mountainous,large areas,and multiple cities.So the conventional battle will be a lititle challenging but the guerrilla war that will follow will be the Peninsular War and Vietnam war times 10,000. This would bankrupt our already dying economy and would end in our defeat. So yeah a war with Iran is not happening. I forecast a war between Saudi Arabia and Iran in Iraq in 5-10 years from now. But a US war with Iran is not happening.
I agree....unless we are dragged into a war we do not want by other interests in the region.......
all you need to know about Iran:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSZYsyrP3Co
holding it is the most important thing.
When will the Israelis get thousands of stupid American Goyims out in Iran to sacrifice their lives for Israel, while Israelis sit at home protecting their Moms from houseflies??? Then we can go back to normal, giving our industrial base to China again.
With depression at the doorstep, it is time to fire the Federal Reserve. Western economies are on the brink of total collapse; only prompt, decisive and radical measures can prevent complete world economic ruin. Ironically, Russia and China are in a much better position to weather this up-coming storm than western countries.
http://thomaspainereturns.net/
With depression at the doorstep, it is time to fire the Federal Reserve. Western economies are on the brink of total collapse; only prompt, decisive and radical measures can prevent complete world economic ruin. Ironically, Russia and China are in a much better position to weather this up-coming storm than western countries.
http://thomaspainereturns.net/
Graham only points out the obvious. What is not so obvious is what happens if the plan goes wrong in Iran. What happens in fact if we back ourselves into a corner and surrender a large contingent of American soldiers for instance? The last Democrat in Iran did not end well. China is in my view simply winning a trade war with the US. It is long over due that Americans stop buying the Chinese exports. Let the trade war begin and put Americans back to work. If we can make it here we don't need it approach works for me. Notice that Obama's trade trip does not go to China. He knows they are not negotiating in good faith. China believes we don't have the balls to go at it alone. In fact this is the easiest trade war to win.
Alot of this talk does not matter because Obama is not going to lift a finger. He after all has already won a Nobel Peace prize. I also think this is just a way of Lindsay Graham wanting to sound tough and more conservative now that the tea is being served at Republican parties.
Yep things aren't going very well in the US so lets get a scape goat we can ralley the angry people to pursue. After all it certainly wasn't anyone's fault that things turned sour, binging on credit like it was going out of style or something? Responsible for our own actions???? Pooh, Pooh to that.....after all the lenders held guns to our heads and forced people to borrow. Forced them to use insane leverage (which we all know always works so very well in everyones favor). Persecute the rich and masacre the infidels who are so aptly responsible for our pain. Cyclically we are over due for a large world massacre. After all it always solves our most difficult problems (sort of like saying...."the great depression really didn't end until after world war 2" as if it were the catalyst that ended the great depression). Sadly there will be a number of idiots who jump on the senators words and as conditions get irrevocably worse over the next year or two after failed QE attempts people will be good and angry. Rich and poor alike. They'll be itching for a fight and that is what the government will give them. Iraq, Afghanistan and now Iran. Of course Canada (where I am from) will follow as the good and blind neighbor that we are.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-07/obama-singh-talks-in-delhi-to-s...
watch what each party does and not what it says.
"A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny." Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The future is here. Be prepared.
So, Mad Max is inevitable. This will be very, very fun.
Watch too much TV, kid ? Woa. No, nuclear war means the very end. There is no survival. Its those who die day 1 and the rest who die over the next thirty days. Go to college and SFTU. Idiot.
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Debka claims Graham cleared his statements with the White House before making them. If you don't yet believe in the Bi-factional ruling War Party, then I can't help you.
Continue to flail about in ignorance and futility.
That is quite possible. He's been floating their trial balloons for them for the last year.
Oh hell, Graham calls for bombing Iran twice a month. Typically he is too much of a pansy to say he wants to nuke Tehran, which is the only bombing that makes sense. Another reason not to buy Dubai real estate. I wonder if there is a franchise for KI pills there?
My long term indicators continue to warn of USD strength and EURO weakness.
http://stockmarket618.wordpress.com
Graham Coming Out of the Closet on Iran?
If I was a light-in-the-loafers senator from South Carolina...
A state slightly unfriendly to the light-in-the-loafers crowd... I would come out acting macho on Iran in order to...
Change the subject...
Now, Lindsay... take your Wall Street Bankster bribes and go home...