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Tunisia Rioting Escalates, Hits Capital As More Are Killed While Protesting Surging Unemployment And Food Prices
Virtually every US media continues to ignore the situation in Algeria and now Tunisia, where rioting predicated by high unemployment (read massive economic slack) and surging cost of living (but, but, didn't you just say massive slack??? how the hell can cost of living be up if you have "massive" slack? that's unpossible - the San Fran Fed has said so repeatedly), especially food prices, has just escalated once again. According to RFI, Tunisian rioting has spread to the capital, following more protesters (killed by the Police), and where a curfew has just been imposed. "Weeks of unrest in Tunisia have spread to the capital, where the
heaviest protests took place on Wednesday. Police opened fire on a
demonstration in the central town of Douz, killing two, the AFP wire
service reports." And, lo and behold: even in Tunisia politicians are accountable when surging prices lead to death: the Tunisian interior minister was sacked earlier in an attempt to placate the rioters. Alas, no such luck: "The sacking of the Tunisian interior minister and the deployment of troops has failed to bring calm to the capital Tunis which again erupted on Wednesday. Security forces fired tear gas on hundreds of demonstrators in the
heaviest protests yet in the capital after weeks of demonstrations since
December." What fools: do they not realize that Core CPI in the US is pretty much at the lowest it has ever been? They should all just disperse and eat 50% off LCD TVs post haste.
Riot police posing for a quick photoshoot.
From RFI:
Some demonstrators in the capital have been calling for President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali to stand down, correspondent Léa-Lisa Westerhoff reports.
“You can feel the tension, the security forces are using tear gas and I saw hundreds of demonstrators who were asking president Ben Ali to leave,” she says.
Prime Minister Mohamed Ghanouchi has announced the release of all those arrested during protests and fired Interior Minister Rafik Belhaj Kassem.
Westerhoff says this move did not calm protesters taking to the streets.
“Things are still pretty tense here. Two hours after the announcements, there were a couple of protests in town which were rapidly disrupted by the police.”
The United Nations has called on Tunisian authorities to launch an investigation into the violence.
Meanwhile the European Union has condemned the use of what they call "disproportionate" force by Tunisian police.
This is prudent - the European Union should be very concerned: if various crops continue trading limit up, and if Ukrainian wheat follows suit, Europe itself may very well experinece the key distinction between CPI, and prices of products that actually matter.
That said, the army has been deployed, and a peaceful outcome is now an absolute certainty:
The army has been deployed in towns in the country’s south and west. Speaking in the town of Beja, trade unionist Ali Hamdi says the army is trying to cut off restive towns.
“Towns are in a situation of siege and the government is trying to isolate them and resort to the army to control the situation," Hamdi says.
Hamdi says trade unions are preparing a general strike scheduled for Thursday.
Ah yes, the trade strike should really help with moderation the impact of excess liquidity on such things as, well, food.
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This might matter if anyone could find Tunisia on a map. No, actually it still wouldn't matter.
Star wars was filmed there. Watch out for the sand people.
Here's a gigantic, arrogant douchebag named Goldman stating on CNBS that "a little food rioting might not be such a bad thing".
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1723087411&play=1
Oh no he didn't. Opps, maybe he did.
Not to worry, the ugly American says they're just a bunch of disposable brown/black/red/yellow people.
<sarcasm>
BTW if you listen carefully Kudlow agreed.
Yah, CD, he sure did.
Fucking pathetic, arrogant pricks.
You can sanitize anything as long as it's just "bidness".
It matters because the last things the pigs need is a flood of muslim refugees landing on their shores stirring up even more problems with the firmly ensconced labor unions...
Bernanke says inflation rate still too lowIt's a good thing we avoided the recession which would no doubt have been the result, had the housing problem not been contained in sub-prime, so accurately forecasted by Ben.
Why is this surpising?
If only the Tunisians bought Apple, or the Russell 2000, they'd be well ahead of food inflation. Get them into the stock market, problem solved a la Bernanke!!
/s
Really, it is unbelievable the ignorance of some people. Karma awaits.
there is there and here is here however as things gets worse here, things that happen there come here. U(.)
The Great War started when an anarchist shot a royal in a backwater country.
And most 'Mericans who know what "The Great War" refers to (all 100 of us) will claim that it was also fought entirely in a backwater region (Europe). Two oceans, and Mexico and Canada, and that's how 'Mericans view these things in the world.
Can't happen here Buckwheat.
Oh suuuuure.
"The protests began after a 26-year-old man, selling fruit and vegetables on the street, set himself on fire after police confiscated his produce. He later died of his injuries."
http://www.english.rfi.fr/africa/20110110-least-14-die-wave-protests
That's a serious way to protest. I was thinking that would never happen in the US, but wikipedia has a spreadsheet of political self-immolations:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_self-immolations
including a 2006 protest of war in Iraq. However, riots did not ensue.
It's even more disturbing from a universal language perspective. Being on fire and burning is communication of deep deep distrust. In other words you are fucked you have lost all trust from this person.
Did they not get that bailout check cashed yet? I know a liquor Store open late.
The highly competent government there tried to fix the inflation problem by...handing out money!
Sounds as if it didn't work so well. Go figure.
This will never happen in America!!! We are America the shining city on a hill Tyler! I will always say it we are America! History and laws of economics and finance do not apply to us! We are special, the rise of commodity prices is a lie,PMSNBC and Faux News tells us that all is good in the hood!
Sarcasm off
Can Palin see this place from her back porch?
Tina Fey said that. Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but you abuse the privlege.
LOL. Palin lover alert. hehe.
BTW, Palin did say that!
Link please.
Here you go good sir:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdftnFjQfzs&feature=player_embedded
Thank you. I will examine it in context, but my larger point is that conservatives have been called stupid since Ike. Socialists, though, are always brilliant. Lots on nobel prize winners and such. The red vs. blue media meme is a distraction.
++
What if... by either attacking her or defending her you are doing so by design? What if she is polarizing... by design? She is bread and circus for a society that loves to choose a side.
Oh, so true. Don't help the power elite push their meme's.
If she did who cares, who said this: "If they bring a knife to the fight we bring a gun" I can give you a link if you like..
Inciting violence is troubling don't you think?
I wonder if it is the GMO and MSG and fluoride that the Americans eat which causes them to be fat and stupid and lame?
that depends on your stage of life and intensity of exposure.
mmm,butter for Dessert and wearing goofy Puma shoes...line tow much over there?
you forgot aspartame and Splenda
Don't forget MMR vaccine...
And Monsanto's high Fructose "corn" syrup.
bingo...
http://www.naturalnews.com/GoogleSearchResults.html?q=corn+suryp&cx=0105...
In a nutshell: Corn syrup extracted from GMO crops modified with synthetics (concoction labeled HFCS) instructs the body to increase fat content of the bloodstream at the same time inhibits the fat cells from telling the brain they have had enough. End result is a fryed liver, pancreas and fat cell insulin production capability. Basically a fat diabetic slug result...
HFCS, my personal fav. It's freakin' everywhere. Throw in some ritalin, prozac and other Big Pharma concoctions, and park the zombies in front of the teevee...
Oh, please don't forget the newly FDA approved "organic" immunotoxic and neurotoxic NEOTAME. With FDA sanctions, does not even need to be listed as contents. When did America die? I missed the funeral.
http://www.grist.org/article/2009-07-08-monsanto-FDA-taylor/
/pwned.
It depends. If your job is polishing a chair with your ass then you're probably going to get big, especially if you don't do anything else except play fantasy football with a bunch of sweater vest wearing limp wrists.
- OR -
Ennui and bitchy wives with their knees grown together probably contribute more to men's waistlines than any dietary considerations, IMHO.
It depends. If your job is polishing a chair with your ass then you're probably going to get big, especially if you don't do anything else except play fantasy football with a bunch of sweater vest wearing limp wrists.
- OR -
Ennui and bitchy wives with their knees grown together probably contribute more to men's waistlines than any dietary considerations, IMHO.
Bullish news, no doubt. This should be good for another 100 points in the Dow.
India Iran to settle oil in euros. There goes the dollar again.
http://dawnwires.com/business/india-iran-to-settle-oil-trade-in-euros-an...
The IBT reported they may use gold: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/99316/20110110/india-may-use-gold-to-set...
The Economic Times also reported they may use gold as a short term solution:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/energy/oil--ga...
Hmmm... wonder if we'll see an official announcement of a decoupling from the dollar...
<sarcasm>they should have bought physical gold</sarcasm>
Pay the Riot Police higher salaries. All will sort itself out.
Lies spread by communist agitators!! The people are angry because they can't get the white iPhone! AAPL!!!!!!!!!!
I love the quote :
"The United Nations has called on Tunisian authorities to launch an investigation into the violence."
Conclusion : People are hungry and have no future...
+ 6 bushels -- That line caught my attention too, Gimp. What a bunch of rocket scientists we have over at the UN!
After the investigation, form a committee! Sheesh, do WE HAVE to think of everything?!
The four POMO dudes will fix all problems with the stroke of the magic keypad. They're also available for Weddings and Bar mitzvahs
also from the article
“Tunisia has been the most repressive, the most authoritative regime of the Arab world for a number of years. It’s the strongest police state and has the heaviest hand,” he said, ‘there was an assumption that that had kept it stable. People’s discontent was so heavily repressed that there was nothing they could do.
“The riots are a bit surprising, but the tension has been bubbling for some time,” Sahraoui says. “At some point there had to be an eruption.”
nor the last
I wouldn't say it's worse than Syria or Jordan, but it's pretty fucked up. There are soldiers patrolling the archaeological site of Carthage to make sure tourists don't take photos of the walls of the President's palace next door. There is a real cult of personality around the President, but you get the impression nobody buys into it. The worst aspect of the nepotism is the incompetence that accompanies it, the able youth leave the country if they can or just sit around and get angry.
coming soon to a corner near you....
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/florida/police-probe-wild-melee-caught-tape
who says it doesn´t happen here....every day ..in da hood
only person getting their a$$ kicked is the white girl.
money well spent in the education system.
Race Trac - low gas prices and FREE entertainment...
If you read the report it stated:
"At the fight’s conclusion, the RaceTrac’s parking lot is dotted with wigs and hair extensions torn off during the fight."
LMFAO... Say it ain't so..
You forgot discarded scratch-offs
.
Interesting. The Indian food inflation situation is bubbling fiercely. Headline news about run-away food prices. I see it every day I shop.
This is why the slavishness induced into most country's masses that the stock Market Index is a direct correlator of national happiness/satisfaction.
I think tunisia and Algeria probably have no stock markets to speak of. Else, they'd be POMOed into goggle eyed complacency too.
ORI
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/evolution-devolution-involution/
Maybe Tunisia can get large reparation payment from Italy for damages from the first,second,and third Punic wars that would solve all their problems.
Many still don't get why this is could be the spark for something much larger, much darker. And the cause is something very big that could take down the global economy. Ignore at your own peril.
keep an eye on the price of onions in India ("the poor man's food"). last time onion prices went this high the gov was overthrown. onion farmer strike just called off because of gov promised price controls. and the bombay stock exchange has recently been causing tears too, 1% back today but after a bummer six day loss of 5%.
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/pm-calls-for-another-meeting-on-rising-prices...
http://news.oneindia.in/2011/01/12/sensexsnaps-6-day-losing-streak-rebou...
On a positive note - Indian flatulence is way down this week..
No worries.
NVDA is up 100% in 3 months, as headlined in this morning's MarketWatch.
You think that whoever bandwagoned that stock up like that cares about food riots in some small foreign country?
Nope.
lebanon gov't collpases; us and israel positioned
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
www.debka.com
Oh man, did you see the market today. Rally on baby. Nothing like makin money off of the backs of third world countries.
Wait...was that just two planes flying into the WTC? Ooops...
This wouldn't happen if they had a "Tunisa Idol"
this is just so true!
Tunisia: The ultimate outcome of Biflationary hell is staring America in the face.
"Massive economic slack" (deflation) + Massive Food Inflation = Street Riots
how the hell can cost of living be up if you have "massive" slack? that's unpossible - the San Fran Fed has said so repeatedly)
Yes, Virginia, there CAN be deflation and inflation both at the same time. Massive unemployment and declining incomes, declining personal and real assets at the same time as a rising cost environment for business and cost of living. I've been pointing this out here for over a year.
In Fed speak, we "Need" inflation in the US to "get the economy going again". But the result will simply be higher input costs and pricing the middle class out of its existence. In the US, the cost of a Middle Class existence is the sine qua non of continued prosperity and continuing our economic ties in the world. If we continue in the course we're on, biflation will kill the chance of both
Aargh, you're a smart poster, so why make such an elementary mistake? Bernanke is absolutely correct - we do need inflation to get the economy going again. The thing is, however, that Ben is referring to the proper definition of inflation, which is a net increase in money/credit aggregates. Price has nothing to do with it.
Our entire global economy is 100% percent based on constant loan growth. Mako used to point this fact out all the time. Once the natural tipping point s was topped a few years back, the PTB have gone all out in a mad attempt at getting the engine running once more.
The problem is that the credit component is around 90% of the total. There is simply nothing like millions (or billions) of individuals signing on the dotted line for 100, 250, 500k loans. In an instant, we have an immediate hit to both balance sheets & income statements as the loan is created out of thin air, yet can be used as ready money to purchase any number of consumer items.
QE, along with constant propaganda, is all about pumping market prices to induce CONFIDENCE. It's all a shell game to get the prols lined up at the banks again. The side effect are commodity price increases. This is the game Bernanke is playing. He's got a short time horizon in which to re-start the party.
I thought he failed years ago; now, he's simply caught in a cycle of diminishing marginal returns as the shrill newscasts become even more frantic. Part & parcel is the absolute suppression of any contrary information/indicators.
As far as prices having nothing to do with inflation, I think Tunisia begs to differ. The bigger picture is what the Fed economists and many in academics are missing. Monetary aggregates SHOULD be the only determinants of inflation/deflation, however in this economy they are not. They have 'decoupled' (to use a tired term), because of new realities in the global economy
I remember at Wharton in the late 1970s when nobody could explain rampant inflation AND poor employment levels at the same time. This revolutionary UN-possible concept is what gave birth to the term STAG-flation at that time, and gave the green light to Milton Friedman's Monetarist policies. We live in their shadow still today, but they have outlived their usefulness.
Inflation in the things you do need, deflation in the things you do not need. The latter leads to massive unemployment where people have been given "boutique" jobs in replacement of productive work.
Coming to a consumer-based FIRE economy near you.
As long as Tunisians, Algerians, Chinese, Indians, etc. can't row over to the U.S., it's all good for The Bernank.
He's probably eating lunch with Jamie D or Lloyd B at the Waldorf-Astoria right now.
I just wanted to say how much I appreciate the wit in the write-ups the past couple days. I have indeed laughed out loud a few times. Keep doing the unpossible.
Haha, me too. The wit here is just terrific. My kids often ask what I think is so funny.
Oil over 93. Get your gas masks on.
Wheat .. last time bread prices soared.. 30,000 aristicrates lost their heads.
Let them eat Haiti Cakes, aka mud pies.
Yipes.. Moracco
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOTGkNyzPXM
Paper food ETFs to consider as speculations:
DBA
CORN
There may be others, it is hard to keep up with the ETFs.
Good to see that history still holds that hungry people will rise up. Wonder what the strategic reserve of Twinkies and hostess cakes is at these days? Zimbabwe Ben might have to drop junk food along with those dollars out of his chopper.
Or a turkey drop WKRP style.
http://www.kewego.it/video/iLyROoafYtDe.html
James Howard Kunstler names the Cheez Doodle as the official food of the Long Emergency.
I think events are unfolding faster than the NWO plans.
Watch the documentary "Collapse" that will give you all the light of what is happening and what is coming soon to you town.
Had not heard about this documentary.
Thanks for sharing.
Of course, this could never happen here in the good ol' U.S. of A.
I wonder how such people will behave when the shit really hits the fan? sarcasm off
concerning the smoking gun vid
MSM aren't all ignoring the story. WSJ has a lovely headline: "Tunisia Moves to End Deadly Protests" I didn't RTFA, but it probably says something like "Poor, unfortunate Tunisian government officials must repel deadly psychos who are violently angry for no logical reason. Sucks to live in a place with a lousy, volatile, corrupt economy. Better than Haiti, right?"
"Regional strongman holds beer summit in response -- pictures to follow..."
Go long physical solar!
"The People who has been running the economic paradigm until today are loosing control"
Oh fuck, wrong button
http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watc...
A French university teacher dies in the Tunisian riots, the crowd watches him agonizing
(very violent pictures)
The greatest challenges anyone faces are getting rid of abusive husbands/spouses, getting rid of abusive pimps and getting rid of abusive governments. They simply are not good losers.
China next. The last major communist to fall. All because they refuse to remove their peg. I look forward to china rice riots. Choke on these dollars and die bitchez!
Silly people - they should just live in the core.
http://www.thedailybell.com/1662/.html
and
http://www.thedailybell.com/1676/Failing-Elite-Food-Gambit.html
The creep of food inflation is ever increasing. I guess all this printing of money is finally showing it's head.