Afghanistan

Of the banks, by the banks and for the banks ...

It appears we may have misspoken earlier when we suggested that today's peak-lunaticism will be that spouting from the mouth of one ex-Goldmanite Bill Dudley. Here is another current Goldmanite (whose recent GSAM P&L track record is in dire need of public dissemination), vying for today's prize. "If I look at the whole region together, then just at Africa in general,
MENA has the combined potential to be a BRIC-like economic group. In
this spirit, and despite all the horrible things happening in some of
these places, this revolution strikes me as being essentially rather
bullish." If it weren't for my horse...

After protests recently shifted to Korea, they have now migrated to very tightly controlled Vietnam (and some were wondering what the reason for the orchestrated take down of rice in the past week was), in the first public demonstration by unhappy farmer against the controlling regime in many years. In the meantime, as the media blackout over developments in Korea, Bahrain and just as importantly Algeria continues (not to mention China), keeping in mind that as Nomura predicted, a shut down in Algerian and Libyan oil production is all that is needed for crude to hit $220, we now look forward to Venezuela to join the revolutionary ranks, with the culmination being when Afghanistan and Pakistan, and associated nukes, go in play.

With must-see Dan Rather news clip ...

As of yesterday we need to immediately open up ANWR and the shallow off-shore regions to exploration and drilling. I love caribou as much as the next person, but this must be done. Even the most conservative estimates tell us that by 2018 if development were green-lighted today, ANWR could be producing as much as 780,000 and then slowing to 710,000 barrels a day by 2030. Also it is estimated that 18 billion barrels of crude oil are contained in areas currently off-limits to drilling for environmental reasons. No nation has denied itself so much abundance of its own domestic natural resources as has the USA.

Did Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service say he was providing Al-Qaeda terrorists with "nuclear fissile material" and "biological agents"?

And so we go from one lunatic to another. In an "exclusive interview" with the FT, Muammar Gadaffi's son, al-Saadi, told the newspaper, whose parent Pearson PLC is 3% owner by the Libyan Sovereign Wealth Fund, "made it clear that he believed any such new regime would still include his father. “My father would stay as the big father who advises,” he told the Financial Times, adding that direct administrative powers should be handed over to a new generation." And further confirming the soon to be deposed ruler's break with reality, were accusations that the reason why the Libyan airforce has been shooting at protestors over the past week, was to protect the country from "thousands of al-Qaeda" infiltrators who had taken over the eastern part of the country. Touching on a topic discussed yesterday, namely that the Gaddafi regime may engage in sabotage against its oil industry, al-Saadi “said that the army would be sent to guard facilities if necessary. The army is still very strong,” he said. “If we hear anything, we will send some battalions. When people see the army, they will be afraid.” In other words, expect to hear news of major disruptions in the country's oil infrastructure which will promptly be blamed on al-Qaeda by the Gaddafis. And going back to reality, we read that the death toll in Libya has surpassed 10,000 people.

A recently released report by the World Bank’s Food Price Watch confirms that rising agricultural products are sharply pushing up global food prices in lower-income nations (see “World food price uncertainty presents social risks,” in AsiaNews, 4 February 2011), especially among the poorest (where the poverty line is defined as US$ 1.25 per person per day). The WB’s global food price (GFP) index increased by 15 per cent between October 2010 and January 2011, 29 per cent above its level a year earlier. The global prices of wheat, maize, sugar and edible oils especially saw sharp increases. According to the WB estimates, an additional 44 million people fell into poverty. For some Asian nations, the price of wheat rose considerably: Kyrgyzstan (54 per cent), Bangladesh (45 per cent), Tajikistan (37 per cent), Mongolia (33 per cent), Sri Lanka (31 per cent), Azerbaijan (24 per cent), Afghanistan (19 per cent), Sudan (16 per cent), and Pakistan (16 per cent).

Government and big business are gaming social media ...

9/11 was as foreseeable as the financial crisis ...

How about our friends at JP Morgan (JPM), one of our favorite financial holdings, who just reported that they did not lose money on a single trading day in the ENTIRE 2nd HALF of 2010, making $76 Million dollars per day on the average for all of 2010.

It's only a start ... but the Egyptians have done orders of magnitude more in a couple weeks than the U.S. military has been able to do in 9 years.

Boots on the ground in Somalia? Maybe sooner versus later.

True conservatives want a strong economy. But war is bad for the economy ...

Rummy sticks his foot in it again ...