Uranium

America Sets Its Sights On Controlling African Resources … And Reducing Chinese Influence

While the predictions of Blackstone's Byron Wien (born in 1933), who may not be in the senate or "sleep-deprived", but this year will become an octogenarian, may have been all over the place in the past 10 years, some correct, but most miserably wrong (with a recent hit rate of about 25%), he always does provide entertainment value. Which is the only value in the latest release of his 10 forecasts for 2013. Naturally, take all of these with a salt mine.

The return of inflation, in official Japanese liberal newspeak, will make the economy less sickly even if the strategy "has risks". One of these is war with China, if only as a (Japanese) crowd pleaser, and another is selling off Japan's over-one-trillion dollar holding of US Federal debt at exactly the right psychological moment to implode the US economy, already teetering on the brink of its fiscal cliff. Japan's endgame flirt with Neoliberal mindwarp, what we can call the "slogan based economy", has brought about a situation where War and Circuses is surely on the Japanese political agenda, along with Japan's threats to sabotage the global economy. The inventors of kamikaze suicide war now have an Old Guard of political deciders who are prepared to pilot the economy straight into the ground, while bleating about "national pride".

Although its interests in the continent are broadly similar, India’s engagement with Africa differs significantly from China. Will it prove sustainable? Close ties between India and Africa are not new. Trade has flourished between East Africa and India’s west coast for centuries. New Delhi’s interest in Africa waned in the 1990s, but rapid economic growth and soaring energy requirements, however, forced India at the turn of the new millennium to rethink its neglect of Africa. The domination of oil and natural resources in India’s imports from Africa and of manufactured goods in its exports to the continent has drawn criticism that India is indulging in a “neo-colonial grab” for Africa’s resources. "This is an uninformed view. Africa of today is not the same as during colonial times. When countries exploit the resources of Africa today, the terms are set by the African nations and not by outsiders. The deals are mutually beneficial." India hopes that its capacity building, people-centric approach and efforts to build a sustainable partnership with Africa will keep such allegations at bay.

• Obama Wins Re-election With Romney Defeated in Key States (Bloomberg, Reuters)
• Romney's last, greatest 'turnaround' falls short (Reuters)
• Control of Congress set to remain split (FT)
• Republicans to Hold Most Governor Offices Since 2000 (Bloomberg)
• Economic Unease Looms After Win (WSJ)
• Storm-lashed New York, New Jersey scramble as weather threatens (Reuters)
• Democrats Assured of Keeping U.S. Senate Majority (Bloomberg)
• Greece to vote on austerity, protests intensify (Reuters)
• France offers businesses €20bn tax break (FT) ... Wait, what?
• Putin Fires Defense Chief in Rare Move (WSJ)
• China premier Wen calls for deeper cooperation on disasters (China Daily)
• China wrestles over democratic reform (FT)
• Top-Performing Won Threatens to Hurt Korea Export Rebound (Bloomberg)

North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut

Exxon Mobil is no longer the world's number-one oil producer. As of yesterday, that title belongs to Putin Oil Corp – oh, whoops. We mean the title belongs to Rosneft, Russia's state-controlled oil company. With TNK-BP in its hands, Rosneft will be in charge of more than 4 million barrels of oil production a day. And who is in charge of Rosneft? None other than Vladimir Putin, Russia's resource-full president. Gazprom in control of Europe's gas, Rosneft in control of its oil. A red hand stretching out from Russia to strangle the supremacy of the West and pave the way for a new world order– one with Russia at the helm. It is not as far-fetched as it might seem – or as you might want it to be. Or imagine this: Russia could join OPEC.

US reliance on oil imports as a share of consumption is gradually declining; but China's, however, is rising and is now higher than the US. As JPMorgan's Michael Cembalest notes, China now has the world's largest new car market and most extensive network of superhighways - which given the lack of a viable, affordable electric car - means fossil fuel consumption is expected to continue to rise. The trends that lead to this inexorable rise have critically important implications for the West in the ongoing containment of Iran's nuclear ambitions. Unfortunately for the West, the prospects for cooperation on sanctions appear dim as the following nine points (on China's relationship with Iran) should make clear.

Hint: It Was Not To End the War Or Save Lives

Everyone is aware of a multitude of problems that besets our world, however the nature of these problems and why they exist is distorted by the media and by governments all over the world. Our leaders, corporate heads, military top-brass etc. all have a fairly good idea of what is really happening, they just don’t want us – the ignorant masses known as the general public to know what they know. The multiple crises on this planet are caused by our insane mode of living – one that seems to be dominated by economics. Our way of life (unfortunately now for most of the world) depends on an ever-expanding economic system, for if it is not expanding it is contracting. This system was all well and good while there was plenty of capacity for continued expansion, but unfortunately for all of us the limits of expansion are not far off.

According to a recent CNN poll, 60% of Americans want go to war with Iran to prevent them from getting nuclear weapons. This in spite of the fact that the US intelligence community is fairy unanimous that Iran is not even currently pursuing nuclear weapons. Simultaneously 71% of Americans — in total contradiction to the evidence recognised by both the CIA and Mossad that Iran is not currently even developing a nuclear weapon — believe that Iran currently has nuclear weapons. Unlike the 71%, I’m not really convinced by this — if anything, it could be Iranian disinformation to try and avoid an American or Israeli attack. More importantly, the US and Israeli intelligence community at large don’t buy it. If they had any real evidence that Iran had a bomb today, Netanyahu would have been presenting it at the UN instead of drawing red lines on Wile E. Coyote bomb diagrams.

• Trade Slows Around World (WSJ)
• Debt limit lurks in fiscal cliff talks (FT)
• Welcome back to the eurozone crisis (FT, Wolfgang Munchau)
• Euro Leaders Face October of Unrest After September Rally (Bloomberg)
• Dad, you were right (FT)
• 25% unemployment, 25% bad loans, 5% drop in Industrial Production, and IMF finally lowers its 2013 Greek GDP forecast (WSJ)
• Global IPOs Slump to Second-Lowest Level Since Financial Crisis (Bloomberg)
• France's Hollande faces street protest over EU fiscal pact (Reuters)
• EU Working to Resolve Difference on Bank Plan, Rehn Says (Bloomberg)
• China manufacturing remains sluggish (FT)
• Samaras vows to fight Greek corruption (FT) ... and one of these days he just may do it
• Leap of Faith (Hssman)
• Germany told to 'come clean’ over Greece (AEP)

It's the weekend so forgive us this modest sidetrack but this 'Onion-esque' story was just too good to ignore.The company at the center of the Olympics' security debacle, G4S (whose directors resigned just yesterday over the "humiliating shambles") has gone one better. As Reuters reports, Megan Rice - an 82-year-old nun - cut perimeter fences and reached the outer wall where enriched uranium was stored at the US Government's nuclear storage 'Fort Knox' in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Can you guess who was responsible for the 'outsourced' security that enabled this SNAFU? G4S' subsidiary Babcock & Wilcox Co. (B&W). Energy Secretary Steven Chu has said the incident was an important "wake-up call" for the entire nuclear complex. An investigation last month found a security camera had been broken for about six months and was part of a backlog of repairs needed for security at the facility. Several top-ranking NNSA officials have been 'reassigned' (Gulag?) but have no fear as B&W have stated that the active union workers involved will all be employed elsewhere. One more example of the ineptitude of government oversight, the unintended consequence of crony capitalism, or simply another 'fool-me-once...'/unpunished debacle?

Iran is not blameless, and continues to provoke Israel through its support for Hamas and Hezbollah and through eliminationist rhetoric. But given the level of provocation from the Israeli and American side, it is astonishing that Iran remains free of nuclear weapons. Yet it is a fact that Iran is not armed with nuclear weapons, and it remains a fact that Iran has not attacked nor occupied any foreign lands since World War 2. Iran is not an expansionistic country. As neocon provocateur Patrick Clawson essentially admitted in advocating for a false flag attack to get America to war, Iran is not likely to attack either the United States or Israel. So when it comes to drawing red lines, we in the West would do well to draw a red line around our behaviour — because right now, we in the West are the ones who are stirring up trouble by threatening to strike first.

• Madrid Protesters March Again as Spain Braces for Cuts (Bloomberg)
• Euro Can Bear Fewer Members as Czech Leader Calls Greeks Victims (Bloomberg)
• Chinese Industrial Profits Fall 6.2% in Fifth Straight Drop (Bloomberg)
• China pours $58bn into money markets (FT)
• Beijing vows more measures on Diaoyu Islands (China Daily)
• Noda vows no compromise as Japan, China dig in on islands row (Reuters)
• Politico’s Paul Ryan Satire: The Joke’s on Them (Bloomberg)
• Electoral Drama Shifts to Ohio (WSJ)
• German opposition party targets banks (FT)
• Fed action triggers fear of new currency wars (FT)
• Ex-Credit Suisse CDO Boss Serageldin Is Arrested in U.K. (Bloomberg)
• Romney ‘I Dig It’ Trust Gives Heirs Triple Benefit (Bloomberg)