SOME EU ECONOMIC NEWS AND CONCERNS+

BBC News - Brussels plans EU-wide banking union from 2013 http://bbc.in/LhyTsf -

"A single regulator to oversee banks across all 27 European Union states could be in place as early as 2013 according to the European Commission.

A controversial new bank bailout fund financed by a tax on financial institutions is also planned.
The proposal includes an EU-wide deposit guarantee scheme to protect savers in the event of a bank collapse."
The above seems to be a great way to consolidate economic power in the hands of the few oligarchs who already call most of the shots in the world. This New World Economic Order comes on the heels of a disaster that it created, perhaps for this very purpose.



BBC News - Spain and Italy borrowing costs rise http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18405729

BBC News - India's industrial output grows less than forecast http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18406544

BBC News - UK manufacturing output in surprise April fall http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18407134

BBC News - Eurozone: No safe haven http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-your-money-18292739

BURMA, "CRY FOR ME!"

The sounds of silence regarding Burma are deafening. Facing certain violence, the Buddhist monks of Burma took to the streets to peacefully demand change in a country that has been ruled for forty-five years by the iron hand of military dictatorship. While it is true that many nations “urged restraint” on the part of the military junta leader General Than Shwe, the basic call for help by the oppressed of Burma have fallen on deaf ears.

Just as the world ignored the early call of the Kurds in Iraq in the time of Hussein, the same deaf ear has been turned to the people of Burma. Lip service aside, there is nothing that the world will do to help the Buddhist monks. If one did not know better, you might think that Burma had oil reserves. But wait, they do have oil reserves and China and India are competing for its control.

A September 29th article by Time/CNN (Simon Robinson) reported that India’s silence on the struggles of its neighbors may well be oil related. Why is the largest democracy in the world and in that region not using its leverage to help end the violence in Burma? The article indicates that the Burmese junta is helping India defeat insurgents in the northeast part of that country. Further, India is seeking to exploit large oil and gas reserves in and around Burma. Having recently lost out in a pipeline contract to China, it is of little wonder that India does not want to upset the military dictatorship in Burma.

It seems that throughout history, the world has been willing to tolerate military rulers if they have control over significant natural resources. The U.S. has long supported such dictatorships in Latin America because such regimes brought relative stability American economic interests. Since it is obvious that both China and India have the corner on the Burma resource market, it is clear that the U.S. has little to loose in condemning the violent actions that have been taken against the monks.

The Buddhist rebellion in Burma is fading. Faced with guns, clubs and water cannons, the peaceful monks are no match for the powerful military. The streets are going empty as soldiers block streets, take over monasteries and silence opposition. By the time the UN envoy actually gets to talk to the military ruler of Burma, the issue will have faded into a footnote in history. One more struggle, one more cry for freedom has gone unheeded all in the name of money and oil. On this day, cry for Burma and its people.

WEATHER IN CHAOS: WHO PAYS?

They say ignorance is bliss but when it comes to the weather it ignorance can be a bitter pill to swallow. I normally keep up on the latest news and I especially keep an eye on the weather since climate change is a frequent topic in my articles and blogs. For the past few weeks I had been busy readying the release of my next book, “Jesus Taught It, Too: The Early Roots of the Law of Attraction” and signing a contract for another book to be released late fall called, “Raping Louisiana: A Diary of Deceit.” While I was well aware of the heat wave out West and the deluge in Texas and other Western states, all had seemed relatively quiet on the climate change front-at I thought all was quiet.

Last night I went to check the weather on the internet and decided to take a look at the latest weather headlines. I have to admit to having been shocked to see so many weather disaster stories. I listen to NPR each morning and glance at our local paper everyday but with one or two exceptions, I did not pick up any of the headlines that follow. When the stories are scattered between many news reports I guess the enormity of the issue gets diluted. But when you begin to list the headlines in one place, a totally different picture emerges. On one site, these were the weather related stories and headlines:


94 Dead in China floods, landslides
South Dakota floods kill…
Indian floods death toll up…
Bush declares disaster area in Oklahoma…
Texas declares worst flooding in 50 years…
Heat moving eastward…
Flooded city in Kansas assesses damage…
Western US states swelter under record heat wave…
Country’s wettest June on record…
Tornado kills…in China…
Pakistanis set up flood rescue…
Weather extremes whither LA…
Pakistani monsoon victims riot…
Dallas looks like Seattle…
Climate change factor in Chile’s lake vanishing…
2007 seen as second warmest year…
Fires rage across sizzling Greece…
Scorching heat, floods wreak havoc across Europe…
Indian flood toll up, millions left stranded…
More heat ahead for sweltering west…

If you look a little deeper, even more stories arise concerning possible flooding from melting glaciers in Tibet, floods and deaths in England and Europe and general horror stories that are climate related.

We have also heard about many scientists claiming that the world’s climate is nearing a catastrophic tipping point and that unless changes in our carbon emissions happen soon, we could be in for real trouble. Of course, looking at the above headlines it would appear that we are already in trouble. Of course other stories say that policy makers are working on finding ways to reduce carbon emissions and sometime in the next 20 years we might get 30 miles per gallon for fleet averages. It makes you want to shout, “Hello is anyone paying attention to what is happening to the climate right now?”

American auto makers complain that converting to alternative fuels of greatly increasing fleet mileages would be too costly. Producers of electricity that use coal as their energy source say that making coal plants cleaner will cost too much money. All of our political and industry leaders say that having a clean planet will cost too much money. It really begs the question. What is the cost of the floods, heat waves, raging fires in terms of property and lives? Florida officials say that they need “five feet” of rain to make up for water deficiencies to quench the thirst of existing populations and to accommodate new development. Perhaps if the sea rises, that will no longer be an issue. Millions, if not billions of dollars are being lost now to climate chaos.

Our actions and inactions of yesterday are causing the consequences of today. Today, we are doing little to alter our ways and have no real solid plans for change for at least the next twenty years. If the weather headlines we see now are the harbinger of things to come, everyone had better strap in for we are in for quite the ride. It is also said that knowledge is power but that is wrong. It is the use of knowledge that is power and one can only hope that people wake up and pay closer attention to what is happening in the world now if we want to still have a world tomorrow.