Business – Economics – News

People and experts have been sounding the drumbeat against the wide-scale use of this x-ray & gamma technology.  Cnet is now another major publication to bring these x-ray scanner cancer risks to light.  The other that I personally read what the study out of MIT about the effects these devices on your RNA and possible DNA, causing mutations.  In my opinion, if you are deploying something as a “public safety” device, you can’t harm the people you are trying to protect.   It is unacceptable if even one person gets cancer from this device per year.   Statistically I believe that would be more than what terrorism killed in this country over a decade since 9/11.

C|Net – Even though a public outcry has prompted Homeland Security to move away from adding X-ray machines to airports–it purchased 300 body scanners last year that used alternative technology instead–it appears to be embracing them at U.S.-Mexico land border crossings as an efficient way to detect drugs, currency, and explosives.

A 63-page set of specifications (PDF), heavily redacted, obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center through the Freedom of Information Act, says the scanners must “be based on X-Ray or gamma technology,” which use potentially dangerous ionizing radiation at high energies, and “shall be capable of scanning cars, SUVs, motorcycles and busses.”

“Society will pay a huge price in cancer because of this,” John Sedat, professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California at San Francisco, told CNET. Sedat has raised concerns about the health risks of X-ray scanners, and the European Commission in November prohibited their use in European airports.

Analysis: The TSA and federal government will continue to push these out, citing the need to protect our borders from terrorism.  Critics and more science will come out showing that these machines are much more dangerous than stated and the public will continue to lose confidence in this type of security.   There will be a showdown in the coming months or years on who is right and what matters most.

Its seems the end of this chapter of Libyan history is now here.  Below you can read the report from the Tripoli Post.  It looks like Al Qathafi (Gaddafi) was fleeing in a large convoy of vehicles from his hometown.  NATO saw the convoy and it was under orders these were Pro-Gaddafi forces and they had authorization to fire on them.   During this attack, the convoy was stopped, at that point the Rebel forces moved in and as the battle ensued, the Dictator was hit multiple times and he death resulted from these fatal wounds.

Now we are in the confirmation stage to make sure it wasn’t a body double or someone else.  It does look like it was him but we will see until we get an independent confirmation.  I personally have never been to Libya but from interviews I have watch of Libyans talk about their former leader, he seemed to carry a very heavy hand and used that to maintain power.  In the end, the people have to support you of their own free will and have the right to dissent, only in that environment  you can tell if the people really want you leading them or not.  Hopefully the Libyans know what they want for their future and do not bring in another oppressive character.

Tripoli Post:

Libyan dictator Muammar Al Qathafi was killed Thursday by rebels in his hometown of Sirte that lies halfway between Tripoli (800 kilometres east of the Libyan capital), and Benghazi. His son Muatassim and his defence minister Aboubakre Younis Jabr were also killed.
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The BBC is correct in their analysis that allowing these renminbi-denominated spot gold contracts is a major step in “internationalizing” the Chinese currency.  This will start making it a larger player on the global currency scene like the Dollar, Euro, Pound and Franc.  As China becomes more developed and their per capita income rises, the demand for there currency will increase and more people will be (hopefully) selling many goods to the Chinese domestic economy.

Over the next 50-100 years, the probability that Yuan will be the most important currency is over 50% in my opinion.  Hong Kong is a important financial market so this is a big step.  They have already been doing currency swaps in the Pan-asian region that does not involve the U.S. dollar.  The United States needs to get it house in order before the world finally loses confidence in the strength of their currency.

BBC News (Staff Reporter): The Chinese Gold & Silver Exchange Society (CGSE) said it will offer offshore renminbi-denominated spot gold contracts to investors.  The move comes amid a push by Chinese authorities for a more international role for its currency.  Hong Kong is the world’s third-largest gold trading centre.

“By attracting both local and international investors, the Renminbi Kilobar Gold is a significant step towards internationalizing the renminbi,” said Haywood Cheung, president of CGSE.   The growth of the Chinese economy coupled with a push by the authorities for a more global role for their currency has seen an increased demand for yuan-denominated investment products.  At the same time Hong Kong has been trying to promote the city as the offshore trading hub for the yuan.  The demand has grown further by the increasing amount of offshore deposits of the Chinese currency in the city which rose 6.4% in August to 609bn yuan ($95bn; £60bn).

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Karl Denninger is one of websites I like to frequent when looking to cutting edge analysis or breaking financial news before I hear about it from major news networks.  He is a staunch fiscal conservative, in a good way.   He understands markets and can spot anomalies with the ability to explain it in a way that a average person that has learned some technical terms can understand.  This is a rare and much need skill these days and has driven me to read more and really get under the hood of our global financial system to really know what is going on and how it works so I can understand all this complexity that posted.

What is not really known is that Mr. Denninger is actually one of the founders of the “Tea Party” before it became officially part of the Republican party in the United States.  In this video, he recounts the beginnings well before we ever heard about it on the media.  It is always good to know our old and contemporary history.

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Just watching the GOP debate  on Bloomberg TV and saw the hand-off of Newt to Dr. Paul.  Now that would be interesting to see if the polling on that would be strong.   Newt really railed on Ben Bernanke and Geithner on his opening remarks.  Really got into one of the core issues the United States is dealing with.  Transparency and the Debt are the two key issues that we are dealing with and the issue that has not been addressed correctly.

Paul really went to bat on the question talking about government involvement in the American housing market.  It has peaked my interest haha.

Karl Denninger brought this interesting interview to my attention on his website.  He is correct on the call that this guy understands the problem we are facing.   You CAN NOT use DEBT to deal with a DEBT PROBLEM.  I love how people keeps using the same line when their last round of fresh debt (quantitative easing) didn’t work, they always say, it wasn’t enough and we need to do more and in a bigger fashion.  This is going to lead to a crisis that we have never seen and it will ruin modern society as we know it because if they then come to the realization that the debt and spending of debt was the source of the problem then it only means one thing, massive austerity.

The people will not be happy about that because they will not agree that this is a majority their fault and will take to the streets over the needed cuts to re-balance the world economy.  Default is the solutions and with that follows deflation that is needed to bring prices levels down to something that is much closer to wage levels so people can actually handle any debts they bring on their personal balance-sheet.  Lastly, and this has to do with the U.S. and other first world nations, the free-trade mantra has too go, national interest matters and just because we are inter-connected doesn’t mean we gut our middle-class job market.

It is a privilege to sell in our markets and you can not expect an American worker with our social requirements to be able to compete with other workers at all.  Creating jobs and maintaining them should be where American corporations get their biggest benefits.   Who cares if they are profitable if people can not afford their products in their home market?  How did we forget this or is something else going on that we are not aware of?

Your nations peoples are your greatest asset, now try treating them like it.  The system need to work for the people and the innovators that try and create jobs and products that brings wealth back to your country.  That is it point blank and if you think otherwise then you fail as a representative because if you poll your people, they will over-overwhelmingly agree with that statement.  Quit listening to all these experts that are drinking the same Kool-aid.  The people matter and the wealth of the nation.  Then from that point, we can come together as a global community.

Spiegel Online (Maria Marquart) -

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