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.
Reports emanting from Sirte say that Al Qathafi was killed while escaping from his location when the NTC fighters led by former rebels from Misurata who were leading the attack approached him.  Al Qathafi, a fugitive since the fall of Tripoli two months ago seems to have decided to run away in a convey of 35 cars including five armoured cars, but as the convoy moved out toward the east, it was attacked by NATO aircraft.

The NATO bombing allowed the rebels to move in and continue their attack in which the former Libyan leader was wounded. According to sources he got out of his car disoriented and asked the rebels “what happened… what happened,”.  He was hit in the stomach and head, injuries that led to his dead.

Continue Reading

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).

Continue Reading

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.

Video:

Link to Story

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) -

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Sulik, do you want to go down in European Union history as the man who destroyed the euro?

Richard Sulik : No. Where did you get that idea?

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Slovakia has yet to approve the expansion of the euro backstop fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), because your Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party is blocking the reform. If a majority of Slovak parliamentarians don’t support the EFSF expansion, it could ultimately mean the end of the common currency.

Sulik: The opposite is actually the case. The greatest threat to the euro is the bailout fund itself.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How so?

Sulik: It’s an attempt to use fresh debt to solve the debt crisis. That will never work. But, for me, the main issue is protecting the money of Slovak taxpayers. We’re supposed to contribute the largest share of the bailout fund measured in terms of economic strength. That’s unacceptable.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: That sounds almost nationalist. But, at the same time, you’ve had what might be considered an ideal European career. When you were 12, you came to Germany and attended school and university here. After the Cold War ended, you returned home to help build up your homeland. Do you care nothing about European solidarity?

Sulik: If we now choose to follow our own path, the solidarity of the others will also crumble. And that would be for the best. Once that happens, we would finally stop with all this debt nonsense. Continuously taking on more debts hurts the euro. Every country has to help itself. That’s very easy; one just has to make it happen.

Continue Reading

It is quite funny that the moderate people in Egypt revolt against a dictatorial regime for more rights and freedom and now the new government is already trying to pass laws to stop protests and free speech.  This law will not stand up to the scrutiny of the Egyptian people.  The most important element of any free society is the right to be displeased with their government and the ability to express that displeasure along with equal access to the ballot box to express that even more directly.

This law is even written so unspecific that almost any type of protest could be deemed to affect business of traffic.  That gives the government basically a blank check to crackdown on any protests.   We they better put forth some really just laws or we will see the people take to the streets again and put others in power that will give them a democratic structure of government.  We should look at all of the revolts & revolutions in all these countries as positive so long as they remain peaceful.

The shortest path to peace and stability in that region is for moderate people to stand up and demand fair and just governments and collectively they will marginalize the extreme elements in their society.   Whatever blow-back we get from this will be well worth it in the long run.   As Americans, we have a duty to support this type of organic democracy and regain our moral authority.   By supporting the will of the people, we are winning the “hearts & minds” of the people and they will be very likely to work with us on our strategic goals because we respected their wishes.

The Egyptian cabinet approved yesterday a decree-law that criminalises strikes, protests, demonstrations and sit-ins that interrupt private or state owned businesses or affect the economy in any way.

The decree-law also assigns severe punishment to those who call for or incite action, with the maximum sentence one year in prison and fines of up to half a million pounds.

The new law, which still needs to be approved by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, will be in force as long as the emergency law is still in force. Egypt has been in a state of emergency since the assassination of former president Anwar Sadat in 1981.

Since former president Hosni Mubarak stepped down on 11 February, Egypt has witnessed escalating nationwide labour strikes and political protests. Amongst those protesting have been university students, political activists, railway workers, doctors, pharmacists, lawyers, journalists, pensioners and the police force.

Analysis: This law will not make it into the books.  You can’t have a real revolution and have one of your first acts in government is to clamp down on free speech.

This is interesting timing on my last article about China producing over 90% of the world’s rare earth minerals and because of a territory dispute, the stoppage of exports of these minerals and metals to Japan.  Now it has been turned up a notch with China stopping the exports of rare earth metals to the United States as well.

From reports given, this turn in Chinese policy is due to the current trade disputes that revolve around claims of an artificially low Yuan (Chinese Currency) that makes their export very competitive compared to native U.S. manufacturers that have a much higher operational costs due to material pricing, wage requirements and taxes.   The second claim is of the Chinese “dumping” certain products on the U.S. market such as steel and tires.

These are quite strong-arm tactics by the Chinese and they are exerting some real pressure on the federal government and Defense Department because these elements are crucial to a number of our military technologies.  In this link you will see a 38-page GAO report (Click Here) that addresses these issues.  There conclusion is that the U.S. is 7-15 years out from getting full scale mining and processing of these elements if we started tomorrow.

A nasty trade dispute appears to have prompted Chinese customs officials to block shipments of rare earth minerals to the U.S.

The move underscores a deepening U.S. vulnerability because of its dependence upon China for tech-crucial rare earth minerals (also known as rare earth elements). Small but significant amounts of the minerals go into creating everything from PCs and cellphones to wind turbines and hybrid cars, as well as U.S. military technologies such as missile guidance systems.

This latest news came from three rare earth industry officials cited by the New York Times. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of backlash from China.

China currently controls about 97 percent of rare earth production, and has the only facilities capable of processing rare earth minerals after they have been mined. Rare earth minerals are not exactly rare, but the mining and refining processes can be costly and time-consuming.

Official Chinese plans have called for China to reduce rare earth mineral exports to meet its own rising industrial demands. That already indicated to many industry experts that countries such as the U.S. would have to find alternate supplies soon.

Analysis: If this does not get resolved peaceful, this has all the makings of a real war through direct confrontation or proxy.  When you start hampering a military in there ability to use the available tools, strategist will start feeling backed into a corner and once that happens, many options come back on the table which include force.  A scary prospect when your dealing with nuclear superpowers.

This is a growing issue that keeps on coming up and no one seems to have a solution.   China in the 800 pound gorilla when it comes to rare earth metals.  If you don’t know what they are, here is a link to a definition (click here).  They basically are rare occurring elements that have become very essential in electronics, especially in generators, solar cells, cell phones, hybrid cars and satellites.

If the world is truly going to transition from an oil based economy to a renewable energy economy, we are going to need to produce many renewable energy pieces of equipment to produce the gigawatts if power we use in the U.S. alone.   To do this we need these elements to make them.  China currently produces 90% of the entire world’s output and they are aggressively going out and locking down access to supplies outside of China.  This is going to become of great strategic importance as oil becomes more difficult to find large new discoveries.

I am not sure if the U.S. Government has made a strategic decision to start making in-roads on securing our access as well.   I am quite sure they are aware of this.  We can see what happened in Japan after the fishing boat accident and how quickly after China stopped exports of those metals to Japan they had to start an all out program to increasing their recycling of products that contain these elements to meet the increasing demand.   We could be in the same situation if we have a falling out with China over issues like political rights or currency disagreements.  If we can not solve them diplomatically, then war is the usually remedy and that is not a good thought when your dealing with a nuclear-armed state and rising superpower.

China is the world’s biggest producer of rare earth metals, vital for the auto and electronics industries.

But concerns over global supplies have increased in recent months, after tensions rose between China and top consumer Japan, over imports.

“There are more than 200 rare earth projects outside of China,” David O’Brock, chief executive at the privately-owned AS Silmet told Reuters. “There are a lot of very optimistic projects out there — which may never be realized.

“If the Chinese leave the quotas at what they are today, I would guarantee that prices will at least double for next year.”

China accounts for more than 90 percent of the world’s total production of rare earth, mining around 120,000 tonnes in 2008.

Analysis: We will see increased use of proxies to gain access to these elements to try and not sir up a frenzy to get access to rare earth metals.  We could see covert actions if needed to get access as oil prices rise and fuels get more precious for transportation.

A SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission)  investigation is a start for looking into these practices that are happening on the major stock exchanges along with the “dark pools” that are handling more transaction off-exchange.  The commission is going to look to see if these techniques helped the May 6th stock market crash.

The more we learn about these practices, the more it seems like our venerable capitalist institution called the “stock market” is resembling a casino or a group of carnival games where they are rigged in favor of the house and not the actual participates.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into certain types of stock trade orders that could be distorting share prices and trading volume, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The SEC is investigating the practice called “quote stuffing” where exceptionally large numbers of orders to buy or sell stocks are placed and canceled almost immediately, the Journal said citing anonymous sources. It is also reviewing another practice known as “sub-penny pricing,” where orders are priced in increments smaller than a penny, but are far from the price at which the stock is trading.

Quote stuffing and sub-penny pricing have become more prevalent as high-frequency computer trading has become the dominant part of the stock market in recent years, the Journal said.

Analysis: Is this what we are going to let pass for financial innovation?  A bunch of high frequency quote stuffers that are basically doing what they can to fix prices in their favor?