?Treat Iran with respect?Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII) - 20 Apr 2008Summary: Ahead of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?s visit to India this month on his first visit, National Security Advisor Mr MK Narayanan today asked the international community to treat Teheran in consonance with its ?tremendous influence?. Speaking at the first International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)-Citi India Global forum here, the senior Indian official announced Ahmadinejad ?will be visiting India shortly? before visiting Sri Lanka. source: Indo-Asian News Serviceread more
Why Greens should vote for KenUKWatch.net - 20 Apr 2008Whenever I hear cynics complaining that politicians nowadays are all in hock to vested interests and unprepared to show leadership, I respond with two words: Ken Livingstone. London?s mayor has made the UK?s capital a world leader on environmental and transport issues ? often in the teeth of determined opposition from the media and the political Establishment. If he loses the 1 May election to the charming Tory buffoon Boris Johnson, it will be a tragedy both for London and for global environmental politics as a whole. Ken is that rare thing in today?s world: a politician who is prepared to lead rather than follow public opinion. If the congestion charge had been put through new Labour?s focus groups it would never have happened. Opinion polls were dead set against the scheme right up until it became a success, at which point most people switched allegiances or argued that they had actually been in favour all along. In 2004, the Conservative Party?s mayoral candidate, Steven Norris, pledged to abolish the congestion charge ? and lost. Now, even Boris says he wants to retain the scheme, although in what form remains unclear. The progress of the congestion charge has been keenly watched from abroad: New York?s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, is planning to introduce a similar scheme in Manhattan. Livingstone has been much attacked ? particularly by such critics as the London Evening Standard and the NS?s Martin Bright. But Livingstone is by far the best-qualified candidate to run London ? and from an environmental perspective, this is even more the case. While Johnson is on record as opposing the Kyoto Protocol ? as the Green candidate, Sin Berry, has repeatedly pointed out ? Livingstone helped bring together big cities in the United States to keep the Kyoto flame alive during George Bush?s disastrous presidential reign. Livingstone has forged partnerships on all sides. His London Energy Services Company, which aims to make decentralised energy solutions mainstream across Greater London, is a partnership with EDF Energy, whose parent company operates nearly 60 nuclear reactors in France (Ken is strongly anti-nuclear). As mayor, Livingstone set up the London Climate Change Agency to co-ordinate the capital?s response to what he identifies as ?the biggest long-term challenge facing humanity?. The mayor?s Climate Change Action Plan aims to reduce CO2 emissions by 60 per cent by 2025 ? to my knowledge the toughest targets adopted by any major political entity anywhere in the world. These targets would ? if emulated by governments internationally ? go most of the way towards solving the global warming problem. That written targets are already backed up with practical achievements makes them doubly valuable: London is the only major city in the world to have seen a shift from car use to public transport, and with large-scale investment in bike lanes cycling has increased by a heady 83 per cent. (In the country as a whole, cycle use is still flatlining.) The contrast with Johnson could hardly be starker. The Tory candidate is still waffling on about recycling and planting trees, suggesting he is stuck back in the light-green era of the 1980s, despite his much-trumpeted credentials as a cyclist. Though he says he will ?make London the greenest city in the world?, this turns out to be more about parks than emissions. Johnson?s manifesto says that he will keep Ken Livingstone?s climate-change targets ? but there is a lack of both consistency and enthusiasm running through his statements. While both Ken and Boris oppose a third runway at Heathrow ? today?s litmus test for climate-change credentials ? Boris supports the construction of an entirely new airport somewhere in the Thames Estuary, on the grounds that ?London?s airport capacity has to expand?. That doesn?t sound very climate- or environment-friendly to me. While loyal Greens will no doubt wish to support Sin Berry?s candidacy, I wholeheartedly endorse her and Livingstone?s call for Labour and Green voters to put each other?s candidates down as their second preference. Let?s keep Boris in the TV studios by all means ? he?s a gifted entertainer ? but let?s keep him out of City Hall.
No Bases for EmpireUKWatch.net - 20 Apr 2008AMY GOODMAN: It sounds like a fast-food franchise?hundreds of locations spanning some 130 countries across the globe?but in fact, it?s perhaps the ultimate face of US hegemony: military bases. There are more than 700 US military bases worldwide, used for launching wars, holding prisoners, testing weapons. One could be closing down in Ecuador, where lawmakers recently approved a ban on foreign bases. The Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has famously quipped that he?ll let the US military remain if the US agrees to an Ecuadorian military base in Miami. Well, things are different in Europe, where the Bush administration now appears to have secured plans for its proposed missile system. US missiles would be stationed in Poland along with a radar site in the Czech Republic. Earlier this month, NATO leaders met in Romania and endorsed the missile plans. The Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said a formal accord will likely come next month. KAREL SCHWARZENBERG: [translated] I met with the US Secretary of State in friendly talks where we discussed the plan to have a radar facility as part of our NATO defense system. Once we are clear about the contents, we will discuss the possibility of signing the agreement. The first week of May looks like a good time to sign. AMY GOODMAN: Majorities in both Poland and the Czech Republic oppose the missile plan, which is widely seen as a first-strike threat against Iran. Two activists are in the United States now, speaking as part of a campaign called ?No Bases for Empire.? They?re joining me from Washington, D.C. Jan Tamas is from the Czech Republic. He?s the founder of the No Bases Initiative, a coalition against the proposed US missile system in Eastern Europe. I?m also joined by Olivier Bancoult. He has been expelled from his native Diego Garcia when he was four years old. The US has operated a military base there since British forces expelled native islanders in the early ?70s. Olivier is with the Chagos Refugee Group. I want to begin with Jan Tamas. Talk about the Czech Republic. JAN TAMAS: Hello. Hello to you, Amy, and to all the listeners. Well, yes, like you said, the majority of Czech people oppose this project. 70 percent of people have been steadily opposing this for the last two years. And the reason why we oppose it is that we really do fear that this will lead to a new arms race, that this may lead to a new Cold War. And in fact some of the statements by the Russian President Putin proved that that?s actually the case. They do feel threatened by this, and they do say that they will need to take measures to respond to this. You have to keep in mind that no matter how sophisticated a military system the US is going to implement, the enemy is always going to be able to implement other measures that will overcome it. And so, the US will then have to take other measures to overcome the countermeasures of the enemy. And in this way you begin to have this spiral of armament, and so that?s the new Cold War. Or it could even be a hot war, we don?t know. So we believe that the way to achieve peace in Europe and the world is actually by disarming and not creating new military bases, not by arming. AMY GOODMAN: What is the attitude of people in the Czech Republic right now? JAN TAMAS: I?m sorry? AMY GOODMAN: The attitude of people in the Czech Republic to the base? JAN TAMAS: Well, since the first polls that were conducted back in August 2006, there were 73 percent of Czechs opposed it. It?s steadily around that number. More than two-thirds of people oppose this. But our government continues the negotiations as if nothing has happened. And so, we really see this as a deficit in democracy, because we believe in a truly democratic society the politicians should reflect on the will and the voice of the people; however, that?s not the case in our country. And I would just like to say one thing. We?ve heard our foreign minister before saying that the deal will be signed sometime during the first week of May. That is the truth. However, that will only be the agreement between the government, and what has to happen in our country is that that deal then has to be passed, it has to be ratified by the Czech Parliament. And the situation is far from clear, because the government has a very small mandate. They don?t even have a majority. They were only able to pass a confidence vote after seven months of negotiations, and thanks to some two members of parliament that didn?t vote against them. So they have a very weak mandate, and it?s far from clear how the vote will go. That?s why we have now intensified our campaign. We are more than sixty organizations from all kinds of different backgrounds. And we are now, among other things, having an online petition on the website nonviolence.cz, where we would like to have a million signatures within the next few weeks so that we would intensify the pressure on the Czech parliamentarians, so that they would not be willing to raise their hands for this dangers system. AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to Olivier Bancoult of the Chagos Refugee Group. You left Diego Garcia when you were four years old. You were expelled. Explain what?s happening on your island. OLIVIER BANCOULT: Yeah. On our island, it had been decided in 1965 that every people, all the people have to move in order to make place for US military base. All of the removal started on Diego Garcia were?had been used to build a US military base. But first of all, I have to let people know that before choosing Diego Garcia, the choice was making on an island called Aldabra, where there were a population of giant tortoises. When the expert, American expert and US?UK expert go and visit Aldabra, they found a population of giant tortoises. They decided just to leave these tortoises in peace and just make the second choice?that is, on Diego Garcia, where human beings were having this wonderful life. When the removal started on Diego Garcia, they just used to kill more than 1,500 dogs, in order to frighten people to leave, because without the dogs, the island will become dangerous. I was age four, and the reason I was forced to go to Mauritius, because my sister was?had been hurt by a wheel cart, and when my mom decided to have treatment for my sister and?in a view to return back in Peros Banhos. But arriving in Mauritius two months after my sister passed away, when we decided to return, we have learned that the island had been given to Americans. And what?s the way? All those who were living on the island had been ordered they have to leave, and there is a communication. All thing had been cut, all the link with Mauritius had been cut. That is in a very shameful way and a forcible way that we have been uprooted from our motherland, the Chagos Archipelago. AMY GOODMAN: You are awaiting a high court decision in Britain, your case expected to be heard on June 30? What will happen there? OLIVIER BANCOULT: Yeah. As you know, since 1997, we started a legal procedure against the British government, because we think that what had been done to us is unlawful, because our fundamental rights as a human being had been violated by the UK government, because there is an ordinance in 1971 who say that no native can return back to their homeland, whereas UK and US soldiers can do so. We started, and we have been able to win three cases in our favor, mostly where the judge concludes that what had been done to us is unlawful, and then we are belongers and that what had been done is very repugnant, and the queen have the right to govern, but don?t have the right to remove people?everything. But now, still now, the UK government is still giving us a very hard time. They just bring it to the House of Lords, but even that, we will not give up our struggle. On the 30th of June this year, we will have an appeal from the British government to our case, and this will be heard in the House of Lords, where we shall be present. Of course, we are very optimistic, because we think that justice must be done again in our case for all variation, for all unhuman that had been to us. AMY GOODMAN: Jan Tamas, final words, as you are wrapping up your journey around the United States in this No Bases for Empire project? JAN TAMAS: Yeah. Well, I would say we are understanding that we are fighting a global enemy: the corporations that are going to make huge profits on this. Already more than $100 billion have been spent on the missile defense itself, and it?s not even near to working. These huge profits are being made by global corporations. They cross boundaries as if they don?t exist. And so need we. We also?the global?the peace movement needs to become global. And that?s why I?m here as part of this tour, to intensify the links, to intensify the cooperation across the Atlantic, across the boundaries of countries and across different organizations, so that together we have a stronger chance of winning this nonviolent battle against this armament effort that is underway right now. AMY GOODMAN: Jan Tamas and Olivier Bancoult, both of the No Bases for Empire project, I want to thank you very much for joining us from Washington, D.C.
Will a decline in reporting European news result in more paid-for journalism?UKWatch.net - 20 Apr 2008Like other powerful but controversial institutions the European Parliament is stepping up its investment in what amounts to paid-for journalism. Contracts are about to be awarded for funding programmes to be broadcast by local and international television channels. But, with editorial budgets for investigative and analytical journalism in steep decline, are the European Parliament — and also the European Commission — faced with no alternative but to buy news coverage in the media market place in the hope of gaining some favourable exposure? If the initial reports are correct, and if the contracts likely to be awarded for programmes on CNN and ITV are to be controlled by script and even post-production approval, the European Parliament could be in danger of repeating the worst examples of embedded journalism during the Iraq War and might well end up financing nothing more than blatant propaganda. Nicholas Jones examines an initiative which is already producing some agonised soul searching among Europe?s journalists. Journalists trying to wrestle with the complexities of the European Union pose a difficult dilemma for both the European Parliament and the European Commission: How are these two institutions going to overcome an appalling information deficit among the people of Europe? And, perhaps more alarmingly, is the news media about to be manipulated? Having spent the last five years meeting and talking to reporters in many of the newer and most recent EU member states, I know how irritated they can become in their dealings with the Parliament and Commission. Not only are there language problems but all too often they say that in their search for reliable facts and guidance they come up against a seemingly impenetrable bureaucratic barrier. Such is their frustration they tend to fall back on reporting the facts and opinions relayed to them by their national governments and politicians rather than do their own investigation. As a result, there is little analysis and their reporting is stuck in the rut of pre-determined agendas. Nowhere is the communications gap more apparent than in an accession country like Turkey. In its south-east corner, on the borders with Syria — and what might finally become the EU?s ultimate eastern frontier — the plight of local journalists was all too evident when their representatives met to consider how to improve coverage of European affairs. Although anxious to learn more about the implications of Turkey?s proposed membership of the EU, the difficulties which the journalists faced seemed insurmountable. At a seminar in Gaziantep (28.3.2008) to discuss the response so far by media organisations in south-east Anatolia, Murat Gures of the Gaziantep Journalists? Association, painted a bleak picture. The Association represents journalists on seven television channels, fifteen local newspapers and twenty local magazines but he readily acknowledged that negotiations for Turkey?s accession to the EU have sparked little interest. There was not enough understanding of European issues to generate an adequate level of reporting. Nor was any solution forthcoming from the newspaper owners. Orhan Kizilaslan, president of the Gaziantep Anatolian Press Association, freely admitted that the local press did not have the economic wherewithal to provide the kind of journalism that would inform the local people of the EU accession process. ?Local newspapers are the most important instrument for providing the people of Anatolia with information about the EU. But although the local press could be used as a tool for providing news and comment we do not have the economic means to inform the public and support the EU process?. What compounded the difficulties faced by the Anatolian news media was an equally frank acknowledgement by Ms Ulrike Hauer, a counsellor and head of section in the European Commission?s delegation to Turkey, that its communication strategies, especially in accession countries, were woefully inadequate. Surely the right answer is for the EU to do much more to disseminate information in an accessible form to media organisations in the 27 member states and those countries hoping to join. As a first step it could invite journalists to Brussels at the Commission?s expense so that they could be instructed on how best to extract information on EU policies and how to follow the Parliament?s decision-making process. Instead of reaching out to the journalists themselves, the Parliament seems to think the only realistic solution is to invest in collaborative projects with local media outlets in order to help them finance the production of more informed reporting of its proceedings. Rather than opt for what could turn into some pretty blatant product placement, another more imaginative solution might be to fund an arms-length television and radio service along the lines of the BBC or even a channel like Al Jazeera, which has transformed news coverage in the Arab world thanks to the foresight and generosity of the Emir of Qatar? When facing the twin pressures of strained resources and increased competition, journalists realise they cannot turn their back entirely on the reality of media economics. Subsidised reporting comes in many different forms: without an agreement to accept advertisements there would be no way of sustaining both BBC World and overseas access to BBC News Online. What seems to be missing in the plethora of documents about the development of the European Union?s media strategies is a clear-cut statement on the need to protect journalistic independence and an assurance that subsidised reporting and collaborative programming will not undermine the financial viability of existing hard-pressed media outlets. Awarding prizes to journalists for the most informed reporting of the European Parliament will alarm some MEPs who fear this will encourage sycophancy. The test of any such contest will be its independence from the donor of the prizes and the degree to which it can reflect differing national agendas. Perhaps there will have to be prizes in each member state which might make the cost prohibitive but so great is the lack of understanding among journalists about EU affairs and so few are the opportunities to learn more, that an awards system might at least generate some interest.
Recreate ‘68: Democrats to Face Protests in Denver at Democratic National ConventionDemocracy Now - 20 Apr 2008It remains to be seen whether the Democrats will ultimately take their fight for a presidential candidate all the way to the Democratic National Convention this August in Denver, but for many activists tired of the two-party system and the ongoing war, they will be demonstrating at the convention regardless of who the final nominee is. We speak with Mark Cohen, an organizer with Recreate ‘68, and Mark Silverstein, the legal director of the ACLU in Colorado. [includes rush transcript]
An Evangelical from a Conservative Background, Dr. Rocky White is Not Your Typical Advocate for Single-Payer HealthcareDemocracy Now - 20 Apr 2008While there are differences between the healthcare plans offered by Democratic presidential opponents Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, neither of them is proposing a single-payer system of national healthcare. That’s despite the endorsement of precisely such a plan last December by the American College of Physicians, the largest medical specialty organization. We speak with Dr. Rocky White, a passionate, if unusual, advocate for a single-payer health insurance program. He describes himself as an evangelical from a conservative background and is on the Board of Directors of the nonprofit Health Care for All Colorado. [includes rush transcript]
Headlines for April 21, 2008Democracy Now - 20 Apr 2008Sadr Warns Of “Open War” In Iraq, Rice Praises Iraqi Crackdown on Basra & Baghdad, Pentagon Propaganda Program Exposed, Obama & Clinton Prepare For Penn. Primary, Carter: Hamas Willing to Live in Peace With Israel, Israel To Probe Killing of Reuters Journalist, “Bishop of Poor” Wins Paraguayan Election, Pope Fails to Mention Iraq in UN Speech, 81 Die in Somalia, S. African Dockworkers Refuse to Unload Arms For Mugabe, Citigroup and AT&T To Lay Off Thousands, Bush Heads to New Orleans For SPP Summit, Arizona Bill to Prohibit Anti-American Teachings, Ban Ki-Moon: Surging Food Prices Threaten Anti-Poverty Efforts, Study: GM Crops Reduces Productivity, Palestinian Activist Found Dead in Texas
EI exclusive: a pro-Israel group’s plan to rewrite history on WikipediaElectronic Intifada - 20 Apr 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rA pro-Israel pressure group is orchestrating a secret, long-term campaign to infiltrate the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia to rewrite Palestinian history, pass off crude propaganda as fact, and take over Wikipedia administrative structures to ensure these changes go either undetected or unchallenged. A series of emails by members and associates of the pro-Israel group CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America), provided to The Electronic Intifada (EI), indicate the group is engaged in what one activist termed a “war” on Wikipedia.
Gaza police violently disperse peaceful assemblyElectronic Intifada - 20 Apr 2008rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rA police force violently dispersed a march in Rafah, Gaza organized by the Fatah Movement, honoring Palestinian and Arab Prisoners Day. Fatah announced that the march would start after Friday prayers. According to eyewitnesses, members of the police assaulted demonstrators. A journalist was also prevented from filming and his camera was confiscated.
Popular Conference: preserving collective identityElectronic Intifada - 20 Apr 2008rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rThe goals of the National Popular Palestinian Conference to be held in Chicago in August 2008 include cultivating our national Palestinian-Arab identity, exploring grounds for cooperation and collective expression, and motivating and organizing the US-based Palestinian community to assume a greater role in realizing Palestinian national objectives and preserving our collective identity. Noura Erakat and Monadel Herzallah outline the goals and history of the conference.
IMF and OECD: Europe will be hit hard by US recessionUKWatch.net - 20 Apr 2008Reports issued by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) warn that the United States is entering into a recession and reject all claims that Europe will be able to avoid severe economic dislocations as a result of America?s worsening situation. The OECD meeting in Paris this week estimated that global losses from the US subprime mortgage crisis would surpass $440 billion. This was a sharp upward revision of its previous estimate of $200-300 billion. Europe was more vulnerable than many thought to the global financial markets crisis, and would be especially so if trouble spread to the equity derivatives markets, officials said on April 15. The OECD?s estimate of likely bank losses ranges from $350 billion to $420 billion, based on different assumptions as to the amount of distressed assets the banks will be able to recover. Assuming a 40 percent recovery rate, the OECD estimated losses in excess of $422 billion, of which $87 billion would be borne by US banks?$60 billion by commercial banks and the rest by investment banks. These losses would ripple throughout the world. A third of the collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) and other financial instruments based on US residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) that are tied to sub-prime markets have moved offshore, mainly to Europe, the OECD said. Forbes magazine, commenting on the OECD report, noted: ?More dangerous still, it said, was another area so far not hit by the crisis that spilled out of the subprime market last August?capital-guaranteed financial products with exposure to equities and based on complex operations-replication programmes.? The OECD stated that a $1 trillion equity derivatives market based on these products had developed between 2003 and the start of this year. These instruments are the basis for many of the savings products offered by scores of retail banks and building societies. Europe is the dominant force in these Constant Proportion Portfolio Insurance (CPPI) products. Thomas Weiser of the OECD said one of the big risks now was that economic growth could be hit by loss of capital at banks which played a key role in the wider economy. He called for massive injections of cash by the world?s central banks. The IMF described last summer?s crisis in the financial markets as ?the largest financial shock since the Great Depression.? It stated that the world?s bankers have created a pool of $1 trillion in toxic debt, twice the sum estimated in earlier projections. The IMF?s conclusions are conservative, given such a description. It predicts that the US will go into a ?mild recession? this year, with growth of around 0.5 percent, even after the economic stimulus package from the Bush administration and sweeping cuts in interest rates. It warns that there is a one-in-four chance of a full-blown global recession over the next 12 months. At best, it forecasts that world economic growth will fall to 3.7 percent for the next two years. The IMF issued particular warnings that house price inflation in several European countries, including Britain and the Netherlands, where housing was said to be 30 percent overvalued, would make them more susceptible to the global downturn. Britain has long been recognised as the European country most exposed to the economic turmoil unleashed in the United States and most heavily dependent on world financial markets. The IMF downwardly revised UK growth figures from the Treasury?s estimate of 2 percent this year and 2.5 percent next to 1.6 percent for both 2008 and 2009, the worst performance since the last recession ended in 1992. After nationalising Northern Rock and injecting 50 billion of liquidity into the markets, the Brown government and the Bank of England plan to risk billions more, emulating the US Federal Reserve by taking over bad mortgage debts from banks in return for secure government bonds. House prices in Britain already fell by 2.5 percent last month and are expected to decline by as much as 10 percent this year. Britain?s Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reports that the number of residential property agents saying prices declined exceeded those reporting gains by 78.5 percentage points in March, the worst since records began in 1978. Britain is also labouring under staggering levels of personal, unsecured debt. Total UK unsecured debt is 1.3 trillion?more than the rest of the European Union put together. Lorna Bourke, writing in Citywire, rejects claims that the present housing crisis is not as bad as that in the 1990s, when there were 78,000 repossessions a year, because unemployment is lower. She notes that ?In the early nineties high unemployment created by the collapse of the debt market in 1987 and rising inflation meant homebuyers could not meet their mortgage obligations. Does that sound familiar?? Credit card debt is much greater than it was in 1990. Financial analysts Mintel have reported that mortgage costs in Britain trebled during the past 10 years and now account for 25 percent of consumer spending, compared to 14 percent a decade earlier. The debt management company TDX Group estimates that the number of people struggling with debt is set to double during 2008. Around one million people have unsecured debts totalling 25 billion, averaging a staggering 25,000 each. Some 60 percent is owed on credit cards, with the rest mainly in personal loans. London?s role as a financial centre will translate into a massive and relatively immediate impact from a global economic downturn. JPMorgan Chase analysts estimate that 40,000 City of London jobs could be lost as a result of the credit crunch, doubling the forecast by the Centre for Economics and Business Research. Amongst the cuts already announced are 900 jobs at UBS, the European bank worst hit by the credit crunch, representing 10 percent of its London workforce. Merrill Lynch has warned of 450 imminent job losses in London. Initial signs have emerged of a rise in unemployment from its present 1.6 million. Although the claimant count rate fell by 1,200 in March, the previous month?s 2,800 decline was revised to show a 600 increase?the first since September 2006. Sterling has hit repeated all-time lows against the euro, which is presently worth more than 80 pence. The Bank of England has cut interest rates to 5 percent in an attempt to stimulate the release of credit by banks and building societies. Europe?s economic powerhouse, Germany, does not at first appear to be in such a precarious position. Its exports continue to rise, even though the euro has dramatically risen in relation to the dollar. But there are clear signs of troubles ahead, of which the ?4.3 billion losses incurred by the Bavarian State Bank (BayernLB) from its dealings on the US subprime mortgage market, as well as the billions lost by SaxonyLB and WestLB, are only a foretaste. These banks, partly owned by the federal government and various German states, are to be bailed out to the tune of ?30 billion?at taxpayer expense. According to Der Spiegel, this is only the tip of the iceberg. It wrote on April 2, ?The end of the crisis is not in sight: According to one study (by business advisory group Ernst and Young) German banks have hidden away rotten credits in their books?amounting to a total sum of ?200 billion.? This week, four leading German economic think tanks cut their forecasts for growth this year to 1.8 percent, down from the 2.2 percent they predicted last October, and projected even slower growth of 1.4 percent next year. The German government is less confident still, predicting growth of just 1.7 percent this year. The Financial Times reported April 14 the views of several leading European industrialists that the worst effects of the credit crunch will not be felt for six months. Peter Lscher, chief executive of Siemens, said, ?I don?t see any impact at the moment. But I have no doubt it is coming, probably in 6 to 12 months? time.? Wolfgang Reitzle, chief executive of the Linde industrial gases group, added, ?It will happen with a time lag … of maybe a year…. We are in the most critical business environment in decades.? Gareth Williams of ING Financial Markets stated, ?This [financial] quarter is going to be pretty horrible. But the worst will come in the fourth quarter.? Teun Draaisma of Morgan Stanley is forecasting a 16 percent drop in earnings over the year and an ?earnings recession in Europe.? Germany and Europe, with a monetary system based on stability and spending targets, are particularly fearful of the impact of runaway inflation and angry over how the US Federal Reserve is pumping money into the economy. An article in Der Spiegel from April 14, entitled ?The Madness of Ben Bernanke,? gave full vent to these tensions. Comparing Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke, the former and current heads of the Federal Reserve, to Siegfried and Roy, it described their ?pumping easy credit into the system? as ?a crazy policy that will worsen the crisis…. The aim is to keep on financing consumer spending and even to stimulate it further?for reasons of patriotism. There?s a word for this policy?madness.? The strong euro has not so far done major damage to the European economy, particularly because it has reduced the cost of dollar-priced oil imports. But companies reliant on dollar sales such as Airbus have been hit and a ?pain threshold? will eventually be breached. More long term, the divergence of policy between the Fed and the European Central Bank (ECB), which has kept interest rates steady, cannot but destabilise the global economy. The dollar?s decline also means that its repayment of debts has less value, punishing US creditors in Europe and elsewhere. Inflation is a major problem for Europe, now running at a record 3.6 percent in the euro zone. The ECB has set its main policy rate at 4 percent, but fears that inflation will make this unsustainable. Food and energy price rises alone added 1.6 percentage points to March?s inflation figures. Jorg Kramer, chief economist at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt, told the International Herald Tribune, ?The Fed is not so interested in inflation, currently. They have a bigger problem: recession.? But he warned that ?someday, this crisis will be over? and inflation will necessitate drastic action. The Fed?s benchmark rate is currently at 2.25 percent and a further cut is expected. Krmer said he expected Bernanke to cut the fed funds rate to 1.25 percent by June. The ?fight against inflation? is always a codeword for moves to cut the wages of the working class. German government and bank officials are complaining of recent high wage settlements being unsustainable, including a meagre 8 percent agreement in Germany?s chemical sector that is staged over two years and barely matches the official inflation rate. In Britain, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has imposed a 2.5 percent pay ceiling throughout the public sector, already provoking strikes involving hundreds of thousands of civil servants and teachers. Draconian attacks are being prepared in France, where dissatisfaction with the country?s economic performance in ruling circles is most pronounced. Prime Minister Francois Fillon has cut the official forecast for gross domestic product (GDP) growth in France in 2008 to 1.7-2.0 percent from a previous estimate of ?around 2.0 percent.? The right-wing administration of Nicolas Sarkozy has announced public spending cuts of ?6-7 billion annually to run for a three-year period in 2009-2011. But with a public deficit running at ?1.2 trillion in 2007, far greater attacks must be anticipated.
Audio: How the media sells war and whyMedia Workers Against War - 20 Apr 2008Hear Dahr Jamail, Nick Davies, Kim Sengupta and Lindsey German speaking to a packed meeting at Westminster University on April 10: Click here for high quality recording by Middle East Panorama Dahr Jamail was an independent journalist in Iraq and is author of ?Beyond the Green Zone? Nick Davies is an award-winning Guardian journalist and author of ?Flat [...]
Indie?s new editor means bad newsMedia Workers Against War - 20 Apr 2008Roger Alton’s move from the Observer to edit the Independent is as shocking as Tony Blair’s appointment as Middle East envoy, and marks a set-back for the anti-war movement. To understand why, we must look at the Indie’s stance on Iraq, why Blair hated the paper, Alton’s politics and what he did at the Observer. Alton [...]
