So it’s finally official: “rightwing extremist” that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority is now regarded as a threat by The Department of Homeland Security and they are sending out warnings to all law enforcements officials about these terrible people.
Oh my… I’m never going to be able to get a visa for the US…
Cato
A footnote attached to the report by the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis defines “rightwing extremism in the United States” as including not just racist or hate groups, but also groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority.
“It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single-issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration,” the warning says.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Oh stimulus, stimulus who has the best stimulus?
Is it just me or is this stimulus thingy getting ridiculous? I mean there is no secret what I’m thinking about this stimulus madness, but come on. Those stimuli are pouring down from everywhere and it’s like everything is so much about stimulus that you cannot help it being stimulated to write stimulating things about stimulus. We are going to be so over stimulated that we are going to dream about getting stimuli from someone handling the very core of the stimulated area, with stimulating gloves bought by stimuli-money gracefully handed to us from an over stimulated government pressured from other over stimulated governments to throw stimulus money everywhere. How stimulated can we get?
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Poland's government is to ask the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $20bn (£13.44bn) credit line to help tackle the economic crisis at the same time they are, yeah you guessed it, conjuring up a stimulus plan worth 91.3bn zlotys ($31.4bn; $20.6bn) to kick-start the economy amid the global slowdown.
Meanwhile:
Italy approved an 80bn euro ($102bn) emergency package.
Spain launched an 11bn euro plan aimed at creating 300,000 jobs.
The European Commission asked that EU countries spend around 1.2% of their GDP to encourage investment and reduce unemployment.
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Poland's government is to ask the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $20bn (£13.44bn) credit line to help tackle the economic crisis at the same time they are, yeah you guessed it, conjuring up a stimulus plan worth 91.3bn zlotys ($31.4bn; $20.6bn) to kick-start the economy amid the global slowdown.
Meanwhile:
Italy approved an 80bn euro ($102bn) emergency package.
Spain launched an 11bn euro plan aimed at creating 300,000 jobs.
The European Commission asked that EU countries spend around 1.2% of their GDP to encourage investment and reduce unemployment.
---
The Face of the Next Generation
Posted this before, but It is such a great little tune.
“Our country is dying from this fascist cancer. More regulations is their only answer.”
“Our country is dying from this fascist cancer. More regulations is their only answer.”
Another socialist experiment fails
Gordon Bajnai, the newly appointed prime minister of Hungary doesn’t have an easy task in front of him. The former Prime Minister and “former” communist, Ferenc Gyurcsany, stepped down in March partly because he couldn’t get his economic reforms supported in parliament, but also (mainly) because he was highly unpopular. Now this country face dire circumstances. Hungary is one of the European countries that have been hit hardest by current financial crisis. It barely avoided financial meltdown already during 2008 when EU, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank stepped in with a €20 billion bailout and the situation haven’t improved, rather worsened. Interesting scenario in regard to the g20 promises of trillions of dollars going to similar stupid countries. Isn’t it?
The main reason for this country being completely broke isn’t so much the financial crisis in itself, that’s rather icing on the cake. Instead the socialist have more or less abolished working.
“In a country with a population of 10 million, only 3.9 million people are working. And 1.6 million of those are on minimum wage and do not pay taxes. There are almost 3 million pensioners, of whom over 800,000 are on disability pension, meaning they retired long before the age of 65, citing often dubious health problems.” new
All this is courtesy of the government’s lavish promises and, during the better years that partly was because of foreign investments, but mainly thru borrowing. Hm, were have we heard that word before? Another fun fact is that most of the loans taken are from Austria which leaves several Austrian banks in a bit of a pickle. The Hungarian's used this money, and then some, to build social welfare nets and impose laws that made it more lucrative to not work. To this we can also add the Hungarian currency that is dropping due to inflation and less in-house productivity.
And, of course, waiting in the wings are one of those funny men who speaks of “true Hungarians” and promises millions of jobs and tax-cuts at the same time he talks about “strong government attending the need of the people”. This guy, Viktor Orbán, the leader of the biggest opposition party Fidesz, has also spoken of the struggle “true Hungarians” face against the “forces of evil”.
No one really knows how he is going to perform this magic trick with the economy, but if he fails, which he will, there are several other extremist groups willing to take over. Several of these are reported having “paramilitary fractions” eager to “keep order”.
So we have a financial crisis times two (2*socialism), a real messy political situation with numerous different extremist groups banging on the door to real power, several of which are talking about “the others” - in different forms - as a main scapegoat. Unemployment is rising (from already very high levels), debts souring, inflation growing and people are already beginning to starve and the world crisis is just starting. How many believe this is going to have a happy ending?
The main reason for this country being completely broke isn’t so much the financial crisis in itself, that’s rather icing on the cake. Instead the socialist have more or less abolished working.
“In a country with a population of 10 million, only 3.9 million people are working. And 1.6 million of those are on minimum wage and do not pay taxes. There are almost 3 million pensioners, of whom over 800,000 are on disability pension, meaning they retired long before the age of 65, citing often dubious health problems.” new
All this is courtesy of the government’s lavish promises and, during the better years that partly was because of foreign investments, but mainly thru borrowing. Hm, were have we heard that word before? Another fun fact is that most of the loans taken are from Austria which leaves several Austrian banks in a bit of a pickle. The Hungarian's used this money, and then some, to build social welfare nets and impose laws that made it more lucrative to not work. To this we can also add the Hungarian currency that is dropping due to inflation and less in-house productivity.
And, of course, waiting in the wings are one of those funny men who speaks of “true Hungarians” and promises millions of jobs and tax-cuts at the same time he talks about “strong government attending the need of the people”. This guy, Viktor Orbán, the leader of the biggest opposition party Fidesz, has also spoken of the struggle “true Hungarians” face against the “forces of evil”.
No one really knows how he is going to perform this magic trick with the economy, but if he fails, which he will, there are several other extremist groups willing to take over. Several of these are reported having “paramilitary fractions” eager to “keep order”.
So we have a financial crisis times two (2*socialism), a real messy political situation with numerous different extremist groups banging on the door to real power, several of which are talking about “the others” - in different forms - as a main scapegoat. Unemployment is rising (from already very high levels), debts souring, inflation growing and people are already beginning to starve and the world crisis is just starting. How many believe this is going to have a happy ending?
Natural fluctuations
The Swedish stock exchange goes up and down (mostly up at the moment) which is kind of a bad signal, but also very easy to understand. Well easy for those who not are “experts”, journalists and politicians anyways. I don’t know why it is so hard to understand. There is more money in the system, partly from some extra coming from the central bank and partly from other countries. So it is both domestic and foreign imported inflation. The situation in the world is pretty dire and even if Sweden has managed quite well so far, the uncertainly of the worlds markets reflects on a trade dependent country like Sweden. And with the crisis lurking, social welfare cases growing, unemployment rising and with the worst to come, anxious investors will seek out “sure bets” and possible those companies that might benefit from this crisis in relationship to others.
In the short term we will also see other companies that in reality are in big trouble like Sandvik - who are very dependent on trade and market fluctuations – having a bit upward spiral. This of course is only temporary and in the long run, if this crisis lasts, which it will, that’s not the sort of company you want to have your money in and this investors are aware off, consequently those stocks will go down again even if they temporarily are going up now. In addition this is most likely a minor speculative boom of the sort we have seen several times before. Even during the Great Depression there were several weeks of upward spiraling stocks and bonds, which sometimes got journalists and politicians to say “the depression is over” which it of course wasn’t and so is not today’s crisis either. If I own stocks in Sweden and had, during the last couple of months, made money of them, about now is the time to sell, maybe you can hold on to them a bit longer, but I wouldn’t. Also the Swedish average when it comes to savings is the lowest in decades while the debt quota is higher and growing (anyone seeing the connection?), which means that there are not much more money that can be put into stocks. Don’t believe me at all? Excellent. Buy more, please…
For further reading on this subject check out my earlier ramblings here: Nowish
In the short term we will also see other companies that in reality are in big trouble like Sandvik - who are very dependent on trade and market fluctuations – having a bit upward spiral. This of course is only temporary and in the long run, if this crisis lasts, which it will, that’s not the sort of company you want to have your money in and this investors are aware off, consequently those stocks will go down again even if they temporarily are going up now. In addition this is most likely a minor speculative boom of the sort we have seen several times before. Even during the Great Depression there were several weeks of upward spiraling stocks and bonds, which sometimes got journalists and politicians to say “the depression is over” which it of course wasn’t and so is not today’s crisis either. If I own stocks in Sweden and had, during the last couple of months, made money of them, about now is the time to sell, maybe you can hold on to them a bit longer, but I wouldn’t. Also the Swedish average when it comes to savings is the lowest in decades while the debt quota is higher and growing (anyone seeing the connection?), which means that there are not much more money that can be put into stocks. Don’t believe me at all? Excellent. Buy more, please…
For further reading on this subject check out my earlier ramblings here: Nowish
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