Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Are those 'Fiscal Bears' something or what? Starting to feel like family. Nice.

This is the Nikkei. Incredible for this exchange. I am proud of the 'responsible' investors on Earth. Good job, everyone !


Nikkei jumps 4.6 pct as banks rise after Citi news (click title to entry - thank you)
Wed Mar 11, 2009 2:08am EDT
TOKYO, March 11 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei stock average gained 4.6 percent on Wednesday, its biggest percentage rise in six weeks, as financial shares climbed after Citigroup's (C.N) chief executive said the U.S. bank was making profits.
Toshiba Corp (
6502.T) surged more than 9 percent after a newspaper reported it may see an operating profit of about 100 billion yen ($1 billion) in the next business year, while other tech shares climbed in the wake of strong gains by their U.S. peers.
The benchmark Nikkei .N225 rose 321.14 points to 7,376.12, a day after posting a 26-year closing low. The broader Topix rose 2.7 percent to 722.28. (Reporting by Elaine Lies)

Now I know we are going places. The South African Rand had gains today. Nice. Very nice. Gold held some more value today as well.
Everything in moderation, steady as we go.

South African Rand Rises Against Dollar, Reversing Earlier Drop (click here)
By John Kohut
March 11 (Bloomberg) -- South Africa’s rand rose, reversing an earlier decline against the dollar.
The rand strengthened 0.3 percent to 10.2537 per dollar at 1:31 p.m. in Johannesburg, after earlier losing as much as 1.4 percent. Against the euro, it was little changed at 13.0480. The rand slid as much as 1 percent versus the common European currency earlier.
Government bonds retreated, with the yield on South Africa’s benchmark 13.5 percent note due September 2015 rising five basis points to 7.95 percent. Yields move inversely to bond prices.
To contact the reporters on this story: John Kohut in London
jkohut@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: March 11, 2009 07:42 EDT

I'll tell you something. The 'better balanced' the world's economies are the 'safer' investors will find their holdings.

When currency like the South African Rand makes in roads against a strong dollar it tells me that we are on the right track. There should be good equity in every country. Viable economies for all people on Earth. Consumer spending in every country with manufacturing in every country and rigorous trading partnerships is the way I see this planet. Green economies everywhere for people in love with life and the joy of success by each other in placing high quality goods in the market place.

We can do this. I know we can. The economies of the world need 'strength training' and endurance runs. Not to fast, not to slow. High quality durable goods for a market place that is benevolent and well by all people. It has to come to pass.

Watch the inventories, manufacture to demand and don't cheapen the quality of any product. Do not over extend in hopes of 'busting' into a market. We aren't anywhere near that type of optimism and it usually leads to losses and not gains.

Don't 'cheapen' the market place. There is nothing wrong with people saving for what they want in big ticket items either. The market place needs to move away from 'the now generation satisfaction' feeling. When consumers 'save' it improves banks and liquidity. Nothing wrong with credit as long as its good quality credit. There is no 'rush' to any return of stockholder receipts. Patience is a virtue and all have to appreciate it, including the consumer.

High quality goods equal strong bottom lines and that equals well paid and well cared for employees. No more MESS. The people that can maneuver this well in the market place know how to 'grow' economies that will endure.

Build strong 'baseline' economies and investors will never find themselves in this position again. I promise you. Stong 'baselines' add security to speculation and investing. Don't ever over extend again and never tap into the 'rock solid baseline' an empire can be built on. NEVER !

We can do this ! Oh, yes we can !

President Obama is incredible in keeping his campaign promises, even with only one Minnesota Senator


Even with a 'statistical' win, Norm Coleman would not win the Senate election.

Coleman's hopes are down to 1,360 ballots (click title to entry - thank you)
That's the number of absentee ballots that his side says were wrongly rejected and that he's counting on to help erase Al Franken's 225-vote lead....

...If the ballots identified by Coleman were allocated to the candidates based on the percentage of the vote they got in each county, he would pick up 596 votes, Franken would pick up 539 and other candidates would get 225....

Earmarks and why they have become a 'bad word.' With Bush/Cheney it became a way of political life.


The 'flip' of this is that Biden would ride the train everyday. I know Delaware is a lot closer than Alaska, but, corporate jets?

Alaska lawmaker promoted earmarks, raked in cash (click here)
...With money pouring in from transportation interests,
Young (click here) amassed $6.5 million in political contributions from 2001 to 2005. Facing weak political opposition at home, he didn’t need much for his campaign. Instead, Young tapped his campaign fund to travel the country, often lavishly and in corporate jets, to meet with more developers and view their proposed highway projects....



Appropriations Bill
Earmark (click title to entry - thank you)
2008 Baseline
Agriculture and Rural Development
Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
Defense
Energy and Water Development
Financial Services and General Government
Homeland Security
Interior and Environment
Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education
Military Construction and Veterans Affairs
State and Foreign Operations
Transportation and Housing and Urban Development

Obama's Budget: How Much In Earmarks For Small Businesses? (click here)
March 11, 2009 10:20 AM ET Matthew Bandyk

The $410 billion federal budget is poised to be signed by the president. And, as usual, it's loaded with earmarks. So how big of a slice of the pork barrel pie is going towards small-business-related programs?
First, we have $65.6 million in earmarks for the Small Business Administration. This chunk is made up mostly of money for small-business development and training programs in local areas and universities, such as $300,000 for a "business incubator" at Bevill State Community College in Alabama, or $100,00 for a "minority and women-owned business program" in the city of Hagerstown, Maryland. But even among these SBA earmarks, we see allocations that seem only tangentially related to small businesses, such as $712,500 for Appalachian State University to study the economic effects of "agritourism" in western North Carolina. Overall, the SBA gets a fairly sizable amount of earmarks. It's more than, say the Fish and Wildlife Service ($46 million) or the Department of Labor ($41.2 million), but far less than, say, the Department of Education ($262 million)....

"I am unhappy, where is my gun." The NRA has a lot to answer for today. Police don't carry assault weapons. There is no place for them in the USA.

Of course everyone at the NRA has the answer to all this violence. They would advise everyone to arm themselves and shoot to kill. So, instead of a society in the USA void of assault weapons that act to enforce drug kingpins that decapitate Mexicans to enforce anarchy and kill Mexican police officers; the NRA rather sell the lousy stuff to the general public and INCREASE anarchy and violence.

Hm?

That is a 'peaceable' organization within the borders of the USA? I think not !

Trooper says Alabama gunman had trained to be police officer (click title to entry for video - thank you)
(NECN: Samson, Ala.) - The man responsible for a deadly shooting spree in Alabama has been identified as 28-year-old Michael McLendon.
McLendon gunned down 10 people yesterday, including at least five of his family members, before turning the gun on himself.
Food manufacturer and distributor Kelley Foods said in a statement today that Michael McLendon voluntarily left the position he had held for nearly two years last Wednesday.
Public Information Officer, Trooper Kevin Cook says McLendon had no known criminal record.
Cook said in 2003, McLendon was briefly employed as a police officer in Samson, but failed to complete required training at the police academy in Montgomery.


Assault weapons aren't about sport, they are about killing. A huge difference. Of course the NRA would state, "It is a right." Well. What about the rights of those of us that don't abide by the bullet?

Guns need to be banned in State and Federal Parks. There is no reason for them, when other protections can be garnered including mace. The 'critters' aren't armed after all.

Assault weapons are not about FREEDOM or individual rights, they are about taking away the rights of others in peace with their country's laws.


INTERIOR RESPONDS TO SENATORS
Gun Rules May Be Eased in U.S. Parks (click here)
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 28, 2008; Page A15
Visitors to some national parks would be able to start packing heat along with their tents and picnic baskets under a proposal being considered by the
Interior Department that would ease restrictions on loaded firearms in the parks.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said last week that officials would review long-standing regulations that require firearms in most national parks to be unloaded and inoperable -- through the use of trigger locks, for example, or storage in a car trunk or a special case. The department intends to propose new rules by April 30.
The review pits the National Rifle Association and a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers against park rangers and advocates who decry the move as election-year posturing that could make the parks more dangerous.
Kempthorne's action comes in response to two recent letters from 51 senators -- 44 Republicans and seven Democrats -- requesting that the National Park Service align its gun rules with state laws. If a state permits citizens to carry concealed weapons, the national parks in that state should, too, they argued....


Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin holds a confiscated AK-47 rifle during a news conference Thursday afternoon where the police department outlined the details of a large drug bust on Wednesday. Mike Maple The Commercial Appeal

This is from an article in 2008. Powerful guns, drugs and cash. Below the Southern Border and north of it.

Police raid yields heroin (click here)
Firearms, marijuana and cash also seized
By Hank Dudding, Memphis Commercial Appeal

Friday, July 11, 2008
Memphis police showcased a cache of drugs, weapons and money -- real and bogus -- on Thursday, the bounty from raids that officers hope will put a crimp in drug sales and related violence.
"This is going to make a big difference out there," said Police Director Larry Godwin, who displayed the seized materials at the MPD's organized crime facility Downtown....

The gun laws aren't the issue. Gun laws work when they are in place and adhered to, Germany has tough gun laws, but, in Poland it is easy to obtain guns and bring them across any German border. No different than the USA, the gun laws work when they are adhered to, it is when the laws are either applied or followed that guns victimize society. We saw the same use of guns at Virginia Tech. The gun laws hold up so long as they are followed and enforced. The NRA is "W"rong and they know they are wrong, but, it is money that drives their demands for 'Rights beyond the USA Constitution' and NOT love of country. The 2nd Amendment is in regard to militias (which the USA no longer has) and not individuals. In any country caught up in this fiscal whirlwind there is going to be stress among the populous, it should never be complicated by free access to guns, especially assault weapons. The EU should apply strict gun laws throughout Europe and not treat each country as though they have different priorities to arming their citizens.

In the USA, Bush/Cheney/NRA 'loaded' the streets of this country with hideous amounts of firearms while they sank the economy. They USED the sale of firearms as a way to buoy their economic failures and now some people are finding it easier to kill than 'live through it.'

After attacks, Europe hurries to tighten gun laws (click here)
By MATTI HUUHTANEN – 3 hours ago
HELSINKI (AP) — Several European countries have restricted gun laws in the wake of school massacres, gang violence and other gun-related crimes:
_Finland announced plans Wednesday to impose stricter restrictions on firearms, including raising the minimum age for handgun ownership from 15 to 20. The proposal was prompted by two school massacres within a year in which lone gunmen opened fire on classmates and teachers.
_Germany, where a gunman killed at least 11 people Wednesday, raised the legal age for owning recreational firearms from 18 to 21 following a 2002 shooting in Erfurt that killed 16 people, including 12 teachers.
_Belgian lawmakers passed strict new gun control laws in 2006 in reaction to the racially motivated shooting deaths of a toddler and her black baby sitter in Antwerp.
_Swiss citizens are demanding a referendum aimed at confining army weapons to military compounds and banning private purchases of pump-action rifles and automatic weapons — following a spate of suicides and homicides.
_The Portuguese Parliament is currently discussing a government proposal to tighten gun laws, including denying bail to anyone suspected of a gun crime.
_Denmark's government said last week it will raise the penalty for illegal gun possession as part of a crackdown on gang violence that has killed three people and injured 25 in recent months.
_European Union lawmakers proposed tighter gun control across the bloc last year, including guidelines saying that only people over 18 not deemed a threat to public safety could buy and keep guns. EU members have until 2010 to adopt the measures.
In addition, some U.S. states have recently tightened gun laws as well:
_ Colorado, a year after the 1999 Columbine High School shootings, made it a felony to buy a firearm for another person who should know the transaction is illegal, barred anyone from giving a firearm to a juvenile without the consent of the parents; made it illegal for a person not to try to prevent a juvenile from committing a gun crime; and increased the penalty for possession of a weapon by a felon.
But three years later, the state expanded gun rights instead, by requiring sheriffs to issue gun permits to people who pass a criminal background check, prohibiting local governments from making gun laws more restrictive than the state's, and abolishing local registries of gun owners.
_ In Virginia, where a student killed 32 people at Virginia Tech in 2007 before committing suicide April 16, 2007, the governor signed an executive order requiring that anyone ordered by a court to get mental health treatment be added to a database of people barred from buying guns.

Government urged to endorse Arms Trade Treaty (click here)
ISLAMABAD (March 07 2009): A day long, National Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) Consultation on an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) organised by Community Appraisal & Motivation Programme (Camp) here on Friday urged the government to endorse Arms Trade Treaty.

The objectives of the event were to build civil society interest in national and international arms export control issues, strengthen the capacity of civil society organisations at provincial and national levels to constructively engage the government of Pakistan on the need for an ATT, deepen the involvement of civil society organisations in Arms Control campaign, develop recommendations through consultation and submit a comprehensive report to the Government.

The workshop was attended by people representing civil society organisations and all walks of life from all over the country. Participants were briefed and sensitised on the issue by a panel of experts. They comprised of Salma Malik a small arms expert, Dr Ijaz Khan Khattak, Asst. Professor of International Relation Department, University of Peshawar, Dr Ayesha Siddiqua, writer and security analyst, Raza Shah Khan Executive Director of Spado, Dr Naeem Ahmed, Asst. Professor of International Relations Department at Karachi University and Naveed Ahmad Shinwari, the Chief Executive of Camp.

Addressing the session, Ayesha Siddiqua said that the ease at which it was possible to obtain small arms has rapidly increased trends of violence in Pakistan. Casualties from small arms are more than that of nuclear weapons. She stressed the need for an urgent and comprehensive civil society campaign against this menace....

Lock them up, don't let them out. If Sharia Law doesn't dictate the end of the gun trade in Pakistan then drop bombs at will.