The US growth rate will slow in the last three months of 2014.

Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit explains: “The flash PMI survey data show the pace of economic growth easing for a fourth consecutive month in October. The weakened growth of new orders and downturn in business optimism suggest that growth and hiring could slow further in coming months. “Having signalled an annualised rate of GDP growth of approximately 3.5% in the third quarter, the October readings indicate that the pace of economic growth looks set to moderate in the fourth quarter, down to perhaps 2.5% or less if the PMI falls further in coming months. “There are clearly many concerns, ranging from worries about the impact of Ebola, the Ukraine crisis, the ongoing plight of the Eurozone , signs of further weakness in emerging markets and the Fed starting to tighten policy. “We should not lose sight of the fact that the pace of growth nevertheless remains robust, having merely eased from very strong rates in prior months. The survey is also indicating another month of non-farm payroll growth in excess of 200,000 in October. This sustained strength should help alleviate recent worries about a sudden deterioration in the economy’s health. The pace of expansion appears to be easing only moderately.”

Two mafia bosses - incompetent and corrupt - leaving the EU stage - thank's god !!!

BRUSSELS (EUObserver) - Herman Van Rompuy and Jose Manuel Barroso said goodbye to EU leaders on Friday (24 October) after attending their final summit as presidents of the EU council and commission.  For the Belgian Van Rompuy it marks almost the end of an almost 5-year term in which he worked behind the scenes to keep the EU united as it went through its deepest-ever economic crisis and tried to find solutions from preventing it ever happening again.  He was the first ever permanent president of the European Council, meaning the poetry-writing politician got to define the parameters of the job, making it a chairman rather than presidential post and preferring to be low-key.  "Politics is a rough trade" he noted but said he had been given loyalty and respect by colleagues. "I am leaving with the feeling that I have done all that I could." He recalled the bitter negotiations on the EU's longterm budget as requiring the most political skill and, like Barroso, remembered the pride of collecting the EU's Nobel peace prize. "Not only is my mandate coming to a close but so is my political and public life which has filled a large part of my life," said Van Rompuy, who formally steps down on 30 November.  He added, in his typical style, "in my life I have never had the feeling of being irreplaceable. There was a European Council before me. There will be a European Council without me." Barroso, whose term finishes next Friday (31 October), noted that he had attended 75 EU leader summits since he became commission president ten years ago. He said that how the EU had evolved over the years made him optimistic about its future, and spoke of "great" and "very difficult" moments over the past decade.  The Portuguese politician, who was generally regarded as reactive rather than visionary president, spoke for longer at the final press conference than Van Rompuy and mentioned that he had gathered his "testimonies" which could be downloaded "for free". An earlier ceremony among leaders saw the two leaders given porcelain plates as gifts a long with a signed 'family photo' of all the leaders.  Van Rompuy's plate was inscribed with one of his Haikus (Japanese poetry form) about Europe, written in his native Dutch; Barroso a plate with his motto "Let's build Europe together".  German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave a little speech on behalf of everyone. She was chosen, she said, because she was now the longest-serving EU leader.  She said Barroso worked as a lynchpin between the EU main institutions and reminded member states of the rules "whether we liked it or not" and said leaders would "miss" having Van Rompuy at the helm. While it was the two politicians' last summit, the meeting is most likely to be remembered for a row with Britain over it having to pay an extra €2bn towards the EU.  Prime Minister David Cameron, in a podium-banging press conference, said he would not pay it by the 1 December deadline.  The dispute escalated because it was initially unclear how the figures were arrived at. Barroso spent much of his final press conference as EU commission president going through the finer details of EU budget calculations for member states.

A sharp rise in lending to the world’s poorest countries will leave them with crippling debt payments over the next decade, a few years after many had loans written off, a report has warned.

The Jubilee Debt Campaign said as many as two-thirds of the 43 developing countries it analysed could suffer large increases in the share of government income spent on debt payments over the next decade. Coinciding with the World Bank’s annual meeting in Washington, the anti-poverty campaigners accuse the international lender and other public bodies of “leading the lending boom” to poor countries without checking how repaying debts will divert resources from cutting poverty. The report highlights that for 43 poor countries, half of lending is from multilateral institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and African Development Bank. Total lending to the group of poor countries has increased by 60% from $11.4bn (£7.1bn) a year in 2009 to $18.5bn in 2013.

“There is a real risk that today’s lending boom is sowing the seeds of a new debt crisis in the developing world, threatening to reverse recent gains in the fight against poverty and inequality,” said Sarah-Jayne Clifton, director of the Jubilee Debt Campaign.

“The shocking thing is that public bodies like the World Bank are leading the lending boom, not just reckless private lenders hunting for returns.”  The campaigners are calling for measures to make lending more responsible and for aid-giving to be shifted away from bodies like the World Bank that give loans towards sources that give it in the form of grants. The analysis uses IMF and World Bank data on developing country debts and projects the cost of payments under the following three scenarios: predictions of continuous high economic growth are realised; estimates of one economic shock over the next decade prove correct; and economic growth is lower than the standard prediction.

After Berlusconi was sidelined and the boring Enrico Letta was replaced by the sympathetic and purposeful 39-year-old Matteo Renzi as the head of government, many thought that Italy was finally on the right track. But it's not...On the contrary: The land is stuck in a recession. Its levels of sovereign debt, the number of bankruptcies and the rate of unemployment are perpetually setting new records. As a result, some Italian political leaders have long sought a multi-billion euro growth stimulus program -- a call that new European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is likely to heed. The magnitude and form of such a program, however, still needs to be determined so that it at least maintains the illusion of conforming with the Stability and Growth Pact. But without many other changes in Italy, including its grasp on reality, simply injecting money isn't likely to change much. "For 20 years," economic expert Daniel Gros told La Repubblica newspaper recently, Italy has been claiming that others need to "give it another year, then you will see our wonderful reforms." And even Mario Draghi -- the Italian president of the European Central Bank, which has been flooding the continent with cheap money, especially in crisis flashpoints like Italy -- bluntly admonished the country in August for failing to implement substantive structural reforms ...

But it's not that Italy is even lacking in money. The assets of Italian banks and insurance companies have risen by over €1.2 trillion since 2008. But manufacturing asset bases have, by contrast, fallen by €200 million. It's a grim distribution: the one sector doesn't seem to want to invest, while the other is unable.

Italians themselves face a similar situation. On average, every Italian has about €4,000 more in net assets than the average German, but wealth is even less evenly distributed in Italy than it is in Germany, weakening domestic demand: The rich have everything, the poor can't afford anything.

Well to be honest, Cameron, Hollande and Merkel saw, in the violence in Ukraine, an opportunity to give Mr. Putin a good kicking - and took it (in their own, limp-wristed, spineless kind of a way). They took the opportunity knowing that it would have repercussions on their own countries' economies but, hey, it wouldn't affect them personally so why not? ... Now we have a kind of a deal going on in Ukraine, one that seems to favour the pro-Russian faction, and so European manufacturers once again have had to suffer so that their political parasites' egos could be burnished....The EU/UK lackeys of the US Empire, are like naughty children playing with matches, whilst the evil governess looks on, unconcerned. It's becoming clear that the EU has been persuaded to drink the kool-aid and nirvana awaits them on the other side. It's Kafkaesque. The premiss seems to be that a bankrupt entity sanctions a rich creditor nation (although nation is too smaller word for a country encompassing 12 times zones and 40-45% of known world resources) into submission by refusing to offer them more debt. Europe will be weakened for a generation and become, increasingly, an unimportant peninsula on the Eurasian continent.  Meanwhile, Russia-China cement, extend and strengthen their already (natural) geo-political, trade and resource provider/manufacturer complementarity. The US Empire is gambling that its mighty military machine can subdue and subjugate the BRICS (through primarily Russia/China) to stop them becoming the new geo-political and trading hub, before the rest of the world catches on to the US$ reserve currency ponzi scheme. Game for for the Empire if that happens.... In conclusion : The sanctions were completely unnecessary. The EU should not always obey the US as they do. Cameron and Hollande have even less balls than Merkel, and she does not have any. Sorry if this sounds somewhat crude. But the EU leaders are pathetic wimps and cowards.

EU leaders have appointed Italy's Federica Mogherini as EU foreign policy chief and Poland's Donald Tusk as European Council president. The announcement came in tweets from the current council president, Herman Van Rompuy, at an EU summit.  Ms Mogherini, a centre-left politician, is Italy's foreign minister. She will replace the UK's Catherine Ashton.  Mr Tusk, Poland's centre-right prime minister, has been Polish leader since 2007. He will chair EU summits. The full-time appointments mean that the EU's three top jobs are now filled. Mr Tusk and Ms Mogherini will work closely with the new European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker.On arrival at the summit the European Parliament President Martin Schulz, a Socialist, spoke warmly of Ms Mogherini, calling himself a "fan". It was a strong indication that she would be a popular choice among MEPs. The parliament's approval is required for all 28 members of the new Commission, and the EU foreign policy chief, officially called the High Representative, is also a vice-president of the Commission.  Baroness Ashton, a centre-left UK politician, has been in the job since 2009. The High Representative runs the EU External Action Service (EEAS).  Italy's centre-left Prime Minister Matteo Renzi pushed hard for Ms Mogherini to get the job. However, last month the EU failed to get a consensus on her candidacy, as the Baltic states and Poland saw her as inexperienced and too soft on Russia. She has only been Italian foreign minister since February.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark – The European Parliament gave a tacit nod to Kurdish aspirations of independence on Thursday, when for the first time its motion over the Iraq conflict did not stipulate that the country must stay together. Until now resolutions passed by European Union MPs, gathered in Brussels in the wake of the crisis in Iraq, had stressed: “Iraq’s unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity are essential for stability and economic development in the country and the region.”Dellawar Ajgeiy, ‎‎‎the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) representative in the European Union capital expressed delight over that omission. "Until now, the European Parliament had stressed the importance of the unity of Iraq, but we feel that the reversal means they had to take account of the new realities," he said.  "We think it is very positive, because one cannot dictate to Iraqis and Kurds something that is not in their interest." The joint motion took note of the announcement by the KRG of a planned referendum for independence. The EU “appeals, however, to the parliament and the President of KRG, Massoud Barzani, to uphold an inclusive process in respect of the rights of the non-Kurdish minorities living in the province,” the motion said.
Rudaw has learnt that the United States, France, Italy, Britain, Turkey, Jordan, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are among states that have assured KRG officials they would show understanding, should Kurdistan declare independence.
Various politicians in Europe have expressed their views on the issue. “The Kurds, just like all people, have the right to decide themselves about their future, according to international law,” Annika Lillemets, member of the Swedish parliament for the Green Party, told Rudaw. Earlier this week the British Ambassador to Turkey Richard Moore said the UK's stance on an independent Kurdistan is the “same as Turkey's,” and stressed the importance of Iraq’s territorial integrity. “We think that what we need is a unified Iraq. We are very clear with the KRG that we recognized the need for them to protect their security," Moore said.

British MP Nadhim Zahawi believes that, since the fall of Mosul and about a third of Iraq to jihadi-led insurgents, Kurds now occupy a new world, and “there is no going back.” “To return to greater centralization would be to fundamentally undo the gains that were so hard-won over the past decade, especially in Kurdistan,” he said. But he added that breaking up Iraq would “not deliver stability, either.” He offered a new model of federalism.
“This model would recognize the realities on the ground and better serve the interests of all parties. It’s not a new concept, and has been used to recognize diversity in several other countries. In the UK, for example, we have been debating the greater devolution of powers to Scotland,” Zahawi said.He added that during his rule Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had only made “a half-hearted attempt at decentralization. It’s now up to Iraq’s politicians to overcome their differences and construct a national platform.”  Ajgeiy, the KRG representative, confirmed that some European countries are skeptical about the prospect of an independent Kurdistan because they fear more instability. He said that fear was baseless.  "On the contrary, the KRG stands for security and stability in the region, with its good economy and energy resources.  We are close to Europe, historically, culturally and in terms of democratic values."Among his many meetings in Brussels, he has seen much sympathy from politicians who have an understanding of the Kurdish desire for secession. "But there are also many politicians who do not say loud that their countries will accept Kurdish independence, because they themselves have their own problems with breakaway regions," Ajgeiy said.  He believes several European former Soviet republics would accept an independent Kurdistan.

The Federal Security Services (FSB) is reporting today that Israel’s Ofek 10 spy satellite was “targeted and destroyed” during an over flight of the New South Wales region of Australia earlier today while it was attempting to gather “electronic signal and photographic information” from a suspected Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) aircraft surrounded at the Illawarra Regional Airport (Wollongong Aerodrome) since this past Tuesday by that nations Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad (MEOCS) after it was discovered carrying a “highly sophisticated nuclear device”.

According to this report, Israel’s Defense Ministry successfully launched their Ofek 10 next-generation satellite on 9 April to provide them with highly-targeted surveillance of specific locations, and which on Tuesday had its orbit changed to target Australia.

Specifically being targeted by the Ofek 10 satellite, this report continues, was the mysterious Swearingen Merlin 3 twin-turbo prop plane that landed there on Tuesday after having originated its mission in long know CIA territory Punta Gorda, Florida, landing at CIA-operated facilities at both Guam and the Philippines before completing its journey to New South Wales after its nearly 16,000 km (10,000 mile) flight.

This FSB report further details that this mysterious plane was under the control of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) throughout its entire journey through its mercenary offshoot identified as Snow Goose International, and which was founded last year by former Australia Air Force officer and SIS operative David Baddams as an “intelligence entity” able to perform “off the book” missions. Curiously, this report further states, SIS operative Baddams admitted to flying this mysterious plane from the US to the Philippines, but now says he has “no idea” how it got to New South Wales. The FSB further notes that according to Snow Goose International’s own records, this mysterious plane was owned by Oregonian Aeroclub LLC, a US-based company that has no record of existing, and prior to leaving the United States landed at Kirkland Air Force Base in Albuquerque New Mexico for fuel where it acquired a “highly troubling radioactive signature” detected by Russian satellites utilizing Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT). This FSB report does note that the surreptitious transferring of nuclear weapons and materials by the US and its allies by means and methods such as was done in this instance is “common” for any number of security reasons, but left unexplained are a number of critical questions, specifically why and how this plane ended up in New South Wales, and why Israel’s Ofek 10 satellite was destroyed while attempting to conduct surveillance it.

Money needs to go where you need it to go. Private banks only lend a small fraction of what they could lend into industry because of the risk. With private banks creating 97% of all new broad money into the economy in the form of debt the kind of change you want wont happen. Private banks prefer to speculate in derivatives and property or use it to rig LIBOR rates, so doing the same old thing like QE doesn't work. banks dont give a damn about social policy that government wants to follow they go where the profit is, which most definitely are not social projects where the people want it to go. Private banks control the money so believe me when i say they will not give that control up without regulation and another form of money reform its just not in their interest. We need a sovereign money creation economy, where the introduction of money is done centrally where government and the people want it to go, not where the banks want it to go.

Most economists don't include money creation in their models of the economy , which is completely crazy, because if you don't count money in the economic models you cant see what effects it has. 

The best way to really understand how a sovereign money system would operate is to seek sites about how this can be done. 

www.positivemoney.org has a lot of very good ideas if you can go through the literature. 

Its also very interesting to see that most people talk in banking circles about fractional reserve banking, but that doesn't happen , it doesn't exist. 

Here is a link to the Bank of England quarterly report that proves that a) 97% of all money is created by private banks and b) fractional reserve banking is a much vaunted but not a truthful explanation of banking in the modern economy.

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/quarterlybulletin/m05.aspx

Banks (private) do not work the way you think they do. They do not lend savers money into the economy, they create the debt electronically and add interest. There are not enough savers in the world to cover the debt that is lent by banks(not even a tiny fraction of that debt) How many grannies savings accounts would you need to cover lending to just the U.K.'s mortgages? never mind the $634 Trillion debt the U.S. carries, its laughable really that we fell for it. 

This massive amount of debt IS 97% CREATED BY BANKS.  So sovereign money is the solution.

European Central Bank Executive Board member Yves Mersch has said it would be close to suicide not to agree on a mechanism to close down non-viable banks. Reuters reports: The resolution mechanism - still not finalized - is the second pillar of the banking union, which complements the unified banking supervision under the auspices of the ECB, together marking the most ambitious step towards closer European integration since the launch of the euro. Mersch said he was confident an agreement on the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) could be reached, though “whether the outcome will then be satisfactory from every point of view, that’s again a new discussion”.

“I do not know of anyone who would have a plan B for a suicide. And not having an SRM would be very close to suicide,” Mersch said, when asked whether there was a plan B in case no agreement was reached before European elections in May. After two days spent trying to finalize the plan to tackle non-viable banks. European ministers said they disbanded on Tuesday with broad agreement, but officials said key questions remained open.

Beware of the Anglo-Saxons barbarians - how they destroyed a Christian civilization - they will distroy today's Europe just the same

See also : http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail

The Philippine television station GMA reported its news team saw 11 bodies, including that of a child, washed ashore on Friday and 20 more bodies at a pier in Tacloban hours after the typhoon ripped through the coastal city. At least 20 more bodies were taken to a church in nearby Palo town that was used as an evacuation centre but had to be abandoned when its roofs were blown away, the TV network reported. TV images showed howling winds peeling off tin roof sheets during heavy rain. Ferocious winds felled large branches and snapped coconut trees. A man was shown carrying the body of his six-year-old daughter, who drowned, and another image showed vehicles piled up in debris. Haiyan, one of the strongest storms ever to hit land, was leaving the Philippines behind on Saturday, having flattened houses, triggered landslides and floods and knocked out power and communications across a number of islands. More than 750,000 people were forced to flee their homes. The toll of death and damage is expected to rise sharply as rescue workers and soldiers reach areas cut off by the massive, fast-moving storm, now heading towards Vietnam. Authorities in 15 provinces in Vietnam started to call back boats and prepare for possible landslides. Nearly 300,000 people were moved to safer areas in two provinces alone – Da Nang and Quang Nam– according to the government's website. Forecasters said the storm was expected to pick up renewed strength over the South China Sea. There were hopes the Philippines had avoided a worse disaster because the rapidly moving typhoon blew away before wreaking more damage, officials said. But because communications were severed, it was impossible to know the full extent of casualties and damage.

Southern Leyte governor Roger Mercado said the typhoon ripped roofs off houses and triggered landslides that blocked roads. The dense clouds and heavy rains made the day seem almost as dark as night, he said. "When you're faced with such a scenario, you can only pray and pray and pray," Mercado told the Associated Press by telephone. He said mayors in the province had not called in to report any major damage. "I hope that means they were spared and not the other way around," he said. "My worst fear is there will be massive loss of lives and property."

A railway tunnel underneath the Bosphorus Strait is due to open in Turkey, creating a new link between the Asian and European shores of Istanbul.  The tunnel is the world's first connecting two continents, and is designed to withstand earthquakes.   It is being opened on the 90th anniversary of the Republic of Turkey.    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has for years championed the undersea engineering project, first conceived by an Ottoman sultan in 1860.  Work began in 2004 but archaeological excavations delayed construction.  The underwater section runs for 0.8 miles (1.4 km), but in total the tunnel is 8.5 miles (13.6 km) long. It is scheduled to be inaugurated at 13:00 GMT.

Reha Muhtar in Vatan: "It is a miraculous project that tells something about the horizons of this country and its people… Today, two continents are being united under the sea. This is a first in the world."

Suleyman Solmaz, from the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects, in Radikal: "Firstly there are no safety wagons; secondly, there is no electronic security system. The tunnel about to open doesn't have a safety control centre."

Taha Akyoll in Hurriyet: "Let us make the opening of a historically great project like Marmaray, on the 90th anniversary of the Republic, a symbol of overcoming polarisation. In the inauguration of this work, which was constructed with the taxes of 75 million people, the government should use an inclusive tone."

Japan invested $1bn of the $4bn (£3.4bn) total cost of the project, named Marmaray, which is a conflation of the nearby Sea of Marmara with "ray", the Turkish word for rail.    The BBC's James Reynolds in Istanbul says the Turkish government hopes the new route under the Bosphorus will eventually develop into an important trading route.  In theory it brings closer the day when it will be possible to travel from London to Beijing via Istanbul by train.   The Marmaray project will upgrade existing suburban train lines to create a direct link joining the southern part of the city across the Bosphorus Strait.    Istanbul is one of the world's biggest cities, with about 16 million people. Some two million, according to the AFP news agency, cross the Bosphorus every day via just two bridges, causing severe traffic congestion.    The rail service will be capable of carrying 75,000 people per hour in either direction.

The sluggishness of the global economy has been highlighted, with German exports rising by less than expected and leaders from across the Asia Pacific region warning that trade is weakening.

Exports from Europe's largest economy rose 1% in August but came in short of the expected 1.5% increase.

Despite the rise, which followed an unexpected fall in July, the data from the federal statistics office showed German exports continue to be hit by weak demand from the eurozone.

Imports rose by 0.4%, widening Germany's trade surplus to €15.6bn (£13.2bn) from €15bn in July – higher than analysts had predicted but below a surplus of €18.1bn in the same month last year.

On an annual basis, German imports were 2.2% lower than in August 2012 while exports of goods were 5.4% lower.

Meanwhile, leaders at an Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) meeting in Bali warned global growth was too weak and trade was slowing.

"Global growth is too weak, risks remain tilted to the downside, global trade is weakening, and the economic outlook suggests growth is likely to be slower and less balanced than desired," leaders said in a statement.

"We will implement prudent and responsible macroeconomic policies to ensure mutually reinforcing effect of growth and to maintain economic and financial stability in the region, and prevent negative spillover effect."

The group of 21 countries includes Japan, China, Russia, Australia and the US, although the US government shutdown meant President Barack Obama was not present at the meeting to back the statement.

Elsewhere, HSBC said British companies needed more help from the government to fulfil their export potential. Since the onset of the financial crisis, UK policymakers have repeatedly emphasised the need to rebalance the economy away from a reliance on spending and towards manufacturing and exports.

The government has an ambition to double exports to £1tr by 2020, an increase HSBC said would require "considerable work".

Britain's largest bank said UK business confidence was rising, and predicted growth in hi-tech manufacturing, but it said companies needed more practical help.

Publishing a manifesto for British exports, HSBC said businesses required assistance to make connections with other parts of the world, support with the initial costs and risks of exporting, and the confidence that came from clear information about international opportunities.

Among its recommendations was an examination of the case for export tax credits for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), an improvement in SME access to export credit guarantees, and a simplification of the business visa process.

"Britain's businesses are among the most innovative and imaginative in the world. But in recent years, these talents have failed to deliver significant export growth," said Alan Keir, chief executive of HSBC Bank.

"Achieving the government's target of doubling exports to £1tn by 2020 will take considerable work by all parties, yet we know from talking to our customers that many businesses with massive export potential are still holding back from looking overseas."

The German government has expressed the growing public anger of its citizens over Britain's mass programme of monitoring global phone and internet traffic and directly challenged UK ministers over the whole basis of GCHQ's Project Tempora surveillance operation. The German justice minister, who has described the secret operation by Britain's eavesdropping agency as a catastrophe that sounded "like a Hollywood nightmare", warned UK ministers that free and democratic societies could not flourish when states shielded their actions in "a veil of secrecy".

Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger sent two letters on Tuesday to the British justice secretary, Chris Grayling, and the home secretary, Theresa May, stressing the widespread concern the disclosures have triggered in Germany and demanding to know the extent to which German citizens have been targeted.

It is the first major challenge to David Cameron's government to publicly justify its mass data-trawling operation, which was revealed in documents leaked by the former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, has made clear her frustration that many of the questions raised by the disclosures made by the whistleblower have gone unanswered by the Obama administration.

William Hague, the British foreign secretary, again dismissed concerns on Tuesday in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Library in California, saying Britain should have nothing but pride in its "indispensable" intelligence-sharing relationship with the US.

"Let us be clear about it: in both our countries intelligence work takes place within a strong legal framework. We operate under the rule of law and are accountable for it. In some countries secret intelligence work is used to control their people – in ours it only exists to protect their freedoms."

But writing in the Guardian, the former Conservative leadership contender David Davis disputes that view, saying Britain's intelligence agencies are only subject to law in theory. He accuses GCHQ of circumventing "inconvenient laws" by handing over personal data to the US and raises the prospect of "extremely serious violation" of the rights of British citizens over the use of their personal data.

WoWWWW....I can't believe this ...

Largest German bank’s Singapore unit helped birth companies and trusts in tax havens. Germany’s largest financial institution, Deutsche Bank, helped its customers maintain more than 300 secretive offshore companies and trusts through its Singapore branch, an investigation by German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, German public broadcaster NDR and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has found. More than 100 customer consultants at Deutsche Bank Singapore helped create or manage 309 offshore entities for its customers in the British Virgin Islands and other tax havens, according to secret records obtained by the news organizations. Besides Deutsche Bank, the article on the same topic at the Sueddeutsche also mentions UBS and JP Morgan and "virtually all big banks" as being implicated in the offshore scandal.  I know it's kind of stating the obvious, but these offshore money bunkers are only possible with the help of a) the big banks and b) the big four accounting firms - as clearly stated in "the tax free tour", an excellent dutch documentary on this subject. The biggest part of it is in english. The outrage I see by politicians is kind of funny - as if we only find this out now. Because of course, this entire system has been allowed by our leaders - and us. In other news, there now seem to be 400 Belgians on the list as opposed to a hundred yesterday. BUt we have already been assured that there are no politicians or leaders of BEL20 companies involved, and neither are the very wealthy families in there. Hmmmm...

ZeroHedge reports a story in the Cyprus press that the president of the national legislature has called for an exit from the Eurozone too. Also that the president of Cyprus may have moved his families money out of Cyprus in the week before the deposits were frozen. If true, then I can't see Cyprus honoring the Troika terms and a Euro exit is inevitable....

Archbishop Chrysostomos II, who had urged for eurozone exit over an onerous bail-out, declared on Sunday that finance minister Michalis Sarris and central bank governor Panicos Demetriades should step down after allowing the EU-IMF lenders to devastate the island’s banking sector in return for a €10bn (£8.4bn) loan. The missive is the latest public criticism to come from the island’s religious leader since his failed bid to avert a raid on Cypriot savings by offering the church’s entire wealth to shore up the struggling economy. His call emerged a day after the central bank unveiled much worse than feared measures on uninsured deposits - those over €100,000 - in the island’s largest lender, Bank of Cyprus. In an arrangement which will see more than €100m wiped off the Cypriot Orthodox Church’s assets, up to 60pc could be slashed from uninsured savings in the Bank of Cyprus, while large depositors in the island’s other major lender Laiki Bank stand to lose 80pc of anything over €100,000 as it is broken up and wound down.

“If I was satisfied, I would not have called on them the other day to resign and leave, because they have the same views as the troika [of international lenders],” said the archbishop.
The Cypriot Central Bank Governer & Finance Minister were called on to resign "because they have the same views as the troika [of international lenders],” said the archbishop".
Therein lies the issue. These two, in their actions are not looking after Cypriots.. they, along with their EU chums, are acting outside the law, acting with impunity like typical EU emperialists following the "Project" line.. They should go.

HABEMUS PAPAM

The White House has just released this statement from President Obama:

On behalf of the American people, Michelle and I offer our warm wishes to His Holiness Pope Francis as he ascends to the Chair of Saint Peter and begins his papacy. As a champion of the poor and the most vulnerable among us, he carries forth the message of love and compassion that has inspired the world for more than two thousand years—that in each other we see the face of God.

As the first pope from the Americas, his selection also speaks to the strength and vitality of a region that is increasingly shaping our world, and alongside millions of Hispanic Americans, those of us in the United States share the joy of this historic day.

A Guide To Committees, Groups, And Clubs

September 28, 2012

Political leaders and officials from around the world shape the work of the IMF through their various fora and bodies. With the IMF at the center of the coordinated global response to events in international financial markets and the world's economies, understanding what these groups do and how they work is important.

International Monetary and Financial Committee Development Committee Financial Stability Board Group of 7 Group of 8 Group of 10 Group of 15 Group of 20 Group of 24 Group of 77 Creditor Clubs Archive:Group of 5 Group of 22 Group of 33

International Monetary and Financial Committee

The IMFC is responsible for advising, and reporting to, the IMF Board of Governors as it manages and shapes the international monetary and financial system. The IMFC also monitors developments in global liquidity and the transfer of resources to developing countries; considers proposals by the Executive Board to amend the Articles of Agreement; and deals with unfolding events that may disrupt the global monetary and financial system.

The IMFC usually meets twice a year, in September or October at the Bank-Fund Annual Meetings and in March or April at what are referred to as the Spring Meetings. The Committee discusses matters of concern affecting the global economy and also advises the IMF on the direction of its work. At the end of the meetings, the Committee issues a communiqué summarizing its views. These communiqués provide guidance for the IMF's work program during the six months leading up to the next Spring or Annual Meetings. There is no formal voting at the IMFC, which operates by consensus.

The IMFC has 24 members who are central bank governors, ministers, or others of comparable rank and who are drawn from the governors of the Fund's 188 member countries. The membership reflects the composition of the IMF's Executive Board: each member country that appoints, and each group of member countries that elects, an Executive Director appoints a member of the IMFC. The group is currently chaired by Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance of Singapore, who was selected to head the Committee in March 2011. A number of international institutions, including the World Bank, participate as observers in the IMFC's meetings.

IMFC Membership
Nationalities of current members:
Singapore (Chair) Algeria Argentina Australia Belgium Brazil Canada China	France Gabon Germany India Indonesia Italy Japan Netherlands	Russia Saudi Arabia South Africa Spain Sweden Switzerland United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States

Development Committee

The Joint Ministerial Committee of the Boards of Governors of the Bank and Fund on the Transfer of Real Resources to Developing Countries, better known as the Development Committee, was established in October 1974 to advise the Boards of Governors of the IMF and World Bank on critical development issues and on the financial resources required to promote economic development in developing countries. Over the years, the Committee has interpreted its mandate to include trade and global environmental issues in addition to traditional development matters. The Committee usually meets twice a year following the IMFC meeting.

The Development Committee has 25 members (usually ministers of finance or development) who together represent the full membership of the IMF and World Bank. The present chairperson is Marek Belka, President of the National Bank of Poland.

Development Committee Membership
Poland (Chair) Argentina Bahrain Belgium Brazil Canada China Côte d’Ivoire Denmark France	Germany India Indonesia Italy Japan Mexico Morocco Netherlands New Zealand	Nigeria Russia Saudi Arabia Switzerland United Kingdom United States Zimbabwe

Financial Stability Board

In order to strengthen the surveillance of financial markets, the G-20 leaders decided in April 2009 to expand the membership of the former Financial Stability Forum and renamed it the Financial Stability Board. The new membership includes all G-20 countries, the former FSF members, Spain, and the European Commission.

The FSB is designed to help improve the functioning of financial markets, and to reduce systemic risk through enhanced information exchange and international cooperation among the authorities responsible for maintaining financial stability.

The FSF first met on April 14, 1999, at IMF headquarters, and has since then met semi-annually. The FSF was made an observer of the IMFC in September 1999.

Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of Canada, chairs the FSB in his personal capacity. The FSB consists of a Plenary, a Steering Committee, other committees and sub-groups as needed, and a secretariat based in Basel, Switzerland. The Plenary is the decision-making organ of the FSB; its members are the heads of members' treasuries, central banks, and supervisory agencies; the chairs of the main standard-setting bodies and central bank committees; and senior representatives of international financial institutions (Bank for International Settlements, European Central Bank, European Commission, International Monetary Fund, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and The World Bank). The Steering Committee provides operational guidance between plenary meetings to carry forward the directions of the FSB; its composition is decided by the Plenary at the proposal of the Chair. The Plenary may establish Standing Committees and working groups as necessary.

Financial Stability Board Membership
Chairman (1)
National Authorities (24)
International Financial Institutions (6)
International Regulatory and Supervisory Groupings (6)
Committees of Central Bank Experts (2)

Group of Seven

The Group of Seven (G-7) major industrial countries began to hold annual economic summits (meetings at the level of head of state or government) in 1975. At the level of finance minister and central bank governor, the G-7 superseded the G-5 as the main policy coordination group during 1986–1987, particularly following the Louvre Accord of February 1987, which was agreed by the G-5 plus Canada and subsequently endorsed by the G-7. Since 1987, the G-7 finance ministers and central bank governors have met at least semi-annually to monitor developments in the world economy and assess economic policies. The Managing Director of the IMF usually participates, by invitation, in the surveillance discussions of the G-7 finance ministers and central bank governors. Although, Russia has joined the group, thereby forming the Group of Eight (see below), the G-7 continues to function as a forum for discussion of economic and financial issues among the major industrial countries.

G-7 Members
Canada	Japan
France	The United Kingdom
Germany	The United States
Italy

Group of Eight

The Group of Eight (G-8) was conceived when Russia first participated in part of the 1994 Naples Summit of the G-7. Again in 1997, Russia joined, for political discussions, the Denver Summit after the conclusion of the G-7 economic summit. At the 1998 Birmingham Summit, Russia joined as full participant, which marked the establishment of the Group of Eight, which convenes annual summits of the heads of state or government of the major industrial countries to discuss the major economic and political issues on their agenda.

G-8 Members
Canada	Japan
France	Russia
Germany	The United Kingdom
Italy	The United States

Group of Ten

The Group of Ten (G-10) refers to the group of countries that have agreed to participate in the General Arrangements to Borrow (GAB), a supplementary borrowing arrangement that can be invoked if the IMF's resources are estimated to be below member's needs. The GAB was established in 1962, when the governments of eight IMF members—Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States—and the central banks of two others, Germany and Sweden, agreed to make resources available to the IMF for drawings by participants, and, under certain circumstances, for drawings by nonparticipants. The GAB was strengthened in 1964 by the association of Switzerland, then a nonmember of the Fund, but the name of the G-10 remained the same. Following its inception, the G-10 broadened its engagement with the Fund, including issuing reports that culminated in the creation of the Special Drawing Right (SDR) in 1969. The G-10 was also the forum for discussions that led to the December 1971 Smithsonian Agreement following the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. The following international organizations are official observers of the activities of the G-10: The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), European Commission, IMF, and OECD.

G-10 Members
Belgium	Netherlands
Canada	Sweden
France	Switzerland
Germany	The United Kingdom
Italy	The United States
Japan

Group of Fifteen

The Group of Fifteen (G-15) was established at the Ninth Non-Aligned Summit Meeting in Belgrade, Yugoslavia in September 1989. It is composed of countries from Latin America, Africa, and Asia with a common goal of enhanced growth and prosperity. The G-15 focuses on cooperation among developing countries in the areas of investment, trade, and technology. The membership of the G-15 has expanded to 17 countries, but the name has remained unchanged.

G-15 Members
Algeria	Indonesia	Nigeria
Argentina	Iran, Islamic Republic of	Senegal
Brazil	Jamaica	Sri Lanka
Chile	Kenya	Venezuela, República Bolivariana de
Egypt	Malaysia	Zimbabwe
India	Mexico

Group of Twenty

The Group of Twenty (G-20), which superseded the Group of 33 (see below), was foreshadowed at the Cologne Summit of the G-7 in June 1999, but was formally established at the G-7 Finance Ministers' meeting on September 26, 1999. The inaugural meeting took place on December 15–16, 1999, in Berlin. The G-20 was formed as a new forum for cooperation and consultation on matters pertaining to the international financial system. It studies, reviews, and promotes discussion among key industrial and emerging market countries of policy issues pertaining to the promotion of international financial stability, and seeks to address issues that go beyond the responsibilities of any one organization.

As the global economic crisis unfolded, and with the meetings of G-20 Heads of State and Government in November 2008, and in April and September 2009, the G-20 assumed an increasingly active role on global economic issues. This culminated in leaders designating the G-20 as "the premier forum for our international economic cooperation" during their Pittsburg Summit.

The membership of the G-20 comprises the finance ministers and central bank governors of the G-7, 12 other key countries, and also the European Union, which is represented by the rotating Council Presidency and the European Central Bank. To ensure that global economic fora and institutions work together, the Managing Director of the IMF and the President of the World Bank, plus the Chairs of the IMFC and the Development Committee, also participate in G-20 meetings on an ex-officio basis. Mexico is the 2012 chair of the G-20, to be followed by Russia in 2013.

G-20 Members
Argentina	France	Japan	South Africa
Australia	Germany	Korea, Republic of	Turkey
Brazil	India	Mexico	The United Kingdom
Canada	Indonesia	Russia	The United States
China	Italy	Saudi Arabia	The European Union

Group of Twenty-Four

The Group of Twenty-Four (G-24), originally a chapter of the G-77, was established in 1971 to coordinate the positions of developing countries on international monetary and development finance issues and to ensure that their interests were adequately represented in negotiations on international monetary matters. The group, which is officially called the Intergovernmental Group of Twenty-Four on International Monetary Affairs and Development, is not an organ of the IMF, but the IMF provides secretariat services for the Group. Its meetings usually take place twice a year, prior to the IMFC and Development Committee meetings, to enable developing country members to discuss agenda items beforehand. Although membership in the G-24 is strictly limited to 24 countries, any developing country can join discussions. China has been a “special invitee” since 1981. Palaniappan Chidambaram, Minister of Finance for India, is the current chairman of the G-24.

G-24 Members
Algeria	Egypt	Iran, Islamic Rep. of	Philippines
Argentina	Ethiopia	Lebanon	South Africa
Brazil	Gabon	Mexico	Sri Lanka
Colombia	Ghana	Nigeria	Syrian Arab Republic
Congo, Dem. Rep. of	Guatemala	Pakistan	Trinidad and Tobago
Côte d’Ivoire	India	Peru	Venezuela, República Bolivariana de

Group of Seventy-Seven

The Group of Seventy-Seven (G-77) was established on June 15, 1964, by the "Joint Declaration of the Seventy-Seven Countries" issued at the end of the first session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva. It was formed to articulate and promote the collective economic interests of its members and to strengthen their joint negotiating capacity on all major international economic issues in the United Nations system. The membership of the G-77 has expanded to 132 member countries, but the original name has been retained because of its historical significance. The Chairmanship rotates on a regional basis (between Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean) and is held for one year. Currently, Algeria holds the Chairmanship of the Group of 77 in New York for 2012.

G-77 Members
Afghanistan, Islamic Republic of	Djibouti	Libya	São Tomé and Príncipe
Algeria	Dominica	Madagascar	Saudi Arabia
Angola	Dominican Republic	Malawi	Senegal
Antigua and Barbuda	Ecuador	Malaysia	Seychelles
Argentina	Egypt	Maldives	Sierra Leone
Bahamas, The	El Salvador	Mali	Singapore
Bahrain	Equatorial Guinea	Marshall Islands	Solomon Islands
Bangladesh	Eritrea	Mauritania	Somalia
Barbados	Ethiopia	Mauritius	South Africa
Belize	Fiji	Micronesia, Federated States of	Sri Lanka
Benin	Gabon	Mongolia	Sudan
Bhutan	Gambia, The	Morocco	Suriname
Bolivia	Ghana	Mozambique	Swaziland
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Grenada	Myanmar	Syrian Arab Republic
Botswana	Guatemala	Namibia	Tajikistan
Brazil	Guinea	Nepal	Tanzania
Brunei Darussalam	Guinea-Bissau	Nicaragua	Thailand
Burkina Faso	Guyana	Niger	Timor-Leste
Burundi	Haiti	Nigeria	Togo
Cambodia	Honduras	Oman	Tonga
Cameroon	India	Pakistan	Trinidad and Tobago
Cape Verde	Indonesia	Palestine	Tunisia
Central African Republic	Iran, Islamic Republic of	Panama	Turkmenistan
Chad	Iraq	Papua New Guinea	Uganda
Chile	Jamaica	Paraguay	United Arab Emirates
China	Jordan	Peru	Uruguay
Colombia	Kenya	Philippines	Vanuatu
Comoros	Korea, Democratic People’s Republic of	Qatar	Venezuela, República Bolivariana de
Congo, Dem. Rep. of	Kuwait	Rwanda	Vietnam
Congo, Rep. of	Lao P.D.R.	St. Kitts and Nevis	Yemen
Costa Rica	Lebanon	St. Lucia	Zambia
Côte d'Ivoire	Lesotho	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	Zimbabwe
Cuba	Liberia	Samoa

Creditors Club

Paris Club

The Paris Club is an informal group of official creditors, industrial countries in most cases, that seeks coordinated and sustainable solutions for debtor nations facing payment difficulties. Paris Club creditors provide debt treatments to debtor countries in form of rescheduling or reduction in debt service during a defined period or as of a set date. Although the Paris Club has no legal basis, its members agree to a set of rules and principles designed to reach a coordinated agreement on debt rescheduling quickly and efficiently. This voluntary gathering dates back to 1956, when Argentina agreed to meet its public creditors in Paris. Since then, the Paris Club, and related ad hoc groups, has reached 426 agreements covering 89 debtor countries. The Paris Club and the IMF have extensive contact, since the Paris Club normally requires countries to have an active Fund-supported program in order to qualify for a rescheduling agreement.

London Club

The London Club is an informal group of commercial banks that join together to negotiate their claims against a sovereign debtor. The debtor initiates a process in which a London Club “Advisory Committee” is formed. The Committee is chaired by a leading financial firm and includes representatives from other exposed firms. Upon signing of a restructuring agreement, the Committee is dissolved.

Archive

With the passage of time, a number of committees, groups and clubs have changed or have been superseded. Some of these are archived in this section.

Group of Five

The Group of Five (G-5) major industrial countries was established in the mid-1970s to coordinate the economic policies of France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. (These countries' currencies also constituted the SDR, an international reserve asset, created by the IMF in 1969 to supplement the existing official reserves of member countries). The G-5 was the main policy coordination group among the major industrial countries through the Plaza Agreement of September 1985. It was subsequently superseded by the G-7.

Group of Twenty-Two

The establishment on a temporary basis of the Group of Twenty-Two (referred to also as the “Willard Group”) was announced by President Clinton and the other leaders of APEC countries at their meeting in Vancouver in November 1997, when they agreed to organize a gathering of finance ministers and central bank governors to advance the reform of the architecture of the global financial system. The G-22 comprised finance ministers and central bank governors from the G-7 industrial countries and 15 other countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, and Thailand). It first met on April 16, 1998 in Washington, D.C. to examine issues related to the stability of the international financial system and effective functioning of global capital markets. It was superseded first by the G-33 and then by the G-20.

Group of Thirty-Three

The Group of Thirty-Three (G-33) superseded the G-22 in early 1999, and was itself superseded by the G-20 later in the year. Several seminars of the G-33 on the international financial architecture were convened at the initiative of the finance ministers and central bank governors of the G-7. The first meeting was hosted by Germany in Bonn on March 11, 1999.

The G-33 consisted of the finance ministers and central bank governors of Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, France, Germany, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

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¹ The IMF also has a set of credit arrangements with members and institutions, the New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB), which became effective in November 1998. In March 2011, NAB participants ratified the expansion of the NAB up to SDR 367.5 billion (about $560 billion), once all new participants have adhered to the expanded NAB. In November 2011, Poland joined the NAB, bringing its total size to SDR370.0 billion (about $565 billion).

Lies and missleading statements ...The EZ is on the brink of collapse ...see what china did ..

BRUSSELS - Business investors are confident the eurozone has weathered the worst of the sovereign debt crisis, according to European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso. In a speech given to Portuguese diplomats in Lisbon on Thursday (3 January), the former Portuguese leader said that "the perception of risk in the eurozone has disappeared." He added: "Investors have understood that when European leaders commit themselves to doing everything to safeguard the integrity of the euro, they mean business." His speech comes after Portugal earlier this week became the latest EU country to break ranks on economic policy. Its president, Anibal Cavaco Silva in his New Year address condemned what he described as the "social injustice" of the country's bailout terms and promised a court enquiry on the subject. For his part, Barroso acknowledged that his native country is facing "a true ... social emergency." Amid criticism that EU-mandated austerity has caused a spike in unemployment across the Union, he conceded that the commission is "willing to analyze the completion of programmes and to make adjustments and do the fine-tuning necessary to minimize social costs." But Barroso's remarks reflect a growing belief among EU officials that market pressure on the single currency is starting to abate. Last month, German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble also told reporters the euro has survived the worst of the crisis, following a buy-back deal on Greek bonds. The optimistic tone was bolstered by a survey out this week. A poll of 778 investors in December by research group Sentix showed that the business community by and large expects the single currency to stay alive....

 

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/b...

Include this with the 'bombardier Siemens' situation and the economic argument is blown away.
The longer the eurocrisis persists, the less important economically the EU is to the world.
All these business leaders that depend on mass immigration from eastern Europe to keep down wages down and profits at a maximum (without paying tax for it) want us to stay in.
Investors that are more interested in high value production and investment couldn't care less either way.   Europe is a big enough entity with enough history and respect to stand up for herself. South Korea doesnt need to be in political union afterall....International Monetary Fund data show that emerging nations have cut the weighting of EMU bonds in their reserves to 24.7pc from a peak of 30pc at the onset of Europe’s crisis three years ago, with a record drop in the third quarter of 2012.  “They have lost their appetite for peripheral EMU bonds, and some have simply cut Italy and other countries from their benchmarks,” said Jens Nordvik, currency chief at Nomura.  The IMF data also show a record $19bn (£12bn) surge in holdings of sterling by advanced central banks to $98bn, the biggest three-month jump ever recorded. Analysts say this is almost certainly caused by the Swiss National Bank as it takes extreme measures to hold down the franc. The SNB has already bought an estimated $80bn-worth of euro bonds and is increasingly switching to other assets.  “There aren’t many places to go in this 'ugly contest’ if you don’t like the euro, dollar or yen,” said HSBC’s David Bloom.
The effect has been to thwart the Bank of England’s efforts to weaken the pound. The Swiss and UK central banks are effectively in a “low intensity” battle against each other. “This is what happens in currency wars. Desperate times lead to desperate acts,” said Mr Bloom.