The fact of the matter is, War is wrong. Killing is wrong

My entire heart is with the people of SE Ukraine and it is difficult for me to watch this video without getting upset. My dilemma is this: - Some experts believe that the US is trying to provoke Russia (and perhaps China) to give them a pretext to start a full blown WW3. This, they say, is the only way for the USA to avoid economic collapse - you go to war and, after you win, (if you win), you re-write the books, cancel the loans, and redraw the borders to get new resources and new markets. Should Putin give them that pretext? What if it is uncertain who would win? Should he risk everything? And then, again, what if the Americans are bluffing? Counting on Russian leadership to buy into it to paralize Russia, to scare it from responding. The guy at the end of the video is right - if Russia lets go of Ukraine, sonner or later NATO will be on its border and Russia will be next. This is where it all has been heading from the beginning. Don't forget that the pathological Russophobe Brzezinski aided Obama's election campaign and is, most likely, still influencing Obama's foreign policy.

European diplomats reached a deal on “tier 3” sanctions aimed at shutting Russian banks out of global capital markets and slowly suffocating the Russian economy, though the original plan to limit technology for oil and gas exploration has been diluted. Creditors have already frozen a $1.5bn loan for VTB bank due to be agreed last week.  The European Commission said the measures are likely to cut 0.3pc of GDP off EU economic growth this year, and 0.4pc next year, even if the crisis is contained without a serious disruption of energy supplies. “This is a significant hit to growth. It implies such low growth in parts of southern Europe that it makes it almost impossible to arrest the rise in debt ratios,” said Mr Tilford.  The Moscow newspaper Izvestia said Russia’s parliament is already drawing up legislation to blacklist “aggressor countries”, specifically targeting auditors and consultants. These include Deloitte, KPMG, EY (formerly known as Ernst & Young), Boston Consulting and McKinsey.  Tim Ash, from Standard Bank, said this would trigger clauses on bond covenants that rely on external audits. “If they go down this path they could provoke a brutal market reaction,” he said.  David Owen, from Jefferies, said a lack of genuine economic recovery is what lies behind Europe’s falling yields, already replicating the pattern seen in Japan in the 1990s. “A third of all countries in the eurozone are already in deflation once you strip away taxes, and another four have no inflation, including France and Spain,” he said.   “Corporate profits fell in the first quarter, and so did household disposable income, if you exclude Germany. We are seeing no growth at all in world trade, which is highly unusual. The CPB trade index rolled over in May and fell 0.6pc,” he said.  Mr Owen said investors are starting to price in quantitative easing by the ECB, which would entail sovereign bond purchases and potentially push yields lower. The Bundesbank would be the biggest buyer on a pro-rata basis under the ECB’s “key”, but German debt is relatively scarce. “Investors know this and it is driving Bund yields even lower,” he said. 

For Russia, deep recession looks inevitable. The commission said sanctions will cut Russia’s growth by 1.5pc in 2014, and by 4.8pc in 2015. A return to the Soviet stagnation of the early 1980s is becoming all too likely.

Kiev’s so-called “anti-terrorist operation” in the eastern regions of Ukraine has intensified lately. The most recent crackdown was in the village of Gorlovka, in the Donetsk Region. It resulted in 31 civilians being killed there. According to UN figures, at least 1,129 people have been killed and nearly 3,500 wounded in eastern Ukraine since the start of the operation in April. Also, 100,000 people have been forcibly displaced.  The UN report said that the cause of the rising death toll is intensified artillery shelling of civilian residential areas and so-called “collateral damage” in heavily-populated areas. The European Union has “quietly” agreed to lift restrictions supplying Kiev with military technology and equipment which can be used for the “repression” in the country, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. "During a recent meeting of the Council of Europe in Brussels, leaders of EU member states agreed 'on the quiet' to remove restrictions on exports to Kiev of equipment that could be used for internal repression," the ministry said in a statement on its website. "Exports of military technologies and equipment were also allowed."  Moscow slammed the move as "contradicting the rules of military technologies and ammunition exports which have been earlier applied by the EU" and also "pierced" by double standards. ‘Situation atrocious’: Russian Red Cross says E. Ukraine faces humanitarian catastrophe. The EU approved its rules for controlling the export of weapons and ammunition on December 8, 2008. Criterion #3 calls on the EU member countries to stop issuing export licenses for military equipment and technologies that can provoke or prolong conflict.

In my opinion, Germany is in a race to the bottom...

As I keep saying, soon, soon they will all want to talk, their plans of expansion to put off that day have not worked, Italy has hit the buffers and is a train wreak that cant be rescued, then I said France would be the next train running up Italy's rear end, then I said that would drag Germany into it, then would come the time to talk, I said we would need a strong man with the peoples will at heart, not the royal will or the city's will but the peoples will, Cameron tried to convince us he was that man, now Boris, but are they? I did say it would be an unexpected man or woman, one that is in the background now, one the pundits wont see as a contender, then UKIP emerged as a contender, is he this man? what chance do UKIP have of winning an election, maybe it is not a politician, maybe its a man who is in Europe on our behalf but has a handle on both Europe's will and the peoples will that can draw up that agreement, but if the EU is to be saved then they must find that man in every country as I keep saying, soon. but the snipers, what was that all about? didn't see any of that, so is it worth saving... and, it is getting worst, not flat lining which would mean it could get better on its own but worst, they are fiddling the figures more and more, soon they will have nothing left to fiddle, we all need a trade agreement, as we can see those are breaking down and trade wars are starting to take place all around it, while the politicians talk so the country side burns, to me I see hell all around, I see how it came and how it grew, the cities attempts to make us all junkies while destroying our means of production so we would be dependent on them, so securing their position on top, that is failing dramatically and making the people feel they are under threat from them, this is making the people wish to take them down with them and fill the lamp post with bankers(which I amplify here), Germany is not all right it is surrounded by a raging forest fire that will SOON cross their boarders and consume them. But there again, snipers, lol, we all get what we deserve.

Ten years ago, Lord Browne, the then chief executive of BP, flew to Williamsburg, Virginia, for a board meeting, where he planned to outline detailed proposals for a mega-merger with Royal Dutch Shell.  The radical tie-up had been discussed in secret weeks earlier with Jeroen van Der Veer, his counterpart at Shell, during a stroll around Lake Como in Italy.  With an estimated $9bn (£5.3bn) of synergies from the deal and Browne’s conviction that he had the backing of his own executive team, including his eventual successor Tony Hayward, the BP chief was ready to deliver the grand plan. But on the flight out of the UK, he suddenly got cold feet.  “I knew the answer even before the meeting started. The sentiment was 'why rock the boat?’ The Shell merger was not discussed. It was not going to be done and that was that… In the end we did not rock the boat; we missed it,” he recounted in his memoirs four years ago.  Browne, who stepped down in 2007, was among a generation of buccaneering oil major executives who had overseen a wave of mega-mergers at the end of the nineties that totally reshaped the industry.

The Italian economy is now officially in recession for a fourth time in six years, with GDP falling by 0.2pc in the second quarter of this year.  The fall has taken analysts by surprise, as a poll of economists had predicted that we would see Italian growth statistics show an increase of 0.1pc in the second quarter. 

The second quarter decline is an acceleration from a 0.1pc drop in GDP seen during the first three months of the year.

Today’s data serves to “underscore the fragile and sluggish nature of Italy’s recovery,” said RBC Capital Markets’ Timo del Carpio.

Six years after the financial crisis, Italian real GDP is still 9.1pc short of its pre-crisis peak...  

Monthly data indicates that the fall was caused by a sharp surge in imports. That increase “may prove temporary” given the weakness of domestic demand, said Capital Economics’ James Howat.

European Commission indicators and other surveys suggest that Italy may move out of recession in the third quarter, but Mr Howat is more pessimistic.  “These surveys have proved too optimistic in recent months,” he said, “more likely, GDP will fall by around 0.2pc as GDP barely rises in the second half of the year”. 

Mr del Carpio said that much of the sluggishness as reflecting a "still-uncertain business environment".

Official forecasts of Italian growth had pencilled in a 0.8pc rise this year. At best, Morgan Stanley’s Daniele Antonucci expects to see no growth this year.  Italy continues to grapple with several structural issues and remains heavily indebted. Morgan Stanley noted that the victory of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi at EU elections “bodes well for reforms coming through”.  While Morgan Stanley sees Italy on track to achieve a primary budget surplus of 2.5pc this year, given the lack of real growth and inflation, this will not be sufficient to stabilise high government debt.