XIAM007

Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Sunday 7 August 2011

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan: 'United States can pay any debt because we can always print money'... -

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan: 'United States can pay any debt because we can always print money'... - 



Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on Sunday ruled out the chance of a US default following S&P's decision to downgrade America's credit rating.

"The United States can pay any debt it has because we can always print money to do that. So there is zero probability of default" said Greenspan on NBC's Meet the Press
"What I think the S&P thing did was to hit a nerve that there's something basically bad going on, and it's hit the self-esteem of the United States, the psyche" said Greenspan
Austan Goolsbee, the chairman of the White House's council of economic advisors, hit out at S&P on the same show, insisting the credit ratings agency had got its math wrong.
"Well, the basic case is they made a $2 trillion math error and forgot to check their work," he said. "So rating agencies that didn't make a $2 trillion math error reaffirmed the AAA status. You saw Warren Buffet say that, if they had a AAAA, he would put U.S. Treasurys in AAAA status."
Following the decision to downgrade America's credit rating, the head of sovereign ratings at S&P, David Beers, said the Obama administrations analysis of the move was a complete "misrepresentation."
Read more -

Israel Stocks Fall Most in 11 Years on Concerns About Global Growth, Debt -

Israel Stocks Fall Most in 11 Years on Concerns About Global Growth, Debt - 


Israel’s benchmark stock index fell the most in 11 years yesterday, closing just shy of so-called bear-market territory, on investor concerns with faltering global growth and protests against the domestic cost of living.
The index plunged 7 percent, the most since October 2000, to 1,074.27 after Standard & Poor’s cut the credit rating of the U.S., one of Israel’s largest trading partners, on Aug. 5. The gauge is down 19.9 percent from the record closing high of 1,341.89 on April 21. The slump left most Israeli-shares traded inNew York at a premium relative to their Tel Aviv prices. They had ended last week with the biggest discount on record.
Read more -

G7 Preparing Statement To Support Dollar, EU, In Fact Everything That Would Otherwise Collapse Tomorrow, Before Asia Open -

G7 Preparing Statement To Support Dollar, EU, In Fact Everything That Would Otherwise Collapse Tomorrow, Before Asia Open - 
G7 finance ministers (L to R) Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck, Japanese Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga, Italian Economy and Finance Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Luxembourg Prime Minister and chairman of the Eurogroup Jean-Claude Juncker pose for a group picture during the Group of Seven Finance Ministers' and Central Bank Governors' Meeting at Mita Kaigisho on February 9, 2008 in Tokyo, Japan. The major topic of the meeting is to discuss measures against the slowdown of global economic crisis, IMF reform and global warming prior to G8 Summit in July this year.
Just out from Bloomberg: Finance ministers and central bankers are preparing a statement to release before the open of Asian markets, the Nikkei newspaper reported, without citing anyone. Japan may intervene in currency market if dollar falls. G-7 finance ministers, central bankers expected to express confidence in dollar, pledge liquidity. U.S. to explain fiscal rebuilding efforts." [so no more sniping at S&P and actually doing its job eh?] "Japan to express intention to maintain Treasury holdings. G-7 expected to show support for EU fiscal efforts." And while the G7 is about to realize that when faced with a $100 trillion (equities plus debt) market onslaught its printing powers are next to laughable, Dow Jones reports that the "ECB is weighing Italian, Spanish bond buying on a massive scale." Two take homes: i) the Fed has just lost its competitive advantage of doing idiotic things on a massive scale as the world wake up to tits trickery (unless of course the Fed resumes said thing on a massiver scale, which it will), and ii) tomorrow is the day when the infinite force of central planning meets the immovable object of capital markets. We will find out who blinks first in a few hours.


Read more -
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/g7-preparing-statement-support-dollar-eu-fact-everything-would-otherwise-collapse-tomorrow-asia

The First Website Ever Celebrates Its 20th Birthday - went live on August 6, 1991 -

The First Website Ever Celebrates Its 20th Birthday - went live on August 6, 1991 - 


info.cern.ch



On August 6, 1991, the first website was launched on the Internet, forever changing the way we browse. (And thankfully, web design has improved just a bit in the past two decades.)
We here at NewsFeed think it's important to respect our roots. And today happens to be a milestone in our history.
It's like we're celebrating the 20th birthday of our great-great-great-… -great-grandfather: the modern website. You see, we (and all of our newsy brethren to say the least) essentially wouldn't exist had it not been for the work of Tim Berners-Lee. Then a contractor at CERN, the European nuclear research organization, Berners-Lee had access to the largest Internet node on the continent.

The World Wide Web has become synonymous with "the Internet" in recent years, but the Internet actually predated Berners-Lee's invention. While the Internet allowed computers to talk to each other, the World Wide Web was dreamt up as the way to browse between them and access various information sources. Berners-Lee is credited with the invention of the World Wide Web system – which, indeed, is the primary function of the Internet that most of us use on a daily basis.

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/08/06/the-first-website-ever-celebrates-its-20th-birthday/#ixzz1UNWyltvG

Violent riot casts pall over London - spreading malaise through a city preparing to host the Olympic Games -

Violent riot casts pall over London - spreading malaise through a city preparing to host the Olympic Games - 


The violent riot that tore through a deprived north London neighborhood has cast a pall over Britain's capital, spreading malaise through a city preparing to host the Olympic Games.
26 police officers were injured, with eight of them being briefly hospitalized, after a peaceful protest against the shooting death of a young man degenerated into a Saturday night rampage, with rioters torching a double-decker bus, destroying patrol cars and trashing a shopping mall.
Looters descended on the Tottenham area around midnight, setting buildings alight, and piling stolen goods into cars and shopping carts. Sirens could be heard across the capital as authorities rushed reinforcements to the scene. Police reported 42 arrests.
"This is just a glimpse into the abyss," former Metropolitan Police Commander John O'Connor told Sky News television Sunday. "Someone's pulled the clock back and you can look and see what's beneath the surface. And what with the Olympic Games coming up, this doesn't bode very well for London."
As residents of Tottenham and nearby Wood Green picked through the wreckage Sunday, O'Connor said the disturbance had echoes of Tottenham's 1985 Broadwater Farm riot, a deadly disturbance that led to the savage stabbing of a police officer and the wounding of nearly 60 others — brutally underscoring tensions between London's police and the capital's black community.
That riot was among one of the most violent in the country's history. It too was sparked by the death of a local resident after an encounter with the police.
Saturday's protest set off peacefully, but got ugly as between 300 and 500 people gathered around Tottenham's police station.
Some protesters filled bottles with gasoline to throw at police lines, others confronted officers with makeshift weapons — including baseball bats and bars — and attempted to storm the station.
Within hours, police in riot gear and on horseback were clashing with hundreds of rioters, fires were raging out of control, and looters combed the area. One video posted to the Guardian newspaper's website showed looting being carried out at daybreak several hours later, with people even lining up to steal from one store.
The devastated area smoldered Sunday — some streets littered with bricks and lined with overturned scorched trash cans. Two police helicopters hovered over the burnt-out buildings as residents inspected the damage and firefighters doused the last of the flames. Acrid smoke hung over the area.
Read more -

Mexican military helicopter landed Saturday afternoon at Laredo Texas International Airport by mistake -

Mexican military helicopter landed Saturday afternoon at Laredo Texas International Airport by mistake - 


A Mexican military helicopter landed Saturday afternoon at Laredo International Airport by mistake, said a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Mucia Dovalina, the uniform public affairs officer for the Laredo Port of Entry, said the helicopter landed about 3 p.m., but she couldn’t share details such as the number of occupants or whether they were armed.
Dovalina said that, following protocol, CBP officers checked out the helicopter’s occupants, then allowed them to return to Mexico in the aircraft.
“The only thing that I can tell you is that they did land here,” she said. “It was by mistake. They were processed and they were returned to Mexico.”
According to a statement from CBP, the pilot mistook the airport for a landing strip in Nuevo Laredo.
This is the latest such incursion that officials have called inadvertent as the Mexican military increases troop deployments in northeastern Mexico. In July, a convoy of soldiers rolled across the international bridge at Donna and were processed by customs and sent back across.
The Mexican military announced last week that it had wrapped up an operation called “Lince Norte,” or Northern Lynx. The 20-day assault on the Zetas drug trafficking organization used 4,000 Mexican troops, deployed mostly in states bordering Texas.
The operation resulted in the death of the Zeta who controlled Nuevo Laredo and the arrest of a man the military says is a “national level” financier for the gang.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7686830.html#ixzz1UMW649u0

10 of Today’s Hottest Jobs: Proof That America Is Doomed -

10 of Today’s Hottest Jobs: Proof That America Is Doomed - 




The largest number of jobs involve dealing with the failing health of old people. People who know about running spam email campaigns and financial scams are also in demand. Truck drivers, app designers for mobile phones, and TwitBook operators too…
There is nothing here about designing or manufacturing any physical goods at all!
The U.S. is $15 trillion in the hole. Look at these in-demand jobs. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that this is going to end very badly.
Believe it or not, even with the unemployment rate stubbornly high and many industries reluctant to staff up, there are employers out there who still can't find enough qualified applicants. Some are offering six-figure salaries to the right job seekers. The trick, of course, is unearthing these hidden opportunities.
We started by asking CareerBuilder to mine its vast employment database to identify promising occupations that are experiencing an under-supply of qualified applicants relative to the number of available jobs. The resulting ratio is a good indicator of hiring demand -- the lower the ratio, the greater the need for applicants. A ratio of 10.0, for example, means there are ten job seekers for every open position. A ratio of 0.5 means there are two open positions for every job seeker.
We also took a hard look at pay and growth prospects, based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Annual salary ranges reflect the rates in the 25th and 75th percentiles. Ten-year growth projections are based on BLS's expected change in the number of positions between 2008 and 2018. Finally, we filtered our choices to represent a range of industries and educational requirements. Check out our list of ten of today's hottest jobs.
1. Nurse Practitioner
Hiring demand: 0.25 active job seekers for every open position
Annual salary range: $52,980-$79,020
10-year growth projection: 22%
Job description: A picture of health. The first baby-boomers are reaching retirement age at a time when there's a shortage of primary-care physicians. Nurses are needed to close the gap. They perform many duties, from medical histories to disease management, previously handled by doctors. While hospitals are the largest employers of nurses, the fastest growth -- and best pay -- can be found in physicians' offices. At minimum, you'll need to complete a formal training program. Some nursing positions call for an associate's, bachelor's or even master's degree.
2. E-Mail Marketer
Hiring demand: 0.65 active job seekers for every open position
Annual salary range: $43,840-$84,430
10-year growth projection: 28%
Job description: Spam I am. The fragmenting of the information market makes it harder and harder to get the attention of consumers. Just as a fisherman has better luck if the bait ends up where the fish are, more companies are turning to targeted e-mail efforts to get the right message to the right audience. Technical and quantitative skills are a plus to manage large distribution lists and analyze reports on the success or failure of electronic campaigns. A bachelor's degree typically is expected of job applicants.
3. Network Security Engineer
Hiring demand: 1.07 active job seekers for every open position
Annual salary range: $57,240-$97,660
10-year growth projection: 30%
Job description: Climbing a firewall of worry. The Internet has made information more accessible, but it has also created a rich environment for identity thieves, hackers and others looking to profit by misappropriating sensitive data. Specialists in network security must be well-versed in the latest technologies for fending off cyber-attacks. A formal degree is less important than relevant computer skills. Knowledge of all aspects of information technology, from software and hardware to networks and databases, pays dividends.
4. Environmental Engineer
Hiring demand: 1.15 active job seekers for every open position
Annual salary range: $61,500-$99,180
10-year growth projection: 31%
Job description: It's easy being green. This isn't a fancy title for a trash collector, a la sanitation engineer. The interest in all things environmental -- and the public and private funding that's fueling that interest -- is creating openings for engineers to solve problems in a variety of areas, including pollution control, recycling and, yes, waste management. State and local governments are among the biggest employers, but oil and gas companies pay the best salaries. A bachelor's degree usually is sufficient to get started, but some positions require graduate work as well.
5. Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Driver
Hiring demand: 1.39 active job seekers for every open position
Annual salary range: $30,270-$46,920
10-year growth projection: 13%
Job description: Keep on truckin'. Getting behind the wheel of an 18-wheeler takes more than just a love of the open road. It also takes a commercial driver's license and, in some cases, a union card. Many aspiring long-haul drivers enroll in a course at a vocational school to learn the ropes. Prospects are much brighter for drivers of tractor trailers and other heavy trucks than for drivers of light trucks who deliver small packages, merchandise and the like. Piloting big rigs also pays a lot better.
6. Physician Assistant
Hiring demand: 1.45 active job seekers for every open position
Annual salary range: $73,040-$101,690
10-year growth projection: 39%
Job description: The doctor's assistant is in. Known as a P.A., a physician assistant does many of the same things as an M.D.: conducts exams, makes diagnoses, performs procedures, and sometimes even prescribes medications. Formal training is mandatory, as is a passing grade on a national exam, but the process is less rigorous (and costly) than med school. In the hierarchy of today's health care, the P.A. resides between a nurse practitioner and a full-fledged doctor. Just don't confuse physician assistant with medical assistant. The latter is a low-paying, albeit fast-growing, occupation that involves basic clerical and clinical tasks, such as coding claim forms and recording vital signs.
7. Social Media Manager
Hiring demand: 1.50 active job seekers for every open position
Annual salary range: $38,960-$71,820
10-year growth projection: 24%
Job description: Update your status. Facebook, Twitter and other "share" sites aren't just for friends anymore. They're integral components of professional and corporate communications strategies, too. Companies are throwing money at folks who understand how to use social media to build brands and expand markets. Look at Facebook's more than 750 million active users and it's easy to see the potential in this relatively new field. A bachelor's degree in journalism, marketing or communications is preferred.
8. Financial Analyst
Hiring demand: 1.50 active job seekers for every open position
Annual salary range: $56,310-$99,230
10-year growth projection: 20%
Job description: Crunch the numbers. Financial analysts provide guidance on investment decisions, mostly to businesses. Banks, pension funds, securities firms, insurers and similar institutions are typical employers. Metropolitan areas with the highest concentration of jobs are, not surprisingly, cities synonymous with high finance: Stamford, Conn.; Boston; New York; Wilmington, Del.; and San Francisco. A related and even faster-growing field is personal financial adviser. MBA's are common, and professional licenses may be required.
9. Software Engineer-Mobile Applications
Hiring demand: 1.67 active job seekers for every open position
Annual salary range: $69,090-$109,210
10-year growth projection: 34%
Job description: There's an app maker for that. As computer users become increasingly untethered from wired networks and smart phones become increasingly indispensible, demand for software engineers who can keep the mobile trains running on time will only increase. You'll probably need a bachelor's degree or higher to penetrate this field, but more important is proven experience with the latest mobile technologies. California is home to the most jobs overall, thanks to Silicon Valley, but Washington state has the highest concentration of jobs, thanks to Microsoft.
10. Home Health Aide
Hiring demand: 1.74 active job seekers for every open position
Annual salary range: $17,900-$24,020
10-year growth projection: 48%
Job description: Home is where the health care is. As America starts to show its age -- the first baby-boomers just turned 65 -- the need for workers to help people age gracefully will only become more apparent. That's where home health aides come in. Aides visit residences to help the elderly, disabled and severely ill with everyday living tasks (bathing and grooming, for example) and provide very basic medical services (checking pulse rates and monitoring medications). There's no minimum education level, but training may be required, depending on where you work and agency demands.
Read more -

How Did Those Vermont Fish Get Radioactive? - discovery of Strontium-90 in fish from the Connecticut River -

How Did Those Vermont Fish Get Radioactive? - discovery of Strontium-90 in fish from the Connecticut River - 


“Hey, don’t look at us” has been Entergy Corporation’s response to the discovery of Strontium-90 in fish from the Connecticut River.
But the contamination, revealed this week by the Vermont Department of Health, promises to complicate the utility’s effort to extend the license of its aging Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant.
One of the most lethal by-products of nuclear fission, Strontium-90 was found in the bones of nine of 13 fish collected from the Connecticut River last summer, and for the first time, in the edible flesh of one fish.
That fish was collected nine miles upstream from the Connecticut Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, a distance that encouraged Entergy officials to cast doubt on the source of the contamination:
We are aware that the Vermont Department of Health may have detected strontium-90 in some fish from the Connecticut River. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that Vermont Yankee is the source for the strontium-90. We have 31 monitoring wells on site that are tested regularly. No groundwater sample from any well at Vermont Yankee has ever indicated the presence of strontium-90, or any other isotope other than tritium. We do not know why the Governor would suggest Vermont Yankee is the source, but there is no factual basis for that suggestion.”


Read more -
http://blogs.forbes.com/jeffmcmahon/2011/08/05/how-did-those-vermont-fish-get-radioactive/