'The latest Polish-American defense pact would place U.S. missile interceptors just 115 miles from Russia’s borders. Commenting on the deployment, Condoleezza Rice stressed that the anti-missile system was not a threat to Russia but was aimed at countering missile threats from Iran.
The U.S. Secretary of State was quoted at a press conference in Berlin as saying:
"I think everyone understands that with a growing Iranian missile threat, which is quite pronounced, that there need to be ways to deal with that problem."
And as George Strait put it: “I got some ocean front property in Arizona. If you’ll buy that I’ll throw the Golden Gate in free.” Not only do the Iranians lack the capacity to deliver a missile into Poland, but they also lack a motive. Why would the Iranians target Poland? Condoleezza Rice is either stupid or, worse yet, thinks the Russians are stupid and would actually believe that a missile interceptor system deployed along their western border is meant to counter an Iranian threat. This move in Poland is the latest in a series of foreign policy blunders committed by an ideological Bush administration. Before Poland, the U.S. signed an agreement with the Czech Republic to place a missile defense tracking radar on Czech territory.
The NATO alliance states are not in a position to confront Russia militarily. Others have tried throughout history. Napoleon and his Grand Army of 450,000 went into Russia in 1812. Following the disastrous French campaign, fewer than 40,000 of Napoleon’s men were able to escape. Later, during World War II, Hitler’s Operation Barbarossa would not fare much better and would result in the eventual defeat of Nazi Germany.
Russia has a million-man army and the ability to enlist 10 million more. The Russians also have the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world, consisting of land-based immobile (silos), land-based mobile, submarine-based, and air-based warheads. Russia’s most recent intercontinental ballistic missile, the Topol‑M, is capable of making evasive maneuvers and is designed to withstand any hit from laser technology, thus making it capable of penetrating any U.S.-planned anti-ballistic missile (ABM) defense system. In a hypothetical conventional war, without the use of nuclear weapons, the Russians, with their 20,000 battle tanks, would sweep Eastern Europe in a matter of weeks.
And if the war is a non-shooting new Cold War, the Russians will have plenty of options, including cutting off the 2500-mile Druzhba pipeline, the world’s longest oil pipeline, delivering oil from southeast Russia to much of Europe, as well as shutting out the United States from outer space. If you are a NASA astronaut with no shuttle of your own, your only ticket to the international space station is aboard Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft. Furthermore, Russia will use its veto power in the UN Security Council to block all U.S.-sponsored resolutions, including those aimed at dissuading Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapons program...'
More: Financial Sense
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
FROM RUSSIA WITHOUT LOVE
Friday, April 11, 2008
INFLATION OR DEFLATION
"INFLATION OR DEFLATION
An Interview with Bud Conrad
- The Casey Files - by Louis James
April 8, 2008
The following interview, conducted by Louis James, a senior analyst and editor with Casey Research, appeared in the March 08’ edition of Casey’s International Speculator.
Louis James (LJ): The first question we think most readers will want to know about is this: if the U.S. is headed for recession – if not already sliding into one – do you really think we’re facing more inflation in the near future, or could falling spending power cause deflation?
Bud Conrad (BC): There are strong deflationary pressures in a credit collapse because as housing prices drop and defaults rise, some of the ability to buy new items is lost. Traditional analysis suggests that we could have deflation such as that which occurred in the Great Depression in the U.S. in the late 1920s, early 1930s. I would point out, however, that in the Great Depression the dollar was linked to gold, limiting the amount of money printing that could be done, a limitation that does not exist today. In addition, with $100 oil it is hard to argue for deflation. My base prediction is that we are heading into an inflationary period.
LJ: If there was any doubt about inflation vs. deflation, has it been settled by the central banks of the world as they responded to last summer’s credit crunch with greater liquidity?
BC: Yes. That is the point. The governments and their central banks have no limit on how much money they can create since there is no tie to gold or anything else. It is only logical to expect them to take the easy road and print money. The result is predictable. New government bailouts for whatever problems arise are going to continue.
LJ: With war spending, ballooning entitlements, a crisis of confidence in the U.S. financial system stewing, along with many other woes, do you think there’s any chance that the U.S. will not try to inflate its way out of its current economic predicaments?..."
The British Ounce Toppled by Housing Woes
Imaginative lending practices fueled a doubling of British home prices over the past six-years, the key engine of growth for the world’s fifth largest economy. But British borrowers now face a perilous situation where their home values are tumbling, and the local banking oligarchs are lifting their lending rates in order to recoup big losses of up to 20 billion pounds in toxic sub-prime mortgages.
Little of the Bank of England’s (BoE) three rate cuts since December have been passed on to debt strapped consumers, now locked in a genuine credit crunch. “Credit conditions have tightened and the availability of credit appears to be worsening. The disruption in financial markets could lead to a slowdown in the economy that is sufficiently sharp to pull inflation below target,” explained the BoE in order to justify its quarter-point rate cut to 5.00 percent..."