Uwe Ohse
Sendedatum 2010-05-30 20:41:49
Ausgabe 92
Hallo,

hier eine weitere Ausgabe des beliebten Newsletters für Masochisten und Weltuntergangssekten. Je nach Newsreader kann die Darstellung weniger als perfekt befriedigend sein, daher könnte sich ein Blick auf die Onlineversion lohnen, die außerdem verschlagwortet ist.

Links: Blog und Digest

Inhaltsverzeichnis:

Inhalt:


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j0F5OTwrlQHsmFAEophT2TCrzEMAD9FVQDVG0
Zitat:The threat of famine is again stalking the Sahel, a band of semiarid land stretching across Africa south of the Sahara. The U.N. World Food Program warned on Friday that some 10 million people face hunger over the next three months before the next harvest in September — if it comes.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201005271027.html
Zitat:Virtually every protected area in Africa suffers from invasive species threatening biodiversity and peoples' livelihoods, a meeting called to address the problem has heard.

Africa's protected biodiversity areas are under increasing threat from the species introduced - usually through human activities - to areas outside their natural range where they damage biodiversity, agriculture and human health.

Zitat:In Zambia, he said, giant mimosa (Mimosa pigra) - a spiny shrub native to Latin America and introduced to Africa - established itself on the Kafue flood plain in a national park in the early 1980s, and now covers 3,000 hectares of prime floodplain habitat - fast displacing important indigenous animals, birds and plants from their natural environment.

"The government is now spending substantial amounts of money on trying to control this insidious weed," Howard said.


http://allafrica.com/stories/201005031624.html
Zitat:Water quality in sub-Saharan Africa is on the decline. Most water resources have unacceptable levels of toxic substances -- heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants and biological contaminants, according to a recent report by the Pan Africa Chemistry Network (PACN).
[...]
Last year, Africa's population exceeded one billion and is increasing at a rate of 2.4 per cent annually. Over 341 million people lack access to clean drinking water and 589 million have no access to adequate sanitation. This makes it difficult for the continent to meet its 2015 MDGs.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/815309--polar-bear-population-could-fall-by-30-per-cent-in-a-year-study
Zitat:A mathematical analysis for the first time has uncovered the prospect of a sudden, dramatic decline among Canadian polar bears as they starve to death.

“This is much, much different. This is not a gradual change,” said Dr. Andrew Derocher, one of the world’s leading polar bear authorities and co-author of the study. “We’re looking at a decrease by 20 or 30 per cent or even much more in a year.”

Zitat:Scientists factored in the shrinking sea ice, which affects how many seals the bears can eat before they hibernate and how easily they can find mates. Without enough food or opportunity, mating is less successful, fewer, less robust cubs are born, and teenage bears spend longer “wandering around trying to find something to eat.”

All of that information can be subjected to “some fairly advanced math” to create data tables that chart the estimated time of death by starvation for adult male polar bears.

Typically 120 days in the 1980s, the time polar bears have to spend fasting has increased by about seven days per decade and is continuing to increase.

While 3 to 6 per cent of polar bears in the Western Hudson Bay die during a 120-day summer fast, 28 to 48 per cent would die if it reached 180 days, the study found. The fast occurs because polar bears depend on frozen sea surface to cover distances.


Blöde Viecher aber auch - jetzt, wo es da wärmer ist, sollten die doch Kuchen essen sollten die weniger fasten.

http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2010/05/21/238996/forget-the-shorts-issuance-is-slaughtered/
Zitat:Another side-effect of recent market volatility: the death of corporate credit issuance.

Unternehmensanleihen-Ausgabe
Es sind interessante Zeiten.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704792104575264863069565780.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Zitat:The chart is below, and it's both an eye-opener and a spine-tingler.

It compares the rise in gold today with the rise of the Nasdaq in the 1990s and the Dow Jones index of home-building stocks in the 10 years leading up to 2005-06.


Gold verglichen mit Nasdaq und DOW Jones Häuslebauer Index

http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2010-05-23/libor-shows-strains-sales-evaporate-yield-premiums-soar-credit-markets.html
Zitat:Companies have issued $47 billion of debt in May, down from $183 billion in April and the least since December 1999, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The extra yield investors demand to hold company debt rather than benchmark government securities is headed for the biggest monthly increase since October 2008, Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Global Broad Market index shows.

Zitat:Volkswagen AG, Europe’s largest carmaker, postponed a planned 686.3 million-euro sale of securities backed by Spanish car loans on May 10. Stefan Rolf, a Braunschweig-based spokesman, identified cited adverse market conditions.

Eurasian Natural Resources Corp., a London-based iron ore and alumina miner, delayed a debut dollar-denominated note sale this month because of market volatility, people familiar with the matter said. Towergate Partnership Ltd., Europe’s largest independent insurance broker, postponed a 665 million-pound ($961 million) sale of high-yield bonds on May 13 until markets improve, said people with knowledge of the deal.


Der Krise zweiter Teil.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/may/23/financial-crisis-european-cities-in-debt
Zitat:While relaxing on the back of a gondola, the millions of tourists who drift by the Palazzo Diedo, Gradenigo or San Casciano in Venice don't generally know that what they're looking at are the roots of another European debt crisis. For in a desperate move by the Italian city to shore up its books, these three historic Venetian sites have been put up for sale.

A quarter of Venice's income comes from the City-owned casino near the famous Rialto bridge, where thousands of tourists gamble, unaware that they're funding the city's battle against rising lagoon levels, or paying for its world-renowned carnival. But a credit crunch-led drop in tourism has starved the municipal coffers, and forced the city into new fundraising ventures. Venice recently created an 18-property fund, valued at €82m (£71.3m), expected to be sold within three to five years.

Zitat:The crisis in the eurozone is making headlines at the moment, but at a lower level another debt storm is slowly brewing. European cities and regions are expected to flood the market this year, all anxious to fund ballooning deficits. Local and regional government borrowing is expected to reach a historical peak of nearly €1.3 trillion, according to credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P). The bulk will come from the highly decentralised German Länder (states) and from the deficit-ridden Spanish regions, which face severe central government transfer cuts. Regions also face higher borrowing costs and, most likely, further credit downgrades.

Zitat:"We expect a significant increase in [debt] issuance in Germany; German borrowers have huge refinancing needs and they're running deficits," said Myriam Fernandez, head of European local and regional government ratings at S&P.

Zitat:They also face competition from newcomers such as Spain's autonomous communities of Aragon or Galicia, and above all, they face anxious investors, who are even more risk-averse following the Greek debt meltdown. The Basque government, in northern Spain, has postponed a trip to market a bond issue of more than €1bn, a banker involved in the situation claims.

"The market is shut, nobody's doing anything," the banker says. "Money can't be kept in a drawer but it was shut two weeks ago, and it will have to reopen."

Zitat:There are other more traditional problems, of course. S&P says the Italian city of Naples faces "structural problems in generating liquidity". What does this mean? "Tax collection rates are very low. They raise taxes, but they don't collect them – it's not a problem of large indebtedness", Fernandez says.

Zitat:European regions had traditionally borrowed from public finance specialist banks such as Germany's Depfa, or Dexia in Belgium. That has now changed. "That traditional base, the public sector banks, is not operational anymore," says Philip Brown, Citigroup's head of public sector origination. "And in this climate, investors are now very sensitive to countries with large debt."

Darüber werden wir spätestens im Herbst noch mehr lesen.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d6299cae-69b5-11df-8432-00144feab49a.html
Zitat:“It is an enormous change,” Mr Lellouche said. “It explains some of the reticence. It is expressly forbidden in the treaties by the famous no bail-out clause. De facto, we have changed the treaty,” he added.

Äh, nein. De facto habt ihr das Abkommen nicht geändert, sondern ignoriert.

Im Grunde besteht die EU nun aus kriminellen Staaten Bild: Lächelndes Gesicht


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/7785596/Euro-Disney-hit-by-growing-debt-fear.html
Zitat:Theme park operator Euro Disney is expected to breach its debt covenants for the next three years according to the key analyst that manages its liquidity account.
[...]
Euro Disney still has €1.9bn (£1.6bn) of the debt used to fund the park’s construction on its books. The company made a €26.4m operating profit on revenue of €1.2bn in the year ending September 30 2009 but paying €89.2m of financial charges on the debt left it with a €63m net loss.

Its shares fell 13pc – the stock’s biggest fall in nearly two years – when it announced in November that it will delay subordinated debt repayments of up to €45m after missing its financial targets.


http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/05/27/oil-sands-the-clean-alternative/

Zitat:Until the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in April and a massive slick oozed across the Gulf of Mexico, environmentalists had managed to dramatically shift public opinion in the U.S. against the Alberta oil sands. Now, as crude-soaked birds wash up on Louisiana shores, Canadian officials are seizing the opportunity to brand Fort McMurray crude as the clean, safe alternative to offshore drilling. It’s a message environmental groups are desperate to undermine.

Eigentlich sollte ein Blick auf Bild der Ölsandförderung aus Alles wird gut! Digest #83 doch ausreichen, um leichte Zweifel an der Umweltfreundlichkeit der Ölsandförderung zu wecken oder?

Aber es ist doch schön zu sehen, daß die PR-Maschinerie in der Wirtschaftskrise nicht unter gegangen ist, aber auch nichts dazu gelernt hat - "hey, seht her, da drüben ist 'ne Katastrophe passiert. *Die* würde uns *nie* passieren".


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/29/gulf-oil-spill-media-access_n_594592.html
Zitat:Media organizations say they are being allowed only limited access to areas impacted by the Gulf oil spill through restrictions on plane and boat traffic that are making it difficult to document the worst spill in U.S. history.

Darf ich "Change you can believe in" mal übersetzen? "Du kannst nur glauben, daß sich etwas ändert".

Zitat:BP contractors are operating alongside the FAA and Coast Guard at command centers that approve or deny flight requests. Charter pilots say they have been denied permission to fly below 3,000 feet when they have reporters or photographers aboard.

Ich weiß gar nicht, worüber die sich aufregen? Es weiß doch jeder, daß die Strände gleich viel sauberer sind, wenn niemand das Öl darauf fotografiert!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts2320
Zitat:Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris Roberts, whose district encompasses Grand Isle, told Yahoo! News that BP bused in "hundreds" of temporary workers to clean up local beaches. And as soon as the president was en route back to Washington, the workers were clearing out of Grand Isle too, Roberts said.

Kurz vor dem Besuch des Präsidenten hat BP "hunderte" Leute zum Standsäubern eingestellt und direkt danach wieder entlassen.

Ich fürchte, irgendjemand in den PR-Abteilung von BP und / oder Obama ist ernsthaft überfordert.


http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article214896.ece
Zitat:It has yet to announce plans to drill in the region but shortly before the US disaster, BP and other oil companies urged Canadian regulators to drop a requirement stipulating that companies operating in the Arctic had to drill relief wells in the same season as the primary well.

Cullen argued the companies had made this request because drilling a relief well within the required time limit would be too expensive, given the difficult Arctic conditions.


In Kanada gibt es offenbar eine Vorschrift, nach dem beim Bohren in der Arktis Entlastungsbohrungen mit der Hauptbohrung gemacht werden müssen.

Und BP (und andere Ölunternehmen) haben kurz vor der Deepwater-Horizon-Katastrophe daran gearbeitet, diese Vorschrift aus Kostengründen zu kippen.

Zu BP gehören übrigens auch die Marken Aral und Castrol - nur so für den Fall gesagt, daß jemand vermeiden möchte, dort zu kaufen. Allerdings kann man Zweifel haben, daß andere Ölunternehmen irgendwie besser sind.


http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7062487
Zitat:Despite successfully pumping a total of over 30,000 barrels of heavy mud, in three attempts at rates of up to 80 barrels a minute, and deploying a wide range of different bridging materials, the operation did not overcome the flow from the well.

Was in aller Welt war denn da erfolgreich?

BP-Marken: BP, Aral, Castrol.


http://www.declineoftheempire.com/2010/05/the-gulf-of-mexico-before-the-oil-spill.html
Die Umweltprobleme im Golf von Mexiko vor der Deepwater Horizon (ich bin mir sicher, die Liste ist nicht vollständig):

Zitat von Erosion:The Louisiana coast depended for thousands of years on the routine overflow of the Mississippi River to deposit its sediment load and build land. But, beginning around the 1930s, in order to save lives and cities, the federal government built massive levees to constrain and control the river, effectively stopping it from doing what nature wants it to do.

As a result, for the past 70 years or so, the sinking of the delta coast has continued unabated. As salt water pushes inland from the gulf, it kills wetlands and marshes, habitat for wildlife and fish, and is increasingly threatening homes for many thousands of people.

Zitat von Sauberstoffmangel durch Überdüngung:The Gulf of Mexico dead zone is an area of hypoxic (less than 2 ppm dissolved oxygen) waters at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Its area varies in size, but can cover up to 6,000-7,000 square miles. The zone occurs between the inner and mid-continental shelf in the northern Gulf of Mexico, beginning at the Mississippi River delta and extending westward to the upper Texas coast... Dead zones can be found worldwide. The Gulf of Mexico dead zone is one of the largest in the world.

The dead zone is caused by nutrient enrichment from the Mississippi River, particularly nitrogen and phosphorous. Watersheds within the Mississippi River Basin drain much of the United States, from Montana to Pennsylvania and extending southward along the Mississippi River.

Zitat von Algenblüten, auch durch Überdüngung:While single species blooms can turn the water surface red, brown, yellow, green or white, they are often generically referred to as "red tides" and are often associated with harmful or toxic effects. When the blooming microalgae have properties that are deemed harmful to humans or other life, the blooms are called Harmful Algal Blooms, or HABs.

Zitat von Zusammenfassung:Reading this text, perhaps you've gotten the impression that the Gulf of Mexico is just one big toxic waste dump. You would be correct. Although coastal erosion, deepwater hypoxia and algal blooms are natural processes, human interference has made these processes much worse in each case.

Und das ist natürlich längst nicht alles.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/2010-05/22/content_9880227.htm
Zitat:It remains too early for China to carry out an exit strategy by phasing out fiscal stimulus, Chinese Minister of Commerce Chen Deming said here on Friday.

"There are still a lot of uncertainties in the world economy. Therefore we believe it is too early for us to talk about an exit strategy from our stimulus package," Chen told reporters after a meeting with European Union (EU) Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht.


Wie? Was? Es ist sogar zu früh, über ein Ende der Stimuli nur zu reden?

Wow.


http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2010/201005/20100523/article_437878.htm
Aus der Abteilung für Sonderbares: Die Nummernschildpreise in Shanghai.
Zitat:
CAR plates prices in Shanghai continued to rise this month.

The average price for a car license was 42,262 yuan (US$6,187), up 625 yuan from April, the Shanghai International Commodity Auction Co said. The lowest price was up 900 yuan to 41,900 yuan. Both prices have been rising for eight months and are at their highest since January 2008.

A total of 8,500 car plates were up for auction this month, the same number as last month but more than February's 7,500.

The number of bidders dropped for a fifth month to 16,324, or 989 fewer than April.


Ein Nummernschild für ein Auto kostet $6187 in Shanghai.

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/05/23/geely-committe-to-build-car-cheaper-than-tata-nano/
Zitat:Tata Motors has milked the Nano minicar's "most affordable" status for a ton of press, but it might soon hand the title belt over to a new challenger. According to a report at TopNews.in, Geely's reportedly got its own ultra-frugal compact in the works for 2010. Called the IG, it's expected to bring a $2,250 price tag and a 1.0-liter, 70 horsepower motor to the party.

Frage1: Ist das nun inflationär oder deflationär? Bild: Lächelndes Gesicht
Frage2: Wie passen Volvo und ein $2250-Auto in ein Unternehmen?
Frage3: Welchen Nutzen könnte man aus einem solchen Auto bei der nächsten Abwrackprämie ziehen?

Frage4: Wann sehen wir das $1000-Auto?


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/world/asia/26beijing.html?hp

Zitat:major industries like oil, telecommunications, banking and aviation are deemed strategic and are under tight state control. Of the 22 Chinese corporations listed on the Fortune Global 500, 21 are controlled by China’s central government or state-run banks. Just one, Shanghai Automobile, is run by a local government. None are privately owned.

Beeindruckender Kapitalismus.

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2010/201005/20100529/article_438508.htm
[Shanghai New Home Sales]
Zitat:
"For the whole month, the figure should be around 300,000 square meters, and that could be a plunge from a month earlier when 1.02 million square meters of new houses were sold across the city," said Lu Qilin, a researcher at the firm. "On the supply side, more than 850,000 square meters of new housing were launched for sale this month, compared with 1.23 million square meters in April."

Ein Absturz.

Zitat:"Real estate developers are still waiting for detailed local guidelines because they find it hard to decide if they should cut prices or how much discounts to offer until they receive clearer signals from the government," said Sky Xue, an analyst at China Real Estate Information Corp. "The details will indicate whether the local government has a tough or mild stance toward the housing market."

Der Triumph des freien Marktes: "Immobilienunternehmen warten auf klarere Signale der Regierung, bevor sie Preise kürzen".

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/business/global/30strike.html?ref=business

Zitat:Add another entry to the list of worries for the global economy and financial markets: labor unrest in China.
[...]
The biggest eye-opener for multinationals in China recently has been a nine-day-old strike at a sprawling Honda transmission factory here in Foshan, about 100 miles northwest of Hong Kong.

The strike, which has forced Honda to suspend production at all four of its joint venture assembly plants in China, has shown that Chinese authorities are willing to tolerate work stoppages at least temporarily, even at high-tech operations on which many other factories depend.
[...]
Even before the strike, manufacturers and buyers of low-cost products were already actively seeking alternatives to China, like Vietnam and Cambodia, said Richard Vuylsteke, the president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.

“They’re looking very seriously, and we’re seeing that in apparel and footwear,” he said. “A lot of our members are seeing appreciating wages.”
[...]
Labor advocacy groups say that they hear of frequent strikes in China, with work stoppages occurring somewhere every day. But strikes are typically hushed up and are often resolved in a day or two by the authorities, either with the police or through pressure on employers and workers to resolve their differences.


http://www.ftd.de/unternehmen/finanzdienstleister/:ergebnislose-verhandlungen-nordsparkasse-droht-ertrinken/50119629.html
Krise? Welche Krise?
Zitat:Die Finanzaufsicht BaFin verliert die Geduld im Fall der kapitalbedürftigen Flensburger Nord-Ostsee Sparkasse (Nospa). Nach FTD-Informationen drängt die Aufsicht die Träger und Sparkassenverbände, sich zügig auf eine Auffanglösung für das Institut zu einigen.

Zitat:Die Nordinstitute leiden zum einen unter ihrer Beteiligung an der maroden HSH Nordbank, die der Sparkassenverband stark abschreiben musste. Hinzu kommen hausgemachte Probleme: Nospa-Vorstandschef Reinhard Henseler hatte bereits Ende Januar Abschreibungsbedarf in Höhe von 120 Mio. Euro auf Kredite der Flensburger Sparkasse eingeräumt, die er 2008 wegen deren Notlage übernehmen musste. Für die Nospa-Stützung sind dem Vernehmen nach nun rund 150 Mio. Euro Bürgschaften und stille Beteiligungen notwendig.

http://www.spiegel.de/unispiegel/studium/0,1518,697207,00.html
Zitat:Die Universität Lübeck, gestartet als Medizinische Hochschule, bildet aktuell 1500 Ärzte und obendrein rund 1100 Molekular-Biologen, Medizin-Informatiker und -Techniker aus. Ein Blick auf die Sparpläne der schwarz-gelben Landesregierung zeigt: Die aufgebrachten Lübecker fürchten sich mit Recht.

Ab Wintersemester 2011/2012 sollen keine neuen Medizinstudenten in Lübeck mehr angenommen werden, das Studium werde an die Uni Kiel "verlagert", heißt es in den Empfehlungen zur Konsolidierung der Finanzen des Landes Schleswig-Holstein, wie die CDU-FDP-Haushaltskommission sie verabschiedete.


In Anbetracht der großen Ärzteschwemme in Deutschland ist das ja sicherlich verzeihlich, man wartet ja noch weniger als ein Jahr auf einen Facharzttermin.

Zitat:Bei der Lübecker Uni-Medizin kann Carstensen zwei Sorgen des hoch verschuldeten Landes angehen: Mit seinem Kahlschlag in der Hansestadt kann er gehörig Geld sparen und, wenn auch einmalig, einen größeren Batzen einnehmen, denn er will das Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH) mit seinen Kliniken in Kiel und Lübeck möglichst bald meistbietend verhökern.

Zitat:Ein Studienplatz kostet nach Angaben des Statistischen Bundesamtes durchschnittlich 211.000 Euro. Im vergangenen Wintersemester schrieben sich knapp 200 neue Medizinstudenten in Lübeck ein. Damit lägen die Kosteneinsparungen bei rund 40 Millionen Euro mit jedem Jahrgang, der in Lübeck künftig nicht mehr anfängt.

Ach, damit spart man doch noch viel mehr - was man alleine pro Jahrgang einspart, wenn die 200 Mediziner nicht hinterher noch 30 Jahre lang Medikamente verschreiben!

Zitat:Ein weiterer Sparposten geht im lauten Wehklagen der Lübecker Mediziner beinahe unter: Die ohnehin schon kleine Universität Flensburg, die bislang Erziehungswissenschaften, Sprachen und Management als Fächer anbietet, wird zur Lehrer-Uni degradiert und wieder auf das Format einer pädagogischen Hochschule heruntergestutzt, die sie einmal war. Ab dem Wintersemester 2011/2012 sollen im Management-Studium keine neuen Studenten mehr angenommen werden.

Und auch die Schulen müssen empfindliche Einschnitte hinnehmen. 300 Lehrestellen werden im Sommer 2011 und weitere 300 im Sommer 2012 gestrichen, berichtete das "Hamburger Abendblatt". Insgesamt sollen so bis 2020 3650 Lehrstellen wegfallen. Ausnehmen wird das schwarz-gelbe Bündnis in Kiel die Gymnasien: Sie erhalten schon im kommenden Schuljahr 180 Lehrerstellen mehr.


http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/0,1518,697489,00.html
Zitat:Deutschlands oberste Banker sind irritiert: 25 Milliarden Euro hat die EZB bisher für griechische Staatsanleihen ausgegeben. Nach SPIEGEL-Informationen vermutet die Bundesbank, dass damit vor allem Paris gedient wird - so könnten französische Institute ihre Schrottpapiere loswerden.

Hamburg/Berlin - In Frankfurt am Main wundert sich in diesen Tagen mancher: Der Kauf von Staatsanleihen hochverschuldeter Euro-Länder durch die Europäische Zentralbank (EZB) sorgt nach SPIEGEL-Informationen für erhebliche Irritationen in der Bundesbank.


Ach, wer hätte 4979? Wo doch französische Banken noch mehr Südeuropa-Müll in ihren Bilanzen als die Deutschen?

Zitat:Der Kauf griechischer Anleihen durch die Zentralbank geht gleich in doppelter Hinsicht gegen die Interessen der Deutschen. Zum einen sind sie mit 27 Prozent an der EZB und somit an den Risiken aus den Schuldtiteln beteiligt. Dazu aber kommt, dass deutsche Banken ihre griechischen Anleihen nicht an die EZB verkaufen dürfen - schließlich haben sie sich gegenüber Finanzminister Wolfgang Schäuble verpflichtet, die Papiere bis Mai 2013 zu halten.

Selbst schuld.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/world/pigeon+held+in+india+on+suspicion+of+spying+for+pak
Direkt aus Absurdistan: Taube in Indien in Polizeigewahrsam.
Zitat:Indian police are holding a pigeon under armed guard after it was caught on an alleged spying mission for arch rivals and neighbours Pakistan, media reported on Friday.

The white-coloured bird was found by a local resident in India's Punjab state, which borders Pakistan, and taken to a police station 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the capital Amritsar.

The pigeon had a ring around its foot and a Pakistani phone number and address stamped on its body in red ink.


http://www.mysinchew.com/node/39670
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlammvulkan_auf_Java, der im Mai 2006 ausgebrochen ist, ist doch sicher bereits Geschichte, oder? Ich meine, soetwas sollte doch nicht nach 4 Jahren _immer noch_ aktiv sein, oder?

Doch, er ist noch aktiv. Und die Geschichte hat 'was.

Zitat:All attempts to plug the geyser have failed and new spouts are opening up, threatening to destroy more villages, homes and livelihoods in the East Java district of Sidoarjo.

The mud lake is so huge -- seven square kilometres (almost three square miles) and 20 metres (66 feet) thick -- it is now visible from space, and geologists say "Lusi" could continue gushing sludge for centuries.


Wie beruhigend - das kann noch Jahrhunderte weiter gehen.

Besonders beruhigend dürfte das für die 10000 Familien sein, die seitdem auf ihre Entschädigung warten. Die Firma, die damals an der Stelle gebohrt hat, begründet die kleine Verzögerung mit der Finanzkrise:

Zitat:Lapindo has blamed the global financial crisis for delays in disbursement of the compensation. It promised to complete the payments by the end of 2009 but many victims say they are still waiting for their full share.

Es ist sicherlich nur ein Zufall, daß PT Lapindo Brantas - das damals dort bohrende Unternehmen - zur Bakrie-Gruppe gehört, und daß Aburizal Bakrie der "Coordinating Minister for the People's Welfare" ist,
richtig? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aburizal_Bakrie)

Aber abgesehen von der ja doch zu erwartenden rücksichtsvollen Behandlung der Opfer durch die sehr wahrscheinlich Schuldigen ist auch die optimistische Haltung des Staatspräsidenten interessant:

Zitat:Yudhoyono enraged victims further when, during a rare visit to the area in March, he suggested the disaster zone could be turned into a tourist attraction.

"With good layout and good concepts, we can turn this place into something useful for the community, whether as a geological tourist attraction, fishery or for other public activities," he said.

"If it's managed well, I have confidence this will be an attractive place and bring good to the local community."


Disneyland Java vielleicht? "Spielen auf dem Platz, an dem 10000 Familien ruiniert wurden"?

Apropos Bohren: Die Ursache war hier sehr wahrscheinlich eine Bohrung nach Erdgas...


http://allafrica.com/stories/201005270415.html
Zitat:Nandi-Ndaitwah said the targets have not been met and instead biodiversity loss is on the increase.

"The consequences of this collective failure, if not corrected, will be severe for us all," she said.

Nandi-Ndaitwah said wetlands such as the oshanas of north-central Namibia have been invaded by invasive species which are the manifestation of degraded ecosystems.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/30/oil-spills-nigeria-niger-delta-shell
Zitat:On 1 May this year a ruptured ExxonMobil pipeline in the state of Akwa Ibom spilled more than a million gallons into the delta over seven days before the leak was stopped. Local people demonstrated against the company but say they were attacked by security guards. Community leaders are now demanding $1bn in compensation for the illness and loss of livelihood they suffered. Few expect they will succeed. In the meantime, thick balls of tar are being washed up along the coast.

Within days of the Ibeno spill, thousands of barrels of oil were spilled when the nearby Shell Trans Niger pipeline was attacked by rebels. A few days after that, a large oil slick was found floating on Lake Adibawa in Bayelsa state and another in Ogoniland. "We are faced with incessant oil spills from rusty pipes, some of which are 40 years old," said Bonny Otavie, a Bayelsa MP.

This point was backed by Williams Mkpa, a community leader in Ibeno: "Oil companies do not value our life; they want us to all die. In the past two years, we have experienced 10 oil spills and fishermen can no longer sustain their families. It is not tolerable."


Zitat:One report, compiled by WWF UK, the World Conservation Union and representatives from the Nigerian federal government and the Nigerian Conservation Foundation, calculated in 2006 that up to 1.5m tons of oil – 50 times the pollution unleashed in the Exxon Valdez tanker disaster in Alaska – has been spilled in the delta over the past half century. Last year Amnesty calculated that the equivalent of at least 9m barrels of oil was spilled and accused the oil companies of a human rights outrage.

Zitat:According to Nigerian federal government figures, there were more than 7,000 spills between 1970 and 2000, and there are 2,000 official major spillages sites, many going back decades, with thousands of smaller ones still waiting to be cleared up. More than 1,000 spill cases have been filed against Shell alone.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201005040292.html
Zitat:The Northern part of Nigeria is endowed with a large expanse of arable land that has over the years proved a vital resource for agriculture and other economic activities. But the Sahara desert is advancing south wards at the rate of 6.0 percent every year.

Consequently, Nigeria loses about 350,000 hectares of land every year to desert encroachment. This has led to demographic displacements in villages across 11 states in the North. It is estimated that Nigeria loses about $5.1billion every year owing to rapid encroachment of drought and desert in most parts of the north.

Zitat:It must be noted that Nigeria has in the past 30 years, witnessed a gradual but consistent encroachment of drought and desertification arising, from the disappearance of large body of water and high activities of dry sand in the Northern part of the country. This situation is further aggravated by destruction of arable and fertile land areas through tree felling for energy, bush burning and overgrazing by herdsmen. According to Nigeria's National Meteorological Agency the rainy season in the north has dropped to 120 days from an average of 150 days when compared with the frequency of rain fall 30 years ago. The result of this is the drop in crop yields by 20 percent.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/0522/1224270888132.html
Zitat von Morgan Kelly is professor of economics at University College Dublin:IT IS no longer a question of whether Ireland will go bust, but when. Unlike Greece, our woes do not stem from government debt, but instead from the government’s open-ended guarantee to cover the losses of the banking system out of its citizens’ wallets.

Even under the most optimistic assumptions about government spending cuts and bank losses, by 2012 Ireland will have a worse ratio of debt to national income than the one that is sinking Greece.

On the face of it, Ireland’s debt position does not appear catastrophic. At the start of the year, Ireland’s government debt was two- thirds of GDP: only half the Greek level.

Zitat:
What ultimately matters for national solvency, however, is not how much the State invests in its banks, but how much it is likely to lose. It is alright to invest €70 billion, or even €100 billion, to rescue your banking system if you can reasonably expect to get back most of what you spent. So how much are the banks and, thanks to the bank guarantee, you the taxpayer, likely to lose?
[...]
So between developers, businesses, and personal loans, Irish banks are on track to lose nearly €50 billion if we are optimistic (and more likely closer to €70 billion), which translates into a bill for the taxpayer of over 30 per cent of GDP. The bank guarantee may have looked like “the cheapest bailout in the world, so far” in September 2008, but it is not looking that way now.

Zitat:Adding these bank losses on to the national debt means we are facing a debt by late 2012 of 115 per cent of GDP. If we are lucky.

There is more. The ability of a government to service its debts depends on its tax base. In Ireland the proper measure of tax base, at least when it comes to increasing taxes, is not GDP (including profits of multinational firms, who will walk if we raise their taxes) but GNP (which is limited to Irish people, who are mostly stuck here). While for most countries the two measures are the same, in Ireland GDP is a quarter larger than GNP. This means our optimistic debt to GDP forecast of 115 per cent translates into a debt to GNP ratio of 140 per cent, worse than where Greece is now.

And even this catastrophic number assumes that our economy does not contract further. For the last two years the Irish economy has not been shrinking, so much as vaporising. Real GNP and private sector employment have already fallen by one-sixth – the deepest and swiftest falls in a western economy since the Great Depression.


In der Tat, Irlands Aussichten sehen nicht besonders gut aus.

http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2010/05/28/245571/decline-and-fall-of-ratings-lift/
Zitat:Standard & Poors on Thursday placed the City of Rome’s A+ credit rating on outlook negative, as it assessed the impact of fresh Italian austerity measures.
[...]
If the parliament passes the government decree in the current form, it would weaken our current opinion on extraordinary support by the government to Rome. This support generates a one-notch rating uplift for the city’s long-term rating, which would otherwise be at the ‘A’ rating level…

Lustige Zeiten, in denen wir leben.

http://fistfulofeuros.net/afoe/economics-and-demography/whither-spain-%E2%80%93-towards-finland-or-argentina/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+fistfulofeuros%2FbBvg+%28A+Fistful+of+Euros%29
Erward Hugh über Spanien:
Zitat:Interestingly, Dani Roderik, who has also been here, and spoke yesterday, has come to very similar conclusions: “Spain’s needs a 20 % internal devaluation” (or in his opinion should leave the Eurozone - I don’t agree with this part), and he basically arrived here by a process of steady elimination, examining all the other options and deciding they wouldn’t work quickly enough. Keeping ahead of the curve, I am now starting to argue - as previewed in my latest AFOE post - that either we move soon on this, or Germany will inevitably have to go back (hopefully only temporarily) to the Mark. The system won’t hold otherwise. Given that opinions have changed so radically here in Spain in just six months, nothing can be ruled out at this point.
[...]
Following a decade long housing “boom” Spain now has an enormous debt problem. The combined debt level of Spain’s households, companies and government now amounts to some 265% of GDP.
[...]
However, in contrast to the situation in countries like Greece and Italy, Spain’s endebtedness problem is not principally one of massive public sector debt. The main component of Spanish debt is private – between households and companies accumulated debt amounts to some 210% of GDP.
[...]
According to the National Statistics Office (INE), the slight economic expansion that was achieved in the first quarter of 2010 (0.1% growth) was the combined result of an increase in internal demand and a worsening of the net impact of external demand – precisely the opposite of what you would want to achieve. In other words, while Spain’s exports did increase, the growth in domestic demand in conditions of limited international competitiveness meant that imports increased even more.
[...]
As the Spanish government stresses, the country’s share in world exports has remained more or less constant since the start of the century, but at the same time Spain’s share of world imports has increased. [...] In this sense what Spain’s economy needs is not rejuvenation but resurrection.
[...]
To conclude, Spain stands at a crossroads, and important decisions need to be taken. A fiscal adjustment is necessary, but the country also needs a competitiveness adjustment in the form of a substantial reduction in the wage and price level (possibly by 20%). If this is not implemented the dynamic of Spain’s debt will surely become unsustainable. Spain has two – and only – choices at this point. It can follow Finland’s example in the 1990s, take the bull by the horns and use the present crisis as an opportunity to transform the Spanish economy into a new economic miracle, or it can remain in denial about the severity of the problem, let things drift until they can do so no longer, and then follow Argentina down the road of ruin and despair.

Ich habe Schwierigkeiten, mir ein Spanien (Griechenland, Italien, Frankreich, Deutschland) vorzustellen, in dem derartige Umstellungen möglich wären - eine interne Abwertung um 20% ist heftig.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201005241545.html
Zitat:THE cost of soil erosion on the agricultural lands and forest degradation has been estimated to be over one third of the national Gross Domestic Product ( GDP).

The estimated costs of environmental degradation in the lakes and rivers due to excessive loads of sediments and nutrients caused by soil erosion may be even higher.


http://allafrica.com/stories/201005130348.html
Zitat:Tanzania's entire forest cover will disappear in about 10 to 16 decades if the current high level of deforestation is not checked, a new survey warns.

While the survey by Conservation International, a non-profit organisation with its headquarters in Washington, DC, United States, has revealed that 2,300 square kilometres of forests is being destroyed yearly, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has put the annual deforestation rate at whopping 4,200 square kilometres.

Currently, Tanzania has 385,000 square kilometres of forest cover, but experts warn that this could disappear fast if measures are not taken to reverse the alarming situation. According to experts, the wanton felling of trees or burning of forests releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, leading to global warming that could result in increased drought, flooding, poor harvests, water shortages and a growing number of refugees driven from the worst hit areas.


http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article216298.ece
Zitat:Russia's gas export monopoly Gazprom may create a joint venture with Ukraine's energy company Naftohaz as a step towards possible merger, Gazprom said today.

Ein weiterer Schritt Rußlands, die Kontrolle über die Ukraine zurückzugewinnen - siehe Russia teaches EU a lesson in its Ukraine gas-for-naval base deal.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7134040.ece
Zitat:AT least 300,000 Whitehall and other public sector workers may lose their jobs as the coalition government sets to work cutting the £156 billion budget deficit.

As George Osborne, the chancellor, prepares to unveil the first £6 billion of cuts tomorrow, the full scale of the job losses that will follow has begun to emerge.

The initial savings to be announced will target such items as civil servants’ perks, which include taxis, flights and hotel accommodation.


Oh, oh - 300000 Arbeitslose sind eine verdammt große Zahl. Und das ist noch nicht der schlimmstmögliche Fall:

Zitat:Detailed research by The Sunday Times shows that at least 300,000 workers, including civil servants and frontline staff, will lose their jobs over the next few years.

Some estimates suggest that the number of job losses could reach 700,000. These will include tens of thousands of health service managers as well as many thousands of doctors and nurses, according to internal documents from the National Health Service.


Immerhin, Europas neues großes Armenhaus ergreift Maßnahmen. Ob es die Richtigen zum richtigen Zeitpunkt sind?

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article7138012.ece
Zitat:Retail sales plunged to a 14-month low in the early part of this month after unusually cold weather and the biggest price rises in two years deterred shoppers.

Hallo Japan.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/7769126/US-money-supply-plunges-at-1930s-pace-as-Obama-eyes-fresh-stimulus.html
Zitat:The M3 figures - which include broad range of bank accounts and are tracked by British and European monetarists for warning signals about the direction of the US economy a year or so in advance - began shrinking last summer. The pace has since quickened.

The stock of money fell from $14.2 trillion to $13.9 trillion in the three months to April, amounting to an annual rate of contraction of 9.6pc. The assets of insitutional money market funds fell at a 37pc rate, the sharpest drop ever.


http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64N48U20100524?type=domesticNews%E2%80%9D
Zitat:Three in four city officials reported that overall economic and fiscal conditions have worsened over the past year, the league reported, and more than six in 10 said poverty has intensified.

Almost all -- 90 percent -- said unemployment was a problem for their communities and that joblessness has mounted over the last year.

"City budget shortfalls will become more severe over the next two years as tax collections catch up with economic conditions," the report said. "These will inevitably result in new rounds of layoffs, service cuts, and canceled projects and contracts."

Already, 71 percent of cities have cut personnel and 68 percent have delayed or canceled infrastructure projects, it found.


Der Aufschwung in den USA scheibt auf tönernen Füßen zu stehen.

http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2010/05/27/245436/a-century-long-look-at-the-us-equity-market/?updatedcontent=1
FT Alphaville über die Frage, ob der Dow Jones im langfristigen Trend liegt:
Dow Jones seit 1900, inflationsbereinigt
Überraschung - er liegt nicht.

Liegt das nun daran, daß heute alles besser ist?


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-alan-grayson/the-war-is-making-you-poo_b_585343.html
Mich interessiert die amerikanische Innenpolitik nicht wirklich (unsere ist schon schlimm genug, um Schwierigkeiten zu bekommen, den Brechreiz zu unterdrücken), aber ab und zu bekomme ich davon doch etwas mit. Diesmal ist es der "The War Is Making You Poor Act" - eine Gesetzesinitiative.
Zitat:Next year's budget allocates $159,000,000,000 to perpetuate the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. That's enough money to eliminate federal income taxes for the first $35,000 of every American's income. Beyond that, leaves over $15 billion to cut the deficit.

And that's what this bill does. It eliminates separate funding for the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and eliminates federal income taxes for everyone's first $35,000 of income ($70,000 for couples). Plus it pays down the national debt.

The costs of the war have been rendered invisible. There's no draft. Instead, we take the most vulnerable elements of our population, and give them a choice between unemployment and missile fodder. Government deficits conceal the need to pay in cash for the war.

We put the cost of both guns and butter on our Chinese credit card. In fact, we don't even put these wars on budget; they are still passed using 'emergency supplemental'. A nine-year 'emergency'.


In der Tat, eine neun Jahre andauernde Notlage - für Schafherden und Hochzeitswillige in Afghanistan auf jeden Fall.

Und es ist auch schön zu sehen, daß abseits von Michael Moore jemand das Thema "entweder Arbeitslos oder Kanonenfutter" aufnimmt.


http://www.blacklistednews.com/?news_id=8878
Eine Zusammenfassung der realen Situation:
  • 39.68 million Americans on food stamps
  • foreclosure filings were reported on 367,056 properties in the month of March
  • more than 10 percent of U.S. homeowners with a mortgage had missed at least one payment in the January-March period
  • for the first time in modern history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together?
  • U.S. Congress planning to quadruple oil taxes, what do you think that is going to do to the price of gasoline in the United States?
  • “terrible cuts” are urgently needed in order to avoid a complete financial disaster in his state? [California]
  • Dozens of U.S. states are in such bad financial shape that they are getting ready for their biggest budget cuts in decades.
  • In March, the U.S. trade deficit widened to its highest level since December 2008.
  • the U.S. government is projected to have a 1.6 trillion dollar deficit in 2010
  • the U.S. government suffered a wider-than-expected budget deficit of 82.69 billion dollars in April
  • the U.S. national debt will reach 100 percent of GDP by the year 2015
  • analysts are already projecting that the seafood and tourism industries along the Gulf coast will be devastated for decades
  • The FDIC’s list of problem banks recently hit a 17-year high
  • The FDIC is backing 8,000 banks that have a total of $13 trillion in assets with a deposit insurance fund that is basically flat broke
  • Existing home sales in the United States jumped 7.6 percent in April. That is the good news. The bad news is that this increase only happened because the deadline to take advantage of the temporary home buyer tax credit (government bribe) was looming.
  • Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac recently told the U.S. government that they are going to need even more bailout money.
  • 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved for retirement. Tens of millions of Americans find themselves just one lawsuit, one really bad traffic accident or one very serious illness away from financial ruin
  • The mayor of Detroit says that the real unemployment rate in his city is somewhere around 50 percent.
  • Gallup’s measure of underemployment hit 20.0% on March 15th
  • One new poll shows that 76 percent of Americans believe that the U.S. economy is still in a recession
  • The bottom 40 percent of those living in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth
  • [Nur eine Ableitung]
  • Defaults on apartment building mortgages held by U.S. banks climbed to a record 4.6 percent in the first quarter of 2010.
  • In March, the price of fresh and dried vegetables in the United States soared 49.3% - the most in 16 years.
  • 1.41 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009 – a 32 percent increase over 2008.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704717004575268293014677912.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion
Zitat:Guess how long it is before the state of New York runs out of cash? Less than a week, according to the state's comptroller.

On June 1, New York is due to send $3.8 billion in aid to local school districts, including $2.1 billion that was supposed to be paid in March but not sent for lack of funds. Yet New York is still $1 billion short. This could affect school operations, the solvency of any business that sells goods or services to the state, the paychecks of state workers, and ultimately home values.


http://www.nahb.org/news_details.aspx?newsID=10826
Zitat:Legislation introduced yesterday by Reps. Brad Miller (D-N.C.) and original co-sponsors Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Joe Baca (D-Calif.) would help alleviate the severe lack of credit for acquisition, development and construction (AD&C) financing that threatens to end the budding housing recovery before it has time to take root, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).

“We applaud these lawmakers for taking the lead to address the housing production credit crisis that is jeopardizing the housing and economic recovery now under way,” said NAHB Chairman Bob Jones, a home builder from Bloomfield Hills, Mich.


Warum nicht ein Schuldenproblem durch noch mehr Schulden lösen?

Wo doch jeder weiß, daß man Alk-Probleme nicht durch Entzug, sondern mehr Alk. löst.


http://www.businessinsider.com/europe-debt-chart-2010-5
Vergleich US-Bailout <-> EU-Bailout

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/congress-weighs-pension-bailout-2010-05-27
Zitat:U.S. lawmakers are laying the groundwork for a possible federal bailout of some faltering pension plans that are jointly run by companies and unions.

The effort reflects a worrisome new problem in the nation's troubled retirement-savings system: the grim financial condition of such pension plans, known as multi-employer plans. They are common in the hotel, construction, trucking and other industries, and cover about 10 million workers, or almost one in four workers who have a private pension.
[...]
A 2009 study from ratings firm Moody's Investors Service estimated that the country's largest multi-employer plans have long-term deficits of about $165 billion. Some employer groups that are supporting efforts to help the plans question whether that estimate accurately reflects the government's potential exposure, however.

Zitat:
Although the outlook for Mr. Casey's proposal is uncertain, Congress likely will be forced to address the problem soon. The Moody's study estimated that multi-employer plans in the construction industry are only about 60% funded, with long-term liabilities of $158 billion versus assets of $85.5 billion. In the transportation industry, including many Teamsters plans, the overall funded status was 58.6%.

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/05/not-just-oil-us-hit-peak-water-in-1970-and-nobody-noticed.ars

Zitat:The analysis, performed by staff at the Pacific Institute, recognizes that there are some significant differences between petroleum and water. For oil, using it involves a chemical transformation that won't be reversed except on geological time scales. Using water often leaves it in its native state, with a cycle that returns it to the environment in a geologic blink of an eye. Still, the authors make a compelling argument that, not only can there be a peak water, but the US passed this point around 1970, apparently without anyone noticing.

So weit, so gut - das Maximum der Wasserförderung in den USA war 1975, und nichts allzu schlimmes ist passiert.

Zitat:
Is large-scale desalinization inevitable? The authors make the case that it's not, based on the US. Although they caution that water-use figures, which are notoriously fragmented, aren't entirely reliable, they use them to suggest that US water use roughly paralleled GDP growth for most of the 20th century. The two separated around 1970, as water use tailed off, peaking around 1975. After a short period of decline, water use has remained stable even as both GDP and population have continued to climb.

Was dabei aber IMO übersehen wird: Wasser wird nun über weitere Entfernungen, aus reicheren Lagern, geholt, und daß das bisher möglich ist, heißt ja nicht, daß es in Zukunft weiter möglich sein wird.
Wenn alle unterirdischen Seen erschöpft und alle überirdischen vergiftet sind, dann ist halt Schluß.
Gruß, Uwe

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