Banks Brace for Latvia's Collapse

The media is full of great news today!

First, The Independent reported that China, Russia, and the Arab states are planning to quit the dollar for oil trading (which would be a huge blow to U.S. economic hegemony). Now The Telegraph is jumping into the fray with another scary headline, Banks Brace for Latvia's Collapse.

See below for highlights...

The Svenska Dagbladet newspaper said Sweden's finance minister Anders Borg had told banks secretly that Latvia's political order was unravelling, advising them to prepare for the collapse of Latvia's rescue talks.

Latvia has failed to deliver draconian spending cuts agreed to secure the next tranche of its €7.5bn (£6.85bn) bail-out from the EU, the International Monetary Fund, and Sweden, balking at 20pc cuts in pensions and a further 15pc cut in public wages.

The People's Party, the largest group in the coalition, voted against austerity measures last month, raising concerns that the country is ungovernable…

Latvia's economy contracted by 18.2pc in the twelve months to June, trumped only by Lithuania at 20.4pc… Youth unemployment in Latvia is already 31pc, and concentrated among ethnic Russians…

Latvia is "more likely than not" to devalue, toppling pegs in Estonia and Lithuania. "Financial markets elsewhere in the region are likely to be hit by contagion, with Hungary, Romania, and Ukraine most vulnerable"…

The Baltic trio financed property booms in euros (and swiss francs) because rates were lower. It was taken for granted that eventual euro entry had eliminated the exchange risk. This has become a trap. They need to devalue to break the cycle of depression, but cannot do so because of euro mortgages. Instead they hope to claw back lost competitiveness through wage deflation. This takes years, and discipline.

Mr. Shearing said Latvia's economy would shrink by 30pc whether it devalues or not.

The Wiley E. Coyote Economy

We have huge news on the economic front today...

In my darker moments, I've called the U.S. economy the "Wiley E. Coyote Economy" because even though the stock market is up almost 50% over the last 7 months, the U.S. economy is so burdened by debt and so crippled by government regulation that recovery won't come for another 5-10 years, if ever.

Back in January, when President Obama was inaugurated, I speculated about how world events would unfold during Obama's first-term, and - just as a pure, hypothetical guess - I predicted that during his tenure, OPEC would go off the dollar (which would spark a new bout of economic chaos).

Well guess what? In today's Independent, Robert Fisk writes...

In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning - along with China, Russia, Japan and France - to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/06/arab-states-have-launched_n_310826.html

Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/06/arab-states-have-launched_n_310826.html

..

The Americans, who are aware the meetings have taken place - although they have not discovered the details - are sure to fight this international cabal which will include hitherto loyal allies Japan and the Gulf Arabs

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/06/arab-states-have-launched_n_310826.html

...

The transitional currency in the move away from dollars, according to Chinese banking sources, may well be gold. An indication of the huge amounts involved can be gained from the wealth of Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar who together hold an estimated $2.1 trillion in dollar reserves.

The decline of American economic power linked to the current global recession was implicitly acknowledged by the World Bank president Robert Zoellick. "One of the legacies of this crisis may be a recognition of changed economic power relations," he said in Istanbul ahead of meetings this week of the IMF and World Bank. But it is China's extraordinary new financial power - along with past anger among oil-producing and oil-consuming nations at America's power to interfere in the international financial system - which has prompted the latest discussions involving the Gulf states.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/06/arab-states-have-launched_n_310826.html

Brazil has shown interest in collaborating in non-dollar oil payments, along with India. Indeed, China appears to be the most enthusiastic of all the financial powers involved, not least because of its enormous trade with the Middle East.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/06/arab-states-have-launched_n_310826.html

China imports 60 per cent of its oil, much of it from the Middle East and Russia.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/06/arab-states-have-launched_n_310826.html

...Furthermore, Chinese exports to the region now account for no fewer than 10 per cent of the imports of every country in the Middle East...

Ever since the Bretton Woods agreements - the accords after the Second World War which bequeathed the architecture for the modern international financial system - America's trading partners have been left to cope with the impact of Washington's control and, in more recent years, the hegemony of the dollar as the dominant global reserve currency.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/06/arab-states-have-launched_n_310826.html

..

Chinese financial sources believe President Barack Obama is too busy fixing the US economy to concentrate on the extraordinary implications of the transition from the dollar in nine years' time. The current deadline for the currency transition is 2018.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/06/arab-states-have-launched_n_310826.html

The US discussed the trend briefly at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh; the Chinese Central Bank governor and other officials have been worrying aloud about the dollar for years. Their problem is that much of their national wealth is tied up in dollar assets.

"These plans will change the face of international financial transactions," one Chinese banker said. "America and Britain must be very worried...

Iran announced late last month that its foreign currency reserves would henceforth be held in euros rather than dollars. Bankers remember, of course, what happened to the last Middle East oil producer to sell its oil in euros rather than dollars. A few months after Saddam Hussein trumpeted his decision, the Americans and British invaded Iraq.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/06/arab-states-have-launched_n_310826.html

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/06/arab-states-have-launched_n_310826.html

This is huge, huge news - even though the mainstream media is basically ignoring it. If the international powers go ahead with their decision to de-link from the dollar (as today's report indicates), it will be a massive vote of "no-confidence" in the U.S. economy.

For over 200 years (and especially over the last 25 years), foreign investors have flocked to American shores because our country was the most profitable game in town. But the Crash of '08 showed that the U.S. economy has morphed into a Giant Ponzi Scam, and despite the nice diplomatic talk of the last year, it was inevitable that China, Russia, Japan, and the OPEC nations (the countries that - you know - actually produce stuff - whether it's oil, natural gas, or manufactured goods) would take their money elsewhere. Thus, The Demise of The Dollar.

Of course, the oil-producing states are denying the report. But while their denials ring on deaf ears, the United Nations itself is calling for a new global reserve currency.

According to today's Breitbart...

"Important progress in managing imbalances can be made by reducing the reserve currency country's 'privilege' to run external deficits in order to provide international liquidity," UN undersecretary-general for economic and social affairs, Sha Zukang, said.

Just to clarify: The country with the "privilege" is the United States.

More to come.

-Todd

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/06/arab-states-have-launched_n_310826.html

Daily Wrap-Up

Nature and Compassion: "I've written before about the powerful mental benefits of communing with nature - it leads to more self-control, increased working memory, lower levels of stress and better moods - but a new study by psychologists at the University of Rochester find that being exposed to wildlife also makes us more compassionate. Nature might be red in tooth and claw, but even a glimpse of greenery can make us behave in kinder, gentler ways."


Does Falling in Love Make Us More Creative?: "A new study demonstrates that thinking about love--but not about sex--causes us to think more "globally," making it easier to come up with new ideas."


Why I Slept with 1,300 Women: I admire the man's honesty, but nothing else.


Conservative Bible Project Cuts Out Liberal Passages: "Lo and behold, the Bible has gotten too liberal, according to a group of conservatives. And it needs a little editing."


Also, the debate over "Spiritual Rationalism" continues at Novaskeer's blog...

Quote of the Day

“A recurring problem I’ve taken note of in the Roissysphere is this compulsive need to universalize every single fucking principle holy lord in heaven oh my god. I understand the annoyance and contention with a generation indoctrinated by blind equalism, but the inverse is just as bad. There needs to be more individual consideration of issues, up to and including the idea that game isn’t always effective or for everyone. It is NOT necessary to overextend every scenario in which normative gender roles leads to a prosperous society, and a corruption of the natural order results in some wholly nihilistic endgame.” - Sofia, Opting Out of the Game

Quote of the Day

Q: What should a real man’s approach to sex be if not what guys like Roissy say?

A: Whole books could be written detailing the shortcomings in the Roissy In DC approach to sex, dating and gender relations, so I’ll just choose a particularly glaring flaw in his worldview — one that casts the anonymous man who writes the blog as a tragic figure. One aspect of Roissy’s worldview is his disdain for women — they are for him shallow, contemptible creatures that men are justified into manipulating into sex. It is difficult to think of a misogynist as sociopathic in the blogosphere.

Even so, Roissy judges the worth of men according to how many women they can attract. For example, he glorifies the alpha male constantly, and defines that category thusly: “The alpha male is defined by the hotness of the women he can attract, the strength of their attraction for him, and the number of them who find him attractive.”

I’d say that a real man should avoid a) relying on the approval of others for his self-worth, b) making something he disdains the object of his desire, and c) a romantic life wherein he never gets to experience the best kind of sex — the kind where your partner is someone you love, lust and respect. That isn’t to say that all three are necessary for enjoyable sex, but a man who knows what’s good for him aspires to that trinity, and if he finds it, he is lucky indeed. - Conor Friedersdorf

Note: The picture above is of "Fung," Douchebag Extraordinaire.

Weekly Wrap-Up

The DNA Mystery: Scientists Stumped by "Telepathic" Abilities: "DNA has been found to have a bizarre ability to put itself together, even at a distance, when according to known science it shouldn't be able to. Explanation: None, at least not yet."


For Alarmists, Ugly Truths About Global Warming: George Will has been consistently good when it comes to challenging scientists on this issue. That's why I don't understand why he bent over for scientists on a different issue.


New VFR discussion, Darwinian Conservatives Reveal Themselves as Cultural and Moral Relativists: My comment: "Atheists are not people who are willing to risk bodily harm or death for noble principles such as 'freedom' or 'democracy.' By definition, they would rather be slaves than martyrs. Decades from now, in Europe, that's exactly what they'll be."


A Very Quick and Dirty Recap of Liberals' Darwinists Paradox: My comment: "Both conservatives and liberals have a lot to lose from Darwinism, as you say. The conservatives lose faith; the liberals lose equality. Maybe that's an incentive for both groups to pierce through the Darwinian propoganda and decide whether or not Darwinism is 'Da Truth' it claims to be."


The Return of the Great Depression: Vox Day is coming out with a new book.


The Provincialism of Modern Novelists: Ferdinand Bardimu explains.


Cute. Gil Dodgen responds to Dan Brown's stupidity.


I've also updated the following essays...


Will the Economic Crisis Inflame the Culture Wars or End Them?


Spiritual Rationalism: A Critique of a Critique


From the Darwin LOL Files

From the Darwin LOL Files...

"You may not be interested in the God vs. Darwin issue, but the God vs. Darwin issue is interested in you." - Lawrence Auster

Exhibit 1,389: This story is the banner headline on The Huffington Post.

Ardi: Oldest Human Skeleton Discovered, Bipedal Origin May Be Revealed

Your re

The article begins innocently enough...

The big news in the journal Science tomorrow is the discovery of the oldest human skeleton--a small-brained, 110-pound female of the species Ardipithecus ramidus, nicknamed "Ardi." She lived in what is now Ethiopia 4.4 million years ago, which makes her over a million years older than the famous "Lucy" fossil, found in the same region thirty-five years ago.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/01/ardi-oldest-human-skeleto_n_306033.html

Fine. Interesting. Then we come to these LOL Darwinist myths...


The journalist writes....

One of the defining attributes of Lucy and all other hominids--members of our evolutionary lineage, including ourselves--is that they walk upright on two legs....

So why did her species become bipedal while it was still living partly in the trees, especially since walking on two legs is a much less efficient way of getting about?

Yes. Why? Do tell...

Let's suppose that some lesser male, with poor little stubby canines, figures out that he can entice a fertile female into mating by bringing her some food...Such a strategy could catch on if searching for food required a lot of time and exposure to predators. Males would be far more successful food-providers if they had their hands free to carry home loads of fruits and tubers--which would favor walking on two legs.

So our ancestors starting walking on 2 legs so the males could carry more food to their lovers?


To quote Ace Ventura: "Alllllright then..."


But this is the best part...

Buried among the slew of papers about the new find is one about the creature's sex life. It makes fascinating reading, especially if you like learning why human females don't know when they are ovulating

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/01/ardi-oldest-human-skeleto_n_306033.html

...


If the female knew when she was fertile, she could basically cheat the system by taking all the food offered by her milquetoast of a provider, then cuckold him with a dominant male when she was ovulating, scoring the best of both worlds. The food-for-sex contract thus depends on what Lovejoy calls "the most unique human character"--ovulation that not only goes unannounced to the males of the group, but is concealed even from the female herself.

Read that last line again...The female half-monkey/half-human - in her infinite wisdom - concealed ovulation "even from herself." Sometimes I wonder if the Darwinists are just testing us to see how dumb we are.


The article concludes...

Regular meals, monogamy, and discretion--who would have thought our origins were so sedate?

Speak for yourself, pal.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/01/ardi-oldest-human-skeleto_n_306033.html

But seriously...Why do the Darwinists feel compelled to inject such Reductionist nonsense into a legitimate news story?... Why do they feel compelled to "de-rationalize people, and thus, dehumanize them."


To answer that, let's turn to the atheist philosopher Thomas Nagel.


In his book, The Last Word, Nagel talks about the "Cosmic Authority Problem" and the "fear of religion" found among scientists....

In speaking of the fear of religion, I don’t mean to refer to the entirely reasonable hostility toward certain established religions and religious institutions...I am talking about something much deeper—namely, the fear of religion itself. I speak from experience, being strongly subject to this fear myself: I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and wellinformed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, hope that I’m right in my belief. It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that.


My guess is that this cosmic authority problem is not a rare condition and that it is responsible for much of the scientism and reductionism of our time. One of the tendencies it supports is the ludicrous overuse of evolutionary biology to explain everything about life, including everything about the human mind. Darwin enabled modern secular culture to heave a great collective sigh of relief, by apparently providing a way to eliminate purpose, meaning, and design as fundamental features of the world"

If the Scientific Elite has a genuine "fear of religion," no one should be surprised that they want to spread that "fear" to the masses. And thus they will use every tool at the their disposal to do precisely that.


H/T: Subversive Thinking.


For more on this topic, see my essay, Sex with Blondes and Darwin.


***UPDATE, OCT. 1, 2009***


This is interesting...


Oldest Known Hominid Sheds Light on Human Evolution (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

The first major analysis of one of the earliest known hominids suggests that humans may not have evolved from apes.

One of the principal investigators, C. Owen Lovejoy, associate professor of biological anthropology at Kent State University, said the research reveals that the reverse could be true: Apes might have evolved from the hominids that eventually evolved into humans.

"People often think we evolved from apes, but no, apes in many ways evolved from us," Dr. Lovejoy said. "It has been a popular idea to think humans are modified chimpanzees. From studying Ardipithecus ramidus, or 'Ardi,' we learn that we cannot understand or model human evolution from chimps and gorillas."

The research is being published in a special edition of the journal Science.

Doesn't Dr. Lovejoy know that "evolution is a fact," and not to question it?


"But what's evolution?" asks the mouse. "That word can mean a lot of things."


"It doesn't matter. Just don't question it."


"Oh, ok."


H/T: Jonah Goldberg.


***UPDATE, OCT. 2, 2009***




Lawrence Auster emailed me this morning with a few suggested changes to my essay for the sake of clarity (which I've made), and a few questions about my argument.


This is what I wrote back...

Larry: Yes, you are right. The article quoting Lovejoy is incoherent, and in retrospect, my own article deconstructing Lovejoy and the Darwinists could use a bit more clarity. Let me try again through this email.


I guess I had 2 major points...


1) Regarding the Huffington Post, I thought it was peculiar that at least half of the article was regurgitating Darwiniian "just-so" stories about human evolution millions of years ago that cannot - by definition - be proven or disproven. We're so used to these stories cropping up in articles about fossil discoveries that we forget that a responsible journalist would simply report the facts of the event (the discovery of the fossil), or (if they simply can't control themselves) repeat the Darwinian stories, but also add the caveat that these stories are speculation at best, far from proven facts. And then I ask: "What compels the Scientific Community to do these things?" That's when I cite the atheist philosopher Thomas Nagel who argues that the Scientific Elite has a "fear of religion" - a fear - that - if these articles are any guide - they are quite eager to spread to the masses.


2) Regarding the Dr. Lovejoy quote, it does sound like the good doctor himself is confused by what it all means. And that too is my point. The arch-Darwinists constantly repea,t "Darwinism is a fact; Darwinism is fact," but for any honest investigator, it is NOT a fact. It might true, or it might be false, but based on the evidence, it is NOT a fact.


Dr. Lovejoy speculates that apes evolved from humans. By saying this, Dr. Lovejoy (who as far as I know is an arch-Darwinist) is suggesting a radical reinterpretation of Darwinian theory: that apes evolved from humans (not the other way around).


Needless to say, the fact that this question is still being entertained in the year 2009 (150 years after Darwin's book) shows that Darwinian evolution ISN'T a fact. It's a speculation. The whole thing is a speculation.

Larry's articles on this topic can be found here, here, and here.


I like this quote of his:

"I hereby move that all popular journalism about evolution and related subjects be banned. It's worse than useless. But the problem is, the scientists are little better than the journalists. Much like the journalists, the scientists allow themselves to say whatever they feel like saying, with no concern for whether it is internally consistent or not, and even whether it makes sense or not."

I second that motion!

-Todd


**UPDATE, OCT. 6, 2009**


Casey Luskin summarizes some of the major problems with "Ardi" here and here.

He concludes...

"What do we have with “Ardi”? We have an extremely crushed “Irish stew” fossil that has undergone extensive reconstruction in order to become part of a PR campaign to make bold claims of ancestral status to the human line, even though at base its qualities are very similar to previously known fossils, and there's a lot of skepticism about the claims being made. In other words, we have the typical media circus that we find every time a new "missing link" is found.

Indeed. The clowns in the circus (especially those at The Huffington Post) should feel quite silly.


**UPDATE, OCT. 7, 2009**

According to this article, The New York Times put the Ardi story "on the front page...above the fold." Shall we add the NY Times to the list of "clowns" who report breathlessly about every new "missing link" when no such link has been proved? Sure, why not?

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/01/ardi-oldest-human-skeleto_n_306033.html

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/01/ardi-oldest-human-skeleto_n_306033.html