Financial Crisis

[BlackJack]

And back over here in Thailand, I am sorry to see our Tarisa is being replaced by some guy called Prasarn. I know very little about him, except that he is obviously not short of the odd s'tang, a Harvard education and all that. I do hope that he will keep his testosterone under control and and keep a firm hand on the helm.[/size][/font][/color]

I very much doubt that Dr.Prasarn is a wealthy guy. He went to Harvard on a scholarship, then worked at the BoT (where they pay peanuts) for many years. Then about 6 years at the SEC, (where they pay peanuts but someone makes you a coffee in the morning) and only got a proper paying job a few years ago when he became President of KBANK (although I think his monthly income there is only about Bt300k.)

must be related to Mohamed Obama

[midas]

The subject of Chinese Real Estate values seems to mentioned much more frequently now.

I wonder if it really is a problem or whether the talk of a market crash is overdone ?

I wonder if the Chinese as here in Thailand will simply refuse to sell way below

the purchase price because of not wanting to lose face and just sit and wait it out ?

China's property market braced for 30pc drop

Standard Chartered has told clients to prepare for a fall in property prices of up to 30pc in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzen, and other large cities in China as the delayed effects of monetary tightening begin to bite.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/china-business/7875713/Chinas-property-market-braced-for-30pc-drop.html

and

Land Prices Are Collapsing Across China

The China Index Academy reports that for-sale land supply across 103 Chinese cities doubled year over year, in the first half of 2010

http://www.businessinsider.com/land-prices-are-collapsing-across-china-2010-7

Edited July 7, 2010 by midas

[12DrinkMore]

There is a constant stream of opinion directed at the breakup of the European Union.

http://www.telegraph...-warns-ING.html

is a somewhat alarmist report.

A full-fledged disintegration of the eurozone would trigger the worst economic crisis in modern history, devastate every country in Europe including Germany, and inflict a deflationary shock on the US. There would be no winners, warns the Dutch bank ING in a new report "Quantifying the Unthinkable".

But the comment

ING's global strategist Mark Cliffe said any Anglo-Saxon Schadenfreude at a euro break-up would be short-lived.

I think is important. There is certainly a lot of Anglo-Saxon Schadenfreude running around, "we told you so" etc etc., and there is nothing the Brits like more than to see something European fail.

"Oh look, hah hah, now its the Spanish! Oh look over there! It's the Italians! Hah Hah Hah!" Yeah, I suppose it's better than looking in the mirror.

However, as the article points out, the resulting fall out would be felt around the globe. We do not need any more instability and uncertainty than is currently running around the system. GS might make a shed load of cash out of it, but the majority would suffer.

On a bright note I am going to dub this decade the "Thrifty Tens Decade", as it sounds more optimistic that the "Age of Austerity", or the "Decade of Depression", which it could well turn into.

[midas]

" This is the sixth time since the South Sea Bubble burst in 1720 that huge amounts of wealth have been transferred from those who create it to the already wealthy.

Add forty-one years (the average number of years between the 9-year peak-and-crash cycles) and you have a boom-bust cycle twice every hundred years or once every other generation, meaning every second generation of western working and middle-class citizens has, for the last three hundred years, been good and truly and thoroughly plucked.

Today's 'Great Recession;' is just another plucking that started with the sub prime foreclosures, the first modern major transfer of wealth through the confiscation of 'cheap' properties.

The more 'expensive' properties, shopping malls and office blocks will be taken in the next bubble, the Commercial Real Estate (CRE) bubble).

The Tokyo stock market crashed in 1989 (again, nine years later). The depression following that crash is now upon us and will seriously dig in by 2020, which is the reason for all those dire predictions: Gerald Celente knows, Nouriel Roubini knows. The trend is three hundred years old.

Look around you and do the math- I consider it FACT that once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, and three times is a Declaration of War.

Four times is the realization that the Declaration fell on the deaf ears of sleeping fools, five times is simple daylight rape and plunder of the same fools – the sixth time, this time, what I call Grand Theft and hopefully, the lesson finally learned, and do we now wake up?

All we have to do is throw them out of the Temple. For the last time. Forever."

http://beforeitsnews.com/news/95/282/Market_Crash_..._Depression_..._Revolution_..._Blood_on_the_Streets_-_This_is_the_sixth_time_since_the_South_Sea_Bubble_burst_in_1720_that_huge_amounts_of_wealth_have_been_transferred_from_those_who_create_it_to_the_already_wealthy..html

[lannarebirth]

Yeah, I guess there's a lot of tonnage in the market, but is this the "new normal"?

Doesn't look very inflationary.

[lannarebirth]

Date --- Time (ET)----- Statistic For -------------------- Actual------- Briefing Forecast------- Market Expects------Prior---------- Revised From

Jul 8--- 3:00 PM----- Consumer Credit ----May ----- (-$9.1B)---------- (-$2.5B)----------------- (-$3.0B)------------------(-$14.9B)--------- $1.0B

Well, that helps explain the low shipping rates. Can't see GDP looking too stellar. I think Santa brings a lump of coal this year.

Edited July 9, 2010 by lannarebirth

[BlackJack]

gold dipped i bought

same like the chinese

now what do they know

not a gold bug but hedging my bets

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/gold-we-trust-special-report-gold-erste-bank

BIS gold swap

http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page103855?oid=107700&sn=Detail&pid=92730

[12DrinkMore]

And over in the UK, that fabled "export led recovery" due to the devalued GBP is really firing up....

http://www.independe...le-2023112.html

Further evidence evidence of the fragility of the economic recovery emerged yesterday as a report showed that Britain's trade gap unexpectedly widened in May – hitting a two-year high of £3.8bn compared with £3.5bn the previous month

Oh dear!

And what is this strange comment that slipped into the report

There was also good news from the factory gate, with official data showing that producer prices experienced their first monthly fall since 2008

Good News????

And I thought the Master Plan was to ramp up inflation and get all those nasty debts off the books. Producer prices falling is exactly the opposite. However the "Inflate Away the Debts" option is being killed off left right and centre.

Fully 25% of the work force, all those busy paper pushers and administrators, namely the Public Services have three year wage plans at below the current rate of inflation. Also, what was the figure, 600,000(?) or so space occupiers will be kicked out.

The BT "Team Members" accepted a three year 3% deal, even if the "Management Team Members aka Pricks" have reserved their holy right to "bonuses", plainly not "Team Players".

http://www.independe...al-2023115.html

This is surely setting the expectations of the hoi palloi in the direction of low inflation and low pay increases. The expectations of low interest rates for the next couple of years have already been set by Merv, who, even in the face of an inflation rate well above his target, steadfastly refuses to move the rates up a notch. He might as well cancle the MPC meetings and simply issue two years' worth of pre-dated letters, "we note the current rate of inflation is above the target but we confident that the rate of inflation will be back to 2% in six months, and so there will be no change in the interest rates". This "writing a letter", which I believe Gordo introduced, used to be an EVENT "Oh the shame of it!", now it's just a routine monthly procedure.

(Interesting how we use words, as even if we have a "Double Dip Recession", this is considered infinitely preferable to whispering "DEPRESSION". The remains of the UK collective optimism is to be nurtured at the expense of accurately describing where we're at. We can lightly "bounce back from a double dip recession" sounds better than "we have to pull ourselves out of a depression". Maybe Clegg, Osborne and Cameron, aka the COC's should start putting prozac in the water mains?)

That free-flowing font of UK prosperity is also about to dry up. But instead of an almighty crash, a gradual drift downwards over the next x years looks more likely.

http://www.telegraph...ll-in-2011.html

And, if all that lot hasn't reset your expectations of hyperinflation, here comes the "Next Big Pension Cull". Up until Brown decided to change the tax rules on pensions, the schemes were not too bad. Since then they have been steadily going into the red area. To keep the interest rates artificially low and the house prices rising to the stratosphere, in came the CPI instead of the consistently higher and more realistic RPI. This has not gone unnoticed and predictably

The existing system links pension increases to the Retail Prices Index which includes housing costs such as mortgage interest payments. But the Government plans to link it to the Consumer Prices Index instead, which is typically lower.

http://www.telegraph...ns-reduced.html

We are truly entering the Decade of Thrift.

And here is the Ol' Spanner, he certainly hasn't lost the knack of expressing himself.

http://www.bloomberg...double-dip.html

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the U.S. economy may be undergoing what he called a "pause," and that he can't rule out the possibility of a so- called double-dip recession."Of course, there's a possibility," Greenspan said in an interview on CNBC today. "The trouble is there's always a possibility in both directions."

So it's going to be the Greenspan "Pause". This is Great News! No more nasty "R" or "D" words, just a "Pause"

Edited July 10, 2010 by 12DrinkMore

[midas]

This is surely setting the expectations of the hoi palloi in the direction of low inflation and low pay increases. The expectations of low interest rates for the next couple of years have already been set by Merv, who, even in the face of an inflation rate well above his target, steadfastly refuses to move the rates up a notch. He might as well cancle the MPC meetings and simply issue two years' worth of pre-dated letters, "we note the current rate of inflation is above the target but we confident that the rate of inflation will be back to 2% in six months, and so there will be no change in the interest rates". This "writing a letter", which I believe Gordo introduced, used to be an EVENT "Oh the shame of it!", now it's just a routine monthly procedure.

[/size]So it's going to be the Greenspan "Pause". This is Great News! No more nasty "R" or "D" words, just a "Pause"

[/font]

I am with you on this issue 12D.

It might only be semantics and seem less important to some

but they should have at least been decent enough to call it the “ Great Recession ”.

But I always thought their constant use of the word “ recovery ” suggests an impatience to

revert to the old spending habits which we now know they wont achieve and it would have

been more credible if they had said something like “ stablised ”.

Personally I like Rick Santelli’s use of the word “deleveraging ” which is a far more accurate

description than “ deflation ” for the reasons he explained in his recent interview and serves to show just how disingenuous these ba**ards who

are in power really are and to what extent they are trying to pull the wool over peoples eyes

Edited July 10, 2010 by midas

[midas]

And, if all that lot hasn't reset your expectations of hyperinflation, here comes the "Next Big Pension Cull". Up until Brown decided to change the tax rules on pensions, the schemes were not too bad. Since then they have been steadily going into the red area. To keep the interest rates artificially low and the house prices rising to the stratosphere, in came the CPI instead of the consistently higher and more realistic RPI. This has not gone unnoticed and predictably

[BlackJack]

I think Confucius will end up winning

[Abrak]

I think Confucius will end up winning

To be honest, all the indications are that Paul the Octopus knows the right answers. However he seems a bit preoccupied with spoiling the World Cup for everyone by telling them the results ahead of the games.

You know Paul came from Weymouth and then was moved to Germany so he might be somewhat traumatized.

[midas]

I think Confucius will end up winning

To be honest, all the indications are that Paul the Octopus knows the right answers. However he seems a bit preoccupied with spoiling the World Cup for everyone by telling them the results ahead of the games.

You know Paul came from Weymouth and then was moved to Germany so he might be somewhat traumatized.

I sure bet Paul is glad to live in a tank and not in his natural habitat

Specifically Gulf toxicologist Dr. Susan Shaw - Founder and Director of the Marine Environmental Research Institute - dove into the oil spill to examine the chemical Corexit present.

Dr. Shaw told CNN:

" If I can tell you what happens — because I was in the oil — to people…

Shrimpers throwing their nets into water… [then] water from the nets splashed on his skin. …

[He experienced a] headache that lasted 3 weeks… heart palpitations… muscle spasms… bleeding from the rectum…

And that’s what that Corexit does, it ruptures red blood cells, causes internal bleeding, and liver and kidney damage. …

This stuff is so toxic combined… not the oil or dispersants alone. …

Very, very toxic and goes right through skin. "

and i would like to ask Paul why this is the case :-

" the Obama administration has made it a felony to get near enough to oiled wildlife and beaches to film them." ?

[ronz28]

I cringe when reading of the BIS gold swaps...just another opportunity for fraud.

However,it will take some financial engineering to contribute to the financial crisis/ financial con of the decade as summed up here:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/financial-con-decade-explained-so-simply-even-congressman-will-get-it

[BlackJack]

http://inflation.us/charts.html

scary stuff as its not fudged

[nemo38]

There is a very illuminating article in Rolling Stone (of all magazines) covering the role which Goldman Sachs had in the crisis. GS is described as

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/12697/64796

Goldman Sachs is described as "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."

It is very sad to see that the people at the top consider us little more than crops or cattle.

[Abrak]

There is a very illuminating article in Rolling Stone (of all magazines) covering the role which Goldman Sachs had in the crisis. GS is described as

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/12697/64796

Goldman Sachs is described as "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."

It is very sad to see that the people at the top consider us little more than crops or cattle.

Nemo,

My guess is that you have just been for a haircut.

You see what happens is that they sit you down in a comfy chair and they wrap a ridiculously colored polyester cape around you, at which point you pick up 4 month out of date, moth eaten magazines and begin to read them.

You get so self-absorbed in this magazine that the next thing you hear is 'gel?' 'would you like some gel in your hair?'.

Anyway next time you go back you can find out about this American General in Afghanistan that closed down all the Burger Kings.

[12DrinkMore]

Hardly anything to do with this thread, except that is is another blatant waste of money, but I am SO MAD about this

http://www.independe...0m-2023994.html

I am going to have to restrain my words here,

But to expect the suffering UK taxpayers to pay 20 fuc_king million Quid for a FOUR day visit of this ^&%*& is UNBELIEVABLE, just to further the bloody course of this nasty, selfish, perverted and deceiving religion.

That is an ANNUAL salary for for over 1,000 NURSES, or TEACHERS.

This is absolute bullshit. I am VERY LIVID over this utter WASTE.

Sorry and apologies for the rant, just had to get it out......

Edited July 11, 2010 by 12DrinkMore

[BlackJack]

Hardly anything to do with this thread, except that is is another blatant waste of money, but I am SO MAD about this

http://www.independe...0m-2023994.html

I am going to have to restrain my words here,

But to expect the suffering UK taxpayers to pay 20 fuc_king million Quid for a FOUR day visit of this ^&%*& is UNBELIEVABLE, just to further the bloody course of this nasty, selfish, perverted and deceiving religion.

That is an ANNUAL salary for for over 1,000 NURSES, or TEACHERS.

This is absolute bullshit. I am VERY LIVID over this utter WASTE.

Sorry and apologies for the rant, just had to get it out......

here have my passifier

and a drink

If its any consolation

It cost Canada 1 billion + to put on the G20 that achieved absolutely nothing

Edited July 12, 2010 by BlackJack

[Abrak]

http://thinkmarkets.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/keynes-hayek-1932-cambridgelse.pdf

Kind of cool how nothing changes in 80 years....

[Abrak]

I seem to remember prize for the most irritating expression of 2009 was easily won by 'green shoots'. I suspect the winner for 2010 will be 'double dip'. (Unless 12D succeeds with his plan to establish 'decade of thrift' which is incredibly irritating when it is only mentioned once.)

There seems a lot of talk about 'double dip' (I am a believer myself), lots of stuff to worry about - stock markets, house prices, euro area stability, fiscal austerity, Chinese asset prices and Obama's mental health. Everyone is jumping on every bad figure - I think Midas has even convinced himself there wasn't even any recovery. However, it is interesting that no credible economist is actually 'forecasting' a double dip. The bears - Krugman, Roubini etc are talking about 'risks' to recovery.

And there is good reason for this.

1. If you look at the actual economic data coming out, a lot of it is very good. In fact some numbers are incredibly good.

http://www.aar.org/newsandevents/freightrailtraffic/2010-07-08-railtraffic.aspx

2. And actually the reason there are no double dip forecasts is because there is not the data to support one. According to this model the prospects of a double dip in the next six months is 'approximately zero'. It is pretty rare to get an economist to even make that statement. The model has been very accurate at predicting recessions over the last 40 years with only one noticeable 'false positive' - I.e. Predicting a recession that didn't happen.)

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424052970203296004575325030615345498.html

What is also quite funny in that article is what they say about M3. Namely loads of people, myself included, have been posting 'shadowstats' M3 numbers as a lead indicator to deflation while the Fed stopped publishing the figure because it was a waste of time. Of course, the Fed not publishing the figure makes it all the more important and interesting in our minds. However, of course, it is quite possible that publishing M3 is a waste of time and an indicator that doesn't tell you anything.

[flying]

I seem to remember prize for the most irritating expression of 2009 was easily won by 'green shoots'. ................

1. If you look at the actual economic data coming out, a lot of it is very good. In fact some numbers are incredibly good.

echo....echo.............................echo

[midas]

I seem to remember prize for the most irritating expression of 2009 was easily won by 'green shoots'. ................

1. If you look at the actual economic data coming out, a lot of it is very good. In fact some numbers are incredibly good.

echo....echo.............................echo

Ground Hog Day comes to mind

[midas]

I seem to remember prize for the most irritating expression of 2009 was easily won by 'green shoots'. I suspect the winner for 2010 will be 'double dip'. (Unless 12D succeeds with his plan to establish 'decade of thrift' which is incredibly irritating when it is only mentioned once.)

There seems a lot of talk about 'double dip' (I am a believer myself), lots of stuff to worry about - stock markets, house prices, euro area stability, fiscal austerity, Chinese asset prices and Obama's mental health. Everyone is jumping on every bad figure - I think Midas has even convinced himself there wasn't even any recovery. However, it is interesting that no credible economist is actually 'forecasting' a double dip. The bears - Krugman, Roubini etc are talking about 'risks' to recovery.

And there is good reason for this.

1. If you look at the actual economic data coming out, a lot of it is very good. In fact some numbers are incredibly good.

http://www.aar.org/newsandevents/freightrailtraffic/2010-07-08-railtraffic.aspx

2. And actually the reason there are no double dip forecasts is because there is not the data to support one. According to this model the prospects of a double dip in the next six months is 'approximately zero'. It is pretty rare to get an economist to even make that statement. The model has been very accurate at predicting recessions over the last 40 years with only one noticeable 'false positive' - I.e. Predicting a recession that didn't happen.)

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424052970203296004575325030615345498.html

What is also quite funny in that article is what they say about M3. Namely loads of people, myself included, have been posting 'shadowstats' M3 numbers as a lead indicator to deflation while the Fed stopped publishing the figure because it was a waste of time. Of course, the Fed not publishing the figure makes it all the more important and interesting in our minds. However, of course, it is quite possible that publishing M3 is a waste of time and an indicator that doesn't tell you anything.

No it was Gerald Celente who convinced me when he used the expression

" it was a cover up not a recovery " - sooner or later the pack of cards

will come down

[Abrak]

Once upon a time, Toad (of Toad Hall) was driving his car to work. 'Poop, poop' he said, shortly before driving his car into a ditch. The next day the same thing happened again. 'I am really worried about Toad' said Mole.

The next 2 days he drove the car and each day before he got to work Toad had an accident. Mole pronounced that Toad was a lousy driver and Toad said 'Poop, poop'. Another 3 days past and again Toad had an accident on his way to work everyday.

Mole, although being a little shy and retiring, reiterated his view that Toad was a shit driver. Toad asked 'Oh ....has there ever been such a driver as Mr Toad?' 'Never' Toad replied to himself. At this point Flying jumped in to the argument and said 'echo, echo....Molely' dont you know that the weasels have been driving Toad off the road everyday. At which point 'Midas' turned up and nestled on a tree. He turned his head 180 degrees, stared at Toad who was still lying in the ditch and said 'Ground Hog Day.'

As Mole scurried back to his home, he pondered on Flying and Midas's comments. He knew his eyesight wasnt that good and he even had trouble hearing. However something still told him that Toad was still a crap driver who would be better off playing tennis.

[thaidrew]

Once upon a time, Toad (of Toad Hall) was driving his car to work. 'Poop, poop' he said, shortly before driving his car into a ditch. The next day the same thing happened again. 'I am really worried about Toad' said Mole.

The next 2 days he drove the car and each day before he got to work Toad had an accident. Mole pronounced that Toad was a lousy driver and Toad said 'Poop, poop'. Another 3 days past and again Toad had an accident on his way to work everyday.

Mole, although being a little shy and retiring, reiterated his view that Toad was a shit driver. Toad asked 'Oh ....has there ever been such a driver as Mr Toad?' 'Never' Toad replied to himself. At this point Flying jumped in to the argument and said 'echo, echo....Molely' dont you know that the weasels have been driving Toad off the road everyday. At which point 'Midas' turned up and nestled on a tree. He turned his head 180 degrees, stared at Toad who was still lying in the ditch and said 'Ground Hog Day.'

As Mole scurried back to his home, he pondered on Flying and Midas's comments. He knew his eyesight wasnt that good and he even had trouble hearing. However something still told him that Toad was still a crap driver who would be better off playing tennis.

[midas]

Once upon a time, Toad (of Toad Hall) was driving his car to work. 'Poop, poop' he said, shortly before driving his car into a ditch. The next day the same thing happened again. 'I am really worried about Toad' said Mole.

The next 2 days he drove the car and each day before he got to work Toad had an accident. Mole pronounced that Toad was a lousy driver and Toad said 'Poop, poop'. Another 3 days past and again Toad had an accident on his way to work everyday.

Mole, although being a little shy and retiring, reiterated his view that Toad was a shit driver. Toad asked 'Oh ....has there ever been such a driver as Mr Toad?' 'Never' Toad replied to himself. At this point Flying jumped in to the argument and said 'echo, echo....Molely' dont you know that the weasels have been driving Toad off the road everyday. At which point 'Midas' turned up and nestled on a tree. He turned his head 180 degrees, stared at Toad who was still lying in the ditch and said 'Ground Hog Day.'

As Mole scurried back to his home, he pondered on Flying and Midas's comments. He knew his eyesight wasnt that good and he even had trouble hearing. However something still told him that Toad was still a crap driver who would be better off playing tennis.

and where do they get to talking about " mark to fantasy " ?

[midas]

Everyone is jumping on every bad figure - I think Midas has even convinced himself there wasn't even any recovery. However, it is interesting that no credible economist is actually 'forecasting' a double dip.?????????????? The bears - Krugman, Roubini etc are talking about 'risks' to recovery.

Actually Abrak there is no reason for you to sound so surprised that someone could possibly think this way ?

I say this because you will find even the National Bureau of Economic Research ( whose President is James Poterba - Mitsui Professor of Economics at M.I.T. ) like me also don’t believe the Great Recession that started in 2007 has ever ended ?

http://www.nber.org/

[Godders]

I think it is great, don't you, that you can buy a magazine for tits and bums and get politics and economics as an add on? Well done, Hustler! What a wake up call for the one handed somnambulists among us. Of course the real tits and bums are the pathetic puppets propelled to power by the bankers responsible for creating the latest economic crisis - and all the others over the last century or so. It is, after all, how they get their hands on even more of our money.

Maybe, just maybe, their latest creation has turned into a Frankenstein they can't control and that it will destroy them. But I doubt it. Everything we see happening today is evidence that the Elite's grip on the globe is tightening and that it won't be long before the great unwashed (as a royal member of the Bilderberg group apparently calls us)will find ourselves in a real-life version of Huxley's Brave New World.

Already, thanks to new legislation introduced as part of the war on terror (sic) an American citizen can be arrested, held indefinitely without trial and tortured to obtain information that he doesn't happen to have. In the equally paranoid UK these days, you can't take a dump in a public toilet without a hidden video camera catching you in the act.

Most Forum members reading this will probably write me off as just another wacky conspiracy theorist (in the same way that anyone in the scores of US/UK/UN occupied countries opposes the invading forces is labelled a terrorist). Well, I suppose it is easier than finding out about something that may make you uncomfortable. Or worried. Or absolutely petrified.

You don't actually have to take any notice or do anything. As a neighbour I was talking to the other day put it: "When people start talking politics, I just turn the telly up louder". He had never heard of the entities like Elite, the Bilderberg Group, or the proposed New World Order they and their political lackeys are working towards. He probably had no idea that the US Government has been in hock to a privately owned bank called the Federal Reserve since 1933 and that unelected officials in effect decide US fiscal policy and rake in interest on every dollar printed. And he probably doesn't know or care that banks on both sides of the Atlantic have been given virtually a blank cheque to carry on playing roulette with our money and snap up bargains from the scrapheap of businesses they killed by pulling the credit plug.

Of course, you don't have to be a dummy in the dark, waiting for Hustler to give you the financial chills with your thrills. There's plenty of information out there on how the world is really run - and who runs it - from far more reputable and reliable sources than a porno mag.

Couch potatoes can get up to speed from the comfort of their armchairs by using the internet to download articles, information and videos starring alternative media gurus such as Gerald Celente, Webster Tarpley, John Pilger, David Icke and Alex Jones.

Everybody who welcomed US President Obama as a Messiah destined to change the world for the better should watch Obama - The Deception by Alex Jones. It portrays the US President, shockingly, as the most powerful puppet of the international bankers and their cohorts - and warns that time is running out to scupper their plans for a world government takeover. I found it as gripping as any blockbuster movie.

The alternative thinkers attack the authorised view of a whole host of controversial events, ranging from the Kennedy assassination and the bombing of the World Trade Centre to the phenomenon of global warming and the Gulf oil disaster. Many of these events, it seems, have surprising and sinister links to one another.

Whether you agree with their views or not, the dissenters are surely worth a hearing. Recent events show all to clearly that anybody who believes that what you don't know can't hurt you is living in a fool's paradise.

[badge]

<BR>Once upon a time, Toad (of Toad Hall) was driving his car to work. 'Poop, poop' he said, shortly before driving his car into a ditch. The next day the same thing happened again. 'I am really worried about Toad' said Mole.<BR><BR>The next 2 days he drove the car and each day before he got to work Toad had an accident. Mole pronounced that Toad was a lousy driver and Toad said 'Poop, poop'. Another 3 days past and again Toad had an accident on his way to work everyday.<BR><BR>Mole, although being a little shy and retiring, reiterated his view that Toad was a shit driver. Toad asked 'Oh ....has there ever been such a driver as Mr Toad?' 'Never' Toad replied to himself. At this point Flying jumped in to the argument and said 'echo, echo....Molely' dont you know that the weasels have been driving Toad off the road everyday. At which point 'Midas' turned up and nestled on a tree. He turned his head 180 degrees, stared at Toad who was still lying in the ditch and said 'Ground Hog Day.'<BR><BR>As Mole scurried back to his home, he pondered on Flying and Midas's comments. He knew his eyesight wasnt that good and he even had trouble hearing. However something still told him that Toad was still a crap driver who would be better off playing tennis.<BR>

<BR><BR><BR>I'll have a pint of what he's drinking please <BR>