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The primary functions of the Office of Inspector General are to
1) perform audits of Commission operations, programs, activities, functions, and organizations, and
2) conduct investigations of alleged staff (and contractor) misconduct.
The Office accepts written or oral complaints, as well as anonymous allegations, although investigations are usually most effective if the complainant can provide specific information or documents upon request. The Office is also interested in receiving suggestions for possible improvements to the SEC's programs and operations.
You may send information about possible staff or contractor misconduct, or suggestions for improvements, to this mailbox. If you are comfortable in doing so, we ask that you provide your name, postal address, e-mail address, and a daytime telephone number where you can be reached easily. Remember that your e-mail is not confidential and others may intercept and read your e-mail. If you do not wish to send information to us via e-mail, you may telephone us at (202) 942-4460, FAX us at (202) 942-9653, or write to the following address:
Office of Inspector General
Securities and Exchange Commission
450 5th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20549-1107
oig@sec.gov
This mailbox may be used to contact the SEC's Office of Inspector General. This mailbox should not be used to report possible violations of the federal securities laws by persons outside the SEC (see Enforcement Complaint Center) or to make a complaint about your broker or an unfair sales practice (contact the Commission's Office of Investor Education and Assistance at 202-942-7040 or by e-mail at help@sec.gov.)
That system makes the old Soviet Union look democratic and dissident-friendly. Of those 13,000-plus commentators, the only ones opposing reforms are corporate beneficiaries of the current system, supported by their lawyers, lobbyists, and other paid agents.
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=2728602
The Colorado Supreme Court Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel is authorized to investigate allegations of misconduct by:
1. Colorado Licensed Attorneys,
2. Colorado Magistrates,
3. Colorado Licensed Attorneys Serving as Municipal Court Judges,
4. Allegations of the Unauthorized Practice of Law,
5. Matters Related to an Applicant for Admission to the Colorado Bar, and
6. Matters Related to the Colorado Attorneys' Fund For Client Protection.
To file a complaint related to any of the above topics, you may contact the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel by calling (303) 893-8121, or toll free 1-877-888-1370. Please do not file a complaint in writing before contacting the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel by telephone. You will be informed if written information is helpful in evaluating your complaint. When you call the office regarding a complaint, you will be connected to the central intake division. A non-lawyer, support-staff person in the central intake division will initially question you regarding your allegations. The support-staff person may not provide legal advice or render an opinion regarding your complaint. Rather, your complaint will be assigned for investigation by an attorney in the central intake division. All of the attorneys working within the central intake division have extensive experience in the practice of law. Either the assigned attorney or a non-lawyer investigator will contact you regarding your complaint as soon as possible. Because of the number of complaints filed with the office, a delay of several days is possible. It is important to understand that Attorney Regulation Counsel cannot review a judicial decision made by a magistrate or judge. Additionally, the attorney assigned to your complaint does not represent you and cannot assist you in your legal matter. The jurisdiction of Regulation Counsel is limited to enforcement of the Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct.
When filing a complaint please have the following information available:
Your full name, address and phone number.
Attorney's full name, registration number, address, lawfirm, and phone number.
(For assistance with this information click here.)
Date of occurance and date of your awareness.
Court location and case numbers (if you have a court case).
When filing a complaint please be aware that:
This office will NOT accept anonymous complaints.
The attorney in question can NOT retaliate against you.
Your grievance will require approximately 20 minutes to file.
The average processing time for complaints is 10 days to 2 weeks.
http://www.coloradosupremecourt.com/Regulation/Complaints.htm
Colorado Supreme Court -Attorney Regulation Counsel
Attorneys Must Meet High Professional Standards
Becoming a licensed attorney requires many years of difficult studies and successful completion of a grueling state-administered bar exam. The Colorado Supreme Court has established high standards of ethics for attorneys. The standards are contained in the Court rules and the Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct (Volume 12 Colorado Revised Statutes Chapter 20 and the Appendix to Chapters 18-20).
The Court has also established procedures regarding the investigation of alleged unethical conduct. The procedures are designed to provide a thorough and objective review of the attorney's conduct, and to resolve the matter in a way that is fair to the complainant and to the attorney.
To administer the procedures, the Colorado Supreme Court has appointed an Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel; a nine-member Attorney Regulation Committee, composed of both attorneys and lay persons; and an Office of the Presiding Disciplinary Judge. (No tax dollars are used to fund the attorney regulation process.)
Ethics and Discipline
When attorneys enter the practice of law, they take an oath to uphold the law and to follow the standards of ethics established by the Colorado Supreme Court. An attorney who violates the law and/or those standards is subject to discipline. In cases involving minor misconduct, an attorney may be admonished, censured, or placed in a diversion program. In serious matters, attorneys face suspension of their license to practice law or disbarment.
The Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel receives many requests for investigation regarding conduct that does not constitute a violation of the standards of ethics. For example, attorneys who have honest disagreements with their clients about how a case should be handled - or should have been handled have not engaged in ethical misconduct. Similarly, an error in judgment is not necessarily unethical conduct. Attorneys, like everyone else, make mistakes. Only if the mistake constitutes gross negligence will it be a cause for discipline.
Except for unusual circumstances, a disagreement over legal fees is not evidence of misconduct. Persons having fee disputes will usually be referred to a voluntary committee of the Colorado Bar Association that arbitrates fee disputes. The CBA committee will attempt to help the parties reach a fair settlement of the problem.
Finally, there are situations which a client may find most annoying, but which do not constitute unethical conduct. An example would be the attorney's failure to explain fully what is going to happen in the client's case, or the attorney's failure to respond to each of the client's telephone calls. Nonetheless, the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel is anxious to see that attorneys avoid these situations. The office will suggest steps that attorneys can take to prevent the recurrence of communication problems.
http://www.coloradosupremecourt.com/Regulation/Regulation.asp
That I can agree with. Todays politics is more likened to mass media brainwashing (used to be called propaganda but that word is politically incorrect) or what the pundits like to call "platforms".
All platforms are full of shit, but one parties crap is another parties fertilizer. May they all be fruitful and multiply.
GAG
What Is Pyrolysis?
Pyrolysis chemically decomposes organic materials by heat in the absence of oxygen. Pyrolysis typically occurs under pressure and at operating temperatures above 430 °C (800 °F). In practice, it is not possible to achieve a completely oxygen-free atmosphere. Because some oxygen is present in any pyrolysis system, a small amount of oxidation occurs. If volatile or semi-volatile materials are present in the waste, thermal desorption will also occur.
Organic materials are transformed into gases, small quantities of liquid, and a solid residue containing carbon and ash. The off-gases may also be treated in a secondary thermal oxidation unit. Particulate removal equipment is also required. Several types of pyrolysis units are available, including the rotary kiln, rotary hearth furnace, or fluidized bed furnace. These units are similar to incinerators except that they operate at lower temperatures and with less air supply.
Both pyrolysis and gasification turn wastes into energy rich fuels by heating the waste under controlled conditions. In contrast to incineration, which fully converts the input waste into energy and ash, these processes deliberately limit the conversion so that combustion does not take place directly. Instead, they convert the waste into valuable intermediates that can be further processed for materials recycling or energy recovery i.e. syngas, oils and char.
Pyrolysis is the thermal degradation of waste in the absence of air to produce carbon, pyrolysis oil and synthetic gas.
What is Gasification?
Gasification is a process that uses heat, pressure, and steam to convert materials directly into a gas composed primarily of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Gasification technologies differ in many aspects but rely on four key engineering factors:
• Gasification reactor atmosphere (level of oxygen or air content).
• Reactor design.
• Internal and external heating.
• Operating temperature.
Typical raw materials used in gasification are coal, petroleum-based materials, and organic materials. The feedstock is prepared and fed, in either dry or slurried form, into a sealed reactor chamber called a gasifier. The feedstock is subjected to high heat, pressure, and either an oxygen-rich or oxygen-starved environment within the gasifier. Most commercial gasification technologies do not use oxygen. All require an energy source to generate heat and begin processing.
There are three primary products from gasification:
Hydrocarbon gases (also called syngas).
Hydrocarbon liquids (oils).
Char (carbon black and ash).
Syngas is primarily carbon monoxide and hydrogen (more than 85 percent by volume) and smaller quantities of carbon dioxide and methane. Syngas can be used as a fuel to generate electricity or steam, or as a basic chemical building block for a multitude of uses. When mixed with air, syngas can be used in gasoline or diesel engines with few modifications to the engine.
http://www.koueiinternational.com/pyrolysis.htm
Lies, Half-Truths, and Hubris
Corporate insiders are spouting lies, half-truths, and hubris to prevent investors from getting a whiff of fairer elections for boards of directors. You can help the SEC make the right choice with an email by Wednesday.
By Eliot Cohen
March 29, 2004
A Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposal to allow investor nominees for boards of the directors on the proxy ballot has set off alarms in the normally somnolent realm of corporate governance. The SEC has already received a record 13,000-plus comments on its proposal. Commissioners have extended the commentary period until March 31, so you can still be heard with an email to the SEC.
Before discussing specifics of the proposal and why Foolish investors should support it, consider the election system that opponents of reform are struggling to preserve.
Incumbent board members control the nominating process. Generally, they think they do a great job so they re-nominate themselves. For vacancies, they invite their pals. The company ballot (printed and mailed at shareholder expense) offers just one candidate per available position. Although investors can accept or reject those candidates, even if 99.99% of shares withhold authority from a nominee, 0.01% affirmative means election.
Investors can nominate their own candidates but those nominees won't appear on the official company ballot. Challengers have to pay for a separate ballot and distribute it to all voters at a huge expense, in accordance with rules established by the incumbents, who are free to sue opponents, again, using shareholder money. Failure to follow those rules to the letter automatically grants all uncast votes to the company's candidates.
That system makes the old Soviet Union look democratic and dissident-friendly. Of those 13,000-plus commentators, the only ones opposing reforms are corporate beneficiaries of the current system, supported by their lawyers, lobbyists, and other paid agents.
The SEC's proposed reforms aren't fruits of glasnost, but a response to the string of corporate scandals that keep coming. At the heart of the outrages at Enron (OTC: ENRNQ), Tyco (NYSE: TYC), WorldCom cum MCI (OTC: WCOEQ), Adelphia (OTC: ADELQ), and others that vaporized billions in shareholder equity, a board of directors neglected its legally mandated fiduciary duty to protect the interests of investors.
Many directors don't take that duty seriously due to their Soviet-style selection. Examine the process for a significant role for investors. You won't find one. That means shareholders can't hold directors accountable.
Since fellow directors rather than shareholders determine who stays on the board -- collecting fat fees and stock-option grants for a few days work a year -- there's a real incentive to make nice with board colleagues, particularly the members of management directors are supposed to be supervising. That reality also undermines director independence rules recently issued by the stock exchanges; even directors that start out truly independent don't stay that way for long. Bottom line: What's a $6,000 shower curtain among pals?
If adopted, the SEC proposal would barely change this rotten system. Investors representing 5% or more of company shares would be able to place one or two director candidates on the company proxy ballot sent to all shareholders alongside management's nominees, but only one year after some "triggering event" such as a 35% withhold vote for a director or the board's failure to act on a shareholder resolution that received majority support.
The rule's conditions and limits are nonsense, but its adoption would help establish two important rights: investor access to the proxy ballot and a meaningful shareholder role in the voting. This rule would bring the proverbial camel's nose into the boardroom toward a system that gives shareholders a real voice and choice in selecting directors to oversee the corporations they own.
Corporate insiders recognize the danger, and a who's who of anti-investor interests have lined up to oppose the reform. You can see chapter and verse in the public comments to the SEC and the transcript of a March 10 SEC Roundtable on the issue. Their arguments, many recycled from the battle against Sarbanes-Oxley accounting reforms, would be amusing if the issue wasn't so important.
The argument that perhaps best illustrates the mix of half-truths, lies, and hubris investors still get from corporate insiders is the assertion that this rule would allow "special interests masquerading as shareholder interests" (in the words of U.S. Chamber Commerce head Thomas J. Donohue) a place on the board.
That's nonsense because:
The current system already serves a single special interest exclusively -- that of incumbent directors. Insiders don't have a problem with that because they're sure they know what's best for shareholders.
If shareholders legitimately elect a director, then that director doesn't represent a "special interest" but the owners of the company. One CEO whined that putting an investor nominee on the ballot would be like one country invading a neighbor if they disagree. It's more like a homeowner knocking on her door to ask the butler for a look around. Insiders keep forgetting they work for investors instead of the other way around. Some insiders at the SEC Roundtable even argued, "Corporations are not in business to listen shareholders."
The SEC rule would simply allow investors to nominate a director on equal terms with management's choices; the rule wouldn't grant them an automatic seat. But corporate insiders have trouble envisioning a system where nomination is not tantamount to election (i.e., one where shareholder votes matter). Insiders contend that fair, honest elections for directors would prevent corporations from functioning. We use elections to choose our political leaders to make life and death decisions, but that system is too risky for corporations.
Whenever investors complain about company practices, insiders offer a simple solution: sell. That not only evades the question, but it's not a practical solution. First, for any number of reasons the investor may not want to sell -- from unwelcome tax consequences to having bought in order to remedy the situation prompting the complaint (such as trying to eliminate a conflict of interest in management or change the composition of the board).
Most importantly, as index investing increasingly becomes part of the landscape, shareholders don't have the luxury of choosing to invest only in companies practicing good corporate governance. They need to insist on better regulation that will force all companies to improve their practices. It takes a lot of chutzpah for Peter Wallison of the American Enterprise Institute to try to excuse bad corporate practices by telling investors, "But of course, you buy an index fund in part for the diversification. You take the good with the bad."
Alternatively, anti-reformers offer several riffs on the "we already get it" theme. Steve Odland, CEO of AutoZone (NYSE: AZO), recounts preaching the gospel of good governance since arriving at the car parts retailer three years ago, and how carefully he and his peers work to listen to shareholders. Like the overwhelming majority of his CEO peers, Odland also serves as chairman of the board at AutoZone. In other words, Chairman Odland supervises CEO Odland.
Even in this supposedly enlightened age, management's board nominees on the latest proxies I received from Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) or Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT) included managers past and present, longtime directors who -- unlike investors -- have never risked a dime of their own money in the company, and so-called independent directors with longstanding connections to other officers. There wasn't a single one I could support in good conscience. Insiders might claim otherwise, but these problems aren't fixed (Sabranes-Oxley addresses accounting, not accountability), and it's not just a few bad apples.
Consider recent events at Disney (NYSE: DIS). The real shame isn't that 43% of shares withheld authority from Michael Eisner and embarrassed him into stepping down as chairman; it's that the board bounced Roy Disney after he voiced opposition to Eisner.
Similarly, after Walter Hewlett led the fight against Hewlett-Packard's (NYSE: HPQ) merger with Compaq and won support from just under half the shareholders (no other director had demonstrated that level of investor support), he wasn't nominated for another term.
Put simply, too many corporate insiders profess to welcome sharp-elbowed competition in the marketplace, but think board members should simply nod and agree with whatever the leaders say. Just like it was on the Politburo. Tell the SEC to tear down that wall.
Email the SEC your opinion and join the discussion about the proposal on our News & Commentary board.
Eliot Cohen is managing director of 8 1/2 Global Communications in Hong Kong, and a contributor to publications on three continents; the sun never sets on this native New Yorker's fight for investor rights. He owns shares in Applied Materials and Oracle. You can reach him via email.
http://www.fool.com/news/commentary/2004/commentary040329ec.htm?ref=btp
GBMI Announces Corporate Update
Tuesday March 16, 11:14 am ET
LONGWOOD, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 16, 2004--Global Business Markets, Inc. (OTCBB:GBMI - News) today announced that the Company has initiated due diligence efforts to locate and secure the funding that will enable the Company to move forward with its business plan.
The Company is putting forth efforts to identify and form a working relationship with a firm that specializes in providing financial advisory services to publicly traded companies. Such a firm will assist the Company in efforts to raise capital for the Company. The Company is seeking to secure equity financing to provide the Company with the capital required to fund the Company's growth strategies.
Edward Miers, President/CEO of Global Business Markets, Inc., stated, "I am very pleased that the Company is making progress in its due diligence efforts to locate potential equity financing opportunities. This is one additional important step toward achieving the business development goals of the Company."
World Market Share Reporter stated that the United States ranks as the largest musical products market with a size of an estimated $6.7 billion (source Music Trades, December 2000). Additionally, U.S. Market Trends and Forecasts reported, "The compound annual growth rate of the USA musical instruments market over the period 2000-2005 is predicted to be 5.3%."
Global Business Markets, Inc. wishes to capitalize upon the size of the musical products industry and the projected growth rates for the industry. The Company believes that it can design, develop and produce a quality line of custom handmade and mass-produced electric and acoustic guitars, amplifiers and accessories to capture a portion of the sizeable musical products marketplace.
About Global Business Markets, Inc.
Global Business Markets, Inc. is a development stage company focusing on design and manufacture of custom handmade and mass-produced electric and acoustic guitars, amplifiers and accessories. For more information, please contact Edward Miers, Chief Executive Officer, 3859 Wekiva Springs Road, Suite 302, Longwood, Florida 32779, phone 260-312-6789.
This press release contains certain "forward-looking" statements, as defined in the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Statements, which are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements. The Company, through its management, makes forward-looking public statements concerning its expected future operations, performance and other developments. Such forward-looking statements are necessarily estimates reflecting the Company's best judgment based upon current information and involve a number of risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that other factors will not affect the accuracy of such forward-looking statements. It is impossible to identify all such factors, factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those estimated by the Company. They include, but are not limited to, the Company's ability to develop operations, the Company's ability to consummate and complete joint venture relationships, the Company's access to future capital, the Company's ability to consummate and complete acquisitions, the successful integration of acquired companies, government regulation, managing and maintaining growth, the effect of adverse publicity, litigation, competition and other factors that may be identified from time to time in the Company's public announcements.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact:
Global Business Markets, Inc., Longwood
Edward Miers, 260-312-6789
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Global Business Markets, Inc.
I disagree, the point of politics should be to promote liberty, not fear and chaos. As for carrying big sticks around, should I go out and get my nuclear weapons activated under the right to bear arms and aim them at the current administrations' heads to make sure they get my points of argument on some religious, economic or political grounds?
Your opinions are not truth but because of your own perception that you are correct, it therefore makes your statements true according to your opinion.
The Identity Theory of Truth
The simplest and most general statement of the identity theory of truth is that when a truth-bearer (e.g., a proposition) is true, there is a truth-maker (e.g., a fact) with which it is identical and the truth of the former consists in its identity with the latter. The theory is best understood by contrast with a rival such as the correspondence theory, according to which the relation of truth-bearer to truth-maker is correspondence rather than identity.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/truth-identity/
On the other hand, my statement that politics should be to promote liberty is deflationary.
The Deflationary Theory of Truth
According to the deflationary theory of truth, to assert that a statement is true is just to assert the statement itself. For example, to say that ‘snow is white’ is true, or that it is true that snow is white, is equivalent to saying simply that snow is white, and this, according to the deflationary theory, is all that can be said significantly about the truth of ‘snow is white’.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/truth-deflationary/
The entire purpose of politics can be complicated by contradictory philosophies as argued Plato and Artistotle.
http://www.essaycrawler.com/misc/24424.shtml
The correspondence theory of truth is often associated with metaphysical realism. Its traditional competitors, coherentist, pragmatist, and verificationist theories of truth, are often associated with idealism, anti-realism, or relativism. In recent years, the traditional competitors have been virtually replaced (at least from publication-space) by deflationary theories of truth -- and to a lesser extent by the identity theory -- which now lead the attack against correspondence theories.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/truth-correspondence/
A search for the Purpose of Politics will lead you directly into the labyrnthe of 8.6 million lies:
http://search.msn.com/pass/results.asp?RS=CHECKED&FORM=MSNH&v=1&q=&q=Purpose+of+Poli...
The Deflationary Theory of Truth
According to the deflationary theory of truth, to assert that a statement is true is just to assert the statement itself. For example, to say that ‘snow is white’ is true, or that it is true that snow is white, is equivalent to saying simply that snow is white, and this, according to the deflationary theory, is all that can be said significantly about the truth of ‘snow is white’.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/truth-identity/
As without so within, as within so without. My internal strife is the reflection of the outer world. I will have no peace until there is peace in the whole world and all such peace, forever wished for by the most good willed of men have come to naught.
Why should I believe that the world will change any time soon? I have been asked to leave God out of my posts, but then if I did that I would be dead, for if God does not communicate through all of us, then these posts would not be possible. The rants were quite theraputic. Should I dare find more disgusting subjects to post here I would be banned again.
GAG
"Can anyone who shares Jesus' DNA file a suit against Rome and Isreal for his crucifixion? 16,000 holocaust victims recently were sent checks for $1,000 each. Next thing you know the lawyers will be suing God for creating the world and everyone in it and asking for infinite damages."
GAG-
No, why don't you post it. EM
"Constitutions are nothing more than lip service to the populace paid by the monied interests. Without the will of the people, any constitution is meaningless. The military leaders of the world have seemed to lose sight of this simple truth, laws made without the will and agreement of the people become unenforcable."
GAG
Lest we not deceive ourselves into thinking that in this modern day and age we live in an ideal republic, for it can be agreed by the simple majority that the sovereignty of the individual has been usurped by the castrators of liberty.
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=2710417
Can they change the world?
JAMES HALL
FOREIGN EDITOR
THEY were among the most powerful people in the world, men and women who waged wars, made peace and managed to solve apparently intractable political crises.
Now a group of former prime ministers, presidents, foreign secretaries and diplomats have joined forces to create the ultimate think tank to advise struggling governments.
Set up by FW de Klerk, the former president of South Africa, and supported by George Bush senior and Nelson Mandela, the Global Leadership Foundation (GLF) was to meet for the first time today at Chevening, the official country residence of the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw.
The organisation’s list of advisers reads like a who’s who of international politics and includes the former Czech president Vaclav Havel, the former Portuguese prime minister Anibal Cavaco Silva, the former foreign secretary Lord Hurd and the former Botswanan president Ketumile Masire.
Its patrons include Mr Bush, Mr Mandela, the former Polish Solidarity leader Lech Walesa and the former West German chancellor Helmut Schmidt.
But, in contrast to high-profile mediators and advisers, such as the former United States president Jimmy Carter and the international financier George Soros, the foundation hopes to operate behind the scenes. Many of the members’ names have not even been made public.
The diplomatic brain bank will be a one-stop shop for emerging but troubled democracies.
"Our aim is to support democratisation, to support leaders by helping them through confidential and quiet advice, to adopt well-balanced economic policies ... to help defuse threatening conflicts," Mr de Klerk said.
"We will be issue-driven. We will be focusing on a particular issue in a particular country where, if the right decision is taken, it will open the door to solutions."
The man who freed Mr Mandela in 1990 and four years later saw his former prisoner elected president, said
the GLF’s small secretariat, led by a former British career diplomat, John Shepherd, has a list of ten potential target countries but declined to list them, other than to say Zimbabwe was not among them.
"Zimbabwe is an example where we won’t get involved. We won’t advise dictators who are only interested in continuing to be dictators. We won’t advise megalomaniacs and strengthen their hands to be successful megalomaniacs," he said.
Lord Hurd said: "I don’t know if it will be a success but it’s worth a try. When I saw the list [of members], I was rather encouraged. I think we could be very helpful."
He noted two kinds of problems with which the foundation could help. "The first is internal problems. If people have political problems inside a country … sometimes it is useful to have people who have dealt with similar problems in other countries.
"The second is disputes between countries where they don’t want to go to the Security Council or have a public argument but may want private help to sort it out."
The foundation boasts senior figures from almost every corner of the globe. The former Indian prime minister IK Gujral is on board, as is Mike Moore, the New Zealand premier who went on to run the World Trade Organisation.
It is also rumoured that Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan and Michel Rocard, a former French prime minister, have joined. The United Nations’ secretary general, Kofi Annan, knows of the group’s existence and appears to have no objection.
Although the foundation is non profit-making, governments will have to pay for the foundation’s services to cover costs.
Peter Hinchcliffe, a former British ambassador to Jordan and Kuwait and now an honorary lecturer on Middle East politics at the University of Edinburgh, said he was not sure governments will want to pay for the advice.
"The people mentioned certainly have a wealth of expertise there. Whether governments will pay them or not is a different matter."
He added: "It is reinventing the wheel in a way. It’s been done before and most of these groups meet once or twice and disappear without trace."
But he said it was worth trying.
"It can do no harm if people are prepared to listen to those great minds, it could do some good."
That thinking feeling
THE Global Leadership Foundation is the latest international think tank to draw on the expertise of world leaders.
The former United States president Jimmy Carter founded an Atlanta-based think tank with his wife, Rosalynn, in 1982. The Carter Centre promotes human rights and conflict resolution across the world.
Bill Clinton followed Mr Carter’s lead after he left office, setting up the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation, a think tank and action centre for foreign policy, conflict resolution and policy research.
George Soros, one of the world’s richest men, has given billions through his international network of Soros Foundations, held together by the Open Society Institute - set up to promote open societies by shaping government policy and supporting education, media, public health and human and women’s rights as well as social, legal and economic reform.
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=352812004
Can they change the world?
JAMES HALL
FOREIGN EDITOR
THEY were among the most powerful people in the world, men and women who waged wars, made peace and managed to solve apparently intractable political crises.
Now a group of former prime ministers, presidents, foreign secretaries and diplomats have joined forces to create the ultimate think tank to advise struggling governments.
Set up by FW de Klerk, the former president of South Africa, and supported by George Bush senior and Nelson Mandela, the Global Leadership Foundation (GLF) was to meet for the first time today at Chevening, the official country residence of the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw.
The organisation’s list of advisers reads like a who’s who of international politics and includes the former Czech president Vaclav Havel, the former Portuguese prime minister Anibal Cavaco Silva, the former foreign secretary Lord Hurd and the former Botswanan president Ketumile Masire.
Its patrons include Mr Bush, Mr Mandela, the former Polish Solidarity leader Lech Walesa and the former West German chancellor Helmut Schmidt.
But, in contrast to high-profile mediators and advisers, such as the former United States president Jimmy Carter and the international financier George Soros, the foundation hopes to operate behind the scenes. Many of the members’ names have not even been made public.
The diplomatic brain bank will be a one-stop shop for emerging but troubled democracies.
"Our aim is to support democratisation, to support leaders by helping them through confidential and quiet advice, to adopt well-balanced economic policies ... to help defuse threatening conflicts," Mr de Klerk said.
"We will be issue-driven. We will be focusing on a particular issue in a particular country where, if the right decision is taken, it will open the door to solutions."
The man who freed Mr Mandela in 1990 and four years later saw his former prisoner elected president, said
the GLF’s small secretariat, led by a former British career diplomat, John Shepherd, has a list of ten potential target countries but declined to list them, other than to say Zimbabwe was not among them.
"Zimbabwe is an example where we won’t get involved. We won’t advise dictators who are only interested in continuing to be dictators. We won’t advise megalomaniacs and strengthen their hands to be successful megalomaniacs," he said.
Lord Hurd said: "I don’t know if it will be a success but it’s worth a try. When I saw the list [of members], I was rather encouraged. I think we could be very helpful."
He noted two kinds of problems with which the foundation could help. "The first is internal problems. If people have political problems inside a country … sometimes it is useful to have people who have dealt with similar problems in other countries.
"The second is disputes between countries where they don’t want to go to the Security Council or have a public argument but may want private help to sort it out."
The foundation boasts senior figures from almost every corner of the globe. The former Indian prime minister IK Gujral is on board, as is Mike Moore, the New Zealand premier who went on to run the World Trade Organisation.
It is also rumoured that Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan and Michel Rocard, a former French prime minister, have joined. The United Nations’ secretary general, Kofi Annan, knows of the group’s existence and appears to have no objection.
Although the foundation is non profit-making, governments will have to pay for the foundation’s services to cover costs.
Peter Hinchcliffe, a former British ambassador to Jordan and Kuwait and now an honorary lecturer on Middle East politics at the University of Edinburgh, said he was not sure governments will want to pay for the advice.
"The people mentioned certainly have a wealth of expertise there. Whether governments will pay them or not is a different matter."
He added: "It is reinventing the wheel in a way. It’s been done before and most of these groups meet once or twice and disappear without trace."
But he said it was worth trying.
"It can do no harm if people are prepared to listen to those great minds, it could do some good."
That thinking feeling
THE Global Leadership Foundation is the latest international think tank to draw on the expertise of world leaders.
The former United States president Jimmy Carter founded an Atlanta-based think tank with his wife, Rosalynn, in 1982. The Carter Centre promotes human rights and conflict resolution across the world.
Bill Clinton followed Mr Carter’s lead after he left office, setting up the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation, a think tank and action centre for foreign policy, conflict resolution and policy research.
George Soros, one of the world’s richest men, has given billions through his international network of Soros Foundations, held together by the Open Society Institute - set up to promote open societies by shaping government policy and supporting education, media, public health and human and women’s rights as well as social, legal and economic reform.
godddame military intelligence judicial jurispricks at work:
BETRAYAL!
FEDERAL JUDGE “FLIP-FLOPS” ON FORCED
ANTHRAX SHOTS – NOW SAYS ONLY THE SIX
PLANTIFFS IN LANDMARK SUIT ARE
COVERED – ALL OTHER U.S. MILITARY
CAN BE GUINEA-PIGGED AT WILL – WHO
GOT TO THE JUDGE? TOTAL REVERSAL
OF LOGIC – OUTRAGED READERS DECRY
BETRAYAL – “WE WILL CONTINUE THE
FIGHT,” SAYS LAWYER MARK ZAID
In a stunning reversal of a ruling he handed down just two weeks ago, a federal judge on Jan. 7 gave the government the “green light” to resume forced anthrax shots on this nation’s armed forces.
Last Dec. 22, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan decried the Pentagon’s demand that the “experimental” so-called anthrax “vaccine” be administered to all members of the military, on pain of court-martial or dismissal from the service.
Several thousand service-members have bravely refused the shots and suffered punishment, ranging from dishonorable discharge to prison terms, after declining to risk their health and that of family members. Others have died or been crippled for life after suffering severe reactions from the mandatory inoculations.
http://www.militarycorruption.com/anthrax-betrayal.htm
Is this any fucking way to win a war?
http://www.militarycorruption.com/greed.htm
Better order the fucking military to revolt and turn their guns on this fucking fucked up government NOW! Shoot the fucking jursipricking judges first and hang the rest by their balls from the rafters of the pentagon until their eyes turn red.
http://www.militarycorruption.com/heemstra.htm
Stupid mother fucking idiots...
This bitch better get her chitter clocked and checked out...
even the frickin women in the military are going berserk...what the fuck?
“FAST-TRACK” FEMALE MASTER SGT
MP BUSTED FOR BRUTALITY IN IRAQ
KICKED POWS IN GROIN, STOMACH,
HEAD – REDUCED TO PRIVATE E-1 AND
GIVEN “OTH” DISCHARGE – ESCAPES
FEDERAL FELONY CONVICTION
It may be a cliché, but some of the “toughest women” in the U.S. Army are military police. Most choose that career-field because they enjoy it or plan to enter civilian law enforcement once their service hitch is up. But some – who are surly “man-haters” or have a hidden “agenda” – strap on a sidearm and baton to “get even” with members of the opposite sex.
This may have been the reason M/SGT Lisa Marie Girman of Hazelton, Pa., stomped Iraqi prisoners (and encouraged other MP’s to do likewise) at Camp Bucca in southern Iraq.
At least the bitch has been busted...un fucking believable!
http://www.militarycorruption.com/girman.htm
That lousy rotten clitcutting son of a bastard!
NAVY COMMANDER GETS 27 YEARS IN
SLAMMER FOR MOLESTING TEENAGE
GIRLS – ADMITS GUILT AND ASKS
WIFE FOR FORGIVENESS – COULD GET
OUT OF LEAVENWORTH IN 11 YEARS IF
CONVENING AUTHORITY APPROVES
His head bowed, tears streaming down his cheeks, Navy Commander Douglas L. Maddox begged his wife Heather’s forgiveness from the witness stand during his recent two-day court-martial in Capodichino, Italy.
The 44 year-old, last assigned as an assistant maintenance officer for Commander, Naval Surface Group Mediterranean, pleaded guilty to forcible sodomy, indecent acts, indecent liberties and the use of a controlled substance.
He was sentenced to 27 years imprisonment for sexually molesting two teenage girls, with the provision that if the convening authority, Commander, Fleet Air Mediterranean, approves the sentence, everything in excess of 11 years’ confinement will be suspended, contingent upon Maddox committing no further misconduct over the next three years.
Perverted mother flicker should be strangled by his own panties and nylons!
http://www.militarycorruption.com/maddox.htm
Its a fine line between a rant and a chat, but I hear that, no thanks to a splat I copy that jack.
Who the hell runs this ship anyway?
TRIAL DATE SET FOR ARMY MAJOR IN
KOREA CHARGED WITH MURDER OF
WIFE – SAID TO HAVE DUMPED NUDE
BODY, WRAPPED IN PLASTIC AND
BOUND WITH DUCT TAPE, OFF BRIDGE
NEAR INCHEON AIRPORT
It was the worst possible timing. Around 0430 hours, last August 12, MAJ Richard Hart is stopped his car in the middle of the Yongjong Bridge near Incheon International Airport.
A South Korean highway patrol happened upon the scene at that moment and witnessed the officer dumping something onto the marshy tidal plain below. That ”something” turned out to be Hart’s petite wife, Patricia, her nude and lifeless body wrapped in plastic and duct tape.
The Incheon cops observed Hart, 45, get back in his car and try to leave, but the vehicle stalled only a few yards away. The Army major was taken into custody and waived his rights, giving a verbal statement to a CID agent at the Korean police station.
If this happened on my watch and on my ship the man in charge would be hung from the highest rafters from the highest ceiling in the world! Goddam freaking military industrial frucking complex!
http://www.militarycorruption.com/hart.htm
This kinda chit really pisses me off to no frickin end!
DRUG-DEALING NAVY COMMANDER
SENTENCED TO FIVE YEARS IN PRISON
One of the highest-ranking military officers ever convicted on drug charges has been sentenced to five years in prison and a dishonorable discharge.
Navy Lt. Cmdr. Robert L. Loeh was convicted at general court-martial for conspiracy to possess and distribute the designer drug Ecstacy. The 19-year Navy veteran also pleaded guilty to charges of disobeying orders against fraternizing with enlisted personnel.
It was the type of "fraternization" that led to Loeh's downfall. Investigators were tipped off to Loeh's drug activities by a former homosexual "lover." When cops raided the 40-year old officer's condo May 31 last year, they took into custody two sailors who also face drug charges.
Petty Officers 3rd Class Dustin Larck and Matthew Lenhoff are scheduled for court-martial in the coming weeks.
Loeh had been maintenance officer on the aircraft carrier Constellation. One former enlisted man who worked with the convicted officer, said Loeh "was able to operate with impunity" on ship because the Constellation's top brass were "not concerned about" what a lieutenant commander was doing.
"Loeh was a real jerk and treated his men like they were slaves," the former first class petty officer told MilitaryCorruption.com. "He deserves whatever is coming to him."
Based on original charges of drug abuse, selling drugs, drunkenness, sexual assault and fraternization, Loeh could have received a maximum of 192 years imprisonment. In a plea bargain, charges of distribution of ketamine and LSD were dropped.
The Loeh case, a major embarrassment to the Navy, is one of the very few where field-grade or senior officers in the military have been convicted on drug charges. The highest-ranking officer on record to be court-martialed and convicted on such charges was Air Force Col. James V. Kehrli. In 1971, the highly-decorated pilot was busted in Vietnam after an airman told investigators the colonel asked him where to get some marijuana.
At the court-martial, held at Tan Son Nhut Air Base, Saigon, two other enlisted men testified they had smoked marijuana with Col. Kehrli.
Those stupid mother licking idiots, don't they know we are still fighting a goddamn war on drugs!
http://www.militarycorruption.com/drugs.htm
Dirty rotten louses of military intelligence!
OFFICER BUSTED IN DRUG CASE
FORMER NAVY PILOT CAUGHT TRYING
TO SMUGGLE “ECSTASY” ACROSS
BORDER FROM CANADA – FACES UP TO
FIVE YEARS IN PRISON
When Navy Lt. Alan Vaughn tried to drive across the United States-Canadian border at Blaine, Wash. the evening of Feb. 21, he hid a half-pound of powdered “Ecstacy” under his shirt.
But the authorities were ready for him. A tip had come in that Vaughn was smuggling illegal drugs in from Canada.
The former pilot, who flew P-3C Oriens out of the Naval Station at Whidbey Island, faces up to five years in prison when he’s sentenced June 4 in U.S. federal court.
http://www.militarycorruption.com/vaughan.htm
These drug addicted bastards are giving us former naval intelligence officers a bad name...sons a bitches... should be shot with their own guns.
ABC? No wonder Clark was a Lark:
CLARK “COVER-BOY” FOR GAY MAGAZINE
There is nothing the general wouldn’t do to pander for votes.
We don’t know if his good-looking, Hollywood screenwriter son set up the deal, but Clark appeared as a “cover boy” on the national gay magazine, The Advocate. And this was no pose in uniform with his medals. Wes tried to “ape” Marlon Brando, wearing a black jacket, open to a white tee-shirt. Maybe he set a few homosexual hearts aflutter, but his supporters in Oklahoma and the Bible Belt would have blanched to see their candidate in such a venue.
Most of the Clark campaign apparatus came from Clinton loyalists. What will Bill and Hillary do now to (1) set up a scenario where Hillary gets “drafted” at the convention; or (2) makes sure whoever the Democrat nominee is in Boston, he loses in November so the Hildabeast has a clear shot at the top prize in 2008?
At least she doesn’t have to worry about Al Gore. The loser of the 2000 presidential campaign has self-destructed with his “kiss-of-death” endorsement of Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont and his shrill denunciation of President Bush as a "traitor" at a recent Democratic fundraiser. Gore won’t even figure into 2008 thinking. He has become politically irrelevant and a national joke.
Gen. Clark was something of a cartoon character himself. On a recent CNN news program, he maintained he got in the race because “so many people” came to him and urged him to run. Probably a good number were sycophantic Army buddies who had benefited from sucking up to this little Napolean back when Wes almost got us into World War III.
FIRED AS NATO COMMANDER
In our earlier story, (see below), we quoted British Gen. Michael Jackson as rightly refusing Clark’s order to attack Russian troops moving on the Pristina airport in Kosovo. At the time, Clark was Supreme NATO Commander and Jackson leader of all ground forces in the region.
“I won’t start World War III for you, sir,” snorted the tough British commander. When word of Clark’s instability reached Washington, even Secretary of Defense Bill Cohen, managed to have the “moxie” to call Clark home early and “retire” him from the Army. No less than Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Army Chief of Staff, confirmed Clark had been “fired.” So we can all count ourselves lucky that the megalomaniac general has now left the political stage. Hopefully, for good.
MilitaryCorruption.com received national exposure and hundreds of congratulatory e-mails when we “dissected” the general in our “Loose Cannon” story one week before the Arizona Primary.
On the day we posted our investigative piece, the general was actually ahead in the polls here (albeit narrowly) according to KAET-TV and the Arizona State University Poll. One week later, on primary night in Arizona, Clark was drubbed badly, losing by a whopping 16% margin! And this was supposed to be one of his best states, after Oklahoma!
We thank the many veterans groups, active duty military at the three major bases here, the veterans, retirees and their families who circulated our article from Flagstaff to Yuma and turned “thumbs down” on a man clearly unsuitable for being anywhere near the nuclear button.
http://www.militarycorruption.com/wesleyclark3.htm
Freddie Mac Corporation
CASE INFORMATION
Summary: According to a Press Release dated June 19, 2003, the complaint was filed in Virginia federal court and alleges that Freddie Mac's securities were artificially inflated between April 18, 2000 and June 6, 2003 as a result of violations of the securities laws. During that time period, Freddie Mac's financial results were materially misstated due to its failure to properly classify hedges and assets with respect to derivative securities, and its use of 'cookie jar' accounting to create the impression that revenue and earnings were growing steadily. Moreover, Freddie Mac provided investigators with altered and misleading documents in order to conceal its improper accounting.
On June 6, 2003, Freddie Mac issued a press release, which confirmed that it would restate earnings and announced the termination of President and Chief Operating Officer, David Glenn, and the resignation of other senior officers of the company. Mr. Glenn was terminated because of 'serious questions as to the timeliness and completeness of his cooperation and candor with the Board's Audit Committee counsel.' The price of Freddie Mac common stock fell $9.61 per share to $50.26 following the announcement.
http://securities.stanford.edu/1028/FRE03-02/
Without the two monopolistic pillars in place supporting each other, real estate prices would collapse, and WAMU, Countrywide and the other top 100 mortgage banks in the country would also experience a severe liquidity crisis and stock price collapses.
Strategically, Soros and Buffet could be in the best position now to stop shorting the dollar and work the with Japanese to enter the Japanese market. Resona Holdings, the fifth largest bank in Japan is still in financial trouble despite help from Merrill and Goldman Sachs.
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan insisted that Freddie Mac and its larger sister Fannie Mae, major players in the multibillion-dollar home mortgage market, shouldn't be exempt from the public disclosure requirements that apply to nearly all other publicly traded companies. And leaders of the House Financial Services Committee called hearings into Freddie Mac's accounting troubles over the last three years.
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/business/6050848.htm
Japan, U.S. set military arrests protocol
TOKYO, March 28 (UPI) -- Japan and the United States have reportedly agreed to allow U.S. officials to be present during Japanese police questioning of U.S. military personnel.
The Kyodo news service Monday quoted diplomatic sources as saying senior working-level officials from the two countries reached a basic agreement last week as part of a U.S. Defense Department review of the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement governing the operation of U.S. troops in Japan.
U.S. officials were seeking to be allowed at Japanese police questioning of U.S. soldiers suspected of committing serious crimes in Japan such as murder and rape.
The agreement was apparently reached provided the U.S. presence was part of the "investigation side" and not as a representative of the suspect.
Unlike the U.S. justice system, criminal suspects in Japan are interrogated without the presence of lawyers. The U.S. wanted Japan to guarantee the protection of the suspects' rights. Human rights groups have raised concerns about the Japanese justice system.
Copyright 2004 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
The sun will never set on liberty...
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=2710452
Silence Is Golden - With Nations Financial Health at Stake
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=2710417
The collapse of the teetering Freddie Mac would cripple the nations mortgage market and cause the dollar to crumble.
http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Jun/06112003/business/64929.asp
Japan is the biggest overseas holder of Treasuries, with $577 billion as of the end of January.
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=2710226
Italian and Isreali Agents in the US Government?
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=2709848
Since it was removed from the No Lib Board the following is being reposted for no particular reason other than to open debate for those who might have some interest in history:
Items in bold are the words of thepennyking and are original:
Lest we not deceive ourselves into thinking that in this modern day and age we live in an ideal republic, for it can be agreed by the simple majority that the sovereignty of the individual has been usurped by the castrators of liberty.
I would beg to differ with Ganoposki on the origins of the Republic as well as the meaning of the 'fasces'.
THE FASCES An Icon representing the Strength and Power of Ancient Rome
The FASCES was a cylindrical bundle of elm or birch rods bound together by red bands, from which an ax head projected; and which was borne by Lictors (attendants and body guards) before a Consul or high Magistrate, as a symbol of their authority.
Stephen Phenow, Editor of the Strategikon, provides the following: "The Fasces was adopted from the Etruscans. It symbolized the power of life or death that a Roman Magistrate had over the Roman citizen; who could be scourged by the birch rods, representing physical punishment for transgressions; or be beheaded by the axe for serious crimes."
http://www.legionxxiv.org/fasces%20page/
Rather it appears that the birth of the Republic is a coalescing of the Iriquois political philosophy and that of ancient Roman and Greek traditional forms of government.
In fact, "In April of 1792, Philip M. Freneau's National Gazette in New York corrected a report that President George Washington was negotiating with Iroquois leaders that were "princes" saying that in reality the Iroquois "were republicans, rather than aristocrats or monarchy men."
http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/EoL/chp11.html
Every king hath his council, and that consists of all the
old and wise men of his nation. . . . [N]othing is under-
taken, be it war, peace, the selling of land or traffick,
without advising with them; and which is more, with the
young men also. . . . The kings . . . move by the breath
of their people. It is the Indian custom to deliberate. . . .
I have never seen more natural sagacity.
--William Penn to the
Society of Free Traders,
16 August 1683[1]
"Coming from societies based on hierarchy, early European explorers and settlers came to America seeking kings and queens and princes. What they sought they believed they had found, for a time. Quickly, they began to sense a difference: the people they were calling "kings" had few trappings that distinguished them from the people they "ruled," in most native societies. They only rarely sat at the top of a class hierarchy with the pomp of European rulers. More importantly, Indian "kings" usually did not rule. Rather, they led, by mechanisms of consensus and public opinion that Europeans often found admirable."
http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/EoL/chp1.html
I believe that it was Tecumseh who is paraphrased here:
One stick is easily broken by one man, while six sticks may take an army."
This may be attributed to the fact that he did study Roman history.
http://www.goodies.freeservers.com/tecumseh.html
But capitalism itself is an aberation.
Money is like an iron ring we've put through our noses. We've forgotten that we designed it, and it's now leading us around. I think it's time to figure out where we want to go -- in my opinion toward sustainability and community -- and then design a money system that gets us there.
The origin of the word "community" comes from the Latin munus, which means the gift, and cum, which means together, among each other. So community literally means to give among each other. Therefore I define my community as a group of people who welcome and honor my gifts, and from whom I can reasonably expect to receive gifts in return.
--Bernard Lietaer in Beyond Greed & Scarcity
http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/cc/
"Money is created when banks lend it into existence. When a bank provides you with a $100,000 mortgage, it creates only the principal, which you spend and which then circulates in the economy. The bank expects you to pay back $200,000 over the next 20 years, but it doesn't create the second $100,000 -- the interest. Instead, the bank sends you out into the tough world to battle against everybody else to bring back the second $100,000.
http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/cc/Lietaer.html
Thus I would say that capitalism, its original true intent being to create capital, has been perverted into something I would rather call Bankerism or better yet usurpism.
Monarchies can come to an end in several ways. There may be a revolution in which the monarchy is overthrown; or, as in Italy, there may be a referendum in which the electorate decides to form a republic.
In some cases, as with England and Spain, the monarchy has been overthrown and then restored. Countries may regard themselves as monarchies without a named monarch, as Spain did in 1947-1975.
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Kingdom-%28politics%29
The vision of Kalergi has come to fruition in the 21st century as a result of the economic and political upheavals of our time in the form of the currently expanding European Union:
"In 1922, Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi launched the Pan European Union, at a founding convention in Vienna, attended by more than 6,000 delegates. Railing against the "Bolshevist menace" in Russia, the Venetian Count called for the dissolution of all the nation-states of Western Europe and the erection of a single, European feudal state, modeled on the Roman and Napoleonic empires. "There are Europeans," Coudenhove-Kalergi warned, who are "naïve enough to believe that the opposition between the Soviet Union and Europe can be bridged by the inclusion of the Soviet Union in the United States of Europe. These Europeans need only to glance at the map to persuade themselves that the Soviet Union in its immensity can, with the help of the [Communist] Third International, very quickly prevail over little Europe. To receive this Trojan horse into the European union would lead to perpetual civil war and the extermination of European culture. So long, therefore, as there is any will to survive subsisting in Europe, the idea of linking the Soviet Union with Pan Europe must be rejected. It would be nothing less than the suicide of Europe."
http://www.sianews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1007
Despite coexistence with reigning monarchies, Europe now seems to be heading into the next phase of global domination and will eventually challenge the United States both as a super power economically and politically.
"A king desires to be the guardian of his people, that those who have property may be secure in the possession of it, and that the people in general meet with no injury; but a tyrant, as has been often said, has no regard to the common good, except for his own advantage; his only object is pleasure, but a king's is virtue: what a tyrant therefore is ambitious of engrossing is wealth, but a king rather honour. The guards too of a king are citizens, a tyrant's foreigners."
Aristotle
http://aristotle.thefreelibrary.com/A-Treatise-on-Government/5-10
Kingdoms are seldom destroyed by any outward attack; for which reason they are generally very stable; but they have many causes of subversion within; of which two are the principal; one is when those who are in power [1313a] excite a sedition, the other when they endeavour to establish a tyranny by assuming greater power than the law gives them. A kingdom, indeed, is not what we ever see erected in our times, but rather monarchies and tyrannies; for a kingly government is one that is voluntarily submitted to, and its supreme power admitted upon great occasions: but where many are equal, and there are none in any respect so much better than another as to be qualified for the greatness and dignity of government over them, then these equals will not willingly submit to be commanded; but if any one assumes the government, either by force or fraud, this is a tyranny. To what we have already said we shall add, the causes of revolutions in an hereditary kingdom. One of these is, that many of those who enjoy it are naturally proper objects of contempt only: another is, that they are insolent while their power is not despotic; but they possess kingly honours only. Such a state is soon destroyed; for a king exists but while the people are willing to obey, as their submission to him is voluntary, but to a tyrant involuntary. These and such-like are the causes of the destruction of monarchies.
http://aristotle.thefreelibrary.com/A-Treatise-on-Government/5-10
I do not advocate either failed communism or fascist philosophies for they fall under the category of tyranny, but to incorrectly perceive that we live today in a modern republic is to blink a blind eye to the reality in which we must struggle to eke out our existences.
May the infinite infinitor of infinities save our republic as it so will in the present and forever into the future.
Guess I better get my nu-clear weapons out of the storage facility in Hawthorne Nevada since the govy came to get me twice already in my life...once the IRS, second the SEC, now its time for the final battle of my life. Did you ever see "Harry's War?. I met the Director of that movie not too long ago.
Here's an interesting rub:
File: 'Synarchist/Nazi-Communist'
The larger universal fascist schema, into which the Norman-Schacht "Hitler project" fit, was well known to leading American intelligence, military, and diplomatic figures of the Franklin Roosevelt era, who maintained exhaustive files under such headings as "Synarchist/Nazi-Communist."
U.S. government archives from the FDR era, which were made available to EIR researchers, feature extensive intelligence reports on the international fascist plots, from the files of the U.S. State Department; U.S. Army Intelligence and Navy Intelligence; and the Coordinator of Information (COI), and its successor, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). These files are of immediate relevance today, given the ongoing coup d'état in Washington by the disciples of Leo Strauss, Alexandre Kojève, and Carl Schmitt inside the George W. Bush Administration. Kojève and Schmitt were leading figures in the wartime "Synarchist" conspiracy, and they personified the perpetuation of that universal fascist plan and apparatus into the postwar period.
Already, following EIR's lead, major American and European newspapers have identified such putschists as Paul Wolfowitz, Abram Shulsky, William Kristol, John Ashcroft, Steve Cambone, and Gary Schmitt as the offspring of the late University of Chicago Prof. Leo Strauss; Strauss, in turn, was the life-long collaborator and promoter of Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt, official Nazi philosopher and Nietzsche revivalist Martin Heidegger, and French Synarchist Alexandre Kojève—all unabashed advocates of tyranny as the only appropriate form of government. Although the May 4 Sunday New York Times feature off-handedly mentions Kojève as Strauss's colleague, without further identification, all of the major media coverage has been sanitized of any discussion of the overtly fascist/Synarchist roots of the Straussian creed.
Armed and Ready are you?
http://www.sianews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1007
Getting back to a barter and trade economy
Advocates gather in California to discuss ways
to keep local money from seeping into global economy.
By Paul Van Slambrouck
Staff Writer of the Christian Science Monitor
SAN FRANCISCO - If globalism has got you down, take heart.
A flourishing movement that seeks to supplement the almighty dollar with an all-local currency is providing refuge around the country, and world, for those who feel that mega-economic forces are stripping individuals and communities of control over their own affairs.
"There is tremendous interest and energy" in the movement to establish local or community-based currencies, says Susan Witt, director of the E.F. Schumacher Society of Great Barrington, Mass.
The Schumacher Society is a firm supporter of the concept, and Ms. Witt says there is "revival" under way right now.
The concept is simple: Establishing a local currency within a town or region allows residents to exchange goods or services in a way that guarantees the currency will stay local and not seep out into the great sea of global commerce.
In communities with local currencies, the US dollar continues to circulate and remains the backbone of the local economy. But as seen by advocates, local money provides a powerful tool for community cohesiveness and rejuvenation.
Seed money
The north coast hamlet of Mendocino, Calif., plans to launch a local currency called Seed in the next few days. Further down the coast, a Time Dollar system that allows community service organizations to trade services is about to begin in Santa Cruz. And last year, local currencies became available in places as diverse as Toronto and Berea, Ky.
All this activity follows already well-established programs like the Ithaca Hours in New York and the Local Economic Trading System (LETS) pioneered in Canada and now operating in Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and in several European countries.
There are about 2,000 local currency systems in operation around the world, according to Bernard Lietaer, a former Belgium central banker who is now setting up a clearing house for community currencies from his base as a research fellow [at the Center for Sustainable Resource Development] at the University of California at Berkeley.
Local currencies flourished in the US following the Great Depression, when jobs and money were scarce. Over the years, stressed communities have often created local currencies or scrip as a means to allow people to trade skills and goods, even when they're unemployed and have no traditional dollars to spend.
Fibers of a community
But today, the motivation behind local currencies stem more from a view that communities are losing their sense of interconnectedness among residents, who don't know each other and who buy goods that are imported with dollars that are often earned from a distant corporation.
"It's a counterpoint to globalization," says Lewis Solomon, a law professor at George Washington Law School and author of Rethinking Our Centralized Monetary System: The Case for a System of Local Currencies. Local currencies have proven themselves viable, says Mr. Solomon, but their prevalence depends, ultimately, on "how much antipathy builds to the global economy."
The movement itself is diverse, blending primarily environmentalists and community activists, but with a sprinkling of Libertarians, Y2K bug alarmists, and even survivalists who fear a major financial meltdown is inevitable.
But at its core is a yearning for more control, less seeming vulnerability, and greater interaction among people of the same geography. "Community is becoming a vacant term. We're not really even trading with each other any more," says Michael Linton, one of the founders of LETS in Canada.
While local currencies may appeal to some as a return to simpler times, it's quite modern in terms of taking advantage of technology.
Mr. Linton has been working on a smart card that would allow people to make purchases with local and even regional currencies, automatically. And software needed needed to begin a LETS system can already be downloaded from the Internet.
Local currency systems are usually set up and run by volunteers.
A typical program
The BREAD program, begun in Berkeley in 1997, is typical. Members apply to join, must be able to provide a good or service to the community, and must agree to honor the local currency.
Once admitted, members are listed in a local directory, which now includes about 350 listings, including gardeners, restaurateurs, artists, and auto mechanics.
Each member is initially issued paper currency worth four BREAD hours, valued at $12 per hour. There is about $15,000 worth of Bread currency in circulation right now.
"We have quite a cross section of members," says Miyoko Sakashita, Bread co-founder. "Most are middle to low-income, and from all age groups."
As one sign of the movement's current vigor, advocates from all over the country and world began meeting this week in the Santa Cruz mountains at a church-owned retreat site.
Called simply "The Gathering," the aim is to "connect the local currency movement, and create the infrastructure for a new, more just economy," says organizer Carol Brouillet.
While some critics question the logic of a system that encourages buying local goods, even when better or cheaper goods may be available elsewhere, advocates say that kind of math is simplistic.
"Things may be cheaper over the hill," says Margaret Howe, one of the organizers of the new Seed program in Mendocino, Calif., "but there is a cost to the community in buying over there, instead of here."
http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/cc/gathering.html
Down with Tyrants Up with Kings
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=2710315
While economic textbooks claim that people and corporations are competing for markets and resources, I claim that in reality they are competing for money -- using markets and resources to do so. So designing new money systems really amounts to redesigning the target that orients much human effort.
Furthermore, I believe that greed and competition are not a result of immutable human temperament; I have come to the conclusion that greed and fear of scarcity are in fact being continuously created and amplified as a direct result of the kind of money we are using.
For example, we can produce more than enough food to feed everybody, and there is definitely enough work for everybody in the world, but there is clearly not enough money to pay for it all. The scarcity is in our national currencies. In fact, the job of central banks is to create and maintain that currency scarcity. The direct consequence is that we have to fight with each other in order to survive.
Money is created when banks lend it into existence (see article by Thomas Greco on page 19). When a bank provides you with a $100,000 mortgage, it creates only the principal, which you spend and which then circulates in the economy. The bank expects you to pay back $200,000 over the next 20 years, but it doesn't create the second $100,000 -- the interest. Instead, the bank sends you out into the tough world to battle against everybody else to bring back the second $100,000.
http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/cc/Lietaer.html
A civil form of rant to an interesting debate begun at this link:
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=2710314
U.S. Notes Decline on Concern BOJ to End Yen Sales, Reduce Debt Purchases
March 29 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. 10-year notes fell in Europe, pushing yields to their highest in more than three weeks, after the London-based Times said the Bank of Japan may end its yen sales, fueling speculation it will buy less U.S. government debt.
Quickening economic growth means Japan no longer needs a weaker currency to boost exports, the Times said, citing unidentified officials at Japan's central bank, which buys and sells the yen on behalf of the Ministry of Finance. A ministry official said Japan's currency policy hasn't changed.
``We have seen the Bank of Japan has changed strategy,'' regarding selling yen, said Cyril Beuzit, head of interest-rate strategy in London at BNP Paribas SA, France's biggest bank by assets. ``It has to be seen as a negative for Treasuries.''
The 4 percent note maturing February 2014 fell 5/8, or 6.25 per $1,000 face amount, to 101 6/32 as of 8:48 a.m. in London, according to Merrill Lynch & Co. Its yield rose 2 basis points to 3.85 percent. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point. The yen rose to 105.59 per dollar, according to EBS prices, from 106.02 late Friday in New York.
Foreign central-bank holdings of Treasury and agency securities in accounts at the Federal Reserve rose by a daily average of $7.9 billion in the week ended Wednesday to $1.2 trillion. Japan is the biggest overseas holder of Treasuries, with $577 billion as of the end of January.
`Officially Validated'
``It's officially validated there will be less purchases of Treasuries,'' said Jai Tiwari, a bond strategist at research firm IDEAglobal Ltd. in Singapore. ``We are likely to see a move higher'' in yields. Bond yields move inversely to prices.
The BOJ sold 10.5 trillion yen ($99.4 billion) in the two months to Feb. 25, about half of 2003's record sales. The yen has strengthened 6.4 percent since reaching a five-month low of 112.33 on March 8 on speculation an improving economy will allow Japan to tolerate a stronger currency. The Finance Ministry will release yen-sales figures for March on Wednesday.
Some traders, such as Kikuko Takeda at Bank of Tokyo- Mitsubishi Ltd. in Tokyo, said other factors, such as accelerating inflation, may affect the $3.66 trillion Treasury market.
``Although the Bank of Japan has played a big role, the Treasury markets are huge and the impact from less yen sales should be limited,'' Takeda said in Tokyo.
Treasuries on Friday had the biggest drop in two months after measures of inflation and consumer confidence rose. A Commerce Department report Thursday showed the personal consumption expenditure price index, excluding food and energy prices, rose 1.1 percent from a year before in February, matching October and the fastest since it gained 1.3 percent in July.
Job Creation
Treasuries may also fall for a second week on prospects the government will say the economy this month added the most jobs since December 2000. The Labor Department may say Friday the economy added 120,000 jobs in March, from 21,000 in February, according to the median forecast of 61 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.
The yield on the 10-year note fell 17 basis points on March 5, when the Labor Department released the February jobless figures.
Ried, Thunberg & Co.'s investor sentiment index was 44 on Friday, compared with 42 the previous week. The reading has been below 50 -- a sign investors expect the note's price to drop -- for 16 weeks, the longest stretch since mid-2002. The 63 international investors surveyed by the Westport, Connecticut- based research firm manage $1.5 trillion. Ried, Thunberg is a unit of London-based ICAP Plc, the world's largest interbank brokerage.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Beth Thomas in Tokyo bthomas1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors of this story:
Justin Carrigan at jcarrigan@bloomberg.net;
Walter Krumholz at wkrumholz@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: March 29, 2004 03:32 EST
European Central Bank May Move Toward Interest-Rate Cut as Confidence Ebbs
March 29 (Bloomberg) -- European Central Bank President Jean- Claude Trichet may this week signal a willingness to reduce interest rates amid government and industry reports that may show stagnating consumer and business confidence, according to economists including Conrad Mattern.
``Sooner or later, they will have to cut if the indicators continue like this,'' said Mattern, chief economist at Activest Investment in Munich, which manages about $50 billion. ``They will discuss a rate cut and we expect a reduction, but not this week.'' He forecasts a reduction in May or June.
Rate-cut speculation has increased, pushing the euro to its lowest against the dollar this year, since Trichet said last week the ECB may have to lower its forecast of 1.6 percent economic growth in 2004 unless consumer spending picks up. German business confidence fell for a second month in March, hurt by a drop in retailing, an industry report Friday showed.
A reduction in the ECB's benchmark rate, currently 2 percent, is unlikely at this Thursday's meeting, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Of 36 economists polled Thursday and Friday, all but two forecast no change. Eight said they expect a cut by June.
Revised Forecasts
Since the survey, Deutsche Bank AG, Bank of America Corp. in London and Barclays Capital changed their forecasts for ECB rates. Deutsche Bank now expects a quarter-point reduction by June. Europe's second-largest bank by assets, based in Frankfurt, had previously predicted a 2 percent rate through 2004. London- based Barclays forecast a quarter-point cut as soon as this week.
The euro fell to $1.2045 today, the lowest in almost four months and taking the currency's decline from a Feb. 18 record of $1.2930 to almost 7 percent. Europe's single currency bought $1.2095 at 9:37 a.m. in Frankfurt.
ECB board member Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell said on Friday that Europe's recovery may be delayed and the bank is ready to pare interest rates if needed.
``We expect a clear signal at the press conference that the ECB is ready to cut rates in May should the German data reflect conditions for the euro region,'' said Karsten Junius, an economist at Dekabank in Frankfurt and co-author of a book on the central bank. ``We will get a warning before they cut rates.''
Slower Pace
The European Union's statistics office will probably say on Wednesday that business and consumer confidence stagnated in March, according to a survey of 30 economists polled by Bloomberg News. An industry report on Thursday may show European manufacturing expanded at a slower pace this month than in February, according to a separate survey of 28 economists.
German consumer confidence was unchanged this month as expectations for future income and economic growth deteriorated, the GfK AG market researcher as saying. GfK also said shoppers were more pessimistic than previously estimated last month.
``When you open the newspaper there's not much positive news for the consumer at the moment,'' said Rolf Buerkl, an economist at GfK. ``People don't have any certainty that allows them to plan for the future -- they don't know how their incomes will develop.''
The ECB will announce its rate decision on Thursday. The bank hasn't cut rates since June last year, when it lowered its main lending rate by half a point. In the U.K., which hasn't adopted the euro, the Bank of England has begun raising rates.
The U.K. central bank's benchmark rate stands at 4 percent after increases in November 2003 and February this year. The U.S. Federal Reserve's overnight rate stands at 1 percent.
Futures Trading
Investors increasingly expect the ECB to cut rates by the end of June, futures trading suggests. The yield on the three- month contract for June settlement was at 1.85 percent today, down from 2 percent at the start of March. The money market rate was 1.97 percent, below the ECB's benchmark refinancing rate.
``We stick to our forecast of no change on Thursday, but the risk that they will cut is at 40 percent,'' said Dekabank's Junius, one of five economists who correctly predicted the ECB's unexpectedly small quarter-point rate cut on March 6, 2003. ``There could well be a vote, and the outcome wouldn't be unanimous.''
ECB council member Yves Mersch said on Friday that rates are ``appropriate'' even though economic reports have been ``mixed'' and Bundesbank Chief Economist Hermann Remsperger said he sees no need to change his growth forecast for Germany after business confidence dropped. Ernst Welteke, the bank's President and one of 18 rate-setters on the ECB's council, said earlier last week the current level of rates doesn't hinder growth.
`Not Clear-Cut'
Some economic reports suggest Europe is still on a recovery path. French consumer spending held steady in February after rising 3.3 percent in January, the government said Tuesday. German retail sales probably rose for a second month in February, the median of 19 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey of economists showed.
``The case for lower rates is not clear-cut,'' said Lorenzo Codogno, co-chief economist for Europe at Bank of America in London, in a note to investors. ``Euro-zone business and consumer confidence due on March 31, just one day ahead of the ECB council meeting, could take on additional importance.''
Codogno on Friday revised his ECB forecast, saying he now expects a half-point rate reduction in the next two months, after the drop in German business confidence. Previously, the bank saw only a 40 percent chance of a cut. Disappointing data ``will probably tilt the balance at the ECB toward a cut,'' he said.
Inflation below the bank's 2 percent limit and slowing money supply are giving the ECB room to pare rates. European inflation probably stayed at a rate of 1.6 percent in March, economists expect a report on Wednesday to show. Money supply, the ECB's gauge of future inflation, grew at the slowest pace in more than two years in February.
``The ECB will prepare a rate cut on Thursday,'' said Julian von Landesberger, an economist at HVB Group in Munich. ``They see that their picture of a gradual recovery is no longer intact, and they will get more reasons for a cut in April.''
To contact the reporter on this story:
Christian Baumgaertel in Frankfurt at cbaumgaertel@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor of this story:
Heather Harris at hharris@bloomberg.net.
Chris Kirkham, or ckirkham@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: March 29, 2004 02:49 EST
France's Raffarin May Be Replaced After Election Loss (Update1)
March 29 (Bloomberg) -- French President Jacques Chirac may name a new government, including replacing Prime Minister Jean- Pierre Raffarin, after the Socialist-led opposition trounced the ruling coalition in regional elections.
The Socialists took control of 20 of mainland France's 22 regional councils in the final round of voting yesterday, a greater blow to Raffarin's two-year-old government than polls predicted. Surveys published a week ago, after the first round, forecast the Socialists would win in 14 regions.
Raffarin, 55, had been tipped by political analysts to stay as prime minister with some ministers losing their jobs before the next cabinet meeting on Wednesday. The scale of the defeat, at the hands of voters angered by rising unemployment and changes to the state pensions and health-care systems, puts his future in doubt.
``The message is extremely clear-cut: Raffarin should resign,'' said Stefan Collignon, who teaches international politics at the London School of Economics. ``The message is far too clear for the president to ignore it.''
The result is a setback for Chirac, 71, who was elected president in 2002 with 82 percent of the vote in a run-off against Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of the anti-immigration National Front. Le Pen unexpectedly eliminated Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin in the first round of that vote.
The regional elections, coming three years before the next presidential and parliamentary elections in 2007, are the only mid- term electoral test during Chirac's mandate.
Sarkozy Is Favorite
Fifty-four percent of the French want Chirac to appoint a new prime minister, a survey of 803 voters carried out by polling company CSA after the election results showed. Were Raffarin to quit, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, 49, would be the most popular choice as his successor, with 29 percent supporting him, according to the poll. CSA gave no margin of error.
Should Raffarin stay to push through a series of unpopular measures such as cuts in health-care spending, then several ministers are expected to be replaced, headed by Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei, 61, whose department was blamed for 15,000 deaths, mostly of the elderly, during a heat wave last August.
Finance Minister Francis Mer and Education Minister Luc Ferry are others, said Pierre Giacometti, head of Ipsos polling company.
Support for Raffarin has fallen in the last year because of rising unemployment and an overhaul of the state pension system. The plan forces employees to work longer for full retirement rights. Doctors have also warned that cuts to the health service will mean declining services.
Health Spending
Previous attempts to rein in health spending failed. The government expects the health system to post a record deficit of 10.9 billion euros ($13.2 billion) this year. Medical spending rose 6.9 percent last year. The government, which has already raised hospitalization fees and trimmed some drug reimbursements, needs to find yet more ways to curb spending.
January's 9.6 percent unemployment rate was close to a three- year high of 9.7 percent reached at the end of last year. Unemployment was at 9 percent when Chirac was re-elected. France's economy expanded at 0.2 percent in 2003, its slowest growth in a decade.
Raffarin is aiming to trim a widening budget deficit as the shortfall last year widened to 63.4 billion euros or 4.1 percent of gross domestic product. Shoring up health-care finances is key to the government's deficit reduction efforts after exceeding the European Union's 3 percent limit for countries sharing the euro for the past two years.
Voting Figures
Last Sunday's first-round ballot, which eliminated minority candidates, saw 40 percent of voters back Socialist-led groups, compared with 34 percent for Raffarin's coalition. Yesterday, the Socialists took almost 50 percent of the votes to less than 38 percent for the government, the interior minister said.
The National Front picked up less than 14 percent of the nationwide vote, down more than 3 percentage points from the 2002 presidential election.
Yesterday's vote ``wasn't about personalities, but policies,'' said former Prime Minister Alain Juppe, who also suffered a defeat in 1997 for his measures to cut the public deficit and permit France to qualify to join the euro. ``Withdrawing reforms would mean condemning our country to inactivity and regression,'' Juppe said.
``Reforms must continue because they are necessary,'' Raffarin said in a nationwide address on television. ``It won't be without difficulty.''
To contact the reporter on this story:
Julian Nundy in Paris jnundy@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor of this story:
Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: March 29, 2004 02:19 EST
Asian Stocks: Taiwan's TWSE Has Biggest Gain Since October 2002
March 29 (Bloomberg) -- Taiwan's TWSE Index had its biggest gain since October 2002 after President Chen Shui-bian agreed to a recount to settle his disputed election.
The TWSE rose 5.6 percent to 6474.11 at the 1:30 p.m. close in Taipei. It was the benchmark's biggest jump since Oct. 15, 2002, recouping more than half of last week's 10 percent loss. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Cathay Financial Holding Co. led gains.
``A speedy recount is the best solution to end the political deadlock,'' said Tom Fu, who helps manage $4.5 billion at Prudential Securities Investment Trust Co. in Taipei. ``That will allow investors to refocus on market fundamentals.''
Elsewhere, Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average shed 0.5 percent to 11,718.24 after the yen strengthened against the dollar on a London-based Times newspaper report saying Japan's policy of selling yen ``has officially come to an end.'' Kyocera Corp. fell.
Thailand's SET index slid 1.8 percent, the biggest drop in Asian stock benchmarks, on concern violence may be spreading in the Muslim-dominated south after a bomb blast on Saturday injured tourists. PTT Pcl, the state-controlled energy company, declined.
The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index, which tracks the performance of 856 stocks in 14 countries, added 0.3 percent to 95.55. Benchmarks in South Korea and New Zealand rose, while all other indexes in Asia apart from Japan's Topix index fell.
Peaceful Protests
Only three of the 642 stocks traded on the Taiwan Stock Exchange declined today. Taiwan Semiconductor, the island's biggest company by value, jumped 5.1 percent to NT$61.50.
Cathay Financial climbed 6.3 percent to NT$59. Shares of other financial shares such as First Financial Holding Co., Hua Nan Financial Holdings Co. and Chang Hwa Commercial Bank rose on optimism they may benefit from an election victory by Chen. Chen has been restructuring the industry by pressuring companies to cut off delinquent debtors and combine their businesses.
The government set up a NT$140 billion ($4.2 billion) fund to bail out bankrupt lenders and passed the Financial Holding Company Act in 2001, allowing lenders and insurers to merge.
``Financial industry reform is what most investors can agree on as a major achievement in Chen's first term,'' said Liu Juming, who helps manages $2 billion at Fuh-Wa Asset Management Co. ``The worse time is over for financial companies.''
Chen agreed to a recount of the presidential vote and the establishment of an independent task force to probe charges that he faked an assassination attempt to win votes. About 500,000 opposition protestors who rallied on Saturday dispersed peacefully. Chen had won by 30,000 of 13 million votes cast.
Until the election, Taiwan was Asia's second-best performing stock market this year. The TWSE had gained 16 percent, more than any other benchmark except those in China. Its March 4 peak of 7034.10 represented a 70 percent gain from last year's low, set on April 28.
Yen Gains
Kyocera, the world's largest maker of ceramic packaging used to protect finished microchips, declined 2.1 percent to 8,710 yen. Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., the world's biggest maker of polyvinyl chloride resin and silicon wafers, lost 2.3 percent to 4,350 yen.
Overseas sales at Kyocera and Shin-Etsu Chemical account for more than half of their revenue. Kyocera has gained more than a fifth this year, and Shin-Etsu has risen as much as 6 percent.
Japan no longer needs a weaker currency to bolster exports, the Times of London reported, citing unnamed employees at the Bank of Japan. The country's central bank will only sell yen to buy dollars when there is ``extraordinary volatility'' in the market, the newspaper said.
``The report on Japan's currency policy change has sparked concern over the potential threat from a strong yen,'' said Yoshihisa Okamoto, who helps manage the equivalent of $2.1 billion in assets at Fuji Investment Management Co. in Tokyo. ``It became a great excuse for some to lock in the recent gains'' in share prices.
The yen has gained 14 percent in the past 12 months against the dollar threatening to lower the value of exporters' overseas earnings. It recently traded at 105.54 a dollar.
Bomb Blast
Thailand's SET fell 12.13 to 653.12. The benchmark, which more than doubled last year, is the world's worst performer this year, dropping 15 percent in dollar terms.
PTT shed 3.4 percent to 141 baht. Advanced Info Service Pcl, Thailand's No. 1 mobile-phone company, fell 4.4 percent to 86.50 baht.
A blast Saturday night in a town on the Malaysian border packed with nightspots and karaoke bars injured 28 people, the first time attacks have targeted civilians or tourist districts, Agence France-Presse reported. Government Spokesman Jakrapob Penkair didn't confirm the number injured.
``We believe that the violence in the Southern provinces of Thailand is now a major concern for investors,'' DBS Vickers Securities (Thailand) Co. said in a note to clients. ``There is so far no indication that the government is able to control'' the violence.
Samsung Electronics
South Korea's Kospi index climbed 1.2 percent, led by Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Co., after Samsung Securities Co. raised its stock-price estimates for the two companies because of higher earnings prospects.
Samsung Electronics, the world's largest maker of computer- memory chips, climbed 1.8 percent to 555,000 won. Samsung Electronics's shares may rise as high as 730,000 won in the next six months, said Samsung Securities, which raised its share-price estimate by 10.6 percent.
LG Electronics, South Korea's second-largest electronics maker, gained 3 percent to 68,700 won. Samsung Securities said it raised its six-month stock-price estimate by 5.4 percent to 78,000 won, as the company's television sales will lift earnings.
Advanced Info Service Pcl (ADVANC TB)
Cathay Financial Holding Co. (2882 TT)
Kyocera Corp. (6971 JP)
LG Electronics Inc. (066570 KS)
PTT Pcl (PTT TB)
Samsung Electronics Co. (005930 KS)
Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. (4063 JP)
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (2330 TT)
To contact the reporter on this story:
George Hsu in Taipei at georgehsu@bloomberg.net; Tomoko Yamazaki in Tokyo at tyamazaki@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor of this story:
Teo Chian Wei at cwteo@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: March 29, 2004 02:39 EST