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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 1-Mar-2012
1-Mar-12 World View -- ECB: 'Euro crisis is over' after €1 trillion quantitative easing

Web Log - March, 2012

1-Mar-12 World View -- ECB: 'Euro crisis is over' after €1 trillion quantitative easing

Syrian regime begins ground invasion of civilian neighborhoods in Homs

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com.

Syrian regime begins ground invasion of civilian neighborhoods in Homs
North Korea says it will suspend nuclear activities for food
Egypt lifts travel ban on detained Americans
India reverses position and backs Arab League on Syria
Hamas officially breaks with Syria
Wikileaks: Russia and Israel exchanged Iran's/Georgia's secret codes
ECB: 'Euro crisis is over' after €1 trillion quantitative easing
Judge rules that cigarette warnings violate First Amendment

Lots of big news stories today.

Syrian regime begins ground invasion of civilian neighborhoods in Homs

Syrians killing Syrians (Daily Star)

Syrians killing Syrians (Daily Star)

After four weeks of continuous shelling of residential neighborhoods of the Baba Amr region of Homs in Syria, elite troops of the regime of president Bashar al-Assad are advancing, and a Syrian official has vowed that the region would be "cleansed," raising fears that the expected ground invasion is about to begin, with the objective of completely exterminate all of the people in the region. The U.S. State Department took the very powerful and decisive step on Wednesday of summoning Syria's envoy in Washington "to express our outrage over the month-long campaign of brutality and indiscriminate shelling of the city of Homs." Daily Star (Lebanon)

North Korea says it will suspend nuclear activities for food

We've seen this plot several times before: The North Koreans are promising to U.S. officials that they will suspend uranium and nuclear and long-range missile tests, in return for food aid from the U.S. In the past, the promises turned out to be frauds that were not honored. A new agreement was announced on Wednesday. This time it's different, we're supposed to believe, because:

They've agreed to to allow International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors verify and monitor a moratorium on uranium enrichment activities.

Kim Jong-il is dead, and his young son, Kim Jong-un has replaced him.

However, IAEA inspectors haven't been much help with the situation in Iran, and Kim Jong-un's youth may make it less likely that he can guarantee that the agreement will be honored.

According to a South Korean analyst:

"North Korea uses (the nuclear program) as leverage to win concessions in return for disarmament measures. Since Kim Jong Il’s death, it has called (the program) the country’s most important achievement. There is still a long way to go."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested that one reason for reaching agreement with the North Koreans was concern over a major famine. She indicated that the food aid would be intensively monitored, so that it wouldn't be diverted to the military. AP

Egypt lifts travel ban on detained Americans

A travel ban was lifted for 7 of the 16 Americans, employees of non-profit pro-democracy groups, charged with illegal political activities and operating without licenses. The trial has been somewhat chaotic, probably because, on the one hand, the charges are ludicrous and, on the other hand, there are protests by Egyptians demanding that the Americans be punished. The trial opened on Sunday, but was immediately postponed two months to April 26. And on Tuesday, the three judges trying the case recused themselves, citing "uneasiness" with the charges. The 7 Americans, who included Sam LaHood, the son of US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, had to post bail set at 2 million Egyptian pounds (about $300,000) and had to sign pledges to attend the next hearing. AP

India reverses position and backs Arab League on Syria

Last year, India teamed up with Brazil and South Africa to send a diplomatic mission to convince the Bashar al-Assad regime to stop the violence in Syria. Now, six months later, under pressure from the West as well as from Jordanians and Palestinians, India has reversed its position, and will now align itself with the Arab countries demanding that Assad step down. Times of India

Hamas officially breaks with Syria

Hamas, the organization ruling Gaza, has for months been quietly moving its headquarters office out of Damascus, where it's been located for years. Finally, on Friday, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh made the break official: "I salute all the nations of the Arab Spring and I salute the heroic people of Syria who are striving for freedom, democracy, and reform." The announcement was made before a crowd of thousands at Cairo's al-Azhar mosque, where the audience responded by chanting, "No Hezbollah and no Iran. The Syrian revolution is an Arab revolution." This is adding to the growing sectarian realignment of the entire Mideast, with Hamas and the Sunni world united against the al-Assad regime, backed by Shia Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Iraq and Iran. CNN

Wikileaks: Russia and Israel exchanged Iran's/Georgia's secret codes

According to a Wikileaks release, in 2008 Russia and Israel exchanged secret codes belonging to Iran and Georgia, respectively. Israel provided the Russian military with the secret codes for the drones that Israel had sold to Georgia, allowing the Russians to hack into them. In exchange, Russia gave the codes for the Tor-M1 missile complexes that Russia had sold to Iran. The information comes from a leaked e-mail message, and is unconfirmed. This is one of some five million e-mail messages in the servers of Stratfor, or Strategic Forecasting Inc., a Texas-based intelligence company founded in 1996 and attested by media as the "shadow CIA." The company’s website was hacked in 2011 by a group of politicized hackers known as the Anonymous, and the e-mail messages are now being released by Wikileaks. Ria Novosti/Reuters

ECB: 'Euro crisis is over' after €1 trillion quantitative easing

Italy's Prime Minister Mario Monti declared that the worst of the euro crisis is over on Wednesday, now that the European Central Bank (ECB) has "printed" another €550 billion of new money and made it available to European banks at near-zero interest rates. This is the second such action, the first occurring in December, when almost €500 billion were made in the same way, through the ECB's Long-Term Repo Operations (LTRO) program. The LTRO has achieved a cosmetic result of allowing banks to purchase bonds issued by PIIGS countries such as Italy, Portugal and Spain, keeping bond yields (interest rates) from spiking to astronomical levels, as they have in Greece. However, the money is just being shuffled around from one bank account to another, and almost none is being lent to people and businesses, meaning that beyond the cosmetic changes the LTRO program has done nothing but "kick the can down the road," and have no effect on the continuing deflationary spiral. This is about the tenth or fifteenth time since 2007 that politicians and central bankers have declared that the financial crisis was over, as they released a new "bazooka" of printed money, with each such bazooka being exponentially larger than the last one. Despite the claims of politicians, the world continues to be headed for the largest financial catastrophe in history. Washington Post

Judge rules that cigarette warnings violate First Amendment

A federal court ruled that the graphic warning labels on tobacco products imposed by the federal government violate the First Amendment. The images included diseased lungs, a mouth filled with cancerous lesions, and a man exhaling cigarette through a tracheotomy hole in his throat. The judge said, "it is clear that the government's actual purpose is not to inform or educate, but rather to advocate a change in behavior -- specifically to encourage smoking cessation and to discourage potential new smokers from starting." He added that, "(T)he graphic images are neither factual nor accurate. For example, the image of the body on an autopsy table suggests that smoking leads to autopsies; but the government provides no support to show that autopsies are a common consequence of smoking." Legal Newsline

(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, see the 1-Mar-12 World View -- ECB: 'Euro crisis is over' after €1 trillion quantitative easing thread of the Generational Dynamics forum. Comments may be posted anonymously.) (1-Mar-2012) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 1-Mar-2012 1-Mar-12 World View -- ECB: 'Euro crisis is over' after €1 trillion quantitative easing

Syrian regime begins ground invasion of civilian neighborhoods in Homs

North Korea says it will suspend nuclear activities for food

Egypt lifts travel ban on detained Americans

India reverses position and backs Arab League on Syria

Hamas officially breaks with Syria

Wikileaks: Russia and Israel exchanged Iran's/Georgia's secret codes

ECB: 'Euro crisis is over' after €1 trillion quantitative easing

Judge rules that cigarette warnings violate First Amendment

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 1-Mar-2012
1-Mar-12 World View -- ECB: 'Euro crisis is over' after €1 trillion quantitative easing