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Date Posted: 11:08:42 11/09/07 Fri
Author: part 1
Subject: November 9, 2007

ICLC BRIEFING INTERNATIONAL VERSION

[A7-45-5/BFG001]:BFG:L: [07/11/08][06:1 ]AM BRIEFING
STAND:[1.1.26/ ][1.1.00/ ][0.1.00/ ] [23:1 ]US POLIT INTELL
SUBJT:[5.1.13/ ][5.3.13/ ][ . . / ] [24: ]STR STUDIES
TOPIC:[060.000 :AM BRIEFING ]
SUB-T:[061.000 :AM BRIEFING, ENGLISH ]
TITLE:[BRIEFING FOR NOVEMBER 9 2007 ] 1 of Pages
SYNOPSIS:
TO:ALL POINTS BY: PAUL GALLAGHER/ssu
RE: HOMEOWNERS AND BANK PROTECTION ACT. FEDERAL RESERVE. BEN
2 BERNANKE. US CONGRESS. IMPEACH CHENEY.
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
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| MORNING BRIEFING |
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| Friday, November 9, 2007 |
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- CONGRESS/FED MAKE PATHETIC SHOW IN THE FACE OF DOLLAR CRASH; -
- TIME TO MOVE LAROUCHE'S LEGISLATION -

Three major U.S. cities in three days have issued calls to
Congress for the HBPA--Jackson, Mississippi on Monday, Pomona,
California on on Tuesday, and Gary, Indiana on Wednesday; each
city council drawing up and passing its own resolution after an
intervention from LPAC. Pomona has one foreclosure per 33
households; the Gary area of northern Indiana is where the
current sub-prime foreclosure wave first hit, back at the
beginning of 2006. But this acceleration of public action around
LPAC's mobilization, is being driven also by the runaway
financial collapse of the economy and fear of widespread bank
closings--the Gary resolution (below) makes that clear.
Sitting in the midst of the financial collapse, Congress
(the Joint Economic Committee) and the Fed (Chairman Ben
Bernanke) made a pathetic show of incompetence and inaction
yesterday. One Congressman after another scolded Bernanke for
having been dead wrong about the mortgage meltdown and its
impact, and spoke in dread terms about what was happening to the
economy. Sen. Charles Schumer said "I fear worse than recession"
is coming; Rep. Carolyn Maloney said, "The dollar is falling like
a stone. Millions of Americans fear they won't be able to keep
their homes, or to heat them"; others lectured about growing mass
foreclosures; Reps. Loretta Sanchez and Ron Paul outright
denounced the Fed's policies. Yet none of the JEC Members
proposed a single policy action; they all wound up asking the
discredited Bubbles Ben, what he could do, or thought they should
do! Bernanke declined to answer, beyond absurdities like telling
one Senator to "urge homeowners with mortgage problems to call
their lenders." Sen. Sam Brownback, representing the Wall St./Jim
Cramer organ-grinder-monkey faction, begged the Fed Chairman to
"give the American people another rate cut!" And when Bernanke
answered, in Fed-speak, "No, not now, I can't do that now," the
dollar and the markets began to plunge again.
In another office in the Capitol, a Judiciary Committee aide
answered a phone call from a constituent; repeated, "So you
support the impeachment of Dick Cheney by the Committee? I'll
pass on that message"; hung up and said, "All day long, all day
long, that's what we're getting, `Impeach Cheney.'|"
Congress, despite a rare decisive action yesterday in
overriding Bush's insane veto of the essential Water Resources
Development Act, continues to be crippled by Rohatyn's Nancy
Pelosi's MsLeadership, and by outright denial that they have got
to respond to a financial breakdown so great, it threatens to
bring on a dark age.
To escalate and break through this idiocy, LPAC is issuing
and planning to print a mass leaflet in 300,000 copies. Here is
the [shortened] essence of it; it is already posted in PDF form
on www.larouchepac.com.

- LAROUCHE WARNS YOU AGAIN: -
- THE DOLLAR SYSTEM HAS CRASHED: -
- WILL YOU NOW ACT TO SAVE THE NATION? -

After a review of developments on the financial markets and world
economy Nov. 7, the world's leading economist, Lyndon LaRouche,
made the following emphatic points:
1. {The U.S. dollar and financial system has already
exploded.} There should be no talk about how the crisis of the
system is "coming"--it's already here. The crash of the dollar
system will cause an explosion of the entire international
financial system....
* The dollar is plunging at an accelerating rate against all
currencies, leading a spokesman for the U.S.'s biggest creditor,
China, to say on Nov. 7 that the U.S. dollar is "losing its
status as the world currency."
* Hyperinflation and speculation have brought the price of
oil to near $100, gold to over $840, and most other commodities,
including foodstuffs, into double digit price rises.
* The U.S.'s largest banks, starting with Citigroup and
Merrill Lynch, are reporting tens of billions of dollars of
losses, a fact leading to downgrading of their securities, and
the threat of detonation of the world's $750 trillion-plus
derivatives market. The infusion of {hundreds of billions} of
dollars from the Federal Reserve has done nothing to stop the
hemorrhaging.
* The financial collapse is causing an accelerated rate of
foreclosures, the downgrading of the multi-trillion dollar market
in municipal bonds, and the gouging of state and municipal
budgets, to the point of a clear and present threat to the public
welfare.
What will LaRouche's critics do now? They all were wrong, in
denying this collapse, and now they've got to respond to it. What
will they do? "The system is collapsing around your heads right
now. This is {worse} than 1929, you idiots! This collapse will
bring a new dark age!"
2. {The Cheney/Bush government is totally discredited, and
some combination of other forces will have to pick up the
pieces.} In reality, the current administration is a fallen
regime. Both the financial system and the government can only be
revived by a new political combination. Somebody has to
re-establish control over the dollar, and over the functioning of
government. That combination had better start the process by
implementing the {firewall} policy put forward in LaRouche's
Homeowners and Bank Protection Act (HBPA).
3. {The problem is that people in positions of power did not
listen to LaRouche's warnings that this collapse was inevitable
under their current policies.}....
Every other option has been discredited. Now is the time to
ram through the only solution, the HBPA!

NEWS SUMMARY FOR NOV. 9

LAROUCHE ACTIVITIES

GARY, INDIANA COMMON COUNCIL PASSED RESOLUTION ENDORSING THE
TEXT OF THE HOMEOWNERS AND BANK PROTECTION ACT, Nov. 7. (See
slug.)

LAROUCHE'S COMMENTS ON THE OCTOBER 1917 BOLSHEVIK
REVOLUTION, the 90th anniversary of which was Nov. 7, appeared
this week in the Russian monthly {Smysl}. (See slug.)

The LaRouche candidates in tiny Denmark's snap election next
week, have sparked a hunger to debate real politics amid Danes'
growing fear that they haven't been told the truth about the
financial crash. Our encouragement (and singing) to Danes to
"think big" and use a Kattegat maglev to point the way for
Europe, is bringing them welcome hope. See "The Danish Flank!"
in the European Ops Bulletin.
See also the Milan report: where students at Cattolica Univ.
got a rude awakening about MySpace and Facebook, and willingly
discussed the evil Bertrand Russell, after incidents in which
students steeped in virtual identities committed grisly murders
in Italy and Finland.

LYM LEAFLET IN MEXICO calls for building water
infrastructure; ridicules Calderon's blaming Tabasco flood
devastation on "global warming." Title of leaflet: "On the
Tragedy in Tabasco: The Solution to Economic Collapse Is
Infrastructure." (See slug)

ECONOMIC/FINANCIAL

China is set this year to replace the United States as
Japan's biggest export destination.

Financial Write-downs Keep Growing, and Growing, and... (see
slug)

NUMBER OF HOMELESS VETERANS OF WARS IN AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ
EXPECTED TO SURGE. (See slug.)

"Big Brothers" Rubert Murdoch and Bill Gates to share
millions of individual profiles of MySpace and Facebook members.
(see slug)

China Warns of Possible Accelerated Appreciation of the Yuan
(see slug)
SCIENCE

Say Hello To Comet Holmes! (see Slug)

USA/CANADA

On The Impeachment of Cheney, Rep. Stephen Cohen Said,"I get
the impression, the issue is still alive." Rep. Cohen is a member
of the House Judiciary Committee and he predicts that the panel
will hold hearings.

Senate Overrides Bush's Veto of the Water Resources
Development Act. The vote in the Senate was 79-14 to overturn
Bush's veto. (see slug)

US Fears Israeli Strike Against Iran Over Latest Nuclear
Claim (see slug)

New House Bill Against Blackwater Filed: "S.O.S.--Stop
Outsourcing Security Act." (see slug)

Congress Told: US Diplomacy Has Ignored Many Opportunities
to Talk to Iran (see slug)

Giuliani's Economist Boskin Directs Teen Zombie "Investors"
(see slug)

Sen. McCaskill's Open Letter: No Attacks on Iran; No New
"Military Quagmires" from Bush and Cheney (see slug)

Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) Renewed his Resolution to
Censure President Bush and Vice President Cheney for misconduct
regarding U.S. miliatry involvement in Iraq and the repeated
assualts on the rule of law.

Montanans voted up two referenda calling for immediate troop
withdrawal from Iraq on Nov. 6. In Helena, 62% of voters backed a
referendum urging the Congress to authorize and fund an immediate
and orderly withdrawal of the United States military from Iraq.
In Missoula, a referendum asking Congress to authorize and fund
an immediate and orderly withdrawal of the United States military
from Iraq in a manner that is fully protective of U.S. soldiers
won with nearly 65% of the vote. [Americans against Escalation in
Iraq]

- IBERO-AMERICA -

Northwest Mexican States Vote for Regional Water Management
Infrastructure Project, with LaRouche organizing. (See slug)

Cheney Dragging Argentina into his war plan against Iran.
(see slug)

WESTERN EUROPE

Columbine-type killing in Finland. Eight shot and killed at
High School by bullied "loner." (see slug)

Director of the German Space Agency Called for a National
Space Program. (see slug)

EASTERN EUROPE
Russia and China Sign 15 Economic Deals at Moscow Forum (see
slug)

Georgia, in the northeast corner of Southwest Asia, has been
swept by demonstrations, threatening the regime of Rose
Revolution victor Michael Saakashvili. (See slug.)

SOUTHWEST ASIA

Syrian Ambassador to U.S.: Annapolis Summit a `Waste' (see
slug)

ASIA
Korea Presidential Candidate Runs on New Silk Road Platform.
(see slug)

ECO-FIN

CHINA WARNS OF POSSIBLE ACCELERATED APPRECIATION OF YUAN

Nov. 8, 2007 (LPAC)--A report compiled by the Industrial and
Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) predicted that the appreciation
of the Chinese currency would accelerate, according to Thursday's
People's Daily.
The report published Wednesday on the China Securities
Journal stated that the recent interest rate reduction in the
United States would cause the yuan to further appreciate.
On Wednesday, the yuan broke a new high of 7.45 mark to the
dollar; this was the 68th new high the yuan had recorded since
the start of this year, a cumulative 4% rise.
"We should not only focus on the foreign exchange rate
fluctuation in one single day, but keep a close eye on the
long-term trend," Dr. Ou Minggang, Director of International
Finance Research Center under China Foreign Affairs University,
told Xinhua, the China news agency.
"The U.S. dollar has depreciated more than 40% compared with
the euro, while the yuan has only appreciated around 10% since
July 2005. It is possible for the yuan to further appreciate."
Implying or warning of a further 30% appreciation of the yuan
against the dollar.
In another article, the People's Daily acknowledges and
confirms the remarks of Cheng Siwei, vice chairman of the
Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. Those
remarks, which as reported in the Western press, are "blamed" for
much of yesterday's swoon in the dollar's value, were that "We
[China] will favor stronger currencies over weaker ones, and will
readjust accordingly," i.e., diversify from the dollar into other
currencies. (ron)

MOODY'S BEGINS ISSUING DEATH CERTIFICATES FOR BANKS' $350 BILLION
SIV FRAUD

Nov. 8, 2007 (LPAC)--Moody's rating agency yesterday sounded the
death knell for those strange, off-balance-sheet speculative
creatures of the big international banks, called "Structured
Investment Vehicles" (SIVs)--sinking Hank Paulsen's crazy
super-SIV bail-out scheme, the Master Liquidity Enhancement
Conduit (MLEC), in the process.
Moody's announced steps towards downgrading $33 billion of
debt issued by 16 of the 39 existing SIVs. While the rating
action immediately affects specific SIVs sponsored by nine
international banks, the fire sale of assets and restructuring it
triggers, kills the $350 billion SIV market as a whole.
Leading the list of bank SIV sponsors whose debt is to be
downgraded is the already collapsing Citigroup, which set up
seven SIVs carrying some $83 billion in debt.
The other banks affected are: Bank of Montreal, Germany's
Dresdner Bank, HSH Nordbank, WestLB banks, the Dutch-based
Rabobank, France's Societe Generale, and Britain's Standard
Chartered and HSBC.
In a follow-up conference call today, Moody's Paul Mazataud
emphasized that "it seems clear that the situation has not yet
stabilized and further rating actions could follow." Some SIV
managers admit the market for SIV paper "has been permanently
disrupted, and the SIV model will not survive in its current
form," another Moody's analyst reported.
Moody's report described a continuous decline in the net
asset value of these SIVs from mid-Summer, which is continuing
now. EIR research has concluded that this decline has already
reached a level which should mean a mandatory shutdown and
liquidation of some of these SIVs--forcing their bank sponsors to
place their losses from these off-balance sheet operations, onto
their own books. Moody's said its action came after it learned
that some of the SIVs were already liquidating assets whose value
was, at the same time, deteriorating. It assumes the SIVs will
continue liquidating assets at distressed prices, being unable to
issue new debt or to refinance. [ggs/pbg]

BANKS' WRITE-DOWNS KEEP GROWING, AND GROWING, AND ...

Nov. 8, 2007 (LPAC)--Just four days ago, LPAC reported that 11 of
the world's biggest financial institutions had written down over
$32 billion assets in the last two months--and pointed out that
is only the beginning.
Yesterday, Morgan Stanley announced it had written down its
assets by $3.7 billion, because of a bad bet on the sub-prime
mortgage market. But when the firm's new Chief Financial Officer,
Colm Kelleher, was asked how confident he was of the new
valuations after the $3.7 billion write-down, Kelleher made no
promises: "I'm confident that this number is accurate as of
today. My crystal ball is not working well--it is what it is."
In that light, consider the other financial write-downs
reported these past two days:
AIG Insurance Group, the world's largest insurance company,
reported a $2.68 billion write-down of its investments insuring
banks and hedge funds against losses in the mortgage-backed
securities markets.
Germany's Commerzbank claimed a write-down of nearly $500
million.
France's Societe Generale reported over $550 million in
write-downs and trading losses, while that nation's largest bank,
BNP Paribas SA, announced a mere $337.5 million in write-downs.
The banks themselves don't believe these figures. A research
report by Citigroup today projects that Wall Street banks will
have to write down $64 billion in collaterized debt obligations
(CDOs) backed by worthless mortgages, calling the write-downs on
these CDOs "the scariest" of "the many skeletons hiding in the
sub-prime closet." $64 billion is nothing, according to a Royal
Bank of Scotland research report, also reported today, which
projects banks and brokers could have to write down as much as
$500 billion. [ggs]

REAR WHEEL ALSO FALLS OFF ...

Nov. 8, 2007 (LPAC)--The U.S. commercial paper market shrank by
$15.6 billion in the week ending yesterday, Federal Reserve data
released today showed, provoking moans that this marks the worst
credit crunch since the panic days of August. The contraction was
driven by the $29.5 billion drop in the toxic waste called
asset-backed commercial paper. The asset-backed paper market,
which totalled some $1 trillion in mid-August, is now calculated
at $845.2 billion. [ggs]

SCI-TECH

NATIONAL SPACE PROGRAM FOR GERMANY PROPOSED

Nov. 8, 2007 (LPAC)--In his keynote address to an international
congress on space research and technology, which opened in Berlin
yesterday, Johann-Dietrich Woerner, director of the German Space
Agency, DLR, called for a return to "grand visions" in space
affairs, for example, calling for a discussion about a revival of
manned missions.
Woerner also called for a national German space effort, to
begin with a series of unmanned missions to the Moon. A detailed
proposal for a first lunar probe is being prepared at the DLR
now, to be put on the government's agenda for decisions next
spring. The probe would involve sending a set of high-precision
cameras, laser devices for spectroscopy, and related systems to
an orbit of 50 kilometers distance from the lunar surface. The
probe shall be there by no later than 2012.
The next phase would involve landing rovers on the Moon for
exploratory missions, and a third phase, to begin sometime
between 2015 and 2020, would land an unmanned research
laboratory. For all missions, cartography and search for minerals
would be at the center. Woerner also said that one should not
rule out German manned missions in the future.
Which brings up the question: from where would Germany
launch its lunar missions? If not in cooperation with the
Americans, two other options are at hand, at present: (1) from
the European Space Agency's site at Kourou, in French Guayana, ;
or 2) from Plesetsk, the Russian space base in northern Siberia,
from which Germany has already launched a number of national
satellites, including some for an orbital military surveillance
system (SAR-Lupe). Talks are also being conducted--details not
publicized yet--between Germany and China, as well as India, both
having lunar exploratory projects of their own. (rap)

SAY HELLO TO COMET HOLMES!

Nov. 8, 2007 (LPAC)--A bright, easy-to-see comet has made its
appearance in our northern skies; and it has been bright enough
since late October, and until now, to be seen even in
light-saturated urban skies, such as those of Hackensack, New
Jersey, the home of this observer. The comet is about second or
third magnitude, although spread over a larger area than a star
of second magnitude. It looks like a fuzzy ball, greenish in
color.
Comet Holmes is not a new visitor to our skies, having been
first discovered over a century ago by Edwin Holmes of England in
1892. When spotted by Holmes it was fairly bright, but with its
subsequent returns at seven-year cycles, it never got bright
enough to be a naked-eye object. Over the month of October 2007,
it increased in luminosity about a million times, for reasons not
yet known.
One hypothesis for the brightening is that a piece of the
comet's frozen nucleus broke off and disintegrated. Another is
that volatile gas trapped in the nucleus built up pressure,
causing a rupture.
The Comet bears watching, as it may change yet to be a very
bright comet, a great rarity. The comet location is about
declination 50 degrees north, right ascension 3 hours, in the
constellation of Perseus near the bright star Alpha Persei (also
known as Algenib). To find it now, go out around midnight and lie
on your back and look almost straight up. This is best done with
binoculars--the more powerful the better. In the constellation of
Perseus you will find a cluster of stars, the brightest of them
being Alpha Persei. The comet will be in the left side of the
binocular field, with Alpha Persei on the right. The comet is
moving slowly toward Alpha.
The comet is now a long way from the Sun, between the orbits
of Mars and Jupiter, and it is now heading out away from the Sun,
which makes its brightening the more unusual. [Charles Hughes]

UNITED STATES

GARY, INDIANA COUNCIL CALLS FOR A FED "HOME OWNERS AND BANK
PROTECTION ACT"; WITH A MORATORIUM ON HOME FORECLOSURES

Nov. 8, 2007 (LPAC)--The Common Council of the City of Gary,
Indiana, last night passed a resolution sponsored by Councilman
Charles Hughes, Council Vice President, and prepared by Attorney
William C. Jones, calling on Congress to act on the home mortgage
and financial crisis. Gary, a steel mill town with over 100,000
people, is located in the southeast of the Greater Chicago
Metropolitan District, 25 miles from Chicago itself. The rates of
home mortgage defaults and foreclosures have been high and
worsening in Gary for over 18 months. The following is the
complete text of the Gary Council action, which will receive its
Resolution Number next week.

- A RESOLUTION URGING A MORATORIUM ON HOME FORECLOSURES AND -
CONGRESSIONAL ENACTMENT OF A HOMEOWNERS AND BANK PROTECTION ACT

WHEREAS, a financial crisis involving home mortgages, debt
instruments and the United States banking system threatens
economic stability; and
WHEREAS, the financial crisis threatens the integrity of
federal and chartered banks such that consumer deposits and life
savings are jeopardized; and
WHEREAS, financial investments and home ownership is the
fabric of economic stability and the stability of financial
institutions; and
WHEREAS, millions of Americans and thousands of Indiana
residents are facing foreclosures on their homes; and
WHEREAS, historically the federal government has intervened
to protect financial institutions and home ownership and to
provide guarantees of social and economic stability; and
WHEREAS, the quality of life in any community can be
directly related to the responsiveness of government and its
ability to meet the needs and expectations of its citizens; and
WHEREAS, the citizens of Gary, understand the connection and
elect local leaders with certain expectations regarding the
service they will provide and the role they will play in their
lives; and
WHEREAS, those elected to serve the citizens of Gary accept
the privilege of service with the understanding of their
responsibility and the expectation of the community; and
WHEREAS, the accountability for the city's viability,
prosperity and overall well-being lies with those elected to
serve local government.
NOW THEREFORE, be it resolved that Common Council of the
City of Gary call upon The United States Congress to take
emergency action to protect homeowners by enacting a Homeowners
and Banks Protection Act specifically to:
(1) Establish a federal agency to place Federal and State
chartered banks under protection, freezing all existing home
mortgages for a period of time, adjusting mortgage values to fair
prices, restructuring existing mortgages at appropriate interest
rates and writing off speculative debt obligations of
mortgage-backed securities, financial derivatives and other forms
of financial pyramid schemes that have brought the banking system
to the point of bankruptcy;
(2) Declare a moratorium on all home foreclosures for the
duration of the transitional period, allowing families to retain
their homes;
(3) Require affordable monthly home mortgage payments, the
equivalent of "rental payments," to be made to designated banks
for use as collateral in normal lending practices for
recapitalization of the banking industry and to factor such
affordable payments into new mortgages thereby deflating the
housing bubble, establishing appropriate property valuation and
reducing fixed mortgage interest rates;
(4) Provide an interim period during which homeowners may
not be evicted from their homes and protection to banks pending
the resumption of traditional banking functions, including
serving local communities and facilitating credit for investment
in productive entities; and
(5) Authorize state governors to administer the
implementation of programs, including provisions for "rental"
assessments payable to specific banks and with provisions for
necessary federal guarantees and credits to assure successful
transition.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this resolution serve as notice
that the Common Council of the City of Gary has been, is, and
shall be vigilant as guardians of the public interest of the
citizens of Gary in all matters to the extent legally feasible
and possible.
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the Clerk of the Gary City
Council is hereby directed to transmit a true and correct copy of
the adopted resolution to members of the United States Senate and
the House of Representatives.
PASSED AND ADOPTED by the Common Council of the City of
Gary, Indiana this 7th day of November, 2007.
JEROME PRINCE
PRESIDENT OF THE GARY
COMMON COUNCIL

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