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HEADLINE Economic, Financial & Global News...
every weekday, to keep you better informed.
Thursday 10.11.2012
Survive the Coming Financial Tsunami
by Holding Physical Gold and Silver
By David Levenstein - GoldsilverWorlds.com
After trading within a hair of $1800 an ounce last week, gold prices have met with some resistance and have pulled back slightly. As the yellow metal struggled to break through this key level of resistance, it notched up new record highs in euros and Swiss Francs. And, in South Africa as the gold price has risen, the Rand fell by around 10% in a month due to the on-going strikes at the various gold and platinum mines as well as general unrest throughout the country. This pushed the prices of Krugerrands on the domestic market to above R16, 000 each for the first time ever.
Keeping the banks afloat...
"Legalized Plunder of the American People"
- G. Edward Griffin
The Muni Minefield
By Neeraj Chaudhary - GoldSeek.com
Municipal bonds have long been viewed as a staple asset class for conservative, income-seeking investors. "Munis," as they are known, are a large, liquid market of credit-rated securities that provide tax-exempt (from Federal taxes) income to millions of American investors. Towns, school districts, and other public sector authorities across the country have issued an estimated $3.7 trillion dollars worth of these bonds.
Hey Bill Gross, Why So Serious?
BY JACK SPARROW - FinancialSense.com
We like to pick on Bill Gross every once in a while. He is a billionaire who loves to "talk his book" — i.e. tout Pimco's trading positions — so he can certainly take it.
An example from last year, "The Bond King Gets Desperate," is newly relevant given the bond king's latest commentary.
In last year's write-up, we took Gross to task for saying America is like Greece. He's saying it again – that America is comparable to Greece – and it's still just as silly.
The latest Pimco Investment Outlook (Gross' monthly commentary vehicle) is called "Damages."
Fiscal cliff may be a slope
'Fiscal Cliff' May Be Felt Gradually, Analysts Say
By: Annie Lowrey, The New York Times - CNBC.com
Come January, if Congress fails to act, spending cuts and tax increases large enough to throw the country back into recession will hit.
It is known in Washington as the "fiscal cliff." But policy and economic analysts projecting its complicated and wide-ranging potential impact said the term "fiscal hill" or "fiscal slope" might be more apt: the effect would be powerful but gradual, and in some cases, reversible.
Beyond the Fiscal Cliff: the Dollar At Risk?
By: Axel G. Merk - GoldSeek.com
Looking beyond the fiscal cliff, we are afraid the greenback may be at risk no matter who wins the election. We examine the risk to the U.S. dollar in the context of the likely policies pursued under either an Obama or Romney administration.
Some context: The budget deficit as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the U.S. is worse than that of some of the weak Eurozone countries (Portugal, Italy); the Eurozone as a whole has a far lower deficit. If the "fiscal cliff" were to take place – that is, if the tax hikes and government spending cuts were to take effect as currently scheduled - the U.S. would still face a deficit exceeding 3% of GDP before factoring in any economic slowdown as a result of the cliff. The fiscal cliff the U.S. is facing would impose Eurozone style austerity measures and – just as in the Eurozone – not eliminate the deficit.
Fed's Fisher says U.S. must tackle fiscal cliff to spur hiring
By Alister Bull
WASHINGTON | Wed Oct 10, 2012 7:55pm EDT
(Reuters) - U.S. growth is being held back by uncertainty over the country's tax code and future government spending, a senior Federal Reserve official said on Wednesday, warning that businesses would not boost hiring until these issues were resolved.
Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher said a year-end 'fiscal cliff' of tax hikes and government spending cuts was deterring U.S. businesses from deploying the ample cash they have at hand to invest and add to payrolls.
Banks Rule While The Rest Of Us Drool*
By Neil Barofsky - LinkedIn.com
Two remarkable items in the news this morning which demonstrate how little progress we have made in reining in the Too Big To Fail banks and limiting the political might of their CEOs.
First, the Wall Street Journal reports on ongoing tension between the banks and their primary regulator, the Federal Reserve, over the so-called stress tests. These tests are vitally important, among other things they determine how much of the banks' all important loss-absorbing capital can be frittered away through stock repurchases and dividends. While these payouts are undoubtedly a windfall for the stock-owning executives and shareholders, by definition they increase the risk of failure and eventual bailout.
Fed's Stein may shed light on bank health
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — It is a good time for Fed Governor Jeremy Stein to give his first speech
Stein, an expert on banks, monetary policy and regulation who joined the Fed in May, is scheduled to speak at the Brookings Institution think-tank at 10 a.m. Eastern on Thursday.
Stein, an economics professor at Harvard before joining the Fed, is not a Washington novice. He worked briefly for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and on the staff of the Obama National Economic Council in 2009
Europe edges closer to banking union
By John O'Donnell and Edward Taylor, Reuters - FinancialPost.com
LUXEMBOURG/FRANKFURT – European Union ministers examined a proposal on Tuesday to limit planned new powers for the European Central Bank to supervise lenders, in a bid to allay the concerns of countries outside the eurozone over a new banking union.
The diplomatic drive came as the President of the ECB and Germany's markets regulator cautioned that setting up a new system of supervision would take up to the end of next year, later than many expected and a potential setback to efforts to help distressed eurozone countries and their banks.
Back to the Brink for the Eurozone?
By Kemal Derviş - Project-Syndicate.org
ISTANBUL – When European Central Bank President Mario Draghi announced in late July that the ECB would "do whatever it takes" to prevent so-called "re-denomination risk" (the threat that some countries might be forced to give up the euro and reintroduce their own currencies), Spanish and Italian sovereign-bond yields fell immediately. Then, in early September, the ECB's Council of Governors endorsed Draghi's vow, further calming markets.
IMF fears 'credit shock' in Spain if Rajoy blocks rescue
The International Monetary Fund has issued a veiled warning that Spanish bond spreads could surge to a record 7.5pc and push the country into a deeper crisis if premier Mariano Rajoy continues to drag his feet on a bail-out request.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
The fund said sovereign debt woes were spilling into the broader Spanish economy, risking a "pernicious feedback loop" for private companies. The danger is another bout of capital flight combined with a "credit shock" as banks deleverage drastically to meet higher capital ratios.
Olivier Blanchard, the IMF's chief economist, said Madrid was courting fate by trying to muddle through without a bail-out – and without the tough terms it would bring – now that borrowing costs had fallen on hopes of bond purchases by the European Central Bank.
The Eurozone's Narrowing Window
By Ashoka Mody - Project-Syndicate.org
PRINCETON – Portuguese authorities recently made a preemptive offer to their country's creditors: Instead of redeeming bonds maturing in September 2013, the government would stretch its repayment commitment out to October 2015. The deal was concluded on October 3, and has been interpreted as a successful market test for Portugal. Ireland's authorities have conducted similar recent operations, exchanging short-maturity paper for longer-term debt.
Spain Downgraded to One Level Above Junk by S&P on Risks
By Angeline Benoit and Ian Katz - Bloomberg.com
Spain's debt rating was cut to one level above junk by Standard & Poor's, which cited mounting economic and political risks as the government considers a second bailout.
The country was lowered two levels to BBB- from BBB+, New York-based S&P said in a statement yesterday. S&P assigned a negative outlook to the nation's long-term rating and lowered the short-term sovereign level to A-3 from A-2.
Nouriel Roubini Foresees Spain's Doom
despite Bankia Nationalization
by Barbara Zigah - eToro.com
(eToro Blog) Worries of a Eurozone breakup have recently escalated with Greece, but this recent news from Spain on the nationalization of Spanish lender Bankia will only exacerbate that sentiment. Nouriel Roubini, aka Dr. Doom, agrees and believes that Spain will lose market access by the year's end and would need a huge troika-approved bailout that would still only buy them time. Eventually, Spain might find itself alongside Greece – outside of the Eurozone.
A growing banking crisis in Spain is attempting to overshadow Greece's political mess. Yesterday, the Spanish government stepped in and took over Bankia, Spain's 4th largest lender, in an effort to assuage investors' escalating concerns. Critics have long condemned the Spanish government for failing to react and "fix" the financial sector which was essentially decimated by the property market crash that occurred over four years ago.
Tom Woods Talks Agorism, Economics,
and U.S. History on FOX News Station
Why the IMF has got it so hopelessly wrong on the euro crisis
David Cameron and George Osborne are not for turning, but the International Monetary Fund is plainly made of flimsier stuff. The latest flurry of economic analysis from the IMF – to coincide with the annual meeting in Tokyo – has revealed a not so subtle change of heart over fiscal austerity.
By Jeremy Warner - Telegraph.co.uk
David Cameron and George Osborne are not for turning, but the International Monetary Fund is plainly made of flimsier stuff. The latest flurry of economic analysis from the IMF – to coincide with the annual meeting in Tokyo – has revealed a not so subtle change of heart over fiscal austerity.
Even as recently as a year ago, the IMF was still vigorously banging the drum for fiscal orthodoxy – countries should strive to get on top of their deficits, the IMF said, and those under severe market pressure had no option but to implement deficit reduction plans "in full and without delay".
Japan's unintentional strong Yen policy
By: Steve Saville - GoldSeek.com
Over the years we have read many times that the Bank of Japan (BOJ) has rapidly inflated the supply of Yen. The 'pundits' who made such statements were obviously swayed by the numerous announcements of QE programs emanating from Japanese officialdom, but they should have done a little research rather than blindly assume that these QE programs led to large increases in the economy-wide Yen supply. If they had done the appropriate research they would have discovered that over the past 20 years the annual rate of growth in the Yen supply (Japan's monetary inflation rate) has oscillated in a narrow range around an average of only 2%, and that it is presently near this long-term average. This is illustrated by the following chart. The fact is that of the major currencies, the Yen has had by far the slowest rate of supply growth over the past two decades. That's why the Yen has maintained its purchasing power and why it has been a relatively strong currency on a long-term basis despite the many blatant short-term negatives.
Tech Says "Be Careful" With Stocks
BY CHRIS CIOVACCO - FinancialSense.com
Would you be interested in a logical way to monitor the odds of a correction occurring in stocks? If so, it is prudent to keep your eye on the health of technology stocks. The relative strength in tech stocks began to wane in early April 2012 (see A below); general market weakness followed three weeks later (see B). Technology stocks have seen renewed weakness since early September (see C), which may foreshadow a stock market correction (price moving toward D).
Jamie Dimon: I don't mind paying higher taxes
to help solve economic crisis
By Peter Schroeder - TheHill.com
JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Jamie Dimon on Wednesday accused Washington of completely mishandling the looming fiscal cliff — and said he'd be happy to pay higher taxes to avoid an economic crisis.
The head of the nation's largest bank said he is "barely" still a Democrat. But he threw his support behind Democrats in saying he would be fine paying more taxes to help resolve the economic threat to the country.
Bankers Growing More Worried About Student Loans
By: Allison Linn - CNBC.com
Here's the good news: Bankers seem pretty confident that most Americans will continue to pay off most of their consumer debt on time.
Here's the bad news: They're not nearly as optimistic about Americans' ability to deal with ballooning student loan debt.
A new quarterly survey of U.S. banks' risk managers finds that more than six in 10 expect student loan debt delinquencies to increase in the next six months. Only about 13 percent expect delinquencies to decrease.
Tim Geithner Is From Mars
And I'm Not The Only One From Venus
By Neil Barofsky - LinkedIn.com
While writing Bailout, I was forced to relive the otherworldly experience of my 27 months in Washington as the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. While I took great care in the book to make sure that the key events and anecdotes were based on more than just my own recollections (they were corroborated by documents, personal notes and other meeting participants), there was a small part of me that still couldn't quite believe what I had seen and heard. Did Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner really shower me with expletives when I urged him to be more transparent? Was Treasury's signature mortgage modification program truly not intended to help up to 4 million homeowners stay in their homes as publicly stated, but actually a way, in Geithner's own words, to "foam the runway" for the banks? Were all of those Treasury officials really engaging in a barrelful of dirty tricks in order to undermine our efforts to bring greater transparency to TARP and to protect taxpayers from fraud, waste and abuse?
Romney's Middle-Class Problem
By Jacob Sullum - PatriotPost.us
During last week's presidential debate, Mitt Romney repeatedly promised to "lower taxes on middle-income families" without reducing "the share paid by high-income individuals." But this combination will prove difficult, if not impossible, for the Republican candidate to deliver given the other elements of his tax reform plan -- especially his illogical definition of "middle-income families."
Romney's basic idea, which in broad outline has bipartisan support, is to "lower tax rates" and "broaden the base" by reducing deductions, credits and exemptions. He proposes cutting individual income tax rates by 20 percent, so that the top rate would be 28 percent rather than the current 35 percent and the bottom rate would drop from 10 percent to 8 percent. He also wants to abolish the estate tax, repeal the alternative minimum tax, and eliminate taxes on interest, dividends and capital gains for taxpayers earning less than $200,000.
Yes, We Can Fight Inequality:
3 Ways Washington Can Create Living-Wage Jobs
Some say Washington has run out of ways to help the low-income. Those people should consider the impact from raising the national minimum wage or paying more to government contractors.
By Annette Bernhardt - TheAtlantic.com
Since the first Occupy protests a year ago, the debate over inequality has largely focused on ways to rectify the capture of money and political power by the 1 percent. It's an urgently needed discussion, given the spectacle of bank bailouts, sky-rocketing CEO pay and blatant malfeasance by Wall Street and Congress. But much less attention has been given to the flip side of inequality, namely the collapse of the labor market for the 99 percent.
Jack Welch '100%' Right, Jobs Data Are Wrong: Trump
By: Javier E. David - CNBC.com
Last month's controversial U.S. payrolls report is "not correct," billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump told CNBC Tuesday, echoing a complaint voiced by several Obama administration critics that September's jobs report may have been manipulated for political purposes.
Trump effectively backed the position of former General Electric chairman and CEO Jack Welch — who ignited a firestorm on Twitter last Friday when he assailed the jobs data as "unbelievable."
Survey: 69 Percent of Employed Are Job Hunting
By: Christina Wilkie, The Huffington Post via CNBC.com
Seventy-five percent of working-age Americans are "job seekers" — they're currently looking for or open to a new job — according to an online survey of more than 2,100 people released this week by the hiring software company Jobvite.
Among the employed respondents to the 2012 Social Job Seeker Survey, 69 percent said they were either "actively seeking" a new job or "open to" a new job. That number is up from 61 percent in Jobvite's 2011 survey.
One U.S. industry that can't fill jobs fast enough
Companies confronted with a shortage of truck drivers
By Julia Zhu of Medill News Service
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Workers may find it difficult to get a job, but there's one industry where employers can't hire fast enough: trucking.
"We are absolutely seeing [a] driver shortage right now," said Rod Suarez from the American Trucking Association, the largest national trade association for trucking industry. "Employers have troubles finding qualified drivers. In some companies the hiring rate is lower than 10%."
CEO to Workers: You'll Likely Be Fired If Obama Is Re-elected
By Robert Frank - CNBC.com
David Siegel, the owner of Westgate Resorts, sent a surprising email to his employees Monday.
It said that if President Barack Obama wins re-election and raises Siegel's taxes, he will have to lay off workers and downsize his company — or even shut it down.
"If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, as our current President plans, I will have no choice but to reduce the size of this company," he wrote. "Rather than grow this company I will be forced to cut back. This means fewer jobs, less benefits and certainly less opportunity for everyone."
Mitt Romney, Big-Government Man
By John Stossel - PatriotPost.us
President Obama tanked in the last debate. Good.
Now maybe people will listen when Mitt Romney says things like, "The genius of America is the free enterprise system, and freedom, and the fact that people can go out there and start a business. ... The private market and individual responsibility always work best."
They do.
But then Romney responded to Obama by essentially saying: I want big government, too!
We who hope for smaller government as a way to expand liberty and create prosperity are disturbed by what we heard last week. The GOP candidate painted himself as a big government man.
Obama's Lucky Charms: A Hindu God In His Pocket, A Masonic Emblem, And A Ring That Says "There Is No God Except Allah"
By Michael Snyder - EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
Why do our politicians have to be so weird? You can tell a lot about a person by the jewelry that they wear and by the things that they carry around in their pockets, and Barack Obama's "lucky charms" include a Hindu god, a Masonic emblem and a "wedding ring" that has the phrase "there is no god except Allah" inscribed on it. So what do these things tell us about Barack Obama? That is a very good question. Perhaps someone should ask him about these items. If he is indeed a Prince Hall Freemason (as has been publicly reported), then he should just come out and admit it. If he feels a connection to Hinduism or Islam, then he should just come out and admit it. One of the biggest things that annoys so many people about Obama is the secrecy that he has about his past. There are vast stretches of his history that nobody is even supposed to talk about. We are all just supposed to accept that he is a "Christian" man that is not into any freaky stuff even when there is a tremendous amount of evidence to the contrary.
Romney's Abortion "Agenda"
Don't fall for his insinuation that he won't restrict abortion.
It's full of weasel words.
By William Saletan - Slate.com
Have you heard the news? Mitt Romney met with editors of the Des Moines Register yesterday and dropped a bombshell. "Romney promises no abortion legislation," says the Associated Press. "Romney: No abortion legislation," says Politico."Romney says no plans to restrict abortion," says Agence France-Presse.
Nope. That isn't what Romney said. This is a man with a long history of using technicalities to disguise his abortion views. You have to read his exact words, with attention to the loopholes. So let's back up and listen to the full audio of Romney's remarks.
Lindsey Williams: The Final Countdown
Getting Back on the Road to Prosperity
By Nate Jackson - PatriotPost.us
"The natural cure for an ill-administration, in a popular or representative constitution, is a change of men." --Alexander Hamilton
Editorial Exegesis
"The president's top-down interventions have virtually paralyzed our economy -- and [Mitt Romney has] presented a solution. ... The answer is pro-growth tax and regulatory reform. The answer is tax and regulatory certainty for businesses. The answer is growing our way out of the budget deficit with a broader, simpler tax base and reduced rates and deductions for all -- especially the risk-taker, the job creator and the entrepreneur. ... Mr. Obama has a much different recipe for lifting the middle class: higher taxes on investors, job creators and small businesses; borrowing money to fund more public-sector jobs and government construction projects; borrowing money to fund more green energy enterprises and projects...; and pushing more young people to seek a debt-funded college education when they have little hope of landing a job upon graduation. The suggestion that tax increases and higher energy prices will lift the middle class defies logic. But it's not terribly surprising coming from an administration that's completely lacking in business experience and openly hostile to free-market capitalism.
Race Cards
By Thomas Sowell - PatriotPost.us
If you are sick and tired of seeing politicians and others playing the race card, or if you are just disgusted with the grossly dishonest way racial issues in general are portrayed, then you should get a copy of Ann Coulter's new book, "Mugged." Its subtitle is: "Racial Demagoguery from the Seventies to Obama."
Few things are as rare as an honest book about race. This is one of the very few, and one of the very best.
Many people will learn for the first time from Ann Coulter's book how a drunken hoodlum and ex-convict, who tried to attack the police, was turned into a victim and a martyr by the media, simply by editing a videotape and broadcasting that edited version, over and over, across the nation.
Bitcoin Prevents Monetary Tyranny
BY JON MATONIS - FinancialSense.com
Bitcoin is not about making rapid global transactions with little or no fee. Bitcoin is about preventing monetary tyranny. That is its raison d'être.
Monetary tyranny can take many ugly forms. It can be deliberate inflation, persecutory capital controls, prearranged defaults within the banking cartel, or even worse, blatant sovereign confiscation. Sadly, those threats are a potential in almost any jurisdiction in the world today. The United States does not have a monopoly on monetary repression and monetary tyranny.
Facebook Fought SEC to Keep Mobile Risks Hidden Before IPO
By Linda Sandler, Brian Womack and Douglas MacMillan - Bloomberg.com
When Facebook Inc. (FB) filed its proposal Feb. 1 to go public, it touted the effectiveness of ads linked to customers' friends, citing research from Nielsen, the audience-counting company.
Barbara Jacobs, an assistant director for corporation finance at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, was skeptical, as she and her staff vetted the filing to ensure Facebook had disclosed all material information to investors. The claim appeared to be drawn from marketing materials, not a Nielsen study, she wrote to Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman, 42.
Facebook loses gains sparked by Zuckerberg
Shares down 15%
since CEO touted mobile-ad gains at conference
By Dan Gallagher, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Facebook Inc. slumped Wednesday, adding to a recent string of losses that has seen the social network's shares give up nearly all of the gains that were sparked by comments from CEO Mark Zuckerberg a month ago.
By late afternoon, Facebook shares were off by 3.5% to $19.51.
A few factors weighed on the stock Wednesday. A pair of brokerage notes expressed continued caution over the company's mobile ad business. Credit Suisse cut its price target on the stock to $24 from $34, keeping its rating at neutral.
FCC chairman warns telecom treaty proposals
would 'threaten the Internet'
By Jennifer Martinez - TheHill.com
The head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Wednesday warned that some of the proposals submitted for an international telecommunications treaty would "fundamentally threaten the Internet as we know it."
According to his prepared remarks for the Futurecom conference in Brazil, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said some of the proposals submitted for the upcoming International Telecommunications Regulations (ITR) treaty negotiations in Dubai could be used to allow monitoring of Web traffic, restrict online communications and give a United Nations agency authority to regulate cybersecurity. He argued that these proposals would be a major setback for innovation and the expansion of broadband Internet to developing countries.
High court re-examines affirmative action
By Sam Baker - TheHill.com
The Supreme Court signaled Wednesday that it could try to rein in affirmative action, following an intense assault on the idea from the court's conservative justices.
The court heard oral arguments in a case challenging the admissions process at the University of Texas. A white student who was rejected from the school sued, saying the admissions process was unfair because it gives partial preference to minority students.
The Forecast Calls For Tyranny
Disputed Islands With 45 Years of Oil Split China, Japan
By Aibing Guo and Rakteem Katakey - Bloomberg.com
China and Japan sat down for talks and agreed to jointly develop a natural gas field under the East China Sea, defusing a dispute between Asia's biggest economies over who owns the reserves. That was in 2008.
The accord, hailed as a model for cooperation at the time, has yet to be carried out and the countries now face a new territorial dispute, also in the East China Sea. The quarrel over who owns the uninhabited islands called Diaoyu by China and Senkaku by Japan is again linked to a prize beneath the ocean that may hold enough oil to keep China running for 45 years.
Full Steam Ahead for Suezmax Tankers,
Thanks to Iran Sanctions
By Jen Alic - OilPrice.com
It has not been a good year for super tankers, what with sanctions on Iran and the US shale boom that has resulted in reduced demand for cargo transport and a glut of vessels. But Europe's sanctions against Iran are providing a bit of relief for one specific type of tanker: the Suezmax, for which demand has been rising since the EU slapped sanctions on Iran in July.
Tanker earnings have been hard hit by the US shale gas boom, which has considerably lowered demand for US gas imports. According to Reuters, estimated earnings for large crude carriers will see a 24% drop from earlier predictions for 2013, while Suezmax tankers are expected to bring in 25% less than originally expected for next year.
Benghazi attack testimony
claims state department ignored warnings
Former security chiefs testify at heated House committee hearing that safeguarding US embassy in Libya was a 'struggle'
By Chris McGreal - Guardian.co.uk
Two former heads of US diplomatic security in Libya have told a congressional hearing that requests for additional agents to protect American officials and premises in the face of a growing threat from armed militias were rejected by the state department ahead of the attack on the Benghazi consulate that killed the US ambassador, Chris Stevens, and three other officials.
At a heated hearing before the House of representatives oversight committee, Republicans painted a picture of an incompetent state department failing to heed warnings of a growing terrorist threat or to prepare for a possible attack on the anniversary of 9/11, and then covering up the circumstances of the full scale militia assault that killed Stevens. They also accused Obama administration officials of attempting to suppress unclassified documents because they were politically embarrassing.
Netanyahu's dilemma:
Campaigning on a security ticket when Iran calls the shots
DEBKAfile
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced an early general election in January, 2013. Most pundits agreed he would lead his Likud party's campaign for reelection on the security ticket, namely the danger of a nuclear-armed Iran.
Netanyahu explained his decision by his coalition partners' refusal to make do with a "responsible budget" and said he would rather have his government fall than increase the deficit, especially when the country's top priority was stopping Iran gaining a nuclear bomb.
Running on the Iran ticket subjects him to three major difficulties:
Turkish F16s force Syrian flight from Moscow to land.
Ankara: Syrian air space no longer safe
DEBKAfile
Turkish air force jets forced a Syrian 35-passenger Airbus A320 bound from Moscow to Damascus to land in Ankara Wednesday night, Oct. 10, on suspicion it was carrying arms. Its cargo compartment was subjected to checks by Turkish officials. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu spoke of information that it may be carrying "certain equipment in breach of civil aviation rules."
At the same time, the Turkish foreign ministry released this statement: "All civilian flights in Syrian airspace have been stopped since it is not safe." TRT television said a Turkish plane that had already taken off for Saudi Arabia made a detour and landed at a Turkish airport.
Is a Larger Middle East War Inevitable?
By Claude Salhani - OilPrice.com
Double, double toil and trouble. All the elements for a larger regional conflict are slowly falling into place, just as the witches' ingredients in Shakespeare's Macbeth, as the fateful day, November 6th, or Election Day approaches.
First, the Turkish parliament voted last week to give the prime minister the authority to launch war against Syria. It was a precautionary move in case Syria's attacks against Turkish territory took a new twist. Over the last few weeks Syrian artillery has on various occasions fired across the border into Turkey. As recently as Monday the Syrians, according to reports from Turkey, fired mortars into Turkish territory.
Transhumanism , Stargates & Watchers
Tom Horn - Coast to Coast
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