As China (And Other Countries, Too) Makes Non-dollar Trade Deals Around the World, Maybe Americans Should Seek Safety in the Reincarnation Bank

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

Over at Investment Watch, a fine blog about the economy, this recent piece summarizes very nicely the forces working against the value of the U.S. dollar, notably the recent actions by China and other countries. The list of countries doing non-dollar deals is growing.

China is making non-dollar trade deals around the world. Other nations too..

Argentina and Brazil have reached a non-dollar deal and 4 other S.A. nations will join in non-dollar trade.

China has reached a non-dollar deal with both of those nations, 4 or 5 other nations and is working on one with Malaysia. Other Asian nations are reaching their own non-dollar trade deals.

All of this reduces the number of dollars they need to get rid of. They are also buying with dollars, copper, iron, oil mines, lending dollars to help nations develop new resource finds on the condition that China gets the resource at market prices.

At the same time, IMF bonds are being bought instead of U.S. bonds.  China, Russia, Brazil and India are involved:

China, Russia, Brazil, and India are buying IMF bonds instead of U.S. bonds in small quantities with China making the largest purchase of about 50 billion but, that is still $50 billion they can’t lend us then.

Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates is contemplating a new oil currency.

The author comments that:

The biggest problem China has is that there isn’t enough money in the world to lend the U.S for what it wants to spend. That means the dollar will go down whether China wants it to or not and they know it. That is why they are trying to spend as much as they can without dropping the dollar faster.

Also, recall that Iran has already given up the dollar for its oil deals. Iran’s international news network, PressTV, reported in December 2007 that Iran had dropped the dollar:

Iran has halted all its oil deals in dollars following the recent OPEC proposal to trade crude in non-dollar currencies.

“The dollar is no longer a reliable currency, considering its devaluation and the resulting loss suffered by oil exporters,” said Iranian Oil Minister Gholam-Hossein Nozari.

The post at Investment Watch goes on to discuss the the ramifications of devaluation and possible collapse of the dollar.

So, what’s the average American supposed to do?

Well, since the current financial system is a mess, maybe we should look to the future. Ever hear of the ReincarnationBank?

According to the bank’s website, ReincarnationBank offers “a safe and secure management system for its clients – a place they can leave behind their assets and commodities for their return into the next life.”

How will they know it’s YOU when you come back and want your money?

As in this life, in the next you will have memories of previous lives. One of these recollections will be of your arrangement with Reincarnation Bank. Whatever version of the internet or data retrieval mechanisms in use at the time of your return, you will renew your contact with Reincarnation Bank and through regression you will recall the details/instructions that you left at the time of making your deposit. A custodian of Reincarnation Bank will open your letter privately in your presence and will ask you to repeat the details contained therein (whilst in regression). Once this has been satisfactorily achieved, funds/property will be handed back to you and the account closed.

Of course, in some ways the bank is similar to banks operating in the present:

An indication of interest rates cannot be given at this stage because we cannot forecast how long we will be away. But $1000 or $10,000 invested now will have an added value upon our return.

MMM…

Heck,I have enough trouble remembering my PIN now…I don’t know if I’ll remember it if I’ve been spending some time as a gerbil…

What if my memory fails me during regression and I forget my former name?? I lose all my cash?

Well, with the way the present-day financial system is operating, maybe I should take a closer look anyway…and learn some tricks to improve my memory!

***

RELATED POSTS

HEADS UP! It’s HERE! The New World Currency Design, Presented to the G-8 Delegations (With Pics)

Money Matters: “Banker to the Poor” In Impoverished Countries Now Lending in U.S.; “Money Goddess” Advises Obama Administration; IMF Bonds Update

Russia-China Proposals; “Rebalancing” Global Currency Reserves: Why the U.S. Can’t Take Anything for Granted Re: the Dollar

The Scanner–International Edition, March 24, 2009: Say Goodbye to the Dollar? China, Russia Proposing a New World Currency for “Non-Credit” Based Economies, Echo G-20 Agenda of Expanding IMF; China Will “Consider” Buying IMF Bonds; 10th China Develpment Forum Underway (UPDATE 1X–Geithner Supports China Proposal??)

A.P. Clamping Down on Bloggers; New Stance Will Stifle “Even Minimal Use” of News Articles Online

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

Gee, do you think this will hurt the blogging community and our efforts to disseminate important news that we’re not seeing  on the TeeVee???

The Associated Press isn’t exactly shy about how they slant their stories, but down in the last paragraphs  you can often find the real meat of an issue that they’re reporting on.  But we won’t be able quote any of it.

From the New York Times, before the hammer falls (my highlighting):

A.P. Cracks Down on Unpaid Use of Articles on Web

Tom Curley, The A.P.’s president and chief executive, said the company’s position was that even minimal use of a news article online required a licensing agreement with the news organization that produced it. In an interview, he specifically cited references that include a headline and a link to an article, a standard practice of search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo, news aggregators and blogs.

Asked if that stance went further than The A.P. had gone before, he said, “That’s right.” The company envisions a campaign that goes far beyond The A.P., a nonprofit corporation. It wants the 1,400 American newspapers that own the company to join the effort and use its software.

“Software”-–what kind of software? Something for the newspapers to use or tracking software to chase down bloggers?

And then comes those fighting words:

“If someone can build multibillion-dollar businesses out of keywords, we can build multihundred-million businesses out of headlines, and we’re going to do that,” Mr. Curley said. The goal, he said, was not to have less use of the news articles, but to be paid for any use.

Does that last comment about the “goal” make complete sense? So much for the “Fourth Estate“!

And have no fear– “aggregator” sites like The Huffington Post will continue to inform us, although the rest of us small guys sure will be cut off  (did you know that The Huffington Post is being called a “news aggregator”?):

Some popular news aggregators like The Huffington Post and Google News have licensing agreements, paying The A.P. for the use of its material. But no comparable agreements cover general Internet searches that turn up news articles with a variety of other results.

Years ago I worked for ETS writing reading comprehension tests for the TOEFL exams (Test of English as a Foreign Language) and one of the hardest tasks was to find usable sections of articles and books that met ETS’ standards.  We had copyright rules to follow.  Out of a certain number of pages in a chapter or book, we were limited in the amount that we were allowed to extract.  That seem to satisfy the law for print materials at that time.

Now, it looks like we can’t even use a LINK to an A.P. story! For all the “communications” technology and TV channels we have, the reality is that, especially for those without computers or those with computers but who have no time,  the information that we want to have is getting harder and harder to locate.

But, I guess, that’s the way the Media Borg wants it to be, right?

The Past Week: July 19-25, 2009 (The Journalism School Named after Walter Cronkite; Poor Economy, Cash-Strapped Families = Unclaimed Bodies of Loved Ones)

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

The passing of Walter Cronkite resulted in lots of solemn eulogies in TeeVee-land, and I have to say that woman I saw one afternoon on CNN exclaiming that he “wasn’t just a newsreader” made me chortle…she obviously thought SHE wasn’t a newsreader and spoke with some authority on the matter as she conversed with somebody who was reminiscing about Cronkite’s tremendous experience.  What a joke!  This young chippy chit-chatted her way through the “news” as if she were doing an infomercial…

Cronkite, of course, was the man everyone watched during the moon landing back in 1969.  And, I’m also old enough to remember his reporting on the Kennedy assassination (and Dan Rather, who was local in Dallas back then.) By accident, while noodling around the web during the moon landing anniversary, I came across the website of the Cronkite School New Media Academy | The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication which is at Arizona State University.

It produced Aaron Brown, among others. But who knows if it is really living up to the expectations espoused in the “Welcome” message. For example, the connection to ABC news doesn’t exactly inspire.  And where do really good journalism students go lately even IF they do get a decent education in journalism? (And that’s a big IF, to assume any really good journalists are coming out of journalism schools these days.)  Do they go MSBNC? CNN? NBC? FOX? etc., etc.

Don’t think so…

***

Signs of the times… From the Los Angeles Times:

More bodies go unclaimed as families can’t afford funeral costs

According to the story, “The poor economy is taking a toll even on the dead, with an increasing number of bodies in Los Angeles County going unclaimed by families who cannot afford to bury or cremate their loved ones.”

The victims of homicide and suspicious deaths are being cremated at taxpayer expense because people can’t afford services, so are leaving bodies of loved ones unclaimed.

And the L.A. county  is so much busier that they are no longer accepting bodies from the coroner. That office is now contracting private crematories to handle the load.

Apparently the situation in L.A. isn’t unique:

Coroners and funeral directors around the country say they are seeing the same trend as cash-strapped families cope with funeral costs. Just claiming a body from the L.A. County coroner costs $200. Once a body is claimed, private cremations usually run close to $1,000, Smith said. Funeral homes charge an average of $7,300 to transport and bury a body in a simple grave, according to the National Funeral Home Directors Assn.

…Can’t even rest in peace these days…

THE PAST WEEK

*By KenoshaMarge

*VOTING IN LOCKSTEP IS NOW A GOOD THING? (Not According to SOME Democrats in Congress…)

Chicago Suburb Hosts Hizb ut-Tahrir Conference; Organization Aims to Re-Establish an International Islamic State (Caliphate), Supports Jihad

The Past Week: July 12-18, 2009 (Energy-Saving Porch Project; “Full Plates Full Lives” Food Campaign; JFK, Jr.)

VOTING IN LOCKSTEP IS NOW A GOOD THING? (Not According to SOME Democrats in Congress…)

~~By Kenosha Marge

We just get used to hearing from the left about how too-too terrible it is when the right tries to muzzle and/or oust it’s “moderates’, aka too liberal members. Those evil GOPers don’t want/allow dissenting voices in their party. Big Tent? More like little pup tent. Gives us more reason to hate them.

Some sort of tent...

So now we appear superior while welcoming (yuck) Snarlin’ Arlen Specter over to our side. Because of course he was too moderate for those evil rat-bastards on the right. Ignore the fact that he knew he couldn’t get re-elected by the voters of his state. So after being promised all sorts of lovely baubles he turned to the light. Hallelujah!

Meanwhile when some recalcitrant Democrats dig their heels in it isn’t seen as being moderate. They’re ignoble “conservative” Democrats from evil conservative districts and states. They must be expunged. Or whipped into line. Threatened even.

Under no circumstances are they to show any sign of individuality or be given the right to think for themselves. Or vote the way their constituents want them to vote. Mercy me no. What an idea!

What happened to the frenzy about those moronic Republicans that voted in lockstep with their leadership and White House? Wasn’t that supposed to be a really bad thing? What’s different now? Oh right, the Democrats are in the majority, a Faux-Democrat is in the White House and now lockstep voting is de riguer.

Locksteppers...

I just can’t seem to get the whole double standard, hypocrite thing right. It’s not as if as a normal human being I haven’t been guilty of being a hypocrite or of using a double standard. There is no halo above my head and I am ashamed when someone points out my hypocrisy. And therein lies the difference because I am ashamed.

The difference between normal human beings and politicians is that we normals take offense when people call us names and insult our families.

We normals are ashamed when caught out in some wrongdoing. They are just ashamed they got caught.

We normals are ashamed when we’re caught being hypocrites. Hypocrisy is part and parcel of their DNA.

Politicians like to pretend that the drivel they spew contains words of wisdom. They also like to ignore the fact those words are a complete contradiction of what they formerly said. Evidently to them this is of no consequence.

You often read that politicians decide to ride out a crap-storm because they believe they can depend on the public’s well-known short memory. They also count on the fact that the media is usually too busy with dead rock stars, live half naked young women, and kissing the buttocks of whatever party is in power to bother with actual reporting on who said what and when.

So now the Democratic Party seems intent on eating and beating up on it’s own:

DNC targeting centrist Dems in health ads

And then there are those damn Blue Dog Democrats which must be spayed and/or neutered.

A Blue Dog...

Cause we like lockstep voting now.

Flip Flopping?

Yellow Dog Democrats anyone? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_dog_Democrat

A Yellow Dog...

Oh, for the record, here are the Blue Dogs as listed at the Blue Dog Coalition site if you want to know more…That is,  instead of just taking the word of some one ranting about how evil they are and how they must be punished for their un-lockstep ways…

Blue Dog Leadership Team

Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Administration
Rep. Baron Hill (IN-09), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Policy
Rep. Charlie Melancon (LA-03), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Communications
Rep. Heath Shuler (NC-11), Blue Dog Whip

Blue Dog Members

Altmire, Jason (PA-04)
Arcuri, Mike (NY-24)
Baca, Joe (CA-43)
Barrow, John (GA-12)
Berry, Marion (AR-01)
Bishop, Sanford (GA-02)
Boren, Dan (OK-02)
Boswell, Leonard (IA-03)
Boyd, Allen (FL-02)
Bright, Bobby (AL-02)
Cardoza, Dennis (CA-18)
Carney, Christopher (PA-10)
Chandler, Ben (KY-06)
Childers, Travis (MS-01)
Cooper, Jim (TN-05)
Costa, Jim (CA-20)
Cuellar, Henry (TX-28)
Dahlkemper, Kathy (PA-03)
Davis, Lincoln (TN-04)
Donnelly, Joe (IN-02)
Ellsworth, Brad (IN-08)
Giffords, Gabrielle (AZ-08)
Gordon, Bart (TN-06)
Griffith, Parker (AL-05)
Harman, Jane (CA-36)
Herseth Sandlin, Stephanie (SD)
Hill, Baron (IN-09)
Holden, Tim (PA-17)
Kratovil, Jr., Frank (MD-01)
McIntyre, Mike (NC-07)
Marshall, Jim (GA-03)
Matheson, Jim (UT-02)
Melancon, Charlie (LA-03)
Michaud, Mike (ME-02)
Minnick, Walt (ID-01)
Mitchell, Harry (AZ-05)
Moore, Dennis (KS-03)
Murphy, Patrick (PA-08)
Nye, Glenn (VA-02)
Peterson, Collin (MN-07)
Pomeroy, Earl (ND)
Ross, Mike (AR-04)
Salazar, John (CO-03)
Sanchez, Loretta (CA-47)
Schiff, Adam (CA-29)
Scott, David (GA-13)
Shuler, Heath (NC-11)
Space, Zack (OH-18)
Tanner, John (TN-08)
Taylor, Gene (MS-04)
Thompson, Mike (CA-01)
Wilson, Charles (OH-06)

Chicago Suburb Hosts Hizb ut-Tahrir Conference; Organization Aims to Re-Establish an International Islamic State (Caliphate), Supports Jihad

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

We’ve been following stories about Sharia law and finance for quite some time, and American Lassie has alerted us to another related development.

Here’s some basic information on the story with a thanks to the Investigative Project on Terrorism:

Pro-Terror Group to Meet in Chicago Suburb

IPT News
July 10, 2009

Hizb ut-Tahrir, an international movement seeking to re-establish an international Islamic state – or Caliphate – and to indoctrinate Muslims into supporting jihad, wants to step up its recruitment efforts in the United States. On July 19, the group, whose alumni include 9/ 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and suicide bombers, will hold a conference entitled “The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam” in the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton Hotel in Oak Lawn, Ill, a Chicago suburb.

For decades, Hizb ut-Tahrir America (HTA) has operated covertly, holding these Khalifa (Caliphate) conferences in the United States under the name of front organizations. But that has begun to change. Last fall, the group issued a leaflet in its own name urging Muslims to boycott the U.S. elections. The group just released this video promoting the July 19 conference. According to the conference website, the program includes a question-and-answer session and two panels; one entitled “Capitalism is Doomed to Fail,” the other “The Suffering Under Capitalism.”

The conference initially was scheduled for the Aqsa School in Bridgeview, Ill. But the school withdrew, claiming Hizb ut-Tahrir officials “misrepresented themselves.” An official said the group approached the school in late April claiming it wanted to hold a bazaar-type event in July that would involve selling traditional food and clothing. School officials said that when they learned the real purpose, they cancelled and refunded the group’s deposit.

I located a video report on the conference at the WLS website (WLS is the local ABC affiliate in Chicago).  A spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations claims Hzib ut-Tahrir’s teachings “are not based on authentic Islamic doctrine” and “the proper response” to their teachings  “is that their philosphy should be debunked.”  According to the report, approximately 700 attendees flowed through the event during the day. The cover of the event program was shown in the video.

The Investigative Project on Terrorism‘s story continues–note the numbers of members in Indonesia, Barack Obama’s childhood home:

While solid numbers are difficult to come by, there is little question that Hizb ut-Tahrir’s worldwide membership has grown substantially since the September 11 attacks, says Madeleine Gruen, a senior analyst with the NEFA Foundation. In 2003, estimates of HT membership ranged from 10,000 to 100,000 people worldwide. Today, by contrast, the group (currently active in more than 40 countries) has approximately 100,000 members in Indonesia alone and “many thousands” more around the world, Gruen told IPT News.

In the United States, Hizb ut-Tahrir’s following is estimated at no more than a few hundred. The decision to hold this month’s conference under its own name is a sign that the group is preparing to raise its profile. Once that is achieved, Gruen adds, its cadres are supposed to establish “an Islamic government and military” in order to take Hizb ut-Tahrir’s message to the world.

HT seeks to fuse an ideology combining orthodox Islam, Marxist-Leninist economics, anti-Semitism and opposition to Western democracy into a political program to bring back the Caliphate. Despite its public rhetoric about nonviolence, Hizb ut-Tahrir has “precisely the same ideology and objectives” as al Qaeda, Gruen told IPT News. And HT has a much larger membership base to recruit from, she added.

While it refrains from carrying out terrorist actions itself, Hizb ut-Tahrir glorifies jihadism and excoriates the terrorist organization Hamas as being too soft on Israel. In a leaflet posted on its website July 1, HT said that if the Caliphate were in existence, all of “Palestine” would be rid of “the usurpation of the Jewish occupiers” and brought “to the fold of the Islamic state.”

MORE

I tracked down the group’s website and found the very sophisticated page of the Media Office, which includes a radio channel. If you click on the headline for 26 Rajab 1430 titled Hizb ut-Tahrir’s Forthcoming Rajab Events: Latest Update you will arrive at a page that has video about all the events worldwide that were held on July 19.  Countries holding conferences included the Ukraine, Mauritius, Tanzania, and Bangladesh. The conference in Lebanon apparently had a theme called “Jihad in Islam.”

In Britain, there are “2 global conferences to take place in London and Birmingham on 26th July 2009 and 2nd August 2009. The conferences are entitled “The Struggle for Islam and the Call for Khilafah“. There is a video with information about these conferences and you can link directly to Hzib ut-Tharir’s British site from this page.

***

American Lassie’s April 14, 2009 post entitled Sharia Finance: Rapidly Increasing Inroads Via American Banks…With the Help of Our Treasury Department details other aspects of the inroads being made here in the U.S. It is a must read!

Other relevant pieces that we have posted here at IA include:

The Scanner–Politics March 18, 2009: (Taitz-Supreme Court; Sharia Law in Minnesota re: Home Mortgages; Stimulus Money Wanders from the States; Privatizing Vets’ Healthcare)

The SCANNER-Politics 11/7/08: Newsweek Editors on Charlie Rose in the SCARIEST Description of Obama So Far…(Video/Partially Transcripted); Sharia Hits the Treasury Department/HARVARD Alert!; Hill the Shill (UPDATE 1X)

While Hillary and Sarah Get Trashed in the U.S., Muslim Women in Britain Get Sharia Law

Obama-Odinga:50-50 Split Demands Sound SOOOO FAMILIAR…(UPDATE 1X–Author of “The Obama Nation” Detained in Kenya; UPDATE 2X–Corsi Released, Odinga Official Website

We’ll keep watching for any further developments on this front…