NEW ISRAELIS COME TO ISRAEL BEFORE NEW YEAR

yahoo Canada News picture THE EU 27 COUNTRIES








Uncovered street / Ir David picture INNews


Drainage canal / Ir David picture INNews

THE OBNOXIOUS DECIEVING MEDIA SAID THERE WERE THOUSANDS ONLY AT THE MARCH SATURDAY MEANWHILE REPORTS HAVE IT THERE WERE FROM 1 TO 2 MILLION PEOPLE AT THE MARCH.OBAMA YOU AND YOUR ADMINISTRATION HAD BETTER START LISTENING TO THE PEOPLE INSTEAD OF BEING A PUPPET TO THE NEW WORLD ORDER ,NEW AGE OCCULT,EUGENICIST NUTCASES.

COVERUP OF REAL CROWD NUMBERS
http://www.infowars.com/massive-corporate-media-coverup-of-real-numbers-at-d-c-rally/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sjvc6baor8&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtdzSTfe4W8&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eppSWxpbO8g&feature=player_embedded
CHARLIE SHEEN AND JONES WORK TOGETHER
http://rss.nfowars.net/20090911_Fri_Alex.mp3
http://rss.nfowars.net/20090910_Thu_Alex.mp3
http://rss.nfowars.net/20090909_Wed_Alex.mp3

National Park Service Admits 9/12 Demo Largest On Record
Thomas Lifson American Thinker September 14, 2009

Editor’s note: People on scene said the number was around 2 million people.

The truth will out. Despite mainstream media attempts to characterize turnout as in the thousands, a spokesman for the National Park Service, Dan Bana, is quoted as saying It is a record…. We believe it is the largest event held in Washington, D.C., ever.Democrats and their media acolytes may wish this weren’t so, and they may even employ the Ostrich Strategy, burying their collective heads in the sand, pretending that a major important political movement isn’t happening. But they only hasten their own demise in doing so.Meanwhile, Gateway Pundit compares the littler left behind on 9/12 with the aftermath of the Obama inauguration. It is a startling contrast.

THE MEDIA IS TRYING TO MAKE THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION LOOK SO GOOD BY SAYING THE ADMINISTRATION IS MAKING 1 MILLION JOBS APPEAR,MEANWHILE 2.4 MILLION LOST JOBS LAST YEAR ADD AT LEAST 3 MILLION TO THAT THIS YEAR YOU GET 5.4 MILLION JOBS LOST IN 2 YEARS AND WHO KNOWS HOW LONG IT WILL TAKE TO GET THE ADMINISTRATIONS 1 MILLION JOBS DONE,COULD BE 5 YEARS BY THEN THERE WOULD 20.4 MILLION JOBS LOST TO 1 MILLION MADE.PEOPLE QUIT BEING DUPED BY THESE LIARS IN THE WALLSTREET AND MEDIA AND THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION.

TRICHET SPEAKS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1252911610&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1252744165&play=1
G-20 AT CRITICAL PHASE
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1252649820&play=1
REWRITING FINANCIAL NEWS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1252949869&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1252811320&play=1
FINANCIAL CRISIS 1 YR AFTER LEHMAN DUMPED
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1252808421&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1253037372&play=1
OBAMA ON FINANCIAL REFORM AT NOON
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1253045245&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1253112794&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1253119429&play=1

Most job losses in US last year since 1945, with more to come
By David Walsh 5 January 2009

Economists are estimating that the US lost 2.4 million jobs in 2008, which would be the most lost in any year since the end of World War II, according to a survey conducted by Bloomberg.com. Other analysts are predicting the elimination of as many or more jobs in 2009.The Bloomberg survey came in advance of the Bureau of Labor Statistics report on unemployment for December due out January 9. The economists polled estimate that US payrolls fell by 500,000 last month and that the official jobless rate will reach its highest level since 1993.Manufacturing is expected to have lost another 100,000 or more jobs as factory production declined in December at the fastest rate in 28 years.Bloomberg cites the comments of Michael Feroli, economist at JPMorgan Chase: We're continuing to lose massive amounts of jobs. The negative momentum carrying over into the first half of 2009 will hold down the economy regardless of policy.Indeed, in the opinion of many observers, the worst is yet to come. Douglas McIntyre, an editor at 247wallst.com, commented January 4: Many large industries may only be at the beginning of their layoff cycles. That is certainly true of retail. Some estimates are that another 70,000 stores will close in the U.S. this year. The auto industry will cut more jobs either to please Congress or due to outright bankruptcies. Small business has almost no access to capital, so that part of the economy is likely to eat through jobs as well.

Unemployment almost certainly went above 7 percent in December. Retail layoffs could push that toward 8 percent all by themselves. The idea that the entire economy could drop another three million jobs this year is entirely possible.In a report issued in late December, the executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas predicted that more than 1 million jobs would be cut in 2009. CNNMoney.com added, Last week, consulting firm Watson Wyatt (WW) said that 23 percent of companies surveyed in early December plan layoffs in the next year. The report also said that 39 percent had already cut their work force—up from 19 percent in October.December 28, in an article headlined Outlook for 2009 is grim, the Boston Globe commented: Employers, who have slashed nearly 2 million jobs in the last year, are projected to cut at least that many more jobs in the next year, according to several economic forecasts.The US unemployment rate, now at 6.7 percent, is forecast by many economists to rise above 8 percent—or even higher. IHS Global Insight, a Waltham [Massachusetts] forecasting firm, projects the jobless rate will hit 9.4 percent by the end of 2009, a level not seen since 1982, when unemployment hit a post-World War II high of nearly 11 percent.The Globe continues: Some analysts expect the economy to shrink at an annual rate of as much as 6 percent in the last quarter of this year, then at about a 4 percent pace in the first three months of 2009 before the decline flattens. Even in the worst quarters of the last two recessions—1990-91 and 2001—the economy contracted at no more than a 3 percent annual rate.

By the time all the calculations are done, the 2008 holiday shopping season is expected to have been the worst in four decades. In an expression of the sharp contraction in consumer spending, Electronic Arts, a video-game publisher, recently announced plans to lay off 1,000 workers, or 10 percent of its workforce, and close or consolidate nine studio and publishing locations.In relation to retail, Burt Flickinger III, managing director of New York consulting firm Strategic Resource Group, predicts the closure of at least 200,000 stores and 2,000 to 3,000 malls in the US this year, most of them in the next few months.In the more marginal malls, a quarter to a half of the space will have the lights turned off, and then you'll see whole abandoned shopping centers,he told the San Francisco Chronicle.According to Forbes magazine, nearly 200,000 workers have been laid off from Fortune 500 companies since November. More than 1.2 million Americans were hit by temporary layoffs in November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.Considered an indicator of economic development, the US steel industry is undergoing a deep crisis. The New York Times commented January 1 As steel production goes—and it is now in collapse—so will go the national economy.American steel production, decimated in the 1980s and reduced to a fraction of its former dimensions, has plunged 50 percent since September. Output in December was down to 1.02 million tons a week from 2.1 million tons in August. The price of a ton of steel has also been halved.

Ten thousand steelworkers have already been temporarily laid off, and the United Steelworkers anticipates another 20,000 workers to be on furlough early in 2009.The Times comments: The sharp slide in steel production has several causes. Construction and auto production have fallen sharply; between them, they account for 57 percent of the steel bought each year in the United States, according to the Iron and Steel Institute. Appliances, machinery and other electrical equipment account for an additional 13 percent, and the fall-off in production of these goods has also reduced steel orders.Dozens of firms and government departments or agencies are announcing layoffs on nearly a daily basis. The Wall Street Journal reported December 30 that many firms priding themselves on never laying off workers are changing their policies, in the face of an economic slump unprecedented in the modern era.The Journal cites the case of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, which has weathered past recessions over the past half-century and even the September 11 crisis without laying off employees. This autumn Enterprise laid off 1,000 workers, as the number of Americans driving and flying has fallen. The company's vice president explained, These types of declines are unprecedented.The newspaper continued,The deepening recession is prompting layoffs at long-established employers that avoided job cuts in previous downturns. These layoffs demonstrate both the severity of the current recession and the continued erosion of workplace norms that once shielded many US workers from permanent job loss.

For example, Gentex Corp, a Zeeland, Michigan auto parts suppliers, carried out its first layoffs in 34 years in December. The company, which makes rear-view cameras and other gear for cars and airplanes, earlier this month dismissed about 370 employees, or roughly 15 percent of its staff, in its first layoffs.A world-wide decline in car sales finally forced the company's hand. In the third quarter, sales fell 6 percent and profit dropped 49 percent.... Other parts makers have cut back, too. Employment at part makers fell 12 percent in October, compared with a year earlier.Duke University and CFO Magazine reported in December that Chief financial officers in the United States and around the world are more pessimistic than at any time in the history of their Global Business Outlook Survey.The majority of chief financial officers in the US and Europe say their firms will slash spending and employment in 2009, and their firms will post losses.A record 81 percent of US CFOs are more pessimistic about the economy this quarter (twice as many as last quarter), and 85 percent of European and Asian CFOs are more pessimistic.

DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADE BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).

Libertas leader rejoins battle against EU treaty
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today SEPT 14,09 @ 09:24 CET

Irish millionaire and anti-Lisbon Treaty campaigner Declan Ganley has made a late and unexpected return to battle in the country's second referendum on the EU pact. Mr Ganley, the founder of Libertas - a eurosceptic political party which was hammered in the June EU elections - at a press conference in Dublin on Sunday (13 September) announced the revival of his anti-treaty operation, but this time on a much smaller scale.Describing the new EU guarantees obtained by the irish government on Ireland's full sovereignty over moral issues, taxation and military neutrality, the businessman said the Yes forces have resorted to lying in their desperation.

[The Yes side has] utter contempt for the democratic decision of the Irish people, the Dutch people, the French people and indeed, all of the citizens of Europe,he said, referring to earlier Irish, Dutch and French No results on EU treaty referendums.He added that we will not be running a campaign like the last Lisbon campaign,however.The resources that we have are minuscule in comparison to the Yes side.The new Ganley campaign, for which he hopes to fundraise between €50,000 and €200,000, will involve a series of billboards, posters and advertisements in newspapers. Mr Ganley also said he would not be campaigning full-time.Despite its more modest scale, the move represents a u-turn for Mr Ganley.Earlier this year Mr Ganley said that he would not campaign in the second Lisbon referendum, after just one Libertas candidate - Philippe de Villiers of the hard-right Mouvement pour la France managed to win a seat in the European Parliament.

I can take No for an answer,he told the Irish Times in June.On Friday, ahead of his official Dublin press conference, Mr Ganley gave an extended interview to the Wall Street Journal, arguing that the very decision of European leaders to force a second referendum is reason enough to vote No again.Why, when the French voted No, the Dutch voted no and the Irish voted no, are we still being force-fed the same formula? he said.He also complained about Article 48 in the Lisbon Treaty, which according to Mr Ganley, allows EU leaders in future with just intergovernmental agreement, with no need of going back to the citizens anywhere, [to] make any change to this constitutional document, adding any new powers, without having to revisit an electorate anywhere.He also is opposed to the treaty's creation of the positions of President of the European Council and High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.Presumably they're going to be speaking for me, right, because I'm a citizen,he said.But I don't get to vote for or against these people. So, who mandates them, if not me, as a citizen, or you? Oh, so somebody who is how many places removed from me selects from within one of their own. They never have to debate with a competitor. I'm never given a choice of, do you want Tom, Joe or Anne. I'm presented with my president. Do I walk backward out of the room now? he told the US newspaper.In the latest update on public opinion in Ireland three weeks ahead of the Irish vote, a survey by Red C for Ireland's Sunday Business Post on 13 September suggested that the Yes side is solidifying its support.The poll reported that 52 percent intended to vote Yes in the referendum, against 25 percent who will vote No, with 23 percent undecided.

EU countries practice secret diplomacy, Hamas says Ruined house in Gaza: 1,382 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed during Operation Cast Lead, Israeli NGO B'Tselem has said (Photo: zoriah)ANDREW RETTMAN Today SEPT 14,09 @ 09:19 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - High-ranking officials from European countries hold talks with Hamas on a weekly basis despite an EU ban on diplomatic contact, a spokesman for the group has told EUobserver.We meet a lot of them from France, from Spain, from Germany, from Italy, from England, from Luxembourg. When they listen to us and we spend a couple of hours with them, they understand what is the real image of Hamas,the group's spokesman, Ghazi Hamad, told this website in a telephone interview on Saturday (12 September).None of them are ministers in their governments ... some of them are ambassadors. Some are assistants to ambassadors,he said.Some of them are very close to the president of their country, or to the foreign minister.Any high-level European visits would go against the spirit of a 2006 EU decision to halt talks with the militant organisation. The EU in 2003 also listed Hamas as a terrorist entity, putting a legal block on financial assistance. I can't give any names,Mr Hamad said.Most of them want to keep it a secret. They want to continue contact but they don't want to be pestered by the Israeli authorities when they come.
He referred to Germany's work in negotiations on the release of Israeli hostage Gilad Shalit, revealed last month by Egypt, as an example of useful European intervention.The Germans have come as a mediator. They try to contribute, to help with their experience of prisoner exchanges. Everybody sees that these people have an important role,Mr Hamad said.Hamas sees the European Union as a more neutral party than the US in the Middle East peace process. But it is critical of the EU's acceptance of a US monopoly on the talks. It is also aggrieved at what it sees as EU double standards in maintaining normal relations with Israel.

Keeping silent

When I met [EU foreign relations chief] Mr Javier Solana in 2005, I told him: Why do you put Hamas in the terrorist list and at the same time you say that the [Israeli] assassination policy is not legal, that building settlements is not legal, that building the wall in the West Bank is not legal? So why don't you impose sanctions on Israel, or isolate Israel? He kept silent,Mr Hamad said.The last war in Gaza should give a red light to the Europeans that this country is not normal. They killed 1,500 people in 20 days,he added, in reference to Israel's Operation Cast Lead in January.Why did the EU keep silent on this? Many friends of mine were killed. Many friends. Innocent people, who have no connection to Hamas.Mr Hamad warned that if the EU revives a 2008 plan to upgrade diplomatic ties with Israel, it would damage links with Arab states. I think this would have very bad consequences on the relationship between Europeans and the Arabs and Muslims,he said.The EU must understand that Hamas is a big organisation now, a political player. Many countries in the Arabic and Muslim world respect Hamas.The EU has said it is willing to lift the 2006 diplomatic ban if Hamas accepts Israel's right to exist and renounces violence.But aside from the technical requirements, the EU and Israel portray Hamas as extremists who murder political opponents and who subscribe to a 1988 charter containing prophecies of an Islamic state and anti-Semitic language about Jewish plots to rule the world.

Under cover of war

A recent Human Rights Watch report said that masked gunmen went on a killing spree in Gaza during and after Operation Cast Lead.The gunmen murdered 32 people, mostly suspected of collaborating with Israel, between 27 December and 31 March, the report said. Gunmen also inflicted bullet wounds on the legs of 49 people, mostly linked to the rival Palestinian group, Fatah, in January.Mr Hamad admitted that some people broke Palestinian law. But he said that Hamas authorities have tried to curb internecine attacks.We made some mistakes. But this is not our policy. Our government is against all kinds of torture. We punished many people from the government, from Hamas itself,he said.The spokesman described the 1988 charter as an anachronism which is no longer politically relevant.Many changes have taken place in Hamas since 1988 and you have to take this into account. This [the charter] is not a reference for Hamas policy, especially in recent times,he said.Hamas today is more open, more pragmatic. We are not against Jewish people. We are not against Jews because they are Jewish. We are against the occupation.

URGENT PRAYER FOR ROSH HASHANA IN ISRAEL TONIGHT
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/133409

DISEASES

REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).

DRUG PUSHERS AND ADDICTS

REVELATION 18:23
23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries (DRUGS) were all nations deceived.

REVELATION 9:21
21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries (DRUGS), nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

Nano Particles used in Untested H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccines
F. William Engdahl Global Research September 14, 2009

Vaccines which have been approved by the responsible government authorities for vaccination against the alleged H1N1 Influenza A Swine Flu have been found to contain nano particles. Vaccine makers have been experimenting with nanoparticles as a way to turbo charge vaccines for several years. Now it has come out that the vaccines approved for use in Germany and other European countries contain nanoparticles in a form that reportedly attacks healthy cells and can be deadly.
There is only one small problem with vaccines containing nanoparticles — they can be deadly and at the least cause severe irreparable health damage.In 2007 researchers at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) announced in an article in the journal, Nature Biotechnology, that they had developed a nanoparticle that can deliver vaccines more effectively, with fewer side effects, and at a fraction of the cost of current vaccine technologies.The article went on to describe the effects of their breakthrough: At a mere 25 nanometers, these particles are so tiny that once injected, they flow through the skin’s extracellular matrix, making a beeline to the lymph nodes. Within minutes, they’ve reached a concentration of DCs thousands of times greater than in the skin. The immune response can then be extremely strong and effective.1 There is only one small problem with vaccines containing nanoparticles—they can be deadly and at the least cause severe irreparable health damage.

Nanoparticles, promoted in the mass media as the new wonder revolution of science, are particles that have been produced vastly smaller than deadly asbestos particles which caused severe lung damage and death before being outlawed. Particles at a nano size, (nm = 0,000000001 Meter) fuse together with the membranes of our body cell membranes and, according to recent studies in China and Japan, continuously destroy cells once introduced into the body. Once they interact with the body’s cellular structure, they cannot be removed. Modern medicine euphemistically terms the phenomenon, a continuing infectious reaction. Since the asbestos scandal, it has been established that particles in size a millionth of a meter, because of their enormous attractive force, penetrate all cells, destroying all those they come into contact with. Nanoparticles are far smaller than asbestos fibers.

Beijing Tests confirm deadly effects on humans

The fact that WHO, the European Medicines Evaluation Agency, the German Robert Koch Institute and other health bodies today would permit the population to be injected with largely untested novel vaccines containing nanoparticles says more about the powerful pharma lobby in Euiropean politics than it does about the sanity or moral integrity of the civil servants responsible for health of the general public. The September 2009 issue of the respected European Respiratory Journal, made public on 19 August, and available since 21 August online, contains a peer-reviewed article with the title,Exposure to nanoparticles is related to pleural effusion, pulmonary fibrosis and granuloma.The article describes tests carried out in 2008 at the elite Beijing Chaoyang Hospital on seven young women. All seven, ages 18-47 had been exposed to nanoparticles for 5–13 months in their common workplace. All were admitted to the hospital with shortness of breath and pleural effusions, or excessive fluids surrounding the lungs, inhibiting breathing. None of the seven had ever smoked and none were in any special risk group. Doctors carefully tested for every possibility and confirmed that the lung problems had a common origin—regular inhalation of nanoparticles in their factory. They had been exposed to Polyacrylat nanoparticles.The tests confirmed the nanoparticles had set off a super-meltdown reaction in the patients. Despite all heroic efforts of doctors, two of the seven died from the lung complications. 2 In their report, the scientists concluded something so alarming it is necessary to quote at length:Immunological tests, examinations of bacteriology, virology and tumour markers, bronchoscopy, internal thoracoscopy and video-assisted thoracic surgery were performed. Surveys of the workplace, clinical observations and examinations of the patients were conducted. Polyacrylate, consisting of nanoparticles, was confirmed in the workplace. Pathological examinations of patients’ lung tissue displayed nonspecific pulmonary inflammation, pulmonary fibrosis and foreign-body granulomas of pleura. Using transmission electron microscopy, nanoparticles were observed to lodge in the cytoplasm and caryoplasm of pulmonary epithelial and mesothelial cells, but are also located in the chest fluid. These cases arouse concern that long-term exposure to some nanoparticles without protective measures may be related to serious damage to human lungs.3

To date Animal studies and in vitro experiments show that nanoparticles can result in lung damage and other toxicity in animals, but no reports on the clinical toxicity in humans due to nanoparticles prior to the Beijing study had been made. The Beijing Chaoyang Hospital study has now conclusively confirmed that nanoparticles cause lung damage and other toxicity in humans as well. At this point in time, when two of the approved vaccines planned to be mass distributed in Germany and elsewhere contain nanoparticles, failure of the relevant responsible public health and epidemiology officials to order an immediate emergency freeze on distribution of any vaccine containing nanoparticles can only be considered tantamount to criminal negligence. Hopefully the responsible authorities will react in time to avert a possible human health catastrophe orders of magnitude worse than the worst case of Swine Flu reported to date.

Notes:

1 EPFL, Bioengineering researchers from the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, have developed and patented a nanoparticle that can deliver vaccines more effectively, with fewer side effects, and at a fraction of the cost of current vaccine technologies, accessed in www.azonano.com/nanotechnology%20news.asp?catid=13.

2 Song Y, Li X, Du X, Exposure to nanoparticles is related to pleural effusion, pulmonary fibrosis and granuloma , European Respiratory Journal, 9/2009, 34(3): 559-567.

3 Ibid.

Sebelius: Swine flu shots may start early October SEPT 13,09

WASHINGTON – The nation's first round of swine flu shots could begin sooner than expected, with some vaccine available as early as the first week of October, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Sunday.Sebelius said she is confident the vaccine will be available early enough to beat the peak of the expected flu season this fall and that early doses are intended for health care workers and other high-priority groups.We're on track to have an ample supply rolling by the middle of October. But we may have some early vaccine as early as the first full week in October. We'll get the vaccine out the door as fast as it rolls off the production line,she told ABC's This Week.The possibility of early shots follows encouraging news from last week about the swine flu vaccine. Researchers have discovered that one dose instead of two could be enough for healthy adults, and protection could begin once vaccinated within 10 days instead of three weeks.That's great, which means we'll have a lot more vaccine,she said.We also have seen a robust immune response within 10 days, instead of three weeks as was feared.Sebelius said the vaccine doses will be distributed immediately to designated locations across the country once they are available.Every state has a plan saying these are the sites to get the vaccine as quickly as possible into people's arms. That's where the distribution will go,she said.So, the first week in October, we expect some of the vaccine to begin to roll, and by mid-October, to have the kind of supplies we were talking about. But we may have some available earlier. And we'll get it out to states as fast as it comes off the production lines,Sebelius said.

One dose means tight supplies of H1N1 vaccine won't be stretched so badly. Had it taken twice that dose, or two shots apiece, half as many people could have received the vaccine.The winter flu vaccine is widely available now, and health authorities urged people last week to get shots now before swine flu shots start arriving.In addition to concerns about swine flu, doctors also expect some garden-variety flu this fall as well, an illness that typically kills 36,000 Americans and hospitalizes 200,000 each year.

Dangerous staph germs found at West Coast beaches By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer – Sat Sep 12, 3:02 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Dangerous staph bacteria have been found in sand and water for the first time at five public beaches along the coast of Washington, and scientists think the state is not the only one with this problem.The germ is MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus — a hard-to-treat bug once rarely seen outside of hospitals but that increasingly is spreading in ordinary community settings such as schools, locker rooms and gyms.The germ causes nasty skin infections as well as pneumonia and other life-threatening problems. It spreads mostly through human contact. Little is known about environmental sources that also may harbor the germ.Finding it at the beach suggests one place that people may be picking it up, said Marilyn Roberts, a microbiologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.We don't know the risk for any individual going to a beach, she said.But the fact that we found these organisms suggests that the level is much higher than we had thought.She presented results Saturday at an American Society for Microbiology conference in California. Last year, her team reported finding a different type of bacteria, enterococci, at five West Coast beaches. And earlier this year, University of Miami researchers reported finding staph bacteria in four out of 10 ocean water samples collected by hundreds of bathers at a South Florida beach.

Many communities also commonly restrict bathing at beaches because of contamination with fecal bacteria.In the new study, researchers tested 10 beaches in Washington along the West Coast and in Puget Sound from February to September 2008. Staph bacteria were found at nine of them, including five with MRSA. The strains resembled the highly resistant ones usually seen in hospitals, rather than the milder strains acquired in community settings, Roberts said.No staph was found in samples from two beaches in southern California.People should not avoid beaches or be afraid to enjoy them, scientists say.It's probably prudent to shower when you come out to lower the risk of bacteria staying on the skin, said Dr. Lance Peterson, a microbiologist at NorthShore University Health System in Evanston, Ill.Make sure you get all the sand off,and cover any open cuts or scrapes before playing in the sand, Roberts added. Digging in the sand or being buried in it seems to raise the risk of infection, she said.On the Net:Microbiology meeting: http://www.icaac.org/

SIGNS IN THE SUN, MOON AND STARS

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

Apollo moon rocks lost in space? No, lost on Earth By TOBY STERLING, Associated Press Writer – Sun Sep 13, 12:26 pm ET

AMSTERDAM – Attention, countries of the world: Do you know where your moon rocks are?
The discovery of a fake moon rock in the Netherlands' national museum should be a wake-up call for more than 130 countries that received gifts of lunar rubble from both the Apollo 11 flight in 1969 and Apollo 17 three years later.Nearly 270 rocks scooped up by U.S. astronauts were given to foreign countries by the Nixon administration. But according to experts and research by The Associated Press, the whereabouts of some of the small rocks are unknown.There is no doubt in my mind that many moon rocks are lost or stolen and now sitting in private collections, said Joseph Gutheinz, a University of Arizona instructor and former U.S. government investigator who has made a project of tracking down the lunar treasures.The Rijksmuseum, more noted as a repository for 17th century Dutch paintings, announced last month it had had its plum-sized moon rock tested, only to discover it was a piece of petrified wood, possibly from Arizona. The museum said it inherited the rock from the estate of a former prime minister.The real Dutch moon rocks are in a natural history museum. But the misidentification raised questions about how well countries have safeguarded their presents from Washington.Genuine moon rocks, while worthless in mineral terms, can fetch six-figure sums from black-market collectors.

Of 135 rocks from the Apollo 17 mission given away to nations or their leaders, only about 25 have been located by CollectSpace.com, a Web site for space history buffs that has long attempted to compile a list.That should not be taken to mean the others are lost — just that the records kept at the time are far from complete.The AP reviewed declassified correspondence between the State Department and U.S. embassies in 1973 and was able to locate ten additional Apollo 17 rocks — in Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, Barbados, France, Poland, Norway, Costa Rica, Egypt and Nepal.But the correspondence yielded a meager 30 leads, such as the name of the person who received them or the museum where they were to be initially displayed. Ecuador and Cyprus are among several that said they had never heard of the rocks. Five were handed to African dictators long since dead or deposed.The outlook for tracking the estimated 134 Apollo 11 rocks is even bleaker. The locations of fewer than a dozen are known.NASA turned over the samples to the State Department to distribute,said Jennifer Ross-Nazzal, a NASA historian, in an e-mailed response to questions.We don't have any records about when and to whom the rocks were given.The Office of the Historian does not keep records of what became of the moon rocks, and to my knowledge, there is no one entity that does so,e-mailed Tiffany Hamelin, the State Department historian.

That may seem surprising now, but in the early 1970s, few expected Apollo 17 would be the last mission to the moon. With the passage of time, the rocks' value has skyrocketed.NASA keeps most of the 382 kilograms (842 lbs) gathered by the Apollo missions locked away, giving small samples to researchers and lending a set of larger rocks for exhibitions.Apollo 11 gift rocks typically weigh just 0.05 grams, scarcely more than a grain of rice. The Apollo 17 gift rocks weigh about 1.1 grams. Both are encased in plastic globes to protect them and ease viewing.Each U.S. state got both sets of rocks, and Gutheinz said he and his students have accounted for nearly all the Apollo 17 rocks, though some are in storage and inaccessible. They have only just begun researching Apollo 11 rocks in the states. In one known legal sale of moon samples, in 1993, moon soil weighing 0.2 grams from an unmanned Russian probe was auctioned at Sotheby's for $442,500. Gutheinz, the former U.S. investigator, says ignorance about the rocks is an invitation to thieves, and he should know. In 1998, he was working for the NASA Office of the Inspector General in a sting operation to uncover fake rocks when he was offered the real Apollo 17 rock —the one given to Honduras — for $5 million.The rock was recovered and eventually returned to Honduras, but not before a fight in Florida District Court that went down in legal annals as United States vs. One Lucite Ball Containing Lunar Material (One Moon Rock) and One Ten Inch By Fourteen Inch Wooden Plaque.

The case is not unique.

Malta's Apollo 17 rock was stolen in 2004. In Spain, the newspaper El Mundo this summer reported that the Apollo 17 rock given to the country's former dictator, Francisco Franco, is missing. Franco died in 1975. The paper quoted his grandson as denying the rock had been sold. He said his mother had lost it, but claimed it was the family's personal possession, to sell if it wished.Gutheinz says Romania's Apollo 17 rock disappeared after the fall and execution of Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989. According to Gutheinz and other reports, Pakistan's Apollo 17 rock is missing; so is Nicaragua's, since the Sandinistas came to power in 1979. Afghanistan's Apollo 17 rock sat in Kabul's national museum until it was ransacked in 1996.In fact, the Netherlands is one of the few countries where the location of both the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 gift rocks is known. Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand are others — though none has rocks from both missions on permanent public display and some have been kept in storage for decades.The Amsterdam case appears to be not fraud but the result of poor vetting by the Rijksmuseum.Spokeswoman Xandra van Gelder said the museum checked with NASA after receiving the rock in 1992 from the estate of the late Prime Minister Willem Drees. NASA told the museum, without seeing it, that it was possible it was a moon rock.But it weighed a whopping 89 grams (3.1 ounces). In addition, its gold-colored cardboard plaque does not describe it as a moon rock.

The U.S. ambassador gave Drees the rock during an Oct. 9, 1969 visit by the Apollo 11astronauts to the Netherlands. Drees's grandson, also named Willem, told the AP his grandfather had been out of office for more than a decade and was nearly deaf and blind in 1969, though his mind was still sharp.My guess is that he did not hear well what was said,said the grandson.He may have formed his own idea about what it was.
The family never thought to question the story before donating the rock, to which it had not attached great importance or monetary value. AP researcher Randy Herschaft contributed to this story from New York. Reporters Menelaos Hadjicostis in Cyprus, Marianela Jimenez in Costa Rica, Monika Scislowska in Poland, Gonzalo Solano in Ecuador, Andrew Whalen in Peru, Doug Mellgren in Norway, Paul Schemm in Egypt, and Binaj Gurubacharya in Nepal also contributed.

LAND FOR PEACE (THE FUTURE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH)

JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

THE WEEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS

Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.

DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.

Israel: Differences with US over peace talks By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer –Sun Sep 13, 4:40 pm ET

JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking before a key meeting with the White House Mideast envoy, said Sunday that differences remain with the U.S. over resuming peacemaking with the Palestinians.Netanyahu delivered the assessment before flying to Cairo for talks with Egypt's president, a main mediator in efforts to restart peace talks, and ahead of a meeting with George Mitchell, the U.S. envoy, later this week.The Obama administration, with Mitchell as the point man, has been pressing Israel to declare a halt to construction in its West Bank settlements. Palestinians claim the West Bank as part of their future state and say they will not resume peace talks without a settlement freeze.The meeting with Mitchell had been scheduled for Monday, but Netanyahu's office said the talks were postponed to Tuesday to allow the Israeli leader to attend the funeral of an air force pilot killed in a training accident. The pilot, Capt. Asaf Ramon, was the son of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, who died in the Columbia shuttle disaster in 2003.

Netanyahu, whose Likud Party is ideologically committed to expanding settlements and holding on to the West Bank, has been bargaining for a compromise that would allow some building to continue.Navigating a thin line between the conflicting demands of his supporters at home on the one hand, and the U.S. and Palestinians on the other, Netanyahu and his government last week approved construction of several hundred new apartments in West Bank settlements and several hundred more in a Jewish neighborhood in east Jerusalem.At the same time, his office indicated openness to a limited freeze. Media reports say Israel might agree to halt construction for nine months, but would insist on completing the 2,500 to 3,000 housing units already begun.Speaking at the beginning of Israel's weekly Cabinet session, Netanyahu held out hope for a deal with Mitchell.There is still work to do, he said.I hope that we will succeed in reducing the gaps. Maybe we will bridge them, so that we can move the process forward.

Mitchell delivered a similar message Sunday.

While we have not yet reached agreement on any outstanding issues, we are working hard to do so, and indeed the purpose of my visit here this week is to attempt to do so,he told Israel's ceremonial president, Shimon Peres.In Egypt, Netanyahu and Mubarak met over a traditional meal breaking the Muslim Ramadan fast. Mubarak asked Netanyahu to halt Israeli construction in the West Bank and in east Jerusalem, to lift restrictions on Palestinians and to quickly resume peace talks, Mubarak spokesman Suleiman Awad told the state-run MENA news agency.A statement from Netanyahu's office said all sides — Israel, the Palestinians, Arab nations and the international community — must do their part in advancing the peace process,an apparent reference to gestures the Arab world might offer in exchange for a settlement freeze.Netanyahu also discussed Egypt's attempts to mediate a prisoner swap between Israel and the Hamas militant group, the statement said. Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, is demanding hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for an Israeli soldier captured more than three years ago.

Mubarak urges Netanyahu to stop settlements by Christophe De Roquefeuil – Sun Sep 13, 3:29 pm ET

CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak urged Israel to halt all settlement activity and warned of the dangers it posed in Jerusalem, in talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Cairo on Sunday.Mubarak called on Israel to stop all settlement activity, including natural growth settlements,presidential spokesman Suleiman Awad said amid renewed US-driven efforts to kick-start the stalled Middle East peace process.The president also urged (Israel) to stop attempts to judaise Jerusalem, warning of the dangerous consequences to peace efforts and highlighting the sensitivity of the Jerusalem issue to the Arab and Islamic worlds, Awad said.Netanyahu met Mubarak over iftar,the meal ending the dawn-to-dusk fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that was also attended by Egypt's intelligence supremo Omar Suleiman, before returning to Jerusalem.His brief visit came amid a renewed diplomatic push for peace as US Middle East envoy George Mitchell visited Israel.Mubarak called for negotiations on the final borders of a Palestinian state which would pave the way for an agreement on all final status issues, within a defined time frame,Awad said.

Both sides remain deeply divided on the most sensitive issues of their decades-old conflict -- final borders, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees and Jewish settlements.I hope that we will succeed in reducing the gaps, Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem earlier on Sunday.Maybe we will bridge them, so that we can move the process forward.Egypt and the United States hope to see a resumption of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, suspended since the conflict in the Gaza Strip at the turn of the year.Washington has sought to fast-track a peace process that would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.But both sides have rebuffed the US call for goodwill gestures that would see a freeze to settlement construction in return for Arab states beginning to normalise ties with Israel.Arab countries have said normalisation will only come after substantive peace talks or a settlement to the conflict, and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas insists he will not meet Netanyahu before a complete end to settlement construction.Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia's former ambassador to Washington, on Sunday said in a New York Times article that Riyadh must refuse to engage Israel until it releases its grip on Arab lands.

He called for the immediate removal of all Israeli settlements and an end to the occupation of Arab land.Earlier this month, Netanyahu authorised the construction of 455 new homes in settlements in the occupied West Bank.Washington criticised the move as inconsistent with the peace process, but has also said it does not consider a settlement freeze a condition for revived peace talks.In Jerusalem, Mitchell said Washington shared a sense of urgency and was aiming to reach agreement on any outstanding issues during his trip.It is our intention to conclude this phase of our discussions in the very near future... (to) enable us to move on to the next and really the more important phase,he said after meeting President Shimon Peres. The outcome of Mitchell's talks in Israel is likely to determine whether a proposed three-way meeting takes place between Netanyahu, Abbas and US President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Mitchell was to meet Netanyahu on Monday and Abbas on Tuesday. It was not clear whether he would visit other regional countries.In addition to the peace process, Egypt and Germany have been brokering indirect talks on a prisoner exchange between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement which rules Gaza that would see the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, seized by militants more than three years ago.Cairo has also been mediating between rival Palestinian factions Fatah in the West Bank, and Hamas.Egypt has been Israel's main Arab interlocutor since the two signed a peace treaty in 1979, but they remain at odds over the peace process.Palestinian officials said that Egypt last week presented a new proposal to Fatah and Hamas, suggesting elections in mid-2010 and overhauling the structure of security services.

600 New Israelis Arrive in Time for the New Year
by Maayana Miskin SEPT 13,09

(IsraelNN.com) Hundreds of new immigrants arrived in Israel on Sunday from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The Jewish Agency plans to bring hundreds more in the course of this week, in the days leading up to the Rosh Hashanah holiday.
A total of approximately 600 new immigrants from the CIS are expected to arrive between Sunday morning and the beginning of the Jewish new year on Friday evening.
The new immigrants will be greeted by ministers, members of Knesset, Jewish Agency officials, and other public figures. Many will continue on to participate in Jewish Agency affiliated programs, including kibbutz (cooperative community) absorption programs and Selah,an Aliyah (immigration) track aimed at students arriving in Israel without their parents.Jewish Agency officials believe they may succeed this year in reversing a trend of decreasing Aliyah from former Soviet Union states. The number of new immigrants arriving from the CIS is expected to be higher in 2009 than in the previous year, the first time in a decade that Jewish immigration from the region will increase, they said Sunday.Jewish Agency head Natan Sharansky credited the global financial crisis for the increasing flow of immigration, and said his staff would work hard to increase it even more.The Jewish Agency must take advantage of the window of opportunity created by Israel's financial stability at this time, and to do all we can to encourage the increasing Aliyah to Israel,he said.

Second Temple Pilgrimage Route Uncovered
by Gil Ronen SEPT 13,09

(IsraelNN.com) Archaeologists have uncovered a section of a stone-paved street with stairs which connected the Temple Mount with the Pool of Shiloach (Siloam). The section is about 550 meters south of the Temple Mount, and is believed to be the point at which pilgrims began to ascend by foot to the Temple during Second Temple times (516 BCE – 70 CE).The archaeological dig at the location is being conducted by the Nature and Parks Authority, with the sponsorship of the Elad nonprofit organization. Prof. Roni Reich of Haifa University and Eli Shukrun of the Antiquities Authority are in charge of the excavation.

Uncovered street / Ir David (picture at title)

The existence of this section of the street has been known for over a hundred years, ever since it was first uncovered in the years 1894-97 by British archaeologists Frederick Bliss and Archibald Dickie, who were sponsored by the Palestine Exploration Fund. The two covered the street section with dirt when they completed the dig, for its protection. Additional sections of the street were uncovered and then covered again, in digs by Jones in 1937 and Kathleen Kenyon in 1961-67.The street was Jerusalem's central street, ascending northward from the north-western corner of the Pool of Shiloach. Another part of the street is exposed and runs across the western side of the Temple Mount.

Drainage canal / Ir David (picture at title)

The section uncovered in the present dig is a narrow strip, one to two meters wide, along the street's western shoulder. The street is paved in familiar Second Temple style, in alternating narrow and wide steps.Another section of street and a large drainage canal were uncovered nearby about two years ago.

MUSLIM NATIONS

EZEKIEL 38:1-12
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW)and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE RUSSIA-MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY)of the north quarters, and all his bands:(SUDAN,AFRICA) and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)

DANIEL 11:40-43
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south( EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) and the king of the north (RUSSIA AND MUSLIM HORDES OF EZEK 38+39) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.(JORDAN)
42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

EZEKIEL 39:1-8
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.

JOEL 2:3,20,30-31
3 A fire(NUCLEAR BOMB) devoureth before them;(RUSSIA-ARABS) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

Bin Laden Warns US Against Ties With Israel
Sky News 2009 SEPT 14,09

The time has come for you to liberate yourselves from fear and the ideological terrorism of neo-conservatives and the Israeli lobby,an audio recording posted on an website said.The reason for our dispute with you is your support for your ally Israel, occupying our land in Palestine.The 11-minute message was posted a few days after the eighth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks.The authenticity of the recording has not been verified but the website is often used by supporters of al Qaeda.In the tape, the speaker said there had been no real change in US policy because President Barack Obama had retained people, like Defence Secretary Robert Gates, from former president George Bush's administration.If you think about your situation well, you will know that the White House is occupied by pressure groups, the recording said.Rather than fighting to liberate Iraq - as Bush claimed - it (the White House) should have been liberated.Bin Laden, the leader of the group that mounted the September 11 attacks in the US is thought to be in hiding in the mountainous terrain along the Afghan-Pakistani border.

The attacks carried out by al Qaeda operatives in 2001 killed nearly 3,000 people.

The speaker also referred to US military actions in Afghanistan to support the Afghan government against the Taliban, allies of al Qaeda, and support for Pakistan, which faces militant violence.If you stop the war, then fine. Otherwise we will have no choice but to continue our war of attrition on every front,it said.You have only changed the faces in the White House,he said, referring to Mr Obama who took office this year.Obama is a weakened man. He will not be able to stop the war.

Ramadan Turning into Month of Jew-Hatred in the Muslim World
by David Lev SEPT 13,09(IsraelNN.com)

In recent times, interest in the Palestinian question has been dwindling on the Arab street. Everything seems like old news on satellite channels and in the papers.
Muslim governments are taking advantage of the Ramadan TV season to broadcast anti-Israel and anti-Semitic propaganda, some of it reminiscent of the Nazi propaganda that preceded the Holocaust.With Muslims across the world fasting during the daylight hours and gathering at home for their daily break of the fast meal, Arab propaganda ministries take advantage of the large potential audiences for TV shows by broadcasting their top programs, with many shows produced specifically for Ramadan TV watchers. Programs about Israel and the Jewish people are considered top rating draws among Arab media, and each year government-controlled TV stations across the Middle East broadcast programs themed around the supposed treachery committed by Israel or the Jewish people against the Muslims and the world in general.According to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which monitors media broadcasts in the Arab world, Iran has this year been broadcasting a Syrian-produced series called Al-Shatat,which purports to show how Jewish bankers – particularly the Rothschilds – came to dominate international banking, and thereby the world. With Jewish characters uttering lines like all the nations that have accepted non-Jewish faiths should be destroyed and annihilated, and we have been granted an unparalleled honor -- to dominate the world, by means of capital, knowledge, politics, by means of killing, or any other ploy,the 30-episode series has been shown in Arab countries throughout the Middle East, including Jordan.

Five anti-Israel shows in Egypt
No fewer than five new series being broadcast on Egyptian TV this year revolve around Israel and the Jews. One called The Spy Wars tells the story of Samia Fahmy, an Egyptian who was allegedly recruited by the Mossad, but instead tricked the Israelis who tried to recruit her and led them to be arrested by Egypt. Another series, called My Heart is my Proof, tells the story of Jewish-born Egyptian singer Layla Murad, her rise to stardom, the accusations that she secretly supported Israel, and her subsequent fall from grace in much of the Arab world. Another program,The Second Gate,tells of a mother whose son is kidnapped and taken to Israel. Not all Egyptians were happy with the selection of programs. Speaking to Agence France-Presse, a student at Cairo University said that the shows about Israel and Jews were just smokescreens, shown just to keep us occupied, so we don't have to think about the real problems of unemployment and poverty.Another student said.We can't find an enemy? Let's talk about Israel. We should be focusing on people's problems, poverty... and stop talking about Israel and spies. We need to focus on the real domestic issues.In an interview, Mahmud Zaki, a media professor who stars in one of the series, said that the programs were designed to keep the Egyptian people's attention on Israel.In recent times, interest in the Palestinian question has been dwindling on the Arab street. Everything seems like old news on satellite channels and in the papers. There was a move to revive interest in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and re-ignite patriotic feelings,he said.

Militant group claims rocket attacks on Israel SEPT 13,09

DUBAI (Reuters) – A militant group claiming links to al Qaeda said on Monday it was behind the firing of rockets into northern Israel last week.Your brothers fired two Katyusha rockets from south Lebanon which landed in the Naharia settlement in the north of occupied Palestine,a statement on web sites used by militants said.It cited Israel's blockade of the Palestinian enclave of Gaza and preventing worshippers praying at the Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem as the reasons for the action.The statement was signed by the Ziad al-Jarrah division of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades and the posting's headline linked the group to Sunni Muslim militant network al Qaeda.Ziad al-Jarrah, a Lebanese militant, was one of the group of 19 who carried out the September 11 attacks of 2001 in the United States. Abdullah Azzam was a preacher close to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.It was not possible to verify the claim. A group using the name Abdullah Azzam Brigades said it carried out deadly bombings at the Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh in 2005.Israel retaliated to the rocket attack by firing shells. No one was injured on either side.
The Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah, which fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006 and has its stronghold in the south, denied responsibility for the February attack.
(Editing by Michael Roddy)

Israeli F-16 warplane crashes in West Bank Module body
Sun Sep 13, 11:52 AM

JERUSALEM (AFP) - An Israeli F-16 fighter jet crashed in the West Bank on Sunday, killing its pilot, the son of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon who died in the 2003 space shuttle Columbia disaster, officials said.The single-seat warplane crashed in a remote hilly region south of the West Bank city of Hebron, the military said, adding that it was not immediately clear what caused the accident.Military officials named the pilot as Lieutenant Assaf Ramon, the eldest son of Colonel Ilan Ramon, an Israeli fighter pilot who became the country's first and only astronaut.Ilan Ramon was killed along with six others when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated during re-entry over the US state of Texas six years ago.In interviews after the Columbia disaster, Assaf Ramon said that he, too, hoped to become an astronaut. He graduated from the Israeli air force pilot's course earlier this year.The military said the aircraft crashed during a routine flight as part of the advanced pilot training course.

Venezuela gets $2.2B in credit for Russian arms By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER, Associated Press Writer – Sun Sep 13, 6:01 pm ET

CARACAS, Venezuela – Russia has opened a $2.2 billion line of credit for Venezuela to purchase weapons including armored vehicles and surface-to-air missiles, President Hugo Chavez said Sunday.Venezuela is buying more arms because it feels threatened by Colombia's decision to give U.S. troops greater access to its military bases, Chavez said.Repeating a frequent theme of his presidency, the socialist leader said the United States would like to invade Venezuela and seize the country's oil fields. He said the bases in Colombia could help the U.S. stage such an attack.

The arms deal was announced last week during Chavez's visit to Moscow, and he gave details Sunday. Chavez said the deal calls for Venezuela to buy 92 Russian-made T-72 tanks as well as Smerch anti-aircraft missile launching systems. He didn't say how many missile launchers Venezuela was buying.The Russian government approved financing for $2.2 billion. For what? For weapons, and we must thank them,Chavez said.We've decided to install a powerful anti-air defense system.Last week, Chavez said the deal also included the purchase of ground-to-ground missiles with a range of up to 186 miles (300 kilometers). He said they were needed to improve Venezuela's defenses.Venezuela and Colombia have been feuding for months over the negotiations between Bogota and Washington that would allow the U.S. military to increase its presence at seven Colombian bases under a 10-year lease agreement. Colombian and U.S. officials say the agreement is necessary to more effectively help Colombia fight drug traffickers and leftist rebels.Venezuela has already bought more than $4 billion worth of Russian arms since 2005, including 24 Sukhoi fighter jets, dozens of attack helicopters and 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles.Chavez said nobody should be alarmed by Venezuela's newest arms purchases. Venezuela doesn't plan to invade anybody,he said.

WW3 THE 3 WAVES THAT MARCH TO ISRAEL

AMOS 9:10
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.

DANIEL 11:40-45
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south( EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) and the king of the north (RUSSIA AND MUSLIM HORDES OF EZEK 38+39) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.(JORDAN)
42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA 2ND WAVE OF WW3) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)
45 And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

REVELATION 14:18-20
18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
20 And the winepress was trodden without the city,(JERUSALEM) and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.(200 MILES) (THE SIZE OF ISRAEL)

The Third and Final Wave of WW3 is when all Nations march to Jerusalem, but JESUS bodily returns to earth and destroys them,sets up his KINGDOM OF RULE FOR 1000 YEARS THEN FOREVER.

2ND WAVE CHINA AND KINGS OF THE EAST MARCH TO ISRAEL

REVELATION 16:12
12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.(THIS IS THE ATATURK DAM IN TURKEY,THEY CROSS OVER).

DANIEL 11:44 (2ND WAVE OF WW3)
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)

REVELATION 9:12-18
12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.(IRAQ-SYRIA)
15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.(1/3 Earths Population die in WW 3 2ND WAVE)
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand:(200 MILLION MAN ARMY FROM CHINA AND THE KINGS OF THE EAST) and I heard the number of them.
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)

China military spotlighted in national day parade By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer – Sun Sep 13, 11:53 am ET

BEIJING – China's biggest military parade in a decade will show off an army bristling with formidable new capabilities and deliver a potent message to the U.S. and others not to underestimate Beijing's determination to defend its interests at home and abroad.The military display is expected to be the centerpiece of a grandiose parade through Beijing on Oct. 1 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic. A preview rumbled through the Chinese capital a week ago, giving an excited citizenry and foreign military analysts a first-time glimpse at some cutting-edge weaponry.Upgraded intercontinental DF-31 nuclear missiles capable of striking Washington rolled on long-bed trucks along with advanced short-range DF-11 and DF-15 missiles, sea-skimming YJ-83 anti-ship missiles and DH-10 long-range cruise missiles — intended to strike targets in rival Taiwan and deter the U.S. Navy from coming to the island's defense. Not seen in the preview but expected to appear in a fly-over above Tiananmen Square are domestically produced J-10 jet fighters.The advanced equipment is the fruit of a 20-year military buildup fueled by annual double-digit percentage increases in defense spending and buoyed by rapid economic growth that has enabled the government to spend lavishly.

The Communist leadership's willingness to put so much equipment on public display reflects its growing faith in the People's Liberation Army's capabilities and its belief that the defense muscle will translate into new strength for Beijing internationally.The exercise is aimed at not only showing the Chinese people some of the symbols of China's new great power status, but also showing foreigners that policies based on the presumption of Chinese weakness must be changed, said Denny Roy, an expert on the Chinese military at Hawaii's East-West Center.Chief among Beijing's targets is U.S. support for Taiwan, the self-governing island that China considers its own territory, and the American military's continued naval and airborne surveillance missions off the Chinese coast, Roy said. Japan, Vietnam and other nations with territorial disputes with Beijing in the South China and East China Seas are also likely audiences for the display of Chinese military might.

Officially, Beijing says the parade is nothing more than a move to boost patriotism and showcase the PLA's modernization drive — an explanation that fits with the oft-repeated government line that the Chinese military buildup poses no threat to others. Chinese defense spending officially reached $71 billion this year, though analysts believe the actual figure is much higher. The spending is second to the U.S. but a fraction of American defense spending.The parade will demonstrate the positive image of China as a country seeking peaceful development,Senior Col. Guo Zhigang, a deputy commander of the event's training camp, was quoted as saying by the official China Daily newspaper.Aside from armaments, the parade will feature thousands of goose-stepping troops from the PLA and the People's Armed Police, a paramilitary force whose mission is to quell domestic unrest, as they did in Tibet last year and Xinjiang this summer. President Hu Jintao is expected to review the assembled marchers, standing in an open-top Red Flag limousine as his predecessors have.Still, the event marks a profound change from past decades when China shrouded its relative military weakness in secrecy. Despite being the world's largest standing military with 2.3 million members, the PLA was long derided as under-equipped and underfunded. For decades, its plans to invade Taiwan, when Beijing had little air or naval power, were mocked as the million-man swim.

The paraded armaments will further feed into an ongoing reassessment of Chinese military capabilities in Washington and other capitals, which began noticing the more muscular PLA earlier this decade. Aside from the hundreds of tanks, armored personnel carriers and self-propelled artillery featured in last week's rehearsal, the plethora of missiles on display represented some of Beijing's most advanced and potent weaponry, analysts said.The anti-ship cruise and ballistic missiles are capable of striking U.S. Navy aircraft carrier battle groups and bases in the Pacific, said Russell Smith, a former Australian defense attache in Beijing and an analyst with Jane's.Among the less flashy but significant equipment likely to appear are those that give the PLA the ability to operate far from home, something it has never had before. Expected in the fly-over are Kongjing airborne warning and control planes that gather and send intelligence to forces and Hong-6 bombers and tankers that would allow Chinese fighters to refuel while in flight for longer-range missions.Obviously, Taiwan and Japan are going to feel this, and perhaps even U.S. forces in Guam, Okinawa, and perhaps even Hawaii, said Richard Bitzinger, a senior fellow at Singapore's Rajaratnam School of International Studies.Foreign nations need not be unduly alarmed by these new capabilities, but should at least be very, very watchful,Bitzinger said.

1.27 million displaced by China's Three Gorges Dam Sun Sep 13, 1:07 am ET

BEIJING (AFP) – China has relocated 1.27 million people to make way for the controversial Three Gorges dam development, the world's largest hydroelectric project, state media reported.The figure was the total number of relocations as of the end of June, a top dam construction official was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency in a report issued late Saturday.Chinese officials have previously said 1.4 million people were to be subject to forced relocation from areas now submerged or due to be submerged in central China.It did not provide a timetable for the resettlement of the remaining residents.Critics of the dam have long alleged massive corruption in the resettlement programme, while villagers forced from their homes have complained they were denied promised job retraining and resettlement funds.

State media said in 2007 that at least 37 million dollars had been embezzled from the programme in 2004 and 2005 alone.A further four million people have been encouraged to move from the area by 2020, officials said in 2007, although the government has insisted those relocations were unrelated to the dam.At 2,309 metres (7,575 feet) wide and 185 metres high, the Three Gorges Dam in Hubei province is the world's largest.Already generating electricity, the dam is expected to begin approaching full capacity as early as this year.

DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

WORLD MARKET RESULTS
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/
CNBC VIDEOS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15839263/site/14081545/?tabid=15839796&tabheader=false

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS MON SEP 14,2009

09:30 AM -1.25
10:00 AM -53.58
10:30 AM -23.42
11:00 AM -7.05
11:30 AM -5.36
12:00 PM -22.37
12:30 PM -15.41
01:00 PM -21.23
01:30 PM -22.82
02:00 PM -13.37
02:30 PM +15.19
03:00 PM +11.34
03:30 PM +7.11
04:00 PM +21.39 9626.80

S&P 500 1049.34 +6.61

NASDAQ 20.91.78 +10.88

GOLD 999.70 -6.70

OIL 68.88 -0.41

TSE 300 11,332.04 +78.81

CDNX 1253.83 -8.06

S&P/TSX/60 681.19 +5.41

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow +9.45%
S&P +15.44%
Nasdaq +31.95%
TSX Advances 868,declines 616,unchanged 250,Volume 569,255,866.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 532,Declines 344,Unchanged 358,Volume 258,533,484.

Dow -63 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -63 points at low today.
Dow +13 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $1,004.10.OIL opens at $68.90 today.
NATURAL GAS PRICES HIGHER TODAY,BUT DOWN 50% ON THE YEAR.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -63 points at low today so far.
Dow +13 points at high today so far.

DAY TODAY PERFORMANCE - 12:30PM STATS
NYSE Advances 1,666,declines 1,874,unchanged 131,New Highs 104,New Lows 33.
Volume 2,499,259,949.
NASDAQ Advances 1,254,declines 1,282,unchanged 128,New highs 49,New Lows 06.
Volume 946,418,334.
TSX Advances 583,declines 687,unchanged 222,Volume 213,822,400.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 282,Declines 354,Unchanged 291,Volume 107,762,330.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -63 points at low today.
Dow +33 points at high today.
Dow +0.22% today Volume 196,430,366.
Nasdaq +0.52% today Volume 2,084,932,329.
S&P 500 +0.63% today Volume N/A

Stiglitz Says Banking Problems Are Now Bigger Than Pre-Lehman
By Mark Deen and David Tweed

Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize- winning economist, said the U.S. has failed to fix the underlying problems of its banking system after the credit crunch and the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. In the U.S. and many other countries, the too-big-to-fail banks have become even bigger, Stiglitz said in an interview today in Paris.The problems are worse than they were in 2007 before the crisis.Stiglitz’s views echo those of former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who has advised President Barack Obama’s administration to curtail the size of banks, and Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer, who suggested last month that governments may want to discourage financial institutions from growing excessively.A year after the demise of Lehman forced the Treasury Department to spend billions to shore up the financial system, Bank of America Corp.’s assets have grown and Citigroup Inc. remains intact. In the U.K., Lloyds Banking Group Plc, 43 percent owned by the government, has taken over the activities of HBOS Plc, and in France BNP Paribas SA now owns the Belgian and Luxembourg banking assets of insurer Fortis.

While Obama wants to name some banks as systemically important and subject them to stricter oversight, his plan wouldn’t force them to shrink or simplify their structure.Stiglitz said the U.S. government is wary of challenging the financial industry because it is politically difficult, and that he hopes the Group of 20 leaders will cajole the U.S. into tougher action.

G-20 Steps

We aren’t doing anything significant so far, and the banks are pushing back, he said.The leaders of the G-20 will make some small steps forward, given the power of the banks and any step forward is a move in the right direction.G-20 leaders gather next week in Pittsburgh and will consider ways of improving regulation of financial markets and in particular how to set tighter limits on remuneration for market operators. Under pressure from France and Germany, G-20 finance ministers last week reached a preliminary accord that included proposals to claw-back cash awards and linking compensation more closely to long-term performance. It’s an outrage, especially in the U.S. where we poured so much money into the banks,Stiglitz said.The administration seems very reluctant to do what is necessary. Yes they’ll do something, the question is: Will they do as much as required?

Global Economy

Stiglitz, former chief economist at the World Bank and member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said the world economy is far from being out of the woods even if it has pulled back from the precipice it teetered on after the collapse of Lehman.We’re going into an extended period of weak economy, of economic malaise,Stiglitz said. The U.S. will grow but not enough to offset the increase in the population,he said, adding that if workers do not have income, it’s very hard to see how the U.S. will generate the demand that the world economy needs.The Federal Reserve faces a quandary in ending its monetary stimulus programs because doing so may drive up the cost of borrowing for the U.S. government, he said. The question then is who is going to finance the U.S. government,Stiglitz said.To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Deen in Paris at markdeen@bloomberg.netDavid Tweed in Paris at dtweed@bloomberg.net

http://www.prisonplanet.com/we-cant-break-up-the-giant-banks-can-we-yes-we-can.html
We Can’t Break Up the Giant Banks, Can We? Yes We Can! George Washington Blog
Monday, September 14, 2009

Top economists and financial experts believe that the economy cannot recover unless the big, insolvent banks are broken up in an orderly fashion.Even the Bank of International Settlements – the Central Banks Central Bank – has slammed too big to fail. As summarized by the Financial Times:The report was particularly scathing in its assessment of governments’ attempts to clean up their banks.The reluctance of officials to quickly clean up the banks, many of which are now owned in large part by governments, may well delay recovery,it said, adding that government interventions had ingrained the belief that some banks were too big or too interconnected to fail.This was dangerous because it reinforced the risks of moral hazard which might lead to an even bigger financial crisis in future.In response, defenders of the too-big-to-fails make one or more of the following arguments:

(1) The government does not have the authority to break up the big boys
(2) To break up the banks, the government would have to nationalize them, which would be socialism
(3) The giant banks have now recovered and are no longer insolvent, so it would be counter-productive to break them up
(4) We need the giant banks to restore credit to the economy

None of these arguments are persuasive.The Government Does Have Authority to Break Up the Big Boys.One of the world’s leading economic historians – Niall Ferguson – argues in a current article in Newsweek:[Geithner is proposing that] there should be a new resolution authority for the swift closing down of big banks that fail. But such an authority already exists and was used when Continental Illinois failed in 1984.Indeed, even the FDIC mentions Continental Illinois in the same breadth as too big to fail banks.And William K. Black – the senior regulator during the S&L crisis, and an Associate Professor of both Economics and Law at the University of Missouri – says that the Prompt Corrective Action Law (PCA), 12 U.S.C. § 1831o, not only authorizes the government to seize insolvent banks, it mandates it, and that the Bush and Obama administrations broke the law by refusing to close insolvent banks.

Others argue that the PCA does not apply to bank holding companies, and so the government really does not have the power to break up the big boys (see this, for example; but compare this).Whether or not the financial giants can be broken up using the PCA, no one can doubt that the government could find a way to break them up if it wanted.FDR seized gold during the Great Depression under the Trading With The Enemies Act.Geithner and Bernanke have been using one loophole and creative legal interpretation after another to rationalize their various multi-trillion dollar programs in the face of opposition from the public and Congress (see this, for example).So don’t give me any of this our hands are tied malarkey. The Obama administration could break the too bigs up in a heartbeat if it wanted to, and then justify it after the fact using PCA or another legal argument.

Temporarily Nationalizing a Bank is Not Socialism

Many argue that it would be wrong for the government to break up the banks, because we would have to take over the banks in order to break them up.That may be true. But government regulators in the U.S., Sweden and other countries which have broken up insolvent banks say that the government only has to take over banks for around 6 months before breaking them up.In contrast, the Bush and Obama administrations’ actions mean that the government is becoming the majority shareholder in the financial giants more or less permanently. That is – truly – socialism.Breaking them up and selling off the parts to the highest bidder efficiently and in an orderly fashion would get us back to a semblance of free market capitalism much quicker.

The Giant Banks Have Not Recovered

The giant banks have still not put the toxic assets hidden in their SIVs back on their books.The tsunamis of commercial real estate, Alt-A, option arm and other loan defaults have not yet hit.The overhang of derivatives is still looming out there, and still dwarfs the size of the rest of the global economy. Credit default swaps still have not been tamed (see this).Indeed, Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said today:The U.S. has failed to fix the underlying problems of its banking system after the credit crunch and the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.In the U.S. and many other countries, the too-big-to-fail banks have become even bigger,Stiglitz said in an interview today in Paris. The problems are worse than they were in 2007 before the crisis.Stiglitz’s views echo those of former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who has advised President Barack Obama’s administration to curtail the size of banks, and Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer, who suggested last month that governments may want to discourage financial institutions from growing excessively.While the big boys have certainly reported some impressive profits in the last couple of months, some or all of those profits may have been due to creative accounting, such as Goldman skipping December 2008, suspension of mark-to-market (which may or may not be a good thing), and assistance from the government.Some very smart people say that the big banks – even after many billions in bailouts and other government help – have still not repaired their balance sheets. Reggie Middleton, Mish, Zero Hedge and others have looked at the balance sheets of the big boys much more recently than I have, and have more details than I do.But the bottom line is this: If the banks are no longer insolvent, they should prove it. If they can’t prove they are solvent, they should be broken up.

We Don’t Need the Giant Banks

Fortune pointed out in February that smaller banks are stepping in to fill the lending void left by the giant banks’ current hesitancy to make loans. Indeed, the article points out that the only reason that smaller banks haven’t been able to expand and thrive is that the too-big-to-fails have decreased competition:Growth for the nation’s smaller banks represents a reversal of trends from the last twenty years, when the biggest banks got much bigger and many of the smallest players were gobbled up or driven under…As big banks struggle to find a way forward and rising loan losses threaten to punish poorly run banks of all sizes, smaller but well capitalized institutions have a long-awaited chance to expand.

BusinessWeek noted in January:

As big banks struggle, community banks are stepping in to offer loans and lines of credit to small business owners…At a congressional hearing on small business and the economic recovery earlier this month, economist Paul Merski, of the Independent Community Bankers of America, a Washington (D.C.) trade group, told lawmakers that community banks make 20% of all small-business loans, even though they represent only about 12% of all bank assets. Furthermore, he said that about 50% of all small-business loans under $100,000 are made by community banks…Indeed, for the past two years, small-business lending among community banks has grown at a faster rate than from larger institutions, according to Aite Group, a Boston banking consultancy. Community banks are quickly taking on more market share not only from the top five banks but from some of the regional banks,says Christine Barry, Aite’s research director.They are focusing more attention on small businesses than before. They are seeing revenue opportunities and deploying the right solutions in place to serve these customers.

And Fed Governor Daniel K. Tarullo said in June:The importance of traditional financial intermediation services, and hence of the smaller banks that typically specialize in providing those services, tends to increase during times of financial stress. Indeed, the crisis has highlighted the important continuing role of community banks…For example, while the number of credit unions has declined by 42 percent since 1989, credit union deposits have more than quadrupled, and credit unions have increased their share of national deposits from 4.7 percent to 8.5 percent. In addition, some credit unions have shifted from the traditional membership based on a common interest to membership that encompasses anyone who lives or works within one or more local banking markets. In the last few years, some credit unions have also moved beyond their traditional focus on consumer services to provide services to small businesses, increasing the extent to which they compete with community banks.Indeed, some very smart people say that the big banks aren’t really focusing as much on the lending business as smaller banks.Specifically since Glass-Steagall was repealed in 1999, the giant banks have made much of their money in trading assets, securities, derivatives and other speculative bets, the banks’ own paper and securities, and in other money-making activities which have nothing to do with traditional depository functions.Now that the economy has crashed, the big banks are making very few loans to consumers or small businesses because they still have trillions in bad derivatives gambling debts to pay off, and so they are only loaning to the biggest players and those who don’t really need credit in the first place. See this and this.So we don’t really need these giant gamblers. We don’t really need JP Morgan, Citi, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley. What we need are dedicated lenders.

The Fortune article discussed above points out that the banking giants are not necessarily more efficient than smaller banks:The largest banks often don’t show the greatest efficiency. This now seems unsurprising given the deep problems that the biggest institutions have faced over the past year.They actually experience diseconomies of scale,Narter wrote of the biggest banks.There are so many large autonomous divisions of the bank that the complexity of connecting them overwhelms the advantage of size.And Governor Tarullo points out some of the benefits of small community banks over the giant banks:Many community banks have thrived, in large part because their local presence and personal interactions give them an advantage in meeting the financial needs of many households, small businesses, and agricultural firms. Their business model is based on an important economic explanation of the role of financial intermediaries–to develop and apply expertise that allows a lender to make better judgments about the creditworthiness of potential borrowers than could be made by a potential lender with less information about the borrowers.A small, but growing, body of research suggests that the financial services provided by large banks are less-than-perfect substitutes for those provided by community banks.It is simply not true that we need the mega-banks. In fact, as many top economists and financial analysts have said, the too big to fails are actually stifling competition from smaller lenders and credit unions, and dragging the entire economy down into a black hole.

UN STORY LINKS
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,510937,00.html?sPage=fnc/world/unitednations

U.N. Climate Change Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy Friday, March 27, 2009 By George Russell

A United Nations document on climate change that will be distributed to a major environmental conclave next week envisions a huge reordering of the world economy, likely involving trillions of dollars in wealth transfer, millions of job losses and gains, new taxes, industrial relocations, new tariffs and subsidies, and complicated payments for greenhouse gas abatement schemes and carbon taxes — all under the supervision of the world body.Those and other results are blandly discussed in a discretely worded United Nations information note on potential consequences of the measures that industrialized countries will likely have to take to implement the Copenhagen Accord, the successor to the Kyoto Treaty, after it is negotiated and signed by December 2009. The Obama administration has said it supports the treaty process if, in the words of a U.S. State Department spokesman, it can come up with an effective framework for dealing with global warming.The 16-page note, obtained by FOX News, will be distributed to participants at a mammoth negotiating session that starts on March 29 in Bonn, Germany, the first of three sessions intended to hammer out the actual commitments involved in the new deal.In the stultifying language that is normal for important U.N. conclaves, the negotiators are known as the Ad Hoc Working Group On Further Commitments For Annex I Parties Under the Kyoto Protocol. Yet the consequences of their negotiations, if enacted, would be nothing short of world-changing.

Getting that deal done has become the United Nations' highest priority, and the Bonn meeting is seen as a critical step along the path to what the U.N. calls an ambitious and effective international response to climate change,which is intended to culminate at the later gathering in Copenhagen.Just how ambitious the U.N.'s goals are can be seen, but only dimly, in the note obtained by FOX News, which offers in sparse detail both positive and negative consequences of the tools that industrial nations will most likely use to enforce the greenhouse gas reduction targets.The paper makes no effort to calculate the magnitude of the costs and disruption involved, but despite the discreet presentation, makes clear that they will reverberate across the entire global economic system.

Among the tools that are considered are the cap-and-trade system for controlling carbon emissions that has been espoused by the Obama administration; carbon taxes on imported fuels and energy-intensive goods and industries, including airline transportation; and lower subsidies for those same goods, as well as new or higher subsidies for goods that are considered environmentally sound.Other tools are referred to only vaguely, including energy policy reform, which the report indicates could affect large-scale transportation infrastructure such as roads, rail and airports.When it comes to the results of such reform, the note says only that it could have positive consequences for alternative transportation providers and producers of alternative fuels.In the same bland manner, the note informs negotiators without going into details that cap-and-trade schemes may induce some industrial relocation to less regulated host countries.Cap-and-trade functions by creating decreasing numbers of pollution-emission permits to be traded by industrial users, and thus pay more for each unit of carbon-based pollution, a market-driven system that aims to drive manufacturers toward less polluting technologies.The note adds only that industrial relocation would involve negative consequences for the implementing country, which loses employment and investment.But at the same time it would involve indeterminate consequences for the countries that would host the relocated industries.There are also entirely new kinds of tariffs and trade protectionist barriers such as those termed in the note as border carbon adjustment— which, the note says, can impose a levy on imported goods equal to that which would have been imposed had they been produced domestically under more strict environmental regimes.

Another form of adjustment would require exporters to buy [carbon] offsets at the border equal to that which the producer would have been forced to purchase had the good been produced domestically.The impact of both schemes, the note says,would be functionally equivalent to an increased tariff: decreased market share for covered foreign producers.(There is no definition in the report of who, exactly, is foreign.) The note adds that If they were implemented fairly, such schemes would leave trade and investment patterns unchanged.Nothing is said about the consequences if such fairness was not achieved.Indeed, only rarely does the information note attempt to inform readers in dollar terms of the impact of spillover effects from the potential policy changes it discusses. In a brief mention of consumer subsidies for fossil fuels, the note remarks that such subsidies in advanced economies exceed $60 billion a year, while they exceed $90 billion a year in developing economies.But calculations of the impact of tariffs, offsets, or other subsidies is rare. In a reference to the impact of declining oil exports, the report says that Saudi Arabia has determined the loss to its economy at between $100 billion and $200 billion by 2030, but said nothing about other oil exporters.One reason for the lack of detail, the note indicates, is that impact would vary widely depending on the nature and scope of the policies adopted (and, although the note does not mention it, on the severity of the greenhouse reduction targets).

But even when it does hazard a guess at specific impacts, the report seems curiously hazy. A climate change levy on aviation for example, is described as having undetermined negative impacts on exporters of goods that rely on air transport, such as cut flowers and premium perishable produce,as well as tourism services. But no mention is made in the note of the impact on the aerospace industry, an industry that had revenues in 2008 of $208 billion in the U.S. alone, or the losses the levy would impose on airlines for ordinary passenger transportation. (Global commercial airline revenues in 2008 were about $530 billion, and were already forecast to drop to an estimated $467 billion this year.)In other cases, as when discussing the increased costs of traditional exports under a new environmental regime, the report confines itself to terse description. Changes in standards and labeling for exported goods, for example,may demand costly changes to the production process.If subsidies and tariffs affect exports, the note says, the economic and social consequences of dampening their viability may, for some countries and sectors, be significant.Much depends, of course, on the extent to which harsher or more lenient greenhouse gas reduction targets demand more or less drastic policies for their achievement.And, precisely because the Bonn meeting is a stage for negotiating those targets, the note is silent. Instead it suggests that more bureaucratic work is needed to deepen the understanding of the full nature and scale of such impacts.But outside the Bonn process, other experts have been much more blunt about the draconian nature of the measures they deem necessary to make effective greenhouse gas reductions.

In an influential but highly controversial paper called Key Elements of a Global Deal on Climate Change,British economist Nicholas Lord Stern, formerly a high British Treasury official, has declared that industrial economies would need to cut their per capita carbon dioxide emissions by at least 80% by 2050, while the biggest economies, like the U.S.'s, would have to make cuts of 90 percent.Stern also calls for immediate and binding reduction targets for developed nations of 20 percent to 40percent by 2020.To meet Stern's 2050 goals, he says, among other things, most of the world's electricity production will need to have been decarbonized.By way of comparison, according to the U.S. Department Of Energy, roughly 72 percent of U.S. electrical power generation in 2007 was derived from burning fossil fuels, with just 6 percent coming from hydro-power and less than 3 percent from non-nuclear renewable and other sources. And even then, those other non-fossil sources included wood and biomass — which, when burned, are major emitters of carbon.

Failure to win contracts is fault of EU firms, says China
ANDREW WILLIS Today SEPT 14,09 @ 09:19 CET

EUOBSERVER / BEIJING – A spokesman for the Chinese ministry for foreign affairs told EUobserver on Sunday (13 September) that any failure by European firms to win contracts under China's stimulus plan was due to their lack of competitiveness.Mr Qin Gang denied his government favoured Chinese companies when awarding lucrative contracts under the country's stimulus plan, contrary to opposite claims by a number of European business groups. Foreign investors must come to China in a more aggressive and competitive form [if they are to win the contacts], said Mr Qin. Nobody wants to buy white elephants.China's four trillion yuan (€400 billion) stimulus plan announced last November has received praise from many in the international community as an important measure to help boost the Asian economy, with positive knock-on effects for the rest of the world.However Europe's main business lobby group, BusinessEurope, recently sent a letter to EU trade commissioner Catherine Ashton, complaining that new rules appeared to limit purchases by the Chinese government to companies that are at least 50 percent Chinese-owned.We are deeply concerned that these new provisions could have a domino effect on protectionism globally,wrote the group's chief executive Philippe de Buck.

The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China recently expressed a similar view, saying China fails to treat local and foreign companies equally in the public procurement process.Wind energy is proving to be a particularly hard sector for foreign companies to crack, says the chamber, with developers required to make 70 percent of their parts in China. But Mr Qin denied the Chinese government was using protectionist measures to give an unfair advantage to domestic turbine producers and related manufacturers.We also have Chinese companies making windmills,he said.At the end of the day, it's [a question of] value for money.

Warning to France

Separately, Mr Qin warned France to pull back on proposals for a carbon tax on imports entering into the European Union, aimed at complementing a newly unveiled carbon tax on fossil fuels products in France.We need to impose a carbon tax at [Europe's] borders. I will lead that battle,French President Nicolas Sarkozy said last week while visiting a factory in the east of the country.Mr Qin indicated that China strongly opposed such measures, saying: we would regard that as another form of protectionism.The US decision on Friday night to raise tariffs on imports of car and light truck tyres from China has also come under fire.Under pressure from the powerful United Steelworkers union, US President Barack Obama slapped a 35 percent tariff on the tyre imports for the coming year, falling to 30 percent in the second year, and 25 percent in the third.We are against it firmly and it is not in the interest of the US,said Mr Qin.It sends out a very bad signal and sets a very bad precedent.

Portuguese MPs most active in monitoring EU law
HONOR MAHONY Today SEPT 14,09 @ 09:28 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The Portuguese parliament has been by far the most active in commenting on legislative proposals coming out of Brussels, while the parliament of its Iberian neighbour, Spain, has not sent a single remark to the EU capital since the process was put into place in 2006.The latest figures from the European Commission, obtained by EUobserver, show that Portuguese MPs have sent 102 comments on draft EU laws and position papers over the past three years - a fifth of the total 505 comments seen from all 27 member states.The next busiest were the French Senate, with 58 submissions since 2006, the German upper house (48), the Swedish parliament (44) and the British House of Lords (39).The most active of the former Communist states that joined the EU in 2004 is the Czech Republic, whose senate has submitted 41 remarks. At the other end of the scale, the parliaments of Spain, Malta and Romania have sent no comments to Brussels. Assemblies in a total of 15 member states have made 10 or less remarks since 2006.Introduced exactly three years ago, the comment scheme sees the European Commission send its legislative proposals and consultation papers directly to national parliaments when they are published.The move was supposed to bridge the gap between Brussels and EU citizens, with parliaments asked to look in particular into whether the European Commission really was the best level at which to act (the subsidiarity principle) and whether it was acting proportionately.Past proposals attracting attention from parliaments - who also sometimes just comment to say they approve of a plan - include a law regulating divorce in different countries and one on liberalising postal services.National deputies' opinions are then duly considered by the commission, but it is not obliged to change its proposals.

Looking to the Lisbon Treaty

The underwhelming response does not bode well for the slightly more powerful mechanism contained in the EU's proposed new set of rules, the Lisbon Treaty.Under the treaty, yet to be ratified in all EU states, the commission must review - although not necessarily withdraw - a proposal if at least one third of national parliaments (nine) claims it breaches the subsidiarity principle.If a simple majority of parliaments continue to object to the proposal, but the commission maintains the draft as it is, then member states and the European Parliament have to decide if they agree or not with the national objections.The proper functioning of this article, hailed at the time as a big step toward involving national parliaments in EU decision-making, depends on MPs in the various member states forming a position within the eight-week deadline and galvanising other assemblies to act.

Top EU institution to move into eco-friendly building
VALENTINA POP Today SEPT 14,09 @ 09:32 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Starting in 2013, EU ministers and heads of state will meet in a new building with solar panels and rain-water recycling facilities, just next door to the current Brussels headquarters.Since 1995, EU leaders, ministers and their delegations meet in a building called Justus Lipsius, which became too small after the bloc expanded by 12 new members in 2004 and 2007.The new edifice, the Residence Palace, will be functional in 2013, right next door to Justus Lipsius, and takes its name from an old art-deco building that currently houses the International Press Centre. This building will be restored and make up part of the new complex. Built in the 1920, the original Residence Palace was used as headquarters of the German army during the Second World War.The facade of the new building will be composed of a patchwork of traditional wood-frame windows from different European countries, suggesting EU's cultural diversity, according to the project description.

Meeting rooms and press areas of more than 6,000 square metres will be combined in an urn-shaped space, with each floor elyptical in shape and varying in dimension, visible at night through the cubic outer facade.Solar panels will be installed on the roof and rain water will be recycled. The Residence Palace project will also be the first building site in Belgium to be monitored continuously by auditors with a view to being accorded a high environmental quality certification.The total cost of the project is €315 million, rising from the initial estimated cost of €240 million due to the impact of the contractual price revision, the project description says.

Within that budget, only the reconstruction work itself has been estimated at €240 million.Under the agreement between the Belgian state and the Council, land and existing buildings are handed over to the EU institution for the symbolic price of one euro.The project was designed by Philippe Samyn & Partners, Studio Valle Progetttazioni and Buro Happolda, a joint venture of architects and engineers, which won the European competition in 2005.The next step in the building process comes up in October, with the awarding of contracts for the reconstruction work of the old building.

Risk-taking is back for banks 1 year after crisis By STEVENSON JACOBS, AP Business Writer – SEPT 13,09

NEW YORK – A year after the financial system nearly collapsed, the nation's biggest banks are bigger and regaining their appetite for risk.Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and others — which have received tens of billions of dollars in federal aid — are once more betting big on bonds, commodities and exotic financial products, trading that nearly stopped during the financial crisis.That Wall Street is making money again in essentially the same ways that thrust the banking system into chaos last fall is reason for concern on several levels, financial analysts and government officials say.
-There have been no significant changes to the federal rules governing their behavior. Proposals that have been made to better monitor the financial system and to police the products banks sell to consumers have been held up by lobbyists, lawmakers and turf-protecting regulators.
-Through mergers and the failure of Lehman Brothers, the mammoth banks whose near-collapse prompted government rescues have gotten even bigger, increasing the risk they pose to the financial system. And they still make bets that, in the aggregate, are worth far more than the capital they have on hand to cover against potential losses.
-The government's response to last year's meltdown was to spend whatever it takes to protect the financial system from collapse — a precedent that could encourage even greater risk-taking from the private sector.Lawrence Summers, director of the White House National Economic Council, says an overhaul of financial regulations is needed as soon as possible to keep the financial system safe over the long haul.You cannot rely on the scars of past crises to ensure against practices that will lead to future crises,Summers says.No one is predicting another meltdown from risky trading in the near term. Rather, the concern is what happens over time as banks' confidence grows and the memory of the financial crisis of 2008 fades.Will they pile on bets to the point that a new asset bubble forms and — as happened with mortgage-backed securities — its undoing endangers banks and the broader economy? We're seeing the same kind of behavior from the banks, and that could lead to some huge and scary parallels,says Simon Johnson, former chief economist with the International Monetary Fund.Some risk-taking is good. When banks are willing to invest in companies or lend to home-buyers, that nurtures economic growth by generating employment and consumer spending, feeding a cycle of expansion.The problem is when banks' quest for profits leads them to take on too much risk. In the case of the housing bubble, which burst last year, banks lent too freely to consumers with weak credit and wagered too much on complex financial instruments tied to mortgages. As real-estate prices turned south, so did the financial industry's health.

Because the largest banks' trading divisions make their bets with each other, their fortunes are intertwined. The collapse of one can threaten another — and another — if it is unable to pay off its debts.This so-called counterparty risk is a major reason the Obama administration's regulatory overhaul plan calls for the creation of a systemic risk regulator.The administration is also seeking tougher capital requirements for banks, arguing that banks' buying of exotic financial products without keeping enough cash on reserve was a key cause of the crisis. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has urged the Group of 20 nations — which meets this month in Pittsburgh — to agree on new capital levels by the end of 2010 and put them in place two years later. Geithner hasn't said how much extra capital banks should be required to keep on hand.Data from the April-June quarter show that the banks are leaning heavily again on their trading desks for revenue.
-During the fourth quarter of 2008, when the financial crisis made even the shrewdest bankers risk-averse, Goldman's trading of risky assets nearly stopped. But in the second quarter of 2009, trading revenue had climbed to nearly 50 percent of total revenue, closer to where it was two years ago before the recession began. JP Morgan's reliance on trading revenue has exhibited a similar pattern.
-Also in the second quarter, the five biggest banks' average potential losses from a single day of trading topped $1 billion, up 76 percent from two years ago, according to regulatory filings. The government hasn't just watched banks resume their freewheeling ways and prosper. It has been an enabler in the process. The Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. — during both the Bush and Obama administrations — have made trillions of dollars available to the biggest banks through bailouts, low-cost loans and loss guarantees designed to stabilize the financial system.The failure of Lehman Brothers — the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history — and the panicky sales of Bear Stearns to JPMorgan and Merrill Lynch to Bank of America, also have transformed Wall Street. The surviving investment banks have fewer competitors and more market share.Five of the biggest banks — Goldman, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Bank of America — posted second-quarter profits totaling $13 billion. That's more than double what they made in the second quarter of 2008 and nearly two-thirds as much as the $20.7 billion they earned in the second quarter of 2007 — when the economy was strong.Meanwhile, Bank of America and Wells Fargo today originate 41 percent of all home loans that are backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. The banks made $284 billion in such loans in the first half of this year, up from $124 billion during the same period last year.The big banks now are more powerful than before,said Johnson, now a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management.Their market share has grown and they have a lot of clout in Washington.Wall Street's recovery is also being aided by a stock-market rally that has driven the S&P 500 index up nearly 54 percent since March 9, when it hit a 12-year low.

Despite the return to profitability, these aren't the high-octane days from before the crisis. To qualify for government backing, the biggest Wall Street firms are no longer allowed to supercharge their returns by borrowing up to 30 times the value of their assets to place bets on stocks, bonds and other investments. Businesses supported by Wall Street bankers and traders say they've also noticed changes. Namely, their customers aren't spending as much on food, drinks and entertainment as they did during the boom years.At Fraunces Tavern, a high-end bar just around the corner from the New York Stock Exchange, the Wall Street workers who used to drink $25 glasses of port are scarce these days.Now we're doing happy hours,says Damon Testaverde, one of the owners of Fraunces Tavern.We never did that. There's just less bodies around.But one thing fundamental to Wall Street hasn't changed: Big banks and their traders are still finding creative — some say speculative — ways to profit.They're still packaging risky mortgages into securities and selling them to investors, who can earn higher returns by purchasing the securities tied to the riskiest mortgages. That was the practice that helped inflate the real estate bubble and eventually spread financial pain around the globe.In a way, the government has emboldened banks to keep selling risky securities: Since the crisis erupted, federal emergency programs have helped keep the banks from failing. But now, as the financial system recovers, the government plans to phase out these backstops — leaving banks more vulnerable to big bets that go bad.One investment gaining popularity is a direct descendant of the mortgage-backed securities that devastated many banks last year. To get some lesser performing assets off their books, banks are taking slices of bonds made up of high-risk mortgage securities and pooling them with slices of bonds comprised of low-risk mortgage securities. With the blessing of debt ratings agencies, banks are then selling this class of bonds as a low-risk investment. The market for these products has hit $30 billion, according to Morgan Stanley.It may be unpleasant to hear that the traders are riding high,said Walter Bailey, chief executive of boutique merchant banking firm EpiGroup.But, hey, it's a pay-for-performance thing, and they're performing like mad.And that means the return of another Wall Street mainstay: Lavish compensation.

After 10 of the largest banks received a $250 billion lifeline from the government last fall, some lawmakers were outraged that employees were being paid seven-figure salaries even though their companies nearly collapsed. A handful of top executives, including Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit, have agreed to accept pay of just $1 this year. But the compensation of most high-performing traders hasn't changed. Goldman spent $6.6 billion in the second quarter on pay and benefits, 34 percent more than two years ago. And Citigroup, now one-third owned by the government after taking $45 billion in federal money, owes a star energy trader $100 million.The CEO of Goldman, Lloyd Blankfein, said at a banking conference in Germany last week that excessive banker pay works against the public interest.He said bonuses are important to attract and retain top talent, but misapplied, they can also encourage excess.The Obama administration has proposed measures to diminish the risk posed by large banks. They include forcing banks to hold more capital to cover losses and trying to increase the transparency of markets in which banks trade the most complex — and potentially risky — financial products. One major component of the Obama plan — creating an agency to oversee the marketing of financial products to consumers — will be difficult to pass in Congress. Industry lobbying against it and other proposed financial rules has been fierce.Lobbyists for hedge funds, the large investment pools that cater to the rich, have been able to fend off proposals that would require them to register with the SEC and regularly disclose their holdings.

And they, too, are profitable again after a dismal 2008. The 1,000 largest hedge funds in Morningstar's database posted average returns of 11.9 percent through July. In 2008, those same funds lost 22 percent on average.Have there been changes around the edges?says Timothy Brog, portfolio manager of New York-based hedge fund Locksmith Capital.Absolutely. Have their been systematic changes? Absolutely not.

European stocks advance, FTSE above 5,000 points Fri Sep 11, 7:36 am ET

LONDON (AFP) – Europe's main stock markets rose on Friday, with London rebounding above 5,000 points, after US indices struck the highest levels this year on growing optimism about the economic future.The FTSE 100 index climbed 0.67 percent to 5,021.09 points in midday London trading.Frankfurt's DAX 30 gained 0.64 percent to 5,630.61 points, in Paris the CAC 40 rallied 0.84 percent in value to reach 3,716.02 points and the DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares advanced 0.74 percent to 2,838.26.On the foreign exchange market, the European single currency stood at 1.4591 dollars after earlier on Friday reaching 1.4627 -- the highest level in 2009.Investors remained bullish today that equity markets could head higher as the global economy continues on the road to recovery and this sentiment is helping to lift European indices,City Index market strategist Joshua Raymond wrote in a note to clients.What we have seen for the last six months are investors confident to buy into the riskier mining and financial equities and leave the safer havens of US dollars and defensive equities. Today has shown no change in this trend.Wall Street had jumped to fresh 2009 highs on Thursday as upbeat corporate news and generally positive economic data helped the market extend its winning streak to a fifth day, dealers said.The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.84 percent to finish at 9,627.48 points, its highest close since last October 6.Also hitting 11-month highs, the Nasdaq composite lifted 1.15 percent to 2,084.02 points and the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 1.04 percent to 1,044.14.

Japanese share prices closed down 0.66 percent on Friday, weighed by a stronger yen and news that Japan's economy grew more slowly than previously thought in the second quarter, dealers said.However Chinese shares closed up 2.22 percent as the China government released stronger-than-expected data showing the world's third largest economy is continuing to strengthen.European stock markets had ended narrowly mixed on Thursday as investors consolidated recent gains. London's FTSE 100 has this week struck 11-month highs above 5,000 points, helped by renewed company merger activity.

On Monday, British confectioner Cadbury rejected a near 17-billion-dollar bid by US giant Kraft Foods. A day later, Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom launched talks to merge their British units into Britain's top mobile operator.burs/bcp/hd

Russia pays $1 bln for oil exploration in Venezuela Sun Sep 13, 6:47 pm ET

CARACAS (AFP) – A Russian consortium has paid one billion dollars to Venezuela to assure participation in exploiting the Orinoco oil fields, among the world's largest, officials said Sunday.The group of five Russian firms -- Rosneft, Lukoil, Gazprom, TNK-BP and Surgutneftegaz -- paid for access to exploit the reserves with us,the South American nation's Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said Ramirez said on President Hugo Chavez's radio show.On Saturday Venezuela's state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) said production on the massive Junin 6 heavy crude oil block would begin by 2012, and that the Orinoco-based operation would produce between 400,000 and 450,000 barrels of crude a day.Junin 6 is estimated to hold 53 billion barrels of heavy crude, making it one of the world's largest reserves.

Chavez, leader of the largest oil exporter in South America and a founding member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), said that during his visit to Moscow last week he signed the joint venture that would give PDVSA a 60-percent stake, with the remaining 40 percent to the consortium.The deal foresees investments of nearly 30 billion dollars in the project, Chavez said on his radio show, Alo Presidente,adding that the operation could surge to up to a million barrels per day.
Oil-rich Venezuela claims current proven reserves of some 142.3 billion barrels, but expects to raise that total to as high as 316 billion barrels. Of this total, 235 billion are estimated to lie underneath the Orinoco.

Consumer spending could boost the stock market By IEVA M. AUGSTUMS, AP Business Writer – Sun Sep 13, 4:50 pm ET

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Wall Street wants consumers to do their part to heal the economy. Traders know it's going to take some time.Investors will get some insight this week into how much consumers are spending from a government report on August retail sales. They'll also get an indicator of how willing consumers are to borrow money to make those purchases when credit card lender Discover Financial Services reports earnings.I think everybody is focusing so heavily on if people are releasing some of those dollars they have been clinging so tightly to over the past year, said Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group in Colonial Heights, Va.Analysts say investors need to see evidence that consumer spending is picking up before the market can extend its recent gains. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters estimate retail sales increased 1.2 percent last month, after falling 0.1 percent in July. The report comes out Tuesday.Many analysts have been expecting a pullback in the markets, which have risen more than 50 percent since bottoming out at a 12-year low in early March. The S&P 500 index, a widely used market gauge and the basis for many mutual funds, rose for five days before slipping Friday and ending the week up 2.6 percent. The Dow rose 164 points, or 1.7 percent, for the week.The market could take a breather before third-quarter earnings reports," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at New York-based brokerage house Avalon Partners Inc. Companies will start reporting results in early October for the three months ending in September.

The stock market ended the week with a few pieces of reassuring news on the economy. The Commerce Department reported Friday that even though wholesale inventories fell for a record 11th straight month in July, sales rose by the largest amount in more than a year. Also, the University of Michigan consumer confidence index showed improving views of both current conditions as well as expectations for the future.
You have to remember that consumers will spend money if they feel like that their prospects for a job or for wealth feels OK,Cox said.That wealth effect is huge.
Despite signs that the recession is easing, the reluctance of consumers to spend money is a top concern to investors. With spending by consumers making up a huge portion of the U.S. economy, about 70 percent, economists see little chance of a robust economic rebound until that spending picks up again.Earlier this month, the Labor Department reported that the unemployment rate jumped almost a half point to 9.7 percent in August, the highest level since 1983. Experts expect the unemployment rate to surpass 10 percent before coming back down, and the concern is that rising unemployment will put more pressure on beleaguered consumers and further depress their spending.Investors will also see if consumers are helping the electronics retailer Best Buy Co., which is slated to report earnings Tuesday. Discover Financial reports its results before the market opens on Thursday.

Nearly all lenders are seeing more customers miss their monthly payments as the economy falters and unemployment surges, but analysts say Riverwoods, Ill.-based Discover has been doing better than its peers.Consumers are definitely paying down credit card debt and not replacing it with new debt, and that's not unhealthy,said John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education for Credit.com, an online financial services company.People should be paying for things in ways that they can afford.

Investors may receive more reasons to bid stocks higher next week if new signs of strength emerge in new housing and manufacturing data. The market will get readings on housing starts for August as well as two regional manufacturing reports.The week also brings a sobering milestone: Tuesday marks the one-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which became the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history and triggered the most acute phase of the financial crisis. President Barack Obama will make a speech on Monday from Wall Street on the government's response to the crisis.

Car dealers fight slow sales after end of Clunkers By TOM KRISHER, AP Auto Writer -Sun Sep 13, 5:03 pm ET

YPSILANTI TOWNSHIP, Mich. – As Gene Butman Ford opened its doors Saturday, salesmen outnumbered the shoppers looking at a depleted stock of cars and trucks, and it didn't appear that many customers were ready to buy.Like many dealers across the country, the dealership in Ypsilanti Township, Mich., west of Detroit, is suffering from a Cash for Clunkers hangover, and Sales Manager Paul Grahl isn't sure when it will end.We're getting some traffic, but my business is a long way from healthy, said the longtime salesman.We suspect it's going to be 90 days before we get back to any kind of normalcy.The clunkers program lured hundreds of thousands of people to dealers in July and August with government rebates of up to $4,500 to trade in older, inefficient vehicles for newer, more fuel-efficient ones.While most dealers are grateful for the boost, they're paying for it now with fewer customers. The government rebates drew people into the market who otherwise would have kept driving their clunkers due to uncertainty over the sputtering economy. Those customers might have made their purchases later in the year.It was good while it lasted, said Phil Warren, sales manager at Toyota Direct in Columbus, Ohio.Now we're a little bit concerned about what happens next. The program may have just taken a lot of people out of the market.Making matters worse, many dealers depleted their stocks with clunker sales, and automakers have been slow to ramp up production to replenish the lots. Grahl says Ford has built the cars he ordered but mysteriously hasn't shipped them. So the selection isn't very good for people who do want to buy.We've noticed that,said Amy Whiting, who with her husband, Frank, was shopping this weekend at a Pontiac-Buick-GMC dealer near Butman Ford.You drive in the lot and it's gone.

The Whitings, who had trouble finding a Toyota Matrix compact, instead bought a used Pontiac Vibe, a General Motors version of the Matrix built at a soon-to-be-shuttered California factory that's a joint venture between GM and Toyota.Dealers across the country reported sparse selections on their lots as inventories shrunk to near record low levels. At the end of August, GM reported 379,000 cars and trucks in its supply, about half of what it had in August of last year. Ford Motor Co. had 243,000 cars and trucks, down from 461,000 a year ago.David Kelleher, who owns two Chrysler dealerships in the Philadelphia area, said he sold out of many products.Now, because of low inventory and September being a traditionally slow month, the sales pace has returned to where it was before the clunkers program began.We were already in a really mediocre year,Kelleher said.We're just kind of back into that mode again.

Kelleher usually has 350 to 400 vehicles at each of his lots, but said the clunkers program reduced that to around 50. He, too, has ordered replacements and is awaiting their arrival.We're back into that let's-wait-and-see mode,he said.People aren't 100 percent sure about the economy yet.Some economists are predicting that clunkers and other stimulus programs will pull the economy out of a recession this quarter. Consumer confidence rose from a reading of 65.7 in August to 70.2 in early September as measured by the University of Michigan-Reuters survey.Yet employment is still on the decline. Companies shed 216,000 jobs in August and unemployment rose to 9.7 percent, its highest level since 1983.So in many ways, the Whitings, in their mid-20s and both secure in their jobs, represent a large chunk of buyers who remain in the market: They had to buy because their 1997 Plymouth Breeze sedan had so many things go wrong that it wasn't worth repairing. For us it wasn't a matter of confidence. It was more practicality,Frank Whiting said. The clunkers program brought a drop in rebates and other sales incentives in August from every major automaker but Hyundai Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. Chrysler had the steepest drop, from $4,604 to $3,405, according to the Edmunds.com automotive Web site. But slow September sales could drive them up again. Scott Kesel, owner of a Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep dealership in Canandaigua, N.Y., near Rochester, thinks the September sales drop is seasonal as vacations end, students return to school and people focus on new routines.That is always a difficult retail period for us. If you see numbers that suggest the market is down in September, it may be absolutely normal,he said, adding that he isn't worried about the rest of the year.I think there's more demand out there yet, and the right dealers and the right products will bring those customers out.Kesel, like many dealers, still hasn't been paid for most of his clunker sales.

Most dealers are in a cash-flow crunch because of the federal government not paying up on this,he said. The government reported Friday that it has approved $1.22 billion in reimbursements, about 40 percent of what is due. The Transportation Department said it is on track to pay eligible dealers by Sept. 30. The rebates, which ended Aug. 24, led to more than 690,000 new car sales at a taxpayer cost of $2.88 billion.As a result, U.S. sales of cars and light trucks rose to 1.3 million in August, a roughly 30 percent increase from July. But now that the clunkers program is over, industry analysts expect poor September sales, even lower than the July rate.Even though customers are few now, dealers still are happy that Cash for Clunkers helped them in a difficult year with sales running at an annual rate of around 10 million. As recently as the first half of this decade, U.S. automakers sold around 17 million units per year.The CFC program definitely had an impact for a brief period of time, but it was like throwing a life jacket on a sinking boat, said Dan Mahan, desk manager of Riverside Auto Mall with Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda and Nissan outlets in Marquette, Mich.The clunker sales, though, will help the Upper Peninsula dealership network to keep going if times get even worse.Because the CFC program was there, we were able to squirrel away a nut for winter,Mahan said.
Associated Press Writer Matt Leingang in Columbus, Ohio, AP Business Writers David Koenig in Dallas, Dan Strumpf in New York, Kimberly S. Johnson in Detroit, and Ben Dobbin in Rochester, N.Y., and Photographer Carlos Osorio in Marquette, Mich., contributed to this report.