[holmes]

I am doing this for a good dude, ironborne. and needs to be a concern for everyone.
Blaming will kill those who care and wont effect the targets of your hostility much.

Now I see the Quotas associated with police and military to be the infinite growth, BAU, globalist machine rearing its ugly head. The end of protecting the last of the good folk (whats left of them). You know the ones who want a differnet way for their kids. Not the ways that have failed in the past. And have failed miserably. In America this globalization is not in the ORIGINAL intent of the Constitution. The blatant oppression and smear campaign against the original intent of armed Militias is another form of creating a one world govt. market. its the death nell for the last remains of the environment and freedom from the view out my window. Threw the baby out with the bathwater.

[wisconsin_cur]

Pakistan altering wheat export guidlines

Reading the story it is hard to draw a direct line between this and energy depletion. It is the type of things that I would expect to see in the months and years to come. Note the changing of trade policy against participation in the world market. Also Pakistan is now willing to take Euro's due to fear of a devalued dollar.

[Tanada]

If the Wheat Rust someone posted about not too long ago actually does devestate crops in Africa this year then things will be getting grim. I understand the motivation of not exporting a vital nessecity for pure profit, similer things happenned to some of my ancestors during the Irish Potato famine.

[steam_cannon]

They said that IPPs would now be allowed to get their profits in euro in case of devaluation of the US dollar and introduction of force majeure clause in their contracts in case of fuel shortage, instead of sovereign guarantees."

So they are expecting another round of major US dollar devaluations and fuel shortages?!

If the Wheat Rust someone posted about not too long ago actually does devestate crops in Africa this year then things will be getting grim.

I was also thinking the price of wheat might be because of wheat rust... They are saying that it is because of hording, but hording often happens when there is a reason for it. Like why life guards call in people onto the beach when a school of fish is heading for the shallows. The life guard isn't worried about the little fish, he is worried about what is chasing the fish...

So I'm thinking the hording is because of worry about wheat rust and falling grain production world wide...

How Long Can the World Feed Itself? - 2006
"For the sixth time in the past seven years, the human race will grow less food than it eats this year. We closed the gap by eating into food stocks accumulated in better times, but there is no doubt that the situation is getting serious. "
http://tinyurl.com/ygfnlk

[MrBill]

Many governments with heavy-handed interventionalist tendencies routinely ban agricultural exports. I can think of the Ukraine that periodically does this for example.

Pakistan is just one of those countries that is always just two steps away from open social unrest, a political coupe or an assination of a leader.

Of course, what the headlines never tell you is which politically connected crony does get the coveted export permit or unofficial permission to skirt the regulations.

I have no doubt that Pakistan's problems are real as world prices may be higher than what locals can afford to pay. But that is a symptom not a cause of Pakistan's mismanagement of its economy.

Given the value of the Pakistani rupee (PKR), which is not even a freely traded currency with full conversion rights as far as I know, the country would be lucky to receive much needed export revenue in either USD or EUR.

But the problem is inflation and the central role food prices play in that equation. Again, if food prices play a major role in your domestic inflation and affect living standards, then it is a sign the rest of the economy is not very well developed.

As the Pakistani Government announced recently, the country will most likely not be able to meet the aspired rate of inflation of 6.5 percent this year, mainly because of an extensive increase in food prices, especially for perishable food items. Instead of the desired rate of inflation of 6.5 percent, its now anticipated value lies within the range of 7.0 to 7.5 percent.

source: Pakistan Unlikely to Meet Inflation Target

I also have a problem with central banks in developing countries - especially the poor ones with their own fiscal and monetary problems as well as political ones - prognosticating on foreign exchange markets. I think they have more pressing problems to address.

But hey, at least they have nukes! ; - )

[Mircea]

Reading the story it is hard to draw a direct line between this and energy depletion. It is the type of things that I would expect to see in the months and years to come.

Perhaps you meant it is easy to draw a direct line. With respect to Pakistan, it is very hard to draw a direct line since, like the majority of countries, they use very little energy in their agricultural sector.

Note the changing of trade policy against participation in the world market.

No reason to be alarmed there. The fact that a world market exists does not mean that one ought to participate in it or that one must participate in it. For some countries, getting out of the world market and staying out until other sectors of the economy are sufficiently developed makes sense, especially if the government is having to subsidize the farmers in order for them to break even or make a modest profit.

Also Pakistan is now willing to take Euro's due to fear of a devalued dollar.

Yeah, well, that's the "Learning Curve." As soon as countries learn that they're getting poorer with the dollar instead of getting richer, they're bowing out. You can expect to see a lot more of that going around in the coming months and years, and it's about freaking time.

[MrBill]

Although globalization has meant adjustments for everyone on the trade side of the equation, the harmonization that accompanies integrating economies into global frameworks with regards to standard 'universal values' or even respect for minority rights has never really taken place despite hundreds of international treaties and the existance of the UN for example. We are still a collection of clans and tribes. That has not changed.

Jafar Kiani was stoned to death in a small village in the province of Qazvin. He was in his late 40s and had spent the last decade in prison after the adultery conviction.

He is the latest casualty of strict Islamic laws as applied since Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979.

The grim sentence came despite a five-year-old moratorium on stonings that rights groups fear is sometimes ignored.

Activists are warning that his partner -- who reportedly was jailed at the same time, 11 years ago -- could face a similar fate.

Source: Iran: Official Word Of Stoning Heightens Concern Over Condemned Mother

Whatever happened to the IOB anyway? It seems like March 2006 as well as 2007 have come and gone and it is no where to be seen? In the meantime, the Dubai oil exchange is up successfully running, while the Tehran stock exchange has collapsed.

The RTS has offered dual pricing in rubles and US dollars for the past year, but neither contract has even taken one percent of global trading volumes away from existing exchanges, while the ICE all extronic contract has successfully taken a huge chunk out of the NYMEX's open outcry market, forcing them into a merger of sorts with the CME for after-hour electronic trading.
The riddle of Iran

Iran's Supreme Court this month issued a ruling that upholds the idea that people may be killed with impunity if they are deemed to be immoral. The case confirms Iranians' suspicions that some people in Iran can get away with murder: religious fundamentalists, individuals associated with shadowy "pressure groups," or those linked to hard-line clerics.


The court on April 14 confirmed the acquittal of six Iranian militiamen who admitted killing five people in the southeastern city of Kerman in 2002-03. The six men justified the killings by saying the victims were "morally corrupt" according to religious laws, accusing them of selling drugs and engaging in extramarital sex.

The last two victims were a married couple the militiamen killed for supposedly having "illegitimate" relations as lovers, the daily "Etemad" reported on April 15.

The six defendants -- all of whom admitted to the killings -- are reportedly members of the local Basij militia, a nationwide force affiliated with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps.

Source: Iran: Supreme Court Upholds Principle Of Morality Killings



I guess successful commodity traders do not want to live under Sharia Law, like a drink afterwork and are not keen on being stoned to death if they have an office fling?

A judiciary spokesman, Alireza Jamshidi, told reporters on Tuesday that a death sentence by stoning had been carried out last week near the city of Takestan, west of Tehran, despite an order by the chief of the judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi, not to permit such executions.

"The verdict was final, and so it was carried out for the man but not for the woman," the ISNA news agency quoted Jamshidi as saying.

He said the 20 additional executions were for such things as "rape, insulting religious sanctities and laws, and homosexuality." Most executions in Iran are hangings, often in public and at the scenes of the alleged crimes.

The police arrested about 1,000 people in May during a so-called morality crackdown. Jamshidi said 15 more men were being tried on similar charges and could receive death sentences.

Source: Iran begins executions for adultery and other violations

Of course, none of that means Persian men working or visiting abroad cannot visit Eastern European prostitutes. Or even that the Koran cannot 'justify' temporary marriages for Iranian men?

[Tristan]

The soaring cost of fuel is whittling away at the cheap-labour advantage enjoyed by Asian exporters, giving Canadian firms a welcome edge in their fight to win back business from Asian competitors.

Globe and Mail


If jobs start returning to North America, China is going to have a tough time keeping its unemployed citizens happy.

[Hagakure_Leofman]

Noitazilabolg = Globalization reversed.

If it's too good to be true, it probably is.

In regards to globalisation, which for western 'consumers' has been a fiesta of cheap imported slave labour goodies, does anyone consider that the 'cost' of this will be repaid another way.

It's occurred to me, that we're now going to suffer the consequences of this redistribution of labour and opening of the 'free market' principal.

Specifically, now that we've got this 'great world economy', we'll enjoy paying through the nose for even things that are made next door - as world demand for everything increases, and so therefore - our friend would rather sell to the long lost Mohicans for $1 more than to his neighbour because he has to, to stay in business. At least for now.

So effectively, the benefits of globalization, will now become the drawbacks.

[BigTex]

I read a piece by Pat Buchanan a while back in which he argued that offshoring too many critical functions is part of what contributed to the decline of the British empire. Globalization looks to me like it is doing exactly the same thing to the U.S.

Long supply lines and dependence upon foreign countries that could easily become hostile to the U.S. (China in particular, not to mention many OPEC countries) have created vulnerabilities that seem virtually certain to haunt us at some point.

If it ever became necessary to pull up the drawbridges, I think we would find that "just in time" systems are not nearly as good an idea as we may have thought.

I like my cheap electronics, but they may not be all that cheap by the time all of the costs are factored in.

[Ferretlover]

For quite awhile now, I have felt that outsourcing skills and manufacturing was something akin to a "going out of business sale."

[BigTex]

It seems like in recent history (last 200 years or so), a nation's prestige was ultimately tied to its manufacturing and agricultural capacity, with manufacturing being the more important of the two.

I wonder what the long term effect of sending a lot of U.S. manufacturing offshore will be.

[Jack]

I think it's a problem.

We buy cheap electronics that will last months - maybe a few years.

We send them cash which they use to buy productive assets.

Fiscal madness.

[peaker_2005]

Not only that, it's maniacally stupid.

Whoever decided that long supply lines such as those that exist these days should be the norm deserves to be shot.

It's stupid on two points:

1. Supply lines can be a weak point.
2. As we all know, supply of everything pretty much depends on oil. And given we know that it's going to peak... Well, that's a problem.

I used to admire the insanely delicate arrangement that exists, but having thought about it more, I see globalization as a way to force modern civilisation to commit economic suicide.

[Ivan_M]

"still"? it never seemed like a good idea to me. not even when my dad explained the concept to me when i was about 10.

[Twilight]

If you can get hold of the 5 April 2008 issue of the New Scientist magazine from a city library, do it. It has a couple of cover features which suggest networked civilisations are less resilient to shocks. Interesting reading.

Taster 1

Taster 2

It cites Tainter of course, and various modern examples of vulnerabilities and failure from unforseen quarters.

[Kingcoal]

What are you guys talking about? Globalization works great because oil's so cheap... Oh yeah, it's not so cheap anymore.

[threadbear]

It's an evolutionary process. Economies have gotten too large and complex. Globalization should be reversed. We need to get back to small and local. Let's call it Gerbilization.

[MD]

Let's call it Gerbilization.

There's one for the meme stream!