New hotel opens in China's richest village

From: AlJazeeraEnglish  | Oct 18, 2011 

 

Huaxi, also known as China's richest village, celebrates its 50th anniversary with the inauguration of a 328-metre-high skyscraper hotel.

The village, located in east China's Jiangsu province, with a population of about 2000 people, has become the first rural area in the world to have its own skyscraper.

The Longxi International Hotel ranks as the 15th-highest skyscraper in the world, standing taller than Paris's Eiffel Tower (324m) and the Chrysler Building (319m) in New York.

The 74-storey hotel was built at a cost of three billion yuan (nearly $471m) by raising 10 million yuan from each family in the village.

Al Jazeera World - Images of a Revolution

From: AlJazeeraEnglish  | Oct 19, 2011

Chris Hedges - 'This one could take them all down'

Marc Faber interviewed

By DoomBoomGloom on Oct 11, 2011

 

Bank of England warns of final day of reckoning

From ArabianMoney.net:

The Governor of the Bank of England Sir Mervyn King is warning that governments have still not addressed the fundamental issue of overspending which lies at the root of the financial crisis. Nations have been living beyond their means on borrowed money for too long.

In a speech in Liverpool last night the governor said action by eurozone leaders this weekend would only ‘buy time’ but added, ‘So far, that time has not been used to deal with the underlying imbalances, or the weaknesses in bank and sovereign balance sheets. Time is running out.’

Another stop-gap?

There is mounting expectation in financial markets that a meeting of EU leaders this weekend will reach agreement on a bailout deal for the banking sector and final solution for Greece. But sovereign debts continue to rise with the West borrowing from the East to finance a lifestyle now beyond its means.

‘Without a rebalancing of spending in the world economy, a struggle between debtor and creditor countries will inflict economic pain on everyone,’ Sir Meryvn noted. ‘We must use the gravity of the global crisis to provoke a bold response.’.......read on

Moodys downgrades Spain again

From Bloomberg:

Spain’s credit rating was cut for the third time in 13 months by Moody’s Investors Service as Europe’s debt crisis threatens to engulf the nation.

Moody’s yesterday reduced its ranking to its fifth-highest investment grade, cutting it by two levels to A1 from Aa2, with the outlook remaining negative. Standard & Poor’s downgraded Spain on Oct. 14 to its fourth-highest investment grade, and Fitch Ratings cut it to the same level on Oct. 7, the day it also downgraded Italy.

“Moody’s is maintaining a negative outlook on Spain’s rating to reflect the downside risks from a potential further escalation of the euro-area crisis,” it said in a statement. The company cited the “continued vulnerability of Spain to market stress” that is driving up the cost of borrowing, as well as weaker growth prospects. Spanish bonds were little changed.

Spanish and Italian bonds are being pummeled as euro leaders fail to convince investors they can contain the debt crisis and shore up banks to withstand the risk of a Greek default. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday that a European Union summit Oct. 23 will mark an “important step,” though not the final one in solving the sovereign debt crisis.....read on

Occupy Sydney in photos 19 Oct 2011

Outside the Reserve Bank of Australia

Outside the Global HQ for Westpac Bank

The next large rally

Clinton surveys the spoils of war

From: Euronews  | Oct 18, 2011

Africa is the Prize

Pepe Escobar: Oil behind US nose poking in Uganda

 

From: RussiaToday  | Oct 18, 2011  

Washington is to send a hundred special operations troops to Uganda to help local forces fight the Lord's Resistance Army, widely considered a terrorist organization. The Ugandan government has been fighting this guerilla group for over two decades. But Asia Times correspondent Pepe Escobar says America has far-reaching plans for the region, that have little to do with protecting civilians.

UK Inflation hits 19-year high of 5.2%

From the UK Telegraph:

The last time the consumer prices index (CPI) was higher was March 1992, when it reached 7.2pc, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) data.

Annual inflation was also 5.2pc in September 2008, when oil rocketed to an all-time high of $147 a barrel and the global financial system was on the brink of collapse following the failure of Lehman Brothers.

The ONS said that the price rises of four of the six large utility companies have been factored into the inflation figure so far. The other two will be reflected in the October inflation figures.

Bills for gas, electricity and other fuels rose 18.3pc on the year in September, while transport costs were up 12.8pc. Food prices were 6pc higher than last year. Economists had expected CPI to be between 4.9pc.

The unsavoury combination of high inflation and high unemployment in September pushed the UK 'Misery Index' to a 19-year according to Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit....read on

Keiser Report: Live by Fraud, Die by Fraud

By RussiaToday on Oct 18, 2011

This week Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, talk about JP Morgan's bet against itself, a Florida legislator's plans to boost the economy with 'dwarf-tossing' and Tim Geithner flying economy. In the second half of the show, Max Keiser interviews Saifedean Ammous about Mubarak's odious debts and about whether or not Occupy Wall Street is an Arab Spring for the West.