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Asia Times Online :: Asian news and current affairs -...

Rated Oct 24 2007 • 1 review • banking, subprime crisis, mortgage crisis, collateralized, subprime • atimes.com

" ... one of the biggest problems in the current subprime crisis is the fact that those investors outside of the financial institutions that waded into the subprime swamp have no real idea just how bad things are, just how much subprime and subprime-related exposure that those now caught in the swamp are hiding under water and away from view. ... the real problems is what happened to that subprime mortgage paper as it got packaged and repackaged, leveraged up, collateralized, borrowed upon, and then leveraged up again, while it moved further and further up into finance capital's elite addresses.
"... What more rate cuts will certainly do is give another kick to the US dollar while it's already down; since the commencement of interest rate cuts on August 17, the greenback has fallen over 6% against the euro, reaching record lows of over 1.43 euro/US$. One thing that this will do is continue to drive crude oil prices further up towards $100 a barrel.
"... [Nonetheless], a rescue from the country's current economic difficulties may soon be on the horizon. Over the past week the financial press reported rumors that China's state-owned commercial bank, CITIC, the country's eighth-biggest lender, was looking to buy a good sized stake in the US investment brokerage house Bear Stearns, the bare-knuckle Wall Street brawler whose default on two in-house subprime hedge funds was essentially the starter's pistol for the midsummer crisis. This is Not A Good Solution because "the nation would in effect be selling the ownership of its very profitable banking and finance industries to other nations."

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Asia Times Online :: South Asia news - Indias Congress...

Rated Oct 23 2007 • 1 review • india, manmohan singh, us nuclear deal, india nuclear deal, congress party • atimes.com

Hotly debated in both the USA and India, it now appears that India's Congress-led federal government has blinked on the Indo-US nuclear deal."The left-wing coalition partners, who are opposed to the pact and threatened to withdraw support, have had their way and without their support in Parliament the government would have collapsed."

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POLITICS-US: Military Resistance Forced Shift on Iran...

Rated Oct 23 2007 • 0 reviews • military • ipsnews.net

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The CIA agent who exposed US complicity in helping...

Rated Oct 23 2007 • 2 reviews • politics • guardian.co.uk

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Oprah's Thyroid Club - Well Blog - NYTimes.com

Rated Oct 19 2007 • 1 review • medical science, oprah, hashimoto s thyroiditis, hypothyroidism, thyroid disease • nytimes.com

"Thyroid disorders, which are far more common in women than men, are said to be among the most undiagnosed and misdiagnosed health problems. Part of the problem is that the symptoms are ambiguous and likely to be written off as stress, menopause or normal aging."

Unfortunately, Oprah thinks she can cure her TD by spending a month at her estate in Maui and drinking soy milk! And her TV show doctor, a new agey female specialist, says that repressing your words causes thyroid disease (ummm.. when has Oprah suppressed her words??)... TD is a serious condition that has been confirmed by decades of rigorous, peer reviewed research. Passing TD off as an psychological or emotional problem is cruel and disingenuous.

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Asia Times Online :: South Asia news - Pakistan plans...

Rated Oct 19 2007 • 1 review • terrorism, pakistan, musharraf, bhutto, pakistani military • atimes.com

"An all-out battle for control of Pakistan's restive North and South Waziristan is about to commence between the Pakistani military and the Taliban and al-Qaeda adherents who have made these tribal areas their own. According to a top Pakistani security official, the goal this time is to pacify the Waziristans once and for all. ... Lining up against the Pakistani Army will be the Shura (council) of Mujahideen comprising senior al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders, local clerics, and leaders of the fighting clans Wazir and Mehsud (known as the Pakistani Taliban). The shura has long been calling the shots in the Waziristans, imposing sharia law and turning the area into a strategic command and control hub of global Muslim resistance movements, including those operating in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Meanwhile, one or more of these groups may be behind the suicide bombers that attacked former premier Benazir Bhutto's truck during a parade in Karachi. At least 126 people were killed and 375 injured - news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0 [news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0] ,21985,22612528-5012747,00.html

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Tomgram: Mark Danner, The President at Peace with Himself

Rated Oct 17 2007 • 2 reviews • politics • tomdispatch.com

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Asia Times Online :: Middle East News - Iran riven by...

Rated Oct 17 2007 • 1 review • middle east, iran nuclear, ahmadinejad, iran nuclear technology, iran nuclear policy • atimes.com

"Threatening the well-spring of political unity in Iran, the nuclear crisis has now triggered a political minefield pitting the leading politicians of the Islamic Republic against each other. ... Triggered by last month's European tour of Iran's former nuclear negotiation chief, Hassan Rowhani, who is also Khamenei's representative at the Supreme National Security Council and is closely affiliated with the "centerist" former president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the controversy over "parallel diplomacy" has reached new heights as a result of continuing accusations of "nuclear espionage" leveled against some members of the previous negotiation team and Rowhani's biting criticism that Ahmadinejad's foreign policy has resulted in Iran's isolation and rising threats against the country."

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