get it together for god’s sake, how hard can it be..

Leading economist Nouriel Roubini explains in bullet-point form how hedge funds are driving the stock market collapse. Take careful note of how credit default swaps are a key factor in the stock market sell-off, and how another type of derivative - "collateralized fund obligations" - may be the next shoe to drop:

derivatives site:globalresearch.ca

http://www.google.se/search?q=derivatives+site%3Aglobalresearch.ca&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Those banks apparently also got nailed

http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2008/10/who-got-nailed-paying-for-lehmans.html

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10535 

We know that issuers of Lehman's credit default swaps will have to pay out hundreds of billions of dollars. But who will actually have to pay that out?

The Times of London writes today:

"About 350 banks and investors are thought to have insured an estimated $400 billion of Lehman’s debt through complex derivatives, known as credit default swaps. These include Pacific Investment Management, the manager of the world’s largest bond fund, Citadel, the US hedge fund, and American International Group, the insurer that the US Government recently bailed out with two loans totalling about $123 billion."

Derivatives are financial instruments whose values depend on the value of other underlying financial instruments. The main types of derivatives are futures, forwards, options and swaps.

The OTC derivative market is the largest market for derivatives, and is unregulated. According to the Bank for International Settlements, the total outstanding national amount is $596 trillion (as of December 2007)^[1].

Swedish Vattenfall to Invest in Polish Lignite Project

"Local government representatives from the Legnica, Lubin and Ścinawa administrative districts in the Lower Silesia voivodship in southwestern Poland have sent a letter to Prime Minister Donald Tusk in protest against a plan to exploit the massive lignite reserves in their region, and to use them to fire a huge new power station. The project is gaining momentum, and local and foreign companies, such as Polska Grupa Energetyczna (PGE) and Vattenfall of Sweden, have stated their interest in it. The estimated cost of the project is zł.7.7 billion."

"Invited to comment on the opposition to the project by local residents, the spokesperson for Vattenfall in Poland, Łukasz Zimnoch, replied enigmatically.

"Vattenfall wants to develop dynamically in Poland, matching its next steps to the growth of the Polish economy as a whole," he offered."

( Lignite = brunkol )

Improbable Collapse : The Demolition of our Republic

“Improbable Collapse: The Demolition of Our Republic” is the first film to look at the events of September 11, 2001 from a scientific perspective.



WTC 7 collapsed as if from a controlled demolition.

Did Canada cave under US Israeli pressure?

Michael Ratner: Canada gave in to pressure from US ambassador

ZAA NKWETA, PRESENTER: A Canadian Foreign Affairs training manual has created a diplomatic firestorm. At issue is a list of countries with possible torture and abuse cases. The list includes the United States. The manual was inadvertently released to lawyers from Amnesty International working on a lawsuit involving alleged abuse of Afghan detainees by Canadians. US Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins has stated that the inclusion of the United States is absurd. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Maxine Bernier promptly issued an apology, stating that the manual will be reviewed and rewritten. The Real News spoke with Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights and a leading expert in international law and torture and abuse cases.

UN security council fails to address Gaza

The UN security council held an emergency meeting on Tuesday to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. But with the United States putting the blame on Hamas, the council failed to reach an agreement on a statement. Kristen Saloomey reports for Al Jazeera.

Judicial Watch Announces List of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” for 2007

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2007 list of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians.”  The list, in alphabetical order, includes:

1.  Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY):  In addition to her long and sordid ethics record, Senator Hillary Clinton took a lot of heat in 2007 – and rightly so – for blocking the release her official White House records.  Many suspect these records contain a treasure trove of information related to her role in a number of serious Clinton-era scandals.  Moreover, in March 2007, Judicial Watch filed an ethics complaint against Senator Clinton for filing false financial disclosure forms with the U.S. Senate (again).  And Hillary’s top campaign contributor, Norman Hsu, was exposed as a felon and a fugitive from justice in 2007.  Hsu pleaded guilt to one count of grand theft for defrauding investors as part of a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme.

 

http://judicialwatch.org/judicial-watch-announces-list-washington-s-ten-most-wanted-corrupt-politicians-2007