US Fed Chairman demands plan to cut social programs
by Barry Grey
Global Research, June 6, 2009
wsws.org

Testifying Wednesday before the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke demanded that Congress and the Obama administration map out a program of austerity measures to bring down record budget deficits. Bernanke made clear that the heart of this program should be sharp cuts in social spending, including basic entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

“Maintaining the confidence of the financial markets,” Bernanke said in prepared remarks to the committee, “requires that we, as a nation, begin planning now for the restoration of fiscal balance.”

The phrase “confidence of the financial markets” is a euphemism for the interests of Wall Street and major international banks and investors. In demanding the preparation of austerity measures to be imposed on the American people, Bernanke was speaking in behalf of the financial elite whose massive taxpayer subsidies have been the major cause of the explosive growth over the past year of the federal deficit and the US national debt.

Even as he called for plans to slash social programs, Bernanke said that the economic “recovery,” which he predicted would begin later this year, would be preceded by a continued surge in unemployment that would last for a protracted period. Acknowledging that nearly 6 million jobs in the US have been lost since the beginning of 2008, he said “sizable job losses and further increases in unemployment are likely over the next few months.”

Even when the economy stops shrinking—currently at an annual rate of 6 percent—“businesses are likely to be cautious about hiring, and the unemployment rate is likely to rise for a time,” he said. READ MORE

Wall Street, Obama administration conspire to block financial regulation
By Barry Grey
4 June 2009

In the guise of enhanced regulation, the Obama administration is working with major Wall Street banks to sanction a continuation of the speculative practices that precipitated the financial meltdown and deepest economic slump since the Great Depression.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has, according to a detailed exposé published May 1 by the New York Times, adopted a proposal drawn up by a group of big Wall Street firms for new regulations on the lucrative trade in derivatives such as credit default swaps. Geithner headed the New York Federal Reserve Bank and played a key role in the Bush administration’s bank bailout program before being named to his present post by Obama. His recently issued proposal on derivatives regulation, in opposition to measures backed by certain corporate interests, such as agribusiness firms and the congressmen who represent them, would exempt most trading in credit default swaps from any serious public exposure or government regulation.

Credit default swaps are contracts agreed to between corporations in which the seller insures the buyer against the default of specific corporate bonds or securities. The transactions are “over the counter,” i.e., arrived at privately without being listed on any public exchange. Since the passage of a law in 2000 supported and signed by then-Democratic President Bill Clinton, they have been unregulated.

The 2000 law sparked an explosive growth of this form of financial gambling. According to the Times, “The market now represents transactions with a face value of $600 trillion, up from $88 trillion a decade ago. JPMorgan, the largest dealer of over-the-counter derivatives, earned $5 billion trading them in 2008, according to Reuters, making them one of its most profitable businesses.” READ MORE

WFP says hunger kills more than AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis combined
Posted: 2009/06/05
From: MNN

WFP said in the release that there are 25,000 people, both of adults and children, die a day from hunger and related causes, in which one child is dying every six seconds from hunger and related diseases (or 14,000 children a day).

LUSAKA, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Hunger kills more people every year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) said in a release to Xinhua on Thursday.

According to relative researches, WFP said in the release that there are 25,000 people, both of adults and children, die a day from hunger and related causes, in which one child is dying every six seconds from hunger and related diseases (or 14,000 children a day).

Datas also showed that hunger (underweight) is No.1 on the list of the world's top 10 health risks, while one in seven people (adults and children) goes to bed hungry each night.

Quoting the latest datas from the World Bank and the international Monetary Fund (IMF), WFP further indicated that the number of chronically hungry people in the world, which rose in 2008 because of the food crisis, is set to exceed 1 billion in 2009, reversing gains in fighting malnutrition and making investment in agriculture all the more important. READ MORE

Noting that the US wants to take war and tension from Afghanistan to Pakistan, Asheq Hossein Touri told FNA, "They wanted the Pakistani army to continue the war and they have provided Pakistan with a lot of money in the same regard."

He referred to other goals pursued by the US efforts to establish its hegemony over the region, and said they also want to "put pressure on china and Iran and considering that Russia is restoring its power, the US aims to deploy its forces in this region to control and carefully monitor the country".

"Another goal pursued by the US presence in the Subcontinent is seizure of the rich resources of the region and control over its strategic areas," Touri stressed, adding, "Iran is the only country in the world that stood against the US bullying and the US has put pressure on this independent country by creating insecurity, promoting religious extremism, sectarianism and separatism." READ MORE

Leader Condemns Alien Hands for Terrorist Attack in Zahedan

TEHRAN (FNA)- Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said on Saturday political plotters and intelligence services of certain bullying powers are responsible for the recent terrorist attack in Iran's southeastern city of Zahedan.

"Sparking sedition, riot and fratricide among Muslims of the regional countries and in our dear country has always been an everlasting goal of the enemies of the Islamic Republic," Ayatollah Khamenei said in a message of condolence to the Iranian nation on the recent terrorist attack in Zahedan.

"And it is just through public vigilance and officials' follow-ups that such political blackguardism and viciousness can be foiled," he added.

The Leader urged officials and political and security officers to ensure security of the people through vigilance and serious efforts and bring those responsible to justice.

Ayatollah Khamenei also expressed his condolences to the bereaved families of the victims of the recent terrorist attack in Zahedan, and prayed for the healing of the injured.

A bomb planted in a Shiite mosque in the city of Zahedan was detonated on Thursday where people had gathered to commemorate the martyrdom anniversary of the daughter of the prophet of Islam, Hazrat Fatima (PBUH). The explosion killed 25 people and injured 125 others. READ MORE

Making Sense of a U.S. Owned General Motors
by Shamus Cooke
Global Research, June 4, 2009

Now that the United States owns General Motors, many are asking, “What’s in it for taxpayers?” This is an extremely good question, considering that taxpayers may spend up to $100 billion [!] towards a company that’s currently worth around $450 million. (Wall Street Journal, 6/02/09)

This large discrepancy in numbers means, obviously, that taxpayers could lose tremendous amounts of “investment” money if Obama’s “profit first” plan is put into effect.

What is this plan? Strip the company to a fraction of its former self, using far fewer workers and making far less money in the hopes that GM will then out-compete the foreign competition on the world market.

Will Obama’s plan benefit anybody? Yes, a small group of ultra-rich investors will likely buy GM at a bargain basement price so that they may pursue their profits in private after the public laid down the enormous “restructuring costs.”

Obama has made it extremely clear that “he doesn’t want to run GM.” He will instead appoint a “private board of directors and management team,” meaning, a typical group of corporate CEO’s who are concerned about nothing but blindly chasing profits.

But what about Obama’s promises of “transforming” the U.S. auto industry so that electric and hybrid vehicles are produced? Wouldn’t this require that the government “take the reins” and make it so? Apparently, this was nothing but a ridiculous propaganda stunt, meant to distract the public away from the gruesome dismembering of America’s proudest union, the United Auto Workers (U.A.W.). READ MORE

Global Research, December 13, 2008
www.worldnet daily. - 2008-12-11

WASHINGTON - A United Nations climate change conference in Poland is about to get a surprise from 650 leading scientists who scoff at doomsday reports of man-made global warming - labeling them variously a lie, a hoax and part of a new religion.

Later today, their voices will be heard in a U.S. Senate minority report quoting the scientists, many of whom are current and former members of the U.N.'s own Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

About 250 of the scientists quoted in the report have joined the dissenting scientists in the last year alone.

In fact, the total number of scientists represented in the report is 12 times the number of U.N. scientists who authored the official IPCC 2007 report. READ MORE

According to Prensa Latina news agency, Chavez explained that the plan was organized by infamous international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles and it consisted in the shooting down of the Venezuelan presidential plane with one or more rockets while entering or leaving San Salvador.

The Venezuelan leader insisted that his country continues to demand the extradition of Posada Carriles, who lives in the United States.

“Where is US justice?” Chavez wondered and asked US President Barack Obama for the immediate extradition of Posada Carriles to Venezuela where he is wanted for the 1976 mid-air bombing of a Cuban airliner off the coast of Barbados that resulted in the death of 73 innocent people.

“I have no doubt that US intelligence agencies are behind this. President Obama: it is time to dismantle this terror machinery that has acted all around the world,” Chavez added. READ MORE

Military Admits "Errors" in Civilian Bombing in Afghanistan, But Still Defends the Attacks

The attack in Farah province killed as many as 140 Afghan civilians. The US military says errors were made, but insists the “targets” “posed legitimate threats to Afghan or American forces.”

By Jeremy Scahill

The May 4 US bombing in Farah Province in Afghanistan was reportedly the single worst aerial attack by US forces since the 2001 invasion began. Afghan sources said as many as 130-140 civilians were killed. At the time, The New York Times reported the attack “could be the largest case of civilian casualties since an attack on the village of Azizabad in western Afghanistan last year, in which United Nations officials said there was convincing evidence that 90 civilians were killed.” Among the dead, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross were 13 members of the one family, including a worker for the Red Crescent.

In the immediate aftermath, the Pentagon tried to spin a story that Taliban fighters used grenades to kill three families to “stage” a massacre and then blame it on the US. The ICRC passionately rejected this claim, saying, “We know that those killed included an Afghan Red Crescent volunteer and 13 members of his family who had been sheltering from fighting in a house that was bombed in an air strike.” READ MORE

Davoudi: Tehran Geared to Expand Ties with Africa

TEHRAN (FNA)- First Vice-President Parviz Davoudi said here Tuesday that one of the most important priorities of Iran's foreign policy is expansion of relations with African states, Kenya in particular.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran has now a good record of cooperation and extending technical and engineering services to different countries, including those in Africa. Iran is ready to widen the scope of activities in Kenya in line with interests of the two nations," said Davoudi in the first round of talks with a high-ranking Kenyan delegation, headed by Kenyan Prime Minister Odinga.

He said the visit of Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga to Tehran will help further upgrade mutual ties.

Davoudi added that Iran is fully ready to have extensive cooperation with Kenya in different agricultural, housing, gas and power plant sectors, the Islamic republic news agency reported. READ MORE