FOREIGN POLICY IN FOCUS: WHO OWNS THE WORLD?

WATCH: VIDEO—BBC ON EDWARD BERNAYS AND MASS PERSUASION (7 ½ minutes)

NEED: ELECION INVESTIGATION

Julian Assange writes:

I am an investigative journalist and the investigative editor of
Wikileaks.

I have funding to pull together an international team to write an unimpeachable out-of-country forensic analysis of the Kenyan electoral process.

In Sept 2007 we wrote a report which led to a 10% swing in the Kenyan
vote

Subsequently, from sources in Kenya and walk ins, we’ve released a number of other documents

The Kenyan political and economic situation is dire and will stay that way until there is clarity on the legitimacy or otherwise of the Kibaki government. Analysis by Kenyan civil society groups show the election to have been stolen by the Kibaki regime at the electorial commission level……

Comment: This is a good idea. We can use an international election investigation unit like this in the US as well.

ARE WE IN A RECESSION?

The US government hasn’t admitted we are even though top investment banks say its here. We keep reading about measures to “stave off a recession.” Why the confusion? This article in the Oakland Tribune explains why this is all so funky:

The truth is, nobody knows. The responsibility for declaring the stages of the business cycle is informally held by that most dreaded of concepts — a committee of economists. The Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research uses several economic indicators, including personal income, unemployment, industrial production and sales and manufacturing volume, to determine the health of the economy. It’s not true that they declare a recession if economic growth is negative for two quarters in a row. If it were that simple, we wouldn’t need a committee.

If you want to know about the state of the economy in real time, you can’t rely on the NBER.

If the NBER did the D.C. weather forecast, here’s how it would work. The bureau would gather precipitation data from every neighborhood, then interview residents to make sure the data are accurate. After much deliberation, it would tell us whether it had rained last month.

Same with recessions: The NBER’s pronouncements historically come long after recessions have begun, a whopping seven months on average. By the time the bureau announced the recession of 1991, it already had ended.

Right now, we only have enough data to assess the economy accurately through November. The best available real-time indicator of recession, a model developed by economist Marcelle Chauvet of the University of California, Riverside that has correctly called every postwar recession without ever giving a false signal, clearly indicates that the economy was not in recession in November. Things have deteriorated since then, but it is an open question whether they have deteriorated enough. A recession may have started. Or it may not have.

Does that help?

A second article in the Tribune cuts through the fog on this issue:

Oakland Trb: Recession or Not, the Suffering is Real

ECONOMISTS and politicians can debate all they want about whether the nation is sliding into its first recession in nearly seven years. Rizzo was recently laid off from his customer service job at a homebuilder in Sarasota, Fla. His grocery bill is higher nowadays, and he can barely afford his mortgage payments. Whether an actual recession is on the way — or already here — U.S. consumers and businesses are being increasingly squeezed by a downturn that threatens to spread the pain being felt everywhere from the gas pump to the unemployment line.

THE RUMBLE BEHIND THE SUBPRIME CRUMBLE
By Mo Saceriby—Must read

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: The Housing Meltdown? It Didn’t Have to Be This Way

America’s housing meltdown has spawned an epidemic of home foreclosures and job losses. In the United States, the victims range from shell-shocked homebuyers unable to keep up ballooning subprime mortgage payments to middle-class investors seeing their 401(k) value plummet.Most of this pain could have been avoided had it not been for greed, imprudence and sloppiness on the part of everyone from homebuyers to mortgage lenders.

WRAL.com: Even With Tough Mortgage Laws, NC Faces More Foreclosures

When the General Assembly approved a predatory lending law in 1999, it was hailed as a model for the rest of the country…It apparently wasn’t.

The Robert F Kennedy Center announces:

More than two year after the 2005 Hurricanes and the levee failures, thousands of Americas remain displaced from their neighborhoods as the Gulf Coast region struggles to address an ongoing community infrastructure crisis.

ABC CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, and the other networks hosting Presidential Debates will not question candidates on how, as President, they plan to rebuild Gulf Coast communities and help residents return.

ACORN, Color of Change, Gulf Coast Civic Works Project and RFK Memorial Center for Human Rights are working to make sure the issue of Gulf Coast rebuilding is addressed in the California Republican and Democratic Debates on January 30th and 31st.

For More. Click here

David Friendlander writes:

I think you’ll be interested in the comments this ridiculous NYT post inspired.

MEDIA NEWS FROM I WANT MEDIA.COM

Reuters: The bidding topped $3.7 billion on the second day of the FCC’s auction of government-owned airwaves, but there were no new suitors for a closely watched block of spectrum to be shared with public safety agencies.

Newsday: 52 Stations Hit with $27,500 Indecency Fines

An episode of ABC’s NYPD Blue has resulted in 52 stations being fined for indecency. The stations belong not only to ABC, but to Hearst-Argyle, Post-Newsweek, Sinclair, Scripps, Raycom, Gray Television, Tribune, Belo and Media General.

Facebook May Be ‘Extraordinarily Valuable’

Peter Thiel, the first outside investor in closely held Facebook, says Sarbanes-Oxley rules make it difficult for U.S. tech companies to go public. Facebook could be “extraordinarily valuable,” he says, while at the World Economic Forum. Also: Founder Mark Zuckerberg says he is “shy.”

Gore’s Current TV Files for $100 Million IPO

Current Media, which operates a television network and current.tv, is filing with U.S. regulators to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering. Shareholders include Blum Capital Partners, Yucaipa Cos., DirectTV, Comcast and former U.S. vice president Al Gore.

NY PROTEST: JUSTICE For Suharto’s Victims

Demand Accountability and Justice!

Suharto escaped justice, but others responsible for mass crimes in Indonesia, East Timor, West Papua, and Aceh must be held accountable.

When: Friday, February 1, 1 pm - 2 pm

Where: Indonesian Consulate, 5 E. 68th St., Manhattan, New York City

JOHN PILGER HAS MORE ON THE LATE DICTATOR AND HIS MANY FRIENDS

I could go on, but it may be too depressing, so i will stop here.

Your comments and observations welcome.

Write: Dissector@mediachannel.org