Britannia Radio

Bank of China buys into Rothschild bank: BANK of China said yesterday it will buy a 20 percent stake in La Compagnie Financiere Edmond de Rothschild for 236.3 million euros (US$340 million) and the two will develop private banking and asset-management services.

US generals planning for resource wars: The US military sees the next 30 to 40 years as involving a state of continuous war against ideologically-motivated terrorists and competing with Russia and China for natural resources and markets, writes Tom Clonan

Chavez says Latin America needs Russia: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said in an interview broadcast Sunday that Latin America needs strong friendship with Russia to help reduce U.S. influence and keep peace in the region. The interview aired as a Russian Navy squadron prepared to sail to Venezuela.

Venezuela To Buy Planes, Create $6 Billion Investment Fund In China: Chavez, a staunch foe of the U.S. government, confirmed that during his stay in Beijing, he will purchase 24 K-8 aircraft "to train fighter pilots." The planes could be part of Venezuela's air force by next year. The president also confirmed that while in Beijing, he will arrange the construction of tanker vessels in Chinese shipyards, with the aim of installing a shipyard in Venezuela in the future.

Hiding in Plain Sight: Why is Sarah Palin granting so few interviews?: Mr. McCain's selection of an inexperienced and relatively unknown figure was unsettling, and the campaign's decision to keep her sequestered from serious interchanges with reporters and voters serves only to deepen the unease. Mr. McCain is entitled to choose the person he thinks would be best for the job. He is not entitled to keep the public from being able to make an informed assessment of that judgment.

Default by the US government is no longer unthinkable: But September 2008 marks the moment when the scale of our excesses, the extent of our debts and the moral bankruptcy of our financial regulatory system finally began to be truly exposed.

Fury at $2.5bn Lehman bonus: STAFF at Lehman’s New York office who helped to cause the world’s biggest corporate bankruptcy are to share in a $2.5 billion bonanza.

BAD MONEY: RECKLESS FINANCE, FAILED POLITICS, AND THE GLOBAL CRISIS OF AMERICAN CAPITALISM: Video and transcript: Bill Moyers sits down with former Nixon White House strategist and political and economic critic Kevin Phillips.They explores the role that the crumbling financial sector played in the now-fragile American economy.

$1,000,000,000,000: The astonishing cost of US government's desperate bid to rid the economy of toxic debt: There are some members of Congress who are unhappy at the thought of the taxpayer taking on hundreds of billions of dollars of currently worthless debt. But the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, Steney Hoyer, said he expected quick action

Treasury Seeks Asset-Buying Power Unchecked by Courts: ``He's asking for a huge amount of power,'' said Nouriel Roubini, an economist at New York University. ``He's saying, `Trust me, I'm going to do it right if you give me absolute control.' This is not a monarchy.''

Many economists skeptical of bailout: Many of the same economists and opinion-makers who'd provided a bipartisan sheen of consensus to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's previous moves have quickly begun casting doubts on the wisdom of a policy that would allow Treasury to purchase without oversight hundreds of billions of dollars of difficult-to-price assets from financial institutions.

Bank of China buys into Rothschild bank: BANK of China said yesterday it will buy a 20 percent stake in La Compagnie Financiere Edmond de Rothschild for 236.3 million euros (US$340 million) and the two will develop private banking and asset-management services.