China Confidential
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Asian Markets Buoyed by Buffett-Goldman Deal
Asia's institutional investors are somewhat encouraged by news that Warren Buffett is investing heavily in a major Wall Street firm.
Buffett, one of the richest men in the United States, announced Tuesday that his Berkshire Hathaway investment firm would buy $5 billion of shares in Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs. The investment is a major boost for an institution battered by the current meltdown of the US financial sector.
The 78-year-old billionaire described the current financial crisis as an "economic Pearl Harbor," and said his investment in Goldman Sach is an endorsement of the Treasury's $700 billion bank rescue plan.
" I am betting on the Congress doing the right thing for the American public and passing this bill,'' Buffett said on CNBC. "I certainly have a vote of confidence in Goldman and vote of confidence in Congress.''
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke are pressuring Congress to quickly approve the proposal to remove illiquid assets from the banking system.
Buffett's decision to buy a stake in New York-based Goldman comes after three of the investment bank's biggest competitors collapsed or were forced into emergency sales.
"I think the Treasury will pay back the $700 billion and make a considerable amount of money,'' Buffett said, adding that if he had $700 billion on the government's terms to buy distressed assets, he would. "
"Unfortunately, I'm tapped out,'' he said.
In related news, the US Federal Reserve announced earlier Wednesday that it is pumping another $30 billion into the global financial system, in a coordinated action with central banks in Australia, Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
One Year After 9/11, Barack Hussein Obama's Spiritual Adviser Called Israel a 'Dirty Word'
The above clip should be viewed in the context of some of Reverend Jeremiah Wright's other statements about Israel:
“White America got their wake-up call after 9/11. White America and the Western world came to realize people of color had not gone away, faded in the woodwork, or just disappeared as the Great White West kept on its merry way of ignoring black concerns.”
“The Israelis have illegally occupied Palestinian territories for over 40 years now. Divestment has now hit the table again as a strategy to wake the business community and wake up Americans concerning the injustice and the racism under which the Palestinians have lived because of Zionism.”Editorial: Obliterate the Iranian Regime
Iran's Hitler-admiring, Holocaust-denying maniac-in-chief, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was interviewed by Larry King on CNN Tuesday night.
After watching the grinning, Islamist psychopath drone on and dominate the interview, this reporter is more than ever convinced that the time has come to use any and all necessary weapons--including nuclear missiles--to obliterate the Iranian regime.
The choice is simple: mass death in Iran or mass death in Israel and the United States. The US may be paralyzed by economic and political problems. But Israel--the Jewish state reborn in its historic and religious homeland after 2,000 years--is obligated to overcome its internal problems. The Third Temple must not fall....Ahmadinejad: America Near Collapse
Foreign Confidential....
Iran's maniac-in-chief, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, told the UN General Assembly Tuesday that "the American empire" is nearing collapse and should end its military involvement in other countries.
"American empire in the world is reaching the end of its road, and its next rulers must limit their interference to their own borders," Ahmadinejad said.
He accused the United States of starting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to win votes in elections and blamed a "few bullying powers" for trying to undermine Iraq's nuclear program.Tuesday, September 23, 2008
China Moving to Tap Venezuelan Heavy Oil
Foreign Confidential....
While America, even in the midst of a financial crisis that could wreck the country, persists in its irrational hatred of oil--any oil, regardless of where it comes from--China is wisely moving ahead to tap awesome oil resources in America's own backyard.
This reporter is referring to the incredibly massive heavy oil resources of Venezuela's Orinoco River Basin, which have been known for several decades. [During the energy crisis of the late 1970s and early '80s, this reporter and other observers urged the United States to forge a Western Hemisphere energy alliance with Venezuela and Canada, focused on Venezuelan heavy crude and Canadian tar sands.]
"Venezuela has enough oil to last for two hundred years," Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday on the first day of his official, two-day visit to China. "And the Chinese are already working to tap that."
The anti-American despot told reporters China and Venezuela had agreed to jointly build two oil refineries, one in each country.
Heavy Oil Refinery
Chavez said the refinery to be built in Venezuela will be located in the the Orinoco Basin. A formal agreement on the issue should be signed during Chavez's stay in China.
China is already building a refinery to process imported Venezuelan oil, following an agreement reached this year. Chavez didn't provide details on when or where the second Chinese refinery would be built.
Chavez intends to strengthen relations with China through increased oil sales, partly to reduce dependency on the United States, which still buys about 60% of Venezuelan exports.
"China is showing the world that it isn't necessary to harm anyone to be a great power. They are soldiers of peace," he said, according to a Venezuelan government press release.
Asked about his absence from talks this week on the sidelines of the United Nations in New York, Chavez said: "It's much more important to be in Beijing."
Meanwhile, the BBC reported Tuesday that Russian warships are heading to Venezuela for joint exercises unprecedented since the Cold War.
The fleet of ships, headed by the nuclear-powered Peter the Great cruiser, set off from its base at Severomorsk in the Arctic.
The ships are due to take part in joint maneuvers with Venezuela in November.
Wednesday, 24 September 2008
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