China Confidential
Monday, December 08, 2008
Neo-Nazis Attacked in Berlin
Foreign Confidential....
When the Nazis rose to power in Germany in the 1920s, many Communists and socialists were held back by their leaders and tragically prevented from attacking the Nazis in the streets, even as they deliberately staged provocative parades through heavily Communist and socialist working class districts in the country's capital.
Thankfully, that did not happen on Saturday.
Hundreds of anti-Nazi activists clashed with Berlin police, who beat people in order to clear the way for 600 neo-Nazi marchers in the Lichtenberg district of eastern Berlin.
Nearly 40 activists were arrested by the police, many of whom are known to be neo-Nazi group sympathizers--and members.
The demonstrators, determined not to let the neo-Nazis pass, sat on the road. Volleys of stones were thrown towards the neo-Nazis, who responded by hurling beer bottles in the other direction.
Leftists Waved Israeli Flags
After warnings, the water cannon, mounted on riot-police trucks were used to drive the blockers off the roadway. Police said several demonstrators on both sides and one police officer were lightly hurt.
Police had deployed 1,600 officers in a bid to cordon the two crowds, and keep them to different routes and times, so that there would be no clashes, but mobile groups from the left managed to approach the neo-Nazis.
The demonstrators were mainly members of the Left. Some carried Israeli flags.
"I am holding a flag because I am ashamed that Jews in Germany today still fear neo-Nazi violence," one of the demonstrators told an Israeli newspaper reporter.
US Market Volatility Defies Rational Explanation
Dateline USA....
What's behind the scary stock market volatility in the United States?
Nobody knows for sure. But China Confidential analysts blame program trading and hedge funds forced to liquidate positions. Some secretive funds are also buying; but there is nothing rational, fundamentally speaking, about the moves.
Never before have so many experts been so dazed and confused.Monsanto Spending $5 Million to Fight River Runoff
Dateline USA....
Monsanto (NYSE: MON) said Monday it’s spending $5 million and partnering with environmental groups to help reduce agricultural runoff from the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico.
Monsanto said it would help determine the effectiveness of various conservation measures on improving wildlife habitat and water quality.
It’s partnering with the Nature Conservancy, the Iowa Soybean Association, Delta Wildlife and the National Audubon Society.
Fertilizer and pesticide runoff can pollute the Mississippi, and poor cropping techniques can lead to erosion.
To combat this, the groups will undertake the following projects:
The Nature Conservancy will conduct a three-year conservation pilot in four watersheds in the upper Mississippi River basin, including the Mackinaw River in central Illinois. The group will work with farmers to implement and study conservation techniques.
The Iowa Soybean Association will conduct research on watersheds and coordinate outreach.
Delta Wildlife will install best management practices at 1,000 sites on working farms in the lower Mississippi Valley to reduce off-site movement of nutrients and sediments.
Audubon will raise awareness of how people can be good stewards of nature in their own backyards.
Monsanto and these conservation groups, along with the American Soybean Association and the National Corn Growers Association, also said they will form a “Mississippi River Farm Nutrient Working Group” to tackle other agricultural-related interests and engage government leaders. Additional information about this group will be announced in the spring, Monsanto said.
Creve Coeur, Mo.-based Monsanto develops insect- and herbicide-resistant crops and other agricultural products.
Critics consider Monsanto the world's most dangerous company. Click below to view the trailer for a devastating documentary.Turning Pain into Profits, Big Oil Companies Lock in Huge Gains by Stockpiling Crude in Supertankers
In the worst year ever for oil, investors can lock in the biggest profits in a decade by storing crude.
Traders who bought oil at the $40.81 a barrel on Dec. 5 could sell futures contracts for delivery next December at $54.65, a 34 percent gain. After taking into account storage and financing costs investors would earn about 11 percent, according to Andy Lipow, president of Houston consultant Lipow Oil Associates LLC. The premium, known as contango, is the biggest for a 12-month span of futures since 1998, when a glut drove crude down to $10.
Stockpiling crude may provide higher returns than commodities, stocks and Treasuries as the U.S., Japan and Europe endure simultaneous recessions for the first time since World War II. Crude sank 70 percent in New York since peaking at $147.27 in July. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 38 percent this year and two-year government notes yield 0.9 percent.
“The bottom line is that you buy crude at a low price and lock in a profit by selling it forward,” said Mike Wittner, head of oil market research at Societe Generale SA in London. “It’s low risk. The contango can definitely pay for storage and the cost of capital and leave plenty left over.”
Royal Dutch Shell Plc sees so much potential in the strategy that it anchored a supertanker holding as much as $80 million of oil off the U.K. to take advantage of higher prices for future delivery. The ship is one of as many as 16 booked for potential storage instead of transporting crude, said Johnny Plumbe, chief executive officer of London shipbroker ACM Shipping Group Plc.
Oil Storage
The tankers, if full, hold about 26 million barrels worth about $1 billion, more than the 22.9 million barrels sitting in Cushing, Oklahoma, where oil is stored for delivery against Nymex contracts. U.S. crude inventories rose 11 percent this year to 320.4 million barrels, according to the Energy Department.
“All the market operators keep placing oil in storage,” said Francisco Blanch, head of global commodities research at Merrill Lynch & Co. in London. “Even though the contango is steep, it could get steeper.”
Click here to continue.US Stock Market Surges on Auto Bailout News
Dateline USA....
Contrary to what the clowns on CNBC would have you believe, bailouts are good for business. Hence, today's broad stock market rally following news that America's auto industry will be rescued (although the Bush administration at the end of the day seems to be bent on blocking the immediate, $15 billion bridge loan package proposed by Congressional Democratic leaders).
The smart money on Wall Street understands that a huge government stimulus is needed to recharge the economy and prevent the recession from turning into a replay of the Great Depression (or worse), which is why infrastructure companies led the way in today's surge.
Problem is, the amount of money that needs to be injected is probably close to a trilliondollars. Right-wing ideologues are likely to sabotage and oppose any Obama administration stimulus package that exceeds $500 billion--in the name of fiscal responsibility. The far right--and their friends and stooges at CNBC--really don't care how many Americans are left jobless or homeless. Their only concern is protecting large capital holdings from inflation. Better a depression and a deflation, they reason, than a recovery and inflation; besides, cash is king during a deflationary depression (unlike the kind of depression that ravaged Weimar Germany in the 1920s), and those who raped and pillaged on Wall Street and cashed out in time are drooling over the opportunities that seem to be presenting themselves. This reporter knows of several large "vulture funds" that have been formed or are in the process of forming to snap up depressed commercial real estate and natural resources.
Every student of history knows that while the New Deal did manage to give people hope and put many unemployed to work, it took World War II to get the United States out of the Great Depression. But that is only because President Roosevelt was politically prevented from spending the money that needed to be spent in the early 1930s. As Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman recently pointed out, there is nothing "magical" about spending money on munitions; equally massive spending on infrastructure would also have ended the depression. 
POSTSCRIPT: CNBC took time from cheering the market rally to pay tribute to Dow Chemical for cutting 5,000 jobs and closing 20 plants. At lunchtime, one CNBC talking head also suggested that General Motors might be worthy of saving if the company stopped making cars in the U.S. altogether and instead concentrated on manufacturing in China for its booming market. A totally hollowed-out U.S. economy with zero manufacturing--that's the CNBC ideal. A country with no mining or drilling--that's the idiotic, so-called green dream. But that's another story....Anarchist Riots Rock Greece
Foreign Confidential....
Gangs of youths are smashing their way through central Athens and Thessaloniki, torching stores and buildings after the fatal police shooting of a teenager in the worst rioting Greece has seen in decades.
Rioters have torched the capital's massive Christmas tree in central Syntagma Square. Some protesters posed for photos in front of the blaze. Others sang the Greek version of "Oh Christmas Tree."
The windows of one of Athens' luxury hotels, the Athens Plaza on Syntagma Square, have been smashed. The lobby filled with tear gas or smoke. A hotel guard said guests were evacuated. A small fire is burning in the lobby of the Foreign Ministry opposite Parliament.
In Thessaloniki, dozens of buildings are being smashed and rioters are throwing Molotov cocktails.
Violence often breaks out between riot police and anarchists during demonstrations in Greece. Anarchist groups are also blamed for late-night firebombings of targets such as banks and diplomatic vehicles. The attacks rarely cause injuries.
The self-styled anarchist movement partly traces its roots in the resistance to Greece's 1967-74 military dictatorship. The youths tend to espouse general anti-capitalist and antiestablishment principles, and have long-running animosity toward the police.
Tuesday, 9 December 2008
Robert Tuttle and Alexander Kwiatkowski analyze the oil contango.
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