CompliancEX: Battle Heats Up on Hedge Fund Rules
By Jack Kelly
Brussels has published controversial new regulations that require more disclosure by private equity and hedge funds. Now the fight begins The European commission published its widely anticipated package of financial reforms on ... Chief component of commission's financial package is a proposed Directive on Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) that will require managers of hedge funds and private equity funds to be authorised by home member state authorities. ...
CompliancEX - http://compliancex.typepad.com/compliancex/
Friday, 1 May 2009
swine flu alerts and updates
Canadian swine-flu numbers rise to 51
Canada.com - Don Mills,Ontario,Canada
Meanwhile, New Brunswick confirmed its first case of swine flu, while Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia and Nova Scotia confirmed four, two, ...
See all stories on this topic
Here is your Crux PM update:
How to buy the world's cheapest market... at a double-digit discount
A backdoor way to invest in this super-cheap emerging market...
Buffett says economic Pearl Harbor is over
The worst has passed, but we're still "at war."
These swine flu hype stocks are great shorts
These stocks soared hundreds of percent for NO reason...
Some Friday levity… An altruistic banker joke
"One afternoon an investment banker was riding in his limousine when he saw two men along the roadside eating grass..."
Today's entertainment: Geithner tells Washington Treasury doesn't need any more bailout cash
Hahahahahahahaha...
Why being a billionaire is great: Ponzi edition (with pictures)
See how a young salesman for alleged Ponzi Stanford Financial gets wined and dined in Antigua...
Regards,
The Daily Crux
www.thedailycrux.com
| Prophetic Trends & Headline News Click any of the headlines below to read the full article |
| 1. Where is America in Bible Prophecy? U.S. Planners: Swine Flu Worst Case is 2 Million Dead Fox News: Martial Law, Forced Vaccinations If It’s a Pandemic? Forget Nukes -- Watch Out for Economic War Homeland Security Sets Guidelines For Possible Swine Flu Quarantines 2. Israel - God's Timepiece Jordan's King: All roads lead to Jerusalem - Israel faces all out war in 18 months if it does not cede to Jerusalem to Palestinian state Majority of Israelis would like to join EU, see NATO in West Bank PA court: Death to man who sold land to Jews 3. A Revived Roman Empire? Spain to push for greater economic powers to be placed in the hands of the EU 4. The Gog/Magog War Israel very concerned as Turkey looks to build alliances with Syria Russia in talks to sell Turkey it's most advanced air defense systems Report: Russia set to test new ballistic missiles 6. The Rise of Islam Islamic Scholars Wrestle With Death-For-Apostasy Issue Churches close throughout Germany as Islam explodes Pakistani Taliban executes 2 Christians 7. Increase in Knowledge/New Technologies Experts Warn Internet Is Running Out of Bandwidth Every Phone Call, Email or Website Visit To Be Monitored - UK Innovation: How your search queries can predict the future 8. Christian Worldview/Issues House agrees to muzzle pastors with 'hate crimes' plan Sex ed mandatory for 5-year-olds Church-Shopping: Why Do Americans Change Faiths? Britain's Astonishing Anti-Christian Folly 9. Other Events To Watch Recession and flu show borderless world |
swine flu alerts and updates
Company warned officials of flu 18 days before alert was issued
A Washington state biosurveillance firm raised the first warning about a possible outbreak of swine flu in Mexico more than two weeks before the World Health Organization offered its initial alert about a public health emergency of international concern.
Friday, May 01, 2009
They still don't get it
It is quite amusing in a macabre sort of way to see the so-called "political" media and blogs dive for cover when there is a real political issue on the agenda.
And whatever the finer details, the final retreat of the British from Iraq and the ongoing war in Afghanistan are intensely political issues which cast their shadow into the future, defining and shaping our defence and foreign policies and indeed our perception of ourselves as a nation.
The sheer complexity of the issues, however, defy easy analysis. Furthermore, the paucity of information make attempts at analysis and comment prone to error and misunderstanding, while following through the threads of discussion and argument require brutally hard work.
All of which might explain in part why so many take the easy option and either ignore the issues or rely on "drive-by" comment little better informed than "man-in-pub" gossip.
Heavily into that category is the pathetically tivial analysis of the Iraqi campaign by David Blair in The Daily Telegraph. This is put into perspective by just one comment on the online edition. It reads:As a former regular officer, I am fed up with all these pieces of so-called reportage which are permeated by talk of the Forces' "quiet pride". Sickening stuff. This article is very short on statistics - and offers not even a perspective on the situation from a few locals which might answer the headline's question. The whole Iraq episode was shameful - politically and strategically, even if individual soldiers did their duty as (still!) expected.
This, in respect of Iraq is very much the line we take. Individual soldiers did do their duty and too many paid the ultimate price for what indeed were "shameful" military and political failures. At least, though, The Times is reporting defence secretary John Hutton declaring that there would need to be a "proper investigation" into the failings of the mission.
It is this which is exercising David Cameron and other opposition politicians, with Cameron calling for an immediate inquiry similar to that carried out by Lord Franks following the Falklands War in 1982. "After years of foot dragging," he says, "I believe it is the time for the Government to announce a proper Franks-style inquiry. Instead of starting in many months' time, it should start right now."
The problem is, however, that this is likely to rake over old ground as The Telegraph suggests that an inquiry is expected "to examine the faulty intelligence that led to the invasion, including information on weapons of mass destruction, and should look at why British forces were poorly equipped and under-resourced."
Con Coughlin picks up on this on his blog, arguing that Cameron should forget the Iraq inquiry and concentrate on Afghanistan.
"I would love," writes Coughlin, "to see David Cameron show the same enthusiasm for discussing our critical mission to Afghanistan as he does with his repeated calls for an inquiry into the invasion of Iraq." Given that we have already had two inquiries into the build-up to the war - Hutton and Butler – he cannot see what new material would be provided by a third.
What really worries me, he adds, is that while the leader of Her Majesty's Opposition is happy to provoke debate about events that happened six years ago, he is less forthcoming about the current parlous state of our military.
Coughlin, as so often, is both right and wrong. He is right that there is little to be gained by once again rehashing the events that led up to the Iraqi war. But there is everything to be gained from an inquiry which is focused specifically on the conduct of the post-invasion occupation and counter-insurgency campaign which started formally in 1 May 2003 and ended yesterday.
Not least, many "lessons learned" from such an inquiry would be directly applicable to the current military adventure in Afghanistan, where the same mistakes are being made that we saw in Iraq.
However, what is concerning Coughlin is his view that Gordon Brown has "seriously undermined the effectiveness of our military commitment to Afghanistan" by refusing to authorise the deployment of the extra troops our commanders require to fulfil the mission. This, he says, is a golden opportunity for Mr Cameron and his defence team to drive another nail into the coffin of this increasingly discredited government.
And yet, he asks rhetorically, what have we heard from the Opposition on Afghanistan, an issue that is infinitely more important and perilous than Iraq? The answer is: "Next to nothing."
Perversely, there is a response from the Conservative opposition but it comes not from David Cameron or, as you might expect, shadow defence secretary Liam Fox. Instead, in The Independent we see former shadow home secretary and now back-bencher David Davis. He writes under the heading: "Brown's policy in Afghanistan is never going to work".
It would have helped Mr Davis's scribing if he had shown any knowledge of what "Brown's policy" actually was. In the absence of any such knowledge, so fatuous and superficial are his comments, including the obligatory reference to "Vietnam", that they need not detain us.
What is worrying Coughlin though is his perception that "Brown's half measures will put our soldiers' lives at further risk". Falling for exactly the same military/MoD "spin" that afflicted Michael Evans yesterday, in a long piece in the print edition, repeated online, thus tells us that "Peace in Afghanistan will be even longer in coming if the Army is not at full strength."
As usual when dealing with a Gordon Brown policy initiative, we are told, the devil is in the detail. Couglin then ignores that detail – and the background to it – and writes that "by far the most alarming feature is the humiliating rebuff he has delivered to our Armed Forces." By denying the request by senior officers for an extra 2,000 troops, Mr Brown is seriously jeopardising the chances of achieving the success he craves.
This extra manpower, we are informed, would make the world of difference to commanders on the ground, giving them the resources not only to capture territory, but to hold it. All too often, important gains have been made, only to be surrendered because of a shortage of troops.
"Put simply, the more troops we have, the more able we are to dominate the space in Helmand and keep the Taleban at bay," says a senior Army officer. "Without the extra troops, we simply won't have the resources to impose our presence on Helmand in the way we would like."
Strangely, it is Michael Evans who – doubtless unwittingly – in his own piece today gives us the clue as to why more troops are not the answer. There we see evidence of the same ponderous "garrison mentality" referred to on the Rand Report on the Rhodesian counter-insurgency, which we reviewed in March.
This was also brought up by Ann Winterton in the recent procurement debate, where she pointed out that, while convention dictates a ratio of 10:1 for security forces needed to combat insurgents, the Rhodesians succeeded with a ratio of 1:1 and a minuscule budget. Thus did she remind us:The Rhodesian security forces functioned under severe financial constraints that limited their access to late model, sophisticated high tech weapons and to large quantities of material. The Rhodesians’ ability to overcome these constraints by embracing innovative strategies and tactics, including novel techniques in road security, tracking and reconnaissance, small unit tactics, special operations, and intelligence gathering, suggests that the successful prosecution of counter insurgency need not entail huge expenditure.
However, neither the military nor the journos seem to be able to drag themselves out of the "more resources" mindset, the latest to join the refrain being the Financial Times, which offers its own story of the Army's woe, with the legend: "UK block on Afghan surge riles army chiefs."
The paper cites a "senior defence figure" who gets the boot in, telling us: "People are pretty angry about the decision around here … We're not in a situation where generals are thinking of resigning. But the outcome announced by Number 10 this week has come as something of a surprise to people."
It should not have surprised anyone who knew what was going on. We flagged up the doubts here and here and the Financial Times itself points to on of the reasons why this "surge" was never going to happen. Some Whitehall officials, the paper says, argue that the UK operation in Afghanistan is well resourced. They note that the operation will cost a projected £3bn in 2009-10, while the cost of UK operations in southern Iraq never rose above £1.5bn.
Despite this, it seems the editorial writer cannot read his own paper, offering a leader headed: "War on the cheap." The point, of course, is that not only is the campaign in Afghanistan not cheap, the military have yet to be able to demonstrate whether they are getting (or could get) any useful effects from the flood of cash pouring into theatre.
But, as the hacks pile in, with Robert Fox of The Guardian adding his penn'orth, there is not a single one of them with an original thought.
Still, the basic flaw in the strategic thinking survives unchallenged, typified in a Reuteurs report, which has an interview with Brigadier David Hook in Helmand. Warning that a "Bloody summer" looms, he tells us that insurgent attacks in the first three months of this year were 73 percent higher than the same period a year ago.
But, with the influx of US troops, he talks of international forces being able to provide a "degree" of security to over 90 percent of the population in the south, up from 60 percent. "That is the pivot point," he says. "That is the point where we will have created the humanitarian space to allow the agencies to come in behind and do the reconstruction and development."
There is it in all its glory – this totally artificial distinction between "security" and "reconstruction and development", with the latter conditional on the former. As long as there is this continued failure to understand the very point that is addressed in "Brown's policy", there is going to be no progress at all in Afghanistan.
They didn't get it in Iraq, and they don't get it now. Watch the video (and enjoy the little girlie struggling).
COMMENT THREAD
swine flu alerts and updates
The Associated Press
... the "seed stock" from the swine flu virus, will not be available for a few weeks. WHO has already put major vaccine makers on alert they may be asked to ...
See all stories on this topic
Boston Globe - United States
"There are no confirmed cases of swine flu that are in any way connected to Northeastern. We are acting out of an abundance of caution," said Michael Armini ...
See all stories on this topic
swine flu alerts and updates
| Eight suspected Swine Flu cases put area on alert DeRidder Beauregard Daily News - DeRidder,LA,USA By Staff reports The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals are investigating eight suspected cases of the H1N1, or swine flu, virus in four parishes. ... See all stories on this topic |
Islam In Action |
| Obama Overrides FBI and DHS on Gitmo Release Posted: 30 Apr 2009 01:46 PM PDT  A US federal appeals court, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security have all come out against the release of the Chinese Muslim Gitmo detainees due to obvious security concerns. But that does not matter to President Obama as he is more concerned with bringing our enemies here, than he is with protecting us. Hat tip to the Munz at Munz's Place. BREAKING: White House Overrides FBI and DHS on Gitmo Release Link to Article   |
By HARRY PHIBBS Labour Party member Elaina Cohen, seeking to be selected as a Council candidate in Birmingham, claims she was told by a sitting Labour councillor that she was 'too white and Jewish.' She has made an official complaint and says that the Labour councillor Mahmood Hussain told her he would not support her application for an inner-city ward because 'my Muslim members don't want you because you are Jewish.' Anti Semitism on the Left in not new and is certainly not confined to Britain. Under the old Soviet Union it was rife. Stalin, having earlier agreed to the Nazi/Soviet Pact, then denounced the Jews as 'rootless cosmopolitans.' Anti-semitic: Graves have been desecrated by vandals targeting the Jewish community in Germany and British Jews are reporting a rise in hate crime Karl Marx was the most vile anti Semite, among his comments being: 'What is the worldly raison d'etre of Jewry? The practical necessity of Jewry is self-interest. What is the worldly religion of the Jews? It is the petty haggling of the hawker. What is his worldly God? It is money.' These days left wing anti Semitism is usually a spill-over from anti Zionism. The cover is to say that it is not anti Semitic to criticise the policies of the Israeli Government. his is true so far as it goes, but such is the vehemence and so crude the double standards that naturally the Jewish community feels uneasy. They also notice when inflammatory denunciations on Israel coincide with an upsurge of anti Semitic incidents in Britain. The Left, including the National Union of Journalists, backs a boycott of Israeli goods - the only country in the world to be singled out in this way. Student Unions ban Jewish societies on college campuses (on the grounds that they are 'Zionist') while academics ban involvement with Israeli academic institutions. The Left attacks the 'Jewish lobby' for seeking to sustain a 'Zionist conspiracy.' Many British Jews might well have plenty of criticisms of the Israeli Government but for most of them Zionism is simply the belief that there should be a Jewish state - a necessary demand after centuries of persecution. Ken Livingstone was investigated after he made anti Semitic remarks to a Jewish journalist The former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone is fond of making casual references to the holocaust. He told a Jewish reporter he was 'like a concentration camp guard.' Livingstone also told Sheikh Yusuf al Qaradawi at a London Conference: 'I welcome you as an honored guest.' Qaradawi went on to defend suicide bombings. Qaradawi has a long record of calling for violence against Jews, having said: 'I will shoot Allah's enemies, the Jews, and they will throw a bomb at me, and thus I will seal my life with martyrdom' and calling on God to 'kill them, down to the very last one.' Livingstone has also said of property developers Simon and David Reuben, who are actually of Iraqi Jewish origin: 'They should go back to Iran and try their luck with the ayatollahs, if they don’t like the planning regime or my approach.' Speaking of Iran, the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has described the holocaust as a 'myth.' The United Nations respond by inviting him to address an Anti Racism Conference last week. They stress how he agreed to tone down holocaust denial references to evidence of the holocaust being 'ambiguous and dubious.' The United States boycotted the event although the British Government attended. In his book, Waiting for the Etonians, Nick Cohen includes a powerful chapter concerning the decision of CND to invite the Iranian Ambassador to their conference despite CND's supposed opposition to nuclear proliferation. Cohen says: 'CND's Kate Hudson told me she opposed the Iranian nuclear programme. She was not shouting "rah-rah Iran," and had invited the ambassador, she told me, merely to hear what he had to say. In her small way, I'm sure she's sincere. But if CND doesn't invite speakers from the Ministry of Defence or American embassy - and it doesn't - and never issues a press release condemning Iran - ditto - people are entitled to look at the burden of the evidence Hudson is presenting and consider her opposition to Iran to be little more than throat-clearing.' It will be interesting to see the outcome of Elaina Cohen's complaint to the Labour Party. Anti Semitism is a spreading poison in the British Left and it is right that it is challenged.
HARRY PHIBBS: Anti Semitism is a spreading poison in the British Left
Last updated at 5:05 PM on 28th April 2009
Welcome from Alan Dershowitz Multimedia Voices on Antisemitism features a broad range of perspectives about antisemitism and hatred today. Alan Dershowitz is concerned over what he views as a rising tide of antisemitic speech on American college campuses: "When I was growing up, antisemitism determined where we could work, where we could live, where we could go to school, who we could socialize with. None of that's true today. Antisemitism, its not a central phenomenon in the life of Americans" (read more). Read the transcript | Download | Subscribe to Voices of Antisemitism 
"The war in Gaza is as pure a conflict between good and evil as I have experienced. An anti-Semitic terrorist group whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel and whose leaders incite genocide against the Jewish people are employing a new weapon in a cynical effort to obtain international support for their bigoted aims: their new weapon is the use of civilians as both targets and shields. What Hamas is doing should be evident to anyone with an objective eye and common sense." ("Using Civilians As Weapons: The Lack Of Moral Clarity About Hamas," The Miami Herald; read more).
The Case Against Israel's Enemies: Exposing Jimmy Carter and Others Who Stand in the Way of Peace
Dershowitz begins with a denunciation of Jimmy Carter, and he concludes with an appendix that systematically refutes many claims advanced in Carter's bookPalestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Though the former president receives Dershowitz's most thorough criticism, the author also identifies and scrutinizes many other "enemies," from Noam Chomsky and Patrick Buchanan to Hezbollah and the Iranian government. Dershowitz assumes the posture of a litigator, but his deep convictions and previous history with many of the book's subjects lend a more personal tone to his critiques. (from Publisher's Weekly; read more) 
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
Over the last two years I have been flying regularly on BMI between London and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and I noticed immediately that Tel Aviv and Israel are not on the maps - although orientation to Mecca is.
The article says the aircraft were tailored originally for flights to Arab countries.
How does that fact make it okay to deny Israel exists as a country on a map?
Why would BMI perpetuate this denial of Israel's existence regardless of where the aircraft were meant to fly?
Put Cyprus on the map!
Interesting historical revision from Amer: (1) In '48 Arabs were not removed from Jerusalem (some did flee), and there were close to none in Tel Aviv; (2) total number of "Palestinian" refugees was only ~750k incl those who moved into the area between '46&'48, which hardly makes them "Palestinian".