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Trade-Exchange Rates

  • Call for international mobilizations in Geneva. STOP the WTO corporate agenda before Hong Kong
    20 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    With December’s Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong in view, WTO members are speeding up negotiations to ensure a successful outcome. The collapse of the trade talks in Cancun still in mind, the WTO changed their negotiating strategy. Negotiators will seek to resolve major conflicting issues in Geneva during General Council meetings - thus avoiding the public scrutiny and popular pressures that contributed to previous deadlocks. Decisions would thus be taken in an even more opaque and (…)

  • World Zero Eviction Days: from October 3rd 2005
    3 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    2 comments

    For the right to decent, secure housing
    Fifteen percent of the world population is under threat of eviction for a series of reasons: foreign investment in countries with heavy debts, privatizations of the housing sector, deregulation of rented accommodation, ethnic cleansing, wars and occupation, as well as commercial speculation of natural disasters. Although Target 11 of the United Nations Millennium Development Goal 7 aims at improving the living conditions of at least 100 million (…)

  • CORRUPTION-US: Halliburton Whistleblower Demoted
    3 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    by William Fisher
    NEW YORK, Whistleblowers — those who go public with allegations of waste, fraud and abuse — continue to have a tough time, despite a law protecting them and repeated assurances from the White House, many government agencies and Congress that they maintain a policy of zero tolerance for retaliation.
    The latest victim of apparent retaliation is Bunnatine H. "Bunny" Greenhouse, the senior contracting officer for the Army Corps of Engineers, who objected — first, (…)

  • Sydney : protesters stopped from bringing down the house
    3 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    By Les Kennedy, Samantha Selinger-Morris and Matt Wade
    Four protesters railing against a gathering of international business leaders were arrested last night after they breached the security barrier outside the entrance to the Opera House forecourt.
    Police quickly secured the gap as about 500 people converged on the Opera House protesting against the Forbes Global CEO Conference.
    Protest organisers had hoped to marshall thousands of supporters to disrupt the conference attended by the (…)

  • Selling Out American Public Interest to Oil Industry
    1 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    As one notorious example of selling out public interest to the oil industry, the Senate has passed the Energy Bill that favors corporate interests by increasing gas prices and enacting toothless policies on oil demand, production and imports. At the heart of the fight in this bill is to allow oil drilling in the Alaskan sanctuary, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). However, the House of Representatives can reject it by using a deceptive budget maneuver to thwart the Senate’s tacit (…)

  • Weapons Sales Worldwide Rise to Highest Level Since 2000
    31 August 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    By THOM SHANKER
    WASHINGTON The value of military weapons sales worldwide jumped in 2004 to the highest level since 2000, driven by arms deals with developing nations, especially India, Saudi Arabia and China, according to a new Congressional study.
    The total of arms sales and weapons transfer agreements to both industrialized and developing nations was nearly $37 billion in 2004, according to the study.
    That total was the largest since 2000, when global arms sales reached $42.1 (…)

  • Gods of War, Gods of Greed and Profiteers of Misery
    29 August 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    2 comments

    (Found a great essay originally published August 2004 but extremely relevant today. Enjoy.)
    www.valenzuelasveritas.blogspot.com
    “The process of transformation [American empire building]...is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event-like a new Pearl Harbor.” From PNAC plan entitled Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategies, Forces and Resources for a New Century, endorsed by neocons in the Bush Administration, the corporate media and Washington think-tanks. (…)

  • China Clipper?
    25 August 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    1 comment

    China Clipper...Too many coincidences:
    1. Massive numbers of US manufacturing jobs go to China.
    2. Massive amounts of multinational corporate assets and capital are invested in China.
    3. Those same manufacturing capacities and ownership levels have left the US with far less up and able manufacturing capacity to support a protracted defense if international supply lines are cut.
    4. The heads of those same multinationals now have billions of little green reasons to love China.
    5. (…)

  • When spirituality meets commerce. Pope’s German visit spawns product spree
    20 August 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    COLOGNE, Germany (AP) — The unofficial beer of World Youth Day is drawing more than just small sips from thirsty pilgrims.
    The beer, bearing a photo of Benedict XVI and brewed in his home of Bavaria, is among the scores of items being sold or traded among the more than 415,000 pilgrims that have journeyed to Cologne for the 20th World Youth Day.
    Officially sanctioned T-shirts and mugs with the event’s logo, finger rosaries and pictures of Benedict are also selling quickly as retailers (…)

  • How Those Big Bucks End Up in Big Oil’s Pockets
    17 August 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    1 comment

    By Steven Mufson
    When oil prices spiked — and oil profits soared — 26 years ago, virtually every newspaper intern in America (including me) was dispatched to gasoline stations to collect quotes from irate motorists. Big Oil was viewed as public enemy number one: Congress convened hearings to skewer oil industry execs, regulatory agencies investigated pricing, and some news organizations rented helicopters to scour the waters (in vain) for signs of oil tankers floating offshore just waiting (…)