Ireland Banking Crisis Cost Grows: Another $ 34 Billion from Irish Taxpayers Required

According to the Central Bank of Ireland, the cost of bailing out the Irish banks from the cost of their reckless business  decisions has increased by another $34 billion, on top of approximately $65 billion already spent. This news coincided with Fitch announcing another downgrade on Irish government debt. The current bill Irish taxpayers are being forced to swallow for covering the cost of the follies of the bankers is now a staggering seventy billion euros, or more than $100 billion dollars.

Hank Calenti, responsible for bank credit research at Societe Generale, said it will take another twenty years for the Irish people to pay off the money borrowed by Dublin to cover the cost of the decision by the Irish government to guarantee all the financial obligations of the private banks in the country. This means that every man, woman and child currently living in the Irish Republic is responsible for more than $20,000 in loan repayments to save their banking elite from the cost of their mistakes. Instead, it is the Irish people who will cover the losses, without any vote or input on the matter. Thus, in the wake of the global financial and economic crisis of 2008, this is what passes for Western democracy.

 

global economic crisis Hank Calenti, ireland bailout, irish banking crisis, Societe Generale

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UN’s ‘coalition of the opposed’ grows

At the United Nations headquarters, signs of a brewing debate as heated as the 2003 invasion of Iraq can be found aplenty.

Parallel to the growing criticisms of the Barack Obama administration’s military gambit in Libya in the US Congress, which saw the House of Representatives speaker John Boehner demand an explanation from President Barack Obama on the “contradictions” of his Libya policy, there is also a rising chorus of discontent in the UN community.

This reflects sharp divisions over UN Security Council resolution 1973 last Saturday, which established a no-fly zone in Libya and was weakened from the outset by abstentions from several key countries – Russia, China, Germany, Brazil and India.

On Wednesday, after closed-door deliberations at the Security Council, an upbeat UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon expressed the optimism that “the international coalition will have a successful operation” regarding Libya. Unfortunately, this view is not shared by a large number of UN member states, many of whom, including the 53 members of the African Union as well as many members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), including Cuba, Venezuela, India and Brazil, have openly expressed their “rejection of any form of foreign military intervention in Libya”.

Thus, while Western supporters of “liberal humanitarian intervention” in Libya dominate the airwaves, their sway over the collective opinion of the UN community is actually diminishing, in light of the growing skepticism on the part of many developing nations regarding the true Western intentions behind Operation Odyssey Dawn.

The opinion that “Libya is attacked because of oil”, to paraphrase a China People’s Daily’s commentary, is far more popular among Third World delegates, some of whom have told this author that the UN and its prestige are bound to suffer as a result of its “inappropriate” action on Libya.

“We need a General Assembly intervention on this matter as soon as possible,” a NAM diplomat said on Wednesday, adding that “time is not on the UN’s side” as the longer foreign intervention continues the less popular the UN’s role will become. This is already reflected in a dwindling list of countries enlisted in the military campaign, compared to a growing unofficial yet powerful list of a “coalition of the opposed” at the UN.

A diplomat from South Africa, on the other hand, expressed optimism that the African Union’s call for a mediation meeting in Addis Ababa this Friday between the Libyan government and the rebels would be heeded by both sides. “Tripoli has accepted the invitation but we still don’t know if any rebel leader will attend,” he said.

Part of the problem concerns the (rather amorphous) rebels, who have set up a provisional government, and in New York have usurped the authority of the Libyan mission to the United Nations. A delegate from the African Union blamed both the rebels and the US-led coalition for preventing the landing in Libya earlier in the week of an African Union delegation – consisting of representatives from South Africa, Congo, Mali, Uganda and Mauritania – that was seeking to mediate between the warring sides.

Nor so far has the UN secretary general expressed any genuine backing for the AU’s conflict-prevention efforts in Libya, throwing his weight instead behind the US-led military campaign.

The trouble with Ban’s statement that “the military campaign will continue until Libya ends its hostilities with rebels” is that it looks at one direction only and, by ignoring the rebels’ share of responsibility for the ongoing hostilities, in effect condones violence by the rebels. This points at one of several “contradictions” of Ban’s shaky position on Libya, that includes his choice of a former Jordanian former minister, Abd al-Ilah al-Khatib, as UN special envoy on Libya.

“This was a poor choice by the secretary general because of bad blood between [Muammar] Gaddafi and the Jordanian king, who has supported the foreign military campaign and is now providing logistical support to the coalition – that is a veneer for US and NATO,” said the NAM representative.

Another reason for widespread misgivings in the UN regarding the no-fly resolution is that it is increasingly viewed as an American operation launched by the American president securing UN authorization to circumvent blocks in the US Congress, thus exacerbating legitimacy problems that were reflected in stinging criticism the UN as a pawn of Western powers by Iran’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Also, the fact that US diplomats at the UN forced exemptions for Algerian and Ethiopian mercenaries from prosecution added fuel to the mounting criticisms of the UN’s initiative on Libya. As a result, only mercenaries from Tunisia, Chad, Niger, Kenya and Guinea will be subject to prosecution by the International Criminal Court, which is now investigating the crimes of Gaddafi’s regime.

To his credit, Ban has exerted some pressure on the US and its Western allies to limit their military campaigns, by expressing “extreme concern” about the plight of civilians, urging the countries enforcing the no-fly zone not to endanger civilian lives; this after receiving written concerns from Ukraine about the safety of its nationals in Libya.

Irrespective of Ban’s qualifier that the “operation in Libya is not open-ended”, the endgame is nowhere in sight and the conflict may turn into a protracted stalemate, in which case it is a sure bet that the proponents of resolution 1973 will lose the popularity contest in the international community, with debilitating consequences for the UN’s prestige and its secretary general.

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Yes, You Can Survive The Coming Economic Nightmare – One Family In California Grows 6,000 Pounds Of Produce On Just 1/10th Of An Acre

If you work hard and get prepared, you can survive the economic nightmare that is coming.  All over the United States and around the world there are millions of people that are learning how to become more self-sufficient.  For example, there is one family that is actually producing 6000 pounds of produce on just 1/10th of an acre right in the middle of Pasadena, California.  In fact, they grow so much food that they are able to sell much of it to restaurants in the area.  Video of this incredible "urban homestead" is posted below.  The key is to start with what you have.  The family in the video below would like to have a large acreage, but for now they have turned what they do have into an absolute miracle.  Yes, a horrific economic nightmare is coming to this country, but you don't have to be afraid.  One of the main reasons why so many of us are trying to warn people about what is coming is so that they will wake up and take massive action to become self-sufficient like the people in the video below have.

If you are not already growing your own food, now is a great time to get started.  According to The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the global price of food rose 2.2% during the month of February to a new all-time record high.  In fact, this was the third month in a row that the global price of food has set a new record.

2.2% may not sound like a lot, but if the global price of food were to increase by that amount every single month during 2011 by the end of the year the global price of food will have gone up by 26.4%.

26.4% food inflation is something that is very, very serious - especially in those areas of the world where millions are already teetering on the brink of starvation.

As I have written about previously, the world is on the verge of a major food crisis.  The price of corn has increased by 33 percent just since December, and according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. corn reserves will drop to a 15 year low by the end of 2011.  Many other agricultural commodities are also in short supply and are experiencing significant increases in price.

So now is a great time to try to become more self-sufficient.

After all, do you really want to eat the garbage they sell you in the stores anyway?  Today, virtually all corn and virtually all soy has been genetically-modified, and more "frankenfoods" are being approved by the government all the time.

But it isn't just genetic modification that we need to be concerned about.  The reality of the situation is that most of the food that we buy is complete and total garbage.  The next time you go to the grocery store just take a few moments and read some of the labels of the products that you are buying.  The truth is that our foods are absolutely loaded with chemicals, poisons and toxins.

Those that learn to grow their own food will end up a lot more healthy in the long run.

But food is not the only area where we should be striving for self-sufficiency.  Water is being called "the oil of the 21st century" and already some very significant shortages are being reported in many areas of the United States.

In fact, some cities have already started to turn toilet water into tap water.  Fortunately this is not a widespread thing in the United States yet, but a number of localities are now seriously considering going to such a system.

Would you want to drink your own recycled toilet water in the future?

If not, perhaps now would be a great time to learn how to become more self-sufficient when it comes to water.

Even now, most localities are dumping massive amounts of fluoride and other toxic chemicals into our drinking water.  The tap water in most cities is so absolutely disgusting that it is a wonder that anyone is still willing to drink it.

In any event, the key is not to focus on the problems once you realize the truth.  Instead, the key is to focus on the solutions.

That is what one family in Pasadena, California is doing.  As mentioned above, they are producing a whopping 6,000 pounds of produce each year on just 1/10th of an acre....

Isn't what that family is doing absolutely amazing?

Well, you can do it too.

For most Americans, the coming financial apocalypse is going to absolutely blindside them.

But that does not have to happen to you.  You know what is coming.  You have time to get prepared.

As I have written about previously, there are many other ways that you can start becoming more self-sufficient.

If you are currently dependent on a job, you can start developing alternate sources of income on the side.

If you are enslaved to the banks, you can reduce your expenses and start paying down debt.

If you have never had any self-defense training, now is a great time to get started.

There are hundreds of practical ways that you can begin preparing for the coming economic nightmare right now.  Just putting up some solar panels or starting a "victory garden" would be a great first step for many people.

The key is to stop fretting about things so much and to start taking action.

We have now entered a time in human history that is going to be extremely unstable, but that doesn't mean that we have to live in fear.

If you are new to all this and have no idea how to start becoming more self-sufficient, there are a lot of great websites out there that can help you out.  Some of the most popular ones are Prepper.Org, American Preppers Network and The Suburban Prepper.

But it doesn't have to be complicated.  Just start to take action.  Your family is going to need food, water, energy and shelter when the economy collapses.  Begin preparing now so that you will have those things when you need them.




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