Dec 11, 2009

Vintu vinde sau inchide ''Cotidianul'' si ''Business Standard'' de la 1 ianuarie

Vintu vinde sau inchide ''Cotidianul'' si ''Business Standard'' de la 1 ianuarie: "Dupa ce a spus ca presa scrisa e pe cale de disparitie, Sorin Ovidiu Vintu si-a anuntat miercuri angajatii ca incepand de la 1 ianuarie 2010 Grupul Realitatea-Catavencu 'nu va mai fi implicat in editarea publicatiilor Cotidianul si Business Standard'.

Intr-o nota interna transmisa tuturor angajatilor, conducerea trustului de presa anunta ca 'incepand de anul viitor, Grupul Realitatea-Catavencu se va concentra din punct de vedere strategic pe media digitala, prin consolidarea si dezvoltarea produselor tv, radio, online si digital signage'.

Asta inseamna ca ziarele 'Cotidianul' si 'Business Standard' fie se inchid, fie vor fi vandute, 'ca o consecinta directa si imediata a acestei decizii strategice'. Singura care scapa este revista 'Academia Catavencu'.

In plus, in acest moment, se poarta negocieri pentru vanzarea agentiei de presa Newsin, care ar putea fi preluata de actualul director general, Cosmin Popa.

'Am ajuns la un acord de principiu si urmeaza sa ne intelegem. In aceasta eventualitate, agentia NewsIn va functiona independent de grupul Realitatea Catavencu', a declarat Popa, pentru paginademedia.

Intr-un interviu acordat marti revistei Capital, S.O.Vintu declara ca, din punctul sau de vedere, 'presa pe suport de hartie va disparea. Nu stiu in cat timp, dar eu sunt convins ca va disparea'.

Desi vede viitorul presei pe suport digital, Vintu recunoaste ca nu citeste site-urile de stiri pentru ca nu stie sa lucreze cu computerul. 'Nu stiu sa deschid un computer', a marturisit Vintu."

webRelease: Business Standard devine singura publicatie din Romania premiata de Asociatia Mondiala a Ziarelor - Media - WebPR.ro

webRelease: Business Standard devine singura publicatie din Romania premiata de Asociatia Mondiala a Ziarelor - Media - WebPR.ro: "webRelease: Business Standard devine singura publicatie din Romania premiata de Asociatia Mondiala a Ziarelor

Antreprenor si Guvernul Privat, proiectele Business Standard, au fost desemnate cele mai bune proiecte media integrate din lume, in cadrul XMA Cross Media Awards Gala 2009, ce a avut loc astazi la Viena. Business Standard a devenit astfel singura publicatie din Romania premiata de WAN–IFRA (World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers).

Competitia gazduita de WAN-IFRA a premiat cele mai bune proiecte de strategie de brand si design ce combina mai multe canalele media pentru o cat mai buna integrare a marcii. Proiectele Antreprenor si Guvernul Privat au castigat locul I la categoria A (publicatii cu tiraj de sub 100,000 de exemplare). Conform criteriilor de jurizare, Antreprenor a primit cele mai multe puncte pentru misiune si impact, iar Guvernul Privat a fost foarte apreciat pentru ideea si strategia care au stat la baza proiectului. Pe locurile II si III s-au clasat britanicii de la Herald Express cu proiectul “Rock Stars” si spaniolii de la Hora Nova cu “dBalears”.

“Elementele vizuale sunt folosite foarte bine in cele doua proiecte si exista o sinergie buna a platformelor. Mesajul eficient si energic se transmite bine dintr-un mediu in altul”, spune Mario Garcia, membru al juriului si cel mai cunoscut specialist in concept vizual de presa la nivel mondial.

“Asociatia Mondiala a Ziarelor a ales Antreprenor si Guvernul Privat drept cele mai bune exemple de proiecte integrate la nivel global. Am investit mult in aceste doua proiecte, iar premiile sunt o confirmare a faptului ca strategia noastra, bazata pe integrare, se afla pe o directie buna”, spune Andreea Rosca, Manager Business Press Realitatea-Catavencu.

26 de publicatii, din 16 tari au propus 38 de proiecte la competitia din acest an a WAN-IFRA. Pentru mai multe detalii despre castigatori acceseaza www.ifra.com/xma.

Pentru a vedea gala de decernare a premiilor intra pe http://webtv.money.ro/"

Realitatea Catavencu renunta la Cotidianul si Business Standard de la 1 ianuarie 2010 - Media & Publicitate - HotNews.ro

Realitatea Catavencu renunta la Cotidianul si Business Standard de la 1 ianuarie 2010 - Media & Publicitate - HotNews.ro: "Realitatea Catavencu renunta la Cotidianul si Business Standard de la 1 ianuarie 2010
de C.I., C.M. HotNews.ro
Miercuri, 9 decembrie 2009, 16:33 Economie | Media & Publicitate

De la 1 ianuarie 2010 grupul Realitatea Catavencu 'nu va mai fi implicat in editarea publicatiilor Cotidianul si Business Standard', se arata intr-o comunicare interna primita miercuri de angajati. Aceasta precizeaza ca 'in acest moment, se poarta negocieri pentru vanzarea companiei NewsIn'. Catalin Tolontan scrie pe blogul sau ca ziarul Cotidianul se va inchide in cazul in care Cornel Nistorescu nu va gasi un investitor pana vineri, ceea ce ar putea permite iesirea ziarului din Grup.

Tot Catalin Tolontan scrie ca Realitatea FM se va transforma in 'varianta audio a Realitatea TV'.

UPDATE 1: Pagina de media scrie ca agentia NewsIn ar urma sa fie preluata de actualul director general, Cosmin Popa, si il citeaza pe acesta spunand ca 'am ajuns la un acord de principiu si urmeaza sa ne intelegem'. Sursa precizeaza ca nu a fost stabilita viitoarea formul

a de actionariat si nici pretul de preluare a agentiei.

UPDATE 2: Mona Dirtu, redactor-sef al revistei Money Express, parte a trustului Realitatea-Catavencu, a declarat pentru HotNews.ro ca publicatia va fi preluata, de la 1 ianuarie 2010, de M&C Strategy, compania de proiecte speciale a trustului.

Publicatia va continua sa existe pe piata cu aceeasi echipa si in acelasi format, a precizat ea.

UPDATE 3 Dragos Stanca, directorul diviziei new media a grupului Realitatea Catavencu, a declarat pentru HotNews.ro ca 'cel putin pe termen scurt' siteurile publicatiilor care nu vor mai face parte din grup vor continua sa functioneze, ele operand oricum, si pana acum, sub umbrela F5. 'Operatiunile de internet nu sunt dependente financiar sau juridic de publicatiile respective. Vom continua sa le editam, cu ajustarile de rigoare. Pe termen scurt nu vor disparea nici Cotidianul.ro, nici Standard.Money.ro sau Moneyexpress.Money.ro. Vom incerca sa gasim solutii pentru a compensa pierderea contributiei la nivel de continut dinspre zona de print', potrivit lui Dragos Stanca.

Conducerea grupului Realitatea Catavencu s-a intrunit, miercuri, pentru a lua o serie de decizii privind aceste entitati din grup.

Comunicarea Interna

Incepand de anul viitor, Grupul Realitatea-Catavencu se va concentra din punct de vedere strategic pe media digitala, prin consolidarea si dezvoltarea produselor tv, radio, online si digital signage.

Ca o consecinta directa si imediata a acestei decizii strategice, de la 1 ianuarie 2010, Grupul nu va mai fi implicat in editarea publicatiilor Cotidianul si Business Standard. In acest moment, se poarta negocieri pentru vanzarea companiei Newsin.

Pentru mai multe detalii, va rog sa luati legatura cu sefii de divizii si cei de produse."

Vintu isi face televiziune in Republica Moldova si cumpara Unimedia

Vintu isi face televiziune in Republica Moldova si cumpara Unimedia: "tractari pe platforma80 RON

Realitatea Catavencu va lansa in Republica Moldova, la jumatatea luniii februarie, postul de stiri si business Publika TV. Investitia in proiect este estimata la 4,5 milioane de euro.

Mai mult, acelasi grup de presa finantat de Sorin Ovidiu Vintu a finalizat negocierile privind achizitia pachetului majoritar de actiuni al companiei online New Media Group din Moldova, care cuprinde portalul de stiri de limba romana lider in Republica Moldova - unimedia.md, site-ul de stiri in limba rusa vesti.md, site-ul dedicat femeilor ladyclub.md si regia de publicitate AdCenter.

Potrivit unui comunicat de presa, 'Grupul Realitatea-Catavencu, prin compania partenera Stiri Media Grup din Chisinau, a pus bazele unui parteneriat strategic pentru dezvoltarea operatiunilor de televiziune si new media in Republica Moldova'.

Operatiunile in televiziune in Republica Moldova insumeaza o investitie de 4,5 milioane de euro. Lansarea statiei Publika TV este planificata pentru jumatatea lunii februarie 2010. In acest proiect au fost angrenati peste 150 de jurnalisti moldoveni, numerosi experti in business si analisti politici, 100 de tehnicieni si echipamente tehnice de ultima generatie. Publika TV va emite live, 24 de ore, 7 zile pe saptamana.

Intr-un interviu acordat marti revistei Capital, S.O.Vintu declara ca, din punctul sau de vedere, 'presa pe suport de hartie va disparea. Nu stiu in cat timp, dar eu sunt convins ca va disparea'.

Desi vede viitorul presei pe suport digital, Vintu recunoaste ca nu citeste site-urile de stiri pentru ca nu stie sa lucreze cu computerul. 'Nu stiu sa deschid un calculator', a recunoscut omul de afaceri.
Citeste mai multe despre Vintu Republica Moldova Unimedia cumparata Vantu televiziune Vantu Republica Moldova Publika TV"
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Moldpres News Agency

Moldpres News Agency: "Survey shows significant increase in people s credibility in state institutions
Dec. 8, 2009 / [9285]

Chisinau, 8 December /MOLDPRES/ - The credibility of Moldovan state institutions has significantly increased among the population, according to the Barometer of Public Opinion for November 2009 carried out by the Institute of Marketing and Surveys IMAS-INC Chisinau.

The survey showed that the government enjoys the credibility of 44 per cent of the respondents against 31 per cent in July 2009. The parliament comes next with 41 per cent compared with 30 per cent in July. One third of respondents described the government s work as very good and rather good.

If a parliamentary election were held, only four parties would have made it to the parliament: the Party of Communists with 26 per cent, the Democratic Party with 14.1 per cent, the Liberal Democratic Party with 12.9 per cent and the Liberal Party with 8.2 per cent. The Our Moldova Alliance would fail to cross the electoral threshold being favoured by 1.2 per cent of the respondents. As many as 30 per cent of the respondents said they had not decided what party to vote for.

The leader of the Democratic Party, Marian Lupu, is the politician enjoying the highest confidence, 51 per cent. Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Party Vlad Filat comes next with 45 per cent and Communist leader and ex-President Vladimir Voronin enjoys the confidence of 39 per cent of the respondents. Chisinau mayor Dorin Chirtoaca has a popularity rating of 33 per cent and ex-Prime Minister and Communist MP Zinaida Greciani 31 per cent.

As concerns political parties, the Democratic Party was trusted by 40 per cent of respondents, the Liberal Democratic Party by 39 per cent and the Party of Communists by 39 per cent.

As many as 32 per cent of the respondents spoke against dissolving the parliament and believe that the constitution should be amended. Another 29 per cent disagreed with a snap election but noted that the law should be respected and only 17 per cent advocated a snap parliamentary election.

The survey was carried out among 1,118 people from 75 Moldovan settlements, with its margin of error being +/- 3 per cent."

Wake Up, America! - Pravda.Ru

Wake Up, America! - Pravda.Ru: "Wake Up, America!
Front page / Opinion / Readers feedback
24.11.2009 Source: Pravda.Ru
Pages: 12345
To my Fellow Americans,

“I am concerned for the security of our great nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within” - General Douglas MacArthur.

What exactly did General MacArthur mean? Let me try to explain. The United States was founded as a Constitutional Republic based on liberty and the unalienable rights of the individual; and where the government exercised it’s limited power and authority with the consent of “We the people”. But slowly, over the course of the past 100 years, “invisible” forces have turned us into a socialist “Democracy” where government is the Ultimate power and authority; where every action of our lives is legislated and restricted, and where Rights are becoming nonexistent. (If that sounds like an absurd statement, then think about this: the United States, a supposed Free society, has a population of 300 Million; yet this Free society has a total of 2.3 million adults held in prison; or one in every 99.1 adults. That puts the US far head of ANY other country: including Communist China, a supposed repressive society. China has a population of 1.3 Billion people, yet they have only 1.5 million people behind bars).

To those who believe that we continue to be a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people”, and that the government is limited in it's power and authority as enumerated in the Constitution, I say take the blinders off your eyes and wake up! If you do, and honestly seek the truth, this is what you will see. That today the true seat of Power in Washington is the “Invisible Government”, which exercises its total control from behind the scenes. Who is this Invisible Government? It is a small elite group of individuals who own and control the Giant International Banks and Corporations, and who exercise their control through the Military-Industrial Complex. Through their foundations and organizations, like the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Trilateral Commission , they train and groom those who would be the “movers and shakers” of both U.S. political parties; in other words, they own and control the Republican and Democratic parties.

Pravda.ru forum. The place where truth hurts"

Dec 10, 2009

COPENHAGEN — “Climategate” has muddied the good green message that was supposed to come out of the United Nations climate change talks here, forcing leaders to spend time justifying the science behind global warming when they want to focus on ending it.

Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin stirred the pot Wednesday with a Washington Post op-ed calling on President Barack Obama to boycott the Copenhagen talks over climategate and the “agenda-driven science” it exposed.

Obama will surely ignore the call. And the Environmental Defense Fund’s Peter Goldmark told POLITICO Wednesday that climategate isn’t coming up in private meetings among nongovernmental organizations in Copenhagen and is not an issue for negotiators.

But again and again this week, U.N. officials and government leaders have felt the need to defend climate science in public — something few of them would have thought necessary just a few weeks ago.

“Now, we know that skeptics have and will continue to try and sow doubts about the science of climate change,” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said in a briefing to an overflow crowd at the U.S. center here Wednesday. “These are the same tactics that have been used by defenders of the status quo for years. Those tactics only serve to delay and distract from the real work ahead, namely, growing our clean energy economy and finding innovative, cost-effective ways to reduce harmful” greenhouse gases.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon took a similar tack in New York Tuesday, telling journalists that nothing made public from the private e-mail accounts of prominent climate scientists casts doubt on the causes or effects of climate change. In fact, he said, climate change is occurring “much, much faster than we realized, and we human beings are the primary cause.”

And in Copenhagen Tuesday, the World Meteorological Organization and the British Meteorological Office teamed up on offense, releasing new figures showing that the current decade is the warmest on record.

“These figures highlight that the world continues to see global temperature rise, most of which is due to increasing emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and [they] clearly show that the argument that global warming has stopped is flawed,” they said in a statement.

Obama persists on broad front as polls drop

morton-kondrake.jpgMorton Kondrake

Column: Obama persists on broad front as polls drop

By Muskegon Chronicle

December 06, 2009, 6:53AM
President Barack Obama has so loaded up the policy circuits this month that you'd expect a government-wide blackout any minute.

Still, in spite of declining approval ratings for him and most of his policies, he's decided to persist -- on Afghanistan, health care, jobs, climate change and deficit reduction. Give him credit for courage and tenacity, even if all the details aren't right.

For instance, in his otherwise well-balanced Afghanistan speech Tuesday night, the president ought to have made more than a one-word reference to aiding democracy in Pakistan.

Even though the year-old civilian government there is strongly antiterrorist, it's besieged by adversaries, including elements in the army, the media and the intelligence services who claim it's a "lackey" of Washington.

Even though the Afghanistan-Pakistan speech and health care are at the front of the media agenda, I'd say Obama's most important activity this week was Thursday's jobs summit and what might flow from it.

Job creation -- legitimately -- is the No. 1 issue in the minds of voters and members of Congress.

The mid-November Washington Post/ABC poll showed that Obama's approval rating on the economy has dropped from 60 percent in March to 51 percent, though, objectively, he's probably not getting the credit he deserves.

Obama inherited what amounts to an economic 9/11 and his stimulus package, plus bank bailouts and action by the Federal Reserve, really did stave off calamity -- at least so far.

As a White House official told me in an interview, "I've heard a lot of criticism about how we did all this spending to no effect.

"The truth is, most economists from right to left agree that the stimulus package had a great deal to do with growth in the third quarter.

"Now the same people who were criticizing us for doing something that had no impact are saying 'Yeah, we had growth, but it was only because of the stimulus package.' Well, you've got to choose a horse and ride it."

Indeed, on Monday, the Congressional Budget Office reported that the stimulus raised GDP in the third quarter by between 1.2 and 3.2 percent above what it would have been and increased employment by 600,000 to 1.6 million.

But unemployment still was at 10.2 percent in October and may be higher when November figures come out.

Even though liberal economists and members of Congress are arguing for a new stimulus package, a White House official told me, "there's a limit to what government can do in terms of these cycles. Some of it just has to work its way through the system.

"We also have a fiscal crisis, so if we overspend to create minimum effects, it just adds to another problem," he said.

Still, Obama has to -- and presumably will -- do something to stimulate job creation, and it might help if he tried tax cuts for small business as well as possible infrastructure spending and aid to state and local governments.

A tax credit or corporate tax reduction for firms that add jobs to their payrolls might even pay for themselves in tax revenue.

My opinion is that Obama should have concentrated in his first year on the economic crisis and financial services reform to prevent it from happening again -- plus Afghanistan and Iran -- but he's determined to push forward on a broad front.

Financial reform is unconscionably delayed, and banks are paying out big bonuses while not lending, but it's probable Obama will get a health-reform bill to sign by the time he delivers his State of the Union address.

Polls show that a majority of voters disapprove of the health-care bills making their way through Congress, but administration officials say they are delighted with their progress and with the contents, especially, of the Senate's measure.

On Wednesday, Obama budget director Peter Orszag declared, "We stand on the verge of a dramatic accomplishment -- not only meeting the moral imperative as the world's foremost economic power in dramatically (reduced) the rates of its uninsured, not only doing it in a fiscally responsible way, but also putting in place the key tools that will lead to the health system of the future, emphasizing quality and not quantity."

He's relying on features of the Senate bill -- a commission to impose Medicare cuts, taxation of high-priced insurance plans, digital medical records and tests of provider payment reforms -- to hold down costs, but some of them are opposed by House Democrats.

Democrats in both the House and Senate, too, are resisting his 30,000-troop surge in Afghanistan -- now widely labeled "escalation" -- even though he tried to assure them he has an exit strategy in mind.

And on it goes -- Obama will be heading off to the Copenhagen climate summit even though his cap-and-trade bill seems dead in the Senate. He'll make commitments there to go along with new promises won from China and India, but it remains to be seen whether any action will lessen emissions.

Obama has sent so many policy ships out to sea that at least some of them should return successfully. But some could crash on the rocks -- and if that includes job creation, he's in trouble.

 Morton Kondracke is executive editor of Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill.

Комментарии :: Панарин.com: информационные войны, геополитика, международные отношения, история

Комментарии :: Панарин.com: информационные войны, геополитика, международные отношения, история: "Интервью газете КРАСНАЯ ЗВЕЗДА 9 декабря Просмотров:46
Интервью газете КРАСНАЯ ЗВЕЗДА 9 декабря

Предлагаю посетителям сайта авторское интервью газете КРАСНАЯ ЗВЕЗДА об итогах ноябрьской поездки автора в самый крупный по территории штат США - Техас. Там живут доброжелательные и активные люди, настоящие патриоты своей страны. Интервью опубликовано 9 декабря 2009 года.

У ТЕХАСА СОБСТВЕННАЯ ГОРДОСТЬ

Наталья ЯРМОЛИК, «Красная звезда».


Когда некоторое время назад профессор Дипломатической академии МИД РФ Игорь Панарин вдруг заявил, что в ближайшие годы Соединенные Штаты могут распасться на шесть частей, никто это, конечно, не воспринял всерьез. Однако когда к прогнозу российского академика прибавился голос губернатора Техаса, объявившего, что штат может выйти из союза, многие стали задумываться над такой возможностью. Я позвонила Игорю Николаевичу, чтобы узнать, а что он сам думает о заявлении губернатора, и услышала: «А я только что приехал из Техаса». Естественно, я не смогла избежать соблазна узнать все непосредственно от него и напросилась на интервью.

- Каким образом вы оказались в Техасе? Вы действительно полагаете, что этот штат может отделиться от Америки и провозгласить свою независимость первым?

- Начнем с того, что меня в Техас пригласили жители штата. Это наши бывшие соотечественники, выехавшие из России и СССР, а также представители Tea Party Patriots, что условно можно перевести как «Движение любителей чая». Это совершенно новое и уникальное движение, включающее в себя и республиканцев, и демократов. Оно оппозиционно действующей администрации. Его основу составляют учителя, преподаватели университетов, бизнесмены, военные, полицейские.
Что же касается отделения Техаса от остальной Америки, то вероятность этого высока. Объясняется она рядом факторов. Во-первых, это единственный не дотационный штат, все остальные 49 - дотационные. Во-вторых, в Техасе сейчас самый высокий уровень жизни и низкая инфляция. На территории штата находится мощный аэрокосмический комплекс. Именно там расположены ведущие нефтяные американские корпорации, отчего техасцы называют свой штат главной мировой нефтяной столицей. Честно говоря, для меня это было открытием, так как я считал таковой нашу Сибирь, однако для них она вторична.
Надо сказать, что люди в Техасе вообще очень активные и доброжелательные. Они нацелены на то, чтобы отстаивать свои права. Это также крупнейший по территории и второй по численности населения штат. Хотя сейчас, возможно, уже и первый. Люди просто бегут из других штатов и переселяются в Техас. В последние годы растет число переселенцев с азиатскими корнями, особенно в таких городах, как Хьюстон и Даллас. В Техас приезжают переселенцы из Китая, Вьетнама, Индии, Японии, Пакистана и других стран. Наиболее представленными этническими группами Техаса являются мексиканцы (24,3 %) и негры (11,5 %).
Нельзя также не отметить, что Техас реально очень вооружен. Впервые за всю историю США там наблюдается дефицит патронов. Люди скупают оружие и патроны просто в немереных количествах. Обстановка взрывоопасная. В случае ухудшения экономической ситуации не исключается вероятность этнических столкновений.
И наконец, Техас уже был независимым государством. Как известно, он присоединился к союзу в 1845 году в качестве 28-го штата.
Так что определенные объективные предпосылки того, что Техас положит начало разделу США, есть.

- Как были восприняты ваши прогнозы американцами?

- Следует признаться, что мое публичное выступление на эту тему было сложным. В том плане, что аудитория очень патриотична, очень активна. Конечно, говорить о распаде США там было непросто. Но тем не менее 15 раз мое выступление прерывали бурные аплодисменты. Это факт. И он был достаточно неожиданным для меня. Мы нашли некую общность понимания ситуации, совместные ценности, такие как традиционализм, нравственность, здоровый образ жизни. Было очень много вопросов до, во время и после выступления.

- А насколько импонировало собравшимся на выступление то, что вы весьма критично относитесь к президенту США Бараку Обаме? Вы даже сравнили его с Михаилом Горбачевым?

- Вы знаете, здесь наши взгляды прямо-таки совпали. Американцы считают, что Обама ведет страну к развалу. Они искренне в это верят. По мнению американцев, все, что делает Обама, плохо для США. Даже на его инаугурации, как рассказывали мне, было очень мало людей. Для всего мира была просто создана пропагандистская картинка. На самом деле правительство и сам президент США стремительно теряют популярность.
Ведь американцев меньше всего интересует, что делается за рубежом. И им непонятно, за что Обаме дали Нобелевскую премию. Никаких внешнеполитических изменений нет. В Ираке продолжаются теракты, в Афганистане американские проблемы только выросли. Поэтому они и ставят вопрос: за что же дали премию? У большинства безработных и бедно живущих людей награждение Обамы этой премией вызвало только раздражение.
Барак Обама - молодой лидер, который отвергает методы прошлых администраций. Он открыто разговаривает с иностранной аудиторией, но не может пойти на диалог с собственным народом. Призывает к открытости, но только за пределами США. Вот в чем парадоксальность ситуации. Он до нюансов напоминает мне Горбачева. Его тоже восторженно воспринимали на Западе, а в СССР ситуация все ухудшалась. Здесь в принципе повторяется та же картина.

- И что же подтверждает такие настроения американцев?

- Рост протестных движений. демонстрация в Вашингтоне 12 сентября, а она была направлена против экономической политики Обамы, собрала, по американским данным, 1 миллион 700 тысяч человек. Даже при распаде СССР митинговали в Москве лишь 200 тысяч человек. Более того, американцы говорят, что выведут еще как минимум 5 миллионов человек в Вашингтоне в знак протеста. Для США это совершенно новое явление. Это действительно феномен.
По сути, люди переходят от слов к действию. Например, сейчас они организовали круглосуточное пикетирование всех телекомпаний, которые, с их точки зрения, дают ложную информацию. Американцы говорят, что народ живет очень плохо, а вся программа выхода из кризиса сводится к спасению банков. Они выступают и против новой реформы здравоохранения, так как считают, что это лишь повод позволить прикормленным компаниям разворовать деньги из бюджета.
Сейчас в том же «Движении любителей чая» работают над созданием единой программы, тезисов, идеологии. Американцы устали от республиканцев и демократов, поэтому хотят открыть новую нишу. Сами политики еще не совсем поняли, что это за движение, как оно может развиваться и что из него получится.

- И какой же выход Вы видите из этой ситуации?

- Ситуация сложна, и в США не знают, что с этим делать. Долларовая пирамида должна рухнуть. Я думаю, что в ближайшие месяцы это произойдет. США не могут так больше существовать. Американские политики утверждают, что они сумеют выкарабкаться. Интересно как?
На самом деле шансов на спасение у них практически нет. Крах доллара неизбежен. Сейчас уже надо ставить вопрос, управляем этот процесс или нет. Я считаю, что вероятность того, что он выйдет из-под контроля уже в ближайшие месяцы, достаточно высока. Если это произойдет, скажем, в декабре, то уже к июлю возможна дезинтеграция США.
Вопрос лишь в том, в какой форме это произойдет. Например, раньше я предполагал, что если Техас отделится, но попадет под влияние Мексики. Но, пообщавшись с людьми, я понял, что техасская зона, отделившись, войдет в конфедерацию с Мексикой. При этом Техас будет доминировать.

- На основании чего вы пришли к такому выводу?

- А потому что там проживают весьма активные, динамичные люди. Мощнейший производственный комплекс находится именно в Техасе. Он просто подтянет Мексику. Сами жители Техаса мне говорили, что если они и отделятся, то будут править Мексикой. Я просто почувствовал заряд энергетики, которая там присутствует. Этот заряд притянет и соседние штаты. Техас может замкнуть на себя всю реальную производственную базу Америки. Он может стать абсолютно самодостаточным. Жители штата задаются вопросом, зачем им кормить Вашингтон, если можно существовать самостоятельно. Там существуют реальные сепаратистские тенденции.

- А как все это скажется на других странах? В той же Европе, например, и прежде всего в ее восточной и центральной части, поставивших на моральную и материальную помощь США?

- Восточная Европа наконец-то станет зоной жизненно важных интересов России. В этом плане распад США нам ничем не грозит. Однако нужно создать некий Союз патриотов России и США. Тот пласт американцев, который разделяет мою озабоченность, готов бороться за сохранение США, в том числе в союзе с Россией. С этой частью элиты и нужно выстраивать отношения. Если бы удалось его все-таки создать, для России это был бы лучший вариант. У нас бы появилась свобода действий в Восточной Европе, прекратились бы антироссийские операции. В свою очередь мы бы где-то поддержали США, не допустив их распада. Вот такой разумный компромисс. Он может быть найден.
Конечно же, критики России стараются этого не допустить. Однако если в США возобладает группировка сил, негативно настроенная по отношению к России, то распад Америки неизбежен. Если не в 2010 году, то позже. Просто у них нет никакой модели развития.




Чак Норрис хочет стать президентом независимого штата Техас

Ветеран американского кинематографа Чак Норрис считает власти США предателями Конституции и видит себя в роли президента республики Техас, восстающей против коррумпированого американского правительства. «Я, возможно, буду баллотироваться в президенты Техаса, - сообщил он на радиошоу Гленна Бека. - Это произойдет, возможно, скорее, чем мы сейчас себе представляем. Если не я, то другие, возможно, будут участвовать в президентских гонках в нашем отдельном штате, если Соединенное государство и дальше продолжит превращаться во врага своих штатов».
Актер также заявил: «Я не скажу, что другие штаты не найдут в себе потенциала к восстанию и отделению, однако у Техаса уже есть опыт. Техас был отдельной страной до того, как стал 28-м штатом. С 1836-го до 1846-го Техас был отдельной республикой. Мы недавно отмечали техасскую Декларацию независимости, которая была принята 2 марта 1836 года. Кто угодно, кто знаком с Техасом, знает точно, что мы сделаем, если в Америке пойдет что-то не так. Даже не будем спорить об этом. Как однажды сказал Сэм Хьюстон, «Техас может самостоятельно выстоять перед любыми вызовами извне».

Из сообщений информационных агентств,
март 2009 года."

www.german-foreign-policy.com

www.german-foreign-policy.com: "East Ukraine - A 'de Facto Nation'
2009/12/01
BERLIN/KIEV
(Own report) - German military circles are debating NATO's continued eastward expansion and the partitioning of the Ukraine. As a former advisor in the Amt für Studien und Übungen (Bureau for Research and Training) of the German Bundeswehr writes, the question of expanding the western war alliance to the territory of the Ukraine is still on the table. If this step is taken, 'probably only the western Ukraine' will join NATO. The 'eastern Ukraine' would 'in this case, become independent or a de facto nation like Abkhazia.' The author, a lieutenant colonel of the reserves, presented his ideas in a military magazine, embedding them in a retrospective on the entire past twenty years of NATO's eastward expansion. According to the author, a 'cordon sanitaire' separating this war alliance from Russia, conceded by the allies of World War II to the Soviet Union, has, for the most part, been absorbed into NATO, essentially crossing every 'red line' drawn by Moscow. According to the author, Russia finds itself on a historical defensive. Only Moscow's 1989 project of winning security for itself through an axis with Berlin, has a chance of succeeding, says the author.
Cordon Sanitaire
The author, Heinz Brill, whose analysis was published recently in an Austrian military journal,[1] begins his paper with a retrospective on NATO's early eastward expansion in 1990. Brill, who worked for many years as director of research in the Central Research and Study section of the Bureau for Research and Training of the Bundeswehr, recalls, that the Soviet Union had only agreed to the annexation of the German Democratic Republic by the Federal Republic of Germany under the condition that the five new federal lands of East Germany not be used by NATO. 'Our position was of a long-term perspective' writes the Soviet President at the time, Mikhail Gorbachev in his memoirs. The countries lying between the now larger Germany and Russia, should remain neutral, forming a 'cordon sanitaire', a security zone between Russia and the west.[2] According to Brill, in light of a 'strategic position, which presupposed a stable and irreversible cooperation between the Soviet Union and Germany,' NATO's territorial expansion to the GDR seemed acceptable to Moscow.
Eastward Expansion
Brill describes how, in violation of the 1990 accords, the west expanded step by step eastward. With NATO's second eastward expansion in 1999 (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland) and its third in 2004 (Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Rumania, Slovakia and Slovenia), the East European 'cordon sanitaire' melted away almost completely. Since then, according to Brill, 'safeguarding the remaining - or new East European 'cordon sanitaire'' (Belarus, the Ukraine, Russia's exclave, Kaliningrad and 'a few Caucasus republics'), has become Moscow's 'absolute priority.' After all, with NATO's 2004 expansion, the 'Baltic Sea and the Black Sea have become NATO maritime regions' as well as 'all of the 'red lines' (...) have been crossed by the West.' All in all, 'a turning point has been imposed on [Russia's] nearly 300 year policy of westward and southward expansion' which 'has been part of the basis of Russian state doctrine since Peter the Great.'
Made in Germany
Brill credits Germany with the first impulse for NATO's eastward expansion. In March 1993, Bonn's Minister of Defense at the time, Volker Ruehe, was the first to publicly declare that the war alliance should be expanded to include several East European nations, says Brill. At the time, Washington reacted very skeptically to the German proposal. The policy of eastward expansion was 'Made in Germany'. Over the ensuing years, the US has adapted its strategy accordingly. Today, according to the Lt. Col. of the reserves, a continued NATO eastward expansion has become 'part of the US global strategy in the struggle for Eurasia', which, on the other hand, has also led to friction with Berlin. Differences of opinion first became public at the NATO summit in Bucharest in 2008, Brill explains. The USA had campaigned for an eastward expansion to include the Ukraine and Georgia, but was defeated because of Germany. Berlin believes, in the meantime, that through a mediator role between Moscow and Washington it can have more influence, an assessment that seems to have been borne out in the Russia-Georgia war in August 2008. Brill sees this war as a 'test case' for the collision of the two spheres of influence. Moscow proved that it is not going to accept every violation of its 'red line.'
Like Abkhazia
Brill is openly comparing the conflict between Russia and the West to the “Great Game” conflict in the late 19th and early 20th century between Great Britain and Russia. Today the focus is particularly on “the oil fields in the Caspian region and secure transport routes.” The conflict was in no way terminated with the August 2008 war. Ukraine joining NATO is still in discussion, according to Brill. But „most likely only Western Ukraine would join,“ declared the ex-Bundeswehr expert, hinting at a possible partition of the Ukraine. He continued: ”in this case Eastern Ukraine would become independent or a de facto nation like Abkhazia.” The Austrian military magazine is supporting this concept by publishing a map that shows a “possible East-West division of the Ukraine in the case of a NATO accession.” But this map is different from those usually presented with a border being drawn between the country’s Russian speaking East and the Ukrainian speaking West, with Oblast Kirovohrad, Mykolyaiv and Odessa within the Russian sphere of influence. But Brill is claiming that all territories up to the Dnieper - including the important oil harbor cities of Odessa and Cherson - would belong to the West. (Click here for the enlarged map showing the partition plans.)
Oil Harbors
Odessa, with its harbor, is in fact part of the so called Euro-Asian transport corridor that the EU would like to use to transport oil from the Caspian Basin to the West. Cherson and Jushny are also situated to the west of the Dnieper - and therefore inside Brill’s “Western Ukraine”. Jushny’s oil harbor is being used to transport Georgian oil across the Black Sea to Western Europe, circumventing Russian territory. There is also an oil harbor in Cherson with a direct link to the Odessa-Brody pipeline, transporting oil from the Black Sea all the way to the Polish border. If, as in Brill’s model, the Ukraine would be partitioned along the Dnieper, all important oil harbors and the most important pipeline routes of this East European country would come under western control. This clearly highlights the material background of the partition plans of this nation.
[1] Zitate hier und im Folgenden aus: Heinz Brill: Die NATO-Osterweiterung und der Streit um Einflusssphären in Europa; Österreichische Militärische Zeitschrift 6/2009
[2] Als Cordon sanitaire wird eine Sicherheitszone von Ländern zwischen verfeindeten Staaten oder Blöcken bezeichnet.
top print"

Dec 9, 2009

Beck echoes dubious claim Obama's approval rating "one point away" from Palin's

Beck echoes dubious claim Obama's approval rating "one point away" from Palin's | Media Matters for America

Dec 8, 2009

Unheavenly Host

Unheavenly Host 

Fox News Channel’s latest blowhard. 

by Nancy Franklin November 23, 2009

Bend it like Beck: Glenn Beck scores points with his political distortions.
Bend it like Beck: Glenn Beck scores points with his political distortions.
If you sensed something of a quiet spell about ten days ago, a lull in the usual media storm, it may have been owing to the fact that Glenn Beck, the energetically hateful, truth-twisting radio and Fox News Channel talk-show host, was absent from the airwaves for a week, to have his appendix removed. A few days after his surgery, he made it clear, via his Twitter feed, that he hated just watching TV, which is, of course, the terrible fate of those of us who don’t have talk shows. (“I know how U feel. Watching the news & knowing wht I say 2 my tv makes no difference,” he wrote. “I cnt wait 2 giv U wht I think has bn going on.”) By the middle of last week, he was back, breathing fire about Obama’s response to the Fort Hood shootings.
The persona that Beck has cobbled together over the past few years combines a determination to draw attention to himself, because what he has to say is so important, with an outsized, in-your-face show of modesty—he likes to refer to himself as a fatty (he’s barely overweight) and a clown, and, like many an egomaniac throughout history, he takes pains to present himself as a regular guy, shrugging his shoulders and saying, “But what do I know?” He declares himself no special friend to either Democrats or Republicans, and claims to be a libertarian, but his agenda is to throw tacks in front of the wheels of progress and, specifically, to make the Obama Administration crash and burn. Beck looks cherubic, with his boyish crewcut, his rubbery, expressive face, his wide eyes, and his seemingly innocent smile, but he has a wizened heart and a sulfurous outlook on American life and politics.
Some see him as a joke, and some see him as a danger, and some—especially those who like guns, don’t want health-care reform, and feel that their freedom is somehow threatened by every political initiative of the Obama Administration—are grateful to him, for his efforts to “take back America.” In March, Beck started the 9.12 Project—a forum for frustrated folks, meant to “bring us all back to the place we were on September 12, 2001.” On that day, the Project’s online mission statement says, “we were not obsessed with Red States, Blue States or political parties. We were united as Americans, standing together to protect the greatest nation ever created.” It’s true—we were. But nothing about Beck’s 9.12 Project has even a tinge of that post-9/11 spirit of generosity. One of the “principles” of the organization is “I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.” Beck invariably uses his real or feigned bromance with the Founding Fathers to explain his crabbed selfishness; he justifies this “principle” with a quote from George Washington, which actually has an entirely different spirit: “It is not everyone who asketh that deserveth charity; all however, are worth of the inquiry or the deserving may suffer.”


Beck’s negative, regressive take on politics is expressed with raw-throated outrage, smiley sarcasm, and,occasionally, a display of hurt, even tears. He’s very effective at putting himself over, but it’s unclear why he has been so effective at rallying people—and also unclear, for all his bluster, what it is, exactly, that he wants them to do, beyond keep on watching and listening to him and buying his books. He is Mr. Synergy: to give one example, his book “The Christmas Sweater,” based on his personal journey of redemption, comes in two versions, one for adults and one for children, and he performed the story around the country as a stage show. The performance was filmed and will play in movie theatres this holiday season. In a video advertising the movie on his Web site, he says that he got so many letters from people saying that the tale had changed their lives that he started yet another Web site, called Face Your Storm, on which they could tell their own stories. In a tweet last week, after saying that Republicans and Democrats have a reason to fear 2010—the kind of rumbling, ominous, yet unspecific warning that is typical of Beck—he wrote, “Tell yr friends & C U a week from Sat in The Villages, FL. FREE RALLY.” (The Villages is an enormous retirement community in central Florida, almost entirely white, and with such a high percentage of lever pullers that campaigning politicians make a point of going there.) The rally is also, not surprisingly, a book signing for Beck. There have been 9.12 demonstrations all over the country this year, and tens of thousands of people showed up to demonstrate in Washington on September 12th—an unofficial count put the number at between fifty and seventy thousand people. (That’s impressive, though not as impressive as the absurdly overinflated figure of 1.7 million, which Beck cited on the morning show “Fox & Friends.”)
Beck moved to Fox News from CNN Headline News at the beginning of 2009, and his ratings, which were good to begin with, have gone up significantly since midsummer, when, from his bottomless grab bag of fearmongering and inciteful comments about the coming “redistribution of wealth,” and the revolutionaries who want to take away our freedom, and the apparently satanic form of capitalism called eco-capitalism, and Mao-loving politicians, he pulled out a doozy. It was a couple of days before the “beer summit” at the White House—the sitdown that Obama arranged for Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and the policeman who had arrested him outside his house a few weeks earlier. Beck said, on “Fox & Friends,” “This President, I think, has exposed himself as a guy, over and over and over again, who has a deep-seated hatred for white people, or the white culture, I don’t know what it is.” It’s not a logical impossibility for anyone, even for a person who is half black and half white, to make a racist statement, but Beck’s act of malice was, to say the least, stupid—and, it could be argued, not without its own whiff of racism. Although a number of advertisers subsequently boycotted the show, Beck did not retreat, and the media emperor Rupert Murdoch, who owns Fox News, supported him, saying in a recent interview that Obama “did make a very racist comment, uh, about, you know, blacks and whites and so on.” (In the same interview, Murdoch defended Fox News’s prideful characterization of itself as “fair and balanced.”)
Throughout the year, Beck has gone after Administration officials, repeatedly showing irresponsibly edited video clips, in which they say things that make them easy marks. Sometimes, though, the clips really do raise questions about someone’s judgment or self-awareness, even when you hear a longer version of the comments. Take Anita Dunn, the former White House director of communications. (She was filling the post this year on an interim basis and left last week.) Dunn gave a speech at a Maryland high school—Beck played a snippet so often that you could repeat it by heart—in which she clumsily used a quotation from Mao as a positive life lesson, and it’s no wonder Beck latched on to it. Van Jones, who was brought in by Obama to spearhead the creation of green jobs, was undone, in part, by Beck’s ceaseless screenings of his video past, and resigned in September. (The Administration should have known that some of Jones’s speeches, and other questionable parts of his record, would be made public; the Internet-savvyness of the Obama Presidential campaign seemed to vanish not long after the election.)
A headline at the top of Beck’s Web site announces what he thinks he’s selling: “the fusion of entertainment and enlightenment.” If by this Beck means that his product is radioactive, he’s got that right. We can only hope that its toxic charge will fade over time. But that seems unlikely. At the end of the Elia Kazan–Budd Schulberg movie “A Face in the Crowd,” the Arkansas opportunist and petty criminal who has been repackaged, by a radio broadcaster, as a guitar-playing professional hayseed called Lonesome Rhodes (played brilliantly by Andy Griffith), and who has been consumed and ruined by fame, shows his true colors when he bad-mouths his audience over an open mike. The nation abandons him, and, as the movie ends, he’s shouting, unheard, into the night. These days, because of the Internet, it’s not so easy to get rid of a demagogue. Long after Beck leaves radio and TV, his sound bites will still be with us. ♦
ILLUSTRATION: ROBERT RISKO


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Russia’s Carbon Credits Seen as Barrier to Warming Curb

Russia’s Carbon Credits Seen as Barrier to Warming Curb






By JAMES KANTER

Published: December 7, 2009
Does Russia hold hostage the future of a carbon cap-and-trade system that many experts see as a critical tool for curbing global greenhouse gases? Improbable as it may seem, the answer appears to be yes.


That is because Russia, as a result of the collapse of much of its heavy industry in the 1990s, owns one of the largest stocks of credits to offset carbon emissions.
The unearned windfall, a legacy of the Kyoto agreement that tried to deal with the threat of climate change, is worth several billion dollars. If abruptly sold abroad, those credits could send the price of carbon on the world’s fragile emissions markets plunging toward zero.
Without a predictable and reasonably high price for carbon emissions, most economists say, there is little prospect of setting in motion the many investments needed to shift from a carbon-intensive industrial economy to a more sustainable energy base in developed and developing countries alike.
Carbon trading is mainly based on permits that are issued or sold by governments to companies that emit carbon dioxide and other gases that are believed to affect the climate. The companies are required to buy permits, or seek credits elsewhere, if they emit more than a specified amount of carbon. They can profit by selling their permits for cash if they come in below their cap.
As governments lower the overall caps, the prices for permits and credits should rise. Supporters of carbon trading say that the system is working when companies facing high-cost permits cut their output, invest in cleaner technology or buy emissions credits from a company or organization that has taken actions to reduce emissions or absorb greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
The main model for such a system already operates in the European Union, which has called on all industrialized countries to have systems in place by 2015 and for rapidly emerging economies like China and India to adopt them by 2020. A similar system is being debated in the United States.
But even if a global market develops, many experts warn that carbon trading should not be relied on to deliver the scale of emissions cuts needed to keep the rise in global temperatures within a range that scientists say would prevent dangerous changes.
Environmental groups warn that carbon markets may end up providing only a fraction of the money some poor countries expect, largely because wealthy countries are not willing to set their caps stringently enough. Tougher caps would push up demand for more offsetting in the developing world. That, the theory goes, should raise the price of carbon, so that governments selling permits would have more money to redirect to a future global climate protection fund.
The prospect of Russia dumping its credits is just the latest challenge facing emissions trading, the expected financial backbone to any global agreement that may emerge from the talks taking place in Copenhagen over the next two weeks. The hoard of Russian credits is a “gorilla sitting in the background” that “nobody dares to touch,” said Peter Zapfel, a senior official who helps to oversee the European Union’s four-year-old emissions trading system.
Russia could “fundamentally affect the environmental integrity of what we agree to at Copenhagen,” he said.
Industrialized countries, including the United States, are counting on trading as the most inexpensive and efficient way to help meet future emissions targets intended to limit the carbon pumped into the atmosphere.
European leaders, meanwhile, have emphasized the role any trading project should play in channeling the large sums of money that poorer countries have demanded as a condition for a deal at Copenhagen.
Henry Derwent, the president of the International Emissions Trading Association, an industry group based in Geneva, predicted that an emissions market could be worth $3 trillion by the end of the next decade, compared with about $130 billion a year now.
In a number of countries, however, powerful lobbies, often backed by the coal industry, have blocked efforts to pass legislation to cap emissions. And where such systems have come into existence, particularly in Europe, the low prices and volatility in carbon markets have spooked investors rather than encouraged them to invest in clean energy.
There are also serious doubts about the way reductions in greenhouse gases can be earned, traded and managed, reinforcing the view that carbon markets may turn out to be just another Wall Street gambit.

Dec 7, 2009

Wen Says Yuan Pressure Unfair; Europe’s Lobbying Fails (Update)

Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao rejected “unfair” calls for the yuan to appreciate and European leaders acknowledged that they had failed to shift the nation’s stance on its currency.
“Some countries are now calling for yuan appreciation while imposing trade protectionism on China, which is unfair and actually limits China’s development,” Wen said at a briefing in the Chinese city of Nanjing today. In the financial crisis, “a stable yuan is helpful to the development of the Chinese economy and the world’s economic recovery,” he added.
European officials indicated yesterday that they failed to convince China to loosen controls on the yuan that shelter Chinese exporters from the U.S. currency’s slide and make euro- region goods relatively less competitive. The euro has surged about 20 percent versus the dollar since Feb. 18, undermining the region’s recovery from the worst slump since World II. The yuan is effectively pegged to the dollar.
“China’s not yet convinced about a global recovery next year,” said Ben Simpfendorfer, an economist with Royal Bank of Scotland in Hong Kong. “If the global recovery doesn’t come, then a stable currency will be key to providing some support for exporters.”
Twelve-month non-deliverable yuan forwards rose 0.2 percent to 6.6275 per dollar as of 12:15 p.m. in Shanghai as the dollar declined against Asian currencies. China has kept the yuan at about 6.83 against the U.S. currency since July 2008. In the past year, the yuan fell more than 14 percent against the euro.
Lacking in Optimism
Wen reiterated that China will keep the yuan basically stable and carry out currency reform at its own, gradual pace.
“I can’t say that I’m more optimistic than I was before I came here” on gains by the yuan, or renminbi, Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs a group of euro-area finance ministers, said in Nanjing yesterday. Chinese officials had explained that it was difficult to make the case for “immediate renminbi appreciation” with 40 million people living on less than $1 a day, Juncker said.
“An orderly and gradual appreciation of the renminbi would be in the best interests of China and the European economy,” he added.
European officials met Wen, Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zhang Ping, People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan and Finance Minister Xie Xuren.
International Pressure
Chinese officials said they will continue currency reforms begun in 2005, when a fixed exchange rate ended, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said yesterday. Trichet told Bloomberg Television: “I don’t over-interpret our discussions. It is their decision and we will see.”
The Europeans’ visit comes after U.S. President Barack Obama left Beijing this month without a commitment to let the exchange rate strengthen. International pressure is growing on China after the Group of 20 nations, of which it is a member, agreed in September to make the world economy less reliant on Chinese savings and U.S. demand.
“You shouldn’t expect the Europeans to have significant influence” on China’s currency, said Joerg Kraemer, chief economist at Commerzbank AG, Frankfurt. “Even the U.S. hasn’t managed it.”
Obama told President Hu Jintao and Wen that the U.S. expects progress on making the yuan “more flexible” by mid- 2010, according to Jon Huntsman, the American ambassador. That’s when talks between the U.S. State and Treasury secretaries and their Chinese counterparts will take place.
‘Gentle Appreciation’
“China will only adjust on its own terms and in its own time,” said Glenn Maguire, chief Asia-Pacific economist at Societe Generale SA in Hong Kong. “It’s decided that now is not the time to do that.”
While China is focused on its domestic agenda and “unlikely to do anything” in response to international pressure, authorities may allow a “gentle appreciation” of the yuan next year before the U.S. Federal Reserve starts increasing interest rates, Maguire said.
While the 16-member euro-region economy returned to growth in the third quarter, the euro’s ascent is making exports less competitive abroad and eroding companies’ earnings. European Aeronautic, Defence & Space & Co., the owner of Airbus SAS, said on Nov. 16 that third-quarter earnings slumped 77 percent, partly because of a weaker dollar.
Deutsche Telekom AG Chief Executive Officer Rene Obermann said on Nov. 5 the company is looking “very carefully” at developments in currency markets. The dollar’s depreciation and other exchange-rate movements cut third-quarter revenue at Europe’s biggest phone company by about 100 million euros compared to the second, spokesman Andreas Leigers said.
For Related News and Information: Top economy news: TOP ECO Top currency news: TOP FRX News on China’s currency: TNI CHINA FRX BN Stories on China economy: TNI CHINA ECO BN Top Europe stories: TOP EUR Euro-area economy: TNI EUROP ECO Credit crunch page: WWCC Global currencies: WCRS
Last Updated: November 30, 2009 03:05 EST

China's policy to keep yuan weak a sign of protectionism

China's policy to keep yuan weak a sign of protectionism

 THE US and China have wildly opposing ideas of the sort of deal that should be struck at Copenhagen over the next two weeks.
But there now appears to be a genuine desire to reach a compromise that will at least allow the process to move ahead.
No such luck for the global economy on how China's currency should be valued.
In fact, the issue has become an ugly stalemate with increasingly strongly worded statements of position from both sides.
In essence, the situation is this. China does not have a free-floating exchange rate like other economies of any size. The tight central control that is the hallmark of the country's ruling Communist Party extends to its exchange rate too. As China has rapidly become richer, it has been pressured by the other leading economies to allow its currency to appreciate -- which is what should happen as a country gets richer.

For three years during the boom it did this; the yuan appreciated by 17 per cent against the US dollar. Then mid-last year, as it sniffed the rotten breeze of the global meltdown and its exports -- a key driver of its boom -- began to fall off, it pegged the yuan to the US dollar.
In this way, its exports would not get any more expensive and it could at least hold its piece of a shrinking global pie.
This week, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, in an uncharacteristically colourful -- some might say near hysterical -- attack on those who would like to see China allow its currency to appreciate, took the battle to a new level.
"Some countries are asking for (the yuan's) appreciation and meanwhile impose various (acts of) protectionism on China. It's not fair and limits China's development actually," Wen said.
China has, in effect, put its growth ahead of everyone else's. To paraphrase George Orwell's critique of communism in Animal Farm, all growth is equal but some growth is more equal than others. The US and the EU have long been insisting on the yuan's appreciation and the demand has become more pressing following the world economic crisis.
"The stability of the yuan benefits China's economic development and the recovery of world economy amid this rare financial crisis. China will continue to improve the yuan exchange rate mechanism based on an initiative, controllable and progressive development, and ensure a stable and reasonable yuan exchange rate," said Wen at a summit with European Union leaders in China.
Typically opaque Chinese technocrat-speak for "we will do as we like, when we like".
China has an unhealthy obsession with growth at all costs -- it's a core political tenet that if the government keeps growth bubbling along, the punters will stay in their boxes, and this is just the latest example.
And it smacks of the worst kind of hypocrisy: the sanctimonious kind. China has spent much of the past year lecturing anyone who cares to listen about the dangers of protectionism. Correct, of course; it's what turned the 1930 financial crisis into the Great Depression. But deliberately holding down an exchange rate is itself rank protectionism.
China is making sure its goods remain cheaper than they should be, forcing others out of the market. It is protecting its market at the expense of others.
Derek Scissors, a research fellow in Asian economic policy in the Asian Studies Centre at the Heritage Foundation, Washington DC, says: "The People's Republic of China is far more protectionist than its major partners, heavily subsidising domestic firms to compete against imports and in overseas markets.
"Perhaps most disingenuous is the accusation that China's trade partners, which have been utterly indispensable to its economic development, are plotting against the PRC. The Communist Party has been trotting out versions of this accusation -- that the US is trying to contain China -- when useful for the past 15 years. It has been cited most recently with regard to climate change.
" In fact, Chinese trade practices harm China's partners, so the PRC can be accused of interfering with India's rise, Vietnam's rise, and the ascent of other trade partners," he says.
So much, then, for China's de facto leadership of the developing world. Sure there is little love lost with India, not to mention the troop build-up on its border, but it's even crimping the growth of its fellow People's Republic in Vietnam. Perhaps its revenge for being embarrassed in the 1979 war?
More likely it's another demonstration that for all its fine progress in so many areas, China's self-interest remains utterly paramount. The rest of the world is falling over itself to accommodate China, which has been elevated with startling alacrity into every important world forum. But with rights come responsibilities.
With its currency, China is shirking them. Worse still, its exchange rate policy is continuing and even making worse the financial imbalances that were a central cause of the global meltdown. And sensible people realise that as long as these continue to be out of whack the economic bad times, while less bad these days, will continue to linger.
The great irony of Beijing's exchange rate peg is that it holds most of its reserves in cash and bonds. While it may be happy to have its goods become more and more competitive with the Europeans, it is not happy that its hard-earned savings -- although increasingly easy -- are reducing in value.
"The world's second largest economic power cannot stay hidden behind the largest for long -- the yuan peg must eventually break," Dr Scissors says.
"The question is whether it will be done by the PRC in relatively smooth fashion or whether it will occur in a crisis setting, with Beijing's hand forced by foreign action.
" It would be better for all concerned if China started the process itself, and soon."
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