…….military prosecutors alleged that prison guards tortured to death at least three student protesters in July, contradicting months of denials by top leaders. The reversal is one of the biggest blows to Tehran’s credibility since government protests first erupted six months ago.
Upon taking office, Obama said that he wanted to listen to the world, promising respect instead of arrogance. But Obama’s currency isn’t as strong as he had believed. Everyone wants respect, but hardly anyone is willing to pay for it. Interests, not emotions, dominate the world of realpolitik. The Asia trip revealed the limits of Washington’s new foreign policy: Although Obama did not lose face in China and Japan, he did appear to have lost some of his initial stature.
The Cold War between the US and the now defunct Soviet Union ended some time ago. The reason there was never an actual nuclear war between the adversaries was MAD, or mutually assured destruction.
The premise was simple. If either side initiated a nuclear attack, the other side would automatically respond in kind. No discussion, no questions asked. There would be nothing left for either side to win.
As Iran thumbs its nose at the world hell bent on having nuclear weapons and there is not the political will or the money to fight a war against them to prevent it, perhaps it is time to adopt a doctrine of GD, or Guaranteed Destruction.
Maybe the US should publicly announce that if Iran launches a verified nuclear attack against anyone, nuclear hell will rain down on them destroying their country. No questions asked, no discussion, period.
Some would say the leadership of Iran is suicidal and this would simply advance their plans. Not likely. The Mullahs like their power and privilege. If attacking another country with a nuclear weapon would result in turning their country into a sheet of glass they would surely think twice about it. It would also create tremendous pressure from the restless population that would like to overthrow them.
Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard said it successfully test-fired short-range missiles Sunday in drills meant to show Tehran is prepared to crush any military threat from another country.
The display of force comes days after the U.S. and its allies warned Iran over a newly revealed nuclear facility it was secretly constructing.
Gen. Hossein Salami, head of the Revolutionary Guard Air Force, said Iran had perfected its short range missiles to make them more accurate in tactical battlefield situations and defend the country from any attacks.
“We are going to respond to any military action in a crushing manner and it doesn’t make any difference which country or regime has launched the aggression,” state media quoted Salami as saying. He said the missiles successfully hit their targets. … Continue Reading
If you keep printing more money but there is not growth to go along with it, you get inflation. Basically, when there are more dollars in circulation representing the same or a smaller amount of goods and services the value of each dollar falls. At the rate the US Government is pumping out money, inflation is looming large. This not only reduces the value of the money in Americans wallets, bank and retirement accounts, it also reduces the value of the bonds America has sold to finance the debt. Many foreign countries hold those bonds. The Chinese are largest holder of American debt.
Cheng Siwei, former vice-chairman of the Standing Committee and now head of China’s green energy drive, said Beijing was dismayed by the Fed’s recourse to “credit easing”…..
…..”If they keep printing money to buy bonds it will lead to inflation, and after a year or two the dollar will fall hard. Most of our foreign reserves are in US bonds and this is very difficult to change, so we will diversify incremental reserves into euros, yen, and other currencies,” he said. China’s reserves are more than – $2 trillion, the world’s largest.
“Gold is definitely an alternative, but when we buy, the price goes up. We have to do it carefully so as not to stimulate the markets,” he added. The comments suggest that China has become the driving force in the gold market and can be counted on to buy whenever there is a price dip, putting a floor under any correction.
China’s task is to switch from export dependency to internal consumption, but that requires a “change in the ideology of the Chinese people” to discourage excess saving. “This is very difficult”. Mr Cheng said the root cause of global imbalances is spending patterns in US (and UK) and China.
“The US spends tomorrow’s money today,” he said. “We Chinese spend today’s money tomorrow. That’s why we have this financial crisis.” Yet the consequences are not symmetric.
“He who goes borrowing, goes sorrowing,” said Mr Cheng. It was a quote from US founding father Benjamin Franklin. source
Saving money and buying hedges against inflation like gold are a good idea for Americans. It looks like the price of gold will be steady to rising for a long time.
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