Jay's Daily News

ooohhh they dont then right? hmm without port facilities etc.. wont they rust, weathered, etc etc etc?

nevermind lol

Yes yes. Yes they will.

Eventually, they will end up in India to be dismantled and sold for scrap metal. It could happen prematurely if they sit there long.

It would be a good thing to happen. Clearly, there are too many ships out there right now.

My pleasure, Jay.

I used to enjoy posting off beat stuff like this in the FF news section but I got tired of all the crap that was happening over there with people accusing each other of vote pumping their own stories and fading other people's stories. Well, I finally gave up. Now that we can't post in the FF news section anymore, I feel more comfortable and justified posting in the various forum sections.

Viva Jay's Daily News!
The early scoop, the straight poop, stayin' in the loop!

Love the slogan

Keep it up Opie.

Interest Only Mortgage Time Bomb: $71 billion in Loans will Reset in next 12 Months.

Total Loans Outstanding at $908 Billion. Average Balance of $324,000. Median U.S. Home Price $178,000.

Posted by mybudget360
Sep 13, 2009

Interest only (IO) loans seemed like a viable mortgage option when home prices were appreciating on a double-digit basis every year. The interest only loan allowed borrowers the option of making no principal payments for 5, 7, or even 10 years. Now why would someone not make any principal payment for such a long time? The way these mortgages were pitched, people would buy a home for 3, 5, or 7 years and would sell their home before the reset period. Yet the housing bubble has burst and home prices are now below the average balance of these mortgage in many areas. Recent data has the median U.S. home price at $178,000 while the average loan amount of an interest only loan is $324,000. How many of these loans are out there? Try 2.8 million. Many in overpriced states that have taken the brunt of the housing downturn.


As I discussed before, option ARM loans are a smaller amount of loans with a total amount of $189 billion outstanding. The option ARM will have more problems simply because borrowers went with even less than interest only, they went with the negative amortization option. That is, their principal balance is now higher than when they initially purchased the home. With interest only and option ARM loans you pay on the front-end for this riskier product. Borrowers simply looked at the initial payment and ignored points, recast dates, reset periods, and the inevitable payment jump after a few years. These loans are products of an ideal market with no home price declines. That is the only thing that could destroy these loans but not only did we get lower prices, we got a crashing housing market.


In many scenarios, a 30-year fixed rate mortgage will have a lower wholesale rate to an IO loan of about .375%. This assumes a 20 percent down payment that very few did in the last decade. Many borrowers that elected to go with interest only payments have been virtually renting their home for 3, 5, or 7 years. Over the long run, assuming all else is equal, interest only loans will cost the borrower more money and more interest:

WE DID IT! HR 1207 now has the 290 for the 2/3 majority! - END THE FED + 290 on the same day!!!

Posted September 16th, 2009
289 + 1 = 290.
i just confirmed it with ron's dc office.
ok guys! how cool is this??? - 290 and END THE FED happening on the same day!!!

If I have this right, this looks to be a'rd an hour old, say noonish central time on Thursday.

AP NewsBreak: Nuke agency says Iran can make bomb
VIENNA – Experts at the world's top atomic watchdog are in agreement that Tehran has the ability to make a nuclear bomb and is on the way to developing a missile system able to carry an atomic warhead, according to a secret report seen by The Associated Press.

The document drafted by senior officials at the International Atomic Energy Agency is the clearest indication yet that the agency's leaders share Washington's views on Iran's weapon-making capabilities.

It appears to be the so-called "secret annex" on Iran's nuclear program that Washington says is being withheld by the IAEA's chief. The document says Iran has "sufficient information" to build a bomb. It says Iran is likely to "overcome problems" on developing a delivery system.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090917/...u_iran_nuclear

This is another threshold I've been watching as posted elsewhere... I'm hooking up with close friends from Israel later tonite and this weekend and will hopefully get a better sense of how the folks there are (actually) viewing this.

The thing is, if it's in the News now, how long has it been known behind the Closed Doors that matter?

Another update from debkafile a bit earlier that has bearing on this...

Sarkozy accuses Iran of hiding nuclear weapons program which threatens Israel

"The first Western leader to expressly admit knowledge of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, French president Nicolas Sarkozy said: "It is a certainty to all of our secret services. Iran is working today on a nuclear (weapons) program." He added: "We cannot let Iran acquire nuclear" weapons because it would also be a threat to Israel." Sarkozy spoke during a meeting at the Elysee presidential palace with lawmakers from his UMP party Tuesday, Sept. 15.

The French president said he would not shake the hand (of Iran's president at the UN General Assembly) of "someone who wants to wipe Israel off the map."

DEBKAfile's militlary sources add:
French intelligence has thus gone further than US intelligence agencies which maintained in an assessment to leaked to the media on Sept. 10: "Iran has created enough nuclear fuel to make a rapid, if risky, spring for a nuclear weapon," and "Iran has deliberately stopped short of the critical last steps to make a bomb."

France is one of the five permanent UN Security Council members with veto powers. Together with Germany they have agreed to meet Iranian representatives on Oct. 1 for talks, although Tehran insists they will not cover its "inalienable nuclear rights"
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=6270

Now we watch....

The above link is blocked and my suspicion is (and I could be wrong) because an overzealous RP staffer counted Dr. Paul as the 290th co-sponsor when he is, in fact, the original sponsor. It appears the official number still stands at 289. My most humble apologies to all and a big tip o' the hat to ak4x for the heads-up.

FDIC Considers Borrowing From Treasury to Shore Up Deposit Insurance


By JESSICA HOLZER

WASHINGTON -- Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair said Friday her agency may tap its $500 billion credit line with the U.S. Treasury to replenish its deposit insurance fund, though she appeared cautious about doing so.

"We are carefully considering all options" including borrowing from the Treasury, Ms. Bair said Friday after a speech in Washington.

Ms. Bair has already warned banks that they may face an assessment increase to bolster the fund. Friday, she said there are also other little-known options available to the agency, including requiring banks to prepay assessments. The FDIC board of directors will meet at the end of this month to consider how to replenish the fund, she said.

Very interesting analysis from a "Reuters columnist". But this is from Reuters' Blog so, as one might expect, some of the reader comments are more insightful than the original commentary!

Don’t cry for the dollar, yet

By: Agnes Crane
September 18th, 2009

– Agnes T. Crane is a Reuters columnist. The views expressed are her own –

It looks bad for the dollar, but looks can be deceiving.

Its sharp decline in the last week has pushed the euro to its highest level in a year and reignited fears that there’s only one place for the dollar to go, and that’s down.

Rhetoric from influential investors like Warren Buffett as well as big foreign buyers of U.S. debt like China and Russia has fed that sense of doom.
Then there’s the yen-like role of the dollar as the funding currency, which is casting a pall over the buck since the longer the Fed keeps a lid on interest rates, the longer the pressure stays on the currency.

Yet the dollar is still the No. 1 currency stashed in reserves around the world, by a long shot. International Monetary Fund data showed the dollar accounting for 65 percent of total allocated reserves in the first quarter.
That means there’s only so far you can push the currency before the self-interest of the world’s savers kicks in to support the buck.

First a little perspective. The dollar’s decline this year mirrors the rise in risky assets like U.S. junk-rated corporate debt that have returned to valuations seen before Lehman Brother’s implosion. Just as credit markets shut down and money poured into safe-haven U.S. Treasuries, the dollar soared as currency investors viewed it as a place to hunker down until the storm passes.

"Option" mortgages to explode, officials warn

Thu Sep 17, 2009 7:49pm EDT


By Lisa Lambert


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The federal government and states are girding themselves for the next foreclosure crisis in the country's housing downturn: payment option adjustable rate mortgages that are beginning to reset.

"Payment option ARMs are about to explode," Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said after a Thursday meeting with members of President Barack Obama's administration to discuss ways to combat mortgage scams.

"That's the next round of potential foreclosures in our country," he said.

Option-ARMs are now considered among the riskiest offered during the recent housing boom and have left many borrowers owing more than their homes are worth. These "underwater" mortgages have been a driving force behind rising defaults and mounting foreclosures.

In Arizona, 128,000 of those mortgages will reset over the the next year and many have started to adjust this month, the state's attorney general, Terry Goddard, told Reuters after the meeting.

"It's the other shoe," he said. "I can't say it's waiting to drop. It's dropping now."

The International Monetary Fund forecasts developing nations will expand 4.7 percent next year, almost eight times faster than the 0.6 percent growth in advanced economies. Consumer prices will rise 4.6 percent, dwarfing developed countries’ 0.9 percent inflation rate, the IMF predicts.
WHY have Obama and Bernanke failed to come to the greenback’s defense? Why is Washington continuing to spend, borrow and print knowing that by doing so they are, in effect, declaring war on the U.S. dollar?

Simple: THEY HAVE NO CHOICE!

Consider these facts:

The U.S. government’s official debt is at an all-time high of $11.8 trillion. Every year, Washington has to make a staggering $335.3 billion in interest payments just to avoid default on that debt. In fact, just the interest on the national debt now equals 12% of all federal spending.

The Federal Reserve is also in hock up to its eyeballs — the liabilities on its balance sheet have DOUBLED — from $1.2 trillion a year ago to more than $2 trillion today.

Most terrifying of all — especially with the first wave of almost 4 million baby boomers reaching retirement age this year — unfunded government IOUs are coming due on Social Security, Medicare, and Federal pension payments. Those obligations are enormous: An estimated $104 TRILLION.

We are now the single most indebted nation in the history of the planet. We owe more to foreign investors, retirees and ordinary citizens than we could ever hope to repay.

And that’s not the half of it: Washington will add an all-time record $1.8 trillion to the national debt, pushing our budget deficits to almost 13% of GDP.

This year and every year for the foreseeable future, Washington will have to borrow 80% of the world’s surplus savings just to pay its bills!

Sep 21, 2009 1:34 | Updated Sep 21, 2009 19:29 By YAAKOV KATZ
US ships arrive in Israel ahead of joint drill


Officials say US may leave some systems in Israel after planned drill

US Navy missile ships started arriving in Israel on Sunday ahead of next month's joint missile defense exercise between the IDF and the American military's European Command.

Called Juniper Cobra, the exercise will include the Arrow missile defense system as well as three American systems - the THAAD, Aegis and PAC3 - that will all be deployed in Israel for the duration of the exercise.

Defense officials said the exercise would not begin for a few weeks, but that the ships were already arriving to begin preparing the infrastructure for the joint drill, the largest since Israel and the US began holding the biennial Juniper Cobra drill in 2001.

The arrival of the ships began a day before Defense Minister Ehud Barak was scheduled to fly to Washington for talks with his American counterpart, Robert Gates. Defense officials said that their talks would focus on the Iranian threat, Israeli-US defense cooperation as well as the role Israel will play in the new American missile defense shield announced last week.

Expectations in Israel are that the US will deploy several Aegis ballistic missile ships - that are capable of intercepting ballistic missiles - in the Mediterranean and Red seas. Israel is already home to the advanced X-Band radar that the Bush administration gave as a farewell gift last October.

Report: IDF, U.S. military to simulate Iran missile strike on Israel
By Haaretz Service
Last update - 14:21 20/09/2009

The Israel Defense Forces and the U.S. military will soon hold a training exercise in which they will simulate missile attacks on Israel from Iran, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported Sunday.

The exercise will be carried out as part of the ongoing maneuvers between Israel and the United States, the London-based paper said, which will reportedly be the broadest-ever this year.

According to the paper, the drill is also part of U.S. President Barack Obama's new missile defense plan, under which the Pentagon will initially deploy ships with missile interceptors instead of stationing missile defense systems in Eastern Europe.
The objective of the missile plan is to counter the threat of missile attack from Iran, not Russia.

Unfreakinbelievable...

Senior (and maybe ?) ex-cabinet officials should just keep a sock in it...

From page 2 of the interview with former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski...

"How aggressive can Obama be in insisting to the Israelis that a military strike might be in America’s worst interest?
We are not exactly impotent little babies. They have to fly over our airspace in Iraq. Are we just going to sit there and watch?

What if they fly over anyway?
Well, we have to be serious about denying them that right. That means a denial where you aren’t just saying it. If they fly over, you go up and confront them. They have the choice of turning back or not. No one wishes for this but it could be a Liberty in reverse. [Israeli jet fighters and torpedo boats attacked the USS Liberty in international waters, off the Sinai Peninsula, during the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel later claimed the ship was the object of friendly fire.]"
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-a...ile-message/2/

http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblog...obama_to_s.asp

Oh lovely! Just lovely!

Don't take this the wrong way Ak, I hate the news but appreciate that you shared.

Russia completes automated control system for Bushehr NPP

23/09/2009

MOSCOW, September 23 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is completing work on an automated control system for Iran's first nuclear power plant, the Russian civil nuclear power corporation Atomenergoprom said on Wednesday.

The automated control system, which will be commissioned on a turnkey basis, is designed to control the NPP's first reactor, Atomenergoprom said in a statement.

The construction of the Bushehr plant was started in 1975 by German companies. However, the firms stopped their work after a U.S. embargo was imposed on high technology supplies to Iran following the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the subsequent U.S. embassy siege in Tehran.

Russia signed a contract with Iran to complete the plant in February 1998, originally due for completion at the end of 2006. The date was postponed several times over financial problems and claims Russia was reluctant to finish the facility amid UN sanctions and suspicions of a covert nuclear weapons program.

In January Russia' completed deliveries of nuclear fuel to the Bushehr plant. As a rule, nuclear fuel is delivered to a nuclear power plant six months before it goes into operation.

According to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the end of August, the Islamic Republic increased the number of centrifuges at the Natanz plant to 8,300 from 7,000 reported in June.

Iranian authorities have said the country needs 50,000 centrifuges in order to supply low-enriched uranium for its future nuclear power plants.

Iran has been under international pressure to halt uranium enrichment, used in both electricity generation and weapons production. Tehran has repeatedly rejected the demand, insisting it is pursuing a purely civilian program. Several Western powers have called for harsher sanctions against Tehran if it does not agree to halt uranium enrichment.

Tehran dumps dollar for euro

by Martin Morris on Monday, 21 September 2009


Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered the replacement of the US dollar by the euro in calculating the value of the country's Oil Stabilisation Fund (OSF).

The edict, issued on Sept 12, follows a recommendation by the trustees of the country's foreign reserves, Iran's English-language daily The Tehran Times said on Monday, citing Iran's semi-official Mehr News Agency.

The move was taken because the government wishes to protect itself from the fragility of the US economy and the weak dollar.

The OSF, which forms part of Iran’s foreign exchange reserves, is a contingency fund set aside to cushion the economy against fluctuating international oil prices.

It is also used to help both the public and private sectors with their hard currency needs by extending loans.

Press TV meanwhile reported that following the switch the interest rate for facilities provided from the foreign exchange reserves is to be cut to 5 percent from 12 percent.

Since its introduction in 1999 by the EU the euro has gained popularity internationally and there are now more euros in circulation than the dollar.

Many forget that Saddam Hussein suddenly had nukes when he started trading his oil for Euros.

The United States protect their interests either with "diplomacy", blackmail or the barrel of a gun. Trading oil against Euros goes against the U.S. interests. "Diplomacy" (in quotes because it's a euphemism for threatening) and blackmail hasn't worked. Care to guess what's left?

I don't want to sound all doom and gloom here but Iran and China are already friendly. What if a war broke out and China joined in...on the Iranian's side? Talk about irony, a war against the Iranians and the Chinese which of course the Chinese would finance with dollars. YOUR dollars that you bought useless crap at Wal Mart with.

Japan Abandons America

The USS America is sinking—and Japan is getting off while it can.

September 22, 2009 | From theTrumpet.com

For over 50 years, one party ruled Japan virtually uninterrupted. During that time, Japan remained a loyal ally and supporter of U.S. policy. This month, a historic event took place.

Japan has new leadership. In a landslide victory, a new party has done the seemingly impossible. A new freshman class of leaders now governs the Land of the Rising Sun. The effects are already rippling across the Pacific toward America.

Yukio Hatoyama is Japan’s new leader. He officially took office last Wednesday, and he is already threatening to split with the United States.

Hatoyama blames America for the global economic crisis and says that the U.S. is responsible for “the destruction of human dignity.” He campaigned on protecting traditional Japanese economic activities and reducing U.S.-led globalization.

During the run-up to the election, Hatoyama’s finance minister told the bbc he was worried about the future value of the dollar, and that if his party were elected in the upcoming national elections, it would refuse to purchase any more U.S. treasuries unless they were denominated in Japanese yen.

Japan is the world’s second-largest economy. It is also America’s second-most-important creditor. The U.S. government owes Japan over $724 billion! The only nation America owes more money to is China ($800 billion). The U.S. also imports $140 billion worth of goods from Japan each year.

If Japan were to follow through with its threat to only lend in yen, the dollar would probably fall hard. What would that mean? America gets more expensive consumer goods, higher unemployment, and currency inflation. If other nations like China follow suit, we would be looking at a currency crisis—Zimbabwe-style.

The new government in Japan has also pledged to diversify its foreign currency reserves away from the dollar. This means that at some point, it will need to dramatically reduce how much money it lends to America. America is planning to borrow record amounts over the next couple of years, so something isn’t adding up here. Where will the money come from?