World economy talk

[Monseratto]

Let's see if the generals will let elections be held...

[uls]

there goes the neighborhood

Israel was totally blindsided by the whole Egypt thing

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...0,403589.story

Critics say Israel's leaders have seemed unprepared to react to the likelihood of a leadership change in Egypt, whose landmark 1979 peace treaty with Israel has been a cornerstone of Israel's stability.

As Israel faces what many fear could turn into its most serious national security threat in decades, fault lines are widening over how it should respond and some critics say the government appears ill prepared.

With the resignation Friday of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who was widely seen as Israel's most predictable Arab ally, a quiet panic is spreading here as Israelis debate their next move.

[uls]

Mubarak's Swiss Assets Frozen
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...664628050.html

ZURICH—The Swiss government froze assets possibly belonging to departed Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak and his entourage Friday, marking the latest efforts by the Alpine nation to crack down on illicit holdings in its banks.

The Foreign Ministry said Friday the government had frozen "any potential assets" belonging to Mr. Mubarak and his "associates." The freeze goes into effect immediately and lasts for three years.

[uls]

warning to all Arab leaders -- you're next

in Algeria, large number of police have been mobilized

Algeria moves to stave off unrest
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/af...226600204.html

Thousands of police are reportedly being drafted into the Algerian capital ahead of planned pro-democracy marches, opposition groups have said.

Said Sadi, the head of the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), said authorities were moving to prevent Saturday's protests in Algiers from taking place.

"Trains have been stopped and other public transport will be as well," he told the AFP news agency.

According to Sadi, around 10,000 police officers were coming into reinforce the 20,000 that blocked the last protest staged on January 22, when five people were killed and more than 800 hurt in clashes.

Bahrain

Bouteflika's attempt to appease protesters is just one of many undertaken by Arab governments concerned about spreading unrest in the region.

In Bahrain, the king offered each family $2,650 on Friday.

The small oil producer is considered the most vulnerable of the Gulf Arab countries to unrest, although seen as unlikely to fall in the same way as Tunisia and Egypt.

The Bahraini government has made several concessions in recent weeks, such as higher social spending and offering to release some minors arrested during a security crackdown against Shia groups last August.

The official Bahrain news agency released a report saying: "To praise the tenth anniversary of the National Action Charter and in recognition of the people of Bahrain.... His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa ... will provide the amount of one thousand dinars for each family of Bahrain after adopting necessary legal procedures."

Activists have called for protests on February 14, the tenth anniversary of Bahrain's constitution, but it is not yet clear how widespread they will be.

[Monseratto]

Mubarak's Swiss Assets Frozen
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...664628050.html

If you are in power and a US Favorite, you're untouchable. Now that you've fallen out...

Paano na ung House of Saud?

[uls]

video of the moment news broke that Mubarak resigned

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSUzfEI2Nls"]YouTube - ‫ميدان التØ*رير Ù„Ø*ظة تنØ*ÙŠ مبارك Tahrir Square moment Mubarak step down‬‎[/ame]

[Monseratto]

Who says it's "People Power"?


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110212/..._coup_analysis

Analysis: Military coup was behind Mubarak's exit
By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Hamza Hendawi,
Associated Press – Fri Feb 11, 11:29 pm ET

CAIRO – It was the people who forced President Hosni Mubarak from power, but it is the generals who are in charge now. Egypt's 18-day uprising produced a military coup that crept into being over many days — its seeds planted early in the crisis by Mubarak himself.

The telltale signs of a coup in the making began to surface soon after Mubarak ordered the army out on the streets to restore order after days of deadly clashes between protesters and security forces in Cairo and much of the rest of the Arab nation.

"This is in fact the military taking over power," said political analyst Diaa Rashwan after Mubarak stepped down and left the reins of power to the armed forces. "It is direct involvement by the military in authority and to make Mubarak look like he has given up power."

Army troops backed by tanks and armored fighting vehicles were given a hero's welcome by the protesters angry over brutal treatment by the police. The goodwill was reciprocated when the military vowed not to use force against protesters, a move that set them apart from the much-hated police who operated with near impunity under Mubarak.

The generals adopted a go-slow approach, offering Egyptians carefully weighed hints that it was calling the shots. They issued statements describing the protesters' demands as "legitimate" and made halfhearted calls on the demonstrators to go home and allow normal life to resume.

Rather than quit the protests, the demonstrators turned out in ever greater numbers. Mubarak offered one concession after another, but they all fell short of the protesters' demands that he immediately leave.

The military was clearly torn between its loyalty to the regime and the millions of protesters. Mubarak is one of their own, a former air force commander and a hero of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

But as the president continued to defy the growing crowds and cling to power, the Egyptian army moved more definitively toward seizing control for the first time in some 60 years.

Thursday brought the surprise announcement that the armed forces' highest executive body, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, was in "permanent session" — meaning that it was on a war footing.

State TV showed Defense Minister Hussein Tantawi presiding over a table seating some two dozen stern faced generals in combat fatigues — but no sign of commander in chief Mubarak. His newly appointed vice president, former army general and intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, was not there either — indicating a rift between the civilian and military leadership.

A statement, tellingly referred to as "communique number 1" — phrasing that in the Arab world suggests a coup — made no mention of Mubarak or Suleiman.

The council, it said, met to "discuss what measures and arrangements could be taken to safeguard the homeland and its achievements and the aspirations of the great Egyptian people."

Translation: The generals are in charge, not Mubarak, not Suleiman nor the Cabinet.

The communique set the stage for what the crowds of demonstrators expected would be Mubarak's resignation Thursday night. Instead, Mubarak announced he would stay in office and hand over power to Suleiman, who told protesters to go home and stop watching foreign news reports.

The protesters were furious — and so were the generals.

"Both of last night's addresses by Mubarak and Suleiman were in defiance of the armed forces," Maj. Gen. Safwat el-Zayat, a former senior official of Egypt's General Intelligence, told al-Ahram Online, the Internet edition of Egypt's leading daily, on Friday.

Protest leaders pleaded for the military to take over after Mubarak's speech, saying the country would explode until the army intervened.

If Mubarak had stepped down, handing Suleiman his presidential powers in line with the constitution would have kept his regime largely intact after he had gone, something that would have left the protesters unhappy.

In contrast, a military coup would provide a clean break with a regime they hated for so long, opening up a wide range of possibilities — suspending the constitution that many protesters saw as tailored to keep Mubarak in office and dissolving a parliament formed by an election marred by widespread fraud. A coup seemed to be the best way forward.

The first official word the protesters received from the generals on Friday, however, was discouraging.

A second military communique contained what appeared to be a reluctant endorsement of Mubarak's blueprint for a way out of the crisis, though it also projected the military as the ultimate guarantor of the country's highest interests. El-Zayat said the language in the statement was an attempt to avoid an open conflict.

Later Friday, with millions out on the streets demanding that he step down, Mubarak finally did just that. He may have been denied the chance to announce his own departure — say goodbye to the people he had ruled for nearly 30 years. Suleiman announced the decision for him.

Alternatively, he may have not wanted to go on television to say he was stepping down after less than 24 hours after insisting to serve out the remaining seven months of his current term.

It was a humiliating end.

Keeping up appearances, The military later issued a third military statement praising Mubarak as a leader who has done much to his country. It hinted that the military would not be in power for long, saying the armed forces were not a substitute for a legitimate administration. But it gave no clue as to what and when its plans are.

"The truth is that even the senior military now at the top of the power structure under Mubarak almost certainly have no clear idea of what happens next," Anthony Cordesman of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in a commentary on Thursday. "It will be days before anyone know how well the transition will function, who goes and who stays, and how stable the result really is."

___

Hendawi is the AP chief of bureau in Cairo.

[eld]

Destroyed lives in the new American economy. http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/a...stroying-lives

[uls]

why did it take so long for Mubarak to step down?

he needed time to move his wealth to safer places

it's always about the money

Egypt: Hosni Mubarak used last 18 days in power to secure his fortune
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...s-fortune.html

Hosni Mubarak used the 18 days it took for protesters to topple him to shift his vast wealth into untraceable accounts overseas, Western intelligence sources have said.

In the knowledge his downfall was imminent, Mr Mubarak is understood to have attempted to place his assets out of reach of potential investigators.

On Friday night Swiss authorities announced they were freezing any assets Mubarak and his family may hold in the country's banks while pressure was growing for the UK to do the same. Mr Mubarak has strong connections to London and it is thought many millions of pounds are stashed in the UK.

But a senior Western intelligence source claimed that Mubarak had begun moving his fortune in recent weeks.

"We're aware of some urgent conversations within the Mubarak family about how to save these assets," said the source, "And we think their financial advisers have moved some of the money around. If he had real money in Zurich, it may be gone by now."

[safeorigin]

Destroyed lives in the new American economy. http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/a...stroying-lives

[ame]www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aEURwsrUSQ[/ame]

reminds me of bush

[uls]

EUR/USD


^^

something to do with WestLB

WestLB is a bailed out commercial bank based in Germany

weekend negotiations for fixing the bank failed

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...00599320110214

Feb 14 (Reuters) - A German steering committee on troubled lender WestLB [WDLG.UL] failed on Sunday to reach an agreement on a restructuring model for the bank, a source who participated in the meeting told Reuters.

talks will continue tomorrow

if there's still no solution, regulators will close down the bank

[uls]

protests in the Middle East and North Africa -- Bahrain, Iran, Yemen, Algeria, Sudan

[uls]

Brent crude front month contract rolls to April

hits $104

[uls]

China January CPI 4.9%, expected 5.3%

how did that happen when food prices are rising?

China reduced weighting of food in calculating CPI

[boybi]

Brent crude front month contract rolls to April

hits $104

Whats the difference between Brent and WTI crude? Bakit ang laki ng diff sa price?

[tidus1203]

Not 100% sure but isn't Brent what the Europeans use especially the British and WTI is used by Americans...

[uls]

WTI is the US benchmark

it's light sweet crude stored in Cushing Oklahoma

that's where the US govt monitors US crude oil inventory

so if inventory at Cushing is high, bababa ang WTI

and that's what i think is causing the large spread between WTI and Brent

there's a lot of supply at Cushing so it is distorting WTI

if you look at the other benchmarks -- Brent, DME Oman, OPEC basket, Tapis -- the prices are much closer to each other

so for now, i find WTI unreliable

[uls]

Protests in Libya, Iran, Yemen

in Bahrain, reports internet has been shut down

[tidus1203]

Hehehe when I was watching BBC and the news was about Bahrain natawa ako sa commercial break. FACT. The Gulf's best place for business is in BUSINESS FRIENDLY BAHRAIN!

[uls]

we are witnessing the Middle East changing