16 March 2008
News and Comments - 03/16/08
Posted by Joy Bischoff under: What's News .
13 Comments so far...
Chuck C Says:
16 March 2008 at 9:47 am.
This weekend I am at a seminar in Southern California with medical professionals from the US, Canada, Russia, Italy, Mexico, China, Germany and India. In speaking with a doctor from India she told me a little about her family and I asked her how many were in her family. Her answer was, “We are five.”
It may be a small point, but her answer to me seemed to say more than first registered. They have a close working relationship. There is mutual respect. They are all successful, having all moved to Southern California, but going back to India often. Her answer to me of “We are five” meant more than if she had said, “I have two brothers and two sisters.” There is synergy amongst them that comes from this unity.
Like that family, WE are many. There is a power amongst us that is more than the sum total of a group of individuals. Individually, our individual weaknesses keep us from being all that we can be, but as a group, we overcome ourselves and become strong. I appreciate being a part of something good.
We are family.
Mac Says:
16 March 2008 at 10:08 am.
Brilliant and inspiring. More than the sum total. I’ve always thought that kind of thing since I noticed when I was a kid that two candles seem to give more than twice the light of one candle and three makes more than three times and it grows. It’s like the light reaches out and touches the other light and they are so happy to find each other that they glow brighter.
Chuck C Says:
16 March 2008 at 10:50 am.
Interesting analogy Mac. I wrote a story years ago about a brother and sister who each had a candle, but the wind kept blowing them out. It was not until they jointed the flames of their candles together that they were strong enough to resist the wind. Only by joining their candles could they have the light to see in the darkness.
So, naturally, I appreciate your prose. “It’s like the light reaches out and touches the other light and they are so happy to find each other that they glow brighter.” … beautiful.
Cameron Says:
16 March 2008 at 11:00 am.
You know what they say when trade ceases . . . war is sure to follow.
Serb-Kosovo trade hits hurdles, smuggling thrives
By Ivana Sekularac and Shaban Buza
BELGRADE/PRISTINA (Reuters) - The red box of the buttery ‘Plazma’ cookie, one of ex-Yugoslavia’s best-loved snacks, offers a quick introduction to the dilemma of businesses trapped in the political tussle between Serbia and Kosovo.
Belgrade, which vows never to accept the secession of the Albanian-majority territory, wants product labels to refer to Kosovo as part of Serbia, drawing on its constitution and on laws that ban “false advertising.”
Kosovo, however, insists that all products on sale in the new state must include details for the ‘Republic of Kosovo’, the name it took at its February 17 independence proclamation.
In a strange compromise, the Plazma box lists the cookie’s Kosovo distributor under the country section for Albania. It is a sign of the uncertainty and confusion that has cut the robust trade between Serbia and Kosovo by half in a single month.
“According to our figures, trade between Kosovo and Serbia dropped by 50 percent since February 17,” said Milovan Spasic of the Kosovo Chamber of Commerce, a Belgrade-based Serbian government office that treats Kosovo like any other province.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080316/lf_nm/serbia_kosovo_trade_dc;_ylt=AnO8.CHOWps8xPKWiQ80f_RvaA8F
Cameron Says:
16 March 2008 at 11:02 am.
I’m getting both great comedy and inspiration from here this morning.
Angela Rogin Says:
16 March 2008 at 11:12 am.
okay now I have to go light some candles in the bathroom
Joy Bischoff Says:
16 March 2008 at 11:17 am.
Shoot, wish I could stay around long enough to see how Angela’s experiment turns out.
I loved what you guys wrote. It really is inspirational.
Angela Rogin Says:
16 March 2008 at 11:56 am.
Weird, I don’t know, maybe it is an illusion because it doesn’t make sense scientifically. It works.
E.E. Says:
16 March 2008 at 1:16 pm.
I tried it too. Yup.
E.E. Says:
16 March 2008 at 1:33 pm.
This is an article from the UK. I left most of it because it just shocked me. I’m having a hard time grasping that things are really as serious as it looks like they are going to get. I’m trying to have faith and not fear and just get ready but articles like this give me more motivation to hurry.
Wall Street fears for next Great Depression
Wall Street is bracing itself for another week of roller-coaster trading after more than $300bn (£150bn) was wiped off the US equity markets on Friday following the emergency funding package put together by the Federal Reserve and JPMorgan Chase to rescue Bear Stearns.
One UK economist warned that the world is now close to a 1930s-like Great Depression, while New York traders said they had never experienced such fear. The Fed’s emergency funding procedure was first used in the Depression and has rarely been used since.
A Goldman Sachs trader in New York said: “Everyone is in a total state of shock, aghast at what is happening. No one wants to talk, let alone deal; we’re just standing by waiting. Everyone is nervous about what is going to emerge when trading starts tomorrow.”
In the UK, Michael Taylor, a senior market strategist at Lombard, the economics consultancy, said on Friday night: “We have all been talking about a 1970s-style crisis but as each day goes by this looks more like the 1930s. No one has any clue as to where this is going to end; it’s a self-feeding disaster.” Mr Taylor, who had been relatively optimistic, has turned bearish: “It really does look as though the UK is now heading for a recession. The credit-crunch means that even if the Bank of England cuts rates again, the banks are in such a bad way they are unlikely to pass cuts on.”
Mr Taylor added that he expects a sharp downturn in the real UK economy as the public and companies stop borrowing. “We have never seen anything like this before. This is new territory for us. Liquidity is being pumped into the system but the banks are not taking any notice. This is all about confidence. The more the central banks do, the more the banks seem to ignore what’s going on.”
Mr Taylor added that the problems unravelling at Bear Stearns are just the beginning: “There will be more banks and hedge funds heading for collapse.”
One of the problems facing the markets is that, despite the Fed’s move last week to feed them another $200bn, the banks are still not lending to each other.
“This crisis is one of faith. We are going to see even more problems in the hedge funds as they face margin calls,” said Mark O’Sullivan, director of dealing at Currencies Direct in London. “What we are waiting for now is for the Fed to cut interest rates again this week. But that’s already been discounted by the market and is unlikely to help restore confidence.”
Mr O’Sullivan added that the dollar’s free-fall is set to continue and may need cuts in European interest rates to trim the euro’s recent strength against the dollar. “But the ECB doesn’t like cutting rates,” he said.
Cameron Says:
16 March 2008 at 1:48 pm.
I agree with this article that it may be largely out of McCain’s hands. I do not agree that their differences weren’t serious. Just the border issue alone is huge and there are lots of others.
McCain/Romney ticket now a possibility
Mitt Romney is now being floated around as a possible Vice Presidential running mate for John McCain, this rumor seems to reveal that the Republican Party is looking to make McCain’s problems with the FEC go away and also that the GOP is desperate to assure satisfaction for the conservative base.
It is often said that a Vice Presidential selection should be able to deliver one state that would otherwise be a difficult victory, in the case of Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, this would definitely be the case. With a super ticket taking shape on the Democratic side, the GOP is likely to counter with a well known one two punch of their own. This will also give the impression that the GOP is united in a way that the Democrats are not, at least not yet.
One only needs to travel back several weeks in recent history to find public bickering between McCain and Romney. But as Ron Paul pointed out in the last debate, their squabbles essentially boiled down to arguments over “who said what when.”
All of the pundits that are playfully weighing the possibility of an “M & M” ticket, or wondering whether or not McCain will be able to stomach having a man on his ticket that he compared to a pig just weeks ago just don’t get it. This is about keeping the White House for the GOP, at any cost. And to a large extent I believe that this choice is out of McCain’s hands, he will be pressured into putting Romney on the ticket if the general consensus is that it will get him 50+1 in November.
Sharon Anderson Says:
16 March 2008 at 10:28 pm.
I just watched the video on the history of political correctness. If you didn’t have time to watch it the day it was posted, scroll down to the bottom of the home page and then go to the next page (p. 2) to view it. This is a “must see!”
Jesse Says:
16 March 2008 at 10:57 pm.
Sharon is right. That video is important and goes along with so much that is said here.
This is amazing. JP Morgan bought out Bear Stearns and the fed wanted to deal announced today to calm fears on Monday’s stock market opening. Instead it seems to have made things worse in Asia:
Asian stocks tumble on Bear Stearns news
SEOUL, South Korea - Asian stocks plunged Monday after JPMorgan Chase said it would acquire troubled U.S. investment bank Bear Stearns, signaling to investors the depths of the credit crisis.
JPMorgan said Sunday that it would acquire its rival in a deal valued at $236.2 million — or $2 a share — and that the Federal Reserve would provide special financing for the deal.
The buyout was aimed at averting a bankruptcy and a spreading crisis of confidence in the global financial system.
But to Asian investors the move showed that the credit crisis, triggered by defaults on risky U.S. mortgages amid a slowdown in the housing market, was far from over — and fanned worries that troubles at big American banks were unlikely to be contained just to Bear Stearns.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080317/ap_on_bi_ge/world_markets
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