Category: Aggregated

Governor Raghuram Rajan of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India’s central bank, a trained electrical engineer, in a commentary with the Project Syndicate Monday, has strongly criticized the central banks of developed countries, pointing out that

In his commentary, Rajan said what he has in mind

Rajan, who in 2005 had warned about the growing risks in the financial system pursued by then-Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, at the time had proposed policies that would reduce such risks, at the Federal Reserve annual Jackson Hole conference. As a result, he was ridiculed by Larry Summers, who said the warnings were “misguided” and called Rajan a “Luddite.” At the time, Rajan was teaching at the University of Chicago. 

Douglas R. Oberhelman, Chairman and CEO of Caterpillar Inc., extolled the benefits of President Xi’s New Silk Road, for his company, in an interview on CCTV America Monday. “The Belt and Road [is] made for Caterpillar,” he said. Pointing out that Caterpillar had participated in building the Three Gorges Dam, Oberhelman said that not only are Caterpillar heavy machines needed in construction all along the Belt and Road, but also other CAT products and services.

Caterpillar, headquartered in Peoria, Illinois, is the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, as well as other lines, including farm machinery and diesel and gas engines, and diesel-electric locomotives. In recent years, sales have plunged—especially in the oil, gas, and resources sector, led by the collapse of the Transatlantic economy. Since December 2012, the company has had 39 consecutive months of decline in overall retail equipment sales. Last Fall, Caterpillar announced a two-year downsizing plan involving 20 plant closures and 10,000 lay-offs. So far, five plants are shut, and over 5,000 jobs eliminated.

However, spokesmen for the company are now stressing that there are vast new work and sales potentials for CAT in Eurasia. “Caterpillar Sees Opportunities for Growth in China’s Five-Year Plan,” was the headline on a March 14 Construction Equipment journal report on the view of Chen Qihua, chairman of Caterpillar China, from a Xinhua interview. “Cat suffered double-digit losses in 2015 in part due to China’s economic slowdown. But Chen says achieving China’s goal of a better economy by 2020 will provide Caterpillar with more opportunities, especially in the Belt and Road Initiative, also known as the Silk Road Rebuild Project.”

Meantime, the money-freaks on Wall Street—the megabanks and rating agencies—are debating how far to lower the prospects for CAT’s 2016 share values. 

A new undercover documentary revealing the horrors of the Saudi Arabian kingdom is due to air Tuesday evening on British television, and next week March 29 on PBS’s Frontline. The fascist royals (and Obama) would rather that you not see it.

Five bodies hang from a pole suspended aloft by two large cranes; a woman screams “I did not do it!” just as her head is chopped off; police brandish whips against women; blood runs thick in a public space nicknamed “Chop Chop Square.” Such are the images in “Saudi Arabia Uncovered,” captured by some courageous film makers — Hardcash Productions and Independent “ITV” (Channel 3) in Britain, in conjunction with the American PBS Television — using hidden cameras, bringing the brutality of Saudi Arabia, the closest ally of both the British and American regimes, to the light of day.

Also shown is the extremism of the schools and mosques — spewing hatred equally against Christian, Jew, and Shi’a Muslim — enforced by the thought police, the Orwellian “Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.” An article in Britain’s Daily Mail notes, “Chillingly, only two other movements in the world — the Taliban in Afghanistan and Islamic State in Syria and Iraq — have organizations with the same name.”

The Daily Mail article goes on to critique this strange “special relationship,” in terms which could apply equally to the Obama White House: “Yet Saudi Arabia remains one of Britain’s closest allies, not just in the Middle East but worldwide, as it has for nearly a century. We sell them arms. They sell us oil. The royal families of each country are close…. Our leaders conveniently overlook the truth about the desert kingdom.”