The Primary Trend - The Truth about Money

1.SHANGHAI—A United Nations agency said this year's wheat crop is at risk in at least five Chinese provinces, echoing continuous warnings from China that its major northern wheat growing areas are facing an epic drought. In a rare special early warning global alert, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said north China's "ongoing drought is potentially a serious problem." This will have a dire effect worldwide and has the potential to ignite a fire in the impoverished countries.

2. J.P. Morgan will now accept gold as collateral for loans. In doing so, Morgan is saying that gold is as safe as AAA-rated US Treasury bonds. In other words, JPM is classifying gold as a high-quality currency. Morgan said it is responding to clients, many of whom are storing gold in Morgan's vaults.

3. Some of you know this.  But not enough of you.  Madoff did to his investors what the government has been doing to the US citizen for over 70 years with Social Security.  There is no meaningful difference between the two schemes, except that one was operated by a private individual who is now in jail, and the other is operated by politicians who enjoy perks, privileges and status in spite of their actions. When benefits for older investors become due the politicians pay them with money taken from younger and newer wage earners to pay the older geezers....

4.China has shut down parts of the Internet, blocking off all references to Egypt What with the shortages of wheat, China's cash and the similarity of regimes, they must be patiently licking their lips while the military in Egypt move towards "democracy".

5.President Obama's budget, sent to Congress on Monday, carried a clear, if unspoken message: He's digging in -- not just for the immediate spending fight, but for the 2012 campaign. "But Obama's budget was mostly notable for what it didn't do: which was to follow the advice of his bipartisan fiscal commission. $1.6 trillion in tax hikes over 10 years are dead on arrival." - Investors Business Daily.

COMMENT: What is it with this guy? He feints to the middle and then flees back to the left. After his awful first term, I thought he'd had enough. But I was wrong; like all politicians Obama wants to remain in office. What is it about the ascent to power? These fools just can't put it down. Obviously, this unpopular and incompetent president wants a second term. And he's ready to sell his nation and its future down the river to get that elusive second shot at the "big power." Its time to get pragmatic Barak baby!

To be without the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness - Bertrand Russell   

 

The Middle East Fallout

1.The Fatah movement organized a rally in Ramallah to support the Palestinian anti-settlement push and slam the US. The demonstration features racist elements, as protestors carried signs referring to Obama by his skin color, reading "Washington – the black hands support occupation and colonial thinking."

COMMENT: Apparently they have one or two racists amongst the Palestinian arabs....You think?

2.Newsweek - Clueless president -- "The result has been a foreign policy debacle. The president has alienated everybody, not only Mubarak's cronies in the military, but also the youthful crowds in the streets of Cairo. Who ever ultimately wins, Obama loses. Alienation doesn't end there. America's two closest friends in the region, Israel and Saudi Arabia -- are both disgusted. The Saudis, who dread all manifestations of revolution, are appalled at Washington's failure to resolutely prop up Mubarak. The Israelis, meanwhile, are dismayed by the administration's apparent cluelessness."

3.An Israeli Muslim filed a NIS 1.2 billion class action suit against The Central Bottling Company Group Ltd. (the Israel franchisee for Coca Cola) in the Jerusalem District Court today for compensation for mental anguish and infringing the independent choices of the individual. The plaintiff, an Israeli Muslim, filed the suit following publication on the web last week of what is apparently the secret recipe of Coca Cola, and which allegedly contains alcohol. The class action suit was filed by Advs. Hani Tannus, Ofir Cohen, and Mahmud Machjana.

COMMENT: This must be a printing error. According to DBS Israel is an Apartheid State!
Maybe separate courthouses....

4.Palestinian and other Arab leaders were outraged on Friday when the US effectively vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that condemned the Jewish presence in the biblical lands of Judea and Samaria as illegal. Israeli Arab lawmaker Ibrahim Sarsour wrote a letter of condolence to Abbas in which he insisted, “We must say frankly to Obama: You no longer scare us and you can go to hell. We knew his promises were lies. The time has come to spit in the face of the Americans.”

COMMENT: The diplomatic language used must be a dialect of arabic. And now a day of rage. What, somebody stole their candy?...so they throw a childish tantrum. This is getting to be B - O - R - I - N - G......Oh!  And another Israeli Arab lawmaker....for crying out aloud... how many of them are there in this Apartheid State?

5.In the past two years, Turkish construction companies launched $7.6 billion worth of construction contracts in Libya, according to Turkey's Foreign Economic Relations Board, or DEIK. In Egypt, Turkish investment is longer term, with $3 billion of assets on the ground. Trade with Syria tripled to about $2.4 billion, between 2006 and 2010, as Turkish textile, pasta and other companies moved operations to Aleppo.

COMMENT: Great timing Erdogan. Good thing you have those bank accounts in Switzerland.
 

When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck before you crush him - Roosevelt

Obama and the Days of Rage

My first experience of a day of rage came in 1987 during the first Intifada. We were in Gaza in a suburb named Sheikh Rajuan. A lot of whistling and stone throwing. Young kids egged on by adults, generally from behind closed doors while the older generation looked on disapprovingly. The point is, nothing new under the sun. On Thursdays we had a day of rage, Friday after prayers it was a day of protest. Next day it was a day of revenge for a fallen martyr (and believe me there were plenty of those around - enough to fill every calendar day of the year) and so on. You get the idea.


These days it has developed into what the arabs would call "more sophisticated violence." The adults who once watched from behind closed doors are well aware that western media view this as news (or entertainment depending on your views). So, feeling protected by the cameras and a new word for them, "democracy", they put on a show for the world calling it a day of rage. Of course we are supposed to be shaking in our boots at the use of the word "rage".  What we have here is anger, hatred, violence and threats. Folks, this is not western democracy....This is Islam at its best. The manipulation of naive western media, some left wing ideology, western values of freedom and democracy, hunger, greed and lust for power, all mixed into the pot. All that is needed is to stir the pot and smile cynically as the infidels run around in dissaray not understanding what is happening. The problem with stupid people, is that they drag you down to their level and then beat you with it.


And what of Barak Obama and the part he is playing. At the beginning of his term, he made speeches to the muslim world, extending his hand in friendship (at the time somebody warned that it was like shaking hands with the devil). After all, it was his charisma and his oratory prowess accompanied by a big smile that won him the presidency. Why not conquer the world with that brilliant smile? To confirm his genius, he was awarded the Nobel peace prize. Thats when it all started to go wrong. The muslim world regarded his bowing and kowtowing as weakness. Just another infidel, easily manipulated.


Then came Tunisia, Egypt and the rest of the arab world. A shrinking US economy, a devastating loss at election time and a lack of backbone, accompanied by a show of disrespect for Mubarak served to convince the forces of Islam that the time was right to strike. One US ally after another is under attack. The Palestinian arabs sensed the weakness coming out of Washington and moved to replace the US partner with the UN. Out comes the veto and the Palestinian arabs call for a day of rage against the US. Abbas shows his true colours and jumps on the bandwagon. All in all, a sad state of affairs. Serious mismanagement with its roots in day one of this administration. In comparison even George Bush is starting to look good here.


"Day of rage" - something only Muslims could come up with. Problem is Islam gives them nothing but a whole life of rage and when they die they will find an eternity of rage. The rest of the world needs to be enraged with Islam and keep it out of the West so that we can live in peace and not deal with the constant and eternal outrage of Islam. Unfortunately that appears to be a pipe dream as 1.3 billion hungry muslims in a world of shrinking US influence, and an inability to compete economically, begin the process of self -destruction. The only question in my mind, is who they will take down with them.


In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on - Robert Frost

Was that a Revolution?

The icons of western media really went overboard romanticising the uprising in Egypt. Tom Friedman of the NY Times had a "kumbaya moment", CNN commentators almost broke out into song "We shall overcome" while all the foreign policy experts in Hollywood lit candles and contemplated who would get to play the part of  Google's hero of the revolution. With tears in their eyes they lauded people power and how the wonderful people of Egypt wanted to be just like us. How arrogant and condescending. Sorry to put a damper on all the nauseating emotion, but to the people of Egypt, life is not a Hollywood movie. So lets take a look at life in Egypt.


The Egyptian military have total control over Egypt. Who are they? Well for starters, while the Egyptian Government were revamped, The military portfolio remained the same. Field Marshall Mohamed Tantawi remains both Defense Minister and Minister of Military Production, which makes him, in effect, CEO of a vast military-run commercial enterprise that seeps into every corner of Egyptian society. But despite the military's predominant role, the Egyptian public knows remarkably little about how the military actually operates. That's because writing about the military has long been off-limits to the press. The secrecy begins with the military budget, which Jane's estimates to be about $5 billion. As for the parliamentary committee responsible for overseeing those expenses, it is stuffed with police and military officers; the prospects for meaningful civilian oversight anytime soon are dim.

Then there is the military's role in the economy. After the peace agreement with Israel in the late seventies, the military downsized 50% from about a million servicemen. These downsized soldiers were put to work in military sponsored factories. Now, military-run firms hold strong positions in a wide range of key industries, including food (olive oil, milk, bread and water); cement and gasoline; vehicle production (joint ventures with Jeep to produce Cherokees and Wranglers); and construction, in which it benefits being able to deploy conscripts during their last six months of service. We're talking of clothing, we're talking of construction of roads, highways, bridges. We're talking of pots and pans, we're talking of kitchen appliances.

The military also owns most of the valuable land in the country, including extremely beautiful beaches, and some of the greatest coral reefs in the world which were absolutely crying out for touristic development. The military gave private developers access to the land, and the developers made military officers shareholders in big tourist developments. No one knows for sure how many resort hotels or other businesses in Egypt are run by the military, which controls somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of the nation's economy, according to various estimates. Bottom line, officers in the Egyptian military are making "billions and billions" of dollars.

And now the kicker. Gamal Mubarak, the man designated to take over the regime, was NOT a military man. In fact, in his own corrupt way, intended to institute change in Egypt. The military made it clear to Mubarak, that they disagreed with his appointed successor. At its peak, the demonstrations numbered approximately 300, 000. The army did not interfere in these demonstrations. In fact, they probably sided with the demonstrators. Tantawi safely visited the square during the largest demonstration. Today the square is clear, Mubarak and sons are gone, and the military council controls the country, promising democratic elections sometime in the future. The same military council that has been in control for 60 years. In Brazil and The Phillipines, just to name a few, it took 20 years to move from military control to democracy. How long do you think it will take in Egypt?

To sum it all up, the revolution, (if, in fact there was one), was not about democracy and people power, but more about the cat guarding her milk. And if ever there will be a revolution, it will be based on hunger and a 3000 year old culture, and not a 300 year old western media-led uprising. Fact: The riots in Tunisia continue.

Nobody gets justice. People only get good luck or bad luck - Orson Welles

Believe it or not

1.Denmark, of all countries, is enacting "out of the box" laws.  In order to counter forced marriages, the country does not allow Danish citizens to marry foreigners younger than 24 years old. It also offers non-Western immigrants up to 15 thousand euros or 20 thousand dollars to emigrate back to their countries of origin. Immigrants who are not Danish citizens are banished from Denmark if they commit violent crimes.

2."At this dangerous rate, US debt will be $18.6 trillion at the end of the president's term, an unimaginable explosion of 75% above and beyond the debts accumulated by all of his 43 predecessors combined. America's fiscal future is frightening." From Rep. Kevin Brady, in USA Today


3."In 2009, 41% of children born in the USA were born to unmarried mothers (up from 5% a half-century ago). That includes 73% of non-Hispanic black children, 53% of Hispanic children and 29% of non-Hispanic white children. Those are not misprints." From an editorial in today's USA Today .

4.Every once in a while, I come across a statistic that makes me gasp in disbelief. How about this one? In the US armed forces, over the last year more service people have died via suicide than were killed in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.

5.Iranian intelligence operatives recently detained over a dozen squirrels found within the nation's borders, claiming the rodents were serving as spies for Western powers determined to undermine the Islamic Republic. "In recent weeks, intelligence operatives have arrested 14 squirrels within Iran's borders," state-sponsored news agency IRNA reported. Iranian police commander Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moqadam confirmed the report, saying that a number of squirrels had been caught bearing foreign spy gear within Iran's borders.

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, its just possible you haven't grasped the situation.
- Jean Kerr

US Real Estate

This was an analysis taken from Wealth Daily. This is followed by my analysis.

1.The National Association of Realtors' chief economist, Lawrence Yun, just forecast 716,000 housing starts this year on sustainable job growth, the increasing population, and continued low interest rates driving construction. 

That's great news if the existing supply burned down. Bulldoze the supply, rebuild the homes, and those numbers look great.

2.Fannie Mae believes "home prices probably will start to gain in 2011’s third quarter and rise 0.6 percent for the year, the first annual advance since 2006.”

They also expect housing starts to increase 17.3% this year, hitting 710,000.

I'll be sure to heed the well-researched "guess" of Fannie Mae, that respected bastion of real estate know-how.

3.These predictions are the stuff of delirious daydreams. Truth is, with a glut of properties still on the market and more Americans heading to the poor house on imbecilic inflationary actions of the Fed, adding more glut to the market and/or assuming that housing prices will appreciate is delusional, plain and simple.

4.the large backlog of foreclosures along with the backlog of non-distressed properties — held back for an improving market — will only glut the market much longer than any one realizes. Sure, you could argue that lower prices and low mortgage rates could spur home buyers. But that's not likely with much higher credit standards and much larger down payment requisites.

5.And David Rosenberg told the Financial Times: “If home prices don’t decline at least another 10 per cent, then the laws of supply and demand will end up being repealed as far as it pertains to residential real estate.” Housing will not recover until 2012 — at the earliest.

6.Do not buy into housing bullishness... not yet. The bulls are getting way ahead of themselves.

My Analysis: There is no such thing as perfect timing in any market. There are only buy and sell areas accompanied by risk. If there was a way of calculating timing by looking at the numbers, it would be the best kept secret on the planet. The buy opportunities to look for are usually "When blood is running in the streets" (Hypothetically, for all the politically correct). based on this, US real estate is in the "buy area zone".

One might ask oneself, where is the money going to come from? The Dow has rallied from 6500 to 12100 since the crash of 2008. The US dollar has been strongly devalued over the period sending up the price of commodities including food. At the same time world population continues to grow, exacerbating inflation. Central banks are in the printing mode. The rising markets are telling me that they sense inflation is on the way, so cash is now looking for ways to protect itself. Gold was the forerunner, followed by other commodities and then the equity markets. Whats left? With all these rising prices, and a rush to real assets (Art, diamonds etc.) Its just a matter of time until the markets discover US real estate. So at the risk of getting ahead of myself, my suggestion is to carefully diversify one's portfolio to include US real estate.

And the risk? There is always risk. Usually it is an unforseen risk. Something like a major confrontation between nations or a sudden collapse in the US bond market. Thats why diversification is so important.

Don't believe that the world owes you a living; the world owes you nothing - it was here first - Robert Jones Burdette

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The Muslim World

1.Manama Bahrain has arrested 127 people, mainly gays from the Gulf countries, for holding a "depraved and decadent" party. The revellers hired a sports hall in Hidd, a conservative village on Muharraq island in the north of Bahrain, and organised on Wednesday evening a fee-paying party that brought together gay men from the Arabian Gulf countries.

COMMENT: Reports out of Bahrein's censored media say leaders in Bahrein are upset that western news media ignored this tidbit.

2.News agencies cite Middle East experts as saying that the Mubarak family's personal wealth at $70 billion. Much of the wealth is deposited in UK or Swiss banks, or in real estate in London, New York, Los Angeles, and on the shores of the Red Sea. Last year, Egyptian daily "El Ahbar" reported that Mubarak owns properties in Manhattan and homes on Beverly Hills' Rodeo Drive. His two sons, Gamal and Alaa, are also both billionaires.

COMMENT: Egypts foreign currency reserves stand at $35 billion. Egypts foreign debt balance is $36 billion.
Quite the shocker, is it not? Pharaoh or not? According to wikileaks, Erdogan of Turkey has 8 accounts in Swiss banks.

3.Qatar invests in Israeli and international companies operate in the West Bank, Palestinian Authority Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat says. He added that he possesses documents that prove his claim and will publicize them at the appropriate time. Qatar recently exposed documents pertaining to Israeli-Palestinian negotiations through its al-Jazeera network.

COMMENT: A falling out amongst the thieves?

4.Tunisia's Defense Ministry called up recently retired troops Monday as the country struggled to contain unrest that has persisted even after the ouster of the North African country's dictatorial regime.

COMMENT: So the riots continue in Tunisia. Why you ask? Its simple. The problem is not democracy or freedom, Its culture and food inflation.

5.A new Christian nation Is born in Africa: South Sudan votes 98.83% to secede from the arab muslim north.Three quarters of Sudan's considerable oil reserves are likely to end up in the new southern Sudan.Sudan is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Oil is currently the main export and production is increasing. Agriculture production is the most important sector for the economy, employing 80% of the workforce.

COMMENT: This is going to be interesting. North Sudan is mostly desert while the South is green and fertile.

Thought for the day - Life is like a jar of Jalapeno peppers; what you do today, might burn your ass tomorrow.

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Israel - Follow The Money

 

1.Disney invests in Haifa entertainment complex

 The city of Haifa is already on the tourist map of Israel, but now it's likely to get an even bigger chunk of the market with its new Disney-style theme park. The Walt Disney Company investment arm Shamrock Holdings and the Israeli New Lineo cinema chain have announced plans to build a $168 million amusement park and a multiplex movie center in the port city. "If things go as planned, Haifa's landmark sites such as the Bahai Temple or the Carmelite cable car could soon be replaced by Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and friends.

COMMENT: A Saudi Arabian cleric has declared Disney's Mickey Mouse to be an “agent of Satan.” As such, he has put a fatwa (Death sentence) on him. I always maintained that Mickey Mouse was a zionist agent.

2.Israel to train Indians in modern harvesting methods

New joint Indo-Israeli project aims to help rural farmers transition into modern agriculture, boost trade between countries. India to finance program, while Israel to supply technology, equipment

INDIA – A new Indo-Israeli center of agricultural excellence was inaugurated Monday in Haryana state, north of the Indian capital of Delhi. Some 3,000 farmers from Haryana attended the ceremony, along with Indian Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Haryana Governor Bhupinder Singh and Israel's Ambassador to India Mark Sofer.

3.Israel helps African farmers fight desert 

Shalom Simhon, Israel's minister of agriculture and rural development, said sharing know-how, especially in irrigation and water management, was his focus on a recent tour of Senegal, Ivory Coast and Gabon.
His trip comes as some 10 million people in West and Central Africa face food shortages due to failed rains.
"Israel is the only country in the world that has been able to conquer the desert. More than 50% of our exports are coming from semi-arid areas. This is our strength – this we would like to bring here."

COMMENT: To all those arab dictators.....if you snooze, you lose....

4.Israel's cleantech mega-plan

The country is investing billions to become a world leader in renewable energy technologies and oil alternatives.

Israel currently holds the chairmanship of Eureka, the European R&D program, of which more than 40 countries are members. This highlights the importance of the conference being organized by the European Friends of Israel in Jerusalem this week, in collaboration with "Globes." The conference is beng attended by about 500 of the European Parliament's 736 members. This is no small thing, given that they represent a market of 375 million consumers, who could help promote Israeli technology.  

5.Delta reopens Egyptian factory

Delta Galil Industries Ltd. (Pink Sheet: DELTY; TASE: DELT) today reopened its textiles factory in Egypt. The company closed the factory last Sunday, as the uprising in Egypt gained momentum. Delta's share price rose 3.8% by early afternoon on the TASE to NIS 31.50.

COMMENT: Looks like business as usual.

6.Beekeepers take sting out of Israel-Turkey relations

Next week Israel will host the second joint Israel-Turkey bee growers' convention. The first convention was held in Antalya, Turkey last year. Surprisingly the Turkish Foreign Ministry is sponsoring the convention and sending hundreds of Turkish beekeepers and experts to Israel.

NO COMMENT

Pessimism never won any battle - Dwight D Eisenhower

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Thank You Egypt

Without you, the truth may have stayed hidden. They all warned Israel. The geniuses at The New York Times. The brilliant diplomats. The think tanks. Even the Arab dictators warned Israel. For decades now, they have been warning us that if you want "peace in the Middle East," just fix the Palestinian problem. A recent variation on this theme has been: Just get the Jews in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to "freeze" their construction, and then, finally, Palestinian leaders might come to the table and peace might break out.

And what would happen if peace would break out between Jews and Palestinians? Would all those furious Arabs now demonstrating on the streets of Cairo and across the Middle East feel any better? Would they feel less oppressed? What BS.

Even if you absolutely believe in the imperative of creating a Palestinian state, you can't tell me that the single-minded and global obsession with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the expense of the enormous ills in the rest of the Middle East hasn't been idiotic, if not criminally negligent.

While tens of millions of Arabs have been suffering for decades from brutal oppression, while gays have been tortured and writers jailed and women humiliated and dissidents killed, the world - yes, the world - has obsessed with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

As if Palestinians - the same coddled victims on whom the world has spent billions and who have rejected one peace offer after another - were the only victims in the Middle East.

As if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has anything to do with the 1,000-year-old bloody conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, or the desire of brutal Arab dictators to stay in power, or the desire of Islamist radicals to bring back the Caliphate, or the economic despair of millions, or simply the absence of free speech or basic human rights throughout the Arab world.

While self-righteous Israel bashers have scrutinized every flaw in Israel's democracy - some waxing hysterical that the Jewish democratic experiment in the world's nastiest neighborhood has turned into an embarrassment - they kept their big mouths shut about the oppression of millions of Arabs throughout the Middle East.

They cried foul if Israeli Arabs - who have infinitely more rights and freedoms than any Arabs in the Middle East - had their rights compromised in any way. But if a poet was jailed in Jordan or a gay man was tortured in Egypt or a woman was stoned in Syria, all we heard was screaming silence.

Do you ever recall seeing a U.N. resolution or an international conference in support of Middle Eastern Arabs not named Palestinians?

Imagine if those Israel bashers, during all the years they put Israel under their critical and hypocritical microscope, had taken Israel's imperfect democratic experiment and said to the Arab world: Why don't you try to emulate the Jews?

Why don't you give your people the same freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom to vote that Israel gives its people? And offer them the economic opportunities they would get in Israel? Why don't you treat your Jewish citizens the same way Israel treats its Arab citizens?

You can preach to me all you want about the great Jewish tradition of self-criticism - which I believe in - but right now, when I see poor Arab souls being killed for protesting on the street, and the looming threat that one Egyptian Pharaoh may be replaced by an even more oppressive one, I've never felt more proud of being a supporter of the Jewish state. Thank You Israel....7 million people against billions. A shining light!

Thanks to David Suissa for his excellent input. 

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Egypt....Where to Now?

1.Three decades ago, President Jimmy Carter urged another staunch American ally – the shah of Iran – to loosen his grip on power, only to see his autocratic regime replaced by the Islamic Republic. More recently, U.S.-supported elections have strengthened such groups as Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Palestinian territories and anti-American radicals in Iran.

2.Jimmy Carter will go down in American history as 'the president who lost Iran,'" the analyst Aluf Benn wrote in the daily Haaretz this week. "Barack Obama will be remembered as the president who 'lost' Turkey, Lebanon and Egypt, and during whose tenure America's alliances in the Middle East crumbled,"
COMMENT: Recognise any similarities between the two presidents?

3.The Iranian Foreign Ministry condemned the "American and Israeli intervention in Egypt" and warned that "any measure against the popular movement in Egypt would lead to waves of rage throughout the world." 

COMMENT: Obama and Iran both support the opposition in Egypt. Strange bedfellows....Who do you think understands the Islamic world more?

4.Mubarak described Obama as a very good man, but when asked by ABC if he felt that the United States had betrayed him, he said he told the US president: "You don't understand the Egyptian culture and what would happen if I step down now."

Analysis: With the last statement we reach the crux of the matter. Obama understands the problem, but is held prisoner by his own political dogma, so instead of calling a spade a spade he tries to walk a thin line. Mubarak is a proud Egyptian who knows his people and understands that democracy (I use that word delicately), if at all possible, needs to come slowly. The Muslim Brotherhood have been suppressed for decades and this is their opportunity to take power (anybody who claims that this movement cares about democracy and the people is a complete idiot). They also know that if the military regime maintains power, they are walking dead men. Therefore they will stay in the square and fight to the end. Mubarak knows that the Genie has escaped the bottle, so he will attempt to force it back. His lifes work and legacy depend on it. So he is not going anywhere soon, not while he still controls the army and the police. You can count on it.

P.S. The two main candidates to take over from Mubarak, assuming he maintains control, are his VP Omar Suleiman, and the head of the military and former defense minister, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.

"Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered automatic weapons." - General MacArthur 

The Primary trend - The Truth About Money

1.There's no problem with lying to Americans. Americans have no idea what the dollar is doing. Furthermore, Americans are told by their government that there is no inflation. The government's proof is the CPI (Consumer Price Index), which is manipulated to show that inflation in the US is zero (food and energy are left out of the CPI).

2.In other countries where their currency was severely devalued, their stock markets surged dramatically, and I'm talking about South Korea, Argentina, Malaysia and Indonesia. So watch the US dollar.

3.Last Thursday two credit agencies (S&P and Mood's) warned that they might have to do the unthinkable -- lower the AAA rating of the US. Japan's credit rating has just been lowered.

4.Somebody's got money. The art market is booming big time. Christie's auction house announced on Thursday that it sold a record $5.25 billion worth of art in 2010. A new record. 

5.The national Research Council reports that life expectancy in the US has improved, but the improvement lags the improvement in 21 other nations. The average man in the US, starting from birth, can expect to live to be 75.64 years of age, women to 80.78. Japan has the highest life expectancy -- men in Japan live to be 79, women to 86.

6. Egypt is the worlds largest importer of wheat. So floods in Australia, hoarding in Russia, the big freeze in the US and a hungry world is not going to help the situation.

Don't tell your problems to people; eighty percent don't care, and the other twenty percent are glad you have them - Lou Holtz

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Egyptian Democracy at Work

Its time to paint a picture.

1.The Muslim world is struggling to compete with other economic blocs. Hundreds of millions of financially poor people controlled by military regimes and dictators.

2.The uprisings are inspired by first of all, food inflation. Booming population growth, bad weather, and now hoarding by many countries has led to rising prices. Arab Goverments generally subsidise food and gas. Subsidy cuts led to rising prices and let  loose the dogs of anarchy.

3.Under the guise of freedom and democracy, and cheered on by western media, certain elements immediately jumped on the bandwagon of "democracy". For example, The Muslim Brotherhood now talks democracy...but they themselves do not elect leaders democratically. They are a religious tyranny. SHHHHH...You are interupting the party....

4.Forty percent of Egyptians earn 2 dollars a day. Offer them bread and freedom, and point them in the direction of the government. This is the result. By the way, the army is well fed so we can risk a guess who they will support.

5.The Iranian tyranny is licking its lips and cheering (careful what you wish for). The western media intellectuals are rubbing their hands and preparing patronising speeches while pushing their own personal agenda's.

6.Then...Oy vavoy!  Tens of thousands of pro-Mubarak demonstrators attack anti-Mubarak demonstrators and CNN reporters, and all hell breaks loose. The anti goverment dems (excuse the pun), forget their so-called lofty ideals, pocket their twitters and cellphones, and start digging up the pavement stones in the square to turn them into rocks. Hundreds injured....

7.That, ladies and gentlemen, is called Democracy - Egyptian (Arab) Style. And of course, don't  forget, Israel is to  blame!

A STRONG DEMOCRATIC ISRAEL IS NOT ONLY A US INTEREST.... ITS EVERYBODY'S

Considering how dangerous everything is, nothing is really frightening - Gertrude Stein

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