1.Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah demanded an end to the bloodshed in Syria on Monday and recalled his country's ambassador from Damascus, in a rare case of one of the Arab world's most powerful leaders intervening against another. It was the sharpest criticism the oil giant — an absolute monarchy that bans political opposition — has directed against any Arab state. PG:What a crowd of hypocrites. It is a badly kept secret that Saudi Arabia is behind the rioting in Syria as they try to break the Iranian strangle hold on the Iran-Syria-Hizbullah axis. Note that all the Saudi allies in the Persian Gulf have joined the Saudi's as the Sunni-Shiite split grows. Suits Israel
2.US-based financial rating giant Standard & Poor's announced on Monday that it was leaving Israel's credit rating at "A" along with a solid rating forecast. S&P did, however, downgrade Israel's US securities-backed credit rating to AA+, in accordance with its latest historic downgrade of the United States' credit rating.
3.Libya—As layers of intrigue and mystery have accumulated in the days since last week's murder of the Libyan rebels' top military commander, one point has come into clearer focus: The rebels' nascent government appears to be in disarray and factionalized, struggling to prove its democratic bona fides as it responds to its first major internal crisis. PG:This is the Libyan way. In a democracy, we vote and in Libya, the quickest way to the top is to simply shoot first.
4.Central banks have bought more gold in the first half of this year than in all of 2010 as a long-anticipated reversal in so-called "official sector" sales gathers pace, a gold group reported on Thursday. Mexico has led the charge this year in ramping up its gold reserves, buying over $4 billion of bullion in early May, while the International Monetary Fund has ended a one-year effort to sell down its stocks at the end of last year.
PG COMMENT: These geniuses sold most of their gold holdings at $400-$500 an ounce.
5.WSJ: General Electric Co. said it is moving its X-ray business headquarters to China to accelerate sales in the country's fast-growing health-care market, the latest sign of China's growing importance to the giant U.S. conglomerate. GE Healthcare, known largely for its diagnostic equipment such as CT scans and magnetic-resonance-imaging machines, has been increasingly focused on growth in emerging markets such as China, where governments are spending to beef up medical care.
PG COMMENT: Really? The real reason behind the move....A stable supply of rare earth elements, of which China controls 95% of world supply. These elements are essential to the manufacture of x-ray, scanning and imaging machines. Also the same reason General Motors moved its magnetics division to China.
6.SHANGHAI—China's yuan hit a fresh high against the dollar late Friday after the central bank guided its currency upward for the third straight day, marking the yuan's biggest weekly rise since it was essentially unpegged from the greenback last year. The yuan has risen 3.1% against the U.S. currency this year and 6.8% since June 2010, when China effectively ended its currency's peg to the dollar. PG: The move is part of a long term Chinese strategy to replace the USD as the world's reserve currency.
7.Republican Gov. Rick Perry of Texas intends to run for president, his spokesman confirmed Thursday afternoon, signaling a new addition to the contest for the GOP nomination that is sure to recast the race. PG: A definite candidate for president, and together with Jon Huntsman the only GOP candidates capable of running the country.
8.JOHNS CREEK, Georgia (Reuters) - Tiger Woods offered a tantalizing glimpse of his old self at the PGA Championship on Thursday before the erratic play that has dogged him through the past, winless, two years returned to wreck his opening round. PG: How the mighty hath fallen. Its quite the tragedy. We hope he discovers the strength to find himself. Golf without a firing Tiger is pretty colourless.
9.POQUOSON, Va. — A 9-year-old boy who left his wallet containing hundreds of dollars at a Virginia convenience store got it back after he posted a handwritten letter. The boy, identified only as Charlie, says he left the wallet on the counter while he was getting a drink. The boy's letter which contained his photo was posted on the store's front door. It said the wallet contained more than $300 the boy had saved, along with gift cards he got for his birthday. The letter ended with, "I hope whoever has it needed it more than me." Store manager Marvin Ward declined to give further details on the woman who returned the wallet.
10. Is Obama Smart? An article by Brett Stephens in the WSJ makes for interesting reading. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904140604576495932704234052.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read&mg=com-wsj
11.And to compound this opinion... Richard Cohen of the Washington Post: "He is the very personification of cognitive dissonance—the gap between what we (especially liberals) expected of the first serious African American presidential candidate and the man he in fact is." More amazingly yet Mr. Cohen goes on to say of Mr. Obama, who not long ago was almost universally hailed as the greatest orator since Pericles, that he lacks even "the rhetorical qualities of the old-time black politicians." And to compound the amazement, Mr. Cohen tells us that he cannot even "recall a soaring passage from a speech."
Loyalty to a petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul - Mark Twain
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