in Today's News 05.30.09

1.  Pakistan (yet again).  WSJ headline:  "Refugee Crisis Infames Ethnic Strife in Pakistan."  From the article: "The refugee influx to Karachi has inflamed murderous ethnic rivalries that have simmered in Pakistan's biggest city for years...This strife in Karachi adds a new dimension to the security crisis that threatens the survival of President Asif Ali Zardari's democratically elected administration, possibly Pakistan itself, as law and order collapses and militants spread south from their mountain bases."  (Emphasis added.)

One could be justified in asking if the United States knows what the hell it is doing. Here we have a country (Pakistan) that is critical to the security interests of the USA and Israel, because of Pakistan's nuclear weapons and because of the Taliban. Yet the USA has forcefully pushed the Pakistan government to take actions that have produced Pakistan's most fundamental crisis ever, including a refugee surge that is almost without precedent in the world.  And most amazing of all, having created the crisis, the USA seems to be taking a hands-off approach to the refugees and the crisis.

So, what gives?  Can the USA possibly believe that out of the chaos the USA can establish a government more in its interests?  If so, the USA policy makers are living in more of a dream world than was previously considered.

Or do the policy makers think they can defeat the Taliban before the government collapses?  If so, dream on.

In short, the USA now faces the potential loss of Pakistan which would be a foreign policy set back of gargantuan proportions.  If the USA is doing anything about it, they are keeping it a tight secret.

2. Bond Market.  WSJ:  "Yields for 10-year Treasury notes have risen 1.5 percentage points this year as bond traders pull back on a market awash in federal debt...'Clearly, the message form the bond market increasingly is structural deficits as far as the eye can see just aren't going to wash without bond yields going up to levels that might keep us in recession,' said Ed Yardeni of Yardeni Research Inc."

Ah yes, here we have the market forces creating a new situation.  I mean, really, give me a break.  As always the media fails to take into account that there are enormously wealthy families, starting with the Rothschilds, who have the power and wherewithal to control and manipulate markets.  When a change like the increase in yields occurs one can assume these families are involved.

So, how would they benefit from this change?  Well, with all this debt floating around, some of which is tricky, the people that hand out the loans want more return.  And more return means more income.  Wealth accumulation again.

It is interesting that these families created the crisis that generated the need for all the debt, and now they want increased yield on the debt they created. Chutzpah!!