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Posted by BradyNet ( Friday, June 11, '04 )

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GLOBAL MARKET HIGHLIGHTS

Suit Targets Shell Gas over Sulfur Contamination 06-11-04 (Yahoo) Sulfur has contaminated gasoline pumped at filling stations in many states, causing a range of problems in cars, including broken gas gauges.

Banter hides depth of Bush-Chirac rift 06-11-04 (Financial Times) The inevitable impression was that the two men were grasping for something to agree on.

G-8 isnt enough 06-11-04 (Yahoo) THE leaders of the eight industrial pow ers of the world meet this week on an island off the coast of Georgia to discuss global economics.

Bush Asks G8 Allies for Help in Iraq 06-11-04 (Yahoo) President Bush makes another appeal to U.S. allies for assistance in helping Iraq's transitional government establish a democratic society.

G8 extends debt relief programme 06-11-04 (BBC) Africa is the only part of the developing world no better off than 25 years ago. On the last day of their summit, G8 leaders have agreed to extend a debt relief scheme for the world's poorest countries by two years.

Reagans Policies Transformed Economic Debate 06-11-04 (Yahoo) Fifteen years after former President Ronald Reagan left office, his policies and ideas still define much of America's economic debate.

Leaders take Africas case to G8 06-10-04 (BBC) Six African leaders are joining the G8 summit on Sea Island in the US as its agenda turns to issues affecting the African continent such as debt relief.

LATIN AMERICA

Chavez Recall Promoter Investigated for Conspiracy 06-11-04 (Yahoo) A leading campaigner for a vote to oust Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Thursday she is being investigated for conspiracy because her group received U.S. funding, and her supporters said the case was politically motivated.

US lauds Venezuela on Chavez referendum date 06-10-04 (Yahoo) The United States praised Venezuelan electoral authorities' decision to set an August 15 date for a referendum that could oust President Hugo Chavez, a State Department spokesman said.

Brazilian Economy Growing After Recession 06-10-04 (Yahoo) Brazilian industrial output rose sharply in April, the government announced Wednesday, further underscoring recent evidence that the economy is growing rapidly after its worst recession in a decade last year.

AFRICA

OIL PRICES

Energy Watchdog Forecasts More Oil Demand 06-11-04 (Yahoo) Global demand for oil will grow this year at its fastest rate since 1980, but the producer group OPEC's pledge to pump more crude should help ease the pressure on prices, the International Energy Agency said Thursday.

Saboteurs Blow Up Key Iraqi Oil Pipeline 06-10-04 (Yahoo) Saboteurs blew up a key northern oil pipeline Wednesday, forcing a 10 percent cut on the national power grid as demand for electricity rises with the advent of Iraq's broiling summer heat.

Crude oil prices show uptick 06-10-04 (Yahoo) Crude oil futures rebounded slightly after sharp declines over the past week as traders shrugged off a report showing strong US inventories and fretted over global security issues.

OPEC Oil Output Up as Saudi Opens Taps 06-10-04 (Yahoo) The OPEC oil cartel lifted production in May as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates began to boost crude exports in a bid to rein in runaway prices,

Newest messages appear on top.

06-10-04 roguetrader18: carib; wish i had seen that foamex post earlier. we'll pick it up on monday tho; could try to deliver via jb. i really like the story ; i'm a bit uncertain about its refinancing needs; i'll read it over again..

06-10-04 ruspan: Could be funny if not real: Gnoe soldier disabled for life in 30 seconds: <You want more clues as to how widespread physical abuse is in US-run detention facilities? Read about Specialist Sean Baker.

Baker was a member of a military-police unit in the Kentucky National Guard who pulled a tour of guard duty at Gitmo. One day in January 2003, an officer ordered Baker to play the role of a balky detainee in a training exercise. He put that dehumanizing orange jumpsuit on over his unifrm and cowered, as ordered, under a bed in a mock 'cell'.

According to this report by the NYT's Nick Kristof, this is what Baker said happened next:

"They grabbed my arms, my legs, twisted me up and unfortunately one of the individuals got up on my back from behind and put pressure down on me while I was face down. Then he � the same individual � reached around and began to choke me and press my head down against the steel floor. After several seconds, 20 to 30 seconds, it seemed like an eternity because I couldn't breathe. When I couldn't breathe, I began to panic and I gave the code word I was supposed to give to stop the exercise, which was `red.' . . . That individual slammed my head against the floor and continued to choke me. Somehow I got enough air. I muttered out: `I'm a U.S. soldier. I'm a U.S. soldier.' "> <Mr. Baker, who is married and has a 14-year-old son, is now unemployed, taking nine prescription medications and still suffering frequent seizures. His lawyer, Bruce Simpson, has been told that Mr. Baker may not begin to get disability payments for up to 18 months. If he is judged 100 percent disabled, he will then get a maximum of $2,100 a month.>http://justworldnews.org/archives/0...

06-10-04 ruspan: Amigo: No le des importancia: es un simple dicho que se suele utilizar en los colegios, que ademas no habla de sonrisa en absoluto. Dice, textualmente:"La <risa> <sin causa> es un simptoma de estupidez". Como ves, el sentido se perdio en las traducciones. Los rusos tienen un refinado y retorcido sentido del humor y les encanta reirse como a todos. Cuando hablan de los rusos serios, casi siempre se refieren a los Moscovitas que (como Newyorkinos, por ejemplo) son una raza especial.

06-10-04 amigo latino: Ruspan :< for Russians, a smile, a sign of stupidness or craziness�> Should this be modified as

<for Russians, a routine smile or trademark smile, a sign of stupidness or craziness) ?

By the way, persons coming out of deep depressions have nearly a constant smile. But I do not call depression( a psychiatic desease) craziness.----although many in the street may do so.

06-10-04 alois25: Yesterday Rolf posted a useful link to Live Prices by "INTL Trading, New York" on the shibuimarktets site: http://www.shibuimarkets.com/perl/e...

In addition they have a forum quite similar to colores but with less participants yet. They call it the Shibui Round Table: http://www.shibuimarkets.com/perl/r...

I believe that forum would be a good alternative to colores, if colores is down. Have a look at it. Might be interesting anyway.

06-10-04 moneypenny: Ruspan: I think so, let me check.

06-10-04 moneypenny: Dinner triangle! Ladrones, come 'n' get it!

<WASHINGTON, June 10 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund is dispatching a mission to Argentina this weekend as part of a planned review of the country's economy, the IMF said on Thursday. "As previously planned, a staff mission will travel to Buenos Aires ... over the weekend to begin discussions with the authorities regarding the third review of the Fund-supported economic program," an IMF said in a brief statement.

Argentina last week offered to pay bondholders 40 cents on every defaulted dollar, a deal many bondholders reject. Argentina is expected to file notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it intends to sell debt securities in the United States as part of the restructuring, according to an IMF source.>

http://www.reuters.com/financeNewsA...

06-10-04 ruspan: MP:<Treasury said the GNOE deficit fell to $62.5b > So does it mean that Gnoe is spending 2 B a day more than it makes, and than Gnoe citizens and firms are spending 1.6 B more than they make the very same day?

06-10-04 amigo latino: Ruspan, I made an error. My posting should have read < ..given that to many Koreans and Indian ascetics, a serious looking face is a sign of rectitude, for Russians, a smile, a sign of stupidness or craziness while in America the smile is a nationally cultivated � winning� trait>

06-10-04 carib: Ruspan: I am quite aware Stalin died over fifty years ago. However, comparing Stalin with Eisenhower's america is utterly preposterous, IMHO. Breznev did not encourage critical thinking much more than Stalin, BTW. the issue we wre discussing, however, was Grenada, not Stalin.

06-10-04 moneypenny: Ruspan: Yes.

06-10-04 ruspan: MP:<Treasury said the GNOE deficit fell to $62.5b from $88.9b> Is it a monthly one?

06-10-04 ruspan: Carib:You always make the same confusion mentioning stalinism :-) I am not that old, stalinism was at the time of segregation, MCarty, KKK and public torturing people to death in the midst of peaceful US villages. If was terrible and is not to be forgotten, but it sounds as wild and distant to me :-)

06-10-04 moneypenny: GNoEwatch:

<M2 up $2.1 billion to $6.2745 trillion in the May 31 week. M3 up $1.9 billion to $9.2012 trillion. M1 up $6.5 billion to $1.3234 trillion.

Treasury said the GNOE deficit fell to $62.5b from $88.9b a year ago. May�s deficit was less than the forecasted $65b.>

06-10-04 carib: That proves critical thinking is hard to repress for ever, not that Stalinism encouraged critical thinking.. :-) On the other things, we completely disagree, so we just have to accept there are different opinions around. I am just in favor of free competition of opinions.

06-10-04 ruspan: Carib:<My God! Long week-end! that is terrible... :-(> Oops, I am sorry: bloody reagan is to blame again :-) I have just decided that i will devote tomorrow for flying and have a weekend mood already.

06-10-04 ruspan: Carib:<In a society that encourages critical thinking, there cannot be people arrested for thinking critically, or publishing criticism of the authorities, or trying to organize political opposition.> I was between them, and it was not just thinking: we where actively trying to destroy the whole system and place, causing... Well, now I know exactly what we're trying to cause and frankly there are few things to be proud. <The USSR was a living, gigantic lie, and simply saying the truth was very dangerous.> Time is a good judge. Time is telling me they where lieing in far fewer things that I thought. They where dead right on NATO and Gnoe (and I was outraged to hear it 30 years ago, believe me!) and on plenty of other stuff. Deeply hated KGB guy is rulling Russia now, and I support him :-) What an aberration. Fact is USSR was a gigantic lie, but it was not the only one on this planet. USSR is dead, the lie is not.

06-10-04 carib: My God! Long week-end! that is terrible... :-(

06-10-04 carib: Ruspan: "blocking mechanisms" in a free society is very difficult to do. normally, economic power, political power, intellectual power do not naturally coincide, and internal conflict is a permanent feature.. If you still had a one party system in Spain...you would still have Aznar, for example.

06-10-04 carib: Ruspan: now they are more "free"...even if we all agree Russia is not yet a liberal democracy. Emigration from poorer areas to more prosperous ones is a very natural thing: there is nothing wrong with that. Now, how comes that most "prosperous" countries also happen to be relative freer?

06-10-04 ruspan: Carib:< the key advantage of a free society is...self correcting mechanisms switch on earlier > Absolutely! That is what I am trying to say: block those mecanism in any western place (it is attempted regulary, as you know) and it would be a dead body with any number of "parties". Introduce such mecanism in a single "party" society... and you may have a very different animal. Communists where very sucessful in blocking control mecanism and died, our bosses are mastering this art right now. :-)

06-10-04 carib: In a society that encourages critical thinking, there cannot be people arrested for thinking critically, or publishing criticism of the authorities, or trying to organize political opposition. The USSR was a living, gigantic lie, and simply saying the truth was very dangerous.

06-10-04 apagonazo: <victorn: We are moving rapidly towards an unprecedented fraud as i was saying, you should not have agreed to play this game.> As I have said before it is the only game at this moment. People must feel greater frustration and lack of hope for Democratic solution before moving on to other solutions. I have never claimed you are wrong. I do feel that there is a necessary order, though not necessarily correct order for playing this out. You cannot get to second base without passing first and opposition has to finish shaking the elite, coup, anti democratic image that Chavez has saddled them with and then evolve to the freedom fighter bull sh....

06-10-04 ruspan: Carib:<If life in places like the USSR, Cuba, East Germany, North Korea, etc was any good...how comes they had to build walls to keep people from escaping? they should have experienced massive immigration, instead. Succesful, high quality-of-life society usually attract substantial immigration... > That is true :-) But people is leaving and dreaming to leave most of the countries of the world now (multiparty Russia and other pieces of USSR between them) why is that? can it be that 90 % of the world is simply dirt poor comparing to the rest 10? Recently have seen a stat that a more russians want to leave russia than ever before, why? Aren't they "free"?

06-10-04 carib: Ruspan: if you were tought to think critically...why did the russians endure communism until 1989? The freedom of thinking critically, inevitably includes the freedom of writing critically, of publishing critically, of criticizing in public, of replacing old ideas with new ones...and old leaders with new ones.

06-10-04 carib: Ruspan: the key advantage of a free society is...self correcting mechanisms switch on earlier

06-10-04 ruspan: Carib:< the key element of a good education, IMHO, is learning to think critically, and to challange established truths, when appropriate. This normally is not encouraged in non-free societies. If it was, such societies would stop being one-party states.> I don't have any explanation for it, but the fact is we where teached to think critically, and I have an impression that modern western youth is receiving far, far more conformist education than we had.

06-10-04 carib: Ruspan: the issue is if a system of government fosters freedom and prosperity, IMHO. If there is prosperity, usually it's also easier to have a decent hospital and a decent school. A two party system might be imperfect, I agree. But it is uncomparably better than a one party system. Basically, it's easier to improve. Certain societies are hopeless no matter if one, two or twentyfive parties, but that is another issue.

06-10-04 apagonazo: Commander Merentes

At an event held in Caracas� Municipal Theater on Wednesday evening, Hugo Ch�vez swore in the members of the National �Maisanta� Commando Group, which will be working for the �Saint Agnes campaign� to get him ratified as President of the Republic in the recall referendum scheduled for August 15. The members of his political commando are Diosdado Cabello, Willian Lara, Jesse Chac�n, Nelson Merentes, Rafael Ram�rez, Samuel Moncada, Mary Pili Hern�ndez, William Izarra, Tania D�Amelio, and Sim�n Pestana. There will also be 24 regional commandos headed up by President Ch�vez himself. As for the National Committee, there were some surprises, old faces making a comeback, and ratifications. Two such are William Izarra (expelled from the MVR in 1999, only to return to the government fold after April 2002 with his own party, Movimiento Democracia Directa � Direct Democracy Movement) and the journalist Mary Pili Hern�ndez (media chief during Ch�vez� presidential campaign in 1998 and the first president of VTV under this administration). But the most remarkable of the appointments is that of former Finance Minister Nelson Merentes as coordinator of the commando�s Technical Electoral Committee, which will be in charge of designing and carrying out the government�s campaign for the recall referendum. Today, Merentes is Minister of State for Social Economy and president of Bandes (National Economic and Social Development Bank), the bank that is to administer the first $750 million of the $2 billion that PDVSA has already transferred directly to a fund, on which there is no information regarding either the exchange rate used to convert the dollars into bolivars or the accountability mechanisms that are to be employed. Of one thing we can be sure, this will be the most costly campaign mounted by any candidate in Venezuela�s history and Merentes will be the most powerful man in the country, next to Ch�vez. For those who don�t remember, Merentes is the mathematician who thought up the famous �kino� or lottery-style voting card that enabled Chavismo to grab almost all the seats in the National Constituent Assembly.

Si usted desea recibir VenEconom�a Opina directamente en su direcci�n de correo electr�nico, env�e una nota solicit�ndolo a webopina@veneconomia.com con su nombre, tel�fono y la direcci�n electr�nica correspondiente.

06-10-04 carib: Los ind�genas ecuatorianos suspendieron este jueves las protestas que iniciaron el domingo para reclamar la renuncia del presidente de Ecuador, Lucio Guti�rrez, inform� Leonidas Iza, presidente de la Confederaci�n de Nacionalidades Ind�genas de Ecuador (Conaie).

"Hemos decidido regresar a nuestras comunidades, pero eso no indica que vamos a renunciar a nuestro derecho de protestar y de seguir exigiendo la renuncia de Lucio Guti�rrez del poder", declar� Iza a la AFP, a la vez que dijo que "las protestas han cumplido con lo planificado".

Las movilizaciones no alcanzaron mayor significaci�n, pese a que algunos grupos bloquearon la carretera Panamericana que une a Ecuador y Colombia (norte), en los alrededores de la poblaci�n de Cayambe, 50 km de Quito.

06-10-04 ruspan: Carib:<But the difference between two (and actually more) competing parties nd one party is IMHO enormous.> Two are better than one, I agree :-) However, as it is a continued struggle for power, two party system may also be successfully "neutralized" by controlling the information flow and the financing. All parts of the system must work correctly or it quickly becomes a mock of it former self. Plain people may live well or not unregarding actual number of parties and here is when the cuality of health care and education start to matter. After all, it would not matter to you much if your child dies from deficient care in one, two or three party country.

06-10-04 carib: If life in places like the USSR, Cuba, East Germany, North Korea, etc was any good...how comes they had to build walls to keep people from escaping? they should have experienced massive immigration, instead. Succesful, high quality-of-life society usually attract substantial immigration...

06-10-04 carib: Ruspan: the key element of a good education, IMHO, is learning to think critically, and to challange established truths, when appropriate. This normally is not encouraged in non-free societies. If it was, such societies would stop being one-party states.

06-10-04 ruspan: Amateur:<Only BIG inflation would really shift the <reaction function>, and <experts> say BIG inflation is not in the cards shortly.> Yeah. Remember we are living of them experts metiendo la pata!

06-10-04 ruspan: Amigo Latino:<..( given that to many Koreans and Indian ascetics, a serious looking face is a sign of rectitude and for Russians, a sign of stupidness or craziness while in America the smile is a nationally cultivated � winning� trait )... You got it the wrong way, the saing is that the smile <without reason> is a sign of stupidity... As I had a nasty custom to laugh in difficult situations, I heared it more than once :-) I think it is just a matter of custom: in Ru we where shown that a smile is an expression meant to express smth, not an everyday mask. May look duler, but then how do you know whether your girl is smiling to you or just wears her working face? :-)

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