Month: July 2014

"US Will Feel Tangible Losses," Russia Prepares To Unleash Retaliatory Trade Wars

“It’s a troubling continuation/expansion of trade as a geopolitical tool,” warns one Washington-based consulting firm as Russia prepares to unleash retaliatory actions to US and European sanctions. As Bloomberg reports, Russia said yesterday it may ban imports of chicken from the U.S. and fruit from Europe and is investigating McDonald’s cheese for safety. In addition, a Russian lawmaker has drafted legislation that might result in U.S. accounting firms being barred from doing business in his country. All of this is odd given Jack “trust me” Lew’s reassurance that Russian sanctions would have no impact on the US economy. Russia’s response, US will feel ‘tangible losses’ from ‘destructive, myopic’ sanctions.

 

As Bloomberg reports, while Russia and the U.S. have long sparred over agricultural trade, the actions fueled speculation they could be retaliatory.

Russia’s food safety agency said it may ban imports of U.S. poultry and some European fruit due to contamination of the products, according Bloomberg BNA, citing Russian state media. The food safety agency, known as Rosselkhoznadzor, also said it will examine suppliers of McDonald’s cheese for their use of antibiotics.

 

Russia was the second-largest market, after Mexico, for U.S. chicken last year, according to the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council. The U.S. exported about $309 million worth of broiler chickens to Russia last year, according to the council.

 

Russia, which joined the World Trade Organization in 2012, is considering banning some European fruit that includes seeds and pits from the entire EU or from bloc’s individual member countries, said Alexei Alekseenko, an aide to Rosselkhoznadzor director Sergei Dankvert, BNA reported.

 

Fruit shipments from the EU have recently contained Oriental fruit moths, he said, according to the Russian news agency RIA. He proposed talks with EU suppliers over the issue.

Seems like that would impact the US and European economy…

“This is not a surprise,” Mike Cockrell, chief financial officer at Sanderson Farms Inc. (SAFM) of Laurel, Mississippi, said by phone. “It’s not unusual for Russia to find something wrong when they have a political reason to do so.”

 

Officials from McDonald’s, based in Oak Brook, Illinois, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Russia explained these are not anti-US sanctions…

“These are not sanctions against U.S. We don’t have a goal to harm U.S. citizens’ quality of life,” Fedorov said. “There are companies in Russia which have sensitive positions in terms of Russia’s sovereignty and economic security.”

 

Fedorov said consulting firms and audit firms will be the first to be targeted by the new bill. Next will be U.S. media, he said.

And Russia issued a statement that US will feel ‘tangible losses’ from ‘destructive, myopic’ sanctions.

We have repeatedly spoken about the illegitimacy and groundlessness of the US sanctions against Russia. Washington will gain nothing from such decisions except for further complication of Russian-American relations and the creation of an unfavorable atmosphere in international affairs, where the cooperation between our countries often plays a key role.

 

The U.S. administration, strained creating the appearance of “sequence” in its current behavior, in fact, is merely trying to avoid responsibility for the tragic developments in Ukraine. Not Russia, and Kiev regime and its overseas patrons guilty of a growing number of civilian casualties in the eastern regions. In his pompous manner prosecutorial White House, covering the bloody military operation of Kiev, which contrary to all international norms sunk to rocket attacks peaceful cities, continues to put forward baseless claims against us.

 

One gets the impression that the U.S. sanctions pressure, transformed now at sectoral level, has one goal – to get even with us for an independent and uncomfortable for Washington politics. Please also note the obvious elements of unscrupulous trade and economic competition in the U.S. actions.

The losses that Washington will sustain from such a destructive and myopic policy will be very tangible

US officials are not happy…

“Assuming that they take this action, it would be blatant protectionism,” Clayton Yeutter, a U.S. Trade Representative under President Ronald Reagan, said in a phone interview. “There is little or no legitimacy to their complaints.”

*  *  *
Putin warned of boomerangs… and sure enough here they come…

  • *EU ENERGY SANCTIONS `IRRESPONSIBLE’ STEP, RUSSIA SAYS
  • *EU ENERGY SANCTIONS TO CAUSE PRICE INCREASE IN EUROPE: RUSSIA
  • *RUSSIA TO WEIGH `UNCONSTRUCTIVE’ EU ATTITUDE IN FUTURE TIES
  • *EU BANKS WORKING IN RUSSIA MKT TO SUFFER FROM SANCTIONS: RUSSIA

And France is screwed…

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Wednesday that Russia has the capability to build Mistral-class helicopter carriers on its own if France cancels the existing contract, RIA Novosti reported. “The French must prove they are serious partners and reliable contractors,” Rogozin said after a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and government ministers.

 

“If they fail to do so, we will build the [Mistral] ships on our own. We are finally capable to do it,” Rogozin said. On Monday, he expressed doubts that France would cancel the contract, which he said would be worse for France than for Russia.

And it seems Russia is not as isolated as President Obama would like everyone to think…

  • VEB IN TALKS W/ CHINA, JAPAN, ARAB COUNTRIES ON FUNDING


via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1AyG1dZ Tyler Durden

“US Will Feel Tangible Losses,” Russia Prepares To Unleash Retaliatory Trade Wars

“It’s a troubling continuation/expansion of trade as a geopolitical tool,” warns one Washington-based consulting firm as Russia prepares to unleash retaliatory actions to US and European sanctions. As Bloomberg reports, Russia said yesterday it may ban imports of chicken from the U.S. and fruit from Europe and is investigating McDonald’s cheese for safety. In addition, a Russian lawmaker has drafted legislation that might result in U.S. accounting firms being barred from doing business in his country. All of this is odd given Jack “trust me” Lew’s reassurance that Russian sanctions would have no impact on the US economy. Russia’s response, US will feel ‘tangible losses’ from ‘destructive, myopic’ sanctions.

 

As Bloomberg reports, while Russia and the U.S. have long sparred over agricultural trade, the actions fueled speculation they could be retaliatory.

Russia’s food safety agency said it may ban imports of U.S. poultry and some European fruit due to contamination of the products, according Bloomberg BNA, citing Russian state media. The food safety agency, known as Rosselkhoznadzor, also said it will examine suppliers of McDonald’s cheese for their use of antibiotics.

 

Russia was the second-largest market, after Mexico, for U.S. chicken last year, according to the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council. The U.S. exported about $309 million worth of broiler chickens to Russia last year, according to the council.

 

Russia, which joined the World Trade Organization in 2012, is considering banning some European fruit that includes seeds and pits from the entire EU or from bloc’s individual member countries, said Alexei Alekseenko, an aide to Rosselkhoznadzor director Sergei Dankvert, BNA reported.

 

Fruit shipments from the EU have recently contained Oriental fruit moths, he said, according to the Russian news agency RIA. He proposed talks with EU suppliers over the issue.

Seems like that would impact the US and European economy…

“This is not a surprise,” Mike Cockrell, chief financial officer at Sanderson Farms Inc. (SAFM) of Laurel, Mississippi, said by phone. “It’s not unusual for Russia to find something wrong when they have a political reason to do so.”

 

Officials from McDonald’s, based in Oak Brook, Illinois, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Russia explained these are not anti-US sanctions…

“These are not sanctions against U.S. We don’t have a goal to harm U.S. citizens’ quality of life,” Fedorov said. “There are companies in Russia which have sensitive positions in terms of Russia’s sovereignty and economic security.”

 

Fedorov said consulting firms and audit firms will be the first to be targeted by the new bill. Next will be U.S. media, he said.

And Russia issued a statement that US will feel ‘tangible losses’ from ‘destructive, myopic’ sanctions.

We have repeatedly spoken about the illegitimacy and groundlessness of the US sanctions against Russia. Washington will gain nothing from such decisions except for further complication of Russian-American relations and the creation of an unfavorable atmosphere in international affairs, where the cooperation between our countries often plays a key role.

 

The U.S. administration, strained creating the appearance of “sequence” in its current behavior, in fact, is merely trying to avoid responsibility for the tragic developments in Ukraine. Not Russia, and Kiev regime and its overseas patrons guilty of a growing number of civilian casualties in the eastern regions. In his pompous manner prosecutorial White House, covering the bloody military operation of Kiev, which contrary to all international norms sunk to rocket attacks peaceful cities, continues to put forward baseless claims against us.

 

One gets the impression that the U.S. sanctions pressure, transformed now at sectoral level, has one goal – to get even with us for an independent and uncomfortable for Washington politics. Please also note the obvious elements of unscrupulous trade and economic competition in the U.S. actions.

The losses that Washington will sustain from such a destructive and myopic policy will be very tangible

US officials are not happy…

“Assuming that they take this action, it would be blatant protectionism,” Clayton Yeutter, a U.S. Trade Representative under President Ronald Reagan, said in a phone interview. “There is little or no legitimacy to their complaints.”

*  *  *
Putin warned of boomerangs… and sure enough here they come…

  • *EU ENERGY SANCTIONS `IRRESPONSIBLE’ STEP, RUSSIA SAYS
  • *EU ENERGY SANCTIONS TO CAUSE PRICE INCREASE IN EUROPE: RUSSIA
  • *RUSSIA TO WEIGH `UNCONSTRUCTIVE’ EU ATTITUDE IN FUTURE TIES
  • *EU BANKS WORKING IN RUSSIA MKT TO SUFFER FROM SANCTIONS: RUSSIA

And France is screwed…

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Wednesday that Russia has the capability to build Mistral-class helicopter carriers on its own if France cancels the existing contract, RIA Novosti reported. “The French must prove they are serious partners and reliable contractors,” Rogozin said after a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and government ministers.

 

“If they fail to do so, we will build the [Mistral] ships on our own. We are finally capable to do it,” Rogozin said. On Monday, he expressed doubts that France would cancel the contract, which he said would be worse for France than for Russia.

And it seems Russia is not as isolated as President Obama would like everyone to think…

  • VEB IN TALKS W/ CHINA, JAPAN, ARAB COUNTRIES ON FUNDING


via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1AyG1dZ Tyler Durden

Huge Scandal at FBI: Dubious Forensic Evidence Used in Convictions of Hundreds, Possibly Thousands of People

The FBI story has some holes in it.

As regular Reason readers
know, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been reviewing
thousands of cases where it may have used dubious forensic evidence
to get a conviction. Today’s Washington Post
fills us in on how that’s been going:

Nearly every criminal case reviewed by the FBI and the
Justice Department as part of a
massive investigation started in 2012 of problems at the FBI
lab has included flawed forensic testimony from the agency,
government officials said.

The findings troubled the bureau, and it stopped the review of
convictions last August. Case reviews resumed this month at the
order of the Justice Department, the officials said.

Oh.

The issue is the use of hair found at a crime scene to prove a
defendant was present. According to the Post, “FBI policy
has stated since at least the 1970s that a hair association cannot
be used as positive identification, like fingerprints,” yet “agents
regularly testified to the near-certainty of matches” in the 1980s
and ’90s. A spokesman for the Justice Department told that paper
that the bureau’s claims regularly “exceeded the limits of
science.”

In many of these cases, of course, there is other evidence of
the defendants’ guilt. But that just means it’s all the more
important to have as speedy a review as is possible. Instead, the
government has dragged its feet. According to the Post,
officials have “had enough information to review all hair unit
cases” since 1999, but it failed to start the process
until recently.

At this point the authorities have made their way through only
about 10 percent of the 2,600 cases under review. It has made more
progress on the subset where the convict faces the death penalty,
but even then around a third of the 45 cases have not been
reexamined.

To read the rest of the Post‘s report, go
here. For more on the problem of death-row errors, go here.

from Hit & Run http://ift.tt/1qmEil0
via IFTTT

Kids, Turn in Your Federally-Funded Laptops for Imminent Destruction

LaptopBureaucrats love to throw fancy
technology at schools and expect it to magically improve students’
learning outcomes. That’s easier than hiring, training, and fairly
compensating good teachers, right?

A New Jersey school district has admitted that it’s
every-seventh-grader-gets-a-laptop plan was a dismal failure,
however, and is preparing to destroy the devices.

The school district was able to obtain the laptops five years
ago through federal stimulus money. The intention was that kids was
use them for homework and teachers would design internet-involved
assignments and lessons. Instead, calamity after calamity ensued,
according to
The Hechinger Report:

By the time Jerry Crocamo, a computer network engineer, arrived
in Hoboken’s school system in 2011, every seventh, eighth, and
ninth grader had a laptop. Each year a new crop of seventh graders
were outfitted. Crocamo’s small tech staff was quickly overwhelmed
with repairs.

We had “half a dozen kids in a day, on a regular basis, bringing
laptops down, going ‘my books fell on top of it, somebody sat on
it, I dropped it,’ ” said Crocamo.

Screens cracked. Batteries died. Keys popped off. Viruses
attacked. Crocamo found that teenagers with laptops are still . . .
teenagers.

“We bought laptops that had reinforced hard-shell cases so that
we could try to offset some of the damage these kids were going to
do,” said Crocamo. “I was pretty impressed with some of the damage
they did anyway. Some of the laptops would come back to us
completely destroyed.”

The devices were also frequently stolen, and Crocamo spent much
of his time filing police reports and appearing in court. Students
quickly figured out how to crack his security software and spent
time visiting unauthorized social networking and porn sites:

“There is no more determined hacker, so to speak, than a
12-year-old who has a computer,” said Crocamo.

Students spent more time playing games on their laptops than
using them for school work. Wi-fi became another problem. So many
people in the vicinity of the high school had the internet password
that they could steal it by bringing their own laptops near the
school. The internet eventually became so bogged down that it was
unusable.

In other words, the program was a complete disaster from start
to finish. The district is now taking back the laptops and intends
to destroy them.

Los Angeles Unified Schools
experienced similar problems when administrators attempted to
give every student in the district an iPad. According to Allison
Powell, vice president for state and district services at iNacol,
International Association for K-12 Online Learning, such programs
are common—and commonly end up causing more headaches than they
solve:

“Probably in the last few months I’ve had quite a few principals
and superintendents call and say, ‘I bought these 500 iPads or
1,000 laptops because the district next to us just bought them,’
and they’re like, now what do we do?” Powell said.

Bureaucrats in districts with failed technology programs
typically bemoan the results while maintaining that the initiative
was motivated by good intentions. They should Google “what the road
to hell is paved with.”

Too bad Hoboken’s internet isn’t working.

Hat tip:
Chuck Ross / The Daily Caller

from Hit & Run http://ift.tt/1s2ZGir
via IFTTT

A. Barton Hinkle on the Latest Bureaucratic Nonsense from Government Regulators

For a city that can’t keep its own
house in order, Richmond, Virginia, sure seems eager to make other
people straighten up theirs. As A. Barton Hinkle explains, at the
same time the city is embroiled in a disturbing scandal centering
on the child-welfare arm of its Social Services department,
Richmond officials have been handing out dubious violations for
unlicensed porches and other sorts of petty bureaucratic nonsense.
Don’t those government officials have anything better to do with
their time?

View this article.

from Hit & Run http://ift.tt/1AyEBA8
via IFTTT

Argentine Bonds Soar To Record Highs As Hope Rules (For Now)

While last night saw’The Holdouts’ and ‘The Argentina Delegation’ come face-to-face for the first time in a decade for negotiations, when they went to bed late last night, there was no resolution. No news yet this morning of when the meeting will reconvene but it appears market participants are hopeful… The Argentina 2033 bonds are exploding higher. ARG 2033s are up over 10 points to a record-high price of 97.50. Let’s hope they are not disappointed at the hopes for a bank bailout. Of course, we saw this kind of exuberant jump right after the initial pro-holdouts ruling drop…

 

 

This is what is driving the rally:

Members of Argentina’s banking association, known as Adeba, are working on a last-minute plan to help the country avoid default, according to people familiar with the matter.

 

The bankers association’s plan, which hasn’t been completely hashed out among the banks, would entail buying the legal claim and paying off the holdout creditors who are suing Argentina in U.S. courts for full payment on bonds the country defaulted on in 2001.

 

In exchange, the banks would ask the holdouts to ask U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa, whose ruling has barred Argentina from paying its restructured bondholders unless it pays off the holdouts, to suspend his ruling.

 

…

 

Another person said the idea is for the banks to buy the government’s claim in three cash installments. In exchange, the banks would ask the government to pay them back in bonds beginning in January, when a key clause in the case expires.

Charts: Bloomberg




via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1zv4cZu Tyler Durden

Corrections Officers Threaten to Arrest News Crew Over Innocuous Footage, Prevent Crew From Complying With Order to Leave

respect his authoritahA news crew from News Channel 13 out of Albany,
New York was harassed by a
corrections officer while filming a stand-up near a
soon-to-be-abandoned prison in Wilton. The officer told them they
couldn’t film near the prison without permission from the state
government. The news crew was actually okay with this and willing
to comply. Reporter Mark Mulholland told the corrections officer
the crew was going to relocate to a nearby public historical site,
Grant’s Cottage, where Ulysses S. Grant died.

That’s where things turned South. At the beginning of the
encounter the officer told the cameraman not to film him but the
cameraman, knowing his law, continued to film the officer and his
interaction with Mulholland. The footage (watch below) shows that
the corrections officer was opposed to Mullholland filming at the
public historical site—a location that was open at the time, that
tourists were visiting, and in which the news crew had filmed
yesterday.

 Mulholland pushed back as the corrections officer exceeded
his authority by trying to prohibit that as well and remove them
from the entire mountain. The footage shows the correctional
officer also display an unprofessional and embarrassing attitude
for a law enforcement official. After the news crew departed for
Grant’s College, another corrections officer blocked the
road—allowing other cars through but not the news crew. Then
corrections officers called state police and tried to confiscate
the news crew’s video because it contained footage of an abandoned
prison, threatening the crew with arrest. Executives from the news
station had to call state officials to resolve the situation.

The Department of Corrections (DOC) released a statement to the
station regretting the escalation but avoiding responsibility:

“We regret that this situation escalated, however the WNYT news
crew blatantly disregarded a state officer who informed them they
were trespassing. Department regulations state that photographs
taken while on Prison property require prior permission. This
policy is for the safety of all staff, visitors and prisoners.”

News Channel 13 notes there haven’t been any prisoners at the
soon-to-be abandoned prison in several months. The footage, which
you can watch as part of the segment below, appears to contradict
the rest of the DOC’s narrative:

h/t Adam P.

from Hit & Run http://ift.tt/1s4ciF1
via IFTTT

This Is Why Bad New York Cops Can Get Away With Abuse

Two years ago, a black man named Darren Collins claimed that a
New York City cop humiliated him in front of his friends in broad
daylight, pulling down his pants and underwear on the street and
tapping his testicles in an unlawful search for drugs…

In the end, the only people who paid were taxpayers. The city
shelled out $30,000 to Collins and another plaintiff in a
settlement, but the cop who allegedly harassed Collins rejected the
claims against him and was never disciplined or even admonished. He
kept his badge and gun and stayed on the streets.


More.

from Hit & Run http://ift.tt/1s4cioj
via IFTTT

Wikileaks Aussie Gag Order Revelation Shows a Free Press Is Still an American Thing

GagTo astonishment in Australia, but pretty much a
resounding “huh?” in the United States, Wikileaks yesterday

published a censorship order issued by the Supreme Court of the
Australian state of Victoria on June 19 of this year. The order
imposes a five-year ban on publication of any material in Australia
about a corruption case involving high officials of Indonesia,
Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Australian government itself. 

It’s an authoritarian move that remains happily alien to
Americans who enjoy civil liberties that, however eroded, remain
generally superior to what’s available even in countries we
consider comparable to our own.

Wikileaks puts the order in context, noting:

The court-issued gag order follows the secret 19 June 2014
indictment of seven senior executives from subsidiaries of
Australia’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). The
case concerns allegations of multi-million dollar inducements made
by agents of the RBA subsidiaries Securency and Note Printing
Australia in order to secure contracts for the supply of
Australian-style polymer bank notes to the governments of Malaysia,
Indonesia, Vietnam and other countries.

The
text of the gag order justifies the move “to prevent damage to
Australia’s international relations.”

Well, that sort of thing would be embarrassing,
wouldn’t it.

As a careful Sydney Morning Herald
report on the revelation points out, “The suppression order is
itself suppressed. No Australian media organisation can legally
publish the document or its contents.”


In fact, “anyone who tweets a link to the Wikileaks report,
posts it on Facebook, or shares it in any way online could also
face charges.”

Is it even necessary to point out that this is exactly
the sort of story that independent media are supposed to ferret out
and expose to the light of day, accompanied by editorials about the
moral failings and jailability of the government officials
involved?

I’ve
made much of America’s slippage on rankings of
press freedom, and the United States government’s growing habit
of
concealing information and punishing anybody who speaks to
reporters. But we still don’t have nation-wide gag orders in
this country. 

When Britain’s The Guardian was threatened with
prosecution for publishing Edward Snowden’s revelations about
surveillance by the National Security Agency and its U.K.
counterpart, the GCHQ, that newspaper
teamed up with the New York Times to make sure
government officials couldn’t block their release. “Journalists in
America are protected by the first amendment which guarantees free
speech and in practice prevents the state seeking pre-publication
injunctions or ‘prior restraint,'” Lisa O’Carroll wrote for The
Guardian.

And good for us. Our government officials may be grasping,
punitive control-freaks, but they can only dream of wielding the
bludgeon regularly deployed by their counterparts in many other
established “free countries,” let alone by governments that don’t
even pretend that freedom is a local priority.

Censorship orders, like those released by the Victorian court,
are certainly unenforceable in the modern Internet age—as
demonstrated by Wikileaks. But it’s to America’s credit that its
residents rarely have to pull such end-runs around government gag
orders.

It’s up to us to keep it that way.

from Hit & Run http://ift.tt/1pFfnrc
via IFTTT

Greenspan Fears "False Dawn" In US Economy, Warns Of "Equity Correction At Some Point"

Equity bulls should be exuberant. The last time Alan Greenspan warned of exuberance and potential for a correction, stocks soared for a few more years. While Yellen’s stock-picking skills have been questioned in recent days, Greenspan has once again weighed in:

  • *GREENSPAN SAYS ‘KEY QUESTION’ IS WHETHER U.S. FACES FALSE DAWN
  • *GREENSPAN PREDICTS AT SOME POINT EQUITIES TO HAVE CORRECTION

Although Greenspan declined to second-guess the Fed, he sees a problem moving toward “normalized” policy for his descendants.

 

Speaking on Bloomberg TV, Greenspan has lots to say…

  • *GREENSPAN SAYS `OPEN QUESTION’ WHETHER INFLATION WILL SURPRISE
  • *GREENSPAN DECLINES TO `SECOND GUESS THE FED’
  • *GREENSPAN SEES `A LOT OF UNCERTAINTY’ ON ECONOMY
  • *GREENSPAN SAYS `WE HAVE A LOT OF UNCERTAINTY OUT THERE’
  • *GREENSPAN SAYS HE’S CONCERNED BY SLOWER OUTPUT PER HOUR
  • *GREENSPAN SAYS PRODUCTIVITY WILL HAVE TROUBLE ACCELERATING
  • *GREENSPAN SEES PROBLEM MOVING TOWARD `NORMALIZED’ POLICY

He is also an oil analyst…

  • *GREENSPAN SAYS OIL MARKET HAS EXCESS CAPACITY, SLACK
  • *GREENSPAN: WITHOUT MIDDLE EAST TENSION OIL PRICES WOULD FALL
  • *GREENSPAN: CRUDE WOULD BE $15-$20 LOWER IF NOT FOR MIDEAST WOES

And warns of US fiscal problems…

  • *GREENSPAN SAYS U.S. LACKS `FISCAL RESOURCES’
  • *GREENSPAN SAYS U.S. HAS `NO WAY TO FIND NEW REVENUES’
  • *GREENSPAN SAYS U.S. `RUNNING OUT OF BUFFER IN ECONOMY’
  • *GREENSPAN SAYS FISCAL POLICY MAY PUT STATUS OF DOLLAR AT RISK

And then there’s this…

  • *GREENSPAN SAYS DOLLAR HELD `IN EXTRAORDINARY ESTEEM’

Except in Russia, China, Brazil, and India?




via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1zuRIB8 Tyler Durden