Watchman Newsletter

Is this Obama’s next target after Libya?

WorldNet Daily (Link) - Aaron Klein With research by Chris Elliott (April 11, 2011)

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa served on the committee that invented the military doctrine used by President Obama as the main justification for U.S. and international airstrikes against Libya, WND has learned.

The discovery is particularly pertinent because on Sunday Moussa announced during a special meeting in Cairo that the Arab League plans to press the U.N. to impose a no-fly zone over the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip similar to the one imposed now on Libya.

Moussa said he plans to present the proposal to the U.N. Security Council.

The call comes as Hamas has fired over 140 rockets into Jewish civilian population zones, prompting Israel to carry out anti-terror operations in Gaza aimed at diminishing Hamas’ rocketing capabilities.

As WND was first to report, billionaire philanthropist George Soros is a primary funder and key proponent of the Global Centre for Responsibility to Protect, the world’s leading organization pushing the military doctrine. Several of the doctrine’s main founders sit on multiple boards with Soros.

Israel’s next war

YNet News (Link) - Yoel Meltzer (April 7, 2011)

In all likelihood, the Palestinians are going to unilaterally declare statehood in Judea and Samaria within the coming year. This is not a ploy or a desperate attempt on their part but rather a clear, rational decision. By correctly gauging the stark contrast between the massive international support for their cause as opposed to the steadily increasing de-legitimization of Israel the “apartheid state,” the Palestinians have wisely decided to bypass direct negotiations since there is no point in paying for something when you can get if for free.

Thus, with country after country pledging its support, the Palestinians are going to take their case to the United Nations.

There, the Palestinians have nothing to lose for even if the Security Council rejects their bid for statehood, it will most likely be approved by the General Assembly. Although this is less significant than an endorsement by the Security Council, an approval by the General Assembly does nonetheless have some teeth. Most notably, as many commentators pointed out, there is something known as UNGA Resolution 377 that allows the General Assembly to call for sanctions or even military force against a country that fails to implement its recommendations.

If the “civilized world” helps bring the Palestinian plan to fruition then a very likely result of such actions will be the outbreak of war. Thus, in a world turned upside down it will be the UN, a body formed to help foster peace throughout the world, which will be directly responsible for bringing the next great Arab-Israeli war to the Middle East.

Parliament told 2011 will be a ‘watershed’ in EU history

The Parliament (Link) - Martin Banks (March 31, 2011)

A hearing in parliament has called for “popular participation” in the economic reforms being proposed by the EU, including a possible financial tax.

The conference on Thursday heard that the sweeping shake-up of Europe’s “economic governance” constitutes a ‘silent revolution imposed from above.’

But one of the keynote speakers, Kenneth Haar, said that many of the fiscal reforms and cuts to national budgets being proposed in response to the global economic downturn are “hard, if not impossible, to track.” 

Haar, of Corporate Europe Observatory, said, “Despite the issues at stake, this ‘silent revolution’ has so far received too little attention from a wider audience.”

Klaus warns euro pact will lead to full political union

EU Observer (Link) - Leigh Phillips (March 29, 2011)

Vaclav Klaus, the Czech Republic’s famously eurosceptic president renowned across Europe for holding up passage of the Lisbon Treaty for months, has launched an attack against a fresh EU target: the ‘Euro-plus-pact’.

“The Brussels summit on 25 March was not about anything else but the further integration of Europe towards fiscal ... union,” he wrote in an opinion piece in Czech daily newspaper Pravo on Monday, referring to the meeting of EU premiers and presidents where 23 out of the bloc’s 27 member states signed up to a pact that aims to boost European competitiveness.

“It was a radical reduction of the sovereignty of other EU countries.”

However, while trade unions and the left criticise the pact for its institutionalisation of fiscal retrenchment, limits to public spending and demands for wage constraint, Klaus, an ardent free-market liberal, attacked the document for delivering the opening steps towards a “redistribution union” between rich and poor states.

The pact, along with other far-reaching measures endorsed by the summit last Friday, intends to deliver ever closer ‘economic governance’ where the economic polices of each member state are co-ordinated centrally and supervised by Brussels.

Unreported Soros Event Aims to Remake Entire Global Economy

Media Research Center (Link) - Dan Gainor (March 23, 2011)

Two years ago, George Soros said he wanted to reorganize the entire global economic system. In two short weeks, he is going to start - and no one seems to have noticed.

On April 8, a group he’s funded with $50 million is holding a major economic conference and Soros’s goal for such an event is to “establish new international rules” and “reform the currency system.” It’s all according to a plan laid out in a Nov. 4, 2009, Soros op-ed calling for “a grand bargain that rearranges the entire financial order.”

The event is bringing together “more than 200 academic, business and government policy thought leaders” to repeat the famed 1944 Bretton Woods gathering that helped create the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Soros wants a new “multilateral system,” or an economic system where America isn’t so dominant.

More than two-thirds of the slated speakers have direct ties to Soros. The billionaire who thinks “the main enemy of the open society, I believe, is no longer the communist but the capitalist threat” is taking no chances.

Thus far, this global gathering has generated less publicity than a spelling bee. And that’s with at least four journalists on the speakers list, including a managing editor for the Financial Times and editors for both Reuters and The Times. Given Soros’s warnings of what might happen without an agreement, this should be a big deal. But it’s not.

What is a big deal is that Soros is doing exactly what he wanted to do. His 2009 commentary pushed for “a new Bretton Woods conference, like the one that established the post-WWII international financial architecture.” And he had already set the wheels in motion.

Will A Nuclear Caliphate Rise From Unrest In The Mideast?

Investor’s Business Daily (Link) - Paul Sperry (March 15, 2011)

With the Muslim world reaching a boiling point, U.S. intelligence fears that the unrest could create a power vacuum exploited by al-Qaida and its parent, the radical Muslim Brotherhood.

Both share a goal of bringing the Mideast under a single Islamic ruler, who could control world oil supplies and possibly even nuclear weapons.

The Obama administration finds the idea of such a “caliphate” preposterous. It isn’t even concerned about the prospect of Islamist regimes emerging from the revolts. Many of the Mideast protesters are “secular,” the White House believes.

Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough called it a “lie” that Muslims want a universal Islamic state. “People across the Arab world are proving the point,” he said, by calling for free elections.

Still, 61% of Americans believe the emergence of an Islamic caliphate is “likely” in the next 10 years, according to the latest IBD/TIPP poll, and intelligence officials say the call for a caliphate, while once fringe, has developed over the past few years into a global movement spanning many Muslim countries.

France Wants to Ditch Dollar as World Currency

Money News (Link) - AFP (February 15, 2011)

France, as current head of the Group of 20 countries, will help the transition to a global financial system based on “several international currencies,” French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said on Monday.

Lagarde, speaking ahead of a G-20 finance ministers meeting here on Friday and Saturday, said the world had to move on from the “non-monetary system” it now has to one “based on several international currencies.”

Accordingly, France wants to see less need for countries, especially the emerging economies, to accumulate huge foreign reserves, she said.

At the same time, international capital flows should be better regulated and the role of the Special Drawing Rights issued by the International Monetary Fund should be reinforced by the inclusion of China’s yuan in the system.

The Real Reason Germany Wants to Buy the NYSE

The Trumpet (Link) - Robert Morley (February 15, 2011)

It will be a day that will go down in infamy. The biggest symbol of America’s economic might—the preeminent institution of Anglo-Saxon financial domination—is about to be sold. And to a German rival.

What is happening to America? Has it really lost so much economic strength that a company from a nation once bombed to rubble is now purchasing the institution that helped raise the funds to make America’s war effort possible? It should be the New York Stock Exchange doing the taking over, not being taken over.

When the bell chimes for the last time at American-owned 11 Wall Street, it will be an ominous, portent-filled day for the country. But probably not for the reason you think.

No other institution represents America like the New York Stock Exchange. It is the home of capitalism. And through the years, by and large, it has served America well. No other country in the world has generated so much wealth so quickly. Sure the super-rich have a disproportionate share of it, but knock capitalism as you will, it has also generated the largest middle class in history.

International Monetary Fund director Dominique Strauss-Kahn calls for new world currency

The Telegraph UK (Link) - Andrew Trotman (February 10, 2011)

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, has called for a new world currency that would challenge the dominance of the dollar and protect against future financial instability.

“Global imbalances are back, with issues that worried us before the crisis - large and volatile capital flows, exchange rate pressures, rapidly growing excess reserves - on the front burner once again,” Strauss-Kahn said. “Left unresolved, these problems could even sow the seeds of the next crisis.”

“When we worry about the deficiencies of the international monetary system, we are mostly worrying about volatility,” he added. There is “a sense that money sometimes flows around the globe in too-volatile a fashion and that countries need a more stable, more predictable external environment in order to prosper,” he said.

He suggested adding emerging market countries’ currencies, such as the yuan, to a basket of currencies that the IMF administers could add stability to the global system.

Global Stock Exchanges Are Headed for Major Consolidation

CNBC (Link) - Reuters (February 9, 2011)

Germany’s Deutsche Boerse is in advanced talks to buy NYSE Euronext, and the London Stock Exchange has agreed to buy Canadian stock market operator TMX, as exchanges globally look for ways to boost their markets and cut costs.

Together, Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext would dominate exchange trading in continental Europe. The companies said they could cut costs by 300 million euros ($408.7 million) a year.

The combined group would have headquarters in New York and Frankfurt, with Deutsche Boerse shareholders holding about 60 percent of the combined company and NYSE shareholders holding the rest. The companies disclosed their talks on Wednesday.

“I think these consolidations are the wave of the future—with aspects we haven’t even seen yet—once the derivatives markets are required to be more like exchanges,” former SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt told CNBC. “Securities regulators should welcome these consolidations, but competition regulators may be concerned.”

Not everyone was so enthused about it, however.

Understanding Egypt: History of the Caliphate (part one)

The Blaze (Link) - Scott Baker - Joel Richardson (February 6, 2011)

Editor’s note: The Blaze is featuring some guest posts to help our readers gain a deeper understanding of the situation in Egypt.  In this post, Joel Richardson looks at the Caliphate concept in historical context.

Historically, Caliph (Khalifa) is the title given to those individuals who succeeded Muhammad after his death as the leader of the Muslims.  The Arabic word khalifa means successor, and the full title khalifatu rasulil-lah means “successor to the messenger of Allah.” The Caliph is to be the political, military and administrative leader of all Muslims. The Caliph is the Pope, President and General of the Islamic world all wrapped into one. The office and government of the Caliph is known as the Caliphate (Khilafat). The Caliphate is the only form of government fully sanctioned within early Islamic theology.  The purpose of the Caliphate is to govern the Islamic world under the Islamic Shariah law. Caliphs were also referred to with other titles such as Imam al-Ummah (leader of the Muslim community) or  Amir al-Mu’minin (Commander of the Faithful).

From Muhammad’s death until the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1923, various Caliphates or dynasties ruled the Islamic world. The most significant Caliphates in historical order were the Rashidun, the Abbasid, the Umayyid, and finally the Ottoman. At times in Muslim history, there have even been rival claimant Caliphs in different parts of the Muslim world. Although the purpose of the Caliphate is to unify all Muslims worldwide, rarely has this genuinely been the case.  Islamists however often downplay this fact and instead portray the first thirteen hundred years of Islam through a highly idealized lens:

The emerging Muslim Union

WorldNet Daily (Link) - Walid Shoebat (February 4, 2011)

PREPARE [Wa-a-iddou] is a single Arabic word that appears on the Egyptian-based Muslim Brotherhood’s logo written under the sign of the two swords, the symbol of Islamic Jihad. “Prepare” actually comes from the Quranic verse:

“Prepare against them as you are able of force and cavalry to terrorize Allah’s enemy and yours...” (Al-Anfal:60)

Warfare and terror is their motto. It started when many Egyptians were angered at Arabia’s collaboration with the West in the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire, especially since the Caliphate fell with it. That dismantling was the primary reason the Muslim Brotherhood was created four years later in 1928; its sole purpose was the resurrection of the Caliphate. They made inroads, especially after the failure of Arab Nationalism; the Brotherhood gave birth to the slogan “Al-Islam-Huwa-Alhal” (Islam is The Solution), which became their main slogan.

The Brotherhood even adapted and learned from the al-Qaida experience as well as the revolution in Iran, which contributed to a bad image of Islam in the West. Despite this, many Arabs envy Iran’s success, especially since it grew in influence, becoming a formidable power in the region after the fall of Iraq, influencing Syria, Lebanon and the Arab Gulf states, creating a Shiite horn that extended from Iran west through Iraq and Syria into Lebanon, with its tip pointing at Israel’s head. Iran wants to dominate the Middle East and emerge as a mini-super power in the region. What we now see forming as a result of the latest unrest in Tunisia and Egypt is the beginning pieces of another puzzle, another horn – the Sunni alliance.

But this one is different. Using new Western-style slogans of democracy, freedom and social justice, it comes across as a lamb while its inner soul speaks like a dragon. Soon, it will emerge with the two horns of a Shia base in Iran and a Sunni one based temporarily in Egypt; it will find its resting place somewhere else the West never expected. This Sunni horn sparked by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is currently seeking a non-Arab axis to represent it. To the West, this red dragon will come as a shocking surprise.

Davos 2011: Nicolas Sarkozy ‘will not let euro fail’

BBC News (Link) (January 27, 2011)

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said France and Germany will never let the euro fail.

He acknowledged concerns about the future of the euro following bail-outs of Greece and the Irish Republic, as he addressed the World Economic Forum.

“Whether it be [German] Chancellor Merkel or myself, never will we turn our backs on the euro. Never will we abandon the euro,” he said.

He added that those who bet against the euro should watch out for their money.

“The euro spells Europe. The euro is Europe and Europe has spelled 60 years of peace on our continent, therefore we will never let the euro go or be destroyed,” he insisted.

France currently holds the presidency of the G20 and Mr Sarkozy was speaking about his vision for the group.

Which Of The Currencies Of The World Is Going To Crash First?

Economic Collapse Blog (Link) (January 21, 2011)

Last year was an absolutely fascinating time for world currency markets.  The yen, the dollar and the euro all took their turns in the spotlight.  Each experienced wild swings at various times, but the overall theme that we saw was that faith in paper currencies is dying.  The biggest reason for this is the horrific sovereign debt crisis that has swept the globe.  The United States, Japan and a whole host of European nations are all drowning in debt.  The U.S. and Japan are both steamrolling toward insolvency, and several European nations would have already defaulted on their debts if they had not been bailed out.  So which of the major currencies of the world is going to crash first?  Will one (or more) of the big currencies fall before the end of 2011?  Once one major currency collapses will the rest start to fall like dominoes?  The truth is that the world has never seen a sovereign debt crisis of this magnitude in all of human history.  Almost the entire globe is drowning in a sea of red ink and it has brought us right to the brink of financial disaster.

So which of the currencies of the world is going to be the first to come crashing down?  Well, let’s take a quick look at the yen, the euro and the dollar....

Euro crisis: The only way to save the euro is the destruction of its members

The Telegraph UK (Link) - Peter Oborne (January 13, 2011)

Since the coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor in 800 AD, there have been numerous attempts to unify Europe. Philip II of Spain, Louis XIV, Napoleon and Hitler all came tantalisingly close to success, but all ultimately failed. Today a fifth attempt is under way through the European Union.

Though not associated with a single great or powerful man, the ultimate objective of the EU is otherwise more or less familiar to students of European empires: no internal boundaries; a single currency; one parliament; one central government; one army; one foreign policy and a single political unit stretching from the Atlantic to the Urals.

The 27 nations that currently comprise the EU would merge into one huge state, accounting for a population of some 500 million, approximately one fifth of global wealth and an even higher percentage of the world’s trade. Such a nation would take its place alongside the United States and China as a superpower.

This project, in its way both noble and visionary, is surprisingly close to realisation. Many people fail to grasp this point because they have been distracted by the headlines on financial pages signalling daily woe and disaster for the eurozone countries.

Europe’s Dangerous Precedent

The Trumpet (Link) - Ron Fraser (January 10, 2011)

Last November, France and the United Kingdom signed a joint defense agreement. It comprises two treaties covering the joint deployment of both countries’ armed forces, the combining of equipment and communications, and nuclear deterrence.

This has set a precedent that Berlin and Brussels are eager to exploit. The UK-France defense pact will now have a domino effect on other European Union member nations as EU elites move aggressively to shape a combined European defense structure. They will use the EU-France precedent to push EU member states into a series of similar alliances designed to merge EU nations’ fighting forces into a pan-European defense structure under a single centralized high command.

“Implemented correctly, these treaties could become a hopeful precedent for the entire European Union,” former EU foreign-policy chief Javier Solana recently stated. “By transcending strictly national limits, these treaties chart the future path of European defense” (New Europe, January 3; emphasis mine throughout).

Sarkozy urges less international reliance on US dollar

Deutsche Welle (Link) - Eleanor Beardsley (January 10, 2011)

French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited his US counterpart Barack Obama on Monday. The world economy was high on the agenda - including Sarkozy’s aim of reducing the influence of the US dollar.

France is hosting this year’s G8 and G20 summits, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy has started to campaign for a change to the way the US dollar plays a central role in the global economy.

In his New Year’s Eve address to his country, Sarkozy said France would look to change a system which no longer reflects our modern global society.

“The system put in place in 1945 is for a world that doesn’t exist anymore,” the French president told the nation.

He suggested that the current model which uses the US dollar as the primary reserve currency was “unstable” and “makes part of the world dependent on American monetary policy.”

Sarkozy’s plan is to update everything to what he regards as the new reality of a more multi-polar world and the rise of new powers like India, Brazil and China.

Deepening crisis traps America’s have-nots

The Telegraph UK (Link) - Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (January 10, 2011)

The US is drifting from a financial crisis to a deeper and more insidious social crisis. Self-congratulation by the US authorities that they have this time avoided a repeat of the 1930s is premature.

There is a telling detail in the US retail chain store data for December. Stephen Lewis from Monument Securities points out that luxury outlets saw an 8.1pc rise from a year ago, but discount stores catering to America’s poorer half rose just 1.2pc.

Tiffany’s, Nordstrom, and Saks Fifth Avenue are booming. Sales of Cadillac cars have jumped 35pc, while Porsche’s US sales are up 29pc.

Cartier and Louis Vuitton have helped boost the luxury goods stock index by almost 50pc since October. Yet Best Buy, Target, and Walmart have languished.

Such is the blighted fruit of Federal Reserve policy. The Fed no longer even denies that the purpose of its latest blast of bond purchases, or QE2, is to drive up Wall Street, perhaps because it has so signally failed to achieve its other purpose of driving down borrowing costs.

Federal Reserve May Be ‘Central Bank of the World’ After UBS, Barclays Aid

Bloomberg (Link) - Bradley Keoun & Hugh Son (December 2, 2010)

Federal Reserve data showing UBS AG and Barclays Plc ranked among the top users of $3.3 trillion from emergency programs is stoking debate on whether U.S. regulators bear responsibility for aiding other nations’ banks.

UBS was the biggest borrower under the Commercial Paper Funding Facility, with $74.5 billion overall, more than twice as much as Citigroup Inc., the top U.S. bank recipient, according to the data released yesterday. London-based Barclays Plc took the biggest single amount under another program that made overnight loans, when it got $47.9 billion on Sept. 18, 2008.

“We’re talking about huge sums of money going to bail out large foreign banks,” said Senator Bernard Sanders, the Vermont independent who wrote the provision in the Dodd-Frank Act that required the Fed disclosures. “Has the Federal Reserve become the central bank of the world? I think that is a question that needs to be examined.”

The first detailed accounting of U.S. efforts to spare European banks may add to scrutiny of the central bank, already at its most intense in three decades. The Fed, which released data on 21,000 transactions, said in a statement that its 11 emergency programs helped stabilize markets and support economic recovery. The Fed said there have been no credit losses on rescue programs that have been closed.

March of the Euro police: The shocking powers of prosecution the EU has over all of us

The Daily Mail UK (Link) - Mary Ellen Synon (November 22, 2010)

The full extent of the police and criminal prosecution powers that the European Union has over British citizens can be revealed today.

A Mail on Sunday investigation has uncovered an alarming array of new EU controls over justice and home affairs for which no one has voted, and most are unknown to the public.

These include:

• Europol, the £60 million-a-year European criminal intelligence agency, whose officers have diplomatic immunity.

• An 800-strong paramilitary police force called the European Gendarmerie Force.

• The European Arrest Warrant, which now allows British citizens to be seized in the UK and sent without appeal to foreign jails for months or years without bail while awaiting trial.

Europol now has more than 650 officials at its headquarters in The Hague, from where it directs investigations across Europe.

When its Euro police officers are operating in the UK they have diplomatic immunity and cannot be touched by the British judiciary.

Europol’s director is Rob Wainwright, 43, a Welsh-speaking former British civil servant who joined Europol last year. He and his officials will move into a new £8.5 million building next year.

Their official website even lists ‘Europol fictional appearances,’ among them the film Ocean’s 12, in which Catherine Zeta-Jones plays a Europol agent.

COSI creep: or how the EU Home Office will reach into every part of your life

Daily Mail UK (Link) - Mary Ellen Synon (November 22, 2010)

In my investigation for this week’s Mail on Sunday about the shocking powers of prosecution the EU now has over all of us -- you can read it in yesterday’s blog post -- I could only include a brief warning about the sinister new committee to be set up under Article 71 of the Lisbon Treaty.

But the committee is so dangerous that it needs more than a brief warning. Here is an example of how this new Committee on Operational Co-operation on Internal Security -- known as COSI -- will be able to reach into every part of your life. Critics say it is the beginning of an EU Home Office. And it is. But it could be even worse than that.

The key lies in the vagueness the treaty gives to COSI’s powers. The committee is charged simply with ensuring ‘operational co-operation on internal security.’ But nowhere does the treaty define ‘internal security.’

What the elite running the EU institutions mean when they keep something as vague as that is: ‘We intend to make it mean what we want to make it mean. Just sign the contract.’

IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn urges leaders to cede more sovereignty to EU

The Telegraph UK (Link) - Philip Aldrick (November 19, 2010)

In what are likely to prove controversial proposals, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF managing director, called on the European Union to move responsibility for fiscal discipline and structural reform to a central body that is free from the influences of member states.

In a speech in Frankfurt addressing the sovereign debt crisis engulfing Europe once again, he said: “The wheels of co-operation move too slowly. The centre must seize the initiative in all areas key to reaching the common destiny of the union, especially in financial, economic and social policy. Countries must be willing to cede more authority to the centre.”

Europe is plagued by crisis because member states put too much faith in banks and let their public finances run out of control. Greece has already been bailed out and Ireland is expected to agree a €100bn (£85bn) rescue within days. Portugal is also at risk.

Mr Strauss-Kahn did not name any individual eurozone members, but warned: “The sovereign crisis is not over.”

U.N. Official Admits: We Redistribute World’s Wealth by Climate Policy

The Blaze (Link) - Meredith Jessup (November 18, 2010)

“This has almost nothing to do with environmental policy.”

Is this quote from a) a climate change skeptic, or b) an official from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change?

Climate change skeptics have long theorized about ulterior motives behind attempts to legislate and regulate man-made global warming. This speculation reached a fever pitch after data from the University of East Anglia — widely referenced by the United Nations — was found to be flawed and private emails pointed to a broader conspiracy to falsify the so-called evidence.

But this speculation is only likely to grow after a leading member of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) told a German news outlet, “[W]e redistribute de facto the world’s wealth by climate policy.” Via the Media Research Center, Germany’s NZZ Online Sunday interviews Ottmar Edenhofer of the U.N. (emphases mine):

G20 grapples with formula to ease currency strains

Reuters (Link) - David Ljunggren & Zhou Xin (November 11, 2010)

The Group of 20 labored to agree how to put the world economy on a sounder footing on Thursday as fears about Ireland’s ability to pay its debts underscored lingering fallout from the global financial crisis.

The G20 hoped to use a two-day summit to recapture unity forged in the depths of the crisis two years ago in order to soothe exchange rate tensions generated by imbalances between cash-rich exporting nations and debt-burdened importers.

But even as U.S. President Barack Obama voiced confidence leaders would find a formula for more balanced and sustainable growth, negotiators squabbled over the wording of a closing statement to be issued when the summit ends on Friday.

“The persistence of these imbalances is a problem in the long term and these things have to be addressed,” said Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. “Will they be addressed at this conference? I’m not so sure, but I think we’re getting a more frank discussion on some of these matters, that they do have to be resolved.”

The meeting has been billed as a chance for rich nations to strike a grand bargain on how to rejuvenate the world economic order with emerging powerhouses like India and China.

Nation states are dead: EU chief says the belief that countries can stand alone is a ‘lie and an illusion’

Daily Mail UK (Link) - Daniel Martin (November 11, 2010)

The age of the nation state is over and the idea that countries can stand alone is an ‘illusion’ and a ‘lie,’ the EU president believes.

In one of the most open proclamations of the goal of a European superstate since the heyday of Jacques Delors, Herman Van Rompuy went on to denounce Eurosceptism as the greatest threat to peace.

Tory backbenchers condemned the inflammatory comments in the speech made by Mr. Van Rompuy to mark the 21st anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

They said it proved that David Cameron would have a battle on his hands if he is to prevent extra powers being handed to Brussels.

Last night 23 Conservative MPs, including former leadership contender David Davis, rebelled in the Commons by demanding a referendum if the Lisbon Treaty is amended – even if ministers argue the changes do not affect the UK. Their call was defeated.

Mr. Van Rompuy’s speech in the German capital told his audience that ‘the time of the homogenous nation state is over.’

Is hard currency on its way out? Introducing the new virtual world currency

Christian Science Monitor (Link) - Rocky Vega (October 28, 2010)

When discussing reserve currency alternatives to the US dollar, conversation almost inevitably returns to the International Monetary Fund’s “synthetic reserve asset,” the Special Drawing Right (SDR).

However, the SDR basket of currencies is noticeably antiquated in its design, including only the currencies of industrialized nations… namely British Pounds, Euros, Japanese Yen, and US Dollars. This week, foreign exchange manager Overlay Asset Management has announced a currency basket it’s launching in order to offer a more up-to-date “virtual world reserve currency.”

According to the Financial Times:

“[Overlay Asset Management’s] Wealth Preservation Currency Index consists of the currencies of the world’s 15 largest economies, weighted by their gross domestic product, adjusted for purchasing power parity. The PPP element ensures a higher weighting to emerging market currencies than is commonplace in other currency baskets, with the Chinese renminbi (accessed through non-deliverable forward contracts) accounting for 16 per cent, Indian rupee 6 per cent and Brazilian real 4 per cent.

EU concedes IMF seats in ‘historic’ shake-up

EU Observer (Link) - Leigh Phillips (October 25, 2010)

Europe has conceded its overrepresentation within the structure of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), allowing emerging nations a louder voice and a real place at the table on the board of the organisation set up some 60 years ago to oversee the world’s financial system.

Finance ministers at the Group of 20 nations summit in Gyeongjiu, South Korea, on Saturday (23 October) agreed to the changes, which will see a shift in five to six percent of the votes within the institution toward “dynamic, emerging economies,” such as China, India and Brazil, and Europe give up two of its seats on the IMF executive board.

IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, describing the shift as “historic,” said: “This makes for the biggest reform ever in the governance of the institution.”

“The ten biggest members of the Fund ... will be those who deserve to be the biggest members,” he added, going on to describe how “the membership and quota of the membership are not really representing the importance and weight of the countries in the global economy.”

Full speed ahead on EU diplomacy after Strasbourg vote

EU Observer (Link) - Andrew Rettman (October 20, 2010)

The European Parliament on Wednesday (20 October) adopted by a crushing majority new budgetary and staff regulations for the European External Action Service (EEAS), clearing the last legal hurdle for the launch of the new institution.

“It’s a historic vote. We’re all one happy family now,” an official in the entourage of EEAS chief Catherine Ashton told EUobserver.

EU foreign ministers are set to approve the parliament decision when they meet in Brussels on Monday. Ms Ashton is then expected to name people for the three or four top posts in her service on Tuesday or Wednesday. Another 100 or so senior posts remain to be filled by the end of the year.

The British baroness now has until 1 December - the official launch date - to find a new home for the EEAS in the EU capital. EU Council secretary general Pierre de Boissieu is not keen to shift his translators out of the Lex building in the EU quarter in Brussels to make room, leaving the so-clled Axa or Triangle building a few hundred yards up the road still in play.

Seoul G-20 summit to set agenda for new economic order

Yonhap News Agency (Link) - Lee Joon-seung (October 10, 2010)

The upcoming Seoul G-20 summit is expected to set the key agenda and lay the foundation for a new post-crisis economic order that will promote sustainable development for all countries, economists say.

Experts from thinks tanks such as the state-run Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) and the Korea Institute of Finance (KIF) said that while contentious issues may not be resolved, broad understanding of financial reforms and balanced growth should be reached when leaders meet next month in the South Korean capital.

“The Seoul meeting is expected to mark a turning point in the role of the G-20 from one focused on managing a global financial crisis to a gathering that aims to regulate a new economic order,” Yoon Deok-ryong, a senior fellow and head of the KIEP’s G-20 research team, said a month before the start of the economic summit slated for Nov. 11-12.

He said the G-20 countries have all felt the need to create a new order to prevent a repeat of the Lehman Brothers debacle and ongoing financial uncertainties in some European countries.

Prophetic Times - Global Governance Conspiracy Confirmed by National Intelligence Council

Bible Prophecy Today (Link) - Word of Life Ministry - Bill Wilson (October 4, 2010)

U.S. and allied intelligence agencies are reportedly conducting a near-global manhunt for teams of al Qaeda terrorists that are thought to be planning terrorist attacks throughout Europe. The U.S. State Department has issued a travel alert for Europe. Yet possible high profile targets, such as NBA teams on a European exhibition tour say government officials told them there is nothing to worry about. NBA spokesman John Black said the NBA is in touch with the U.S. Embassy, the CIA and Scotland Yard, “they are keeping us informed of the situation.” Timberwolves forward Kevin Love told the Minnesota Star Tribune “They mentioned there was that threat, but it’s nothing that we need to be really worried about.”

In September, the U.S. Director of the National Intelligence Council issued a report saying, “Global governance - the collective management of common problems at the international level - is at a critical juncture.” The report advocates global governance and says, “At the beginning of the century, threats such as ethnic conflicts, infectious diseases, and terrorism as well as a new generation of global challenges including climate change, energy security, food and water scarcity, international migration flows, and new technologies are increasingly taking center stage.” It says that meeting these challenges will “require renewed efforts to address governance gaps.” In other words, a one world government.