Tag Archives: Media

Berlusconi Immunity Thrown Out by Constitutional Court

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Italy’s top court, the Constitutional Court, has thrown out a law granting immunity from prosecution to the president, Silvio Berlusconi:

“The law overturned Wednesday was pushed through by Berlusconi’s conservative coalition in 2008 when he faced separate trials in Milan for corruption and tax fraud tied to his Mediaset broadcasting empire. It granted immunity from prosecution while in office to the country’s four top office holders — the premier, the president of the republic and the two parliament speakers.

The proceedings against Berlusconi were suspended as a result of the law, drawing accusations that it was tailor-made for the premier.

The corruption trial is particularly threatening because, in the meantime, the premier’s co-defendant has been convicted of accepting a bribe to lie in court to protect Berlusconi in another case.

Still, even if convicted, the premier would not be obliged to resign and could simply appeal, as sentences in Italy are usually not served until all avenues of appeal are exhausted.”

UK Military Protocol for Security & Counter-Intel Ops

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An important document on how the British state deals with what it perceives as security threats:

“This significant, previously unpublished document (classified “RESTRICTED”, 2389 pages), is the UK military protocol for all security and counter-intelligence operations.

The document includes instructions on dealing with leaks, investigative journalists, Parliamentarians, foreign agents, terrorists & criminals, sexual entrapments in Russia and China, diplomatic pouches, allies, classified documents & codewords, compromising radio and audio emissions, computer hackers—and many other related issues.
The document, known in the services as the “JSP 440” (“Joint Services Protocol 440”), was referenced by the RAF Digby investigation team as the protocol justification for the monitoring of Wikileaks, as mentioned in “UK Ministry of Defence continually monitors WikiLeaks: eight reports into classified UK leaks, 29 Sep 2009.”

Read more at Wikileaks on UK protocols for dealing with security threats of all kinds, from investigative journalists looking for disclosure of official documents to Chinese officials seeking “influence” (there’s an extensive section describing Chinese intelligence gathering).

Letterman Targeted in Extortion Plot By CBS News Employee

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Update: Favourite Letterman-blackmail quote so far is by Stephanie Gutman, at The Telegraph, UK:

“But this follows on the heels of the Travolta family extortion affair, so it points out one of the pitfalls of fame and wealth, that one is continually surrounded with a mosquito cloud of predators trying to draw blood. And even the creepiest, snarkiest, fake-sincere liberal talk show host gets my sympathy for having to live with that.”

In the news:

“Three weeks ago, Letterman said, he got in his car early in the morning and found a package with a letter saying, “I know that you do some terrible, terrible things and that I can prove that you do some terrible things.” He acknowledged the letter contained proof.
He said it was terrifying “because there’s something insidious about (it). Is he standing down there? Is he hiding under the car? Am I going to get a tap on the shoulder?”
Letterman said he called his lawyer to set up a meeting with the man, who threatened to write a screenplay and a book about Letterman unless he was given money. There were two subsequent meetings, with the man given a phony $2 million check at the last one. Letterman joked it was like the giant ceremonial check given to winners of golf tournaments.”
He told the audience that he had to testify before a grand jury on Thursday.
“I was worried for myself, I was worried for my family,” he said. “I felt menaced by this, and I had to tell them all of the creepy things that I had done.”
He said “the creepy stuff was that I have had sex with women who work for me on this show. My response to that is yes, I have. Would it be embarrassing if it were made public? Yes, it would, especially for the women.”

My Comment:

What an irony (but not an oddity) that the comedian who was making vulgar jokes about Sarah Palin’s minor daughter – presumably, to prove how trashy the Palins are – has a history himself.

Letterman admitted to numbers of affairs with co-workers, while revealing a black-mail plot from another CBS news employee, whose name hasn’t been confirmed yet. It’s interesting that this critic of the Palins* – who’ve been married for years and who had children within their marriage – married his long-term girlfriend only in March this year, though he had a child with her in 2003.

This is not a judgment about Letterman’s lifestyle. That’s his business. It’s a judgment about his good sense and his psychological motivations. You’d think the man would zip up about anyone else’s family or sexual history.

File this away as another instance of the corruption of the media. In recent posts, I’ve talked about sexual blackmail as one way in which public figures are ruined or hounded out of office. We’ve had the example of Eliot Spitzer, most famously.

The other point to note is that the perpetrator is a newsman (and not just any newsman – an Emmy award winning CBS producer and crime reporter for “48 hours.”  Although this has nothing to do with the “deep capture” of the media in the financial story, it does add to the evidence that the media really is the problem, at every level. When reporters are so intent on making their names that they’re prepared to “out” public (or even less than public) figures over personal matters that are irrelevant to any public interest, why should we be surprised that one of them takes a more direct route and uses the information to make money from his target directly?

*Note: As I’ve said before, I’m not a fan of Sarah Palin’s but dislike the way she was treated.

Ground Hog Ben: Fed Declares Depression Over…

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I expanded an earlier post into a diatribe:

That’s it folks. Wrap it up. This here recession…er.. correction…er.. depress…oh, whatever..is over. Time to put away your pens and papers, boys and girls.

Professor Bernanke says there’s going to be no test. You hear that? Or maybe, there’ll be one little teeny-weeny take-home. Better yet, you just get to write in and ask for whatever grade you want.

Billy Gross, Bobby Rubin, and Jamie Dimon, you boys get A’s, as usual.

(The rest of you clods better learn to to suck up if you want A’s).

Everyone else gets B’s….

No one fails. Ain’t life great?

Whew. That depression stuff was so, well, depressing. Glad it’s over.

There. That wasn’t so bad, after all, was it, seeing as how it was supposed to be the worst one in half-a-century and the sky was falling and we were all going to live in the Ozarks or Patagonia on canned peas and raw mackerel until we got raptured up… and really all that happened was some green paper got printed and we had to listen to a lot of speeches about schools an’ stuff in Barackistani (not as weird a lingo as Bushlish, but just as daft) and then, bingo, everything’s back to normal again.

Yessir. The economy is healthy. Grade A, certified organic, flu-vaccinated healthy. A bit weak. But wholesome. Except for jobs, that is. No jobs.

What kind of recovery is that, you ask?

What kind? It’s the new deadbeat, can’t-get-a job, rocketing-inflation, trashed-currency, can’t-sell-my-house, can’t-make-my-payments, bankrupt-mafia-government, kazillions-in-debt, trade-warring-with-China recovery – that’s what it is. Glad you asked.

It’s kind of a new thing. No one’s really tried it so far, but they’re doing it in Europe, we hear. And maybe a bit of it in Asia. But it’s back here in the US of A that we’ve got the whole thing down. Right here in Washington. And from now until the economy gets really going, we’ll be getting the full Bernanke on it – at least, that’s the buzz.

Yep. Professor Ben’s all but promised us he’s going to be inflating grades all around this time.

No F’s. No D’s. Heck, no C’s. It’s A’s and B’s all the way. That’s the way they do it in Princeton. It’s a self-esteem thing.

 Like that pep talk back on March 16, when Ben first spotted those green shoots. Now it’s September15 (exactly six months later), and Ben says the recession is over.

He says it’s all in the numbers from the National Bureau of Economic Research. The numbers say the recession ended this summer or fall. Man, the things they can predict these days.

Ole Ground Hog Ben. Puts his head out and the sun comes up. Amazing. Who knew you could even keep score of an economy?

Kind of like a lacrosse game at Princeton. Swat. Swat. Swat Take that, Harvard.

Of course, being a Princeton professor and religious and a pretty nice guy from all we’ve heard, Ben couldn’t bring himself to tell an outright whopper. He let the truth out dribble-drabble at the end.

Something about “impaired credit”…. and “head winds”…. and “digging out from personal debt”…. and “ongoing adjustments”….. and “unwinding massive stimulus efforts”…. and “risking igniting inflation”…. and “lingering high unemployment”…. and “sluggish outlook”…. and “higher gas prices” and…. “consumer reluctance”…. and “widespread job insecurity”…. and “significantly impaired credit”…. and “less lending”…. and “higher costs”…. and “deep freeze in credit”…. and “fearing defaults.”

But they put that way down in the report, after paragraph 5 (“Bernanke: Recession is Over,” Kansas City Star, Sept 15, 2009).

Before that, they just had him muttering something about the economy “underperforming”. ‘ Yeah, underperforming. Like the old geezer just needs a shot of Viagra.

But don’t let any of that bad stuff worry your little head, ’cause you know, the numbers say we’re okay. The numbers say the recession…er correction..er depress…oh, whatever…is over.

And numbers don’t lie, you know.

Like August retail sales. That went up by 2.7% over July. (I know, I know, cash-for-clunkers, high gas prices, blah blah blah. Gimme a break. It was still up wasn’t it?)

And the ISM numbers are good too.

August PMI (Purchasing Manufacturers Index) came in at at 52.9, 4 percent points higher than July.

(A number over 50 indicates an expanding economy. Below 50 is a contracting economy. This is the first time since June 2007 that the number’s been over 50).

Oh you don’t say!

And New Orders came in at the highest reading since December 2004. You know what that means. Businesses are stocking up. GDP is on it’s way up.

Woo-hoo

. Ride that gravy train.Ka-ching! Bada boom!

Hold just a moment though.

What’s this Non-Manufacturing Index stuff here?

Oh, you mean those bozos in medicine and law and teaching and real estate and construction and finance and retail?

Yeah, consumers. You know, guys who consume stuff. That stuff the manufacturing guys are producing. Seems like they still aren’t doing so good. So who’s going to buy all the stuff?

Not consumers. They’re cutting back.

You don’t know? That’s what comes of being a grade-inflated B student.

I bet Bob Rubin knows. And Jamie Dimon. And Bill Gross. And Warren Buffett.

And all their hedge-fund managing, private-equity-directing, leveraged-buying-out, sovereign-wealthy speculator buddies lining up to start the casino all over again. 

They know whose money they’re using to do it too.

Hey, Professor Bernanke. Can we see you outside class? We have some questions….
 

 

Note:

The indicators that are looking positive (ISM number, retails sales, the price of copper) are all numbers that could reflect no more than

1. The business cycle restocking of inventories 2. Cash for clunkers 3. The beginning of the school year 4. State purchases/investments being made by China in an effort to get rid of dollars

Stalinist “Libertarian” Fan Mail

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The morning mail can always be guaranteed to bring something out of the fever swamps. This one calls itself libertarian.  But it shows every sign of a Stalinist disposition, down to the puerile and quasi-racist invective. I’ll parse it after I’ve had breakfast. Just a small sample of the abuse you get for pouring yourself near full time into enlightening people and supporting unpopular positions…when they are unpopular. This one doesn’t even write me a mail under his own name. And so far, his contribution to libertarianism seems to be confined to writing apoplectic email. Hmmm. I am usually less annoyed by such things. I really should go and get some coffee…

“It seems that your beloved barefoot snowbilly from Wasilla has not quite made it through “The Language of Empire”   http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2009/09/07/from-the-people-and-sarah-palin-who-brought-us-the-iraq-war/ Do you still defend this vile, statist thug? Will I STILL see more stupid LRC posts in the near future?   I have a question. If I asked you to choose a position on the the Socialist-Corporatist TARP Program (I call it the TARD program, for obvious reasons), would your position be closest to…   A) “This whole situation is a perfect demonstration of why “doing nothing” and letting failing companies fail would have been much better than sinking valuable money and resources into them.”   or   B) “inaction is not an option we have got to shore up our economy… ultimately what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy um helping the… oh – its gotta be all about job creation too – shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So healthcare reform and reducing taxes and reigning in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans and trade we’ve got to see trade as opportunity not as competitive um scary thing but one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today we we’ve got to look at that as more opportunity – all those things under the umbrella of job creation – this bailout is a part of that.”   I will give you a hint. The first statement was made by a principled Libertarian, and the second statement was made by an idiot.   What if that idiot also “managed a 6 percent increase in part of the state’s budget, as well as being responsible for a windfall tax on oil companies—much like that proposed by Democrats” and gave their state “some of the highest resource taxes in the world”?   Do you still defend this vile, statist thug?”

My Comment:

First. Nowhere have I written that I support Sarah Palin’s positions. I’ve clearly stated “I am no fan of hers”. I thought she was unqualified…besides having some criticisms of her personal choices that may or may not be relevant to her candidacy as Vice-President. As a long-time (since 1991) antiwar activist, I obviously don’t support her pro-war position. But let’s see, exactly who were the choices? McCain, Biden, Obama…yes , wow, a bunch of peaceniks, all. I supported only one person this time around – that’s Ron Paul. In 2004, I supported any third party candidate, including Nader. Not because of lack of principle, or because I agree with all of Nader’s positions, but on the principle of support for any one opposed to the status quo. I stand by those positions.

I was opposed to the war in Yugoslavia, when many people thought it was a good war. I opposed the First Gulf War and the Second, as well as the sanctions, when hardly anyone talked about them (in 1995). I’ve signed petitions/letters in support of people as different in their politics as Norman Finkelstein and Ward Churchill, on one hand, and Hans Hoppe on the other.  I’ve written in support of Jerry Falwell when he was attacked personally. I also defended Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Sonia Gandhi when they were attacked personally. And, I defended Sarah Palin. No candidate for public office (or anyone else) for that matter, deserves to be trashed personally in such a racial, sexual, and classist way.

Demonizing them as though they were each a mini-Attila the Hun is an exercise in silliness. These politicians are run-of-the-mill people, no worse nor better than those around them.  I will bet “principled libertarian” above would never dream of criticizing the people pushing the war on terror – the neo-conservative cabal running the government. Oh no. That would never happen.

And I’ll bet he wouldn’t call them the translation of “Wasilly snowbilly” that would apply to neo-conservatives.

I wrote about  Goldman Sachs – more than two years ago – “Why It’s Time to Sell Goldman.”And I’ve written dozens of pieces and posts about them since. A piece I wrote last year was the first to tie Goldman to AIG (“Putting Lipstick on an AIG”). And I took TARP apart almost as soon as it came out.

But I guess, actually reading what people wrote would be asking too much from the underworld of internet forums.

Sorry to be so dour. But reading this sort of thing, I wonder why anyone should bother. Why inform people about the malignant lot at the top? The people at the bottom seem pretty malignant too…

On my darker days, I wonder if they don’t deserve each other…

Norman Podhoretz Admits Liberalism is a Religion..

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From The New York Times blog, a round-up of reasons why American Jews have identified so much with liberalism.

There’s a moment of candid speaking from the arch neo-conservative himself:

“Liberalism, he [Norman Podhoretz] argues, “is not, as has often been said, merely a necessary component of Jewishness: it is the very essence of being a Jew. Nor is it a ‘substitute for religion,’ it is a religion in its own right, complete with its own catechism and its own dogmas and obdurately resistant to facts that undermine its claims and promises.”

Michael Medved, the conservative cultural critic, goes past ‘support for Israel’ as the irreducible core of Jewish political belief:

“Jews, like all Americans, vote not so much in favor of politicians they admire as they vote against causes and factions they loathe and fear. Jews fear the GOP as the “Christian party,” and as the sole basis of Jewish identity involves rejection of Christianity, Jews will continue to reject – Republicans and conservatism.”

This is territory most non-Jewish writers would hesitate to explore for fear of being labeled anti-Semitic. But the more relevant question might be whether it’s completely accurate. A liberal commentator, Ron Rosenbaum diverges. He has another explanation of Jewish liberalism:

“I won’t say that it isn’t difficult, that there aren’t contradictions with being Jewish and liberal, but I’d rather associate my political orientation with those who supported the Civil Rights movement than with those who have yet to repudiate the racism behind the Southern strategy.”

Another writer, Robert McCain, adds the suburban-urban divide to the mix:

“Most American Jews are fundamentally urban in their orientation, while most American conservatives are fundamentally rural.”

My Comment:

It’s an interesting piece to read, but for me it raises a question about definitions. Most Jewish people might identify with liberalism. But is liberalism itself identified with Jewishness? I may be wrong, but surely it’s not. And surely a great deal of the purported venom of liberalism against Christianity arises from Gentiles.... from former Christians….from lapsed Christians…or from cultural or secularized Christians who loathe the religious aspects of their culture.

Duvall ‘Fesses Up To Bark, Not Bite

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Now Mike Duvall admits to “inappropriate story-telling” but denies having had an affair with either of the two lobbyists. That denial is seconded by Ms. Barsuglia. The man to whom he told the story now denies hearing it. He wasn’t paying attention, he says. Duvall talks a lot.

We were wondering ourselves…..

If the denials are accurate, it looks like Ms. Barsuglia and her family might have a case for defamation.

We’re all agog.

And we have another question: Just what level of IQ does it take to be a California assemblyman?

We’re all agog about that too.

Many’s the time  we’ve seen a female employee slandered for no more than being more personable and competent than the males around her. Her career is then almost sure to be attributed to her sexual wiles.

If Duvall is any indication, there seem to be married men whose rich imaginations don’t come equipped with the ethical compass that tells them that dragging your associates into your adolescent fantasies does irreparable damage to their professional credibility and personal reputation.

If the denials hold water, Ms. Barsuglia should be paid substantially for the damage done to her career and her family’s sensibilities.

Of course, the denials may not hold water.

White Hats Telling White Lies

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My piece on Team Obama’s propaganda effort on behalf of its economic interventions,
“Green Shoots and White Lies,” is up at Lew Rockwell this morning.

I’m posting the part that sums up a few of the biggest whoppers the administration is pushing to get those old animal spirits juiced up again. Will the PR work? Well, no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the public. Tell a lie big enough and tell it often enough and people will buy it.

White Hats Telling White Lies:

Fudge One:

Goldman Sachs had a great quarter, making a profit of $3.5 billion and the government made $1.4 billion on its investment in Goldman Sachs. The government also got a 15% return on its investment in the eight biggest banks.

Truth:

Goldman had a great quarter only because it moved its reporting calendar to cut out December 2008, when it had a loss. And the government only made a profit on the TARP money it gave to Goldman because

* It funneled more money via the bailout of insurance giant AIG to AIGs counterparties, including Goldman (which took in $13 billion of the AIG money).
* Warren Buffett made a pre-TARP financial investment in Goldman.
* Goldman got the benefit of exceptionally low interest rates from the government at the expense of savers and to the benefit of borrowers.
* Goldman was issued FDIC-guaranteed bonds.

Without that extra welfare thrown at it, Goldman would actually be broke, not showing a profit. Ditto for the other banks.

Fudge Two:

The labor market is getting better because jobs are growing. The unemployment rate fell from 9.5% in June to 9.4% in July.

Truth:

That number only shows a slowing in the growth of unemployment. And even that small improvement has been offset by other aspects of the labor market that are worsening quite sharply:

* The duration of unemployment is increasing
* Temporary jobs are declining.
* The percentage of the eligible population receiving unemployment insurance has increased (0.1 percentage point to 4.7%. by September).
* The four-week moving average of initial claims has moved to its highest level in a month.

(Reuters, September 3, 2009)

Even when jobs have been added, they’ve been created by government spending and they’ve been in areas like education, health, and government. In the purely private economy, in manufacturing, construction and retail, job losses have been huge. (“Brown manure not green shoots,” Nouriel Roubini, Forbes, July 9, 2009.)

Note: Recent improvement in the ISM (Institute of Supply Management) Index that signals expansion of production (and thus hiring) also needs to be discounted against the huge price inflation an increasingly pressured dollar will entail. That’s beside the effects of a hike in the Federal Funds rate that’s bound to follow a dollar-crashing scenario.

Note: The ISM is a leading indicator of executive expectations for future productions, orders, inventories, hiring, and deliveries.

Fudge Three:

Increases in real personal income in April and May will increase consumer spending.

Truth:

The increases were caused by tax-rebates and unemployment benefits kicking in, and most of it was saved, not spent (80 cents on the dollars). There was a temporary lift in consumer spending, but it petered out quickly. And as unemployment rises, benefits decline, and credit tightens in the future, consumption will decline even further

Fudge Four:

The bank stress tests came out better than expected.

The bank stress tests led Ben Bernanke to conclude that nearly all of the banks had enough capital to absorb higher losses should the economy worsen, and that the Treasury stood ready to provide more.

(AFP, “Hope is alive for green shoots,” May 11, 2009)

Truth:

The bank stress tests used an unemployment figure of 10.3% (the most adverse case). But unemployment is likely to be 11% and above by next year. If you take into account discouraged and partially employed workers, some economists suggest the figure is more likely to be 16%.
 Another point. The stress tests overlooked all the other ways in which the government was paying for the banks, through FDIC guarantees and cheaper loans, for instance.

Fudge Five:

The housing market is improving.

In July, the Pending Home Sales Index was up 3.2%. Another improvement was in the value of U.S. homes. In the second quarter that number fell year-on-year (the 10th consecutive quarterly decline), but it fell by a smaller amount than in the previous quarter, for the first time since 2007.

Truth:

The improvement in home sales has been mostly in the lower end of the market and it largely reflects foreclosure sales and government credit, not real improvement in the market.

The slowdown in price decline has been offset by negatives in other areas:

* 23% of all homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their houses are worth.
* 22% of all home sales nationwide in June were foreclosure resales.
* 29.2 percent of all homes sold in June were sold for less than the owners originally paid.

(Portfolio.com August 11, 2009)

Loan problems aren’t confined to subprime. Prime mortgages are going underwater too.

Meanwhile, the market also has to deal with the decline in commercial real estate, which is undergoing one of the greatest contractions in retail in decades. Rents, even in the best urban shopping districts, have been declining.

(Colliers International Spring 2009 Retail Report, May 14, 2009).

Beyond commercial real estate, there are also all the other plagues about to visit us, when personal loans, auto loans, and student loans tighten over the coming years.

Bottom line?
There is no real basis for sustained optimism about the economy yet.

California Assemblyman Duvall’s Hot Mic Loses Him His Job (Updated)

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Update:

Following up on whether there’ll be a focus on lobbyist-lawmaker corruption and what favors (if any) were exchanged between Duvall and the lobbyists he’s purported to have sex with, it seems that, fortunately, progressive groups are indeed trying to force a broader investigation of the subject.

Meanwhile, one of the two married lobbyists who are allegedly the subject of Duvall’s graphic boasts, Heidi De John Barsuglia, denies the affair (which means little at this point), and Sempra Energy, the giant utility company that employs her, has issued the usual public statement about how seriously it takes such charges. TPMMuckraker has the go-to round-up of the situation, no seamy detail left unmentioned.

Duvall voted several times against renewable energy measures (that Sempra also opposes), but since that’s a broadly-supported GOP position, it’s unclear that there was a quid-pro-quo in any of it.

My Comment:

I don’t cover sex scandals here unless they raise some sort of ideological point or tie in to the issue of blackmail and media/political control. But coming so soon after the salacious Vanity Fair piece on Palin, I wanted to post this one, which has at its center a California assemblyman and strong “family values” defender ‘outed’ by a mic he didn’t realize was on.

I’d really like to see if the media will treat a male conservative law-maker caught bragging publicly about his adulterous affairs with two lobbyists as viciously as they treated a female conservative governor who hasn’t been caught doing anything at all (she’s been accused not very successfully of some less than major ethical infractions).

Duvall will get a lot of flak for being

a. a hypocrite (which, as I’ve noted before, he may not necessarily be)
b. an idiot (which he clearly is)
c. crude/odious (check)
d. deceitful (check)

But I doubt if anyone will post photoshopped pictures that defame him, the way Sarah Palin was defamed.

Why won’t they? Something to do with the strange misogyny that conservative women with children and pro-life views elicit from liberal women. I’ve noticed it before….

The female of the species is [sometimes] more vicious than the male…especially to other females.

Let’s see how the media treats the actual news in this story – Duvall’s unprofessional relationship with lobbyists and what political favors he might have done them – or whether it gets side-tracked by the even-for-politics-exceptionally-racy details and the usual diatribes about hypocrisy.

How Green Are Our Shoots!

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I’m working on a new piece on the propaganda effort on the economy coming out of Team Obama. Here’s a part:

“How green are our shoots!
Thus say both Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.
And the public believes them. How come?

It all began in March. In the first televised interview by any sitting Fed chairman in 20 years (CBS 60 Minutes), Bernanke used the term, “green shoots” for the first time. He pointed out that the Dow Jones index had recovered from 12 year lows in 2008 and the banking system had stabilized. No more big banks would fail, he predicted (AFP, March 15, 2009).

Two months later, His Timness echoed Big Ben. Geithner cited reduced spreads on corporate and muni bonds, the reduction in costs in credit protection at the big banks, and smaller risk premiums in the interbank market. He too said the economy was recovering. (Tim Geithner, Statement before the Senate Banking Committee, May 20, 2009)

In June, World Bank President Robert Zoellick joined the ‘shooters.’ Zoellick is a former US trade representative notorious for forcing US government subsidies and trade policies inimical to small farmers onto emerging markets. Zoellick noted “signs of global recovery,” but cautioned that they might be killed off if protectionism were adopted (Reuters, June 8, 2009)

Translation: foreigners had better not object to US government-managed trade policies…or the global recovery will fold.

Put out….or look out.

Zoellick added his own revealing metaphor to the shooter lexicon: “Right now there is a low-grade fever; it isn’t full influenza, but we need to keep a close watch…”.[my emphasis]

[Oddly, Zoellick’s own employees at the World Bank contradicted their boss’s assessment in a report only a couple of weeks later (See “World Bank Global Economic Outlook” below]

In May billionaire hedge-fund manager George Soros was seeing green. And in July , chief wonk of the Obama economic team Lawrence Summers detected greenery in remarks to the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Green shoots were now being sighted by everyone:

*In July the International Monetary Fund published its World Economic Outlook update
The Fund revised expected global growth in 2010 upward to 2.5%. The main source of the improvement, it claimed, was a brightening outlook for Asia.

*Simon Johnson, IMF economist–turned-Peterson-Institute-spokesman-turned green-shooting-star even went on PBS to announce, “we are turning some sort of corner.” (August 20, 2009)

*Surveys of economists and business leaders in the summer showed that, in contrast to only a few months earlier, slightly more than half thought that the economy had bottomed.”

There’s a lot more I’m working on. Hope to have it on Lew Rockwell tomorrow, although I’d like to see it on some left-anarchist sites too. What began as a bit of trivia hunting (I was trying to figure out when the “green shoots” meme started) ended up throwing some interesting light on politics, the media, and the economy….