industryterm:real estate

Rookie » When Good Things Happen to Other People
http://rookiemag.com/2013/04/when-good-things-happen-to-other-people

It’s an ugly way to feel—unhappy because of someone else’s success—but human beings are often ugly. And I’m willing to bet that you’ve felt the same way. Here are some things that can make you go insane when they happen to people who are not you: Getting a boyfriend! Making out with a girl at party! A great SAT score! Getting into a good college! Having cool parents! Wearing jeans that fit well! Having big boobs! Having small boobs! Coming out of the closet! Editing a super-cool magazine! (...)

Nicolas Berggruen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Berggruen

3 Political Interests

Son père était un homme passionnant. Les galeristes ne devraient pas avoir d’enfants.

Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor – The Autobiography
Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor: The Autobiography offers hands-on leadership advice and entrepreneurial tales from one of the region’s most established businessmen.

Gulf Business News
http://gulfbusiness.com/2013/04/khalaf-ahmad-al-habtoor-the-autobiography

Alors que certains alimentent la crainte d’un effondrement de l’économie libanaise en cas de « punition » du pays par les monarchies du Golfe, Mohammad Zbeeb rappelle que le modèle économique libanais est déjà une catastrophe indéfendable.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/lebanese-future-without-gulf-money

Under these circumstances, shady economic activities have flourished, stifling the real economy and damaging prospects of decent job opportunities. Wages dropped below 25 percent as a proportion of GDP while costs of housing soared and infrastructure projects stalled.

According to the logic of the fear mongers, the Lebanese have no choice but to surrender to an economic model that perceives citizens as masses of obedient consumers.

The current economic model heavily favors real estate speculators. In 2012, declared real estate sales were worth more than $9.2 billion, according to finance ministry figures. Real estate speculators have unlawfully seized up to 1.3 million m² in downtown Beirut through Solidere, and more than 7.5 million m² of seafront property, from Naqoura to Akkar.

The fear mongers do not care for Lebanon’s four million citizens, half of whom have no health coverage and 75 percent of whom have no pension. In truth, half of the population practically lives below the poverty line on less than $4 a day, including 350,000 people living in abject poverty on less than $2 a day, according to a study by the ministry of social affairs and the United Nations Development Programme.

Moving Deeper Into Brooklyn for Lower Home Prices - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/realestate/moving-deeper-into-brooklyn-for-lower-home-prices.html?pagewanted=1

The subway commute to Manhattan is longer, and organic markets and stylish boutiques are fewer. But those are the trade-offs as the search for more affordable real estate in Brooklyn pushes deeper into neighborhoods that for some New Yorkers still evoke images of burned-out buildings, riots and poverty.

#gentrification

Qatari emir buys six Greek islands for a song | World news | The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/04/qatar-emir-buys-six-greek-islands

“That law says that whatever the size of your land, your home can be no bigger than 250 sq m. The emir has reacted to this saying his WC is 250 sq m and his kitchen alone has to be 1,000 sq m, because otherwise how is he going to feed all his guests?”

Sacramento Developer with Ties to UC Davis MIND Institute Embroiled in New Controversy

In the midst of the growing controversy over the alleged embezzlement of public funds by California Democratic Party operatives associated with OBAMA FOR AMERICA, a Sacramento real estate developer once accused of defrauding an Indian tribe out of millions of dollars while conspiring with the tribe’s attorney (Howard Dickstein), is now embroiled in a separate controversy dealing with the alleged embezzlement of public funds through and by means of fraud while conspiring with the wife of Howard Dickstein — Sacramento-based lobbyist Jeannine English.

Specifically, Mark Friedman of Sacramento-based Fulcrum Property Group — an Electoral for Barack Obama — has recently been identified as a potential player in the financial scheme known as CaliforniaALL following the fortuitous discovery of evidence relating to his accountant, Alison Turner of Alison Turner & Associates.

As relevant to this matter, in 2007, various members of the State Bar of California Board of Governors with ties to the Democratic Party/OBAMA FOR AMERICA are accused of knowingly agreeing to establish a non-profit entity (known as CaliforniaALL) which was later misused as a vehicle to absorb funds from utility companies, as well as close to $800,000 from the California Bar Foundation (an entity controlled by the State Bar of California Board of Governors).

As matters presently stand, suspicions exist that Morrison & Foerster attorneys James Brosnahan (the self-proclaimed “mastermind” behind the Democratic Party and member of OBAMA FOR AMERICA’s California Finance Committee), Tony West (OBAMA FOR AMERICA’s Chair of California’s Finance Committee), Chris Young (OBAMA FOR AMERICA’s Northern California Deputy Finance Director), Annette Carnegie (former director of the California Bar Foundation), Kamala Harris (Co-Chair, OBAMA FOR AMERICA and member of CaliforniaALL), Jeffrey Bleich of Munger Tolles (president of the State Bar of California, director of the California Bar Foundation, and founding member and Chair of OBAMA FOR AMERICA’s National Finance Committee), Brad Phillips of Munger Tolles (2007- 2008 Director of the California Bar Foundation which served as a “financial sponsor” to CaliforniaALL on behalf of Verizon Wireless and Southern California Edison, both clients of Munger Tolles & Olson), Mark Parnes of Wilson Sonsini (2007-2008 director and Secretary of the California Bar Foundation), John Roos of Wilson Sonsini (former CEO of Wilson Sonsini and member of OBAMA FOR AMERICA’s National Finance Committee), Steven Churchwell of DLA Piper in Sacramento (Treasurer, draft committee of OBAMA FOR AMERICA; firm where CaliforniaALL resided free of charge), Laura Chick (member of the State Bar of California Board of Governors and OBAMA FOR AMERICA), and Freada Klein Kapor (member of the board of directors of CaliforniaALL; OBAMA FOR AMERICA’s phone bank was located at The Kapor Center) all participated in a sophisticated financial scheme to misuse all or part of the “hush-hush” $780,000 originating from the California Bar Foundation to improperly benefit OBAMA FOR AMERICA via a separate foundation created ad hoc by Susan Mac Cormac and Eric Tate of Morrison & Foerster known as CaliforniaALL.

In 2007, Ruthe Catolico Ashley served as member of the State Bar of California Board of Governors alongside Jeffrey Bleich, and came up with the idea to create CaliforniaALL during a meeting with Sarah Redfield and Peter Arth, (the assistant to CPUC President Michael Peevey).

CaliforniaALL was conveniently housed free of charge at the offices of DLA Piper in Sacramento, alongside the draft committee of OBAMA FOR AMERICA, where Steve Churchwell of DLA Piper in Sacramento served as Treasurer of the draft committee of OBAMA FOR AMERICA.

Subsequent to the election of Barack Obama, CaliforniaALL was dissolved.

Other then collecting close to $2 million directly from utility companies (including the “hush-hush” transfer of $774,247, comprised of one installment of $5000 and another contribution of $769,247 from the Foundation which was never mentioned in the Foundation’s “newsroom” or by any other of its publications such as the California Bar Journal or by any of the newsletters and alerts published by CaliforniaALL), CaliforniaALL appears to have been be a sham, phantom entity from its inception in 2008 to the day it began to slowly be dissolved in approximately 2009, subsequent to the election of Barack Obama as president of the U.S. Its only alleged achievement was providing some money for the creation of the Saturday Academy of Law at UC Irvine (“SALUCI”) in approximately 2008-2009. Here too vast and intense suspicious circumstances exist as the funds from CaliforniaALL actually went to the UC Irvine Foundation, where the present executive director of the State Bar of California (Senator Joe Dunn) serves as a member of the audit committee, and it turns out that the SALUCI was actually already created in 2005 and was fully operational before CaliforniaALL arrived on the scene. In addition, some records seem to indicate that Verizon Wireless funneled the money directly to SALUCI , while CaliforniaALL took the credit.

Lebanon : Gulf Arabs Sell Off Local Properties | Al Akhbar English
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/lebanon-gulf-arabs-sell-local-properties
intéressant article même si on en reste à des anecdotes plus qu’à une analyse en profondeur.

many of the buyers are rich Lebanese expats in Africa, who dream of owning property overlooking the sea or in downtown Beirut.

Si on fait l’hypothèse qu’une bonne partie des chiites d’Afrique sont chiites, cela signifierait il une « avancée » chiite dans Beyrouth et son centre, pour employer ce vocabulaire que j’abhore ?
#Beyrouth
#immobilier
#foncier
#Golfe
#Arabie_Saoudite

Lebanon’s Seafront Aggressors : The Names and the Details | Al Akhbar English
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/lebanon%E2%80%99s-seafront-aggressors-names-and-details
Les petites plages privatisées de Mr Nabih Berry et consorts... Magnifique article !

The Lebanese coast is almost 220 kilometers long. It should be a source of wealth for Lebanon and a common space for its citizens, as well as provide a competitive advantage on the regional level. Instead, the coast is subject to constant violations, including 1,140 encroachments along the beachfront – an average of 5.18 intrusions per kilometer. Only 73 of those are ‘licensed.’The report estimates the total occupied beach and sea area to be over 2,535,788 square meters, in addition to around 1,356,938 million square meters of ‘licensed’ occupations.

La petite place de Mr Berry: http://english.al-akhbar.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/3cols/berri-gearth.jpg
Et je renvoie à mon billet sur le même sujet : http://seenthis.net/messages/90092
#Liban
#littoral
#spéculation_immobilière
#infractions
#domaine_public
#corruption

Chinese Architecture, Old and New
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/11/chinese-architecture-old-and-new/100409

The growth of China’s massive population has slowed in recent years, but migration to urban areas has increased, with almost half of China’s 1.3 billion people living in or near cities. A booming economy, government housing initiatives, infrastructure programs, and private real estate speculation have all driven construction to record levels.

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/china112012/s_c05_RTR2A10I.jpg
#photographie #architecture

Meet William Hauck (of Golden Pacific Bank / Blue Shield of California / California State University / California Forward / Goddard Claussen )

Golden Pacific Bank Profile of Director William Hauck:

“William Hauck is the Senior Advisor at Goddard Claussen/West. Based in the firms Sacramento office, he provides strategic counsel to its clients. He recently retired as President and CEO of the California Business Roundtable. In that capacity, Mr. Hauck is responsible for all operations of the organization. The Roundtable was created to provide policy leadership at the state level regarding the maintenance of a sound economy and business climate in California and is composed of the chief executive and senior operating officers of major corporations doing business in the state.

Bill Hauck most recently served as President and CEO of the California Business Roundtable. Hauck led the organization from 1996 to 2011. Prior to that, he held a number of executive positions in state government including Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Pete Wilson, Chief of Staff to two Assembly Speakers and Director of the Assembly Office of Research. Mr. Hauck also chaired the state’s Constitution Revision Commission (appointed by Governor Pete Wilson) and served as Co-Chair of the California Performance Review Commission (appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger).

Mr. Hauck currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the California State University system where he chairs the board of directors’ finance committee. He served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees from 1998 to 2000. Mr. Hauck also serves on the board of directors of Blue Shield of California, where he chairs the nomination and governance committee, and serves on the finance and investment and compensation committees.”

Source: http://www.yourbankingsolution.com/about-us/management.html

TLR Notes:

1. In addition to Mr. Hauck, also serving as directors at Golden Pacific Bank are CaliforniaALL’s Pat Fong Kushida, Richard Claussen, and Donna Lucas — who may have abruptly quit recently)

2. Golden Pacific Banks does not mention Hauck’s involvement with California Forward.

3. Ally of MTO’s Jeffrey Bleich vis a vis California State University.

–--------------------------------------------------------

CSU Profile:
William Hauck

Chair (1998-2000), Board of Trustees
Vice Chair (1996-98), Board of Trustees
Member, Board of Trustees (1993-2017)
The California State University

Mr. Hauck joined Goddard Claussen/West as Senior Advisor in late 2011. Prior to joining GC/West, Hauck served as President and CEO of the California Business Roundtable and was responsible for all operations of the organization. The Roundtable is headquartered in Sacramento and is composed of the Chief Executive and Senior Operating Officers of major corporations doing business in the state. The organization’s mission is to provide policy leadership at the state level regarding the maintenance of a sound economy and business climate in California. He served in this capacity from 1996 to 2011.

Prior to joining the Roundtable Hauck was Executive Vice-President and major shareholder of Information for Public Affairs Inc., a Sacramento based national information services company now owned by Lexis/Nexis. Hauck also has held a number of executive positions in state government including Deputy Chief of Staff to the Governor, Chief of Staff to two Assembly Speakers and Director of the Assembly Office of Research. Hauck also chaired the state’s Constitution Revision Commission (appointed by Governor Pete Wilson) and as Co-Chair of the California Performance Review Commission (appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger).

Mr. Hauck serves on the Board of Directors of Blue Shield of California. He is currently Chair of the Nomination and Corporate Government Committee and also serves on the Compensation Committee.

Additionally, Hauck is a member of the Board of Directors of the Blue Shield of California Foundation and chairs the Audit Committee.

Mr. Hauck received a B.A. in social science from San José State University (1963).
Source: http://www.calstate.edu/BOT/bios/hauck.shtml

–-----------------------------------------------------

California Forward Profile:

Bill Hauck is a senior advisor at Goddard Claussen/West and the former president of the California Business Roundtable, a statewide nonpartisan organization which brings the leadership of California’s top chief executive officers to public policy issues affecting the state’s business climate, economic growth and quality of life.

Mr. Hauck also is a founder, major shareholder and a member of the board of directors of Information for Public Affairs Inc., also known as State Net. State Net maintains a database of legislation introduced in 50 states and Congress.

Mr. Hauck previously served as deputy chief of staff for Governor Pete Wilson and was chairman of the California Constitution Revision Commission. Earlier in his career, he served as chief of staff to Assembly Speakers Bob Moretti and Willie L. Brown, Jr. Additionally, Mr. Hauck was a consultant to the Assembly Committee on Governmental Organization, director of the Assembly Office of Research, and assistant city manager of Palo Alto.

Mr. Hauck serves as a member of the board of trustees of the California State University system, which he chaired for two years, and serves as chairman of the board’s finance committee. He also serves on the board of directors of Blue Shield of California and on the board of the Blue Shield of California Foundation. Mr. Hauck also served on the board of the California Journal, a monthly nonpartisan analysis of government and politics in California.

Source:

http://www.cafwd.org/pages/william-hauck

TLR Note:

Also directors are Donna Lucas, CETF’s Sunne McPeak, CCPF’s Stweart Kwoh,

–--------------------------------------------------------

Blue Shield of California Foundation Profile:

Bill Hauck is Senior Advisor to Goddard/Claussen West, a Sacramento-based highly-regarded public affairs and ballot measure campaign firm.

Mr. Hauck recently stepped down as President of the California Business Roundtable, a statewide, non-partisan organization composed of senior operating officers of California’s leading corporations. He had held the position since November 1996.

Mr. Hauck’s Sacramento-based career has included stints in business and state government. Until its November 2010 sale to Lexis/Nexis, he was a major shareholder and member of the Board of Directors of State Net, a national information services company providing data on legislation introduced in 50 states and Congress.

Mr. Hauck also has served as Chairman of the California Constitution Revision Commission and Deputy Chief of Staff for Governor Pete Wilson. Earlier in his career he served as Chief of Staff to Assembly Speakers Bob Moretti and Willie Brown Jr. More recently, Mr. Hauck served as Co-Chair of Governor Schwarzenegger’s California Performance Review Commission.

Mr. Hauck serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the California State University system. He chaired the Board from 1998 to 2000. Originally appointed by Governor Wilson, he was reappointed by Governors Gray Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger and is now serving a third eight-year term. He currently is Chairman of the Board’s Finance Committee.

In addition, Mr. Hauck serves on the Board of Directors of Blue Shield of California and the Board of Trustees of Blue Shield of California Foundation. He also is a member of the Board of Directors of Golden Pacific Bancorp and California Forward.

Mr. Hauck is a graduate of San Jose State University and participated in the CORO Foundation Internship in Public Affairs.

Source: http://www.blueshieldcafoundation.org/about/board/william-hauck

Deepening economic crisis in Japan

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/nov2012/pers-n15.shtml
15 November 2012

Deepening economic crisis in Japan

Little more than 20 years ago, Japan was being held out as the new economic model destined to become the wave of the future for global capitalism. Today, it faces a mounting economic crisis, providing a stunning refutation of the claim that China or other so-called “emerging markets” can form the basis for a stabilisation of the world economy.

This week it was announced that its economy, the third largest in the world after China and the US, had contracted at an annual rate of 3.5 percent. It now faces the prospect of entering a recession—defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth—for the fifth time in the past 15 years.

#japon #économie

Robert Kurz - 2009 Interview with IHU Online | libcom.org
http://libcom.org/library/2009-interview-ihu-online-robert-kurz

(avec eux « on a toujours déjà su, ce qui est assez stérilisant au final » via @prac_6) #critique_de_la_valeur #marxisme

Globalization cannot be reduced to information #technology. Under capitalist conditions it can only be part of the globalization of #capital, under whose command one also finds information. It is to be expected that, in the wake of inflationary State policies, the course of the crisis will lead to a “deglobalization” as an effort is made to withdraw towards the protectionist egoism of national economies, which are still only formal; and all of this will be accompanied by neo-nationalist ideologies. But this cannot overcome the crisis, it will even make it worse. One could also ask whether the #internet is sustainable—not because of a possible technological collapse (although in this respect as well there are signs of capacity having reached its limits), but because it depends on a formidable infrastructure, whose “financing” is just as dubious as everything else. A merely virtual globalization is not sustainable if it is not linked to the transnational reproduction of material beyond capitalism. The blabbermouths of the blogosphere and the intolerant freaks of the internet may yet be in for a rude surprise .

King tides in Saint Malo last week : http://vimeo.com/51804605

Rich businessmen pulling out of France as tax-hit looms - FRANCE 24
http://www.france24.com/en/20121007-rich-businessmen-pulling-out-france-tax-hit-looms

Rich businessmen pulling out of France as tax-hit looms
A placard reading “for sale” on a balcony of an appartment building is pictured in Paris’ eighth district in September 2012. A flood of top-end properties are hitting the market as businessmen seek to leave France before stiff tax hikes hit, real estate agents and financial advisors say.
A placard reading “for sale” on a balcony of an appartment building is pictured in Paris’ eighth district in September 2012. A flood of top-end properties are hitting the market as businessmen seek to leave France before stiff tax hikes hit, real estate agents and financial advisors say.

AFP - A flood of top-end properties are hitting the market as businessmen seek to leave France before stiff tax hikes hit, real estate agents and financial advisors say.

“It’s nearly a general panic. Some 400 to 500 residences worth more than one million euros ($1.3 million) have come onto the Paris market,” said managers at Daniel Feau, a real-estate broker that specialises in high-end property.

While it is not yet on the scale of the exodus of rich French after the election of Socialist president Francois Mitterrand in 1981, real estate agents said, the tax plans of France’s new Socialist President Francois Hollande are having a noticeable effect.

While the Socialists’ plan to raise the tax rate to 75 percent on income above 1.0 million euros per year has generated the most headlines, a sharp increase in taxes on capital gains from the sales of stock and company stakes is pushing most people to leave, according Didier Bugeon, head of the wealth manager Equance.

French entrepreneurs have complained vociferously against a proposal in the Socialist’s 2013 budget to increase the capital gains tax on sales of company stakes, which they argue will kill the market for innovative start-up companies in France.

Entrepreneurs in the high-tech sector in particular often invest their own money and take low salaries in the hope they can later sell the company for a large sum.

They say a stiff increase in capital gains tax would remove incentives to do this in France. They also argue that capital has already been taxed several times in the making.

The government has since backtracked, and Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac pledged Friday to return to the status quo when someone who has created a company seeks to sell it later.

French officials are looking for ways to reduce the country’s excessive public deficit and debt, and Hollande won election on a platform of making the wealthy carry more of the load.

Bugeon said he was seeing start-up entrepreneurs looking to move their headquarters out of France and taking their families with them.

With the Internet “it is now possible to work in any corner of the world and come and spend one week a month in France,” said Thibault de Saint Vincent, president of Barnes France, the principal competitor to Daniel Feau.

“Those who are going abroad fear a future tax on capital movements,” he added.

Daniel Feau agreed that the profile of those who are leaving has changed, from the idle rich to “managers of major international corporations, entrepreneurs and investors much younger than previously who are scared of the marginal tax rate of 62.21 percent on sales of stock.”

The head of the French employers federation Medef, Laurence Parisot, has complained recently of emerging “anti-enterprise racism” in France.

No one is certain if the rush to the exit will continue, but Daniel Feau noted: “Nobody until now believed that the capital gains on shares would be taxed so high.”

And it is not only the Paris region, more offers are coming onto the market in other areas of the country as well, the realtors added.

_____________________________________________

The preferred destinations of those leaving are London, New York and Geneva, as well as Canada, Israel and Singapore, said Laurent Demeure, head of Coldwell Banker France.

He also noted that Brussels remains a favourite of those older, who have already sold their business interests, and are looking to benefit from Belgium’s lighter taxation of trusts to pass on inheritances to their children.

“Next year to have dinner with friends, instead of a taxi I’ll more likely need to take the Thalys for Brussels or the Eurostar to London,” joked Demeure, referring to high-speed trains that link the three capitals.

He said he is currently receiving on average one request per day to appraise a luxury apartment or home.

As a result, in the previous two to three months the price of large Paris apartments had slid by five percent.

The real estate agents don’t expect a collapse, however, as the offers to sell still remain low and interest by foreign buyers firm.

Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said he has seen “no indication of a massive fiscal exodus”.

He told the daily Le Parisien that debate on the 75-percent income tax bracket was “closed” but noted that it was only a temporary tax for two years.

Clash of the Titans : Solidere Breaks With SODIC | Al Akhbar English
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/clash-titans-solidere-breaks-sodic

After years of partnership and mutual benefiting, Lebanese real estate giant Solidere seeks to distance itself from Egyptian counterpart SODIC as it comes under corruption charges linked to its close affiliation with the Mubarak regime.

Et ainsi quand un 14 Mars prétend que c’est le 14 mars 2005 au Liban qui a inspiré la révolution égyptienne, évidemment il se moque du monde.

Architecture and War: From Baghdad to Kabul | Les carnets de l’Ifpo
http://ifpo.hypotheses.org/4232

Kabul is witnessing a remarkable private sector-led construction boom, sustained by the “economic bubble” that is mainly generated by the temporary presence of international forces and organizations. Observers of the situation believe that the international “controls on the movement of money” in the aftermath of 9/11, the millions of dollars that the Afghan Government and donor community are spending on infrastructure rebuilding since 2002, and, more recently, the global economic crisis have prompted some expatriate Afghan entrepreneurs and traders to invest in the real estate business at home. Many Kabulis are however convinced that the resources for new construction have been mostly acquired through illegal means, particularly from the proceeds of the narcotics industry that are in part laundered into real estate.

#Kaboul
#guerre
#urbanisme
#informal
#gated_communities
#Afghanistan

Saudi to reverse Shia property ban
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/saudi-reverse-shia-property-ban

Saudi authorities have decided to withdraw a ruling issued by a senior religious scholar in the Kingdom which prevented the sale of real estate to members of the Shia community.

Bubbles, German WWI reparations, vampire squids & discussion of massive defaulting to wrest power back to the people: http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2012/08/06/financial-predators-v-labor-industry-and-democracy-by-mich

Racism, real estate and Jewish traitors
http://972mag.com/racism-real-estate-and-jewish-traitors/52012

The tenant didn’t yield. She said she was willing to meet halfway, but no more. “4250 shekels is a hefty price,” she said, “particularly if one takes into account the new circumstances in the neighborhood.”

‘What new circumstances?’ Yifat asked.

‘Didn’t you hear?’ the tenant said. ‘Neve is going away for a year and has rented his flat to an Arab.’

When the trumpets of Jericho ring out seven times for the world before the crisis

http://www.leap2020.eu/GEAB-N-66-is-available-Red-alert-Global-systemic-crisis-September-October-2

1. Iran/Israel/USA: The war too far will really happen
2. The Assyrian bomb: the Israeli-American-Iranian match put to the Syria-Iraq powder keg
3. The AfPak chaos: the US army and NATO, hostages in an exit from an increasingly difficult conflict
4. The Arab Autumn: the Gulf countries swept away in the turmoil.
5. United States: « Taxargeddon » will begin from summer 2012 – The US economy in free-fall by autumn
6. Major bank insolvencies due in September-October 2012: The City-Wall Street version of Bankia
7. The untenable irresponsibility of QE in summer 2012 - the US, British and Japanese central banks out of the game

#it_has_begun

WashingtonPoint
“#Syria is a good place to shop right now” RT“@Haleaziz: Der Spiegel on Syrian war profiteers: http://bit.ly/Ly4Qve”

Solidere Takes Another Bite Into Lebanon
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/solidere-takes-another-bite-lebanon

In its latest exploits, Solidere has laid its hands on land that, officially, is still public domain. Applying its own “laws,” the company illegally turned the building permits it obtained from allowing temporary to permanent structures, amongst other violations.

This article is about the Skybar project that Solidere is building on reclaimed land - the backfilled area that used to be the Normandy Landfill. Solidere owns 25 percent of the project’s shares and the majority owner is Sky Management company.

The project is riddled with violations and fraud. In 2009, during Bilal al-Alayli’s term as head of the Syndicate of Engineers, Ali Saad - the engineer in charge at Solidere - requested from the Syndicate of Engineers in Beirut a building permit for temporary structures over 1,300 square meters. His application was registered under the number 6510.

North Lebanon: A State That Sells its People to the Devil | Ibrahim al-Amin
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/north-lebanon-state-sells-its-people-devil

Didn’t the Saudi embassy in Lebanon once send an envoy who found that what was presented in reports about development programs implemented by the Future Movement and March 14 leaders in Tripoli and Akkar was merely an illusion? These projects never existed.

[…]

The rich should have embraced projects that feed people in a dignified manner, instead of escaping taxes on financial and real estate speculation...

Certainly, someone is preparing someone big in the North, linked to the situation in Syria. The escape of the state is an announcement telling us we should only expect death to come from the North.

Ah ah, j’avais oublié que, chaque année, le New York Times fait comme si ses lecteurs top-élite allaient/pouvaient/voulaient visiter 45 endroits dans le monde pendant l’année (The 45 Places to Go in 2012). Allez, mon cucul, celle-là, même tes annonceurs n’y croient pas
http://travel.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/travel/45-places-to-go-in-2012.html?pagewanted=all

Je cherche l’article du Monde intitulé « Les 366 palaces les plus chers de la planète dans lesquels nos lecteurs doivent absolument dormir en 2012. »