"The Department for Transport said BA and BAA used different counting methods. "

The Daily Mail report a dispute about the total numkber of suitcases they currently have "in storage". Eraly reports said 15,000 suitcases . Yesterday, Jim Fitzpatrick, the Aviation Minister, revealed that there was a backlog of 28,000, which would take a week to return to their owners.

Willie Walsh the irritating dwarf head of BA , claimed that the total of missing bags was 19,000 — more than BA had previously admitted.

Mathematicians will be fascinated to understand quite how BAA and BA count .

Meanwhile here is something that counts ..

Main capital write downs in the last 9 months

UBS: $37.4bn of which $19 Bn TODAY
Merrill Lynch: $22bn
Citigroup: $21.1bn
HSBC: $17.2bn
Morgan Stanley: $9.4bn
Deutsche Bank: $7.1bn
Bank of America: $5.3bn
Bear Stearns: $3.2bn
JP Morgan Chase: $3.2bn
BayernLB $3.2bn
Barclays: $2.6bn
IKB: $2.6bn
Royal Bank of Scotland: $2.6bn
Credit Suisse:$2bn
Deutsche Bank :$3.9 Bn. ...TODAY
TOTAL : $ 142.8 n

The internal BaFin study reported yesterday that shortfalls at finance institutions worldwide could end up totalling US$600 billion (€380 billion).

UPDATE 2/4/08 : Bloomberg has a complet (?) global list here Their table shows the $232 billion in asset writedowns and credit losses since the beginning of 2007, including reserves set aside for bad loans, at more than 45 of the world's biggest banks and securities firms.

US car sales fall off a cliff in March - Gas pump prices highest ever

The financial engineers are busily wiping out acres of zeroes on their balance sheets, and the US engineers are reporting fast declining sales. As expected US auto sales saw double digit declines in the 26 selling days of March (28 selling days in '07)

Ford posted a 14.3% decline from a year ago to 227,143 vehicles Cars were down 9.6%, trucks 16.7% with the F-Series pickup down 23.8% the once red-hot Ford Mustang saw demand down 30.9% to 10,180 vehicles and the now ex Ford / Land Rover posted a 16.6% drop but in the gloom Jaguar reported a 5.1% rise. The remaining Ford "luxury" brand - Volvo posted a 13.1% decline.

On a sober note Ford marketing chief Jim Farley said he expects next quarter to be the worst in the year. Ford Market capitalization today is US$12.65 Bn. GM's is US$11.32 Bn. - UBS wrote off US$19Bn. today.

Ford said sales to individual buyers dropped 17 %, with most of the decline in pickup trucks and SUVs. Sales to rental-car companies were down 13 % and total fleet sales slid 9 %.

GM sales fell off a cliff , light vehicle sales dropped 19% to 280,713 down from 345,417 a year ago.

Cars were down 14.2%, and light trucks 21.7% the Hummer saw sales melt away by 29% to 3,451 vehicles. Chevrolet sales fell an eyewatering 22.8 % to 164,564 vehicles in March.

Toyota, said March sales fell 10% to 217,730 from 242,675 a year earlier.

Total passenger car sales fell to 129,778 from 140,009, and light truck sales declined to 87,952 from 102,666. Toyota brand sales fell 9.8% to 192,791 vehicles from 213,820, and its luxury Lexus division saw sales fall 14% to 24,939 units from 28,855 last year.

Honda saw a sales drop overall of some 3% to 138,734 units from 143,392 a year ago. March U.S. sales of the Civic rose to 32,740 vehicles from 29,721 a year ago.

Nissan also saw sales overall were down by 3% but no breakdown is available.

German Luxury car maker Porsche reported a 25% decline to 2,467 units from 3,278 and Mercedes Benz, said March U.S. sales dropped to 20,808 vehicles from 21,612 a year ago.

Bloomberg report that Gasoline rose to $3.287 a gallon for regular unleaded in the U.S. on March 30, the highest ever and more than 61 cents above year-earlier prices (rise of 2%) . Consumer sentiment for the month fell to the lowest in 16 years.

Acinetobacter baumannii - another Hospital Acquired Infection to worry about

Early in 2007 an outbreak of Multiple Drug Resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter baumannii swept through Arizona - 236 cases in just 2 months. It was reported by the state disease monitoring systems, but ignored on the national level.

This outbreak spread nation wide and is related to returning injured sodiers from Iraq, and because of a legal technicality in reporting, the military and CDC will not discuss it publicly.

More people come forward, bit by bit, telling stories of how the hospital played down their infection. The one person who could have done something about it, "Rep. Dennis Moore" has walked away from the issue deciding it wasn't worth getting into even after what he had seen on a visit to Walter Reed. Acinetobacter baumannii infections among patients at military medical facilities treating injured U.S. service members in 2002-2004.

Acinetobacter is classified as an opportunistic pathogen. Healthy people are said to have their skin colonised on the surface of their skin with no ill effects. Newborns, the elderly, burn victims, patients with depressed immune systems, and those on ventilators, acinetobacter infections can and do kill.

Since Operation Iraqi Freedom began in 2003, more than 700 US soldiers have been infected or colonized with Acinetobacter baumannii. A significant number of additional cases have been found in the Canadian and British armed forces, and among wounded Iraqi civilians.

The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology has recorded seven deaths caused by the bacteria in US hospitals along the evacuation chain. Four were unlucky civilians who picked up the bug at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, while undergoing treatment for other life-threatening conditions. Another was a 63-year-old woman, also chronically ill, who shared a ward at Landstuhl with infected coalition troops.

On result was a website dedicated to concerns about the disease in the military wounded which we drew attention to here -Saturday, March 31, 2007 Hospital Acquired Infections - A Bad News Day This site (now it appears discontinued) had collected press stories of which this was typical ..

Superbug hits Canadian soldiers injured in suicide bombing Thu, 23 Feb 2006

Master Cpl. Paul Franklin of Halifax lost a leg, Cpl. Jeffrey Bailey from Edmonton had devastating head injuries, and Pte. William Salikin of Grand Forks, B.C., also suffered a head injury.

The three soldiers were first taken to a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. When they left a week later, all three men were infected with drug-resistant bacteria.

Medical specialists aren't certain whether most infections started in the battlefield or
the hospital. It's thought that they may have gotten it from going through
the hospital in Landstuhl," said Lt.-Col. Henry Flaman, a Canadian military
doctor in Edmonton.

Now Professor Matthew Falagas of the Alfa Institute of Biomedical Sciences in Athens, Greece and Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts speaking at a Society for General Microbiology 's 162 nd meeting in Edinburgh this week has highlighted the spread in the UK of this highly resistant organism and it's connection to the return of wounded soldiers adn their hspitalisation in the proximity of civilian patients.

It is also apparent that it doesn’t just cause severe infections, it kills many more patients than doctors had realised. Acinetobacter can cause pneumonia, skin and wound infections and in some cases meningitis.

In an alarming remark he said, “In some cases we have simply run out of treatments and we could be facing a pandemic with important public health implications”.

The connection with wounded comvbatants first became apparent after a 2003 outbreak aboard the U.S. hospital ship Comfort in the Persian Gulf, In May 2007 , a group of researchers narrowed the source of the infection down to field hospitals in Iraq and Kuwait, though some doctors and scientists still expressed doubts.

At first it was thought that the bacteria was pre-existing on the soldiers skin and migrated to wounds, but despite claims it can exist on the skin there was no evidence of prior infections and it appears that cross infection was happening.

What worries Professor Matthew Falagas is the fact that we are running out of anti-biotics to treat patients and that even old treatments such as colistin, a polymyxin type antibiotic discovered 60 years ago, no longer used because of serious side effects, has recently been used as a salvage remedy , have little use as bacteria like Acineobacter soon become resistant.

Acineobacter in the UK

Fiona McCrae in The Daily Mail today reports that 1,000 UK residents fall prey to Acineobacter every year (source ?) and whilst official figures are not available it was linked to 39 deaths at St. Mary's in Paddington, London 3 years ago when 101 patients tested positive October 2004 - June 2005. (Press release 15th June 2005)

In 2003 , 93 patients , 91 of them civilians became infected at Selly Oak Hospital, in Birmingham where servicement were controversially being treated in the same wards as civilian patients. They report that 35 of the infected patients died but it was not possible to establish if the Acineobacter infection was a main cause of death. (report Sunday Times Sun Oct 08, 2006 )

In January 2006 Margaret Berry, the hospital's chief nurse, said: "Acinetobacter is not uncommon in hospital intensive care units. We have identified just a small number of cases here at Addenbrooke's.

Rosemary Radcliffe - Northern Wreck Director who approved issue of fraudulent Interim accounts and 33% divvy rise - reckless or criminal ?

Rosemary Radcliffe, who was a non-executive director at Northern Rock, (until the load shedding exercise on Friday 16th November 2007) was also a former chief economist at PwC ( she was at PwC 1982-2001)

Rosemary joined the Northern Rock Board on Jan 1st 2005 and in that year was paid for her Non Exec duties £37,000 for that year. She must have been mightily pleased when ths was increased by 50% to ££54,000 starting 2007.

No doubt she would also be aware that when the Interim accounts were prepared and published and approved by the Directors, on July 26th that 73 % of the loans covering the NR balance sheet was due in 3 months.

Nor should we forget that the FSA announced on 03/09/2001, that Rosemary Radcliffe, former Chief Economist at PricewaterhouseCoopers, was appointed to be the independent Complaints Commissioner for the Financial Services Authority (FSA) an appointment made by the then Minister, glamorous, intelligent ,fun loving Ruth Kelly. Rosemary left the post on 3rd September 2004 to be replaced by Sir Anthony Holland, Chairman of the Northern Ireland Parades Commission (?) and a former Principal Ombudsman for the Personal Investment Authority.

At the time the shortly to retire FSA Chairman Callum McCarthy said: "I would like to express the thanks and appreciation of the FSA Board to Rosemary Radcliffe for her work to establish the Complaints Commissioner position as one of undoubted independence and integrity."

In the light of all this it is fascinating to see from the Year End Accounts and report that in the year she attended ;

Risk Committee meeting : Once (out of 3 held)
Main Board Meeting : 11 times out of 21 held.

Evidently a lady who took the consideration of risk and the oversight of the company as a matter of great importance which reflected her (very generous) pay rise.

Lehman Bros 17/4 - " Our liquidity position has been and continues to be very strong,'' Offers US$3 Bn. Convertible stock 7.25% coupon / 33% discount

After the markets closed yesterday Richard S Fuld Jnr who is steering suddenly illiquid Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. through the alleged "Credit Crunch", announced the sale of US$3 Bn. worth of fancy convertible preferred shares which are said to offer a 7 - 7.5 % yield , convertible into common stock at about $50, a premium of about 33 percent on the current share price .

Which is odd.

How so ?

Lehman's fortunes and shares have been on a roller coaster since last summer. When Bear Stearns disappeared in to J P Morgan 2 weekends ago the shares took a sickening lurch - they are now now down 42% compared with last summer.

On March 17, its share price opened the day down 35% on speculation that it could face a similar fate as Bear Stearns. Next day , Lehman announced its Q1 earnings ( reported net income of $489 million, down 57% EPS down 59%), and said it had $30 billion worth of cash and $64 billion in securities that could be turned into cash. The shares soared 46 percent.

In an e-mailed statement quoted by Bloomberg the bank said that day ``Our liquidity position has been and continues to be very strong,'' the New York-based company said in an e-mailed statement. ``We consider the liquidity framework under which we have operated for almost a decade to be a competitive advantage.''

The same day Moody's Investors Service affirmed the bank's credit status at A1 but lowered its outlook on the company to "stable" from "positive".

The figures also showed that Lehman wrote down US$1.8 billion, net of hedges, in the first quarter, on mortgage-related securities - although many critics saw this as too conservative. Lehman remain holding $39 billion in commercial real estate assets and $37 billion in residential mortgages.

So why do they need this cash injection ?

Referring to the sale, Lehman’s chief financial officer, Erin M. Callan, said, “We did it for several reasons — investor demand, it gave us the opportunity to deleverage faster and it provides us with dry powder to take advantage of some of the opportunities in the market.”

Elsewhere Lehman started a bizarre legal action against Japanese trading house Marubeni Corporation on Monday, claiming it had been swindled out of $352 million - said to involve forged documents and an impostor at Marubeni’s offices.

Appropriate reserves were made in Q1 figures and the bank has insurance to cover damage from the loss.

Lehman's share opened up 10% and are now trading at US$41.30 ish 50% down on 12 months ago.

Thornburg Mortgage shares leapt 33% to US$1.62 ( US$14 at beginning of March) after the hard hit residential-finance company specializing in making large mortgages to people with good credit, said it raised US$1.35 billion through selling bonds, warrants to purchase its common shares and interests in certain mortgage assets. see March 14th Carlyle leads the way with Triple A mortage Fire Sales as margin calls cannot be met


Main Capital write downs declared in last 9 months

UBS: $37.4bn
Merrill Lynch: $22bn
Citigroup: $21.1bn
HSBC: $17.2bn
Morgan Stanley: $9.4bn
Deutsche Bank: $7.1bn
Bank of America: $5.3bn
Bear Stearns: $3.2bn
JP Morgan Chase: $3.2bn
BayernLB $3.2bn
Barclays: $2.6bn
IKB: $2.6bn
Royal Bank of Scotland: $2.6bn
Credit Suisse:$2bn

Haditha : White Wash continues

A roadside IED explosion in Haditha, Iraq on 19 November 2005 killed one marine, L/Cpl Miguel Terrazas, and injured two others.

Subsequently in three houses over the next few hours 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians, including women and children, were killed.

Initially The US military reported that the Iraqis had been killed by that explosion, or in a subsequent gunfight with insurgents. Iraqi witnesses said US troops shot dead 5 unarmed men in a taxi when they approached the scene of the bombing.

The US military didn't investigate until January 2006, when video footage shot by a local human rights activist Iraqi journalism student Taher Thabet videotaped the scene at a local morgue and the homes where the shootings had occurred was widely published and Time conducted an investigation which was taken up by Democratic Congressman John Murtha from Pennsylvania who accused the Marines of cold blooded murder.

The following month, three officers in charge of troops in Haditha were stripped of their command and reassigned. The Marines paid more than US$40,000 in restitution to survivors of 15 victims killed in two of the houses.

Eventually 8 troops were court martialled for a range of offences including voluntary manslaughter , 5 of them have now had charges dropped.

L/Cpl Stephen Tatum, 26, was about to face a court martial on charges of involuntary manslaughter ****- charges of unpremeditated murder and negligent homicide had previously been reduced to involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault. Marines in previous hearings have testified that L/Cpl Tatum helped “clear” two Iraqi houses in which 19 people died.

Another marine testified L/Cpl Tatum told him to shoot Iraqi women and children found hiding in a closed room. That marine said he walked away but saw L/Cpl Tatum return and heard a loud noise, possibly gunfire or a grenade

Investigating Officer Lt. Col. Paul J. Ware wrote in a 29-page report that there is insufficient evidence to show that Lance Cpl. Stephen B. Tatum did anything other than follow Marine Corps rules when he killed women and children in two houses in a residential neighborhood in Iraq on Nov. 19, 2005. Ware found that Tatum followed orders to attack the houses and shot a group of civilians only because another Marine in the unit was already shooting at them....he did so was because of his training and the circumstances he was placed in, not to exact revenge and commit murder.”

Staff Sgt. Justin Laughner, taken under a grant of immunity testified on June 7, 2007 that he was ordered by Lt. Andrew Grayson to destroy grisly pictures of women and children killed by Marines so that the images would not be part of a statement being prepared for an investigative officer and a magazine reporter.

Tatum's defence lawyer Jack Zimmerman, said in a statement: "It became clear to the experienced prosecution team that the right thing to do was to dismiss all charges. " ( report here pdf)

"We believe the evidence shows that Lance Corporal Tatum reacted to an enemy attack the way he was trained to do."

The Marine Corps said it was dropping all charges against him and granting full immunity "in order to continue to pursue the truth-seeking process into the Haditha incident".

In February, Tatum received an order to testify against Wuterich and an unrequested immunity order that said anything to which he testified would not be used against him in his court-martial. On Friday, a new immunity order was issued, along with the dismissal of charges.

Courts martial for Lt Col Jeffrey Chessani and 1st Lt Andrew Grayson are expected in April and May respectively, while the suspected / alleged ringleader, Staff Sgt Frank Wuterich, faces a court martial on 9 counts of voluntary manslaughter later this year.

L/Cpl Tatum's lawyer denied that a deal had been struck under which the marine would testify against Sgt Wuterich. Murder charges against Sgt. Dela Cruz who admitted killing the taxi occupants were dropped last year in exchange for his testimony.

“To ensure the remaining cases are brought to closure in a fair and just manner, further discussion of this case is inappropriate at this time,” Lt Col Sean Gibson said.
Charges L/Cpl Stephen Tatum faced :


Charge I: Violation of the UCMJ, Article 119 (Involuntary Manslaughter)(Maximum punishment: dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for 10 years):
Specification 1: by culpable negligence or while perpetrating an offense directly affecting a person, unlawfully kill Noor Yunis Salim.
Specification 2: by culpable negligence or while perpetrating an offense directly affecting a person, unlawfully kill Zainab Yunis Salim.
Charge II: Violation of the UCMJ, Article 128 (aggravated assault)
(Maximum punishment: dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for 8 years):
Specification: commit an assault upon women and children by shooting at them with his M16A4 service rifle.
Charge III: Violation of the UCMJ, Article 134 (reckless endangerment)
(Maximum punishment: bad conduct discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for 1 year)
Specification: wrongfully and recklessly engage in conduct by firing his M16A4 service rifle into a room occupied by unarmed men, women, and children.

Coltsfoot - Spring is sprung

A welcome sign of the spring. Often confused with the Dandelion, flowers appear from the overwintered rhizomes before the leaves, which appear in summer the size of small rhubarb leaves - resulting in a Roman descriptive name of filius ante patrem (son before father).

Appearing before bees are out and about, it is pollinated by hover flies and is a widely used anti-tussive or cough remedy (which is what Tussilago means).

Herbal teas are variously made of the dried leaves and flowers which are said to contain the flavonoids , rutin and carotene, taraxanthin, arnidiol and faradiol, tannin, inulin, sitosterol (closely related to cholesterol), and zinc.Use as a hebal remedy is restricted in Australia and New Zealand because it contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids (senkirkine , senecionine) which are known to be hepatotoxic and have been shown to cause liver damage in rats. Known cases of human liver damage have been the result of persistent (6-12 months) and large dosages of herbal teas. There has also been a report of foetal death due to dietary consumption of herbal products containing pyrrolizidine alkaloids which result in Hepatic veno-occlusive disease, (VOD), a very specific form of hepatotoxic pathology.

A widespread plant and common in waste places in UK and Europe. Listed as an invasive weed in several Eastern US states, Alabama, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Tennessee and also in Oregon.

Basra. WTF?

Now that UK troop withdrawals from Basra have been suspended (BBC) it may help to make sense of what is happening in Basra, and why - this series of articles is an excellent starting point. Dick Cheney, (67, 4 heart attacks wears a pacer, has gammy leg) is home from a 10-day tour that ranged from Iraq and Afghanistan to Turkey and Saudi Arabia - his first visit to Istanbul wher he took some time to visit the stunning Topkapi Palace and to read Rick Atkinson's The Day of Battle, about the U.S. Army's campaign to capture Sicily and mainland Italy during World War II.

Cheney’s “peace” trip to Middle East prepares new wars[21 March 2008]

Martha Raddatz of ABC News asks Cheney , “It doesn’t bother you that some of the troops themselves want to get out of there?” To which Cheney replied, “They’re a broad cross section of America. I think they’ve overwhelmingly supported the mission. Every single one of them is a volunteer.”

He told the service men in an address at Balad airbase in Iraq...."“This long-term struggle became urgent on the morning of September 11th, 2001. That day we saw clearly that dangers can gather far from our own shores and find us right there at home. So the United States made a decision: To hunt down the evil of terrorism and kill it where it grows, to hold the supporters of terror to account, and to confront regimes that harbor terrorists and threaten the peace."

......and we were all told it was because that pesky dictator Saddam had WMD's ... now exactly where was Veep Cheney that morning on September 11th 2001 ?****

Iraqi regime launches assault on Basra[26 March 2008]

Iraqi government offensive in Basra threatens to trigger Shiite uprising[28 March 2008]

The sieges of Basra and Sadr City: another US war crime in Iraq[29 March 2008]

Repeated US air strikes in Basra and Baghdad [March 31st 2008]

****

On May 8, 2001 - four months prior to 9/11 - the president placed Dick Cheney in charge of "All federal programs dealing with weapons of mass destruction consequence management within the Departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Justice, and Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, and other federal agencies…" This included all "training and planning" which needed to be "seamlessly integrated, harmonious and comprehensive" in order to "maximize effectiveness." This mandate created the Office of National Preparedness in FEMA, overseen by Dick Cheney.

Dick Cheney was placed directly in charge of managing the seamless integration of all training exercises throughout the entire federal government and all military agencies. On 9/11 Cheney oversaw multiple war games and terror drills, including several exercises of NORAD, the Air Force agency whose mandate is to "watch the sky."

poisson d'avril

The archaeological discovery of a lifetime is found in Rochdale. Find out about the unearthed landmark that experts say will bring tourists in their millions.

UBS in massive US$19Bn writedowns and call for US$12 Bn capital injection

The news of balance sheet mayhem gets even worse with the prudent Swiss at UBS announcing plans for a fresh 15 billion Swiss francs capital hike, fully underwritten by four leading international banks (JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas and Goldman Sachs)- the last day they can before the legal deadline for the bank to send out the AGM invitation along with the order of business for the day. This will strengthen Tier 1 capital. This will involve Rights issue of 1,250,000,000 fully paid registered shares with a par value of CHF 0.10 each (Mkt price now, CHF 28.86 US$ 28.80).

The need for this capital injection was triggered by further US$19 billion writedowns on US real estate and related structured credit positions, which according to the Swiss banking giant will in a first quarter net loss of approximately 12 billion Swiss francs.(US$12 Bn.) UBS say they "substantially reduced their real estate related positions through both valuation adjustments and significant disposals". Over the first quarter, UBS's exposure to US residential sub-prime mortgage related positions declined to approximately USD 15 billion from USD 27.6 billion on 31 December, and the exposure to Alt-A positions was reduced from USD 26.6 billion to approximately USD 16 billion.

The US $19bn of fresh asset writedowns has to be added to US $18.4bn it wrote off in 2007, as the value of its assets has plummeted so total write downsas a result of the sub-prime crisis have more than doubled to about $37bn (£18.5bn).

This has also de-fenestrated chairman Marcel Ospel , he is slated to be succeeded by Peter Kurer, currently general counsel of the bank and a member of the Executive Board since 2002.

They have also announced the creation of separate unit to manage selected US real estate related positions. They say UBS's intention is "to reduce its exposure in a way that reduces the effect of distressed market conditions on the core businesses " , whilst continuing to provide "the greatest opportunity for shareholders to realize value over time." (Press Release)



We repeat ..." Over the first quarter, UBS's exposure to US residential sub-prime mortgage related positions declined to approximately USD 15 billion from USD 27.6 billion on 31 December, and the exposure to Alt-A positions was reduced from USD 26.6 billion to approximately USD 16 billion."

What are HBOS / RBS / Barclays / Lloyds etc ., hiding away ?

Main capital write downs in last 9 months

UBS: $37.4bn
Merrill Lynch: $22bn
Citigroup: $21.1bn
HSBC: $17.2bn
Morgan Stanley: $9.4bn
Deutsche Bank: $7.1bn
Bank of America: $5.3bn
Bear Stearns: $3.2bn
JP Morgan Chase: $3.2bn
BayernLB $3.2bn
Barclays: $2.6bn
IKB: $2.6bn
Royal Bank of Scotland: $2.6bn
Credit Suisse:$2bn

Lord Patel's Helicopter Index - Floating Currency UK Uncertainty Program

We have decided to start using the Helicopter Index - the efficacy of the BOE in throwing money out of Lord King's helicopter - this is a very complicated calculation - the Euro / Pound exchange rate.

Friday .....today the £ closed against the € down 0.092 or 0.75% @ € 1.26215 lowest ever.

Monday ......today the £ closed against the € down 0.030 or 0.25% @ € 1.25915 lowest ever.
Using the inflation rate is fairly pointless as whichever one chosen is rigged, and accurate unemployment figures disappeared many years ago.

Lord Patel's design studies are busy designing the new Helicopter Index Logo. Toni Fabuloso is keen on a Saigon Helicopterish design with the portly Lord King fighting his way onto the helicopter on top of a slowly sinking Bank of England.

Lord Patel will shortly open a book on the date the Pound Sterling is exchangeable at parity with the Euro.

Google gets into bed with the spooks ?

Verne Kopytoff (cool name for a cool guy) at SF gate sent me his article Google has lots to do with intelligence (SFGate)

A guy called Mike Bradshaw heads a sales team of 18 out of Mountain View that sells their search technology to Federal, state and local agencies to bruing in another revenue stream. (Google's overall revenue , mostly from online advertsiing was $16.6 billion last year , roughly the size of a small pharma company)

These includes the intelligence agencies (of whom there are at least 20 known ones in the US) the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the state of Alabama and Washington, D.C.

Some contracts constitute mini intranets for use in searching internal documents and Government data - or for integrating mapping data from Google Earth.

The spooky bit is Intellipedia. This is a system which Sean Dennehy of the CIA masterminds. It is said to be a network aimed at helping 37,000 agents share intelligence (so only about 1% of them). Which seems about as unlikely as snow in summer.

Allegedly modelled on Wikipedia, and probably just as fucking reliable. This 35,000 artcicles , 200,000page databox (Wikipedia just today reached 10 million pages) is said to be maintained by the director of national intelligence and is accessible only to the CIA, FBI, National Security Agency and an alphabet soup of other intelligence agencies and offices. Which is what Echelon is supposed to be, which was developed over 20 years ago.

Such stories drip out daily.. maybe true, maybe not...but here's a spooky thing. Logging onto Amazon , for the first time we clicked on what they recommended to read, obviously based on purchase/search history - the result was unexpected and frightening. Better order some cookery books and knitting patterns.

"Dr" Howell in Doha says “devolved government” for Basra province is OK by him

On 10 February when Roddy Drummond, Chargé d'Affaires and Head of Mission in Doha, Qatar the spanking brand new Embassy opened its doors said he was "we are excited about the facilities the new Embassy offers" (photos)

Probably not as excited as when he met peripatetitic rentagob FCO Minister Dr Kim Howells arrived at the Embassy (between Aladdins's and Rainbow Roundabout) this weekend with the randy Duke of York in tow to inaugurate the mission which had moved after 45 years to what looks like a computer factory in West Bay.

Howell sensibly failed to mention the FCO funded new BBC Arabic service set up to compete with the Qatar funded al Jazeera (which had been set up with the staff sacked when they disbanded the OLD BBC Arab News service - nor did he mention they way the Qataris were such pals with Saddam Hussein whom we had strangled to death but whom they had given a personal Boeing 747.

However, always sensitive to local concerns, he launched into the pleasure that the UK Government had in seeing the opening of a Roman catholic church “This is a very significant step for Qatar, and a very encouraging one,” adding “Qatar is opening its doors to everyone.” Later at a Press conference he waded in further , “It is a very brave decision by the Qatari authorities, and one we are very pleased about.”

Although extensively covered by the British press they somehow missed his further remarks (or indeed his previous ones) about how inter-faith dialogue could help eradicate ignorance, which is “the biggest cause of fear of others’ religious beliefs.”

More sensibly he welcomed the expansion of the LNG projects in Qatar and the imminent arrival of Qatari gas at the Qatari owned LNG terminals at Milford Haven which will provide a (hugely expensive) stop gap for the UK. The UK will soon be reliant on Qatar for between 15 and 20% of its gas supply explained the Princely playboy at a luncheon held by the Qatar British Business Forum the same day.

Blundering on he launched into Palestine , the Middle East so called Peace process and the need for a cease fire and commitment to the Annapolis peace negotiations - carefully not suggesting that the Israelis stop building new settlements and expanding the current one's on the West Bank.

In a truly amazing departure from Coalition Policy he mused about Iraq and said the possibility of a “devolved government” for Basra province can be seriously considered as part of a solution to end the crisis, comparing such a solution to the devolution of government in the UK.

Well worth him collecting those air miles then.

German Financial regulator BaFin estimates global shakedown of US$600 Bn of which German share is 10%

Ludwig von Mises summed it up like this:

"There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The question is only whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved."

In a move contrary to the UK "Tripartite" supervision that the Ballsian / Brownian set in motion to supervise Financial services and Banking in the UK. From 1 May 2002 The Bundesbank and German Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin)(Bundesanstalt für inanzdienstleistungsaufsicht) combined the previous activities of the Federal Banking Supervisory Office, the Federal Supervisory Office for Insurance Enterprises and the Federal Supervisory Office for Securities Trading.

It is evident that this provides a more focused, central and powerful form of control in which the Deutshes Bundesbank firmly control operations. Which will be essential of a study reportedly made by BaFin is correct.

Spiegel today reports the contents of an internal BaFin study that says that shortfalls at finance institutions worldwide could end up totalling US$600 billion (€380 billion).

This shorthall it is said, results from ill-advised speculation on the US subprime market and resulting jitters in markets worldwide. BaFin says that its prognosis is merely a worst-case scenario. "Given what we know about the current situation on the markets, we presume that a total of $430 billion is more probable," the confidential 16-page report says.

The paper also lists losses that have already been admitted to by various credit institutions: a total of $295 billion. Some 10 % of those shortfalls are accounted for by German banks. Should that share of the damage remain constant, German banks can expect losses to be as high as US$60 billion.

BaFin experts fear that the finance crisis will spread to other sectors of the economy. The turbulence could hit "other financial institutions outside of the banking sector," the paper says. The report lists hedge funds, insurance companies and retirement funds as being at risk.

On Friday Bild quoted banking insiders predicting total losses by German banks from the American subprime mortgage loan crisis could hit the €70-billion (US$111 billion) mark. They also reported that claims that the country's third-largest regional bank, WestLB -- which has been kept alive with injections from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia -- will soon be requiring an additional €2-billion lifeline.

Meanwhile, IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG bank,which has already received a billion-euro bailout will be draining a further billion euros from the public purse, bringing its total rescue package so far to €8 billion.

On the same day Bavarian governor Günther Beckstein said the state's BayernLB bank would announce losses related to the credit crisis of up to €4 billion -- double the €1.9 billion figure the bank had previously disclosed.

Munich based Hypo Real Estate (Mkt Cap €2.2 Bn.) Germany's second-biggest property lender has warnnd of more writedowns and gave more information last week on its 5 billion euro plus exposure to structured debt products.

It said the market for its 1 billion euro (US$1.6 billion) portfolio of U.S. collateralised debt obligations (CDO) had deteriorated and that further writedowns were possible. About a quarter of the portfolio is subprime.

It also said any slip in the value of 3.2 billion euros of real estate-linked investments it owns would hit its revaluation reserve.

Finance Director Markus Fell said "In this crazy world, I don't feel comfortable giving any further outlook,"

Hypo shares HRX:DE rallied on that news and rose from a low of €13 to €16 where they trade today.

John Paulson, a little-known hedge fund manager smelled trouble two years ago. He had found a bubble he could short. He bet against the American Dream and placed heavy bets of other people's money on the ABX an index that tracks the sub prime market (sorry tracked .. there is no sub prime market anymore).

His funds in 2007 made US$17 Bn, of which his personal share was US$3/4 Bn - oddly at one stage in his career he was a mergers-and-acquisitions investment banker at Bear Stearns Cos.

Tools for urban terrorism ™ #1

Postman Patel in it's new pocket sized, typo ridden format is one year old today so we are introducing a new and occasional cut out 'n' keep feature. Suggestions / Additions Welcome

Max Mosley takes a beating

Max Mosley , son of Oswald Mosley and Diana Mitford has been exposed in the News of the World and Bild with extraordinary videos and pictures of a five hour orgiastic ersatz Nazi style punishment in a basement flat in a swish part of London on Friday afternoon.

The glamorous, blonde Oxford (Christ Church) educated lawyer and head of F1 motor racing is shown as an eager and willing participant in scenes of unpleasant, comedic but painful punishment - and he was obviously a patsy in a nasty set up.

In the days when Lord Patel knew him at University he was a gifted and entertaining speaker and was never without rich and beautiful lady friends.

His early years were wretched and when he was interned with his parents on the Isle of Man he was, along with other children separated from his parents. Deprived of wardrobes they used to hang their clothes over the end of the iron bedsteads.

As a result he could not sleep without a pillow on his feet.

These are wilder shores of sexual excitement that defeat understanding.

Michael Todd , the mystery walkers and the mystery rucksack and the mystery bottle of gin and the mystery bottle of champagne

Alan Rimmer and Andrew Chapman filed a story 'Suicide' police chief: Why didn't they call us earlier ask rescue services? in today's Mail on Sunday

A car smash and bracing walk produced a cocktail of concern about one feature of the story ....

The helicopter that brought down the 2 walkers then took up ..."a local police officer and a member of our team flew back up the mountain in the helicopter to Bwlch Glas where the rucksack had been found. They found Mr Todd's body almost immediately."

Picture this.

It is an absolutely foul day, the worst storm on Snowdon in ten years and two walkers find a rucksack.

With freezing fingers they call 999

"We are on Snowdon near the summit and have found a discarded rucksack."

" What do you want us to do ?"

" Well we thought you ought to know"

" Thank you, bring the rucksack down with you and we will be delighted to put it in lost property"

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Gloomy Sunday

Michael Todd - Dead Men tell no Tales - The living are silent as well ... what happened to cop who investigated UK collusion in CIA Renditions ?

At 5.00pm on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 BBC4 "PM" programme broke the news that Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Michael Todd had been found dead on Snowon. AT 5.06 pm we posted EX Met , GMP Police Chief Michael Todd found dead near beauty spot after long solitary countryside walk

We immediatelt reported that Michael Todd had been leading a probe into claims that CIA 'extraordinary rendition' flights had been landing in the UK, on behalf of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).

We pointed out that "On 19 December Liberty held a meeting with Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Michael Todd. Chief Constable Todd has confirmed that he will look into “extraordinary rendition” flights on behalf of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). According to Chief Constable Todd, the police have begun initial inquiries and will follow Liberty’s recommendations for further questioning." UN Convention in Torture UNCAT Vol 2 160/6 Page 166. House of Lords report 26thMay 2006

Shag Happy top cop

Since then the UK press have revealed that a much admired cop had been, as they put it in the cateen in Stretford GMP HQ..."Puttin' it abaht a bit" and beyond a straighforward reference to his role in the "Rendition" enquiry framed the stories of an unhappy copper / troubled marriage / suicide letters (eventually denied)/ texts to ladies revealing a stressed man torn between desire and duty ... oh and a bottle , half empty / empty of "spirits" / gin.

Hidden agendas and conspiracy theories

The vast bulk of readers / viwers simply do notbelieve that the State and it's organs have a policy of killing people. Despite the lengthy catalogue of state employed assassins / bombers / double agents in Northern Ireland, Police collusion with terrorists / drug dealers over many years meticulously deatikled and published by Nuala O'Loan the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman in her 7 year term of office. Her first report into death of Raymond McCord junior beaten to death by the Ulster Volunteer Force in north Belfast in 1997 gave details of at least 15 murders directed by a Police informant with Police approval and frequent their help.

Kevin Fulton, the pseudonymous agent has published a great deal about his experience working with MI5, how they helped obtain arms and bombing devices from the US - also his contacs with Jonathan Evans (now Head of MI5) or "Bob" and the Force Research Unit (FRU) - which may yet be revealed in court as he sues for a promised pension and new identity from MI5.

Therefore we tried to provide a possible narrative of events that led to the murder of Michael Todd, the discovery of his body, and the motives behind it ...Thursday, March 13, 2008 Another bloody silly conspiracy theory - Dead Men tell no tales Part II

Briefly, Todd had been passed over the the top Met job after Sir Ian Blair becaus of his shagging the troops (prejudicial to good order an ddsicipline) - precisely the reason he was asked to do the "rendition" enquiry by X Home Office lawyer Sami Chakrabarti of Liberty. In the way John Stalker (with his flawed connections to the Manchester underworld) could be dragged off the NI "Shoot to Kill" enquiry 20 years earlier.

Passed over and pissed off, he became a loose cannon and threatened to reveal how the UK Gubment colluded in the us of UK airports an airspace and how UK forces never "arrest"any likely lads in Afghanistan or Iraq but pass them on to the US forces for them to handle - so Mr Straw can weasel his way out of "any evidence".

Todd agreed a meeting (as did Dr Kelly) at some place, time, way as yet unknown , was transported to the mountain with clumsily contrived props, the mountain rescue were sent ona wild goos chase and then providently in the worst gale in 10 years some walkers "found" his body.

Today's Mail on Sunday and more evidence
Alan Rimmer and Andrew Chapman filed a story 'Suicide' police chief: Why didn't they call us earlier ask rescue services? in today's Mail on Sunday.

It isn't the intention to precis the article here but it reveals some fascinating details which can help update, improve and justify the theory that Michael Todd was murdered because of his involvement in the "rendition" enquiry.

1. Mr Walker, 52, head of Llanberis Mountain rescue says they were called in hours after Todd was first reported missing.

2. The pair of hikers who found what is said to be Todd's rucksack containing personal items ( and at approx 1 pm made a 999 call) were male and female , both young and one was from Brighton. He took them after they had been helicoptered in to the Mountain rescue Centre - " before long they were whisked away by a squad of police. I don't know where they went to".

3. A standard rescue involves a 36 man team, a proven method ... but at the insistence of the police they wanted a very small team.

"They used only three men and a dog, which is totally against normal practice," he said. "Thirty-six people and all the dogs are normally called out to any incident. The three men have been sworn to secrecy by police."

4. Todd's Range Rover was parked almost outside Walkers house in Llanberis - standard procedure is to locate the lost person's vehicle and break in to get sniffer dogs to raise a scent and follow it. It was only subsequent to finding the body this became apparent and GMP officers (operating on someone else's patch ?) and NW Police interviewed neighbours and villagers.

5. The helicopter that brought down the 2 walkers then took up ..."a local police officer and a member of our team flew back up the mountain in the helicopter to Bwlch Glas where the rucksack had been found. They found Mr Todd's body almost immediately.

"Mr Todd was found face-down covered in snow. A half-empty bottle of gin was found by his side. His winter jacket was also found discarded in the snow a few yards away. "

"Someone told me that they also found a bottle of champagne in Mr Todd's rucksack, a strange thing to take up a mountain. I don't know whether it was full or empty."

6. The main party of rescuers reached the body at about 3pm. By that time the weather was really closing in.

"To make matters worse, a huge Chinook helicopter suddenly appeared and tried to make a landing. It made two attempts, but it was impossible and it soon pulled off. No one had a clue where it came from.

"Six men at a time were used to carry the stretcher in relays with Mr Todd's body strapped to it down the mountainside. "

7. The rescue party eventually reached the bottom of Snowdon by 7pm on the Tuesday.
Mr Walker added: "Men in dark suits were swarming all over the place. They were not in uniform. We took it they were spooks, Government agents. They weren't normal plainclothes detectives, and they didn't introduce themselves to us."

Pushing aside requests to rush to Heathrow and solve the problems terminal 5 and re-acquainting 15,000 pieces of luggage with their owners , our vast technical staff are attempting to revise the Bloody Silly Conspiracy Theory to take account of the above.

It will be fascinating to have a chat with the two bemused young walkers who providently stumbled across the drunk ? shagged out ? hypothermic ? but definitely dead body of Michael Todd at "approximately" 1.00pm on Tuesday March 11th.

How very odd that they have remained silent - as no doubt will the 3 members of the search team sworn to secrecy.

Let's not forget that one person has already been murdered who was reluctantly involved in approving a CIA kidnapping / rendition in Denmark ...Of course the Bromma airport incident in Sweden on December 18th 2001, is the most interesting of cases where approval was given because the lady (Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh) who gave the approval for the kidnapping was murdered in public nearly two years later (curiously she died on 11th September 2003 at about the time that details of the incident were surfacing publicly) – by a Kosovan hit man (Mijailo Mijailović he confessed in Jan 2004). See -Monday, December 12, 2005 - CIA prisoners Diplomatic Cover - questions to be asked - and hopefully, answered.

PS : There is of course an enquiry into the activities (extra and intra mural shagging) of Michael Todd by his fellow ACPO Vice President Sir Paul Scott-Lee, the Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, which will take a (very) long time, demand secrecy, destroy evidence and silence witnesses. (qv 3 members of Mountain Rescue Team)

UK oil - the slippery slope

The Oil Drum Europe is the best source of information on the global / European energy market available - the articles are exceedingly well informed, clearly and concisely written and have good graphics.... and it's free. The comments are equal in quality and wide ranging. A must read. This months Oilwatch (Oilwatch Monthly - March 2008) makes, as ever, fascinating reading.

This graph should give Mr Brown and Mr Darling , sweaty palms as the costs of oil mports rise and the N.Sea tax take declines.