- Asia

Tokyo Soil Samples Would Be Considered Nuclear Waste In The US

nospam@example.com (Harvest Dream) — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 19:25:03 -0600

Thailands Epic Flood

nospam@example.com (Harvest Dream) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:17:50 -0700

Source: The Economist

THE capital is now under siege from the waters slithering down from the north towards the Gulf of Thailand. Shops, businesses and government offices in Bangkok cower behind makeshift concrete parapets and piles of sandbags. Bridges and elevated expressways are filling up with fleets of parked cars, to spare them from the deluge below. And all the time people speculate about just how bad it might get in a city the Europeans once called the Venice of Asia.

Despite the defences, there is likely to be some flooding. The government desperately wants to divert water around the capital, to east and west, but the volume is too great. The desire to save densely populated Bangkok is understandable. But the strategy is angering those in the northern suburbs, where neighbourhoods are filling up with water as the sluice gates remain closed. An admirable steadfastness among Thai people is wearing thin.

Flood Map Of Thailand

Disease Cluster In Thailand

nospam@example.com (Harvest Dream) — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 23:40:48 -0600

Source: Canoe - April 14, 2011

Another Thailand traveller was treated in hospital after spending time in Chiang Mai, where a number of tourists have mysteriously died since January.

Megan Jefferies, 26, of Seattle, Wash., became violently ill April 4 along with two friends after eating and using restrooms at the Night Market in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on March 30.

The Night Market is next door to a hotel plagued with mysterious tourist deaths since the beginning of this year, including Edmontonian Bill Mah, who was found dead after using the hotel's facilities Jan. 26.

Mah's symptoms began with severe chest pain keeping him up through the night, a close friend earlier reported.

He later died of "suspected natural cause," after being diagnosed with acid reflux in a Thailand hospital and sent home.

Jefferies and her husband, Mike, had to abruptly cut their one-year travel across the world short, after two weeks in Chiang Mai resulted in Jefferies making two emergency hospital visits - "the worst week of their lives."

She was treated in a Chiang Mai hospital after suffering chest pains and flu-like symptoms April 8. They were staying at another nearby hotel.

"My hands and legs were shaking and really sore, and later Mike told me that my eyes had rolled back in my head and my lips were blue. We were really scared," she said.

Continue reading "Disease Cluster In Thailand"

Disaster In Japan Exposes Supply Chain Flaw

nospam@example.com (Harvest Dream) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 10:05:34 -0600

Source: The Los Angeles Times - April 6, 2011

About 40 miles west of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, another kind of crisis may be unfolding — this one striking at the heart of the world's multibillion-dollar market for smartphones, portable music players and other cutting-edge electronics.

The powerful earthquake that rocked Japan last month knocked out a hillside factory owned by Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. Little known outside industry circles, Shin-Etsu is the world's biggest producer of advanced silicon wafers, a key material needed for the manufacturing of semiconductors. Its Shirakawa plant represented 20% of the globe's capacity to produce the building blocks on which some key high-technology products depend.

The disaster could prove to be a major concern for chip makers, including Intel Corp. and Toshiba Corp., that buy wafers from Shin-Etsu, analysts said.

But it also has turned the spotlight on a much broader problem in the global economy: Companies around the world often rely on small networks of suppliers that may be thousands of miles away. A good number of those suppliers are in Japan.

Already, quake-related shortages of automotive electronic sensors made by Hitachi's Automotive Systems business have been blamed for halting or cutting production of vehicles in Germany, Spain, France and Shreveport, La.

The crisis also is expected to slash the supply of some vehicles such as Toyota's Prius and contribute to higher passenger car prices in the U.S., where temporary worker layoffs already have hit Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and some Japanese auto firms.

Chinese computer maker Lenovo Group was among the latest to warn that a shortage of components from Japan could crimp supplies of finished products, in its case the LePad tablet computer. Another Chinese firm, ZTE Corp., a major producer of cellphones, said it could face shortages of batteries and LCD screens for months.

The likelihood of more disruptions to come has touched off a scramble for alternative suppliers. It has sparked a run-up in the price of memory chips and some parts. And it is almost certain to lead to a rethinking of a global production and logistics system in which a natural disaster in a small part of Japan's industrial base could have such broad effects around the world.

....

He said that only about three of his company's 50 factories sustained damage. But the actual effect is likely to be bigger as rolling blackouts, transport problems and fuel shortages in Japan hamper production and delivery of supplies for many companies, possibly for months to come.

Koriyama Central Industrial Park in Fukushima prefecture is a case in point. Plants operated in the park by Panasonic Corp., Hitachi, Shin-Etsu and other leading Japanese companies are mostly up and running now, but only at about 50% capacity combined, said Endou Katsuei, executive director of Shinwa Planning Co., which is managing the zone.

He said these factories depend on the delivery of other components, which has been anything but stable. The town's train station has yet to reopen, roadways have been cracked by the earthquake and many gas stations remain closed, more than three weeks after the disaster.

It's much the same along the 125-mile stretch of Tohoku Expressway, from Utsunomiya, about 60 miles north of Tokyo, to Sendai, a city in Miyagi prefecture that was ravaged by the tsunami and where many homes remain without gas and hot water.

On the outskirts of Sendai, mangled cars thrown by the massive waves still litter the roads and are jammed against trees and fences, including those outside Sony's flood-impaired chemical and information devices plant.

Sendai is also home to Tohoku University, one of Japan's premier institutions and a leading center for semiconductor and related research.

Bangladashi Officials Sit Down With Merchant Bankers

nospam@example.com (Harvest Dream) — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 19:13:18 -0700

It's 2008 in Bangladash...

Source: Priyo - February 16, 2011

The government sits today with merchant bankers to find ways to bring stability to the troubled stockmarket. The officials of the market regulator will also be present during the talks.

The last week went through chaos, as the general index of the prime bourse plunged 9.21 percent amid credit crisis. However, the government initiative on Tuesday, the closing trade session, to buy stocks through state entities such as Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) halted the fall.

There was no trade on the Dhaka Stock Exchange on Wednesday and Thursday.

The DSE general index went down 600 points to 5,926 points on the last trading day.

When the government steps to offload shares of some state enterprises came under fire from analysts and investors went berserk on streets on Monday, the latest move was put on hold.

The credit crunch and inactiveness by institutional investors, analysts say, have helped fade out investor confidence.

Experts were in favour of raising credit supply to stop the market debacle rather than SoE shares offloading.

Besides ICB, the four other state-run organisations that came forward to buy shares were Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali banks.

ICB received a Tk 200 crore financial assistance from the central bank for the purpose.

Dhaka Stocks Gain On Government Action

Source: Priyo - March 3, 2011

Dhaka stocks that rode a bumpy ride on Thursday ended up marking an upward curve as the state-owned financial institutions injected some funds to the market by purchasing shares following the previous day’s massive slide.

The general index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, which flip-flopped throughout the day, advanced by 136.23 points, or 2.57 per cent, to close at 5,428.40 points.

Market operators said the irrational trading pattern in the last few days had made the retail investors more nervous and froze them into inaction.

‘Thursday’s rise in share prices was mainly caused by the participation of the state-owned institutions. The small investors are still jittery and becoming inactive,’ said one of the operators.

The general index of the bourse gained a whooping 398.51 points on Tuesday after the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh and six other state-owned financial institutions declared a joint fund investment in a bid to stabilise the volatile securities market following a government order. But the selling pressure from the retail investors and inactivity of the state-owned enterprises pushed down the market by a massive 309.42 points the very next day. The aggrieved investors, who had lost more than 60 per cent of their capital in the past two months of stock market debacle, held a mass prayer in front of the DSE building on Wednesday.

The trading on the bourse began in a negative mood on Thursday with the DSE general index shedding 122 points in the first 20 minutes as panic-stricken investors continued to sell off shares heavily.

The market, however, rebounded slightly in the later half as a rumour spread that the state-run banks were buying shares, prompting the retail investors to hold on to their stocks.

...

Experts, however, considered Thursday’s rise a result of a unified effort made by the SoEs to stabilise the market.

Market analyst Akter H Sannamat said, ‘The state-owned institutions should play the role of market makers as is demanded by the current market condition.’

‘It is not necessary for them to buy shares every trading day. But, whenever, the market needs support, they should act promptly and at a short notice,’ he added.

Japan Attempts To Curb Rare Earth Dependence On China

nospam@example.com (Harvest Dream) — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 13:42:09 -0700

Spending money does not equate to producing rare earths ready for market, this is a long and expensive project, and China has the lead by a ways now, just when these metals are going to be needed most. In the graph above it's clearly shown that the United States is basically eaten by China in the rare earths market, the difference perhaps between a command and control economy, and the form of hyper crony capitalism (cannabalism) here in the west.

Source: International Business Times - February 25, 2011

The Japanese government and private companies will spend $1.34 billion to curb Japan's dependence on rare-earth imports from China by a third, the Nikkei news report said Friday.

Japan to curb rare earth dependence on China

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has selected an initial 110 companies that will receive subsidies totaling 33.1 billion yen, as part of efforts to diversify procurement and additionally invest 9 billion yen in other subsidies and encourage more companies to apply for them, the report said.

Rare earth metals have a wide variety of applications. They are used in hybrid car motors, computer hard drives, cell phones, and wind turbines. They are also essential for military equipment. Jet engines, smart bombs and guided missiles, lasers, radar, night vision goggles, and satellites all depend on rare earth metals to function.

The investments are expected to slash Japan's annual imports of rare-earth elements from China by about 10,000 tons from the current 30,000 tons, the paper added.

China suspended exports of rare-earth elements to Japan as an apparent protest to the arrest of a Chinese skipper in early September, following his boat's collision with Japanese coastguard vessels off disputed islets in the East China Sea. Beijing said it re-stared exports in late September, but Japanese traders said shipments resumed only very slowly.

China, has exported 6,000 tons, or 49.8 percent, of its total rare earth to Japan, representing a 167 percent rise year on year, according to China's Ministry of Commerce.

According to the US Geological Survey's Mineral Commodities Summary, China produces approximately 97 per cent of the world's rare earth. Of the 124,000 tonnes of ore mined in the year 2009, China produced 120,000 tonnes.

China mines about 90 percent of the world's rare earth minerals - which is a collection of seventeen chemical elements and is used to various technological devices, cellular phones, high performance batteries, flat screen televisions, green energy technology, and are critical to the future of hybrid and electric cars, high-tech military applications and superconductors and fiber-optic communication systems.

China has been reducing export quotas of rare earth minerals for the past few years, citing environmental concerns. However, Wang Caifeng, who is in charge of setting up the China Rare Earth Industry Association, stated that China might slightly raise the production cap and export quota next year.

China's monopoly of the rare earths market has allowed it to manipulate this market by restricting production, using export quotas to limit global supply, and increasing taxes on rare earth metals. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has estimated that non-Chinese producers pay at least 31 percent more for raw rare earth metals than Chinese producers. As a result a black market in rare earths has developed.

Close Encounters of the Buddhist Kind

nospam@example.com (Harvest Dream) — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 11:38:26 -0700

Source: Foreign Policy - January 20, 2011

Picture this: millions of followers gathering around a central shrine that looks like a giant UFO in elaborately choreographed Nuremberg-style rallies; missionary outposts in 31 countries from Germany to the Democratic Republic of the Congo; an evangelist vision that seeks to promote a "world morality restoration project"; and a V-Star program that encourages hundreds of thousands of children to improve "positive moral behavior." Although the Bangkok-based Dhammakaya movement dons saffron robes, not brown shirts, its flamboyant ceremonies have become increasingly bold displays of power for this cult-like Buddhist group that was founded in the 1970s, ironically, as a reform movement opposed to the excesses of organized religion in Thailand.

Yet, despite the pageantry, the inner workings of this fast-growing movement are little known to Thailand's general public, and certainly to the rest of the world, though its teachings loom large among the legions of devotees.....

This obscurity is because -- despite its 24-hour satellite TV station -- Dhammakaya has diligently worked to avoid the limelight. Until now. Over the past year, photographer Luke Duggleby and reporter Ron Gluckman have been granted unrivaled access to the facilities and ceremonies of Dhammakaya, and they provide an exclusive look at this mesmerizing movement.

The Mothership: The gold-topped Cetiya temple is the center of the Dhammakaya's expanding global meditation movement and the focal point of ceremonies. The dome is actually composed of 300,000 identical titanium- and gold-coated bronze statues of Buddha -- another 700,000 are nestled inside a temple that even devotees will admit looks like a UFO. Some call it "The Mothership." Estimates have placed the value of the temple complex at around $1 billion. - Foreign Policy

Buddhism on Life in the Universe

The Budhha's explanation of the universe was what the present scientists found out to be. He divided the process of "creation" (for lack of better word) into four stages...formation, existence, degeneration, and destruction. Upon destruction, all the material elements returned to their original base elements, and after a long long time, they began to group together and the process of formation would start again. So you can understand, that the whole process is a cycle, and has no beginning or ending. These forces of "creation, formation, existence, and destruction" are universal throughout the entire cosmic space which has no ending. Time is a non factor, it has no meaning in this cosmic display of life cycle. Space is also a non entity; it is just void.

At any point in time there is this incessent cycle of creation, existence, degeneration and destruction of stars, planets, and even galaxies! Space has no ending, which can be better decribed as void. The Buddha called our galaxy, Cakkavala. Cakka meaning wheel or spiral. Our galaxy is spiral in shape. The whole universe, the Buddha called it Loka Dhatu, meaning, world of elements. In this endless void, there exists countless galaxies. The size and distance of these galaxies are beyond our human imagination and understanding! Our earth world is just an insignificant speck of dust in this whole unimaginable universe of cosmic existence! As a law of probability alone, if such an insignificant speck of dust can support life, what about the others in this gigantic display of cosmic drama! The answer to both your questions is that Buddhists KNOW that there exists extraterrestrials; but very very very far away.

In many of the Buddha's discourses there were always the mention of beings from 10,000 world systems gathered to listen to him. The Buddha also revealed that in our world alone there were 31 planes of existence (life forms). Humans and animals are 2 planes that we can see. The others, such as ghosts and higher plane beings, we cannot see with our limited vision. Wherever there are life forms in any of the worlds (planets) in other galaxies or universes, these 31 planes of life forms take hold. All are subject to this universal cycle of formation, existence, degeration, and ultimate destruction; and the cycle repeats itself ad infinitum. - Justin Choo

Bank Run In South Korea

nospam@example.com (Harvest Dream) — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 09:44:48 -0700

Source: Bloomberg - February 19, 2011

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission suspended the business of four local savings banks for six months from today due to a liquidity crunch.

The four banks are Bohae Mutual Savings & Finance Co. and three subsidiaries of Busan Savings Bank -- Jungang Busan Savings Bank, Busan II Savings Bank, and Jeonju Savings Bank, the financial watchdog said in a statement today.

“They have suffered a bank run” after the recent suspension of two other banks, the FSC said in a statement after a meeting at 7:30 a.m. today. “We concluded that they will not be able to meet demand for withdrawals, eventually hurting depositors’ interests and credit order.”

Busan Savings Bank and Daejeon Mutual Savings Bank were ordered to halt operations for six months from Feb. 17 due to soured construction project loans. The commission is tightening scrutiny of smaller mutual savings banks, with a plan to buy as much as 3.5 trillion won ($3.1 billion) worth of deteriorating loans made to builders and developers.

State-run Korea Finance Corp. and other big commercial lenders in the country are prepared to provide 2 trillion won in credit to the mutual banks to prevent a potential liquidity crunch, and the government may secure as much as 10 trillion won together with Korea Deposit Insurance Corp., the commission’s chairman, Kim Seok Dong, said on Feb. 17.

Strange 'Comet Like' Light Over Kazakhstan

nospam@example.com (Harvest Dream) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 23:11:36 -0700

Sty

The Bunker Dwellers of Beijing

nospam@example.com (Harvest Dream) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 23:19:53 -0700

"In 1968, amid escalating tensions between the Soviet Union and China, Chairman Mao uttered the words, Shenwadong, chengjiliang, buchengba, a phrase that quickly became as well known as any of his Little Red Book quotations. Most commonly translated as, "Dig deep tunnels, store food and prepare for war," it became a rallying cry that mobilized approximately 300,000 Beijingers to dig, dig, dig. Using shovels, bamboo baskets and the occasional wheelbarrow over a 10-year period, citizens -- many of them children -- created a network of tunnels that extends from Tiananmen to Chongwen District and Xidan.

The 30 km of tunnels -- between eight and 18 meters underground, with an area of 85 square kilometers -- has been dubbed China's Underground Great Wall. It was designed to house nearly half the city's population in case of, say, a nuclear attack, and while each tunnel system is different, army engineers had enough foresight to install underground basketball courts, theaters and mushroom-cultivating storerooms. Many of the stones came directly from Beijing's Old City walls, which were systematically demolished in favor of this project.

The tunnels were never used for their intended purpose, as China never went to war with the U.S.S.R., and over the years they became largely forgotten..." - The Beijinger

Source: The Telegraph - February 1, 2011

There, in the city's vast network of unused air defence bunkers, as many as a million people live in small, windowless rooms that rent for £30 to £50 a month, which is as much as many of the city's army of migrant labourers can afford.

In a Beijing suburb, beneath one of the thousands of faceless residential tower blocks that have carpeted the city's peripheries in a decade-long building frenzy, one of Beijing's "bomb shelter hoteliers", as they are known, agrees to show us his wares.

Passing under a green sign proclaiming "Air Defence Basement", Mr Zhao leads us down two flights of stairs to the network of corridors and rooms that were designed to offer sanctuary in the event of war or disaster.

"We have two sizes of room," he says, stepping past heaps of clutter belonging to residents, most of whom work in the nearby cloth wholesale market. "The small ones [6ft by 9ft] are 300 yuan [£30] the big ones [15ft by 6ft] are 500 yuan."

Beijing is estimated to have 30 square miles of tunnels and basements, some constructed after the Sino-Soviet split of 1969, when Mao's China feared a Soviet missile strike, and many more constructed since to act as more modern emergency refuges.

The fact Mr Zhao can easily rent out 150 such rooms, with the connivance of the city's Civil Defence Bureau with whom he has signed a five-year contract and invested nearly £150,000, is testament to China's massive unfulfilled demand for affordable housing.

"Some 80pc of our tenants are girls working in the wholesale market and the rest are peddlers selling vegetables or running sidewalk snack booths," he adds. "There are dozens of similar air defence basement projects in residential communities. In this area, they say 100,000 live underground."

Checking out the price of property above ground it is not difficult to see why. To buy a small flat (860 sq ft) in the tower block above – a typically grim, grey concrete affair – currently costs more than £200,000. In a city where the average monthly salary is 4,000 yuan, the average person would take 50 years to buy such an apartment, assuming they saved every penny they earned.

At the market, Xiao Wang, a sales girl who is one of the basement dwellers, says she lives in a small basement room with a friend. They have no kitchen and only the use of a stinking public toilet upstairs.

"I can earn 4,000 yuan on a good month with commissions," she says, "but sometimes it is only 2,000. I could maybe afford something a little better, but I need to save money so this is how I have to live."

Such vast discrepancies between house prices and earnings are creating social and economic difficulties for China's government – the discontented poor can't find a decent place to live while the rich look to store their wealth in a speculative, bubble-prone property market. Not for nothing did Li Daokui, an adviser to China's central bank, tell the World Economic Forum in Davos last week that rising property prices were the "biggest danger" to China's economy.

With inflation and wage pressures also mounting, a growing number of investors are starting to question the long-term sustainability of China's investment-heavy growth model. A survey of global investors by Bloomberg last week found that 45pc of them expect a financial crisis in China within the next five years, with another 40pc anticipating a crisis after 2016.

...

Others point to the low level of mortgages on Chinese property and the underlying demand for property in a country that will urbanise 200m people in the next 20 years and argue that the bull market has a long way to run yet.

But for Beijing's bunker residents who will never be able to afford a house, no matter how far prices fall, such considerations are superfluous, so long as China's government does more to manage their rising discontent. This year, in a sign that it is getting serious about low-cost housing after years of paying lip-service, Beijing's municipal government announced it was putting 200,000 new low-cost rental homes on the market, compared with 10,000 last year.

"We don't ask for much," said a roadside vegetable seller who also lives in a nearby basement shelter, "but the government must give us somewhere to live, because without us labourers what is going to support the Beijing economy?"

Flooding Affects 1 million in Sri Lanka

nospam@example.com (Harvest Dream) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 18:17:58 -0700

Source: Hindustan Times - Januray 12, 2011

Stormy weather forced President Mahinda Rajapaksa to cut short his tour of flood-affected areas on Wednesday as torrential rain continued to play havoc in parts of Sri Lanka, killed 18 people and affecting at least 960,000 more. The Disaster management Centre said that 180,151 people were living in
453 centres for the displaced set up in affected districts. The government has appealed to the public to donate essentials including dry rations, mattresses, bed sheets and drinking water.

R.M.S. Bandara of the National Building Research Organisation told reporters that landslide warnings were issued in 10 districts including Matale, Badulla and Kandy.

What is worse is that the livelihood of the victims is likely to be affected with more than one third of the country’s paddy productions coming from the flooded districts. About 40,000 acres of paddy cultivation has already been damaged.

Because of incessant rain drinking water ponds have also been contaminated. In Colombo, prices vegetables have shot up because of supply shortage.

P.B. Samarasinghe, Director General of the Meteorological Department said that rains are expected for the next three days while this was the heaviest rains that the country had witnessed in over thirty years.

China and Japan Pledge Support for EU

nospam@example.com (Harvest Dream) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 09:14:33 -0700

Source: DW-World - January 11, 2011

Moves by Japan and China to boost confidence in the eurozone reflect the growing concerns in Tokyo and Beijing about the impact of the European debt crisis on their export-reliant economies.

And they have good reason to be concerned.

An international bailout of Portugal, after last year's rescue of Greece and Ireland, looks almost inevitable. For weeks, the country has been wrestling to fend off rising pressure from capital markets and eurozone members to seek a bailout and limit contagion.

Government funding difficult to sustain

Now neighboring Spain – the eurozone's fourth largest economy – appears increasingly vulnerable as well.

Markets have already pushed the 10-year Portuguese yield, or borrowing rate, to a punishingly high 7.1 percent, compared with the 2.9 percent for safe-haven Germany.

Portuguese officials have described the seven-percent mark as a threshold of sorts, suggesting that government funding above that mark will be difficult to sustain.

"Given that markets seem to believe that [these] debt levels are unsustainable, Portugal should, without further ado, start talks with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to regain credibility," said Tom Kirchmaier, a lecturer at the London School of Economics, in an e-mail sent to Deutsche Welle.

On Monday, the European Central Bank (ECB) threw Portugal a temporary lifeline by buying up its bonds, in addition to Greek and Irish bonds. The ECB has bought 74 billion euros ($95.3 billion in troubled eurozone sovereign bonds since it began intervening to stabilize the market last May.

On Tuesday, Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Japan will buy bonds issued by the European Financial Stability (EFSF). The Asian economic powerhouse is considering using its euro reserves to buy about 20 percent of the bonds, which will be issued by the EFSF to raise funds to support Ireland.

Number one export destination

That pledge comes just days after China assured Spain of its plans to invest in the indebted eurozone member state's bonds.

China has already been using its financial clout to expand its influence around the world. And since Europe appears to be replacing the US as China's number one export destination, stabilizing the eurozone only seems to be in the best interests of the Chinese economy.

Euro symbol in front of ECBBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The European Central Bank has thrown Portugal a temporary lifelineAlso, by buying euro assets, China can take an important step toward its stated goal of diversifying its foreign currency holdings, assumed to be about two-thirds in US dollars. Unofficial estimates suggest the country already holds more than 8 percent of the eurozone's outstanding debt.

China's show of support for Spain could help boost confidence in the troubled eurozone member.

Bangladesh: Stock Market Collapsing

nospam@example.com (Harvest Dream) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 18:05:32 -0700

Source: The Independent - January 11, 2011

Police in Bangladesh used tear gas and water canons to disperse angry protests by crowds of small investors after a dramatic free-fall plunge on the country's stock market caused the authorities to suspend trading.

Hundreds of outraged investors took to the streets outside the stock exchange in the Motijheel neighbourhood of the nation's capital after the worst plunge in the country's history saw the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) fall by 660 points, or 9.25 per cent, in less than an hour.

Chanting slogans that accused brokers and traders of manipulating stock prices and of the government of failing to properly regulate the situation, the small-scale investors smashed up cars, burned tyres and ran loose until police stepped in to break them up. There were other protests in smaller cities and towns. Four journalists were reportedly beaten by police.

Last night, with trading due to restart later today in both Dhaka and the country's second city, Chittagong, Bangladesh's prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, met with senior financial officials including the governor of the central bank, and ordered them to take steps to try and ease the crisis. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), after an emergency meeting with the central bank, said trading – which was halted yesterday after just an hour – could resume.

But the crisis that began on Sunday, when the DSE's bench mark Dhaka Stock Exchange general index (DGEN) fell by almost 8 per cent, has long been smouldering. Last month there were similar demonstrations to those yesterday when the market fell by around 7 per cent, triggering panic among investors. Since early December, the index – which had climbed by more than 80 per cent in 2010 – has fallen by 27 per cent.

The problem, say experts, is that the booming stock market had in recent years become deeply overvalued, something that had been ignored as investors enjoyed massive gains. Amid demands that it act to address the situation, the authorities had recently taken a series of steps to limit the percentage of deposits that banks can invest in the market and cool the situation. As a result, many larger, institutional investors decided to withdraw from the market, a move that set off the hysteria.

"This was coming – it was only a matter of when it would take place," said Mustafizur Rahman of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, a Dhaka-based think-tank. "The market had been heating up for quite a time, particularly over the last year. There was too much money chasing too few shares... This is a correction."

Observers say that many of those taking to the streets yesterday were among more than 3 million new, small-sized investors who had been attracted to the stock market in the last few years. Keen to cash in on the heated-up market, they had placed their money in shares rather than putting it in traditional bank deposits or savings accounts.

Many of these so-called retail investors
may have had little investment expertise or knowledge about the companies in which they were putting their money. "They thought this would be a way for them to raise some capital from the markets," said Professor Arindam Banik of Delhi's International Management Institute.

But when the markets started to collapse, countless numbers of smaller investors were left ruing their decision to invest in stocks. "I poured all my money into the Dhaka stock exchange," investor Humayum Kabir, who had lost 60 per cent of his family's 2.5m taka (£22,000) in savings, told the Agence France-Presse. "The finance minister lured us into the stock market, he told us it was safe, but now we have lost everything. They artificially jacked up the prices of junk shares and now our savings have vanished."

The instability is the last thing needed by Bangladesh and Mrs Hasina's Awami League-led government. Even though the country's economy is growing by around 6 per cent, inflation is booming, especially the price of food and basic essentials.

...

The impact of a further collapse could have terrible consequences for a country of 160 million people already struggling with huge social, economic and environmental problems.

Last night, as they prepared for trading to restart, officials in Bangladesh were hoping that investors would not panic further and trigger a further collapse similar to that in 1996 when almost 80 per cent was wiped from share prices
. Yeasin Ali, deputy head of the SEC, told reporters in Dhaka: "We are calling for people to be calm – if the market crashes again it could cause a crisis in the broader economy."

South Korean Defence Minister Resigns Over Deadly Clash With North Korea

nospam@example.com (Harvest Dream) — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 17:48:34 -0700

Source: BBC - November 25, 2010

South Korea's defence minister has resigned amid criticism of his handling of North Korea's shelling of an island near their disputed maritime border.

President Lee Myung-bak will name Kim Tae-young's successor on Friday.

Tuesday's barrage left two South Korean civilians and two marines dead, and sent regional tensions soaring.

South Korea has increased troop numbers on Yeonpyeong and other nearby islands, and announced more rigorous rules of engagement for future incidents.

Mr Kim had been urged to step down by legislators from both governing and opposition parties over his handling of the shelling.

In his resignation statement, the minister said he took full responsibility.

South Korean officials described Tuesday's attack as "surprising and shocking".

"We couldn't have imagined they would carry out this kind of grave provocation," one senior government source told me.

The South Korean rules of engagement called for a sufficient but proportionate response to an attack from their northern neighbour. But that was not enough of a deterrent.

So now they have a simple message for Pyongyang - in the face of any kind of further provocation, however unimaginable, South Korea will now not hesitate to use "all kind of measures".

"If we give this signal to North Korea they will have to think for more time before they make their judgement [to launch a further attack]," the official said.

The new defensive posture should be more flexible and more unpredictable, but it could create extra risk that any future attack could more easily escalate into something far worse.

More powerful response

The government also said it was changing its rules of engagement to allow it to respond more forcefully to similar incidents. The old rules have been criticised as too passive.

The BBC's Chris Hogg in Seoul says the cabinet had decided that under the old rules of engagement there was too much emphasis on preventing a military incident escalating into something worse.

In future, the South would implement different levels of response, depending on whether the North attacked military or civilian targets, a presidential spokesman said.

A senior government official told the BBC that Seoul wanted to be more flexible in order to keep the North Koreans guessing as to their response.

The South Korean broadcaster, KBS, said the new rules called for the South to fire back "with shots two to three times more powerful than the enemy artillery".

North Korea meanwhile threatened further military action if the South continued on its "path of military provocation", the official KCNA news agency reported.

Pyongyang has blamed Seoul for this week's incident on Yeonpyeong, insisting it did not fire first. The South was holding military exercises in the area at the time, and returned fire when the North's shells began to land.

The North also accused the United States of stoking tensions - saying it helped draw up the "illegal" western maritime border between the two Koreas.

About 28,000 US troops are stationed in South Korea.

US Federal Reserve Stokes Global Currency War

nospam@example.com (Harvest Dream) — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 18:25:01 -0600

Source: WSWS - 5 November 2010

The Federal Reserve Board’s announcement Wednesday of a second round of “quantitative easing”—the printing of hundreds of billions of US dollars—is an aggressive and unilateralist move, widely—and legitimately—perceived by America’s economic rivals as a hostile act.

The US central bank is pursuing a deliberate policy of devaluing the dollar in order to cheapen the price of US exports and make foreign imports more expensive. Under conditions of stagnant markets and negligible economic growth in the US, Europe and Japan, such a policy inevitably fuels countermeasures by America’s competitors. They seek to defend their export industries by intervening to halt the rise in their exchange rates and contain waves of speculative investments pushing up their currencies and overheating their economies.

The fact that the Fed announced its plan to purchase nearly $1 trillion in US Treasury securities barely a week before the G20 summit of leading economies in Seoul, South Korea underscores the provocative character of the action.

Washington is seeking to establish a bloc of European and Asian countries at the summit behind its demand that China allow its currency to appreciate more rapidly. There is an element of blackmail in the Fed’s move—an implicit threat to Germany, Japan and other exporting nations of what they will face if they do not fall in behind the US anti-Chinese campaign.

The US cheap-dollar policy has already led to countermeasures. In September, Japan intervened into the currency markets for the first time in six years in a bid to halt the rise of the yen. This was followed by a lowering of its key interest rate and the announcement of its own program of quantitative easing.

Brazil, whose finance minister accused the US of sparking a global currency war, announced the doubling of a tax on foreign purchases of Brazilian bonds in order to contain the flood of speculative dollars driving its currency higher and creating the danger of asset bubbles and inflation.

Similarly, Thailand announced a 15 percent withholding tax on the interest payments and capital gains earned by foreign investors in Thai bonds. Other countries, from South Korea, to India, to Taiwan, have intervened in currency markets in an attempt to halt the rise in their exchange rates.

In essence, the United States, the world’s biggest debtor nation, is seeking to leverage its massive trade deficits and debt—expressions of the decline of American capitalism—using them as weapons against its economic rivals. It is exploiting the privileged position of the US dollar as the world’s primary trading and reserve currency to offload its crisis onto the rest of the world.

This is a reckless and incendiary policy with catastrophic implications. Economic nationalism breeds chauvinism, xenophobia and militarism.

All of this is leading to the type of currency and trade warfare that erupted after the Wall Street crash of 1929 and immensely deepened and lengthened the Great Depression. The world market was fractured into competing currency and trade blocs, and economic war inexorably gave rise to military conflict.

Similar tensions are emerging today. Chinese Central Bank adviser Xia Bin responded to the Fed announcement by accusing it of “uncontrolled” money-printing that could spark another global crisis. He suggested that China would counter Washington by forging regional currency alliances to speed up international use of the yuan.

He was not alone. Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan accused the US of pursuing a “weak-dollar policy.”

The logic of the increasingly embittered currency and trade conflicts was summed up bluntly on Wednesday by the president-elect of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, who told a press conference: “The last time there was a series of competitive devaluations… it ended in World War Two.”