The World Tomorrow : Noam Chomsky & Tariq Ali

submitted by Gabrielle Price
A surprise Arab drive for freedom, the West’s structural crisis and new hope coming from Latin America. That’s the modern world in the eyes of Noam Chomsky and Tariq Ali, two prominent thinkers and this week’s guests on Julian Assange’s show on RT.

Michael C. Ruppert on Occupy, Peak Oil, Environment and The Shift

submitted by Gabrielle Price

12/17/11 – Occupy Fear and Loathing Media Tour:

The Refreshment Center’s Gabrielle Price interviews Michael C. Ruppert at his home in Sebastopol, California.  We talk about Occupy and how the collapse of industrial civilization is coinciding with the most dynamic protest movement since the 60’s.  Mike touches upon geopolitics, energy depletion and environmental issues that humanity faces and the spiritual awakening that is taking place globally.  He also shares his experience of the Occupy camps, the women of Occupy and the many veterans who support the movement. [We also verify that no animals were harmed during the making of this film…].

For more information about Michael Ruppert and Collapsenet, please visit http://www.collapsenet.com and make a connection in the Lighthouse Directory.  You can also tune in every Sunday night to hear Mike’s radio show, The Lifeboat Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

BBC Does It Again: “In The Absence Of A Credible Plan We Will Have A Global Financial Meltdown In Two To Three Weeks” / IMF Advisor

[Guest post from Zerohedge’s Tyler Durden.  This is a site that has continually kept a finger on the pulse of the market – as savvy as they are, they see how it now behaves like a wild animal and to that end, realize what is normal/abnormal and also unprecedented.  Their traffic has grown exponentially over the course of the last few months and when this post was listed as top story today – the link would not post a preview, nor would the link properly function (in fact, it jumped to Obama’s jobs speech post, incredulously).  In the spirit of sharing much needed information – I present it here, unedited. ~ G]
A week after the BBC exploded Alessio Rastani to the stage, it has just done it all over again.  In an interview with IMF advisor Robert Shapiro, the bailout expert has pretty much said what, once again, is on everyone’s mind: “If they can not address [the financial crisis] in a credible way I believe within perhaps 2 to 3 weeks we will have a meltdown in sovereign debt which will produce a meltdown across the European banking system.  We are not just talking about a relatively small Belgian bank, we are talking about the largest banks in the world, the largest banks in Germany, the largest banks in France, that will spread to the United Kingdom, it will spread everywhere because the global financial system is so interconnected.  All those banks are counterparties to every significant bank in the United States, and in Britain, and in Japan, and around the world.  This would be a crisis that would be in my view more serrious than the crisis in 2008…. What we don’t know the state of credit default swaps held by banks against sovereign debt and against European banks, nor do we know the state of CDS held by British banks, nor are we certain of how certain the exposure of British banks is to the Ireland sovereign debt problems.”
But no, Morgan Stanley does, or so they swear an unlimited number of times each day.  And they say not to worry about anything because, you see, it is not like they have any upside in telling anyone the truth.  Which is why for everyone hung up on the latest rumor of a plan about a plan about a plan spread by a newspaper whose very viability is tied in with that of the banks that pay for its advertising revenue, we have one thing to ask: “show us the actual plan please.”  Because it is easy to say “recapitalize” this, and “bad bank” that.  In practice, it is next to impossible.  So yes, ladies and gentlemen, enjoy this brief relief rally driven by the fact that China is offline for the week and that the persistent source of overnight selling on Chinese “hard/crash landing” concerns has been gone simply due to an extended national holiday.  Well, that holiday is coming to an end.
By the way, Reuters, Shapiro is not a Yes Man – we’ll spare you the ruminations.