China’s aggression in September after Japan seized a Chinese fisherman near the East China Sea islands claimed by both countries confirmed China as a burly international tyrant. The caution for countries attempting to negotiate with China is to avoid Japan’s mistake, which was single-handedly contesting the giant. For America, that means seeking an end to China’s currency manipulation by simultaneously pursuing every option the United States has, including formally naming China a currency manipulator, imposing tariffs on imports from countries that undervalue currency and creating a community of allies to campaign together to combat the illegal trade practice.

The European Union is considering taking legal action against France for violating EU’s discriminatory laws. President Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-winged government has been engaged in a massive deportation of Roma — also commonly referred to as ‘Gypsies’.

The New York Times reports that Serbia’s Special War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office indicted nine men in relation to the killings of 43 ethnic Albanians during the Kosovo conflict.

Cross-posted at River Twice Research.

The Greek debt crisis finally spilled over in full force to U.S. markets, aided and abetted by extreme statements emanating from such esteemed and prominent voices as Muhammed El-Erian of the large bond investor Pimco, who warned that Greece could be just the beginning of sovereign debt catastrophes. In the space of minutes, the major U.S. indices plunged more than 10%, fueled by the same programmatic electronic trades that were part of the battering in late 2008 into 2009. And then in the space of 15 minutes, they recovered, without – it’s fair to say – much human decision-making during that interval (and if an individual even tried trading during those 30 minutes, they would have found it difficult or impossible, as web sites such as schwab.com were completely overwhelmed with traffic).

Over a hundred thousand Greek protesters took to the streets and shut down the country as popular unrest grew, aimed at a viciously strict austerity program, dictated by the Germans and the IMF to help pay for an economic bailout of Greece. The crisis has threatened the stability of both the European Union and the Euro, and is sending political tremors across the continent.

With the release of Sen. Dodd’s (D-CT) proposed financial sector re-regulation we are on the path to some small steps to rein in our out of control banking system. The bill has some good features (forgive me that I have not had time to read the entire thing yet) though it is not quite as strong as many of my fellow DFH would like.

There is going to be a huge focus on the provisions for the consumer protection agency, which in the Dodd bill is under the auspices of the Federal Reserve. This is a really bad idea given the size of this department compared to the size of the Fed, but there is some hope that it will be made into an independent agency. Putting under the Fed was a move to try to entice Republicans. At this point there are no Republicans in support of this bill so it might change. Then again, it might not.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net

By Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium Blogger

In his first State of the Union address, President Barack Obama touched on climate issues only briefly. He called on the Senate to pass a climate bill, but did not give Congress a deadline or promise to veto weak legislation. Nor did he mention the Copenhagen climate conference, where international negotiators struggled to produce an agreement on limiting global carbon emissions.

Russia has cut off the gas supply to Europe via Ukraine. The EU, obtaining 70 percent of its natural gas from Gazprom through Ukrainian pipelines, is caught between two stools as both countries are heading on collision course.