The New Mediterranean Oil and Gas Bonanza Part II: Rising energy tensions in the Aegean—Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria

by F. William Engdahl   The discovery in late 2010 of the huge natural gas bonanza off Israel’s Mediterranean shores triggered other neighboring countries to look more closely at their own waters. The results revealed that the entire eastern Mediterranean is swimming in huge untapped oil and gas reserves. That discovery is having enormous political, geopolitical as well as economic consequences. It well may have potential military consequences too. Preliminary exploration has confirmed similarly impressive reserves of gas and oil in the waters off Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and potentially, Syria.

Is Iran a Rational Actor?

[Abstract] Is Iran as “a rational actor? ” “Yes”, explains Fareed Zakaria on CNN. But, he adds immediately: “It's very important to understand, however, what it means to talk about a "rational actor." A rational actor is not a reasonable actor”.

1• Is Iran a rational actor?
In February 2012, General Martin Dempsey, the top-ranking military officer in the U.S., Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was interviewed by Fareed Zakaria on the international situation, and especially on Iran:
Fareed Zakaria:  When you observe Iranian behavior, does it strike you as highly irrational? Does it strike you as sort of unpredictable? Or do they seem to follow their national interests in a fairly calculating way?
Martin Dempsey:  That is a great question.  I'll tell you that I've been confronting that question since I came into Central Command in 2008. And we are of the opinion that the Iranian regime is a rational actor.  And it's for that reason, I think, that we think the current path we're on is the most prudent path at this point.
Document 1. General Martin Dempsey on Fareed Zakaria’s program on CNN, on February 17, 2012. -> [ http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/17/watch-gps-martin-dempsey-on-syria-iran-and-china/ ]

Ρευστότητα για αποπληρωμή χρέους ως δια μαγείας Πηγή:www.capital.gr

 

Του Γιώργου Καισάριου

Όπως θα διαβάσατε προχτές, ο Οργανισμός Διαχείρισης Δημοσίου Χρέους άντλησε μέσω δημοπρασίας 3μηνων εντόκων γραμματίων του δημοσίου το ποσό των 4,063 δισ. ευρώ. Το επιτόκιο διαμορφώθηκε στο 4,43%, ελαφρά ανοδικά συγκριτικά με το 4,28% της δημοπρασίας της 17ης Ιουλίου.

Η δημοπρασία αυτή ήταν απαραίτητη για να αποπληρωθεί ομόλογο της ΕΚΤ αξίας περίπου 3 δισ. ευρώ που θα λήξει σύντομα. Η δημοπρασία αυτή επίσης από καιρό ξέραμε ότι θα γίνει, καθώς είναι μια διαφορετική δημοπρασία από τις άλλες, διότι διενεργήθηκε για ειδικό σκοπό.

Νταβούτογλου: Η Τουρκία δεν μπορεί να δεχθεί στο έδαφός της πάνω από 100.000 Σύρους πρόσφυγες

Η Τουρκία δεν μπορεί να δεχθεί στο έδαφός της πάνω από 100.000 Σύρους πρόσφυγες και μια ουδέτερη ζώνη ίσως είναι απαραίτητη για να εμποδίσει τα κύματα των προσφύγων να εισέλθουν στη χώρα, τονίζει ο Τούρκος υπουργός Εξωτερικών Αχμέτ Νταβούτογλου σε δηλώσεις του που δημοσιεύει σήμερα η εφημερίδα Μιλιέτ.

"Εάν ο αριθμός των προσφύγων αυξηθεί σε 100.000, εμείς δε θα μπορέσουμε να τους φιλοξενήσουμε στην Τουρκία. Θα πρέπει να τους βοηθήσουμε στο συριακό έδαφος», προσθέτει ο Νταβούτογλου.

Αποχωρούν από την Ελλάδα οι κυπριακές τράπεζες

Με ταχύ ρυθμό οι κυπριακές αρχές προωθούν το σχέδιο απαγκίστρωσης του κυπριακού τραπεζικού συστήματος από την ελληνική αγορά, επιφέροντας νέες αλλαγές και στον ελληνικό τραπεζικό χάρτη.

Πληροφορίες της εφημερίδας «Καθημερινή» Κύπρου φέρουν την Alpha Bank να διαπραγματεύεται την ανταλλαγή δανειακών χαρτοφυλακίων με την Τράπεζα Κύπρου και τη MIG να αποκτά το ελληνικό δίκτυο της Λαϊκής Τράπεζας, δηλαδή τη Marfin Egnatia.

Science and Technology Leadership: A Test for the Emerging Power

The relationship between achievements in science and technology and economic growth has
been long established, but the path is not always predictable. More significant is the overall
effectiveness of a nation’s National Innovation System (NIS)—the process by which intellectual
concepts are moved toward commercialization for the benefit of a national economy. According
to a NIC-contracted global survey of scientific experts, the United States currently boasts a
stronger innovation system than the developing economies of China and India.

Globalization at Risk with the 2008 Financial Crisis?

 

As with most of the trends discussed in this report, the impacts from the financial crisis will
depend heavily on government leadership. Proactive fiscal and monetary policies probably will
ensure the current panic and likely deep national recessions will not turn into an extended
depression, although reduced economic growth could slow globalization’s pace, increasing
protectionist pressures and financial fragmentation.

The crisis is accelerating the global economic rebalancing. Developing countries have been hurt;
several, such as Pakistan with its large current account deficit, are at considerable risk. Even
those with cash reserves—such as South Korea and Russia—have been severely buffeted; steep
rises in unemployment and inflation could trigger widespread political instability and throw
emerging powers off course. However, if China, Russia, and Mideast oil exporters can avoid
internal crises, they will be in a position to leverage their likely still sizeable reserves, buying
foreign assets and providing direct financial assistance to still-struggling countries for political
favors or to seed new regional initiatives. In the West, the biggest change—not anticipated
before the crisis—is the increase in state power. Western governments now own large swaths of
their financial sectors and must manage them, potentially politicizing markets.

TheEconomist: Put the ball in the ECB's court

BREUGEL'S blog rounds up a number of blog opinions on the European Central Bank's move toward explicit conditionality in its policy making, like so:

In the Q&A session following his Introductory Statement Mario Draghi said that “the guidance that we have given to the committees of the ECB differs from the previous programme” [since] “we have explicit conditionality here”. “The first thing is that governments have to go to the EFSF”, but “to go to the EFSF is a necessary condition, but not a sufficient one”. “When governments have actually fulfilled the necessary conditions, namely have undertaken fiscal and structural reforms and applied to the EFSF with the right conditionality. At that point, we may act, if needed.”

Can the Eurozone be Saved? by Henning Meyer

The Eurozone crisis is becoming ever more complex and cutting through the chase is becoming more and more difficult. My broad analysis of overlapping structural, political and democratic crisesseems to hold up reasonably well but it is time to expand on these categories following a series of conversations I had with a variety of economists. The different crisis strands are coming together in a toxic mix and there is still a significant amount of confusion about the causes of the predicament. This needs to be clarified.

The Structural Crisis

The structural crisis we are facing is a mixture of the design flaws of the Eurozone itself, the construction and functioning of the financial sector and the results these design flaws have had in several areas. The Eurozone design flaws mean that one country after the other can be picked out and there can easily be contagion and self-fulfilling prophecies of insolvency across the currency union even though the underlying economic fundamental look sound. These issues have been extensively discussed and are reasonably well understood.

Κλιμακώνεται η ένταση Ιαπωνίας-Κίνας για τα νησιά Σενκάκου

Ένας στολίσκος από περίπου είκοσι ιαπωνικά πλοία έφτασε τα ξημερώματα της Κυριακής στα νησιά Σενκάκου ώστε να επιβεβαιώσει την κυριαρχία της Ιαπωνίας στη συστάδα αυτή των νησιών που διεκδικούνται από το Πεκίνο, δήλωσε δημοσιογράφος του Γαλλικού Πρακτορείου Ειδήσεων (AFP) που επιβαίνει σε ένα από τα σκάφη.

Ο στολίσκος με περίπου 150 άτομα έφτασε στις 5:30 τοπική ώρα, (20:30 GMT ) στο κύριο νησί του αρχιπελάγους.