Commerce – Page 305 – Public Intelligence Blog

2011/08/09

Chuck Spinney: Time Favors the Taliban

03 Economy, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military

August 9, 2011

The Whack-a-Mole Endgame Begins in Afghanistan

Americans Have the Clock, But the Taliban Have the Time

By FRANKLIN C. SPINNEY, Counterpunch

Cap Ferrat, France

Obama’s surge and de-surge has, therefore, created a reinforcing dynamic that is playing into the hands of the insurgents by seducing the United States into increasing its reliance on a pointless, reactive, “whack-a-mole” strategy. Like a judo specialist, the insurgents will use the expenditure of American energies to exhaust American forces and paralyze American political willpower by inducing our military to over and under react to an unfolding welter widely dispersed insurgent attacks

Read full analysis…

Phi Beta Iota: At home, the teen riots have started in Philadelphia. More riots are certain to follow, and more “random” shootings of anyone representing the US Government are likely west of the Mississippi. This is almost the perfect storm–all that is missing is a water failure in New York City followed by a firestorm, and massive epidemic across California.

2011/08/092011/08/09

John Robb: Soros Dumps Gold, Could Local Virtual Currencies and Local Water, Food, Energy, and Production be Next Big Thing?

01 Poverty, 02 Infectious Disease, 03 Environmental Degradation, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Policies

BIG QUESTION: Gold or Virtual Currencies?

As anticipated, we're on the brink of a global economic depression (again).

There's a strong possibility that a long running global depression will lead to a reshuffling of the global economic and political landscape. IF that happens, many of the fiat currencies we currently use will simply evaporate.

Given this backdrop, here's today's big question:

If the dollar and euro implode…

…will the next global currency be gold or networked virtual currencies (like bitcoin)?

Until the new currency platform emerges, the safest hedge for the future is building, buying, or trading for anything that can produce food, energy, water, and products locally.

Phi Beta Iota: George Soros has dumped gold and is largely off the stock market. John Robb is one of the best observers of chaos versus resilience–his advice above coincides with William Greider's finding in Come Home America, to wit, financial offerings are fraud, asset investments (at the local level) are real. What all of this leads up to is that we should all stop investing in old systems, and instead do the right thing: invest in bottom-up localized resilience that yields sustainable benefits for all–real assets for real people.

2011/08/08

John Marke: Complexity, Risk Consultants, & Baloney

03 Economy, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Corporations, Cultural Intelligence, Government, InfoOps (IO), IO Impotency, Methods & Process, Misinformation & Propaganda

Complexity, Sharks & Risk Consultants – How “Internal Auditor” Magazine Got It Wrong

They got it wrong…. Internal Auditor recently published an article by Neil Baker “Managing the Complexity of Risk” claiming that “The ISO 31000 framework aims to provide a foundation for effective risk management within the organization.” Well….not so fast.

“Complexity” has become something of a buzz word in today’s business culture, becoming more vague and imprecise than many of us attempting to understand complexity would like. Naming something is not the same as actually knowing anything about what you just named (see my essay “The Red Wagon Principal: Knowing Is Better Than Naming”). The misappropriation of the concept is always done with the best of intentions. However, Neil was savvy enough to introduce Mandelbrot and fractal geometry into the mix doesn’t get a free pass.

Baloney

David Isenberg: Military Sub-Contractors Managing Kitchens a Major Health Threat to Entire Battalions

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, Budgets & Funding, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corporations, Corruption, DoD, Military, Officers Call

You Want Chicken Pox with That?

EXTRACT

The story of what might be called the ghost of chicken pox future starts with Najlaa International Catering Services (NICS), a KBR contractor, headquartered in Kuwait. NICS was solicited by KBR in the spring of 2008 to provide a Request for Proposal (RFP) for approximately 32 Dining Facilities (DFAC) at various military camps in Iraq under the Army's LOGCAP (Logistics Civil Augmentation Program) III program. NICS subsequently won the contract.

Around the end of the first week of November 2008 it was discovered that NICS's temporary tent city housing camp at Victory Base Camp had a confirmed chicken pox case and 37 employees were supposed to be quarantined. NICS disputed with GlobalMed, its KBR-approved medical service provider, that it was a chicken pox case. NICS began to release the employees from the quarantine tent and put them back to work at the DFAC's.

Read original story in full….

Phi Beta Iota: This little-noticed story is actually–in our view–a major investigative expose. At multiple levels, from irresponsible acquisition to potentially catastrophic infections of entire divisions by “friendly contractors,” this is a story that merits much more attention. It is also a story that reinforces our view that contractors have no business being employed or engaged in a combat zone.

2011/08/072011/08/07

George Soros: Eleven Economic Insights + RECAP

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Budgets & Funding, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests

11 Timely Insights From George Soros On The Economy

Courtney Comstock<

Business Insider, 7 August 2011

In the past six months, hedge fund manager George Soros has been an outspoken critic of the economicrecovery.And as the U.S. digests the S&P downgrade, it's helpful to remember that as Barclays analysts Ajay Rajadhyaksha and Anshul Pradhan put it, The S&P's action is not a surprise. So to gain a market expert's view, we've gone through many of Soros' recent interviews and selected his main points.

Soros describes the key arguments the market is dealing with right now and makes predictions on what will happen next.

His quotes are dated in chronological order.

Phi Beta Iota: The original article has photos and more context for each quote. Eleven quotes only are below the line.

Continue reading “George Soros: Eleven Economic Insights + RECAP”

2011/08/072011/08/07

Richard Wright: F-22 Raptor Goes Under the Bus

03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, Budgets & Funding, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency, Military, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Officers Call, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Technologies

It is amazing that the L.A. Times would publish this story. Maybe even the ‘lame stream media' is starting to wake up to the foolishness of the MICC.

High costs, malfunctions plague F-22 Raptor fighter jets

W. J. Hennigan

Los Angeles Times, 6 August 2011

The fleet of 158 F-22 planes — costing $412 million each — has never entered combat and has been grounded since May 3 because of a government safety investigation. The probe follows more than a dozen incidents in which oxygen was cut off to pilots, a problem suspected of contributing to at least one fatal accident.

Fareed Zakaria: Why Defense Should be Cut BIG

03 Economy, Commerce, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military

Why defense spending should be cut

By Fareed Zakaria

August 3, 2011

Fareed Zakaria: “the U.S. defense establishment is the world’s largest socialist economy”

Phi Beta Iota: This talented individual has never left the “lane in the road” assigned to him. He thrives on “civility” and not questioning what passes for conventional wisdom among the elites. As much as all of us who have been saying this for decades are glad to hear him speak such common sense, what this really tells us is that Wall Street is now ready to sacrifice the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex (MICC) and all their jobs, to save its own multi-million dollar bonuses. Banks and Big Oil are the winners, the public continues to lose precisely because no one is actually representing the public interest.