Creating vibrant economy, Iraq mistake, life's value, Chinese ambitions, Holbrooke Hawk, Miami immigrants, social security myth, Iceland prosecutes bank thieves,Quantas not person,

What drives jobs and investment? Purchases, stupid, not phony ponzi schemes by bankers trading SDRs and SDOs with each other to boost paper profit.

Net rises on server chip sales
Jordan Robertson, AP Technology Writer, On Friday January 14, 2011
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Intel Corp.'s 48 percent jump in fourth-quarter net income, driven by strong corporate spending, comes at a turning point in the personal computer industry's 30-plus year history.
Some 350 million PCs were shipped in 2010, according to data released this week, and Intel CEO Paul Otellini says that more than 1 million PCs are now being sold every day.

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Bad investment of time and money and ambition from the get go. Finally somebody who doesn’t want us running their politics for half a century like Europeans or Asians

BAGHDAD – Iraqi politicians face the contentious question this year of whether to ask U.S. troops to stay beyond an end-of-2011 deadline for their departure
"We heard a pledge from the government that it will expel the occupier, and we are waiting for it to honor its word," al Sadr said during a speech.
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Putting life and death in perspective

From a correspondent--Ryan 2
Two soldiers from my home state where killed in Afganistan the same day Giffords was shot. I wonder why she gets all this media attention and speeches from Obogo? These men died because they where sent over there under the lie that they where fighting for American freedom by politicians.

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I’m trying to find where Chinese Military is on attack anywhere--in or outside of China.
No Luck

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S.-China relations are at a critical juncture and a summit between their leaders next week must produce "real action, on real issues" such as trade, climate change and North Korean nuclear proliferation, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday.
"It is up to both nations to translate the high-level pledges of summits and state visits into action. Real action, on real issues," she said in a major China policy address in Washington

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I thought Holbrooke cut his spurs on Viet Nam and was an imperialist and a Hawk. Shows how much I know.

Obama eulogizes Holbrooke as clear-eyed diplomat
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says late Ambassador Richard Holbrooke was an extraordinary diplomat with a clear-eyed vision of America's place in the world who "served his country until his final moments."
At the Johnson White House, he wrote one volume of the Pentagon Papers, an internal government study of U.S. involvement in Vietnam that was completed in 1967.
The study, leaked in 1971 by a former Defense Department aide, had many damaging revelations, including a memo that stated the reason for fighting in Vietnam was based far more on preserving U.S. prestige than preventing communism or helping the Vietnamese.
As many commentators have pointed out, the Pentagon Papers included damning revelations of malfeasance at the highest levels of the U.S. government, such as evidence showing that President Lyndon Johnson had lied to the American public about the Gulf of Tonkin incident and that his successor, Richard Nixon, had expanded bombing campaigns to Cambodia and Laos.
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Finally a small group of Cuban boat people in Miami has lost control over American foreign policy and failed efforts to embargo Castro to death

By Jeff Mason and Pascal Fletcher Jeff Mason And Pascal Fletcher – 1 hr 48 mins ago
WASHINGTON/MIAMI (Reuters) – President Barack Obama issued an executive order on Friday loosening more restrictions on U.S. travel and money remittances to Cuba, a further step in his efforts to reach out to the people of the communist-ruled country.

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The myth and the reality of Social Security and Medicare

What's the 'Return' on Your Social Security Taxes
by Eric Schurenberg
Friday, January 14, 2011
Whether you believe it or not, Social Security is going to be a part of your future, and when the time comes, you'll be glad you've got it. Yes, our national pension system has some well-known fiscal problems, but Uncle Sam can solve them by any number of bearable cost-cutting and/or tax-raising solutions before the money runs out. The question remains, though: Is it worth it? Will the benefits you'd receive under current law compensate you for the career's worth of taxes you'll have paid into the system? The latest answer, generated by a new Urban Institute Social Security study, is: yes. (Surprised?) As far as it's possible to project, Social Security and Medicare give you a positive return on your tax "investment" even after inflation

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Why does little Iceleand prosecute banker theft and U.S. fines them? Why isn’t Richard Fuld in jail?

2 ex-Landsbanki executives arrested in Iceland in connection with bank's spectacular collapse

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) -- Two former senior executives with Iceland's failed Landsbanki bank have been arrested over allegations of market manipulation, the special prosecutor's office said Friday.
Prosecutor Olafur Hauksson said he had asked that ex-Landsbanki chief executive Sigurjon Arnson and former head of corporate finance Ivar Gudjonsson be detained in connection with investigation into the collapse of the institution. It's one of several Icelandic banks that failed in 2008 under the weight of enormous debts racked up during the tiny North Atlantic nation's boom.

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Supreme Court says corporations are real persons but hard to arrest Quantas
Qantas to pay settlement in US price-fixing suit
Qantas to pay $26.5 million to settle US class action over price-fixing on cargo services
On Friday January 14, 2011, 2:35 am EST
ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) -- Qantas will pay $26.5 million in a settlement of a freight price-fixing lawsuit in the United States.
Australia's national carrier said Friday that the settlement, subject to court approval, would resolve its liability in the case. Qantas must also cooperate with the plaintiffs in the case.
"In exchange, Qantas is released from claims made by all class members who were direct purchasers of air cargo services to or from the U.S. from January 2000 to 11 September 2006," the airline said.

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Not hard to make a profit by borrowing from government for nothing and lending at a markup.

(Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co reported a 47 percent increase in quarterly earnings.
Profit and revenue was stronger than analysts had expected, and the bank made more loans.