Delusions of grandeur. But also a revelation of aspirations, just in case anyone still doesn't have a clue (and many, of course, don't). "Islamist group claims responsibility of US financial meltdown," by Mustafa Amarah at Fact International, October 16 (thanks to Gates of Vienna):
CAIRO- Members of the Egyptian Jihad group have declared that Islamic Jihad groups are responsible for the financial meltdown in the US as they distributed hundred of millions of US dollars in the world stock markets.Fact International (FI), received a copy of the statement made by members of the Jihad Group in Abu Zabal Prison in Egypt, which said that the Jihad groups distributed the millions of dollars in the world’s stock exchanges, to hit the US economy, which resulted in the global financial crisis.
This issue is related to the collapse of the US Empire, after the main banks in the world collapsed and the world stock markets lost billions of US dollars.
The statement which was signed by prisoners who will not be mentioned by FI, said that, “the US failed in the war on Iraq and Afghanistan and had massive military, human and economic casualties.”
The statement also mentioned that a plant had to be set up for producing artificial limbs in the Occupied Palestine to overcome the loss. Another plant was established for producing the tyres of the US military Bradley as they had been damaged by the resistance in Iraq and Afghanistan.
They saw the Soviet Union come apart not long after it left Afghanistan and so they have convinced themselves that jihad was all it took. They began applying those lessons to the US soon after the first Gulf War. The idea was to kill tens of thousands of Americans in lower Manhattan and force our withdrawal from Saudi Arabia. It almost worked. Imagine if that truck bomb had been more powerful or better placed. Clinton was able to ignore it because once the smoke dissipated there was no visible evidence of the attack and "only" six people had died. How many people got to see the crater made by the bomb? Bill Clinton never even went there. What would he have done if the two towers had been destroyed?
Of course. And all this time I was thinking the juice did it.
Fact is, the Muslim world did have a hand in the meltdown.
In 2005, oil was $25 a barrel and the price of a gallon of gas was $1.75. By May of 2008, oil had climbed to $147 a barrel and gas was $4.00.
Many of those with sub-prime mortgages and tight budgets were driven to insolvency by transportation costs. The proof is in the pudding; sub-prime lending to unqualified borrowers had been going on for years, but payment delinquency only became endemic earlier this year, when gas became so prohibitive.
The root of the problem was systemic...a culture of permissiveness among lenders, driven not by market factors, but rather political considerations, i.e., the Barney Frank school of low-income empowerment. But the sharp rise in the price of oil played its role, just as it did in the last four recessions (1974-75, 1979-82, 1990-91, 2000-02). Everybody seems to have overlooked this dimension.
...the Jihad groups distributed the millions of dollars in the world’s stock exchanges, to hit the US economy, which resulted in the global financial crisis.
That reminds me of 'Austin Powers,' I believe the second one, in which Dr. Evil sets his ransom price at ... drumroll, strings ... ONE MILLION DOLLARS, and then everyone's all 'um, a million dollars won't buy you a two-bedroom house in San Diego, dude.' Economics, Islamic-style.
Cornelius made an interesting point about the Arab hand in the meltdown; but for a bunch of jihadist monkeys, with no economic knowledge whatsoever, to claim responsibility for such an economic crisis, that's just ludicrous.
Except for bomb-making, wife-beating, child-molesting, Mein-Qurampf-reading, bending over with their rear ends facing the West, rioting over cartoons and ripping off fools that visit stores in their native countries, is there much more that they know? Probably not.
While I do think the economic meltdown (I hate the word crisis) is contrived, it was not done by these morons. It takes more sophistication than these idiots have to pull off something like this.
I thought I caused the meltdown...I sold to a private party, a lot of 90% silver US coins that my father had collected prior to passing away, for my 93 year old mother.
The man paid $2200.00. Almost immediately the price started dropping along with everything else.
If he sold the same coins today, maybe he would get $900.00. I expect the precious metals market to recover and resume its climb. Buy on the dip if you can...Or better yet, mine your own gold, which I have been known to do from time to time...
Maybe I misunderstood Economics 101 but wouldn't putting money in the markets make them go up?
Anybody else having trouble making actual sense of that article? I mean, I'm no dummy, but I not only found it to be a bit incoherent, I just can't make that last paragraph connect to the whole at all.
Or is it code? (Yeah, I know; it ain't exactly porn, but hey - you work with what you've got, right?)
As if.
My God, you can't really make this stuff up. What's next? The US Civil war was actually provoked my a suicide bomber? The Zimmermann telegraph (who led the US into WW1) was suggesting an Muslim-Mexican alliance to invade Texas? Someone needs a reality check, badly.
Actually, there is a very valid point around this. It has nothing to do with the rubbish in the article, of course.
Point is, after 9/11 interest rates were deliberately dropped to ensure cheap access to capital. That boosted housing prices and create the bubble, which burst when interest rates returned to normal. Republicans were aware of the problems and tried to stop them in 2003 and 2005 (the 2005 bill was sponsored by McCain, BTW), but the Democrats blocked it.
Yes, there's a lot more background material (Community Reinvestment Act and all), but the bubble really took off in 2001, as did subprime loans.
What we need is energy independence. Rather than spending $750 billion on 'bailouts', we should spend $750 million on Polywell Fusion and other technologies that will make us independent from oil.
The statement also mentioned that a plant had to be set up for producing artificial limbs in the Occupied Palestine to overcome the loss.
...................................
Now this is a really strange bit. Americans would be hobbling around, bereft of artificial limbs, it it wasn't for the presence of this high-tech plant in the "Palestinian territories"?
Hoe does that jibe with the following?
A couple of months ago, there was an article about Palestinians sailing from Gaza to Cyprus (Turkish Cyprus, one presumes). One of the main reasons? To get artificial limbs for those injured in Jihad, since the Israelis haven't been quick enough at providing them:
"The Palestinians include a Palestinian teenager who protesters said had lost his left leg from the hip to an Israeli tank shell explosion two years ago.
"Saed Musleh, 15, accompanied by his father Khaled, sailed to Cyprus in hopes of being fitted with an artificial limb either on the island, or another country.
.......
"I hope all my fellow children who lost limbs can get out of Gaza and get artificial limbs," Musleh said through an interpreter. "I hope the entire world follows the example of this group of activists who broke the siege."
Here's a link:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1016517.html