Presenting Spain's Economic Collapse In Context

Short, but not sweet from ZeroHedge.  Bonus bad graph included..

We have presented many charts over the last few weeks showing the collapse in retail sales in Spain, along with surging unemployment, bankruptcies and non-performing bank loans. But to do justice to the situation, you’ve got to put it in context of the last 150 years, and JPMorgan's Michael Cembalest provides just such context. Spain’s adventure in the Eurozone(Starting in 1986) has sent it into an economic tailspin the likes of which have not been seen, with the exception of the Spanish Civil War, since the 19th century. At that time, the Spanish empire was at the tail end of its colonial decline, and was an under-regulated, agrarian, closed economy subject to frequent crises. The chart shows the details, highlighting the economic declines during revolutions, depressions and agricultural epidemics. Spain’s recent decline has now matched them.

 

China/Japan FutureWar: Now Taiwan Wants In!

Now Taiwan Is Also Claiming The Senkaku Islands: 70 Fishing Boats Set Sail To Stake Claim.  The only sane motivation I can think of here is that this is a defensive move.  Taiwan wants to be able to take a shot at whoever might take a shot at them, or they don't want to be "innocent bystanders" if the dispute goes down twisted.

Imagine any John Woo climactic gunfight between three entities, all holding two guns, each pointing at everyone else.  The huge difference?  No one has fired even a single shot: Not yet.  So, what we got here is, for the moment, a peaceful but tense Taiwanian Standoff..  Zero Hedge:

If you thought it was complicated when "only" China and Japan were disputing the recent escalation in property rights over who owns those three particular rock in the East China Sea, to be henceforth called the Senkaku Islands for simplicity's sake because things are about to get far more confusing, here comes Taiwan, aka the Republic of China, not to be confused with the People's Republic of China for the simple reason that the latter officially asserts itself to be the sole legal representation of China and actively claims Taiwan to be under its sovereignty, denying the status and existence of ROC as a sovereign state (yet one which benefits from US backing), to also stake its claim over the disputed Senkaku Islands. (Epic run-on sentence, yeah?) It has done so in a very confusing manner: by replicating what it thinks China did some days ago when an "armada" of 1000 fishing boats set sail in an unknown direction and which the trigger happy media immediately assumed was in direction Senkaku. It subsequently turned out that this was not the case and as we reported, "China's fishing season stops every year in June-September in the East China Sea, where the islands are located. This year, the ban was lifted on Sunday." In short the (PR)China fishing boat amrada was not headed toward the Senkakus. Taiwan however did not get the memo, and as NKH reports, "several dozen Taiwanese fishing boats have set sail for the disputed Senkaku islands in the East China Sea, to claim access to their fishing grounds."


So to summarize: a country which (PR)China claims does not exist and is under its own sovereign control, has replicated what it thought was (PR)China's strategic move to reclaim the Senkaku Islands (which was nothing of the sort), and is sending its own fishing boat armada to reclaim islands whose ownership has sent Japan and (PR)China on the verge of more than mere diplomatic warfare. The only thing that could make this any more confusing is if someone discovered title deeds ceding ownership of the Senkakus to Japan, the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China at the same time, and signed by Linda Green. 

If this scenario wasn't such an expressway to World War 3(or 4), it'd be hilarious.   Based on the action so far, they all want to be perceived as wanting to fight much more than they really do.  I'm hoping a "diplomatic solution" is in the near-term future.  But, as with anything else during this Grand Irrationality, shit can spiral out of control really fast. It just takes one mistake, and everything changes..

How To Deal With The General Weirdness of The Grand Irrationality

Tens of thousands of Israeli troops in surprise Golan drill. Khamenei: No bending to the West

Sweet.  Armageddon Days are here again!  Debka:

Reservists drafted at no notice, Air Force, Central Command and other IDF units were flown to Israel’s northern Golan border early Wednesday, Sept. 19, for a surprise exercise called by Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz under the codename “National Asset.”


The official IDF announcement tried to downplay its importance, describing it as a “planned, routine event.” However, debkafile’s military sources say the war game is the biggest the IDF has conducted in the eight years since the second Lebanon war on Hizballah in 2006, with tens of thousands of soldiers and senior officers, including the artillery and the air force taking part.

Over the last weekend, witnesses reported heavy traffic of convoys of tank and APC carriers and military vehicles with emergency store markings heading north, just days after the IDF completed a large-scale war game on Israel’s Syrian and Lebanese borders simulating a Hizballah attack.

Since early September, therefore, the Israeli Defense Forces have been in the midst of preparations which have the appearance of readiness for a real war rather than an exercise. Those preparations peaked Wednesday under a codename which signified its goal: the defense of national assets.

Another sign of an impending conflict was provided by US diplomats who Monday began destroying classified documents and sensitive equipment at the Beirut embassy. As Islamist anti-US violence raged across Arab and Muslim countries, the State Department said this was a precautionary measure, without naming any specific threat. The trashing of embassy documents usually signifies preparations to evacuate an US embassy at short notice. It would be imperative in a war situation to keep them out of Hizballah hands.

The official IDF announcement described the exercise as focusing on fire power under the command of chief Artillery Commander, Brig. Gen. Ro’i Riftin and due to end Wednesday night. The rapid deployment of military strength on this scale for a live-fire drill is required practice for an army facing the onset of war aggression.

In the Persian Gulf, the US is leading 25 West European and Arab nations in a gigantic 12-day war game in the Straits of Hormuz which began Sunday, Sept 16. It includes a large-scale minesweeping drill to simulate the breaching of the Strait of Hormuz against Iranian efforts to block oil passage through the strategic waterway. The exercise - entirely by simulated measures - will also drill operations for destroying Iranian naval, air and missile bases in the Persian Gulf area and countering Iranian speedboats aiming to sabotage naval vessels and oil tankers.

Among the participants are the UK, France, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The United States has deployed three aircraft carriers with aerial strike forces. Military sources estimate that when the war game ends on Sept 27, these forces will not disperse but stay on hand in the event of Israel attacking Iran’s nuclear program.

As the exhibition of colossal Western might got underway opposite Iranian shores, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted on his official website as saying: Iran will never bend to Western pressure The Islamic Republic, he told a military audience, "makes its decisions solely based on the interests of its people and the country, even if all of the world's powers get angry at its decisions."

It "does not accept the demands of any superpower," he added.
The Ayatollah also accused "Western and Zionist media" of fabricating reports on the biting effects of economic sanctions, hinting that the Iranian economy was not suffering.

Here's some music to listen to while you eat your stockpile of canned goods.  Ladies and Gentlemen, The The:

Further Evidence We Inhabit "Universe B."

Children 'too embarrassed' to pick up books, study says.  Wow.  This sucks.  This situation MUST be reversed.  The Daily Mail.  Excerpts:

According to the latest study, one-in-six children admitted they were too embarrassed to read in front of their friends for fear of being labelled a geek.


Researchers said it was "essential" for children to make time to read as there was a clear link between reading outside lessons and academic achievement.

Young people who read at home on a daily basis are 13 times more likely to perform above the level expected for their age in literacy, it was claimed.

Jonathan Douglas, trust director, called on the Government to back a national campaign to halt the reading decline and “give children time to read in their daily lives”.

"The fact that children are reading less than in 2005 signals a worrying shift in young people's literacy habits,” he said.

"We believe we need to inspire a new generation to read in the same way that the Olympics is inspiring a new generation to take part in sport.

"We need to make reading irresistible. We want to call on families and professionals working with children and young people to make 10 minutes in their day for reading."

The research was based on a long-running survey of 21,000 children in primary and secondary education.

It emerged that 38.1 per cent of pupils read in their spare time when the study was first carried out in 2005. This dropped to 37.7 per cent in 2007, 32.2 per cent in 2009 and 30.8 per cent in the latest poll was completed in 2011.

The research found that 54 per cent of those questioned preferred watching TV to reading.

"These findings together suggest a clear issue with children's leisure time with many children enjoying reading but pushing it out in favour of other activities," said the study.

Of those who did read outside class, 47.8 per cent said they read fiction, down from 51.5 per cent in 2005.

Other forms of reading were also in decline, it was revealed. The study also showed that 57 per cent of children read magazines, compared with 77.5 per cent in 2005; 50.4 per cent read websites compared with 63.8 per cent seven years ago; and 27.9 per cent read comics, down from 50.6 per cent in 2005.

A Department for Education spokesman said: “The findings of this survey come as no surprise and shows that we need to continue our drive to encourage young people to develop a love of reading.

“In a world of so many distractions for young minds, the place of literature is more important than ever.

This societal trend threatens to destroy civilization from the inside out.  We cannot devolve into illiteracy and a mob-mentality chaos.  "Idiocracy" looks less like just a comedy and more like dystopian prophecy:  The logical end result stemming from several generations of BAD Educational Policy and socially-encouraged ignorance.  It's not so far off, really.  We owe future generations better than we're treating them by allowing this intellectual abomination to occur.  We must address this crisis head on.  Yesterday.

Assad Grants Autonomy to Kurdish Region, Prompting Threats From Turkey

Big implications, so of course you'll find this in the Friday afternoon/Olympics news dump..  BIG doin's, people..  AntiWar:

Syrian President Bashar Assad, amid growing unrest, has granted control of parts of northern Syria over to militant Kurds, long branded as terrorists by Turkey, in a provocation that could lead the conflict to break out internationally.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had earlier said that Turkey would not accept an autonomous Kurdish area in Syria, fearing separatist Kurds in Turkey would use it as a safe-haven to launch cross-border attacks.



Late on Thursday Turkey mobilized and deployed tanks and missile batteries on the Syrian border near the Kurdish region, with Erdogan commenting if the Kurds control these areas, “then intervening would be our most natural right.”


Kurdish control of these border areas are an apparent consequence of the chaos of Syria’s internal conflict, in which the US and its allies are sending aid, intelligence, and weapons to the Syrian rebels, despite numerous crimes and ties to terrorist groups.
Turkish military intervention against the Assad regime came close to being a reality back a few months ago when Syria downed a Turkish fighter jet that went into Syrian airspace. Turkey has shown little hesitation to attack its neighbors if they feel their Kurdish threat demands it, as cross-border attacks into Iraq’s Kurdish region in recent months has shown.

If Turkey, a NATO member, involves itself in the Syrian conflict in a direct and belligerent way, it could have far reaching consequences, with possible implications of a US intervention.

This is an interesting turn of events.  Will Turkey show restraint to an obvious provocation?  I wonder how Turkish Kurds will feel about their government's reaction to Assad's latest move?  Erdogan should probably do a little bit of yoga or deep breathing before initiating any response..  This could be the weekend that the situation in Syria becomes international.  Stay tuned!