The U.S. Can't Be the World's Court

May 27, 2009

Wall Street Journal -

John B. Bellinger III, Adjunct Senior Fellow for International and National Security Law

A federal judge in New York recently allowed a lawsuit to proceed against General Motors, Ford and IBM for aiding and abetting crimes against humanity committed by the apartheid government in South Africa. And a lawsuit against Royal Dutch Shell for alleged human-rights abuses in Nigeria is scheduled to begin today in Manhattan. We may be on the verge of a new wave of legal actions against U.S. and foreign corporations in American courts.

The U.S. government can and should be a strong voice for redress of human-rights abuses around the world. But these lawsuits, which are being brought under the 200-year-old Alien Tort Statute, are likely to cause friction between foreign governments and the Obama administration. Congress should step in and clarify the types of human-rights cases that may be heard.

The Alien Tort Statute was part of the first Judiciary Act of 1789, and it gives federal courts jurisdiction to hear suits brought by non-U.S. nationals for offenses "committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States." It was intended to promote diplomacy and international commerce by allowing foreigners to bring suit in federal courts for offenses not recognized by state law in the 18th century.
The statute was virtually unused until 1980, when the Second Circuit permitted a suit by two Paraguayans against a former Paraguayan government official for the torture and murder of a family member in Paraguay. That landmark decision opened the door for international human-rights litigation, and the number of suits under the Alien Tort Statute has grown substantially in the last three decades.
In the 1980s, most of the cases involved suits by foreign nationals against officials of their own government for conduct that occurred in a foreign nation. By the 1990s, however, the focus had shifted, with plaintiffs bringing more suits against U.S. and foreign corporations -- not for direct abuses but primarily for aiding and abetting human-rights abuses by foreign governments.

Shell plans rapid North American growth - FT

By Ed Crooks in New York

Published: September 29 2010 00:21 | Last updated: September 29 2010 00:21

Royal Dutch Shell is planning a rapid expansion of its North American business to raise production by 40 per cent to 1m barrels equivalent per day in 2014, including gas, Canadian oil sands and deepwater oil.

The strategy, announced in Canada on Tuesday, is part of Europe’s largest oil company’s plan to meet its “aspiration” of producing 3.7m barrels per day in 2014, compared with 3.15m last year.
The company had previously set an objective of producing 3.5m b/d by 2012.
BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster and weak natural gas prices have raised concerns about the outlook for the industry in North America, but Shell intends to make the region the focus of its global expansion in the coming decade.

The Fed Makes And Mints Money

The most profitable bank in the United States of America isn't Jamie Dimon's JP Morgan Chase or the rejuvenated Bank of America. In fact, it doesn't have any ATMs, and it pays out almost all its earnings to you and your neighbors.
It's the Federal Reserve, which is expected to post another year of record profits in 2010.
In recent years, America's central bank has come under criticism — much of it justified. Under former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and his successor, Ben Bernanke, the Fed slept through the housing/subprime bubble, did a poor job of regulating banks and failed to forecast the deepest recession in 80 years.

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/110863/for-uncle-sam-the-fed-prints-and-mints-money?mod=bb-budgeting

Flying saucers - the Economist

TRANSPORTING large, clunky bits of equipment has always posed a challenge. Roads and railways do not reach everywhere, and even if they did, many cumbersome and heavy constructions need to be hauled in pieces, only to be put together at the final destination. Aeroplane cargo faces even tighter restrictions on shape and size, not to mention the need for runways. Heavy-transport helicopters, such as the Mil Mi-26 or Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane, address some of these difficulties, but their payloads are limited to 20 and nine tonnes, respectively, and the huge rotors create a powerful downdraft that makes handling that payload rather tricky. So people have long been looking for other ways round the problem. Now, Skylifter, an Australian aeronautical firm, thinks it has found the perfect solution.

http://www.economist.com/node/17136331

The makings of a trade war with China - WaPo

No one familiar with the Smoot-Hawley tariff of 1930 should relish the prospect of a trade war with China -- but that seems to be where we're headed and probably should be where we are headed. Although the Smoot-Hawley tariff did not cause the Great Depression, it contributed to its severity by provoking widespread retaliation. Confronting China's export subsidies risks a similar tit-for-tat cycle at a time when the global economic recovery is weak. This is a risk, unfortunately, we need to take.

In a decade, China has gone from a huge, poor nation to an economic colossus. Although its per capita income ($6,600 in 2009) is only one-seventh that of the United States ($46,400), the sheer size of its economy gives it a growing global influence. China passed Japan this year as the second-largest national economy. In 2009, it displaced Germany as the biggest exporter and also became the world's largest energy user.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/26/AR2010092603332.html

Experts see gold price rising to $1,450 - FT

The price of gold will rise to $1,450 a troy ounce in the next year, according to a poll of bankers, producers and analysts attending the London Bullion Market Association conference in Berlin, the biggest gathering of the precious metal’s industry.
If realised, that would mark a 12.5 per cent increase from current record prices just above $1,300 an ounce. On Tuesday, spot gold traded at $1,289.50.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a16b0bd2-cafa-11df-bf36-00144feab49a.html

Why the revolution will not be tweeted - the New Yorker

At four-thirty in the afternoon on Monday, February 1, 1960, four college students sat down at the lunch counter at the Woolworth’s in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina. They were freshmen at North Carolina A. & T., a black college a mile or so away.
“I’d like a cup of coffee, please,” one of the four, Ezell Blair, said to the waitress.
“We don’t serve Negroes here,” she replied.
The Woolworth’s lunch counter was a long L-shaped bar that could seat sixty-six people, with a standup snack bar at one end. The seats were for whites. The snack bar was for blacks. Another employee, a black woman who worked at the steam table, approached the students and tried to warn them away. “You’re acting stupid, ignorant!” she said. They didn’t move. Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all#ixzz10rDgGgUY

Economies and markets may be at the mercy of long-term forces - the Economist

THE financial world seems to be obsessed with the short term. Fund managers are usually judged on their performance over a three-month period. The television news highlights daily moves in stockmarkets. Lots of hedge funds think in terms of milliseconds.
But some commentators take the opposite tack, arguing that history is subject to “long waves” that cause economies and markets to change direction at regular intervals. Roger Babson, an investment adviser who predicted the 1929 crash, claimed the markets were driven by Newton’s third law of motion: every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Mind you, he also wrote a pamphlet entitled “Gravity—Our Number One Enemy”

http://www.economist.com/node/16994730

U.S. Economy "Close to a Destructive Tipping Point," Glenn Hubbard Says

"America is very close to a destructive tipping point," co-authors Glenn Hubbard and Peter Navarro warn in their new book Seeds of Destruction. "We must change how we conduct our politics and economics...or we will inevitably go the way of all once-great nations and suffer an irreversible decline."
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/u.s.-economy-%22close-to-a-destructive-tipping-point%22-glenn-hubbard-says-535457.html?tickers=%5EGPSC,%5EDJI,SPY,UUP,UDN,TBT,TLT&sec=topStories&pos=9&asset=&ccode=

10 Signs The U.S. Is Losing Its Influence In The Western Hemisphere

Even if the U.S. hadn't crashed into a financial crisis, there are demographic, material, and political forces that have been spreading power around the Americas for decades. Brazil is first among the BRICs (Brazi, Russia, India, and China) -- four economies that are supposed to overtake the six largest Western economies by 2032. Mexico is first among the MAVINS (Mexico, Australia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Nigeria, and South Africa) -- six economies we expect to blow away expectations and become leading powers in their regions relatively soon.
Canada and Venezuela are oil powers of the distant future. Peru and Chile are sitting on a fortune of metals and minerals. All these countries are cranking up, while America faces plenty of fiscal and demographic problems at home.

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/10-signs-the-us-is-losing-its-influence-in-the-western-hemisphere-535456.html?tickers=eem,ewz,fxi,eeb,jjm,^dji,xle

and article in the Economist - http://www.economist.com/node/16990967?story_id=16990967

AP: Oil slides below $76 as traders eye US supplies ( so what ? day before it was at $77 )

Oil prices slid below $76 a barrel Tuesday as traders awaited the latest U.S. supply figures for clues about the strength of demand for crude.
By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for November delivery was down 67 cents to $75.85 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract added 3 cents to settle at $76.52 on Monday.
Crude inventories likely rose 2.2 million barrels last week, according to analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos. The American Petroleum Institute plans to announce its inventory numbers later Tuesday while the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reports its weekly supply data -- the market benchmark -- Wednesday.
Oil prices have snaked around the $75 a barrel level for most of the last year as U.S. crude demand remains sluggish amid an uneven economic recovery. Brimming crude storage levels are also weighing on prices.
"The existing fundamentals could kick prices down to half or less of what they are right now," Cameron Hanover said in a report. "Many traders opt to keep their powder dry until more definitive signals are presented" about the economic outlook, it said. Investors will be closely watching the latest U.S. indicators due this week including gross domestic product, car sales and industrial production. "With prices still stuck in tight trading ranges, there is little indication that they will break out one way or another, at least for the time being," said Edward Meir at MF Global in New York. "We still suspect the eventual break will be to the downside once the hurricane season is over."
Oil production can be affected when oil rigs and refineries are in the path of hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. In other Nymex trading in October contracts, heating oil fell 1.51 cents to $2.1077 a gallon and gasoline dropped 0.70 cent to $1.9418 a gallon. Natural gas gained 3.0 cents to 3.830 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, Brent crude fell 52 cents to $78.05 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Vanguard Mutual Funds - top 5

Founded by John C. Bogle in 1975, Vanguard is one of the world's largest investment management companies. With over $1.4 trillion of assets under management, the company offers nearly 160 domestic funds and 50 funds for foreign markets. It offers asset management and financial planning services to clients from over 80 countries. Vanguard stands apart from other mutual fund companies because it is owned by the funds themselves. The company believes that this structure helps management focus better on shareholder interests.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Top-5-Vanguard-Mutual-zacks-955602742.html?x=0

A Sound Strategy for an Uncertain Time - SmartMoney

We know the market anticipates economic activity, which is why it's pointless to buy stocks only after good news has been published. Stock prices are one of the leading economic indicators used by the government to forecast economic activity. The rule of thumb has always been that stocks anticipate the broad economy by about six months.
But now that it's official, and we know from the National Bureau of Economic Research that the Great Recession began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, the market's crystal ball is looking a little cloudy.

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/110829/a-sound-strategy-for-an-uncertain-time

Did somebody say "Glycoscience" ?

In 2002, the base sequence of the human genome was decoded. This breakthrough has revealed that the number of human genes is only around 22,000. This was followed by progress in research targetting proteins in the field of life science, producing significant achievements, but there remains a question as to whether identifying proteins will explain all human physiological functions.

Dr. Hisashi Naramitsu, director of the Research Center for Medical Glycoscience (RCMG) at the national Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) is a poineer in glycoscience. In 1985 he became the first to discover a gene that produces glycosyltransferase, or an enzyme that transfers a sugar to a carbohydrate chain and extends it, while researching at the National Institutes of Science (NIH) in the US.

( check out AIST - http://www.aist.go.jp/aist_e/aist_laboratories/1lifescience/index.html )

Blaming China Won’t Help the Economy - NYT OpEd

IT is a safe bet that Asian currency intervention was not on the minds of Republican primary voters in Delaware this month when they selected a Tea Party favorite, Christine O’Donnell, as their Senate candidate. But the pendulum swings in American politics are a key concern of Wen Jiabao and Naoto Kan, the prime ministers of China and Japan, respectively, who both met with President Obama in New York on Thursday, with the loss of American jobs to Asian competition high on the agenda.
The Asian nations’ interest in American politics stems not just from America’s standing as the sole global superpower, but also from a growing belief among Asian leaders that the era of United States hegemony will soon be over, and that the polarization of its politics symbolizes America’s inability to adapt to the changing nature of global capitalism after the financial crisis.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/opinion/27kaletsky.html

Your ETF Will Not Collapse - Morningstar Report

It's another autumn since the financial crisis of 2008. The air is getting brisk, children are returning to school, and financial pundits are fresh from their summer holiday and ready to identify the next innovation to destroy the global markets and economies. That can only mean one thing: a new crop of scare stories about exchange-traded funds. The most recent offender came out a little over a week ago, under the title "Can an ETF Collapse?" by investment firm Bogan Associates LLC. It quickly spread to the typically excellent FT Alphaville and even front page commentary on CNBC.com.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Your-ETF-Will-Not-ms-2838311577.html?x=0&.v=1

Study: Victoria's Secret Bags Have Sexy Side Effect - AOL

(Sept. 23) -- Transporting thongs and push-up bras isn't the only purpose for a Victoria's Secret shopping bag. Some women turn theirs into a purse. Others store their lunch in them. And now new research hints at a universal rationale for the bags' second lives as accessories. Women feel sexy simply holding it.
The study, to be published in December, is the work of Deborah Roedder John, a professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management. In one of four experiments, John and a colleague approached 85 women in a mall, asked them to fill out a survey -- embedded in which were questions about their self-perception -- then gave the women one of two shopping bags to walk around with for an hour. One of the bags was from Victoria's Secret. The women in that group reported to the researchers that they felt more sensual and glamorous simply for the carrying.
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/victorias-secret-bags-are-enough-to-make-some-women-feel-sexy-study-says/19642333

General Mills changes palm oil policy - Yahoo

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Environmentalists on Friday praised a decision by U.S. food-maker General Mills to stop buying palm oil from companies accused of rain forest destruction — the latest in a string of multinationals to announce policy reversals.
The Minnesota-based maker of popular brands like Cheerios, Betty Crocker and Hamburger Helper said this week it would try to procure all of its palm oil from "responsible and sustainable sources" by 2015.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100924/ap_on_bi_ge/as_indonesia_general_mills

Sewerage system for Philippine capital delayed by 20 years - Yahoo

MANILA (AFP) – Completion of a planned sewerage system for the Philippine capital, which has one of the world's most polluted waterways, is set to be delayed by over 20 years, the environment ministry said Friday.
Two private companies had been contracted to build sewerage and treatment plants for the 11-million-strong Metro Manila area, but a planned completion date of 2009 was set to be delayed until about 2031, said Jonas Leones, assistant director of the Environmental Management Bureau.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100924/sc_afp/philippinespollutionriver

Genetically altered salmon? It doesn't stop there - Yahoo

WASHINGTON – We've always played with our food — even before we knew about genes or how to change them.
For thousands of years, humans have practiced selective breeding — pairing the beefiest bull with the healthiest heifers to start a new herd. That concept was refined to develop plant hybridization and artificial insemination. Today we've got tastier corn on sturdier stalks, bigger turkeys and meatier cattle.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100922/ap_on_sc/us_sci_food_tinkering

WaPo - China increasing economic leverage by limiting 'rare earths' exports

China increasing economic leverage by limiting 'rare earths' exports
Video: China warns Japan over sea row
China's government cancels high-level talks with Japan, following Japan's announcement that it will hold a Chinese fishing boat captain for another ten days.
, September 23, 2010; 10:36 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/23/AR2010092300756.html?hpid=topnews

the Trilateral Commission

Welcome to the web site of the Trilateral Commission. The Commission was originally created in 1973 to bring together experienced leaders within the private sector to discuss issues of global concern at a time when communication and cooperation between Europe, North America, and Asia were lacking. The Commission has grown since its early days to include members from more countries in these regions, and it continues to find that study and dialogue about the pressing problems facing our planet remain as important today as in 1973. Problems and threats have changed, but their importance has only increased due to the more interconnected and interdependent world in which we now live.
http://www.trilateral.org/

Environmental Studies at UCSB

The ES major is designed to provide students with the scholarly background and intellectual skills necessary to understand complex environmental problems and formulate decisions that are environmentally sound. The academic process is multidisciplinary, drawing upon the diversity of environmentally related departments and disciplines throughout UCSB and allows a student to explore a wide variety of environmental issues, including: the social and human environment, the physical environment, and the biological environment.
http://www.es.ucsb.edu/curriculum_info/es_major.php

and see this

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121240453

WSJ - Business as Usual With Burma: U.S. policy ahead of elections isn't working.

The State Department's top official for Asia scored points for honesty and U.S. political leadership last week when he admitted Burma's upcoming elections "will be without international legitimacy." Too bad he ruined the moment by continuing to push for "dialogue" as "among all the difficult options, the best way forward."
Kurt Campbell is an astute diplomat who has pressed for closer engagement with Japan, Australia and other U.S. allies in the region. Yet he's also one of the architects of State's policy of "pragmatic engagement" with Burma that has manifestly failed.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/notes/csis-southeast-asia-program/wsj-business-as-usual-with-burma-us-policy-ahead-of-elections-isnt-working/466833359746

Don't Replace Larry Summers With a CEO - by Derek Thompson, the Atlantic

White House economic adviser Larry Summers will resign from the National Economic Council at the end of the year. Many observers see the opening as an opportunity for the president to bring on one of two underrepresented groups: women and corporate executives.
In fact, the top pick for Summers' replacement is both: Anne Mulcahy, former Xerox (NYSE: XRX - News) chief executive.Those calling for Obama to pick a CEO aren't necessarily wrong, but their reasoning is: CEOs are not uniquely smart about the economy.
http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/110772/dont-replace-larry-summers-with-a-ceo

Reuters - U.S. commercial paper market rises in week - Fed

The U.S. commercial paper market expanded after four weeks of contraction, but remains about half the size it was before the global credit crisis, Federal Reserve data showed on Thursday.
For the week ended Sept. 22, the size of the U.S. commercial paper market, a vital source of short-term funding for companies' day-to-day operations, rose by $27.8 billion to $1.064 trillion outstanding, up from $1.036 trillion the previous week.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idINWNA034820100923?rpc=44

Newark, NJ, schools to get $100M Facebook donation - AP News

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Mark Zuckerberg, the 26-year-old wunderkind behind Facebook is making a move to become a player in philanthropy just before the opening of a film that portrays him as less than charitable.
The recipient of his $100 million donation -- thought to be the biggest of his young life -- is the Newark public schools, a long-struggling district that could use the money to become a laboratory for reforms.
The donation is being announced Friday on Oprah Winfrey's TV show in an arrangement that brings together the young Internet tycoon, Newark's celebrated Democratic mayor and a governor who has quickly become a star of the Republican party.
The unusual coalition is more evidence of the growing cache of the cause of remaking urban public schools, an issue that has long confounded educators and advocates.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Newark-NJ-schools-to-get-100M-apf-1298287169.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=5&asset=&ccode=

Fed's Hint at Further Easing Leaves Wall Street Guessing - CNBC

The Fed's FOMC statement Tuesday managed to disappoint, confuse and surprise more than a few Wall Street analysts.
"It's being inconsistent, not transparent and not truthful," said FAO Economics chief economist Robert Brusca. "What's really going on here?"
Depending on whom you asked, the central bank either said too much, too little or said it poorly in the follow-up statement to its August release when the FOMC got Wall Street's attention by saying it was prepared to buy more long-term Treasurys to support a languid economic recovery.
"They have to do a better job of communicating," said Wells Fargo senior economist Scott Anderson. "The markets abhor the vacuum of uncertainty around QE2," he added, referring to the cute market acronym for a second stage of quantitative easing, which the Fed opened the door to a month ago.
"The market wanted to hear more," added longtime fed watcher David Jones, of DMJ Advisors. "The market jumped to the conclusion the Fed was going to do another massive quantitative easing."
In that context, if the August statement was a success, the September is a failure.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Feds-Hint-at-Further-Easing-cnbc-1971914915.html?x=0

Chinese Leader Fields Executives’ Questions

When Bill Gates confronts the prime minister of China on the need to honor software copyrights, it helps to have a referee — say, a Henry Kissinger — to moderate the debate.
That, in fact, is what happened at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Wednesday morning in Midtown Manhattan.
In a remarkable 90-minute meeting, with Mr. Kissinger playing M.C., Mr. Gates and other heavyweight executives and economists from the West engaged Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. He listened patiently, and often volleyed back, on topics including currency and trade policies, foreign investment and whether China needed to improve its social safety net.
Others in the circle — literally a large ring of a few dozen chairs — included Jamie Dimon, the head of JPMorgan Chase; Lloyd C. Blankfein, the Goldman Sachs chief; Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the Nobel in economics; Kenneth I. Chenault, chairman and chief of American Express; and PepsiCo’s chief executive, Indra K. Nooyi.
China’s top leaders rarely meet Western executives. But Mr. Wen, in New York for a session of the United Nations General Assembly, agreed to sit down with the group, possibly in the hope of helping ease growing tensions between the United States and China over various issues.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Chinese-Leader-Fields-nytimes-3477287037.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=7&asset=&ccode=