Stephen Lendman

On February 3, New York Times writers Helene Cooper and Mark Landler headlined, "White House, Egypt Discuss Plan for Mubarak's Exit," saying:

His administration is "discussing with Egyptian officials a proposal for (Mubarak) to resign immediately and turn over power to a transitional government headed by Vice President Omar Suleiman with the support of the Egyptian military," including Lt. Gen. Sami Enan, armed forces chief, and Field Marshall Mohamed Tantawi, defense minister. [...] The alleged plan includes constitutional reform, a transitional government with opposition groups like the Muslim brotherhood, and "free and fair elections in September." [...] Testifying during a February 3 Senate hearing, senior CIA official Stephanie O'Sullivan said earlier tracking of Cairo instability showed conditions were "untenable," but "we didn't know what the triggering mechanism would be."

On February 4, Times writer David Kirkpatrick headlined, "Egyptian Government Figures Join Protesters," saying:

During Friday protests, "(c)racks in the Egyptian establishment's support for (Mubarak)" emerged with Amr Moussa, Arab League head, and other notable figures appearing on Cairo streets, including defense minister Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi, the first member of Egypt's ruling elite to do so.

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Ellen Brown
The Web of Debt

“What for a poor man is a crust, for a rich man is a securitized asset class.” ~ Futures trader Ann Berg, quoted in the Guardian

Underlying the sudden, volatile uprising in Egypt and Tunisia is a growing global crisis sparked by soaring food prices and unemployment. The Associated Press reports that roughly 40 percent of Egyptians struggle along at the World Bank-set poverty level of under $2 per day. Analysts estimate that food price inflation in Egypt is currently at an unsustainable 17 percent yearly. In poorer countries, as much as 60 to 80 percent of people's incomes go for food, compared to just 10 to 20 percent in industrial countries. An increase of a dollar or so in the cost of a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread for Americans can mean starvation for people in Egypt and other poor countries.

Follow the Money

The cause of the recent jump in global food prices remains a matter of debate. Some analysts blame the Federal Reserve’s “quantitative easing” program (increasing the money supply with credit created with accounting entries), which they warn is sparking hyperinflation. Too much money chasing too few goods is the classic explanation for rising prices.

The problem with that theory is that the global money supply has actually shrunk since 2006, when food prices began their dramatic rise. Virtually all money today is created on the books of banks as “credit” or “debt,” and overall lending has shrunk. This has occurred in an accelerating process of deleveraging (paying down or writing off loans and not making new ones), as the subprime housing market has collapsed and bank capital requirements have been raised. Although it seems counterintuitive, the more debt there is, the more money there is in the system. As debt shrinks, the money supply shrinks in tandem.

That is why government debt today is not actually the bugaboo it is being made out to be by the deficit terrorists.

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Stephen Lendman

A Short Comment
A new Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) report titled, "Patterns of Misconduct: FBI Intelligence Violations from 2001 - 2008" based its findings on nearly 2,500 FOIA-obtained document pages, revealing "alarming (lawless) trends...."

They suggest far more frequent civil liberty violations than previously known, including:

(1) grossly understated numbers;
(2) long delays between violations and reporting them;
(3) types of violations involved, including:

(a) investigative oversight;
(b) "abuse, misuse, or careless use of....National Security Letter (NSL) authority;" FBI, CIA and other government agencies use them (administrative subpoenas), demanding recipients turn over requested information and remain silent; no probable cause or judicial oversight is necessary; (c) sidestepping constitutional, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and other legal principles; and
(d) complicity of ISPs, phone companies, financial institutions and credit agencies, supplying unauthorized personal information without their customers' knowledge or consent.

(4) flagrant ones, including false declarations to courts, supplying bogus evidence to get indictments, and accessing protected documents without warrants.

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