Credit Suisse study shows inequality accelerating, with NGOs saying it shows economic recovery ‘skewed towards wealthy’. ● The richest 1% of the world’s population are getting wealthier, owning more than 48% of global wealth, according to a report published on Tuesday which warned growing inequality could be a trigger for recession. According to the Credit Suisse global wealth report (pdf), a person needs just $3,650 – including the value of equity in their home – to be among the wealthiest half of world citizens. However, more than $77,000 is required to be a member of the top 10% of global wealth holders, and $798,000 to belong to the top 1%. “Taken together, the bottom half of the global population own less than 1% of total wealth. In sharp contrast, the richest decile hold 87% of the world’s wealth, and the top percentile alone account for 48.2% of global assets,” said the annual report, now in its fifth year. The report, which calculates that total global wealth has grown to a new record – $263tn, more than twice the $117tn calculated for 2000 – found that the UK was the only country in the G7 to have recorded rising inequality in the 21st century.

A mysterious US Air Force unmanned aircraft is landing after 22 months of orbiting the Earth amid speculations that it is sent for spying or military mission. ● The X-37B, which looks like a small space shuttle, took off to a clandestine mission over undisclosed nations, from Cape Canaveral in Florida on December 11, 2012. It is believed that the X-37B operates like a spying satellite but with a large fuel tank for maneuvering that lets it switch orbits and escape detection from ground. The Vandenberg Air Force Base in California released a notice to aviators on the Federal Aviation Administration's website and announced that airspace around the Southern California base would remain closed from morning to afternoon on Tuesday. "Team Vandenberg stands ready to implement safe landing operations for the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, the third time for this unique mission," Col. Keith Baits, commander of the 30th Space Wing, said in a statement last week. "I think it is primarily an ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) platform for testing new sensor technologies or validating new technologies," Brian Weeden, a retired US Air Force Space Command officer.

The Daily Beast: The Pentagon’s Secret Space Drone Is Finally Coming Home.

The treaty has now been ratified by presidents of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. ● Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a law on Tuesday on ratifying the treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union, a Russia-led three-member bloc seen as an alternative to the EU. “The head of state has signed the law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On ratification of the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty,” the presidential press service said in a statement. The text of the law is to be published in local newspapers, the statement reads. Russia ratified the treaty on October 3. Nearly a week later, on October 9, the law on ratifying the treaty was adopted by the Belarusian parliament. On the same day, the document was signed by the country’s President Alexander Lukashenko. The Eurasian Economic Union Treaty was signed by the presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus on May 29, 2014. The treaty provides for free movement of commodity, services, capital and labor force within the union. It also envisages that the three countries coordinate or pursue common policy in certain economic sectors.

Nick Beams ■ The annual International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank meetings concluded in Washington over the weekend in the midst of a deepening economic and financial crisis, with no prospect of a recovery in the world economy. The euro zone seems set to enter its third recession since the global financial crisis erupted in 2008, and there are fears that the policies being pursued by the world’s major central banks are creating the conditions for another crash.

CLIMATE change forecasts may be overestimates due to a failure to take into account how plants absorb carbon dioxide, scientists warned today. ● They said the impact of rising CO2 levels on plant growth has been underestimated by 16 per cent. And as plants absorb CO2, this has led to overestimates of how much of the greenhouse gas is left in the atmosphere. Climate sceptics said the study by American scientists is yet more proof that the science of climate change is not settled and is instead much more complicated than previously thought. And one leading climate scientist said the paper suggests that cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases may not need to be as deep to keep global warming below what is seen as the critical increase of 2C. This casts doubt on the drive for costly anti-pollution measures such as wind farms. Climate change is widely blamed on man's burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas which release greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide that trap the heat in the atmosphere. The study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences focusses on the slow diffusion of CO2 in plant leaves, with particular attention to the mesophyll or their inner tissue. It concludes: "Carbon cycle models that lack explicit understanding of mesophyll diffusion will underestimate historical and future terrestrial carbon uptake. "Consequently, they will overestimate historical and future growth rates of atmospheric CO2 concentration due to fossil fuel emissions, with ramifications for predicted climate change."

xymphora ■ "Exclusive: Privately, Saudis tell oil market- get used to lower prices" This is bluff (perhaps a manic phase of Prince Bandar's mental illness). The Saudis can't afford to do this - they need big revenues to fund their own social programs or face the revolution they fear, and they certainly don't benefit by wrecking OPEC. It may just be a warning to the Americans to get with the Saudi plan for Syria (the Americans need the high oil price numbers to keep the fracking illusion going, an illusion that creates the phony economic numbers that keep up the deception that the US isn't in severe economic difficulties), a plan which at least the Pentagon seems to be resisting (the Pentagon has been choosing bombing targets which appear to be helping the Syrian government).

Moon of Alabama ■ Saudis Dump Oil To Increase Leverage Over U.S. Middle East Policies
Reuters: Privately, Saudis tell oil market: get used to lower prices