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Thursday, March 10, 2005 |
 DEBKA has some notes on the negotiated break-up the of the husk of the Iraqi state. Of course, given the current level of GG attacks in the north of Iraq, there isn't any oil revenue to split up.
Lots of salt as always with DEBKA info.
5:19:00 PM 
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I am little confused. I am sitting here listening to David Weinberger on NPR talking about terrorism and the Internet. How did Joi, David, Dan, and Ethan (all smart guys, but...) become goto guys on terrorism? I would think if the conventional establishment was going to tap the blogosphere for insight, they would at least go to some people that have some experience with the topic.
12:39:58 PM
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GP. The economic costs of the Chechen war to Russia.
11:37:56 AM
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BBC. Balochistan has found it has more to export, in addition to natural gas: systemic chaos.
11:31:52 AM
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AT. The Bank of International Settlements (BIS), which acts as a bank for the world's central banks, has just released a study showing that the ratio of dollar deposits held in Asian offshore reserves declined to 67% in September, down from 81% in the third quarter of 2001. India was the biggest seller, reducing its dollar assets from 68% of total reserves to just 43%. China, which directly links the yuan to the dollar and is under US pressure to allow a freer movement of its currency, trimmed the dollar share from 83% to 68%.
This shift conforms with global trends as central banks seek a buffer from the burgeoning US trade and budget deficits. A separate survey by European-based Central Banking Publications found that 29 of 65 nations surveyed were cutting back on the dollar and 39 were buying more euros. America's annual budget deficit of US$500 billion is largely funded by Asian purchases of US government bonds, mostly from China and Japan. The US trade and current account deficits are in a similar plight: it took $530 billion of foreign capital to finance US imports in 2003 and $650 billion last year. Projections for 2005 range up to $800 billion.
10:31:50 AM
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Ray lands a big win (an acquisition of his company), and cements a choice spot for himself. Wow. Congrats Ray!
10:20:27 AM
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More data theft, this time at Lexis/Nexis. Where is this data flowing? Offshore? Nobody seems to want to tackle that question. Also, what's the recourse if your data is stolen? Not much, particularly given the recent legal reforms enacted. Oh, those pesky class action law suits...
9:10:51 AM
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The system sabotage continues in Iraq: water, natural gas, and oil pipelines were attacked near Kirkuk earlier this week.
8:59:38 AM
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Kavkaz center. Chechen independence site. My question: will the assassination of Aslan Maskhadov drive Chechen guerrillas to adopt global guerrilla methods? Brainstorming potential strategies:
8:33:27 AM
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© Copyright 2005 John Robb.
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