The Nightmare No One In America Sees Coming…What if???

By KT McFarland

- FOXNews.com

What if the electricity suddenly went out? One nuclear warhead detonated high above North America would produce a shockwave powerful enough to knock out the entire electric grid and all electronic devices. Not just temporarily because the system was overloaded, but permanently because the circuits were fried.

Ever heard of Electromagnetic pulse, or EMP? Probably not, unless you’re a nuclear weapons expert.

In the 1950’s, At the dawn of the nuclear age, most weapons analysts focused on the unparalleled death and destruction even one nuclear weapon would cause. Bomb blast, fireball, radiation poisoning. But few thought about electromagnetic pulse — the invisible wave of electricity that would fry electronic circuits seemed almost trivial.

But fast forward 60 years to modern, high tech America. Today every aspect of our lives depends on electronics, computers, the Internet and satellites – our armed forces, our banking system, our communications networks, our infrastructure.

What if the electricity suddenly went out? One nuclear warhead detonated high above North America would produce a shockwave powerful enough to knock out the entire electric grid and all electronic devices. Not just a temporarily because the system was overloaded, but a permanently because the circuits were fried.

Nothing would work – not the phone system, or water pumping stations, or planes, trains or automobiles. Your toilet wouldn’t flush and the TV wouldn’t turn on. Planes would stop in mid air. The only way to communicate would be face to face. Credit cards would be useless.

Tens of millions would die of disease and starvation. We would be thrown, unprepared and within seconds, into a pre-electric world. America would likely never recover. Unthinkable?

Think again.

Who would do it to us? Who could? Any country with the ability to shoot a nuclear tipped missile at the US. That’s China and Russia today or North Korea and Iran tomorrow.

It’s time we start thinking about the unthinkable.

Is there anything we can do now? Here are three suggestions:

First, the Obama administration must redouble efforts to stop rogue states like Iran from getting nuclear weapons, using force if necessary.

Second, President Obama should reverse his decision to cut back the missile defense program. If we can’t prevent nuclear proliferation we must take steps to defend ourselves from attack.

Finally, we should spend the $100 million dollars necessary to harden the electric grid and national infrastructure. It won’t protect us from an EMP attack, but it could save the country from catastrophe.

Kathleen Troia “K.T.” McFarland served in national security posts in the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations. She wrote Secretary of Defense Weinberger’s November 1984 “Principles of War Speech” which laid out the Weinberger Doctrine. She is a senior adviser to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and a frequent contributor to the Fox Forum. Watch “K.T.” and Mike Baker every Monday at 10 a.m. on FoxNews.com’s “DefCon3.”

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/03/11/kt-mcfarland-obama-emp-electromagnetic-pulse-power-grid-internet-computers/

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Amusing rant…from an SEC employee..”We all know Gold is a bubble”…

Get past the first paragragh to read a rebutal of sorts~jude

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/09/2010 16:26 -0500

Former Bridgewater-ite (which we hear is not doing that hot lately) Rick Bookstaber, who was recently appointed at the SEC in some risk management capacity, comes out with a truly amusing rant on why gold is in a bubble, and, not just that, but that “we all know gold is in a bubble.” Ignore the fact that all multi-billionaire hedge fund managers have been loading up, all relevant and semi-relevant pundits have been claiming that gold is gradually becoming the one alternative to fiat debasement which has recently become a global phenomenon, and ignore that even with the dollar going up, gold has defended its 1,100 an ounce price quite successfully. Bookstaber compiles vivid imagery upon even more vivid imagery, and goes as far as comparing the quest for gold with the pursuit of hookers “Even if a guy is just after sex, he at least has the decency to act like there is some substance behind his interest. But with gold, no one seems even to care about giving a justification, other than “gold has been a store of value throughout 5,000 years of monetary history”. No one? Dear Mr. Bookstaber, feel free to peruse the following thoughts by Eric Sprott, Dylan Grice, Hugh Hendry, David Rosenberg, Fred Hickey, Jim Grant, David Einhorn and last but not least, Goldman Sachs, on some contrarian opinions to your prevailing dogma. And speaking of unconflicted advance warning vis-a-vis ponzi bubbles, where was your current employer cautioning the general population about the dot com bubble? Or the housing/credit bubble? Or the Madoff ponzi? Or the current Great Currency Deflation Bubble? Perhaps you can expend your time and energy on the real source of soon-to-be unparalleled wealth loss instead of focusing on the fringe “tin foil”-hatted gold community which nobody takes seriously anyway (except India of course which just incidentally bought 200 tons of gold north of $1,000).

From the SEC-member’s blog:

The Gold Bubble

This represents my personal opinion, not the views of the SEC or its staff.

Greek CDS Overtures Fall on Deaf Ears in Washington…well duhhhh

Trying to confuse us??? I’ve noticed the word derivatives isn’t being said anywhere…nor the fact that they weren’t insured by AIG… hey…they knew the bet…don’t blame us!!! ~jude

* EU Commission wants G20 to debate issue

* CDS speculation worsens Greek woes, politicians say

* Proposals on derivatives, market abuse seen this year

STRASBOURG, France, March 9 (Reuters) – The European Commission will consider banning the naked selling of contracts that investors use to hedge against countries defaulting on their debt, its chief said on Tuesday.

Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the European Union’s executive would like the G20 group of developed and developing nations to discuss speculation in credit default swaps (CDS), a form of insurance against default.

Naked selling involves selling a CDS to a buyer who does not hold the underlying sovereign bond.

Barroso’s statement to the European Parliament followed claims by European politicians that speculation in credit default swaps on Greek debt worsened the country’s financial problems.

“A new, ad hoc reflection is needed on credit default swaps regarding sovereign debt,” Barroso said.

“In the short term, we must achieve the necessary coordination to ensure that Member States act in a coordinated fashion, most particularly for ‘naked’ practices. cont…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8981221

U.S. Fetches $15.4 Million for Washington Federal Warrants

BY DARRELL A. HUGHES

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The U.S. government sold its warrants to purchase shares of Washington Federal Inc. (WFSL) stock for $15.4 million, the Treasury said Wednesday.

The Treasury received warrants in several financial institutions as a means of maximizing returns on a $700 billion government effort to rescue the financial sector.

Treasury said it has commenced secondary public offerings of 1,707,456 warrants to buy stock of Washington Federal.

Treasury sold Washington Federal’s warrants with a strike price of $17.57 a share for $9.15 each. Bidding on those warrants, which expire in November 2018, started at $5 a share.

Prices for those warrants came below the upper end of the range expected by Linus Wilson, a University of Louisiana at Lafayette finance professor who has been tracking Treasury warrant auction data. Wilson projected the warrants would fetch between $5.92 and $9.94 a share.

Citigroup to Double North America Private Banking Force…hmmm

BY BRETT PHILBIN

NEW YORK — Citigroup Inc. plans to roughly double the size of its private banker force in North America over the next several years.

In an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, Citi Private Bank’s North America Chief Executive Peter Charrington said he would like the unit, which boasts 130 bankers, to reach a total of about 260.

Building up the private bank, which targets investors with a net worth of at least $25 million, is an important growth area for Citi after the bank formed a joint venture with its Smith Barney brokerage and http://bit.ly/9kgXAN)

Govt Considers Free(ish) Broadband for All. Err…

BY Addy DugdaleToday

Greek Crisis Is Over, Rest of Region Safe, Prodi Says

March 10 (Bloomberg) — The worst of Greece’s financial crisis is over and other European nations won’t follow in its path, said former European Commission President Romano Prodi.

“For Greece, the problem is completely over,” said Prodi, who was also Italian prime minister, in an interview in Shanghai today. “I don’t see any other case now in Europe. I don’t think there is any reason to think the euro system will collapse or will suffer greatly because of Greece.”

Greek officials are trying to convince investors they can cut the nation’s budget deficit, which at 12.7 percent of gross domestic product was Europe’s largest in 2009. The government last week announced spending cuts and tax increases totaling 4.8 billion euros ($6.5 billion), the third round of austerity measures this year.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on March 7 the 16- nation euro region must support Greece, which has more than 20 billion euros of debt falling due in April and May, or risk destroying the currency. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who runs Europe’s largest economy, has so far refused to give the green light to any aid package.

Intervention by European nations to date “was enough” and countries such as Spain and Portugal have “plenty of time” to get their finances in order, said Prodi. As Italian prime minister, Prodi in 1997 introduced a “euro tax” that helped cut Italy’s budget deficit to 2.7 percent of GDP and qualify to join the euro. Italy’s shortfall in 1997 was equivalent to 7 percent of the economy.

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