-Caveat Lector- from; http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- Today's Lesson from Money Meltdown a screenplay by J. Orlin Grabbe FADE IN: BLACK SCREEN Explosive SOUND of a WASHING MACHINE operating out of control. Then a STOCK TICKER begins to churn across an otherwise BLACK SCREEN. As the ticker loops itself into a large DOLLAR SIGN, the hideous industrial noise gradually begins to SING with the voice of a thousand electrons finding mechanical harmony. HANDS and forearms emerge from the dollar sign, stretching out toward the audience, pleading with them to accept the proffered riches: DIAMONDS in the left hand, sprinkled GOLD DUST in the right. As the MUSICAL ECSTACY rises to an unbearable crescendo ANNOUNCER(V.O.) Welcome to today’s episode of Investing for the Long Run . . . INT./DAY. TELEVISION STUDIO WITH LIVE AUDIENCE. ANNOUNCER(V.O.) . . . with your hostess Pamela Rush! Wild applause for PAMELA RUSH, a young lady in her late 20s who marches on stage with the demeanor of an aerobics instructor, but who graciously acknowledges the adoration, knowing that each and every member of her audience owes her so much. PAMELA RUSH Well it’s 3 p.m. on Wall Street, and I regret to inform you that the market is down a little today. Audience GROANS. PAMELA RUSH (voice rising) But what do we say when stocks go down? (in unison with the audience) Prices will fluctuate! Prices will fluctuate! (taking total charge of her audience/exercise class) And what do we say when stocks go up? PAMELA RUSH (in unison with the audience) Buy and hold! Buy and hold! Buy and hold! Buy and hold! . . . This is Investing for the Long Run, the program that teaches you, you don’t need to be a genius to make money in the stock market. You don’t need an education. You don’t need to do research. You don’t need luck. You just . . . (in unison with the audience) . . . buy and hold! Buy and hold! Buy and hold! And now, let’s see what today’s word is from our own Gnome of Zurich! FACE OF GNOME OF ZURICH. The GNOME OF ZURICH is a Dr. Spockish-looking man in his 40s, with craggy face and somewhat pointed ears. GNOME OF ZURICH Thank you, Pamela. Today the government of Germany announced the Bundesbank will be selling off part of its gold hoard to help bring the government deficit down to three percent as required by the Maastricht Treaty. PAMELA RUSH Yes? (Expectantly. Then crossly as Gnome of Zurich remains silent.) Well? Is that good or bad? (Audience is deathly silent.) GNOME OF ZURICH Well, Pamela, it’s obviously good. It’ll help drive down the price of gold, and punish all those commodity-bugs who don’t own any stock. PAMELA RUSH Oh! (Applauding. Turns to audience who applaud with her. Then . . .) Equity is king! Equity is king! Equity is king! . . . GNOME OF ZURICH We also have a report of an audience member who has a confession to make! PAMELA and GNOME look out to the audience as an usher sends the PENITENT up the aisle to the stage. The PENITENT looks to be a housewife in her 30s who is pleased at the attention, but a little nervous. PENITENT (holding hands with Pamela Rush) Pamela, I just want to say, I love your show so much. I watch it all the time. PAMELA RUSH Thank you. What is your name? PENITENT Angel. PAMELA RUSH Well, Angel, before we hear your confession, why don’t you tell us about some of the stocks you own. PENITENT Well, that’s just it. I don’t own any stocks. PAMELA RUSH (horrified, to audience) This woman doesn’t own any stocks! PENITENT You see, my husband doesn’t actually believe in them. PAMELA RUSH He’s not a member of some right-wing militia is he? PENITENT No, he’s a Methodist. He just doesn’t think stocks are a good investment right now. PAMELA RUSH Has your husband sought counseling? You know, to work through these psychological problems he has? PULL BACK TO REVEAL: SMALL TV SCREEN SHOWING THE PAMELA RUSH SHOW. CUT TO: FACE OF RAÚL ABREGO. RAÚL ABREGO Pendeja. ===== Stock Markets Happy Anniversary! Gala to celebrate 12th anniversary of 1987 crash. Markets around the world are preparing for a storm of volatility this week after being buffeted on Friday as concerns about interest rate rises and the valuation of equities scared US investors. Global markets will open in the shadow of a 5.92 per cent fall last week in the Dow Jones Industrial Average - the biggest weekly decline for the Dow since October 1989 - and against a backdrop of continued strength of the yen against the US dollar. In a coincidence that could further unsettle investors, tomorrow is the 12th anniversary of the stock market crash of 1987. Analysts warned yesterday there would be little in US economic data to be released this week to clarify the mixed picture of US economic performance or settle whether the Federal Reserve will have to raise interest rates at its meeting next month. Friday's 266.9 point fall in the Dow was prompted partly by news that US producer prices had risen 1.1 per cent in September, a higher month-on-month figure than many expected. Analysts are predicting benign September inflation figures, due tomorrow. But Credit Suisse First Boston said in its weekly strategy note that "another solid rise" in imports in the US trade balance figures, due out on Wednesday, "would only raise market angst over the ability [of the US] to finance a widening current account deficit". Economists on Wall Street expect the US's trade deficit to stabilise at about $25bn for August. Investors are also starting to doubt the sustainability of US corporate profits, even though many US companies are beating expectations in the third-quarter earnings season. On Friday Japan's Nikkei 225 Index closed more than 2.5 per cent down on the week, hit by a combination of the yen's strength and Wall Street's weakness. European stocks dipped sharply after US markets opened lower. Across Europe, a general view that interest rates are on the rise could put downward pressure on shares. The European Central Bank and the Bank of England are due to meet before the Fed's next monetary policy ses- sion on Nov ember 16, and some analysts believe the European central banks are more likely to raise rates than their US counterpart. "The more the markets sell off on Fed fears, the less likely an actual Fed tightening is," said Stephen Slifer, Lehman Brothers' economist, in his weekend note on the economic outlook. The Financial Times, October 18, 1999 The Queen's Portfolio Jiang's London Jingle Jangle Her Majesty: "Now, about those opium wars . . ." JIANG ZEMIN, the President of the People's Republic of China, arrives in London today for a visit that is likely to rank with those of Nicolae Ceausescu and Emperor Hirohito of Japan as among the most controversial of the Queen's reign. Mr Jiang flies into London late tonight. Tomorrow, a little after midday, he will ride with Her Majesty down the Mall in a horse-drawn carriage to Buckingham Palace and the official start of the visit, which lasts until Friday. Along the Mall's half mile, dozens of Chinese flags are flying. Tomorrow, the banners and placards of hundreds of protesters will join them, for Mr Jiang's visit is expected to be the focus of large demonstrations against China's suppression of human rights and its occupation of Tibet. Such protests were impossible in Beijing in June, the 10th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, or when China this month celebrated the 50th anniversary of its revolution. But Mr Jiang will face them in London, and later in Cambridge. British officials still have no idea whether he will be furious and cut short his programme, or whether he will ride out the protests as he did in America last year. The organiser of one Tibetan protest group said: "We are planning to make sure that protesters are out at every step of the state visit." Mr Jiang will receive a much warmer welcome from the businessmen and dignitaries who will flock to meet him at banquets in Buckingham Palace, Banqueting House, Guildhall and the Chinese embassy. The All-Party China Parliamentary Group, the UK-China Forum and assorted other business hopefuls will be there to pay court. Rupert Murdoch, who hopes to broadcast suitably edited news into every Chinese home, will be foremost among them. As the visit is certain to demonstrate, China presents two faces: that of a rapidly modernising economy, its 1.1 billion people a vast potential market for British goods and investment, and that of one of the world's most repressive nations. China is the most powerful state in Asia, in which role it mostly behaves benignly, with the exception of its sabre-rattling towards Taiwan. It has been broadly co-operative with the West over key United Nations policies such as authorising peace-keeping forces for Kosovo and East Timor. It has made some effort to cut back its missile technology sales to dubious regimes such as that in North Korea, though still very far from enough. It has, more or less, kept the promises it made to Hong Kong when it recovered it from Britain. For these and many reasons, good relations with China serve British interests well. However, opposition to Communist rule is not tolerated in China, 2,000 political prisoners languish in jails charged with "subversion", the Christian churches are harassed and the non-Chinese cultures of Tibet and Xinjiang are being systematically extirpated. There is not likely to be much attention paid to this second side to China at any of the banquets or at the private meetings between Mr Jiang and Tony Blair. Nominally, human rights are on the agenda, but over the past few years Britain has adopted a policy of continuous "dialogue" with the Chinese on such issues. This has the ingenious consequence of allowing them to be dealt with by fairly junior officials, well away from the political spotlight, and relieving Mr Blair of having to take up detailed cases when he meets Mr Jiang. Diplomats argue that this discreet policy pays dividends, but the evidence is mixed. Far from showing steady improvement, China's human rights record has in many ways been growing worse, especially since July 1998, when President Clinton toured China. The Chinese coveted his seal of approval and in the run-up to Mr Clinton's visit had been on best behaviour, promising to sign the UN's human rights covenants and releasing some prominent dissidents from prison, albeit to send them into immediate exile. But since then the climate in China has worsened. Scarcely had Mr Clinton left when the Chinese started locking up dissidents, smashing the infant Democracy Party and sentencing human rights veterans such as Xu Wenli to jail terms of up to 13 years. This year it has cracked down hard on the Falun Gong religious sect, and dozens of extrajudicial executions have been reported from Xinjiang, where some ethnic groups presume to advocate a separate state. In addition, China has not yet ratified either of the two covenants it signed with so much fanfare. In deep frustration, America concluded last May that the "softly, softly" approach was not paying off. After a two-year break it resumed its annual censure of China at the UN's Human Rights Conference in Geneva. Britain, despite Robin Cook's claims to operate an "ethical foreign policy", meekly followed Paris and Bonn, and let the Chinese off the hook. This week's state visit could provide an opportunity to redress the balance a little, though on past form it looks unlikely. The London Telegraph, October 18, 1999 Sexpionage FBI Investigated Kennedy Nexus with Chinese Prostitute Christine Keeler had many lovely friends. JOHN F KENNEDY was investigated by the FBI over an alleged affair with a Chinese prostitute linked to Christine Keeler, a liaison which the bureau believed could have exposed the President to a suspected communist spy ring. The previously unknown connection between the President and the Profumo scandal, in which Britain's minister of war resigned over his affair with the call girl, is disclosed in recently-declassified FBI files seen by The Telegraph. They show that a London call girl, Marie Novotny, claimed that Kennedy had slept with Suzy Chang. Novotny claimed that Chang, like Keeler, had been procured by Stephen Ward, a society osteopath, for his well-connected friends in Britain and America. The story might have been dismissed as another piece of idle gossip raised by the Profumo scandal, but for the fact that it was reported to the FBI by no less a person than Robert Kennedy, the Attorney General and brother of the President. In an anxious Sunday afternoon telephone call, he drew the agency's attention to an article containing the allegation in a small New York newspaper, within hours of its publication. Despite the fact that President Kennedy's name was not mentioned in the piece, the Attorney General demanded an immediate investigation, adding that "the President himself had expressed concern". When the FBI investigated, it found that among Novotny's associates was a Hungarian madam in New York who was suspected of operating prostitutes as part of a sex and espionage ring. The bureau was already alarmed by the fact that Profumo had shared Keeler's sexual favours with Yevgeny Ivanov, the Soviet assistant naval attaché in London. The FBI documents, filed under the codename Bowtie, note that Ward was no stranger to powerful Americans. Many, such as Averill Harriman, the former United States ambassador at the Court of St James's, and the billionaire Paul Getty, were on his medical client list. Ward also acted as a pimp for some of his friends, including the actor Douglas Fairbanks Jnr. He had organised and attended bizarre sex parties, including one featuring a waiter, who it was widely rumoured at the time was a Cabinet minister, dressed only in an apron and a leather mask. That orgy took place at Novotny's London home. In Novotny's story, printed on June 29, 1963, in a small-circulation New York paper, she referred only to Chang and "a US government official who holds a very high elected post". But at 3.05pm that same afternoon, the President's brother called Courtney Evans, a senior deputy of the FBI chief J Edgar Hoover, to tell him about the story and order an investigation. According to a memo recording the conversation, "the Attorney General stated that the President had expressed concern regarding this matter" although it was barely hours old. Immediately, the FBI, which had so far only been looking into possible breaches of security by American Air Force personnel and others who might have been part of Ward's circle, intensified its investigations. Memos were circulated between Hoover and his deputies about the possibility of "an espionage-prostitution ring operating in England with American ramifications". The files show that FBI agents were sent out in numerous American cities, especially New York, where Chang and Novotny had both worked as call girls, to interview people who knew the two women or Ward and his harem. They identified Chang as Esther Sue Yan Chang, the daughter of two Chinese immigrants who lived in New York, but who had herself been refused a visa to live in America. Agents in New York were already familiar with Novotny, who was a fugitive from American justice. Two years earlier she and her then pimp, Harry Towers, a British television producer, had arrived from London and set up in business in New York. When the police were tipped off to their activities, the FBI arrested Towers and Novotny under the White Slave Trafficking Act, because the Briton had brought the 19-year-old prostitute into America for immoral purposes. Towers and Novotny then fled back to Britain. The FBI discovered that Novotny and Chang had mutual friends within the call girl rings of New York, notably Ilona Bata, a madam of Hungarian extraction who was suspected of being a communist spy operating prostitutes to gain information from political figures. Novotny and Bata had been on prostitution jobs together, the FBI files say, and the Hungarian woman was suspected of running Chang as a call girl too. However, the FBI decided that the story of Chang and the President and any link to Keeler was tenuous. It concluded that Novotny did know Ward and took part in orgies that he organised for his well-heeled and well-connected clients. But, in a report that is heavily censored even 36 years later, the FBI stated its belief that her story about Chang and Kennedy was an attempt to "dupe" the newspaper. The London Telegraph, October 18, 1999 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
