Friday, April 10, 2009

Panama, Belgium signed investment protection agreement

www.chinaview.cn 2009-03-27 09:51:59

PANAMA CITY, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Panamanian President Martin Torrijos and Belgium Prince Philippe met here on Thursday to negotiate an agreement on investment protection.
The agreement was signed on Thursday by Panamanian temporary Foreign Minister Ricardo Duran and Belgian Business Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne.
Van Quickenborne hailed the importance of commercial protection approaches between the two countries as the commercial cooperation and the European investors' interest in the Panama Canal deepened.
The agreement would guarantee the juridical security of investment made in both countries, said Severo Sousa, Panamanian Vice Minister of Foreign Trade.
It would also spur those who wanted to invest in the two countries, said him.

Remarks With Panamanian Foreign Minister Samuel Lewis Navarro Before Their Meeting















http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2009a/04/121501.htm

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Treaty Room
Washington, DC
April 8, 2009

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, good afternoon. Today, I’m very privileged to be meeting with First Vice President of Panama Sam Lewis, and I want to express how pleased we are to have you here and have this opportunity to discuss a range of important issues that not only matter to our two countries, but to the broader region.

FOREIGN MINISTER NAVARRO: Thank you very much. I want to thank the Secretary of State, Secretary Clinton, for this opportunity. As you’ve mentioned, we’ll discuss both bilateral and hemispheric issues, especially in light of the upcoming Summit of the Americas. Panama and the United States have enjoyed a very special relationship, historically, which has helped us tackle very – many issues in the past. And we are sure that that is what will continue to happen.
Thank you very much.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you. Thank you so much.
FOREIGN MINISTER NAVARRO: Thank you.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you.
QUESTION: Madame Secretary, why is now the time to invite Iran to engage in direct relations?
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, the – you’re referring to the P-5+1 meeting. And as we speak, Under Secretary Bill Burns is now participating in the P-5+1 as a full participant, not just as an observer. And obviously, we believe that, you know, pursuing very careful engagement on a range of issues that affect our interests and the interests of the world with Iran makes sense, and there’s nothing more important than trying to convince Iran to cease its efforts to obtain a nuclear weapon.

Brodosplit delivers new tanker to Cypriot client





Split's Brodosplit Shipyard delivered a new tanker, named the Arctic Flounder, to Cypriot client Salute Shipping Company Limited yesterday (Thurs).

The new Panamax-type tanker is 228.5 metres long and 32.24 metres wide, has a capacity of 74,925 tonnes and will have a maximum speed of 16 knots.

The new P-MAX-type tanker will transport of oil and oil products.

It is about the largest tanker that can pass through the Panama Canal with a full load of cargo.The tanker, which complies with Panama Canal Authority requirements, is the third of four of that type built by Brodosplit for its client in Cyprus.

Tax aid proposed to boost La. ports

By ALLEN M. JOHNSON JR.
Advocate New Orleans bureau
Published: Apr 8, 2009 - Page: 1D

NEW ORLEANS — A $10 per ton tax credit for shipping Louisiana products would create 13,000 new jobs and millions of dollars in new tax revenue, the city’s top port official told a hearing Tuesday.

Gary LaGrange, president and CEO of the Port of New Orleans, said the proposed tax credit should win passage when the Legislature convenes later this month.

“We think it’s the greatest piece of apple-pie legislation,” LaGrange told the city-sponsored meeting, which explored how Louisiana could attract billions of dollars in new trade from the Panama Canal expansion in 2014.

LaGrange said the $10 per ton tax credit would apply to any Louisiana grown or manufactured products, both for import and for exports.

“Right now, about 58 percent of all Louisiana manufactured and grown products are being shipped out of other ports that are not in Louisiana,” he said.

The proposed tax credit — a break on Louisiana corporate income taxes — would offer shippers an incentive to use Louisiana ports, he said.

In 2008, 1.6 million tons of Louisiana products were generated for cargo shipments.
A similar bill failed in 2004, he said later.
“It didn’t pass because we didn’t do our homework, quite honestly. Since then, we have a new and improved tax credit bill … which provides a much better return for the state’s investment,” LaGrange said.
House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Terrytown, will author the new bill, LaGrange said.
Meanwhile, the pro-business Baton Rouge Area Committee and GNO Inc. have jointly funded a new international trade study, GNO vice president Andrea St. Bland said. “The purpose of the study is to identify immediate, medium and long-term economic strategies for the state and the region.”
The study should be completed by June 15, she said.
City Councilman Arnie Fielkow said a “unified regional plan” for port improvements is needed or else the New Orleans area will fall further behind Mobile, Ala., Savannah, Ga., and other port cities. No such plan emerged Tuesday, however.
Signs of impatience did appear.
“Right now, we don’t have a vision for international trade in this state,” New Orleans shipping executive Gregory Rusovich, chairman of the influential New Orleans Business Council, said later.
Efforts to unite parishes behind a single plan have been frustrated by “parochialism” and competition for proposed port facilities, Rusovich said.
Once the BRAC/GNO study is completed, the governor’s help will be needed, he said.
“It’s very important, quite frankly, ultimately, for the Governor’s Office to be able to help develop this one singular vision for international trade,” Rusovich said.
State Sen. A.G. Crowe, R-Slidell, an administration ally, told the city hearing that Gov. Bobby Jindal has allocated $100 million to port improvements. “(Jindal) realizes one out of every four jobs in the state is port-related,” Crowe said.

Louisiana should position itself to reap the benefits of an expanded Panama Canal, panel says

by Jen DeGregorio, The Times-Picayune
Tuesday April 07, 2009, 4:58 PM

http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2009/04/louisiana_should_position_itse.html

New Orleans City Council members heard from a panel of lawmakers and business leaders on Tuesday about ways Louisiana could benefit from an expansion of the Panama Canal.
With only five years to go before the expanded canal is set to open for business and flood the Gulf of Mexico with new shipping traffic, Councilman Arnie Fielkow said the council should support any plans that could make Louisiana ports stand out among their competitors.

"The greatest asset that we have in this community is the Mississippi River," said Fielkow, chair of the council's economic development committee, which hosted Tuesday's forum.

Panel members agreed about the need for a strategy to lure cargo from the canal, saying the initiative would create new jobs and tax dollars. But there was some contention about how best to accomplish the task. Sen. A.G. Crowe, R-Slidell, said the state's best bet would be to construct a megaport along Southwest Pass, near the mouth of the river.
The world's largest cargo ships are too deep for the river, he said, and a port closer to open water would be the only hope to draw their cargo into Louisiana. Such a facility could benefit the Port of New Orleans, he said, with smaller ships taking cargo from larger vessels to ferry upriver for distribution by rail or truck. "It's business we don't have right now," said Crowe, who drafted legislation last year to create the Louisiana International Deep Water Gulf Transfer Terminal Authority, a state body that would govern a megaport near the river's mouth.
The complex could be up and running in as soon as two years, according to Crowe, who said a company has already proposed spending as much as $2 billion to build a new port on state-owned land along Southwest Pass. Louisiana Economic Development is considering the idea, and a formal proposal should be made public next month, he said. "That's a very, very bullish thing to happen," Crowe said of the proposal. Gary LaGrange, president and CEO of the Port of New Orleans, said a larger port near the mouth of the river should not come at the expense of cargo docks in New Orleans.
LaGrange is lobbying for a $500 million expansion of the Napoleon Avenue Container Terminal, which he said would be needed to handle any new boxed cargo that may arise from Crowe's proposed transfer terminal.
"If you don't do that, you will lose your market edge .Â¥.Â¥. for when the Panama Canal does open," said LaGrange. At least one other plan for a major cargo facility has been discussed in recent months.
Sea Point, a transfer terminal proposed off the coast of Venice, would use an offshore platform to move containers from ships to barges that would then take the cargo up the Mississippi. Eugene Schreiber, managing director of the World Trade Center of New Orleans, a group that promotes trade with the city, described the fragmented plans as a downfall for the state.
The "lack of coordinated planning" has thwarted progress on any single effort to improve the state's port infrastructure, Schreiber said. Andrea St. Paul Bland, vice president of business development for the economic development group GNO Inc., hopes that her group will address that problem with a report that would suggest ways for Louisiana to leverage its port assets to compete with other states.
The study, which will assess world shipping trends as well as state port facilities, should be complete in June, St. Paul Bland said. Fielkow said he hoped that GNO would apprise the Legislature even sooner about any findings that could help lawmakers decide how best to address the Panama Canal expansion.
Although the city will play a supporting role by lobbying for the ports, state lawmakers will have to take the lead, Feilkow said. "We are a little behind the timeline," Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis, the only other council member at Tuesday's hearing, said of the state's efforts to capitalize on the canal expansion.
Jen DeGregorio can be reached at 504.826.3495 or jdegregorio@timespicayune.com.

Evergreen Upgrades its Far East- Panama Service (FPS)

Evergreen Line will adjust its weekly transit times on its Far East - Panama service (FPS), to improve the service it offers to its customers in Central America, the Caribbean and the West Coast of South America.

The company has reduced the transit time from its Taiwanese hub, Kaohsiung to the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas from 23 to just 16 days. The transit time from Shanghai to the Caribbean hub, Colon Container Terminal, is now only 25 days.

The FPS service port rotation is now:

Ningbao – Shanghai – Yangtian – Kaohsiung – Lazaro Cardenas – Colon Container Terminal - Ningbao

The first sailing operating with the revised schedule will be served by the 2,824 TEU ‘Irenes Remedy 0046-036’, which is due to start loading in Shanghai on 16 April 2009.

A company’s spokesperson stated:

“Evergreen is pleased that even in today’s challenging and competitive market in Latin America and the Caribbean we are able to find ways to develop our services and focus on our customers needs.”

Obama Sees ‘Glimmers of Hope’ of Improving Economy















April 10 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said the U.S. economy is “starting to see progress” toward recovery even as it is “still under severe stress.”
“What we’re starting to see is glimmers of hope,” the president told reporters at the White House after getting an update on the economy from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and Sheila Bair, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

While Obama cited a 20 percent increase in government- backed loans to small businesses “over the last month alone,” he added that “right now we’re still seeing a lot of job losses, a lot of hardship.”
The talks centered on stimulating the economy, stabilizing banks, reducing strain in the credit markets, the rising jobless rate, mortgage refinancing and the health assessment of banks, including “stress tests” being conducted by the Fed.
“We have always been very cautious about prognosticating, and that’s not going to change,” Obama said. “The economy’s still under severe stress, and obviously during these holidays we have to keep in mind that whatever we do ultimately has to translate into economic growth, and jobs, and rising incomes for the American people.”
Helping Homeowners
Obama told reporters he and his experts discussed stabilization in the financial system and efforts to keep people in their homes as a result of government programs to modify loans, leading to a pickup in refinancing.
The average rate on a U.S. 30-year fixed mortgage dropped to 4.73 percent in the week ended April 3, the lowest since 1971. Fed policymakers last month kept the benchmark lending rate in a range of zero to 0.25 percent.

Obama didn’t mention the status of the Fed’s tests being conducted to see how the 19 largest U.S. banks would hold up if the recession worsens. Results may be released later this month.
“We’ve still got a lot of work to do,” Obama said. He didn’t take reporters’ questions.
There are signs of economic improvement. Orders placed with factories rose 1.8 percent in February, the first gain since July. Purchases of existing homes rose 5.1 percent to an annual rate of 4.72 million in February amid lower prices.
To be sure, the recession that began in December 2007 lingers. The unemployment rate rose to 8.5 percent in March, the highest level since 1983, and employers have cut payrolls by 5.1 million workers since the start of the downturn, the worst performance in the postwar era.
The economy probably shrank at a 5 percent annual rate in the first quarter, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey earlier this month.
Top Advisers
Also attending today’s meeting were Mary Shapiro, chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission; John Dugan, Comptroller of the Currency, an arm of the Treasury Department that regulates national banks; and Obama’s top economic advisers, Lawrence Summers, director of the National Economic Council, and Christina Romer, head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
Summers yesterday expressed confidence that the U.S. recession is nearing an end.
“We can be reasonably confident that is going to end within the next few months and you’ll no longer have that sense of free fall,” Summers told the Economic Club of Washington.
To contact the reporter on this story: Roger Runningen in Washington at rrunningen@bloomberg.net Last Updated: April 10, 2009 13:00 EDT

The Fall of the Constitution and Rise of a One World Economy



April 9, 2009


Bailouts, Stimulus Packages or Redistribution of Assets? Part One of Two


by Deanna Spingola
On February 17, 1950, James Paul Warburg appeared before the U.S. Senate and declared: "We shall have World Government, whether or not we like it. The only question is whether world government will be achieved by conquest or consent."1 To establish a world government, it is necessary to incrementally eradicate the constitution, bring the U.S. to her knees economically, and shackle the taxpayers to perpetual debt through bailouts and stimulus packages funded by printing billions of dollars of interest and debt-bearing Federal Reserve Notes to drastically devalue the currency in circulation thus impoverishing the taxpayers.



The only benefactors are the extant banks, certain corporations and the individuals who concocted the financial disaster.


The colonists issued debt-free script in the 1700s commensurate to the demands of trade and industry. The citizens were self-sufficient and industrious. Incensed over the currency issue, England burdened the colonists with excess taxes to fund Britain's imperialistic wars. This precipitated the Revolutionary War. Alexander Hamilton, a Rothschild agent, convinced George Washington to allow the Rothschilds to finance the war. In 1791, with a big war debt to be paid, Hamilton set up a central bank, owned by the Rothschilds and other foreigners called the First Bank of the United States with a twenty-year charter.2


Congress rejected renewal of the charter and the bank was closed on March 4, 1811. Nathan Rothschild was outraged and asked the British Parliament to declare war to reinstate the bank. The Prime Minister refused and was assassinated on May 11, 1812. Parliament declared war on June 18, 1812. British troops burned the White House and other government buildings including the one that housed the ratification papers for the U.S. constitution. The war increased our national debt from $45 million to $127 million.3 President Madison proposed the establishment of a second central bank on December 5, 1815 for a twenty year period. It was created by Congress on January 7, 1817. Nicholas Biddle, a Rothschild protégé, became the bank's president in 1822. President Andrew Jackson refused to renew the charter in 1836, as promised during his presidential campaign.


In opposition to the international bankers, Abraham Lincoln issued debt-free, interest-free greenbacks through the Legal Tender Act of February 25, 1862. This currency funded the Civil War, a horrific, bloody battle that took the lives of over 600,000 souls and was devised to weaken and divide the country. The privately-owned Bank of England planned to impose a gold standard on the United States. Lincoln was soon assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a Rothschild agent. No debt-free or interest-free money has been issued in America since then.



J. P. Morgan & Company was founded in New York City in 1871 as Drexel, Morgan & Company by J. Pierpont Morgan and Philadelphia banker Anthony Drexel, agents for Europeans investing in the United States. Ultimately, they were so well capitalized that they financed much of America's industrial expansion. By the 1890s, Morgan became an industry consolidator, reorganizing and restructuring the debts of financially troubled railroads - the Northern Pacific, the Erie, the Reading and many other railroads for a total of one-sixth of the track in the U.S. Morgan financed and merged smaller companies to create U.S. Steel, International Harvester and others. A decline in competition results in a concentration of control. In 1904, J. P. Morgan & Company loaned money to finance the Panama Canal, the largest real estate transaction in history. J. P. Morgan & Company became the world's most powerful investment bank.



J. P. Morgan loaned money to Thomas Edison for his incandescent light research and therefore directed Edison's power generation and distribution plants. Nikola Tesla (July 10, 1856 - January 7, 1943), a Serbian who later became a U.S. citizen, was fluent in seven languages. He patented the radio on March 20, 1900, a patent usurped and used by Marconi. Tesla needed the financing that the House of Morgan offered but wishing to retain independence, he resisted the accompanying control. He had witnessed the robber baron's 1891 aggressive takeover of the struggling Thomson-Houston Company and the Edison Company to form General Electric.4



Tesla had also witnessed how Morgan coveted and endangered the autonomy of Westinghouse. Morgan wanted Tesla to sign over his broad spectrum radio patents as security for the loans. Tesla had plans for a directed-energy weapon, not yet patented. Tesla proposed an end to all war. Tesla's alternating current induction motor could have provided free, world-wide electricity to every human. Undoubtedly, Morgan, making huge profits from energy, wished to conceal that possibility. German born George H. Scherff Sr. served as Tesla's accountant and assistant. When Tesla died, his vast collection of papers were seized and classified by the banker-obedient government.5


By the turn of the century, Americans paid very few taxes, had minimal debt and grew their businesses internally - without bank loans. However, by 1910, there were, throughout the country, a combination of over twenty thousand private banks and national banks, chartered by the federal government, all taking business away from the big New York City banks. Legally, banks were allowed to issue currency or bank notes. Since they operated on a fractional reserve system, they could lend out 90 percent of their deposits. This system is manageable unless demands for cash in the form of checks or depositor withdrawals are greater than their reserve cash. Many of those banks failed in orchestrated financial panics. Those remaining would be coerced to join the Federal Reserve System, soon to be established, where their reserves would be managed and controlled by a small, highly competitive, greedy group.


In the fall of 1910, six influential competitor bankers and one well-connected congressman, Republican Senator Nelson Aldrich, stealthily collaborated at Jekyll Island to plot the establishment of a shared monopoly, the Federal Reserve System. The bankers represented the interests of J. P. Morgan, Rothschild, Rockefeller, Warburg, and Kuhn, Loeb & Company. Consequently, legislation was passed to create the Federal Reserve System in 1913, the culmination of decades of plotting by the international bankers. Under the jurisdiction of a board of directors, the U.S. was divided into twelve Federal Reserve Districts. Americans were led to believe that the Fed would eliminate financial catastrophes and stabilize the economy. In reality, the Fed is a cartel that was designed to obliterate competition and increase profits through higher prices and deceptive policies enforced by the government.


J. P. Morgan arranged the financing and purchasing of American supplies for France and Britain during World War I. By the end of that war, J. P. Morgan Bank had handled $3 billion in commercial transactions, netting $3 million in fees, and had arranged over $1.5 billion in credits to become the world's most influential bank, moving it permanently into the political arena of foreign policy, serving as an extension of the federal government.6



In 1901, the U.S. national debt was less than $1 billion. After World War I, the national debt was $25 billion. Between World War I and II, it increased to $49 billion. In 1952, in the midst of the Korean War, under U.N. command, the debt stood at $72 billion. In 1962, the debt was $303 billion which increased to $383 billion by 1970 during the Vietnam War. By 1976, at the end of the Vietnam War, it was $631 billion. During the 1980s and the orchestrated Cold War military buildup, the debt increased substantially. The international bankers funded both the U.S. and the Soviet military buildup. However, all records evidencing congressional acquiescence to the massive banker-funded technological transfer from 1916 forward were classified by Eisenhower's executive order in 1953.7 By 1998, the debt was over $5.5 trillion. Now, the national debt is well over $10.8 trillion. This does not include personal indebtedness such as credit cards, car loans or mortgages.


By the 1920s, banks routinely offered low-interest credit to businesses that had previously relied on profits and patience for expansion. Soon, businesses, eager for additional profit accepted the deceptively low-interest loans offered by the banks. Once hooked, businesses became dependant on banks for growth. To maintain perceptions beneficial to their objectives, bankers have always entrenched like-minded minions into influential positions such as newspaper publishers, editors, columnists, university presidents, professors, textbook writers, labor union leaders, filmmakers, and radio and television commentators.


Even after the deliberate New York Panic of 1920-21, America was still industrially strong. Farms provided adequate and toxin-free, un-genetically modified food. Our infrastructure and transportation systems were then modern and efficient and we were technologically advanced compared to the rest of the world. In 1921, U.S. per capita income was $522. In 1925, Winston Churchill, Chancellor of the Exchequer, wanting England to return to world leadership, adjusted the British pound to $4.86 which limited the amount of British goods companies and individuals around the world could afford. Consequently, over the next two years, hundreds of millions of dollars of gold flowed to the U.S. from all over Europe.8


Montague Norman of the Bank of England, Charles Rist of the Bank of France, Hjalmer Scacht of the Reichsbank, Benjamin Strong of the Federal Reserve, all privately-owned central banks, and Andrew Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury convened in 1927 and agreed to lower U.S. interest rates and the Fed's discount rate. Additionally, in July, 1927, the directors of the Bank of England, the New York Federal Reserve Bank, and the German Reichsbank plotted to move the gold out of the U.S. Allegedly, this helped to generate the depression. By 1928, about $500 million in gold was transferred to Europe, especially Germany, most under the guise of post-war aid.


By 1928, U.S. per capita income grew to $628. Winston Churchill, Benjamin Strong, the New York Federal Reserve chief and the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon operated together to ensure that easy money for Wall Street speculation was readily available.


Newspaper and magazine articles promoted stock market speculation claiming that one could


make a veritable fortune in a short time for minimum monthly investments. However, there were "special" speculators who owned dozens of accounts in various names which could be traded in enormous blocks. Small investors, never in a position to manipulate the market, suffered the consequences and received the blame for the 1929 crash. Blame for every catastrophe is always placed elsewhere.


Since Woodrow Wilson, the Fed has installed and managed many U.S. presidents. On October 25, 1929, President Herbert Hoover claimed: "The fundamental business of the country is on a sound and prosperous basis." The crash of October 28-29, 1929 was devised. On November 8, 2002, current Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said: "Let me end my talk by abusing slightly my status as an official representative of the Federal Reserve. I would like to say to Milton and Anna: Regarding the Great Depression. You're right, we did it. We're very sorry. But thanks to you, we won't do it again."9


In 1929-1930, the banks, purportedly because they were short on gold, would not give loans to U.S. industry and individuals. Yet, three banks, J. P. Morgan & Company, First National Bank of New York and First National Bank of Chicago, had sufficient money to send huge amounts out of the country to the Bank of International Settlements which ultimately built up Nazi Germany. The money supply was deliberately decreased, causing the Great Depression. People defaulted on their loans and the banks repossessed farms, homes and business properties. People lost their savings - everything. The banks benefited. It was an unethical, egregious redistribution of assets. The catastrophic crash was world-wide, creating joblessness, hunger, disintegration of production and national bankruptcies.


On March 7, 1930, Hoover said: "All the evidence indicates that the worst effects of the Crash upon unemployment will have passed during the next sixty days." He then signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act against the advice of the thousand economists hired by Wall Street manipulators who were most concerned about repayment of their foreign loans. In September 1930, Bernard Baruch, after returning from a visit to Churchill in England, sent a cable affirming Churchill's views about British world supremacy. On December 11, 1930, New York's fourth largest bank, Bank of the United States, failed. Its 450,000 depositors had no recourse and no FDIC insurance. Another one thousand banks failed in 1930.10 Bank failures signal bank consolidation - extant banks consume them.


The entire national debt in 1932 was $19.5 billion. Roosevelt then initiated the New Deal in 1933 by introducing the practice of deficit spending, which was the brain-child of Britain's John Maynard Keynes, a member of the Illuminati. In 1910, Lenin said: "The surest way to overthrow an established social order is to debauch its currency." Nine years later, Keynes wrote: "Lenin was certainly right, there is no more positive, or subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency ... The process engages all of the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner that not one man in a million is able to diagnose."11


On March 9, 1933, Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Orders 6073, 6102, 6111, and 6260 which declared that the U.S. was bankrupt. On April 5, 1933, Roosevelt declared a National Emergency and made it illegal for U.S. citizens to own gold. He ordered all gold coins, gold bullion, and gold certificates to be turned into the Federal Reserve banks by May 1 (the Illuminati was created on May 1, 1776). People would face imprisonment and fines if they refused to relinquish their gold. Further, on June 5, 1933, Congress enacted a joint resolution outlawing all gold clauses in contracts. The Federal Reserve System was not energized until 1933 when the U.S. went off the gold standard which allowed the expansion and devaluation of the money supply. The Federal Reserve collects usury on every bill printed. "Our currency has no value past the confidence of those who use it."12


Gold coinage was withdrawn from circulation, and kept in the form of bullion. The public and the Federal Reserve returned their stocks of gold to the government. The people were paid $20.67 an ounce in Federal Reserve money. The Federal Reserve received Gold Certificates. So the Federal Reserve, owned by some Illuminati families, had control of the country's gold and could control its price. The stability and responsibility of the government that issues a currency is the primary reason people accept that currency. Obviously, the collapse of that government would render the currency worthless.




Part Two of Two
Unconstrained, the bankers have financed all of the profit-producing, declared and undeclared wars. The U.S. government alleged that the Second World War was caused by obstacles to free trade, exacerbated by the financial events of 1929 manifested in Nazi fascism and responsible for the tensions that led to the Second World War. As a consequence of their questionable theory, the conditions of receiving American economic aid included the implementation of a free trade policy. Free trade policies, like central banks, only assist the bankers and the corporations who exploit cheap labor in third world countries.
World War II ended the depression. There was plenty of money. People had jobs. Women were encouraged to work - more money to service the interest payments to the Federal Reserve. Shuffling women into the workplace was really never about equal rights and opportunities, despite the rhetoric. Bankers serve on corporate boards and control corporate decisions. They depress or increase corporate stock by leveraging loans. When stock prices are depressed, bankers' agents purchase large blocks of the company's stock. The bank may then approve a multi-million dollar loan to the company which increases the stock which can be sold at a profit. Billions are accrued, enabling the purchase of additional stock. The Federal Reserve Board manipulates the market by increasing or decreasing their discount rates. Stocks soar or crash at their whim, sustained by economic experts who manipulate public opinion.
The Fed can also coerce corporations to borrow huge sums so that earnings can be siphoned off to pay the interest to the banks, reducing actual profits. Banks may collect billions in interest through corporate loans even with depressed stock prices. The bankers benefit while individual stockholders suffer. New money or credit carries debt, keeping most citizens in a never-ending cycle of debt. Dumping more money into the system, which bailouts and stimulus packages do, devalues the money already in circulation which escalates the prices of basic commodities, usually without comparable wage increases. Compound interest on mortgages and other items produces massive profits for the banks. Over the term of a mortgage, a house ultimately costs as much as three homes. With numerous taxes attached to products and services, plundered Americans are drowning in debt. If you think you are off the hook because you have paid off your mortgage, just fail to pay property taxes and see how fast the government seizes your house. We have been transformed from a debt-free nation into a debt-ridden nation.
Since 1935, the one dollar Federal Reserve Note has had the Illuminati all-seeing eye within the Great Seal. At the base of the pyramid is Roman numerals 1776, the year the Illuminati was founded. One dollar bills were printed as Federal Reserve Notes beginning in 1963. The phrase "In God We Trust" was added in 1957. Considering the enslaving amount of usury that we pay, totally eschewed by Jesus, the Fed's use of that statement on their notes appears to be an ironic hoax on the Christian citizens of this country. The Power Elite enjoy concealing their nefarious agenda in plain sight. Under the pyramid are the Latin words - "Novus Ordo Seclorum" which means "a new order of the ages" or "new order of the centuries." The words "Annuit Coeptis" are above the eye which means "he looks upon your endeavors favorably." Who would that be? Some suggest that it represents Osiris, Egypt's pagan god.1
In 1958, Chase Manhattan Bank introduced the Chase Manhattan Charge Plan, the first bank in the nation to offer customers a convenient, immediate gratification interest-bearing credit card. Consumer credit, encouraged by constant tantalizing media advertising, has sky-rocketed. Recently, big pharma started advertising their consistently inadequately tested, questionably-safe products. If your doctor fails to prescribe their latest miracle cure or vaccines for every minor malady, just ask for the product or injection and hope that the side effects don't permanently harm or kill you.
On June 4, 1963, President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 11110 which directed the U.S. Treasury to issue $4,292,893,815 in interest-free U.S. Notes. On October 2, 1963, he issued NSAM 263, an order for the immediate withdrawal of 1,000 U.S. military advisors from Vietnam and a timetable for the withdrawal of all CIA operatives and U.S. personnel. This would have ended the steady stream of profits to the banks. He was assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas.
Government bailouts started in 1970 with the bailout of Penn Central which had 96,000 employees and had borrowed from most of the major banks. Additionally, those same banks held stock in the railroad and seats on their board of directors. They made many of the management decisions and were privy to insider financial information. The banks loaned the railroad more money - millions that were used to artificially inflate the stock market price and pay dividends. A month before the railroad failed and before the public was notified, Chase Manhattan's trust department dumped 262,000 shares. The bevy of bankers who held the loans had received dividends on the worthless stock, earned interest on the loans and unloaded a total of 1.8 million share of stock after they collected the dividends.2
Lockheed was near bankruptcy in 1970. Bank of America had loaned them $400 million. Lockheed's managers and employees approached congress with pleas - 31,000 jobs would be lost, national security would be at risk, sub contractors and suppliers would be hurt. Banks, due to Lockheed's dire financial straits, would not make any further loans. Allegedly, to protect the economy, Treasury Secretary John B. Connally finagled a bailout plan guaranteed by the government (taxpayer). Once the government stepped in, the banks freely loaned Lockheed money. Ultimately, the government awarded hundreds of no-bid contracts to Lockheed which has become one of the nation's biggest war contractors. Other similar companies who operated more efficiently lost contracts to Lockheed.3
Connally, a former big oil lawyer turned Texas governor, was riding in John F. Kennedy's limousine in the motorcade and witnessed the president's assassination. Connally encouraged Johnson to be aggressive in accelerating and executing the war in Vietnam. When Connally was Treasury Secretary under Nixon, he oversaw a $50 billion increase in the debt limit. Additionally, he endorsed a $40 billion budget deficit referred to as a "fiscal stimulus." At the time, five million Americans were unemployed. Secretary Connally announced Nixon's program to increase gold prices and officially devalue the dollar. During Nixon's administration, the U.S. was taken off the gold standard completely, a process started by Roosevelt.
Then there was the bailout of New York City, a city overflowing with corruption and a burgeoning bureaucracy. In 1975, New York, a huge welfare state, was unable to get additional credit. New York City employees, otherwise known as friends and relatives, were paid huge salaries for lower-paying comparable jobs in private industry. The city managed to get a loan from the Treasury for $2.3 billion, approved by Congress. It was enough to continue paying interest on their previous bank loans. The taxpayers suffered the consequences through massive inflation. But the banks collected their interest, a huge source of income. New York was supposed to make changes and reduce spending.
That didn't happen.4 Chicago, with their glut of relative and friend employees, is in similar circumstances. But Mayor Daley manages to stealthily sell public property. Recently, it was the city's parking meters. Now, in addition to inflation, citizens pay outrageous fees to park in the city which affects business. Before that, it was the famous Skyway.
Rod Blagojevich, the former Illinois governor was arrested December 9, 2008, the day after he publicly declared that the state of Illinois would suspend all business dealings with the Bank of America, the recipient of a $25 million bailout, until it restored a credit line to Republic Windows & Doors which, without credit, was forced to close and lay off their 240 employees. The governor apparently forgot who really runs everything. His indiscretions, attributable to every other professional politician, went unnoticed until he challenged the banks. Goldman Sachs, another bailout recipient, used $6.5 billion of our taxpayer dollars to give bonuses to their financial staff.
Banks create money with a computer keystroke. The money changers can print a $5 bill or a $100 bill for a few cents each. The Federal Reserve prints money to pay the obligations of the metastasizing government. Congress authorizes the Treasury Department to print U.S. bonds, held by the Federal Reserve which the government agrees to pay it back, plus interest, by plundering the labor of the taxpayers. The Fed now considers those bonds as assets, reserves to create more credit to lend to states, municipalities, individuals and businesses. Currently, banks give credit for home purchases, cars and other commodities that people used to save for. U.S. citizens depend on consumer and business credit. When that credit is arbitrarily withheld or withdrawn, industry and spending comes to a halt.
The Federal Reserve is the power behind the recently inaugurated, smooth-talking, charismatic Barack Obama who is overly-anxious to impose government control and dispense bailouts through the Stimulus Package. Through wealth transference and suppressive legislation designed to decrease liberty, each consecutive administration moves America closer to economic collapse and one world governance.
Bush coerced passage of the PATRIOT Act (written long before 9/11 and unread by Congress), facilitated the Department of Homeland Security, increased the number of FEMA detention centers, allowed unrestrained illegal invasion to drain state economies (especially California), and incited invasive economy-destroying war against two countries which do not have central banks with debt-based money under the control of the international bankers. Arabs do not believe in charging or paying usury (interest on loans). By the end of 2008, the U.S. had spent $3 trillion on the Iraq War, borrowed from the Fed with interest.
With Obama, citizens will likely be disarmed, in direct violation of the 2nd Amendment, created for citizens to protect themselves against a tyrannical government. We will finally get Hillary Clinton's universal health care. Big pharma, run in concert with big banks and insurance companies, the main benefactors. The government will make all health decisions - who lives, who dies, how many children one may bare, etc. Natural solutions for health care may be outlawed. Warfare will continue as demonstrated by the very recent deployment of 17,000 troops to Afghanistan. This, despite those campaign promises about reducing the troops. Warfare, a huge drain on our economy and a financial boon for the Fed, will continue. Troop numbers are being augmented by waiving criminal histories of those who enlist simply because they are unable to find work. The economy will ultimately bleed-out resulting in riots, food shortages and eventually martial law and perhaps mass detention.
The recent bailouts and the current stimulus package, disguised as assistance to the populace, is a huge transference of wealth - from the taxpayer's pockets into the banker's pockets. Any promised infrastructure enhancements may consist of such things as the completion of the unpublicized NAFTA super highway to connect Canada, the United States and Mexico. While in Denver signing the Stimulus Package, Obama said: "We will build on the work that's being done in places like Boulder, Colorado - a community that is on pace to be the world's first Smart Grid city."5
This appears to refer to an Agenda 21 program being initiated in Boulder by Xcel Energy.
Senators disregarded the taxpayer's pleas to reject the socialist Stimulus Package. The taxpayers, stuck with the tab, are outraged. Democratic senators, including the newly-installed Roland Burris, voted for the stimulus. Burris is now under criminal investigation for his duplicitous involvement with Rod Blagojevich's brother regarding questionable fundraising. This issue was concealed until after his guaranteed vote. Concealment of significant facts seems common with the incoming administration and its appointments. Apologies that follow embarrassing exposures somehow seem insincere.
The outrageous, squealing, pork-filled stimulus plan was designed to benefit the bankers and bleed America dry. The 1000+ page package was certainly written months ago. Pelosi, who recently claimed that America was losing 500 million jobs a month, lacks the intelligence to devise anything more that a one page yes-memo to the bankers that finance her repetitive campaigns.
Congress, with few exceptions, have not represented the voters for decades. They are agents for the banks and corporations while paying lip service to their constituents during election campaigns. They profess concern for the voter's essential needs and pass measures that appear to address those needs which in reality expand the coffers of big business and the banks. Meanwhile, members of congress collect generous salaries with regular self-approved pay increases, lobbyist perks, private health plans, and look forward to a life-long, non-Social-Security pension.
Ayn Rand (1905-1982) said in her book Atlas Shrugged: "When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed."
Banks and corporations run a centralized, metastasizing entity, disguised as the federal government. Their objectives are promoting war while financing both sides, confiscating people's money and resources, and propagandizing the naïve masses to maintain and perpetuate their power. Our two main political parties are their servants, government departments are the spending agencies, and the Internal Revenue Service, a private offshore corporation is the collection agency.

Thomas Jefferson said: "I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."
Endnotes
^ Pat Riott, The Greatest Story Never Told, Winston Churchill and the Crash of 1929, 1994, Nanoman Press, pg 28.
^ G. Edward Griffin, The Creature From Jekyll Island, American Media, 2002, pp. 41-48
^ Ibid
^ Ibid
^ Obama's Remarks at Stimulus Signing, New York Times, February 17, 2009, p. 2
About the Author
Deanna Spingola has been a quilt designer and is the author of two books. She has traveled
extensively teaching and lecturing on her unique methods. She has always been an avid reader of non-fiction works designed to educate rather than entertain. She is active in family history research and lectures on that topic. Currently she is the director of the local Family History Center. She has a great interest in politics and the direction of current government policies, particularly as they relate to the Constitution. Deanna's Web Site

The News Keeps Getting Better For Renters







John Carney

Tags: Economy, Housing Crisis, Housing, Recession, Financial Crisis, Credit Crisis

Apr. 10, 2009, 10:48 AM

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-news-keeps-getting-better-for-renters-2009-4

We're approaching historically unprecedented bargain levels for people renting apartments, which is bad news for landlords but great news for people looking to sign a new lease. The vacancy rate for apartments hit a three-year high in the first quarter, and landlords dropped rents by the most in at least a decade.

Lots of commentators thought there might be some kind of renter squeeze as over-mortgaged homeowners defaulted and became renters.
That's not happening. And the figures are forecast to get even better as supply ramps up thanks to new apartment buildings set to open this year, according to real estate research firm Reis Inc. Unemployment is also helping drive rents down.
From Reuters:

"Given that things are weakening right now, any new buildings that come on will add additional pressure to landlords," Victor Calanog, Reis director of research, said.

The national apartment vacancy rate rose to 7.2 percent in the first quarter, up 0.60 percentage points from the prior quarter and 1.1 percentage points from a year earlier, according to the report, released on Tuesday.

Since reaching a cyclical low of 5.5 percent in the third quarter of 2008, the U.S. apartment vacancy rate has surged 1.7 percentage points, Reis said.

It was the highest vacancy rate since the first quarter of 2002. That was right before the last downturn bottomed out, but Reis expects the picture to get a lot darker as "we are arguably only at the beginning of the current downturn."
It's funny how this kind of "bad news" story is always written from the point of view of landlords. That's not surprising, since that's who probably pays real estate reserach firms.
Nonetheless, it doesn't mean you have to adopt this point of view. Here's some more good news for renters:
Asking rents--the amount landlords list apartments for--fell by 0.6 percent to $1,046 per month. That's the largest single-quarter decline since Reis began reporting quarterly performance data in 1999.
Actual rent, which factors in "free months" and other freebies landlords use to lure renters, fell 1.1 percent to a monthly rent of $984.
Around 22,833 new apartments became available in the first quarter of 2009. The projected growth for 2009 is 90,000 apartments.
This is bad news for homeowners, of course. There was some hope that as home prices declined, homeownership would become more economically attractive compared with renting. But with rents plunging, the price of owning a home remains at historic highs.

It's Now a Renter's Market


Real Estate News April 9, 2009, 2:17PM EST
Across the U.S., desperate landlords are coming up with novel ways to attract new tenants and retain old ones
Amy Gips loves her one-bedroom apartment in a swank Manhattan building that features a gym, golf simulator, yoga studio, and massage rooms. But she no longer feels she can justify paying $4,400 a month in rent, especially now that her ex-boyfriend has moved out.

A week ago, just as the 27-year-old associate at a private equity fund was planning her next move, a letter arrived from the property management company.
The rent for the 750-square-foot Chelsea apartment with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Madison Square Park was reduced $900, or about 20%. It changed her calculus, though she hasn't given up on the idea of shopping around for something under $3,000 a month, with one or two months of free rent thrown in.
For years, rising rents in Manhattan were thought to be as inevitable as baseball at Yankee Stadium. But times change, and in New York, landlords are scrambling to hold on to renters who have been hit by the economic downturn.
That means renters who, like Gips, are still in good financial shape now have the whiphand. "I was thinking that the rent was so high that there was no way I'd consider staying," says Gips.
"Now that they've offered the reduction on their own, I kind of feel I should do a bit of negotiation."
Avoiding Empty Apartments
During the six months since the financial crisis began in earnest, control of the Manhattan rental market has switched to the tenants, who no longer have to pay broker fees (traditionally about 15%) and who can get up to three free months of rent and even gym memberships thrown in just for signing on the dotted line.
The power shift might not be as dramatic in other parts of the country, but rents are getting more affordable from Charlotte to San Francisco. And landlords everywhere are getting more creative (and desperate) to hold down vacancies and prevent turnover.
Landlords figure it's better to take a hit by offering a month or two of free rent and other freebies than to carry empty apartments that aren't generating income.
It's a nationwide phenomenon, according to Victor Calanog, research director at real estate data firm Reis (REIS). Half of apartment buildings reduced rents in the fourth quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year—the highest percentage since Reis began tracking apartment data in 1980. (By comparison, only 17% of buildings reduced rents in 2007.)
And average asking rents fell 0.6%, to $1,046, in the U.S. in the first quarter, compared with the previous quarter, the largest drop since Reis began collecting quarterly data in 1999.
And average effective rents, which include free months and other landlord incentives, fell 1.1%, to $984.
Effective rents fell in 64 of 79 markets that Reis tracks. Effective rents in San Francisco dropped 2.8% in the first quarter of this year, compared with the previous quarter—the nation's largest quarterly decline.
Rents fell 2.6% in New York City (all five boroughs), 1.3% in Charlotte, 2.5% in San Jose, 0.9% in San Antonio, 0.9% in Cleveland, 1.2% in Chicago, and 2.3% on Long Island. Only a few markets, such as Houston and Dallas, showed increases, Calanog says.
Good Time for Good Deals
BusinessWeek teamed up with Reis to come up with the 25 most affordable large metro areas in terms of rents as a portion of local income.
Oklahoma City, where people spent just 12% of their income on rent, was the most affordable. Other cheap markets included Indianapolis, Denver, Fort Worth, and Cleveland.
The least affordable market was New York, where people spent 57% of their income on rent. But even New York is getting more affordable. About 75% of rental buildings reduced rents in the first quarter, Calanog says.
"Landlords are under increasing pressure as vacancies are moving up," says Calanog. "It's a great time to find deals, even if you're about to renew your lease. Just be prepared to follow through on any credible threats."

Paul Salamanca, chief executive of SkipBrokers.com, an online no-fee rental company for Manhattan apartments, says tenants are negotiating aggressively. "People are saying: 'If you don't help me out, I know another landlord that's willing to,'" Salamanca says.
But landlords around the country aren't reducing rents just because tenants are shopping around. Americans have seen their finances deteriorate amid the ongoing layoffs and pay cuts. Some landlords have dropped rents on a temporary basis to allow tenants time to find a new job.
For People Who Lose Their Jobs
About three weeks ago, Cleveland's Goldberg Cos., which owns 9,000 units in Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, and Texas, started offering "layoff-proof" leases, which guarantee tenants up to two months of free rent if they provide proof they were laid off. If the tenant is unable to find another job after the two months, they can break the lease with no penalty.
The company hopes to attract tenants who are living with parents or sharing apartments with multiple tenants.

"What's keeping people from renting is fear," says Eric Bell, a senior vice-president at Goldberg. "We wanted to give people a cushion or a safety net, so they know they'll have some time to get back on their feet."

Anger Among Other Tenants?
But not all landlords are giving renters financial incentives. Mary Gwyn, chief innovator for Apartment Dynamics, a property management training and consulting firm that also manages apartment communities in North Carolina, says she recommends against that strategy. She says allowing new tenants to live for free for a month or two damages profits and could create tension with existing tenants who aren't getting the same deal.
Landlords can prevent turnover by creating a better sense of community in the development, she says. They might cook Thanksgiving dinner for residents who don't have family nearby, send out cards to residents who are celebrating birthdays or who have suffered a death in the family, and organize pizza parties and useful workshops on résumé writing and job searches, she explains.
"People want to live in a neighborhood where they feel that someone knows their name and cares about their circumstances," Gwyn says.
But Robert Scaglion, senior managing director of Rose Associates, one of New York City's largest development, property management, and marketing firms, says tenants in this job climate are sensitive to rental rates. He said the company, which manages Chelsea Landmark, where Gips lives, has increased its occupancy level to 98% by making swift changes to rents to reflect the market.
Where Renters Are Going
The pool of Manhattan renters has shrunk because people are doubling and tripling up, moving in with parents, or leaving the city for less-expensive digs or for new jobs elsewhere. Many parents who were subsidizing their twentysomething child's apartment can no longer afford to do so.
At the same time, renters from Brooklyn, Queens, and northern New Jersey, who never thought they could afford Manhattan, are coming in to take advantage of newly reduced rents, Scaglion says.
"Normally, when the sales market starts to soften or go down, it's very good for the rental market," Scaglion said. "This time the for-sale and rental markets have gone down simultaneously."
The good news for landlords is that fewer people are moving out of apartments to buy condos or single-family homes, since those markets have also slowed in the Northeast.
Trading Up
Sofia Kim, vice-president for research at Steeteasy.com, a popular New York real estate listings site, says Manhattan rents are falling fast. Renewing tenants aren't asking just for reductions; they're asking to be moved to larger apartments for the same rents, she says.
Streeteasy says the median effective rent for one-bedroom apartments in Manhattan fell nearly 10% in the first quarter, compared with the same period last year. The rent for two-bedroom apartments dropped 15% in the Upper East Side and 28% in the hard-hit financial district, the company says.
Gips expects New York rents to drop more. But she doesn't want them to fall too far. "I hope next year there isn't another big [rent] reduction," Gips says. "That would mean the economy is in an awful place."
Click here to see the biggest cities with the most affordable rents.

Gopal writes about real estate for BusinessWeek in New York.




US real estate shows early revival signs

Carolyn Cummins
April 10, 2009
INVESTING in United States real estate will not be for the faint-hearted in coming months, but there is a sign of some life in the future, say property brokers.
This optimism is despite figures this week showing US apartment rents fell in the first quarter and the vacancy rate rose to a five-year high as job losses and falling incomes reduced demand.
Vacancies climbed to 7.2 per cent from 6 per cent a year earlier and 6.6 per cent in the fourth quarter, says the New York research firm Reis Inc. Vacancies were at the same level as the first quarter of 2004, matching the highest since Reis began conducting its survey in 1999.

In its latest report, Citi's US property analysts say they believe that the odds of being in a better economic place 12 months from now are higher. While probably not the time to dive in head first, it just might be the time to begin seeking opportunities within the sector.

The apartments sector has been given a cleaner bill of health by ratings agencies, compared with office and retail trusts that continue to feel the pressure of the weaker US economy.
Citi's brokers say that while US employment losses continue unabated, spending programs should begin to stem the job losses.
"Housing and debt programs also look to strengthen markets. Granted, there are innumerable risks to this thesis, and limited supportive overall evidence," the broker said. "We continue to be cautious on the apartment space given this conundrum."
This cautious optimism was supported by the ratings agency Moody's. Its latest report on the sector says that while the fundamentals of the apartment industry have continued to erode, trusts in the sector have taken appropriate steps to shore up liquidity and most continue to have stable outlooks.
"Multi-family real estate investment trusts have increasingly adopted defensive postures with their balance sheets and operating activities, seeking to maximise liquidity via a number of initiatives, including the use of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debt, ratcheting down development activities, and asset sales," says Moody's vice-president, Chris Wimmer.
"As management teams appropriately focus on the challenging conditions, most balance sheets are well prepared for the next 12 to 18 months."

Moody's rates nine multi-family real estate investment trusts, eight of which have a stable outlook.

US: New Embassies in Panama and Bulgaria Practice “Green Diplomacy”

When the U.S. Department of State planned its new embassy in Panama City, it aimed to maintain the environment’s integrity and save energy costs in the process.
In what amounts to a “green” diplomatic effort, the U.S. Embassy in Panama is the second American Embassy built to meet the energy and environmental standards established by the nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council.
The USGBC awards four levels of certification for so-called “green” buildings. Embassies in Sofia, Bulgaria, and Panama City have achieved the system’s most modest rating for sustainable features such as reduced water and energy consumption.
“From a builder’s perspective, the whole point of building is to reduce first costs, or the costs of producing a complete structure,” said Donna McIntire, sustainability program manager and founder of the State Department’s “green team,” whose mission is to limit inefficiencies in the use of energy and water at ambassadorial compounds.
“But green building puts more emphasis on long-term costs. The government will operate these buildings for 20, 30 years or more in some cases.”She said that, in addition to being cost-efficient, the new embassy building is “good foreign policy.”
A quarter of the materials used in the million project were purchased locally. According to a USGBC report, the embassy’s energy costs are one-quarter below those of a traditionally built structure. Water use inside the embassy is one-third what it would be in a typical building, and outdoor water use on its 43-acre (17-hectare) property is half what would be expected with standard equipment.
The State Department has a total budget for the fiscal year that began in October 2008 in excess of .7 billion to manage 18,000 facilities in more than 280 locations around the world, as well as to build new facilities and rehabilitate existing ones.
After the 1998 al-Qaida bombings of embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the department’s Office of Buildings Operations (OBO) developed a standard design plan for new consular facilities, incorporating higher security and environmentally friendly design elements, said OBO spokesman Jonathan Blyth.
Sixty-five complexes have been completed with the new design since 2001. After 2001, OBO hired American firm Einhorn Yaffee Prescott Architecture & Engineering P.C. to improve the environmental and energy features in the designs, and 31 projects are under way to meet those standards.
Blyth said all new embassies will meet the USGBC benchmark.The challenge in designing new embassies, Blyth said, is building facilities sufficient to house large staffs and sophisticated enough to protect them. Embassies generally require four years of advance planning.
Sometimes, building and compound design is limited by underdeveloped local environments. For example, embassies can require use of diesel generators when the local power grid is unstable.
In other cases, the new buildings are large and technologically advanced, requiring hefty operating budgets.A recent OBO report finds that some newer buildings have more energy deficiencies than older facilities.
“The one thing about technology [is that] it has a cost,” said Donald Young, vice president of communications for the International Facility Management Association.
Young said high-tech security and “green” features in new buildings can pose a challenge to building managers who initially might not operate new systems in the most cost-efficient way.
OBO building and design specialists have a total of million to enhance 18,000 facilities with modern features — roughly 2 per building.
Not a lot of money, said Jerry Yudelson, an author, speaker and engineer with a leading international firm in planning and designing green buildings. Yet, cost-effective solutions do exist.
“Revamp by relamp,” said Yudelson, suggesting the State Department install modern electronic ballasts (that automatically limit a circuit’s power flow) and pair them with compact fluorescent lighting.
McIntire’s green team suggests upgrades in water management, energy systems, even mass transit for employees.
Embassies in Japan and Switzerland, for example, have received solar panels and efficient air chillers, respectively, as a result of such reviews.
To stretch the upgrades pot, the State Department is pursuing public-private partnerships. The Energy Security and Independence Act of 2007 obligates the department to reduce energy use at all embassies by 2015.
}It then can contract with a private company to upgrade the least-efficient compounds and pay for the work over time from energy savings.“Personally, I have high hopes of public-private partnerships,” said Jan Hensen, a professor at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands and president of the International Building Performance Simulation Association.
“But since my main interest is in long-term performance of buildings, I’m probably not unbiased.”