Tag Archives: Sovereign Wealth Funds

THE BEADY EYE SAY’S: WE NEED A NEW WAY OF MEASURING GROWTH.

30 Saturday Dec 2017

Posted by in 2018: The Year of Disconnection., Algorithms., Capitalism, Fourth Industrial Revolution., GDP., Happiness., Humanity., Our Common Values., Poverty, Social Media, Sustaniability, Technology, The cloud., The Obvious., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., Wealth., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Aid., World Organisations.

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( A Four minute Happy New Year read)

As David Attenborough once said.

” Anyone who thinks that you can have infinite growth on a finite planet is either a madman or an economist” I would add technology in the form of profit seeking Algorithms.

Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of GDP"

Infinite growth might have seemed possible when Captain Cook was around, unfortunately it no longer holds.

However we are all still lead to believe that GDP marks human progress.

Our world is rapidly changing.  Markedly defined by the Internet.

We are now standing on the threshold of divorce between Money and State with natural systems under enormous pressure which I am sure I don’t have to high light here.

With the planet groaning, ever trade deal is a new frontier of accumulation a form of World GDP exploitation that was and still is promoted by the help of the World Bank, and the IMF.

We are now at a stage where GDP growth is beginning to create more poverty, and inequality than it eliminates.

Unfortunately the resources of the world have been exploited both for debt and profit rather than sustainability, and as long as GDP growth remains the main objective of Globalization we will see more and more countries going into irreversible debt, and war over freshwater, air, and energy.

These profound changes are emboldened by the evident failures on both levels of political control: Technological Regulations/ Laws and the growing power of monopoly platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft, the Cloud etc.

Don’t worry say’s technology we can decouple sustainability and material throughput.

A beguiling vision of a future lightweight economy.

Facebook and the Cloud are gathering an unprecedented amount of power and allowing their business practices to be a disruptive force for democracy.

All pointers signaling the widespread decay of the economic and political frameworks in which our institutions operate.

With profit seeking algorithms rich countries are in fact increasing consumption, still producing stuff and by 2030 it will be in the 100 billion tons.

There is also a growing belief as we convert to renewable energies and begin to use negative – emissions technologies that we can change the damage to the climate.

However if we continue to ignore that energy use is only part of the problem.

It is what we are doing with it is the problem.

Polluting our sea, chopping down our forests, producing cement, creating land fills with waste, eroding our land, all contributing more and more greenhouse gases. Switching to clean energy will do nothing to slow this down.

The problem is much deeper than we are willing to admit. 

We need a new consciousness for a different world.

Our crucial first step would be to get rid of GDP as a measure of economic growth/progress and well-being.

We need to have an open discussion about what we really value.

We are all aware of the individual problems, but the main problem remains the same – Inequality due to the distribution and exploitation of the world’s wealth.

Any rich country that has food banks, people sleeping on the street, is for me a failed state.

I have written many a post with a solution that to date has fallen on deaf ears.

it is my conviction that at this point and time its impossible to correct the imbalances of Capitalism. We can only ensure that Capitalism pays for the damage by introducing a World Aid Commission.

0.05%

On all High Frequency trading, on all Sovereign Wealth Fund Accusations,on all Foreign exchange transactions over $50,000, on all Social Media platforms postings, on all Bitcoin’s, and other digital currency transactions.

This fund would be a perpetual source of money.

It could replace the begging Organisations.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of world aid funds"Re Establish the United Nations an effective world organisation that could address and react to world needs, where ever, when ever.

It could be managed under the UN umbrella, provided it was totally independent/ transparent of any lobbing and political veto interference.

Its funds could be granted with no repayments requirements.

It would change the world for the better, by spreading its wealth where it is needed most.

Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of world aid funds "

Of course the problem remains as to how we get our Capitalist Master to implement such a course of action.

Perhaps Bitcoin’s ability to promote the divorce between Money and State, might be a place to start. 

All suggestions appreciated.

All human comments appreciated. All Like clicks chucked in the bin.

 

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The Beady Eye looks at the Privatization Revolution of Earth.

03 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by in Privatization, Where's the Global Outrage.

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As if there are not enough problems in the world here is another that is out of control.

THIS IS THE LADY,  that initiated the privatisation boom.

Margaret Thatcher on the 39th floor of the Canary Wharf Tower at London's Docklands.

She saw privatisation as “fundamental to improving Britain’s economic performance”.

But it also chimed with her political ideology.

“It was one of the central means of reversing the corrosive and corrupting effects of socialism,” she declared, adding: “Just as nationalisation was at the heart of the collectivist programme by which Labour governments sought to remodel British society, so privatisation is at the centre of any programme of reclaiming territory for freedom.”

England is now one of the most sold off countries on earth.

Here is just a few items recently sold.

Before you look remember that the rest of the world governments are doing the same thing flogging off what is not belong to them but belongs to the generations of people who worked and payed taxes.

Governments of very different political and ideological streams are bent on privatizing, and governments that are already privatizing are moving from selling small retail outlets and industries to selling larger mining and infrastructure enterprises. Just look what happened when the World Bank forced Bolivia to sell its water to Privatization.

Above all, perhaps, in shifting the democratic to market-based principles of allocation, it favors those who are strongest in their control of the market, and who also happen to represent the social basis of Conservatism.

The UK has sold: Gold Reserves, Transportation, Mail, Water, Banks, Health, Universities, Prisons, Power, Car parking, Schools, Telecom, Gas, Steel, Airports, Gambling, Fire and Ambulance services, Rolls Royce, Jaguar, British Airways, Shipbuilding, Council Housing, Sea link, and the list goes on.

Whats’ left:  Scotland, and the crown Jewels. It has already sold Northern Ireland and Democracy many times ( MP Expenses Scandal)

Privatisations by share offer, 1981-91 From Nigel Lawson, The View from No. 11(Bantam, 1992).
Date Company % of equity initially sold Proceeds £m
Feb 1981 British Aerospace 51.6 150
Oct 1981 Cable & Wireless 50 224
Feb 1982 Amersham International 100 71
Nov 1982 Britoil 51 549
Feb 1983 Associated British Ports 51.5 22
June 1984 Enterprise Oil 100 392
July 1984 Jaguar 99 294
Nov 1984 British Telecom 50.2 3,916
Dec 1986 British Gas 97 5,434
Feb 1987 British Airways 100 900
May 1987 Rolls-Royce 100 1,363
July 1987 British Airports Authority 100 1,281
Dec 1988 British Steel 100 2,500
Dec 1989 Regional Water Companies 100 5,110
Dec 1990 Electricity Distribution Companies 100 5,092
Mar 1991 National Power and PowerGen 60 2,230
May 1991 Scottish Power and Scottish Hydro Electric 100 2,880

Whatever way you look at it the acceleration of interest in privatization evident in the last two to three years is striking.

Here is the list of sales in the rest of the world-wide.

You will be shocked and hopefully made a aware or appreciate what is going on.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_privatizations&oldid=666660418

We have rampaging Sovereign Wealth Funds buy up the world resources, and manipulating Governments. This combined with the World Bank and the IMF SUPPORT IT IS THE GREATEST SALE OF ALL.  EARTH.  BUY AND GET NOTHING FOR FREE.

 

So what is privatization and what is happening in privatization?

Privatization is the transfer of ownership of assets to the private sector. Through management contracts and leases and sell off (sale of minority shares.)

Why privatize?

All types of privatization have the potential to increase so-called static efficiency-what economists like to call X-efficiency-which means pushing enterprises to operate cost effectively on their production frontier.

What Is Being Privatized?

There are virtually no limits on what can be privatized.

The argument that privatization creates additional public resources is illusory.

Attempts to sell nonviable firms as going concerns may not only invite special protection or subsidies, but may also lead to subsequent government bail-outs.

Markets fail, but so do governments. which lead to government bail-outs, financed either through taxes or inflation and the new buzz word Austerity a Capitalist word for Privatization by the back door.  Greece!

Both taxes and inflation hit the poorer citizen harder than the rich.

The World Bank and the IMF act as a catalyst for privatization.

From Water, to Oxygen, to Time, everything that you take for granted will be privatized and subject to easy and affordable payments.

Not in your wildest dreams will it be affordable.

Get used to it. For there is absolutely nothing that you can do.

Or is there. (See below)

The most concerning effects of all this is – The Race to Buy Up the World’s Fresh Water supplies.

Out of the 1,226 billionaires around the world four billionaires including filmmaker James Cameron and Google co-founder Larry Page are backing a newly unveiled asteroid-mining venture, Planetary Resources Inc adding to an impressive list of ultra-rich people trying to reshape spaceflight and exploration in the 21st century. Each man is worth $1 billion or more, according to recent estimates by Forbes magazine, with Google execs Page and Schmidt having about $16.7 billion and $6.2 billion to their names, respectively. Film maker James Cameron worth $700 million or so.

H20 will open up a Trillion dollar market in Space.

Deep Space Industries Wheel Habitat

We are in the midst of a global freshwater crisis.

Around the world, rivers, lakes, and aquifers are dwindling faster than Mother Nature can possibly replenish them; industrial and household chemicals are rapidly polluting what’s left.Meanwhile, global population is ticking skyward.

Goldman Sachs estimates that global water consumption is doubling every 20 years, and the United Nations expects demand to outstrip supply by more than 30 percent come 2040.

Water has been a public resource under public domain for more than 2,000 years,”

If all goes according to plan, 80 million gallons of Blue Lake water will be siphoned into the kind of tankers normally reserved for oil—and shipped to a bulk bottling facility near Mumbai. From there it will be dispersed among several drought-plagued cities throughout the Middle East.

The project is the brainchild of two American companies. One, True Alaska Bottling, has purchased the rights to transfer 3 billion gallons of water a year from Sitka’s bountiful reserves.

The other, S2C Global, is building the water-processing facility in India. If the companies succeed, they will have brought what Sitka hopes will be a $90 million industry to their city, not to mention a solution to one of the world’s most pressing climate conundrums.

They along with Nestle are turning life’s most essential molecule into a global commodity.

Fresh Air is next on the list.

By definition, a commodity is sold to the highest bidder, not the customer with the most compelling moral claim.

As the crisis worsens, companies like True Alaska that own the rights to vast stores of water (and have the capacity to move it in bulk) won’t necessarily weigh the needs of wealthy water-guzzling companies like Coca-Cola or Nestlé against those of water-starved communities

In Phoenix or Ghana; privately owned water utilities will charge what the market can bear, and spend as little as they can get away with on maintenance and environmental protection. Other commodities are subject to the same laws, of course. But with energy, or food, customers have options: they can switch from oil to natural gas, or eat more chicken and less beef.

There is no substitute for water, not even Coca-Cola.

The Colorado River Basin is struggling through its 11th year of drought. In the USA the real water barons cannot be reduced to a simple archetype. They include a diverse array of buyers and sellers—from multinational water giants like Suez and Veolia that together deliver water to some 260 million taps around the world, to wildcatter oil converts like T. Boone Pickens who wants to sell the water under his Texas Panhandle ranch to thirsty cities like Dallas.

Eventually every last drop will be privately controlled.

And when that happens, the world will find itself divided along a new set of boundaries: water haves on one side, water have-nots on the other. The winners (Canada, Alaska, Russia) and losers (India, Syria, Jordan)will be different from those of the oil conflicts of the 20th century, but the bottom line will be much the same: countries that have the means to exploit large reserves will prosper.

The rest will be left to fight over ever-shrinking reserves. Some will go to war.

The World Bank infamously required scores of impoverished countries—most notably Bolivia—to privatize their water supplies as a condition of desperately needed economic assistance. These days, global water barons have set their sights on a more appealing target: countries with dwindling water supplies and aging infrastructure,

Nowhere is this truer than China.

As the water table under Beijing plummets, wells dug around the city must reach ever-greater depths (nearly two-thirds of a mile or more, according to a recent World Bank report) to hit fresh water. Since 2000, when the country opened its municipal services to foreign investment, the number of private water utilities has skyrocketed. But as private companies absorb water systems throughout the country, the cost of water has risen precipitously. “It’s more than most families can afford to pay,

Meanwhile, more than half a million pipes burst every year, according to the American Water Works Association, and more than 6 billion gallons of water are lost to leaky pipes.

Privatization of basic human needs is never good.

Our governments are controlled by private corporations and banks.

Privatization of government services (such that benefit the people, all the people) is perverting Democracy.

Privatization of public services is the death knell of parliamentary democracy, the death knell of the extreme form of capitalism currently practiced in too many countries.

We face a global water crisis, made worse by the warming temperatures of climate change.

A quarter of the world’s people don’t have sufficient access to clean drinking water.

Water privatization is used here as a shorthand for private sector participation in the provision of water services and sanitation. has turned a public good into a private good.

Many believe that the privatization of water is incompatible with ensuring the international human right to water.909 million people were served by “private players” in 2011 globally, up from 681 million people in 2007.

The World Bank Group pushes privatization as a key solution to the water crisis.

Instead of using its position to line the pockets of water companies, the World Bank should support what is most needed: affordable and clean – and public – water for all. When the private sector engages in water provision, greater disparities in access and cost follow.

The current Chairman and former CEO of Nestlé, the largest producer of food products in the world, believes that the answer to global water issues is privatization.

For profit” everything! Profit is killing the planet.

Human males seek dominance even at the price of self-annihilation.

Are we all mad, it looks like it.

We can talk till the cows come home > We Can have Summits on Climate Change > We can listen to the G8 the G7 the United Nations, the World Health, the President of the USA, the technocrats, the Economic Gurrous, Religious Leaders, the Free market, China, the International space station, your neighbor.

If the truth was known no one has a blind notion how to change course.

WELL LET ME TELL YOU AS CAPTAIN OF THIS BLOG AND POST THERE IS ONLY ONE SOLUTION’S.

That is to make Capitalism with its insatiably greed for profit PAY by placing a World Aid Commission of all High frequency stock trading, on all Foreign Exchange transactions over $20,000, on all Sovereign Wealth Funds Acquisition. (See previous posts). This can be achieved with little or no cost to the world economy by the click of a button. Producing a vast perpetual fund  to address the Inequality the bane of the modern world.

Before I finish I can hear you saying who, how, where this fund would operate.

It does not matter as long as the funds are allocated on a lotto bases.

Every deserving project (world wise) after a vetting process to see if viable would be placed in a once a year draw according to its capital requirements.

Unlike the World bank or IMF the winners would not have to repay the funds, (provided the project undertake was totally transparent and completed in full. ) any residual funds could be places in a People World fund to protect against privatization.

Any comments, ideas, positive or negative –  Welcome.

I dare you to change the course of humanity with me.

 

 

When Money Talks.

26 Sunday Oct 2014

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There can never be power, of a political or economic nature, without responsibility.

WHILE OUR WORLD LEADERS AND OUR WORLD ORGANISATIONS ARE PREOCCUPIED WITH GROWING THE ECONOMY TO THE DETRIMENT OF OUR PLANET AND EQUALITY THE POWER OF MONEY HAS ANOTHER ALLIE SOVEREIGNTY WEALTH FUNDS.

When Money Talks, undue financial power is affecting their policies.

We are all abhorred by the rise of ISIS, the pending disaster of Climate Change, the spread of Ebola and the current conflicts in the world but if we are not vigilant we are all going to end up living in a Privatized World – Called World Corporate Inc.

I think that where ever there is money there is power.  A critical point that we are all ignoring at our peril.  This is why it’s necessary to put the lime light once more on Sovereign Wealth Funds. ( See Previous Posts)

Now I don’t believe sovereign wealth funds will tilt the balance of power in the near future. However someone must put them in their proper context, because the forces that give rise to sovereign wealth funds are in fact already beginning to influence the balance of power in a global.

With all that is going on in the world you might think that this is a storm in a tea-cup, but Inequity and Greed are the two elements that contribute the most to the Worlds problems.

At the moment there is SWFS designed to affect trans-generational wealth transfers, and those designed to enable economic stability as a result of changes in global production forces, are resource-based funds designed to transform physical wealth into financial wealth.

Historically, political power was created by military power.

Now the question is, instead of armaments, if I’m bringing investable dollars, does that actually play the role that nuclear warheads used to play in an earlier geopolitical era?

Global economic forces are tilting or, as I like to say, reorienting – and the pun is absolutely intended – the balance of power.

What we are seeing is a conscious effort to leverage shifts in capital flows and momentum for economic development into a degree of political power globally, whether they are in the form of blocks or even as individual entities.

The immensity of these foreign exchange reserves exceeds the typical buffer that a country requires, thereby enabling these rich states to make strategic foreign investments buying critical foreign assets, resources, energy, land, air and water.

The top 400 of these “global public investors” hold about $29 trillion in assets—equal to about 40 percent of the world’s gross domestic product.

State sovereign wealth funds from China to Africa are reshaping the global economy and at their current growth rate will surpass current U.S. economic output by 2015.

By 2016, analyst group Global Insight said the funds, which grew 24 percent a year in the last three years, would outstrip the current output of the European Union.

The Lethargy of our Political leaders is allowing Sovereign wealth funds (being non-transparent) to invest globally for political or strategic purposes. They are supported them by pushing Privatizations of public assets.

Example: The New proposed Nuclear Plant in the UK to be built by the EDF is 40% financed by a Chines SWF against guaranteed. EDF will receive a guaranteed power price of 92.50 pounds per megawatt-hour for 35 years, more than twice the current market rate, once the plant begins operations in 2023. The Hinkley Point C project has been agreed between the UK Government and French company EDF Energy and its two Chinese partners – China National Nuclear Corporation and China General Nuclear Power Corporation. The decision could lead to China taking a future majority stake – and even be allowed to own up to 100 pc – in the development of the next generation of British nuclear power. And England wants out of the EEC. Immigration comes in many forms. If your English have a look at what else SWFs own in your back yard you will be surprised.

The lack any enforcement mechanism to monitor these funds is lunacy. In spite of the fact they have been around for years, so much remains to be understood about their processes and activities. Companies should consider contractual provisions requiring disclosure of the SWF’s policy purposes, governance framework, financial statements, general voting approaches for risk management and legal relationship with other state bodies.

We should be concern that as government-operated investment funds, politically captured, used to distribute patronage and undermined by corruption the ongoing transformation in the global balance of power over the past and the future decades is going to end up

Accepting money from an SWF comes with some risk—at least on the surface.

THE current shift of financial power from multi-national organisations such as the World Bank to be used to effect none-financial outcomes.

China:  Never in world history has one government had so much control over so much wealth. China’s overall trade surplus has enabled it to run up the world’s largest current account surplus (US$213.8 billion) and amass foreign exchange reserves of US$3.3 trillion. China holds one-fifth of all foreign-owned US Treasury securities.

Norway : Commonly known as the oil fund, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund invests the revenues from the offshore petroleum sector in foreign shares, bonds and properties in order to spread the wealth across generations.

The fund’s value could hit almost 6 trillion Norwegian crowns ($973 billion) by the end of the year.

With economic power comes political power. The motives of SWFs will be guided by the interests of the state rather than those of international business community.

You might wonder why we never hear much discussion by our world economic gurus on SWFS. Acquiring that information is difficult, however, since hugely rich entities mostly accountable only to their national governments. You tell me.

SWFs are well known for their opaque, tightly-guarded investment decisions.

They all have one thing in common they will ensure that the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor.

AUSTRIA/

 

 

 

 

 

What Sovereign Wealth Funds Think Now: Its Land.

03 Wednesday Sep 2014

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From the beginning of capitalism the drive for profits has been the major force in dispossession peasant and small-scale farmers from the land and water.

While we are all consumed by our daily lives the armies of our greatest enemy Greed in the form of money never sleeps.

Now there are many ways to acquire land as Mr Putin see it and you might think that he is the greatest current threat with nuclear power.

You would be wrong in my opinion.

In more stressful times, expect these land deals to lead to unrest and lay the groundwork for wars and national boundary or ownership changes. Any nation faced with civil disobedience or unrest, for whatever reason, might be subject to regime changes which might quickly change foreign land ownership policy. Moreover, political instability elsewhere in the region is pushing oil prices up, thereby increasing and guaranteeing the main source of income of the oil-rich Persian Gulf states.

The greatest threat is the Privatization of our world resources for the sake of profit which is in the not so distant future is going to come back to haunt us all.

It is an existential struggle for the future of humanity.

Unless the resources of the earth can be utilized in an equitable and sustainable way, then civilization itself is under threat.

The main threat are called Sovereign Wealth Funds that are currently plundering the world. There are about 52 sovereign investors who collectively manage $5.7 trillion in assets

( I have addressed the problem in past posted if your are interested.)

Here I want to highlight two aspects of their current activities that we should all be made aware of.

The first is Land and water.

Land grabbing is directly intertwined with the growing scarcity of fresh water resources around the world.

More than 463 projects covering 116 million acres, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa were acquired in eight months during 2008-9.

Perhaps the most famous example of such privatization of water was the infamous purchase of Bolivia’s water supply by Bechtel and the Abengoa Corporation of Spain in the late 1990s

If one needed more evidence that financial and political elites were consolidating their ownership of global water resources, one needs look no further than the Guarani Aquifer in Paraguay.

One of the world’s largest fresh water aquifers, Guarani is estimated as being larger than the US states of Texas and California combined. Researchers have calculated that Guarani could provide fresh water for the world’s population for at least 200 years. It is precisely atop this aquifer that George Bush and the Bush family have purchased more than 100,000 acres, though many believe the purchase to in fact be much larger.

If ownership of water and the farmland of a nation doesn’t define a nation tell me what does.

It is difficult to obtain accurate figures for the amount of land in the global South that is under the control of foreign and local private capital as well as foreign sovereign wealth funds.

Sovereign wealth funds–charged with preserving the accumulated fortunes of their home nations–are well known for their opaque, tightly guarded investment decisions.

Sovereign wealth funds hold about $5 trillion in assets globally, and many, are food challenged, such as Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, South Korea, and China.

With Climate change the rush for agricultural and water gold is in fully flight. Water “the petroleum for the next century” Future agricultural production will be stressed by climate change and competition for remaining oil and water supplies while population numbers grow will become more intensive.  

A disturbing trend in the water sector is accelerating worldwide. The new “water barons”  — are buying up water all over the world at unprecedented pace. Not only are the mega-banks investing heavily in water, the multimillionaire tycoons are also buying water. 

Unfortunately, the global water and infrastructure-privatization fever is unstoppable:

Here are a few facts that might make you think twice.

There is currently a consolidation of land and resources in ever fewer hands, while the mass of workers and peasants are made dependent on corporations and governments.

Hedge funds, big banks, sovereign wealth funds, are gobbling up the most fertile land around the world, leading many to wonder what the future of food production and land distribution will look like.

By 2020 more that 50 million people will be pushed into poverty because of high food prices, and this speculation will be if not already one of the main causes.

”Today’s emerging new farm owners are private equity fund managers, specialized farmland fund operators, hedge funds, pension funds,big banks and Sovereignty Wealth Funds.”

In Australia more than 800,000ha of prime and fertile land, from Moree in the north to Deniliquin in the south, is foreign owned, with Korea’s Ho Myoung Farm company the largest stakeholder with 500,000ha.  Hassad Australian, a company wholly owned by the Arab state of Qatar, has acquired 730,000ha of farm land in Australia, including 25,245ha in NSW.

There has been more than $1.5 billion in direct investment in Australian agricultural land over the last three years by GLOBAL fund managers and some of the world’s largest pension funds and of course Sovereign Wealth Funds.

The sovereign state of Qatari are on track to acquire a larger area more than the entire Arab state with plans to spend over $350 million on acquisitions. The Qatari government has leased large amounts of land in Kenya. They also have or are working on deals in Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Sudan, and the Ukraine.

They include: Two Swedish pension funds, Första AP-fonden and the Second Swedish National Pension Fund/AP2; the Dutch pension fund Algemene Pensioen Groep; Danish pension fund Danske; Swiss fund Adveq Real Assets Harvested Resources; Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund; and several from Canada including the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, BNY Mellon, the Ontario Municipal Employee Retirement System, and Quebec’s CDPQ fund, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.

As of May 2012, it was estimated that between 32 and 82 million hectares (between approximately 80 and 200 million acres) of global farmland had been brought under foreign control, with the amount constantly increasing.Table A6: Top foreign investors in primary production land in regional NSW

Top Ten Land Grab Targets and Investor Countries

Target Countries
(millions of hectares)

Investor Countries
(millions of hectares)

South Sudan

4.1

United States

8.0

Papua New Guinea

3.9

Malaysia

3.5

Indonesia

3.5

Arab Emirates

2.8

DRC

2.7

UK

2.1

Mozambique

2.2

Singapore

1.9

Sudan

2.0

China

1.6

Liberia

1.4

Saudi Arabia

1.5

Argentina

1.3

South Sudan

1.4

Sierra Leone

1.2

China, Hong Kong

1.3

Madagascar

1.1

India

1.3

It is estimated that the amount of global farmland that has been acquired by foreign entities equals about 198 million acres.

In July 2013 the Colombian ambassador to the United States resigned over his participation in a legally questionable effort to help the U.S. corporation Cargill use shell companies to amass 130,000 acres of land.

Sovereign funds loaded with new capital will continue to pour into real estate and are actively seeking out foreign farmland to purchase.

In this age of global uncertainty in the area of food-producing and wealth preservation, productive farmland around the world has been placed into the spotlight by “guru investors,” wealth management funds, growing mega agri-industries, wealthy sovereign wealth funds.

The Saudi Kingdom is behind a seven-year project of acquiring 1.7 million irrigated rice acres in Senegal and Mali, enough to produce 7 million tonnes of rice. Proposals would allow Saudi business groups to take control of 70% of the rice-growing area of Senegal.

Saudi Arabia has farming interests in Egypt, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Syria, Turkey and the Ukraine.

South Koreans want to produce rice, corn, sugar, fish, and livestock in the Philippines.

Japan is believed to hold three times the amount of its own farmable land outside of its borders.

Argentina and Brazil have acquired land in Uruguay.

South Korea and Russia agreed to create a $500 million joint fund with their sovereign wealth funds, aimed at increasing cross-border investments in various companies and projects.

Egypt leases land in Uganda to produce rice, wheat and beef.

Nigeria is appealing to the Gulf nations to utilize its land. It has 175 million acres and is only farming half of that. It desires investment in that land, it desires employment opportunities, and it claims that it could provide 100% of the Gulf’s food needs.

Chinese investment in Kazakhstan reached $5 billion by the end of last year, slightly less than 4 percent of the country’s total foreign direct investment. They are buying land in Brazil for soybean cultivation, as part of a $3.4 billion plan to build oilseed and rice production bases overseas including bases for rapeseed in Canada and Australia, palm oil in Malaysia and rice in Cambodia. China is by far the largest investor, buying or leasing twice as much as anyone else.

In January 2012, China Investment Corporation has bought 8.68% stakes in Thames Water, the largest water utility in England, which serves parts of the Greater London area, Thames Valley, and Surrey, among other areas.

Foreign firms have invested in dairies, meat processing, crops and others areas in Serbia and other non-European Union members of the Balkans.

67% of Mideast SWFs plan to allocate more funds to Latin America, while half will do the same to Africa and 60% to India.

In November 2012, One of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), also purchased 9.9% stake in Thames Water.

Food insecure nations such as the Gulf States, China, Japan, South Korea and Western Europe are all interested in increasing their farmland holdings.

Countries need to take control of their agriculture away from international and market forces and support the development of national food sovereignty based on family size farms.

And if all of that is not enough sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East expect to receive more funding this year, providing them with extra financial firepower to raise their investments into emerging markets and asset classes such as private equity and real estate. Slightly Ironically, with instability in the region, the oil prices go up and that gives the governments sometimes a little bit more room to maneuver,” 54% of Middle East SWFs expect an increase in new funding in 2014, higher than the 46% average for all funds.

As much as US$70 billion is up for grabs for global hedge funds looking to raise money in Asia over the next few years.

So the next time you walk into any Sainsbury’s across the UK, remember that Qatar is a major investor.

It owns 20 per cent of the London Stock Exchange and, at the other end of the scale, it owns  20 per cent of Camden market, the biggest grunge emporium in the country. Qatari LNG accounted for 85 per cent of Britain’s liquefied natural gas imports, providing power to homes across the land.

QATAR’S STAKE IN BRITAIN

The tiny Gulf state has snapped up a range of famous British assets, which include:

1. Harrods, the upmarket department store former owned by Mohamed al-Fayed.

2. The Shard, soon-to-be Europe’s tallest building.

3. No 1 Hyde Park, the world’s most expensive block of flats.

4. The London Stock Exchange, which they own a 20 per cent stake.

5. Camden Market, which they own a 20 per cent stake.

6. The Olympic Village, once the games are over.

7. Sainsbury’s and Barclays banks – major investors.

8. Liquefield Natural Gas, Britain’s biggest supplier.

It’s no wonder Scotland wants Independence before the Dragon comes.

ALT

The greater their investment, the greater our dependency. The greater the dependency, the greater the risks.

 

 

What can you do in thirteen-thousandths of a second?

08 Tuesday Jul 2014

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A few days ago I posted a blog describing Dark Pools in which High-Frequency traders exploit the stock markets.

If you have read any of my blogs you will see that I have bleated on about Capping Greed as the only solution to tackle our world problems.

It is this type of exploitation of making money out of money without contributing a farthing to making the world a better place that has to be undone, not just greed.

I advocate that this can be done within our Capitalist System with little or no cost without causing any major ripples in World trade or World Markets and the like. Sixty five people become $ millionaires each day.

This can be done without trying to change the system for better, or worse.

How?  By applying A World Aid Commission of 0.05% at source on all Foreign Exchange Transactions of over $20,000, on all Sovereign Wealth funds Acquisitions and on all High-Frequency traders on the stock markets.

The result would be a Perpetual World Aid Fund of billions to address all our current day problems of Poverty, Inequality, Education, Health, Aid, Development, Climate change, Drug research, to name just a few.

Since capitalism is inherently a system of exploitation, theft, and since capitalists, as a class, do regularly and systematically resort to lying, brutality, torture, oppression, murder, and war to defend their scam, capitalists are not merely greedy, they are in a lot of our minds outright criminals, especially when looking at sweatshops, unsafe mines, and toxic workplaces.

We should not limit our criticisms to the cruelty and greed of capitalists, but direct it to the system itself (although obviously such capitalists have to be able to at least stomach what they are doing, which is already a strong indictment of their characters). Being able to externalize (fob off onto the public) many of the costs of production is almost a definition of capitalism, as a system of competing, profit-based, corporations, supported by nation-states.

You could say that Capitalism is condemned because it is based on the exploitation of one class by another, so that the exploiting class can enrich itself, or simply remain in power. A few get rich, while most remain poor. In fact, the few are rich precisely because the many are poor, because the wealth of the few is stolen wealth, taken from the labors of the many. It is not just that someone is getting rich, it is their getting rich at the expense of others that is the problem.

There is no way of stopping exploitation other than exposing it in all it’s forms. We are yet to have a conscience at all about the exploitation of human cultures. If it is, in reality, capitalism that is the motor force behind the destructive forms of globalization, then it must be in their capacity to neutralize or transform this particular mode of exploitation that one can best test these various forms of resistance to the problems.

A common danger tends to concord.

Communism is no better as it the exploitation of the strong by the weak. In Communism, inequality comes from placing mediocrity on a level with excellence.

It is only by portraying and exposing capitalists as the criminals they are that we can begin to break through their ideological defenses and destroy their credibility. If we were all getting rich together, and if this were accomplished without destroying the earth, it would be another thing entirely. It would either be paradise or hell on earth.

Under capitalism, just as under all previous social orders based on hierarchy and class, everyone does not get rich. The normal way is profit-making, by exploiting wage-slaves, and defending all the institutions needed to perpetuate this exploitation, through murder and war if need be.

I come now to a case that I finally have to admit is nothing but pure, unadulterated greed — the salaries of today’s crop of corporate executives. The millions they are raking in is preposterous when you look at Food banks, people sleeping on the streets, charities begging, people struggling left right and center, while politicians bend and privatize or lives.

Globally the Greens have arisen like a spontaneous combustion, a reaction to the narrow-minded state-backed exploitation of resources and wealth for a few at the expense of the many.

So what can we achieve in a blink of an eye. Remembering that we share  one-third of our DNA with lettuce we can only hope that the other two-thirds can see the light.

We can unite into one voice to demand a 0. 05% World Aid Commission by Sponsoring a world Peoples mandate to be passed by the United nations on behalf of all of us and the earth we all live on of put in place such a Commission.

 

 

 

 

 

 

THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE TO DRINKING WATER.

12 Thursday Jun 2014

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Water is complicated.

Unlike coal or petroleum water cannot be replaced.  It is intertwined with every sector of society.  Energy production, Agriculture, Industry.

It won’t be long before we will have move people to water.

The problem is that we humans are searching for it on Mars when we need be searching for ways to produce more water on earth.

97% of the water we have is Saltwater, with 2% is trapped in ice that leaves 1%. To put it another way : If all the water on earth was represented by an 11 litre jug, the fresh water would fill a singles cup, and we can only access the last drop.

Now if we keep growing in world population only by 2030 the demand for water will out strip supply by 40%.

We have had two waves of resource-driven imperialism in the modern era. Gold and Oil.

The third wave is currently being fought over the most valuable natural resource  WATER – Iraq, Libya, Syria.

Why bother with missiles,bullets and the like just turn the tap off and the wars will end.

At the moment France’s global mega water companies: Suez, Ondeo, and Saur, control almost half of the world’s $400 billion water market.

Syria controls 40% of Israel’s water.

Water is the commodity that determines the wealth and stability of nations and will in the not so distant future spell the difference between greatness and decline.

Now I can hear you saying what can I do about it.  All one can see is Conflicts, Poverty, Modern Day Slavery, Climate Change, Corruption, Greed.

Here is what you can do.

To stop Sovereign Wealth Funds Privatizing what is left of Fresh water you can read my previous blogs and get involved  to lobby the United Nations to introduce a World Aid Commission of 0.05%  on all Foreign Exchange Transaction over $20,000.

The funds raised by this commission can be used to protect what is of value to us all.

 

 

 

 

0.05% WORLD AID COMMISSION- WORKINGS part two.

23 Friday May 2014

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It is beyond my comprehension with 7/24 news that we continue to destroy the planet that we all own and live on for the sake of short-term Profits.

Greed has no boundaries, no limitations, no moral obligations, no self – esteem, no conscious, it is concave.

It must be harnessed – re focused to contribute to the survival of us all without creating more greed.

In the first part of this blog I out lined how easy it would be to adopt a World Aid Commission. To apply it to all World Foreign Exchange transactions under $20,000. Creating a Fund with a source of perpetual Aid in billions.

So who, how, and where would we invest these funds?

I suggested that the funds revenue could be allocated as follows.

50% – Rapid Aid – fully equipped Response Centers.

25% – Climate Change  Defenses.

25% – International Development Fund.

The Rapid Aid Response Centers (  would get rid of the pathetic need to beg for aid every time there is a disaster) is self-evident.

Four or Five centers fully operational positioned around the globe like lifeboat stations would not only save lives but create employment and pool expertise.

Combined with a Rapid Peacekeeping force that represents all member states.

Climate Change Defenses.

Also self-evident. If we don’t start to build defences and educate the world to the consequences we are all facing  there will be no need for any fund.

International Development Fund.  

This must be Non payback Grants with no strings attached.  Totally transparent based on viable projects submitted to a new United Nations Governing body made up of experts in all fields from all member Nations of the United Nations.

Each project on approval would be allocated an approval number which would then qualify that project for entry into an Annually Televised  Draw for Funds ( this would stop lobbying and corruption etc.)  So many winner at x amount, at y amount, and so on.  The Television program would also show the progress on the previous year Projects winners.

If we are to achieve a fair and just world full of the values that are essential to all of us irrelevant of religious, political, and other aspirations, we must use Greed ( which is common to all of us.)

There is no point living in a virtual reality world full of technology if we have ongoing conflict, inequality, mass economic migration, depletion of finite resources, flooding, poverty, to name just a few of our ailments.

The Primary responsibility is ours not the Futuristic World of the unborn.

If you have any interest your contributions will be much appreciated.

In the mean time kindly support my Petition to the United Nations and the G8.  Found on http:// www change.Org /Robert Dillon.

PASS IT ON TO YOUR FRIENDS. THANK YOU ON BEHALF OF THE EARTH AND THE GENERATIONS TO COME.

ARE WE ALL BECOMING WAGE-SLAVES?

13 Tuesday May 2014

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While the rich have sweetheart deals worth millions in severance pay, even if they run the company into the ground, no hours contracts are becoming the norm.

We are all being hard-wired into believing that material enrichment is good for our well-being and the Economy dominates Society to the disappearance of all other values other than profit.

Speculators move millions, gambling with the future of whole economies. Preposterous? but true. Their actions are unconscionable. Profit – mongers who don’t give a damn, believing their own propaganda. It’s about making money above all else. Making profit has taken precedence over all other human activities and desires.

It is a very narrow definition of the quality of life.

In the meantime the global is under attack from the real terrorist of the Planet.  Sovereign Wealth Funds.

It will not be long before these Funds are the new lobbing legislators of the world.

Greed cannot be exorcised from our personalities, but it can be taped.

This cannot be done abstractly, it however can be achieved by passing a United Nations World people resolution applying a world aid commission on all Stock Exchange transactions world-wide.

Such a commission would ensure that every profit-making investment contributes to the simple needs for Food, Clothing, Shelter ( for billions of people) ensure clean water, air, the list is long.

They say that there is no reversing Climate change.

Sustaining interest in this great but slow-burning crisis is a challenge no one seems to have mastered. Only when the crisis causes or exacerbates an acute disaster – such as the floods – is there a flicker of anxiety, but that quickly dies away.

Why is it so difficult to persuade people to care about our wonderful planet, the world that gave rise to us and upon which we wholly depend?

And why do you encounter a barrage of hostility and denial whenever you attempt it (and not only from the professional liars who are paid by coal and oil and timber companies to sow confusion and channel hatred)?

Our erroneous belief that we are more concerned about man-made climate change than the people of other nations informs the sentiment, often voiced by the press and politicians, that there’s no point in acting if the rest of the world won’t play its part.

For years we’ve been told that people cannot afford to care about the natural world until they become rich; that only economic growth can save the biosphere, that civilisation marches towards enlightenment about our impacts on the living planet. The richer we are and the more we consume, the more self-centred and careless of the lives of others we appear to become. Even if you somehow put aside the direct, physical impacts of rising consumption, it’s hard to understand how anyone could imagine that economic growth is a formula for protecting the planet.

If So what we seem to see here is the turning of a vicious circle. The more harm we do, the less concerned about it we become.

And the more hyper consumerism destroys relationships, communities and the physical fabric of the Earth, the more we try to fill the void in our lives by buying more stuff. So the perennially low-level of concern, which flickers upwards momentarily when disaster strikes, then slumps back into the customary stupor, is an almost inevitable result of a society that has become restructured around shopping, fashion, celebrity and an obsession with money.

How we break the circle and wake people out of this dream world is the question that all those who love the living planet should address. There will be no easy answers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

ARE YOU ONE OF THE MANIPULATED ?

22 Tuesday Apr 2014

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Privatisation of our world is turning Democracy into an empty form of Political ideology.

Don’t get me wrong, Democracy as a political system out guns all other forms of governance.

Because it is a political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections.

Because it allows the active participation of the people, as citizens, in politics and civic life.

Because it endeavors to protection of the human rights of all citizens.

Because it is a rule of law, in which the laws and procedures apply equally to all citizens.

However, competitive return on Investment Capital is eroding the very essence of the blood given by hundred of thousands of our forefathers sacrifice’s in both world wars.

Why do I say this?    Because it is being Privatised right in front of our eyes for Profit.

Let me give you an example.

It is my belief that our elected representatives in Government ( how manage our hard earned taxes) are being hoodwinked by the Economy into thinking that every service and national resource operates better under market forces rather than state control.

I have nothing against a fair Profit on Investment but I do object to what I call Eternal Profits.

Lets say you build a Toll Bridge, or a Toll road requiring X billion in investment.

I am sure you would agree that the investment should have a fair return but not an Eternal One. The bridge or Road should revert to the nation and be free to its citizens or at least begin to add revenue at a reduced rate to Government coffers for future projects.

This is not happening with Sovereign Wealth Funds investment.  No only does the profit on return not stay in the country to create jobs or whatever it disappears to enhance the profits of the Fund in whatever country the fund happens to be based in.

This does not seem very democratic to me.  It is the duty of our elected representatives to protect its citizens from exploitation.

By handing control of national resources and services to private enterprise it is achieving quite the opposite. Just look at anything that has been sold into the marketplace.  Energy, Health Care, Water, Public transportation, Education.

But there is no generally accepted definition of Democracy but Oscar Wild might have it right when he said,

” Democracy mean simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people”

We won’t be able to stop Sovereign Wealth Funds from Privatising our lives but surely as intelligent people s we should Cap their Investments.

 

 

IF YOU DON’T WANT TO LIVE IN A PRIVATIZED WORLD

26 Wednesday Mar 2014

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Just keeping an eye on them. Sovereign Wealth Funds.

2013 as a milestone year of SWFs acquiring companies and assets.

According to the Sovereign Wealth Fund institute’s proprietary transaction database.

2012 Transactions amounted to US$65.09 billion a drop from 2011’s US$90,04 billion.

2013 has set a record of US$ 174.73 billion in direct sovereign Wealth Funds transactions.

They are well on the way to hit $ 7 trillion mark.

The investment strategies of SWFs is changing ,to a more direct Investment tactics from acquiring manufacturing companies to farmland in Australia.

 

See my blog;  OK LET’S ASK SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS.

OTHER NEWS.

 

Virtual reality has an unexpected new champion, as Facebook announces it has bought Oculus VR for $400 million cash and 23.1 million Facebook shares, plus another $300 million in potential bonuses. Not bad for a company that first shot to fame with a Kickstarter campaign for the Oculus Rift headset.