German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, and Iceland's Prime Minister Johanna Siguroardottir talk during the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) meeting on Afghanistan at the NATO Summit in Chicago. Picture: AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais Source: AdelaideNow
AUSTRALIA'S lead role in stumping up US$100 million per year for security forces in Afghanistan has been used to shame other countries into paying up as NATO partners formalised their escape plans from the disastrous ten-year Afghanistan entanglement.
Both the US and Australia used the disproportionately generous pledge to jawbone recalcitrant countries eager to get out and pay as little as possible.
Sources confirmed Ms Gillard had raised Australia's above the odds contribution to argue for a reasonable financial commitment from others both in the NATO summit itself but also in exhaustive one-on-one meetings with other leaders.
Wrapping up the NATO summit in Chicago, International Security Assistance Force countries have agreed to have combat troops out by 2014 and moved closer towards a US$4.1 billion financial plan to support the Afghan National Security Forces for the years afterwards.
"We leave Chicago with a clear roadmap, he said.
"Our coalition is committed to this plan to bring our war in Afghanistan to a responsible end."
The pared-back ambitions mean the violently anti-women Taliban will again play a leadership role in Afghanistan with the fundamentalist group now being actively courted at the US's urging to become part of a political settlement.
NATO's mission had been defeating the Taliban but that has now effectively been redefined by President Obama as having "broken the Taliban's momentum".
ISAF countries have resolved to move as quickly as possible from the military to the financial support stage.
As already announced Australia's troops will be withdrawn by the end of 2013 but Prime Minister Julia Gillard has formally advised the Afghans and the international community that Australian special forces will be made available for counter-terrorism work in Afghanistan for years beyond that date.
A diplomatic row threatening to undermine the whole NATO withdrawal process also looks to have been narrowly avoided here in Chicago after two unscheduled meetings between presidents Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan and US president Barack Obama.
President Obama had refused to meet with his Pakistani counterpart at the NATO summit unless the latter committed to re-open vital supply routes through Pakistan territory for ISAF forces.
Those roads were closed after bungled US airstrikes in November killed 24 Pakistan soldiers.
The US has expressed regret but has not apologised for the mistake or the incursion into Pakistan's territory.
Pakistan remains the key to any long-term campaign against insurgents which use its territory to hide and operate from. The restoration of direct leader-to-leader links is therefore seen as important.
Julia Gillard used her time to call directly on other countries to step up to the plate and provide a decent level of financial support to the Afghan National Security Force to sustain it once foreign forces leave in 2014.
In uncommonly direct language delivered to foreign leaders at the summit, Ms Gillard used the extra moral authority gained from Australia's disproportionately high US$300 pledge to a NATO-led international security fund to make an "intervention" at the summit.
Speaking just third in line after President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai addressed the sixty-leader meeting, Ms Gillard advised the Summit formally of Australia's contribution to funding for the ANSF transition and, according to speech notes provided by her office, "called on other countries which had not yet made a contribution to do so, noting that ISAF had sacrificed too much and worked too hard to fail at sustainment of the ANSF".
She said "our goal that Afghanistan is never again a safe haven for terrorism is within reach".
The fact that Australia has contributed so much is seen as highly significant and explains why Ms Gillard was invited to speak so early at the summit when Australia is not even a member of NATO.
The Obama Administration is leading a push to raise US$4.1 billion for a special security fund to support the ANSF after 2014 but so far has failed to convince enough countries to dig deep.
Both Australia and the US have been strongly hinting to countries such as Canada, the Netherlands and France, who will withdrawal troops early, that they should make up for their boots on the ground with cash money.
So far the fund has not got close to the target, however, with the US kicking in US$2.2 billion, Britain and Canada $110 million, Germany twice that at $220 million and Afghanistan itself promising to set aside $500 million a year to sustain its security forces.
Ms Gillard predicted that other countries were likely to announce contributions in coming hours or days.
Bank of England facing new scrutiny over handling of financial crisis after Mervyn King admitted it was 'late to the game' - mailonsunday.co.uk
- Handing of emergency cash to RBS and HBoS in 2008/09 to be reassessed
- Two further reviews will examine economic forecasting and ongoing plans to support banks
- Probes to be conducted by experts who are not employees of the central bank
By Becky Barrow, Business Correspondent
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The Bank of England yesterday revealed plans for three independent reviews of its handling of Britain’s financial crisis.
Officials said that the reviews would ‘focus on ensuring the Bank has the capability to respond to future crises’.
They will be led by three City experts, Ian Plenderleith, Bill Winters and David Stockton – each paid around 80,000 for the job – and undertaken over five months, with the conclusions published at the end of October.
Sir David Lees, chairman of the Bank’s ‘court’, a body similar to a company’s board, which commissioned the reviews, admitted it was ‘important’ to learn ‘practical lessons’ from the past.
Scrutiny: The Bank of England has bowed to pressure to re-examine its actions during the financial crisis
Both the Treasury Select Committee and the Financial Services Authority have each conducted several major inquiries in recent years.
Tory MP Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the influential Treasury Select Committee, said yesterday that a review should have been done sooner.
He added: ‘What we needed was a comprehensive review by the Bank of its performance through the course of the crisis from which we can all draw lessons. That review should have been done much earlier, before the euro crisis deepened.’
The investigation comes less than three weeks after the Bank’s governor was asked why he was ‘so scared’ at the possibility of an inquiry.
The governor admitted earlier this month that more should have been done to avert the banking crisis and conceded the Bank of England should have 'shouted from the rooftops' that banks had been allowed to borrow and lend too much.
'We were certainly late to the game in understanding the scale of the fragility in the banking system and the potential consequence when those risks materialised,' he said.
David Ruffley, a senior Tory MP and a member of the Treasury Select Committee, said: ‘It is a case of better late than never.’
He attacked the Bank’s court, which is similar to a company’s board of executives and non-executives, for being ‘amazingly slow’ to commission the reviews.
'Least distinguished': Bank governor Sir Mervyn King has been the target of fierce criticism from former Labour City minister Lord Myners
One will look at the Bank’s decision to pump up to 62billion into HBOS, owner of Halifax, and Royal Bank of Scotland, to keep the disgraced banks afloat.
This action, known as the ‘emergency liquidity assistance’ scheme, took place nearly four years ago during the disastrous autumn of 2008.
The two other reviews will look at the way it provides liquidity to the whole banking system, and its recently erratic ability to accurately forecast inflation and economic growth.
Mr Ruffley slammed the fact that a review has had to wait for the ‘out of date and laggardly’ court of the Bank to make up its mind ‘when they are finally ready for it to be done.’
Previous investigations have triggered frustrations that nobody was sanctioned, struck off or sacked for their role in the financial crisis.
The FSA’s inquiry into the cataclysmic collapse of Royal Bank of Scotland caused outrage because its former boss escaped any form of punishment from the regulator. Despite his pivotal role in the collapse of RBS, Fred Goodwin continues to enjoy a gold-plated lifestyle, funded by a 342,500- a-year pension from the bank.
None of the Bank’s three inquiries will be a witch hunt, and are instead expected to focus on drier economic subjects.
In a sign of how it will not be ‘naming and shaming’ those who made mistakes in the past, in a statement announcing the reviews the Bank said: ‘They will focus firmly on lessons to improve the way the Bank operates.’
Chris Leslie, Labour Treasury spokesman, said: ‘The three partial reviews are not a substitute for a more fundamental review of the Bank’s role during the financial crisis.
‘How can the Government ask us to support massive new powers for the Bank when it has refused to review its own role in the financial crisis and has had this small review dragged out of it by parliamentarians?’
Mr Plenderleith, who worked for the Bank for 37 years until 2002, will carry out the emergency liquidity review, while the overall liquidity review will be performed by Bill Winters, who worked for the investment bank JP Morgan for 26 year.
The third investigation, into the Bank’s economic forecasting, will be carried out by David Stockton, a senior adviser at Macroeconomics Advisers, an American independent research firm.
All three will continue with their normal day jobs and conduct the inquiries in their spare time.
Stocks, oil rise as G8 leaders pledge growth - Reuters India
NEW YORK |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global stocks on Monday rebounded from lows for the year and oil prices rose for the first time in four sessions as world leaders emphasized support for growth in the euro zone, and China said priority should be given to maintaining its economic expansion.
Still, most investors and analysts see the pause in selling of stocks, oil and other commodities as temporary, given the uncertainties ahead for Greece, which holds national elections on June 17.
Risk that Greece might leave the euro zone curbed a recovery for the euro, which stabilized above its lowest level in about four months.
On Saturday, leaders of the Group of Eight nations stressed that their "imperative is to promote growth and jobs" for the euro zone, and expressed support for Greece to stay in the euro.
Despite calls from the United States for immediate moves to boost growth, no sign emerged that Germany would soften its stance on austerity as the cure for Europe's debt problems.
"We're in a bit of an oversold bounce in here at the moment and whether we're going to build on all of this we'll find out this week. We'll still be hostage to European news and will be for the foreseeable future," said Frank Lesh, a futures analyst and broker at FuturePath Trading LLC in Chicago.
The absence of negative news from Europe revived some appetite for U.S. equities despite a selloff of Facebook shares following its lackluster debut on Friday.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 135.10 points, or 1.09 percent, to close at 12,504.48. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 20.77 points, or 1.60 percent, to finish at 1,315.99. The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 68.42 points, or 2.46 percent, to close at 2,847.21.
U.S. stocks came off their worst weekly loss in a year as Facebook's sloppy debut on Friday disappointed investors. The social networking company's stock lost 11 percent on Monday to close at $34.03 on Monday. It fell as low as $33 - $5 below its initial offering price, wiping out $10 billion of its market value.
While Facebook shares faded after much fanfare, established technology companies did better, led by Apple Inc whose shares rose 5.8 percent to $561.28.
The FTSE Eurofirst index of top European shares closed up 0.5 percent at 975.04 after losing 5.1 percent last week to reach its lowest level of the year.
The MSCI world equity index rose 1.1 percent to 301.33. It clawed above where it started the year after erasing all the gains made due to a concerted round of easing by central banks in the first quarter.
Spain's prime minister said on Monday that urgent solutions were needed to guarantee financial stability in Europe. On Friday, Spain revised upward its estimated 2011 budget deficit.
Spanish benchmark 10-year bond yields held at 6.29 percent, while the 10-year Italian debt yield was flat at 5.94 percent. These long-term borrowing costs are seen as unsustainable for the euro zone's fourth- and third-largest economies, respectively.
The euro rose 0.25 percent in choppy trading to $1.2814, well above Friday's four-month low of $1.2642, which was not far from its lowest point for 2012.
The dollar index slipped 0.43 percent to 80.941 after touching its highest level since mid-January on Friday on heavy bids for the U.S. currency and other perceived safe-haven assets.
Nagging jitters over the financial contagion from the festering debt problem in Europe offset earlier profit-taking on U.S. and German government debt.
Benchmark U.S. Treasury yields touched historic lows and Bund futures hit contract highs last week on bids from nervous investors.
The 10-year U.S. Treasury note slipped 6/32 in price for a yield of 1.74 percent, just 7 basis points above its lowest intraday level in at least 60 years, while German Bund futures edged down 15 basis points to 143.49 after touching a contract high of 144.06 last week.
OIL RISES ON CHINA'S GROWTH STANCE
Signs that China, the world's second-largest economy, was willing to support measures to boost growth offset some of the euro-zone worries in global stocks and commodity markets.
"We should continue to implement a proactive fiscal policy and a prudent monetary policy while giving more priority to maintaining growth," Premier Wen Jiabao said in comments reported by state news agency Xinhua on Sunday.
Brent crude recovered from a 2012 low, on hopes the Chinese premier's announcement could mean strong fuel demand by the world's second-largest oil user, although concerns about the euro-zone crisis capped gains.
Brent gained for the first time in four sessions, rising $1.67, or 1.56 percent, to settle at $108.81 a barrel. In New York, U.S. June oil futures gained $1.09, or 1.19 percent, to end at $92.57 a barrel.
Three-month copper futures on the London Metal Exchange gained 1 percent to settle at $7,731 a tonne.
Spot gold prices last traded flat at $1,592.69 an ounce, erasing an earlier loss with a late bounce in the euro.
(Reporting by Ed Krudy and Richard Leong in New York, Richard Hubbard, Anirban Nag, Jessica Donati in London, Umesh Desai in Hong Kong; Editing by Jan Paschal)
The current moguls of the Banking Industry where ever they are located have certainly been successful at one thing. Namely the near complete destruction of their industry, the confidence of Nations and the near bankrupting of working decent people. Frame that on any citation for honors that maybe proposed or given in the future.
- Expat, Udon Thani, 22/5/2012 02:10
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