Brazil Enters Currency War

With announcement of second stimulus dubbed as QE2 of $600 billion by the US’ Federal Reserve, Brazil’s entry into the so-called currency war, the term coined by the IMF director Dominique Strauss Khan. Brazil is the first country to criticize the move by the Federal Reserve, which stated that the second stimulus was aimed to stimulate the slowing GDP growth. It said it would implement the package over next eight years through buying government bonds.

Competitive Advantage

But, Brazil sees the Fed’s move as a step to devalue the Dollar to inflate the competitive advantage of the US’ exports over others. Brazil’s concern is that the money injected into the US’ economy would flow to the emerging market economies (EMEs) seeking higher returns, thereby pushing their currency values that would result into reducing the competitive advantage of exports from the EMEs.

China Cautious

China reacted cautiously on November 5 saying that it would not go on record for or against the Fed’s move, but said the debate highlighted the need for reforming the international financial system. It added it can understand the US concern of slow growth. Chinese central bank officials met regularly with their Fed counterparts, and the Americans gave detailed explanations for the monetary changes, the central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan said on Friday.

Is Yemeni Girl Student Victim of Terrorist Bomb Plot?

Article first published as Is Yemeni Girl Student Victim of Terrorist Bomb Plot? on Blogcritics.

Arrest of Yemeni girl student aged in her early twenties sparked outrage among Yemeni student community. They believe the girl student was made a scapegoat in the plot. They protested against the arrest of the student and her mother in Sanaa University campus where the student, identified as Hanan Al-Samawi, is pursuing her 5-year engineering degree.

The accusation of Hanan’s colleagues that the she was made scapegoat seems credible for the following reasons.

1. Yemeni authorities said the student was a medical student, whereas the student is actually an engineering student in Sanaa University in Yemeni capital Sana’a.
2. Yemen police arrested the student after tracing through her telephone number left with Cargo Company. It is highly impossible that any bomb plotter would leave his/ her telephone number and ID cart when he/she sending bombs abroad with a view to blow up the aircraft in the air. It is quite illogical.
3. The neighbors of the students house in a poor area stated that the family is pious but never appeared that they could be a part of a terror plot.
4. Colleagues of the student say Hanan is not known to be a participant of any religious or political activities.
5. Though the cargo planes originated from Yemen, they stopped at more than one stops before reaching U.K. and Dubai where the bombs were uncovered.
6. Investigators are still attempting to retrace the routes of the cargo planes, which mean the originating points of the bomb plot are not credibly established.

Google’s Evil Intentions Become Visible as UK MPs Grill

Article first published as Google’s Evil Intentions Become Visible as U.K. MPs Grill on Blogcritics.

Google’s explanation about its wi-fi data collection that it collected erroneously the emails and passwords has been rejected by the UK MPs, during a two-hour parliamentary debate on privacy. Google has always maintained that the personal data in error because of code being mistakenly included in the street view software. This statement itself demonstrates that Google is not ready to accept what it has done.

Privacy Debate

That is why a Conservative MP Robert Halfon has stated, "I find it hard to believe that a company with the creative genius and originality of Google could map the personal wi-fi details, computer passwords and e-mail addresses of millions of people across the world and not know what it was doing." It is impossible to believe that Google did not know what it was doing, given Google’s leadership in cyber technology. It is pretending innocence to escape the consequences of its wrong doing.

Robert added, “My own feeling is that this data was of use to Google for commercial purposes and that is why it was done.” Yes, Robert was true about Google’s intentions. It has everything to with commercial interests. There could be more than that also, given the accusations from some quarters that CIA and Google are secretly related on intelligence issues, though the facts are yet to be established.

Google’s Denial

Google has a long history of denying the facts of its evil intentions. Google accepts its market leadership in communication technology but pretends innocence when it is confronted with the facts of its intentions over cyber dominance, that too through illegal methods.