The Worst Predictions About 2008

A Business Week apresentou as 10 piores previsões feitas para 2008 pelos sábios analistas em economês & outros teóricos do santo mercado. De fazer empalidecer o dr. Daniel Bessa, pestanejar a indulgente Teodora Cardoso e amuar o eng. Sócrates.

Algumas bem curiosas:

- AIG (AIG) “could have huge gains in the second quarter.” —Bijan Moazami, analyst, Friedman, Billings, Ramsey, May 9, 2008

- "I think this is a case where Freddie Mac (FRE) and Fannie Mae (FNM) are fundamentally sound. They’re not in danger of going under…I think they are in good shape going forward.” — Barney Frank (D-Mass.), House Financial Services Committee chairman, July 14, 2008

- "I'm not an economist but I do believe that we're growing." — President George W. Bush, in a July 15, 2008 press conference

- "Existing-Home Sales to Trend Up in 2008" —Headline of a National Association of Realtors press release, Dec. 9, 2007

- "I expect there will be some failures ... I don't anticipate any serious problems of that sort among the large internationally active banks that make up a very substantial part of our banking system." — Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman, Feb. 28, 2008

- "In today's regulatory environment, it's virtually impossible to violate rules." — Bernard Madoff, money manager, Oct. 20, 2007

Entretanto a Business Week já apresenta, em triunfo, a antevisão para 2009. Valentes!

INDEX LIBRORUM PROHIBITORUM (EUA)

Saiu uma amostra pequena (no Público de dia 7 de Julho, último) dos livros banidos dos manuais e do receituário escolar pelas «school boards» americanas. Os neoconservadores ianques, agora com a roupagem do politicamente correcto, não param de nos surpreender. Ou talvez não. Deles já se espera tudo. Eis algumas obras do Index, capaz de fazer corar de inveja o nosso Sousa Lara:

- Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
- Admirável Mundo Novo, Aldous Huxley
- Uma Agulha no Palheiro, J. D. Salinger
- Adeus às Armas, Ernest Hemingway
- Diário, Anne Frank
- As Vinhas da Ira, Steinbeck
- Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
- Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling

AMÉRICA

América dei-te tudo e agora não sou nada.
..............................
América quando serás tu angélica?
Quando é que te despes?
Quando é que olharás para ti através do sepulcro?

[Allen Ginsberg, in Antologia da Novissima Poesia Americana, Futura, 1973]

AMERICA GOES BACKWARD

America Goes Backward in The New York Review of Books

Está perigoso o mundo, e não é só na velha Europa que habita a dita 'histeria' anti-americana, ou melhor a ideia que a administração actual dos EUA é um enorme embush, porque lá mesmo a vida não está facil.

America Goes Backward (Stanley Hoffmann): «Less than two and a half years after it came to power, the Bush administration, elected by fewer than half of the voters, has an impressive but depressing record. It has, in self-defense, declared one war—the war on terrorism —that has no end in sight. It has started, and won, two other wars. It has drastically changed the strategic doctrine and the diplomatic position of the United States, arguing that the nation's previous positions were obsolete and that the US has enough power to do pretty much as it pleases. At home, as part of the war on terrorism, it has curbed civil liberties, the rights of refugees and asylum seekers, and the access of foreign students to US schools and universities. It holds in custody an unknown number of aliens and some Americans treated as "enemy combatants," suspected but not indicted, whose access to hearings and lawyers has been denied. The Republican majority in both houses of Congress and the courts' acceptance of the notion that the President's war powers override all other concerns have given him effective control of all the branches of government. The administration's nominees to the courts would consolidate its domination of the judiciary.»

Um texto a consultar.