Those who read Flowers and Weeds understand why President Obama is increasing our troop presence in the Middle East, instead of eliminating it, as promised.
I thought about calling it Flowers and Weed, but the double entendre was too important. Is Afghanistan's 8,000 tons of annual opium even referred to as "weed?" I don't know, but it makes for a good title.
Afghan Opium accounts for 95% of the world's heroin. We've already doubled what the Taliban was able to produce:
That's just what is reported. But the Afghans themselves say they get $200-300/kilo, and do $4B in sales per year (...paid by someone who is currently in Afghanistan, and who has $4B/year). Let's do a little math on those numbers...
$4B/$250 = 16M kilos = 35,200,000 lbs =
more like, 15,966 Metric Tons
Street price? About $25 for a 0.15 gram packet, or $165/gram.
Hmmm, let's see: 16M Kilos /5 to make high end heroin = 3.2M Kilos = 3.2B grams = $500B per year.
A free stimulus package, every year. Too bad it only stimulates a few bursting pockets, tax free.
Go get it Barack! I hear 2009 is supposed to be a record crop.
The Boston Globe: "Opium farmer Haji Abdul Khan shows off damaged poppies to U.S. Marines and their military interpreter on March 22, 2009 near remote Qalanderabad in southwest Afghanistan. The opium poppy field was damaged when a U.S. Air Force airdrop of supplies blew off target, landing on some of Khan's crops and crushing them. The Marines assured Khan they would pay him for his damaged poppy crop in compensation for the accident. The Taliban often extorts a percentage of the profits from the farmers' harvest to fund attacks on American forces, according to the military. U.S. Marines, however, have no mandate to destroy poppy crops and, in fact, count on farmers to supply intelligence on Taliban activities. (John Moore/Getty Images)"
Bugger the troop building. They will need the troops back in USA to stop riots soon.
ReplyDeleteNow they bailing out life insurance.
This problem runs very deep through the entire financial system and I cannot see it surviving at this point. I look in disbelief at the market attempting to rally.
I don't believe were even close to a riot state.
ReplyDeletePerhaps, if TV was stopped, people would be able to see reality.
Also, in times of fear, people often look to someone else to help them. As long as people believe the govt is helping with bailouts why would they want to stop it?
FDR,
ReplyDeleteWould you have a chance to give an update of where we are with the Elliott Wave. In particular, it appears that we are about to have a pullback soon - will this pullback constitute a B wave correction for Wave 4 or will this actually be the start of Wave 5. As always, thanks for your insight.
FDR,
ReplyDeleteWould you have a chance to give an update of where we are with the Elliott Wave. In particular, it appears that we are about to have a pullback soon - will this pullback constitute a B wave correction for Wave 4 or will this actually be the start of Wave 5. As always, thanks for your insight.
In my opinion we are making a ending triangle in the S&P right now.. Maximum level is 860-865, and I believe after that we will make a new low.
No one wants to comment on the Boston Globe's use of the word "farmer?"
ReplyDelete"No one wants to comment on the Boston Globe's use of the word "farmer?""
ReplyDeleteWhat would you prefer? CIA operative?