The White House confirmed today that Barack Obama will meet the Dalai Lama in

Dalia Lama has the last word, and Obama's ear!

Washington later this month. Beijing had put pressure on the USA not to meet with the Dalai Lama, probably thinking that this administration would bend to Chinese pressure. But the Chinese government seems to not realize that the people of the United States have strong affections for the leader of Tibet and the Tibetan people. It is not lost on the American people that China invaded and occupied Tibet without provocation, has claimed that Tibet was never an independent nation, and that Tibet was always "China". History of course, see's through this and scholars throughout the world recognize China's attempts to rewrite history.

Tibetan Flag, National

China has long feared the power of the Dalai Lama, because millions of people within the borders of China respect and revere HH (His Holiness), as the Tibetan's call him. He is one of the few men in the world, considered a "Global Class" religious leader and has become an icon, representing

HH's Beloved Tibet

peace and enlightenment. The White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, did not set a date, but the Dalai Lama's secretary has said he will be in Washington on 17 and 18 February.

The visit comes on top of a series of rows over the last few weeks in which relations between the US and China have taken a turn for the worse. Obama was stung by China's snubs at the Copenhagen conference and China apparently thought Obama to be afraid and weak. He has made it clear, that he is neither weak or afraid when it comes to China.

(CNN) -- It is a criticism frequently leveled at those promoting wind or solar power as an

SuperGrid in Europe by 9 Nations

alternative to fossil fuels: what happens when the wind doesn't blow or the sun doesn't shine?

Well, now there is a smart answer, at least in Europe -- we'll simply and instantly switch to another source of clean, green power.

Plans for a massive electricity grid dedicated to uniting the varied sources of renewable energy available in northern Europe have taken a step forward in January as nine countries formally agreed to work together on the project.

Using thousands of miles of high-tech undersea cables the 'supergrid' will unite wind farms on blustery British coasts with Dutch and Belgian tidal power, the vast hydroelectric potential of Norway fjords and Germany's massive solar arrays.

Many are facing unprecidented challenges to survive during this recession. Dianne Rose has an answer for you. Use what you have, never give up, be enthusiastic, and use good PR!

Dianne Rose, no "Bllind Luck" for

her! She is making her future!

Dianne Rose is not only doing well, but achieving things with gusto! She has an energy, and bubbly enthusiasm that will not be quenched. Vision-impaired with glaucoma all her life, Rose became blind as a result of an accident in 1984, a mere four days before she was to undergo a cornea transplant. But that condition not slowed her down, Rose has used it to serve as a means to motivate others to achieve their true potential. Plus she has been smart in a business way. She has used good PR to get the word out.

She has used her lack of sight as a springboard to give motivational talks both within and beyond the context of her ministry, Rose of Sharon Ministries. "The way I look at it, if I can do what I have done, without sight, how much can you do?" she said. While it is normal to be a little suspect of people who mix religion with business, to achieve their goals, it is also important to get to the basics. What is she doing? The book says: "By their fruits you shall know them." She is using what she has, to help others! She is encouraging and motivating those who normally might just give up and live on hand outs! This woman is working, speaking, creating, moving, and is an example for every business executive. So, perhaps her "religious/business" mixture is a good one. The fruits? Her approach helps her make a living, and she gets the satisfaction of helping others.

Her achievements are considerable. Even without sight, Rose was involved in the Nashville music scene as a journalist covering the various aspects of, and personalities in, country music.

And it's not as if she has been dabbling at quilting, either. "I have been doing it since 1998," she said, "and I have made more than 475 of them." She also had a goal to make 500 quilts by Aug 14th 2008 which was her 10th anniversary of making quilts.

Ben Boothe gave the Texas Economic Development Council, (Economic development Executives) from throughout Texas, a timely and incisive program.

Boothe Presents at the TEDC, on 3 basis for Economic

Survival and Development

He presented a powerful test at their regional meeting on South Padre Island. "What are the 4 elements of survival?" Then he asked the audience of economic development executives: "What are the 3 basic ideas for economic development throughout history?"

His presentation was a historical, and timely report of research showing the needs for Texas survival as well as 3 "coming crisis" situations:

1. Water depletion
2. Oil depletion
   

   Boothe says: "oil, food, and water prices are linked"
3. Historic increases in food costs and production costs

Ben then cited how many cities would be impacted by water shortages and quoted information provided by the State of Texas on the future water crisis in Texas. He cited oil production as "declining 3% per year" and the resulting "inevitable rising prices for oil and electricity". He then showed the historical relationship of the price of food to the price of energy. "When oil goes up, food goes up even higher" and the fact that food production would become more and more expensive.

Boothe then showed solutions, provided by his company, www.wind-inc.com, in merging the concepts of desalination and wind and solar power to provide "cities with 100 year water supplies" at a fraction of their present costs.

Big Man, Volker, tackles Big Banks

President Obama's announcement that banks, particularly the big banks, must be re-regulated, in ways that keep them from risky trading ventures, keep them from confilicts of interest, and keep them of a size that they cannot be "To Big To Fail".

His approach has strong support from brilliant economists such as former Federal Reserve Chairman, Paul Volker. I was pleased to meet and interview Paul Volker years ago. He continues to demonstraste insights into the banking system. We are lucky that this "Economic Giant" is advising our President.

Simply put, the "Mega Bank" system, was made possible by years of money lobbying by the "big boys" to deregulate and allow banks to become insurance agents, brokers, traders, investment firms, and almost anything they wanted to do. Banks had traditionally been forced to have a fiduciary responsibility to their communities, to keep the economic flow going. Their goal, along with the Federal Reserve, was to maintain a strong and viable economy. They transformed themselves into cheap minded opportunists, with little loyaty to their communities, their employees, or to their nation. This "Mega Bank" system is what got us into the current recession that the world is in. The "Mega Bank" system attempted to kill off "community banks" and did manage to wound the "locally owned" banking system. As a result, the "big boys" have become more distant and further removed in philosophy of local lending responsibility and often out of touch with true credit needs of "Main Street". The Mega Banks have betrayed, often destroyed traditional community banking that establishes personal relationships that carry on for years, often lifetimes, and grows local economy systems. The "Mega Bank" system has concentrated financial power in such ways that they can dictate to governments. Thus the "To Big To Fail" approach simply means, they become so big, that they control governments and economies.

That of course is what brought us to the "melt down" and current global recession. Our government, as led by George W. Bush felt obligated, to bail out the Wall Street country club of bankers and investment managers. Then, they in turn made profits by the billions at taxpayer, and the national economy's expense.

Volker and Obama look to "MegaBank" Risks

Obama, and Volker (and many others) have put thought to this. Politically, no one has had the courage to attack the big banking system, and such an approach has many risks. But there is a growing wave of justified anger at big banks, from throughout America, as we have reported repeatedly.

QUESTION FOR AMERICA

You get no Christmas this year!

I know a secretary. She has three children. Her husband works for a national company.

Like millions of Americans they struggle to make their payments, and some weeks they don’t have enough. They are good people, they go to church, they love their children. But they live on the edge, day by day, week by week.

I know a young man, he has a law degree. He cannot pay his bills. There isn’t a week that goes by that he doesn’t face a crisis like a phone bill, a utility payment, a house payment that he can't pay. One day, he called me. “I need $20, or they are going to turn off our heat.”

I have a friend. She worked for me for years, and has two children, that she adopted. The week before Christmas, her employer told her just to go home, they didn’t have any work for her. She did not get paid, and she was unable to buy any Christmas gifts for her children. She told me, “My kitchen cupboard is bare. We have no food in the house."

Bare Cupboards in

America's middle class

A Pig is still a Pig, even if it

is a CEO of a Giant Bank

Well, we saw this coming. Repeatedly we have reported on the growing anger the American people feel toward the banking system represented by the big banks. Many executives in high places are discussing the ramifications of millions of Americans simply walking away from the banking system of the giant banks. Private lending may be the future of finance in America because of this anger at banks.

"The bankers are making it even tougher,"Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., said referring to executive bonuses of bankers. "They are pigs at the trough."

Consider the many reasons for the anger toward big banks, they are numerous:

1. Bankers promoted variable rate mortgage loans by the thousands to people who could not qualify for repayment, thus setting the stage for the financial fiasco when rates began to rise.

2. Bankers lobbied for years for “Deregulation” (and continue to do so) so they could mix traditional financial banking services with broader services (such as dealings on Wall Street, and issuance of less than credible paper that would eventually lead to billions in defaults).

Big Bankers reaping

millions, while Main Steet

dies.

While bubbles of economic recession bust, and millions go bankrupt, Texas is growing.

Texas Population Growth

Leads the Nation, see

Pink/Red areas

Texas booms. We saw a posting on the internet, from the Houston Chronicle, and quoted it to suppliment information we have been working on. Our thanks to them for this information, and it is encouraging, but we must note at 8% unemployment, there are a lot of people unemployed, even in Texas!

U.S. Census estimates released Wednesday show that Texas added more residents than any other state in the year ending July 1.

The Lone Star State has 478,000 more people than it did a year ago — roughly the equivalent of packing up all of Fresno, Calif., and moving it here.

Why the growth? Try looking for work in Fresno, where the unemployment rate is nearly 16 percent.

DEAR READERS, THE AVALON INSTITUTE HAS SOME BRILLIANT THINKERS. I THOUGHT YOU WOULD APPRECIATE THIS PERSPECTIVE ON THE ECONOMY FROM MY GOOD FRIEND, RAJ NAIR. EVERY POLITICAL AND FINANCIAL LEADER MUST READ THIS! (10 years and 7 years ago, I presented papers in India, that predicted, and are confirmed by RAJ NAIR'S timely analysis. Read and note the depth of his comments.) BBBoothe

Raj Nair with Avalon

Institute, India

It was relatively easy to predict that USA, the UK, Europe and Japan would have a rough time in 2009 and end up with negative GDP growth, lower consumer spending and that US under Obama will focus more on its economy than on opening new war fronts despite provocations, etc. Saying with conviction that India’s lot will improve from mid 2009 was also not difficult despite there being many economists predicting as late as the end of Q1 of 2009 that India’s revival will start only by the year end when the US economy was expected to show signs of revival. But predicting what will happen in 2010 is more complex than predicting 2009, since there is more than one view on whether the global economic travails are over.

Is the economic crisis over?

The wound has been cleaned and first aid has been administered. Several measures have been taken by developed nations to prevent a global melt down. These are at best, Band Aid solutions and Band Aid does only what Band Aid can do - cover the wound and heal minor problems. In the present instance, a lot of Band Aid was used but the wound is deep and complex. The economic problem has neither been cured nor can it be wished away irrespective of whether the stock markets reflect those concerns any more. That the stock markets are in a state of stupor can be gauged from facts.

In Nov 2007 when I said that a crisis is at our door step, the nominal value of outstanding derivatives had already scaled the scary $ 500 Trillion mark ($485 Trillion on Aug 31, 2007 rising to $ 595 Trillion on Dec 31). The global GDP at that time was around $60 Trillion only! This reckless level of financial exposure requires many years to restore to safe levels. In the meanwhile, stock markets were rising.

1 Solar power

Giant Solar Project in Spain

Spain is leading the way with solar power. The PS10 solar tower is already in operation near Seville, producing electricity with the aid of more than 600 large movable mirrors called heliostats. The country’s largest solar-power station, which will store heat for up to 15 hours in molten salt, is under construction in Cadiz. It will be operational in 2011. Heat-generated steam will drive a turbine that will power 25,000 homes.

2 Carbon capture and storage

Coal and waste materials are burnt in permanently-running power stations that provide electricity, heat and sometimes hydrogen. The carbon dioxide this creates is captured and sent, safely, to be disposed of in disused oil wells and aquifers. Carbon capture and storage has been practiced in the North Sea by the Norwegian company Statoil since 1996. EU leaders have promised around 12 pilot projects attached to coal-fired power stations.

3 Smart meters