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Commercial Banks Heading for Huge Derivatives Losses- Credit Crisis Turning into Credit Armageddon
Commercial Banks Heading for Huge Derivatives Losses- Credit Crisis Turning into Credit Armageddon...
Posted Apr 23, 2008 08:52 AM PST
Category: ECONOMY
I repeat: This is not a mere “slowdown” in new lending, which would be relatively routine. This is an actual reduction in the short-term loans outstanding, which is anything but routine ... which implies a rupture in the nation's credit spigots ... and which could deliver a new shock to the U.S. economy.
If this represented a planned and voluntary effort by lenders to begin trimming America's debt excesses, it might actually be a good thing.
But that's not the case here, not even close. Rather, this debt reduction is almost exclusively forced on lenders by the pressure of events — the plunging value of mortgages, the surging defaults by debtors, and the huge losses that have caught both banks and regulators off guard.
Second, the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is reporting havoc in the derivatives market.
Derivatives are bets and debts placed by banks and others.
In recent decades, derivatives have grown far beyond any semblance of reason. But in its latest report , the OCC reveals that in the fourth quarter of 2007 ...
The chart shows that, until the third quarter of last year, U.S. commercial banks had been making consistent profits from their derivatives quarter after quarter.
Their total revenue from these and related transactions (red line) never dipped into negative territory ... rarely suffered a significant decline ... and was even making brand new highs through the first half of 2007.
Then, suddenly, in the fourth quarter of last year, we witnessed a landmark game-changing event: For the first time ever, U.S. commercial banks lost big money in derivatives in the aggregate ( as you can plainly see by the sharp nosedive of the red line).
Again, if this were part of a planned retreat by the banks to more prudent trading approaches, it would be a positive. But it's anything but!
Indeed, the OCC specifically states in its report that the sudden and unusual reduction in derivatives was due entirely to the turmoil in the credit markets.
And ironically, nearly all of that turmoil was concentrated in “credit swaps” (blue line in the chart) — the one sector that was designed to protect investors from this precise situation.
These credit swaps were supposed to act as insurance policies that big banks and others bought to help cover their risk in the event of defaults and failures. But they're not working out as planned: Just in the fourth quarter, U.S. banks had a net loss (after all profitable trades) of $11.8 billion on credit swaps alone, according to the OCC.
Those losses helped wipe out all the profits they made in other derivatives, leaving a net overall loss of $9.97 billion.
Third, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts that this crisis is barely ONE-THIRD over!
In its Global Financial Stability Report(see Executive Summary ), the IMF predicts that the total losses from the subprime and related credit crises could reach $945 billion, or more than triple the already-huge losses that have been announced so far.
The IMF further warns that ...
You've seen what the Fed has already done — six rate cuts since August of last year ... unprecedented broker bailouts ... and massive new amounts of liquidity pumped into the banking system.
You've seen where a lot of that money has gone — into foreign currencies, gold and oil.
And you've seen the dramatic market surges which that money can generate. Case in point: The latest jump in crude oil to $117 per barrel.
Now, get ready for more of the same:
Commercial Banks Heading for Huge Derivatives Losses- Credit Crisis Turning into Credit Armageddon...
Posted Apr 23, 2008 08:52 AM PST
Category: ECONOMY
I repeat: This is not a mere “slowdown” in new lending, which would be relatively routine. This is an actual reduction in the short-term loans outstanding, which is anything but routine ... which implies a rupture in the nation's credit spigots ... and which could deliver a new shock to the U.S. economy.
If this represented a planned and voluntary effort by lenders to begin trimming America's debt excesses, it might actually be a good thing.
But that's not the case here, not even close. Rather, this debt reduction is almost exclusively forced on lenders by the pressure of events — the plunging value of mortgages, the surging defaults by debtors, and the huge losses that have caught both banks and regulators off guard.
Second, the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is reporting havoc in the derivatives market.
Derivatives are bets and debts placed by banks and others.
In recent decades, derivatives have grown far beyond any semblance of reason. But in its latest report , the OCC reveals that in the fourth quarter of 2007 ...
- For the first time in history, the notional value of derivatives held by U.S. commercial banks plunged dramatically — by $8 trillion ...
- For the first time in history, U.S. banks suffered a massive overall loss on their derivatives — $9.97 billion, and, again ...
- These numbers do not yet reflect this year's disasters at Bear Sterns and other institutions.
Their total revenue from these and related transactions (red line) never dipped into negative territory ... rarely suffered a significant decline ... and was even making brand new highs through the first half of 2007.
Then, suddenly, in the fourth quarter of last year, we witnessed a landmark game-changing event: For the first time ever, U.S. commercial banks lost big money in derivatives in the aggregate ( as you can plainly see by the sharp nosedive of the red line).
Again, if this were part of a planned retreat by the banks to more prudent trading approaches, it would be a positive. But it's anything but!
Indeed, the OCC specifically states in its report that the sudden and unusual reduction in derivatives was due entirely to the turmoil in the credit markets.
And ironically, nearly all of that turmoil was concentrated in “credit swaps” (blue line in the chart) — the one sector that was designed to protect investors from this precise situation.
These credit swaps were supposed to act as insurance policies that big banks and others bought to help cover their risk in the event of defaults and failures. But they're not working out as planned: Just in the fourth quarter, U.S. banks had a net loss (after all profitable trades) of $11.8 billion on credit swaps alone, according to the OCC.
Those losses helped wipe out all the profits they made in other derivatives, leaving a net overall loss of $9.97 billion.
Third, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts that this crisis is barely ONE-THIRD over!
In its Global Financial Stability Report(see Executive Summary ), the IMF predicts that the total losses from the subprime and related credit crises could reach $945 billion, or more than triple the already-huge losses that have been announced so far.
The IMF further warns that ...
- “There has been a collective failure to appreciate the extent of the leverage taken on by a wide range of institutions — including banks, monoline insurers, government-sponsored entities, and hedge funds — and the associated risks of a disorderly unwinding.” Now, both the OCC and the Fed reports confirm that this “disorderly unwinding” is already beginning.
- “The transfer of risks off bank balance sheets was overestimated. As risks have materialized, this has placed enormous pressures back on the balance sheets of banks.” Now, the OCC report confirms that “the transfer of risk” (with credit swaps) has often failed.
- “Notwithstanding unprecedented intervention by major central banks, financial markets remain under considerable strain, now compounded by a more worrisome macroeconomic environment, weakly capitalized institutions, and broad-based deleveraging.” This is precisely what we have been warning you about. Now, it's happening!
- “Deep-seated balance-sheet fragilities and weak capital bases, which mean the effects [of the crisis] are likely to be broader, deeper and more protracted.”
- “A serious funding and confidence crisis that threatens to continue for a significant period.”
You've seen what the Fed has already done — six rate cuts since August of last year ... unprecedented broker bailouts ... and massive new amounts of liquidity pumped into the banking system.
You've seen where a lot of that money has gone — into foreign currencies, gold and oil.
And you've seen the dramatic market surges which that money can generate. Case in point: The latest jump in crude oil to $117 per barrel.
Now, get ready for more of the same:
- More rate cuts, with the next expected as soon as April 30 ...
- More Fed bailouts ...
- Eve
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I'v been reading a bit this past whitedeadtime and apparently currency stability is a function of market stability which is thought to be bolstered by market/investor confidence. There is and has been destabalizing forces/schemes/crimes of late at play in the global market ah arena. Fiat currency is paper.Paper is stable at below combustion temperatures, it's a hot market. I hope that adds to the discussion. Bank of Canada is a front for the international/planetary/alpine banking scummasters. I digress.Invest in potatoes and back bacon. Get rid of your cash. I can help you. Invest in my chicken ranch, mountain fed free range christian chickens raised on spring water and bugs.:lol:
Apr 24, 2008
By The Mogambo Guru
JMR Terry L sent an interview with Dr Steven Keen, who can be found at debtdeflation.com and who is an economist for the University of West Sydney. He "specializes in long term macro-economic trends with expertise in debt deflation, a rare economic and monetary process now taking place in the US, UK, Australia and other countries".
Dr Keen says, "Notice that the USA's debt to GDP ratio peaked at 215% in 1932 - three years after the Great Depression began - having been 'just' 150% when the Great Crash occurred."
If you are like me, then you are instantly bored with this history lesson crap, and you are anxious to either learn how to make a lot of money as fast as possible, or get a burrito and a couple of
yummy tacos as fast as possible. It's an "either-or" situation utterly devoid of historical education.
But again we seem to have been too hasty in dismissing Dr Keen so cavalierly, as he deftly connects us to what happened 70 years ago, and says, "For the record, the USA revisited the peak for the non-financial debt to GDP ratio in 2005", and even worse than that, the real record was broken a long time ago, as "the ratio including the financial sector debt exploded past even the Great Depression's peak in 2000." Yikes! Higher than at the height of the Roaring Twenties!
I immediately thought, "Hmmmm! I wonder what is the level of non-financial debt to GDP right now?", and cleverly figured to use this query as a way to insert myself into the spotlight by asking that very question, and maybe pitch a few theories of my own, to kind of show off.
But no sooner did the plot hatch in my mind than he answers, "It is now 278%, versus 150% in 1929, and 215% in 1932." My brain was immediately stunned at the revelation, and as if in a dream I heard him go on to ask, "Why is the US economy crashing?" and "Why now?"
I was afraid that he was asking me, and I had no idea. So I was relieved when he answered his own questions by writing, "The answer is, simply, that the world has never in its history carried the level of debt that it is carrying today. The remedies that worked when America's private debt to GDP ratio was a mere 150% are inadequate when that ratio is 275%."
Instantly, my keen Mogambo Analytical Brain (MAB) discovers that as interesting as this is, it is still some stupid history lesson that has neither profit nor lunch potential, and I am wasting my Valuable Mogambo Time (VMT).
Again, I find that I may be too hasty, as he says, "The real fun on the markets will begin in three months' time," because this is when all the new credits extended "by the expansion of the liquidity window" is supposed to start being repaid. Hahaha! Like THAT will happen! Hahahaha! Fun! Hahaha!
The only fun that will be had is when gold, silver and oil go to the freaking moon that you get so rich that can you Super-Size those fries at every meal! Whee!
So why isn't gold going like gangbusters right now? A lot of people have a lot of theories as to why gold is going down, when the theory and the entire history of economic mankind say it should be going up, and most of them are right, to one degree or another, as there are as many reasons for acting as there are actors, and there are 8 million stories in the naked city.
I think that most of them involve ordinary stupidity, and my Personal Mogambo Theory (PMT) is that some powerful, rich people one day woke up in a cold sweat after having a nightmare about how in the hell they are going to pay their bills when food, living expenses, bribes, corruption and everything connected with being rich and powerful are going up and up, until it seemed like a cancer that was eating away at the body economic, and they realized, "Oh, my God! That Raving Lunatic Mogambo (RLM) was right! I've got to get me some gold, right now!"
But instead of going out and buying gold at the market price, they make some phone calls to make sure that the price of gold goes down before they buy. And since this new, powerful theory of mine involves scumbag politicians, corrupt bankers and money, I figure it must be true.
Like I said; there are 8 million stories in the naked city, and this is one of them.
Richard Daughty is general partner and COO for Smith Consultant Group, serving the financial and medical communities, and the editor of The Mogambo Guru economic newsletter - an avocational exercise to heap disrespect on those who desperately deserve it. (
Republished with permission from The Daily Reckoning . Cop
Islamic Finance By Loretta Napoleoni
26/04/08 "ICH" -- -- Islamic finance has become the fastest-growing, most dynamic sector of global finance. Every Western-style financial product has its sharia, i.e. Islamic law, compliant instrument: microfinance, mortgages, oil and gas exploration, bridge building, even sponsorship of sporting events. Islamic finance is innovative, flexible, and potentially very profitable. “Operating in 70 countries with about $500bn in assets, it is poised to expand geometrically.” With more than one billion Muslims eager to support it, analysts project that this system will soon manage approximately 4 percent of the world economy, equivalent to $1 trillion in assets. Such figures explain the eagerness of Western banks to tap into sharia financial services. Citigroup, along with many other Western banking retailers, have opened Islamic branches in Muslim countries.
At the end of 2004, the Islamic Bank of Britain, the first bank catering to a European Muslim client base, floated its shares on the London Stock Exchange. Ironically, Western capitalism’s three major global economic crises - the 1970s oil shocks, the late 1990s Asian crisis, and 9/11 - paved the way to the ascent of Islamic finance. Unlike market economics, Islamic finance centers on the religious tenets of Islam and operates in a way to keep Muslims compliant with sharia, the religious law that comes directly from the Koran. Islamic activists, intellectuals, writers, and religious leaders have always upheld the prohibition of riba, the interest charged by moneylenders, and denounced gharar, which refers to any type of speculation. Under this belief, money must not become a commodity in itself to create more money. Islamic finance thus shuns hedge funds and private equities, because they simply multiply cash by stripping assets. Money serves as a means or instrument of productivity as originally envisioned by Adam Smith and David Ricardo. This principle is embodied in the sukuks, Islamic bonds. Sukuks always link to real investments - for example, to pay for the construction of a toll highway - and never for speculative purposes. This principle springs from the sharia’s ban on gambling as well as on the prohibition of any forms of debt and activities that trade risk.
At the end of the nineteenth century, supporters and promoters of Islamic finance repeatedly expressed discontent with the Western-style banks that had penetrated Muslim countries.
Several fatwas, or religious decrees, were issued to reiterate the tenet that the interest-based activities of the colonizers’ banks proved incompatible with the sharia. Yet, because Western financial institutions were the only banks active in the Muslim world, the faithful had to use them even if they performed poisonous practices based on prohibited activities.
From the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s, economists, financiers, sharia scholars, and intellectuals studied the possibility of scrapping interest rates and of creating financial institutions centered on a sharia-compatible alternative to the riba. In their mind the Islamic economic system would incorporate the zakat - obligatory almsgiving to help the poor - and other fundamental elements of the Muslim religion, such as the funding of the haj, i.e. the pilgrimage to Mecca. The first projects of applied Islamic economics came into existence concurrently in the 1950s in the countryside of Lower Egypt and in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Egyptian project, located in Meet Ghamr, Egypt, supported a housing plan for the less wealthy. The Malaysian government-sponsored experiment was promoted by the Pilgrims’ Administration and Fund of Malaysia. It supervised financial institutions that collected savings and invested them in accordance with the sharia. It aimed to finance the haj, which, together with the zakat, is one of the five pillars of Islam.
Until the early 1970s, Islamic economics was essentially embryonic and regarded with deep skepticism. “Back then, no one really thought Islamic banking would ever become big,” recalls Sheik Hussein Hamid Hassan, an Egyptian scholar involved in the creation of one of the first Islamic banks. “People thought it was a strange idea - as strange as talking about Islamic whiskey!” Western skepticism compounded daily because of the Muslim countries’ chronic lack of capital. They had no money to start an alternative banking system, many thought they never would, therefore people dismissed the idea of Islamic finance as merely utopian. This scenario changed with the 1973–1974 oil shock, which generated a massive capital inflow into Arab oil-producing countries from Western importers. The quadrupled price of oil generated the capital needed to put into practice what had remained only an idea debated for decades. That idea materialized with the establishment of an international developmental bank for the Islamic region. Such a bank would enhance the Organization of the Islamic Conference, considered a potential power base for some of the newly enriched countries, especially Saudi Arabia and Algeria. At the same time, the bank would serve as the instrument for distributing financial help from oil-rich Muslim countries to their brethren in Africa and Asia. The first call for the establishment of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) came from the heads of state of Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and Somalia. In 1974, when the articles of agreement of the IDB were drafted, it formally stated that the bank’s activities had to be conducted in accordance with the sharia.
At the core of sharia-compliant economics there is an exceptional joint venture. Indeed, this alliance emerged in the 1970s when richMuslims and sharia scholars began working together. This unusual partnership is a phenomenon unique in modern economics, but one that cemented the foundation of a new economic system. A few visionary personalities, like PrinceMohammad al Faisal (son of the late Saudi King Faisal bin Abdul-Aziz), Saleh Kamel of Saudi Arabia, Ahmed al Yaseen of Kuwait, and Sami Hamoud of Jordan, channeled some of the new wealth produced by the first oil shock into the formation of a new breed of Islamic banks. Sharia scholars and clerics drew up the monetary structure of the new banks.
Partnership between leaders and clerics, therefore, serves as the root of Islamic finance. This concept springs from the essence of the Umma, the body or community of believers, central to the spirit of Islam. For Muslims, the Umma represents a single and unified entity; it breathes, thinks, and prays in unison. It exudes the soul of Islam. Individualism within
Islam does not make sense because Islam, based on tribal culture, does not recognize it. Traditional tribal values, such as the strong sense of belonging, the obligation to help friends in need, and the acceptance of religious leaders’ authority are the pillars of Muslim culture. Sharia scholars transplanted these values into Islamic economics; these same principles allowed Arab Bedouins to withstand the harshness of the desert for centuries. Cooperation was essential in such a hostile environment and is still a must in modern times.
Partnership is the heartbeat of Islamic economics. “Underlying the system is the philosophy of risk sharing: the lender must share the borrower’s risk, making the two in effect partners, injecting a strong social component into the financial system. This concept separates Islamic Finance from Western Finance, which seeks to maximize profits and minimize loss through diversification and risk transfer.” Also, money must be put to work. Because Islamic finance prohibits interest, it seeks revenues from rents, royalties, business profits, or commodity trading; a mortgage, for example, represents a “rent to buy” arrangement. Thus, conceptually, Islamic economics is the opposite of Western finance, which revolves around the individual’s self-interest.
Above all, Islamic finance represents the sole global economic force that conceptually challenges rogue economics. It does not allow investment in pornography, prostitution, narcotics, tobacco, or gambling. As discussed above, since the fall of the Berlin Wall, all these areas have blossomed thanks to globalization outlaws under the indifferent eyes of the market-state.
Loretta Napoleoni: An expert on financing of terrorism, Loretta advises several governments on counter-terrorism. She is senior partner of G Risk, a London based risk agency. - She is a Fulbright scholar at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington DC. and a Rotary Scholar at the London School of Economics..
To review further articles and listen to podcasts by Loretta Napoleoni, you are invited to visit her website: http://www.lorettanapoleoni.org
26/04/08 "ICH" -- -- Islamic finance has become the fastest-growing, most dynamic sector of global finance. Every Western-style financial product has its sharia, i.e. Islamic law, compliant instrument: microfinance, mortgages, oil and gas exploration, bridge building, even sponsorship of sporting events. Islamic finance is innovative, flexible, and potentially very profitable. “Operating in 70 countries with about $500bn in assets, it is poised to expand geometrically.” With more than one billion Muslims eager to support it, analysts project that this system will soon manage approximately 4 percent of the world economy, equivalent to $1 trillion in assets. Such figures explain the eagerness of Western banks to tap into sharia financial services. Citigroup, along with many other Western banking retailers, have opened Islamic branches in Muslim countries.
At the end of 2004, the Islamic Bank of Britain, the first bank catering to a European Muslim client base, floated its shares on the London Stock Exchange. Ironically, Western capitalism’s three major global economic crises - the 1970s oil shocks, the late 1990s Asian crisis, and 9/11 - paved the way to the ascent of Islamic finance. Unlike market economics, Islamic finance centers on the religious tenets of Islam and operates in a way to keep Muslims compliant with sharia, the religious law that comes directly from the Koran. Islamic activists, intellectuals, writers, and religious leaders have always upheld the prohibition of riba, the interest charged by moneylenders, and denounced gharar, which refers to any type of speculation. Under this belief, money must not become a commodity in itself to create more money. Islamic finance thus shuns hedge funds and private equities, because they simply multiply cash by stripping assets. Money serves as a means or instrument of productivity as originally envisioned by Adam Smith and David Ricardo. This principle is embodied in the sukuks, Islamic bonds. Sukuks always link to real investments - for example, to pay for the construction of a toll highway - and never for speculative purposes. This principle springs from the sharia’s ban on gambling as well as on the prohibition of any forms of debt and activities that trade risk.
At the end of the nineteenth century, supporters and promoters of Islamic finance repeatedly expressed discontent with the Western-style banks that had penetrated Muslim countries.
Several fatwas, or religious decrees, were issued to reiterate the tenet that the interest-based activities of the colonizers’ banks proved incompatible with the sharia. Yet, because Western financial institutions were the only banks active in the Muslim world, the faithful had to use them even if they performed poisonous practices based on prohibited activities.
From the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s, economists, financiers, sharia scholars, and intellectuals studied the possibility of scrapping interest rates and of creating financial institutions centered on a sharia-compatible alternative to the riba. In their mind the Islamic economic system would incorporate the zakat - obligatory almsgiving to help the poor - and other fundamental elements of the Muslim religion, such as the funding of the haj, i.e. the pilgrimage to Mecca. The first projects of applied Islamic economics came into existence concurrently in the 1950s in the countryside of Lower Egypt and in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Egyptian project, located in Meet Ghamr, Egypt, supported a housing plan for the less wealthy. The Malaysian government-sponsored experiment was promoted by the Pilgrims’ Administration and Fund of Malaysia. It supervised financial institutions that collected savings and invested them in accordance with the sharia. It aimed to finance the haj, which, together with the zakat, is one of the five pillars of Islam.
Until the early 1970s, Islamic economics was essentially embryonic and regarded with deep skepticism. “Back then, no one really thought Islamic banking would ever become big,” recalls Sheik Hussein Hamid Hassan, an Egyptian scholar involved in the creation of one of the first Islamic banks. “People thought it was a strange idea - as strange as talking about Islamic whiskey!” Western skepticism compounded daily because of the Muslim countries’ chronic lack of capital. They had no money to start an alternative banking system, many thought they never would, therefore people dismissed the idea of Islamic finance as merely utopian. This scenario changed with the 1973–1974 oil shock, which generated a massive capital inflow into Arab oil-producing countries from Western importers. The quadrupled price of oil generated the capital needed to put into practice what had remained only an idea debated for decades. That idea materialized with the establishment of an international developmental bank for the Islamic region. Such a bank would enhance the Organization of the Islamic Conference, considered a potential power base for some of the newly enriched countries, especially Saudi Arabia and Algeria. At the same time, the bank would serve as the instrument for distributing financial help from oil-rich Muslim countries to their brethren in Africa and Asia. The first call for the establishment of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) came from the heads of state of Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and Somalia. In 1974, when the articles of agreement of the IDB were drafted, it formally stated that the bank’s activities had to be conducted in accordance with the sharia.
At the core of sharia-compliant economics there is an exceptional joint venture. Indeed, this alliance emerged in the 1970s when richMuslims and sharia scholars began working together. This unusual partnership is a phenomenon unique in modern economics, but one that cemented the foundation of a new economic system. A few visionary personalities, like PrinceMohammad al Faisal (son of the late Saudi King Faisal bin Abdul-Aziz), Saleh Kamel of Saudi Arabia, Ahmed al Yaseen of Kuwait, and Sami Hamoud of Jordan, channeled some of the new wealth produced by the first oil shock into the formation of a new breed of Islamic banks. Sharia scholars and clerics drew up the monetary structure of the new banks.
Partnership between leaders and clerics, therefore, serves as the root of Islamic finance. This concept springs from the essence of the Umma, the body or community of believers, central to the spirit of Islam. For Muslims, the Umma represents a single and unified entity; it breathes, thinks, and prays in unison. It exudes the soul of Islam. Individualism within
Islam does not make sense because Islam, based on tribal culture, does not recognize it. Traditional tribal values, such as the strong sense of belonging, the obligation to help friends in need, and the acceptance of religious leaders’ authority are the pillars of Muslim culture. Sharia scholars transplanted these values into Islamic economics; these same principles allowed Arab Bedouins to withstand the harshness of the desert for centuries. Cooperation was essential in such a hostile environment and is still a must in modern times.
Partnership is the heartbeat of Islamic economics. “Underlying the system is the philosophy of risk sharing: the lender must share the borrower’s risk, making the two in effect partners, injecting a strong social component into the financial system. This concept separates Islamic Finance from Western Finance, which seeks to maximize profits and minimize loss through diversification and risk transfer.” Also, money must be put to work. Because Islamic finance prohibits interest, it seeks revenues from rents, royalties, business profits, or commodity trading; a mortgage, for example, represents a “rent to buy” arrangement. Thus, conceptually, Islamic economics is the opposite of Western finance, which revolves around the individual’s self-interest.
Above all, Islamic finance represents the sole global economic force that conceptually challenges rogue economics. It does not allow investment in pornography, prostitution, narcotics, tobacco, or gambling. As discussed above, since the fall of the Berlin Wall, all these areas have blossomed thanks to globalization outlaws under the indifferent eyes of the market-state.
Loretta Napoleoni: An expert on financing of terrorism, Loretta advises several governments on counter-terrorism. She is senior partner of G Risk, a London based risk agency. - She is a Fulbright scholar at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington DC. and a Rotary Scholar at the London School of Economics..
To review further articles and listen to podcasts by Loretta Napoleoni, you are invited to visit her website: http://www.lorettanapoleoni.org
May 17, 2008 The economic sky has fallen By The Mogambo Guru From Bloomberg.com we learn the ugly news about inflation in Britain, as "Prices charged by factories rose 7.5% from a year earlier, the most since records began two decades ago, the Office for National Statistics said." Yow! The most in 20 years! And as bad as 7.5% inflation is, when exhibited over the course of a year, it gets a lot worse when they go on, "On the month, prices increased 1.4%, also the fastest pace on record." 1.4% in one freaking month! My hands shook and I tasted blood in my mouth at the horror of even contemplating simply multiplying a monthly inflation of 1.4
“The Game Is Over, There Won’t be a Rebound”
by Mike Whitney / June 23rd, 2008
Michael Hudson is a former Wall Street economist specializing in the balance of payments and real estate at the Chase Manhattan Bank (now JPMorgan Chase & Co.), Arthur Anderson, and later at the Hudson Institute (no relation). In 1990 he helped established the world’s first sovereign debt fund for Scudder Stevens & Clark. Dr. Hudson was Dennis Kucinich’s Chief Economic Advisor in the recent Democratic primary presidential campaign, and has advised the U.S., Canadian, Mexican and Latvian governments, as well as the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). A Distinguished Research Professor at University of Missouri, Kansas City (UMKC), he is the author of many books, including Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (new ed., Pluto Press, 2002)
Mike Whitney: Fed chairman Bernanke has been on a spree lately, delivering three speeches in the last two weeks. Every chance he gets, he talks tough about the strong dollar and “holding the line” against inflation. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson even said that “intervention” in the currency markets was still an option. Is all of this jawboning just saber rattling to keep the dollar from plummeting, or is there a chance that Bernanke actually will raise rates at the Fed’s August meeting?
Michael Hudson: The United States steers its monetary policy almost exclusively with domestic objectives in mind. This means ignoring the balance of payments. From the U.S. vantage point, supporting the dollars exchange rate by the traditional method of raising interest rates would have a very negative effect on the stock and bond markets and on the mortgage market. These markets fall whenever there’s serious talk of an interest rate increase, because it discourages speculation and tha’¹s what the Bubble Economy is still based on these days. Higher rates and a stock-market downturn would lead foreign investors to sell U.S. securities, and likely would end up hurting more than helping the U.S. balance of payments and hence the dollars exchange rate. So Mr. Bernanke¹s statements are merely being polite in not rubbing the faces of European and Asian governments in the fact that U.S. officials are not at all unhappy to see the dollars exchange rate plunge. U.S. officials believe that dollar depreciation will help their exporters, especially in the aircraft and other military-industrial sector. Its foreighttp://www.dissidentvoice.org/
by Mike Whitney / June 23rd, 2008
Michael Hudson is a former Wall Street economist specializing in the balance of payments and real estate at the Chase Manhattan Bank (now JPMorgan Chase & Co.), Arthur Anderson, and later at the Hudson Institute (no relation). In 1990 he helped established the world’s first sovereign debt fund for Scudder Stevens & Clark. Dr. Hudson was Dennis Kucinich’s Chief Economic Advisor in the recent Democratic primary presidential campaign, and has advised the U.S., Canadian, Mexican and Latvian governments, as well as the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). A Distinguished Research Professor at University of Missouri, Kansas City (UMKC), he is the author of many books, including Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (new ed., Pluto Press, 2002)
Mike Whitney: Fed chairman Bernanke has been on a spree lately, delivering three speeches in the last two weeks. Every chance he gets, he talks tough about the strong dollar and “holding the line” against inflation. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson even said that “intervention” in the currency markets was still an option. Is all of this jawboning just saber rattling to keep the dollar from plummeting, or is there a chance that Bernanke actually will raise rates at the Fed’s August meeting?
Michael Hudson: The United States steers its monetary policy almost exclusively with domestic objectives in mind. This means ignoring the balance of payments. From the U.S. vantage point, supporting the dollars exchange rate by the traditional method of raising interest rates would have a very negative effect on the stock and bond markets and on the mortgage market. These markets fall whenever there’s serious talk of an interest rate increase, because it discourages speculation and tha’¹s what the Bubble Economy is still based on these days. Higher rates and a stock-market downturn would lead foreign investors to sell U.S. securities, and likely would end up hurting more than helping the U.S. balance of payments and hence the dollars exchange rate. So Mr. Bernanke¹s statements are merely being polite in not rubbing the faces of European and Asian governments in the fact that U.S. officials are not at all unhappy to see the dollars exchange rate plunge. U.S. officials believe that dollar depreciation will help their exporters, especially in the aircraft and other military-industrial sector. Its foreighttp://www.dissidentvoice.org/
The End of the Anglo-American Empire?
By Richard C. Cook
Global Research, June 30, 2008
Much of the world’s history over the last century has been dominated by the United States . But by the turn of the millennium in 2000-2001, the “American Century” had begun to descend into a chamber of horrors.
The years since then have been marked by the huge financial bubbles engineered by the U.S. Federal Reserve System and the virus of predatory global capitalism. We have the looming worldwide economic crisis with rising bankruptcies, credit disruptions, and soaring fuel and food prices. Alongside has been the thinly-disguised but continuing attempt by the U.S. to conquer the Middle East by force of arms under the heading of the “War on Terror.”
Some have argued that the U.S. at war is nothing new and that we have always been a nation of aggression and militarism. While this may be true, the expansion of the original thirteen states to cover much of the North American continent was done with far less violence than the constant fighting among the European nations over the centuries for domination.
The key event was President Thomas Jefferson’s choice to purchase the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803, thus turning America ’s energy to westward expansion rather than competition with the European powers for colonial empires. The long-term result has been a nation that has led the world in science, technology, social and political innovation, and individual prosperity and freedom.
Still, there seems to have been a critical change that took place in both America and the world in the early 1900s.
To many, the arrival of the 20th century seemed to be a time of great hope. There had not been a major international conflagration since the Napoleonic Wars which ended with the Treaty of Vienna in 1815. Despite inequities in income, the industrial age showed promise of raising the standard of living everywhere. Four large nations whose territory had been consolidated during the latter part of the 19th century—the U.S. , Russia , Germany , and Italy —were flourishing.
But by 1914, the worst war in history—World War I—had begun. A century of conflict and chaos, which has not yet ended, was underway, with hundreds of millions of non-combatants eventually losing their lives through war, famine, epidemics, or genocide. The modern world has seen many holocausts in addition to the one befalling European Jewry during World War II.
Alongside miracles of medicine, agriculture, sanitation, engineering, transportation, com
By Richard C. Cook
Global Research, June 30, 2008
Much of the world’s history over the last century has been dominated by the United States . But by the turn of the millennium in 2000-2001, the “American Century” had begun to descend into a chamber of horrors.
The years since then have been marked by the huge financial bubbles engineered by the U.S. Federal Reserve System and the virus of predatory global capitalism. We have the looming worldwide economic crisis with rising bankruptcies, credit disruptions, and soaring fuel and food prices. Alongside has been the thinly-disguised but continuing attempt by the U.S. to conquer the Middle East by force of arms under the heading of the “War on Terror.”
Some have argued that the U.S. at war is nothing new and that we have always been a nation of aggression and militarism. While this may be true, the expansion of the original thirteen states to cover much of the North American continent was done with far less violence than the constant fighting among the European nations over the centuries for domination.
The key event was President Thomas Jefferson’s choice to purchase the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803, thus turning America ’s energy to westward expansion rather than competition with the European powers for colonial empires. The long-term result has been a nation that has led the world in science, technology, social and political innovation, and individual prosperity and freedom.
Still, there seems to have been a critical change that took place in both America and the world in the early 1900s.
To many, the arrival of the 20th century seemed to be a time of great hope. There had not been a major international conflagration since the Napoleonic Wars which ended with the Treaty of Vienna in 1815. Despite inequities in income, the industrial age showed promise of raising the standard of living everywhere. Four large nations whose territory had been consolidated during the latter part of the 19th century—the U.S. , Russia , Germany , and Italy —were flourishing.
But by 1914, the worst war in history—World War I—had begun. A century of conflict and chaos, which has not yet ended, was underway, with hundreds of millions of non-combatants eventually losing their lives through war, famine, epidemics, or genocide. The modern world has seen many holocausts in addition to the one befalling European Jewry during World War II.
Alongside miracles of medicine, agriculture, sanitation, engineering, transportation, com
The move could be a new problem for the regime of President Robert Mugabe, which has been churning out currency amid skyrocketing inflation that forces Zimbabweans to shop with bundles of cash. A pint of milk can cost 3 billion Zimbabwe dollars, or about 30 U.S. cents.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080701/ap_on_re_af/germany_zimbabwe
and this allowed the WW2 victors to buy cheap--Great time to go to Zimbabwe for $5 a ring you can buy all the wedding rings you can cary--
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080701/ap_on_re_af/germany_zimbabwe
and this allowed the WW2 victors to buy cheap--Great time to go to Zimbabwe for $5 a ring you can buy all the wedding rings you can cary--
When there's a war, EVERYONE pays.
Sure the US has occassionally led in science, technology, etc. sometimes. Perhaps often even. But at what cost? It's own people starving in the streets, getting horrible healthcare, etc. look at the crime stats.
Yet a disaster happens and a few comapnies and lots of people rush off to help. Their gov't takes weeks to get off its butt and help.
Seems to me that the US citizens could do better without a gov't. Or at least with a completely different gov't. Same with Canada.
Sure the US has occassionally led in science, technology, etc. sometimes. Perhaps often even. But at what cost? It's own people starving in the streets, getting horrible healthcare, etc. look at the crime stats.
Really? How many wars has Switzerland been in? Sweden? Portugal? How old are these European countries? There are houses in Europe older than the US. Seems the US can't let a couple decades go by without starting something. Nice administration.
Yet a disaster happens and a few comapnies and lots of people rush off to help. Their gov't takes weeks to get off its butt and help.
Seems to me that the US citizens could do better without a gov't. Or at least with a completely different gov't. Same with Canada.
Long-term unemployment in the US climbs 37 percent in one year
By Andre Damon
Global Research, July 8, 2008
wsws.org
The US economic slowdown has brought not only sustained job losses, but also a steep rise in the proportion those unemployed for prolonged periods. The number of people out of work for more than six months has shot up by 37 percent since June of 2007, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Last month, 1.5 million people had been unable to find work half a year or more. Many of these workers, without paychecks or medical insurance and having exhausted their unemployment benefits, are confronted with foreclosure on their homes, evictions and the threat of destitution.
The number of long term unemployed is up from 1.1 million in June of 2007. The average duration of unemployment climbed from 15.1 to 15.9 weeks in June from a year earlier. The increase in the number of long-term unemployed was twice the rise in the total number of jobless over the same time.
These figures come from the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report, which showed that the US economy shed 62,000 jobs in June, on top of an earlier 62,000 loss in May. The unemployment rate, which shot up in May by the highest amount in over 20 years, remained steady at 5.5 percent, up from 4.6 percent a year ago.
June marked the sixth straight month of falling payrolls, with the US economy having lost 438,000 jobs since the beginning of the year. The total number of unemployed reached 8.5 million last month, up from 7.0 million a year earlier.
The unemployment rate for prime-aged workers, those 25 and up, rose from 4.1 to 4.3 percent. This shift was compensated by a decline in youth unemployment, leaving the overall unemployment rate nominally unchanged.
These figures do not take into account the 1.6 million people who are “marginally attached” to the workforce, who had looked for work in the previous 12 months, but not in the last month. This figure includes approximately 420,000 “discouraged workers,” who had given up looking for work because they think that there is no work available.
The results followed layoff announcements from American Airlines, Goldman Sachs and Starbucks, which announced plans last week to close 600 stores and lay off 12,000 workers.
A significant portion of the June payroll loss was attributable to the construction sector, where employment fell by 43,000. The sector has lost some 528,000 jobs since the peak of the housing bubble in 2006.
Manufacturing did not fare much better, with some 33,000 jobs slashed in the last month. Manufacturing payrolls have shed 353,000 jobs in the past twelve months.
While six consecutive months of declining payrolls have always signaled recessions during the past 50 years, current estimates indicate that the US economy managed to continue growing in both the first and second quarters. “We have not really had a downturn quite like this one in which we lose jobs month after month but the economy somehow manages to grow,” Nigel Gault, chief domestic economist at Global Insight, told the New York Times.
The fact that the economy has continued to grow while unemployment has shot up hints that adverse economic conditions have not fully made themselves felt in consumer spending. This is likely due to the effect of the $78 billion in tax rebates recently sent out by the government, which may have temporarily boosted consumer expenditures. Once those rebates are spent, however, it is likely that the economy will begin to contract and the current hemorrhaging of jobs will only accelerate. According to a recent survey, consumer confidence has sunk to its lowest level in 16 years.
All the while, real wages have continued to plummet. Median wages have increased by 2.8 percent in the past year; the Consumer Price Index rose by over 4 percent during the same period. This adds up to a decrease in median real wages of over 1.2 percent, as workers have lost bargaining power as the labor market has softened.
Congress responded to these developments last week by passing a law to extend the duration of unemployment benefits nationwide. The bill adds 13 weeks onto the 26 weeks of unemployment benefits currently guaranteed by state governments. The extension lasts only until March. Moreover, to qualify for the extension, workers must have been on the job for 20 months before being laid off, a provision that excludes 10 percent of the long term unemployed.
The provision is estimated to cost some $8 billion, and was included in a bill funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through 2009. In comparison to the war funding provision, estimated at $162 billion, the aid to the millions of unemployed amounts to a pittance.
By Andre Damon
Global Research, July 8, 2008
wsws.org
The US economic slowdown has brought not only sustained job losses, but also a steep rise in the proportion those unemployed for prolonged periods. The number of people out of work for more than six months has shot up by 37 percent since June of 2007, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Last month, 1.5 million people had been unable to find work half a year or more. Many of these workers, without paychecks or medical insurance and having exhausted their unemployment benefits, are confronted with foreclosure on their homes, evictions and the threat of destitution.
The number of long term unemployed is up from 1.1 million in June of 2007. The average duration of unemployment climbed from 15.1 to 15.9 weeks in June from a year earlier. The increase in the number of long-term unemployed was twice the rise in the total number of jobless over the same time.
These figures come from the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report, which showed that the US economy shed 62,000 jobs in June, on top of an earlier 62,000 loss in May. The unemployment rate, which shot up in May by the highest amount in over 20 years, remained steady at 5.5 percent, up from 4.6 percent a year ago.
June marked the sixth straight month of falling payrolls, with the US economy having lost 438,000 jobs since the beginning of the year. The total number of unemployed reached 8.5 million last month, up from 7.0 million a year earlier.
The unemployment rate for prime-aged workers, those 25 and up, rose from 4.1 to 4.3 percent. This shift was compensated by a decline in youth unemployment, leaving the overall unemployment rate nominally unchanged.
These figures do not take into account the 1.6 million people who are “marginally attached” to the workforce, who had looked for work in the previous 12 months, but not in the last month. This figure includes approximately 420,000 “discouraged workers,” who had given up looking for work because they think that there is no work available.
The results followed layoff announcements from American Airlines, Goldman Sachs and Starbucks, which announced plans last week to close 600 stores and lay off 12,000 workers.
A significant portion of the June payroll loss was attributable to the construction sector, where employment fell by 43,000. The sector has lost some 528,000 jobs since the peak of the housing bubble in 2006.
Manufacturing did not fare much better, with some 33,000 jobs slashed in the last month. Manufacturing payrolls have shed 353,000 jobs in the past twelve months.
While six consecutive months of declining payrolls have always signaled recessions during the past 50 years, current estimates indicate that the US economy managed to continue growing in both the first and second quarters. “We have not really had a downturn quite like this one in which we lose jobs month after month but the economy somehow manages to grow,” Nigel Gault, chief domestic economist at Global Insight, told the New York Times.
The fact that the economy has continued to grow while unemployment has shot up hints that adverse economic conditions have not fully made themselves felt in consumer spending. This is likely due to the effect of the $78 billion in tax rebates recently sent out by the government, which may have temporarily boosted consumer expenditures. Once those rebates are spent, however, it is likely that the economy will begin to contract and the current hemorrhaging of jobs will only accelerate. According to a recent survey, consumer confidence has sunk to its lowest level in 16 years.
All the while, real wages have continued to plummet. Median wages have increased by 2.8 percent in the past year; the Consumer Price Index rose by over 4 percent during the same period. This adds up to a decrease in median real wages of over 1.2 percent, as workers have lost bargaining power as the labor market has softened.
Congress responded to these developments last week by passing a law to extend the duration of unemployment benefits nationwide. The bill adds 13 weeks onto the 26 weeks of unemployment benefits currently guaranteed by state governments. The extension lasts only until March. Moreover, to qualify for the extension, workers must have been on the job for 20 months before being laid off, a provision that excludes 10 percent of the long term unemployed.
The provision is estimated to cost some $8 billion, and was included in a bill funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through 2009. In comparison to the war funding provision, estimated at $162 billion, the aid to the millions of unemployed amounts to a pittance.
September 1929
"There is no cause to worry. The high tide of prosperity will continue." — Andrew W. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury.
October 14, 1929
"Secretary Lamont and officials of the Commerce Department today denied rumors that a severe depression in business and industrial activity was impending, which had been based on a mistaken interpretation of a review of industrial and credit conditions issued earlier in the day by the Federal Reserve Board." — New York Times
December 5, 1929
"The Government's business is in sound condition." — Andrew W. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury
December 28, 1929
"Maintenance of a general high level of business in the United States during December was reviewed today by Robert P. Lamont, Secretary of Commerce, as an indication that American industry had reached a point where a break in New York stock prices does not necessarily mean a national depression." — Associated Press dispatch.
January 13, 1930
"Reports to the Department of Commerce indicate that business is in a satisfactory condition, Secretary Lamont said today." - News item.
January 21, 1930
"Definite signs that business and industry have turned the corner from the temporary period of emergency that followed deflation of the speculative market were seen today by President Hoover. The President said the reports to the Cabinet showed the tide of employment had changed in the right direction." - News dispatch from Washington.
January 24, 1930
"Trade recovery now complete President told. Business survey conference reports industry has progressed by own power. No Stimulants Needed! Progress in all lines by the early spring forecast." - New York Herald Tribune.
March 8, 1930
"President Hoover predicted today that the worst effect of the crash upon unemployment will have been passed during the next sixty days." - Washington Dispatch.
May 1, 1930
"While the crash only took place six months ago, I am convinced we have now passed the worst and with continued unity of effort we shall rapidly recover. There is one certainty of the future of a people of the resources, intelligence and character of the people of the United States - that is, prosperity." - President Hoover
June 29, 1930
"The worst is over without a doubt." - James J. Davis, Secretary of Labor.
August 29, 1930
"American labor may now look to the future with confidence." - James J. Davis, Secretary of Labor.
September 12, 1930
"We have hit bottom and are on the upswing." - James J. Davis, Secretary of Labor.
October 16, 1930
"Looking to the future I see in the further acceleration of science continuous jobs for our workers. Science will cure unemployment." - Charles M. Schwab.
October 20, 1930
"President Hoover today designated Robert W. Lamont, Secretary of Commerce, as chairman of the President's special committee on unemployment." - Washington dispatch.
October 21, 1930
"President Hoover has summoned Colonel Arthur Woods to help place 2,500,000 persons back to work this winter." - Washington Dispatch
November 1930
"I see no reason why 1931 should not be an extremely good year." - Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., General Motors Co.
January 20, 1931
"The country is not in good condition." - Calvin Coolidge.
June 9, 1931
"The depression has ended." - Dr. Julius Klein, Assistant Secretary of Commerce.
http://www.safehaven.com/article-7107.htm
History repeats itself, bankers are the same scumbags in every generation, therefore the greatest percentage of global economic problems associated with efficient regulation could most effectively be gotten by elimination of this sub-species. Banking is a controllable disease that cuts accross race time and religion. Why hasn't this social disease been addressed.
Please donate 5 10 200 the whole paycheck to
Dark Thought Aquariums
RR1 Canada
666 Pond Ave
Suite 911:lol:
"There is no cause to worry. The high tide of prosperity will continue." — Andrew W. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury.
October 14, 1929
"Secretary Lamont and officials of the Commerce Department today denied rumors that a severe depression in business and industrial activity was impending, which had been based on a mistaken interpretation of a review of industrial and credit conditions issued earlier in the day by the Federal Reserve Board." — New York Times
December 5, 1929
"The Government's business is in sound condition." — Andrew W. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury
December 28, 1929
"Maintenance of a general high level of business in the United States during December was reviewed today by Robert P. Lamont, Secretary of Commerce, as an indication that American industry had reached a point where a break in New York stock prices does not necessarily mean a national depression." — Associated Press dispatch.
January 13, 1930
"Reports to the Department of Commerce indicate that business is in a satisfactory condition, Secretary Lamont said today." - News item.
January 21, 1930
"Definite signs that business and industry have turned the corner from the temporary period of emergency that followed deflation of the speculative market were seen today by President Hoover. The President said the reports to the Cabinet showed the tide of employment had changed in the right direction." - News dispatch from Washington.
January 24, 1930
"Trade recovery now complete President told. Business survey conference reports industry has progressed by own power. No Stimulants Needed! Progress in all lines by the early spring forecast." - New York Herald Tribune.
March 8, 1930
"President Hoover predicted today that the worst effect of the crash upon unemployment will have been passed during the next sixty days." - Washington Dispatch.
May 1, 1930
"While the crash only took place six months ago, I am convinced we have now passed the worst and with continued unity of effort we shall rapidly recover. There is one certainty of the future of a people of the resources, intelligence and character of the people of the United States - that is, prosperity." - President Hoover
June 29, 1930
"The worst is over without a doubt." - James J. Davis, Secretary of Labor.
August 29, 1930
"American labor may now look to the future with confidence." - James J. Davis, Secretary of Labor.
September 12, 1930
"We have hit bottom and are on the upswing." - James J. Davis, Secretary of Labor.
October 16, 1930
"Looking to the future I see in the further acceleration of science continuous jobs for our workers. Science will cure unemployment." - Charles M. Schwab.
October 20, 1930
"President Hoover today designated Robert W. Lamont, Secretary of Commerce, as chairman of the President's special committee on unemployment." - Washington dispatch.
October 21, 1930
"President Hoover has summoned Colonel Arthur Woods to help place 2,500,000 persons back to work this winter." - Washington Dispatch
November 1930
"I see no reason why 1931 should not be an extremely good year." - Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., General Motors Co.
January 20, 1931
"The country is not in good condition." - Calvin Coolidge.
June 9, 1931
"The depression has ended." - Dr. Julius Klein, Assistant Secretary of Commerce.
http://www.safehaven.com/article-7107.htm
History repeats itself, bankers are the same scumbags in every generation, therefore the greatest percentage of global economic problems associated with efficient regulation could most effectively be gotten by elimination of this sub-species. Banking is a controllable disease that cuts accross race time and religion. Why hasn't this social disease been addressed.
Please donate 5 10 200 the whole paycheck to
Dark Thought Aquariums
RR1 Canada
666 Pond Ave
Suite 911:lol:
If you call surviving loseing out. Somewhere arround eight million extra Americans died during the great depression Kreskin. If you can get some non-perishables and some ammunition you may be able to hang on to your gold and ride out the bad times. The only winners in that depression were bankers ( the big ones) and thier servants.:lol:
The US dollar has risen against the Canadian since the OP.
Things go up more than they go down. They can't go up in a straight line forever. There will always be bumpy roads but nothing like what that the conspiracy fearmongers want people to believe will happen in perpetuity. The great depression - tough times for sure. Our country has improved dramatically since. The world didn't end, it got better.
What do you mean when you say the world? Improved? These conspiracy fearmongers are academics Kreskin, professionals market watchers Nobel recipiants, not your common brand of conspiracy therorists. The debt is not imaginary and it is unpayable, the US is very much a bankrupt entity right now. It cannot recover in the commercial sense of the word and has one and only one avenue of escape which right now is very much on the table, that being total default followed by total war followed by the totally new paradigm being imposed. What we are experianceing is the birth pangs of the New World Order. Once the assets have been swept up by the wealthy the game will begin in ernest. By most accounts we will experiance depression such as has never existed and will never exist again.
The fractional rise and fall of our dollar versus thier dollar tells us virtually nothing about the whole picture. Get some gold and silver and some emergency stuff Kreskin you won't be able to post if you're busy scrounging arround the niegbourhood looking for Mrs Smiths cat. **** happens