Discussion of Housing Bubble, US Dollar, Debt, Trade Deficit, Oil, Gold, Consumer Spending, Central Banks, Inflation, Outsourcing and the Bleak Future of the US economy
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Thursday, October 30, 2008
New Open Forum
Feel free to post up interesting links, discuss issues, etc in this forum
33 comments:
Anonymous
said...
The Federal Reserve Is Inflating at 341% per Annum:
I'm sure this along with the rfid chips and angel chips are all just a coincidence compared to something that was said about 2,000 years ago....hmmmmmmmmmmmm
I'm currently reading The American Way of War: Guided Missles, Misguided Men, and A Republic in Peril by Eugene Jarecki. It does a great job of explaining how the United States has transformed into the militaristic empire that it is today. Good read, considering that our economy is largely government military spending and money recycling nowadays.
"Syria condemns this aggression and holds the American forces responsible for this aggression and all its repercussions. Syria also calls on the Iraqi government to shoulder its responsibilities and launch and immediate investigation into this serious violation and prevent the use of Iraqi territory for aggression against Syria," the government statement said.
“This is the biggest currency crisis the world has ever seen,” said Neil Mellor, a strategist at Bank of New York Mellon.
Experts fear the mayhem may soon trigger a chain reaction within the eurozone itself. The risk is a surge in capital flight from Austria – the country, as it happens, that set off the global banking collapse of May 1931 when Credit-Anstalt went down – and from a string of Club Med countries that rely on foreign funding to cover huge current account deficits.
The latest data from the Bank for International Settlements shows that Western European banks hold almost all the exposure to the emerging market bubble, now busting with spectacular effect.
They account for three-quarters of the total $4.7 trillion £2.96 trillion) in cross-border bank loans to Eastern Europe, Latin America and emerging Asia extended during the global credit boom – a sum that vastly exceeds the scale of both the US sub-prime and Alt-A debacles.
Jim Rogers is quite an eye opener every time I listen to him. I am glad I know how to grow food, and have been for some time. It is time for all of you on this blog to go out and find a good Troybilt rototiller, and a good used Mantis tiller. Once you till up the ground for that garden, use that Mantis for keeping the weeds down in your rows.
We may not be able to follow Jim Rogers' advice by going out and buying agricultural commodities, just because we want to hold on to our cash. I appreciate him saying that hard assets are key. We can only do the best we can, but most of us aren't as rich as he is.
On 11-15-08, I believe that is when the big G-8 plus others-economic summit is arriving in D.C. That would be a great time for America to demonstrate in the streets asking for some heads on a platter and real economic change being discussed and implement.
Jerry, This desert soil here is too hard to till. I'm hoping that billionaires like Steve Wynn keep their buffets going throughout the depression. Even if admission costs a bit of silver! ;)
Note: with the downturning local economy, Buffets are now being used to draw in new casino customers.
Example: Last weekend the wife and I used a 2 for 1 coupon at Silverton for their Seafood/steak, wine/beer buffet. $21 bucks for the two of us to eat all the Snow Crabs, Steak and Prime Rib we could hold plus a few alcoholic beverages - WHAT A DEAL! Eagerly Awaiting the next coupon deal. Haha!
Justin: Good article on the International Central bank - just a matter of time my friends.
It is an interest rate race to the bottom. These banks are lowering rates to attract borrowers, which are fewer and fewer, but again, the depositors flee those low interest rates for banks offering CD rates which are higher.
We can see that due this race to the bottom that this crisis has not reached a settling point. It is still falling.
This is a good article. Easthampton Burning Snippet: " The bottom line of all this is that we in the US could find ourselves in a situation of shortages, hoarding, and rationing. This would pretty much kill off whatever remains of the previous shuck-and-jive economy -- hamburger sales, theme park visits, Nascar weekends -- while it makes obvious the failures of our suburban living arrangements (and drives the value of housing there closer to zero)."
Fofoa---Kunstler is a really good writer!! I have enjoyed his pieces for sometime now.
Check out www.Huffingtonpost.com and scroll down to Kevin Phillip's piece on Bush as the new Herbert Hoover. We could expect McCain to step into those shoes, if elected.
Now, theories on why the DOW rose to 900. My theory is a full blown Treasury and Fed intervention in order to try and protect McCain from further electorate erosion. There are only days until election day, and this rally was predicted by some.
For those who like to read. I was checking out this book on Amazon. Take this link and check out the excerpts. You get to read the first 6 pages of chapter 1. Looks like an excellent book, "The Web of Debt".
So Justin, You don't want any FluMist for Xmas? WOW! What a stocking stuffer that would be.
On a serious note, I spent my entire career working with kids in public school environments. For years I had flu shots, and would always get what I would call, 'flu without the fever' symptoms which last for the same, if not longer, duration of time as the flu.
Then, over the last three years, I decided to NOT get the shot, and continue to be real careful about hygiene, and have not gotten the flu since.
Now I am down on the shot and believe hygiene is good enough as a prevention to the drugs.
I would work with sick kids being sent to school throughout the flu season, but would regularly take zinc lozenges, use rubbing alcohol, and drink apple cider vinegar once per day, and take an alkaline clay power all of which, I believe, kept the flu at bay. If a kid sneezed on me, I would rub my lip area with rubbing alcohol so none of the droplets would remain alive on my face.
Anyway, that is my story about the flu. That stuff is freaky. A world wide pandemic is like a Twlight Zone episode.
Excellent explanation of the recent "Temporary Rise" in the US Dollar's strength.
Dollar Paradox
The World Tires of Dollar Hegemony
Paul Craig Roberts
What explains the paradox of the dollar’s sharp rise in value against other currencies (except the Japanese yen) despite disproportionate US exposure to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression?
The answer does not lie in improved fundamentals for the US economy or better prospects for the dollar to retain its reserve currency role.
The rise in the dollar’s exchange value is due to two factors.
One factor is the traditional flight to the reserve currency that results from panic. People are simply doing what they have always done. Pam Martens predicted correctly that panic demand for US Treasury bills would boost the US dollar.
The other factor is the unwinding of the carry trade. The carry trade originated in extremely low Japanese interest rates. Investors and speculators borrowed Japanese yen at an interest rate of one-half of one percent, converted the yen to other currencies, and purchased debt instruments from other countries that pay much higher interest rates.
In effect, they were getting practically free funds from Japan to lend to others paying higher interest.
The financial crisis has reversed this process. The toxic American derivatives were marketed worldwide by Wall Street. They have endangered the balance sheets and solvency of financial institutions throughout the world, including national governments, such as Iceland and Hungary. Banks and governments that invested in the troubled American financial instruments found their own debt instruments in jeopardy.
Those who used yen loans to purchase, for example, debt instruments from European banks or Icelandic bonds, faced potentially catastrophic losses. Investors and speculators sold their higher-yielding financial instruments in a scramble for dollars and yen in order to pay off their Japanese loans. This drove up the values of the yen and the US dollar, the reserve currency that can be used to repay debts, and drove down the values of other currencies.
The dollar’s rise is temporary, and its prospects are bleak. The US trade deficit will lessen due to less consumer spending during recession, but it will remain the largest in the world and one that the US cannot close by exporting more. The way the US trade deficit is financed is by foreigners acquiring more dollar assets, with which their portfolios are already heavily weighted.
The US government’s budget deficit is large and growing, adding hundreds of billions of dollars more to an already large national debt. As investors flee equities into US government bills, the market for US Treasuries will temporarily depend less on foreign governments. Nevertheless, the burden on foreigners and on world savings of having to finance American consumption, the US government’s wars and military budget, and the US financial bailout is increasingly resented.
This resentment, combined with the harm done to America’s reputation by the financial crisis, has led to numerous calls for a new financial order in which the US plays a substantially lesser role. “Overcoming the financial crisis” are code words for the rest of the world’s intent to overthrow US financial hegemony.
Brazil, Russia, India and China have formed a new group (BRIC) to coordinate their interests at the November financial summit in Washington, D.C.
On October 28, RIA Novosti reported that Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin suggested to China that the two countries use their own currencies in their bilateral trade, thus avoiding the use of the dollar. China’s prime Minister Wen Jiabao replied that strengthening bilateral relations is strategic.
Europe has also served notice that it intends to exert a new leadership role. Four members of the Group of Seven industrial nations, France, Britain, Germany and Italy, used the financial crisis to call for sweeping reforms of the world financial system. Jose Manual Barroso, president of the European Commission, said that a new world financial system is possible only “if Europe has a leadership role.”
Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said that the “economic egoism” of America’s “unipolar vision of the world” is a ”dead-end policy.” China’s massive foreign exchange reserves and its strong position in manufacturing have given China the leadership role in Asia. The deputy prime minister of Thailand recently designated the Chinese yuan as “the rightful and anointed convertible currency of the world.”
Normally, the Chinese are very circumspect in what they say, but on October 24 Reuters reported that the People’s Daily, the official government newspaper, in a front-page commentary accused the US of plundering “global wealth by exploiting the dollar’s dominance.” To correct this unacceptable situation, the commentary called for Asian and European countries to “banish the US dollar from their direct trade relations, relying only on their own currencies.” And this step, said the commentary, is merely a starting step in overthrowing dollar dominance.
The Chinese are expressing other thoughts that would get the attention of a less deluded and arrogant American government. Zhou Jiangong, editor of the online publication, Chinastates.com, recently asked: “Why should China help the US to issue debt without end in the belief that the national credit of the US can expand without limit?”
Zhou Jiangong’s solution to American excesses is for China to take over Wall Street.
China has the money to do it, and the prudent Chinese would do a better job than the crowd of thieves who have destroyed America’s financial reputation while exploiting the world in pursuit of multi-million dollar bonuses.
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during President Reagan’s first term. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. He has held numerous academic appointments, including the William E. Simon Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He was awarded the Legion of Honor by French President Francois Mitterrand.
I'm a fellow Las Vegan. Over the last 4 weeks I've been buying gold from Sahara Coins when it is available. Twice I went in with cash in hand and they had no gold to sell. Nada. Nothing. I asked "is that because you have no inventory, or cannot figure out the new bid/ask spread?" He said, Yes and Yes. Premiums over spot have jumped from perhaps $30 / oz. to over $100, but you cannot even buy anything but small lots. I find it bizzare that it is impossible to purchase, say, $10K in U.S. gold coin while the spot price has dropped $150 in the last few weeks. Perhaps the spot price isn't indicative of the spot price to hold physical ....? Worse, I can't offer a higher price ... they have nothing to sell much of the time. Your thoughts?
Many are asking the same questions these days... Maybe you're new here to this Blog and/or have missed them, but I've posted up several articles in the past that have attempted to explain this "Physical shortage" situation.
Please read the articles below - I think it will help to answer the question that you actually answered yourself (Yes - The spot price is NOT indicative of Physical price - IF you can find any at all)
Randy, Check out this slide deck leaked from Sequoia Capital with their dire prospects for the economy and venture funding, etc. http://venturebeat.com/2008/10/09/more-details-on-sequoias-economic-inconvenient-truth-meeting/ Ellen
LAS VEGAS There are 6 million empty homes in the United States. Or 6.2 million, to be slightly more precise. Empty houses are normal to some extent -- part of the usual friction of building, selling, renting. But ask the people who study the numbers, and who understand the "overhang" in housing inventory, and they'll tell you: This country has about a million homes too many.
Thousands of them are right here. From an airplane, this valley appears to have been flooded in a biblical deluge of subdivisions. Las Vegas, a dusty rail stop a century ago, has been the fastest-growing urban area in the nation for two decades and is now a desert metropolis of 2 million people. The vast majority live in developments that sprawl to the edge of the mountains.
EXCLUSIVE: Shocking proposal urges military leaders to attack major foreign power
Thursday, October 30, 2008
According to reports out of top Chinese mainstream news outlets, the RAND Corporation recently presented a shocking proposal to the Pentagon in which it lobbied for a war to be started with a major foreign power in an attempt to stimulate the American economy and prevent a recession.
A fierce debate has now ensued in China about who that foreign power may be, with China itself as well as Russia and even Japan suspected to be the targets of aggression.
The reports cite French media news sources as having uncovered the proposal, in which RAND suggested that the $700 billion dollars that has been earmarked to bailout Wall Street and failing banks instead be used to finance a new war which would in turn re-invigorate the flagging stock markets.
The RAND Corporation is a notoriously powerful NGO with deep ties to the U.S. military-industrial complex as well as interlocking connections with the Ford, Rockefeller, and Carnegie foundations.
Current directors of RAND include Frank Charles Carlucci III, former Defense Secretary and Deputy Director of the CIA, Ronald L. Olson, Council on Foreign Relations luminary and former Secretary of Labor, and Carl Bildt, top Bilderberg member and former Swedish Prime Minister.
Carlucci was chairman of the Carlyle Group from 1989-2005 and oversaw gargantuan profits the defense contractor made in the aftermath of 9/11 following the invasion of Afghanistan. The Carlyle Group has also received investment money from the Bin Laden family.
Reportedly, the RAND proposal brazenly urged that a new war could be launched to benefit the economy, but stressed that the target country would have to be a major influential power, and not a smaller country on the scale of Afghanistan or Iraq.
The reports have prompted a surge of public debate and tension in China about the possibility that a new global conflict is on the horizon.
China’s biggest media outlet, Sohu.com, speculated that the target of the new war would probably be China or Russia, but that it could also be Iran or another middle eastern country. Japan was also mentioned as a potential target for the reason that Japan holds the most U.S. debt.
North Korea was considered as a target but ruled out because the scale of such a war would not be large enough for RAND’s requirements.
The reported RAND proposal dovetails with recent comments made by Joe Biden, Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright and others, concerning the “guarantee” that Barack Obama will face a major “international crisis” soon after taking office.
It also arrives following a warning from Michael Bayer, chairman of a key Pentagon advisory panel, who echoed the statement that the next administration will face an international crisis within months of taking office.
One would hope that good people, or at least sane people who don’t wish to start a global nuclear war, will oppose the RAND proposal, such as top the military generals who threatened to quit if Bush ordered an attack on Iran. Admiral William Fallon, the head of US Central Command, quit in March last year as a result of his opposition to Bush administration policy on Iran.
Ellen, Thanks. I'm sure you saw that I posted it up this AM.
Patrick - Great info. Appreciate the link
ChetLv,
I'd like to say WOW, but nothing really surprises me these days and I do believe war will be used as a tool to pull us out of our looming Hyperinflationary Depression.
First American CoreLogic, a real-estate data firm based in Santa Ana, Calif., estimated that 48% of owners of single-family homes with mortgages in Nevada are under water. That compares with 18% nationwide.
33 comments:
The Federal Reserve Is Inflating at 341% per Annum:
http://www.garynorth.com/public/4178.cfm
I'm sure this along with the rfid chips and angel chips are all just a coincidence compared to something that was said about 2,000 years ago....hmmmmmmmmmmmm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arUMVF2kYIc
I'm currently reading The American Way of War: Guided Missles, Misguided Men, and A Republic in Peril by Eugene Jarecki. It does a great job of explaining how the United States has transformed into the militaristic empire that it is today. Good read, considering that our economy is largely government military spending and money recycling nowadays.
http://www.amazon.com/American-Way-War-Missiles-Misguided/dp/1416544569
Breaking News (AP)
US attacks Syria killing 8 mostly civilians according to Syrian gov't.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_SYRIA_US_RAID?SITE=TXBEA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
"Syria condemns this aggression and holds the American forces responsible for this aggression and all its repercussions. Syria also calls on the Iraqi government to shoulder its responsibilities and launch and immediate investigation into this serious violation and prevent the use of Iraqi territory for aggression against Syria," the government statement said.
Surprise Surprise, Asian stocks are tanking.
Yup,
Asian markets tanked last night w/Hang Seng down nearly 13%.
DOW futures are currently down 180 for the open
Anyone else having problems accessing Dollarcollapse.com?
I haven't been able to reach the site since yesterday afternoon.
Well well well. We've got someone at Newsweek calling for an International Central Bank.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/165772
This is hilarious. A must see from 2006.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU6PamCQ6zw
“This is the biggest currency crisis the world has ever seen,” said Neil Mellor, a strategist at Bank of New York Mellon.
Experts fear the mayhem may soon trigger a chain reaction within the eurozone itself. The risk is a surge in capital flight from Austria – the country, as it happens, that set off the global banking collapse of May 1931 when Credit-Anstalt went down – and from a string of Club Med countries that rely on foreign funding to cover huge current account deficits.
The latest data from the Bank for International Settlements shows that Western European banks hold almost all the exposure to the emerging market bubble, now busting with spectacular effect.
They account for three-quarters of the total $4.7 trillion £2.96 trillion) in cross-border bank loans to Eastern Europe, Latin America and emerging Asia extended during the global credit boom – a sum that vastly exceeds the scale of both the US sub-prime and Alt-A debacles.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/3260052/Europe-on-the-brink-of-currency-crisis-meltdown.html
Jim Rogers from last Friday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UU5MGnHjjY
Jim Rogers is quite an eye opener every time I listen to him. I am glad I know how to grow food, and have been for some time. It is time for all of you on this blog to go out and find a good Troybilt rototiller, and a good used Mantis tiller. Once you till up the ground for that garden, use that Mantis for keeping the weeds down in your rows.
We may not be able to follow Jim Rogers' advice by going out and buying agricultural commodities, just because we want to hold on to our cash. I appreciate him saying that hard assets are key. We can only do the best we can, but most of us aren't as rich as he is.
On 11-15-08, I believe that is when the big G-8 plus others-economic summit is arriving in D.C. That would be a great time for America to demonstrate in the streets asking for some heads on a platter and real economic change being discussed and implement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6Lz264wOAg
Jerry,
This desert soil here is too hard to till. I'm hoping that billionaires like Steve Wynn keep their buffets going throughout the depression. Even if admission costs a bit of silver! ;)
Hey, Fofoa, if the Israeli's can cultivate the desert, so can you folks! ;)
Fofoa,
I second that thought.
Note: with the downturning local economy, Buffets are now being used to draw in new casino customers.
Example: Last weekend the wife and I used a 2 for 1 coupon at Silverton for their Seafood/steak, wine/beer buffet. $21 bucks for the two of us to eat all the Snow Crabs, Steak and Prime Rib we could hold plus a few alcoholic beverages - WHAT A DEAL! Eagerly Awaiting the next coupon deal. Haha!
Justin: Good article on the International Central bank - just a matter of time my friends.
Here's a new one all of you may like:
Central Banks Slashing Rates As Investors Flee
It is an interest rate race to the bottom. These banks are lowering rates to attract borrowers, which are fewer and fewer, but again, the depositors flee those low interest rates for banks offering CD rates which are higher.
We can see that due this race to the bottom that this crisis has not reached a settling point. It is still falling.
This is a good article.
Easthampton Burning
Snippet:
" The bottom line of all this is that we in the US could find ourselves in a situation of shortages, hoarding, and rationing. This would pretty much kill off whatever remains of the previous shuck-and-jive economy -- hamburger sales, theme park visits, Nascar weekends -- while it makes obvious the failures of our suburban living arrangements (and drives the value of housing there closer to zero)."
Fofoa---Kunstler is a really good writer!! I have enjoyed his pieces for sometime now.
Check out www.Huffingtonpost.com and scroll down to Kevin Phillip's piece on Bush as the new Herbert Hoover. We could expect McCain to step into those shoes, if elected.
Now, theories on why the DOW rose to 900. My theory is a full blown Treasury and Fed intervention in order to try and protect McCain from further electorate erosion. There are only days until election day, and this rally was predicted by some.
http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com
For those who like to read. I was checking out this book on Amazon. Take this link and check out the excerpts. You get to read the first 6 pages of chapter 1. Looks like an excellent book, "The Web of Debt".
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0979560802/ref=sib_dp_pop_fc?ie=UTF8&p=S001#reader-link
P.S. If anyone was wondering what to get me for Christmas that would work.
Justin V
P.O. Box 44
Ramsey, Il 62080
hehehe
After doing some research this seems to be valid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcniJxck0gI
So Justin, You don't want any FluMist for Xmas? WOW! What a stocking stuffer that would be.
On a serious note, I spent my entire career working with kids in public school environments. For years I had flu shots, and would always get what I would call, 'flu without the fever' symptoms which last for the same, if not longer, duration of time as the flu.
Then, over the last three years, I decided to NOT get the shot, and continue to be real careful about hygiene, and have not gotten the flu since.
Now I am down on the shot and believe hygiene is good enough as a prevention to the drugs.
I would work with sick kids being sent to school throughout the flu season, but would regularly take zinc lozenges, use rubbing alcohol, and drink apple cider vinegar once per day, and take an alkaline clay power all of which, I believe, kept the flu at bay. If a kid sneezed on me, I would rub my lip area with rubbing alcohol so none of the droplets would remain alive on my face.
Anyway, that is my story about the flu. That stuff is freaky. A world wide pandemic is like a Twlight Zone episode.
here is a phenomenal article talking about what caused the financial destruction of America- check it out folks it cuts rite to the point!
http://www.conspiracypenpal.com/columns/trickle.htm
-Ben
Excellent explanation of the recent "Temporary Rise" in the US Dollar's strength.
Dollar Paradox
The World Tires of Dollar Hegemony
Paul Craig Roberts
What explains the paradox of the dollar’s sharp rise in value against other currencies (except the Japanese yen) despite disproportionate US exposure to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression?
The answer does not lie in improved fundamentals for the US economy or better prospects for the dollar to retain its reserve currency role.
The rise in the dollar’s exchange value is due to two factors.
One factor is the traditional flight to the reserve currency that results from panic. People are simply doing what they have always done. Pam Martens predicted correctly that panic demand for US Treasury bills would boost the US dollar.
The other factor is the unwinding of the carry trade. The carry trade originated in extremely low Japanese interest rates. Investors and speculators borrowed Japanese yen at an interest rate of one-half of one percent, converted the yen to other currencies, and purchased debt instruments from other countries that pay much higher interest rates.
In effect, they were getting practically free funds from Japan to lend to others paying higher interest.
The financial crisis has reversed this process. The toxic American
derivatives were marketed worldwide by Wall Street. They have endangered the balance sheets and solvency of financial institutions throughout the world, including national governments, such as Iceland and Hungary. Banks and governments that invested in the troubled American financial instruments found their own debt instruments in jeopardy.
Those who used yen loans to purchase, for example, debt instruments from European banks or Icelandic bonds, faced potentially catastrophic losses. Investors and speculators sold their higher-yielding financial instruments in a scramble for dollars and yen in order to pay off their Japanese loans. This drove up the values of the yen and the US dollar, the reserve currency that can be used to repay debts, and drove down the values of other currencies.
The dollar’s rise is temporary, and its prospects are bleak. The US trade deficit will lessen due to less consumer spending during
recession, but it will remain the largest in the world and one that
the US cannot close by exporting more. The way the US trade deficit
is financed is by foreigners acquiring more dollar assets, with which their portfolios are already heavily weighted.
The US government’s budget deficit is large and growing, adding
hundreds of billions of dollars more to an already large national
debt. As investors flee equities into US government bills, the market for US Treasuries will temporarily depend less on foreign
governments. Nevertheless, the burden on foreigners and on world
savings of having to finance American consumption, the US government’s wars and military budget, and the US financial bailout is increasingly resented.
This resentment, combined with the harm done to America’s reputation
by the financial crisis, has led to numerous calls for a new financial order in which the US plays a substantially lesser role. “Overcoming the financial crisis” are code words for the rest of the world’s intent to overthrow US financial hegemony.
Brazil, Russia, India and China have formed a new group (BRIC) to
coordinate their interests at the November financial summit in
Washington, D.C.
On October 28, RIA Novosti reported that Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin suggested to China that the two countries use their own currencies in their bilateral trade, thus avoiding the use of the dollar. China’s prime Minister Wen Jiabao replied that strengthening bilateral relations is strategic.
Europe has also served notice that it intends to exert a new leadership role. Four members of the Group of Seven industrial nations, France, Britain, Germany and Italy, used the financial crisis to call for sweeping reforms of the world financial system. Jose Manual Barroso, president of the European Commission, said that a new world financial system is possible only “if Europe has a leadership role.”
Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said that the “economic egoism” of
America’s “unipolar vision of the world” is a ”dead-end policy.”
China’s massive foreign exchange reserves and its strong position in manufacturing have given China the leadership role in Asia. The
deputy prime minister of Thailand recently designated the Chinese yuan as “the rightful and anointed convertible currency of the world.”
Normally, the Chinese are very circumspect in what they say, but on October 24 Reuters reported that the People’s Daily, the official government newspaper, in a front-page commentary accused the US of plundering “global wealth by exploiting the dollar’s dominance.” To correct this unacceptable situation, the commentary called for Asian and European countries to “banish the US dollar from their direct trade relations, relying only on their own currencies.” And this step, said the commentary, is merely a starting step in overthrowing
dollar dominance.
The Chinese are expressing other thoughts that would get the attention of a less deluded and arrogant American government. Zhou Jiangong, editor of the online publication, Chinastates.com, recently asked: “Why should China help the US to issue debt without end in the belief that the national credit of the US can expand without limit?”
Zhou Jiangong’s solution to American excesses is for China to take over Wall Street.
China has the money to do it, and the prudent Chinese would do a
better job than the crowd of thieves who have destroyed America’s financial reputation while exploiting the world in pursuit of multi-million dollar bonuses.
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during President Reagan’s first term. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. He has held numerous academic appointments, including the William E. Simon Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He was awarded the Legion of Honor by French President Francois Mitterrand.
Randy -
I'm a fellow Las Vegan. Over the last 4 weeks I've been buying gold from Sahara Coins when it is available. Twice I went in with cash in hand and they had no gold to sell. Nada. Nothing. I asked "is that because you have no inventory, or cannot figure out the new bid/ask spread?" He said, Yes and Yes. Premiums over spot have jumped from perhaps $30 / oz. to over $100, but you cannot even buy anything but small lots. I find it bizzare that it is impossible to purchase, say, $10K in U.S. gold coin while the spot price has dropped $150 in the last few weeks. Perhaps the spot price isn't indicative of the spot price to hold physical ....? Worse, I can't offer a higher price ... they have nothing to sell much of the time. Your thoughts?
Anon 7:39,
Many are asking the same questions these days... Maybe you're new here to this Blog and/or have missed them, but I've posted up several articles in the past that have attempted to explain this "Physical shortage" situation.
Please read the articles below - I think it will help to answer the question that you actually answered yourself (Yes - The spot price is NOT indicative of Physical price - IF you can find any at all)
Mints struggle to meet metals demand
Physical Gold and Silver Rush and looming COMEX Default
Physical Shortages
Regards
Randy
Randy,
Check out this slide deck leaked from Sequoia Capital with their dire prospects for the economy and venture funding, etc. http://venturebeat.com/2008/10/09/more-details-on-sequoias-economic-inconvenient-truth-meeting/
Ellen
Las Vegas Is Flush With Empty Houses
LAS VEGAS There are 6 million empty homes in the United States. Or 6.2 million, to be slightly more precise. Empty houses are normal to some extent -- part of the usual friction of building, selling, renting. But ask the people who study the numbers, and who understand the "overhang" in housing inventory, and they'll tell you: This country has about a million homes too many.
Thousands of them are right here. From an airplane, this valley appears to have been flooded in a biblical deluge of subdivisions. Las Vegas, a dusty rail stop a century ago, has been the fastest-growing urban area in the nation for two decades and is now a desert metropolis of 2 million people. The vast majority live in developments that sprawl to the edge of the mountains.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/29/AR2008102904221_pf.html
RAND Lobbies Pentagon: Start War To Save U.S. Economy
EXCLUSIVE: Shocking proposal urges military leaders to attack major foreign power
Thursday, October 30, 2008
According to reports out of top Chinese mainstream news outlets, the RAND Corporation recently presented a shocking proposal to the Pentagon in which it lobbied for a war to be started with a major foreign power in an attempt to stimulate the American economy and prevent a recession.
A fierce debate has now ensued in China about who that foreign power may be, with China itself as well as Russia and even Japan suspected to be the targets of aggression.
The reports cite French media news sources as having uncovered the proposal, in which RAND suggested that the $700 billion dollars that has been earmarked to bailout Wall Street and failing banks instead be used to finance a new war which would in turn re-invigorate the flagging stock markets.
The RAND Corporation is a notoriously powerful NGO with deep ties to the U.S. military-industrial complex as well as interlocking connections with the Ford, Rockefeller, and Carnegie foundations.
Current directors of RAND include Frank Charles Carlucci III, former Defense Secretary and Deputy Director of the CIA, Ronald L. Olson, Council on Foreign Relations luminary and former Secretary of Labor, and Carl Bildt, top Bilderberg member and former Swedish Prime Minister.
Carlucci was chairman of the Carlyle Group from 1989-2005 and oversaw gargantuan profits the defense contractor made in the aftermath of 9/11 following the invasion of Afghanistan. The Carlyle Group has also received investment money from the Bin Laden family.
Reportedly, the RAND proposal brazenly urged that a new war could be launched to benefit the economy, but stressed that the target country would have to be a major influential power, and not a smaller country on the scale of Afghanistan or Iraq.
The reports have prompted a surge of public debate and tension in China about the possibility that a new global conflict is on the horizon.
China’s biggest media outlet, Sohu.com, speculated that the target of the new war would probably be China or Russia, but that it could also be Iran or another middle eastern country. Japan was also mentioned as a potential target for the reason that Japan holds the most U.S. debt.
North Korea was considered as a target but ruled out because the scale of such a war would not be large enough for RAND’s requirements.
The reported RAND proposal dovetails with recent comments made by Joe Biden, Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright and others, concerning the “guarantee” that Barack Obama will face a major “international crisis” soon after taking office.
It also arrives following a warning from Michael Bayer, chairman of a key Pentagon advisory panel, who echoed the statement that the next administration will face an international crisis within months of taking office.
One would hope that good people, or at least sane people who don’t wish to start a global nuclear war, will oppose the RAND proposal, such as top the military generals who threatened to quit if Bush ordered an attack on Iran. Admiral William Fallon, the head of US Central Command, quit in March last year as a result of his opposition to Bush administration policy on Iran.
Translations from Chinese provided by Yihan Dai.
SOURCES
Sohu.com - http://news.sohu.com/20081030/n260330741.shtml
Ifeng.com - http://news.ifeng.com/mil/4/200810/1029_342_851523.shtml
Ellen, Thanks. I'm sure you saw that I posted it up this AM.
Patrick - Great info. Appreciate the link
ChetLv,
I'd like to say WOW, but nothing really surprises me these days and I do believe war will be used as a tool to pull us out of our looming Hyperinflationary Depression.
Almost Half of Nevada Homeowners Underwater
First American CoreLogic, a real-estate data firm based in Santa Ana, Calif., estimated that 48% of owners of single-family homes with mortgages in Nevada are under water. That compares with 18% nationwide.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122541431498786575.html
Good read from Nyquist today.
http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2008/1031.html
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