'Tens of thousands to be laid off every week' as UK falls into recession
Graeme Wearden
guardian.co.uk,
Sep 11, 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/11/recession.unemploymentdata
MPC member warns of 'horrible surprise'
Gloomy assessment sends London shares falling
Tens of thousands of people could be laid off every week in the run-up to Christmas as the UK economy falls into recession, David Blanchflower of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee warned today.
Blanchflower told MPs to expect "a large increase in unemployment", and warned that a "horrible surprise" could be just around the corner. The gloomy assessment sent shares in London falling, and also weakened sterling yet further against the dollar.
Blanchflower, who has repeatedly tried and failed in recent months to persuade the MPC to cut interest rates, predicted that the unemployment count will rise by 60,000 a month for several months in a row, probably starting in October.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
A $75 trillion fright fest
A $75 trillion fright fest
By Paul B. Farrell
MarketWatch
Sep 08, 2008
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/75-trillion-fright-fest-8/
story.aspx?guid=%7B1E95D857%2D7CB8%2D46AD%2DB26C%2DD3732D93FD06%7D
Eight megahorror debts chilling America
America's out of control, drowning in debt, gorging: $75 trillion and getting worse. Now we're dumping Fannie and Freddie on America's balance sheet. Every year we pile trillions more on future generations.
[..] But with "I.O.U.S.A." America's debt will haunt you for years. It already totals about $150,000 for every single household. Worse yet, it's metastasizing $1.9 billion each and every day on the National Debt Clock. So who will go see the film? Few:
Liberals. Maybe a small contingent of lefties. But they already know the story about America's lethal addiction to living on borrowed money.
Conservatives. No way. They actually love big deficits and big federal debt. That money comes out of taxpayers' wallets, pays for their wars and all the profitable deals with China and oil producers that make neocons personally rich.
Main Street. The other 95% of Americans are too focused on their own personal problems; gas, food, rent, foreclosures, inflation, teen pregnancies, credit-card fees, outsourced jobs, and so much more.
So here's my adaptation of the 8 most "megahorror" debts to focus on: A format for a film festival highlighting the "The Megahorror Hits of American Debt:"
1. Horrors of Endless Massive War Debt
2. Horrors of Gluttonous, Addictive Oil Debt
3. Horrors of Trillions in Trade Deficits and Foreign Debt
4. Horrors of Killer Social Security and Medicare Debt
5. Horrors of Cheap Money, Self-indulgent Consumerism, Zero Savings
6. Horrors of Skyrocketing Health-care Debt
7. Horror of a Failing Educational System Debting America's Future
8. Horrors of Failed Leaders Triggering Catastrophic Debt Meltdown
In that worst-case scenario, our fate parallels the Rome of Caligula, decadent, vulnerable, ripe for a "Fiscal Armageddon," and eventually overrun by foreigners.
By Paul B. Farrell
MarketWatch
Sep 08, 2008
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/75-trillion-fright-fest-8/
story.aspx?guid=%7B1E95D857%2D7CB8%2D46AD%2DB26C%2DD3732D93FD06%7D
Eight megahorror debts chilling America
America's out of control, drowning in debt, gorging: $75 trillion and getting worse. Now we're dumping Fannie and Freddie on America's balance sheet. Every year we pile trillions more on future generations.
[..] But with "I.O.U.S.A." America's debt will haunt you for years. It already totals about $150,000 for every single household. Worse yet, it's metastasizing $1.9 billion each and every day on the National Debt Clock. So who will go see the film? Few:
Liberals. Maybe a small contingent of lefties. But they already know the story about America's lethal addiction to living on borrowed money.
Conservatives. No way. They actually love big deficits and big federal debt. That money comes out of taxpayers' wallets, pays for their wars and all the profitable deals with China and oil producers that make neocons personally rich.
Main Street. The other 95% of Americans are too focused on their own personal problems; gas, food, rent, foreclosures, inflation, teen pregnancies, credit-card fees, outsourced jobs, and so much more.
So here's my adaptation of the 8 most "megahorror" debts to focus on: A format for a film festival highlighting the "The Megahorror Hits of American Debt:"
1. Horrors of Endless Massive War Debt
2. Horrors of Gluttonous, Addictive Oil Debt
3. Horrors of Trillions in Trade Deficits and Foreign Debt
4. Horrors of Killer Social Security and Medicare Debt
5. Horrors of Cheap Money, Self-indulgent Consumerism, Zero Savings
6. Horrors of Skyrocketing Health-care Debt
7. Horror of a Failing Educational System Debting America's Future
8. Horrors of Failed Leaders Triggering Catastrophic Debt Meltdown
In that worst-case scenario, our fate parallels the Rome of Caligula, decadent, vulnerable, ripe for a "Fiscal Armageddon," and eventually overrun by foreigners.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Mistakes
Mistakes
Don Stott
Jul 22, 2008
http://www.coloradogold.com/archive/Mistakes-777.html
There are a few which people make, will make, or think of making.
(1) Switch gold for silver. It makes no sense, because you'll sell the gold at the 'bid' price, and have to ship it. Then, you buy the silver at 'ask' price, and pay a commission and shipping also.
(2) Sell numismatics and get bullion. No. Why? Because you'll sell your numismatics for a great loss.
(3) Don't try to out-guess the market by selling 'high,' and thinking you'll buy 'low,' and make a profit. No one knows what 'high' is, or 'low' is, so the attempt could cost you your metals.
(4) Sell your gas guzzler and buy a cheap to run car? Absolutely not! [..] it would take fifteen or twenty years for the new compact to pay for itself, and that's bad economics, no matter what you may say. This might even be a good time to buy a huge luxury car for a song. Sold by the fools who can't do the math.
(5) Plan on leaving the USA if it gets 'worse.' Where would you go? Wherever it may be, do you speak the language? Do you realize just how free and large America is, compared to just about any place on earth, regardless of who wins in November? Panama? Costa Rica? Argentina?
(6) Expecting the dollar to 'collapse.' You may have to wait a long time. While the buck has slid tremendously, and is worth maybe a couple of cents, compared to a hundred years ago, other currencies have slid too, and continue to slide. [..] I just don't think the dollar is going to totally 'collapse' any time soon, and if it did, and was replaced by something else, you would still have saved yourself with gold and silver.
(7) Thinking that barter with silver coins will be necessary eventually, is fantasy. [..] Barter is fun at yard sales, but a civilization or nation cannot exist without a currency. We buy gold and silver to protect us from politicians' universal practice of ruining the currency of the nation which put them in office. It's been happening for thousands of years, and won't stop any time soon.
Don Stott
Jul 22, 2008
http://www.coloradogold.com/archive/Mistakes-777.html
There are a few which people make, will make, or think of making.
(1) Switch gold for silver. It makes no sense, because you'll sell the gold at the 'bid' price, and have to ship it. Then, you buy the silver at 'ask' price, and pay a commission and shipping also.
(2) Sell numismatics and get bullion. No. Why? Because you'll sell your numismatics for a great loss.
(3) Don't try to out-guess the market by selling 'high,' and thinking you'll buy 'low,' and make a profit. No one knows what 'high' is, or 'low' is, so the attempt could cost you your metals.
(4) Sell your gas guzzler and buy a cheap to run car? Absolutely not! [..] it would take fifteen or twenty years for the new compact to pay for itself, and that's bad economics, no matter what you may say. This might even be a good time to buy a huge luxury car for a song. Sold by the fools who can't do the math.
(5) Plan on leaving the USA if it gets 'worse.' Where would you go? Wherever it may be, do you speak the language? Do you realize just how free and large America is, compared to just about any place on earth, regardless of who wins in November? Panama? Costa Rica? Argentina?
(6) Expecting the dollar to 'collapse.' You may have to wait a long time. While the buck has slid tremendously, and is worth maybe a couple of cents, compared to a hundred years ago, other currencies have slid too, and continue to slide. [..] I just don't think the dollar is going to totally 'collapse' any time soon, and if it did, and was replaced by something else, you would still have saved yourself with gold and silver.
(7) Thinking that barter with silver coins will be necessary eventually, is fantasy. [..] Barter is fun at yard sales, but a civilization or nation cannot exist without a currency. We buy gold and silver to protect us from politicians' universal practice of ruining the currency of the nation which put them in office. It's been happening for thousands of years, and won't stop any time soon.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
WWIII Has Begun
WWIII Has Begun
aspects.cc
Aug 09, 2008
http://news.aspects.cc/dictatorship/wwiii-has-begun
In the future, people will look back on the 8th of August, 2008 as the day WWIII began. Long in the planning, the defeated Lisbon Treaty faction within the EU has been pressing ahead anyway with their policy of destabilisation in the Balkans and the Caucasus.
Back in February, when the EU supported the unilateral independence of Kosovo, it was already perfectly clear that this destabilisation would not only touch the Balkan states, but was also giving the green light to every conceivable separatist movement and minority throughout the world.
Just as the war in the Balkans lead up to World War I, this ethnically complicated region is serving as a chessboard for EU geopolitical destabilisations, drawing Europe and Russia into conflict, with the ultimate aim to subsume Russia into an even more massive European super state.
aspects.cc
Aug 09, 2008
http://news.aspects.cc/dictatorship/wwiii-has-begun
In the future, people will look back on the 8th of August, 2008 as the day WWIII began. Long in the planning, the defeated Lisbon Treaty faction within the EU has been pressing ahead anyway with their policy of destabilisation in the Balkans and the Caucasus.
Back in February, when the EU supported the unilateral independence of Kosovo, it was already perfectly clear that this destabilisation would not only touch the Balkan states, but was also giving the green light to every conceivable separatist movement and minority throughout the world.
Just as the war in the Balkans lead up to World War I, this ethnically complicated region is serving as a chessboard for EU geopolitical destabilisations, drawing Europe and Russia into conflict, with the ultimate aim to subsume Russia into an even more massive European super state.
Monday, September 8, 2008
US Government takes over mortgage giants
US Government takes over mortgage giants
Sep 07, 2008
By Alan Zibel and Martin Crutsinger, AP Business Writers
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080907/mortgage_giants_crisis.html
US Government seizes control of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration seized control Sunday of troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, aiming to stabilize the housing market turmoil that is threatening financial markets and the overall economy.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is betting that providing fresh capital to the two firms will eventually lead to lower mortgage rates, spur homebuying demand and slow the plunge in home prices that has ravaged many areas of the country.
The huge potential liabilities facing each company, as a result of soaring mortgage defaults, could cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars, but Paulson stressed that the financial impacts if the two companies had been allowed to fail would be far more serious.
"A failure would affect the ability of Americans to get home loans, auto loans and other consumer credit and business finance," Paulson said.
But more importantly, "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are so large and so interwoven in our financial system that a failure of either of them would cause great turmoil in our financial markets here at home and around the globe," he added in a televised announcement.
Sep 07, 2008
By Alan Zibel and Martin Crutsinger, AP Business Writers
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080907/mortgage_giants_crisis.html
US Government seizes control of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration seized control Sunday of troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, aiming to stabilize the housing market turmoil that is threatening financial markets and the overall economy.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is betting that providing fresh capital to the two firms will eventually lead to lower mortgage rates, spur homebuying demand and slow the plunge in home prices that has ravaged many areas of the country.
The huge potential liabilities facing each company, as a result of soaring mortgage defaults, could cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars, but Paulson stressed that the financial impacts if the two companies had been allowed to fail would be far more serious.
"A failure would affect the ability of Americans to get home loans, auto loans and other consumer credit and business finance," Paulson said.
But more importantly, "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are so large and so interwoven in our financial system that a failure of either of them would cause great turmoil in our financial markets here at home and around the globe," he added in a televised announcement.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Once in 100 Year Crisis?
Once in 100 Year Crisis?
Joe Average
Sep 02, 2008
http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/swagell/2008/0902.html
Robert Prechter has long been a lone voice in the wilderness warning of an imminent deadly deflationary collapse into global recession/depression rather than an extended hyperinflationary blow-off (despite the frantic efforts of desperate central bankers to inflate money supply). Now it seems respected financial guru Richard Russell (Dow Theory Letters) has similar concerns;
"...the markets are telling us to prepare for hard times, and a global spate of the worst deflation to be seen in generations...sophisticated money is cashing out, raising cash, preparing for world deflation. This is why gold has been sinking...why stocks have been falling. What I see is a coming world deflation. What’s the best stance in a deflationary situation? Lots of cash...US Dollars and US Treasury paper".
Joe Average
Sep 02, 2008
http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/swagell/2008/0902.html
Robert Prechter has long been a lone voice in the wilderness warning of an imminent deadly deflationary collapse into global recession/depression rather than an extended hyperinflationary blow-off (despite the frantic efforts of desperate central bankers to inflate money supply). Now it seems respected financial guru Richard Russell (Dow Theory Letters) has similar concerns;
"...the markets are telling us to prepare for hard times, and a global spate of the worst deflation to be seen in generations...sophisticated money is cashing out, raising cash, preparing for world deflation. This is why gold has been sinking...why stocks have been falling. What I see is a coming world deflation. What’s the best stance in a deflationary situation? Lots of cash...US Dollars and US Treasury paper".
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)