Economics? Yikes!

[cortés]

Soros: World Financial System on Brink of Collapse - Real Time Economics - WSJ

The world financial system not only isn’t functioning, it’s on the brink of
collapse, according to investor George Soros.

The current global financial system is in a “self-reinforcing process of
disintegration,” Mr. Soros warned, and “the consequences could be quite
disastrous.

S&P Puts 15 EU Nations on Negative Credit Watch

S&P Ratings Warning To Top Euro Nations
FT.com - December 5, 2011

Standard and Poor’s has warned Germany and the five other triple A
members of the eurozone that they risk having their top-notch ratings
downgraded as a result of deepening economic and political turmoil in the
single currency bloc.

The US ratings agency is poised to announce later on Monday that it is
putting Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland, and
Luxembourg on “creditwatch negative”, meaning there is a one-in-two
chance of a downgrade within 90 days.

It warned all six governments that their ratings could be lowered to AA+ if
the creditwatch review failed to convince its experts. Markets have been
braced for a potential downgrade of France but few expected Germany’s
top rating to be called into question.

Italian Minister Bursting Into Tears While Announcing Pension Reforms

Business Insider - Joe Weisenthal - Dec. 4, 2011

A commenter translates part of her statement: "I'm sorry. The people who
work have no more money to give you. As a result, the pension age will go
to 62 years old for woman, and 65 years old for man. No longer can we
afford to give you a raise every year for inflation of prices, so you will not
get this."

[cortés]

Euro Breakup Is Inevitable
CNNMoney - Dec. 9, 2011

Like it or not, the euro is doomed

"All of the harebrained schemes invented so far to resolve the crisis in
euroland remain half thought out, unfunded and unimplemented...and
therefore, still harebrained," said Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High
Frequency Economics.

European leaders, particularly from France and Germany -- the eurozone's
two largest economies -- have had very different views on the ultimate role
of the fiscal compact, and the latest proposals are just "too little, too late,
and miss the structural problem," said Leach.

Germany has been strongly opposed to sending the ECB down a path of
printing money to stabilize Europe's economy.

"Printing money is associated with hyperinflation, the collapse of the
Weimer Republic, and the rise of Hitler," noted Leach. "From a German
perspective the question is that, once the ECB has lost its virginity printing
money, just how promiscuous could it become."

Worries grow over IMF loans to Europe | Reuters

The prospect of European heavyweights like Italy or Spain turning to the
IMF for rescue loans is worrying the United States and other nations that
fear they could suffer losses on funds they have extended to the IMF.

Despite the International Monetary Fund's stable record - no borrower has
ever defaulted on an IMF loan and no country has ever lost money lending
to the IMF - there are concerns about the IMF's growing exposure to the
euro zone.

That exposure could take a quantum leap if Italy and Spain need bailouts,
a level of assistance that would almost certainly dwarf the loans already
approved for Greece, Ireland and Portugal in deals engineered with the
European Union.

Moody’s Downgrades Top French Banks
New York Times - LIZ ALDERMAN - December 9, 2011

PARIS — In another sign of how Europe’s debt crisis is rippling through the
banking system, Moody’s Investors Service on Friday downgraded the
three largest banks in France, saying there was a “very high� probability
that the French government would step in to support them if conditions
worsened.

France Faces Spectre Of Downgrade
AFP - Ursula Hyzy – December 10, 2011

PARIS — France faces the spectre of a downgrade of its AAA credit rating by
not one but two notches after a heated EU summit considered a last
chance to save the debt-struck eurozone.

The Standard and Poor's ratings agency warned France, Germany and 13
other eurozone members that they faced a possible downgrade amid
worsening economic conditions and discord among the region's leadership.

While Germany is in the same dock, France distinguishes itself by being the
only one of the six countries with the hallowed Triple-A rating that may see
two notches knocked off.

[cortés]

House Of Cards

PANIC: BANK RUN IN LATVIA...
CNBC - 12 Dec 2011

Latvia's largest bank is scrambling to contain a run among depositors
gripped by fears of the bank's imminent collapse.

The panic among Swedish-owned Swedbank's depositors began Sunday
after rumors spread that the financial institution was facing legal and
liquidity problems in Estonia and Sweden.

Butter shortage in Norway pushes price per pound to nearly $500...

Euro zone fiscal pact fails to restore confidence...

Stocks Slide on Debt Doubts...

China Alarms Go Off — Time to Hedge Bets

The Chinese real-estate market is signaling alarms and may eventually fall
into a worse situation than we had in the U.S.

One of the most sad parts of this video occurs at approx 10:30 where the
Bejing resident begs for government intervention so they can afford a home.
What they dont understand is that the communist Chinese government's iron-fisted
control of the economy is the very source of their problem...not the solution.
Wake up America...this is your future.

More government or the destruction of capitalism [to usher in socialism] is not
the answer....FREEDOM is the answer. Freedom of individuals and freedom of
markets without government interference.

[cortés]

Its How Wars Begin...
Churchill's naval blockade of Germany prior to WWI.
Should an EU block in the slow trainwreck of collapse concern itself
with retailation against a nation that simply wants to retain its
independence?

UK News :: EU plots revenge against Britain

BRITAIN last night faced a revenge attack for David Cameron’s EU snub
when a senior Brussels bureaucrat promised a new deluge of damaging
red tape on UK business.

His remarks were being seen last night as the opening salvo in a new
offensive by Brussels chiefs to isolate and bully Britain as punishment for Mr
Cameron’s defiant stand against a further EU power grab.

Conservative MP Douglas Carswell said: “This unelected commissioner has
helpfully reminded us exactly why we need to be outside the new fiscal
union.

“Britain needs to be outside the EU, like Switzerland, to keep our banks
and other financial institutions outside the clutches of bureaucrats like Mr
Rehn.

“If he is such an economic genius, why is the continent that he helps to
preside over heading down a debt vortex? He should be worrying about his
own maths, not ours.�

EDIT:
Overnight development:
Deadly Attack Rocks Central Liege In Belgium

[cortés]

First Blood.

IMF Chief Warns Over 1930s-Style Threats - CNN.com
FT.com - Hugh Carnegy/George Parker/Peter Spiegel - December 16, 2011

(Financial Times) -- The managing director of the International Monetary
Fund has warned that the global economy faces the prospect of "economic
retraction, rising protectionism, isolation and . . . what happened in the 30s
[Depression]", as European tensions again flared over suggestions in Paris
that the UK's credit rating should be downgraded before France's.

"There is no economy in the world, whether low-income countries,
emerging markets, middle-income countries or super-advanced economies
that will be immune to the crisis that we see not only unfolding but
escalating," Christine Lagarde said in a speech at the US state department
in Washington. "It is not a crisis that will be resolved by one group of
countries taking action. It is going to be hopefully resolved by all countries,
all regions, all categories of countries actually taking action.

Separately, a draft prospectus prepared for the eurozone bail-out fund
includes investor warnings that the euro could break apart or cease to be a
"lawful currency" entirely.

Eurozone crisis poses military risk, warns defence chief General Sir David Richards - Telegraph

Italy risks social explosion over austerity: union chief | Reuters

[cortés]

French Credit Downgrade Could Come 'Within Days'
guardian.uk - Richard Wachman/Toby Helm/Kim Willsher - 17 December 2011

Standard & Poor's expected downgrade could create panic in the financial
markets and make eurozone crisis even worse

France could be stripped of its triple-A credit rating before Christmas,
raising new doubts about the survival of the euro, analysts have predicted.

Standard & Poor's – one of the three top rating agencies – is expected to
cut France's rating within days, in a move that would weaken its ability to
raise funds on financial markets.

EDIT:
As of 2010, France is the world's 5th and Europe's 2nd largest national
economy by nominal GDP.

[Swift Silver]

Corrupt Maxine Waters in Line to Replace Barney Frank on Committee.

Maxine Waters (D-CA) has been named one of the most corrupt members of
Congress by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) in 2005,
2006, 2009 and 2011. She is facing an ethics trial for using her position as a
ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee to force Treasury
officials to meet with her for what the House Ethics Committee alleges led to
favorable action for OneUnited Bank.

PJ Media » Corrupt Maxine Waters in Line to Replace Barney
Frank on Committee

[cortés]

The Fundamental Transformation Of America
There are not words alarming enough to comment on this so lets just keep
it simple. Most people are in denial or simply cannot get the heads around
the fact that a major catastrophe is actually happening in this country.

The media wont tell you about it...they've proven themselves 100%
corrupt. They're the ones that daily present "signs of recovery &
improvement". Do any of the facts below remotely resemble anything even
close to a glimmer of recovery?

The government wont tell you the truth...they've also proven to be 100%
corrupt and are in fact responsible for this. Remember they're the ones
who secretly handed out $8 Trillion dollars of taxpayer money that we only
found out about through force of a Freedom Of Information Act demand.
REVEALED: More Details On The Fed's Breathtaking $7.7 Trillion In Loans To Large Banks - Business Insider
They're also the ones who havent even bothered to pass a fiscal budget for 3 years.

This is not a terrible mistake or an accident. Neither the facts nor the
numbers support this. Even the most skeptical analysis cannot deny the reality
that given the grave situation we face, our government astonishingly
continues to race toward the cliff.

It does not require a PhD in Economics to simply examine our domestic
situation, coupled with that of Europe, and apply common sense and simple
mathematics to realise what is about to take place. There is no more
money. There are no more "fixes".

50 Facts About The U.S. Economy That Should Shock You

Even though most Americans have become very frustrated with this
economy, the reality is that the vast majority of them still have no idea just
how bad our economic decline has been or how much trouble we are going
to be in if we don’t make dramatic changes immediately.

Americans need to understand that America’s economy is precariously
balanced on the edge of full-blown collapse.

The heart of our economic problems is the Federal Reserve. The Federal
Reserve is a perpetual debt machine, it has almost completely destroyed
the value of the U.S. dollar and it has an absolutely nightmarish track
record of incompetence. If the Federal Reserve system had never been
created, the U.S. economy would be in far better shape. The federal
government needs to shut down the Federal Reserve and start issuing
currency that is not debt-based.

Highlights from the list of startling 2011 figures:

■ A staggering 48% of all Americans are either considered to be “low

income” or are living in poverty.

■ According to author Paul Osterman, about 20% of all U.S. adults
are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.

■ The Federal Reserve recently announced that the total net worth of U.S.
households declined by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter of 2011 alone.

■ According to a recent study conducted by the BlackRock Investment
Institute, the ratio of household debt to personal income in the United
States is now 154%.

■ The U.S. Postal Service has lost more than 5 billion dollars over the past
year. That number is projected to be over $14 billion in 2012.

■ In Stockton, California home prices have declined 64% from where
they were at when the housing market peaked.

■ If you can believe it, the median price of a home in Detroit is now just
$6000.

■ According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 18% of all homes in the state
of Florida are sitting vacant. That figure is 63% larger than it was just
ten years ago.

■ The United States spends about 4 dollars on goods and services from

China for every one dollar that China spends on goods and services from
the United States.

■ The six heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton have a net worth that is
roughly equal to the bottom 30% of all Americans combined.

■ If you can believe it, 37% of all U.S. households that are led by
someone under the age of 35 have a net worth of zero or less than zero.

■ Sadly, child poverty is absolutely exploding all over America. According to

the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4% of all children that
live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1% of all children that live
in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6% of all children that live in
Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6% of all children that live in
Detroit are living in poverty.

■ Today, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out
of every four [25%] American children is on food stamps.

■ A staggering 48.5% of all Americans live in a household that receives
some form of government benefits. Back in 1983, that number was
below 30%.

■ During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated
more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office
to the time that Bill Clinton took office.

[Swift Silver]

In this funny cartoon, an honest factory worker learns the truth about his favorite department store: that there's a very high cost for everyday low prices. Namely, unemployment!

[Swift Silver]

Thought I'd repost this in the spirit of Christmas.