The Accelerating World / Global Financial Crisis / Collapse

[Red Dawn]

10 November 2009

"Speculative recovery sows seeds of an even greater economic crash"

"Last Wednesday the Federal Reserve Board’s policy-making Federal Open Market Committee announced it was holding its target federal funds interest rate to the current level of zero to 0.25 percent. While that decision had been widely anticipated, there was much speculation that the Fed would employ language in its announcement to indicate that it would soon begin to raise interest rates."...

http://tinyurl.com/ygknv9g

[Red Dawn]

10.11.2009

"Who is to Blame for the Financial Crisis?"...

http://en.fondsk.ru/article.php?id=2581

[tio]

The story is grotesque.

powerful piece Red, thanks.

Speculative recovery sows seeds of an even greater economic crash
By Barry Grey
... Oops I realise this is a repost ... I compile my posts in notepad and just paste them ... sometimes I don't check for reposts, it's sloppy I know ... apologies ... It just goes to show that I am on Red's wavelength

De Nile is not just a river in Egypt
Doug Hornig
http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/11.09/denile.html

If You Thought the Housing Meltdown Was Bad

...wait until you see what's in the cards for commercial real estate.

That's right, the next train wreck will be in commercial real estate. Couldn't be worse than last year's residential market crash? That remains to be seen. But it's coming soon, probably as early as the second quarter of next year, and there's nothing that can prevent it. The government will intervene, trying desperately to delay the day of reckoning, and may even succeed. For a while. But make no mistake about it, that train is going off the tracks no matter what.

Interview with the President: Jail Time for Those without Health Care Insurance?
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch ... rance.html

The President said that he didn’t think the question over the appropriateness of possible jail time is the “biggest question” the House and Senate are facing right now.

wtf?

[Editor]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-storie ... -21812872/

A city high-flyer sobbed yesterday as she claimed her ex-boss's sexual harassment had driven her to "a cocktail of medication" and the brink of suicide.

Jordan Wimmer, 29, said anti-stress drugs she was on because of Mark Lowe's alleged bullying left her "a bit slow". She added: "My mental acuity is not there because I'm groggy."

The blonde Canadian told the London tribunal he even considered hiring a vice girl at their hedge fund. Ms Wimmer alleged he boasted of liking Asian women but not "blondes because they were too commercial looking". He also allegedly called her a "dumb blonde" who should "work more and dress less".

Sympathies untill I read :

She was suicidal before quitting her £600,000 job in February, the panel heard. She is suing for £4million.

Wonder what she was doing which makes her think she deserved anything like that salary at the age of 29

"Strange" how the BBC article mentions more details of certain items, but not a whisper about her huge salary or multi-million pound claim :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8352984.stm

Is the BBC's remit now to protect the banksters' reputations ? Do they realise that the whole take on the story will shift when people realise that the being paid that kind of salary must carry huge risks and job insecurity ?

[tio]

Is the BBC's remit now to protect the banksters' reputations ? Do they realise that the whole take on the story will shift when people realise that the being paid that kind of salary must carry huge risks and job insecurity ?

My 2p .. no one and I mean no one goes to work in the City without knowing exactly what they are letting themselves in for. Thirty by Fourty .. anyone?

BBC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC#Critic ... troversies

BBC News forms a major department of the BBC, and regularly receives complaints of bias.

Balen Report
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Balen_Report

It is sad that the BBC felt it necessary to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money fighting for three years to try to load the system against those requesting information from it.

Reith, John
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/John_Reith

Regardless of his personal disagreements with Churchill over editorial control during the general strike, Reith regarded the BBC as a tool of the British parliament, and allowed the broadcasting of material unfavorable to the strikers. Workers’ representatives were not allowed to broadcast their side of the dispute and the BBC came to be labeled the "British Falsehood Corporation."

Lord Reith: The Hypocrite who built the BBC
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... t-BBC.html

As the founder of the BBC, Lord Reith has long been seen as a model of moral probity and rectitude...But, literally behind the scenes, all was not quite as it seemed.

Boardoom execution at Reed
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/11 ... n-at-reed/

Forget the recent reshuffle at Barclays, this is a proper executive level knifing.

Mainstream Media Death Watch
http://mainstreammediadeathwatch.com/
google ..
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&ei ... ia&spell=1

all the kings horses and all the kings men ..
11 Page Summary of Senator Dodd's 1,136 Page Proposed Financial Reform Bill
Washington's Blog
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/11/ ... posed.html

I'm too busy to really read the summary, let alone the full bill. Please help me figure out what is good, bad or just plain missing, and then let's all phone our senators.

Senator Dodd's Bill: Trying to Prop Up a Broken System
Washington's Blog
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/11/ ... -save.html

Specifically, Dodd's bill - while sounding good - is really an all-out attempt to save the current, broken system.

Perfect Inverse Correlation Between the Dollar and the Dow
Washington's Blog
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/11/ ... tween.html

Karl Denninger - who is always worth reading - shares 2 stunning charts which show the inverse correlation between the dollar and the Dow:

Statistics: Wealth in America (and in Congress)
Washington's Blog
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/11/ ... nd-in.html

A report by University of California, Berkeley economics professor Emmanuel Saez concludes that income inequality in the United States is at an all-time high, surpassing even levels seen during the Great Depression.

New Rules and More Lies Hide Cancerous Commercial Real Estate Loans
Mish
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... erous.html

Thanks to "new rules" that extend and pretend, Synovus will no longer have to be so aggressive in disposing assets. It can pretend it is "well capitalized" for a while longer while regulators wink and nod and give the thumbs up sign that everything is just fine, while cancerous loans eat a Synovus' insides.

Note how the Fed and FDIC always seek to buy time, even when buying time does nothing but make the problems worse.

[tio]

Making Wall Street Pay
By Dean Baker
http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... e23935.htm

Wall Street's irresponsible bankers caused this economic crisis. It's only fair that they pay to clean up their mess

Which will come out on top: paper or gold?
William Rees-Mogg
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/commen ... 908789.ece

This may help to explain the strange events that occurred in the G20 finance meeting at St Andrews. In the 1970s, an American economist, James Tobin saw very clearly the speculation that would arise after Nixon ended the convertibility of the dollar into gold. Tobin, who later won a Nobel Prize, knew that gold had been the standard by which other currencies were valued. Once that was removed, he feared a growth of excessive speculation, such as the inflation of the 1970s, or the successive bubbles of recent years. He thought that this speculation could be controlled if it were taxed. He advocated a new transaction tax.

At St Andrews, Gordon Brown unexpectedly advocated the adoption of a global Tobin tax. He was immediately repudiated by Timothy Geithner, the US Treasury Secretary, and by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the IMF. The proposed global Tobin tax has the support of Oxfam and of some left-wing economists, but without American support, it does not have the least chance of being adopted.

The Swedes experimented with a national transaction tax in the 1980s. It did not work because bankers avoided paying tax by transferring transactions to markets in which it was not imposed. The tax had to be abandoned in the early 1990s. This negative history must have been known to Mr Brown; perhaps the clumsiness of his diplomacy reflects the pressure he is feeling.

[Red Dawn]

11 Nov 2009

"Recession will mean ‘extremely painful’ year, bank governor warns"...

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/poli ... s-1.931900

I think Mervyn King got that wrong he should have said...YEARS.

[Editor]

GBP down on the day (as expected), but stock market RISES .. they are salivating at the extra trillions in tax payers' money they are due to get from further quantitative easing. Is this a sure sign that the interests of the common people are diametrically opposite to the interests of the market / jet set ? When will the penny drop that the markets only make excess profits by exploiting the misery of the common people (whether being forced buyers of "essential" drugs, or via QE).

[tio]

In a Time of Universal Deceit Telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act
Politics / US Politics
Nov 11, 2009 - 10:24 AM
By: James_Quinn
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article14967.html

Are you ready to fight?

FedSpeak Translation - There Is No Recovery
Karl Denninger
http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/1 ... speak.html

The mainstream media will not show you the above charts, as they put the lie to any claim that the market is "foreshadowing" economic recovery in the next six to twelve months.

It is doing no such thing - it is responding to hot money flows that are being intentionally generated and, if you follow them as an investor (rather than as a minute-by-minute trader) you will be crushed, just as those who bet on recovery in Japan following their original collapse were.

Bernanke, Geithner and the other stooges in our government and media are intentionally misleading you.

Again.

Which big country will default first?
by Martin Hutchinson November 09, 2009
http://www.prudentbear.com/index.php/th ... t_id=10307

Britain has two additional problems not shared by the United States and Japan. First ...

A second British problem not shared by the U.S. is ...

The other question to be answered ...

We'd all better hope the urge for fiscal responsibility hits London ...

And Mish agrees with Ed as to which currency leads the field in terms of outright basket cases ...
Budget Deficits Soar Out of Control in Eurozone, Germany, US, UK, Japan; Yen's Last Hurrah
Mish
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... ol-in.html

See any fiat currencies above that you like? Assuming you don't, I don't either. Moreover, I think the Yen is the worst of the lot on a relative basis. I also think the Yen is likely to have a serious currency crisis before the US.

Let them eat cake because “we don’t want to be surrounded by tenements”
by Stacy Herbert
http://maxkeiser.com/2009/11/11/let-the ... tenements/

Stacy Summary: My mother was a scientist for Pfizer, so I spent many a childhood summer day at this facility in Groton. The whole area smells like a giant petri dish but one could hardly classify anywhere in this area as having ‘tenements’ . . . unless, of course, you are one of the select Marie Antoinettes that live off the increasingly generous government purse.

[tio]

Realizing the Fraud of Economic Recovery
Bill Bonner
http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/11.09/fraud.html

The Dow rose 200 points yesterday, bringing it only about 75 points below the 10,300 level. Why is the 10,300 mark important?

It's not really...it's just the point where this bounce will equal the bounce following the crash of '29.

Cascading Theft ... Compounding Misery
Peter Souleles
http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/11.09/misery.html

If war and banking are the terrible Siamese twins then surely government is the mother of these two creatures.

Hedge funds demand change to EU pay plan
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news ... -plan.html

The rules on pay have shocked managers, particularly in London, where 80pc of the alternatives industry is based.

What if the ratings agencies' patience with UK runs out?
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/tr ... -runs-out/

“We have no choice about whether to tighten fiscal policy,” says Michael Saunders, UK economist at Citigroup. It’s a question of whether we do so before or after a crisis.”

Max Keiser on dollar: Buffet's toilet paper opium for China
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOpamsejBxQ

Goldman On Why A Second Stimulus Is Merely Months Away
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/goldma ... onths-away

Barofsky Says TARP ‘Almost Certainly’ Will Bring Loss to U.S.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... 4MGDYGcZHk

America’s Dismal Future
http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... e23950.htm

Business Aims to Relax Bans on Products Made with Child & Slave Labor
http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... e23951.htm