Tag: Economic Collapse

How To Ruin An Economy

WE hear a lot about the situation in North Korea and Asia…..there have been many articles written about just what would happen if all these words come pushing and shoving.

But has anyone thought of the consequences to the economy?

Could this be more of a problem that the flying of bullets and missiles?

Finally, someone is looking at the situation in a realistic way.

Full marks for timing, Mr President. Last week marked the 10th anniversary of the start of the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, making it an appropriate moment for Donald Trump to threaten North Korea with obliteration.

One of the few achievements Trump can point to in his first six months in office is that shares on Wall Street have been steadily rising since his election victory last October. The “fire and fury” remark and the inevitable counter blast from Kim Jong-un gave the markets pause for thought. But not much more than that.

Source: How Trump v Kim can wreck the world economy without a shot being fired | Larry Elliott | Business | The Guardian

There is always more to a problem than what we hear on the evening news….that is mostly speculation and sensationalism.

We need all aspects of the situation/solution but instead we are fed only that which they want us to know or consider.

I’d put Bill ‘in charge of revitalizing the economy’

Oh Crap!

I have never heard 9 more terrifying words uttered.  It sent a shiver up my spine.

These words were spoken by candidate Hillary Clinton when asked what job would she have for her husband if she is elected…..

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton is beginning to hint at what role her husband, former President Bill Clinton, could have in her administration if elected president.

At a campaign stop in Fort Mitchell, Ky., Clinton said her husband would be “in charge of revitalizing the economy.”

Clinton said something similar at a campaign event in early May, saying she would bring him out of retirement to create jobs.

“He’s got more ideas a minute than anybody I know,” Clinton said. “Gotta put people back to work and make it happen. So we’re going to give it all we’ve got, absolute full-in 100 percent effort, because I worry we won’t recognize our country if we don’t do this.”

Now I know she wants history to be kind to her hubby but I do not have to be……Bubba’s signature policy NAFTA did more to kill the US manufacturing base than any policy before and his insistence that Glass-Steagall be repelled is what let banks go batcrap crazy that caused the economic collapse in 2007.

All I can say is that she is praying that the American voter has the attention span of a gnat and that they have the memory of a puppy.

People please before you vote for Clinton do a little reading or research and see what we got with the first Clinton in office……none of it is pretty.

Please do not let it happen again.

Will It Happen Again?

Just a little FYI for my readers…….

Remember back to 2007…..that was the year that the economy dropped like a rock…..and the housing market lead they way…..and we have been clawing back ever since……lots of lost money and lots of anger by the people of this country.

The president and the Congress worked hard (sorry that is the wrong word but for the sake of sanity I will let it go) to make sure that this type of crash never happens again…..do you believe that? (then I have a bridge I would like to talk about)…..

Here are some other troubling anecdotal signals on the housing market:

1. A major financial website recently ran a guide to the best cities to “flip” houses in. (I don’t want to encourage the behavior.) Real estate speculation via house “flipping” was another early sign of trouble ahead.

2. A few days later, news arrived that home prices in the Bronx had shot up by an astonishing 30% in the first quarter. Crazy advances in home values were, a decade ago, also a signal of trouble ahead.

3. Ads, then as now, were running on TV for “quick mortgages.”

All of these signals raise a serious question: Are we getting closer to another housing meltdown that will once again damage your investment portfolio?

Source: The seeds of the next housing crisis have been planted – MarketWatch – Linkis.com

Here we go again sports fans……

Hey A/holes, Better Do What The Saudis Say!

15 years after the fact the attacks on 9/11 are still making the news.  But the “news” has moved from the Congress inaction on the first responders bill to the country that may be at the heart of the attacks….Saudi Arabia.

There is a major story brewing about some of the pages that have taken out of the official report….28 of them to be exact.

It appears that the US may be covering up the extent of Saudi in the attacks of 9/11……not a story that the media is willing to cover….now ask yourself why…..but more on this situation…..

This is from an article in the NY Post….now take it at what it is worth for some think that it is nothing more than a scandal sheet and a rag…..

In its report on the still-censored “28 pages” implicating the Saudi government in 9/11, “60 Minutes” last weekend said the Saudi role in the attacks has been “soft-pedaled” to protect America’s delicate alliance with the oil-rich kingdom.

Actually, the kingdom’s involvement was deliberately covered up at the highest levels of our government. And the coverup goes beyond locking up 28 pages of the Saudi report in a vault in the US Capitol basement. Investigations were throttled. Co-conspirators were let off the hook.

Source: How US covered up Saudi role in 9/11 | New York Post

Apparently Obama has been summoned to the Kingdom and the “official” report is that the meeting is about regional security…..sorry I do not buy that…how about you?

Okay let’s say that the official pages are released….then the question would be….”what can the Saudis do to the US?”

I am so glad you asked……

How many times have you heard the mental midgets rant and rave about the debt that the Chinese own and how bad it would be if they decided to act on our debt….how many times?

It is true that the Chinese own a bunch of our debt…..but they are not alone.

Did you know that the Saudis own about $750 billion….. that is billion with a “B”…..?

Okay but what of it?

Saudi Arabia is threatening to sell $750 billion worth of American assets if Congress passes a bill that could lead to it being tried for the Sept. 11 attacks, the New York Times reports. According to RT, the bipartisan bill, which passed the judiciary committee in January, would tweak the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, nullifying the immunity granted to some countries when terror attacks in the US are involved. If passed, the bill could allow the families of Sept. 11 victims to bring the Saudi royal family and Saudi charities, who they believe funded the attacks, to court. Saudi Arabia claims it would need to sell its US assets if the bill is passed, lest the US government freeze them. Some economists are skeptical the Saudi government would follow through on the threat, as it would destroy its economy.

The Obama administration, warning it could lead to legal retaliations by other countries, has been trying to stop Congress from passing the bill. It’s a move that’s upsetting some families of Sept. 11 victims. “It’s stunning to think that our government would back the Saudis over its own citizens,” the Times quotes a woman whose husband died in the World Trade Center as saying. Meanwhile, Obama is also deciding whether or not to declassify 28 pages of a 2002 report allegedly containing information tying Saudi officials to the Sept. 11 attacks, Fox News reports. Both Bush and Obama have said those pages would be harmful for national security, but others say the government is trying to hide the involvement of a longtime ally.

The Obama admin is using the usual reason……national security as a reason for the pages to remain classified.  So why would the truth be dangerous?

The Senate bill is intended to make clear that the immunity given to foreign nations under the law should not apply in cases where nations are found culpable for terrorist attacks that kill Americans on United States soil. If the bill were to pass both houses of Congress and be signed by the president, it could clear a path for the role of the Saudi government to be examined in the Sept. 11 lawsuits.

Obama administration officials counter that weakening the sovereign immunity provisions would put the American government, along with its citizens and corporations, in legal risk abroad because other nations might retaliate with their own legislation. Secretary of State John Kerry told a Senate panel in February that the bill, in its current form, would “expose the United States of America to lawsuits and take away our sovereign immunity and create a terrible precedent.”

National security……one of those dog whistle slogans like “political correct”…..that conjures up visions of gloom and doom.

So are the Saudis bluffing?……Can the US take that chance?

Now why would you think that Obama has gone to Saudi Arabia…..( I have heard he packed his reliable knee pads)…..

Iraq: If Only We Had The Money

It is well known that Iraq is fighting a horrible battle with ISIS for control of the country……there are many problems encountered like the cost of the war, money for rebuilding infrastructure, etc…..and so far their oil production even with the war raging is up for FY 2015 so far……

Iraq’s crude oil production climbed to an all-time high of 4.18 million barrels a day in July, according to statistics from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

This was up from the 4.15 million bpd produced in June.

The southern oilfields accounted for exports of 3.06 million bpd, up about 40,000 barrels from June.

Then there is the cost of 36 American war planes scheduled to be delivered to Iraq in the very near future……

Lockheed Martin Corp this week will deliver the first of 36 F-16 fighter jets to Iraq, marking what Baghdad‘s envoy to the United States called a “new chapter” in his country’s ability to defend its vast borders with Iran and other neighbors.

Iraqi Ambassador Lukman Faily will travel to Lockheed’s Fort Worth, Texas, plant on Thursday for a ceremony at which Lockheed and the US government will formally deliver the first F-16 to Iraq.

Baghdad has also signed military contracts with Russia and the Czech Republic, among others, and has said it will not be able to fully defend its airspace until 2020.

Iraq also plans to buy Boeing Co Apache helicopters and other weapons from the US government as it assumes responsibility for its own defense and counterterrorism efforts.

Faily said the US government appreciated the urgency and scale of the challenge that Iraqi is facing given continued and mounting strife with insurgents.

(Who is flying these planes since the Iraqi Air Force is damn near non-existent?)

All that makes perfect sense….Iraq is trying to buy its way to success against ISIS….but then a recent development made me a bit apprehensive…..

It appears that Iraq may be near to bankrupt…….

Iraq’s ability to fight Islamic State extremists who control roughly a third of the country is hampered by a financial crisis that’s left the Baghdad government operating “hand to mouth,” Iraqi Ambassador Lukman Faily warned this week.

The inability to pay salaries on time to the soldiers and militiamen fighting the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has hurt morale and hindered progress in operations to retake key hubs that were captured by the jihadists, Faily said in an interview Thursday. And belt-tightening measures such as consolidating government ministries threaten to exacerbate ethnic and sectarian tensions by upsetting the delicate power-sharing quota system that’s been in place since the U.S.-led occupation authority took charge following the invasion of 2003.

If Iraq is running production at all time highs then why is it in so much financial trouble?  My guess…..the PSAs.  Production Sharing Agreements (PSA)…..a way for oil companies to screw the host country out of a share of the profits…..in other words oil companies among others are leading the way to Iraqi bankruptcy.

In case you would like more info on the PSAs….I covered it back in 2007….

Source: Who Gets Iraq’s Oil? | In Saner Thought

Ain’t capitalism grand?

France May Criminally Indict a Big Bank, Why Can’t the US?

Think back to 2008……you will recall the panic that set in because banks were about to crap all over the economy……and then we elected a new prez and he set about making banks “too big to fail”…..they got massive influxes of cash and we saved to go about their business of rigging the economy.

Does any of that sound familiar?

And the next question is how did these thieves manage to avoid prosecution?

Personally, I want these people to either do time or commit suicide for what they have done.

What kind of sick society rewards people that did that much damage to the economy?

Europe is trying to hold these people accountable……why cannot the US?

 

France May Criminally Indict a Big Bank, Why Can’t the US?.

 

As long as we are talking about France sand laws…..the are setr to possibly make mews again….this time in the Fashion world……..

France is expected to pass legislation to outlaw ultra-skinny fashion models, reports the CBC. The legislation now being debated would set up minimum weights based on body-mass index, a formula that would require a woman 5-foot-7 to weigh 120 pounds. And the measure wouldn’t just bar such models from runways, it would make it a criminal offense for fashion houses and agents to use them in ad campaigns or in any professional capacity. Those in violation would face six months in prison and fines of up to $79,000.

“This is an important message to young women, young women who see these models as an aesthetic ideal,” says the French health minister, Marisol Touraine, as quoted at France24. The lawmaker who wrote the legislation is a doctor who estimates that up to 40,000 people in France have anorexia, most of them teens. Israel, Italy, and Spain already have similar laws on the books, but the New York Times notes that France’s legislation would likely be far more influential. “It would almost certainly raise the debate to a new level, especially in Paris, the spiritual capital of the fashion world,” writes Alissa Rubin.

BRILLIANT!  Looks like models may once again have shape……..I could not be more pleased.

What say you?

How American businessmen are ruining American business — and the U.S. economy – The Week

Many Americans have blamed business for the slow rate of jobs growth…..and for me they deserve all the criticism……it is all about their bottom line…..screw the country and especially screw the people……

Americans, all Americans, need to wake up to the fact they they, corporations, are NOT on the side of the people……they fund crap like the GOP and all the time they get corporate welfare….

we need to take this country back from sleazy politicians and fat cat bankers……who’s with me?

 

How American businessmen are ruining American business — and the U.S. economy – The Week.

Iceland Shows The World

This would have been the perfect gift for the country to give to its people on the joy of the season……start putting the thieves that work at banks in prison…….wishful thinking I know but at least one country has done the right thing…….(read on)…..

There has been lots of mumbling and grumbling about what the bankers were allowed to get away with when they caused the economic meltdown of 2008……..they have made obscene bonuses and still walk among us even after about 50% of the population lost lots of their coveted nest egg that they were depending on for a comfortable retirement….the American Dream was crapped on by the banks and the thieves they employ……some Americans have called for these crooks to be jailed for they basically robbed the population of their funds….but so far they got bigger bonuses and are not help responsible for their actions…….what to do…..what to do?

The small island country of Iceland has shown the world what should be done to these cons……

(Newser) – Iceland has done something highly unusual with some of the bank chiefs blamed for the country’s 2008 financial collapse: put them on trial and sent them to prison. Four former Kaupthing Bank bosses have been sentenced to between three and five years for market abuses relating to a deal where a Qatari sheikh bought a confidence-boosting stake in the bank with money that had been provided by the bank itself, the BBC reports.

Prosecutors said the loans, made soon before Kaupthing collapsed under massive debts, were made solely to boost the bank’s share price, reports Reuters. The bank’s former chief executive and chairman of the board received prison terms, along with one of its majority owners and the chief of its Luxembourg branch. The sentences are the heaviest Iceland has ever handed down for financial fraud, but prosecutors say a bigger case against Kaupthing is in the works

And that my friends is how you hold con artists responsible for their actions……America should follow suit….but NO…we fine them and let them return to the actions they were doing that caused the economic collapse……where is the logic here?

Road To Ruin

Here we go again…..and again…….

By now we all have had enough of the crap that Congress spreads……we can debate who is to blame…..but the truth is ………..WE ARE TO BLAME!  By we I mean us voters that keep electing the same morons year after year and then we cannot understand what went wrong….

But while we are scratching our heads and bitching about those damn Dems or Repubs or the Tea Partyers the economy is losing ground quickly….and that cannot be a good thing no matter where you stand or who you listen to on the radio……

(Newser) – As lawmakers scramble to strike a last-minute deal that would allow the government to keep borrowing money, Fitch Ratings issued a shot across the bow this afternoon: It put the nation’s AAA on a “negative” watch, reports MarketWatch, meaning a downgrade is possible unless things get resolved soon. “The prolonged negotiations over raising the debt ceiling (following the episode in August 2011) risks undermining confidence in the role of the US dollar as the preeminent global reserve currency, by casting doubt over the full faith and credit of the US.” (Full text here.) The nation hits its debt-ceiling limit on Thursday. For the record, Fitch and Moody’s still have the US at the highest AAA rating, though Standard & Poor’s downgraded its rating during the 2011 crisis, notes Business Insider.

Pat yourself on the back….you have f*cked the country……and GOOD!