Tag: Recession

Is Recession Waiting?

The economic news is not what I would call good….between tariffs and DOGE screwing with the government things are , according to lead economists, pointing to a serious recession looming….

A former Obama administration economic adviser said Wednesday that the Federal Reserve’s forecast of increased unemployment, accelerating inflation, and slower growth driven by President Donald Trump’s economic policies could portend a return of the “stagflation” that plagued the nation in the 1970s.

The Federal Open Markets Committee, which sets U.S. monetary policy, downgraded its economic outlook for 2025 from an initial projection of 2.1% growth to 1.7%. FOMC also revised its inflation forecast upward from 2.5% to 2.8%.

While FOMC said that “recent indicators suggest that economic activity has continued to expand at a solid pace,” the committee noted that “uncertainty around the economic outlook has increased.”

Fears of an economic slowdown or even a recession have increased dramatically since Trump took office and imposed tariffs on some of the nation’s biggest trade partners while moving to gut critical social programs in order to fund a $4.5 trillion tax cut that will overwhelmingly benefit wealthy Americans.

“Inflation has started to move up now. We think partly in response to tariffs and there may be a delay in further progress over the course of this year,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said during a Wednesday news conference, at which he said interest rates will remain unchanged. “The survey data [of] both household and businesses show significant large rising uncertainty and significant concerns about downside risks.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-stagflation

But as far as the news I see on the tube do not take this outlook….why is that?

Could any bad news be withheld from the public?

As Politicoreported Friday, experts serving on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) Technical Advisory Committee were informed this week that they were no longer needed, leaving the BLS without a panel that has long advised the Labor Department on how economic changes can impact data collection.

A page for the committee was removed from the Labor Department’s website, along with one that had information about the Data Users Advisory Committee, which has advised on how businesses and policymakers can use the agency’s economic reports.

“It would be a bad sign for a software company to cancel all beta testing if you expect to keep making better software,” Michael Madowitz, an economist at the Roosevelt Institute who served on the data users committee, told Politico. “This feels like the same sort of thing.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/how-will-trumps-tariffs-affect-the-economy

This info is info that every American family needs to have access to so they can determine their family economic health.

No info like this should ever be kept from the public.

Then came more bad news for the economy….Donny and the magic Sharpie will add a new 25% tariff on autos…..

President Trump announced a 25% tariff on imported cars Wednesday, a move he said would “lead to tremendous growth in the automotive industry.” The tariff, to be implemented April 2, will apply to finished cars and trucks imported to the US, including American brands assembled in different countries, the New York Times reports. In remarks at the Oval Office, Trump seemed to rule out exemptions for vehicles from Canada and Mexico, reports the Wall Street Journal. “What we’re going to be doing is a 25% tariff on all cars not made in the US,” he said. Asked if the tariff could be lifted, Trump said it is “100%” permanent.

Trump said car prices would go down, though since almost half the vehicles sold in the US are imported, analysts expect prices to rise significantly. The current tariff on auto imports is 2.5%. After Trump’s announcement, shares in top US automakers dropped sharply in after-hours trading, NBC News reports. European and Japanese automakers will be hit hard by the tariff, and countermeasures are expected, the Times reports. The Detroit News predicts that the “entire industry will likely face severe consequences, from higher vehicle prices to supply chain breakdowns,” if high tariffs are in place for long.

Tesla, which makes all of its vehicles sold in the US in California and Texas, will be less affected than other major US automakers, but Trump said Elon Musk did not influence tariff policy and has “never asked me for a favor in business whatsoever.” Tesla would be hit a lot harder if the tariff was applied to components as well as finished vehicles, the Times notes. If the tariff is fully passed on to consumers, the average auto price could rise $12,500, according to the AP. Trump said Wednesday that he could give car buyers a break by allowing them to deduct interest paid on auto loans from their federal income tax—as long as the vehicles were made in America.
With these new tariffs beginning next month and you may be looking for a new car a few things that you need to watch…..

Wall Street got pulled in opposite directions Thursday as President Trump’s latest tariff escalation created winners and losers among auto stocks, while better-than-expected data on the economy helped support the market.

  • The S&P 500 slipped 18.89 points, or 0.3%, to 5,693.31 after drifting between small gains and losses through the day.
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 155.09 points, or 0.4%, to 42,299.70.
  • The Nasdaq composite fell 94.98 points, or 0.5% to 17,804.03.

Even General Motors sank 7.4% for one of the market’s sharper losses after Trump announced 25% tariffs on imported cars. Ford Motor dropped 3.9%.

US automakers selling vehicles in the country can feel the pain of tariffs because their supply chains are spread throughout North America, the AP reports. Trump says he wants more manufacturing to take place within the US. “There are still a lot of unknowns, but if this remains in place, there will clearly be some pain for the companies to digest,” according to UBS analyst Joseph Spak. Among the uncertainties are how the government will determine how to apply tariffs to parts that are compliant with the free-trade agreement that it has with Mexico and Canada but are not made entirely within the US. Tracking parts could be difficult, according to Spak.
All you need is information you can trust.
Let the recession begin!

Watch your finances

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is That A Recession On The Horizon?

The prospect of one those damnable recessions may be on the horizon….even Donny concedes that it is a possibility…may be ot started sooner than expected….

he US stock market’s sell-off cut deeper on Monday as Wall Street questioned how much pain President Trump will let the economy endure endure through tariffs and other policies in order to get what he wants.

  • The S&P 500 fell 155.64 points, or 2.7%, to 5,614.56.
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 890.01 points, or 2.1%, to 41,911.71.
  • The Nasdaq composite fell 727.90 points, or 4%, to 17,468.32.

It was the worst day yet in a stretch where the S&P 500 has swung more than 1%, up or down, seven time in eight days because of Trump’s on-and-off again tariffs. The worry is that the whipsaw moves will either hurt the economy directly or create enough uncertainty to drive US companies and consumers into an economy-freezing paralysis, the AP reports.

The S&P 500 is down roughly 9% from its all-time high set on Feb. 19. The economy has already given some signals of weakening, mostly through surveys showing increased pessimism. And a widely followed collection of real-time indicators compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta suggests the US economy may already be shrinking. Asked over the weekend whether he was expecting a recession in 2025, Trump said: “I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing.” He then added, “It takes a little time. It takes a little time.”

Incase just in case this was usual (?) burp in the trading…..

President Trump would not rule out the possibility of a recession this year during an interview aired Sunday, saying it “takes a little time” for the economy and Americans to see the benefits of his new tariffs. He discounted the recent stock market losses, contending “you have to do what’s right” whether the markets like it or not, the Washington Post reports. Trump made the comments an interview for Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. He also discounted concerns that businesses need clarity and before making decisions about investments.

Businesses always say they need clarity, Trump said, calling it “almost a sound bite.” He added that US tariffs “may go up. I don’t think we’ll go down.” Asked by host Maria Bartiromo about the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s forecast that US economic output will shrink 2.8% this quarter, after growing for almost three years, Trump did not push back. “I hate to predict things like that,” he said, per the AP. “There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America.”

Is there any optimism that it can be avoided?

Wall Street started the new trading week in a foul mood on Monday, with the Dow tumbling about 500 points and the benchmark S&P 500 index down more than 2%. It’s a continuation of last week’s selloff blamed on tariff uncertainty, but Monday’s pain appears to have been worsened over the weekend by President Trump’s comments about a possible recession. In short, he declined to rule out the possibility in 2025, though his own commerce secretary disagreed. Related coverage:

  • Bankers’ pessimism: The Wall Street Journal reports that big banks are growing more worried about a recession. JPMorgan Chase says the chances are now 40%, up from 30% at the year’s start. Goldman Sachs also raised the risk (from 15% to 20%), as did Morgan Stanley, which also revised downward its economic growth forecasts for 2025 and 2026.
  • China’s move: The market’s wobbling comes as China’s retaliatory tariffs on a slew of American farm products took effect on Monday, reports the New York Times. Chicken, wheat, and corn were among the products affected. It’s another escalation of the trade fight between the US and Beijing, with China accusing Trump of disrupting “the security and stability of the global industrial and supply chains” through his tariffs.
  • Tesla, other giants: The companies seen as the “Magnificent Seven” on Wall Street were having less-than-magnificent Mondays, notes CNBC. Leading the losses were Tesla (down 8%), Nvidia (5%), Meta (5%), and Alphabet (4%). In fact, the tech-focused Nasdaq index was down more than 3% in early trading. One big fear is that a trade war will drive up prices, making it less likely the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates.
  • Effect on Musk: Tesla’s decline has hit the fortunes of Elon Musk, whose net worth is down $121 billion from its high of $464 billion in December, according to Forbes. His remaining $343 billion, however, still makes him the world’s richest person.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news…..but you have what all are thinking so please prepare for the worse.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Dim Horizon

There is some ominous future looming….even if the reassurance from the president….the near future does not look like it will be as bright as he predicts…..

A new economic projection contradicts President Biden’s hopeful forecast of a minor recession, at worst, ahead for the nation. A Bloomberg Economics model shows the likelihood of a recession beginning at some point before October 2023 at 100%. Until now, the model had the chance of a recession at 65%, Bloomberg reports. With the midterm elections less than a month away, Biden dismissed a downturn as unlikely in a CNN interview last week. “I don’t think there will be a recession,” the president said, per CNBC. “If it is, it’ll be a very slight recession.”

Other forecasts, including Bloomberg’s, have been less certain. An unrelated Boomberg survey of 42 economists found the likelihood of a recession in the next 12 months has risen 10 points in the past month, to 60%. The change in the forecast was attributed to widespread worsening among the data used as the model’s inputs. The model uses 13 macroeconomic and financial indicators in predicting the chance of a recession occurring at points from one month to two years from now. More generally, Bloomberg attributed the growing chances of a downturn to inflation and concern that the Federal Reserve will keep raising interest rates.

An old economic foe has returned and will do little to raise the hopes of the American people…..that old foe is   stagflation.

Inflation is back, and it is rising sharply, especially over the past year, owing to a mix of both demand and supply factors. This rise in inflation may not be a short-term phenomenon: the Great Moderation of the past three decades may be over, and we may be entering a new era of Great Stagflationary Instability.

Unless you are middle-aged and gray-haired, you probably hadn’t heard about the term stagflation until very recently. You may have barely heard about inflation. For a long time, until 2021, inflation—the increase in prices year to year—was below the advanced economies’ central banks’ target of 2%. Usually inflation is associated with high economic growth. When aggregate demand for goods, services, and labor is strong, coupled with positive animal spirits, optimism about the future, and possibly loose monetary and fiscal policies, you get stronger than potential economic growth and higher than target inflation. Firms are able to set higher prices because demand outstrips supply, and workers receive higher wages given a low unemployment rate. In recessions, on the other hand, you have low aggregate demand below the potential supply of goods, which leads to a slack in labor and goods markets, with ensuing low inflation or even deflation: prices go down as consumers’ spending declines. Stagflation is a term that refers to high inflation that happens at the same time as stagnation of growth or outright recession.

https://time.com/6221771/stagflation-crisis-debt-nouriel-roubini/

Nothing in economics is showing any good….we are headed for disaster…..and with that will come a change in government and a change that will not be good for the country.

But the GOP is hoping for a recession….makes running for office a dream.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Does Recession Loom Large?

All the indicators point to a recession on the horizon (some think it has begun already)…rising prices, food shortages, housing problems, markets unstable, all the indicators are there….

As the economic issues get worse and worse many are asking what is happening and what can we do…..

We all want answers so we can cope…..maybe this will either terrify you or help with your questions.

The stock market actually rose Wednesday in the immediate aftermath of the Fed’s decision to raise rates by a whopping 0.75%. Thursday, not so much. Major indexes fell more than 2% in early trading and sent the Dow below 30,000, its lowest level in more than a year, reports the Street and CNBC. In short, the new bear market only deepened. Now the big question: Will a recession follow? A look at coverage, including some of the many advice pieces now moving:

  • Context: A recession might well be on the way, if it hasn’t already arrived, writes Jeff Sommer in the New York Times. Its dry definition—”a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and lasts more than a few months”—doesn’t capture the “grim” economic toll it will take on households. But Sommer puts things in context, noting that recessions and bear markets might be more common than you think. The US, in fact, has been in recession 14% of the time since WWII. Among Sommer’s tips: Consider putting cash into I bonds from the Treasury Department, as well as money market funds, which will now be paying more interest.
  • Impact: Among other things, the steep rate hike means home and auto loans will continue to get more expensive, and you’ll pay more in interest on credit card debt, per Axios. The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage, for example, is now about 6%, double last year’s figure. And the average rate for credit cards is now 16.7% (and rising), up from 16% last year.
  • How bad? CNBC rounds up the opinions of economic strategists, and they seem pretty certain a recession is imminent. For example, Andrea Dicenso of Loomis Sayles puts the chances of a global recession at 75%. The silver lining: Dicenso and others say the Fed’s aggressive action could make the recession a “shallow” one and thus less painful. “If it’s a shallower recession, which I suspect it would be in the third quarter, the Fed actually has some room now to come back off of some of those rate increases,” says Michael Yoshikami of Destination Wealth Management.
  • Advice: A Washington Post column by Michelle Singletary has tips on handling a bear market and a possible recession. The first is in the don’t-panic vein. “Just shift your view a little bit and look at this as an opportunity if you’re a longer-term investor,” says one strategist. But in terms of tangible things to do: Eliminate credit debt, perhaps with a low-interest personal loan or a balance-transfer credit card. (See a related point in the item below.) Also, consider a side gig to boost emergency reserves, because “the standard advice of having three to six months’ worth of living expenses may not be enough.”
  • What not to do: Veronica Dagher at the Wall Street Journal digs into three common mistakes people make at such times. One is dipping too deeply into emergency funds to pay off credit card and other debt. It’s a balancing game that requires more finesse. A lot of people also reduce or eliminate allotments into their 401(k) funds, but that has some drawbacks, including the loss of employer matching funds. A third is not changing spending habits at all.

I hope this will answer few of your questions for the coming days…..and helps you prepare.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Pandemic And Economic Collapse

WE have a raging virus ripping through the country and world and our economy is a yo yo…..one day up two days down then one up, etc.

This thing could be a society killer…..

As of March 2020, the entire world is affected by an evil with which it is incapable of dealing effectively and regarding whose duration no one can make any serious predictions. The economic repercussions of the novel coronavirus pandemic must not be understood as an ordinary problem that macroeconomics can solve or alleviate. Rather, the world could be witnessing a fundamental shift in the very nature of the global economy.

The immediate crisis is one of both supply and demand. Supply is falling because companies are closing down or reducing their workloads to protect workers from contracting COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. Lower interest rates can’t make up the shortfall from workers who are not going to work—just as, if a factory were bombed in a war, a lower interest rate would not conjure up lost supply the following day, week, or month.

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2020-03-19/real-pandemic-danger-social-collapse

The Fed is trying desperately to curb a recession/depression and the government is also trying to prop up businesses in this time of need……but will it be enough?

As the Covid-19 pandemic worsens, it’s hard to decide which are scarier: the conversations I’m having with epidemiologists or the conversations I’m having with economists.

“This is an economic tsunami,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, told me. Social distancing is economic distancing. We are telling people to cease going to stores, to restaurants, to workplaces. We are insisting they stop supplying their labor, making their goods. To slow a pandemic, we are forcing a recession, perhaps a depression.

It was common, in 2008, to hear economists say that nothing had changed in the real economy. The US still had just as many workers, factories, and machines. We hadn’t lost any land or knowledge. There was no physical reason the economy was in crisis. The collapse in credit markets had changed economic behavior — businesses were afraid to invest and hire, and families were afraid or unable to spend.

https://www.vox.com/2020/3/23/21188900/coronavirus-stock-market-recession-depression-trump-jobs-unemployment

Will collapse be in the cards as a result of this virus and the lack of adequate response by the government?

Trump and the Congress are trying hard to avoid the collapse….but will it be worth it?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–06Sep19

Lots of talk these days about an approaching recession….the markets yo-yo sessions….up one day down the next 2….just feeds this predictions.

Do you remember the crash of 2008?

The markets bottomed out and billions of wealth was lost….especially the Baby Boomers…their savings was wiped out for the most part.

I bring this up because if and when we have another recession the group that will be destroyed monetarily are Millennials….

Why?

Most are already have massive debt and an recession would wipe out any economic progress they have made……

The trade war is dragging on. The yield curve is inverting. Investors are fleeing to safety. Global growth is slowing. The stock market is dipping. The Millennials are screwed.

Recessions are never good for anyone. A sputtering economy means miserable financial, emotional, and physical-health consequences for everyone from infants to retirees. But the next one—if it happens, when it starts happening—stands to hit this much-maligned generation particularly hard. For adults between the ages of 22 and 38, after all, the last recession never really ended.

Millennials got bodied in the downturn, have struggled in the recovery, and are now left more vulnerable than other, older age cohorts. As they pitch toward middle age, they are failing to make it to the middle class, and are likely to be the first generation in modern economic history to end up worse off than their parents. The next downturn might make sure of it, stalling their careers and sucking away their wages right as the Millennials enter their prime earning years.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/millennials-are-screwed-recession/596728/

This group will suffer more problems than the “Boomers” did…..they cannot prepare for this possibility if there is no savings to help lessen any blow from a recession.

Poverty will increase and bankruptcies will increase and financial ruin will be the only option for many.

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

The Economy, Stupid!

The markets have had wild swings for about a year now….but with that the profits roll on for the corporations…..the president’s lack of economic knowledge and the wild lies of something good is just making things worse.

And this past week it has come to a head (as they say)…..it happened in the bond markets……

An economic alarm bell has sounded in the US, sending warnings of a possible recession ahead—and sending the Dow plunging 800 points by the end of the day. Yields on 2-year and 10-year Treasury notes inverted early Wednesday, a market phenomenon that shows investors want more in return for short-term government bonds than for long-term bonds. It’s an indication that investors have lost faith in the soundness of the US economy, the AP reports. What appeared to be a slight thaw in trade relations between the US and China that had sent markets sharply higher Tuesday was quickly forgotten, with the Dow opening down 400 points. By 12:30pm ET it was down nearly 650 points; a half-hour later it had plunged 737 points, or 2.6%, reports CNBC. By end of day it was down 800, the S&P 500 was down 86, and the Nasdaq was down 242, per Marketwatch.

CNBC notes that bank stocks like Bank of America and Citigroup have been the big losers today, down 5% and 5.2% respectively, as “it gets tougher for [them] to make a profit lending money in such an environment.” The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note hit 1.622%, falling below the yield of a 2-year, which was 1.634%. The last inversion of this part of the yield curve was in December 2005, two years before a recession brought on by the financial crisis hit. An inversion like the one taking place Wednesday has preceded the last nine recessions dating back to 1955. When a recession might hit, if it does, is a little hazier. Months or even years have passed after an inversion takes place, and before economists can connect the two. Marketwatch notes Wednesday was the Dow’s worst day this year.

Here comes the “R” word…. a “recession”…..some are running worried….

Then there are the multiple lies about China and tariffs….remember when he said China would pay for the tariffs not the American people?  That was the same lie as Mexico would pay for that damn silly border wall.  Don’t forget the lie about all the billions flowing into the coffers of the nation…that was a lie as well…..

If China was gonna to pay and the pain would all be on someone else then why did Trump decide to postpone tariffs until mid-December?

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday backed off his Sept. 1 deadline for 10% tariffs on remaining Chinese imports, delaying duties on cellphones, laptops and other consumer goods, in the hopes of blunting their impact on U.S. holiday sales.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-trade-china-tariff/trump-backs-off-china-tariff-plan-with-delays-for-cellphones-laptops-idUKKCN1V31CR

Would “impact US holiday sales”…..that should tell you everything you need to know about these pseudo-economic solutions….even if you are not a genius like our Supreme Leader Trump.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

 

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?

Do You Know What happened In 2008?

Yes, I am talking about the crash and the ensuing recession, the unemployment, foreclosures and the tune continues…….you may know that your 401k is not worth the paper it is printed on…..but do you know just how the crash happened?

I am guessing that most Americans either do not know or maybe they just do not give a crap……but if you are truly interested in educating yourself on how you were screwed….then by all means read on…….if not then maybe a good episode of “Jersey Shore” that teaches a lot about life is on MTV….if you do not care enough to learn what happen then keep thy mouth shut when it blows up again….and make NO mistake ….IT WILL!

A very good explanation has been written by Zeus Yiamouyiannis……..

Here is how the counterfeit value derivative con works.  It’s a game of “I pretend, you pretend, we all pretend, and the taxpayer will pay in the end”.

1) I’ll create an instrument, say a credit default swap (CDS), an unregulated insurance with no capital requirements, with a certain “notional” value. Notional value is just something I assign. It does not have to be attached to or backed by any real asset or actual money/principal, but I can pretend as if it is. (Notional amount.)

2) As a seller, I will just declare that this swap covers the full value X of this company, contract, etc. if credit event Y happens. I receive lucrative insurance premiums and fees for my unbacked promise. The CDS’s value is based in nothing more than my promise to pay. I don’t have to have adequate capital reserves on hand, but I can pretend as if I do perhaps with some mini-reserves based on objective-seeming risk ratios calculated by my mathematical models. (credit default swap.)

3) As a buyer, you can then buy as many of these CDS’s as you want, even for a single default. If you are really sure something is going to tank you can insure it 30 times over (or a 100 or 1,000) and get 30 (or 100 or 1,000) times the return when it goes bust! In regulated insurance it is unacceptable to insure beyond the full replacement value of the underlying asset. Not so with CDS’s. The seller has gotten 30x the premiums and the buyer gets 30x value in the event of default. As a buyer of this phony “insurance” you don’t have a stake in the affected properties, but you can essentially pretend you do.

4) As buyer and seller of CDS’s either one of us can assign our risks to a third party through another contract, and pretend as if we are covered in case our own game playing blows up in our faces. This allows us to retain even less reserve capital and spend freed-up funds on more high-risk, high-(pseudo) return speculation. (The monster that ate Wall Street.)

5) We can purchase and sell of these derivative contracts to each other at unlimited rates to generate massive volume and huge fees and profits. We can simply hyper-cycle risk and take our chunk each time.

According to the Bank of International Settlements, as of June 2011 total over-the-counter derivatives contracts have an outstanding notional value of 707.57 trillion dollars, ( 32.4 trillion dollars in CDS’s alone). Where does this kind of money come from, and what does it refer to? We don’t really know, because over-the-counter derivatives are not transparent or regulated.

Read More…

The answer to your questions are not as difficult to understand as the msm and the economists want you to believe……..once you learn the facts then you can keep your bank and brokers in check….that is if you really give a crap……and Dodd-Frank is a blowjob….it does little to keep the financial sector from gaming the system again and causing another meltdown….personally, I want to see someone go to prison because of what has been done to the economy and beyond that I want to make sure these con men cannot either game the system again so that we, the taxpayer, give them an out…..let them ROT in their own deceitfulness!