noworldsystem.com


Gold Runs Out In Germany

Gold Runs Out In Germany

Allan Hall
London Evening Standard
October 12, 2008

Risk-averse Germans are turning to gold in troubled times – but there’s none left.

German gold dealers say demand has skyrocketed this past week to 10 times normal so no more orders can be taken for the foreseeable future.

“The demand exceeds our capacities by a great deal,” said Heiko Ganss, head of precious metal company Pro Aurum.

“The requests cannot be satisfied right now,” a dealer from the Düsseldorf WGZ Bank confirmed.

“Demand for gold as a conservative investment has risen dramatically,” said stephan Henkel. “right now the demand is about 10 times as high as in normal times.”

Gold deliveries now take between four and six weeks.

The US mint said on Monday it had exhausted some of its supply of bullion coins and was struggling to meet demand for gold, silver and platinum.

South Africa’s Rand Refinery, producer of the world’s most popular gold bullion coin, the Krugerrand, temporarily ran out of the coins in August.

 

Londoners Queue-Up on Sidewalk to Buy Gold in Rush for Money Haven

Bloomberg
October 9, 2008

Londoners stood in line outside the largest gold coin and bar retailer in the city’s West End shopping district, clogging the lobby and trading among themselves as they sought a safe haven for their money.

“People want something tangible, something they can hold on to, something the banks can’t give them,” said Chris Burrow, the owner of ATS Bullion, the gold dealer in the Strand that traces its roots back to the 17th century. “There’s no time to breathe. We’re rushed off our feet. Staff are exhausted.”

As U.K. stocks tumbled to a five-year low, paced by financial-services companies, gold advanced. Since Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s Sept. 15 filing for bankruptcy protection, exacerbating the worldwide credit crisis, gold for immediate delivery has jumped 19 percent.

“Investors are rushing to safe havens and physical gold seems to be the favorite one,” said Frederic Panizzutti, a senior vice president at MKS Finance, one of Switzerland’s four bullion refiners.

British government action to prop up the banking industry has failed to reassure investors. The U.K. on Oct. 8 promised 50 billion pounds ($86 billion) of capital to banks, the same day the Bank of England cut its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point. Last month, the government brokered a takeover of HBOS Plc, Britain’s largest mortgage lender, and seized control of Bradford & Bingley’s mortgage division.

Read Full Article Here

 

Austria Witnesses New Gold Rush

BBC
October 12, 2008

The financial crisis is prompting people to look for safer forms of investment than stocks and shares.

The interest in gold coins is so great that many of the world’s major mints are struggling to keep up with demand, including the Austrian Mint, which produces the Vienna Philharmonic – one of the best-selling bullion coins worldwide.

Sales of Vienna Philharmonic gold coins have gone up by more than 230% since last year.

Kerry Tattersall, the director of marketing at the mint, says production has gone into overdrive.

“We are running at present something like three shifts on all of the machines, on the presses, producing both gold and the silver bullion coins.

Read Full Article Here

 

Central banks all but stop lending gold

Javier Blas
Financial Times
October 8, 2008

Central banks have all but stopped lending gold to commercial and investment banks and other participants in the precious metals market, in a move that on Tuesday sent the cost of borrowing bullion for one-month to more than twenty times its usual level.

The one-month gold lease rate rocketed to 2.649 per cent, its highest level since May 2001 and significantly above its five-year average of 0.12 per cent, according to data from the London Bullion Market Association.

Gold lease rates for two, three, and six months and for a year also jumped to levels not seen in the last seven years.

Traders said the jump reflects the fact that central banks — mostly European — have almost completely stopped lending gold in the last few days and are not rolling forward old leases after maturity. This is because of fears that some borrowers might not repay their bullion loans if they are engulfed by the financial crisis.

“A number of central banks have been cutting back on their gold lending,” said Tom Kendall, a precious metals strategist at Mitsubishi in London.

John Reade, a commodities strategist at UBS, added that there had been a lot of talk about some central banks being unwilling to lend their gold because of a redoubled focus on the risk of borrowers not returning it.

Read Full Article Here

Bullion Shortage and Spot Prices Tell Two Different Gold Stories
http://seekingalpha.com/article/99680-..ces-tell-two-different-gold-stories

Blatant Banker Manipulation Of Gold Prices
http://www.prisonplanet.com/blatant-banker-manipulation-of-gold-prices.html

No Mass Mania for Gold Yet – Less than 1% of Public in Western World Have Invested in Gold
http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1224161100.php

Spot Gold Price Is Now Meaningless
http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewarticle%2Barticleid_2713209.html

Gold expected to rally above $1000 in Q1 2009
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/b..o-rally-above-1000-in-q1-2009.aspx

What the Pros Say: All that Glitters is Gold
http://www.cnbc.com/id/27095525

Kiener: Gold Prices To Double On Paper Market Default
http://www.prisonplanet.com/kiener-..o-double-on-paper-market-default.html

 



Potential Bailout Cost is $5 Trillion or $43K Per Household

Potential Cost For Bailout is $5 Trillion or $43K Per Household

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
October 15, 2008

The total potential cost of the financial bailout to the U.S. taxpayer is already rapidly approaching $5 trillion, over seven times as much as the meaningless $700 billion bailout bill figure.

Analysts have previously marked out the $5 trillion figure as the actual cost, now those predictions are becoming demonstratively accurate.

Meanwhile, Hank Paulson has defended government intervention, stating “There’s no doubt that the way to get the maximum bang for the taxpayers here was to invest in banks.”

Based on this Reuters summary and the sources linked within the table, here is a breakdown of the bailout’s cost to taxpayers so far.

Bailout Type
Cost To Taxpayers
$300 billion
$250billion
$25 billion
$150 billion
$700 billion+
$29 billion
$200 billion
$85 billion (+ extra request of $35 billion)
$300 billion
$4 billion
$87 billion
$200 billion+
$50 billion
$144 billion
POSSIBLE TOTAL $2.56 trillion+
NUMBER OF HOUSEHOLDS PER
U.S. CENSUS
105,480,101
POSSIBLE COST PER HOUSEHOLD
$24,26

In addition, the U.S. government has said it will temporarily guarantee $1.5 trillion (£856 billion) in new senior debt issued by banks, as well as insure $500 billion (£285 billion) in deposits in non-interest accounts, mainly used by businesses.

These figures take the potential cost to $4.559 trillion+ – or $43, 221 per household.

Furthermore, when you account for the fact that the credit default swap market is around $62 trillion, and that derivatives worldwide are worth between between $1 and $2 quadrillion, the numbers start to become meaningless.

 

Fed To Offer Unlimited Dollars
Bloomberg
October 13, 2008

The U.S. Federal Reserve led an unprecedented push by central banks to flood financial markets with dollars, backing up government efforts to restore confidence in the banking system.

The ECB, the Bank of England and the Swiss central bank will offer unlimited dollar funds in auctions with maturities of seven days, 28 days and 84 days at a fixed interest rate, the Washington-based Fed said today. The Bank of Japan may introduce “similar measures.’’ The dollar declined and some money-market rates fell.

Policy makers from the Group of Seven nations pledged at the weekend to take “all necessary steps’’ to stem a market panic after the MSCI World stock index plunged 20 percent last week. Central banks last week cut interest rates in tandem for the first time since 2001, the U.S. plans to buy $700 billion in distressed assets from banks and in Europe, the U.K. is leading a push to keep lenders afloat with taxpayers’ money.

“By providing unlimited dollar funds they are acting on the back of the G-7 plan to ensure the system is fully liquidized,’’ said Lena Komileva, an economist at Tullet Prebon Plc in London. “We’re going to see even more liquidity provided and more aggressive rate cuts are coming.’’

Read Full Article Here

Banks borrow record $437.5 billion per day from Fed
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE49F97920081017

Millionaire Hedge Fund Trader Thanks Idiot Traders
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/18/banking-useconomy

Treasury Black Out Key Parts Of Bailout Contracts
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/..136030.html

Wall Street banks in $70bn staff payout
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/17/executivesalaries-banking

Homeless Numbers Alarming
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-10-21-homeless_N.htm

House prices ‘to plummet by 35%’ – the biggest ever fall in Britain
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/..–biggest-fall-Britain.html

Royal Bank Of Scotland Nationalized
http://business.timesonline.co…g_and_finance/article4932250.ece

Switzerland Pumps Billions Into Bank System
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081016/eu_switzerland_banks.html?printer=1

UBS Gets Bailout From Swiss National Bank
http://www.chicagotribune.com..7,0,4057853.story

Dow Jones Bloodbath Mirroring 1929 Rout
http://www.prisonplanet.com/dow-jones-bloodbath-mirroring-1929-rout.html

Two More Banks Closed By Regulators
http://money…00397x1211373371x1200675175

U.S. Stocks Plunge Most Since Crash of `87 on Recession Concern
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid..er=home

Roubini Sees Worst Recession in 40 Years, Rally’s End
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?..efer=home

JPMorgan Responsible for the Destruction of U.S. Financial System
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article6826.html

World May Be Lucky to Get Worst Recession Since 1983
http://www.bloomberg.com..OAeSWBCY&refer=home

Stocks On Track For Worst Year Since 1937
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/6050283.html

Former Fed chief says U.S. now in recession
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE49D2QB20081014

U.S. Economy Collapse News Archive

 



Obama and McCain Paid Off By Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac execs Paid Off Obama for LAST THREE Years!

Daily Musings
September 18, 2008

Campaign contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made to Barack Obama may backfire if the Democratic presidential hopeful wages an aggressive campaign to cast blame on rival John McCain and the Republicans in Congress for the mortgage-related losses that forced the U.S. Treasury to take over the quasi-governmental mortgage giants.

A review of Federal Election Commission records back to 1989 reveals Obama in his three complete years in the Senate is the second largest recipient of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae campaign contributions, behind only Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., the powerful chairman of the Senate banking committee. Dodd was first elected to the Senate in 1980.

According to OpenSecrets.com, from 1989 to 2008, Dodd received $165,400 in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac campaign contributions, including contributions from PACs and individuals, followed by Obama, who received $126,349 in such contributions since being elected to the Senate in 2004.

Read Full Article Here

 

A Freddie Mac Money Trail Catches Up With McCain

Newsweek
September 27, 2008

Few advisers in John McCain’s inner circle inspire more loyalty from him than campaign manager Rick Davis. McCain and his wife, Cindy, credit the shrewd, and sometimes volatile, Republican insider with rescuing the campaign last year when it was out of money and on the verge of collapse. As a result, McCain has always defended him—even when faced with tough questions about the foreign lobbying clients of Davis’s high-powered consulting firm. “Rick is a friend, and I trust him,” McCain told NEWSWEEK last year.

Last week, though, McCain’s trust in Davis was tested again amid disclosures that Freddie Mac, the troubled mortgage giant that was recently placed under federal conservatorship, paid his campaign manager’s firm $15,000 a month between 2006 and August 2008. As the mortgage crisis has escalated, almost any association with Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae has become politically toxic. But the payments to Davis’s firm, Davis Manafort, are especially problematic because he requested the consulting retainer in 2006—and then did barely any work for the fees, according to two sources familiar with the arrangement who asked not to be identified discussing Freddie Mac business. Aside from attending a few breakfasts and a political-action-committee meeting with Democratic strategist Paul Begala (another Freddie consultant), Davis did “zero” for the housing firm, one of the sources said. Freddie Mac also had no dealings with the lobbying firm beyond paying monthly invoices—but it agreed to the arrangement because of Davis’s close relationship with McCain, the source said, which led top executives to conclude “you couldn’t say no.”

Read Full Article Here

 



U.S. Banking Collapse Was Like Controlled Demolition on 9/11

U.S. Banking Collapse Was Like Controlled Demolition on 9/11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS65bA4kKVE

 



$940B + $630B Already Taken From Taxpayers

Banks borrowed $940 Billion Last Week
Bank Borrowing From Fed Already Exceeded Bailout Total in Last Week

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
September 26, 2008

U.S. banks borrowed $188 billion per day on average in the latest week from the Federal Reserve, meaning that the Fed loaned out more money than the Treasury’s proposed bailout in just one week, still barely managing to keep the economy afloat.

Federal Reserve data showed on Thursday the total amount banks borrowed nearly quadrupled the previous record of $47.97 billion per day notched just the week before, Reuters reports.

$188 billion per day on average over the course of five days means that the total amount borrowed from the Fed in the week ending the 24th September stood at $940 billion – a figure that easily eclipses the proposed $700 billion bailout.

As we have already reported, the $700 billion number was simply pulled out of thin air by the Treasury.

The Treasury’s fact sheet about the bailout states, “The Secretary will have the discretion, in consultation with the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, to purchase other assets, as deemed necessary to effectively stabilize financial markets.”

This gives the government and the Federal Reserve carte blanche to do whatever they want to long as it is done in the name of stabilizing financial markets, they can nationalize any company or industry and use taxpayer money, above and beyond the initial $700 billion, for whatever purpose is deemed necessary, without any oversight. Paulson’s bailout plan is also unreviewable by any court, it will remain in perpetuity.

Paulson’s draft bailout plans says: “The Secretary’s authority to purchase mortgage-related assets under this Act shall be limited to $700,000,000,000 outstanding at any one time.”

As Chris Martenson writes, “This means that $700 billion is NOT the cost of this dangerous legislation, it is only the amount that can be outstanding at any one time. After, say, $100 billion of bad mortgages are disposed of, another $100 billion can be bought. In short, these four little words assure that there is NO LIMIT to the potential size of this bailout. This means that $700 billion is a rolling amount, not a ceiling.”

If the bailout bill passes it is just the beginning of something much larger. $700 billion is a meaningless figure that will do nothing to shore up the economy. It is not a bailout, it is a giveaway that will allow insiders to purge themselves of bad bets and free to continue where they left off. The real reason for the bill is the unprecedented transfer of power to the Executive Branch and into the hands of the global corporate elite.

 

Fed Pumps $630 Billion Into Global Banking System

Bloomberg
September 29, 2008

The Federal Reserve will pump an additional $630 billion into the global financial system, flooding banks with cash to alleviate the worst banking crisis since the Great Depression.

The Fed increased its existing currency swaps with foreign central banks by $330 billion to $620 billion to make more dollars available worldwide. The Term Auction Facility, the Fed’s emergency loan program, will expand by $300 billion to $450 billion. The European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan are among the participating authorities.

The Fed’s expansion of liquidity, the biggest since credit markets seized up last year, comes as Congress prepares to vote on a $700 billion bailout for the financial industry. The crisis is reverberating through the global economy, causing stocks to plunge and forcing European governments to rescue four banks over the past two days alone.

“Today’s blast of term liquidity will settle the funding markets down, and allow trust to slowly be restored between borrowers and lenders,’’ said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York. On the other hand, “the Fed’s balance sheet is about to explode.’’

Stocks around the world plunged the most since 1997 today and credit markets deteriorated further as authorities scrambled to save more financial institutions from collapse.

Read Full Article Here

 

Bailout by Stealth
While the public is distracted by the “bailout bill” and its rejection, trillions are pumped in to keep financial balloon inflated

James Corbett
The Corbett Report
September 30, 2008

The media is falling all over itself to report on every minutiae of the so-called Wall Street “bailout bill” and its rejection by Congress yesterday (just a few of the thousands of examples can be seen here and here and here and here). And why not? The media’s breathless coverage of the bill has produced a furious backlash by the public and hysteria on Wall Street in a self-justifying feedback loop that makes the media attention seem merited.

The startling truth which the controlled corporate media is not reporting, however, is that a bailout is actually taking place right now, completely out of the public spotlight. This program has already pumped trillions of dollars into Wall Street (compared to the mere $700 billion proposed in the legislation that the media is focusing on) to help prop up the faltering investment banks and promises to pump in even more, every dime of it to the detriment of the taxpayer though the public will have no stake in its success. Why, then, is this program not being talked about in the media?

Slipping under the radar last week amidst the hullabaloo in Washington over the bailout bill was this story noting that in the past week alone, the Federal Reserve had pumped an astonishing $188 billion per day into the system in the form of emergency credit. This means that in just four days, the Fed injected as much money into the system as the entire $700 billion bailout proposal. After the proposal was rejected, the Fed responded by immediately announcing it would pour another $630 billion into the global financial system.

The Federal Reserve, of course, is America’s central bank and although the above story conjures the reassuring image of a national bank lending out some of its vast reserves to help Wall Street weather the storm, the fact is that the Federal Reserve is not Federal and has doubtful reserves. In fact, the trillions of dollars that have been lent to the banks in the last few weeks were created out of nothing by the privately-owned Federal Reserve. When the Federal Reserve “lends” money to a bank through repurchase agreements (repos), credit auction or other method, it is not actually lending out money from its vaults. It is simply creating the money it “lends” out as electronic credits created in the recipient banks account. It is literally money out of thin air.

That the general public is on the hook for this money created out of nothing is not an exaggeration. It is paid for in a dimly-understood mechanism often known as the “inflation tax.”

Inflation is nothing more than an indication that the ratio of money to products that can be purchased with that money has been increased. Since the overall number of dollars has gone up without any corresponding increase in economic production (as happens when the Federal Reserve creates money out of thin air), the value of each individual dollar goes down. That means that the value of the money in each individuals’ bank account (not to mention their pension and social security dividends) can be reduced simply by the flick of a pen of a Federal Reserve paper-pusher. (Unless of course that individual just happens to be a billionaire investment mogul or a Vice President who can divest themselves of U.S. dollars in time for this inflation not to affect them.) This is sometimes known as an inflation tax because its overall effect is the same as if the government came in and took that value out of the individuals’ bank account. Watch Ron Paul explain the inflation tax in the video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFVHlMulTPs

The most insidious part of this inflation tax is that the inflation does not begin until the new money begins to circulate in the system. In other words, the first person (or, more likely, giant corporate conglomerate) to use the money receives its full value, while those at the bottom of the pyramid retrieve the diminished returns of a devaluing dollar.

Why, then, is the public not furious about this stealth bailout, now taking place at the blistering pace of nearly $1 trillion a week, and all to the taxpayer’s detriment? The obvious answer is that the media is not whipping the public into a frenzy about it, instead focusing its attention on a $700 billion program and allowing the public to feel like they scored a blow against Wall Street when the program gets rejected. If so, it’s time the public got wise to how the system is really being run by and for the benefit of private bankers and at the expense of the average taxpayer. Otherwise, the fleecing of the public will continue unabated even as the public thinks they’ve won the battle.

 



Bailout Bill Fails But May Revive And Pass Anyways

Bailout Bill Fails But May Revive And Pass Anyways

Bloomberg
September 30, 2008

The U.S. Senate will try to salvage a $700 billion financial-rescue package after the measure was defeated in the House of Representatives. The lawmakers won’t have a lot of room to negotiate.

While the legislation will need to be tweaked enough to win over reluctant House Republicans, the lawmakers will risk losing votes from Democrats if they veer too far from the delicate compromise that congressional leaders hammered out with the U.S. Treasury.

“They’re not going to totally revamp the bill,’’ said Pete Davis, president of Davis Capital Investment Ideas in Washington, who spoke to House and Senate leaders yesterday. “They’ll make some minor changes and pass it. This is all about political cover.’’

Read Full Article Here

 

Kudlow Schooled: ‘You’ve Become A Socialist – Your Version Of Socialism Is To Bail Out The Rich’

 

Paulson: King Paulson or Convict Paulson

Recent News:

Bank of America to close credit cards for approximately 60% of customers? (by Oct 1)
http://mparent7777-1.livejournal.com/1933222.html

House Clears $25 Billion For Carmakers
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/83bfe68c-8a8f-11dd-a76a-0000779fd18c.html

Home builders will ask for $90 billion bailout
http://money.cnn.com/2008/09..ion=2008092608

I’ve watched the economy for 30 years. Now I’m truly scared
http://www.guardian.co…/globaleconomy.creditcrunch

Treasury explains how it came up with $700 billion: We just wanted ‘a really large number.’
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/24/treasury-large-number/

Stocks rallied a day after failed $700B wallstreet bailout
http://money.cnn.com/2008..?postversion=2008093009

US will lose superpower status, claims German minister
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/..-superpower-status-crows-Germany.html

$1 Quadrillion of Unregulated Debt At Core of Coming Derivatives Crisis
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/coming_derivatives_crisis_150.html

China Banks Told To Stop Lending To U.S. Banks
http://www.reuters.com..PEK16693720080925

Refusing Dollar as “World Currency” Inevitable
http://capital.trendaz.com/index.shtml?show=news&newsid=1304435〈=EN

U.S. Heading for Slump, With or Without Bailout
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news..efer=home

Putin Promises $50Bln For Banks
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1010/42/371301.htm

Dexia bank gets multi-nation $9.2B bailout
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080930/eu_belgium_dexia.html

Home Prices in 20 U.S. Cities Declined 16.3% in July
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?.d=aEyKpTpk90C0&refer=us

Rothschilds and the Bank of England Own The Federal Reserve (JP Morgan, Rockefeller, Lehman Brothers, Warburg)
http://newsfromthewest.blogspot.com/2008/05/who-owns-federal-reserve.html

Chavez says U.S. can’t fix financial crisis
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSLQ4692420080926

The Hanky Panky Banking Bailout Bill
Rep. Kaptur responds to Bush’s address on failed bailout bill
RBS will get ‘billions’ in US bail-out of economy
Jobless Claims Pushed To 7-Year High
Dow Drops 777 Points
680% Inflation?
Nasdaq tanks, down 6%
California Home Prices Drop Record 41% Amid Defaults
Rumors Trigger Bank Run In Hong Kong
New Home Sales Plunged 11.5% to 17-Year Low
Wachovia Stock Sinks On WaMu News

U.S. Economy Collapse News Archive

 



Ron Paul: Greenspan, Bernanke Should Be Criminally Charged

Ron Paul: Greenspan, Bernanke Should Be Criminally Charged

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
September 26, 2008

Congressman Ron Paul says that the bailout bill is likely to pass, heralding a 10-year plus economic depression for America and the potential for martial law should civil unrest arise as the financial meltdown worsens.

Speaking on The Alex Jones Show, Paul said of the bailout, “They want dictatorship, they want to pass all the penalties and suffering on to the average person on Main Street,” adding, “We will have a depression or recession, it’s locked in place due to previous Federal Reserve actions.”

“When they say that if we don’t do exactly as they say and turn over more of our money and more of our liberties and exempt themselves from any court in the whole nation, they’re trying to intimidate us and lead us into doing the wrong thing,” said Paul.

The Congressman added that serious problems would arise if nothing was done to address the problem, but that more serious consequences would follow should the bailout be passed.

Paul warned that the only question was whether the meltdown would last one year or ten years and how much liberty would be lost in that time frame.

“It looks like from I see in Congress, that they’re opting for a decade plus of depression rather than saying let’s correct our ways, let’s balance the budget, let’s bring our troops home,” said Paul, adding that the same course of printing money would continue – prolonging the agony and preventing a necessary correction.

Asked if civil unrest was a possibility in the midst of an economic depression, referencing a recent Army Times report concerning the use of active duty military being brought back from Iraq for “Homeland patrols” and “crowd control,” Paul questioned, “Are we going to have martial law or are we going to have more freedoms? The more problems that we have, the more likely it is that we’re going to have martial law, so I do think they anticipate and they plan for these things.”

Asked if criminal investigations and prosecutions of individuals on Wall Street should commence, Paul agreed but said that the main target of criminal inquiry should be the Federal Reserve board itself because, “That’s where the fraud is.”

“They want to be lawless, they don’t want to be held accountable,” he added.

Paul said that grand juries should be convened to take on prosecutions rather than the FBI becoming involved, stating, “We have proper authority with that and experience with it and the Enron case is a good example.”

The Congressman said that Greenspan and Bernanke should be criminally charged but that such an effort would be largely symbolic. “Morally speaking, they’re the culprits,” said Paul.

Asked what his solution to the crisis would be, Paul said, “I think the most important thing to do is to send the message that we’re going to quit living beyond our means and the president can set the standard for that and he has the most control under the Constitution on foreign policy – he can say no more wars, we’re done with the wars, we’re not going to take on the Russians, we’re not going to take on people in Venezuela, we’re going to start talking to the Cubans and bring our troops home and save hundreds of billions of dollars – that would send a powerful message that the dollar would respond to and oil prices would come down.”

Paul said that Americans had to accept a new idea of government that harked back to what the founders envisaged and that the welfare state would have to unravel along with aspirations of building a geopolitical empire.

“In the meantime the policy ought to be – shrink the size of government, decrease regulation, work towards sound money, remove the authority of the Fed to create money out of thin air and get tax reduction,” stated the Congressman. Paul added that eliminating the income tax would mean everybody becoming a lot richer and more money would be ploughed into the economy.

“It will not solve the problem, it just delays the inevitable,” said Paul of the bailout, adding that he expects the bill to pass in a move that would, “Defy the American people.”

“I think they get to the point where they think they’re like God and can control everything and they don’t realize that the market really is more powerful than all the bankers and all the politicians….Ultimately the underground economy is the real economy and I think they could over step themselves and hopefully we could come out with a better world afterwards,” concluded the Congressman.

 

Ron Paul Grills Bernanke on Wallstreet Bailout

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv6rQ0U01Yc

 

Paul: ‘I could never support somebody who thinks that it’s funny to say bomb bomb bomb Iran.’

Think Progress

September 18, 2008

On MSNBC today, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) explained to host Norah O’Donnell that he refused former Sen. Phil Gramm’s entreaties for him to endorse Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) because he disagrees with him “on all the major issues,” especially foreign policy. “I mean I could never support somebody who thinks that it’s funny to say ‘bomb bomb bomb Iran,’” said Paul. “That, to me, is not somebody that I could endorse ever.” Watch it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOb3cC2FVIg

 



WaMu: The Biggest Bank Collapse In U.S. History

WaMu: The Biggest Bank Collapse In U.S. History

TOP News
September 26, 2008

In what is being termed as the biggest bank collapse in US history, J.P.Morgan Chase & Co. will acquire massive branch network and troubled assets from Washington Mutual Inc. for $1.9 billion, as per a deal arranged by federal regulators. Under the deal – the latest stunning development in the ongoing credit crisis – J P Morgan Chase will acquire all the banking operations of Washington Mutual, including $307 billion in assets and $188 billion in deposits.

Washington Mutual had been one of the most hard-hit banks during the financial crisis after it bet big, like many of its competitors, on the strength of the housing market – only to see its fortunes sour as housing prices fell. Many analysts were speculating that the endgame for the embattled savings and loan was imminent, particularly after ratings agency downgrades this week, and a freefall in the company’s stock.

As a result of the Washington Mutual acquisition, the New York City-based J P Morgan Chase – after its mid-March acquisition of investment bank, Bear Stearns – will now boast some 5,400 branches in 23 states. “We think it is a great thing for our company,” said Jamie Dimon, J P Morgan Chase Chairman and CEO, in a conference call with investors late Thursday night.

Federal regulators who helped in finalizing the deal said the transition for Washington Mutual customers would be “seamless.” In a statement, FDIC Chairman, Sheila Bair, said: “There will be no interruption in services and bank customers should expect business as usual come Friday morning.”

The acquisition might prompt criticism from J P Morgan Chase rivals about preferential treatment by the government. For instance, no government assistance was extended to Bank of America Corp. in its recently announced purchase of Merrill Lynch. However, in the case of Washington Mutual acquisition, there were presumably other bidders who, in comparison to J P Morgan Chase, offered better deal for the deposits and branches.

The fall of Washington Mutual is the latest turn in a dizzying fortnight that has seen the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the acquisition of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) and the near collapse of insurance giant AIG (AIG, Fortune 500). In fact, Washington Mutual has set a ‘record’ of sorts – it is the 13th bank to fail so far this year, and earns the title of the country’s ‘largest bank failure’ by assets on record, surpassing Continental Illinois’ $40 billion in assets when it failed in May of 1984.

Washington Mutual Is The 13th Bank To Fall This Year
http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/banklist.html

 



Paulson’s former firm to be among largest beneficiaries of bailout

Paulson’s former firm to be among largest beneficiaries of bailout

John Bryne
Raw Story
September 23, 2008

It certainly pays to be Treasury Secretary if your former firm is a brokerage house, a new study says.

Goldman Sachs Group — formerly run by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and Morgan Stanley, stand to be among the biggest beneficiaries of a $700 billion US bailout.

“Its benefits, in its current form, will be largely limited to investment banks and other banks that have aggressively written down the value of their holdings and have already recognized the attendant capital impairment,” Jeffrey Rosenberg, Bank of America’s head of credit strategy research, wrote in a report obtained by Bloomberg News yesterday.

Paulson was the head of Goldman Sach’s investment banking division from 1990 to 1994. He later became chairman and chief executive officer of Goldman, and left his post to join the Bush Administration.

According to the study, the bailout benefits Paulson’s former firm more because banks haven’t had to write down as many troubled mortage assets under accounting rules. This means that participating in the program would cause them to actually lose capital, as opposed to investment banks, which stand to gain.

Paulson $700 billion program is designed to remove “bad assets” from the US financial markets to prevent credit for businesses from drying up, which would send the economy into a further tailspin. Many businesses rely on credit to fund their daily operations.

Lawmakers are debating the plan today.

“While Goldman and Morgan Stanley, both based in New York, were yesterday granted permission to transform themselves into bank holding companies, the companies so far have operated mostly under investment-bank accounting rules, logging almost $21 billion of asset writedowns and credit losses,” Bloomberg News notes.

Goldman made sizable profits in 2007 from the subprime mortgage sector. It, along with Morgan Stanley, has fared better than investment houses Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, because it has held a more conservative capital base.

Paulson has admirers: during his Goldman tenure the firm donated 680,000 acres of land in Chile, and he has personally given away $100 million of his fortune to charitable groups.

According to estimates conducted by Open Secrets, Paulson is the richest cabinet member of the Bush Administration.

Conflict Of Interest? Report Says Goldman Sachs ‘Among Biggest Beneficiaries’ Of Paulson’s Bailout
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/22/paulson-goldman-bailout/

 



White House Admits It Drew Up Bailout Months Ago

White House Admits It Drew Up Bailout Months Ago

George Washington’s Blog
September 24, 2008

No one could have seen this coming, right?

Well, actually, the White House has admitted that they drew up the bail out plan months ago:

[White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony] Fratto insisted that the plan was not slapped together and had been drawn up as a contingency over previous months and weeks by administration officials. He acknowledged lawmakers were getting only days to peruse it, but he said this should be enough.

But the government did nothing real to prevent the financial meltdown. Instead, it let the meltdown happen, and now is trying to ram through terrible and counter-productive legislation drafted previously by using fear tactics.

Does this sound familiar? It should.

 



Bailout: Not $700 Billion, More Like $5 Trillion

Bailout: Not $700 Billion, More Like $5 Trillion

Bei Hu
Bloomberg
September 24, 2008

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s $700 billion plan to buy devalued assets from financial companies is “a joke” because it doesn’t go far enough to calm markets, said Kenichi Ohmae, president of Business Breakthrough Inc.

Ohmae, nicknamed “Mr. Strategy” during his 23 years as a McKinsey & Co. partner, called for a $5 trillion “international facility” to be made available to financial institutions. The system could be modeled on one used by Sweden during its banking crisis in the early 1990s, he said.

“This is a liquidity crisis,” Ohmae said at an investor forum hosted by CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, the regional broking arm of Credit Agricole SA, in Hong Kong yesterday. “The liquidity has to be so big that people won’t get panicky.”

Paulson’s proposal to remove hard-to-sell assets clogging the financial system marks the broadest intervention since at least the Great Depression. Asian stocks fell today, following U.S. shares lower as investors questioned whether the effort is enough to prevent a recession.

The plan came after the collapse of 158-year-old Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the government takeover of insurer American International Group Inc. caused financial markets to seize up last week. The calamity was the culmination of a year during which the U.S. housing market slump left banks and securities firms with more than $520 billion of asset writedowns and credit losses.

Read Full Article Here

 

NO To The Paulson-Bernanke Derivatives Scam Bailout

Webster G. Tarpley
September 24, 2008

WASHINGTON DC – The grand theft bailout now being rammed through Congress by Treasury Secretary Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, and other officials of the Bush regime with the help of accomplices Pelosi, Majority Leader Harry Reid, and other parliamentarians is a monstrosity for the ages, combining every hideous feature of monetarism, elitism, oligarchism, and sheer feckless incompetence. It is to all intents and purposes a national suicide note of the United States of America, a contract with the devil that absolutely guarantees irrevocable national decline. For any person of goodwill there can be only one impulse at the present moment, and that is to stop this bailout — to block it, to sabotage it, to bottle it up, to load it with killer amendments, and to do everything legally possible to stop this insane design from going through.

IF MCCAIN VOTES AGAINST THE BAILOUT, HE WILL WIN THE PRESIDENCY

In political terms, McCain is now running well to the left of Obama on this issue, with a much stronger populist profile. McCain has attacked the outrageous greed and corruption of Wall Street. Obama does not dare attack Wall Street, since these are his masters. Obama, sounding like Milton Friedman, only attacks Washington. Obama has said that he will support whatever Paulson demands. That is not a surprise, since Paulson represents Goldman Sachs, and Obama is a wholly owned property of Goldman Sachs, which is his single biggest source of campaign contributions. Obama is a creature of Brzezinski, Soros, and Rockefeller, and without them he has no existence; Obama is an abject Wall Street puppet, an agent of finance capital. This week, both senators will have to decide how they vote on the odious derivatives bailout. Obama will surely vote in favor of it, since this is what Wall Street demands. If McCain votes against it, he will most probably propel himself into the White House on the model of Give ‘Em Hell Harry in 1948. Filthy corrupt Democrats like Schumer are already attacking McCain as the new Huey Long. Huey Long, the Louisiana populist of the 1930s, had many positive features, and we could certainly use a good dose of Huey Long in this country to counteract the elitism, oligarchism, condescension, and arrogant snobbery of foundation operatives like Obama. The bailout is already very unpopular 72% of all voters are opposed to it and it will become more and more hated when it becomes clear that it is also a failure. McCain’s course is clear. Will he have the brains and guts to cross Obama’s T on this vital issue?

PAULSON OF GOLDMAN SACHS, WOULD-BE FINANCE DICTATOR

Paulson is a ruthless and brutal eco-freak usurer who learned his trade at the Goldman Sachs stock-jobbing operation. He is now the leading member of the committee of public safety which rules in Washington, and which includes Gates, Rice, and Mullen. He now demands the astronomical sum of 700 billion dollars for the bailout of mortgage-backed derivatives, collateralized debt obligations, credit default swaps, and other poisonous derivatives. Make no mistake — this is not a bailout of homeowners who are threatened with foreclosure; it is a bailout of the lunatic house of cards which desperate bankers have built on these mortgages using derivatives. The entire crisis is not a crisis of subprime mortgages, it is a crisis of the derivatives bubble which was launched by Wendy Gramm of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission and Greenspan of the Fed with the connivance of Robert Rubin of Goldman Sachs and Citibank, and others in the Clinton administration, some 15 years ago.

These derivatives now amount to a total worldwide notional value that can be estimated between 1 quadrillion and two quadrillion US dollars. This sum is so large that it dwarfs the total value of the entire planet earth and all those who live here. Compared to the cancerous, bloated, and fictitious mass of derivatives which is at the root of this crisis, the $700 billion demanded by politicians, large as this may seem, is nothing but a drop in the bucket. And a drop in the bailout bucket is what it will be. The mass of world derivatives between $1 and $2 quadrillion represents an insatiable black hole which is capable of putting an end, not just to civilization, but the human life itself. The moral choice could not be clearer: humanity will either destroy the derivatives bubble in our time, or the derivatives bubble will surely destroy humanity. Those are the stakes in the current exercise.

Paulson and Bernanke, both lawyers for the Wall Street jackals, lampreys, vultures and hyenas, argue that the public interest demands a bailout of their cronies at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, Wachovia, and the other large money center institutions. Before the American public antes up $700 billion just for openers in the game of genocidal poker which run by the infernal croupiers Paulson and Bernanke, we would be very well advised to examine the veracity of this premise.

Read Full Article Here

 

They Want Mama To Make it All Better! – Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANGsBNMY1_c

 

Rep Defazio On The Bailout Package

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANGsBNMY1_c

Recent News:

Bernanke Admits Bailout is NOT Aimed at Helping Taxpayers
http://georgewashington2.bl..ke-admits-bailout-is-not-aimed-at.html

Real Estate Bigwig Zell Sees 2009 Recession
http://www.cnbc.com/id/26858394

Bailout Is Financial Equivalent Of The Patriot Act
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/23/business/sorkin.php?pass=true

America Versus the Financial Elite
http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2008/09/america-versus-financial-elite.html

Fed Acted Like a Liquidity Drug Dealer: Economist
http://www.cnbc.com/id/26848829

’Punish’ those responsible for financial crisis: Sarkozy
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iQvXaV8mO0SRtfD9FEWqf4Vyrzrg

FBI ‘Probe’ Into Mortgage Giants
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/skynews/20080924/twl-fbi-probe-into-mortgage-giants-3fd0ae9.html

Iran Leader Says American Empire Near Collapse
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iRcJGft_Pr8uMaY1Bz9ieBSwBNTgD93CMVM80

US Fed throws $30 billion into foreign credit markets
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5itOHJbNrxCHKetPtXIPIbY3TalIQ

China Paper Calls For A New Financial Order Without U.S.
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSPEK4365020080917?sp=true

Top Economist Mishkin: Worse Than the Depression
http://www.cnbc.com/id/26850473

Lehman’s Bankruptcy and the Hidden $138 Billion Bailout of JP Morgan
http://www.cnbc.com/id/26850473

Eveillard Says Gold May Surge as Investors Seek ‘Insurance’
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601213&sid=a8L00oInO1YM&refer=home

Wachovia, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo tumble
http://www.reuters.com/article/email/idUSN2231756020080922

Goldman, Morgan Stanley Bring Down Curtain on an Era
Goldman Sachs to be regulated by Fed
Fury at U.S. Lehman Brothers’ staff who could net £1.4bn in bonuses as UK employees face bleak future
Europeans on left and right ridicule U.S. money meltdown
Paulson On Verge Of Historic New Powers
Fed To Supervise Goldman And Morgan

U.S. Economy Collapse News Archive

 



Ron Paul: This Bailout Won’t Be the Last

Ron Paul: This Bailout Won’t Be the Last

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZwPkTmqfpg

 

Ron Paul on CNN w/ John Roberts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sfUKZOHtRs

 

Ron Paul Blasts “Secret Government” Running Economy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d73KlhUq1W8

 



Bush Administration Seeks “Dictatorial Power”

Bush Administration Seeks “Dictatorial Power”

GETA
September 21, 2008

The Bush administration sought unchecked power from Congress to buy $700 billion in bad mortgage investments from financial companies in what would be an unprecedented government intrusion into the markets.

“He’s asking for a huge amount of power,” said Nouriel Roubini, an economist at New York University. “He’s saying, `Trust me, I’m going to do it right if you give me absolute control.’ This is not a monarchy.”

Paulson is seeking an expansion of federal influence over markets that hasn’t been seen since the Great Depression, said Charles Geisst, author of “100 Years of Wall Street” and a finance professor at Manhattan College in New York.

“This is going to be a big package because it’s a big problem,” Bush said following a meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe at the White House. “We need to get this done quickly, and the cleaner the better.”

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said in a radio address that he “fully supports” Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s efforts to stabilize the financial system. The plan, however, should benefit both main street and Wall Street, he said.

Republican Presidential nominee John McCain “looks forward” to reviewing the proposal while focusing at least in part on “minimizing the burden on the taxpayer,” said Jill Hazelbaker, communications director for the McCain campaign.

The Bush administration seeks “dictatorial power unreviewable by the third branch of government, the courts, to try to resolve the crisis,” said Frank Razzano, a former assistant chief trial attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission now at Pepper Hamilton LLP in Washington. “We are taking a huge leap of faith.”

Read Full Article Here

 



China Blames Wallstreet Meltdown On Fed Overissuance Of Currency

China Blames Wall Street Meltdown On Fed Overissuance Of Currency

Paul Joseph Watson & Yihan Dai
Prison Planet
September 19, 2008

China’s state media today reports on the real reason behind the Wall Street meltdown and a subject that the mainstream US media dare not mention – the Federal Reserve’s overissuance of currency – which the Chinese say is part of a wider agenda to justify increased control over the global economy.

The Bush administration today announced a plan to use hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money to buy up up bad mortgages and other debts. The process of injecting more fiat money into an already over-inflated system had the desired effect – the Dow Jones shot up 450 points – but the dollar, following a brief jump, began to plummet.

According to numerous Chinese state media news sources today, the Federal Reserve’s continued zeal for propping up the market by injecting illusory liquidity is part of an agenda to gain trust and grease the skids for increased government intervention in financial markets.

China Finance , China News and Chaobao Financial News, all state owned media outlets, slammed the Fed for taking action that will only make long term economic conditions worse and devalue the dollar by “creating money that does not exist which leads to the inflation of liquidity,” a policy contrary to China’s position as a holder of vast reserves of US dollars.

The analyst quoted by Chaobao Financial News highlighted “that when there is market failure, the paramount purpose of government intervention should be saving the market for the benefit of the people: Relief, Recovery and then Reform,” and that “Protecting the rights of people who are suffering in the housing market and as a result of high oil prices should be treated as a priority.”

The analyst added that by concentrating on saving just a few large financial companies, the Fed is creating wider financial chaos while arousing anger and suspicion by “only protecting and encouraging large companies’ wrong doing.”

CEIBS Professor of Economics and Finance Xu Xiaonian told a conference yesterday that “The fundamental source of Wall Street’s meltdown is caused by Federal Reserve overissuing currency.” He cautioned that the US government has already exceeded its scope in terms of intervention compared with their usual policy.

Similar sentiments were echoed by economist Zuo Xiaolie, who said that the amount of money injected into the market will have little real impact, but that such measures are a “Narrow minded way that the Federal Reserve uses to diversify the pressure of currency adjustment to other countries, which leads to the devaluation of the dollar, causing imbalance in the global economy.”

“The amount of money that has been put into the market can not fundamentally save the market,” said Xiaolie, adding that the move was merely part of an agenda to “regain the trust and justify future further intervention in the economy.”

On Wednesday, China’s official People’s Daily newspaper, the voice of the ruling Communist party, said that the US had unleashed economic “weapons of mass destruction” and set off a “financial tsunami” by allowing Wall Street lenders to trade in subprime debts and unstable financial derivatives, according to a Press TV report.

China has previously threatened to liquidate its vast holding of US treasuries, amounting to $1.33 trillion, if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation. The Communist power has also repeatedly expressed its anger at the Fed’s indifference to the weakening dollar. If China were to dump the dollar it would likely set in motion a chain of events that would lead to a collapse of the greenback.

We know we are in trouble when the Chinese Communist Party sound like bastions of sound money policy and fiscal conservatism in comparison to the Bush administration and the Federal Reserve, who in creating more money out of thin air continue to bail out their friends on Wall Street while the economic future of hundreds of millions of American citizens is sold down the river.

China accuses U.S. of financial Weapons of Mass Destruction
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=69805&sectionid=351020404

 



Cramer: Black Monday Could Have Been “Financial Terrorism”

Cramer: Black Monday Could Have Been “Financial Terrorism”
CNBC host compares crash to pre-9/11 short-selling of airline stocks as SEC enforces ban to fight “market manipulation”

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
September 19, 2008

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj0Vwnt1CLs

CNBC host Jim Cramer says that financial terrorism could have been behind Monday’s stock market crash as part of a conspiracy to “bring down capitalism,” as the SEC this morning announced a ban on short-selling in an effort to fight market manipulation.

“Traditional people who are allegedly shorting are not….it could be financial terrorism, what a great way to take down America….maybe they want to find out who is doing this shorting like in 9/11, remember the airlines went down first and people thought it was Bin Laden,” said Cramer.

A record number of ‘put’ options, speculation that the stock of a company will fall, were placed on American and United Airlines in the days preceding 9/11. This despite a September 10th Reuters report headlined ‘Airline stocks set to fly.’

Between September 6 and 7, the Chicago Board Options Exchange saw purchases of 4,744 put options on United Airlines, but only 396 call options. On September 10, 4,516 put options on American Airlines were bought on the Chicago exchange, compared to only 748 calls.

However, independent investigators that looked into who benefited from advance knowledge of the terrorist attack found a trail not to Bin Laden, but to Alex Brown/Deutsche Bank – chaired up until 1997 by executive director of the CIA, Buzzy Krongard.

Cramer encouraged authorities to look at who was behind short selling stocks this week because the situation represented a “financial national emergency.”

“I think the FSA needs to find out….whether this is someone who wants to bring down capitalism,” added the host, noting that Hank Paulson himself was accused of helping to bring down capitalism when the government seized control of Fannie Mae.

“Obviously the financial terrorism thing for me has to be put on the table because the regular short sellers are not doing this, they’re not doing this,” stated Cramer.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced this morning that investors would be temporarily prevented from making bets on stock declines on 799 financial stocks. The ban will remain in place for 10 days and could be extended for up to 30 days.

SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said, “The Commission is committed to using every weapon in its arsenal to combat market manipulation that threatens investors and capital markets. The emergency order temporarily banning short selling of financial stocks will restore equilibrium to markets. This action, which would not be necessary in a well-functioning market, is temporary in nature and part of the comprehensive set of steps being taken by the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, and the Congress.”

Cramer disagreed with the move, stating, “To ban short selling is wrong, unless you had reason to believe that it was a force you would normally use physical terrorism that is using financial terrorism.”

 



Socialist Dictatorship: Taxpayers to Pay $700B Bailout

U.S. Treasury Proposes $700B Bailout Plan For Wallstreet

Reuters
September 20, 2008

The Bush administration proposed a $700-billion taxpayer-funded plan on Saturday to buy up toxic mortgage-related securities in an urgent effort to calm financial markets and attack the nation’s housing crisis.

Under the program, the U.S. Treasury Department would buy, or commit to buy, “mortgage-related assets from any financial institution having its headquarters in the United States,” said a copy of the Treasury Department’s draft legislation obtained by Reuters.

The department could hire asset managers to handle the securities, which could include residential or commercial mortgages and related instruments that were originated or issued on or before September 17, 2008, the draft said.

Congressional committees were to be briefed on Saturday on the legislation, which could be considered by the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate as early as next week.

The plan also calls for raising the federal government’s borrowing authority to $11.315 trillion. The debt limit is currently $10.615 trillion.

The government is moving aggressively to soak up billions of dollars of hard-to-sell mortgage-backed securities and related assets that have been choking world capital markets since the bursting of a historic U.S. home price bubble.

 

We Have DAYS To Stop the $700 Billion Stick-Up (and Fascist Power Grab)

George Washington’s Blog
September 21, 2008

Congress hopes to pass the $700 Billion bailout bill by Friday, according to an article in Bloomberg.

In case you haven’t heard, the bill would not only stick up American taxpayers for an additional $700 billion, but would literally give Paulson and the government fascist powers.

Don’t believe me?

Well, as the Bloomberg article notes: “The bill would bar courts from reviewing actions taken under its authority.”

Bloomberg includes the following quotes by people who understand the significance of the bill:

It sounds like Paulson is asking to be a financial dictator, for a limited period of time,” said historian John Steele Gordon . . . .

***

The Bush administration seeks “dictatorial power unreviewable by the third branch of government, the courts, to try to resolve the crisis,” said Frank Razzano, a former assistant chief trial attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission now at Pepper Hamilton LLP in Washington. “We are taking a huge leap of faith.”

This power grab is so serious that investigative reporter Larisa Alexandrovna calls it “the final stages of the coup“.

We have days to stop this bill. March on Congress. Educate and motivate everyone around you. Do everything you can to prevent this disaster before it is too late.

 

Krugman: ’Look, this is really scary. This is really bad, This could be 1931’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKMy8pf9qY8

 

Keiser: US dollar “backed by bananas”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vhf9KwSUQYw

Recent News:

7 percent of U.S. voters back bailouts
http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2008/09/15/daily63.html

Bush Compares Financial Crisis To 9/11
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/19/bush-economy-terrorist/

Nobel Prize Winning Economist: Crisis As Bad As Great Depression Or Worse
http://www.prisonplanet.com/nobel-p..epression-or-worse.html

The Market is Now Pricing In the Genuine Possibility that the US will Default on Its Debt
http://georgewashington2.blogspot..-pricing-in-genuine.html

Fury at $2.5bn Lehman bonus
http://business.timesonline..nd_finance/article4795072.ece

Almost Armageddon: Markets Were 500 Trades From Meltdown
http://www.nypost.com..armageddon_130110.htm

Bailout plan is vast patronage under cover of martial law
http://www.gata.org/node/6647

Dodd: US financial system near meltdown
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=70011&sectionid=3510203

Reid Says `No One Knows What to Do’ to Solve Crisis
http://www.bloomberg.com/..VWYw&refer=home

U.S. to Sell $100 Billion in Bills to Fund Fed Moves
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aQ58hpS0fRH8&refer=home

‘Tent Cities’ Spring Up In The US
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/sk..es-spring-up-in-the-us-3fd0ae9.html

Central Banks Offer Extra Funds to Calm Money Markets
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=aW2z_iiBnF2E&refer=home

U.S. Turning Into U.S.S.R.A
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=69774&sectionid=3510203

Worst Crisis Since ’30s, With No End Yet in Sight
http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-..-No-End-Yet-in-Sight

Federal bailout of U.S. auto industry
http://www.cyclelicio.us/2008/09/federal-bailout-of-us-auto-industry.html

The Fed Runs out of Money
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/09/17/16019/the-feds-run-out-of-money/

No bank is safe in this alarming atmosphere
http://business.theage.com..phere-20080917-4inu.html

Dollar Might Get Crushed
Hundreds of Lehman investors protest in Hong Kong

U.S. Economy Collapse News Archive

 



McCain flip flops on ’strong’ economy comment

McCain on U.S. economy: from ‘strong’ to ‘total crisis’ in 36 hours

Herald Tribune

September 17, 2008

Early this week, as the American financial system absorbed one of its biggest shocks in generations, Senator John McCain said, as he had many times before, that he believed the fundamentals of the economy were “strong.”

Hours later he backpedaled, explaining that he had meant that American workers, whom he described as the backbone of the economy, were productive and resilient.

By Tuesday he was calling the economic situation “a total crisis” and denouncing “greed” on Wall Street and in Washington. Meantime, he moved from adamant opposition to resigned acceptance of the big government bailouts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igAmVs0cvY8

Read Full Article Here

McCain Described The Economy’s Fundamentals At Least 18 Times In 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/16/mccain-economy-strong-18/

McCain Embraces Government Bailout Of Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/06/freddie-mac-mccain/

Phil Gramm would be ‘just the guy’ to lead us into a Great Depression
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/16/krugman-on-gramm/

Advisor: McCain helped create BlackBerry
http://www.politico.com/blogs/jon..ain_helped_create_BlackBerry.html?showall

John McCain, The Stripper, And Bill Kristol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2COPT6Cxug

Bush: Vote For McCain Because Of 9/11
http://www.prisonplanet.com/bush-vote-for-mccain-because-of-911.html

McCain Manager: ’This Election is Not About Issues’
http://voices.washingtonpost.com..anager_this_election_i.html

 



Lehman Brothers Bank Files For Bankruptcy

Lehman Brothers Bank Files For Bankruptcy

AP
September 15, 2008

Lehman Brothers, a 158-year-old investment bank choked by the credit crisis and falling real estate values, filed for Chapter 11 protection in the biggest bankruptcy filing ever on Monday and said it was trying to sell off key business units.

The filing was made in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the bank’s holding company. The case had been assigned to Judge James M. Peck.

Lehman fell under the weight of $60 billion in soured real estate holdings, and the credit market’s dislocation ultimately forced it to seek court protection. The credit crisis has caused global banks to write down more than $300 billion in asset value since last year, and caused the shotgun sales of Merrill Lynch & Co. and Bear Stearns Cos.

Lehman’s bankruptcy filing marks the end of a Wall Street firm that started the U.S. cotton trade before the Civil War and financed the railroads that built a nation.

Read Full Article Here

FDIC Monitoring Lehman Impact
http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSWAT01005420080915

 



Taxpayers to Pay Trillions for Fannie and Freddie Bailout

Fannie and Freddie Seized…Cost to Taxpayer: Over $1 Trillion

Contrarain Profits
September 8, 2008

Uncle Sam has finally taken over Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE). Yesterday, the Bush administration placed the mortgage giants under a conservatorship, putting billions of dollars of taxpeyers’ money at risk in the process.

The Treasury says it will stump up $200 billion to back the companies in exchange for a 79.9% stake in each. The government is now the biggest player in the US mortgage market.

Don Rich warns that the government’s bailout spells trouble for anyone holding US dollars. A major issue is that the Congressional Budget Office’s estimation of the costs of the bailout is far too conservative…

This from last Thursday’s Daily Reckoning:

A recent study from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has zero credibility. It pegged likely taxpayer losses in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailouts at $25 billion. For those with a sense of history, it is worth remembering that the S&L bailout had a $160 billion price tag. The numbers diverge so far from reality as to be laugh-out-loud funny. Funny, that is, except that the CBO estimate demonstrates a willful disconnect with the actual consequences of federal government actions.

As demonstrated below, the real cost of the bailouts will easily exceed $1.3 trillion. In fact, the real cost is likely to range between $1.3 trillion to $1.6 trillion, and is not unlikely to reach $2.5 trillion.

Between 2001 and 2007, Fannie and Freddie purchased or guaranteed $700 billion of Alt-A and subprime loans. Given the default rates on these loans – and the fact that the price of the housing that is the ultimate security of the loans will, for reasons demonstrated below, fall by at least thirty percent – this alone implies a loss for Fannie and Freddie on the order of $210 billion.

Fannie and Freddie acknowledge already-impaired loans on the balance sheet of $19 billion, which they have used creative accounting to avoid deleting from the shareholder equity account. This means that Fannie and Freddie have a maximum of $64 billion in capital remaining.

Given the inevitable losses on the Alt-A/subprime portion of their portfolio, it must be the case that if the federal government, as it is doing, guarantees Fannie and Freddie’s solvency, the difference between the loss and the capital to be made up by the government (i.e., the taxpayers) must equal, not $25 billion but $147 billion.

That alone would mean that the CBO is blowing smoke with their estimated cost figures, and if you think back to the S&L cost of $160 billion, this is not a surprising result. The real picture is so much worse that it is pretty obvious the CBO is flat out inventing figures just to get the politicians through November.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out how the government is going to get its hands on such money: the Federal printing press…

I don’t know what those people in Washington are taking to sleep at night after all their electorally driven accounting and finance exercises, but I can tell you what they will be doing to keep the government open for business: printing a whole lot of money.

Chairman Bernanke has the discount window open to any collateralization not worth the paper it is written on, so in effect he has the helicopters ready to drop hundred-dollar bills over Wall Street – as he once famously described the ultimate policy instrument of a fiat-money system.

Of course, if he does that, we will have to change his nickname from Helicopter Ben to Hyperinflation Ben, which answers the question of who picks up the tab of bailing out Fannie and Freddie: anyone owning dollars.

Produce a lot of something, and it becomes worth less. And given the losses at Fannie and Freddie, the taxpayer guarantee, and the ongoing initiation of Boomer retirement, only the inflation tax will work to pay for keeping Fannie and Freddie afloat.

Like it or not, we are about to enter interesting times, and it is too bad our supposed professional civil servants at the Congressional Budget Office have failed to tell the emperor the truth: that he is buck-naked bankrupt and getting ready to take a lot of people with him.

P.S Don Rich is an instructor of economics, finance, and political science at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, PA. He also teaches economics, government, and history at Delaware County Community College in Exton, PA. You can leave comments for Don on the mises.org blog.

 

Greenspan: U.S Economy in ’once-in-a-century’ financial crisis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t6dLePtyXQ

 

U.S. Is “More Communist than China”: Jim Rogers

CNBC
September 15, 2008

The nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shows that the U.S. is “more communist than China right now” but its brand of socialism is meant only for the rich, investor Jim Rogers, CEO of Rogers Holdings, told CNBC Europe on Monday.

“America is more communist than China is right now. You can see that this is welfare of the rich, it is socialism for the rich… it’s just bailing out financial institutions,” Rogers said.

Stock markets jumped after the U.S. government’s decision to launch what could be its biggest federal bailout ever, in a bid to support the housing market and ward off more global financial market turbulence.

But Rogers said in the long term the move spelled trouble.

“This is madness, this is insanity, they have more than doubled the American national debt in one weekend for a bunch of crooks and incompetents. I’m not quite sure why I or anybody else should be paying for this,” Rogers told “Squawk Box Europe.”

Read Full Article Here

 

Soros Compares Mishandling Of Current Crisis To Great Depression

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
September 17, 2008

Billionaire investor George Soros has slammed US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson for behaving in the same manner as bankers in the 1930’s and mishandling a financial crisis that threatens a repeat of the Great Depression.

Soros told BBC Newsnight that the world was merely at the beginning of a financial storm and warned, “We mustn’t allow the financial system to collapse as it did in the 1930s.”

Referring to Hank Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary, Soros stated, “The way Paulson is handling the situation is reminiscent of the way the bankers handled it in the 1930s.”

He added: “The financial system has gone overboard and the financial engineering has grown to big, it takes up too big a share in the world’s resources.”

“Now it is shrinking. When it becomes regulated it will be less profitable than the last 25 years.”

Soros, a former member of the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations, is ranked by Forbes as the 99th richest person in the world with a net worth of around $9 billion.

Ironically, Soros made his name by reaping the dividends of another financial meltdown when he “broke the Bank of England” by short-selling the pound sterling before the currency dropped out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992, landing Soros a profit of around $1.1 billion.

In 2006, the highest court in France upheld a conviction that Soros had practiced insider trading when he bought shares in French bank Société Générale after discovering that the bank was on the verge of a takeover.

Soros has repeatedly predicted fiscal armageddon, writing three books about a “superbubble” that is on the verge of collapse.

In response to those accusing him of crying wolf in an effort to panic financial markets and benefit from the fallout, Soros stated, “I have a record of crying wolf…. I did it first in The Alchemy of Finance (in 1987), then in The Crisis of Global Capitalism (in 1998) and now in this book (2008’s The New Paradigm for Financial Markets). So it’s three books predicting disaster. (After) the boy cried wolf three times . . . the wolf really came.”

Respondents to a Daily Mail article about Soros’ comments accused the financier of engaging in wanton hypocrisy.

“I don’t know why on Earth they interview Soros since he has been proven again and again to deliberately spread financial rumour for his own exploitation and gain,” wrote one, “Soros became a multi multi billionaire precisely through manipulating markets like this – if this man says that we are heading for a 1930’s style crash you can guarantee he already has plans to profit from it.”

Recent News:

China paper urges new currency order after “financial tsunami”
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSPEK4365020080917?sp=true

US authorities have now spent $900 billion to prop up the financial system
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/..d=9736054&cKey=1221686585000&ty=ti

Central banks pump £100bn into money markets
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/m..2008/09/17/cncentral117.xml

Treasury announces debt auctions for Fed
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jnS9Vm..m4iAD938I1A80

Fed Pumps $70B Into Financial System
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080916/ap_on_bi_ge/fed_credit_..E44U6Xfx.Fe7GUOQ.D1v24cA

Run On The Bank? Americans Could Lose Their Deposits
http://www.prisonplanet.com/run-on-the-bank-americans-could-lose-their-deposits.html

Merrill Lynch seals future with Bank of America deal
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/bu.._finance/article4755438.ece

Rogers: Dollar To Lose World Reserve Status
http://www.prisonplanet.com/rogers-dollar-to-lose-world-reserve-status.html

Paulson: Congress Has No Authority Here
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/09/paulson-congres.html

Goldman profit plunges 70 pct amid market slump
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080916/bs_nm/goldmansachs_dc

August home starts seen at lowest level in 17 years
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1638353220080917

Russia halts trading after 17.5% share price fall
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles..ORTUNE5.htm

Dow closed down 450
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20..er=1;_ylt=Al5VvbZImvYKFj5hEtFaLktv24cA

Is Britain Heading For Worst Recession Since 1929?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/09/15/bcnrecession115.xml

Washington Mutual Tumbles 30%
http://news.yaho..CZ6k2k2Rd38VKPgv6b.HQA

Now fear stalks British banks
Inflation rises to 4.7% and FTSE plunges ANOTHER 90 points as global markets tumble in wake of Meltdown Monday
Bush Claims Economy Can Weather Storm
Bailouts Will Push U.S. Into Depression

U.S. Economic Collapse News Archive

 



Taxpayers To Pay For Mortgage Company Bailout

Top Investor: Fannie/Freddie Bailout Serves “Bunch Of Crooks And Incompetents”
Rogers says move indicates U.S. is “more Communist than China”

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
September 8, 2008

A leading investor has denounced the government seizure of two of the nation’s largest financial companies as “madness” and says the move will only serve to make the markets more volatile and see house prices continue to go down.

In an interview with CNBC Jim Rogers, CEO of Rogers Holdings, described the move by the Treasury to nationalize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as “insanity”.

The Treasury has pledged to provide as much as $200 billion to the companies, replace their chief executives and place them under a conservatorship, giving management control to their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, or FHFA.

“This is madness, this is insanity,” Rogers said, “they have more than doubled the American national debt in one weekend for a bunch of crooks and incompetents. I’m not quite sure why I or anybody else should be paying for this.”

“America is more communist than China is right now,” Rogers declared. “You can see that this is welfare of the rich, it is socialism for the rich… it’s just bailing out financial institutions,” he added.

Rogers and other critics alike are concerned that American taxpayers, already facing the worst housing bust since the 1930s, will now be saddled with billions of dollars in losses from home loans made by the private sector, radically changing the nature of the crisis. Government officials have justified the move by stating that that the cost of doing nothing would be far greater.

“You’re certainly gonna see a huge jump in any financial institutions which owned a lot of Fannie or Freddie… because they don’t have to worry about going bankrupt all of a sudden,” Rogers said.

“Bank stocks around the world are going through the roof, that’s ’cause they’ve all been bailed out. You don’t see the homeowners in Kansas going through the roof ’cause they’re not being bailed out,” he added.

Other investors have criticized the takeover as a “stopgap” and a “band aid” aimed at keeping the companies going into 2009, leaving the next president and Congress to deal with the fallout.

Jim Rogers commented that neither of the presidential candidates has a solution to the crisis.

“This is a big huge mess and neither one of them has a clue what to do next year. It’s going to be a mess.” Rogers said.

Watch the interview with Jim Rogers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gZuG-52js0

 



Buffett Says Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac ’Game Is Over’

Buffett Says Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac ’Game Is Over’

Bloomberg
August 22, 2008

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two largest mortgage finance companies, “don’t have any net worth,’’ billionaire investor Warren Buffett said.

“The game is over’’ as independent companies said Buffett, the 77-year-old chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., in an interview on CNBC today. “They were able to borrow without any of the normal restraints. They had a blank check from the federal government.’’

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae touched 20-year lows yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange on speculation a government bailout will leave the stocks worthless. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson won approval from Congress last month to pump emergency capital into the companies, which account for more than half of the $12 trillion U.S. mortgage market.

Fannie and Freddie mispriced their products and “kept existing because they had the federal government behind them,’’ Buffett said. Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire had been among the largest holders of Freddie until about 2001, when it became apparent the company wasn’t being run well, he said.

Read Full Article Here

 

Jim Cramer Talks About Market Manipulation

Related News:
USDA: US food prices to post biggest rise in 20 years
http://www.reuters.com/article..220080820?sp=true

79 Million Americans Struggle To Pay Med Bills
http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/2..AjuAtPXqgtjMugI32IL4GWO9j7AB

Gold surges to a 1-week high of $839
http://africa.reuters.com/business/news/usnBAN222833.html

US Crony Capitalism
http://mparent7777-1.livejournal.com/1375774.html

Recession within year, say experts
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/pres..ay-experts-6323e80.html

Oil shoots to $122 on missile shield row
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/..70614&sid=20295831&con_type=3

Morgan Stanley Says Financial Crisis Will Last: Report
http://www.cnbc.com/id/26252398

Wholesale prices: Highest annual rate in 27 years
http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/19/ne..postversion=2008081910

Wall Street Pulls Back As Financials Fall
Stocks Fall On Inflation Data
Financial Fears, Soaring Inflation Hit Wall Street

U.S. Economic Collapse News Archive

 



Who’s the REAL elitist? The McCains have 10 homes!

Who’s the REAL elitist? The McCains have 10 homes!

 



U.S. Roads, Airports Being Sold To Private Investors

U.S. Roads, Airports Being Sold To Private Investors

Reuters
August 4, 2008

Cash-strapped U.S. state and city governments are likely to sell or lease more highways, bridges, airports and other assets to investors desperate for stable returns after being frazzled by the credit crisis.

The trend is set to pick up speed given worsening budget deficits in state capitals and city halls nationwide.

It will also be welcomed by Wall Street bankers hoping to help create and market so-called “infrastructure” transactions at a time many debt markets remain paralyzed, and after major U.S. stock indexes fell into bear market territory.

“When you are nervous about everything else, you put your money in a toll road,” said John Schmidt, a partner at the law firm Mayer Brown LLP in Chicago. “That’s the logic of infrastructure. Returns are stable and predictable. You won’t get fabulously rich, but you’ll get stable cash flow.”

The latest enthusiasm for at least partially privatizing infrastructure assets came on July 30 from New York Gov. David Paterson, who is trying to plug a budget deficit caused in part by lower tax revenue as Wall Street retrenches.

“We’re just looking at ways to be more efficient and that’s why I used the term public-private partnerships — trying to find some creative solutions,” Paterson said. “The reason I’m avoiding taxes is because I think taxes are addictive.”

Bankers and others in the industry say there is pent-up demand from dedicated infrastructure funds and public pension funds to invest in hard assets — perhaps $75 billion to $150 billion of equity capital — but not enough supply.

Read Full Article Here

Morgan Stanley Said to Freeze Home-Equity Credit Withdrawals
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pi…fQ0PVYvOgzI&refer=home

Dropping USD Makes Mexican Vacations Go Up
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-08-06-mexico_N.htm?csp=1

Dollar soars to 5-mth high vs euro as turnaround eyed
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/7709840

list of ’fastest-dying’ cities includes four in Ohio
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/busin../05/forbes.html?sid=101

Mexico’s Poor Forgo Goods as Income From U.S. Drops
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20..A2CsXnpEac&refer=home

Freddie Mac’s negative net worth raises questions
http://www.reuters.com/article/news..geNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0

Gold sinks to $860
http://uk.reuters.com/article/goldMktRpt/idUKL144962020080808

Oil Falls To $118
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080805/oil_prices.html?.v=13&printer=1

Report: Freddie Mac Chief Disregarded Warnings
http://news.yahoo.com..g1D3M8_8.Si1pc1w4tgtv24cA

Roubini: Hundreds Of Banks Will Fail
http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN0344130720080803?sp=true

No Change Expected In Fed Interest Rates
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080..1D3M8_8.Si1pc1w4tgtv24cA

U.S. Economic Collapse News Archive

 



Stressed banks borrow record amount from Fed

Stressed banks borrow record amount from Fed

Reuters
July 31, 2008

Banks borrowed a record amount of funds from the Federal Reserve in the latest week as the year old credit crisis took a persistent toll, while the commercial paper market continued to contract, signaling tough conditions for short term borrowers.

Banks’ primary credit borrowings averaged $17.45 billion per day in the latest week, the second straight week this had hit a record and up from $16.38 billion the previous week, Fed data showed on Thursday.

Read Full Article Here

 

Zimbabwe Devalues Currency

AP
July 30, 2008

Zimbabwe will drop 10 zeros from its hyper-inflated currency — turning 10 billion dollars into one — the country’s reserve bank said Wednesday. President Robert Mugabe threatened a state of emergency if businesses profiteer from the country’s economic and political unraveling.

Shop shelves are empty and there are chronic shortages of everything including medication, food, fuel, power and water. Eighty percent of the work force is unemployed and many who do have jobs don’t earn enough to pay for bus fare.

Read Full Article Here

 

Inverview with George Green – (7/16/2008)

Recent News:

Bush signs housing bill in private
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/12166.html

Soaring energy bills set to push inflation to 16-year high
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar..set-push-inflation-16-year-high.html

GM Has $15.5 Billion Loss on U.S. Sales Drop, Leases
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=agMEuJ_r_yxA&refer=worldwide

Venezuela to Nationalize Spanish Bank
http://english.cri.cn/2947/2008/08/01/1821s388058.htm

IndyMAC Files For Bankruptcy Protection
http://www.nytimes.com/2008..2&ref=business&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Jobless Claims Up Highest In Five Years
http://www.wnbc.com/news/17049831/detail.html

Inflation Could Hit 6% By Fall?
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com..Economist/articleshow/3307499.cms

Deutsche Bank Writedowns Exceed $11 Billion
http://moneynews.com/financenews/bank_writedowns/2008/07/31/117802.html

Shell reports 33% rise in profit
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/31/business/31shellNEW.php

Exxon posts record $11.68 billion profit
http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/31/news/.._profits/?postversion=2008073109

Britons Skipping Meals Due To Money Worries
http://www.money.co.uk/article/100..-meals-due-to-money-worries.htm

IMF Calls For N. African Economic Integration
Greenspan: Housing No Where Near Bottom
Economic Rebound Not As Energetic As Hoped
Biggest dive for commodities in 28 years

U.S. Economic Collapse News Archive

 



Bush: “Wall Street got drunk”

Bush: “Wall Street got drunk”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrzFyeHSRJI

Recent News:

U.S. deficit to hit record US$490-billion next year
http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=685851

Russia Cuts Exposure To Mortgage Companies
http://www.reuters.com/article/fundsFundsNews/idUSL863553320080728

Aussi Bank Writedown Shock Street?
http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=58634

Merrill Lynch forced to take emergency action ahead of writedown
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/b..banking_and_finance/article4420207.ece

Haiti: Mud cakes become staple diet as cost of food soars
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/..internationalaidanddevelopment

China Owns America
http://www.washingtontimes.com/ne..chinas-economic-bargaining-chip/

Economy hitting the elderly especially hard
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25804814/page/2/

Congress Taps Paulson’s Helmet
http://www.321gold.com/editorials/schiff/schiff072808.html

No Angry Lines At New Failed Banks
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200…AhOmkT7fUvH9bYpM6zC6uZlv24cA

Abu Dhabi To Buy Stake In GE
http://business.timesonline.co.u..try_sectors/industrials/article4380773.ece

Russia Owns 10% Of U.S. Steel Industry
http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSL0746834220080407?sp=true

Cramer: Stocks are Doomed, Sell Now
http://moneynews.com/streettalk/cramer_sell_stocks_now/2008/07/09/111259.html

Controller tells Schwarzenegger he won’t cut workers’ wages
California Governor Schwarzenegger to cut state worker pay to $6.55/hr
Ford Posts Loss of $8.7 Billion on Asset Woes
Food Price Rise Has Coca Farmers Planting Rice
Pelosi Eyes $50 Billion In New Economic Stimulus
Dow Drops 200 Points On Housing Data

U.S. Economic Collapse News Archive

 



US debt now at an astonishing $53 trillion

US debt now at an astonishing $53 trillion

SF Gate
July 17, 2008

As the Bush administration proposes backstopping mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with a $300 billion line of credit and Congress contemplates another economic stimulus, the question is who will bail out the government?

“People seem to think the government has money,” said former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker. “The government doesn’t have any money.”

A rare consensus has developed across the political spectrum that the government’s own fiscal affairs are precarious, with an astonishing $53 trillion in long-term liabilities, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Read Full Article Here

 



Analysts Say More U.S. Banks Will Fail

Analysts Say More U.S. Banks Will Fail

IHT
July 14, 2008

As home prices continue to decline and loan defaults mount, U.S. regulators are bracing for dozens of American banks to fail over the next year.

But after a large mortgage lender in California collapsed late Friday, Wall Street analysts began posing two crucial questions: Just how many banks might falter? And, more urgently, which one could be next?

The nation’s banks are in far less danger than they were in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when more than 1,000 federally insured institutions went under during the savings-and-loan crisis. The debacle, the greatest collapse of American financial institutions since the Depression, prompted a government bailout that cost taxpayers about $125 billion.

But the troubles are growing so rapidly at some small and midsize banks that as many as 150 out of the 7,500 banks nationwide could fail over the next 12 to 18 months, analysts say. Other lenders are likely to shut branches or seek mergers.

“Everybody is drawing up lists, trying to figure out who the next bank is, No. 1, and No. 2, how many of them are there,” said Richard Bove, the banking analyst with Ladenburg Thalmann, who released a list of troubled banks over the weekend. “And No. 3, from the standpoint of Washington, how badly is it going to affect the economy?”

Many investors are on edge after federal regulators seized the California lender, IndyMac Bank, one of the nation’s largest savings and loans, last week. With $32 billion in assets, IndyMac, a spinoff of the Countrywide Financial Corporation, was the biggest American lender to fail in more than two decades.

Read Full Article Here