Posts Tagged Economy
The Mystery of the Rising Stock Market
Posted by David Hazi in General on November 6th, 2009
Here’s a puzzle: The stock markets are doing very well, yet the performance of the underlying economy doesn’t seem to justify optimism. The buoyant S&P 500 has risen 53 percent since the March bottom. And while the economy expanded at a 3.5 percent rate in the third quarter, unemployment is high, incomes are stagnant, and consumers are shaky.
It’s possible that the stock market is just getting it wrong again. After all, the markets, which are supposed to process investors’ attitudes about the future, hit record highs in October 2007, just as the U.S. economy was about to pitch into recession. But it could be that the notion the stock market is an accurate gauge of the domestic economy’s temperature is outdated.
To read the entire article click here.
We print money
Posted by David Hazi in Videos on September 26th, 2009
Why does a private company named the Federal Reserve have more political power than all three branches of government?
Financial crisis creates gigantic cargo ship graveyard
Posted by David Hazi in General on September 14th, 2009
WOW THIS IS AN AMAZING ARTICLE! It really shows the reality of the global financial crisis.
Ah Wat says: ‘We don’t understand why they are here. There are so many ships but no one seems to be on board. When we sail past them in our fishing boats we never see anyone. They are like real ghost ships and some people are scared of them. They believe they may bring a curse with them and that there may be bad spirits on the ships.’
Just 12 months ago these financiers and brokers were enjoying fat bonuses as they traded cargo space. But nobody wants the space any more, and those that still need to ship goods across the world are demanding vast reductions in price.
Do not tell these men and women about green shoots of recovery. As Briton Tim Huxley, one of Asia’s leading ship brokers, says, if the world is really pulling itself out of recession, then all these idle ships should be back on the move.
‘This is the time of year when everyone is doing all the Christmas stuff,’ he points out.
‘A couple of years ago those ships would have been steaming back and forth, going at full speed. But now you’ve got something like 12 per cent of the world’s container ships doing nothing.’
Click here for the entire article.
Ten Bubbles in the Making
Posted by David Hazi in General on September 12th, 2009
Yahoo! had a great article today. If you think we are in a real recovery than you are severely mistaken. Don’t take advice from people who are only out to make a quick buck. The long term future of this country must be secured by individuals who have actual foresight.
One year after America’s brush with economic catastrophe, there’s plenty of looking back at the bubbles that caused financial chaos.
But what’s next?
There are surely dangerous economic bubbles forming as we speak. As Alan Greenspan warned this week, “They [financial crises] are all different, but they have one fundamental source,” he said. “That is the unquenchable capability of human beings when confronted with long periods of prosperity to presume that it will continue.”
The trick, of course, is spotting them. By definition, most people don’t spot a bubble before they form and burst.
Click here for the entire article.
1,000 Banks to Fail In Next Two Years: Bank CEO
Posted by David Hazi in General, Videos on August 27th, 2009
http://www.cnbc.com/id/32581463
Don’t be fooled, economy still in shambles
Posted by David Hazi in General on August 8th, 2009
Unemployment statistics(U3) decreased this week, for the first time in several months. Don’t be fooled though, other indicators are not getting any better.
Regulators close 3 banks in Fla., Ore.; total 72
NEW YORK (AP) – Regulators on Friday shut down two banks in Florida and one in Oregon, bringing to 72 the number of federally insured banks to fail this year under the weight of the weak economy and rising loan losses.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of the banks: First State Bank, of Sarasota, Fla.; Venice, Fla.-based Community National Bank of Sarasota County, and Community First Bank (FRBA) (CFBN), of Prineville, Ore.
First State Bank had total assets of $463 million and deposits totaling $387 million. Community National Bank had $97 million in assets and $93 million in deposits. Community First Bank had $209 million in assets and $182 million in deposits.
Click here to read the entire article.
Democrat Senator cashes in before stock collapse
Posted by David Hazi in General on June 16th, 2009
And Obama keeps blaming Wall St. for everything. Maybe he should look in his own backyard, Washington.
Durbin cashed out during big stock collapse
WASHINGTON | Asset sales came after meeting with Fed, Treasury chiefs
As U.S. stock markets plummeted last September, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin, sold more than $115,000 worth of stocks and mutual-fund shares and used much of the money to invest in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
The Illinois senator’s 2008 financial disclosure statement shows he sold mutual-fund shares worth $42,696 on Sept. 19, the day after then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urged congressional leaders in a closed meeting to craft legislation to help financially troubled banks. The same day, he bought $43,562 worth of Berkshire Hathaway’s Class B stock, the disclosure shows.
Bogus unemployment statistics
Posted by David Hazi in General on June 15th, 2009
I have been talking about this for some time now. Unemployment stats from the government are bogus. We are around 20% unemployment, not 10%. The following is a good article talking about bogus unemployment statistics.
‘Obama job numbers are pure fiction’
Of course, the inability to measure Mr. Obama’s jobs formula is part of its attraction. Never mind that no one — not the Labor Department, not the Treasury, not the Bureau of Labor Statistics — actually measures “jobs saved.” As the New York Times delicately reports, Mr. Obama’s jobs claims are “based on macroeconomic estimates, not an actual counting of jobs.” Nice work if you can get away with it.
And get away with it he has. However dubious it may be as an economic measure, as a political formula “save or create” allows the president to invoke numbers that convey an illusion of precision. Harvard economist and former Bush economic adviser Greg Mankiw calls it a “non-measurable metric.” And on his blog, he acknowledges the political attraction.
H.R. 1207 now has majority!
Posted by David Hazi in General on June 13th, 2009
Less than 24 hours after WND reported a proposal from U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, to audit the Federal Reserve was approaching majority support in the U.S. House, he is confirming the plan has reached that “crucial benchmark.”"The tremendous grass-roots and bipartisan support in Congress for H.R. 1207 is an indicator of how mainstream America is fed up with Fed secrecy,” Paul said shortly after U.S. Rep Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, became the 218th cosponsor, giving the plan, technically, majority support in the 435-member House.
“I look forward to this issue receiving greater public exposure,” Paul said.
US Dollar is going to be replaced
Posted by David Hazi in General on May 18th, 2009
H.R. 1207 needs to get passed NOW. If we do not start looking at ways to return sound money, our economic problems will be larger than we had ever imagined.
Brazil and China eye plan to axe dollar
Brazil and China will work towards using their own currencies in trade transactions rather than the US dollar, according to Brazil’s central bank and aides to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president.The move follows recent Chinese challenges to the status of the dollar as the world’s leading international currency.
Brazil and China will work towards using their own currencies in trade transactions rather than the US dollar, according to Brazil’s central bank and aides to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president.
The move follows recent Chinese challenges to the status of the dollar as the world’s leading international currency.
China’s president, first discussed the idea of replacing the dollar with the renminbi and the real as trade currencies when they met at the G20 summit in London last month.
US Dollar is on the verge of collapse
Posted by David Hazi in General on May 16th, 2009
China’s yuan ’set to usurp US dollar’ as world’s reserve currency
Professor Roubini, of New York University’s Stern business school, believes that while such a major change is some way off, the Chinese government is laying the ground for the yuan’s ascendance.
Known as “Dr Doom” for his negative stance, Prof Roubini argues that China is better placed than the US to provide a reserve currency for the 21st century because it has a large current account surplus, focused government and few of the economic worries the US faces.
Jim Rogers: Food Prices Will Skyrocket
Renowned investor Jim Rogers says that the rally in stocks and the dollar will soon end, thanks to the Federal Reserve’s massive easing policy.
“I’m not buying shares anywhere,” he tells Bloomberg TV.
“I’m not selling short yet. But…if it keeps going like this, I’ll have to start selling short eventually. I don’t see the stock market as a great place to be in the next two to three years, maybe even the next decade.”
As for the dollar, “we’re going to have a currency crisis probably this fall or the fall of 2010,” Rogers says.
“It’s been building up for a long time. We’ve had a huge rally in the dollar, an artificial rally. …
The U.S. dollar is a very flawed currency.”
Congressman Alan Grayson grills inspector general of the Federal Reserve
Posted by David Hazi in Videos on May 7th, 2009
What a criminal organization. End the Fed. Support H.R. 1207!
Stress tests are a sham
Posted by David Hazi in General on April 26th, 2009
It is still my prevailing belief that the key to our future as a world superpower, is a reform of our financial system. The Federal Reserve has set us back for far too long now and threatens our own existence and sovereignty. Our Founders warned us about a central bank, now is the last chance to listen.
From George Washington’s Blog:
PhD economist Nouriel Roubini says that the stress tests are a sham:
Stress Testing the Stress Test Scenarios: Actual Macro Data Are Already Worse than the More Adverse Scenario for 2009 in the Stress Tests. So the Stress Tests Fail the Basic Criterion of Reality Check Even Before They Are Concluded
The spin machine about the banks’ stress test is already in full motion; some banking regulators have already leaked to the New York Times the spin that all 19 banks who are subject to the stress test will pass it, i.e. none of them will fail it.
But if you look at the actual data today macro data for Q1 on the three variables used in the stress tests – growth rate, unemployment rate, and home price depreciation – are already worse than those in FDIC baseline scenario for 2009 AND even worse than those for the more adverse stressed scenario for 2009. Thus, the stress test results are meaningless as actual data are already running worse than the worst case scenario…
In other terms, the results of the stress test – even before they are published – are not worth the paper they are written on as they make assumptions on the economy that are much more optimistic –even in the worst scenarios that the FDIC has designed – than the actual figures for Q1 of 2009.
Roubini joins FDIC chief Sheila Bair, Nobel economist Paul Krugman, former senior S&L regulator William Black, and many others in calling the “stress tests” a sham.
Look familar?
Posted by David Hazi in Political Cartoons on April 9th, 2009
The YAL website had a great cartoon on it, so I figured I would also post it here. It comes from the 1930’s and bears a striking resemblence to our current situation.
Harvard Student Takes On Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass)
Posted by David Hazi in Videos on April 8th, 2009
A Harvard student asks Barney Frank about his role in all this government spending. He gets extremely defensive and never answers the question.
2008 Congressional Pig Book Summary
Posted by David Hazi in General on April 5th, 2009
The Citizens Agaisnt Government Waste, have compiled the 2008 Congressional Pig Book Summary. The book gives a snapshot of each appropriations bill and details all the porky projects. I suggest you check it out, you can get to it by clicking on the picture of the book below.
