“The World is in Trouble” sez German Bank Econ
Weimar Currency.
The top economist at Germany’s D-Bank says the green shoots are about to turn brown.
‘The World Is in Trouble’: Deutsche Bank Chief Economist
The global economy still faces turmoil as governments try to figure out how to move out of fiscal rescue packages, which could lead to another two downturns, Deutsche Bank Chief Economist Norbert Walter said Thursday. In addition, nervousness on the part of major dollar holders could pressure the greenback and lead to a very worrying 2010, Walter said. Norbert said recently in research notes “the world is in trouble.”
“I believe that the rescue packages brought on have been so costly for so many governments that the exit from this fiscal policy will be very painful, very painful indeed,” he said. “Some of us are already talking about a W-shaped recovery. I’d probably talk about a triple-U-shaped recovery because there are so many stumbling blocks here to get out of this.”
This is US in 10 Years
Think of Borat's home town. Yours could look like this sooner than you think.
I heard someone on the radio the other day who had a new definition of a “Gaffe” – you know, those verbalizations politicians make all the time and wish they hadn’t. Vice President Biden owns the Gaffe Factory, for example.
Well, the new definition of a Gaffe is when a politician screws up and accidentally tells the truth. Turns out the Veep’s recent observations on Russian fall squarely into this new view of gaffsterism. Biden got it right. He just regrets saying it out loud.
This is what is in store for the good old USA. Think I’m nuts? Check out Dmitry Orlov’s Blog, Cluborlov. He had a front row seat at Russia’s crack up. He sees one coming for us, too.
Biden had it right: Rural Russia is dying of poverty, neglect
Tom Lasseter | McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: August 05, 2009 04:31:57 PM
KUVSHINOVO, Russia — The government administrator was bursting with optimism: More children are being born, many rubles will be invested in infrastructure and his region is weathering the global economic storm.
“The situation is so good,” said Boris Zaitsev, a broad-shouldered man who spoke in a confident monotone.
Outside his office, some 170 miles northwest of Moscow, the front steps to the Soviet-era government building are falling into a pile of rubble. Deep, spine-rattling potholes that rival sections of Baghdad riddle the town’s streets. The region’s population has plummeted by more than a quarter. Officials here like to point visitors to Kuvshinovo’s new Russian Orthodox church, an elegant wooden structure. Work inside the church hasn’t been finished, because the money ran out. Looters searching for icons and cash previously torched the office of another local church. Twice. A priest in a nearby village, who’d led an anti-alcoholism campaign, was burned to death with his family. The area around this rural enclave is in steep decline; once-thriving fields are empty and the population is in free-fall. Along with many other towns and villages in vast rural Russia, it’s a microcosm for a country that, according to recent studies, is withering away.
Mob beats Chinese steel factory executive to death
China Unrest: Chinese riot police get into position as Uighur protesters gather during a demonstration in Urumqi, earlier this month.
Thousands of workers had gathered in northeastern rust belt city of Tonghua to protest the takeover of their company and threatened layoffs.
Chinese state media confirmed Monday that a steel factory executive was beaten to death after thousands of workers gathered to protest the takeover of their company.
Chen Guojun, an executive at Jianlong Steel Holding Co., died Friday after an angry mob in the northeastern rust belt city of Tonghua beat him and then blocked ambulances from reaching him, according to the China Daily.
The protesters worked at the state-owned Tonghua Iron and Steel Group, which was going to be sold to Chen’s privately owned Jianlong Steel. Chen sparked the riot by announcing 30,000 workers would be laid off, the newspaper said.
They dispersed later only after they were assured by authorities the sale would not go through.
– David Pierson
Bank Failure Friday – Thursday Edition
Back from a holiday hiatus to find 7 (seven) banks failed. Normally, they close them on a Friday, but I guess the holiday gave them the opportunity to put the key in the door on these guys a day early. Interestingly, 6 of the 7 are in my home state of Illinois. Hmmmmmmmmm.
Bank Failure Friday!!!
A whopping 4 5 (four – FIVE – they slipped another one in on me after I posted) banks bit the big one today! Read ‘em and weep, kids!
Metro Pacific Bank, Irvine, CA
Neighborhood Community Bank, Newnan, GA
Community Bank of West Georgia, Villa Rica, GA
AND
This makes a total of 45 (forty-five) banks closed this year by the FDIC.
The End of Empire – The BRIC is hitting the fan, folks!
Children playing with stacks of cash in Weimar Germany.
Stop reading right now unless you are prepared to be massively depressed. Our empire has fallen. We are now, officially, the Romans. In a stunning, devastating piece at TruthDig, Chris Hedges puts together the cataclysmic chain of events to come that many of us have struggled to round up and articulate since September of 2007. It took a year after that for the situation to get so bad, on September 21, 2008, that the Congressional leadership was called together by the Fed and Treasury and told without a massive cash infusion of tax dollars the whole rotten movie set that was our economy was going to fall on top of us. Riot, mayhem, violence and disintegration were sure to follow. Out of that meeting was born TARP, TALF, AIG, GM, the stimulus package, etc.
The whole piece is a must read, but some snippets after the jump will curl your hair.
Day Old Bread – Odds and Ends 06/08/09
- Can’t make the payment? Light a match!
- Palin kicked out of Republicanist fund raising dinner – again.
- Right wing on the upswing in meaningless EU elections.
- ChiComs put Ray Nagin on lockdown in Shanghai. Has the mayor been “Shanghaied”?
- Apparently we’re letting some of the big banks pay back their TARP money. Let them give it all back, dammit!
- Laura Bush thinks Sotomayor is OK.
- Can’t afford your car payment? Torch the damn thing!
- Right Wing Israeli government stands in the way of Mideast Peace, while simultaneously claiming to have a new plan in the works.
- Canadian nurses meet to discuss possible violence surrounding flu pandemics. Now, they’re talking.
- Government selectively tracks the pig flu.
- Officials said to be preparing for second wave of flu. 1918 here we come.
- Coming to a jailhouse near you – Rikers Island overrun with the pig flu.
- I am irritated with the President on DADT, but I understand his strategery.
Day Old Bread – Odds and Ends – 06/05/09
- End of the line, Grasshopper.
- The WHO hold emergency meeting to avoid (again) raising the panic on pig flu to level 6.
- All of our strum und drang about bird flu apparently helps / will help us with the pig flu.
- Kung Fu’s death “may be accident” say genius cops. (Clue – No one commits suicide by strangling their yang.)
- Unemployment at at 25-year high.
- Department of Stoopid Criminals. AG DWI Homicide suspect busted boozing it up on Facebook.
- Sharon Tate killer, Manson Family member Susan Atkins, is dying, so she gets to have a parole hearing.
Day Old Bread – Odds and Ends – 06/01/09
- Silver American Eagle
- Silver has best month since 1987. Get it NOW.
- GM filed for bankruptcy today.
- Willfully asleep at the switch: Bush’s SEC thwarted regulation. “After Cox became SEC chairman in mid-2005, he adopted practices that undermined the enforcement division’s efforts to investigate cases of corporate wrongdoing and punish those involved, according to interviews with 19 current and former SEC officials.”
- Right-wing extremist held in slaying of Kansas abortion doctor. ‘Of Dr. Tiller’s death, Mr. Leach said, “To call this a crime is too simplistic,” adding, “There is Christian scripture that would support this.”‘
Daily Gloom – 04/24/09
- Shred them! Just say “NO”!
- Geithner says banks have sufficient capital.
- Then, why aren’t they lending it out?
- Do we even want them to lend it out, asks Robert Reich?
- “There are three ways to fix the banking system; liquidation, reorganization and subsidization. Geithner has rejected all three.” – a very interesting read – slowly, though – there’s a lot to digest.
- One Irish newspaper says a majority of Irish people expect “civil unrest” this summer.
Bank Failure Friday
Two this week, kids:
Daily Gloom – 04/15/09 – Teabagging Day Edition
- Run on the Bank
- Teabaggers are apparently outraged, simply infuriated, by the marginal tax rate rising 3% for millionaires!
- Depression will worsen unless more stimulus is pumped into the economy.
- Airlines, automakers, retail chains all on list of 10 companies that could go belly-up this year. Here’s why.
Bank Failure Friday – 04/10/09 – Good Friday Edition
Only one two this week. (They snuck one in on me after I first posted.):
Day Old Bread – Odds and Ends – 04/09/09
- Coming soon to a legislature near you.
- REAL U.S. unemployment @ 15.6%. Maybe. (This is not one of my tin-foil hat sites, either.)
- The Country loves Our Barry, isn’t buying GOPers bullshit.
- The troops were digging on him too. He rocked the casbah!
- Vermont Lege makes it legal - over GOP Guv’s veto.
- It’s ain’t over till its over – the Depression, that is.
Daily Gloom – 04/09/09
- 1979
- Retail sales continue slump, not as bad as Christmas, though.
- Angst over Depression continues to grow.
- Oil prices up sharply. I know there are those who think this is a good thing. They can suck it. Until we completely change the transportation profile in this country, it is the working poor who are most adversely affected by high gas prices.
- WSJ Opinion: Recovery can’t be rushed.
- Even Wal-Mart is failing to cut the mustard.
Politics Bag – 04/03/09
- Carville: Obama’s best day as President.
He's EVERYBODY'S Pal!
- Madame Noonanham comes out of her gin and Seconal-induced haze to opine that she’s figured out this Obama guy – and she didn’t even have to talk to any of her rich friends to do it!
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