“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

CNBC.com

| 12 Aug 2009 | 09:55 PM ET

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.”

 

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.

• Founders Bank -Worth IL
• Millennium State Bank of Texas – Dallas TX
• First National Bank of Danville – Danville IL
• Elizabeth State Bank – Elizabeth IL
• Rock River Bank – Oregon IL
• First State Bank of Winchester – Winchester IL
• John Warner Bank – Clinton IL

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

Horizon Bank, Pine City, MN

Neighborhood Community Bank, Newnan, GA

Community Bank of West Georgia, Villa Rica, GA

AND

Mirae Bank, Los Angeles, CA

This makes a total of 45 (forty-five) banks closed this year by the FDIC.

Bank Failure Friday – Three This Week

First National Bank of Anthony, Anthony, KS

Cooperative Bank, Wilmington, NC

Southern Community Bank, Fayetteville, GA

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.

Quote of the Day – Mark Ancona

I stumbled upon this while reading the comments section of James Howard Kunstler’s weekly blog entry.  By  a click, I found this gentleman, Mark Ancona, also has a blog on silver, which I am fond of, usually describing myself as a “Free Silver Democrat” to people who don’t get the reference.

I see the inevitable, and it is approaching us with increasing speed. The potential for disaster is extreme and my neighbors just do not get it. I have stopped speaking to most folks about the need to grow our food locally and accumulate some real money in the form of silver and gold because they think I am insane.

It will come to pass that America descends into the abyss of lawless violence, when the entitlement checks stop coming in the mail, and fewer and fewer people can afford to buy gasoline. Our crumbling and antiquated electrical infrastructure is one lightning bolt away from meltdown, so rather than repair it we give fifty billion dollars to a car company with a 900 million dollar market cap.

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.”‘

The Economic Downfall and the Rise of Tent Cities

The Camp of the Bonus Army, 1932.

Apparently, THIS is what we have to look forward to.

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.

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!

Daily Gloom – 03/27/09 – Bank Failure Friday Edition!

Is this chick to blame for the New Depression?

• Remember kids, Friday is FDIC Bank Failure Day!  They usually don’t post them until after 8PM Eastern.
• Roubini predicts massive bank failures.
• 4th Q ‘08 worst since 1930’s.
• Brazil’s President says the mess we’re in is all white people’s fault.  That’s frickin’ awesome!
• CNBC continues shameless attacks on the President.

Day Old Bread – Odds and Ends – 03/24/09

• Williams-Sonoma Net Income Plummets 90%.  Are you kidding? Yard sales in my neighborhood are booming with this stuff for pennies on the dollar.
• Bishop to skip Notre Dame graduation over Obama’s views.  Yes, but diddling altar boys was just okie-dokie, right Excellency?

Batshit-Crazy Congresswoman Fails in Jedi Mind Control Experiment on Treasury Secretary

You gotta love Michelle Bachmann.  Those eyes, those crazy eyes.  This is a long clip but worth it to see her crazy ass in action.  Oh, and Michelle, check out the part of the Constitution that starts with, “All legislative power herein granted…”

Bank Failure Friday! – Three This Week!

• TeamBank, National Association, Paola, KS.
• Colorado National Bank, Colorado Springs, CO
• FirstCity Bank, Stockbridge, GA

This makes 20 banks that have failed in the US since the first of the year.

Bank Failure Friday – 16 so far this year

The FDIC has announced the failure / closing of two banks today:

• Security Savings Bank, Henderson, NV
• Heritage Community Bank, Glenwood, IL

Daily Gloom – 02/25/09

• Arianna has this half right.  Credit Card crisis is next, but it will be accompanied by a Car Loan Crisis, sometime this summer.  CNBC has some practical advice: stop spending.
• SBA Loan default rate is rising sharply.  
  

  Famous self immolation - Vietnamese Buddist Monk in the 1960's.

• Home sales tank in December.
• Iran testing their nuke plant.  How long before a bomb?
• Three men in Beijing set themselves and car on fire in protest against the government.

Bank Failure Friday – 14 this year

Only one this week:  Silver Falls Bank, Silverton, OR.

Daily Gloom – 02/18/09

• GM considers cuts of 47,000 +  jobs.
  

  Crime dramatically increases in a bad economy.

• Goodyear to cut 5,000 jobs.  Nobody can afford tires.
• Brink’s Home Security Profits Up.  People are preparing for the unrest to come.
• Asian unemployment will continue to balloon – 7.2 million more possible.

Key Congressman lets the cat out of the bag: Economy could have collapsed on the afternoon of September 18, 2008.

This is astounding.  There WAS an electronic run on the banks back on September 18, as many suspected, contrary to government denials. About $550 billion in Money Market Account withdrawls took place in about two hours.  At about two minutes into the clip, the Capital Markets Subcommittee Chair, Rep. Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania, says:

“The Treasury opened its window to help. They pumped a hundred and five billion dollars into the system and quickly realized that they could not stem the tide. We were having an electronic run on the banks. They decided to close the operation, close down the money accounts, and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account so there wouldn’t be further panic and there. And that’s what actually happened. If they had not done that their estimation was that by two o’clock that afternoon, five-and-a-half trillion dollars would have been drawn out of the money market system of the United States, would have collapsed the entire economy of the United States, and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed. It would have been the end of our political system and our economic systems as we know it.”

Also reported HERE.