“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.
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.
The Economic Downfall and the Rise of Tent Cities
The Camp of the Bonus Army, 1932.
Bank Failure Friday – May Day Edition
Two Three so far this week:
Bank Failure Friday
They’re out early this week with the 26th U.S. bank to fail this year. Drumroll, please….
American Southern Bank, Kennesaw, Georgia
UPDATE:
The sneaky bastards at the FDIC closed three other banks while I wasn’t looking. They are:
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 – 04/23/09
- No Buy-eee, no carr-ee.
- March existing home sales fall by 3 percent.
- “Flexible” loans for small business owners now threaten them with bankruptcy and home foreclosure at the same time.
- Jobless Claims at 640,000; Continuing Claims Rise.
- General Motors to shutter plants this summer.
- Big Brown is down.
- My favorite economist sees ever more contraction. “This will be the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and the worst global economic downturn in decades. “
Daily Gloom – 04/22/09
Murder/suicide in Maryland linked to family’s finances, foreclosure.- The acting chief financial officer of troubled mortgage giant Freddie Mac was found dead in his Fairfax County home early this morning after apparently committing suicide.
- Workplace abuses and racial profiling are rampant in the South. New report cites misdeeds by Confederate employers, cops.
- Millions of lost jobs mean billions in lost tax revenue for the U.S. government, and billions in additional Treasury debt to fund a federal budget deficit that may soar to more than four times last year’s record $454.7 billion.
Daily Gloom – 04/20/09
- IMF predicts massive, longterm global depression.
- “The human consequences could be absolutely devastating. This is a truly global crisis, and nobody is escaping.”
- General Growth’s demise sharpens concerns over commercial property collapse.
- GM to axe 1,600 more employees this week.
- With unemployment in California at 11+% some question just how high it can go.
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.):
It’s The Economy, Stupid! – 04/10/09
Treasury to Banks: Shut up about the freakin’ stress tests!- New Deal 2.0 – ARRA funds working their way into the system.
- Opinion divided on Recovery. Investors still worried. Some wiseguys are calling for a September rebound. I have my doubts. Aso, there is no TRUE recovery until there is full employment of the workers!
- Apparently, it sucks to be the head of that insurance company we own.
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 – 04/01/09 – G-20 April Fool’s Edition
- Ontario Police sifting through homeless people.
- Ontario, CA officials trying to cull out non-residents from their tent city. “Officials believe the local homeless number about 140, less than half of those currently in residence. Schultz wants to reduce Tent City to 170 people in a regulated, fenced-off area rather than the sprawling open-air campsite it has become.” Can we say “concentration camp for homeless people”? Presumably those without pink bracelets will be shipped off in rail cars, gassed and then incinerated.
