A credit crunch is an awesome force, and this one has only just begun. (Ordinary people mostly haven't even noticed yet.) So far the attempts by the central bankers to inject liquidity only seem to be igniting more fear, which is exactly what you would expect once the mood of the market has turned. If they keep it up for long enough, they could precipitate a few sharp counter-trend rallies (enhanced by short covering), but it's a game they're destined to lose IMO. Money and credit are not the same thing - excess credit has a distressing tendency to evaporate very rapidly at inconvenient times (ie deflation), revealing a dearth of actual money.
Panic can remove liquidity from the market faster than even a central banker can pump it in. As soon as the money is on the table, it ends up being taken off the table again by anyone in a position to do so, which results in a partial bailout of some of the well-connected (just like when the IMF tries to bail out third world countries).
I've been seriously considering ending my direct deposit of paychecks, and cashing the checks instead. This article on sweeps may have just pushed me over! I bank with a smaller, local bank, but still - I have no idea if they have any reserves. It would be a pain to control having just enough in a checking account to cover bills, but I'm starting to think there is a real risk that one of these days I might not be able to access my money.
Now let's see, this sounds familiar, kind of like a story I've heard before....just can't place it.....
The Fed really only can do two things [..]. They can lower margin requirements for banks, the amount of capital they have to hold to make loans. That it has already driven to basically zero. So the Fed cannot allow banks any more “leeway” than it already has.
They can also perform open market money operations like REPOS and coupon passes. The Fed calls up big banks and buys their government bonds out of their portfolio. But they don’t buy them with real money; they buy them with credit newly created just for that purpose. The big bank can then lend that credit out in a much greater amount because the Fed only requires them to keep a small fraction of that credit to support whatever the bank wants to lend out. This is our wonderful fractional reserve system.
If everyone went to the bank to get their “savings” at once they would find that they could get out less than 1%.
When Mr. Przybilinski tried to take his money out, the man in charge of Metropolitan Savings' assets informed him that there was only $200,000 left to withdraw -- the amount protected by the federal government.
School of Hard Knock Lessons
If a bank is offering above market rate interest on CDs and deposits there is a reason behind it. That reason is risk. And with excessive risk comes eventual disaster.
With credit spreads widening, margin calls being issued, and absurd lending to build condos in Florida and other places smack in the face of record inventories, there are going to be more bank failures like this.
Know and understand the FDIC limits or your life savings can be wiped out.
If you have money at a bank in excess of the FDIC limits, do something about it now, while you can.
Of course, the whole FDIC guarantee also rests on the assumption that not everyone comes callling at once. If that happens, forget about the whole thing, and about your $200.000.
The FDIC charges banks a tiny charge for the coverage of $200,000 per account. The FDIC has money to cover a handful of small bank failures, but not a wide ranging group of bakings failing at once.
If there are a lot of failures, I would think federal government would have to create enough money to cover their promises. If they are able to do this,this would seem to be inflationary. Is there are reason why this mechanism couldn't be used to offset the deflationary impacts elsewhere?
It would seem like a similar mechanism would work if Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac got into trouble, and the federal government bailed them out. This would also tend to be inflationary.
The US government doesn't have an endless access to money. They may move towards solving potential FDIC "mishaps" in an Argentina sort of way, freezing accounts, and allowing only withdrawals of a few $100 per week.
Fannie, Freddie, and Ginnie already hold a mountain of toxic empty paper. Now that the SEC has announced "audits" of Wall Street's biggest bankers and brokers, there will have to be some kind of "value" attached to securities, and perhaps even all derivatives. Will anyone ask to see the "Mae" family books? They're still working on the last 5 years' books at Fannie. Don't be surprised if a shredder does half the job.
There'll be an enormous pressure to prevent this auditing, so it might not be done properly, but if the SEC get anywhere near the truth, they will find it rottingly ugly. There are $trillions booked as assets that are worth nothing at all, that's what Merrill's abandoned auction of Bear Stearns goodies made clear a few weeks ago.
Banks, brokers, lenders, hedge-, mutual-, and pension funds, and insurance companies, all have vaults overloaded with derivatives. No-one knows the value, and no-one will volunteer to go check that out today. In the end, though, things are only worth what a buyer is willing to pay for them at the time you are forced to sell.
If the US government has any thoughts at all of bailing that waste out, they will find, fast, that they can't, it would drive really big nails into the coffin of what's left of the economy. Everything that's either in the ground, or nailed down above it, has been used as leverage to buy 10 or 100 times more of something, anything. That's the vital point of the sweeps principle, and MBS, and CDO, and all the rest of it.
With that kind of leverage, losing 10-20% of the value of your purchases is enough to lose the principal, the equity, the collateral. And then all you have left is debt, with zero equity.
And THAT is the reason why the $323 billion injected into the swine the past two days will have no effect. There's no equity left.
The biggest issue is not the $1-200 billion in subprime losses to come, it's what the securities based, leveraged, loaned/lent on the mortgages will do. That number is much bigger. It's Ponzi visits the pyramids.
And when it comes to the SEC trying to find the truth, last week the NY Post had this:
Investors hold about $6.5 trillion in mortgage bonds, the world's largest such fixed-income market, says the Securities Industry Financial Markets Association.
Meanwhile, Securities and Exchange Commission chief Chris Cox said the SEC is coming up with new, more flexible accounting rule interpretations that companies and others could use to avoid declaring their mortgage securities in default.
Know what? China doesn't have to sell their $1.2 trillion US paper to sink the American economy, they only have to demand an independent audit of it.
I just bought a bunch of extra underwear and socks plus lots of laundry soap. Gosh darnit if the stuff is about to hit the fan I want to at least have plenty of clean undies on hand.
I would say if you want to protect what's in your checking account, then don't leave it there. As the Argentines discovered, you can lose access to your savings when everyone wants their money back at once and the banks have nothing to give them. I wouldn't count on deposit insurance to cover you either.
I don't see them much in your plans, the other people (i know, none of my business).
You give me this "alone in a tent with 40 years of canned beans and a Kalishnikov" idea. But, also, no sign that you want it that way, just that the sharing's not there right now, you're alone.
And brother, that's more important than anything you can do using your rational powers, or that you can buy.
It's not about money, and it's not about the best canned food you can find. It's the people around you, the ones you are prepared to get killed for, and who would be killed for you. I know, we're all still geared toward 'abundance' mode. And that is hard to shake, when the world seems to be doing just fine around you.
We are lions, not tigers. And you can prepare as a tiger, but that don't make you one. You focus on cash, and that's not the no 1 outside the US. For good reasons. Cash is a lonely thing. And a mirror for you right now.
I don't see them much in your plans, the other people (i know, none of my business).
(Rolling eyes emoticon would go here if TOD had emoticons)
The tents I'm looking at are 5 person tents if that gives you any indication of my plans.
My immediate neighbors are uber-doomers like me. (I'm very lucky). The guy was a race riot negotiator during his stint in prison, so he's about the perfect guy to have around in a crisis. We've already got plans to take a local hill should it come to that.
Family lives one hour north of here. Two closest freinds since college live an 30 minutes to the south. Closest freind since high school lives here in town. And Richard Heinberg is right down the street. Thing is I don't need advice about "how can I have more friends or loved ones" and if I did I would not be on TOD asking for human relations advice. But I do need some advice about things like which boots to buy, what to do with my money, etc.
In other words, you can get off you soapbox now as you're preaching to the choir here big guy. But hpefully it made you feel better though.
The tents I'm looking at are 5 person tents if that gives you any indication of my plans.
Hmmm? that sounds like trouble or an orgy :)
BTW, I guess I missed something here, you are living in a town but need a tent? I guess it would be a necessary fall back if wild urban cliff dwellers were to attack and shoot flaming arrows into your roof but how likely do you expect this to be.?
My suggestion for living through post apocalypse dangers is to learn (if you haven't already) to play a musical instrument as even the invaders like the Mongols and Visigoths etc. generally liked a bit of music to go along with their apres slaughter dining.
Chimp putting that a trifle more seriously, I think that finding a way that one becomes indespensible to a community would be something to have a handle on. Ever think of putting something along the line of blacksmithing tools and a "blacksmithing for dummies" in your storage pit?
Best wishes for a safe and saner after the funnel world to you.
Ever think of putting something along the line of blacksmithing tools and a "blacksmithing for dummies" in your storage pit?
Let me explain my thinking a bit more:
Do you think Jim Cramer would hesitate to launch nuclear weapons if he was on the verge of losing all his wealth and he had become convinced - crazy as it may seem - that launching nukes would give him a chance at regaining his wealth?
That's basically the situation we're in as Jim Cramer's brain is really just a microcosm of the capitalist "system" as a whole.
So no, I have not thought of picking up blacksmithing just yet.
That's basically the situation we're in as Jim Cramer's brain is really just a microcosm of the capitalist "system" as a whole.
No kidding, eh? I always thought there was something odd was going on. Jim Cramers brain writ large, zounds!
Hey, how about a bit of stooking in the fields to go along with the black smith gig, real hammer and sickle stuff. I might even join you if we could dig up Leon.
------- If there is no Devil, then why do we dance with him?
I'm starting to think there is a real risk that one of these days I might not be able to access my money.
I would agree that is a real risk. IMO banks would have to restrict withdrawls, or even close their doors as they did during the Great Depression, if even a relatively small percentage of depositors wanted to withdraw their money in cash. During the 1930s, bank closures didn't happen until near the stock market bottom in 1933, but I doubt if we would be waiting that long this time. IMO the situation is far more serious than it looks at the moment.
I guess the thing to remember also is the fact very little of the money supply is in tangible form, somewhere between 2% and 8% depending on the currency. So the money really isn't there physically to draw out, even if the banks had the reserves, which of course they don't either.
In the short term gold and silver are probably as good as useless. Everyone seems to be overlooking cash, notes and coins. Especially useful if a black economy (ie a natural economy) springs up, which is what normally happens when the TPTB lose their grip and their monopoly.
Investing money in consumption, which is what stockpiling food and consumables is, doesn't seem to be a very good investment. Better to invest directly into the production of consumables such as food, drink and other necessities ready for the natural economy which will eventually take over for at least some period of time. Unfortunately, it never seems to take long before someone gets the bright idea to monopolise everything again, whatever their politics or beliefs. But that's a different story.
Triumvirate of collapse - Economy, Ecosystem, Energy
would 'cash' still be valuable in this instance?
Unlike in the 1930s - when banks closed cash was king - if banks closed now, wouldnt there be martial law - would cash really matter?
if banks closed now, wouldnt there be martial law - would cash really matter?
If it meant the difference between being beat senseless by some military thug and a few drachmas in exchange I would guess yes. And along that line, I would think that not only would fiat be handy but gold would be dandy:)
------- If there is no Devil, then why do we dance with him?
But then you realize you just stumbled upon the reason why possession of gold was prohibited in the 1930's, and why in all likelihood it will be again.
Is that for a similar reason that Sparta is purported to have made the use of gold as currency illegal? Do you have anything at hand one could read on this. I also understand that at that time the use of gold when on despite these restrictions.
BTW moon shining was also illegal during the depression as was dealing in the store bought variety. But many prospered this way and not all were villains.
------ If there is no Devil, then why do we dance with him?
It may always remain somewhat murky, both the reasons and the outcomes. The legality of the 1933 Emergency Banking Act (and subsequent orders) will forever be doubtful, as will the way it was pushed through Congress and Senate, eerily reminiscent of the Federal Reserve Act 20 years prior. But there is no doubt that many smaller banks were crushed by the Act. Was that the overriding intention?
One could make a good case arguing that the ultimate goal was quite simply total market control. Gold (and silver) offer the opportunity (or the threat) of an alternative means of exchange to a nation's official currency, an underground economy.
This is a good start when it comes to the background:
Thanks for the link, it looks really interesting, quickly scanned but will read later with time, this caught my eye ,
By Proclamation,14 he stated the following: the recent gold and currency withdrawals had been "unwarranted" and for the purpose of "hoarding"; speculation abroad had caused "severe drains" on the "Nation's" gold stocks; the result was to create a national "emergency"; further "hoarding"; and "speculation" must be prevented and "appropriate measures" taken "to protect the interests of our people"; the Trading with the Enemy Act, as amended, had given the President certain powers over private gold; and therefore, "to prevent the export, hoarding, or earmarking of gold," the banks would take a "holiday" from Monday, March 6, 1933, to and including Thursday, March 9, 1933, and that during the holiday no bank would "pay out, export, earmark, or permit the withdrawal or transfer in any manner or by any device
------- If there is no Devil, then why do we dance with him?
As you know I agree with how you look at the big picture.
Maybe because that's the way I would like to see it go.
It's getting very difficult to discuss these things on open boards without using endless euphemisms.
Short version.
I agree with the evaluation of the underlying forces but why now? everyone goes crazy over a really minor shift in the stock market, the underlying problem has been there for a long time, I think there is something we are missing.
In really dark corners of the MSM you find news like
The UK basically has lost Basra.
Iran and the "government" (or whatever you may want to call it) of Iraq are talking about a joint pipeline for refineries in Iran.
The Kurds signed leases with Norway without input or control from Baghdad.
The US military is now using sunni militias as contractors.
It almost sounds like the ethnical mini minority that owns the Neocons and drove the bubble just realized that the Iraq objective is irretrievably lost. They can occupy Iraq for 100 years now, even though it isn't likely as they are offering untrained grunts 45K in miscellaneous credits and still fall short of recruitment goals.
They can bomb Iran into the stone age now, but they will never occupy it, the big prize just slipped through their little thieving fingers and now it all goes to sh*t.
Stoneleigh, very good and timely information. Thanks very much. One question...Are you familiar with Federal Credit Unions and do you have an opinion on how they will be effected by the current financial crisis?
Stoneleigh,
I am a daily reader of TOD but a rare poster. While this post may be a "day late and a dollar short" I must say "Nice job" and "Well done" on your roundup.
GAIA Host Collective
Thank you Stoneleigh for your coverage on the ongoing credit crunch! The top article about sweeps is particularly interesting.
You're welcome Khebab:)
A credit crunch is an awesome force, and this one has only just begun. (Ordinary people mostly haven't even noticed yet.) So far the attempts by the central bankers to inject liquidity only seem to be igniting more fear, which is exactly what you would expect once the mood of the market has turned. If they keep it up for long enough, they could precipitate a few sharp counter-trend rallies (enhanced by short covering), but it's a game they're destined to lose IMO. Money and credit are not the same thing - excess credit has a distressing tendency to evaporate very rapidly at inconvenient times (ie deflation), revealing a dearth of actual money.
Panic can remove liquidity from the market faster than even a central banker can pump it in. As soon as the money is on the table, it ends up being taken off the table again by anyone in a position to do so, which results in a partial bailout of some of the well-connected (just like when the IMF tries to bail out third world countries).
I've been seriously considering ending my direct deposit of paychecks, and cashing the checks instead. This article on sweeps may have just pushed me over! I bank with a smaller, local bank, but still - I have no idea if they have any reserves. It would be a pain to control having just enough in a checking account to cover bills, but I'm starting to think there is a real risk that one of these days I might not be able to access my money.
Now let's see, this sounds familiar, kind of like a story I've heard before....just can't place it.....
Twilight, that may not be a bad thing to start thinking about.
To wit, from the article posted above:
Mish puts in in (somewhat) less severe terms:
Of course, the whole FDIC guarantee also rests on the assumption that not everyone comes callling at once. If that happens, forget about the whole thing, and about your $200.000.
The FDIC charges banks a tiny charge for the coverage of $200,000 per account. The FDIC has money to cover a handful of small bank failures, but not a wide ranging group of bakings failing at once.
If there are a lot of failures, I would think federal government would have to create enough money to cover their promises. If they are able to do this,this would seem to be inflationary. Is there are reason why this mechanism couldn't be used to offset the deflationary impacts elsewhere?
It would seem like a similar mechanism would work if Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac got into trouble, and the federal government bailed them out. This would also tend to be inflationary.
The US government doesn't have an endless access to money. They may move towards solving potential FDIC "mishaps" in an Argentina sort of way, freezing accounts, and allowing only withdrawals of a few $100 per week.
Fannie, Freddie, and Ginnie already hold a mountain of toxic empty paper. Now that the SEC has announced "audits" of Wall Street's biggest bankers and brokers, there will have to be some kind of "value" attached to securities, and perhaps even all derivatives. Will anyone ask to see the "Mae" family books? They're still working on the last 5 years' books at Fannie. Don't be surprised if a shredder does half the job.
There'll be an enormous pressure to prevent this auditing, so it might not be done properly, but if the SEC get anywhere near the truth, they will find it rottingly ugly. There are $trillions booked as assets that are worth nothing at all, that's what Merrill's abandoned auction of Bear Stearns goodies made clear a few weeks ago.
Banks, brokers, lenders, hedge-, mutual-, and pension funds, and insurance companies, all have vaults overloaded with derivatives. No-one knows the value, and no-one will volunteer to go check that out today. In the end, though, things are only worth what a buyer is willing to pay for them at the time you are forced to sell.
If the US government has any thoughts at all of bailing that waste out, they will find, fast, that they can't, it would drive really big nails into the coffin of what's left of the economy. Everything that's either in the ground, or nailed down above it, has been used as leverage to buy 10 or 100 times more of something, anything. That's the vital point of the sweeps principle, and MBS, and CDO, and all the rest of it.
With that kind of leverage, losing 10-20% of the value of your purchases is enough to lose the principal, the equity, the collateral. And then all you have left is debt, with zero equity.
And THAT is the reason why the $323 billion injected into the swine the past two days will have no effect. There's no equity left.
The biggest issue is not the $1-200 billion in subprime losses to come, it's what the securities based, leveraged, loaned/lent on the mortgages will do. That number is much bigger. It's Ponzi visits the pyramids.
And when it comes to the SEC trying to find the truth, last week the NY Post had this:
Know what? China doesn't have to sell their $1.2 trillion US paper to sink the American economy, they only have to demand an independent audit of it.
I'm pulling some cash out.
Problem is if you pull too much out too fast it will set off a "terrorist alert." (I'm serious.)
I have half my savings in my checking account, half in gold and silver coins I have posssession of.
Anybody have any idea what, if anything, somebody like me can do to protect what's in the checking account?
FWIW, I'm stocking up on food and supplies as fast as I can. That's one way to hedge . . .
I'd say: invest in a bigger tent.
Maybe even get the fancy model with the wine cellar that doubles as nuclear shelter.
Loaded with gold and silver coins, and 40 years worth of Mountain-something food cans, you ain't going nowhere anytime soon. Might as well dig in.
PS: did you get your handle from Oliver Sacks?
I just bought a bunch of extra underwear and socks plus lots of laundry soap. Gosh darnit if the stuff is about to hit the fan I want to at least have plenty of clean undies on hand.
I would say if you want to protect what's in your checking account, then don't leave it there. As the Argentines discovered, you can lose access to your savings when everyone wants their money back at once and the banks have nothing to give them. I wouldn't count on deposit insurance to cover you either.
What does one do other than:
1. Have pms, silver coins in particular, for barter once the banks close
2. Have as much food and supplies on hand as you can afford or have space to store
3. Have whatever savings you do have in multipe accounts
4. Have weapons on hand and know how to use them
4. Have lots of clean undies on hand
Am I missing anything?
6/ People to share it with.
7/ People to defend it with.
I don't see them much in your plans, the other people (i know, none of my business).
You give me this "alone in a tent with 40 years of canned beans and a Kalishnikov" idea. But, also, no sign that you want it that way, just that the sharing's not there right now, you're alone.
And brother, that's more important than anything you can do using your rational powers, or that you can buy.
It's not about money, and it's not about the best canned food you can find. It's the people around you, the ones you are prepared to get killed for, and who would be killed for you. I know, we're all still geared toward 'abundance' mode. And that is hard to shake, when the world seems to be doing just fine around you.
We are lions, not tigers. And you can prepare as a tiger, but that don't make you one. You focus on cash, and that's not the no 1 outside the US. For good reasons. Cash is a lonely thing. And a mirror for you right now.
(Rolling eyes emoticon would go here if TOD had emoticons)
The tents I'm looking at are 5 person tents if that gives you any indication of my plans.
My immediate neighbors are uber-doomers like me. (I'm very lucky). The guy was a race riot negotiator during his stint in prison, so he's about the perfect guy to have around in a crisis. We've already got plans to take a local hill should it come to that.
Family lives one hour north of here. Two closest freinds since college live an 30 minutes to the south. Closest freind since high school lives here in town. And Richard Heinberg is right down the street. Thing is I don't need advice about "how can I have more friends or loved ones" and if I did I would not be on TOD asking for human relations advice. But I do need some advice about things like which boots to buy, what to do with my money, etc.
In other words, you can get off you soapbox now as you're preaching to the choir here big guy. But hpefully it made you feel better though.
The boots? Danner
The money? Anyones guess, probably some cash and some PM's.
Other then what you mentioned? A network, a nationwide network that you can trust. You never know how the cookie crumbles.
Hmmm? that sounds like trouble or an orgy :)
BTW, I guess I missed something here, you are living in a town but need a tent? I guess it would be a necessary fall back if wild urban cliff dwellers were to attack and shoot flaming arrows into your roof but how likely do you expect this to be.?
My suggestion for living through post apocalypse dangers is to learn (if you haven't already) to play a musical instrument as even the invaders like the Mongols and Visigoths etc. generally liked a bit of music to go along with their apres slaughter dining.
Chimp putting that a trifle more seriously, I think that finding a way that one becomes indespensible to a community would be something to have a handle on. Ever think of putting something along the line of blacksmithing tools and a "blacksmithing for dummies" in your storage pit?
Best wishes for a safe and saner after the funnel world to you.
Let me explain my thinking a bit more:
Do you think Jim Cramer would hesitate to launch nuclear weapons if he was on the verge of losing all his wealth and he had become convinced - crazy as it may seem - that launching nukes would give him a chance at regaining his wealth?
That's basically the situation we're in as Jim Cramer's brain is really just a microcosm of the capitalist "system" as a whole.
So no, I have not thought of picking up blacksmithing just yet.
No kidding, eh? I always thought there was something odd was going on. Jim Cramers brain writ large, zounds!
Hey, how about a bit of stooking in the fields to go along with the black smith gig, real hammer and sickle stuff. I might even join you if we could dig up Leon.
-------
If there is no Devil, then why do we dance with him?
I would agree that is a real risk. IMO banks would have to restrict withdrawls, or even close their doors as they did during the Great Depression, if even a relatively small percentage of depositors wanted to withdraw their money in cash. During the 1930s, bank closures didn't happen until near the stock market bottom in 1933, but I doubt if we would be waiting that long this time. IMO the situation is far more serious than it looks at the moment.
I guess the thing to remember also is the fact very little of the money supply is in tangible form, somewhere between 2% and 8% depending on the currency. So the money really isn't there physically to draw out, even if the banks had the reserves, which of course they don't either.
In the short term gold and silver are probably as good as useless. Everyone seems to be overlooking cash, notes and coins. Especially useful if a black economy (ie a natural economy) springs up, which is what normally happens when the TPTB lose their grip and their monopoly.
Investing money in consumption, which is what stockpiling food and consumables is, doesn't seem to be a very good investment. Better to invest directly into the production of consumables such as food, drink and other necessities ready for the natural economy which will eventually take over for at least some period of time. Unfortunately, it never seems to take long before someone gets the bright idea to monopolise everything again, whatever their politics or beliefs. But that's a different story.
Triumvirate of collapse - Economy, Ecosystem, Energy
would 'cash' still be valuable in this instance?
Unlike in the 1930s - when banks closed cash was king - if banks closed now, wouldnt there be martial law - would cash really matter?
If it meant the difference between being beat senseless by some military thug and a few drachmas in exchange I would guess yes. And along that line, I would think that not only would fiat be handy but gold would be dandy:)
-------
If there is no Devil, then why do we dance with him?
At first sight, yes.
But then you realize you just stumbled upon the reason why possession of gold was prohibited in the 1930's, and why in all likelihood it will be again.
Is that for a similar reason that Sparta is purported to have made the use of gold as currency illegal? Do you have anything at hand one could read on this. I also understand that at that time the use of gold when on despite these restrictions.
BTW moon shining was also illegal during the depression as was dealing in the store bought variety. But many prospered this way and not all were villains.
------
If there is no Devil, then why do we dance with him?
Crystal,
It may always remain somewhat murky, both the reasons and the outcomes. The legality of the 1933 Emergency Banking Act (and subsequent orders) will forever be doubtful, as will the way it was pushed through Congress and Senate, eerily reminiscent of the Federal Reserve Act 20 years prior. But there is no doubt that many smaller banks were crushed by the Act. Was that the overriding intention?
One could make a good case arguing that the ultimate goal was quite simply total market control. Gold (and silver) offer the opportunity (or the threat) of an alternative means of exchange to a nation's official currency, an underground economy.
This is a good start when it comes to the background:
How Americans Lost Their Right To Own Gold And Became Criminals in the Process
ilargi,
Thanks for the link, it looks really interesting, quickly scanned but will read later with time, this caught my eye ,
-------
If there is no Devil, then why do we dance with him?
As you know I agree with how you look at the big picture.
Maybe because that's the way I would like to see it go.
It's getting very difficult to discuss these things on open boards without using endless euphemisms.
Short version.
I agree with the evaluation of the underlying forces but why now? everyone goes crazy over a really minor shift in the stock market, the underlying problem has been there for a long time, I think there is something we are missing.
In really dark corners of the MSM you find news like
The UK basically has lost Basra.
Iran and the "government" (or whatever you may want to call it) of Iraq are talking about a joint pipeline for refineries in Iran.
The Kurds signed leases with Norway without input or control from Baghdad.
The US military is now using sunni militias as contractors.
It almost sounds like the ethnical mini minority that owns the Neocons and drove the bubble just realized that the Iraq objective is irretrievably lost. They can occupy Iraq for 100 years now, even though it isn't likely as they are offering untrained grunts 45K in miscellaneous credits and still fall short of recruitment goals.
They can bomb Iran into the stone age now, but they will never occupy it, the big prize just slipped through their little thieving fingers and now it all goes to sh*t.
Adios La Vida Loca.
Stoneleigh, very good and timely information. Thanks very much. One question...Are you familiar with Federal Credit Unions and do you have an opinion on how they will be effected by the current financial crisis?
Stoneleigh,
I am a daily reader of TOD but a rare poster. While this post may be a "day late and a dollar short" I must say "Nice job" and "Well done" on your roundup.