Coming Financial Crisis Worse Than ’29?

[Bart]

Part of his prescription was to allow "massive new immigration." At this the fiveregular panelists on the show all clucked their heads in agreement,with the female one opiningthat allowingmassive immigrationwould get the housing market going again, because "new buyers" were needed topurchase the empty houses sitting on the market.

Can they really be that stupid? It is so frustrating.

 

[Jimmy Chitwood]

the beginning of hyper-inflation.

hard-cash investor Walter K. Eichelburg, predicted the mortgage bubble bust and insolvency of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the United States in an early 2007 Epoch Times interview. He recently made himself available for another interview with them.

Epoch Times (ET): Mr. Eichelburg, what can we learn from today's crisis?

Walter K. Eichelburg (WKE): This [crisis] is a progression of the entire economic system. Everything repeats itself. My thinking is that for every investment there is a specific time frame within a cycle, which one must recognize. If one acts at about the right time, one can make a good living. But, I must tell you that I'm not here to save the world. What I'm doing here is educating the investor.

I discovered that the true problem is not the business, but the information. There is a pent-up demand for correct information and that is what I want to satisfy.

ET: Would you share which area of information we need to address?

WKE: You must ask for different information than from today's "Bubble-Media." I have studied the history from the Dutch 'Tulip Crash' (1624-1636), and it always repeats itself over and over again. The values are artificially pushed up by easy borrowing, which brings investors running - the money comes in for a time and then the insiders quickly exit shortly thereafter, the bubble bursts. It is always the same scenario.

There is something else, called a Kondratiev cycle [1]. A Kondratiev cycle lasts from 50 to 70 years and is present in any national economy where credit (borrowing) is available.

If one invested 5 cents one-hundred years ago, during the time of Franz Josef [2], one would have a shilling today [3]. But, after about 1,460 years, one would have a globe of gold - which in truth is not possible.

Common sense says that at some point in time, there must be at a bottoming out. This is cyclical and was discovered by the Russian scientist Kondratieff. So, [according to his theory] we are in the spiraling downward phase. This is generally called the Kondratieff Winter.

These cycles expand and contract slowly. Therefore very few people notice it. But, a seasoned investor must be able to recognize these contractions. A man in Canada arranged these cyclical movements by the four seasons. A different investment ideal governs during each of these business seasons. Such a phase generally lasts between 10 and 20 years. If one does not change ones investment strategy one will suffer enormous losses.

ET: Can you explain about today's Kondratiev cycle?

WKE: The present German Kondratiev cycle began in 1948 with the monetary reform. In the beginning, credit is granted prudently. Therefore, there is little inflation. The "growth cycle" began in 1966. Borrowing activities were on the rise, but it was still on the positive side. That continued until 1980. Then, we saw the Kondratieff-maturity cycle. This is the ideal time for trading with paper money, such as stock and bond issues, as well as property types of transactions. Their price depends on credit availability.

ET: Can you explain please? Perhaps using Iceland's growth as an example?

WKE: For us, there was only one creditworthy entityâ€â€￾that was the state. And now the state was also fully tapped. That means, when the state loses its creditworthiness and their guarantees are worthless, it will crash.

There is something that Robert Rubin, the former U.S. treasury secretary said, when he was asked what he wanted to be in his next life. He responded, "The bond market." Why? "The bond market controls everything."

ET: Why is this the case?

WKE: Because interest and credit terms control everything. The reason for an economy to crash is because the bond market collapses. This is the reason.

ET: What do you think about the situation in other countries?

WKE: It was rumored in Austria that the SPO [Social Democratic Party of Austria] politician Hannes Swoboda said the following, "If the 100 billion Euro used for guarantees granted by the State were called, the Austrian State would be bankrupt. This is what could happen and that would be a catastrophe. And the Americans are running out of money. That means they monetize government bonds like crazy.

ET: What do you mean by monetize [4]?

WKE: What is the United States doing? The government sells bonds to the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, and the bank then has money. A bond is not the same as money. One has to be careful about this point. This is called monetizing. It is not important if it is through borrowing activities or through time debentures. The importance lies in the fact that the central bank generates the money.

ET: Do central banks print the money?

WKE: In the past they printed money, now it is done electronically.

ET: Is it known which bank will fail and which will not?
WKE: Today, no one can predict which institution is safe and which is not. One does not know which bank will collapse first; perhaps Raiffeisen [Raiffeisen International Bank Holding AG] is going to be the first one, or perhaps Constantia Privatbank [5]. No one can predict it.

ET: What about the bank managers? Don't they know?

WKE: No, they themselves have no clue. I couldn't believe my eyes and thought that it was completely irrational when Raiffeisen International assumed the Russian Oligarchs Oleg Deripaska debt, held by the Deutschen Bank AG. Banks are just like small investors.

ET: In the past, the currency was backed by gold. Does it mean that this increases the risk of bankruptcy?

WKE: As I mentioned earlier, the last solvent creditor - the State â€â€￾ was drawn into the crisis. If the banks go under and need to call on the guarantees, then the state will collapse. That can be seen in Iceland, Hungary, the Ukraine and other countries. Then, they sell-off the government bonds for currency, which is now worthless. If that happens then all has reached the end.

ET: What does this mean for the public?

WKE: The collapse happens because all the money is worthless. There will be hyperinflation at the supermarket. Then hunger will begin.

ET: What do you suggest an investor should do?

WKE: Don't keep paper money. The Euro has become toilet paper, and the Franc is not better off. I suggest that people have sufficient food, buy an acre of arable land and invest in gold. Gold is still cheap at US$3,000 an ounce.

meanwhile, after its £6bn bail-out, Goldman Sachs ready to hand out £7bn salary and bonus package. read about it here.

on the other side of the world, the Russians and Chinese are making plans to renounce the dollar. while they may not forego using the dollar, it certainly isn't coincidental that all this stuff is happening simultaneously. Edited by: Jimmy Chitwood

 

[Kaptain]

Russia role has been very curious. The U.S. and Israel seems to be selecting Russia as enemy #1. Is it because of the possible economic role they could play as Jimmy linked to in the above post?

Is Russia going to lead the world into finally dumping the U.S. dollar?

There has been plenty of curious clues. Lately I've been hearing about Iceland's currency trouble. I believe Iceland's currency is unique and not under the control of international bankers - I could be wrong. I believe they are under economic attack by those who despise them. Who comes to rescue Iceland? None other than Russia.

Why else would the U.S. make war overtures to this mighty country? Couldn't possible be because of the tiny border state of Georgia. There is something much bigger here.

 

[white is right]

I think Mark Cuban has figured out way to avoid the hemmorging of the financial markets. Here is the story AP wire story..

Mark Cuban Is Charged With Insider Trading
David Zalubowski/Associated Press

Mark Cuban accused the Securities and Exchange Commission of "prosecutorial misconduct."

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By MICHAEL J. de la MERCED and FLOYD NORRIS
Published: November 17, 2008

As anyone who follows the National Basketball Association knows, Mark Cuban, the Internet entrepreneur turned owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, has never shied from a fight. But now the pugnacious billionaire is squaring off against his biggest adversary yet: the federal government.
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Times Topics: Mark Cuban

On Monday, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil suit charging Mr. Cuban with insider trading for selling shares of a small Internet search company in 2004, just before its share price fell.

Mr. Cuban saved himself a $750,000 loss, according to the complaint filed in United States District Court in Dallas.

Mr. Cuban swiftly fired back, accusing the regulator of "prosecutorial misconduct" and alleging that he was the victim of a political vendetta by the agency in the waning days of the Bush administration.

"I am disappointed that the commission chose to bring this case based upon its enforcement staff's win-at-any-cost ambitions," Mr. Cuban said. "The staff's process was result-oriented, facts be damned."

Since he bought the Mavericks in 2000 with money he earned by selling his start-up, Broadcast.com, to Yahoo for $5.9 billion before the dot-com crash, Mr. Cuban has become one of the biggest lightning rods in American professional sports. From his seat behind the Mavericks bench, clad in his signature team gear, he has not hesitated in picking arguments, and has paid nearly $1.7 million in fines to the N.B.A.

(After once saying he would not hire the N.B.A.'s chief of referees to "manage a Dairy Queen," Mr. Cuban paid a $500,000 fine â€â€￾ and spent a day at a Dairy Queen serving Blizzards to fans.)

But he also turned around a flagging franchise, attracting star players and helping to bring the Mavericks to the brink of an N.B.A. championship in 2006.

Mike Bass, an N.B.A. spokesman, declined to comment.

The charges could pose a problem for his dreams of a burgeoning sports empire. Mr. Cuban is widely reported to be the lead bidder for the Chicago Cubs baseball team, but he is thought to be too hot to handle by many of Major League Baseball's current owners. The insider-trading lawsuit may only make his quest for the baseball team more difficult to fulfill.

At issue in the S.E.C.'s lawsuit is Mr. Cuban's sale in June 2004 of shares in Mamma.com, a small Internet search engine based in Canada, whose corporate name is now Copernic.

Mr. Cuban had purchased 600,000 shares, or a 6.3 percent stake, just three months earlier as the stock was soaring. The share price tripled over a two-day period in early March on volume that totaled more than 12 times the number of outstanding shares. That prompted an S.E.C. investigation that ended without charges being filed.

Scott W. Friestad, the S.E.C.'s deputy director of enforcement, said the investigation of Mr. Cuban's trading began in early 2007, but declined to say what had set off the inquiry.

On June 28, 2004, Mr. Cuban called Mamma.com's chief executive after receiving an e-mail message from the executive, who told him of a planned stock offering and asked if he would like to invest. Such offerings often depress share prices, at least temporarily.

According to the complaint, Mr. Cuban was told the information was confidential.

After the conversation, the chief executive wrote to the company's chairman in an e-mail message: "As anticipated, he initially 'flew off the handle' and said he would sell his shares (recognizing that he was not able to do anything until we announce the equity)."

But within minutes of the call Mr. Cuban began selling his shares, and completed the sales on June 29, according to the lawsuit, fetching an average of $13.24 a share. The next day, after the offering was announced, Mamma.com stock opened at $11.89, sparing him a $750,000 loss. By July 8, the shares had plummeted to $8. On Monday, the stock closed at 28 cents.

"Mamma.com entrusted Mr. Cuban with nonpublic information after he promised to keep the information confidential," Mr. Friestad said. "Less than four hours later, Mr. Cuban betrayed that trust by placing an order to sell all of his shares. It is fundamentally unfair for someone to use access to nonpublic information to improperly gain an edge on the market."

In a press release (and in a post on his blog), Mr. Cuban accused the S.E.C. of being "infected by the misconduct of the staff of its enforcement division," but did not discuss details of the suit.

A person close to Mr. Cuban provided what he said was one of a series of e-mail messages from Jeffrey B. Norris, an S.E.C. lawyer in Fort Worth, who accused the billionaire of being unpatriotic for helping to finance a movie named "Loose Change." In the e-mail message, Mr. Norris described the movie as a "vicious and absurd documentary" that "posits that President Bush planned the demolition of the World Trade Center as a pretext for going to war against Iraq."

In the e-mail message, sent from his S.E.C. e-mail address, Mr. Norris said he was informing Christopher Cox, the chairman of the S.E.C., of Mr. Cuban's actions.

"If this upsets you, I wonder how George Bush feels," Mr. Norris wrote. "I assume that Mr. Cox would view your involvement with 'Loose Change' much as I do. After all, he served his country as a Republican congressman from Orange County for nearly 20 years and was appointed by President Bush."

An S.E.C. spokesman said that Mr. Norris had no role in or knowledge of the Mamma.com investigation, which was handled by the S.E.C. in Washington.

He said the e-mail matter was "referred for disciplinary action," but did not say what action, if any, was taken against Mr. Norris. Mr. Norris did not return a phone call.

The S.E.C. spokesman said Mr. Cox had recused himself when the commission voted to approve filing the complaint. The S.E.C. has the authority to bring only civil suits, not criminal complaints. The Justice Department can file criminal insider-trading charges, but does so only rarely and did not in this case. Mr. Cuban presumably could have settled the S.E.C. case by paying the $750,000 and perhaps an additional penalty, and accepting an injunction barring him from further violations of securities laws.

 

[GreatLakeState]

Hey, Mark didn't break Talmudic Law, leave him alone!

 

[screamingeagle]

Cuban should own the Cubs- but only if he is convicted. He would add clas to the organization.

 

[white is right]

Hey, Mark didn't break Talmudic Law, leave him alone!

How could he be breaking Talmudic law he was making money..

 

[Don Wassall]

Here's yet another Jewish robber baron, this one of epic proportions, who swindled mostly his fellow tribesmen:
<H1 =ing>$50 billion at stake after Wall St broker Bernard Madoff is arrested over 'world's biggest swindle'</H1>


[url]http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sect ors/banking_and_finance/article5333901.ece [/url]

 

[DixieDestroyer]

Madoff got over on the country club set indeed!

Many of his investors came from the enormously wealthy enclaves of Palm Beach, Florida and Long Island, New York, where people had invested billions in Mr Madoff's firm for decades. He was a fixture on the Palm Beach social scene, and was a member of some of its most exclusive clubs, including the Palm Beach Country Club and Boca Rio Golf Club, where he drummed up much of his business.

 

[white is right]

Here's yet another Jewish robber baron, this one of epic proportions, who swindled mostly his fellow tribesmen:
&lt;H1 =ing&gt;$50 billion at stake after Wall St broker Bernard Madoff is arrested over 'world's biggest swindle'&lt;/H1&gt;


[url]http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sect ors/banking_and_finance/article5333901.ece [/url]

I was listening to the local public radio station and older Jewish gentleman was saying how he will probably lose 2million in this pyramid scheme. Imagine going from Park Avenue to subsidized seniors housing...

Somewhere Carlo Ponzi is blushing....

 

[Don Wassall]

I was listening to the local public radio station and older Jewish gentleman was saying how he will probably lose 2million in this pyramid scheme. Imagine going from Park Avenue to subsidized seniors housing...

Somewhere Carlo Ponzi is blushing....

Don't bet on it:


Bailout for Madoff "Suckers"?


Luckily for some of those well-heeled country clubbers allegedly scammed by Bernie Madoff and his "private investment business," though not so luckily for America's long-suffering taxpayers, a partial "bailout" may already be in store to take some of the edge off the losses.


Full article: http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=6254

 

[Bart]

Luckily for some of those well-heeled country clubbers allegedly scammed by Bernie Madoff and his "private investment business," though not so luckily for America's long-suffering taxpayers, a partial "bailout" may already be in store to take some of the edge off the losses.

The Political Cesspool has a few must read stories about the situation.


[url]http://www.thepoliticalcesspool.org/jamesedwards/2008/12/18/ separation-of-church-and-state-my-foot/ [/url]


(snip)


Companies like this are supposed to have compliance officers to look out for investor's interests and make sure they're not being cheated. Madoff's firm had one. And who was the chief compliance officer at Madoff's firm? Well, depending on which website you believe, it was either his brother, Peter Madoff, or his son Mark , or his niece Shana Madoff, who had recently married a former top SEC regulator.
<BLOCKQUOTE>


And just when you thought it was over, the SEC drops a bombshell - Cox admits that the SEC staff was aware of numerous red flags but did nothing, and in the next moments we learn that Madoff's niece, WHO WAS MADOFF'S COMPLIANCE OFFICER, is married to an attorney who worked at the SEC for 10 years, including positions as a senior inspection and examination official.


You get one guess what a senior inspection and examination official does.


But wait...there is more. According to the WSJ, a spokesman for the attorney admits that a compliance team under his supervision made an inquiry at Madoff's firm.


Did you get that? The SEC senior attorney, who married Madoff's neice and former compliance officer, supervised an team who made inquiries at Madoff's firm. And we know that the SEC never did anything about Madoff as a result of any investigation or inquiry.


OK, I get it. We are going to learn that he didn't know her at the time of the inquiry, he started dating her in 2006 when he was leaving the commission, they married after he was gone, etc. I get it. It is all innocent and a massive coincidence.</BLOCKQUOTE>


Yeah, that's real believable.


And who was running all these trades for Bernard Madoff? Either one of his sons, or both of them, depending on which news source you trust the most.


Now, somewhere, between making the trades and supposedly making sure all government regulations were complied with, it's obvious that at least part of his family was in this thing up to their ears. Yet the federal government keeps insistng that they have no reason to suspect anyone else.


Then, after Madoff's arrest, the judge imposed bail of 10 million dollars. The judge told Madoff that he would need four separate signatures to guarantee the $10 million, or he was going to jail to await trial. Madoff could only come up with two signatures. So he's in jail, right? No, the judge said never mind and let him stay in his $7 million New York mansion wearing a monitoring bracelet.


And the judge's name? Gabriel Gorenstein.


And now Obama is vowing to clean up all this corruption. And who has he nominated to get the job done?


A woman named Mary Schapiro.


Call me crazy, but I think it's about time we started worrying about the separation of synagogue and state.

 

[screamingeagle]

For years people were telling the government that this guy was running a scam. The gov refused to investigate. That is what scares me. The gov does not listen to rich people. It is destroying my confidance in them.

 

[Don Wassall]

The media's favorite hate group speaketh:


Anti-Semitism floods Internet after Madoff scandal: campaigners


Anti-Jewish commentary is flooding the Internet in the wake of Bernard Madoff's arrest on charges of masterminding one of the biggest Wall Street frauds in history, campaigners said Friday.


The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said there had been "an outpouring of anti-Semitic comments on mainstream and extremist Web sites."


full article: [url]http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081219193349.xhzxkp0 u&amp;show_article=1[/url]


Campaigners? What the hell is that?

 

[Bart]

full article: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081219193349.xhzxkp0 u&amp;show_article=1

From article:


"Nowadays, the first place Jew-haters will go is to the Internet, where they can give voice to their hateful ideas without fear of repercussions."


Poor Jews, always innocent lambs, victimized by haters. Without fear of repercussions?Wow! The Bolshevik commisarshave regrouped and now run the ADL. Thank goodnes theyhaven't YETgained total control.

 

[screamingeagle]

I have the impression that most of Maldoff's victims were jewish. Maybe he should be banned from most synagogs.

 

[DixieDestroyer]

More daily headlines news of the (intentional) financial meltdown & coming collapse...this time directly from the Jewry spawned, infested Central Banking Cartel...

Bank of Spain - World Faces Total Financial Collapse

 

[Jimmy Chitwood]

Tour the Worldwide Economic Crash for 39 Seconds
by Gary North

So, you want to know how bad this crash will get. Fine. Spend 30 seconds to see the magnitude of what it is today. It's going to get much worse.

The Manchester Guardian published 13 photos from around the world that show the extent of the disaster. Spend just 3 seconds per photo. (You won't see these on Tout TV.)

I have never seen anything like these scenes. Yet we are in only the early stage of the crash. The British banking system is close to collapse. There is serious talk at the highest levels of the nationalization of all British banks. The currency markets are acting as though this is likely.

Nouriel Roubini, the man who predicted this recession in 2007 (a little late, but better than most academic economists), recently gave a speech in Dubai. He said that he has estimated U.S. capital losses of $3.6 trillion, half at banks and broker-dealers. The total capitalization of U.S. banks is $1.4 trillion. In short, he said, the American banking system is bordering on insolvency. The story is here.

Think about this. Today, we are facing a situation in which all U.S. banks could go legally bankrupt. In the Great Depression, over 6,000 banks went bankrupt. These were mostly small rural banks and small-town banks. The Federal Reserve System saw to it that no major bank went under. ...

the rest of the piece gets into the details of how it will get worse.

Iceland's Government Collapses

Iceland's government collapse's
Published on 01-26-2009

Iceland's ruling coalition resigned Monday, three months after the collapse of the country's currency, stock market and several major banks, and following months of public protests, Kristjan Kristjansson, a spokesman for the prime minister said.

The government also fell after the resignation of the government's commerce minister in response to the country's financial mess.

The minister, Bjorgvin Sigurdsson, resigned Sunday, saying the government had failed ...

closer to home, California has decided to simply stop paying its bills and hand out IOU's instead.

California prepares to stop paying bills
Come Feb. 1, tax refunds, welfare checks replaced with IOUs
----------------------------------------
Posted: January 26, 2009
9:47 pm Eastern
By Drew Zahn
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

The state of California has run out of money.

Facing a $42 billion budget deficit, State Controller John Chiang told the Sacramento Bee he has already borrowed $21.5 billion to try to cover the state's checks, but by Feb. 1, there will be no more options left but to simply stop paying some of the bills - including tax refunds, welfare checks, student grants and other payments owned to California citizens.

"It pains me to pull this trigger," Chiang said at a news conference held in his office. "But it is an action that is critically necessary."

Federal law requires that many school and healthcare programs - a total of about $6.6 billion in California - must be paid, the Los Angeles Times reports, so Chiang has announced an expected payment freeze on $3.7 billion worth of the state's bills, most of it refunds owed to taxpayers.

But even with the freeze beginning next week, the Times reports, California will still fall $346 million short for the month of February, forcing Chiang to consider something only done once since the Great Depression: issuing IOUs.

Formally called "registered warrants," the state's IOUs consist of little more than a piece of paper that says the state owes a payee money, plus interest, to be paid at some point in the future.

The last time California issued registered warrants was in 1992, during two-month budget battle between then-Gov. Pete Wilson and the state's legislators. But after the state issued almost $4 billion worth of IOUs, many banks stopped accepting them as deposits, claiming the five percent interest didn't pay for the hassle of processing them ...

 

[white is right]

Here is another Ponzi scheme. This a-hole was convicted of securities fraud during the dot com bubble too....

EW YORK (AFP) - Authorities have arrested the head of a New York investment firm in connection with a pyramid scheme that may have cost investors some 380 million dollars (288 million euros), US media said Tuesday.

Nicholas Cosmo, chief executive of Agape World Inc., turned himself in late Monday after FBI and US Postal Inspection Service officials raided the financing firm's Long Island, New York headquarters, a newspaper said.

Sources close to the case told the Long Island Business News that Cosmo would be charged with defrauding investors out of 380 million dollars.

On its website Agape World says it makes private high-interest commercial bridge loans to businesses.

The scheme, which allegedly defrauded up to 1,500 investors, was being investigated after officials took away file cabinets and boxes from two Agape World offices in New York, said Newsday newspaper.

Cosmo will be arraigned Tuesday, and authorities are expected to hold a press news conference to discuss the case, Newsday said.

Cosmo deflected accusations he was running a Ponzi scheme when he spoke to Long Island Business News hours before his arrest.

Investors previously told the newspaper they suspected Cosmo "wasn't actually investing their money," but had instead "either spent their money or gambled it away."

The firm had offered returns for investor of up to 14 percent in as little as 72 days, according to the Long Island paper.

Cosmo, 37, founded Agape World after being released from a federal prison in 2000, after he was caught defrauding investors of a Long Island securities dealer. He was subsequently ordered to undertake gambling therapy, said the newspaper.

The alleged scam comes with New York investors still reeling from revelations surrounding the massive purported Ponzi scam by Wall Street giant Bernard Madoff.

The former chairman of the Nasdaq stock market, was arrested December 11 after allegedly confessing to running a 50-billion-dollar pyramid fraud, possibly the biggest in Wall Street history.

 

[Jimmy Chitwood]

the news keeps getting worse...

British slump will be worst in the developed world, says IMF.

In the bleakest assessment yet of British prospects, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast that the economy would shrink by 2.8 per cent this year ...

It expects world growth to rise at no more than 0.5 per cent this year as the "scale and scope of the current financial crisis have taken the global economy into uncharted waters". This would mean the weakest annual growth since the Second World War.

In another downbeat view, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said that Britain would be saddled with government debt for more than 20 years ...

The International Labour Organisation predicts that 50 million jobs will be lost around the world this year, taking unemployment to 7.1 per cent ...

It now predicts that the US will suffer a 1.6 per cent contraction this year, while Germany and Japan will see output fall by 2.5 per cent and 2.6 per cent.

Despair spreads amid mounting job losses.

This week alone, U.S. companies including Sprint, Home Depot, Caterpillar, Texas Instruments and others announced they would cut more than 60,000 jobs.

On Tuesday, another 10,000 job cuts were announced. So far this month, more than 210,000 jobs are known to have been axed. And in a report due Thursday, claims for U.S. unemployment benefits by the newly jobless are expected soar above 500,000.

All that comes on top of 524,000 jobs lost in December and a spike in unemployment in all U.S. states that left the national unemployment rate at 7.2 percent ...

In all, more than 11 million U.S. workers are unemployed, a 48 percent jump from a year ago.

The numbers translate to roughly four job seekers for every one job opening in the United States ...

Sony's quarterly net profit tumbles 95%.

Boeing posts loss, drops another 10,000 jobs.

Starbucks cuts 6,700 jobs, closes 300 stores.

New bank bailout could cost taxpayers $2 trillion.

 

[DixieDestroyer]

Financial whiz and math genius say US heading towards crises not seen since American Revolution...

Financial Guru Forecasted The Current Economic Crisis...

 

[Kaptain]

We've all seen the massive amounts of lay-offs announced. This will surely push down the DOW as the involuntary contributions made to the stock market via retirement contributions will start to sink. I've had the market shorted via proshares shorts since this fall and have made out pretty well. I predict another large market fall by about mid-February. Then I'll cash in my shorts and buy more Precious metals stocks and the like as well as physical silver.

It's amazing that our government continues to throw away money at exponetial rates when our states are going bankrupt - California on February 1st will be officially bankrupt and unable to even pay back tax refunds. All this and we give trillions to international banks and stupid social programs of the new stimulus package. I actually hope I get laid-off so that I can collect unemployment and stay home to start my own business (on-cash). I will also want someone soon to be staying home at my house to guard it from the coming crime problem that will almost certainly happen when certain elements of our society get cut-off.

 

[Tom Iron]

Kaptain Poop,

Good morning,

I've been keeping an eye on the California situation. As usual, the MSM has kept a lid on the situation out there pretty well. You have to be looking at things closely here in the east to even be aware of the finanacial crisis out there. Do you have any insight as to what the MSM plans to do to hide the news once California officially becomes insolvant, 02/01?

Tom Iron...

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Kaptain, I had no idea about California going bankrupt. I'm glad I don't live there. Things are surely getting worse by the day. I have a sinking feeling about it all inside me.

 

[Van_Slyke_CF]

As expected, the GDP suffered a major contraction the last quarter of 2008-the worst performance in more than a quarter century.

If you read the article I link carefully, there is no mention of the 3.8% contraction being on an annualized basis. They love to use the above calculation method when the economy is expanding to place an inflated image in the minds of headline-reading consumers.

The small contraction as per government figures for the 3rd quarter of 2008 was actually worse than the numbers suggest for reasons outlined in the story.

Additionally, the major contraction of the past quarter will undoubtedly be even worse when the updated numbers are figured out in the coming weeks.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Economy-shrinks-at-38-percent- apf-14207818.html

"Coming Financial Crisis Worse Than '29?"

It's looking more and more that way.

Edited by: Van_Slyke_CF