Clipmarks | BartendingBear's Economy collection

Hoarding of Gold, Food Stocks, & Scotch Suggested

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:33:10 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Hyperinflation anticipated. Prepare for the storm.

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Walter J. "John" Williams was born in 1949. He received an A.B. in Economics, cum laude, from Dartmouth College in 1971, and was awarded a M.B.A. from Dartmouth's Amos Tuck School of Business Administration in 1972, where he was named an Edward Tuck Scholar. During his career as a consulting economist, John has worked with individuals as well as Fortune 500 companies.

Some Headlines From The Past Couple of Days

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 06:35:57 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: "Brother, can you spare me a dime?"

Clip Source: rawstory.com

Jobless numbers reach record high: 4.8 million

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits rose 3,000 last week, data on Thursday showed, while so-called continued claims hit the highest level on record as the country's year-long recession continued to chill employment.

Clip Source: www.bloomberg.com

U.S. New-Home Sales Fall to Lowest Level on Record

Sales of new homes in the U.S. fell in December to the lowest level on record, creating an unprecedented glut of unsold properties that casts doubt on any recovery in the industry this year.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

World growth 'worst for 60 years'

World economic growth is set to fall to just 0.5% this year, its lowest rate since World War II

Clip Source: www.cnbc.com

Stocks Could Drop 20%, No Safe Haven: Dr. Doom

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Ford reports record yearly loss

Clip Source: edition.cnn.com

Sony profits fall 95 percent

Clip Source: www.bloomberg.com

Shell Posts First Loss in 10 Years on Oil Price Drop

and warned that industry conditions “remain challenging.”

Clip Source: www.cnbc.com

US Talks of Pumping $1 Trillion into Banks: Report

Drunk Stupid On Capitalism

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 19:51:34 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: How much do you want to bet they ultimately seek a bailout?

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

Nasdaq OMX Group (NDAQ.O) said on Friday it will launch options trading on its three-week old Government Relief Index, which tracks the performance of companies bailed out by U.S. taxpayers.

The Government Relief Index lists 24 companies that received at least $1 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, and other government aid plans.

Some Take The New World Order Seriously

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 06:59:42 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: A warning from the Rogue Nation Eternal Militia.

Just clipping them as I find them.

Clip Source: vids.myspace.com

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Clip Source: www.youtube.com

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Bankers Party While America Burns

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 04:54:28 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: An interview with Dennis Kucinich.

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

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Executive Compensation For Consultant

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:12:16 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: What the financial crisis has brought us to.

Clip Source: burbia.com

Chicago's "End The Fed" Protest Rally 22 Nov 08

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 05:19:38 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Protests took place in 19 cities across the country to demand the end of the Federal Reserve System and return the power of currency issue to the hands of the government through constitutional money per Article 1 sections 8 & 10.

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

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Clip Source: www.youtube.com

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The GOP: Architects of Another "Great Depression"

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:54:10 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: "Reagan's own budget director, David Stockman, called 'supply-side economics', a trojan horse. It is claimed that the wealth will 'trickle down' by stimulating investment. It never has and never will."

Clip Source: existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com

Any US history of events leading up to the stock market crash of 1929 and the 'great depression' following reads like a modern US history from 1980. The causes of the 'Great Depression' include a vastly unequal distribution of wealth and, of course, the stock market crash and financial panic of 1929.

This speculation and the resulting stock market crashes acted as a trigger to the already unstable US economy.

The rich stopped spending on luxury items, and slowed investments. The middle-class and poor stopped buying things with installment credit for fear of loosing their jobs, and not being able to pay the interest.

Radios and cars bought with installment credit had to be returned. All of the sudden warehouses were piling up with inventory. The thriving industries that had been connected with the automobile and radio industries started falling apart.

On the international scene, the rich had practically stopped lending money to foreign countries.

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The L-Curve: Income Distribution of the U.S.

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:46:57 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Stark graphic truth about what wealth really is.

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

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Clip Source: lcurve.org

The red line represents a graph of family income across the population. The height of the curve at any point is the height of a stack of $100 bills equalling that income.

The L-Curve graph represents income, not wealth. The distribution of wealth is even more skewed. Quoting from a recently-published book by political philosopher David Schweickart,

If we divided the income of the US into thirds, we find that the top ten percent of the population gets a third, the next thirty percent gets another third, and the bottom sixty percent get the last third. If we divide the wealth of the US into thirds, we find that the top one percent own a third, the next nine percent own another third, and the bottom ninety percent claim the rest. (Actually, these percentages, true a decade ago, are now out of date. The top one percent are now estimated to own between forty and fifty percent of the nation's wealth, more than the combined wealth of the bottom 95%.)

Too Poor For Bankruptcy

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:20:13 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: "Are we one nation? Or are we just interest groups? Can we rescue Wall Street and ignore Main Street?" "The new President promises change and I wish him well and I hope for the best. But I won’t hold my breath because no one hates Americans more than other Americans."

Clip Source: www.informationclearinghouse.info

We, as a country, seem to have little problem saving the wealthy from the clutches of poverty. We’ll bail out banks and insurance companies, mortgage funds. The formerly big three automakers will meet with the new administration this week to arrange a further multi-billion-dollar bailout.

Most all of our problems seem to evolve from a falling standard of living in America’s working class, and yet when we call for help for America’s working poor we are told that it can’t be helped. Here in Atlanta a local food pantry advertises that 40% of all its recipients are employed.

We let the minimum wage flounder for almost a decade and despite the results still argue about its impact. We worry instead about welfare queens

Here in Georgia the maximum welfare payment is $574 per month

food stamps is only available to families without children for three months and only if they make less than 130% of the poverty level. Why do we call it the poverty level if you must make less than that to qualify?

Just how bad the real estate market really is.

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:12:25 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: One out of three sold for a loss; one in seven are "upside down", owing more than the home's value. One in five are foreclosure sales.

Clip Source: www.inman.com

Wednesday, November 12, 2008.

Nearly one out of three homes sold in the last year was sold at a loss, and an estimated one in seven U.S. homeowners were "upside down" on their loans at the end of September, according an analysis of public records in 163 markets by Zillow.

Zillow estimates that the percentage of borrowers upside down -- owing more on their mortgage than their home was worth -- was even higher among those who bought in the last five years: 29.5 percent.

Nationwide, home prices have fallen 9.7 percent in the last year and 12.8 percent since the market peak in 2006, Zillow said.

Foreclosures made up close to one in five transactions in the last year, Zillow said, and more than half of sales in some distressed markets like Merced and Stockton, Calif.

Looking back five years, Zilllow reported flat or negative long-term price appreciation in about one quarter of the markets it analyzed.

Federal Reserve Actions Put The Dollar On Shakiest Ground EVER!

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 06:51:44 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Will we ever get used to saying "Amero" after the dollar has been murdered?

Clip Source: www.whiskeyandgunpowder.com

Under Bernanke’s direction, the Federal Reserve has completely rewritten its mission.

the charts below tell that story, and it is truly amazing.

The situation is not easy to sort out

partly because of the piecemeal way the actions were taken, but also probably due to a desire by the Fed to avoid public scrutiny and criticism.

the Fed’s balance sheet reveals

the complete change of composition and direction of the Fed.

most obvious

is that they have doubled the size of their assets and liabilities

The balance sheet started with $800 billion of mostly reliable assets and now has about $250 billion of unencumbered Treasuries.

The important conclusion is that the paper dollars are now issued by a far less soundly structured Fed, an organization that is more interested in bailing out the financial community than defending the dollar.

Nothing like this has ever been done before by the Federal Reserve. In time, the consequences in terms of confidence in the dollar will be bad.

Federal Reserve Refuses To Disclose $2 Trillion In Loans & Collateral

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 02:14:55 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: "Total Fed lending topped $2 trillion for the first time last week and has risen by 140 percent, or $1.172 trillion, in the seven weeks since Fed governors relaxed the collateral standards on Sept. 14."

Clip Source: www.chron.com

The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn’t require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return.

“The collateral is not being adequately disclosed, and that’s a big problem,” said Dan Fuss, vice chairman of Boston-based Loomis Sayles & Co., where he co-manages $17 billion in bonds. “In a liquid market, this wouldn’t matter, but we’re not. The market is very nervous and very thin.”

Bloomberg News

filed a federal lawsuit Nov. 7 seeking to force disclosure.

Dan Rather On Coporate Media Ownership

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:44:18 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: "The news stops with making bucks."

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

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Greenspan Admits He Isn't A Monetary God

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:02:32 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: But just a little.

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress on Thursday he is "shocked" at the breakdown in U.S. credit markets and said he was "partially" wrong to resist regulation of some securities.

Despite concerns he had in 2005 that risks were being underestimated by investors, "this crisis, however, has turned out to be much broader than anything I could have imagined," Greenspan said in remarks prepared for delivery to the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

"Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholder's equity -- myself especially -- are in a state of shocked disbelief," said Greenspan, who stepped down from the Fed in 2006.

"The reasons why we set up your agencies and gave you budget authority to hire people is so you can see problems developing before they become a crisis," Committee Chairman Henry Waxman

"To say you just didn't see it, that just doesn't satisfy me," Waxman said.