Clipmarks | abailart's 'economics' clips

US Debt Clock Runs Out of Digits

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 08:16:39 GMT

clipped by: abailart

The US government's debts have ballooned so badly the National Debt Clock in New York has run out of digits to record the spiralling figure.

The digital counter marks the national debt level, but when that passed the $10 trillion point last month, the sign could not display the full amount.

The board was erected to highlight the $2.7 trillion level of debt in 1989.

The clock's owners say two more zeros will be added, allowing the clock to record a quadrillion dollars of debt.

Some economists believe the $700bn bail-out plan for ailing US financial institutions could send the national debt level to $11 trillion

Tags: economics

The Strong Economy

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 11:08:36 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

In response to the falling value of their homes and high gasoline prices, Americans have become more frugal all year. But in recent weeks, as the financial crisis reverberated from Wall Street to Washington, consumers appear to have cut back sharply. Even with the government beginning a giant bailout of the financial system, their confidence may have been too shaken for them to resume their free-spending ways any time soon.

“The last few days have devastated the American consumer,” said Walter Loeb, president of Loeb Associates

“They all feel poor.”

For some Americans, the pain is already acute: jobs disappeared at a faster clip in September.

Consumer spending, which accounts for nearly two-thirds of the economy, grew modestly earlier in the year but fell in July and August on an annualized rate.

first quarterly decline since 1990, ahead of the 1991 recession, and the steepest since 1981.

losing their retirements, their vacation funds, and they are scared to commit to buying anything

Tags: finance, economics

Ich bin ein Berliner

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 10:56:09 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Property lender Hypo Real Estate (HRE) (HRXG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) fought for its life on Saturday after German banks and insurers pulled out of a state-led 35 billion euro ($48.5 billion) rescue program stitched together only days ago.

The news is a fresh blow for the global financial system struggling to master an unprecedented crisis of confidence and poses a political challenge for the Berlin government, which has been fighting efforts to arrange a pan-European bank bailout.

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Tags: freedom, economics

Iceland in Meltdown Disaster

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 08:47:47 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Man-made global economics change.

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

The party's over for Iceland, the island that tried to buy the world

Almost overnight, its population became the wealthiest on Earth.

The bars and restaurants of Iceland's capital are packed, the Range Rovers and BMWs are parked nose to tail all along the streets of the central 101 district, and music is pumping from a black stretch Hummer limousine cruising by.

Iceland is on the brink of collapse. Inflation and interest rates are raging upwards. The krona, Iceland's currency, is in freefall and is rated just above those of Zimbabwe and Turkmenistan. One of the country's three independent banks has been nationalised, another is asking customers for money, and the discredited government and officials from the central bank have been huddled behind closed doors for three days with still no sign of a plan. International banks won't send any more money and supplies of foreign currency are running out.

Icelanders drink more Coca-Cola than anyone else in the world.

Tags: iceland, economics

The People Have Stirred and Spoken

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 08:28:49 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Very hard times ahead for us I fear, millions around the world most vulnerable. Yet maybe at last people are waking up to what has been going on.

Clip Source: www.opendemocracy.net

After the week that changed everything, the week that Wall Street met democracy - and blinked first. The people have forced their politicians to bend the knee. The United States is in new territory.

Hank Paulson was the head of Goldman Sachs before he went to serve in Washington. In that culture, the big boss-man does what he thinks best; tens of thousands of underlings jump to carry out his will; while hundreds of public-relations flacks explain to an awed world why all is for the best in the best of possible Wall Streets.

In this spirit, Paulson produced three pages over the weekend of 20-21 September to save his world. The document's terms would require the long-suffering taxpayers of the United States themselves to stump up the money to allow Wall Street's institutions to emerge from the crisis of dodgy securities and rotten mortgages with as little damage as possible.

Tags: economics

One Third of Us are Starving

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 22:29:37 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.helium.com

It would cost only $13 billion to satisfy the world's sanitation and food requirements, which is the amount that is spent on perfume every year by the people of the United States and Europe.

Clip Source: www.helium.com

In Africa today, one child dies every 3 seconds because of the basic lack of safe water, healthcare, shelter or food. Every year 15 million children die of hunger and 183 million children are underweight for their age.

According to the World Health Authority, one-third of the world is well-fed, one-third is under-fed and one-third is starving.

Tags: poverty, starvation, economics, perfume

Bail Out won't save American Economy

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 09:02:46 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Best spend it on a national health system. That's what each American could get for the 3,000 dollars they are being asked to pay to save themselves from poverty.

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

There is a simple reason why US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's $700bn bail-out package has been so hard to sell to politicians and the American people: it won't really work. Despite the historically massive expenditure and all the little clauses to make sure Wall Street fat cats get their comeuppance, the plan is unlikely to do anything to save the world's biggest economy from a long and crippling downturn.

You can always rely on 'Neutron Jack' Welch, the former GE boss and all-round tough talker, to tell it how it is. 'I now believe we are in for one hell of a deep downturn,' he told the World Business Forum in New York last Wednesday, adding that the first quarter of 2009 will be 'brutal'.

Until recently, Welch said, he had believed the American economy could avoid recession, but he has changed his mind, despite the bail-out. 'I am now caving,' he said. 'Get ready for real tough times. They're coming.'

Tags: economics

Bradford & Bingley Latest UK Bank Failure

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 23:20:02 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Bradford & Bingley could be nationalised to save it from collapse.
Ministers are considering a dramatic plan to merge it with Northern Rock to create a publicly-owned ‘superbank’. Sources stressed that depositors’ cash would be guaranteed by the Government.
The desperate rescue scheme emerged at the end of another tumultuous week in the global financial crisis.
It would be the Government’s most drastic action to shore up the banking system since the Northern Rock debacle.

Thousands of High Street jobs face the axe after HSBC slash 500 staff

Bank of England offers £43bn to beleaguered banks after U.S. stalemate rocks the markets

House price growth at lowest level ever after a record 4.6% fall over the past year

Tags: economics

Paulson Gets Down on Knees

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:47:33 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

“If money isn’t loosened up, this sucker could go down,” President Bush declared Thursday as he watched the $700 billion bailout package fall apart before his eyes, according to one person in the room

The day began with an agreement that Washington hoped would end the financial crisis that has gripped the nation. It dissolved into a verbal brawl in the Cabinet Room of the White House, urgent warnings from the president and pleas from a Treasury secretary who knelt before the House speaker and appealed for her support.

In the Roosevelt Room after the session, the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., literally bent down on one knee as he pleaded with Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, not to “blow it up” by withdrawing her party’s support for the package over what Ms. Pelosi derided as a Republican betrayal.

“I didn’t know you were Catholic,” Ms. Pelosi said,

Tags: economics

Ireland Now in Recession

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:34:07 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The Irish Republic's economy has fallen into recession after shrinking for a second quarter in succession.

The economy is now facing its most difficult period since high unemployment and emigration hit in the early 1980s.

Economists pointed to the collapse of a decade-long bonanza in Ireland's property market, coupled with a slump in construction activity.

The country has enjoyed a boom since the late 1990s, with multinationals arriving to take advantage of one of the lowest corporate tax rates in Europe.

Bloxham Stockbrokers chief economist Alan McQuaid said:"Although the domestic side of the economy is contracting at a significant rate, the external side - the multinationals - is holding up quite well, but one would have to question how long that's going to last."

Tags: economics, ireland

Mr Bush's Swansong

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:31:38 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Scaremongerer.

Clip Source: www.whitehouse.gov

We're in the midst of a serious financial crisis,

the situation becoming more precarious by the day

I'm a strong believer in free enterprise

America could slip into a financial panic, and a distressing scenario would unfold:

Americans have good reason to be confident in our economic strength.

our entire economy is in danger

More banks could fail

democratic capitalism is the best system ever devised

our country could experience a long and painful recession.

May God bless you.

Tags: economics

The True Cost of Rewarding Greedy Bankers

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:36:56 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Note the names of some of these great institutions that rewarded greed. Note the immediate cost to UK taxpayers. I would be interested to see figures relating to the taxes of US citizens' tax bills compares. (Oh, meanwhile, Barclays in London have just guaranteed 2.5 billion dollars in bonuses and salaries to a firm called Lehmans that they just bought a bit of.)

Clip Source: business.timesonline.co.uk

November 20, 2007

Wall Street’s five biggest investment banks are expected to pay a record $38 billion (£18.6 billion) in staff bonuses this year, even though the shareholders in those firms have collectively lost about $74 billion in stock declines this year.

The bonuses will be split between 186,000 staff globally at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News. This year’s bonuses would compare with the $36 billion paid by Wall Street’s five biggest firms last year and equate to $201,500 per person. Collectively, the bonus is larger than the gross domestic products of Sri Lanka, Lebanon or Bulgaria, while the average payout is more than four times the $48,201 median household income in America, according to the US Census Bureau.

Clip Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

TAXPAYERS in Britain face up to 5p in the pound in extra taxes because of the credit crunch created by the banks

Tags: economics

When Money and Profit are Gods

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 11:50:43 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.opednews.com

It is now clear that the unfettered capitalism is supported only to maximize the extraction of wealth (from people and nations) and that any losses will be "socialized" back onto those same victims.

Meanwhile, those mega-financiers who remain standing when the economic tsunami has ultimately passed will definitely be even more concentrated than the current elites are.

The results of that is the unfettered expropriation of wealth and resources. When money and profit are the only consideration, then life (individual's and the planet's) is not even on the radar screen. This was indirectly reinforced by McCain's recent repetition of "the fundamental of the economy are strong." When he tried to elaborate on that, he said that the "fundamentals" he was referring to were the hard work and ingenuity of the U.S. workforce. What that translates into is that the workforce is still there for exploitation.

Tags: economics

UK Government Rips Up Law to Save Bank

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:44:17 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Curiouser and curiouser.

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

A £12bn takeover of Britain's biggest lender, HBOS, failed to halt the deepening crisis in the world's financial markets last night as a wave of fresh speculation saw two of Wall Street's most prestigious investment banks targeted as the latest victims of the credit crunch.

Gordon Brown intervened to broker a solution to HBOS and Downing Street made clear it was prepared to rip up Britain's competition laws to allow the takeover - a move that may cause the loss of tens of thousands of jobs and the closure of up to 500 branches.

Government sources said that the severity of the financial crisis meant that there was no alternative but to waive normal rules.

£12bn HBOS takeover fails to end global panic on financial markets

FTSE closes at three year low despite proposed Lloyds TSB move for HBOS while on Wall Street Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs shares are pummelled

Tags: economics

Buffett (2003) Warned of Hell devised by Madmen

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:41:01 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: But most believed the lies of rapacious bankers and political fools.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction

The rapidly growing trade in derivatives poses a "mega-catastrophic risk" for the economy and most shares are still "too expensive", legendary investor Warren Buffett has warned.

The derivatives market has exploded in recent years, with investment banks selling billions of dollars worth of these investments to clients as a way to off-load or manage market risk.

But Mr Buffett argues that such highly complex financial instruments are time bombs and "financial weapons of mass destruction" that could harm not only their buyers and sellers, but the whole economic system.

Contracts devised by 'madmen'

Derivatives are like 'hell'

Derivatives generate reported earnings that are often wildly overstated and based on estimates whose inaccuracy may not be exposed for many years

Tags: economics