Are We Running Out of TIME???
June 26, 2009
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From the former Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund:
The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government—a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises. If the IMF’s staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform. And if we are to prevent a true depression, we’re running out of time.....
The conventional wisdom among the elite is still that the current slump “cannot be as bad as the Great Depression.” This view is wrong. What we face now could, in fact, be worse than the Great Depression—because the world is now so much more interconnected and because the banking sector is now so big. We face a synchronized downturn in almost all countries, a weakening of confidence among individuals and firms, and major problems for government finances. If our leadership wakes up to the potential consequences, we may yet see dramatic action on the banking system and a breaking of the old elite. Let us hope it is not then too late.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200905/imf-advice
Total mortgage delinquencies are up 50% from the year-ago level and up 5% from the previous month, reaching an 8.49% rate in May, according to a monthly report released by Lender Processing Services.
Foreclosure inventories climbed as May saw a 2.79% increase in the foreclosure rate from April. The foreclosure rate sits 88.3% above the year-ago level.
http://www.housingwire.com/2009/06/25/may-delinquency-rate-up-50-from-2008/
(Reuters) - An increase in exports is needed for a sustained recovery in the United States and this may require an adjustment in the value of the U.S. dollar, IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard said on Monday.
'For the US, it is absolutely no question that a sustained recovery has to come from a large increase in exports, that may not be very easy to do. This may require fairly substantial adjustments in the dollar,' he told a conference.
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2009/06/22/afx6569595.html
In its depth and suddenness, the U.S. economic and financial crisis is shockingly reminiscent of moments we have recently seen in emerging markets (and only in emerging markets): South Korea (1997), Malaysia (1998), Russia and Argentina (time and again). In each of those cases, global investors, afraid that the country or its financial sector wouldn’t be able to pay off mountainous debt, suddenly stopped lending. And in each case, that fear became self-fulfilling, as banks that couldn’t roll over their debt did, in fact, become unable to pay. This is precisely what drove Lehman Brothers into bankruptcy on September 15, causing all sources of funding to the U.S. financial sector to dry up overnight. Just as in emerging-market crises, the weakness in the banking system has quickly rippled out into the rest of the economy, causing a severe economic contraction and hardship for millions of people.
But there’s a deeper and more disturbing similarity: elite business interests—financiers, in the case of the U.S.—played a central role in creating the crisis, making ever-larger gambles, with the implicit backing of the government, until the inevitable collapse. More alarming, they are now using their influence to prevent precisely the sorts of reforms that are needed, and fast, to pull the economy out of its nosedive. The government seems helpless, or unwilling, to act against them.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200905/imf-advice
And some of you Fools are frustrated with Alstry?????????????????????????
Smile......Bubba is about to bend you and your family over.............
My suggestion.....................PREPARE or learn to scream silently.....because no one will care to listen once time runs out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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