In These New Times

A new paradigm for a post-imperial world

Archive for the ‘Financial crisis’ Category

The financial system established in England after 1688, based on usurious lending to the state by private bankers, is reaching its final blowout in the form of a series of devastating bubbles and a massive bailout of the financiers with public money. But the issuance of money doesn’t have to be in the hands of a private consortium: another credit system is possible.

John Williams – Accelerating great collapse & hyperinflation

Posted by seumasach on January 27, 2012

PoorRichard’s Blog

27th January, 2012

kingworldnews.com

John Williams, of Shadowstats, just issued the following warning and King World News wanted to pass it along to our global readers:  “The U.S. economic and systemic-solvency crises of the last five years continue to deteriorate.  Yet they remain just the precursors to the coming Great Collapse: a hyperinflationary great depression.  The unfolding circumstance will encompass a complete loss in the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar; a collapse in the normal stream of U.S. commercial and economic activity; a collapse in the U.S. financial system, as we know it; and a likely realignment of the U.S. political environment.”

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Fed prepares for QE3

Posted by seumasach on January 27, 2012

RT

26th January, 2012

The central bank of the United States believes that America is still a ways from economic recovery, which could soon prompt the Federal Reserve to announce a new round of quantitative easing, or QE3.

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How likely is a sterling crisis or: is London really Reykjavik-on-Thames?

Posted by seumasach on January 26, 2012

This seems a good moment to revisit Willem Buiter 2008 analysis of the UK economy and, particularly, his view on a possible simultaneous banking, government bonds and sterling crisis.

Willem Buiter

Mavrecom

13th November, 2008

Read article

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Why isn’t Illinois a bigger story than Greece?

Posted by seumasach on January 25, 2012

John Rubino

Dollar Collapse

22nd January, 2012

As the Greek default (and it is a default no matter what they end up calling it) is finalized this week, the consensus seems to be that failure to reach a deal would cause a global financial apocalypse.

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Britain in the midst of first double dip since the 1970s

Posted by seumasach on January 22, 2012

Here are the main themes of the UK media’s coverage of our economic collapse: the recession is a “technicality”; it’s all Europe’s fault; things will get better with more QE just like they didn’t last time.

It’s hard to know what to say to this. Britain is a consumer economy or it is nothing. The recession is plain for all to see: all three of my favourite coffee shops in the West End of Glasgow have closed since Christmas. The streets and roads are emptying. This is a downward spiral, a reverse multiplier.

Since our exports to Europe never amounted to much, even with the pound approaching parity with the euro, Europe can hardly be to blame. Of course, hedge funds may be losing bullions speculating against the euro but that is a different matter.

QE did nothing to help last time: it merely generated inflation and gave the financiers a number of ingenuous options such as carry trades to make a quick buck.

As I say we’re a consumer economy or we’re nothing. It looks like nothing. Mired in debt, stuck in homes which can’t sold, overwhelmed by rising prices of food and fuel, facing unemployment and frozen wages, facing cuts in benefits, overburdened by unfair taxation such as the notorious council tax, a virtual poll tax   which hasn’t been introduced elsewhere, facing endless fines for trivial driving or parking offences, unable to afford the exorbitant cost of public transport, watching our business fail as disposable income dries up, wandering around half-empty supermarkets looking for bargains and finding everyone gathering round the reductions shelf, unable to get simple house repairs done and paying through the nose for the failed attempt, buried under a cruel and corrupt benefits system, fighting failing health as the government blasts us with dangerous and carcinogenic radiation. All this only to be told by the media and politicians that everything is fine apart from the Eurozone, to be lied to incessantly by an army of irremediably corrupted experts, to have our intelligence insulted and our pockets emptied. This is Britain before the abyss, blind and befuddled, threatening or hectoring our international partners, hubristic and delusional, smug and stupid, rejoicing in the woes of others whilst seemingly unaware of where we are going. We are going to hell.

Telegraph

22nd January, 2012

This week official growth numbers are expected to show that the economy shrunk by 0.1% in the final three months of last year.

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2012: The year of the world’s great geopolitical swing

Posted by seumasach on January 21, 2012

We always post GEAP’s public announcement with which we are once again largely concurrent, and we strongly recommend their website
GEAB no.61
16th January, 2012
This GEAB issue makes it six years that the LEAP/E2020 team have shared their anticipations with their subscribers and readers of their public briefing on the development of the global systemic crisis each month. And, for the first time, in the January issue which presents a summary of our anticipations for the year to come, our team anticipates a year which will not result solely in a worsening of the world crisis but which will also be characterized by the emergence of the first constructive elements of the “world after the crisis” to use Franck Biancheri’s phrase from his book « The World Crisis: The Path to the World Afterwards ».

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Keiser Report: Warren E. Pollock about MF Global, wealth confiscation and bank holidays.

Posted by seumasach on January 19, 2012

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The French downgrade should be a warning about hidden UK liabilities

Posted by seumasach on January 15, 2012

Liam Halligan is , I suppose, obliged to follow the party line in bowing down to the rating agencies, the same ones that triple-AAA rated subprime CDOs, as a paragon of objectivity and financial virtue. Still he is one of the very few who has, or admits to having, a near realistic grasp of the true horror of Britain’s financial predicament.

Liam Halligan

Telegraph

14th January, 2012

The eurozone’s second-largest economy has lost its AAA rating. Eight other single-currency members were also downgraded. Given that Paris is bankrolling no less than a fifth of the purported “big bazooka” bail-out fund – the so-called European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) – monetary union is now on very thin ice.

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Economic downturn prompts many to pawn possessions

Posted by seumasach on January 14, 2012

Bournemouth Echo

14th January, 2012

CASH-STRAPPED customers are pawning their most prized possessions in a bid to keep financially afloat and pay their bills.

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Mortgage rates to rise as eurozone crisis hits home

Posted by seumasach on January 14, 2012

Leaving aside the question of why Britain’s bankruptcy would be the fault of the eurozone, this is a significant and ominous development for the British economy, barely afloat only due to low interest rates on mortgages

Scotsman

14th January, 2012

Homeowners face a fresh rise in mortgage costs as lenders respond to the eurozone crisis by raising loan rates, brokers have warned.

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‘Printed money’ and regulatory diktat are keeping UK gilt yields low

Posted by seumasach on January 11, 2012

To view Britain’s crisis from the point of view of controlling expenditure alone is very one-sided: Britain’s problems lie, above all, in the lack of a productive base. Still, Halligan provides some useful insights into the real state of Britain’s finances.

Liam Halligan

Telegraph

11th January, 2012

Ten-year sovereign yields dipped below 2pc during the last week of 2011. As Chancellor George Osborne often points out, UK state borrowing costs are now similar to those of Germany. In fact, they are at their lowest since the late 19th century.

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