Category: Economics & Investing

A recent headline grabbed my attention. It mention the “bottoming” or real estate price. That made me chuckle, because we are nowhere near the bottom yet. I did some searching, and I found a chart posted last year at the Calculated Risk blog. If you thought the subprime mortgages caused a lot of foreclosures, just wait until the Option-ARM resets peak in 2011. Methinks that things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. Reader HPD mentioned this at Forbes that quotes Peter Schiff: CPI Rises Despite U.S. Recession GG sent this: Merkel adviser warns US on …

John in Ohio forwarded this: At G20, Kremlin to Pitch New Currency. JWR’s Comment: Gee, so they propose replacing numerous un-backed fiat currencies (with free-floating values) with a single un-backed fiat currency of a “fixed” (constantly inflating) value. Cui bono? As I’ve written before: inflation is a hidden form of taxation. How do I vote for a genuine specie-backed currency? Only with a trip to my local coin shop or arms bazaar. Vote with your wallet. For our own protection, get out of paper currencies and into tangibles! From The Appenzell Daily Bell: Banks pop on talk of [FASB] accounting …

HPD sent this: Citi, Morgan Stanley look to sidestep bonus caps: report. (Your tax dollars at work.) HPD also sent: Paul O’Neill: Banks must show U.S. the money Laura H. mentioned: this WorldNetDaily piece: Montana considers return to gold, silver dollars, Proposed bill slams Fed, allows payments in precious metals Items from The Economatrix: Investors Restart Wall Street Rally GM CEO Says Bankruptcy Would Force Liquidation Congress Looking at Huge Taxes on AIG Bonuses Housing Starts Surge, Wholesale Prices Edge Up Completed Foreclosures Hit New High in February Corporate Meltdown Leaves Renters in Limbo US Mint Suspends More Production of …

Shrike sent this: The Size of Derivatives Bubble = $190,000 Per Person on Planet. Shrike’s comments: “Jim, you were uncomfortably prophetic in your September, 2006 article, predicting that derivatives would be a major problem. Until your article, I’d never even heard of the term, at least in terms of financing and markets. Not surprisingly, we still hear very little from mainstream media about them.” Reader “Parsley” mentioned an London Telegraph article that does not bode well: IMF poised to print billions of dollars in ‘global quantitative easing’. Consumer price inflation on a grand scale is a likely result Get out …

Inyokern sent this “must read” piece that compares the current collapse with 1929: Surviving the Great Collapse Mike K. spotted this telling news article: A Trashed Economy Foretold, Intake at Landfills Has Been Falling From Joan M.: Canada’s dirty subprime secret Laura H. sent this: Banks scramble to return bailout funds From Ben in Nevada: Dollar Crisis in the Making – Before the stampede

From Eric in Tennessee: China ‘worried’ about US Treasury holdings. Reader Kyle D. sent the same link. Kyle quipped: “At least they didn’t say the dreaded ‘D’ word: Default.” The Other Chris sent this: Homeowners See U.S. Taxes Rise as Property Values Sink Amid Deficits. “Gee, Wally, if property values are declining, shouldn’t our taxes be going down?” Courtesy of Jay, comes: Glenn Beck’s The Inconvenient Debt. Jay’s comment: “[In this video segment,] there is great chart presented by Glenn Beck on the US money supply since 1929. It is shocking.” DD forwarded this from MSNBC: Investors and homeowners woes …

Matt in Texas sent this “must read” link: Martin Armstrong: Is It Time To Turn Out The Lights? Here is a key quote: “We are standing on the edge of a cliff in the middle of nowhere. … We must ask our politicians a very important question: Where are you going? To date, the answers have been more of a riddle… In other words, we get a paradoxical explanation that is of something that is the opposite of what it suggests. … This Economic Depression is unstoppable, regardless what Government says. … Unless we start to get sane people with …

I was interviewed again briefly by the folks at the Fox Business News “Happy Hour” television show. The topic was, of all things, “buying off grid rural property.” Folks are waking up! From H.P.D.: 8,000 Earmarks. Kevin A. spotted this: Freddie Mac Lost $265 Million Per Day. “The main skill required to run Freddie Mac seems to be the ability to light three one thousand dollar bills on fire every second of every day. If these guys keep it up, they may even be able to get a job at AIG one day.” The Other Chris sent this Rise in …

Jon sent this sobering news story: 45 percent of world’s wealth destroyed: Blackstone CEO. “Between 40 and 45 percent of the world’s wealth has been destroyed in little less than a year and a half,” Schwarzman told an audience at the Japan Society. ‘This is absolutely unprecedented in our lifetime’” J.W.P. mentioned this video interview of Dimitri Orlov. J.W.P.’s comment: “I continue to be amazed at how people actually believe that the current U.S. government will “find a way to get us out of this mess.” It can’t, and it won’t. We’ve seen how recent and current this administrations have …