Mike Ruppert: Collapse within 2 years

Comment: The next Bilderberg (Who are they?) meeting in 2009 (May 14-16) is in Athens, Greece
The Group names here
“The silence law” is the first rule, which all invited to the world of Bilderberg must abide to. This is why the daily schedule remains secret but the current events leave no doubt that the main topic of discussion will be the global economic crisis.

(snippet)
No time to be shy now... Here's what's coming over -- I would estimate -- the next two years: FDIC insolvency; Treasury default, the dumping of the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency (I started predicting that in maybe 2002); hyperinflation; bankruptcy of the Federal Reserve; and collapse of the United States government as we know it. Federal Reserve notes are legal tender for all debts public and private. What does it mean if the privately-owned Fed goes bankrupt? Our map doesn't see that territory yet. -- Oh yes, and a new strain of swine flu has been discovered in humans in San Diego... And farmers are committing mass suicide in India and Africa because they can't pay the loans they used to grow their crops or they are being undercut by large corporations. I suspect that inflation is much more contagious than deflation. I don;t know how hard that stage will hit here. But deflation in any industrialized nation is like blood in the water. CoLLapse will looking like a feeding frenzy as the carcasses get stripped.

The good news: Las Vegas is decaying like the corpse it is. Last night I watched a Dan Rather special on how bad things are there. Ugly! And yet the Mayor was insisting that the answer was to build more and bigger hotels to bring the people back... I call that the Easter Island syndrome. If anything symbolizes the worst of the old paradigm it's Las Vegas. It has to die so that others around the country will start to grasp that what is happening here is not just a bump in the road.
Link

BREAKING JUST IN at 2:19-

Obama Security Member Has Suspected Case of Swine Flu

Swine Flu will Finish this Economy. Prepare!

Swine flu fear catching fast in weak world economy
Fears of flu pandemic threaten new storm for global economy just as clouds seem to be parting

Adam Geller, AP National Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- The swine flu outbreak is unleashing a side effect the global economy is in no condition to handle: fear.

Travelers are canceling or delaying trips to Mexico, Cuba banned all flights to its neighbor and Argentina announced Tuesday a five-day ban on flights arriving from Mexico. China, Russia and South Korea have banned imports of some North American pork, despite assurances that the flu is not spread through meat. Investors just starting to regain their nerve have again caught the jitters.

The threat of a pandemic comes just as the world economy is showing the barest glimmerings of what analysts say might be the light at the end of what remains a long, dark tunnel. And now this.

"This is just another negative shock when the economy can least afford another negative shock," said Jay Bryson, global economist at Wachovia Corp.

So far, fear of the flu is at least as responsible for the economic disruption as the disease itself.

The number of confirmed cases in the United States climbed to 66, and federal officials warned that deaths were likely. In New York, the city's health commissioner said "many hundreds" of schoolchildren were ill at a school where some students had confirmed cases.

President Barack Obama asked Congress for $1.5 billion in emergency funds to fight the disease.

Economists remember well the financial damage the SARS outbreak inflicted in 2003. An epidemic of that scale or greater could inflict severe damage on a global economy already badly listing.
Link

World Collapse takes back seat to Swine Flu

The world's largest steel maker ArcelorMittal SA said sales halved in the second quarter and it reported its second quarterly loss as steel demand plunges.
The company made a loss of $1.06 billion in the three months ending March 31, compared to $2.37 billion profit a year ago. Revenues were $15.12 billion, down by half from $29.8 billion in the second quarter of 2008.
Full Report

The latest round of superb earnings from banks was all a "Great Whitewash" according to analyst Meredith Whitney. Most of the earnings came from technical, one-time factors.
Full Story

1000-1200 GM Dealers to close, 136,000 to lose jobs
Story

North Carolina short 3 Billion dollars
Link

Europe Facing Deeper Collapse
Link

Global Fishing Industry on Brink of Collapse-No Fish Left
Link

Close to Depression Level Unemployment in Chicago,other Cities Much Worse
Link

Is the FED our next troubled BANK?

by Mike Larson

The Federal Reserve is watching the backs of U.S. banks. But sometimes I wonder, “Who’s watching the Fed’s back? Is the Fed our next troubled bank?”

You see, all of this garbage paper that’s going bad — the troubled residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS), the commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS), the asset backed securities (ABS), the Fannie Mae bonds, the corporate loans, and so on — hasn’t just gone “Poof.”

Instead, more and more of it has been landing on the Fed’s doorstep — either through direct ownership or as collateral against Fed loans that keep getting rolled over.

The result? The Fed’s once pristine balance sheet is starting to look more and more like the balance sheet of a troubled financial institution.

From AAA to Something Else Entirely

What do I mean? Well, take a look at this April 26, 2007, Federal Reserve Statistical Release. (Here)Table 2, the Consolidated Statement of Condition of All Federal Reserve Banks, shows the breakdown of the Fed’s assets back then. You’ll see that the Fed banks listed total assets of $883.5 billion at the time. The lion’s share of those assets — $787.1 billion, or 89 percent — were “AAA” quality U.S. Treasury bills, notes, and bonds. There were a few other assorted line items (gold, bank premises, etc.) … but that’s about it.

Now compare that two-year old balance sheet, (Here) to this multi-headed hydra of a balance sheet that came out a few days ago. The equivalent table (number 9) shows that total Fed assets have exploded to $2.19 TRILLION. And those plain-vanilla, risk-free Treasuries? They make up just $526.1 billion, or 24 percent, of Fed assets!

The Fed now also owns more than $355 billion of mortgage backed securities and $61 billion in debt issued by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Ginnie Mae. Term auction credit comes to $455.8 billion. Those are short-term loans against just about anything and everything — from auto loans and credit card receivables to Brady Bonds and CMBS.

The Fed is also holding $238 billion in commercial paper as part of an October 2008 program to help corporations fund short-term debt obligations.
Link

John Williams of Shadowstats- Hyperinflationary Depression Ahead

John Williams publishes the Shadow Government Statistics newsletter (www.shadowstats.com).
-- We will see inflation levels "not seen in our lifetime" ...
-- We will see debt explode to $65 trillion (4x U.S. GDP; more than global GDP).
-- We will see hyperinflation such that the dollar becomes worthless and "the paper is worth more as wall paper than as currency"
( Snippet of Interview)
HJR: They couldn’t even use the money as toilet paper because it is a bad absorber of water. So we will have hyper-inflation. How can we protect the value of our assets, assuming that people have some discretionary money? Should they buy growth stocks because they are cheap, assuming “buy low, sell high?” Or are there better alternatives?

JW: We are headed into a hyper-inflationary depression that will become a Great Depression. When hyper inflation hits, it will disrupt the normal flow of commerce and turn it into a Great Depression.

What about paper assets based on the dollar? You want to get into something like gold or silver –physical gold or silver, not paper. Perhaps get some assets outside the dollar. It’s a time to preserve your wealth and assets, not to start speculating on the stock market. There is a lot of volatility ahead. Over the long term, gold and silver are your best hedges.

HJR: That sounds like the familiar tune I’ve been singing for several years. I’ve been publishing for 33 years. About 11 of those years I have been bullish on gold and silver as investments. When I abandoned gold in the early ‘80s, I was excommunicated from the gold-bug church because I was supposed to stay faithful to gold, but then the metals weren’t the right place to put your money. As a financial adviser, if I don’t have subscribers in the right investments, they will lose money and not renew their subscription to The Ruff Times. So I have a financial interest in being right. Yogi Berra said, “It’s déjà vu all over again.” the same thing is happening that I saw in the ‘70s that drove the prices of gold and silver to unprecedented highs – only more so now. They are creating more money than they ever thought of creating back then. We are using words like “trillions,” which we never used before. I’m not just looking at it as an investment and a place to make money. I am looking at it as a possible way to preserve the real value of your assets so you are not left destitute with a pile of worthless paper.

You showed me a display of Zimbabwe currency, where multi-billion dollar notes started out as $2-bill notes. We could face the same thing. The world is littered with worthless dead-paper currencies with an average life span of about 75 years. It’s always the same: we make too much of it ever since we created paper currency with the printing press, and creating too much of it to buy votes, diminishing its value.

A subscriber who wrote to me recently asking me that if the government and the bankers can manipulate the price of gold and silver, so couldn’t they do that for many years and gold and silver would go nowhere?

History doesn’t record a single example when a society inflated the dominant currency even near the quantities we are creating dollars now without destroying its value. Gold and silver, not being anyone’s debt or obligation, is where people ought to put their money.
Link

The Coming Depression in Commercial Real Estate

The Wall Street Journal has made available a report by Deutsche Bank on the outlook for commercial real estate. The presentation is an eye-opener, as it presents a lot of data on the weakening commercial real estate market. The report's key conclusions are as follows:

Prices may drop 35-45% in 2009, exceeding price declines of early 1990s
"Demand shock" has caused downturn, not excess supply (this was different in early 1990s)
Delinquencies could rise to 6% in 2010, matching peak delinquency rate of early 1990s
Maturity default rather than term default is top risk, as refinancings will require more equity
George Soros has been quoted as saying that commercial real estate prices have not yet dropped but are likely to do so in the foreseeable future:

It is inevitable, it is written, everybody knows it, there are already some transactions which reflect and anticipate it, so we know, they will drop at least 30 percent.

As the recession in commercial real estate deepens, it will be interesting to see whether the valuations of companies such as Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE: VNO), Boston Properties (NYSE: BXP) and Brookfield Properties (NYSE: BPO) deteriorate further. At some point, investors with a penchant for long-term value may find these companies worth a closer look.
Article

So you think times are tough now?

By PAUL GRONDAHL, Staff writer

First published: Sunday, April 26, 2009

Does the thought of spooning into a steaming plate of woodchuck, muskrat, raccoon or squirrel leave you squeamish?

Then you didn't live through the Great Depression the way 91-year-old Russell Gordon did.

If this brutal economy grows even meaner and nastier than it already is, you might need to rethink the notion of recession roadkill, Gordon reckons.

In 1931, Gordon's dad was laid off from the textile mill near their home in Whitehall, Washington County, and struggled to feed his wife and 10 children.

The family's very survival came down to a large ceramic bowl set on the kitchen table each evening. His mom would point to it and say, "If you don't eat that, you don't eat." The kids knew better than to complain. And they always cleaned their plates of the rough-hewn casserole of parsnips, potatoes, onions and tomatoes from a backyard garden and rodents killed that day for meat and pelts that would fetch a buck.

"We did what we had to do to survive," recalled Gordon, who was hired in 1935 at 17 by the Civilian Conservation Corps and labored four years building state campgrounds in the Adirondacks. A monthly $25 government check sent home to his widowed father kept the large brood afloat.

In today's grim economic landscape, we could learn a thing or two by studying the survival skills of the "greatest generation." Their experience of gutting it out in tough times, a deep streak of self-reliance and abiding commitment to frugality — turning off lights in unused rooms, darning holes in socks instead of throwing them out, recycling aluminum foil from food packaging — resonates anew in 2009.

"Everyone in those days was self-sufficient. We could put a stick in the ground and get a potato. I worry that young people today aren't prepared to take care of themselves if things get really bad again," said Ruth Hand, 88, of Clifton Park, who grew up on Old Post Road in Rotterdam. She recalled a Depression-era childhood spent tending chickens, growing vegetables and cleaning rooms in the tourist home her family ran to supplement her dad's income from a foundry job.

(snippet)
"We've only been in this recession for 18 months and nobody knows what it will look like in two years," said Hochfelder. But federally insured bank deposits, unemployment insurance, welfare programs and a social safety net that wasn't in place during the Great Depression will lessen the impact of a prolonged recession this time.
Story here

Swine flu could cost trillions

Comment: Could this "disease" collapse the economic market? That way the government could put the blame entirely on the swine flu. Since no bailout or amount of money will help the economy, perhaps this is the best way for the collapse. FABRICATE a flu!

This afternoon, the WHO declared that the swine flu outbreak in Mexico and the U.S. is a health emergency of international concern.
Reuters has put together a list of estimates of the economics costs that may be incurred if swine flu becomes a full out pandemic. List Here

The World Bank estimated in 2008 that a flu pandemic could cost $3 trillion and result in a nearly 5 percent drop in world gross domestic product. The World Bank has estimated that more than 70 million people could die worldwide in a severe pandemic.
Australian independent think-tank Lowy Institute for International Policy estimated in 2006 that in the worst-case scenario, a flu pandemic could wipe $4.4 trillion off global economic output.

Two reports in the United States in 2005 estimated that a flu pandemic could cause a serious recession of the U.S. economy, with immediate costs of between $500 billion and $675 billion.

One report, from the Congressional Budget Office, said hospitals would have difficulty controlling infection and might become sources for spreading the illness.
A second report by New Jersey-based WBB Securities LLC predicted a one-year economic loss of $488 billion and a permanent economic loss of $1.4 trillion to the U.S. economy.


SARS in 2003 disrupted travel, trade and the workplace and cost the Asia Pacific region $40 billion. It lasted for six months, killing 775 of the 8,000 people it infected in 25 countries.
Between the autumn of 1918 and the spring of 1919, 548,452 people died of swine a flu epidemic in the US. (Note there's a bit of a debate about whether this was swine flu or some other kind of flu.)
Link

CHINA secretly bought GOLD for years!

SHANGHAI/BEIJING - China revealed on Friday that it had secretly raised its gold reserves by three-quarters since 2003, increasing its holdings to 1,054 tonnes - or a pot worth about US$30.9-billion - and confirming years of speculation it had been buying.

Hu Xiaolian, head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, told Xinhua news agency in an interview that the country's reserves had risen by 454 tonnes from 600 tonnes since 2003, when China last adjusted its state gold reserves figure.

The confirmation of its surreptitious stockpiling is likely to fuel market talk about Beijing's ability to buy secretly and its ambitions for spending its nearly US$2-trillion pile of savings. And not just in gold: copper and other metals markets are booming thanks to China's barely-visible hand.

Speculation has gathered speed over the last year, since the tumbling dollar has threatened to weaken China's buying power - and give it yet more reason to diversify into gold, oil and metals.
Story Here

This is not a recovery turmoil will get MUCH WORSE!

Contrary to surface appearances such as the recent stock market rally and "glowing" first quarter profitability statements from certain Wall Street banks, multipronged risks for renewed, considerable turmoil in the US financial sector are mounting.

The recent six-week rally on Wall Street, led mostly by banking and other financial shares, isn't based on any concrete turnaround in the deeply worrying fundamentals of the financial sector.

Instead, it is based largely on the fact that the new administration has trotted out into public view multiple and very large government programs aimed at cleansing the banks' balance sheets of huge sums of toxic assets, unlocking the persistently seized credit markets, stemming the swiftly mounting foreclosure rate, creating jobs, and otherwise stimulating an early economic revival.

None of these aims and goals has been accomplished yet, not even in part, but investors were heartened by the raft of government programs that has been announced, and they have responded by bidding up banking and other shares on Wall Street, hoping that the bottom of the crisis in the financial sector has already been reached.

However, that bottom hasn't been reached, and is still nowhere in sight, despite the recent quarterly profit reports by a few of the largest US banks. It should come as no surprise that Wall Street financial institutions that have been in receipt of massive sums of bailout money and have been targeted by varied "liquidity" operations from the government are suddenly able to report a "profit".

Additionally, much of the "profit" reported for the first quarter resulted from one-off events that have little or no chance of seeing a repeat. In these most recent quarterly statements, the accounting and reporting methods have been altered so as to put a better face on their operations and fiscal position. Their already notoriously "fuzzy" math, which permitted banks to arbitrarily designate which assets are included in their profit statements and which ones are not, now also conveniently permits them to arbitrarily decide which losses are "temporary" and can be excluded from the statement altogether. Consequently, "fuzzy" has now gotten even fuzzier. Why? And, why now?
More HERE

How serious can this financial collapse get?

It’s time to call the global crisis what it is: the worst financial collapse since 1929. That’s no surprise to our readers, who have been amply warned over the last five years. But now even government officials, after trying to ignore the facts on the ground for the last couple of years, are admitting the truth of the matter.

Now that it’s here, we turn our attention to trying to discern, “How bad can it get?” and “How long can it last?”

While such questions can never be answered with anything approaching absolute certainty, there are methods that can be used to assess what may lurk over the horizon. With that goal in mind, this article focuses on – and then expands upon – the recent work of two economists who painstakingly analyzed a substantial number of previous banking and currency crises in an attempt to derive potentially useful lessons. I have then taken their data and applied them to the current circumstances to see where we are, relative to those other experiences.

The Data

The data are from a study called “The Aftermath of Financial Crises” by Carmen M. Reinhart of University of Maryland and Kenneth S. Rogoff of Harvard University. In their study, the authors summarize the results of a broad sampling of banking crises, with between 13 to 22 crises analyzed for each of the variables.

The Reinhart/Rogoff study is based, in turn, on data extracted from an even more comprehensive study of events in 66 countries, titled “This Time Is Different: A Panoramic View of Eight Centuries of Financial Crises,” by the same authors.
Link

Bubbles do not come back-You should be buying GOLD and SILVER

NOTE: It took 29 years for SILVER and GOLD prices to hit the prices of today. You honestly believe housing or the DOW will come back in the near future? Take a look:
John Carney and Charles Hugh Smith|Apr. 23, 2009, 12:11 PM|4

Our summary of Charles Hugh Smith's critique of the idea that we should be looking for a a recovery in the housing market to bubble valuations to "restart the economy" generated a lot of controversy. We're not sure the summary did justice to Smith's argument. With his permission, we give you his entire essay here. For more from Smith, go to his provocative website, OfTwoMinds.

The entire world is hoping that housing is about to "recover" and re-ascend its glorious bubble-era heights of valuation. But it's not going to happen.

Why not? For several fundamental reasons:

1. Bubbles do not re-inflate in the asset class which just popped. It is simply a truism that bubbles never reflate, ever. Tulip bulb valuations did not rise to stratospheric heights after the Tulip Craze popped, and the Nasdaq dot-com bubble did not reinflate, either, for the very good reason that bubbles are never based on rational valuations--they are based on the psychological state of mania which cannot be reinstated once lost.

Consider tech stock Cisco Systems (CSCO), a well-managed "real company" which continues to make profits providing real-world goods and services. It currently trades at around $17.50 a share, down from its dot-com bubble valuation of about $81/share.

To "recover" its bubble-era valuation, Cisco would have to rise five-fold. That's not going to happen. Now that the mania has dissipated, Cisco is valued on more rational metrics like earnings, profits, etc.

The speculative mania always moves on to a new asset class. After the dot-com bubble popped, the speculative bubble moved on to housing. Now that the housing bubble has popped, the mania has moved to the bond market. When the bond bubble bursts (it's guaranteed that it will in the next two years, losing 50% or more in the process) then the only asset class which hasn't already been blown into a bubble is precious metals/gold.

In other words: those wishing to catch the next speculative mania should be buying gold and silver, not stocks, housing or bonds.
Link

Its OFFICIAL GM to DEFAULT. US Treasuries at Tipping point and its END GAME NOW!

This was only a matter of time. Everyone from inside and outside GM assumed that the company would default on its debt and likely go bankrupt barring some miracle.
But now it's official. The company's CFO says the firm will not make its June 1, $1 billion debt payment reports WSJ. (Link)

The announcement comes as smaller rival Chrysler appears headed for liquidiation.

GM shutting plant for the summer:
Plant Closures
Dealer Jobs Vanish as GM, Chrysler Bankruptcies Loom
Link
Tipping point for US TREASURIES:
Link

Federal Borrowing Quadruples
The collapse in tax revenues is far surpassing anyone's worst expectations.
Between the shrinking economy, the widespread asset deflation and the elimination of so many of the highest-paying jobs, there just isn't much of a tax base to support all the government spending that's planned.
Link
This is the Beginning of END GAME
Soaring U.S. Budget Deficit Will Mean Billions in Bond Sales
Millions of lost jobs mean billions in lost tax revenue for the U.S. government, and billions in additional Treasury debt to fund a federal budget deficit that may soar to more than four times last year’s record $454.7 billion.
Link

Housing Bubble: Bigger Crash Ahead

Due to the lifting of the foreclosure moratorium at the end of March, the downward slide in housing is gaining speed. The moratorium was initiated in January to give Obama's anti-foreclosure program---which is a combination of mortgage modifications and refinancing---a chance to succeed. The goal of the plan was to keep up to 9 million struggling homeowners in their homes, but it's clear now that the program will fall well-short of its objective.

In March, housing prices accelerated on the downside indicating bigger adjustments dead-ahead. Trend-lines are steeper now than ever before--nearly perpendicular. Housing prices are not falling, they're crashing and crashing hard. Now that the foreclosure moratorium has ended, Notices of Default (NOD) have spiked to an all-time high. These Notices will turn into foreclosures in 4 to 5 months time creating another cascade of foreclosures. Market analysts predict there will be 5 MILLION MORE FORECLOSURES BETWEEN NOW AND 2011. It's a disaster bigger than Katrina. Soaring unemployment and rising foreclosures ensure that hundreds of banks and financial institutions will be forced into bankruptcy. 40 percent of delinquent homeowners have already vacated their homes. There's nothing Obama can do to make them stay. Worse still, only 30 percent of foreclosures have been relisted for sale suggesting more hanky-panky at the banks. Where have the houses gone? Have they simply vanished?

600,000 "DISAPPEARED HOMES?"

Here's a excerpt from the SF Gate explaining the mystery:

"Lenders nationwide are sitting on hundreds of thousands of foreclosed homes that they have not resold or listed for sale, according to numerous data sources. And foreclosures, which banks unload at fire-sale prices, are a major factor driving home values down.

"We believe there are in the neighborhood of 600,000 properties nationwide that banks have repossessed but not put on the market," said Rick Sharga, vice president of RealtyTrac, which compiles nationwide statistics on foreclosures. "California probably represents 80,000 of those homes. It could be disastrous if the banks suddenly flooded the market with those distressed properties. You'd have further depreciation and carnage."

In a recent study, RealtyTrac compared its database of bank-repossessed homes to MLS listings of for-sale homes in four states, including California. It found a significant disparity - only 30 percent of the foreclosures were listed for sale in the Multiple Listing Service. The remainder is known in the industry as "shadow inventory." ("Banks aren't Selling Many Foreclosed Homes" SF Gate)

If regulators were deployed to the banks that are keeping foreclosed homes off the market, they would probably find that the banks are actually servicing the mortgages on a monthly basis to conceal the extent of their losses. They'd also find that the banks are trying to keep housing prices artificially high to avoid heftier losses that would put them out of business. One thing is certain, 600,000 "disappeared" homes means that housing prices have a lot farther to fall and that an even larger segment of the banking system is underwater.

Here is more on the story from Mr. Mortgage "California Foreclosures About to Soar...Again"

"Are you ready to see the future? Ten’s of thousands of foreclosures are only 1-5 months away from hitting that will take total foreclosure counts back to all-time highs. This will flood an already beaten-bloody real estate market with even more supply just in time for the Spring/Summer home selling season...Foreclosure start (NOD) and Trustee Sale (NTS) notices are going out at levels not seen since mid 2008. Once an NTS goes out, the property is taken to the courthouse and auctioned within 21-45 days....The bottom line is that there is a massive wave of actual foreclosures that will hit beginning in April that can’t be stopped without a national moratorium."

Link
T.H. Properties, a BUILDER 100 firm that had projected closing 350 homes in 2009, abruptly shut its doors yesterday, leaving buyers wondering about the status of pending settlements and deposits.
Link

The Collapse is Coming

Exact dates of collapse are impossible to predict. But one of the best known facts about empires is that they do collapse. No exceptions. ~ Dmitri Davydov

The best sign at my hometown "tea party" was a giant banner that spelled out in huge letters: $12,000,000,000,000. It took at least ten people standing in a long line along the highway to hold it.

The 12 trillion number is new federal obligations assumed since the economy began to unravel in 2008. It's enough money to pay off nearly every home mortgage in America .

Here's another number for you: $101 trillion.

That's the amount of unfunded Medicare and Social Security liabilities going forward through the end of the boomer retirement (1).

Well before the economic crisis was in full swing, Russian blogger Dmitri Davydov put together a presentation about the similarities between the USA now and the USSR as it neared its end. Here were three distinct similarities he cited:

1. Out of control military budgets.
2. Unsustainable deficits and foreign debt.
3. A balky, unresponsive, corrupt political system, incapable of reform.

I'd add two more parallels between the USA now and the Soviet Union then.

4. Rampant government interference in the market economy, causing tremendous pricing and investment errors.

5. A shockingly expensive, unwinnable war in Afghanistan .

Link

Economic Cliff Dive-By Charts

Economic Cliff Diving - By the Charts…
The following charts, most of which come to you courtesy of the St. Louis Fed, paint a picture of the current economy that is very unstable at its base. Their “heroic efforts” to re-establish growth and inflation are simply not taking root as of yet.

Try as the Fed, the Treasury, and G20 might, as of yet they are simply peeing into the wind. The collapse of credit and wealth is simply happening much more quickly and powerfully than their reinflation efforts.

While you look out into the future and see that their actions are intended to be inflationary, keep in mind that timing is everything. We had an unprecedented period of inflation already, but we are now correcting the massive malinvestments that were created over years of abuse. Yes, the government actions are unprecedented in scale. They are attempting to reignite their ideal of nirvana which is never ending growth. As you know, if you’ve ever Spent Time with the Good Dr. Bartlett, never ending growth is mathematically IMPOSSIBLE.

In school we learn that curves generally come in the shape of a bell. In fact, in statistical analysis they teach a standard model that all you statistics students might remember is represented by the charts below:

HERE

Roubini: Its a BEAR MARKET RALLY-Some banks are Insolvent

(snippet)
Given this outlook for the real economy and financial institutions, the latest rally in US and global stock markets has to be interpreted as a bear-market rally. Economists usually joke that the stock market has predicted 12 out of the last nine recessions, as markets often fall sharply without an ensuing recession.

But, in the last two years, the stock market has predicted six out of the last zero economic recoveries -- that is, six bear market rallies that eventually fizzled and led to new lows.

The stock market's latest 'dead cat bounce' may last a while longer, but three factors will, in due course, lead it to turn south again. First, macroeconomic indicators will be worse than expected, with growth failing to recover as fast as the consensus expects.

Second, the profits and earnings of corporations and financial institutions will not rebound as fast as the consensus predicts, as weak economic growth, deflationary pressures and surging defaults on corporate bonds will limit firms' pricing power and keep profit margins low.

Third, financial shocks will be worse than expected.

At some point, investors will realise that bank losses are massive, and that some banks are insolvent. Deleveraging by highly leveraged firms -- such as hedge funds -- will lead them to sell illiquid assets in illiquid markets. And some emerging market economies -- despite massive IMF support -- will experience a severe financial crisis with contagious effects on other economies.
Link

Stress Test Results published by BLOG-Treasury Department running scared! GET YOUR MONEY OUT OF YOUR BANK

Last night Hal Turner (who has a reputation that is best described as heavily-adorned with Reynolds Wrap) published this: Link

The Turner Radio Network has obtained "stress test" results for the top 19 Banks in the USA.

....

1) Of the top nineteen (19) banks in the nation, sixteen (16) are already technically insolvent.

2) Of the 16 banks that are already technically insolvent, not even one can withstand any disruption of cash flow at all or any further deterioration in non-paying loans.

3) If any two of the 16 insolvent banks go under, they will totally wipe out all remaining FDIC insurance funding.

4) Of the top 19 banks in the nation, the top five (5) largest banks are under capitalized so dangerously, there is serious doubt about their ability to continue as ongoing businesses.

He then goes on to list things that we know to be factual, including derivatives exposure (mostly in interest-rate swaps and similar.)

This appears to have led to Treasury issuing the following statement this morning:

The U.S. Treasury Department has not yet received the results of "stress tests'' on the health of the nation's 19 top banks, spokesman Andrew Williams said Monday, after a blog said it had obtained the test results and some U.S. bank shares moved lower.

That's a lie.

How do we know its a lie?

Because of this from April 10th:

April 10 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Federal Reserve has told Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc. and other banks to keep mum on the results of “stress tests” that will gauge their ability to weather the recession, people familiar with the matter said.

The Fed wants to ensure that the report cards don’t leak during earnings conference calls scheduled for this month. Such a scenario might push stock prices lower for banks perceived as weak and interfere with the government’s plan to release the results in an orderly fashion later this month.

How can you be ordered not to release something you don't have?

Since that was published on the 10th of April, we therefore know that the results exist and Treasury, the banks involved and The Fed have them, as The Fed was concerned that some banks might try to use them (perhaps in a misleading fashion) during their first quarter conference calls and earnings releases.

Sorry guys, but whether Hal Turner has the real results or not is no longer material. What's material is the claim that Treasury doesn't have them, since they told the banks on the 10th not to release them, and you can't release what you don't have.

The problem with lying is that eventually you forget your previous lies and thus get caught when you contradict yourself.
Link

Hal Turner Blog gets a call minutes ago from the SEC regarding this "document".
LINK

Looks like this document has come from here, I had already posted this weeks ago on this blog:
ORIGINAL LINK

More info HERE on the Banks MASSIVE losses
Link

12 Major Companies that will be GONE

A number of well-known brands disappeared in the last year in large part due to economic forces. Many of them were in the retail industry, led by Circuit City. ATA and Aloha airlines are gone. Gateway Computers has effectively disappeared after being bought by Acer. It still has a website, but the brand is no longer marketed.

As the recession deepens and stretches out quarter after quarter, more companies will close or will shut divisions. More brands will disappear because their parents firms fold or can no longer afford to support them. Other brands will be obliterated by mergers.

24/7 Wall St. examined 100 large brands that are facing troubled futures. The analysis included records for those brands that are public companies or part of public companies. We considered sales information, information from industry experts, and brand histories. We also looked at the level of competition in each brand’s market and the extent to which that competition is growing. We examined the likelihood that a brand could be sold or spun off in cases where parent companies are in financial trouble.

We have compiled a list of 12 brands that will we believe will not survive until the end of next year. Each brand and the major reasons for its demise are listed along with some of the public information 24/7 Wall St. examined.

1. Avis/Budget (CAR) operates two car rental businesses.
2. Borders (BGP) has struggled for several years as the No.2 operator of book store behind Barnes & Noble
3. Crocs (CROX) sold the fastest growing footwear in America at one point. In late 2007, the company’s shares traded at more than $72. Now they change hands at well below $2.
4. Saturn was created by former GM (GM) CEO Roger Smith
5. Esquire Magazine is published by Hearst which is having substantial problems in both its newspaper and magazine divisions.
6. Gap (GAP) Old Navy and Banana Republic. Gap is a three-brand company living in a two-brand body.
7. Architectural Digest Magazine has lost 47% of its ad pages this year. The magazine is owned by Conde Nast.
8. The Chrysler brand of Chrysler LLC faces a problem similar to the one that GM faces with its weakest brands. As it moves closer to bankruptcy..
9. Eddie Bauer (EBHI) stock trades at $.38 now. Just last September it changed hands at more than $8.
10. Palm (PALM) has been at death’s door for some time..
11. AIG (AIG) may be the only large company in America that both the management and federal government want torn apart.
12. The travel industry has been so badly damaged by the economy that the airline industry faces substantial overcapacity.
Link

Greatest Economic and Banking Crisis since the 1930s will Occur Between 2010 and 2012

( Snippet)
Dent concludes by saying "If you thought 2008 was scary, 2010 to 2012 will be the greatest economic and banking crisis since the 1930s. You must be prepared in advance to survive this most difficult season. Do not accept the proposition that you cannot, or should not, take steps to guard against losses. As an investor, it is your money, your future, and your responsibility to protect yourself in the best way possible and there will be the greatest reward for those who do prepare during this once-in-a-lifetime 'great sale' in financial assets."

How Best to Invest and Prosper during the Tumultuous Times Ahead (according to Dent)

1. Early to mid 2009:
a) Sell stocks, except commodity and energy sectors.
b) Allocate between commodities and T-bills or money markets and /or safe currencies.

2. Late 2009 to mid-2010:
a) Sell commodities and commodities and energy stocks.
b) Allocate 100% to T-bills or money markets and safe currencies.

3. Mid- to late 2010:
Start to allocate to 30-year Treasury bonds only after their yield begins to spike.

4. Late 2010 to mid- 2011:
a) Allocate to 20-year corporate bonds when yields go to extremes.
b) More conservative investors should focus on AAA corporate, more aggressive investors toward BAA.
c) All investors must recognize, however, that even high-quality bonds will be in question as to their viability, given that the downturn between mid-2009 and 2012 is anticipated to be more extreme than anything we have seen since the early 1930s, mid-1970s, or early 1980s.

5. Mid-2011 to mid-2012:
Allocate to long-term municipal bonds when yields seem to be peaking (high-tax-bracket investors).

6. Mid- to late 2012:
a) Aggressive/growth investors: allocate majority into Asian stocks and lesser into U.S. multinational, technology and health care, with minor allocation in long-term corporate, Treasury, or municipal bonds.
b) Conservative investors: focus largely on 10- to 30-year Treasuries and 20-year corporate AAA bonds, with minor allocations in multinational, health-care, and Japanese stocks.

7. Late 2011 to early 2015:
Look for selected opportunities in real estate (small condos and starter homes early on; vacation and retirement homes later; trade-up homes by 2015).

8. Mid- to late 2014:
Aggressive/growth investors: allocate more to leading stock sectors such as China, India, health care, multinational, technology, and financials on a likely short-term correction between late 2013 and late 2014.

9. Early to mid-2017:
a) Sell stocks in all sectors.
b) Convert largely back into long-term bonds and, to a lesser degree, into T-bills or money markets.
U.S. Treasury Sales Could Collapse Leading to End of U.S. Dollar as Reserve Currency
Much More HERE

Why a 50% Drop in Housing Is Not the Bottom

The psychology behind the idea that a 50% reduction in bubble-era housing prices constitutes a "bargain" is flawed for a number of reasons.
I recently saw a few minutes of a Nightly Business Report program on PBS in which a Florida broker was observing that homes which once commanded $350,000 at the bubble top were selling briskly now at $169,000 to investors from every part of the globe.

In other words: "These homes are half off! They're screaming bargains! They can't get any cheaper than this!"

The psychology behind this euphoria is accessible to us all. It's easy to forget where housing prices were before the bubble and focus instead on how much they've dropped from the bubble peak. The same is true in any bubble, be it collectables, real estate, stocks, or tulip bulbs.

But valuation realities have no relation to bubble top pricing. Thus we should ground our analysis of housing valuations and what constitutes a "bottom" in metrics other than "it's 50% off it's top price."

Let's start by considering just how high the bubble took housing valuations:
Can a 10-year bubble reach this "ultimate bottom" in a mere two years? History suggests not.

Then there's the preponderance of other evidence that the underpinnings of the housing bubble have irrevocably shifted. Let's review some charts:

Link

More with Martin Armstrong:
HERE

The Dollar Bubble is reaching its final stages

(Snippet)
Soon food prices will begin rising, as the world is headed for a Catastrophic Fall in 2009 Global Food Production. Weather and credit conditions are causing falling production around the globe, and the world’s three biggest grain producers are all headed for big shortfalls. In India, torrential rains have devastated wheat crops, while in the US drought and freeze have damaged winter wheat. Meanwhile, Northern China was hit by worst drought in 50 years, and Chinese authorities have ordered three-month, nationwide audit of grain stocks as they are obviously very worried about whether China’s grain reserves actually exist.

Inflation in food commodities will push up gold demand cause manipulation efforts to break down. Already, the NYSE has runs out of 1 kg gold bars, and default on COMEX gold contracts is a month or two away. The collapse of paper gold (futures, unallocated gold, GLD, etc…) would destroy what is left of confidence in the US financial system, starting a panic out of the dollar.

Lesson learned from the financial crisis

The truth of this world is that those, who, through stupidity, greed, and fraud, dig themselves into a hole, will keep digging deeper until they hit bedrock and run out of options. This is what happened with Bernard Madoff: he must have known for years his ponzi scheme was doomed to collapse, but he kept it going until he was down to his last 140 million. The United States, like Bernard Madoff, has for years been digging itself into a hole, and the fed's use of currency swaps to boost the dollar is the final part of this process. Unfortunately, the US, like Madoff, is about to hit bedrock.
Link

IMF warns: This is like the Great Depression

The International Monetary Fund has warned of "worrisome parallels" between the current global crisis and the Great Depression, despite the unprecedented steps already taken by central banks and governments worldwide.

This recession is likely to be "unusually long and severe, and the recovery sluggish," said the Fund, releasing two advance chapters from its World Economic Outlook. However, it warned there is a risk that it could spiral down into a full-blown slump unless further action is taken to stop "feedback effects" gathering force.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the IMF, said millions of people risk being pushed back into poverty as the economic storm ravages the most vulnerable countries. "The human consequences could be absolutely devastating. This is a truly global crisis, and nobody is escaping," he said.

"The free-fall in the global economy may be starting to abate, with a recovery emerging in 2010, but this depends crucially on the right policies being adopted today."
Mr Strauss-Kahn called for a urgent action to "cleanse banks" of toxic assets and for further fiscal stimulus beyond the 2pc of global GDP already agreed. The snag is that high-debt countries may have hit the limits already.
"The impact becomes negative for debt levels that exceed 60pc of GDP," said the Fund.
While no countries were named, this would raise questions about Japan, Germany, France, Italy and ultimately Britain and the US after their bank rescues.

Link
Headlines Today:
Mexico granted $47bn IMF credit
IMF agrees new loan for Ukraine
Sony Ericsson to cut 2,000 jobs
Toshiba to cut 3,900 more posts
Gem producer Botswana cuts output

The international monetary system’s breakdown is underway

The next stage of the crisis will result from a Chinese dream. Indeed, what on earth can China be dreaming of, caught – if we listen to Washington – in the “dollar trap” of its 1,400-billion worth of USD-denominated debt (1)? If we believe US leaders and their scores of media experts, China is only dreaming of remaining a prisoner, and even of intensifying the severity of its prison conditions by buying always more US T-Bonds and Dollars (2).

In fact, everyone knows what prisoners dream of? They dream of escaping of course, of getting out of prison. LEAP/E2020 has therefore no doubt that Beijing is now (3) constantly striving to find the means of disposing of, as early as possible, the mountain of « toxic » assets which US Treasuries and Dollars have become, keeping the wealth of 1,300 billion Chinese citizens (4) prisoner. In this issue of the GEAB (N°34), our team describes the “tunnels and galleries” Beijing has secretively begun to dig in the global financial and economic system in order to escape the « dollar trap » by the end of summer 2009. Once the US has defaulted on its debt, it will be time for the « everyman for himself » rule to prevail in the international system, in line with the final statement of the London G20 Summit which reads as a « chronicle of a geopolitical dislocation », as explained by LEAP/E2020 in this issue of the Global Europe Anticipation Bulletin.

Snippet:
Finally, our team gives recommendations on how to prepare for the crisis in the coming months, with particular regard to savings and life-insurance.
LINK

The Much Much Greater Depression

Unfavorable forecasts in the years to come, deficits set to increase, the devastating impact the inane bailouts, failing production and tanking consumer spending will have on our economy, a toxic asset sale wont fix the world economy
Barack Romulus Augustulus Obama claims that his Administration will end the budget deficits by the end of his first, and hopefully last, term in office. Our peerless leader's projections are based on an average GDP of 2.6%, while Congress disagrees, using an average GDP of 2.2%, in their budget forecasts for what will be the next wildly excruciating four years. Would these be the projections for the US Economy, or are they for Never, Never Land, or for the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland? Perhaps Tinker Bell can sprinkle some fairy dust on our economy to make these phantasms come true. What kind of utterly preposterous poppycock will the Illuminati come up with next? It appears that the Puppet Masters, their Wall Street henchmen and their US government flunkies have now added crack-smoking to their usual Satanic rituals and occult New Age meditations as they fire up the Goldilocks Matrix for another round.
Snippet:
After they have impoverished you with hyper-stagflation to save themselves and their criminal institutions, the Illuminati will then tax you to death to pay for the mountain of deficits created by Emperor Romulus Augustulus, who now bosses our business leaders around like the Marxist dictator he really is, to fund all the gargantuan stimulus packages that will have provided little or no stimulation as the Much, Much Greater Depression marches on. Then come the forced labor camps to help depopulate the growing tent cities as the Illuminati attempt to finalize their plans for a corporatist, fascist Big Brother police state. Buy gold, or get reamed.
Link

Accounting for the Rothschild Wealth and Influence:
Morton (1962) noted that the Rothschild wealth was estimated at over $6 billion US in 1850. Not a significant amount in today's dollars; however, consider the potential future value compounded over 147 years!

Taking $6 billion (and assuming no erosion of the wealth base) and compounding that figure at various returns on investment (a conservative range of 4% to 8%) would suggest the following net worth of the Rothschild family enterprise:


$1.9 trillion US (@ 4%)
$7.8 trillion US (@ 5%)
$31.5 trillion US (@ 6%)
$125,189.1 trillion US (@ 7%)
$491,409.0 trillion US (@ 8%)



To give these figures some perspective consider these benchmarks:

A little of $300 billion US buys every ounce of gold in every central bank in the world
U.S. M3 money supply August 1997 was $5.2 trillion
U.S. debt is currently $5.4 trillion.
U.S. GDP (1997; 2nd Q.) is $8.03 trillion.
George Soros' empire is worth an estimated $20 billion.

Martin Armstrong-Economist- taking the Internet by Storm-FROM BEHIND BARS!
Link

Foreclosures 46% higher in March than a year ago-It Gets Worse

The number of homeowners facing foreclosure surged in March as lenders lifted temporary moratoriums and resumed legal actions against delinquent mortgage payers.

Foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 341,180 properties in March, 46% more than a year ago and 17% above February's total, RealtyTrac reports today.
Link

Banking recovery illusory or fleeting?

The supply of foreclosed homes & foreclosure properties will probably depress home prices more & negatively impact bank earnings as more house foreclosures are written off. If the banks lose more money we can say goodbye to the 25% gain in the stock market. Some are even saying that the stock market crash of 1929 will be considered a walk in the park to what we might face.
Link


General Growth Files Biggest U.S. Property Bankruptcy

April 16 (Bloomberg) -- General Growth Properties Inc. filed the biggest real estate bankruptcy in U.S. history after amassing $27 billion in debt during an acquisition spree that turned it into the second-largest shopping mall owner.

The owner of Boston’s Faneuil Hall and the South Street Seaport in New York City ended a seven-month effort today to refinance its debt. The company listed $29.5 billion in assets and debts of about $27.3 billion in the Chapter 11 filing. General Growth will continue operating its more than 200 properties.

Something VERY BAD may happen this weekend according to Analyst

27 February 2007 is not a date that stands out. It is not indelibly imprinted on the minds of millions; it does not carry the pain or notoriety of 9-11; unlike 'Black Wednesday', it has not been nicknamed Nor, like 31 August 1997, The Day Diana Died, did it send a nation into mourning.

Yet the repercussions of this day are, quite simply, enormous. They may be felt for decades, and possibly mark the beginning of the next Great Depression. For this was the day the greatest credit bubble in history peaked and popped.

And one man predicted this turn as far back as the 1970s. He is Martin Armstrong.

What's more, another one of his turn dates is coming this weekend …
Link

Note according to his mathematical summary the actual date is April 23 2009
Link

Tons of Bad News for this Coming Depression-This is a Recovery?

Note: This guy on the left has lost more money in 4 days for his viewers than any other "analyst"! He should be cancelled.

UBS to Post Loss, Cut Jobs
UBS said it expects to report a first-quarter net loss of nearly $1.76 billion and will cut more than 11% of its work force to reduce costs.
Link

Fiat May Walk Away From Chrysler Deal if Unions Don't Accept Cuts
Fiat's CEO has warned that the Italian car maker could walk away from a potential alliance with Chrysler if American and Canadian unions don't agree to significant pay cuts.

Link

AMR's Loss Widens as Demand Drop Hurts American Airlines
AMR Corp.'s first-quarter net loss widened as the slumping economy depressed demand and took a toll on the American Airlines parent.
AMR posted a net loss of $375 million, or $1.35 a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $341 million, or $1.37 a share.
Link

Capital One Sees Spike in Credit-Card Loan Losses
EW YORK -- A sharp increase in credit-card loan losses at Capital One Financial Corp. does not bode well for Bank of America Corp. and other big consumer lenders
Link

Why Our Credit Crunch Mirrors the Weimar Hyperinflation from 1919-1923
Link

Celente Calls For 'Revolution' As The Only Solution
KINGSTON, NY -- Taxed to death, angry at government bailouts, outraged by Wall Street greed, and bitterly resentful of a system that rewards the undeserving rich, the American public is ready to revolt.
Link

Sales-Tax Revenue Falls at Fastest Pace in Years
State and local sales-tax revenue fell more sharply in the fourth quarter of 2008 than at any time in the past half century, and has continued to erode through the beginning of 2009, according to a report released Tuesday.
Link

Jim Cramer Destroyed Investors Wealth in just 4 days!
Link

Don't forget it's TAX Day Today REVOLT!
Link

Los Angeles Board of Education to Lay of 5400
Link

Nurse Called out of Surgery to be LAID OFF!

MADISON, Wis. — A Dean Health System nurse was called out of surgery so a manager could tell her she was being laid off.

Dean Health says the surgery was minor and the patient wasn't affected, but the manager who summoned the nurse from surgery violated medical protocol.

Dean Health spokesman Paul Pitas says the incident happened at Dean's West Clinic in Madison on Wednesday or Thursday.

The Madison-based health care provider announced Wednesday that it planned to "immediately" lay off 90 employees.

Pitas declined to name the employees involved or what type of surgery the nurse was attending when she was called away.

Link

The Illusions of the celebrated RECOVERY-A Depression is Coming

A month-long upturn in the stock market has sparked a round of optimistic media commentaries and statements by Obama administration officials suggesting that the US economy is on the road to recovery. But any serious examination of the state of both the financial system and the broader economy suggests that such celebrations are unwarranted.
• Factory orders have fallen so rapidly that US manufacturers are using less than 68 percent of capacity, the lowest level since records began in 1948.
• March saw 35 corporations default on bond payments, the largest monthly total since the Great Depression, according to Moody’s. The default rate has shot up from 1.5 percent a year ago to 7 percent, and will reach 14.6 percent by the fourth quarter, the rating service said.
• Bloomberg News forecasted that corporate profits for the first quarter will fall 37 percent, the seventh consecutive quarterly decline, the worst since the 1930s.
• As measured by the market for credit default swaps, investors have been making large bets that Citigroup and Bank America will collapse. Similar bets were seen before the liquidation of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers last year.
• World trade is shrinking more rapidly than during the plunge of 1929-30 according to a paper published this week by economists Barry Eichengreen of the University of California and Kevin O’Rourke of Ireland’s Trinity College.
The deepening crisis is demonstrated above all in its effects on jobs and living standards for the working class:
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 24 million workers, 15.6 percent of the labor force, are either unemployed or working only part-time when they want full-time work. This is an increase of 10 million workers in barely a year.
• Forty percent of US companies said they plan to freeze or cut salaries this year, according to a survey reported by Reuters April 7.
• Companies have cut back in five employee benefit areas, including 401(k) matches and tuition reimbursement, according to a report in USA Today.
• The average 401(k) account plunged in value by 27 percent in 2008, according to the huge Fidelity Investments mutual fund.
• Personal bankruptcy filings are up 38 percent compared with a year earlier, according to Mike Bickford, president of Automated Access to Court Electronic Records, a bankruptcy data and management company. In all, 130,793 people filed for bankruptcy in March.
Link

Is Texas the First State to declare Sovereignty?
Link

Large Bank Failure in the works. Is your money Insured?

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (MarketWatch) -- The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is gearing up for the prospect of a large bank failure. So double-check that all your deposits, including interest, are well within FDIC insurance limits.
The agency seeks comment by April 14 on a proposed rule designed to help it make a quick insurance determination amid an increasingly complex quagmire of FDIC rules and tough-to-figure-out bank accounts.


One section would place a provisional hold on a fraction - say, 10% or so -- of certain account balances at some 159 of the nation's largest banks. The hold could affect some accounts with balances under $100,000.
If you have uninsured deposits at a bank, should you worry? Possibly. Depositors without FDIC coverage lost money in at least two recent failures -- NetBank, Alpharetta, Ga., and Miami Valley Bank, Lakeview, Ohio.
Of $109 million in uninsured deposits at NetBank, nearly 30% has not yet been reimbursed. Of $14 million in uninsured funds at Miami Valley, only 5.9% of uninsured funds, so far, has been reimbursed. All deposits in the most recent failure -- Douglass National Bank, Kansas City, Mo. -- have been reimbursed.
Fortunately, FDIC insurance limits have increased on certain accounts in recent years. Certain retirement accounts, for example, now are insured to $250,000, up from $100,000 per person.
Link

Pentagon Preparing for Economic Warfare, but are Admitting Defeat

The Pentagon sponsored a first-of-its-kind war game last month focused not on bullets and bombs — but on how hostile nations might seek to cripple the U.S. economy, a scenario made all the more real by the global financial crisis.

The two-day event near Ft. Meade, Maryland, had all the earmarks of a regular war game. Participants sat along a V-shaped set of desks beneath an enormous wall of video monitors displaying economic data, according to the accounts of three participants.

“It felt a little bit like Dr. Strangelove,” one person who was at the previously undisclosed exercise told POLITICO.

But instead of military brass plotting America’s defense, it was hedge-fund managers, professors and executives from at least one investment bank, UBS – all invited by the Pentagon to play out global scenarios that could shift the balance of power between the world’s leading economies.

Their efforts were carefully observed and recorded by uniformed military officers and members of the U.S. intelligence community.

In the end, there was sobering news for the United States – the savviest economic warrior proved to be China, a growing economic power that strengthened its position the most over the course of the war-game.

The United States remained the world’s largest economy but significantly degraded its standing in a series of financial skirmishes with Russia, participants said.

Link

How bad are things in Britain? The Church is praying

Britain's boom now a bust
ANDREW WINNING/REUTERS FILE PHOTO
Angry workers protesting the use of foreign labour on job sites are common these days in Britain, where one in 10 workers will find themselves out of a job this year. With house prices and trade in sharp decline, the British are facing what some call the worst business conditions in a century.

Rising unemployment and falling house prices inspire new prayers from Church of England
Apr 11, 2009 08:05 AM
Les Whittington
STAFF REPORTER

LONDON–How bad are things in Britain?

Not long ago, the Church of England put out two new prayers to provide solace for those who have been laid off. "Hear me as I cry out in confusion" is a line from the "Prayer on Being Made Redundant" offered to the country's two million unemployed.

Even the Girl Guides have published advice on how to cope with the economic situation: "Don't rely on the bank of mum and dad – everyone's cutting costs," was one tip.

And, desperate to move autos, an online car broker based in Essex recently stunned the industry with this extraordinary offer: Buy one Dodge Avenger for $36,000 (U.S.) – and get another one free.

With once high-flying bankers now beholden to government for survival, house prices in free fall and the traditional economic mainstay of trade in decline, the British are facing what some call the worst business conditions in a century.

"This didn't come out of the blue, it was certainly on the radar screen," observes Thomas Mayer, Deutsche Bank's chief European economist in London.

"We envisaged all sorts of corrections. We worried about a dollar crash, we worried about housing market crashes, we even worried about the overvaluation of credit.

"But that everything would come together to create a perfect storm, I think very few people had that on their screen."

And there's no clear idea how, or when, the situation will right itself.

The country slipped into a recession in the fourth quarter of 2008, with the economy contracting by 1.6 per cent, the worst performance in nearly three decades.

Factories saw the biggest drop in production since 1974, when strikes by coal miners forced the government to dictate a three-day work week.

For 2009 as a whole, economic growth is expected to be negative 3.7 per cent as Britain feels the impact of a deepening global recession.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling admitted this week that he underestimated the extent of the country's economic troubles when he said last year that a recovery would begin in the second half of 2009.
link
Drunken Brits Killing each other
Link

Fleecing of America by the OBAMA'S-People Starve they Party

Saturday, April 11, 2009
Obama's pizza party

How many chefs does this man need?

When you're the president of the United States, only the best pizza will do - even if that means flying a chef 860 miles.

Chris Sommers, 33, jetted into Washington from St Louis, Missouri, on Thursday with a suitcase of dough, cheese and pans to to prepare food for the Obamas and their staff.

He had apparently been handpicked after the President had tasted his pizzas on the campaign trail last autumn.

There's something wrong with this. Maybe I'm just irritable after our Good Friday observances at the thought of all that pizza. And what do I know -- I like Domino's.

DBKP calls Obama our "Elitist in Chief" and, commenting on the accompanying photo, says this:

Damn. That looks like cucumber. Or maybe the dreaded zucchini. Pizza for a panty waist. At our expense. Obama already has the largest kitchen staff in the history of the White House. But that is not enough for this party animal. Likely the beer will be imported. America simply is not good enough for this guy.

RedState does the extravagant Obamas justice and includes this perfect Michello O quote:

“The truth is, in order to get things like universal health care and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more.”

Gak. And Michelle Malkin covers the eco-pocrisy angle, as does Ace of Spades and Motor City Times.

He's alienating Chicago, now, too. You'd think, being from Chicago (kinda), and it being one of the pizza capitals of the world (Giordano's!) he'd want to get his upscale pizza from there. But he hand-tosses them under the bus and goes with pizza from rival city St. Louis.
Link
April 12, 2009 --
She's America's top "model."

Michelle Obama is the nation's first first lady to add a full-time makeup artist to her traveling entourage, according to stylists who have worked with presidential wives over the past 16 years.

Makeup artist Ingrid Grimes-Miles, 49, helped create Obama's signature look on her inaugural trip to Europe last week.

Grimes-Miles, who has been working with the first lady for six years, now splits her time between DC and Chicago, where she dolls up morning-news anchors for WGN TV.

"No other first ladies have consistently traveled with a makeup artist," said hairdresser Bernard Portelli, who styled Hillary Rodham Clinton's blond mane in 1993 and tracks trends in first-lady style.

"It took Laura Bush four years to finally look good. It's taken Michelle Obama two months. She wears fake eyelashes that are beautiful. She can't do those herself."

Style watchers suspect that Grimes-Miles is behind Obama's most prominent beauty reinvention: Her eyebrows. After the first lady drew criticism for looking angry, her high-arched eyebrows were reshaped with a softer arc that gave her a friendlier appearance.

Grimes-Miles has described Obama's makeup as "not an avant-garde look . . . We want her to [look] very natural and polished."

Last week, Grimes-Miles joined "First Hairstylist" Johnny Wright, 31, aboard Air Force One as official guests of the president, during their six-day trip across Europe.

The Obamas privately paid for the travel expenses of the styling team, according to a spokeswoman for the first lady. But the high-profile jobs don't pay much, say former White House stylists.

"You do it because you know you will have some prestige and you will be able to make money later," Portelli said.

Wright, a former LA-based stylist for Frederic Fekkai, relocated to the capital for his position in January. But he wasn't the first lady's first choice.

Michael "Rahni" Flowers, 54, who has tamed Mrs. Obama's locks since she was 18, said he couldn't relocate from Chicago. "I thought it was better to help train someone to manage her in DC," Flowers told The Post.