Global Economy Bursting?

[rrwolfpack]

I am curious to see how national numbers look as they get published over the next couple of weeks. With the fiscal cliff getting so much coverage since the summer it would make sense to see people trade their properties just in case their taxes skyrocketed after the new year. I still feel 2013 will be the beginning of the number of deductions shrinking because the government needs to be creative in tackling the debt.

 

[Riick]

Compact fluorescent bulbs that produce light equivalent to 100-watt bulbs
have been available for a few years and cost as little as $4 each.
Retailers - Ripping & Running - as usual.
Around here it would be hard to pay over $2.50 each, and $1.00 - $1.25 fairly common. Must be a built in California mercury-disposal fee.

I still feel 2013 will be the beginning of the number of deductions shrinking
because the government needs to be creative in tackling the debt.
Is that "creative" as in "Creative Financing" or creative as in sucking the peasants dry?
No reflection on you, and, maybe I'm just stupid, but raising tax revenue by 10%
while spending 125% of tax revenue is not what I consider "tackling the debt".
.

 

[Workbox]

The Bond market is going to implode. They are going to force folks to buy stocks/equities. I do not think that we are going to have a major bubble, but we will have 15-20% corrections. If we do have a major catastrophic correction then it is because either gas has gone over the comfort level or another supposed terrorist attack.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Mortgage Bankers reported 3rd week with falling number of refi mortgage applications. Likewise the pressure is on mortgage rates. They simply cannot take another step down or the mortgage company will have to work for free. With the Fed "hawks" clambering for raising the rates and Helicopter Ben saying they will slow down buying bonds, the rates will go up and Bennie will have to renege or start printing dollars like mad....which will lead to inflation. And that's why my IRA went into GLD. Am thinking S & W too. Cabelas is limiting sales of AR-15 style guns to 3 per customer and the last shipment of Bushmaster guns to our local store sold out in 5 minutes. They won't even take a reserve on the gun. They call you and tell you when the shipment will be available and you stand in line. Nuts, completely nuts....but it means S & W and other gun companies are going to be running overtime and should have a huge increase in profits this and last quarter. Cabelas is the only outfit I know who hasn't raised their prices on most guns. Ammo, that's another story.

I think housing isn't going to do substantially better than this year....and will be very sensitive to interest rates, fiscal policy wrangling, Europe, everything...

And we also face the "unknown unknowns". N. Korea going nuts. Israel attacking Iran. tsunami in Pacific (US?); major earthquake in California (think about the implications of that.) Another Atlantic hurricane season if the ocean currents do not change is possible, drought in SW; Italy or Spanish economic collapse; terrorism; volcano in Iceland is 50 yr. overdue for a year long eruption that could disrupt aviation in Europe for weeks at a time and repeatedly.... Murphy's Law.

 

[Restrain]

Re, Iran. Reports coming out that Russian scientists alongside Iranians are weaponizing viruses, bioengineering bio weapons. The threat is very real and there is high concern that the weapons can kill millions. Easier to deliver and develop than a nuke.

 

[Workbox]

Re, Iran. Reports coming out that Russian scientists alongside Iranians are weaponizing viruses, bioengineering bio weapons. The threat is very real and there is high concern that the weapons can kill millions. Easier to deliver and develop than a nuke.

If I were surrounded by a country that is still upset by the ousting of the Shaw and embassy hostages , I too would be arming myself.

Similar to being stipped to death by AMC's or Mortgage Broker/Loan Officers.

Plus they no longer want to take fiat dollars for oil, but gold. Same a Libya, Syria Iran and other countries that oil producing.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

What’s Inside America’s Banks?

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine...nside-americas-banks/309196/?single_page=true

Some four years after the 2008 financial crisis, public trust in banks is as low as ever. Sophisticated investors describe big banks as “black boxes” that may still be concealing enormous risks—the sort that could again take down the economy. A close investigation of a supposedly conservative bank’s financial records uncovers the reason for these fears—and points the way toward urgent reforms.

Banks today are bigger and more opaque than ever, and they continue to behave in many of the same ways they did before the crash.

 

[Restrain]

Unemployment numbers are out, and the media is crowing about 155,000 jobs added. However, the unemployment shows an uptick and the percentage of actual employed people dropped to a record low of 58%. We are approaching Greece and France in terms of people working vs the people no longer employed for one reason or another.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Our Debt seems to be about the same as our GDP - That is if Everyone worked for free for one year, we could pay it off... In Japan that number has increased to 250% - they would have to work 2 ½ years and all that money go to service debt to pay off the debt. This is a nation that was virtually debt free 25 years ago. Obvously, the "Japan way" isn't very good and Bernanke, critical of the Japanese as he was, is pursuing the same policy...a policy which is eating up the savings of the Baby Boomers and perhaps as importantly, many of their children will have no inheritance unlike a whole lot of the boomers who got property and money out of their parents estates.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

SOLVING THE DEBT CRISIS WITH THE MAGIC DEFICIT COIN

There are limits on how much paper money the U.S. can circulate and rules that govern coinage on gold, silver, and copper. BUT, the Treasury has broad discretion on coins made from platinum. The theory goes that the U.S. Mint would create a handful of trillion dollar (or more) platinum coins. The President would then order the coins deposited at the Fed, who would then put the coin (s) in the Treasury who now can pay all their bills and a default is removed from the equation.

When the government spends vast amounts of money it doesn’t have, it is making false and unrealistic promises to the people who grow dependent upon that spending. This, in turn, becomes an obligation shackled to future generations. Without big-time deficit spending, the government would have to make only realistic promises: we will give you $X in benefits now, but someone else must give up $X in benefits to pay for them, or the taxes of current voters must be raised by $X. Debt-crazed government is a form of taxation without representation, in which people are forced to pay for commitments they never had a chance to vote against.


White House Petition Pushes For Trillion-Dollar Platinum Coin

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/04/trillion-dollar-coin-petition_n_2409704.html



A trillion-dollar-coin idea takes off

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/artic...dea-takes-and-former-head-us-mint-doesnt-see-

Rep. Jerry Nadler proposed issuing a trillion-dollar coin to circumvent an impending fight over the federal debt ceiling, and the idea has taken off.