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well folks, its another fryday nite and quite a pile of stuff roiling the world of finance.
will we see ben & timmy on tv on sunday night (in a re-run from 08-09), or what?
tween whats going on in the alps, (never mind the mideast) where the word 'zimbabwe'
was heard the other day:
China Investment Corp. Vice Chairman Gao Xiqing said that central banks’ quantitative easing policies are hurting the value of money just one day after the Federal Reserve maintained plans to buy $600 billion of Treasuries.
“You know money is gradually becoming not worth the paper it’s printed on,” Gao said at an event ... in Davos, Switzerland today. Recent gains in commodity and food prices reflect the “long-term view” of investors that prices will accelerate, he said.
......
“We’ve started collecting Zimbabwe notes,” Gao said, referring to an economy whose currency was scrapped in 2009 after inflation reached 500 billion percent. ...
more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-0...inflation.html
and then we see that altho japan inc's credit rating has been taken down a peg, at least they are 'still solvent' vs The US?
S&P has downgraded Japan's long-term debt from AA to AA-, indicating the U.S. AAA rating should be taken down several notches to less than AA-.
National economies must generate foreign currency for their governments to pay foreign creditors, and national governments must be able to tax, sell bonds or print money, without causing inflation, to cover operating expenses and pay interest.
Japan's ability to pay is simply much stronger than the United States.
Japan has a strong current account surplus-thanks to a powerful manufacturing export machine-and the Bank of Japan sits on $1 trillion in foreign currency reserves. It has more than enough cash flow and adequate reserves to service the claims of foreign creditors. The United States can hardly make such a claim.
more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2...und-insolvent/
meanwhile, it sounds like the price of fruit (of the loom) is about to go parabolic any day now, since we see gold isnt the only thing thats getting hoarded:
"...Yu Lianmin, a cotton farmer in Huji, China, harvested 6,600 pounds of cotton this year. Despite record cotton prices, he didn't sell any of it.
Instead, mounds of cotton are piled up in two empty rooms of Mr. Yu's home, and the homes of many of the farmers in his small township of Yujia, which is part of the bigger township of Huji in northern Shandong province, 220 miles southeast of Beijing. The farmers are holding out for higher prices, aiming to help overcome higher costs of labor and fertilizer, which are up about 20% in the past year.
"I think there's still hope for prices to go higher," he said.
The amount of cotton held in hamlets throughout China is unknown, but, with 25 million cotton farmers, a Chinese cotton agency estimates it could amount to about 9% of the world's cotton supply. And the situation is occurring throughout the supply chain. Many ginners and merchants in China are keeping warehouses full, according to the agency, in an attempt to obtain higher prices.
Expectations that prices will rise are driving the apparent stockpiling, which causes short-term shortages and leads prices to rise further. The situation is complicating an already volatile picture for cotton, which has jumped to 140-year highs in the U.S. and has become a symbol of brewing commodity inflation around the globe."
the rest at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...777349298.html
and then, with all that, the british are about to get a taste of 'the new normal':
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/e...nce-1920s.html :
Families will see their disposable income eaten up as they “pay the inevitable price” for the financial crisis, Mervyn King warned.
With wages failing to keep pace with rising inflation, workers’ take- home pay will end the year worth the same as in 2005 — the most prolonged fall in living standards for more than 80 years, he claimed.
and they're surprised?
The most closely-watched barometer of consumer confidence revealed an "astonishing collapse" in January as the VAT rise took effect, according to market research group GfK NOP.
The first taste of the fiscal tightening to have a widespread impact on consumers appeared to have hit sentiment hard, researchers said, even before the full impact of the public spending cuts is felt.
"In the 35 years since the index began, confidence has only slumped this much on six occasions, the last being in the midst of the 1992 recession," said Nick Moon, managing director at GfK NOP Social Research. "Today's figures, when combined with the bleak economic forecast, will make talk of a double-dip recession unavoidable."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...-collapse.html
meanwhile, we have the bernank still telling us 'how worried about deflation' he is, so he keeps the spigots W.I.D.E OPEN keeping his buddies in manhattan happy, while they turn the screws ever tighter on THE REST OF US:
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Interest rates are now hovering near record highs, at an average rate of 14.72%. And if your credit is bad enough, you could even end up with a rate as high as 59.9% APR.
That's because while the CARD Act helped crack down on certain fees and requires more disclosures, it didn't cap every credit card holder's worst enemy: interest rates.
Sure, the new rules prevent banks from raising most interest rates retroactively, but there's no limit on the rates they can charge new customers.
"Rates are going up because card issuers know that once you get a card they can't raise the rates, so they're raising rates on the front end to ensure they get the revenue from that interest," said Beverly Harzog, credit card expert at Credit.com.
APRs have climbed more than 20% over the past two years and hit an all-time high of an average 14.78% in mid-November, based on weekly data CreditCards.com collects from 100 of the nation's top credit card issuers.
And there's no end in sight. While interest rate caps have been proposed -- including a proposal earlier this month from New York Congressman Maurice Hinchey that would limit rates at 15% -- none have been passed into law so far.
BUT HEY not to worry, because
The end of credit cards is coming
http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/28/pf/c...ates/index.htm
so while "we really need to keep an eye on DEFLATION" we really dont want to have anybody get over-extended, so we'll just keep raising _your_ rates, while we keep the banksters in EEeeasy money 'for an extended period' because... uhh... there's still some 'imbalances' we're worried about???
good thing we had barney frank, maxine waters, and chris dodd and the rest of our fearless democrats lookin out for all us "little guys" the last couple years, huh?
so now not only did we get our credit card cash-advance lines chopped by 75% and have minimum payments forced onto our home depot "0 interest for 1 year" accounts so that if we miss our teeny-weeny $10 minimum pmts, now WE GET A 35dollar LATE CHARGE - i mean isnt that what the new 'consumer protection' racket is all about????
and speaking of our 'fearless leader' and his comments the other night in the SOTU address, we're all gonna need to get a whole lot smarter - so first things first (esp in newyork, where we all know by now just how painfully smart they is in lower manhattan):
New York City could lose $1 billion in education aid from the state, forcing the nation's largest school system to cut more than 21,000 teachers, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday.
As Gov. Andrew Cuomo prepares to unveil his first budget proposal since taking office on New Year's Day, Mr. Bloomberg and his new schools chancellor, Cathie Black, are bracing for what could be devastating cuts to city schools.
On his weekly radio show Friday, Mr. Bloomberg stressed that he has yet to receive word of a definitive budget proposal from the governor. "Scuttlebutt is that the education budget will be cut statewide, and New York City's share of that would be a billion-dollar cut," he said.
If the governor proposes a $1 billion cut and the Legislature approves it, the mayor estimated the city would be forced to cut 15,000 teachers, most of which would be accomplished through layoffs. That's on top of plans, outlined by the mayor in November, to cut 6,166 teachers in the fiscal year beginning July 1.
In total, the administration is facing the specter of losing 21,000 teachers in the coming months, most through layoffs.
after all this? if ya still remember how, read the rest: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...146999314.html
good thing ole uncle ben and cuzzin timmy are making sure that the value of The US Dollar is 'safe' - right????
http://www.mybudget360.com/federal-r...-issues-ahead/
The Federal Reserve has painted itself into a very narrow and troubling corner for most of working and middle class America. The massive debt problems on hand have no realistic way of being paid off and the best path in the eyes of the Federal Reserve is to slowly inflate away the currency and debt. Yet that brings up some troubling dilemmas. Think of the cost of living adjustments (COLAs) that many on Social Security once received. Many of these people purchased homes pre-bubble days and many may have their home paid off. Yet because a large portion of the CPI is based on housing, the CPI has been falling for the last few years stunting growth in COLAs all the while food and other daily use items are surging in cost. The Federal Reserve has no allegiance to any country and is only concerned with the safety of the biggest banks. That is their main charter even though they claim to talk about a stable currency for a country. Let us see how well they are holding to that mission:
Source: Shadow Stats
Does the above look like the Federal Reserve has done a good job in maintaining a stable currency? Of course this is strategically planned and is deliberate. The purpose of debasing the currency is to make our exports more competitive abroad but remember who you are competing with here. We are going against places like China who artificially hold their currency low to expand their economy. Is this really the kind of global policy we are looking for here? Of course the Federal Reserve is allowing global banks to reap enormous profits all on the back of middle class Americans that allow the legal structure to stay in place and have stolen large amounts of money through bailouts. The banking industry is merely hoarding money and using most of it in stock market speculation:....
oh yeah folks - what a week/year it's been, huh?
and i havent even started mixing my first cocktail yet - with my fresh and shiny ONE-DOLLAR-AND-TWENTY-NINE CENT-each: LIMES!
have a good weekend!
dont fergit to watch TV on sunday nite now; we might miss one of bens 'epic performances'
will we see ben & timmy on tv on sunday night (in a re-run from 08-09), or what?
tween whats going on in the alps, (never mind the mideast) where the word 'zimbabwe'
was heard the other day:
China Investment Corp. Vice Chairman Gao Xiqing said that central banks’ quantitative easing policies are hurting the value of money just one day after the Federal Reserve maintained plans to buy $600 billion of Treasuries.
“You know money is gradually becoming not worth the paper it’s printed on,” Gao said at an event ... in Davos, Switzerland today. Recent gains in commodity and food prices reflect the “long-term view” of investors that prices will accelerate, he said.
......
“We’ve started collecting Zimbabwe notes,” Gao said, referring to an economy whose currency was scrapped in 2009 after inflation reached 500 billion percent. ...
more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-0...inflation.html
and then we see that altho japan inc's credit rating has been taken down a peg, at least they are 'still solvent' vs The US?
S&P has downgraded Japan's long-term debt from AA to AA-, indicating the U.S. AAA rating should be taken down several notches to less than AA-.
National economies must generate foreign currency for their governments to pay foreign creditors, and national governments must be able to tax, sell bonds or print money, without causing inflation, to cover operating expenses and pay interest.
Japan's ability to pay is simply much stronger than the United States.
Japan has a strong current account surplus-thanks to a powerful manufacturing export machine-and the Bank of Japan sits on $1 trillion in foreign currency reserves. It has more than enough cash flow and adequate reserves to service the claims of foreign creditors. The United States can hardly make such a claim.
more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2...und-insolvent/
meanwhile, it sounds like the price of fruit (of the loom) is about to go parabolic any day now, since we see gold isnt the only thing thats getting hoarded:
"...Yu Lianmin, a cotton farmer in Huji, China, harvested 6,600 pounds of cotton this year. Despite record cotton prices, he didn't sell any of it.
Instead, mounds of cotton are piled up in two empty rooms of Mr. Yu's home, and the homes of many of the farmers in his small township of Yujia, which is part of the bigger township of Huji in northern Shandong province, 220 miles southeast of Beijing. The farmers are holding out for higher prices, aiming to help overcome higher costs of labor and fertilizer, which are up about 20% in the past year.
"I think there's still hope for prices to go higher," he said.
The amount of cotton held in hamlets throughout China is unknown, but, with 25 million cotton farmers, a Chinese cotton agency estimates it could amount to about 9% of the world's cotton supply. And the situation is occurring throughout the supply chain. Many ginners and merchants in China are keeping warehouses full, according to the agency, in an attempt to obtain higher prices.
Expectations that prices will rise are driving the apparent stockpiling, which causes short-term shortages and leads prices to rise further. The situation is complicating an already volatile picture for cotton, which has jumped to 140-year highs in the U.S. and has become a symbol of brewing commodity inflation around the globe."
the rest at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...777349298.html
and then, with all that, the british are about to get a taste of 'the new normal':
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/e...nce-1920s.html :
Families will see their disposable income eaten up as they “pay the inevitable price” for the financial crisis, Mervyn King warned.
With wages failing to keep pace with rising inflation, workers’ take- home pay will end the year worth the same as in 2005 — the most prolonged fall in living standards for more than 80 years, he claimed.
and they're surprised?
The most closely-watched barometer of consumer confidence revealed an "astonishing collapse" in January as the VAT rise took effect, according to market research group GfK NOP.
The first taste of the fiscal tightening to have a widespread impact on consumers appeared to have hit sentiment hard, researchers said, even before the full impact of the public spending cuts is felt.
"In the 35 years since the index began, confidence has only slumped this much on six occasions, the last being in the midst of the 1992 recession," said Nick Moon, managing director at GfK NOP Social Research. "Today's figures, when combined with the bleak economic forecast, will make talk of a double-dip recession unavoidable."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...-collapse.html
meanwhile, we have the bernank still telling us 'how worried about deflation' he is, so he keeps the spigots W.I.D.E OPEN keeping his buddies in manhattan happy, while they turn the screws ever tighter on THE REST OF US:
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Interest rates are now hovering near record highs, at an average rate of 14.72%. And if your credit is bad enough, you could even end up with a rate as high as 59.9% APR.
That's because while the CARD Act helped crack down on certain fees and requires more disclosures, it didn't cap every credit card holder's worst enemy: interest rates.
Sure, the new rules prevent banks from raising most interest rates retroactively, but there's no limit on the rates they can charge new customers.
"Rates are going up because card issuers know that once you get a card they can't raise the rates, so they're raising rates on the front end to ensure they get the revenue from that interest," said Beverly Harzog, credit card expert at Credit.com.
APRs have climbed more than 20% over the past two years and hit an all-time high of an average 14.78% in mid-November, based on weekly data CreditCards.com collects from 100 of the nation's top credit card issuers.
And there's no end in sight. While interest rate caps have been proposed -- including a proposal earlier this month from New York Congressman Maurice Hinchey that would limit rates at 15% -- none have been passed into law so far.
BUT HEY not to worry, because
The end of credit cards is coming
http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/28/pf/c...ates/index.htm
so while "we really need to keep an eye on DEFLATION" we really dont want to have anybody get over-extended, so we'll just keep raising _your_ rates, while we keep the banksters in EEeeasy money 'for an extended period' because... uhh... there's still some 'imbalances' we're worried about???
good thing we had barney frank, maxine waters, and chris dodd and the rest of our fearless democrats lookin out for all us "little guys" the last couple years, huh?
so now not only did we get our credit card cash-advance lines chopped by 75% and have minimum payments forced onto our home depot "0 interest for 1 year" accounts so that if we miss our teeny-weeny $10 minimum pmts, now WE GET A 35dollar LATE CHARGE - i mean isnt that what the new 'consumer protection' racket is all about????
and speaking of our 'fearless leader' and his comments the other night in the SOTU address, we're all gonna need to get a whole lot smarter - so first things first (esp in newyork, where we all know by now just how painfully smart they is in lower manhattan):
New York City could lose $1 billion in education aid from the state, forcing the nation's largest school system to cut more than 21,000 teachers, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday.
As Gov. Andrew Cuomo prepares to unveil his first budget proposal since taking office on New Year's Day, Mr. Bloomberg and his new schools chancellor, Cathie Black, are bracing for what could be devastating cuts to city schools.
On his weekly radio show Friday, Mr. Bloomberg stressed that he has yet to receive word of a definitive budget proposal from the governor. "Scuttlebutt is that the education budget will be cut statewide, and New York City's share of that would be a billion-dollar cut," he said.
If the governor proposes a $1 billion cut and the Legislature approves it, the mayor estimated the city would be forced to cut 15,000 teachers, most of which would be accomplished through layoffs. That's on top of plans, outlined by the mayor in November, to cut 6,166 teachers in the fiscal year beginning July 1.
In total, the administration is facing the specter of losing 21,000 teachers in the coming months, most through layoffs.
after all this? if ya still remember how, read the rest: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...146999314.html
good thing ole uncle ben and cuzzin timmy are making sure that the value of The US Dollar is 'safe' - right????
http://www.mybudget360.com/federal-r...-issues-ahead/
The Federal Reserve has painted itself into a very narrow and troubling corner for most of working and middle class America. The massive debt problems on hand have no realistic way of being paid off and the best path in the eyes of the Federal Reserve is to slowly inflate away the currency and debt. Yet that brings up some troubling dilemmas. Think of the cost of living adjustments (COLAs) that many on Social Security once received. Many of these people purchased homes pre-bubble days and many may have their home paid off. Yet because a large portion of the CPI is based on housing, the CPI has been falling for the last few years stunting growth in COLAs all the while food and other daily use items are surging in cost. The Federal Reserve has no allegiance to any country and is only concerned with the safety of the biggest banks. That is their main charter even though they claim to talk about a stable currency for a country. Let us see how well they are holding to that mission:
Source: Shadow Stats
Does the above look like the Federal Reserve has done a good job in maintaining a stable currency? Of course this is strategically planned and is deliberate. The purpose of debasing the currency is to make our exports more competitive abroad but remember who you are competing with here. We are going against places like China who artificially hold their currency low to expand their economy. Is this really the kind of global policy we are looking for here? Of course the Federal Reserve is allowing global banks to reap enormous profits all on the back of middle class Americans that allow the legal structure to stay in place and have stolen large amounts of money through bailouts. The banking industry is merely hoarding money and using most of it in stock market speculation:....
oh yeah folks - what a week/year it's been, huh?
and i havent even started mixing my first cocktail yet - with my fresh and shiny ONE-DOLLAR-AND-TWENTY-NINE CENT-each: LIMES!
have a good weekend!
dont fergit to watch TV on sunday nite now; we might miss one of bens 'epic performances'
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