dhansen548

In Newsweek's cover story this week, Harvard economist Niall Ferguson calls the U.S. "An Empire at Risk": "If the United States succumbs to a fiscal crisis, as an increasing number of economic experts fear it may, then the entire balance of global economic power could shift." Paul Krugman responds: "These [debt] numbers look huge, but our entire economy is huge."

America's Empire? What a concept.
In Afghanistan, the strategy is, to give monetary payments to Taliban members, so they won't shoot at our troops.
Another great strategy: they also pay militant tribal warlords to let our food convoys through, so our troops can get fed.
In other words, we have to bribe the enemy not to attack our troops in the field. That is not the way to convey the impression of awesome military strength. Not at all: it conveys to the enemy a vivid picture of how weak America has become.

BBC's Stephanie Flanders wonders if Dubai is about to become the world's biggest not-too-big-to-fail: "Everyone in the markets thought that, in the end, the federal government in Abu Dhabi would stand by all of Dubai's bad bets. Apparently, they won't."

Curious. When these loans are made, banks get the profits and the commissions, but when they go bad, the taxpayers are somehow required to pay the cost.
If we the taxpayers are required to pay, then we should be on the boards of these banks and have a veto over these loans---a veto which should be exercised on a regular basis.
The government of Abu Dhabi doesn't want to stand behind these bad bats----why should I? Given a choice, I will not.

Bounce, Crackle and Pop: Seven U.S. Metro Housing Markets Fall Below March Lows

Facts are facts buddy, and you have definitely nailed this issue.

Markets in a Range: Today's Heat Map

I love the heat map, and I also love the article.

PNC Financial Services' (PNC) senior vice chairman William Demchak rejected a 'feeler' from a Bank of America (BAC) CEO recruiter last week, voicing concerns the bank would be "blasted" for buying out his stake in PNC. Demchak also thinks BofA's situation is unfixable, given the government's heavy influence.

Ken Lewis is a great banker and the government had no business getting him moved out of B of A, especially after he did their bidding in saving Merrill Lynch.

The Market Pullback: What to Expect

Highly informative and useful.
My only worry is, do pullbacks sometimes just keep on going down?

California Pension Plan: Too Big to Fail and Acting Like It

Time to bite the bullet: let pensioners have only ten cents on the dollar.

Sectors See Bullish Short Term Trends, But May Be Topping Here

The ship is sinking. It is important to track the rate at which it goes under.

The Greatest Depression Is Coming

Think of all the young people in America getting expensive educations. There will be no jobs for most of them because of all this.
What is to be done? I have the answer: teach them to beg for money in Chinese. They can explain that their wise "elders", both consumers and investors, found a way to waste America's resources and now they, as the inheritors, are left with nothing, except for the IOU's written in a worthless currency, the dollar.

And while that is unfolding, the rest of us, Republicans and Democrats, lenders and borrowers, can devote ourselves to bickering over who should be blamed for the crisis.

The American Century is over. The American model is a proven failure.

Dollar Hegemony Is Ending

Dollar hegemony is ending and with it, American military hegemony.

Our national leadership probably needs to learn how to beg for money in Chinese.

Stocks on Sale: Looking Ahead at Gains

As a result of this article, I am feeling irrationally exuberant; I yearn to buy overvalued stocks.

Today in Commodities: The Almighty Buck

The dollar has gone up for a couple of days. Why? Because of the G-20 summit and the agreements to be announced Friday the 25th.
Because the dollar went up the equities went down.
The G20 agreement should reduce the bonuses of some investment bankers and tighten rules on speculative bank investments; all of that is good, not bad.
Once market participants understand all that, the equity up-trend and its ultimate denouement can resume. Apres the G20, le deluge---but not till 1st quarter 2010.

How to Prepare for the Inevitable Correction

A small pullback of 2 to four per cent would set the stage for a nice run to 1150 or more. After that, who knows-----at some point the truly dismal condition of Americans and their finances will make itself felt and the underlying bear market can resume. But all in good time, sometime next year.

Japan to the U.S.: 'We Don't Want to Exclude You, But...'

Couldn't agree more, doubleguns---I think you're right on the money. America can benefit too by staying home and taking care of its own problems and its own people, instead of trying to create its own empire.


On Sep 16 09:16 AM doubleguns wrote:

> Let the rest of the world start taking care of themselves, their
> security and their fears.
>
> Its about time they grow up.

Facing ballooning deficits and an aging population, America's least-bad choice may be the creation of a new value added tax.

Jeff is right again as far as I'm concerned.


On Sep 09 01:38 PM Jeff Nielson wrote:

> The problem here is that consumption taxes are another form of REGRESSIVE
> taxation - where a disproportionate share of the taxes is paid by
> the poor/middle-class.
>
> This would greatly reduce spending-power in the U.S. economy still
> further - and further cripple U.S. retailers, meaning vast numbers
> of additional lay-offs.
>
> Conversely, raising the taxes on only the wealthy has little to no
> adverse effect on the U.S. economy, since these are the people who
> are already spending the lowest PERCENTAGE of their wealth each year.
> Thus reducing their wealth would NOT have any significant "ripple
> effects" in the U.S. economy.
>
> It would also take a large tax increase on the wealthy just to recover
> their huge windfall (plus interest) from Bush's huge tax-giveaway
> for the rich.