Andrew P

Nine Indicators of a Second Wave in Economic Slump

Anyone who believes any 30 year loan instrument can reach 1% is smoking something really wierd. There is no way this can be true, even in a Second Great Depression.

"We can say with certainty that as the depression progresses, mortgage rates will fall to rates as low as 1% (30 year), because of low demand"

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Also, the pro traders can be all right if the public hasn't yet bought into the "bull market" The public has been correctly sceptical, and has trillions in retirement cash on the sidelines. But once the public gets sick of 0% yields and jumps all-in to stocks, the pro traders will sell and leave the public holding the empty bag. The rally can continue for years until this happens.

What Are the Ethical Repercussions of a Newspaper Bailout?

Going "non-profit" isn't gonna help them. They already have no profits, and rapidly declining revenue. What the news industry needs is monopoly pricing power. All newspapers will be combined into a single government owned entity called Pravda. It will present only the official line from the Messiah, and report on local news from a Democratic Party perspective.


A better solution to a government bailout would be a party bailout, but the political parties are limited. Political conributions are strictly limited by law so the parties don't have the money to bail out or take over anything. Political parties should be allowed to take unlimited contributions for the purpose of buying out media organizations. Media should be biased and present a political point of view. So-called "objective" news reporting is a crock and doesn't really exist anyway.

'Government' Motors or Ford: Which Automaker Will Remain Viable?

I expect Chrysler to gone pretty soon. The UAW let the cat out of the bag when they stated that they are going to sell their stake in the "new" Chrysler immediately after reorganization. They don't want to own a zombie car company. They want any cash they can grab.


On May 17 10:22 AM experiencedmentor wrote:

> Ford can build vehicles consumers want. GM and Chrysler will be building
> vehicles Al Gore wants them to drive. The UAW will control Chrysler
> and GM's board when contracts are negotiated. Ford will be allowed
> to pay whatever they want for advertising. The other two won't. Ford
> will be allowed to promote their product with junkets and events.
> The other two won't. Ford will attract the best and brightest. The
> other two won't. GM and Chrysler will become the USPS. I'll predict
> here and now that Ford will own Jeep within five years and Chrysler
> will cease to exist.

The Worst Case Scenario (Someone Has to Say It)

If these predictions come to pass, there is only one way out. Complete Fascism, the way Hitler did it. Hitler restored Germany's economy form the deepest destitution (50% unemployment), to growth in only a few years. However, that restoration depends on the supply of resources. The USA is totally self sufficient in food. We are highly dependent on imports of energy. Energy and Food are Mother Nature's fundamental units of currency and wealth, and can't be circumvented by printing money. Therefore the USA will have to sieze its energy supplies through military means, if a Fascist Dictatorship is to restore the glory. Since the world is past peak oil (Antarctica is excluded since no one knows what is there), a siezure of resources will get very ugly indeed.

The U.S. Banking System's Terrifying Balance Sheet

There is only one way out of this mess. And that is simple - house prices must be reinflated. And the only way to do that in the current environment is to force general price increases across the board - or in other words massive inflation. If the Obama Administration can get a wage-price spiral going, they can inflate the massive levels of private debt away, and make the Treasury's debt financable. If you think about it in these terms, all the elements of Obama policy fit together. Card Check, global warming legislation, massive money printing, Geithner's plans, etc.. They are all very inflationary. Is it any wonder that gold is soaring in price?

BofA, Wells Fargo: No Equity After Accounting for Bad Loans

We should have taken our medicine (Depression) when the dot-coms collapsed in 2001, but instead Greenspan and Bush pumped up the housing bubble to kick the can down the road, with the idea of kicking it into 2009. They didn't quite make it, did they? The housing bubble made the situation twice as bad as it would have been at that time. You will be hearing more about trials for "economic crimes against humanity" as more people realize this.

On Mar 05 12:30 PM Alex1937 wrote:

> i think that managment of these enterprices, like the banks, car
> manufactureres, investment houses... should return all the money
> they were paid, but not earned, the last few years. Most all of them
> have been paid on fathom income that just was never there, but a
> creation of slick accountants. This crisis could (and should) have
> started way back, perhaps as far as 2000. Most of us were afraid
> then of the looming computer threat, when it was the unscrupulous
> COs of our nation we should have been afraid of. This is going to
> get real ugly. Even if President Obama had the help of ten brothers,
> he would not be able get the country out of this mess. God help these
> United States...!

The Fundamental Problem of Newspapers on the Internet

When it all shakes out it may be that the only newspapers that survive are those with unique content that they can charge for (WSJ) and those free ad-supported sites that can operate on much smaller overhead than the likes of NYT. As more sites charge it will become easier to charge for content though, and this could save NYT. Eventually, we could see package deals marketed so that one can be an online subscriber to all major papers (NYT, WAPO, LAT, WSJ. etc...) simultaneously, and that way your links still work on the news aggregator sites.