by ilene - September 28th, 2010 2:19 am
By David DeGraw (h/t ZH)
The following is Part I to David DeGraw’s new book, “The Road Through 2012: Revolution or World War III.” This is the second installment to a new seven-part series that we will be posting throughout the next few weeks. You can read the introduction to the book here. To be notified via email of new postings from this series, subscribe here.
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Editor’s Note: The following is Part I to David DeGraw’s new book, “The Road Through 2012: Revolution or World War III.” This is the second installment to a new seven-part series that we will be posting throughout the next few weeks. You can read the introduction to the book here. To be notified via email of new postings from this series, subscribe here.
I: Economic Imperial Operations
When we analyze our current crisis, focusing on the past few years of economic activity blinds us to the history and context that are vital to understanding the root cause. What we have been experiencing is not the result of an unforeseen economic crash that appeared out of the blue with the collapse of the housing market. It was certainly not brought on by people who bought homes they couldn’t afford. To frame this crisis around a debate on economic theory misses the point entirely. To even blame it on greedy bankers,…
Tags: Afghanistan, Australia, Bank of America, Barclays, budget deficit, Charles Schumer, Chris Dodd, Citigroup, corruption, Dark Pools, Dean Baker, European Union, Federal Reserve, France, Germany, global economy, Goldman Sachs, Great Depression Greece Gross Domestic Product, Guam, Home Equity Housing Bubble, Housing Market, India, International Monetary Fund, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, japan, Joseph Stiglitz, Martial Law, medicare, Mexico, Middle East, National Debt, national intelligence, national security, Netherlands, New York Times Newspaper, North Korea, Norway, Nuclear Power, President Obama, reality, Recovery, reserve currency, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sovereign Debt, Textron, Trade War, trade wars, turkey, unemployment, United Kingdom, world bank, Yen
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by ilene - September 23rd, 2010 9:40 pm
and Keep Its Economic Surplus for Itself
Courtesy of Michael Hudson
CDES Conference, Brasilia, September 17, 2010
I would like to place this seminar’s topic, ‘Global Governance,’in the context of global control, which is what ‘governance’ is mainly about. The word (from Latin gubernari, cognate to the Greek root kyber) means ‘steering’. The question is, toward what goal is the world economy steering?
That obviously depends on who is doing the steering. It almost always has been the most powerful nations that organize the world in ways that transfer income and property to themselves. From the Roman Empire through modern Europe such transfers took mainly the form of military seizure and tribute. The Norman conquerors endowed themselves as a landed aristocracy extracting rent from the populace, as did the Nordic conquerors of France and other countries. Europe later took resources by colonial conquest, increasingly via local client oligarchies.
The post-1945 mode of global integration has outlived its early promise. It has become exploitative rather than supportive of capital investment, public infrastructure and living standards.
In the sphere of trade, countries need to rebuild their self-sufficiency in food grains and other basic needs. In the financial sphere, the ability of banks to create credit (loans) at almost no cost on their computer keyboards has led North America and Europe to become debt ridden, and now seeks to move into Brazil and other BRIC countries by financing buyouts or lending against their natural resources, real estate, basic infrastructure and industry. Speculators, arbitrageurs and financial institutions using “free money” see these economies as easy pickings. But by obliging countries to defend themselves financially, their predatory credit creation is ending the era of free capital movements.
Does Brazil really need inflows of foreign credit for domestic spending when it can create this at home? Foreign lending ends up in its central bank, which invests its reserves in US Treasury and Euro bonds that yield low returns and whose international value is likely to decline against the BRIC currencies. So accepting credit and buyout “capital inflows” from the North provides a “free lunch” for key-currency issuers of dollars and Euros, but does not help local economies much.
The natural history of debt and financialization
Today, financial maneuvering and debt leverage play the role that military conquest did in times past. Its aim is still…
Tags: Banks, brazil, budgets, creditors, debt, economic ideology, economic surplus, economics, European Central Bank, FIRE Sector, foreign currency, Globalization, Housing Market, IMF, interest, investment, lending, Michael Hudson, mortgage banks, neoliberal ideology, profits, Taxes, trade patterns, wages, wealth, world bank
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by ilene - September 1st, 2010 12:04 pm
Courtesy of Tyler Durden
I’m this many, how many are you?
So you thought communist states go down without a fight? Wrong: here is Rosenberg who explains why both China and the US are now actively involved in the business of propping up anything and everything. And totally off topic, Rosie confirms that the liquidity trends in the mutual fund industry continue to deteriorate: "As for liquidity ratios, equity funds portfolio manages have theirs at an all-time low of 3.4%, down from 3.8% in June. Tack on the fact that there are really not very many shorts to be covered – since the market peaked in April, short interest is 4.3% of the S&P 500 market cap (in August 2008 it was 6%) and there’s not a whole lot of underlying fund-flow support for the stock market here." In other words, throw in a few more market down days, a few more weeks of redemptions (and at 16 weeks in a row, there is no reason why this should change), and the liquidation theme will promptly be added to the new normal.
THE VISIBLE HAND
The two largest economies in the world are being sustained by the long arm of the law. At least in China it’s to be expected that a communist country would be fuelled by command central, but in this miracle story, below the surface it is becoming abundantly clear that Beijing is becoming increasingly involved. The front page article of the Monday NYT uncovered how the economy is delivering its red-hot growth rates: “New data from the World Bank show that the proportion of industrial production by companies controlled by the Chinese state edged up last year … investment by state-controlled companies skyrocketed, driven by hundreds of billions of government spending and state bank lending.” No wonder the Chinese economy and stock market have diverged.
Is it really much different in the U.S.A. today with every 1 in 6 Americans now receiving some form of government assistance? More than 50 million Americans, from food stamps, to Medicaid, to extended jobless benefits, are on one or more taxpayer-supported programs. This likely explains why this depression does not have that 1930s feel of despair to it. But a depression it is.
In a depression, radical
…
Tags: Beijing, central planning, CHINA, David Rosenberg, Economic Growth, Economy, food stamps, government intervention, long arm of the law, state controlled companies, US, world bank, Zero Hedge
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by ilene - June 24th, 2009 1:28 pm
Courtesy of Jake at Economic Data
Stocks and commodities slid as the World Bank said unemployment and poverty will rise in developing nations and predicted a 2.9 percent contraction in the global economy this year. That compares with a prior estimate of a 1.7 percent decline. Growth is expected to return in 2010 at 2 percent, less than the 2.3 percent forecast about three months ago.
Here is the detail of the news that "moved the market" yesterday.
Cumulative forecasts for 2007-2011 is even more telling.
The World Bank’s forecast is that the United States economy will grow a total of 4% over the five years, a level which would historical take a bit over a year. And that news IS ugly, but did it really move the markets yesterday?
As I pointed out on June 11th (yes, 11 days ago) via Twitter:
World Bank sees global economy contracting 3% in 2009 (double the level thought 2 months ago)
Can I see the future? Actually no… I can just read the NY Times from June 11th (again, 11 friggin‘ days before yesterday’s sell-off).
Underscoring the risk that hopes for a quick turnaround anywhere may be premature, the World Bank said Thursday that it expected the global economy to shrink by nearly 3 percent in 2009, far deeper than the 1.7 percent contraction it predicted just over two months ago.
Why can’t the media just admit that markets don’t always (or usually) move due to specific daily events. Rather, the sell-off was likely just due to the fact that the equity markets have run up 40% in three months even though the economy is in serious trouble.
Source: World Bank
Tags: GDP, global economy, world bank
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I hate that the media needs to explain EVERY market move. And yesterday’s explanation was flat out ridiculous.
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW.