|
Home
 The
Coming Economic Depression
– December 2005 Update
This is the
latest update to a series. Earlier sections appear here.
Adventures of
Polly And Zach Proloft In Debtland
But money is being created
everywhere! Hell, the U.S. Treasury spent last week printing up
another $5.4 billion in actual cash! Even M3, the measure of the
money supply that is so broad that it includes everything that
could possibly be considered as "money," jumped $70
billion dollars in the last four stinking weeks! No wonder the
banks and the government are not going to report this statistic
anymore, as it is proof positive that the dollar is being
murdered! - The
Mogambo Guru
Helicopter Commander
Ben Bernanke has just received his 'stealth' helicopter from
Greenspan and the Fed, from which to print up and drop tons of
dollars into the American economy. As many of you know, the Fed
will no longer publish, to the general population that is, just
how much money it is printing up to fund the government. The Fed
gave a reason that frankly is not worth repeating but was
repeated by the financial pundits who receive a large part of
their revenue from ads that feature America's major banks and
brokerage houses (who are part of the Federal Reserve System).
Yes these 'bribes' work wonders when you want to spin what the
Fed is doing to 'calm' the investing public so they will keep
their money in a system that is in terminal decay. I make no
apologies for what I have said both in pubic and in private. The
Fed is (or will soon be forced to) monetize our current account
deficit and they are determined to hide it from Polly and
Zach Proloft (characters who will appear regularly in this
months update whose last name is a takeoff on two highly
prescribed anti-depressants which over 30 million Americans are
taking) and their fellow drugged up citizens for as long as
possible. They will get their friends in the financial press to
cover it up as long as possible calling those who are capable of
thinking for themselves and adding up two and two as 'conspiracy
theorists'. Even when it becomes self evident (such as when the
prescription for their dope goes up), they will find financial
pundits and paid for liars to say that it's no big deal, while
you are paying $10 for a cup of coffee (at Mickey D's) and sit
in a cold house in the winter.
I won't belabor this
as many have written excellently on this. One person said in
essence 'so
what's the big deal, the system is doomed'.
Yes, he is right. It is and only one in ten Americans have a
clue what that means and just how close the wolf is to the door.
Many whose opinion I have come to respect over the years, most
important of which is Doug Noland over at Prudent Bear, is not
at all that upset over the loss M3. He correctly sees it as a
rather outmoded vehicle for measuring the money supply (Mr. Noland has sounded the alarm for years over the Fed's monetary expansion).
Generally speaking he is correct. There are other many other
financial instruments that add the the overall creation of money
and credit that are not included in M3. My main contention even
with Mr. Noland's fine analysis boils down to this; does not the
Fed have tools available to accurately determine the amount of
money and credit created in the system it is supposed to manage?
If so why now publish it in clear terms for all to see?
What the Fed did on November
10th was not simply getting
rid of a rather outmoded measure of the money supply, it
also hid a key tool that would show that we are monetizing our
current account deficit. Remember they also will not
publish repo-agreements as well. Are these outmoded as well? I
don't think so. And here we come to the point. When the Fed
can't give you a straight answer to a straight forward question
they are hiding something. What Greenspan has done is this, he
has built a 'stealth helicopter' for Bernanke to drop his
tons of money to fund the gap between what the government spends
and what it takes in, including the gargantuan interest on the
debt we have already accumulated.
Bud Conrad wrote a
very interesting piece that all should read. It can be found
here. Another piece that appears on the Prudent Bear site
but not written by Mr. Noland can be found
here.
After contacting the
Fed about M3's discontinuance here is the answer Bud Conrad got
from the Fed and Bud's comments (in red).
"The
decision to discontinue publication of the M3 monetary aggregate
was based, in part, on a determination that the M3 does not
appear to convey any additional information about economic
activity that is not already embodied in the M2 aggregate. In
addition, the role of M3 in the policy process has diminished
greatly over time. Consequently, the costs of collecting the
data and publishing M3 now seem to outweigh the benefits."
- Federal Reserve
That
is as close to saying nothing as I can imagine. This is just not
credible in my opinion as the Fed has so much money that they
routinely turn in $10 to $20 of their excess profits back to the
rest of the government. They earned the $20 B as interest on the
huge stash of Treasuries that are bought to keep interest rates
low, and are the backing of the paper dollars they issue. There
are buildings of economists at the Fed that could do the job.
The
discontinuation of M3 reports is a relatively minor matter
compared to growth in areas of the U.S. payments system that are
not regulated by the Fed and not well monitored by them. But it
is unsettling. It detracts from the transparency the Fed
preaches and adds to the suspicion that the Fed wants to hide
anything showing money growth high enough to fuel inflation,
just so people won't know how bad it is and possibly react and
thus make it worse.
Hedging
your Bets With Osama, Zarquawi, the Mafia And Colombian Drug
Cartels
As the system
teeters, we can see that hedge funds are now coming under a
little scrutiny at the SEC. It seems that folks at the SEC are
concerned that hedge funds may be overstating their bond
holdings in order to get in on the inside of debt restructuring
negotiations after a company goes bankrupt (say it isn't so!).
``We're
very actively interested in this area,'' said Alistaire Bambach,
44, chief bankruptcy counsel in the SEC's enforcement division.
``These official committees in bankruptcy cases get tremendous
amounts of confidential information, and there's clearly a risk
that they're not all trading cleanly and by the book.'' -
Bloomberg
To the average Joe,
this sounds a little too obscure a story to pay attention to but
later in the Bloomberg article it goes on to say just how big
the 'distressed debt' market is.
The face value of
distressed debt mushroomed to $718 billion this year from $77
billion in 1998, according to data compiled by Edward Altman, a
professor at New York University's Stern School of Business –
Bloomberg
Well, it shows an
interesting development in the global economy, that bad debt has
exploded and chasing it has become fashionable and profitable.
Hedge Funds, which produce absolutely nothing, are 'investing'
in bad debt and want what is left of a company after all of the
lawyers get their fees. As many of you know I am not a fan of
hedge funds, I see them as the latest leprosy that has sprung
out of the Global economy. Granted, most relatively honest and
provide a way for investors to make money and 'hedge' their
bets. Nevertheless, whenever entities can exist without any
formal regulation and controls you have a recipe for fraud. To
those of you more mainstream commentators who are warm to these
entities, I apologize for sounding an alarm now before
the next big one goes into receivership, most pundits wait until
after disaster strikes (and the money is unrecoverable) to sound
the alarm bell. I beg your forbearance in being a little
different.
Today pension fund
officers are throwing retirement money into hedge funds like
there is no tomorrow. You know, it seems just a few short years
ago similar stories could be seen about pension funds investing
in Enron. The lightly regulated energy sector was all the rage
back then and now it is Hedge Funds. Can anyone say BCCI? Global
financial scamsters do not have to change their modus operandi,
the ones they have been using have worked time and time again...
and remember this Kenneth Lay is not in jail and has not been
charged with a crime. How many years has it been since Enron
collapsed? Who is protecting him with a lethargic, go-nowhere
'investigation'? Which sector of our economy holds the reigns of
power in America today? Is it not the energy sector? Look, I
know if a person actually uses common sense they are called
'conspiracy theorists', and lambasted by the whores of Wall
Street, that stifle the political debate with the stench of
their half truths and at times even outright lies. There is too
much money in pension funds left to steal to sound the alarm
now, so rest assured the financial disinformants who peddle
their 'newspapers' will keep silent, like the well trained
lap-dog. They will let the crooks rob us blind again while they
watch it happen.
If I sound a little
more visceral than usual it is because older Americans are being
robbed. People who are putting their money in pension funds are
getting set up to be robbed by the same scam artists who bilked
Enron dry. Now of all the Americans I have the deepest respect
for (frankly, there are not many) it is the older folks who were
part of the scene of WWII, and the protests of the 60's and the
civil rights movement. These older folks made sacrifices and
worked hard to give us all a better life. These
older Americans deserve better than to have their pensions
robbed from them and having the Congress and Senate sit back and
let it happen (in some cases helping it along) all over again.
Let us remember the 'Keating
Five' in the Savings and Loan Debacle. Yes, I know no one
wants to talk about what tuned out to be the
Largest Financial Crime in the history of the world. No
one cares today. Hey... folks have their on-demand cable, their
Jack Daniels and their anti-depressants. The only thing they
care about is if they can get over to WalMart fast enough to
shove that ridiculous shopping cart around and charge up yet
another year of Christmas gifts on their Visa or American
Express. They honestly don't want to hear of these things. Watch
peoples eyes glaze over if you try to tell them. The American
people are utterly and completely detached from reality. They
are being robbed blind and like in some 'B' horror movie, the
people are in a Zombie like state and find solace only in
shoving a shopping basket around a discount store. Let's call
this reality B-flick 'The Night Of The Living Debt'.
Try to talk to some of these Americans, they run and scamper
away like a frightened two year old, unable to engage in
conversation and unwilling to look someone in the eye. Americans
are the weirdest people on the planet. Their economy is now more
and more resembling that weirdness and detachment from the world
around them. I know psychiatrists will strongly disagree but I
firmly believe that insanity is contagious. Social and economic
pressures to adopt 'norms' of cognitive disassociation and
material and sexual fixations are rampant in American society.
Big companies are
putting retirement money into hedge funds, Weyerhaeuser has
nearly 40% of its pension assets in Hedge Funds.
"If we go
forward to the year 2010, it's estimated that 80 percent of the
assets under management in the hedge fund will be from
institutions. So it's a big switch that's happening", she
said. Tribeca manages $1.5 billion for Citigroup - Reuters
The move into hedge
funds may provide a temporary boost in returns, but what is
actually being invested in is often obscure financial
instruments that do not promote expansion of the real economy
(industrial, agricultural or technological base)? Rather, it is
just another form of speculation.
I do not mean to
imply or infer that all hedge funds are run by shady
individuals. On the contrary, these vehicles have usually
provided good returns to investors and the lack of regulation
allows them to take risks that other institutions are forbidden
to take. Let it not be said that all hedge funds are bad
or are run by criminal elements and terrorists. I do not
believe that nor should anyone. The problems are that the
deregulated nature of these institutions are a magnet to these
very kinds of criminals and rest assured, many are operating in
these investment waters today.
On what is probably
an unrelated but nevertheless important development, the chief
Investment Officer for the worlds largest pension fund (CalPers)
left his post to head a UK
investment company.
[Mark]
Anson resigned unexpectedly in October to take over from Tony
Watson as the CEO at UK-based asset manager Hermes, which is
owned by the BT Pension Scheme. - IPE
The Chairman of the
Basel Banking Committee is urging caution in the hedge fund
industry. His concern is for the Banks that now have increasing
exposure to the them. He acknowledged the performance of these
'Special
Purpose Vehicles' but warned that risk is a two sided-coin.
He urged greater transparency. An interesting article that
discusses the pros and cons of a regulation can be found
here. Caveat emptor: it is written by those insiders
to are friendly to the industry. The paper, well put together
and thorough, does sadly leave out some glaring points. One, it
mentions how profitable these entities are, yet we must rely on
accounting that has shown itself in the past to be less than,
shall we say, 'adequate'. I mean, look at Refco. How in the
world can you hide nearly half a billion dollars and have no one
notice? I will tell you how; shoddy accounting , virtually no
regulation, crappy internal controls and people inside the
company either 'on the take' or too scared to let some one know.
I am not saying that this is the industry standard today. But
when financial entities compete for higher returns to attract
capital, the one who takes the most 'shortcuts' first sometimes
wins the day, and when this mentality begins to infect the
industry, disaster is only a single miscalculation away.
Well, to our friend
in Basel who wants to regulate these entities, I have some 'late
breaking news' for him, many in the US and its banking/brokerage
sectors will fight that one tooth and nail. It is much harder to
steal with a regulator standing over your shoulder and when
reports that detail transactions must be published and lists of
investors must be submitted for review. There is too much
illicit cash in these funds... like organized crime cash, drug
money you name it. It will be no surprise to me if we find that
Al Qaeda, Hamas or Hizbollah have heavily invested or even own
some of these funds. Now of course the industry will claim they
have clean hands. They will do this as long as they do not have
to provide investors names or institutions that may be only
front companies for international crime or terrorist
organizations.
Hedge funds now are
gaining wide acceptance as investment vehicles because of the
high rate of returns many get. Banks especially are moving
assets into them. They can afford to pay mouthpieces in the
press to praise hedge funds and look the other way at their
darker side. So if you don't hear many in the mainstream press
talking about it, just take a look at the ads in their papers,
TV shows and web pages and you will see why. The entities you see advertising are moving billions in the these funds.
Automotive Blues
Ford may have its
credit
rating downgraded by Standard and Poor's. This will increase
borrowing costs for the venerable firm. The US auto Industry is
in terminal decline. Lets face it. Barring radical change it is
going to go out of business. Many like myself, have noted that
the problems in the Auto industry come from its 'legacy' costs.
Those costs that they have accumulated over time in the form of
pension and health care benefits they paid when the markets were
more favorable to their industry. This is the one of the more
intractable problems. Yet in essence, this is and always has
been a management problem. These firms have borrowed and
borrowed to meet shortfalls and were unwilling to deal with
these issues when their companies were healthy. This has always
been the perennial problem of American management techniques
both business and political; delay critical decisions and put
them off for as long as possible, and then blame someone else
when you can't delay and hide them anymore. This is exactly what
the management at GM has done. While the US auto industry was
churning out those big gas guzzling SUV's, and some of the
ugliest cars on the road, they refused to really push smaller
more economical cars. This short term decision is just one of
the reasons for their problems now. They have dug their own
graves. Now they want to try and rescind their agreements with
labor. Well, this is coming to be sure, but it is unlikely to
save the industry. The management of both Ford and GM cannot see
beyond next months balance sheet and this short-term thinking is
what is destroying these companies. Yes, SUV's have been in big
demand by Americans who cannot see the forest for the trees on
the issue of oil. But they got a good scare when gas was $3.20 a
gallon. Will that wake-up call stop Polly and Zach from plopping
down $45K for a new luxury SUV next year? No. Once that sleek ad
comes on the tube and that Prozac starts whispering in their
ears, they will sit in the dealers office to charge up another
45 thousand dollars that they don't have to get one.
Yet automakers like
Toyota and Honda have done well in making money in the US. While
the legacy costs are substantially higher in a GM and a Ford
than in a Honda or Toyota, the simple fact is that many auto
buyers won't even consider buying an American made car. The
first thing they do when in the market is head to the Japanese
or European dealers. Even with all of the incentives automakers
have put forward, it is not enough to draw these buyers into 3-5
years of debt in order to own a US auto. Why? Years ago it was
clearly a quality issue. American cars brokedown far more often
and had too many mechanical and even repair (as in very
expensive and difficult to fix minor problems) difficulties.
Today the problems are more myriad and less easy to identify.
Some think it is image, others still see the reliability issue
still others being more socially conscious just won't buy US
because of their record on environmental issues, its defense
ties and its sorted history (I still know Jewish folks who will
not drive a Ford because Henry Ford was a rabid anti-Semite and
was an ardent
supporter of Adolf Hitler). The list is endless but when
taken as a whole one can see how a sizable portion of people shy
away from the 'big three'.
However, one trend I
see happening in auto's, both US and foreign, is the use of
unnecessarily high technology and proprietary 'parts' to compel
the buyer to go a dealer to get a car fixed. This creates a
'junkie' that must go to his 'dealer' to get his 'fix'. All of
the major automakers are going to this now. Some are worse than
others. However once a potential automaker who wants to break
into the US market decides to swear off such practices, and
makes it clear that is their policy you may see a shift in the
industry. Right now most folks don't care about such things,
soon they will when they can't afford a new car every 3 years
and are compelled to pay 'pirate' repair rates at the dealer
when the warranty wears out and the local mechanic cannot repair
their cars. The scary part is that the bankruptcy of Delphi
could (worst case) make the availability of some parts
problematic in time depending on how the bankruptcy settlement
shakes out and if other smaller parts makers will be able or
willing to fill the gap with quality parts.
The problems in the
auto industry are not going to go away. Sales
continue to decline despite the incentives, and Toyota and
Honda continue to see healthy gains. This trend is, in my
opinion, irreversible and legacy costs at GM and Ford are only
one part
of a more complex picture that are fully and completely of their
own making.
Are the workers
worried about what could happen to them? You
had better believe it.
End Of Year
Observations
“...the
Soviet Union is gone, the Warsaw Pact is gone, you know, I'm
running out of enemies.”- Chairman JCS Colin Powell
As this year comes to
an end we can see some trends starting to develop. First and
foremost is the our current account deficit. Its trajectory is
unsustainable and cracks are starting to appear. When the US
government can't pay the electricity bill for some of its
overseas facilities (sorry no link) you can be sure that we are
in deeper trouble that most know. Over and over again people
have warned and now it does seem that Congress is waking up out
of its bribe induced slumber. While the solutions proposed right
now smack of the idiotic (there is no other word for it)
partisan bickering that put us into this mess to begin with, the
deeper issues are, as usual, being ignored.
The primary problem
in this authors considered opinion is the cost of America's
National
Security State and its inefficient and corrupt military
procurement system and the unnecessarily obscure accounting and
secrecy that surrounds Americas Intelligence budgets. We have
military equipment that costs billions to maintain that our
military leadership says we no longer need. We keep these items
around because Congress (usually members of the Defense
Appropriation Committees) keep them funded because of jobs in
the state and the lobbyists in their own districts who put
pressure on them. Thus, we have all kinds of weapon systems that
should have been retired years, even decades ago. They will
never be mothballed because of the politics Can you imagine in
the year 2070 still having the C-130 around, an aircraft
designed the 1940's? People have no idea how much it costs just
to maintain our fleet of Aircraft Carriers, the F-15's, F-16's,
C-130's. The costs are enormous and frankly in light of our
budgetary crisis they are unsustainable, mostly unnecessary and
beyond our fiscal ability to pay for. Procurement officials have
been caught red
handed negotiating salaries with the companies they are there to
regulate. I am not the only one sounding the alarm over pork
barrel military procurement spending, here is a statement
by Senator John McCain written back in 2000. The system is
broken. We spend so much money on Defense and National Security
that the government does not even know how much we spend. Some
of it is tucked away into budgets that have nothing to do with
Defense or Intelligence but then are moved over to covert
activities when the need arises. The nature of the procurement
system and the (purported) need for secrecy forbid a real
comprehensive analysis of just how much is really spent.
How many of you know
that the DOD can now do many of the things that were and still
are forbidden by other intelligence services, namely the
CIA. Bush came to power and a 'way around' these long sought
after and hard fought for laws and prohibitions has been found.
These laws insured that our intelligence services operated
within US law and mirrored a set of values that were distinctly
American. Many of the legal prohibitions that are still binding
on certain activities of the CIA are NOT BINDING ON THE DOD.
Each and every one of you needs to take that statement to
heart. Reports of illegal activities abound in Rumsfeld's
DOD but because the Supreme Court, the Congress and Senate are
controlled by the same criminal organization
(the GOP) the corruption not only continues but is growing
exponentially.
US administrations
have always fallen for the old tricks of arms manufactures;
exaggerate the the threat to the US, tout a new weapon system as
the answer to that concocted threat then bid low, have billions
in cost overruns and get rich. It is a trick that is as old as
the Roman Empires fall.
Lets take the F-22,
an aircraft that was originally intended as a counter the Soviet
Threat and their next generation aircraft. Well, I don't know if
Congress has been keeping up with current events but the Soviet
Union is dead (shock! horror!). So lets get down to 'brass
tacks', the demise of the Soviet Union was the biggest threat to
the US defense procurement system ever. So what did the makers
of the F-22 do? They re-marketed the aircraft to do something
new like counter the (Blue-Grey) European threat (??). Well,
when all is said and done we will have and be forced to
maintain all three fighters at a cost that would feed an
entire continent. Given this dynamic America will be well
prepared for 'threats' that are largely only illusory marketing
devices. What we have done, in essence with our procurement
system is built what I call an “immovable
constituency for obsolescence”. This constituency
has a stranglehold on the US military and its lucrative
procurement system and the Congress that approves its budgets.
http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Air_Force
http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Navy
http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Army
I wish I could
provide a fix to these intractable problems. I can't other than
to say this. The American population must (this is
essential) cease and desist voting for the
Democratic and/or Republican parties. Under no circumstances no
matter how reasonable and good the candidate sounds should folks
vote for them. The parties they belong to are totally corrupt
and if a candidate ever decided to really clean things up, they
will not last long. Skiing accidents, plane crashes, scandals,
frame ups, sudden unexplainable 'heart attacks' will be the way
any group of lawmakers will be dealt with who comes after this
system with any determination. If we are to save our nation from
the criminal network that now runs it, we must extricate
ourselves from the two party system.
Here is a start of
just a few of the things that must be done by the populace.
It must demand
real campaign finance reform for without this nothing
else is going to work. You know in Germany all parties by law
get equal air time (or at least they used to). All ideas get
aired into the mainstream, not just the ones who have the most
money behind them. If this were enacted here it would
neutralize the big spending. All parties will get only X amount
of time and space no matter how much money they have.
It must demand
that the criminals in the Senate, House and the DOD do
hard-time for their criminal acts for if they are let
off with only a slap on the wrist, a new group of criminals
will move in to take their place realizing that there is no
punishment for billion dollar fraud.
It must demand
that all future Attorney Generals are not part of
a sitting Presidential Administration but are an entity unto
themselves and not beholden to political parties, (perhaps
directly elected in camping finance reformed elections).
It must demand
that the Supreme Court interpret the Constitution to mean the
simple, plain-English meaning of the words. In other words, No
war without a Congressional Declaration. Today the
Supreme Court has allowed juxtaposing of the phrase 'Congress
shall declare war' to mean, 'the President shall declare war',
In clear contravention to the Constitution. The
sitting Justices must be subjected to some sort of review to
insure that they are interpreting our founding document ONLY
(with American historical documents as the Federalist papers as
a guide). Most should not be allowed to return to the
Bench (every one who voted that foul 'eminent domain' ruling
into law for starters). They must stop using other legal
opinions from third world dictatorships, monarchies, and
communist nations to formulate its rulings, as they do now. The
Court has allowed the unconstitutional Federal Reserve to ruin
our economy by once again refusing to enforce the plain meaning
of the words when it says that Congress has the rights now
passed over to the Fed. I said this last month and I will say
it again. The Supreme Court is the biggest problem in America
we would not be in this predicament if they knew how to read
English.
It must demand free and fair elections. If
electronic voting is to be the norm then some sort of
(auditable) paper trail needs to put in place. Some sort of
independent review board (not connected to the political
parties as many State AG's are) needs to be set up to stop any
official from ascending to power when vote fraud is suspected.
Long (at least 10 year) prison sentences need to be handed out
to anyone involved in election fraud at any level. A task force
inside each state needs to be set up to investigate vigorously
any credible allegation of fraud.
I am under no
illusions, Polly and Zach haven't got a clue that there is a
problem. They are too busy taking junior to the latest
witchcraft
movie in the theaters and pushing those goofy shopping carts
around discount stores. This is why the Coming Economic
Depression and all its accompanying horrors are heading our way
like a runaway freight train. This could have all been avoided
but the courage that made America great has given way to a
cowardice, intellectual and otherwise, that is causing its rapid
decline. From financial punditry to even more alternative sites
and blogs, there is still that unwillingness to look at problems
head on and tackle them with any sincerity. Yes, many do talk
about it, but in some of their writings you smell the whiff of
fear when they refuse to deal with such issues as the Fed no
longer telling us how much money is being printed. It is a
cowardice that is more often than not, bred out of a fear of
loss of revenue and traffic. In my opinion, the lowest form of
life on earth is a coward. The coward is brother to the liar and
each give birth to their offspring, theft and murder. They are
all beneath contempt. It is my hope that these writers who are
running 'interference' for those elements who created our fiscal
mess get that streak of yellow out of their souls and start
holding our financial elite responsible for the mess they have
created.
Other News.
Thousands upon
Thousands of Americans are waking up to a nightmare. They have
no home but still
must pay the mortgage. Who have you to thank? George W.
Bush, who refused to fix the levees when told they needed it
and then fixed the laws so these people cannot
declare bankruptcy.
Porn Stories of
the Vice
Presidents Wife and The Vice Presidents former
Chief of Staff show the moral degeneracy of our leadership.
Is it any wonder our nation is reviled around the world and our
policies are morally bankrupt? You have sex-freaks running our
government! The porn stars of America are often invited to the
White House. With the Clinton Administration is was convicted
drug dealers, With Bush is its porn stars. We are turning into
the United States of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The slow
inevitable signs of fiscal insolvency are showing up in various
parts of the nation as in
this story.
Fascism
in America? A most interesting read because if you want to
know where we are heading you need to know where we have been.
Ford cut
its workforce at its Volvo Subdivison by 5.3%.
A pension
gap is forcing budget cuts in the affluent Orange County.
The agency that
is the backstop for Pensions when companies go bankrupt is
facing a massive deficit.
The Cayman Islands Registered its 10,000th Hedge Fund.
Last but
certainly not least...
For those of you who
have enjoyed this series, look for changes ahead. Big changes.
There may be a couple of months gap between this and the next
update and what form it takes has not been decided. I truly and
humbly thank all of my readers for spending your valuable time
here and listening to me discuss our economic and political
problems in this series. I am surprised at how many folks read
my monthly 'rants'. It is very humbling for I have discovered
that some pretty powerful folks read this series. I do hope you
don't mind my rather informal style too much but I am to writing
to inform, not impress.
For those of you who
are wondering if I plan on charging for this I can say that I am
considering it but probably won't. Even if I do it will be in
the form of a micro-payment, ie, $2.00 or less per issue.
Believe me I am really going to try and avoid that but hey... I
too have a mortgage and the bank wants their money every month,
on time, no exceptions!
Take care and God
Bless each of you with a happy and prosperous new year. I
believe that all truth seekers will ultimately
find what they are looking for and that is the greatest blessing
of all.
If
wisdom shall enter into thy heart, and knowledge please thy
soul: Counsel shall keep thee, and prudence shall preserve thee,
That thou mayst be delivered from the evil way, and from the man
that speaketh perverse things: Who leave the right way, and walk
by dark ways:
(Pro
2:10-13)
By,
Mark
S. Watson
 *or*
Anyone
interested in purchasing a copy of Conquer The Crash or Prechter's Perspectives at a
very reasonable price can e-mail me at
offer-crash@markswatson.com
Only While Supplies Last!!
Great
Links
Financial
Sense Online An
excellent web site dedicated to giving sound financial
information as well as investment advice. This site also has one
of the best internet
radio shows
around. Highly recommended!
Prudent
Bear's Credit Bubble Bulletin
Crashmaker
– A Fantastic article of the fiscal realities that will
bring about the greatest financial reorganization in human
history.
The
Larouche Movement. Many have foolishly mocked these people but
everything they have predicted has and is coming to pass.
(yes... I know many of you hate this guy but his
economic research is pretty good and more honest than the
numbers coming out of the BLS)
Crash
News - A daily snippet of the real financial news
Depression
TV - The depression will not be televised...
Preventing
A Banking Crisis in The Future
Urban
Survival
Peak
Oil - One factor that is already beginning to weigh on the
US economy in is the fact that oil production world wide is set
to permanently decline in the near term. This paper deals with
this issue.
The
Forex Manual: Learning Forex Trading Strategies
Mark
S. Watson
http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Air_Force
http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Navy
http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Army
GM
By,
Mark
S. Watson
|