Socio-Economics History Blog

Socio-Economics & History Commentary

Professor Chossudovsky: US Will Start WW3 By Attacking Iran !

end

February 20, 2010 Posted by | GeoPolitics | , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Charles Ortel: Risks of U.S. Default Are Very Real !

  • The Feds will print money out of thin air increasingly to monetize their debts. Foreign buyers are turning away from US treasuries. This will be a stealth default via inflation. It means currency debasement and inflation is a silent tax on savings. So, it punishes the prudent and savers but rewards the profligate. Yahoo Finance reports:
      
    With America facing $1 trillion annual deficits and debt-to-GDP ratios on par with those of Europe’s so-called PIGS, some are asking what was once unthinkable: Is the U.S. at risk of defaulting on its debt?
     
    Earlier this week, Nobel-prize winning economist
    Joseph Stiglitz told Tech Ticker the U.S. “has absolutely no real problem servicing the debt at the current level”; meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner recently said America will “never” lose its vaunted triple-A credit rating after Moody’s suggested it was a possibility if we don’t get our fiscal house in order.
     
    Take a hard look at America’s balance sheet and “you have to be concerned,” says Charles Ortel, managing director of Newport Value Partners. Total gross U.S. debt is now $50 trillion or 12 times the nation’s total gross income, according to Ortel, whose debt calculation excludes unfunded mandates such as Social Security and Medicaid but does include corporate debt which he says are “potentially eligible for bailouts.”
     
    Furthermore, Ortel says the Federal Reserve overestimates U.S. household net worth, because most of the “asset” side of the ledger is based on real estate valuations he says are overinflated. “A strict, hard look at the national net worth statement will tell you that our assets are lower than you think and our debt is higher than you think,” he says.
     
    While the risk of an imminent U.S. default remains low, Ortel says the U.S. is facing a “crisis of confidence” among global investors and recommends credit default swaps on U.S. Treasuries. Ortel made a similar recommendation to clients back in August 2008. The price of those instruments rose in value during the second half of 2008 and early 2009, then declined as the crisis abated. But sovereign CDS have risen again in value in the wake of debt crises in Dubai and Greece, and
    Citigroup notes U.S. swap spreads have widened at the second-fastest rate since Jan. 1, trailing only the euro zone.

end

February 20, 2010 Posted by | Economics | , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

GEAB N°42 : Towards a Global Systemic Crisis of the World Economy!

It ain't pretty and much worse than Greece!

  • To sift through the paid for propaganda from the western MSM, we need to goto objective reports. One such report is the GEAB series which I have found to be quite good. It tells the facts straight up. No exaggeration or painting an optimistic beautiful lie. Is the world really out of the woods? Not by a long shot! GEAB N°42 reports:
      
    GEAB N°42 is available! Second half of 2010: Sudden intensification of the global systemic crisis – Strengthening of five fundamental negative trends.
     
    LEAP/E2020 is of the view that the effect of States’ spending trillions to « counteract the crisis » will have fizzled out. These vast sums had the effect of slowing down the development of the systemic global crisis for several months but, as anticipated in previous GEAB reports, this strategy will only have ultimately served to clearly drag States into the crisis caused by the financial institutions.
     
    Therefore our team anticipates, in this 42nd issue of the GEAB, a sudden intensification of the crisis in the second half of 2010, caused by a double effect of a catching up of events which were temporarily « frozen » in the second half of 2009 and the impossibility of maintaining the palliative remedies of past years.
     
    As a matter of fact, in February 2010, a year after us stating that the end of 2009 would mark the beginning of the phase of global geopolitical dislocation, anyone can see that this process is well established: states on the edge of bankruptcy, remorseless rise in unemployment, millions of people coming to the end of their social security benefits, falling wages and salaries, limiting of public services and disintegration of the global governance system (failure of the Copenhagen summit, growing Chinese/US confrontation, return of the risk of an Iran/Israel/USA conflict, wars worldwide… (1)). However, we are only at the start of this phase for which LEAP/E2020 will supply a likely timeframe in the next GEAB issue.
     
    The sudden intensification of the global systemic crisis will be characterised by the acceleration and/or strengthening of five fundamental negative trends:
     
    . the explosion of the bubble in public deficits and a corresponding increase in state defaults
    . the fatal impact of the Western banking system with mounting debt defaults and the wall of debt coming to maturity
    . the inescapable rise in interest rates
    . the increase in issues causing international tension
    . a growing social insecurity.
     
    In this GEAB issue our team expands on the first three trends of these developments including an anticipation on Russia’s position in the face of the crisis, as well as, of course, our monthly suggestions.
     
    In this public announcement, we have chosen to analyse the « Greek case », on the one hand because it seems indicative of what 2010 has in store for us, and on the other because it is a perfect illustration of the way in which news and information on the world crisis is moving towards « make-believe news » between blocs and interests which are increasingly in conflict. Clearly it is a « must » to learn how to decipher worldwide news and information in the months and years to come which will be a growing means of manipulatory activity.
     

    The five characteristics which make up the « Greek case » into the tree with which one tries to hide the forest
     
    Let’s take a look at the « Greek case » which has concerned the media and experts for several weeks now. Before entering into the detail of what is happening, there are five key points to our anticipation on the subject:
     
    1. As we stated in our anticipations for 2010, which appeared in the last GEAB issue (
    GEAB N°41, the Greek problem will have disappeared from the international media’s radar several weeks from now. It is the tree used to hide both a forest of much more dangerous sovereign debt (to be precise that of Washington and London) and the beginning of a further fall in the world economy, led by the United States (2).
     
    2. The Greek problem is an internal issue for the Eurozone and the EU, and the current situation provides, at last, a unique occasion for the Eurozone leaders to require Greece (a case of « failed enlargement » since 1982) to leave its feudal political and economic system behind. The other Eurozone countries, led by Germany, will do the necessary to make Greek leaders bring their country into the XXIst century in exchange for their help, at the same time making use of the fact that Greece only represents 2.5% of Eurozone GDP (3) to test the stabilisation mechanisms that the Eurozone needs in times of crisis (4).
     
    3. Ango-Saxon leaders and media are using the current situation (just like last year with the so-called banking tsunami coming from Eastern Europe which was going to carry the Eurozone away with it (5)) to hide the catastrophic progression of their economies and public debt and attempt to weaken the attractiveness of the Eurozone at a time when the USA and the United Kingdom have increasing difficulty in attracting the capital which they so desperately need. At the same time Washington and London (which, since the coming into effect of the Lisbon Treaty is completely excluded from any management of the Euro) would be overjoyed to see the IMF, which they control completely (6), brought into Eurozone management.
     
    4. Eurozone leaders are very happy to see the Euro fall to 1.35 against the Dollar. They well know that it won’t last because the current problem is the fall in the value of the Dollar (and the Pound Sterling), but they appreciate this « whiff of oxygen » for their exporters.
     
    5. The speculators (hedge funds and others) and banks heavily involved with Greece (7), have a common interest in trying to bring about rapid Eurozone financial support for Greece, since otherwise the rating agencies will, unintentionally, pull a fast one on them if the Europeans refuse to dig into their pockets (like the scandalous actions of Paulson and Geithner over AIG and Wall Street in 2008/2009): indeed a lowering of Greece’s rating will plunge this small world into the throes of serious financial losses if, for the banks, their Greek loans are similarly devalued, or if their bets against the Euro don’t work out in due course (8).
     
    Goldman Sachs’ role in this Greek tragedy… and the next sovereign defaults 
      
    …  In this phase of the global systemic crisis, the role of the « bad guy » is usually played by one of Wall Street’s big investment banks, in particular by the leader of the gang, Goldman Sachs. The « Greek case » is no different as indeed this New York investment bank is directly implicated in the budgetary conjuring tricks which allowed Greece to qualify for Euro entry, whilst its actual budget deficits would have disqualified it. In reality it was Goldman Sachs who, in 2002, created one of its cunning financial models of which it holds the secret (9) and which, almost systematically resurfaces several years later, to blow up the client. But what does it matter, since GS (Goldman Sachs) profits were the beneficiary!
     
    In the Greek case what the investment bank proposed was very simple: raise a loan which didn’t appear in the budget (a
    swap agreement which enabled a ficticious reduction in the size of the Greek public deficit (10). The Greek leaders at the time were, of course, 100% liable and should, in LEAP/E2020’s opinion, be subjected to Greek and European political and legal process for having cheated the EU and their own citizens within the framework of a major historic event, the creation of the single European currency.
     
    But, let’s be clear, the liability of the New York investment bank (as an accomplice) is just as great, especially when one is aware of the fact that Goldman Sachs’ vice-president for Europe was, at the time, a certain Mario Draghi (11), currently President of the Italian Central Bank and a candidate (12) to succeed Jean-Claude Trichet at the head of the European Central Bank (13). 
      …..
    With this same logic, on the issue of transparency in financial activities and state budgets and using the ill-fated role of Goldman Sachs and of the large investment banks in general as an illustration, LEAP/E2020 takes the view that it would be beneficial for the European Union and its five hundred million citizens, to exclude former managers of these investment banks (19) from any post of financial, budgetary and economic control (ECB, European Commission, National Central Banks). The mixing of these relationships can only lead to even greater confusion between public and private interests, which can only be to the detriment of European public interests. To begin with, the Eurozone should immediately require the Greek government to stop calling on the services of Goldman Sachs which, according to the
    Financial Times of 01/28/2010, it still uses. 
      …..
    To conclude, our team suggests a game to convince those who seek where the next sovereign debt crisis will surface: simply look for those states which have called upon Goldman Sachs’ services in the last few years and you will have a serious lead (21)!
      
     
     

    2008 comparison of the deficits and Eurozone GDP of Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France and Germany – Source: Der Spiegel / European Commission, 02/2010

  • See also:
     
    GEAB N°41: The Decade 2010 – 2020, Towards A Knockout Victory By Gold Over The Dollar!   
    GEAB N°40: Growing Sovereign Debt Default Risk Will Drive Central Banks Toward Gold!
    Global Systemic Crisis: In pursuit of the Impossible Economic Recovery !
    GEAB: China’s Great Escape from the Dollar Trap !

end

February 20, 2010 Posted by | Economics, GeoPolitics | , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Bob Chapman: The Illuminati Engineered This Sovereign Debt Crisis To Bankrupt Nations. The End Game is War, Depopulation, World Government And One World Currency !

  • Bob Chapman on The Sovereign Economist radio talk show on 17 Feb 2010. Key points:
     
    - This is an Illuminati engineered crisis to bankrupt nations and goto war. The endgame is a world government, global fascist police state.
     
    - A global central bank and one world currency are planned.
    - Greece is but the beginning of more sovereign debt defaults.
    - America will face a devaluation of the USD in 1-1.5 years time.
     
    - The Illuminati elites are planning a meeting like the one  in the early seventies where currencies will all revalue and devalue against each other. Debts will be settled or defaulted. Some countries may have to take a 66% write down of the debts.
     
    - They will attempt to form an international trading union.
    - The world elite have some nasty plans for the planet , and they won’t hesitate to get rid of 60% to 80% of world population through manufactured viruses diseases and wars.
     
    - Greece and Dubai affairs are precursors to some big changes unfolding in the coming few years. And many more issues….

end

February 20, 2010 Posted by | Economics, GeoPolitics | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Britain At Risk Of Worse Deficit Crisis Than Greece!

end

February 20, 2010 Posted by | Economics | , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

How Iceland Was Bankrupted ! Confessions of An Economic Hitman!

end

February 20, 2010 Posted by | Economics, GeoPolitics, History | , , , , , , | Comments Off

   

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 534 other followers