Posted on 12/12/2007 6:38:09 AM PST by John Leland 1789
U.S. Economy: Boom, Gloom, Doom!
Don Boys, Ph.D.
We can almost hear the prancing and pawing of the four horses of the Apocalypse and the birds of prey are gathering for a great feast. The vultures soar overhead as they anticipate picking the bones of a once-mighty nation. Melodramatic? Don’t think so. Look at the facts:
The dollar, once the world’s currency, lies limp on the floor and is losing value every day. The stock market zips to record highs then loses a 1,000 points is a few days: up and down like a yo-yo. The world’s stock markets are as volatile and dangerous as a kid standing in a pool of gasoline, flicking a cigarette lighter.
Major industries have packed up and moved their operations to foreign nations after a hundred years in the U.S. Hundreds of major companies have laid off thousands of workers and those workers have discovered that the fast food places only need so many hamburger flippers. Food, gasoline, and heating oil are at all time highs. Our national debt is over 9 trillion dollars!
Gold is at a 27 year high and experts expect it to go to $2000.00 since gold markets seem to have the ability to sense blood in the streets—Wall Street, flowing into Main Street. Personal and business bankruptcies are into the stratosphere followed by credit card debt so high that many are unable to make payments.
Housing bubbles have been popping for months and hundreds of thousands of Americans are either walking away from their mortgages and their homes or are being forced out of them as home values plunge toward the basement. The popping can be heard across the nation and it is only the beginning. Reuters news service reported that Fannie Mae, the largest U.S. mortgage finance company, “revealed its third-quarter net loss doubled from last year as slumping home prices and a credit squeeze drove down values of mortgage securities.”
Furthermore, the credit crisis deepened as the chickens came home to roost--in some of our largest banks! What a mess! The last few years banks have touted that people can “take cash value” out of their homes as if their houses were an insurance policy. Many people with limited income have taken second and third mortgages on their homes to pay monthly operating expenses. Then some dummies even used such money to invest in stocks that are in a freefall. Now they blame others for their financial disaster!
For a few years, young couples have not needed a down payment on a house and innovative financing has put millions of average income people into expensive homes. The sucker loan whereby new home owners started out with a low interest mortgage has now swung around and smacked borrowers in the face with monthly payments doubling! Since hundreds of thousands of homeowners can no longer make monthly payments, the lending institutions have discovered that they are in the real estate business—with plenty of houses for sale—at a greatly reduced price.
Homes are worth less than half the amount they were at the time of the loan and the owners can’t make the payments. The homeowners are weeping copious tears that they didn’t know what they were doing and are demanding that the “government do something to help” bail them out. Of course.
Consequently the banks are hurting bad along with their investors (and the former homeowners). Cutting through the jargon, the world’s largest bank, Citigroup wrote down $5.9 billion in assets in the third quarter because of their easy credit policies. They announced on Dec. 3 that they were going to lay off as many as 45,000 employees! Wachovia, the forth largest U.S. bank, also stumbled during the past few days for the same reason, reporting “a potential $1.7 billion loss on mortgage-related debt.” Credit Suisse Group, Switzerland ’s largest bank is suffering from the same sickness.
It really doesn’t matter whether banks fail because of investors fear of failure or if a depression causes it. The lines could start forming any day at your local banks. One financial advisor said of Citigroup, “If it goes…we all go.”
China made massive waves recently when they suggested that they may get out of U.S. dollars and sell our notes. When that happens, get out of the way because there will be a stampede for the exits and millions of people will be trampled under foot. Middle East nations are making similar noises suggesting that they may not accept dollars for oil. If that scenario becomes reality the Great Depression of 1929 will be considered the dress rehearsal for the Big Event of 2008. A second possibility is the Feds could run all the printing presses day and night and your $200,000 home would be worth $2,000,000. Well, haven’t you always wanted to live in a multi-million-dollar home? But then a loaf of bread might cost you $25.00!
It is no surprise that headlines screamed: “Gloom envelops world markets”; “London bounce fades as bank woes deepen”; “Hundreds of banks threatened by new subprime crisis”; “Asian financial shares hit again”; “Banks drag down markets”; “Markets: values plummet on gloom”; “Recovery in US corporate loans stalls”; “Stocks Fall on Fresh Woes in Banking Sector.” The U.S. and most of the world have experienced financial boom times and are now facing gloom times with fear that it will end in doom times.
A ticking time bomb is going to explode any day.
Copyright 2007, Don Boys, Ph.D.
(Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives, author of 13 books, frequent guest on television and radio talk shows, and wrote columns for USA Today for 8 years His most recent book is ISLAM: America 's Trojan Horse! His websites are www.cstnews.com and www.Muslimfact.com.)
And where is this? I can't think of any market where home values are down 50% from a year or two ago. NOWHERE.
This author is either an idiot, or an idiot with an agenda.
Clinton Basks in Buffett Glow (Democrats Now Believe Econnomy Will Be The 2008 Issue)
I'm in favor of the Old Testament system for testing and punishing prophets -- If a prophet predicted something and turned out wrong, he was taken out and stoned to death for being a false prophet.
An old idea that may need to be dusted off, IMHO.
Ain’t it a beautiful thing? Just as easy to buy puts as it is to buy calls...
For a Ph.D. in chemistry or anything else I don't how you spent so much time in school and still say, "There is people ...
‘spread the doe’
Isn’t that what hunters do?
Sure enough they were going for fifty percent off at auction. I was not surprised to hear one woman compalin,”they promised they would not go below market value”. When you have a public auction with a crowd of bidders what does she think the high bid is? I believe that would be market value by definition.
yeah, typical liberal alright...
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Anyone who doesn’t believe the economy is all roses and clover is branded a liberal on FR! I am often called one myself because I simply don’t buy into the, “we are all so much richer than ever” line.
A little over the top.
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He had a legitimate case to make but he overstated it. It does seem that some housing markets are off by fifty percent though and there are a lot of other things that do not bode well for the immediate future.
And where is this? I can’t think of any market where home values are down 50% from a year or two ago. NOWHERE.
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Check the youtube link on post 11.
I smell a Paulistinian.
How I wish I had a dollar for each time a nutcase applies his or her political dreams on basic economic math.
I’ve seen this for over a decade on the internet. And guess what?
Over that decade the economy has boomed, the number of jobs available exploded, unemployment rates are at near historical lows for years now, the stockmarket is skyhigh, interest rates are very low, and my companies are doing very well.
Uh huh...if this is a bad economy, give me MORE of it.
It does seem that some housing markets are off by fifty percent ............
Can you name one ?
You know, if this guy got together on a team that included Pat Buchanan and Pat Robertson and Doc Kervorkian and wrote a few books, gave a few seminars and sold DIY suicide kits; they’d really be rich!
GOT GOLD?
For a Ph.D. in chemistry or anything else I don’t how you spent so much time in school and still say, “There is people ...
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Watch out, you will be branded a “grammar policeman”! Proper English usage is considered a useless skill now. I am cursed with what J.J. Kilpatrick used to call an “ear” for the language. I may not always use it correctly but I almost always know when someone else makes an error and it is sometimes painful for me to listen to the news on TV now. There are so many errors by “professional journalists” that it is hard to believe.
Seriously though, if we are producing PHD graduates who say things like, “there is people”, we are entering a dark age indeed.
Greetings from a high school graduate.
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