Posted on 11/20/2008 9:56:17 AM PST by Red in Blue PA
Scan these 30 "leading indicators." Each problem has one or more possible solutions, but lacks unified political support. Time's running out. We're already at the edge. Add up the trillions in debt: Any collective solution will only compound our problems, because the cumulative debt will overwhelm us, make matters worse: -America's credit rating may soon be downgraded below AAA -Fed refusal to disclose $2 trillion loans, now the new "shadow banking system" -Congress has no oversight of $700 billion, and Paulson's Wall Street Trojan Horse -King Henry Paulson flip-flops on plan to buy toxic bank assets, confusing markets -Goldman, Morgan lost tens of billions, but planning over $13 billion in bonuses this year -AIG bails big banks out of $150 billion in credit swaps, protects shareholders before taxpayers -American Express joins Goldman, Morgan as bank holding firms, looking for Fed money -Treasury sneaks corporate tax credits into bailout giveaway, shifts costs to states -State revenues down, taxes and debt up; hiring, spending, borrowing add even more debt -State, municipal, corporate pensions lost hundreds of billions on derivative swaps -Consumer debt way up, now at $2.5 trillion; next area for credit meltdowns -Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are bleeding cash, want to tap taxpayer dollars -Hidden costs of $700 billion bailout are likely $5 trillion; plus $1 trillion Street write-offs Commodities down, resource exporters and currencies dropping, triggering a global meltdown -Big three automakers near bankruptcy; unions, workers, retirees will suffer -Corporate bond market, both junk and top-rated, slumps more than 25% -Unemployment heading toward 8% plus; more 1930's photos of soup lines -Government policy is dictated by 42,000 myopic, highly paid, greedy lobbyists -The 800-pound gorillas: Social Security, Medicare with $60 trillion in unfunded liabilities
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Scan these 30 “leading indicators.” Each problem has one or more possible solutions, but lacks unified political support. Time’s running out. We’re already at the edge. Add up the trillions in debt: Any collective solution will only compound our problems, because the cumulative debt will overwhelm us, make matters worse:
America’s credit rating may soon be downgraded below AAA
Fed refusal to disclose $2 trillion loans, now the new “shadow banking system”
Congress has no oversight of $700 billion, and Paulson’s Wall Street Trojan Horse
King Henry Paulson flip-flops on plan to buy toxic bank assets, confusing markets
Goldman, Morgan lost tens of billions, but planning over $13 billion in bonuses this year
AIG bails big banks out of $150 billion in credit swaps, protects shareholders before taxpayers
American Express joins Goldman, Morgan as bank holding firms, looking for Fed money
Treasury sneaks corporate tax credits into bailout giveaway, shifts costs to states
State revenues down, taxes and debt up; hiring, spending, borrowing add even more debt
State, municipal, corporate pensions lost hundreds of billions on derivative swaps
Hedge funds: 610 in 1990, almost 10,000 now. Returns down 15%, liquidations up
Consumer debt way up, now at $2.5 trillion; next area for credit meltdowns
Fed also plans to provide billions to $3.6 trillion money-market fund industry
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are bleeding cash, want to tap taxpayer dollars
Washington manipulating data: War not $600 billion but estimates actually $3 trillion
Hidden costs of $700 billion bailout are likely $5 trillion; plus $1 trillion Street write-offs
Commodities down, resource exporters and currencies dropping, triggering a global meltdown
Big three automakers near bankruptcy; unions, workers, retirees will suffer
Corporate bond market, both junk and top-rated, slumps more than 25%
Retailers bankrupt: Circuit City, Sharper Image, Mervyns; mall sales in free fall
Unemployment heading toward 8% plus; more 1930’s photos of soup lines
Government policy is dictated by 42,000 myopic, highly paid, greedy lobbyists
China’s sees GDP growth drop, crates $586 billion stimulus; deflation is now global, hitting even Dubai
Despite global recession, U.S. trade deficit continues, now at $650 billion
The 800-pound gorillas: Social Security, Medicare with $60 trillion in unfunded liabilities
Now 46 million uninsured as medical, drug costs explode
New-New Deal: U.S. planning billions for infrastructure, adding to unsustainable debt
Outgoing leaders handicapping new administration with huge liabilities
The “antitaxes” message is a new bubble, a new version of the American dream offering a free lunch, no sacrifices, exposing us to more false promises
Must have line breaks.
Must have line breaks.
Thanks.
1) CUT TAXES
2) Reduce the size of the Fderal Government by one third.
3) Cut HHS division by 99%.
Don’t worry Obama is definitely going to be cutting taxes and reducing the size of government. We are in great shape! ;)
Bush and his pals haven’t exactly done a good job these past 4 years!
But the big shocker came from the new Treasury secretary two years before the meltdown: Bloomberg News reports that shortly after leaving Wall Street as Goldman Sachs’ CEO, Henry Paulson was at Camp David warning the president and his staff of “over-the-counter derivatives as an example of financial innovation that could, under certain circumstances, blow up in Wall Street’s face and affect the whole economy.”
Yes, they knew. And still both Paulson, a Wall Street insider, and Greenspan’s successor, Ben Bernanke, a Princeton scholar of the Great Depression, stayed trapped in denial and kept happy-talking the public for months after the meltdown began in mid-2007. Get it? While they could have put the brakes on this meltdown years ago, our leaders were prisoners of their distorted, inflexible views of conservative Reaganomics ideology.
no doubt!
1. America’s credit rating may soon be downgraded below AAA
2. Fed refusal to disclose $2 trillion loans, now the new “shadow banking system”
3. Congress has no oversight of $700 billion, and Paulson’s Wall Street Trojan Horse
4. King Henry Paulson flip-flops on plan to buy toxic bank assets, confusing markets
5. Goldman, Morgan lost tens of billions, but planning over $13 billion in bonuses this year
6. AIG bails big banks out of $150 billion in credit swaps, protects shareholders before taxpayers
7. American Express joins Goldman, Morgan as bank holding firms, looking for Fed money
8. Treasury sneaks corporate tax credits into bailout giveaway, shifts costs to states
9. State revenues down, taxes and debt up; hiring, spending, borrowing add even more debt
10. State, municipal, corporate pensions lost hundreds of billions on derivative swaps
11. Hedge funds: 610 in 1990, almost 10,000 now. Returns down 15%, liquidations up
12. Consumer debt way up, now at $2.5 trillion; next area for credit meltdowns
13. Fed also plans to provide billions to $3.6 trillion money-market fund industry
14. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are bleeding cash, want to tap taxpayer dollars
15. Washington manipulating data: War not $600 billion but estimates actually $3 trillion
16. Hidden costs of $700 billion bailout are likely $5 trillion; plus $1 trillion Street write-offs
17. Commodities down, resource exporters and currencies dropping, triggering a global meltdown
18. Big three automakers near bankruptcy; unions, workers, retirees will suffer
19. Corporate bond market, both junk and top-rated, slumps more than 25%
20. Retailers bankrupt: Circuit City, Sharper Image, Mervyns; mall sales in free fall
21. Unemployment heading toward 8% plus; more 1930’s photos of soup lines
22. Government policy is dictated by 42,000 myopic, highly paid, greedy lobbyists
23. China’s sees GDP growth drop, crates $586 billion stimulus; deflation is now global, hitting even Dubai
24. Despite global recession, U.S. trade deficit continues, now at $650 billion
25. The 800-pound gorillas: Social Security, Medicare with $60 trillion in unfunded liabilities
26. Now 46 million uninsured as medical, drug costs explode
27. New-New Deal: U.S. planning billions for infrastructure, adding to unsustainable debt
28. Outgoing leaders handicapping new administration with huge liabilities
29. The “antitaxes” message is a new bubble, a new version of the American dream offering a free lunch, no sacrifices, exposing us to more false promises
30. At a recent Reuters Global Finance Summit former Goldman Sachs chairman John Whitehead was interviewed. He was also Ronald Reagan’s Deputy Secretary of State and a former chairman of the N.Y. Fed. He says America’s problems will take years and will burn trillions.
“We are going to cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans.”
-Obama
Thnak you.
True - but you can’t blame this all on his administration like so many want to. Congress is more at fault than most want to believe. Plus this financial meltdown has been in the works for years since CRA was created by the one and only Carter and the Clinton administration got rid of Glass/Steagle and expanded the CRA and encouraged more subprime loans and then the dems refusing to regulate fannie and freddie is prob. the main reason that this whole snowball effect began... Let’s not forget that the Up Tick Rule was also thrown out (I believe under Clinton) which put more regulations on short selling stocks - getting rid of that regulation allowed for all the “naked” shorts and gave the hedge funds that much more power! The fuel/oil prices would have also been lower if Congress would have allowed for drilling - but heaven forbid the caribou are harmed (although studies show that the warmth from the gas lines etc. help them). This is madness!
One reason - a third hit on NY in 2010.
Why would you think it will take so long to evolve into a full fledged depreddion?
it seems to me that we will be able to get there within a few months.
Paul Farrell is full of SH*T!
” Reaganomic ideologues weren’t so myopic and intransigent about proving their free-market deregulation theories, they could have acted earlier and prevented today’s colossal mess. Instead, their ideology kept the bubble blowing, delayed the pop, making matters worse.”
WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP ! IT WAS THE CARTER/CLINTON SOCIALIST EXPERIMENT CALLED THE COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT ACT THAT LIT THE FUSE:
The Trillion-Dollar Bank Shakedown That Bodes Ill for Cities
Howard Husock
Winter 2000
The Clinton administration has turned the Community Reinvestment Act, a once-obscure and lightly enforced banking regulation law, into one of the most powerful mandates shaping American cities—and, as Senate Banking Committee chairman Phil Gramm memorably put it, a vast extortion scheme against the nation’s banks. Under its provisions, U.S. banks have committed nearly $1 trillion for inner-city and low-income mortgages and real estate development projects, most of it funneled through a nationwide network of left-wing community groups, intent, in some cases, on teaching their low-income clients that the financial system is their enemy and, implicitly, that government, rather than their own striving, is the key to their well-being.
http://www.city-journal.org/html/10_1_the_trillion_dollar.html
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4) Ctrl-Alt-Delete
I don’t know if the following is included in the list, but if not, it should be taken into consideration:
Many of the bad so-called “no-doc” (there are several variations of no documentation loans) loans made during the home buying frenzy of 2004, 2005 and 2006 have variable arms - many/most of which have not hit the fan, so to speak, but will implode in the next few years.
Hmm, happy times..../s
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