Starting off with a quote from Mish:
While the trigger may be a deadly shooting by police, I believe the cause is social-breakdown fueled by rising unemployment, loss of dignity, and a desperate realization that hope for a better future and for government to do something responsible about jobs and rising food prices is fruitless. (emphasis mine) Continue Reading…
On the heels of an article from Al Jazeera, noting Papandreou warning against a ‘catastrophic’ default, I noticed a second article from the Guardian describing the scene on the square in front of the Greek capital at it plays host to thousands of enraged citizens. Continue Reading…
I finally had a chance to watch Inside Job, advertised as the “THE FILM THAT COST OVER $20,000,000,000,000 TO MAKE”.
The Inside Job study guide states:
Inside Job, the critically acclaimed movie by Academy Award nominated filmmaker, Charles Ferguson, is the definitive film about the economic crisis of 2008 and the role of Wall Street in modern society. It is a substantive and entertaining film that is ideal for educational purposes.
If you haven’t heard the recent King World News interview with Nigel Farage, I recommend you give it a listen. For the uninformed, Nigel Farage is a British politician, founding member of the UK Independence Party, etc. Continue Reading…
This is going to be brief, but here are my thoughts on Zuckerberg vs. Assange for Times Person Of The Year:
Zuckerberg’s company builds software that continually exposes more and more information about individuals, (via poor privacy settings, sending extensive data to third party applications, location monitoring, facial tagging, etc.) allowing governments to spy on its citizens. Continue Reading…
The U.S. dollar is “one step nearer” to a crisis as debt levels in the world’s largest economy increase, said Yu Yongding, a former adviser to China’s central bank.
Any appreciation of the dollar is “really temporary” and a devaluation of the currency is inevitable as U.S. debt rises…
“Such a huge amount of debt is terrible,” Yu said. “The situation will be worsening day by day. I think we are one step nearer to a U.S.-dollar crisis.”
Yu also said China is worried about the safety of its foreign-exchange reserves including those invested in U.S…
China, the biggest foreign investor in U.S. government bonds, cut its holdings by about 10 percent to $846.7 billion in the 12 months ended July, according to the Treasury Department.
U.S. Treasuries fail to provide safety or liquidity in managing China’s $2.45 trillion foreign-exchange reserves, Yu said in an e-mail in August.
via bloomberg.com
In a desperate attempt to fill a $70 million budget hole, Newark’s mayor is taking a chainsaw to the town’s budget — even going so far as to cut toilet paper from the 2010 budget.
via globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
But the economy is fine. You just have to bring your own toilet paper to work, that’s all.
Several top U.S. asset managers, on being told by John Levin (HSBC Bank’s Managing Director, Global Metals and Trading) that HSBC’s U.S. vaults had sufficient space available to store bullion, was told that they did not want their gold stored in the U.S.A. but preferably in Europe because they feared that at some stage the U.S. Administration might follow the path set by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 and confiscate all U.S. gold holdings as part of the country’s strategy in dealing with the nation’s economic problems.
via mineweb.com.
Like many middle-class families, Cortney Munna and her mother began the college selection process with a grim determination. They would do whatever they could to get Cortney into the best possible college, and they maintained a blind faith that the investment would be worth it.
Today, however, Ms. Munna, a 26-year-old graduate of New York University, has nearly $100,000 in student loan debt from her four years in college, and affording the full monthly payments would be a struggle. For much of the time since her 2005 graduation, she’s been enrolled in night school, which allows her to defer loan payments.
via globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Just in case you were still under the delusion that a college/university degree is still the best way to make a decent living.
As shown on our new charts page, average hourly earnings in the U.S. is now at a record nominal high of $18.98; but adjusted for real inflation, hourly earnings in the U.S. is now about half of what it was in the early 1970s.
via inflation.us
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