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-- Solution to current US Economic Crisis
Solution to current US Economic Crisis
I am always very opinionated and I would want to make one point I want to make regarding the current economic situation. If you would notice than yes there has been recession in every part of this world, but one country that seems least affected by all this mayhem is Russia. Very less job cuts, very less scams, and lesser losses by Financial and banking companies there. One reason I got in common from everyone Russian I speak to is that, Russia have been pumping its oil money so much into everything and always keep on investing what it makes from its oil business that even a very low percentage return on them like 3% annual keep them floating and growing at a small but steady pace. I think one quick way to recover US economic is if this country starts drilling its oil reserves in Texas and other areas. This is just a idea I have should work, I know it�s little bit vague, I don�t know to what extent US oil reserve is out there, but think about it, if US starts tapping in its own oil reserves and pumps in that money it makes from that to Education, Manufacturing Industries, new research and technology development; than the investment will reap and can reap in huge benefits for the economy and lift it really fast.
Another step the current government should take immediately is restore power in the hands of lower level employees. In 1980�s the recession has all the same signs like this time. Same big guys at top taking home billions when the company was actually bleeding, and the than government took a similar step of stripping absolute powers on top and giving more power to lower level employees in a company.
Everyone knows things will work out, but how soon is what matters at this moment.
What do you guys think?
Allocate away from militarization and towards infrastructure building. Education, health, communications, transportation. Fuck Iraq, fuck Afghanistan, fuck militarization of America.
Where'd you get the idea Russia isn't impacted?
From the recent joint US-German congressional delegation that went over there:
| quote: |
| Harrison and group members spent three days in Moscow, where they met with government leaders, representatives from the German and American embassies and members of NGOs that operate in Russia. She said that overall the picture was "depressing." The global economic crisis has hit Russia hard, she said, and is expected to get worse. Unemployment is at about 8 percent, but is expected to increase to between 10 and 13 percent. Harrison said it was difficult to tell how Russia's government will handle the sour economy. "We heard a lot of different views. Some said that Putin will be able to crack down on the crisis. Others said that he will lose complete control," Harrison said. Although there have been recent protests in the country concerning the economy, Harrison said that there was little evidence of people's opposition to government power. She said she talked to a social scientist who had surveyed the Russian people and he offered some significant findings. "According to him, the biggest surprise was how conservative people are," Harrison said. "They do not seem to realize how different things could be. There is rising xenophobia and tribalism [in Russia]. Survival is the goal, not democracy." |
Seriously, the ruble has crashed and the government is intervening to support it and the Russian market has suffered as bad, if not worse than almost any other market in the world. They are dependent on oil and natural gas, both of which have fallen precipitously from their highs.
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/Eco...aspx?Symbol=RUB
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/Temp/Russia-Stock-Market-Chart--MICEX--Chart-000003.png?58299fc4-50b8-4f8f-ab37-bd9995dff1c6
Yea, it's obvious the fall in oil prices have drastically affected Russia, Venezuela, and other oil producers. Haven't heard Chavez for a while...
Russia could come out on top
Yes the Russian markets have been hammered and oligarchs have gone belly up. But Russia still has one of the largest currency reserves in the world despite spending 1/3 of it to defend the ruble. Putin is grinning ear to ear because he has bought up companies for pennies on the dollar from the oligarchs installed by the CIA puppet Boris Yeltsin. The Russia today is not the Russia from 1998. They are a world player now and have signed numerous multi billion dollar energy agreements with China.
What we are seeing now is a game of geopolitical chess being played out in Central Asia where the prize is one of the richest supplies of oil and gas reserves in the world. The U.S. and Nato have taken their stance in the countries to west of the Caspian Sea. The countries to the east of the Caspian sea have formed their own strategic alliance with Russia and China called the Shanghai cooperative alliance.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12305
There is much thought out there right now that commodity prices are being artificially suppressed (notice Bush was really the lame duck in August) as a means to wage war against oil producing countries. George Soros (who Obama really works for) wants control of the world's resources for the multinationals and the Rothschilds banking conglomerate. This isn't about the phony war on terror- this is about control of the world's resources for the benefit of financiers.
The controversy over the Georgian surprise military attacks on South Ossetia and Abkhazia on 8.8.08 makes a closer look at the controversial Georgian President and his puppet masters important. An examination shows 41 year old Mikhail Saakashvili to be a ruthless and corrupt totalitarian who is tied to not only the US NATO establishment, but also to the Israeli military and intelligence establishment. The famous �Rose Revolution of November 2003 that forced the ageing Edouard Shevardnadze from power and swept the then 36 year old US university graduate into power was run and financed by the US State Department, the Soros Foundations, and agencies tied to the Pentagon and US intelligence community.
Mihkail Saakashvili was deliberately placed in power in one of the most sophisticated US regime change operations, using ostensibly private NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations) to create an atmosphere of popular protest against the existing regime of former Soviet Foreign Minister Edouard Shevardnadze, who was no longer useful to Washington when he began to make a deal with Moscow over energy pipelines and privatizations.
Saakashvili was brought to power in a US-engineered coup run on the ground by US-funded NGO�s, in an application of a new method of US destabilization of regimes it considered hostile to its foreign policy agenda. The November 24 2003 Wall Street Journal explicitly credited the toppling of Shevardnadze�s regime to the operations of �a raft of non-governmental organizations . . . supported by American and other Western foundations.� These NGOs, said the Journal, had �spawned a class of young, English-speaking intellectuals hungry for pro-Western reforms� who were instrumental laying the groundwork for a bloodless coup.
Coup by NGO
But there is more. The NGOs were coordinated by the US Ambassador to Georgia, Richard Miles, who had just arrived in Tbilisi fresh from success in orchestrating the CIA-backed toppling of Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade, using the same NGOs. Miles, who is believed to be an undercover intelligence specialist, supervised the Saakashvili coup.
It involved US billionaire George Soros� Open Society Georgia Foundation. It involved the Washington-based Freedom House whose chairman was former CIA chief James Woolsey. It involved generous financing from the US Congress-financed National Endowment for Democracy, an agency created by Ronald Reagan in the 1980�s to �do privately what the CIA used to do,� namely coups against regimes the US Government finds unfriendly.
George Soros� foundations have been forced to leave numerous eastern European countries including Russia as well as China after the 1989 student Tiananmen Square uprising. Soros is also the financier together with the US State Department of the Human Rights Watch, a US- based and run propaganda arm of the entire NGO apparatus of regime coups such as Georgia and Ukraine�s 2004 Orange Revolution. Some analysts believe Soros is a high-level operative of the US State Department or intelligence services using his private foundations as cover.
The US State Department funded the Georgia Liberty Institute headed by Saakashvili, US approved candidate to succeed the no-longer cooperative Shevardnadze. The Liberty Institute in turn created �Kmara!� which translates �Enough!� According to a BBC report at the time, Kmara! Was organized in spring of 2003 when Saakashvili along with hand-picked Georgia student activists were paid by the Soros Foundation to go to Belgrade to learn from the US-financed Otpor activists that toppled Milosevic. They were trained in Gene Sharp�s �non-violence as a method of warfare� by the Belgrade Center for Nonviolent Resistance.
Saakashvili as mafioso President
Once he was in place in January 2004 as Georgia�s new President, Saakashvili proceeded to pack the regime with his cronies and kinsmen. The death of Zurab Zhvania, his prime minister in February, 2005, remains a mystery. The official version-poisoning by faulty gas heater-was adopted by American FBI investigators within two weeks of the killing. That has never seemed credible to those familiar with Georgia�s gangland slayings, crime, and other manifestations of social decay. Zhvania�s death was followed closely by a functionary of the Premier�s apparat, Georgi Khelashvili, who allegedly shot himself the day after his chief�s demise. The head of Zhvania�s research staff was later found dead as well.
Figures allied with Saakashvili reportedly had a hand in the premier�s death. Russian journalist Marina Perevozkina quoted Gia Khurashvili, a Georgian economist. Prior to the fatal incident, Mr. Khurashvili had published an article in Resonans newspaper opposing the privatization and sale of Georgia�s main gas pipeline. Ten days before the prime minister�s body was found, Khurashvili was attacked and his editor-in-chief-citing pressure from �security service� figures he refused to name-issued him a warning.
The late premier�s position on the pipeline issue was believed the direct reason for the murder of Zhvania. Zhvania�s brother, Georgi, also told Perevozkina that not long before Zhvania�s death he received a warning that someone was preparing to kill his brother. Saakashvili was reportedly livid when the US State Department invited Zhvania to Washington to win a Freedom Medal from the US Government�s National Democratic Institute. Saakashvili tolerates no rivals for power it seems.
Saakashvili, who cleverly marketed himself as �anti-corruption,� appointed several of his family members to lucrative posts in government, giving one of his brothers a position as chief adviser on domestic issues to the Baku-Ceyhan Pipeline project, backed by British Petroleum and other oil multinationals.
Since coming to power in 2004 with US aid, Saakashvili has led a policy of mass-scale arrests, imprisonment, torture and deepened corruption. Saakashvili has presided over the creation of a de facto one-party state, with a dummy opposition occupying a tiny portion of seats in the parliament, and this public servant is building a Ceaucescu-style palace for himself on the outskirts of Tbilisi. According to the magazine, Civil Georgia (Mar. 22, 2004) until 2005, the salaries of Saakashvili and many of his ministers were reportedly paid by the NGO network of New York-based currency speculator Soros- along with the United Nations Development Program.
Israel US military train Georgian military
The current military assault on South Ossetia and Abkhazia, in violation of Saakashvili�s pledge to seek a diplomatic not military solution to the territorial disputes, is backed by US and Israeli military �advisers.� Israel�s Haaretz newspaper reported that on August 10, Georgian Minister of Reintegration, Temur Yakobshvili, �praised the Israel Defense Forces for its role in training Georgian troops and said Israel should be proud of its military might, in an interview with Army Radio. �Israel should be proud of its military which trained Georgian soldiers,� Yakobashvili told Army Radio in Hebrew, referring to a private Israeli group Georgia had hired.�
One of the targets of Russian bombs near Tbilisi was, according to IsraelNN.com, �a Georgian military plant in which Israeli experts are upgrading jet fighters for the Georgian military Russian fighter jets bombed runways inside the plant, located near Tbilisi, where Israeli security firm Elbit is in charge of upgrading Georgian SU-25 jets.�
Israeli Foreign Minister and candidate to succeed ousted Israeli Prime Minister, Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, proclaimed on August 10 that �Israel recognizes Georgia�s territorial integrity,� code for saying it backs Georgia�s attempt to take South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The reported 1,000 Israeli military advisers in Georgia were not alone. On July 15, the Reuters news wire carried the following report: �VAZIANI, Georgia - One thousand U.S. troops began a military training exercise called �Immediate Response 2008,� in Georgia on Tuesday against a backdrop of growing friction between Georgia and neighboring Russia. The two-week exercise was taking place at the Vaziani military base near the capital Tbilisi, which was a Russian air force base until Russian forces withdrew at the start of this decade under a European arms reduction agreement� Georgia has a 2,000-strong contingent supporting the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, and Washington provides training and equipment to the Georgian military. The United States is an ally of Georgia and has irritated Russia by backing Tbilisi�s bid to join the NATO military alliance� �The main purpose of these exercises is to increase the cooperation and partnership between U.S. and Georgian forces,� Brig. Gen. William B. Garrett, commander of the U.S. military�s Southern European Task Force, told reporters.�
With Russia openly backing and training the indigenous military in South Ossetia and Abkhazia to maintain Russian presence in the region, especially since the US-backed pro-NATO Saakashvili regime took power in 2004, the Caucasus is rapidly coming to resemble Spain in the Civil War from 1936-1939 where the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and others poured money and weapons and volunteers into Spain in a devastating war that was a precursor to the Second World War.
I must also add that in the last week China has signed a multibillion dollar energy agreement with Brazil. Because China must use is reserves for all these energy agreements recently as well as dealing with their own unemployment and massive problems internally, I would suspect they cannot continue to buy U.S. treasuries.
From 321gold.com:
PROLOGUE & AFTERMATH
The World Economic Forum took place in Davos Switzerland recently. The global picture enabled a nice snapshot of sentiment, fault for the crisis, blame doled out, the vacuum of leadership, the perks for blunderers in a country club setting (instead of prison), and warnings on a potential situation that could spiral out of control. Amidst all the finger pointing, surprisingly little blame was given to themselves, the corporate chieftains in attendance. Let's be clear! The Davos Forum was a funeral wake, and Putin rode in on a white horse to announce there is a new sheriff in town!! Davos afforded a unique opportunity for Russian self-styled leader Vladimir Putin to storm the forum stage and to steal the show. Putin presented a basic Blueprint for what should be called 'The Post-US World' as the United States and United Kingdom have lost the mantle of leadership and control. They lost it from failed economic policy, wrecked banking systems, fraud-ridden bond markets, corrupted debt ratings agencies, abuse of IMF & World Bank, and the severe backfire of economies that depended upon housing bubbles. Inflation turned on its haughty financial engineers! Nations with insolvent banks, insolvent households, corporations in liquidation, economies in near collapse, they tend not to be good owners and custodians of the global reserve currency!!!
Davos provided a flashpoint for a profound change in global leadership. The whimpering US-UK-EU bankers have been shamed. Then after the finger pointing, insults, hand wringing, and gut wrenching, Putin rode in on a white horse carrying a banner. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao provided the confirmation to what Putin laid out, like a second of a formal motion. Wen Jiabao proceeded from the Davos stage to four European capitals to seal the new path and its legitimacy. The barter system has been launched in quiet, while the Western press continues not to comprehend a ruptured status quo limping along. It cannot; it will not; the transition is on. Not only will the USDollar not provide the global highway for all to travel, but new barter systems will be dominant soon in working around the commodity price systems dominated by the US-UK corrupt price discovery systems. The other painful consequence to the new system soon taking root is that the global commodity supply routes will bypass the US destinations, enough to create mammoth shortages. Such is the fate of a nation thrust to the Third World. Its people and its leaders still do not realize it, as denial is ensconced in hope. The US credit supply has already been severed and cut almost completely off. Reliance upon the printing press to finance its own debts is a primary trait of a Third World nation, a shocking fact soon to be recognized.
The February Hat Trick Letter Crisis Update covers in detail the Putin plan and the Davos Meeting. Since the autumn, the regular macro-economic reports and gold & currency reports have been accompanied by frequent reports on the crisis for unique coverage. The Crisis Update this month also covers Obama's Opening Opus, not at all a promising start. He has surrounded himself with yet more Elite insiders who are in part responsible for the current failure and who are likely to continue the welfare raids for the Elite. The Crisis Update also covers many aspects of the Martial Law Threat. Those who think 'Never in America' need to catch up with what is happening, preparations being made, anecdotes from the field, hints of revolt from the states, and the dire straights that states find themselves, like in California. The martial law threat comes from economic disintegration more than anything else.
HOSPICE FOR US$, LAUNCH FOR GOLD
The USDollar is essentially dead, the Davos Forum its funeral wake. It is enjoying a physical erection in the medical morgue, a rise in a death dance ceremony. US leaders refuse to accept the reality. They desperately need its continuation for assistance in funding the USGovt monstrous deficits. Western leaders struggle to admit the reality. Russian leaders, Chinese leaders, and Arab leaders (more quietly) openly admit the reality. Read the billboards, as the Davos Forum offered an entire row of them to observe. THE BEST STRESS METER IS NOW GOLD. Notice how gold rose all through the Davos Forum gathering. Nothing was solved. The Putin Blueprint for the 'Post-US World' shook up the currency markets, as gold reacted. The gold price is breaking out in all major currencies, except in USDollar terms. It just hit a new euro high.
A cherished contact with deep global experience had some very strong words about Davos and the Putin Blueprint. He made additional comments about the Wen trip across major European capitals. In an important message, he said, "Read in between the lines of Putin's speech and you find all the hints you want. The Chinese and Russians are burying the US alive. The Japanese, Germans, and Gulf States keep a very low profile for the moment. The decisions have been made: wait for 2010. They will use the unfolding chaos to introduce the new currency basket and trade rules... There is a brand new system being designed that will borrow from the past and apply 21st century tools for barter / counter trade / excess capacity etc. An Exchange Platform will cut out the banks altogether... [Chinese Premier] Wen delivered his speech in Davos and went straight to Berlin where they put the final touch on the new world currency basket, sponsored by Berlin-Moscow-Beijing-Tokyo-Riyadh. Moscow and Berlin already have a massive counter trade / barter trade agreement in place, and Beijing was eager to joint that platform as well." The new global currencies are planned for launch in January 2010. They will be launched amidst growing chaos. Events up to that time will be tumultuous.
The gold price has completed an important U-shaped reversal. Its low of 710 and top at 980 indicate a target of 1250 next. Notice the crossovers of the crucial moving average series. Both the 50-day MA and 100-day MA have run above the 200-day MA, very bullish. Technical chart traders use them to direct traffic flow. The cyclicals are aligned with strength. The fundamentals could not be better for gold than at any time in a few decades. All major governments are ruining their currencies in a desperate attempt to avoid economic collapse after bank system insolvency has rendered their nations hostage to dangerous accommodative monetary policies. All major currencies are now at risk simultaneously. The gold price breakout over 1000 again could come when the Dow Jones Industrial Index and the S&P500 index each breach critical support. They have been dancing at that support for days. The USEconomic field has become a swamp, and it is sinking. It should sink the US stock market.
The USDollar should not be the true focus of attention. Paradoxically, as it dies a horrible death, its reserve currency status ensures it might be last to crumble. All other currencies are at risk, except perhaps the Japanese yen. The focus of attention should be directed to gold & silver. The pundits, anchors, and supposed experts believe that the rise in the gold price means that price inflation is an imminent but hidden threat. THEY ARE SO WRONG. The threat is of a collapsed global financial foundation, complete with rising chaos from no current viable alternative, as the Untied States finds itself tossed into a dungeon. The process is slow, but the pace is accelerating. The signpost in the dungeon is marked 'Third World' with full shame. The charges will go without trial, as the marketplace is brutal. But bank ruin, institutional corruption, exported bond fraud, permission of counterfeit rings, protection of crime syndicates, and abused global reserve currency custodial responsibility lie at the core. Most scrutiny of charges will be conducted much later, when too late, in an examination of the wreckage.
THIRD WORLD INTRODUCTION
My analysis has been very consistent in its message. The broken bank system, crippled households, endless housing decline, corporations in retreat, and federal debt that cannot be financed by foreign creditors, these work together to guarantee that the Untied States does not just enter the Third World, but that the US will be thrust quickly into the Third World. Imagine a criminal in old colonial times being thrown down a staircase into a dirty dank dungeon, landing with many bruises, a bloody mouth, and perhaps a broken arm. The new US leadership is already making huge errors. Their lack of integrity is for now a well-kept secret, since the camp they emerged from is foul. Third World nations are not known for integrity or sound judgment. At a time when the US, UK, and European banks face dire need for bailouts and rescues, one might consider the specter of entire nations requiring bailouts, not just their banks. Iceland gave notice. Watch in horror as the risk rises for failures of states.
As a reminder, the USGovt federal budget deficit this year should hit 15% of the national GDP size, more than double anything ever witnessed, and more than double what usually causes a 25% to 30% currency correction. This time will be no different. The gold price has responded. Given the turmoil in foreign lands, with their own attendant currency threats, the USDollar is the not concurrent indicator of gold anymore, a topic addressed two weeks ago. GOLD IS RESPONDING, ALONG WITH SILVER. Even the knucklehead financial media and lamebrain financial sector managers have noticed.
A senior adviser to Dmitry Medvedev criticized the magnitude of the new USGovt economic rescue package and projected budget deficit, claiming it would draw heavily from other global markets. Igor Yurgens heads a think tank to advise Medvedev. He said, "What is discouraging is Obama's statement that [the USGovt] is going to run a $1 trillion deficit for years to come. For us, that means that all the free liquidity in the world will run into American Treasury Bills. Of course, [Obama] expects the Chinese or Russians to buy USTreasury bills. That is pretty selfish and philosophically, it is protectionism." The reality is that foreign creditors have already announced to key USCongressional members that they will not be purchasing any USTreasury Bonds for several months. Whether active boycott or inability from lack of trade surplus, it does not matter. Dire straits come to the US shores very soon.
OBAMA'S FIRST FOREIGN POLICY BLUNDER
If the retarded Stimulus Bill is Obama's first blunder of domestic policy, then refusal to attend the Davos Forum himself was his first foreign policy blunder. Newly inaugurated Barack Obama could have traveled to Switzerland and met numerous finance ministers, bank leaders, and iconic individuals, even Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Medvedev, and Wen Jiabao. Instead, he sent greenhorn Timmy Geithner, the Treasury Secretary. Timmy shot his mouth off right away and lost global respect instantly. He repeated the oft-used and extremely old tired saw that China was manipulating its yuan currency. This angered the Chinese again, at a time when the US leaders need their creditors in full gear. Recall that Geithner's stupid comment came only a couple weeks after an even more stupid comment was made by outgoing Treasury Secy Henry Paulson. Hanky told the Chinese that they are mostly to blame for the global banking meltdown because their trade surpluses had grown too big, and they invested too much in USTreasury Bonds and USAgency Mortgage bonds. The Chinese shot back in anger and defiance to call that 'Gangster Logic' rightly. The integrity of US leaders is declining as fast as their judgment exercised. Already, the Chinese have no respect for the new US Financial Dream Team.
BRITISH LEAVE US MEMBERS TO TAKE THE HEAT
The message behind the actions was extremely loud. Chancellor of Exchequer Alistair Darling and Foreign Minister David Millibrand decided to cancel their trip to Davos. They stated publicly that certain people they wished to meet at Davos had canceled their trip and would not attend. They stated publicly about how affairs in the United Kingdom were pressing, the emergency too important to leave home. What a crock! The only guests who canceled their trips were the British. Perhaps the UK delegation planned to attend Davos and only meet among themselves. The nixed meetings planned with attendees might have been dominated by angry European Union finance ministers. Europeans are launching Currency War salvos at the British. Maybe the British did not want to be the subject of broad European criticism. The other important consequence of the British canceled plans was that the members of the Untied States contingency were left all alone, exposed to take the heat of criticism. The US & UK were united when they ruled the roost from corrupt platforms. They are divided as they fall.
PUTIN STOLE THE SHOW
The Russians realized the vacuum of banking and political leadership. Vladimir Putin took the high road actually. His criticism of the US failure and corruption was implied. He let the decimation of Wall Street firms, their colossal losses, and their calamitous fall from grace speak for themselves. He would not permit anyone in attendance to yack about how Putin droned on and on about US failure. Failure is painfully obvious for almost all to see. He skipped over much direct criticism to offer solutions, a sign of leadership. No, Putin was the only bright spot in Davos. Putin offered a Blueprint for the next decade, for the 'Post-US World' where the US-UK corrupt tag team does not control the helm or sit at the catbird seat. Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev served as dominant figures over a gloomy forum. A Putin spokesman actually told reporters "This is Davos under the Russian flag." More accurately, the Davos Forum gave Russia, and to some extent China, a chance to exert leadership.
The overriding theme of the Putin plan is a new multi-polar world, where power is shared and no longer concentrated in a dangerous fashion. Putin was as specific as required for a blueprint, which typically does not need to go into great detail. It requires a new structure. When an entire system is shattered, one needs a foundation with large structural descriptions as planks. Putin gave it. He is not a hero, but rather a man who realizes the disorder in progress and the dire need for new direction. The USDollar-based system is dead. Within the vacuum, the global financial and economic system is slowly collapsing. Actually, my view is that the USEconomy is accelerating in its breakdown, unlikely to last through the summer without some very clear evidence of failure. The untold story is that the global system failure has pitted two groups of powerful billionaires against each other. Putin represents a force that pursues greater equitability in commerce, trade, and banking with multi-polar power centers. His opposite force pursues greater concentrated power, more fascist towers, and a beneficial reduction in world population. This thorny topic is given occasional coverage in the Hat Trick Letter, yet is highly controversial and risky to discuss. Broad strokes rather than detail are my choice.
PUTIN CRITIQUE OF GLOBAL FAILURE
Putin openly questioned the reliability of the USDollar as a global reserve currency. He all but said it is dead in the water for that role. He called the one reserve currency a danger to the world economy, in fact! He acknowledged that globalization has multiplied the destructive force, so that the US-UK crises have touched all nations and everyone. To be sure, other nations are epicenters for crisis like Spain. Several nations are feeling the impact of the shocks from the crisis epicenters, like Germany, Russia, and China. Some specific criticism was given. Putin talked about the disproportion between the scale of financial operations and fundamental value of assets. That means huge US-UK financial flows in trading centers against a backdrop of miniscule current valuation of the bank centers. The US & UK bank sectors are insolvent. Putin talked about the differences between the increased burden of international loans and source collateral. That means the Western nations, led by the US & UK, but also Southern Europe, have outsized debt burdens against a backdrop of near nil collateral, a stark trait of insolvency, if not bankruptcy. Putin attacked indirectly the Untied States for printing money with abandon, consuming what Asian factories produce, while Asians respond by saving money in the form of government debt securities. Putin warned the global leaders not merely to treat the symptoms, which is precisely what they are doing, but to work toward serious reform.
Putin warned of blind faith in the omnipotent power of states, and the distorted concentration of assets in the hands of the states. That might be a slap at the central bankers, who are serving as quasi-bank systems unto themselves in a desperate action. Their biggest new ledger item is Dollar Currency Swap. Putin warned that unbridled growth of budget deficits and public debts is destructive. In essence, Putin urged a return to free enterprise principles. The Western leaders are moving toward socialism and fascism. What irony that former KGB leader from the Soviet Union was lecturing the West on the benefits of embrace for capitalism and free enterprise!!!
PUTIN RECOMMENDATIONS
Putin was specific in key areas. He did not lay out many details to flesh out his planks. He kept some close to his vest. The barter accords are a work in progress, actually a revolutionary shift. He was not going to offer up details of his 'End Run' plans. But he offered four main recommendations that make a great deal of sense, a starting point:
Get real and declare hopeless debt securities as bad assets, and write them off. The current crisis will only be prolonged unless the balance sheets are cleaned up. A liquidation process is essential. (The refusal for banks to come clean has resulted in extreme constipation for the credit system, while the patient slowly falls into mud.)
Get rid of virtual money, exaggerated reports, and dubious credit ratings on financial securities. He wishes for fundamental asset values to be determined by the ability to generate added value, apart from subjective models. (He refers indirectly to credit derivatives and futures contracts, the artificial mechanisms to control price structures, those onerous devices that act as pseudo-money.)
Get away from the single reserve currency system, which he regards as dangerous. Instead, install several strong reserve currencies in a smooth and irreversible switch. (This is the unofficial death knell of the USDollar itself, for alternatives in usage.)
Get currency reliability for foreign reserves management, which can be used by other states. This can be achieved by enabling more open monetary policies, and enforcing economic and financial discipline. (This will enable regional stability and cooperation.)
Putin openly called the current unipolar world obsolete, referring indirectly to the US-UK dominance. This is as close as one could come to hearing that the current system is one step from the scrap heap. Unfortunately, chaos reigns as leadership is absent, insolvency rains down as economic troubles all over, and no leaders seem capable of pulling back the reins. Putin urged a new system of global regulators, an obvious slap at the unspeakably corrupt Securities & Exchange Commission (for stocks) and the unspeakably corrupt Commodity Futures Trading Commission (for commodities). Each is a lapdog steeped in conflict of interest, paid to look the other way to criminal activity, with no urge to prosecute their friends. The SEC and CFTC have been team players for the four major US-based crime syndicates in order for them to conduct their business. They are parasites to the system, while the syndicates spread cancers. Putin all but said to eliminate the Intl Monetary Fund and World Bank. Putin wants to see shared technology across borders. This is a slap against the US, which refuses to export advanced computer technology and telecommunications technology.
Putin made a comment about possible energy shortages and obstructed growth prospects, but urged constructive inter-dependence. This could be regarded as a threat, and should be taken as a claim for leadership. Putin reminded the group of his recommendation in 2006 for cooperation among energy suppliers, consumers, and transit countries. These suggestions fell on deaf ears over two years ago, but now after the Ukraine incidents, their time has clearly come. Putin wants a new international legal framework for energy security, with clear-cut legal statutes. Some of what Putin mentions comes as a reaction to US financial sources that are exerting extreme force on energy prices with political motive. Putin openly called for a balanced price determination system free from the vagaries of financial derivative instruments.
One might detect a theme in much of what Putin urges for new systems. Putin pursues a new energy framework to possibly serve as the foundation for a new financial structural foundation. This is a natural progression, based upon a solvent foundation, that would play into Russian strength. See the February reports for details. However, hard assets and natural resources must supplant the corrupt networks that control price systems in the current broken apparatuses. Putin is attempting to fill a dangerous vacuum. The Western leaders are caught in a vise, caught in a policy pattern toward more of the same ineffective elixirs. Putin also delivered stern warnings about NATO, whose broken treaties cause great stress. The nettlesome trend toward NATO inclusion for former Soviet Republics has also caused great stress. Expect extremely loud backfires on this front, as Ukraine will probably be used as a display case for Russian power. They will destroy the Ukrainian political structure, punish them for permitting themselves to be used as US puppets, and probably carve the nation into territories. Other Eastern European nations had better take notice.
BARTER SYSTEMS INITIATED
New important barter systems are soon to spring up. Just this week, China entering the on-ramp to the barter system highway by lending Russia $25 billion in return for a guaranteed 20 years of energy supply. It is not so much a loan, as an initial stake in a new trade system. My sources indicate that two bilateral barter accords are in progress, soon to be made public. The Russians have another bilateral barter plan with Germany, soon to be hatched. These plans will catch the Untied States off guard, and isolate the US. The pricing for commodity resources will circumvent the US-UK corrupted systems. In the process, the US will find itself outside looking in. Commodity supply routes will be redirected from Russia to China, from Canada to China, from Australia to China, and from Venezuela (as well as the Andes region) to China.
CHINESE LEADER WEN FIRMS BARTERS
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was more clever in his acute criticism of the United States. He made scathing comments at Davos about the 'inappropriate macroeconomic policies' and the 'unsustainable model of development characterized by prolonged low savings and high consumption' of some unnamed countries. Wen attacked 'blind pursuit of profit' by financial institutions and their 'lack of self-discipline' by them. After speaking at the World Economic Forum, where he echoed the criticism laid out by Putin, he went on an important trip across Europe. Wen traveled to four major European capitals, whose significance is enormous. He met with Swiss leaders in Bern, with German leaders in Berlin, with Spanish leaders in Madrid, and with European Union leaders in Belgium. One should interpret this not as an endorsement of the status quo, as reported by the US press media, but rather as an announcement of the new structure to conform to the Putin Blueprint for a Post-US World. The entrenched and defensive US-based and UK-based press media have no interest in mentioning a new framework. Loss of the current framework represents an invitation to the Third World. China has no interest in furthering the status quo. Wen served notice to European leaders.
Jeez I just wrote two paragraphs and you wrote an essay up there.
Anyways one of better thing that happened after Bush left and Obama came in is I can write anything I want and I dont have to be worried about CIA and shit spying on me and arresting me as a 'terrorist'!
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| Originally posted by Kinezi Jeez I just wrote two paragraphs and you wrote an essay up there. Anyways one of better thing that happened after Bush left and Obama came in is I can write anything I want and I dont have to be worried about CIA and shit spying on me and arresting me as a 'terrorist'! |
This thread seems to be experiencing "feature creep". lol
Where's Mag?
He's usually pretty up on 'all things Russian' 
I seem to remember though that the Russian market is very susceptible to corruption so even though they 'appear' to have their act together I wouldn't necessarily trust it.
I'll let Mag rebut that though
Re: Solution to current US Economic Crisis
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| Originally posted by Kinezi I am always very opinionated and I would want to make one point I want to make regarding the current economic situation. If you would notice than yes there has been recession in every part of this world, but one country that seems least affected by all this mayhem is Russia. Very less job cuts, very less scams, and lesser losses by Financial and banking companies there. |
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| Originally posted by Krypton Haven't heard Chavez for a while... |
Re: Re: Solution to current US Economic Crisis
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| Originally posted by Groundhog Boy He just nationalized Cargill. |
Re: Re: Re: Solution to current US Economic Crisis
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| Originally posted by jerZ07002 i thought that headline was highly misleading. Not that I'm a Chavez fan, but to be fair, he nationalized some of Gargill's assets. Furthermore, it would be difficult for Chavez to nationalize a private american corporation. |
Re: Re: Re: Re: Solution to current US Economic Crisis
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| Originally posted by Groundhog Boy I meant the Cargill facilities in Venezuela, not the entire company. |
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Solution to current US Economic Crisis
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| Originally posted by jerZ07002 sorry - that was a rushed comment. The comment was actually directed at the linguistics of certain media reports, not directed at you (i should have been more specific). Also, Chavez didn't seize all of Cargill's venezuelan assets, only certain assets in the production of rice in a specific local area (one plant I believe). The company has other plants in the country, which apparently aren't being seized. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap...3TVv3QD96NT7400 |
Interesting
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You Can't Spend Your Way Out of the Crisis New Zealand's prime minister wants to give his country a competitive advantage instead. By MARY KISSEL Wellington, New Zealand These days, you have to travel far to find a national leader who is talking about market-based approaches to the global recession. All the way to the other side of the world. [The Weekend Interview] Terry Shoffner "We don't tell New Zealanders we can stop the global recession, because we can't," says Prime Minister John Key, leaning forward in his armchair at his office in the Beehive, the executive wing of New Zealand's parliament. "What we do tell them is we can use this time to transform the economy to make us stronger so that when the world starts growing again we can be running faster than other countries we compete with." That idea -- growing a nation out of recession by improving productivity -- puts Mr. Key and his conservative National Party at odds with Washington, Tokyo and Canberra. Those capitals are rolling out billions of dollars in stimulus packages -- with taxpayers' money -- to try to prop up growth. That's "risky," Mr. Key says. "You've saddled future generations with an enormous amount of debt that then they have to repay," he explains. "There is actually a limit to what governments can do." The 47-year-old Mr. Key, a pragmatist by nature, knows a thing or two about how the public sector works. The youngest of three children, he was raised in state-owned housing in Christchurch, on New Zealand's South Island, after the death of his father. His mother worked at blue-collar jobs to keep the family afloat. Mr. Key earned a bachelor's degree in commerce from the University of Canterbury, took a job the next day at a local accountancy firm, and married his high-school sweetheart. After seeing a TV advertisement about a foreign-exchange trader, he started canvassing banks for a job. That kicked off a career as a foreign-exchange trader, with postings in Singapore, London and Sydney -- most recently at Merrill Lynch. "Bank of America," he says, with not a little mirth, "it's probably soon to be owned by Barack Ob-ah-ma!" -- emphasis on the "ah" in Kiwi-speak. His press secretary rolls her eyes. Mr. Key's coalition government, which includes parties to the right and left of the Nationals, has moved fast to implement a program of tax cuts, regulatory reform and government retooling. He won't label it supply-side economics and smiles when I ask if he's a Milton Friedman or Friedrich Hayek acolyte. "I'm not deeply ideologically driven," he says. "I believe in good center right politics." Mr. Key is returning the country to a formula for prosperity that's worked in the past. As in Britain, the U.S. and Australia in the 1980s, New Zealand's government implemented a wide-ranging program of economic liberalization, including deep reductions in tariffs and subsidies, and privatization of state-run industries. The plan, nicknamed "Rogernomics" after then-Finance Minister (now Sir) Roger Douglas, was akin to Reaganomics, and the island nation grew smartly. But while the U.S. and Australia broadly continued their economic liberalization programs under both right- and left-wing governments, New Zealand didn't -- until now. Over the past nine years, Helen Clark's left-wing Labour government rode the global economic expansion and used the revenue surge to expand government welfare programs, renationalize industries, and embrace causes like global warming. As a result, the economy stagnated while Australia took off. "We have been on a slippery slope," Mr. Key says, pointing to the country's slide to the bottom half of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's per-capita GDP rankings. "So we need to lift those per-capita wages, and the only way to really do that is through productivity growth driving efficiency in the country." He talks at length about how to attract and retain talented workers. What does he think about populist arguments about the end of capitalism? "Nonsense!" Mr. Key's program focuses first on personal income tax cuts, which -- given that the new top rate, as of April 1, will be 38% -- are still high, especially when compared to Hong Kong and Singapore. "We just think it's good tax policy to lower and flatten your tax curve," he says. "People will move in labor markets and they look at their after-tax incomes." Cutting the corporate tax rate -- which is now 30% -- isn't as crucial just now as keeping liquidity flowing, Mr. Key argues. "A lot of [companies] won't pay tax if they don't make money," he reasons. "So they might be slightly less focused on corporate tax in the immediate future. Longer-term, they will be." Why? Corporate money is "mobile." "If you really are out of whack with the prevailing corporate tax rates, and there's been a global shift toward countries lowering their corporate tax rate, then you're not likely to attract capital, or you're likely to lose capital." Mr. Key and his coalition partner, the ACT Party -- Mr. Douglas's party -- want to eventually align personal, trust and company tax rates at 30%. For now, the prime minister is focusing on chipping away entrenched regulations that drive away foreign capital -- a contrast to the U.S. and Australia, which are reregulating their markets in the wake of the financial crisis. "Good regulatory reform can be an important catalyst toward driving economic growth and coming out of the recession faster," Mr. Key says. His government is revising legislation meant to protect New Zealand's pristine environment from private-sector development but misused by greens to stymie all stripes of business plans. Big government is also coming under the gun. Mr. Key launched a "line-by-line review" of every government department, and committed the government to cap new spending in its May budget. "If we want to fund new initiatives, we by definition have to stop [funding] some of the things we don't think were working. . . . We're just getting better value for money." The Key government also is wary of climate change orthodoxy. "Half of all of our emissions come from agriculture," he says, meaning cows "burping and farting." "We don't have an answer to that. . . . So at the moment, we either become more expensive or we cut production. And neither of those options are terribly attractive." Mr. Key is reviewing the economic impact of the previous government's cap-and-trade plan. "New Zealand needs to balance its environmental responsibilities with its economic opportunities, because the risk is that if you don't do that -- and you want to lead the world -- then you might end up getting unintended consequences." Much of Mr. Key's reform agenda hinges on his belief that he has to prepare his country to compete in the global economy. "The world, whether we like it or not, will become more and more borderless," he says. That means Wellington is planted firmly behind free trade. "The sooner Doha is completed," Mr. Key says, referring to stalled global trade talks, "the better from our point of view." Mr. Key chuckles when I ask him about the "Buy American" provision tucked into the Obama administration's stimulus package. The previous government's "Buy New Zealand" campaign got a "lukewarm" reception, he recalls. "There are so many component parts manufactured in different parts of the world, you're chasing your tail the whole time about where something's actually made." New Zealand last year inked a free-trade agreement with China, recently signed a deal with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and announced the start of negotiations with India and South Korea last month. Korea "obviously" wants an FTA with the U.S., he says. Does New Zealand's model hold lessons for the Obama administration? Mr. Key says that might be "presumptive." But he does outline a few general lessons: "Your citizens are entitled to expect you to be realistic . . . to be specific about what it is you're going to do, what you can or can't do. And finally, I think, to be confident that you can get through it. Now there's plenty of doom and gloom merchants out there. But the single biggest risk is that everyone believes them and stops doing anything. I can't see how that helps us." What did he learn in his former trade? "It taught me not to panic." Going forward, he worries about, among other things, the U.S. dollar's path. Like most other trading nations, the bulk of New Zealand's exports is denominated in dollars, and the country's private sector borrows heavily from offshore markets. Says Mr. Key: "For anyone trying to manage currency risk, and indeed often interest-rate risk, you know, it's not generally the absolute level, it's more the volatility that becomes the determining factor." A strong and stable dollar policy out of the Obama administration would be helpful. But ultimately, Mr. Key says his biggest fear is rising inflation on the back of rising money supplies. "Economic theory will tell you that inflation is going to rise -- and that inflation will be exported around the world. . . . In the short term, I'm not criticizing U.S. policy: I think inflation is probably the thing that's going to be necessary to get them out of the current issue. [Federal Reserve Chairman Ben] Bernanke sort of signaled that. But longer term, inflation is cancerous to your economy." So would Mr. Key, the onetime foreign-exchange trader, buy or sell the U.S. dollar? As we move toward the door, the press secretary steps in: That's one call that's off the record. Ms. Kissel is editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal Asia. |
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| Originally posted by Shakka Interesting |
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| Originally posted by jerZ07002 little new zealand is obviously in a quite different position than the US. As the article states, NZ is behind in liberlizing its economy. I like the part about his position on the dollar. Obviously, his position is short on the dollar. I'm not adverse to some significant short term inflation (I'd like to see the real dollar cost of my student loans decrease significantly). |
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| Originally posted by Fir3start3r Where's Mag? He's usually pretty up on 'all things Russian' I seem to remember though that the Russian market is very susceptible to corruption so even though they 'appear' to have their act together I wouldn't necessarily trust it. I'll let Mag rebut that though |
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