The crashing of the US.......most interesting

[Chris Ryser]

The Crashing U.S. Economy Held Hostage
Our Economy is on an Artificial Life-support System
by Richard C. Cook

................................The question is not when will the system start to come down, because this has already begun. It’s shown most clearly by the fact that according to Federal Reserve data, M1, the part of the money supply most readily available for consumer purchases, is not only lagging behind inflation but has actually decreased in eleven of the last twelve months. This means that the producing economy is already in a recession.

The federal government is trying to figure out what to do. Their biggest concern is that foreign investors have started to pull out of dollar-denominated markets.
The government’s “plunge protection team”—known officially as the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets—is trying to engineer what they call a “soft landing.”

It’s been likened to the process by which you cook a frog in a pot where you raise the temperature one degree a day. The frog doesn’t hop out because the heat goes up gradually, but before long it’s too late. The frog has been cooked.

Even if the plunge protection team succeeds, and the frog cooks slowly, there will be a massive de facto default on dollar-denominated debt and a long-term degradation of the U.S. standard of living. The inside word is that we are likely to see major monetary shocks and a possible stock market crash as early as December 2007.

The worst off will be people locked into retirement funds which have a heavy load of mortgage-related securities. Entire investment portfolios are likely to disappear overnight.


See this most interesting article at: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.p...xt=va&aid=6239

[Barry Santini]

There has been NO, *true* leadership in the US for over 30 years...we've been coasting...

GWB really is the closest thing to "What me worry?"

Now, as the ball of twine of our society unravels..

Buckle up.....

Barry

[Chris Ryser]

Actually a few minutes ago that Canadian Dollar gained 3 cents against the US Dollars and went from $ 1.05 to $ 1.08 since early this morning.

Over the last 12 month the US Dollar has dropped 45% against the Canadian currency.

[ilanh]

Before accepting such inflammatory statements as facts, let us look at some real facts first:

-The U.S continues to be the dominant economy in the world and has been shown in many studies to have the most productive workers in the world.
-Burgeoning economies in India, China and the developing thirld world are very dependent on the U.S markets and are very motivated to work in tandem with us. This continues to be a win-win situation for us.
-Yes there has been a housing bubble; but at the same time millions of Americans have gotten their own homes, neighborhoods have been revitalized and the economy was helped by the boom. Yes there will be some pain down the road, there will be foreclosures and prices will drop. This may cause a recession but is not as unprecedented or drastic as some may believe. Collateral debt obligations will plague the financial markets for a time but they too will eventually be flushed out and the major losers will be the banks, hedge funds and other financial institutions that absorbed them.
-The U.S remains the world's most creative and inventive power and noone else to date has come close to replacing us in the technology, health, film, entertainment and music industries. Ever noticed how China doesn't have a single brand name product despite their massive production capabilities?
-No country in the world even approaches the business- friendly infrastructure of the U.S.
-The U.S has the lowest unemployment rate of any developed country. Compare our 4% rate with France's 10% rate.
-The financial markets of the U.S remain the envy of the world. Players from around the world come to play on wall street; not Shanghai, Paris, Berlin or Rome. Also, despite several prominent scandals our Fortune 500 companies remain far more transparent and regulated than their counterparts elsewhere.
-Despite continuing problems in Iraq the U.S remains, by far, the dominant military power in the world. It's army is approximately 50 times larger than France, Germany and England put together. This still commands some clout in today's world.

As Mark Twain liked to say: " The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

[Barry Santini]

...we'll see......

Barry

[braheem24]

Barry if you were in Fort Lauderdale this weekend you may have noticed the land auction on the 1st floor in the convention center. I was the high bidder on 6 properties with 3 properties declined by seller so I ended up with 3 Florida properties at a bargain.

Hopefully we see a turnaround soon, but judging by the sellers(developers) and buyer's(realtors) enthusiasm they dont seem very optimistic about the housing economy's recovery.

[Barry Santini]

meeting you and the properties...Damn!

Barry

[cash1]

now how am i gonna get to sleep tonight!

[Johns]

Hopefully we see a turnaround soon, but judging by the sellers(developers) and buyer's(realtors) enthusiasm they dont seem very optimistic about the housing economy's recovery.

I too have been dabling in the land market. In the past year, I bought over 300 acres of land. Ironically, I only have 74 acres left, as I was able to turn around, within a matter of months, and resell much of it, and at a very healthy gain. There are many people out there that are optimistic
about the economy, or they wouldn't be so eager to build new houses, condos, and retail devolpments. It might not be happening in your neighborhood, but it's happening somewhere.

It all depends on where you're at, and what business you're in. I hear the optical business is in a major slump, but you wouldn't know it from some of the people I met out in Vegas, and you wouldn't it if you asked my employees.

People that have been running up their credit cards, going on vacation with their home equity loans, and buying new SUVs each year may feel the pinch, or even a sucker punch - and deservedly so. They've been living their version of the American dream with somebody else's money. Those who live within their means and put away money for a rainy day will survive, and may even come out way ahead.

[rbaker]

Do any of you recall “The Whiners” on SNL? Now I know what happened to them. They seem to be alive and well here on OptiBoard. It seems that life’s losers are always the ones who predict doom and gloom. For them it is a self fulfilling prophecy. Then, there are those who see economic setbacks as opportunities. These are life's winners.

[Chris Ryser]

China may dump greenback from its foreign currency reserves


ZHOU XIN AND EADIE CHEN
Reuters
November 7, 2007 at 7:37 AM EST


BEIJING — China delivered a one-two punch to the dollar as a top lawmaker suggested a bigger role for the euro in its $1.43-trillion (U.S.) hoard of foreign reserves and a central banker said the dollar is losing its global currency status.
The euro hit a record high above $1.47 following remarks on Wednesday by Cheng Siwei, vice-chairman of the standing committee of the National People's Congress, China's parliament, pointing to diversification of the country's reserves.

Read the whole article at: http://www.reportonbusiness.com/serv.../Business/home

[medkoinc]

with all this money talk.... do any of you guys trade on the forex market???

if you think dollar is going down .... get on it and invest in the pound or the canadian dollar....

Just because the dollar is going down... doesnt mean we cant make money betting against it.

The Current economy status is just killing off the weak.... the strong will survive and the economy will grow again....

Plus...we will have a new president soon... he/she cant possible do any worst than bush did....

Mina

[rbaker]

Over the past years we have placed an increasing portion of our investments in foreign markets. That returns on that sector of our portfolio has by far exceeded any losses in the domestic and European markets.

Our investment philosophy is very conservative as we do not seek to achieve high gains overnight. We invest for the long term protection of our assets. When we were young we were in the business of asset accumulation. Now that we are retired our main concern is asset protection. The trick is to know when to change from the first to the latter.

[Chris Ryser]

Rumors of "Amero coins"

In August 2007, rumors and conspiracy theories began circulating across the Internet regarding alleged United States Treasury issued "Amero" coins.
The inspiration behind these rumors may have the posting of images of medallions created by coin designer Daniel Carr.[3] Carr, who designed the Maine, New York and Rhode Island statehood quarters of 2001, sells medals and tokens of his own design on his commercial website, "Designs Computed" (also known as "DC Coin"). Among his designs were three fantasy issues of an "Amero" coin, with the legend "Union of North America" on the back, with his company's logo, a stylized "DC", in small type.[4] Concerning his "Amero" designs, he mentions on his website:

"My goal with these coins is not to endorse a Union of North America or a common "Amero" currency. I fully support the United States Constitution, and I would not welcome (in any form) a diminishment of its provisions. I expect that these coins will help make more people aware of the issue and the possible ramifications. I leave it up to others to decide if they are in favor of, or against a North American Union. And I encourage citizens to voice their approval or disapproval of government plans that impact them."[8]

Unauthorized postings of images taken from his website have been reposted widely across the Internet, often being used as supposed "proof" of the Amero coinage. Notably, Internet radio talk show host Hal Turner ran a full article on the "Amero coin", claiming to have arranged for a United States Government minted "Amero" to be smuggled out of the Treasury Department by an employee of that organization.[9]
Following Turner's assertions of federal minting of Ameros, a web site marketing the curio coins released a statement debunking Turner's claims of a government cover up regarding Daniel Carr's Amero products.[10] The debunking website Snopes also ran a further debunking of Turner's claims, stating "Neither the U.S. Mint nor the U.S. Treasury has a hand in creating these 'Ameros'. These coins are merely collectibles offered to the buying public by a private company in the business of manufacturing such curiosities."[11]

See at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amero

[medkoinc]

very interesting ... but what does that have to do with anything????

Mina

[chip anderson]

Could we be crashing because we have gotten too lazy to work. So much of our society seems to think that if they get "education" the will be able to earn a living without actuall workin, especially doing anything manual and actually producing anything. Another large part of society seems to think that if they don't get "education" they can sit around that the government will take care of them.
Who the hell is doing the work anymore?

Chip

Have you noticed how many responses on this board say stuff like: "We don't work Saturday, actually we are closed Wednesday and Friday afternoon too." How many ophthalmologist you can't get to see in less than six weeks (we know they aren't that busy doing surgery alone)? We just gettin lazy.

I remember Henry Ford drawing a lot of flack when at the end of the great depression he said" "People have just decided to go back to work."

[For-Life]

Well Chip, I would not call getting an education lazy. My work life is a piece of cake compared to my University education.

I agree that it is laziness though. The American economy was built on innovation. Now all I see is people being complacent with what is there. We look at GM that lost $39 Billion in its third quarter. We could blame people on not buying domestic, we could blame kids for going to school, we could blame Democrats for high taxes, but the fact is GM is producing junk compared to the competition.

Same with this whole global warming thing. I find it surprising that such a powerful nation like the US is not taking advantage of it. Research and Development versus just shutting things down is the way to go. Could be profitable.

The thing we have to remember is China, India, Indonesia, Mexico is now taking a lot of manufacturing jobs, so we have to do things they are not doing. Companies are not going to produce things in the US at a cost of $10 per unit when they can do it in Indian for $1 per unit.

[chip anderson]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJo7GG15kMU

Chip

[Chris Ryser]

one problem.....................the US is functioning on borrowed money and time.

[Metronome]

Delete this post.

[Metronome]

Delete this post.

[Chris Ryser]

It's a week before Black Friday, but stock futures have taken on a bit of that color. It could be that Wall Street's just tired of the red that showed up loud and clear in the losses of recent days.

Still, the backdrop isn't pretty, and options expirations are likely to add more than a touch of volatility.

Starbucks poured hot water on the market late yesterday when it reported its first quarterly drop ever in traffic at its U.S. coffee shops. The reasoning seems to be that we're in really bad shape if people are cutting back on their mocha lattes.

Dollar falls after industrial output data

Fri Nov 16, 2007 9:28am EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The dollar fell against the euro on Friday after a report showed U.S. industrial production in October had the biggest drop since January, fueling fears of a further economic slowdown.
The euro rose to a session high of $1.4672, up from $1.4650, where it was shortly prior to the report.
The dollar tumbled to a low of 1.1166 Swiss francs, the lowest since April 1995, according to Reuters data.

See the whole story at:http://www.reuters.com/article/hotSt...56328520071116

[chip anderson]

Chris: What's with all this U.S. bashing. Do you want us to fail? Do the Canadians hate us too? What gives?

We aren't going to move to Canada in droves, it's cold there. Even the folks that felt discriminated againt in the South and move to Chicago for jobs moved back to Mississippi as it was too cold there.


Chip

[For-Life]

I do not think Chris is trying to bash the US. I think he is just trying to open up minds.

[Johns]

Chris: What's with all this U.S. bashing. Do you want us to fail? Do the Canadians hate us too? What gives?
Chip

I don't think Chris wants you to fail, but I did note that he no longer lists Florida as his location, only Canada.

Fair Weathered?:D