30 August, 2010
Another Bubble Is About To Burst
By Martin BorgsThis is the story of the greatest financial crisis we will ever see... The one that is on the way. Filmmaker Martin Borgs takes a provocative look at the events leading up the Global Financial Crisis and asks if the attempts to avoid a ruinous collapse of banks and other major finance houses may set the world on the path to an even bigger meltdown
27 August, 2010
America Facing Depression And Bankruptcy
By Stephen Lendman"Twenty countries (including America) are headed into bankruptcy and more will follow. That brings up the subject of state debt in the US. America has been in an inflationary depression for 18 months. States have been cutting back for two years," but still face huge budget gaps required to be closed....2011 will be a terrible year (with) 80% of states expect(ing) deficits of more than $200 billion. 2012 looks even worse." Most worrisome, "there is no recovery and there never has been....the US economy and financial system is comatose." The worst is yet to come and will hit hard on arrival
29 April, 2010
Fix The Economy, Not Wall Street
By David KortenWhy regulate a broken system when we can build a better one? Welcome to New Economy 101
25 April, 2010
Sacred Economics
By Charles EisensteinSacred Economics offers a fundamental analysis of what has gone wrong with money; it describes a more beautiful world based on a different kind of money and economy; it explains the collective actions necessary to create that world and the means by which these actions can come about; and it explores the personal dimensions of the world-transformation, the change in identity and being that I call "living in the Gift."
03 February, 2010
The Crisis Is Not Over
By Paul Craig RobertsThe threats to the U.S. economy are extreme. Yet, neither the Obama administration, the Republican opposition, economists, Wall Street, nor the media show any awareness. Instead, the public is provided with spin about recovery and with higher spending on pointless wars that are hastening America’s economic and financial ruin
11 January, 2010
The Recession Is Over, The Depression
Just Beginning
By Stephen LendmanLooking ahead in 2010, the state of the nation for most people is dire and worsening, and 2011 looks no better. City mayors are on the front lines dealing with it. So are governors at their state levels, but increasingly they're getting less help from Washington from an administration with priorities leaving them out and the millions they serve, on their own and out of luck
29 December, 2009
The Economic Crisis Ends;
The Political Crisis Begins
By Shamus CookeFirst Iceland, then Ireland, now Greece. Much of Europe is mired in inescapable debt and bankrupt nations, the result of crashing banks, bank bailouts, and soaring unemployment. The U.S. and U.K. watch from a distance, knowing their turn is next
12 December, 2009
Société Générale Predicts Global Economic Collapse
In Two Years Time
By Ambrose Evans-PritchardSociété Générale has advised clients to be ready for a possible "global economic collapse" over the next two years, mapping a strategy of defensive investments to avoid wealth destruction
05 December, 2009
Abolish The Fed And Return Money
Creation Power To Congress
By Stephen LendmanAccording to US constitution only the Congress has the authority to create money. But a private bank, the Federal Reserve is printing money in direct violation to the US constitution and goes on bankrupting America, taking the whole world with it
28 Novmber, 2009
Dubai’s $59 Billion Default Sends Tremor
Through Global Financial System
By Alex MessengerDubai’s announcement on Wednesday that it would be delaying by “at least” six months the maturity date of $59 billion in bonds issued by the city-state’s largest state-owned company, Dubai World, has sent global shares tumbling. The market reaction to Dubai’s massive debt default is partly explained by the exposure of European and Asian banks to DP World and its tourism subsidiary, Nakheel
24 Novmber, 2009
Red Alert: The Second Wave Of
The Financial Tsunami
By Matthias ChangThe Wave Is gathering force and could hit between the first and second quarter of 2010
Government Failures Feeding Next Financial Bubble
By Julio GodoyNumerous failures by industrialised countries’ governments and central banks in managing the financial crisis are feeding the next bubble, which most likely will again provoke economic woes such as recession, unemployment, and poverty, according to economists and analysts
The Economic Crisis And What Must Be Done
By Richard C. CookThe key is monetary reform, whether at the local or national levels. People have lost control of their ability to earn a living. But change could be accomplished through sovereign control by people and nations of the monetary means of exchange
19 July, 2009
How Bad Will The Economy Get? Really, Really Bad
By Thomas Greco, Jr.When will the price effects of hyper-inflation begin to kick in? How will the government respond to it? What will be the social and political fallout? What can ordinary people do to protect themselves from monetary and legislative abuses? These are the questions that beg for answers
21 April, 2009
The Economics Of Turning People Into Things
By Nitasha KaulEconomic violence is not only the violence caused for economic reasons, but also the violence caused by spurious economics. It is the violence caused to people when they lose their jobs and livelihoods, when they witness massively divergent rewards for work, when they see an endless perpetuation of inequality around them. Such involuntary unemployment in the long run leads to social breakdown and community fragmentation. This is already ongoing, but it must not be exacerbated
20 March, 2009
Keynes, Capitalism, And The Crisis
John Bellamy Foster Interviewed by Brian AshleyReal solutions to the contradictions of capitalism lie not in Keynesian economics but in a revolt from below of the population, which holds out the potential for a change in the rules of the game. Joan Robinson said somewhere that a political movement strong enough to reform capitalism would also be strong enough to introduce socialism. Therein lies our hope and their fear
25 February, 2009
How The US Economy Was Lost
By Paul Craig RobertsIf incompetence in Washington, the type of incompetence that produced the current economic crisis, destroys the dollar as reserve currency, the “unipower” will overnight become a third world country, unable to pay for its imports or to sustain its standard of living
23 February, 2009
America's Municipal Meltdowns
By Nick TurseStories about the economic woes facing individual cities and towns are already a staple of national newspapers, even as the bad news, experts believe, is only beginning to flow in. Spikes in unemployment already reaching double-digit levels in some cases, municipal governments deep in the red, essential cutbacks in local services, increasing lines at food pantries, towns facing bankruptcy or even contemplating municipal suicide are increasingly common nationwide
Dispatches From The Front Lines Of Economic Crisis
By Stephen LendmanToday's crisis should bury the myth about "free-market" fundamentalism as the best of all possible worlds. History proves otherwise by clearly showing that it fails the many to advantage the few because it's arranged that way
11 February, 2009
Speculation , Scams, Frauds and Crises:
Theory And Facts
By Sunanda SenCurbs on speculatory finance and an aggressive expansionary fiscal policy are the answers to what has gone wrong in the world today
07 February, 2009
Global Jobs Crisis Deepens
By Tom EleyIn a clear indication the economic crisis is rapidly heading into a severe global depression, US employers purged 598,000 jobs in January, the most job losses in a single month since 1974. January's firings raised the unemployment rate to 7.6 percent, the highest level since 1992
31 January, 2009
Worst US Economic Contraction In Quarter Century
By Peter SymondsMore grim figures released by the US Commerce Department yesterday provide further confirmation of the severity of the economic contraction in the US and globally. The US economy shrank at an annualised rate of 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008—its worst result since 1982. The decline followed a contraction of 0.5 percent in the third quarter—the first successive quarterly GDP declines since 1990-91
The American Economy Is Not Coming Back
By Dave LindorffWhat we are now seeing is the beginning of an inevitable downward adjustment in American living standards to conform with our actual place in the world. We are headed to a recovery that will not feel like a recovery at all. Eventually, productive capacity will be restored, as lowered US wages make it again profitable for some things to be made here at home again, but like people in the 1930s looking back at the Roaring 20s of yore, we are going to look back at the last two decades as some kind of dream
29 January, 2009
Meltdown Madness : The Human Costs Of
The Economic Crisis
By Nick TurseThe body count is still rising. For months on end, marked by bankruptcies, foreclosures, evictions, and layoffs, the economic meltdown has taken a heavy toll on Americans. In response, a range of extreme acts including suicide, self-inflicted injury, murder, and arson have hit the local news. By October 2008, an analysis of press reports nationwide indicated that an epidemic of tragedies spurred by the financial crisis had already spread from Pasadena, California, to Taunton, Massachusetts, from Roseville, Minnesota, to Ocala, Florida
06 January, 2009
Towards Post Neo-Capitalism
By Nimer AhmadWhat needed is the destruction of current system, a revolution, not within the boundaries of one or few nation-states, but a global revolution, not just to uproot this system but to uproot the attitudes and fixation towards knowledge, ideas and initiatives
Economic Withdrawal
By David KendallWe can envisage a truly parallel system of business -- one that deliberately competes with the existing system, growing daily from the inside out, even as the "shell" of the old system crumbles all around us. As Mahatma Ghandi and others have suggested, let's "build a new society in the shell of the old"
28 December, 2008
The Coming Capitalist Consensus
By Walden BelloWhile progressives were engaged in full-scale war against neoliberalism, reformist thinking was percolating in critical establishment circles. This thinking is now about to become policy, and progressives must work double time to engage it
08 December, 2008
The Global Economic Crisis: Bad And Worsening
By Stephen LendmanIn a new article, economics professor Richard Wolff explains the current crisis in Marxian terms. It "emerged from the workings of the capitalist class structure. Capitalism's history displays repeated boom-bust cycles punctuated by bubbles. They range unpredictably from local, shallow and short to global, deep and long." Clearly we're now in one of the latter and potentially the worst ever
19 November, 2008
Crisis? What Crisis?
By Dave FryettThe economic mess that has been unfolding the last few months is not, as the right fear and the left hope, an organic collapse of the global capitalist system But rather it is, as so many so-called financial crises before it, a scam perpetrated by what Lincoln used to call the "money power." The goals are to capture other lucrative businesses, reduce government and its ability to constrain its hegemony over capital, and to reduce union membership by creating such dire economic circumstances as to make unions powerless to save their members from hardship
14 November, 2008
Economic Crisis Is Beyond The Reach Of
Traditional Solutions
By Paul Craig RobertsBy most accounts the US economy is in serious trouble. Robert Reich, an adviser to President-elect Obama, calls it a "mini-depression," and that designation might be optimistic. The Russian economist, Mikhail Khazin says that the "U.S. will soon face a second ‘Great Depression.’" It is possible that even Khazin is optimistic
12 November, 2008
Global Economic Tremors
By Stephen LendmanCan the worst of all possible outcomes be avoided? It's beyond this writer's ability to imagine. It's for the Fed, Treasury, GSEs (government sponsored enterprises like Fannie, Freddie, Sallie, Ginnie, etc.) and banks, if they're able and willing, to try. To create money, get it flowing, inflate or die, but it already may be too late. Things that can't go on forever, won't, and as writer Ellen Brown observes: "The parasite has run out of its food source." The engine is now out of fuel
Is There Such A Thing As Society?
By Aseem ShrivastavaThese are strange times indeed, when the high priests of the day, the economists, are eager to quote prophetic poets like WB Yeats (The Second Coming), fearing an apocalypse, which has already happened a few times in the recent history of “modern” civilization. But they fear, perhaps rightly, that what may arrive may be something unimaginably worse than all catastrophes seen hitherto
Free Trade And Distorted Development:
A Critique Of WTO Perspectives
By Sharat G. LinGlobal policymakers need to understand not only the economics of aggregate growth, but the socio-economic impact of globalized flows on the distribution of income and on the welfare of human beings
05 November, 2008
Waiting For The Other Shoe To Drop
By Eddy LaingAmidst the cacophony of the present crisis and confusion, the revolutionary Marxists need to step up and clarify the essential nature of the current economic crisis, as well as the further economic and political crises that are on the way. The ruling classes are struggling to retain their political as well as their economic hegemony, both of which are being threatened in every field. We should not let this opportunity pass
The Challenge Of The New Statism
By Dan LiebermanThe liberal democracies have experienced financial shocks and reacted, but not as free market advocates expected. Adam Smith’s name is not being loudly heard in the world’s central banks
04 November, 2008
Under The Mountain Of Debt
By Eddy LaingThe current credit crisis is not primarily due to failing single family home mortgages, although mortgage debt is part of it. It is the coming due of capital debts that resemble Russian nested dolls, each one opening up to reveal yet more debt. These are the now-famous 'toxic assets', the 'collateralized debt obligations' and 'jumbo covered bonds' which promised to pay the holder based on the interest that would be collected on yet other debt instruments
The Economics Of Global Democracy
By Adam W. ParsonsThe economic freedom promised through the liberalisation of market forces has, in reality, resulted in a freedom for the very few and a contradiction of the promise that increased wealth will be shared - demanding a reframing of the concepts of 'democracy' and 'human rights', says Adam W. Parsons
03 November, 2008
More From The Front Lines Of The Financial Crisis
By Stephen LendmanAmerica's salad days are over, Peter Schiff writes in his 2007 book "Crash Proof: How to Profit from the Coming Economic Collapse." We've gone from a nation of savers, investors and producers to one of borrowers, consumers and gamblers. Official government statistics lie. They conceal hidden truths. America's house of cards is crumbling. It won't be pretty when it collapses. His advice is get out of the dollar. Get your money out of the country while you can, and gold is one of his recommendations
31 October, 2008
The End Of Prosperity
By Stephen LendmanDealing with today's crisis requires big international rescue according to economist Nouriel Roubini. Called Dr. Doom for his gloomy views that today command worldwide respect. And whatever's done, America faces "year(s) of economic stagnation." After a deep protracted downturn. If as true as he forecasts, it signals the end of prosperity. A new age of austerity and world economies in extreme disrepair and needing an alternative model in lieu of a clearly failed one. Hugely corrupted as well
30 October, 2008
World Tires Of Rule By Dollar
By Paul Craig RobertsWhat explains the paradox of the dollar’s sharp rise in value against other currencies (except the Japanese yen) despite disproportionate US exposure to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression? Read on, here is the answer
The 2008 US Recession,Military Keynesianism
And The Wars In The Middle East
By Peter CustersNouriel Roubini, the Wall Street economist who has gathered world fame by predicting the current world financial crisis, has already warned that the US economy may end up as a 'war economy', just as happened during the 20th century world wars. Clearly, it is time economists catch up, and engage in debate on the military underpinnings of economic policymaking in the US and beyond
Marxism And The Economic Crises
By Rohini HensmanIt is possible to get out of this recession without allowing it to become a depression if enough people press for decisive action along these lines. Eventually, another crisis will come along, of course: that is the nature of capitalism. But we can deal with that problem when we get to it!
27 October, 2008
Nicolas Sarkozy And Sovereign Wealth Funds
By Kavaljit SinghNot long ago, the EU gave a call for “Global Europe” with much fanfare and avowed commitment to open economy. Why double standards?
16 October, 2008
Stock Markets Fall As Global Recession Takes Hold
By Patrick O’ConnorThe financial crisis has brought to a head the underlying contradictions which have been wracking the capitalist system over an entire period. Notwithstanding the desperate hopes of policy makers in Europe, Asia, and other regions, a severe and protracted recession in the US will inevitably trigger a major downturn in the world economy
The Financial Economy And The Real Economy
By Justin PodurWriters on financial or economic matters rarely see the need to explain the basics of the field or justify them at the best of times, let alone in the middle of unfolding crises. What are these “financial instruments” — futures, options, and swaps? What are they for, and how did they increase the dangers of what occurred? What is the relationship between finance and the ‘real economy’? What exactly is wrong with that relationship? Events move so quickly that stories discussing them rarely stop to explain the basics
14 October, 2008
Does The Bailout Pass The Smell Test?
By Paul Craig RobertsThe authorities have blamed subprime mortgages for the crisis. Why then does their solution fail to address the problem of the mortgages? Instead, the solution directs public money into an increasingly concentrated private financial sector, the management of which is not only vastly overpaid, but also has escaped accountability for the financial chicanery that, allegedly, threatens systemic financial meltdown unless bailed out by the taxpayers
The October Surprise: Global Panic
By Stephen LendmanOrdinary people are hit hardest. Millions will suffer grievously for years as a result of this totally avoidable crisis. Fraudsters who caused it are rewarded. Innocent homeowners, households, and workers are punished. Mercilessly
01 October, 2008
World Financial Crisis Reveals
Vulnerability Of Russia’s Economy
By Vladimir VolkovShocks throughout the world financial system, centered in the financial meltdown in the US, led by mid-September to a sharp fall on the Russian stock markets. The country is facing its greatest banking crisis since the default of August 1998, demonstrating the enormous vulnerability of the Russian economy to fluctuations on the world markets
30 September, 2008
House And Global Investors Vote
"No" On Paulson Bailout
By Mike WhitneyThe US House rejected Treasury Secretary Paulson's $700 billion Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 . Paulson said he has the votes, but Paulson was wrong. The House bucked the Paulson's claim that buying up the illiquid mortgage-backed assets from the nation's banks would be enough to save the financial system from an impending meltdown
The Current Crisis: A Socialist Perspective
By Leo Panitch & Sam GindinThe type of facile analysis that focuses on 'it's all over' – whether in terms of the end of neoliberalism, the decline of the American empire, or even the next great crisis of capitalism – is not much use here insofar as it is offered without any clear socialist strategic implications. It ain't over till it's made over
29 September, 2008
No Bail Out For Wall Street Billionaires
By James PetrasThe Treasury and Congress have inadvertently revealed that federal financing is readily available to rebuild the US economy, guarantee decent living wages and provide health care for everyone if we choose elective officials who are committed to the needs of the US workers and not the Wall Street billionaires
Grand Theft America
By Stephen LendmanThe crime of the century. The greatest one ever. Author Danny Schechter calls it "Plunder." The title of his important new book on the subprime and overall financial crisis. Economist Michael Hudson and others refer to a kleptocracy. A Ponzi scheme writ large. Maybe an out-of-control Andromeda Strain. An economic one. Deadly. Unrecallable. Science fiction now real life. Potentially catastrophic. World governments trying to contain it. Trying everything but not sure what can work. Maybe only able to paper it over for short-term relief. Buy time but in the end vindicate the maxim that things that can't go on forever, won't
27 September, 2008
Bailout For Who?
By Adrianne AppelU.S. lawmakers and the George W. Bush administration are continuing their closed-door meetings through the weekend to try and fashion a softer 700-billion-dollar deal for Wall Street that will appeal to citizens angry at the prospect of the mega-corporate bailout
A Better Bailout
By Joseph E. StiglitzThe administration is once again holding a gun at our head, saying, "My way or the highway." We have been bamboozled before by this tactic. We should not let it happen to us again.There are alternatives
$700 Billion Bailout: Let’s Do
Some Simple Arithmetic
By Michael DickelThe Bush-Cheney-Haliburton administration proposes to hand over to Wall Street over twenty-five hundred dollars for each person over the age of 14 in the U.S. That’s over $10,000 for a family of four where the children are teen-agers. Do you know many families of four, with two teens, who can cough up $10,000 to help bail out Wall Street?
26 September, 2008
The Great Bailout: Is The Cure
Worse Than The Disease?
By Dan LiebermanSecretary Paulson’s plan to prevent collapse of the financial system prompts immediate and unanswered questions: Will the Paulson plan fulfill its intentions or will it worsen what it wants to correct? The health of the financial system is a major problem, but is it the problem, and does it disguise the true problem?
Financial Meltdown And The Madness
Of Imperialism
By Raymond LottaThe events of the last ten days on Wall Street represent a new and more destabilizing phase of the turmoil gripping financial institutions and markets in the U.S. A financial crisis has been unfolding for more than a year. It is now the most serious financial crisis of U.S. capitalism since the Great Depression of the 1930s. And it is by no means contained or under control
Framing The $700 Billion Question
By Pablo OuzielAs the bailout of Wall Street is debated in the U.S. Congress, and world political leaders and global financial analysts, are all excited about what will ultimately save us from a economic Pearl Harbor, will prevent a financial Tsunami, or the repeat of the Great Depression, I am surprised that no CEO has yet been arrested. I am amazed and perplexed; obviously the question has not been framed properly
20 September, 2008
Will This Gigantic Bailout Work?
By Sean O’GradyThis is what we might call the $1trillion question. That's $1,000,000,000,000, by the way. It is a little like surgery. The US government has amputated the gangrenous leg of the banking system to save the patient. But it is now preparing to graft the infected limb on to the body politic of America. The US taxpayers will be lucky if they do not feel distinctly unwell as a result of this little experiment
It's The Derivatives, Stupid! Why Fannie,
Freddie, AIG Had To Be Bailed Out
By Ellen BrownWhy the extraordinary bailout measures for Fannie, Freddie and AIG? The answer may have less to do with saving the insurance business, the housing market, or the Chinese investors clamoring for a bailout than with the greatest Ponzi scheme in history, one that is holding up the entire private global banking system. What had to be saved at all costs was not housing or the dollar but the financial derivatives industry; and the precipice from which it had to be saved was an "event of default" that could have collapsed a quadrillion dollar derivatives bubble, a collapse that could take the entire global banking system down with it
18 September, 2008
Panic Sell-Off On Wall Street
By Barry GreyIn the midst of the market frenzy, increasingly reminiscent of the 1929 crash that ushered in the Great Depression, more icons of American capitalism were set to topple, with investment bank Morgan Stanley and savings and loan giant Washington Mutual desperately seeking to avoid collapse by finding other banks willing to buy them
17 September, 2008
Meltdown On Wall Street:
Grave Warning For India
By Partha BanerjeeI pray to God that Americans now find the courage to stand up against the lies, distortions and censorship. I pray to God that Indians now find the courage to stand up against a mindless mimicking of a failed and exploitative economic and political system
16 September, 2008
You Know It's Bad When Yahoo.com Features
A Story About Fiscal Armageddon
By Paul Joseph WatsonYou know things are bad when Yahoo.com, the most trafficked website in the world and usually a purveyor of mindless celebrity gossip, cooking tips and dating advice, features a top story about how Americans could lose their bank deposits following the collapse of Lehman Brothers
06 August, 2008
The EU may find itself torn between those within its imperialist ruling classes calling for a more robust European military capacity and those that still want to rely on the NATO alliance. The pathways towards a greater or lesser EU international geopolitical role would be profoundly influenced by a major move by China to wrench more initiative in the world economy and/or to forge closer alliance with Russia
Inflation And The New World Order
By Richard C. CookAre we seeing the totalitarian dictatorship of the world’s financial elite being rolled out, with petroleum and food prices the primary weapon of a final coup d’etát against every national government on earth and their citizens? And if we knew who these “high-end investors” were, and who controlled them, wouldn’t we then understand who is in charge of the New World Order and for whom it really functions?
05 August, 2008
Shifts And Faultlines In The World Economy
And Great Power Rivalry: What Is Happening
And What It Might Mean
By Raymond LottaChina's capitalist development and China's rise in the world imperialist system, its nature and implications
04 August, 2008
Shifts And Faultlines In The World Economy
And Great Power Rivalry: What Is Happening
and What It Might Mean Part I
By Raymond LottaThis is a research essay about changes in global capitalist accumulation, newly emerging relations of strength among imperialist and regional powers, and the force of competitive pressures and tensions. It is about great-power rivalries in a world system based on exploitation. To use an analogy to the complex motions of large parts of the Earth’s crust and upper mantle, this is a discussion of shifting tectonic plates in the world economy: some of their longer-term movements and some of the more sudden and unexpected eruptions
22 May, 2008
"Immoral Hazard"
By Stephen LendmanDirest forecasts have it in its early innings with the worst of things ahead. Only in the fullness of time will we know, but some things are clear. None of this happened by chance. Nor should it have in the first place. A combination of financial malpractice, outright fraud, and greed are to blame. The same mistakes keep getting repeated. The costs keep going higher. Sooner or later they matter, and some day it'll be too late to fix them. Some day may be closer than smart money folks think. Stay tuned, be cautious, and ignore Fed Chairmen and politicians promising miracles
15 April, 2008
Recession Takes Hold In US
By Barry GreyGE’s results shook the financial markets because they indicated that the impact of the housing and credit crisis was spreading beyond the housing and banking sectors to broader parts of the US economy. GE’s report came at the beginning of the first-quarter earnings report season, and seemed to confirm the worst fears on Wall Street that profits will drop sharply nearly across the board
Recession, Depression, Collapse:
What's Fear Got To Do With It?
By Carolyn BakerThe world we wanted to have is not within our reach; the world we deeply dread is upon us. Meanwhile, the world we have known, ugly as it may be but nevertheless familiar, is vanishing before our eyes. Herein lies an opportunity to experience deeper layers of who we really are and what we are really made of. Collapse is compelling us to confront these issues, whether we want to or feel ready to do so or not. While I do not welcome the suffering this will entail, I do welcome the transformation of human consciousness and thus the evolutionary quantum leap it may offer us
Losses Mount In Chinese Export Industry
By Alex LantierLight export industries in China are continuing to face massive losses, shedding jobs and moving operations either abroad or to lower-wage regions of China. The immediate triggers of the downturn—the political and commercial consequences of the US financial crisis—are exacerbating working class discontent over low wages, pollution and poor working conditions
19 March, 2008
US Federal Reserve Cuts Interest Rates Again
By Alex LantierThe new interest rate cuts can only exacerbate the decline in the dollar, which has already fallen to record or near-record lows against the euro, the yen and other currencies. There are already signs that the dollar’s plunge is having serious effects on the financing of US trade
14 March, 2008
Gold And Oil Prices Soar, Dollar Slumps
By Barry GreyJust two days after the Federal Reserve Board announced an emergency $200 billion debt-relief plan for distressed Wall Street finance houses, markets in the US and internationally were shaken by the collapse of Carlyle Capital Corporation (CCC), a publicly traded investment fund established by the Carlyle Group private equity fund.The Carlyle debacle was accompanied by other developments pointing to both recession and rising inflation. Crude oil prices hit a new record of $111, gold futures breached the $1,000-an-ounce mark, and the dollar fell to record lows versus the Japanese yen, the euro and the Swiss franc
Gas Prices In Hawaii, California Hit $4
By Jaymes SongWhile the price of oil climbs above $110 a barrel, most Americans dread the day they will have to pay $4. On this tropical island and a few stations in California, $4 gas has already arrived, straining the pocketbooks of residents and businesses
Watching The Dollar Die
By Paul Craig RobertsI’ve been watching the dollar die all my life. I sometimes think I will outlast it
07 March, 2008
The Grim Reality of Economic Truths
By Pablo OuzielI remember the time when General Motors Corp. was considered a pillar of the American dream, a fundamental of the economic miracle. Now, after reporting a quarterly loss of $722 million, compared with a profit of $950 million a year earlier, and offering buyouts to all of its 74,000 United Auto Workers employees, GM is clearly not a part of the sound fundamentals which President Bush likes to describe
11 February, 2008
The Great Bust of '08
By Mike WhitneySo, what does it all mean? It means that people who want to hold on to their life savings are going have to be extra vigilant as the situation continues to deteriorate
28 January, 2008
How Bush Destroyed The Dollar
By Paul Craig RobertsIf the US government cannot balance its budget by cutting its spending or by raising taxes, the day when it can no longer borrow will see the government paying its bills by printing money like a third world banana republic. Inflation and more exchange rate depreciation will be the order of the day
24 January, 2008
How To Stop The Downturn
By Joseph E. StiglitzAmerica's economy is headed for a major slowdown. Whether there is a recession (two quarters of negative growth) is less important than the fact that the economy will operate well below its potential, and unemployment will grow. The country needs a stimulus, but anything we do will add to our soaring deficit, so it is important to get as much bang for the buck as possible
"Lame Duck" Citizens And The Global Economy
By Pablo OuzielIn regards to our ‘global economy’, one is better off reading Dostoevsky’s The Gambler and saying to himself, “at the present moment I must repair to the roulette-table,” than listening to George Bush deluding himself about the fact that “while there is some uncertainty, the financial markets are strong and solid.” The truth is, our global markets have become a “lame duck” and all we can do is wait for the next disaster to shake the corrupt foundation on which things have been run
23 January, 2008
US Cuts Interest Rates Amid Fears Of
Global Financial Collapse
By Andre DamonThe Fed’s emergency action gave more the impression of a panicked attempt to stave off catastrophe, confirming the growing conviction that the US economy is sliding into recession, regardless of attempts at either monetary or fiscal stimulus
Hard Times A-Coming
By Dave LindorffGet ready for some hard economic times. The next step will be soaring inflation, as strapped companies in China, India and elsewere start raising their prices for goods shipped to the US and paid for in dollars. Then the Fed will have to respond by raising interest rates again, in an effort to shore up the currency. And with that will come deeper recession and an even lower stock market
Farewell To Old Economic Nostrums
By Paul Craig RobertsThe rebate will help Americans reduce their credit card debt. However, adding $150 billion to an existing federal budget deficit that will be worsened by recession could further alarm America's foreign creditors, traders in currency markets, and OPEC oil producers. If the rebate loses its punch to consumer debt reduction, imports, and pressure on the dollar, what will the government do next?
Will Economic Stimulus Measures
Stave Off Recession?
By Richard C. CookIf you dig a little deeper, it is easy to see that the U.S. never really got out of the recession of 2000-2002 which followed the bursting of the dot.com bubble at the end of the Bill Clinton presidency. This event was marked by the stock market crash starting in December 2000 that cost Americans over a trillion dollars in retirement savings and other forms of paper “wealth” over a period of a few months
How To Sink America
By Chalmers JohnsonWhy the Debt Crisis Is Now the Greatest Threat to the American Republic
How The West Was Re-sold
By Niranjan RamakrishnanLet me make this simple and practical suggestion to the President and Congress: Cut out the middleman and mail the 145 billion dollars directly to China. That's where it is going to end up anyway. The America people will thank you for not filling their homes and garages with more junk. And...this is important...you can all take pride in boasting to the people that you kept the government out of it
22 January, 2008
Threat Of US Recession Panics Global Stock Markets
By Andre DamonStock prices plummeted worldwide Monday and Tuesday , amid heightened fears of a US recession. While over the course of last week US financial markets suffered the worst fall since 2002, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping by 5 percent, many Asian and European indices dropped by a similar amount in just one day
The False US Economy Versus Nature’s
Expansion-Contraction Cycle
By Shepherd BlissThe growth-based US economy is contracting. Media economists are alarmed, even panicky. They describe this as a “recession” and wring their hands with woe. They should have expected this downturn and we should accept it. Lets see what will happen. Maybe the Earth will benefit from the declining US economy? Perhaps its pollution and other threats to the global climate and environment will lessen?
19 January, 2008
Bush Announces “Stimulus” Plan
As Recession Fears Grip Washington
By Patrick MartinThere was a distinct note of panic in the sudden issuance of a statement, only hours after Bush’s return to the US from a weeklong trip through the Middle East. Bush could give few details of the stimulus package, since they have not been worked out, but instead outlined what he called the broad “principles”: the package should be limited to 1 percent of GDP, or about $140 billion; and it should consist of tax cuts only, with no increase in social spending
The Week The Economy Turned Nasty
By Jeremy WarnerRetail sales plummet; gas and electricity prices soar, further eating into already squeezed disposable incomes; Citigroup and Merrill Lynch, two of the great symbols of American capitalism, forced to hand round the begging bowl among Asian and Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds after massive write-downs on US sub-prime mortgage lending
18 January, 2008
As Wall Street Posts Sharp Losses,
Washington Promotes “Stimulus Package”
By Bill Van Auken & Andre DamonWith major Wall Street finance houses posting tens of billions of dollars in new losses, housing starts declining 30 percent compared to last year, retail sales plunging and unemployment climbing to 5 percent—a two year high—the Bush White House, the Democratic congressional leadership and the Federal Reserve Board chairman all signaled Thursday their support for the passage of an economic stimulation package
15 January, 2008
US Bank Losses Intensify Recession Fears
By Patrick MartinTwo more major banks reported heavy mortgage and consumer-loan losses Monday for the fourth quarter of 2007, reinforcing fears that that US financial crisis will likely trigger a recession, not only in America, but worldwide
12 January, 2008
US Federal Reserve Chairman Warns Of
Recession Danger, Promises More Rate Cuts
By Andre Damon & Joe KayUS Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke warned Wednesday that the US economy is slowing dramatically and broadly hinted that the Fed would aggressively cut interest rates in response, perhaps before its next scheduled policy meeting at the end of January
The Deflation Time Bomb
By Mike WhitneyWhen banks don’t lend and consumers don’t borrow; the economy crashes. End of story. The whole system is predicated on the prudent use of credit. That system is now in terminal distress. Everyone to the bunkers. Perhaps the whole “inflation-deflation” debate is academic. The real issue is the length and severity of the impending recession. That’s what we really want to know. And how many people will needlessly suffer