-- Posted Wednesday, 30 September 2009 | | Source: GoldSeek.com
The following are some snippets from the most recent issue of the International Forecaster. For the full 28 page issue, please see subscription information below.
US MARKETS
The G-20 Pittsburg Summit ended last Friday. Their official statements made for some novel and interesting reading.
We were informed that the group could by working together could manage a transition to a more balanced pattern of global growth. Tending to domestic demand as private savings increase. It is obvious to us this cannot work. We are seeing increased savings and decreased consumption. The IMF as well agrees with these policies. We cannot recall that the IMF has made a correct decision over the past 50 years. The group gushed forth the same platitudes we’ve heard for years. The shared understanding and deepened dialogue that produces no solutions, only more power and wealth for the entrenched elite.
We were treated to the never-ending story of rising living standards in emerging markets and developing countries as North American and European economies go into the economic and financial tank. This is to be achieved by balancing current accounts and the support of continued free trade. This would, of course, would be aided by the lack of tariffs and the continued use of slave labor from the third and second worlds as transnational conglomerates get richer by parking their profits in tax havens.
There would be centralized monetary policy and price fixing along with structural reforms to implant more socialistic policies. These policies would end sovereignty, as we have known it.
Needless to say magically members with sustained, significant external deficits will end them and foster savings. We wonder if they ever considered that if everyone saves less buying will be done. There was the call to increase investment, but why would corporations do that in the reality of decreased demand, 67% of capacity utilization and massive idle capacity worldwide, particularly in China. These policies would dramatically affect China whose world exports have already fallen 40%.
If this is the result of this 2-day sideshow it accomplished nothing and little will change. It is just more smoke and mirrors.
The US in a scramble to fight off a deflationary depression is doing just the opposite. Trillion-dollar a year fiscal shortfalls for as far as the eye can see, accompanied by wars upon wars. Government spending accounts for 25% of GDP; the same as we experienced in WWII We have Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae and FHA all bankrupt. Government is not only financing homes, but also companies, cars, Wall Street, banks and insurance companies. Taxpayers own 60% of GM and 80% of AIG, both of which are bound to fail. Under TARP government owns the banking system, most of which is insolvent. They all survive for now with government guarantees. We did not hear these problems being addressed at the G-20 meeting. All we saw was police and military beating innocent people or the use of tear gas, rubber bullets and sound cannons on innocent demonstrators some 20 and 30 blocks away from the downtown meeting area. Your Gestapo goons at work.
Yes, too big to fail is still in vogue, just as it was in the 1930s. The Illuminati still does as it pleases, will continue to do so until we stop them. The past and current solution is taxpayer finance to just keep them in business. This cannot succeed because government is too big, irresponsible and incompetent to succeed in this venture. This is not temporary. It is impossible to unwind. It will continue indefinitely as corporatist fascism until the edifice collapses. The elitists cannot step back and let the economy function on its own. If they do it will collapse. This time they have gone too far. It is going to take the elitists and everyone else down with it. The solution should have been used in 1990, but that didn’t interest the elitists. It will never be safe to do what these people have done. There is no easy way out. No two-year depression. A long drawn out depression is the best that can be expected, although at the rate the shadow government is progressing in the Middle East we could end up in a nuclear war. Zero interest rates cannot work. All they do is foster financial asset speculation. That means failure for many and loans that will never be paid back. Just look at the horrendous numbers in the last issue of corporate loans gone bad. The banks are buried in these nonperforming assets. That means more taxpayer funds to keep the banks solvent. The elitists and our government are running amok. There are no controls. That in part is why the President and House and Senate have plunging approval ratings. Last week’s hearings in the House on HR 1207 were pathetic. Rep. Grayson destroyed the attorney for the Fed. It was legal disembowelment. We had best get HR 1207 and SB 604 or government could be facing all out revolution. 66% of Americans want the Fed audited and investigated. This is an extremely high figure considering what the Fed does is difficult for most people to understand. Our guess is that Americans are tired of seeing their savings dwindle and their wages and buying power fall.
In July, Americans cut outstanding credit by almost $22 billion. This brings us back to the stupidity of the G-20 announcing that savings must increase and at the same time consumption as well. They must think we are dumb. This is the biggest cutback in credit usage in over 66 years. Economists projected a reduction of $4 billion just to show you how wrong they continue to be.
Cash for Clunkers may have increased borrowing and consumption in the third quarter, but we ask in January what will GDP look like? Will the government falsify the statistics again? Of course, they will.
The stock market is up because of massive liquidity injections as corporate insiders sell their shares on a 30 to 1 basis. This is absurd, there is no recovery only a flattering out which will stretch into the next election. After that its just more stimulus and money and credit injections accompanied by hyperinflation. At the height of that inflation 1-1/2 to 2 years from now the dollar will be officially devalued and default will take place. These events will bring much higher gold and silver prices. As long as the dollar depreciates gold will move higher. In order to create a false stimulation of the economy the elitists have sacrificed the value of the dollar and the conclusion will be that they are going to lose control of their suppression of the gold market. From here on out the situation will become desperate for the elitists. They either increase money and credit, which is presently over 20%, the banks start increasing lending, or there is a $2 trillion stimulus. The big five money center banks will need massively more funding otherwise they will fail and take 75% of American depositors with them in a world of little if no insurance. Why do you think corporate America is bailing out of their shares? They have no confidence in the economy. In addition the invasions of Afghanistan and Pakistan will bring an end of the American empire. It is simply no longer affordable.
What is going to happen next is that the 6-month stock rally is about to end. It took everything the Fed could muster to accomplish this. As the market heads lower government, Wall Street and banking will have to contend with irate shareholders and retirees as well as owners of stock, life cash value insurance policies and annuities. This time when the market falls it isn’t coming back. The bottom on the Dow will be 2,600 to 4,200 if we are lucky. This time the financial system is in too deep. There can be no reversal. How can there be if the American taxpayer guarantees 90% of all mortgages, so that the legacy banks, as they are now called, can make ever more money.
Just to give you an idea of what government was up too in the second quarter, corporate debt rose marginally, but at half the level of the first quarter. Federal government debt grew at 8.3%, up from 4.9% in the first quarter. Annualized that is an increase of from 22.6% to 28.2%. Fed holdings of federal securities increased from $20 billion to $559 billion. How is that for monetization? This as mortgage debt contracted by $53 billion. Government and Wall Street say the recession is over, but polls show 86% of Americans disagree.
While all this transpires unemployment payouts worldwide are running out. Spain is on its back along with Ireland and Italy tells us that without a continuation of cash for clunkers there will be a disaster in the country. In the US car sales are expected to fall 40% in September. European sales are expected to fall by one million units in 2010. In the US banks’ lending has fallen 14% in the third quarter. It is like the 1930s all over again. This points out the fallacy of the G-20 of saving and increased consumption simultaneously. There is no mystery. Even though government lies about its statistics we can figure them out and the result is not good. The conclusion is the Fed and other European banks will have to partake in massive additional monetization to stave off a deflationary depression and it has already begun.
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