Great or Greater Depression?

A fun read sent by our local dissident Paul.

 

Seven reasons a ‘good’ depression beats a new Great Depression

Yes, a depression. Spelled: D-e-p-r-e-s-s-i-o-n. Wake up America, recessions don’t work any more. Why?

Get serious folks. We had a 30-month recession not long ago. Eight years later the market’s still barely at its 2000 peak, a loser. Worse, we’re back in a new recession. But Washington politicians are keeping it a secret, feeding us doctored feel-good statistics as legendary political historian Kevin Phillips wrote in “Numbers Racket: Why the Economy is Worse Than We Know.”

So we blindly refuse to bite the bullet and stop our out-of-control spiral into collapse. America needs a big wake-up call … and it’s coming soon, whether you like it or not!  More… 

Night at the Movies

I recommend you watch this movie.

The film explores serious themes, such as the manipulation of the mass media and public opinion, with a comedic sensibility. The film drew attention at the time for similarities to the Clinton sex scandal, although the movie also makes reference to the Persian Gulf War as an example of war used as an electoral tactic. The idea of war as a creation of the media is not, of course, original to the movie. The French postmodernist Jean Baudrillard’s ideas in particular are relevant to a discussion of the movie.  More…

FDIC in Trouble

Please notice herein that the FDIC outlays are rising with each report.  It says here the FDIC outlaid $15 billion in bank takeovers.  The FDIC had $53 billion to start.  Now that figure has dropped to $38 billion.  That means the FDIC has burned approximately 28% of its capital in just under two months.

Have you protected yourself?  Don’t let this phony dollar rally lull you into a false sense of calm.  Nothing has changed.  As outlined here in the past, fundamental dollar problems are significantly worse than the media would suggest.  It is still early in this unwinding of our financial system and already the FDIC is headed for its own debacle.

Budget deficit soars to $102.8 billion in July

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal budget deficit soared in July, pushed higher by economic stimulus payments and $15 billion in outlays to protect depositors at failed banks.

The Treasury Department reported that the deficit for July totaled $102.8 billion, nearly triple the $36.4 billion deficit recorded in July 2007.

The deficit outstripped the $97 billion gap that Wall Street economists had been expecting for July.

The Treasury said outlays were pushed up by $15 billion because of payments the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. made to depositors at failed banks. The Treasury report did not identify the banks but federal regulators seized the assets of California-based IndyMac Bank, the largest regulated thrift to fail in U.S. history.

The FDIC is expected to be successful in recovering much of its outlays for failed banks, in part by selling the assets of seized institutions. The FDIC has also raised the possibility that it will increase insurance premiums on healthy banks to cover the cost of what are expected to be rising bank failures as the current credit crisis unfolds.  More…