Regular reader Rich writes:
I’ve read in a couple of places on the internet that if all outstanding debt was repaid, there would be no ‘money’ left in our debt money system. Is this true? If so, what happens to the interest that the bankers earn?
Are increases in your mortgage repayments set to break the bank? Are the credit card bills piling up on the doormat?
If the Bank of England pushes up interest rates for a sixth time on Thursday it could be the final straw for the people clinging on to the bottom rung of the property ladder.
It started with subprime mortgages. Now owners of McMansions are defaulting, and the effects of the housing bust are beginning to ripple through the economy.
I’m an historian, not an economist, so anything about economics-macro, micro-whatever, has been as foreign to me for most of my adult life as soil samples from Mars. But several years ago I had an epiphany that shattered my then-left-liberal/progressive world. I awakened from decades of delusion that I could adequately grasp world and national events without understanding the essential nature of how money works in the capitalist economy in which I live. I realized that until I acquired that understanding, all of the other subjects I preferred to talk about-war, social justice, race, gender, environment, energy depletion, civil liberties, globalization, and many more were inextricably connected with the financial machinations of the imperial beast within whose belly I reside.
America’s addiction to cheap credit now needs a fresh injection of liquidity from the rest of the world, and in particular Asia. No good will come to Asian banks from supporting a fresh bubble in the US economy; conversely, much good will result from calling America’s bluff and ending the scourge of excessive US consumption.
U.S. stocks fell for the first time in six days after the nation’s largest mortgage lender said the economy is heading for a recession.
Russia has reduced its oil supplies to Germany. Oil shipments have dropped by one-third during the recent several weeks, a Russian pipeline official said Friday, sharply pinching supplies at a major German refinery.
US stocks have fallen in afternoon trade - reversing earlier gains, amid ongoing fears over market volatility.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 0.65%, to 12,993.81. But European shares closed higher, led by mining and metals companies. France’s Cac-40 closed 0.67% up and London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.24%.
Richard Rainwater made billions by knowing how to PROFIT FROM A CRISIS. Now he foresees the biggest one yet.
Richard Rainwater doesn’t want to sound like a kook. But he’s about as worried as a happily married guy with more than $2 billion and a home in Pebble Beach can get. Americans are “in the kind of trouble people shouldn’t find themselves in,” he says. He’s just wary about being the one to sound the alarm.
From New York to Hong Kong and everywhere in between, alarm bells are ringing. Central bankers are on 24/7 alert, ready to perform life support on catatonic markets. Stock traders are panicking — the Dow’s wild ride on Wednesday, down 350 points and then almost all the way back, is just the latest declaration of confusion and fear.