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book recommendation
Harry Potter
by J.K. Rowling
I've been on a Harry Potter sabatical the past few days. I just finished the last book. WOW! But now there is nothing more to look forward to in life. It's over. It's done. I hope that Rowling continues to write but I can't imagine topping the story she told over these seven books. I guess I need to start over again on the first book.
economy
Is this the week our economy goes totally in the shitter or will this all just drag out over the next few months? There is definitely a lot happening and pretty much none of it is good. Just chickens coming home to roost. First it was the Chinese.
China threatens 'nuclear option' of dollar sales
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Two officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning - for the first time - that Beijing may use its $1.33 trillion (£658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress.
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thanks to Huffington Post
China's Threat to the Dollar is Real
One Big Reason Markets are Plunging
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Twenty-four hours after I reported China’s announcement that China, not the Federal Reserve, controls US interest rates by its decision to purchase, hold, or dump US Treasury bonds, the news of the announcement appeared in sanitized and unthreatening form in a few US news sources.
The Washington Post found an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin to provide reassurances that it was “not really a credible threat” that China would intervene in currency or bond markets in any way that could hurt the dollar’s value or raise US interest rates, because China would hurt its own pocketbook by such actions.
The Washington Post found an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin to provide reassurances that it was “not really a credible threat” that China would intervene in currency or bond markets in any way that could hurt the dollar’s value or raise US interest rates, because China would hurt its own pocketbook by such actions.
Both the professor and the Treasury Secretary are greatly mistaken.
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China Might Dump FOREX Reserves
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China is now threatening to yank on our leash because we are giving them problems. I expected this to happen about now. The US is ignoring this, of course, hoping to keep the fluid red ink money flowing via Japan but I expect the Chinese to use their FOREX reserves to snag the yen. And more hedge funds are dying and it seems all the lending companies did the same exact thing: lent money to risky deadbeats who pay higher interest. Gah. Hope none of them sue me for writing about this mess.
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China has the US by the balls and the US is too arrogant to realize it. Congress thinks they can push China around. Just wait until China squeezes hard. But that isn't the half of it. The economy is self-destructing without China's help.
The Open Ocean
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By now, is there anyone over twelve in the USA who has not seen Jim Cramer's tantrum recorded late Friday afternoon on CNBC as the stock market took a 280 point swan dive off the rocky cliff of Hedge Fund Island?
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Investment Houses And Loan Companies Fall Faster And Faster
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The collapsing mortgage market continues and far from slowing down, is accelerating. The inability to understand all this on the part of the media and our financial officers in the Government is a scandal we will pay dearly for this isn't over at all. The witless mortgage companies writing bizarre mortgage contracts didn't stop last year, far from it, they are doing it not just last quarter but this quarter! They are still at it, madly writing bad contracts and watching the older ones go bad at the same time. Digging deeper and deeper into the hole, they enlarge it and now some of the biggest players in this game are going down into bankruptcy.
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This Banking Collapse Is Different From Earlier Ones
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We just went through a preview of the coming banking collapse. A total of $300 billion was pumped out of thin air and put into banks across the planet. This was a big, big Santa Claus sleigh ride! Few commentators want to really understand why this is happening and how to stop it. We must understand the hazard our empire is in. The rival empire of China has us by the throat. We must negotiate with them and extract ourselves from the mess we are in...like the mess in Iraq.
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Googling the Foreclosure Blues: How the Republican-made Housing Crisis Is Bankrupting America
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When I predicted in January that housing would become a major campaign issue, I had no idea it would happen so quickly. At that time the date I set for this to emerge was fall, but with the unraveling already begun, I shudder to think what we may face when the leaves start falling from the trees.
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Are we heading for another Great Depression?
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Elaine Meinel Supkis: Great Depressions like the one that hit in 1929 are very rare. They usually happen only after two great empires exhaust their finances. WWI involved two of the biggest industrial powers in a massive death-struggle that didn't destroy their industries but wrecked their currencies and beggared their workers. Russia was a major empire but a minor industrial power so when the workers there revolted, the loss of this sector's industrial base had much less impact than the collapse of Germany's currency and its huge war debts.
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Meltdown?
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One need not be a card carrying member in the gold standard society, with a pedantic fascination in the works of obscure Austrian economists, to believe that credit is the lifeblood of capitalism, and that the disruption of it can be turbulent, if not catastrophic. As already described here last week, the probable consequences of this credit crunch will be dire for millions of Americans, driving them out of their homes and communities into lives of permanent insecurity (click on the Housing Bubble label below), and, the liberals are not only silent, they don't even realize that it's happening!
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thanks to Politics in the Zeros
Sub-Prime Market Earthquake is Felt Worldwide
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The shock waves emanating from the sub-prime mortgage earthquake are now spreading around the financial world. The collateral damage is being unveiled so quickly that it is difficult keeping up with all the collapsed hedge funds, injured banks, and defaulting mortgage brokers. It is difficult to make sense of all of this, partly because financial reporting in today’s business publications is almost non-existent. Reporters usually repeat what is in some company’s press release, and only a few with experience and investigative instincts can really go below the surface and make sense of things. To be fair to the reporters, this crisis is a bit different, because the hedge fund industry is deliberately and obstinately opaque. Hedge funds reveal little about what they own or how much they borrow. That iron curtain of information about hedge fund exposures is making this crisis much worse.
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Stock Market Brushfire; Will there be a run on the banks?
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On Friday, the Dow Jone’s clawed its way back from a 200 point deficit to a mere 31 point loss after the Federal Reserve injected $38 billion into the banking system. The Fed had already pumped $24 billion into the system a day earlier after the Dow plummeted 387 points. That brings the Fed’s total commitment to a whopping $62 billion.
By some estimates, $326.3 billion has now been added to the G-7 Nations’ intra-banking system to prevent a breakdown. That amount will rise considerably in the weeks ahead as the situation continues to deteriorate. Some readers may remember that on Tuesday, August 7, the Fed announced that it was NOT planning to bail out the market.
My, how quickly things change.
So far, economic pundits and CEOs have applauded the Fed’s intervention as a “constructive” way of staving off an impending credit crisis.
Are these same “experts” who always sing the praises of unregulated “free markets” while condemning any government intervention?
Yes.
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ch-ch-ch-changes
Today Zoe and I went to the wedding of our good friends Kim and Doug.
This morning was spent baking bread for the pot-luck, wrapping wedding presents, getting camera gear together, and generally getting ready. The weather report called for rain but it was partially cloudy. Perfect weather for an outdoor wedding. A good time was had by all. We got home after 5 and I crashed. (Naps are good!) I woke up to find that there will be two more beings living with us.
On the Fourth of July I posted about maybe getting a new kitty. It's a little Desert Lynx. His name is Bubba. The Desert Lynx have Bobcat in their lineage. Very interesting cats. Our friend Beverly Graham (she runs Operation Sack Lunch, which feeds the homless in Seattle) was considering letting us have one of her kittens. It took a while to come to a decision. First, she had been ill, then she tried keeping them apart to see how that would work and they really need each other so she was considering giving us both.
This is the second one. His name is Bart. Beverly has all sorts of animals (11 cats, several dogs, llamas, chickens, ducks, exotic (loud) birds, and I don't know what all) but these two were special since she had to deliver them or the mom and two kittens would have died. And Zoe is only one of two people Beverly would consider giving a cat. We have two cats, one from the local animal shelter, and one that Beverly gave us several years ago, a Somali. Tuesday Bubba and Bart move in. There are conditions. The first is that Bart and Bubba's mother adjusts OK. The second is that our cats adjust to the new kittens. It's about wat is best for the cats. I'm looking forward to them.
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