Global economic situation for liveaboard cruising yachties

[Boston]

exactly
and yes
it would have worked like a charm
banks would have ended up with the money anyway but by giving it to the people it would have saved more of us and kept most afloat
I think the ttl so far is 3.5 trillion paid out
divide that by the 307 million folks in this mess and you get about 12,000 bucks I sure could have used
but nope
lets give it all to the incompetents who screwed up in the first place
that will work
take it from the folks who are successful
and give it to those who are unsuccessful
good plan
we'll do that

[Boston]

nother little darling to consider
two countries would not sign on to the dollar standard
any guesses





Iraq
and
Iran

food for thought eh

You guys give 'em much too much credit for both competence and capability of evil.

[Boston]

greedy evil politicians
its got a ring to it
the ring of truth
as for the level of incompetence
its legendary at this point

its there job to have there fingers in every pie
if they dont
there just not telling
if they do
you only know because of how badly they screwed it up
thats politics

other than that they take out the trash and pay the light bill
if your lucky fill a few pot holes
( I was not lucky and now they owe me a tire )
they often get caught "appropriating" funds from the education dep to pay off there call girls

whatever they are doing
its not for anyone's benefit but there own or we wouldn't be in this mess
in politics
its every worm for itself

[masalai]

http://financialsense.com/editorials...2009/0728.html illustrates a very precarious position for the US$ - seems like the knife blade is up and you are all sitting astride it

I cannot understand the attitude of the US Govt towards the activities of the FED and cronies (the failed banking system that is totally corrupt and should have been put down like a rabid dog instead of bailing them out)... Gold was shorted in trade by about US$20 an oz during NY day trading, which gave the greedy bastards (JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs) hefty profits in their illegal naked shorting play using ETF's and other financial vehicles that have no value in themselves apart from being able to rip off the fools who believe there is value (real gold) backing those bits of illegally & immorally created paper... (they made something like 100000 per 10 cent movement per position)... Do you not know the difference between actual metal and bits of scrip purporting to represent a receipt for gold that does not exist???? - - - You may note that I do not comment much on the Australian situation, suffice to say we (Australia) appears to be a little insulated, with slightly more stringently imposed banking regulation, is a comparatively tiny player, but otherwise slavishly seems to delight in following America's lead - mostly the wrong ones/examples - fcuk knows why?... USA sniffs and Australia catches the flu, as the common saying goes...

Now this series of essays promise to deliver USEFUL INFORMATION - - - http://financialsense.com/fsu/editor...2009/0728.html and it seems from this that any thought of long term investment in doing something sensible - like providing employment and making widgets to help in the broader recovery is not on the agenda, just robbing from one another which will continue to lead in the direction of the cheats prospering (FED and cronies) and others eventually loosing all.... because if you get caught cheating you go to jail, but the big-boys have immunity... Hold a tea-party to audit the FED and also Fort Knox etc as the shell trick is being played and there are no peas (the peas have been slighted into the hands of the bankers )

and now to add insult to injury http://financialsense.com/fsu/editor...2009/0728.html This will hopefully be where the learnt lessons are applied... LET THE FAILURES FALL... or hold out your wrists and ankles for the manacles of slavery to debt... For the Government has been conned and sold out by the bankers through the FED which the bankers own & control....

http://financialsense.com/fsu/editor...2009/0728.html explain the situation looking from another direction & has some interesting links...

and in conclusion, are the investors in USA that F&%#*$G stupid? http://financialsense.com/fsu/editor...2009/0728.html as to continue to invest in the S&P500.... bunch of fairies in fantasy land...

[Boston]

first thing I notice that should be pointed out is that historically wealth was always stolen
hardly ever earned
Kings, countries, mercenaries, colonials and imperialists
all stole from and enslaved one another and the native peoples to achieve there wealth
none generally earned it
thats why the industrialists of the early 18th century like the East India Trading Company made out so well
no restrictions
once old money (stolen money ) realized what new money was up to
they ( generally governments and city states ) restricted or taxed the practice of earning

nothing much has changed
the US gov steals ( its called taxes ) and when one crime isnt sufficient they commit another

its called government
were the smelliest piece of **** rises to the top
hello Obummer ( who used to be slum lord lawyer and used his legal standing to have everyone but himself removed from the ballot during his first state run for senate, including the incumbent )
nothings changed
gold is just another commodity to be stolen and manipulated

[masalai]

Now I feel somewhat chastened - I need to get out and start stealing too - Ahhhhgh, what's the use, - - I do not really like stealing and like to feel that all those who gave me money felt that they were getting a good return for their expenditure... I often felt that I was being exploited, but that is neither something I could fix, or get unnecessarily worried about then or now, apart from mumbling something like, "I wuz robbed"

Gold has been devalued by US$20/ounce and now the USA boys in banks are screwing with the currencies - if this continues I feel that the European and Asian countries will exert their own revenge for being screwed, and show USA what screwing is really about.... I wholly sympathise with the traders and other business people who are being really adversely effected by this stupid action of the bankers of USA.... A lower value in the US$ will assist manufacturing inside USA as the products will present cheaper and better value... Who is stark raving mad? trying to keep the value of the US$ UP against other currencies.... economic advisors are stupid....

[Boston]

sure are
economic advisers tend to advise you into whats profitable for them and there's
not always for the client
how do you think most of these clown make money
on the trade coming and going not on the actual performance of the traded stock
thats why I never ever listen to em but just read the news and check the indicators myself

dont feel chasened Mas
your one of the few who seem to be paying attention at all to whats going on
or at least one of the few who seems to understand it

I also prefer to earn a living and would gladly give up day trading if I could only find consistent work contracting
which by some stroke of luck seems to be happening lately
I might even have a contract for slabbing up some logs
never done that before but what the hey
I always wanted a band mill
if I can get a large enough contract Ill go buy a nice one and go for it
if
lots of ifs
and looking at another house needs historic reproduction windows
my specialty
more maybe's

I got work well through fall even without the maybe's
and havnt been trading much lately
I guess Im just a sucker and would rather work for a living dicing up wood when I can get it
suppose if you make and old dog pull a sled long enough
oh well
you get used to it
besides
keeps me in shape this whole working thing

dam
I got a piece of this white oak in my eye today while I was milling
still stings although Im sure I got it out
still feels like its in there
even used a magnet to be sure it was not a piece of the cutter heads
must have scratched it or something
oh well
Ill know when the sun comes up
if its metal and its still in there it will be real sun shy
if the eye doesnt flinch at the sunshine
its not metal or wasnt and istn still in there
I probably screwed it up rubbing a magnet across is all night and its just angry at me

[masrapido]

That is because capitalists had invented their "democratic capitalism" utopia. Reagan and Tatcher. So-called "perfect economy". It turned out to be worse utopia than socialism as practiced by the eastern block, which was usually outright state - dictatorship, much like the usa, mind you.

Anyway, stupid capitalists turned economy into applied mathematics and screwed themselves and us up and down. And are still stubbornly sticking to the sunken wood (perfect economy), as if that will save them. Banks, instead of being removed from economy, and reduced to a money deposit safes, are still dictating the rules of game to economies around the world.

Today's apparent "recovery" is merely a knee-jerk reflex on printed trillions injected into unviable private enterprises. Bosses of these companies know the eceonomies are done over and not reparable so they are sharing the money among themselves, taking expensive trips, awarding additional "productivity" bonuses, all that capitalist, private enterprise, ********.

Who cares for the people and the country. All is going down the pipe anyway.

All is nicely revealed in the "New Scientist", issue 28.07.2009. Fresh from the presses. Just came out. Capitalism is evil and it is all bunch of lies and crap. Say usanian and english scientists. I merely agree...

[Boston]

I also agree
the constant growth requirement of the capitalist philosophy doomed it from the start
industrialist had the right idea but got railroaded by old money and governments
sustainable productivity is were its at
limited exports and imports of trade items
limited immigration
a tribal social organization
and an acceptance of nationalism
not ultra nationalism but just a pride in were you come from
I say let the other guy live his way
and I live mine

after all
when all this is done and buried
thats how we will be living again anyway

[masalai]

Boston, I hope your eye recovers quickly... I have lapsed into working with my mind whilst it still functions semi reliably ageing processes limit my physically strenuous activity...

For me, "The New Scientist" gets things wrong more often than not to retain any credibility, but a fun read when really bored - sensationalist stuff cannot attract well researched essays or commentary, which is sad because they often to get some dog by the tail and give it a good shake - - never completing the job properly

True Boston, tribal / social communities with most needs supplied within a days walk is the way of the future - Back to the hippy lifestyle (not the drugs and rock concerts) but living quietly, growing ones own vegetables, meat, eggs and trading for milled timber, butchering and other requirements for a simpler, slower paced, sociable lifestyle / life...

[Boston]

ah still feels like there is something floating round in there but there cant be after all the rubbing round with that magnet and washing it out
oh well
Ill know in the morning

I was more agreeing with Masrapido's general take on the capitalist system than the article which I just logged onto and have not read yet
not that I buy into communism either
that one has obviously not worked out to well

Ill stick with the tribal path
native people round the world have governed themselves adequately for thousands of years traded and prospered without all the graft and greed of these western cultural dogma's
in regards to who was civilized
thing to remember
when white people first arrived
soon as they could they outlawed bathing
just ask a Cherokee
as the people every morning would go to bath in the river
but the white people and there religion were offended
eventually once the white people came to power
they outlawed bathing

now when there economy fails they wonder why and how to fix it
forget history and what has worked in the past
but instead take money from the competent and give it to those who have proven themselves incompetent
good plan eh
smells as bad as there ancestors if you ask me

[masalai]

Truly a conundrum, Communism has had its day as has Capitalism so Socialsim, if it is a blend of the aforementioned will surely prove disastrous as either side will remember some of the tricks from their own regime and create continuing havoc and disaster...

Humanism? a name and I am sure it too has been tried and failed along with many other options.... Village living? no politicing or empire building - that too is doomed to failure - - Ahhhhghhh WTF, make it illegal co congregate in greater numbers than 2000? Nahhh even that has holes and difficulties - I think I will find a small island that cannot support more than 2000 people and call that home... That will suffice for my remaining days and years 30 would be nice for me.... Just under the century

08:27 PM Wed 29 Jul 2009
New reading, part 4 of 5 on "Credit & Credibility" well worth the read as it will facilitate an understanding of the in's and out's of how, where and why of this fiscal debacle http://financialsense.com/fsu/editor...2009/0729.html read on.......... Far out what an education ! This series will become compulsory reading to all thinking people...

All is nicely revealed every time you open your damned mouth, Seabass. You're dumber than a fence post and I, for one, don't appreciate you stealing from your company by using it's computor instead of doing your job as a night watchman.
Boston, I know that you're big on the tribal thing, but how do you recommend we go forward from here? Even if one whittles the population down to say, on par with some African tribal areas, what happens - somebody steals somebody else's cow. Somebody cuts the culprit's head off. The tribe of the culprit, to avenge their lost honor, lops the head off of two of the other villagers, and so forth...
The American model is not much better unless tribes kept an uneasy truce enforced by distance. And, there are few examples in the history of the world more poignant in reminding of the need for organization and national defence.
...or the Central/South American model... violence escalates until power is concentrated. But there are still needs for sacrifices, right? The villagers eventually get used up until there is no more rain and the entire system fails in disease and starvation or simply with "ambiguity of deities".

Only viewed aside does the reason for the confusion
become apparent. (Quetzalcoatl and Hernan Cortez)

[masalai]

A video to start the day http://www.howestreet.com/index.php?...ediaplayer/318 one of my Casey emails - - "...On viewing this video, one commentator labeled it as “Doug Casey in a bad mood,” but I think that shows a miscomprehension. When it comes to discussing the current economy and the government that is increasingly in charge of same, Doug’s attitude is entirely consistent, 24/7. And that attitude would be better described as “disgusted.” That by virtue of his long-held view that the current crisis was as avoidable as it was predictable… both conditions flowing directly from the increased meddling of the U.S. government over the last several decades..."

Herewith the complete email - I suggest you subscribe as I will not post again, - - I find value and they do a lot of research and tell it as it is....

Intervention Nation

Of course, Doug is not alone in his opinion that the country is in the early stages of a deep and drawn-out economic crisis. Around the virtual water cooler here at Casey Research, we take that as a near certainty as long as the government continues to rally all of its men and horses to the task of reassembling the Humpty Dumpty economy versus simply letting Mr. Market plow the broken shells under as fertilizer for an economic revival led by enterprise.

However, like a gigolo, politicians believe that to earn their daily bread, they must always be "doing something."

As it becomes increasingly clear to them that spending truly monstrous and mind-boggling quantities of your money – and the money of your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren – is producing no satisfactory result, except for propagating the problem, you can expect the government to expand its efforts in other directions. Starting by unleashing a new wave of interventions in financial markets.

Predictably, these sorts of interventions are almost always counterproductive. The best way to think of them is as the equivalent of wage and price controls. On the face of it, capping wages and prices in the face of inflation makes perfect sense and should work, right? But as history has shown with perfect clarity, wage and price controls don't work, because they don't address the underlying condition. Likewise, stirring around in the financial marketplace, as commonsensical as that may seem to most, serves no actual positive purpose, just the opposite.

Do financial services companies, brokers, and traders scheme, lie, and cheat? Do they take every possible advantage they can to fleece the unwashed rubes who entrust them with their life savings? Of course they do!

Ignoring for a moment the hypocrisy that has the government – operators of the largest Ponzi scheme and outright extortion racket on the planet – serving as the watchdog over the financial services industry, I think a reasonable case could be made for having no regulation whatsoever.

Outrageous, some of you may mutter as your fingers reach for the unsubscribe button that will sever you from this service for all times.

But is it really?

While space and time don't give me the luxury of explaining my point of view in great detail, I will attempt a quick summing up. Starting with the fact that the existing body of regulation is as fat and bloated as the 1,200-pound guy who couldn't even roll out of bed to go to the bathroom. You have to look no further than Bernard Madoff and his $50 billion scam for proof of that contention.

Do you really think that in the complete absence of government regulation, Madoff’s victims would have been as willing to hand over their money without doing any real due diligence on his remarkable track record? Of course not. But it's more important to understand that in the absence of a government regulatory scheme, an entire industry of private due-diligence companies would arise, competing on cost as well as accuracy.

As importantly, we as consumers would become world-class skeptics, demanding hard proof of any claims being made.

But that is not the way of our world, if for no other reason than the government must justify itself for extorting from you more than 50% of your income each year. And extortion is exactly the right word, as you would learn should you decide that this year you're not going to pay up. Armed thugs at the door would be the certain result.

As investors, the next wave of regulation poses unique and hard-to-assess threats to your portfolio, in much the same way that the government’s leaning on the FASB to revoke mark-to-market accounting standards has reloaded the balance sheet time bombs that now spread rapidly to the portfolios of so many investors.

Recent articles, which I will lazily excerpt here, reveal just a few of the new regs to watch out for...

July 28 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission “must seriously consider setting strict position limits in the energy markets” to curb speculation, Chairman Gary Gensler said. (Read the full article here.)

This despite the fact that no hard study has proven that speculative trading was the cause of much higher energy prices last year. Consider, futures markets in the U.S. have performed more or less without any major hiccup for over 100 years now, rewarding the astute (or lucky) and punishing the foolhardy without bias. So why, all of a sudden, is the heavy hand of the government required?

Then there is this gem…

July 29 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. needs a “First Amendment for the economy” to check excesses in financial markets, said Columbia University President Lee Bollinger.

Bollinger, a constitutional scholar and one of three Federal Reserve Bank of New York directors representing the public, said in an interview yesterday that an independent regulator modeled on the judicial system should issue written rulings and “if it’s wrong, go back and change the precedent.”

Bollinger, 63, who has led New York-based Columbia since 2002 and served on the New York Fed’s board since 2006, called the economic crisis a “huge failure of public regulation.” He cautioned against relying on Congress or “the people who are engaged in the economic act to say, ‘Stop, we’re taking too much risk.’”

The Federal Reserve might be the right body to “stand outside the system” as an independent regulator, said Bollinger in the interview, in New York. In the same way the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protects free speech against censorship during wartime, a “First Amendment for the economy” could rein in financial excesses, he said.

How this purported constitutional scholar could somehow conflate a person's right to free speech with the need for a massive new bureaucracy to regulate all things financial is positively stupefying.

But I’m going on too long, as I often do. And time today is especially short, as I'm working on the newest edition of The Casey Report, due out next week with specific recommendations on how you can position yourself to earn big returns by anticipating where the government’s missteps will lead markets next. (If you’re not yet a subscriber, take us up on our fully guaranteed, 100% money-back guarantee to give it a three-month trial. Nothing to lose if you don’t find the views of co-authors Doug Casey, Bud Conrad, Terry Coxon, and yours truly worth the price of admission. Click to learn more now.)
This Is a Model for the Way Forward?

Of all of the mainstream reporters, the only one that I've ever been impressed with as a critical thinker is John Stossel of the 20/20 news program. He has made a number of excellent documentaries, all of which attempt to look past the hype to the actual facts of the matter under discussion.

Some years back I heard him speak at a conference, where he explained how it was he became a convert to telling it like it is versus what was then politically correct or good for circulation. As he told it, as a junior reporter, he was asked to cover stories along the lines of the front-page hysteria about a particular apple pesticide. When he investigated, he found that something like three people out of several hundred million might have gotten sick or even died as result of poisoning from this dreaded agricultural application.

Angered at wasting his time on a non-story and recognizing sensationalized journalism for the gutter sludge that it is, he pulled together a list of the major ways a person can shed their mortal coil in these United States and posted the list on his wall. Thereafter, when an editor came into his office with a story about this death threat or another for him to work on – for example the scourge of alligator attacks in the United States – he would refer to his list. And if the actual death toll was below the level of, say, taking a dirt nap as the result of being hit by a baseball (six) or even being struck by lightning (64), he would refuse to do the story.

In any event, Stossel has done a lot of good with his reporting by insisting on intellectual honesty at all times, including when his research has led him to conclusions that run decidedly contrary to most in the media… for example, on topics such as greed or addiction. The only reason he has not been fired for his honesty and his generally libertarian views is that his programs have been such big successes.

Given the debate about health care now going on and the regular references to Medicare as a working model and shining example for the Obama administration's initiative, I thought Stossel's take on that institution worthwhile. You can read it here.

Meanwhile, if you would like to commit an act that I guarantee not one in 50 congrezombies has done, you can read the full text of the health care proposal by following this link.

Speaking of politically correct and entirely misguided efforts, I have commented in the past about the climate change bill. While the following quote is not new, I think it is worth repeating here and pondering just a little bit, because it reflects on the nature of government as it steps up its meddling. Commenting on the passage, by a narrow margin, of the climate change bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was heard to say, and I quote…

"We passed transformational legislation, which will take us into the future. For some it was a very difficult vote, because the entrenched agents of the status quo were out there full force, jamming the lines in their districts and here, and they withstood that."

I find that quote interesting primarily because the multitude she dismisses as the "entrenched agents of the status quo," others might call concerned voters exercising their participatory rights in a democracy. You know, that whole “getting involved” thing that politicians champion so loudly... at least when it serves their purpose.
Washington Watch

Reading Pelosi’s quote encouraged me to drop a quick email to Casey Research Washington correspondent, Donald Grove, Esq.

“Hey, Don,” I succinctly wrote, “how would you rate the odds of cap-and-trade legislation actually making it into law?”

To which he promptly responded from his vantage point inside the belly…

Hi David,

Not before recess, health care either – and neither have good prospects, in my view, for when the kids get back after Labor Day. Both will take some hits over recess, when constituents are expected to put some hard questions to their reps about the economic impacts of both health care and cap and trade.

Health care comes first. Cap and trade next, if ever, but not together.

Harry Reid (D-NV) says he will have six committees each produce a portion of a climate and energy package by the end of September – not likely. Even if he does, there are only a handful of Republican senators who could give Dems the 60 votes they need to pass such a bill. All but Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) fall far short of certain to cross the aisle. Mel Martinez (R-Fla) was considered a cap-and-trade swing vote but now may be more concerned about the economy; John McCain had teamed with Joe Lieberman on cap and trade but has not endorsed the House version; Lisa Murkowski (R-Ak) doubts both health care and cap and trade can progress in September.

Have faith. Meanwhile, I’ll admit it’s scary.

Regards, Don

In yesterday’s missive, I noted that Mr. Obama was at risk of falling off his horse as the result of grabbing for too many gold rings at once. It is worth pondering and watching the actions of his political supporters in Congress, because the greatest danger (to his agenda) will arise should said supporters begin to sense that to continue down the yellow brick road with the Wizard of O is likely to lead to the end of their cozy political careers.

While I don’t know all there is to know about politicians, I do know that they act in a similar manner as rats under threat when the ship they are gnawing at begins to sink. Once a few key supporters start to jump, a scramble will occur, and Obama’s carefully painted image will begin to unravel, potentially leaving a large-eared caricature in its wake.

Interestingly, a failure by Obama after his arrival on the wings of such high expectations will only underscore just how broken the American form of government is. That’s because his defeat, should it come, would not be so much a matter of principles (though he deserves to be defeated on those alone) but rather because of the systematic flaws now clear and present in our modern democracy.

Put another way, it is doubtful that any American president can enjoy what might be called a successful term in office when the political opposition is so well trained in the equivalent of guerrilla warfare, and the supporters are consistently more concerned with being reelected than with what might actually pass for good policy.

Per the eye-opening interview we did with generational researcher Neil Howe in The Casey Report (which, as a subscriber, you can still read in the archives… learn more), the political situation is now intractable. Yet, paradoxically, because it is intractable, it is also likely to be “fixed” – but only as the result of some catastrophic upheaval that breaks the system apart so that it can be remade. The catastrophe can be triggered by something sudden and unexpected, for instance, by a small nuke going off in pretty much any city in the world. Or it can take longer to unfold, for example, if the U.S. government continues the folly of trying to fix a debt crisis by adding more debt.

No question, we live in interesting times that threaten to get more interesting, and probably sooner rather than later.

And, that, dear reader is that for today. As I sign off, I see that the stock market is, once again, struggling to keep its lips above water and that the commodities are following suit, as we have anticipated they would in the last two editions of The Casey Report.

Make no mistake, there is a big opportunity coming in gold and other commodities… a topic I’ll have more to say on in future editions of this service, and in the next edition of The Casey Report, coming next week.

Until tomorrow, thanks for reading and for being a Casey Research subscriber.



David Galland
Managing Director
Casey Research, LLC.

Thanks for reading this copy&paste - -masalai-