Video: China Cash Flow Cutoff

(Fox) – Forbes.com Columnist Gordon Chang on whether China turning off its lending faucet will hurt America.

Ignorance Is Bliss – Peter Schiff

(C4L) – While all the talk at present is about economic corners turned and markets charging ahead, no one is paying much notice to an American economy deteriorating before our eyes. These myopic commentators seem to be simply moving past the now almost-universally held conclusion that before the crash of 2008, our economy was on an unsustainable course. If these imbalances had been corrected, then perhaps I too would be joining in the euphoria. But evidence abounds that we have not veered at all from that dangerous path.

A Dollar Rout Or More Bernanke Trickery? – Mike Whitney

Consumer credit is falling fast. In July, consumer credit plunged by $19 billion, followed by an August drop of $12 billion, a 5.8 percent annual rate. Credit card spending decreased by nearly $10 billion in August, while non-revolving debt, including auto loans, fell by $2 billion. Credit has shrunk for 7 consecutive months, the longest period of decline since 1991.

The Fed’s Dilemma – Campaign for Liberty

The Origin of the Dilemma

The Federal Reserve (Fed) and other central banks currently face a dilemma. A strong central-bank balance sheet is essential for the quality of a currency and the stability of a financial system. Unfortunately, the financial crisis has seen substantial changes in the balance sheets of the world’s major central banks.

Video: Webster Tarpley – Say Hello to Jingle Mail

Webster describes what the meaning of Jingle Mail as the retail – commercial and real estate market is on the verge of collapse..

MSM: Federal Reserve loses suit demanding transparency

(Reuters) – A federal judge on Monday ruled against an effort by the U.S. Federal Reserve to block disclosure of companies that participated in and securities covered by a series of emergency funding programs as the global credit crisis began to intensify.

Crisis of Solvency or “Double-dip Recession”

(WashingtonsBlog) – In an essay entitled “The risk of a double-dip recession is rising”, Nouriel Roubini affirms two important points:

Searching for the Depression and Finding It

(DannySchechter) – Economic Stress Is Hidden, But It’s There in a Recovery That Isn’t.

The World Needs A Breather From The US. – And they’ll get it sooner than many think

(Mike Whitney) – We’re making this way too complicated. It’s simple really.

The Fed has only one tool at its disposal; to create more money. Typically, the way the Fed adds to the money supply is by lowering interest rates. When the Fed lowers rates below the rate of inflation; they’re basically selling dollars for under a buck. That’s a good deal, so, naturally, speculators jump on it and trigger a credit expansion. What follows is a frenzy of market activity that ends in a housing, credit, tech or equity bubble. Eventually, the bubble bursts and the economy goes into a tailspin. Then, after a period of digging-out, the process resumes again. Wash, rinse, repeat. It’s always the same.

Video: Bernanke – “I Don’t Know” Which Foreign Banks Were Given Half a Trillion

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke was confronted yesterday by Congressman Alan Grayson about which foreign banks were the recipients of Federal Reserve credit swaps, but he was unable to provide an answer as to where over half a trillion dollars had gone.

Video: Alan Grayson grills Ben Bernanke on Foreign Lending

(C-SPAN) – Alan Grayson, a Florida Democrat who has been very critical in the past of Fed actions takes it to Bernanke today regarding foreign central bank lending. If the 90 or so Democratic cosponsors of Ron Paul’s HR1207 bill doesn’t convince you that Fed transparency is bipartisan then Grayson’s grilling of Bernanke should.

Hitler’s Psychiatrist Cited Sexual Motivation for War

Hitler’s sexual dysfunction was responsible for war and his persecution of the Jews, according to Kurt Kreuger M.D. who claims he was Hitler’s psychiatrist from 1919 to 1934.

The Biggest Bank Heist Ever

With every passing day of economic woe, the scale of the heist just perpetrated against America’s taxpayers by the country’s largest banks becomes more apparent.

In the shadow of the presidential election, the nine biggest banks were given $125bn of taxpayer money with the understanding they would send this fresh capital coursing into the economy in the form of loans. It was a plan inspired by Gordon Brown’s decision to recapitalise Britain’s main banks.

Down for the Count

“The great inter-war slumps were not acts of God or of blind forces. They were the sure and certain result of the concentration of too much economic power in the hands of too few men (who) felt no responsibility to the nation.”

From the 1945 UK Labour manifesto Let Us Face The Future

There are signs that the credit crunch is easing. Interbank lending in dollars has fallen for a ninth straight day. The various indicators of stress in the market–Libor, the TED spread, and the Libor-OIS spread–are all gradually returning to normal, but the damage to the broader economy has been substantial. Major corporations have had to stretch their credit lines just to get the money they need to cover routine operating expenses and a lot of retailers have not been able to get funding for their inventories for the holiday season, so they’ll either have to hire fewer workers or simply shut their doors for Christmas.