This Depression is just beginning

Too bad Pulitzers aren’t handed out for blog-entries. This year’s award would go to Zero Hedge for its “The ‘Money on the Sidelines’ Fallacy” post. This short entry shows why the economy will continue its downward slide and why the US consumer will not get off the mat and resume spending as he has in the past. The fact is the Net Wealth of US Households has “declined from a peak of $22 trillion to just under $12 trillion in early March.”

MSM: Mystery group in the driving seat

If the Finance Minister really wants to know the depth of this “global economic firestorm”, all he has to do is to ask the people who created it.

Continued Turmoil on Financial Markets

A world stock market collapse could be imminent as a source of dollar support

Obama’s Cockeyed Optimism: “We are starting to see glimmers of hope across the economy.”

Bernanke’s financial rescue plan is a disaster. He should have spent a little less time with Milton Friedman and a little more with Karl Marx. It was Marx who uncovered the root of all financial crises. He summed it up like this:

“The ultimate reason for all real crises always remains the poverty and restricted consumption of the masses as opposed to the drive of capitalist production to develop the productive forces as though only the absolute consuming power of society constituted their limit.”

MSM: Global Financial Assets Lost $50 Trillion Last Year

The value of global financial assets including stocks, bonds and currencies probably fell by more than $50 trillion in 2008, equivalent to a year of world gross domestic product, according to an Asian Development Bank report.

Depression Dynamic Ensues as Markets Revisit 1930s

The U.S. economy’s vital signs may not confirm a diagnosis of depression. The symptoms increasingly point to one.

MSM: The $700 trillion elephant

There’s a $700 trillion elephant in the room and it’s time we found out how much it really weighs on the economy.

Video: Dobbs – Obama setting up New World Order

President Obama said that globalization can be an enormous force for good, Prime minister Gordon Brown then pushed for what he calls a “Global New Deal” payed for by the United States.

Obama Urges Americans to Invest in Plummeting Stock Market – 3-04-09

It’s official. Obama thinks you’re an idiot.

Appearing in the Oval Office with the snake oil salesman for world government, British PM Gordon Brown, Obama fielded a question about the stock market. Stocks are starting to look like “potentially a good deal … if you have a long-term perspective on it,”

Orwellian Doublethink: “Nationalize the banks.” “Free Markets.”

The language of deception

MSM: Major indexes fall more than 6 percent for week

Wall Street ended another terrible week Friday, leaving major indexes down more than 6 percent as investors worried that the recession will persist for at least the rest of the year and that government intervention will do little to hasten a recovery.

The 2008 World Economic Crisis: Global Shifts and Faultlines

The last months of 2008 witnessed what is being called the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of 1929-30. The first indications of a serious crisis appeared in January 2008. On 15 January, news of a sharp drop in the profits of the Citigroup banking led to a sharp fall on the New York Stock Exchange. On 21 January a spectacular fall in share prices occurred in all major world markets, followed by a series of collapses. A number of American and European banks declared massive losses in their 2007 end of the year results.

Economic Rescue Plan: More Debt, More Dollar Devaluation And More Government

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s so called economic rescue plan, announced yesterday, has a three pronged approach to the financial crisis – more debt, more devaluation of the dollar and more government.

Stock Markets Record Worst January Ever!

The good news is: Non existent. The S&P 500 (SPX) finished its worst January ever, down 8.57%.

During the 1st year of the Presidential Cycle, since 1928, the SPX has been up 62% of the time, in January during the 1st year of the Presidential Cycle, with an average gain of 1.7%. Out of the 8 times the SPX has been down in January during the 1st year of the Presidential Cycle all but one turned out to be the beginning of a down year.

Investors Becoming Overly Complacent – Stock Market and Gold Update

A routine I have always kept to is listening to market news on the radio every morning. Recently it has felt as if the morning market news has morphed into the morning job losses report. It is no longer tracked on a monthly or weekly basis but rather the consortium of job cut announcements have been a routine part of the morning news. This Thursday morning, we were confronted with 12,000 jobs cuts lead by Eastman Kodak, Wednesday brought us 15,000, Tuesday 11,500 and kicking off the week on Monday we recorded 71,000 jobs losses. At this rate we are on track to lose about half a million jobs per month, adding to the already 2.6 million lost last year. I cannot remember a point in time when were faced with such an onslaught of daily negative news regarding the real economy. It is both breathtaking and heart wrenching, the number of people losing their jobs on a daily basis.

MSM: Stocks Could Drop 20%, No Safe Haven: Dr. Doom

US and global stocks are still likely to fall because the corporate and economic news will be worse than expected, Nouriel Roubini, RGE Monitor Chairman, told CNBC.

MSM: Bloody Monday: Over 71,400 jobs lost

The final week of January began with a bloodbath for the job market, as over 71,400 more cuts were announced on Monday alone.

RBS Slaughtered: “Full-Scale Nationalization” Next

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc said it may post a loss of as much as 28 billion pounds ($41 billion), the biggest ever reported by a U.K. company, as the credit crisis worsens. The stock slumped as much as 46 percent.

Systemic Economic Crisis: The Sequence of Global Insolvency Begins

In 2007, LEAP/E2020 announced that US banks and consumers were both insolvent. More than a year ago, our team estimated that USD 10,000-billion worth in « ghost-assets » would vanish in the crisis. Both announcements came in complete opposition with the common opinion of that time; however they proved perfectly justified in the months after. In the same line, LEAP/E2020 today estimates that a new sequence of the fourth phase (so-called « decanting phase ») of the unfolding global systemic crisis has began: the sequence of global insolvency.

MSM: Nortel files for bankruptcy protection, shares plunge

TORONTO (Reuters) – Nortel Networks Corp, North America’s biggest telephone equipment maker, filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday, hoping to save a once high-flying business whose decade-long decline has accelerated with the global economic crisis.

Video: Pat Robertson’s Thoughts on 2009 – CBN.com

Pat Robertson shares what he believes the Lord is telling him about this year, and reflects on 2008.

Analyst Predicts 40% Unemployment, No Recovery until 2015

We think we now have enough data from both the fundamentals and technicals to make some serious forecasts and predictions for 2009. While 2008 was a nasty year when lots of things imploded, they are far from being repaired. Treasury Secretary Paulson told us this week there are no more surprises, which tells me we haven’t even discovered but a small portion of this monster derivative mess. His ripping-off of the taxpayers to the tune of $700 billion is only a warm-up. However, the larger question for traders and investors is what could happen next and when.

Unplugging The New World Order

If there were a webcam in the Monkey House at the local zoo, would you watch it?

Then, why watch TV or go to the movies? Why cruise the Internet or listen to most music? It’s the same thing: the chest pounding, screeching, defecating and copulating of monkeys. Of course humans outdo monkeys with mindless killing and mayhem.

If not a Monkey House, then the world increasingly resembles a hive which, thanks to the mass media, vibrates at the same frequency. For example, when the stock market is plummeting, everyone is panicking. (When Money is God, an economic downturn becomes a spiritual crisis.)

2008 worst year for Wall St. since 1931

The Dow Jones has closed 35 percent down for 2008 marking the worst year for the Dow since 1931.

On Wednesday on the last of trading in 2008, The Dow Jones industrial average rose nearly 120 points, while bond prices fell sharply as investors moved into stocks.

Trading proceeded quietly because many investors have closed their books on the year. The Dow is down 35 percent for 2008, while broader indexes are down about 40 percent.

Dollar plunges after record rate cut by US Federal Reserve

In the two days since the Federal Reserve Board cut its benchmark interest rate to a record low range of 0 to 0.25 percent and announced that it will supply an unlimited amount of liquidity to near-frozen credit markets, the US dollar has fallen sharply on world currency markets. The panic sell-off of dollars is an expression of falling confidence in the solvency of US financial institutions and the credit-worthiness of the American currency, and mounting fears that the recession that began with the collapse of the US housing and credit markets could develop into a full-blown depression.

MSM: Home values seen losing over $2 trillion during 2008

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Homes in the United States have lost trillions of dollars in value during 2008, with nearly 11.7 million American households now owing more on their mortgage than their homes are worth, real estate website Zillow.com said on Monday.

U.S. homes are set to lose well over $2 trillion in value during 2008, according to an analysis of recent Zillow Real Estate Market Reports.

Global Financial Domination: The $8.5 Trillion Chip

Obama’s Gamble – The Ultimate And Final Bet By Obama’s Financial Handlers

A few weeks ago, I warned in my website that the Dow would dive below 7,000 at the earliest by end of December 2008 and at the latest by the end of the first quarter 2009.

Any responsible central banker  would want to control a downturn, preferably by a gradual slide of the market as opposed to a sharp hard landing.

But events and data have revealed that these financial handlers are not responsible and are hard core gamblers in their very soul.

Financial Crisis: What Goes Up…

The Fed has become the chief bubble creator, Abolish the Fed.

Everyone knows that the Great Depression followed the “Roaring Twenties”.

But how many Americans know that the easy credit and loose lending of the Twenties was what caused the Great Depression?

MSM: Down we go again – Fourth-worst drop ever for Dow

Wall Street breaks 5-day win streak as stocks plunge; Dow down 680 in 4th-worst decline

NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market suffered one of its worst days since the financial meltdown Monday, slicing 680 points off the Dow Jones industrial average as Wall Street snapped out of its daydream of a rally and once again faced the harsh reality of a recession.

Colossal Financial Collapse

The Truth behind the Citigroup Bank “Nationalization”

On Friday November 21, the world came within a hair’s breadth of the most colossal financial collapse in history according to bankers on the inside of events with whom we have contact. The trigger was the bank which only two years ago was America’s largest, Citigroup. The size of the US Government de facto nationalization of the $2 trillion banking institution is an indication of shocks yet to come in other major US and perhaps European banks thought to be ‘too big to fail.’

Video: Alex Jones on Coast To Coast AM “The Final Countdown”

End the Fed, End Wall Street Bankster Rule, End the Derivatives Depression

The November 22 End the Fed rallies raise a vital issue: it is past time to abolish the unconstitutional, illegal, and failed institution known as the Federal Reserve System, the privately owned central bank which has been looting and wrecking the US economy for almost a hundred years. We must end a system where unelected, unaccountable cliques of bankers and financiers loyal to names like Morgan, Rockefeller, and Mellon set interest rates and money supply behind closed doors, leading to de-industrialization, mass impoverishment, and a world economic and financial depression of incalculable severity.

MSM: Obama – ‘Millions of jobs’ in danger next year

President-elect outlines recovery plan, warns worst may be yet to come

WASHINGTON – U.S. President-elect Barack Obama said on Saturday that he was crafting an aggressive, two-year stimulus plan to revive the troubled economy, warning that swift action was needed to prevent a deep slump and a spiral of falling prices.

“If we don’t act swiftly and boldly, most experts now believe that we could lose millions of jobs next year,” Obama said in prepared remarks for the weekly Democratic radio and video address.

Video: Peter Schiff On Fast Money – “The Man Who Called The Collapse”

Almost two years ago he predicted that the financial markets were heading for crisis. At the time he told CNBC, “We’re on the verge of a major, major recession that’s probably going to start by the end of this year, maybe early next year. The housing market is just beginning to unravel. We’re seeing the tip of the iceberg here.”

MSM: Citigroup considers fire sale as shares dive

Bank sees share price drop below $4 in New York for first time in 15 years / Pandit insists Smith Barney is not for sale

Citigroup assembled its board to “think the unthinkable” yesterday, with a fire sale or a break-up of the financial giant on the table.

MSM: GM hits lowest price since Depression

Shares dipped to $1.70 as hope fades that automakers could get financial bailout from Congress before Thanksgiving.

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of General Motors Corp. plummeted to a low not seen since the days of the Great Depression as hope that the automakers could receive a financial bailout from Congress before the Thanksgiving holiday continued to fade.

MSM: Stocks Are Hurt by Latest Fear: Declining Prices

After gyrating wildly for weeks, the stock market lurched lower on Wednesday, falling to its lowest point in nearly six years, as concern spread that the economy might be facing a chronic and debilitating decline in prices.

Too Late Now!!!

DAILY REPORT (11/14/08)

Every morning the talking heads on CNN and Bloomberg come out with their smiling faces and try to come up with reasons to buy the market. Lately that’s been a tough sell. I, on the other hand, have been bearish on the stock market for longer than I care to remember. There have been a series of supports along the way, at 12,400, 11,650, 10,725 and then down at 9,005, and at each level we would hold for a while, resulting in a chorus of “we’ve bottomed”, until it became obvious that we didn’t. Each subsequent retest would be met with a resounding “retests are bullish” and then we’d head lower yet. The last such critical level is at 8,146 and it was tested twice in October and held both times. This really inspired the bulls and they dragged out the big guns, like Barton Biggs, who took two days of TV time on numerous channels to declare a bottom for stocks and champion his love of the banking sector.

MSM: Sun Microsystems cuts up to 6,000 jobs, or 18 pct of staff, software chief leaves

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Sun Microsystems Inc. plans to cut up to 6,000 jobs, or 18 percent of its global work force, as sales of high-end servers have collapsed.

The drastic move announced Friday highlights Sun’s desperation to cut costs and survive as an independent company. Sun’s shares have fallen so steeply they’ve crossed an ominous threshold, driving the company’s market value below its cash on hand.

MSM: U.S. Stocks Fall on Treasury Strategy Shift, Best Buy Forecast

Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell for a third day as the Treasury’s plan to use bailout funds to shore up consumer lending and Best Buy Co.‘s warning of a “seismic” slowdown in spending stoked concern the credit crisis is far from over.