Wot's in store for U$A?

[IQS.RLOW]

People have lost faith in the US dollar, due to it's constant overvaluation until lately. They started believeing their own propoganda, until the crisis point.

Eventually, relying on being the "man" isn't enough, in the end, you've got to back your talk. US is still, and always should be, a strong global economy. Just too much dead weight.

We can learn from that... or not.

Only how to be a dead weight will be learnt. I thought a brown shirt wearer like you would have realised that by now

[boxy]

Economic revolution isn't enough. It has to be social as well.

There needs to be shame asociated with being a willing dead weight. Society seems to be headed in the opposite direction... cue charlie... cue paris... cue... "you"?

[mellie]

Alaska, and or other notorious parts of America known for seismic activity ie, California are likely to endure a quake some time soon.

Stay tuned...

http://www.iris.edu/seismon/

[Sappho]

Fury in Washington as shutdown looms

Despite talks overnight and into the morning, there is still no deal in Washington to avert a federal government shutdown, with the US government on the brink of effectively running out of money.

The talks failed to unblock a deadlock on a bill funding the government through October 1, despite president Barack Obama's demand for a deal as time fast ticked away to a midnight deadline.

Republican and Democratic leaders could not even agree on what they disagreed on, as both sides played to core political supporters in public even as their negotiators pressed on with exhaustive closed-doors talks.

source

What a mess. And it's not the first time that this has happened... in 1995 the US fed govt actually did shut down!

[Sappho]

here is some more from the ABC

House budget committee chairman Paul Ryan has flagged cuts of $5.8 trillion over the next 10 years, targeting programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

"In fact we actually asked the congressional budget office (CBO) to tell us what the future of the economy looks like," he said.

"So they ran computer models simulating the economy forward.

"The models break in 2037. The computer literally crashes in 2037 because according to the CBO they can't conceive of a time in which the economy can continue past that moment because of this burden of debt.

"If we don't take on these fiscal challenges head-on, we will not be able to do this under our own terms in the kind of gradual, important, sensible way that we are proposing here today."

It is a debate becoming all the more urgent with the US national debt topping $14 trillion and rising.
source

[Jovial Monk]

But they insist the Bush tax cuts stay. Neocon fuckery.

[Outlaw Yogi]

Suppose it was innevitable, but who would have guessed Americans would emulate Cubans so soon?

Farmers across America ditch tractors for oxen in bid to beat rising fuel prices
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... rices.html


Not long after the US crashed financially (couple of years ago now) a character from Melbourne I worked with reckoned American poverty would become like Indian poverty. He might be right. Although I suspect damage to the American psyche will be similar to the damaged post WW1 German psyche, allowing for easy manipulation for war agendas.

[Socky the Sock.]

As Tim Geithner warned yesterday this is now money held in retirement trust funds, which is now being directly sacrificed in order to keep the ceiling from breach: "I will be unable to invest fully the portion of the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund (“CSRDF”) not immediately required to pay beneficiaries. In addition, I am notifying you, as required under 5 U.S.C. § 8438(h)(2), of my determination that, by reason of the statutory debt limit, I will be unable to invest fully the Government Securities Investment Fund (“G Fund”) of the Federal Employees’ Retirement System in interest-bearing securities of the United States." And as expected, once the debt ceiling is raised, the accrued shortfall will be filled, meaning upon a debt ceiling hike, which will come some time in July, total debt will explode higher, surging by about $300 billion in a few days.

source

[Jovial Monk]

Geithner is Obama’s single biggest mistake!

[Socky the Sock.]

I've said it before and I'll remind us all here and now... The GFC is not over. How could it be when nothing has been resolved. All that has happened was that a chunk of the debt held by private corps had been moved to public books. There will be another mega crash... and thankfully, I'm not the only one saying it now... big names are coming into the picture and speaking of the crash as inevitable.

What's different for Australia this time is that we will feel the impact. Why? Because if you haven't noticed China is raising the value of the Yuan so as to grow their local markets... and reducing their iron ore greed... aint enough external markets from which to profit and they have been stock piling raw minerals for quite some time.

If I was a currency speculator I'd be long on the Yuan. If I were unethical and looking for shares from which to profit, I'd be looking at munitions corps. But I am neither so I will stick with my gold and possibly buy microsoft or apple shares... I'm looking for safety and necessity which is not directly connected with the war industry which, sadly, is about to boom within the next couple of years.

Bloomberg reports: "There is definitely going to be another financial crisis around the corner because we haven’t solved any of the things that caused the previous crisis,” Mobius said at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo today in response to a question about price swings. “Are the derivatives regulated? No. Are you still getting growth in derivatives? Yes." Unlike Icahn, Mobius stopped short of calling for a return to Glass-Stegall and a repeal of the abominable Gramm-Leach-Bliley which unleashed the era of zero margin derivatives and financial system neutron bombs. On the other hand, it is nice of Messrs Icahn and Mobius to speak up now, two years after the ongoing systemic instability transferred $3.5 trillion in capital from current and future taxpayer generations to the present financial elite.

source