Archive for February, 2010
Another Biggest Drop Since the Depression
Chief Pistol Packin' Mama on February 27, 2010 in Indicators of need for preps No Comments »02/26/10 Stockholm, Sweden – Today, another biggest drop since the Great Depression… and this time the barometer of economic weakness comes in the form of hotel rates.
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
“San Francisco’s year over year room price drop was worse than the Northern California average decline of 13 percent, but consistent with other big tourist cities on the nation’s coasts, according to Tom Callahan, CEO of PKF Consulting.
FDIC’s Problem Banks List: Where Will It End?
Chief Pistol Packin' Mama on February 27, 2010 in Indicators of need for preps No Comments »By Addison Wiggin
02/24/10 Baltimore, Maryland – The FDIC is even more broke than it was three months ago. The fund the FDIC uses to “insure” your bank account went $20.9 billion in the red during the fourth quarter of 2009. That’s more than twice the deficit reported when the fund first entered negative territory in the previous quarter.
Incredibly, the FDIC is still trying to reassure us that all is well because it’s collecting three years of advance payments on the annual assessments paid by its member banks. The fees total $45 billion – barely twice the amount of the current deficit. Yeah, we feel better.
On top of that, the FDIC’s list of “problem banks” grew during the fourth quarter from 552 to 702. That’s the highest number since 1993 (when, we presume, more independently owned banks were around, so it’s worse than it sounds).
US will suffer its own Greek crisis
Chief Pistol Packin' Mama on February 27, 2010 in Indicators of need for preps No Comments »Though the spotlight is now on Europe’s financial difficulties, a recent move by China could signal the start of a similar, but much bigger, funding squeeze in America.
[Related content: financial crisis, Europe, Federal Reserve, interest rates, Bill Fleckenstein]
By Bill Fleckenstein
MSN Money
If there were a gold medal awarded to a sovereign entity with the largest financial problems, Greece might be in the unhappy position of claiming the title. But outsized media attention notwithstanding, bigger catastrophes than Greece lie ahead.
Greece is merely one of many sovereign entities that have lived beyond their means for a long time. At some point, we in America will suffer the consequences of having the world focus on our imbalances. Besides size, the major difference (for the time being) is that Greece no longer has its own printing press — nor do any other countries that use the euro. That is the real problem, at least so far as the euro goes.
Looking at Some Deadly Charts
Chief Pistol Packin' Mama on February 27, 2010 in Indicators of need for preps No Comments »4 charts.
That is all I need to post. There is a hunch that the market is way, way over extended. Today’s consumer confidence numbers from the Conference Board report speak volumes as to how little faith the consumers have in this over extended government fiat funny money “recover” and the underlying story that the average American schmuck has been witness to since February of 2007. There is no recovery underway. There is not resurgence. There is no massive bank lending to small business, large business or consumers. And there is not sign that the attempted monetization has staved off further asset value deterioration because while Ben might be one hell of an academic, his knowledge of business and the real workings of the banking system with regards to reality is about as expansive as that of oh, President Obama. When you have three key figures, Obama, Bernanke and Geithner assisting in or managing economic policy and none of them have signed the front of a check, managed a real bank much less worked as a teller, or created and developed a business from scratch, then the formula is place for theory to become the disaster we are witnessing. This is half-assed Keynesian economic policy at its best, a blatant ignorance as to the crossroads our nation finds it itself at historically at worse.
Alabama University Shooting, Clemmons Tapes Show Fallacy of Gun Control
Chief Pistol Packin' Mama on February 27, 2010 in Gun Training No Comments »The University of Alabama is a gun-free zone, and accused Prof. Amy Bishop reportedly had no carry permit for a handgun she allegedly used in the shooting deaths of three colleagues last Friday.
Maurice Clemmons was a convicted felon, ineligible to legally possess, much less own a firearm of any kind, yet he had two – including one that was stolen in Seattle about three years ago – when he walked into the Forza coffee shop in Parkland in November and murdered four Lakewood police officers.
What these completely unrelated cases demonstrate is the complete impotency of gun control laws that were passed at state and federal levels with a sales pitch that they would prevent such crimes as campus shootings and wanton murder by monsters like Clemmons.
Jim Rogers Predicts Pound Ruin
Chief Pistol Packin' Mama on February 27, 2010 in Indicators of need for preps No Comments »Billionaire financier Jim Rogers (left) has predicted that the British Pound could completely collapse within weeks, sending shockwaves throughout the global economy and heralding the beginning of a downturn that would make the recent economic crisis look tame in comparison. “Other currencies aren’t strong and the Euro has real problems, with cracks much wider than Greece beginning to show,” Rogers said. “But it’s the Pound that’s most vulnerable. In real terms, it’s already devalued against virtually every currency barring the Zimbabwean dollar and it’s especially exposed over the weeks running up to the UK election. In a basket of currencies, the Pound is potentially a basket case. And that will put Britain in an extremely bad position for the shakedown.” “The last few months have seen a ‘false bounce’, shorn up by massive short-term injections of government underwriting,” Rogers, the former business partner of George Soros, said. “But it can’t last. We’ve been applying temporary sticking plasters, not long-term cures. Later this year we’ll see the start of the real recession, with more Lehman-scale disasters and a fallout which won’t stop until the underlying malaise is genuinely cured.” he added. ~ InfoWars
Dominant Social Theme: Mama, it’s cold out there. But the sun will shine tomorrow.
Free-Market Analysis: Jim Rogers, who has given the Bell a terrific interview to appear this Sunday, made news again yesterday with the above excerpted prediction about the British pound. It’s no secret that Britain has been inordinately profligate even during the financial crisis, with the Labour government refusing to rein in spending programs. Health care and various welfare and social services programs, alongside of a failing public education system, are breaking Britain, but neither major political party seems prepared to provide lasting solutions. Crises are looming, as Rogers suggests.
When outlays continually outstrip income, the world’s currency trading community begins to grow uncomfortable – or hyper-active anyway. The offending country is forced to offer higher rates on its paper to tempt buyers. In extreme cases, as Rogers is suggesting, bonds may not sell at any cost and the currency gradually sinks toward zero compared to other “more solid” international currencies.
Persistent Debts Despite the Printing Press
Chief Pistol Packin' Mama on February 27, 2010 in Indicators of need for preps No Comments »The proverbial boogeyman, the phrase “end of the world as we know it,” is not particularly significant to me because it is, literally, always true, because any progress at all, anywhere, means that tomorrow will never be like today, and so “the end of the world as we know it” can be extended to mean “and it will be better and better!”
So, it is not very significant, especially when I get argumentative by being literal and obtuse about it, like now, which is my mood lately.
But when you use the phrase “end of the world as we know it” in the metaphorical sense, meaning “some terrifying catastrophe, to the maximum, in spades,” then it means something much uglier and catastrophic, which you already knew since I used the word “catastrophic” earlier in the sentence, teeming, as it does, with evil portents of ravenous beasts eating you and your family alive, your agonizing screams mixing with squawking vultures pecking hungrily at your liver, and the dead rising from their graves to pursue us endlessly so that they can eat our brains.
Sheep-Shearing Season on the Revenue Ranch
Chief Pistol Packin' Mama on February 27, 2010 in Indicators of need for preps No Comments »During the most recent Federal Reserve–engineered economic bubble, state and local governments made extravagant promises to their tax-feeder constituencies regarding pensions and other benefits. Now that the bubble has burst, sales and property taxes – once a mighty, roaring river of revenue – have been reduced to a thin, pathetic trickle.
This comes at a time when, as the New York Times reports, there is “a $1 trillion gap between what all 50 states have promised their workers [sic – a more accurate description is "employees"] and what they have set aside.”
Americans Paying More for Produce After January Freeze Hurts Florida Crop
Chief Pistol Packin' Mama on February 27, 2010 in Indicators of need for preps No Comments »In restaurants, grocery stores and on kitchen tables, Americans are feeling the effects of Florida’s freakish cold weather. It has sent the price of tomatoes soaring.
The problem started in mid-January, when a record freeze wiped out nearly 80 percent of the state’s tomato crop. The weather has stayed cold, and central Florida could see temperatures dip back into the 30s Thursday.
This week, businesses across the food industry started running out of tomatoes. At some Burger King restaurants across the country, you can still get your burger “your way” with onion and pickles, but tomatoes might be temporarily unavailable.
