Global Economy

All around the world, the bodies and countries with the most power keep screwing people (some like IMF head, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, literally) and entire nations, while supporting their banking systems. Last week, S&P announced it would downgrade Portugal if it didn’t play ball with the IMF and EU over its 4-year 78E billion-bailout program in return for hacking public programs. Echoing our own Congressional goons spewing spending cuts in the face of inadequate revenues and for-bank-manufactured mega-debt, the S&P noted, “Two-thirds of the projected savings in [Portugal’s] 2012 budget will likely come from spending cuts.” On a roll, the IMF also declared Italy needs ‘structural reform’, meaning labor market reform, less public ownership and more private investment to “unlock its growth potential.” (aka invite more speculative capital at its earliest convenience.) Meanwhile, thousands of people are again striking in Greece, as the IMF and EU discuss more austerity measures, following the bank bailout that provoked public outrage a year ago, and a rating downgrade by S&P. The EU remains more concerned with investors regaining confidence in Greece than economic stability of its citizens. Then, there’s Ireland, for whom its last bailout didn’t dent its 14.5% unemployment rate, or fill in the gaping holes its banks dug. In short, the global ‘remedy’ for depressed economies and debt-bloated banking sectors remains to do – more of the same - and pretend this will beget a different outcome. Yet, there is no way this strategy will result in more stable economies. What we can expect instead is further widespread deterioration.

Over the past several decades, the American economy has been slowly but surely merged into the emerging one world economic system.

Those poor idiotic rating agencies can never catch a break. Despite doing their fair share of hiring as many prosimians with a single digit IQ (not to mention a penchant for spreading inside information to preferred clients, see Deep Shah) as they can, thereby keeping the labor pool sufficiently susceptible to BLS manipulation, it was they that, according to Koo, destroyed the global economy the first time around, after keeping every toxic CDO at a AAA rating. Now, the Nomura economist, whose obstinacy in his views at times makes even such distinguished voodoonomic shamans as Paul Krugman seem like docile little lambs, is convinced that "these same agencies are once again attempting to interfere with governments that are trying to do the right thing in response to the economic crisis (ie, the balance sheet recession) triggered in part by these agencies’ actions. In spite of the fact that fiscal stimulus is the only effective measure during such a recession, the rating agencies are making it more difficult for governments to spend money by implicitly threatening downgrades." Yeah ok, the right thing is to fight debt with more debt. And more debt with morer debt. And so on. We wonder if that is the case, why doesn't Dictator Bernank just tell his Jeethner lackey to print $100 trillion tomorrow? After all that is the NEF's target for debt in 2020. That way we should grow world GDP by about 100% overnight, and save ourselves ten years of deleveraging misery. But stop there? Why not print $1 quadrillion, $1 quintillion, $1 decillion... After all debt is wealth remember? Because try as hard as we can, we just can't spot any faults with this argument which derives straight from Mister Koo's supposedly irrefutable logic.

To paraphrase the 20-page speech: it is still just the speculators' fault, who are now "threatening not only Greece, but the entire global economy" so burn them all post haste before they can read all the declassified GS prospectuses, and scour the footnotes thus uncovering the truly deplorable state of all European budgets, also please ignore this huge corruption problem we have, it's under control, oh, and it is time our globalization "partners" realize that we are critical in the future of the free world, and bail us out, even though we have repeatedly said we need no steenkin' bail out, or else global financial crisis v2 - here we come. Now show me where Ben Bernanke's office is.

These headlines just hit. Let me paraphrase: "We are f@*&#d. Send guns, ammo and lawyers." Oh, and GM needs to take down breakeven level for future. Hey Bob Lutz, good work reading our suggestions. Curious just how many times the new "conservative" plan will have to be reworked.

These headlines just hit. Let me paraphrase: "We are f@*&#d. Send guns, ammo and lawyers." Oh, and GM needs to take down breakeven level for future. Hey Bob Lutz, good work reading our suggestions. Curious just how many times the new "conservative" plan will have to be reworked.