How Is The Economy REALLY Doing In Neighborhoods Around America?

 

Recently we asked our readers if things were getting better or worse in their local economy.

Tons of people sent in replies, and as expected there was a wide variation.

Several wrote detailed report from North Carolina about a worsening housing market. Responses from the West Coast were mixed, with "new construction going up like crazy" in Los Angeles but "businesses pulling way back" in Seattle.

People agreed that the rich and the employed were fine, but the poor and the unemployed were getting desperate.

We rounded up the best comments, edited for clarity. Please feel free to leave additional comments below.

BURLINGTON, NC: Stagnant and getting worse

I live in Burlington, NC which is about a 45 minute drive west of Raleigh, NC and 20 minutes drive from Greensboro, NC along I-85/I-40.

The economy has been stagnant here for quite a while and I suspect that things may be getting somewhat worse.

Personally, I have been trying to sell townhomes in this area and have not received one offer in the two years and four months that they have been on the market despite repeatedly reducing the price by 40% from the original asking prices in May 2009. I realize that housing is slow all over the US.

My wife opened a retail furniture and accessories store in a nearby town where my family once operated a ladies hosiery business. It has been interesting to watch to ebbs and flows of consumer confidence since she opened. Although business has been decent the past two weeks, I wonder how the volatility in the investment markets over the past week will impact confidence in the coming weeks.

Earlier this year, we have been through two spells (in January and February and again in June and July) where we have had a lot of traffic but visitors had been viewing her store as a museum and really holding tight to their pocketbooks. There are a number of strip shopping centers with significant vacancies for a couple of years now, but I do not see much interest among retailers to take the plunge and move in.

Construction activity is severely depressed here. Most small business people that I speak with are just trying to hang on and muddle through as best they can.
It seems that nearly everyone is immersed in this balance sheet recession and no amount of easing in the credit markets is going to make a difference other than lead eventually to a serious bout of inflation following the approaching deflationary period that we are just now on the verge of entering. I think we are going to see a monumental scramble for liquidity on the part of all sectors of the economy - government, corporations and individuals.

[Comment received by email]

WILMINGTON, NC: Lots of underwater mortgages

I have only three neighbors. One auctioned off his house and had to come up with extra cash to pay off his mortgage.

Another neighbor, an architect of national repute, walked away from his house and his $1.1 million dollar mortgage.

My third neighbor, who inherited his wealth, stopped paying on his $1.9 million dollar mortgage over a year ago.

A wealthy family member cosigned on his mortgage, and will be hit with a monster deficiency judgment. That neighbor will stay in his house until he is forced out. The local bank is in no great hurry to piss off his family.

black swan on Sep 25, 7:11 PM

CHARLOTTE: NC: Empty homes and stalled construction

Here in the Charlotte area, what still stands out to me is the residential construction. There are hundreds of new neighborhoods that started in the boom time and they're still sitting there just like they were 3 or 4 years ago. Sometimes there's only one or two homes in them surrounded by tens/hundreds empty lots.

I drive by many homes that are empty; these are existing homes, not new construction. They're for sale, and they've been for sale for years now.

Real estate in this area just seems to be stopped in time with no sign of progress.

Charlotte NC on Sep 26, 1:41 PM

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/mBSgB1f5Ue4/economy-really-doing-neighborhoods-america-2011-9

After Europe's Finished It's Our Turn

 

I wanted to take a moment to address the Fed's new program of buying the long-end of the Treasury curve and its implications.

First off, because of the August collapse in stocks, long-term Treasuries have already rallied quite sharply. Indeed, the 30-year Treasury just hit a new ALL TIME high the afternoon after the Fed announced its new program.

That’s correct, the 30-Year Treasury is now trading even HIGHER than it was at the absolute nadir of the 2008/2009 Crash:

The fundamental picture here couldn’t be worse. The US is running a deficit equal to 10% of GDP. The US’s debt to GDP level is north of 100%. And the 30-Year Treasury is at an all-time high.

To be blunt: for the Fed to be buying Treasuries at this level is akin to buying Tech Stocks in 2000 or Housing stocks in 2007. Treasuries are in a bubble. And this bubble will end as all bubbles do: with a bang.

As noted in previous issues articles, interest rates are already at or near all time lows. So why would the Fed choose to buy longer-term Treasuries at all?

The answer lies in new US debt issuance. While everyone focuses on Europe’s mess, the US has once again raised its debt limit in September (the huge debt-ceiling debacle of August was just smoke and mirrors). With deficits and debt-to-GDP ratios on par with Greece, the US will be following Europe in the global debt implosion.

The Fed’s decision to buy $400 billion of longer-term US Treasuries in this environment is essentially the Fed announcing that it will be covering a significant portion of new debt issuance going forward as a means of putting off the inevitable US debt default. At most the Fed has bought 2-3 months of time for the US. I fully believe that before the end of this year, the bond market will shift its sights away from Europe to the US. At that time, the US debt bubble will burst resulting in systemic failure.

Indeed, last week we got a confirmed SELL on my proprietary Crash indicator. This is the SAME indicator that registered before the 1987 Crash, the Tech Crash, and the 2008 collapse.

It's just triggered again... which means that last week’s sell off is JUST the beginning of what's coming.

Yes, the GREAT COLLAPSE has begun. The markets will be going to new lows (below the March 2009 lows) in the coming months.

We're also going to be seeing major banks go under, market crashes, food shortages, government shutdowns, and SYSTEMIC FAILURE.

Yes, I believe that before this mess ends, the financial system as a whole will have collapsed. What's coming is going to make 2008 look like a joke.

If you have yet to prepare yourself for what’s coming, my Surviving a Crisis Four Times Worse Than 2008 report can show you how to turn the unfolding disaster into a time of gains and profits for any investor.

Within its nine pages I explain precisely how the Second Round of the Crisis will unfold, where it will hit hardest, and the best means of profiting from it (the very investments my clients used to make triple digit returns in 2008).

Best of all, this report is 100% FREE. To pick up your copy today simply go to:http://www.gainspainscapital.com and click on the OUR FREE REPORTS tab.

Good Investing!

Graham Summers

PS. We also feature four other reports ALL devoted to helping you protect yourself, your portfolio, and your loved ones from the Second Round of the Great Crisis. Whether it’s my proprietary Crash Indicator which has caught every crash in the last 25 years or the best most profitable strategy for individual investors looking to profit from the upcoming US Debt Default, my reports covers it.

And ALL of this is available for FREE under the OUR FREE REPORTS tab at:http://www.gainspainscapital.com.

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/after-europes-finished-its-our-turn

Russian Nuclear Power Plants Warned about Potential Solar Blast

 

The European Union Times (online version) reported yesterday that a frightening report circulates in the Kremlin which was prepared by the Federal Atomic Energy Agency – FAAE. In this report it reads that Massive Power Blackouts or even Spontaneous Atomic Explosions could follow potential solar blasts. These Emergency Notices are taken very seriously and follow a massive X1.9 solar flare coming from Sunspot 1302 the day before. It was this solar flare which blacked out the entire power grid of Chile within minutes of the event occurring.

This FAAE report further warns that the blackout that occurred in Chile due to this solar blast was forewarned about by a similar event that occurred earlier this month in the United States after their Southern California and Arizona regions were hit by a massive power blackout on 8 September.

Within 24 hours, from September 18 until September 19, at least 6 more massive solar blasts occurred. What’s even more concerning to the FAAE about these solar blasts were their being connected by Russian atomic scientists to the nuclear explosion at a nuclear-waste facility in southern France that occurred on 12 September and a Michigan nuclear plant “cooling failure” that occurred on 16 September.

It seems that our scientists are being forced to finally understand the connections between what is happening in our solar system, hopefully in time for the predicted mega event that researchers and scientists expect to be towards the end of 2012.

If you haven’t started taking preparations for these types of events, it may be too late or not, yet better to start today. We strongly recommend to obtain the Survival Reference Guide and the How To Build A Bunker book.

To read the entire article on the European Union Times, here >>

http://blog.2012pro.com/2012/russian-nuclear-power-plants-warned-about-potential-solar-blast

Thousands of Missiles to Down US Passenger Jets?

 

A terrorists dream. Thousands of heat seeking shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles are missing from Libya. ABC news reports that there are concerns that some of the thousands of heat-seeking missiles could easily end up in the hands of al Qaeda or other terrorists groups, creating a threat to commercial airliners. (…ya think?)

Not only could this potentially kill thousands, but it would be absolutely devastating to an already teetering US economy. Air travel would never be the same – although it already is far from the same as it once was before 9/11.

The Russian made missiles can lock on to the heat signature from jet engines and are accurate to a range of about 2 miles. A quick mental math calculation indicates that this is a little over 10,000 feet. Although the missiles apparently could not reach passenger jet airliners ‘at altitude’ (because they typically cruise above 30,000 feet), the airliners could be in jeopardy during take-off or landing while gaining or reducing altitude to or from cruising altitude.

I shudder to think about a coordinated attempt within multiple simultaneous regions of city airports at a predetermined time… especially knowing how simple it apparently is to smuggle things across the porous border from Mexico (just look at the drug trade…).

I have had this particular scenario in the back of my mind for many years, wondering if any terrorist organization would attempt such a simple but certainly devastating attack, given enough numbers.

…just thought I would point out the report, which can be read here, Nightmare in Libya: Thousands of Surface-to-Air Missiles Unaccounted For, to keep you on your toes that things such as this are within the realm of possibility.

Of course, we hope NOT, but it is further reason to be reasonably prepared for interruptions from our normal way of life.

Don’t be afraid. Instead, Be Prepared!

If you enjoyed this, or topics of current events risk awareness or survival preparedness,
check out our current homepage articles…

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ModernSurvivalBlog/~3/CX790OslJts/

Best UFO pictures ever taken

 

UFO Casebook - photographs beginning in 1870 to present

Coming soon: Robots in the sky that recognize and track you

 

By Laura Shin

Military research has been the source of a number of modern technologies, most notably the Internet.

But now, the Army just issued contracts to develop two technologies that don’t seem as fun as, say, poking someone on Facebook.

The contracts, which Wired reports are for work on surveillance projects, could make drones more adept at targeting specific individuals.

One is to develop drones with strong facial recognition that prevents the drone from losing a face in a crowd. Others are for machines that can integrate intelligence data with information from an informant to determine your intent.

Part of a broader effort called TTL (for “Tagging, Tracking and Locating”), these new projects will support the Pentagon as it attempts to monitor enemies and insurgents in places like Afghanistan, where the strategy has switched from rebuilding societies to targeting specific individual bad actors.

Current technologies include using tiny transmitters that can use cellular, satellite or radio frequencies to report their whereabouts and lingering scents that mark targets with a vapor that can be tracked for hours. But they are inadequate because targets may discover their transmitters and remove them, and scents eventually dissipate.

[Read more...]

Bill Bard says:

Just like 1984.

http://philosophers-stone.co.uk/wordpress/2011/09/coming-soon-robots-in-the-sky-that-recognize-and-track-you/

Facebook tracks you even after logging out

 

An Australian technologist has caused a global stir after discovering Facebook tracks the websites its users visit even when they are logged out of the social networking site.

Separately, Facebook’s new Timeline feature, launched last week, has been inadvertently accessed by users early, revealing a feature that allows people to see who removed them from their friends’ lists.

Facebook’s changes – which turn profiles into a chronological scrapbook of the user’s life – are designed to let its 800 million members share what they are reading, listening to or watching in real time. But they have been met with alarm by some who fear over-sharing.

Of course, Facebook’s bottom line improves the more users decide to share. Reports suggest that Facebook staff refer internally to “Zuck’s law”, which describes Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s belief that every year people share twice as much online – a trend that has caused Facebook’s valuation to skyrocket towards $US100 billion.

“Facebook is a lot more than a social network and ultimately wants to be the premier platform on which people experience, organise and share digital entertainment,” said Ovum analyst Eden Zoller.

Causing a stir ... Australian Nik Cubrilovic first spotted the tracking issue.

But in alarming new revelations, Wollongong-based Nik Cubrilovic conducted tests, which revealed that when you log out of Facebook, rather than deleting its tracking cookies, the site merely modifies them, maintaining account information and other unique tokens that can be used to identify you.

Whenever you visit a web page that contains a Facebook button or widget, your browser is still sending details of your movements back to Facebook, Cubrilovic says.

“Even if you are logged out, Facebook still knows and can track every page you visit,” Cubrilovic wrote in a blog post.

“The only solution is to delete every Facebook cookie in your browser, or to use a separate browser for Facebook interactions.”

Cubrilovic is working on a new unnamed start-up but has previously been involved with large technology blog TechCrunch and online storage company Omnidrive.

He backed up his claims with detailed technical information. His post was picked up by technology news sites around the world but Facebook has yet to provide a response to Fairfax Media and others.

David Vaile, executive director of UNSW’s Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre, said Facebook’s changes were a ”breathtaking and audacious grab for whole life data”. In an email interview he accused the social networking site of attempting to ”normalise gross and unsafe overexposure”.

”While initially opt-in, the default then seems to be expose everything, and Facebook have form in the past for lowering protection after people get used to a certain level of initial protection – bait and switch,” he said.

Stephen Collins, spokesman for the online users’ lobby group Electronic Frontiers Australia, said he did not believe Cubrilovic’s revelations would see people turn away from the site in droves but he hoped users became more engaged with the issue.

”Facebook, once again, are doing things that are beyond most users’ capacity to understand while reducing their privacy. That’s just not cool. I’d go so far as to say it’s specifically unethical,” he said.

Collins said the only reason he still uses Facebook is to help his 14-year-old daughter on the site. He said it took him an hour to lock down his profile to his satisfaction following the recent changes.

”It’s just not good enough. The default setting for any site should be ‘reveal nothing about me unless I make a specific choice otherwise’,” he said.

Others have compared Facebook’s changes to Bentham’s panopticon – a design for a prison where the guards can see all inmates but where the inmates never know whether they’re being watched. The result, applied to Facebook, is that real-time sharing means we always feel like we’re being watched and this then influences our behaviour.

Cubrilovic said he tried to contact Facebook to inform it of his discovery but did not get a reply. He said there were significant risks to the privacy of users, particularly those using public terminals to access Facebook.

“Facebook are front-and-centre in the new privacy debate just as Microsoft were with security issues a decade ago,” Cubrilovic said.

“The question is what it will take for Facebook to address privacy issues and to give their users the tools required to manage their privacy and to implement clear policies – not pages and pages of confusing legal documentation, and ‘logout’ not really meaning ‘logout’.”

The Australian Privacy Commissioner, Timothy Pilgrim, would not comment specifically on Cubrilovic’s findings but said generally social networking sites need to clearly spell out when browsing information is being collected, the purposes for which it may be used and whether it will be disclosed to other organisations.

“Good practice would also be to allow for users to opt out of having it collected,” said Pilgrim.

The findings come after technology industry observer Dave Winer declared Facebook was scaring him because the new interface for third-party developers allows them to post items to your Facebook feed without your intervention. This has been dubbed “frictionless sharing”.

Meanwhile, Facebook’s Timeline feature, which shows users a timeline of their activity on the site throughout the years, has not officially been switched on but many are using it already. Instructions can be found here.

But inadvertently or by design, the Timeline feature also lets people see which users had “unfriended” them by following a few simple steps:

1. Enable the new Timeline feature.
2. Pick a year in the timeline and locate the Friends box.
3. Click on “Made X New Friends”.
4. Scroll through the list and when you see an “Add Friend” box, those are the people either you have unfriended or vice-versa.

However, it appears Facebook has now disabled this function, describing it to gadget blog Gizmodo as a “bug”.

Finally, security researchers were quick to hose down a hoax that spread through the social network, claiming that Facebook was planning to start charging users for the new features.

Source

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheEuropeanUnionTimes/~3/SF-OI9dRv14/

All over by Christmas?

 

Germans rounding up the Greeks again

It won’t stop.

Unelected Marxist EU head Barosso, afterdecades of acquiring power only to watch his visions fail has finally decidedthat if he cannot get his hands on the money to allow Greeks to drive BMWs likethe Germans, he will take it from those who have it via “Robin Hood” tax on bank transactions. Inother words, you and I.

He assumes, as all Marxists do, that all moneyis evil unless it is in their hands. He assumes that banks generate theirprofits from thin air (central banks under socialist control actually do, I’llgive him that) and that any cost will not passed straight on to us, thecustomers.

On the day when German politicians votedfor more of the same failure, despite the wishes of their electorate to call ita day and stop the sheer idiocy of throwing their hard earned money at the profligate backers of melon farmers, the EU decided that what they neededinstead of a bucket full of holes was a LARGER bucket full of holes, bailingmadly whilst the Titanic gently slips beneath the waves. Taxes, more taxes,more taxes, yes, that will save us all.

It can’t go on much longer because theresimply isn’t the will to keep bailing. Sure, Politicians love it, bankers loveit and 24 hour media loves it, but eventually it will dawn on the millions ofpeople who actually DO work for a living that 73 per cent income tax is nothingmore than State slavery, no matter how much it is dressed up with tax creditsand child benefit refunds.

The great German Political dream todominate Europe could once again bankrupttheir nation because although wars are expensive, endlessly printing moneyinstead of simply invading with an army never ends well. Especially when theGermans do it.

http://bastardoldholborn.blogspot.com/2011/09/all-over-bx-christmas.html

When will Eurocrats get it?

 

The European Commission has asked its staff to work an extra half hour each day in order to save €1 billion – around £870 million – by 2020, but trade unions representing the EU’s 55,000 staff have not accepted this minor change. Extravagant salaries, generous holiday, gold plated pensions and free lunches; it’s a tough life, working for the European Union.

With the crisis in the eurozone, and the situation in Greece only likely to get worse, this is another slap in the face for hard-pressed taxpayers. The extra 30 minutes per day would increase their working week to 40 hours – still below the average British full time worker’s 41.5 hours. Even so, there is talk that EU workers could strike.

A letter from Equipe d’Union Syndicale, the European Parliament’s trade union, has rejected the idea. They complain that “the attractiveness of the European civil service would deteriorate”. Further proof that they don’t realise the EU gravy train needs to stop.

It is said often enough, but this is yet another example of civil servants in Brussels living in an entirely different world to the rest of us. They don’t understand that ordinary taxpayers simply cannot afford to continue funding cushy working practices they don’t enjoy themselves.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tpa/~3/zAkiMM0iNdQ/eurocrats.html

Engineering Laws

 

1. Law of Mechanical Repair - After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch and you'll have to pee.
2. Law of Gravity - Any tool, nut, bolt, screw, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.
3..Law of Probability -The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act
4.. Law of Random Numbers- If you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal and someone always answers.
5.. Law of the Alibi - If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had a flat tyre, the very next morning you will have a flat tyre..
6.. Variation Law - If you change traffic lanes, the one you were in will always move faster than the one you are in now (works every time).
7..Law of the Bath- When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone rings.
8..Law of Close Encounters -The probability of meeting someone you know increases dramatically when you are with someone you don't want to be seen with.
9..Law of the Result - When you try to prove to someone that a machine won't work, it will.
10.Law of Biomechanics - The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.
11..Law of the Theatre- At any event, the people whose seats are furthest from the aisle, always arrive last. They are the ones who will leave their seats several times to go for food, beer, or the toilet and who leave early before the end of the performance is over. The people in the aisle seats come early, never move once, have long gangly legs or big bellies, and stay to the bitter end of the performance. . The aisle people also are very surly folk.
12.The Coffee Law - As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.
13. Murphy's Law of Lockers - If there are only two people in a locker room, they will have adjacent lockers.
14.Law of Physical Surfaces - The chances of an open-faced jam sandwich landing face down on a floor, are directly correlated to the newness and cost of the carpet or rug.
15... Law of Logical Argument - Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about.
16. Brown's Law of Physical Appearance - If the clothes fit, they're ugly.
17. Oliver's Law of Public Speaking - A closed mouth gathers no feet.
18. Wilson's Law of Commercial Marketing Strategy - As soon as you find a product that you really like, they will stop making it.
19. Doctors' Law - If you don't feel well, make an appointment to go to the doctor, by the time you get there you'll feel better. But don't make an appointment, and you'll stay sick.

My Law- If I write a blog post on a subject, someone will always write a better article about it on their blog

http://niklowe.blogspot.com/2011/09/engineering-laws.html

12 Giant U.S. Banks Vulnerable to Disaster!

 

Imagine this scenario …

The largest economy in the world is on the brink of a financial meltdown that could make the debt debacle of 2008 seem small by comparison.

Its giant banks are buried in bad loans and vulnerable to failure.

Its central government is paralyzed.

Chaos looms.

A Desperate Meeting

One weekend, in a last-ditch attempt to avoid disaster, top finance officials — representing 117 countries and six billion souls — come together and meet.

The officials engage in intense — sometimes frantic — debate. They explore every possible solution known to modern man, plus some that are still not known.

But they’re stumped. They come up with no new ideas.

That’s when the highest finance official of the world’s second-largest economy speaks.

He can barely mask his frustration — and fear — as he calls for massive, unprecedented steps to stem a domino-like series of defaults.

He cites words such as “cascading default, bank runs, and catastrophic risk.” And he bluntly tells the group that time is running out!

But when the meeting adjourns, nothing has been done; no decisions have been made. Instead, the finance officials fly home to the far corners of the globe. They go home to their families. And secretly, they pray the financial collapse does not destroy modern society as we know it.

Unbelievable? Then Consider This …

This was not a fictional scenario. It actually happened EXACTLY as I just described — THIS past weekend!

The economy on the brink of financial meltdown is the European Union. With a GDP nearly $2 trillion larger than the GDP of the United States, it is clearly the biggest economy in the world.

The giant European banks buried in bad loans include France’s Crédit Agricole and Société Générale. With $3.6 trillion in assets between them, they are the largest in the world.

And the high finance official who issued the doomsday warning is none other than U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

Speaking before the delegates to the IMF/World Bank meeting in Washington, D.C., this past Saturday, his warnings were shocking. So they merit repeating:

→ Cascading default

→ Bank runs

→ Catastrophic risk

→ Running out of time!

Why was he so blunt? What does he fear that average citizens are just beginning to comprehend?

Is it the recent panic in the global markets — investors dumping sovereign bonds, banks recoiling from interbank lending, global money markets freezing up?

Is it the utter fragility of the U.S. economy, still struggling to recover from its own debt nightmare?

Or is it the chronic vulnerability of America’s largest banks, still loaded with bad mortgages, still taking massive risks with derivatives, and still directly vulnerable to Europe’s debt disaster?

The answer: All of the above! But of greatest concern is …

The Fragility of America’s Largest Banks

Many investors seemed shocked when Moody’s downgraded Bank of America’s long-term debt from A2 to Baa1 last week.

But even with the downgrade, we believe Moody’s is being overly generous to Bank of America. The bank has …

• $421.7 billion tied up in mortgages — more than any other bank on the planet!

• $52.5 trillion in high-risk derivatives — more than 36 times larger than its total assets and nearly 341 times bigger than its risk-based capital!

• Massive exposure to the possibility that some of its trading partners in the U.S., Europe, or elsewhere might default — to the tune of 182% of its capital, according to the Comptroller of the Currency.

And it’s not alone! Other major U.S. banks are in a similar predicament.

Candidates for Disaster

It’s because of these kinds of dangers that, one month ago, I warned Bank of America was a candidate for bankruptcy.

And it’s also because of these dangers that I’m publishing here — for the first time — our latest list of the nation’s weakest large banks, based the latest second-quarter data recently released by the FDIC.

Bank of America merits a Weiss Rating of D (weak). But it’s clearly not the only one. Also getting a D grade are two other giants — JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo.

Nor is this weakness restricted to the nation’s largest banks. Major regional institutions — SunTrust Bank, Regions Bank, Compass Bank, Huntington National Bank, and others — are also vulnerable.

All told, 2,553 U.S. banks and thrifts now get a Weiss Rating of D+ (weak) or lower, implying widespread vulnerability to the consequences of sovereign debt defaults in Europe and to a double-dip recession in the U.S.

How Could This Impact You?

In too many ways!

First, if you own bank stocks, you’re bound to lose a lot of money. Their shares are already plunging, and the experience of 2008-2009 tells us they could fall a lot more.

Second, banks and other financial institutions are the heartbeat of the entire economy. If they go down, so does business.

Third, if you have money in a weak bank, it could be in jeopardy. Yes, the U.S. government may come to the rescue. But because of scarce government resources and new, stricter bailout laws, this time around, any bailouts are bound to be more painful — to the bank, its shareholders, AND its creditors.

My recommendation:

1. Get your money to safety. If you must use a bank, do most of your business with those meriting a Weiss Rating of B+ or higher.

2. Never allow your deposits to exceed the FDIC protection limit.

3. For added safety and liquidity, seriously consider moving a big chunk of your cash from bank deposits and checking accounts to

• 3-month Treasury bills (which you can buy through your broker or directly from the Treasury) or …

• A money market fund that invests exclusively in short-term Treasuries.

Yes, I know Treasury bills don’t yield hardly anything. And I recognize that Uncle Sam’s finances are also shaky — a factor that could impact medium- and long-term Treasuries. But the Treasuries I’m recommending mature in only 13 weeks. And I believe the chance of the U.S. government defaulting on its debt within the next 13 weeks is nil.

Good luck and God bless!

Martin

http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/12-giant-u-s-banks-vulnerable-to-disaster-47357

Age of Illiteracy: Shocking 20% UK youths struggle to read

 

THIRD WORLD ENGLAND THE FABIAN DREAM!
LOUSY TEACHERS- LOUSY GOVERNMENT- TOO MANY FOREIGN LAGUAGES- MAKES THE TWO WORLD WARS WORTH FIGHTING FOR EH?

NEWHAM WHERE TONIGHT ON LBC RADIO A MIDWIFE SAID- THERE ARE 120 DIFFERENT LANGUAGES AND MOTHERS TO BE COME HERE WITHOUT THE ABILITY TO SPEAK A WORD OF ENGLISH……PREGNANT ON ARRIVAL- INTERNATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE…BENEFIT THE COUNTRY HOW?

LIBLABCON MERCHANTS SELLING THEIR LIES TO DUMB VOTERS!

RussiaToday on 26 Sep 2011

A recent survey in the UK has revealed an alarming number of school-leavers lack even basic skills in reading and numeracy, which once again proves that levels of literacy even in developed countries are not something to be taken for granted. It points to a bleak future for young people there, together with the rising youth unemployment rate.

RT on Twitter: http://twitter.com/RT_com
RT on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RTnews

Category:
News & Politics

ZOG OF BRITAIN NOT SERVING YOU!!

http://centurean2.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/age-of-illiteracy-shocking-20-uk-youths-struggle-to-read/

Dead Sea Scrolls now on-line

 

Scroll over text and it translates
The Dead Sea Scrolls, the world's oldest known biblical documents, are now available to read online - and simply scrolling over phrases from one of the 2000-year-old scrolls instantly translates them into English.
'It’s taken 24 centuries, the work of archaeologists, scholars and historians, and the Internet to make the Dead Sea Scrolls accessible to anyone in the world,' said a post on the official Google blog today. A Google video of the hi-tech process is below.
Continue MailOnline
The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls

http://apparitionsourlady.blogspot.com/2011/09/dead-sea-scrolls-now-on-line.html

Merkel Prepares Market for Bigger Haircuts; Split opens Over Greek Bail-Out Terms; Needs vs. Fantasies

 

French and German banks know a good deal when they have one. They have one in the 21% haircuts they "voluntarily" accepted. The problem is even 50% haircuts are likely insufficient. The bondholders are upset at this reality. Tough.
Yahoo! Finance reports Merkel says Greek bailout terms may be changed

German Chancellor Angela Merkel hinted that the second Greek bailout package might have to be renegotiated amid increasing market speculation Wednesday that European leaders want to force private holders of Greek bonds to take bigger losses.
Merkel didn't rule out altering the terms to the euro109 billion ($148 billion) package, saying the decision must be based on how Greece's debt inspectors, the so-called troika, judge Athens' recent austerity efforts.
"So we must now wait for what the troika finds out and what it tells us: do we have to renegotiate or do we not have to renegotiate?" she said in an interview with Greece's ERT television Tuesday night.
Merkel added that she "cannot anticipate the result of the troika."
Greece "will not get back on its feet without a serious reduction in debt," said Ottmar Issing, a former chief economist of the European Central Bank, who has served as an adviser to Merkel in the past.
Athens needs to see its debt cut "at least 50 percent, probably more," Issing was quoted by Germany's Stern magazine.
Germany's banking association insisted there was no need to renegotiate the terms of the second bailout package. Banks in Germany and France are among the biggest holders of Greek bonds.
A default by Greece or another country would send shock waves through the global economy, particularly in Europe, authorities fear. Banks would suffer such large losses on government bonds they hold that they would cut off credit to the wider economy and cause a new, sharper recession.

Needs vs. Fantasies
The banking industry says there is no "need" to change the terms. Of course there is a need to change the terms. Banks are not going to be paid back what they are owed. Let's not confuse "needs" with pie-in-the-sky fantasies.
Split Opens over Greek Bail-Out Terms
The Financial Times reports Split opens over Greek bail-out terms

A split has opened in the eurozone over the terms of Greece's second €109bn bail-out with as many as seven of the bloc's 17 members arguing for private creditors to swallow a bigger writedown on their Greek bond holdings, according to senior European officials.
The divisions have emerged amid mounting concerns that Athens' funding needs are much bigger than estimated just two months ago. They threaten to unpick a painfully negotiated deal reached with private sector bond holders in July.
While hardliners in Germany and the Netherlands are leading the calls for more losses to be imposed on the private sector, France and the European Central Bank are fiercely resisting any such move. They fear re-opening the bond deal could spark renewed selling of shares in European banks, which have significant holdings of Greek and other peripheral eurozone debt.
Senior European said there was significant division over the move to re-open the bondholders' deal, which could trigger a bigger and earlier restructuring of Greek debt. Even within Germany, officials are split over whether to press for a bigger "haircut" for private sector creditors.
Under the terms of the July bail-out, bondholders agreed to trade about €135bn in bonds that come due through 2020 for new, European Union-backed bonds that would not be repaid for decades. This deal implied a haircut of 21 per cent for bondholders, but many German officials say they were forced to agree a deal that was too beneficial for the banks.

Take the Loss
One look at the DAX, or European bank stocks suggests major shock waves have already been felt. More are coming. However, the shock waves would have been far less had banks, the ECB, and the EU accepted realistic losses two years ago and simply let Greece default.
Losses will now be four to 10 times as large, depending on how much more money everyone is willing to throw at the problem. Thus, upping the ante to shelter bondholders from losses was exactly the wrong thing to do then, and it is still the wrong thing to do today.
Barry Ritholtz had an excellent article on this theme just today: Take The Loss.
The fear should have been in hiding losses not taking them. Unfortunately, I expect some wishy-washy compromise will up the losses one reportedly "final time" to 30-35% not the needed 60% or so. It won't work. Hiding losses by not reporting them only makes matters worse.
Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

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Elenin Breakup, Typhoon Roke EU Debt Crisis and the UN Declaring Palestine a State

 

Friends,
Just to refresh the memory, my oracle described September as the month of seven earthshaking experiences — literal and metaphorical — as in natural earthquakes as well as climate disasters political and economic earthquakes. (Read the article by clicking on September 2011.)

Seismic activity is increasing again as we approach the lineup at the end of September of Comet Elenin with the Sun and Earth. Sunday night, Indian Time, Nepal, Sikkim parts of India and Tibet were rocked by a significant, widespread 6.9 magnitude quake in that Himalayan mountainous region. There was damage to roads, villages and bridges across the area as well as building collapses in Nepal’s capital, Katmandu. The death toll stands at 100 and expected to rise.

In my article about the Seven Temblors written at the beginning of September, I also mentioned quake activity would increase in my corner of the Pacific Rim, the Pacific Northwest. I have said from time to time that I expected a magnitude 5 or 6 and above here. Back on 8 September, I noticed the strange behavior of starlings flying about all out of flock formation as if they were swallows catching insects in the air. I never have seen the starlings play swallow around here. They looked more panicked than on the entomological prowl for bugs on the wing and remarked to my neighbor that there must be an earthquake coming. The following day a 6.4 magnitude quake shook the northern tip of Vancouver Island a few hundred miles northwest of my island in the northern Puget Sound. It was felt all the way south to Seattle.

Hopefully this is all the excitement we will have in September on the one quadrant of the highly active Pacific Rim that has not had a major quake and tsunami in the past few years like Chile with tsunami (February 2010), New Zealand (September 2010) and Japan with tsunami (March 2011) during the Comet Elenin line-ups.

Comet Elenin before the breakup.

I am hopeful of this because all signs are showing that Comet Elenin is breaking up as it gets blasted by solar flares on its gravitational sling shot around the Sun. Perhaps this will also end the unexplainable seismic threat. All three line-ups of Comet Elenin with the Sun and the Earth shook historic earthquakes (two of which unleashed historic tsunamis) along the Pacific Rim. Perhaps Los Angeles and San Diego will be spared a hit around 25-26 September and later in November when the next two line-ups are expected.

Actually if no further quake events happen Elenin’s breakup becomes just another reason to wonder what forces more subtle than what we know about gravity may be at work here. Astrologers would say there is a harmonic force that pushes and pulls beyond gravity and enables good forecasters using the stars to foresee potential of individuals, nations and the world. The astronomers poo poo this but what will they say if no more quakes come from Elenin after it has been turned into stellar rubble by the Sun? How does one explain away that?

It could equally get weirder for the astrologers to explain themselves if quakes on 25-26 September and 22 November “do” happen even after Elenin is rendered ice gravel by the powerful gravitational forces and solar flares of the Sun.

Typhoon Roke's waves hitting breakwaters along the east coast of Japan.

Coming back to Japan, the main island of Honshu had a 6.6 magnitude quake last weekend. A shake up of another kind happened while I was writing this article. One million three hundred thousand people were told to evacuate the eastern coast of Honshu Island. Many retreated from the areas devastated by the great Japanese quake and tsunami of March. They escaped the wrath of particularly powerful Typhoon Roke.

Before Roke, Japan in September was shaken by scandal and panic, concerning the burning of radioactive sludge transported from the Fukushima reactors damaged in the March quake and tsunami. It is not yet clear how much of this story is Internet hyperbole. There are those who claim that radiation levels across much of Japan have risen sharply because town smelters are burning radioactive ash plumes spreading the radiation around Japan. These ash trash burns may spread the radiation eventually to the West Coast of the US and Canada. More on that when I can confirm these claims.

Now to Palestine.

This Friday (23 September 2011), the Palestinian Authority led by its President Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) will press the UN Security Council to have a vote of the General Assembly to declare Palestine a sovereign country.

I wrote the following insert in the comments page today in answer to James’ comment. Here they are:

JAMES
Do you see peace coming anytime soon for the Israelis and Palestinians? I fear a great major conflict will rise between many nations unless peace takes hold.

HOGUE
This “push” generated by the Palestinians is a great opportunity rife with great dangers. The Peace Process has been an institutionalized joke ever since Yasser Arafat (the previous leader of the Palestinians) missed the opportunity to accept an agreement back in 1999 with the then Prime Minister and now Secretary of Defense, Ehud Barat. (It is interesting to me that the American president and Ehud both seem to have the Arabic and Hebrew versions of Baraka (blessing) in their names. Ehud “Barak” (Baraka) and Barack Obama. May they be blessed with peace.

The question really for me is this. The Arabs and the Israelis have the collective unconscious rage to fight one more big war. I would hope that they could channel that energy to doing something equally dangerous but perhaps less deadly, advance this process to the next and difficult step, a two-state solution. That is my hope come this Yom Kippur holiday (avenu malkenu…! That’s my favorite Jewish holy prayer song!)

There is a lot of discussion on my comments pages about the close approximation of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (his PLO handle is Abu Mazen) to the code-name Nostradamus may apply to his third and final Antichrist: Mabus. I wrote a whole chapter in my book about Nostradamus’ third Antichrist looking at Palestinian candidates who see their name crunch into (M)Abu(s) or (M)Abbas (Mabas = Mabus). The chapter is called By the Infernal Gods of Hannibal – a cryptic hint left by Nostradamus to name the current Antichrist.

Abu Mazen (Mamoud Abbas).

Whether Mabus “is” the Third Antichrist or his victim is a topic discussed in detail in the book. Certainly, a war coming out of this precipitous push for statehood might lead to the death of Abu Mazen. As Mabus is first to fall in his war lasting 25 to 27 years, then Abu Mazen’s death could trigger this “great undoing of people and animals” as Century 2 Quatrain 62 implies. We shall have to watch this closely. In the meantime, I invite you to check out an overview of my book on the subject by clicking on Nostradamus. See you on the flip side of the UN vote.

John Hogue
(21 September 2011)

PS—If you are not already a member, you can be the first to know when such articles are posted by joining my free newsletter. Sign up here.

UPDATE INSERT, 23 September 2011: A Seismic Earthquake in the EU Debt Crisis Begins to Rumble

I wrote the above blog on Wednesday, the day US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke caused in part a 284 point drop in the Dow Jones with his inference to significant and depression-like downside risks and strains in the global financial markets requiring his Operation Twist — a new slight-of-hand economic card game from the FED. Most of you began reading this above blog on Thursday when the DOW dropped another 467 points making Wednesday-Thursday’s 751 point drop the largest two-day slide in 2008. Today the IMF meets in Washington DC to muddle through figuring out the Rubric’s Cube of the Euro debt crisis while a quiet and ongoing run on European banks goes on, mostly unreported by the corporate media. Two major banks in France are dumping 4 billion dollars so they will not be to big to save by the IMF. Moody’s degrades Greece’s credit further. The IMF yesterday warned that the entire world financial system is now more susceptible to collapse than at any time since the Great Recession began.

In my book Predictions for 2011, I coined a new label for our economic age, calling it a “Cold Depression” akin to a Cold War. We enter a period of decades where economic collapse is ever overshadowing stagnant economic growth. At any point the economic collapse could become suddenly hot and apocalyptic. In my seven quakes in September 2011 article published on 3 September, I foresaw this week’s shake-ups or “Temblors” in the global economy:

***

Temblor Two – The Euro Bank Crisis: One of the reasons why this smoldering shock to the world economy did not happen burst into flame in August is because it was “August” — the time Europeans, leaders and led, all generally put business on the shelf and go “out to lunch,” off the wagon and into vacation mode for a month.

Then September comes. The tanned come home from the French, Italian and Spanish Riveras, Biarritz, the sunny spots on Aegean islands. The bronzed procrastinators park their sailboats and suntan lotion returning to their offices and financial institutions where a big bad Euro ass-a-dragon banking crisis is poised, claws clenched, waiting.

Temblor Three – The Return of the Great Recession: In August I listened to the talking heads of Bloomsburg and CNBC have bobble headed ideas about there not being a second recession coming to the US. Part of the problem is they selectively ignore Europe in the equation of a potential US downturn. They selectively ignore the consequences of climate change undermining food prices with crop failures. They ignore the consequences of Hurricane Irene flooding New York and Wall Street. They will have to face these shocks in the aftermath of Irene, in September and factor them into their calculus.

***

The economic vacationers are back at their banks in September faced with an economic default of Greece with debt slams in Italy and Spain lurking. France downsized in credit and shrinking its banks in a huge sell off and this had precipitated the third worse week on Wall Street so far in history, proving that when the Euro Zone sneezes, the US economy and Wall Street catches the cold, especially since 25 percent of all US exports go to Europe. Add to this a significant strain to the global insurance industry from mounting property and agriculture damage caused by worsening climate changes.

I would say the financial quake I predicted is on and it will lead to a double-dip global recession. We still have a lot of 2011 to soldier through and as cold winter comes the Cold Depression comes closer to growing suddenly hot.

http://www.hogueprophecy.com/2011/09/elenin-breakup-typhoon-roke-eu-debt-crisis-and-the-un-declaring-palestine-a-state/

Are YOU ready for Dow 7,000?

 

It may be shocking to hear me say that the Dow Jones Industrial Average is headed for 7,000 … because even after this past week’s carnage, the Dow is still sitting comfortably above 10,500!

But, yes, I firmly believe that we are going to see the broad U.S. stock market fall another 35% from here … AT LEAST!

Just look at what’s happened in the past few days …

• The Federal Reserve warned of “significant downside risks to the economic outlook” and the International Monetary Fund said “the global economy is in a dangerous new phase.”

• The global data took a nasty turn for the worse, with a key Chinese manufacturing index slumping for three months in a row for the first time since 2009 … while activity in Europe fell to a two-year low.

• And the cost of default insurance on European banks, many U.S. banks, and even entire sovereign COUNTRIES, exploded! The market now expects a Greek default to be a near certainty … and even the cost of insuring German bonds hit a record amid fears it will be forced to shoulder the burden of bailing out all its high-risk neighbors.

In response, we have already seen the U.S. stock market start falling out of bed.

The major averages are now flirting with multi-month lows, while several leading financial, transportation, and materials companies are heading straight to their previous lows of 2009!

And Here’s the Critical Difference
Between the Last Crash and This One …

As usual, bureaucrats are frantically running around Washington D.C. right now, scrambling for the 5,672nd “solution” to the sovereign debt crisis.

The phones are ringing off the hook in Frankfurt … in London … in Zurich … and all over Asia … as bankers try desperately to stem the flood of sell orders swamping their offices.

The members of the Federal Reserve board and its district banks are ripping their hair out, trying to figure out why yet ANOTHER one of their attempts to restart the U.S. economy has fallen flat on its face.

In short, unlike the last crisis, there is nothing more policymakers can do this time around.

So in my book, the future is pre-ordained. The course of market and economic history has already been charted. We’re heading back into recession, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has a date with 7,000.

Remember, last time around the Dow plunged as low as 6,470. The S&P 500 slumped to 667. And the Nasdaq Composite sank to 1266.

So to me, the question isn’t: “How could the Dow possibly plunge to 7,000?” It’s: “How could the Dow NOT fall that far?” If anything, 7,000 could be a generous target!

Now, Here’s the Good News …

You don’t have to sit idly by and let that kind of decline destroy your wealth, just like it did to so many portfolios during the first phase of this great bear market.

Instead, you can take several steps to protect your portfolio, and even PROFIT from a further decline!

That’s precisely what many of my readers who are following my recommendations should already be doing!

I told them to sell virtually all of their stock positions near the year’s highs, then positioned them in specialized investments that rise in value when select stocks, commodities, and bonds fall.

Readers who followed those recommendations were watching the profits pile up this past week, including:

• An 18.5% open gain from an investment that capitalizes on falling metals prices …

• A 23.8% open gain on an anti-stock market play that I first recommended in July …

• Plus, FIVE MORE additional open positions up anywhere from 1.1% to 13.7% and well positioned to rise even further as everything from real estate to the euro continues crashing!

Obviously, not everything I recommend makes money … and none of these gains are guaranteed. But I have to say that we were absolutely ready for what happened this past week … and I firmly believe we are going to rack up even more profits in the coming weeks and months.

And there’s absolutely no reason you can’t be right there with us — smiling as the markets continue falling … knowing full well that YOUR portfolio is protected against the world’s problems … and potentially even INCREASING in value with every passing day.

In fact, if I’m right, and the Dow plunges almost 4,000 more points from here — dragging all kinds of indices and assets to their bear market lows — your profit potential will be HUGE!

A vulnerable metal I’m targeting would have to fall another 60% or so to reach its recession lows …

Another vulnerable sector I’m watching — real estate — could lose more than 59% …

A third vulnerable index I recommend targeting could lose as much as 46% …

And by using my favorite investments to profit from these possible declines, you could potentially rack up profits equal to — or even higher than — those drops!

All you have to do is watch my latest video right now — it will show you precisely what steps to take immediately, along with details on the specific investments I’m recommending.

Viewing it is absolutely free, and it could very well make the difference between a cracked nest egg or one that is well-protected, and even increasing in value, as the Dow heads toward 7,000.

Just click here and my video will begin playing automatically.

Best wishes,

Mike

P.S. Again, there’s no telling if we’ll see the exact same kind of market meltdown that we saw in the first phase of this worldwide crisis. But if we do, wouldn’t you want to be protected? Wouldn’t you want to profit from it? Doesn’t it make sense to take SOME kind of action … before it’s too late?

I sure think so. So click here now to learn what to do immediately.

http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/are-you-ready-for-dow-7000-47352

Greek Debt Crisis Solution: Resort To Metaphysics

 

Countless times since the emergence of the Greek sovereign debt crisis, followed in quick succession by the debt crises of other unfortunate members of the PIIGS fraternity on the periphery of the Eurozone, the European politicians have boasted that they have come up with a solution and have licked the problem. Not so long ago, French president Nicolas Sarkozy boasted about how the bond vigilantes should never bet against the euro. And yet, after having “solved” the Greek debt disaster, these same bumbling politicians are soon back in the limelight, again promising that this time they have cobbled up a solution that will really work.

We are now at it again. As Greece stands on the verge of default on her public debt, the Eurozone politicos and the IMF technocrats are supposedly in deep conversation about a really big solution to the Greek debt crisis which will really work this time. Based not on hard fact, but simply on rumors and a heavy dose of hope and prayer, stock markets across the globe are again rallying. As the markets soar, it is clear that this exuberance is based solely on metaphysics, and not on even a shred of hard, objective analysis. Even the rumors point in that direction, as the suggestion that the Eurozone, which is fundamentally insolvent, can borrow the equivalent of two trillion euros, nearly four times the size of America’s TARP of 2008, to bail out the banks that will be hurt by a 50 percent write-off of Greek public debts, is both sublime and ridiculous. The Greek debt crisis is also Greek tragedy, with a heavy complement of comedy added, courtesy of Europe’s inept political leaders.

 

http://www.globaleconomiccrisis.com/blog/archives/1440

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

 

Tuesday, September 20, 2011: (St. Andrew Kim, et.al.Korean martyrs)
Jesus said: “My people, many times history repeats itself since many civilizations have risen and fallen. The prophets were sent to warn Israel not to worship idols and foreign gods, but the people of Israel would not listen to Me or My prophets who brought My messages. As a consequence, Israel was conquered and exiled in Babylon. Later, they were allowed to return to rebuild their Temple. So it is with America because you are also idolizing money, sports, fame, and gold. Because you are turning your back to Me with your abortions, homosexual marriages, divorces, fornication, and not worshiping Me on Sunday, you also will be exiled from your own land. My faithful will be making an exodus from their homes to My refuges. The Antichrist will kill, torture, or enslave those who do not come to My refuges. Even your many disasters in the weather are reflecting the violence of your sinful society. My faithful will be returned to a renewed land of My Era of Peace when all the evil ones will be separated and cast into hell.”

http://www.johnleary.com/index.php/2011/09/22/tuesday-september-20-2011/

A Domino Game That Could Spread Very Far

 

We all have at one time or another, spent time trying to set up the perfect domino effect, where the fall of one piece leads to the fall of every other piece in the game. These days, most negative views are based on the theory that the same could happen and might even be on the verge of doing so. While a domino game usually needs some kind of manual intervention, this one would likely start when Greece will confirm that it is indeed defaulting on its debt. The exact way it will be done, the conditions and direct consequences are unclear but the fact that Greece will have to go down that road look certain by now.

Surviving The Domino Effect

The challenge for countries, corporations and investors is to get a clear vision of what will be knocked down by the domino effect, and what will not be. For example, it seems clear that European banks will suffer greatly from a Greek default. Why? Because they have been able to avoid mark-to-market on their positions meaning that their books still reflect a AAA-Greece. Needless to say that taking a 50% cut will result in massive losses. Most agree that the worst off are the French banks as they have massive exposure to these banks.

The question then becomes, if French banks do suffer such losses, will one or several them be unable to operate? Christine Lagarde, the former French finance minister and now head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been urging the banks to increase their capitlizations, which some have done and others not. If one or several of them would fail, what kind of impact would that have on credit markets? If US bank Morgan Stanley (MS) is said to have a huge exposure to French banks, would that mean that Morgan and other US banks could also be threatened? If so, where does this end?

There Are Several Possible Paths

If that was the only path, it would be a lot easier to fix. But consider the fact that a Greek default could bring increased pressure on other EU countries like Ireland and Portugal but also giants like Spain and Italy. There is absolutely no doubt that this is the more serious path and brings by itself a large number of other scenarios.

What To Do As An Investor?

Clearly, pressure is on for investors like you and I. How is it possible to anticipate everything that could/will happen when Greece does actually start to falter. This is also something that will likely happen over a few months/years so I would personally consider it neatly impossible to try to time all of these events. There will be great opportunities for those willing to take some risks but if you do consider yourself someone that cannot afford or support a 20-30% loss, I would recommend being very safe until the Europe crisis resolves. Of course, by doing so, you could end up missing a big rally that will occur if they do come up with a solution. There is always a downside to avoiding risk.

http://www.intelligentspeculator.net/investment-talking/a-domino-game-that-could-spread-very-far/

Here's Everything You Want To Know About That Trader Who Screamed "Collapse" And "Goldman Sachs Rules The World" On BBC

 

The rumors are flying about Alessio Rastani since his BBC interview yesterday morning.

Some people are shocked about what he said ("The collapse is coming... and Goldman Sachs rules the world"), while others think he was being refreshingly honest. And then there are those who think he's a complete phoney.

They've suggested that he's a member of The Yes Men, a prank group that enjoys doing interviews posing as business leaders or bankers. Both Rastani and the group have denied that he has any affiliation.

We'll let you decide, but by our estimation, he looks like a real trader. Here's his Youtube channel, where he promotes his Facebook fan page and his website, LeadingTrader.com.

He describes himself as an, "experienced stock market trader and mentor. Keynote speaker on share trading and spreadbetting. Husband and all round nice guy."

Importantly, we were not able to find out whether or not he's ever been backed by any professional firm, or any account of his past trading record.

Now here's what did find, gathered by digging around on the internet (mostly from Forbes):

• 34 year old Allesio Rastani lives (and was raised) in London and has traded "for real" since 2006. He's independant, though he once worked for an unknown institution for a while, but realized he didn't want to have a boss.
• He says he lost money in the dot com boom
• In terms of trading, Rastani claims to be totally "obsessed" but likes to keep things simple. He has rules and he follows them, he hates risk and mostly trades on the Dow, some forex, and very liquid stocks.
• As you may have guessed, he's into trading on voltatility and trends.
• He uses TradeStation (in case you're wondering), and trades the first two hours of the NYSE and the last one or two hours of the Euro markets.
• Some traders he admires (all public personalities): Linda Raschke, Guy Cohen, and Carolyn Boroden.
• On his interview yesterday: "I think it’s overblown. I have no idea why I’m getting this attention. I don’t think it was news. For someone to say what I said, I thought everybody already knew this kind of stuff. The big players of funds rule the world, I don’t think that was news. And what I said about making money from a crash, obviously not everybody knows about that, you can make money from a downward market. A lot of people just got the wrong end of the foot, misunderstood what I was saying. They thought I was joyful or licking my lips about the idea of making money from people’s miseries. That’s probably the way it looked on the video. But if they watch the whole video, what I was really trying to say is people need to educate themselves about how to do that… what I was trying to say was, look, everyone should basically prepare. I was trying to be the good guy. If this market’s going to crash, then you’ve got to prepare yourself.."
• "Angels and Demons" is one of his favorite books, he likes watching movies, and he counts Lady Gaga and Nickelback (woof) among some of his favorite musicians.

We've tried contacting him for an interview. If he gets back to us, we'll be sure to update this post with everything we find out.

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