AMERICAblog: The crumbling dollar and cost increases
bernarda
· 1 year ago
Apparently Bin Laden is ahead in the race. A look at the past from a liberal blogger.
"In a 1998 interview, Osama bin Laden — the terrorist organizer of 9/11 who still roams free — listed as one of his many grievances against the U.S. that Americans “have stolen $36 trillion from Muslims” by purchasing oil from Persian Gulf countries at low prices. The real price of a barrel of oil should be $144, bin Laden demanded."
Gassing up a little earlier, I was getting ready to get into my vehicle and this guy drove up really fast to the other side of the pump, jumped out, walked up to me really fast and asked for a dollar. It's getting worser and worser out there folks.
Õ¿Õ
· 1 year ago
The giggling murderer's thugs have attacked our brothers and sister of the seven tribes at Rainbow this year:
"Editor’s note: Harmless hippies, gathering since 1972, are attacked by the feds, who consider their peaceful event a threat requiring “incident management,” that is to say rubber bullets and pepper spray. “Scientists who studied the group say it provides a chance to offer medical help or counseling to people under 30 who are falling through the cracks,” the AP writes in a caption to a photo showing members in tie-dyed t-shirts in a pastoral setting. Helping people who fall through the cracks? Makes sense the feds won’t stand for that. "
Ah, the gentle Rainbow People. Figures the Feds would screw around with them.
There seems to be no beginning and no end to The #1 Criminal's actions. And we have 200 more days to put up with this shit. And we see that he's going to China--more to ensure his corporate buddies are being treated fairly and profitably, I'm sure.
GG, your gas story reminds me of being at the med clinic a few weeks ago and talking to a young woman who was agonizing over whether or not she'd have enough gas to get back home after examination of a mass in her breast. I gave her $5 and it was worth it.
OlderAndWiser
· 1 year ago
P. S. Approval of Congress by the public has fallen to 13%...how much longer are people going to take all the shit from DC before they start taking action?
lynchie
· 1 year ago
Americans are clueless and don't realize we can vote out all the incumbents, which is what we should do.
lynchie
· 1 year ago
Since we import far more than we export (except for weapons) and the dollar is worth 41% less against the Euro it stands to reason prices are going up. Companies set the profit margins and Management's bonuses and stock options all hinge off that profit margin so margins are maintained. I have long been fascinated by Wall Street's insistance that companies meet a predicted profit and if the company misses by a penny the stock goes down. A profit is a profit but we are slaves to some MBA genius who pontificates what things should be. GM and Ford are on the ropes they continue to be managed by people out of touch with reality. They make poor quality, low gas mileage, too expensive cars and can't change what they have been doing for the past 75 years. America is the same, it has always been done this way is my favorite mantra, well guess what we better figure out how to change what Bush has been doing for the past 7 and a half years or it won't matter how much the dollar is worth or if we export anything.
Sage24
· 1 year ago
Coalition troops (accidentlly?) kills many women and children at a wedding party in Afghanistan. We have got to ask ourselves if attacking Afghanistan was worth the lives lost. Bush did not get Bin Laden, the main reason for that war, and the Taliban are running circles around the coalition troops. So apart from Bush and Cheney's buddies getting rich, why are we there exactly?
We invaded because the pipeline from Ubekistan (sp?) was being contracted to Russsia, not a western oil company. So Bush/Cheney wanted to make sure the deal went to one of their buds.
American media has uniformly chosen to ignore these wire dispatches. Perhaps editors feel that their readers and viewers aren’t ready to hear unpleasant truths about their government’s actions in the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks. Perhaps they hope that other media -- some other media, somewhere -- will begin the coverage that would allow them to pick up the ball. Whatever the reason for the silence of the American media, it has contributed to the sense that those who mention oil, natural gas and Afghanistan in the same breath are “conspiracy theorists” on the political fringe.
Nothing happens in the world unless it is about profit and money changing hands. Let's invade Afghanistan, ignore Bin Laden and make money for our buds at Unocal. Makes sense to me.
OlderAndWiser
· 1 year ago
I read the story, and still don't know what the "exports" are...presumably, they're military equipment, planes, etc. I mean, what else is still manufactured in this country? Certainly not consumer goods, such as textiles, furniture, etc. (at least from this area). We're still stuck with buying Chinese, or from some other country where labor is cheap...just as companies prefer cheap labor in this country.
We're evolving as a third world country in terms of production of goods that people actually need and can use, even in agriculture. And it's not that people even are paid all that much in the US anymore--at least not anyone I know...most of whom are reduced to selling imports or manufactured food.
Of course, you can get bargains by the number of people I see setting up yard sales, people selling off their possessions to get up enough money to buy that gas to get to work, selling imports or manufactured food...
ruthlessgravity
· 1 year ago
We export a lot of raw materials (cotton) and capital intensive finished goods (Boeing 787 Dreamliners). We live in a knowledge based society that doesn't emphasize the production of goods. Most goods can be produced with little skilled labor, making them not a sustainable source of economic growth. China is starting to lose factories to Africa because the cost of production in China is increasing.
Andrew
· 1 year ago
Think things are bad now? Just wait. Seems European banking firms as well as European news papers haven't any problem explaining just how bad things are financiall, but here in the US the MSM is still putting lip stick on this pig.
Banking Crisis Will Be Much More Severe Than Expected Reaching $1.6 Trillion in Losses
This weekend a story appears in the Swiss Sunday newspaper SonntagsZeitung. It is based on a confidential report from Bridgewater Associates, one of the world's largest hedge funds.
Below is our translation from the German. I find it amusing that stories of this magnitude from American sources are reaching us via Europe.
Based on these estimates we are about one-fourth of the way through this financial crisis.
SonntagsZeitung Explosive Study: The banking crisis will be much worse
Westport (USA) - The expected losses from the financial crisis will be 1,600 billions of dollars. ($1.6 trillion). So far financial institutions have only declared 400 billion. This pessimistic forecast comes from a confidential study by Bridgewater Associates, the second largest hedge fund in the world. "We are facing an avalanche of bad assets," says the study. The biggest losses have been in the U.S. banks. "We have significant doubts that the financial institutions will be able to raise new capital in order to cover the losses," says the report. Bridgewater Associates enjoys a first-class reputation in financial circles, and several central banks are among its customers. "Bridgewater are on the pessimistic side," says George Magnus, Senior Economic Adviser at UBS in London, "but they have been absolutely right."
All Comments
"In a 1998 interview, Osama bin Laden — the terrorist organizer of 9/11 who still roams free — listed as one of his many grievances against the U.S. that Americans “have stolen $36 trillion from Muslims” by purchasing oil from Persian Gulf countries at low prices. The real price of a barrel of oil should be $144, bin Laden demanded."
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/05/bin-laden-1...
"Editor’s note: Harmless hippies, gathering since 1972, are attacked by the feds, who consider their peaceful event a threat requiring “incident management,” that is to say rubber bullets and pepper spray. “Scientists who studied the group say it provides a chance to offer medical help or counseling to people under 30 who are falling through the cracks,” the AP writes in a caption to a photo showing members in tie-dyed t-shirts in a pastoral setting. Helping people who fall through the cracks? Makes sense the feds won’t stand for that. "
http://www.infowars.com/?p=3131
There seems to be no beginning and no end to The #1 Criminal's actions. And we have 200 more days to put up with this shit. And we see that he's going to China--more to ensure his corporate buddies are being treated fairly and profitably, I'm sure.
GG, your gas story reminds me of being at the med clinic a few weeks ago and talking to a young woman who was agonizing over whether or not she'd have enough gas to get back home after examination of a mass in her breast. I gave her $5 and it was worth it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7492195.stm
American media has uniformly chosen to ignore these wire dispatches. Perhaps editors feel that their readers and viewers aren’t ready to hear unpleasant truths about their government’s actions in the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks. Perhaps they hope that other media -- some other media, somewhere -- will begin the coverage that would allow them to pick up the ball. Whatever the reason for the silence of the American media, it has contributed to the sense that those who mention oil, natural gas and Afghanistan in the same breath are “conspiracy theorists” on the political fringe.
Nothing happens in the world unless it is about profit and money changing hands. Let's invade Afghanistan, ignore Bin Laden and make money for our buds at Unocal. Makes sense to me.
We're evolving as a third world country in terms of production of goods that people actually need and can use, even in agriculture. And it's not that people even are paid all that much in the US anymore--at least not anyone I know...most of whom are reduced to selling imports or manufactured food.
Of course, you can get bargains by the number of people I see setting up yard sales, people selling off their possessions to get up enough money to buy that gas to get to work, selling imports or manufactured food...
Banking Crisis Will Be Much More Severe Than Expected Reaching $1.6 Trillion in Losses
This weekend a story appears in the Swiss Sunday newspaper SonntagsZeitung. It is based on a confidential report from Bridgewater Associates, one of the world's largest hedge funds.
Below is our translation from the German. I find it amusing that stories of this magnitude from American sources are reaching us via Europe.
Based on these estimates we are about one-fourth of the way through this financial crisis.
SonntagsZeitung
Explosive Study: The banking crisis will be much worse
Westport (USA) - The expected losses from the financial crisis will be 1,600 billions of dollars. ($1.6 trillion). So far financial institutions have only declared 400 billion. This pessimistic forecast comes from a confidential study by Bridgewater Associates, the second largest hedge fund in the world.
"We are facing an avalanche of bad assets," says the study. The biggest losses have been in the U.S. banks. "We have significant doubts that the financial institutions will be able to raise new capital in order to cover the losses," says the report.
Bridgewater Associates enjoys a first-class reputation in financial circles, and several central banks are among its customers. "Bridgewater are on the pessimistic side," says George Magnus, Senior Economic Adviser at UBS in London, "but they have been absolutely right."