The Thailand expat forum for Travel, Lifestyle and Fun.

lom

Yeah, that would quickly drain government funds.
There would be nothing left to use for compensating banks when they make losses.

Milkman

The article (which I also read this morning) hit on good points about people's perceptions.

Yeah, the more frequently you buy a product that's going up in price, the more you will perceive it to be: $25 extra per week = $100 more for gas, but an increase of $100 you pay once a month is the same, but not perceived as negatively as the gas. Also, driving down the road and seeing the gas prices posted on signs at stations.

However....I do think Dr. Elizabeth Warren is correct. She wrote a book called "the two-income trap," and went on a speaking tour. You can youtube Warren, and I quite sure I put her youtube 1-hour presentation on a thread here in U.S. Domestic.

Starting in 1970, Americans fixed expenses (thing you have to pay for) started increasing while income declined. Tax rates have also risen.

The increase in the cost of housing eats a higher percentage of Americans net now, than say, 30 years ago.

So, based upon mathematics, Americans are slipping down, and they have been for 38 years, starting in 1970.

But I do agree, that perceiving "gloom and doom" is not necessary.

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

_____________

Panda

The Yanks have been riding on the backs of the rest of the world for decades due to the Yanky $ world hegemony. That is, the Yankee $ has been overpriced on the world market as a result of the fact that it has been sought after as the main trading medium for commodities on the world market. Almost every country buys $USs as a back up to the purchasing power of needed commodities which are almost always priced in $USs. eg: oil.

This un-natural demand for $USs has inflated the value of the $US about 20% above what it should be trading at in a free market system.

The world markets are gradually moving away from the $US as the worlds default trading currency, so USA is increasingly having to rely on actual production of goods and services to meet the shortfall. Hence the current devaluation of the $US. Unfortunately for all of us, the current US government is borrowing against the perceived value of the $US in order to meet the shortfall in tradable goods and services. the whole "New American Century" neo-con deal relies on the $US as the worlds main tradable currency for goods and services, especially oil.

Its all a big con job. USA used to be a power house of production to the world. But it is no more. USA is now a consumer nation importing more than it exports. The only thing that keeps it afloat is its increasing world debt and reinvestment back into the USA by countries like Saudi Arabia, based on the fallacy of ever increasing value of the $US.

Sad as it may seem to most Americans here, USA has reached its peak in purchasing power of the $US. America has a big debt to pay off and a less big trade imbalance to get sorted out. But by far the biggest hurdle for Yanks living overseas and American companies is going to be the devaluation of the $US as the rest of the world moves away from the $US as the worlds default trading currency. Its not going to happen overnight, but the gradual shift is on right now and has been for a few years.

As I have said before, it wont be all bad news for the average American worker.
Exports will become more competitive and that will boost the job market and in turn wages. Bad news is for big companies playing on the world market and expats counting on the power of the $US for a retirement income.

I know there are many here who believe (hope). that nothing will change and the world will stay the same forever. I wish them well.

Told Stool

At latest observation the dollar was up around 33.5 baht to one dollar, from about 31.5 a month ago...

Panda

120 dayslatest (Jun 20)
0.639959lowest (Apr 22)
0.62461highest (Feb 7)
0.689893

Every currency is looking better compared to the Thai Baht.
Try comparing the $US to major world currencies to get a true picture.

Told Stool

Some people don't care how it compares to other world currencies. We are, after all, in Thailand.

Too bad the Britons did not accept the Euro like Tony Blair had wanted them to. They would be sharing in Europe's luxury.

The pound...can only be...headed to the ground. seeeeeeeeeeew....boom!

britmaveric

$ is up against most currencies.

Told Stool

The arrest of those five or so corporate bigwigs and their connections to the falling down of the housing sector is also helping...

Jet Gorgon

I think the dollar mini spike came from Bernanke's speech that the dollar needed to regain strength, or else. World govts and markets took heed.

Norton

Think so also. If the fed follows up by raising interest rates will further strengthen of the $?

Panda

British Pounds to 1 USD (invert,data)120 dayslatest (Jun 20)
0.506663lowest (Mar 13)
0.492344highest (Feb 20)
0.515331

Well, they are not on their own in that case.

bkkandrew

Shortages, Prices Hit California Food Banks as Schools Recess

By Ryan Flinn

June 23 (Bloomberg) -- Turning dozens of hungry children away from a free meals program wasn't how Vince Harper wanted to start the summer.

Harper oversees a program in Santa Rosa, California, that provides food to kids during schools' summer recess. More than 90 lined up at a community center on June 9, the first day of the service. Only 50 meals were available.

``It's a terrible feeling,'' said Harper, 41, director of youth and neighborhood services for the Community Action Partnership of Sonoma County. ``You have to tell them to come back tomorrow, and hopefully they will.''

As California schools let out this month, food banks in the state face record demand for free meals from families pressed by food price inflation and economic hardship.

Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties has requested extra donations, saying 115,000 children may go hungry in the region. The San Francisco Food Bank has been forced to find new sources to distribute enough food for 66,000 meals a day, a 16 percent increase from last year.

``There are some kids this summer that might not have enough food because they're not getting meals at school,'' said Marguerite Nowak, spokeswoman for the San Francisco Food Bank.

In California, a state with 36.5 million residents, food banks serve about 5 million people per month, said Jessica Bartholow of the California Association of Food Banks.

Some food banks say they are having trouble meeting demand because of a 59 percent drop in goods provided by the federal government, forcing them to buy more food while prices are rising. Manufacturing efficiencies also have decreased the amount of surplus and defective products typically donated by companies, food bank employees say.

Graduation Ceremony

In Kettleman City, California, about halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, kindergarteners took a break from their June 6 graduation ceremony to go to a food bank.

``They walked across the street in their Sunday best to get food from us so they could eat that weekend,'' said Dana Wilkie, president of Community Food Bank in Fresno.

Californians are being squeezed by the nation's highest gas prices, averaging $4.609 a gallon for regular unleaded, some of the country's most expensive housing markets and an unemployment rate of 6.8 percent, fifth highest in the country.

Restrictive Policies

The state also has one of the country's most restrictive food stamp policies, excluding those with more than $2,000 in savings. That means residents with retirement or education funds must cash out to qualify. About half the people otherwise eligible for food stamps don't receive them, Bartholow said.

The increase in demand has led to longer lines at food banks. ``Sometimes we had to wait an hour,'' said Melinda Thornton, 36, who was eating a meal of pasta with ham, peas, bread and broccoli with her husband, Michael, last week at St. Anthony Foundation's dining room in San Francisco.

The line outside wrapped around the block and has grown since Thornton first started coming in December, she said in an interview at the facility.

The federal government has reduced donations to California food banks by 59 percent, to 30.9 million meals last year from 75.7 million in 2002, according to the California Association of Food Banks.

``People used to get two bags of groceries for the month; now, four to six cans,'' said David Goodman, 44, executive director of Redwood Empire Food Bank in Santa Rosa.

Dwindling Donations

In a survey by America's Second Harvest, a national hunger relief organization, the Food Bank for Monterey County in Salinas, California, reported a 63 percent jump in clients during the past four months, while distributing six items per bag compared to the 18 it used to provide.

There is so much empty space in the Fresno Community Food Bank's distribution center ``you could drive a truck through it,'' Wilkie said.

Albert Cabarloc, 59, said he worries about whether the groceries he receives from a food bank in Oakland will be sufficient for him and his 13 year-old daughter, who had received free meals at school.

Cabarloc said he receives about $11,100 in disability payments for a degenerative back condition; after gas, rent and other bills, he and his daughter each have 75 cents to spend per meal, he said.

``We have enough to get us by for the next couple of days,'' said Cabarloc. ``But she's eating, she's growing.''

Rising food, fuel and labor costs forced a Meals on Wheels program in San Joaquin County to close this month. San Francisco's Haight Ashbury Food Program also shut down.

Relief may come later this year, when the new federal farm bill increases the amount of savings individuals may have while qualifying for food stamps. State representatives have also proposed legislation to ease restrictions.

These changes won't take effect until October, too late for state food banks needing help in the next few months, Bartholow said.

``We're looking at a summer without food,'' she said. ``I haven't seen people this scared.''

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=ayjMVLk5GvVU&refer=home

__________________
The future of TeakDoor:


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


A funny thing happened today - Ant trolls, stalks, prevokes and generally upsets approximately 15 members of the board, yet Noodles goes to jail. Perhaps it was a dream...
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

sabang

Not really- the GBP has been substantially stronger since the Euro. This weakness is just recent stuff.
A good time may be coming however to join the Euro.

Milkman

Greenspan is a believer in a philosophy that we don't know what will happen in the future, but that everything is based on probability. Things in the US are tough right now. And he claims the chance of a recession if more than 50%. This means IMO, that a recession is quite likely. I think I'll be staying in Asia for the next 1 1/2 years. Fine by me.



Link & Entire: Economy on brink of recession, Greenspan says | Reuters

Milkman

I think the next 18 months will be interesting to watch, and there will be a lot of problems with Americans that make mortgage payments, car payments, credit card payments, mobile payments, etc. A lot of people are going to go under.

Link and Entire: Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

Milkman

This may or may not be signaling a stall or path to negative GDP growth.

Link: Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

bkkandrew

US President George Bush surprised the global media yesterday by making an unannounced visit to the real world. Bush, who has been criticised by some for appearing to be too aloof and out of touch with regular voters was airlifted into the real world by helicopter and spent nearly an hour chatting to real-life US voters and addressing some of their concerns.

During the President’s fact-finding mission he made a point of asking searching questions of the local inhabitants, such as ‘why has that row of cars stopped at a red light’, and ‘what sort of people do you invite to your banquet?’

‘At first he seemed a little puzzled by it all’ said one voter. ‘He asked if the tax cuts for the super rich gave us an incentive to work harder, and we explained that most of us were already holding down two or three jobs just to survive. “The folks at your golf club must wonder where you’ve got to” he said.’

Another real world inhabitant recounted that he had talked to the President about his concerns for environment; ‘I told him how I’d been out to Alaska to see the effects of drilling for oil, and he asked if I had seen the happy polar bears dancing with penguins to celebrate the multi-national investment in their neighbourhood.’

A White House spokesman said it had long been the President’s intention to spend time in the real world, meeting people and finding out how things work down there and denied they had been alarmed by the President’s comments once he had become acclimatized to reality.

‘Jeez, I really didn’t realise that Iraq was such a mess,’ the President said at the end of his visit. ‘People blowing themselves up all over the place, civilians being slaughtered – God, it’s just a disaster. Back home oil prices are going through the roof, the economy is a disaster zone, and don’t even get me started on our gun laws…’

However when the President returned to work at the Oval Office, he insisted that the trip had been ‘well worthwhile’, showing him how important the war in Iraq really was. ‘I remain convinced that we will soon see a safe, prosperous Iraq emerge’. He also reassured the American people that his economic policies would see the US through the credit crunch, that Dick Cheney was a talented and generous individual, and that he was sure that Charlton Heston would come through this bout of ill health.




http://newsbiscuit.com/article/bush-makes-surprise-visit-to-the-real-world-253

Milkman