Thread: The strongest economy in the world

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!

$ is up against most currencies.

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

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.

Originally Posted by 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.

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

Originally Posted by 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!

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.

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

Originally Posted by Told Stool

Too bad the Britons did not accept the Euro like Tony Blair had wanted them to

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.

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.

Economy on brink of recession, Greenspan says

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned on Tuesday the U.S. economy was on the brink of a recession, with the chances of that happening at more than 50 percent.


The U.S. economy has been hit by a credit crisis which began in the sub-prime mortgage market, prompting a series of interest rate cuts to help boost the economy. But price pressures are growing, making more rate cuts unlikely.
Asked if the U.S. economy was in recession, Greenspan said: "We are on the brink."
A quick recovery was unlikely, he said via video link to a conference in Johannesburg. "A rebound at this stage is not something I think is in the immediate outlook," he said.


"There are still very considerable structural problems remaining in the financial system. They will remain for a while. It's going to be very difficult. There are a lot of unexpected adverse events out in front of us," Greenspan said.

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

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.

Faster Inflation May Unleash `Financial Tsunami': Chart of Day
By Mark Gilbert
June 24 (Bloomberg) -- Rising consumer prices will leave more U.S. consumers unable to pay their debts and may lead to a ``financial tsunami,'' according to Bennet Sedacca, president of money manager Atlantic Advisors LLC in Winter Park, Florida.

``Whether it is anecdotal or statistical evidence, I see inflation everywhere, and this is where the financial tsunami cometh,'' Sedacca wrote in a report published yesterday. ``A battered, over-indebted consumer, if forced to retrench, could create even more problems for the banking system as loan delinquencies would begin to rise even further. All sorts of delinquencies are rising. This is now a systemic issue.''

Link and Entire: Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

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

U.S. Stocks Tumble, Sending Dow to Worst June Since Depression
By Michael Patterson



June 26 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks tumbled, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its worst June since the Great Depression, as record oil prices, credit-market writedowns and a slowing economy threatened to extend a yearlong profit slump.

General Motors Corp., the largest U.S. automaker, plunged the most in three years as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. advised selling the stock and crude rose by $5 a barrel. Citigroup Inc. led the KBW Bank Index to an almost 10-year low as Goldman said the lender may report an $8.9 billion second-quarter charge and cut its dividend. Research In Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry, posted its biggest drop since 2001 on concern competition with Apple Inc.'s iPhone is reducing earnings.

Link: Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

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

Another article. Worldwide, but also with US coverage on the Fed's actions:

I don't think this is just media hype. I think that the next 2-3 years may be tough. If this happens to be, I'll hunker down in South East Asia, if I can. Things are getting a little dicey, economically, here.

Barclays warns of a financial storm as Federal Reserve's credibility crumbles

28/06/2008

US central bank accused of unleashing an inflation shock that will rock financial markets, reports Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Barclays Capital has advised clients to batten down the hatches for a worldwide financial storm, warning that the US Federal Reserve has allowed the inflation genie out of the bottle and let its credibility fall "below zero".

"We're in a nasty environment," said Tim Bond, the bank's chief equity strategist. "There is an inflation shock underway. This is going to be very negative for financial assets. We are going into tortoise mood and are retreating into our shell. Investors will do well if they can preserve their wealth."

Barclays Capital said in its closely-watched Global Outlook that US headline inflation would hit 5.5pc by August and the Fed will have to raise interest rates six times by the end of next year to prevent a wage-spiral. If it hesitates, the bond markets will take matters into their own hands. "This is the first test for central banks in 30 years and they have fluffed it. They have zero credibility, and the Fed is negative if that's possible. It has lost all credibility," said Mr Bond.

Link & Entire: Barclays warns of a financial storm as Federal Reserve's credibility crumbles - Telegraph

Der Spiegel wrote that the IMF had "informed" Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke of plans that would have been unheard of in the past: a general examination of the US financial system. The IMF's board of directors has ruled that a so-called Financial Sector Assessment Program is to be carried out in the US.

This, Der Spiegel wrote, "is nothing less than an X-ray of the entire US financial system", adding that "no Fed chief in US history has been forced to submit to the kind of humiliation that Ben Bernanke is facing".

The fact that the IMF is knocking on the very doors of its parents and waving legal papers about who lost the house, the car and the kids will, if the past is anything to go by, be buried in the US by pom-pom waving on CNBC telling all what a great time it is to buy...

...Der Spiegel reports that the IMF is threatening to seriously study the accounts of America, something President George Bush is determined to prevent at least while he is in the White House, informing the IMF that it can begin its investigation but cannot complete it until he leaves office.

But the reckoning will come and it will shine a light in places where light has been desperately wanted for all too long.

"As part of the assessment," Der Spiegel said, "the Fed, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the major investment banks, mortgage banks and hedge funds will be asked to hand over confidential documents to the IMF team. They will be required to answer the questions they are asked during interviews. Their databases will be subjected to so-called stress tests — worst-case scenarios designed to simulate the broader effects of failures of other major financial institutions or a continuing decline of the dollar."

..Under its by-laws, the IMF is charged with the supervision of the international monetary system. About two-thirds of IMF members — but never the US — have already endured this painful procedure.

Der Spiegel reports: "When the final report on the risks of the US financial system is released in 2010 — and it is likely to cause a stir internationally — only one of the people in positions of responsibility today will still be in office: Ben Bernanke."

While Der Spiegel claims that IMF intervention (my expression) is a humiliation for the US, the real significance may be that this is another blow to American exceptionism.

While the examination is far reaching, and deeply intrusive, Canada, Britain, Italy, indeed two-thirds of IMF members, have participated in the program. The new President will soon discover the age of US exceptionism is over.

Meanwhile the US markets have entered bear territory, the economy has done likewise and we are at the beginning of a long and tortuous process before rebuilding can even commence.

IMF finally knocks on Uncle Sam's door | theage.com.au

When Jim Rogers speaks, I listen.

Avoid Dollar `At All Costs,' Investor Rogers Says (Update2)
By Zhang Shidong



June 30 (Bloomberg) -- Jim Rogers, who in April 2006 correctly predicted oil would reach $100 a barrel and gold $1,000 an ounce, said investors should steer clear of the dollar as the U.S. economy slows and favor commodities this year.

The dollar has slipped 7.7 percent against the euro and 5.9 percent versus the yen in 2008 as the Federal Reserve cut interest rates to stave off a U.S. recession. Oil prices have doubled in the past 12 months, while gold is up 44 percent.

Avoid the dollar ``at all costs,'' Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, said in a speech in Shanghai today. ``The best investments in 2008 are commodities and natural resources. Agricultural prices have much higher to go over the next decade. We have a shortage of everything, including seeds.''

Link & Entire: Bloomberg.com: News

Southern California and Miami are seeing a drastic foreclosure. I still have no sympathy for people who borrow money they can't pay back. Storekeeper, you around?

Analyst sees 'ghost town' in Inland Empire


A financial analyst fresh from a tour of construction sites in the Inland Empire is warning Wall Street of a "ghost town" where finished homes sit vacant and additional homes are still under construction.

"At several properties, there were a significant number of fully built homes sitting vacant along with a large number of additional homes still under construction," Sandler O'Neill & Partners analyst Aaron Deer wrote today after touring developments in Corona and Ontario. "At one master plan community, the entire development appeared to be vacant -- with the exception of crews working on new construction, it was a ghost town."

Median home prices in both communities have dropped sharply over the last year, declining 33.6% in Corona and 30.3% in Ontario, according to DataQuick Information Systems. In Corona, the median sales price fell nearly $200,000 from May 2007 to May 2008, dropping from $565,000 to $375,000.

More from Deer's note: "The homes all appeared to be empty, and there were no prospective buyers anywhere to be found. Surprisingly, the sales office was open ... but the woman working there had questionable English fluency. When asked how many homes had been sold in the past month she simply responded, 'Uh huh. Thank you. Yes!' and handed us some additional literature on the property."

More: "Perhaps the most interesting aspect to the development was what it revealed about the nature of the housing boom: that at the peak even the most undesirable and remote locations were worthy of expensive, high-end homes."
Overall, Deer's note on the California economy -- and the relative health of California-based banks and thrifts -- strikes a balanced

chord, reporting that, while the "outlook remains gloomy," "the pace of new problems has slowed somewhat."
Other highlights:

• "Not surprisingly, the banks said they are seeing continued deterioration in their single-family residential construction portfolios."
• "In areas where developable land is scarce, namely San Francisco and west Los Angeles, markets are still holding up. Several banks noted very little, if any, deterioration in credit quality in these markets. Specificially, residential construction projects in San Francisco ... and western Los Angeles (mostly teardown/rebuild projects) are seeing stable prices despite slower activity."

Link: Analyst sees 'ghost town' in Inland Empire | L.A. Land | Los Angeles Times

how about this shit then my friend. Links are included.

You think the war in Iraq is costing us too much? Read this: Boy am I confused. I have been hammered with the propaganda that it is the Iraq war and the war on terror that is bankrupting us. I now find that to be RIDICULOUS. I hope the following 14 reasons are forwarded over and over again until they are read so many times that the reader gets sick of reading them. I have included the URL's for verification of all the following facts.
1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year by state governments. Verify at: FAIR: Immigration and Welfare
2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens. Verify at: http://www.cis..org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens. Verify at: http://www.cis..org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English! Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIP.../01/ldt.0.html
5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies. Verify at CNN.com - Transcripts
6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens. Verify at: CNN.com - Transcripts
7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens. Verify at: CNN.com - Transcripts
8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers. Verify at: http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html
9. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens. Verify at: CNN.com - Transcripts
10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that's two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US Verify at: CNN.com - Transcripts
11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana, crossed into the U. S from the Southern border. Verify at: Homeland Security Report: http://tinyurl.com/t9sht
12. The National Policy Institute, "estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period." Verify at: http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.o...eportation.pdf
13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin. Verify at: Wooldridge - How Much Further Into This Nightmare?
14. "The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States." Verify at: http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml The total cost is a whopping $ 338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR. Why are we THAT stupid? If this doesn't bother you then just delete the message. If, on the other hand, if it does raise the hair on the back of your neck, I hope you forward it to every legal resident in the country including every representative in Washington, D.C. - five times a week for as long as it takes to restore some semblance of intelligence in our policies and enforcement thereof.


"Madam, we have given you a Republic, if you can keep it!" â Benjamin Franklin (1787)

^Surely the solution to your rant would be to withdraw all the troops from Iraq and have them patrol the borders of the US and roam the country rounding up all these 'aliens'.

Or is this too obvious?

^ Exactly. With all the heightened security and such post-9/11 it is a little odd that the boarder with Mexico is still so open. It's almsot as though it somehow benefits to have illegal immigrants 'slipping through'.

^In fact, it is a great 'safety valve' for Americans, providing all the labour that Americans don't want to do for such low wages. Very similar to the Burmese here in Thailand. I don't look for much crackdown in spite of all the rhetoric by the politicians.

^Tell that to Blackgang. Go on I dare you. Tell 'im!

Originally Posted by bkkandrew

^Tell that to Blackgang. Go on I dare you. Tell 'im!

Tell me what dickhead, I have known this for many years, and it was mainly NAFTA that brought it about, before that it was bad and had been getting worse sine 1949 and people looking the other way.
But it has got so bad now that ER's are closing because of the Mex idea that you have to go to a hospital when ever anything is wrong, same as in Thailand, and it has broke the Emergency Medical infrastructure in the USA so now millions of needy people set for hours waiting while a bunch of spiks get their nose looked At while mentally disturbed people set waiting for hours to See a nut cracker or get a referral.

Originally Posted by chinthee

In fact, it is a great 'safety valve' for Americans, providing all the labour that Americans don't want to do for such low wages.

In Fact you are full of shit too,, Americans are getting some things done at a lesser price, but still if it were not for the Greasers doing it for less, the Americans would be paying a fair wage to have it done correctly, Just like some fa rang here, will Jew a few Thai down from their asking price to half that and then get a shitty job done.
But it makes no difference to the main subject, either you give them some work or they will steal everything you have and rape your wife, daughter and son if he is handy, there are illegal aliens we are talking about, who just happen to be criminals on the loose in your country,
So use any excuse that you want to, but you are making it so your country is overran with criminals and you are paying , not only in cash money but in govt aid that was payed for by out for the underprivileged in your own country and the accident victims in your society and are handing it freely to criminals that have invaded your country and are diminishing your welfare programs and EM treatment facilities.

Originally Posted by bkkandrew

^Surely the solution to your rant would be to withdraw all the troops from Iraq and have them patrol the borders of the US and roam the country rounding up all these 'aliens'.

Before a bunch of Furiners start or continue to come on US Issues and tell Americans what to do and not to do, what you should do first is familiarize your selves with what is legal and what is not legal to do with the military of the united states and what we can do as citizens, like the stupid thread about it being necessary to have a military background before being elected as Pres.
There are a few documents that you should familiarize yourselves with before giving such bullshit advise,, Check out the Constitution and the Bill of rights and they will answer most of the stupid questions that you Brits or Dependants of Brits ask, and give you the answers before making yourselves look so fucking stupid.

^In real life do you sound like you write, or do you just type how you would talk?

A lot of Mexicans still regard those South Western US states the USA "purchased at the point of a gun" in 1848 as Mexican territory. The deal was that Mexico ceded the territory USA wanted or the USA would annex the whole of Mexico. So the Yanks gave them $15 million and forced them to sign the contract just to make it all legal and above board

Mexican Cession - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia