Crash Survival Zone

Defeating the Cartel… With Profit, Part 2
… Consider that, although the Fundamentals for Gold have rarely been more Bullish, it is still below its all-time high and still suffers from periodic Cartel Takedowns. [The Cartel’s Motivation for these Takedowns is clear. To maintain its power and profit The Cartel must prevent increasing legitimacy for Gold [...]

Strauss-Kahn referred to credit growth as a sign that financial activity was beginning to pick up
The worst may yet lie ahead for the world economy in the current financial crisis, the head of the International Monetary Fund warned today.

Speaking during a trip to Kazakhstan, Dominique Strauss-Kahn said he largely agreed with the weekend conclusion of [...]

With more and more major economists predicting recovery sometime later this year, many have forgotten that downside risks remain.  Berner, Roubini, Volcker, Krugman and Bernanke have all come out essentially saying they would not be surprised to see a ‘technical’ recovery at some point later this year.  Robert Gordon has gone as far as to [...]

International purchases of American financial assets grew more slowly in April as China, Japan and Russia pared demand for Treasuries, underscoring the danger of U.S. reliance on foreigners to finance its fiscal deficit.
Total net purchases of long-term equities, notes and bonds rose a net $11.2 billion, compared with buying of $55.4 billion in March, the [...]

By Samah El-Shahat

In my last column I introduced the idea that America’s handling of the financial crisis, and in particular the way it has refused to deal with the banks, is more in keeping with how an “emerging” economy might behave and act.

So this week, I will say that America has become a bank-owned state, [...]

When the current crisis is over, the reputation of American-style capitalism will have taken a beating—not least because of the gap between what Washington practices and what it preaches. Disillusioned developing nations may well turn their backs on the free market, warns Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz, posing new threats to global stability and U.S. [...]

Strong buying by China has helped lift commodity prices around the world this spring, but growing evidence suggests that a sizable portion of this buying has been to build stockpiles in China, and may not be sustainable.

At least 90 large freighters full of iron ore are idling off Chinese ports, where they face waits of [...]

Underscoring the risk that hopes for a quick turnaround may be premature, the World Bank said Thursday that it expected the global economy to shrink nearly 3 percent in 2009, far deeper than the 1.7 percent contraction it predicted slightly more than two months ago.

Although the bank said that it expected growth in developed countries [...]

There has been a lot of bullish news about China recently. Since China is one of the main drivers of the world economy these days, the upbeat reports about China are also being used as evidence of a global recovery.

Has the Chinese economy really recovered, or is there more to the story?

…more…

Washington’s Blog

By John Lee

Debt-based monetary systems are inherently unstable. Money is created out of thin air by the banks and lent to government, consumers and businesses. In order to service and repay those debts, the borrowers take on more debts. Asset prices are inflated, and the vicious cycle continues until the debtors are unable to borrow [...]