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Perspectives on America, ‘Short Takes on Wealth – 110
A Nickels Worth of News
Daily financial headlines continue to provide a warning beacon, of things to come – but is America listening…
This is Jeff Bennett for the Preparedness Podcast, with another installment of Perspectives on America, ‘Short Takes on Wealth – 110.’
Today’s topic… “A Nickels Worth of News”
Small, midsize U.S. banks need to raise more capita
The U.S. financial system remains under stress, with small and midsize banks in particular potentially needing to raise more capital, according to a new report from the International Monetary Fund that shows the continuing strains facing the U.S. economy. The IMF found that U.S. banks need to raise about $45 billion in new capital — most of it by regional and small banks — to ride out an “adverse” economic scenario that amounts to a dip back into recession while maintaining the fund’s recommended capital ratio. (Read Full Story)
Financial regs bill ignores root problems
Supporters of the massive 2,200-page bill say it will bring safeguards to consumers which led to the nation’s current financial crisis. But critics are reluctant to believe what President Obama and those supporters say about the Chris Dodd/Barney Frank-sponsored measure. Mark Calabria, director of financial regulation studies at The CATO Institute, says the bill is worse than no changes at all. (Read Full Story)
Chavez: Financial Disaster
Anytime Congress passes a 2,300-page law that creates more than 500 new regulations and sets up a new, complicated bureaucracy, we should be nervous. And the major financial overhaul that has cleared the final hurdles in the Senate proves the rule. The legislation — the brainchild of Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. — is the biggest overhaul of the nation’s financial industry since the 1930s. (Read Full Story)
Historian warns of sudden collapse of American ‘empire’
“I think this is a problem that is going to go live really soon,” Ferguson said. “In that sense, I mean within the next two years. Because the whole thing, fiscally and other ways, is very near the edge of chaos. And we’ve seen already in Greece what happens when the bond market loses faith in your fiscal policy.” Ferguson said empires such as the former Soviet Union and the Roman empire can collapse quite quickly and the tipping point is often when the cost of servicing an empire’s debt is larger than the cost of its defense budget. “That has not been the case I think at any point in U.S. history,” Ferguson said. “It will be the case in the next five years.” (Read Full Story)
Confidence Slides, Heightening Risk of a Slowdown
Confidence among U.S. consumers tumbled in July to the lowest level in a year, heightening the risk of a slowdown in economic growth. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment decreased to 66.5, the lowest since August and less than the most pessimistic forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. (Read Full Story)
Greenspan Says Congress Should Let Bush’s Tax Cuts Lapse
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, whose endorsement of George W. Bush’s 2001 tax cuts helped persuade Congress to pass them, said lawmakers should allow the cuts to expire at the end of the year. “They should follow the law and let them lapse.” (Read Full Story)
$600 sale? Tax form! You had better get your buying done NOW!!!
Passage by Congress of the national health care legislation has had an unintended consequence to the nation’s coin collectors, vest-pocket dealers who buy and sell coins, and larger dealers who are frequent buyers of coins that collectors periodically liquidate as they trade up their collections for better coins, or simply sell to take a small profit or loss. (Read Full Story)
Home foreclosures jump to record level in United States
The number of U.S. homes taken back by banks through foreclosure hit a record high in the second quarter, even as lenders delayed more homes from entering the process through short sales and loan modification efforts, according to data to be released Thursday. (Read Full Story)
Americans No Longer Drinking Kool Aid, 71% See Economy “Mired In Recession”
According to the latest broad poll conducted by Bloomberg, Americans, except for those on Wall Street of course, have never been more pessimistic on the economy, despite the administration’s efforts to push stocks to 36,000 by Halloween. In a nutshell, 63% of respondents confirmed things in the nation are headed in the wrong direction, 71% disbelieve Kool Aid pushers and say it still feels like the economy is in a recession, with 13% convinced a double dip is coming, and just 14% who see the economy as being on solid ground. And the result that should be very troubling to the Keynesian fanatics out there, while 70% say reducing the unemployment rate is a key priority, 28% say that reducing the budget deficit should be first and foremost for Washington. (Read Full Story)
Weak economy for extended period, Fed says
It could take five to six years before the U.S. economy is fully healed from the Great Recession of 2008, officials at the Federal Reserve said Wednesday. More years of high unemployment. More years of skirting with deflation. More years of ultra-low interest rates, and more years of deleveraging. The Federal Open Market Committee released its economic forecast on Wednesday, and it was dismal. (Read Full Story)
U.S. economy producing far below its potential
Don’t look now, but the bottom is falling out of analysts’ estimates of how fast the economy grew from April to June. As recently as Monday, forecasters figured that gross domestic product grew at a 3% to 3.5% rate in the second quarter — not fast enough for anyone to crow about, given that the U.S. economy is producing far below its potential, but at least fast enough that the nation seemed to be gaining economic ground. (Read Full Story)
Recovery could be rocky as demand for financing grows into ‘wall of debt’
A massive wave of borrowing will start cresting this year when the U.S. and European governments sell an estimated $4 trillion in new bonds. The surge will course through the world financial system for several years as countries, corporations and banks borrow record amounts of money to repair the damage from the financial crisis and pay back loans from the boom that preceded it. (Read Full Story)
More Americans’ credit scores sink to new lows
The credit scores of millions more Americans are sinking to new lows. Figures provided by FICO Inc. show that 25.5 percent of consumers — nearly 43.4 million people — now have a credit score of 599 or below, marking them as poor risks for lenders. It’s unlikely they will be able to get credit cards, auto loans or mortgages under the tighter lending standards banks now use. (Read Full Story)
UK treasure hunter finds 52,000 Roman coins
The hoard, which was valued at 3.3 million pounds ($5 million), includes hundreds of coins bearing the image of Marcus Aurelius Carausius, who seized power in Britain and northern France in the late third century and proclaimed himself emperor. Dave Crisp, a treasure hunter using a metal detector, located the coins in April in a field in southwestern England, according to the Somerset County Council and the Portable Antiquities Scheme. The coins were buried in a large jar about a foot (30 centimeters) deep and weighed about 160 kilograms (350 pounds) in all. (Read More)
Retire at age 70? Young people may have to under plan
Young Americans might not get full Social Security retirement benefits until they reach age 70 if some trial balloons that prominent lawmakers of both parties are floating become law. (Read More)
Bank of America Admits To Repo 105-Like Fraud
The US public accepts that the bankers have lied, cheated and stolen pretty much every day for the past century and the only thing we have to show for it is a $20 trillion debt tab in a few years. Yet that they continue doing so with impunity, even as they themselves now confirm they engaged in inadvertent fraud, just boggles the mind. (Read More)
Presenting The Wall Of Worry: The 50 Ugliest Facts About The US eCONomy
Most Americans know that the U.S. economy is in bad shape, but what most Americans don’t know is how truly desperate the financial situation of the United States really is. The truth is that what we are experiencing is not simply a “downturn” or a “recession”. What we are witnessing is the beginning of the end for the greatest economic machine that the world has ever seen. (Read More)
Obama Economy Sends Americans to Their Mattresses
Government policies designed to stimulate the economy seem to be having the opposite effect. Consumers aren’t buying, businesses aren’t hiring, and those fortunate enough to have some cash on hand don’t seem to be investing. I call it the mattress economy… (Read More)
Tax Increases on the Horizon
Democrats in Congress haven’t made any moves to extend the Bush tax cuts of 2006, so workers of all income levels can expect to see a 5% increase in their income taxes, and additional tax increases from a number of other areas. The taxes affected include the capital gains tax, the alternative minimum tax, education deductions, sales tax exemptions. They also include small tax increases, like a rollback in tax breaks for tuition expenses and donations of books to public schools. (Read More)
Obama’s debt commission warns of fiscal ‘cancer’
BOSTON — The co-chairmen of President Obama’s debt and deficit commission offered an ominous assessment of the nation’s fiscal future here Sunday, calling current budgetary trends a cancer “that will destroy the country from within” unless checked by tough action in Washington… (Read More)
Democrats Want to Tax Your ATM Withdrawals
Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.) has introduced dream legislation. It would charge a penny for every dollar of your money drawn from an ATM machine. That would then beg the question — why put your money in a bank if you are going to get taxed merely for the right to access your money. ut wait . . . it’s gets better. They’re back to wanting to tax the internet too. (Read More)
Small business sidelined in slow recovery from recession
In every recession over the past three decades, it has been America’s small businesses – those Lilliputian companies with fewer than 100 employees – that stepped forward, began hiring and pulled the country out of the mire. Not this time…. (Read More)
I Smell a VAT
Can a person just keep their gold purchases under $600? With the price of gold heading higher, that will increasingly require buying smaller-denomination bullion coins which typically carry a higher premium. More importantly, a large body of case law gives the government license to charge people for structuring i.e., taking active measures to get around a particular law. Thus, two $500 gold purchases could be construed as active evasion and carry additional penalties. (Read More)
A Quick Primer On Why Everyone Thinks The Economy Is Headed Into The Toilet Again
Three months ago, everyone was jubilant: The economy was headed for a v-shaped recovery, job growth was kicking in, and consumers were about to start spending, spending, spending again. But now, suddenly… (Read More)
Dow 1300?
I think Karl Denninger pointed this one out a while back. I almost choked on my coffee when he proclaimed that “according to technical analysis, the target price for the SP500 would then be about 0″. I don’t think he pushed this prediction that hard (if I remember correctly) but there is definitely a case to be made for a horrendous decline. (Read More)
A Market Forecast That Says ‘Take Cover’
With the stock market lurching again, plenty of investors are nervous, and some are downright bearish. Then there’s Robert Prechter, the market forecaster and social theorist, who is in another league entirely. If Robert Prechter is right, one market analyst said, “we’ve basically got to go to the mountains with a gun and some soup cans.” Prechter is convinced that we have entered a market decline of staggering proportions — perhaps the biggest of the last 300 years. (Read More)
Soros Says ‘We Have Just Entered Act II’ of Crisis
Billionaire investor George Soros said “we have just entered Act II” of the crisis as Europe’s fiscal woes worsen and governments are pressured to curb budget deficits that may push the global economy back into recession. “The collapse of the financial system as we know it is real, and the crisis is far from over,”. (Read More)
Gold May Advance to $1,500 by End of Year
Gold will climb to a record $1,300 an ounce in the coming weeks as investors sell the dollar, and may advance to $1,500 by the end of 2010, according to a technical analysis by Credit Suisse Group AG. Bullion may jump to $1,500 an ounce, 19 percent more than the record $1,262.50 set on June 18, before investors see gold as a “bubble,” said Michael Macdonald, technical analyst with Credit Suisse, citing momentum indicators. (Read More)
Uncertainty Restores Glitter to an Old Refuge, Gold
It is the resurgent passion of the doomsday crowd, a bet that everything will go wrong. No matter what has you worried, they say, the answer is gold. The most visible new gold enthusiasts range from the financier George Soros to the Fox News commentator Glenn Beck. But even ordinary Wall Street types are taking interest. Inflation, deflation, government borrowing or the plunging euro — you name it — the specter of these concerns has set off a dash to gold, driving the precious metal to new highs and illustrating how fears of economic turmoil have moved from the fringe to the mainstream. (Read More)
Univ of Texas Buys 500+ Million In Gold..
“Recently, we’ve added 3% of our portfolio, into gold as a protection against inflation, but even more as a lack of confidence in financial markets due to extraordinary government fiscal and monetary stimulus,” UTIMCO CEO Bruce Zimmerman told the University of Texas board of regents Wednesday. “I wish I could tell you the future looked rosy. Unfortunately, that’s not our view. At best, we believe the future is uncertain.” (Read Full Story)
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Read your history! Stock markets collapse on Friday. Bank seizures, closures and holidays take place – after business hours – on Friday. Do currencies or governments also collapse on Friday? Well – it’s almost Friday. Will the end come on this Friday – or will the inevitable collapse hold off for awhile?
The Next Round of the Worst Financial Crisis in 100 Years is coming… AND the government is out to make you PAY for it!
- Will Your Savings Survive a Global Banking Wipeout?
- What Happens When the U.S. Sees Hyperinflation?
- What If Taxes Soar Not Only for the “Rich”?
- Can You Survive If the Stock Market Tanks?
Between the Stock Market Wipeout… waves of Bank failures… soaring government spending that will lead to hyperinflation, and the destruction of the dollar’s value… Isn’t it time that you prepare for the uncertainty, which lies ahead? Protect your money NOW, or forever – kiss it goodbye!
I offer you over 50 years experience of hard asset ownership and knowledge, and am prepared to handle the smallest detail in the balance and protection of your portfolio. As the future of uncertainty continues to blanket this great nation of ours, I believe that I can offer you the privacy, safety, security and possibly some profitability, which you deserve.
I invite you to visit Flying Eagle Gold.com and our sister site, GoldenIRA.net, for further information regarding Protecting Your Wealth – or, call me, Jeffrey Bennett, at 623-327-1778 for a private consultation. That’s 623-327-1778.
Join us again for another installment of Perspectives on America, ‘Short Takes on Wealth.’
Until then, I am Jeffrey Bennett.
