As many of you know Peter Schiff is now running for Senator in the State of Connecticut. Schiff is an American economist of the Austrian School, author, commentator and popular video blogger who regularly appears in the role of a bearish pundit on numerous financial news networks. He predicted the Dotcom crash of 2000 and the Housing crisis of 2007/2008 and like the author of this blog he belives that the US Dollar is heading for hyperinflation. He is a licensed stock broker, the president of Euro Pacific Capital with a 100 employees who successfully protect their clients wealth by moving out of the US dollar and into real money such as gold etc.
If you want a crash course in the problems with the US economy, watch this. A good hour well spent with a lot of information and humor. Enjoy.
Disclosure: I have no vested interest in Euro Pacific Capital nor do I receive any payment for writing this.
Cutting the federal deficit is the only way back to a sound economic recovery and job creation. You can’t keep spending money you do not have forever. The fact is that the US is broke. Until the federal deficit is turned back to a surplus the Fed will keep printing money through “quantitative easing” which should more appropriately be called “massive worsening” leading to hyperinflation and the death of the US Dollar. Obama plans to “cut spending” with a total of 250 billion US Dollars over 10 years. Yes, 10 years. Thats 25 billion each year at the same time the official expected federal deficit is 1.35 trillion. Thats 1 350 billion. Obama just announced “savings” of less than 2%. I guess its a start…
U.S. authorities seized nine failed banks on Friday, the most in a single day since the financial crisis began and the latest stark sign that substantial parts of the nation’s banking industry are being crippled by bad loans.
The move brought the total number of failed banks in 2009 to 115 — their highest annual level since 1992 — with analysts expecting more to come. Among the lenders seized Friday was Los Angeles-based California National Bank, in what was the fourth-largest U.S. bank failure this year.
The largest institution to fail in the current financial crisis was Washington Mutual, which boasted $307 billion in assets when it was shuttered in September 2008.
U.S. Bancorp on Friday acquired the nine banks that had been held by FBOP Corp, picking up $18.4 billion in assets and $15.4 billion of deposits.
So another 15 billion to handle by the FDIC. They will need more funds very soon. From whom you ask? From you, dear taxpayer! This will be done through Bernankes printing press and you will pay for it through the further debasement of your currency. Trick or treat?
“There’s this huge debate between the inflationists and the deflationists… I belong more to the camp that looks at inflation and deflation from a different perspective. In the sense that in every system you can have some prices going down up and some prices going up. Say if you have a glut in consumer goods, then consumer goods prices can go up. But if you print money and have a zero interest rate, then home prices theoretically could go up, or stocks, or commodities. In any event your cash purchasing power goes down, that’s a symptom of deflation.”
“The worst investments in an inflationary period, when you print money and have large fiscal deficits are, of course, long term bonds and then cash. The best is to have foreign currency and commodities… also equities can protect you to some extent because they adjust upward as the currency goes down.”
“Regarding the dollar he says, “well, it will go to a value of exactly zero eventually.” When pressed for a timeline he explains, “Looking at Mr. Obama and his administration it should already be there, but I think it will take roughly ten years until people really realize that the fiscal position of the US is a complete disaster.”
My personal favorite from this clip:
On Bernanke: “He’s a money printer. He does that well.”
Just a few minutes ago the zFact.com National Debt Clock turned over to 12 trillion USD. As you all know, the total liabilities of the US is much much higher if you take Medicare och Medicaid etc into the picture.
Compare this to the counter on the left hand side on this page.
Since the Commercial Real Estate Mortgage bubble has begun to pop with the bankruptcy of Capmark that I wrote about yesterday I thought I’d give you some background to the events unfolding before our very eyes beginning now. These mortgages are given by lenders to companies building and operating commercial buildings such as malls, offices, hotels etc. With a declining economy these companies find it increasingly difficult to pay interest on their loans as income from rents keep falling. Consider these statistics from this month of October 2009 reported by facilitiesnet.com:
U.S. Office Vacancy Rates Continue Climb, But Are Slowing
“The office vacancy rate increased, by 60 basis points (bps), to 16.1 percent, at the end of the third quarter. Although this was the eighth consecutive quarter of rising vacancy rates, it was lower than the 80-bps increase in 2Q 2009 and was the slowest pace of increase since 4Q 2008.
The national industrial availability rate increased 50 bps to 13.5 percent in 3Q 2009. This result marks the 8th consecutive quarter of rising availability. The vast majority of industrial markets experienced rising availability, with 56 out of 61 major markets showing increases from the previous quarter.”
Johnny Mellgren is a Swedish entrepreneur with a keen interest in macro economics and macro politics. This is his web site where he blogs about the economic collapse of our time, what to do about it and the economic future we create together. Contact Johnny Mellgren.
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I provide advice on investment portfolios for private and corporate clients. I also hold lectures in the history of money and the current economic collapse and how to protect your wealth in a time of transition.
