Saturday, October 3, 2009
Capitalism: A Mistitled Movie
Through the throngs of socialist ideology and Obama mania a few agents of liberty infiltrated the recent D.C. premiere of Micheal Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story. In typical Michael Moore fashion, the film covers many topics without tapping into the root problems and instead pulls on your heart strings. Firstly, his use of the word capitalism is misguided. Capitalism is free markets without government intervention. Yet in his mind the corportist system that has plagued our country is the definition of capitalism.What he blames on the free-market economy, is not a free-market economy. Our current economy is comprised of a revolving door between politicians and lobbyists who have manipulated the system through government regulations for the benefit of a select few. (more)
U.S. Factory Orders Plunge Unexpectedly in August
New orders to U.S. factories fell in August by the largest amount in five months, as American manufacturers struggle to emerge from the recession.
The Commerce Department said Friday that demand for manufactured goods dropped 0.8 percent, much worse than the 0.7 percent gain that economists had expected. The August decline reflected plunging demand for commercial aircraft, a category that surged in July. (more)
World Bank could run out of money 'within 12 months'
The Bank, whose job it is to support low-income countries, has had to hand out so much cash in the wake of the financial crisis that its resources could run dry within 12 months. “By the middle of next year we will face serious constraints,” said its president Robert Zoellick, as he launched a major campaign to persuade rich nations to pour more money into the Washington-based institution. (more)
Personal bankruptcies up 41 percent
Consumer bankruptcies soared 41 percent in September from a year before and climbed from August, as high unemployment and the housing market crash took their toll, the American Bankruptcy Institute said on Friday.
September filings totaled 124,790, the fourth-highest month since the bankruptcy law changed in 2005.
Filings also rose 4 percent from August, even as recent reports have indicated that the U.S. housing market might be stabilizing and consumer confidence appears to be recovering. (more)
FDIC Insuring 8,200 Banks with $9 Trillion in Deposits and Zero in the Deposit Insurance Fund
The FDIC has greatly underestimated the problems of our nation’s banking system. Earlier in the week the FDIC proposed that banks put up $45 billion to protect bank depositors. The average American must be amazed that a system backing $9 trillion in deposits is essentially broke. Clearly the FDIC has the backing of the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve but there is some irony in having the FDIC tell banks to pay an early assessment to protect our money. These banks are going to use bail out money to pay to protect taxpayer deposits! The banking system is going to have some deep and profound issues as the $3 trillion in commercial real estate loans go bad in the next few years. (more)
US Faces Retro 70s Inflation: Jim Rogers
The US faces high inflation because of the weak dollar and the Federal Reserve's policy of printing money to counter the effects of the crisis, legendary investor Jim Rogers told CNBC Thursday.
Price rises in the US are already steeper than the inflation rate reported by the government, Rogers added.
"There's no question the US is vulnerable to hyperinflation down the road or certainly the inflation we saw in the 1970s, I would expect that to come back in the foreseeable future, certainly in the next few years," he said. (more)
Peter Schiff: Gold Going To $5,000
Euro Pacific Capital head Peter Schiff predicts the Dow will fall another 90 percent from current levels when measured against gold, which he says will hit $5,000 an ounce.
Schiff credits poor policy decisions over the past nine years for setting the U.S. dollar up to take a major fall against commodities and other currencies when China and Japan finally stop buying our debt.
"Ben Bernanke is keeping his record of perfection intact of never getting anything right,” Schiff told Yahoo! Tech Ticker.
“Once again he's gotten it wrong."
"If the Fed really thought the economy was sound, why does he have it on life support? If he pulls the plug, our sick economy is going to die." (more)
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