Friday, February 22, 2013

Are we heading towards an Economic Collapse? Preparing for Financial Armageddon

from Off Grid Survival:
Our county sits at over 16 trillion dollars in debt, with unfunded obligations that make the actual debt number about $120 trillion. The reality of the situation is there’s really no way out of the situation. Our government, thanks to both political parties, has spent us into a hole that we cannot dig ourselves out of. The facts, that nobody seems to want to talk about, indicate our country is still heading towards a complete meltdown of the financial system.
You can choose to believe the lies that are being spoon feed to you by the mainstream media, or you can look at the reality of the situation; our Economy is still facing some enormous challenges, and the prospects for a full economic recovery don’t look very good. The financial problems that lead to the housing / financial market crash of 2008 have not been fixed; in fact, many of these problems are even worse today than they were in 2008.
Read More @ OffGridSurvival.com

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It’s A Disgrace To Think Money Printing Solves Problems

from KingWorldNews:
With gold rebounding today after Marc Faber told King World News yesterday that a major bottom was forming in gold, we now focus on Faber’s comments on global money printing and how it is impacting key markets and society. Faber, who is author of the Gloom Boom and Doom Report, stated, “… it’s a disgrace to think with money printing you can solve problems.”
Here is what Marc Faber had to say: “My view is that the money doesn’t flow, really, into the real economy. In other words, if you look at the whole recovery since 2009, and don’t forget the recovery officially started in June 2009 in the United States, so we are almost 4 years into an economic expansion, but when you compare this expansion to expansions in the 1960s, 1970s or 1980s, following recessions, it’s a very, very shallow expansion.”
Faber continues @ KingWorldNews.com

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3 Short-Squeeze Stocks Ready to Pop

The Holy Grail of investing has always been spotting the bubble before it pops. Riding the wave of exuberance and selling out just before the market collapses has made billionaires and gurus, while leaving the rest of the buyers back where they started.

While most investors like to look for bubbles in stocks that Wall Street is hyping on the upside, most don't realize it can work the other way around as well.
 
Sometimes, a company can be so hated and be the target of so much negative sentiment, the herd piles on to push it further down. This is most commonly done through short-selling, or borrowing and then selling the shares with the promise to buy them back later. If the stock price retreats, then the short seller makes money.

But just as a market bubble can burst when there are no more buyers, a short-seller bubble can burst when there are no more sellers. You see, all the investors who borrowed the shares must buy them back at some point. If the company catches some good news, or at least less bad news as expected, then the short-sellers may not be able to find willing sellers without offering higher prices. This phenomenon is known as a short squeeze (more)

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The Currency War Could Turn Into an Auto War

sovereign-investor.com / By Sean Hyman / February 20, 2013
Governments have always been a bit sneaky. They tend to hide what they can from the public. And I’d say the outcome of the latest G-20 meeting this past weekend was a great example of this.
This group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers from the world’s top 20 economies basically spent a ton of taxpayer money to jet over to Moscow to put together a statement that more or less said: “You can continue to devalue your currency… just don’t talk about it.”
In other words, feel free to do most anything. Just don’t let the public in on what you’re doing.
It’s a strategy that worked fairly well in the U.S., so the rest of the G-20 nations can now simply follow our example. Meanwhile, our Federal Reserve can continue to devalue our currency and the public still doesn’t get it.
How you’ve Already been Affected
by Currency Wars in the Past

The American standard of living continues to erode. Americans just don’t seem to realize the impact.
In fairness, there have been a number of mechanisms put in place to disguise what should be obvious.
For example, when I was growing up, people had car loans for two to four years. These days they have to stretch that out for up to seven years.
The food you buy at the grocery store costs more because you get a smaller quantity for a similar amount of money.
Also, what one income-earner used to be able to do in the 1960s and early 1970s, now takes two income-earners to produce a similar lifestyle. Yet all of these things are the result of the currency being undermined by the central bank with the full permission of the government.
READ MORE

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Hedge Funds Have Never Been More Bullish Stocks (And Bearish Gold)

from Zero Hedge:
Across the universe of hedge funds that Goldman Sachs covers, the net long exposure to the market reached a record-breaking 52% in Q4 2012 – the most bullish level on record. It would appear, as we noted here, that the 2-and-20 crowd of alpha generators have merely been corralled into beta-chasers as, just as they did in the run-up to the 2007/8 highs, their exposure is mirroring the broad market performance. It strikes us that a ‘hedge’ fund should, in general, be contrarily reducing exposure as the market rises but with turnover of all positions also at record lows it would appear the managers have set out their chips and are all holding on – as the reality of relative returns (in a fickle investing environment) trump absolute returns. Despite low turnover, hedge funds notably reduced holdings of underperforming long-time favorites Apple and gold (lowest holdings since the crisis began) while raising allocations to rallying Financials. Seems like deja vu to us?
Will hedge funds be turning point indicator as they were in 2007? Hedgies are the most bullish stocks on record currently – given their most net long nature…
Read More @ ZeroHedge.com

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Millions expect to outlive retirement savings

Obama is putting a huge effort to disarm Americans, yet he will not spend 1% of this effort to address the economy and honestly try to figure out what the hell is wrong. He is obsessed with always expanding the power of government. Remember how he stood before the nation and criticized Bush for GITMO? He has not closed that camp and the press will not even write about the issue including the NY Times. Nobody calls him out on a single thing. Why? What happened to our free press?
Here lies the seeds of the collapse in CONFIDENCE in Government. It is not the fear of hyperinflation, it is the fear of the FAILURE to be prepared for retirement. This is where the Marxists meet reality. Government is cutting everything and even Obama wants to cut Medicare. We are throwing the elderly under the bus – but he is concerned about mass shootings? The recent polls show the collapse on CONFIDENCE will be our undoing. This is what all the budget cuts are about – not printing relentlessly, but reneging on past promises

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