Trend setter for Tuesday June 9, 2009

Stepping on the Commodities Gas Pedal, Mogambu Guru

06/08/09 Tampa Bay, Florida Oil has, finally, started to rise again, having been down below the breakeven point of pumping it, as they, too, have all kinds of rising costs like everybody else, as well as pension programs and myriad, large governmental entitlement programs to pay for.

And what is this “breakeven point” for oil? The last I heard, a couple of years ago, is that oil needed to be higher than $70 a barrel to make their relevant governments’ budgets balance, taxes and duties being what they were. (more)

The End of I.O.U.S.A.?

By Ian Mathias

06/08/09 Baltimore, Maryland For the first time since at least the Second World War, Americans are acting like…well…everyone else.

Americans are spending less this year than they did in 2008. Believe it or not, that’s a first since World War II. What’s more, we’re saving at a historic clip… the personal savings rate (updated Friday) jumped from near 0% last year to 5.7%, a 14-year high and the fastest growth rate since at least 1950, when the government started keeping track. (more)

the commercial real estate bubble is about to burst

The Biggest Victim of the Debt Crisis

Just as we’ve been warning, the United States Treasury is the next and largest victim of this great debt crisis.

Right now, the Treasury’s finances are collapsing … its bond prices plunging … its interest rates surging.

Indeed, the Treasury’s financial crisis looms so large, it could wreck more havoc on the economy and deliver more pain to average Americans than the subprime mortgage disaster, the housing bust, the banking crisis, and the collapse of General Motors put together …

It could create a rising tide of interest rates that wipes out the effects of any stimulus, undermines any recovery, and sabotages any new bailouts … (more)

California Budget Recalled: The $24.3 Billion Budget Deficit

There are many reasons why California finds itself at the financial edge. We are a state that heavily depends on personal income and sales taxes that fluctuate wildly during good and bad times. California also finds itself grappling with the reality that there may be no other bubble to save itself from the current harsh reality. During the 1990s, we had massive wealth gains with the technology bubble with areas such as Silicon Valley. After the bust, state revenues dropped quickly but without skipping a beat, we had the real estate bubble to pick up right where it had left off. Two decades of massive bubbles. There may be no other big bubble in the near future to get us out of this mess easily. (more)

Interview with Future Prediction Expert Gerald Celente

It’s the end of the world as the Greater Depression hits after 2010’s failed “W-recovery”

Human Events had the opportunity to interview forecaster extraordinaire Gerald Celente, President of Trends Research Institute, several days ago -- and the future he predicts looks bleak indeed. In fact, as Mr. Celente sees it, the Great Depression will seem like a mild recession as what waits for us in 2011 hits with the force of a Katrina financial hurricane.

In case you’re wondering who Mr. Celente is (if this is still possible), he’s appeared -- along with his predictions -- on Oprah, CNBC, Reuters, NBC, PBS, BBC, the Glenn Beck Show -- the list goes on an on. His Trends Report has been successfully predicting the major future trends impacting our lives for 3 decades, including calling the dot com crash back in the 1990's. (more)