Liar, Liar; Planet on Fire —
Skating On The Thin Ice
of Economic Chaos
YOWUSA.COM, 11-March-02
Marshall Masters
…Continued
An Array of Influences
Meanwhile, our "free trade" economy is well on its way to recovery so this whole Enron mess will soon be water under the bridge anyway.
UPI, March 7, 2002
Greenspan: Recession may be over
 WASHINGTON, March 7 (UPI) --
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Thursday the nation's first recession in a decade appears to be over, although he said the recovery
this year may not be as vigorous as it has been in the wake of past recessions.
Delivering his twice-yearly report on monetary policy to Congress, the nation's top banker indicated he was
substantially more optimistic about the near-term economic outlook than he was just a week ago. In prepared remarks to the Senate Banking Committee, he
revised comments he delivered to a House committee last week. "The recent evidence increasingly suggests that an economic expansion is already well under way, although
an array of influences unique to this business cycle seems likely to moderate its speed," Greenspan said.
Greenspan's delicate phrase, "an array of influences unique to this business cycle" really caught my eye. What could those influences be?
Americans just want to hear that things are getting better. We've all lost more than we care to admit on those flashy stocks our jubilant brokers told use were incredible values — like Enron and Global Crossing.
However, for those who are still in the market, to whom are they listening and what are these people saying.
Gold Digest, March 5, 2002
Taylor On The Markets & Gold Financial Times writer, Martin Wolf picked up on the theme of our policy makers seeking to deter the markets from self adjusting which, he opined, is leading to an
"unsustainable black hole." He noted that the huge and growing current accounts deficit couldn't grow indefinitely without undermining the dollar's astonishing strength.
Indeed there are several structural problems in the U.S. economy which are drawing increasing attention from the mainstream press, which, as Ian Gordon suggests, are
inevitably leading us into a depression akin to or worse than that of the 1930's. In summary, the big problems that I see are the following:
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An overvalued dollar that is causing all sorts of global economic dislocations and leading to a depression in American manufacturing, mining and agriculture.
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Huge current account imbalances with the U.S. continuing to live beyond its means by importing far more than it exports.
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Debt from all sectors of the U.S. economy. This
will continue to eat away at effective demand from all sectors of the economy as principal and interest payments continue to grow exponentially.
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A housing market bubble
that continues to pump up housing values far in excess of true economic value.
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Global gluts and pressure on profit margins resulting from increased global competition,
especially from the Chinese.
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A lack of economic incentives for capital expenditures and to hire new people, given declining profit margins.
We have seen quite a lot of air let out of the NASDAQ balloon, but the equity, housing and dollar balloon remains extremely overextended. Which of these will be
the first to decline is anyone's guess. But any one of them could finally lead the nation to understand we are in for some very tough times.
Obviously the author of this article is falling into the same logic trap as the many gloom and doom prognosticators of financial collapse, whose books
now reign, supreme on bookstore dollar closeout carts. They are focused on substance thinking that we've run out of economic smoke and mirror tricks to
fake the appearance of substance. Well at least here in the US, anyway.
Confidential Trading Mail List, March 7, 2002
Name Suppressed by Request Dear Subscriber,
Japan is in an 11-year long recession that's about to get MUCH worse. Its banks are busted. Its government is drowning in nearly $5 TRILLION in debt.
 The country is so broke; Moody's could be days away from slashing
Japan's credit rating to a category below that of third-world Botswana.
Holy smokes! Despite a meager bounce recently, the Nikkei is still down 71% and it's going to
get much worse. With prestigious firms like Moody's now saying economic conditions in Japan continue to deteriorate, foreign investment powerhouses are fleeing for the exits out of Japan as fast as they can.
Merrill Lynch is closing most of its 30 offices in Japan. Charles Schwab, the biggest US discount broker, is shutting down all of its online Japanese
operations. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter is pulling out, too. The share prices of Japanese banks are getting crushed and are going to get crushed even worse. Dozens of them
are saddled down with over $1.5 trillion in bad loans. They have no way to dig themselves out of the hole they're in. Many will fail, including one giant
Japanese bank with more deposits than Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase combined. This is going to drive the Nikkei into a tailspin of
epic proportions. Once the collapse begins, there's no telling how much further down it could go -- 30%, 50%, even 80%. The Euro, March 5, 2002
German deficit may jeopardise credit rating
 For any government, a credit rating
downgrade is unwelcome. For Germany, the eurozone's biggest economy, it would be close to a national humiliation.
But according to some experts, the prospect that the federal German
government could lose its top-notch, triple-A rating on world credit markets is no longer unthinkable. The main international rating agencies have no plans to
review Germany's standing at the moment. But one, Standard & Poor's, says this may change if the government seeks to combat Germany's deteriorating public finances by issuing debt jointly with the
country's 16 Lander, or federal states.
The fact is that Japan, America's major trading partner in the Pacific has both feet in deep tofu. Meanwhile, on the Atlantic side Germany will soon have one
foot in deep yogurt as well. No doubt this will impact America as our fortunes are intertwined. What about the 3rd world? Will their economic woes have an impact on us as well?
International Colonialism in the Industrial Age
Last December, the Argentine government's
decision to suspend payments on its $132bn debt sent
a small quake through the global financial world.
It was expected, but now Brazil with a much greater
level of debt is seriously considering the Argentina
option. Why are these nations ready to forsake
the generous terms offered by the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank?
Part of the answer lies in the burden of this debt.
Worldwatch.org, 26 April 2001
The Third World Debt Crisis: Facts and Myths
Many poor countries are using new loans to pay off the old. Among the poorest countries (GNP per capita less than $885 a year) in 1999, of every dollar received in
new loans, 83 cents went right back to pay old ones. The need for foreign exchange has spurred export-oriented mining, logging and agriculture in
developing countries. Several studies have found statistical links between high debt burdens and deforestation. In Cameroon, Tanzania, and Zambia, debt crisis forced
governments to cut funding for environmental agencies in the 1980s and early 1990s.
If we take all the well-intentioned rhetoric of the IMF and the World Bank and set it aside, what we see is basically nothing more than a college student credit card scam.
With this scam, the credit card companies give students who have little or no income to show for themselves credit cards with generous limits.
The students then run up the cards and come graduation day, find themselves saddled with large student loans in addition to their horrifically expensive consumer debt balances.
Like drug dealers who linger around schoolyards passing out free samples of crack cocaine to grade school children, the credit card companies sink their
teeth into the futures of unsuspecting college students, desperate to feel some sense financial empowerment.
Ina manner similar to the way the tobacco companies urge teenagers not to smoke until they're legally old enough to buy cigarettes, credit card
companies dutifully lecture the indebted students on the prudent use of credit cards. However, several exorbitant late payment fees, not to mention the
long-term punitive interest rates they also hit them with usually accompany those lectures. This is what they call the "wax on, wax off" path to financial enlightenment.
Call it what you may, but for the students who will spend the next ten years of their lives paying for the same pair of shoes they only wore once, the whole
thing represents nothing more than sheer, unmitigated exploitation.
On a grander scale, this is essentially what the IMF and the World Bank do to 3rd world nations, but instead of usurious credit card debts, these debts really constitute a mild form of colonialism.
The money is loaned to the nation, but it mostly lines the pockets of thieves leaving the people of the nation saddled with huge international
debts. Consequently, their only way to stay afloat is do what the IMF and World Bank dictate as the terms of their rollover loans, and to sell their natural
resources to IMF and World Bank member states at colonial prices. The problem is that this doesn't keep these countries from further sacrifices, since
money that could be used to pay for health care facilities is often used to make interest payments to 1st world bankers.
This is one of the principal reasons why, while America is admired and envied by other nations, only America loves America.
 Also, this is why tens of thousands of people take to the streets at
each meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
During the November 1999 WTO meeting in the Seattle, 50,000 protestors expressed their feelings about how the WTO will only codify this brutal form of heavy-handed international capitalism.
Keep in mind the activists are not against a one-world government despite the demeaning reports generated by the mainstream corporate press. Rather,
their message that free trade is not fair trade. All they want is a more compassionate world and for this they are labeled anarchists.
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