Peak Oil: Richard Branson warns that oil crunch is coming by 2015…
Posted: 02/08/2010 11:19:33
(guardian.co.uk) Sir Richard Branson and fellow leading businessmen will warn ministers this week that the world is running out of oil and faces an oil crunch within five years. The founder of the Virgin group, whose rail, airline and travel companies are sensitive to energy prices, will say that the coming crisis could be even more serious than the credit crunch.
Yellen, 63, would replace Donald Kohn, a 40-year Fed veteran who resigned last week effective June 23. Yellen, who served as President Bill Clinton’s chief economist in the 1990s, said last month that the U.S. economy "still needs the support of extraordinarily low" interest rates. She would gain a permanent vote on monetary policy, instead of having a vote one year out of every three as a regional Fed chief.
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. consumer sentiment dipped in early March, according to media reports on Friday of the Reuters/University of Michigan index. Amid signs that the labor market is approaching a trough but remains frail, the consumer sentiment index declined to 72.5 in March from 73.6 in February. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had been expecting the sentiment index to hit 74 in March.
Among other things, excessive monetary inflation means that the US dollar cannot function as a store of value. Mounting evidence points to systemic instability, a lower US dollar and ultimately to a hyperinflationary outcome:
Sixteen months after they were seized to prevent their collapse, the companies remain wards of the state, running a tab that has now exceeded $125 billion in what has become the single costliest component of the federal bailout for the financial system.
Financial Chaos – probably in many nations in the next five years. Increasingly often, people ask my opinion on what is likely to happen financially. I am now thinking that the dangers are more numerous and larger than ever before in my lifetime. Quite likely, in the early months of 2005, the peak of prosperity is behind us.
In the past century, protection could be obtained by keeping your net worth in cash or government bonds. Now, the surplus capacities are so great that most currencies and bonds are likely to continue losing their purchasing power.
WASHINGTON — Regulators on Thursday shut down LibertyPointe Bank in New York City, boosting to 27 the number of bank failures in the U.S. so far this year following the 140 brought down in 2009 by mounting loan defaults and the recession.
The US government economists and politicians aren't totally naïve; they know what they'll have to do to pull off a profit for the taxpayer, and they'll be willing to do it at any cost. Each recession the solution is the same: inflate yourself out of the problem. However, this time the problem is much bigger, and the solution is just as big. Protect yourself, your assets, and what you've worked so hard for. With inflation being assured, you'll want precious metals.
Gordon Gekko via ZeroHedge) Evidence seems to be mounting that we are headed towards some sort of implosion in the paper Gold market, and perhaps the currency/bond markets in general. Let’s take a look:
“Non-FDIC Insured Metals Select Changes” -
Section 6.3.7. General Terms: We have added language clarifying our right to close your account. We may close your Metals Select Account at anytime upon reasonable notice to you. If we believe that it is necessary to close your account immediately in order to limit losses by you or us[GG: We really don’t give a s**t about you; it’s us that we care about], we may close your account prior to providing notice to you. Notice from us to one of you is notice to all of you [GG: the nerve of these people!]. If we close your account, we reserve the right to convert your Precious Metals to U.S. dollars and tender the balance to you by mail [GG: I am willing to bet my entire Gold stash that when you receive these "converted" dollars, they will be nowhere near the market price of physical. What did you think that whole "limit losses" thing meant?] .
While the world's largest economy - the United States - struggles to stem the bleeding of jobs in its ailingeconomy, its biggest creditor - China - has been quietly increasing its gold reserves in an apparent effort to hedge the weakening value of the US dollar and stabilize the value of its massive foreign exchange (forex) reserves.
Reality: On a net net basis (while surely *some* Americans are paying off some debt) almost the entire total of "paid down" debt was simply banks finally writing off unpaid debts as never to be collected.
The global economy is entering a next "supercycle" phase that will generate inflation necessary for recovery, a strategist and protege of noted economist Nouriel Roubini told CNBC.
Governments may have to raise taxes and slash spending to cope with swelling deficits after borrowing unprecedented amounts to stave off the global financial crisis, said El-Erian, 51, who shares his job title with Bill Gross. A failure to carry out fiscal measures in time would raise the possibility of governments seeking to eliminate excessive debt through inflation or default, he said.
The gold price has an eerie sense of stabilty about it, a false stability in my view. Absolutely nothing has changed in the global pursuit of ruinous monetary inflation, as all Western currencies are fatally damaged. The monetary growth is at full throttle. Estimates for USGovt deficits are periodically being revised upward.
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Commercial real estate owners are walking away from properties that have become untenable as investments, just as homeowners have walked away from houses they can no longer afford to pay off or sell.
The BLS has released the January state unemployment update: the unemployment rate increased in 30 states, while somehow nonfarm payrolls increased in 31 states.
