The suspense is killing me.
"Recession fears pound stocks; Weak US economic growth, worldwide debt concerns send major indexes reeling" August 05, 2011|By Steven Syre, Globe Staff
The stock market plunged by more than 4 percent yesterday in its worst day in more than two years and investors flooded safe-haven investment alternatives, driven by escalating fears the wobbly global economy may stumble into a new recession....
We never left the old one, which means this period will now be known in history books as the Grand Depression.
Yesterday was the eighth day in nine trading sessions that stock prices have declined, and the Dow has now exceeded the 10-percent drop from recent highs that mark a so-called “market correction,’’ signaling a shift in investors’ sentiment that the immediate economic future is worsening....
Investors have been spooked by a series of reports and events - beginning last Friday - that undermined the once widely held view the US economy was in recovery mode from the recent recession and poised to grow at a faster pace through the second half of the year. That early outlook had served as the basis for everything from stock market values to business plans to political campaign strategies.
Translation: You were lied to.
But a much different picture has emerged in the past few days: economic growth so anemic that the once-distant thoughts of another recession now don’t seem so far-fetched.
Meanwhile, people like me who were screaming it two years ago were called crazy!
Last Friday, the government reported that the nation’s gross domestic product grew at a slower-than-expected pace during the second quarter and also sharply revised its previous report on growth in the first three months of 2011. Additional economic reports that followed showed output from factories and service businesses, and consumer spending had all turned sluggish in July....
Translation: You were lied to.
And CUI BONO?
One feature of the current market downturn is the extreme measures investors are willing to take to safeguard their money in such a volatile time - including the extraordinary step of paying a bank to take their money.
Un-flipping-real!
Yesterday Bank of New York Mellon Corp. said it would begin charging a fee to some institutional clients for “extraordinarily high’’ cash deposits.
Well, I won't have to worry about that, but WHAT A BUNCH of GREEDY SCUM!!!
Looks like the DRUG-DEALING GOVERNMENT is going to get GOUGED on its DRUG-LAUNDERING!
The move follows a flood of withdrawals from money market mutual funds - more than $100 billion over a recent one-week period - as investors and corporations appeared to be putting that cash into banks....
Yeah,moving it the other way is the way you lose all your savings. Just ask an Icelander.
--more--"
"US credit rating downgraded; Plan to cut nation’s debt falls short, S&P says; reduction - a first - eclipses upbeat jobs report" August 06, 2011|By Todd Wallack, Globe Staff
A major rating agency last night downgraded the nation’s credit for the first time in history, after a wild day on Wall Street that saw stocks swing from triple-digit gains to triple-digit losses and back into positive territory as investors weighed the strongest US job gains in months against debt problems here and in Europe.
The downgrade could, over the long term, raise borrowing costs for the US government, as well as for consumers and businesses.
WHY?
See: The AAA Scam
Well, it LOWERED RATES for CORPORATIONS!
WTF?
Standard & Poor’s said it lowered the nation’s credit rating to AA+ from AAA because political leaders have yet to develop a credible plan to reduce the nation’s $14 trillion debt, despite the recent deal to raise the debt ceiling and cut spending.
“The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government’s medium-term debt dynamics,’’ S&P said in a statement yesterday.
Who cares what these guys say? They branded MBS turds as AAA!
The downgrade, which came after stock markets closed, provided an emphatic counterpoint to a report by the Labor Department that US employers added 117,000 jobs in July, significantly more than the 46,000 in June and 53,000 in May. The unemployment rate improved slightly to 9.1 percent last month from 9.2 percent in June.
The Dow Jones industrial average, which plunged more than 500 points Thursday, jumped when markets opened yesterday on the employment report; nosedived as investors shifted their focus to the European debt crisis and underlying weakness of the US economy; and rebounded again to close higher on news that Italy took steps to resolve its debt problems. The Dow finished the day at 11,445, up 61 points....
The lowering of the country’s rating could rattle confidence and raise borrowing costs for the government and consumers, impeding the already fragile recovery. The federal government makes about $250 billion in interest payments a year. So even a small increase in the rates demanded by investors in United States debt could add tens of billions of dollars to those payments.
Related:
"Interest on the national debt rose 9 percent to $386 billion in the first nine months of this year"
What could YOU DO with $500 BILLION, readers?
Still, after several days of bad news and disappointing economic data, the July employment numbers were a relief....
Yeah, telling myself SELF-DELUDING LIES always makes me feel better!
Some financial executives said improving unemployment numbers could help squelch fears that the economy is sliding back into recession.....
Until the REVISED DOWNGRADE next month!
--more--"
"Investors fear hard-won gains could vanish again" August 06, 2011|By Erin Ailworth and Todd Wallack, Globe Staff
Tracy Sherman of Plymouth has plenty of reasons to be stressed about the financial markets’ swoon of the last two weeks, starting with a 12-year-old daughter who already talks about one day attending Harvard University, and a 10-year-old son who could also have expensive educational aspirations.
Like other individual investors here and across the nation, she says her confidence in her family’s ability to save for college tuition and retirement has been rattled, first by the logjam in Congress over raising the debt ceiling and now by the gloomy trend and wild turns in US and world financial markets....
Most money managers this week were advising clients to sit tight and keep their portfolios intact. It’s the long-term view typically recommended during times likes these.
Watching money evaporate is fun!
“Being reactionary is not a good thing,’’ said Michael Tucci, president of Lexington Wealth Management, an advisory firm with offices in Lexington and New York City. “You read Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ and you read about the beautiful sirens and when they start singing you want to jump into the sea. So we talk [to our clients] about the idea of, ‘Hey, tie me to the mast so that when that happens, I don’t jump.’ ’’
Unless there is a CALL for WAR!!
At Reynders, McVeigh Capital Management LLC, company president Patrick McVeigh said he is telling clients to stick with their long-term plans - but to also keep an eye out for deals.
“It’s a rational thing to be scared, especially with what we just went through with the [possible debt] default,’’ McVeigh said. But “sometimes the best opportunities are when things don’t feel good.’’
Like 9/11? So who is short-selling this time?
--more--"
"Treasury official faults credit rating downgrade; Says S&P made calculation error of $2 trillion" August 07, 2011|By Ian Katz, Bloomberg News
WASHINGTON - With the lending crisis of 2008 still in mind, some critics raised questions about S&P’s actions.
“I find it interesting to see S&P so vigilant now in downgrading the US credit rating,’’ Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, said yesterday. “Where were they four years ago?’’
Standard & Poor’s defended its decision, saying it downgraded the credit rating because it believes the US will keep having problems getting its finances under control.
S&P officials said it was the months of haggling in Congress over budget cuts that led it to take the action, not just deficit projections.
David Beers, global head of sovereign ratings at S&P, said the agency was concerned about the “degree of uncertainty around the political policy process. The nature of the debate and the difficulty in framing a political consensus … that was the key consideration.’’
S&P was looking for $4 trillion in budget cuts over 10 years. The deal that passed Congress Tuesday would bring $2.1 trillion to $2.4 trillion in cuts over that time.
It is concerned that lawmakers and the administration might fail to make those cuts because Democrats and Republicans are divided over how to implement them. Republicans are refusing to raise taxes in any deficit-cutting deal while Democrats are fighting to protect entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
Look, they are NOT ENTITLEMENTS! They are TRUST FUNDS that have ALREADY BEEN PAID INTO!!
You know, WHEN is the LYING and DISTORTION going to STOP, crap AmeriKan media!!?
The S&P downgrade doesn’t apply to short-term Treasurys - bonds that mature in a year or less - only to long-term government debt. That means the downgrade shouldn’t rattle money market funds that invest in short-term Treasurys, analysts said.
However, the downgrade could hurt the president and members of Congress politically by fueling economic uncertainty and wounding national pride, even if the effect on interest rates is limited, analysts said.
My pride is already wounded because of the mass-murdering wars based on lies and the war-criminal torture resulting from such. I could care less about what some thieving ratings agency working for banks says.
Obama was spending the weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat in the Maryland mountains....
Oh, I hope is having a nice time as the country collapses.
--more--"
Or not?
"Countries unlikely to dump holdings" August 07, 2011|By Christopher Anstey, Bloomberg News
TOKYO - Asian states and Russia are expected to retain their US Treasury holdings as European governments expressed confidence in the world’s largest economy despite the decision by Standard & Poor’s to cut the US credit rating.
Then what's with all the crisis crap, corporate media?
For all the angst, policy makers from China to Japan to Southeast Asia are drawn to the holdings as a result of efforts to stem gains in their currencies against the dollar, which would impair export competitiveness.
Asia accounts for about half of foreign-owned US debt and China is the largest individual foreign holder, according to Treasury data.
Chinese officials are concerned that its substantial holdings of US debt, worth at least $1.16 trillion, are being devalued, but analysts said China has few options other than to continue buying US government bonds.
China’s official Xinhua News Agency said the United States must cure its addiction to borrowing.
We would need to end the empire then.
“The US government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone,’’ read the commentary, which was published in Chinese newspapers.
Not if you are a banker getting a bonus on Wall Street.
Trade and current account surpluses have helped China accumulate the vast foreign exchange reserves. It has invested much of those reserves in US bonds, largely because the US market has long been considered the safest and most liquid bond market in the world.
Analysts said China could also buy bonds in the European and Japanese markets but that those two markets are not big or liquid enough to absorb its exchange reserves....
Russia considers US debt reliable and will not review its policy of investing in the country, Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said yesterday, adding that the credit rating downgrade “can be ignored’’ for long-term investment strategy. Russia is one of the 10 largest foreign holders of US government debt.
Japan, the second-largest international investor in American government debt, sees no problem with trust in the securities, a Japanese government official said on condition of anonymity.
South Korean officials put the S&P downgrade on the agenda of an emergency meeting on global turmoil.
With Europe battling its debt crisis, France joined the Obama administration in questioning S&P’s reasoning.
In the United Kingdom, the world’s third-largest foreign holder of US debt, Business Secretary Vince Cable said the dollar is “the key international currency’’ in the short run.
But longer?
“Although the American legislators made a terrible mess of things a few weeks ago, they have now got things back on track and undertaken to manage their debt in a prudent way,’’ Cable said in an interview with the BBC.
End the wars.
Financial officials from the Group of Seven industrialized nations will hold a conference call on how to coordinate action among their countries’ central banks.
That is HOW WE GOT in this MESS!
Many economists see the world’s big central banks as the last line of defense in the worldwide debt crisis, after policy makers in Europe and the United States failed to agree on the kind of moves that many investors demand.
Yeah, banks are your friend.
Because they have the power to increase the money supply, many central banks around the world have intervened in bond and currency markets in recent years in an effort to shore up their countries’ struggling economies.
Yeah, LET THOSE PRINTING PRESSES ROLL so those PIECES of PAPER are worth even less!!
--more--"
"Anxiety shakes global markets; Officials trying to allay fears over US credit, European debt crisis" by Megan Woolhouse, Globe Staff / August 8, 2011
Government leaders around the world scrambled yesterday to head off a spreading European debt crisis that, paired with last week’s unprecedented downgrade of the US credit rating, threatened already wavering investor confidence and global financial stability.
Anxiety about the US and international economies intensified over the weekend after rating agency Standard & Poor’s on Friday night lowered the US credit rating to AA+ from AAA, heightening concerns about the nation’s mountainous debt and political inability to control it.
US stock futures fell sharply in Asian trading, an indication of another sell-off when US markets open this morning....
Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve chairman, said yesterday that he did not think global fears would force the US economy into another recession, but predicted stocks would continue their decline, despite statements by an S&P official that the drop in credit rating would have little impact.
“Considering the momentum in which the market went down over the last week, it is very unlikely, if history is any guide, that this isn’t going to take a while to bottom out,’’ Greenspan said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.’’
Why would anyone listen to that lying s***-bag? I'm glad I no longer watch those Sunday shows.
********************
Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven, an organization of leading industrialized nations, including the United States, held hastily arranged conference calls yesterday and issued a statement pledging to take “all necessary measures to support financial stability and growth’’ in an effort to bolster confidence.
Nigel Gault, IHS Global Insight chief US economist, said yesterday that the European Central Bank’s decision was a positive development, helping to tamp down the possibility of a global financial meltdown.
At least we averted catastrophe because of the bank bailouts!
The danger is the result of European government debt held by European banks, which conduct business with banks around the world. If governments default, the impact could cascade through the financial system.
“If European banks are in trouble, then US banks who have dealings with those banks are also threatened,’’ Gault said. “You have the potential for a Lehman Brothers-type ripple effect through the financial markets. It’s the stability of the global banking system that’s at stake with the shock emanating from Europe, whereas last time it emanated from the US.’’
You know, with the FOOD and other difficulties GLOBALISM is REALLY STARTING TO LOOK like a REAL SHITTY DEAL!!
He added that a failure to make debt progress in Europe could force the US economy to tumble back into recession....
Yeah, GLOBALISM STINKS!!
Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard economics professor, said even a one-tenth of a percentage point increase in interest rates would cost the federal government an extra $15 billion....
Of course, the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT in that case is YOU, taxpayers!
The US debt downgrade could pose another hurdle for battered state and local governments, increasing borrowing costs at a time of fiscal strain for municipal governments.
But when corporations are dropped their payments go down?
Fifteen states could lose their AAA rating, including Maryland, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia because of the US downgrade.
Massachusetts has an S&P rating of AA, two notches below AAA, because of its high debt burden....
What?
We are paying MORE to BANKS and "investors" than most?
--more--"
Also see:
Scientists worry debt deal could hinder research
Related:
"Lobbyists scrambled yesterday to figure out how to influence the new panel to protect the programs and tax breaks from which they benefit. Military contractors and health care lobbyists were particularly active, as they have the most to fear....
Yeah, right, lobbyists have the most to fear. Sigh.
--more--"
"Kerry faults Tea Party in US credit rating drop" by Theo Emery, Globe Staff / August 8, 2011
WASHINGTON - Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts has not been immune from criticism during the debate. Republicans in Massachusetts accused him of hypocrisy for supporting the increase after voting against doing so during George W. Bush’s presidency. Kerry’s office has said that he supported increases most of the time and has never opposed it when there was a default risk, and that his votes against raising the limit in 2006 and 2007 were in protest of White House policy....
Isn't that what Tea Party is?
Guy is f***ing unreal!
He was for it before he was against it.
--more--"
Related:
"Forty percent of those polled in a New York Times/CBS News Poll this week characterized their view of the Tea Party movement as “not favorable,’’ compared to 18 percent the first time the poll asked the question, in April 2010 (NYT)."
Proving demonizing propaganda from an agenda-pushing media still works on 'murkns.
Did you hear something, readers?
