Taxpayers bail out large banks, banks and others use money to expand overseas...
Measured in euros, U.S. per capita GDP is down 25% since 2000. Bond buyer Bill Gross of the Pimco fund summed up the situation nicely in a recent CNBC interview. Asked whether low interest rates will weaken the dollar, the influential allocator of global capital said: "I think that's part of the administration's plan. It's obviously not announced—the 'strong dollar' is always the policy, so to speak. One of the ways a country gets out from under its debt burden is to devalue."
Investors have been playing this weak-dollar trade for years, diverting more and more dollars into commodities, foreign currencies and foreign stock markets. This is the Third-World way of asset allocation.
Corporations play this game for bigger stakes, borrowing billions in dollars to expand their foreign businesses. As the pound slid in the 1950s and '60s and the British Empire crumbled, the corporations that prospered were the ones that borrowed pounds aggressively in order to expand abroad. Though British equities rose in pound terms, they generally underperformed gold and foreign equities. At the end of empire, the giant sucking sound was from British capital and jobs moving offshore as the pound sank.
When will Congress, the White House, Treasury and Federal Reserve stop printing money?
Is all this debt and collapse for business expansion overseas? Taxpayers and Main Street to bear this burden for generations?
The State of Illinois' pile of unpaid bills has grown to a record-breaking $3 billion. The comptroller reported corporate income tax receipts down $77 million for July through September; sales tax receipts, down $244 million; personal income tax receipts, down $251 million.
It appears destined for a taxpayer bailout in the next 24 to 36 months,” said Edward Pinto, a consultant who was chief credit officer from 1987 to 1989 for Fannie Mae.
After three years of major increases in federal Pell grants for needy college students, President Obama aims to boost the aid further with $40 billion in funding over the next decade. But even that influx might not ensure that the grants will recover and sustain the purchasing power they once held.
Experts agree on the reason: soaring college costs.
In the late 1970s, the maximum Pell award covered more than two-thirds of tuition and fees for a public four-year university. In the 1980s, it covered roughly half of such expenses. In the last school year, it covered about a third.
What is Obama doing to slow down education expenses? Throwing gas on the fire? Encourage colleges and universities to use their endowments? Billions?
"The credit crisis has forged an even larger gap between the rich and poor, though it might not last for long," writes Ian Mathias in today's issue of The 5. "The richest 10% of Americans made at least $138,000 each this year, according to Census data released last week. That's a record high 11.4 times the average income for the opposite end of the spectrum: the poverty line around $12,000. Pre-crisis multiples were closer to 11.2.
Why do Obama's rich folks seem to start at $250,000?
The elitists, by way of the G-20 and G-7 have let us know that the new reserve currency will be the SDR, Special Drawing Right, another fiat currency issued by the IMF. Of course, it is also the intention that SDR’s will replace gold and silver as money as well. What this means is that the US and other nations will be stripped of their sovereignty. The Fed and the G-20 believe raising interest rates will stop the rise of gold. They are wrong. If you look at higher rates you will see that gold rallies up to a certain point and then stops climbing higher after we are about 80% into the rise. The flip side is the higher rates in this case, as in 1981 to 1983, the economy collapses. Today it means the collapse of the entire system and depression for years to come. The Illuminists won’t do that until they have too, or are forced too. Central banks have always hated gold. It makes them honest and keeps them from creating endless money and credit. The bottom line is the price of gold will go much higher and the dollar will collapse and they know that.
read more here -
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15617Some folks are nation builders and leave things better than they found them.
What did Obama make better in Illinois? Schools? Healthcare? Finances?
