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Strategies & Market Trends : The coming US dollar crisis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Real Man who wrote (16531)	1/22/2009 8:01:35 AM
From: Box-By-The-Riviera™	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71456

Play Video Economy Video: Treasury nominee on policy change BBC Related Quotes Symbol Price Change ^DJI 8,228.10 +279.01 ^GSPC 840.24 0.00 ^IXIC 1,507.07 0.00 REYKJAVIK, Iceland – Police used tear gas to break up an angry protest outside Iceland's parliament early Thursday, and two officers were hospitalized after being hit by rocks, the force said. It was the first time the country's police had used tear gas in more than half a century, and came as demonstrators mount increasingly violent protests against a government they blame for leading once-prosperous Iceland into economic ruin. Demonstrators, banging pots and honking horns, have gathered outside Reykjavik's tiny parliament building since lawmakers returned from their winter break Tuesday Reykjavik police chief Stefan Eiriksson said about 2,000 protesters surrounded the building late Wednesday, and some hurled fireworks, shoes, toilet paper, rocks and paving stones at the building and its police guard. He said police tried to disperse a hard core of a few hundred protesters with pepper spray before using tear gas early Thursday. "We had to take action to split up the people and try to avoid further damage and injuries to the police," he said. "This was our last resort." Witnesses said some demonstrators tried to stop others from throwing rocks at police. Two police officers were hospitalized. One was released Thursday and the other remained in the hospital in stable condition, Eiriksson said. There were no arrests. Demonstrators also surrounded the car of Prime Minister Geir Haarde, pelting it with eggs and soda cans. Haarde's spokesman, Kristjan Kristjansson, said the prime minister was shaken but unhurt. Iceland's banks collapsed in last fall under the weight of huge debts amassed during years of rapid economic growth. The country's currency has plummeted, while inflation and unemployment are soaring. A series of angry protests outside government buildings since October have drawn crowds of thousands of people, in a country of just 320,000. They are demanding the government resign and call elections. Haarde has insisted his coalition government will not step down. By law he does not need to call elections until 2011. But the government could fall if the Social Democratic Alliance, partner to Haarde's Independence Party, withdraws its support. At a meeting Wednesday, the party's Reykjavik chapter called on the party to sever its alliance with the Independence Party and trigger elections by May. "The government has been of the opinion that it would be irresponsible to run away from the problems," said Kristjansson, the prime minister's spokesman. "That position has not changed, but of course protests and opposition do not make things easier" Police chief Eiriksson said the protests were expected to continue, and he could not rule out more violence. "This is a new situation," he said. "But everything is changing in Iceland."

To: Real Man who wrote (16531)	1/23/2009 2:07:10 AM
From: Gary Mohilner	Respond to of 71456

Vi, I still don't believe there's an accounting for all the slippage in the value of real estate and stock. I'm not talking about printed money, I'm speaking of the value placed in these things which has been lost. When a stock with a billion shares outstanding goes up $10, $10B in currency isn't created, but essentially the worth of all the shareholders on that day increased by $10B. We now have many stocks that at one time traded for tens to hundreds of dollars which now trade for pennies, if they trade at all. In many cases they're such big companies that many did have hundreds of millions to billions of shares outstanding. I don't believe the current accounting properly takes into account all these losses, nor did it properly show the bubble being created by all the gains previously. Gary