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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Robin Plunder who wrote (101744)	2/28/2009 2:42:36 PM
From: zamboz	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 110194

Robin, I have been viewing the derivatives as the 800 lb gorilla in the room. Perhaps the fiat money elephant trumps it. Tomasso posted a great chart this morning that supports your point rather eloquently. I cannot believe I am the only one to rec it. Message 25452461 I have assumed a return to the gold standard is impossible. My guess is that mainstream economists from Volcker to Geithner do not support it. Whatever is right, they are trying the stimulus first. It has always worked in the past. Things might be very different this time. Doing the stimulus probably has to happen. My very humble guess is it would take a bunch of pain to get us back to the gold standard. Probably a default on debt. IMHO. Rick

To: Robin Plunder who wrote (101744)	3/1/2009 4:11:24 PM
From: Cactus Jack	Respond to of 110194

like almost all of our other officials, he ignores the elephant in the room, ie, the fact that we created fiat money when we abandoned the gold standard, unleashing exponential growth in debt...and they will not admit this, and address the root of the problem because they want to maintain and expand government power Bingo. jpg

To: Robin Plunder who wrote (101744)	3/1/2009 4:18:24 PM
From: Broken_Clock	3 Recommendations Respond to of 110194

One way to understand this is the enormous need for new cash infusions to feed a financial superstructure that was voracious in its demand for new money capital, which it needed to leverage still more piling up of debt and financial speculation. Insurance companies, real estate, and mutual funds all provided infusions into this financial superstructure, as did the state. All limits were removed. Under these circumstances workers were encouraged to use their houses like piggy banks to finance consumption, credit cards were handed out to teenagers, subprime loans were pushed on those with little ability to pay. Individual retirement packages were shifted toward IRAs that were tied into the speculative financial system. This had all the signs of an addictive system. In these circumstances, too, the real economy, particularly production of goods and manufacturing, was decimated. In the introduction to The Great Financial Crisis we include a chart covering the period since 1960 showing production of goods as a percentage of GDP in a slow, long-term decline, while debt as a percentage of GDP is skyrocketing over the same period. All of this meant a massive redistribution away from working people to capital, and to those at the pinnacle of the financial pyramid. globalresearch.ca