Category: Great Depression II
The analysis published under this category are as follows.Friday, November 18, 2011
Darkest Days" for the U.S. Economy Behind Us, or Just Ahead? / Economics / Great Depression II
Many people still talk about a "recovery," or at worst only see a possible double-dip recession. But what if the mistake was to think the economy was only in a recession in the first place? It can't "double-dip" when it never truly recovered:
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Friday, November 11, 2011
Gold Thoughts on Bursting Sovereign Debt Bubble and Keynesian Super Recession / Economics / Great Depression II
Rarely does one live through great events. Mostly we read about them in history books. But, we are today witnessing the bursting of the greatest bubble of all time. This is the big one. More than 70 years in the making, it was inevitable. Was it popular alchemy or just another case of junk science from academia?To prepare your thinking for surviving this momentous event consider the following headlines from tomorrow¹:
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Tuesday, November 08, 2011
America's First Deflationary Depression: Is a Bigger One Ahead? / Economics / Great Depression II
Don't blame Martin Van Buren for America's first deflationary depression. Social mood rode higher in the saddle than did our 8th President, who only stood 5' 6".
Elected in 1836, by the time Van Buren assumed office in March 1837 a speculative bubble had burst and a banking crisis was at hand (sound familiar?) -- the national mood had turned south and the "Panic of 1837" followed. Van Buren was known as "The Little Magician," but he could not pull an economic recovery out of the hat. He met defeat seeking a second term.
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Tuesday, October 18, 2011
U.S. Economy Operating in Midst of a Long-term Slump, Depression / Economics / Great Depression II
Dr. Lacy Hunt and Van Hoisington of Hoisington Investment Management write a "Quarterly Review and Outlook" that is a must-read for me. This quarter they focus on US monetary policy, noting that "After peaking at 1.69 in the second quarter of 2010, M2 velocity declined for four consecutive quarters, and we estimate that a major contraction in velocity to 1.59 is likely for the third quarter." (I mentioned the importance of the velocity of money in judging inflation vs. deflation prospects in this week's e-letter, too.)
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Friday, October 14, 2011
This Recession May Be Worse Than the Great Depression / Economics / Great Depression II
“It is difficult to make any kind of forecasts with any great degree of confidence. In my area it’s got to the point where it’s very hard to say anything... but you’ve got to take a view, that’s what you’re paid for.”
According to a recent CNN report, the above quote was provided by a U.K. financial equity analyst with Oriel Securities. That statement is emblematic of how the financial industry has metastasized into a pathological cancer that mostly transferred and decimated wealth and value, rather than creating it.
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Tuesday, October 11, 2011
How Long Will This Economic Depression Last? Five Key Data Points That Can’t Be Ignored / Economics / Great Depression II
Living within the realm of a 24 hour news cycle can often make it seem like things really are getting better. On any given day a particular company may report better than expected earnings, the Dow Jones may rise 250 points, and a few thousands more workers than expected were hired into private sector jobs. As a result, we receive a string of positive assessments on the economy, despite the fact that just one day prior we may have had central bankers and IMF advisors suggesting a depressionary collapse was all but inevitable.
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Tuesday, October 11, 2011
AVA Investment Analytics Global Economic Analysis / Economics / Great Depression II
The incompetency of Washington was most recently demonstrated by the debt ceiling drama. Now the dog-and-pony show staged by the ECB, EU and IMF has added to waning consumer and investor sentiment across the globe to create a crisis in confidence. The timing of this charade could not have been worse, as this unnecessary turn of events has hit the global economy during a period when it was predetermined to weaken on its own force due to the depletion of stimulus funds. As a result of these seemingly intentional destructive actions, most of the economic gains made as the result of tax subsidies and bailout funds since the financial crisis of 2008 have been erased.
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Saturday, September 24, 2011
World is Edging Towards Global Depression, Give Collapse a Chance / Economics / Great Depression II
A big sell-off yesterday. The Dow down 283 points. The 10-year T-note yields only 1.87%. And the price of gold barely budged.
In our opinion all three should be going down. Because the world is edging towards a global depression…
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Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Bernanke's Economic Hubris Leads to Depression / Economics / Great Depression II
Grasping for reasons why his multiple QEs and Fed balance-sheet-bursting policies haven't spurred economic activity, Dr. Bernanke posited a new diagnosis last week in Minneapolis. "Consumers are depressed beyond reason or expectation," the New York Times paraphrased the Fed chief as saying.
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Saturday, August 20, 2011
How To Prepare for Economic Depression / Stock-Markets / Great Depression II
The week of August 15 was one of the most volatile stock market performances in years. Negative news about the global economy, gloomy forecasts and mixed signals on the jobs front battered stocks and sent gold repeatedly above $1,800/ounce. The Gold Report asked an analyst, two newsletter writers and an economist the following: What should be a precious metals investor's next move?
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Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Krugman's War Cry Won't Avert Economic Depression / Economics / Great Depression II
Paul Krugman sounded the war cry this Sunday on Fareed Zakaria's program Global Public Square. After all, he asserted, only spending equivalent to another World War could lead us back to prosperity. That, and a healthy dose of inflation.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, August 01, 2011
The Great Correction: 4 Years…and Counting…Still No Economic Recovery in Sight / Economics / Great Depression II
I’m glad to be the last speaker. Nobody can come after me and tell you why I’m wrong about everything. Instead, I get to tell you why the other speakers were numbskulls. Besides, we all have a tendency to be most influenced by the last person we talk to. Or at least I do.
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Sunday, July 31, 2011
U.S. Economy Failure to Recover Triggers Economic Armageddon / Politics / Great Depression II
As the second decade of the 21st century began, the US economy had not recovered from the Great Recession that began in December 2007.
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Friday, July 22, 2011
The Never-Ending Economic Depression , Recovery Only If We Repudiate the Debt / Economics / Great Depression II
Economics Professor: "[We’ll Have] a Never-Ending Depression Unless We Repudiate the Debt, Which Never Should Have Been Extended In The First Place" Economists: The Economy Can Only Recover If We Repudiate the Debt
Leading Austrian-school economist Murray Rothbard - an American - wrote in 1992:
Read full article... Read full article...I propose ... out-right debt repudiation. Consider this question: why should the poor, battered citizens of Russia or Poland or the other ex-Communist countries be bound by the debts contracted by their former Communist masters? In the Communist situation, the injustice is clear: that citizens struggling for freedom and for a free-market economy should be taxed to pay for debts contracted by the monstrous former ruling class. But this injustice only differs by degree from "normal" public debt. For, conversely, why should the Communist government of the Soviet Union have been bound by debts contracted by the Czarist government they hated and overthrew? And why should we, struggling American citizens of today, be bound by debts created by a ... ruling elite who contracted these debts at our expense?
Sunday, July 17, 2011
The Great Global Debt Depression: It's All Greek To Me / Economics / Great Depression II
In late June of 2011, the Greek government passed another round of austerity measures, ostensibly aimed at getting Greece “back on track” to economic progress, but in reality, implementing a systematic program of ‘social genocide’ in the name of servicing an endless and illegitimate debt to foreign banks. Right on cue, protests and riots broke out in Athens against the draconian measures, and the state moved in to do what states do best: oppress the people with riot police, tear gas and bashing batons, leaving roughly 300 people injured.
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Thursday, July 14, 2011
The Greater Economic Depression Is Upon Us / Economics / Great Depression II
The phrase “Greater Depression” was coined by Doug Casey a decade or so back as a way of describing the economic crisis he foresaw as inevitable, and which is now materializing.
Because I think it is important for every organization to constantly challenge its own assumptions, I’ve long acted as something of a devil’s advocate here at Casey Research. By constantly pushing our analysts to revisit their assumptions and calculations, it is my firm intention for us to spot the fork in the road that indicates it is time to shift strategies away from investments designed to do well in the face of a currency debasement and to something else.
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Monday, July 11, 2011
Main Street America's Great Depression Continues / Economics / Great Depression II
Friday's jobs report threw more cold water on so-called recovery. Since 2008, Main Street America's been in Depression.
Conditions have worsened, not improved, because of force-fed austerity, not badly needed stimulus to create jobs, reemploy people, and revive real economic growth, not the illusory kind since the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) officially declared June 2009 the end of recession.
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Sunday, July 10, 2011
Abysmal June Employment Figures Warn of Great Depression Ahead / Economics / Great Depression II
The June Jobs numbers were horrendous, just like May's were, telling us the QE2 strategy of the Fed has failed, and the Central Planners' policy to keep taxes high, and not significantly cut them or rebate them has failed. There is so much focus on making sure the rich get properly taxed that true economic stimulus is paralyzed. QE was false economic stimulus. Trillions of new dollars were printed, however there was no effective delivery system in place to move that money to households, where the real economy begins. Wall Street got the cash, bid up the price of commodities with that cash, and inflation rose. That was about it.
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Monday, June 20, 2011
How An Economy Collapses / Economics / Great Depression II
Chris Martenson: Welcome to another ChrisMartenson.com podcast. I am Chris Martenson your host today as usual. Today we’re speaking with Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre author of Surviving the Economic Collapse. FerFAL experienced the hyperinflationary destruction of Argentina’s economy in 2001 and has since dedicated his professional career, like I have, to educating the public about his experiences and observations of its lingering aftermath. Given the rising concerns that we all have today about the future of fiat currencies, our listeners are increasingly asking to hear from voices that have firsthand experience with extreme currency devaluation, what it means, how it actually feels, how it plays out. So we’re very fortunate FerFAL is able to join us today from his home in Argentina. We’re going to be discussing the signs that preceded the collapse in his country and what has defined the society since, including smart moves to take if worried about a similar fate happened in one’s own country and how would you know where you are in the story as it unfolds. So FerFAL, we’re so glad to have you with us today.
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Friday, June 17, 2011
More Signs That Society Is Collapsing / Economics / Great Depression II
Economic Collapse writes: What we are now witnessing is the slow motion unraveling of America. Our economy is dying, the American people have lost faith in the government and in almost all of our other major institutions, and our society is collapsing. Most Americans don't understand why all of this is happening, but most of them do realize that something has fundamentally changed. Earlier this year, McDonald's held a "National Hiring Day" and a million Americans showed up to apply for jobs. Only 62,000 of them were hired. That means only 6.2% of the applicants got jobs. So what are we supposed to tell the 93.8% that didn't get hired? Are they supposed to have any hope for the future when they can't even get a minimum wage job at McDonald's? When I was a teenager, I went over to McDonald's one day, filled out an application and was instantly hired. My, how things have changed. Now we have millions upon millions of young people that are staring directly into a very bleak future. The level of frustration in this country is rising to frightening levels and large numbers of people are already showing that they will stoop to anything in order to survive.
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