Global Economic Crisis

To view the YouTube video overview of “Wall Street Kills,” click image below:

In the controversy over Iran’s nuclear program, Israel’s policy of claiming that an Iranian nuclear weapon represents an existential threat has prompted Teheran’s apologists to maintain that Israeli officials exaggerate the danger. In particular, these critics lambaste Israelis for comparing the theocratic clique running Teheran’s government with the regime of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany. Such comparisons, argue the critics, are mere hyperbole; the Iranian leaders are rational, and even if they build nuclear weapons (as most experts on nuclear non-proliferation believe is their aim), Iran’s rulers would only use a nuclear arsenal as a “deterrent,” and no other country, including Israel or the Sunni Muslim governments astride the Persian Gulf, need fear an Iranian nuclear attack.

The speech delivered at a recent anti-drug conference in Teheran by Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi, jointly sponsored by the United Nations and Iranian government, at which Western diplomats were present, appears to contradict the case for Iranian rationality being offered by the apologists for Iran’s ruling circles. In reporting on the anti-drug conference in Teheran, The New York Times, usually cautious in its headlines, had the following banner description for its report; “Iran’s Vice President Makes Anti-Semitic Speech At Forum.”  

Among the tidbits being offered by Vice President Rahimi, second only to President Ahmadinejad in the Iranian government hierarchy, to the stunned Western diplomats and even Iranian officials listening to his diatribe, was the claim that the drug trade was controlled by Jews and Zionists. As proof, Rahimi told the forum, “The Islamic Republic of Iran will pay for anybody who can research and find one single Zionist who is an addict…They do not exist. This is the proof of their involvement in drugs trade.”

The number two man in the Iranian government then went on to tell the supposed U.N. co-sponsored anti-drug conference that Jews and Zionists were responsible for the Russian Revolution of 1917, in which, according to Rahimi, not one Jew died.  For good measure, he also added that the Jewish religious text, the Talmud, is a racist document and that “Zionists” have ordered gynecologists to kill black babies.

The words that came out of the mouth of Iran’s vice president could have come from Nazi Germany’s propaganda minister Goebbels in 1938, or from a contemporary neo-Nazi hate pamphlet. That these words reflect the thinking of a top-level government official from a regime that appears to be seeking nuclear weapons capability, even in the face of international sanctions that are crippling to its citizens, should give all sensible people pause. Beyond the argument as to whether or not Iran’s rulers are rational, would allowing such a regime to possess nuclear weapons and the ballistic missiles that could deliver them to any target in the world really be a rational act on the part of the rest of the world?

“Wall Street Kills” presents an image of Wall Street tycoons and insiders whose greed leads to a willingness to do anything to achieve maximum returns on their investment, including murdering a female celebrity on the Internet.

A new novel by Sheldon Filger that presents a dark and shocking view of Wall Street greed that is pathologically out of control has been published.  “Wall Street Kills,” available in both  eBook and hard copy editions on Amazon.com, portrays the leading characters, primarily Wall Street insiders, as having a pathological drive for attaining vast profits, even if that means engaging in a shockingly brutal plot, in which the life of a celebrity woman must be sacrificed. Controversial themes explored in the novel include the exploitation of sexual violence against women for profit.

At the core of “Wall Street Kills” is an elaborate plot to kidnap a world famous female celebrity, and murder her in a theatrical spectacle that will broadcast over the Internet in real-time, available for viewing to anyone with a computer willing to pay the steep access fee. The secretive group of Wall Street investors behind the scheme seek to produce the ultimate snuff movie , convinced that they can achieve a massive return on their investment. A snuff movie is an erotic film in which one of the actors is actually killed in front of the camera, and has been the subject of urban myth and speculation for decades.

The author of “Wall Street Kills,” Sheldon Filger, is the founder of the popular website and blog, www.Global EconomicCrisis.com  and a blogger with the Huffington Post. His previous books include the nuclear terrorism novel, “King of Bombs” and “Global Economic Forecast 2010-2015: Recession Into Depression.”

Additional information on “Wall Street Kills” can be found on the book’s website on Amazon.com, http://www.amazon.com/WALL-STREET-KILLS-ebook/dp/B008E0OUWC/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1340644676&sr=1-1&keywords=wall+street+kills

As further proof of the continuing global economic and financial crisis, Moody’s cut the credit rating on fifteen major banks, including the most powerful investment bank in the world. The list included  Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America. The European Banks on Moody’s list included Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Barclays.

The Eurozone debt crisis, raging out of control, was clearly a  factor in the Moody’s downgrade. However, volatility and exposure to weak econometrics in the U.S. and China, questionable risk management and the negative outlook for profitability of these banking institutions amid the continuing  global economic crisis were also linked to the Moody’s downgrade. It should be recalled that since the crisis emerged, the ratings agencies have tended to be a lagging as opposed to a leading indicator of economic turmoil. It is likely that the financial risk to major banks is even worse than suggested by the most recent Mood’s downgrade.

Perhaps the greatest money printer in monetary history, Ben Bernanke, the iconic chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, has publically stated his revised, gloomy economic forecast for the United States. According to Bernanke, the Fed now projects GDP growth in 2012 of 2.4 percent, down from nearly 3 percent earlier in the year. This is stall speed GDP growth, despite being goosed by more than a trillion dollars of deficit spending by the Federal government in the current fiscal year, and a bucket load of monetary stimulus measures by the Federal Reserve.

What is Bernanke’s response? An extension of a program for swapping short term bond purchases for longer-termed bonds, with the bizarre name of “operation twist.” The name alone tells us how ridiculous the Fed has become under the tutelage of Ben Bernanke. The reality, as plain as daylight, is that without a heap of borrowed money and monetary gimmicks, the American economy would implode. Unfortunately, the measures adopted by Bernanke and other policymakers, which only succeed in kicking the can down the road a bit more, assure us that when the bill needs to be paid, the cost will be even more dear for the U.S. and global economy.

Only days after the bungling Eurozone politicians provided another one of their countless, debt-financed bailouts, with another promise that the Eurozone debt crisis was “permanently” solved and ring-fenced,  borrowing costs for Spain’s government have soared above the dangerous and unsustainable 7 percent level. In addition, Italy’s borrowing costs have increased to above 5 percent.

The bond vigilantes clearly have no confidence in the Eurozone political establishment. And with the next Greek election only days away, the shocks to the Eurozone system are far from over.  The Eurozone debt crisis, far from being contained, seems to be impregnable even to a shower of bailouts being thrown at it by helpless politicians.

The bungling politicians of the Eurozone have done it again; another bailout. This times it is Spain. Not the entire Spanish economy (which may come later, though the politicians swear that will never happen) but its insolvent banking sector. The Eurozone has agreed to allow Spain to borrow up to 100 billion euros from its bailout fund, a sum equivalent to about $125 billion USD, with supposedly no strings attached.

As they have done so often in the past, the political leaders in the Eurozone are praising themselves for their “brilliant” move of further indebtedness for the entire monetary union for supposedly, once again, “saving” the euro. And as has happened before, they will undoubtedly eat crow when the next bailout package is offered by these same inept politicos.

The “no strings attached” deal to save Spanish banks actually poses a serious problem. Ireland originally had a relatively stable fiscal situation until the bumbling politicians in Dublin foolishly decided to backstop their crumbling private banks with public funding, leading to the insolvency of the Irish economy. The bailout package Ireland received from the Eurozone bailout fund required crippling austerity measures. Now some in Ireland are urging that their bailout terms be modified, in light of Spain having its banks directly bailed out by the Eurozone.

In conclusion, while politicians in Europe and the United States are cheering this latest bout of bailout fever in Europe, nothing positive is really happening in terms of addressing the root causes of Europe’s economic malaise.

In the current issue of the Financial Times, columnist Martin Wolf provides a cogent and timely warning on the credit anomalies proliferating throughout the Eurozone that, in conjunction with feeble policy measures, are contributing to a scenario akin to the credit collapse that unleashed the most virulent stage of the Great Depression of the 1930s. In the column, he observes:

“One would expect feeble demand in such a world. The willingness to implement expansionary monetary policies and tolerate huge fiscal deficits has contained depression and even induced weak recoveries. Yet the fact that unprecedented monetary policies and huge fiscal deficits have not induced strong recoveries shows how powerful the forces depressing economies have been…. Before now, I had never really understood how the 1930s could happen. Now I do.”

In the wake of the unfolding financial and economic disasters unfolding in the Eurozone, the analysis offered by Martin Wolf is must reading for anyone concerned about the global economic crisis. The link to the entirety of Wolf’s piece in the Financial Times is here:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/74f3017e-ac15-11e1-a8a0-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1x6wGEWSR

ECB President Mario Draghi, it is rumored, will cut interest rates, in a frantic effort to retard the rampaging Eurozone Debt Crisis. Since assuming the ECB presidency, Draghi has engaged in stealth quantitative easing, buying up sovereign bonds, and engaging in other monetary gimmicks. But nothing seems to be working. With ECB rates already very low, there is not much left to be cut.

The schism is over supposed austerity measures in the vulnerable Eurozone countries with large sovereign debts neutralizing any impact  from ECB monetary policies. However, the real issue involves the bond markets; will they open up their coffers and offer more loans to countries that already have an unsustainable debt to GDP ratio? In the Eurozone, both economic /fiscal and monetary policies are totally detached from the harsh realities of the marketplace.