Global Economic Crisis

In its third revision of GDP data for the second quarter of 2012, the Bureau of Economic Analysis  has posted a dismal set of numbers. The U.S. economy “grew” at a tepid rate of 1.3 percent in Q2 in 2012, versus a slightly higher but still weak rate of 2 percent in Q1. A rate of 1.3 percent growth, which is virtually stall speed, was only made possible by America’s massive structural mega-deficits. In FY 2012, the U.S. federal government deficit is projected to run at $1.3 trillion, representing more than 40 percent of the entire federal budget.

The anemic GDP figures for Q2 reflect an economy that remains in deep crisis. The only factor preventing a compete free fall of the U.S. economy are the massive deficits, which are unsustainable. Even a modest reduction of the deficit, however, would plunge the United States into a deep recession.

WALL STREET KILLS--A CHILLING NOVEL ABOUT WALL STREET GREED GONE MAD

 To view the official trailer YouTube video for “Wall Street Kills,” click image below:

Wall Street Kills-Official Trailer

In a world dominated by high finance, how far would Wall Street go in search of profits? In Sheldon Filger’s terrifying novel about money, sex and murder, Wall Street has no limits. “Wall Street Kills” is the ultimate thriller about greed gone mad. Read “Wall Street Kills” and blow your mind.

 

According to the latest data, business confidence in Germany, the Eurozone’s strongest economy, declined for the 5th straight month. The German  IFO index slipped from  102.3 in August to 101.4 in September. The erosion of German business confidence is occurring amidst the two-year old Eurozone debt crisis.

The wave of economic recessions that have afflicted the most debt prone economies in the Eurozone are the driver eroding business confidence in Germany. The Eurozone crisis threatens to retard Germany’s massive export trade to the Eurozone bloc, which ultimately will affect GDP growth prospects in Germany.

WALL STREET KILLS--A CHILLING NOVEL ABOUT WALL STREET GREED GONE MAD

 To view the official trailer YouTube video for “Wall Street Kills,” click image below:

Wall Street Kills-Official Trailer

In a world dominated by high finance, how far would Wall Street go in search of profits? In Sheldon Filger’s terrifying novel about money, sex and murder, Wall Street has no limits. “Wall Street Kills” is the ultimate thriller about greed gone mad. Read “Wall Street Kills” and blow your mind.

 

As expected, stock markets around the world swooned to the heavens after the Federal Reserve announced its third dose of quantitative easing. Ben Bernanke had already unleashed QE1 and QE2, with only short-tem, temporary stabilization of the financial and economic crisis still raging in the U.S. and Europe. What to make of Bernanke’s third version of quantitative easing? As Albert Einstein once said, the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing, over and over again, and expecting a different result.

The public is largely ignorant of what quantitative easing is ( and what it is not). It is simply money printing by a central banking, focused on using the artificially created liquidity to purchase sovereign or private sector debt instruments or depreciated assets, with the view of alleviating market conditions, such as countering high yields on government bonds. It is no substitute for sound economic and fiscal policies, and repeated doses of quantitative easing are inflationary, and typically create distorted asset bubbles.  The tech bubble of the 1990s,and the housing bubble that unleashed the global financial crisis of 2008, were the result of easy money policies by the Fed.

 Now we again have easy money intrusions into the market through the Fed, this time through QE3.  The only tangible result so far is the creation of a new bubble-the equity bubble  on Wall Street and beyond. As before, this bubble will not resolve the economic crisis afflicting most of the world, and will likely make it worse.

WALL STREET KILLS--A CHILLING NOVEL ABOUT WALL STREET GREED GONE MAD

 To view the official trailer YouTube video for “Wall Street Kills,” click image below:

Wall Street Kills-Official Trailer

In a world dominated by high finance, how far would Wall Street go in search of profits? In Sheldon Filger’s terrifying novel about money, sex and murder, Wall Street has no limits. “Wall Street Kills” is the ultimate thriller about greed gone mad. Read “Wall Street Kills” and blow your mind.

 

It seems an eternity ago when Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, spoke optimistically about “green shoots” on the economic horizon. No more. Two bouts of quantitative easing and “Operation Twists” have been abject failures, as the country’s economic crisis-which is global in nature-continues. Now, the Fed’s FOMC  has jumped in again with more money printing.

“The committee is concerned that, without further policy accommodation, economic growth might not be strong enough to generate sustained improvement in labor market conditions,” say the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee), justifying their decision to purchase $40 billion in mortgage backed securities each month. In addition, the Fed plans to keep interest rates at near zero until at least 2015.

The global economic crisis erupted in 2008. The Fed is now saying, through its ill-conceived policy decisions, that this crisis will last at least until 2015-seven years after the implosion of Lehman Brothers. An this is not an economic depression?

WALL STREET KILLS--A CHILLING NOVEL ABOUT WALL STREET GREED GONE MAD

 To view the official trailer YouTube video for “Wall Street Kills,” click image below:

Wall Street Kills-Official Trailer

In a world dominated by high finance, how far would Wall Street go in search of profits? In Sheldon Filger’s terrifying novel about money, sex and murder, Wall Street has no limits. “Wall Street Kills” is the ultimate thriller about greed gone mad. Read “Wall Street Kills” and blow your mind.

 

An important op-ed piece has appeared in The New York Times regarding the Iranian nuclear issue. Authored by Bill Keller and entitled “Nuclear Mullahs,”  the op-ed column does not question the view of all serious actors involved in the issue, which is that Iran’s nuclear program is a weapons program. Rather, Keller focuses on the central policy question connected with Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions; should Tehran acquire a nuclear arsenal, can it be deterred in the manner of the former Soviet Union  and United States during the cold war? In the words of Keller, “Why would Iran not be similarly deterred by the certainty that using nuclear weapons would bring a hellish reprisal? “

As the former executive-editor of The New York Times as well as being a current op-ed columnist, Keller’s voice will likely be interpreted as a reflection of mainstream thinking on the Iranian nuclear issue by policymakers who are influenced by his newspaper. The views of The New York Times still carry some weight in certain circles on Capitol Hill, so for that reason the views expressed by Keller are highly relevant. What is it, therefore, that Keller espouses on this menacing issue?

After warning that,  “Anyone who has a glib answer to this problem isn’t taking the subject seriously,” Keller than does precisely that.  He raises the salient points that have been analyzed by decision makers in several countries concerned with the potential threat posed by Iran being transformed into a nuclear-armed state, then dismisses them with simplistic rationalizations devoid of substance or deep analytical thought. Here are some examples.

Keller accepts that a nuclear-armed Iran would be emboldened to create more mayhem in the Middle East through its puppets, such as Hezbollah, but then quotes a former diplomat who suggests that an Iran deprived of nuclear weapons through military means would be even more meddlesome. On the surface, this is a self-contradicting argument. Then, Keller raises an often-mentioned risk identified by strategic experts; an Iranian nuclear weapon would unleash the proliferation genie, creating a nuclear arms race in a region already beset with instability and political volatility. While acknowledging that Saudi Arabia would seek nuclear arms, and may purchase such weapons from Pakistan (“not a pleasant thought,” muses Keller), he then ignores the implications while dismissing the other Middle East actors as  having “strong reasons not to join the race,” without specifying those reasons or taking into account the deep Sunni antagonism and fears towards Iran’s Shiite ideology and perceived ambitions for regional dominance.

On the matter of Israel’s perception that a nuclear-armed Iran represents an existential threat, Keller writes, “The regime in Iran is brutal, mendacious and meddlesome, and given to spraying gobbets of Hitleresque bile at the Jewish state. ” Yet, Keller in his piece maintains an iconoclastic belief bordering on religious messianism that Iran’s nuclear weapons program cannot  possibly represent a danger of annihilation to Israel. To buttress his conviction, he resorts to claiming that history proves that nuclear-armed states somehow behave more rationally.

The question I would put to Bill Keller is this; would Nazi Germany have behaved more rationally if it had become nuclear-armed? Would Imperial Japan have refrained from attacking Pearl Harbor if it had possessed atomic bombs?

The central flaw in Bill Keller’s op-ed on the Iranian nuclear issue is that it totally ignores the character and substance of the Iranian theocratic regime, its grand strategic vision and world view, and how nuclear weapons fit in with their ideology. This is a barbarous, ruthless regime with extreme ideological imperatives dominating its tactical and strategic thinking. To have hope that acquisition of the ultimate weapon of mass destruction would somehow transform such a regime into a responsible regional actor contradicts all historical parallels. It reminds one of the policy of appeasement adopted by the Western democracies in the 1930s towards Nazi Germany. It was hoped  back then that allowing an ideologically driven dictatorship to rearm and expand would somehow moderate its extremist views and lead to more rational behavior. Among the strongest supporters of the policy of appeasement back in the 1930s were the major newspapers of the Western world.

Now, it is The New York Times that is suggesting, through Bill Keller’s piece, that preventative military means be taken off the table in regards to the Iranian nuclear issue. He doesn’t want a nuclear-armed Iran, but is unwilling to use force to prevent such an outcome, and ends his piece with calls for diplomacy and a “Nixon-to-China” moment. As in the 1930s, the world is approaching a moment of truth, and just as back then, important voices within politics and journalism are desperately groping for unattainable answers short of military confrontation, not realizing until it is too late that the diplomatic option with an extremist totalitarian state was illusory.

WALL STREET KILLS--A CHILLING NOVEL ABOUT WALL STREET GREED GONE MAD

 To view the official trailer YouTube video for “Wall Street Kills,” click image below:

Wall Street Kills-Official Trailer

In a world dominated by high finance, how far would Wall Street go in search of profits? In Sheldon Filger’s terrifying novel about money, sex and murder, Wall Street has no limits. “Wall Street Kills” is the ultimate thriller about greed gone mad. Read “Wall Street Kills” and blow your mind.

 

To the delight of equity markets, ECB president  Mario Draghi has announced  officially that the European Central Bank will purchase Eurozone bonds in the secondary market, with three-year maturities, theoretically without any limits. In effect, Draghi has told the world that the ECB will run its printing presses at warp speed, and conjure out of thin air whatever quantities of euros are required to combat what Draghi calls “market distortions.”

The Bundesbank opposes the move, and Germany’s traditional fear of inflationary policies by central bankers will no doubt be awakened. Draghi’s position is that he has no choice, if the euro is to be saved. His policy measure reminds me of what a U.S. Army officer once said, after his unit destroyed a village during the Vietnam War: “We had to destroy the village in order to save it.” Draghi may have unleashed a desperate policy measure which, in attempting to save the euro, will ultimately bring about its demise.

WALL STREET KILLS--A CHILLING NOVEL ABOUT WALL STREET GREED GONE MAD

 To view the official trailer YouTube video for “Wall Street Kills,” click image below:

Wall Street Kills-Official Trailer

In a world dominated by high finance, how far would Wall Street go in search of profits? In Sheldon Filger’s terrifying novel about money, sex and murder, Wall Street has no limits. “Wall Street Kills” is the ultimate thriller about greed gone mad. Read “Wall Street Kills” and blow your mind.

 

Chatter about the inevitability of Greece exiting from the European Monetary Union-the euro-continues to gather momentum. A recent Financial Times poll indicated that a majority of Germans expect Greece to abandon the euro, and prefer such an outcome in lieu of continued bailouts of Athens that are largely funded by German taxpayers.

In the United States, major companies are preparing for the impact of a Greek exit from the euro, as reported in The New York Times.  In fact, major corporations globally are assessing the likelihood that Greece will exit-or be “kicked out” of the euro. It is also said that “the market” has priced in the impact of a Greek exit.

The problem with planning for a Greek euro exit or the market supposedly pricing in such a monetary development is that such a move will be unprecedented, and cannot be properly analyzed or accounted for in advance. For one thing, a Greek euro exit is only the first domino, and may open he way for the other PIIGS nations (Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain) to sequentially exit the euro after Athens departs from the monetary union. In short, we are sailing into unchartered territory, as the global economic crisis and Eurozone debt crisis enters a new, and potentially far more dangerous state.

WALL STREET KILLS--A CHILLING NOVEL ABOUT WALL STREET GREED GONE MAD

 To view the official trailer YouTube video for “Wall Street Kills,” click image below:

Wall Street Kills-Official Trailer

In a world dominated by high finance, how far would Wall Street go in search of profits? In Sheldon Filger’s terrifying novel about money, sex and murder, Wall Street has no limits. “Wall Street Kills” is the ultimate thriller about greed gone mad. Read “Wall Street Kills” and blow your mind.