Global Economic Crisis

An economy does not have to be in technical recession in order for it to be mired in economic crisis. That is what the latest GDP figures from the U.S. commerce department reveal about the American economy. In Q2 of 2012 the U.S. economy grew at an anemic 1.5 percent, according to the latest data just released by the Commerce Department. This represents stall speed, a level of growth so low, particularly in the context of massive government deficits and unprecedented monetary easing by the Federal Reserve, it is a future indicator of a looming recession.

More than a trillion dollars in borrowed money, representing  a third of all government expenditures, can at best produce a level of artificially induced growth that is so contracted, it represents a fraction of annual government borrowing- which in itself is merely future demand pushed back into the current fiscal year. Just as a plane that loses momentum will enter a stall, leading to a downward tailspin, it seems that the U.S. economy is close to experiencing the same phenomenon.

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

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

He emerged in the months prior to the global financial and economic crisis that erupted in the fall of 2008, warning of a deadly convergence of worrying economic and financial dangers. Nouriel Roubini, economics professor at New York University and owner of his own consultancy firm, issued warnings  that in retrospect seem almost magically prescient. Roubini’s prediction that the contraction in housing prices in the U.S. housing market would metastasize into a devastating financial hurricane seemed so incomprehensively dire, the pundits and eternal optimists on Wall Street dubbed him with the moniker of “Dr. Doom.”

For those not punch-drunk on Wall Street’s propaganda, Nouriel Roubini even issued what amounted to as a checklist of discrete steps that would occur until the investment banks imploded, leading to a fiscal Armageddon. During the summer of 2008, the checkmarks on Roubini’s list of foreboding prognostications accumulated, until Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, and the global economic crisis erupted with fury as credit markets worldwide went into cardiac arrest.

Now, four years later, Roubini is back with his prophecies of gloom and foreboding for the global economy. Dr. Doom has taken to the airwaves, warning policymakers as well as the public that there is a high probability that a perfect economic and fiscal storm will erupt in 2013. Essentially, Roubini’s forecast is as follows; until the November U.S. presidential elections  of this year, there will be a deceptive calm before the storm, as every major economy plagued with severe fiscal problems continues to kick the can down the road. Come 2013, there will be a convergence of several major negative metrics. These include the worsening Eurozone debt crisis, likely leading to the exit of Greece from the monetary union. China will face a hard economic landing, and the United States, its economic growth and job creation performance already anemic, will face a high probability of a renewed economic recession, particularly in a political environment favoring austerity. In addition to those economic factors, there is one other element in the turbulent brew that comprises Roubini’s prediction of a perfect economic storm in 2013; Iran. If the Iranian nuclear issue is not resolved peacefully, which at present seems highly doubtful, there is a high probability of a military conflict occurring in the region, which will add further strains upon the global economy, particularly if oil prices spike to highly elevated levels.

Dr. Doom is back, with  a characteristically gloom-laden warning about likely economic trends for 2013. Unlike the pontificators among the politicians, Wall Street glad handlers and central bankers, Roubini’s analysis of future economic trends does have the virtue of reasoned logic  as opposed to overly-optimistic rhetoric. Finally, Nouriel Roubini’s record in predicting future trends impacting the global economy and financial system has been inherently more reliable than the forecasts offered by the U.S. Federal Reserve, as well as by the policymakers in America and Europe.

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

 To view and listen to the YouTube video audio excerpt  “Wall Street Kills,” click image below:

Free Sex Murder Book Excerpt From “Wall Street Kills” (Erotic Snuff Movie Thriller)

Sex, murder, financial power and pathological greed come together in the explosive suspense thriller by Sheldon Filger, WALL STREET KILLS: A NOVEL ABOUT FINANCIAL POWER, VIOLENT SEX AND THE ULTIMATE SNUFF MOVIE.
This video provides a free audio reading from chapter one of “Wall Street Kills.” The scene depicted involves two characters from “Wall Street Kills” having a business conversation in a Los Angeles suburb. One character is Peter Hoffman, director of new business development for a secretive Wall Street hedge fund and private equity group. The other character is Daniel Iachino, president of a major independent film company specializing in “adult entertainment” for niche markets. Hoffman is on a mission to investigate if portraying unsimulated violent death in the form of entertainment would be a lucrative business investment. The conversation between the two men quickly focuses on the phenomenon of snuff movies.

 

 

As Eurozone politicians leverage the future earnings of Eurozone taxpayers (especially Germans) to cover the ever-growing list of bailout packages, interest rates on Spanish 10-year bonds again crossed the dangerous threshold of seven percent. On Thursday, yields hit 7.03 percent. Thus, despite all the fiscal and monetary games going on in Europe to artificially dampen interest rates, the bond vigilantes keep striking back,

As is widely recognized, a seven percent yield on long-term sovereign bonds is unsustainable in the Eurozone. In previous cases where PIIGS countries crossed that red zone (Ireland, Portugal and Greece) they all required huge bailouts from the Eurozone-in the case of Greece two bailouts. Despite all the claims by politicians in Spain and elsewhere in the Eurozone  that Madrid will not need a bailout (despite Spanish banks already receiving a $120 billion bailout) it seems likely that Madrid will follow  in the footsteps of Athens, Lisbon and Dublin. Can Italy be far behind? And how does the Eurozone, meaning principally Germany, pay for the bailouts of Spain and Italy? The answer is, this is mathematically impossible. Which leaves one last option; monetization  of sovereign debt in the Eurozone by the European Central Bank. That means massive money printing, which will wipe out most of the sovereign debt, along with the value and credibility of the euro.

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

 

 

 

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

 

Celebrity Death On The Internet (Shocking Message From Famous Playwright)-Wall Street Kills

“Wall Street Kills,” a novel by Sheldon Filger, presents a dark and shocking view of Wall Street greed that is pathologically out of control. “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.

The latest report from the World Economic Outlook, released by the International Monetary Fund, cuts its forecast on global GDP growth. Of greater importance is the focus the IMF placed on the Eurozone debt crisis.  According to the IMF report, “The utmost priority is to resolve the crisis in the euro area.”

The IMF appears to be standing with those who are calling for the European Central Bank to replicate the loose monetary policies and money printing of the U.S. Federal Reserve and its chairman, Ben Bernanke.  The report virtually pleads for the ECB president, Mario Draghi, to place his printing presses in overdrive.

 “The ECB should ensure that its monetary support is transmitted effectively across the region and should continue to provide ample liquidity support to banks under sufficiently lenient conditions,” so says the International Monetary Fund in its report. It appears that the IMF is seeking Weimar style solutions to the European debt crisis, obviously forgetful of what those policies did for Germany  in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Free Sex Murder Book Excerpt From “Wall Street Kills” (Erotic Snuff Movie Thriller)

Sex, murder, financial power and pathological greed come together in the explosive suspense thriller by Sheldon Filger, WALL STREET KILLS: A NOVEL ABOUT FINANCIAL POWER, VIOLENT SEX AND THE ULTIMATE SNUFF MOVIE.
This video provides a free audio reading from chapter one of “Wall Street Kills.” The scene depicted involves two characters from “Wall Street Kills” having a business conversation in a Los Angeles suburb. One character is Peter Hoffman, director of new business development for a secretive Wall Street hedge fund and private equity group. The other character is Daniel Iachino, president of a major independent film company specializing in “adult entertainment” for niche markets. Hoffman is on a mission to investigate if portraying unsimulated violent death in the form of entertainment would be a lucrative business investment. The conversation between the two men quickly focuses on the phenomenon of snuff movies.

 

 

The largest of the so-called PIIGS nations ( those members of the European Monetary Union most impacted by the sovereign debt crisis plaguing the Eurozone) is Italy.  Moody’s Investors Service has  just handed the government in Rome a wet blanket of bitterness.  Italian sovereign debt has been downgraded by Moody’s two notches, from A3 to a level barely above junk bond status, Baa2. No matter how artfully the politicians in the Eurozone spin the news, this is a clear manifestation by the market of complete lack of faith in the credit worthiness of the largest PIIGS nation.

Putting the latest downgrade in perspective, it is clear that the contagion stemming from the Eurozone debt crisis was never contained in Greece, or subsequently ring-fenced in Ireland and then Portugal by massive taxpayer-funded bailouts. It’s clear that this devastating sovereign debt crisis is now corroding the fiscal life of Spain and Italy, and bear in mind that not even all the printing presses of the European Central Bank can impede the coming revolt of the bond vigilantes. We are facing a sovereign debt crisis, not a liquidity crisis, and money printing by central bankers is as useful in such  a crisis as are water pistols in an artillery duel.

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

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

The latest policymaking news from the Eurozone proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that clinical insanity is now the official economic and fiscal policy of this disastrous monetary union.

Spain’s insolvent banks were given a massive dose of bailout money from the taxpayers-primarily German- of the Eurozone. In exchange, the government of Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy, which has already imposed draconian spending cuts and tax increases on the population, had to commit to another65 billion euros in cuts and deficit reductions over the next two years, including an increase of three percent in the national value add tax. Now, Spain is already in the midst of a severe economic recession (really a depression) with 25 percent unemployment and sustained economic contraction. So, what is this additional austerity measure likely to do? Answer: further increase unemployment, facilitate demand destruction, in turn creating more economic contraction, resulting in lower government revenues. In other words, the fiscal deficit will continue. But don’t worry, the genius politicians in the Eurozone are already dusting off the next set of austerity measures for Spain.

Albert Einstein once defined insanity as doing the same thing and expecting a different result.  By that definition, the entire political class in the Eurozone is over-ripe for institutionalized commitment.

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

 

 

 

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

 

Celebrity Death On The Internet (Shocking Message From Famous Playwright)-Wall Street Kills

“Wall Street Kills,” a novel by Sheldon Filger, presents a dark and shocking view of Wall Street greed that is pathologically out of control. “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.

The bond vigilantes are increasingly unimpressed with the bumbling politicians of the Eurozone. With finance ministers from the monetary union set to meet in Brussels for another of the monotonous string of Eurozone sovereign debt crisis meetings, borrowing costs for financing of Spain’s government debt have again exceeded the red line of 7 percent.

While the pundits still claim there is no danger of Madrid joining some of the other PIIGS nations in requiring a bailout, this after a massive bailout of Spain’s insolvent banks, the ranks of the economic optimists, those who still believe that the policy measures of politicians resolved the global economic crisis that began in 2008, are becoming increasingly thinner.

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

The latest report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistic indicates that only 80,000 jobs were created in the United States in June. One must take into account that the BLS figures are abstractions and not exact, and usually reveal only the most optimistic spin of the employment data. The BLS also reports that the American unemployment rate remains unchanged at 8.2 percent.

Since the U.S., with a population in excess of 300 million, must create between 150,000 and 200,000 jobs a month just to keep even with population growth, the only reason a tepid jobs creation number of 80,000 would also reveal no increase in the unemployment rate is that many Americans formerly classified as unemployed were reported by the BLS as having “left” the workforce in June, so they are no longer counted as unemployed. Such mathematical gymnastics may produce a slightly better spin on the unemployment picture in the United States, but they obviously do not resolve America’s profound economic problems.

It must be pointed out that even the exceedingly poor job creation figures of the past several months have been purchased at a very high opportunity cost. Since the global economic and financial crisis of 2008, the U.S. has been running annual structural mega-deficits of more than a trillion dollars annually. In fiscal year 2012, the U.S. federal budget projects expenditures of $3.8 trillion dollars and revenue of only $2.5 trillion. That means one third of U.S. federal government expenditures are derived from borrowed money. If such a massive fling of red ink can produce, at best, economic stall speed, one shudders to think what will befall the world’s largest economy once the spigot of cheap borrowed money is shut off by creditors who have lost their patience with America’s hopelessly gridlocked political system.

What went wrong with the Obama administration’s stimulus program? In the decades to come, scholars will wax eloquent in their analyses and academic explanations. However, one need only look to the last great American recession, the Great Depression of the 1930s, to note a major difference. The priority of the Obama administration was saving Wall Street, meaning the banks, including investment banks, at all costs, viewing the financial sector as the center of gravity of the American economy. In the case of the administration of Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s, its policies, known as the New Deal, focused on the industrial sector and job creation as the nation’s economic center, and viewed the financial sector in a punitive manner, requiring investigation and strict regulation and reform. Arguments over the effectiveness of the New Deal continue to this day, however one fact cannot be denied. On the day that Franklin Roosevelt died in office, America was unquestionably the leading industrial and manufacturing nation on earth, and the role of financialization was below 2 percent of GDP. How different things are today.

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

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