Global Economic Crisis

While media throughout the world continues to give the impression that the global economic crisis and its related debt and fiscal issues are on the path to recovery, largely  by cherry picking the news, the International Monetary Fund has cut its forecast for 2013. In July, the IMF projected global GDP growth for the current year of 3.2 percent; this has now been cut back to only 2.9 percent, despite the continuation of massive fiscal and monetary stimulus by sovereigns and central banks throughout the world.

For 2014 the IMF now projects global economic growth of 3.6 percent, a reduction from an earlier forecast of 3.8 percent. These reductions come despite the IMF boosting its projection of economic growth in the UK. Contrasting with so-called “green shoots” that some pundits have pointed to since 2009, there continues to be an avalanche of bad economic data throughout the world; supposed economic recovery in one region or country is offset by worsening news elsewhere. In the meantime, central banks throughout the world, and especially in developed countries, continue to flood the globe with unprecedented levels of liquidity, all conjured out of thin air. Without this radical level of monetary easing, the already anemic levels of economic growth, typically substantially below the proportion of fiscal deficits to GDP in many sovereigns, would almost certainly collapse.

According to the IMF, a slowdown in economic growth in major emerging markets, in particular China, Russia, India and Mexico is creating a drag on overall global economic expansion. This seems almost a reversal from the onset of the crisis in 2008, when the United States was the major driver of the global economic and financial crisis and China viewed as the primary savior. The IMF now sees the U.S. as being the sovereign most pivotal for facilitating global economic growth, in the wake of the slowdown in China and other major emerging economies. However, as noted  by the International Monetary Fund, political gridlock in the U.S., especially in relation to the extension of the national debt limit, is a foreboding threat for the entire global economy. Even in the absence of political dysfunction, the IMF chose to reduce its forecast of GDP growth in the American economy.

At present, the IMF projects a meager 1.6 percent growth in the U.S. economy for this year, far below the proportion of America’s GDP devoted to deficit spending. In other words, the amount of money Washington borrows to fund the federal government remains far above the nominal growth in the GDP. In addition, the Federal Reserve continues its policy of quantitative easing unabated, despite periodic hints of “tapering” the money printing.

What the IMF does not elaborate on (but should) is this point; how much longer can major economies like the U.S. engage in historically unprecedented levels of monetary and fiscal stimulus that provides, at best, levels of economic growth so unimpressively marginal? If the best that such levels of public indebtedness and central bank money printing can provide is anemic growth approaching stall speed, the next major financial crisis to hit will likely be beyond the powers of even the most creative Treasury Secretary or central banker to contain.

If Hillary Clinton runs for President of the United States  in 2016, see the video about the book that warned back in 2008 what a second Clinton presidency would mean for the USA:

YouTube

Hillary Clinton Nude

Hillary Clinton Nude

YouTube

HILLARY CLINTON NUDE

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.

Last August, I commented in my blog with a piece on the disaster that had become the process of replacing Stanley Fischer as Governor of the Bank of Israel. My piece was entitled , “Comedic Farce at the Bank of Israel,” and also appeared in the Huffington Post. In my piece, I commented on how the excellent reputation Fischer had created for the BOI was being wrecked by the stubborn refusal of Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his Finance Minister, Yair Lapid, to follow  Fischer’s advice and appoint his deputy, Dr. Karnit Flug, as his successor. The two politicians tried to find anyone other than Flug to serve as the next BOI governor. As relayed in my blog piece, their first two nominees had to withdraw after embarrassing revelations, including in one case an allegation of shoplifting and in another, claims that the nominee consulted an astrologer on matters of importance.

The comedy has at last come to an end. After wasting 112 days, the political decision makers have finally bowed to the inevitable, the sorrowful saga has now been terminated with the announcement by Prime Minister Netanyahu that Dr. Karnit Flug has been officially appointed to serve as the Governor of the Bank of Israel. What makes this whole episode appear even more bizarre is that Finance Minster Lapid now claims that he was always in favor of selecting Flug to fill Stanley Fischer’s shoes.

If Hillary Clinton runs for President of the United States  in 2016, see the video about the book that warned back in 2008 what a second Clinton presidency would mean for the USA:

YouTube

Hillary Clinton Nude

Hillary Clinton Nude

YouTube

HILLARY CLINTON NUDE

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.

The Dysfunctional  American political establishment, already presiding over a very real fiscal crisis due to an economy totally dependent on structural mega-deficits, has most recently added a self-created fiscal crisis, with one third of all federal government workers laid off due to a government shutdown, and debt default for the U.S. Treasury rapidly approaching. At almost the last possible moment, it appears that Congress will approve a Senate-led compromise, which would allow the American government to, in effect, reopen for business, alongside an extension of the debt ceiling, currently set to reach the maximum allowable figure at present on October 17.

According to details thus far being reported, it appears that the deal likely to be approved by the U.S. Congress will allow the government to reopen through February 7, 2014 and debt default avoided  for now by extending the borrowing limit, currently set at $16.7 trillion limit, through January 17, 2014. In other words, nothing is really resolved; all that is agreed on is to kick the proverbial can down the road for a few more weeks, when the next politically-manufactured fiscal crisis will occur. Wall Street, however, only thinks of the short-term, which is why the Dow Jones is soaring once more at this example of legislative  “craftsmanship” by America’s inept politicians.

If Hillary Clinton runs for President of the United States  in 2016, see the video about the book that warned back in 2008 what a second Clinton presidency would mean for the USA:

YouTube

Hillary Clinton Nude

Hillary Clinton Nude

YouTube

HILLARY CLINTON NUDE

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.

The supposed sole superpower on the globe, the United States of America, has a government largely shut for business-thanks to the nation’s dysfunctional political establishment. It is as though Al-Qaida secretly brainwashed Congress and the White House, and gave them all a script to follow, one that inflicts as much harm as possible on the still-weak American economy.

For the past four days, President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House  John Boehner, have talked past each other, with the government largely mothballed with no budget approved by Congress. The hard-right of the Republican Party is using the shutdown of the government to pressure the Democrats to delay provisions of the Affordable Care Act, more commonly referred to as “Obamacare.” But in all fairness, the entire U.S. political establishment must take responsibility for this example of failed politics. And the worst may be just ahead. If by October 17 Congress does not approve raising the debt ceiling, currently at $16.7 trillion, a financial apocalypse may ensue.  Yet, America’s incompetent politicos seem more fixated on their narrow political agendas than preventing  what may be the mother of all economic crises.

If Hillary Clinton runs for President of the United States  in 2016, see the video about the book that warned back in 2008 what a second Clinton presidency would mean for the USA:

YouTube

Hillary Clinton Nude

Hillary Clinton Nude

YouTube

HILLARY CLINTON NUDE

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.

Only three months after being elected as president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hassan Rouhani addressed the U.N. General Assembly, in the process arousing once moribund hope that the Iranian nuclear issue can be resolved peacefully. In his speech delivered on September 24, 2013, Rouhani echoed many of the same words that had been uttered before by his bombastic predecessor, Ahmadinejad; Iran’s nuclear program is entirely peaceful, and exists solely for the purpose of generating electricity, and Iran insists on its “fundamental right” to enrich uranium for “peaceful purposes.” He also repeated the credo that not only Ahmadinejad but more importantly Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, has often pronounced; the Islamic Republic of Iran does not seek nuclear weapons, and such weaponry violates the fundamental principles of the theocratic state’s governing ideology. With a poise and polish totally foreign to Ahmadinejad, Rouhani has accomplished a truly remarkable rebranding of his nation. Largely through one speech, a vortex of diplomatic processes has been launched, with many pundits expressing optimism about the prospect of a negotiated solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis.

In the wake of the celebratory praise of Rouhani’s speech before the U.N. General Assembly, can he in fact be believed? Is it indeed possible for Iran to have created a largely covert national uranium enrichment program, vast in its infrastructure and cost, but with that same nation possessing only one barely functioning nuclear power reactor at Bushehr, with no additional ones under construction, while simultaneously enduring painful economic sanctions, solely for the purpose of developing electrical power? Time will tell how sincere Rouhani and his master, Ayatollah AliKhamenei, are in their mutual denial of intentions of developing nuclear weapons and claims of desiring  a speedy diplomatic resolution of the crisis. One can hope that Rouhani’s speech manifests a genuine desire to end the grounds for concern about Iran’s nuclear program. However, the history of the last century provides grounds for caution when it comes to deriving the true intentions of a head of state from a policy speech.

On May 21, 1935 the German chancellor and Fuehrer, Adolf Hitler, addressed his nation’s Reichstag, with his words recorded by international journalists. Nazi Germany was in the middle of a vast arms buildup. Before disclosing his true ambition of world conquest, it was vital that international public opinion and politicians in Western Europe and the U.S.  be lulled into a false sense of calm regarding his ultimate intentions. In a brilliant oratorical performance which one American journalist described as one of the most eloquent calls for peace and disarmament ever spoken, Hitler reassured the international audience he was aiming at that his goals were strictly peaceful:”National Socialist Germany wants peace because of its fundamental convictions… Whoever lights the torch of war in Europe can wish for nothing but chaos.”

The world fell for the reassuring words of Adolf Hitler with a suddenness and completeness that is hard to grasp nearly eighty years later. A typical reaction was an editorial which appeared in the Times of London that proclaimed, “It is to be hoped that the speech will be taken everywhere as a sincere and well-considered utterance, meaning precisely what it says.”

Is history repeating itself, or is the totalitarian regime in Iran being truthful in its claims about the pacific orientation of its nuclear project? After Hitler’s peace speech in 1935, those few who publically warned about the true intentions of Nazi Germany, especially Winston Churchill, were denounced as war mongers.  Hopefully, those who have not yet jumped on the Rouhani rebranding bandwagon, and are preaching caution in exploring the possibility that Iran genuinely does not seek to develop nuclear weapons, will be listened to more earnestly than was the case in the 1930s.  In judging Iran and the authentic goals of its leadership, it is acts and deeds, not words, that should serve as the ultimate litmus test regarding Tehran’s true intentions.

If Hillary Clinton runs for President of the United States  in 2016, see the video about the book that warned back in 2008 what a second Clinton presidency would mean for the USA:

YouTube

Hillary Clinton Nude

Hillary Clinton Nude

YouTube

HILLARY CLINTON NUDE

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 Streetgo 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.