Thread: Just a couple of thoughts

It is time we start bombarding our representatives for a FULL congressional investigation into the NAU! If we cannot stop this how can we stop illegal immigration? They are tied tighter together than a watch spring!

Secondly, has anyone else seen the obvious ties to a few stories lately about our money? The dollar is falling, then we have this guy promoting the Amero and then you hear about a "supposed" law suit by the blind to change our paper money because it is "all the same size" and a judge has told the treasury department to "fix it"! To coincidental in my mind! They know we will not accept the Amero. I would like to know more about this "lawsuit" and if it is for real. Sounds like an excuse to push the Amero to me.

AAAhhhhh.......I just said that to my husband last night!!!! What a perfectly reasonable excuse to change our money. Too convient for me and isn't the timing just perfect?

I completely agree ohflyingone! We need to cut the head off this snake if we are to have a chance of resolving this!

I saw a question that someone on another web site brought up regarding the story about the amero. What happens to the baby boomers' retirement savings, and I guess anyone's savings, if this happens?

Judge Orders Treasury Department to Make Paper Money Recognizable to Blind People

WASHINGTON — American paper money represents an unfair impediment to the blind, and the Treasury Department must come up with new U.S. currency to help the visually impaired use cash, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge James Robertson said keeping all U.S. currency the same size and texture violates the Rehabilitation Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in government programs.

"Of the more than 180 countries that issue paper currency, only the United States prints bills that are identical in size and color in all their denominations," Robertson wrote in his ruling. "More than 100 of the other issuers vary their bills in size according to denomination, and every other issuer includes at least some features that help the visually impaired."

Day Al-Mohamed, director of advocacy and government affairs at the American Council of the Blind, said that most of the world's currency is distinguished by color, size, perforations or tactile symbols. The Euro, for instance, can be determined by the length of the bill — the higher the denomination the longer the bill.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,232503,00.html

What happens to the baby boomers' retirement savings, and I guess anyone's savings, if this happens?

That's why you convert to gold or silver.

The timing on the decline in the dollar has me spooked also. It is dropping too fast. It appears they are going to do any and all things to orchestrate a reaction from the people so bush can test his new legal toys.

THE NEW WORLD DISORDER
London stock trader urges move to 'amero'
Says many unaware of plan to replace dollar with N. American currency

Posted: November 28, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

In an interview with CNBC, a vice president for a prominent London investment firm yesterday urged a move away from the dollar to the "amero," a coming North American currency, he said, that "will have a big impact on everybody's life, in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico."
Steve Previs, a vice president at Jefferies International Ltd., explained the Amero "is the proposed new currency for the North American Community which is being developed right now between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico."

The aim, he said, according to a transcript provided by CNBC to WND, is to make a "borderless community, much like the European Union, with the U.S. dollar, the Canadian dollar and the Mexican peso being replaced by the amero."

Previs told the television audience many Canadians are "upset" about the amero. Most Americans outside of Texas largely are unaware of the amero or the plans to integrate North America, Previs observed, claiming many are just "putting their head in the sand" over the plans.

CNBC asked Previs whether he thought NAFTA was "working and doing enough."

He replied: "Until it created a lot of illegal immigrants coming across the border. I don't know. You get the pros and cons on NAFTA. For some people it is a good thing, and for other people it has been a disaster."

The speculation on the future of a new North American currency came amid a major U.S. dollar sell-off worldwide that began last week.

Yesterday, the dollar also reached new multi-month low against the euro, breaking through the $1.30 per euro technical high that had held since April 2005.

At the same time, the Chinese central bank set the yuan at 7.0402 per dollar, the highest level since Beijing established a new currency exchange system in 2005 that severed China's previous policy of tying the value of the yuan to the U.S. dollar.

Many analysts worldwide attributed the dramatic fall in the value of the U.S. dollar at least partially to China's announcement last week that it would seek to diversify its foreign exchange currency holdings away from the U.S. dollar. China recently has crossed the threshold of holding $1 trillion in U.S. dollar foreign-exchange reserves, surpassing Japan as the largest holder in the world.

Barry Ritholtz, chief market strategist for Ritholtz Research & Analytics in New York City, in a phone interview with WND, characterized today's downward move of the dollar as "wackage," a new word he coined to convey that the dollar is being "whacked" in this current market movement.

Ritholtz told WND that yesterday's downward move "was a major market correction that points to the risk of subsequent downside to the dollar."

Asked whether he would characterize the dollar's downside move as signaling a possible collapse, Mr Ritholtz told WND, "Not yet."

Ritholtz pointed out market professionals had long looked at a dollar collapse as a "low probability event," but the recent fall suggests "the probabilities have increased of a major dollar correction, or even of a collapse."

U.S. trade imbalances with China have hit a record $228 billion this year, largely reflecting a surging flow of containers from China with retail goods headed for the U.S. mass market.

Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez is in Bejing leading a trade delegation of more than two dozen U.S. business executives.

"The future should be focused on exporting to China," Guiterrez told reporters in Bejing, noting that this year, U.S. exports to China are up 34 percent on a year-to-year basis, surpassing last year's gain of 20 percent.

One way to improve the U.S. trade imbalance may be to ease up on restrictions of exporting high-tech products and allowing technology transfers to China, a move likely to be politically charged in the U.S.

The decline in value of the dollar will also make U.S. exports more attractive and Chinese exports to the U.S. more expensive.

In February 2007, a virtually unprecedented top-level U.S. economic mission is scheduled to travel to China. Included in the mission are Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Jr., Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Previs declined to be interviewed for this article, telling WND in an e-mail he did not want to be quoted directly in any article that may express a political point of view.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/artic ... E_ID=53124

http://link.toolbot.com/www.leap2020.eu/25826

(click on the link to see the charts and read the rest of the information)

Confidential letter of European think-tank LEAP / Europe 2020

GEAB N°9 is available ! December 2006 - Dollar / Real Estate / Stock Markets: US consumer's insolvency, a catalyst of the impact phase of the global systemic crisis
- Public Release GEAB N°9 / November 16, 2006 -

The American mid-term elections have now passed and, only a week later, as announced by LEAP/E2020 in GEAB N°8 of last October 15, the “euphorisation” of US voters/consumers and world financial players seems to have already passed wit them. The development process of the global systemic crisis has resumed its course, artificially stopped last July due to the upcoming mid-term elections, as shown by the recent changes in the Dollar's value and by the latest US economy indicators. In parallel, a series of topics which had curiously disappeared from the pages of financial media these last months is reappearing, such as the end of the “carry-trade” based on the Yen (1), increasing fears of the risk of implosion of the market for derivatives and “hedge funds” (2) and of course the uninterrupted fall of US real estate (3) with its procession of negative consequences on American growth (4) (all these developments generating from now on increasing reflection as to the health of the US banking sector, one depending more and more on unsound debt) (5). For the team of LEAP/E2020, all these trends, which mark the beginning of the impact phase of the global systemic crisis, have a common catalyst, and that is the insolvency of the US consumer in the framework of a generalized degradation of the quality of credit to all US financial and economic operators (6).


Chart 1 – US Household Debt (GO TO LINK TO SEE THE CHART)

For more than five years the American consumer has been the “cash-cow” of US growth, contributing more than 70% to the resulting progression of the United States economy. Stimulated by the easy money policy promoted by the US Federal Reserve in order to avoid a catastrophic recession feared after the explosion of “internet bubble”, the US consumer rushed into a frenzy of purchases of consumer goods. Encouraged by banks and the whole US financial system, he exceeded his own financing capacities and plunged since 2004 into generalized debt (7) and into a situation not seen in the United States since the dip of the Great Depression post 1929, namely a negative saving rate (eight).

The Federal Reserve, the Bush administration and the republican Congress, as well all the financial and banking sectors of the country then fed the fiction of a continuous and fast enrichment via the development of the “real estate bubble” which convinced the majority of the country's middle class, including its least ‘well off', to rush into a strategy of purchase, and often of speculation, in real estate. In parallel, the very strong growth of real-estate prices made it possible for the financial sector to offer loans for household consumption, linked with the “value” of the real estate (9). Because of these operations relating to more than 2,500 billion dollars since 2004, these same lenders and other banks have in same time increased considerably their results, gaining the admiration of stock markets by their extraordinary success, whereas these same assessments were potentially seen to be depending more and more on the future evolution of the real estate market.


Chart 2 – Recent collapse of consumer credit linked to real estate (source Safehaven) (GO TO LINK TO SEE THE CHART)

Indeed, the obvious risk of this strategy of the banking sector was due to the possibility of an inversion in real estate trends. In the event of a strong and sustained fall in the prices and volumes of the real estate market simultaneously on the whole of the US territory, the “magic circle” of individual enrichment and the collective growth would become an “infernal spiral” of personal debt and generalized recession. Indeed, households in debt would suddenly become insolvent because of the collapse in the price of the real estate guaranteeing their loans, while the whole of the banking sector would be found in a double trap with on one side an increasing share of the loans not refunded due to personal bankruptcy, and on the other a financial assessment quickly down-grading because of the depreciation of the value of the guaranteed loans (namely the real estate) (10).

For the LEAP/E2020 team, it is from now on time to remove the ‘conditional' from this scenario. It is currently happening throughout all the United States and constitutes a catalyst of the impact phase of the global systemic crisis. The US consumer, i.e. the US middle class, basically becomes insolvent (11), victim of overwhelming debt, a negative rate of saving, the bursting of the real estate bubble, the rise of interest rates and the collapse of US growth. All these elements are dependent, and mutually reinforcing, to plunge the United States, starting from the end 2006, into an economic, social and political crisis without precedent (12).

Very concretely, this November issue of GEAB sounds two “LEAP/E2020 Alerts”:
- The first relating to banking and finance sectors which, by the way of “hedge funds” and “bad quality credit”, will be at the centre of the impact phase of the global systemic crisis;
- And the other, which again amplifies the Alert published in GEAB N°4, relating to European real estate, with as an illustration, an analysis of the market trends of the British and French real estate.

The GlobalEurope Anticipation Bulletin N°9 is available by subscription

---------
Notes :
(1) Source "Dollar drops vs yen after Japanese central banker's comment on yen carry trade;, International Herald Tribune, 10/11/2006
(2) Sources « ‘Panic selling' hits derivatives markets », Financial Times, 05/11/2006; “Investors regroup as swaps panic hits”, The Australian/FT Business, 07/11/2006
(3) Source : « National foreclosures increase 17% in the third quarter », RealtyTrac, 01/11/2006
(4) Source “Negative numbers keep popping up in the data”, MarketWatch/DowJones, 12/11/2006
(5) Source “Foreclosure : the buck stops where?”, Twincities.com, 22/10/2006
(6) Source “US credit quality in 25-year retreat toward junk-S&P”, Reuters, 02/11/2006
(7) Source “The valley of the shadow of debt”, From the wilderness, 11/08/2006
(eight) Source « US savings rate hits lowest level since 1933 », MSNBC, 30/01/2006
(9) US consumers have thus obtained from the banking and financial sectors consumption loans linked with their real-estate amounting to 633 billion dollars in 2004 and 719 billion dollars in 2005. Source « End of the bubble bailouts », Forbes, 29/08/2006
(10) This type of development knows similar examples in History. Cf. « Restructuring the US economy – downward », Kurt Richebächer, FS0, 27/10/2006
(11) The consumer thus becomes the « weak link » of the US economic and financial chain, after being its engine in the past five years. Source CFO/TheEconomist, 10/11/2006
(12) In this field, a very interesting CNN series is worth the visit: « Broken Government »

In the same category:
US GDP growth revised up to 2.2% in 3rd quarter: the devil's in the details
Dollar crisis / Euro above 1.30 USD: A message from Franck Biancheri, Director of research at LEAP/E2020
NATO 2006 – The year of global dilution and of EU/US decoupling
French prospectivist, Pierre Gonod, analyses LEAP's work of anticipation

Deutsch | English | Français
GEAB N°9 - Contents
- Published on November 16, 2006 -
December 2006 - Dollar-Real Estate-Stock Markets: US consumer's insolvency, a catalyst of the impact phase of the global systemic crisis

The US consumer, i.e. the US middle class, basically becomes insolvent, victim of overwhelming debt, a negative rate of saving, the bursting of the real estate bubble, the rise of interest rates and the collapse of US growth. All these elements are dependent, and mutually reinforcing, to plunge the United States, starting from the end 2006, into an economic, social and political crisis without precedent… Read public anouncement
Political consequences of the US mid-term election: Towards an aggravation of US leadership weaknesses (leaders facing a loss of legitimacy, economic context of recession, diplomatic deadlock in Iraq/Iran/North Korea…)

With only twenty-two months of effective capacity in the Congress (since the Democrats will take their functions with the Congress only in January 2007 and the next elections will take place in November 200, the Democrats will have “to manage current issues” within a framework of a day to day “guerrilla” with the republican executive, with the presidential election of 2008 in their sights (thus making impossible any necessarily unpopular drastic measures), in a framework of economic recession, fall of the Dollar and diplomatic and military deadlocks in Iraq, Iran or with North Korea… Subscribe
Military consequences of the US mid-term election: Reinforcement of the autonomy of decision of the US military capacity, anticipation of an increase in military expenditure

The Generals are from now on the sole in command of Iraq and in fact of the whole of the defence policy of the United States. Because of the political division between the Congress and the presidential administration, they are able to neutralize any initiative which would displease them; and because they are “at the frontlines” of the war in Iraq, they are untouchable… Subscribe

Economic consequences of the US mid-term elections: Rebirth of US protectionism, end of globalisation process, increasing confrontation with China, sanctions on the dollar

The launching of various parliamentary inquiries into contracts granted within the framework of the rebuilding of Iraq or the benefits directed at the US army, like the wish to quantify more precisely the measurements of tax exemption voted by the republican Congress, or the questioning of the advantages granted to large pharmaceutical and insurance groups within the framework of the reform of the health system, will underline the state of virtual bankruptcy of the country… Subscribe

LEAP/E2020 Alert - Banking and financial sectors at the center of the impact phase of the global systemic crisis, via 'hedge funds' and 'bad quality credit'

The incestuous relationship between the banking structure and the real estate boom of these last years, as is also the case with the uncontrolled development of the hedge funds, constitutes a fatal mechanism for US economic growth and world financial circles as a whole... Subscribe
Real Estate in France and the UK: January 2007, the bubble explodes in Europe too

As LEAP/E2020 September's GEAB N°7 indicated, confirming their February 2006 forecasts, the collapse of the American real estate bubble is directly affecting the “European real estate bubbles”, and in particular in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain as well as in the French capital cities such as Paris. The team of LEAP/E2020 chose in this issue of GEAB to examine particularly the cases of Paris and the United Kingdom... Subscribe

Investor’s counsel: Gold, commodities, energy, stocks, bonds,... which assets to choose while crossing the impact phase?

Subscribe
The November 2006 GlobalEurometre

AN EXPLANATION OF THE FACTIONS

US CONSUMER'S INSOLVENCY DEAD AHEAD

Posted By: FinancialEdEconomica
Date: Wednesday, 29 November 2006, 6:45 p.m.

www.moneyfiles.org is now affiliated with www.indebtwetrust.com: the movie "In Debt We Trust" will be released next Spring, in NYC to start with. I will make sure to update you as news come in.... meanwhile two important reports...

Borrowing to Make Ends Meet Series - A House of Cards
http://www.demos.org/pubs/house_cards.pdf

(11/29) US consumer's insolvency, a catalyst of the impact phase of the global systemic crisis
... For the LEAP/E2020 team, it is from now on time to remove the ‘conditional' from this scenario. It is currently happening throughout all the United States and constitutes a catalyst of the impact phase of the global systemic crisis. The US consumer, i.e. the US middle class, basically becomes insolvent (11), victim of overwhelming debt, a negative rate of saving, the bursting of the real estate bubble, the rise of interest rates and the collapse of US growth. All these elements are dependent, and mutually reinforcing, to plunge the United States, starting from the end 2006, into an economic, social and political crisis without precedent (12).

Very concretely, this November issue of GEAB sounds two “LEAP/E2020 Alerts”:
- The first relating to banking and finance sectors which, by the way of “hedge funds” and “bad quality credit”, will be at the centre of the impact phase of the global systemic crisis;
- And the other, which again amplifies the Alert published in GEAB N°4, relating to European real estate, with as an illustration, an analysis of the market trends of the British and French real estate.... MORE

http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/fo ... read=96314

The other countries know more about US than WE do.

In laymen's terms what is the best course of action for an American to take at this time?

What exactly will the effect of this be on Canadians and Mexicans?