US & International Economic News Round-Up

US & International Economic News Round-Up

October 25, 2009, 3:32 pm
Filed under: Asia, Barack Obama, business, China, collapse, dollar collapse, domestic news, economy, Europe, International news, Latin America, news, obama, politics, US dollar

News Americas Bolivia summit adopts new currency – Al Jazeera 10/18/09

Asian Leaders Eye EU-Style Bloc  – BBC via Cryptogon 10/23/09 

Latin America plans US dollar replacement – PressTV Iran 10/18/09 

Russia and Iran Now OFFICIALLY Talking of Dumping Dollar for International Trade – Washington’s blog 10/18/09

Senior Australian Politician Warns About U.S. Debt Default Within the Next Few Years – The Age, Australia via Cryptogon 10/23/09

Bailout May Cost $23.7 Trillion – Huffington Post 10/21/09

Hank Paulson Held A Secret Meeting With Goldman Sachs In Moscow – Cryptogon 10/21/09

Real Estate Collapse Entering New Phase: Banks Refusing to Repossess Abandoned Homes, or Even File Foreclosures  – Cryptogon 10/19/09

Losing their lifeline – 7,000 a day – CNN 10/22/09

As the Senate debates whether to extend unemployment benefits, more than 200,000 jobless Americans are set to see their checks stop in October.

Top 10 States make up 55 Percent of United States GDP. 6 of the top 10 States have Unemployment Rates over 10 Percent. – My Budget 360 10/25/09

Revised formula puts 1 in 6 Americans in poverty – AP / Yahoo 10/20/09

A revised formula for calculating medical costs and geographic variations show that approximately 47.4 million Americans last year lived in poverty, 7 million more than the government’s official figure.

The disparity occurs because of differing formulas the Census Bureau and the National Academy of Science use for calculating the poverty rate. The NAS formula shows the poverty rate to be at 15.8 percent, or nearly 1 in 6 Americans, according to calculations released this week. That’s higher than the 13.2 percent, or 39.8 million, figure made available recently under the original government formula.

How a Crashing Dollar Hides Trends – Prison Planet 10/22/09

Many Americans have a hard time wrapping their mind around a declining currency or the hidden tax that is inflation. The U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve understands this and for decades has exploited this issue to slowly siphon off the buying power of the U.S. dollar. Openly they tell the public that they are for a strong dollar policy but every action they take is guided to slowly debasing the currency. Take for example the current stock market rally. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 56 percent from the March lows. A stunning rally only seen one other time in history and we would need to go back to the 1930s for that. Yet at the same time, we have seen a collapse in the U.S. dollar. That is why oil, even though demand is relatively the same, is now back near $80 a barrel. 

Russia drops $22.5bn BoNY Mellon lawsuit  – Financial Times, UK 10/22/09

Russia has dropped its $22.5bn lawsuit against Bank of New York Mellon after agreeing an out-of-court settlement

Citi starts closing Mastercards without warning – MSNBC 10/21/09

Possible Credit Dislocation: Be Warned  – Market Ticker 10/23/09

I am hearing repeated anecdotes from multiple areas that foreclosed property held by banks with multiple full-price offers that include a financing requirement are being sold instead to people with actual cash at radical reductions from that price. This implies that these financing contingencies are regarded as not only potentially no good but factually no good, as if the banks know for a fact that the credit pipeline will (not might), within weeks or months (in the time required to close), disappear. There is no other rational explanation for this behavior. 

Even the Fed Doesn’t Want to Hold U.S. Dollars  – Prison Planet 10/23/09

The above chart shows the dollar’s performance since the Fed announced its Quantitative Easing program in March. This chart tells us two things:

Americans just got 15% poorer on the world stage thanks to Ben Bernanke

A currency crisis is in the works (and perhaps already starting) 

Getting Started In War Tax Resistance – War Tax Boycott 10/22/09

Thank you for your interest in war tax resistance. If you decide to register and resist, you will join a long line of courageous resisters, from Henry David Thoreau’s time to the present. Many of us are angry and frustrated by the U.S. government’s military actions around the world, and it often seems as if there is not much we can do about it. War tax resistance is a powerful way to resist the state and oppose its harmful actions. By conscientiously resisting taxes, you take a solid step towards refusing to be a part of the destruction. Our military can only harm people when citizens allow it. If enough of us withhold from war and pay for peace, we can stop the harm.

National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee  – NWTRCC.org

The National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee (NWTRCC) is a coalition of groups from across the U.S., formed in 1982 to provide information and support to people involved in or considering some form of war tax resistance (WTR). Affiliate organizations and individual supporters are joined together in a common struggle for a more just and peaceful society. We oppose militarism and war and refuse to complicitly participate in the tax system which supports such violence. NWTRCC sees poverty, racism, sexism, homophobia, economic exploitation, environmental destruction and militarization of law enforcement as integrally linked with the militarism which we abhor.

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