Wifezilla
Low-Carb Queen - RIP: 1963-2021
....and a run on mayonnaise jars and shovels!
There is some seriously funky stuff going on these days. When the ber rich and powerful have no place to hide, what chance do us average schmucks have?
What is going on in Europe?
- Thread starter On Our own
- Start date
There is some seriously funky stuff going on these days. When the ber rich and powerful have no place to hide, what chance do us average schmucks have?
Pick one! 10 new hiding places for Swiss bank funds:
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/po...ding-places-for-swiss-bank-account-funds.html
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/po...ding-places-for-swiss-bank-account-funds.html
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Don't need a Swiss bank acct. All my money is earned honestly and taxed per the IRS requirements.
The only time I watch Fox news is when I want the truth. I watch Lou Dobbs on CNN, he's the only one left at CNN with any dignity, decency and common sense. When I want lies I'll watch NBC, CBS or ABC.On Our own said:
When I want to hear The Obama Party Line I'll watch Keith Olberman. Until I throw up.
EMERGING MARKET TIME BOMBS:
Hungary received a $6.7 billion European Central Bank loan to ease its debt load.
Swedish banks have reported more than $100 million in losses on loans in recession-hit Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
Persian Gulf: investors have pulled tens of billions out of the region's stock markets.
Dubai, once the hottest real estate area on the planet, is showing severe signs of weakness.
Ukraine: panicked depositors withdrew more than $1 billion from bank accounts.
Kiev sharply curtailed foreign-currency lending. They are also bracing for draconian cuts in social spending under terms of a $14 billion emergency loan it is negotiating with the International Monetary Fund.
Turkey: Its trade deficit is alarmingly high, and investors have been dumping the Lira.
All told, borrowers in emerging markets owe some $4.7 trillion in foreign-denominated debt, up 38% over the past two years.
More than half of the debt of Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria is foreign-denominated. 49% of the Ukraine's debt is foreign-denominated, and their currency has lost 9% of its value in the last year.
The value of the Won, South Korea's money, is down 33%.
Lenders are at risk, too - especially in Central and Eastern Europe, which have gotten some $1.5 trillion in credit from foreign banks.
Sweden's SEB and SwedBank have written down more than $100 million on credit losses in the Baltics this year.
In Pakistan, foreign reserves have dropped to $4.3 billion, enough to cover just 45 days of imports. On November 14, rating agency Standard & Poor's cut its sovereign ratings on Pakistan further into "junk" territory, highlighting the country's difficulty in raising the money it needs to avoid a default on its debt obligations
Ukranian stocks are off 77% this year, shares in Bucharest have plummeted 67%, and Sofia's bourse has dropped 66%.
In Moscow, where the RTS stock index is down by 71%, oligarchs who pledged shares in their companies as collateral on loans from Western banks now are having trouble making payment.
(Source: BusinessWeek Magazine)
This is NOT your normal recession. Not even close.
Hungary received a $6.7 billion European Central Bank loan to ease its debt load.
Swedish banks have reported more than $100 million in losses on loans in recession-hit Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
Persian Gulf: investors have pulled tens of billions out of the region's stock markets.
Dubai, once the hottest real estate area on the planet, is showing severe signs of weakness.
Ukraine: panicked depositors withdrew more than $1 billion from bank accounts.
Kiev sharply curtailed foreign-currency lending. They are also bracing for draconian cuts in social spending under terms of a $14 billion emergency loan it is negotiating with the International Monetary Fund.
Turkey: Its trade deficit is alarmingly high, and investors have been dumping the Lira.
All told, borrowers in emerging markets owe some $4.7 trillion in foreign-denominated debt, up 38% over the past two years.
More than half of the debt of Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria is foreign-denominated. 49% of the Ukraine's debt is foreign-denominated, and their currency has lost 9% of its value in the last year.
The value of the Won, South Korea's money, is down 33%.
Lenders are at risk, too - especially in Central and Eastern Europe, which have gotten some $1.5 trillion in credit from foreign banks.
Sweden's SEB and SwedBank have written down more than $100 million on credit losses in the Baltics this year.
In Pakistan, foreign reserves have dropped to $4.3 billion, enough to cover just 45 days of imports. On November 14, rating agency Standard & Poor's cut its sovereign ratings on Pakistan further into "junk" territory, highlighting the country's difficulty in raising the money it needs to avoid a default on its debt obligations
Ukranian stocks are off 77% this year, shares in Bucharest have plummeted 67%, and Sofia's bourse has dropped 66%.
In Moscow, where the RTS stock index is down by 71%, oligarchs who pledged shares in their companies as collateral on loans from Western banks now are having trouble making payment.
(Source: BusinessWeek Magazine)
This is NOT your normal recession. Not even close.
Beekissed
Mountain Sage
I agree with this short and sweet version of the truth!CJHames said:
I am pretty pleased with the "not for much longer part"!
OkieJonesClan
Lovin' The Homestead
I don't have an answer, but . . JMO - America is not to blame for Iceland, just like New York is not to blame for California . . we all make our decisions and while our actions and decisions effect others, we are not fully responsible. I don't watch much TV (like 3 hours a week tops) and I spend very little time on the internet (5 hours a week tops) so here is a personal example . . I have several family members in California, most of whom work in construction. They won't leave California becasue unemployment is sooo good that they make more money by working 3 months and taking a year of unemployment (at nearly equal to what they made while actually working) than taking a second job or career in the "off months". So, tell me this, who supported them the 9 months of the year that they had no real decrease in income? All the crazy schmucks like me and my husband who actually work all year. My husband and I offered for my cousin and her family to move to Oklahoma in 2007 when California's economy was starting to tank. The salary for my cousins husband would have been the same. Housing and groceries are significantly lower and gas has run $1 cheaper per gallong where I live for over a year. What did they say? "No, because he likes having 9 months off a year and Oklahoma requires you to look for a job and hardly pays anything in unenployment. He could make more working at McDonalds than on unenployment there" so they stayed. They ended up getting evicted and now my husband won't allow them to come because they won't work. My husband has jobs he has been trying to hire for more than 6 months. The "crisis" hasn't really hit our area yet.
The morel of the story? California created it's financial crisis by encouraging people to like getting paid full wages for not working and having high taxes - in part, they have many other fiscal policies that any first grader can tell you "don't add up". No other state did it. Just like the UK is in trouble, as the US,EU, and a couple other "Major players" because we all decided we liked to spend money we hadn't actually earned yet. As individuals, states, countries . . when we spend more than we have we end up paying big time later.
I know this is over simplified, but it is at the root of it all. We became spoiled, did not want to save or wait. We decided "we deserve" to have such and such .. as my mom says "Charge it" . . we will all learn as individuals, states and coutnries to say "cash on the barrel" or we will continue to suffer.
I personally think that many are hard headed and it will take a long time for them to get the concept, trying to learn to support my self with garden, eggs and meat so I don't have to rely on outside sources of income, just incase this gets really bad before the "powers that be" get it.
The morel of the story? California created it's financial crisis by encouraging people to like getting paid full wages for not working and having high taxes - in part, they have many other fiscal policies that any first grader can tell you "don't add up". No other state did it. Just like the UK is in trouble, as the US,EU, and a couple other "Major players" because we all decided we liked to spend money we hadn't actually earned yet. As individuals, states, countries . . when we spend more than we have we end up paying big time later.
I know this is over simplified, but it is at the root of it all. We became spoiled, did not want to save or wait. We decided "we deserve" to have such and such .. as my mom says "Charge it" . . we will all learn as individuals, states and coutnries to say "cash on the barrel" or we will continue to suffer.
I personally think that many are hard headed and it will take a long time for them to get the concept, trying to learn to support my self with garden, eggs and meat so I don't have to rely on outside sources of income, just incase this gets really bad before the "powers that be" get it.
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I was listening to NPR the other day for a break. They had an economist on from Ireland. He was talking about how their housing market has crashed. Banks started doing 100% financing to people that couldn't afford it. Then the demand increased and houses went up artificially.
There was no blame placed on the USA. It sounded just like our crisis. I guess greed is everywhere.
There was no blame placed on the USA. It sounded just like our crisis. I guess greed is everywhere.
One of the best sources for news that I've found regarding the financial mess is BusinessWeek magazine. I've even gone backwards to re-read some of the articles they wrote a year ago, and sure enough, they were sending out dire warning signs then.
They have a terrific piece in this weeks issue on Europe, if any of you are up for a little easy reading.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazin...?chan=globalbiz_europe+index+page_top+stories
They have a terrific piece in this weeks issue on Europe, if any of you are up for a little easy reading.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazin...?chan=globalbiz_europe+index+page_top+stories
