THE ECONOMY-STATUS REPORT: For a status report on the current condition of our economy, what better perspective than that of an incoming president and who better to present it than one of the most prescient economists of the last two years: Nouriel Roubini.
On 11/06/08 at rgemonitor.com, Professor Roubini writes in his article “The Economic Mess and Financial Disaster that Obama Will Inherit”, “…Obama will inherit and economic and financial mess worse than anything the U.S. has faced in decades: the most severe recession in 50 years; the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression; a ballooning fiscal deficit that may be as high as a trillion dollar in 2009 and 2010; a huge current account deficit; a financial system that is in a severe crisis and where de-leveraging is still occurring at a very rapid pace, thus causing a worsening of the credit crunch; a household sector where millions of households are insolvent, into negative equity territory and on the verge of losing their homes; a serious risk of deflation as the slack in goods, labor and commodity markets become deeper; the risk that we will end in a deflationary liquidity trap as the Fed is fast approaching the zero-bound constraint for the Fed funds rate; the risk of a severe debt deflation as the real value of nominal liabilities will rise given price deflation while the value of financial assets is still plunging.”
PEAK OIL & PRICES: From The Oil Drum (theoildrum.com) of 11/06/08, in an article entitled “UK Industry Taskforce Sounds Alarm on Peak Oil”:
“September last year, former US Energy Secretary (and former U.S. Defense Secretary) Dr James Schlesinger addressed the APSO6 conference in Cork, Ireland with these words: “ The peakists ( proponents of the peak-oil theory) have won…to the peakists I say, you can declare victory. You are no longer the beleaguered small minority of voices crying in the wilderness. You are now mainstream. You must learn to take yes for an answer and be gracious in victory”
This 11/06/08 article follows the preceding peak-oil information/observation with the headline “ IEA: Crude Prices Will Soar Soon”(moneynews.newsmax.com/street talk). The article notes that the worlds most vital energy source is and will remain for many years: oil. It continues to promise that the era of cheap oil is over despite market fluctuations and indicates that the declining production in the worlds oil fields ( at a 9%/year rate currently) will quickly bring oil prices back over $100 per barrel and beyond.
FOOD & PRICES: REUTERS (reuters.com) today shared this bit of information: “Steep food price increases on way: experts”.
This article points out that cost increases in the production of food have not been completely passed on to the consumer and that although this is the third year in a row that food prices have risen faster than overall U.S. inflation, food prices are predicted to rise by 7-9% for 2009.
GARDENING: AHN (allheadlinenews.com) on 11/05/08 produced this interesting piece: “London To Encourage Backyard Gardening Among Residents”
London, arguably one of the worlds top two financial centers, is encouraging its residents to begin backyard gardening to help ease their financial difficulties brought about by the global financial meltdown.
This encouragement is a part of the Capital Growth project, a part of whose goal is to grow food on 2012 patches of land by 2012. These small plots would include areas on roof tops, canal banks, unused rail yards, resevoir banks and any other vacant plots pinpointed by institutions like hospitals, schools, and utility companies.
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