THE ECONOMY-THE CONSUMER : CNNMoney.com of 11/13/08 presented this article: “Consumer debt gets bailout attention”. The article notes that the Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, has said that the government would expand the scope of the $700 bailout program to include “… non-bank financial institutions that provide consumer credit, such as credit cards and auto loans.”
The article elaborates: “Approximately 40% of U.S. consumer credit is provided through securitization of credit card receivables, auto and student loans and similar products. This market, which is vital for lending and growth, has for all practical purposes ground to a halt.”
Monday (11/10/08), the article continues, American Express ( the credit card issuer) was reclassified by the Federal Reserve as a bank in order to enable it to more easily access government financing under the bailout plan : it has reportedly asked for $3.5 billion.
Note: About 70% of the U.S. economy is the consumer.
THE ECONOMY: WHAT LIES AHEAD? An article in “YAHOO FINANCE” (biz.yahoo.com) “Soros says deep recession inevitable, depression possible” offers one view from George Soros on 11/13/08. On the same day at Money News (money news.newsmax.com) , Tiger Management CEO Julian Robertson , in the article “Robertson: Long, Tough Time Ahead” views the economic road ahead for Americans as long and hard.
OIL- SAUDI ARABIA X 4: Energy Bulletin of 11/12/08 in a “shortie” article by Robin Pagnamenta, Times UK entitled “World needs four new Saudi Arabias, warns IEA” notes that “Fresh sources of oil equivalent to the output of four Saudi Arabias will have to be found simply to maintain present levels of supply by 2030, one of the world’s leading energy experts has said.”
PrudentHome Insert: Is the above do-able? If it is do-able, what would the cost be? Isn’t 90% +/- of the worlds agriculture dependent on oil (& natural gas, etc)? What’s the above going to do to food costs and availability worldwide? — Just thought we’d ask
COLLAPSE OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE ?: info wars.net on 11/13/08 posted a piece from “George Washington’s Blog” entitled “Obama Won’t Stop the Collapse of the American Empire”. We’re pretty much apolitical/independent here at PrudentHome but a quick look at the core of this short piece intrigued us. We were vaguely familiar with Kevin Phillips as a reporter of some note and a brief read allowed us to separate the articles’ title and other content from the Kevin Phillips observations. See what you think.
“Political insider and veteran reporter Kevin Phillips has documented that every major empire over the past several hundred years has undergone a predictable cycle of collapse, usually within 10 to 20 years of its peak power.
The indications are always the same:
- The financialization of the economy, moving from manufacturing to speculation
- Very high levels of debt
- Extreme economic inequality
- And costly military overreaching
‘BEE’: On November 11th’s post we mentioned that Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) amongst the U.S. bee population had as yet no clear cause to our knowledge and that due to the importance of the honey bee in food crop pollination, we wanted to look into the latest info on this disorder. We noted too that it was our understanding that “back yard” bee raising was being promoted to perhaps broaden the honey bee population base. Well we’ve been looking and have as yet been able to find no definitive cause for this disorder and no formal back yard bee raising program. We going to keep looking and get back with our readers ASAP.
Until next week, keep your eyes on the horizon.
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