US losing confidence vote as investors flee

The Telegraph ^ | 3/17/2008 | Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

[VRWC For Truth]

Gee, the rest of the world is finally catching up to US Conservatives have known for years. The US government spending spree is atrocious.

[stylin19a]

Yes, the Fed caused this mess by setting the price of credit too low for too long, feeding the cancer of debt dependency. But we are in the eye of the storm now. This is not a time for priggery.

if this is trus, should the Feds be reasing the rate ?

I seem to recall japan tried to get out of their mess by having zero interest...how did that work out ?

[familyop]

"The Federal Reserve faces a potential veto of its rescue measures."

...while the veto-ers bring a veto by consumers upon themselves. Keep the hysteria going, so we can see some real deflation in everything except oil. ;-)

[kms61]

I’m no longer worried about another Depression. We’re already there. The fear is gone, now it’s just a matter of dealing with the consequences.

[DB]

The easier the money the less value it has.

[familyop]

"I seem to recall japan tried to get out of their mess by having zero interest...how did that work out ?"

Japan continued to produce, even after importing raw materials from elsewhere for input to production.

[Publius]

While I like the graphic in this article, I think this one is a bit more dramatic.

[stylin19a]

reasing = raising

[mamelukesabre]

What about food and ammo?

[The_Republican]

As of June 2007, foreigners owned $6,007bn of long-term US debt. (Equal to 66pc of the entire US federal debt). The biggest holdings by country are, in billions: Japan (901), China (870), UK (475), Luxembourg (424), Cayman Islands (422), Belgium (369), Ireland (176), Germany (155), Switzerland (140), Bermuda (133) , Netherlands (123), Korea (118), Russia (109), Taiwan (107), Canada (106), Brazil (103). Who is jumping ship

Some of the big US debt Owners.......ah can you say....FREAKING SCAM.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

US Treasury and agency debt drives up long-term rates, the key funding instrument for mortgages and corporations.

Didn't housing prices go up as mortgage rates went down? Wouldn't the opposite happen now?

Wouldn't prices drop enough to encourage buying? I knew people who purchased houses during the late 1970s stagflation. I swear I remember the mortgage interest was more than 20 percent at that time. They survived. The rest of us survived.

No one is saying that's going to be easy.

[NormsRevenge]

I am sure Ben is a nice enough guy and all, he lookes pained in the pic above, too bad he has to be the front man and a whipping boy for the financial debacle our Congre$$ and many administrations has fomented before our very eyes with the reckless and wanton spending and refusal to even look at reform of entitlement programs and such.

[crghill]

We all need to take a deep breath, straighten our backbones and go through what the folks went through in the 1930s. I hope and pray that this leads to realy godly change...I really hope and pray that it doesn’t lead to even deeper socialism or anarchy!

[Mariner]

While dramatic, Ambrose is probably not being overly dramatic here.

The race to the bottom is on.

This is the biggest crash, in slow motion progress, since 1930. It will soon show up in jobs data...falling home prices will continue (I expect 50% from peak) unwinding the entire global financial system.

The smart money has already run up the value of commodities...you only hope is FDIC insured savings, losing a REAL interest of 4-5% a year.

Of course, that beats losing everything.

[DuncanWaring]

I don’t know about 20%, but I knew a couple who bought a house with an 18% mortgage.

[Fiddlstix]

Ditto

[Proud_USA_Republican]

“I seem to recall japan tried to get out of their mess by having zero interest...how did that work out ?”

10+ year recession.

[familyop]

The price of food will go down, if our government defaults on foreign investments due to the current engineered scare. Ammo might go up after consumer runs on it in the big cities, and that’s fine with me.

I’m looking forward to seeing the dollar go further down internationally and way up domestically. May the game of crap-on-your-neighbor backfire. We need new blood in US business.

[RBroadfoot]

Gee, this sound like what Ron Paul has been saying for some time now. I thought that freepers considered Ron Paul to be a lunatic.

Seems like he was right all along.

Do you think that McCain has a clue? (Not that Obama or Clinton have a better grasp on reality.)