Free Republic

Fresh fears about the size of Dubai’s debt have sent shock waves through international markets, with major stocks and oil prices falling sharply. Dubai World, the country’s largest conglomerate, wants to suspend payment on its sixty billion dollar debt until next May at the earliest.

Another Crisis Looms Right Around The Corner by: The Housing Time Bomb November 24, 2009 Folks, I consider this to be one of my most important posts. I am going to offer a warning and some advice. I am extremely concerned about the things that I am seeing in the markets. The US dollar carry trade, soaring gold, and the apparent imminent passing of health care reform are the last straws that are going to eventually break this market's back. As a result, I have tweaked my investment strategy. I will explain my concerns in further detail later on in...

Obama upbeat on climate, report shows worse crisis(AFP) – 16 hours ago WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama sought Tuesday to boost hopes of a landmark deal at the Copenhagen climate summit, as a new report showed the crisis facing the planet is deeper than previously thought. Obama said the world was "one step closer to a successful outcome in Copenhagen," as he hosted key developing nation India at the White House a week after returning from top global polluter China. "It's also essential that all countries do what is necessary to reach a strong operational agreement that will confront...

If you already took advantage of the government’s tax credit for first-time homebuyers—or are planning to do it anytime soon—you’ll probably agree with this prediction: Sales of existing homes will peak in the final quarter of 2009, then begin a year-long slide, which is likely to be a sharp one, according to some estimates. Until the unemployment rate falls, the housing market won't recover. “Most of it [the tax credit] is simply shifting sales from one period to another,” says Global Insight economist Patrick Newport. “It doesn’t get rid of the fundamental problem; there's still a glut of houses.” Newport,...

In the face of a record rise in joblessness, the Obama administration continues to demonstrate its callous indifference to the plight of millions of unemployed workers and their families. The official unemployment rate shot up to 10.2 percent in October, the highest level since 1983. Nearly 16 million people are jobless, an increase of 7 million since the recession began. If workers who have given up looking for work and those forced to work part-time are added, the real unemployment rate is 17.5 percent—or more than one out of every six workers in the US—the highest rate since the Great...

Politics: Despite the whipping they took in Tuesday's election, congressional Democrats are moving fast on cap-and-trade and health care. Are they politically tone-deaf, or is this some kind of desperate strategy? Our guess is that Democratic leaders, having gotten a very negative message from the off-year balloting, are moving as fast as they can to pass the main big-spending items on their unpopular agenda. If they don't act now, the know their radical agenda is dead. On Thursday, Senate Democrats hustled the cap-and-trade bill out of committee without so much as a hello-and-howdy to the Republicans — knowing full well...

Major Companies Hoarding Cash, Preparing for Second Wave of Financial Crisis By Rocky Vega 11/02/09 Stockholm, Sweden – If you’re looking for insight into how you should be responding to the “recovery” in the US economy, there’s actually a glimmer of sanity coming leading US companies. Right now major American companies are storing up more cash than at any other time within the past 40 years. According to media reports, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase among others are saving “as if another financial crisis were on the way.” Even the vice president of equity research at Rochdale Securities Dick Bove said,...

Will The Current Economic Crisis Lead To More Retirements? Courtney C. Coile Phillip B. Levine 31 October 2009 Since the crisis began, the economy has shed millions of jobs. This column explains how stock, housing, and labour market fluctuations affect retirement decisions. While wealthier workers will delay retirement, a larger number of workers will be forced into retirement because of their inability to find new jobs. This increased involuntary retirement will likely exceed any work-seeking effect of diminished stock market wealth by 50%. Over the past year, numerous stories in the popular press have suggested that workers in the US...

As I walked home recently from a weekend trip to the grocery store, I passed a total of 13 vacant offices with signs saying "for lease" or "for sale." These spaces ranged from approximately 500 to 5,000 square feet according to their signs, and they are stretched along a main, commercial street in the center of Tucson, AZ. There is also an eight-screen movie theater that sits empty as well. These empty commercial spaces ... are empty now, and have been for quite some time. I found it intriguing that both in the central portion of Tucson and also in...

The Associated Press noted last week that the federal deficit reached a record $1.42 trillion for the fiscal year that ended September 30. Up until now, most of the mainstream media have either ignored the exploding deficits or declared them a good thing, since they were supposed to lift us out of the recession. But now that the full figures have come in even some Obama-friendly media stalwarts are struck by their enormity. Read the Full Article.

As I predicted—though I was unsure whether it would be the H1N1 virus or the collapse of the dollar—the Communist Puppet would use something to cement his total control over every aspect of our lives. From the day he took office, Obama and his puppet masters have been building a shadow Government with all power vested in them. The Czars he has appointed, who were not vetted and approved by Congress nor elected, now have the authority to control every aspect of American commerce.

“These are the times that try men’s souls,” wrote Thomas Paine in 1776. George Washington read the first of Paine’s Crisis essays to his men at Valley Forge the next winter in order to encourage them in their hardship. Our current president likes to use the term “crisis” when it gives him and our hearing-impaired Congress the chance to pass some new liberty-robbing legislation. To Mr. Obama, we have an economic crisis, a health care crisis, an environmental crisis, an educational crisis, and so on ad infinitum. His chief-of-staff and secretary of state have both gone on record saying that...

Can't post because of copyright complaint but here is the link Joyce warns of bigger GFC http://www.theage.com.au/national/joyce-warns-of-bigger-gfc-20091022-hbg6.html

Is Obama setting up a crisis?

German 'Wise Men' Fear Credit Crunch In 2010 Germany's leading institutes have warned that the pace of economic recovery is "unsustainable" and that the country's banks may face a fresh crisis over the next year as bad debts surface in earnest. By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor Published: 7:31PM BST 15 Oct 2009 The Wise Men said Germany's economy would contract by 5pc this year 'There is still a significant risk of further shocks to the international financial system,' said a joint report by the five 'Wise Men', a panel that advises the government. Emergency action by the European Central...

Home rescue plan delaying, not solving crisisTue Oct 13, 2009 12:23pm EDT By Nick Carey and Al Yoon ALBANY, Ohio/WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (Reuters) - Within weeks of taking office, U.S. President Barack Obama rode to the rescue of homeowners resigned to financial ruin. Obama, grappling with the worst U.S. housing crisis since the Great Depression, pledged to help as many as 9 million families keep their homes by reworking their mortgages. Eight months later, the plan is plagued by delays, red tape and, some critics say, a reluctance by banks to do their part. Just 17 percent of eligible...

I'm a little sick today, so I'm not going to write a lot about this bill, other than to say this whole "everything is a crisis" style of governing ain't going to make it for him the next 4 years. Here's the bill (front first): For the whole series of Zero dollar bills, go here: "Flickr Archive of Zero Bills"

Throughout the history of American commercial life, one cultural trait has tended to dominate: Americans are optimists, a people prone to seeing the glass as not merely half-full but rapidly expanding, and bearing liquid that might yet be turned into gold. This exuberant optimism has proven beneficial, emboldening risk-taking that has achieved innovation and wealth. It has prompted entrepreneurs to invest borrowed money in untested ideas that sometimes yield breakthroughs. It has encouraged ordinary people to accept debt in the name of accelerated gain — more comfortable homes, higher education, late-model cars. Yet in recent times this eagerness to augment...

President Obama references an economic crisis that occurred "last year" in a recent speech. Did he mean the very same money draw-down referenced by Rep Kanjorski in September of 2008? I love conspiracy theories, but has there been any congressional investigations into what really happened? On Thursday Sept 15, 2008 at roughly 11 AM The Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous draw down of money market accounts in the USA to the tune of $550 Billion dollars in a matter of an hour or two. Money was being removed electronically. Kanjorski tried to follow up here in a hearing. What did...

October 20, 2008 By Kyle-Anne Shiver "A People's Organization is dedicated to an eternal war...A war is not an intellectual debate, and in the war against social evils there are no rules of fair play." - Saul Alinsky; Reveille for Radicals; p. 133 Rules? What rules? Laws? What laws? Clearly, Alinsky's acolytes take him at his word. When one is fighting a war "against social evils," one is above the law. Rules and laws are for the other people. I'm stunned by the irony here. For the past eight years, Americans have been bombarded nearly nonstop by cries of "Bush...

President Obama is planning a major address on Monday to mark the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers Collapse, to take credit for “taking us back from the brink.” Well, a speech seems appropriate, since next week marks another anniversary, that's the week, a year ago, that the president's political fortunes changed for the better. One year ago today, Lehman Brothers collapsed, which set off a week of financial bloodletting on Wall Street. Within a month, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped almost 3,000 points from 11,421.99 on September 12 to 8,451.19 on October 10. By the end of the year...

Yesterday, with the nerve of a Soviet apparatchik announcing a phantom bumper crop, your administration took credit for 1 million jobs saved or created since the stimulus package was enacted. And, Apparently you’re planning a major address on Monday to mark the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers Collapse, probably to take credit for “taking us back from the brink.” Well, we’re just tickled for you. It seems you're having a great crisis. But, while you’re creating phantom jobs or jobs in the public sector, to paraphrase Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinny, the rest of us are dyin’ out here......

SEOUL (Reuters) - The United States moved on Tuesday to freeze the assets of two North Korean entities believed to be involved in atomic and missile programmes, raising pressure on Pyongyang to resume disarmament talks. Pyongyang has been sending out conflicting messages. In August, it made a series of conciliatory gestures, followed this month by more nuclear threats and then straining ties with Seoul by releasing water from a dam on a river flowing across the border, triggering a flash flood that killed six South Koreans. WHAT ARE NORTH KOREA'S LEADERS UP TO? Destitute North Korea wants cash and an...

America’s problem of energy dependence has been pushed into the background by the brouhaha concerning Democratic health care proposals. In the year-plus since the “Drill Here, Drill Now” movement captured the support of a majority of Americans, absolutely nothing of value has been done to increase the domestic production of energy. This inaction keeps us dependent on foreign oil supplied by countries which hate America. This is a disaster well on the way to happening. And what will happen when the foo hits the fan?

True evil does exist in the world, but our Dear Leader seems quite content to insert his own misery in his attempt to bring us all down to the lowest common denominator. This way he can “change” an America he hates. The evidence of his disdain for the US is: Apologies to the world and especially Arab/Muslims, overseas. Listening attentively for 20 years to Reverend Wright’s weekly America-bashing sermons. Takeover of the banks and auto biz. Declaring war on the CIA after both he and his employee, Eric Holder, said they were “looking forward” not backward. Freeing terrorists: How’s that...

As the Obama Creep Show continues, the president just gave a very strange address on TV. He stood there, warning of the H1N1 swine flu pandemic, and asked people to cough into their sleeves. He warned that older people may become more ill than younger people. He said that people should be aware of their health. He urged people to get flu vaccine injections. He implied that we are on the brink of a disaster on the scale of the 1918 flu which killed 20,000,000 people. Then, after making everyone's hair stand up, he turned and walked away. With all...

A letter from AARP I received gets right to the point. The first two sentences read: I will get right to the point. As our leaders seek solutions to the current economic crisis, we need your help to remind them that we can't fix our economy without fixing health care. (The bolding and underlining is theirs.) The next part of the letter is a dire description of the straits we are in, framing everything in terms of a "crisis." They strongly urge the AARP member to do the following: 1. Sign an enclosed petition to my elected officials (whom they've...

But don't worry. Obama would only take over the internet in an "emergency." Then why does it make me uneasy that this Chicago Way pol gets to define what an "emergency" might be? Declan McCullagh writing for CNET: They're not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft of S.773 (excerpt), which still appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency. The new version would allow...

During the 1990s, most of us thought we were living in a period of unprecedented peace and prosperity. We even spent the "peace dividend" - cutting resources for intelligence and the military. The Cold War was over. We had no enemies worth worrying about. That was the conventional wisdom, the accepted narrative of that giddy era. The fact that Americans were being attacked with regularity by Islamist terrorists - for example in New York City in 1993, at Khobar Towers in 1996, at two of our embassies in Africa in 1998, off the coast of Yemen in 2000 - did...

President Obama's preferred method of implementing his leftist agenda is to rush emergency, must-sign-yesterday bills through Congress. Forget about reading the legislation. Just trust Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Schumer and Barney Frank with the details. The problem with this method is that when the details finally come out, it's too late for the people to do anything about it. President Obama's preferred method naturally fosters frustration and anger. Due to the economic "crisis," Obama and the far left element of the Democrat Party had to pass an emergency stimulus spending plan before anyone had time to read it. Afterwards, the public...

CAIRO (AFP) – Ramadan tradition dictates that Egypt's fruit-sellers nickname their dates to reflect unofficial popularity ratings, but this year the global recession has forced down the price of the 'Obama'. Named after US President Barack Obama who chose Cairo to deliver a landmark speech to the world's Muslims in June, the popular date was expected to sell for 25 Egyptian pounds (around 4.5 dollars) a kilogram (2.2 pounds). "People can't afford dates this year, we had to bring the price down to 15 pounds (2.7 dollars)," said Mohammed, a fruit vendor in the bustling Sayyeda Zeinab neighbourhood. Emulating the...

Meredith Whitney, the analyst who predicted that Citigroup Inc. would cut its dividend last year, said the number of U.S. bank failures will quadruple as lenders struggle with bad loans. "There will be over 300 bank closures," Ms. Whitney said in an interview with Bloomberg Television from Jackson Hole, Wyo. "The small-business owner on Main Street continues to see liquidity come away." Unemployment has risen to the highest since the early 1980s and Americans are falling behind on mortgage payments at a record pace, forcing regulators to seize 77 lenders in 2009, the most in 17 years. Colonial BancGroup Inc....

I know, I may sound like I’m beating a dead horse – how much printer cartridge can one spill over China? – but I have a very high burden of proof to overcome. Let me demonstrate it by this analogy: Let’s rewind 20 years. It is 1989 and I am writing that the Japanese economy is on the verge of severe decline. I’m facing a lot of skepticism. Most people are calling me crazy and throwing heavy objects at me. After all, the Japanese are on top of the world. Their economy has been a consistent grower for decades, with...

Mortgage delinquencies hit a record in the second quarter, with a sharp drop in subprime loans being offset by a surge in prime fixed-rate loans, the MBA said.

If I ran the Wall Street Journal, I'd shut it down for a week and fumigate the place... At the very least, I'd ban the phrase "above analysts' expectations..."

As with the Democrat takeover of Congress in 2006, it was a disaster of epic proportions. With one shocking, enormous, blatantly partisan, self-serving and destructive proposal following on the heels of another, the sheer enormity of their power grab defies description. But as each new proposal moves forward, the hand of the Crisis Strategy becomes clear. If there were ever any doubt that Barack Obama personifies the Crisis Strategy, it should long since have been removed for anyone with a mind. Since so many Americans seem to have lost theirs, I address this to the rest of you. For with...

THIS is an actual quote of Obama last week in Mexico. (NOTE: this is quickly being scrubbed from all sites by the obamanation disappearing-info. team.) President Obama said today at a presser in Guadalajara, Mexico, that because he has so much on his legislative plate, and it’s important to “sequence these big initiatives in way a there they don’t all just crash at the same time,” that immigration reform will have to wait next year, yet movement will start rolling in the fall session of Congress this year. Ticking though the still-outstanding legislation yet to get passed this year –...

An estimated 25 million homeowners, or 48% of those with mortgages, will owe more on the loan than the house is worth by the first quarter of 2011, according to an analysis by Deutsche Bank released this week.

How did we get here? Here is a detailed analysis as I see it today and have seen it for the last nearly seven years from inside the mortgage industry. At the end of 1999, Alan Greenspan first began raising the Prime Rate. Many have speculated as to his motivation, however there is no doubt the result, he popped the internet bubble. By the time the damage was done roughly three trillion dollars had been lost in the stock market by the end of 2000. This jarring economic event was followed by the jarring economic events of 9/11 and the...

By Peter A. McKay U.S. stocks were under pressure Tuesday morning after a report showed a slide this month in consumer confidence. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was recently down 54 points, or 0.6%, at 9054. The Conference Board reported that its index of consumer confidence fell to 46.6 in July from 49.3 in June, a bigger decline than analysts were expecting. That report helped drive stocks lower after major indexes spend early trading moving between small gains and losses. Energy stocks were leading the market's decline. The Dow was held back by declines of about 1% each in Exxon...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Despite their denials, influential Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad and Chris Dodd were told from the start they were getting VIP mortgage discounts from one of the nation's largest lenders, the official who handled their loans has told Congress in secret testimony. Both senators have said that at the time the mortgages were being written they didn't know they were getting unique deals from Countrywide Financial Corp., the company that went on to lose billions of dollars on home loans to credit-strapped borrowers. Dodd still maintains he got no preferential treatment.

The inflam­ma­tory issue of Bar­rack Obama’s birth cer­tifi­cate is gath­ering steam across America: Was he or was he not born in the United States? If he was born any­where other than on Amer­ican soil, then his pres­i­dency is inval­i­dated. Why? The Con­sti­tu­tion of the United States point­edly requires that the Pres­i­dent be a nat­ural born citizen. Defusing the issue would be easy: Obama could simply pro­vide a legit­i­mate and com­plete birth cer­tifi­cate proving his birth loca­tion. Not only has he stub­bornly refused to do so, but he has spent sev­eral mil­lion dol­lars in legal fees to thwart var­ious cit­izen law­suits...

(see part 1) Readers, who do not yet realize that the people MUST act immediately to reclaim their Constitution and re-install a constitutional federal government before the window of opportunity closes, please take a few minutes to get up to speed here: JB Williams Most recent columns! I've been writing about all that is wrong in our country and how it went wrong for years now. Rather than repeating myself for benefit of those who have not been following along, please visit my archives and catch up with the rest of us.

The Deathcare bill is stalled by democrats in the house...ORacist Obama has exposed himself to American on national television as the Rev'rund Wright disciple that he is...All of the teachings of Ayers and Machiavellian scheming of Soros haven't been enough to boost his national support as his internal poll numbers continue to tank... As the news gets progressively worse for the Obamunists, the regime will be looking for a means to change the direction or tone of the debate, if not to change the overall subject altogether. As Freeper ScottinVA was saying on the thread Daily Presidential Tracking Poll (Obama...

On June 29th the Treasury on Via XX Settembre tried to throw a net around the Gold Bullion stored beneath Rome's Palazzo Koch. It stands at 2,451.8 tonnes – the third largest central bank hoard in the world. And there it's stood – unchanged at 2,451.8 tonnes – for the last 11 years or more. That makes Italy the only Eurozone nation not to sell any of its gold reserves since 1998. It's also the only signatory to the Central Bank Gold Agreements of 1999 and 2004 not to sell any gold either. Which makes you wonder why it bothered...

There are some grounds for optimism, with interbank lending rates returning to more normal levels, a limited revival in risk appetite, and some kind of an uplift in mortgage and business lending, albeit from exceptionally depressed levels. Yet the broader prognosis is still not at all encouraging. By general agreement, a sustained economic recovery cannot take hold until private credit starts flowing again, so these questions are of rather greater importance than the distracting and largely irrelevant political debate over which institution – Bank of England or Financial Services Authority – should take charge of banking supervision. The credit crunch...

VIDEO HERE.

While reading my email, I heard the attop-of-the-hour news, that "Health care reform is urgent!" What is going on?? Everyday (including Sunday) there seems to be something that is urgent or a crisis. Last week it was Card Check, Sotomayor, and of course, the behemoth, Health Care! The week or so before, it was Cap and Trade. I am sure this is a Saul Alinksy technique. I would love to have a running tally of the number of times this guy has said it's URGENT or a CRISIS. Anyone got any totals? You Tubes or articles would be good. This...

It was just announced that talks broke down in Costa Rica after an earlier announcement of Zelaya saying he refuses to accept that he cannot persue the 4th ballot box that was already ruled illegal. There was also a disagreement on his return since he would have to face trial before any consideration of anything would be given.

A "worst case scenario" could see around 6,000 people die from swine flu across the country this season, Health Minister Nicola Roxon says. Over 10,000 Australians have contracted the virus, 22 have died and almost 60 are in intensive care. There were predictions yesterday that between 10,000 and 20,000 people could die from swine flu, but the Health Minister was quick to dismiss those numbers as "ludicrous". Ms Roxon has told Radio National that projections show that if no action was taken against the disease, such as use of a vaccine and anti-virals, around 6,000 deaths would be expected. "The...