Posted on 05/26/2015 6:06:34 PM PDT by 9thLife
The world economy is disturbingly close to stall speed. The United Nations has cut its global growth forecast for this year to 2.8pc, the latest of the multinational bodies to retreat.
It leaves a thin safety buffer against any economic shock - most potently if China abandons its crawling dollar peg and resorts to 'beggar-thy-neighbour' policies, transmitting a further deflationary shock across the global economy.
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Each of the past four US recoveries has been weaker than the last one. The average growth rate has fallen from 4.5pc in the early 1980s to nearer 2pc this time.
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The US cannot easily launch a fresh New Deal. Public debt was just 38pc on GDP when Franklin Roosevelt took power in 1933, and there were few contingent liabilities hanging over future US finances.
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It is now more likely than not that US economy has dropped through the Fed's stall-speed threshold of two consecutive quarters below 2pc growth. Exactly how far below is unclear. The Fed uses its own growth measure - gross domestic income (GDI) - and this data has not yet been published.
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Mr Perkins said China is now in a classic debt deflation spiral as excess capacity holds down prices.
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Russia, Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela are all contracting sharply, casualties of the China-driven commodity bust. The UN says the growth rate for the emerging market nexus (ex-China) has dropped to 2.3pc from an average of 6.5pc in the glory years of 2004-2007.
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HSBC's Mr King says the global authorities face awful choices if the world economy hits the reefs in its current condition. The last resort may have to be "helicopter money", a radically different form of QE that injects money directly into the veins of economy by funding government spending.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Stop making sense.
L
There is a real easy way to start fixing this problem, but no government is willing to give up their control and authority over their subjects.
Yes. But it would need to begin with closing county regulatory offices (building, zoning, etc.) and halting regulatory operations against owner-builders and tradesmen. Only then, would the real builders start some really productive activities in their small, homebuilt shops.
Business and leadership could use some new blood. Inbreeding has taken its toll to the extent, that we’re seeing all kinds of social pathologies above.
The "dope" part is news, but it is awfully damned big.
If they go down, the system is a cinch gonner.
Big entities don't simply disappear on failure; they fail into bigger entities.
R u getting my drift?
I know about Hillary,Bill,Clinton, but I don't know what the S is for.
Not sure if this is directly related but stocks took a bit of a hit yesterday, a percent drop in higher volume and durable goods orders are down..
Ditto. Same old stale bag o’ tricks -— more, More, MORE GOVERNMENT SPENDING.
In your opinion, how to best prepare for the inevitable implosion of the world economy?
I already stockpile food and meds.
The scenario that is evolving in my head says that the gov’t will simply turn off city water and electricity to certain areas in order to get people to move somewhere else.
Is that like starting random fires in hope of stopping a wild fire? Random - without thought, pattern or knowing....
Janet has a plan to cure that. The FED is going to rejigger how they compute the 1st Qtr GDP.
And probably the other quarters as well. You say you don't like the economic performance numbers? Janet: "Well, then change just 'em."
(As she kicks the can down the road)
They can get pointers on how best to implement this policy by contacting the government brain trust in Zimbabwe.
More specifically for your question, study on how to size and install a small solar electric power plant would be a good idea. Because of my situation too far from company power lines, solar power is all that I have besides a backup generator that is not often used. The study will take some time, but it’s well worth it.
As for water, a person with much space for storage can store water in a large tank, but it will get full of bacteria and stale. The water can be sterilized from time to time, but a filtering system might also be good.
For anyone who owns a vacant lot, it would be a good idea to research water wells already used in the area. Might be a map at the local county clerk’s office. If not, try a local geologist. If there’s a pretty good chance of finding good water under that vacant lot, call every well driller in the area.
Study various kind of water pumping installations. Remember that cisterns store water and sometimes eliminate any need for batteries (in small solar power plants for wells) or starting a generator every few minutes (to fill expansion tanks—hard on generators and pumps).
For folks in apartments with no space for any of the above, find a low-cost source of water. Get containers and fill them. Use the water and rotate stock to assure that the stored water will be as fresh as possible when needed.
The dollar sucks, but it sucks a little less than ever other currency. So we scrap by.
Income taxes are evil. We need to get rid of them and replace them with sales taxes and tariffs.
Read “This Time is Different” by Rogoff and Reinhart.
Nothing has changed in 500 years.
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