Posted on 02/01/2010 2:30:52 PM PST by blam
Uh, no
Our government was/is THREATENING US with our own money.
Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis
Feb 01, 2010 - 07:57 AM
By: Martin D Weiss
The next contagion is beginning to spread around the globe.
It is unexpected on Wall Street, misunderstood in Washington — and very dangerous.
It could sabotage the plans of the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve, and many of their counterparts overseas.
It is …
The Collapse of Sovereign Government Bonds
This is certainly not the first financial contagion of recent memory:
Back in 1997, we witnessed a currency contagion —hatched in Thailand, spreading quickly to the rest of Southeast Asia … smacking Russia in the gut … and sinking a major player in the U.S. derivatives market.
Then, 10 years later, came the debt contagion —incubated in a subsector of America’s mortgage market … soon infecting nearly all credit instruments … striking Wall Street like a sledgehammer … and mortally wounding the global financial system.
Those contagions were bad enough. Now, however, the contagion is beginning at a much higher level, in the most important financial instruments on Earth — long-term bonds issued by sovereign governments.
The Saga Begins in Greece
Just 116 days ago, on October 8, Greece’s benchmark 10-year bond was selling for 112.295. Today, it has collapsed to 92.13.
And the drama of its yield surge is even more striking — from only 4.41 percent to 7.14 percent, a jump of more than 60 percent in less than four months.
Coincidentally, I was in Greece not long ago, visiting the origins of Western democracy.
If a local soothsayer had told me that the next global debt contagion would begin there, blocks away from the Pantheon, I would have been incredulous. Yet that is precisely what has just happened in recent weeks.
Already, this contagion is spreading to other countries …
Portugal’s 10-year government bond reached a peak on December 1, 2009, just 62 days ago. And now it has also started to plunge virtually nonstop, with its biggest declines registered late last week.
British government bonds (gilts) are equally vulnerable.
Sovereign bonds in Spain, Japan, and other major deficit nations are also starting to get hit.
Next Victim: U.S. Government Bonds
[snip]
They just kicked the can down the road.
Any lie was worth telling to save their control of the USA.
There is no legal mechanism that allows martial law to be declared simultaneously in the entire USA in any case. It would essentially be a coup d'etat.
I think it was just talk. If five or ten big banks in New York had failed we would probably be better off.
Obviously there is still a bubble in Dylan's head and nothing can be done to fit it.
Excuse me, but the doom-mongers are those who insist/insisted we were going over a precipice unless the American taxpayer backstopped every risk made by banks and insurance companies and quasi-government lending institutuions.
And they’re still at it. We’re not done being threatened yet. Just a few days ago they sent out the nice mild-mannered. sweet lady, Elizabeth Warren to subtley threaten us that we need to spend MORE to ‘stimulate’ the economy or we’ll go off another cliff. When, after a few days that didn’t mollify those of us paying attention, they sent out the tougher Neil Barofsky to more directly threaten us.
They spiked it.
I’m 100% sure they did NOT.
One Hundred Percent.
If they hadn’t guaranteed money market deposits... there would of been a run on the market, which would of collapsed the system.
>>...the doom-mongers are those who insist/insisted we were going over a precipice unless the American taxpayer backstopped every risk made by banks and insurance companies and quasi-government lending institutuions.<<
I’m one of those “doom-mongers”. I think we’re going over the precipice no matter what anyone attempts to do. I said it to those who thought McCain could pull us out if only I voted for him - I didn’t. I voted for Palin.
This bus has a concrete wall 50 feet in front of it. The stopping distance is 200 feet, and the drivers (our government) foot slipped off the brake onto the gas pedal on November 4th, 2008.
Brace yourself.
So?
We shouldn’t have system that is so easily collapsed.
Even the system we do have would have worked IF they had been run responsibly and not like giant Ponzi schemes.
Bottom line, you can’t have all your risks backstopped by the taxpayers ... it is the mother of all moral hazards.
I’m with you.
But I’m tired of being called a doom-monger by those who sanction the threats of collapse that preceeded the largest heist in world history, TARP.
OOPS, sorry for the double post.
For a select few. For the rest, disaster.
Very much related:
Roubini: A Greek Bailout Solves Nothing Since Spain Is The Real Time Bomb That Will Destroy The Euro
http://www.businessinsider.com/spain-is-the-real-problem-roubini-29-1-2010
Rent “Rollover” via NetFlix when you get a chance. All the “end of the world” numbers they used there “the Dow is down eight percent! Gold is up five percent!” paled in comparison to our actual numbers during the 2009 controlled market collapse.
Hey look at gold today, huh! Six days of jacking around got a big “never mind” in about three hours. The $1100 battleground is back.
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