The Black Death of financial collapse

[katty]

more: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19718.htm

The Black Death of financial collapse

By James Cumes

11/04/08 "Asia Times" -- -- The financial and economic crisis now upon us is by far the most menacing of the past century - even more so than the Great Depression of the 1930s. It is not just a "subprime" crisis; it is systemic - affecting the entire financial system. It is also global, affecting various countries in various ways but affecting them all. In achieving a certain "globalization", we have been uniquely successful in globalizing collapse, chaos and misery. It is a globalization which, in our short-sighted negligence, we never envisaged.

In this crisis, even a country such as Australia is no more than a subordinate, neo-colonial, financial and economic dependency. In essence, we have reverted to what we were before and during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when Whitehall, Westminster and

the Bank of England played the tune to which we jigged. Then, from 1945 to 1969, for the first time, we played our own tune of full employment and stable economic growth. Wild radicals such as minister Eddie Ward in the governments of John Curtin (1941-45) and Ben Chifley (1945-49) warned us to be wary of Wall Street.

The cynics might now say that Eddie, who died in 1963, was right. After 1969, we forgot his warning. Indeed, the Americans themselves forgot to guard against the chicaneries of Wall Street, where eternal vigilance should always be the watchword. They forgot what the mania of Wall Street can do to the reality of Main Street; and we shared their amnesia.

[Vincardog]

1. What do you mean "WE" pale face?

[Deja Q]

2. How far back in time do we want to make things retroactive?

Surely the future has more merit?

[Vincardog]

5. And "You" never saw this financial fiasco coming? I have been warning about it for years

[Paranoid Pessimist]

3. I'm afraid this time we're all going to be "We"

Even the marketing phonies who are producing all those "We're green, we're really, really green, we're very sincere about our greenitude" commercials for the oil and car companies (I don't care how many rabbits live outside to auto plant). When the excrement hits the airconditioning system, we will all -- even the wellborn high and mighty -- will feel the spray. They built an interdependent global civilization (well, sort of) and the very interdependency will do everybody in.

Anyone want to start a lottery on the percentage of the human race that will constitute the population twenty years (or less) from now?

[grasswire]

4. are there projections about that?

I saw something about it but have forgotten.

[Vincardog]

6. Easy whomever is alive will constitute 100% of the human population.

I bet it will be more than 6 billion people.

[eShirl]

7. what's with the slur?

:shrug:

[RC]

8. Slur? Against whom?

Some of us share blood with the original owners of this country. Or quite possibly are direct descendants of the original owners.

[TalkingDog]

9. Inhabitants. Not one tribe had a cultural understanding of such

an outlandish idea as "owning" the land. It would be the moral equivalent of "owning" your mother.

And being a coupla generations down the line myself, I can say, not all of us wish ill on others.

[RC]

10. How Wallow

This was aboriginal land by venture of they being here first by several thousand years. This was their land.
We, the White man once again took what did not belong to us as if we had the authority to do so.
We over rode this land as if we did own it. We did not. Now we in our arrogance are destroying the rest of the world for the next bottom like.

And for your information the American Indians did claim various lands as their own.
Even fought wars over them.

[Doctor_J]

11. It's from an old joke about Lone Ranger & Tonto encountering a band of natives

Jeez, there are people around here who give liberals a bad name.

[eShirl]

12. I give liberals a bad name because I don't get a pop-cultural reference from before my time?

gee thanks

[Doctor_J]

13. No, because you go off the deep end and see racism in

a harmless joke.

[cliss]

14. To me, the most important part

about the upcoming collapse is how differently our assets are going to be valued.

It's all changing, and it's critical to see what's happening.

Man #1 (true story)
For example, a person with 10 houses, 2 investment properties. He has his own business, and the building is paid for. He's around 50 with 3 grown kids who he's supporting a little bit.
This man is doing all right, but lately he's starting to get panicky. The bottom has dropped out of the market. Credit is tightening up, and he's having to pay WAY more on his bank loans. He's got 12 OF 'EM for his investments.
He has stomach acid burning in his intestines because he's been told that things are going to get worse, at least continue for another year in the same slow s-l-o-w sinking in the Quick Sand.
In desperation, he's actually considering unloading some properties to stay afloat. But even that drives him crazy because his realtor has told him he's got to sell them for a loss. It's absolutely impossible for him to do that he just can't. Instead he's looking for some renters to help cover his costs.
About 1 year ago, this man was the Top Banana he could pretty much call the shots.

Man #2 (also true)
This is a young man, he's a college student. He's 22 and he's going to school part time. He's got student debt, but it's not that much and he's working part time to stay afloat. He doesn't really have much on his Visa card, about $1,500. He doesn't have a mortgage, certainly no loans or investment property. He drives a little beater-mobile, it's a little Mazda. It's got some rounded corners but it's his (he paid $2000 in cash) and it gets really good gas mileage.

Guess which one is going to do the best in the next year?
Analysts say that the people who are unencumbered by debt are going to be in the best shape. The reason is because of declining real estate prices. As long as they are sinking, we don't know how far it will go.
The dynamics are changing, and we don't know what's going to happen 1 year from now. The "RICH" people might just be the "PAUPERS" of tomorrow.

[yurbud]

15. kick