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Economy - Economics USA

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Ambrose Evans-Pritchard via LewRockwell.com

Cheng Siwei, former vice-chairman of the Standing Committee and now head of China's green energy drive, said Beijing was dismayed by the Fed's recourse to "credit easing".

"We hope there will be a change in monetary policy as soon as they have positive growth again," he said at the Ambrosetti Workshop, a policy gathering on Lake Como.


"If they keep printing money to buy bonds it will lead to inflation, and after a year or two the dollar will fall hard. Most of our foreign reserves are in US bonds and this is very difficult to change, so we will diversify incremental reserves into euros, yen, and other currencies," he said.

China's reserves are more than – $2 trillion, the world's largest.

 

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Slate

Warren Buffett lost about $25 billion during the financial crisis, but he still managed to make the most out of the situation by attempting to profit from the downturn. His picks could reap huge rewards, but right now, Berkshire Hathaway appears to be taking a more cautious approach, buying fewer stocks than it is selling, suggesting that Buffett is getting worried. At the same time, "Buffettologists" say that as his inevitable retirement approaches Buffett is also thinking about his legacy and is more concerned about making investments that will give out profits in the long-term.

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WSJ / IN Governor Mitch Daniels

Fewer than 10 states ended the last fiscal year with significant reserves, and three-fourths have deficits exceeding 10% of their budgets. Only an emergency infusion of printed federal funny money is keeping most state boats afloat right now.

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It is amazing how many things have NOT happened.   Probably most incredible is that the dollar has NOT collapsed. It has lost ground, and was trading at $1.43 per euro on Friday, but no one laughs at you when go to exchange dollars…or offer to pay in dollars rather than the local currency. 

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dailymarkets.com article by Chris Ciovacco

This article complete with charts is an in depth analysis of why the the markets of today are fundamentally different from the markets of 1929 - 1930. The author uses both fundamentals and technical analysis to make the claim that, while there may be some corrections, the markets are unlikely to again test the lows of March

News Link • Global Reported By Doug Nusbaum
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kpfa

Yes I know it is NPR, I know it is out of Berkley but it makes a lot of good points and it describes obamas takeover by the banks. That is what a friend sent to me in an e mail. I am open minded so I thought I would listen to it and having heard it I think it is worth your time to listen to it too. If you understand what NWO (own) is really all about (Fascism) I think this helps describe how they plan to get there.

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mises.org / Jeffrey Tucker

More than a quarter of teenagers looking for work cannot find employment at the existing wage floor. Many have just stopped trying. The rate is nearly three times the national rate and four times the rate of skilled and experienced workers over the age of 55. This is the highest rate ever recorded in the United States.

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Bloomberg

Lenders in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Arizona collapsed, pushing the number of bank failures to 89 this year amid continuing fallout from the worst economic slump since the Great Depression. Illinois lenders InBank of Oak Forest and Platinum Community Bank of Rolling Meadows; Vantus Bank of Sioux City, Iowa; First Bank of Kansas City, Missouri; and First State Bank of Flagstaff, Arizona were shut by regulators, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was named receiver, the agency said in statements yesterday. Closing the lenders, with combined assets of $1.1 billion and deposits of $982 million, will cost the deposit insurance fund about $401 million.

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Market Watch

Banks in Missouri, Iowa and Illinois were closed by regulators Friday, bringing the number of U.S. bank failures in 2009 to 87 as the effects of the credit crisis continue to ripple through the financial system. Kansas City, Mo.-based First Bank of Kansas City was the 85th failure of the year, The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said. De Soto, Kan.-based Great American Bank has agreed to assume the failed bank's deposits. First Bank of Kansas City had $16 million in assets and $15 million in deposits as of June 30, the regulator said. Its failure is expected to cost the federal deposit-insurance fund $6 million.

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Wall St Journal

California drivers can't line up to renew their licenses Friday. Wisconsin natives can't order copies of their birth certificates.  Across the country, cash-strapped state governments are shutting down business for a day at a time to save money.

(maybe if we didn't have all of these laws, we wouldn't need all of these government "services?")

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MSN Money

Hold tight folks, it’s not over yet. Bank failures heated up this summer, but expect an “implosion” next year. That’s the key takeaway from a deep dive into second-quarter bank results by sector experts at Institutional Risk Analytics, now that all the numbers are all in. Despite the huge amounts of government money poured into the banks and a sense that conditions are better -- witness the big gains in bank stocks -- the number of banks getting the worst grades for strength actually shot up 12% in the second quarter. In a study released Sept. 1, IRA concludes that 2,256 banks deserve a failing grade, up from 2,012 in the first quarter. Banks getting an “F” grade included giant Citigroup (C). 4 'zombie' stocks better off dead “Despite all of the talk and expenditure in Washington, the U.S. banking industry is still sinking steadily,” says Christopher Whalen of IRA. Besides mounting problems with loans, a big part of the problem is that federal efforts target th

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AP

The unemployment rate jumped almost half a point to 9.7 percent in August, the highest since 1983, reflecting a poor job market that will make it hard for the U.S. economy to begin a sustained recovery.

While the jobless rate rose more than expected, the economy shed a net total of 216,000 jobs, less than July's revised 276,000 and the fewest monthly losses in a year, according to Labor Department data released Friday. Economists expected the unemployment rate to rise to 9.5 percent from July's 9.4 percent and job reductions to total 225,000.

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BlueLoriBlogSpot

Call me stupid but I have a difficult time understanding many articles written today. Take for example this Yahoo story that came out today. It is titled "Improving economy not likely to lower jobless rate". The article goes on to say... "The economy is showing consistent signs of improvement, but probably not enough to stop employers from cutting jobs or to keep the unemployment rate from rising. The Labor Department is expected to report Friday that the jobless rateincreased to 9.5 percent in August, from 9.4 percent in July, as employers cut 225,000 jobs." In my mind that would lead me to believe one of two things the first being improving for who, the second how can they claim the economy is improving at all if if more jobs are being lost each month. As I said we must also examine who owns the news? This clip is a good example...

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https://pikespeakeconomicsclub.com/CMS/PPEC/

As any reader and attendee of the PPEC webpages and meetings know, this group has a very different view of economics than is currently in vogue in our country and around the world. That view also stems from a worldview that is in many ways also at odds with the political and "socio-economic" view of the so-called 'mainstream.' We are not at odds with the mainstream view in order to only disagree. We disagree because the mainstream view is demonstrably odd.

News Link • Global Reported By Tres Melton
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WSJ

The Federal Housing Administration, hit by increasing mortgage-related losses, is in danger of seeing its reserves fall below the level demanded by Congress, according to government officials, in a development that could raise concerns about whether the agency needs a taxpayer bailout. The rising losses at the FHA, part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, come as the agency has rapidly increased its role in guaranteeing loans in an attempt to stabilize the housing market. It isn't clear how the rising losses may affect home buyers. Options for the agency could include politically unpalatable choices, such as asking for taxpayer funds to boost reserves or increasing the premiums borrowers pay for the insurance offered by the agency. Agency officials say if there is a shortfall, they don't have to do anything except report it to lawmakers. But some mortgage and housing analysts see trouble ahead. "They're probably going to need a bailout at som

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Reader's Digest

The Trejos did it all for $350 by employing one of the oldest—and newest—tricks in the book: bartering. "The best thing about bartering," Ron says, "is it allows people to do things they couldn't afford to do normally."

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Wendy McElroy

Upon learning that the Obama administration will add $9 trillion to the existing $11.5 trillion federal debt, Paul Krugman pooh-poohed the problem by saying "...even if we do run these deficits, federal debt as a share of GDP will be substantially less than it was at the end of World War II." The argument being, the U.S. paid it off then, and can do so again.

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J.D. Tucille

The inhabitants of two well-heeled towns on New York's Long Island are reportedly shocked to discover that brothels have been operating in residential neighborhoods. Given the large number of politicians who maintain vacation houses in the area, you'd think the good people of Westhampton and Southampton would be accustomed to their neighbors peddling favors from their homes.

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Washington Post Writers Group, Kenneth R. Harney

Bills to extend the maximum $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers, which expires Nov. 30, are pending in both the U.S. House and the Senate.

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat and chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, is co-sponsor of a bill with Georgia Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson that would raise the credit amount to a maximum of $15,000.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid of Nevada favors an extension of the current credit. He was quoted by the Las Vegas Sun saying, "It's something we can get done."

Odds are that the credit will be extended and broadened to cover all buyers next year, but the chances of the amount increasing aren’t as good, observers say.
 

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Summer is over…and the rally may be over, too. It’s back to business. No more long lunches. No more afternoons painting windows. No more soirees in the evening. We return to our lonely métier – chronicling the decline and fall of the US economy…and the Anglo-American empire too…. 

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Cafe Hayek / Don Boudreaux

Production takes place for consumption (derived from the Scot Adam Smith), not the other way round.  Value is measured not as an average but at the margin (the Englishman W. S. Jevons, the Frenchman Leon Walras, and the Austrian Carl Menger).  The cost of producing a commodity or service is not the labour required (the German Karl Marx) but the commodity or service thereby lost (the Austrian Friedrich von Wieser).  The instinct of man is to “truck and barter” in markets (Adam Smith).  He will find ways round, under, over or through restrictions created by government (the Austrian Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk).  There is no such thing as absolute demand (for education, medicine or anything else) or supply (of labour or anything else) because both vary with price (the Englishmen Alfred Marshall, Lionel Robbins and many before and since).  Not least, without the signalling device of price, man cannot spontaneously and voluntarily co-operate for prosperous co-existen

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