Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Interesting article on the next great depression??

Reasons for next great depression:
source: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/well-great-depession-2-2011/story.aspx?guid={B28B49B5-EFD1-4941-B57E-A2BA1545BA09}&siteid=yahoomy
  1. America’s credit rating may soon be downgraded below AAA
  2. Fed refusal to disclose $2 trillion loans, now the new “shadow banking system”
  3. Congress has no oversight of $700 billion, and Paulson’s Wall Street Trojan Horse
  4. King Henry Paulson flip-flops on plan to buy toxic bank assets, confusing markets
  5. Goldman, Morgan lost tens of billions, but planning over $13 billion in bonuses this year
  6. AIG bails big banks out of $150 billion in credit swaps, protects shareholders before taxpayers
  7. American Express joins Goldman, Morgan as bank holding firms, looking for Fed money
  8. Treasury sneaks corporate tax credits into bailout giveaway, shifts costs to states
  9. State revenues down, taxes and debt up; hiring, spending, borrowing add even more debt
  10. State, municipal, corporate pensions lost hundreds of billions on derivative swaps
  11. Hedge funds: 610 in 1990, almost 10,000 now. Returns down 15%, liquidations up
  12. Consumer debt way up, now at $2.5 trillion; next area for credit meltdowns
  13. Fed also plans to provide billions to $3.6 trillion money-market fund industry
  14. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are bleeding cash, want to tap taxpayer dollars
  15. Washington manipulating data: War not $600 billion but estimates actually $3 trillion
  16. Hidden costs of $700 billion bailout are likely $5 trillion; plus $1 trillion Street write-offs
  17. Commodities down, resource exporters and currencies dropping, triggering a global meltdown
  18. Big three automakers near bankruptcy; unions, workers, retirees will suffer
  19. Corporate bond market, both junk and top-rated, slumps more than 25%
  20. Retailers bankrupt: Circuit City, Sharper Image, Mervyns; mall sales in free fall