Events are moving fast in Europe. The worst riots since the fall of Communism have swept the Baltics and the south Balkans. An incipient crisis is taking shape in the Club Med bond markets. S&P has cut Greek debt to near junk. Spanish, Portuguese, and Irish bonds are on negative watch.
http://tinyurl.com/ayblgd
Thanks to Charlesius One for providing this link. As difficult as it is to read news like this, it is best if we do, even if we have to cover one eye and peek with the other. As for the Apocalypse guy Charlesius, he could scare the bejeepers out of Godzilla. I'm writing this from the closet.
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Thank you for posting. I think one of the comments said it best "People haven't realized what the implications will be." Curious he mentioned England hasn't even realized it yet and they're in year 2 are they not??
ReplyDeleteCan anyone tell me how the government will be funding our deficit?
I'm having a bad hinky feeling about this budget guys, really bad. They were so off the mark in the E.U. how can be sure they are going to hit the target with this budget?
Quite frankly, I'm not comfortable with this at all.
Ah yes....Here it comes folks:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090116.wconsumer17/BNStory/crashandrecovery/home
Just like the U.S. eh?
". . . As for the Apocalypse guy Charlesius, . . ." -- Hi. I'm Charlesius the Psycho. How the hell am I?!
ReplyDeleteFear not little ones for I, L'Almighty Chuxteritis, are here to bring ye glad tidings of comfort and joy. NOT! Speaking of which, and as captured by a Panasonic Camcorder, the truth is out there and now filmed! -- http://tinyurl.com/9bvj8q
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Anyone remember John Cleese -- Fawlty Towers, Ministry of Silly Walks, etc. in Monty Python? For a 69-year-old, he's still in fairly good shape. Married and divorced three times, this is a brief interview with his current 27-year-old ladyfriend. -- http://tinyurl.com/72n7na
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This may be a first, especially for a reserved country like Canada. A spontaneous rally in support of Gaza, held in Ottawa Sunday afternoon. -- http://tinyurl.com/7bdytb
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What Mr. Buffett conveniently fails to mention is the outsourcing by large corporations, to places where labor is a lot cheaper. It means much higher unemployment for the US and Canada, and thus further govt. expenditures on E.I. and welfare.
Neither does he say anything about the downturn happening worldwide, which it is. -- http://tinyurl.com/8rrej9
The Guardian is comparing the UK's fiscal collapse of 2009 with 1931; The Cycle of Nines again! -- http://tinyurl.com/93ejgb
Liquidations are taking place regularly, and business closures are beginning to happen here as well. -- http://tinyurl.com/8fx746
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Quite interesting how different govts. use unintended businesses to promote their POV, and then those businesses find out about it! -- http://tinyurl.com/8f6tkq
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. . . and y'all thought I was nuts? I'm reasonably reasonable compared to this! -- http://tinyurl.com/8vqm6b
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Keep your PC's updated with all the latest anti- pretty much everything stuff. -- http://tinyurl.com/7ctvaf
Hi Lana -
ReplyDeleteOoops, sorry, I didn't see your earlier post - busy for a couple of days. Sounds like you'll have some good fun with the g-kids. And nice about the Haw. win for their folks. We're going to bite the bullet and go there for our 25th with two other couples. Can't afford it, but we promised them 5 years ago we'd do it, and a promise is a promise. What the heck, you only live once.
Hope you have a great time in Dis. land.
.......
Dee said...JANUARY 18, 2009 6:52 PM
"Who knows? I guess I'll have to find out who Kinsella is??
...I did warn you I wasn't too political. ;) "
Hi Dee -
I went to his blog site once. I got a chuckle when I saw his video that day under: "THE DESPERATE SEARCH FOR A LONG-LOST LOVED ONE - Sunday, December 14, 2008, 01:27 PM"
http://warrenkinsella.com/index.php?m=12&y=08&d=14&entry=entry081214-201956
It quite a blog site, about him, his interests. Interesting guy.
I'm the same as you, not too political, but paying more attention these days.
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Hi Charles!
Thanx for the link. Ver-ry interesting, so I emailed it around.
Comrade, there's a further trick to posting with a name. As pointed out in an earlier post, Cookies have to be allowed. Under "Comment as" choose: "Name". Then "Preview" at which point sometimes it refuses. Ignore it, and just hit "Preview" again. It will show a preview. Then "Post Comment".
ReplyDeleteJust don't forget to change your Preferences first to accept cookies or your comment gets wiped out and you have to start over (so save a copy of your comment until it works).
Hi Go Green !
ReplyDeleteI just saw your comment too. Yeah! glad to see you here - I think Lana, Dee and I need some company, not to mention Herb. Hi Herb! I'm reading every other day or so, but had some projects distracting me. Enjoying everyone's links, but yes, they have to be copied and pasted into the URL.
So I'll paste our favourite new video here, because my husband and our friends our getting such a laugh out of this one. We were all talking about it at a party yesterday afternoon and tears were running down our faces
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=bNmcf4Y3lGM
Hi Barb, thanks for the update on using ones name or handle of choice. I experimented briefly on my tower computer recently and it offered name/url if I recall, so I just typed it in and no problem. I do have cookies enabled on both units that I use, and one has XP sp2 and the other has Win 2000 Prof. How Operating systems interact with Software can make a difference too. A big difference in some cases.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the new links folks. Lot's to keep me occupied over coffee this a.m.
ReplyDeleteWhat makes the European situation even more interesting is that many countries like Spain and Italy will see the number of retirement age people rise to as high as 50% in twenty years. In normal times this should result in full employment for those left working or more likely overtime. You have to wonder what fundimental problems are underlying their economies.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest underlying drain on every countries economy is the corporate free trade agreement that sucks jobs and then any wealth from industrialized countries and huge profits from slave labour in the developing world. With no international minimum wage to ensure every country becomes a market for the rest we are seeing now the beginning of what the true minimum wage is. One cent an hour!!!!
The story I am following now has three paths already. The American auto companies attempt to bring wages in line with Japanese companies. Ohio demanding absurd wage claw backs from their government workers. And finally Quebec raising minimum wage to $9 an hour.
Folks the corporations have sucked every penny of savings out of us and fooled many people around the world to borrow beyond their means to buy stuff they didn't need. Now they want us all to earn our cup of rice for a days work while we are owned by them to be used as they wish.
If we don't deal with this now our children will end up being real slaves to the corporations under the guise of a world government that emerges to save us from our problems. I normally ignore talk of a new world government but can it be coincidence that we see pensions wiped out, loss of the rest of our wealth with falling housing prices, food shortages in our stores across the country, and now a demand to roll our wages back to third world levels thus eliminating any last markets for anything. After all under free trade we have not created a single international market in any copuntry that has seen an increase in manufacturing except for the raw materials they need. A one way flow of money eventually dries up.
Courtesy of Norm Spector, here is an interesting view of economic stimuli - and why most of them won't work: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090116.wcostanford19/BNStory/specialComment
ReplyDeleteThe comments are interesting too: don't like the message, slay the messenger, no reasons need be stated. Didn't know that economics was just the continuation of politics by other means.
Busy to-day trying to repair my snowblower. Iron law: snowblowers only fail when you use them. Therefore, snowblowers only fail when you need them. Mother Nature and techology are bitches (sorry, Ladies.)
Wayupnorth,
ReplyDeleteIn 2005, 2006 my past experience led me to feel very uneasy about the direction of economics in North America. In 2007 I felt the ever spiraling consumerism and credit availability would bring us to a point of correction, similar to what I had seen in the past. I also grew increasingly unsure as to the extent of the correction. By the time 2008 rolled around, I knew it was going to be big. The rest of the year left no doubt.
One of the things that I have realized for a long time, is that society as a whole is far more exposed than it was in the more distant past, say 40's through 60's due to increasing dependence on big government and big corporations. One in the same, for all intents and purposes.
My main concern is this dependence, and the fact that so many in our modern society have few alternatives. We have become a society at the mercy of Big Brother. Overall, a more informed society, but nonetheless dependent on the trickle down effect.
This phenomenon certainly isn't new, but is made more severe by the nature of what our economic foundation has become. In keeping with what I have written before, so many people just don't have anywhere to go where they can still be somewhat productive at least and can contribute toward their own keep in a significant way. Besides not having the physical means, they just don't know how.
Interesting how when I started to write on blogs, I talked about how we have allowed Big Brother to take away our independence, particularly in times of difficulty such as these, and many reacted as if my thoughts were comic relief.
I wonder if they are still amused?
I coined a phrase some time ago to encompass the essence of things. Refined Feudalism.
Comrad,
ReplyDeleteYou and I have been tuned into the same wave length these past years as much of what I wrote I have written elsewhere on blogs like Garths.
I too have been ridiculed for saying that the dying monarchies are being replaced with more despotic monarchs in the form of CEO's. The biggest problem is the right wing nutcases that hate unions but don't realize that our distorted economy based on consumption requires that most people make more than they need to survive and today there are only union members, tradespeople and proffesionals that are driving our economy and if we start dropping their wages it will collapse completely. Ultimately the only solution will be going back to the traditional economy where we produce everything we need and trade our excess for other countries excess prodction. Unfortunately this will involve some sort of protectionism to rebalance wage and business regulation differences. Hopefully Obama will embrace a carbon tax which would allow us to sneak some of this under the radar.