American Empire Is Bankrupt

[Rudy]

There are countries discussing using other reserve currencies than the dollar. China is spending it's dollars quickly. The article concludes with the usual bleak predictions.

There are meetings being held Monday and Tuesday in Yekaterinburg, Russia, (formerly Sverdlovsk) among Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and other top officials of the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The United States, which asked to attend, was denied admittance. Watch what happens there carefully. The gathering is, in the words of economist Michael Hudson, “the most important meeting of the 21st century so far.” Chris Hedges
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090614_the_american_empire_is_bankrupt

[Rudy]

This is another attempt to try to explain the current state of the economy. It seems like every economist has a different explanation. The shadow lenders stopped buying the bank securities (bundled bank loans).

The retreat of the shadow lenders has created a credit freeze globally; and when credit shrinks, the money supply shrinks with it. That means there is insufficient money to buy goods, so workers get laid off and factories get shut down, perpetuating a vicious spiral of economic collapse and depression. To reverse that cycle, credit needs to be restored; and when the banks can’t do it, the Fed needs to step in and start “monetizing” debt.

So why don’t Fed officials just say that is what they are up to and put our minds at ease? Probably because they can’t without exposing the whole banking game. The curtain would be thrown back and we the people would know that our money system is sleight of hand. The banks never had all that money they supposedly lent to us. We’ve been paying interest for something they created out of thin air! Indeed, their credit money is less substantial than air, which at least has some molecules bouncing around in it. Bank credit exists only in cyberspace. Ellen Brown
http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/quantitative_easing.php

[Cato]

U.S. households have a net worth in the area of 55 trillion. The tyrants that rule over the empire may've spent themselves into the poorhouse, but the citizenry still has much left. :thumb001:

[SwordoftheVistula]

U.S. households have a net worth in the area of 55 trillion. The tyrants that rule over the empire may've spent themselves into the poorhouse, but the citizenry still has much left. :thumb001:

And they want every last dime of it. The money losses described in the 2nd article have come from private citizen's holdings: housing, the stock market, and bonds in bankrupt companies. The money increases have gone towards an increase in government, and to replace money lost by government controlled entities (AIG, banks, car companies). That's why they didn't try to fix the economy by just giving each person a check, that wouldn't mesh with their plan to gain control over the economy.