Get a load of these year-to-date losses in the massive euro-banks that trade here in the U.S.:
Market Roundup
Deutsche Bank (DB), down 29.8%
Credit Suisse (CS), down 31.4%
HSBC Holdings (HSBC), down 14.8%
Barclays PLC (BCS), down 21.1%
UBS Group (UBS), down 20.6%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS), down 20.1%
Banco Santander (SAN), down 16.6%
These aren’t tiny banks, or obscure companies I’m cherry-picking to make a point. They are some of the largest banks in the world.
Slightly different methodologies yield varying rankings. But ranked by assets, Barclays is the sixth-largest in the world, Deutsche Bank is the eighth-largest, RBS is the 12th largest, and Santander is the 17th, according to research firm Accuity.
I bring this up because many analysts and portfolio managers who come on CNBC, or who are quoted in the print press, talk about the energy markets. They keep telling viewers and readers that outside of energy, things don’t look too bad.
|
|
| Credit Suisse was among the European banks hardest hit today in the markets. |
I completely disagree. I’ve been flagging the poor action in these and other mega-banks for several months, and warning that it represents a spreading sickness. It’s gnawing away at the credit and equity markets behind the scenes, and becoming too big of a problem to ignore.
Think about it: Deutsche Bank’s U.S. shares are now trading for less than they did at the depths of the Great Recession in 2008-09. Credit Suisse’s U.S. shares just sank to the lowest level since 2002.
The catalyst was another round of horrendous quarter results. CS lost a whopping 5.8 billion Swiss francs ($5.8 billion) in the last three months of 2015. That was a huge swing from the year-ago profit of 691 million francs ($695 million), and the biggest loss in any quarter since the credit crisis of 2008. It’s slashing another 4,000 jobs, and writing down the value of assets to reflect their diminished value.
There are a lot of reasons for the weakness. Negative interest rates are crushing margins. European banks are large relative to the size of their home economies, making it tough to bail them out if they get into trouble.
In addition, bad loans have been piling up and opaque derivatives bets are raising concerns among investors. Many of these banks are also paying out billions of dollars in fines and penalties as part of huge settlements related to market manipulation, sketchy mortgage practices, and other alleged transgressions.
| Â “Add it all up and you have the potential for Black Swan-style events.” |
Add it all up and you have the potential for Black Swan-style events – bank meltdowns that shake confidence even further. After all, it happened with U.S. banks here during our credit crisis. So at the risk of sounding repetitive, this is not the time for placing aggressive upside bets. It’s a time for caution and prudent risk-protection measures.
Let me hear your opinions now. What’s dogging these European mega-banks and how concerned should we be here in the U.S.? Are you getting flashbacks to 2007-09, when several U.S. lenders and banks plunged in value, or is it just me? What do you think the stock and bond markets will do in response? The discussion section is further down on this page.
|
With the incredible volatility in January showing no sign of fading in February, several of you took the time out to comment on what’s behind it all — and what’s coming next.
Reader Donald L. said: “You’re quite right about central banks. They seem to think they can push on a string to affect economies. All of them are acting as if they are in a glass bowl and can affect everything inside when, in fact, they are buffeted by outside factors, especially incompetent governments over which they have little influence and no control.”
Reader Anthony G. picked up on that thread, saying: “Mario Draghi is bluffing concerning additional stimulus. I believe his tool box is empty. The rest of the eurozone may no longer be willing to play his game.”
And Reader Gordon added: “Mario D. is only an emperor in disguise. He has no clothes. He will only go deeper into negative interest rate territory.
“The same crap orchestrated by the Bank of Japan lasted three whole days and then the yen appreciated again. Why? God only knows as their financial situation is the worst in the world.”
Reader John also said: “Who but crooked banksters and politicians could ever conclude that these massive powers belong in the hands of a private banking cartel? The piper will be paid for mindless monetization, debt and spending. No amount of central banker razzmatazz will do anything but delay the inevitable misery to come.”
Lastly, Reader Jim said: “Von Mises flatly declared that there is no means of avoiding a final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The only alternatives are whether the crisis comes quickly as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total collapse of the currency system involved. If he was right, and it’s my guess he was, it doesn’t matter what the charts say. The only place to be is gold and silver.”
Thanks for sharing your comments on this important topic. It’s not just a philosophical debate we’re having on the Fed and other central banks. It’s one that directly impacts our wealth and investment strategies.
If central bankers have lost control of the markets, as I believe they have, you can’t do the same thing you did the last six-plus years. You can’t BUY into rallies driven by central bank policy moves. You have to SELL into them, or re-load with short/inverse ETF/put option positions, because they will be followed by fresh legs down.
Any additional thoughts on this topic? Then don’t hold them in. Share them on this website for your fellow investors to absorb.
|
Drug company officials got grilled in Congress today over the large price hikes they’ve been instituting. Officials from the Food & Drug Administration, Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX), and Turing Pharmaceuticals either testified or pled the Fifth in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
“Big Oil” is taking the axe to big yields. ConocoPhillips (COP) slashed its quarter payout all the way down to 25 cents a share from 74 cents a share. The firm also said it lost $3.5 billion in the fourth quarter, and lowered its capital expenditure target for 2016 to $6.4 billion from $7.7 billion.
* The airbag recall wave shows no sign of receding, with Honda Motor (HMC) becoming the latest company to announce a huge round of recalls. The Japanese automaker is targeting 2.2 million vehicles in the U.S. with air bags made by supplier Takata Corp. A whopping 50 million cars and trucks worldwide have now been swept up in the mess.
On the economic front, initial jobless claims rose by 8,000 to 285,000 in the most recent week. The smoothed-out, four-week moving average has been climbing steadily, signaling some weakening in the labor market.
What do you think about drug pricing? Should Congress try to pass legislation aimed at curbing increases? Will Big Oil be forced to cut dividends further, or can the super-majors mostly ride out the turbulence hitting smaller energy companies? Do you have any thoughts on the state of the job market? Let me hear your answers to these questions in the comment section below.
Until next time,
Mike Larson
P.S. In today’s topsy-turvy stock and bond markets, there is one investment vehicle that can insulate you from market volatility. In fact, it would be accurate to say that this strategy BENEFITS from times of global chaos. Boris Schlossberg and Kathy Lien have prepared a special report to show you exactly how to profit with this strategy. It’s called “A World on the Brink,” and could prove to be the most important report of 2016.
If you have any money invested in the stock market, or are even thinking about investing, it’s imperative you read it now.
Click here now to get your vital information.
Recommended Articles by Mike Larson:
Mike Larson graduated from Boston University with a B.S. degree in Journalism and a B.A. degree in English in 1998, and went to work for Bankrate.com. There, he learned the mortgage and interest rates markets inside and out. Mike then joined Weiss Research in 2001. He is the editor of Safe Money Report. He is often quoted by the Washington Post, Reuters, Dow Jones Newswires, Orlando Sentinel, Palm Beach Post and Sun-Sentinel, and he has appeared on CNN, Bloomberg Television and CNBC.
{ 67 comments }
I completely agree! U.S banks will feel the contagion soon. Time to short XLF.
It’s too late right now to short XLF; and the individual banks. They are way below their 200 day MA’s and could bounce back temporarily at any time.
This economy is living on borrowed time its ready to cradh any day now.even as the unemploimant is going down witch i dont believe its all fabricatet government manipulate theese figures any way they want
.
While banking sector stock valuations here in the US have been impacted (BofA, for example, at $13-something/share, is as low as I’ve seen in years), and I don’t profess to know much about European-style banking (except I did follow DB for a minute and walked quickly away due primarily to the number of past and pending fines, violations, etc.), I try not to confuse banks (like BAC, WFC, etc., or even regionals like RF, etc.) and the Goldman Sachs of the world. Just because our government converted these investment banking houses (not traditional banks0 to bank charter status during the late 2007-to-early 2009 (my dates) recession, so they could regulate them, supposedly, by the same standards they’ve regulated “real” banks forever, didn’t make them banks. You’ve never walked into a branch of Goldman Sachs or AIG or whomever and asked for a car loan, or opened a MMA…because they don’t have those products…because they’re not banks. Their large investment firms, period. While the BACs and WFCs and whomever of the world, our world, certainly participate in leveraging, derivatives, currency exchange, etc., big time, they also have retail customers, insurance brokerage, trust services, etc., etc., etc., that serve the public…our public. The market, right now, is driven down more by sentiment than reason or fundamentals. In the end, fundamentals always win. Personally, I’m very, very close to buying into BAC on the dip (and, personally, I don’t even care for BAC as a customer…but as a shareholder…different deal). My point being, be careful (if you choose to) in painting everything with the word “bank” in its name and/or description with the same brush. They’re not all the same color. One man’s opinion.
By the time this bear market is finished, BAC will probably be trading at a price of 4 or lower.
I agree
Lower ….if it even survives.
Hey Mike,
I’m curious as to when interest rates on bonds are going to ‘explode higher’, like you and Martin have been calling for (continuously) since 2007 ?
HSBC (for example) is not down any more than most widely held securities in multiple industries trading on the global markets including the US markets. HSBC is extremely global in it’s reach compared to many other banks, and pays a very handsome dividend. … The large U.S. banks have been propped up by Fed policy, otherwise their somewhat meager profits would have resulted in similar results to that of the Euro based banks.
The Borrower is the servant (slave) of the Lender King Solomon said. With negative interest rates the bank cartel try to force the saver into stock and bonds where these market volatility can wipe them out in a blink of an eye. Investors need to short these institutions (with clever hedging strategies as a safety net) until these banks became small enough to fail again.
It is time to get proactive, to stay reactive will cause a lot of barefoot pilgrims! Fortune favor the brave!!
the Super Mega Deflation / Market Crash / Depression and just add the GIANT WORMWOOD 9th or 10th Planet aka ” The Destroyer” or Nibirus … just pray to GOD to have mercy on us and to America to Return to GOD asap ..
Interesting thoughts…..suggest you read book, the “Wormwood Trumpet”.
Ed right on!!!
Let us not overlook or forget about credit card debt to the banks, oh yes, and the auto loans made with “Cash For Clunkers” as a down payment. The maintenance is very expensive for our new middle class. SO, the banks will take it on the “””CHIN” AND THE BANKRUPTCY COURTS WILL BE “JAMMED”.
As I travel around GA, FL, & AL, I see multitudes of cars, boats, trucks, four wheelers in front of homes with for sale signs…Signs of the times..
About the drug companies, there is no need to price police them. Just free all alternative non-patentable medicines, supplements and cures (eg light and others). Let the population decide via market forces.
Would you buy expensive thyroidal Pharma preparations or cheap $30/m Iodine Thyroid boosters? (Which incidentally taken with synergistic supplements also ameliorates Type2 diabetes, or prevents it from happening).
See how quickly they’ll have to compete without their enforced monopolies. In a competitive market, the answer to high prices are high prices, the answer to low prices are low prices! The extension of Economics 101 supply and demand curves.
Careful what you ask for, Ed, I think the odds favor God going the other way – why would he want to save the banks or the bankers. I’d go with the recommendation to buy gold and silver.
Yuppy yup yup. Put your helmets on and fasten your seat belt . Big changes coming…Maybe!
The euro banks going down at the same time that the euro is rising against the dollar. A false move is going on in the euro currency. Something may really have to give.
This divergence has me wondering as well
No lie can live forever. The market will soon correct this divergence.
Agreed.
Congress and the Administration should stay away from price controls. We need less government, not more. IMV the major problem is the huge backlog at the FDA that has hindered the availability of cheap generic drugs.
It is criminan that drug companies can charge anything they want for their drugs and the gov’t cannot negotiate prices for Medicare with the drug companies who spend millions on lobbying. In most other countries there are some price controls on medicines but here we pay anything the pharmaceutical industry demands. It is disgusting!
I saw the former Turing CEO testify or more accurately not testify and smirk at the questioning government representatives. What a reprehensible guy. No ethics, no character. I hope they will convict him of his evil deeds at his previous company.
COP slashing their dividend may well be the first of many of the major oil companies to do so. One thing to remember is that COP is the Exploration and Production part that remained after the spinoff of PSX, the refining and marketing segment of the original Conoco Phillips conglomerate. Since COP’s profitability is directly correlated to the price of oil without the benefit of downstream refined fuels sales, it should be no great surprise that this dividend cut happened. The other major oil producer and refiners should have more staying power but are far from immune to dividend cuts.
These are tough times for oil companies. The only dividend I would consider safe is Exxon (XOM). Jim
There will be an opportunity to make a fortune in these stocks but I don’t think we are even close to being there. Jim
I got to throw this in just for a little humor; When oil went bust in the eighties one popular bumper sticker was,,, “Please God”, “Let There Be Another Oil Boom, I Promise Not To Pi$$ It Away Next Time”. (<:
Mule
I still have one on my truck. It didn’t help! Jim
ROFL, you got a good sense of humor.!! (<:
Mule
Hi Mike
I read yesterday in the London Telegraph (on line) that some punters over there believe that some European banks are approaching a buy signal. Amazing isn’t it. No one seems to look at the non performing loans or the size of the debt exposes some of these banks have. There’s an interlocking relationship between many of them exposed to unrepayable debt from the southern countries. Once debt forgiveness is implemented for Greece this will show the complete mess the banks over there are in. Of course there is the default insurance carried by some of our banks. Interesting times?
Howard
Snake oil needs a salesman
The government as usual went about medical reform bassackwards. They should have started with how medical is delivered, not paid for. Most other countries have price controls on drugs, not here which is why US based pharma companies have been bought at high prices by foreign firms, here the sky is the limit. All Obamamiscare did was open the nation’s piggy bank to big pharma and medical care companies. Here, but not overseas, they can spend billions buying our politicians and charge it back to us. We have the best politicians money can buy. When companies put rocket boosters under the price of their patent medicine, the FDA needs to drastically speed up approving generic formulations of same. Oh well in the near future President Trump will bring some common and business sense to Congress. And yes Obamamiscare does have death squads, Medicare turned down a surgery that might have saved my wife’s life as she was too old for it to be cost effective. I had already turned it down because i figured that A) she had been through enough, and B) The surgery in her condition would have killed her, and C)the lung infection was getting worse. I got the news two days after she died in her sleep. I sincerely hope Clueless Leader gets the same treatment someday as I got.
Even generics can come under control of uncaring moneybags who raise the prices 5000X. Obamacare is a good argument for the kind of programs other countries have – though they have bureaucratic hassles and such also.
Think of what has happened to the number of generic drug manufacturers vet the last few decades. They’ve been bought out by the big drug companies who quietly shut down lines and ceased operations. Most retail OTC formulations are so watered down having removed active ingredientsthey have no effect. Do no harm means do nothing.
Mike i am interested on currency trading . i am a retire 76 years all Tailor i willing to learn new ideas i like to enrrol for to years,in 4 paimen i provably start with $ 2500. 00 is that ok look forward to your fib back Thanks Vicente.
Just keep one thing in mind, the higher the debt the growth will not be sustained.This could be a vicious bear market.
Usually the market forces determine prices in the economy; however, big Pharma and the insurance companies are so tightly in cahoots that the people for whom the system was supposed to be designed are left behind. YEs, in this case I am all for steep price controls on Big Pharma. Additionally, I would force the insurance companies to have to cover ALL medical practices and products from all dispensaries and be prohibited for turning people down for procedures that will enhance peoples life – perceived or not!
“It’s not too much of a stretch” Obama said, “to say that some of the only people in America who are going to work the same job, in the same place, with a health and retirement package for 30 years are sitting in this chamber.” And deed bellied laughs echoed through the halls of the U.S. Capitol after this part of the State of the Union address.
Question: Why do we keep sending these a**holes back time after time to do their dirty work on us?
Answer; Selfish cowardice.
Mule
It’s the pork. As long as the rep brings home the bacon to his or her district they send them back whether or not it’s good for the rest of the country. The more seniority, the more pork. Ninety five per cent of incumbents win reelection. Why would they do anything to change that? E.G. A supposed conservative like John Boehner added four and a half trillion to the national debt and retired a millionaire. Jim
jaime fort pour again money
They are sent back to DC by the 50% of Americans and illegals who do not work and suck on the teets of the ones they send back…!
Looking around the sectors it’s hard to find anything that has held up recently, energy, tech, financials, big pharma, commodities, transport’s, etc…all doing horribly, the only things working are utilites, and some consumer staples like MO are doing well. Select Safe haven that pay a good dividend. Even in much of the stocks that are holding up, they too look like they are teetering and will fall too, as is the case in bear markets. Those few sectors can not hold up the major indices, I continue to believe as Mike that a much larger market correction is at the doorstep. Unlike Larry though I think this correction will last over a year, and no bottom will be formed for sometime after that.
Try gold. Richmond Mines (RIC)- new high! Jim
Yes to gold
Is there any real economy? What are assets – liabilities. When the answer is 0 what does it tell us when the answer is below 0. Will the world economies be required to monetize all the assets of the world to make the debt in line with the asset evaluations, and how will this happen.
The goose that started the world wide economic system seems to have been the massive destruction of the world wars, and the rebuilding of the entire planet, and it appears that this is nearly complete, and the only way to revitalize economies is thru trade cheating thru devaluations of currencies, to keep people working, but this appears to be a Band-Aid approach and no one can work for a 0 wage and still eat. The answer is not going to be something pretty, and I hope sensible governments can be responsible, and let the thing collapse, so we can start a fresh cycle. I think conclusions can be drawn, but they will not be pretty.
Yup. Gold and Silver and/or mines of the same as well as shorting the firms that are going down look like the best bet. So Mike, should we look at the Weiss ratings and just short the firms with an E ? Or what would be the best way to choose what to short?
If a bank crisis in Europe does occur, how would the euro react?
The global size and reach of financial derivatives is near judgement day. I’m normally a perma bull, but now very nervous. Everyone sees the elephant in the room and is just waiting for the “other guy” to make the first move for the exit.
The big banks in Europe, as well as the big banks in this country, are now bigger than when they were declared “too big to fail” during 2008. The big banks are still paying billions in fines and settlements for corrupt practices. Dodd-Frank regulations forced certain corrupt practices out of the big banks. Unfortunately, these exact same corrupt practices then moved to the shadow banking industry in this country (largely unregulated), and the shadow banks are now engaged in the exact same corrupt practices (subprime lending) that brought down the big banks in 2008 with real estate. Now, however, instead of residential real estate, shadow banks have targeted oil fracking, credit card lending, commercial real estate, and auto lending. Surprise. Surprise. These new bubbles have begun to burst. We should not be surprised that the stocks of banks and financial services firms are taking it on the chin right now. As these new bubbles continue to burst, the world wide economy is being taken down as well … just like in 2008. The financial outlook for the developed world could hardly be more dire.
Just an aside. Your read along with a few others which I won’t name have helped guide me in my personal retail investing. Mid-year 2015 I was guided to look out for an unbalanced market so I got out with a 29% profit. Slowly I rebalanced and was up 17% in December when the pros were talking about the lack of logic. The fundamentals for those companies that I held were good, but just short of analyst expectations. I kept thinking about going to cash, but no. I held on because the companies were good. I lost 10% before I went to cash. Thanks for keeping me in the game.
Thanks Sir
The inevitable outcome of debt is to return to the lender! The injection of cheap debt money finds its way onto the global equity and debt markets as investors seek returns, and once the author of the debt starts raising interest rates, this money starts flowing back to where it came from. As the perceived value of the financial markets increased when the debt was made available, so too will the perceived value decrease once the money is called back!! The effects will spread like wild fire from market to market as all markets stand to loose the money that once pushed them higher and higher. On which side of the market will you be sided as the flow of money reverse?
You are talking about “financialization” of the economy and the de-financialization thereof, -correct?
Please explain this process to me!
Correct! Surges in borrowing are caused when Central Banks (The Fed and recently the ECB) lower the costs of borrowing, resulting in an expanding money supply. The increasing money supply ultimately results in rising inflation (Rising prices or more suitably a decrease in purchasing power), which manifests itself in the financial markets as investors flock into the market after an experience of “rising headline earnings” by various corporations listed across the board. This effect will be profound in the financial sector as these institutions have the advantage of investing and trading in financial derivatives apart from spot instruments which tends to “multiply” the effects of the perceived increases in financial prosperity.
The raising of interest rates will in turn lead to a decrease in borrowing as borrowing costs rise, which creates an environment where new money created won’t be sufficient to deal with the servicing of old loans. This ultimately leads to a decrease in the money supply and a period of deflation which results in “falling headline earnings” reported across the board. Emotions soon run high as investors start extracting capital from the markets seeking other stable environments for their capital. The result = falling prices in the financial markets of which the financial sector will experience this loss magnified due to the pyramidal structure of financial derivatives. Needless to say we are facing a deflationary environment and the time is now to go short on especially financial sector stock, thereby collecting a piece of the funds whilst it flows back to the Fed!!!
Degrading the currency by ordinary citizens used to be a capital offence Governments believe that is their sole prerogative. Essentially it simply robs those of us with assets. Our society has to find a way of punishing such abuse.
Mike,
Can’t you see it all rigged, just look at reserve fractional banking nobody mentions it, its fraud, but they get away with it and look at the mess America has got all the countries in there failed foreign policies?
No one speaks about peace.
The eventual end game is to crash the entire world monetary system and start a new one based in Brussels and funded by the worlds carbon taxes that have absolutely nothing to do with emissions reduction which is a multi billion dollar world scam ….The left wing sheeple fall for it like flies on a freshly laid cow patty …
Dear Sir I’d like to thank you for yr. free offer as subscribing is waste if we do not follow daily as we are very busy from early morning till night in work and travel and cannot follow whole the media with this offer it will be great to follow thx . Again and God bless you
Kindest regards
I just finished reading an article by Michael Lewitt that Deutsche Bank holds a total of $64 trillion in derivatives, which is 4 times bigger than the GDP of the entire euro zone, and much of this is in OTC derititives; this situation alone could trigger a worldwide crisis. Unfortunately there are many other banks holding incredible amounts of these same instruments, and they will not be interested to bail another bank out. So when the first domino falls there will be too many “too big to save” in my opinion.
Should congress pass more legislation aimed at curbing increases in drug pricing, you ask? Well, that would only make sense if you thought Obamacare curbed medical costs.
Will big oil be forced to cut dividends further? Well yes, at least until oil based Soveriegn Funds can curb divestiture.
Do I have any thought on the state of the jobs market? Well yes, I think it sucks for most people.
A few thoughts:
1.Turing Pharm. certainly within “legal” rights to set price for this life-saving drug. However, I see this as a finesse the queen move to force govt to pay for the drug or citizens die and the focus will be shifted to public outcry demanding govt pay. The CEO apparently has no social or moral conscience. Someone will tweak the formula enough to skirt the patent and hopefully make this therapy available to those in dire need.
2. Beef now costs on avg $4.99 lb. just for plain ground beef; 4-5 years ago it was $1.59, milk now over $2.59 gal. when it was $1.79 gal., package sizes have changed from 16 to 15 to 13 oz., and so forth while prices have risen by at least $1.00 per pkg if not more for same item 4-5 years ago, yet, we have “not had inflation”!!?? Unemployment claims going up, no surprise, the holiday season is over.
3. When the paper money becomes worthless, will govt allow citizens to keep gold and silver? Doubtful. Is “The New World Order” being created by The World Bank bankrupting every country after the govts have depleted all the assets of their citizens? A few countries’ currencies sit in their basket as stable while others are unstable, eventually the entire “basket” will become unstable. Agree with comments earlier, a major “reset” is coming. This time I don’t see how a world war will create economic recovery as has happened in history.
Gentlemen,
We’ve been here before…. It was in the run up to 1929 another time, like 2007 and now, when the 3% have as much wealth as the 97%… Many are drinking at the fountain of the 3% and believing their propaganda that “it is the other guy’s fault”… That said, it was not this way before 1981 and the Republican Revolution…
Maybe, enough will wake up to, once again, throw the Conservative Scoundrels (who get their donations from the 3% or their Political Pacs) out of office… But, if not, the next Stock Market Crash will finally bring even the most dimwitted to their senses… At least that is what the “Greatest Generation”, our Grandparents, did after 1932…..
There is something very wrong with politicians forcing their societies into risky investments!
In the first place they didn’t have the foresight to see any of the bubbles they were creating and promoting while many clearly saw these risks. They removed prior controls on making big mistakes with taxpayers money at exactly the wrong time.
They have continually created a more significant problem by increasing debt exactly when they should have been tightening their belts and managing better. They have run without budgets thinking they are more intelligent about economies exactly when they should be doing otherwise as risk increases.
They’ve been sticking with the same keynesian thought process even though it’s obvious it’s not working and there are much better economic theories, which they and they’re economists aren’t studying. In other words they are running blind and ignoring the signs they are wrong when they should be studying.
Take a look at the World Debt Clocks. USA about to reach $19 trillion shortly. Estimated unfunded debt (student loans, medicare, housing, banks) suggested as closer to $200 trillion. Private debt on credit cards has risen hyperbolically and exceeds all previous levels of debt. Debt to GDP is now 105%. Population 325 million.
The EU has an admitted debt of 12.6 trillion euros for 500 million people, while the UK is £1.6 trillion for an alleged population of 62 million. This doe not include the off balance sheet private finance initiatives for hospitals, roads and other infrastructure. Nuclear power stations at 50 billion a copy, Trident replacement … the list is endless.
Europe has just admitted over 1 million refugees, still rising. Even if you allow only 10 euros a day for meals and 10 euros for accommodation the bill amounts to,600 million a month. One estimate last week suggested 50 billion a year was likely.
Given that Mario Draghi was a director of Goldman Sachs, as he hastens to explain now, he had nothing to do with the alleged budget doctoring to enable Greece to join the EU, it gives rise to concern what these unelected, self opinionated, unaccountable, European Commissioners will do next.
I join the general consensus, retribution and Armageddon are but a few short months away
If you look at any real debt chart, you will realize that our debt began to go parabolic from Reagan forward….. Just as it has happened in the past under Republicans when they lower the taxes on their contributors the wealthiest 3%…… Then they bring a Crash and Depression and it gets worse…… Check out the 1920’s through the 1930’s, aye?….. :(
Congressional hearings due to price gauging by BigPharma? shows how much Congress cares about you or I. they figure if they can ensure you poison yourself to death cheaper, you’ll just be happy and thank them by voting for them again. what Congress should be doing is revamping the entire health system. top to bottom. from the medical schools and AMA on the take from BigPharma right on down to your general practitioner who was brainwashed in those same medical schools. it’s common knowledge (to those who are interested) that BigPharma report fraudulent study results to push through their new “blockbuster” drugs and vaccines. the Bankers are frauds, BigPharma executives are licensed-to-kill murderers. while i have every bit of respect for trauma surgeons, your average MD is nothing but a brain-washed putz that if asked to go out on the street and run a few miles would probably keel-over dead. Congress should be grilling BigPharma over their products killing 250K people per year in the US alone. and those 250K people are just the people they couldn’t explain away by other factors. that’s 5x the amount of people than all those sent to their deaths during the entire Vietnam conflict… PER YEAR! legal, govt-backed genocide…Congress is proving yet again that they’re just as bad as the people sitting in front of them. it’s staring everyone right in the face, yet very few people even notice. now, go take another blood pressure or statin pill and wash it down with a glass of tap-water because you don’t know how to feed yourself, or how to read a label on 95% of the food on the grocery store shelves that isn’t fit for human consumption, that i wouldn’t feed to my dogs.