The American middle-class overwhelming debt burden

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Thursday August 20, 2009 · 3:16 AM PDT

2009/08/20 · 03:16

Even if, as its seems to be the case, the global economy doesn't depend on the US growth to start to recover, it is clear that the evolution of the US economy in the decade to come will have a major impact on the future of the global economy and the place of the United States in the global economic and geopolitical balance of power. The fact that consumer spending represented more than 75% of the US GDP growth in the years 2000 to 2007 means its evolution will play a critical role in shaping the future of the Us economy. So, it's worth having a look at an interesting paper on Zero Hedge:

A Detailed Look At The Stratified U.S. Consumer

When analyzing the recovery prospects before the U.S. economy, no analysis is complete without a detailed look at the capacity of the U.S. consumer, that dynamo that has always managed to pull the economy out of whatever hole it managed to find itself over the past 80 years.

Melanchthon

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Thursday January 29, 2009 · 3:04 PM PST

2009/01/29 · 15:04

While the Obama administration is trying to bring the US back in civilisation by signing executive orders on the end of torture and the application of Geneva Conventions, some US generals seem not to have undertood that change has happened. US General Bantz J. Craddock, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) has issued orders to kill suspected opium producers at will.

Battling Afghan Drug Dealers: NATO High Commander Issues Illegitimate Order to Kill - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

In a classified document, which SPIEGEL has obtained, NATO's top commander, US General John Craddock, has issued a "guidance" providing NATO troops with the authority "to attack directly drug producers and facilities throughout Afghanistan."

Melanchthon

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Thursday January 22, 2009 · 2:06 AM PST

2009/01/22 · 02:06

The times they are a-changin’... The nationalization idea is gaining momentum. Along with with Jérôme's diary and the already mentioned papers from Paul Krugman and Willem Buiter, other voices promote it as an unavoidable policy:

FT.com / Philip Stephens - Shoot the bankers, nationalise the banks

For once, Gordon Brown is guilty of understatement. The other day the prime minister remarked on the rising public anger at the behaviour of Britain's banks. Unbridled rage would have been a more accurate description of the national mood.
On a recent visit to Washington I heard several people say that when the reckoning is finally made some big Wall Street figures are going to end up in jail. My impression is that many on this side of the Atlantic would like to see one or two British bankers join them.

Poll

1103 votes Show Results

What should governments do?

1103 votes Vote Now!

What should governments do?

Nationalise the whole banking system

430 votes

Nationalise only the "too big to fail"

285 votes

Nationalise only the walking deads

131 votes

Maintain the current shareholders and bail them out through an enhanced TARP

9 votes

Let the banks fail

136 votes

Create new banks

95 votes

Other (explain in comment)

17 votes

The Financial Times foresees an American economy meltdown!

Melanchthon

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Saturday February 23, 2008 · 3:24 AM PST

2008/02/23 · 03:24

On February 20, in the Financial Times, Martin Wolf finally acknowledged the situation of the American economy and the seriousness of the threats it is facing: America's economy risks mother of all meltdowns.

Quoting extensively Nouriel Roubini's February 5 publication The Rising Risk of a Systemic Financial Meltdown: The Twelve Steps to Financial Disaster, he paints a very scary picture of America's economic future.

Nouriel Roubini is a Professor of Economics at New York University's Stern School of Business and is also the co-founder and Chairman of RGE Monitor (access to the blog is possible through free registration). He was one of the few economists who predicted an American recession as soon as 2006. At the time, he has been dismissed as a bear and excessively pessimistic.

Melanchthon

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Thursday March 15, 2007 · 3:09 AM PDT

2007/03/15 · 03:09

Click on image to enlarge

Lucie Aubrac, one of the great figures of the French Resistance, has passed away yesterday at the age of 94.

Lucie Aubrac was born Lucie Bernard on June 29 , 1912 in the region of Mâcon. Before the war, she studied History at the Sorbonne University and the Ecole Normale, from which she received the highest teaching diploma. She then started to teach History.

As soon as 1940, she became involved in the Resistance in Lyon with her husband, Raymond Aubrac and she contributed to the founding of one of the first resistance movements, Liberation-South. Together with Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie, they founded one of the most important clandestine newspapers: Libération.

As the head of an armed commando, she carried out, among other actions, a military action to liberate her husband, then one of the main leaders of the French resistance, from the hands of SS-Hauptsturmführer Klaus Barbie, head of the Gestapo in Lyon. After the success of this operation, the couple left France in February 1944 to join de Gaulle in London and then in Algiers.

Melanchthon

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Tuesday March 13, 2007 · 3:37 AM PDT

2007/03/13 · 03:37

For those of us non-Americans who, like me, have been following the evolution of US politics and the Progressives' fight against the Bush/Cheney administration, the 2006 mid-term elections landslide has been a great relief, and I am grateful to the American progressives and, among them, my fellow Kossacks, for their contribution to the Bush/Cheney defeat. It will be an even greater pleasure when, as seems likely (I cross my fingers), Democrats will win the 2008 presidential election and get rid of the worst administration ever.

So, everything seems going all right? Well, not exactly. The hubris of the Bush/Cheney administration has brought such a maelstrom of failures, corruption and crimes, it has lead the world so close to a global disaster (it could still happen...) that, in comparison, any other administration will look like angels come on earth to save us. But I don't believe in angels.

RSS

The American middle-class overwhelming debt burden

US General John Craddock Issues Illegitimate Order to Kill

FT: "Shoot the bankers, nationalise the banks" (Updated)

The Financial Times foresees an American economy meltdown!

A tribute to a woman of exception: Lucie Aubrac

US Foreign policy: Coke-Republicans vs Pepsi-Democrats?