Important News - Dec. 17
By Daniel at 17 December, 2009, 3:54 pm
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Ron Paul Reacts To Bernanke As ‘Time’ Person Of The Year
Ben Bernanke is the most powerful man in the world because he controls the supply of money which is the reserve currency of the world. He can create a trillion dollars in secret without any monitoring by Congress. So there’s no transparency and I think he is more powerful than the President.
“The government is considering changing a law that requires 90 percent of the assets of the Petroleum Fund to be invested in U.S. Treasuries, which currently make up all of the fund.
“Our savings entrusted to the U.S. Treasury could be literally wiped out, throwing our people into even greater poverty and desperation,” said President Jose Ramos-Horta in a speech in Singapore, pointing to the growing U.S. deficit and weakening U.S. dollar as reasons for the move.”
“The National Inflation Association - http://inflation.us today named Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke ‘Villain of the Year 2009′. Although the mainstream media is widely praising Bernanke for preventing the next Great Depression, all Bernanke has done is create unprecedented amounts of inflation in unprecedented ways. When it costs $20 for a gallon of milk in a few years, Americans will have nobody to thank more than Bernanke. ”
“Chinese central banker Zhu Min said that the dollar is set to weaken further and it will become more difficult for nations to buy U.S. Treasuries.
“When the U.S. has to fund its deficit through the combination of issuing more Treasuries and printing more dollars, it is inevitable that the dollar will continue to weaken,†Deputy Governor Zhu said at a forum in Beijing today.
The official’s comments, which he said were a personal view, focused on the twin U.S. deficits.
The U.S. can’t expect other nations to increase their purchases of Treasuries to fund its entire fiscal shortfall, said Zhu, a former vice president of Bank of China Ltd.”
“Homeowners with mortgages of more than $1 million are defaulting at almost twice the U.S. rate and some are turning to so-called short sales to unload properties as stock-market losses and pay cuts squeeze wealthy borrowers.
“The rich aren’t as rich as they used to be,†said Alex Rodriguez, a Miami real estate agent with JM Group USA Inc., whose listings include a $2.9 million property marketed as a short sale because the price is less than the mortgage, leaving the bank with a loss. “People have reached the point where they can’t afford the carrying expenses of a $2 million home.â€
Payments on about 12 percent of mortgages exceeding $1 million were 90 days or more overdue in September…”
“With filings up 30 percent in two years, some fear system is overburdened”
“According to the Social Security Administration, which runs the two main federal disability programs, new claims for disability benefits rose nearly 17 percent nationwide in fiscal year 2009, to 3 million. Disability filings are projected to rise another 10 percent in fiscal 2010, to 3.3 million new claims.
These applicants aim to join the roughly 12 million Americans who received disability benefts at a total cost of $161 billion in fiscal year 2009, according to the latest figures from Social Security.”
“With so many new claims being filed, Allsup is worried that the Social Security system can’t handle them all.”
“Continuing claims increased by 5,000 in the week ended Dec. 5 to 5.19 million. The continuing claims figure does not include the number of Americans receiving extended benefits under federal programs.
Today’s report showed the number of people who’ve use up their traditional benefits and are now collecting extended payments jumped by about 144,000 to 4.73 million in the week ended Nov. 28. Seventeen of the 50 states and territories where workers are eligible to receive the government’s latest 13-week extension have begun to report that data, a Labor Department spokesman said. ”
- 7)Â County’s retirement liability tops $1 billion (Kern County, CA)
“Kern County’s retirement system now owes its retirees $1.2 billion more than it has.
An actuary told a Kern County Employees Retirement Association committee Wednesday it has only 69 percent of the money it needs to fund future pension obligations to its retirees and employees.”
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CITY OF BAKERSFIELD
“Unfunded liability: Bakersfield’s total unfunded liability — the amount of retiree benefits earned that exceed the city’s assets in the plan — will top $103 million, up from $98.6 million this year.”
“U.S. life insurers, a group led by MetLife Inc. and Prudential Financial Inc., may post $10 billion in losses tied to commercial real estate over the next three years, Moody’s Investors Service said.
Defaults on property loans and declines in commercial mortgage-backed securities will “dampen earnings,†the ratings firm said in a statement. The loss estimate was increased from $7 billion earlier in the year, Robert Riegel, managing director at Moody’s, said in an interview today. ”
- 9) New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority ($400 million deficit)
“New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved drastic service cuts on Wednesday as part of its new budget to close a deficit of nearly $400 million.
The service cuts would include closing two subway lines, cutting station agents, slashing weekend and overnight service, and forcing pupils to pay for their travel to school.”
“However, the company may also owe up to $3 billion because of guarantees Fairfield has made on individual apartment projects, the company said in court papers.
At least $1.5 billion of that potential debt is related to defaults on loans the company took from Capmark Finance Inc. and Wachovia Bank NA, said Fairfield restructuring adviser Andrew Hinkelman in court papers. ”
“Surging food prices in India threaten to trigger political unrest as concerns mount that rising inflation across the broader region will crimp Asia’s economic recovery.
Food prices soared by 19.95 per cent in the year to December 5, according to Indian Government figures published today.”
………………11A)Â Indian MPs protest against soaring inflation
“Members of India’s opposition parties on Wednesday staged raucous protests against skyrocketing inflation, forcing parliament to adjourn.
Members of both houses of parliament lambasted the ruling Congress party over soaring prices of food and essential commodities that have leapt on lower agricultural output following the worst monsoon in nearly four decades.
“Either the price rises must stop or the government must go,” Mulayam Singh Yadav of the left-wing Samajwadi Party told reporters”
“Mexico’s credit ratings may be cut further next year as the budget gap swells more than the government forecast, said Rogelio Ramirez de la O, the economist who predicted the 1994 peso devaluation.
The deficit will widen to at least 5 percent of gross domestic product next year, almost double the government’s forecast of 2.8 percent, as the economic slump erodes tax revenue, Ramirez said. Standard & Poor’s cut Mexico one level to BBB, the second-lowest investment-grade rating, on Dec. 14, three weeks after Fitch Ratings made the same move on concern falling oil output was driving up the deficit. ”
“Lackawanna County school districts will pay an additional $2.6 million to fund school employees’ pensions in the 2010-11 fiscal year, a Times-Tribune review has found.
Within two years, that increase is projected to jump to $20 million, and could fall on the backs of taxpayers.”
“Using a broader definition of unemployment, as much as 45 percent of the labor force has been affected by the downturn.
And that doesn’t include those who gave up the job search more than a year ago, a number that could exceed 100,000 potential workers alone. ”
(Link was posted at Nathan’s Economic Edge)
“California faces at least another year of recession, and the state budget is so far upside down that it’s now “more likely to default than not,” on some of its debt, a new economic forecast from California Lutheran University’s economists declares.
The director of Cal Lutheran’s new Center for Economic Research and Forecasting, Bill Watkins, cites the state’s budget problems, its high regulatory and operating costs and its deficit infrastructure as impediments to rapid recovery.”
(Link was posted at Pensiontsunami)
“The FDIC finalized a new regulatory capital rule Wednesday that will give lenders who package and resell mortgages and other loans a little breathing room when it comes to accounting for these assets on their books.”
“In testimony prepared for delivery before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Greenspan warned that the United States faces the threat of an unprecedented “fiscal crisis” because of record red ink.”
……….Gold is at  just over $1,100 after falling over $35,  the dollar is 1% higher and some guy just married a video game character.
- 18) Moody’s Warns Of ‘Social Unrest’ As Sovereign Debt Spirals (SolidSwede, pinecarr)
Britain and other countries with fast-rising government debts must steel themselves for a year in which “social and political cohesiveness†is tested, Moody’s warned.
The ceiling was set at $12.104 trillion dollars. The latest posting by Treasury shows the National Debt at nearly $12.135 trillion. A Treasury official said the department has some “extraordinary accounting tools” it can use to give the government breathing room. Were it not for those “tools,” the Government would not have the statutory authority to borrow any more money. It might block issuance of Social Security checks and require a shutdown of some parts of the federal government.
After predicting in his 2003 book “The Dollar Crisis” that the U.S. property bubble would trigger a global recession, Richard Duncan’s new book argues that governments will have to keep stimulating their economies because U.S. demand for cheap goods will not return. Duncan is part of a group of economists like Marc Faber, Nouriel Roubini and James Grant, who believe the financial crisis is a symptom of something structurally wrong with the US economy that will not be solved by the end of recession.
- Saxplayer00o1
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