Grateful Dead

About the compound interest. Italian Bonds are trading at "junk" status (almost %7) today and the new Chinese Finance Minister last weekend emboldened his speech on the "slothful, indolent" post-industrial welfare societies that China is NOT going to invest in. Or, rather, he said more soothingly "conditions aren't correct to invest in". I don't know if the European Union is a good thing or not, with or without it's own currency. Many of the more socialist countries with higher taxes and more social programs and lower levels of debt are covering for the ones who do not have these attributes. Can it be done? I don't know how the US is still the United States.. Obviously, given the Earth's number and variety of social economic and ecological ills,all countries should be pulling together in emergency mode. That we're not at that level or recognition at this critical time tells you everything you need to know about the future. Wish I had something positive to end with. Here's one: Maybe I was wrong in my other post, The sky won't fall in Europe this week Think I'll go check in at the "Occupy Wall Street encampment at Dartmouth University. That would be the 1% saying to the 99% that they, the future Ivy League elite, are the 1%. The masters telling the slaves that theyare also slaves....

Wasn't the proposal put out already to cut out (dump) the compound interest on these loans? I am pretty sure it was-though if it goes through is another matter

one of the reasons why i abandoned my reply (and subsequent topic); personally, i'm too down at present to comment on such a vast, cavernous situation. it involves so many different branches, roots, tangents; a panoply, a myriad of core causes that for me, i don't think i'll arrive at a different destination that i haven't already before.but your frustration is well founded, gonzo. however, i don't believe TigerLilly was pointing any fingers. i'm retreating from this forum topic as there is too much at present around the world that is negative and i wish to concentrate on healing with form, energy and light.

Dump Papendreou and get this thing (European Sovereign Debt Crisis) back on track before the peasants have any illusions of power! Greece; Portugal; Spain; Italy; Ireland... Not unless the big boys say yes is there a solution to this mess. Does this beg the question of what will happen when servicing the interest on 15 Billion dollars of debt in the US? You bet it does. Just a matter of time. It's not your kids problem, it's your retirement problem, your old-age quality of life problem. Company didn't come through with the profit-sharing and pension? Conservatives getting ready to croak Social Security and Medicare? If i don't have any quality of life at 75 I don't plan to stick around. Yes, Tiger Lilly, I may be wrong about certain things in European finance but the numbers and compound interest don't lie. ~ Same old rat in a drain-ditch ~

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It seems some spammer hit almost every thread on this site! Took me ages to find this thread again. Anyhow, Gonzo, I am wishing that my grasp of finance was more solid, because I really want to debate with you on your last post. But when in such circumstances as this, when I cannot back my opinion with information, I will not go there. I can only say that my gut instinct does not believe that the euro will collapse. Or perhaps that is just a personal hope??? And the EU should NOT break up. I hope a way is found.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, a higher percentage of Americans is living in extreme poverty than they have ever measured before. In 2010, we were told that the economy was recovering, but the truth is that the number of the "very poor" soared to heights never seen previously. Back in 1993 and back in 2009, the rate of extreme poverty was just over 6 percent, and that represented the worst numbers on record. But in 2010, the rate of extreme poverty hit a whopping 6.7 percent. That means that one out of every 15 Americans is now considered to be "very poor". For many people, this is all very confusing because their guts are telling them that things are getting worse and yet the mainstream media keeps telling them that everything is just fine. Hopefully this article will help people realize that the plight of the poorest of the poor continues to deteriorate all across the United States. In addition, hopefully this article will inspire many of you to lend a hand to those that are truly in need. For a long time, there have been those that have warned that economic riots are coming to this nation. Anger and frustration with the economy and with our financial system have grown to unprecedented levels, and this has fueled the rise of the various protest movements that we have seen over the last couple of years. People are fed up and they want solutions. Unfortunately, anger and frustration can express themselves in dangerous and unpredictable ways. What we have seen in Oakland, in Seattle and in other major U.S. cities this week is only just the beginning of the massive economic riots that are coming to this country. Yes, "anarchists" were responsible for quite a bit of the violence that we have seen this week, but they were not the only ones involved. Some protesters were getting violent too, and there has also been quite a bit of police brutality. Of course the vast majority of Occupy Wall Street protesters do not want anything to do with violence and they recognize that violence is not the answer. But that is the thing with anger and frustration. It is hard to contain them in neat, self-disciplined packages. As the economy continues to get worse, the protests will grow and unfortunately so will the violence. You can preach the benefits of non-violence all day long to some people but they just will not get it. America has reached a turning point, and what we are seeing now is only just the beginning of the madness. In the years ahead we are going to see rioting that is going to be absolutely unprecedented. How does a country end up 15 trillion dollars in debt? 30 years ago, we were just a little over a trillion dollars in debt. How in the world do supposedly rational people living in "the greatest nation on earth" allow themselves to commit national financial suicide by allowing government debt to explode like that? It almost seems like there should be some sort of official ceremony in Washington D.C. to commemorate this achievement. It really takes something special to be able to roll up 15 trillion dollars of debt. To get to this level, we really had to indulge in some wild spending. For example, did you know that the U.S. national debt grows by more than 2 million dollars every single minute? All of this debt has fueled an unprecedented boom of prosperity for the last 30 years, but now that prosperity is drying up. Today, there are over 45 million Americans that are on food stamps. America is being deindustrialized at a blinding pace and there are not nearly enough jobs for everyone. Poverty is exploding all over the nation, and millions of families have lost their homes to foreclosure. Unfortunately, there are zero solutions on the horizon. The leaders of both major political parties seem even more clueless right now than in past years. We really could use some hope, but hope is in very short supply. The debt crisis in Europe just seems to get worse with each passing day, and it is yet another glaring example of why the EU is a mind blowing failure. The EU is made up of 27 nations that all have their own economic policies, and 17 of those nations are trying to use the euro as a common currency. But when you have 27 different governments pulling in different directions, it is inevitable that there are going to be major problems. The stunt that Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou just pulled is a perfect example of the nightmare that the EU has become. European officials worked really hard to pull together a deal to address the debt crisis (of course the deal was a total mess, but that is another matter), and a couple of days later Papandreou decides that Greece should hold a national referendum on it. It is so bizarre that it almost defies words. But that is what happens in the EU. Someone else always wants to have a say. Someone else always wants to throw a fly into the ointment. Someone else always want to throw in their two cents. The EU is a bureaucratic nightmare and this latest episode is yet another example of that fact. First the politicians in Europe come up with an idiotic plan that is going to make the financial crisis much worse, then Papandreou comes forward and pulls a stunt that shatters what little confidence the financial markets still had in Greece. That is why the EU should break up. It is a total failure and it is time that we all admitted it. Do you hear that sound? It is the sound of Europe being hit with a cold dose of financial reality. The air has been let out of the balloon, and investors all over the world are realizing that absolutely nothing has been solved in Europe. The solutions being proposed by the politicians in Europe are just going to make things worse. You don't solve a sovereign debt crisis by shredding confidence in sovereign debt. But that is exactly what the "voluntary 50% haircut" has done. You don't solve a sovereign debt crisis by pumping up your "bailout fund" with borrowed money from China, Russia and Brazil. More debt is just going to make things even worse down the road. You don't solve a sovereign debt crisis by causing a massive credit crunch. By giving European banks only until June 2012 to dramatically improve their credit ratios, it is going to force many of them to seriously cut back on lending. A massive credit crunch would significantly slow down economic activity in Europe and that is about the last thing that the Europeans need right now. If the deal that was reached last week was the "best shot" that Europe has got, then we are all in for a world of hurt. Do bad it wasn't nitrous instead of air out of the balloon.

“Chris Hedges made this statement in New York City’s Zuccotti Park on Thursday morning during the People’s Hearing on Goldman Sachs, which he chaired with Dr. Cornel West. The activist and Truthdig columnist then joined a march of several hundred protesters to the nearby corporate headquarters of Goldman Sachs, where he was arrested with 16 others.” (Read the whole story at nationofchange.org)

are you suggesting that certain States are to be punished for not towing Washington's line?obviously. U.S., the pathetic bullies in the playground. i wonder of you'll get the criticism i usually get. GR8fulTed where are you?