Dialectics of History

[Spiralman]

http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2009/03/ ... index.html

[John]

The world more and more appears to the rest of the world as if it were a single Kingdom where every province (ie country) is becoming more similar to one another and ruled by a distant and decadent aristocracy (upper and lower, ie banksters and US middle class) that uses taxes collected by the local landlords (ie, nat’l gov’ts) and vassal bourgeoisie (ie. Export oriented capitalists) from the local peasants and artisans in order to quarter troops and invasive economic overseers (eg. IMF and NGOs) in their own towns and villages.

This implies that the world as whole, is looking more and more as if it were 18th Century France, and America as a whole is the French monarchy on the eve of 1789.

Spiralman often has a Marxist view of the world.

John

[Spiralman]

Banks Walk Away On Foreclosures & America's Abandoned Cities & Commercial Real Estate 600% higher risk of default

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... sures.html
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... ities.html



These charts below show what all mortgages are worth depending upon which default risk category they are in.
Just pennies on the dollar.
Under conditions of overproduction every mortgage is a toxic asset on the banks’, and soon government’s, balance sheet.

Property abandonment is getting so bad in Flint that some in government are talking about an extreme measure that was once unthinkable -- shutting down portions of the city, officially abandoning them and cutting off police and fire service.

These are the charts for the ABX Home Equity index
http://markit.com/information/products/ ... raphs.html







In case you were wondering about Commercial Real Estate, here are the charts that show a steeply rising risk of mortgage default:
http://markit.com/information/products/ ... raphs.html

Risks have grown 600% on average across almost all risk categories, except strangely enough, the BBB- mortgages, which have only become 300% more risky.

[Spiralman]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... =worldwide

I read elsewhere that Japan spent 3 years of their GDP during the first several years of their crisis, and since the USD is world money (~65% of world money + credit), if America goes the same route, that would mean spending 3 X 0.65 X ~$50T =~ $100T.

Actual mileage may vary and this vehicle hasn’t been globally crash-tested.

Here’s a nice tally of the spending:

===========================================================
--- Amounts (Billions)---
Limit Current
===========================================================
Total $12,798.14 $4,169.71
-----------------------------------------------------------
Federal Reserve Total $7,765.64 $1,678.71
Primary Credit Discount $110.74 $61.31
Secondary Credit $0.19 $1.00
Primary dealer and others $147.00 $20.18
ABCP Liquidity $152.11 $6.85
AIG Credit $60.00 $43.19
Net Portfolio CP Funding $1,800.00 $241.31
Maiden Lane (Bear Stearns) $29.50 $28.82
Maiden Lane II (AIG) $22.50 $18.54
Maiden Lane III (AIG) $30.00 $24.04
Term Securities Lending $250.00 $88.55
Term Auction Facility $900.00 $468.59
Securities lending overnight $10.00 $4.41
Term Asset-Backed Loan Facility $900.00 $4.71
Currency Swaps/Other Assets $606.00 $377.87
MMIFF $540.00 $0.00
GSE Debt Purchases $600.00 $50.39
GSE Mortgage-Backed Securities $1,000.00 $236.16
Citigroup Bailout Fed Portion $220.40 $0.00
Bank of America Bailout $87.20 $0.00
Commitment to Buy Treasuries $300.00 $7.50
-----------------------------------------------------------
FDIC Total $2,038.50 $357.50
Public-Private Investment* $500.00 0.00
FDIC Liquidity Guarantees $1,400.00 $316.50
GE $126.00 $41.00
Citigroup Bailout FDIC $10.00 $0.00
Bank of America Bailout FDIC $2.50 $0.00
-----------------------------------------------------------
Treasury Total $2,694.00 $1,833.50
TARP $700.00 $599.50
Tax Break for Banks $29.00 $29.00
Stimulus Package (Bush) $168.00 $168.00
Stimulus II (Obama) $787.00 $787.00
Treasury Exchange Stabilization $50.00 $50.00
Student Loan Purchases $60.00 $0.00
Support for Fannie/Freddie $400.00 $200.00
Line of Credit for FDIC* $500.00 $0.00
-----------------------------------------------------------
HUD Total $300.00 $300.00
Hope for Homeowners FHA $300.00 $300.00
-----------------------------------------------------------
The FDIC’s commitment to guarantee lending under the
Legacy Loan Program and the Legacy Asset Program includes a $500
billion line of credit from the U.S. Treasury.

[Spiralman]

My Manhattan Project: How I helped build the bomb that blew up Wall Street

http://www.printthis.clickability.com/p ... erID=73272

[Spiralman]

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KD02Ak01.html

[Spiralman]

http://blogs.cfr.org/setser/2009/04/02/ ... nd-change/

[Spiralman]

China¹s Dollar Trap & China Vies to Be World¹s Leader in Electric Cars & Huge Solar Subsidies & Cheapest Solar & Myanmar

China’s Dollar Trap – Paul Krugman
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/opini ... .html?_r=1

China Vies to Be World’s Leader in Electric Cars
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/busin ... ic.html?em

China Pledges Huge Solar Subsidies - $2.94/W
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/ ... -5964.html

By 2012, Asia (including Japan) could produce 82 percent of the world's crystalline silicon solar cells, up from 71 percent in 2008,

China: 10 cents/kwh, world's cheapest solar energy?
http://www.china.org.cn/environment/new ... 504686.htm

China secures Myanmar energy route
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KD03Df03.html

China and Myanmar have signed an agreement for the construction of fuel pipelines that will transport Middle East and African crude oil from Myanmar's Arakan coast to China's southwestern Yunnan province - short-circuiting the long sea voyage past Singapore - while also drawing from Myanmar's own gas reserves.

Under the March 27 agreement, a gas pipeline will tap into Myanmar's reserves at the Shwe gas fields, and an oil pipeline will carry Middle East and African crude that is currently transported in tankers through the Malacca Strait to China.

Construction of the US$1.5 billion oil pipeline and the $1 billion gas pipeline will begin soon and is expected to be completed by 2013.

Aside from all of these articles being about China, how are they related?

Hint #1
4 out of 5 are about energy security.

Hint #2
First one is about being trapped on the US Dollar.

Answer:
China is compelled to export to earn USD’s so that it can spend them to purchase its principal USD-denominated import – oil.

When China can finally free itself from dependence upon oil, it will free itself of the need for exporting cheaply for USDs, and can more easily focus its economic muscle on developing its economy in a more balanced and internally beneficial way.

Solar power + Hybrid/Electric Cars = oil import substitution = freedom from USD

[Spiralman]

Obama to Bank CEOs: "My Administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks"

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/20871.html

As an interesting but related aside:
Barry Obama’s mom worked for Timmy Geithner’s dad at the Ford Foundation’s Microcredit Program for Indonesia.

[Spiralman]

The G20 moves the world a step closer to a global currency - Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

The world is a step closer to a global currency, backed by a global central bank, running monetary policy for all humanity.

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comm ... rency.html

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the [IMF] managing director, said in February that the world was "already in Depression" and risked a slide into social disorder and military conflict unless political leaders resorted to massive stimulus.

Social disorder and military conflict will happen irregardless of the stimulus, since the declining rate of profit and too low compensation of global labor is not going to be altered by the stimulus.

An overproduction crisis has to be resolved through radical transformations in industrial and financial organization that lead to greater profitability and higher compensation for global labor.

In addition, war is the “perfect” form of stimulus for an overproduction crisis that doesn’t add to overall productive capacity and thus avoids intensifying the factory and inventory overhangs for useful and semi-useful goods that already exists. And the end result of serious wars – civil or international - is the widespread destruction of production capacity and people’s lives, which leaves the victors as the possessor of the main remaining productive capacities.

But a world currency sure is what is necessary by the time the blood and dust settles; and the wars will in part be about who controls this world currency, world bank, world taxation system.

Will it remain effectively a US Monarchy ruling the world?
Or will it be a Constitutional Monarchy?
Or will it be a Global Parliament?
Or ?