George Washington’s Blog According to the CIA Fact Book, the world economy was $54.62 trillion (at official exchange rates) in 2007. You’ve probably heard that the amount of credit default swaps (CDS) is greater than the world economy. This is confirmed by the Bank for International Settlements – the official organization which tracks derivatives – […]
Monthly Archives: October 2008
I hate to break it to ya but it ain’t going to happen. Somehow, when I speak with NZ farmers they all seem to think that if America is no longer the big boy than we will sell our produce to China. This is not going to happen. Why? America spends or used to spend […]
The parasite has finally run out of its food source. But the crisis is not in the economy itself, which is fundamentally sound – or would be with a proper credit system to oil the wheels of production. The crisis is in the banking system, which can no longer cover up the shell game it […]
New Zealand businesses are taking significantly longer to pay their bills as they get hit by the country’s recession and the global credit crisis, according to credit reporting company Dun & Bradstreet. “Any further increase in payment periods could have severe detrimental effects,” D&B’s New Zealand general manager John Scott said today. The company’s latest […]
Confidence among technology investors in the United States has collapsed, and the fall-out from the credit crunch will spill over into start-up businesses in New Zealand, according to the heads of angel investment and venture capital associations. But there could be a silver lining for investors who may look back on this time as one […]
Takeover deals for Steel & Tube and Strategic Finance have collapsed because of the global credit crisis. OneSteel, Australia’s second-biggest steelmaker, has pulled out of its $175 million takeover bid of New Zealand-based Steel & Tube Holdings, citing increased market volatility. On the same day, the global financial crisis has derailed a joint venture bid […]
ASSOCIATED PRESS, By MADLEN READ Citigroup Inc. suffered its fourth straight quarterly loss and cut another 11,000 jobs, drubbed again by the relentless downturn in housing and turmoil in the financial markets. The New York-based bank said Thursday it lost $2.8 billion, or 60 cents per share, in the third quarter, compared with a profit […]
Troubled Wall Street bank Merrill Lynch said its losses more than doubled in the third quarter, to 5.2 billion dollars, on write-downs of nearly 10 billion dollars. The beleagured investment bank, being bought by Bank of America, saw losses widen to 5.2 billion dollar in the July-September period from 2.2 billion dollars in the 2007 […]
Greg Palast on voter fraud in the USA
By TIM PARADIS, AP Business Writer Wed Oct 15, 6:31 PM ET NEW YORK – Investors agonizing over a faltering economy sent the stock market plunging all over again Wednesday after a stream of disheartening data convinced Wall Street that a recession, if not already here, is inevitable. The market’s despair propelled the Dow Jones […]
(NaturalNews) The world is faced with a global fertilizer shortage, experts say, placing even more strain on food prices. In the last few decades, an increasing reliance on industrial fertilizers has led to surging demands for the largely fossil-fuel-based products. Between 1996 and 2008 alone, fertilizer increased by 56 percent in less industrialized nations and […]
Are you ready for the policestate acomin. Plans for a massive expansion of ‘Big Brother’ state surveillance to cover every phone call, email, text message and internet visit in Britain were unveiled yesterday. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith claimed that storing details of individuals’ communications was vital to prevent further terrorist atrocities. Activities which will be […]
How revolting. New ‘strip search’ full body scanners being trialled in Australia will show people’s private parts, officials have admitted. But to spare their blushes, the faces of passengers will be blurred. Domestic travellers leaving Melbourne airport over the next six weeks will be asked to test the new security scanners that can see through […]
Why were we in Afghanistan again? Porak, Afghanistan – After a gang of thieves had continually terrorised an Afghan neighbourhood near here months ago, locals decided they’d had enough. “We complained several times to the government and even showed them where the thieves lived,” says Ahmad, who goes by one name. But the bandits continued […]
Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks plunged the most since the crash of 1987, hammered by the biggest drop in retail sales in three years and growing doubt that plans to bail out banks will keep the economic slump from deepening. Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. tumbled more than 12 percent as oil fell […]
Numbers becoming meaningless as Paulson defends government intervention Steve Watson Infowars.net Wednesday, Oct 15, 2008 The total potential cost of the financial bailout to the U.S. taxpayer is already rapidly approaching $5 trillion, over seven times as much as the meaningless $700 billion bailout bill figure. Analysts have previously marked out the $5 trillion figure […]
Some of you may have noticed that the subject of 911 has been moved to the background while I give a wider stage to the international financial collapse and NZ politics. Rest assured that this is just a temporary situation. I still feel that the events of 911 need a full and independent reinvestigation and […]
I so hope I’m wrong but I told friends that there would be no elections in November in the US. Thank heavens for the Internet; it’s put the surprise back in October Surprise. Here is the latest big-picture conspiracy theory, which has been gathering strength on the blogosphere the way a hurricane feeds on Caribbean […]
if you have to use your cradit card let it be on buying seeds. Seeds and compost and start that veggie patch. NEXT, BURN THE CREDIT CARD. Get whatever work you can and work your way out of credit card debt. Lay low and live within your means. Whatever you do, do not get more […]
This is now a national emergency. Seven trillion dollars of wealth has been vaporized in US Stocks in the last seven days alone, with five of it since the passage of that ill-designed and foolhardy “bailout” bill. The selloff this afternoon is the “real deal.” It was not caused by the stock market getting “mad”, […]
The market is heavily manipulated. The driving force behind the meltdown is speculative trade. The system of “private regulation” serves the interests of the speculators. While most individual investors loose when the market falls, the institutional speculator makes money when there is a financial collapse. In fact, triggering market collapse can be a very profitable […]
I really would like to know what colour the sky is on his planet. WASHINGTON – President Bush met with foreign financial officials Saturday and pledged a global response to the credit crisis that will lead toward a “path of stability and long-term growth.” Bush announced no new strategies to attack the economic woes circling […]
Why after years of lying, warring, destroying the planet with DU and nuclear arms would we want to be partners with the evil empire? New Zealand was shunned by the US for making the right choices. We should make them again. Say no to becoming a part of the Fascist republic of the USA. After […]
My son lost his job today – closed their doors, no warning. Two kids, house and car payments. Thanks, George. As the world burns, thanks to George Bush, his neoliberal economics, the military industrial complex and his evil banking buddies he has the gall to tell us we have to stand together. While the man […]
By Steve Scherer Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) — Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said political leaders are discussing the idea of closing the world’s financial markets while they “rewrite the rules of international finance.” “The idea of suspending the markets for the time it takes to rewrite the rules is being discussed,” Berlusconi said today after […]
New Zealand is likely to follow Australia’s lead and guarantee bank depositors’ savings as the world financial crisis deepens. The Australian government will this week introduce a limited deposit guarantee scheme into parliament to cover deposits up to $20,000 following a frantic week where European governments dramatically increased their deposit guarantees and world sharemarkets plummeted. […]
Gary Duncan | October 11, 2008 A FRENZIED day of panic selling across the world capped a week of extraordinary financial mayhem in which $7 trillion was wiped off the value of global shares. New York Stock Exchange trader in panic as global share markets loose $7 trillion Finance ministers and central bank chiefs from […]
This from the Standard.
