Israelis who count on U.S. recovery are dreaming

The U.S. remains Israel’s most important market, but its economic recovery is stalling.

In recent years the Israeli government and the Israeli private sector have been very busy diversifying export markets and sources of financing and investment. They have concentrated on South Asia and the Far East, especially but not only India, China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. These countries and others have proven to be vital resources for the Israeli economy and in the case of China, an eager participant in joint educational projects as well.

Average UK family just ‘2 weeks away from breadline’ – report

The average UK household is just days away from an emergency situation in the event of sudden financial hardship, according to a new report to be released this week. Meanwhile, one food bank has reported a surge in new participants.

The consequences of severe economic fallout would present a real challenge for many people, considering that more than one-third of households (36 percent) in the UK have “no strategy in place to cope with financial hardship,” according to a report from Legal & General, citing data from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR).

The survey of some 5,000 people in the UK, analyzed in The Independent, shows marked contrast among people around the UK to be able to make ends meet following the loss of a job or other economic crisis, like a lengthy illness. In Wales, for example, most people would only be able to survive for seven days in the event of an economic setback, compared with Londoners, who would be able to keep going for 83 days before their funds ran out, according to the poll.

Billionaire Warns: Yellen Collapse ‘Will Be Unlike Any Other’

Another horrific stock market crash is coming, and the next bust will be “unlike any other” we have seen.

That’s the message from Jeremy Grantham, co-founder and chief investment strategist of GMO, a Boston-based firm with $117 billion in assets under management.

Grantham pulls no punches when assigning responsibility for the coming financial carnage. In a recent interview with The New York Times, he calls Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen “ignorant” and says the Federal Reserve all but killed the economic recovery.

Steve Forbes: Link dollar to gold or face Great Depression II

 

Influential financial publisher and former presidential candidate Steve Forbes is out with a new warning that the U.S. faces an economic catastrophe due to the Federal Reserve’s loose dollar policy, and returning to a strict “gold standard” is the only way to avoid disaster.

In Money: How the Destruction of the Dollar Threatens the Global Economy — and What We Can Do About It, Forbes blames President Obama’s money team for the stagnant economy, high prices, declining mobility and big government.

“[The Fed’s] vastly misguided monetary policies are now setting the stage for a new economic and social catastrophe — one that could rival the financial crisis and horrors of the 1930s,” he wrote in the book co-authored by Elizabeth Ames.

Taper or no taper, the Fed will never end QE: Marc Faber

“The Fed will never end QE for good,” the editor and publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Futures Now.” “They will continue because these programs, once they’re introduced, usually keep on going.”

The Fed will announce its decision at 12:30 p.m. EST on Wednesday, and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will follow that up with a 2:30 p.m. news conference. Expectations for the meeting are mixed, but more that 50 percent of Wall Streeters expect the Fed to taper its QE program in either December or January, according to the CNBC Fed Survey. As economic data have improved, many investors are guessing that the Fed no longer considers QE to be as vital as before.

But Faber said the good times cannot last.

E.U. Takes Final Step on Unified Bank Regulation

LUXEMBOURG — The European Union on Tuesday took another step to shore up its battered banking sector after Britain agreed to new rules placing many of the largest lenders in the euro area under the supervision of the European Central Bank.

The British decision, which was announced at a monthly meeting of the bloc’s finance ministers here, clears the way for the E.C.B. to take over as the single supervisor late next year.

Saudis offer Russia secret oil deal if it drops Syria

Saudi Arabia has secretly offered Russia a sweeping deal to control the global oil market and safeguard Russia’s gas contracts, if the Kremlin backs away from the Assad regime in Syria.

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Leaked transcripts of a closed-door meeting between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan shed an extraordinary light on the hard-nosed Realpolitik of the two sides.

Spain’s house prices to fall another 30pc as glut keeps growing

Spain’s property slump will deepen for much of the next decade, and tracts of buildings along the Mediterannean coast will have to be demolished, the country’s top consultants have warned.

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“The market is broken,” said Fernando Rodríguez de Acuña, the group’s vice-president. “We calculate that there are almost 2m properties waiting to be sold. We have made no progress at all over the past five years in clearing the stock,” he said.

“There are 800,000 used homes on the market. Developers are sitting on a further 700,00 completed units. Another 300,000 have been foreclosed and 150,000 are in foreclosure proceedings, and there are another 250,000 still under construction. It’s crazy.”

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