Video is incompatible and wouldn’t embed, please view on website.
Marc Faber says the stock market is setting up for a decline more painful than the sudden crash of 1987.
“I think it’s very likely that we’re seeing, in the next 12 months, an ’87-type of crash,” Faber said with a devious chuckle on Thursday’s episode of “Futures Now.” “And I suspect it will be even worse.” Continue reading
Suddenly, it has become easy to see how the euro — that grand, flawed experiment in monetary union without political union — could come apart at the seams. We’re not talking about a distant prospect, either. Things could fall apart with stunning speed, in a matter of months, not years. And the costs — both economic and, arguably even more important, political — could be huge.
…
Europe’s answer has been austerity: savage spending cuts in an attempt to reassure bond markets. Yet as any sensible economist could have told you (and we did, we did), these cuts deepened the depression in Europe’s troubled economies, which both further undermined investor confidence and led to growing political instability.
And now comes the moment of truth.
…
So now what? Right now, Greece is experiencing what’s being called a “bank jog” — a somewhat slow-motion bank run, as more and more depositors pull out their cash in anticipation of a possible Greek exit from the euro. Europe’s central bank is, in effect, financing this bank run by lending Greece the necessary euros; if and (probably) when the central bank decides it can lend no more, Greece will be forced to abandon the euro and issue its own currency again.
This demonstration that the euro is, in fact, reversible would lead, in turn, to runs on Spanish and Italian banks. Once again the European Central Bank would have to choose whether to provide open-ended financing; if it were to say no, the euro as a whole would blow up.
Full article: Apocalypse Fairly Soon (NY Times)
In 1935, one U.S. dollar would buy you 1/20th of an ounce of gold. By 1968, it was down to 1/35th of an ounce of gold. Today, one dollar will buy you only 1/1,750th of an ounce. The same thing happened against silver. In 1968, one dollar would buy an ounce of the silver metal. Today it will only buy you a mere 1/32 of an ounce.
Talk about debasement.
And the dollar hasn’t plunged just against precious metals. Against copper, nickel and zinc—the metals found in pennies and nickels—it is in free fall too. In fact, the dollar has plummeted against orange juice, whiskey, beans, bullets, pork bellies, single family houses, automobiles, coal, oil, good suits, healthcare, tuition, labor costs—and virtually every measurable commodity. If you can name it, it probably cost more today than it did 30, 10, or five years ago—probably more than it cost last year.
The mint reports that if it replaced the copper-coated zinc penny (it took the copper out of the penny in 1982 because it was too expensive) with a steel one, it would still not be profitable. What’s cheaper than steel? Tin? Nope a penny’s weight of tin would cost more than a nickel. A penny’s weight of aluminum would cost 2 cents. Lead is little cheaper. See the problem?
How about plastic? Anyone for a plastic penny? Clay? Asbestos?
Calls to just get rid of the penny altogether are growing louder. But that will only hide the danger to the dollar for a little longer.
And don’t be fooled. The dollar is in grave danger.
Full article: America Is Looking a Lot Like Ancient Rome — or Is It Modern Greece? (The Trumpet)
Global Geopolitics 