Financial Crisis

[lannarebirth]

Something happened in Prichard, Alabama ( and continues to do so) that in my opinion could develop into a trend not only in US but in Europe, Japan, Australia etc. I wonder about the fallout from this? Personally I think it is only a matter of time and just think about how this would impact many retirees in Thailand who are living here month-to-month solely on their pension cheques?

why focussing on the impact of retirees living abroad? would they be in a different position if they lived in their home countries? i am not referring to retirees/pensioners who rely on some corporate or municipality pensions (they'd be screwed royally²) but to pensioners in general who are entitled to some government pension or social insurance payments. on the other hand we all know that even those "big" pension schemes will fail. sad but true it is only a question "when".

It all happens by degrees doesn't it? At least so far. I think the Brits living overseas have their govt. pensions frozen to whatever the initial benefit is. IOW no COLA. I suppose that's soon coming to pensioners from other countries living abroad or maybe a total denial of pension to overseas retirees. None of the other retirees will care that a few millions get shafted if theirs continues a few more years.

[cloudhopper]

why focussing on the impact of retirees living abroad? would they be in a different position if they lived in their home countries? i am not referring to retirees/pensioners who rely on some corporate or municipality pensions (they'd be screwed royally²) but to pensioners in general who are entitled to some government pension or social insurance payments. on the other hand we all know that even those "big" pension schemes will fail. sad but true it is only a question "when".

Well I am in that category as are many on this forum I suspect and suddenly having one's source of income cut off would be far more terrifying here than back home where I might qualify for some government assistance or at least have more family and friends around. Many so-affected would be forced to leave due to visa issues alone. All my income comes from the US in USD so issues like exchange rates and capital controls are also of concern in addition to the very real possibility of the sources of my income becoming insolvent that Midas is addressing.

[churchill]

Something happened in Prichard, Alabama ( and continues to do so) that in my opinion could develop into a trend not only in US but in Europe, Japan, Australia etc. I wonder about the fallout from this? Personally I think it is only a matter of time and just think about how this would impact many retirees in Thailand who are living here month-to-month solely on their pension cheques?

why focussing on the impact of retirees living abroad? would they be in a different position if they lived in their home countries? i am not referring to retirees/pensioners who rely on some corporate or municipality pensions (they'd be screwed royally²) but to pensioners in general who are entitled to some government pension or social insurance payments. on the other hand we all know that even those "big" pension schemes will fail. sad but true it is only a question "when".

It all happens by degrees doesn't it? At least so far. I think the Brits living overseas have their govt. pensions frozen to whatever the initial benefit is. IOW no COLA. I suppose that's soon coming to pensioners from other countries living abroad or maybe a total denial of pension to overseas retirees. None of the other retirees will care that a few millions get shafted if theirs continues a few more years.

' I think the Brits living overseas have their govt. pensions frozen to whatever the initial benefit is.'

Depends where one lives - in Thailand yes frozen but in Europe and a few other Countries No ...

[RedFxTrade]

Next week could get very interesting. With Portuguese and Spanish spreads over Bunds reaching EU era records, and it looks like there is no solution to the Greece situation, the potential for a credit crunch is getting more real by the day...Open Revolt Against Trichet: German Politicians Demand "Private Creditor Involvement"; Finland Support for Bailout Vanishes.

This is in my view the best post on the debt dynamics of what is surrounding the EU Credit Markets-A Gathering Storm..I highly recommend this article.A precipice run on Greek bank deposits seems to in process...

James Grant of Interest Rate Observer also said this week that the ECB is factually insolvent. For all the talk of the horrific state of the FEDs balance sheet, is the ECB's more acute and in a worse state?

The way the USD closed on Friday, suggests things are not well, with it once of its strongest up days this year.

With the fundamental back drop and with key equity valuations showing warning signs, and the market moving from oversold to more oversold, shows that a new down trend could in play. Add to that break down this week in the Shanghai composite. Ominous signs indeed. The Q-ratio is showing 50% over valued by historical standards, Margin debt on the NYSE is at the levels seen just before Bear Stearns collapsed. Higher commodity prices are sucking money out of the economy as money moves to the producers(the small group) away from the consumers( the large group)

Junk bonds failed to make new highs with the stock market peak, which is a warning sign, and has now collapsed in recent days.

The price action in rubber, steel, copper etc has been breaking down and diverging with the rest of the market for a few months now, which also does not bode well.

I expect when the markets move from oversold into more oversold, we could get a bounce up, however, when this condition of moving into over sold to more oversold by key market breadth indicators, it is usually a warning sign to sell the bounce.

The retailers have been aggressively buying into the silver decline also...oanda position ratios These have proven to be a good proxy and contrarian...Retailers are now over 80% net long silver, and this has been growing all week. Lets hope they wrong once again, and we can get silver down to the $26 mark. The USD ratios are swinging slowly but surely in favour of the USD, with more and more retailers getting short the USD as it rises. A contrarian buy signal. By the way this signal of using these ratios tests out very well.

The economy is deteriorating fast, and debt dynamics are horrible. The UK is in a recession IMO...the industrial production numbers out yesterday were horrendous, and is a world wide trend. Of course slowing industrial production is not only a signal that things are bad in the said country, but that demand is weakening in other countries also, as a functions of slowing exports...

[churchill]

There are no easy solutions ... and with elections coming up in the US it will be another case of kicking the can and more QE or easy policy /

Not sure where this came from maybe ZH ..

'The Titanic analogy grows increasingly apt. The various major currencies all face real challenges and are like various floors on the Titanic. The massive ship is holed and water is flowing into it, gradually affecting all floors of the boat.

Gold represents the lifeboat.

When the passengers on the various currency floors(the dollar, euro and pound floors) realize that the ship is going down there will be a scramble to get into the golden lifeboat.

Gold and silver bullion remain tiny markets vis-à-vis equity, bond and currency markets and are thus like lifeboats which can only fit so many passengers.

As the ship of the international monetary system flounders and denial is replaced by a realization that the ship is going down, investors and savers (retail and institutional) and central banks, will “pile” into gold.

Gold bullion remains owned by a tiny percentage of retail and institutional investors and there has not been any “piling into gold” yet - contrary to some sensationalist reporting. The risks posed to all fiat currencies and the real risk of an international monetary crisis will likely lead to a gold mania phase when investors and savers do actually pile into gold.

This is when gold will likely go parabolic in price as it did in the 1970’s when it rose 24 times in 9 years.

Gold’s gradual rise in recent years is in stark contrast to its parabolic rise in the 1970’s – particularly in 1972, 1973, 1974 and 1979.

Gold surged by 49.7% in 1972, 73.5% in 1973 and by 60.1% in 1974. In the final phase of the bull market in 1979, gold surged 140% in one year. Gold’s recent rise has been tame in comparison with the animal spirits remaining subdued and media coverage remaining very limited and skeptical – especially in the UK and Ireland. '

[craigt3365]

Historically, there's also been several years when gold decreased in price. Historically....and a few that were not that long ago.

[Naam]

Something happened in Prichard, Alabama ( and continues to do so) that in my opinion could develop into a trend not only in US but in Europe, Japan, Australia etc. I wonder about the fallout from this? Personally I think it is only a matter of time and just think about how this would impact many retirees in Thailand who are living here month-to-month solely on their pension cheques?

why focussing on the impact of retirees living abroad? would they be in a different position if they lived in their home countries? i am not referring to retirees/pensioners who rely on some corporate or municipality pensions (they'd be screwed royally²) but to pensioners in general who are entitled to some government pension or social insurance payments. on the other hand we all know that even those "big" pension schemes will fail. sad but true it is only a question "when".

It all happens by degrees doesn't it? At least so far. I think the Brits living overseas have their govt. pensions frozen to whatever the initial benefit is. IOW no COLA. I suppose that's soon coming to pensioners from other countries living abroad or maybe a total denial of pension to overseas retirees. None of the other retirees will care that a few millions get shafted if theirs continues a few more years.

i fail to see the slightest sliver of logic should this happen. nothing to gain but a burden on welfare should the retirees return.

but i am aware that some countries are reducing social security payments to citizens living abroad if living expenses there are much lower.

[Naam]

This is when gold will likely go parabolic in price as it did in the 1970’s when it rose 24 times in 9 years...

...and then fell into the abyss where it remained for twenty years and inspite of its increase during the last decade never even generated enough appreciation to compensate for any moderate hypothetical (not to talk about actual) inflation rate.

next!

[Naam]

As the ship of the international monetary system flounders and denial is replaced by a realization that the ship is going down, investors and savers (retail and institutional) and central banks, will “pile” into gold...

...and that they have not yet "piled" into gold proves that they are all idiots who believe in fiat paper

[lannarebirth]

Next week could get very interesting. With Portuguese and Spanish spreads over Bunds reaching EU era records, and it looks like there is no solution to the Greece situation, the potential for a credit crunch is getting more real by the day...Open Revolt Against Trichet: German Politicians Demand "Private Creditor Involvement"; Finland Support for Bailout Vanishes.

This is in my view the best post on the debt dynamics of what is surrounding the EU Credit Markets-A Gathering Storm..I highly recommend this article.A precipice run on Greek bank deposits seems to in process...

James Grant of Interest Rate Observer also said this week that the ECB is factually insolvent. For all the talk of the horrific state of the FEDs balance sheet, is the ECB's more acute and in a worse state?

The way the USD closed on Friday, suggests things are not well, with it once of its strongest up days this year.

With the fundamental back drop and with key equity valuations showing warning signs, and the market moving from oversold to more oversold, shows that a new down trend could in play. Add to that break down this week in the Shanghai composite. Ominous signs indeed. The Q-ratio is showing 50% over valued by historical standards, Margin debt on the NYSE is at the levels seen just before Bear Stearns collapsed. Higher commodity prices are sucking money out of the economy as money moves to the producers(the small group) away from the consumers( the large group)

Junk bonds failed to make new highs with the stock market peak, which is a warning sign, and has now collapsed in recent days.

The price action in rubber, steel, copper etc has been breaking down and diverging with the rest of the market for a few months now, which also does not bode well.

I expect when the markets move from oversold into more oversold, we could get a bounce up, however, when this condition of moving into over sold to more oversold by key market breadth indicators, it is usually a warning sign to sell the bounce.

The retailers have been aggressively buying into the silver decline also...oanda position ratios These have proven to be a good proxy and contrarian...Retailers are now over 80% net long silver, and this has been growing all week. Lets hope they wrong once again, and we can get silver down to the $26 mark. The USD ratios are swinging slowly but surely in favour of the USD, with more and more retailers getting short the USD as it rises. A contrarian buy signal. By the way this signal of using these ratios tests out very well.

The economy is deteriorating fast, and debt dynamics are horrible. The UK is in a recession IMO...the industrial production numbers out yesterday were horrendous, and is a world wide trend. Of course slowing industrial production is not only a signal that things are bad in the said country, but that demand is weakening in other countries also, as a functions of slowing exports...

Apparently there's a lot more US exposure to the PIIGS mess than I had at first realized. No problem if they let insolvent US counterparty banks fail, but big story if they try once again to lay it off on the US taxpayer. Not that the government cares what US citizens consumers want.

http://streetlightblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/betting-on-pigs.html

[lannarebirth]

Something happened in Prichard, Alabama ( and continues to do so) that in my opinion could develop into a trend not only in US but in Europe, Japan, Australia etc. I wonder about the fallout from this? Personally I think it is only a matter of time and just think about how this would impact many retirees in Thailand who are living here month-to-month solely on their pension cheques?

why focussing on the impact of retirees living abroad? would they be in a different position if they lived in their home countries? i am not referring to retirees/pensioners who rely on some corporate or municipality pensions (they'd be screwed royally²) but to pensioners in general who are entitled to some government pension or social insurance payments. on the other hand we all know that even those "big" pension schemes will fail. sad but true it is only a question "when".

It all happens by degrees doesn't it? At least so far. I think the Brits living overseas have their govt. pensions frozen to whatever the initial benefit is. IOW no COLA. I suppose that's soon coming to pensioners from other countries living abroad or maybe a total denial of pension to overseas retirees. None of the other retirees will care that a few millions get shafted if theirs continues a few more years.

i fail to see the slightest sliver of logic should this happen. nothing to gain but a burden on welfare should the retirees return.

but i am aware that some countries are reducing social security payments to citizens living abroad if living expenses there are much lower.

I don't claim it's logical just symbolic of doing something.

[RedFxTrade]

Next week could get very interesting. With Portuguese and Spanish spreads over Bunds reaching EU era records, and it looks like there is no solution to the Greece situation, the potential for a credit crunch is getting more real by the day...Open Revolt Against Trichet: German Politicians Demand "Private Creditor Involvement"; Finland Support for Bailout Vanishes.

This is in my view the best post on the debt dynamics of what is surrounding the EU Credit Markets-A Gathering Storm..I highly recommend this article.A precipice run on Greek bank deposits seems to in process...

James Grant of Interest Rate Observer also said this week that the ECB is factually insolvent. For all the talk of the horrific state of the FEDs balance sheet, is the ECB's more acute and in a worse state?

The way the USD closed on Friday, suggests things are not well, with it once of its strongest up days this year.

With the fundamental back drop and with key equity valuations showing warning signs, and the market moving from oversold to more oversold, shows that a new down trend could in play. Add to that break down this week in the Shanghai composite. Ominous signs indeed. The Q-ratio is showing 50% over valued by historical standards, Margin debt on the NYSE is at the levels seen just before Bear Stearns collapsed. Higher commodity prices are sucking money out of the economy as money moves to the producers(the small group) away from the consumers( the large group)

Junk bonds failed to make new highs with the stock market peak, which is a warning sign, and has now collapsed in recent days.

The price action in rubber, steel, copper etc has been breaking down and diverging with the rest of the market for a few months now, which also does not bode well.

I expect when the markets move from oversold into more oversold, we could get a bounce up, however, when this condition of moving into over sold to more oversold by key market breadth indicators, it is usually a warning sign to sell the bounce.

The retailers have been aggressively buying into the silver decline also...oanda position ratios These have proven to be a good proxy and contrarian...Retailers are now over 80% net long silver, and this has been growing all week. Lets hope they wrong once again, and we can get silver down to the $26 mark. The USD ratios are swinging slowly but surely in favour of the USD, with more and more retailers getting short the USD as it rises. A contrarian buy signal. By the way this signal of using these ratios tests out very well.

The economy is deteriorating fast, and debt dynamics are horrible. The UK is in a recession IMO...the industrial production numbers out yesterday were horrendous, and is a world wide trend. Of course slowing industrial production is not only a signal that things are bad in the said country, but that demand is weakening in other countries also, as a functions of slowing exports...

Apparently there's a lot more US exposure to the PIIGS mess than I had at first realized. No problem if they let insolvent US counterparty banks fail, but big story if they try once again to lay it off on the US taxpayer. Not that the government cares what US citizens consumers want.

http://streetlightbl...ng-on-pigs.html

From what I can gather in the event of a credit event, the US banks will have to pay out on the Greek CDS...and they have their own exposure. The whole thing is so inter-tangled who knows what mess it could leave. But yes I suspect that any more bailouts will be met with "distaste" by many Americans this time around....

I heard a some market chatter yesterday on the market news feeds, which I find interesting...Apparently one/or more of the Greek creditors, ie, banks are going to refuse roll over of the debt, and basically refuse and are taking large short positions in the Euro to offset the losses on the Greek debt. Now if that is the case, which seems like a smart move if you can be the first or second out of the burning building,it could turn very interesting indeed. No doubt the Euro would plunge, if they have built a short, they could easily offset the loss and get the dam_n loss of the balance sheet and move on...

[RedFxTrade]

Historically, there's also been several years when gold decreased in price. Historically....and a few that were not that long ago.

There are no one way tickets....that is the biggest argument you hear from people that are skeptical of gold. "did you know that gold can fall".."or if you bought gold in 1980, what good would it have been"...firstly paper currencies have been falling for 100's of years, non-stop, and more acutely in the last 100, look at the price of a bushel of wheat now compared to 1920's....secondly, you base any investment on fundamentals and valuation metrics at the time...you buy when something is cheap relative to something else, and sell when its over valued relative to something else...thats investment in a nutshell. Nothing ever goes up all the time forever....There are forces at work that prevent that happening. Even the Zimbabwe Dollar will increase at some point relative to gold as hard as that is to believe....but longer term you are relying on the scoundrels in government to have integrity and honesty, and be a custodian of your money......The buying gold argument in 1980 is a silly one, as interest rates were going up...the move was parabolic...today you need to go with what is happening, and act accordingly. Gold is still very good value at this time. When its not, whenever that will be, there will be signs to watch for , then you can sell. Simples.

Edited June 11, 2011 by RedFxTrade

[cloudhopper]

A good read - http://www.theburnin...rm.com/?p=17002

Can you believe a trillion in US student debt? Talk about robbing the future! If when a final deflationary burst sweeps away all the debt-based "assets" including the electromagnetic bits representing a bank balance that even the FDIC can't hope to reimburse the ATMs will go dark and you will hear something like "I'm afraid I can't do that Dave" when you try to access your online account. Gold might be good to have along with lots of other useful things but paper cash will be the king of the debt-based "assets".

This has been a doomer neo-Malthusian rant.

Edited June 12, 2011 by cloudhopper

[midas]

A good read - http://www.theburnin...rm.com/?p=17002

Can you believe a trillion in US student debt? Talk about robbing the future! If when a final deflationary burst sweeps away all the debt-based "assets" including the electromagnetic bits representing a bank balance that even the FDIC can't hope to reimburse the ATMs will go dark and you will hear something like "I'm afraid I can't do that Dave" when you try to access your online account. Gold might be good to have along with lots of other useful things but paper cash will be the king of the debt-based "assets".

This has been a doomer neo-Malthusian rant.

And what is also sad is what is the real value of that education? You can't run away from that form of debt and yet will ever be able to generate enough income to pay it back?

Big government couldn't even provide the proper policing to ensure many of these young people didn't fall prey to ruthless scamsters on programs that would give you a piece of paper no better than something you can buy on Bangkok's Khaosan Road

[cloudhopper]

You can't run away from that form of debt and yet will ever be able to generate enough income to pay it back?

Of greater significance IMO is that this is money that will not be going into a future house payment or even a car payment, much less the ballet lessons and braces that Trey and Missy grew up getting. Lots of industries and small businesses that came into being over the last 40 years of credit expansion are going to fail as that sucker Bush and now Obama (+Merkel et al) are propping up finally goes down.

[churchill]

Politicians 'Lying Through Their Teeth' on Greek Aid (and Everything Else Too)

'Lies and Questions About Possible Lies Abound

Jean-Claude Junker openly admitted "When it becomes serious, you have to lie." That admission came shortly after he denied there was meeting that he was actually attending.

Jean-Claude Trichet made a huge mistake buying Greek and Irish debt. To what extent is Trichet attempting to save his reputation to the detriment of a real solution?

Neither the Fed nor the ECB has shown any humility over clearly visible and grievous mistakes.

Is there any reason to believe any EU official? Is there any reason to believe the Fed? Geithner? Obama?

I await a global leader who steps up to the microphone and says "Things look bad, but they are even worse than they look. Sacrifices must be made and everyone has to share including the banks, the public unions, the military, and all special interest groups. ..."

Instead we have lie, after lie, after lie by politicians whose only concern is getting reelected. We also have lie, after lie, after lie by central bankers whose only concern is bailing out the banks at taxpayer expense while absolving themselves of blame for the mess we are in.'

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/06/politicians-lying-through-their-teeth.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MishsGlobalEconomicTrendAnalysis+%28Mish%27s+Global+Economic+Trend+Analysis%29

[Naam]

Jean-Claude Trichet made a huge mistake buying Greek and Irish debt. To what extent is Trichet attempting to save his reputation to the detriment of a real solution?

GOODNESS GRACIOUS! do morons ignorants really exist who think that Trichet is empowered to make that kind of decision without involving the whole ECB board who's members are receiving "guidance" from their relevant governments?

[12DrinkMore]

[craigt3365]

A good read - http://www.theburnin...rm.com/?p=17002

Can you believe a trillion in US student debt? Talk about robbing the future! If when a final deflationary burst sweeps away all the debt-based "assets" including the electromagnetic bits representing a bank balance that even the FDIC can't hope to reimburse the ATMs will go dark and you will hear something like "I'm afraid I can't do that Dave" when you try to access your online account. Gold might be good to have along with lots of other useful things but paper cash will be the king of the debt-based "assets".

This has been a doomer neo-Malthusian rant.

And what is also sad is what is the real value of that education? You can't run away from that form of debt and yet will ever be able to generate enough income to pay it back?

Big government couldn't even provide the proper policing to ensure many of these young people didn't fall prey to ruthless scamsters on programs that would give you a piece of paper no better than something you can buy on Bangkok's Khaosan Road

Ridiculous. Just saw a report on CNN investigating whether a college degree was still worth it...especially in today's economy. Result? College grads, over their life, will earn around 30% more than those without degrees. I think if you did that survey with regards to the better degrees at the better schools, it would be way more than that (i.e. doctors, lawyers, engineers, software programmers, accountants, etc.). But for sure, some degrees are not worth that much.

Student loans are great. I got several and paid them off within 4-5 years. Worked good for me...retired at 46 with no pension...just money I earned.

[craigt3365]

Some levity:

The economy is so bad, if the bank returns your check marked "insufficient funds", you call and ask if they meant you or them!

The economy is so bad, a truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico!!!!

The economy is so bad, Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 congressmen!

Congress says they are looking deeper into the Bernie Madoff scandal. Well ain't that just great. The guy who made $50 billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $1.5 TRILLION disappear!!!!

[zhaffsky]

Here is the investigarion where QE2 money actually went

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/exclusive-feds-600-billion-stealth-bailout-foreign-banks-continues-expense-domestic-economy-

In summary, instead of doing everything in its power to stimulate reserve, and thus cash, accumulation at domestic (US) banks which would in turn encourage lending to US borrowers, the Fed has been conducting yet another stealthy foreign bank rescue operation, which rerouted $600 billion in capital from potential borrowers to insolvent foreign financial institutions in the past 7 months. QE2 was nothing more (or less) than another European bank rescue operation!

[flying]

Some levity:

The economy is so bad, if the bank returns your check marked "insufficient funds", you call and ask if they meant you or them!

The economy is so bad, a truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico!!!!

The economy is so bad, Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 congressmen!

Congress says they are looking deeper into the Bernie Madoff scandal. Well ain't that just great. The guy who made $50 billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $1.5 TRILLION disappear!!!!

:lol:

[cloudhopper]

Student loans are great. I got several and paid them off within 4-5 years. Worked good for me...retired at 46 with no pension...just money I earned.

Worked good for me too Craig and lots of boomers who just happened to get into the Ponzi scheme at a great time. We were lucky to grow up in a country taking advantage of it's post-war economic advantages in a time of cheap abundant energy and unsustainable credit expansion facilitated by unique demographics. Lots of money was "earned" via credit-fueled capital gains in real estate and equities.

All that is coming to an end now. Students graduating a quarter mil in debt today have no chance.

[Naam]

Students graduating a quarter mil in debt today have no chance

that sum and my limited time spent at a U.S. university lets me assume that there's something wrong with the education system, i.e. colleges/universities are much too expensive compared to Europe.

example: the maximum student loan in Germany one can get nowadays is ~€ 8,000 / $ ~12,000 per annum. assuming an average duration of 5-6 years to obtain a master's degree the max total debt is less than 30% of the equivalent "U.S. debt".

[RedFxTrade]

As if there is not enough for markets to be concerned about, I have been keeping an eye on the escalating dispute between China and Vietnam over the last couple of weeks. A couple of interesting developments over the weekend which will not please China...Vietnam Seeks US Support in China Dispute...Also "diplomat" Clinton was in Africa over the weekend saying that the Chinese were more or less Colonialising Africa again which did not go down too well with the Chinese. More and more I think politics the and Geo-political backdrop is going to become more and more important in the on going crisis.

Vietnam has called on the US and other nations to help resolve the escalating territorial disputes in the resource-rich South China Sea, in a move likely to anger Beijing, which opposes what it sees as outside interference.

Tensions between China and Vietnam continued to rise over the weekend, ahead of live-fire drills planned by Vietnam’s navy on Monday on an islet around 20 miles from the coast of central Vietnam, which Hanoi described as “routine”.

Stirred by a number of maritime confrontations with China over recent weeks, hundreds of Vietnamese took part in rare anti-China protests on Sunday for the second straight weekend, with the usually draconian police allowing the demonstrations to take place.

“China is running an information campaign to blind people,” said Pham Gia Minh, a 55-year-old investment consultant who attended a protest outside the Chinese embassy in Hanoi. “We have to let people understand that we want peace but when the aggressor comes we will stand up to them.”

In addition to China and Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan claim some or all of the territory in the contested area of the South China Sea, which is believed to contain vast oil and gas reserves and incorporates key trade routes and abundant fish stocks.

The Vietnamese government has ratcheted up its rhetoric in recent weeks amid growing public disquiet over perceived maritime bullying by China, which dominated Vietnam for 1000 years and fought a brief but bloody border war against it in 1979. At the weekend Vietnam’s foreign ministry said that it would “welcome” efforts by the US and other nations to help resolve the South China Sea dispute and maintain peace and stability.

Such sentiments are unlikely to go down well in Beijing, which insists that the long-running row over the South China Sea must be resolved on a purely bilateral basis.

China reacted angrily last July when Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, insisted that the South China Sea was of strategic importance to the US and offered to act as a mediator.

The US said on Friday that is was “troubled” by the latest developments in the South China Sea, with Mark Toner, a state department spokesman, warning that “shows of force” only increase tensions, which have been on the rise in recent weeks.

Hanoi and Beijing have traded accusations of infringement of sovereignty and harassment of their fishing and oil exploration vessels and China has also clashed with the Philippines in a similar fashion.

“China’s behaviour has gone from assertive to aggressive,” said Ian Storey, a fellow at the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore and an expert on maritime security in the South China Sea.

In the latest incident, last Thursday, Vietnam claimed that, for the second time in recent weeks, Chinese boats had trespassed onto its territory and deliberately tried to cut undersea cables deployed by a ship hired by PetroVietnam, the state oil and gas monopoly. China dismissed the allegations, claiming that the boats were fishing in its sovereign waters when they were “illegally chased away by armed Vietnamese ships,” endangering the fishermen’s lives.

The Chinese government remained silent on Sunday, but Hanoi’s latest move is likely to infuriate Beijing as China insists its territorial disputes in the South China Sea must be dealt with bilaterally.

A year ago, Beijing decisively rejected remarks by Hillary Clinton in which the US secretary of state called peace in the region a US national interest and called for a multilateral approach in resolving the disputes.

A regional security expert at National Defense University in Beijing called Hanoi’s latest move a provocation. “This is calculated to provoke a reaction in China which they can then dismiss as aggressive,” said the expert who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to foreign media.

The growing tension in the South China Sea also triggered angry reactions among nationalist Chinese on the internet.

”If a single shell falls into Chinese waters, including disputed waters, we should shoot to kill. Can’t we do what North Korea can?” wrote one user on Tiexue, an online bulletin board popular with military enthusiasts and nationalist web users, in reaction to Vietnam’s plans for naval exercises in the area on Monday.

[cloudhopper]

Students graduating a quarter mil in debt today have no chance

that sum and my limited time spent at a U.S. university lets me assume that there's something wrong with the education system, i.e. colleges/universities are much too expensive compared to Europe.

example: the maximum student loan in Germany one can get nowadays is ~€ 8,000 / $ ~12,000 per annum. assuming an average duration of 5-6 years to obtain a master's degree the max total debt is less than 30% of the equivalent "U.S. debt".

Well as usual I was overstating the case a bit but there are graduates from some private professional schools with that kind of debt.

Just saw this-

[RedFxTrade]

Good Jim Rogers Interview with Jim Puplava..Rogers

[EnhancePlus]

Students graduating a quarter mil in debt today have no chance

that sum and my limited time spent at a U.S. university lets me assume that there's something wrong with the education system, i.e. colleges/universities are much too expensive compared to Europe.

example: the maximum student loan in Germany one can get nowadays is ~€ 8,000 / $ ~12,000 per annum. assuming an average duration of 5-6 years to obtain a master's degree the max total debt is less than 30% of the equivalent "U.S. debt".

Well as usual I was overstating the case a bit but there are graduates from some private professional schools with that kind of debt.

Just saw this-

It's a hard road. There's no escape clause, either. Can't claim bankruptcy. They'll follow you to your grave and to your children's grave. Really sad. Raping the future before it even get's a chance.

[cloudhopper]

I just went to the websites of my 2 alma maters to check the current fees including tuition, books and supplies but not including room & board.

Undergrad 12 quarters (public U, in-state resident rate) 88k

Doctoral 12 quarters (private U) 260k

I went through in the 70s, now can't even imagine....