“We are out-Greeking the Greeks”

Bill Gross is out with his April 2011 Investment Outlook. As always, it’s a most definite must read. Earlier this month he told the world that he had dumped ALL of his U.S. treasuries from Pimco’s flagship Total Return Fund, the world’s largest bond fund, in the month of January. In this latest newsletter, he continues to rip on the financial condition of America which he says is out-Greeking the Greeks.

http://www.economiccollapse.net/pimco-bill-gross-we-are-out-greeking-the-greeks

i presented naked hard facts which prove that the financial situation of the U.S. is much worse than some of the "nanny states"

Most of the Western world is suffering, but it seems that many experts do not agree with you.

Worse Than Wall Street

How shaky European banks could tip the world back into recession.

Europe's leaders have a simple explanation for the current financial crisis on their continent: greedy Wall Street hedge funds caused it. Rapacious investors made wild bets on Greek debt, the argument goes, which drove up borrowing costs and made the crisis seem even worse than it was. That bad behavior pummeled the euro. To hear EU leaders tell it, they have since fought off the barbarians with a $1 trillion bailout, saved the euro, and even ensured "peace on the continent," as French President Nicolas Sarkozy boasted.

But Europe's problems are far from over. Just hours after the bailout, the euro continued its slide, falling from $1.28 per euro to $1.19, before clawing its way back to $1.26. More worrying, European banks have cut back on their lending to each otherjust as they did during the 2008 financial crisisand are dependent on some $900 billion in emergency financing from the European Central Bank. Conditions in Europe today look a lot like those at the start of America's subprime troubles in 2007, warned a recent Bank for International Settlements report.

Blaming foreign speculators for the continent's troubles may be a popular sport in Paris and Berlin, but most of those problems are entirely homegrown. Europe's dirty secret is that its banking sector is sicker than Wall Street. European banks' losses from the last financial crisis will hit $1.3 trillion by the end of this year, according to the International Monetary Fund's latest forecast35 percent more than the U.S. total. And while Europe's banks were just as aggressive as America's in gambling on toxic debt, most European governments have done less than America to clean up the mess. Now, European lenders are increasingly nervous about the money they've plowed into overindebted countries like Greece. Together, Europe's banks have funneled $2.5 trillion into the five shakiest euro-zone economies: Greece, Ireland, Belgium, Portugal, and Spain.

If Europe sinks, the contagion could easily spread around the worl by raising worries over public debt, by infecting American banks that are highly interconnected with Europe's, and by killing demand for American goods as Europeans' buying power is shrunk by a falling euro. Coming on top of last month's weaker-than-expected housing and consumer-spending numbers in the U.S., that would present a serious challenge to Barack Obama's recovery strategy, which is based on a doubling of U.S. exports by 2015.

Yet Europe's problems were completely predictable. After Ireland and Iceland both saw their financial sectors collapse in 2008, it was clear that even in Europe, countries could go bust. Yet the continent's banks pumped ever more money into shaky states. French banks were the most reckless, according to BIS numbers, increasing their lending to Greece by 23 percent, to Spain by 11 percent, and to Portugal by 26 percent since the start of the financial crisis. Meanwhile, the ECB rated Greek and other troubled bonds as "risk free" and provided banks with cheap cash to buy them, encouraging subprime countries to borrow heavily at artificially low interest rates...

more: http://www.newsweek....reet.print.html

I suggest you exercise care in your statements about other posters. Skirting the line on flaming will only get you so far.

i presented naked hard facts which prove that the financial situation of the U.S. is much worse than some of the "nanny states"

Most of the Western world is suffering, but it seems that many experts do not agree with you.

2 plus 2 equals 4 whether many experts agree or don't. the fact remains that the revenue/debt ratio of the U.S. is much worse than what those European countries experience which are presently considered being on the verge of bankruptcy and which have to default on their debt without adequate financial aid from the "sound" countries. i presented that fact because of the ridiculous remark "nanny states... going down".

Greeks have been living for a decade some sort of dolce vita based on the fraud of their government when applying to enter the €UR currency zone. the same applies (to a lesser extent) to Spain, Portugal and Ireland. now the Greeks are rioting because they ate the cake but are not willing to pay for it through adequate austerity measures and if this goes on without actively trying to make the necessary efforts the taxpayers of Germany, France and some other contributing EU countries will riot too by voting the Merkels, Sarkozys and you name them out of power.

I honestly think it is not Obama's fault, all these financial problems the States are going through is because of G.W. Bush.

I honestly think it is not Obama's fault, all these financial problems the States are going through is because of G.W. Bush.

let's be fair. you can't blame Bush for the crisis triggered by the Lehman banksters nor can he be blamed for the debt accumulated before his tenure.

I honestly think it is not Obama's fault, all these financial problems the States are going through is because of G.W. Bush.

let's be fair. you can't blame Bush for the crisis triggered by the Lehman banksters nor can he be blamed for the debt accumulated before his tenure.

Alright , I won't.

But I'd blame him for all the bad things that happened after his tenure.

But I'd blame him for all the bad things that happened after his tenure

haram aleikh ya sheikha!

I don't exactly blame Bush...although I dislike him and it would be convenient, but you cannot cut taxes and increase spending without ultimately paying the price.

Those in charge seemed to ignore a lot of dodgy financial dealings. The wealthy were having a field day under Bush.

The problem is, as an attorney friend of mine once said, when people make money nobody files complaints. When things go tits-up then everyone wants action. A very true statement.

I honestly think it is not Obama's fault, all these financial problems the States are going through is because of G.W. Bush.

It doesn't really matter whose to blame, as they - and all the Presidents before them - come from the same club. The finger pointing might be considered a surfaced ruse by those whom that regard political differences.

Who is to blame? I got this email the other day...

This is about as clear and easy to understand as it can be. The article

below is completely neutral, neither anti-republican or democrat. Charlie

Reese, a retired reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, has hit the nail

directly on the head, defining clearly who it is that in the final analysis

must assume responsibility for the judgments made that impact each one of us

every day. It's a short but good read. Worth the time. Worth remembering!

545 vs. 300,000,000 People

-By Charlie

Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then

campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are

against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and

high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations.

The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court

justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly,

legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems

that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was

created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty

to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central

bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They

have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a

congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if

they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the

power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is

the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what

they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of

party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount

of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood

up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The President can

only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole

responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving

appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? John Boehner. He

is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the

President, can approve any budget they want. If the President vetoes it,

they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545

people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and

irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not

traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth

that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must

follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.

If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want

them in Iraq and Afghanistan ...

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan

not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire

and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they

can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from

whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the

belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy,"

"inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an

oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their

bosses.

Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees...

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.

Wrong. Simplistic. Flawed. Illogical. Emotive rubbish.

Why do you post this without your own comment? Do we assume you agree with it all?

Wrong. Simplistic. Flawed. Illogical. Emotive rubbish.

Why do you post this without your own comment? Do we assume you agree with it all?

How is it flawed and illogical?

Who is to blame? I got this email the other day...

There are a lot of valid points in that email

I do not write off the FED Reserve even if it was a reduced congress that allowed it in 1913

But I do blame the ignorance of congress in general ever since to not educate themselves & fix the flaw.

but in the end the voting out & clean up is easier said than done.

The choices have always been & will always be limited to who TPTB choose to allow.

Wrong. Simplistic. Flawed. Illogical. Emotive rubbish.

Why do you post this without your own comment? Do we assume you agree with it all?

How is it flawed and illogical?

Koheesti:

While I dare challenge the US Constitutional knowledge possessed by some of our more vocal members...I agree with all of it.

Wrong. Simplistic. Flawed. Illogical. Emotive rubbish.

Why do you post this without your own comment? Do we assume you agree with it all?

How is it flawed and illogical?

Because he blames all 545 people in one go, collectively, yet things are passed because of concensus and majority. Not all 545 people agree with whatever law or ruling is passed.

Because all 545 people are put there by the 300 million....or at least a democratic majority of them.

Because by putting the 545 people there, the 300 million have given them a mandate to do what they do.

Because he suggests to vote all 545 people out......and what then??????

Wrong. Simplistic. Flawed. Illogical. Emotive rubbish.

Why do you post this without your own comment? Do we assume you agree with it all?

How is it flawed and illogical?

Because he blames all 545 people in one go, collectively, yet things are passed because of concensus and majority. Not all 545 people agree with whatever law or ruling is passed.

Because all 545 people are put there by the 300 million....or at least a democratic majority of them.

Because by putting the 545 people there, the 300 million have given them a mandate to do what they do.

Because he suggests to vote all 545 people out......and what then??????

Well then you look for 545 536 (Supreme Court justices may stay as long as they like unless impeached) other representatives. And while it may not be classified as a "high crime or misdemeanor", that ruling saying that campaign contributions are protected "speech", should have got some thinking about that.

CHANGE. YES WE CAN.

When you're doing life, without the option, you're much more free to call a spade a spade :

http://latimesblogs.typepad.com/washington/

Changing,changing ever changing but never changing

4+ decades later the locations change but the game is the same.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0cdCUtbDFQ&feature=related

Changing,changing ever changing but never changing

4+ decades later the locations change but the game is the same.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0cdCUtbDFQ&feature=related

Right on, Flying!