All we're doing is shifting chairs on the deck of the Titanic

Un articol scary de pe Market Watch. Sursa, si argumentele ce isi gasesc suport intr-o realitate pe care uneori incercam sa o refuzam, ma cam indispun. As fi preferat sa cred ca "e doar in capul meu", si eventual a unora mai putin seriosi. Cateva citate:



The debt mountain that brought down some of the world's biggest banks and dragged the international financial system to the brink of disaster has simply shifted to governments. Now it's threatening countries around the globe -- and, if left unchecked, could rip the very fabric of Europe's economic system and wreck economic recoveries in the U.S., China and Latin America.

"The sovereign-debt crisis spun out of control in the past week, and we see no easy way to resolve it,"

if a major country comes close to default, it could trigger a financial meltdown that would eclipse the panic that followed the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in 2008.
The move "symbolizes how credit risk has been transformed from corporate to sovereign risk, as the solution to the financial and economic crisis was government intervention,"

"Public finances in the majority of advanced industrial countries are in a worse state today than at any time since the industrial revolution, except for wartime episodes and their immediate aftermath,"

Even though the current epicenter of the crisis is focused on the euro zone, the overall fiscal position of the single currency area is stronger than that of the U.S., the U.K. and Japan, he noted.

Nota: asta stiam si eu, si tocmai de aceea ma mir de recenta isterie anti-euro.

Fannie and Freddie's liabilities at the end of last year's third quarter were almost $1.8 trillion, according to Buiter. This equals 13% of U.S. GDP and should be included in measurements of the country's general government debt

"We are still halfway through the world's worst financial crisis ever," Bank of England Governor Mervyn King warned.

"If they (Japan) borrow where Germany borrows at a bit over 3%, they are out of business."

One tell-tale sign of potential inflation is that the U.S. Treasury Department is trying to extend the average maturity of its debt from about 48 months to roughly 84 months, Brynjolfsson said.

"That makes me a little uncomfortable and suspicious," he added.

"That will be accompanied by inflation in the price of non-renewable assets like gold, other precious metals and industrial commodities," he said. "People start to hold on to things that they think will retain value."


Articolul integral aici: The second debt storm