Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - Huge Economic Collapse Looming in the US?

Looger · 12-08-2006, 09:05 AM

to preface this i've been hearing rumblings for months that countries the world over are inching towards the door to dump US currency as a reserve note, as well there is more and more open discussion of non-dollar transactions being used to buy oil.

i'm NO economist. hopefully one chimes in here.

yeah, i know, it's 'the post' but it's an interesting article:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12072006...paul_tharp.htm

TOP-LEVEL INSIDERS SELLING THEIR STOCK

December 7, 2006 -- America's corporate chiefs are unloading their own stocks at one of the boldest paces in 20 years.
In cases of the very rich, such as Microsoft's Bill Gates and Google's top brass, the executives are selling a whopping $63 for each $1 of stock they bought, says a report by Bloomberg.
In November alone, leaders of public companies dumped $8.4 billion worth of stock they owned as insiders, most of it awarded as compensation, bonuses or other management incentives. But the vast majority of the executives put their windfall cash to work elsewhere, with just $133 million being plowed back into purchases of more company stock.

there's very little qualification in this article. maybe this kind of dividend turnover is normal, i really don't know. just the latest in a long line of recently gloomy articles.

this article sums up much of what i've heard in the general sense of america's economic problems:

http://www.safehaven.com/article-6462.htm

We are all aware of the reasons for the long term negative outlook for the U.S.D. There is the trade deficit mandating we entice foreigners to commit 2 billion dollars per day into our markets in order to maintain dollar stability. In addition, the total U.S. debt is now over $8.6 trillion. This debt has allowed China to hold $1 trillion in foreign reserves (70% of reserves in U.S. dollars). Chinese officials have recently expressed an interest to diversify their dollar holdings. According to Bloomberg, foreigners now hold nearly 50% of our publicly traded debt. The major holders of our debt are Japan, China and the U.K. They currently hold 639.2, 342.1 and 207.8 billion dollars of our treasury debt respectively. In all, foreigners hold about $9 trillion of U.S. financial assets.
The U.S. has developed a dependency and an addiction to these foreigners who hold our dollar and subsequently our economy hostage. Former President Clinton's Treasury Sec. Robert Rubin said in November, "The U.S. is five years away from rapid acceleration of spending tied to Social Security and Medicare." At the same time the esteemed former Fed head Paul Volcker proclaimed, "It's incredible people have gone on so long holding dollars." and was unwilling to extend a prediction of a dollar crisis in the next two and one half years. Trustees from the Medicare and Social Security trust funds estimate that 26.6% of Federal income taxes will be needed to fulfill obligations in 2020, up from 6.9% today. By 2030 that number will increase to 49.7%. Bear in mind the U.S. has a negative saving rate, which further underscores our reliance on oversees borrowing.

i don't know how savings ties to the power of the dollar, there's a mystifying middle step of selling and buying here.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/m.../07/do0702.xml

The world economy is what matters, and I don't like the smell of it. Nor, apparently, does Hank Paulson, who made $700 million at Goldman Sachs before taking over the US Treasury this year. He has reactivated a crisis team with a command centre in Washington to cope with the "systemic risk" in a market melt-down. His worry? 8,000 unregulated hedge funds with $1.3 trillion at hand, and derivative contracts now worth $370 trillion. "We need to be very careful here," he said.
A well-sourced article in Washington's Weekly Standard says Mr Paulson fears a "serious crisis that would be a body-blow to the US economy".

all i really know aboot hedge funds is that they're for the most part free and easy and that reading movements in them is like reading tea leaves. so what's the big deal with hedge funds, and what happens when they start collapsing? i have no idea, does anyone else? the sheer size of these funds seems a little unreal to me, why aren't thoise talking heads on the stock channels talking aboot them?

obviously i can always find doom-and-gloom articles, i doubt any reporting varies as much as financial reporting. just a trend i've been noticing lately.

i've always wanted to take a course in economics, who knows i may still.

any economic afficiondos out there...?

12-08-2006, 09:05 AM	#1
Looger Lifetime Suspension Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: insider trading in WTC 7 Exp:	Huge Economic Collapse Looming in the US? to preface this i've been hearing rumblings for months that countries the world over are inching towards the door to dump US currency as a reserve note, as well there is more and more open discussion of non-dollar transactions being used to buy oil. i'm NO economist. hopefully one chimes in here. yeah, i know, it's 'the post' but it's an interesting article: http://www.nypost.com/seven/12072006...paul_tharp.htm TOP-LEVEL INSIDERS SELLING THEIR STOCK December 7, 2006 -- America's corporate chiefs are unloading their own stocks at one of the boldest paces in 20 years. In cases of the very rich, such as Microsoft's Bill Gates and Google's top brass, the executives are selling a whopping $63 for each $1* of stock they bought, says a report by Bloomberg.* In November alone, leaders of public companies dumped $8.4 billion* worth of stock they owned as insiders, most of it awarded as compensation, bonuses or other management incentives.* But the vast majority of the executives put their windfall cash to work elsewhere, with just $133 million* being plowed back into purchases of more company stock.* there's very little qualification in this article. maybe this kind of dividend turnover is normal, i really don't know. just the latest in a long line of recently gloomy articles. this article sums up much of what i've heard in the general sense of america's economic problems: http://www.safehaven.com/article-6462.htm We are all aware of the reasons for the long term negative outlook for the U.S.D. There is the trade deficit mandating we entice foreigners to commit 2 billion dollars per day into our markets in order to maintain dollar stability. In addition, the total U.S. debt is now over $8.6 trillion. This debt has allowed China to hold $1 trillion in foreign reserves (70% of reserves in U.S. dollars). Chinese officials have recently expressed an interest to diversify their dollar holdings. According to Bloomberg, foreigners now hold nearly 50% of our publicly traded debt. The major holders of our debt are Japan, China and the U.K. They currently hold 639.2, 342.1 and 207.8 billion dollars of our treasury debt respectively. In all, foreigners hold about $9 trillion of U.S. financial assets. The U.S. has developed a dependency and an addiction to these foreigners who hold our dollar and subsequently our economy hostage. Former President Clinton's Treasury Sec. Robert Rubin said in November, "The U.S. is five years away from rapid acceleration of spending tied to Social Security and Medicare." At the same time the esteemed former Fed head Paul Volcker proclaimed, "It's incredible people have gone on so long holding dollars." and was unwilling to extend a prediction of a dollar crisis in the next two and one half years. Trustees from the Medicare and Social Security trust funds estimate that 26.6% of Federal income taxes will be needed to fulfill obligations in 2020, up from 6.9% today. By 2030 that number will increase to 49.7%. Bear in mind the U.S. has a negative saving rate, which further underscores our reliance on oversees borrowing. i don't know how savings ties to the power of the dollar, there's a mystifying middle step of selling and buying here. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/m.../07/do0702.xml The world economy is what matters, and I don't like the smell of it. Nor, apparently, does Hank Paulson, who made $700 million at Goldman Sachs before taking over the US Treasury this year. He has reactivated a crisis team with a command centre in Washington to cope with the "systemic risk" in a market melt-down. His worry? 8,000 unregulated hedge funds with $1.3 trillion at hand, and derivative contracts now worth $370 trillion. "We need to be very careful here," he said. A well-sourced article in Washington's Weekly Standard says Mr Paulson fears a "serious crisis that would be a body-blow to the US economy". all i really know aboot hedge funds is that they're for the most part free and easy and that reading movements in them is like reading tea leaves. so what's the big deal with hedge funds, and what happens when they start collapsing? i have no idea, does anyone else? the sheer size of these funds seems a little unreal to me, why aren't thoise talking heads on the stock channels talking aboot them? obviously i can always find doom-and-gloom articles, i doubt any reporting varies as much as financial reporting. just a trend i've been noticing lately. i've always wanted to take a course in economics, who knows i may still. any economic afficiondos out there...?