Chile Forum

Calfornia gets 94¢ back for every $1 contributed to the Federal gov. Other states get more than their $1s worth. THIS WILL NOT CONTINUE AS IT OBVIOUS THE STATES GETTING RIPPED WILL BEGIN PUSHING BACK.

Time to dig out the 2009 predictions thread? I believe I mentioned possible secession in the later half of the year and of course civil strife (odd that a possibly Tamiflu resistant mutated hybrid flu virus will probably be kicking azz in the Northern Hemisphere Fall about that time). Now what do we do with all those well-trained unemployed combat engineers coming back from Iraq, Afghan, black ops in secret country X ???? NAW, couldn't be the reason HS sees them as a "domestic terrorism" threat. Something tells me the returning gritty Gen X frontline officer corps and the spirited when motivated Gen Y troopers might very well be the literal "teeth" on both sides of these secession movements.

And this concludes our report from this corner of The Chile Forum's tinfoil central

Ditto what gregf said, we're currently generating all our income in USD but are getting more and more itchy about getting CLP income to pay the bills.

Happy national debt day:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/MOUNTAIN- ... et=&ccode=

This forum is depressing.

Same story in the UK:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/econ ... lease.html

James.

This article estimates that the real national debt of the United States is really something closer to $127 trillion:

Reinforcing a future of endless declines for the dollar are the U.S.'s totally unsustainable mountains of debt ($57 TRILLION in total public/private debt + another $70+ TRILLION in unfunded liabilities. In comparison, real U.S. GDP is a puny $11.5 trillion/year – not nearly enough to even keep up the payments on the debt (let alone ever actually paying-off a dollar).

http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/40738 ... nance-dead

This article presents a scary scenario: http://seekingalpha.com/article/141571- ... arry-trade


All this talk has me wondering what the heck to do... Scary to think that the USD could collapse entirely, and take my livelihood with it. How long, realistically, do you think the CLP/USD will remain in the 550 range... and when/will/could it drop below 500 in the next 12 months? I know, requires a lot of divination and whatnot, but I'm just curious how realistic the scenarios are.

Study history, and you will find no fiat currency has lasted a hundred years.

Also, Chile and everyone else might devalue their currencies to keep up with the USD AS LONG AS IT — the USDoggie — REMAINS THE WORLD RESERVE FIAT CURRENCY. 550 pesos to the dollar rate might not mean much if a bandeja of 12 eggs costs 12000 pesos.

So in those transition periods, it is REAL ASSETS that people turn to and currencies perceived to be backed by some sort of REAL ASSET. Some would argue that Chile is on a copper standard but the peso is officially a floating fiat currency, so who knows?

Do diversify and don't put all one's "juevos" in one bandeja.

NIA.
DYODD.
TINSTAAFL.
YMMV.
I know nothing.

India has now joined China and Russia in calling for new international currency. What that would be backed by, I have no idea. the concept of it being backed by say China, Russia, and India's GDP is a little unsettling.

The Euro is not much better off than the dollar, accept they have some sort of tax base under it (sort of). Oil has been floated, but if the supply of oil decreases how the hell do you maintain that?

I would propose some sort of basket of commodities, rather than one underlying currency. Perhaps the basket of commodities would then properly reflect the Global International Product (what do you call that, and it has to be less than the U.S. debt).

Everyone keeps saying, when quoting the 11 trillion dollar debt figure, that the U.S. was in higher debt after WWII. Well, strictly speaking yes. Just we had made major investment in conquering the known World to become a super duper power. We did not spend that money on Big Macs and Cadillacs.

I highly recommend everyone read this article in Rolling Stones, called the "The Great American Bubble Machine" about how Goldman Sachs manipulated the market and the bailout.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/st ... le_machine

I love this quote:

The government might let other players on the market die, but it simply will not allow Goldman to fail under any circumstances. Its edge in the market has suddenly become an open declaration of supreme privilege. "In the past it was an implicit advantage," says Simon Johnson, an economics professor at MIT and former official at the International Monetary Fund, who compares the bailout to the crony capitalism he has seen in Third World countries. "Now it's more of an explicit advantage."

By the way, it seems that the code to Goldman's software for manipulating the market in microsecond trades might be out in the wild floating around the internet:

http://developers.slashdot.org/story/09 ... n-the-Wild

Very interesting the super reaction of U.S. law enforcement to it.

¡¡TINFLOIL ALERT!!

Spaking of Goldman………

And for you Obama lovers, his admin is equally beholden to and infested with the cretin scum.

The Great American Bubble Machine
Matt Taibbi on how Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression

MATT TAIBBI

Posted Jul 02, 2009 8:38 AM


In Rolling Stone Issue 1082-83, Matt Taibbi takes on "the Wall Street Bubble Mafia" — investment bank Goldman Sachs. The piece has generated controversy, with Goldman Sachs firing back that Taibbi's piece is "an hysterical compilation of conspiracy theories" and a spokesman adding, "We reject the assertion that we are inflators of bubbles and profiteers in busts, and we are painfully conscious of the importance in being a force for good." Taibbi shot back: "Goldman has its alumni pushing its views from the pulpit of the U.S. Treasury, the NYSE, the World Bank, and numerous other important posts; it also has former players fronting major TV shows. They have the ear of the president if they want it." Here, now, are excerpts from Matt Taibbi's piece and video of Taibbi exploring the key issues.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/28816321/the_great_american_bubble_machine