Well if this banking and finance stuff is too hard to keep track of and you are interested in what’s really happening right now, watch this video. Its 30 minutes and plus it s cartoon. Kid safe and educational.

At the very least, watching this video will make you aware of why things are the way they are in the world currently. For me personally, I felt like this as I was watching the video.

This is THE same Peter Schiff that predicted this collapse over two years ago! He was labeled as a loon over his comments but he hit the nail right on the head. He was asked by U.S. News and world report the following “So how bad do you think this economy will get? “, he replied:

The other problem we’ll have during those years is civil [unrest]. There will be a big increase in crime. People are going to be hungry. People are going to be cold. There’s a sense of entitlement in this country, and when a lot of people used to having things suddenly don’t, everybody looks for someone to blame.

He then went on the FOX Business channel and predicted that Gold will skyrocket to over $5,000 dollars an ounce! To provide a barometer, Gold is currently trading at around $750.00 dollars an ounce.

I have a feeling he won’t be invited to too many more broadcasts in the future…

In the latest catastrophic economic news (most of this is not even being touched by the mainstream media in the U.S.), Brazil and Argentina is now abandoning the US dollar as the preferred trading currency From Presstv.ir.

Brazil and Argentina have launched a new payment system in their bilateral trade, doing away with the US dollar as a medium of exchange.

With OPEC nations possibly following suit, this could be the death knell for the burgeoning U.S. currency. From the Telegraph:

The Saudi central bank said today that it would take “appropriate measures” to halt huge capital inflows into the country, but analysts say this policy is unsustainable and will inevitably lead to the collapse of the dollar peg.

As a close ally of the US, Riyadh has so far tried to stick to the peg, but the link is now destabilising its own economy.

The Fed’s dramatic half point cut to 4.75pc yesterday has already caused a plunge in the world dollar index to a fifteen year low, touching with weakest level ever against the mighty euro at just under $1.40.

There is now a growing danger that global investors will start to shun the US bond markets. The latest US government data on foreign holdings released this week show a collapse in purchases of US bonds from $97bn to just $19bn in July, with outright net sales of US Treasuries.

The danger is that this could now accelerate as the yield gap between the United States and the rest of the world narrows rapidly, leaving America starved of foreign capital flows needed to cover its current account deficit – expected to reach $850bn this year, or 6.5pc of GDP.

This could be crack that breaks the dam wide open and plunges the dollar to almost worthless levels. Lets hope that things improve soon. I don’t look forward to the idea of hauling a wheelbarrow of cash to the grocery store to buy a loaf of bread…

Much like the Patriot act, one of the most unjust and and insidious pieces of legislation is about to get railroaded through congress right under the noses of the American people. The proposed Wall Street bailout tailored by Treasury secretary Henry Paulson and the Bush administration is good for “Wall Street” but devastating for “Main Street”.

In the latest Rasmussen poll, only 7% of the America supports a bailout of Wall Street, and when there are already financial experts and professors stating that this bailout is unnecessary, this attempted robbery of the American people cannot go unchecked. Please sign the petition over at Public Citizen. Take 3 minutes out of your day to have your voice heard.

If this bailout act passes it is tantamount to making almost every American citizen a slave. Here’s an idea… Why don’t we try what Sweden did in the early 1990s to save their insolvent banking system?

Sign here

weee!

In so many corporate failures the CEOs “jump ship” with bulging moneybags leaving the rest of the people to deal with sinking ship. Well in a twist of shocking great news, the federal government is deciding to apply some semblance of justice to the colossal failure of the CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. From the Washington Post:

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the regulator that seized control of the mortgage giants last weekend and removed their chief executives, declined yesterday to specify what the executives would lose. Former Fannie Mae chief executive Daniel Mudd and former Freddie Mac chief executive Richard Syron together were eligible to receive as much as $25 million, according to outside compensation consultants who last week reviewed the companies’ financial disclosures.

“The Federal Housing Finance Agency notified [Mudd and Syron] that ‘golden parachute’ payments contemplated under their contracts would not be paid,” the agency said in a statement.

A spokesman for Syron declined to comment, and the Washington lawyer representing Mudd, Robert B. Barnett, did not return a phone call or e-mail.

The disgraced executives will still walk away with millions in severance but not nearly the amount that was in their contracts.

In addition to calling Bernanke out, he screeches at the top of his lungs about Bear and Stearns and Washington Mutual, with B&S having gone the way of the dodo and WaMu sinking fast. Anohter interesting prediction, “7 million people will lose their homes!”

Maybe we should put this guy in charge of some stuff… seems to be better than the people running things now.

From ABC:

“Hundreds of super-rich American tax cheats have, in effect, turned themselves in to the IRS after a bank computer technician in the tiny European country of Liechtenstein came forward with the names of US citizens who had set up secret accounts there, according to Washington lawyers investigating the scheme.”

Allegedly, bank clerk named Heinrich Kieber sold CD ROMs containing names and data to tax authorities to 12 countries including Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy and the United States.

The article goes on to state:

“The names of the US citizens are now in the hands of the IRS and Senate investigators. Washington lawyers say a number of prominent citizens have been subpoenaed to testify but have already indicated they will refuse to testify, asserting their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.”

This has the potential to scandalize the European banking establishment as UBS bank is linked in the allegations. Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) is calling for the Swiss banking giant to ‘shut down’.

One American thus far has been outed:

“48 year-old Peter Lowy and his family own the giant Westfield shopping center fortune and will control the retail space in the rebuilt World Trade Center in New York. Bob Bennett, a lawyer for Lowy, who is a prominent contributor to both Democratic and Republican candidates, told ABC News that Lowy’s name was on the list of secret accounts from a Liechtenstein bank but that Lowy did nothing wrong.

Bennett said Lowy is out of the country tomorrow and will not be available to testify.”

Its going to be interesting to see which prominent Americans pop up out of this list in the coming weeks…

Full Story here