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2008-09-17 15:37:49.1307+00 by Dan Lyke 2 comments

It's an interesting notion that by (hopefully) temporarily reducing the value of a commodity to zero (ie: you have it, but you can't sell it), you stop the decline in value of that commodity: Russian stock exchanges suspend trading.

Apparently the terrorists are campaigning for John McCain: Al Qaeda blamed for U.S. Embassy attack in Yemen.

DOW plunges 300 points, and here's something I don't get: I'm not much of an investor, but how blind did you have to be to the current economic conditions to not see that this sort of crap was going to be happening about now? What about human behavior and belief is so irrational that this deflation didn't happen two years ago, but instead has just kept bouncing around waiting for the reality to strike?

[ related topics: Business Politics Economics ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2008-09-17 16:35:33.52085+00 by: m

I suspect that the current administration was doing its best to keep up the outward appearance of the economy and the markets. In 2005, the administration stopped reporting the M3 (total) money supply. This effectively hid a great deal of economic manipulation. I believe it was their intent to try and keep a rosy economic picture until 20Jan09, when they could blame the collapse on another president.

www.shadowstats.com is a paid subscription site, but has some stats for free on its front page. Their estimate of M3 growth shows a significant growth starting from the time that the M3 stopped being reported. The annualized growth rate went from 5% to a peak of around 17% and is now around 14%.

This enormous increase in the M3 is probably what kept a recession from happening around 2006. It will also leave us with a tremendous hangover, as being evinced by what is happening to the banks and financial markets now. That the current administration could not hold it together for another couple of months is a likely indicator of just how severe the economic downturn will be. I have no doubt that the present occupier of the oval office would have rather have had the next phase called the McCain or Obama depression, than the Bush depression. But it appears that he has done far to much damage to pull off that masquerade.

#Comment Re: M3 made: 2008-09-18 13:40:15.33951+00 by: jeff

Yup, the deliberate hiding of M3 numbers couldn't prevent the ultimate truth from rearing it's ugly head at some point.