DEBT

Graph from smartpei.typepad.com/.../cracks_in_the_system/

"Total household debt in the US was roughly half of disposable income in 1962, but nearly equal to disposable income in 2004.

"In proportion to income, the household debt burden nearly doubled. Americans took on more debt, acquired more assets in the form of homes, and watched home prices appreciate on a levered basis...

"At most, Paulson's plan will preserve the privileges of the financier caste that enabled the debt addiction of American households;

"at worst, it will give a few of the bankers an extra couple of months to unload stock in financial companies before they, too, go the way of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual." - US wealth in shrink mode

"Much of the toxic (garbage) debts were based on fraudulent practices – opaque financial instruments unrelated to real assets (but which generated huge commissions). Bailing out swindlers only encourages more swindling. The US Treasury will purchase worthless paper, the private banks will retain any assets of value... The channeling of funds to Wall Street will divert funds from getting us out of this deepening recession." - No Bailout for Wall Street Billionaires!

"On Wednesday, September 24, right in the middle of the fight over billions of taxpayer dollars slated to bail out Wall Street, the House of Representatives passed a $612 billion defense authorization bill for 2009 without a murmur of public protest or any meaningful press comment at all." - We have the money

Panic grips world's markets

"The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said his country would have to withdraw from 'almost all' the land it captured in the 1967 war and divide Jerusalem in order to agree long-awaited peace deals with the Palestinians and Syria." - Olmert: Israel has to return lands


~~