Analysts and media attributed huge sell-offs to anxiety and panic, but Peter Schiff, president and chief global strategist for Euro Pacific Capital, said the real problem isn’t that people lack confidence. They lack money, he said.
“The stock market is reflecting the problems in our economy,” Schiff said during an interview Friday. “You hear the president talk and say they want to keep Wall Street’s problems on Wall Street, but the real problem is on Main Street. Wall Street is in trouble because they engineered trillions of dollars in loans to Main Street, and Main Street is too broke to pay them back.”
He said that the only way to deal with the situation is to tell Americans: “The borrowing is over. The consuming is over, and the whole phony economy is gone.”
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” he said. “There’s really no reason for people to own U.S. stocks now. We’re going to be in the worst recession of our lifetime.”
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA Your favorite International Playboy on the Rise’s favorite International Playboy on the Rise
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
More than just a mere liquidity or credit crisis, the current financial storm represents the death throes of the old global economic order, and perhaps the birth pains of a new one. The sun is setting on the borrow and spend culture that has all but defined us for a generation. Our long ride on the global gravy train is finally coming to an end, and once it does nothing will be the same. The sooner we come to grips with this the better.
Despite the myriad of proposals that are coming from Washington and other world capitals, we must understand that this crisis cannot be cured by governments. In the United States, credit is gone because savings are gone. Our shallow pool of savings has been depleted through bad loans, and we can no longer entice foreigners into lending us their available savings. Given that we are already too loaded up on existing debt that we cannot realistically repay, who can blame them for not wanting to lend us more?
As a result, the free market is trying to put an end to our spending spree. Without savings or home equity to fall back on, Americans struggling with rising prices are finally being forced to curtail their spending. This has terrified our leaders and is causing them to dismantle the remaining structure of our free enterprise-based economic system.
Were the government to allow market forces to work, Americans would now have to pay cash for their consumption. That would mean no instant credit for new cars, plasma TVs, appliances, consumer electronics, clothing, furniture, etc. Unless buyers actually had the cash in their checking accounts these purchases would have to be deferred. From an economic perspective this is precisely what the doctor ordered. But for an economy based 72 percent on consumer spending, the medicine will go down hard.
Peter Schiff Versus Stephen Leeb – Party’s Over – America
Peter Schiff Says America On Brink of Economic Collapse (from back in April ’08)
The Rest is Up to You…
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA Your favorite International Playboy on the Rise’s favorite International Playboy on the Rise
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
Just when you think Barack Obama will win easy, its people like this that make you think it will be a close race (and she is from a “Blue State”):
McCain Volunteer thinks “Obama is an Arab”
McCain Supporter: “Obama is an Arab”
Someone needs to put Grandma to bed.
Where are this ladies kids to tell her whats up?
Oh yeah, probably cooking up crystal meth, shopping at Walmart and eating fast food.
McCain deserves some props for setting the record straight.
But one question, aren’t some Arabs, Americans too?
Also, does anyone also notice that all the Red States are a dump?
And that the only decent places in the Red States (Miami Beach, New Orleans, Las Vegas, etc) are Blue?
The Rest is Up to You…
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA Your favorite International Playboy on the Rise’s favorite International Playboy on the Rise
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
At Fort McNair, an army base located along the Potomac River in the nation’s capital, a chance reunion takes place one day between two former POWs. It’s the spring of 1974, and Navy commander John Sidney McCain III has returned home from the experience in Hanoi that, according to legend, transformed him from a callow and reckless youth into a serious man of patriotism and purpose. Walking along the grounds at Fort McNair, McCain runs into John Dramesi, an Air Force lieutenant colonel who was also imprisoned and tortured in Vietnam.
McCain is studying at the National War College, a prestigious graduate program he had to pull strings with the Secretary of the Navy to get into. Dramesi is enrolled, on his own merit, at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in the building next door.
There’s a distance between the two men that belies their shared experience in North Vietnam — call it an honor gap. Like many American POWs, McCain broke down under torture and offered a “confession” to his North Vietnamese captors. Dramesi, in contrast, attempted two daring escapes. For the second he was brutalized for a month with daily torture sessions that nearly killed him. His partner in the escape, Lt. Col. Ed Atterberry, didn’t survive the mistreatment. But Dramesi never said a disloyal word, and for his heroism was awarded two Air Force Crosses, one of the service’s highest distinctions. McCain would later hail him as “one of the toughest guys I’ve ever met.”
On the grounds between the two brick colleges, the chitchat between the scion of four-star admirals and the son of a prizefighter turns to their academic travels; both colleges sponsor a trip abroad for young officers to network with military and political leaders in a distant corner of the globe.
“I’m going to the Middle East,” Dramesi says. “Turkey, Kuwait, Lebanon, Iran.”
“Why are you going to the Middle East?” McCain asks, dismissively.
“It’s a place we’re probably going to have some problems,” Dramesi says.
The article is very critical of the John McCain that America knows. The article blasts McCain on his military record, his courage, and his pampered lifestyle among other things like being a Playboy. (For the record, I have no problem with the Playboy part, in fact, I actually like him more now. And I would choose Rio de Janeiro over the Middle East ever if I completely lost my mind.)
Whenever you read an article like this I think you should read it with mad grains of salt.
My favorite teacher in University once told our class, “Only half of what you read in the papers is correct.” (I completely agree.)
To which, I raised my hand and replied, “Well, why don’t you read just half the paper then?…”
Which got a laugh out of the class. But most importantly, it got a laugh out of this fly cheerleader girl who sat right next to me.
After class, I invited her back to my crib at the beach while sparking up a jack.
Worked out well.
What ever happened to the girl?
She took her cheer leading career to the top, and became a San Diego Chargers cheerleader. Impressive stuff.
What is she doing today?
Who knows? Probably moved to Arizona and married a mortgage broker. And probably now broke.
C’est la vie
The Rest is Up to You…
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA Your favorite International Playboy on the Rise’s favorite International Playboy on the Rise
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
There is a lot of talk on Bottle Service these days. Here is an interesting take by nightlife legend Steve Lewis:
The consensus is that Tenjune and clubs which cater to the Wall Street crowd will be most affected and that the highest end joints like 1 Oak and Rosebar will not see a difference.
I believe Tenjune, Marquee and those “types” of joints will do just fine because of brainpower at the top. These guys will adjust, buckle down, trim fat, and find a way. The theory that bad news will drive them to drink has always rang true. Look for clubs heavily dependent on corporate revenue streams to be hardest hit, but even those will survive. It may be more weddings for the Capitale, Espace kind of spaces, and those might be less extravagant, but the sharp pencils at those places will erase some costs and come out ahead. Those in trouble are the marginal places run by fairly inexperienced operators who came in on the big wave of the model/bottle era and will surely crash into the beach. I expect vacancies with properties flipping into other hands. It may be a great opportunity for a reemergence of the fun fun fun dive clubs of the 80’s. Landlords unable to develop properties may again welcome club runners to maintain a revenue stream until people can actually afford to buy condos again, or there are lending institutions that will actually finance them again.
It may be a great opportunity for a reemergence of the fun fun fun dive clubs of the 80’s.
