Connecting the dots - Are we on the brink of calamity?

[engage13]

30 years eh !!

We are looking down the barrel of closing a couple of aluminium smelters at the same time as we are dreaming of 'made in Aus'.

Joh Bjelke Petersen & Lang Hancock couldnt make that east west rail link plan work in the 1980s.

back then old commrad Gough and globalist Bob had signed Australia up to the Lima declaration selling Australia to the world, we had local industry, 10 year mortgages & assets to sell

Lang handcock spent decades trying to sell iron ore as well and was laughed at by every one, yet it finaly happened as well & now one of Australias biggest exports SE Asia and Aouth America are near 3 world countries with large populations that are growing, they need steel
india will be the biggest economy in next 30 years along with the indo pacific will be the next boom area of the world apparently

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/05/warren-buffetts-berkshire-buys-dominion-energy-natural-gas-assets-in-10-billion-deal.html

looks like the propaganda machine of the climate change wheels could be slowly falling off

 

[Ned_Flanders]

back then old commrad Gough and globalist Bob had signed Australia up to the Lima declaration selling Australia to the world, we had local industry, 10 year mortgages & assets to sell

Lang handcock spent decades trying to sell iron ore as well and was laughed at by every one, yet it finaly happened as well & now one of Australias biggest exports SE Asia and Aouth America are near 3 world countries with large populations that are growing, they need steel
india will be the biggest economy in next 30 years along with the indo pacific will be the next boom area of the world apparently

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/05/warren-buffetts-berkshire-buys-dominion-energy-natural-gas-assets-in-10-billion-deal.html

looks like the propaganda machine of the climate change wheels could be slowly falling off

1) we still have local industry, just not as many in areas we are grossly inefficient at

2) without australia embracing world trade via GATT/WTO, we would not have access to the global markets we have for our grains, dairy, coal, and iron, as they would still be whacked with a buttload of tariffs

3) you can still get a 10 year mortgage, we had one. The reason people get 30 year mortgages is they want to borrow more, and because they are speculating on the price of their property exceeding the value of their loan when they sell/move in several years. Whether thats a good decision or a bad one is on them, but its an individual economic decision made by an individual - not the govt, the unions, or the illuminati

 

[Kwality]

back then old commrad Gough and globalist Bob had signed Australia up to the Lima declaration selling Australia to the world, we had local industry, 10 year mortgages & assets to sell

Lang handcock spent decades trying to sell iron ore as well and was laughed at by every one, yet it finaly happened as well & now one of Australias biggest exports SE Asia and Aouth America are near 3 world countries with large populations that are growing, they need steel
india will be the biggest economy in next 30 years along with the indo pacific will be the next boom area of the world apparently

No argument with India & the potential for Australia, but sadly it needs to be economically viable.

Bit loose on your history there. Lang was held back in his early years by the Fed Govt embargo on exporting iron ore, i.e the pig iron Bob pre WW2 red tape.

Hancock Prospecting has coal interests in the Galilee Basin & Ms Rinehart has shown she is willing & able to finance the Roy Hill venture in the Pilbara, i.e she is well positioned to act on her fathers dream - can she make it financially viable?

 

[engage13]

No argument with India & the potential for Australia, but sadly it needs to be economically viable.

Bit loose on your history there. Lang was held back in his early years by the Fed Govt embargo on exporting iron ore, i.e the pig iron Bob pre WW2 red tape.

Hancock Prospecting has coal interests in the Galilee Basin & Ms Rinehart has shown she is willing & able to finance the Roy Hill venture in the Pilbara, i.e she is well positioned to act on her fathers dream - can she make it financially viable?

Post ww2 Lang tried selling the iron ore to every one but no one was interest and government was least supportive


Her coal deposits are south of the Adani mine, along with a dozen or so other proposed projects twiggy has some leases there as well, it’s how much of a fight do the companies want to fight the loons and other companies trying to stop mining in the Galilee basin. Mind you it’s perfectly fine to mine next door in the Bowen basin as, past few years, current and future mines have opened up or planned to with out much challenge

 

[Kwality]

Post ww2 Lang tried selling the iron ore to every one but no one was interest and government was least supportive

The Feds embargo was not lifted until 1960, first shipment from the Pilbara 1966.

 

[Scotland]

3) you can still get a 10 year mortgage, we had one. The reason people get 30 year mortgages is they want to borrow more, and because they are speculating on the price of their property exceeding the value of their loan when they sell/move in several years. Whether thats a good decision or a bad one is on them, but its an individual economic decision made by an individual - not the govt, the unions, or the illuminati

Most people don't get 10 year mortgages because they can't afford the repayments. Things have changed lately with borrowing rates of 2-3% (and rising unemployment and economic uncertainty) but average historical rates of 5-8% on $500,000 you are talking $5-6,000 a month on a 10 year loan. If you can afford that and choose to borrow $1m or $2m and pay back interest for 30 years then that's your prerogative but most people just can't.

 

[Ned_Flanders]

Most people don't get 10 year mortgages because they can't afford the repayments. Things have changed lately with borrowing rates of 2-3% (and rising unemployment and economic uncertainty) but average historical rates of 5-8% on $500,000 you are talking $5-6,000 a month on a 10 year loan. If you can afford that and choose to borrow $1m or $2m and pay back interest for 30 years then that's your prerogative but most people just can't.

Most people can't because they are not doing the following:

1) saving a decent sized deposit. And I'm not talking 5%, I'm talking 20-30% which is what used to happen.

2) buying something cheap in the outer burbs. You don't need a house or even proximity in your first place. Buy a shithole and commute from outside metro if needed.

 

[Scotland]

Most people can't because they are not doing the following:

1) saving a decent sized deposit. And I'm not talking 5%, I'm talking 20-30% which is what used to happen.

2) buying something cheap in the outer burbs. You don't need a house or even proximity in your first place. Buy a shithole and commute from outside metro if needed.

The median price for a 3 bedroom house in Craigieburn is $495,000. How much further out should people go? Rent for an equivalent place is $380/wk. If you are paying $20k a year post tax for a roof over your head then good luck saving $100-150k for your 20-30% deposit. Sure some people can afford a 30 year mortgage to live in Essendon could move out and pay off a cheaper mortgage earlier, but then where do the people who can't end up? There's a generational wealth divide in play. People bought houses for $100k when they earned $30k and now those houses are worth $500k-$1m. I don't see anyone who bought at 70s and 80s prices selling for 70s and 80s prices.

A lot of people are financial numbnuts but houses are more expensive than they used to be, and without endless capital growth outstripping inflation (which is not possible no matter what the RE lobby tell you) then buying and selling is prohibitively expensive. If you buy, sell then buy again to trade up then you are looking at upwards of $50k in costs in stamp duty and commission. If I was building a new house and a basic 3x1 was $40k cheaper than a bigger 4x2 then I would probably just build the latter rather than building with the intention to build/buy again down the track.

 

[Ned_Flanders]

The median price for a 3 bedroom house in Craigieburn is $495,000. How much further out should people go? Rent for an equivalent place is $380/wk. If you are paying $20k a year post tax for a roof over your head then good luck saving $100-150k for your 20-30% deposit. Sure some people can afford a 30 year mortgage to live in Essendon could move out and pay off a cheaper mortgage earlier, but then where do the people who can't end up? There's a generational wealth divide in play. People bought houses for $100k when they earned $30k and now those houses are worth $500k-$1m. I don't see anyone who bought at 70s and 80s prices selling for 70s and 80s prices.

A lot of people are financial numbnuts but houses are more expensive than they used to be, and without endless capital growth outstripping inflation (which is not possible no matter what the RE lobby tell you) then buying and selling is prohibitively expensive. If you buy, sell then buy again to trade up then you are looking at upwards of $50k in costs in stamp duty and commission. If I was building a new house and a basic 3x1 was $40k cheaper than a bigger 4x2 then I would probably just build the latter rather than building with the intention to build/buy again down the track.

Wallan, officer, Drouin

and buy a unit or an apartment, you dont need dirt first time up

 

[Brunswick Trap King]

Wallan, officer, Drouin

and buy a unit or an apartment, you dont need dirt first time up

How much will the shift toward working from home collapse housing prices in inner suburbs?

 

[Ned_Flanders]

How much will the shift toward working from home collapse housing prices in inner suburbs?

depends upon how big the shift is

I'd hate to be owning student apartments right now however (they pretty much catered for international students only)

 

[Ned_Flanders]

I know we're now planning on downsizing the sizes of the offices we move to following our upcoming split from NAB.

a lot will, but a lot of managers are still in the "if i dont see it, it didnt happen" world, and will want staff in at least 4 days a week

share desks are a descent infection risk, and how that will be managed will be interesting

 

[Present Not Past]

1) we still have local industry, just not as many in areas we are grossly inefficient at

We have too many Australian businesses buying overseas made products and reselling them in the Australian market place at Australian prices.
Overseas producer - winner
Domestic company - winner
Australian consumer - loser

This has led to Australian producers being priced out of the marketplace by cheaply made inferior overseas goods.

 

[Ned_Flanders]

We have too many Australian businesses buying overseas made products and reselling them in the Australian market place at Australian prices.
Overseas producer - winner
Domestic company - winner
Australian consumer - loser

This has led to Australian producers being priced out of the marketplace by cheaply made inferior overseas goods.

this is so utterly wrong its not funny

first wake up call, we were not good at a lot of manufacturing. Our cars were a joke. Tonnes of plastic, poor reliability, not well built. And we didnt modernize (I remember jumping in a 2000's ford, and my first thought was how everything looked unchanged from my dad's 1980's fairmont). why would you pay a permium, when frankly the korean cars were a better product?

then look at TV's, textiles, footwear, bicycles, washing machines, lawn mowers. we couldn't keep up with modernization due to our shitty small market, and 1970-90's australian manufacturing was hopeless for quality control (the "she'll be right" attitude didnt help), so we became a place that made expensive things of pretty meh quality.

Secondly, the consumer won. Why? Because they had a choice, and they chose the import. Noone forces people to buy the cheapest. Look at car sales. While Holden and Ford were being crushed, the premium brands had a boom. It comes down to choice. Some people want to have cheap price single season clothing, which is why they go to Zara. Others want something that will last a life time, so they save up and go to Prada.

Australian manufacturing failed because they didnt make what the consumer wanted. Compare it to food, we are a world leader at innovation and adapting to market trends, and that has meant they havent been impacted by offshoring. And before you say "its not economically viable to offshore food production", its actually cheaper to do it in a lot of cases (I personally did one feasibility review years ago for importing milk products). the reason why food manufacturing remains so resilient is its quality is exceptionally high, and it keeps adapting to market changes.

JFYI this takes a lot of investment, so its not accidental. Coles and Woolies except grocery products to have flavour/range rotations every six months. It takes 6-36 months to develop a new range (R&D, market research, batch productions and flavour testing, marketing design), so this is a constant pipeline of innovation at these firms with a long horizon.

 

[CatFan79]

How much will the shift toward working from home collapse housing prices in inner suburbs?

A lot I'd say. Why else would you want to live there if not reliant on proximity to CBD?

I get people in their 20s not being able to afford housing due to the ridiculous spike but if you're 30+ and still renting, it's on you.

 

[Leeda]

Wallan, officer, Drouin

and buy a unit or an apartment, you dont need dirt first time up

and we are not quoting shame faming but in this destructive is abhorrent...

 

[Marcel Proust]

Part Three - Are we on the brink of World War III (Eastern European front)? [Updated 18/3/14]

i) The coup which took place in Kiev recently was clearly Western-backed, rather than the organic uprising by the masses the MSM would have you believe. There is ample evidence that this was yet another CIA-backed coup. Leaked calls have demonstrated that US officials were involved in hand-picking the 'interim government' and that the sniper attacks on civilians and police were carried out by the same people (i.e. plants to create chaos and garner international outrage). Whilst the protestors who initially gathered in Maidan were predominantly peaceful, the armed men who led the storming of government buildings and attacked police were clearly a violent, organised outfit led by far-right neo-Nazi militia - so much so that they not only overpowered the police, but managed to literally capture dozens of them.

ii) Ukraine is of tremendous economic, geopolitical importance, specifically with regards to its potential inclusion in Putin's Customs Union. Ukraine is seen as a key plank in any such 'Eurasian Union'. Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has openly declared that American plans are to 'slow down or prevent' this Russian-led union from going ahead. Shortly after the 'interim government' was installed, a team from the IMF was sent to Kiev to organise loans (whose conditions will include reductions in services for Ukrainian people, including increased gas prices).

iii) Crimea is of tremendous strategic, geopolitical importance. One of the crucial factors in Germany's defeat in WWII was her insufficient supplies of oil, which some historians believe was Hitler's 'prime motive' for invading the Soviets when he did. In August 1941 Hitler declared, "The most important aim to be achieved before the onset of winter is not the capture of Moscow but, rather, the occupation of the Crimea, of the industrial and coalmining area of the Donets basin, the cutting of the Russian supply routes from the Caucasus oilfields...". Note that, in reference to the outcome of WWII, Stalin is quoted as saying, "The war was decided by engines and octane", while Churchill said, "Above all, petrol governed every movement". The following video goes into further detail about the geopolitical importance of Ukraine in general:

Embedded media from this media site is no longer available

iv) Propaganda, both overt and covert, to garner public and worldwide support for a Western invasion in Ukraine has been ramping up for months. Overtly, the New York Times (among other publications) has been running stories about Crimean Tatars' concerns of 'ethnic cleansing' and 'forced deportation' at the hands of Russian forces - examples here, here, and here. NYT has even tried to downplay the decision by the 'interim government' to remove Russian as an official language of Ukraine, despite a majority of Ukrainians in the Eastern part of the country speaking Russian as their first language. Covertly, the viral youtube video 'I am a Ukrainian' (embedded below) is easily shown to be a piece of shameless propaganda, produced by people with direct links to the US government.



v) The US has already begun its attempts to isolate Russia diplomatically. On the surface this appears to have worked to at least some degree with China abstaining from a recent UN resolution which sought to invalidate the recent referendum in Crimea. US officials have openly admitted that their strategy is to keep China from supporting 'separatist' movements elsewhere given their fear of Tibetan and Uighur movements closer to home. We know that the US has been funding and fomenting separatist agitations in Xinjiang for years through its 'National Endowment for Democracy'. China's support of the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan (the first time since the Cold War that China supported US military strikes in another country) came on the proviso that the US officially list Uighur separatist groups as 'terrorists', which the US promptly did. The US is attempting to use its political leverage combined with CCP fears of separatism to isolate Russia on the international stage and specifically the UN Security Council.

vi) Troop mobilisation is ramping up. There are alleged to be as many as 60,000 Russian troops already within Crimea itself, although different sources cite lower figures. Kiev has approved its own mobilisation and announced the creation of a new 60,000-strong National Guard. US/NATO have yet to send their own troops but the Russians have already captured a US drone which had been flying over Crimea. More significant than any of this is that Russian forces have already been sent into Ukrainian territory beyond Crimea.

tl;dr The current events in Ukraine and surrounding areas are not an unforeseen, spontaneous reaction to a peaceful public uprising in Kiev, but the results of a calculated gambit by Western powers to destroy the Kremlin's plans to increase Russia's sphere of influence via the customs union. Russia's response in taking Crimea is a predictable play given the geopolitical importance of the area. Western media is prepping the masses for any military action which is to follow by repeating blatant propaganda which bears little resemblance to the realities of what is taking place. Attempts by the US to isolate Russia on the world stage, Ukrainian troop mobilisation and further Russian incursion into Ukrainian territory suggest that this crisis will not end with the return of Crimea to Russia.

Spooky

 

[Kwality]

Part Four - Is Australia on the verge of financial/economic collapse? [Updated 20/3/14]

i) Australian banks are incredibly reliant on the ongoing stability of the domestic residential real estate market. Since 1990, Australian business loans have shrunk from 270% of the value of housing lending to less than 60%. The following chart shows that around two-thirds of Australian major bank lending is directed towards residential real estate.

ii) Australian banks are highly leveraged. A mere 4% fall in asset values would render the Big Four banks insolvent. This is because the Big Four are leveraged to 27 times their underlying capital. In fact, the Big Four leverage their Tier 1 capital as much as 85 times when advancing home loans. Without getting too technical, Tier 1 capital is the good kind of capital, the type you want banks to have plenty of in case of problems. A bank's Tier 1 capital ratio is determined by dividing the total Tier 1 capital amount (numerator) by the Risk Weighted Assets on the bank's books (denominator). Government bonds (historically safe) have a risk weighting of 0%, the riskiest assets have a risk weighting of 100% (see this for more detail).

Here is the tricky bit: Mortgaged real estate is given a risk weighting of only 15-20% by Australia's Big Four, so the denominator in these equations is deceptively small. The Big Four officially declare Tier 1 capital ratios of between 7.8% and 8.8% but these figures understate the true magnitude of the assets on their books, because the actual dollar value of these assets (denominator) is lowered in these equations by their low risk weighting. If the target capital ratio is 8%, and the risk weighting on mortgaged real estate is 20%, this means that a Big Bank need hold only $1.60 worth of Tier 1 reserves for every $100 it loans out for mortgages in order to claim a capital ratio of '8%'.

iii) Australian banks came a lot closer to collapse during the height of the GFC than you may think. It was only announced in late 2010 that in the period following the Lehman Brothers collapse in late 2008, the Federal Reserve bank in the US had to make emergency loans (called a 'Term Auction Facility') of $4.5b to NAB and $1.09b to Westpac. See this Federal Reserve spreadsheet for yourself. Note that the details of these emergency loans were only revealed due to an amendment pushed by an independent American Senator. Further details emerged after Bloomberg won a Freedom of Information court case to force the Federal Reserve (which had argued that releasing this information would create a 'stigma' around the banking industry) to open up their books. Our own Reserve Bank of Australia had to utilise this same Fed emergency lending facility to the tune of $53b. Without these emergency loans, our financial system would have collapsed. Compare this reality with what is reported in the MSM.

Note that Australia is one of the few developed countries whose central bank does not enforce monetary reserve requirements. Capital reserves - yes; monetary reserves - no. Following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Australian depositors withdrew about $5.5b from their banks in the space of ten weeks, which led to the RBA having to ask their printers to create about $10b worth of new notes quicksmart - it was a 'silent run' on the banks that to this day has been scarcely reported on by the mainstream media.
iv) Bank regulations have scarcely improved since the GFC:

• The regulators have huge conflicts of interest. In late 2012 the IMF released a report in which called for an increase in Tier 1 capital ratios amongst the Big Banks. At the time, former CBA chief David Murray joined others in rejecting this proposal. Murray is now head of Treasurer Joe Hockey's inquiry into financial services, which will also receive the input of other vested interests such as David Morgan (ex-chairman of the Australian Bankers Association), Carolyn Hewson (former director of Westpac), and Craig Dunn (outgoing head of AMP and its banking subsidiary). If this all seems a little cosy, note that Treasury secretaries Ken Henry and Ted Evans and RBA governor Ian Macfarlane have all recently served on major bank boards. Hockey's inquiry is expected to report back by November 2014. In announcing the inquiry, Hockey also declared a three-year moratorium on significant new regulation on the banking sector.
• Capital ratios have barely improved. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has asked the Big Four to raise minimum Tier 1 capital ratios by a measly 1% but even this does not come into effect until 2016 - and it was so limp-wristed that share prices in the major banks actually went up upon the announcement. In fact, the current Tier 1 capital ratios of the Big Four are already above these 'tough' minimums to be introduced in 2016. Note that the banks themselves get to determine the risk-weighting of assets. That is, the regulator stipulates a minimum Tier 1 capital ratio, but the Big Banks get to decide how to measure the assets that make up the denominator of that ratio.
• Liquidity requirements have actually gotten worse. The banks will be required by 2015 to meet minimum liquidity requirements, but in order to save the banks from having to actually keep enough liquid assets on hand to meet these requirements, the RBA has effectively pre-approved the Big Four for $380b of bailout loans at the cash rate +.4%. The figure below illustrates how much of the Big Banks' minimum liquidity has been pre-approved by you, the taxpayer.

v) Banks (and related companies) make up a huge proportion of our overall economy. Financial services (of which the banking sector constitutes a major part) is a bigger share of Australia's national production than any other industry, having surpassed mining, farming, education and health services in the decade from 2000. With a combined market capitalisation of $390b, the Big Four banks alone comprise more than a quarter of the ASX200. Our Big Four banks are all in the world's top 20 lenders - in a country of some 23m people. Whereas manufacturing and agriculture once made up a sizable proportion of our economy, the vast majority of us are now employed in the services sector:

vi) Australian house prices are currently being driven up by foreign investors. As a response to the GFC and the potential for it to undermine Australia's real estate market, the Rudd government significantly relaxed foreign ownership laws pertaining to real estate in 2008 (implemented 2009). While these changes were slightly modified in 2010, their effects continue unabated to this day, with (known) foreign investment in real estate totaling more than $17b last financial year. Chinese investors alone are purchasing 18% and 14% respectively of new homes in Sydney and Melbourne. Other countries have experienced similar issues and dealt with them accordingly (see Hong Kong, Canada, Singapore, New Zealand) while Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey has launched an inquiry which isn't due to report back until October of this year.

vii) Australia's economy is in much worse shape than we're led to believe. GDP per capita has grown less than 1% per annum since the beginning of the GFC. If Victoria isn't already in recession, it is headed towards it. Jobs are being shed left, right and centre. Unemployment and underemployment continue to rise. Small business insolvencies are increasing. Every single state of this nation, as well as the national government, are not only in debt but increasing their debt levels as we speak. Despite the boom times enjoyed during the period in question, Australian federal governments will have achieved budget surpluses in only 11 of 25 financial years from 1990-2015, and the structural deficit (which began under the 'strong economic manager' John Howard and continued under the ALP) means we might not see another surplus for a very long time - if ever. Governments, national and state, are preparing to sell off yet more assets to temporarily make up the shortfall. Several states' credit ratings have been dropped which will make borrowing more expensive.

tl;dr Our big banks rely very heavily on real estate lending. These banks are highly leveraged and even a small (4%) drop in their asset values would see them insolvent. Their leverage ratios are more alarming when you learn how they are calculated, and even more alarming again when you realise that the banks valuation methods are effectively self-regulated. Our Big Banks were much closer to collapse post-GFC than the media tends to tell us - they didn't just come close to running out of capital, they had to print up $10b of notes just to avoid running out of currency. Regulations in this country have not improved post-GFC and the changes that have been implemented have arguably made things worse, with the taxpayer pre-approving the Big Four banks for hundred-billion-dollar bailouts. The people charged with overseeing regulation of the banks are hopelessly conflicted due to their connections with the banks.

If the banks were to collapse, they would take the entire national economy with them because they form the heart of not just our financial system but our economic 'production' and 'wealth' as well. The main driver pushing house prices further up is foreign investment, which other countries are clamping down on (which leads one to wonder why our government hasn't done similar) and our own economy, despite 'weathering the storm' of the GFC, is already in big trouble. Essentially, any knock to our economy (or that of our major trading partners) could precipitate a financial (and then economic) collapse - one which most of us can barely imagine the consequences of.

How are we looking ?

 

[Gethelred]

Spooky

Marcel, why do you do this?

From time to time, you go through a backlog of dormant threads and revive them out of the blue, usually to see if you can kickstart or reignite an argument.

Give me a reason why I shouldn't lock this thread.

 

[Marcel Proust]

Marcel, why do you do this?

From time to time, you go through a backlog of dormant threads and revive them out of the blue.

Give me a reason why I shouldn't lock this thread.

Why can't I read or respond to old threads? I can't find any rules against this.

We appear to be on the brink of calamity. That's why you should not lock it.

But as per usual you know best

 

[Marcel Proust]

How are we looking ?

GFC again ?

Lots of money being printed

 

[Gethelred]

Why can't I read or respond to old threads? I can't find any rules against this.

We appear to be on the brink of calamity. That's why you shouldn't lock it.

But as per usual you know best

I'll leave it open for now - far be it for me to determine what's discussed on this forum - but if this thread starts along the road of conspiracy theory I'm going to blame you for it.

The post you quote is a Gish Gallop of massive proportions, and I don't have the time to verify 30+ links for misinformation. Tread carefully.

 

[blackcat]

Spooky

Zbignieu Brzezinski's doctrine destroying Russia ; completion by dividing it into four concomitant states and
- Victoria Nuland deciding on Ukraine leader and
- it's antecedent '14 Putsch as Stephen F Cohen wont to riff-on

Halford Mackinder's world island
bulwark to Sino domination with their logistics veins
however I think they won Africa and Peter Zeihan is a tad too bullish on his demographic cliff thesis and BRICS pose peer competitor to petro-dollar/Bretton Woods w Anglo-American establishment of which we are a strategic member

 

[blackcat]

GFC again ?

Lots of money being printed

make GFC look like child's sandpit , this is mother-of-all when the Fed allows it to pop

 

[Kwality]

Marcel, why do you do this?

From time to time, you go through a backlog of dormant threads and revive them out of the blue, usually to see if you can kickstart or reignite an argument.

Give me a reason why I shouldn't lock this thread.

My 2bobs worth .... time is the only reason you should not lock it. I was planning a follow up on interest rates.