Europe has 450 million and growing consumers. Besides doing loads of business with Asia and China, we build many of our own things. We grow enough food to feed ourselves. We are not deep in debt like Americans. We might pay 8 dollars a gallon for gas but most people still save more and have lots of disposable income.

Sorry to burst your bubble but the Euro will continue to strengthen.

Its not safe in any AMERICAN bank thats for sure.

I have had an account in Zurich for many years now since I left the USA for highpaying non taxable dollars. Haven't paid taxes in the Useless States in over 19 years. I will not be party to killing innocent people. I don't need that kind of nasty karma hanging over me.

Is Your Cash Safe At The Banks?

Do bankers know about the guillotine?

WashMu. is under investigation..If there is a chance some banks might fail, I wonder how safe my SS check going directly to them would be?..I have enough to worry about just getting rid of Bush and cohorts..Happy Holidays to all.

U.S. consumers spent more than they earned in November, driving the personal savings rate negative for the first time in 15 months but giving a much-needed boost to a sagging economy, the Commerce Department reported Friday.
Core inflation increased 0.2% for the month, less than the 0.3% gain that had been expected, but the year-over-year gain accelerated to 2.2%, the highest such comparison since March and well above the Federal Reserve's target rate of 1% to 2%.
Headline inflation, which includes food and energy costs, jumped 0.6% in November, the biggest rise since Hurricane Katrina pushed gasoline prices up. Gasoline prices surged 9.3% in November, but have declined modestly since.
"Consumers are feeling a pinch from higher energy costs but the overall spending surge suggests that they are ignoring it," wrote Drew Matus, an economist for Lehman Bros.
Nominal incomes rose 0.4% after increasing by 0.2% in October. Economists expected a 0.5% gain.
After taking out taxes and adjusting for the spike in inflation, real disposable incomes fell 0.3%, the second decline in a row and the fourth decline this year -- a troubling sign for an economy that's depending on a healthy consumer.

Merry X-mas folks. There is no problem so big or so large that it cannot be ignored apparently.

The days of ten-year economic booms are over. So are the days of doubling your money in a third- party managed stock market mutual fund.

The rest of the industrial world is in recession. In Asia, apart from China, it's already an economic disaster. Japan is a basket case. Its pump-priming, big-deficit, Keynesian economic policies aren't working. Price deflation is high and getting worse. Exports will put pressure on producers all over the world to keep prices down, despite new money flowing into their respective economies. The Japanese must export goods or fall into a full-scale depression. They will aggressively cut prices, cut the value of the yen by expanding the money supply further, and export whatever they can. With Japan, it's export or die.

It's great for consumers who have money to spend, and who are willing to buy. But there will be fewer of such consumers in a month. The squeeze of American producers has only just begun. So has the corporate profits recession.

This recession is being driven by falling profits. It is not being driven by reduced spending by consumers. To forecast a recovery, a rational economist should forecast rising profits. But it's hard to make a case for rising profits in America today. Price-cutting exports from Asia will increase as the Asian recession increases.

The forecasting experts read each other's happy-face analyses, and they think that their joint cheerleading constitutes economic analysis. Warren Buffett keeps warning them that the days of easy money in stocks are over, yet the entire profession -- salaried -- shrugs off his warning. "What does he know? He's just an old man, locked into the old economy." A bunch of journalists whose meager assets are tied up in their heavily mortgaged homes and pension funds managed by people who can't beat the S&P 500 index dismiss the opinions of greatest stock market investor of all time. It's ludicrous, and it's universal.

It does seem dangerous to have a large amount of money anywhere when the republicans are in power. Look how they have spent the Social Security surplus. It doesn't help paying more into SS, because they take more when we do.

This is the most ignorant and unethical administration I have ever witnessed. And they worried about Clinton's blow job.

Actually they look ignorant, but they are feathering their nests.

Having ranted, I have to say the market is up today with triple witching hour too. They aren't done with us yet.

The FDIC is a relatively small quasi-governmental corporation which has the resources to deal with one-off bank failures, but not a total banking collapse. It is as much (or more) of a psychological tool than an economic one.

Banks don't even want other banks to hold their money!

"The subprime mortgage crisis has left banks spooked, afraid to lend money to each other, let alone to consumers."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/12/18/business/main3627620.shtml

With republicans running the show right now, you should be very afraid of leaving your money in the banks. They bank could just take it all, and Bush wouldnt allow the Justice department or anyone else to investigate it.

Is this blog meant to give people who are broke another reason to be glad that don't have the worries people with money have but endure with a smile? That is a smile isn't it & not grinding of one's teeth in anger & frustration?

Corporate Profits


Profits from current production (corporate profits with inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments) decreased $20.5 billion in the third quarter, in contrast to an increase of $94.7 billion in the second quarter. Current-production cash flow (net cash flow with inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments) -- the internal funds available to corporations for investment -- decreased $21.1 billion in the third quarter, in contrast to an increase of $37.4 billion in the second.

Taxes on corporate income decreased $20.7 billion in the third quarter, in contrast to an increase of $37.6 billion in the second. Profits after tax with inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments increased $0.3 billion in the third quarter, compared with an increase of $57.0 billion in the second. Dividends increased $23.5 billion, compared with an increase of $24.8 billion; current-production undistributed profits decreased $23.3 billion, in contrast to an increase of $32.2 billion.

Domestic profits of financial corporations decreased $32.5 billion in the third quarter, in contrast to an increase of $52.7 billion in the second. Domestic profits of nonfinancial corporations decreased $14.4 billion in the third quarter, in contrast to an increase of $25.3 billion in the second. In the third quarter, real gross value added of nonfinancial corporations increased, and profits per unit of real product decreased. The decrease in unit profits reflected a decrease in unit prices and an increase in unit
labor costs that were partly offset by a decrease in unit nonlabor costs.

There is so much amazingly misinformed and totally worthless shit opinion here.

The US has weathered economic storms that make this look like a summer breeze. We still have an economy that is more than double any other nation on earth. We still build more vehicles, planes, heavy machinery, and machine tools than any other nation. Our companies are raking it in overseas, each year breaking the previous year's mark for profit. We still lead the world in patents awarded, and our colleges produce quite frankly, almost all of the world's leading physics and engineering leaders. Sure they may come from China, and India, and the EU, but where do they learn, where do they come to seek their fortune?

We'll see a poor 2008, no doubt. But there is still so much more economic activity in this nation than in any other, and a very strong consumer sector. A few banks will have a hard time, but 95% of all mortgages are fine, and quite a few Americans don't even have one, they own their homes outright.

And in yesterday's underreported data, we saw that total housing starts improved by 10% over the previous month. Apartments are being built at a near record pace, and people are still pouring over the border, to try to earn their fortunes here.

If it were so bad, you'd see it the other way around.

The dollar has stabilized, gone up significantly from its lows against the Euro, Pound, and the Loony. High-tech is doing well, and people just can't stop buying goods. We're seeing a spot of inflation, and it will reduce the GDP growth very sharply, but anyone who thinks we are heading for a collapse, should frankly have their heads examined.

In the absolute worst case, we'll have a recession as we've had many before, but the overall desire of all people, is to HAVE A BETTER LIFE. And thats why, they will never stop buying, never stop working harder, and never building for a brighter future for themselves and their children.

The Crash this time around will be accompanied not by a scarce, strong dollar. Instead, it will be masked by a dollar with a tenth of the value of the present dollar. The present dollar is worth 60 cents vs. the dollar since when the egregiously lying Bush was first elected. The Fed will continue to bail out bankrupt Banks and crooked managers to mitigate a replay of a Great Depression.
The Stock Market will not crash but gradually decline. But the dollar will become virtually worthless. The result will be the same as the Great Depression, except we will continue to decline economically and financially.
During the Great Depression, we were building new enterprises. Our citizens were growing and developing in skill and knowledge. Now as our factories and technology dissipate and are sold to deep pockets overseas, our finanical, economic policies remain athe same: Keep borrowing, forget saving; keep consuming, do not produce. Keep selling our assets, do not plan or sacrifice for the future.
With the crash of the dollar squandered in bailing out failed institutions and rewarded swindlers, our downwardly spiraling standard of living turns most of us into poor people on the order of the peasants of the third world. All the while our government is headed by fanatical self-interests resulting in deadlocked decision making toward turning our Country in a new direction.
By the way, if enough banks fail, your money will be paid back at 20-30 cents on the dollar. The FDIC is already over obligated by billions.

Bank of Ameriscam is part of the problem, not
part of the solution here. Too many years
of pushing high-interest plastic, people are
broke or near-broke, I hope the people that
ran it have nice homes...I'll never carry
another credit card from any company whatsoever
so long as I may live...