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You see, predicting that something is going to happen is a lot easier than predicting when something will happen. Suppose you have an old bridge: the concrete is cracked, chunks of it are missing with rusty rebar showing through. An inspector declares it “structurally deficient.” This bridge is definitely going to collapse at some point, but on what date? That is something that nobody can tell you. If you push for an answer, you might hear something like this: If it doesn’t collapse within a year, then it might stay up for another two. And if it stays up that long, then it might stay up for another decade. But if it stays up for an entire decade, then it will probably collapse within a year or two of that, because, given its rate of deterioration, at that point it will be entirely unclear what is holding it up.
Recently there was a flurry of activity around China: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, each with a large retinue, went to China on a high-level visit, during which the news coverage in the US was dominated by reports about a blind Chinese activist who was kept under house arrest, from which he escaped to the US embassy, and was eventually allowed to leave the country and come to the US. Hardly anyone in China knows who this person is, and the Chinese official reaction to demands that he be released were, pretty much, “Okey-dokey.” (The fact that Hillary seems to have given up on wearing makeup was considered newsworthy as well.)Why such a powerful smokescreen? What were they hiding? Well, a couple of items of interest. First, it turns out that China can now monetize US debt directly. That’s right, the ability to print US currency is now distributed between the US and China. There is a special private line between Beijing and the US Treasury, and China can buy US Treasuries without going through any market mechanisms or making the price public. Secondly, China can now directly buy US banks. Back in the good old days attempts by foreign powers to use US Treasuries to buy equity in enterprises in the US was considered as akin to an act of war; nowadays—not so much. Basically, Hillary and Timmy went to China and said: “Take our financial system, please!” What they got is the financial equivalent of a subcutaneous morphine pump: something they give to terminal cancer patients, for continuous pain control. But what if it runs dry before the patient expires? That would be painful, wouldn’t it?
As long as campaign funds are flowing into their coffers, and as long as none of their banker friends ever goes to jail, they will remain unconcerned about finance. What they are increasingly paranoid about is their own physical safety. Both parties have repeatedly exhibited an unseemly amount of bipartisanship when it came to passing legislation to compromise civil liberties, to increase social controls and surveillance, and to take away their citizens’ rights. The 2013 national security budget promises to top $1 trillion. Again, the parallel with pre- and post-collapse USSR is striking: the political system there too was unreformable, hollowed out, and used for personal advantage, as a private service to the wealthy and the powerful. Criminals, such as Boris Berezovsky, ran for public office simply in order to gain the immunity from prosecution that came with it. This pattern continues to this day, especially in Ukraine: lose an election—go to jail. Get reelected—and you can use the voters who didn’t vote for you for target practice. Once a political system collapses, everyone strenuously denies that it has, but then it tends to stay collapsed for a long time.
Things get bigger and bigger, then suddenly stop. Let us look at the example of US retail. Once upon a time there was local industry, which sold products through small shops. Over the course of a few decades, the industry moved to other countries, mostly to China, and the small shops were put out of business by department stores, then by malls, culminating with Walmart, which practices “slash and burn retail”: since most of what it sells is imported, it empties the local economy of money, and is then forced to close, leaving devastation in its wake. Walmart is now expanding in China, having finally realized that it doesn’t work to sell stuff in a country that doesn’t make stuff once that country is fresh out of money. In places where retail has ceased to exist, the remaining recourse is Internet shopping, thanks to UPS and FedEx. And once UPS and FedEx services become unaffordable because of rising energy prices or unavailable because of unmaintained, impassable roads and bridges, local access to imported goods is lost.
Ciudad de California se va a la bancarrota: el mundo no es lo que se eraDespués de tres meses de infructuosos intentos por obtener un acuerdo financiero con sus acreedores, la ciudad Stockton, del Estado de California (96 kilómetros al este de San Francisco, ver mapa), solicitó ayer formalmente la quiebra para evitar una situación de caos incontrolable. Las negociaciones para llegar a un acuerdo financiero fracasaron y de nada sirvieron los recortes draconianos por más de 90 millones de dólares aplicados en los últimos tres años para lograr el anhelado equilibrio presupuestario.Queda un agujero de 26 millones de dólares imposible de revertir, y un cráter en salud de 400 millones. Por eso que para Bob Deis, el administrador de la ciudad, la declaración de bancarrota es equivalente a pulsar la tecla “pausa”, para mantener intactos los servicios y proporcionar una estructura “de rescate”. El Estado de California, la octava economía del planeta, comienza a sufrir los efectos de la crisis.Con poco más de 300 mil habitantes, Stocktom es la ciudad más grande de Estados Unidos en declararse en quiebra. Tiene la tasa más alta de desempleo de California (20%) y ocupa el segundo lugar en las ejecuciones hipotecarias del país, como permite constatar este recuento de imágenes de flickr con viviendas en venta. Pese a que Stocktom era una de las ciudades más pujantes de California en los años 60, tras el estallido de la crisis subprime en 2007 y el abandono de las viviendas por sus moradores endeudados, cuenta con barrios vaciados de habitantes en los que prospera la ley de la calle y el crimen. No se puede esperar otra cosa cuando se ha recortado un tercio de la policía, un tercio de los bomberos y un 40% de los funcionarios dado que no se pueden pagar.El derrumbe de los activos inmobiliarios se ha traducido en una importante caída de los ingresos públicos por ingresos a la propiedad y la situación es tan calamitosa que la revista Forbes otorgó el premio a la ciudad más terrible de Estados Unidos durante dos años consecutivos.¿Qué ocurrió en Stocktom?Para lograr captar lo que pasó en esta ciudad cercana a San Francisco, Sillicon Valley y Sacramento, es interesante constatar que a comienzos de milenio era una zona agrícola sin pretensiones que fue invadida por una fiebre del suelo sin precedentes. Desde proyectos inmobiliarios gigantescos a la construcción de enormes edificios que transformaron la apacible vida de una ciudad que vivía de la agricultura, Stocktom fue invadida por sueños fantásticos de gran lujo que terminaron en el pantano.Pese a la brillantez de algunos proyectos, no se logró atraer a las multitudes que se esperaban y la ciudad se fue hundiendo en la espera. Una espera que desespera dado que tras dos, tres, cuatro años las ventas no tomaron el ritmo señalado por la teoría de la oferta. Y mientras el tiempo pasa, como canta Mercedes Sosa, los intereses siguen creciendo. Si alguien tiene aún dudas, cuelgo este enlace al drama de Pioz , donde las viviendas sin vender y el costo de los intereses para la localidad alcarreña puede tenerla más de siete mil años pagando la deuda. Está bien escrito: siete mil años pagando la deuda. Todo esto demuestra lo enfermizo de un modelo económico que apostó siempre a ganar basándose en un pseudo, raquítico y hoy despreciable optimismo organizado por la vía del consumo, sin tomar en cuenta la necesidad del empleo para mantener ese nivel de consumo, y sin tomar en cuenta, menos aún, de la necesidad de que ese nivel de empleo fuera sustentable en el tiempo.Que no quepa duda que lo que ahora vemos en Stocktom, y que la prensa no informa, seguirá en otras ciudades de Estados Unidos y también en muchas otras ciudades donde la burbuja inmobiliaria permitió el enriquecimiento de un puñado y el empobrecimiento de la gran mayoría. Ahora que hay que pagar la cuenta, vemos cómo esta se reparte por igual entre ese puñado que lucró en el período del auge, y los miles que creyeron y compraron las delicias del modelo económico imperante. Los primeros pecaron por intención, y los segundos por omisión. Pero estos últimos tendrán penitencias mayores. La ignorancia se paga. Es la primera lección económica que será marcada con fuego: la ignorancia se paga. Y se paga caro.
Impresionante artículo sobre el colapso. MUST READ. Sorry, en anglo.Fragility and Collapse: Slowly at first, then all at oncehttp://cluborlov.blogspot.com.es/2012/06/fragility-and-collapse-slowly-at-first.htmlPongo un extracto de la intro. Pero el artículo habla del dólar, de china, de energía... ¡Y cómo!CitarYou see, predicting that something is going to happen is a lot easier than predicting when something will happen. Suppose you have an old bridge: the concrete is cracked, chunks of it are missing with rusty rebar showing through. An inspector declares it “structurally deficient.” This bridge is definitely going to collapse at some point, but on what date? That is something that nobody can tell you. If you push for an answer, you might hear something like this: If it doesn’t collapse within a year, then it might stay up for another two. And if it stays up that long, then it might stay up for another decade. But if it stays up for an entire decade, then it will probably collapse within a year or two of that, because, given its rate of deterioration, at that point it will be entirely unclear what is holding it up.China, dólares y cortinas de humo:CitarRecently there was a flurry of activity around China: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, each with a large retinue, went to China on a high-level visit, during which the news coverage in the US was dominated by reports about a blind Chinese activist who was kept under house arrest, from which he escaped to the US embassy, and was eventually allowed to leave the country and come to the US. Hardly anyone in China knows who this person is, and the Chinese official reaction to demands that he be released were, pretty much, “Okey-dokey.” (The fact that Hillary seems to have given up on wearing makeup was considered newsworthy as well.)Why such a powerful smokescreen? What were they hiding? Well, a couple of items of interest. First, it turns out that China can now monetize US debt directly. That’s right, the ability to print US currency is now distributed between the US and China. There is a special private line between Beijing and the US Treasury, and China can buy US Treasuries without going through any market mechanisms or making the price public. Secondly, China can now directly buy US banks. Back in the good old days attempts by foreign powers to use US Treasuries to buy equity in enterprises in the US was considered as akin to an act of war; nowadays—not so much. Basically, Hillary and Timmy went to China and said: “Take our financial system, please!” What they got is the financial equivalent of a subcutaneous morphine pump: something they give to terminal cancer patients, for continuous pain control. But what if it runs dry before the patient expires? That would be painful, wouldn’t it?Colapso políticoCitarAs long as campaign funds are flowing into their coffers, and as long as none of their banker friends ever goes to jail, they will remain unconcerned about finance. What they are increasingly paranoid about is their own physical safety. Both parties have repeatedly exhibited an unseemly amount of bipartisanship when it came to passing legislation to compromise civil liberties, to increase social controls and surveillance, and to take away their citizens’ rights. The 2013 national security budget promises to top $1 trillion. Again, the parallel with pre- and post-collapse USSR is striking: the political system there too was unreformable, hollowed out, and used for personal advantage, as a private service to the wealthy and the powerful. Criminals, such as Boris Berezovsky, ran for public office simply in order to gain the immunity from prosecution that came with it. This pattern continues to this day, especially in Ukraine: lose an election—go to jail. Get reelected—and you can use the voters who didn’t vote for you for target practice. Once a political system collapses, everyone strenuously denies that it has, but then it tends to stay collapsed for a long time.Comercio internacional...CitarThings get bigger and bigger, then suddenly stop. Let us look at the example of US retail. Once upon a time there was local industry, which sold products through small shops. Over the course of a few decades, the industry moved to other countries, mostly to China, and the small shops were put out of business by department stores, then by malls, culminating with Walmart, which practices “slash and burn retail”: since most of what it sells is imported, it empties the local economy of money, and is then forced to close, leaving devastation in its wake. Walmart is now expanding in China, having finally realized that it doesn’t work to sell stuff in a country that doesn’t make stuff once that country is fresh out of money. In places where retail has ceased to exist, the remaining recourse is Internet shopping, thanks to UPS and FedEx. And once UPS and FedEx services become unaffordable because of rising energy prices or unavailable because of unmaintained, impassable roads and bridges, local access to imported goods is lost.y así, con transportes, comunicaciones, sistema alimentario, sanitario...No os lo perdáis. (Sólo para pieles gruesas, por eso no lo pongo aún en mi facebook. No así, no ahora)
12 Reasons US Recession Has Arrived (Or Will Shortly)(...)Europe is a disaster.US manufacturing is cooling rapidlyChina is cooling rapidly: China Manufacturing PMI 7-Month Low, Sharpest Decline in New Export Orders Since March 2009US Monetary policy is at best useless, but more likely net harmful, especially to those on fixed income.First year presidential politics are frequently recessionaryUS still needs fiscal tighteningUnemployment insurance has expired for millions: 200,000 Lose Unemployment Benefits This Week, Nearly Half From CaliforniaSelf-Employment desperation: 100% of U.S. Jobs Added Since 2010 Have Been Self-Employment, Contractor, or Other Jobs Without Unemployment Insurance BenefitsLast two jobs reports have been dismal: Another Payroll Disaster: Jobs +69,000, Employment Rate +.1 to 8.2%, April Jobs Revised Lower to +77,000; Long-term Unemployment +310,000The 4-week moving average of weekly unemployment claims is at the highest rate of the year, at 386,250.New home sales cannot gain significant traction: New Home Sales Hype vs. RealityTax Armageddon
Gracias por la gráfica.Aqui está el doc. original, de la pagina de la CIA (queda como mas outlaw jeje)https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2187rank.htmlYo la veo bastante lógica y segun mi escaso entender viene a demostrar el porqué de la guerra económica entre USA/EUR, con Asia como invitado de honor.También explica porqué España, Grecia, Portugal son los países atacados (los más débiles) y se ve que la finalidad de dicho ataque no tiene otro sentido que ocultar las miserias propias de cara a los "compra-doláres" (Asia).Aún así, la crisis europea no será eterna, sea dentro de 6 o 10 años tiene fecha límite. Entonces vendrá lo gordo, cuando ya no haya chivo expiatorio con el que desviar la atención.
Lo que está sucediendo es que nos están sometiendo a un proceso de *saqueo* CALCADO, a los procesos neoliberales que practicaron con latinoamérica con la excusa de la "crisis de la deuda" desde los 70, 80 y 90
Cita de: CHOSEN en Julio 04, 2012, 16:04:48 pmGracias por la gráfica.Aqui está el doc. original, de la pagina de la CIA (queda como mas outlaw jeje)https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2187rank.htmlYo la veo bastante lógica y segun mi escaso entender viene a demostrar el porqué de la guerra económica entre USA/EUR, con Asia como invitado de honor.También explica porqué España, Grecia, Portugal son los países atacados (los más débiles) y se ve que la finalidad de dicho ataque no tiene otro sentido que ocultar las miserias propias de cara a los "compra-doláres" (Asia).Aún así, la crisis europea no será eterna, sea dentro de 6 o 10 años tiene fecha límite. Entonces vendrá lo gordo, cuando ya no haya chivo expiatorio con el que desviar la atención.Chosen, ¿podría desarrollarlo un poco?Gracias, es que no acabo de enterarme muy bien.
Irán ha demandado a Rusia en la Corte de Arbitraje Internacional de Ginebra por la cancelación de contratos militares. Teherán exige una compensación de 4.000 millones de dólares. Irán ha interpuesto una demanda contra Rusia por el incumplimiento de contratos militares en la Corte de Arbitraje Internacional Mercantil e Industrial de Ginebra (CARICI, según sus siglas en francés). La república islámica exige a Rusia una compensación de 4.000 millones de dólares por una serie de contratos militares cancelados tras las sanciones que impuso a Irán el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU en junio de 2010 en respuesta a su negativa a detener el enriquecimiento de uranio. Según el ministro de defensa iraní, el general Ahmad Vahidi, Teherán exige dicha recompensa a la agencia rusa de exportación de armas, Rosoboronexport, por la cancelación de un contrato de compraventa de sistemas antiaéreos S-300, suscrito en 2007 y valorado en 800 millones de dólares. De acuerdo con el titular de defensa iraní, la demanda fue interpuesta en septiembre de 2011 y todavía está siendo estudiada por la Corte de Ginebra. En agosto de 2010 el entonces presidente ruso, Dmitri Medvédev, decretó la prohibición del suministro a Irán de sistemas S-300, aviones de combate, helicópteros, buques de guerra y vehículos blindados. Las potencias occidentales están permanentemente agrediendo a países como Irán y Siria, comentó a RT el analista político Adrian Salbuchi, que añadió "todo indicaría que buscan una solución de guerra y no de paz (...). EE.UU. y Gran Bretaña tienen una presencia militar en lugares donde no deberían estar". Según el experto, si Rusia pudiera continuar con los suministros de equipamiento y armas a Irán, esto daría la posibilidad de minimizar de alguna manera "la permanente y flagrante amenaza por parte de las potencias occidentales en la región".Texto completo en: http://actualidad.rt.com/actualidad/view/48562-Ir%C3%A1n-demanda-a-Rusia-por-no-venderle-sistemas-antia%C3%A9reos-S-300