Replies to post #174525 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[SilverSurfer]

I really wish it were that simple

“The Republicans are the problem… Compromise has gone out the window.”

On top of government debt you have private debt (red line) and bank assets (green line) totaling $200 trillion or 340% debt to GDP.

The world is suffocating in debt, and beginning in 2008 investors around the world found out what happened when confidence in this mountain of toxic IOU's cracked. When subprime mortgage borrowers began missing payments it triggered a loss in confidence in the paper promises outstanding everywhere. The following shows the rise in household debt (blue line) vs the rise in household income (red line) in America. When the divergence occurred America became a nation dependent on credit to grow, and when that credit could no longer grow (2008) the country found out that the income was not there to pay back what was borrowed.



The financial crisis moved to Europe where it has completely destroyed the economies of Greece and Portugal. The hurricane is now over Spain where it is annihilating everything in sight. We found out this week that Spain's unemployment rate has now reached 24.4% and the youth unemployment is now over 52%. The percentage of those that are "long term unemployed" has surged, and the jobs in manufacturing, construction , and agriculture have essentially disappeared (seen in graphs below). The unemployment rate in Spain today is now higher than the absolute worst time in the Great Depression in America. All signs point to things getting much worse......

The response to this crisis has been met around the world with the largest display of global Quantitative Easing (printing money to purchase debt) the world has ever witnessed. The following chart shows that over the last five years central bank balance sheets in have grown by a staggering $8 trillion. This only accounts for Europe (European Central Bank), UK (Bank of England), Japan (Bank of Japan), China (People's Bank of China), and the United States (Federal Reserve).







http://www.ftense.com/2012/04/satellite-view-of-global-economy.html

[PegnVA]

I didn't know Willard would become so desperate THIS soon...
"The auto bailout was Mitt Romney's idea"
-Eric Fhernstrom, Romney campaign advisor

Next Eric will tell us Willard invented the light bulb!