• Datoria publică din Occident: atunci când insolvenţa devine intolerabilă;
• Austeritatea europeană: când creşterea contextuală este abandonată în favoarea stabilităţii structurale;
• Inflaţia din China: atunci când China va începe să exporte inflaţia sa;
• Contracţia din SUA: de la «austeritatea masivă ascunsă» la «austeritatea impusă la nivel federal» ;
Fiecare va fi afectat de un şoc major pe parcursul celei de-a doua jumătăţi a anului 2010, conducând la o criză sectorială, regională sau globală.
Textul original:
GEAB N°46-Special Summer 2010 edition is available! Global systemic crisis / Second half of 2010: The global system’s four single points of failure
Having put recent events, symptomatic of the acceleration of world geopolitical dislocation, into perspective, the four individual points of failure in the second half of 2010 (2), according to LEAP/E2020, are as follows:
• Western public debt: when insolvency becomes intolerable
• European austerity: when contextual growth is abandoned in favour of structural stablility
• Chinese inflation: when China is going to begin to export its inflation
• US contraction: from « hidden mass austerity » to « imposed Federal austerity »
Each one will be affected by a major shock during the course of the second half of 2010, leading to a sectorial, regional or global crisis.
In this public announcement of GEAB N°46, our team chose to present its anticipation regarding the fourth single point of failure of the second half of 2010: US contraction. In the rest of this issue of the GEAB, subscribers will discover a second excerpt of the manual of political anticipation, concerned this time about the question of research teams and sources, as well as some information on the new political anticipation training cycle for 2010-2011 (only for GEAB subscribers). Finally, we give the detail of our recommendations in terms of US municipal bonds, financial markets, currencies and real estate in particular, aimed at helping face the shocks of the second hald of 2010.
In terms of global economic governance, let’s remember that only a year ago the G20 aspired to establish a new world governance and the United States believed it would be able to organise this new system around its own priorities (3). Well, on 3rd and 4th June this year, not only Finance Ministers of the G20 countries, meeting at Busan in South Korea, couldn’t agree to the putting in place of a worldwide bank tax (an idea supported by Washington, London and Euroland), but they refused the US proposal (on its own this time) to support new plans of economic stimulation (4), passing the buck by « deciding » to let each country to do what it could, or would, taking into account the means at its disposal. We are far from the official statements of a year ago on a G20 as the new central instrument of world governance and we are, on the contrary, fully in a state of « every man for himself » that our team had anticipated in case the world leaders failed to question the US Dollar as the world’s reserve currency. In fact, no one wants to play the global game under US rules (5) anymore. Lacking a new « common game », international solidarity disintegrates before our very eyes. This situation is only going to get worse in the coming months, leading to more than an uncoupling, a real political, social and budgetary desynchronization of the major economic powers of the planet leading to, in particular, tragic consequences for the players and the markets which depend on the « proper functioning » of the international system. If there really is a new phase of the synchronized economic recession (as the chart below shows), the context for each major power is now so different that there can no longer be a common response, even less so since the United States is no longer capable of imposing its leadership.
The November 2010 mid-term elections will be the first electoral test of a United States in crisis. Indeed the 2008 presidential election took place with a backdrop of a Wall Street collapse (which drove the Barack Obama vote) but without the whole of the US population yet having a clear view of the scope of the economic and social damage that it was going to lead to. Then, in a context of an ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and widespread disillusion over the ability of the Obama administration to reverse the negative trends at work in the country (deindustrialization (6), a collapse of the middle class into the disadvantaged class, real estate foreclosures, unemployment, excess of household, local authority and state indebtedness, growing worry on the increasing size of Federal deficits, unending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (7)…), the electoral situation is particularly explosive, as we have already analysed in the last issue, with the rise in power of the new secessionists and the « Tea Party » movement. We won’t return to these analyses here.
On the other hand, we think it necessary to underline the growing state of decay of the socio-economic climate for a large majority of US citizens, and for two reasons:
. on the one hand because, to us, it is a determining factor in anticipating how a large number of Americans will vote in November 2010
. on the other hand, because it is a fact which is covered anecdotally by most of US mainstream media, and which is almost ignored by leading foreign media, especially Western (8).
However, for LEAP/E2020, the situation is clear: the immediate environment of the vast majority of US citizens has not stopped worsening since 2008 whatever the statistics and Federal experts may say (9). The true rate of unemployment is at least between 15% and 20% (10) and reaches 30% to 40% in the towns and regions which are the most badly affected by the crisis (11). Never have so many Americans been dependant on Federal Government food stamps which now contribute, to an unprecedented extent, to US households’ income (12). The states are also obliged to increase their budget cuts (13) and to abolish all types of social services, increasing unemployment in the same stroke (14). And these events unfold whilst the impact of the Obama administration’s economic stimulation plan is deemed to be at its maximum (15)!
There is nothing surprising in learning that household consumption is not taking off, even falling as May retail sales show; and that the real estate market continues its descent into hell (16). As a matter of fact, the most reliable advanced indicators show that the US economy will start to contract in the second half of this year (17). Far from the 3.5% growth announced by Ben Bernanke for 2010, the country will be really lucky according to our team if it records a number above zero for the current year.
Because, contrary to the statements coming out of Washington and Wall Street, austerity is already here for the vast majority of US citizens who haven’t any more work, and/or no more homes, and/or debts exceeding their assets, and who can no longer pay their childrens’ university fees, their outing or their holidays, without even discussing day-to-day living costs. In addition, in numerous localities (18), there is no longer regular rubbish collection (or else they must pay higher taxes), Saturday mail deliveries have been stopped (19), they are less well protected due to a lack of police, they must queue endlessly at state and government offices following the firing of civil servants, and their children have fewer teachers in the schools which provide fewer services (canteen, school buses…). In general terms, it is the local authorities and the states which, de facto, have been putting in place a policy of austerity hidden from the world for many months now, and which is accelerating.
Thus, in deciding not to accede to the request of the US Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, to begin a further round of debt-based economic stimulus, the G20 has condemned Washington to have to face the unthinkable for world markets: announce an era of Federal budget austerity. Irony of history, this negative step by the G20 (in letting each one do what it could, the other G20 members didn’t dare be explicit on the necessity for US austerity) is directly connected to the likely consequences of the November 2010 elections which will see US voters deal some severe blows to the Washington system and to its two big bets (see previous GEAB issues), making such a « mental revolution » not only possible, but necessary for the Democrats and the Republicans if they want to have a chance of winning the 2010 Presidential Elections. For our team, US domestic socio-political constraints thus meet with external economic-financial pressures during the second half of 2010, making inevitable the implementation of the first major US austerity budget plan for over sixty years combined with the sharpest rise in fiscal pressure for fifty years.
Notes:
(1) A single point of failure (SPOF) is a point in a computer network on which the whole of the IT system depends and a breakdown of which leads to the whole system coming to a stop. The main characteristic of the single point of failure is that it is not protected (redundant). There is, then, a risk to the whole system. In the definition of « Single Point of Failure », the word « Single » is the most important and underlines the unique character, and thus the fragility, of the « component ». The idea of individual point of failure is directly related to that of service, in the sense that a problem affecting the point concerned causes a breakdown in service. According to LEAP/E2020, the deepening of the crisis and the passing of a further step of the global systemic crisis in the second half of 2010 will be evidence of very serious problems in terms of four separate points of failure at the core of the current international system. The consequences, as in the case to an IT system, will be a denial of service, that’s to say, major crises in the areas, regions and sectors concerned.
(2) Our readers will note that, compared to mainstream Anglo-Saxon media and those who « copy, cut and paste » them elsewhere, we haven’t summarized the coming world risks as having two causes only: Greece and the Euro. We even consider that they are no part of the single points of failure of the international system: Greece because it is on the margin and has no key-role in the system, the Euro because it has never been at risk of collapse and because, in two months, Euroland has put measures in place which for a decade it has refused to do and, moreover, of which austerity measures are a part. And it is this austerity which, according to our team, will be a part of the four points of failure of the world system.
(3) LEAP/E2020 has invested considerable effort and expense (including a full page “open letter” in the Financial Times) to underline that the G20 couldn’t be an alternative solution to the collapse of global governance inherited from the Second World War, unless a proposal for a new world reserve currency was put on the table, in order to ensure that all the G20 players would have an interest in cooperating in the medium and long term (see the GEAB reports for the first half of 2009). Well, Washington didn’t want to hear about it and the Europeans have been incapable of taking on the responsibility for proposing such a new currency, thus adding their weight to that of the Chinese, Russians, Indians and Brazilians. The result one year on: « Every man for himself » rules and Washington is no longer capable of having its proposals adopted by the G20 which, de facto, transforms itself into a meeting which increasingly fails to hide a growing state of world dissention.
(4) Source: GlobalEconomicAnalysis, 06/05/2010
(5) Source: Alphaville, 06/05/2010
(6) Last April, firings have first been in the manufacturing sector, refuting any discussion on an export and industrially led recovery. Source: Reuters, 05/21/2010
(7) The New York Times of 06/04/2010 even spoke of an air of chaos in the country.
(8) It is indeed always surprising to see the media repeatedly make headlines over a demonstration of 7,000 people in Athens with a view to show a rallying of the population against austerity measures (here is one of many examples of this sort of article on CNBC of 03/05/2010), whilst none of them mention the fact that the Governor of New York State announced a state of widespread chaos in the state due to heavy cuts in police, justice, health personnel… in a context of regular demonstrations of thousands of state workers. Source: NYDailyNews, 06/10/2010; New York Times, 06/09/2010
(9) The new $2 menus at Taco Bell clearly show the trend towards general poverty. Source: USAToday, 05/14/2010
(10) As regards unemployment, it is worthwhile consulting the list of the fifteen US companies which have fired the most employees these last few months in order to understand the suicidal logic behind their profitability. Sources: CNNMoney/Fortune, 05/13/2010; Gallup, 03/19/2010
(11) Sources: MarketWatch, 06/08/2010; CNNMoney, 06/05/2010
(12) Source: USAToday, 05/26/2010
(13) Half a dozen of them even haven’t the means any longer to repay tax credits to households and businesses and 32 states will have to borrow nearly 40 billion USD in 2010/2011 in order to pay unemployment benefit. Sources: New York Times, 06/02/2010; GlobalEconomicAnalysis, 05/21/2010
(14) The May 2010 report on the subject, published by the National League of Cities, reveals the size of the problem.
(15) These last few months, more than one million Americans have stopped looking for work given the lack of opportunities, which enables the Federal Government to produce statistics claiming a fall in the unemployment rate…. whereas fewer and fewer Americans are in work. Source: CNBC, 06/07/2010
(16) A look at the ten chart on this subject by DrHousingBubble of 06/10/2010 speaks volumes.
(17) For those who still believe that American US will happen sometime during these next quarters, it is very enlightening to read the 25 questions one should ask oneself on this subject listed by PrisonPlanet on 05/25/2010, or even consult the 20 pointers suggested by EconomicCollapse on 06/02/2010
(18) Sources: CNNMoney, 06/01/2010; SeekingAlpha, 06/11/2010; USAToday, 06/12/2010
(19) The US Postal Service only delivers mail on five days a week instead of six previously. Source: Washington Post, 03/24/2010
(20) All that is taking place in a context of a rise in numerous central banks’ interest rates such as Canada, India, Australia, Brazil… rendering the ability to sell US Treasury Bonds at a loss, as is currently happening, more and more unlikely, except by increasing the « coups » like Greece every quarter. But, in Europe, like in Asia, the country candidates for this type of « coup » are Japan, France, Italy, the United Kingdom… i.e. targets too close or too dangerous due to their ability to cause trouble.
(21) A low estimate by our team, using a reasoned comparison with other Western countries, with the defence and social programme budgets being the worst affected.
11 comentarii :
Cel mai mult ma ingrijoreaza faptul ca lucrurile au inceput sa se desfasoare cu o viteza pe care n-am banuit-o .
Sa vedem ce se intampla la alegerile de maine din Polonia
Mie îmi miroase a august 1914...
Am inceput sa fiu terorizata de gandul asta.
Ma gandesc sa incep sa fac provizii de alimente si benzina .Trebuie sa ma duc in pod sa caut canista de acum 10-15 ani.
Am citit un articol recent pe NR-in
"The AUTONOMIST"- foarte interesant.
O sa-l studiez mai mult
Ţine benzina departe de casă, ideal ar fi într-o groapă sau magazie ventilată.
Am vazut primul articol din NR
Astept clarificarea celor de mai jos si ma lamuresc in ce directie o luam
"Romania’s economy ministry has spearheaded an uneasy political decision in the Romanian government to explore an energy partnership with Russia. Minister Videanu has acted as the standard bearer of this policy since 2009, but it was unclear to what extent he enjoyed the backing of the Romanian president and government, themselves immersed in political infighting and electioneering. President, Traian Basescu, consistently a South Stream-skeptic until now, has not yet commented on Videanu’s June 16 agreements with Gazprom"
VIDEANU DUCE TRATATIVE AVANSATE CU GAZPROM :
On June 16 in Moscow, Gazprom CEO, Aleksei Miller, and Romanian Economy Minister, Adriean Videanu, agreed on steps to bring Romania, instead of Bulgaria, into the South Stream project; and bring Gazprom into Romania’s energy sector.
Miller and Videanu agreed on the following steps (Interfax, June 16; Ziarul Financiar, June 17; Kommersant, June 17, 18):
1. Prepare, until October 2010, the draft of an economic and technical feasibility study for building a section of the South Stream transit pipeline through Romania [instead of Bulgaria]; and provide Russia with all relevant data for a pipeline route, to be determined in Romania.
2. Draft the feasibility study for an underground gas storage site, as part of the South Stream project in Romania; and separately, draft, also by October, a feasibility study for the long-discussed gas storage site at Margineni in Romania’s north-east.
Romania’s economy ministry has spearheaded an uneasy political decision in the Romanian government to explore an energy partnership with Russia. Minister Videanu has acted as the standard bearer of this policy since 2009, but it was unclear to what extent he enjoyed the backing of the Romanian president and government, themselves immersed in political infighting and electioneering. President, Traian Basescu, consistently a South Stream-skeptic until now, has not yet commented on Videanu’s June 16 agreements with Gazprom.
http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18976&Itemid=132
Cred că duminică se decide debarcarea videanului.
Da, voi gasi un loc pentru benzina
Lucrurile devin foarte ingrijoratoare
Maine e zi de cumpana din mai multe puncte de vedere
Mi-e că vor fura alegerile în Polonia. A apărut un candidat bizar din exil, care are cca 10-15 % din voturi. Exil, în Germania... ;-)
Si eu m-am gandit ca vor fura alegerile.
Daca va fi asa ,va fi o jale.
Va trebui sa ne resetam si noi viata intr-un viitor foarte apropiat .
Din nou..
Ies din online, vin după ora 20.
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