ragerunner

QE is considered to be an extreme action for extreme economic conditions. Not something that you should implement when you are not even in a 'recession'. It would be more like saying, I have twice tried to scrap the crap off my shoes and its still there and now I must try a third time. While trying to convience everyone it actually worked the first two times.

You can't have it both ways. Either the economy is not in a recession and moving in the positive direction or we really are still in a recessionary environment. Back when QE was first done it was considered an emergency type action to a severe economic crisises. Are they saying these severe issues are still prevelent? Get ready for QE3 Commentary: FOMC signals another round of bond-buying soon "Top officials of the Federal Reserve are leaning strongly in favor of a third round of bond buying by the Fed, known colloquially as QE3, according to the minutes of the Aug. 1 meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee. Here’s the money quote from the FOMC minutes: “Many members judged that additional monetary accommodation would likely be warranted fairly soon unless incoming information pointed to a substantial and sustainable strengthening in the pace of the economic recovery.” http://www.marketwatch.com/story/get-ready-for-qe3-2012-08-22

Worth the read. Beware the Faustian bargains of central banks High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email [email protected] to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/acd91ad8-e79d-11e1-86bf-00144feab49a.html#ixzz24I1qDsPP

Sales of existing homes rise 2.3% in July "The National Association of Realtors said sales increased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.47 million from 4.37 million in June. Economists polled by MarketWatch had anticipated a 4.5 million rate." "Median home prices rose 9.4% year-on-year to $187,300, mostly due to upper-end home sales representing a larger percentage of the pie." "Sales in homes priced below $100,000 actually fell 3.7% from a year ago. Inventories increased 1.3% to 2.4 million, but the inventories actually tumbled 23.8% from a year ago. There are 6.4 months of supply at current sales rates." http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sales-of-existing-homes-rise-23-in-july-2012-08-22?dist=lcountdown I think its interesting the media point to Belize trying to pull a Greece move (which has all kinds of negative connotation to it). Maybe they are trying to pull an Icelandic move (which has a very different type of connotation). Belize misses $23m interest payment as default looms "Belize is in danger of defaulting on its debt after it missed a $23m (£14.6m) bond payment due on Monday. The government still has a 30-day grace period to pay the interest, but said it was unlikely to be able to do so. Creditors accuse Belize of trying to force a Greek-style debt restructuring on holders of the $550m bond, which represents half its public debt. The row has drawn attention to Caribbean countries' growing debt burden amid falling tourism revenues. Much of the region depends on tourists from Europe and the US for its income, but the global financial crisis has cut visitor numbers severely." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19330491

Agreed, Rollingstone has been one of the best at informing the public what has been going on.

Goldman Non-Prosecution: AG Eric Holder Has No Balls "But here’s the thing: most of the crimes Wall Street people commit involve highly specific, highly individualized transactions that won’t fit Eric Holder’s bag of cookie-cutter statutory definitions. That is not the same thing as saying they’re not crimes. They are: the crimes of the crisis period were and are very basic crimes like fraud, theft, perjury, and tax evasion, only they’re dressed up in millions of pages of camouflaging verbiage." "You know that look a dog gives you when you show it something confusing, like an electric razor or a lawn sprinkler? That’s the look federal prosecutors give when companies like Goldman wave their attorneys’ sanctifying opinions at them. They scratch their heads and say: “Oh, wow, well since this was signed in Australia by three millionaire lawyers wearing magic invisibility cloaks, it really isn’t fraud! They’re right!” As one high-profile attorney currently working on a closely-watched case involving a Wall Street bank put it to me yesterday: “With these Justice guys, everything the Wall Street lawyers say makes perfect sense to them, no matter how dumb it is.” "It’s political, sure, these decisions not to go after the Goldmans of the world, but more than that what usually rules the day is just pure intellectual fear – appropriate in many cases, since any prosecutor who buys for a second any of the high-priced excuses being shoveled at them from corporate defense firms like Davis Polk or criminal defense mercenaries like Reid Weingarten (retained to defend Blankfein against possible criminal charges) probably really is no match, intellectually, for Wall Street’s lawyers. They’re also no match morally. Wall Street firms pay their lawyers millions of dollars for their creativity, for their willingness to fight. They say to their lawyers, as Lehman Brothers said before it crashed: “We’d like to book $50 million in loans as sales. Find a way for us to call that legal.” "Holder’s non-decision on Goldman is more than unsurprising. It amounts to an official announcement that the government is no longer in the business or prosecuting smart criminals. It’s pathetic. The one thing you pay any lawyer to have is balls, and our nation’s top attorney has none." Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/ag-eric-holder-has-no-balls-20120815#ixzz246klmCaZ

Quick update. A new website for the private sector development team that is working on Union Station is now available. http://www.unionstationdenver.com/development/#/overview The project is moving along rapidly with the underground bus terminal nearing completion and the west end light rail area now open. I hope to take some pics in the next few weeks.

Consumer sentiment rises in August "WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — A gauge of consumer sentiment rose in August on rosier views of current economic conditions, but remained relatively low, according to data released Friday by the University of Michigan-Thomson Reuters. For a preliminary August reading, the UMich sentiment index increased to 73.6 — the highest level since May -- from a final July reading of 72.3." http://www.marketwatch.com/story/consumer-sentiment-rises-in-august-2012-08-17-10103922?dist=lcountdown Eurozone politicians at odds over break-up Holland's finance minister defended the euro, saying the country never speculates about a break-up, after Finland's foreign minister warned the country was preparing for the single currency to split. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9482797/Eurozone-politicians-at-odds-over-break-up.html That giant hole of defaults just keeps getting bigger. Debt crisis: Spanish bad bank loans soar to fresh high "Spanish bad bank loans soared to a fresh high in June, with almost 10pc of households and companies now behind on their payments." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9482208/Debt-crisis-Spanish-bad-bank-loans-soar-to-fresh-high.html Finland prepares for break-up of eurozone "Finland is preparing for the break-up of the eurozone, the country’s foreign minister warned today." "The Nordic state is battening down the hatches for a full-blown currency crisis as tensions in the eurozone mount and has said it will not tolerate further bail-out creep or fiscal union by stealth. “We have to face openly the possibility of a euro-break up,” said Erkki Tuomioja, the country’s veteran foreign minister and a member of the Social Democratic Party, one of six that make up the country’s coalition government." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9480990/Finland-prepares-for-break-up-of-eurozone.html US Treasury Admits It Conducted A Circular Ponzi Scheme For Years "...as part of its justification to demand faster liquidation of Fannie and Freddie's "investment portfolio" Tim Geithner gave the following argument: This will help achieve several important objectives, including... Ending the circular practice of the Treasury advancing funds to the GSEs simply to pay dividends back to Treasury. In other words not some fringe blog, not some "partisan" media outlet, not some morally conflicted whistleblowing former employee seeking immunity, but the US Trasury itself just admitted it had been engaged in circular check kiting scheme, which essentially has all the components of a Ponzi scheme in it, ever since the nationalization (about which there is no now doubt and which means the GSE's $6 trillion in debt is now fully on the Treasury's balance sheet) of Fannie and Freddie in 2008. Transfer one more conspiracy theory into the conspiracy fact bin." http://www.zerohedge.com/news/us-treasury-admits-it-conducted-circular-ponzi-scheme-years

While I agree investors are waiting to see how events play out, there is a growing issue of distrust in the system. The Libor scandal, and many other illegal activities that have come to light over the last year or two is also making investors reduce their exposure to Wall Street. Add in the belief by many that the numbers that are being produced don't add up and you have some real issue that Wall Street and FEDs are going to need to deal with, sometime. When you having something like the Stock Market that is built upon the idea that there is equality in the system and honestly in the numbers and then you have multiple items come forward that show these things are not true, you have a real problem. Trading volume drop can’t just be blamed on summer The month’s volume is on track for the lowest August since 2006 "Get used to it. Volumes could bump along at below-average levels for another three weeks, as investors hang on to recent gains and avoid making big moves before what’s seen as the next catalysts -- upcoming Federal Reserve and European Central Bank events. On Wednesday, the volume of shares listed on NYSE Euronext’s NYX+1.55% New York Stock Exchange totaled a paltry 2.64 billion, the fourth straight day with less than 3 billion shares changing hands and roughly 29% below this year’s average volume.The month’s average of 3.3 billion has dropped more than 40% from last August’s daily average." http://www.marketwatch.com/story/trading-volume-drop-cant-just-be-blamed-on-summer-2012-08-16

Industrial production climbs 0.6% in July "WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Industrial production picked up in July after two months of slight growth, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday in the latest reading that shows the economy in the third quarter got off to a decent start. Industrial production rose 0.6% in July after slender 0.1% monthly gains in May and June, the Fed said. The Fed had previously reported a 0.4% gain in June and a 0.2% drop in May. The 0.6% gain was as expected in a MarketWatch-compiled poll of economists." http://www.marketwatch.com/story/industrial-production-climbs-06-in-july-2012-08-15-91032518?dist=lcountdown August Empire State index falls to negative figure "WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Manufacturing activity stayed weak in the New York region during August, data showed Wednesday, raising concern that a slowdown seen in the factory sector since June could be more than a temporary soft patch. The Empire State index fell below zero, sinking to negative 5.9 in August, worse than the 7.4 reading in July, according to the Empire State manufacturing survey released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. This is the first negative reading since last October. Fewer executives at manufacturing firms reported that conditions had improved in August, while more reported that conditions had worsened." http://www.marketwatch.com/story/august-empire-state-index-falls-to-negative-figure-2012-08-15 Doesn't Take Much To Get Homebuilders Confident These Days "We present the fudge free data on housing completions: not starts, not permits, completions, which is what you get on the other side of the homebuilding process once all i and t's have been dotted and crossed, because one can fudge both the start and permit metric more than Bank of Spain's X-13-ARIMA seasonal "models" can make MS' IPO track record successful. We leave it up to readers to decide just what homebuilders are so very confident about. Residual record hopium sloshing in the system notwithstanding. The red arrows show the same level of confidence, at least as reported by the NAHB." http://www.zerohedge.com/news/doesnt-take-much-get-homebuilders-confident-these-days US Mortgage Applications Dropped Last Week "Applications for U.S. home mortgages tumbled last week, with demand for new loans down for the fifth week in a row as interest rates held steady, an industry group said on Wednesday. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and home purchase demand, fell 4.5 percent in the week ended Aug 10. The gauge of loan requests for home purchases, a leading indicator of home sales, dropped 2.0 percent. The measure of applications for refinancing fared even worse and was down 5.1 percent." http://www.cnbc.com/id/48671362 So homes being completed are still near all time lows, mortgage applications have now dropped for 5 weeks in a row, but the home builders confidence is at 2007 levels when they were completing 3x the amount of homes.

we could talk about this in another thread, but the most popular trend in the last couple of years seems to be people taking to their cars, keeping whatever they can in the cars. Several places have permits (churches, wal-marts) that allow homeless people to park their cars in their lots overnight and create overnight pop-up community of families living in cars. It's very hard to imagine. Low rent old motels and campgrounds are also becoming homes for families as well. I have seen this in the Town I live in and in many parts of Colorado. Its sad and doesn't reflect well, in my opinion, on the level of 'civilization' (not sure that is the best word) of our society. I have dealings with some non profits and they will tell you that needs are greater today than any time in recent history. Apparently the 'recovery' is leaving more and more behind and this is in a region that is considered one of the wealthiest areas of the US. This probably could be a huge thread on its own, but with all the wealth in America, children and their parents should not have to live in a car, or tent.

So here is the headline today. U.S. retail sales jump 0.8% in July "First monthly increase after three straight declines" http://www.marketwatch.com/story/retail-sales-jump-08-in-july-us-data-show-2012-08-14 Here is the details. Actually sales declined from $405 million to $402 with some other massaging of the numbers going on. Mystery Of July Retail Sales "Beat" Solved: It Is All In The "Seasonal Adjustment" "The reason for this is because we happened to notice that Not Seasonally Adjusted (full series here) retail sales data in July actually declined by 0.9% from $405.8 to $402 billion." "What we found would have shocked us if indeed this is not precisely what we expected: with the July seasonal adjustment factor routinely subtracting a substantial amount from the NSA number, averaging at -$5.2 billion, in 2012, for the first time this decade, the seasonal adjustment not only did not subtract, but in fact added "value" to the NSA number, resulting in a seasonally adjusted number that was $1.9 billion higher than the NSA number at $403.9 billion. So what would have happened if instead of arbitrarily deciding to add a seasonal contribution for the first time in a decade, the Census Bureau had used the last decade average factor of $5.2 billion (not adjusted for inflation, so the end number would be far greater)? Instead of rising by 0.8% Seasonally Adjusted retail sales would have declined from $400.7 billion to $395.5 billion, or a 1.3% decline." http://www.zerohedge.com/news/mystery-july-retail-sales-beat-solved-it-all-seasonal-adjustment So it appears if they had kept with their typical formula that they have used for the last decade, for July, we would have seen a -1.3% decline. Oh well, I am sure the headline number makes the masses and wall street happier.

Japan’s economic growth weakens sharply "HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Japan’s economic growth sharply decelerated in the April-June period as consumption weakened after a solid increase in the preceding quarter and as exporters struggled because of a strong yen. Gross domestic product grew an annualized 1.4% from the preceding three months, the Cabinet Office reported Monday, with the result marking a sharp cooling from the upwardly revised 5.5% expansion in the January-March quarter. The result fell far short of expectations for 2.7% growth, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey, as a strong Japanese yen pressured the country’s exports. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, Japan’s economy grew 0.3% in the three months to June, slowing from 1.3% the previous quarter and missing a 0.7% forecast. The annualized gain for January-March was marked upward from 4.7% previously." http://www.marketwatch.com/story/japan-economy-shows-anemic-q2-growth-2012-08-12 So, if Greece continues in the Euro experiment they end up in a depression that has very little light at the end of the tunnel. If they default and go back to their own currency they end up in a depression with a light at the end of the tunnel, since they can then control their currency to make their exports more competitive on the world market. Debt crisis: live "Angela Merkel returned from holiday to find that Greece's economy shrank 6.2pc in the second quarter of the year as the German economy minister said he was disappointed with Greece's efforts to implement necessary reforms." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/debt-crisis-live/9471282/Debt-crisis-live.html

Yes we are going to charge you, oh wait, maybe we won't since we 'magically' waited until the statute of limitations are about to run out. oops, our bad. Carry on boys. SEC abandons subprime probe of Goldman "The SEC notification comes only six months after the regulator gave Goldman a “Wells notice” indicating that the former planned to recommend charges against the bank. The commission had originally said it was examining whether an array of big Wall Street banks including Goldman, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo had missold such mortgage-backed securities to investors. The SEC’s decision to drop the investigation comes as authorities are approaching a statute of limitations deadline for mortgage securities issued before 2007. Most of the deals were created in the boom years of 2006 and 2007, meaning 2012 will be the regulators’ last chance to file charges alleging mis-selling unless they extend the timeframe." High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email [email protected] to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cbd496f6-e239-11e1-be25-00144feab49a.html#ixzz235ljzQel

Numbers are now higher month over month and year over year. Number of Homes Facing Foreclosure Rose in July "More U.S. homes started on the foreclosure path in July, as lenders tackled a backlog of mortgages gone unpaid even as they pulled back on home repossessions. The number of homes that received an initial notice of default — the first step in the foreclosure process — increased 6 percent in July compared to the same month last year, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday. Filings of initial default notices have increased on an annual basis for three months in a row." http://www.cnbc.com/id/48563823

Weekly jobless claims fall unexpectedly "Claims down 6,000 to 361,000 in week ended Aug. 4 WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell unexpectedly last week, government statistics showed on Thursday. Jobless claims fell 6,000 to 361,000 in the week ended Aug. 4, according to the Labor Department. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had projected claims would rise to 370,000." http://www.marketwatch.com/story/weekly-jobless-claims-fall-unexpectedly-2012-08-09?dist=lcountdown Wholesale Inventories Drop MoM First Time in 9 Months "As we noted last night, inventory destocking is the great unknown as far as consensus expectations and the wholesale inventories data this morning just confirmed that this is a worrying trend. With the first drop MoM since September 2011 and dramatically missing expectations, inventories dropped 0.2% and perhaps more worryingly - given the drop in inventories - is the critical inventory-to-sales ratio has now risen two months in a row as clearly sales are dropping faster than companies were expecting." http://www.zerohedge.com/news/wholesale-inventories-drop-mom-first-time-9-months Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index Back At 'Severe Economic Discontent' Level "Bloomberg's Consumer Comfort index slipped back below -40 this week (despite all the market ebullience) indicating empirically at least a period of severe economic discontent among the most critical segment of our economy. Worst still, the outlook for the economy is its weakest in six months and the last two months have seen confidence on the economy plunge its fastest in 13 months." http://www.zerohedge.com/news/bloomberg-consumer-comfort-index-back-severe-economic-discontent-level U.S. home prices rose 7.3% in second quarter "WASHINGTON--U.S. home prices posted the strongest quarterly increase in more than six years in the second quarter of the year and rose in 75% of local markets, another sign that the housing market is turning around. The national median price for single-family homes sold in the April-June quarter was $181,500, up 7.3% from the same quarter a year earlier, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. It was the biggest increase since the first quarter of 2006." http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-home-prices-rose-73-in-second-quarter-2012-08-09 Debt crisis: live "Christian Noyer, a member of the European Central Bank's governing council, said the bank should be ready to intervene decisively in bond markets very soon as the bank slashed its growth expectations for next year." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/debt-crisis-live/9462653/Debt-crisis-live.html

I think its starting to become more clear someone or someones will be exiting the EU over the next year or so. The goal will be to do it in an 'orderly' fashion. Debt crisis: euro founder Otmar Issing admits some countries could leave EMU: live "Otmar Issing, one of the founding fathers of the euro, believes some countries may not be able to remain in the currency bloc but Germany would be better off staying in." "Asked in the book how strongly he was concerned about the euro, he said: Much more strongly than I could have ever imagined. We are still a long way off saying 'that's it, now we are sure to make progress'. Substantial reforms in almost all countries are still pending... One should focus on bringing the euro back to what it was meant to be, a stable currency, stabilised by an independent central bank, which follows a clear mandate, nothing else, and that the other protagonists, especially national governments, do their homework. "There is no quick fix and anything in the direction of [jointly-issued] euro bonds or something similar would mean for me the end of the stability-oriented currency union. "The less politicians address the root of the problems, the more they look with their expectations and demands to the ECB, which is not made for this. It is a central bank and not an institution to rescue governments threatened by bankruptcy. A central bank always also acts as a lender of last resort for the banking system - but it does not rescue governments." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/debt-crisis-live/9460910/Debt-crisis-euro-founder-Otmar-Issing-admits-some-countries-could-leave-EMU-live.html

Actually its the second time I have cited that great source.

This number, GDP and workforce numbers are not adding up very well. One or more of these numbers being reported have to be wrong. Either GDP will be revised up at the next report, workforce numbers will be revised up or the productivity number will get revised down. U.S. productivity rebounds in second quarter Increase reflects faster output, slowdown in hours of work put in "The Labor Department said Wednesday that productivity rose 1.6% in the April-to-June period, a sharp contrast to the first quarter’s revised decline of 0.5%. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected productivity to climb by 1.3%." http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-productivity-rebounds-in-second-quarter-2012-08-08

Wall St banks prepare for euro break-up By Tom Braithwaite and Dan McCrum in New York and Patrick Jenkins in London "Wall Street banks are increasingly telling counterparties and borrowers to restructure contracts or find another bank as they prepare for the potential exit of a country from the eurozone. Using hedges, such as credit default swaps, US banks have reduced their net exposure to troubled eurozone countries. But they are also engaged in more work behind the scenes to ensure that if a country leaves the eurozone they will not have to receive payments in a devalued drachma or peseta." High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email [email protected] to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e53c2c6a-df20-11e1-97ea-00144feab49a.html#ixzz22shYlYsP

When you try to print a positive GDP and have a lot of that 'money' never make it onto main street, then you end up with a GDP that has decoupled from what its actually happening to your average citizens. Debt crisis: live "Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, has said that official economic data may mask the "struggle" that many Americans face, as Germany's foreign minister warns politicians "not to talk Europe apart"." "In a speech delivered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Mr Bernanke said that focusing only on the numbers would paint "an incomplete picture of what many individuals are experiencing": ...even though some key aggregate metrics--including consumer spending, disposable income, household net worth, and debt service payments--have moved in the direction of recovery, it is clear that many individuals and households continue to struggle with difficult economic and financial conditions. Exclusive attention to aggregate numbers is likely to paint an incomplete picture of what many individuals are experiencing. One implication is that we should increase the attention paid to microeconomic data, which better capture the diversity of experience across households and firms. Another implication, however, is that we should seek better and more-direct measurements of economic well-being, the ultimate objective of our policy decisions." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/debt-crisis-live/9455101/Debt-crisis-live.html

Surprising job numbers but what do they really mean. Well the amount of people listed on the unemployed rolls rose 45,000 in July and the amount of people in the workforce dropped 195,000. Party on. July jobs data show some improvement in hiring Unemployment rate ticks up to 8.3% from 8.2% "Unemployment rose by 45,000 to 12.8 million for July, while employment fell by 195,000 to 139.5 million. The labor force decreased by 150,000 as some discouraged workers left the labor market. The participation rate inched down to 63.7% in July from 63.8% in the prior month. An alternate measure of employment, which includes discouraged workers and those forced to work part-time because of the weak economy, ticked up to 15% from 14.9%." http://www.marketwatch.com/story/july-jobs-data-show-some-improvement-in-hiring-2012-08-03

Orders to U.S. Factories Unexpectedly Declined 0.5% in June "Orders placed with U.S. factories unexpectedly declined in June, reflecting less demand for business equipment and the biggest decrease in bookings for non- durable goods in more than three years. The 0.5 percent drop in bookings followed a revised 0.5 percent increase in the prior month, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. The median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg News survey called for a 0.5 percent gain. June orders for durable goods climbed 1.3 percent, revised from the 1.6 percent surge reported last week. Demand for non-durable items, reported today for the first time, slumped 2 percent, the biggest drop since March 2009. Orders may have waned last month as well, according to a purchasing managers’ report yesterday that showed manufacturing unexpectedly contracted in July. The industry, facing the headwinds of Europe’s debt crisis, a weakening global economy and a slowdown in corporate investment, is providing less of a boost to the economy." http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-02/orders-to-u-s-factories-unexpectedly-declined-0-5-in-june.html

All that speculation, and hope that shot the world's stock markets up significantly over the last week or so turned out to be the same as the past, nothing. I am beginning to believe that all that is left in the gun for the central bankers is talk and that may not work much longer. Draghi doesn’t back up the talk Commentary: Central banker doesn’t take action "WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — One notion that can quickly be put to rest is the idea the Federal Reserve didn’t take action on Wednesday because it knew the European Central Bank was about to unleash a bazooka, because all ECB President Mario Draghi did on Thursday was point to a weapon without any ammunition in it. What Draghi really has revealed is that he hasn’t outmaneuvered the elephant in the room, the Bundesbank, which is ferociously resisting a new round of bond purchases of Spanish and Italian debt." http://www.marketwatch.com/story/draghi-doesnt-back-up-the-talk-2012-08-02?dist=lcountdown

While I don't believe were are currently experiencing as severe events as the great depression, their are many similarities and its become very clear we are not out of the woods yet. The depression is here — it’s just invisible Commentary: The crash wasn’t sudden, but it’s still a tragedy "DENVER (MarketWatch) — The Great Depression that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke claims to have averted has been part of the background radiation of our economy since at least 2008. It’s just that like radiation — it’s invisible." "It is easy to avoid seeing all of these events as constituting a depression if you somehow have kept your livelihood intact all this time. But it’s important to remember that not everyone has to stand in a bread line during a depression. Nearly one out of seven Americans receives food stamps, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That’s more than 44 million people. If they all stood in a line and someone photographed them using black-and-white film, they easily could be mistaken for people from the 1930s. Instead, they go to a grocery store and spend their credits like money. There isn’t even a social stigma to make them stand out as any more glum or destitute than anybody else." "Last week, the Associated Press reported that America’s poverty rate likely has hit levels not seen since the 1960s. Surveying several economists and academicians, the wire service predicted the official poverty rate would come in as high as 15.7% when the Census Bureau releases it in September. That would wipe out all the gains of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty." http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-depression-is-here-its-just-invisible-2012-08-01?link=MW_story_latest_news