A second American stimulus and an empty Chinese city

Posted on November 13, 2009 by stacyherbert| 18 Comments

Stacy Summary: Good morning. I see more government printing in the news this morning. And, this news is, despite what Cramer says, the bad news cause of gold rising. What are you reading?

Goldman on why a second stimulus bill is only months away (ZeroHedge)

China’s empty city

This entry was posted in Headlines and tagged china, empty city, goldman, second stimulus. Bookmark the permalink.

18 Responses to A second American stimulus and an empty Chinese city

TJ | November 13, 2009 at 1:24 am |

I feel sick from reading the trancsript of Norman Dodd’s interview. That’s not to say I don’t recommend it highly.

http://www.supremelaw.org/authors/dodd/interview.htm
Mep | November 13, 2009 at 1:37 am |

Stacy – Did you read anything about the financial bloggers who were invited to Washington to meet w/ Treasury officials? I wish that you and max could’ve been included somehow–though Max would’ve likely committed a slew of facecrimes.

I just read this piece on church and state. It sounds like my former church is really ramping up its aggressiveness as a Washington lobby. Completely unacceptable.
Mongo | November 13, 2009 at 1:37 am |

When Obama decided to increase funds for research on anti-gravity I did not know it was a reference to the anti-gravity in the financial sector…
Mep | November 13, 2009 at 1:45 am |

OMG on the empty city! I wonder if the people who own the “investment houses” ever even plan to move in? Can’t have an economy if most of the homes are sold, but the owners don’t even care to live there! Will homes ever just become places in which to live again?

Here is something fun: a pack of Republicans and Blue Dogs want a “deficit commission”: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/12/insane-deficit-commission_n_355818.html
stacyherbert | November 13, 2009 at 1:49 am |

@Mep – I did see that story; it’s obviously a way to keep these bloggers pushing the White House propaganda; Rahm also did this with the likes of Daily Kos where dissenting from the Obama line is not tolerated; I notice that Treasury did not invite ZeroHedge, Mish or Denninger; they were definitely unlikely to ever extend an invitation to us, especially after the Bundesbank thing
AM | November 13, 2009 at 1:53 am |

To kick off with some irony; our peace bringer that just won a nobel prize said the following which just sounds like someone who has peace at heart/mind. “”I want you guys to understand I will never hesitate to use force to protect the American people or our vital interests,” ” Obama, end quote http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gie4jtV_9MUCTyR-UK_aBz57ev4A
And throwing more money at a created problem (buying up land destroying self sufficiency, imf policies, burning food for fuel, US destroying competition in poor countries due to government support) but now they are going to do something about the starvation (always hear that once a while; i think the rising numbers show the facts, 1 billion + now) http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSLC32743220091112 even funnier to give global corporations that helped create the problem the money, it is the same as giving it to the corrupt governments of impoverished nations. To stay on the irony path; and MAN MADE climate change discussion http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/6543936/Electric-cars-could-increase-carbon-emissions.html start to sound like biofuel, and an continuous monopoly of oil/energy companies.
UK state of welfare; which as mentioned is very hard to get rid of these programs; http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/6555759/1.2-million-households-get-15000-in-benefits.html
Some more pharmaceutical corruption that leads to destruction of human lives; http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6551575/Chemical-cosh-drugs-killing-thousands-a-year.html

To end up with how screwed up the world is and not thinking about solutions; This dutch article is about a website that tells people how to end their lives by medications, HAVE TO PAY; 17.50 x-D and 16+…. no check of ID… not how to improve it or how we can create abundant products/energy that there never have to be too many people. The state of media talking about it shows the lack of true intelligence, because there are much more important issues to report on (like the biggest robbery in history where the criminal suicide bombers are still at large) yet it is all over, was on the front page. But this entire predictive programming death culture is out of control. while people keep thinking their video games are just fun and all violence on tv is just for relaxation. http://www.bndestem.nl/algemeen/binnenland/5799985/Website-met-tips-voor-zelfdoding.ece
That was atleast some of what i have read this morning.
Mep | November 13, 2009 at 2:07 am |

Stacy – That’s too bad that they didn’t invite people who would challenge them more. I checked out the blogs of the people who went; didn’t look like any of them are spinning much . . . one of them even joked about Treasury’s insistence that the stress tests were real and that they “worked.”

Never heard about Rahm and Kos. However, I have heard about Rahm and other progressive groups/blogs. He’s an asshole. All Presidents need both appropriate support and appropriate dissent. Rahm tries to kill dissent immediately and does it in such a browbeating way. He even tried to prevent progressive groups from running ads that named the names and donors of Blue Dog Dems holding up health care reform. Guess that could be because the WH never intended on having a “robust” public option.

With any luck, everybody will keep the pressure on. I laugh sometimes when I hear pundits talk smack about bloggers, b/c bloggers of all stripes have been the most informative, have raised the most critical questions/issues, and actually seem to be the sources that the pundits/reporters draw from for their own reporting.
Mike2liverpool | November 13, 2009 at 2:09 am |

I hate you ALL this morning
Mike
stacyherbert | November 13, 2009 at 2:10 am |

@Mike2liverpool – oh boy, is sterling up?
stacyherbert | November 13, 2009 at 2:12 am |

@Mep – I laugh sometimes when I hear pundits talk smack about bloggers, b/c bloggers of all stripes have been the most informative, have raised the most critical questions/issues, and actually seem to be the sources that the pundits/reporters draw from for their own reporting.

If bloggers weren’t exposing the truth, then they wouldn’t be ridiculed.
just george | November 13, 2009 at 2:22 am |

How disgusting China’s leaders are. They have too much money, nowhere to put it except into US treasury bonds, commodities, gold, and empty cities, yet they don’t have enough to give to the chinese peasants whose backs China’s prosperity is built on.

Absolutely shameful.
AM | November 13, 2009 at 2:28 am |

@just george; It isn’t just the Chinese leaders… western governments spent trillions on war, baling out banks and so on; the chinese government could also choose to just cut taxes for lowest incomes, subsidise lowest incomes, create abundant free independent energy, subsidise innovation/research for improvenment of society yet because governments everywhere are run by corporations these kind of decisions aren’t really a surprise to me.
Mep | November 13, 2009 at 2:30 am |

@ Stacy – Prettymuch.

On the 2nd stim, if I’m recalling correctly, the people on the left of Obama were saying that the 1st one should’ve been closer to $1 trillion to fill the demand gap. So an approx. $250 billion more would come close to hitting $1 trillion. Don’t know anything about what people are predicting for future economic contraction, though. Right now, we have 1 in 6 people unemployed or underemployed. Those numbers are only going to worsen. People will probably flame me for saying it, but I think the best thing we could do to kickstart the real economy is to get Congress to pass EFCA. Wages are going to have to be forced up somehow.

One thing I’m most worried about is where the real job growth is going to come from. We were stupid to spend so little on infrastructure in the first bill–even with those jobs, though, we still need something more permanent for people. I can’t remember how the green economy $ was allocated in the first stim. Hopefully it wasn’t all going to specialists.
just george | November 13, 2009 at 2:59 am |

@AM

I agree, of course – it is just that I find the Chinese example particularly poignant.

Biggest industrial base in the world, more money than anyone knows what to do with, more commodities sitting in stacks than can be found a use for – and yet noone thinks to give it to the common man.

The whole world economy is grinding to a halt, because the elite controllers of resources dont want any of those resources diverted to the poor. That, imo, is the global financial crisis in a nutshell. Either the rich get everything, or everyone dies.
Scorpio69er | November 13, 2009 at 5:13 am |

Is China headed toward collapse?

[Kynikos Associates' Jim] Chanos says he has found another “trust me” story: China. And he is moving to short the entire nation’s economy. Washington policymakers would do well to understand his argument, because if he’s right, the consequences will be felt here.

Chanos and the other bears point to several key pieces of evidence that China is heading for a crash.

First, they point to the enormous Chinese economic stimulus effort — with the government spending $900 billion to prop up a $4.3 trillion economy. “Yet China’s economy, for all the stimulus it has received in 11 months, is underperforming,” Gordon Chang, author of “The Coming Collapse of China,” wrote in Forbes at the end of October. “More important, it is unlikely that [third-quarter] expansion was anywhere near the claimed 8.9 percent.”

Chang argues that inconsistencies in Chinese official statistics — like the surging numbers for car sales but flat statistics for gasoline consumption — indicate that the Chinese are simply cooking their books. He speculates that Chinese state-run companies are buying fleets of cars and simply storing them in giant parking lots in order to generate apparent growth. (MORE)

http://tinyurl.com/yzl3z8f
frances snoot | November 13, 2009 at 5:36 am |

“If bloggers weren’t exposing the truth, then they wouldn’t be ridiculed.”

@Stacy:
Wouldn’t you say Max’s comment about shit in the room being ignored was a form of ridicule? Is Max a Blogger? Are we? Why do you and Max feel compelled to have a special “truth program” for those who post in Max’s ‘community’?
frances snoot | November 13, 2009 at 5:39 am |

” I laugh sometimes when I hear pundits talk smack about bloggers, b/c bloggers of all stripes have been the most informative, have raised the most critical questions/issues, and actually seem to be the sources that the pundits/reporters draw from for their own reporting”

@Mep:
Would this include “mini-fascist” bloggers?
Gerald Wadsworth | November 13, 2009 at 7:25 am |

Empty Cities…time to look in our own backyard! Detroit – going down the tubes. New Orleans – still a ghost town except the places where the rich white folk live – the 9th Ward? Disaster still. Here in Richmond, VA, there are development projects that got started 3 or 4 years ago that are being built now…because it’s cheaper to build and keep a place vacant than pay the fines for reneging on your construction contract! (This according to a commercial real estate friend…who’s broke, btw!) I’m sure we can all find some place in our own cities and towns that are empty or at a fire sale…Look at New London – where Stacy and I both lived – Pfizer’s research park soon to be empty. They ought to turn it over to the Providence Mob and turn it into a “Pleasure Park” – run hookers and drugs, cater to nicer vices! Or give it to the Pequot Indian tribe for free to run as a casino – and get a kickback from the profits, say 35% for the first few years and then on a descending scale until the place is more or less paid off.
Of course, it could be turned into a jail for all the Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, HSBC, FED and other corrupt banksters. Great views of the river – they could actually charge those guys to stay in the jail and make some money to fix up downtown!