Weekly News Wrap-Up 7/22/11
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
“Deal or No Deal.” That’s what I am now calling the debt ceiling debate between Congress and the White House. I said last week that it is going to be tough getting tax increases and spending cuts big enough to get a $2.5 trillion raise in the debt ceiling through the House of Representatives. Yesterday, Senator Ted Kaufman from Delaware said the “No Deal” scenario is at 60%. We will eventually get a deal, but not by the August 2nd deadline. Is there any wonder why gold hit an all-time high this past week? Silver was also back over $40 again. The decision by the EU that the Greeks will be allowed to have a “selective default” seals the gold deal. You can find all that and a lot more on the “Weekly News Wrap-Up” on USAWatchdog.com below:
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About the Author
Greg Hunter
Greg is the producer and creator of USAWatchdog.com. The site’s slogan is “analyzing the news to give you a clear picture of what’s really going on.” The site will keep an eye on the government, your financial interests and cut through the media spin. USAWatchdog.com is neither Democrat nor Republican, Liberal or Conservative. Before creating and producing the site, Greg spent nearly 9 years as a network and investigative correspondent. He worked for ABC News and Good Morning America for nearly 6 years. Most recently, Greg worked for CNN for shows such as Paula Zahn Now, American Morning and various CNN business shows.
The current state of Western economics reminds me of an ode by Percy Bysshe Shelley:
“O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being,
Thou from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing….”
But what new seeds will be sown; and who, I ask, will replace the enchanter?
Thanks for the Weekly News Wrap-up!
Thank you Kevin for your support and comment!
Greg
Hi Greg!
Yeah, politicians and bankers have brilliantly solved the debt problems in Europe with huge new debts (159 billion euros) for the people of Greece. Channel NewsAsia:
“The agreement also agrees to extend loan repayments and lower the rates paid by Ireland and Portugal, the two other eurozone states who had to be bailed out after Greece.”
“To ease Greece’s debt repayments on its loans, the summit agreed to extend them from 7.5 years to between 15 and 30 years in some cases, and at a rate of 3.5 per cent, down from 4.5 per cent.”
Sounds like a semi-default to me for all three countries when former loans are restructured to rates far, far below what the market demands. Fitch seem to agree regarding Greece(Bloomberg):
“Fitch Ratings said Greece faces “restricted default” following yesterday’s debt agreement.”
Read what the slave master himself, George Papanderou is saying:
“The package “creates a sustainable path for Greece … a lightening of the burden on the Greek people”
“The only thing we’re asking for is the right to make deep changes in our country to make our country a viable one, one of growth and jobs creation. This is a European success, a European package.”
Sure, getting the people into a perpetual debt burden is a success and a road to growth and happiness for all. These people make me sick.
Thank God for some real news sites like yours! Hopefully we can all help to bring much needed change.
Btw, are the cartoons on your site copyrighted?
Best regards
Johan
http://www.economicfreefall.com/2011/07/greek-bailout-nr2.html
http://www.economicfreefall.com/2011/07/greek-bailout-nr2.html
Johan,
I don’t see how the EU thinks it can solve a debt crisis with more debt. Oh, they must be watching the U.S.!!!! Thank you for the comment and content!!
Greg
Dear Greg,
And now, a view from the “trenches.”
Retail sales are way down due to the uncertainties in whether or not there will be a default. REAL consumers (private sector, not government) are hunkering down, trying to hold on to every penny. Small business people such as yours truly are really taking hits here. Those of us who have survived are hanging on by fingernails, wondering when this will all end.
Larger companies are either scaling down, or going under. Borders Books is closing its remaining stores. :’-( Fosters, Cisco are scaling down. I am amazed that there is any trade at all in this country.
On the other hand, privately-held (drat!) companies that specialize in long-term food storage are doing well. Emergency Essentials, MRE Depot, and others are doing a booming business in selling dehydrated, freeze-dried, long-term canned, and MRE foods. It seems that a number of people are taking Howard Ruff’s advice, that is, in investing in food, “The investment you can eat,” as Ruff calls it. For a number of consumers, precious metals and long-term storage is “either/or,” with people opting for food rather than higher-priced metals.
At least many more people are trying to prepare for the inevitable but, don’t hold your breath for the majority of Americans, who will be the ones fighting at the grocery stores for the last can of beans.
This is a tasty comment Sam. Thank you.
Greg
Greg, always the same, a deal in the making by a few selected people in secret talks with the President’s staff, then sell it without debate due to time limitations – any thoughts on that? Oh, my, yea, politicians who put us in this mess, at the last minute and in secret, makes a deal of great historical importance with wide reaching implications of the future, this can only turn out bad in the long run!
However, in the short run, the politicians and wall street elite who allready know the outcome and are betting on the “deal” or kicking of the can down the road with the so-called raise with fake strings attached are all going long in futures as we speak; their all going to get quite richer quickly. To believe that the upcoming “deal” is good for the middle class is a sucker bet. Watch and see America, a last minute deal or one that is a day or two late to make it seem even more real will be done, a movie director couldn’t ask for a better fictional script. God forgive us for following these fools over the cliff.
Art,
And we are definitely on our way over that cliff. Sad thing is most do not really see the dire danger ahead. Thank you for weighing in.
Greg
Selective Default is a new term to me but has been in use for some time. It is a procedure preformed everyday by thousands of distressed families choice to pay either the credit card, gas, water, or mortgage payment. At last we have stumbled across that rabid dog without any protection. We have kick the can down the road and not paid any attention to our surroundings. Think of this for a minute and imagine the scruffy animals eyes and teeth just before he makes a lunge at your throat. That is where we are in this battle for the control of the finances of the nation.
Well todays date is the 22nd and wasn’t that supposed to be the final day, if they did agree, for the time needed to pass the deal?
I can see it now as the Three Amigos, Carter, Clinton, and H. Kissenger, arrive at Congress to broker a deal at the eleventh hour.
Yes, on horseback no less.
Keep up the good work, Greg.
Thank you Sling, Porfirio and Alyce.
Greg
So we are choosing between military, social security, treasury bonds, vet benefits, & everything else?
I think if you cut any of the first three you critically damage the machine instantly ( the machine being the American/World Economy). If you cut everything else (education, infastructure, government) you critically ddamage the machine in the long run.
Sounds like a coin flipping game where heads they win tails we lose.
We went from Casey Anthony to Ruppert Murdoch. What’s next?
Greg,
Why is it that no one is talking about reducing the size of government. What has the Drug Enforcement Agency accomplished with the bilions of dollars it receives?
How about the billions of dollars wasted by the Department of Education since our education system is now lower in achievement than when I graduated from high school in 1964?
What about the hundreds of commissions and smaller agencies that accomplish nothing but a special retirement for congress?
Is the Republican Party for smaller government or not? I suspect NOT!
Attacking Social Security is another Obama fear tactic just like the other “GOT TO FIX IT NOW OR WE CRASH AND BURN” health problem.
Until the “real managers” of the United States; We The People, take charge and throw out the bums in office at all levels out country is doomed.
Chuck ALlen
All good questions and points Chuck!!
Thank you for the comment.
Greg
you know, the whole cut social security thing has got to be just another scare tactic. if i am a u.s. senator or congressman, the last thing i want to be connected to is something that is going to result in 44 million pissed off people showing up at my house for dinner.
taxes have nothing, absolutely nothing to do with the situation.
raising taxes will not solve anything.
the fed has to ge. not just from america, but off the planet entirely.
Thank you G. Johnson for the comment on the WNW.
Greg
When a rabid skunk is cornered it gets REALLY nasty.
Obama & Geithner try to use the threats of 70 million not getting their SS Check come Aug, 3, if any one with common sense should know SS’s will checks will go out! Obama, Harry Reid and Polsie have caused more money to flee investments in the USA to Asia & with that went the jobs. By growing government bigger it has destroyed real capitalism for Socialism and it has fell flat on it face. The only thing holding up the stock market is the gov funding it & those who depend on the stock market want a raise in the debt ceiling & the Bond market wants no raise in the debt ceiling! If Obama tries to used the 5 words in the 14th amendment to raise the debt limit he will be setting duck for impeachment. Those were to keep the States from not paying their share of the Debt racked up during the Civil War as they re-entered the Union. He is playing with fire & it’s the people who gets hurt!
A funny movie me & my grandson watched last nite about a New Yorker trying to make big bucks off building a so called Green Housing Community in the middle of a huge wild life reserve out west made me think of the EPA & the damn fools who run it. The animals kicked butt on the New Yorker & made his life a night mare. It gave me a ideal, take a large enclosed football stadium, fill it with the tree huggers & every member of the EPA & turn lose every animal you can think of, crows,skunks,raccoons, turkeys & a few bears & plenty of field rats, snakes and shut them in with no way out for 72 hours. I bet they would change how they think after they spend time with them all around them with no way to protect themselves! Of course I would not let any of the animals get hurt or the folks inside, but they might learn a lesson besides what they have seen in books & on TV! These people who are paid huge amounts of money to write these laws & regs that have put millions out of work & keeps any sort of re growth of any sort, the coastal waters in the Gulf of Mexico used to be alive with generations of fishermen who passed it on, but has all but sold off by the BP settlements, new SUVs & flat screens now occupy their time & the ones that have gone out to fish, find their catch is not wanted by the old buyers who now import it from overseas.
I get fresh food(meat & vegs)from the gates of local farmers or the farmers markets. I get fresh brown eggs cheap & whole ready to cook roasters for half the price the stores and the taste is so much better. Fresh pork & beef raised off non steroids or drugs have a taste you hear the rich paying big bucks to get, but it’s right here close to home if you know who & where to look & it’s cheap! This how to return to free markets,the locals will add 7$ to federal level for every 1$ spent on local foods. It work for hundreds of years & it would work again, but the regs & dumb ass legislation has to be stopped now! Well I said my 8$ dollars worth & I saved 15 times that much on my food by buying local, goats milk not to bad & the cheese is great! Hope you eat as good as I do & have great week end. It seems your work is about to pick up, so get the well deserved rest & enjoy your time with family & friends, life to short not to! Thank you Greg for the best of bringing us the truth!
Thank you for taking the time to comment. You have added to the content of this post!
Greg
inflation is all we got to look forward to. Free trade makes us the same as people who make 2 bucks a day. The people on top don’t want to inflate but that’s all history now nobody can’t stop the great inflation. They could stop all spending and bring the troops home but you just end up with more needed people, just like anyplace in the third world. When you trade with poor people soon you end up just like the people you trade with. Many reason for this cluster Fu## we are in , but mostly the world has found people who will work for food. Even if you wanted to build something in the USA, soon somebody would just undercut you with a import. So we are left with inflation or wage cuts. Nobody is going to stand for wage cuts so inflation is whats left. That’s what this old fool thinks. Maybe it’s just the great sucking sound the little funny guy from Texas was talking about. Sorry about my poor writing skills but it looks like the future will belong to the boys who can weed a field, any old way. Heard you on the radio Greg you said your mom has a farm that’s better then gold. People would go to the ends of the earth to find gold and the luck one’s would come home and buy land. Peace
Bob,
Your writing is OK by me! Thank you.
Greg
The debt is a very big deal and I don’t know what will unfold in Washington DC. I know if the debt limit is raised there will be QE III; QE4; QE5 and more backdoor bailouts and hidden give always that the American taxpayer can NOT afford. The money give-away at the FED will continue unabated if the debt ceiling is raised. Where will they get the money to keep giving welfare to people banks like Wells fargone and Goldman Sacks if the debt limit was not raised? I hate to say that default might be the only way to wake up the American people to the fact that they have been manipulated and scammed by the global banking system. The only thing that can wake up a distracted mind is financial pain! Pain is what is going to happen on a massive scale when hyperinflation makes one dollar worth one Dinar?
Or for those who want to know $1 = D1000 as of July 22, 2011
The Houe doesn’t understand, the President just want to get back to his golf and campaigning. These two pastimes and his vacation schedule kept him too busy to write his a budget, just give him what he wants he things to do and can’t let being the leader of the Free World get in the way.
The debt ceiling must be increased, but only for a short period of time so Congress can find budget cuts and possible tax increases that will not kill the economy. The President wants it raised through his campaign period so he doesn’t have to deal with the economy and can concentrate of raising big bucks.
I will never understand how this guy got elected!
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