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Dear CIGAs,
US Federal Reserve Chairman, and Secretary TT of the US Treasury take warning!
As you can see, hyperinflation is a "currency event" caused by the failure of spin and sometimes even force producing a violent loss of confidence in the national currency during the worst of business conditions usually called a depression.
The US dollar, regardless of present technical money flows, is far from immune to hyperinflation. Hyperinflation is not a product of "demand-pull" price increases of goods and services, but currency based cost-push.
Do you finally understand?
Can we put the silly semantic argument of inflation versus deflation to bed now
Please do not ask any more questions on that ignorant argument common only to those that never took Economics 101.
Now I know why teachers sometimes scream.
Zimdollar Suffers Pariah Status
Thursday, 12 February 2009 18:14
Zimbabwe Independent
IN ZIMBABWE, many streets are littered with discarded Zimbabwean dollar bills, and nobody bothers to pick them up.
With economists estimating inflation at above five billion percent and the recent dollarisation, the local currency has become a big joke to retailers and services providers who are refusing to accept it as legal tender.
For ordinary Zimbabweans, life has become more difficult as they do not have access to the foreign currency now being demanded by shopkeepers for payment.
This is despite government and Reserve Bank pleas that the new currency should run parallel to the multiple currencies that are on the market, as part of measures to liberalise the economy.
The de facto “dollarisation” which was formally announced this year has been thriving for nearly two years.
Eric Bloch: Economy Shackled
Thursday, 12 February 2009 16:24
Zimbabwe Independent
THE recent 2009 national Budget Statement, closely followed by the Monetary Policy Statement for the first half-year of 2009, contained much that was highly commendable, targeted at stimulating and facilitating the very long-awaited and very overdue, greatly needed, economic turnaround.
Tragically, however, that turnaround will be markedly less than is so desperately needed to restore wellbeing for the grievously distressed, grossly impoverished, majority of Zimbabweans, for both statements were cataclysmically imbalanced in that, notwithstanding many positive contents, there were equally many facets of the intended new policies which are not only inconducive to economic recovery, but will also retard the extent of that recovery.
Of the numerous economic issues which have to be urgently and constructively addressed, the first and foremost is the horrendous hyperinflation which has raised the cost of living to atmospheric heights, beyond the means of almost all. (No authoritative inflation data exists, in the absence of any releases from Central Statistical Office (CSO) for more than six months, but it is indisputable that the annualised rate of inflation is many trillions per cent, or even more.)
The need for dynamic inflation-reduction actions was unequivocally acknowledged by the Acting Minster of Finance, Patrick Chinamasa, in his Budget Statement, but inconsistently with that recognition of the necessary, he then tabled several proposals which will markably increase inflation, instead of reducing it.
Amongst the inflationary measures is the imposition of the previously foreshadowed fuel levy of 22 US cents per litre.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Any thought that this is not going to occur in the US is akin to the once strongly held belief that terrorism was only a European problem.
You will see social disorder in 2009. More than likely in the hot summer months In the 1800s in a similar situation crowds dragged out Wall Street bankers and hung them in the US. Maybe this time it will be Hedgies. I am ready. Sounds positively productive to me.
Job Losses Pose a Threat to Stability Worldwide
By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ
Published: February 14, 2009
PARIS — From lawyers in Paris to factory workers in China and bodyguards in Colombia, the ranks of the jobless are swelling rapidly across the globe.
Worldwide job losses from the recession that started in the United States in December 2007 could hit a staggering 50 million by the end of 2009, according to the International Labor Organization, a United Nationsagency. The slowdown has already claimed 3.6 million American jobs.
High unemployment rates, especially among young workers, have led to protests in countries as varied as Latvia, Chile, Greece, Bulgaria and Iceland and contributed to strikes in Britain and France.
Last month, the government of Iceland, whose economy is expected to contract 10 percent this year, collapsed and the prime minister moved up national elections after weeks of protests by Icelanders angered by soaring unemployment and rising prices.
Just last week, the new United States director of national intelligence, Dennis C. Blair, told Congress that instability caused by the global economic crisis had become the biggest security threat facing the United States, outpacing terrorism.
Jim Rogers Says Geithner Caused Crisis, Must Let Banks Fail, Feb. 11, 2009
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
One more down for Madoff.
British Family Blames Madoff for Suicide
By Mary Jordan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, February 15, 2009; Page A17
LONDON, Feb. 14 — A former British soldier killed himself after losing his life savings in Wall Street financier Bernard L. Madoff’s alleged $50 billion fraud scheme, according to the man’s family.
William Foxton, 65, a decorated soldier who lost an arm during his military service and worked on United Nations humanitarian missions, died from a single bullet wound to the head Tuesday in the southern English city of Southampton, police said. He apparently walked to a park near his home, sat on a bench and fired the fatal shot.
Foxton’s son Willard told reporters that his father recently discovered that his life’s savings, estimated at more than $1 million, which he invested in two hedge funds, had then been poured into Madoff’s fund.
"We were looking forward to him spending a long and happy retirement with us, but unfortunately very recently . . . I got in contact with him to ask him some ordinary family stuff, and halfway through the conversation he said: ‘Look, I’m really sorry, I can’t concentrate. I’m afraid I’ve lost everything. I’ve lost all the money. I might have to declare myself bankrupt,’ " Willard Foxton told Sky News.
Madoff’s wife pulled out $15 million before his arrest
Wed Feb 11, 2009 6:11pm GMT
By Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Martha Graybow
BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – The wife of Bernard Madoff withdrew more than $15 million from an account linked to the accused swindler in the days before his arrest, Massachusetts authorities said on Wednesday, adding a new layer of intrigue into the probe of the purported $50 billion scam.
Ruth Madoff pulled $10 million on December 10, the day before her husband was arrested and charged with running a global investment fraud, and $5.5 million on November 25, according to Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin.
Galvin did not file any charges against Ruth Madoff. The disclosure of her withdrawals came in reports produced by Cohmad Securities, a firm co-owned by Bernard Madoff that had funneled millions of dollars from its clients to Madoff.
Bernard Madoff, 70, is the only person charged so far in the alleged scam that has hit banks, charities, wealthy investors and celebrities worldwide.
Madoff told authorities he acted alone in confessing to the fraud, prosecutors have said.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Turkey, Israel and Pakistan:
War of words between Israel and Turkey sparks formal complaint
updated 10:00 p.m. EST, Sat February 14, 2009
ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) — Turkey’s Foreign Ministry summoned Israel’s ambassador to the Turkish capital of Ankara on Saturday to issue a formal complaint over a top Israeli commander’s reported remarks criticizing Turkey.
The complaint is part of the escalating war of words between the two regional allies, stemming from Turkey’s outspoken criticism of the recent conflict in Gaza.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said Saturday that it had requested an "urgent explanation" from Ambassador Gabby Levy for recent remarks reportedly made by a top Israeli military commander.
According to the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, Maj. Gen. Avi Mizrahi told an international conference that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan should "look in the mirror" before criticizing Israel.
