The World Braces Itself For The Crash

This weekÂ a impending sense of doom surrounding world financial centres asÂ the prospects of recovery in the global economy faded and sytorm clouds loomed over Washington, London, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo and other capitals like an alien mothership bringing the invading hoard to colonize out home planet, enslave us all, the men to work in labour camps, the women to breed a supply of human babies as food for the aliens. Things could not get any worse you might think. but they can and they are about to.

Read Full Post: World Prepares For The Crash

And on a lighter note:

Even more bad news was heaped on top of Greeceâ€™s economic woes as the government official in charge of food supply announced a shortage of two Greek favourites, Taramasalata and Tzatziki.

â€œThe country is in a double dip recession, he said.

Cameron talks of new crisis but its the same old crisis
Who will buy toxic debt to save the Euro
Death of the Eurozone
Zombie Economy
Chasing Bubbles

Comments: 21

Bert B. Sep 29, 2011, 1:54pm UTC

A double dip recession! We haven't reached that point yet. I can still by all the salsa and guacamole I want.

Bert B. Sep 29, 2011, 2:10pm UTC

That should have read..."I can still buy..."

Ian Thorpe Sep 30, 2011, 7:07am UTC

Don't woory about it Bert, I've given up bothering about presentation quality on this site. It's just a question of throwing something in for the link it gives me.

reply to this comment

Bert B. Sep 29, 2011, 2:01pm UTC

Germany's parliament agreed a few hours ago to expand the Greek bailout. So there is still hope that the EU can be rescued from beneath the wheels of the train...

Ian Thorpe Sep 30, 2011, 7:16am UTC

Actually they didn't. The motion Frau Merkel presented to the Bundestag evaded the issue in order to save her own arse. All they have voted for is an affirmation of the deal agreed in July Euro bail out vote is too little too late

Ian Thorpe Sep 30, 2011, 7:22am UTC

At least I, as one of the pople who saw it coming, will be able to take refuge in Schadenfreude as we all watch our savings disappear.

Bert B. Sep 30, 2011, 12:49pm UTC

My broker/money manager advised me to make some drastic changes in my portfolio a few weeks ago. He said a European meltdown and breakup of the EU were looking increasingly likely. So far, so good.

Graham L. Sep 30, 2011, 3:27pm UTC

You have savings Ian? wow. I thought you only lived a few miles from were I live.

Ian Thorpe Oct 1, 2011, 12:38pm UTC

I was well advised to shift my pension fund into a Self Invested Pension Plan before a certain Mr Broon got busy.

reply to this comment

Ishbel R. Sep 29, 2011, 2:06pm UTC

I hope your joke isn't a prediction, Ian. We're off to our favourite Greek island on Sunday!

Ian Thorpe Sep 30, 2011, 7:19am UTC

Relax (or should I upset Yvette Cooper by saying "Calm down dear"?) My blog friend Walrus who spends a lot of time in Greece and pronounced me an Olympian deity for the double dip joke also says the shelves in Greek supermarkets are overflowing with stock.
Nobody has any money to buy anything.

Ishbel R. Sep 30, 2011, 9:24am UTC

Hmmmmm - just so long as there's enough dips for me and mine, I don't care about anyone else (isn't that the standard outlook for most of the EU countries who are in deep doodoo?)

PS I thought it was funny, too!

reply to this comment

Pamela Marks Sep 29, 2011, 3:04pm UTC

sounds a little like 1984 what do you think?

Ian Thorpe Sep 30, 2011, 7:21am UTC

Don't get me started on how the world increasingly resembles an Orwellian nightmare.

Pamela Marks Sep 30, 2011, 7:46am UTC

oh I like you, at least some of us see the downward spiral

reply to this comment

Bert B. Sep 30, 2011, 12:54pm UTC

Consumers are tapped out everywhere...except maybe in China. The wealthy are the only people with money to spend, and they are a very small segment of the population.
So how can the world's economies, which are mostly dependent on consumer spending, ever recover? It's a chicken-and-egg problem that has been solved in the past by economic pump priming, but the well has run dry this time.

Ian Thorpe Sep 30, 2011, 3:03pm UTC

The comment below should have ben a reply to yours

reply to this comment

Ian Thorpe Sep 30, 2011, 3:02pm UTC

Right, to prime the pump you ned something to prime it with.

China are in big trouble too. The Chinsese boom has been export led and now the west has stopped buying their exports. Some people are saying their bubble will burst before the end of the year.

Bert B. Sep 30, 2011, 3:18pm UTC

The growing middle class in China may save them. The government is trying to build a consumer middle class like the one we used to have here in the US. They will probably have some bumps, but they stand a lot better chance of surviving that the economies of the US and Europe.
I have read that the well is not completely dry, though. The problem is, European governments are obsessed austerity at the moment, and the US government is in thrall to Right Wing powers that want to bring down Obama, no matter the cost to the nation.
So, pump priming is pretty much off-the-table for political, rather than fiscal reasons.
And then, there is The Phony Fear Factor.

Bert B. Sep 30, 2011, 3:45pm UTC

The political problem in the US is greater than just the economy, though.
Ian disagrees, but the coming environmental disaster may well threaten us all if capitalism is allowed to continue its unrestrained plundering of the planet, as is well described here.

Ian Thorpe Oct 1, 2011, 9:07am UTC

Now Bert, I'm not going to say Chomsky must be senile as you once did when I quoted an octogenarian physicits total demolition of the phole climate science lobby as a pseudosientific scam. But he is making the classic American error of looking at America's problems and assuming the rest of the world is the same.
Economic decline and a long era of stagnation and retrenchment will take care of overconspumption. As for China's new consumer class saving them, it won't. They're fucked. In fact without western nations pourchasing their cheap, shody tat they're fucking fucked.
End of the year their crisis will be under way, you watch.

reply to this comment

The World Braces Itself For The Crash

3 people recommend this post

Comments: 21

Join the Conversation