Humanity's Question: To be, Or not to be?

WHETHER IT IS NOBLER IN THE MIND?

(Special Report)

First Financial Insights

THAT IS THE QUESTION...

Today we are republishing a  commentary that was posted back in January 2013. The post is even more relevant today, as the critical issues we face as a species are escalating almost it seems beyond control. Reports are also being made by various LEGITIMATE groups including NASA, UN bodies and the White House and Pentagon. These reports are posted through-out our affiliated blogs and may be searched by keyword . Moreover, let's not forget too, that Stephen Hawkings sits on a committee that is actually planning "end of world events", while The Bank of England  is calling for a wholesale change in the dogmas of classical economics - as the stresses of infinite growth are self-evident in so many countries around the world. 

As a further result, the possibility that the EU, Japan, China and other third world nations could financially collapse is a very real danger that could be sparked by an abrupt climb in global interest rates. Many events at any moment could spark this rapid rise, that would cause the greatest and most unprecedented collapse in asset values around the world where credit and banking bubbles in real estate and market investments, exist almost everywhere - another dark age looms large on the horizon.

Economics is not the only cancer that has terminal implications. Overpopulation and unbridled industrial destruction of the biosphere are crossing over to the exponential phase. Should the average global temperature rise just a mere 2 degrees C., some experts say we risk triggering a methane bomb that yields the same consequences of the Permian Extinction's climate conditions  - over 95%  of life on the planet was wiped out in short order.

Words of Science 

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Never ever, ever, ever forget - 2008 #Meltdown!

What is truly amazing is that not only did we forget about it, by most accounts, metrics and pundits, today is far worse than the circumstances leading to the 2008 meltdown. It is more global and deeper in national economies. There are bubbles everywhere.

 

This time it is going to be different - nobody sneeze!

 

Investors' Insights

May 15, 2014

 

Financial crisis must not be forgotten

Regulators have to be as pro-active as possible, not waiting until another crisis hits before trying to ascertain whether the the financial institutions are in compliance with the law

Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's recent comments about the financial meltdown that occurred nearly five years ago are a stark reminder that not nearly enough has been done to prevent such a crisis from happening again.

Geithner gave a revealing, in-depth interview to USA Today, in which he correctly noted the damage from such financial disasters "falls disproportionately on the relatively poor, people of modest income."

That's particularly true when you consider big banks were reaping all sorts financial rewards from dubious practices and then got bailed out by the taxpayers when things went sour.

It's clear the country's largest financial institutions knowingly bundled toxic loans and then sold them to unsuspecting investors, a lucrative practice until the financial markets collapsed, bringing the country to the brink of a depression.

In the interview, Geithner called the reaction to the economic crisis "a classic financial panic."




He says the government had little choice but "to do things that look deeply unfair" to keep the financial system solvent and protect people from massive unemployment. Fair enough.

But it's also clear federal officials did not get the best deals possible on behalf of the American people.



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Or Watch

 

 

RED ALERT: #Australia Bank Meltdown Looms

RED ALERT

Add another national financial bubble to the ever growing list worldwide. This not going to be good one day. Indeed it is building into a domino that has the potential to snowball out of control.

Investors' Insights

May 14, 2014

Banking sector set for US-style meltdown

BY  Jason Spits




 







The historically large housing price and large personal debt bubbles have created the preconditions for a banking and housing market crash that Australian banks are unlikely to survive without recourse to tax-payer funds. 

In his submission to the Financial Services Inquiry (FSI), Brisbane-based planner Bruce Baker stated the preconditions were the same as those which led to the “near collapse of the US banking system” in 2008. 

“Australia has the biggest house price bubble in its history, a bubble that has been funded by Australia’s historically-largest private debt bubble (which is predominantly mortgage debt),” Baker said. 

He also claimed that “Australia is not sufficiently prepared to deal with such a crisis” and that “our banking system is unlikely to cope any better than the USA’s banking system in the face of an historic house crash”. 

“The data suggests that it is quite likely that the coming Australian house price crash will be bigger than what APRA has prepared for - ie, bigger than a 30 per cent fall. From an economic perspective, this should be cause for great concern as this is a major risk to the Australian economy and Australia’s financial system,” he said. 

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Why so many bubbles?

#NEWS ALERT: Nouriel #Roubini - Too Many Co-Ed Women Cause Credit Bubbles????








Nouriel Roubini says ‘we’re in the beginning of credit bubble’ 




New York University economist Nouriel Roubini is presenting the case that the United States is “in the beginning of credit bubble,” alluding to signs that the debt market is overheating and the financial similarities between now and the start of the economic collapse.

Roubini believes the Federal Reserve, which has been continuing with its tapering efforts by reducing quantitative easing by an additional $10 billion to $55 billion per month, will begin to raise interest rates sometime in the middle of next year and boost fund rates to four percent by 2018.



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But what did you mean in 2008?

Gotta Love Credit Bubbles -

Who is Bubbles

Anyway? 

Social Media - Marc #Faber WARNING!

Marc Faber Warns "Social Media Stocks Are Just The Start, Market Crash Coming In 2nd Half"






Having called for the demise of the hype/hope growth stocks, biotech, and social media schemes at the end of 2013, Marc Faber believes the weakness in those sectors is a signal of things to come (and that the so-called "rotation" to quality stocks is fallacious in the medium-term).

Faber carefully notes that the size of markets allows some stocks to move up as others move down and so the overall market "looks" ok, but warns "we have already had a big break in parts of the market... but we haven't had the big break in the overall market," adding that "it's too late to buy the US stock market," confirming what we noted about Jeremy Grantham's dismal outlook for US equities in the medium-term (and how and when the bubble bursts).




Simply out, given yields around the world and the fundamentals, "individual investors have excessively optimistic expectations about their future returns," which is terrible news for the record amounts of Greater Fools piling in as professionals pile out.

What is a greater fool?