The Oil Drum

291 comments on DrumBeat: August 3, 2007

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Burgundy on August 3, 2007 - 11:53am

Stoneleigh, great job, thanks. I especially like your focus on energy, climate and finance; areas which I pay particular attention to.

I came across this article today, which gives some idea of just how big the "iceberg" might be :)

Credit Brothel Raided, Even Piano Player Not Safe:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_gilbert&...

The malaise enveloping global markets is becoming increasingly indiscriminate in choosing its victims.

At the start of July, Tunisia hired Daiwa Securities SMBC Co. and Nikko Citigroup Ltd. to help its central bank sell yen- denominated bonds. By the time the fund raising finished this week, Tunisia's borrowing costs had risen by almost a quarter of a percentage point.

So the taxpayers of an African nation suffer because Joe Blow in Detroit can't pay his mortgage

The rest of the article provides a quick summary of what's happening around the world, much of which you've already included in your excellent round-up. Contagion obviously hasn't been contained and has become global.

Triumvirate of collapse - Economy, Ecosystem, Energy

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GreyZone on August 3, 2007 - 1:13pm

So the taxpayers of an African nation suffer because Joe Blow in Detroit can't pay his mortgage.

Not strictly true. The consumer is going to get blamed in this but the real bad guys are the bankers who created a debt based monetary system and then ran it into the ground. They are the ones that from 1913 to 2007 destroyed 95% of the dollar's purchasing power (according to the Federal Reserve itself, no less). These bankers are the ones that found ways to leverage even the already leveraged debt into a derivatives mess that is, each year, worth more than 11 times the total global GDP.

And if you want to spread the blame, there are those nations who willingly signed on to the US imperial inflation tax scheme and have aided and abetted that scheme (as opposed to those nations forced into the scheme essentially at gunpoint).

"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Dr. Albert Bartlett
Into the Grey Zone

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Samsara on August 3, 2007 - 2:33pm

Greyzone, on that line of thought, take a look at some of the roots. As you said, the Creature from Jekyll Island (aka Da Fed) is in lead dog position.

This article shows where the CDO's came from.

HEADWATERS OF DISASTER
http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/schoon/2007/0801.html

SNIP

One of the world’s top financial strategists predicted that today’s largely unregulated financial markets are going to come to an abrupt end. That self-regulation is no more possible with bankers seeking billions in bonuses than with teenagers seeking sex in the back seat of cars.

He predicted that America would react with swift vengeance and draconian regulations when they woke up and realized their past savings and future dreams have been bet and lost by the boys on Wall Street.

Here in 2007, the bets have been made and the losses are coming. America has yet to wake up.

It will. Be prepared. It’s going to get ugly.

SNIP