The Oil Drum

hey Jeffery,
I assume you read "Mish" as well as CR. They are daily reads for me.
D

I just found out that the cliche "keeping up with the Jones"
was famous during the Roaring 20's.

And just where did Citi get $58 Billion to cover it's worthless SIV's?

http://www.peakoilblues.com/blog/?p=128

(3) Shopping habits will be hard to break and credit card debt will continue to mount. Many will be incredulous that their homes have not and will not increase in value in the upcoming year, so will continue to rack up consumer debt as if refinancing remains an option. They will believe other people’s houses go down in value, but not their own.

(4) Regardless of their current income, homeowners who begin to believe that their access to ATM home equity has actually stopped will suddenly notice how much more money they owe on their homes and feel dramatically poorer. It will be a shock to learn that even cutting away the “extravagant” spending will not bring their budgets into line. The distinction between “luxury” and “comfort” will be blurry and they will be shocked when forced to realize that “simple pleasures” like vacations or cell phones are “luxuries.” This sense will be pervasive and depressing to them. They will feel “out of it” in being unable to buy the latest “in thing.”

'An economic law of physics
By The Mogambo Guru'

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/IL15Dj02.html

...snip...'So I am looking at this Big, Big Problem (BBP) and how it looks like the whole thing is going to degenerate into real work, when I was saved by a little-known law of physics: "If at any time you find yourself doing a transfinite amount of work, the answer can be obtained by inspection'...snip...

'And if you want more proof that people don't have any money, from online.wsj.com we get the headline, "Surge in Auto-Loan Delinquencies Is Latest Trouble for the Economy'

'An interesting bit of trivia is that "car delinquencies are closely linked to the health of the economy", because the "typical delinquent borrower" made a reasonable, good-faith estimate of the future economy, and buying the car "seemed like a manageable payment". It turns out the economy did NOT turn out as expected, and now the borrower can't make the payment. Bad, Bad News (BBN)'

'With a little history thrown in ("That is the biggest one-month jump in at least eight years"), I will take this interesting bit of automotive trivia to bring up the fact that if you have to choose between your house or your car, a car is more important than a house, as you can live in your car, but you cannot drive your house to someplace looking for a job, or to the street outside of your parents' house where you can park and look so miserable day after day that they finally get embarrassed and agree to let you into their house where you can gradually take over after stuffing them both in a nursing home against their will.

So you get another house to live in, and you still have a car to drive!' :)

Hi

With such a globally interconnected sandcastle tower of debt on debt it shouldn't take much of a shock , possibly like Mrs Murtze not buying that Christmas salad shooter, for dearest cousin Mildred, to cause even the fine porcelain vases in China to tumble off their great wall.

As you might easily discern, and with good reason, I am not the CR that DelusionaL mentions on his recommended financial reading list:)

CR

And the world dumping the USD won't help.

Russia to dump waning dollar - The world exodus continues

Russian oil firm Rosneft will follow the lead of Gazprom and LUKOIL to sell crude in rubles amid the ongoing depreciation of the dollar.

"Selling for rubles is much more attractive," Deputy Chief Executive Officer Leonid Fedun said on December 12.

Iran, the world's fourth most prolific oil exporter, has already abandoned the dollar, Iran's Oil Minister Gholam-Hossein Nozari said on December 9, describing the currency as unreliable.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=34978&sectionid=3510213