Global Financial collapse
 

It's very hard to feel in any way confident about what is looming

The saying is "you get the politicians you deserve"............I want to vote in USA elections so I can choose the lesser of all evils. Past & current administrations have done little to avert this disaster...little wonder there are so many homegrown terrorists in the US

What was so pathetically obvious pre-sub prime collapse is now like a perpetual nightmare...you cannot keep borrowing to service debt. Finance 101 !!!!

Fingers crossed Australia survives reasonably well

It is ridiculous here in the states. The price of living is skyrocketing, home values are plummeting, jobs are disappearing, those with jobs are losing wages, public services are diminishing and our infrastructure is falling apart.
Im considering getting a place back in the woods, and changing to a minimalist lifestyle to make it easier to ride out the coming storm. The majority of the people in this country just want to earn a modest living and "get by". With the way current things are proceeding it won't be possible. When it gets to that point, things WILL change,

Hi ,in the UK we're linked to the rest of europe,which is falling apart quickly.The greeks have really fuggered things up.The Uk can't break away from 'em.We've had wars with the rest of europe within the last 200 years,we don't really get on (remember what the germans did 70 years back? ) & we have to support them. On another note,people have to spend to get the economy running again.Difficult when 1/2 the country's unemployed cause the banks /government cocked up :(

Southpark said it best "You either are voting for a Douche or a Turd Sandwich." Who else would spend millions upon millions to run for a job that pays 400K a year.

Jeff

or to service deficit. If I borrowed to service deficits in my spending I would never get out of debt.

Unfortunately I don't think many will be immune to these issues. While the US is the biggest piece of the pie it's not the only. People tend to lay blame on the US quite freely but EVERYONE has been a part of this.

The really interesting part to me is I believe that China is going to take the biggest hit themselves. No different than the banks financing bad debt except for the fact no one will be bailing China out.

The problem is in our country is the people need to stop paying attention to the partisan rhetoric on both sides and start using common sense. Finances are not anywhere near as complicated as people want to make them out to be. You also simply cannot have the government bigger than the private sector and it sustain itself. This goes for all spending types. Nothing should be off the table for spending cuts. Everything can be cut to some degree.

This will take sacrifice. However, a government cannot also talk taking more revenue (tax hikes) without first proving to it's customers (the citizens) that it can get it's spending under control. No business in the world can do this and keep it's customers and a government is no different.

Why will China take the biggest hit? I understand they are servicing a good portion of the world but they are a booming economy in themselves. Everyone has been watching and waiting for that bubble to pop but ......

They supply the world with the majority of its products.If the majority of the world doesnt have the money to buy said products, what will the Chinese sell?

You're right, the US can't take all the blame but with an economy 3 times larger than the next closest it plays a significant role in keeping things stable

China...yeah, once it's customers don't have any money to spend it's curtains for them

They could help a lot and start buying from themselves. China will prob come down one day, no idea when. I do know they are starting to experience some pretty severe inflation as a consequence of their currency manipulation schemes.There is an unnatural imbalance that can't last forever.
Also, the Chinese workers will only tolerate being the world's workshop for so long until they demand a fair share of the things they produce. Sounds like things are starting to happen, but prob a slower process than many would like. If they got some money and starting buying goods from abroad that would be great.

I don't like what is going on right now, and thankfully I took advtange to sell out most of my positions in the July rally here. Since 2009 I've been very heavy in stocks w/ good results, but now almost all cash trying to figure out what to do next.

I'm pretty disappointed in the leadership we have, such as it is. All the focus is on debt and everyone has forgotten about job creation. As if solving the former will somehow fix the ladder. No one has a coherent explanation of how that would work, and all historical examples and economic models which show how "expansionary austerity" falls flat on its face, but that seems the driving mentality now.

I'm trying to stay a bit more upbeat about the US. We have plenty of options to act, but simply political paralysis, mistrust and fear to do it. That can change.

Europe tho, esp the Eurozone, seems in for a world of hurt. Strangely, its a policy direction some on the hard right want us to follow, but I don't think they are really aware thats the implication they are making. Since our president doesn't ever actually take a firm position on anything, I have no idea what he is doing.

Correct
 

Its funny how our Gov can give financial advice to us and to other countries about how credit is not for us to abuse and yet it has survived using that very thing up to now, and there is no magic money ball that will pay for this idiocy.

China will not only lose huge revenues from the lack of sales, but the majority of the people already live below the poverty level and when those revenues fail a large part of its population will suffer deeply. 100million screaming hungry Chinamen.

Looking at the current situation in the USA and considering the options for recovering from the nearly 4 trillion $ in debt the country has to fail, before it can even begin to recover. Shrinking our military will be one of the biggest savings, and it will surely leave our country volnerable. Clinton already cut the military in half during his administration leaving us open for disaster. Now Obama will likely do the same and leave our boarders wide open for an invasion. That is exactly what Bin Ladin was trying to do through his terroism tactics. If you think about it, it is working just the way he planned by getting us involved in too many wars spending more money than the country could afford, and that is exactly what he was counting on.

The weakened laws of the USA have also allowed too many people to file for bankruptsy and suffer little consiquences for their sorry handling of their own finances. The Gov can not simply file for the same and survive. The people are no longer the deciding factor in all of this. We are prisoners of this Gov and its rediculous handling of the entire situation. These idiots in charge are only going to make things worse and steal all they can from the people to make sure they have a good foothold to weather the storm when the economy comes crashing down, so they think. This is going to get a whole lot worse, before there are any real signs of recovery. The people will not give up. Its just not our way, but the Gov will drive us into oblivian if something does not change soon.

Obama is not the driving force behind any of this. It is the greedy fat cats in the Congress & the Senate that are controlling all of this. Our populations around the world have grown to a point of self destruction through greed, and the need for more resources. We simply can not keep growing in large numbers while our planet stays the same size. In the next 50-100 years soucial security in the USA will become the least of our worries. Food is going to become so scarces and unafordable for the average person that we will all have to fight for what it will take for survival. Yes our Gov leaders are out of control, and we will all suffer for this.

You could do worse than speculating on the Australian dollar

This is the part that confuses me. The Chinese 'people' have never had it so good. Most of them wouldn't understand our perspective of a poverty line. I don't dissagree China will take a hit but I don't thinik they will take the biggest hit, I think they will be very resiliant.

It's all relative isn't it. Though the booming Chinese middle class will be the hardest hit & that's hundreds of millions of people

Standard and Poor's for the first time revised the US credit rating downwards to a AA+...that's a bigger issue than it first might seem

Nice. 90 times since 1939 have we raised the debt ceiling (which no other sensible country has) and the current bunch of yahoos just lost our AAA credit rating from S&P.

Britney Spears is a model for sanity and responsibility compared to some of the nutters we have in Congress.

I'm hoping to hell its not. Doesn't make me feel good about it, but one glimmer of hope was Japan in 2000. They had their credit rating downgraded, but borrowing rates actually fell slightly.

Little solace to the self-inflicted gunshot wound. Jesus...