Apocalypse When?

August 31 2007 by The Systemic Analyst.

Margaret Legum has published a very insightful article on the risks of collapse of the American economy in Sane Views. Her perspective takes into account the effects of the current glitch in the markets on ordinary people, a focus almost completely passed-over in mainstream media coverage.

“What about the millions of non-wealthy people, not only in the States, now dispossessed of their homes: imagine that process for yourself. They were persuaded by lending institutions to take out loans and bonds that can be repaid only over decades - and on only the most optimistic assumptions, including no interest rate rises? Now their loans are ‘junk’, and they are homeless. To add insult to injury it is they who get skelled-out by governments for irresponsible borrowing – not the institutions which in effect misled them about the safety of their loans. Those institutions are financially protected by the collateral on the loans; the borrowers are stripped.

And what about the solid citizens who have saved for a pension and/or put savings into stock exchange assets only to find they have plummeted in value, contrary to what was promised. The managers who invested those funds have done their best, in good conscience, and covered themselves in the small print about how the value can go down as well as up. They are not personally to blame. But the victims are the deluded savers.

In any case, is it true that this is simply a temporary blip? The financial experts say the world’s underlying economies are ‘strong’, so no need to worry in the long term. They are referring principally to company profits – not to growth, employment or average incomes. In all developed countries growth rates are down there at 1% or 2%., and unemployment and high rates of working poor are problems everywhere.

What keeps company profits up is two very different things: people buying their products: and asset stripping through mergers and acquisitions, and the specialist version called private equity deals. Click here for more.”

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