Spain is no longer in a recession. They've gone straight into Depression with levels of distress not seen since shortly after the end of their civil war.
The primary source of Spain's economic problems is a housing bubble that, on a relative scale, was even bigger than America's.
The Madrid research group RR de Acuña & Asociados said the collapse of Spain's building industry will cause the economy to contract for the next three years, with a peak to trough loss of over 11pc of GDP....
RR de Acuña said the overhang of unsold properties on the market, or still being built, has reached 1,623,000 . This dwarfs annual demand of 218,000, and will take six or seven years to clear. The group said Spain's unemployment will peak at around 25pc, comparable to the worst chapter of the Great Depression.
The unemployment rate for Americans 16 to 24 years of age has hit the highest rate since the Great Depression.
The unemployment rate for young Americans has exploded to 52.2 percent -- a post-World War II high, according to the Labor Dept. -- meaning millions of Americans are staring at the likelihood that their lifetime earning potential will be diminished and, combined with the predicted slow economic recovery, their transition into productive members of society could be put on hold for an extended period of time.
And worse, without a clear economic recovery plan aimed at creating entry-level jobs, the odds of many of these young adults -- aged 16 to 24, excluding students -- getting a job and moving out of their parents' houses are long. Young workers have been among the hardest hit during the current recession -- in which a total of 9.5 million jobs have been lost.
CFPA stands for the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. The Obama Administration, as part of its proposal for comprehensive financial regulatory reform (much needed), proposes the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. The Consumer Financial Protection Act, the legislation that creates this new agency, strips away and consolidates the consumer protection duties and responsibilities of various existing federal regulators into one agency - the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. "The agency will be dedicated to looking out for American families when they take out loans or use other financial products or services – with a mission to promote access and protect consumers from unscrupulous practices across the market."
Needless, to say the financial conglomerates hate this idea and their friends in congress are out to kill it:
Looks like someone finally realizes that a whole gob of small banks failing can add up to systemic risk. Duh.
The Huffington Post is reporting a plan to bail out the smaller regional banks and community banks is in the works.
Treasury officials and regulators are weighing a fresh round of bailouts for banks that were deemed too risky to qualify for earlier aid.
Representatives from the Treasury Department, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and House Financial Services Committee discussed the plan by phone Thursday, said California Bankers Association Chairman Dan Doyle, who was on the call.
Looks like they are making it restrictive, the money will come from the existing TARP fund and the limit would be $5 billion in assets.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis put out a information release showing the GDP slowdowns of U.S. metro areas in 2008.
The dark blue is the biggest increase in GDP, the darker tan is the biggest decrease.
New statistics released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis show that the slowdown in U.S. economic growth was widespread: 60 percent of metropolitan areas saw economic growth slow down or reverse. Real GDP growth slowed in 220 of the nation’s 366 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in 2008 with downturns in construction, manufacturing, and finance and insurance restraining growth in many metropolitan areas. Growth in real U.S. GDP by metropolitan area slowed from 2.0 percent in 2007 to 0.8 percent in 2008.
You know this is way too routine when few even read the post. It's now so common we barely blink an eye at another bank failure.
Atlanta-based Georgian Bank was closed by regulators on Friday, marking the 95th U.S. bank failure of the year as the credit crunch continues claiming victims.
It's Friday Night! Party Time! Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!
This week we had a plea to forgive 3rd world debt by the G-20 countries meeting in Pittsburgh.
So, in honor of that perspective, this weeks video is the 1991 documentary, Life and Debt. It's a story of IMF policies at that time, the globalization agenda and use of IMF debt to achieve that end...at the expense of Jamaica and the people.
(AP) -- U.S. commercial banks earned $5.2 billion trading derivatives in the second quarter, as the level of risk eased in the global market for the complex financial instruments, according to a government report released Friday.
The Obama Administration's Financial Regulatory Reform: A New Foundation does what ever it can to preserve "Too Big to Fail" institutions. The proposal calls "Too Big to Fail" financial conglomerates Tier 1 Financial Holding Company. This is from the White Paper: Financial Regulatory Reform:
Any financial firm whose combination of size, leverage, and interconnectedness could pose a threat to financial stability if it failed (Tier 1 FHC) should be subject to robust consolidated supervision and regulation, regardless of whether the firm owns an insured depository institution.
Translation: We are OK with financial institutions - Tier 1 FHC - that can cripple the entire global financial system such as Citigroup because we are going watch them more closely.
It's Friday Night! Party Time! Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!
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