US Action News

The government is in what is known as a debt death spiral. They must borrow money to repay prior debts. It is as if they are using their Visa Card to make an American Express payment. The rate of new debt additions dwarf any rate of growth the economy can possibly achieve. The end is certain, only its timing is unknown.

[W]e’re doing the same thing that led to the 2008 blowup — we’ve learned exactly nothing. In real terms our GDP is in fact contracting by about $500 billion a quarter, after adjusting for debt expansion — that’s $2 trillion a year, more or less. – The Market Ticker

The top 5% are getting richer by the hour. That is the consequence of Ben’s policy – More wealth transfer. Is that really what most Americans want? Is that what Congress wants? – Bruce Krasting

In the same way the Great Depression and the depressions before it lasted eight to 10 years, we will likely continue to see constrained economic growth until 2015-2016 (roughly nine years after U.S. home prices began to slide).

The less affluent — the other 80%, some 250 million people — are little concerned by an eventual wealth effect but highly, directly and immediately impacted by the side effects of all these QEs, namely rising commodity prices and near zero interest rates.

The first two rounds of quantitative easing made the wealthy even wealthier while causing living standards to fall for all the rest of us. Is there any reason to believe that QE3 will be any different?

Mom and pop will finally clue in to this in 2012, and get -their money- out of harm’s way. Well, either that or lose it. Their money, that is. Perhaps their minds too. And their homes. Their jobs.

The actions of the Central Banks signal how desperate the situation is. Nothing was done to help Greece, Spain or the other insolvent European sovereigns. Yesterday was an attempt to keep the dysfunctional world financial system going awhile longer.

[T]here was no possible way to continue given the inevitability of the collapse of the global financial markets, the overthrow of our government, and the resulting collapse in the rule of law.

Cramer did the Republicans a favor by feeding them a softball question from a viewer. Their failure to handle it effectively was a lot more significant and newsworthy than Rick Perry’s much-publicized gaffe.