Holy......

[Pizza]

If you're debating bankruptcy, you probably shouldn't be reading or watching the news today... economists got to use words like "histeria" and "absolute panic" to describe the markets the last couple of days... oil up $17 in two days ($11 today!)... Dow down several hundreds during the same time... worst unemployment figures since '86... MAN! What gives?!? Craziness!!

I'd post a link, but there's no need. Read the news anywhere and you'll see what's up...

[AngelinaCat]

I've heard the same types of things today. There's an increase in people filing for unemployment compensation. One of our better employment opportunities in our area (a call center handling several different clients) just announced they had lost one of their major clients and if they couldn't pick up another, some 50-60 people would be laid off on June 27.

Lovely~~~

[Cali]

I watched it this morning.

Inflation up 5.5%
Oil up 11$
Dow down almost 400 points
Jobs lost so far this year 324,000

[WhatMoney]

Good News Friday eh?

$150 oil by July 4th now predicted. Heck, it could do that by next Tuesday at this rate. Can $5 gasoline be far behind?

Israel making threats (promises) to attack Iran nuclear sites. US dollar dropping to new lows.

Forget the silly unemployment numbers. Real unemployment is closer to 13.5% now, not the fake gov't manipulated and adjusted 5.5%. And real consumer inflation this year is running +12%, not the fake 4% from your lying government.

http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data

.

[magyar123]

And the Bush will only be blown off into the sunset towards Texas 7 months from now.

[Flamingo]

It is the time to batten down the hatches, buy what is only necessary, coordinate errands into one trip and sit tight to ride it out. It may take a while causing lots of folks with high debt and then lose their job in this to join the ranks of filers. We just got word in our organization that overnight packages are to be stopped (regular mail only), no purchasing of office supplies and travel will be cut back. Next I am sure will be the job cuts....

[Pizza]

This just can't be sustainable. When the huge middle-class population is unable to purchase anything because inflation has eaten their paychecks, retailers can't sell, so they lay off workers who then cannot purchase anything.... it just can't last. Maybe America should just file Ch. 7 against the world? Heh...

Of course if conservation ramped up tomorrow we would see job gains across the board (reconfiguring energy use is lots of work!) in the process of pulling ourselves out of this mess... but...

[BankruptPinoy]

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200806061147DOWJONESDJONLINE000700_FORTUNE5.htm

Dark day on Wall Street

http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/oil-spike-jobs-report-pound-market/20080606154409990001

Oil Spike, Jobs Report Pound Market

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7440104.stm

US unemployment rate reaches 5.5%

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7440536.stm

Oil price soars as US woes mount

Hi Pizza. Here's a couple of links.

[BankruptPinoy]

[epiphany]

It is the time to batten down the hatches, buy what is only necessary, coordinate errands into one trip and sit tight to ride it out. It may take a while causing lots of folks with high debt and then lose their job in this to join the ranks of filers. We just got word in our organization that overnight packages are to be stopped (regular mail only), no purchasing of office supplies and travel will be cut back. Next I am sure will be the job cuts....

We had job layoffs a couple months ago and then the email that you could not order any supplies except toner...no paper clips, no staples, nothing... but hurray, we can order toner but no paper so that should work out well.

ep

[JRScott]

lol ep yeah toner with no paper doesn't seem smart.....

It's going to get much worse I'm afraid. In truth there is little Bush can do about it. Congress could but its not what they'll do. In order to heal the economy they need to remove odious regulations which stifle energy exploration and cripple corporations. They also need to lower corporate taxes to nearly half their current level.

There is no short term solution and any politician who claims there is is lying to you. It took our nation a hundred years to get to this point, it will take us years if not decades to get back out.

[BankruptPinoy]

"My method is to post anything I find of interest, not what I believe to
be true. I'm not here to be some sort of web dictator to say what is
true, what should be on the web, or what should be shot down the
memory hole."-Rob Daven

The Panic Of '08 - Oil,
War And Denial
By Gerald Celente

The Panic is "On." Each day brings more bad news and it just got much worse.

On Friday, oil super-spiked nearly $11 to close above $138 a barrel and the Dow dumped nearly 400 points. The dollar is back on its losing streak and gold is back above $900 an ounce. Job losses increased for the fifth month in a row and the unemployment rate had its biggest jump since 1986.

Chain stores are closing, credit keeps tightening and economic conditions are worsening. The government is going broke, the people are broke, the nation's fighting two costly wars and losing both and the President warns there may be more.

Avoiding intelligent discussion of the dire implications of the oil shock, the next credit crisis and President Bush's warnings that Iran is a potential military target, the nation's news has been focused on the elimination rounds of The Presidential Reality Show.

And while rumors of an attack on Iran by the US are generally ignored or denied, the undercurrent of Middle East war is another speculative factor driving oil prices higher. Among them, Israel announced new construction of 900 homes in the occupied West Bank and threatened a major military offensive to put down the worsening Gaza uprisings.

Iran, who Israel accuses of supplying weapons to the Palestinians, has also become a military target. On Friday, Israeli deputy Prime Minister, Shaul Mofaz, said, "Attacking Iran, in order to stop its nuclear plans, will be unavoidable." And, according to reports, the US also has plans to launch a military strike against Iran. ("Limited US attack on Iranian Revolutionary Guards bases in sight" (DEBKAfile, 3 June 2008); ("Bush intends to attack Iran before the end of his term," The Jerusalem Post, 20 May 2008.) Note: Yielding to pressure from Washington, The Jerusalem Post pulled the May 20th headline story from its website.

Trend Analysis: With commodity speculators currently being blamed for the oil spike, the threat of war and how it relates to high oil prices, until just recently, was absent from national debate as are the devastating global implications that would result from a Persian/US/Israel war.

Unless oil prices swiftly and dramatically decline, the American people will suffer the worst socioeconomic conditions in living history. Utility bills won't be paid, foreclosures will escalate, crime will dramatically increase tax revolts, gas riots, strikes and protests will ensue. Millions of elderly, those on fixed incomes and paycheck-to-paycheck people won't be able to heat their homes, fuel their autos or cover their expenses.

It's pure and simple. For the working majority, wages are falling, home equity is evaporating, investments are failing, pensions are lost, benefits are scarce and each day it costs more to live.

Forced to choose between filling the gas tank or feeding the family, trying to make ends meet is a losing game. In the real world, despite the government's adjusted-for-manipulation core inflation index, which omits food and fuel from its calculations, the working class is going under as prices of life's essentials keep going higher.

Without money to make up for rising costs, credit cards will be increasingly used as the finger in the bursting financial damn that will eventually drown debt burdened Americans who won't be able to meet their monthly card payments.

But over the past weeks, the word from those who didn't see the financial storm coming were now claiming that the worst of it was over. The US Treasury Secretary, the Federal Reserve Chairman and the presidents of the biggest banks and brokerages have declared that the credit crisis is closer to the end than the beginning.

Publisher's Note: Throughout the millennia and regardless of country, economic hardship, not moral justification, has often been used as a political pretext to wage war and as the public rationale to support one.

For example, when asked why the US launched the First Gulf War against Iraq over their oil dispute with Kuwait in 1991, US Secretary of State James Baker said, "It's about jobs, jobs, jobs" and the American people agreed.

Similarly, with high oil prices inflicting wide socioeconomic damage, an attack upon an oil rich country, such as Iran, under the guise of maintaining global stability, could be sold as an excuse for war by politicians and supported by an economically depressed public as a rationale to wage one.

And From the Asia Times last month:
Bush 'plans Iran air strike by August'
By Muhammad Cohen

May 28, 2008

The George W Bush administration plans to launch an air strike against Iran within the next two months, an informed source tells Asia Times Online, echoing other reports that have surfaced in the media in the United States recently.

Two key US senators briefed on the attack planned to go public with their opposition to the move, according to the source, but their projected New York Times op-ed piece has yet to appear.

The source, a retired US career diplomat and former assistant secretary of state still active in the foreign affairs community, speaking anonymously, said last week that the US plans an air strike against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The air strike would target the headquarters of the IRGC's elite Quds force. With an estimated strength of up to 90,000 fighters, the Quds' stated mission is to spread Iran's revolution of 1979 throughout the region.

Targets could include IRGC garrisons in southern and southwestern Iran, near the border with Iraq. US officials have repeatedly claimed Iran is aiding Iraqi insurgents. In January 2007, US forces raided the Iranian consulate general in Erbil, Iraq, arresting five staff members, including two Iranian diplomats it held until November. Last September, the US Senate approved a resolution by a vote of 76-22 urging President George W Bush to declare the IRGC a terrorist organization. Following this non-binding "sense of the senate" resolution, the White House declared sanctions against the Quds Force as a terrorist group in October. The Bush administration has also accused Iran of pursuing a nuclear weapons program, though most intelligence analysts say the program has been abandoned.

Rockin' and a-reelin'

Senators and the Bush administration denied the resolution and terrorist declaration were preludes to an attack on Iran. However, attacking Iran rarely seems far from some American leaders' minds. Arizona senator and presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain recast the classic Beach Boys tune Barbara Ann as "Bomb Iran". Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton promised "total obliteration" for Iran if it attacked Israel.

The US and Iran have a long and troubled history, even without the proposed air strike. US and British intelligence were behind attempts to unseat prime minister Mohammed Mossadeq, who nationalized Britain's Anglo-Iranian Petroleum Company, and returned Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to power in 1953. President Jimmy Carter's pressure on the Shah to improve his dismal human-rights record and loosen political control helped the 1979 Islamic revolution unseat the Shah.

But the new government under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini condemned the US as "the Great Satan" for its decades of support for the Shah and its reluctant admission into the US of the fallen monarch for cancer treatment. Students occupied the US Embassy in Teheran, holding 52 diplomats hostage for 444 days. Eight American commandos died in a failed rescue mission in 1980. The US broke diplomatic relations with Iran during the hostage holding and has yet to restore them. Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's rhetoric often sounds lifted from the Khomeini era.

The source said the White House views the proposed air strike as a limited action to punish Iran for its involvement in Iraq. The source, an ambassador during the administration of president H W Bush, did not provide details on the types of weapons to be used in the attack, nor on the precise stage of planning at this time. It is not known whether the White House has already consulted with allies about the air strike, or if it plans to do so.

Sense in the senate

Details provided by the administration raised alarm bells on Capitol Hill, the source said. After receiving secret briefings on the planned air strike, Senator Diane Feinstein, Democrat of California, and Senator Richard Lugar, Republican of Indiana, said they would write a New York Times op-ed piece "within days", the source said last week, to express their opposition. Feinstein is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and Lugar is the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee.

In a statement received by Asia Times Online from Feinstein's office, the senator said she "has not received any briefing, classified or unclassified, from the administration involving any plans to strike Iran".

Given their obligations to uphold the secrecy of classified information, it is unlikely the senators would reveal the Bush administration's plan or their knowledge of it. However, going public on the issue, even without specifics, would likely create a public groundswell of criticism that could induce the Bush administration reconsider its plan.

The proposed air strike on Iran would have huge implications for geopolitics and for the ongoing US presidential campaign. The biggest question, of course, is how would Iran respond?

Iran's options

Iran could flex its muscles in any number of ways. It could step up support for insurgents in Iraq and for its allies throughout the Middle East. Iran aids both Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Israel's Occupied Territories. It is also widely suspected of assisting Taliban rebels in Afghanistan.

Iran could also choose direct confrontation with the US in Iraq and/or Afghanistan, with which Iran shares a long, porous border. Iran has a fighting force of more than 500,000. Iran is also believed to have missiles capable of reaching US allies in the Gulf region.

Iran could also declare a complete or selective oil embargo on US allies. Iran is the second-largest oil exporter in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and fourth-largest overall. About 70% of its oil exports go to Asia. The US has barred oil imports from Iran since 1995 and restricts US companies from investing there.

China is Iran's biggest customer for oil, and Iran buys weapons from China. Trade between the two countries hit US$20 billion last year and continues to expand. China's reaction to an attack on Iran is also a troubling unknown for the US.

Three for the money

The Islamic world could also react strongly against a US attack against a third predominantly Muslim nation. Pakistan, which also shares a border with Iran, could face additional pressure from Islamic parties to end its cooperation with the US to fight al-Qaeda and hunt for Osama bin Laden. Turkey, another key ally, could be pushed further off its secular base. American companies, diplomatic installations and other US interests could face retaliation from governments or mobs in Muslim-majority states from Indonesia to Morocco.

A US air strike on Iran would have seismic impact on the presidential race at home, but it's difficult to determine where the pieces would fall.

At first glance, a military attack against Iran would seem to favor McCain. The Arizona senator says the US is locked in battle across the globe with radical Islamic extremists, and he believes Iran is one of biggest instigators and supporters of the extremist tide. A strike on Iran could rally American voters to back the war effort and vote for McCain.

On the other hand, an air strike on Iran could heighten public disenchantment with Bush administration policy in the Middle East, leading to support for the Democratic candidate, whoever it is.

But an air strike will provoke reactions far beyond US voting booths. That would explain why two veteran senators, one Republican and one Democrat, were reportedly so horrified at the prospect.

[BankruptPinoy]

The Evil Djin
by Dictator Hater
(from another forum-after I reach 100 posts, I will post the link. Miss DH did give me permission to re-post it.)
June 7, 2008

The economy is taking a dive and mainstream media is finally acknowledging it to be farther flung than just a housing and credit crunch. Yesterday, while watching CNN on television, I noticed the talking heads actually had the guts to come out and call what is happening with credit, housing, jobs, food and oil prices what it is--a crisis. I was told what to think about this "revelation" of theirs and what to do about it. To make a long story short, their solution was basically to suffer. All I have to do is change my "lifestyle" and do without. When they talk about doing without, they are not merely talking about material goods, they mean doing without physical contact with friends and family if involves flying or driving any distance to visit them or vice versa. One wizened female economist sternly warned all of us 401K holders to NOT PANIC and leave that money right where it is. If it hadn't been Friday I'd have started taking steps to withdraw mine right then, as it is, I'll have to wait until Monday to begin the process. Whatever these people tell me to do, I have a tendency to make sure I do just the opposite.

The issue of travel is not merely logistical, it is psychological as well. How so you might be asking? When the price of travel becomes untenable for the average person, we are effectively being cut off from those we love and care for, if they are not in our immediate vicinity. How much longer are people going to be able to afford to drive or fly across country to spend time with friends and relatives on major holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas? For that matter, how many are going to be able to afford to fly or drive across country in the event of a death in the family? If this is not one form of breaking up families, I don't know what else it could be called.

Today as I drove to the grocery store, I saw no less than nine garage and yard sale signs in a two mile stretch. I stopped counting after that. One sign in particular caught my eye, it said: Final Soon To Be Homeless Sale. So, this is what people in this once rich, bountiful nation are coming to accept as their fate. Yes, it is true, people foolishly used their homes as bottomless ATMs and they spent the money on junk. They didn't save for a rainy day and many are now on the streets. Moving from a house with three to eleven bedrooms and two to four baths into a homeless shelter or being forced to move in with relatives will be a difficult transition.

Who will be next, me, you? It could happen to anyone, anywhere and at anytime because there is no way to guarantee your job is stable, even if you don't live beyond your means. The recent unemployment statistics proved that yesterday. Three hundred and twenty-four thousand more people have lost their jobs and I am sure very few of them saw that coming. CNN acknowledged this in the program I watched yesterday and their solution? Grovel at the feet of your employer and hope for the best! Suck up as much as you can because that may mean you are the last one to get your pink slip. In other words, you don't need your dignity, you need a paycheck.

And speaking of dignity, one very important aspect ignored throughout the housing and credit crisis by media (no surprise there!) is the fact that people no longer equate bad credit with being a bad or irresponsible person. There was a time when the word bankruptcy was almost a four letter word and if you did have to file, it was kept as quiet as possible. The word itself was only whispered, never said aloud. Much to the chagrin of those who have spent millions dispensing the propaganda touting high credit scores, this stigma is gone and in this fashion, people have taken back some semblance of control over their own lives, rather than allowing a good credit rating to define their self-worth.

When possessions become burdensome, then it's time to get rid of them. Just as selling off clutter in a home can be a liberating experience, unloading a house (in any way possible) that has gone from being your dream to a nightmare, is even more liberating. People can always acquire more material goods, but they can never recoup the time spent enduring relentless stress and worry over something for which they can no longer pay.

Since it is so difficult to officially declare bankruptcy these days, thanks to the collusion of government and big business, there is something none of them wish to hear us speak of. I call it undeclared bankruptcy. This is when you hand over the house key to the bank and walk away from debt. It takes years to overcome this type of unofficial bankruptcy as do the official types of declared bankruptcy. And you can bet collection agencies will be hounding you for years if you choose this route, but more and more people are managing their lives in this fashion, especially if they are turned away at bankruptcy court.

Where I live there is in effect what is called Proposition 13. This law keeps runaway taxation of real estate at bay and under control. It is truly a law that is beneficial to the property owners of California. There are moves underway to change Proposition 13, the claim is that the homeowner will still be protected, but businesses are to be the target of more taxation, like that is going to be good for the economy.

Everywhere you look, government is making people homeless and poorer by using the taxpayer's real estate as their own personal piggy banks. What kind of government selectively taxes their citizens? If you don't own a home you pay no property taxes, if you do and you want to keep it, then you pay what I consider a specialized tax where only property owners are their targets. This is not fair and should be abolished. Of course, it never will be unless there is a general uprising against this practice, this revenue source is too dear and important to those who waste our money year in and year out. If you don't want to pay gas tax, you don't have to drive or you can at least cut down or use public transportation, if you don't want to pay tax on booze or cigarettes, then you can choose not to smoke or drink alcohol. But taxation on real estate owners is much more insidious and there is a lot more to lose if you choose not to participate in being taxed on real estate. The tax hikes on property are more often than not formidable ones and for someone on a fixed income this can and often does mean the difference in keeping or losing the property. There are cases all over the country of people who have lived in homes all their lives or own land that has been in their family for generations watching their property auctioned off because of these tax hikes.

When I look at the history of what the U.S. Government has done to its own people, I have to ask this question--exactly when was it that we were "free"?

Perhaps the settlers in the wild west were the last ones who were far enough removed from the long arm of the government to taste true freedom.

I've said this before and I'll say it to you again--stock up on food and other essential items as much as possible, prices are only going to go higher. Grow as much food as you possibly can, even if you have only a patio or a small space to grow a few tomatoes. Don't only think of your own gullet when stocking up, make sure you have tradeable items that other people will want. If you're in a good financial position, drill a well on your property and get off the grid with solar or wind power, heat and air conditioning.

Today, I don't see much hope for a quick fix to our problems. The only good I see coming from all this bad is that through their suffering, perhaps more people will understand what is happening to this country and will stand up for what is right. My fear is that they will run screaming to the government demanding they solve their problems for them and that is exactly what the government wants us to do.

The New World Government is like the evil Djin who grants three wishes. There is always a catch and the hapless wisher never sees it coming.

[Pizza]

...but good news!
I just saved a lot of money on my car insurance by switching to Geiko!

[JRScott]

lol Pizza

I don't see gas prices coming down anytime soon, we are in for a long hard road.....