Guest Author - Tony Daltorio
The unemployment figures for the month of November were not good. The figures showed the continued deterioration of the US economy. The unemployment rate climbed to 6.7%,a 15 year high. The number of jobs lost in November came in at 533,000 which is the biggest monthly spike in jobs lost in 34 years.
I contunue to blame Wall Street for the worsening state of our economy. We should bring back the term which was in wide-spread use in the 1930s to describe Wall Street bankers - BANKSTERS.
These Banksters are causing a global recession or worse by their continuing refusal to lend money, no matter how many trillions of dollars that the government gives them. The funds given them by the government are being used four ways: either it's sitting at the Federal Reserve collecting interest, or it's being used to buy other banks, or it's being used to fund executive compensation, or it's used by the Banksters for speculation. The money is not being lent to anyone!
A great example of this is the shipping industry, which is the lifeblood of global commerce. For over 400 years, shipping companies have been getting what is called a letter of credit from bankers. In simple terms, a letter of credit greases commerce. It says that a ship was indeed loaded with cars or coal or computers or oil or whatever and was worth a certain amount of money.
These letters of credit are basically no-risk since if something did happen, the bank could simply sell the cargo and get their money back. But over the past few months, the Banksters have stopped issuing most letters of credit. The Banksters basically told the ship owners -- hey, we don't care that your ship is carrying a million barrels of oil - we are valuing your cargo at zero, so no credit!
The shipping industry has basically collapsed and world trade is following it downward. The Baltic Dry Index, which is measure of the freights charged by ships, has collapsed by 95%! Very few ships are being chartered to haul any goods anywhere around the globe. And all because American Banksters have decided to stop dealing in a basically risk-free business. Incredible!
And it's just not the shipping industry that the Banksters are ruining. The energy industry is close behind. The Banksters have frozen all lending to companies in the alternative energy industry. You can kiss solar or wind or other types of alternative energy in this country goodbye because the Banksters aren't giving those companies a penny.
The banksters have done the same to other types of energy companies too. A good example is the Brazilian energy company Petrobras. In the last few years, Petrobras has made what is the largest proven discovery of oil in the last 30 years. Yet, when they went to the American Banksters to get loans to help develop these massive oil fields, the Banksters said no- we value your oil fields at zero, no loans!
Petrobras, of course, wisely got the money from their own banks and other more reliable sources of money such as China and India. Brazilian politicans have already said that when the oil starts flowing, only the countries that helped them would get the oil. I guess that leaves out the US.
Continuing on the energy theme, as stated this week by the Saudi king, the price of oil should be in the $65-$75 range. Why? Because this is the range where new oil and gas fields, such as the new gas fields in the US, hit the breakeven point.
What is happening right now is that basically all new development of oil and gas fields is being either postponed or outright cancelled. This does not bode well for the future. Whenever our economy does begin to recover and grow again, we will be hit by energy shortages and once again skyrocketing prices.
The Banksters are not only to blame for not lending to energy companies but they are at the heart of the huge drop in the price of oil. The Banksters have been heavily speculating in oil futures and betting that the price is going to go down to $20 per barrel or lower!
While this is great news for consumers at the pump over the short-term, it will be devastating over the long-term because as I stated earlier - new energy production is being shut down. The Bankster speculators in the oil market driving the price down are also really pissing off the major oil producers in the Middle East and Russia.
Bottom line - once again the Wall Street Banksters are forfeiting the future of our country for short-term gains. Their greed is unbelieveable!
