Via the Washington journalist Christopher Mims, here’s the most terrifying BBC video clip we’ve seen since those Daleks gobsmacked the Queen Mum. It’s worth watching the whole three minutes:
BBC Business News Guest Warns of Total World Economic Collapse
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It takes big balls to wear such a chipper pink necktie to deliver such depressing news. I don't even want to know what he's saving his lavender tie with the perky yellow daisies for.
If you like that tie wait until the crash. He's gonna have a number that honks and flashes 'I Made a Fucking Killing in the Economic Collapse of '11, bitches!'
Actually, that necktie looks like Pepto – Bismol to me. Which I could use right about now.
Well, that along with a few shots of double strength whiskey…
You're about 3 years late, guy.
since those Daleks gobsmacked the Queen Mum
That was awesome!
P.S. Nothing like the Wonkette Monday cheering up from Ken Layne. Do your worst, world… I can't be stopped now!
~
The sad thing is, preventing economic collapse and beginning recovery should be easy; just emulate FDR ending the Great Depression, and have the governments spend money to put the unemployed to work, preferably on useful projects. But no, instead both the US and EU governments have been infected with austerity madness and instead emulate Hoover, insisting on balancing the budget.
It's fucking insane, and history repeats itself.
uhh, actually Sorosbot, WWII ended the Great Depression, not FDR all by hisself. So we just need to wait until some country declares war on us. At the rate we're going, we shouldn't have too long to wait.
You know who else started WWII?
WWI?
Neville Chamberlain?
treaty of versailles
Duh, #HITLER.
That's what the wingnuts like to say; of course, he had already ended the Great Depression by then, then there was a new recession in 1937 when FDR foolishly listened to the balanced budget obsessives and cut government spending too soon; and anyway the WWII turnaround was due to government spending, just spending on tanks, planes, bombs and such instead of infrastructure; it was still government spending.
Nobody likes a smart aleck. But I'll make an exception for you.
More of a smart-bot, no?
And massive hiring of cannon fodder…
But Soros, our most pressing issue is our soaring debt. Never mind the fact that government debt works nothing like household debt, and the fastest economic stimulus is giving money directly to poor people, and the hugest chunk of our debt would be erased if rich people would just pay a tiny percentage more in taxes – NO! Debt is our biggest problem.
I know the answer to the debt problem; we find out who we owe all this money to, and kill the fuckers. But really, debt service is no larger a slice of the budget than ever, just stop it with this shit.
No, look, here's what we do: Pay the required minimum payment on the last bill we got, to keep the collectors off our asses, then we get my buddy Steve to drive us out to L.A. My cousin's got this place there the American People can crash at, then we can get a cash job at the church camp. You ain't gotta be a preacher or anything, just teach some kids how to build fires and shit. And then listen to some Jesus talk after dinner. But it's all under the table.
Then maybe Sarah will take us back, let us move back in.
Not enough thumbs. Brilliant.
China and WWIII?
More prollengs, mang.
Actually, the debt is much larger than it ever has been. Debt service is out of control, (even with 0% interest rates, which are highly destructive to the US and world economy.) It is impossible to pay back, even if we were so inclined. We will default. We can't even pay the interest to keep it current. It is shocking to me that people don't get this. The guy above your comment, Fare la Volpe, talks like the debt is no problem. Nothing could be further from the truth. The trick is to default (which will happen regardless of government policy) without having a World War. That's the trick. And it is pretty unlikely.
The problem with defaulting (or killing the people we owe) is we owe most of the money to ourselves. We've been raiding the Social Security trust fund for decades, spending the money and replacing it with IOUs. Then there's all the private investors, pension funds, etc. that are invested in US debt.
Defaulting on the debt would be the end of this country. The global effect would leave people longing for the good old days of the 2008 collapse.
The only rational solution is to pay for our spending. But this country believes that the people with the means to pay shouldn't have to, so that'll never happen.
I say this same thing to republitards all the time. They stare at me blankly and tell me we must cut the debt. Even Krugman is terrified by the folly of the European leaders.
this is what my boy has been screaming about for the last year.
The answer is clear: we need a World War. Wait, what's that? We've been at war for 10 years?
This is a clip from the new BBC hit series "Are You Being Served (into the Mouth of Hell)?"
Thanks for that, I guess. Forewarned is forearmed, right? Like, with a semiautomatic pistol to keep the looting hoardes at bay?
The looting hordes will probably be better armed than that…still, you can take a few out with you before you home is completely overrun.
Sorry, watching too much "Hoarders" apparently.
That's what I love about those apocalyptic fantasies: how utterly unlikely they are. When civilization crashes, it won't simply take out the cities, or the urban areas, or the neighbouring village. We'll ALL go together, when we go.
All except the top 1%; you gotta know that.
Yeah. I kinda knew we were fucked when the papers started carrying accounts of a search for Earth-like planets.
I know calling a trader "douchebag" is redundant, but when he started talking about "making money" off the Euro crash, "fucking douchebag" seemed more appropriate.
The world is the way it is. There will always be some percentage of the population that sees the misfortune of others as an opportunity to aggrandize their own status. I don't know how that particular strain of thought *can* be erased.
Class warfare, dictatorship of the proletariat, etc.
Class warfare and dictatorship of the proletariat were tried in China and Russia. You can see the results for yourself. What do we do with people like this? Re-education camps? Death penalty? Do we try to eradicate their genes from the pool or re-educate them to a better world-view? And, does re-education work?
No. He would be a douchebag if he told nobody, waited until the crash, made a shitload of money, and then bragged about it while chastising government regulation. He's telling you in advance. He's giving you specific suggestions about how you can protect your money. And by all indications he's being honest.
Not a hypocrite, and issuing a timely warning. Come the revolution, I vote we do *not* string him from a lamp post.
That's not good.
So all we need to do is all become traders and find ways to capitalize off the commerce of human misery, and the only people who'll suffer are those lazy bums who don't subscribe to this plan – you know, the ones we're exploiting.
Right! "Anyone can make money off a downturn . . . but I'm not about to tell you how, suckaz!"
But he did tell us. Hedging. I think this either means burying my remaining money under the hedge, or possibly hiding behind the hedge and mugging passersby.
Yep! The hedge is where I'm going to protect my assets. Burying my life's savings of $46.32 under a not tall evergreen. Hope I don't need it to get hobo beans and lube. Just wish he'd said when I'm supposed to dig it up and give it to Goldman.
Of course he's about to tell you. Soon as your cheque clears.
Ah yes, let's return to the halcyon daze of the nineties when everyone who had half a brain quit their job and became a day trader. Why is it that pots of money flow to financial croupiers who don't do anything productive; can't point to something and say "I helped make that," or "I made that"?
Oh yeah, it's that invisible hand of capitalism giving us the finger once again.
I'm not sure that's what it is so much as increasing complexity and abstraction. When we all lived off the earth (and owned the means of production, such as they were), we could figure out how much grain was a fair exchange for a lamb or a chicken or a piece of woven cloth. Increasingly, as our understanding of the world around us becomes more rarefied, symbolic, and abstract, it is no longer the *things* themselves that have value as the *information* about those things. We grow more meta, and now our meta-ness has more value than that about which we construct this meta. Does that make sense? Or was that just a batch of truly fine herb?
Metaphorical or metaphysical meta-ness? Seems to me that it would take a D-9 to deliver enough weed to make sense out of how turning sub-prime (can you fog a mirror) mortgages into prime time financial derivatives did anything but cost 10% plus of the working public their jerbs and turn a lot of equity into vapor. Here's hoping the NY AG will soon have a mega perp walk while playin' Bitch for background muzak.
You're responding to something I didn't say, although I heartily agree with some of your assertions.
However, you said "Why is it that pots of money flow to financial croupiers who don't do anything productive; [...]"
And I, fogging a mirror, replied as I did. I believe that is the reason that pots of money flow to financial croupiers, as you call them. It requires a specific skillset to deal in high finance, one that relies on a good understanding of abstract representations of reality (such as, for example, math). Most of us lack that skillset and the corresponding interest in profiting off the misery of our fellow-humans. Thus, these individuals are able to profit greatly at our expense.
The world has grown very complex, even since I was a child, and to live in it today requires mastery of complex and abstract thought. I suspect that that is one underlying factor in the dissatisfaction we feel with our lives today.
I think that invisible hand gave most of us more than just a finger.
Okay, I have to go set my hair on fire now.
Just get it wet and then light up a match. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904...
You probably can't go wrong shorting Bank of America.
I'm putting all my assets into pork bellies and malt liquor.
I'm putting all my liquor into my pork belly and sitting on my assets.
I'm thinking pork skins and Thunderbird, but then that's Georgia.
I'm ass kissing anyone with a dollar and a bleeding heart.
Just like you Wonkette to bring me my weekly Monday doomsday scenario….awefuckingsome!!!!
Can we see this guy's Birth Certificate?
I'm putting my money into a safe haven – cat litter.
Ah, the end of the world! Once again, the conservative, sandwich-heavy portfolio pays off for the hungry investor. I shall be sitting pretty, while the rest of you fight in the streets for the last can of hobo beans!
and i won't be the only one without a job!
Oh no! My stock is only worth three kajiggers!
"Goldman Sachs does not care about white people."
OK, when cannibal anarchy comes, my plan is, wait for it, wait for it, OK, a floating commune on a large sailing vessel. No dependence on oil, they are not expensive, large enough to be a daunting target to pirates. You can fish for food. Anybody interested? I am thinking a 150 footer, with maybe 50 people, is the optimum.
I'm pretty sure I saw a movie like that about 15 years ago…Except it wasn't really a commune, more like "Mad Max at Sea". You know the movie I'm talking about. Don't make me say its name.
You can tell me. Because I am a total fucking Philistine without the first clue about cultural references. Plus, I have no friends, so I can't tell anyone.
You got Gears of War 3 also?
Ooh! Ooh! Just like the Albatross on White Squall! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118158/
Count me in as long as it isn't a total sausage fest
Will it have a moonshine still? If so, where do I sign up?
I guess this is why our local city council finally decided that we can keep up to three hens in our backyards. They really, really didn't want to, but they realized it was vital to citizen survival.
Plus trade them for healthcare.
And do auguries, for making those picks on what to short in the market.
Guess I need a bigger mattress to hide the cash in.
Oh I say, how would you like a bedmate, dearie?
We're all coming over, with our hobo beans, pork bellies, and malt liquor.
All this debunking of our debentures (e.g., walking away from an underwater mortgage and moving under the bridge) is quite in vogue. Roll your 401K over and buy a carload (or shopping cart – small bag … depending on the size your 401K) of Spam, and then sell the wee cans like gold after the crash.
…but it's all good, if you listen carefully! Buy short, make $$$!!!
This is good for Randy Newman.
from HuffPo's article about this:
"For most traders we don't really care about having a fixed economy, having a fixed situation, our job is to make money from it," he said. "Personally, I've been dreaming of this moment for three years. I go to bed every night and I dream of another recession."
Wait, you mean that people who work on commission don't give a damn whether everyone is in a panic as long as they're trading? And doesn't that mean that whenever a news story is illustrated with a photo of a trader with his head in his hands, he's not necessarily anguished over stocks tanking, but just burned out from a whole day of listening to frightened ninnies make bad decisions? Just like he probably is at the end of a good day? Well, next you'll be telling me that the Dow Jones Industrial Average isn't the whole of the economy, either.
Churning.Shit disturbing.Beware of Greeks bearing debts.
Timeo danaos et dona ferentes.
A Forren-talker!!!!! Where's YOUR birth certificate!!!!
That's a very good question. Let me answer you as any Republican legislator would do. (Runs away)
EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!
Gov. Perry, I presume?
No, he's Davros.
Davros — that's where all those rich bankers and politicians have their annual feel-good junket, right?
Silence will fall.
Let's see…the U. S. hasn't recovered from the last collapse and is sliding into another one; Europe is on the brink of a sovereign debt default that will destroy their banking system; China, finding fewer customers for its goods, is slowing manufacturing and facing big time (for them) inflation; world-wide crop failures are increasing food prices so that the poorest billion or so people on the planet will face starvation.
The question isn't who is going to be president but why anyone would want to be.
Yeah, yeah, ok, all that may be true. But cheer up! Didn't you hear what this trader said? There's money to be made!
Consider the source. This guy readily admitted the market doesn't respond to what governments do, it responds to panic. So, he does well when the market is active and the market is active when investors are panicking. Obviously, he's going to try to scare the shit out of all of us.
You're the first person to note this. Note also that he said he knew how to profit from the ensuing disaster, which he very much hopes will happen. Undoubtedly, we will see him again, stating a price for which such information may be had.
Sorta like how Juan McCain said he knew how to get bin Laden, if only we elected his wrinkly ass first.
They're all such whores, aren't they? "Buy me, buy me." They make the ladies and gentlemen of the night look respectable.
It's too bad we didn't elect him; then bin Laden might not still be the free man he is today,
Is anyone else experiencing a weirdly slow connection to Intense Debate? Or is it just me?
It's just you, dollink. I'm having a sucky connection to TPM, but this one's fine.
It's that FBI Carnivore System kicking in….
People laughed at all the canning I did this summer well who’ll be laughing when they come around for a few more Ball jars of my famous pickled string beans?
Not me. Can I come over for dinner?
We're setting up a gallon of homemade limoncello. Why have beans when you can be pickled!
We did 14 gallon of a serviceable Red and 6 gallons of a Ruby port this year. All are welcome “Drinks for all my friends” as well as pickled string beans.
Wonkette friends are the best ones… I'll be right over as soon as the limoncello is ready!
Time to invest in products that do well in a down (again) economy, is it? OK–does anyone know if Thunderbird is publicly traded? Because when the Tea Party recession hits, that will be all anyone can afford to drink…
Today, I learned that parasites wear pink ties.
DOOM DOOM DOOOOOOOOM
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070419035...
I wear a pink tie only when I go out looking for a different type of BBC.
no offense pink tie trader dude, but 'the economist' has been warning of this for the last six months.
and they are better with words.
but that being said, right now is the very worst time for austerity and that's what we're getting from the US and german political classes.
Yup we's doomed but this perky fella is just as happy as a pig in shit because as long as someone is frothing around making stupid decisions he can rake in the bucks from them. If it really gets as bad as Chirpy McFinancialrapist here makes it sound, I hope his Jag or Beemer or Mercedes is well armored. There will be a lot of folks wanting to meet him and his charge plates and ID and jewelry and……
Osama Bin Laden's Day Trader????
Seriously, can we use Twitter to send a ballpine hammer on it's way through this insect's skull???
Shorter version: "Everyone panic so I can make gobs of money!"
Well, jokes on you motherfucker! I gots nothin', so stick that in your pipe and smoke it!
This is usually when I start quoting Ghostbusters.
This dude dreams of making money off disaster. So of course he predicts disaster. One thing he does have right is that Goldman Sachs runs the world. GS stock is in the toilet, however. So, that's it in a nutshell. You are welcome.
This guy reminds me of those crazy fundi xtians that can't wait for the apocalypse, just so they can meet Jesus. He can't wait for the financial apocalypse, so he can meet obscene profits … his Jesus.
We should take him as seriously.
Amazing how much "trader" sounds, with his accent, like "traitor." Or maybe…not so much.
Just tell me when the Indiscriminate Group Fucking in the Streets commences, because that's the part I don't want to miss, I'll admit I am a little wary of encountering some masses of flab that I would ordinarily stay away from…even so, I'm sure a good time will be had by all.
The good news: he is telling the truth about Goldman Sux ruling the World when no one else seems willing to. The bad news, rich little pussyfarts like Alessio here have to hire well-trained sociopaths like me to keep their sorry little asses safe at night…and we really don't care whether Alessio lives or fucking dies. Get it?
This is the same dick that salivates over the thought of a recession …
I guess, but we do some crazy maths here but it is directed at building or restoring something and not to put some of our fellow travelers on the spit.
And I, my friend, was woolgathering excessively, and philosophizing about topics that surely don't deserve that much of my time. It was good of you to indulge my meandering.
"Fool me once, shame on you… fool me twice…uh… we can't get fooled again!"
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