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55 Interesting Facts About The U.S. Economy In 2012 http://albertpeia.com/55factsaboutus2012economy.htm ‘How is the U.S. economy doing in 2012?  Unfortunately, it is not doing nearly as well as the mainstream media would have you believe.  Yes, things have stabilized for the moment but this bubble of false hope will not last for long.  The long-term trends that are ripping our economy and our financial system to shreds continue unabated.  When you step back and look at the broader picture, it is hard to deny that we are in really bad shape and that things are rapidly getting worse.  Later on in this article you will find a list of interesting facts that show the true state of the U.S. economy… ,  http://albertpeia.com/debtpercapita.jpg , Double-dip recession setting in across eurozone: EU Thomson | AFP , Just What Is the REAL Exposure to Greece? Pt 1 http://gainspainscapital.com February 23rd, 2012 ‘…(the Bailout accomplishes nothing of import and only puts off the coming Greek default by a short period). Instead, I think it much more important to ascertain the true exposure to Greek sovereign debt…’ , Belgians Get Cold Feet as Bailout Queen Dexia Drags them toward the Abyss : testosteronepit : 02/23/2012 Belgium's total exposure to its bank bailouts: 41% of GDP , Record Direct Takedown Leads To Huge Demand For 7 Year Bond Auction, Disproves "Rotation From Bonds Into Stocks " Durden 2-23-12 , Are We Running Out Of Greater Fools? Durden 2-23-12 , Not Again - Following Abysmal 2011, Only 10% Of Hedge Funds Are Outperforming The S&P In 2012 Durden 2-23-12 , Greeks Welcome Their New European Overlords... In German Durden 2-23-12 The surreal keeps getting surrealer. One could probably think that after being forced to pay for the privilege of having a job, to fund European bank solvency out of their pocket as part of the Greek "bailout", and finally to hand over their gold, the Greeks would have at least put up a fight. One would be wrong: instead of doing anything else than the occasional store front looting by marauding gangs, what Greeks are doing instead... is lining up for German lessons…, Projected PIIGS Pillage: 3233.5 Tons Of Gold To Be Confiscated By Insolvent European Banks Durden 2-23-12 , Art Cashin On Gasoline Prices And The Economy Durden 2-23-12 It is estimated that a $.10 increase in the price of gasoline results in a decline of about $11.74 billion in personal income. [An average of 12,000 miles driven per year divided by an average fuel economy of 25 mpg, equals 461.54 gallon used per year per automobile. With an estimated 254.4 million registered vehicles, that comes to roughly 117.415 billion gallons used per year.] , Greece’s Lenders Have The Right To Seize National Gold Reserves Durden 2-23-12 “Ms. Katseli, an economist who was labor minister in the government of George Papandreou until she left in a cabinet reshuffle last June, was also upset that Greece’s lenders will have the right to seize the gold reserves in the Bank of Greece under the terms of the new deal.” , Initial Claims Print Unchanged From Last Week's Upward Revised 351K Durden 2-23-12 Snooze of an update from the BLS, which reported that this week's initial claims printed at 351K, slightly better than expected at 355K, but offset by the now perpetual (thus statistically impossible) upward revision in prior week claims, which increased from 348K to 351K, so unchanged week over week. Next week this 351K will be revised to 354K so on top of expectations. That this is driven primarily by ongoing abnormally hot weather (remember the lamentations over last year's cold winter and how it was impacting data adversely - odd how we continue to hear nothing about the opposite phenomenon) is largely ignored. Instead what we will hear is how claims printed at the lowest in 4 years (chart 1). And yet we will hear nothing about how when one adds initial claims to continuing claims to extended benefits, we are just a little bit higher than 4 years ago (chart 2). , Albert Edwards Channels Conan - All Hope Must Be Crushed For A True Bull Market To Emerge Durden 2-23-12 While the bulk of tangential themes in Albert Edwards' latest letter to clients "The Ice Age only ends when the market loses hope: there is still too much hope" is in line with what we have been discussing recently: myopic markets focused on momentum not fundamentals ("It's amazing though how the market can get itself all bulled up and becomes convinced that we are the start of a self-sustaining recovery. And funnily enough there's nothing more likely to get investors bullish than a rising market"), short-termism ("One thing you can say for the market is that it has an extremely short memory"), and that so far 2012 is a carbon copy of 2011 ("One thing you can say for the market is that it has an extremely short memory. Let us not forget that the performance of the equity market so far this year is almost exactly the same as we saw at the start of 2011 (in fact the performance has been similar for the last 5 months"), his prevailing topic is one of hope. Or rather the lack thereof, and how it has to be totally and utterly crushed before there is any hope of a true bull market. And just to make sure there is no confusion, unlike that other flip flopper, Edwards makes it all too clear that he is as bearish as ever. Which only makes sense: regardless of what the market does, which merely shows that inflation, read liquidity, is appearing in the most unexpected of places (read Edwards' colleague Grice must read piece on why CPI is the worst indicator of asset price inflation when everyone goes CTRL+P), the reality is that had it not been for another $2 trillion liquidity injection in the past 4-6 months by global central banks…how the hell can one be bullish when the only exponential chart out there is that of global central bank assets proving beyond a doubt that every risk indicator is fake??? , http://albertpeia.com/dollardebasementanddebtcrisis.htm ‘Despite the latest shift in Congress, top economists warn that the steady erosion in the value of our dollars and the crushing weight of national debt have already moved the U.S. to the verge of financial chaos..."WE'VE NEVER BEEN IN THIS UNSTABLE POSITION IN THE ENTIRE CURRENCY HISTORY OF 3,000 YEARS..." ...came the belated, sobering assessment in The Wall Street Journal on October 1 from Columbia University Prof. Robert Mundell, Ph.D., a mainstream Nobel laureate – widely-regarded as the world's top currency expert. While Dr. Mundell warns that we're teetering at the edge of an unprecedented global debt crisis, other respected monetary experts concur:"WE'RE IN THE TERMINAL STAGES OF THE WORLD'S MOST GIGANTIC PYRAMID SCHEME ," set to vaporize the assets of the average citizen. Heed the clear warning signs here in my Fall 2011 Money Alert and protect what's left of your nest-egg, before the dollar collapses even further, rendering dollar-denominated assets VIRTUALLY WORTHLESS! …’ , Chart: ‘America’s Per Capita Government Debt Worse Than Greece’ Feb 23rd, 2012 12 by News (The Weekly Standard) — The office of Senator Jeff Sessions, ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, sends along this chart, showing that ‘America’s Per Capita Government Debt Worse Than Greece,’ as well as Ireland, Italy, France, Portugal, and Spain http://albertpeia.com/debtpercapita.jpg