[quote]Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said political leaders are discussing the idea of closing the world's financial markets while they ``rewrite the rules of international finance.''
``The idea of suspending the markets for the time it takes to rewrite the rules is being discussed,'' Berlusconi said today after a Cabinet meeting in Naples, Italy. A solution to the financial crisis ``can't just be for one country, or even just for Europe, but global.'' [/quote]
The really interesting part is here where he hints that a second aim is to revisit the Bretton Woods agreement.
Translation: The US dollar's role as the world's reserve currency is up for debate.
[quote]Berlusconi didn't give any details about what kind of rules leaders were looking to change, except to say that leaders are ``talking about a new Bretton Woods.''
The Bretton Woods Agreements were adopted to rebuild the international economic system after World War II in a hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. The aim of the agreements was to establish a monetary management system, initially by pegging currencies to gold. The IMF was set up later to help manage the international financial system. [/quote]
Has that ever happened before? So, we finally have on the table:
Admission that the world is in complete panic
The reign of the dollar may be at an end
The US as we know it may be nearing an end
A banking holiday
ugh… what else? Rising interest rates?
What I’m amazed about is how quickly this all escalated. However, going back to the crash course given exponential growth, we are having exponential destruction.
I just heard Tyler Mathison on CNBC call for business leaders to step forward and offer solutions to the current financial crisis. Your name was mentioned!!! He obviously doesn’t know you because he played it off as they should call Chris Mortenson, the quarterback, to speak as well.
Bottom line is this: your name is being circulated! I’m not sure if the folks on CNBC would be willing to swallow your solutions…given their bias towards the retail investor buy-n-hold strategy.
Hey, it’d be great to see you on CNBC…go for it!!!
Uh…Ron Paul’s philosophies would create policies that would lead to this same scenario. Without market safeguards, wealthy elites make the rules. This is the lesson once again. There need to be market safeguards that actually allow real competitive, local markets to exist and thrive. These disappear in deregulation. Of couse, this means an educated and civically active population that continually evaluates those policies and individuals entrusted to oversee those policies. Real civic democracy would be great.
Such great advice here, but I’m not sure what if any of it applies to me? I feel sort of paralyzed by everything. I know all of the advice on this site and the reports from Chris are spot on. I hope to use all of it to improve or protect my current financial standing. But I am a novice and I am unsure of as to where I stand in relation to the others making recommendations on this site, therefore I’m not sure if they apply directly to me that would be great. I know there is no such thing as one size fits all, but it seems like there should be a formula expressed somewhere on the site listing if these are your assests, this is your debt, this is how much you make, this is where your investments and assets should be.
Chris thank you for all of your hard work and don’t mind the ads at all if it keeps bringing us this wonderful information.
That may be so, but I think the underlying issue is Law. A free market economy can work, and would reward those who innovate, and punish those who are lazy. This would be the complete opposite of Socialism and take us back to what this country was founded upon… Free Enterprise!
I’m always amazed at how people criticize the free markets when we don’t have free markets. All the regulations, government interventions, the Federal Reserve, and so on distort the markets and exacerbate the issues. I really don’t care if there are super elite as long as they aren’t treated any differently from you or I. At present elites and government officials are above the law creating two groups of people. This is very inequitable. We all HAVE to be governed by the same rules. The rule of law needs to be consistent and not continually changing to benefit one group or another. When lawmakers consistently change the rules of the game nobody can plan ahead.
Therefore I don’t think we would be in the same mess again if Ron Paul were President. I think we would see another resurgence of American entrepreneurs.
FDIC spokesman Andrew Gray noted in astatement:"We believe that we havesignificant latitude, in consultation with Congress, under the systemic riskexception — which carries the threshold of approval of the Federal Reserve andTreasury Secretary in consultation with the president — to protect depositorsand adopt other measures to support the banking system."
Since I work in ‘Administrative Government’ I speak politico, so allow me to translate:
“We believe that we have successfully bamboozledthe congress and the American sheeple into believing that everything is undercontrol – blah, blah, blah – and we can do whatever we damn well please withyour money while protecting our own personal assets – blah, blah, blah – and we’vegot your back, so keep the faith and don’t get any of your own cash out beforewe get all of ours out!”
My concern, and question, is this:
It is painfully obvious that the world’s faith in the almighty dollar has drifted off into the sunset, and they - the rest of the world’s leaders - are looking to seize this opportunity to take a significantly more active role in controlling the future of ALL money on the planet.
Given this, does the potential for reformulating monetary policies essentially pave the way for the Amero to come into being as this nations answer to the world markets? It goes without saying that the dollar will be ‘yesterdays news’ at that point.
Bob
Wow!!! I know we all have read and conversed about something like this happening eventually. But to actually see it unfolding right before our eyes…it’s incredible!!
I am amazed by how many people who argue for "free markets" when they don’t understand what this entails. We have plenty of historic evidence of free market capitalism and the resulting polarlization of wealth. READ Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, the origins of current free market docterines. This work was published in 1776 (important year?) and this growing philosophy greatly influenced the US Founding Fathers. The sad thing is that this truly inspiring and great work gets perverted by selectivity. This work must be understood in its historical context…as an economic revolution against feudalism and arbitrary laws of monarchies. The growth of trade due to huge inputs of capital of colonization (at the expense of other peoples and their geographies) lead to the realization the markets and trade were bettering mankind than the feudal system (again, at the expense of colonies). The enlightenment was a period of many intellectual and actual revolutions that lead to democratization throughout all structures of society (European, that is).
The sad thing is that the only thing most even know about this is "the invisible hand of the market" which is mentioned only once which was not a comprehensive mechanism. Most would be surprised that Smith identified the inherent problems with the emerging capitalism that leads to a wealthy elite with more influence in society. It would be also surprising to most that Smith also argues for a PROGRESSIVE taxation system with "free trade" because of inherent flaws that would affect democratic structures (I am, of course paraphrasing). Finally, most would be very surprised that Smith argues for a governmental ‘welfare’ system because this economic system would create some negative conditions for labor (AND NOT BECAUSE THEY ARE LAZY). Specific policies are not suggested, but this recognition is amazing. Many need to learn more about the ideoloies to which they prescribe.
Overall, you also must realized that capitalism and markets are completely seperate but related ideas (Capitalism utilizes markets). Marx was absolutely correct in his critique of capitalism (this can be extended to stock markets in that they decrease actual competition over time) in that it leads to wealthy elites that then run roughshod over a democratic society. The contemporary philosophy of free markets is absolutely counter to democracy. Democracy is a SOCIALIST governmental system, which is does not coexist well in "free markets" and especially with unfettered Capitalism. An economic system SHOULD NOT and CANNOT be the basis for a democratic system. Govenance and economies should not be intertwined…as much as possible. I know that "applying the same laws to all" (all men created equal) is central to democracy and seems like a great idea to apply to other societal structures like the economy. However, economically all men are not created equal and entrenched wealth destroys democracy (unless you have comprehensive interventions to keep money from influencing the system…or gov regulations). THIS IS A FACT. SO, Ron Paul’s philosophy (elimination of most gov institutions) would abosolutely lead to similar conditions, polarization of wealth and other developmental attibutes.
Many ‘free market’ wonks really don’t understand the absolute consequences of your ideologies. This is by no way an argument for some of the regulatory structures that exist today, especially central banks. It is the recognition as an individual who IS ABSOLUTELY BELIEVES IN A FREE MARKET SYSTEM that there needs to be rules set that allow for real competition and maintains the integrity of a democratic system.
The Bloomberg article has been updated. They emphasize that the US has no plans to close markets.
"Less than an hour later, after the White House denied any plan to shutter Wall Street, Berlusconi reversed himself, saying he was just repeating something he heard on the radio." -Bloomberg
There are several ways to think of this. The good Dr. has been spot on so far, so I would guess it means they want to stem the cash outflow until they can put together a comprehensive global closure plan?
I think you are reading it right, bikemonkey. Add to that the DOW only being down 128 by the end of today, after swinging down wildly earlier in the day. Lets everyone head off jfor the long weekend feeling a liiiittle less worried than they would have been, a little less likely to panic and make a run to the bank…while they do their thing over the weekend.
If you read the whole article then you will see what kind of strange things come out of Berlusconi’s mouth:
At a New York event sponsored by the New York Stock Exchange in 2003, he said people should invest in Italy because its women are pretty.
We have beautiful ladies and beautiful women, so my suggestion from the bottom of my heart is to try to make investments in Italy,'' Berlusconi said. The secretaries are beautiful.‘’
Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, Berlusconi said Islamic countries were uncivilized and that Western countries would need to conquer'' them in order to bring them into the modern world.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px">In 2006, during his election campaign against former Premier <a style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; color: #006b99" href="http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Romano+Prodi&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1" onmouseover="return escape( popwSearchNews( this ))" rel="nofollow">Romano Prodi</a>, he said people who voted for his rival were coglioni,‘’ a vulgar term for testicles.
My greatness is without question,'' Berlusconi said in March 2001. My human substance, my history, other people dream to have.‘’
People are being given the opportunity of a lifetime in the stock market with the oversold conditions in the energy sector. I would go shopping if I were you.