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Most Americans have no idea what a tremendous advantage the United States possesses by having the primary reserve currency of the world, and most Americans also have no idea how close the U.S. dollar is to losing that status. For the past 40 years, the vast majority of all global trade (including the buying and selling of oil) has been done in U.S. dollars. That is still the case today, but things are starting to shift. All over the globe international agreements are being made to move away from the U.S. dollar and to use other currencies in global trade. The second largest economy in the world, China, has been particularly aggressive in seeking to change the existing financial order. As you will see below, China has been running all over the planet making agreements with other nations to start conducting an increasing amount of trade in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. And of course the Chinese are heavily promoting their own currency - the renminbi. So why is this happening? Well, for one thing, the truth is that the United States is (Read More....) [...]
If a major economic crisis hit us right now, the vast majority of Americans would be extremely vulnerable. According to a recent CareerBuilder survey, 40 percent of all Americans live paycheck to paycheck all of the time, and 77 percent of all Americans live paycheck to paycheck at least part of the time. This is why there was such a problem with foreclosures during the last recession. When millions of Americans suddenly lost their jobs many of them quickly found that they were unable to pay their mortgages because they had no financial cushions. For decades, Americans have been trained that it is okay to get into debt up to their eyeballs and live paycheck to paycheck because times will always be good and jobs will always be easy to get. Unfortunately, times have changed and many Americans do not realize that what has worked in the past is not going to work any longer. Our economy is completely and totally falling apart, and economic success is no longer defined by whoever is able (Read More....) [...]
Guess who is going to need a bailout right after Spain? The Italian economy is the 8th largest economy on the entire planet and right now it is being absolutely overwhelmed by a tsunami of debt. In an attempt to address this problem, Italy is going down the exact same path that Greece, Portugal and Spain have gone. And so far, we are seeing the exact same results that we have seen in those other countries. Austerity causes economic growth to slow down, and that causes unemployment to soar. When unemployment rises, tax revenues go down and you end up missing your original deficit reduction targets so you have to implement even more austerity measures. It is a vicious cycle that we have seen play out again and again in Greece over the past five years. But unlike Greece, Italy is way too large to be completely bailed out. The truth is that there are only 7 economies on the entire globe that are larger than the Italian economy. Plus, keep in mind that the 12th largest economy in the world, Spain, is also on the verge of formally requesting a bailout. (Read More....) [...]
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