...The rescue of Fannie Mae is very inflationary. Note that ALL the news stories boast about his this legendary rescue will mean CHEAPER LOANS. Oh, goodie. The goddess of Inflation is licking her chops.
Dell said to consider sale of factories
(MarketWatch) -- Dell Inc. reportedly might sell its factories as part of a strategy to overhaul its production model to cut more than $3 billion in annual costs within the next two years. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Dell could sell its factories within the next 18 months to contract manufacturers, most of which are based in lower-cost Asian countries. Dell has about 60 manufacturing or research facilities in 20 countries.
The sale of its factories would suggest Dell is still groping for ways to accomplish its goal of improved profits despite the return last year of founder Michael Dell to the role of chief executive.
Venancio Figueroa, a Dell spokesman, said the company wouldn't comment on "rumors and speculation." Figueroa repeated that Dell has said it wants to work more closely with manufacturers in order to "reduce costs and make products in a timely fashion."
Dell is selling all its factories to...THE CHINESE! Oh, lord. I remember talking to the Chinese officials about this in the 1980's. We agreed that ownership always evolves into the hands of the people who hold the physical manufacturing base. And so it is: the Chinese had no money and had to nearly enslave themselves to the G7 powers to gain these factories. But being very hard working and extremely intelligent and well-educated, they used their mental pry bars to separate the G7 capitalists from their own factories and even their own research facilities!
One by one, US or European ownership of things in China is collapsing. The fall of the Chinese stock market is actually part of this process. The Chinese government doesn't want foreign money pouring into Chinese futures markets! The US begs for this money. China forbids it. The US is going bankrupt. China is getting richer.
Japan's Bonds Decline on U.S. Rescue of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac
(Bloomberg) -- Japan's 10-year bonds declined the most since May after the U.S. government seized control of the two largest U.S. mortgage-financing companies, easing concern that a yearlong credit crisis will worsen. The takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac set off a surge in Asian stocks and a drop in government debt, lifting Japan's 10-year yields to the highest in almost five weeks. Treasury yields had the biggest gain in two months. Demand for debt was also limited before the Ministry of Finance sells 1.9 trillion yen ($17.5 billion) in five-year notes at an auction tomorrow.
``We are closer to seeing the end'' of the credit crisis, said Takashi Nishimura, an analyst in Tokyo at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co., a unit of Japan's largest bank by assets. ``It was a good step in the right direction and the stock market reacted positively and the bond market reacted negatively.''
*snip*
``There will be an unwinding of flight-to-quality and that will translate into selling pressure in the JGB market,'' said Eiji Dohke, chief strategist at UBS Securities Japan Ltd. in Tokyo. The plans to buy Fannie and Freddie ``may put the brakes on the financial market turmoil.''
Japan's bonds are the poor men of the bond world. Since these bonds are trapped in a 0% interest system from hell, they are basically worthless to anyone but the insane. This is why Japan's government is falling, by the way. The LDP can't keep creepy sons of former war criminals in office for more than a year! HAHAHA. Kiss them all goodbye and good riddance.
Mitsubishi Chemical: Ready To Accept Investment From Middle East
TOKYO (Nikkei)--To secure a stable supply of crude oil at low cost, the company is prepared to accept investments from oil-producing countries in the Middle East as long as the Japanese firm retains management control.
Japan has one of the largest trade profits on earth. And are going bankrupt due to this 0% interest banking system. Now, they are reduced to begging OPEC to buy them up, please! This is funny as hell. Oil is very expensive in Japan because of the fake depression which enables the cheap lending. And now, Japan pays a heavy premium for oil. They are desperate to fix this while keeping the yen weak! Note how their stocks shot up today due to the yen weakening against the dollar.
This is PURE BUNK: the dollar is NOT stronger due to the US government now taking on trillions more in obligations. Yet, this is how our trade rivals have shoved things into a backwards system that works totally contrary to the monetarist theories of Floating Currencies!
Wall Street Trading Gets Zero Value From Lehman, Merrill Owners
(Bloomberg) -- Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. is trying to sell its fund-management unit to cover further mortgage- related writedowns. If it does, what's left won't be worth much, based on how investors value the firm. Lehman's market capitalization of $11.2 billion is almost equal to the value of its asset-management arm, which includes Neuberger Berman Inc. That leaves its main business of trading stocks and bonds as having little worth. The numbers are similar for Merrill Lynch & Co.: Take out its retail-brokerage and asset- management businesses, and the investors' valuation of the rest of the third-biggest U.S. securities firm is zero.
After being the most profitable business on Wall Street, generating more than $65 billion in pretax profits for the four largest U.S. securities firms between 2002 and 2006, trading has become a black hole. It still accounts for about half of the revenue at the Wall Street firms. Yet Lehman Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld and Merrill CEO John Thain have been unable to convince shareholders to attach a value to the businesses.
Now Lehman will be zeroed-out. The Silver State Bank which babysat McCain's son, Andrew, has just gone bankrupt. Many banks will declare bankruptcy soon. And all will flock to the Federal Reserve and the US government to be funded, saved or given vast powers to create even more credit out of thin air. I don't see any sane resolution of all this. Each banking collapse of the last 60 years has been worse than the ones before it to the point, we are now comparing this series of collapses to the Great Depression.
This is because nothing is ever fixed. The fix is not in the banking system, it is in the nature of our own empire. We cannot afford to have the world's biggest military spending. We can't afford thousands of bases all over the planet. We can't afford to run the US like the Soviet Union. We are in trouble and the only door to safety is to drop this notion of ruling the earth.
It is no shock to me to see that one of the cities with the highest crime rates is Washington, DC. Once we leave all the government buildings, we enter vast, dying slums filled with abandoned buildings. Virtually no businesses. No hope. Wave after wave of 'prosperity' washes over America and our national capital remains mired in poverty. Now, the backlash of all this wild spending that gave the illusion of wealth will crash over our entire nation. Soon, we may all be living in clones of the Washington, DC slums.
