Europe

Barack Obama Promises That Events In Greece And Puerto Rico Will Not Cause A Global Financial Crisis

Barack Obama Giving Speech - Photo by Gage SkidmoreBarack Obama says that we shouldn’t be alarmed by what is happening over in Greece.  On Tuesday, he told reporters that this “is an issue primarily of concern to Europe” and that “I think the markets have properly factored in the risks involved“.  And apparently Obama is not too concerned about the debt crisis in Puerto Rico either.  In fact, the Obama administration has already completely ruled out any sort of federal bailout for the island.  Barack Obama is assuring us that everything is going to be just fine and that we are not headed for another global financial crisis.  So is he correct?   (Read More...)

If America Continues To Go Down The Same Path As Europe, This Is What Life Will Be Like…

EUSSR Flag - Photo by Finn SkovgaardBecoming more like Europe is not a good thing.  But that is the path that we are currently on.  For the most part, Europeans live in a socialist “Big Brother” system in which the government completely dominates your life from the cradle to the grave.  Of course there are differences from country to country, but generally speaking the lives of most Europeans are very tightly regulated.  You see, the truth is that high levels of individual liberty and freedom are considered to be “dangerous” by the European elite.  They believe that if we are all allowed to just do whatever we want that it would result in utter chaos.  They are convinced that life is better when those that are smarter (them) control the lives of everyone else.  In essence, Europe is like a giant religious cult in many ways (minus the religion).  With each passing year, the number of rules and regulations governing the daily lives of Europeans steadily grows, as does the level of control.  If you try to live outside of that control, you could very well find yourself in a direct confrontation with the authorities very rapidly. (Read More...)

Is This The Beginning Of A Horrifying Stock Market Crash In Europe?

Is This The Beginning Of A Stock Market Crash In Europe?Are we witnessing the start of a historic financial meltdown in Europe?  In recent days, two massive corruption scandals have greatly shaken confidence in European financial markets.  The first involves Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.  It is being alleged that he has been receiving illegal cash payments, and the calls for his resignation grow louder with each passing day.  The second is a derivatives scandal at the third largest bank in Italy.  Allegedly, there were some very large unreported derivatives deals that were supposed to help hide losses at the bank, but instead they actually made the losses much larger.  The investigation that is looking into this derivatives scandal is starting to spread to other banks, and nobody is quite sure how far down the rabbit hole this thing goes.  But what everyone does agree on is that this derivatives scandal has shaken up Italian politics, and the outcome of the upcoming election is now very uncertain.  Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is rapidly rising in the polls, and the European establishment is less than thrilled about that.  Meanwhile, stock indexes all over Europe fell rapidly on Monday, and even the Dow was down 129 points.  So will all this blow over in a few days, or is this the beginning of a full-blown stock market crash in Europe? (Read More...)

Down Goes Britain: The UK Economy Tumbles Deep Into Recession

The economic crisis that is sweeping Europe is starting to hit Britain really hard.  Over the last couple of years economists have been warning that we can’t let the “contagion” spread from troubled nations such as Greece and Portugal to the rest of Europe.  Well, it is too late for that now.  Spain and Italy are coming apart at the seams at this point, and even “stronger” nations such as the UK and France appear to be deeply troubled.  According to numbers that were released just this week, the UK economy has now contracted for three quarters in a row.  During the second quarter of 2012, the UK economy shrunk by 0.7 percent.  That was a much larger contraction than the 0.2 percent contraction that economists were forecasting.  At this point we have got a definite trend going.  During the fourth quarter of 2011, the UK economy shrunk by 0.4 percent.  During the first quarter of 2012, the UK economy shrunk by 0.3 percent.  And now in this latest quarter the contraction of the UK economy appears to be accelerating.  This economic downturn in the UK is being called “the longest double-dip recession for more than 50 years“.  So will Britain soon look like Greece and Spain and Italy or will it be able to pull out of this nosedive in time? (Read More...)

Is Germany Secretly Maneuvering To Kick Greece Out Of The Euro?

What in the world is going on in Europe?  Each day things just seem to get stranger and stranger.  We are being told that a “deal” for a second Greek bailout has been reached and that Greece will not default in March.  But behind the scenes it seems clear that many politicians in Germany (and in the other northern European countries as well) would like to kick Greece out of the euro.  So what exactly is happening here?  Well, it is complicated.  The United States, along with other members of the international community, put a tremendous amount of pressure on Germany to bail out Greece one more time.  Germany does not want to look like the bad guy, so they are going along with this bailout but they are also imposing conditions on Greece this time that will be almost impossible to meet.  And when Greece fails to meet its “obligations”, that will give the northern Europeans the excuse that they need to kick Greece out of the euro.  At this point, many politicians in northern Europe are convinced that Greece is a “lost cause” and that it is not fair to ask northern European nations to pay the price for the financial mistakes of Greece.  Greece is basically completely and totally bankrupt, and the nations of northern Europe don’t want to have a “financial dependent” on their books forever.  They are looking for a “way out”, and this new agreement lays the foundation for that. (Read More...)

18 Statistics That Prove That The Economy Has Not Improved Since Barack Obama Became President

Has the economy improved since Barack Obama became the president of the United States?  Of course not.  Despite what you may be hearing in the mainstream media, the truth is that when you compare the U.S. economy on the day that Barack Obama was inaugurated to the U.S. economy today, there is really no comparison.  The unemployment crisis is worse than it was then, home values have fallen, the cost of health insurance is up, the cost of gas is way up, the number of Americans living in poverty has soared and the size of our national debt has absolutely exploded.  Anyone that believes that things are better than they were when Barack Obama was elected is simply being delusional.  Yes, things have stabilized somewhat and our economy is not in free fall mode at this point.  But don’t be fooled.  This bubble of false hope will be short-lived.  The problems we are seeing develop in Europe will erupt into another full-fledged global financial crisis and economic conditions in the United States will get even worse.  When that happens, what possible ” economic solutions” will Barack Obama have for us?  We never even came close to recovering from the last great financial crisis, and now something potentially even worse is staring us in the face.  This is not a great time to have a total lack of leadership in Washington. (Read More...)

20 Signs That Europe Is Plunging Into A Full-Blown Economic Depression

An economic nightmare is descending on Europe.  With each passing month, the economic numbers across Europe get even worse.  At this point it is becoming extremely difficult for anyone to deny that Europe is plunging into a full-blown economic depression.  In fact, some parts of Europe are already there.  In Spain the overall unemployment rate is over 22 percent, and in Greece one out of every five retail establishments has already been closed down.  All over Europe, economic activity is rapidly slowing down, unemployment is skyrocketing and bad debts are unraveling.  It isn’t even going to take a default by a nation such as Greece or a collapse of the euro to push Europe into an economic depression.  All Europe has to do is to stay on the exact path that it is on right now and it will get there.  Normally, European governments would respond to an economic slowdown by increasing government spending.  But this time most of them are already drowning in debt.  Instead of increasing government spending, most governments in Europe are actually cutting back.  All over Europe, national governments are being encouraged to implement even more tax increases and even more budget cuts.  The hope is that all of this austerity will help solve the nightmarish sovereign debt crisis that Europe is facing.  But unfortunately, all of these tax increases and budget cuts are also going to involve a tremendous amount of economic pain. (Read More...)

Dumb As A Rock: You Will Be Absolutely Amazed At The Things That U.S. High School Students Do Not Know

Are we raising the stupidest generation in American history?  The statistics that you are about to read below are incredibly shocking.  They indicate that U.S. high school students are basically as dumb as a rock.  As you read the rest of this article, you will be absolutely amazed at the things that U.S. high school students do not know.  At this point, it is really hard to argue that the U.S. education system is a success.  Our children are spoiled and lazy, our schools do not challenge them and students in Europe and in Asia routinely outperform our students very badly on standardized tests.  In particular, schools in America do an incredibly poor job of teaching our students subjects such as history, economics and geography that are necessary for understanding the things that are taking place in our world today.  For example, according to a survey conducted by the National Geographic Society, only 37 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 can find Iraq on a map of the world.  According to that same survey, 50 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 can’t even find the state of New York on a map.  If our students cannot even find Iraq and New York on a map, what hope is there that they will be able to think critically about the important world events of our day? (Read More...)