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We're in the midst of a serious financial crisis,
the federal government is responding with
decisive action.
Have you taken a large home loan? Or did you
put your savings in stocks, mutual funds or
bonds? If not, then you can relax, but all
of us that did are living on borrowed time.
This is the story of the greatest financial
crisis of our time. The one that is on its
way.
They spent hundreds of billions of dollars
to show that they were doing something but
not properly designed and not as effective
as it should have been.
When they start losing money - hey we got
to get back in the game, we got to get those
dice rolling again, hey let's create another
bubble. You think the dot COM bubble was too
big, we got a bigger one for you. We'll call
it the real estate and the credit crisis.
Well the problem is, they never actually cure
the crisis, they just give alcohol to a drunk.
It doesn't sober them up, it just, you know
sets him up for a bigger hangover. And that's
all we've done and that's all we are trying
to do. And so I know at some point you kill
the patient, at some point you can't drink
anymore, it's just the end of it. You reach
the end of the ability.
Congress wanted to believe them. Congress
wanted an excuse to bail out the auto workers.
And the executives gave them just enough political
cover to say "ah well I'm not really doing
this because I want auto worker votes, and
I'm going to give them a huge amount of money,
umm I'm really doing this for the American
economy".
So the solution is the problem, and that's
why we had a problem in the first place.
This is the danger in protecting investors
and consumers from the consequences of their
own decisions.
We can do it. But we need to do it soon, because
the clock is ticking and time is not working
in our favor.
I know many Americans have questions tonight.
How did we reach this point in our economy?
And what does this mean for your financial
future? These are good questions and they
deserve clear answers.
They took down the symbols, the financial
symbols of America, the twin towers of the
world trade
My old company where I used to work, the whole
company is missing.
The story of the great financial crisis begins
like many other stories of our era, in the
United States, on September eleventh two thousand
and one. The terrorists knew exactly what
they doing- striking at the ultimate symbol
of the global economy. And they did it when
the US was already slumping into a recession
after the dot COM bubble had burst.
Despite the tragic events of September the
eleventh the foundations of our free society
remain sound and I'm confident that we will
recover and prosper as we have done in the
past.
In spring two thousand and one the Federal
Reserve started lowering interest rates and
now it continued lowering interest rates to
save companies on the brink and to keep unemployment
down. During two thousand and one the interest
rate was lowered from six point five to one
point seventy five percent. In two thousand
and three it was cut all the way to one percent
and it remained there for a full year.
Predicting the panic of 08, the economic nine
eleven and the current economic crises that
we are still in was probably one of the easiest
forecasts that we have ever made in our thirty
years of trends forecasting. It was very simple.
Gerald Celente lives in Kingston, a few miles
North of New York. He's one of the top trend
analysts in the US. He's been called a modern
Nostradamus, he didn't just predict the current
crisis, he also predicted the dot COM bubble
and the stock market collapse of nineteen
eight seven.
Immediately after nine eleven the president
of the united states George W Bush told the
people to be good Americans and go out and
shop. But how are they going to do it, they
are in a recession. Federal Reserve comes
to the rescue.
In his memoir Federal Reserve Chairman Alan
Greenspan writes that he knew that low interest
rates might cause a bubble.
It's party time!
Traditionally central banks remove the punch
bowl once the party starts. The interest rate
can't remain low for too long or people will
do things that they regret later.
This is one party that just has to turn out
right
Well the purpose of a party is to have fun
together. And a successful party needs planning
and skill.
Greenspan argued that the feds should never
remove the punch bowl. But rather keep refilling
it, when the party started to peter out. And
if things went bad, the fed would clean up
the mess and tend to the hangover. Banks and
speculators loved it, now they could take
greater risks then ever before. If they were
successful they could keep the profits and
if they were unlucky, Greenspan would rescue
them.
Mama was that way. Let me come home and cry
over something and she give me candy every
time.
When you see the stock market come down and
the real estate bubble burst, all that phoney
wealth is going to evaporate, and all that
is going to be left is all the debt that we
accumulated to foreigners
Peter Schiff is another analyst who was roundly
mocked when he predicted crisis for the US
economy in the midst of the boom.
We went on an unprecedented global spending
binge. American citizens borrowed and spent
trillions of dollars to buy stuff. And that
is why we are in so much trouble. It was because
we got drunk on all that fed alcohol. Fed
alcohol.
In a world that was suddenly uncertain, with
a country under attack, nothing felt safer
then investing in your own home, in the American
dream.
I do believe in the American dream. I believe
there is such a thing as the American dream.
Owning a home is a part of that dream. Just
here. It's right here in America if you own
you're own home then you are realizing the
American dream.
Vernon Smith was awarded the Nobel price in
economics in two thousand and two. He received
it for his research in experimental economics.
In his experiments he puts economic theories
to the test. Smith is an expert on bubbles.
If you are can buy a home with almost nothing
down. Then you do well if the prices continue
to go up. If it goes down, well then you have
an incentive to walk away from it and let
the bank have it.
Low interest rates caused a housing bubble.
Cheap loans encouraged people to buy more
and bigger homes. Housing prices began to
rise by ten percent a year. So many took out
a second mortgage on their old house to fund
consumption.
You want to go on a vacation? Buy some new
clothes? How about putting an addition on
your house? You don't have the money? How
about a home equity loan -- that's for you.
Let's use your house as a piggy bank.
The banks granted loans to almost anyone.
Why would you need a decent income to buy
a home, if you can get rich just living in
it! The market even coined the term Nina loans.
No Income. No Assets. No problem! You'll get
a loan anyway.
The legislation was more aggressively pushing
lenders to lend to people with modest means
- people whose incomes were eighty percent
of the median income or below.
Politicians encouraged this. For a long time
both the left and the right have been encouraging
home ownership. So they've created deductions,
subsidies and insurances, and they created
two huge mortgage-financing companies, Fannie
May and Freddie Mac. Their job was to use
thousands of billions of dollars to insure
loans for people who couldn't get them on
the open market. They were Government Sponsored
Enterprises. They had private owners, but
they had been created by congress,and their
transactions were guaranteed by the government.
So particularly Fannie May and Freddy Mac
are government sponsored enterprises. And
what it means is... they are private, not
now maybe. But they are private companies
that have special charters from the government.
And the thing about government-sponsored enterprises
which is the main thing people are talking
about is a sense that they are guaranteed
by the government.
First of all government sponsored corporations
that help create our mortgage system, I introduced
two of the leaders here today. They call those
people Fannie May and Freddy Mac, as well
as the federal home loan banks will increase
their commitment to minority markets by more
than four hundred and forty billion dollars.
In the last decade Fannie May and Freddy Mac
have donated more then two hundred million
dollars to politicians in Washington. Enterprise
Sponsored Government. I asked the Former Freddie
Mac Chief Economist, what they got for their
money?
I don't know. I mean... that's a tougher question.
You know they had a pretty good charter. They
were regulated in a spotty way. In many ways
the regulatory structure wasn't that bad.
But it was the case that the regulatory structure
was a compromise. It wasn't a treasury, it
wasn't a housing really, it was somewhere
in between.
There was a huge moral hazard courtesy of
the government in the mortgage market. When
the government through Fannie and Freddy started
to guarantee mortgages, then the lenders were
no longer worried about getting their money
back because the government said "we guarantee
it".
And so that's why I have proposed and encouraged
the congress to fully fund the American Dream
down payment fund. This will use money, taxpayer's
money, to help a qualified low-income buyer
make a down payment.
Well greed has to be balanced with a certain
amount of fear, and that's what down payment
rules are all about and amortization rules
is to keep people from get carried away by
as you say, the greed...of expecting to become
rich, by buying a home and reselling at higher
price.
And that's important. If one of the barriers
to home ownership is the inability to make
a down payment, and if one of the goals is
to increase home ownership, it makes sense
to help people pay that down payment.
This is the problem, the moral hazard. We
gave a moral hazard to homebuyers. Once you
say that you can buy a home with no down payment,
all of a sudden there is no risk to the borrower.
He doesn't care if he over pays. Because if
the house keeps going up he makes money, and
if it stops going up, the bank loses the money.
We have moral hazards in our banking system.
The US government guarantees all bank deposits.
Well what does that mean? That means that
the depositors don't care what the banks do
with their money once they deposit it, because
they know the government guarantees it.
The federal government obviously has to play
an important role. And we will, we will. When
I lay out a goal I mean it.
Why are they doing that? Why can't we let
mortgages be financed in the private sector?
The reason is because the private sector would
not finance these crazy mortgages and real
estate prices would have to come down to levels
that people actually can afford.
How can you promote home ownership if people
can't afford a home?
The big banks dared to make riskier loans
because they had started repackaging loans
and selling them to others as securities.
They sold them to each other, to Fannie May
and Freddy Mac, and they sold them to Norway,
to Germany, and to China. If the loans turned
bad, someone else would end up with a hot
potato.
I guess we are a little early. What do you
want to do?
Anything but inspect this temple of capitalism.
Oh Nick.
look at them, their eyes popping out of their
heads, drooling over the very things that
are taking away their jobs.
Now Nick, don't get all excited, my family
think that America is a pretty swell place
and I don't want you to disillusion them.
I know
Everybody wanted to buy because the rating
agencies that rate securities gave the mortgage-backed
bonds their highest rating. They promised
huge payoffs at near zero risk. The rating
agencies thought that house prices would just
keep rising and then there was that minor
detail that the rating agencies were being
paid by the sellers of the securities.
I think the process was corrupted. First of
all the government licenses, Moody's and Standard
& Poor's. So there are only a few companies
authorized to rate these bonds, so it wasn't
really a free market. The government was in
bed with Moody's and Standard & Poor's. But
also you had this perverse relationship between
Wall Street and the rating agencies where
they were paying the rating agencies to rate
the products that they were structuring. And
so there was, you know, this was an incestuous
relationship where they knew that if they
put bad ratings on them, they wouldn't sell
and if they didn't sell, they wouldn't be
making all this money constantly rating them.
They were great days, but it was all based
on a market on steroids. Loans were cheap
enough to keep driving housing prices up,
but when interest rates returned to normal
levels in two thousand and six, the spell
was broken. But for one person the future
was still bright, Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan's
successor as federal research chairman.
Tell me, what is the worst -case scenario
if we in fact see prices actually come down
substantially across the country?
Well I guess I don't buy your premise. It's
a pretty unlikely possibility; we have never
had a decline in house prices on a nationwide
basis.
People could no longer get new loans to pay
off the old ones. Those who had been given
a mortgage despite a very low income couldn't
afford to stay. The prices started falling
making the mortgage-backed securities increasingly
worthless.
There is not much indication at this point
that subprime mortgage issues have spread
into the broader mortgage market which still
seems to be healthy
The rating agencies removed the higher ratings
from the securities. Investors, who never
looked beyond the ratings, suddenly didn't
know what they had brought. They didn't know
how risky those loans were.
Overall the US economy appears likely to expand
at a moderate pace over the second half of
two thousand and seven with growth and strengthening
a bit in two thousand and eight to a rate
close to the economy's underline trend.
The dominoes started falling. Investors stopped
buying mortgage-backed securities and refused
to lend to those who depended on them. Investment
banks like Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers
suddenly couldn't get new loans to stay in
business. Fannie May and Freddy Mac could
no longer hide the disaster.
The financial crisis started in a way that
is eerily similar to today's situation. It
started with an economic crisis in the U.S
and a government that responded decisively.
After nine eleven and the dot COM collapse
the US government decided to save the economy
by inflating a new bubble. Today the world
is trying to get out of the financial crisis
by inflating a new bubble. The difference
is that this bubble is much bigger.
After they did the dot COM bubble and that
burst and they re-inflated it with the real
estate credit crisis bubble and then that
burst. Now they have created the bubble of
all bubbles and it's not only in the United
States this is a global bubble, they are all
in to it. It's called the bail-out bubble.
Hey the economy is going down, recession's
setting in, sales don't look good, exports
soft, need more money? How about we call it
stimulus packages. From Australia to the United
States, from the UK to China, they are dumping
funny money into the system to keep it going.
In September of two thousand and eight the
US economy is near collapse. Fannie May and
Freddy Mac have been taken over by the government.
On September 15th giant investment bank, Lehman
brothers goes bankrupt after monumental bets
on real estate. AIG the largest insurance
company in the world collapses the next day.
Fear sets in. It seems like anyone can fail.
Suddenly, banks no longer dare make loans
to companies or each other.
Experts warn that the economy is about to
collapse.
The CBS News, a special report, a presidential
address to the nation. From CBS headquarters
in New York here is Katie Couric.
Good evening everyone. President Bush asked
the Network for this television time so that
he could speak directly to you about a national
crisis. Some of this country's major financial
institutions are in danger of collapsing under
the weight of bad mortgages, and that would
be devastating for the entire economy.
We are in the midst of a serious financial
crisis. And the federal government is responding
with decisive action.
In a televised speech Bush scares the market
even more whilst still claiming that they
can trust him, he has a solution.
Under our proposal the federal government
would put up to seven hundred billion tax
payers dollar on the line to purchase trouble
assets that are clogging the financial system.
The US government wants to spend huge amounts
on Wall Street banks to cover their bad deals.
Even banks who don't want the money will be
forced to take it, so that the public won't
know which banks are on the brink of collapse.
All in those in favor say I. Opposed say no.
The Ais have it.
I want to thank the secretary of treasure
for working hard with the members. And thank
the members for working long hours like they
have been doing to come up with this solution....
and that will solve the problem.
On October third Congress approves the biggest
financial bailout in history. Seven hundred
billion dollars.
Around the world in Germany, Italy, Canada,
South Korea and Great Britain, other politicians
do the same to save their banks.
We have taken the right, the decisive, and
the tough decision that was necessary to protect
the stability of the financial system, and
to protect the depositors.
David Walker was US Comptroller General from
nineteen ninety-eight to two thousand and
eight. He quit because he was so worried about
the US economy that he wanted to have the
freedom to warn about what might happen.
In my view the bail out was necessary in certain
regards but in many cases we wasted a lot
of money.
Because we didn't do three things. First have
clearly defined objectives of what we were
trying to achieve. Secondly, have criteria
established up front as to who would get the
money and who wouldn't get the money. And
number three, have conditions established
up front as to what they could and couldn't
do with the money. And as a result of not
having those three things, some people got
the money that didn't deserve it, other people
got the money that didn't make good use of
it, and as a result we have a lot of waste
with regard to the taxpayers money.
What would it mean if the domestic industries
were allowed to fail you heard senator...
As a result of the crisis the situation for
the US Auto industry becomes critical. On
November nineteenth their CEO's fly to Washington
to demand money.
The executives came out and they said, "if
you. If you don't do this we are going to
see a jobs holocaust". They issued extremely
high estimates of how many jobs would be lost,
including every single company that supplies
them with anything.
That's why this is about a lot more than just
Detroit. It's about saving the US economy
from a catastrophic collapse
A month later President Bush gives billions
of dollars to general motors and Chrysler.
The money comes from the bailout package that
was really only designed to save the financial
industry.
Now some US auto executives say that their
companies are nearing collapse. And that the
only way that they can buy time to restructure
is with help from the federal government.
Megan McArdle is a financial analyst for the
Atlantic and has written extensively about
the problems of the US Auto industry.
Congress wanted an excuse to bail out the
autoworkers. And the executives gave them
just enough political cover to say "ah well
I'm not really doing this, because I want
auto worker votes, and I'm going to give them
a huge amount of money... I'm really doing
this for the economy". But if you look at
how much money we gave them, I mean we are
talking about almost a hundred billion dollars,
is how much we will end up spending on this.
You know even if you were saving millions
of jobs it would have been cheaper to give
everyone single one of those a hundred thousand
dollars to go out an, you know find a new
job.
The big guys on Wall Street, they can't take
their losses they are crybaby capitalists.
Oh they preach Capitalism for everybody but
themselves.
The Federal Reserve has cut its key interest
rate to the lowest level on record. Ben Sherman,
Ben Bernanke and his colleagues also pledge
to use all available tools to contain the
widening crises and the longest recession
in a quarter century.
December sixteenth, two thousand and eight,
it is time again to pour alcohol into the
punch bowl. The Federal Reserve reduces interest
rates to practically zero, to restore investor
confidence. Other central banks do the same.
Hey - have no credit? Don't worry about it,
just sign on the dotted line.
The housing bubble which they inflated blew
up with all the carnage and all the bankruptcies,
and now that is their solution, we'll just
do the same thing that we did before. Instead
of having interest rates at one percent, lets
have them at zero. And let's buy everything
we can, let's print money and buy mortgages.
Let us but credit card dept, student loans,
let us buy bonds and let's drop money from
helicopters to try to get the same risk taking
excessive gambling on wall street, let's convince
Americans who are already loaded up on debt
to go out and buy more stuff, to go out and
get deeper into dept. And if the banks don't
want to lend them money we'll make them lend
the money. This is economic you know, suicide.
While the Fed lowers interest rates, president
elect Barack Obama prepares an enormous stimulus
package, meant to get the US economy going.
We are running out of the traditional ammunition
that's used in a recession, which is to lower
interest rates, they're getting to be about
as low as they can go.
The American recovery and reinvestment act
that I will sign today, a plan that meets
the principals I laid out in January is the
most sweeping economic recovery package in
our history.
On February seventh, two thousand and nine
Obama approves a stimulus package worth seven
hundred and eighty seven billion dollars.
With a Bush stimulus package from the year
before, US politician have now spent close
to one trillion dollars to stimulate the US
economy. The money is spent on roads, airports,
education, unemployment and other benefits.
There is bureaucracy in everywhere. And in
Italy they used to say. Where I'm from. When
you have a jar of honey, you lick your fingers.
The town of Union is located a few hours from
the Canadian border. This is where the computer
company IBM got its start and grew to be the
biggest in the world. The factories are now
empty, but the town has acquired a small town
rhythm, so they were surprised when six hundred
thousand dollars from the stimulus package
arrived to combat homelessness.
You know on occasion our police officers may
run across someone and they try to, you know
take the person to an area where the individual
can get some shelter and get something to
eat. But it's not a problem here.
This is Rodeo Drive in Beverley Hills; probably
the worlds most famous upscale shopping district.
It was here for example that Julia Roberts
went shopping in Pretty Women. Stimulus money
has made its way here as well. These streets
are to be repaved to the tune of one million
dollars. Sure there are potholes in the asphalt
but is this really the economy that needs
to be stimulated.
We had a seven hundred and an eighty seven
billion dollar stimulus bill. But only about
one third of it was truly stimulus. By that
I mean timely, targeted and temporary. The
other two thirds were things that people wanted
to do, had been wanted to do for a long time,
but they didn't want to have to pay for it.
They wanted to do it as a part of emergency
legislation and charge it to the national
credit card.
The Johnstown Pennsylvania airport has three
scheduled flights a day. Other then that it's
quite empty.
When we have the flights coming, that's when
people are here. Other then that it's empty
But one face is everywhere; Congressman John
Murtha, the airports name sake. He's been
called the King of Pork and has gotten two
hundred million dollars for Murtha Airport
from Washington. Earlier this year the airport
got a new source of revenue, eight hundred
thousand dollars from the stimulus package
to repave this backup landing strip. The head
of the airport insists that the landing strip
is safe. So why does it need doing if its
not a safety issue?
Because of the steps we take this plan is
about to shift into high gear.
One of the biggest stimulus programmes was
aimed at the auto industry, cash for clunkers.
Turn in your old car and get cash towards
a new one from the government. It was so popular
that its one billion dollar budget ran out
in a week; so more money was quickly injected.
Many countries offered similar programmes;
Germany had the biggest one and handed out
almost seven billion dollars to those that
scrapped any car more then nine years old,
while buying a new one.
Our government seems to think that German
auto industry is so important that we have
to support it in some way. And therefore they
created this bonus. They didn't call it a
scrapping bonus, because I think I knew how
ridiculous that was. So they called it an
environment bonus.
Karen Horn is a doctor of economics at a German
Economics Institute.
And of course people took advantage of that,
it worked as long as it was on, the program
worked. But now it's out, it's over and of
course numbers are dropping, people are feeling
that they ran into additional debt due to
that bonus that they wanted to take advantage
of and they are having problems they didn't
anticipate.
So Germany spent almost seven billion dollars
to scrap fully functioning cars and to maintain
excessive auto factory output. Once the programme
ended the industry was right back in the doldrums.
I was just very surprised that the people
would accept the idea so readily. That they
would accept the money was something else,
who wouldn't? But that they would find it
a solution that they deemed viable, doesn't
give me a very good impression of the rationality
of the voter and tax payer I must say.
And that's where we are. I think at this point,
the problem is now so big that government
stimulis is not going to you know buy us another
five or six years of phoney growth like it
did last time. Because we have to accumulate
so much more debt now. The bigger the problem
gets the more we have to stimulate to get
that short-term boost. But now the bigger
the bust is now we have a bigger stimulus-
to get out of the economy.
About a year after the worst economic crisis
in history, Leyman Bothers is gone, but apart
from that, Wall Street looks much the same.
Many banks are reporting record profits, the
world stock markets have sky rocketed, the
market is finally breathing a sigh of relief.
But isn't it somewhat uncomfortable? Haven't
we been here before?
All the measures that we have taken to save
the economy, the low interest rates, the massive
debt, the safety net for the financial industry,
these are the very things that led us into
a crisis in the first place. We've been saved
from the consequences of one burst bubble,
by inflating a hundred new ones all over the
world.
One year ago I took office amid two wars,
and an economy rocked by a severe recession.
A financial system on the verge of collapse
and a government deeply in debt. Experts from
across the political spectrum warned that
if we did not act we might face a second depression.
So we acted. Immediately and aggressively,
and one year later the worst of the storm
has passed.
There are positive signs. This is the Hampton's
outside New York, a classic playground for
Manhattan's elite. A house by the Atlantic,
like this one, costs thirty million dollars
and a hotdog bun with lobster salad costs
eighteen dollars. Fast food Hampton style.
The crisis has made its mark here too, there
are fewer private jets at the airport. Instead
the Porsches jostle the Mercedes on the turn
pike to New York.
New York City, Washington D.C and Los Angeles
California don't represent the real world.
They also don't represent the real part of
America, the so-called main street of America.
My tax money go to Beverly Hill, well there
is a lot of money in Beverly Hill. I don't
think that they need my money down there.
But that's a different world. It's not reality
down there.
If you ever visit Union and need a hair cut,
you may well end up at Frank Petrilli's barbershop.
But unfortunately people lost their homes
because they lost their jobs. And it's a...
They now live under the line for the one time
they were able to do it. And a lot of the
young people, specially educated, they try
to move, go out of town. But I believe that
no matter where they go the situation is the
same. Where are they going to go? Detroit!
Now listen son, I wasn't going to tell you
this, but you're the reason we came here all
the way from Indiana. You heard all the talkers.
Now I'm going to show you the doers.
The US government has launched bailouts, stimulus
packages and guarantees to the tune of ten
thousand billion dollars.
I caught myself wondering for the hundredth
time how the hell I got here, what the hell
I'm doing here.
That's more then the total cost of the US
government for World War One, World War Two,
the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Invasion
of Iraq, the new deal with the Marshall Plan,
and the Moon Landing. Bush almost racked up
more US debt then all presidents before him
combined, from George Washington to Bill Clinton.
And Obama is almost creating greater debt
then all presidents before him, including
George. W Bush.
But it's not just US that's increasingly looking
like a house of cards. During the crisis many
governments went deeply into debt. Estimates
say that the average debt in the richest nations
will exceed one hundred percent by the year
two thousand and eleven. These are loans taken
at currently low interest rates. Should the
interest rate rise by one percent, the US
interest payments will rise by one hundred
billion dollars per year, that's more then
the annual cost for the Vietnam War.
Sometimes it's just an engine failure, other
times it's the deadly flat. If the pilot's
lucky, the flat kills him. But usually he
isn't and he burns to death as he spins in.
It sounds absurd to even think that the United
States, the world's economic super power,
might crash. After all they get the highest
ratings from the credit ratings agencies.
One of the lessons we must learn from the
mortgage related sub prime is you have to
take credit ratings with a big grain of salt.
Because as we saw with the mortgage related
securities, they went from triple A rating
to jump bond pretty fast once people understood
the true situation. Today the Untied States
is rated triple A but if it doesn't start
taking steps to put it's financial house in
order, that triple A will be lost, it's just
a matter of when and how quickly.
In September 2008 the bankruptcy of one large
investment bank brought the world economy
to its knees. The fate of Lehman Brothers,
raised the question of who was next in line?
So everyone avoided doing business with banks.
How will the world react if the next entity
to declare bankruptcy is a nation? Who is
next in line if that were to happen?
Some houses of cards have already started
falling. This is Iceland , until recently
one of the richest nations in the world. When
the crisis hit, the Icelandic banks collapsed,
the Icelandic stock market crashed leaving
the debt with a small population. For the
first time in fifty years, this peaceful country
saw riots.
This is Greece, here deficits have hit a record
high, the national debt is approaching one
hundred and thirty five percent of JDP. The
market wants higher interest rates for Greek
loans, increasing the pressure on its strained
economy, it seems like the Greek government
needs a bailout to avoid collapse. Italy,
Spain, Portugal and Great Britain are other
EU nations with similar problems. What about
my country, Sweden? The country's finances
are fairly robust our national debt and deficits
are lower then that of most nations. But Sweden
is highly dependent on the world economy.
More then half of our prosperities are based
on exports. When other countries crash, we
get hit almost as hard. And Swedish housing
prices have risen during the crisis, despite
the recession and despite rising unemployment,
but because of low interest rates and a government
mortgage company, SBAB, making loans easier
to get. Swedes have never carried more debt
in relation to their income. Doesn't all of
this sound very familiar?
We have new bubbles everywhere so I'm pretty
worried about what's going to happen
If you don't want bubbles to burst, then don't
blow them up in the first place, because all
bubbles burst.
If enough things can go wrong some of them
probably will. The question is, just which
needle will burst this bubble? Will it be
new credit loses? As banks take on greater
risks knowing that the government considers
them too big to fail. Or falling stock prices?
As interest rates rise and the steroids wear
off. Will it be the Chinese economy overheating.
Or will it be a collapse of confidence in
the US dollar?
If we lose the confidence of our foreign lenders,
and we must not allow that to happen. But
if that were to happen. Then it would be a
dramatic decline in the dollar and a dramatic
increase in interest rates, significant fuelling
of inflation, a very very deep recession and
possibly depression that would be felt around
the world. We must not allow that to happen.
When the next bubble bursts you cannot use
the same emergency measures. You can't lower
interest rates that are already at rock bottom.
You can't stimulate the economy with borrowed
money if an excess in national debt is the
cause of the crisis. The governments could
save the banks, but who can save the governments?
Ultimately there is going to be a price all
around the world to be paid for this and the
longer it continues the bigger that price
is going to be.
You know this really is a moral question.
I mean I can give you plenty of big and bad
numbers. You know when you talk about tens
of trillions of dollars it's just hard to
imagine. But you have to put a face on it
and to me I put my children's and my grandchildren's
face on it. It's their future that we are
mortgaging.
When we tell people that there is going to
be a bail out bubble and they see the world
equity markets up fifty, sixty percent, they
don't want to believe it's another bubble.
They want to step right up that table and
throw their dice and try to win their hand
at the wheel of fortune that Wall Street's
spinning. So people still don't want to believe
that the worst is yet to come.
It's easy to think of these predictions as
much too gloomy, but that is exactly what
people said the last time. When these experts
predicted the two thousand and eight financial
crisis they were laughed at in the media.
We can do it, but we need to do it soon because
the clock is ticking and time is not working
in our favour.