US: Irony of living in the richest country

The News:

FEATURE - Hidden homeless emerge as U.S. economy worsens

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Fri, Mar 27 09:03 AM

Emergency shelters brimming with homeless people in California's capital are quietly turning away more than 200 women and children a night in a sign of the deteriorating U.S. economy.

The displaced individuals on waiting lists at St. John's Shelter and other facilities often turn instead to relatives or friends for temporary living quarters, perhaps moving into a spare room, garage or trailer. The less fortunate might sleep in their cars or a vacant storage unit.

They are the hidden homeless. And their ranks appear to be growing as rising joblessness and mortgage foreclosures take their toll in Sacramento and other U.S. cities, experts say.

U.S. President Barack Obama recognized the trend in his televised news conference this week, saying, "the homeless problem was bad even when the economy was good," and he vowed to bring greater government resources to bear to deal with it.

"It is not acceptable for children and families to be without a roof over their heads in a country as wealthy as ours," he said.

A "tent city" of up to 200 homeless in Sacramento was thrust into the media spotlight last month as a symbol of the battered U.S. economy. California authorities said this week they would shut down the illegal settlement and find other shelter for its residents, most of them chronically homeless.

My Views:

This is what happens when manipulated fiat money lifts prices of assets way beyond their actual value. What Greenspan did in the earlier part of this decade resulted in such stories. His reckless act of lowering interest rates to near zero for too long created this and now imagine what Bernake's acts can do.

The poors will remain poor forever if fiat money is to be trusted and those who earned money with hard work will be robbed by this artificial money.

Bretton Woods Vol-2 - FAILED

The News:

Termed by many pundits as Bretton Woods II, the Nov 15 Meeting of global "leaders" to combat financial crisis failed to arrive at concrete solution. WSJ or Wall Street Journal reports with this interesting headline:

"G20 Summit Presents United Front, but Offers Mostly Promise"
WASHINGTON -- Global leaders showed a united front against the financial crisis at an emergency summit here Saturday, but offered mostly promises of future cooperation to nudge the world out of its economic funk.

Heads of the Group of 20 industrial and developing nations vowed bold action in a host of areas -- from enhanced oversight of financial markets to reform of the IMF and World Bank -- and urged governments to implement "appropriate" fiscal and monetary policies to shore up sagging economic growth.

But the group, which met for less than six hours in the National Building Museum, left most of the tough decisions to future meetings. The next one will be held before April 30, pressuring President-elect Barack Obama to confront a tangle of high-stakes economic and regulatory issues immediately after taking office.

The Bush administration lauded the summit, which was arranged in less than a month as world leaders scrambled to keep the economic downturn from snowballing.

"I don't think we could have predicted then how productive and how successful this meeting would have been," President George W. Bush told reporters following the summit. "There is more work to be done, and there will be further meetings." Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said the cooperation among world nations is important in limiting the depth of the financial crisis. "It does no good to simply panic in a crisis, and that is proven by the Great Depression of 1929," Aso said. "Today things are entirely different...we have a framework for cooperation."

My View:

Well, well, well. Politicians achieved what they are ususally good at : PROMISES for future. The so called leaders atually were not supposed to find a solution but look at the way Bush describes it !!! hilarious !!!

If these so called leaders have the slightest of sense, then they should look for the root cause of this mess - the FIAT MONEY. Its not that we can't get over the evils of this crisis, we can. The only thing we need to do is have leaders like Dr. Ron Paul and start listening to his thoughts.