Russian Expert Says US Headed for Collapse

Are we going to allow the Russians to have the last laugh?

No way.

So get out there and buy some stocks, rubes, and help to fully fund our oligarchs so they do not fall behind the elite that divided up Russia's wealth after its collapse.

We cannot afford to have an oligarch gap.

If you are not sure what fraudulent stocks to buy, just put your money in the long bond, and the Treasury and Fed will manage the distribution for you.

UPI
Russian expert: U.S. headed for collapse
Nov. 24, 2008 at 7:58 PM

MOSCOW, Nov. 24 -- The United States is heading for collapse amid its financial crisis, a leading political analyst in Russia says.

Igor Panarin, a professor at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, said in an interview with Izvestia, published Monday, that the U.S. economy is in dire straits, RIA Novosti reported.

"The dollar is not secured by anything. The country's foreign debt has grown like an avalanche, even though in the early 1980s there was no debt. By 1998, when I first made my prediction, it had exceeded $2 trillion. This is a pyramid that can only collapse," he said.

Asked when the U.S. economy would collapse, Panarin said the process has already begun.

"It is already collapsing. Due to the financial crisis, three of the largest and oldest five banks on Wall Street have already ceased to exist, and two are barely surviving," he said. "Their losses are the biggest in history. Now what we will see is a change in the regulatory system on a global financial scale: America will no longer be the world's financial regulator."

The Buck Slumps to Support as Stocks Rally Up to Resistance

The dollar showed weakness today as US equities ran the shorts on vaporous hopes of bailouts for the banks.

Notice though that Bucko has not broken any serious support levels so it is too soon to send flowers. So far this is a normal consolidation in a parabolic short squeeze and flight to safety.

We took profits on our long positions today, and went slightly net short when the SP 500 futures hit our intraday target of 866. This rally has a lot of air in it, but this is a light week, with the US markets closing for the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday.

We are far from a recovery, and will likely go back down and test those lows again, but first things first, and we may see more rally in US stock indices up to the 62% retracement levels.

US Treasury Default Swaps Soar to Records

Reuters
U.S. Treasury CDS Hit Record Wide Levels
By Richard Leong and George Matlock in London
Mon Nov 24, 2008 11:21am EST

NEW YORK, Nov 24 - The spread or risk premium on 10-year U.S. Treasury credit default swaps hit record wide levels on Monday, prompted by worries about how the cost of rescuing banks and carmakers would affect U.S. creditworthiness, CMA DataVision said.

As the global financial crisis worsened in recent weeks, traders increased their bets on the bigger toll of the U.S. government's array of programs to help these ailing industries.

Ten-year U.S. Treasury CDS edged out to 49.8 basis points from 49.3 basis points at Friday's close, according to the credit data company.

Five-year Treasury CDS grew to 43.5 basis points versus 43.0 basis points late Friday, it said.

The risk premiums have nearly doubled from levels seen two months ago after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Prior to the financial crisis, default risk premiums on U.S. government debt had been running in the low-to-mid single digits.