Marc Faber Bloomberg 08/24/11

Trends Journal Alert: China Offshoring The Collapse of the Western World

Paul Craig Roberts opines

How big is planet earth? Large if compared to the moon, small if compared to the solar system, and infinitesimal if compared to the universe. The point is that the size of something depends on that to which it is being compared. 

The San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank www.frbsf.org and offshoring’s shills forgot this simple point. On August 8 the SF Fed put out an Economic Letter in which US imports of goods made in China (both by Chinese and US firms) were explained away as a mere 2.7 percent of US personal consumption expenditures. 

I am confident that the staff of the SF Fed were competent to get the percentage correct. But does it mean anything? No.

For most Americans, their income is used up on housing, energy, car payments, food, and medical care. Very little income is left, especially these days, for durable (for example, furniture and household equipment) and nondurable (for example, clothing and shoes) manufactured goods. 

Ron Paul Classic: Predicts Housing Bubble in Monetary Hearing with Alan Greenspan 2004

Russia PM Putin Proposes Reemergence of 'Soviet Era' Economic Union

 Twenty years after the Soviet Union collapsed, Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, may not, as is sometimes alleged, be trying to recreate it. But he is pursuing a different project – to build a “quasi-European Union” out of former Soviet states.

A customs union he launched a year ago between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan has already removed tariffs and customs controls along the three states’ internal borders.

Come January this is due to expand into a “common economic space”, ensuring free movement of goods, services and capital across a single market of 165m people – 60 per cent of the former Soviet population.

At a Moscow summit this month, prime ministers of the three states set an even more ambitious target – turning the grouping into a “Eurasian economic union” by 2013. There is even talk, down the line, of a common currency. - FT

Bill Black Calls S&P Downgrade Mega Publicity Stunt

John Stewart Asks, "Why is the media ignoring Ron Paul?"