JUL 14, 2008 - Fannie and Freddie is a Reuters word to the wise that what I've been warning you about in my 2008 World Forecast Highlights is now looming on the horizon like a great, big storm. Whenever the US central bank (the Federal Reserve) and the US Treasury get together to intervene in the markets on a Sunday, as they did on July 13 in an effort to prop up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, you know the US financial system is teetering at the edge of a cliff. Look for a bunch of Black Fridays ahead: the seizure of IndyMac bank in California is a harbinger of more to come, not just an isolated incident. The public still doesn't get it. Neither do the financial pundits. Forget watching the cable financial news networks for any useful information on this. CNBC and Bloomberg are nothing more than infomercials for the New York financial district. This is not a mortgage meltdown, people: that's only a symptom of the real problem, which is a collapse of the global financial system. It's not the US mortgage industry or the real estate market or even the US economy that's sick, so much as it is the US dollar; which, being the international reserve currency, puts the whole global financial system in jeopardy. The fix proposed by the Fed and the Treasury Department is to pump more dollars into the system. That won't fix anything, since the dollar itself is the problem. It's like trying to stop a hemmorhage by transfusion after transfusion of poison blood: you might be able to pump it in as fast as it's pouring out, but you're killing the patient even quicker in the process. If you haven't already started getting ready, it may be too late to make any significant preparations. At least read my 2008 World Forecast Highlights for a bit of historical perspective, so you'll recognize what's coming.
