Financial hardship speeds up as it approaches – The Dollar Meltdown

Three excellent articles at Charles Hugh Smith’s site:

1984 + 23 = 2007

Something Has Changed

The Closing of the U.S. Home ATM Dooms the Global Economy

All three articles in the last week show that as we head into the autumn, it’s not only the seasonal fall that approaches…

9/11 and another bin Laden video

As we remember the day 6 years ago that changed many things about the way Americans live their lives, a new video from Osama bin Laden is released, praising one of the 19 hijackers who killed thousands of innocent people. No bombs, dirty or otherwise, no airliners flying into buildings, no event that again "changes everything." But the day is still young.

Judith Miller in the Telegraph lays out why New York hasn’t been attacked again.

There’s another possible reason. Could al Qaeda be the paper tiger? I mean, really, if a teenage heavy metal fan can rise in the ranks to be important, as Adam Gadahn (the purported author of Osama’s recent video), how credible can the organization be? In the war against al Qaeda and insurgency in Iraq, we tend to forget that the hijackers were overwhelmingly citizens of Saudi Arabia, yet there’s nothing but love between our government and that one. Could it be that al Qaeda is just "something shiny" to divert attention from the Saudi origins of 9/11?

I’ve asked this question before: If 19 men, mostly Americans, flew planes into buildings in the Middle East, killing thousands, would Americans be able to travel anywhere in the Middle East? Of course not, even if the perpetrators of such an even were identified as extremist fundamental Christians and were shunned by the American public, the U.S. would suffer greatly.

Yet the Saudi government gets a pass.

Bin Laden, 9/11, Sub-Prime Meltdown Woes, Nukes on B-52s – A Tense Week

There’s plenty for the wary to watch this week. Much anxiety circulating on the net regarding:

1. The new video from Osama bin Laden
2. Wall Street sell-off on Friday thanks to bad labor statistics
3. Nukes hitchhiking across the country
4. 9/11 anniversary on Tuesday
5. Interesting "put" options that suggest someone may think (or know) that a catastrophic economic event is about to occur

I don’t think I’m wrong when I say that this week has more negative portends than any week in a long, long time, so a quick analysis of each of them follows.

New bin Laden video

It’s not the first time we’ve seen OBL since 9/11/2001, but it’s the first time we’ve seen him with a dyed, trimmed beard. What’s the significance of that? According to this study of Islamic thought regarding the trimming of beards…Hard to say. It’s amazing that Western Civilization is locked in a battle to the death with people who feel the need to argue and write extensively about trimming facial hair. There’s also some concern that September 11th is on Tuesday this year, as it was in 2001.

Wall Street

For the past several weeks, it’s been the sub-prime mortgage meltdown making headlines. Now Countrywide says it’s laying off as many as 12,000 workers. The problem is deepening, and will continue to accelerate, since the housing industry is enormously important to the strength of the U.S. economy, even if the Fed doesn’t see it (or doesn’t want to panic us). Housing drives the economy. It provides jobs, that provide disposable income that allows people to buy things. The appreciation of real estate "values" has created money through home equity loans that bought millions of flat-screen HD tvs. Well, that equity is drying up, and so will the tv sales (and the auto sales, computer sales, vacation spending and in many cases, consumer debt servicing). It’s a bad scene.

Hitchhiking nukes

Six nuclear warheads flew on the missile pylons of a B-52 bomber last week, in clear violation of Air Force rules governing the transportation of atomic weapons. How in the world could this kind of "mistake" happen? Was it a mistake, or were the weapons flown, rather than trucked from Minot, ND to Barksdale AFB in Lousiana to meet a deadline? There’s buzz (also known as "informed speculation) that since Barksdale is a staging base for Midlle East deployments, the weapons were on their way to be launched against Iran, but some dissident military assets blew the whistle. Some say it was all a stunt intended to send a message to the Iranian government that we’re not messing around. There are even those who say the nukes are to be used on us. Any way you look at it, it’s a dangerous situation.

9/11 Anniversary

Tuesday marks the 6th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon by someone hostile to the American people. Whether you believe it was, in fact, 19 Islamic extremists or some sinister cabal who want you to think it was the work of Osama bin Laden, the fact remains, not only is Tuesday the anniversary of those horrific events, but September 11th was also a Tuesday. Some who see conspiracy everywhere are pointing to such a coincidence. Hard to say whether the kind of people who would commit such acts care about that or not, but it’s still worth noting. The human mind and eye constantly searches for familiar patterns, and throughout the history of our species, such patterns reappear time and time again.

Those strange "puts"

In the weeks before 9/11, some still unidentified investors purchased options that would only pay off if the stock prices of American Airlines and United Airlines dramatically fell. Well, since 9/11 caused both of those companies financial hardship (since their aircraft were used in the attacks), someone made billions of dollars. Did they know 9/11 was going to happen? Sure seems so. Well, now word is circulating of an even bigger "bin Laden" trade. Someone has bet a billion dollars that the stock market is going to lose 30-50% of its value by September 21. If it doesn’t lose that big, the entity making the trade loses close to a billion dollars US. What do they know? A more rational (but not completely reassuring) explanation for these trades says they’re merely a "box trade" engineered to provide a low interest rate loan.

Be well, be safe and be prepared.

Bush to “protect” homeowners?

Nah. Despite the President’s "concern" over people just trying to make their house payment in the face of adjusting mortgage rates (which they were told all along would happen), he’s really (in the short run) protecting someone else. From Financial Armageddon:

Even assuming that some troubled borrowers manage to hang on, the truth is that enabling more of the same kind of bad behavior that got people into trouble in the first place will only make matters worse.

The hair of the dog that bit them isn’t a cure. It merely delays the moment of reckoning.

In reality, guaranteeing loans for homeowners who can’t afford the payments, encouraging mortgage-holders to hang on until they’ve been bled dry, and giving false hope to those who would be better off cutting their losses really only benefits one group.

The lenders.

Exactly. The rates will keep adjusting, but a short term band-aid helps the President and his party in 2008. The bill, when it finally comes to the table, will be considerable. Devastatingly considerable.

The Danger Coming – Post Labor Day Disaster?

A lot of the doom and gloom sites are in a bit of a tizzy over this possibility.  It’s seemingly a perfect storm of worry that something wicked’s coming this way, fast.

Among them:

Petagon Plan: Annihilate Tehran’s Military in 3 Days – From WorldNetDaily.

Something "out of the blue" – From Urbansurvival.com.

Just in from the predictive linguistics team at www.halfpasthuman.com:

"Igor here.

Clif has worked all day yesterday and all last night. And was back at it at 4 this morning when I checked in. We have a large data bubble of datas which are showing up for Sunday, 9-2.

Clif says that he will have part 1 posted by Saturday afternoon at the latest since so much of the data says that Sunday and Monday will be very nasty here in US.

He probably ain’t wrong about this one. And I think that he is probably right about the 19th too. But anyway part 1 by late Saturday.

Everybody guard your pies. Igor out. "

No, I have no idea what the bubble is that is showing up in the ‘time scanning’ technology, but something ‘out of the blue’ Sunday/Monday seems to be coming…

Though George, the writer/editor of Urban Survival (channeling his buddies  the "Time Monks" of the website Halfpasthuman.com) often gets worked up in his wise, calm way, about coming challenges, I’ve yet to see him this specific and predictive about disastrous events.

Then this, from the Daily Kos:

"We are going to hit Iran. Big time."

The last one’s interesting. I don’t believe for a minute that there’s a female former-Marine-now-Navy LSO stationed on a supercarrier and acting as a liason for Marines stationed on the ship. Too much detail. If there is such a person, she’s undoubtedly in the brig right now regretting talking about this stuff.

I do believe, however, that the information may well be legitimate, it’s source well hidden behind the female LSO it’s attributed to.

So, as Sunday, September 2 unfolds, we watch and wait. As we will through tomorrow’s Labor Day pause.

Whether or not something happens this holiday weekend, there is the specter of the Iran showdown looming on the horizon. Many observers believe that the period after Labor Day is the time the White House uses to beat war drums and create the necessary climate for war. It happened that way in Gulf War 1, 2 and you should expect it this Fall. Google News search for the News/PR push for war with Iran.

***Update – September 3, 12:01pm – Kos from The Daily Kos has pulled the LSO story. Found out it was a hoax. No surprise, given the above. Doesn’t mean the basic message isn’t accurate, though.

Interesting times.