More Bad News On the World Economic Meltdown

This will take a long time to get better

By Danny

Disturbing economic news this morning from The Prudent Bear investor's website:

• A Week of Big Numbers

Scroll down about 2/3 of the way to where it says, "A Week of Big Numbers:" and read it all, To see the size of the problem is to see how ruined we really are. Here's a short excerpt:

February 24 – Bloomberg (Mark Pittman and Bob Ivry): “…the U.S. government has pledged more than $11.6 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers over the past 19 months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Changes from the previous table, published Feb. 9, include a $787 billion economic stimulus package. The Federal Reserve has new lending commitments totaling $1.8 trillion. It expanded the Term Asset-Backed Lending Facility, or TALF, by $800 billion to $1 trillion and announced a $1 trillion Public-Private Investment Fund to buy troubled assets from banks. The U.S. Treasury also added $200 billion to its support commitment for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac…”
The Administration’s new budget projects an astounding $1.75 TN fiscal 2009 federal deficit - or about 12% of GDP. Federal outlays are expected to surge 32% this year to $3.94 TN. In nominal terms, the deficit is set to quadruple the previous all-time record. In percentage terms one has to return back to the war economy of the 1940s to find anything comparable. [...]
What are the ramifications and consequences associated with U.S. deficits approaching 12% of GDP? [...]
I do fear that we now face Trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see. I don’t expect “Keynesian” policies to have much success in reinvigorating busted asset markets. I’ll be surprised if private-sector Credit creation bounces back anytime soon. I fear policymaking will do more harm than good when it comes to needed economic restructuring. And my worst fears of policymaking (fiscal and monetary, democrat and republican, national and local) bankrupting the country are being anything but allayed.

This will take a long time to get better.

And what about the rest of the world?

• It's Worse Over There

Comments? Anyone?