I'll Call Your Chuck Norris and Raise You 50 Trillion Dollars

Since Instapundit linked Fabius Maximus yesterday, I've invested considerable time clicking through several short, concisely written posts available through convenient indexing at the site. Here is FM's latest.

Make of FM what you will. It's likely you'll either dismiss the posts entirely, or open your thinking to a perspective you've not yet entertained. My reading caused me to go back and dig up a recently Drudge-linked item remarkable for both what it said and because it's been all but ignored.

March 9 (Bloomberg) -- The value of global financial assets including stocks, bonds and currencies probably fell by more than $50 trillion in 2008, equivalent to a year of world gross domestic product, according to an Asian Development Bank report.

You can pull any of several quotes for consideration from the item. Here are three that might pique your interest.

“This crisis is the first truly universal one in the history of humanity,” former IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus said at an ADB forum in Manila today. “No country escapes from it. It has not yet bottomed out.”

“Poor macroeconomic and regulatory policies allowed the global economy to exceed its capacity to grow and contributed to a buildup in imbalances across asset and commodity markets,” Loser said. “The previous sense of strength and invulnerability is now gone.”

“There is no room for denial or populist policies,” Loser said. “Otherwise the crisis will become even deeper and harder to reverse.”

My guess is it is being overlooked as people either can't truly comprehend what 50 trillion dollars is, or refuse to consider the impact of its loss. Consider this. (Oops, the wiki page has been deleted since last night) What's with that? Here's the cache, or see the CIA Factbook for data up to 2008.

My point is this - you can take the entire GDP of the United States for the last 3+ years and remove it from the face of the earth. It's, for now at least, gone. Or remove the GDP for Japan of the last 10+ years, same thing - gone. By the time you get to Russia, or the UK - it's 25+ years.

Meanwhile, some folks think Chuck Norris presents a threat to democracy, or the world order as we know it? As my title said, I'll call your Chuck Norris and raise you 50 trillion dollars. Place your bets!

Comments

[Diogenes]

Trillion is a difficult concept to grasp. I heard Rush Limbaugh state it well several weeks ago:

"One billion seconds is 31 years. One trillion seconds is 31,000 years."

[unseen]

And this is why we will not have inflation no matter how much money the US gov pumps into the system. The total world bailout is at about $10 trillion at the moment. That means we still have a neg $40 Trillion. This does Not take into account the Trillions in bad loans still on the books. there are reports that the total of bad loans could be a quadtrillion. They are a house of cards held up by a complex relationship of banks, insurance companies, and governments. the fear is that if one should fail the entire house and all quadtrillion will vanish. This is why the gov bailed out AIG. And will continue to bail them out. AIG pays the insurance on all those assets.

the real problem will be in Europe. Some of their banks are bigger than the GDP of their respective countries. There is no way that their countries like the Swiss could bailout their banks. Therefore prepare to hear Obama and Congress start talking about a worldwide bailout. the belief is that if a major bank in Europe goes under it will start a chain reaction that will destory the entire finacal system of the world.

Personally I say let it burn down and start over. I really see no way for this to wrok out well. The federal gov instead of trying to save a dying system should instead be preparing to save what can be saved and protect what needs to be protected.

[seekeronos]

"--- Personally I say let it burn down and start over. I really see no way for this to work out well. ---"

Two solutions on tap:

(1) it all burns down and we all are reduced to utter squalor (think Kenya or some other fifth-rate African nation) while the Rothschilds and their peers put us on a Rentenmark-type replacement fiat currency, and enslaves us to a global government since all other governance will be moot...

(2) it all burns down and we suffer, etc. etc. as the only real currency that has value will be FOOD, WATER, and GUNS, and then Gold and silver. In that order.