This online version is an abridged compilation of the printed version of Fort Fairfield Journal, available in stores, now.  Pick up a copy, or subscribe for all the local & national news, FFMHS sports, obituaries, FFPD police log and more.

 

Selected Editorials from the Editor

Suns & Shields Christian Inspirational Writings by Rachelle Hamlin

Selected editorials from Dr. Katherine Albrecht, Ed. D.

_______________________________

 

U.S. Stock Market Suffers Historic 1,000 Point Loss

 

Global Trade In Freefall: Container Freight Rates From Asia To Europe Crash 60% In Three Weeks

 

By:  David Deschesne

Fort Fairfield Journal, September 2, 2015

 

   The U.S. stock market tanked on August 24, dropping over 1,000 points, or 6.6% of the market’s value.  The crash was precipitated by the  fall of China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite index, down 38 percent from its high in June due largely to unsustainable debt-financed stock market speculation.

   The U.S. stock market - dubbed the “Casino Gulag” by economist Max Keiser, has turned into one large gambling casino for international bankers and multi-national corporate chieftains to steal money from American investors who still suffer under the delusion that stocks have intrinsic value in today's debt saturated economy.

   The Casino Gulag bounced back 600 points after the first fifteen minute bloodbath on Monday due primarily to the Federal Reserve's “Plunge Protection Team” printed millions of counterfeit monopoly money Federal Reserve Note dollars to buy back stock that should have been allowed to crash and burn under the weight over overvaluation and weak profits.  The “Plunge Protection” program is essentially a general assistance welfare program for stock market investors.

   The crash was eerily predicted just seven days earlier by John Ficenec in the London Telegraph where he wrote “Time is now rapidly running out.  From China to Brazil, the central banks have lost control and at the same time the global economy is grinding to a halt.  It is only a matter of time before stock markets collapse under the weight of their lofty expectations and record valuations.” (see “Doomsday Clock For Global Market Crash Strikes One Minute to Midnight,” The Telegraph, August 17, 2015)

   “When the banking crisis crippled global markets seven years ago, central bankers stepped in as lenders of last resort. Profligate private-sector loans were moved on to the public-sector balance sheet and vast money-printing gave the global economy room to heal,” The Guardian noted last week.

   China built its economy over the past decade by selling cheap household goods and electronics to Americans who purchased it with primarily credit card debt and refinanced bank loans.  The chickens have now come home to roost as the debt bubble created by the private, for profit “Federal Reserve” (which is not a branch of the U.S. government, but a private, for profit, organized crime counterfeit money banking syndicate) has reached its maximum inflation point and Americans simply can't absorb enough new debt to keep buying Chinese baubles.

   The slowdown in Chinese construction and its overall economy is reflected in the Baltic Dry Index (BDI) which is an indicator of economic health by taking into account the amount of goods being shipped across the shipping lanes of the world's oceans and the shipping rates charged.  The Shanghai Containerized Freight Index recently showed key shipping freight rates for transporting containers from ports in Asia to Northern Europe fell by 26.7 percent to $469 per 20-foot container (TEU) in the week ended on Friday.

   “Freight rates on the world’s busiest shipping route have tanked this year due to overcapacity in available vessels and sluggish demand in goods to be transported. Rates generally deemed profitable for shipping companies on the route are at about $800-$1,000 per TEU,” says a report at zerohedge.com.  “Other Europe-focused freight rates did even worse, with container freight rates from Asia to ports in the Mediterranean plunging 32.1%, while those to the US West and East coast slid by 7.9% and 9.9%, respectively.”

   As China's economic engine grinds to a halt, economies around the world that provide resources such as coal, iron, oil and lumber are seeing a slowdown in exports to that communist country, causing a ripple effect of global proportions.  For example, the benchmark iron ore price has fallen to $56 per ton, less than half of its $140 per ton price in January, 2014.

   “The great props to the world economy are now beginning to fall,” writes Ficenec in the previously cited Telegraph article.  “China is going into reverse.  And the emerging markets that consumed so many of our products are crippled by currency devaluation.  The famed Brics of Brazil, Russia, India, china and South Africa, to whom the West was supposed to pass on the torch of economic growth, are in varying states of disarray.”

   The recent drop into the sewer of the U.S. Stock market is due to a combination of weak profits, a world-wide economic depression and profit seekers who control the market deliberately dumping stocks on short sales in order to make massive amounts of money on the way down, then on the way back up again at the expense of the average middle class American investor who has not wised up and removed his money from that Casino environment, yet.

   By purchasing stocks with more of their artificially created monopoly money, the Federal Reserve bank continues to place American taxpayers on the hook for guaranteeing the profits of the mega-billionaire stock market investors who rig the market for their own gain.  The Federal Reserve has also pledged the “full faith and credit” of the American people against that last greatest financial boondoggle of 2008 where a derivatives ponzi scheme of Credit Default Swaps, Collateralized Debt Obligations and Structured Investment Vehicles costing over a quadrillion dollars - all being guaranteed by the U.S. taxpayer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Find more about Weather in Fort Fairfield, ME
Click for weather forecast

 

______________________________

 

Town and Country Advertising, from Scottsdale, Arizona is selling special events and holiday advertising packages in Fort Fairfield Journal.  To be included in these special feature ads, call 1-800-342-5299 or

e-mail: tgcorp@cox.net 

__________________________