UPDATE:
The market craters:
[...]
• After a decent start to markets, everything turned negative in anticipation of data from the US.
• And the data in the US did not disappoint the doomsayers. The ADP jobs report was a disaster, which is very inauspicious for Friday's Non-Farm Payrolls report. Later on the ISM clocked in with a sizable whiff, though everyone seemed to know the whiff was coming.
• Suddenly everyone was screaming QE3! Gold soared. Stocks tanked, signalling the belief that even if the Fed were inclined to do more easing, all the water has been squeezed from the stone, and that it would be purely inflationary without any benefit.
• On the corporate side of things, there were a few things of note. During the mid-day there was a rumor that Microsoft was going to buy Nokia's phone business for $19 billion, and that sent the stock sliding. Nokia itself briefly rallied, but then went back to getting killed. Luxury high-flyer Tiffany's fell hard after a Deutsche downgrade. Big automakers (Ford, GM, Toyota) got smashed in the face after reporting bad car sales for May. Dow blue chips like Bank of America and Caterpillar saw their stocks dive. All around, bad times. Oh, and the CEO of Juniper issued an earnings warning.[...] — MARKET CRATERS ON MOUNTAIN OF HORRIBLE NEWS
From one of the few blogs which should be bookmarked by anyone even half way serious about getting a grasp on reality:
Yastrow: “We Are on the Verge of a Great, Great Depression”
The news that frequent CNBC guest Peter Yastrow of Yastrow Origer (and formerly with DT Trading) told CNBC that "We’re on the verge of a great, great depression. The [Federal Reserve] knows it" is going viral today.
But this is not news to anyone who has been paying attention.
I provided details last month: As I noted in January, the housing slump is worse than during the Great Depression.
As CNN Money points out today:
Wal-Mart's core shoppers are running out of money much faster than a year ago due to rising gasoline prices, and the retail giant is worried, CEO Mike Duke said Wednesday.
"We're seeing core consumers under a lot of pressure," Duke said at an event in New York. "There's no doubt that rising fuel prices are having an impact."
Wal-Mart shoppers, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck, typically shop in bulk at the beginning of the month when their paychecks come in.
Lately, they're "running out of money" at a faster clip, he said.
"Purchases are really dropping off by the end of the month even more than last year," Duke said. "This end-of-month [purchases] cycle is growing to be a concern.
And – in case you still think that the 29% of Americans who think we're in a depression are unduly pessimistic – take a look at what I wrote last December:
The following experts have – at some point during the last 2 years – said that the economic crisis could be worse than the Great Depression:
• Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke
• Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan (and see this and this)
• Former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker
• Economics scholar and former Federal Reserve GovernorFredericMishkin
• The head of the Bank of England Mervyn King
• Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz
• Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman
• Former Goldman Sachs chairman John Whitehead
• Economics professors Barry Eichengreen and and Kevin H. O'Rourke (updated here)
• Investment advisor, risk expert and "Black Swan" authorNassim Nicholas Taleb
• Well-known PhD economist Marc Faber
• Morgan Stanley’s UK equity strategist Graham Secker
• Former chief credit officer at Fannie Mae Edward J. Pinto
• Billionaire investor George Soros
• Senior British minister Ed Balls
[...tons more, must read at source] — Washington's Blog
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