The great depression of 2008 – the mother of all depressions

[Svarupa]

 

 

The great depression of 2008 – the mother of all depressions

 

Can 'Hare Krishna' chant cure depression?

 

The Times of India/March 30, 2004

 

 

Kolkata -- The global Hare Krishna sect has floated a new wing to counsel students who are depressed, demoralised and even addicted to drugs.

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) sect, headquartered in West Bengal's Mayapur town, says distressed students are getting back their zest for life by chanting "Hare Krishna" and listening to regular religious discourses.

The sect's counseling centre, called the Youth Forum, is run at its premises in the city. "We started the forum a couple of months ago and the response has been tremendous," said ISKCON official Ananga Mohan Das.

The forum is now visited by about 176 students "and the number is growing by the day".

At these sessions, held every Sunday, students listen to discourses by ISKCON monks, chant hymns, meditate and discuss their problems with the monks.

"The students come from the best of colleges and universities and also from very reputed families," Das said.

Besides its endeavour with students, ISKCON is planning programmes for reformation in the state's jails.

The sect wants to conduct regular religious sessions in jails in the hope that it would awaken spirituality in convicts and make them better human beings.

The proposal, already submitted to the state government, is that ISKCON volunteers would introduce convicts to meditation and religious discourses.

ISKCON monks want to distribute Hindu religious texts such as the Bhagwad Gita and hold its readings regularly. They also want convicts to chant "Hare Krishna". ISKCON philosophy says a convict is not to be blamed for his crime, but it is society that is responsible because it could not impart the right lessons to the sinner.

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The following is an article by Pascal Molliere on the other depression the Krishnas can cure crashing all the stock markets around the world now in Oct 2008

Saturday 17th November 2007, 01:46

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2008 is set to be the darkest ever year in financial history according to Goldman Sachs – a new report claims.

The Times reports that the credit crunch is so serious that it may force the <?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = ST1 /><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION w:st="on">US</ST1:COUNTRY-REGION> banking system to cut lending by as much as $4,000 billion, prompting a “substantial recession” in the <ST1:PLACE w:st="on"><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION w:st="on">US</ST1:COUNTRY-REGION></ST1:PLACE>.

 

As much as $400 billion could be wiped out from the <ST1:COUNTRY-REGION w:st="on">US</ST1:COUNTRY-REGION> banking system prompting fears that the knock-on effect could spell an economic catastrophe on both sides of the <ST1:PLACE w:st="on">Atlantic</ST1:PLACE>.

 

The mass of defaults on high-risk home loans in America has emerged in greater detail over the last 3-4 months but more and more banks and lending institutions are having to own up to the full extent of their losses as the financial world is being rocked to it’s core with the sheer scale of the financial melt-down.

 

Mr Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs estimates that with every $1 dollar in losses, equates to the inability of highly leveraged Wall Street lending by $10, as they typically aim for a so-called capital ratio of 10 per cent.

 

“If leveraged investors see $200 billion of the $400 billion aggregate credit loss, they might need to scale back their lending by $2 trillion,” Mr Hatzius said.

 

Mr Hatzius’s actual prediction of a $400 billion write-off would reduce lending by $4,000 billion.

 

“The likely mortgage credit losses pose a significantly bigger macroeconomic risk than generally recognised. It is easy to see how such a shock could produce a substantial recession,” Mr Hatzius said.

 

“While the uncertainty is huge, the associated downward pressure on lending raises the risk of significant weakness in economic activity.”

 

Goldman’s forecast predicts further disastrous consequences for global economy, sighting numerous factors such as the cost of the war in <ST1:PLACE w:st="on"><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION w:st="on">Iraq</ST1:COUNTRY-REGION></ST1:PLACE>, record oil prices, sub-prime defaults and growing unemployment.

 

“The potential for an economic implosion and subsequent world recession is huge and could surpass the biggest financial crash in history of that of the Great Depression”.

 

Billions were wiped off the world financial system in the 1920’s / 30’s. This period was known as ‘The Great Depression’ (also known in the <ST1:COUNTRY-REGION w:st="on"><ST1:PLACE w:st="on">U.K.</ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION> as the Great Slump). This was the most dramatic of worldwide economic downturns in history.

 

It all started with the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday. The depression had devastating effects in both the industrialised countries and those which exported raw materials.

 

With similar beginnings to the current crisis, the Great Depression was not a sudden total collapse but more of a slow burning fuse that sparked a sequence of major financial catastrophes across the <ST1:PLACE w:st="on"><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION w:st="on">US</ST1:COUNTRY-REGION></ST1:PLACE> and subsequently around the globe.

 

The stock market had suffered losses due to the October 1929 crash – not too dissimilar to the Northern Rock and the Sub-Prime mortgage crisis of today.

 

Having faced severe losses from the initial crash, consumerism plunged dramatically and a severe drought ravaged the agricultural heartland of the <ST1:PLACE w:st="on"><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION w:st="on">USA</ST1:COUNTRY-REGION></ST1:PLACE> beginning in the summer of 1930.

 

Credit was ample and available to sub-prime borrowers at low rates and few were reluctant to avoid borrowing. By May 1930, vehicle sales had declined to below the levels of 1928. Oil prices had risen sharply while retail values in general began to decline.

 

Wages began to drop in 1931. Conditions were worst in farming areas where commodity prices plunged, and in mining and logging areas where unemployment was high and there were few other jobs. The decline in the American economy was the motor that pulled down most other countries at first, then internal weaknesses or strengths in each country made conditions worse or better. By late in 1930, a steady decline set in which reached bottom by March 1933.

 

Many experts and scholars believe that it was the fault of governments and the banking institutions who were to blame for the great depression. It was said that the problems began with excessive lending and a blatant disregard for cheap loans.

 

Massive bank failures were largely to blame for the great depression and the stock market crash of the 1930’s, huge layoffs occurred, resulting in unemployment rates of over 25%. Banks which had financed a lot of bad debt began to fail as debtors defaulted on debt and bank depositors became worried about their deposits and began massive withdrawals.

 

Government guarantees and Federal Reserve banking regulations to prevent these types of panics were ineffective or not used. Bank failures led to the evaporation of billions of dollars in assets. Up to 40% of the available money supply normally used for purchases and bank payments was destroyed by all these bank failures.

 

By 1933, depositors saw $140 billion of their deposits disappear due to uninsured bank failures. Bank failures snowballed as desperate bankers tried calling in loans which the borrowers did not have time or money to repay. With future profits looking poor, capital investment and construction slowed or completely ceased. In the face of bad loans and worsening future prospects, the surviving banks became even more conservative in their lending. Banks built up their capital reserves, which intensified deflationary pressures. The vicious cycle developed and the downward spiral accelerated. This kind of self-aggravating process may have turned a 1930 recession into a 1933 great depression.

 

There are frightening similarities in the current situation in the <ST1:COUNTRY-REGION w:st="on">US</ST1:COUNTRY-REGION> and in <ST1:COUNTRY-REGION w:st="on"><ST1:PLACE w:st="on">Britain</ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION>. Once again, a banking crisis is threatening to undermine a global economy. Banks are too late in tightening the credit purse strings. There will be no more easy money, on the contrary, there will be very little money at all – and even the regular credit cards, bank overdrafts and small loans will be harder to get hold of as there simply is no money to lend out.

 

In addition to making it much harder to secure a mortgage or loan, such a dramatic decline in lending would hamper the ability of consumers to borrow money to finance smaller purchases such as cars, televisions and washing machines.

 

Since two-thirds of the <ST1:COUNTRY-REGION w:st="on"><ST1:PLACE w:st="on">US</ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION> economy is driven by consumer spending, this will hit retailers and other companies particularly hard. Businesses will also be deterred from borrowing money to invest and will be less able to stave off looming redundancies, putting further pressure on the <ST1:COUNTRY-REGION w:st="on"><ST1:PLACE w:st="on">US</ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION> economy.

 

Goldman’s prediction comes after Wall Street firms such as Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley have collectively reported more than $50 billion in losses on investments related to sub-prime mortgages.

 

It follows the US Federal Reserve’s second cash infusion of the month on Thursday, when it injected $47.25 billion into the financial system, the largest since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 .

 

The latest injection was administered two weeks after the Fed injected $41 billion, as the fallout from the housing crisis gathered momentum.

 

There is no end in sight and with other countries economies clearly suffering in tandem with the <ST1:COUNTRY-REGION w:st="on"><ST1:PLACE w:st="on">US</ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION>, there is growing fear that this could be the mother of all recessions.

[Bishadi]

Question: is Goldman sachs the new prophetic teacher of audarya?

 

With all that spiritual guidance?

 

Do any remember Ronald Reagan? The cold war? The method of rekindling the US economy by the mass production of war toys?

 

Shhhh! Perhaps no ideas of such should be put into print.

[Bishadi]

how about another view;

 

we all know kali right?

 

and we can all see the descriptions of kali in the old works?

 

if kali was dying; would wall street represent it?

 

would the global economy feel it?

 

welcome to the party!

[suchandra]

 

 

The great depression of 2008 – the mother of all depressions

 

Can 'Hare Krishna' chant cure depression?

 

 

Not sure if this can be called depression when money is stolen, this is rather called a theft - the great theft of 2008 would be a better description.

 

Ok they did a got job - all this money was siphoned off from US banks and offshored to anonymous banks somewhere else and nobody in US raising suspicion that there could be something terribly wrong. This is after all good convincing work. All people actually believe, yes, billions have vanished into thin air, ended in smoke, to go 'poof!'

 

Even writing articles, it is proven, The great depression of 2008 – the mother of all depressions and all people believe it, yes, it is fact. This is after all pretty good convincing work.