Let the free press die?

Journals ranging from Time, The New Yorker, The Atlantic and The New Republic to the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times concur on the diagnosis: newspapers, as we have known them, are disintegrating and are possibly on the verge of extinction. (Source.)

Newspapers are increasingly filing bankruptcy. Why is there no clamour to bail them out? Can government do that? Perhaps the government would be better off if some of the free press went away?

What can’t be paid, won’t be paid

Recently in the news:

The Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, made an unprecedented TV appearance on 60 Minutes last night. (WashingtonPost.com)

President Barack Obama will take his economic strategy to Jay Leno's comic couch on Thursday in the first appearance by a sitting U.S. president on a late-night TV talk show. (Source.)

Here is what they will NOT tell you:

What can’t be paid, won’t be paid.

The total American debt of $75 trillion ($250,000 for every American man, woman and child) is too great to ever be repaid in full. As a nation, we can’t pay our debts; not all of ‘em; not even most of ‘em. Individuals are currently holding [paper] debt instruments with a number like “$10,000,” “$100,000” or “$1 million” written on them and believe that those pieces of paper are assets actually worth their declared face value. (Source.)

Those waiting to hear the "D" word from economic experts, talking heads and TV anchors before taking action will most certainly regret their indecisiveness.

By the way, Anglo American has sold its remaining 11.3 percent stake in South Africa's AngloGold Ashanti for around $1.3 billion to Paulson & Co, the hedge fund run by John Paulson. You know, John Paulson, the same guy who shorted subprime two years ago and made an unearthly fortune.

Trust me . . . "This is your captain speaking, everyone remain calm, everything is under control."

Global trade collapsing

The global economy is likely to shrink this year for the first time since World War II, and trade will decline by the most in 80 years, the World Bank said this week. "The global volume of trade has collapsed," said Christopher Low, chief economist at FTN Financial.

U.S. gross domestic product is forecast to contract again this quarter after shrinking at a 6.2 percent annual pace from October to December, the most since 1982. U.S. imports and exports both slumped for a sixth straight month in January in what may be the biggest collapse of world trade since the 1930s, raising the threat of protectionist measures to shield domestic industries. The figures may add to pressure on the Obama administration to rework international agreements and include protections for U.S. workers and the environment. (Source.)

Japan's economy in trouble

Japan's 4Q GDP revision confirms deep recession
Japan's economy shrank a bit less than first estimated in the fourth quarter, but the revised government data Thursday is hardly good news, serving only to underscore the increasingly grim picture for the world's second-largest economy. Export demand has collapsed, corporate profits are swerving into losses, and job losses are accelerating nationwide amid Japan's steepest slump since the end of World War II. Analysts say the current downturn — and the response of Japanese companies to it — have combined into a new kind of recession, that's swifter and deeper than ever before. "The Japanese economy was simply collapsing and nose-diving toward the end of last year," said Kyohei Morita, chief economist at Barclays Capital in Tokyo.

Mexico: governed soon by a drug cartel?

Mexico: A Collapse Update

Predicting the collapse of the Mexican Nation-State. Mexico is once again in the headlines. Oil production continues to fall, border violence is up, and the government is preparing for a showdown with the drug cartels. The Mexican state will collapse, ushering in the beginning of the end of the Nation-State. The US military’s Joint Forces Command issued their Joint Operating Environment 2008 report recently that listed Mexico and Pakistan as the most likely states to collapse in the immediate future (PDF, see p.35 for analysis of Mexico). Even 60 minutes ran a segment about the rising drug violence. Root causes of the problems in Mexico are the precipitous decline of Mexican oil production, declining remittance incomes being sent home by migrant workers in America, declining tourist revenues, and lower revenue per barrel of oil exported. Clearly the drug cartels smell blood—-and tactics like forcing the resignation of the Juarez police chief by killing one or more police officers every 48 hours demonstrate their desire for a decisive engagement. Additionally, the motivation behind a recent truce among rival drug cartels may be to facilitate a joint offensive against the government.

Overt Ops: : The US military has briefed the president on the US military capability to influence or intervene, presumably on the side of the government, in the growing civil war between the Mexican government and the drug cartels that control large portions of the country.

According to the The Washington Post, March 22, 2009, "Obama Pledges American Agents to Fight Mexican Drug Cartels. President Obama is finalizing plans to move federal agents, equipment and other resources to the border with Mexico to support Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s campaign against violent drug cartels." (Source.)