Yes, but in a decade, the US will definitely lose Mexico and the UK as suppliers completely. That's 10% right there. We'll likely lose several other mpd of supply as well, not to mention our own dwindling reserves. There's a good chance that in 10 years, our only suppliers will be Canada and ME OPEC nations. This will cause a great dependence for us on them, giving them leverage. Well, leverage enough to say "Don't kill us for oil. We'll get it for you in exchange for food/water."

Just because we'll be using less, doesn't mean we won't need any, nor that our supply situation will remain constant.

---

You bring up a good point though in that another reason they may be buying up our banks and other institutions is to protect themselves from attacks by us. If they hold a stake in our economy, then we're unlikely to engage in radical decision-making, lest it hurt our already fragile system.

Although, I don't know why it's the Singaporeans that are investing and not the Saudis...

Hell, there's a good chance that within ten days the truckers will stop rolling. No food distribution. . .

Very odd story...

Last week Monday I was at a large bank...opening a new account...

I looked out the window from the desk I was at and saw a UBS branch across the street.

I asked my banker if UBS was "still around"...

He looked at me like I was half cocked...and said ..."ummmm yeah"...

Yeah ok...

Whatever you say.

A lot of people kept credit cards with zero balance for a "rainy day." I had one with Bank of America that was paid off and zero balance. I went to get some cash from it and it was canceled. Another card had a ten thousand dollar line of credit on which I had a three thousand dollar balance. That one got canceled too. I've got a few cards that still work, but for how long I don't know.

They are already pumping oil out off the coast of Florida... They will get their investment back and then some.

Are we allowed to drill there, yet?

Heard that Congress let the bill that disallowed drilling expire, so I'd suppose that with no current laws *blocking* it, it is *allowed* now, n'est-ce pas?

There are ranges of possibility. I think 50 miles or less from the coast, you need the state's permission from the legislative branch. Between 50 and 200, it's now open. 200 and out was always open, IIRC.



I had no idea that Citigroup, which the Singaporeans bought, drilled for oil and gas. XOM has a market cap more than four times Citigroup. They'd be better served with buying up 2% of XOM than 10% of Citigroup. Unless XOM is planning on building sub-prime housing out in the ocean...

I fully agree with that. They should be buying companies with real tangible physical assets instead of companies with toxic paper assets.

I was looking for suitable photos to describe Singapore's recent collapse of 34.8% in the exports figures.

I found this one of cargo ships sitting idle in the Singapore harbour area, dozens of them as far as the eye can see. This is a good one :



Picture telling a thousand words and all that.

More good stuff :

Carriers use idle ships to store empty boxes

Another one that gives us some idea of the number of ships involved :

Idle boxship capacity tops 1.1m teu



So that's roughly 400 of these guys :

Wow. Great photo. Thanks for the report from Singapore.

Bloomberg

Don't I remember a while back one of the economic pundits here at the time, since departed, touting the sustainability of Singapore and its fabulous economic strength with the semi conductor industry? I can;t remember who it was though.

Anyhow, a 9% decline in the economy there is absolutely astounding, and a real Canary in the Coal Mine as far as the Industrial Exporting economies of Asia are concerned. It is a real bad sign for both China and Japan of course. At this rate of decline, any trade surplus they had and any FOREX they hold will evaporate inside 6 months, meaning basically that even the FLUSH nations with all the production machinery people here bemoan the loss of are gonna be as bankrupt as the debtor nations. How can we borrow from bankrupt nations? Is that possible? Think the IMF will come up with a scheme for this?

Its my hypothesis that right now, as we speak, there is not a single country in the world that is solvent, because of massive asset deflation. Basically, none of the infrastructure from Factories to McMansions is worth what its priced at. The Fed can print more currency, but it can't make these assets worth buying at anything but a firesale price. There is no clear way to make a profit off them once you buy them, because first off the cost of production of anything right now exceeds the price you might sell it at, and second you are rapidly losing any market to sell your products to, because unemployed people can't afford to buy them at ANY price.

Deflation is clearly leading Inflation in the race to the bottom at the moment, and at the pace its going I just don't think its possible to run the printing press fast enough or move the money out into the hands of the consumers fast enough to stop the collapse of the asset values.

Contrary to what you are being fed by the MSM and George Soros, the Bottom is nowhere in sight here as of yet. Singapore is going down the toilet at the Speed of Light, and about everyone else is following along in the same direction. We'll all be swimming in the cesspool together pretty soon.

Reverse Engineer

1. Note that the 9% rate is the lower end of the "current forecast" for the year.

2. Note that 11.5% is the *actual* year-on-year GDP contraction for Q1 2009 :



3. Maybe this thread could go under "Asia Discussion".

4. Nope I wasn't that tout.

5. Sure sucks to be an export-oriented economy in a global depression.

6. At an official rate of GDP contraction of over 10% I *am* calling it a depression.

7. Hallelujah.

I knew for sure when I went through there last week. 1st the usually sus as hell security were completely absent minded. People were smoking under NO SMOKING signs with long hair and all.
Worst was the best restaurant in the airport, the old mixed one at budget terminal had been caved to make room for a farking MACCAS!!! I was livid!
Given though that wages in Singapore are triple what they are anywhere else in that part of the world they have a fairly long way to fall although far less than the USA. Rents are outrageous, not far off NYC.