This past week I went to my local lube and car wash. The manager and I were talking while I was waiting on my vehicle to be washed. He told me that a year ago they would do anywhere between 80 and 100 oil changes in a typical day. But, with the rising fuel prices business has dropped to an average of somewhere between 50 and 60. As for car washes, he said that they were doing upwards of 400 a day. At present, business has dropped to between 60 and 100 per day.

Quelle: US Toxic Economy and the Questionable Stock Market Advance :: The Market Oracle :: Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting Free Website

Amerika ist das größte Sicherheitsrisiko für die globalen Finanzmärkte.

[…] Von 2002 bis 2007 stieg das Verhältnis von Ausleihungen zu haftendem Kapital bei den großen Fünf von 30:1 auf 41:1. Soll heißen: 41 Dollar Schulden waren mit einem Dollar eigenem Geld gesichert.

Quelle: SPIEGEL ONLINE – Druckversion – Globale Finanzkrise: Warum die Wall Street ein schlechtes Vorbild ist – Wirtschaft

The Fed has gone from being a balancing (liquidity) mechanism to being a funding (equity) mechanism, and what’s worse, the collateral they are holding may not be worth the amount of loan they have outstanding.

Quelle: Market Ticker

Soon, as credit card delinquencies rise and losses on pools of securitized credit card debt mount, those supplying the credit will finally get wise to the fact they will never get their money back. As a result the market for such debt will dry up even more quickly than did the market for subprime mortgages. Cards will therefore be much harder to come by and will have much lower limits then they do today. Limited to only the cash in their wallets, Americans will finally be forced to dramatically curtail their spending, and the recession will finally gather serious momentum.

Quelle: Credit Card Debt Ticking Time Bomb