They drank it all up

(In the 1924 congressional hearings over the Teapot Dome scandal, in which Sen. Albert Fall was convicted of accepting bribes for oil-drilling rights to public lands in Wyoming and California, the senator stated... it was to say ‘Sir, if you have a milkshake and I have a milkshake and my straw reaches across the room, I’ll end up drinking your milkshake.' -AM)

Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire investor George Soros said the U.S. economic recovery will be sluggish as “basically bankrupt” financial companies and indebted consumers impede it.

“The U.S. will be very slow in recovery,” Soros said in a panel discussion in Istanbul, where the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank begin tomorrow. “The United States has a long way to go.”

“Europe has been less damaged,” Soros said today. The European Central Bank may be faster than the Federal Reserve to start withdrawing stimulus, he said, adding that it is “too early, certainly for the United States,” for policy makers to start reversing their emergency measures.

Policy makers may struggle to revamp the regulation of the financial system now that the economy and markets are recovering, he said. “It will be very difficult to accomplish,” he said. “The crash of 2008 now seems like a bad dream and people like to treat it like a bad dream and forget about it and get back to business as usual."

('Basically bankrupt' sounds like a bland comedy on Fox.'Basically Bankrupt' in a kapitalist country. Still its' a more 'gentle' label while being consistent with his April prediction. -AM)

REPOST w/comments
MONDAY, APRIL 6, 2009

Wall Street drank our milkshake

(Failure to liquidate insolvent banksters has of course caused and will continue to cause the liquidation of the productive economy. There is no free lunch. -AM)

By: Reuters | 06 Apr 2009 | 04:49 PM ET

The U.S. economy is in for a "lasting slowdown" and could face a Japan-style period of relatively low growth coupled with high inflation, billionaire investor George Soros said on Monday.

Soros, speaking to Reuters Financial Television, also warned that rescuing U.S. banks could turn them into "zombies" that draw the lifeblood of the economy, prolonging the economic slowdown.

"I don't expect the U.S. economy to recover in the third or fourth quarter so I think we are in for a pretty lasting slowdown," Soros said, adding that in 2010 there might be "something" in terms of U.S. growth.

Soros' view contrasts with the majority of economists, who expect the U.S. economy to stop contracting in the third quarter and resume growing in the fourth quarter, according to the latest monthly poll of forecasts conducted by Reuters.

The recovery will look like "an inverted square root sign," Soros said. "You hit bottom and you automatically rebound some, but then you don't come out of it in a V-shape recovery or anything like that. You settle down—step down."

The healing of the banking system and housing markets is crucial to recovery. "The banking system, as a whole, is basically insolvent," Soros said.

(The only thing more stunning than the fact that he still feels the need to say this is the fact that folks still barf up the pablum narrative that this is a liquidity problem. Truly the collective consciousness have eyes but they cannot see.-AM)