The terrible confluence

A confluence is a meeting or joining of two or more things, or the place where that joining or meeting takes place. Our world economy and markets are currently in the midst of a terrible confluence. Unlike previous crisis, several huge factors are simultaneously at play:
- Real estate price collapse (began in the USA, starting to develop in the UK, Spain and may quickly develop elsewhere)
- Financial liquidity crisis (started domestically, but spreading fast into the rest of the world) and relatively low interest rates leaving central banks limited options
- Skyrocketing commodities and food prices
- Unaffordable and costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
- Widespread globalization with a level-playing field that will drag income down in the so-called “developed countries.”
What have the US (both the Administration and the Congress) and the other “G8” governments done in the face of that “perfect storm?” Strictly nothing; they seem like passengers watching their own train wreck in slow motion and somehow enjoying the spectacle…