The Borromeo Family Website

My 5 books in 13 editions include the titles 1) “Volkswagen: a Car for the People / Volkswagen: ein Wagen für das Volk” (405 pages), 2)“Scale Model Collectible Cars” (368 pages), 3 and 4) “The German and the Austrian Navies: Volume Number One & Volume Number Two / Die Deutsche und die Österreichische Marine: Band Nummer Eins und Band Nummer Zwei” (440 pages and 346 pages, respectively) and 5) “The Borromeo Family of Cebu” (265 pages).  Important economic updates (to my VW book) and geopolitical updates (to my book on the German & Austrian Navies) are to be found on this page – please scroll to the bottom to read the most recent updates.  The same updates are to be found on my Facebook.com page (for 4,627 friends and groups) and a more detailed update is available via e-mail subscription – just write in to our site to join the list of 1,180 subscribers.  Here is the latest press release for my books on the German and the Austrian Navies: http://www.prnewschannel.com/2012/01/24/complete-listing-of-every-german-naval-vessel-to-ever-sail-also-explores-importance-of-sea-born-trade-to-european-world-history/.

At least 210 million books and editions of books have been published throughout the history of the world (with unique ISBN or “International Standard Book Numbers”).  Amazon sells 149 million book titles among 427 million unique products (SKUs) on its 10 global sites in the USA, Canada, the UK, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, Japan and China.  My new CreateSpace books on the German-Austrian Navies and on VW are written in both English and German text.  All of these books have more material, new information, more illustrations, better editing and cost less compared to my earlier books released through PublishAmerica.  I have 65 books for sale on 9 national Amazon sites in the USA, Canada, UK, Germany, Austria, France, Spain, Italy and Japan and 8 books on sale through Barnes & Noble.  CreateSpace did the professional Amazon Kindle versions of the Borromeo book (released on April 7, 2011) and the second Scale Model Collectible Car book (released on April 16, 2011) and Innodata-Isogen/Authorlink did the bilingual English-German Kindle conversions (MSRP of my Kindle books are $9.99 each, except for Volume 2 of my German-Austrian Navy book, which sells for $8.99).  I have 146 products at 30 top retail outlets, 19 of which are on the best-seller list (top 3 percent of retail products) in the USA, the UK, Canada, Germany, Austria and France.  My books are also for sale in India, Australia, Denmark, South Africa and the Netherlands.  I’ve had 592 favorable reviews for all of my books on 8 national Amazon sites in the USA, Canada, the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Austria, 2 favorable reviews on The Samba (a VW site), 488 favorable reviews sent to this site (The Borromeo Family) and 215 favorable reviews on my Facebook book-album pages.   This new page (online since 2010) has received 1,185 visits to date.  Thank you very much for your interest and for your visits!

1) “Volkswagen: a Car for the People / Volkswagen: ein Wagen für das Volk” (ISBN 978-1460922828 published through CreateSpace of Santa Cruz, California) -  MSRP = $19.99 paperback and both the professional Amazon Kindle E-Book ASIN B004WDZNTE and Barnes & Noble NOOKbook e-book editions with working Internet links retail for just $9.99:  details the corporate history of the Volkswagen Group of Germany, from the engineer of the original Volkswagen Beetle Sedan (Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, Sr.) to the highly successful business group the world knows today with the diverse name brands of Volkswagen, Audi, SEAT, Skoda, Bentley, Lamborghini, Bugatti, MAN, Scania, Porsche and Suzuki.  Volkswagen is the most successful auto group on earth, but when it was founded few people would have thought this possible.  Discover how one company succeeds where most others have failed and continue to fail.  Find out about the causes behind the current global financial crisis. This is especially pertinent in today’s harsh economic environment.  The illustrations for this book have the official endorsement of the largest air-cooled VW enthusiast site in the world: www.thesamba.com (the Samba is administered by Everett Barnes, is based in Phoenix, Arizona and has received 75 million individual visitors, 279 million visits and 4.9 BILLION page views since it was established in 1996).  My first book on Volkswagen is now part of the official historical archives of Volkswagen A.G. in Wolfsburg, Germany (as of March 25, 2011).  My Volkswagen book is on the Amazon “Bestseller” list in the USA, the UK, Canada, France, Germany and Austria (top 3 percent of retail products).  I have had the opportunity to personally autograph and dedicate 188 copies of the VW book.  This book has been read by 32,728 people in either paperback form, as an e-book or on this site.  The title gets more than 9,7 million daily “hits” on Google.

This book is featured on 66 websites in 22 countries including the USA (PublishAmerica, Amazon, E-Campus, Student Store, Groovy Mel’s VW Books, Barnes & Noble, The Samba and Bigger Books), the UK (Amazon and The Dub Directory), Canada (Amazon), Australia (Booktopia), the EU, Germany (Amazon), Denmark (Saxo Butik and Bogpriser), France (Amazon), Austria, Switzerland, Italy, the Czech Republic, Taiwan (Search Books), Japan (Amazon, Book Web Pro and Kinokuniya Company, Limited), the Philippines, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, New Zealand, India (NBC India and U-Read), South Africa (I Want It All) and South Korea (Interpark and Book Nate).  It is featured on the Facebook pages of Volkswagen-Japan, Audi A.G. (a Volkswagen subsidiary company and the most popular luxury car brand in the entire world), Skoda Auto (another VW subsidiary company and the largest industrial concern in the Czech Republic), The College of William and Mary in Virginia (my graduate business M.B.A. Alma Mater) and the South Tyrolian Peoples Party (the governing party of the autonomous German-speaking province in Northeastern Italy).  It is also featured on enthusiast websites for Volkswagen, Porsche, Tatra, BMW, Opel and the Austro-Hungarian Navy, as well as on blogs for Canadian Auto Insurance and the Detroit International Auto Show.

2) “Scale Model Collectible Cars” (ISBN 978-1460915028 published through CreateSpace of Santa Cruz, California) - MSRP = $19.99 paperback and the professionally-done Amazon Kindle E-book edition (ISBN 978-1-61397-281-6 and ASIN B004WSXFLM) retails for just $9.99: discusses the highly popular British scale-model car brands of Matchbox and Dinky (owned by Mattel, Inc. of the United States) plus those of Corgi, Lledo, Jouef and Tomica (owned by Corgi Toys of the United Kingdom).  Other brands such as Minichamps of Germany, Schuco of Germany, Schabak of Germany, Wiking of Germany, IXO-IST of China, Brekina of Germany and BUB-Premium Classixx of Germany are also discussed.  Corporate history, marketing history and many past model catalogues are discussed for both Matchbox and Corgi.  This book has the endorsement of Martyn Weaver, Corgi Marketing Manager for Hornby Hobbies of the United Kingdom, which in turn owns numerous toy brands including Scalextric, Hornby, Corgi, Airfix, Humbrol, Rivarossi, Slot-It, Flyslot, Lledo and Jouef.  My toy book is featured on Internet sites in the USA, the UK, Canada, Germany, Austria, France, Australia, Japan, India, the Philippines and South Africa.  My Scale Model Collectible Car book is on the Amazon “Bestseller” list in the USA, the UK, Germany and Austria (top 3 percent of retail products).  I have had the opportunity to personally autograph and dedicate 91 copies of the Scale Model Collectible Car book.  This book has been read by 7,478 people in either paperback form, as an e-book or on this site.  The title gets more than 5,7 million daily “hits” on Google.

3) “The German and the Austrian Navies: Volume Number One & Volume Number Two / Die Deutsche und die Österreichische Marine: Band Nummer Eins und Band Nummer Zwei” (Volume One ISBN 978-1456573027 and Volume Two ISBN 978-1461013372 both published through CreateSpace of Santa Cruz, California) - MSRP = $19.99 paperback for Volume One and $18.99 paperback for Volume Two.  Professionally done E-book versions of both volumes are also available - $9.99 for Volume 1 and $8.99 for Volume 2 on  www.amazon.com and on www.barnesandnoble.com as well: deals specifically with more than 1,930 unique warships from German-speaking Europe starting with the Hanseatic League of the Middle Ages and moving forward in time to include the navies of Brandenburg-Prussia, the Germanic Confederation, the North German Federation, Bismarckian-Wilhelmine Germany, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, the former East Germany, the modern Federal Republic of Germany, Venice, Austria, Austria-Hungary and the river fleet of the modern Republic of Austria.  This is by far the most comprehensive such catalogue of vessels ever published.  The historical context of the German state and Central Europe are also discussed; one will discover how they are related to European and global history through the noble families of Europe.  This book makes fascinating and pertinent reading in a modern world where Germany owns the second largest merchant fleet and heads the largest economy.  This book is endorsed by Captain (CA) George J. Albert, Jr. of the California Center for Military History in Eureka, California (part of the U.S. Army).  This book is featured on 29 websites in 8 countries including Germany, Austria, the USA, the UK, Italy, Switzerland, Russia and the Philippines.  My German & Austrian Navy books are on the Amazon “Bestseller” list in the USA, the UK, Germany and Austria (top 3 percent of retail products).  I have had the opportunity to personally autograph and dedicate 159 copies of the German-Austrian Navy book, which enjoys 760 reviews on the Internet.  These books have been read by 213,991 people in either paperback form, as an e-book or on this site.  The titles get more than 5,3 million daily “hits” on Google.  Here again is the latest press release for my German and Austrian Navy books: http://www.prnewschannel.com/2012/01/24/complete-listing-of-every-german-naval-vessel-to-ever-sail-also-explores-importance-of-sea-born-trade-to-european-world-history/.

4) “The Borromeo Family of Cebu” (ISBN 978-1460908082 published through CreateSpace of Santa Cruz, California) - available on www.amazon.com for the MSRP of $17.99 paperback and the professional Amazon Kindle E-book edition is now available for just $9.99: discusses the Borromeo family in the Philippines, which was established there in 1744.  The main Philippine branches of the family were established in 1744 (in Cavite on Luzon), in 1769 (in Iloilo on Panay), in 1794 (in Bacolod on Negros) and finally in 1819 in Cebu City.  Special sections include a brief history of the Philippines, a family genealogy, the history of the Borromeo Group of Companies, the Cebuano Prayer Book by my late maternal grandmother Anunciacion Bonjoc Rallos de Borromeo and the story of my late maternal grandfather Judge Andrés Borromeo y Reynes.  The link with the Vitaliani-Borromeo family of Padua, Naples and Milan in Italy is also discussed.  Other notable branches of the modern Borromeo family include those in Argentina, India, on the Island of Corsica (“Borromei”) and Brazil (“Borromeu”).  This book was released on March 11, 2011.  My Borromeo book is featured by the Borromeo Country Hotel in Milan, Italy (located just 5 convenient minutes from the Linate International Airport in Milan).  It is on the Amazon “Bestseller” list in the USA (top 3 percent of retail products).  I have had the opportunity to personally autograph and dedicate 46 copies of the Borromeo Family book, which enjoys 738 reviews on the Internet.  This book has been read by 364,386 people in either paperback form, as an e-book or on this site.  ”The Borromeo Family of Cebu” gets more than 17,000 daily ”hits” on Google.

Endorsements of “Volkswagen: the Peoples’ Car” by Marc E. Nonnenkamp:

1.) Frederic Saint Amour II (author of “Corporate Infantry: Everything I know about Corporate Sales I learned in Combat”).

2.) “New Line Equity Pre-Foreclosure Acquisition Services.”

3.) Jeff Noel (“BMW Automotive Blog”).

4.) “Car Insurance Information Blog.”

5.) Victor Keith and Greg Frost (authors of “Peak Confidence – High Converting Confidence Building System”).

6.) Rusty Norris (“Fast Saturday Links” Blog Archive).

7.) Joseph Chambers (author of “Custom Car Interior Secrets – Ultimate Guide to Car Upholstery”).

8.) Mark Sykes (Editor-in-Chief, the “Athena Press”).

9.) Horst Nonnenkamp (“Naturfreunde Touristenverein” of Barsinghausen, Germany).

10.)  Everett Barnes (administrator of the huge VW enthusiast site www.thesamba.com).

11.) Volkswagen A.G. Historical Communications Department in Wolfsburg, Germany.

Endorsements of “Named Vessels of the German and the Austro-Hungarian Navies” by Marc E. Nonnenkamp:

1.) Captain George J. Albert, Jr. (California Center for Military History).

2.) Hermann Landmeyer (Marineortungsschule MOS, Militärschule Bremerhaven of the Federal German Navy).

3.) Mario Wegmann (Marinefliegergeschwader 3 “Graf Zeppelin” Nordholz – Naval Air Wing of the Federal German Navy).

4.) Deutscher Marinebund E.V. (German Naval League of Kiel, Germany – founded in 1891 by Kaiser Wilhelm II and Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz).

5.) Südtiroler Volkspartei (Christian Democratic South Tyrolian Peoples’ Party of the German, Ladin and Romansch ethnic minorities of Northeastern Italy, founded in 1946).

6.) Junge Generation in der Südtiroler Volkspartei (Christian Democratic youth organization of the South Tyrolian Peoples’ Party – membership open to people under the age of 30).

7.) Alexander Traiber of www.kuk-kriegsmarine.at (“Friends of Historical Ships” Society of Austria).

8.) Michael Emmerich of www.german-navy.de, which has received more than 18 million visitors to date.

Financial Update (February 3, 2012)

The equity markets are very close to reaching what will likely be their “best” top (or high value) for the coming 90 years.  The Dow came within 35 points of its May 2, 2011 high of 12,876 on January 26 (Thursday), and lost 401 points or 3.1% intraday by January 30 (Monday).  It went back up to 12,869 this morning (within 7 points of the May 2011 high).  The most ferocious phase of the crash will likely commence within the first quarter of 2012.  When this occurs, we could see daily losses of 50 points in the S&P 500 Index and 900 points in the Dow Jones 30 Industrial Index.  The nominal target “goal” for the Dow is below 1,000 before the end of 2012, which will equal a nominal loss of 94 percent in just 5 years.  In terms of gold (the only true global currency) the Dow has lost 87 percent of its real value since 1999.  Its nominal loss will soon equal this real loss of purchasing power.  Here’s another sobering fact: the Dow’s real value in terms of gold is no higher in 2012 than it was all the way back in 1926 – 86 years ago.  All asset classes with the exception of the U.S. Dollar will crash to the ground over the coming 5 years – stocks, corporate bonds, municipal bonds, most foreign currencies, commodities (energy, precious metals, food, livestock and industrial materials), collectibles and real property.  GDP, paid employment, tax receipts and the modern social welfare state (government) will collapse along with them.

One possible leading indicator is the Baltic Dry Index, which fell a massive 60 percent in January 2012 alone.  This index measures shipping costs for container vessels.  90 percent of all goods worldwide are moved by water, and consumer demand is simply collapsing throughout the northern hemisphere.  Official US unemployment fell to 8.3 percent in January 2012, but that is not the real story.  A record 1.2 million people left the labor force in January, which is the worst figure for one month.  With such a high rate of job losses, the USA would have absolutely no jobs whatsoever in 10 years and 3 months from now.  11 million Americans now live outside of the USA, with 6.5 million of these being younger people under the age of 35.  We are losing people at the rate of about 170,000 per month, and the State Department has imposed a penalty of $450 for renouncing US citizenship.  Such moves are fruitless, as they have been in places such as the former East Germany, Argentina and communist Cuba.  In fact, Eastern Germany is still losing people to Western Germany 22 years after German reunification in 1990.

The economy (especially manufacturing) is literally dying out, which means that the country is dying out.  US housing starts are at their lowest level since 1922 (90 years ago) and in per capita terms (because the US population is now 3 times as large as it was 90 years ago) housing starts are at their lowest level since 1899, or 113 years ago.

Mortgage foreclosures are booming, up 25 percent from 2011.  Wide areas of Detroit, Cleveland, Las Vegas and the entire state of Florida are already vacant.  US real estate prices, both residential and commercial, are down 42 percent since 2004.  By 2017 the cumulative loss in value since 2004 will exceed 90 percent.  Housing prices fell by 3.7 percent from November 30, 2011 to January 31, 2012 – an annualized rate of 22.2 percent.

Government is literally eating the life-blood of the economy, eating up 66 percent of all US production.  Compare this to a mere 40 percent in “communist” China.  Real inflation has been at zero for the last 4 years, and the threat we face today is deflation.

The present situation in Greece is the future of America – government benefit payment cuts of 20 to 40 percent, daily protests and riots, bank runs and socialized medical care running short of drugs as basic as aspirin.

The weak will die and the strong will get stronger.  The US military has seen its budget cut by 35 percent since 2009 and personnel (active and reserve combined) cut by over 60 percent in the same time.  But more cuts are coming – the administration needs to reduce this by a further one-third.  The USA is simply running out of both money and credit.  Other countries around the world are increasing their militaries by the most rapid rates since World War Two – they are simply responding to a new playing field in which there will no longer be one or two “superpowers” – a playing field that will instead have many, many second or third-tier competitors.  The interesting thing here is that I’m seeing this by looking at the navies of the world, and have noticed a marked change since I finished writing my books on the German Navy (“The German and the Austrian Navies: Volume Number One and Volume Number Two”) in 2009.  Countries normally assign last priority to a navy – after an army or an air force.  Navies take much more capital and time to build – both for ships and boats and to train the crews required to man these water-borne units.  In short, much more instability and conflict lie ahead.  Here is the link to the latest press release for my German and Austrian Navy books: http://www.prnewschannel.com/2012/01/24/complete-listing-of-every-german-naval-vessel-to-ever-sail-also-explores-importance-of-sea-born-trade-to-european-world-history/.

In the auto industry, it is much the same story.  Much of what I forecast in my book titled “Volkswagen: a Car for the People – a Success Story” is already coming to pass.  Weaker players especially in countries such as Italy (Fiat-Chrysler) and France (Peugeot-Citroën and Renault-Nissan) are seeing their sales and market value decline before the crash.  During the crash, they will find it hard to survive at all.  Auto companies from Japan (especially Toyota-Subaru, Mitsubishi, Mazda and Honda – in this order) are also experiencing great difficulty.  The Fukushima earthquake, tsunami and especially the nuclear plant disaster (far bigger than Chernobyl) have crippled Japan’s economy.  The Japanese are no longer an export nation for the first time in 32 years.  The most recent shipment of new Japanese cars and trucks to Russia were quarantined and sent back to Japan due to high levels of radiation.  General Motors Europe (Opel and Vauxhall) is falling hard, and Ford’s 2011 global profit was mostly a one-time accounting event.  Ford’s loss for 2005-2008 was upgraded to US $30 billion.  The stronger players are from Germany (Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW) and South Korea (Hyundai-Kia), with companies from China (SAIC-Nanjing, FAW, Chana, BYD, Geely-Volvo, Beijing-AIG, Dongfeng, Chery, Anhui-JAC and Brilliance) and India (Tata, Mahindra and Bajaj) leading the charge from the developing economies.  A record 18.5 million new cars were sold in China in 2011.  Here is the link to the latest book review for my VW book by Glen Smale of “Vehicle Engineer” of the United Kingdom: http://www.vehicle-engineer.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=74:volkswagen-a-car-for-the-people-volkswagen-ein-wagen-fuer-das-volk&catid=34:books&Itemid=70.

My next group of books is written about the toy car industry (“Scale Model Collectible Cars”).  I’m pleased to see that a name from the past of the British toy industry has resurfaced.  Budgie-Oxford used to make die-cast cars in the approximate scale of 1:64 – similar to both Lesney Matchbox and Husky (later known as “Corgi Juniors”).  Budgie made the toy cars and Oxford used to make toy trains similar to Hornby (the corporate owner of Corgi), Jouef of France (now also owned by Hornby of England), Märklin of Germany and Lionel of the USA.  Oxford is now making a line of 1:76-scale die-cast cars comparable to the 1:76-scale “Trackside” line made by Corgi.  Very many scale model toy cars are made to compliment train sets.  This holds true for 1:60 N-scale, 1:90 and 1:87 Ho-scale, 1:76-scale, 1:50 scale Corgi “Super-haulers of Renown” (commercial trucks) and 1:43 O-scale.  Many of the vehicles bring back fond memories of Lesney Matchbox products made during the 1950s and the 1960s.

Financial Update (January 1, 2012)

Warning signs of the total social-economic collapse abound.  The meltdown inEurope is gaining momentum, with both national governments throughout the entire Euro currency zone and major commercial banks facing regular credit rating downgrades.  The bank runs in Greece, Latvia and other countries are also pickup up speed.  People and businesses are literally taking their money out in cash and moving it to safe countries such as Switzerland.

Prices for real estate and certain cars are collapsing, but something interesting is taking place in the energy market.  The price of refined fuel is falling even faster than the price of crude oil, natural gas and other commodities.  Why is this?  Demand is collapsing.  Fewer people have jobs, fewer people commute to work, fewer people have automobiles and other people are just driving less to save money.  The number of motor vehicles in the entire world has grown from 600 million in 1997 to 1 billion today, but in the United States the figure has fallen from 300 million in 1997 to just 240 million in 2011 – a stunning collapse of 20 percent.  Total US vehicle sales (all types of vehicles, not just cars) have crashed by 61 percent from 2005 to 2011.

Something even more alarming is taking place in the labor market.  The USA has lost 15.0 million private sector jobs and 0.58 million public sector jobs since 2008.  On top of this is something even more ominous.  Since 2008, 4.6 million young Americans (those aged 18 to 34) have moved abroad to work or to study.  These are the people the economy can least afford to lose.  The situation is not unlike in the former East Germany, Argentina or Cuba.  The best and brightest people are leaving and those with little or no value stay behind.  The young Americans are moving primarily to China, Russia, Brazil and other countries in Latin America.  The USA has thus lost at least 20.18 million jobs since 2008 – or an average of 420,000 per month.  If one were to add people who have left the labor force and moved on to disability and social security, the numbers will look even worse.  49 percent of the American population already receives a benefit check from the government.  Add public sector employees, and this rises to 57 percent.  Add the 30 million people to be covered under Obamacare by 2018, and this increases to 67 percent.  The normal rate of growth in beneficiaries (largely due to the ageing of the population) adds 2 percent of theUSAper year.  At this rate, 100 percent ofAmericawill be on the dole by 2028.  Obviously, something like that can never happen – the economy will collapse long before then.  It will continue to crash between now and 2017, with things getting much worse every year.  Although all sectors of the economy are losing jobs (government, large corporate and small business), I believe that small business and self-employment is the wave of the future – the economy of tomorrow will resemble the pre-industrial economy in more ways than one.

For the first time since I can remember, 50 percent of the USA is living either below the official poverty line or on low income – in other words, America is no longer a “middle class” country.  The USA is rapidly becoming a 3^rd  world country.  Among young Americans aged 18 to 24 years, a whopping 40 percent are considering emigration.  In the counties of Northern New Mexico where I reside, the median age is already above 60 – another frightening statistic of a dying region (retirement-specific communities worldwide have median ages above 70, but one would expect something like that).

America has just 4 percent of the world’s population, but owes 82 percent of its debt.  $600 Trillion of this debt is in the form of financial derivatives, 42 percent of which are held by the five largest American money center banks.  Another $125 Trillion is in the form of unfunded liabilities for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Disability, Unemployment Compensation, Food Stamps, private pensions and Veterans Benefits.  Yet another $57 Trillion is in the form of debt already owed by the Federal Government, State Governments, Local Governments, School Districts, Fire Departments, Police Departments, Colleges, Universities, corporations and individuals (largely home mortgages).  Still another $38 Trillion has been lost in the stock market and investments since 1999.

How have the most financially irresponsible American Presidential administrations since 1913 bankrupted the USA?  Here is the list, and how they’ve done it:

1. Woodrow Wilson (Democrat): Federal Reserve System and World War One.

2. Franklin Roosevelt (Democrat): Social Security, World War Two, the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

3. Harry Truman (Democrat): Korean War.

4. John Kennedy (Democrat): Vietnam War and Food Stamp Program.

5. Lyndon Johnson (Democrat): Vietnam War, Medicare and Medicaid.

6. Richard Nixon (Republican): Earned Income Tax Credit.

7. George Herbert Bush (Republican): First Iraq War.

8. Bill Clinton (Democrat): expansion of Federal Reserve lending in 1995, loosening of accounting standards which set the stage for the failure of Arthur Andersen, Worldcom, etc.

9. George Walker Bush (Republican): Second Iraq War, War on Terror, Patriot Act, Homeland Security and First Bank Bailout.

10. Barack Obama (Democrat): Afghan War, Second Bank Bailout, Obamacare (30 million people to be added to government benefit rolls by 2018), extended Unemployment Compensation and Stimulus Program.

I mentioned earlier this month that the list of “safe banks” is changing.  This is happening because many banks are seeing their credit ratings lowered.  For instance, State Street Bank of Boston has fallen off the list.  Many banks are falling off the list, and other banks (more often than not very small banks) are moving up the list by default – not because they are doing better.  In Arizona, the number one rated bank is still Nordstrom FSB – a bank owned by the same department store and which has no branches.  You likely need a Nordstrom store credit card to open an account with their bank.  The number two rated bank is now in Yuma, Arizona– a city with one of highest unemployment rates in the country.  In New Mexico, the two safest banks are very small banks headquartered in Eastern New Mexico (near the Texas border oil patch) and in Lordsburg – a tiny city situated between Tucson and Las Cruces on I-10.  Similar changes are happening to banks all over the USA in all 50 states.

Financial Update (December 2, 2011)

The so-called “trap doors” of the emerging crash are closing, and the future of the world becomes clearer by the day.  This is the largest socio-economic crash in more than 1,500 years, or since the fall of the old Western Roman Empirein A.D. 476.  Government entities on levels (national, provincial and local), financial institutions and many corporations are seeing their creditworthiness downgraded on a very regular basis.  Banks on my “safe list” change as well – please ask me for an update if this is something you wish to know.

Japan was the first country to fall into a deflationary crash in 1989, and they are not done crashing.  The USA followed in 1999: there was a false nominal recovery from 2002-2007, a more severe crash from 2007-2009, a very weak temporal recovery from 2009-2011 and we are now falling into a far more ferocious phase of the crash.  The European Union will collapse before the USA, and the collapse of the EU is happening right now.

This massive crash was caused by the massive debt which has been created by the central banks of the world.  The European Central Bank was established in 1998, the Federal Reserve Bank of the USA goes back to 1913, the Bank of Japan was born in 1882 and the Bank of England was founded in 1694.  The USA has just 4 percent of the world’s population, but owes 82 percent of its debt.  The European Union owes 8 percent of the world’s debt, Japan owes 6 percent and all 168 other countries combined owe just 4 percent.  The collapse of the EU will be more than sufficient to break many governments, banks and corporations in the West, but the eventual collapse of the USA will be the “mother of all crashes.”

The crash should bring the markets in Japan, Europe and North America to the level of near-zero by 2014 to 2017.  After this happens, interest rates in the USA will finally rise to a level where the USA will be forced to default – far worse than Greece is today.  The situation in the USA is beyond dire, but as usual the mainstream media don’t even mention this.  Short term US treasuries yield just 0.02 percent today.  This would merely have to rise to 0.27 percent to use all remaining annual income in the USA.  In other words, the US would be paying interest on the national debt and nothing else.  Rates won’t likely rise until the crash is complete (2014 to 2017) – but still: you can see what I mean.

What will replace the modern central banks, the European Union and the American Dollar as a global reserve currency?  Silver but especially gold is the only true global currency.  National currencies backed by gold such as the Yuan of China and Taiwan, and the Dinar of the Middle East, North Africa and the Balkans will become the new worldwide reserve currencies. Switzerland will remain a safe haven, and will be joined by countries such as Singapore and New Zealand as additional safe havens.  The European Union will break apart.  Bankrupt countries such as Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Spain, France and Belgium will revert to their respective old national currencies and be far less affluent than they are today.  Stable countries will join Germany to create a new central European regional power.  These countries will likely include Austria, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Finland and perhaps others such as Slovenia and Slovakia.  Countries not yet part of the Euro currency zone (such as Poland and the Czech Republic) remain something of a question.

Very many countries of the former Communist world and the former Third World will become both great global powers and regional powers of the future.  Global powers will include the likes of China, India, Russia and Brazil.  Regional powers will abound in many places.  Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa now enjoy growth rates even higher than that of China.  Secondary powers in Asia will include countries like Indonesia, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea.  Even countries below the secondary category will enjoy healthy rates of economic growth.

In the auto industry I expect many weak companies in Europe, Japan and the USA to go under.  Strong companies such as Volkswagen, Renault-Nissan, Hyundai, Daimler and BMW are already using their strength to command very high prices for both contemporary and obsolete component parts.  The companies with the real potential to challenge them in near future include those larger firms from China (such as Shanghai Auto, Dongfeng, First Auto Works, Chana Automobile and Beijing Automotive). Shanghai is of particular interest because they own the rights to the formerly British brands of MG, Roewe, Austin, Morris, Wolseley and Princess.  MG is already being exported from China to 31 countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Latin America.  Not all the goods made in China are of low quality, so don’t make the mistake of underestimating the Chinese.  By 2020 China will have half the global auto market, and don’t forget that countries such as India and Russia are waiting in line after China. India is pretty much the same size as China, and Russia has huge room to grow.  And after them, there are more than 150 other “formerly poor” countries waiting in the wings.