Murdoc Online » Blog Archive » Crane collapse in NYC

15 Mar 2008

A construction crane, reported to be perhaps 15 stories tall, has collapsed in New York City. Parts of several buildings were severely damaged, including one apartment building which was really hit hard.

This isn’t normal Murdoc fare, but the MSNBC.com story says two were killed. CNN says four. I’ll be shocked if that’s all the higher the number really is, particularly if apartment buildings were hit on a Saturday.

Let’s hope that’s all there is, though.

#Posted by Murdoc at 17:54
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Dfens Says:
March 17th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
It’s too bad that isn’t the only thing collapsing in New York these days. It seems the day of reckoning for our trade imbalances has arrived.

Is this the moment when America finally discovers the meaning of the Faustian pact it signed so blithely with Asian creditors? As the Wall Street Journal wrote this weekend, the entire country is facing a ‘margin call’. The US has come to depend on $800bn inflows of cheap foreign capital each year to cover shopping bills. They may have to pay a much stiffer rent. As of June 2007, foreigners owned $6,007bn of long-term US debt. (Equal to 66pc of the entire US federal debt). The biggest holdings by country are, in billions: Japan (901), China (870), UK (475), Luxembourg (424), Cayman Islands (422), Belgium (369), Ireland (176), Germany (155), Switzerland (140), Bermuda (133), Netherlands (123), Korea (118), Russia (109), Taiwan (107), Canada (106), Brazil (103). Who is jumping ship? The Chinese have quickened the pace of yuan appreciation to choke off 8.7pc inflation, slowing US bond purchases. Petrodollar funds, working through UK off-shore accounts, are clearly dumping dollars amid rumours that Gulf states - overheating wildly - are about to break their dollar pegs. But mostly likely, the twin crash in the dollar and US agency debt reflects a broad exodus by global wealth managers, afraid that America is spinning out of control. Sauve qui peut. The bond debacle last week tallies with the crash in the dollar index to an all-time low of 71.58, down 14.6pc in a year. The greenback is nearing parity with the Swiss franc - shocking for those who remember when it was 4.375 francs in 1970. Against the euro it has hit $1.57, from $0.82 in 2000. Against the yen it has smashed through Y100. Spare a thought for Toyota. It loses $350m in revenues for every one yen move. That is an $8.75bn hit since June. Tokyo’s Nikkei index is crumbling. Less understood, it is also causing a self-reinforcing spiral of credit shrinkage throughout the global system. Japanese investors and foreign funds are having to close their yen ‘carry trade’ positions. A chunk of the $1,400bn trade built up over six years has been viciously unwound in weeks. The harder the dollar falls, the further this must go. It is unsettling to watch the world’s reserve currency disintegrate. Commodities from gold to oil and wheat are taking on the role of safe-haven ‘currencies’. The monetary order is becoming unhinged. - Telegraph

Anyone have another major weapons program we can give to some foreign country or perhaps another ‘free trade’ agreement we can sign? Maybe we could come up with one more ‘great society’ welfare program we can’t fund or fight yet one more war we can’t afford. That would be f’ing brilliant coming on the heels of the Bear Stearns collapse. This is going to make the Great Depression look like a small divot. No telling how long our children will have to work to pay off our excesses.