They seem to be in a rush, like trying to catch up some lost time …

America:

Landmark victory for gay rights activists clears the way for gay marriage
Carbon tax back on the Obama’s agenda – and it will be called “ObamaAir”

Australia:

Kevin Rudd replaces Julia Gillard and promises expedite implementation of 2 important agendas

1. Support gay marriage. He declared his support for same-sex marriage from the back bench when it seemed there would be a vote on it in the House of Representatives, and will be held to that during the election campaign.
2. Move to a floating carbon price by ending the fixed price before the 2015 schedule set by his predecessor. The Greens might object but Mr Rudd will be aiming for government without needing them, and will want to send a message to households who blame carbon pricing for extra expenses.

Do you think there are any similarities … ?

Anyway, some very disturbing news coming from Italy, where a major bank warns: Italy will need a bailout within 6 months.

The situation in Italy is deteriorating by the hour and we now hear that the same kind of hidden financial derivatives transactions that were used to mask the economic problems in Greece and fool everyone in the Eurozone, have been used in Italy as well … surprise surprise … As a result, an enormous scandal has erupted.

What seems to be the linchpin of the new wave of economic trouble seems to be the “unexpected” rise in interest rates as a result of FED’s announcement that it may tapper the amount of money being poured into economy each month (don’t believe it – it is a lie). In reality, it seems that this, again, has been just a precise and carefully crafted maneuver to hide even a bigger problem: the chaos that has broken out in the Chinese financial system that seems to be close to collapse. Apparently the Chinese have started dumping their huge load of treasury bills onto the market to get the much needed liquidity to postpone its banking system from collapsing, and it appears that this is the true reason why interest rates have risen. The whole FED story seems to be just a diversion to cover the real issue …

Here is a stark warning, published in a Bloomberg article:

The shockwaves caused by even modest attempts by China’s central bank to clamp down on credit show how profoundly this downshift will affect the globe. It will result in slower growth from Japan to Brazil and slam industries like autos, chemicals, heavy manufacturing, energy and steel.

No country is more vulnerable to the much-dreaded slowdown in China than resource-rich Australia. The mining boom that fueled nearly all of its recent growth is nearing a cliff of economic risk. “Australia is a leveraged time bomb waiting to blow,” says Albert Edwards, Societe Generale SA’s London-based global strategist. “It is not just a CDO, but a CDO squared. All we have in Australia is, at its simplest, a credit bubble built upon a commodity boom dependent for its sustenance on an even greater credit bubble in China.”