From The Telegraph (UK):
The Royal Bank of Scotland has advised clients to brace for a full-fledged crash in global stock and credit markets over the next three months as inflation paralyses the major central banks.
“A very nasty period is soon to be upon us - be prepared,” said Bob Janjuah, the bank’s credit strategist.
A report by the bank’s research team warns that the S&P 500 index of Wall Street equities is likely to fall by more than 300 points to around 1050 by September as “all the chickens come home to roost” from the excesses of the global boom, with contagion spreading across Europe and emerging markets.
Such a slide on world bourses would amount to one of the worst bear markets over the last century.
RBS said the iTraxx index of high-grade corporate bonds could soar to 130/150 while the “Crossover” index of lower grade corporate bonds could reach 650/700 in a renewed bout of panic on the debt markets.
“I do not think I can be much blunter. If you have to be in credit, focus on quality, short durations, non-cyclical defensive names.
“Cash is the key safe haven. This is about not losing your money, and not losing your job,” said Mr Janjuah, who became a City star after his grim warnings last year about the credit crisis proved all too accurate.
RBS expects Wall Street to rally a little further into early July before short-lived momentum from America’s fiscal boost begins to fizzle out, and the delayed effects of the oil spike inflict their damage.
“Globalisation was always going to risk putting G7 bankers into a dangerous corner at some point. We have got to that point,” he said.
US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank both face a Hobson’s choice as workers start to lose their jobs in earnest and lenders cut off credit.
The authorities cannot respond with easy money because oil and food costs continue to push headline inflation to levels that are unsettling the markets. “The ugly spoiler is that we may need to see much lower global growth in order to get lower inflation,” he said. (cont.)
A historian at Brigham Young University argues that Mormons were persecuted in Missouri in 1838 in a deliberate and successful effort to get their land.
Smith, a religious visionary, had already experienced public persecution several times in his life.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints is commonly known as the Mormon church. And the one thing that most non-Mormons think they might know about the current doctrine of the church — that it allows polygamy — has not been true in over a century.
Choir children wait to sing during services at the First United Methodist Church in Beaumont earlier this year. More than 90 percent of Americans said they believe in a higher power. (Tammy McKinley/The Enterprise) 
That’s primarily because of David Archuleta and Brooke White, both of them Mormons and both of them finalists in the most recent edition of Fox’s reality juggernaut “American Idol.” Archuleta even ended the competition as runner-up, losing on the final night of the competition to David Cook.
The intersection of the LDS church and reality TV itself became hot last month with a Newsweek story, “America’s Next Top Mormon,” that examined what it characterized as a glut of Mormons on reality TV. That story then, itself sparked a glut of similar stories in the media.
Without knowing how many Catholics, Protestants, Wiccans, agnostics and other Whatevers there are on reality TV shows, it’s difficult to quantify the degree to which Mormons make up the reality TV universe. But, with that caveat noted, it seems safe to say that Mormons haven’t enjoyed as much visibility on TV since the 1970s heyday of the Osmonds and Donny and Marie.
