Guest Post: How To Fake An Economic Recovery

Submitted by Giordano Bruno of Neithercorp Press

How To Fake An Economic Recovery

This may be a highly distasteful proposition, but just for a moment, I
want you to sit back, and imagine that you are a member of the
corporate banking elite. You are a walking talking disease ridden power
mad pustule who naively believes himself intellectually superior to the
vast majority of humanity and above the inherent laws of conscience,
honor, and general good taste. You are a villain in the purest sense,
in that you not only do great harm to the world, you actually SEEK to do
great harm to the world, if only to benefit yourself and your exclusive
circle of “friends”; a clan of degenerate blood thirsty sociopaths with
delusions of omnipotence that stalk the night like Armani wearing
Chupacabra exsanguinating the joy from poor unsuspecting cultures. You
are capable of anything, and sadly, you take “pride” in this fact…

You aren’t “rich” in the traditional sense. You aren’t a “Bill
Gates” or a “Donald Trump” (I’m beginning to wonder if Donald Trump is
even solvent, or if his entire fortune is a special-effect courtesy of
NBC). No, you don’t “make” money, you MAKE the money. You are a global
financier. You are a central banker. You create the fiat that the rest
of the country uses to sustain its fantasy economy. You dominate trade
through monopoly and corporate fraud. You control the flow of currency
through an economic system using fractional reserve banking,
artificially pegged interest rates, and your ever trusty printing press.
You put your substantial monetary clout behind BOTH major political
parties, and groom presidential candidates to your globalist standards.
Any politician who desires to climb the ladder of power turns to you
for assistance, not the voting public. You have a tremendous financial
stake in every corporate news provider in the country, if not own them
outright. You invite their top reporters to posh banquets, give them
unlimited access to prominent social figures and high rollers, and fly
them to private alcohol addled orgies in the middle of the California
Redwoods (I wish this was all made up). Forget responsible journalism,
they love hanging out with you, and would probably write whatever you
tell them to.

Now that you have placed yourself in the tight fitting shoes of the
“enlightened few”, I want you to imagine that you have engineered an
implosion in national credit sectors using ultra-low interest rates to
fuel mortgage and derivatives bubbles that would contract at an
unprecedented pace once it is revealed to the wider investment world
that those equities which they prized only days before are now “toxic”,
essentially worthless, due to mass debt defaults on loans which never
should have been made in the first place. Yeah, you’re a real dirtbag.

Of course, you aren’t finished yet! Your ultimate goal is
centralization, and the key to centralization is to remove all options
available to the masses but one; the option which garners you the
greatest amount of dominance. A global economic system based on a
single world currency and a single unaccountable governing body would be
ideal. What would you call this world currency? I don’t know, how
about something innocuous sounding like….Special Drawing Rights (SDR’s),
which you can then label as a mere “basket of currencies” when it is
really a parasitic financial instrument meant to absorb currencies until
it replaces them completely:

http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/10/markets/dollar/index.htm

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0214/g20-business.html

In order to begin instituting this world currency, you would first
need to remove the standing world reserve currency from its exalted
position, that currency being the U.S. dollar. This seems rather
impossible to many mainstream analysts who cannot fathom the possibility
of a breakdown in the mighty Greenback, but you have already set the
stage. You have created a progressive debt singularity so immense that
no amount of fiat, no amount of taxation, no amount of austerity could
ever satiate its hunger. You now have the perfect excuse to print the
dollar with wild abandon until its withered, corpsified remains are six
feet underground, leaving the door wide open for the tap dancing
fast-talking SDR to take its place.

The issue is, how do you convince the general public that all is well
until you are ready to unleash hyperinflation and fiscal Armageddon?
How do you make them believe with all their hearts that they are not in
the midst of a debt meltdown and the end of their financial sovereignty,
but basking in a full-on economic recovery?!

You can’t stop wealth destruction now that the avalanche has been set
in motion. You can’t stop inflation and dollar devaluation (nor would
you want to. Hey, you’re evil incarnate, remember?). The effects on
mainstreet are beyond your ability to hide, but, what you CAN
manipulate, are the statistics and indices that Americans rely on for
psychological comfort. You give everyone a blindfold and a cigarette
and you do what you do best; lie!

Here is a step by step guide to fabricating an economic recovery out of thin air….

Don’t Count The Unemployed, Discount Them: Jobless
people are a real downer and a pesky nuisance because they represent
living breathing proof that a recovery is not taking place. By most
standards, a recovery in jobs markets can be claimed if meaningful
evidence shows a return to unemployment standards (normal unemployment)
set before the recession / depression was triggered. If you are a
global banker today, however, this will not due. Instead, you simply
change the definition of “normal unemployment”. Thus, the debilitating
jobless rate which was originally thought of as “bad”, is now thought of
as “natural”. You must then publish long-winded white papers using
more subjective statistics devoid of common sense while feigning a
logical pretense:

http://www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/letter/2011/el2011-05.html

This only satisfies a small portion of the populace, though. Next,
you must rig the manner in which unemployment is calculated to always
overlook certain subsections of jobless. Never count those people who
have been unemployed so long that they no longer receive benefits.
Always count people who are underemployed as fully employed, even if
they are only able to scrape together ten hours a week through part time
McSlavery. After this, change the manner in which raw data on
unemployment is actually collected.

First, the Labor Department derives most of its raw data on
unemployment not through any traditional mathematical means, but through
two separate surveys which are open to wide interpretation; an
establishment survey, and a household survey. The establishment survey
is what we hear about at the beginning of every month, while the
household survey tends to float under the mainstream radar. In 2009 and
2010, the Labor Department deemed the household survey data (a phone
driven survey of 60,000 households) “more reliable” for indicating job
growth, because it was accurate in counting small business hiring and
self-employment. So, you have two separate surveys (unscientific
indicators of employment) combined together to produce a job growth rate
number, and an unemployment percentage, both of which represent, at the
most, a GUESS on the current state of jobs in this country.

While the establishment survey showed only 36,000 jobs created, the
household survey somehow showed around 600,000 new jobs created!?:

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

Basically, the BLS is asking you to believe that over 600,000 people
either started their own businesses, or were hired by home based
businesses in the month of January alone. I’m curious as to where all
the capital inflows are coming from to launch such a revolution in home
entrepreneurship in the middle of the greatest credit crisis in history.
Oh well, if the Labor Department says it’s true, it must be…

The juxtaposition of odd data collection methods is the reason why
the government was able to claim a drop from 9.4% to 9% in the jobless
rate while announcing only 36,000 jobs created! The household survey
has become an incredibly useful tool for generating arbitrary employment
data which can be molded to say whatever government officials and
central bankers want it to say. Anyone who controls the source data for
a calculation controls the outcome of that calculation. It’s that
simple.

What I wouldn’t want, if I was the Labor Department, is for some
outside independent citizens group to monitor my survey methods while in
progress. That would make life for a statistical huckster very
difficult indeed.

As Long As Stocks Are Green, The World Is Golden:
Near zero interest rates can be very useful if a central bank wishes to
throw a tidal wave of fiat into a particular index in order to make it
appear healthy. Certainly, the Fed has avoided admitting to any
manipulation of the stock market. QE measures are all “above the
board”, and all is well in Bernanke’s Mayberry. A question arises here
though that desperately begs to be answered; if the stock market’s
meteoric rise from near destruction to the 12,000 point mark is “real”,
and completely in tune with a legitimate recovery, then why is the Fed
still keeping interest rates at near zero after almost three years, and
why are they continuing quantitative easing measures? Could it be that
without constant liquidity injections from the Fed, the stock market
would once again collapse like a wet paper sack? We know that in 2009,
it was revealed that bailout funds which were supposed to go towards
muting the effects of toxic bank assets were actually being pumped into
the equities of healthy banks instead, meaning,the money has not been
allocated to the areas promised:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1436061/more_shocking_news_on_2009_bailout.html

We also know that top hedge fund managers have openly stated that
stocks will remain bullish because QE funds are propping up the market:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tepper-tells-cnbc-fed-will-prop-up-market-2010-09-24

And, frankly, if you are a global banking cartel intent on keeping
the American people in the dark, it makes perfect sense to prop up
stocks. A Dow in the green is like a mass dose of fiscal lithium; it
calms investors into a stupor. Even people who are otherwise
unconcerned about economics will keep track of the Dow as if it is a
solid indicator of their personal financial safety. A great test would
be to observe market reactions to a Federal Reserve interest rate hike
and a freezing of QE in order to counter inflation. Will the Dow stand
on its own two feet then? I seriously doubt it, but then again, I don’t
know that the Fed will ever raise interest rates again…

Inflation? What Inflation?: Unmitigated inflation
spells doom for any society. It’s like some monetary based animal
instinct deep down in our collective unconscious. The moment we hear
the word “inflation” or see prices rise dramatically, we revert to
survival mode and begin honing our mammoth bone battle mallets.
Governments and central banks throughout history have made it their top
priority to hide the effects of inflation from the citizenry at all
costs.

To mask inflation is nearly impossible, especially where commodities
and base goods are concerned. That’s why our government and private
central bank calculate the Consumer Price Index (CPI) without counting
food or energy. Most grains and crude oil have doubled in price over
the past year alone, and this does not reflect well on the safety of the
dollar, or the effectiveness of liquidity measures by the Fed. China,
whose inflation is but a prequel to our own, is also distancing food and
energy price surges from its CPI numbers, giving the false impression
of leveling markets:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/china-lowers-weighting-surging-food-prices-cpi

Corporate retail chains have a tendency to absorb rising prices of
base goods to avoid alienating their customer foundation, hoping that
the increases are temporary. When retailers realize that prices are not
going to drop back down, they eventually relent, and shelf costs
skyrocket. The bottom line is clear; overall worldwide food averages
were up over 28% in 2010:

http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/FoodPricesIndex/en/

Crude oil prices continue to hover near the $90 mark even though inventories are at a 20 year high:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/gasoline-inventories-jump-20-year-high-gas-price-surges

The World Bank is now warning of possible disasters (which they helped create) in the wake of “dangerous price levels”:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/15/us-worldbank-food-idUSTRE71E5H720110215

Our government’s response? Complete denial that there is any
significant threat of inflation. Denial that overprinting of the dollar
and its subsequent devaluation has anything to do with rising prices.
Scapegoating everything from weather, to speculators, to the fake
“recovery” itself for price spikes. The longer they keep the
terminology of inflation out of the mainstream, the less Americans are
likely to prepare for an onslaught of the dollar.

Create Debt To Pay Off Debt: This is pretty self
explanatory. If foreign investors want nothing to do with you, your
explosive national debt, or your depreciating currency, where is your
government going to get the money to continue spending like a drunken
trophy wife at Macy’s? If you default, the jig is up, and no one will
buy your recovery yarns. Instead, print even more fiat and use it to
purchase your own Treasury bonds! This serves two purposes; first, it
props up the federal bureaucracy which gives the impression of stability
(at least for a time), and, it furthers your goal of squeezing the
dollar like a grape.

Remove All Checks And Balances: If you plan on
decimating an economy, you can’t very well have people pointing fingers
at you while you do it. That would be inconvenient. It’s funny, but
for years, ratings agencies like Moodys helped global banks facilitate
the mortgage and derivatives crisis by categorizing worthless assets as
AAA securities. Without them, no one would have invested in such
garbage in the first place, and the banking fraud would have been
immediately exposed. Now that ratings agencies are finally doing their
job and downgrading the creditworthiness of banks and countries that
possess extreme liabilities, the SEC is moving to marginalize them:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/09/us-financial-regulation-creditraters-idUSTRE7180OD20110209

Interesting that as the U.S. nears a possible credit downgrade, we suddenly no longer care what ratings agencies have to say.

The SEC in itself is one enormous joke, and in no way a practical
overseer of banking activity. The organization has shown itself to be
either fantastically incompetent, or deliberately indifferent to ongoing
financial fraud. I never thought I would find myself agreeing with a
cretin like Bernie Madoff, but according to the middle-weight Ponzi
artist, global banks he dealt with, like JP Morgan and HSBC, had to be
perfectly aware of the scam he was undertaking, otherwise, it could not
have been possible:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/16/us-madoff-interview-idUSTRE71F0QD20110216

Likewise, the SEC’s complete lack of proper investigation into such
activities turned Wall Street into a globalist playground where much
bigger conmen than Madoff have nested and bred like fleas. It’s not
that the system needs more regulation, or more legal wrangling; this
would accomplish nothing, because the system is regulated by the
criminals! Therefore, new laws can be enacted in concert, and the
government can deem the system reformed and recovered, all while the
underlying corruption remains untouched. If the poison that instigated
the fall of the markets is not uprooted, treachery will continue to
reign supreme, and healthy markets a childish illusion.

The Creeping Terror

Two years ago I was in my local Borders bookstore and noticed that
they had downsized their stock selection by what looked to be nearly a
third. I made a point to ask if this was a chain wide phenomenon. Most
employees I talked with said yes. I then asked if they had begun
cutting employee hours by significant margins and specifically laying
off longtime workers that had built up substantial pay increases.
Again, the consensus was yes. Finally, and most importantly, did
Borders discuss these changes with their staff in a manner that was
informative and open, or, was there a lot of confusion amongst employees
as to what exactly was going on? The response was that they were
overwhelmingly bewildered by Borders’ lack of clear communication as to
the direction of the corporation.

My suggestion to them was to start looking for another job, because
their company was about to declare bankruptcy. They, of course, denied
this was remotely likely:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704329104576138353865644420.html

It may sound like a stretch, but the reason I bring up Borders’
impending chapter 11 is because, to me, it represents a microcosm of the
creeping nature of economic collapse, especially when that collapse is
being wielded and delegated. [TD: Borders filed for Chapter 11 this morning]

Borders has been on the verge of default for quite a while. Did they
refuse to relay this information openly to their employees because they
selfishly wanted to maintain profit margins just a little longer until
they were ready to pull the plug? Of course! Do global bankers with
aspirations of a centralized currency keep the true destabilization of
the market spectrum and the coming international dollar dump to
themselves because in the end they will benefit from our shock and awe?
Of course!

Whether a person loses everything all at once, or a piece at a time,
the end result is the same, however, there is something especially cruel
in the idea of fiscal theater; the act of inspiring false hope that a
financial environment is sound when it has, in truth, already
suffocated. Why would our modern day robber barons put so much energy
into constructing a fake recovery? There are many reasons, but first
and foremost, to create apathy. To lure us towards inaction. To
swindle us into assuming the storm will blow over, and all will return
as it was. Unfortunately, recovery without intense restructuring of our
economic system is impossible. The fundamentals do not support the
suggestion in the slightest. The question is, who will be at the helm
when the dust settles and this restructuring does eventually occur?
Will the American people take the lead, as they should, and commit to a
concrete free market rejuvenation of our financial environment? Or,
will we sit back yet again, and let the banksters set us up for the next
grand disaster?

Comments

[Shocker]

Normally how yo do it is. You say how we are in a recovery and don't worry about what is actually happening.

http://www.dailyjobcuts.com

If you can get enough articles in relation to the economy turning around, then people will start believing it, does not matter if its true or not.

[HedgeFundLIVE]

talk about a massive disconnect b/w the real economy and the market!  going long overnight for a while now because that trade's been working: http://www.hedgefundlive.com/blog/technically-and-figuratively-speaking

[The Alarmist]

It seems kind of cliche to keep piling on the bankers when it is the politicos who are the real problem.  The bankers are to the politicos what a corrupt accountant is when his biggest client asks him, "How much is 2 + 2?" to which the accountant can only answer, "How much do you want it to be?"  Bankers will be bankers, but politicos will always be slave-masters.

[Bruin4]

Great stuff...a bit unnerving than most posts, makes me feel even more un prepared for the "great unwinding" ( because it can never be called the greatest depression, implosion, end of the world, etc)

Nice call on the Borders book store, now look at your local Barnes and Noble - same think going on, EMPTY shelves and downsizing in their Manhattan stores....Hmmmmm

[Sheriff Douchen...]

Part of the snake oil seems to be convincing everyone all is well with the Detroit Big 3...

Is it me or are the automotive journalists in on the fraud. All I seem to read about is how great every new Detroit car is... like in 2 years they've managed to solve everything that was wrong with them and also revolutionized the world with the Chevy Volt?

Maybe it's just me but I'm sticking with my Honda/Acura combo...after a disasterous time in the 90's with GM and Dodge... up here in Canada the street always seems to go positive on Air Canada everytime it comes out of bankrupcy also...then it's wash, rinse, repeat.

[G-R-U-N-T]

"the act of inspiring false hope that a financial environment is sound when it has, in truth, already suffocated."

A terrible tragedy indeed when those you are suppose to trust work their asses off to try to make you believe a lie.

"J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is devoting billions of dollars to direct loans this year to both refinance deals and for new projects, according to a bank official."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870331290457614651141933633...

Hm...Makes me wonder what their up too, since revenue streams  for most municipalities are deeply impaired.

[DaddyO]

Great Post!

However, I have read a hundred posts like this that are great at clearly defining the problem. Many writers are very good at pointing to all the trouble ahead, who caused it or how the cartels are aligning themselves. Virtually no one will offer concrete plans or trajectories to counter the onslaught against our economy or constitutional freedoms.

To look at the current crop of would be political insiders as outsiders and expect a savior to arise is ludicrous. While Ron Paul has many good things to say and a clear disdain for the central banking cartel, he doesn't possess the ability to ignite a large enough fire to burn down the central bankers house of cards.

This brings us to the point of bringing our own house in order, separating ourselves and our money from the system and beginning our own onslaught on the banksters. I have for a couple of years now, tried to figure out ways to limit my contact with the rigged economy. This has forced me to look for local opportunities to make money. My investing has become totally separated from the "Market". I could care less if the markets go up or down. The only effect they have on me is to use a gauge for how close we are to things unwinding.

If you have no money in their game, they have no power over your outcome. The worse things have gotten on a national basis, the more detached I have become. I have for the last several years converted fiat to real money by buying PM's. I do keep fiat FRN's around to use in daily transactions. But when my accumulation of FRN's reaches a certain level I convert them to tangibles, water (purifiers and filters), food (seeds, dehydrated foods, can goods, etc.) and a means to protect them.

I still have a business that provides a means of making large sums of FRN's but I convert them to other things as soon as an opportunity arises to make an investment that will yield a return on that investment.

You would be wise to follow a similar path to provide a safe haven from the carefully conceived plan that was clearly outlined in this post!

DaddyO

[Zero Govt]

DaddyO

absolutely keep your money LOCAL preferably with small businesses and out of anything national like pensions, investments, banking, insurance etc. Most of them are parasite systems because parasites like to work on a national basis, they're too lazy to work small.

Bleed their national systems dry and do yourself a favour by supporting your local areas economy (the national one and Big structures are the most insecure). During a Depression the weak get weaker (go bankrupt) and strong get stronger because people gravitate to strength, so let's make sure it's the smaller community banks, insurance and pension Co's, shops, local businesses you have some influence over that are left standing and not the Big Fat national corporates where you're just a number

[B9K9]

Concrete plans are not only already in place, but have been for a long, long time. However, it is only now that they are starting to become fully operational. And what are these plans based upon? Why, the good ole' 2nd law - that is, entropy.

This is where you, Denninger, or any others who call for active participation have it all wrong. The great fear the pigmen have is entropy - if the system doesn't keep growing, then the marvelous scam they concocted which siphons off so much free wealth is imperiled.

The way to bring down the system is to simply do nothing - just let nature runs its course. Without exponentially growing energy production/reserves, one cannot maintain exponentially growing economic output. It's true, the math is absolute, incontrovertible: 1+1 does in fact equal 2.

Who needs mass demonstrations and or a national strike when unemployment is north of 20%, when actual organic credit is still decaying, when SNAP participation is over 1 in 8 Americans?

Forget fighting the system - it would be wise to prepare for what's coming next after the fall. Who will win? Who will lose? Some say existing drug cartels and criminal gangs are the best positioned, but they traditionally suffer from low IQs, poor impulse control and overall lack of discipline. What happens when smarter people (eg the former "hardworking" middle-class) decide to organize and leverage the dissatisfaction of those who believed they were fighting just wars?

Think through the beginning maneuvers of the next stage of the game, rather than trouble yourself over the death throes of this one.

[jus_lite_reading]

Correction: SNAP participation is approaching 1 in 6 Americans. But we'll just ignore that fact and say "look how high the 'stock market' is going!" as that is now the scale that determines economic health.

[jus_lite_reading]

Very well stated. I might add...

Keeping only a small amount of money in the bank for paying bills.

Buying all the physical silver and gold I can and storing it in safe keeping. (You'd be surprised, $1.4m in gold is very small and easy to hide)

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle everything. Buy as little new stuff as possible. Always buy used when possible.

Get off the electrical grid as much as possible- invest in solar panels for your home. (Best investment I ever made despite requiring 6+ years to break even)

Don't buy bottled water! IT'S the biggest scam! Buy a Britta.

Basically, everything you have always known about saving the ENVIRONMENT helps to destroy the BANKERS!

[HedgeFundLIVE]

Part of why I believe the market is delusional right now!: http://www.hedgefundlive.com/blog/10-reasons-the-stock-market-is-delusional

[ColonelCooper]

Maybe you could try to limit your blogflogging to one post per thread.

[Bryan]

I keep believing stuff like what's in this article, and I keep holding on to my position in SDS and losing more day by day.  When do you play the game and when do you fight?

[Zero Govt]

i'm in SDS too (3 weeks) if that's the ProShares Ultra Short you're referring too! Not long to go, should topple when it tops out in the 1345 - 1365 range ...should be worth the wait  ;)

[Bryan]

OK, so you're fighting?  Welcome to my nightmare.  I've been short the market since May '09.  ;-)  I guess my SDS position now is just a 'protest' position, since it will never come back to the $66 I bought it at.  Oh well, there goes retirement. 

[jus_lite_reading]

You can't fight them by shorting. Beat the street by simply not participating at all and buying all the gold and silver you can.

[Bryan]

Yes, I read your post on that -- how you bought into PMs instead.  I wish I could do that in my IRA, but I don't think I can.  And it may be too late at this point to switch from SDS to PMs anyhow...?

[jus_lite_reading]

E-gads! I'm 58 and never had or wanted an IRA. Cash out, buy gold and silver with cash. If possible, buy it at antique shows and markets. I picked up a .925 silver fish weighing in over 70oz for pennies on the dollar at a flee market. Paid less than half the spot price! When buying gold, buy an acid test to be sure.

[Bryan]

Yeah, well an IRA is tax-deferred.  I'm 50 this year myself, so retirement is getting closer.  Regarding gold and silver, my wife actually bought/sold sterling and silverplate items on eBay for a few years and we still have some inventory.  She got it at estate auctions mostly.  Maybe I'll hold onto the inventory for now and see if silver goes ballistic.  We don't have much gold other than in personal jewelry. 

Although, I don't think I have the same outlook that you do regarding fiat money.  I don't think we're headed to hyperinflation like Zimbabwe did, but you never know for sure.

[gwar5]

.

[gwar5]

Unemployment, inflation, Fiscal insanity, no manufacturing base -- takes some high dollar propaganda to cover all that up. 

[Scottj88]

We need to END the  TREASONOUS Federal Reserve, as America is Currently under attack by treasnous bankers.  Please read more about the banking cartel's connections @

http://thehardrightedge.com/america-under-attack-by-treasonous-bankers/

-

Scott J

[MiddleMeThis]

Great article; it actually gave me chills (good and bad)

[palmereldritch]

You are a villain in the purest sense, in that you not only do great harm to the world, you actually SEEK to do great harm to the world, if only to benefit yourself and your exclusive circle of “friends”; a clan of degenerate blood thirsty sociopaths with delusions of omnipotence that stalk the night like Armani wearing Chupacabra exsanguinating the joy from poor unsuspecting cultures.

Great stuff. 

This article reads like the indictment that it is.

Has a Grand Jury been empanelled?  This has got RICO written all over it not to mention enemies foreign...

The tripwire is going to be the SDR.  If a case was being made now in court (...is it?) then the SDR proposition would appear to be a fraud based incentive (translation: payment to the arsonists to put out their fire) warranting prosecutors and treasury officials to swarm Wall Street in Elliot Ness fashion....

Somebody dial 911!...actually this moment will be the global finance equivalent of 9/11...no coincidence there...

The question is: Will the reaction, confusion, manipulation and submission of the victims be the same ?

[Caviar Emptor]

Fake an economic recovery? Easy when you have the complicity of a ruling international elite who's fortunes rise and fall together and the approval of politicians in every country (who are nothing but ruling elite wannabees). Easy when everybody in the club is on the hook if you go down and you can make people believe that 'national security' is at stake. And the whole entire package made easier in a world where macro finance is really just a Treasury iPhone App, existing nearly entirely in the cloud. 

[buzzsaw99]

Excellent! [/mr. burns]

[Jerry Maguire]

Even Greenpeace can't be fooled any longer, and they're commies:

http://strikelawyer.wordpress.com/2011/02/16/greenpeace-names-names/

Of course, if we in the US were seriously maintaining our traditions and honoring the likes of Jefferson and Paine, we would already be clamoring for this constitutional amendment (see this and following related posts):

http://strikelawyer.wordpress.com/2011/01/15/amending-the-constitution-t...

I think it's too late, though.  So the author has probably nailed it.

[aerial view]

excellent article and description of the means and methods used by the insatiable greedy sociopaths that rule this world through their only objective: more control and more money AT ANY COST!

And yes, our govt is useless to change it as they are only puppets to the puppet masters. How does one fight back when the criminals are in control and the people have become the prisoners? Will the masses wakeup in time and fight back? Most likely not unless there is some unexpected trigger (black swan event).

[connorchenedt]

Great Article! I agree probably there are only a small group of people aware of the disaster ahead. Since I can not do anything to stop this down trend, the more important question to me is how to deal with it myself when it happens. Buying gold, short the market, etc.. 

[tictawk]

I got lost in this article.  Does not make sense, why?  DEBT is borrowing from the future.  It is money we DO NOT HAVE.   "wealth destruction" as the author states happens with a DROP IN NOMINAL VALUES of an asset and "HYPERINFLATION" is a RISE in nominal values of assets because the value of the medium of exchange is destroyed.  We have hundreds of trillions in debt (money we don't have) and the Fed has printed two trillion in the last two years.  Does this result in hyperinflation?  

[Bob]

Not yet--we have to keep working at it until we get it right.  QE10 if that's what it takes.

[Common_Cents22]

There are really two parts.  One is the additional debt/printing reduces confidence in the currency thus driving up prices for tangible goods/materials.   Second is the increased money supply driving up prices.  But the money is not getting to the lower levels of the economy and being expanded by fractional lending, rather the money is staying with large money center banks recycling treasuries.  A direct ripoff of America.

[c-rev with a twist]

Fed Servant:  "Sir, the RUT has moved down 3 points in the last 10 minutes"

Bernanke: "What, why wasn't I told about this?"

Fed Servant: "You were taking your potty break sir"

Bernanke: "Well call Dimon and those other sons of bitches and tell them to turn those machines back on. BUY BUY BUY! 

Fed Servant: "Sir, your lederhosen are drooping".

Bernanke (thumb in mouth): "Can you pull them up for me please."

[AlaricBalth]

"In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

[jus_lite_reading]

So now, all that stands in the way is...

[tslv50]

Im with buster on this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MG5eprZ4cs

Screw that whole way of life

[tslv50]

Im with buster on this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MG5eprZ4cs

Screw that whole way of life

[the rookie cynic]

Articles such as this leave me yearning for the frontier, but alas, there is no frontier to escape to, no clime where the air is clean, men are free, and the money sound. The pigmen have turned the whole world into a wallow. http://therookiecynic.wordpress.com/

[jus_lite_reading]

Harsh words but true. I feel as if I don't belong in this world. Humans are no longer humans...

[velobabe]

great content and comments are even better. good day, to all you good sirs†

[gall batter]

How to fake a recovery:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nNhOH4Y0bI&feature=related

[JohnGaltIII]

The phrase "Potemkin Village Economy" has been rattling around the back of my mind for a few days. This article brought it front and center.

I'm surprised that the "Potemkin Village" meme hasn't surfaced in the context of all the manipulation ongoing.

Labor arbitrage is going to depress US labor costs for a long time, keeping a lid on housing prices in real terms, even in the presence of inflation.

[palmereldritch]

It takes a pillage

[haskelslocal]

Great read, however, do foreign investors really want nothing to do with us or better said, do they want to invest but cannot? And we all know (even said in the article verbatum) that The Fed (bankers) make the money, not the Government. 

Create Debt To Pay Off Debt:... foreign investors want nothing to do with you... and ... Instead, print even more fiat and use it to purchase your own Treasury bonds!.

[drheywood]

I've started saving these to my hard drive, as I'm not entirely sure websites like this will be allowed in the future... Great read!