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The Handling of the Economic Crisis May Lead to Civil Unrest
CNN's Jack Cafferty notes that a number of voices are saying that - if our economy continues to deteriorate (which it very well might) - we are likely headed for violence, and civil unrest is a growing certainty.
Watch the must-see CNN viewer comments on this issue:
Newsweek wrote two weeks ago:
Reality
is beginning to break through. Gas and grocery prices are on the rise,
home values are down, and vast majorities think the country is on the
wrong track. The result is sadness and frustration, but also an
inchoate rage more profound than the sign-waving political fury
documented during the elections last fall.
***
In
search of the earthly toll of this outrage, NEWSWEEK conducted a poll
of 600 people, finding vastly more unquiet minds than not. Three out of
four people believe the economy is stagnant or getting worse. One in
three is uneasy about getting married, starting a family, or being able
to buy a home. Most say their relationships have been damaged by
economic woes or, perhaps more accurately, the dread and nervousness
that accompany them.Could these emotions escalate into revolt?
Why Are People So Angry?
Why are people so angry?
Well, as the Newsweek article points out:
Corporate
earnings have soared to an all-time high. Wall Street is gaudy and
confident again. But the heyday hasn’t come for millions of Americans.
Unemployment hovers near 9 percent, and the only jobs that truly
abound, according to Labor Department data, come with name tags,
hairnets, and funny hats (rather than high wages, great benefits, and
long-term security). The American Dream is about having the means to
build a better life for the next generation. But as President Obama
acknowledged at a town-hall meeting in May, “a lot of folks aren’t
feeling that [possibility] anymore.”
By way of background,
America - like most nations around the world - decided to bail out their
big banks instead of taking the necessary steps to stabilize their
economies (see this, this and this).
As such, they all transferred massive debts (from fraudulent and
stupid gambling activities) from the balance sheets of the banks to the
balance sheets of the country.
The nations have then run their
printing presses nonstop in an effort to inflate their way out of their
debt crises, even though that effort is doomed to failure from the get-go.
Quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve is obviously causing food prices to skyrocket worldwide (and see this, this and this).
But the fact is that every country in the world that can print money - i.e. which is not locked into a multi-country currency agreement like the Euro - has been printing massive quantities of money. See these charts.
Moreover,
the austerity measures which governments worldwide are imposing to try
to plug their gaping deficits (created by throwing trillions at their
banks) are causing people world-wide to push back.
As I warned in February 2009 and again in December of that year:
Numerous
high-level officials and experts warn that the economic crisis could
lead to unrest world-wide - even in developed countries:
- Today, Moody's warned
that future tax rises and spending cuts could trigger social unrest
in a range of countries from the developing to the developed world,
that in the coming years, evidence of social unrest and public tension
may become just as important signs of whether a country will be
able to adapt as traditional economic metrics, that a fiscal crisis
remains a possibility for a leading economy, and that 2010 would be a
“tumultuous year for sovereign debt issuers”.
- The U.S. Army War College warned in 2008 November warned in a monograph
[click on Policypointers’ pdf link to see the report] titled “Known
Unknowns: Unconventional ‘Strategic Shocks’ in Defense Strategy
Development” of crash-induced unrest:
The
military must be prepared, the document warned, for a “violent,
strategic dislocation inside the United States,” which could be provoked
by “unforeseen economic collapse,”
“purposeful domestic resistance,” “pervasive public health
emergencies” or “loss of functioning political and legal order.” The
“widespread civil violence,” the document said, “would force the
defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend
basic domestic order and human security.” “An American government and
defense establishment lulled into complacency by a long-secure domestic
order would be forced to rapidly divest some or most external security
commitments in order to address rapidly expanding human insecurity at
home,” it went on. “Under the most extreme circumstances, this might
include use of military force against hostile groups inside the United
States. Further, DoD [the Department of Defense] would be, by necessity,
an essential enabling hub for the continuity of political authority in
a multi-state or nationwide civil conflict or disturbance,” the
document read.
- Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair said:
"The global economic crisis ... already looms as the most serious one in decades, if not in centuries ... Economic crises increase the risk of regime-threatening instability if they are prolonged for a one- or two-year period," said Blair. "And instability
can loosen the fragile hold that many developing countries have on law
and order, which can spill out in dangerous ways into the
international community."***"Statistical modeling shows that economic crises increase the risk of regime-threatening instability if they persist over a one-to-two-year period."***
“The
crisis has been ongoing for over a year, and economists are divided
over whether and when we could hit bottom. Some even fear that the
recession could further deepen and reach the level of the Great
Depression. Of course, all of us recall the dramatic political
consequences wrought by the economic turmoil of the 1920s and 1930s in
Europe, the instability, and high levels of violent extremism.”Blair
made it clear that - while unrest was currently only happening in
Europe - he was worried this could happen within the United States.[See also this].
- Former national security director Zbigniew Brzezinski warned
"there’s going to be growing conflict between the classes and if
people are unemployed and really hurting, hell, there could be even
riots."
- The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff warned
the the financial crisis is the highest national security concern for
the U.S., and warned that the fallout from the crisis could lead to of
"greater instability".Others warning of crash-induced unrest include:
- The head of the World Trade Organization
- The head of the International Monetary Fund (and see this)
- The head of the World Bank
- Senator Christopher Dodd
- Congressman Ron Paul (radio interview on March 6, 2009)
- Britian's MI5 security agency
- Leading economic historian Niall Ferguson
- Leading economist Marc Faber and billionaire investor Jim Rogers
- Leading economist Nouriel Roubini
- Leading economist John Williams
- Top trend researcher Gerald Calente
- European think tank Leap2020
Unemployment is soaring globally - especially among youth.
And the sense of outrage at the injustice of the rich getting richer while the poor get poorer is also a growing global trend.
Countries
worldwide told their people that bailout out the giant banks was
necessary to save the economy. But they haven't delivered, and the
"Main Streets" of the world have suffered.
As former American senator (and consummate insider) Chris Dodd said in 2008:
If
it turns out that [the banks] are hoarding, you’ll have a
revolution on your hands. People will be so livid and furious that
their tax money is going to line their pockets instead of doing the
right thing. There will be hell to pay.
Of course, the big banks are hoarding, and refusing to lend to Main Street. In fact, they admitted back in 2008 that they would. And the same is playing out globally.
As I noted in February:
Agence France-Press reports today:
The
International Monetary Fund stands ready to help riot-torn Egypt
rebuild its economy, the IMF chief said Tuesday as he warned governments
to tackle unemployment and income inequality or risk war.No wonder former U.S. National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski ... warned the Council on Foreign Relations that:
For
the first time in human history almost all of humanity is politically
activated, politically conscious and politically interactive. There are
only a few pockets of humanity left in the remotest corners of the
world that are not politically alert and engaged with the political
turmoil and stirrings that are so widespread today around the world.***
America
needs to face squarely a centrally important new global reality: that
the world's population is experiencing a political awakening
unprecedented in scope and intensity, with the result that the politics of populism are transforming the politics of power.
The need to respond to that massive phenomenon poses to the uniquely
sovereign America an historic dilemma: What should be the central
definition of America's global role?[T]he
central challenge of our time is posed not by global terrorism, but
rather by the intensifying turbulence caused by the phenomenon of global
political awakening. That awakening is socially massive and politically radicalizing.It is no overstatement to assert that now in the 21st century the
population of much of the developing world is politically stirring and
in many places seething with unrest. It is a population acutely
conscious of social injustice to an unprecedented degree, and often
resentful of its perceived lack of political dignity. The
nearly universal access to radio, television and increasingly the
Internet is creating a community of shared perceptions and envy that can
be galvanized and channeled by demagogic political or religious
passions. These energies transcend
sovereign borders and pose a challenge both to existing states as well
as to the existing global hierarchy, on top of which America still
perches.***
That turmoil
is the product of the political awakening, the fact that today vast
masses of the world are not politically neutered, as they have been
throughout history. They have political consciousness.***
Politically
awakened mankind craves political dignity, which democracy can
enhance, but political dignity also encompasses ethnic or national
self-determination, religious self-definition, and human and social
rights, all in a world now acutely aware of economic, racial and ethnic
inequities. The quest for political dignity, especially through
national self-determination and social transformation, is part of the
pulse of self-assertion by the world's underprivileged***
We
live in an age in which mankind writ large is becoming politically
conscious and politically activated to an unprecedented degree, and it is this condition which is producing a great deal of international turmoil.That
turmoil is the product of the political awakening, the fact that today
vast masses of the world are not politically neutered, as they have
been throughout history. They have political consciousness.Watch an excerpt:
Postscript: Violence Is Not the Answer
As
I've repeatedly noted, I am against violence for a number of reasons,
the most important being that people advocating violence have probably
not thought through George Orwell's analysis that:
Ages
in which the dominant weapon is expensive or difficult to make will
tend to be ages of despotism, whereas when the dominant weapon is cheap
and simple, the common people have a chance.
While
I agree on the urgency of fundamentally changing things so that our
nation (and world) aren't driven over a cliff, I believe that - instead
of violence - other methods must be found.
Take
that energy of being willing to die to protect your and your family's
freedoms, and put it into demanding change in an effective manner.
»
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Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last month the operation (Libya) could cost $750 million through the end of September -- it's now clear that unless the mission ends soon, it will cost at least $90 million more than that even if the cost remains at $40 million each month.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/06/09/obama-administration-struggles-to-keep-congress-at-bay-on-libya/#ixzz1Op5V7gUeWTF! Get out. Fucking Clueless Gates. We're broke you jackwagon.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/06/09/obama-administration-struggle...
That's right -get us out. Enough American and innocents blood has been shed for the bankster profits and empire building! BTW; Gates just passes on what he's ordered to do; his job is as whipping boy and as illusion to sheeple of a government that they think they still have - nothing more.
"Austerity" starts with shutting down the imperial military machine (it's not US anymore); Stop "securing "democracy and borders" for Libya, Irak, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen (we're now covertly bombing Yemen), and while we're at it; out of Germany, Japan, S. Korea, England, (WTF are we still doing in these places 65 years after the end of wwII?!) and the 700 or so other remaining locales.
Is this all Americans are good for? We didn't spill enough blood and waste enough wealth for the entire 20th century? We have to continue this shit for the 21st century too?
It's not a problem.
Print.
Print.
Print.
Until $100 buys a loaf of plastic bread.
Keep the $$$ flowing to the MIC and starve.
Ain’t no party like a Bilderberg party ‘cause a Bilderberg party don’t stop.
It’s that time of the year friends: Bilderberg 2011.
Perhaps the civil unrest that George describes is coming to America. However for as long as Bilderberg remains away from the minds and tongues of the people then any civil unrest America experiences is going to be about as meaningful as a St. Louis street fight:
http://worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshhsx3QbDPKUIMh499I
(In other words, civil unrest = shitheads fighting shitheads, while TPTB remain TPTB.)
And since Bilderberg isn’t going to be water cooler talk in America this year, then this article is just more yeoman's work by George and anything you and I have to say about civil unrest is about as meaningful as anything you and I have to say about “The Challenge Rivals” (premieres June 22 on MTV).
http://www.mtv.com/shows/rwrr_challenge/rivals/series.jhtml
Speaking of the Challenge, I’m so happy CT is back. That guy is nuts and fun to have around!
The United States military cannot possibly hope to contain civil unrest. First and foremost, the land military (including national guard and reserve units) is much too small to control even a handful of major urban centers. Air power of the American variety is ineffectual to quell revolutions. Smart bombs and stealth fighters are not much help when the radar is yours and all damage is collateral damage to your own country. Secondly, the military is concerned only with force protection (grouping up units and holding fixed positions) not with the patrols and dispersion of forces necessary to occupy territory and maintain order. Casualties would be enormous trying to fight an insurrection of millions of armed (many former military) insurgents, who are, after all, countryman of the soldiers. Morale would disintegrate in very short order. The government of the United States would fall in a matter of days to an armed insurrection before all the special police in the CIA, FBI, NSA, ATF, and so forth could finish typing their reports and briefs.
Strategically, your assumptions concerning the nature of the US military response are flawed. The military does, indeed, have weaponry specifically designed for the control of the population. Warfare of that nature operates on the emotional and the mental levels, not the physical. It is useless to say more in this respect, as people are about as open to discussion of directed energy weaponry as they are to the FED and the financial system.
Tactically, the US military could care less about the kind of weapons ordinary citizens are permitted to have. The pop-guns that so many place so much emphasis on are utterly and completely obsolete and useless for all purposes except killing one another and oneself. Grasp this.
What I'd like to know is how fast civil unrest would destroy the military's logistics. Much of their fancy tools of war depend upon a fantastically complex civilization that keeps the production machinery alive.
A sustained effort to merely snarl freeway traffic all over the US would severly impact this machinery. What about identifying and harrassing critical civilian employees? If the proper paper is not pushed, the machinery of death cannot be properly certificated, authorized, notorized, authenticated, etc. 1000 other similar ideas immediately leap to mind. In actual usage, even more would be discovered.
Logistics backbone would cease to exist in less than a week. Reserves would last another three weeks. After that: poof.
Something has to give at some point because people are running out of options and it's starting to show.
Why on god's green earth do you think they would engage in a straight up and down fight on either side?
1st if the US Army is not retarded they will not engage house to house or even in population centers. Instead they will siege population centers. With the dependence of society on JIT supply chains a quick siege would break even the most proud people. Air power would best be used to hit infrastructure, water treatment, power, and to block up roads. Read up on cluster mines, would work great to make the roads a real fun time. So all the military needs to do is not lose. This is not hard since they really just need to clear a kill zone at the key juncture and hold them with armored vehicles and air power. Good luck taking on a Stryker dug in, with air support, with your hunter rifle. Only need a handful of men at each point to if position is properly set up with fields of fire and machine guns. Now I'm sure your 10ft tall and bounce .50 cal rounds of your chest, but think most Americans are still mortal and not made of diamond, and therefor might hesitate to run into machine gun fire.
And this does not get into the use of NBC weaponry. Quite simply if they are willing commit, the military could quite effectively exterminate vast portions of the population without taking significant loses. Sure there may be political backlash, but depends on how much they want it. Lucky for them they have a firm grip on the media and spin machine. so a little prep work to take down the info centers and can actually probably move a lot cleaner then many would think possible. Sure it would ruin the economy but they would "win".
I'm just some random nerd and I can see this, so I'm pretty sure the war college has figured out a better plan. It boils down to how ruthless they are. If they are willing to commit mass murder really the masses have no chance. Goes back to the style of Genghis Khan, and using mass murder to cow people. Worked then, would work again. Just depends on which way they want to go, hot tyranny or the softer kind.
With only a couple days of food in each city, this is a good way to sweep for guns. Offer clownbux to those who help beseige the cities, and offer one can of FEMA-flavored soylent green for every gun (or gold coin) turned in at the checkpoints. When the city runs dry, herd the sheeple off to the FEMA camps. This process makes enough soylent green to be self-sustaining, and the thugs will end up with all the gold, land, and resources.
The "US military" is not a unitary institution. >15 states are edging toward secession. If/when they secede, whole National Guard divisions go with them - heavily armed troops, AFVs, ground attack and fighter squadrons. This isn't going to be about only a "popular uprising". It is going to be about Civil War. Once the fighting is sustained, expect regular Army, AF, Navy, Marine units to start deserting the Central Regime (DC/Wall St.) fairly quickly.
I certainly hope so, especially if Ron Paul wins and the elites are forced to steal the election for Obama. Been saying this for a while. What happens if most states secede except for NY, DC, NJ, DE, CT, MA, MD, and RI? The rape of NY and DC could be the Woodstock of our generation. We might even have enough flyboys to shoot down all the private jets before they escape to Israel.
The scenario you suggest is one possible outcome. If the military can disengage abroad and be retasked to "homeland" it is possible. While this may be interesting to think about, it would be hell to live through.
A popular insurrection, should it occur, does not have a predictable outcome however, there are simply too many variables. The infrastructure supporting the military could collapse along with the rest of the economy. How soon does the insurgency go to low tech communications to avoid compromise? How many non combatant supporters does the insurgency have? Can it operate without a central command structure?
If the powerz see an insurrection coming soon enough, they could set one up to fail, for an object lesson, and potentially avoid the real one. But if it is really popular and fast, that ploy won't work.
They could resort to mass murder, probably by releasing some slow fatal virus and vaccinating their supporters and the military. Some military units might change sides if they figured it out though. If military units defect, all bets are off.
A revolt could be totally nonviolent though. A mass refusal to support (pay) government or bankers could bring the system down quickly. I've no idea what the politicians would have to do to spark such a response, but one cannot credit them with the intelligence to avoid it.
The American populace just needs to fight with the same strategies of the Afghan Taliban, and the military is screwed.
The police would be of no help to the government. As it stands now, one cannot find a cop in a poor American neighborhood until hours after a murder has been committed. I doubt they would turn out against armed insurgents.
Donut shop?
Sorry, had to.
Tell me when you and Elvis start the revolution.
I have no intention of starting any such thing. I am merely making an objective assessment of the capabilities of the U.S. military should civil disorder erupt in the United States.
The 20 somethings have been gelded. Thank Steve Jobs and company for that.
Maybe, just maybe, if a draft was re-instated you could get some real political activism going.
That, and perhaps seeing Mom and Dad in the gutter.
Short of that, your average American is a fat toad, too complacent watching TV, his laptop and his iphone at the same time. While driving.
Good luck with the revolution this time, George.
Your post is addressed to "George".
It is not George you have to concern yourself with. It is YOU, slave & serf.
Listen GW, do you really think the political and financial boffins will leave their cushy jobs without violence? Do you really think the police and army are not going to beat the crap out of you? Think again.
The only way is this way. It is not theoretical, it works. It has always worked.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B31SUm0nrwc
Freedom what a interesting experiment.
Its obvious that the elite do not like blogs.
It has already started but not in the way you might think......the massive layoffs of police in the major cities over the past few yrs is frighenting.......murders are up in camden nj 71%, police in scaramento and stocken ca wont resond to burglaries, theft and minor car accidents...prisons are being shut down....food stamps are being cut off.......poor people are getting cut off from medicaid.....you get the picture.......these cuts have to happen as the states are broke but what will the implications to society be?
I have 600 stories about the dire situation facing the states @ http://nakedempire2.blogspot.com/
Check out this story from Janet Tavakoli about Chicago....gangs are running wild........
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-tavakoli/chicago-gang-violence-_b_873200.html
I find it difficult to believe that 48 % of this country feels some manner of violence is in the making. Hell I question you could get that result here on Zerohedge and the people on this site are far, far more hip to what is transpiring in the world today. The people on the street for the most part are challenged to walk and chew gum at the same time. Maybe I just live in a very stupid community. Milestones
I agree Milestones and your community is sadly typical. When I try to engage people about the FED etc., typically I receive blank stares, or they think I'm a quack. I guess the old saying ignorance is bliss must be true, cause I'm going nuts and the sheeple around me have their f'n heads in the sand! Oh, and END THE FED!
Peace out.
I don't see any signs of organized violence from the populace.
But I do see a marked increase in crime these last couple of years: theft, hit & run, assault, vandalization, fraud, and rape. I was victimized a few times. A guy I know was stabbed and hospitalized a few days ago. Maybe it's just the area I live in?
Oh yeah...it's taking place throughout the country, too many poor youth and poor oldsters and poor in-betweensters.
Gangs stealing iPods and iPads off young people, and sorry, but I won't be coming to your aid anymore, as I'm tired of all the ignorant douchebaggers out there.
Been trying to warn people, like my fellow activists, for over 35 years now.
Been there, done that, to the nth power.
The majority of the population is too old and too fat. A Tea Party rally is what you have now. You guys should have been alive when Dr. King was assasinated. That was civil unrest.
The S&P doubles off the lows, they seem to feel no more need to protest or organize rallies. It is really very pathetic to what it all has come down to
Looks like another good spot for this again...
The Reality Detached American
There's another ZH story about Hillary becoming IMF chief...please let it be a joke. I'm afraid to look at it.
Not IMF. The World Bank. Completely different.
Europeans dominate IMF, and the US dominates the World Bank.
You are writing crap.
The age old strategy is to have the "little people" fight it out amongst themselves, while the powerbrokers stay out of reach. That's the strategy now as well. If any peaceful attempt is to be undertaken to restore the rule of law for everyone, it must be initiated, before anarchy breaks out, to have any chance of succeeding, IMHO. I don't believe in the "incompetence" theory. All of this was planned.
I'm with Max Keiser about when it will happen. There won't be outrage over innocent people getting murdered by the police, there won't be unrest over civil liberties. It will be when gas prices hit $8/gallon you will see wholesale rioting across the US.
Who is going to get violent? Old geezer baggers? The'll get the sculls caved in in like 10 minutes. Flipped out vets? How many of them would rise up? Average Americans? They are consumers and no longer citizens, they don't really care what you do to them, as long as they can buy gasoline. Who is going to get violent? Can anyone tell me?
I am. And a few million others like me: "A single spark can start a prarie fire". And there's going to be millions of sparks. And for those who won't fight when DC/Wall St. go to martial law, there's always the FEMA Camp: they'll be baiting them with gov't cheese.
Perhaps you have never read how your ancestors pried the 13 original states from the clutches of the Crown.
No. It was not by "voting".
No. It was not by "peaceful protests".
No. It was not through endless bitching and "debate".
It was with guns. Many guns. Loaded guns.
And blood. The blood of the Crown's mercenaries and the blood of the settlers.
Freedom can be pried from the cold dead hands of the criminals "in charge" no other way.
They will not give up their power over you unless you kill them. Dead.
Yes, freedom is far from free...
+ 1000
People forget that the cause of the American Revolution was the removal of the colonies' income and sustenance by three methods: taxes, tariffs, and trade restrictions, all in the name of sustaining a distant, corrupt and indifferent governing Empire in the prosecution of endless wars against nations with whom the colonists had no quarrel.
Today, the Imperial Elites have removed the peoples' sustenance through taxes, government debt, and the sale of the national means of production to foreign nations with whom the people have no quarrel.
We have no more representation today at the Capital of Empire than the colonists did in London in 1776.
It will shortly be to the barricades again ..... all we are waiting for is our Lexington Green and Concord Bridge moments.
+1000000000000
Your neighbor will get violent when he can't feed his four kids and two dogs because his "money" is worthless or the shelves at the local grocery store are empty. He is not prepared. Most aren't.
Some on the dole (inc. SS, SNAP, military and govt retirement, pensions, all entitlements) will get violent when "their" checks stop coming or won't buy anything. Some will just D.I.P.
This will not be "organized violence" directed at govt. It will be something else. Good luck.
Any one who`s family is hungry...
Unfortunately it will probably be the public union groups that get violent, while everyone else smokes dope and plays xbox and gets an even larger tax bill shoved up their ass next time and end up losing their damn house over it.
You're right, no one. Things will just get more expensive, unemployment will keep going up, salaries down, and the state more intrusive and controlling, and we won't do a thing about it.
I wouldn't be so sure. The concept of "unsustainable" is soaking in across all socioeconomic strata as I see it lately. People are starting to feel cornered with fewer and fewer options to get ahead. Firearms sales continue to soar and part of this has to do with preparing for one's own defense--folks are seeing some things for exactly what they are: unsustainable.
You are sooo right. When thousands of self-described "liberals" march for neocon Nancy Brinker's Susan G. Komen Foundation, in a completely mentally stupified state, believing they are raising money for breast cancer, but instead are simply sending money off to pharmaceutical companies who steer research away from any and all correlation to their cancer-causing products, as well as avoiding mention of carcinogens and radiation, as they who own the pharmaceuticals, own the banks and oil companies, etc.
The progressive hampering of the economy and gradual deprivation of luxuries won't lead to violence. For example, the average American's standard of living has been declining for decades. Most people have no clue what's happening or why, or why they're part of the problem.
But when the economy becomes sufficiently degraded, those whose families are in mortal danger (e.g. due to hunger or pestilence) will resort to theft, murder, and even cannibalism to survive.
Federal and military retirement pension funds are now funding the government. Government will burn through these funds in less than a year. Then, (if it goes that far) what happens? Will these retired folks just starve quietly in parks and under bridges? Many retirees live from one check to the next and will be impacted immediately. Some have funds saved to last a year or so, but will be in the same boat soon after. How will this impact current/active feds/military? Will they quit en mass? Interesting times.
So what does the brain trust here recommend to handle the economic crisis?