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Paul Farrell Explains Why The Fed-Wall Street Complex Will Self Destruct By 2012
- Barney Frank
- Bear Market
- Ben Bernanke
- Ben Bernanke
- Bill Gross
- Cohen
- Deficit Spending
- Fail
- Fannie Mae
- Federal Reserve
- Fisher
- Freddie Mac
- Global Economy
- goldman sachs
- Goldman Sachs
- Hank Paulson
- Hank Paulson
- Irrational Exuberance
- Jeremy Grantham
- Jim Cramer
- Krugman
- Mad Money
- Main Street
- Marc Faber
- Meltdown
- Moral Hazard
- Nassim Taleb
- new economy
- Nouriel
- Nouriel Roubini
- President Obama
- Recession
- Reserve Currency
- Robert Rodriguez
- Robert Shiller
- St Louis Fed
- The Economist
- Tim Geithner
- Wall Street Journal
- Warren Buffett
- White House
- World Trade
Some rather scary predictions out of Paul Farrell today: "It’s inevitable: Wall Street banks control the Federal Reserve system,
it’s their personal piggy bank. They’ve already done so much damage, yet
have more control than ever.Warning: That’s a set-up. They will eventually destroy capitalism,
democracy, and the dollar’s global reserve-currency status. They will
self-destruct before 2035 … maybe as early as 2012 … most likely by
2020. Last week we cheered the Tea Party for starting the countdown to the
Second American Revolution. Our timeline is crucial to understanding the
historic implications of Taleb’s prediction that the Fed is dying, that
it’s only a matter of time before a revolution triggers class warfare
forcing America to dump capitalism, eliminate our corrupt system of
lobbying, come up with a new workable form of government, and create a
new economy without a banking system ruled by Wall Street." And just like in the Hangover, where the guy is funny because he's fat, Farrell is scary cause he is spot on correct.
Handily, Farrell provides a projected timeline of events:
Stage 1: The Democrats just put the nail in their coffin confirming they’re wimps when they refused to force the GOP to filibuster Bush tax cuts for billionaires.
Stage 2: In the elections the GOP takes over the House, expanding its strategic war to destroy Obama with its policy of “complete gridlock” and “shutting down government.”
Stage 3: Post-election Obama goes lame-duck, buried in subpoenas and vetoes.
Stage 4: In 2012, the GOP wins back the White House and Senate. Health care returns to insurers. Free-market financial deregulation returns. Lobbyists intensify their anarchy.
Stage 5: Before the end of the second term of the new GOP president, Washington is totally corrupted by unlimited, anonymous donations from billionaires and lobbyists. Wall Street’s Happy Conspiracy triggers the third catastrophic meltdown of the 21st century that Robert Shiller of “Irrational Exuberance” fame predicts, resulting in defaults of dollar-denominated debt and the dollar’s demise as the world’s reserve currency.
Stage 6: The Second American Revolution explodes into a brutal full-scale class war with the middle class leading a widespread rebellion against the out-of-touch, out-of-control Happy Conspiracy sabotaging America from within.
Stage 7: The domestic class warfare is exaggerated as the Pentagon’s global warnings play out: That by 2020 “an ancient pattern of desperate, all-out wars over food, water, and energy supplies would emerge” worldwide and “warfare is defining human life.”
It gets worse: Farrell postulates that the closer we get to the Mad Max moment, the less those in charge will discuss this "optionality" of the end of the world trade.
In this rapidly unfolding scenario, the Fed cannot survive. Why? Not because the Fed is at the center of America’s economic problems, beyond repair, a dying institution. But because the Fed is a pawn of Wall Street’s Happy Conspiracy, which is incapable of seeing the train wreck that it set up.
This out-of-control, conspiracy of greedy Wall Street bankers, corporate CEOs, corrupt politicians and Forbes 400 billionaires will, in the near future, trigger the third catastrophic meltdown of the 21st century, a collapse that paradoxically can transform America into a new, stronger post-capitalist economy … but only after a revolution and brutal class warfare. But few will talk about what’s coming.
The problem is that by using a simple metric suggested by Nassim Taleb, there is nobody Americans can trust to be the bearer of bad news, which is why everyone is and will be responsible for their own well being.
Here’s Taleb’s “simple metric for judging whose economic opinions are worth his time: ‘Did someone predict the crisis before it happened” in the past? “If the answer is no, I don’t want to hear what the person says. If the person saw the crisis coming then I want to hear what they have to say” about future crises.
Taleb target No. 1: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, who spoke just before Taleb at the forum. Of course, experience tells us you really can’t trust anyone in government. All politicians fudge the numbers, cherry-pick data to suit their personal goals, biases and political rhetoric.
Remember Hank Paulson, Wall Street’s Trojan Horse inside Washington? Earlier he had made over half a billion as Goldman’s CEO. Back in July 2007 before the meltdown he bragged to Fortune that this is “the strongest global economy I’ve seen in my business lifetime.” Never trust anything “leaders” like him say. Never. Worse, he and our clueless Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke later lied to the
public that the subprime crisis was “contained.” No, my friends, you
cannot trust politicians and government insiders. Never.
Others whose opinions can be summarily dismissed include economists and authors:
Taleb warns: Nobel economist Krugman not only supports Keynesian deficit spending, he favors the “transformation of private debt, with all the moral hazard it entails, into public debt” that’s toxic from a “risk standpoint.” Worse, it’s “immoral.” Our “grandchildren should not bear the debts of the grandparents.” OK, add Nobel economists to the list of people Taleb says you can’t trust to speak “the truth.
Actually, using Taleb’s “metric,” you can’t trust any economists. Why? Because all economists, even the best, are capable of making catastrophic errors: Remember Greenspan’s sad apologies during congressional hearings after undermining America for 18 years. And remember Michael Boskin’s classic $12 trillion error? Bush Sr’s chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, a respected Stanford economist, attempted to justify some cockamamie logic that his newfound Social Security savings would lower America’s debt, giving a political boost for his party. He was $12 trillion wrong.
No, folks, you can’t trust any economists, they’re just average humans. Most have strong political biases. They’re hired mercenaries who say whatever their employers ask them to say, pawns working for some Wall Street bank, corporation or politicians.
Yes, Allan reveals another character Taleb can’t trust for economic advice. Prizewinning authors like NY Times columnist Tom Friedman who’s book, The World is Flat is “very bad for society,” misleading, having failed to “assess risk.” So scratch celebrity authors from the list you can trust to tell you the truth about the future of America.
The circle of mistrust obviously includes all the corrupt idiots who control over the sheeple:
Taleb is merciless when it comes to politicians like President Obama, Congress and The Fed chairman: You can’t trust any of them. Earlier Bernanke’s reappointment “stunned” Taleb: He “doesn’t even know he doesn’t understand how things work or that the tools he uses are not empirical,” wrote Taleb in HuffPost. But it’s “the Senators appointing him who are totally irresponsible ... The world has never, never been as fragile,” and we’re stuck with an economist running The Fed whose methods make “homeopath and alternative healers look empirical and scientific.”
Obama’s reappointment of Bernanke left Taleb so distraught he “withdrawing into the Platonic tranquility of my library, to work on my next book, find solace in science and philosophy, and … structure trades betting on the next mistake by Bernanke, Summers and Geithner.”
Taleb’s “metric” essentially warns Americans to trust no one, certainly not Washington and Wall Street insiders. The vast majority fail his simple metric, “Did someone predict the last crisis before it happened? ... If the answer is no, I don’t want to hear what the person says. If the person saw the crisis coming, then I want to hear what they have to say’.”
Follows listing of some of the biggest hypocrites in the world:
Bernanke: “I don’t anticipate any serious failures among large internationally active banks.” Wow, was he ever wrong.
Billionaire Ken Fisher: “This year will end in the plus column ... so keep buying.” Main Street lost trillions on advice like this.
‘Mad Money’ Jim Cramer: “Bye-bye bear market, say hello to the bull.”
Goldman Sachs’ Abby Joseph Cohen: “The fear priced into stocks is likely to abate as recession fears fade.” Soon after, Goldman was essentially bankrupt.
Congressman Barney Frank: “Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are fundamentally sound.”
Barron’s: “Home prices about to bottom.” Three years later they still haven’t
Worth: “Emerging markets are the global investors’ safe haven.”
Kiplinger’s: “Stock investors should beat the rush to the banks.” Costly advice.
Bernie Madoff: “It’s virtually impossible to violate the rules.” But it’ll happen again.
To be sure, some continue to spit in the face of docile complicity and warn the world about what will happen:
These twenty did
warn America between 2000 and 2008. Although few listened: We reported
on warnings from economists Gary Shilling, Marc Faber and Nouriel
Roubini, the St. Louis Fed president (Greenspan ignored him, just as
Bernanke is ignoring the Kansas City Fed president today), former Nixon
Commerce Secretary and SEC chairman, billionaires Warren Buffett and
oilman Richard Rainwater, institutional portfolio managers Jeremy
Grantham, Bill Gross and Robert Rodriguez, and major cover stories in
Fortune, Harper’s, Vanity Fair, The Economist and The Wall Street
Journal.
However, at the end of the day, everyone has an agenda:
So who can you trust? Nobody, not me, not even Taleb. Why? In the final analysis the Buddha said it best: “Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”
The problem is that if left to the average American, the looting will not finish until well after the end:
Unfortunately, America is losing its capacity to reason, its common
sense, its values, its vision of the future.
Which is why the silent minority is best advised to stock up on popcorn, and watch the cannibalization and the race to the bottom resume at an unprecedented pace, as everything unravels: the best we can do is hope for some amusement as the endgame approaches the finale.
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LOL, the U.S. becoming a net exporter of oil? No chance at that, it's forty years post-peak extraction already.
Exactly how do they get around MaObama's veto pen? Pray tell!!
The best we can hope in January is gridlock, assuming the Great Implosion doesn't happen first!
Having analyzed the various MSA's, ethnicity and work habits, and genetic abilities for back breaking labor I'm still at a loss for where I should be setting up my forced labor camps after the collapse. Any suggestions?
AU now = small armies later = me on the hickory stump with a rich naugahyde whip!
I am starting to rant now - there is little reason to follow fundamentals any more. If you want to the longer version here it is: http://capitalmercenary.blogspot.com/2010/10/bull-market-in-politics-don...
The short version: I think the article is dead on and the policy is creating a dangerous situation - forget traders who go nutz from the policy effects on the market; its the fed breaking the system under its own weight.
Pall Feral is full of beans.
The world will probably end by 2020, it might be as early as 2012, but definitely by 2036. Yeah right, those maggots will be trillionaires and we'll all be begging for zinc pennies in the street and still nothing will change. I'd love to see bowling for dollars on television where they use paulson, bernanke, blankfein bald heads for bowling balls but it won't happen in my lifetime.
Ferrell is ignorant of any economic theory/history. He hates the symtoms while clueless as to the disease. Most of the time he blames capitalism itself in his missives.
We should be so lucky that they self destruct.
That's some find doomer porn there.
By the time the failure known as a violence-based revolution would ever come to pass, the Security State will already be implemented. It will be unleashed as soon as the first stirrings of unrest occur, with the Tea Partiers criminalized much in the manner of which the militias were in the 90's, in an attempt to deny legitimacy in the hearts and minds of the herd (i.e. voters).
Then there are sure to be false flag ops designed to deflect attention from domestic to foreign issues.
The elite will allow just enough unrest so that the sheeple demand protection, while ensuring nothing gets too close to them. I expect to watch Detroit and LA burn to the ground on live TV, as both places are powder kegs with no good options for the immediate future.
Get.Out.Now
Actually, the chick on Jeopardy last night with the Phd in Greek Literature convinced me to
Get.In.Now
Because with Phd's in Greek Literature combined with the NFL and Nascar mongrels, me thinks I'm on the losing team.
Wow, and he writes for MSM? He puts most of the bloggers to shame, yet again. He is our Robespierre.
I've been reading Farrell for years. This is his style. Contrarian.
He has not been all that far off the mark in a broad sense.
Goldman Sachs’ Abby Joseph Cohen
Of all the big sharks she is one of the most detestable. She appears in front of the camera groomed to resemble a trusted grandmother. Her voice has a trained to sooth; she croons with little or no inflection. A week ago when the market was teetering she appeared on CN (double) BS and did her conniving magic. I watched the market recover from the edge of a fall and then r-i-s-e as she prophesized the worst is over; all is good for the common mass; go forth, spend, make children, spend and then spend some more. gag.
Great article. Keep on.
Farrell is MarketWatch's token "See we're not all happy bulls" writer. Go back through his articles and we should be in "doomsday" by now. I agree with a poster above, pretty much just sensationalism to get more eyes on MarketWatch.
Are you sure it's not just a case of "fair and balanced" journalism? So many others there are Wall Street puppets that Farrell is an in-your-face fresh breeze.
Always amazed that ppl like the author and TD can be anti-Fed yet also left-wing nutjobs in favor of crushing, brutal totalitarian state power. Shows you just how deeply the problems in our society run, and why we are doomed
Um, what? Where precisely did you see an endorsement for "crushing, brutal totalitarian state power"?
Be careful tyler. He'll keep pushing you to attack fort dixx and then put you in jail for being dangerous. LOL
I guess he's trying to say that trashing Krugman, Keynesian deficit spending, and NY Times authors proves you're a "left wing nut job" .... <:>
Not there -- yet. The call to arms is not a priority at ZH as I can see.
That is best left to other sites. (I look over my shoulder as I type...)
lol master, just making things up out of thin air doesnt lend any credibility to your statements.
All this talk of collapse really makes my wonder if AU ownership after collapse will be no different than having drank too much whisky with the date of your dreams. The night ends, now what? Bitter sweet.
Opulence, I has it !!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkMsSIjQXxo
I jump in it.
I see a couple of problems with his postulates.
american citizens have been raised on video games ....
solo efforts ... the ultra-rich have taught them all not to
trust the person next to them, don't talk to him, don't touch him ...
they do not know how to cooperate, how to plan, or how to organize, at all.
We will not get a revolution.
We are more likely to get total anarchy ....
True.
Real hell on earth is..."every man for himself".
When i was a boy people looked at each other in the stores...Now they studiously look away from each other.
And the melting pot is broken...Amerika is (was?) just a warm place to come and make a few bucks...an international conjugal visit.
The center will not hold
Right, america is a bunch of self absorbed individuals. You know, morons. There wont be any 1776 style revolution, just a grabasstic state of anarchy with bodies strewn all thru the streets.
Anarchy vs. Barney Fife
Mark Crovelli on political flat-earthism.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/crovelli/crovelli50.1.html
And the men who hold high places, must be the ones to start.
To mold a new reality, closer to the heart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTgnqlJ36Rs
Downbound Train [Live]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3-dtbnfzKA
Here is an interesting painting by George Grosz, an artist who lived through Weimar Germany (with some Banzai7 flourishes).
The painting is called The Pillars of Society. Notice any parallels?
All the generational cycle theorists are saying we are due for a big kahuna because the generation that remembers WWII is passing away.
We're f#cked squared.
Well reading some of the writings of big players in society and their mouth pieces, they are calling from 500 million to 2 billion people globally. We are not hitting that number without a lot of pain and misery.
In some ways the glass is half full though. After all the generations in the past had access to a lot less information. Those who wish can try to take the steps they can to protect themselves. Imagine if this was happening but all information was coming from the MSM.
Grosz’s dream for a collectivized society may be coming true in the West, but it won’t be because of Tea Party activists.
The flourishes you’ve added to this Communist politico’s comment on 1920’s Germany would certainly draw kudos from present day collectivists. They would be especially delighted with the portrayal of a tea party figure holding a blood-stained palm leaf in this vitriolic denunciation of the ruling class since this movement threatens to unseat many of their big-government officials and seeks to reduce the size of their socialized leviathan known as America.
It’s true that the generation that remembers WWII is passing away; which is why current propagandists think they can get away with equating every movement they disagree with as national socialism, the Nazis and Hitler.
Silver up 4.1% TODAY!!!!!!!!!!
MELT THE WITCH
…swap all your Gold for Silver!
http://news.silverseek.com/SilverSeek/1210917480.php
Interesting that the problems that led us to this dismay, are being ignored and all efforts are concentrated on propping up the stock markets. Priorities are in peril as well as our country, the dollar, housing, jobs, and the President.
ZH in 2112: "The System is Collapsing"
"Can't ya see? Its mathematically certain. "
"If only you low IQ folks understood mathematics you would understand how it works"
And then the kicker: "I could be off by 20-40 years". And then we expect the sheeple to care.
Total Fear and Panic before 2010 year end. Bank on it.
All too true! Gold is @ $1346+, Silver: $23+, Crude: $82+, Dollar Index: 78-
To Ben and Timmy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-4AheUl6ls
XOXO
Janis
If Bernanke gives away all U.S. value just to the banks, then we’re every close to the solution on this. It’s going to blow
The economy is getting so bad the central planners are using their last bullets. There are no bullets after this. This is the last chapter where the economy takes over.
The Congress refuses even to take up the tax cuts until after the election because, as politicians, they are completely running scared. Look at what’s happening to small businesses as Obama fiddles while America burns; they’re in dire financial straits, yet they won’t know anything about what direction to take until January.
I think there is a revolution coming with the Tea Party—I think that the Tea Party sentiment is stronger than the pundits admit. Millions of Americans are being hit economically, even destroyed, by Fed policy.
The economy is like a balance wheel that had developed a little bit of a shimmy but now is wobbling so fast it looks like it’s going to fly off the axle. Every day, there’s some bit of dire economic news. And all that the international manipulators of money who control the nation's purse strings have for an answer is their stock market.
Just look at the California budget and the compromises being made to settle its $19 billion deficit to meet its balanced budget mandate. If you stop and look carefully you can see the end from here :
To settle a $19 billion deficit, California starts by borrowing $10 billion more. Then, the legislators pencil in that they can count on an additional $5 billion from the U.S. Treasury even though they’ve only been promised a little over a billion. Then they balance in all these additional wild schemes. For example, they’re going to sell more than a billion dollars’ worth of state buildings and, listen to this, lease them back and keep using them by paying rent!!
This is not the capitalism favored by our Founders; this is the result of the Keynesian socialism favored by the oligarch fascists. And that’s why it’s failing.
Thank you -- for too many fine points to enumerate.
Where's that thumbs-up "Like" button, Tyler?
Add Mortgage market seizure to that "salad!" What's not to like?
Brewsters' Millions..
VOTE NONE OF THE ABOVE!!!!
(Reuters) - Ultra-loose monetary policies by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are throwing the world into "chaos" rather than helping the global economic recovery, Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said on Tuesday.
A "flood of liquidity" from the Fed and the ECB is bringing instability to global foreign exchange markets, Stiglitz told reporters after a conference at Columbia University.
"The irony is that the Fed is creating all this liquidity with the hope that it will revive the American economy," Stiglitz said. "It's doing nothing for the American economy, but it's causing chaos over the rest of the world. It's a very strange policy that they are pursuing."
After the troops are done failing in Afghanistan they can come home and enforce Operation Austerity. Can't wait. The GOP and their disgruntled band of teatards will finish this sorry ass country off. Amen.
The military wouldn't take your property, the socialists are the ones who think they're for tax collections and redistributions. The military would prevent the moochers and looters from taking yours.
The socialists are the ones burning through phantom cash and creating massive new entitlements, even as we're getting the foreclosure notice. Somebody has to say no and try to stop us from being a banana republic.
I, on the other hand, say "YES!" and let it fall apart. I do not want more of the same in 5, 10, 20 years hence. Start from scratch as the original planners envisioned. If we save these bastards they will do the same thing, using the same tools, as soon as they can.
Some mystic on Zerohedge once uttered, if you pick a fight with an old guy, you'll end up dead. This is where the salty tears start to flow. When ironically, the pensioners, who firmly ensconced in their semi-welfare based payouts are jilted, that is the beginning of the end. This may hay happen sooner than we think. Why? Because the only way to keep the pensioners in their soma trance would be to allow interest rates to go erect. In other words, the salt peter would be removed from their geritol. This is as likely right now as me not using doubleply TP. But we can count on the bankers and interests of the owners of MBS to rule the ever approaching dusk (night will inevitably come), where rates will be kept down. The Fed has no intention of fastening a toe tag to QE Infinity and TARPv67. Bankers vs. AARP... Bankers up +4...temporarily.
If there really is such a thing as a U.S. home-based bond vigilante anymore, for the time being they can expect a nice cot in a local detention center if they act up.
In the end the score will be as such;
IMF, BIS, David Lee Rothchild, Rock and Fellas, Hu Flung Pu from China: +1000
Fed: 0 (scapegoated, but the owners [see above] stay intact
Sovereigns outside G20: -1000
Owners of AU, AG, Agriculture, Security Apparatus: +1 to +10
Think of Harry Brown on a national level.
Not sure if I could go for another 300 million Michael Caine's in this world.
Never been so freaked out about a 200 pt up day.
To Ben and Timmy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XhQRFO4M7A
xoxo
Motor City 5
When you think about it, the situation poses some interesting prisoners' dilemmas, no? If the whole thing is levered up the ass, going to hell, and we're going to be stuck with the bill, than isn't it perfectly rational to maximize your utility by levering up even more than average before the house of cards collapses? Why should I pay my mortgage when they can't kick me out of my house, and my neighbors will all see their taxes increase to pay for some sort of forgiveness, principal reduction, whatever. Then everyone is incented to default. This is a commonly acknowledged moral hazard. But what about just going balls to the wall in debt to the credit card companies. If you have student loans, pay it off with credit cards. Pay off your mortgages with credit cards, buy a car on credit cards. Buy a bunch of gold on credit and stick it in the ground. Make the net worth you have in the financial system massively negative, and when it goes kablooey, the parasite banks are stuck with your bill, rather than vice versa. Again, society will get stuck with the bill in the end, but those that win at the end game are going to be those who have actually protected their wealth. I can increase my net worth by obtaining assets on credit, and than marking those liabilities to zero. Maybe the average American isn't so stupid after all, simply making highly rational choices regarding their own best interests which when taken on an aggregate basis clearly damage society as a whole in a huge game of prisoners' dilemma which is itself the result of massive problems of agency and conflicts of interest throughout a needlessly complex, legalistic, and indeed corrupt regulatory, governmental and business morasse.
+1 Have the bankers rub their nose in their own worthless counterfeit based debt feces.
Good to see you again Vol Ex. A +1 and a junk - does that mean I'm flat? Seriously, junk? I'm not advocating it, nor talking my book - I'm simply not ruthless enough to knowingly steal from my neighbor, or future generations, which is why I'm among the few financial professionals whose clients are far more wealthy than I. I'm again merely framing the current problem as one of incentives, and rather than projecting the fundamental attribution bias on others for being ad hominem "stupid", I'm merely proposing a framework in which their decisions can be seen as highly rational.
.
Chart: SPX
Great effort, Ben.
http://99ercharts.blogspot.com/2010/10/spx_1186.html
It doesn't end, sure. But it changes. And change is basically death. Like now, we've watched final gasps of democracy. Changed. And ended.
With all due respect, I believe the author fails to understand the elite's control of the media. As the various horrors he perceives unfold, blame would not be heaped on Wall Street. Note that many today continue to blame those who lied on the loan applications for the meltdown in subprime. This is not an accident. Graying, authority figures will be recruited to identify the problems as being "too much government," a "plethora of federal entitlement programs," and a lack of "freedom." This formula has been working and I see no reason to believe it won't continue to work. Thus, class warfare will not break out. Rather, ideological warfare may break out with Tea Partiers shooting Libtards at will, while the fat cats watch from the comfort of their gated villas. It is my view that the American public opinion has been hijacked by the elite and the class warfare has already taken place and the elite won.
With every passing day we must repeat the damming fact, that the bankers stole trillions from us, until the day that sweet justice and restitution comes into our hands and every ounce of wealth (with interest of course) is clawed back from the Wall Street Goldman types and central banker families of the world. The magnitute of their crimes is so vast as to be beyond comprehension. Once we the people have a true functioning legal system again then the trials will begin. If this is done right this will happen all over the planet in every land and there will be no hiding place. The MSM is known for what it is: a total fraud, not to be given one minute of attention.
Correctomundo!
The only chance of a revolution happening is when the majority are out on the streets and begging for hand-outs.
We're a different society nowadays, the pseudo-capitalistic dogma they've preached to the masses have produced a population of people to who seek to further themselves first, to hell with others. Profits, bottom lines, efficiency -- the human factor is removed.
And so, until the myopic masses see for themselves first-hand what are the fruits of their march towards their personal paradi$es, they will not take action.
By then, it'll probably be too late, but who cares, right? The religion of profits has already spread throughout the world, there's billions of people in Asia that're getting fattened up for their fleecing, and what can we do? Throw a tantrum that our pacifer has been taken away?
People fall into patterns, and this one is no different from the fall of any other society throughout history. Despite all our knowledge and information, we tend to behave very...primitively.
Who's ready for a gallon of gas to to exceed 10 shares of GM???
Fed's Evans says favors "much more" easing: reporthttp://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101005/bs_nm/us_usa_fed_evans
We’re in the final throes of economic debauchery……….
Here is where I disagree. There are several dynamics that should be considered. I think Paul Ferrel assumes a little too much. I can understand the cynical take but it may hamper one’s analysis. I think he underestimates the amount of voter frustration and the politics of the people being elected. Sharon Angle, Joe Miller, Pat Toomey, Ron Johnson, and John Raese owe lobbyists nothing. They have been elected out of frustration and a grassroots movement. The Senate races of 2012 portend a weaker Democrat party. They will be replaced by a second class of Tea Party supported candidates. The polar opposite of Barrack Obama and nancy Pelosi.
Also the internet as a means of dispersing information has fundamentally changed the dynamic between the people and the politicians. The next class of elected Republicans will be the most watched and held to the highest levels of accountability ever. The lethargy and apathy that has allowed our financial system to be distorted and distended is quickly eroding.
What happens after stage 4 is that the public employee unions (and the UAW) go to war with the people. Between 2012 and 2016 the real dynamism in politics will be at the state and municipal level. Without political allies in the federal government California and Illinois will finally have their day of reckoning (If not sooner). As massive failures and examples to the rest of the nation other states will voluntarily reform to avoid such a fate. It would not surprise me if a national trend of state constitutional amendments to deny the right to organize for public employees takes hold. Accountability will be the new black in political life. Everyone is watching all the time.
Also the effect of inflation will have a profound effect on the political behavior of Americans, as it did in the late 1970’s. I think the difference is that Americans were lulled to sleep in the Reagan era. Not so today. Paul seems to believe that Americans are held hostage by the politcal system. Not so. As long as we can vote them out and hold them accountable then we are okay. As an example I’ll give you Ben Nelson of Nebraska. He got the message, being booed vociferously in public can do <a href=”http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,583271,00.html”>that to you.</a>
TODAY'S MARKETS TELL US THAT THE SYSTEMIC COLLAPSE SEQUENCE ENTERED THE FINAL PHASE TODAY
THE UNRAVELLING WILL GET HAIRY FAST
THINK SO? ARE YOU SURE?
ZERO RISK IN INDEX FUTURES......IT'S ALL RIGGED TO THE UPSIDE.......BUY ALL DIPS............MAKE FREE MONEY $$$$$$$$$
Or you can hang out here a bitch all day about the end of the world.
ok champ. enjoy yourself at the massacre. have fun at the snuff film.
Sheep, about 95% of humanity. Dogs, about 4.9% herding the sheep around. Wolves, about 0.1% of humanity ... laughing our asses off.
Well......
It seems that the within the last five years or so, the Florida Legislature passed a law stating that if a mortgage was sold in the course of a business agreement/contract/sale, that it was unnecessary to have the mortgage note assigned and recorded at the county level. Which deprives the citizens of Florida of necessary income from State Doc Stamps and County Recording Fees, thus shifting the burden of government onto the the masses as opposed to the wealthy banks and real estate investment firms. In addition, the Florida Legislature ALLOWED the mortgage document fraud to exist by NOT REQUIRING recorded documents as set forth by the Florida Statues for decades. Not only is the Federal government taking individual rights, the State governments are giving them away. The Constitution has been raped. We, the citizens stand amidst the bloody mess wondering who and why.
Worry not, Janice. The Everglades will reclaim her own.
We're not getting the violent revolution some of you seem to be hoping for.
During the last Great Depression the communists canvassed the unemployed and destitute, trying their best to foment revolution. The typical Joe reacted with a "meh" and kept pounding the pavement looking for work, or moved in with other family members, or returned home to "the farm." Nobody was interested in any grand schemes to "get back" at the (owners of the) banksters who did them in.
Americans are not Europeans. We don't really "riot," unless you count COINTELPRO, which I don't. Americans are not accustomed, nor inclined, to making demands of our governments. We're some of the most stiff-upper-lippy working people on the planet, and believe it or not, a lot more neighborly than we look. We'll make due until the provisions run out and then . . .
Unfortunately I just see millions of us up-and-dying in the street as a result of the collapse of JIT and/or social programs, as gas, food and water becomes scarce and hospitals shut down. Ever try to foment ANYTHING while hungry, dehydrated and/or sick? I didn't think so. And nobody has farms to go home to anymore.
Has it occurred to anyone that the "committee to save the world" is painfully aware of this, and is only just doing what it can to put off the inevitable? If I were in their shoes I'd be printing money as fast as I could, too. Is there any other humanitarian option? I can't see it.
(Me: Long gold, beans, toilet paper)
I figure the odds be 50/50.
Have you bothered to notice who gets to do what with the first use of all that fiat? They are subverting the very basis of civilization and destroying the normal workings of human cooperation. We would do very nicely without them indeed! I strongly object to your misconception contained in the phrase: "committee to save the world".
I thought Pinky's comment and most of the post was dead on. There is a reason he put "committee to save the world" in quotes. Think of Blankstein's "doing god's work" comment.
We're zipping down the road of good intentions in an old poorly maintained bus held together with ductape and hope - that once stopped will never start again. The bus driver's only option is to keep giving it a little more gas so the kids will be distracted enough by the oncoming scenery to not notice that the tires have long since worn off and the bus is on bare rims with a shower of sparks and smoke behind it. The bus driver's only purpose is to drive... hopefully the bus will break down on another driver's shift.
The Committee To Save The World:
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19990215,00.html
The "new" Committee to Save the World (?)
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/02/09/the_new_committee_to_save_the.html
I missed the part about buying solar stocks for the next big secular bull market. :)
Won't happen until grass is growing in all the bomb craters...
Not to add fuel to the revolutionary tone of the comments today, but it could be argued that Uncle Sam is getting ready to suppress any insurrection here at home.
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/
"guard the change"
well I don't know what to add cept I'm sitting in the jacuzzi located at the most beautiful spot on earth looking straight up at McMansions ripe for takeover cause it's off season no one home. that 's when the takeover needs to occur. they all leave when it gets a little chilly. just fat fuck wussypussy.
If you haven't had a frost yet in CO - now is a good time to go up the mountains and "pick some weed".
hi frankO so nice of you to stop by and say hello. oh I got Colorado weed fore sure. golden thread I call it. sweet.
In summary, guns, gold, and food.
My response to Taleb:
"that it’s only a matter of time before a revolution triggers class warfare forcing America to dump capitalism"
How can you dump something that you do not have? I was born here, as were my parents, yet none of us have lived in a capitalist system, but rather have lived under something more akin to the South American crony socialism during our lives here. Capitalism is the only system compatible with freedom, either the individual owns property or the state does, if the state does then you are just owned by the state as a slave, which is pretty much the way the majority of civilization has gone the past several thousand years including what has been going on here in the US for generations. If you want to regress back to that type of tyranny then you can count me out. As for class warfare, what numscal does not yet know that this is tired and hackneyed tactics from the politics of evny that elites use to divide and conquer? Your not going to get a majority of Americans to fall for that BS.
"eliminate our corrupt system of lobbying"
If you centralize power, and give more and more power to government, and make it do more and more things, then people will use dollars/wealth to chase after that power. Corrupt Lobbying is a symptom of centralization of power. There is only one way to "stop the corrupt system of lobbying" and that is to decentralize power and limit what powers the government has, something akin to the Constitution which we abandoned generations ago. If the government does not have power to hand out government favors then why would lobbying propser? It wouldn't. What monkey has still not figured this basic fact out?
"come up with a new workable form of government"
What the hell does this mean? You leave it vague and defined as "workable", sounds like POS propaganda. There is government that is based on freedom or there is government based on power, that is it, those are your choices, there are no "workable" forms of government, because workable is a nonsense hopey-changey word. Workable for who? For powerful elites? For corrupt bankers? For corrupt unions? You can keep "workable", I want freedom and rule of law.
"and create a new economy without a banking system ruled by Wall Street"
Ruled by Wall Street? Am I suppose to suspend all reason and memory of our recent and current crony government's fingers in the mess? You have to be kidding me. So ruled by who then? By politicians and bureaucrats? Or are you advocating a free banking system along the lines of Rothbard and the Austrian School? If so then why not just say that, but you don't so ruled by who? I swear this phrase creeps me out like I am in the company of bolsheviks on the eve of immense stupidity.
+1
nice to know there are others out there like you, Punderoso. keep up the great commentary.
i look forward to the end of The Fed (centralized money planning), fractional reserve lending, and fiat currency in my lifetime.
You're kidding, right?
Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution reads (in part):
"No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."
OK, so this TONA change, costs someone (like, say, Alan Greenspan) his citizenship. That is not materially different from the outright prohibition that exists already. The point being, why would the PTB obey your amendment any more rigorously than they obey the one that already exists?
The answer does not rest in politics, politicians, or tea parties. Politics is simply enforcing the moral code of entitlement as right and extortion as public policy. As in, Im entitled to income provided by you because I need it...and these guys over there w/guns say you have to provide it, or else.
So, if the USD is to become worthless, the logical response is to max out credit cards, yes? And then repay someday in much cheaper dollars.
Whew!!! My gin and tonics and I wish to thank you all for your epicness. That was quite a read.
I hope I always remember what a G&T tastes like...when even gold can't buy one...
But for my part I hope we all will do what is possible to save our fair Republic, whether it be from retards or evil overlords.
And telling the truth here on ZH is but a teensy weensy part of it...but definitely a part.
I am sick of the conservatives that say lower spending,but at the same time continue the military industrial. Our founders wanted America to have a small military force,and a very large compulsory militia that is not controled by the federal govt but states. America’s Founders admired Switzerland as a “Sister Republic” amidst the despotisms of Europe. The American Founders—like the Swiss—understood the moral implications of a universal militia system: a people who are trained to self-reliance and responsibility will defend their freedom to the utmost. But a people who rely on a professional standing army may not have the nerve to resist tyranny.
The US government could arm all 90 million adult males, age 18–64 with an M-16 and 1,200 5.56mm rounds (40 30-round magazines) for a one-time cost of about 1% (7 1/2 billion dollars) of the cost of our current annual combined security budget ($750B+).
Anyway nothing will change because the tea party was hijacked by the neo cons and they will cut no spending whatso ever. Ron Paul will continue to be ignored and we will spend our selves into oblivion. If any party will gain my trust is a non interventionist foreign policy,end the corporate and poor welfares,end the military industrial complex,do massive cuts in "defense" spending,end the wars,end military aid to PLO,Israel,Egypt,Turkey,Saudi Arabia,Pakistan,India,South Korea,Greece,Germany,Colombia,Mexico,and anyother nation. These nations shopuld fund their own defense. Then at home bring back Glass-Stegall,do a massive investigation into Goldman Sachs,JP Morgan,Citibank,Wells Fargo etc in their part of the corruption in Wall Street. Then ban lobbying of all kind. Get rid of the Energy Department,Education Department,and Fatherland Security oh I meant Homeland Security. Secure the border to have a well trained militia protect it. End the war on drugs,and the wars in Iraq,and Afghanistan.And term limits for Congress and Supreme Court judges.
Alas both parties will never do this. The neo cons will cry bloddy murder for massive cuts in the military industrial complex,a sizeable military,and the introduction to a swiss style militia in which they can keep their guns. The neo libs will cry bloody murder with the end to welfare,a reformed social security,the end of the Energy and Education Deptartment. There will be no change unless the american people stop believing the bullshit they see in MSNBS,and Faux News,and PNN(Propaganda News Network). I am 19 with average grades at school and I get why not the shit heads in Washingto DC. I'm sorry to say this but if America has a French style Revolution it will not end well. France almost went into civil war,faced invasions from the major powers of mainland Europe(French Revolutionary wars),and had a man in a white horse save them. But he made france go through two decades of never ending war with its neighbors. America will dissolve into chaos.
America was born in blood. America suckled on blood. America gorged on blood and grew
into a giant, and America will drown in blood.
I hope you pursue this line and make similar suggestions on threads that are more 'live'. I have been around the block a few more times than you, and have an acute sense of political economy; you are very sharp and correct in the essentials.
America needs crisp, specific and principled political positions like this a lot more than it needs screaming about nonsense and cold-blooded emotional button-pushing.
well, you're angry. thats a start. keep it up and continue to focus on the facts, WBB.
I would add to your comments about The Military Industrial Complex. Our Founding Fathers did intend for us to have a standing Navy to protect our shores. The equivalent today would probably include continuing the Air Force in order to defend our skies.
As for the Army. I agree. We should NOT have a standing Army, as intended by our Founding Fathers, for the obvious reason that, as predicted, they will be used aggressively in foreign lands by lobbying forces with agendas. State Militias/National Guards are necessary to deter invasion, defend our country, and, most importantly, remind our politicians not to abuse power lest they wish to swing from the gallows.
I know, lets wheel The Greek out to fight the fed! surreal.
Here it comes! The Trojan Dollar (Gold, that is!)
Farrell wants "a new workable form of government"? How about we return to one we know works -- the US Constitution?
+1