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Labor Minister Says France Is "Totally Bankrupt"
Things in France must not be very serious, because the French labor minister accidentally let the truth come out a little earlier today. As the Telegraph reports, France's labour minister sent the country into a state of shock on Monday after he described the nation as “totally bankrupt."
Remember: France is one of the supposedly stable countries in Europe.
"Michel Sapin made the gaffe in a radio interview, which left French President Francois Hollande battling to undo the potential reputational damage. "There is a state but it is a totally bankrupt state,” Mr Sapin said. “That is why we had to put a deficit reduction plan in place, and nothing should make us turn away from that objective." It appears that once one wipes out the propaganda and the smooth politico talk, things are bad and getting worse at Europe's core. "Data from Banque de France showed earlier this month that a flight of capital has already left the country amid concerns that France’s Socialist leader intends to soak the rich and businesses. The actor Gérard Depardieu has renounced his French citizenship and decamped to Russia in protest, while David Cameron said Britain will “roll out the red carpet” to attract wealthy individuals. Pierre Moscovici, the finance minister, said the comments by Mr Sapin were “inappropriate”."
At least France can hike the tax on the millionaires to 75% to generate more money. Oh wait, no it can't.
But if capital is leaving France, where is it going? The FT has the answer:
Almost €100bn of private funds flowed back into the eurozone’s periphery late last year after action by the European Central Bank encouraged reinvestment in the crisis-hit countries.
The scale of the net inflows, equivalent to about 9 per cent of the economic output of Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland and Greece according to calculations by ING, the Dutch bank, highlight the revival in investor confidence in Europe’s monetary union after Mario Draghi, ECB president, pledged to preserve its integrity.
The return of capital has encouraged policy makers to believe the eurozone crisis is over, with Mr Draghi this month pointing to “positive contagion” in the region. The euro has also moved sharply higher.
Turns out it isn't, and the capital was merely rotating from the frying pan and into the 9th circle of insolvency hell. But at least the SNB is still buying up every French bond it can get its hands on to indicate that all is well with the "totally bankrupt state."
And speaking of private capital rotation, well Europe needed it. Recall the chart of European M3 loans to non-financial corporations we showed earlier based on central bank data:
Yup - a record outflow.
So if it wasn't for the private capital scrambling to fill the hole, Q4 in Europe would have been an absolutely epic disaster. One can only hope that private funds are as bottomless as the public central banks backstopping them, because should there be a reflaring of risk, all bets for Europe are off, precisely at a time when everyone is hoping that the worst is behind and that Europe, as every European politician was quoted as saying in past weeks, is now "fixed."
Of course, if France is totally bankrupt, there's nothing that a little diversionary war can't fix. Perhaps it is time to expand the Mali offensive a bit: there's a tempting little country in Asia called Vietnam...
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that Germany says goodbye, which they will
You can run out of fuel, or is that opposite to the euro thinking mind?
The sheep didn't hear you. Speak up asshole !
France needs to hurry up and take all Mansa Musa's gold in Mali before its too late.
Welp, they could always take another stab at Haiti, who knows what veins have been exposed after the earthquake...
"Shocker" - everything is fine, just look at yields. I am with orly on this one. Perhaps we are setting the stage for a new monetary union. think SDRs and the "United States of Europe". Hey, is' gotta be better than WWIII.
Until the population of Mexico moves north and "Press 2 for English" becomes the norm.
Here in the USSA, we're totally fckd.
Let them eat bonds .... and wipe their asses .... with baguettes !
Don't forget a side of Freedom Fries!
So, if Europe is "fixed", does that mean that they took it to the vet to keep it from goin' around the world tryin' to hump everything it can get its paws on?
well... now you mention it... Europeans have about 3 times more sex than Americans do :)
You all should try it sometime :)
Ah yes, that's why you are not even replacing yourselves, demographically speaking, even with massive immigration.
You are soon to become extinct in your own countries, doing to yourselves what the Turks and Saracens were not quite able to do to you a while back. But hey, 'least 'ya partied.
YEAH!! HUMP ON BROTHER!! HUMP ON!!!
Seriously though, my eldest daughter (in her early twenties) wants to save a few bucks and travel Europe for a while, like many in our generation did on a few bucks a day.
I keep tryin' to tell her:
-We've got LOTS of people here who don't speak English - you don't have to go through customs to feel like a foreigner.
-Our pervasive nanny/surveillance state is working real hard to catch up with our brothers' across the water, so just hang out a while and soon we can sincerely say "we're all Europeans, now".
Speake fer yerself!
We have more sex with a partner.
Dog- NOT a French wanker!
Surely HP distributes their products in France
Yes the printers have toner bombs in them hence the war in Mali. We can't have al Queda, Ali baba, Obama, moooossslim brotherhood sending HP toner bombs to France now can we?
Bullish for the euro of course- it will probably move up to $1.37 on this great news. How nice for Tom Stolper- he'll finally get one right...
Du pain du boursain du vin... well... a water will also do just fine...
The french are so fucked.
I had a french collegue who showed me his salary slip a few months ago...
He made 4500 euro net. about 6000 dollars. And in the end, after taxes, he made 1800 euro's.
He had a senior managment job... and for what?
travelling 140 km one way to work each day for a salary I made 10 years ago!
So what can they do? tax more?
cut benefits? they did that already! see the riots in paris!
And the countryside is even worse!
Over 60% of french people is poor! POOR!!!!
French revolution anybody?
But but but, I thought they had great healthcare and the best social benefits in Western Europe?!
Surely 60%+ taxation has its privileges, non?
A Belgian commenting on the state of France?
I can't wait for the reply!
:) Don't make me cry :)
I just had my paycheck today :)
Extra taxes:
1. extra for ipad
2. extra for laptop
3. extra for cell phone
a easy 60 euro's less per month from now on because all that "luxery" that I mostly use for work.
At least, those who don't get this from their work think it's only fair...
Sapin (in English "pine") is the wood coffins are made of, right?
Actual definition from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pine
pined pin·ing Definition of PINE : to lose vigor, health, or flesh (as through grief) : languish 2 : to yearn intensely and persistently especially for something unattainable <they still pined for their lost wealth>
If everybody is bankrupt, would anyone notice. Because we are all bankrupt!
not if you buy my debt and I buy yours! Than we can borrow more from the martians!!
And so the core is crumbling. The writing's been on the wall for a while though. Rare honesty from a politician, probably unintended to be fair.
All is still well! the MSN isn't reporting this in Europe!
We can sleep it off for another day!!!
here I found it ... on Le Figaro (right wing newspaper frmo their perspective, but still far to the left for Americans).
http://www.lefigaro.fr/conjoncture/2013/01/28/20002-20130128ARTFIG00746-le-debat-sur-la-faillite-de-la-france-relance.php
http://www.lefigaro.fr/conjoncture/2013/01/27/20002-20130127ARTFIG00150-michel-sapin-evoque-un-etat-totalement-en-faillite.php
and now they try do deny it ...
http://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/2013/01/28/01002-20130128ARTFIG00491-faillite-de-la-france-le-terme-n-est-pas-approprie.php
and scrolling into the comments ... this one mails it
path path: "Le ministre a dit la vérité, il doit être exécuté (chanson connue)"
Litterally, it translates like this: "The minister said the truth, let's execute him (from a well know french song)"
Awsome, next, let's get that Gillotine back to work. Its a bloody great show.
When the crash comes: 1. Don't be a conspicuous consumer .... wait a few days ! 2. Don't smirk .... practice looking like your wife just died in child birth .... but they saved the severely autistic child with a hole in it's heart ! 3. Move far away and don't make new friends !
Don't worry, it will be easy to "not make new friends" following your advice.
Do autistic children have a greater probability of that type of heart defect?
Just curious.
It is Down Syndrome children that frequently have heart problems. To my knowledge, there is no correlation between autism and heart issues.
This to shall pass....like a grape through a urinary tract
...well, if it's from the Bordeaux region, eez nod so baad, eh?
Passing the seeds is uncomfortable.
john law ?
John Galt?
Tony Soprano
As investors are leaving the UK one is wondering how they gonna balance the massive trade deficit?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jan/28/qatar-halts-chelsea-barracks-sc...
Quelle Horreur!
Zut-alors!
there's a tempting little country in Asia called Vietnam...
Plus ca changera, plus la meme chose.
I always thought the Louvre would make a nice condo. I am sure some oil Texans would buy in.
You're only bankrupt if you can't dream up another exotic method of financial innovation. Surely some French Frog can hypothecate a few trillion in derivatives (based on 2023 wine futures?) as collateral for a new round of lending by other financially resourceful (and creative) states!
In central banking there are no problems, just opportunities!
Since when did the Telegraph.co.uk become arrogant enough to try to charge for access? Effm
Storm the Bastille?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Prise_de_la_Bastille.jpg
...or wait until the July hot summer?
the bastile no longer exists....
And where it was is a shithole bad ass neighborhood last time I was there.
Paris is no better, and no worse, than any other major Metropolitan city Worldwide. There are areas where everything's fantastic, and you'll never be at risk of assault / robbery 24/7.
There are also areas where you'd be wise never to visit, daytime or night-time, especially if you are neither French nor "non-White" http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110706023916AA7Jj0U
But if you really are looking for trouble, Marseilles is the place (not) to visit!
http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/France/Provence_Alpes_Cote_dAzur/Marseille-104587/Warnings_or_Dangers-Marseille-TG-C-1.html
and -
http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/ShowUserReviews-g187253-r36161803-Marseille_Bouches_du_Rhone_Provence.html
amongst other "Rave Reviews"
Le Department of Truth apologies for this technical difficulty...
Please stand by, do not reach for loved ones or view alternative media sources as years of computer and TV radiation has both fried your genitals and brain...
No problem, they'll just bake more baguettes and croissants and use those for trade, meanwhile the Dow is on a tear to 40k!
http://goo.gl/LkrWX
Real nation states don't go bankrupt. (they have the option of producing domestic tokens to pay off all internal debts)..............which explains why France is no longer a nation state.............its caught within a market state soup ( much of it - its own making)
Its the Franc or Bust.
France like all European countries must simply junk the car as a means of transport ............
http://developpement-durable.bsocom.fr/statistiques/TableViewer/tableVie...
Notice the complete dominance of oil imports....................
Nat Gas imports are but a little thing
"It never ends"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6p1oUgDd4A
http://developpement-durable.bsocom.fr/statistiques/TableViewer/tableVie...
Sweet video. Dijon is lovely.
Everyone everywhere is bankrupt. The only thing holding this entire thing together is the illusion some people have money. Debt traded for debt allows the con to go on for a long time.
It reminds me of the scene in Cinderella Man where Paul Giamatti's character is in his apartment. They kept one expensive chair and a table in one room to make it look like they still had money when people walked in. The rest of the apartment was bare. If anyone found out he was actually broke, he couldn't get any business for his clients at all.
So when will the next man of power make a gaffe that moves the curtainaside some more?
Very refreshing, a politician telling the truth. He better beef up his personal security.
Lest he gets Suicided!
+1 for that guy; looks like everyone is figuring it out about the same time.
Coming up: dastardly deeds by the panicked PTB.
On January the 17th, 32-year-old Belgium MP Laurent Louis, considered one of the most controversial and demonized national political figures, delivered the most powerful truth ever told in a political arena.
http://www.sott.net/article/257123-Powerful-Belgian-MP-exposes-truth-beh...
So the minister had one small slip of the tongue and finds himself in the shit.
He needs to take care when making love to his wife lest his tongue slips there as well and with same consequences.
Dude, that is so nasty, but that's why I like it!
Long Dirty Sanchez
How slight people's memories are:
Liam Byrne, who was chief secretary to the Treasury in Gordon Brown’s government, left the stark message in a desk at his former offices.
His pithy summary of the serious challenges facing the new coalition administration was disclosed yesterday by his successor, David Laws, the Liberal Democrat.
He said he opened it assuming it would contain sage advice about how to do the job.
However, on HM Treasury notepaper, Mr Byrne simply wrote: “Dear Chief Secretary. I’m afraid there is no money. Kind regards — and good luck! Liam.”[Telegraph, 18th May 2010]
There is no spoon. Unless the world is about to end, and you have to create the odd $9 trillion to save the banks.
Those 13 years of stability that were bought (if we remember Davos 2011)... I see a pattern. What I've not seen is anything remotely original in terms of Action. Any fool can stand around eating canapes and nodding at the wisdom of the world, as poor grannies freeze at night.
"Dynamic Resiliance". One sincerely hopes that doesn't translate as "Move faster to the bunkers, hide while SHTF".
I think he meant to say "Morally Bankrupt".
This means they need more QE, BURRRISHHH! LONG CAC CALLS IN THE MONRING THANKS ZERO HEDGE
I was just in D.C. and saw people spending money everywhere. New cars, construction cranes, everyone dressed to the nines. I overheard a dinenr conversation by a young bureaucrat that spoked about being "forced" to hire 200 new employees, and had no jobs for them (it didn't matter). Many of the burbs are full of stay-at-home-workers, reporting once or twice to an office. Sickening, really.
Just think of it like a verbal "shart"
If I'm the guy in Arizona who bought the London Bridge, I'd be looking to add the Eifel Tower to my portfolio and place it in its new desert home (at least you slow down they rate at which it rusts away) !
How much do you think the Eifel Tower can fetch at a creditor's liquidation auction ?
melt value
In a World where virgin steel is in oversupply, scrap value for this elderly edifice will be less than the costs (including OHSA bureaucracy fees) required to demolish it, before considering the on-cost of the inevitable "site remediation" which will be a part of the contract.
http://designbuildsource.com.au/steel-production-falls-oversupply-grows
Maybe there would be some profit to be made from producing "Genuine Eiffel Tower Steel" rminiature (desktop) replicas - but I gather that (save for the well-connected), Worldwide discretionary spending is on the wane.
Is that Sapin or Spain?
It took long enough. I suppose France wants an award or some kind of recognition for this.
In the spirit of the US federal Reserve and Bernanke in the Keynesian money printing circus maybe the US can bail you out. One bankrupt country to another type of thing.
Remember, France startet Vietnam war.
US " finished" ( itself)
Technically, as a Colonial Power, France didn't start the war. The original owners of the country / natives / born-to-the-region-and-culture-inhabitants did.
Following the reoccupation of Indochina by the French following the end of World War II, the area having fallen to the Japanese, the Vi?t Minh launched a rebellion against the French authority governing the colonies of French Indochina. The first few years of the war involved a low-level rural insurgency against French authority. However, after the Chinese communists reached the Northern border of Vietnam in 1949, the conflict turned into a conventional war between two armies equipped with modern weapons supplied by the United States and the Soviet Union.
French Union forces included colonial troops from the whole former empire (Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian, Laotian, Cambodian, and Vietnamese ethnic minorities), French professional troops and units of the French Foreign Legion. The use of metropolitan recruits was forbidden by the governments to prevent the war from becoming even more unpopular at home.[Wiki - First Indochina War]
Ahh, the days before professional armies; how well the 30 years war taught Europe. Oh, and if you can't see the irony there, there's simply no hope for you: Democracy in action, back when the USA didn't act like the old Colonial Empires, and included the draft as a shared responsibility of all citizens towards having a "Democracy" (or was it due to other factors, like loosing too many troops, I can never tell).
HAH HA HA HA HA HA
And technically France never lost a war either, it was always somebody elses fault.
"Technically" is all important @ the UN ;)
And when the tide was turning against France, they issued an ultimatum to the US. Give us more direct combat support and funding, or we will cash in all those marshal plan dollars for gold.
Nixon, knew they were "technically" right, so he chose to fight the war instead of giving up the gold. He could have redeemed france's dollars, but every other nation on the planet would have started squabling over their place in the queue, for dollars the US gave to them, after they already helped fight WWII.
The Eurozone was in part designed by an american to prevent history from repeating itself. Then they found WMDs in british 'stans.
I´ll stick to my gold commentary.....
Now we know why the Germans want their gold back......they better hurry......
7 years bad luck !
And I hear that Cundalini wants his hand back.
Good luck to Cundalini and to the Germans.
How often do you get to say - "Sacrebleu"!
and sick evil midget just left the building opening new 1billion fund somewhere else ... away from miserables
Calling Paul Krugman and his trillion dollar coins.
"Now we know why the Germans want their gold back......they better hurry......"
Maybe Jack Jew can one-up the Fench and annouce the US is even more bankrupt.
They declare a war to divert attention to the real problems.
If the Keynesians can't get the economy to jump start with "traditional" methods, they can always fall back on the ultimate multiplier: world war. Of course it really isn't a multiplier, we just cut down the population faster than we decrease consumption, so it looks like a multiplier.
Paris banlieues for sale 1/2 price.
Free fire extinguisher with purchase.
France isn't bankrupt, it's just shit.
WHY THE FUCK HAVEN'T THEY FIGURED IT OUT YET... DUMP THE EURO AND GO BACK TO HOMEMADE NATIONAL CURRENCIES?
WHAT THE FUCK IS THE MATTER WITH THESE PEOPLE?
Erm, I think the main goal here is to AVOID a bigger mess and AVOID the finger pointing.
A bit of a SovX crisis every 12-18 months is better than WWIII. You think the Middle East is a tribal mess? It ain't got shit on Europe.
Europe is where the REAL bad squabbles happen, always have, always will, you can't argue with 2,500 years of history.
The middle east is kindergarten by comparison to what has happened in Europe of the ages.
As soon as the generational memories of WWI and WWII dissipate there will be plenty of youthful energy for WWIII.
Only problem being that all us apes are so much more mobile now; physically and mentally.
Hum...hum...Muslims raising a ruckus, too many people and not enough food or water, Asia a boiling pot of billions; methinks the West has more to worry about besides itself.
Umm, you need to read up on Chinese history. European historical conflicts are tiny compared to what has gone on in the Middle Kingdom over the past three thousand years. WW I was the only exception.
China has been the center of technology, culture, economy and straight-up destruction for most of humanity's "civilized" history.
It's funny how European history from 1939 - 1941 has been eradicated from US history books.
At least we in the West can all thank the Russians for winning WWII and defeating the evil Nazi's.
In the current macro environment how do you prevent inflation given all the vast money printing/electronic money creation? YOU GET MORE REAL ASSETS to try and keep as realistic a pricing correlation as possible.
Where do you get MORE REAL ASSETS? The THIRD World...MALI, Somalia, ME, Libya, Algeria, Sudan, Columbia, Peru etc etc. Wars wars everywhere to stave off the collapse.
Erm,
No.
When you are burried in debt inflation is a GOOD thing.
Sacrebleu! Everyone we might surrender to is also ZE BANKRUPT!
Mali gold production in 2009 53.7t
53.7 x 7 (years to repatriate the Germans 375t of gold allegedly held in Paris)
= 375.9
strange coincidence
Germany wants it's gold. France will invade Mali to get it.
Of course, why not just buy it in the open market (and cheaper than the war will cost) like the Russians have been doing.
Gee, whodda thought
Cause you wouldn't get the benefit of saying your stupid citizens: "hey, look over there".
Meanwhile, the very same citizens forget they bent over and took it all where we know ... the "always dark place that stinks".
Anudder one o' dem fuggin' coincidenses.
Jeezzz.
Juz keeps a happenin'
Honey, what timz za superbool on nex Zunday? Joeys gotta gets da beeahs.
"Of course, if France is totally bankrupt, there's nothing that a little diversionary war can't fix."
OF COURSE, THAT IS THE WHOLE WORLD'S SYSTEM,WHICH IS CURRENTLY CONTROLLED BY BANKERS.
Debt slavery, backed by wars based on deceits, headed towards debt insanities, backed by insane wars.
THE ONLY THING WE CAN ACTUALLY DO IS WAIT AND WATCH, AS THAT AUTOMATICALLY GETS WORSE.
Fixed, fucked - potato, potato.
C'est la vie.
Goldman Sachs to purchase Eiffel Tower.
Look out Nigeria. Here come the white folk.
Well, I guess it's time to go to war.
Mais c'est impossible! Nous avons encore des cheques!
(But this is impossible! We still have checks!)
Every Western nation is completely bankrupt.
They are all biding time by central bank money printing.
The only things they really have are land, food, and currently quiescent populations.
Backing this up are military hardware and people with delusions.
None of us have shit, other than a World War to look forward to.
Fuck the banks, the bankers, the central bankers, and the ass-licking politicians and wonks and professional mandarins who have sold out our children.
ROT IN HELL.
Les carottes sont cuites!
"Every Western nation is completely bankrupt."
Exactly. Mass default, ie the " Big Reset " is surely on its way...
Will it be done behind the camouflage of war?
Will this include direct state confiscation (theft) of peoples' savings?
Why are France and Spain trying to outperform Greece in the NPL's? Greece is still the king of NPL's and don't you forget it!
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite2_1_28/01/2013_480890
As for that English hat-trick, that could never happen here because we have a booming stockmarket and another housing bubble, er I mean recovery underway whereby corporations buy houses by the hundreds, securitize the rental income and all is well!
Have Italy make €1Trillion FIATs. Or at least a Million €1M Ferraris and Lamborghinis. God knows Daimler's Maibach must be close to €1M by now. ;-/
You can't solve any real world problems by pusing meaningless paper around.
So, first it was Greece, than Portugal, next was Spain. Now it France. Yet Greece did not implode last time I checked. I think that things will
continue for a long time.
Stay classy France! You're making Americans look good.
'allo, mes amis Francais! You just 'ave to watch the Monaie As Debt youtube series, and maybe you will zen get your monaie-act together. Try zis search: http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=money+as+debt+youtube&qpvt=money+as+...
And if you are not French, try it also. Then start 'educating' all those uninformed American, Canadian, British, Italian, Spanish... friends of yours. Let me know how far you got. And it they are still your 'friends'. Yeah, it's like that: Like you're trying to convert them to a different 'religion' than they grew up with!
"In Berlin the situation is serious, but not desperate. In Vienna the situation is desperate, but not serious"
So which is it with France? Serious or Desperate?
Good stuff. Don't know about the French really going to war though. If history is any lesson at all, French capitulation happens way too quick for it to possibly be a distraction from anything.
W74,
France is Serious AND Desperate. e.g. 75% marginal tax rate is that.
Assignats, bitchez.
See this is where I think the corporations that are starting to get taken down by the NWO/banksters will begin to cause problems for them. The NWO shipped all the jobs (taxable income) to China and now Chinese firms are buying up the French property and struggling corporations. That is bound to piss some mighty wealthy people off.
France doesn't usually go to war. France usually gets invaded and occupied.
First time for everything.
If that's the lie, I don't wanna know the truth.
I miss the Merkozy days. Where are DSK and Juncker?
Lucky for France they have all that german gold they can use for now....
Don't they...???
. . . Coming soon to a bookstore near you; "Lords of Finance II", new subtitle:("The morally bankrupted Keynesians, who broke the world"):
I encourage you all to read this book by the great French author and thinker Honore de Balzac.
He had it figured out how to pay his your debt and not spend a cent.
The book is sold out at amazon.fr .. coincidence given the current problems? Balzac a Frenchie teaching the French.
http://www.amazon.fr/satisfaire-cr%C3%A9anciers-commercial-professeur-%C...
L'Art de payer ses dettes et de satisfaire ses créanciers sans débourser un souAmerica's involvement in Vietnam led to the death of at least 2 million Vietnamese and 58,000 US soldiers. The costs of that war were so big that Nixon deciced to give up attaching the dollar to the gold standard so that dollar would become petro-dollar and the rest of the world would pay off US debt (as the US always does: letting the rest of the world bleed for US debt). Giving up the gold standard got the US and the world in the current mess, amongst other reasons. So what exactly is your point ZH?
Edit: The Vietnam war was a humiliating defeat for the US from which they only recovered when they bulldozed Iraqi soldiers in their trenches in Golfwar I. 9/11 was a humiliating defeat from which the US recovered after the US attacked and destroyed a country which had nothing to do with it (again Iraq). A war, by the way, which had a 75% approval rating and which was based on fabricated 'evidence'.
NOT A VERY BRIGHT GUY !... CAN TELL BY THE STUPID LOOK ON HIS FACE...
How can anyone be shocked by this?
Green shoots 2009, positive contagion 2012, Virtuous viral feedback loop 2020.
France, much as I like some aspects of it, has been repeating the same mistakes since Charlemagne's day, with disastrous results and total predictability.