This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Which "Doomsday Clock" Strikes First - Nuclear Armageddon Or Debt Ceiling Breach?
November 14th – not October 17th – is the key date for Doomsday watchers to circle on their calendars. For 66 years, Goldman Sachs notes, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has published a Doomsday Clock showing how close the world is to global catastrophe. First set in 1947 at 7 minutes until midnight, the clock has ranged from as short as 2 minutes (1950s) to as long as 17 minutes (early 1990s). It now stands at 5 minutes before midnight. On November 14th the committee will vote again whether to adjust the minute hand on the proverbial clock face.
However, Goldman confirms, most market participants characterize October 17th as the fiscal Doomsday when the federal government hits its debt ceiling.
Surprisingly, Goldman Sachs points out that not one client meeting during the past two weeks has focused on the stalemate in Washington, DC. Mutual funds, hedge funds, and even sovereign wealth funds that have traveled to our offices have expressly wanted to look beyond the partial government shutdown and the rapidly approaching debt ceiling.
Simply put, the roadblock on Pennsylvania Avenue was completely ignored. Goldman adds, perhaps more concerningly in the case of the DC Debacle, that everyone assumes a deal will be reached to avert disaster just as nuclear Armageddon has been avoided since 1947... and US equity market action, until this evening's futures open, was/is consistent with the view of most investors.
Source: Goldman Sachs
So the question is - with the "global Catastrophe" Doomsday clock at 5 minutes to midnight, where is the "global financial chaos" clock? And which of these two "disasters" would wreak the most damage (and to whom)?
»
- 20614 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
the doomsday clock is 5 till midnight and the U.S is still AAA
Junk science, arbitrary numbers, meaningless data - and then quote Goldman Sachs, like allathe sudden they're truth tellers.
Junk article. I gave it a 1.
Agreed. Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, LOL... Set it back to 5:30, it's much less risky than during the worst of the Cold War. Someone gonna nuke us? Highly unlikely.
I'm not losing sleep over the Debt Ceiling debate either. We will get ours when it comes, sooner or later.
EDIT:
We were at two minutes to midnight in the 1950s............
U.S. no but a dirty bomb is certainly a real threat and frankly would be more devastating especially if you any of several key U.S. ports especially Long Beach where the prevailing winds would almost certainly carry the failout over land and contaminate potentially large swaths of densly-populaton land.
India-Pakistan is still far and away the 2 most likely countries to exchange nukes and that hasn't changed since they both acquired them in the mid/late 90s.
WTF
the chart says Climate Change was added to the clock in 2003
you would think such an important timepiece would be waterproof
whatever it is certainly not bullshit proof, a cynic might think that this was concoted by the likes of Goldman
oh wait
but wait/see,
1947 wasn't it, one year too early and "Big Brother" wasn't ready.
2013 isn't it neither, one year too early : http://yourastrologysigns.com/predictions-for-2013-2014
Of all BG's predictions, I only care about gold and silver; survival kit; healing and health products, and 3D printing.
Neither, it will be Occam's Razor in the Gold Space.
http://twoshortplanksunplugged.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/occams-razor-in-gold-space.html
the number 66 appears again. Ready to put in a low on Nov. 14?
reminds me of SPX closing at 666 in March 09..
kabbalistic psychopaths.
Hairy Sachs and the Political Doomsday clownmobile have been broken ever since the 90's... Especially doomsday after the end of the USSR when it had to figure out some way to justify it's continued existance...
Well, whatever.....
“cost-benefit analysis” (((((ZEROHEDGE@FUKUSHIMA)))))
Agreed on all points. I add that a broken clock is right twice a day and a broken record (or scratched cd) gets a little tiring to listen to.
Whenever this farce is over, just as Tyler said last week, the market has some serious catching up to do, (due to a deflating dollar as Boehner would say).
Like Rush Limbaugh in a Costa Rican pharmacy, the Fed's balance sheet has never been so high.
http://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/bst_recenttrends.htm
Select 'All' in the lower right to see the time frame from 2007 to today.
More probable would be a small asteroid falling and taking out a city. Wouldn't be surprised if it was NYC , Chicago or Falls Church. Highly unlikely though..
Fonz (and others): I had a minor relevelation this evening.
Price will not longer be the arbiter. Timely access to goods and services will be the arbiter, irrespective of the stated price. 'Death panels' in healthcare are only the beginning. Physical gold deliveries are already delayed for many paying customers. EBT cards are still money-good with retailers like WalMart, but you might not be able to access the funds from time to time.
Then my brain made one of those "leaps" when something seemingly trivial happened: I was disconnected TWICE in an hour long phone conversation with my brother just now. I got an "all circuits busy" message for several minutes both times trying to call him back. Was there some natural disaster going on between PA and VA? No. Just some "access arbitrage" to the telephony network, apparently.
Prices can not be raised to balance this unbalanced market. A general increase in price would, obviously, cause big damage to the "system" in an environment of falling wages and financial instability. So what's the next arena to cut back on services/deliverable goods without crashing the all-mighty "market" price point? ACCESS AND AVAILABILITY. It fixes both inflation and standard of living calculations from deteriorating (which both already have, and contine to do so) by flying below the radar in an area that can not be measured with current metrics.
I know I'm a little slow on the uptake, sometimes, but cut me a little slack. For me, this was a big deal. I'm going to bed now.
...back in the USSA...
Rationing by queue was the old Soviet way
Interesting logical thought process. Hmmm. +1
It seems like I've heard this stuff repeatedly over the past few years with zero evidence as to its fruition. Wasn't Bush supposed to rule for life or start a nuclear war? Wasn't the NWO supposed to increasingly take over our lives for the sake of (fill in blank)? Isn't access to products easier now than at any time in history? Not trying to be argumentative I just don't see the connection between temporary poor phone service and somone planning social upheaval.
I think you left off an A or two.
america's having a blowout sale.
The U.S. needs to go to (financial) AA.
They will associate "doomsday" with banks' solvency. Same as always. *Yawn.* Whither thou goest, Hank The Tank Paulsen, I will go. Drag me down the disaster path.
more fear and loathing aimed at driving down equities to create another buying opportunity...
what a fucking joke, everybody knows how close we are (hint, 2 minutes):
http://youtu.be/ONuzEqvV9mw
Don't sweat the small stuff....BTFATH or the dip
So, in summary, just buy? Good advice and I am, but mine is all shiny and golden...
It's comical, a Doomsday Clock. Hey Tyler, bored?
"Black Tuesday", October 29, 2013
What a farce!
If you believe in God, the lack of a large-scale thermonuclear missle exchange during the Cold War is pretty compelling one. There have been several notable incidents including during the Cuban Missle Crisis and Able Archer 83 where the actions of a sole American or Russian prevented it.
Or when they installed new radars and they detected missiles launch. Or when in 99 the US launched a satellite but didn't inform Russia... they thought it was heading to Moscow, they thought it was a pre-emptive strike... thank god that drunk Yeltsin wasn't drunk that day... he had the ``nuclear football`` in his hands but he decided not to launch... contrary to the advice of his generals... They said if they had followed the ``directives`` to the letter, they would have launched...Then there's that time that nukes were nearly used in Vietnam...
Humanity went on the edge of nuclear war dozens of times over the years.
Neither.. Everything is just theater. The minute these rat asses’ feel tension, they will fall like a house of cards or end up being shot down on a new shovel funded street.
"defying expectations gulf states ramp up oil production." don't know why I found that headline to be absolutely hilarious but I did. as with the whale oil tycoons "the last act will be driving the price to zero." venezula seized a ship from Guiena "for fear they might strike it rich too." don't even get me started on cloud computing. prices there have collapsed as well. I mean I really can see Tesla going to three hundred a share here "with the irony being the whole world is awash in energy." next up: self driving cars.
climate change? BULLSHIT
So when the clocks adjust +1 for daylight savings time when springtime comes around does that mean we're closer to doomsday?
"The banality of evil." 'Hannah Arendt' This great Lady found the reason behind all their tripe and ignorance in the hands of the mediocre. She reports on this moronic behaviour going back to the two linked recent events of social madness and the insane desire for ideology, murder and genocide of Lenin and Trotsky's Bolshevik Revolution (genociding >50 millions +) and the parallel fray of Nazi Germany. And, it is already happening again; the grand appeal of the mass blood sacrifice which has occured over and over again in written history.
Ignorance - Ideology - Religous Dogma - and Insitutional Bureaucracy all maintained by the banal while the Banks scam global productivity and assets. It is the nature of the Camp Followers with their clanging pots and pans and screaming snotty nosed brats they call children.
There is not one leader on the horizon.
Let it burn and declare a global Jubilee
;-) That would be interesting.
Ho hum
you really like making us think, don't you? Keep it coming.
'Thinking is a solo endeavor' paraphrased M. Heidegger
Ho hum
Talked to my ``sheeple`` friend in the financial business (financial accountant for a top corporation)... yep, he (and his buddies) thinks there will be a deal before the deadline. He wasn't concerned AT ALL.
Given a choice, I'd prefer to work at surviving the debt ceiling collapse. At least people and animals will still walk around on the surface of the Earth after the government debt ceiling is breached.
neither. its either gonna be zombie apocalypse or someone slipping and breaking a heel on dancing with the stars.
I would say, that since Sept. 23 and the reporting of the theft of nuclear warheads from Dyess airforce base and the firing of those in noncompliance along with the replacement of the main general in charge of US nuclear weapons by Weinstein, that some group with the US Military Industrial Complex plans to nuke the United States of America.
Soon.
I have been telling ZH for months to expect a nuclear false flag in Chicago, in Mid-October. Watch the Israeli mayor of that city; if he takes his family on a vacation - BOOM
Holy smokes - I hadn't heard of this story yet. VERY odd. I take Alex Jones at face value with some seasoned salt, but everyone should sit up and take notice when nuclear warheads are reported missing and top brass secretly get sacked for it. And then Sen. Lindsey Graham (the turd) starts talking about a nuke going off in S. Carolina???!!! Not good.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/top-nuke-commanders-terminated-following-missing-nuclear-warheads-report/5354182
A friend of mine was a long range bomber pilot during the cold war. He tells tales of staying aloft several days at a time with live nukes on board being continuouslly refueled. Nerve racking hours not knowing if there was going to be any civilization to come back to if activated.
If you have to go, go out with style.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-KIAsuoMAQ
3 minutes to midnight according to Midnight Oil.
Better than those Aussie wankers.
2 Minutes to Midnight by Iron Maiden.
Bullish on Eddie.
Midnight will arrive at some point in one form or another however my generation disgusts me in many ways because through its greed, stupidity and carelessness it threatens to deprive the younger generation of its place in the sun.
We stripped the economy and the environment and still have demands and expectations which we are bequeathing to the young as unfunded liabilities and as a tower of Babel composed of national and personal debt.
My prayer is that the stroke of midnight brings a financial collapse that will punish us older people and which will liberate the young to live their future with opportunity and dignity.
I know that no all members of the older generations are to blame but collectively we are nevertheless guilty of the Frankenstein economy we created.
I'll drink to that.
Compound greed.
They didn't build that!
We will all be punished but especially so those who either refuse or cannot work for their own survival. Many of us boomers have lost those skills, if we ever had them, but the youth of today not only lacks those skills but lacks the motivation to do so. Dependency and a sense of entitlement is the virus that will wipe the slate clean.
Does Fukushima count?
IT does, my friend, it does.
One thing are, as the italian poet said - Giacomo Leopardi - "the human things".
Another is the 24/7 radioactive contamination of air, land, sea wich is going on in Fukushima. That's Physics.
This is how a tomato genetically altered by radiation looks like.
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=a+tomato+altered+by+radiation&FORM=HDRSC2#view=detail&id=3AADCD689A804830D85720CE203D62E30C744309&selectedIndex=0
What a salad we're making.
Spring forward, Fall back.
We're safe!
Thank goodness for Daylight Savings Time.
Edit: Duplicate post. Apologies
California's alternative-energy program under scrutinyhttp://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-energy-subsidies-20131014,0,1024399.story
"We are on a mission to deal with climate change," said Peevey, who oversees most of the spending. "It is considered a great success story."
Not everybody is convinced that the investments are doing any good for ratepayers.
"Suddenly, you look up and there are literally hundreds of millions of dollars going into investments that produce marginal benefits," said state Sen. Rod Wright (D-Inglewood), a member of the Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee.
"You know the tale of Robin Hood? Well, this is robbing the 'hood," he said. "You are taking from poor people to give to rich people."
Clean energy investment headed for 2nd annual decline
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-13/clean-energy-investment-headed-for-second-annual-decline.html
Clean-energy investment fell 14 percent in the third quarter from the prior three months as Europe curbed subsidies and cheaper U.S. natural gas lured investment.
The $45.9 billion spent makes it “almost certain” that annual investment in renewables and energy-smart technologies will fall for the second consecutive year from $281 billion in 2012, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said in a statement.
Investment in the quarter was 20 percent lower than the same period last year as spending in China, the U.S. and Europe fell. The U.S. saw the largest decline, sliding 41 percent to $5.5 billion, according to the London-based research company.
Europe’s clean-energy industry is retrenching after subsidies were reduced in nations from Germany to Spain, which helped propel record growth in previous years. Cheap gas in the U.S. driven by a shale-drilling boom and a reduction in China’s spending on wind power wind power also contributed to the overall decline, the London-based consultant said.
“Governments accept that the world has a major problem with climate change but, for the moment, appear too engrossed in short-term domestic issues to take the decisive action needed,” Michael Liebreich, chief executive officer of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said in the statement.