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The New Normal?
Submitted by Jim Quinn of The Burning platform
The New Normal?
Our government and financial “leaders” tell us that things are back to normal and we are well on our way to economic recovery. They report rising GDP, declining unemployment, and record corporate profits. The legacy media propaganda machines, controlled by corporations dependent upon the government and Wall Street to funnel them advertising dollars in return for reporting falsehoods and mistruths, have been informing the masses that all is well. Just go back to staring at your iGadgets and tweeting your every thought to your followers, because the best and brightest in D.C. and Wall Street have it all figured out. The new normal is here to stay.
I guess my interpretation of normal deviates slightly from our glorious leaders’ definition. During the long-term bond bull market, from 1982 until 2007 the 10 Year Treasury steadily declined from 16% to 5%. This was normal because inflation declined at the same rate. Inflation declined from 13% to 3% over this same time frame according to the BLS. In reality, measuring inflation as it was measured in the 80?s and early 90?s would have yielded an inflation rate closer to 6% in 2007. During the decade prior to 2007, which consisted of supposedly strong economic growth, the 10 Year Treasury ranged between 4% and 7%. Even during the 2001 recession, it never dropped below 3.5%.
In a normal world an investor in a 10 Year Treasury bond would require a yield 2% to 3% above the rate of inflation. If the yield was below the rate of inflation they would be guaranteed to lose money. Only a fool, Federal Reserve chairman, or a CNBC bubble headed bimbo would buy a bond yielding less than the inflation rate. The BLS reported inflation rate has been between 2.1% and 3.2% over the last two years. Over this time frame, the 10 Year Treasury yielded 2% or below until the threat of tapering reared its ugly head this past summer. Would this happen in a normal free market? If things are back to normal, why aren’t supposedly free markets acting normal? The Chinese and Japanese reacted normally. They stopped buying Treasuries with a real negative yield.
The only fool willing to buy negative yielding Treasuries is none other than Ben Bernanke. He thinks they are the investment of a lifetime. He is so sure they are a can’t miss investment, he buys $2.5 billion of them per day, which just so happens to be the government deficit per day. Ben now has $3.8 trillion of bonds on his books, versus $900 billion in 2008. His balance sheet is leveraged 60 to 1, versus the 30 to 1 of Lehman and Bear Stearns prior to their implosions. When even the hint of reducing bond purchases from $85 billion per month to $75 billion per month caused 10 Year rates to jump from 1.5% to 3% in a matter of weeks, you realize how “normal” our economy and financial system is functioning.
If our financial system was functioning normally and free market capitalism was allowed to operate according to true supply and demand, the 10 Year Treasury would be yielding 4% to 5% and 30 year mortgage rates would be 6% to 7%. Think about that for a minute. This scenario was normal from 2002 through 2007. That is what normal looks like. Now open your eyes and observe what your owners are telling you is normal. The slight increase in mortgage rates from 3.5% to 4.5% has brought the Wall Street buy and rent housing recovery scheme to it knees. Imagine if mortgage rates were allowed to rise to their true market rate. Housing would collapse in a heap.
Allowing Treasury rates to adjust to a true market rate, based on true inflation, would double or triple the annual interest expense on the $17 trillion national debt and blow a gigantic hole in Obama’s already disastrous $1 trillion annual deficits. Does this sound like “normal” to a rational thinking human being with the ability to understand simple math? Luckily, there are very few rational thinking Americans left and even fewer with the ability to understand simple math. We have been programmed to believe rather than think. As long as the stock market continue to rise, then everything is normal.
Do you think Ben Bernanke and his cohorts at the Federal Reserve worry about the average person who doesn’t own stocks, has to fill up their gas tank, feed their kids, make the mortgage, auto, and credit card payments, and figure out Obamacare, while working two part time jobs? Quantitative Easing (MONEY PRINTING) has one purpose and one purpose only – to further enrich the owners of the Federal Reserve – Wall Street banks. The .1% own most of the stocks in this country and their greed and avarice can never be satisfied.
This artificial prosperity plan for Wall Street has the added benefit of allowing the captured politicians in Washington D.C. to continue their $1 trillion per year deficit spending with no consequences for their squandering of future generations’ wealth. Bernanke and Yellen will never taper, because they can’t. The Fed balance sheet will continue to grow by at least $1 trillion per year until they crash the financial system again. Except this time, there will be no money printing solution. We are all trapped like rats in this monetary experiment being conducted by evil mad scientists. No one will get out alive. Welcome to the new normal. Now eat your cheese.
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"because the best and brightest in D.C. and Wall Street"
Wow! The bar is really low these days.
Correct! The bar is low. But that could be because the cheese-thing is known to only work with mice and rats. It doesn't work with humans the same way. The difference would be that mice running a maze in search of cheese eventually stop searching, if they never find cheese again. Men on the other hand must be lured into the maze with money as bait. And unlike rats or mice they will never stop running the maze for the money, regardless if there ever will be money. There once was - and that's all the reason they need to run the maze forever. They are still searching their bait today.
They do have it all covered, the new health care scam is designed to give your SSN and more to cyber hackers who will sell it and come back later to drain your account. Then we insure the losses so we can then provide you with personal information security so that it never happens again. Herd this ending before? Maybe every week like, trust um? NOo, you can't love um , you can't trust um, we are your gvt.
The western gig is up fellas. Head east young man, head east.
Over.
Trapped, cheeze-eating rats. America. Fuck yea
They can't print foreign currency, and the rest of the world is slowly learning that they don't need the usd. Game over.
Here is a link to a chart (FRED) to visualize the phenomenon of which Mr Quinn writes. Normal has been redefined due to QEternity. Note the taper rumor tail on the 10 yr.
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fredgraph.png?g=nL9
If a pro sports team is facing a crisis and a new GM comes in to turn things around, what does it tell you if the new GM leaves well before the team realizes success?
Bernocchio is leaving the FED because he has proven his own theories on the great depression to be 100% wrong. When an individual leaves mid term, or before realizing the success for which his policies were based upon, it speaks louder than any public statement about Green Chutes, Exit Strategy, Tapering, or whatever new blowhard term they invent next.
Bernocchio is leaving because he's has proven his own theories to be completely inaccurate, and he has proven to be a total financial failure of a chairman.
The fiscal cliff is coming. Nobody knows when. 1yr? 10yrs? 100yrs?
Peter Schiff on what to look for:
http://www.planbeconomics.com/2013/10/the-real-fiscal-cliff-how-to-spot-...
Thanks for posting that. Highlights in simple terms how 'full retard' the fed and government has become. Failure is way too hard for them to either accept, or attempt to change and now the accelerator is full throttle to collapse.
The game isn't over...it's just getting to the good part. China (and others) should have made a move five years ago.
They did, US debt got real cheap. They bought more.
Exactly what I have been telling my kids. Get the fuck out while you still can and go somewhere where there is at least a chance for growth.
I think the better point is, it doesn't matter where you run, the WORLD is out of growth!
I go to Asia A LOT! And let me tell you, there are some incredible places to visit, but live there?? Ouch!!!!
It's not 'merica but once you get a taste for the beef everything else will fall into place. The alternative is to be financially drawn-and-quartered at home.
Over.
The air is poisoned. The water is poisoned. The food is poisoned. There is no rule of law. When they no longer need America, they no longer need expats either. While know-nothings tout the Asian future, the elites of Asia all get passports or resident cards from some place that is not a poisoned pit.
If you are Asian race, and can speak the language and play the game as an insider, sure have fun. Then run home when things get ugly. But for big-nose, it's more like out of the frying pan, into the fire.
Or out of flying pan, into file.
So say the ananonymystics.
Ah, ah, AnAnonymystics would arso brame US 'american' citizenism. Not surprising, given Chinese citizenism way of wok carring the cooking marmit brack.
When kicking the wokked dog down the Chinese Citizenism road, just make sure to not be kicking him onto the roadside --- that area is reserved for delivery of brown baby Maos. One must never mix one's blobbing-up with one's blobbing-down.
That is why Chinese citizenism citizens love to blob. Squatting and blobbing down corresponds to growing up a blob into a brown baby Mao.
It perpetuates the cycle of Chinese citizenish excremental illness.
I wonder if Chinese Citizenism children play "blobbing for road apples" on Harroween?
Somehow must be the case, as traditional Chinese citizenish road apple harvestry always involves blobbing.
It would be making me laugh with double vigor to hear all the little Maos going door-to-door shouting "US 'american' citizenism or treat!".
Exactly.Going forward take China for example following the same trajectory as Japan net energy importer, demographics, corruption on a scale second to none,water issues,out of control pollution the list goes on.I agree with Kyle Bass on China and to quote him"just one big Roach Motel".
"I go to Asia A LOT! And let me tell you, there are some incredible places to visit, but live there?? Ouch!!!!"
I lived in SEAsia for 10 years '66-'76. YUM! Visiting just does not cut it. That is why I don't go back to visit for a week or a month. If I ever go back it will be permanent.
Ha! The photo reminds me of the "Pan-dimensional Hyper-Intelligent Beings" who were mice in the movie Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
But you'll know it's time to leave this planet when you see this happen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc6aufHz-i0
And don't forget your towel!
I own all 5 books of the trillogy
I will be going long Somebody Else's Problem Fields and Joo-Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril-Sensitive Sunglasses (for my visitors.)
You're all Racist. Obama wasn't dealt a fair Hand in his first term. His Platform of "Hope and Change", after hiring Bush’s previous near exact Administration, with Democratic Majorities in both Houses plus a Nobel Peace Prize all got in the way of His Golf Game.
You are boring and predictable part of the script.
Note: this is not a "pro-bama" post.
Your underappreciation of racially charged sarcasm just made me burp cheese. Thanks a quadrillion.
Yes, truth is boring which is why so few face it.. And yes we all got your point it is the illuminati, .0001 overlords who are truly responsible and bamster is a puppet yada, yada.. He is most directly visible runnin' the scam, and that chuckles is the truth..
1 trillion per year to prevent moar depression and prop up consumption. How could this go wrong?
Death by Utopia
John B. Calhoun and the Behavioral Sink
http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/42/wiles.php
In the late 20th Century, John B. Calhoun decided to make Utopia; it started with rats.
In 1963 he produced his most famous creation, Universe 1.
The ‘Universe’ was surrounded by 16 tunnels leading to food, water and burrows. At least it began as Utopia.
Four breeding pairs of mice were introduced into Universe 1, doubling every 55 days. By day 315 the population reached 620. Then is stopped.
Mouse society broke. Young were expelled before they had been properly weaned and were arbitrarily attacked by excessive aggressive male mice. Females became more aggressive, non-dominant males became passive, not retaliating to attacks. Then there were no new mice.
The purpose of the experiment was to examine overpopulation... No matter how he adjusted the ‘Universe’ the results were consistent, the mice moved from perfect to appalling.
After day 600, the male mice just stopped defending their territory, listless mice congregated in the centers of the ‘Universe’. These gangs would burst into pointless and sporadic violence. Females stopped reproducing and even started attacking their own young. Mortality rose. Roaming mice either attacked, irrespective of relation or gender, cannibalism and other acts of depravity consumed them. These were the feral ones. Then there were the ‘beautiful ones.’ The ‘beautiful ones’ withdrew themselves ever so quietly, removing themselves from the sick society. Solitary pursuits began to define them; eating, drinking and grooming among others. These mice behaved like a separate race.
In the end the population sank, even when it was back down to a tolerable level, none of the mice changed back. This tipping over into irreversible societal collapse came to be known as ‘The Behavioral Sink.’ John Calhoun called it the first death. Death of the mind and soul, leading eventually to the second death, of the physical form. What he meant was that after the first death, the mice were no longer mice and could never be so again.
zombie apocalypse, we're being conditioned for the day it hits.
Man, I have been saying the exact same thing for years. +1000
Good post. Calhoun's work was also the inspiration behind the book "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH", a childrens book written by Robert O'Brien.
To their (and our?) surprise, it turns out that the "Dumbing-Down of 'Merika", is so successful, that they can afford to keep lowering the bar.
Come to find out, it's not so much of an Absolute but a Relative thing.
Yeah...."new normal"...where everything is acceptable, and the honest, decent people of society get hosed, because criminality, and weak character traits, are "socially acceptable", and considered "normal behavior", because "everybody's doing it".
LTFC: Let this F*cker Collapse.
Personally, I got a bottle of bubbly chilling, just waiting for it to happen and don't really care if my 'investment strategy' pans out or not, or even if I survive it. There will be a whole lot of them swirling down the drain with me.
Me Ne Frego!
Oh c'mon. Don't you know "it's all good" ??
That has to be the most idiotic expression ever.
Always check your six for the Drano rush.
Yea, with all this doom, it has to be good for a 300 point jump in Stawks on Monday!!!
"The new normal"
Always check you nine for the G rush
I find Drano kind of burns.
But I like it anway.
Mmmmmmm....Drano
I do NOT disagree, but since we've all pretty much agreed that This Old House is beyond repair or rehab, and needs to be bulldozed...
How about we try to pull in the demolition date? Spend baby, SPEND! Raise the Debt to $2T/yr, then $3T/yr, then... After all, it's not as though our kids & grand-kids will do anything but repudiate the Debt-Sins of their Fathers. The whole World is on the meat-hook on this one.
And until foreign Sovereign Hedge Funds pull the plug (lose confidence in an avalanche fashion), non-US entities will just keep buying US Debt and its Ponzi-Dollars. And while they do, we will want to use some of those Ponzi FRNs to get more FRNs, and then convert them to Real assets. And hopefully convert them JIT.
All the promises needed to stay in the us for retirement will be not....I am looking for a nice and better bannana republic with better weather. convert my usd to something that may surive the shitstorm.
Medicaid and soc sec will not be enough to buy lunch when the time comes
All that money you paid into these programs will not come back to you but will go to the FSA which will never stop growing
"better weather. convert my usd to something that may surive the shitstorm."
May I recommend precious and base metals?
The current bar is set very low indeed. At one time Detroit had one of the most expensive school sytems in the country [money spent per pupil], yet a recent study of their graduates revealed that 80% of adults in Detroit are functionally illiterate. How does this happen in a supposedly advanced Western culture where so much time and attention is devoted to issues involving education? I guess the answer would be to spend even more now, even though the schools are crumbling, much like the rest of the city.
Are you sure that bottom photo is not corzine meeting with the justice department?
Now eat your cheese.
It's free! I'm sure your grandkids won't mind picking up the tab.
The WW2 era was called the Greatest Generation....not sure I want to know what we're gonna be called.
"It's free! I'm sure your grandkids won't mind picking up the tab."......
.... and great grandkds, great great grandkids, great great great grandkids and great^nth grandkids.
Who?
Harry Reid, that's who. The numpty that says that Americans WANT to pay more taxes. What a maroon.
Do you really think this game will last long enough for our grandkids to pay off this mess? With all due respect, I sure don't see such an orderly decline. Call me stupid, GZG
When Rome collapsed who paid ther debt off? It just disapperated like dew in the morning sun. Debt being a man made construct will last only as long as we allow it to.
When debt becomes unpayable it will not be repaid.
Greatest Collapse...we Hope and Change.
I prefer the tiny Vonnegut alien that had to tapdance and fart to warn people about the dangers of the internal combustion engine, but was killed by being repeatedly struck against the underside of a bar as he was mistaken for a match.
The scariest part is that they may not ever actually crash the financial system; we'll just keep moving incrementally towards feudalism with money kept around only as a token (pun!) much like England bestowing the honor "knight" on farty old white men and Bashar.
A slow boil, sure. But I still believe there will be a 'punctuated equilibrium' moment where things will in a relatively short period of time become significantly more volatile.
Probably involving the price of food and energy, would be my guess.
We're not all evil! At least...not all the time.
I own gold, so my head isn't too far up my butt. But while I buy into the above scenario, I can't square it with the price of gold.
Yes, gold is manipulated, but maybe we don't really grasp how sofisticated the manipulators are and how thoroughly thay have been able to keep a lid on the gold price. I don't sleep well as I should owning the historic hedge to this kind of economic lunacy. Is the price telegraphing confescation?
In view of recent Volker comments saying his only regret from 30 years ago was not controlling the gold price, I'm REALLY not sleeping well.
If anyone has a better idea besides paying to quit America and move to Singapore or Chile, I'm all ears.
PM
What do you care about the price of gold, if you own some? Are you planning to sell it? If not - forget what Volker or any other asshole said. Always breathe easy through your trousers - and sleep well! ;-)
Maybe I'm a born worrier, Bear. But I've also invested a meaningful part of my net worth in gold, so when the price swings, I feel it. Owning a 5% position is almost meaningless when the poop hits the fan.
But, you are not the first person to tell me similar. It's too easy to get wrapped up in all the nagativity as there is zero good news.
Fuck negativity! Its reality. Embrace entropy and smile all the way to the wall.
Piazza
after 4 years and about 5000 hours of GFC study there is only one guy who has a consistent story vis a vis the price of gold and that is Fofoa. It's free info but to benefit you have to understand each proof point or it sounds like a cult.
He has an article up now that explains how gold is really priced by the huge Forex market and not at all by the tiny physical gold market. It will continue this way until physical gold delivery fails (but to a systemically important player.)
The punchline is simple: hold gold bullion as your savings vehicle, it must reset to a much higher price.
If you want to be efficient just do that. If you are like most smart people you will want more than just the suggestions of one guy. In that case get reading, you are just a few hundred hours from understanding.
FWIW,
I renewed my DL the other day. Of course they scan both your index finger prints. I made the comment that everyone's a criminal to which the man helping me replied, "no one see's this, your signature can be forged but not your print". I replied, "Where's Corzine?"
He proceeded to tell me that two friends of his one working for the state BI the other for ATF had long since been assigned job duties that had nothing to do with their job descriptions. They sit in front of a monitor ALL DAY watching financial transactions.
I too agree with the necessity of owning PM's. I also do not underestimate the evil greed of the PTB running this shitshow nor the technology they possess.
Plant your cole crops.
Said it before, sayin' it again....
Dow:Gold 1:1 @ 5,000.
But, which year......I think the first Hillary term will be the death spiral. In fact if I, er, someone was to start a New National Party, the target would be the 2020 election.
1:1 at 20,000
Who knows. The important part is the ratio, not where they meet.
"They report rising GDP, declining unemployment, and record corporate profits." Only one of these is true.
I doubt the profits are real. these cats have been using cheap money to buy back stock. CapX is dead and topline growth meek, but it sure makes results look swell.
I tend to agree. Paper profits are like paper Gold. It ain't real unless it's in your hand.
I think most people think we can continue on as Japan did for 20 years of can kicking. I'm quite sure we made that possible for them, but who is going to make it possible for us? Answer? No one can fill those huge shoes. So again, why/how is gold so depressed? The chart looks great. A bottom has been formed, but it should be higher. IMHO
You really ask why gold is so depressed? Well, that one is easy: Because there is no market anymore. It's all fantasy.
I don't dissagree, Bear. But it seems to be all we have besides guns, food, farmland and ammo. The latter are very important in a collapse, but for financial ruin, gold..or what it used to represent is a must.
Catch 22
Same reason ZIRP and Federal Funds rate is near zero...because its easy to control markets with fiat.
Like someone else said, until a bullion bank or major has no physical delivery the paper game will continue.
Its why physical or if in the markets use physical closed-end funds, like CEF.
There are 50 million people on Food Stamps with the breadlines are at the mailboxes now, out of sight. But they are there. As long as the masses are fed and have cable, all will be well. However, the Guillotines are hidden from plain sight just as the Breadlines. Only a matter of time. All you need is another Ted Cruz to send it all off the cliff. The next Ted Cruz may be Ted Cruz in just a few months time.
You mean the Ted Cruz who is married to Goldman Sachs?
That one?
Yes, but Ted's on top every night.
"Yes, but Ted's on top every night."
I'm not so sure about that.
Long live Ted Cruz. Amen!
He worries about confiscation. If they move to confiscate, the price will be low. You can bury it, swallow it or drown it in a lake, but once they outlaw gold you will not be able to legally transact. That seriously hurts the usefulness of gold.
Once "they" outlaw gold, they will be viewed as outlaws. And treated as such.
But consider, once they "outlaw" gold.... actually that will make it more valuable as a blackmarket currency. People can barter goods and services for gold which can't be traced.
The problem I have is that if they have a record of you purchasing gold, then the government in theory could confiscate your more "visible" assets until you cough up your gold, even if you lost it in a boating accident. The burden of proof will be on you to prove you don't have it. But if comes to that, when the IRS comes to your door (and by that time they will probably be armed) then you might as well open fire with everything you have, and "sell" your home as dearly as possible.
don't be home {official gov't known address} when they come calling. i won't be.
If the gov. Went to people's doors with guns, there would be thousands of ruby ridge shoot outs in every state. It will never happen. "In America, there's a gun behind every blade of grass".
4093227
Exactly, B7GR.
when the great US bond default comes--as it must--we will all see how the bondholders divy up whatever is left of America's wealth to pay them off. might that be why the fed has no problem adding more and more of our debt to its books? after all, they are NOT a part of the insolvent government, they just facilitate our greed and encourage our ignorance. so when the time comes the corporation called the federal reserve will insist on having the US corporate bonds covered just like in any other bankruptcy. then it's just a short step for all the other international bondholders. then, finally, America will be entirely privatized and sliced up like a juicy apple pie.
I mentioned this to my sleeping sister, and her response was typical sheep mentality. she says we would never let that happen. really? I said. who is the we anyway? is this the same we that allowed our country to be hijacked by babylonian money magik sorcerers?
Either 'we' believe that 'they' would never let it happen or we take a long hard look into the black abyss. Given that choice is it that hard to understand why the asleep willingly choose to remain in denial and pretend to be asleep? "Daddy, tell me another lie so that I may believe it's the truth."
Comfortably Numb
Comfortably Numb
Larks Tongue in Aspic, p II (King Crimson)
http://youtu.be/dUyMvUlu2YQ
What bar...we don't need no stinking bar
I try to get friends and family to look at usdebtclock. org. To make them face the reality of what has been done to us. No go.The far left is just glad they are winning politcal battles, the middle just wants their comforts. Only a small group has eyes wide open.
It is going to take some real pain to wake folks. We deserve whatever comes our way.
"For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few." Matthew 7. 14
and the hinges are rusty to boot...
I remember the day I learned about 'unfunded liabilities' as an Accounting student. My first thought was "Whoa, this could be terribly abused... I better look to see which companies have the most unfunded liabilities."
That was a 'so the conspiracy theories are true' kind of moment.
I don't think people realize that the pension contribution the US gov't made on their behalf was.... AN ACCOUNTING ENTRY!
It will come to you in the form of a rise in income tax, only after everyone is numb from getting Obamacare forced upon them.
Only then will you stupid Americans be forced to pay 90% of your earned income to your federal, state, local tax authorities.
You've got to keep supporting your friends in Israel ya know. Say's who? All your israeli congress critters and aipac. Your wasserman-shitz, and bloombergs, and feinsteins, lol. Blind fuckers you are.
Stupid Americans. Get to work you slaves!
Over.
While I fully agree that I am a stupid American you do not disclose your own nationality. Doesn't matter since the good ship USS America encompasses the entire global economic system. When she goes down you will most certainly suffer the tsunami. Good luck wherever you are.
I agree, I am harsh but for the sake of one awakening it may cause I am comfortable with it for now.
I come from the planet that Earthlings call Kepler-62-e.
Over.
How are the beaches on Kepler-62-e, I always wanted to go.
Prior to May of this year I am confident your 'origins' would of been of a more well known planet, Gliese 581g. :|
It is all good, and that we are all here together.
We made it this far and now there are 7 Billion trying to survive.
Maybe there will be a Diaspora (but to where?) after the Jubilee.
No easy answers, and probably No Exit.
The growth for the last 40 years has been pure fiat, pure finance, pure hope. What's next ?
re: "supporting Is-Ra-El"
Ten Explosive U.S. Government Secrets about Israel
I made the mistake of bringing up this topic to a liberal at the office the other day. His response, as if memorized, was that the GOP just want to destroy Obama's presidency. After shaking my head in disbelief, I shut up because I knew I was speaking to a brick wall.
I made the mistake of bringing up this topic to a liberal at the office the other day. His response, as if memorized, was that the GOP just want to destroy Obama's presidency. After shaking my head in disbelief, I shut up because I knew I was speaking to a brick wall."
"We need to increase military spending". You might as well have been talking to a conservative. Both are brick walls.
Yes, indeed, try getting a (so-called) conservative to understand that most US military spending has NOTHING to do with actual "defense". Good luck! One might as well try teaching algebra to a coconut.
.
...while biting wax tadpole.
Vigorously progrational and firmly with the dangdang!
Great Article! We could go into who is most affected, but, it's not terribly important. There will be a sliding effects phase. private Middleclass now, the Poor and retired later when government subsidies mean nothing, Public employees next when insurrection rebellion and revolution occurs shutting down Government. The 10% with great wealth, perhaps a few more, will be offshore in alternative currencies, gold and silver. (By the way, I hear Puket is really great!). A lot of german Ex-pats but oh well!
Aber was ist dein Problem? Das Bier muss gut sein!
Was sein Problem ist? Vermutlich das altbekannte: Es gibt kein richtiges Leben im falschen! Nichtmal wenn das Bier gut ist (und das sollte es - völlig richtig!).
I don't want the cheese! I just want out of the trap!
There is no escaping Trap America. There is only the chance of surviving Trap America.
I beg to differ. Lot's of place for escaping the madness that has become America. Just find a nice agrarian society that has not been infected with the central banker virus. Yeah, there will be pain, but not to the degree as those that stay in the US are gong to face.
Sounds great.
Where specifically could I find a nice agrarian society that has not been infected with the central bank virus? I ask in all seriousness and with no sarcasm.
In my own limited way I have given this subject much thought. Unless I am willing to live in the middle of some long lost and forgotten spot in the Amazon forest (which would not actually be long lost and forgotten if I can find it cus others can as well), on some mountain peak in South America or a small island in Indonesia I am at a complete loss to come up with some place that will not be affected by crumble/collapse America.
A perfect example of how the effects of America reach worldwide are the waves of inflation washing onto the shores of faraway nations from America's (plus ECB/BOJ/PBOC) central bank printing. And these effects are just the beginning. Imagine when the Krakatoa event sets off.
Population density vs local food production, thats how I give a rough score to an area. Urban = bad. Rural = a very good start.
There are NA communities in various LA countries (Ecuador, Chile, Uraguay, Paraguay, etc.) which seem to be fine places to live....maybe they will do ok if they are self-supporting agrarian style communities (like the old hippie communes) but I suspect they are all basically expat villages which survive from income earned elsewhere and are thus very sensitive to global downturns and currency devaluations....this said, maybe it would be good to own land and a home in one of these communities and have a large bank account in local currency along with gold/silver in coins stashed away there. If you could plan it to be there when TSHTF then you might be ok.....but I keep thinking of the story of the guy who built a fantastic bomb shelter/home and then was sitting in his office when the nukes fell.......hard to plan for events like these. Or maybe being a dental floss tycoon in Montana is the way to go.......quien sabe?
May I ask how you will get your wealth out of here?
The fence is to keep us in, not immigrants out.
See Patriot Act.
there is always that Mars thingy. WOnder if everyone who takes that one way trip gets a suicide pill ???
The solution:
1. Stop printing.
2. Jail and or shoot those responsible to help insure it never happens again.
3. Go to 1.
Sounds so simple, doesn't it. I want to stop the madness as well. So the only real question is are you and I ready and willing to suffer the consequences of scrubbing the wound clean? It is clear that every day not doing so just makes the inevitable recovery that much more difficult. I suspect nearly everyone including myself has no real concrete idea how bad it will get when either it is allowed to fail or it self destructs. There simply will be no island of refuge for the 99% since we are talking a near ELE (extinction level event) when it finally does go bang.
I agree it's not going to be easy. In fact it's going to be a real mess. But I'd personally rather be dirt poor and free.
People made it through the depression without doing this nonsense. What it proves without any doubt now is that Bernanke's doctorate thesis on the Great Depression is a fraud.
The "people" are not prepared for the pain that is coming. With the affluence that US society has enjoyed over the last 40 years due to cheap money and cheap energy, the crash will bring anarchy. Thus the reason for the DHS and all those bullets they are hoarding. The only option is escape.
Keyser, as CogDis asked, escape to where?
Also, how do you intend to get your money out as well?
I've dreamt of moving to Uruguay, but getting there - and being allowed to stay there - are matters of extreme difficulty.
The best I've been able to conceive as a plan are:
A. Small plot of land to garden/farm, house, at least 20 miles outside of any mid-to-large city.
B. Go completely mobile, capable of moving away from danger toward better conditions.
B has problems due to gas costs, possible checkpoints on highways, car-jackers, police, etc.
Hide in plain sight, as in A, seems to be the only rational solution.
Besides, I thought about the escape thing, and the notion of "flight or fight" and decided I'd rather be a dead braveheart than a living coward.
with the threat of nuke's going BAM in a 'shake-up'...i have been contemplating buying, and learning to captain, a sailboat....anyone have any thoughts on this as a means of bugout?
No one's ever explained to me the 'legal' fuckery involved that allowed a US domestic agency(FBI) to 'help' take down a German national living/working out of New Zealand(KimDotCom). I know what we were told, but automatically assumed it to be BS.
IMO nowhere to run, nowhere to hide...
New Zealand Police Try to Justify Paramilitary Raid on Kim DotcomI watched some flaky program last night about an american prepper, this crazy woman who had her bunker made so she could live in it, underground. At least she pre-buried, I guess.
I'd rather take the risk of no bunker and no safety net as I'll behave quite differently without it. On top of this, I could have a massive aneurism squeezing out the next banker, so why worry about the collapse of civilization. Sort of keeps one grounded that.
Not giving a damn about survival is liberating, people who do remarkable things may not want to die, but they are prepared to risk it to achieve outstanding things they deem worth it.
"... people can be a bit screwy ..."
Death may in fact be liberating. I imagine we were terrified being born (exiting the womb). Likewise we are terrified of death, what it brings...
Is that why the male gender spends the rest of their life trying to get back in?
You remind me of my neighbor a few years back.
While the eye of a hurricane was passing overhead ,she was outside polishing her
doornob, and sweeping her drive.
It's important to set a good impression, never know who may pop around for a natter.
This is long but the best thing i have read on what happens when this unravels .... it will quite possibly be the end of civilzation as we know it http://www.feasta.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Trade-Off1.pdf
why so serious? it's only clownbux
You should always have enough gold to bribe the border guards to get you out of the country when the SHTF.
And go where? Seriously, if you take this unmitigated disaster to its logical end game conclusion where exactly on this green Earth will you be able to escape to? And more important than that......when do you make your escape?
Texas, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina.....
Find land with water....
Bingo, tho you misspelled Finland.
Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Colombia, Chile, Uruguay, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, etc...
Assuming you are correct, and it is an assumption you make as it is mine that there is no place to escape the effects, when do you escape?
In my opinion the effects will be worldwide just as the effects of FED/BOJ/PBOC/ECB printing are pushing inflation out into every corner of the globe. The only question is what will be the degree of the effects felt in Costa Rica etc.
And a secondary question begs to be answered. As America/Europe/China etc go more totalitarian why would anyone possibly think that third world nations won't tighten the screws as well. To some degree or another all the nations you list are proxy states of America, Europe, China, Russia etc. When the earthquakes rumble in the first world nations why will second and third world nations be immune?
What makes you think Americans would be welcome at that point ?
Prolly as welcome as typhoid Mary.
No country during a global financial meltdown will accept spoiled Americans to pollute their nation except for the super wealthy , extremely bright or those possessing special knowledge. Snowden has already made his move back to the ol USSR. Nations with the most "balanced"economies and a military presence will probably survive best. The problem will be to cleanse their political systems----a formidable task
When the West has been clawing at its own throat in the past, the rest of the world didn't exactly fall apart. I suppose there will be significant ripple effect as you suggest. 'Arab Spring' and all. But at the moment many 2nd the 3rd rate countries seem to be enjoying keeping it together while the west flounders and keeps setting a very bad example. Who says the West is the lynch pin of humanity's behavior?
I hope it isn't.
"Who says the West is the lynch pin of hamanity's behaviour?"
Are you talking cultural behaviour or financial behaviour? Or maybe you see a distinction between the two, a way that they are not cemented together. I always get a kick out of seeing pictures of a native of some extremely remote tribe wearing a Nike t-shirt and sneakers. Tell me they aren't culturally or finacially affected by the US.
Nearly the entire globe is infected with money madness. For decades the method to the madness was/is to reach out to new worlds and conquer them, then set up a central bank and invite in the world bank and IMF. You then "put" those free souls into debt via their puppet leadership, then extract every last ounce of worth out of their hides. Wash, rinse and repeat.
No Empire in recorded history has ever gone down without a fight and without spreading destruction far and wide. The last pillage ends at home when the Gold faucets and towel racks are ripped from the walls before the barbarians storm thru the gates.
I do not wish to be negative here. But in order for one to begin to make real and lasting change one must face reality. America will go down hard unless "we" choose otherwise. The fact is that most of us here on ZH want to maintain some semblance of our present day lifestyle while bringing down the machine, then rebuilding. I don't see how that is possible without serious pain all around, some feeling it much more than others, but no one really escaping the effects. I wish I could. Much pain will be spread around before this is over.
It doesn't have to be this way....but it most likely will.
Behavior in terms of itself, but I did get your meaning.
I don't look at things in negative or positive terms, each is a filter-view, like a camera lens filter, and neither filter-view helps deal with what's actual, so I don't see the point. Is glass half-full or half empty?
It's just half a glass of water.
The Congo is quite lucky as it doesn't have the problem of pending collapse, having never suffered a rise. I bet the Nike brigade understand the story of Icarus though.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Fall_of_Icarus_Blonde...
Which is why the third world countries will survive the SHF just fine.
Nothing much will change for them.The West not so much.
You are scaring the children again COG !!!
Mrs COG, he's scaring the children, make it stop Mrs COG, just make it STOP !!!
( I recommend that you chain him to the bedposts again, but this time, face down !!!)
Gag me, beat me, make me do really bad things.