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Guest Post: The Gathering Storm
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
Doing more of what failed spectacularly will not save the day a second time, as the scale required to create yet more phantom collateral and more asset bubbles will collapse the system.
The financial storm clouds are gathering, ominously darkening the horizon. Though the financial media and the organs of state propaganda continue forecasting blue skies of recovery and rising corporate profits, the factual evidence belies this rosy forecast: internal measures of financial and economic activity are weakening across the globe as the state-central bank solutions to all ills--massive increases in credit creation, leverage and deficit spending--have failed to address any of the structural causes of the 2008 Global Financial Meltdown.
This failure to address the causes of 2008 Global Financial Meltdown is disastrous in and of itself--but the status quo has magnified the coming disaster by scaling up the very causes of the 2008 Global Financial Meltdown: excessive credit expansion, misallocation of capital on a grand scale, an opaque shadow banking system constructed of excessive leverage and a dependence on phantom collateral, i.e. risks and assets that are systemically mispriced to skim stupendous profits for financiers, bankers and their political enablers.
This is what I have called doing more of what has failed spectacularly.
Extremes inevitably lead to collapse, but even the most distorted system has some feedback mechanisms that attempt to counter the momentum toward disaster. Just as the body will try to mitigate the negative consequences of a diet of greasy fast food, our grossly distorted financial and political systems still retain some modest feedback loops that attempt to mitigate rising risks.
These interactive forces make it impossible to predict the moment of collapse, even as systemic failure remains inevitable. Precisely when the heart of an obese, unfit person who eats nothing but fast food will give out cannot be predicted, but what can be predicted is the odds of systemic failure rise with every passing day.
Doing more of what has failed spectacularly--inflating new asset bubbles in housing, stocks and bonds via quantitative easing, obfuscating financial skimming operations with thousands of pages of new regulations, and so on--is the equivalent of pushing an obese, unfit person to run uphill. Rather than repair the system, doing more of what has failed further stresses the system.
But even if the financial system were cleansed of bad debt and phantom collateral, the status quo would remain only partially repaired. For it's not just the financial system that has reached the point of negative return: the entire economic foundation of the developed world--credit-dependent consumerism--is as bankrupt and broken as the financial system that fuels it.
The state's response to this economic endgame is depersonalized welfare, both corporate and individual. When favored sectors can't succeed in the open market, the state enforces cartel-capitalism that enriches the corporations at the expense of the citizenry. When the cartel-state economy no longer creates paying work for the citizenry, the state issues social welfare benefits, in effect paying people to stay home and amuse themselves.
This destroys both free enterprise on the corporate level and the source of individual and social meaning, i.e. the opportunity to contribute in a meaningful way to one's community, family and trade/skill.
The status quo is thus not just financially bankrupt--it is morally bankrupt as well.
The status quo is as intellectually bankrupt as it is financially bankrupt. Our leadership cannot conceive of any course of action other than central bank credit creation and expanding state control of the economy and social benefits, paid for with money borrowed from future generations.
Let's take a wild guess that the obese, unfit person won't make it up the second hill, never mind the third or fourth one. The status quo responded to the financial heart attack of 2008 by doing more of what had failed spectacularly. That injection of trillions of dollars, euros, yen, renminbi, quatloos, etc. revived the global financial system in the same way a shot of nitroglycerin resolves a life-threatening crisis: it doesn't fix the causes of the crisis, it simply gives the system some additional time.
The next global financial storm is already gathering on the horizon. Doing more of what failed spectacularly will not save the day a second time, as the scale required to create yet more phantom collateral and more asset bubbles will collapse the system.
Intellectual, moral and financial bankruptcy all go hand in hand. There isn't just one storm gathering on the horizon--there are three, each adding force and fury to the other two.
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Another day of berank printing money...
Another ES ramp in progress
I'm getting a new bumpersticker.
I'M SCREWING YOUR GRANDKIDS AND LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF IT.
I already have the sticker on my van. You know, the one that says "free candy" on the side of it.
Speaking of fat slobs -
What do these two stories have in common? ..
- China Signals ‘Unprecedented’ Policy Changes on Agenda at Plenum (BBG) (from Frontrunning)
- http://www.cbs12.com/news/top-stories/stories/vid_10769.shtml
The writer is assuming that they WANT to find another solution. Maybe this path leads to a destination that they desire? SHUT UP SLAVE!
History repeats itself
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-gold_futures_act_of_1864
Failure has been rewarded for too long. Working hard is at this point in time basically foolhardy, in many, if not most organizations. You will just be exploited.
There is no more justice. And its not a problem of not enough laws, or 'not the right laws', its very much a problem of LAW ENFORCEMENT! What do the police (and even 'regulators') know about white collar crime? They sure know who lines their pockets.
Crime pays, and the wealthy (billionaires) are too wealthy. It affects the circulation of wealth, and is now limiting class mobility, so like I mentioned above, now your hard work translates to more profits for someone else.
In due time, this will change.
For any one questioning "hard work translates to more profits for someone else", I present to you as Exhibit A, the Federal Gov't taxation system.
Toppling a long standing Goblin rock = China supplanting the dollar with the Yuan as the reserve currency.
I don't think it was that kind of 'screwing' he had in mind.
This is a Building 7 controlled demolition in ultra slo-mo. All going according to plan at this point until the MIC alters the plan to suit their own needs.
Did anyone tell them to 'Pull it!' already?
This is the Extreme Ponzi Makeover Show, right? When a ponzi starts to unravel, what do you do? find more suckers to feed the bottom end of the chain, of course. It's just this time those feeding the entry level haven't been born yet. Of course the plan was never for the ponzi to fail but simply recalibrate like the it did in the 80's,90's,00's etc. Now that it has failed completely and structurally to the core THIS IS THE PLAN. It's going swimmingly from their perspective, the sheep are being fleeced with little to no rebuttal, their children and grandchildren have been divested of any potential standard of living and are now by in large a guaranteed source of debt-slaves. The MIC will have no shortage of tired, hungry,and angry at the system bullet stoppers to recruit for their upcoming desert clearing of brown people who live on top of the only source of energy left to run their Abrams tanks which in turn props up the petrodollar reserve ponzi currency.
How is this so difficult to understand?
And amazingly these acts of repeated stupidity are being committed by men of so called high intelligence , with years of university education, knowledge and experience. They have simply ignored the most basic fundamentals of economic principles and plundered their economy's into the dirt.
They're not intelligent, they are cunning - and they know exactly what they are doing.
And another prediction of apocalypse at ZH.
well then, put down your dribble cup and enlighten the world with your powers of observation, sitting on the edge of my seat waiting
I think everyone wants the collapse to happen and just gets frustrated because it hasn't (or won't). This could take a while. I hope ZH isn't trying to sell out like the msm to garner site clicks with "pat yourself on the back it's going down the shitter" articles. Just when everything adds up someone shits a bailout or payoff. Enough already.
Its like a doctor with a sick patient.
He says "Its terminal."
And now we are pissed because the doctor can't say when the patient will die!
Doctor "it's terminal"
Patient "I want a second opinion"
Doctor "Ok, we'll confirm it during the autopsy"
Doctor "it's terminal"
Patient "I want a second opinion"
Doctor "OK, you're an asshole too."
Some people just can't face reality, even when it's biting them in the ass.
Societies that organize themselves into oligarchies always collapse. In the end they run out of minds and ideas.
Leaving Status Quo, last chance to refill before entering the motorway. Next stop, Collapse of Civilization.
It goes on until the US dollar blows up with a currency crisis.
Currently with no debt limit and the rating agencies tied up by the Department of Just-us the Ponzi keeps going.
Once there ceases being a reason to hold USD, USD flow back into the US and that's your currency crisis. Far more USD are controlled OUTSIDE of the US than inside of it. Therein lies the true sticky spot. USD is fiat, it's a piece of paper. Not just any piece of paper though, it's a claim to US goods and services. Goods and services which honestly speaking not many are interested in. Interest in real property is far higher. So those claims come in and are exchanged for income-generating things. Now, for the former owners, this is great I guess, however in reality more cash is being injected into the system with fewer outlets remaining. This is where your inflation hits. With the endless printing, and rising REAL inflation, there will come a tipping point. Valuations will soar as everyone wants a piece while they can still get something. Runaway inflation ensues. The poor get desperate to make ends meet, and the rich, with better options on the table seek hard stable assets that are not merely scrip.
Death of the petrodollar can trigger this
Increased currency swaps can trigger this
An alternative sink for surplus can trigger this
This is, at least, the Chinese strategy, or at least part of it. Paper's dumb. The smart money is dumping it into desireable verticals which can either provide profit abroad, or IP applicable domestically. The other part is locking down resources while at the same time developing and building those markets. It's a cheap play regardless of investment, as it results in decreased tensions, goodwill, and creation of new export markets. China only demands stability, it does not care who is in charge, it does not care about "universal values" or having strings attached to deals. It's all just business. When compared to the centuries of imperialism, it's an obvious choice, further cemented when real improvments are seen almost immediately.
+10. The best ZH blog comment and well written, of all articles posted today.
The Chinese model is where the US is heading. Rule by oligarchy, a few billionaires, no civil rights and the peasants manning the factories and farms. The men and pigs will be indistinguishable because the men have become pigs.
The "Chinese Model"? Really?
Tell me what country isn't an example of your description of oligarchy?
Its because the crooks get in charge. Either by force or by duping the stupid people with games and bread. When the crooks are in charge, they become the billionaires by taking from everyone else.
That is why we are ruled by LAWS and not men in this country. Or are suppose to be. We need to come together NOW and force the rule of law on these crooks in power. Whose with me?
"Chinese Model" was a poorly chosen phrase. "Chinese Outcome" would have been better. Despite the obvious differences in our systems the reality for many people will end up the same. The crooks will be in charge enriching themselves and the masses will be serving them at subsistence level with a small middle class in between enabling the transfer of wealth from the poor to the ueber-rich. And yes, most large countries seem to devolve to this.
We are theoretically ruled by laws but as we all know this becomes less and less so in reality each year. I asked a local official what his guiding principle is. "The greatest good for the greatest number of people" he replied. That is a recipe for tyranny if ever there was one but most present just nodded their heads.
Far from it actually. The "few billionaires" in the Chinese government generally got their position BECAUSE of their success, not the other way around. There are stark differences between the two models.
The US system:
Voting and elections. Are the candidates qualified? That's up to the public to decide, via the mainstream media of course.
Decisions are guided primarily by spending hilarious amounts of money.
Everything, literally everything is just a reaction to one crisis from the next
A giant part of the economy is based on never-ending war, and preparation for more war... and of course, money "vanishes" from the system.
Privatization is seen as ideal, even though it fails over and over and over again.
Debates on issues seem to be overly public, it's all theatre.
The China system:
No voting... well, there's some, but it's more trickle-up, and candidates are vetted.
Decisions are guided by a combination of proven track records and, let's face it, horse-trading.
Long term planning is possible due to the general stability of the central government
The State comprises a rather large chunk of the economy, with most resources directed towards public facilities... yes, there's corruption.
Privatization exists, but no one cheers for it, it's been seen as a Deng Xiaoping reform that caused turmoil.
Debates generally happen behind closed doors. Public input is sought, but plans do not come out until there is consensus. While technically the Communist party can pass anything it wants on its own, this is very rarely done, as it questions the legitimacy.
The China system is, speaking honestly, far from perfect. Yes, there is corruption, and some dumbasses end up with more power than they should have. But the tradeoff is that once the cream has risen to the top, it tends to be very good at what it does. Any misstep along the way rules out any actual power. There are limits to the corruption, and as generally, "rank follows experience" and "experience follows age", combined with mandatory retirement ages, if you are overly corrupt, your corruption is only going to last as long as your sponsors... who will retire before you do... leaving you in the wind. It's very risky to be in dangling in the breeze.
The US system, at its core is essentially fascist. Prior to US involvement in WW2, there was great support for fascism. The key tenents of fascism are NOT socialist in nature, despite what has been claimed. Socialist aspects are hand picked to better feed the war machine. It's all about corporate control, the economy is not seen as important enough to the state to control, the state should focus on what makes "great nations" which in the fascist mind-set is war and expansion. The economy is handed over to corporate interests that further the goals of the state, and in exchange, the state props up the corporations. The key difference between communism and fascism is thusly derived. Communism is based on the notion that the "free market" is flawed and causes suffering, anything that matters should be controlled by the state, private property is not paramount. Fascism views private property as invioable, and is closely aligned to what passes today as "libertarianism"... sorry ZHers, just calling a spade a spade here.
So what happened? Well, if you bother to research propaganda, "fascism", overnight, became a "dirty word", except that the focus was not on the tenents, but rather the horrors of war and the surface appearance of Nazi Germany. No one really complained about Franco Spain, Italy to most americans seems to be a mystery. SUMKA in Iran was neo-nazi, and supported by the US, it played a part in the CIA coup. The KMT in China was highly fascist, once they lost, the US sentiment was "We lost China". Batista was highly fascist as well, see the US reaction to when he was kicked out. In light of the attrocities of WW2, Nazi Germany was "evil", however in reality, the "evil" was focused on surface issues, rather than the core. If the US public had been fully aware of the system they were meant to fight against it never would have worked... as they are essentially the same. There are 3 sides in this political question. You are either Communist, Fascist or Whatever. Whatevers tend not to really care who they are dealing with. While Communism and Fascism are VIOLENTLY oppossed, as they each threaten the survival of the other.
China, it's state-capitalism, but not in a fascist way. Industries and companies that matter are still controlled tightly by the state. Insofar as having the leaders of these corporations being chosen from high ranking party members. The corporations follow marching orders and that's the way it is, not the other way around. China is more of black cat/white cat system. It's agnostic and middle-of-the-road. Whatever works works. However the core of it is absolutely not fascist, although it is willing to accept some of the economic parts. China is, in this aspect and many others, a contradiction. Finger pointers will look at the way Germany invested in infrastructure the same as China does... however it's a false view. German infrastructure, was built the same way US infrastructure was... geared for war. China, not so much. Infrastructure in China might have some military aspects regarding usage, but typically only defensive, it's not geared for offensive war.
Fascism "works" in only 2 ways. Either there is unending war which makes everyone rich (rich as Nazis), or the entire nation is sold out to enrich the handpicked few, wherein everyone suffers. Please, do tell, what would happen to the US economy if it stopped making endless war and reduced military resources to be primarily defensive rather than offensive? Everything would break, the US economy cannot take that shock.
Good post but I can make it much simpler for you.
As long as the dollar dominates the oil industry, it WIll remain the reserve currnecy. The only way to overcome the dollar's dominance in this area is to defeat the US military. Got any takers? Didn't think so.
No doubt Russia and China have given the US pause (example Syria) and no doubt the whimps in DC would never pick a fight with some one their own size, but until we are no longer the military badasses on the block, our gangstas will stay in charge of whatever money system is in play. As of right now, our gangstas haven't had to flex that muscle much.
I foresee a day when another country or coalition will have had enough and challenge us to the point we have to do something about it, or the "little man" gets fed up and we will have something like the French revolution. Never going to have an American revolution again as there are not enough real Americans left to have one.
Chinese don't want to rule the world. If they did, they would be taking those around them first and then Japan. Not like we would do anything about it. The leadership in China is in bed with our leadership. They are fleecing their people just the same way we are being fleeced.
All this yap about credit swaps and balance sheets is just that, bean-counter yap. They can plug in and manipulate numbers on the books for eternity. It is the human factor that will make the real changes.
nice post
the first half of the first sentence of your third paragrph demonstrates that the first sentence of your second paragraph is not true in this new world.
We will destroy the petro-dollar ourselves. We have destroyed everything else ourselves.
Sorry, but the US Military is not the colossis you think it is. It has started to rot just like every other institution in the country. We are the new Romans. Almost 40% of my unit coming back from OIF/OEF were scaming to get disability pensions. The US military has the same entitlement mentality as the Obama Free Shit Army. We have more single mothers in the Army than 11Bs.
The US military are just welfare queens in all honesty. By and large they provide no actual public benefit other than being a conduit via which trillions of dollars are funneled to cronies.
Ted Nugent gives former chief Kessler the ride of his life, and not in a helicopter, film at 11.
Great, great interview with Glenn Greenwald on the surveilance state and the state of journalism today. It's exactly the "fuck you" attitude that I get from Tyler and Greenwald that are the only way out..
http://www.democracynow.org/
You anarchist you! To the FEMA camps with yah!
There are no FEMA camps. The plan is to turn most of the country into a FEMA camp, i.e. most of the country will be Federally Emergency Managed. You build camps to separate out the undesirables. We are all undesirables, so why bother?
"Intellectual, moral and financial bankruptcy all go hand in hand."
And we have fistfuls of all three from Wall Street and Washington pummeling the citizenry.
Funny. I don't remember "Wall Street" threatening to throw me in jail if I didn't purchase their products. You know, like DC does with BOcare.
No, they just threatend to destroy the entire global economy if the taxpayers didn't fork over a few trillion dollars IN EXCHANGE FOR THEIR TOXIC ASSETS... That's way different.
Is this why people didn't trust banks 100 years ago? I think money (currency) is just a placeholder for "work effort" or value... If you can't steal my money, just print more... same outcome...
What's "funny" is you 'up-voting' your own inane comment.
There is such a great misunderstanding about what "Wall Street" means.
Most people think it means ALL corporations and banks.
Not all corporations listed in Wall Street are "BAD".
For example, Apple and Microsoft.
They each offer products and services, no "gun to your head".
I used to be a Microsoft customer now I'm an Apple customer. My free choice.
But banks are a totally different "business".
You HAVE to do business with banks and they are all thieves. Explicitly meaning that they counterfeit currency through the "fractional reserve sytem".
Other companies, like the ones that make ethanol are also thieves. Because they take money from taxpayers as subsidies and the Government makes gas companies blend ethanol with gasoline.
Therefore don't say that it is the fault of Wall Street, it is the fault of banks and cartel companies.
What is funny is the number of retards in Greensboro.
Obuttfuck Care is a bonanza for big insurance Inc -- Wall Street. It is the TARP of totally bankrupt insurers, oppression by government and unconstitutional as defined by the document, not Kangaroo Kourt Ink.
Heads back in the sand in Greensboro.
even the SCOTUS knew it was unconstitutional and saved it only by relabelling it a TAX
Right...and Wall Street has nothing to do with the ACA?:
http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/top.php?showYear=a&indexType=c
Over $5 Billion dollars spent by the "health" industry lobbying (bribing) CONgress since 1998.
Red pill? Blue pill?
You must be taking a fistfull of pills to be pretending that Wall Street and Washington aren't colluding against 99% of citizens.
Greed. stupidity and a lust for power is always a bad combo.
While some of the sheeple are waking up, countless others say "more doom and gloom predictions that aren't coming true". Guess they aren't paying attention.
Many of those awakend sheeples got bored and turned into sheeples once again. Things have to get a lot worse before a noticeable part of the society starts paying attention.
I don't disagree -- but an automatic -1 for the idiotic and annoyingly smug "sheeple". I hope you both feel better about yourselves now, having so cleverly distinguished your enlightened selves from the bovine masses. Sheesh.
If the collapse of an empire won't fit into a twenty second soundbite it's not that important.......
"Let's take a wild guess that the obese, unfit person won't make it up the second hill, never mind the third or fourth one."
Fat people gonna dieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Rule 1: Cardio
""Let's take a wild guess that the obese, unfit person won't make it up the second hill, never mind the third or fourth one."
Fat people gonna dieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee."
Maybe we will but you skinny fuckers will die first when the famine comes.
skinny does not necessarily mean being in good cardiovascular shape. Vo2 testing has shown conclusively body fat is no indication of being fit enough to run any further than an overweight person. It actually takes training to be a competent runner, the only advantage a skinny non fit person has is the heart does not have to work as hard to pump through a smaller mass.
plus it's the last hedge......running
I would contend that this drifting country is no longer fit to hold irtself up as the shining beacon of freedom, but an example of the loss of will, courage and more than anything, a sense of honor, not just as a nation but as individuals.
And then there is everyone's favorite--me, me, me and of course me. The concept of personal responsibility has long since fled the scene.
Milestones
Fascism hides under the veil of incorporation.
The rule of law was the first to go.
Now that corporations are completely untouchable (or worse, government chosen), the rest of the symptoms are a given.
Was it TS Elliot who said if fascism comes to america it will come wrapped in the flag carrying a cross?
Time to modify the Statue of Liberty. Maybe we can put a handheld stopsign in her upraised hand instead of the torch of Liberty. Seems more fitting.
Or perhaps, we could lower her arm 90-degrees and give her an outstretched hand, begging for money?
Or maybe some earphones, and put a handheld parabolic dish in her outstretched hand, pointing towards Europe.
I have lost any remaining positive feelings of allegiance to the former republic of the USA
Its truly sad when so many people (including me) have to agree with you.
The status quo is as intellectually bankrupt as it is financially bankrupt. Our leadership cannot conceive of any course of action other than central bank credit creation and expanding state control of the economy and social benefits, paid for with money borrowed from future generations.
The fuck? Alternatives have already been hashed out on paper... over the last few millenia... (granted, all are far from perfect).
They don't need to conceive of another course of action, the heavy lifting has already been done... Rather, they must find the incentive to do so... good luck with that one.
America got its start by taking native American lands by force and importing slave labor to work it.
But the first "conquered peoples" were us. You know, those poor saps you see in old movies heading off to the front at the Somme, or wherever.
The system is primarily run for the benefit of those that run the system, and they will go to war with anybody.
That is the history of man: wash rinse repeat.
Semi- OT. Spy on everyone is the plan, but what do you do with the information? Spying on some leaders phones as a cover. How much information of competing parties did Merkel received during a close election, while being able to state that she was a victim of spying. It would be interesting to hear competing party reviews of the election. Was she being a masterful politician saying the right thing at the right time, or was her timing uncanny on certain subjects.
Well, nobody expects to be spied upon. But then, "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!", Cardinal Palin.
Bubbles and fake assets are easier to create than real wealth and commerce. The banker tribe and Wall Street snake oil salesmen can't create anything of value. Private commerce and free markets would put them out of business.
So what did they do? They killed private industry and the free market so no matter what everything bought and sold would go through them. The parasite cut. They add nothing of value, but get their fill off the host.
You won't have retail traction for long if you don't have a plan to go public. If the directors and CEOs can't make money off your stock, they won't carry your product and they'll get a public company to knock your product off and drop you. I've seen it hundreds of times.
Nobody tells a small company that you can succeed on your own. We even have TV shows like Shark Tank telling people they must sell their idea to a panel of Jews if they ever want to see success. The "I know people you won't ever know" tax. They call it Shark Tank because the top of the economic food chain isn't going to let you through unless they get to take a bite. They can't create anything on their own, and won't survive without a food source.
The unsuspecting little fish is so enamoured with the idea of being helped by the shark, that they don't realize they are already dead. Do you know what it means to hand over 30% of your business to someone when you have to sell at 60% margin? When you sell $1 million, that shark is coming for their $300k. Better hope your expenses aren't more than 10% or you aren't making a dime. But don't worry, the shark will be there to take the business off your hands to sell your idea to a publicly traded company when you can't give them their cut.
Sharks are parasitized by the smallest fish and invertebrates. Stay small in the new maker society. Small is beautiful.
...you mean 'be a welfare sponger'?
Not at all.
Small home based businesses trading with other small home based businesses, the coming Maker Society.
I don't follow your math or your logic. If a shark agrees to fund their business and provide some advisory service or open some doors, what's wrong with that?
If a shark buys a %, then each partner gets their pro rata share of the proceeds upon sale. If there is a specific agreement between the parties that changes this basic principle, then that's the deal.
I'm not sure where you're coming from with your critique of the show.
If the shark tank that is world finance were Pareto efficient with equal knowledge on both sides and no barriers to entry then your criticism would be correct.
The tv show is a microcosm of the real world where a small group of colluding financiers work together to extract excessive rents from others. There is no pure competition in finance and numerous barriers to entry that allow profits to stay above equilibrium for those who finance startups.
Lol,
VC's should be hippies.
"Dude, here'a a couple of mil. No sweat, pay me back when you can."
Lol. Not at all.
VC business should have the fewest barriers to entry possible so that a small oligopoly cannot extract above equilibrium profits.
Unfortunately we are all now attached to either a Fed teat or government teat, or like me a little bit of both either directly or indirectly.
How did it happen? First very slowly then very rapidly.
I don't see an easy way out.
I've said all along that the 2008 collapse was not a financial event, it was a legal one. The rule of law disappeared just as swiftly and surely as Lehman did. Systemic fraud is a failure of the legal system. Or rather, it is a feature.
Our elite Central Planning Grasshoppers don't expect Fall to ever arrive.
Let me introduce you to the alternative daily operating model of government where the people rule the government, it's called LIBERTY. You can read all about what it is, how it works, how to get it, and how to maintain it, and how it changes EVERYTHING... at www.electanewcongress.com. SERFS UP AMERICA!!!
You would be surprised at how long methamphetamine can keep a dead man walking. We're talking years here.
Can't get enough doom and gloom on a Monday. Thanks Chuck.
Now I might postpone my visit to People of Walmart.com.
Although that's pretty strong stuff. Not for those that tend to suicide.
Lol. I think shovelhead has been around a long time under various avatars. He reminds me of many of the smug condescending posters of yore. Either having no understanding of inefficient markets or understanding them and enjoying his place in it.
'Printing' is really theft on a massive scale. So it shouldn't be referred to as 'printing' but stealing.
As in: "Berstanke and his banksters in crime are stealing over $85 billion a month in addition to the trillions that they have stolen in the previous century."
I'm just saying.
The most urgent question for the powers that be is: How to collapse the Fed and transfer its power to a global centralized financial authority while making it all look like a serendipitous accident or the will of the people or both? The aim being to avoid being decapitated in the process.
It is easier to destroy that to create. I hope Warren is enjoying this project.
Hmmm. Our politicians see no way out other than controlling every aspect of the economy, having a hyper militarized police force, monitoring all it's citizens activities and now trying to take away their guns.
Isn't this the tyranny the founding fathers warned us about?
Isn't this the tyranny the founding fathers warned us about?
Yes, the tyranny is exactly the same as what motivated many to die fighting for freedom after 1776 Declaration of Independence.
The biggest difference between now and then is that the vast majority of the populace now support and defend their own oppression.
It's a sad state of world affairs when the people of Cairo Egypt are generally much better informed on world politics and economy than are Amerikans.
As part of my sociological research efforts to understand why people here are so stupid I hang out with a few Obama lovers all of whom had no idea (until I told them) that their foodstamps will be cut by ~$10/month starting November 1. They all said nobody had mentioned it and asked me to prove it and sarcastically asked if that was some Ayn Randian nonsense I saw at ZH. Only one of them said "yeah, it was that damn Republican farm bill!" When I asked if they knew if there was any medical review officer procedure for people denied food stamps for a positive drug screen, they started leaving the room. Only one left was a 70-yr-old guy who gets $3+ K/month from the VA for 100% service-related disability from combat and he refuses to pay the Medicare Part B&D premium of like $70 for a Medicare Advantage Plan because he gets all his healthcare "for free" at VA clinics, so he "doesn't need health insurance." He gets his prescription drugs "free" from the VA so he doesn't need Part D and even though he has chronic kidney stones he's going to always live near a VA clinic so he can continue to get "free healthcare" except for dental care that they don't provide. He didn't believe me when I told him that in 2016 he will be paying a $695/year tax-fine under his beloved Obamacare for not purchasing the private health insurance that he's decided he doesn't want. And because he didn't take Part B when it was available to him he would have to pay the Medicare penalty for choosing to go without and that makes it even more offensive to him. When I asked him if he knew what there was a fine for not having health insurance and he thought it was something like 200% of the poverty level but he'd never seen any mention of a dollar figure for the Obamacare tax/fine and he didn't believe it. He gets all his news from a guy named Tom Hartman, who apparently is a quieter version of Alex Jones.
How can people be so stupid?
Through Ideological Subversion:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R3nXvScRazg
That gathering storm's been a gathering for awhile now, so something tells me this is not the ideal metaphore for what's been taking place.
John Kenneth Galbraith referred to the dominant opinion of the crowd (of economists, and any other grouping of herdlike humans) as "the conventional wisdom" ... of which he said repeatedly that the conventional wisdom is always proved to be wrong by changes in circumstances. Basically, the world changes more quickly than does our understanding of it. People are not necessarily STUPID, it''s just that very few are capable of originating new thoughts and ideas. For 99.9% of humans, it's Monkey See, Monkey Do.
The crowd fails to adjust their views to reflect changing circumstances; it's not so much that they're WRONG, it's that their worldview based on the past, or a mistaken understanding of the PAST is not updated to reflect changes that invalidate it. Humans are very herdlike in nature and it seems that the more they act like a herd, the more vehemently they "doth protest" in denial of reality.
I grew up in an age when QUESTION AUTHORITY was a common sight on the bumpers of cars, back when many cars on the road still had "bumpers" instead of plastic protuberances covering up some rigid foam. I no longer work every day on an AFB in a facility where even the janitors had a "Q" but these days having such a bumper sticker on a car in that parking lot would surely motivate a security guard to get a drug dog and do a walkaround of that car, and the owner of that car would not be surprised to have armed guards come to their office and take them away after their car had been opened and some traces of contraband found. Yeah, right.
Just as the herd of economists are unable to revise their understanding to reflect current conditions, so are the masses unaware that they have given up their freedom.
Back then I was hardly ever the Smartest Person in the Room, but it happened on occasion. Now it's the rule, not the exception. It sure is lonely, though. ZH is the only place I've found with people who see the lies and self-deception for what they are.
If anyone reading this is located in the Home of the Bomb, please email me using address embedded in PGP key posted under my Bio. Quite a few here pretend to know IT and network security. Well, how come nobody can send me a Hello World from an anonymous IP? Is it that they can and choose not to, or they don't know what I'm talking about, or is it fear? What gives?
Is it that "IT people" no longer have the skills neeeded to use extract an email address from a PGP public key? You don't need to install PGP to do that. Nobody? Even here?
+10. GREAT post. A pity it does not have more Up arrows. I guess if you had put a sarcastic or comic-wannabe post, you would've had more. That says something about the folks on here also.
I can relate to what you say. If I do not succeed in contacting you in 24 hrs, it means that I too lack the IT skills. In which case, feel free to contact me at hush mail, under my Handle.
"Is this water getting warmer to you?" says one frog to the other.
How do you borrow from the future?
Do future generations use a wayback machine to lend us the money? How do we pay income to future generations? Do future generations borrow from the past? Of course, just take a walk on Appian Way in Rome. Did we pay the Romans? No, the road was paid by taxes and labor when it was built.
The concept of borrowing from the future is a contrived lie, an impossibility--you borrow from yourself and this will be reflected in the purchasing power of the currency as it depreciates now. The books are always balanced.
If you don't believe me look at Zimbabwe. How much debt will future generations of Zimbabweans pay? Don't make me laugh!
That depends on your understanding of what is Money and what is Currency. The US uses Currency, not 'Money'. In spite of pretense to the contrary. Spend some time on YouTube, watching the Mike Malone clips.
As such, our Currency is a Debt obligation that demands to be repaid. And it is a CLAIM on goods and services/labor. A claim on past, present or future goods and services/labor.
If you/I/we cannot repay it in our lifetime, then (the System demands) future Debtors will be burdened with these Debts that become Claims on their goods and services/labor.
This goes on until there is a massive, public repudiation of said debt Claims. Either by revolution or war. Until that happens, the slow boil of the frog continues, as does the depth of servitude of the masses/peasants.
Greece is a good example, and a Beta test site for the Elite/TPTB.
the gathering storm for some the gathering dawn for others.
So goes the world.
Saying that money printing is a failed policy is like saying that armed robbery doesn't work. Both are just forced wealth redistribution.
The 1960's Marxist revolution is complete. The Western world is now run by the leftist tribe of international money changers. Lefty liberals everywhere have gotten their wish. This is what they worked and killed so hard to obtain.
Re the concept: "...social benefits, paid for with money borrowed from future generations." This money is NOT borrowed from future generations--who do not exist and, also, don't have any money to lend. This money is borrowed from existing institutions and people who are presently in business and alive, respectively. Many (possibly all) these creditors will not be paid back. None will be paid back honorably. (That is where the future generations will find themselves dragged in.) These fiscal facts are what the world has to deal with. The only good way out? The political class (and their cronies)would have to give up their agenda--meaning property rights would have to be restored in full, including a return of "the treasury's gold" to holders of the "dollar." Also including a "work-out" of government debts, amounting to pennies on the dollar.) The powers that be, however, are not contemplating this. And they have the guns, courts and prisons. This, too, is what the world has to deal with. Have a nice day.
One thing to remember when dealing with Keynesians and politicians.....Never play leap-frog with a unicorn.