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The American People Are Utterly Clueless About What Is Going To Happen As We Enter 2015
Submitted by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,
The American people are feeling really good right about now. For example, Gallup’s economic confidence index has hit the highest level that we have seen since the last recession. In addition, nearly half of all Americans believe that 2015 will be a better year than 2014 was, and only about 10 percent believe that it will be a worse year. And a lot of people are generally feeling quite good about the people that have been leading our nation. According to Gallup, once again this year Hillary Clinton is the most admired woman in America and Barack Obama is the most admired man in America. I don’t know what that says about our nation, but it can’t be good. Unfortunately, when things seem to be going well common sense tends to go out the window. A couple days ago, the Guardian ran an article entitled “Goodbye to one of the best years in history“, and a whole lot of people out there are feeling really optimistic these days. But should they be?
Sadly, what we are experiencing right now is so similar to what we witnessed in 2007 and early 2008. The stock market had been on a great run, people were flipping houses like crazy and most people were convinced that the party would never end.
But then it did end – very painfully.
The signs of trouble were there, but most people chose to ignore them.
Sadly, the exact same thing is happening again.
On Monday, the price of oil hit a brand new five year low. As I write this, U.S. oil is sitting at a price of $53.76 a barrel, which is nearly a 50 percent decline from the peak earlier this year.
There is only one other time in history when the price of oil has declined by more than 50 dollars a barrel in such a short time frame. That was back in the middle of 2008, shortly before the worst stock market crash since the Great Depression.
Unless the price of oil starts really bouncing back, the U.S. economy is going to be hit really hard.
Since 2009, oil industry employment has risen by 50 percent. And jobs in the oil industry pay quite well. One figure that I saw put the average weekly wage at about 1700 dollars.
But now we aren’t going to be gaining those types of jobs. Instead, we are going to rapidly start losing them.
Already, the oil rig count has dropped for three weeks in a row and is now at an 8 month low. And as the oil industry suffers, all of the industries that it supports are also going to start feeling the pain. In fact, Business Insider is reporting that Texas business executives are “freaked out” about what is happening…
Business executives in Texas are worried about the drop in oil prices.
On Monday, the Dallas Fed’s latest manufacturing survey showed that activity in Texas was slowing down.
The latest composite index came in at 4.1, widely missing expectations and down big from November’s reading. Expectations were for the index to come in at 9, down from 10.5 last month.
So while most Americans are feeling really good about the coming year, many of those with an inside view are becoming quite alarmed. One Texas business executive went so far as to say that the stunning decline in oil prices was “going to make things ugly … quickly.“
Meanwhile, the 9 trillion dollar U.S. dollar carry trade is starting to unwind.
The following is an excerpt from a recent Zero Hedge article…
Oil’s collapse is predicated by one major event: the explosion of the US Dollar carry trade. Worldwide, there is over $9 TRILLION in borrowed US Dollars that has been ploughed into risk assets.
Energy projects, particularly Oil Shale in the US, are one of the prime spots for this. But it is not the only one. Economies that are closely aligned with commodities (all of which are priced in US Dollars) are getting demolished too.
Just about everything will be hit as well. Most of the “recovery” of the last five years has been fueled by cheap borrowed Dollars. Now that the US Dollar has broken out of a multi-year range, you’re going to see more and more “risk assets” (read: projects or investments fueled by borrowed Dollars) blow up. Oil is just the beginning, not a standalone story.
If things really pick up steam, there’s over $9 TRILLION worth of potential explosions waiting in the wings. Imagine if the entire economies of both Germany and Japan exploded and you’ve got a decent idea of the size of the potential impact on the financial system.
And that’s assuming NO increased leverage from derivative usage.
Ouch.
And yes, as that last excerpt mentioned, derivatives could soon become a massive problem. The big banks are holding trillions in commodity derivatives that could blow up if the price of oil does not rebound. Overall, there are five U.S. banks that each have more than 40 trillion dollars of exposure to derivatives of all types, and the total global derivatives bubble is at least 700 trillion dollars at this point.
At the same time, many are becoming concerned that the unprecedented bond bubble that we are witnessing could soon implode and trillions of dollars of “wealth” could disappear into thin air.
In fact, Bloomberg says that we should “get ready for a disastrous year” for bonds…
Get ready for a disastrous year for U.S. government bonds. That’s the message forecasters on Wall Street are sending.
With Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen poised to raise interest rates in 2015 for the first time in almost a decade, prognosticators are convinced Treasury yields have nowhere to go except up. Their calls for higher yields next year are the most aggressive since 2009, when U.S. debt securities suffered record losses, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
That certainly does not sound very optimistic, does it?
Anyone with even a minimal amount of intelligence should be able to see the massive financial bubbles that the central banks of the world have created, and anyone with even a minimal amount of intelligence should be able to see that we are heading for a massive financial implosion which will be extraordinarily painful.
Unfortunately, as I wrote about yesterday, the American people have become “zombiefied“. Instead of thinking for themselves, they let “the matrix” do their thinking for them. And right now “the matrix” is telling them that everything is going to be just fine in 2015.
If you do not think that there is a propaganda machine that tells us what to think, I want you to watch the video posted below very carefully. This video makes it so obvious that even a small child can understand it…
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Look at the Federal Reserve.
Look at who is President.
Look at the Democrat and Republican leadership.
Conclusion: Beyond F'ing clueless, moronic zombies is a better description.
JG, I couldn't have said it better. The chickens are coming home to roost, and it will be a bitch.
Look at the Democrat and Republican leadership.
They are not clueless. The ugliness is their plan.
It's all scripted - ALL of it. Get out of the way and just live life the way you want to. Who cares about societal norms or judegment anymore.
"American People Is Utterly Clueless"
Boris is concur with first part.
Everything is awesome... everything is cool when you are a part of the team... everything is awesome... when you living in a dream....
I just found out that people who filed for bankrupcy after just two years can get a home mortgage....
it weren't their fault....
they all have skittle shitting unicorns as pets
I am visiting family and read their copy of Money magazine.
Reading that rag I can see how 95% of the country is clueless....
LOL times trillions.
LOL times trillions.
Boris! Good to hear ya'! How's that copper mining venture going? I hear prices are down, but potential "mines" are going up exponentially.
Seriously, I dunno what part of Ukraine you belong to, but I love your mind.
You have my thoughts and prayers, because you are a seriously funny fucker!
I am now to say good nite, and hope that Boris is not just mind-fuck to make me think he is from Ukraine.
Clueless about what's gonna happen? Nobody knows for sure "what's gonna happen"
But By Gosh and By Golly, the Plebes are Clueless About What Has Happened.
To wit: John Kerry admitting that WTC bldg #7 was brought down by "controlled demolition"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbReTl3Uin0#t=65
Now if that don't getcha, then the gators will
I'm looking at a gator right now,out my office window knuks.
Not big enough to eat yet, maybe in another couple of years.Prolly need to feed it some bankers
to fatten it up, or just to keep me happy.
I swear it knows I'm talking about it, it just winked at me.
Holy S-H-I-T!
not the gators but that's GATA as in www.gata.org
Based on that video clip of Kerry, he is either a brilliant actor (possible, as these guys are psychotically good at lying...)
OR
he is completely out of touch with the events of the most important day in US history in the past thirty years. He sounds like he knows nothing. His ignorance is impressive, and THIS MAN REPRESENTS OUR COUNTRY TO THE WORLD.
Either way, yeah, we're fucked.
look critically at who you work with, who you encounter, who, who everywhere! you will agast and wtf you have seen and what they eat, and what they have become. hopeless, dude, fucking hopeless. last leg down, fruitcakes anonmyous. join the matrix of fruit cakes to the depths below the basis line of common sense=iq 100...
"fruitcakes" indeed. Those above your post that are here that say our leaders are stupid and dumb must be hired to say that.
The leaders are following orders and acting dumb is a fine excuse and works so well that they keep using that excuse so no one looks for the real reasons for their actions.
http://www.margaritaville.tv/player?mc_id=742
Jim Willie is now stating that 2015 will be the year that the SHANGHAI SHOCK hits the paper gold market.
The cartel has certainly gone all in pushing silver to $14.50 and gold to $1150 in 2014.
(stealing someone else's schtick here for the hell of it)
Incubus is amaze. In US of A, chicken roost and become female dog. Is truly place for become anything!
I doubt those listed are included in the 'clueless' category.
They know what's coming and are all very well prepared.
I think 'clueless, moronic sombies' refers to the most of the other 99%
OK Tyler come on now, how many times are you going to rebrand this pig? Those of us in the US can see the Mow-rons and are well aware that there is nothing between us and them but air.
Hello 'Reality Bubble': (How Government Agencies Produce Hundreds of Pre-Packaged TV Segments the Media Runs as 'News')
"Under the Bush administration, the federal government has aggressively used a well-established tool of public relations: the prepackaged, ready-to-serve news report that major corporations have long distributed to TV stations to pitch everything from headache remedies to auto insurance. In all, at least 20 federal agencies, including the Defense Department and the Census Bureau, have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years, records and interviews show. Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government's role in their production."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/13/politics/13covert.html?_r=0
State Propaganda: How Government Agencies Produce Hundreds of Pre-Packaged TV Segments the Media Runs as News
http://www.democracynow.org/2005/3/14/state_propaganda_how_government_ag...
U.S. Repeals Propaganda Ban, Spreads Government-Made News ... 14 Jul 2013 ... For decades, a so-called anti-propaganda law prevented the U.S. government's mammoth broadcasting arm from delivering pre-packaged, prepared programming.
The NDAA Legalizes The Use Of Propaganda On The US Public
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/ndaa-legalizes-propaganda-2012-5
'During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.' - George Orwell
HNY Zedheads..
Humans fking around in the earth sandbox, to self absorband ant selfish to see
yes i know (hey i'm wordblind}
so what is it going to be
A# nothing (us species fucking the earth and everthing on it)
Or
B# everything (us species exploring the rest of the galaxy)
John, You couldnt be more wrong, if you dont think there is a plan, and that they are not acting their parts......
They're not clueless. They're the foxes guarding the hen house.
When they weren't clueless ?
A little over 100 years.
A little over 100 years.
Let the fucking system crash already..... Got gold bitchezzzz?
What could go wrong when the PPT has your back? ... DOW 30,000 I's tells Ya.
Outside of the incessant gloom and doom websites saying the sky is constantly falling why are so many Americans unaware or in denial about what is going on and will eventually happen?
Inquiring foreigners want to know
Did you watch the video at the end of the article? The "news" in this country isn't news at all, it's thinly veiled propaganda, and that's how most Americans form their opinions.
That video is one of the more disturbing things I've seen recently.
Mrs. Hammer went from making fun of me for my tinfoil hat to having a small tinfoil hat of her own to now wearing a tinfoil sombrero after seeing that video. That was some scary shit of Orwellian magnitude.
This is what they mean by "regularly scheduled programming."
MM, there are a lot of videos on YouTube compiled over the years showing this exact same 'everybody reads from the same script' propaganda party. Different topics, different shills, err, newspeople, different stations, etc. None of this is new. What is new is to see it brought to light by Conan.
There's a reason most Americans think the way they do. And that is because you can travel from San Diego to Boston and still see the exact word for word messages in the media. It keeps a level of cohesion among the sheeple. Truly sad...
Couldn't agree more Mc. Anyone who doubts that all the MSM news is carefully scripted, needs to watch this video. Wow!!!!
There are quite a few of them, from the guy who made that one.
Scary stuff. Cult mind control brainwashing is less dangerous than MSM government propaganda television programming
Consume & Obey
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ford_Motor_Company
" The competitors also opened up new markets by extending credit for purchases, so consumers could buy these expensive automobiles with monthly payments. Ford initially resisted this approach, insisting such debts would ultimately hurt the consumer and the general economy. Ford eventually relented and started offering the same terms in December 1927..."
https://www.bostonfed.org/education/ledger/ledger04/sprsum/credhistory.pdf
Well, clueless? Not necessarily. It's more like no one in this country wants all their great shit to not be theirs anymore, and then have to suffer a little discomfort or even true hardship. It's sort of an aversion to the "the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."
So, most just pretend it isn't possible, or refuse to accept reality. That this consumer driven, debt model is coming to an end is just hard to get one's head wrapped around.
I would say many more Americans know things are on a knife edge than ZH'ers think. But what are they going to do when just trying to make the pay check and bills stay even. It's like riding in a Malaysian air liner and knowing you are going off the radar.
In my experience, you can tell them what's happening, point them to all the information, build logical arguments, walk them step by step through why it's important, etc, etc - and they still refuse to hear it. They don't know because they don't WANT to know. Knowing (even if it's only a "might happen") breaks their world - and if that happens, they don't have anything to hold on to. Doing something about it goes against the mainstream, and most people are "joiners" - and it's far scarier for them to be seen as "different" than it is for them to be standing right next to all the other sheep as they walk into the slaughterhouse.
I gave up a looong time ago trying to convince anyone of anything - I just offer information and if they look into it, great, and if they don't, well, they'll figure it out sooner or later. Even people in my own family are going to lose everything they've worked their asses off for because they refuse to see how they're being set up by the scumbag banksters and their lap-whores in government.
The Brits are one better : its a most joyfull year ahead !
Joyflation !
http://uk.businessinsider.com/britains-misery-index-drops-to-multi-decad...
Okay, alright, I admit it. I bought an item or two with a box or ten of 20rds for mesef.
"Life's been good to me so far."
J. Walsh
So far.........
they have been clueless since 1950's
This is a MUST WATCH to understand : The Century of the Self
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkohEoc69og&list=PLsxoED9biTsnCqWyPqpKTV...
The days of "MOAR" are numbered
It's a big club and you ain't in it BITCHEZ
That is a very fine series...
Another by the same producer is "The Power of Nightmares".
IT'S NOT NEWS!
IT'S FREAKING 'ENTERTAINMENT'!
The frigging news programs should start with a disclaimer: "This is not news. This is weather with a hot chick interupted every now and then with car accidents, over hyped natural "disasters", and political propaganda.
Who writes this line of BS that gets repeated on all these outlets?
Love that video. Can you imagine the shit those people get from friends and family after seeing this?
But who will READ the news??!!
-Ron Burgundy
The fact that Snyder references a stupid poll where Zero is "the most admired man in the U.S" just goes to show how clueless he is. Hey Snyder, he got 19% of the vote and roughly 38% of the people are democraps. What's that tell you?
I. Am. Tired. Of. Snyder.
I wonder how long Conan will keep making these videos showing the central scripting of "News" in America. Sure, this was a dopey puff-piece put out by a PR agency for the retail industry. But the similarity of the wording of news stories, down to the identical phrasing of odd and improbably figures of speech, is becoming more and more obvious.
The sheeple just think it's all one big joke. The joke will be on them, and all of us are going to dragged along for the ride.
Barry; It's Ok to admit it that I I broke
the Comstitution 1,2 maybe 10 times
this year.
This is awesome - euphoria at tops. MOAR bagholders!!!
Every year the same old sky is falling crap. I live north of Boston. In this area things seem great houses are selling , rents are skyrocketing Due to demand and stores are packed. Same down in nyc where Skyscrapers and condos going up everywhere. There is a plan to tear down the public housing and sell the land to private developers.
You, my friend, are suffering from a form of Normalcy Bias. You are equating what is going on in your small corner of the world, with what is actually transpiring in the rest of the world. And so, because everything seems peachy keen where you are, everything must be OK. Let me know how that mindset works out for you in the next couple of years.
You're probably right but this madness has lasted longer than anyone could have imagined, myself included. So I'm not at all sure that it's all going to go belly up next year. Might stagger along for another few years.
Ummmm, not to put too fine a point on it, but I'd say the ZH crowd is pretty fucking clueless about what 2015 will hold in store. Social unrest, economic upheavel and general chaos? Sorry to burst your bubble but 2015 is going to look pretty much like 2014 - lots of QEasing 4 Eva: Sino/Euroversion. Will this finally be the year of moar overinflated asset prices set to crash and toppy equities markets poised to roll over at any second? Nope. More EZ money and the average American taking it up his fat, fisted hole for another 12 months cuz hey - there's football and Seth Rogen films to be had.
So in 1983 when oil prices fell economy bounced back quickly and experienced the longest boom in history until 2008 with just two minor recessions in 1990 and 2001
We had a much more healthy economy in 83. See this graph, it is horrifying:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?id=GFDEGDQ188S
Your data is meaningless! If it were relevant or important our government would be letting us know. All data is anecdotal unless Big O tells us so.
I stopped reading this bullshit. Sure maybe oil never dropped $50/bbl in as short a time. But let's just say oil has dropped 50% in the past year. The writer is pretending the current drop is spectacular. Well between 1930-31 oil was discovered in Texas and lots of Wells were drilled. Oil price dropped from $1.10 to 10 cents. A drop of over 90%. Oil would need to be under $20/bbl to be remotely comparable.
Give it a few more months....
What percentage of our economy rested on oil in 1930? What was our sovereign debt load in 1930? It really IS different this time...and not for the better.
I hear it on good authority, that if one does not look down, they can avoid falling into a chasm.
Dear fellow Americans, Don't look down.
The banksters need to repay us.
Zionism is like standing on solid ground while a bit deeper below one's feet, the support is being slowly washed away.
OK, I admit it...I bought 1 or 2 or maybe 10 silver eagles for myself for the holidays!
Conspiracies everywhere!
http://newamerica-now.blogspot.com/2014/02/beyond-collapse.html
"According to Gallup, once again this year Hillary Clinton is the most admired woman in America and Barack Obama is the most admired man in America. "
According to Gallup, once again this year Hillary Clinton is the most admired woman in America and Barack Obama is the most admired man in America because most Americans are dumber than a box of rocks and less aware than the rocks of what is going on around them.
There. Fixed it.
In the early nineteenth century Brazil had the "coffee with milk" policy, a President was Minas Gerais (milk) and one of São Paulo (coffee).
There was still a lot of influence of the British Empire (the equivalent of Israel today in the US).
I believe that the US policy are at that stage.
hehe.
WWI ended that influence, and the US grabbed those markets.
It is the people who will step into 2015.
2015 step into the ass of the people.
Hopefully it will not come radioactive in 2016!
Pray for the worst does not happen, it's just a financial meltdown.
hehe.
"Unless the price of oil starts really bouncing back, the U.S. economy is going to be hit really hard."
That is BS. Inflation is never a good thing. Oil companies may suffer temporarily from deflation, but it is necessqary. As it is, it is indeed temporary because those prices are going back up in the new year. The government just keeps spending and Obamacare will only grow from here. Real decline, with higher oil prices, will resume.
Sorry - but when I see a guy with a name like 'Conan', I sorta picture a guy with shoulders just a skosh wider than his head... Get some behind-the-neck presses going Conan...
Unconscious herding is the mechanism by which people make decisions when they are independently unsure what to do.
http://www.globaldeflationnews.com/science-is-revealing-the-mechanism-of...
those clueless assholes made money being long which is moar than i can say for the author. look in the mirror. only a clueless imbecile believes that treasury bond yields will rise AND that stocks will crash. two losing trades if there ever was. there is no market, there is only old yeller. get with the program snyder. these aren't the bots you're looking for. [/obi wan]
The American people are utterly clueless.
There! Fixed the headline for you.
We are as sheep being led to slaughter.
The American people are indeed clueless as to what's going to go down in 2015 but so is Snyder and all the rest of the soothsayers who've been wrong again and again over the past decade.
Q: What do you call an economist with a forecast?
A: Wrong
Will be more of this for sure
Prepare For More Fake NATO Russia Jet Incursions / Aggression Near U.K.Fake Russian and NATO Jet Aggression
"The American people are utterly clueless". Period, paragraph, end. Fixed it for ya's. Nothing more needed---says it all.
Clueless? About what?
LMFAO
huh?
"The American People Are Utterly Clueless About What Is Going To Happen As We Enter 2015"
Why the long, drawn out, headline? "The American People Are Utterly Clueless" better states it and covers it all.
the public clueless? and zero hedge and wall street have it all figured out?!
Pretty much everyone on ZH gets it. USA is a scam, lying, propaganda, racist against whites, blah blah..... we get that but how about spend more time on how the non sheeps can profit? Because when it's all said and done, it's all about surviving and making the most money under the scripted or given circumstances. Anyone who bitches and cries saying we can't make money is a fucking fool. I made a fortune shorting WLL and OAS the past 3 months but I could have made 10 million from 20k invested in puts. Lighten up and focus more on how to profit or else we're all just a bunch of whiney ass compalining, negative, unhappy fucks!!!
I dont know anymore...will it be the same drip, drip drip to our demise? Or will the tank burst and soak us...I truly dont know.
But I DO KNOW that things are getting worse...I am not a PM fan because they can outlaw it at any moment..I would say to simply say get right with Jesus, guns, ammo, food, no debt, try to buy some land to grow food and has water...I dunno, but the guy earlier who said he made money on shorts and puts probably has none of what I mentioned. Just rambling, I dont know anything.
When it comes to Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, the Kardashians and Hollywood crap, I think they are well informed.
I can't figure it out.
I'm a busy guy. How long am I supposed to wait?
Could be next hour. Or your next lifetime. My as well keep moving along there's nothing you can do about it anyway. You'll know when it happens that's the only thing that is for sure. Well unless you are a gov't employee you may be spared a little time.
C'mon
When the first shoe falls, it wakes you up.
& you can't go back to sleep till the second one falls.
Your avatar's a giveaway. You're the inebriated gentleman that lives upsairs
Why can't you take both shoes off at once?
"And yes, as that last excerpt mentioned, derivatives could soon become a massive problem. The big banks are holding trillions in commodity derivatives that could blow up if the price of oil does not rebound. Overall, there are five U.S. banks that each have more than 40 trillion dollars of exposure to derivatives of all types, and the total global derivatives bubble is at least 700 trillion dollars at this point."
And now the truth comes out as to why the US gov't just passed a law that will pass off these losses to taxpayers. Of course the joke will be on everyone because there's no way in hell that will ever work. Of course it could be the immediate end of welfare, ss, and everything else. So basically collapse. I can't wait to watch the idiots that always preach of wanting to end all these type of programs when they're surrounded by the hungry and starving that have nothing to lose.
Yay....more predictions of bad news. Have any of them come true...?
Yes, they have.
Things are getting progressively worse each year but the MSM propaghanda machine, like the video at the end of this story, keeps pushing this false narrative.
If you thought 2008 was bad, you ain't seen nothing yet.
~DipshitMiddleCLassWhitekid
When you tell people the truth and use facts, logics, statistics, data, etc they call you a pessimist or negative.
Such is life..
~DipshitMIddleClassWhiteKid