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One Last Look At The Real Economy Before It Implodes - Part 3
Submitted by Brandon Smith from Alt-Market, Click here for Part I and Part II.
One Last Look At The Real Economy Before It Implodes - Part 3
In the previous installments of this series, we discussed the hidden and often unspoken crisis brewing within the employment market, as well as in personal debt. The primary consequence being a collapse in overall consumer demand, something which we are at this very moment witnessing in the macro-picture of the fiscal situation around the world. Lack of real production and lack of sustainable employment options result in a lack of savings, an over-dependency on debt and welfare, the destruction of grass-roots entrepreneurship, a conflated and disingenuous representation of gross domestic product, and ultimately an economic system devoid of structural integrity — a hollow shell of a system, vulnerable to even the slightest shocks.
This lack of structural integrity and stability is hidden from the general public quite deliberately by way of central bank money creation that enables government debt spending, which is counted toward GDP despite the fact that it is NOT true production (debt creation is a negation of true production and historically results in a degradation of the overall economy as well as monetary buying power, rather than progress). Government debt spending also disguises the real state of poverty within a system through welfare and entitlements. The U.S. poverty level is at record highs, hitting previous records set 50 years ago during Lyndon Johnson’s administration. The record-breaking rise in poverty has also occurred despite 50 years of the so called “war on poverty,” a shift toward American socialism that was a continuation of the policies launched by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 'New Deal'.
The shift toward a welfare state is the exact reason why, despite record poverty and a 23 percent true unemployment rate (as discussed here), we do not yet see the kind of soup lines and rampant indigence witnessed during the Great Depression. Today, EBT cards and other welfare programs hide modern soup lines in plain sight. It should be noted that the record 20 percent of U.S. households now on food stamps are still technically contributing to GDP. That’s because government statistics make no distinction between normal grocery consumption and consumption created artificially through debt-generated welfare.
This third installment of our economic series will be the most difficult. We will examine the issue of government debt, including how true debt is disguised from the public and how this debt is a warning of a coming implosion in our overall structure. National debt is perhaps one of the most manipulated fields of economics, and the layers surrounding what our country truly owes to foreign creditors and central banks are many. I believe this confusing array of disinformation is designed to discourage average Americans from pursuing the facts. Here are the facts all the same, for those who have the patience...
First, it is important to debunk the mainstream lies surrounding what constitutes national debt.
“Official” national debt as of 2015 is currently reported at more than $18 trillion. That means that under Barack Obama and with the aid of the private Federal Reserve, U.S. debt has nearly doubled since 2008 — quite an accomplishment in only seven years’ time. But this is not the whole picture.
Official GDP numbers published for mainstream consumption do NOT include annual liabilities generated by programs such as Social Security and Medicare. These liabilities are veiled through the efforts of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which reports on what it calls “debts” rather than on the true fiscal gap. Through the efforts of economists like Laurence Kotlikoff of Boston University, Alan J. Auerbach and Jagadeesh Gokhale, understanding of the fiscal gap (the difference between our government’s projected financial obligations and the present value of all projected future tax and other receipts) is slowly growing within more mainstream circles.
The debt created through the fiscal gap increases, for example, because of the Social Security program - since government taxes the population for Social Security but uses that tax money to fund other programs or to pay off other outstanding debts. In other words, the government collects "taxes" with the promise of paying them back in the future through Social Security, but it spends that money instead of saving it for the use it was supposedly intended.
The costs of such unfunded liabilities within programs like Social Security and Medicare accumulate as the government continues to kick the can down the road instead of changing policy to cover costs. This accumulation is reflected in the Alternative Financial Scenario analysis, which the CBO used to publish every year but for some reason stopped publishing in 2013. Here is a presentation on the AFS by the St. Louis branch of the Federal Reserve. Take note that the crowd laughs at the prospect of the government continuing to “can kick” economic policy changes in order to avoid handling current debt obligations, yet that is exactly what has happened over the past several years.
Using the AFS report, Kotlikoff and other more honest economists estimate real U.S. national debt to stand at about $205 trillion.
When the exposure of these numbers began to take hold in the mainstream, media pundits and establishment propagandists set in motion a campaign to spin public perception, claiming that the vast majority of this debt was actually “projected debt” to be paid over the course of 70 years or more and, thus, not important in terms of today’s debt concerns. While some estimates of national debt include future projections of unfunded liabilities in certain sectors this far ahead, the spin masters' fundamental argument is in fact a disingenuous redirection of the facts.
According to the calculations of economists like Chris Cox and Bill Archer, unfunded liabilities are adding about $8 trillion in total debt annually. That is $8 trillion dollars per year not accounted for in official national debt stats. For the year ending Dec. 31, 2011, the annual accrued expense of Medicare and Social Security was $7 trillion of this amount.
Kotlikoff’s analysis shows that this annual hidden debt accumulation has resulted in a current total of $205 trillion. This amount is not the unfunded liabilities added up in all future years. This is the present value of the unfunded liabilities, discounted to today.
How is the U.S. currently covering such massive obligations on top of the already counted existing budget costs? It’s not.
Taxes collected yearly in the range of $3.7 trillion are nowhere near enough to cover the amount, and no amount of future taxes would make a dent either. This is why the Grace Commission, established during the Ronald Reagan presidency, found that not a single penny of your taxes collected by the Internal Revenue Service is going toward the funding of actual government programs. In fact, all new taxes are being used to pay off the ever increasing interest on current debts.
For those who argue that an increase in taxation is the cure, more than 102 million people are unemployed within the U.S. today. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Current Population Survey (CPS), 148 million are employed; about 20% of these are considered part-time workers (about 30 million people). Around 16 million full time workers are employed by state and local government (meaning they are a drain on the system whether they know it or not). Only 43 percent of all U.S. households are considered “middle class,” the section of the public where most taxes are derived. In the best-case scenario, we have about 120 million people paying a majority of taxes toward U.S. debt obligations, while nearly as many are adding to those debt obligations through welfare programs or have the potential to add to those obligations in the near future if they do not find work due to the high unemployment rate that no one at the BLS wants to acknowledge.
Looking at reality, one finds a swiftly shrinking middle class paying for an ever larger welfare class. Do the math, and an honest person will admit that no matter how much taxes increase, they will still never make up for the lack of adequate taxpayers.
Another dishonest argument given to dismiss concerns of national debt is the lie that Domestic Net Worth in the U.S. far outweighs our debts owed, and this somehow negates the issue. Domestic Net Worth is calculated using Gross Domestic Assets, public and private. It's interesting, however, that Domestic Net Worth counts 'Debt Capital' as an asset, just as GDP counts debt creation as production. Debt Capital is the “capital” businesses and governments raise by taking out loans. This capital (debt) is then counted as an asset toward Domestic Net Worth.
Yes, that’s right, private and national debts are “assets.” And mainstream economists argue that these debts (errr… assets) offset our existing debts. This is the unicorn, Neverland, Care Bear magic of establishment economics, folks. It’s truly a magnificent thing to behold.
Ironically, debt capital, like the official national debt, does not include unfunded liabilities. If it did, mainstream talking heads could claim an even vaster supply of “assets” (debts) that offset our liabilities.
This situation is clearly unsustainable. The only people who seem to argue that it is sustainable are disinformation agents with something to gain (government favors and pay) and government cronies with something to lose (public trust and their positions of petty authority).
With overall Treasury investments static for some foreign central banks and dwindling in others, the only other options are to print indefinitely and at ever greater levels, or to default. For decades, the Federal Reserve has been printing in order to keep the game afloat, and the American public has little to no idea how much fiat and debt the private institution has conjured in the process. Certainly, the amount of debt we see just in annual unfunded liabilities helps to explain why the dollar has lost 97 percent of its purchasing power since the Fed was established. Covering that much debt in the short term requires a constant flow of fiat, digital and paper. Not only does REAL debt threaten our credit standing as a nation, it also threatens the value and full faith in the dollar.
The small glimpse into Fed operations we received during the limited TARP audit was enough to warrant serious concern, as a full audit would likely result in the exposure of total debt fraud, the immediate abandonment of U.S. Treasury investment, and the destruction of the dollar. Of course, all of that will eventually happen anyway...
I will discuss why this will take place sooner rather than later through the issues of Treasury bonds and the dollar in the fourth installment of this series. In the fifth installment, I will examine the many reasons why a deliberate program of destructive debt bubbles and currency devaluations actually benefits certain international financiers and elites with aspirations of complete globalization. And in the sixth and final installment, I will delve into practical solutions - and practical solutions only. In the meantime, I would like everyone to consider this:
No society or culture has ever successfully survived by disengaging itself from its own financial responsibilities and dumping them on future generations without falling from historical grace. Not one. Does anyone with any sense really believe that the U.S. is somehow immune to this reality?
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Only disinfo trolls call facts "fear mongering".
When you are better off on welfare vs working at 85% of the available jobs, there is no future.
What has happened is that everything is inflating to the point where welfare payments can only result in a lower class lifestyle. For the past six years welfare and disability has allowed people to live fairly good. Since you can pull in $50k a year fairly easily on welfare that means $50k a year puts you into the lower class. Effectively poor.
Ten years ago $50k put you solidly in the middle class. You could afford a home in many places, commodities were starting to get out of control but still manageable. Health insurance was affordable and property taxes weren't completely insane.
You need at least $100k a year to live like you could on $50k. You aren't talking an extravagant lifestyle either. In the '90s $100k meant you were upper class. Now you are almost on the verge of being poor, especially of you have a wife and kids.
So try finding a job that pays $100k+. Not many of them out there. Thanks to the Fed inflation has made sub $60k income levels lower class. The $50k you make sitting on your ass collecting welfare no longer funds a decent lifestyle. The welfare class is once again becoming poor. With that consumption is falling like a rock. The entire expansion of the economy over the past six years was on the back of welfare growth. Free money. This always results in rampant inflation.
So either base wages must rise to six figure levels to grow a true middle class or welfare payments need to double. Sadly welfare payments will probably grow before wages do.
i doubt anyone makes 50 grand a year on welfare...
The value of the benefits would take at least $50,000 in income to replicate.
Remember that the benefits come with discounts for everything and are tax free.
I don't have the link available but there was a pretty good study done by the Pennsylvania state welfare department that showed that a family of four would have to make $65,000 to end up better than doing nothing. That probably has become worse with the Obamacare subsidy arrangements and cutoff thresholds.
Oh, yes they do! Look up the CALWORKS Benefit Model for 2013. Here in Kalifonia, an unmarried, mother if two, with $0 in income, gets $3,046 a month! Now you might quickly deduce, that's only a little over $36k a year, but add in Section 8 rental assistance, which is easily $1,000 to $1,200 a month and you are right there at $50k a year. Add the free or heavily discounted utilities, free cell phone and it's beyond $50k. Factor in, that each one of the useless eaters progeny is going to a public school, and for the LA Unified School System, that's over $12,000 a year, each! And don't forget get EITC, where they get money back, from the IRS, even without paying a dime into the system. The FSA is for real.
Let me know when the NWO takes over Texas and Uzbekistan.
done.
uzbek ...
what?
going long on popcorn for the texas takeover...
that's gonna' be a show...
I'm in Texas and i am tired of shooting at paper targets.
Are you using fiat currency paper?
only on a long shot
Any one have the current cash flow situation for SS and Medicare?
I have heard we are having to print and borrow to make SS payments because those paying in are not paying enough in to offset what beneficiaries are taking out. In other words the lock box had it's hinges sprung and the lid is ripped open.
I do not have a study proving that assertion however. Anyone know where to find that info?
OK got off my butt and found the answer.
Since 2010 the SS fund has been in defecit. It paid out 77 billion dollars more than it took in in 2014.
http://www.ssa.gov/oact/trsum/
This is huge. It means not only that SS must be funded by borrowing but also the excess from FICA (SS) payments is no longer available for the Congress to spend on pet projects. It cannot last like this. We are close to the end when borrowing is needed to fund SS. If Medicare is in the same boat I'd say we have a week left...(OK I know that's BS but it is really, really bad.)
Turn that frown upside down!
A week sounds good to me.
Let's get this party started.
Sounds like you need a hug from my little friend, the 'I don't care bear'...
Mr. Honeybadger!
He just don't give a fuck.
The idea was originally sold with the idea that SS fund would just sell the bonds. That does not work so well when US gov is competing to increase debt outstanding.
One other factor to keep in mind is that actuarial calcs are based upon the bond port having a yield of 5%. How long has it been since that was available? When will it be available in the future?
Low rates are necessary to keep US gov debt expense under control. However, it only increases the SS shortfall. and inflation does not work as SS is inflation adjusted. Essentially the same with the Medicare and Medicade programs. When you read the article you can understand that it is the off balance sheet inflation sheet liabilities that are the greatest problem with larger size by a 10X multiple of the actual bonds outstanding.
Those actuaries were not doing calculations on cave walls. Actually, reality has been very close to their calculations.
Augustus - You got it. Demographic imbalance. The attempted solution was probably worse than letting it correct itself naturally. More ego than evil in my opinion but the looting near the end is disgusting.
Jesus Christ!!!! How in the hell are we all so ignorant about Social Security and the Social Security Trust Fund? 40 years of disinformation and outright lies will do that I suppose.
Social Security will never, ever go bankrupt! It's against the god damn law. As the law written back 1935 intends, the moment the Social Security system pays out more than it takes in, benefits are cut to fill that deficit. That's it folks. The system has a built in mechanism to handle whatever bullshit narrative your radio has heaped on you.
A child born tomorrow will have Social Security there for them upon the age of 62. The only way Social Security would not be is if there was an act of a Congress signed by the President of the United States that abolishes the program. That clearly will not happen.
Now, for that virtual construct, that accounting fiction which is the SS Trust Fund. No, it's not make believe and no, politicians are not stealing real money from that fictitious fund. Again, by law, those surpluses were never intended to sit there in a locked box. Those surpluses were used to help fund the government. In other words, those Trust Fund surpluses helped fund tax cuts, endless wars and big bank bailouts. Not bad for a virtual construct.
Social Security will never, ever go bankrupt!
Only if you elect to define massively devaluing the currency to not be a form of bankruptcy.
I wanna go to a Fun Camp when they open.
FEMA Camp not fun camp.
We are witnessing the end of failed Reaganomics.
I think it started a little before Ronnie took the helm.
I'm wearing a shirt, as I type this " Reagan for President"
If we dug him up and strapped his corpse to a chair in the Oval Office, he would be better than what we have now.
Now show some respect, and leave my Ronnie Alone.
No this started with Johnson expanding the MIC for Viet Nam; followed by Nixon delinking the dollar from gold. The inflation that raged in the 70's and 80's as the fed sat on its hands. In the 80's congress knew they had a social security ponzie scheme that was doomed to fail if that didn't take quick, decisive action...in typical congressional custom they decided to ignore it. It was at that point that I realized I would never be able to retire. Here I am, now, 56, last of the boomers, seeing what I expected right in front of my face.
Wife wants us to prepay for funeral arrangements and graves. I'm thinking it would be a waste of money. We're going to wind up in a massive hole along with thousands of others or we're going to be dried up corpses on the side of a desert dirt road.
When this shit crashes, and it will, everything will go out of business except crime. And it won't be crime because there will be no law. There wil be a period of time where it will be a free-for-all...and we have a class of people (black, white, brown, whatever) that have no morality, no television, lack education, have no hope, a lot of anger, and numbers. They will be door to door marauders; raping, killing, looting, torturing, setting blazes as they move on seeking further entertainment. Because, to them, it will be entertainment.
Entertainment? Whats stopping them from doing all that right now? Mad max scenario isn't likely unless people are starving. Even if EBT get cut off there's probably a few years of Kudzoo plants growing on the roadsides around here to throw in the pot.
Very true about Kudzoo:
This site should be at the very top of your reading list if you even have a hint about prepping.
His material is also available on CD.
http://www.eattheweeds.com/kudzu-pueraria-montana-var-lobata-fried-2/
I see the exact same thing. Add in racial rioting and a mass exodus from the prison system as the collapse in revenue forces the government to either release or kill off that population. As for entertainment. Maybe for a few. Consider starvation, rage, hatred, along with a total lack of self responsibility (morality) as the prime motivators. Civil war is now mathematically impossible to avoid. The population will not recognize these facts until the events unfold right before their faces. Most are not prepared.
We are witnessing the end of failed Reaganomics.
No, baby.
It is failed FDR compounded by failed LBJ.
Look at those projected liabilities and convince me that a little higher tax rate from 20 years ago would cure it.
Reagan cuts actually brought in more money. It just could not keep up with expansion of welfare state. It is not the US Army that is the problem. It is the Free Shit Army.
Stop the tribal bullshit and dumb economics. Neoliberalism has been pushed by all political parties through the western world since the mid to late 60's.
And no, cuts don't bring in more money. It's an economic impossibility. If I cut your wages, you don't have more money. Tax cuts are stimulative and like all stimulus, they will not pay for themselves.
And the statist-accountant speaks up yet again.
All taxation acts just like a wage cut dumbass, they no longer have that wage to spend in the economy or add to any market capital base. And at what point did Keynesian statists decide that a tax cut must be "paid for", was that before or after they decided that your own labor (and thus your wages) is not yours but governments?
Listen, you can yank on your dick all you want. Reality and basic economics will not bend to the will of your tedious posts. I'm all for tax cuts, but I realize they are stimulative and add to national deficits and overall debt. I don't have an issue with that. That was the context which you clearly missed.
I know you fancy yourself an intellectual, but we both know that's bullshit. You hide behind that fake intellectualism which masks weakness and a unhealthy subservience to paternal authority. You hate governments, but will bow down and pledge alligence to the corporate- your true master.
Neo liberals and fucking socialists, especially the filthy low life evil fucking stinking pieces of shite called socialists are the whole cause a of ALL fucking problems.
I see you have no understanding of what neoliberal economic orthodoxy really is. That makes you part of the problem. Listen, your radio has been lying to you for a very, very long time. Political tribalism is a completely useless endeavor.
Neoliberal is less government. Neoliberalism is laissez-faire, free trade and the curtailing or downright death of the nation state and sovereignty. The super-national corporation has become the ultimate power.
Ok neo lib Acc 101, you don't even rise to the level of intelligent discourse. Simply restating Keynsian tripe and not answering the rebuttal and is a sure sign you are in over your head. Move on to move on .org for greener pastuers. A tax cut takes away some of the booty the government would be able to confiscate. But with more jingle in my pocket I might purchase or save creating wealth. Both winners for the economy. This in turn is an engine of growth and new growth means the government gets thier pound of flesh from the proceeds. Why don't you try to answer the rebuttals instead of spewing Keynsian neo fckin liberal tripe. The aim of tax cuts is to allow private accumulation of wealth, keeping more of your wages or income. Reagan's tax cuts created MORE booty for the coffers, not less. As was pointed out to you, the government spent every penny of it and more so the the problem isn't with tax cuts, it's with your revisionist history. Real simple, the government grew faster than the tax base increases. Thus, deficits.
What the hell are you talking about? Your brain read the posts and deduced that there was a pro neoliberal bent to them? Your ignorance is your burden to bear, not mine. You have no fucking idea what is happening economically, except what that damn radio tells you.
As for tax cuts, which again asshat I'm all for, they are stimulative. That means they are a stimulus and will not pay for themselves. Tax cuts will spur consumption, but not dollar for dollar. They don't add more to the coffers, they add debt. No matter how hard you yank on that dick, economics and math will best you. Don't wet yourself at that prospect.
uh huh
The inevitable result of globalisation, even without massive debt bankruptcy, was a equalisation of living standards across the planet that could be supported by production & profit. 1st world country living standards guaranteed to fall and 3rd world countries slowly rising...until they meet in some euqilibrium.
The employment market is a global one, you are not competing against your neighbour but somebody in suburban China, Thailand, South America....etc.
Americans (and others) are going to have to accept a much lower living standard than their parents, as being the new normal. Was always inevitable
I'm competing against my neighbor.
He's a South of the Border wetback illegal alien.
He lives 5-8 to a house. His real family is home. And home is not the US.
He sends half his money "home" ( minimum US consumption)
He will do my job cheaper, because he doesn't have all my legally mandated expenses. You know, taxes, insurances,licences.
My leaders trip over each other trying to help him, and endear his goodwill, at my expense. I think they want his vote. They could give a flying fuck about mine, I suppose. ( Martin O'Malley, you fucking cunt)
I am an old Native Born U S American construction worker. I love building things, would like to pass on the knowledge, and provide a fair living for me and my wife.
But you fucking fuckers have ruined my livelihood by letting MY country be overrun by illegal third world wetbacks.
Damn you all to hell!
Crash. Sooner the better. I don't want to die, and miss the carnage.
I'm going to suggest some reading: "The World is Flat" Granted it's almost ten years old, it still makes every point very clear about globalization. Yes, you are indeed competing with other nations for your job. I'm sure you've noticed all the chinese people here on H-1B Visas just as much as you have the illegals. The chinese are here for the higher paying tech and business jobs (until the dollar is no longer strong at least) and the illegals are taking all the lowest end jobs (again, until the dollar loses it's grip).
Your frustration is understandable. But it's grossly misplaced.
One of the fundamentals of capitalism is to make the most profit possible, so naturally, any capitalist company will take the employee who is willing to take less pay and can do the same job. If you can't seperate yourself from thier (it is thiers as much as ours now, no matter how much we hate it) job pool without lowering your standard of living then you have no remedy. The world doesn't revolve backwards and just as it has always been: If you can't adapt to change, you die.
One final thing. Believe it or not, illegals actually possess more rights than any American carrying a social security card. Some mid 1800's American history can prove that.
My frustration is misplaced?
Fine.
Just tell me this? Are we a sovereign nation? Do we have borders? If "they" don't have to follow the law ( what a joke), why should I ?
This is not about free trade or protection.
We are a Nation of laws, or not. If not, fine. I can handle myself. Can YOU?
No, this is way more than some old pharts that can't accept change.
I can fix things. I KNOW how things work. And you pantywaist mangina paper pushers talk a good game, until your toilet doesn't flush.
Think about who you degrade by saying illegals do lower end jobs.
No. They fuck up the Paridigm of folks who work with their hands and brains. We non-pussies that make the world go tick- tock.
I have to deal with you useless paper pushers, that think your so superior. That, and these little illegall shits, are the bane of my existance.
As the man intimated, your anger is misplaced. Because of that, you are part of the problem.
If everyone who has a real job went out and killed a fucking bureaucrat and a fucking retarded cunt called a socialist, the problem would be fixed tomorrow .
Well No Debt has a point about the law and illegal aliens. Why should he follow the law? The Republic is dead as a door nail. His solution is build things for rich people and hire the wetbacks for $10 an hour right?
I don't disagree globalization was always inevitable but the flow of trade requires detente so the people have time to adjust. I the idea is a global Republic we are a very long way off from that because a big piece of it is the peoples direct input as well as indirect. Right now it is a global monarchy.
Since someone brought up Pete Peterson I had a direct referral from Jeb Bush to build a debate platform and Peterson's fund would hve been the capital. Not all globalists are closed minded but Peterson said he wouldnt meet me because I was an outsider. Jeb didnt know me to well but at least he realized we need better mechanism for communication and debate between government a citizens to help solve the current disconnect.
We are indeed a sovergn nation. But your SSN voids you of any sovergnty. There's a reason paper pushers (which I'm not, I work in hospitality, serving people like you on a daily basis) have all the power. Because they understand laws, of which there are less than 50 which may come as a surprise for many people. A comment I read on here yesterday that was made out of spite had two very good questions to the person they were responding to. The first question was: Where is the law that says you have to pay taxes? And the second was: Where is the law that says you must have a drivers liscence? (Neither exist) He followed it up with some explitives and other hate speech of which I don't take part because negativity does nothing but breed more negativity and I'm not a fan of being angry. He followed the rudeness with a harsh metaphoric truth: Good luck taking the huge fish hook out of your mouth.
Like I tell everyone who argues about law and constitution with me: Just read the 41st session of congress (1871).
Why is it that we have to follow federal goverment regulations and rules made in Washington DC when it's not a part of the United States?
I don't want anyone to believe me, I want everyone to find out for themselves so we can end this stupid game.
"Americans (and others) are going to have to accept a much lower living standard than their parents, as being the new normal. Was always inevitable"
To quote Abraham Lincoln "Bullshit".
It is only inevitable because the futre of our nation was exported to raise the profit margins of the greedy.
You hit the proverbial nail right on the head, Kina! The problems that our country has, related to the deficiency in full-time gainful employment at wages which rise over time commensurate with increases in productivity, is globalization.
But globalization is a process that was instituted by leaders who did not understand what they were doing. It has proven to be a big mistake for 80% of the populations of this and other once-developed economies. But it is not a law of nature that globalization should be the controlling paradigm. Globalization was created by national governments and so, globalization can be undone by national governments.
The people, who brought us globalization and who profit from it, are telling us -falsely- that it is irreversible; and that we have to live lives within the dictats of the new world order. We should reject them. This country was working very well with laws that encouraged competition within our country and restricted foreign ownership and investment in critical industries.
If we did not have more than a century of economic nationalism, imposed in this country in the 1790s and upheld until the 1950s, our country would have been exploited for its natural resources just as India, Africa, and China were by the likes of the East india Company.
No "economic miracle" in the post world war 2 period would have happened without government policies that nurtured domestic business and promoted domestic labor. Although none of these economic miracles reached peak prosperity in less than a decade, the growth of Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China have been astounding given an extended period of time. And in every case, the growth part of these miracles were provided by the openness of the U.S. economy to accept imports over domestic production. Were our country to return to the economic policdies that prevailed for nearly 150 years, there would be a sustained and tremendous wave of economic growth that would give us a great chance to resurrect the American Dream and to restore a "sound dollar" to the world economy.
except for .gov workers world wide. they have the power of theft backed by murder
No need to jump in with a dumb comment.
It's striking how obvious that inevitability was, yet how not 1 in a 1000 people recognize(d) it.
If the leaders understood it, they are purely evil for not telling the cattle about what awaited them ahead.
Jeezu...everybody knows or should know that MDB is a total sarc poster...sometimes good, sometimes banal.
Keep your panties knot free please.
The snake eating its tail= 'Oroubouros'.
The Phoenix rising from the ashes, new beginnings, alchemy. Been seeing a lot of it lately. Supposed to be auspicious. Opposite of Brandon's post. Doesn't really fit in?
assuming there exists
magnetic symmetry perceptible
here.
.
Rag Doll- Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons
.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJY83Ehuq1Y
.
the fractal sound of it ....
like sovereign money soaring
and singing.
the voice, the simplicity of
instrument stored and transported,
not even a pocket required.
VOICE. WHAT AN INSTRUMENT
I'm so sorry hedgers... I am now a convert...
MDB is the effing funniest mofo on the entire internet... no contest...
kudos MDB... how do you crack yoursef up and keep a steady hand when you shave?... please, oh please be careful with that razor... if we lost you I would cry...
kudos
#youwin
Yeah Tell me somethin I don't know Tyler. I think Tyler finds things to write about in the commentary section half the time anyway damn it!
You cant explain the failure of the system (always coming but not coming) because you're trying to explain the failure in the language of the winners. Therefore, you will always be at their mercy, as the stock market rages or when it doesn't the rich will still be rich. So, in order to explain the inequity of it all, you need a new langauge.
You cant explain the failure of the system (always coming but not coming) because you're trying to explain the failure in the language of the winners. Therefore, you will always be at their mercy, as the stock market rages or when it doesn't the rich will still be rich. So, in order to explain the inequity of it all, you need a new langauge.
Hey Brandon if you're still around could you say what's up with the guy from blog.redefininggod.com He hasn't posted for a couple of weeks or so. Cheers
The disease:
THE PERFECT STORM (see p. 59 onwards)
The economy is a surplus energy equation, not a monetary one, and growth in output (and in the global population) since the Industrial Revolution has resulted from the harnessing of ever-greater quantities of energy. But the critical relationship between energy production and the energy cost of extraction is now deteriorating so rapidly that the economy as we have known it for more than two centuries is beginning to unravel. http://ftalphaville.ft.com/files/2013/01/Perfect-Storm-LR.pdf
We know the world is drowning in debt.
What makes things worse is that the debt sits with those least able to afford it:
a) Those with excess capital invest it and collect interest and rent.
b) Those with insufficient capital borrow money and pay interest and rent.
The source of the trickle up effect and growing inequality.
(The trickledown effect is a fictitious invention of US billionaires looking for lower taxes).
The debt has various different guises loans, mortgages, etc .......
But they are all essentially the same; you are borrowing your own money from the future to spend today.
The loan is issued and spent immediately; the repayments become due in the future.
The future is here ......
a) Those with excess capital invest it and collect interest and rent.
b) Those with insufficient capital borrow money and pay interest and rent.
Hence sub-prime housing and sub-prime auto loans, the rich don't need debt to get what they want.
"Debt, The First Five Thousand Years" by David Graeber shows how ancient societies had debt jubilees.
These were entirely necessary before all the peasants became enslaved to the rich.
In those days you and your family were taken as slaves (debt pawns) when you couldn't pay your debts.
Not that the elite were being altruistic, they needed a free peasantry to form their armies when attacked.
As this is a reoccurring problem in the first 5000 years of debt one wonders where the trickle down effect idea came from.
The first 5000 years of debt always shows the poor becoming enslaved to the rich via debt (the trickle up effect).
"It's interesting, however, that Domestic Net Worth counts 'Debt Capital' as an asset, just as GDP counts debt creation as production. Debt Capital is the “capital” businesses and governments raise by taking out loans. This capital (debt) is then counted as an asset toward Domestic Net Worth."
This is banking accounting, so no surprise that our bank-run government -- in fact, bank run governments worldwide -- have adopted these accounting definitions. I remember 30 years ago when I first learned that a bank's balance sheet is the exact opposite of other companies' balance sheets, because debt to a bank is an income-generating asset. When Americans realize that our government accounts for its money in the exact opposite way that they do, there will be a blinding flash from the collective light bulb going on.
Of course, with government issued debt, understanding who makes money from it explains a lot of things. Such as our global debt-driven, not capital-driven economies, our global unemployment-driven, not employment-driven policies, our global conflict-driven, not resolution-driven, foreign policies, and the like.
Debt as an asset poisons everything.
Debt as an asset is not poisonous. Responsible, normal debt is a very important part of any healthy economy. Without debt, an economy simply will not grow. I think we all should know this.
Now, the type of neoliberal, synthetic, rehypothecated debt the world has been gagged on over the last 40 years is the the antithesis of responsible. The focus on governments (no bullshit about SS and Medicare) in this process shows a complete unawareness of what really is going on, and shows a profound amount of lazy intellectualism. Governments don't run this show. We at ZH should know this.
On the road again
Just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is goin broke with my friends
And I can't wait to learn new ways to spend
On the road again
Knowing I just don’t give a damn
Signed enrollment papers, livin off of Uncle Sam
And I can't wait to ck face book once again
On the road again
Spending money I will never see
On my overpriced worthless college degree
And I can't wait to txt on the road again
On the road again
Takin selfies on my IPad
Livin in the basement with Mom n Dad
And I can't wait to party on the road again
On the road again
Gave my future away to dot gov
Deeper in debt to buy the things I love
And I can't wait to get on the road again
On the road again
Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway
We're the best of friends
Insisting that the world keep paying our way and our way
Thank you Willie, ur the best
We here know the Fed and TPTB get it(unless they are into some better stuff then I did in my younger days)
I suspect since they don't want to be seen as the ones that afflict the truth and consequences onto the sheeple they will continue to: encourage building houses over the sink hole, kicking the can a little further down the road, having a war or 2 once the situation gets tougher.
Then some minor 'good feeling' of stamping back evil, an acknowledgement of how tough the population is to have sacrificed during these 'difficult' times and the promise of better times to come.
And yet the debtor class will grow even larger be it on the handout side or the working 60-80 hrs a week side.
Yes you need to support that defense spending; be it to defeat ISIS or control the slaves.
Looking more like a military coup will be the only answer but don't think there is a good track record on that, DAMN!
Neither do the grocery stores (until they do).
In the old world we have many old money families who look on work as something rather vulgar.
No one in these families has done any of that vulgar work stuff for centuries.
They let their capital work for them and it flows down the centuries.
Today everyone wants to be an investor and let their capital work for them.
How do we persuade anyone to work and produce real things?
The humpty dumpty economy is about to crash.
I read this and a chill went up my back. This is exactly fucking right.
"The shift toward a welfare state is the exact reason why, despite record poverty and a 23 percent true unemployment rate (as discussed here), we do not yet see the kind of soup lines and rampant indigence witnessed during the Great Depression. Today, EBT cards and other welfare programs hide modern soup lines in plain sight. It should be noted that the record 20 percent of U.S. households now on food stamps are still technically contributing to GDP. That’s because government statistics make no distinction between normal grocery consumption and consumption created artificially through debt-generated welfare."
Implode indeed, what strikes me here is the blatant out in the open fraud going on, yet the majority of the monkeys in Amerika can not or do not want to see it?
Sad fact, but even some of the best educated people I run across are as ignorant as a cow, when it comes to the world economy. No worries here right?
One day soon they will be caught up in the biggest CF and will not be prepared for it, and go the way of the dodo bird - extinct! Hell, even those that are truly prepared will most likely perish as well - too many animals out there now.
Economies don't crash, but transition into a new state of chaos.
Each reincarnation worse than the last.
Until nothing works anymore.
People will be people.
Zactly...each "crash" is nothing more than a robbery to keep the wealthy empowered and the the rest debt slaves. Simple, effective, and evil.
What do major yardsticks such as unemployment and GDP, and the rule of law have in common?
They are just made up, modified, and misapplied as we go along.
Placing bets now that we see "One last look at the real economy before it implodes Part" 187...Part 242...part 3..well, you get the point.
It's All Bush's fault... BHO says so, it must be true!
Vaya con Dios amigos...
This article is simply amazing in its clarity and content.
Each sentence is pure gold. It should be studied for hours and committed to memory.
Understand it - and it ain't that hard because every sentence makes sense - and you'll know more thn 99.99% of the population as to where we are headed.
Looking foward to the future installments.
BTW, the area where we could produce the greatest gains would come from improving our collective physical health. Not our health care - our health!
Part of the reason for such low productivity is that our GMO food, reliance on prescriptions, chemicalized water, livestock stuffed with drugs, etc has turned too many people into low energy, brain addled victims.
It will be impossible to solve the fiscal crisis so long as society is becoming a patient rather than a producer.
Yet 30% of today's American teens are on one OR MORE prescription drugs LONG TERM. One third of the adult population is obese!
IOW, we have both a fiscal and a physical crisis. They work hand in hand. The first cannot be repaired so long as the latter is eating away at our sustenance.
http://www.financeandeconomics.org/the-new-order-emerges/ The new order emerges
"debt creation is a negation of true production and historically results in a degradation of the overall economy as well as monetary buying power, rather than progress"
Bankers only have one product, debt.
Releasing the power of finace is releasing the power of debt.
The debt has various different guises loans, mortgages, etc .......
But they are all essentially the same; you are borrowing your own money from the future to spend today.
The loan is issued and spent immediately; the repayments become due in the future.
Unleashing the power of finance/debt obviously looks good when all the loans are being spent.
Eventually everyone is up to their eyeballs in debt and the issuing of new loans slows down to a trickle.
After the loan phase you get the much longer repayment phase when all that money borrowed from the future is paid back.
The power of finance/debt is just shifting money in time from the future to the present.
But sooner or later the future arrives, the repayments overwhelm the economy and the inevitable crash follows the boom.
What makes things worse is that the debt sits with those least able to afford it:
a) Those with excess capital invest it and collect interest and rent.
b) Those with insufficient capital borrow money and pay interest and rent.
The source of the trickle up effect and growing inequality.
(The trickledown effect is a fictitious invention of US billionaires looking for lower taxes).
"Debt, The First Five Thousand Years" by David Graeber shows how ancient societies had debt jubilees.
These were entirely necessary before all the peasants became enslaved to the rich.
In those days you and your family were taken as slaves (debt pawns) when you couldn't pay your debts.
Not that the elite were being altruistic, they needed a free peasantry to form their armies when attacked.
Today international finance can make debt slaves of nations and continents by lending directly to the leaders of nations.
They have their enforcer heavies, the IMF and World Bank, to ensure these debts get paid back.
The South American and African continents were turned into slaves of international finance decades ago.
Now, it’s Greece’s turn to experience debt slavery by compound interest.
The bankers had their debt jubilee in 2008.
When is it our turn?
So if there is no "trickledown" effect, then do you believe that the government spends and invests capital more efficiently than does the private market?
James Rickards in Currency Wars gives some figures for 2008.
Losses from sub-prime - less than $300 billion
With derivative amplification - over $6 trillion
The private sector is not always that successful with its "investments".
Governments do tend to be inefficient; to screw things up totally takes the private sector.
The divide between the haves and have-nots is vast and it certainly will not be the haves that provide the solution; I was at the 1984 Republican National Convention [Dallas, Tx] working as a contractor - outside the masses were sweltering in 105 degrees heat while inside the convention center, it was so cold that the women were wearing FUR coats - and you think the haves care?....
Debt spending, especially for the purpose of current consumption, is nothing more than taxation without representation, as those who will be require to repay the debt have yet to be born.
I give the Federal Reserve credit for keeping the music playing, but at some point, it has to stop; and there are a lot more people than there are chairs.
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Add in the declining employment starting in no more than 5 years—Yeah… I'm being that ol' optimist everyone knows me to be!—due to:
Automation
Arificial Intelligence
Drones
Autonomous Vehicles
3D Manufacturing
We are… Um-mm…
Screwed.
•?•
V-V
murricans boil their hand sanitizer.
They are weened on fear.
Drinking alcohol and watching sports is their coping mechanism.
They flock to see psycopathic hollywood bilge, whether it be Freddie or Silence of the lambs or Sniper.
Murricans are voyeuristic killers and WILL PAY ANTHING [Tribute] to the pirates in the military industrial congressional complex.
Isnt it time for you to have a single malt scotch/watch march madness -Mr.feeble Murrican?