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America's Looming "Great Surprise"

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by Jame H Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

The unfortunate consequence of not allowing the process of “creative destruction” to occur in banking and Big Business is that the historic forces behind it will seek expression elsewhere in the realm of politics and governance. The desperate antics of central banks to cover up financial failure can’t help but provoke political upheaval, including war.

It’s a worldwide phenomenon and one result will be the crackup of economic relations — thought by many to be permanent — that we call “globalism.” The USA has suffered mightily from globalism, by which a bonanza of cheap “consumer” products made by Asian factory slaves has masked the degeneration of local economic vitality, family life, behavioral norms, and social cohesion. That crackup is already underway in the currency wars aptly named by Jim Rickards, and you can bet that soon enough it will lead to the death of the 12,000-mile supply lines from China to WalMart — eventually to the death of WalMart itself (and everything like it). Another result will be the interruption of oil export supply lines.

The USA as currently engineered (no local economies, universal suburban sprawl, big box commerce, despotic agribiz) won’t survive these disruptions and one might also wonder whether our political institutions will survive. The crop of 2016 White House aspirants shows no comprehension for the play of these forces and the field is ripe for epic disruption. The prospect of another Clinton – Bush election contest is a perfect setup for the collapse of the two parties sponsoring them, ushering in a period of wild political turmoil. Just because you don’t see it this very moment, doesn’t mean it isn’t lurking on the margins.

This same moment (in history) the American thinking classes are lost in raptures of techno-wishfulness. They can imagine the glory of watching Fast and Furious 7 on a phone in a self-driving electric car, but they can’t imagine rebuilt local economies where citizens get to play both an economic and social role in their communities. They can trumpet the bionic engineering of artificial hamburger meat, but not careful, small-scale farming in which many hands can find work and meaning.

The true genius of Hillary is that she manages to epitomize every failure of our current political life: the obsessive micro-manipulation of image, the obscene moneygrubbing, the tired cronyism, the entitlement masquerading as sexual equality. Mostly, though, she has no idea where history is taking us, in case you’re wondering at the stupefying platitudes offered up as representative of her thinking. I’m not advocating for this gentleman, but it will at least be interesting to see Martin O’Malley jump into the race and call bullshit on her, which he will do, literally, because he has nothing to lose by doing it. The eunuchs on The New York Times Op Ed page certainly won’t do it.

What happens on the world financial scene will determine the flow of events up into the 2016 election. The built-up tensions and fragilities are begging for release. The defining instant might be Greece’s unwillingness to fork over another debt payment, or the death of the shale oil “miracle,” or some act by Saudi Arabia’s enemies, or some chain of exploding booby-traps in the shadow banking netherworld. The great surprise for America especially will be the recognition that our current living arrangements have no future. That’s the only thing that will prompt a new consensus to form around some alternate, more plausible future, and the emergence of a generation willing to fight for it, even if it requires some real creative destruction of the things that are killing us anyway.

 

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Mon, 04/20/2015 - 12:47 | 6011148 pods
pods's picture

We will always have these same problems (of more everything) if we have an exponential currency model.

Pointless to speak about changing anything while our money system mandates exponential expansion.

pods

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 12:56 | 6011173 NotApplicable
NotApplicable's picture

Wow, just when I think Kunstler couldn't possibly be any stupider, he comes out with this idiocy.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 13:00 | 6011182 Not_FieldingMellish
Not_FieldingMellish's picture

He provides confirmation bias and a soothing balm for the cognitive dissonance.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 13:01 | 6011184 SickDollar
SickDollar's picture

JPM is buying Silver like crazy folks: SOMETHING IS UP BIG TIME

Here’s a breakdown of the Comex’s most recent silver deliveries to JP Morgan:

 

April 7th: 1,110,000 ounces

April 8th: 1,280,000 ounces

April 9th:  893,037 ounces

April 10th: 1,200,224 ounces

April 14th: 1,073,000 ounces

April 15th: 1,191,275 ounces

April 16th: 1,183,777.295 ounces

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 13:03 | 6011193 SickDollar
SickDollar's picture

All in all, JP Morgan has added over 8.3 million ounces of additional silver in just the past 2 weeks alone.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 13:07 | 6011203 TeamDepends
TeamDepends's picture

Dollar/stock market crash right around the corner or what is Jade Helm for?

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 13:31 | 6011266 RiderOnTheStorm
RiderOnTheStorm's picture

No worry . . .  they are just making silver cufflinks with matching bolo ties as Christmas gifts for all their bankster employees

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 13:37 | 6011290 Not_FieldingMellish
Not_FieldingMellish's picture

Don't forget the timely limits that the Comex brought in on gold and silver in December. Gold will be limited to $400 per day moves and silver $12 as paper tries to control metal. Note that limit is not in effect after First Notice Day.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 15:02 | 6011614 Osmium
Osmium's picture

I'd be fine with $12 per day move in silver as long as it was a move up.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 15:09 | 6011644 nuubee
nuubee's picture

If it ever moves down $12 in one day when valued at $15, it'll likely be at $5000 the next day/week. 

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 16:11 | 6011980 fastrakn1
fastrakn1's picture

Would love to see Walmart go out of business. I would rather pay a few dollars more to fill my cart and see employees of a company get paid better.

No one 'saves money' at Walmart, they don't put the money in the bank, they just spend it on something else....

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 13:08 | 6011206 Bastiat
Bastiat's picture

Very interesting.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 16:09 | 6011969 fauxhammer
fauxhammer's picture

 "The built-up tensions and fragilities are begging for release."

 

A condition which often culminates in a "war-gasm".  Don't get any on ya

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 13:39 | 6011295 Consuelo
Consuelo's picture

Does JPM sell to/feed the SGE...?  

 

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 13:09 | 6011210 taketheredpill
taketheredpill's picture

True dat.  Everything is Awesome.

 

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 13:16 | 6011234 booboo
booboo's picture

Let me give that Knustlertalk a try:

and then there is Michelle Obama, a hulking frame right out of  Encino Woman casting that supports a gapping maw, tossing down whole lobsters as if it were a log in a wood chipper on multi million dollar tropical vacations while her minions determine the exact amount of insect infested rice and canned butter beans your child deserves.....

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 14:01 | 6011362 cossack55
cossack55's picture

Not bad. You only forgot to slam Walmart. Other than that, I encourage you to start your own blog.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 15:14 | 6011668 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

What' is Michelle Obama?

Nothing without the guns of governmnet asserting that she is something.

Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 14:18 | 6011421 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

Not "our" money system, but their ponzi system.

The banksters need to repay us.

 

In the coming Revolution, their ponzi system shall be the first target. No need for bombs or bullets, just Stop paying. Stop paying, as they need us, our backs, to support their plunder and tyranny, and we certainly don't need them.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 23:42 | 6013485 golden torch
golden torch's picture

I'm making over $7k a month working part time. I kept hearing other people tell me how much money they can make online so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true and has totally changed my life. This is what I do... www.globe-report.com

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 12:50 | 6011155 Lady Jessica
Lady Jessica's picture

 

our current living arrangements have no future

Worse than that, the arrangement of things is such that they seem to have future........right up until the sudden chaotic realisation of their failure.

Some have the privilege of seeing beyond this seeming.  Most do not.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 13:22 | 6011246 RiderOnTheStorm
RiderOnTheStorm's picture

Well stated Lady Jessica . . .

 

We are all slaves, to some degree, to our own Normalcy Bias.  After all, the Sun will be coming up tomorrow, why not everything else as well?  With approximately 70% of the population in this country living paycheck-to-paycheck, we are all doomed anyway, whether or not we saw it coming.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 13:44 | 6011309 El Vaquero
El Vaquero's picture

Rare events can be a bitch like that.  Nobody expects them to happen so nobody prepares for them.  Few today expect a once in a 1,000 year shattering economic/geopolitical event to happen, yet they do happen. 

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 14:01 | 6011365 Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill's picture

Bit like 100 year storms.Having been thru' three in 18 months, another misnomer.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 14:27 | 6011443 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

"We are all slaves, to some degree, to our own Normalcy Bias."

Yes, but one of the problems is what we demand, or don't, that becomes normal.

If you go to a restaurant and are treated rudely and the staff is dirty, you would probably leave. That is because you demand to be treated well, and eat in a comfortable and clean environment.

If you demand Liberty and they provide ponzi and tyranny, then you may expect a change.

We don't have to except their ponzi and tyranny.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 15:12 | 6011659 Chupacabra-322
Chupacabra-322's picture

We do not have to:

CONSENT.

It's that simple.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 12:53 | 6011161 Not_FieldingMellish
Not_FieldingMellish's picture

The end is always nigh.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 13:33 | 6011274 RiderOnTheStorm
RiderOnTheStorm's picture

And nigh is always near it's end.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 15:57 | 6011898 dark_matter
dark_matter's picture

The end is nigh impossible to predict

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 18:18 | 6012531 RiderOnTheStorm
RiderOnTheStorm's picture

Except we do know for sure that the end of nigh is sooner than later

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 12:56 | 6011168 basho
basho's picture

nothing is going to change except in the sense of collapsing.

nothing  good will come out of this for generations. generations.

demographics, geography the country is in death spasms.

you've got to hit bottom and unfortunately the ussa has not yet hit bottom.

and as the article states, there is no savior in the wings. no one. zero, zip, nada.

you're on your own and most of you can't even feed yourselves.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 15:10 | 6011651 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

With respect, but that is a lousy attitude.

Your, like all American's, attitude should be of anger and demand. We should each be our own "saviors," demanding relief from the tyranny that has descended upon us. Certainly none of us need another hero full of lies, graft, and treason.

We only need ourselves, and to follow the guide that has already been provided us. The guide of Liberty and human dignity that our humanity and souls demand. The guide of the Constitution and Bill of Rights for a non-criminal governmnet providing justice to the people who ordained it.

But then we have little choice because Liberty carries with it not just a "right," but also a "duty," to resist tyranny, and "to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for your future security."

You may choose to do nothing, but I take up my "duty," and demand that my Liberty, human dignity, and the Constitution be honored.

Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 12:56 | 6011171 Professorlocknload
Professorlocknload's picture

'Bout the last question to be asked is, what knuckleheads vote these cockroaches into power?

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 13:00 | 6011183 KnuckleDragger-X
KnuckleDragger-X's picture

The free shit army.....

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 12:56 | 6011175 williambanzai7
williambanzai7's picture

The USA as currently engineered (no local economies, universal suburban sprawl, big box commerce, despotic agribiz)...

The amazing revelation of how all those shitty pieces fit together as we watch them spin apart like a broken Bernankecopter.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 12:58 | 6011179 KnuckleDragger-X
KnuckleDragger-X's picture

Degeneration in the making and it's all a matter of time. Civilization can only exist when everyone uses the same rule book, but we've created entire classes of people, from top to bottom, that is predicated on the single rule of "I want my free shit NOW and fuck what you want". The entire complex system has become very delicate and fragile, yet we have people pushing on it while thinking they are immune. Wealth and power mean nothing when the barbarians are beating down the gate on their "Rape, pillage and burn" world tour.....

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 12:59 | 6011180 ZeroPoint
ZeroPoint's picture

Hopefully the century of artificiality will come to an end. The world is drowning in everything fake. Fake money, fake food, fake relationships, fake wealth, fake profits, fake news, fake heroes, fake politicians. We need collapse, and we need people with the seed of decency to survive it.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 13:42 | 6011301 Consuelo
Consuelo's picture

Fake tits too, but let's keep those, Ok...?   Thanks -

 

 

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 17:45 | 6012429 Parrotile
Parrotile's picture

Just like these - courtesy of Dow Corning ?? :-D

http://www.pacificradiology.com.au/assets/Uploads/625x200xPIPbreastBanner.jpg.pagespeed.ic.1OBJwvAGBD.jpg

("A different view of the expected" perhaps??)

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 18:44 | 6012612 Rat Race Winner
Rat Race Winner's picture

Should we be fearful of what crawls out from the ashes?

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 13:05 | 6011196 ebworthen
ebworthen's picture

Thanks Mr. Kunstler, that was a fiber filled diatribe against the current insanity.

"The USA as currently engineered (no local economies, universal suburban sprawl, big box commerce, despotic agribiz) won’t survive these disruptions and one might also wonder whether our political institutions will survive."

Let us hope that none of them survive because the current system is unsustainable and tastes of evil.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 13:09 | 6011209 WillyGroper
WillyGroper's picture

Hitlery knows exactly what she's doing. Note: Server...

Member CFR.

I found it interesting that VT after vilifying AJ came out with a retraction today RE: JH. It's scary and as I hear & watch ear bleeding mil jets fly overhead in BFE.

Something wicked this way comes.

Gold & guns won't stop it.

You'll be lucky to have grub & water.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 13:20 | 6011241 Glass Seagull
Glass Seagull's picture

 

 

Another mea culpa from one that refuses to BTFD, and now seethes because of it (and writes verbose, darkly-philosophical mashups attacking someone other than themselves).

 

Where are your charts?

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 13:32 | 6011271 Fun Facts
Fun Facts's picture

The USA politico puppets have a course plotted by their ZWO gangbangkster masters to use the USA until it's used up.

Mission nearly complete.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 13:34 | 6011278 Salzburg1756
Salzburg1756's picture

Today is Hitler's birthday.

Take a break from your tribe-enjoined slavery and sing along with me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ8zUcg_Lks

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 13:37 | 6011289 Lady Jessica
Lady Jessica's picture

To spare me having to click on the link, can you just confirm if this is "Tomorrow belongs to me"?

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 13:48 | 6011324 Not_FieldingMellish
Not_FieldingMellish's picture

D. uber alles.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 14:04 | 6011375 Lady Jessica
Lady Jessica's picture

I prefer "Auferstanden aus Ruinen".

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 13:46 | 6011319 Consuelo
Consuelo's picture

'Is it safe'...?

 

 

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 14:15 | 6011410 DutchR
DutchR's picture

Clove oil is

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 13:52 | 6011338 Jack Burton
Jack Burton's picture

The USA as currently engineered (no local economies, universal suburban sprawl, big box commerce, despotic agribiz) won’t survive these disruptions

I like to keep an eye out for these local economies at home and when I travel. Jim is very much right. In large sections of America there are no local economies. If you factor out the local schools, clinics/hospitals and local government , most towns have no economy at all. No local food production, no local energy production, no local manufacturing, no local clothes/shoe manufacturing, no heavy industry. In short, many places I visit and my own home county, are totally dependent on globalization. America gave up making things decades ago.

As Jim points out, any disruption in corporate globalized trade, via war, fiscal crisis or economic crisis, and America would simply collapse.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 14:18 | 6011419 DutchR
DutchR's picture

As Jim points out, any disruption in corporate globalized trade, via war, fiscal crisis or economic crisis, and America would simply collapse.

 

Or find it's way back, if they have to people can be pretty amazing, if they have to

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 14:43 | 6011518 Creepy Lurker
Creepy Lurker's picture

You are both implying that a die-off at some percentage is a bad thing. The gene pool hasn't had a good cleaning in a long time.

I just realized how utterly callous that sounds. LOL. Sorry.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 15:04 | 6011602 DutchR
DutchR's picture

Lead the way....

/s 

 

edit, we are guests, not hosts, on this planet.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 15:08 | 6011637 Niall Of The Ni...
Niall Of The Nine Hostages's picture

That would have been a very good idea. Unfortunately our masters aren't interested in eugenics. On the contrary.

Our masters' first priority is removing from the gene pool those breeds of humanity whose intelligence, creativity and initiative would and should have allowed them to conquer the planet by now, and as it is pose the greatest threat to their masters' rule. That would be European Christians and their progeny, along with the Jews of Israel and the diaspora.

In the near term, sandniggers and common or garden niggers have the least to fear. They will still be valued a while longer as beasts of burden too stupid to successfully revolt.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 15:53 | 6011880 HopefulCynical
HopefulCynical's picture

Our masters' first priority is removing from the gene pool those breeds of humanity whose intelligence, creativity and initiative would and should have allowed them to conquer the planet by now, and as it is pose the greatest threat to their masters' rule.

Bears repeating with emphasis. Straight up FACT.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 14:02 | 6011352 Jack Burton
Jack Burton's picture

"The prospect of another Clinton – Bush election contest is a perfect setup for the collapse of the two parties sponsoring them"

I pray Jim is right, but I think he is wrong. Americans have almost zero self awareness. They really do rely on corporate media to set the tone for how they view America and the world. If major corporate media is blasting out that Clinton vs Bush is an epic election which will determine two very different paths for America. If after the election the media touts Bush or Clinton as a new vital force for American progress, then teh American people will accept it.

Look at congress. Something like 12% approval rate, but a high 90% re-election rate. This means no matter how much Americans hate congress, a smart media campaign can get anyone of these ass clowns re-elected just by marketing the candidate to the viewers of corporate media.

People who read ZH are not the people who watch CNN, MSNBC or FOX. That vast majority of Americans is waiting for this media outlets to tell them what they should think. Period!

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 18:01 | 6012476 Parrotile
Parrotile's picture

To see the outcome of the next "Election", simply re-wind to the outcome of the last one. Quite the media frenzy over Dear Leader's election, along with his Nobel "Peace" prize for nothing.

The MSM know full-well which side of "their" bread is buttered, and they have their own agenda (which is the agenda of those persons / Institutions who really control things).

I still suspect Hitlery will have an unopposed election, simply 'cause she'd be the frst "woman" President, and that idea alone has a lot of traction within the "Twittering Set", as you must surely know.

 

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 14:28 | 6011446 El Gringo
El Gringo's picture

Well then, let's just get this war started.  I'm jonesin' to kill some fucking liberal fucktards.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 14:55 | 6011579 Niall Of The Ni...
Niall Of The Nine Hostages's picture

Look. The only "creative destruction" our masters are interested in is new ways to cull proles who have outlived their usefulness on an industrial scale, and replace us with machines that will play the role of the New Socialist Man far better than humans ever did.

The game is to go on until robots are developed that can do anything a human prole can do and do it better, leaving our masters free to put us down like horses past their prime as beasts of burden (while they upload themselves to computers, that they might live forever), and leave it to our replacements to conquer the galaxy, they being more suited to the punishing environments of the galaxy beyond earth than we ever could be.

And that's the best case scenario. If we try to resist being flung on evolution's compost heap, our masters have seen to it that if they go down, we will die with them, those not vaporized by nuclear fire quickly dying of hunger, plague or radiation poisoning.

Either way, our fate is sealed.

There is hope. Just not for us.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 18:05 | 6012487 Parrotile
Parrotile's picture

Although very short-termist, it does seem that way.

Of course, developments in Ukraine may suggest that "option 2" may be the favoured one just now (except that "they" have no intention of joining "us" in the planned events . . .)

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 15:05 | 6011629 Goldbugger
Goldbugger's picture

 

The Making of the Nazi (1943)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l14WDZCnz-w

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 15:35 | 6011793 Creepy Lurker
Creepy Lurker's picture

"but it will at least be interesting to see Martin O’Malley jump into the race and call bullshit on her, which he will do, literally, because he has nothing to lose by doing it."

Except that if he starts to get any real traction, he may suddenly die in an 'accident.' But I don't think we need to worry for O'Malley. I note how he hasn't been in the news for some time, and suspect he has already been told to shut up and go home.

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 18:36 | 6012597 Parrotile
Parrotile's picture

Needn't be an "accident" - there are plenty of "sudden onset" illnesses that would allow temporary removal from active campaigning (and so threat elimination). I'm sure Mr O'Malley has been made very aware of what "could" happen if the official agenda is not followed.

 

Mon, 04/20/2015 - 18:13 | 6012513 Youri Carma
Youri Carma's picture

Time for an other Mad Max episode I quess, Mad Max IV Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWNWi-ZWL3c

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!