This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.

Preparing For A Potential Economic Collapse In October

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by Jeff Thomas via InternationalMan.com,

There’s no question that the world economy has been shaky at best since the crash of 2008.

Yet, politicians, central banks, et al., have, since then, regularly announced that “things are picking up.” One year, we hear an announcement of “green shoots.” The next year, we hear an announcement of “shovel-ready jobs.”

And yet, year after year, we witness the continued economic slump. Few dare call it a depression, but, if a depression can be defined as “a period of time in which most people’s standard of living drops significantly,” a depression it is.

Many people are surprised that no amount of stimulus and low interest rates have resulted in creating more jobs or more productivity. Were they a bit more cognizant of the simple, understandable principles of classical economics (as opposed to the complex theoretical principles of Keynesian invention), they’d recognise that, when debt reaches the level that it cannot be repaid, a major re-set of some sort must take place.

The major economies of the world have reached and exceeded that point and the debt problem is no mere anomaly that can be papered over. It is, instead, systemic. There must be a major forgiveness of debt, a default, or an economic collapse, or some combination of the three.

And so, those who recognise the inevitability of such an event have been storing their nuts away in preparation for an economic winter.

Those of us who warned of the 2008 crash in advance had been regarded as economic “Chicken Littles.” After the crash, we were largely resented as having made a “lucky guess.” Following that time, a moderate amount of credence has been allowed us, as we’ve recommended investments in real estate and precious metals (outside of those jurisdictions that are most at risk). However, since the Great Gold Correction (2011-2015), that begrudging credence has worn away and been replaced with renewed contempt.

To the naysayers, the 2001-2011 gold boom has been relegated to the investment dustbin and, to most punters, gold is clearly “over.”

Just as importantly, the most significant events of the “Greater Depression” that we had been predicting have clearly not yet come to pass. They’re still ahead of us. And, in this, we must confess that those of us who made this prediction did unquestionably believe that it would have taken place by now. We were wrong.

Or at least we were wrong on the timing, but most of us still believe, more than ever, in the inevitability of a collapse (again, this is true because the problem is systemic, not symptomatic).

All of the above is a preface of the coming of October, a month which, historically, has seen more than its fair share of negative economic events.

This time around, there are warning signs aplenty that, sometime around October of this year, we shall see a number of black swans on the wing, headed our way.

The greatest of these is that, once every five years, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) renews its membership structure (SDR quota, governors, and voting power.) This is significantly in question this year, as China vies for a larger chair at the table.

Although China surpassed the US in 2014 as the world’s largest manufacturing economy, it still has less than one-quarter of the voting power of the US and even has less than France or Germany. To say the IMF has been dragging its feet on a rebalancing of IMF member voting would be an understatement.

In fairness, China should expect to be allotted significantly greater voting power in October. But we are discussing the IMF, which has never been known for fairness. It has, indeed, been infamous for its duplicity and self-serving inclinations (having been created at Bretton Woods in 1944 to allow the US hegemony over the world economy, its primary purpose is to assure US dominance).

Still, it would be difficult to imagine how the IMF could avoid a shift in its voting (diminishing the US and increasing China). Anything the IMF did at this point to derail the re-balance would be highly suspect.

And yet, that’s exactly what the IMF has done. It has publicly questioned whether 2015 is the right year for the review. However, even it is worried enough about its presumptuousness that, rather than announce a delay, it has announced the consideration of a delay. It has run the possible delay up the flagpole to see whether it will fly or be torn down.

Clearly the IMF feels it’s on shaky ground with its proposal. And it should be. In recent years, it has arrogantly pushed China away from the IMF table time after time, so the Chinese have taken matters into their own hands. They’ve created their own international development bank, their own worldwide cable communication system, and even their own SWIFT system.

Very soon, they’ll have the ability to run their own worldwide economic system, independent of the US/EU/IMF system. Early on, many of the world’s governments recognised the future opportunities that this would bring to the world. First, Russia and the countries of Southeast Asia signed on, then South America, Africa, and, finally, some EU countries reached agreements with China.

The IMF is in a jam, no member country more so than the US. If, in October, it allows China greater voting power, it will cast in stone China’s increased economic influence over the world. However, if the IMF chooses to put off China another year, China may move ahead with its own economic system.

Buying Time

There can be no doubt that the IMF is hoping to buy time. The question is whether it merely wishes to buy time to delay the inevitable, or whether it feels it has a card up its sleeve that it might be able to play, should it gain another year.

If the US is arrogant (as it generally is), it’ll employ its customary bravado and, in so doing, may well cause the Chinese to play hardball and dump some of their US Treasuries and/or dollars.

In considering the above, the US/IMF may feel that China is in the throes of a major correction at present and cannot retaliate without feeling the pain itself. They’d be correct. And so, the Chinese, known for being patient and choosing their moment carefully, may choose to swallow the IMF delay quietly, then, when they’ve dumped some of their baggage and possibly rebounded in 2016, make an even firmer stand than they could now make. For that reason, US arrogance now would create a very short-lived gain, and a very foolish one.

So, what does this mean to the investor? It suggests that, once again in history, October promises to be a month when great economic change may well take place. When dramatic change looms, it’s best to keep your powder dry, whilst keeping an eye open for opportunities as soon as events reveal the future. Until then, nut–gathering serves to provide an insurance policy against unpleasant economic surprises.

 

- advertisements -

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Mon, 08/31/2015 - 18:32 | 6492364 gdiamond22
gdiamond22's picture

Damn it, don't jinx it!!

I'll feel better if Gartman comes out and goes all in on stocks tomorrow.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 19:00 | 6492466 Hippocratic Oaf
Hippocratic Oaf's picture

If the price cannot be contained, make the package smaller-FAIL
My return on purchases has escaped me. We are in and never left a sliding recession into depression.
What has your dollar done for you today?

Tue, 09/01/2015 - 00:36 | 6493847 Laowei Gweilo
Laowei Gweilo's picture

if I had a nickle for every time an article or graph on this website predicated a crash, then well I'd be Kyle Bass

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 19:00 | 6492467 Muddy1
Muddy1's picture

Meanwhile I'll keep my nuts safe and sound as I've been doing for nearly 60 years.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 22:38 | 6493436 Pickleton
Pickleton's picture

"For that reason, US arrogance now would create a very short-lived gain, and a very foolish one."

 

Given that we have an incredibly arrogant, outright fucking imbecile as President, this is guaranteed to happen.

Tue, 09/01/2015 - 01:40 | 6494007 markpower49
markpower49's picture

Civil war, please oh please. So many leftists need to go.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 18:35 | 6492375 dimwitted economist
dimwitted economist's picture

Depending on WHERE you Live it's ALREADY Begun.. Michigan's Economy is in the Toilet..

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 18:59 | 6492464 Faeriedust
Faeriedust's picture

Michigan's economy has been in the toilet since 1984.  I took a personal tour of Flint and Detroit -- I lived six blocks from the Renaissance Center -- that winter.  The UAW factories closed down, jobs were shipped to Mexico and Alabama, the Japanese automakers moved into South Carolina and Georgia, and workers who actually expected to be paid decently for hard work had nothing.  It was the first major blast of the campaign to reduce American workers to serfdom.  The unions fought and lost.  The individuals chose their coping strategies.  But the cities and services built on high wages for the majority of working people, DIED.  Nobody could afford to pay for them any more.  A lesson for the rest of the country for the future.  We stopped standing united in the 70's.  And Divided We Fall.  Detroit just got there first.

 

 

 

 

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 19:45 | 6492647 Arnold
Arnold's picture

nice.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 20:45 | 6492888 Doña K
Doña K's picture

Michigan was deceived by the unions in a big way. 

Which city will be next?

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 22:04 | 6493258 Government need...
Government needs you to pay taxes's picture

The unions chose to make the battle about being paid a premium wage for work that could be done better AND less expensively in another geography (the whole tax-free OUS concept was a secondary consideration at that time).  This is a battle the unions deserved to lose.  They should have demanded more training to put together more differentiated, more valuable cars.  Try to grow the pie, rather than focus on taking someone else's slice.

Tue, 09/01/2015 - 11:55 | 6495403 Debeachesand Je...
Debeachesand Jerseyshores's picture

Chicago is next up on the shit parade,followed by the whole state of Illinois ....

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 20:31 | 6492828 DirkDiggler11
DirkDiggler11's picture

Wow, to think the great Union shops in Detroit that were pumping out those fantastic quality automobiles of the 80's would wind up in trouble, who would have thunk it ???

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 22:25 | 6493365 PhoQ
PhoQ's picture

I seriously doubt the workers made the economic decison to turn out shit cars in Detroit or anywhere else.

Don't dump that particular steamy load on the unions. They deserve a load of crap, but making shitty cars is strictly within the purview of the owners.

Tue, 09/01/2015 - 01:37 | 6493997 l8apex
l8apex's picture

Yeah, it's the owners that didn't bolt the rear axle on straight and it's the owners that decided to save time by only using 1/2 the expected fasteners when the interior panels were being installed.  Those damn owners.  They really fucked up my '86 S-10 Blazer.  

Tue, 09/01/2015 - 02:51 | 6494071 SilverFish
SilverFish's picture

It was the owners who ultimately weren't paying attention to what these stupid monkeys were doing on the floor of their factories, so yeah, it is the owners fault. Instead of snorting coke off the asses of hookers on the 7th hole down at the country club while door panels were falling off, they probably should have been on the job, firing and rehiring new managers, from top to bottom if need be. You can blame the unions protectionism of shitty workers for some of it, but ultimately it comes down to the big-whigs calling them out on their bullshit and saying "Fine, if we can't fire incompetent workers, we'll just close up shop and move to Mexico." Sure, they ultimately did that, but not until it was far too late to turn things around........hmmm, pretty much a summary of what's going on in this country as a whole right now, actually.

 

 

Yeah, I blame the owners, for their lack of oversight and any semblance of having a fucking spine.

Tue, 09/01/2015 - 07:51 | 6494412 Bendromeda Strain
Bendromeda Strain's picture

Exactly - now think of public unions like teachers, and guess who as owners needs their asses kicked for the very same neglect? EVERYONE.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 21:17 | 6493022 A Nanny Moose
A Nanny Moose's picture

"And Divided We Fall"

 

I love the stench of collectivism in the morning. Smells like....collectivism.

Unions were granted too much power, which resulted in wage imbalances and priced their memebers out of jobs, creating shitty products. They had to be granted such power to counteract the power granted to corporations.

Tue, 09/01/2015 - 01:41 | 6494009 markpower49
markpower49's picture

Michiganders are in general leftist union scum. I hope they all starve in the cold winter.

Tue, 09/01/2015 - 07:44 | 6494391 Bendromeda Strain
Bendromeda Strain's picture

The unions fought and lost.

Revisionist history. The folks rioted and lost. The unions made their beds and had to lay in them.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 18:35 | 6492376 jomama
jomama's picture

If we make it through Shemitah in September.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 19:58 | 6492704 MSimon
MSimon's picture

Any old shmata  will do.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 22:53 | 6493504 Livingstrong
Livingstrong's picture

No we won´t.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 18:35 | 6492377 q99x2
q99x2's picture

The best way to prepare is to triple short the market and pull your profits as soon as markets re-open after the circuit breakers kick in. Leave the profits on the table and do it again. Then take half those profits and do it again. Probably a good idea to be sitting in New Zealand or South America somewhere while doing the trades in case you can't get out of the country once the markets are shut down for good and the borders closed.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 18:43 | 6492406 Arnold
Arnold's picture

Wow, how the Mets gonna do in Post season?

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 22:46 | 6493475 Pickleton
Pickleton's picture

I fail to understand how you expect to get money out of a market that's collapsed that bad.  You can short all day long but value and monetary withdrawal seem to be two completely different things.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 18:36 | 6492381 Salah
Salah's picture

No, they're using the old Mexican model the PRI did so many times I've lost count.  Happened every 6 years like clockwork inasmuch as the PRI el Presidente could only serve one 6-year term, and between his election & the newbie's inauguration things went South.

The sheeple always bickered over who was to blame...and thus---nobody lost their heads.

Sound familiar?

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 18:40 | 6492393 alexcojones
alexcojones's picture

Why Rocktober?

Why not sooner, in the month of Dismember? 

 

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 18:47 | 6492422 Implied Violins
Implied Violins's picture

First they Dismember, then they Rocktober, then comes Novaember, followed by Deceasember...and that's it. THE END

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 18:40 | 6492394 Arnold
Mon, 08/31/2015 - 18:42 | 6492404 TSA Thug
TSA Thug's picture

IDGAS about your employment issues you hippy faggots. I got a government job and I'm set for life.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 18:53 | 6492437 general ambivalent
general ambivalent's picture

Dear Abby,

Ever since our last vacation my girlfriend insists that I dress up for her as a TSA agent. We have not discussed politics yet, and now I'm afraid to do so given the possible implications. And besides, I'm really frisky and I don't get a lot of chances. Is it possible that there is no connection between her roleplay desires and her politics? Or must I live in fear that she was fucked and chucked by the TSA like I was?

Please help, Abby.

Frisked and Friskier.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 19:29 | 6492589 TSA Thug
TSA Thug's picture

Dear G.A.
I'm going to give you a Y and add it to your jacket at Homeland.
Come on over to the Atlanta airport and I'll kick your fucking teeth while I'm petting your daughters beaver!

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 19:52 | 6492681 Arnold
Arnold's picture

Dear Frisky:

Let your self go from this,  murderous relationship.

Life will be much better in FEMA Camp # 117.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 18:42 | 6492405 Make_Mine_A_Double
Make_Mine_A_Double's picture

Dammit I thought September was suppsed to the collaspe? That's what Synder said - it was on his "Lists of Lists' and I planned my vacation around it.

Now I have to rebook everything - all my hotels and flights for October?

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 18:45 | 6492416 Arnold
Arnold's picture

Speling korrectly is an a set.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 18:45 | 6492414 B2u
B2u's picture

When is Dancing With the Stars on?

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 18:45 | 6492415 Temporalist
Temporalist's picture

Paul Krugman said it's a ditch diggers paradise.  Also, glaziers are going to be zillionaires.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 19:17 | 6492534 Vlad the Inhaler
Vlad the Inhaler's picture

The real money is in filling the ditches back in.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 22:27 | 6493373 PhoQ
PhoQ's picture

Yeah, with a few embarassing corpses mixed in with the fill dirt.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 20:02 | 6492728 Stuck on Zero
Stuck on Zero's picture

Do not knock ditch digging as a career choice. It's the only profession where you start at the top.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 18:55 | 6492441 honestann
honestann's picture

China would be terminally stupid to not boot up their alternate system, and refuse to be dependent on the cretins at IMF and USSA.

Oh, and the author may be optimistic to believe the collapse doesn't begin until October.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 19:21 | 6492550 The Old Man
The Old Man's picture

Good point Ann! I was wondering from the beginning why he chose October? He thinks the silly fools in us believe a September punch bowl is real. Neither does China. Look out folks, it may be a doozy!

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 18:56 | 6492444 Okienomics
Okienomics's picture

Is he saying ZH is where nuts gather?

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 18:58 | 6492457 Element
Element's picture

No one would believe that. Just look at the China explosion thread, totally sound commentary.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 19:15 | 6492523 gwar5
gwar5's picture

Only Deez Nuts

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 18:58 | 6492455 CHC
CHC's picture

The picture of that woman taken during the depression is haunting - I've must have seen that a million times over the years. I'm imagining I'll see many of those poor, sad eyes in the very near future.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 19:12 | 6492504 samsara
samsara's picture

I've seen it on TheAutomaticEarth. Ilargi posts some real good B&W photos. All are old. He posts one with each day's article.

Take a quick look.

http://www.theautomaticearth.com

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 20:52 | 6492921 gimme soma dat
gimme soma dat's picture

Here is an interview and photos of that very woman when she was found in the 1970's.  Very interesting. 

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2290879/I-lost-hope-Startling-in...

Tue, 09/01/2015 - 01:30 | 6493988 TheEndIsNear
TheEndIsNear's picture

It was taken in Nipomo, California. My father's side of the family were also there as farm laborers at about the same time the picture was taken to harvest peas for the farmers in that area. My families story was straight out of Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath". 

Tue, 09/01/2015 - 01:43 | 6494011 markpower49
markpower49's picture

Let's hope. Most people are evil sheep who support a corrupt gov't.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 18:59 | 6492462 Element
Element's picture

Any October now ...

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 19:01 | 6492469 Phoenix901210
Phoenix901210's picture

This article didn't convincingly answer why October, not September or November?

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 22:28 | 6493383 PhoQ
PhoQ's picture

Traditionally, Americans love to blow up their markets in October. Kind of like Guy Fawkes day or something.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 19:02 | 6492471 KashNCarry
KashNCarry's picture

IMF has always been an instrument of American Empire and its preogatives...

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 19:08 | 6492493 kevinearick
kevinearick's picture

Those who are paticipating refuse to believe so, and those who are not continue to underestimate the passivity in America. Europe, having a little more experience with pacification, is well aware of what the military is doing with Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon - GAFA. It's like those birds on a wire, all encouraging each other to do something, and none of them moving, anything but their mouths.

After all, the Great Ivy League Wizards said this couldn't happen. Funny, all kinds of things that never happened before are happening, making the statistics...useless.

Whether it's bad or good depends upon perspective. For the central banks, it's clearly bad.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 19:10 | 6492498 novictim
novictim's picture

This article is really sad, like listening to Willy Loman speak of future riches and wealth as he loses his job, 'cause its his time to win!

The Window has closed on China's dreams of a stable middleclass economy.  Face this fact. If it ever had the potential then it needed to refunnel its enterprise into local comsumer businesses and wages. 

At this stage, with capital flight FROM China picking up steam and theoretical wealth evaporating as the speculation binge has burst, China has no real way to save itself.  Global demand is down and production that remains seems to be coming from even poorer asian countries with even less regulation and less corruption.

What we can expect from China now is a beligerant, aggressive move to distract from growing internal unrest and poverty. 

Prediction: China will need UN food subsidies within 6 years along with many other countries in the EM.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 19:40 | 6492630 Omen IV
Omen IV's picture

you should use the same presentation but change the name to the real party deserving the scenerio...... the USA

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 19:14 | 6492513 gwar5
gwar5's picture

By all previous definitions we are in a depression despite $4.5 Trillion spent to prop things up.

Must see Shadowstats for 30+ years worth of comparative real data before the methodology was mutilated beyond recognition by the Ministry of Truth. There can be no doubt.  

 

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 19:19 | 6492544 earleflorida
earleflorida's picture

ya know the great depression of '1929' never would have ended in america if not for wwii. indeed?!  it was fdr/truman that saw it through. there was no 'federal reserve gone wild' with food stamps and section '8's' being handed out. just soup kitchens aid donated by local charities. mortgages were bought back by the big banks and sold back to the same families that remained in them [now paying rent] until the war eventually ended. it was officially now the beginning of the 'nuclear family' renaissance. communism in america was becoming moar enticing to the public, having the great 'capitalist-system' destroy all they had worked for. truman hated the unions and when steel and coal energy wanted moar pay after the war, truman threatened to put the strikers forcibly in the military. this again was in response by 'big money propagandised', that unions were socialist [closet communist]! russia was weeks away from conquering japan and turning it communist. this brought out the 'nukes' [one thermal- one hydrogen] and that was it.

today we have the greatest depression right before our eyes manifesting itself since 2000- present. but, today we have 'socialism gone crazy' [unadulterated communism] with a 'central bank' running the reapolitiks of a defunct entity called a democracy only by virtue of the past? every third citizen is on food-stamps or free-subsidized-housing, with a cash stipend to boot.

and the sad part is we can't start a new wwiii with loose nukes throughout the world to get back to zero... tabula rasa be damn'd... literally!

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 19:23 | 6492566 Steely_Dan
Steely_Dan's picture

October?  Why October?  Oh yeah, October is the well known and publicized cycle date turn from Princeton Economics & Martin Armstrong.

Analysts who can't predict on their own turn my stomach.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 19:34 | 6492606 Spiritof42
Spiritof42's picture

Personally, I don't think there will be any catastrophic event or events to mark this predicted collapse. Looks more to me like the economy is dying the death of a thousand cuts.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 21:08 | 6492983 Albertarocks
Albertarocks's picture

Or one could say "the economy is dying the death of a thousand cunts"... if we take the traitorous congress and other government sellouts into account.  It is 'them' who continue to allow the Fed to even exist.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 22:22 | 6493354 tekhneek
tekhneek's picture

I get your point of view. 

You can rock the canoe for awhile laughing and having a good time but eventually someone either falls out or the whole thing capsizes by being extremely off balance. I liken this a lot to the stock market right now. Back and forth, back and forth.

Problem with catastrophic events is they don't provide warnings, they are the warning and the result. 

Most likely it swings and continues this way, the swings get more aggressive and eventually the deflationary pressure gets too high to "inflate" our way out of it, but try they will. By the time they've "tried" their hardrest (money, stock purchases, etc) they'll have put so much money in chasing deflation that you get the runaway inflation. They don't know what to do with deflation except print more money. Which is the same thing they do with inflation...

That's what I'm, at least for now, expecting. 

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 23:12 | 6493593 Username_Taken
Username_Taken's picture

Whipsaw markets will likely rule for a while. It looks like today's CL shitshow (and last Monday's "crash") are sterling examples.

Nothing to see here, just watch your stops get hit no matter where you put them. It's like magic.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 23:13 | 6493599 Hapa
Hapa's picture

I'm beginning to think the same.  It's probably better for most of us, though it won't have the drama and the in-your-face told you so satisfaction. 

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 20:11 | 6492760 CosmicDebris
CosmicDebris's picture

The longer I have to store up more said nuts, the better. 

Tue, 09/01/2015 - 00:52 | 6493897 22winmag
22winmag's picture

Cases of sardines and ammo stacked... plastic maxed... and standing at attention.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 20:17 | 6492785 g3h
g3h's picture

LMAO.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 20:32 | 6492833 wstrub
wstrub's picture

The US has Star Wars.

 

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 20:48 | 6492885 wagthetails
wagthetails's picture

Same story every year about October. It doesn't play out precisely because everyone expects it to. At least pick November for a change. Thanksgiving massacre has a nice ring to it.

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 22:06 | 6493286 hedgiex
hedgiex's picture

It could also be slow grinds at different paces at different places. A faulty premise that the collapses in real economies will be expressed in the detached deformed financial markets. What a shallow spin to target Oct as the D Day...Have all the global traders congregated to act in unison to meet this target ?

 

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 23:02 | 6493547 reader2010
reader2010's picture

"The hope for the twentieth century rests on recognition that war and depression are man-made, and needless. They can be avoided in the future by turning from the nineteenth-century characteristics just mentioned (materialism, selfishness, false values, hypocrisy, and secret vices) and going back to other characteristics that our Western Society has always regarded as virtues: generosity, compassion, cooperation, rationality, and foresight, and finding a increased role in human life for love, spirituality, charity, and self discipline."

— Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope, 1966

Mon, 08/31/2015 - 23:05 | 6493559 Oscar Mayer
Oscar Mayer's picture

Knowing the rules and how to keep score in a game of insanity, does not make the game any less insane. 

Tue, 09/01/2015 - 00:12 | 6493786 DaveA
DaveA's picture

Horror movies do this too -- they tease you again and again with false alarms, then when you least expect it, someone's head gets bisected with an axe.

Tue, 09/01/2015 - 00:50 | 6493888 22winmag
22winmag's picture

I stopped reading at "shaky at best since the crash of 2008".

 

More like... propped up with duct tape, bailing wire, and bugee cords and masked with billions in EBT since the greatest depression started in 2008.

Tue, 09/01/2015 - 01:46 | 6494016 koos
koos's picture

"Still, it would be difficult to imagine how the IMF could avoid a shift in its voting (diminishing the US and increasing China). Anything the IMF did at this point to derail the re-balance would be highly suspect."

 

It's easy, western nations will put an end to globalisation if they believe that China and other non-western powers are to control those international organisations founded by the west.

Tue, 09/01/2015 - 05:02 | 6494209 sirik
sirik's picture

How would they able to do so ?

Worldtrade, the original word for 'globalisation' , has been around for many centuries.

Tue, 09/01/2015 - 05:38 | 6494246 DonGenaro
DonGenaro's picture

a month after The Crash, no one will remember what an "IFM" was

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