The Deflation Monster Has Arrived
Submitted by Chris Martenson via PeakProsperity.com,
As we’ve been warning for quite a while (too long for my taste): the world’s grand experiment with debt has come to an end. And it’s now unraveling.
Just in the two weeks since the start of 2016, the US equity markets are down almost 10%. Their worst start to the year in history. Many other markets across the world are suffering worse.
If you watched stock prices today, you likely had flashbacks to the financial crisis of 2008. At one point the Dow was down over 500 points, the S&P cracked below key support at 1,900, and the price of oil dropped below $30/barrel. Scared investors are wondering: What the heck is happening? Many are also fearfully asking: Are we re-entering another crisis?
Sadly, we think so. While there may be a market rescue that provide some relief in the near term, looking at the next few years, we will experience this as a time of unprecedented financial market turmoil, political upheaval and social unrest. The losses will be staggering. Markets are going to crash, wealth will be transferred from the unwary to the well-connected, and life for most people will get harder as measured against the recent past.
It’s nothing personal; it’s just math. This is simply the way things go when a prolonged series of very bad decisions have been made. Not by you or me, mind you. Most of the bad decisions that will haunt our future were made by the Federal Reserve in its ridiculous attempts to sustain the unsustainable.
The Cost Of Bad Decisions
In spiritual terms, it is said that everything happens for a reason. When it comes to the Fed, however, I’m afraid that a less inspiring saying applies:
Yes, it’s easy to pick on the Fed now that it’s obvious that they’ve failed to bring prosperity to anyone but their inside coterie of rich friends and big client banks. But I’ve been pointing out the Fed’s grotesque failures for a very long time. Again, too long for my tastes.
I rather pointlessly wish that the central banks of the world had been reined in by the public before the crash of 2008. However the seeds of their folly were sown long before then:
(Source)
Note the pattern in the above monthly chart of the S&P 500. A relatively minor market slump in 1994 was treated by the then Greenspan Fed with an astonishing burst of new money creation -- via its ‘sweeps” program response, which effectively eliminated reserve requirements for banks .That misguided policy created the first so-called Tech Bubble, which burst in 2000.
The next move by the Fed was to drop rates to 1%, which gave us the Housing Bubble. That was a much worse and more destructive event than the bubble that preceded it. And it burst in 2008.
Then the Fed (under Bernanke this time) dropped rates to 0%. The rest of the world’s central banks followed in lockstep (some going even further, into negative territory, as in Europe’s case). This has led to a gigantic, interconnected set of bubbles across equities, bonds and real estate -- virtually everywhere across the globe.
So the Fed's pattern here was: fixing a small problem with a bad decision, which lead to an even larger problem addressed by an even worse decision, resulting in an even larger set of problems that are now in the process of deflating/bursting. Three sets of increasingly bad decisions in a row.
The amplitude and frequency of the bubbles and crashes are both increasing. As is the size and scope of the destruction.
The Even Larger Backdrop
The even larger backdrop to all of this is that the developed world, and recently China, have been stoking growth with debt, and have been doing so for a very long time.
Using the US as a proxy for other countries, this is what the lunacy looks like:
As practically everybody can quickly work out, increasing your debts at 2x the rate of your income eventually puts you in the poor house. As I said, it’s nothing personal; it’s just math.
But somehow, this math escaped the Fed’s researchers and policy makers as a problem. Well, turns out it is. And it’s now knocking loudly on the world’s door. The deflation monster has arrived.
The only possible way to rationalize such an increase in debt is to convince oneself that economic growth will come roaring back, and make it all okay. But the world is now ten years into an era of structurally weak GDP and there are no signs that high growth is coming back any time soon, if ever.
So the entire edifice of debt-funded growth is now being called into question -- at least by those who are paying attention or who aren't hopelessly blinkered by a belief system rooted in the high net energy growth paradigms of the past.
At any rate, I started the chart in 1970 because it was in 1971 that the US broke the dollar’s linkage to gold. The rest of the world complained for a bit at the time, but politicians everywhere quickly realized that the loss of the golden tether also allowed them to spend with wild abandon and rack up huge deficits. So it was wildly popular.
As long as everybody played along, this game of borrowing and then borrowing some more was fun. In one of the greatest circular backrubs of all time, the central banks and banking systems of the developed world all bought each other’s debt, pretending as if it all made sense somehow:
(Source)
The above charts show how hopelessly entangled the worldwide web of debt has become. Yes, it's all made possible by the delusion that somehow being owed money by an insolvent entity will endlessly prevent your own insolvency from being revealed. How much longer can that delusion last?
All of this is really just the terminal sign of a major credit bubble -- a credit era, if you will -- drawing to a close.
I will once again rely upon this quote by Ludwig Von Mises because apparently its message has not yet sunk in everywhere it should have:
“ There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.”
~ Ludwig Von Mises
Well, the central banks of the world could not bring themselves to voluntarily end the credit expansion – that would have taken real courage.
So now we are facing something far worse.
Why The Next Crisis Will Be Worse Than 2008
I’m not just calling for another run of the mill bear market for equities, but for the unwinding of the largest and most ill-conceived credit bubble in all of history. Equities are a side story to a larger one.
It’s global and it’s huge. This deflationary monster has no equal in all of history, so there’s not a lot of history to guide us here.
At Peak Prosperity we favor the model that predicts ‘first the deflation, then the inflation’ or the "Ka-Poom! Theory" as Erik Janszen at iTulip described it. While it may seem that we are many years away from runaway inflation (and some are doubting it will or ever could arrive again), here’s how that will probably unfold.
Faced with the prospect of watching the entire financial world burn to the figurative ground (if not literal in some locations), or doing something, the central banks will opt for doing something.
Given that their efforts have not yielded the desired or necessary results, what can they realistically do that they haven't already?
The next thing is to give money to Main Street.
That is, give money to the people instead of the banks. Obviously puffing up bank balance sheets and income statements has only made the banks richer. Nobody else besides a very tiny and already wealthy minority has really benefited. Believe it or not, the central banks are already considering shifting the money spigot towards the public.
You might receive a credit to your bank account courtesy of the Fed. Or you might receive a tax rebate for last year. Maybe even a tax holiday for this year, with the central bank monetizing the resulting federal deficits.
Either way, money will be printed out of thin air and given to you. That’s what’s coming next. Possibly after a failed attempt at demanding negative interest rates from the banks. But coming it is.
This "helicopter money" spree will juice the system one last time, stoking the flames of inflation. And while the central banks assume they can control what happens next, I think they cannot.
Once people lose faith in their currency all bets are off. The smart people will be those who take their fresh central bank money and spend it before the next guy.
In Part 2: Why This Next Crisis Will Be Worse Than 2008 we look at what is most likely to happen next, how bad things could potentially get, and what steps each of us can and should be taking now -- in advance of the approaching rout -- to position ourselves for safety (and for prosperity, too)
Click here to read Part 2 of this report (free executive summary, enrollment required for full access)
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Just be sure to own and have secured real assests before they make it rain.
where will the "helicopter money go" will it be used by the majority to
1. Pay down debts (i.e. goes back to the bank immeditaly)
2. Buy the latest iphone 8 or 9 or whatever - short term economic bounce - but no lasting effects
3. Buy PM and wait out the deflation cycle and profit when the super inflation cycle arrives
4.Hookers and blow - and life a short hazy life???
answers on back of a 5g gold bullion karatbar
www.teamramgold.com/about-us
God speed, Mr. Ram!
1-20-2017
I demand $30 trillion in physical gold bullion, or I will ask the God of Mathematics to end the FED, and all Central Banks, throughout the entire World.
NOT kidding around anymore.
Long on heirloom seeds.
... money will be printed out of thin air and given to you. That’s what’s coming next.
I can promise you this will NOT happen. Money will be given to insiders, crony's and suck asses but it will not be given to any working peons.
It's been done before. Forget when-maybe under Little Bush for a few hundred.(through the IRS)
Social Security and Disability recipients will receive a "13th check," just like the big city pensioners have traditionally received.
"working peons"
You mean the Chinese?
I hardly see anything made in USA.
Well, we're mostly taught that the market will do what it must do to make most players lose. If all the players load up on debt, deflation must follow. Somebody forward this to Bernanke, I know he wants to buy this sage advice embroidered on a tea cozy.
I will not click there to read part 2 as enrollment is required. Such BS here. I do not think there is a problem whatsoever.
Feel free to copy and paste my word above: WHATSOEVER
Actual deflation because of monetary policy? I'm not seeing it. To me this article consists of nonsense scenerios.
But if deflation is your expectation, get out of debt.
oil has been a great lesson in Percentages. from 100 to 37 was a 63% decline...then to $60, a 33% climb, then to 40, a 33% decline, then to 30, 25% decline.
on the road to -66% sp500, which is 693...but maybe lower to 500, about 75% decline.....there will probably be a few 25% delcines and climbs and couple 50% declines. so so so much opportunity. 2100 to 1700= -19% (not a bear mkt! bargains abound) back to 1955 is 15% climb. 1955 down to 1300 is -33% by itself, and only 38% off the top. 1300 to 1600 is another bull of 23%...and to 800 is -50%, back to 1000; then to 500.
should be quite the show and opportunity
If you short the S&P thinking it's going to 1000 or 500, remember all it will take is a large QE announcement overnight to gap up the Dow 1000 points before the open.
my point is, really, that one should NOT simply short here looking for spx1000, but that there will be several chances to book gains in both directions.
if one shorts here for the long run, the $ variation in the positions value will probably be unbearable.
More sage advice on how to Play, while remaining in their Casino? Really? You'd think that people would have learned by now.
"You gotta know when to hold... when to fold... when to walk away... when to run..."
Take your poker chips, push back from the table, and walk away. Then live like it's the 1930s, and you'll have a head-start on most people.
USPS Priority Mail rates are going up by over 9% starting tomorrow.
but,,, but,,, but,,, government states inflation is less than 1% ?!
'Are we re-entering another crisis?'...WTF...we never left the 'old' one...hahahhaaa. this crisis started in 1913 and we are seeing the result of that stupidity.
Chris great summary of what "numerous red flags" and more importantly (missed opportunities to correct them) over 42 years meant to a "Republic" that put these whack jobs in charge and kept rewarding them for their psychopathic behavior!...
As for your prophetic remark at the end of your article that "the crisis will be much worse than 2008"... Well "no" shit!
I have had time to reflect on all of it and our end came in the form of 9/11 which I call our burial plot. The coffin, the nails to close the lid and last but not least "the marker" was 2008 with the bailout!...
Poke the MOFO "Uncle Sammy" with a fork already!... Cause He's been "well done" since September 11, 2001 and this read only amplifies that suggestion!!!
Once again, the article above demonstrates the degree to which Chris Martenson tends to base his views upon Hanlon's Razon:
STUPIDITY only applies through a superficially correct analysis that deliberately does NOT examine the actual history of the international bankers achieving their goals, as stated by the historian Carroll Quigley:
"powers of financial capitalism
had another far-reaching goal,
nothing less than to create a
world system of financial
control in private hands
able to dominate the
political system of
each country and
the economy of
the world as
a whole ..."
From the point of view of the international bankers, it is NOT bad decisions, but rather, the achievement of their real goals, when what actually happens is as Martenson stated:
I AGREE with the model that predicts ‘first the deflation, then the inflation’ or the "Ka-Poom! Theory." There have been more than 50 historical examples of the end-game being hyper-inflation, but never one example of the end-game being deflationary. However, before the final hyper-inflation, there were usually periods of wilder and wilder oscillations through deflationary episodes.
The SOURCE of those problems are the vicious spirals of political funding that drive governments to ENFORCE FRAUDS by private banks. Inflation is too much money made out of nothing, while deflation is too little money made out of nothing. What the central banks have been visibly doing more and more since 2008 is taking over more and more of the role of creating money out of nothing as debts. However, the underlying issues are way more profound that than!
Chris Martenson is merely another example of those who engage in superficially correct analysis that tends to deliberately ignore the degree to which the REAL MECHANISMS ARE BASED ON MALICE, NOT STUPIDITY! I REPEATED my views regarding THAT in my comments under these articles:
Arthur Berman: Why The Price Of Oil Must Rise | Zero Hedge
and:
A Loophole Allows Banks – But Not Other Companies – to Create Money Out of Thin Air | Zero Hedge
HOWEVER, I am certain that people like Chris Martenson will continue to want to rely upon presuming the applicability of Hanlon's Razor. That maxim makes sense as a special case of Occam's Razor, given the absence of evidence to the contrary. BUT, BUT, BUT, there is an abundance of evidence to demonstrate that the international bankers drove the development of the existing political economy quite deliberately and maliciously, by persistently applying the methods of organized crime through the political processes.
What reliance upon the superficially correct view that there were "bad decisions" enables one to NOT have to address the deeper issues that money is measurement backed by murder. By NOT facing those facts, one is then able to not have to base more realistic resolutions of those problems upon those real facts.
The arrival of the "deflationary monster" due to banks not being able to make enough "money" out of nothing as debts, is a superficial symptom of much worse, and way deeper problems! I AGREE that the established systems will become increasingly desperate to find more excuses to enable them to create more money out of nothing as debts. HOWEVER, fundamentally fraudulent financial accounting systems are not only driving irreconcilable social polarization, they are also driving irreparable destruction of the natural world.
That the EXISTING situation has become globalized electronic frauds, backed by the threat of force from atomic bombs, is trillions of times more criminally insane than anyone could fully imagine anymore! Not only do the overwhelming vast majority of people not comprehend that, because they have been conditioned to not want to comprehend that, but also, even the few who do think more deeply about the central social facts, that public governments are enforcing frauds by private banks, almost always then recommend bogus "solutions" to those problems, based on the same bullshit that enabled those problems to become psychotic runaways in the first place.
Chris Martenson's mistaken reliance upon Hanlon's Razor presumptions are quite typical of most of the articles republished on Zero Hedge. Looking at enough of the evidence to conclude that the facts are due to the prolonged triumphs of civilization being controlled by the principles of methods of organized crime is much more commonly presented in the comments posted under those articles. HOWEVER, in my view, there is almost never enough deeper analysis regarding how and why we have NECESSARILY ended up with a political economy in which governments are the biggest forms of organized crime, controlled by the best organized gangs of criminals.
I expect that Chris Martenson, et alia, will NEVER go through enough profound paradigm shifts in order to stop their personal reliance upon Hanlon's Razor sparing them having to think about the deeper reasons for how and why civilization operates according to the principles and methods of organized crime, because the most important systems were the death control systems, with the murder systems being the most extreme form of those.
It was NOT due to "bad decisions" and/or "stupidity" that civilization operates as entropic pumps of environmental energy flows, that became most socially successful by becoming as deceitful and fraudulent as possible. However, those who persist in their reliance on Hanlon's Razor then never have to think about the murder systems, which backed up the monetary systems.
Clearly, that is what people like Chris Martenson like to do, and I expect will continue to do, because they like to do that, while they would NOT like to stop doing that. That the established political economy is based upon public governments ENFORCING FRAUDS by private banks is way more profound a problem than those who like to presume upon Hanlon's Razor are willing and able to contemplate!
A civilization based upon ENFORCING FRAUDS is based upon attitudes of evil deliberate ignorance towards the principle of the conservation of energy, and deliberate misunderstand of the concept of entropy in the most absurdly backward ways possible. The longer term consequences of civilization being controlled through applications of the methods of organized crime drive that civilization to manifest runaway criminal insanities.
Anyone who continues to rely upon Hanlon's Razor regarding how they attempt to understand the existing political economy is deliberately ignoring an abundance of rational evidence and logical arguments which demonstrate that the existing political economy became based upon malice rather than stupidity. Furthermore, IF, IF, IF, one thinks more deeply about how and why that is the case, then the conclusions are that money is necessarily measurement backed by murder, and therefore, the only realistic resolutions of the real problems will require changes in the murder systems ...
Of course, I NEVER expect to read an article by Chris Martenson that thinks through those issues. Indeed, I am not yet aware of anyone who adequately does, since the ways that the previous systems of paper frauds, backed by gunpowder weapons, have relatively rapidly and recently become globalized electronic frauds, backed by atomic bombs, is something that NOBODY UNDERSTANDS. Indeed, as far as I can tell, almost nobody even bothers to attempt to systematically understand the development of globalized electronic frauds backed by atomic bombs. Rather, on one level or another, almost everyone operates in various compartmentalized ways, due to their reliance upon the various kinds of presumptions referred to as Hanlon's Razor.
Indeed, the people who originally made and maintained the established systems whereby public governments ENFORCE FRAUDS by private banks, have died off, for generation after generation, while those operating those systems now have become the best available professional hypocrites, who do not understand, because they do not want to understand, that those established systems have become globalized electronic FRAUDS, backed by the threat of FORCE from atomic bombs.
Thus, in a sense, from a meta-level, it may be argued that the existing systems DO operate according to stupidity, rather than due to malice, because NOBODY FULLY UNDERSTANDS & COMPREHENDS how the original systems of paper frauds, backed by gunpowder weapons, have so suddenly morphed to become electronic frauds, backed by weapons of mass destruction. Given those developments, it is possible to assert that the entire human species has paradoxically become incompetent political idiots, due to all the established sociopolitical systems being operated by the best available professional hypocrites, due to generation after generation gradually adapting to becoming more personally successful by operating INSIDE ENFORCED FRAUDS, while taking THAT for granted.
But nevertheless, in my view, anyone who persists in making statements based on presuming Hanlon's Razor regarding the political economy is doing so by deliberately ignoring the abundance of information that demonstrates that the international bankers maliciously made and maintained the existing systems through which public governments ENFORCE FRAUDS by private banks. The only way that one could recycle the applicability of Hanlon's Razor is by recognizing that the international bankers no longer can fully comprehend nor control the globalized systems of electronic frauds, backed by atomic bombs, that their ancestors originally made and maintained.
Unless one engages in deeper analyses regarding how and why the political economy necessarily operates according to the principles and methods of organized crime, then one is not able to approach the development of more realistic resolutions of those real problems. Those who continue to rely upon Hanlon's Razor, and therefore, blame a series of "bad decisions" and/or "stupidities," rather than the result of the triumphs of the maliciousness of organized crime, are NOT in the right ball park. They fail to appreciate what has historically happened, and therefore, can only promote superficial "solutions" based upon their superficially correct analysis.
This is a great analogy of what I figured out years ago in reference to the controllers, that I can summarize in three words. "They're evil bastards!"
You are totally right. Martens us wrong to call malice by a more inocuous label, stupidity. Therefore Martenson's article itself us malicious.
Premise and content great. I do wonder, however, if such generational collusion and goals are realistic. Perhaps I missed something.
I agree, arby63, that the ruling classes are NOT extraordinarily competent, in order to implement detailed multi-generational plans. However, the only thing that they needed was to be relatively more competent than the people they rule over, (where their kinds of "competence" includes actions like assassinations of those who become significant opposition.)
I am NOT suggesting that the ruling classes are in any way superhuman. However, I am saying that they have waged war against the consciousness of those they rule over so much, for so long, that it became possible for them to capture control over governments, by those banksters controlling political puppets, who would be voted for by enough of the masses of muppets. At the present time, the few people who develop better understanding of the Federal Reserve Board still have NO ways to compete with people who already have the power to make the public "money" supply out of nothing.
It was a gradual ratcheting up of the applications of the methods of organized crime on the political processes, through bribery, intimidation, and the occasional assassination of those who otherwise could not be bribed or intimidated. As the successfulness of those methods gathered momentum, the schools and mass media were also more and more captured. At the present time, there are no politically practical ways for anyone else to compete with the banksters, and their buddies in the big corporations, that grew up around those banksters having gained control over issuing the public "money" supplies.
VICIOUS SPIRALS OF
POLITICAL FUNDING
ENFORCING FRAUDS
started off in more modest and covert ways, but then grew at about an exponential rate, to become an overall exponential growth of the total American debts since the 1970s, in ways which have become quite blatantly obvious to anyone who looks since 2008. However, it continues to be politically impossible for anyone else to effectively compete within political processes that now depend upon lobbyists providing billions of dollars to campaign with!
As the saying goes, that Rome was not built in day, similarly, the Federal Reserve Board, and the overall fractional reserve banking system, was not built in a day, but rather has been developing for a long time! Each increment of successfully enforcing frauds provided the platform for the next increment ...
From the point of view of the international bankers, it is NOT bad decisions, but rather, the achievement of their real goals,
It's their farming operation they like to refer to as "the business cycle".
"NOBODY FULLY UNDERSTANDS & COMPREHENDS how the original systems of paper frauds, backed by gunpowder weapons, have so suddenly morphed to become electronic frauds, backed by weapons of mass destruction."...
RM
It's always been an "all or nothing" game.
No doubt. The Anglo-American Triumvirate will run this thing to "ground" with the "take no prisoners" attitude that's always been on display since 1914 GUARANTEED! If the American taxpyaer were sincere in stopping the apocalypse it would have happened after the bank bailouts because the calling card of how corroded the Anglo financial establishment was after 2008 came in the wholesale demolition of the rest of ME in 2011 and then Eastern Ukraine 3 years later... If they were not in total denial with only one agenda left to play then "why" would they stretch beyond all limits the sums of money that had already been lost on failed invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan between 2001 and 2008?...
Lets face it. The U.S. and it's partner(s) launched WWIII after 9/11 and make no mistake the "escalation" began in earnest less than 2 years later. They were supremely confident in there arrogance that all holdout(s) would capitulate, but nevertheless were and always have been certain of what they would do if the threats and continued destruction didn't achieve the desired results!... Well it hasn't... And it won't... And we know what comes next if a civil war doesn't happen in the place the POTUS called the "World's policeman" last Wednesday in his last State of Chaos Reunion.
If we weren't thinking collectively about weapons of mass destruction being used again on ourselves like in 9/11 and against our biggest adversaries in China and Russia after the overthrow of Libya, Syria and Ukraine between 2011 and 2015 we're already too late!
Unfortunately, I must agree that "we're already too late!"
Speaking of "the place the POTUS called the "World's policeman" last Wednesday in his last State of Chaos Reunion," here is a three minute summary of that hour long speech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fder5-acc1Y
State Of The Union 2016 - FKN NewzYou have just revealed Satan's end game. Most don't go there.
They give me money whereupon I give it right back to reduce/eliminate debt. That's fine with me, and it shouldn't create inflation, either, because the money is not chasing a declining number of limited goods. If most people just used the money to reduce debt, it might even help. Now they can use the savings on the interest on debt they no longer have to spend on the economy.
I argued this back in 2008. Why not give the money to main street with the caveat that the money must first be used to reduce debt. If you have no debt you are free to spend or save. Allowing people to reduce debt should increase spending in the general economy as well. And wouldn't it reduce banks exposure by reducing the level of bad debt on their books. Instead we gave it all to a few fucktards
Why not give the money to main street
You mean "the counterfeit money".
If they wanted to really stimulate the econome back then, they should have started paying down mortgages for the poorest first, working their way up the ladder to an income level of about $100K (just to pick a round number)... and then forgave all tax payments for a couple of years for all of the taxpayers below $100k (again to pick a round number). Can you imagine how the economy would have taken off if everyone below that level were suddenly given what would amount to about a 50 percent raise? Yeah, there would have been some problems along the way, but spending $10 trillion that way would have created a booming economy, rather than giving the money to useless eaters like Dimon and Blankfine and their ilk.
The problem with your circular logic is that in the current system, all money is created from new debt, not new assets like gold. So even if you give the money back by paying your debts off to private creditors, the public (you) still owe someone who hold the bond that was printed to support the money creation. It's called Catch-22. There is no (easy) way out.
We have Meyer Rothschild to thank for our current predicament. He invented the government bond and made it wildly popular. People used paper notes (that were once backed by gold) rather than gold coins themselves because it was more convenient. But then, Tricky Dicky Nixon decided to default in 1971 and gold was no longer available for payment of debts. Since then the money pyrmaid has exploded to the point where it is not only unsustainable, but it is in permanent threat of collapse. Let's hear it for the masters of economic theory, the War Party.
There is no (easy) way out.
There is a very easy way out.
I went to the doctor the other day, and said 'Doc, I don't want to get old'. He reached me a gun.
You are correct. But I'm assuming this helicopter drop will be left to individuals as to what to do with it. Each person will decide what floats their boat. In the case you explained, I'm moving debt, but I would be getting rid of my own personal debt. I only would owe to the sovereign power that runs the chicken shit outfit, meaning that if I sold everything and moved out of the country USA for instance, I no longer am liable for part of that 19 trillion. Sorry to leave you behind. Come and visit, maybe move yourself as well! We all know they waited far too long to fix this mess.
They only have TWO options - WAR or BANKRUPTCY - GROWTH is not an option !!
Real growth hasn't been an option since 1973. Nice waves of success, yes, but we gave away a token for every one we received. We created great technology advances and gave away the foundation.
It's all finite.
1973?
This prerequisites were in place way back in the '50's.
They are not options. We are getting both simultaneously.
"Greed is God" to paraphrase the lizard...but God obviously is not amu$ed.
Enjoy the coming hell!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HraaYH-sJBI
"And while the central banks assume they can control what happens next, I think they cannot"
Make that two.
increasing your debts at 2x the rate of your income eventually puts you in the poor house.
No. It puts those who loan to you into the poor house when you default.
this is a plutocracy money will go to banks not to people poverty is on the way lots of it when i don't know
In reality, the smartest guy will be that rare bird who spends his helicopter money on Precious Metals!
The last time we got helicopter money, the PTB told everyone to spend it, not to save it or pay down debt. So, just out of spite, I deposited the check in my savings account, bought an ounce of gold using a credit card, and then paid down the card with the money in savings... three birds with one stone... Ain't I just a stinker?
"Markets are going to crash, wealth will be transferred from the unwary to the well-connected, and life for most people will get harder as measured against the recent past"
I read that sentence in the voice of Bane.
Anyone else?