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Marc Faber To America: "Listen You Lazy Bugger, You Need To Tighten Your Belts, You Need To Work More For Lower Salaries"
Once again, the latest fire and brimstone sermon by Marc Faber is absolutely spot on, starting and ending with his "policy" recommendation for what the US needs: "I will tell you what the US needs. The US needs a Lee Kwan Yew who stands in front of the US and tells them, listen you lazy bugger, now you have to tighten your belts, you have to save more, work more for lower salaries and only through that will we get out of the current dilemma that essentially prevents the economy from growing." No money printing, no extensive protests, no excuses. Of course, this would have to accompany a global overhaul of the system, something Zero Hedge has been advocating since day one, as it is impossible to reform this broken system from within: "The problem i have with the investment universe is that i find it difficult to envision how the US and western Europe can return to healthy sustainable growth without a complete purge of the financial system and some type of catalyst. Something that restores some measure of social cohesion among people; it could be hyperinflation, a complete credit market collapse, widespread sovereign defaults, civil strife, major military confrontation.” Alas, in that he is also correct, and as we said back in early 2010, when the current episode of extend and pretend ends and the can kicking exercise finally fails, next up is war.
It is refreshing to see that Marc is a reader of Zero Hedge, and specifically the post that we consider one of the most important of the year, namely that from BSC, which laid out in black on white what the next steps will be:
I tell what you to do. I think a flat tax on everybody would be actually a good measure and i think to reduce the regulatory environment in the US. We have expansionary fiscal and monetary policies. But we have restrictive regulatory policies. And it curtails any initiative by the small businessmen., and the large businessmen, he doesn't employ and invest capital in the US, he does he that in China or somewhere else in the world where the regulatory environment is more favorable. If you look at net investments in the US, it's gone down for the last 20 years, and it's now negative. In other words, basically the capital stock of America is not being replenished. It's being replenished somewhere else. And at the same time, the policies of the Keynesians have always encouraged spending. “We're not going to get out of recession by saving. Spend, Spend, Spend.” That is wrong. The lack of savings is the problem of the United States.
Faber on volatility and liquidity:
i think the volatility arises because we have the Nasdaq bubble and then we had the housing bubble and the stock market bubble and then a commodities bubble and usually when the bubble bursts like off the 29 or after the late '60s you have a period of very high volatility for about 10 to 15 years before the markets settle down and then reignite the uptrend. As far the dollar is concerned, the reason i'm actually quite positive is that global liquidity, despite of the fact that the ECB and the European governments will flood the market with liquidity to pay the sales out, that global liquidity is tightening. And whenever global liquidity is tightening, it's bad for asset prices but good for the US dollar as was the case in 2008.
On what the true target of #OccupyWallStreet, whose otherwise noble intentions are unfortunately being abused by higher powers, should be:
Basically we have the Keynesians and the Democrats and I'm not saying that all democrats are equal, but they want interventions and we have far too many interventions in the western world where the share of the total economy that goes to government and is government- sponsored has grown. And that essentially makes it very difficult for the western world to grow substantially. As to that huge level of debts, i don't see how the western world, including the US, japan, and Western Europe can actually grow. They're going to stagnate. And when you have stagnation over a longer period of time, people start to ask questions and then they go after minorities. And Wall Street is a minority – they are a minority and anyone else would have done the same. They use the system. But they didn't create the system. The system was created by the lobbyists and by Washington. So they should actually go to Washington and also occupy the Federal Reserve on the way.
Finally, his conclusion is once again spot on: Wall Street's growth is merely a smokescreen for something far more insiduous and something repeatedly covered by Bill Buckler and other more insightful strategists: namely the infinite growth of central planning and the government apparatus. Wall Street's monstrous increase is merely a smokescreen by government to allow it to operate in its shadows and to pocket the benefits of the most mutated symbiotic relationship in the history of the world.
The problem is, governments in the western world -- and I'm not singling out the US -- they have grown like a cancer. And now they protect themselves to stay in power and they have a variety of alliances, like, for instance Mr. Obama he has no clue, but when he sees the protesters in Wall Street he immediately says yes, yes, yes that’s a good idea so he can target the minority so can buy a few more votes. And of course the well to do people want to protect what they worked for and also what they're paying for because as you know in the US roughly 50% of the people don't pay federal income tax. So actually to say that the rich have not contributed anything is actually wrong.
The conclusion is that any systemic reset should not target just Wall Street: it should focus first and foremost on what is most broken in US society: its "government."
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That is good news for a change- but somehow any limits will probably be delayed, loopholes carefully designed, and it ends up just more BS.
Too many billions and too many ounces are to be lost if this goes against the boyz. I doubt they will put up with it. We'll see who runs Bartertown either way it goes.
How could it cost $100 million to stop doing something? This must be for bribes to reverse it. Unfortunately they can easily afford this with the billions they made manipulating these markets using money provided by the taxpayer for free. Most figures I've seen estimate the price of oil has been made $25/barrel higher from this speculation - more when they peaked it to $140. I'm going to sell my oil stocks just in case this works. Hope it does. These people are causing real suffering all over the world by driving up food prices.
I vote for losing the war intentionally so that the so called leaders get tried as war criminals and executed. The people will survive and later can reclaim freedom.
It is THAT BAD! ... and THEY are THAT BAD!
Next thing to be invested in ,is gilded horseshit...
I think Farber is reading too much Zero Hedge to be honest.
Not all Keynesian spending is bad in the western economy - keynesian spending on consumption yes - but not on rational infrastruture spending.
Its been the leveraged private investment that has been dramatically net negative in the west - the fiscal spending can only lose what they spend , the private credit can lose 10s of times of what it invests via leverage.
Spot on? Really?
With every passing day you prove more and more how out of touch you are, TD.
I love Faber, but this interview knocked him down a peg.
What's next, Peter Schiff supporting Herman Cain?
"listen you lazy bugger, now you have to tighten your belts"
The banking traitors first.
"If you look at net investments in the US, it's gone down for the last 20 years, and it's now negative. In other words, basically the capital stock of America is not being replenished."
It wasn't "not being replenished." What happened was the capital of America was looted and shipped offshore by a pack of corporate traitors who paid the politicians to look the other way.
Now these banking and corporate traitors have brought the American economy to its knees through their greed-fuelled betrayal they want to impoverish hundreds of millions of people to balance the books they unbalanced.
Whatever needs to happen second, what needs to happen first is the banking system needs to be purged and thousands of criminal traitors put in jail. The federal government should:
- nationalize all the banks.
- separate the healthy and toxic assets
- bring back glass-steagal and the rest of the old regulations.
- refloat the banks with only the healthy assets as strictly retail-only banks
- take the remaining toxic debt and burn it
What the public will find is if the big financial industry campaign donors are bankrupted and put in prison where they belong we'll end up with much less corrupt politicians and that in itself will make a big difference when it comes to trying to repair the damage caused by the betrayal of the corporate and banking elites.
"...you have to tighten your belts, you have to save more, work more for lower salaries..."
What a bunch of bullshit -- most of the 99% have been working harder for less money for 40 years. US wages are down, even while US worker productivity is the highest in the world.
The saving part is right on, though it wasn't people with credit cards that crashed the economy.
This is a 5 in my book. We need less government and less lazy.
"And Wall Street is a minority – they are a minority and anyone else would have done the same. They use the system. But they didn't create the system. The system was created by the lobbyists and by Washington. So they should actually go to Washington and also occupy the Federal Reserve on the way."
Wall Street absolutely 100% created the system. Absolutely 100%. Lobbyists don't spring out of thin air. They're hired to lobby by particular organisations for a particular purpose and they're given money to lobby with. The banks paid the lobbyists that bought Washington. They bought the politicians to create the legislative environment they wanted. It wasn't taxi companies who paid millions in bribes to political campaigns to get bank-restraining legislation like glass-steagal repealed. It wasn't mom and pop stores. It wasn't farmers. it was the Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and the rest.
Debt jubilee; de facto or de jure.
The Bankers is whom Marc is referring to when he says," lazy" and "need to tighten the belts."
However, I suspect Bankers will be handed Billions in Bonuses again this year despite The Great Recession for the other 99.9% who do not receive a Bailout subsidy for their mistakes.
Yet another coupon-clipping member of the One Percent preaching about how us 99 Percenters need to work harder and earn less.
Hilarious.
We're starting to see through your scam, Wall Street. Be afraid, be very, very afraid. Because there are only a few hundred thousand of you, but there are hundreds of millions of us, and we are going to use every single digital tool your system ever invented to take back the money and wealth you stole from us.
You started this class war. We're going to finish it.
I don't know why Faber is so popular. He takes 20 words to say 3 words worth, like he's paid by the word.
It doesn't matter what he says. America is on a slow slide to oblivion. Maybe not so slow now.
Americans have a difficult time accepting that fact. It doesn't matter if they accept it or not. It's their future.
Top 1% answer is to work for less? Am very sure they'd like that alot.
I guess the lower pay won't effect the consumer market at all, when people have less $ to buy. That'll spur growth.
"Work for LESS!" Yep, I'll sign onto that! I'm persuaded! Please also tell me that working for company script is in MY best interests, I'll believe it!
It is important not to conflate the US government with individuals in the United States. Faber's advice directed at the US government makes a lot of sense. The profligate, interfering state is the retarding influence on the aggregate individual human action that comprises the economy. The less government, the better.
Your future - if Fab Faber has his way....
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=galley+slave&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&rlz=1I7GGLD_en&biw=1097&bih=553&tbm=isch&tbnid=lJemu0OXlwvnsM:&imgrefurl=http://www.films42.com/tribute/charlton_heston.asp&docid=YAQb4hxks_3VfM&w=250&h=180&ei=lwaVTt2tJ8yn8QOVx6T5Bg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=556&vpy=159&dur=719&hovh=144&hovw=200&tx=124&ty=81&page=1&tbnh=108&tbnw=140&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0
I am a relative newbie here and didn't read all of the 7 pages of comments but...
I'm a bit surprised at the % of crybaby panty-asses on this thread acting like victims and that Marc Faber has done some unspeakable evil against them.
And to be so envious and jealous of somebody that is successful. But I guess that's the new cop-out: hate on people that are successful.
The truth hurts. Fuck you stupid fucks.
I understand Purina Monkey Chow is quite nutritous for humans. Dispensers could be provided in every workplace along with sleeping mats. We wouldn't need to be paid in money since we could stay at work all the time and wouldn't need a car. Employers could provide cheap uniforms so we don't need to buy clothes. Nature already provides rain in most areas for showers and hoses could do the job elsewhere. Except for those pesky kids. Well, I guess they could be shipped off to child labor factories in Bangladesh where they could learn to work like real Americans used to. When work slows down, surplus workers could be mixed in with the Monkey Chow to keep feeding costs reasonable. Likewise sick ones - it's not the employers responsibility to provide medical care. 30 minute break every day to worship statues of bankers while listening to economics lectures.
Marc is the man!
Our standard of living is going way down, it's inevitable.
Faber and Tyler are spot on. The US middle class needs to face the fact they are now competing in a global marketplace. Until they are prepared to accept DRASTICALLY reduced wages they can never compete internationally and unemployment in this country will continue to soar.
Within 10 years time I expect to see the standard of living of most Americans reduced to the level of the Indian and Chinese workers we are competing with. It's going to be a painful process - but a necessary one.
When I start to see snotty nosed children of previously middle class US families picking through piles of garbage on the outskirts of town, looking for scraps of food (similar to what I saw in Bangalore and Hyderabad last year) that will be a good sign for me. I will know the healing has begun. Jobs will finally start to come back to America. It won't be the kind of America they we grew up with - but that America is gone for good anyway. Deal with it.
My, what an arrogant, self serving scumbag you are...
The "Self" before "Country"? You dirty piece of shit. You want to see your neighbors; cousins; kids endure a standard of living decline until they are at parody with India and China? Bangladesh would have been even better imagery.
We still vote and political parties still co-opt political/social movements. The economy sucks due to wealth consolidation; corruption; a tilted tax code (Faber is another pathological lying plutocrat. The fuckers have no shame...); too few having ended up with too much of EVERYTHING - opportunity; capital; access; higher education.
You write like a "shut-in" or, an Asperghers "Idiot". I don't care which.
Yeah, cheering one's own demise. How sanctimonious can one get? Deluded enough to believe they can barricade or cocoon themselves from the demise of 99.99% of western world inhabitants. OTOH he could just be a sleeper cell or organically festered terrorist.
If it's a race to the bottom, why is China now the biggest car market instead of say Haiti or Zimbabwe or Myamar?
Even adjusting per capita.
I have several suggestions on how we can compete internationally more effectively:
1) Re-occupy Kuwait and most of Persian Gulf. China oil price based on US trade deficit * 3.
2) Coordinated massive nuclear attack with India and China (under threat of no more oil) on Pakistan along with breaking up the country and demolishing all capability of producing nuclear weapons or anything more sophisticated than a toaster in the future. Get North Korea while you're at it. Very thouroughly. If they bomb the shit of South Korea, fine. We wasted so many hundreds of billions on them already.
3) Iran nuked the next day if they don't agree to massive inspection/disarmement
4) Execute butchtrucks, probable Al Queda/CCP agent.
Our only remaining asset is world's srongest military. It won't last. let's use it.
You one of the Borgias?
Who's got the most nuclear bombs and the most powerful military in the history of earth? Deal with it.
Interesting where the Zerohedge Zeitgeist is heading. Every icon is falling because people in another camp want the icon's head for not being like them.
One thing that Zerohedge AND the recent protests have taught me---and for some very odd and not so readily apparent reasons---is that there is no way out of this mess we are in.
I would like to think that there is some large core of rational human beings out there who are not from the Socialized Losses School of Economics nor Free Lunchers nor from the Culinary Institute of Eat the Rich nor from the Real Work Means You Sweat Vocational School nor from the Church of the Perpetual Conspiracy.
I would like to think that. I'm realizing that is too much to ask. I suspect we will all slaughter each other as each of us takes it upon himself to rid the world of what each has determined are the bad guys. I suppose that is what humanity has always done, which is why we occasionally take a step backwards into darkness.
I also suppose Faber knows this, and has chosen semi-rural Thailand as a good a place as any to pass the time when madness reigns.
Every thing I have posted here adheres to TD's and MF's analysis of current ills. So I concur on the overall trend analysis.
My only point is that these situations don't develop overnight. Its a long and slow descent to Hubris land. It began, as I see it for the USA, with its pax Americana imposed on world in 1949 (The Truman Doctrine). When the perfume of Eleanor Roosevelt, last true icon of the great generation and its contribution to structured world harmonious growth, as epitomised by the Universal declaration of the rights of Man she promoted, by the UN, by Bretton-Woods, by ILO etc. were trampled on by successive US administrations as irrelevant. FDR's legacy and the sacrifices of the great generation to build a better world died right there. When MAn goes wrong it always on first principles. The Soviet threat was pure false flags as the sequel of events showed. Stalin was playing catch-up ball to US Hiroshima and Nagasaki play on nuclear front. As was Krushchev in Cuba. That crisis and its peaceful resolution should have put an end to the nuclear spiral; Soviet economy paradigm and communist mantra of alternative civilization, a total hollow farce. The West knew that. Instead, the US and Soviet MICs exploited it for their own survival and exported it to third world. The world became 'An Arms Bazar' and we got the generation of Q-Daffys sprouting like venemous off-shoots all over the world. One more nail in the coffin of human progress and world economic integration to avoid wars by promoting commercial exchange and development as proclaimed by FDR's benign vision in 1943.
Eisenhower, as the other iconistic figure of that age, could not stop the dynamic of American Hubris, incarnated by the Dulles brothers, by McCarthyism, by J Edgar Hoover's vision of policing America, by the Seven Sisters and their Oil monopoly, by the age of Motor Car and Plastics, all functioning on cheap Arab oil, by the MIC to muscle into third world; in short, by the Dr Strangelove hubristic legacy.
The Nixon short on Dollar-gold standard, and the Opec oil hike as counter Cartel knee-jerk, started the great slide into the Ponzi fiat Economy, that RR and Reaganomics nailed down as a political philosophy. Bush's NWO made it a world-wide modus operandi through rampant 'outsourcing', the US-China handshake; the great financial ponzi was now the land of the global Oligarchs, the happy few, the new Pharoahs of the world.
So a trip back into time shows us how we got where we are. What the root causes are. I agree, the system will NOT fix itself from within. Too much is at stake for the Powerful. It will require once again a Renaissance age where the MAntra of Financial-Political God's ONE and only new Papal-Oligarchical church will burn in its own Borgian melt-down. The Oligarchy has to seal its own doom through inevitable infighting that we currently witness on financial front. What they cherish most, their fiat fortunes, will burn in their very fingers. But so will we as blind mice, human collateral. Until a new Luther/Galileo comes along and shows us the way out of the previous decay into a new paradigm.
The cycle will rebegin. I hope against hope that Eleanor Roosevelt's legacy of one humanity survives. But it doesn't look like it in this century. We are heading to Armageddon and Oligarchical self-destruction. Their overt excuse? Not enough resources and too many people on Earth. The corporates will tear this world apart in their casino play for land/ resources. Play on Sisyphus.
Thoughtful posts, Chindit and Falek - agree it is so hard to imagine a way out from here.
Human nature is such that when scarcity enters the scene along with overcrowding and fear (along with lack of community cohesion), the entire ethos changes. It has changed so much in my lifetime as to be almost unrecognizable.
"Who's got the most nuclear bombs and the most powerful military in the history of earth? Deal with it."
Sheer stupidity! You cannot USE a nuclear bomb, it's a weapon that **was** (note the past tense) designed for scorched earth policy against USSR. It's totally *useless* in our post cold war world... unless the U.S. think they're done and they wanna take the rest of the world with them into the grave before China invades them (which will happen in 2070?)
The last remaining option is false-flag op followed by a military occupation of the target (= Iran). With TWO previous epicly failed attempts (Iraq and Afghanistan) I cannot see how a 3rd one would work this time.
Have you looked at a map rcently? Iran is a huge country; four times bigger than Iraq and three times bigger than Afghanistan.
The U.S. Military machine is a giant with feet of clay... Oh looks like you've lost your last asset!
Austerity for the people, with no suggestion of cutting the military is not the right solution.
Do we even want to bring the US back to what it was? It has taken a wrong turn long ago, building suburb after suburb of a lifestyle that requires tons of gas. We have high autism, cancer, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and Alzheimers because of our wrong turn. Honestly, I think we need to look for a new way instead of continuing down this wrong turn. I am biased though. I have already largely dropped out of the system, and wild horses couldn't drag me back into it. Now that I 100% work for myself, it's hard for me to see how others would want to work for low wages. The notion of being a low wage worker in todays world seems really unappealing. When we get more small businesses instead of giant corporations to work for, then I might think it seems more appealing to be an employee again.
I did buy the part of what he said about the US needing a purge of the financial system to fix things though. Because of the way fractional reserve banking works always only printing the principal and never the interest. There is just not enough money to keep paying the debt payments, and the more loans they keep giving each other to bail each other out only make it get worse and worse and worse. The defaults need to happen to reset the system.