The Wake Up Call

Economic growth may be a thing of the past. Developing countries may play ‘catch-up’ but the developed world may see no appreciable progress for many decades. This is one reason why I suggest Asia as a venue for emigration. An interesting juxtaposition of several data points in the stock market from John Hussman which have converged on four occasions. Three times this happened the market collapsed shortly thereafter. We are experiencing the fourth right now. A few words about predictions and the propensity to base them on the calendar year. The immediate future of Europe. People are not aware of how fragile the economy is. Much of it is artificial and illusory. When it finally collapses, few people will understand why

An in-depth analysis of the monthly unemployment figures out today. Needless to say, they make no sense and they don’t “add up”. A brief survey of the economic state-of-play worldwide, indicating continuation of the global depression. Why housing prices must fall. A comparison between the housing bubbles of the 1920s and 2000s – remarkably similar. Money is being destroyed faster than it is being created by Bernanke, indicating deflation. Suicides are on the increase, up 15% this year but grotesquely undercounted

The insanity surrounding the growth of debt defies credulity. Future generations will shake their heads in disbelief. The upheaval surrounding the ultimate unwinding cannot be described in words. Nothing in human history will compare to the horror of it. Things are very grim in other countries too – and many of them are further along the road to deleveraging than the U.S. which hasn’t even started! Riots in Greece and Spain are getting more violent by the week. The powers-that-be are just as clueless over there as they are in the U.S. A few words on the Iceland example, a country which ‘did it right’ and is now on a path to genuine recovery. Bond buying by the ECB is done in exactly the same way as by the Fed, in both cases to circumvent the illegality of purchasing debt directly from sovereign countries – or ‘entities’ in the case of the Fed. The Fed is engaged in blatant manipulation to levitate prices everywhere. A new book by Sheila Bair, former FDIC chief called, “Bull By The Horns”. More fascinating bean-spilling.

Quoting the Economic Freedom Of The World 2012 Annual Report: from number 3 in the rankings in 2000 the U.S. came in at number 19 in 2010. Listen to the gory details. The Fed is powerless to act against full-scale automation, as described by Andrew McAffee. This is far more pernicious than losing jobs to China, etc. David  Malpass talks about why the Fed cannot achieve what it set out to do. None of the grimmest elements of economic deprivation can be addressed by the Fed. It is well-nigh impossible to believe that Bernanke thinks otherwise. The Business Roundtable’s third quarter CEO Economic Outlook Survey for 2012 shows sharply decreased CEO expectations and its index collapsed to 66 in the third quarter of 2012 from 89.1 in the second quarter of 2012, the third largest drop in the survey’s history

Final thoughts about quantitative easing or money printing. (Famous last words!) The meaning and origin of money. How banks have perverted their original purpose in the absence of the ability to lend money to the disappearing manufacturing sector. How criminal activity has come to be seen as normal and legit. How the Fed serves the commercial banks’ interests as opposed to the public’s. How the Fed is interfering with the normal interplay of price discovery in a free market. All this is creating a financial monster, out of control. How the entire operation will culminate in financial catastrophe. Europe is fast spiraling down in every aspect of its economic statistics

QE3 has already failed. Markets are falling. Consumers are retrenching again. H.S. Dent explains the mechanics of QE3. An in-depth look at QE3 and how it works and what it means and why, in fact, it won’t work. The ‘trail’ which indicates Bernanke’s bad faith: his desire to support the banks over any effort to relieve the population-at-large. The real reason banks do not rush out to foreclose on delinquent property. Which ‘economy’ do we want to revive? A question of “beware of what you want… you might get it”

An extended quote from Doug Nolan’s Credit Bubble Bulletin. He talks about how speculative financial leveraging creates an unlimited supply of credit and marketplace liquidity. Nolan gives a brief résumé of recent Fed blunders together with his ‘take’ on Bernanke’s decision last Thursday. None other than the Congressional Budget Office has warned that the U.S. could sink into recession with a loss of 2,000,000 jobs and the ratings firm of Egan-Jones has downgraded U.S. debt from AA to AA-. Another delightful rant from Nigel Farage. The price of gold versus the commodity market in general. The Empire Manufacturing Index confirms the biggest drop since records began

The newly published economic numbers show things getting worse for American families. Household income has been declining for four years in a row. How does a family make do on the national average income of about $4,000 a month? All the statistics are in decline. Yet we are told this is a “recovery”. A discussion of Bernanke’s latest interference in the system to “goose” spending (by people who clearly can’t afford it). Nice! The ill-advised Fed purchases are destined to drive the economy further into depression. Bernanke explained his “philosophy” a couple of weeks ago in Jackson Hole. He admitted he really doesn’t know if his policies will work or not, although I suspect he knows they won’t and he’s just – again – reaching out to help the banks in trouble

Subprime mortgages, subprime car loans, subprime student loans… tells its own story, really, doesn’t it? Some recovery! The ugly details of how people have been fooled by the system into thinking they are prosperous and successful when, in fact, they’re probably nudging bankruptcy. And all washed down with “hope”: no recession… Bernanke will save the day… China will have a soft landing… the Eurozone’s fortunes will turn… Don’t believe anyone who tells you housing has bottomed. Moral hazard as practised by the Federal Reserve.  Global manufacturing in full-scale decline. Wages of the poor.  Signs of collapse: Europe shows the way. The stress of “being or feeling busy”.  Why powerful people are ignoring the traditional media

Their harebrained plans know no bounds. Their stupidity grows by the day. Their inane schemes become more fantastic with each iteration. Meanwhile, the west’s economies continue to spiral down out-of-control with a full-scale run on Spanish banks with Spaniards having extracted a full 17.7% of total deposits. The dominos just keep falling and nobody has any idea about how to fix the situation. A description of the ECB’s new program to save the weak countries. An account of today’s unemployment figures and why they are lies and fabrications. The problems of baby boomers trying to sell their family homes as they “trade down”. Consult www.youwalkaway.com. An excellent resource. The perils of automation eating away at employment, potentially much more pernicious than jobs siphoned off to China

Inconveniently for Bernanke, plenty of commentators accurately foresaw the crisis in the 1920s. They accurately pinpointed the problem: too much money injected into the system, just like today; money which found its way into inappropriate investments such as real estate speculation and stock market bubbles. Bernanke claims there was not enough money in the system at that time. The ignorance and stupidity of the man knows no bounds. I’ll be dead in fifty years’ time but could someone who’ll still be around then please get a message to me letting me know how history will be judging Bernanke, Greenspan and all the other morons. Much obliged

The situation degrades every day, every week in Europe. Prolonging the agony by refusing to allow these countries to default simply aggravates the poverty and increases the debt. It’s insane.  Germany itself is now faltering economically. And the media just cry out for more monetary heroin. It is heartbreaking to see the grown men (and the German lady) flailing around in all directions with absolutely no idea about what they’re doing. One says one thing in the morning and contradicts himself the same afternoon. Another has a spat with his counterpart in another country. Several vignettes of Americans suffering through the depression. The horrendous waste in the budget of the military. It is clearly taking over the country. More on the incompetence of Bernanke. Household income is and has been declining since the “recovery” began

Study the correlation between delinquencies and foreclosures. It does not add up. Study the foreclosure trail for indications of real numbers. Delayed foreclosures and significant buying interest should result in a surge in price. Ask yourself why this hasn’t happened (and listen to the answer). Where are the new home buyers coming from? Mars? TV programs indicating a resurgence of “Flip This House’ interest. Shadow inventory lurks just beneath the surface. No activity in reforming the financial system almost guarantees another severe debt crisis. Lessons simply haven’t been learned. Taking debt and spreading it around (ECB trying to save Greece) will not liquidate the debt. It will just place it elsewhere. Are the Germans savvy enough to resist this nonsense? We shall see. The American government simply distributes new debt to the people. It’s like injecting cancer into human cells. It is pernicious in the extreme and ultimately fatal to the system. You will want to hear about the lipstick phenomenon

The story of the sand pile, the final grain that causes the avalanche. Interesting analogies to earthquakes, eco-disasters, political upheavals. Stability leads inexorably to instability. How to deal with uncertainty. Deleveraging will take many years to complete. All aspects of the economic breakdown are interrelated. Greed led to too much risk and now we must face the consequences. Examining what was behind the meltdown and the financial crisis four years ago. Bad behavior was universal throughout the system – and still is. The Federal Reserve was the major culprit

The fatal consequences of the still-mounting debt are edging ever-closer. They talk about the ‘fiscal cliff’. We are hurtling towards it, apparently, willfully inviting self-destruction. Lauren Lyster interviews Neil Barofski whose incredible revelations simply confirm our worst fears. Not-to-be-missed. The monthly retail statistic published this week was a demonstrable lie. George Soros in an interview with Newsweek says, “the situation is about as serious and difficult as I’ve experienced in my career, comparable in many ways to the Great Depression”.  The hazards and dangers to society of unmet expectations and assumptions. The DHS is ramping up for general social unrest in the U.S. Obama and Romney are identical clones. The MF Global investigation revealed no wrongdoing (as I fully suspected) – just blatant stupidity and chaos. This is what I suspected all along. Gary Gibson recommends emigrating