The Wake Up Call

The frustrations of having to listen to all the nonsense we are fed on a daily basis. The meek and total acceptance by ‘the people’ of everything we are told is terrifying. Orwell’s totalitarian view of society is fully with us. The intensity and relentlessness with which the state and its minions attempt to paint a false picture of economic recovery is breathtaking in its arrogance and desperation. The meltdown comes to energy junk bonds which comprise 15% of the entire junk bond market. There is already financial contagion. The spectre of 2008 is already in evidence. The tsunami of debt defaults is about to hit with a vengeance. Ron Paul’s take on the latest Congressional bill ‘strongly condemning the Russian Federation. The latest retail sales disaster. Details of the Senate torture report that recently came out. Truly sickening. Japan’s economy continues to melt down.

Some random thoughts about aspects of the economy, the state of the world, debt, propaganda… and growth. What growth actually is, whether we need it and if we do, how much do we need and when can we stop? What happens when growth stops? Is shrinkage such a bad thing? We could start by issuing less money! Ponder $18 trillion of national debt. The economy is crippled, The behavior of the United States abroad is appalling. Anat Admati, a Stanford University professor is predicting an imminent collapse. There will be a great crash. The story of the Cyprus stock market and how its horrendous collapse played itself out. It is a terrifying story. More on how the unemployment figures (just released last Friday) are unbelievable. An analysis of the figures shows a very different show.

$18 trillion in debt! Yes, we’ve arrived at that figure within the last week. Extinguishing some of the lies surrounding this that you will have been told or that you red in the press. Failed policies have brought the U.S. to its knees. And yet, this is only the beginning. Bernanke’s ‘experiments’ with QE have brought precisely nothing in terms of new wealth. This is terminal. They never discuss the consequences… because they don’t know what to say! The entire project is insane and built on an absurd construct. Talking about moving abroad and how to pluck up the courage to do so. Derivatives explained through the unfortunatel, real-life application of the oil market. The stock market itself: highly overbought, an accident waiting to happen… yet the stock market goes from strength to strength. More on the debt. The odious Alan Greenspan was interviewed recently and asked  what would happen in the future, His answer: “the central banks have no idea what they’re doing”. That’s a little rich coming from a moron who didn’t know what he was doing either! Capitalism has been entirely eviscerated by the Fed and the government.

The recent oil drop has only happened once before in history. The unmistakable takeaway from history is that economic activity is slowing down. The concomitant fall in the price of copper equally attests to that. Listen to the consequences of this decline which are not pretty. They are massively negative. Last week’s price collapse really shows us how the economy is doing… how consumer spending is falling… how much poorer people have become as stock markets set records. Shale is being priced out of the market. The amount of money lost will be stupendous. America has hitherto been the hawk when it comes to war declarations. Putin is now rising to the challenge. This is very unsettling. A word about the unemployment statistics. We go into a lot of detail to show how false and artificial they are. Two Ivy League American professors are roaming the earth trying to encourage anyone who will listen to print more money and bury themselves in ‘stimulus’. Rogoff even wants to outlaw cash and make every transaction subject to electronic transfers. O course, Abe has listened to every word they’ve uttered! If they built a shrine to financial madmen and terrorists in Japan, Rogof and Krugman would be right at the top. Money is nothing more than a medium of exchange. It’s interesting to trace money. Why every boom has to be followed by a bust. 

Some fascinating statistics showing how economically things have gone nowhere since 2004 but in financial terms the markets have risen by a phenomenal percentage. Other comparisons from 2004 war worth considering. GDP in our economies compared with GDP and  emerging market economies. All of which to prove that current levels of debt are unsustainable. Why the plunge in oil? Not what you think. Boomers are the first to recognize that they are woefully lacking a retirement.  The consequences of lower oil prices. More on the local unemployment problem. Future projections in countries such as China, Brazil, Russia. There is also global uncertainty. Businesses expect a tough slog going forward.

The entire world is falling apart economically. Yet two central banks think they can arrest this trend with their money-printing gambits. It didn’t, doesn’t and won’t work: Europe’s real GDP is no higher than it was in the third quarter of 2006. This obsession with the printing press needs to stop. The longer it goes on, the worse will be the consequences and they will already be unthinkable. The meaning behind currency devaluations. A primer on what happens in a devaluation with Japan used as an example. The subprime auto market and why it will end terribly badly. The economic consequences of marriage and divorce. A close look at the PPI (Producer Price Index). The insulting way the U.S. treats Chinese would-be visitors to the U.S. and the rampant discrimination against them. Martin Fridson on bonds. The true madness of Japan’s Abe.

The deliberate obfuscation of what money and debt are all about. We are reaching the final stage of this folly. More on the framing of Putin over Ukraine. The absurd storyline that the Anglo Saxons accept but widely doubted elsewhere. Lies, cover-ups, anything will be used to vilify and demonize Putin and punish him for harboring Edward Snowden and preventing the Americans from bombing Syria. Washington is locked in permanent war despite having no enemies! The War Party (i.e. everybody) won the elections. Watch them ramp up military spending. Brazil looking to evade the U.S. in purchasing IT technology and building cables to Europe. The Economic End Game as explained by Brandon Smith. Deteriorating world economic statistics. A criticism of the TPP from a Malaysian newspaper, including criticism from within parliamentary circles – just like in D.C. with Congress, right?.

An in-depth analysis of U.S. military bases around the world and the futility and redundancy of having them. Everywhere they exist they cause resentment and loathing. They are clearly a precursor to a major conflagration. Listen to a sobering account of what this all means. The horrors of NAFTA and its effect on Mexico. Bill Still talks about the U.K. government’s forthcoming parliamentary debate on how money is created. The fate of local government finances: a disaster waiting to happen.

The millennials were lied to. They were told that if they did all the right things, they’d achieve the American Dream. Anger and frustration are growing. This is a dangerous demographic to mess with. And, as the saying goes, they ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Listen to David Stockman trying patiently to make some points against a TV anchor trying to shut him down. A review of the Trans Pacific Partnership which we must all fight tooth-and-nail. When I ask you to send in a complaint to your local congressman, please do so. We did great last year. We can do the same again. Listen to some of the consequences from a Malaysian journal… because the U.S. ones refuse to cooperate. Parallels between the false prosperities of 2007 and 2014. Eerie similarities. And we all know what happened in 2008. More lies concerning the latest unemployment statistics from the BLS. Differences in economic approach between the U.S. and China… from an article in Forbes Magazine. Chinese manufacturing slowed in October. The future of the European Union is in serious doubt. A new, secret, spy program that can scoop data from your cell phone from overhead aircraft. Charming!

Greg Hunter regales us with his views. I follow up with plenty of other information to dispel anyone’s fond imaginings about a robust recovery he or she can’t see all around. These mainstream media types are truly a menace to society. More on the unconscionable debt situation, easily the most horrendous economic phenomenon of all time. The coming devastation cannot even be described in words. The U.S. is inexorably becoming a “McJob” nation as the middle class disappears. The surge in suicides in the EU, US and Canada. The truth about corporate debt in America.

A full moon is occurring on Friday the 13th today. Specifically, the full moon occurs at precisely 12:11 am EDT on Thursday night — i.e., early Friday morning. That means the 13th will coincide with the full moon for residents of the Eastern time zone as well as South America, Europe, Africa and Asia but not the Central, Mountain or Pacific time zones. The next time this happens will be August 13, 2049. It's pretty rare for these two events to fall on the same day. The last time it happened was October 13, 2000. The next time will be August 13, 2049. Is this relevant to anything? Probably not. The upside of having a second passport. Not only are people having trouble buying homes, they’re also having trouble fulfilling the conditions needed to sell them. Waste within the military. The fragility of European banks. An update on derivatives. Eternal optimism, courtesy the mainstream media. The economy still declining sharply: the relevant statistics…

Mario Draghi (President of the European Central Bank) has decided to annihilate savers, very much along the lines of Bernanke at the Fed. Even though it is plain for all to see that the Fed policies haven’t worked, Draghi has to have a go. Comment on the market and the ECB’s intention to see the markets goosed higher. In the U.S. beneath the surface, the stock markets have been a catastrophe with large numbers of IPO-stocks collapsing. A close look at why the economy is not improving. In fact, most people are doing much less well now than they did after the equivalent period subsequent to the Great Depression. I cite many statistics in support of that contention. Current stock valuations. The sad truth about shale oil deposits: they almost don’t exist. The absurd Fed meeting minutes. We appear to have reached “peak-motoring” in the United States.

The European Central Bank yesterday announced that they were even taking a key deposit rate NEGATIVE. In doing so, they basically acknowledged that everything else they have been trying over the last several years isn't working. They want you to go out and spend all your money in order to prop up the economy. They want you to borrow money so that you can spend even more. These policies make for very dangerous banking systems as they stuff their books full of idiotic, destructive loans. Global central banks are fully addicted to the opiate of debt. The Fed now has a balance sheet well into the $4 trillion range. That’s twice the size of California’s annual GDP. There’s no sign of pulling back or “austerity”. U.S. debt is now at $17.5 trillion and growing as the country spends more than it takes in. People do realize that this principal is never going to be paid back. The country’s now paying over $415 billion a year simply on maintaining its debt. More of my views on the economic melt-down (otherwise known as ‘The Recovery’). The collapse of the iron ore market shows the extent of the economic set-back in China. Comparing the extent of food insecurity in the United States with that of other countries. The war machine cranks on, courtesy of Barack Obama.

The velocity of money has fallen to an all-time, record low. This means that economic activity is grinding to a halt. An all-time record one out of every eight men in their prime working years (25-54) is not in the labor force. No amount of money-printing will bring them back. Printing money is as irrelevant to the problem as creating billions of cans of baked beans. (Actually that would be more useful: you can eat the beans but you can’t eat the money). I explain why the U.S. is broke. The government is broke. “Owing the money to ourselves” is a malicious and spurious lie. All areas of government are insolvent including the Federal Reserve. U.S. debt as a percentage of GDP is getting higher and higher. The situation is desperately critical but nobody can see it because the media cover it up. Stock market report. The China question. The hypocrisy of that evil and merciless institution: the IMF.

The retrenchment of the retail sector presages unmistakably an imminent official recession. Massive job losses can be expected. And all the while, the major organs of the media are telling you that all is well… and that a 1 per cent GDP contraction is nothing to worry about and that 3-4% GDP growth will obtain from the second quarter onwards. I talk about retail space per inhabitant in the U.S., far above that of any other country on earth. The adjustment here will be agonizing – most notably in the employment picture. They say 92 million Americans have left the workforce since 2007. Unemployment could not possibly be at 6.3% if that were the case. And if the rate were truly at 6.3%, retail sales would be far higher. Credit card debt has reached an all-time high but is being used for income and real estate taxes, energy costs, food and other necessities. More on the housing crisis.