The Wake Up Call

Bought a house, did we? Oh, we must be wealthy, right? Uh, no, not if you had to borrow money. Healthcare’s The Best in the World in America, right? Sorry. Used to be. No longer is. America has the finest secondary education the world has to offer, yes? ‘Fraid not. Other countries have caught up and their students will not be indentured servants for most of their professional lives. Official lies, one after the other for your consumption. America has chosen its own destiny. You have to live with it. The resurgence of crime during the ongoing economic collapse. Violent crime up 15% last year. Excerpt from John Whitehead’s new book,A Government of Wolves: The Emerging Police State”together with some examples of recent police brutality. A few words on the ObamaCare insurance premiums. The movie,“It’s A Wonderful Life”.10 facts-and-figures: Only In America

We are beyond the point where it is necessary to repeat the facts here. The question now is whether you can endure a life of indentured servitude to the banks because either you dared to buy a house or get educated or because you will be financing the debt your parents contracted for the rest of your life. It really doesn’t make any sense, does it? Escape is the only solution. Join the Richard Martin Meet-Up Group this weekend (10/27) in New Brunswick to learn how. (See above for details). You will not regret it. Dylan Ratigan’s rant on the unwillingness of anyone in power to address the national debt. The truth about “Obama’s Shrinking Deficits”. A bubble in beer! Problems at the USPS. People selling body parts (to celebrate the Recovery?) The ever-declining economic environment as evidenced by constantly receding consumer spending

A long but very incisive interview with the head of The Automatic Earth blog site. I agree with everything she says. A far-reaching survey of her opinions on many matters pertaining to the future. This is a first for me – the longest interview the Wake-Up Call has ever transmitted. Well worth your while. A brief comment (from me) on America’s decision to ‘kick the can down the road’ on the debt ceiling and related issues. A truly pathetic spectacle. Update on the TPP. Inequality in America. The coming union of the largest European banks in 2014. Comment from David Stockman. Anecdotal story about a drunken sheriff’s deputy trying to arrest a female soldier for not reciprocating his advances

We examine whether the enormous resources given over to this really represent the best way in which we can defend society against unknown future disasters. I name some of them. A record number of e-mails pertaining to one of my show themes were received during the show today over this. More on General Motors regrettable use of subprime loans to sell its cars. An update on the Obamacare rollout. An update on the budget crisis. Why does the public sign on for all the nonsense about a fantasy “economic recovery”? The horror of 440,000 Americans killed each year by preventable hospital errors. Britain’s public equally uncritical towards the extinction of their freedoms. A comparison between the second U.S. central bank and the third (‘The Federal Reserve’, itself a deceptive and deceitful title)

Quick comment on the government shut-down and debt ceiling fiasco. We are witnessing what David Stockman calls the failure of the American state itself. It is careening wildly into dysfunction and incontinence. Vast sums of money transferred from the have-nots to the haves. The greatest heist of all time. The Federal Reserve is behind it all. There is no good reason for this and no possible positive outcome for the country. I describe in graphic detail the scandalous ‘money-drops’ to favored institutions and financial organizations and the so-called “reasoning” behind the fund movements. Why is the Prime Minister of Malaysia critical of the TPP but America seems to take it lying down? Both countries are equally disadvantaged by this so-called “trade agreement” which is nothing of the sort. Third quarter earnings reporting season has just begun and the results are grim. Beggars now need permits in Middle Township, NJ. Failure to possess one will incur the unfortunate beggar in a $250 fine. How delightfully humane! The Defense Department is ordering hundreds of millions of dollars-worth of equipment it doesn’t need. We all know why (don’t we?)

I offer several comparative statistics to show just how bad things are for young graduates today. For example, 100,000 janitors have college degrees. There is over $1 trillion outstanding in student loans which now exceed credit card debt. Families with a head-of-household under 30 years old have a poverty rate of 37%. The list goes on. A brief look at the absurd waste of the Afghanistan “war” retreat. Ongoing social and medical costs are nothing short of catastrophic. “Peak oil”! The reality of the auto loans indicating why things look so artificially good for the automotive industry. All smoke-and-mirrors… The French have banned free shipping of books to protect the bookstores! A searing report on the depression in Spain. Truly heart-breaking.

Which other country regularly shuts down pieces of its government because its politicians can’t stop bickering and blathering on about the same thing over and over again? John Kerry says Americans have the right to be stupid. Uh huh. All the while, the president announces to the world how “exceptional” America is. Let’s just open the box here and see what’s inside, shall we? Warning: it’s not a pretty picture. The horrendously stupid transfer of assets to Afghanistan and Iraq, all of which have to be trucked out again at untold expense. How exceptional! What is really behind the “government shutdown”. An overview of what remains ‘open’. Not much has been “shut down”… More on the necessity of leaving the United States. How schools teach conformity and suppress critical thinking. The Austrian School of Economics as my primary influence. Wal-Mart trying to reduce its bloated inventory ahead of Christmas

A quick word on Obamacare and how it is not considered that the current, 45,000 lack-of-insurance-based fatalities will decrease significantly – if at all – under Obamacare. Obamacare is expected to continue to leave 31 million people uncovered. A true monstrosity. Tipping: the psychological irrelevance to servers, the absurd business model, the bad feeling it engenders and the illogic to the customer who almost certainly doesn’t receive tips in his/her line of work. There is also extreme sexism involved. Interesting experiments leading to some surprising conclusions. Quick comment on the debt ceiling. Quick comment on the stock market from John Hussman. Why the Fed’s low interest-rate policy is so criminal. How the economy changed from pre to post-World War II. A dire warning from David Walker, former U.S. Comptroller General has been ignored. Consequences to follow

Obsession with sports in America’s schools is probably the leading factor behind America’s appalling showing on the world stage of academic achievement. How they treat sports in foreign schools. The history of the development of the tradition of sports in American schools. Experiments with curtailing sports programs and the results. The outrageous cost of sports in schools and how academics suffer in consequence from underfunding. Nobody seems shocked by America’s standing in world rankings. Obamacare registrations start in a few days. It will be chaos. Charles Biderman talks about fantasy economic statistics that originate in government offices. How long will the insanity last? The snares and pitfalls of borrowing money. The criminal act of forcing interest rates lower artificially and the consequences to society

Plenty of evidence that we are going down exactly the same path as in the late 1920s (wild speculation, huge income disparities, bubbles, etc.) and the final denouement cannot be any different. It is all ignored by the media and the public. The present high level of unemployment simply does not allow for economic growth. The case of the automotive industry and the dark shadows of subprime debt underlying the glowing reports of brisk car sales. The grim slowdown in China and the U.S. municipalities being dragged underwater. The story of the too-big-to-fail banks, much bigger now than they were in 2008 at the time of the melt-down. Spain’s authorities also lie about their economic situation. Target hiring 18,000 fewer temporary holiday season workers this year. Highly qualified ladies (MBAs, law degrees, other Masters degrees, etc.) looking for work as career nannies because they cannot find work elsewhere. More evidence that computers are taking jobs away. The desperate case of Japan. The BIS, the only global financial body to warn of the 2007/8 crisis is warning about the upcoming one which promises to be even worse

Americans have simply not saved enough for retirement. Pensions are woefully underfunded. Municipalities are hurtling towards bankruptcy. Social security is both underfunded and utterly inadequate for survival. Plenty of statistics to digest here. Young people already saddled with mountains of debt cannot even begin to save for their own retirement yet they must finance the retirement of the current retirees. Meanwhile, food-stamp usage is hitting new all-time records. Bernanke’s decision to continue flooding the system with useless money. David Stockman’s pithy comments. Automation hits the restaurant business. Mass unemployment foreseen among waiters and waitresses. Comparing the work ethic of ants and humans. How ants use randomness creatively and how humans…don’t! SEC ‘special exemptions’ and how they contributed to the crisis. Europe’s debt at a record high. Timing of the melt-down. Exponential events versus linear ones. Median household income has been falling sharply for several years. The fiscal crisis in Chicago dwarfs that of Detroit. Jim Kunstler on the consequences of the Fed’s abusive actions

Media Lies About The Economic “Recovery”In the grand tradition of fomenting optimism despite deepening economic gloom, we visit the 1930s and see that the media did the same thing then, too. “Happy Days Are Here Again” was a song devised for the Democratic National Convention in 1932, yet “happy days” themselves did not arrive for another twenty years. The media will maintain the fiction until the last possible moment. There is not enough innovation to support new jobs, which is why there are so many dead-end jobs in existence. They will go, too, with automation. The lifespan of all corporations is getting shorter and shorter as they fail to adapt

We explore what would have happened if the TARP bailout had never taken place. They told us it was Armageddon or TARP. Many banks would have gone under without TARP but businesses and the consumer wouldn’t have been much affected. They lied to panic Congress into approving the TARP. We never hear about this because to admit that they knew this, the Fed would have to admit that they were just protecting the banks. But it is the truth. We’d almost certainly be enjoying a robust recovery by now. The difference between removing a Stage 1 cancer and letting it metastasize to Stage 4. The national spending deficit soared in August. Nigel Farage – at it again! Global Warming returning to Global Cooling! An important aspect of debt that you need to know. The joys of Thailand’s medical system. A quick word on inflation. The new World Happiness Report

It is impossible to exaggerate the seriousness of this horror. Debt is the undoing of the United States. The dreadful process of unraveling and deleveraging can no longer be avoided. The consequences will be so invasive to people’s lives that they will rue the day when they ignored my plea for people to leave the United States. Life will become truly intolerable: shortages in every area, soaring crime, steeply rising taxes, curtailment of basic civic services, massively rising unemployment, total shut-down of basic freedoms… all these things are going to happen. The truth about the misrepresentation of corporate earnings. The specifics of the decline of the American middle class. The obsession with sports in American schools

Origins of the crisis. Household income is lower than in the mid-1960s. Since then the bottom 80% have seen their standard of living fall. Healthcare costs have increased 3,300% since 1970, creating tens of millions of sickly, functional illiterates. How debt has just been added systematically to paper over the cracks that are now deep crevices. And now Americans are being asked to give up their freedom as well! The economy will not accelerate in the “second half” as predicted. Consumers do not have the wherewithal to spend. Larry Summers, top contender for Fed Chairman when Bernanke leaves. The list of outrages concerning him will not disappoint. The state of marriage in our society