Showing posts with label Recession. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Recession. Show all posts

Saturday, 2 April 2011

Only Economists Believe the ‘Great Recession’ Ended

Reality is – beneficiarys of the System tend to be the
Very Rich and the Very Poor. The very rich for their political contributions and the very poor for their votes. A lot of (not all) Gov’t workers got a nice piece of pie too.

Of course, the middle class is picking up the tab. Now that the credit has run out, the middle class will become increasingly strapped.

The US was stable for so long because of a large middle class. Now that it is rapidly shrinking, the instability will increase.

I rode out Katrina and got a taste of instability. Soldiers on the corner. Humvees and army trucks parked at city hall and in front of the grocery stores. Standing in lines. Curfew at night. A female national guard shot a black guy in the head four blocks from my house with her M-16.
It did not make the papers, radio or tv. Two women I know were raped, dragged from their car. Ditto – never made the news – and this is a small town where everyone knows everyone. News was sanitized and controlled.

What will happen:
When the money goes bad fed.gov will say to come in and trade your green money for the new red money. In the grocery stores, your food stamps, welfare check (now Smart card) will only buy the red tagged items that are price fixed. Fed.gov will pay the farmers and grocers the difference.

Like in Katrina, the farmers, medics, nurses, cops, politicians, Homeland security – the Necessary and the Connected will have a gas line just for them.

Private pension funds and retirement accounts will be seized – and merged with the Social Security System.
This has already happened in a couple of European nations.

Police and Soldiers will have a Kent State moment when they have to decide to follow orders and fire on the crowd – or Not.

Of course, all of the above is totally unnecessary, wasteful, and counterproductive. A return to State’s Rights – meaning a return to the constitution and a return to true capitalism would fix the problems in a few years.

However, this will not be. The Marxists that run this country will never give up power. They will see the population slaughtered rather than give an inch. Greed, Power and Privelege drive these people, all the while professing a desire to “help” the poor man.
A man that wants to “help” you is a man that wants to control you.

We used to have democracy and capitalism. When they say “democracy” now, they mean a deliberately Misinformed populace doing what their masters tell them to do. When they say “capitalism” now they mean Crony Capitalism – Spoils go to the politically favored. Notice many of the State Workers in Wisconsin – Socialist Slogans and rhetoric. They know those fat checks and pensions come from POLITICS – not from Capitalist Achievement.

The Marxists that run our nation are STAGE 4 Conquerors.

Stage 1 conquerors:
Genghis Kahn, et al. They ride in, kill all the men, rape the women and ride off with the gold. The large standing army has to keep moving and keep stealing.

Stage 2 conquerors:
The Romans. Better organized than Kahn. March in, defeat the local army, take political control, and keep a garrison down the road just in case the locals get restless. But the tribute caravan yearly threads it’s way back to Rome.

Stage 3 conquerors:
The British. First identify resources needed by the Empire. Then exploit any local conflicts –
supply arms or money to one side or Both sides. Let the locals wear themselves out fighting each other. Or supply one side in exchange for resources. Only if the locals can’t be induced to kill each other is the British Army sent in – small surgical strikes by a well trained force. Once the British take over – roads are built, schools opened, the children of the rich are sent to school in London. Locals who play ball with the British are handsomely rewarded The ships move the rubber or cocaine about the Empire.
Anyone locals who gain a following are imprisoned, executed or assassinated.
The Military is a tool of business.

Stage 4 Conquerors:
What we have today. Much more sophisticated than the British. Winston Churchill said the empires of the future will be “Empires of the Mind”
First, Stage 4 Conquerors buy up all the newspaper and tv outlets and the news syndicates. Real journalists are fired, those who remain report only the stories they are told to report.

The true Conquerors remain relatively anonymous. Politicians are paid mouthpieces, groomed for years before the public ever hears of them. These Shills are chosen for their ability to persuade, to talk. And to obey their Masters. They know who butters their bread. Without the financing of the Conquerors for their campaigns and media backing, they cannot survive politically. Congress has had a 95%+ incumbency rate for years.

The Public is now mostly on Cable TV. The silly people pay their Conquerors $70.00 a month to tell them How to think and What to think. Because of watching TV, the public has mostly lost the ability to think – shortened attention spans. The public becomes Parrots for the Conquerors.

Keeping a standing army – Genghis Kahn – is expensive. Keeping a garrison -the Romans-
is expensive. Small surgical strikes by the British is less expensive – but controlling people’s minds with Cable TV is PROFITABLE.
No army is needed. Control the Mind, not the Body.
What’s your credit score? Got your MEDS?
Call 1-800 credit counseling. Buy this new car
Cash for Clunkers. Debt slaves who work until they die – and never own anything.

Stage 4 Conquerors create and constantly foment a state of Crisis. A constant Emergency. For example the FAKE War on Terror.

Any social ills are exploited. Any social conflicts are exploited. The device is
older than Machiavelli – Divide and Conquor. The Marxist overlords have a million devices to confuse and control the public.

Glenn Beck, O’Reilley, and Limbaugh – and their “Liberal” counterparts bombard the public with
‘Conservative – Liberal’ invective. This is to keep the public arguing among themselves rather that looking behind the curtain, where the Marxist overlords are Laundering Drug Money in big American and European Banks, Buying Elections, and Starting wars for profit. Democrat/Republican is the Diversion to conceal the real action.

Now you see “documentaries” on Las Vegas and Gambling. Clever advertisements to lure weak people into wasting money – disguised as journalism.

The list is endless and the public is clueless. They are going to the welfare office with their hat in their hand to ask their masters for a handout. They find themselves homeless in their own land.

Socialism/Marxism has done it’s work in America, it is deeply imbedded in the American gut. It took the Russians from 1917 to 1980+ to get rid of this disease and they are still weak from it. How many years will America Suffer?

Reply


View the original article here

Only Economists Believe the ‘Great Recession’ Ended

Reality is – beneficiarys of the System tend to be the
Very Rich and the Very Poor. The very rich for their political contributions and the very poor for their votes. A lot of (not all) Gov’t workers got a nice piece of pie too.

Of course, the middle class is picking up the tab. Now that the credit has run out, the middle class will become increasingly strapped.

The US was stable for so long because of a large middle class. Now that it is rapidly shrinking, the instability will increase.

I rode out Katrina and got a taste of instability. Soldiers on the corner. Humvees and army trucks parked at city hall and in front of the grocery stores. Standing in lines. Curfew at night. A female national guard shot a black guy in the head four blocks from my house with her M-16.
It did not make the papers, radio or tv. Two women I know were raped, dragged from their car. Ditto – never made the news – and this is a small town where everyone knows everyone. News was sanitized and controlled.

What will happen:
When the money goes bad fed.gov will say to come in and trade your green money for the new red money. In the grocery stores, your food stamps, welfare check (now Smart card) will only buy the red tagged items that are price fixed. Fed.gov will pay the farmers and grocers the difference.

Like in Katrina, the farmers, medics, nurses, cops, politicians, Homeland security – the Necessary and the Connected will have a gas line just for them.

Private pension funds and retirement accounts will be seized – and merged with the Social Security System.
This has already happened in a couple of European nations.

Police and Soldiers will have a Kent State moment when they have to decide to follow orders and fire on the crowd – or Not.

Of course, all of the above is totally unnecessary, wasteful, and counterproductive. A return to State’s Rights – meaning a return to the constitution and a return to true capitalism would fix the problems in a few years.

However, this will not be. The Marxists that run this country will never give up power. They will see the population slaughtered rather than give an inch. Greed, Power and Privelege drive these people, all the while professing a desire to “help” the poor man.
A man that wants to “help” you is a man that wants to control you.

We used to have democracy and capitalism. When they say “democracy” now, they mean a deliberately Misinformed populace doing what their masters tell them to do. When they say “capitalism” now they mean Crony Capitalism – Spoils go to the politically favored. Notice many of the State Workers in Wisconsin – Socialist Slogans and rhetoric. They know those fat checks and pensions come from POLITICS – not from Capitalist Achievement.

The Marxists that run our nation are STAGE 4 Conquerors.

Stage 1 conquerors:
Genghis Kahn, et al. They ride in, kill all the men, rape the women and ride off with the gold. The large standing army has to keep moving and keep stealing.

Stage 2 conquerors:
The Romans. Better organized than Kahn. March in, defeat the local army, take political control, and keep a garrison down the road just in case the locals get restless. But the tribute caravan yearly threads it’s way back to Rome.

Stage 3 conquerors:
The British. First identify resources needed by the Empire. Then exploit any local conflicts –
supply arms or money to one side or Both sides. Let the locals wear themselves out fighting each other. Or supply one side in exchange for resources. Only if the locals can’t be induced to kill each other is the British Army sent in – small surgical strikes by a well trained force. Once the British take over – roads are built, schools opened, the children of the rich are sent to school in London. Locals who play ball with the British are handsomely rewarded The ships move the rubber or cocaine about the Empire.
Anyone locals who gain a following are imprisoned, executed or assassinated.
The Military is a tool of business.

Stage 4 Conquerors:
What we have today. Much more sophisticated than the British. Winston Churchill said the empires of the future will be “Empires of the Mind”
First, Stage 4 Conquerors buy up all the newspaper and tv outlets and the news syndicates. Real journalists are fired, those who remain report only the stories they are told to report.

The true Conquerors remain relatively anonymous. Politicians are paid mouthpieces, groomed for years before the public ever hears of them. These Shills are chosen for their ability to persuade, to talk. And to obey their Masters. They know who butters their bread. Without the financing of the Conquerors for their campaigns and media backing, they cannot survive politically. Congress has had a 95%+ incumbency rate for years.

The Public is now mostly on Cable TV. The silly people pay their Conquerors $70.00 a month to tell them How to think and What to think. Because of watching TV, the public has mostly lost the ability to think – shortened attention spans. The public becomes Parrots for the Conquerors.

Keeping a standing army – Genghis Kahn – is expensive. Keeping a garrison -the Romans-
is expensive. Small surgical strikes by the British is less expensive – but controlling people’s minds with Cable TV is PROFITABLE.
No army is needed. Control the Mind, not the Body.
What’s your credit score? Got your MEDS?
Call 1-800 credit counseling. Buy this new car
Cash for Clunkers. Debt slaves who work until they die – and never own anything.

Stage 4 Conquerors create and constantly foment a state of Crisis. A constant Emergency. For example the FAKE War on Terror.

Any social ills are exploited. Any social conflicts are exploited. The device is
older than Machiavelli – Divide and Conquor. The Marxist overlords have a million devices to confuse and control the public.

Glenn Beck, O’Reilley, and Limbaugh – and their “Liberal” counterparts bombard the public with
‘Conservative – Liberal’ invective. This is to keep the public arguing among themselves rather that looking behind the curtain, where the Marxist overlords are Laundering Drug Money in big American and European Banks, Buying Elections, and Starting wars for profit. Democrat/Republican is the Diversion to conceal the real action.

Now you see “documentaries” on Las Vegas and Gambling. Clever advertisements to lure weak people into wasting money – disguised as journalism.

The list is endless and the public is clueless. They are going to the welfare office with their hat in their hand to ask their masters for a handout. They find themselves homeless in their own land.

Socialism/Marxism has done it’s work in America, it is deeply imbedded in the American gut. It took the Russians from 1917 to 1980+ to get rid of this disease and they are still weak from it. How many years will America Suffer?

Reply


View the original article here

Friday, 18 March 2011

When the Oil Price Portends Recession

leadimage

03/18/11 Baltimore, Maryland – What a nuisance! Our laptop computer collapsed this morning. Hours were wasted trying to revive it. We were like a carpenter without a hammer…a clown without a red nose…an idiot without a village.

Meanwhile, the financial world seemed to be on the verge of collapse too. Stocks rose 161 points on the Dow yesterday…after a big drop the day before. Gold rose a bit too.

This is the kind of market nervousness that usually resolves itself – in a big drop. Yes, our “Crash Alert” flag – tattered, faded, and frayed – is out. Ignore it at your peril!

The Fed is still pumping $4 billion of new money into the system every day. And the federal government is putting in another $5 billion of deficit spending every day.

With this kind of support, you wouldn’t expect asset prices to fall. Instead, they should be soaring.

“Don’t fight the Fed,” the old timers warn.

But watch out. The Fed might have lost control.

The Great Correction isn’t going away. It’s intensifying.

As you know, it’s been war out there. The feds against the market. The market wants change. The feds fight to protect the status quo.

It’s an ancient struggle. But this phase of it has been going on for more than 10 years. The markets try to go down…to correct their mistakes…to reduce the amount of debt in the system. And the feds fight back with overwhelming firepower – forcing prices back up…adding more debt…preventing bankruptcies. And now the battle is heating up.

What to make of it? First, the feds can destroy wealth. They can prevent it. They can move it around. But it’s only the private sector – and market forces – that create it.

Second, the more the feds meddle in the markets, the more distorted and grotesque the outcome becomes. Regulation, rigged credit markets, bailouts and subsidies – all pervert the natural outcome of market forces.

Third, the feds’ current use of overwhelming force to block a market correction is creating overwhelming unforeseen and pernicious problems. They put money into the system to try to encourage spending and investment. The money pushes up stocks – giving investors more “wealth” to spend. But it also tempts speculators into risky trades…and pushes up oil prices…giving business and consumers higher energy prices…and less money to spend on other things.

Let’s look at what happens next.

No, the feds didn’t cause earthquakes in Japan or revolutions and civil wars in North Africa. But they created such a rickety financial structure…so top-heavy with debt…that almost any calamity can bring it down.

As it happens, political troubles in the Arab states…and Japan’s nuclear problems…both grip the world’s single most important market – oil – like the jaws of a vise.

The Arab world produces the stuff. Japan consumes it. Without its nuclear reactors, Japan will rely even more heavily on other forms of energy…leaving more people standing in line with gas cans in their hands.

And here’s where the feds come in – their funny money had already sent the price of oil from a low near $30 at the bottom of the ’09 crisis…to a high over $100 before the first coffee cup started to rattle in Japan.

Where the price will go next, we don’t know. But it’s being squeezed on both sides – supply and demand – simultaneously.

And here’s something you should know:

According to Nomura Securities, every time there is a big increase in the price of oil – 170% or more – there is also a recession.

We mean every time in the last 40 years – ’74, ’79, ’90, and ’00.

And don’t forget, it wasn’t just subprime debt in the US that spelled doom for the economy in ’08. It was also skyrocketing oil prices…that pinched household budgets all over the world.

And guess what? The price of oil has already risen more than 170%. It had hit the critical point even before the revolutions in North Africa or the earthquakes off the coast of Japan. Now, under even more pressure, we can expect a higher price of oil…until the bottom falls out again…

Bill Bonner
for The Daily Reckoning

Author Image for Bill Bonner

Since founding Agora Inc. in 1979, Bill Bonner has found success and garnered camaraderie in numerous communities and industries. A man of many talents, his entrepreneurial savvy, unique writings, philanthropic undertakings, and preservationist activities have all been recognized and awarded by some of America's most respected authorities. Along with Addison Wiggin, his friend and colleague, Bill has written two New York Times best-selling books, Financial Reckoning Day and Empire of Debt. Both works have been critically acclaimed internationally. With political journalist Lila Rajiva, he wrote his third New York Times best-selling book, Mobs, Messiahs and Markets, which offers concrete advice on how to avoid the public spectacle of modern finance. Since 1999, Bill has been a daily contributor and the driving force behind The Daily Reckoning

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View the original article here