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Friday, April 6, 2012

Economic Collapse Update - April 06, 2012 - Where is the Recovery?

Blogman's Notes:

Time after time after time since the beginning of the present Economic crisis, rather Economic catastrophe, we have been told that the crisis was over but later found out that it had actually gotten worse. If the crisis was truly over, the following actions would not need to be taken by the ‘Authorities’ and the following consequences would not be the result of such actions: actions taken by various Authorities such as the Fed, the ECB, other Central banks and Political leaders to supposedly resolve the unprecedented crisis that they and the MSM had previously told us could never happen. Remember President Bush II telling us that the fundamentals of our Economy are strong! Remember Bernanke telling us that ‘There was no housing bubble’, and that ‘The Sub-Prime crisis had been contained’. Remember Jim Cramer telling us that Bear Stearns was sound and healthy just a couple of days before it went under. So keep in mind that Bankers, Politicians and Media people tell lies with less effort than most people exercise when breathing. Lying is not Second Nature to them, it is their very nature, and they couldn’t tell the truth even if someone put a gun to their heads! So let’s list some of the actions that the most powerful and connected people on the face of the Earth have taken to bring back Peace, Prosperity and Good Times. And then let us list some of the consequences of their actions and see how successful they have been in accomplishing their stated goal of restoring growth of the Global Economy!

SOME OF THE ACTIONS OF THE AUTHORITIES (FED, ECB AND OTHERS) TO DATE
  • ·         The Fed and The ECB have kept interest rates at emergency levels of near 0 percent for some 4 years now. The Fed has promised to keep rates this low till at the end of 2014 (another 3 years), so they fully expect the Crisis not to be over before then!
  • ·         QE (Quantitative Easing) and LTRO are just two of a host of new acronyms that have sprung up around this Crisis such as TARP, ZIRP, ESM, EFS and too many others to list here. Some of these are PERMANENT operations; does that not prove that the ‘Authorities’ expect this to be a Permanent Crisis?
  • ·         The Fed bought 61% of US bond issues in 2011, if the Global Economy were healthy, should not Americans and international buyers be lined up to buy American debt? How long before the Fed is the only buyer of US debt and the ECB the only buyer of Eurozone debt? Are these signs of a healthy Global Economy?
  • ·         700 billion was all that it was supposed to take to resolve the Crisis and to begin a healthy recovery; now no one calculates figures in billions any longer. Soon Trillions may not be enough!
  • ·         Trillions are given to ‘Too big to fail’ banks and Corporations while billions are cut from Pensions and other Social safety benefits. The peanuts that are being supposedly saved through ‘Austerity” are destroying the lives of Seniors and Pensioners. Yet Political leaders shove this bitter medicine down the throats of their own citizens, whom they are supposedly serving, while handing out TRILLIONS to their banker buddies and other well connected Corporate types.

SOME OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE CRISIS TO DATE

So what have been the consequences of the actions that have been taken by the ‘Authorities’ to resolve this unprecedented crisis? As the following list proves things are getting worse, much worse I would say yet the ‘Authorities’ stay the course? They cannot possibly be that stupid not to really see the consequences of their actions. So the only logical conclusion one can draw is that this is THE PLAN: A complete and total devastation, by design, of the present Global Economy that will surely result in several billion deaths. Most people will never believe that such diabolical plans can actually be hatched by other humans, or at least by people that seem to be human. Almost all Leaders on the Global scene – Politicians, Religious leaders, Corporate leaders, Military Brass, Academics, Media and Entertainment personalities are Sociopaths that lie, cheat and kill without a twinge of Conscience. History proves that Megalomaniacs always rise to the top (or sink to the bottom depending on perspective), and they do plan and execute policies that have killed millions and billions in the past and will do so again. So the answer to the question whether such demonic personalities whose bloodlust is so powerful that they can launch world wars can exist today is in the affirmative. They have always existed in the past; they exist in the present and will exist in the future till there is no future.
  • ·         The Housing market which had supposedly recovered is once again ready to sink much lower.
  • ·         Far more people in the US keep falling out of the ranks of the Middle Class on to welfare rolls, people are getting poorer, the Middle Class is becoming the Poor class, and the poor class will soon be destitute.
  • ·         Unemployment will rise to such levels that not all the manipulation of statistics in the world will be able to hide the problem. The word ‘Hobo’ will once again be in vogue as it was during the Great Depression. Already millions have just stopped looking for work altogether because there are no jobs to be found. Layoffs are continuing, as for example Yahoo just announcing the laying off of 2000 well paid staff.
  • ·         In Austerorrized countries like Greece, people are publicly committing suicide because all means of sustenance have been violently taken away from them.
  • ·         China's growth has slowed dramatically, and that is even with the fake numbers that they report. It is unlikely that there has been any real growth in China or India the past 3-4 years.
  • ·         India is facing a budget crisis and is doing all to stem outflows of Foreign Capital but the very actions it is taking is causing Foreign Capital to flee the country even faster. India is in a much more dire state than China for it has nowhere near the Foreign Currency Reserves (US dollar, Euro, Yen) that China does. And since India's supposed Economic Miracle was a direct result of Foreign Investment, as investment dries up look for India to suffer a revolutionary hangover that will make The Arab Spring revolutions seems like a picnic in the park.

So is the Economic Crisis over or we just entering the beginning of phase 2 of the Crisis that will also make Phase 1 look like a picnic in the park? Don't be fooled into break out the champagne just yet, we are only in the 2nd inning of the ballgame, there is a long ways yet to go!

VIDEO CLIPS AND ARTICLES THAT FOLLOW PROVE THAT EXPECTING THE GLOBAL ECONOMY TO KEEP SLOWING DOWN AND TO FINALLY COLLAPSE IS BEING REALISTIC. THE ILLUSION OF RECOVERY IS THE FANTASY
Politics / Great Depression IIApr 02, 2012 - 03:53 AM By: James_Quinn

Watching pompous politicians, egotistical economists, arrogant investment geniuses, clueless media pundits, and self- proclaimed experts on the Great Depression predict an economic recovery and a return to normalcy would be amusing if it wasn’t so pathetic. Their lack of historical perspective does a huge disservice to the American people, as their failure to grasp the cyclical nature of history results in a broad misunderstanding of the Crisis the country is facing. The ruling class and opinion leaders are dominated by linear thinkers that believe the world progresses in a straight line. Despite all evidence of history clearly moving through cycles that repeat every eighty to one hundred years (a long human life), the present generations are always surprised by these turnings in history. I can guarantee you this country will not truly experience an economic recovery or progress for another fifteen to twenty years. If you think the last four years have been bad, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Read More

This is a well analyzed and well written article by James Quinn. My only disagreement is that there will be a recovery in 15-20 years. I believe the plans of the Elite and their shadow Masters are far more diabolical. They plan on killing off a large percentage of the present population of the world, and in the process destroying much of the world itself through warfare, engineered famines and pandemics, and through climate disasters. While it is not common knowledge, Weather manipulation and Climate control technologies have been worked on and perfected over the past 100+ years. So the diabolical goal of the Powers that Be is nothing short of reshaping the planet and remaking the world and ruling over what will be left of humanity as gods. The world in 2030 may more closely resemble the world of Soylent Green than the world that existed at the end of 2011.

This rather cheesy movie by today’s standards was released in 1973. The story takes place in 2022, and the premise was that by that time most of the Earth’s oceans and land had been contaminated. Surviving humans had been herded into mega-cities; for example, the population of NYC was 40 million crammed on top of each other. There was no fresh food, and farms were off limits to the majority. In the trailer, the narrator begins by stating, “NYC 2022, nothing runs anymore, nothing works…” Though a work of fiction, the scenario in the movie may be far more realistic than most people living today would believe. However that is the plan of the Elites: kill billions, herd the survivors into tightly sealed cities, forbid growing food, raising livestock etc. and have the survivors barely subsist while being totally dependent on the State. The State would be a very few Elite enjoying all the luxuries as the Elites enjoy in Soylent Green. Euthanasia, as depicted in the movie would be State policy; this Dystopian movie provides a chilling glimpse into the future through the eyes of the Elites and their other-worldly masters! I for one would not be surprised to see the world more closely resemble Soylent Green in another decade or two, all the signs point to just such an inevitability.

The above article from ZeroHedge.com points out the fallacy of Mainstream Media reporting on Corporate profitability. The Media has been hyping that Corporations on sitting on a ton of cash that they have earned through increased productivity, thereby generating greater profits. The 3 charts displayed in the above article prove the opposite to be the case.
  • 1.       Corporate Leverage is on the rise
  • 2.       Corporate Debt levels, like Government Debt is going through the roof
  • 3.       Margins are being squeezed. Corporations have to keep cutting their margins to sell their products. This means that they are less profitable in fact not more so.

So any vision of Corporations coming to the rescue of the Economy because they have become so profitable that they will be hiring millions of workers is a myth. It is sad that the deceptive MSM does not present the truth to the public but since their very existence is dependent on the lies they tell, can we expect it to be otherwise? Factories might have been kept humming for a season but not because they can’t keep up with demand but because Inventories have been building. There are unsold products filling warehouses from China to Germany to the US of A. Disingenuous reporting of sales numbers is the norm not the exception. For example, GM reports a car as being sold soon as it leaves the factory; whether the Dealer sells it or not is immaterial! And the Media – Political machine dare not question such practices. Façade after façade after façade is being lined up one behind the other like domino tiles but the day is not far off when the illusion may no longer be maintained, as in Greece, and the dominoes will fall. The fall may be delayed till after the US Presidential elections but not much longer than that.
(Reuters) - U.S. employers hired far fewer workers in March than in previous months, keeping the door open for the Federal Reserve to provide more monetary support for a still sluggish economy. The report was seized upon by Republicans hoping to make the weak economy the centerpiece of their campaign for November's presidential and congressional elections. Even as the unemployment rate fell to a three-year low of 8.2 percent, job growth slowed to 120,000 last month, the Labor Department said on Friday, the smallest increase since October. That was less than half the average monthly increase in the prior three months and way below the lowest estimate in a Reuters survey. Economists had expected an increase of 203,000 and the jobless rate to hold at 8.3 percent. The numbers likely reflected the fading boost from unseasonably warm winter weather and brought the job market, which had been showing surprising strength since December, more in line with signs of a broader slowdown in the overall economy. Read More

Everytime the Media and Political leaders begin celebrating an Economic Recovery, some piece of data pops up to burst that balloon. As the above report and the following two reports prove, the unemployment situation in America is anything but rosy.
(Reuters) - Yahoo Inc will lay off 2,000 people, or 14 percent of its workforce, in its deepest round of job cuts in years as new Chief Executive Scott Thompson tries to jumpstart growth with a leaner, more agile company while saving hundreds of millions of dollars.
Mid-priced department store JC Penney announced today that it has laid off 600 workers and will dismiss 300 more employees in July, the Associated Press reported.
(Reuters) - Half a decade into the deepest U.S. housing crisis since the 1930s, many Americans are hoping the crisis is finally nearing its end. House sales are picking up across most of the country, the plunge in prices is slowing and attempts by lenders to claim back properties from struggling borrowers dropped by more than a third in 2011, hitting a four-year low. But a painful part two of the slump looks set to unfold: Many more U.S. homeowners face the prospect of losing their homes this year as banks pick up the pace of foreclosures. "We are right back where we were two years ago. I would put money on 2012 being a bigger year for foreclosures than 2010," said Mark Seifert, executive director of Empowering & Strengthening Ohio's People (ESOP), a counseling group with 10 offices in Ohio.


We have been told that there will be no Recovery in the US without a Housing Market recovery, and so everyone from the White House to the Wall Street bankers have been hoping that there was a real Housing Market Recovery so that they could tout their policies as being the reason for the recovery. However as many informed people have pointed out with good reason, there has been no recovery in the Housing Market, and there will be no Recovery for quite some time, if ever. The Housing Market is far from a bottom; it may drop as much as 50% more or go even lower. The question is why is that which is obvious to any reasonable person based on available data seems so difficult for our Political leaders and Media to fathom. Why has it taken Reuters 4 years to figure out that which was clear as daylight to anyone with half a brain 2 years ago that the Housing Market was not anywhere near a bottom in 2010 or 2011?    Read More

China’s cheerleaders made a critical lapse in judgment when they assumed the country’s runaway prosperity of the last 20 years signaled the birth of the world’s next super power. The clear lesson of history is that no nation ruled by Communist leadership can ever hope to become a complete super power on the global stage. An economy capable of bouncing back from adversity in short order requires a flexible free market financial system able to respond to the rigors and complexities of the reticulated global marketplace. A Communist superstructure is by its very nature rigid and unresponsive to subtle free market signals and can’t help but eventually be overwhelmed by the economic super cycles when they converge to the downside. In many ways this is China’s first real test as a major economic power. The country will soon discover what an industrial recession/depression is like. How it responds to this critical test could well determine its economic and political future. If the Communist Party proves woefully inept in responding to the challenges of a deep economic recession, we may well witness a revolutionary uprising of the Chinese people demanding a more democratic and less authoritarian government. Throwing off the shackles of Communism would indeed liberate China’s economy, allowing it to reach heights previously deemed impossible under Beijing’s dictatorship.

Understanding the real fundamentals of China and India’s supposed Economic miracle helps paint a picture that is very different than that presented in the Media. As reasoned on many of my blog entries and by many others more informed than myself that China and India are ticking time bombs that will one day not be able to save themselves Economically and politically let alone save the rest of the world. Both of these nations have deep underlying social, political and economic problems that are not going to vanish magically; and when their inevitable implosions happen, as they surely must, the shockwaves will be felt all around the world.
British finance minister George Osborne on Monday criticised an Indian plan to retroactively tax business deals, saying it could damage foreign investment in the fast-developing country. A proposal to allow Indian authorities to make retroactive tax claims is widely seen as targeting British mobile phone giant Vodafone, which has been battling the New Delhi government over alleged unpaid taxes. The company in January won a Supreme Court case against the government's bid to tax the firm over its $10.7-billion takeover in 2007 of Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa's Indian unit.
But Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee then announced a move to bypass the court ruling, adding to growing wariness among foreign investors about putting their money in Asia's third-largest economy. Read More

India is in a Catch-22 situation. It desperately needs Foreign Investment but Foreign Corporations do not like paying taxes. In an environment where Foreign Corporations feel that they will have to pay higher taxes than the token amounts they pay at present, they will pull their investment out of the country. How devastating an impact this will have on that nation, few can comprehend; but it will be devastating, especially for the hundreds of millions of destitute poor in that country.

CONCLUSION

The Bible tells us that the Prosperity of fools shall destroy them (Proverbs 1:32). What the developed world, and to a lesser degree, Slave labor nations like China and India have experienced over the past 30 or so years is Debt generated prosperity that was unprecedented in the world’s history. The goods that were manufactured for Western consumption could only have been manufactured at such low cost using Slave labor in China and other parts of the world. And because these goods were manufactured at such low cost, the Western populations could buy 7 TVs per family and computers and clothing like never before in history. And so they felt that they were prosperous! But the reality was that even the people of the developed world did not have enough money to buy these goods outright, even at the low costs at which they were manufactured! So they had to go into debt to buy goods that they really did not need but wanted anyways like kids in a candy store. To satisfy their insatiable needs, the Western bankers, who like all bankers profit from generating debt, opened wide the spigots of credit, which is a Debt Albatross that weight heavy on all who carry it. This is why, especially in the West, but now more and more in the East too, Buy Now – Pay Later schemes became the norm rather than the exception. Whereas up until the 70’s the only two things that most people financed were a House and a Car, from the 80’s onwards, Westerners began charging everything to their credit cards that the bankers kept increasing the limit on, as long as they got a minimum payment each month. If people had been truly prosperous, they would not have needed to go into debt to buy a pair of shoes or eat out at Macdonald’s. Although foolish people felt prosperous because they had more goods than they could ever possibly use, theirs was a Fool’s Prosperity, and in the process they themselves became fools.  They were played like fools by the bankers who were aided and abetted by politicians; the very politicians that were supposedly out to protect the public from the bankers. So in the end their prosperity, which is the Prosperity of fools will destroy them, and has already begun to destroy them. They lusted after goods rather than being desirous of knowledge and understanding that Debt is a hard taskmaster and an unforgiving master. They did not want to understand the System that could bring them flat screen TVs at such low prices, and to be able to purchase 4 bedroom luxury houses when they did not have two nickels to rub together. They were fooled and loved being fools; the very Prosperity that they though they deserved without understanding what real Prosperity means is now destroying them because real Prosperity cannot be purchased with a credit card. And sadly few of the masses are wiser as to what happened, few are desirous to acquire real knowledge; the majority is content allowing the same Powers that Be that created the problem to be left in charge of fixing the problem. Those who had spent their time and energy on acquiring knowledge rather than goods foresaw the coming problem; I recall having a discussion at a New Year’s party in 1999 with supposedly informed people that the System was a façade with no underlying foundation and must crash sooner or later. For most of those upper Middle Class folks I was trying to enlighten, I might as well have been speaking Martian; they could not comprehend what I was warning them about. Sadly most of them still do not comprehend what has happened and is happening today. Sadly the majority never realizes there is a problem until the problem becomes too great to solve. This is happening in Greece and other nations, it will also happen in the US, in Canada and the rest of the world.  Are you going to see your loved ones on suicide watch before you wake up or will you let go of the glitter and glamor of Material things and begin to educate yourself on Eternal matters before it is too late? The time gets shorter by the day before the whole System comes crashing down and takes billions of lives with it, even in nations that may seem immune to such problems like the US and Western European countries. Those with foresight foresaw what is happening today decades ago; what we foresee next will make the present look like a Club Med holiday!

1 comment:

  1. ...it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it...

    ReplyDelete