Asian markets bled from the eye sockets overnight and their European counterparts followed suit…but (as usual) no sooner did the sun rise over Manhattan (to shine on ‘God’s country’) did the markets miraculously reverse direction.
For, once again, absolutely no reason.
But wait, the ‘investors’ among us march to the beat a ‘different drummer’; could this morning’s ‘rally’ be attributed to the joy they feel over there now being one less dictator
Since there truly is nothing for investors to take stock in, they are, by necessity, reduced to betting on the outcome of these ‘regime changes’.
But this is meaningless for the rest of us, back in the land of reality we have bigger problems to ponder.
There was an economic, er, ‘downturn’ after the US Civil war that lasted until the turn of the century.
While the parallels are ‘remarkable’, I personally ‘disagree’ with this, er, ‘rosy’ assessment that all will be well come 2031...
First, depressions can last a very long time, and when their origins are in a debt bubble they should be measured in decades not years. For a century or more, depressions have been relatively short, sharp episodes. They are like having a tooth pulled, rather than a chronic sickness — painful, but over quite quickly. But it doesn’t have to be that way. In the U.K., for example, this is already the longest recession since records began — in the sense that output is still below its 2008 peak. It is more enduring than the depression of the 1930s. That is true of many other countries, as well. If, as seems likely, Europe, and perhaps the U.S., slips back into recession in 2012, it will be clear to everyone we are witnessing something far longer than the conventional economic textbooks allow for.
Second, this depression is structural. The Long Depression of the 19th century had its roots in financial speculation, technological change, and the arrival of a massive new player in the global economy. Our current depression likewise has its roots in three huge crises coming together at the same time. We have a debt bubble that had been building up over three decade and which burst spectacularly in 2008. The dollar is in long-term decline as a reserve currency, and as the anchor for the global monetary system, but there is still not much sign of what will replace it. And in the euro, the biggest single economic bloc has created the most dysfunctional monetary system in human history, threatening financial collapses on an unprecedented scale. Think of it as the world economy’s suffering a heart attack, then a stroke, then getting picked up by an ambulance that crashes on the way to the hospital — it is hardly surprising the patient isn’t in good shape.
Three, it’s uneven. The Long Depression of the 19th century was a sustained period of lower growth compared with what came before and what came afterward. Germany, for example, grew 4.3% annually between 1850 and 1873 and then at 4.1% between 1896 and 1913. But in the Long Depression years, it only managed a growth rate of just over 2% a year. It was similar in other countries. The markets remained volatile, with repeated booms and busts, regularly collapsing back into recession. They did grow occasionally, just as Japan has sometimes grown in what is now its second decade of slump. But the growth is never sustained.
Yes good citizen, now Japan slips back into view. Two decades of economic stagnation and instead of pulling the number two economy in the world out of its funk, the rest of the world has slipped to join it in the economic quagmire of globalization.
Yet for some unknown reason…(like being instructed to specifically avoid mentioning it) both the (corporate owned) media and (corporate sanctioned) economists have failed to even nod in the general direction of the ‘Elephant in the room’.
Perhaps it is the Western predilection for ‘neat’ endings but you’ll note that the ‘end of the century’ has been reason enough to throw caution to the wind, creating monstrous economic cesspools that last until the middle of the next century…
But this time things have gone too far (and I’m pointing at ‘peak energy’!)
For many this would have been unthinkable only a few months ago. They had been cautioned and warned repeatedly, but chose to trust the financial system. And now they are suffering loss and anxiety, frozen assets, and the misappropriation of their wealth.
How more plainly can it be said? The US financial system as it now stands cannot be trusted to observe even the most basic property rights as it continues to unravel from a long standing culture of fraud.
Get your money as far away from Wall Street as is possible. And if you want to own gold and silver, take delivery and store it in a secure private facility outside the fractional reserve system.
What does this brazen level of criminality have to do with ‘peak energy’?
Like all ‘end times’ scenarios, it fosters a WTF environment that is totally out of touch with, er, ’consequences’.
Worse, what do you do to someone that has come right out and told you, ’go ahead and kill me, we’re all gonna die anyway?’
Which, naturally, is one hundred percent incorrect.
In all scenarios (save the comet strike that brings on another ice age) there will be (human) ‘survivors’.
And it is likely there will be millions of survivors of an economic collapse despite the criminals worst efforts. (And you’d better believe they are trying to kill as many of us off as they can!)
Why people doubt this fact blows my mind.
Think about the current ‘deal’ these very same people, er, ‘offer’ you. You either accept their money and their shitty working conditions or you try to make it ‘on your own’. (But lately you are being told 'we don't need you' so you'd best not piss off mommy and daddy or you'll got straight to the following:)
This entails competing for scarce seats at soup kitchens, beds at shelters and (if your big enough,) first dibs on what gets tossed into the dumpsters of our wasteful ‘hospitality’ industry.
There simply isn’t enough ‘wildlife’ to live off of, nor could you effectively cook it without running afoul of local law enforcement on those occasions when you did ‘get lucky‘.
In fact, refusing to work for their money becomes a perpetual exercise in avoiding ‘run-ins’ with local law enforcement.
Now, consider these facts and tell me honestly that these people DON’T ‘want you dead’?
Here, in the ‘Season of Peace’, take some time to fully appreciate the predatory behavior of those who call themselves our ‘betters’…
Those who richly deserve to have their world brought crashing down around their ears!
Thanks for letting me inside your head,
Gegner
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