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 America: Love it or give it back!
Societal Collapse
The Postmaster General recently announced that the United States Postal Service will be ending Saturday delivery of first-class mail by August of 2013. Many people are upset at this cut in service. But few people are asking the real question: why does the United States Postal Service have a monopoly on delivery of first-class mail?
Postal Monopoly and Saturday Delivery, 2/17/13
The thinking is this: Markets have surged all year like there's not a care in the world. On the other hand, the economy has already been buffeted by one major headwind (the end of the payroll tax holiday) and it could be hit by another (the upcoming sequestration spending cuts. As such, we're about to know whether the economy can really justify the market rally, or whether risky assets will have to come floating back down to earth.
'Moment Of Truth' Is Coming For The US Economy, And The First Big Test Is This Week, 2/11/13
Politicians spin, dodge and lie their way around "inconvenient truths," so to speak, but it is hard to explain away cold, hard facts and raw numbers - though they still try. No doubt more than a few of Washington's elite will try to dance round this disturbing statistic: The total number of Americans receiving some form of government assistance has surpassed 128 million. That's more than 1 in 3.
128 million Americans now on government assistance: the takers nearly outnumber the producers, 1/13/13
With the possible exception of the New York Times' editorial board (and the cast of The Jersey Shore), everyone on the planet understood that the United States Government needs to cut spending, increase taxes, or both. Instead, after months of political posturing and hand wringing, the Federal Government has just delivered the exact opposite, a deal that increases spending and decreases taxes. The move lays bare the emptiness of budget legislation, which can be dismantled far easier than it can be constructed.
Peter Schiff: Congress Avoids the Cliff by Selling Us Down the River, 1/4/13
A report just released by the US Government Accountability Office explains how the Federal Reserve divvied up more than $4 trillion in low-interest loans after the fiscal crisis of 2008, and the news shouldn’t be all that surprising.
Fed Members Gave Their Own Banks $4 Trillion During Bailout, 12/28/12
Vast social revolutions and wars are often preceded by periods of giving up on reforms, despairing withdrawal from public life by the best and brightest, and even peacefulness which seems to have become the normal condition in spite of deep conflicts and growing crises beneath the surfaces of public life. Often, earlier periods of intense conflicts and crises have been overcome and resolved, so it comes to look like that is the normal in life. This lulls most people into assuming their worse fears cannot happen, but this leads them to lowering their guards against growing conflicts and crises, so small ones can more easily cascade down into massive ones. If people expected they could become vast wars or revolutions or implosions, they would take more precautions to prevent that. But when lulled in expecting the worst cannot happen, the worst than they could ever imagine often explodes suddenly.
Lull Before the Social Storm, 11/7/12
With digital technology being used for all manner of government distributions, it’s difficult to overtly distinguish between the severity of the Great Depression of the 1930′s and today’s economic crisis. But just because we don’t see thousands of hungry people lined up for hours at a time at their local soup kitchen today doesn’t mean the lines don’t exist.
Food Stamp Nation: What a Modern Day Bread Line Looks Like, 10/27/12
Whenever government is in control of money -- which is always -- this means that free men are not in control over their lives. Their decisions as buyers and sellers are allowed only within the confines of the national government, the central bank, and commercial banks. They possess a legal monopoly (really, an oligopoly) over money.
Fiat Money Means Fiat Freedom, 10/23/12
Federal welfare spending has grown by 32 percent over the past four years, fattened by President Obama’s stimulus spending and swelled by a growing number of Americans whose recession-depleted incomes now qualify them for public assistance, according to numbers released Thursday.
Welfare spending jumps 32% during Obama’s presidency, 10/18/12
Journalists, politicians and economists all seem to agree that the biggest economic issue currently worrying voters is unemployment. It follows then that most believe that the deciding factor in the presidential race will be the ability of each candidate to convince the public that his policies will create jobs. It seems that everyone got this memo...except the voters.
Inflation: Washington Is Blind to Main Street's Biggest Concern, 10/17/12
We're in the middle of watching Gluskin-Sheff economist David Rosenberg present a gloomy outlook for the economy at The Big Picture conference. Much of his take is centered around the idea that we're still ony part way through the end of the deleveraging cycle, and that we may be only half way through the decline of household debt.
Defining Chart of the Ongoing Economic Crisis, 10/10/12
This chart is from a speech given by FedEx CEO Fred Smith at an investor dinner last night.
FedEx Presents: Global Trade Slowdown in One Gigantic Chart, 10/10/12
"That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." ~ July 4, 1776
When the Riots Start the Government’s Response Will Be Brutal, 10/10/12
Gerald Celente, famed researcher, journalist and self-proclaimed political atheist has plenty to say about the coming election and the corrupt 2-headed 1-party political system. In this interview with The Wall Street Shuffle, he says that in his entire lifetime he has never seen two men so unqualified running for president. He believes that Americans should take control of their own lives and stop looking for leaders to lead them.
Government Killed the American Dream, 10/8/12
A little history hyperinflation around the globe.
Hyperinflation Around the Globe, 10/3/12
There have been several different predictions and scenarios involving how inflation and austerity measures in the U.S. could bring about food shortages and other shortages, food riots, looting, violent protests, flash mobs, and martial law.
Civil Unrest: Do our Rulers actually want it to Happen?, 9/20/12
Persistent and unrelenting drought conditions across much of the nation have all but destroyed about half of the entire corn crop for this year. And according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), a whopping 50 percent of the nation's counties are now considered to be disaster areas as a result of extreme weather conditions, which has prompted the federal government to make some significant policy changes in order to help prevent many farmers and ranchers from going under.
Dawn of a new depression - Half of U.S. counties now designated financial disaster areas, 9/20/12
If legendary investor Jim Rogers is right, not only is Recession 2013 unavoidable, it's going to be a doozy. In recent interviews, Rogers has been predicting a 2013 recession, bowled over by a potential blowout in Europe and unsustainable spending by the U.S. government.
Recession 2013 Is On the Way, 9/17/12
The mainstream media is hailing QE3 as a great victory for the U.S. economy. On nearly every news broadcast, the "talking heads" are declaring that Ben Bernanke's decision to pump 40 billion dollars a month into our financial system is definitely going to help solve our economic problems. The money for QE3 is being created out of thin air and this round of quantitative easing is going to be "open-ended" which means that the Federal Reserve is going to keep doing it for as long as they feel like it. But is this really good for the average American on the street?
How QE3 Will Make The Wealthy Even Wealthier While Causing Living Standards To Fall For The Rest Of Us, 9/16/12
With yesterday's Fed decision and press conference, Chairman Ben Bernanke finally and decisively laid his cards on the table. And confirming what I have been saying for many years, all he was holding was more of the same snake oil and bluster. Going further than he has ever gone before, he made it clear that he will be permanently binding the American economy to a losing strategy. As a result, September 13, 2012 may one day be regarded as the day America finally threw in the economic towel.
Operation Screw - Peter Schiff on what Bernanke's doing to you, 9/15/12
The Federal Reserve is talking about “unlimited QE,” or money printing, to boost employment.
Hyperinflation Is Virtually Assured, 9/13/12
For months, a slew of pundits have pointed to figures which allegedly show that home prices are now on the rise around the country. Nearly all refer to the Case-Shiller price index which has become the gold standard of what’s going on in housing markets. The June index revealed that the year-over-year price declines for 20 major cities had finally ended. Prices in June were higher than May in most of these metros. Analysts were most excited by how Phoenix had turned around. The Phoenix index was up by nearly 14% year-over-year.
Prepare For The Coming Housing Collapse: Part II, 9/6/12
Will 5 billion people perish from the earth in the coming century? That’s what the controversial elitist think tank, the Club of Rome, predicted back in 1972. Decades after its publication, advocates of world government are still pushing its predictions as a call to curb mankind’s footprint on the earth.
MIT Predicts Half Of Humanity To Be Culled In Post-Industrial Crash, 4/10/12
Society as we know it will break down and collapse in a five stage process outlined here. While it can be accelerated by certain events like war, a natural disaster, pandemic, terrorist attack, or even an impending asteroid impact, history has shown that economic collapse will essentially happen in this five stage process. To survive the collapse, it is important to read and interpret the signs and understand what assets are important to the current situation so you can be prepared for the worst thereby allowing you to survive intact and with as little damage as possible.
5 stages of societal collapse, 3/3/12
The demand for healthy, functioning body organs is high, as the number of organ patients far exceeds the number of willing and available organ donors. The result of this imbalance is an ever-growing black market for organs where international organ brokers, many of which are based in Israel, prey on the world's poorest by coercing them to give up their kidneys to primarily Israeli organ patients, or else face severe repercussions.
Lebanon's The Daily Star reports on several cases where victims of this illicit organ market were essentially forced to go through hell and give up their precious body parts in exchange for relative pittance. After responding to advertisements placed online, in newspapers and journals by this organ mafia, the victims were quickly apprehended and forced to follow through with the surgery. If they changed their mind and tried to back out, organ brokers threatened to kill both the victims and their families, in some cases.
International organ mafia coercing poor into donating kidneys to wealthy Israelis, 12/11/11
Have you been paying attention to the economic collapse of Europe? How about the rising debt of the United States? If not, you should be, because these events are very likely to have a real effect on your future quality of life and safety.
Years of social unrest on the horizon if economies fall like dominoes, 12/2/11
Black Friday took an ugly turn at a Los Angeles Wal-Mart when a female shopper -desperate to get her hands on discounted electronics-pepper sprayed a crowd to keep them away from the merchandise she wanted.
At least 20 shoppers suffered minor injuries and police are still looking for the woman.
"Black Friday": Madness of a Lost Society, 11/25/11
In order for a society to function, there has to be a certain level of trust. Each day when we leave our homes, we take for granted that most people are not going to attack us for no reason, that there will only be isolated incidents of theft in our community and that rioting and violence are not going to erupt in the streets. Whether we realize it or not, we depend on the fact that the vast majority of the people around us are going to act in a civilized manner. Unfortunately, the thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted is starting to disappear. When I was growing up, I was taught that challenging times reveal our true character. There are many that believe that the declining economy is causing a lot of the chaos that we are now witnessing, but perhaps what is going on is that these challenging economic times are simply revealing the character that has been there all along. For decades, a "false prosperity" that was fueled by unprecedented amounts of debt has masked a lot of the internal rot that has taken hold in America. But now that our prosperity is crumbling, our lack of values is becoming startlingly clear.
22 Signs That the Thin Veneer of Civilization That We All Take for Granted Is Starting To Disappear, 11/16/11
As the sun dips below the rooftops each evening, parts of this Detroit enclave turn to pitch black, the only illumination coming from a few streetlights at the end of the block or from glowing yellow yard globes.
It wasn't always this way. But when the debt-ridden community could no longer afford its monthly electric bill, elected officials not only turned off 1,000 streetlights. They had them ripped out -- bulbs, poles and all. Now nightfall cloaks most neighborhoods in inky darkness.
Unable to pay bill, Mich. city turns off lights, 11/3/11
Millions upon millions of young Americans have completely lost faith in the U.S. economy and are mad as hell that their economic futures have been destroyed. The recent economic downturn has hit those under the age of 30 the hardest. Today, there are hordes of young people that should be entering their most productive years that are sitting home with nothing to do. Many of them have worked incredibly hard throughout high school and college. Many of them have stayed out of trouble and have done everything that "the system" asked them to do. But once they got finished with school, the promised "rewards" simply were not there. Instead, millions of young Americans are faced with crushing student loan debt loads in an economy where they can't find good jobs. When you are in your twenties, it can be absolutely soul-crushing to send out hundreds (or even thousands) of resumes and not get a single interview. Most of us grew up believing that we would "be something" when we got older, and millions of young Americans are having those dreams brutally crushed right now. Americans under the age of 30 voted for Barack Obama in droves back in 2008 because they believed that he would make things better. Instead, Barack Obama has made things even worse. Significant numbers of young Americans are starting to wake up and realize that neither political party is providing any real answers, and they are starting to get mad as hell about it.
20 Reasons Why Millions of Americans Under the Age of 30 Are Giving Up on the U.S. Economy, 9/28/11
New census data released today reveals that the recession has made American 20 to 30-somethings into a Lost Generation of unemployed and underemployed, the AP reports.
According to economists, this trend will continue through the decade, and when its over, it will take another decade for this generation to fully recover.
The dream of going to college, getting a degree, finding a job, and striking out on your own has dissipated, leaving only staggering numbers. Only 2.4% of college graduates find jobs that motivate them to move out of state. So they go home.
5.9 million members of The Lost Generation will leave college and return home to live with their parents, that's 25% more than the last recession. Most of them are men.
Recession Has Created A New Lost Generation, 9/22/11
When is it going to collapse? As I’ve said, I’ve never seen a summer like this. I think we’re going to see the Winter of Discontent… You’re going to start seeing an unraveling more and more every day as you watch the news. So, October is my month, and it’s only a guesstimate, that we’re going to see the big unraveling.
Celente Forecasts Winter of Discontent; October Will Be Month of the Big Unraveling
Those without a lot of wealth or a lot of power are getting absolutely killed in America today. The big corporations, the major financial institutions, the ultra-wealthy and those connected to the top levels of government are absolutely thriving even though the economy overall is in shambles. Meanwhile, "the little guy" is being abused, harassed, regulated, taxed and mistreated like never before. In general, the big corporations and the government don't spend a lot of time tangling with each other. Instead, mostly they seem content with attacking the weak members of the herd (the rest of us). In the United States today, wealth and power have become more concentrated than ever, and the big corporations and the government have figured out thousands of different ways to drain even more wealth and power away from the rest of us. Most of the time, "the little guy" is not even able to fight back. Most Americans have very limited resources and a very limited knowledge of the law. Meanwhile, the "big guys" have almost unlimited resources and can hire huge numbers of lawyers. So what does that mean for the rest of us? Well, it means that until society becomes a lot more just, you better do your best to keep from becoming a target of the "big guys".
15 Examples of How 'The Little Guy' Is Getting Absolutely Killed in America Today
Through a devolving web of greed, self-serving power and a departure from fundamental ethics, Western culture has, over the last hundred years, become the counterfeit culture.
Nothing is real anymore -- not the food, not the money, and certainly not the evening news. And because it's not real, it's not sustainable. That's why it's headed for collapse, which is all too real, as many people are about to find out.
Counterfeit culture - useful observations for understanding why collapse is inevitable, 9/2/11
Asked about his recent comments regarding how authorities in the United States were “setting the stage for violence in this country,” Presidential candidate Ron Paul elaborated on how the federal government was preparing for a “breakdown in law and order.”
“They’re planning for any provision,” Paul told the Alex Jones Show, adding that the federal government is very much aware of history.
“You can have a breakdown of law and order so the people will unfortunately be begging for stabilization, and they’ll be inviting the federal government to come in and destabilize things, so I think they’re making plans along those lines,” said the Texas Congressman.
Responding to a question about whether such preparations were about a power grab on behalf of the federal government, Paul responded, “That’s their goal, it’s all about power.”
When pressed who the “they” were, Paul named the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who have come in for harsh criticism from the Congressman in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene.
Ron Paul: Feds Preparing For "Breakdown Of Law And Order", 9/1/11
Do you ever get the feeling that the middle class in America is shrinking? Well, you are not imagining things. A confluence of very troubling long-term economic trends has created an environment in which the middle class in America is being absolutely shredded. Today, most American families would be absolutely thrilled if they could live as well as past generations did. The dream of receiving a solid education, getting a good job, owning a beautiful home and enjoying the good things that America has to offer is increasingly becoming out of reach for a growing number of Americans. The reality is that even though our population has grown, there are less jobs than there used to be. A much higher percentage of the jobs that remain are low income jobs. Millions of middle class American families are desperately trying to hang on as inflation far outpaces the growth of their paychecks. Millions of others have fallen completely out of the middle class and are now totally dependent on the government for survival. We once had the largest, most vibrant middle class in the history of the world, but now way too much unemployment, way too much inflation, way too much greed and way too much debt are all starting to catch up with us. America is changing, and not for the better.
34 Pieces Of Evidence That Prove That The Middle Class In America Is Rapidly Shrinking, 8/26/11
Flash mobs used to be so much fun. A group of people would arrange to meet in a public place at a particular time and would perform a song or a dance number or some other form of entertainment very suddenly and without warning. Well, the term "flash mob" is rapidly coming to mean something else now. All over the country, young people are using social media and other forms of communication to coordinate shocking large scale crimes. At first there were just a few isolated "mob robberies" around the country, but now we have a full-fledged flash mob epidemic on our hands. Sometimes these flash mobs are involved in "mass shoplifting" events, and in other cases flash mobs are just committing random acts of violence. But it is a very disturbing sign for our nation that all over the country we have large groups of young people that are banding together to commit very serious crimes. This is something that is really unprecedented in modern U.S. history, and it is yet another indication that our society is starting to fall apart.
Flash Mob Epidemic, 8/22/11
The American middle class is furious and this is reflected in how people perceive their failed government but also a financial system that has largely profited from the failures of millions. A recent Gallup poll shows that only 13 percent of Americans actually approve of Congress and the way they are handling their job. This is a record low. Of course the financial system for those too big to fail banks is doing just fine thanks to years of accommodative policy, taxpayer bailouts, and politicians that basically collect payroll checks from the HR department of these large financial institutions. As we have noted and the media fails to report, the average per capita income in the United States is $25,000. What is even more disturbing is that a recent poll found that 64 percent of Americans would not be able to shoulder even an unexpected expense of $1,000. If a transmission on a car goes down or additional medical expenses hit, it will cost well over $1,000. This is simply another reflection of how the crushing collapse of the middle class will not be televised.
Middle class annihilation one penny at a time – 64 percent of Americans do not have adequate savings for an unexpected $1,000 expense
Meet Audrey Tomason.
Reportedly Barack Obama's Director for Counterterrorism, the diminutive 30-something Tomason is said by Wikipedia to be "one of the most secretive women in U.S. intelligence circles", so much so that her master's thesis, written while attending Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, is now classified by the U.S. government as top-secret, as reprehensible a violation of academic principles as possible.
It is known that she has authored a report called "The Apocalypse Equation", suggesting that it would be more "humane" for our world—meaning our species—to undergo a "planned and controlled genocide" rather than to see it descend into the abyss of chaos it is now entering.
Note that whenever the power-hungry speak of "chaos", what they are actually referring to is freedom. And that whenever they are doing the most unspeakable things to people—making choices for them that nobody should be allowed to make—it is invariably out of pure kindness.
Democide Is Painless, 8/14/11
The most dangerous consequence could arise as the pain of US citizens reaches the kind of fever pitch that results in political and social chaos. The increasingly broke federal government will find itself unable to fund domestic and international commitments, and – with an air of desperation – will instead leverage the issue of social unrest to apply draconian measures under the cover of maintaining law and order.
As Dr. Paul says word-for-word, “the ultimate trap will be set for a system of government claiming to protect a free society.” The feds, enforcing new power and authority will become what he describes as a “lethal threat” to civil liberties. Ironically, it’s likely to be US citizens themselves that clamor for new enforcement measures to be used before recognizing – too late – the nature of the trap.
Ron Paul on the Danger of Political and Social Upheaval, 8/2/11
There need be only a single event that occurs at an opportune time and is pushed by the mainstream media and all hell will break loose.
Imagine, for a minute, what America would look like if nationwide curfews were implemented, civil rights were suspended (including confiscation of guns), the US dollar crashed, ATM's and credit card transactions were restricted, and food and gas purchases were limited.
The Presidential executive orders are in place, Fusion Centers and FEMA detention camps are operational, and 20,000 US troops have been trained to deal specifically with economic collapse and civil unrest and are ready to be deployed immediately.
Gerald Celente: 'Economic Martial Law Will Be Declared', 8/2/11
Many families are unable to afford enough healthy food to feed their children, say the Boston Medical Center doctors. The resulting chronic hunger threatens to leave scores of infants and toddlers with lasting learning and developmental problems.
Before the economy soured in 2007, 12 percent of youngsters age 3 and under whose families were randomly surveyed in the hospital’s emergency department were significantly underweight. In 2010, that percentage jumped to 18 percent, and the tide does not appear to be abating, said Dr. Megan Sandel, an associate professor of pediatrics and public health at BMC.
A rising hunger among children, 7/28/11
In Obama's America, only wealth and power interests matter, everyone else abandoned on their own. Only a Democrat could pull it off, a smooth-talking con man. Who better than a Black one.
America: Heading for Tyranny and Impoverishment, 7/28/11
There is wild disagreement about what is causing it, but what most people can agree on is that there is something fundamentally wrong with America. The fabric of American society just does not seem to be as strong as it used to. In fact, many would argue that society is coming apart at the seams. Corruption and decay seem to be everywhere. I spend a lot of time in my other articles blaming a lot of this corruption and decay on politicians, bureaucrats and business leaders, but the reality is that they are only part of the story. The truth is that those who are leading us are a reflection of what we have become as a nation. If you got rid of all of our corrupt leaders that would not suddenly “fix” this country. Millions of ordinary Americans have become deeply corrupt as well. The kinds of things that you are about to read about below were very rare in past generations. Society is falling apart all around us and we haven’t even seen the complete collapse of the U.S. economy yet.
20 Signs That The Fabric Of American Society Is Coming Apart At The Seams, 7/20/11
President Obama on Tuesday said he cannot guarantee that retirees will receive their Social Security checks August 3 if Democrats and Republicans in Washington do not reach an agreement on reducing the deficit in the coming weeks.
"I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven't resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it," Mr. Obama said in an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley, according to excerpts released by CBS News.
Obama says he cannot guarantee Social Security checks will go out on August 3, 7/12/11
These are mighty wealth operations. Homeland Security has done to America what the military-industrial complex has done overseas – introduce a continued, destructive strain of authoritarianism to the larger populace. This can be carried out with bombs or body scanners. But the results are the same: repression, intimidation and growing chaos.
It may well be chaos that the elites want. Out of chaos ... order. However, in this case, we don't see the order part happening anytime soon – and neither apparently does Ron Holland. Ron makes a proposal for keeping one's gold offshore and he may well be right about that.
Gold confiscation has happened before and we don't see the price (purchasing power) of gold or silver going down anytime, or not for another few years anyway. This business cycle has yet to turn. There's a limit to how much wealth in private hands the elites will likely tolerate. If chaos is to be implemented, people will have to starve in the dark.
Ron Holland on the Inevitability of Societal Chaos, 7/11/11
Tonight millions of American families will shovel huge piles of food into their mouths without even realizing that starvation is rapidly spreading in Africa. Right now Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya are experiencing the worst drought conditions that they have seen in 60 years. Tens of thousands of African families have abandoned their homes as they desperately search for food and water. Hundreds of thousands of farm animals have died because of the drought. Considering the fact that approximately two-thirds of the people living in the region "make their living by raising goats, sheep, cattle and camels", the word "catastrophic" just is not sufficient to describe what is happening. Every single day, thousands more head to Dadaab, the biggest refugee camp in the world. Dadaab was originally designed to hold 90,000 people, but now over 360,000 precious people are camped there. In addition, approximately 30,000 desperately hungry people are standing outside the fences waiting to be admitted. It is projected that by the end of the year there will be over a half million people living in Dadaab. Sadly, this is just the beginning. According to the United Nations, there are already 10 million people in the region that are facing severe food shortages, and many fear that if the drought continues we could actually see mass starvation in Africa in 2012.
12 Signs That the World Is Running Out of Food, 7/9/11
What we are now witnessing is the slow motion unraveling of America. Our economy is dying, the American people have lost faith in the government and in almost all of our other major institutions, and our society is collapsing. Most Americans don't understand why all of this is happening, but most of them do realize that something has fundamentally changed. Earlier this year, McDonald's held a "National Hiring Day" and a million Americans showed up to apply for jobs. Only 62,000 of them were hired. That means only 6.2% of the applicants got jobs. So what are we supposed to tell the 93.8% that didn't get hired? Are they supposed to have any hope for the future when they can't even get a minimum wage job at McDonald's? When I was a teenager, I went over to McDonald's one day, filled out an application and was instantly hired. My, how things have changed. Now we have millions upon millions of young people that are staring directly into a very bleak future. The level of frustration in this country is rising to frightening levels and large numbers of people are already showing that they will stoop to anything in order to survive.
12 More Signs That Society Is Collapsing, 6/16/11
As a rule of thumb, the greater the economic distortion, the harder the collapse. The US economy has been in a fantasy world for so long, and when its dominant primacy is yanked away, the collapse will be at freefall speed.
Listen… I’m not talking about the end of the world here, I’m talking about difficult times ahead, and the things that go beyond economics. It’s time to face facts and look at how society will change (and has already changed).
What are the social implications of economic collapse?, 6/14/11
As the U.S. economy collapses, the thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted is going to begin to disappear. In fact, there are already an increasing number of signs that the collapse of society is accelerating. In cities such as Chicago, roving packs of young people are "mob robbing" local businesses, randomly assaulting tourists and shoppers and are even pulling people out of vehicles. This isn't just happening in the "bad areas" anymore. Over the past couple of months this type of crime has been common in some of the wealthiest areas of Chicago. In fact, many Chicago residents are now referring to "the Magnificent Mile" as "the Mug Mile". But it isn't just in Chicago that this is happening. During this past Memorial Day weekend, cities all over the United States experienced a stunning wave of mass violence. We are supposed to be an "example" for the rest of the world, but as our economic wealth crumbles we are witnessing the collapse of society all around us. So what is going to happen when the economy gets even worse?
18 Signs The Collapse of Society Is Accelerating, 6/13/11
Tired of waiting for appropriate organ donors using traditional methods, patients from wealthier countries like the US are increasingly taking advantage of "transplant tourism" operations that harvest needed organs from the poor in exchange for money. Though illegal, this underground organ trade market appears to be growing, despite the fact that patients and donors often die due to infections, botched surgeries, and other complications.
Transplant tourism spirals out of control as the wealthy harvest organs from the poor, 5/20/11
When a month ago the CEO of Wal Mart Americas told the world to “prepare for serious inflation“, the Chairman laughed in his face, saying it was nothing a 15 minutes Treasury Call sell order can’t fix (granted net of a few billions in commissions for JPM). 4 weeks later the Chairman is no longer laughing, having been forced to hike up his inflation expectations while trimming (not for the last time) his economic outlook. “U.S. consumers face “serious” inflation in the months ahead for clothing, food and other products, the head of Wal-Mart’s U.S. operations warned Wednesday talking to USA Today.
Wal Mart CEO: “Shoppers Are Running Out Of Money”; There Is “No Sign Of A Recovery”, 4/28/11
There are two economies--the real one, which is in decline, and the "let's pretend" one touted by the State and corporate propaganda machines.
Children love to play "let's pretend." Let's pretend the economy is "recovering." Why does this "recovery" remind me of an addict who's conning his caseworker? (Yes, I'm really in recovery--those aren't tracks, they're insect bites....)
Let's play pretend that jobs are really really coming back, so please ignore this chart, or turn it upside down:
Our "Let's Pretend" Economy, 4/21/11
If the US were a company, it’d already be in Chapter 11.
FoxNews published a WHOPPER of a story yesterday, though it somehow has not caught the attention of most people. If you have issues with Fox them at the door for a moment and simply focus on the numbers.
For the first time since the Great Depression, the US is now officially paying out more in benefits than it takes in via tax receipts.
GAME OVER For the US, 4/21/11
Celente says that by 2012 America will become an undeveloped nation, that there will be a revolution marked by food riots, squatter rebellions, tax revolts and job marches, and that holidays will be more about obtaining food, not gifts.
Gerald Celente Predicts, Food Riots, Tax Rebellions, 4/20/11
With the price of gas above $3.50 a gallon in all but one state, there are signs that Americans are cutting back on driving, reversing a steady increase in demand for fuel as the economy improves.
Gas sales have fallen for five straight weeks, the first time that has happened since November, according to MasterCard SpendingPulse, which tracks spending at 140,000 service stations nationwide.
Drivers Starting to Cut Back as Gasoline Prices Keep Rising, 4/11/11
Countries across the world shunned Japanese food imports Thursday as radioactive steam leaked from a disaster-struck nuclear plant, straining nerves in Tokyo.
The grim toll of dead and missing from Japan's monster quake and tsunami on March 11 topped 26,000, as hundreds of thousands remained huddled in evacuation shelters and fears grew in the megacity of Tokyo over water safety.
Global food scare widens from Japan nuclear plant, 3/24/11
Reading the headlines over the last eighteen months one would think that the recession of 2008 is all but over. Unemployment, officially, is on the mend, with a reported 9.5% of Americans unable to find work (as opposed to official Great Depression numbers as high as 25%). Foreclosures seem to be stabilizing. Gross domestic product is in positive growth territory, signaling forward progress in the economy. Inflation, according to the latest Consumer Price Index statistics, is under control.
"The worst of the storm has passed," declared President Obama in his 2010 State of the Union address. For all intents and purposes, any threat of a second great depression has been averted.
But what is depicted by our media and the official statistics put forth by government number crunchers, and what is happening on the ground on Main Street America, are two wholly different things.
A Visit to an American Tent City, 3/12/11
As riots spread across the world, having started first in Europe and now engulfing the Middle East, most people in the U.S. outright reject the possibility that the same could happen right here at home. But the fact of the matter is that we remain in economic crisis and there is a real possibility of a total collapse of the system we have come to know.
If the system does happen to collapse, be it because of a hyperinflationary currency meltdown, political uprising or anything in between, here are ten things you can expect to happen, just as they are happening in the Middle East today.
10 Things We Can Learn From Egypt About Preparing for Economic and Societal Collapse, 2/2/11
As we warned back in June, we are in the early stages of a new “age of rage,” which will be characterized by riots, revolutions and a widespread backlash against the economic holocaust that has been unleashed by the global elite.
When People Lose Everything, Many Start To Lose It, 12/15/10
The nation that once gloated over its ability to feed the entire world is seeing an explosion of poverty: The number of people surviving on food stamps is rising as biting unemployment refuses to abate, personal incomes have been falling while the debt bubble is inflating with each passing day and, in a more startling representation of the grim reality, tent cities are mushrooming as more and more people are pushed out of their ‘underwater’ homes.
"Homelessness is skyrocketing, tent cities are popping up everywhere and countless numbers of American families are experiencing the soul-crushing despair that comes from desperately trying to hang on for month after month after
month", writes Michael Snyder in Daily Markets website.
'American Dream' withers as tent cities mushroom in promised land, 11/21/10
"One of the disturbing facts of history is that so many civilizations collapse," warns anthropologist Jared Diamond in "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed." Many "civilizations share a sharp curve of decline. Indeed, a society's demise may begin only a decade or two after it reaches its peak population, wealth and power."
Now, Harvard's Niall Ferguson, one of the world's leading financial historians, echoes Diamond's warning: "Imperial collapse may come much more suddenly than many historians imagine. A combination of fiscal deficits and military overstretch suggests that the United States may be the next empire on the precipice." Yes, America is on the edge.
Dismiss his warning at your peril. Everything you learned, everything you believe and everything driving our political leaders is based on a misleading, outdated theory of history. The American Empire is at the edge of a dangerous precipice, at risk of a sudden, rapid collapse.
Paul Farrell: Collapse of the American Empire: Swift, Silent, Certain, 3/9/10
We stand on the cusp of one of the bleakest periods in human history when the bright lights of a civilization blink out and we will descend for decades, if not centuries, into barbarity. The elites have successfully convinced us that we no longer have the capacity to understand the revealed truths presented before us or to fight back against the chaos caused by economic and environmental catastrophe. As long as the mass of bewildered and frightened people, fed images that permit them to perpetually hallucinate, exist in this state of barbarism, they may periodically strike out with a blind fury against increased state repression, widespread poverty and food shortages. But they will lack the ability and self-confidence to challenge in big and small ways the structures of control. The fantasy of widespread popular revolts and mass movements breaking the hegemony of the corporate state is just that – a fantasy.
Zero Point of Systemic Collapse, 2/8/10
The economic elite have launched an attack on the U.S. public and society is unraveling at an increased rate. You may have missed it in the mainstream news media, but statistical societal indicators are reading red across the board. Let’s look at the top 15 statistics that prove we are under attack.
15 Signs American Society Is Coming Apart at the Seams, 11/21/9
Financial collapse seems to be particularly painful if you happen to have a lot of money. On the other hand, I run across people all the time, who feel that "Nothing's happened yet." These are mostly younger, relatively successful people, who have little or no savings, and still have good paying jobs, or unemployment insurance that hasn't run out yet. Their daily lives aren't much affected by the turmoil on the financial markets, and they don't believe that anything different is happening beyond the usual economic ups and downs.
Commercial collapse is much more obvious, and observing it doesn't entail opening envelopes and examining columns of figures. It is painful to most people, and life-threatening to some. When store shelves are stripped bare of necessities and remain that way for weeks at a time, panic sets in. In most places, this requires some sort of emergency response, to make sure that people are not deprived of food, shelter, medicine, and that some measure of security and public order is maintained. People who know what's coming can prepare to sit out the worst of it.
Political collapse is more painful yet, because it is directly life-threatening to many people. The breakdown of public order would be particularly dangerous in the US, because of the large number of social problems that have been swept under the carpet over the years. Americans, more than most other people, need to be defended from each other at all times. I think that I would prefer martial law over complete and utter mayhem and lawlessness, though I admit that both are very poor choices.
Social and cultural collapse seem to have already occurred in many parts of the country to a large extent. What social activity remains seems to be anchored to transitory activities like work, shopping, and sports. Religion is perhaps the largest exception, and many communities are organized around churches. But in places where society and culture remain intact, I believe that social and cultural collapse is avoidable, and that this is where we must really dig in our heels. Also, I think it is very important that we learn to see our surroundings for what they have become. In many places, it feels as if there just isn't that much left that's worth trying to save. If all the culture we see is commercial culture, and all the society we see is consumer society, then the best we can do is walk away from it, and look for other people who are ready to do the same.
Five Stages of Collapse, 11/11/9
As the shocking confidential information contained in this briefing shows, the threat of social meltdown and chaos is so large a domestic law-enforcement arm of the U.S. military (referred to by The Army Times as the "Consequence Management Response Force") has been created to deal with what U.S. officials believe to be a coming, unprecedented wave of massive social chaos.
Economic Collapse To Trigger Social Pandemonium, 4/3/9
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