So Where's the Economic Crash?

It's unfolding before our eyes.  Despite the Dead Cat Bounce (a horrible term) after the disastrous dip in January, the Crash is proceeding...and worsening...and it's worldwide.  Below is a portion of a Reply I sent to my son, his family, and others regarding a piece he sent me from Greg Hunter's "USA Watchdog.com".  That clip had Ron Kirby of Kirby Analytics in his very latest guest appearance on "USA Watchdog".
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The dollar reset could be right around the corner.  Especially telling was that series of meetings the Fed had, and the meetings with the Pres & VP with the Fed.  Add to that the admission of silver & gold price fixing by the Mega Banks, & the new China Gold Exchange, & the IMF SDR situation (especially involving China), & how the highest levels of our Fed Gov't are trying their damnedest to provoke a war, & how Obama has been working for almost 8 yrs having us construct tactical nuclear weapons (as opposed to strategic), & the fact that the Financial Stability Board of the G-20 approved Bail-Ins for 29 Mega Banks (worldwide), & the fact that the TPP will further deregulate the Financial Sector (both high-level Dems & Repubs support that Agreement), & the fact the War on Cash is accelerating, & the fact that the vast majority of the public appears to believe just about anything the Corporate Media tells them... with all that & more, we're ripe for a disaster.

Nevertheless, I still believe the Oligarchy somehow will pull off preventing it from happening until after the election.  As Kirby puts it, they've been holding together this criminal, fraudulent financial system with "...paper clips & bungee cords" [:)] for a long time.  Maybe they can do it a bit longer.

I see the Oligarchy in America as having 3 main options:

1.  Get us into a major, major war.  As Kirby accurately points out, historically that's what the Ruling Class does when the Financial System is in really deep trouble.  The Bush-Obama Perpetual War has not been enough...it's not big enough.  This, of course, is not a wise option, but that doesn't mean they won't do it.

2.  QE-4...print even more currency.  The Fed buying back the bonds being dumped by China & other Asian countries hasn't been enough.  The Fed might even send checks to individual households...to the People, not just make it available to Mega Banks.  [If that happens, buy every necessary household commodity you can get your hands on...because if that happens, the culmination of the Crash is imminent.]

3.  After the election, bite the bullet & gradually raise interest rates to where they should be.  This will burst the Asset Bubbles & put us into a deep Recession and/or Depression.

I'm sure there are more options, but I see the above as the main ones.

Unfortunately, nothing above will stop the worldwide economic mess from worsening.  We're in a global Economic Crash.  There's been nothing like this since the Great Depression, and prior to that, the Fall of the Roman Empire (which was largely economic).  What's sad is that so many Americans seem to be so tied up in the tribalism of the election cycle that they either don't see the Crash unfolding, or they don't think it's very serious.

I hope Kirby is wrong regarding his time frame, but what he said certainly is possible.

Love,  Dad    p.s.  Don't take on any major debt.  When all this stuff culminates, your income & purchasing power will go down...but debt payments won't.  That's how people in the 1930's were wiped out financially.

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

REDUX: "Hoaxes and/or Lies by the Oligarchs"

[The original post has been edited a tiny bit.]

Here are just a few crucial ones---

1.  The Income Tax

Disregarding earlier, temporary income taxes in the 1860's (to fund the Civil War), the Big Kahuna was the Revenue Act of 1913.  It passed into Law shortly after the 16th Amendment to the Constitution was adopted.  [I won't get into arguments about whether or not the 16th was legitimately ratified.  That's a can of worms and could be argued until the End of Time...and is a waste of time.]  The purpose of the 16th Amendment apparently was to correct a glitch having to do with direct taxes and income from property & interest in the 1909 CORPORATE Income Tax law.

In passing the 1913 Revenue Act, the intent of Congress was to levy an income tax only on the very richest Americans.  [I forget the income threshold, but it was high.]   Only the top 2% of households were required to pay the tax; everyone else was exempt.  Furthermore, the tax was on income from property, rents, and interest, not wages.  [The top 2% had no wages.]  That was the original Income Tax Law.  Obviously, successive Congresses changed it...23 times if I recall correctly.  I sincerely doubt that We the People wanted all those changes...to the point where the IRS does what it does today.

The point is this:  I'm fairly certain that most Americans are largely unaware of the information above.  We've been sold a Bill of Goods relative to the history of the Income Tax Law.  The original intent of it never was to tax the wages of average Americans.  That was rammed through by the Oligarchy later.

According to Reagan's Grace Commission, 100% of your income tax dollars is used to pay the interest on the National Debt.  [97% of all money in circulation in the USA is debt.]  Gov't services are paid for by other taxes, fees, and more borrowing.

2.  The Cold War (1945-1989) Resulted in a Victory of Capitalism over Socialism

Not true, and here's why.  First of all, we had then and still have a Mixed Economy.  At best, it's Crony Capitalism, not Free Market Capitalism.  The only Capitalists in the Western World are SMALL business people.  Western societies, including the USA, have both a weak Welfare State AND strong socialism for the super-rich.  Corporate welfare abounds.  The State-Corporate Complex rules the day.  That is not Free Market Capitalism.  Secondly, when Lenin and his Gang seized power in Russia, socialistic institutions created during the 1917-1918 Revolution were eliminated.  Bolshevism morphed into Communism...which is a political system, not an economic system...and it's totalitarian.  Socialism is not a political system.  The Cold War resulted in the triumph of Democracy (of a sort) over Communism.

The point is this:  the Oligarchs in the Western World today continually claim that they are Free Market Capitalists and that the only other alternative is Socialism...which they claim was defeated by the Cold War.  None of that is a true picture of reality.  Crony Capitalists are not Free Market Capitalists; instead, they are married to the State.  Soviet Russia had a super-elite Class which practiced Totalitarianism...that's what was defeated by Democracy (of a sort) and a Mixed Economy.

Mega, transnational corporations and their propagandists falsely claim that they are Capitalists opposing Socialism.  What they really are (in general) is Fascists opposing the rest of us.  Both FDR and Mussolini defined Fascism as:  the marriage of the power of the State to the power of BIG Business.  That's pretty much what we have in almost the entire Western World today.  Even China now is more Fascist than Communist.  I don't remember any Communist countries ever having billionaire real estate moguls.  China does.

Don't buy into the Propaganda.  Despite their claims, the super-rich are not Free Market Capitalists and they're not opposing Socialism.  They are Neofascists and are opposing the rest of us.

3.  The Scam of Neoliberalism

In the USA, it dates back to at least the 1970's.  The overthrow (essentially by Nixon & Kissinger) of Allende and the installation of Pinochet in Chile on 9-11-73 (the other 9-11) was to be the first practical test of a portion of Neoliberalism.  What a disaster.  The implementation of this political and economic philosophy continues, but Oligarchs here have managed to keep it mostly in the shadows... until recently.  None of that is a conspiracy; to them, it's simply good business practice.  In general, most all Oligarchs today are Neoliberals.  Those at the highest levels are Democrats, or Republicans, or Liberals, or Conservatives in name only.  They don't care at all about those obsolete categories... except to use them as divisive propaganda.

Neoliberalism exploded in growth during the reigns of Reagan and Thatcher.  It continues today.  The goal is nothing short of domination of the worldwide economy and finance by super-rich elites and mega transnational corporations.  Its adherents agree with David Rockefeller, who stated publicly in 1991, "Surely it is preferable to have the world run by unelected elites than by the corrupt politicians of today.".  At least he got the "corrupt politicians" part correct.  He also thanked the Mainstream Press for keeping the Elites' work under wraps "for the past 40 years".  [You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried.]

The irony of this is that it seems some, perhaps many, of these Elites actually are altruists.  I'm convinced that some of them really believe that the world would be better off if it were run by the unelected super-rich.
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If all this seems convoluted, that's because it is.  It's so Orwellian that I'm afraid most people don't believe it.  Or, if they do believe it, they either don't grasp how it affects them directly or they think nothing can be done about it, or both.  And so it goes.

Not just my opinion.  Be Well

The Financial Coup in the USA is Almost Complete

First, again I must state that this Coup is not any kind of massive, dark "conspiracy".  It's more like a bunch of greedy control freaks, a few of whom probably are well-meaning, working mostly independently toward a mutual goal---Global BIG Business as the governing force in the world.  Their tools are Edward Bernays style Propaganda, so-called "Free Trade" Agreements, and institutions such as the WTO, the IMF, the Bank of International Settlements (owned by national Central Banks), Central Banks, the G-20, the G-20's Financial Stability Board, numerous mega multi-national corporations, and the like.  Some of their members have referred to the rest of us as "the little people".  Such is their mindset.

Since the 1970's at the very least, this Juggernaut of Crony Capitalists has been shifting our economy from one of manufacturing to one of Financialization.  In that ongoing process, Middle Class jobs have evaporated, their replacements have been lower-paying & less secure, the incomes of the Super-Rich have increased exponentially, the dollar has been debased to an obscene degree, the Poor have become poorer, and our great Land has rushed at great speed toward NeoFeudalism.  The minions of the Crony Elites, the DC politicians (of both major Parties), have become millionaire "public servants".  A few exceptions to that do exist...but not enough.

These Crony Capitalist Elites make up what Bill Moyers and others refer to as the Shadow Government.  Their footprints are everywhere...all you have to do is look.  For example, CitiGroup (CitiBank) lobbyists wrote the draft of an Amendment to the last big DC spending bill that essentially rolled back some of the Dodd-Frank protections against the illegal & unethical practices of the Financial Sector.  The legislative banking "reforms" wound up being window-dressing...a joke.  Another example--- not long after the 2008 Financial Crisis, the Fed Reserve made available (in virtually zero-percent loans) to several mega banks the same total amount of money as was spent by the Fed Gov't from the Revolutionary War up to the 2008 Crisis.  Think about that for a moment...trillions of dollars.  One estimate is twelve trillion; another is $13.1 trillion.  Did those banks then use that money to make loans to small businesses, or help the economy in other ways?  Essentially, no.  Some of the windfall was loaned back to the Fed Gov't...the banks bought U.S. Treasuries (bonds) & are receiving at least quadruple the amount of interest that they are paying for the loans.  Some of the windfall was used to buy physical precious metals which now are stockpiled in mega bank vaults.  Some of the windfall was used to continue placing gambling bets on bizarre financial derivatives.  Some of the windfall was simply "banked".  None of the foregoing produced any jobs for the economy.

So now in 2016, we're basically in the same boat as we were in 2007.  The difference is that the Asset Bubbles and the Debt Bubble all are much larger than in 2007.  Plus, crude oil is tanking.  Plus, China is deflating.  Plus, the Fed Reserve essentially is out of ammo.  Plus, the Derivatives Bubble is estimated to be $1.5 quadrillion.  Plus, wages basically still are stagnant.  [51% of American working families make $30K per year or less.]  Plus, mega companies are buying back their own stock, thus posting phantom earnings in order to prop up their stock prices.  Plus, the real unemployment rate is estimated to be somewhere between 20% and 43%.  And on & on.

The goal seems to be to destroy our Financial System and our Economy...to be replaced by who knows what.  In the meantime, the Super-Rich are getting richer...and richer...and richer.  Almost nothing is "trickling down".  Also in the meantime, there's a War on Cash...a move to only digital "money".  If implemented, that will be the end of any semblance of privacy.  As to the U.S. Constitution, forget it... for the most part, it's long gone.  DC politicians violate it on an almost daily basis.

For ways to peacefully combat this entire obscenity, see a few of my previous posts.  More ways to come in the near future.  Forget voting at the national level...presently at least, that won't solve a damned thing.  The last forty years or so prove that; Democrats & Republicans have led us to where we are today.  They've both individually held the majority Power at different times.  SSDD.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

The Childish Tech Whiz Kids

Not all of them...I'm talking only about the ones who are immature and malicious.  Every so often, some dweeb manages to inject a piece of malware into my machine...because he/she has no life of any consequence (I'm guessing).  We've all had this happen to us.  Even with a firewall and various anti-viral gizmos, once in awhile something gets through.

It takes me awhile to stumble around and neutralize the infection, but so far, I've always been successful... and I'm essentially a No-Tech person.  I suppose perhaps we should pity these maladjusted, frustrated Techies who can't figure out how to have a meaningful life, so instead they act childish.  My point here is this:  if a No-Tech guy like me can get around their foolishness, apparently they aren't as smart & clever as they they think they are.  :)

My message to such people is:  why be so small-minded & petty; why not try injecting something really worthwhile into your lives?  Life can be a beautiful, exciting, meaningful adventure...no matter what place in which you find yourself.  It doesn't have to be empty and ugly.  It all depends on your mindset.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Two Ways to Fight the Crony Capitalist Corporatocracy

I believe it was the NYT best-selling author, John Perkins, who coined the term "Corporatocracy" some years ago.  [See the book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.]  There's no question that we live in and under the Rule of Corporatism...in government, in international matters, in the Financialization Movement, and even in social matters.  Some people are fighting back...peacefully.

Here are two admittedly small ways---specific methods---to fight the Corporatocracy.  I'm of the philosophy that every little bit eventually helps.

1.  Boycott Apple Computer.  No, not because of the FBI thing...Apple happens to be correct in that case.  Boycott them because that company doesn't make one single product in the USA.  All those manufacturing jobs have been shipped overseas by Apple.  That won't change until we Americans show the company that there's a painful price to pay for such action.

In Apple's defense and in fairness, I must point out that corporations are required by law (thanks a lot Dems & Repubs) to maximize profits for their shareholders.  But here's the thing--- forcing them via boycott to bring manufacturing back here (thus paying higher wages & reducing profits) is far better for them than reducing sales by a significant percentage...or going bankrupt.  Is Apple the only company manufacturing out-of-country?  Of course not.  Let's identify the others and do the same to them.  Politicians aren't doing anything about it; it's up to We the People.

2.  Start raising a significant portion of your own food.  See the "Urban Homestead" documentaries & interviews on YouTube...6,000 pounds of food per year on 1/10th of an acre...the guy is a genius.  So, too, are his family members.  For specific instructions on Container Gardening (Indoor/Deck/Porch/Patio/Balcony Gardening), see my clips on same at youtube.com/user/scotthaley12 .

This is a way to tell Monsanto and other gross companies to go to hell.  Same thing for Mega Corporate Factory Farm Agriculture and Mega Corporate Food Manufacturers.  In conjunction with raising a good portion of your own food, patronize local farms and farmers' markets in your area.  Even in big cities, you should be able to find some sort of Farmers' Market Co-op or the like.  Years ago, there was a Movement whose theme was "Small is Beautiful".  It is.
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This is how you fight Corporatism---through boycotts and one yard/deck/balcony/porch/patio at a time.  It's not flashy, it takes time, and perhaps small sacrifices...but it can be effective if enough people do it.  If we don't restore the dominance of Manufacturing over Financialization in this great Land, the Middle Class will completely disappear and those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder will be forever condemned to poverty.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Are Most Adult Americans Totally Bamboozled by Propaganda?

Most of the time, it seems so to me.  For the life of me, I cannot figure out why most of my fellow citizens appear to either believe, or alternatively, to not object to the following falsehoods.

1.  Our Presidents can issue pretty much any Executive Orders that they so desire.  [Any 12th-grader reading Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution easily could determine that only two such Orders are permitted:  the Pres can order his/her Department Heads (or any one of them) to submit a Report on anything having to do with their individual Departments; and, the Pres can order a Pardon for a convicted criminal...except in the case of Impeachment.  That's it...those are the only two Exec Orders permitted by the Supreme Law of the Land.  Presidents usually justify others by citing some general duty of theirs to protect or defend the United States.  Any such duty cannot legally contravene other parts of the Constitution.  Well, maybe it can in Alice's Wonderland or some other la-la, loony tunes Land...but to allow such actions permits the Executive Branch to make Laws... and that's a function expressly reserved to the Congress.  With that power, a President essentially is a Feudal King.]

2.  Our Presidents legally can have our military cross an international border, bomb that country, and kill people without Congress declaring war.  [This has been going on since the end of WW II.  Politicians usually justify it in one of two ways:  by claiming the action is not war; or, by citing some LAW passed by Congress that allows the Pres to choose when & where to engage in war.  In the first case, I refer you to the Korean Conflict (the official name) in the 1950's, the Vietnam Conflict (the official name) in the 1960's and 1970's, and the Counter-Terrorism activities of Bush-Obama.  In the second case, I refer you to the War Powers Act.  Those justifications are blatantly wrong because in the first case, if you bomb a country & kill people, it's ridiculous to claim you're not at war; in the second case, no Law trumps the Constitution.  That's why it's called the SUPREME Law of the Land.]

3.  The gravest, most dangerous threat to the USA is that of Islam.  [You have a bigger chance of being killed by lightning than by the comparatively few criminals who are so-called jihadists.]  Because of that "threat", we must willingly sacrifice certain Rights in order to be "safe".  [These beliefs by seemingly many Americans are at once ridiculous, tragic, and comical.  Can't anyone reason anymore?  Can't anyone recognize manipulative Propaganda anymore?  Can't anyone see how the Powers-That-Be are eliminating our Right to be Free with this BS?]

4.  Our Economy is "recovering".  Unemployment is now at "4.9%"...[or some other equally & wildly inaccurate low number.]  The Stock Market is rebounding and soon will be in great shape again.  Manufacturing is on the mend.  [Those claims are beyond the pale...completely asinine.  The Powers-That-Be are so used to most Americans accepting their outright lies that such lies have become larger and more numerous in recent years.  See several of my past posts for an alternative view... or see almost any non-corporate media source for something much, much closer to the truth.]

5.  Donald Trump, or Ted Cruz, or Hillary Clinton, or Bernie Sanders, or any of the other current candidates will make good on their promises... and really make a difference in our lives.  [Please.  Not without Congress they won't... unless they do it illegally by Exec Order.  Furthermore, keep in mind that the President represents the State (as in Statism), not the People.  We the People supposedly are represented by the Congress, not the Executive Branch... although, with all the Crony Capitalism and corruption in the Gov't, even the concept of Congress representing us is highly questionable.  The only way out of this political mess is by means of peaceful outside pressure.  No one inside the Rotten System ever will be able to change much of anything...not anymore.  The fact is, we live in a criminal Fascist State... criminal at the highest levels.  The Supreme Law of the Land is violated by Gov't Elites on an almost daily basis.  Don't ever think that one has to be a Judge or Attorney-at-Law in order to comprehend the Constitution.  That document is long-winded in parts, but it's very plainly written and fairly easy to understand.  Most politicians ignore most of it.  Where's the outrage over that?]

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Corrupt

I didn't support his political candidacy, and I don't agree with most of his political stances.  Nevertheless---

From Ben Carson:  "Our political system is corrupt...both Democrats and Republicans...corrupt to the core.".  You may call his statement sour grapes if you wish, but the man is correct.

Don't play a Rigged Game.  Either boycott national elections, or vote for a worthy Third Party candidate.  That message to the Establishment would be heard...if enough people chose one of those options.  Stop being a "True Believer" in the dictatorial, Two-Party Monopoly.  That Monopoly has brought us to where we are today.  Shun it.  That's one method of bringing about a peaceful, political revolution.

For you Sanders supporters, sorry, but he won't get the nomination.  After the massive McGovern defeat, the Democrat Hierarchy set up policies & procedures to ensure that would never happen again... "that" being a Populist getting the nomination.  For you Trump supporters, Romney is correct--- Trump is a phony.  [So is Romney, but that's another story.]  The Donald is not a Populist.  Even if he gets the nomination, he'll easily be defeated (barring unforeseen circumstances) by Clinton.  He's a Corporatist (like her), but his idiocy will be rejected by the vast majority of voters.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well