Buckle up ya'll. This is going to be a bumpy ride.

 

Yeah, if you call 70 MPH straight into a brick wall "bumpy". :

 

I also can't help posting article but by now I realize that there are two main groups on here. Those who already know it and those who will never believe it until it hits them square in the face...

But keep'em coming. We're going down fast but we might as well get a running commentary.

 

I have to agree. There are some who just don't want to accept reality. Its too jagged a pill to swallow.

 

As I'm sure many here are aware,including Sapper, this is not about FIXING the problem. It is all about USING the problem to bring about a long-desired result. They are waffling and dragging their heels (when not directly contributing to the problem) because a strong,secure,economically stable America is not the goal.
A weakened,subdued America is the goal. Our economic might is being used to prop up the present system,right up until the point that we no longer serve their purpose,and that point seems to be rapidly approaching.
As much as I would ( barely) prefer a totally government-free Mad Max collapse,we will soon be facing the exact opposite.
I don't know exactly how or with what the present system will be replaced, but I am confident it will be effectively replaced, and replaced with something we like a whole lot less than this.

 

As I'm sure many here are aware,including Sapper, this is not about FIXING the problem. It is all about USING the problem to bring about a long-desired result. They are waffling and dragging their heels (when not directly contributing to the problem) because a strong,secure,economically stable America is not the goal.
A weakened,subdued America is the goal.

Concur. If a moron like me can understand macroeconomics, I have to believe that Bernanke and the like know damn well what they're doing.

 

Screw buckling up, bailing on this car with no brakes is a better idea.

 

IMHO: The financial problem - has gone WAY beyond .... being able to be fixed.

It's a Freight Train heading for catastrophic and horrific derailment....and devastation....its just a matter of time before "time", or an "event", implodes it.


__________________________________________________
"Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero" - Seize the day, trust as little as possible in tomorrow (Horace)

 

It's truly sad to see the country that I love in such a shape, just a few years ago I'd have never believed we could go so quickly.

 

Agree completely!

 

So(with tinfoil hat squarely planted on head) are we led to believe that when(not if) the current US gov/EConomy crashes fully as we know it,Goldman /Sachs will step in to save the day with a fresh infusion of their(our) cash and some special rules of their own ? I hate to say it but,as crazy as it sounds,I cant believe as someone else pointed out that we are still messing with HC reform when the HUGE deficit problem is MUCH more needy in terms of immediate concern and "reform" I give up,whats next,confiscate usd and issue yen ?:xeye:

 

welcome 2 civil war 2

 

on the flip side.... when this all shakes out... we'll most likely have our republic back again... as most people will finally realize that the "old way" was the wrong way .. and conservative moral values will again take root...

 

Sure hope so. Unfortunately(or maybe not?) some analysts (at least one, nbit sure about others) have been saying that when that happens, it will be split into about 6 separate nations.

This may or may not be a good thing for those of us who wish the country to go back and stay on a righteous path. If we can't have our whole country become what it was meant to be, at least some parts should, when they become new nations should. I'd hate to be in the Northeastern states if that happens, given the high concentration of liberals in that general area. I bet they are not forming a proper republic, using the law of the land.

"Keep your side of the playground, and do your liberal stuff over there, we'll be conservative over here."

Let's see how much the liberals enjoy equality when it means sharing nth % of their ZERO PRODUCTION.

 

Sapper6:thumb: 100% correct!

We do NOT have the national will to fix the problems. The VAST majority of the speanding/budget is social security/medicade/medicare..the rest is peanuts with the lone exception of national defense.

Until, we decide to be honest with these programs we will crash big-time! The truth is we already have, but we keep kicking the can down the road with massive Multi-Trillion dollar debts

Rome is burning, the lights are out and the music continues to play....

We are all on deck of the Titanic and listening to the band playing on

 

Sad but true.
I keep looking for some sign of a backbone in Washington DC.
Just kidding. I gave that up a long time ago.
Wrote my last letter, made my last phone call to DC,.. long time ago.
Now I'm just preparing as best I can, and bracing for the wreck.

 

Okay, Im starting to wonder if Im paranoid. Are we headed for a Depression?

It seems like it, but yet life goes on as normal. There doesnt seem to be much that has changed. People that have jobs still go to work like normal, plan vacations, send their kids to college. (as if they have a future)

Some of you know, Im goign to school right now. Is there a reason to keep going to school? What will it be like in 4 years from now? Sometimes Im not sure if I will be able to get a job, or if life will go on as normal.

I dont know if Im doing the right thing. If this was 1929 all over again, it might make sense to quit school and get prepared for what is coming. If I do quit, I will be without skills and totally unemployable the rest of my life as I wont have another opportunity at my age to get an education. (Im 38)

Trying to be a student and Mom sucks up a lot of my time and I dont have time to do more than worry about a survival situation let alone prepare for ti.

 

I think it depends on what you are studying.
If it is something practical like Nursing, then keep going.
Nurses worked during the last depression, and will work thorough any future depressions.
If it is something like Russian history or anthropology then you might be wasting your time.

 

Look up the Cloward-Priven strategy. That is what this administration is implementing as fast as they can.

Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

 

+100 on what he said. This is what I'm seeing. They want to PURPOSELY bankrupt the system and when it collapses, they will "try" to resurrect it into something else to their advantage.

 

Im thinking of trying for nursing school. Its very hard to get in, so Im not holding my breath.

Look at what happened in Haiti. If shtf, how much good are Doctors and Nurses going to be anyway? With all the knowledge they have , no supplies, antibiotics, or modern facilities it will be like 150 years ago. So many people died there with Doctors and Nurses watching helplessly.

 

Think about a court recorder job. Take the school get certified,the way things are going I think courts may be doing a lot more business. Pay is pretty decent at least in CA & Nevada.

Red

 

The generally agreed consensus on Depression era unemployment is that 1 in 4 (25%) could not find work.

Current BLS U6 is 17.5%
Current Shadowstats is 21%

I know this is not taking into account lots of factors (labor force then vs now, work demographics, etc...), but it is still real as far as percentages goes...

I've pointed this out in other threads and I think its important to note. If/when we hit the Depression era number, or even get close to it... the number itself will be the news, and no MSM or White House spin will be able to sugarcoat it. In fact I think it will be a cannibalistic negative news feeding frenzy on the part of the MSM, with the White House looking like the proverbial "deer in the headlights".

The average American will not understand economists trying to explain how "the numbers now can't be compared to then", and more importantly they won't care because they'll be getting 24 hour MSM soundbites saying... "its as bad as the Depression"...

 

You are missing the "hidden" employment that was available then. People worked the land and homesteaded. The unemployed, at least outside the cities (which housed a smaller % of the pop then), ate because they grew food. Bartering was easier (the IRS didn't have the technology to prevent it as well as they do now) and the government, though it taxed the crap out of producers, didn't regulate as many people away from providing for themselves as they do today. The fact that they want to outlaw gardening, subsistence farming, fishing, and other self-sustainability measures, while reserving the right to take whatever they want is insane when we are in the first stages of what is likely a depression, unless they can kick the can further down the road.

 

According to many analysts and financial proffessionals, we ARE in a Depression. It's not the same as what we've seen in pictures of the 20's, but it is a Depression they say.
I bellieve it because we just don't have anything to bring employment back, thus it can't be "fixed" right now. We also have a horrendous debt, too many social programs and a selish citizenry.
A country gets out of a Depression by making hard decisions and working on being self sufficient. There have been many instances of this. However, our citizens have become so ingrained in "instant" everything, that they can't imagine going without. To many, it's real bad when they can't fill their IPod or have unlimited cell service. People who are broke will pay for cell and cable before they pay rent. They'll take in a room mate, push the "can" down the road a bit longer, but the end result is the same...bankruptcy. A person, city, state and country have to live within their means. We don't, we won't, so we will fail.
It will take literal hunger by people who once drove Beemers, big tent cities (more than now) and riots to wake people up.

Keep going to school, make sure it's a practical proffession (no realestate, no investment banking etc) and do your best to prepare. Learn skills on how to do without, how to grow your own food and keep alert. :thumb:

 

A country gets out of a Depression by making hard decisions and working on being self sufficient. There have been many instances of this. However, our citizens have become so ingrained in "instant" everything, that they can't imagine going without. :

That's the thought that has pervaded my thinking for quite some time. America has no character to fall back on.

 

HP, you say it better than I do. I get ****ed.:thumb:

 

The analogy playing in my head is one of musical chairs. There's only a few chairs left and several billion people (everyone in the world) hoping the music isn't gonna end but are assuming that if the music ends, they're going to be one of the lucky few to get one of those chairs that are left. But when the music does end, the domino effect is gonna start.

 

I don't take any comfort from that. If they've known what they've been doing all along, why are we in this mess? Range of possibilities:

1. They deliberately rigged it this way, for personal gain/profiteering, even if it risks the entire national fabric.
2. They do know what they're doing, but they're powerless to stop the economic SHTF. Either due to political gridlock, groupthink, a far more shrewd+productive China, etc.

Or... They just plain don't know what they're doing.

There's one thing that bankers know that the rest of us hardly give any thought to: If you lend money on interest, eventually the lender owns EVERYTHING. Right now the banks own over half of all homes and commercial buildings in the U.S., in the form of mortgages. Bankers know there has to be a reset, like the Biblical Jubilee, or the system will crash. You can only bleed the drones for so long, until there's no more blood.

 

..... eventually the lender owns EVERYTHING. Right now the banks own over half of all homes and commercial buildings in the U.S.

Yep, and Thomas Jefferson called it the same way 200 years ago.......

"The [privately-owned] Central Bank is an institution of the most deadly
hostility existing against the principles and form of our Constitution...
if the American people allow private banks to control the issuance of their
currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations
that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property
until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers
conquered."

 

The question in the back of my mind though about the "global economy" is how can they get it all set up? Look at what's happening with the EU right now - Greece, Ireland, Spain, etc....all on verge of bankruptcy. U.S. in dire economic condition. Is there enough left among all the "powers that be" to put together a single global anything? We're all a mess right now.

And then I start thinking about all these other things - any one of which could cause a domino effect that puts us in a significant SHTF event - fake gold, China not buying our debt, EU money problems, earthquakes, ongoing job losses, ongoing foreclosures, etc. . .

Just wondering which shoe(s) are about to drop to set the whole thing in motion.

 

You need to dial back to the history of the Middle Ages, intermarrying between royal elite of different countries, etc. My favorite example is the house of House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a German Dynasty. Had to change their name during WWI to the House of Windsor -- the royal family of England are actually Germans.

So you begin to look at the medieval and late medieval period as proto-globalism, or a regional multi-nationalism. It's not a black vs. white situation. It's just a modern-day version of absentee landlords (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absentee_landlord), it doesn't run like clockwork either. Occasionally they have "extended family" disputes, and force their serfs to fight for their own overlords, etc. A small victory that we get to decide who collects interest on our debts, taxes us, etc.

Bankruptcy sounds pretty serious to ordinary people like us, but hat-in-hand for a banker -- with a co-opted government -- is a gold mine.

 

Though it is sad to see what has happened to our country and it is VERY interesting to connectthe dots, I believe that it is no longer important really, to know who did what, who knew what or how it all happened. I believe that the important thing is how WE can be best protected from the fall out.
Of course, we will still be touched by it, no matter how hard we prepare. However, I truely believe that the following actions are what we all should take to protect our lives (family, livelyhood etc) best:
1. pay off your debts to the greatest extent possible.
2. Have savings, either in cash or in PM's
3. Learn. learn to live as self reliently as possible. Learn to live in the lowest cost way possible. Learn a skill that will help you no matter what (first aid, gardening etc).
4. Prepare your household, both tangably (supplies, tools, defense etc) and mentally (plans, practice, critical thinking).

IF nothing happens, you have gained valuable skills, valuable tangible items that probably won't ever decrease in value and some peace of mind and reduced the amount of money you spend each month. IF something happens, you are at least more comfortable than many and it might just save your lives.

 

Here ya go.:


http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle7035913.ece

 

I've been reading Scott Burns for over 25 years. In this article he talks about the need for frugality.

http://assetbuilder.com/blogs/scott_burns/archive/2010/02/26/it-s-garden-party-time.aspx

 

I hear you, hell, some Americans still think their 'guy' in November will put us back into a great economic boom.

Keep votin em in.

 

Unions probably generally are corrupt, but don't toss out the baby with the bathwater. Vacations, weekends, kids out of the factories, safety in the workplace, etc. was never willingly granted to any people. Try asking your boss for a few extra vacation days a year, to at least be on par with the Japanese (forget about the Europeans). He'll show you the exit. Management is organized, bankers are organized, corporations are organized. Makes no sense that the organization should stop at the top.

I've not been in a union for over a decade, but the other problem I see with them is that in addition to guaranteeing jobs/wages for people who maybe should be merit-based instead, they also force their better members to accept LOWER contracts. That is, if you're a crackshot professional and belong to a union that negotiates raises, benefits, etc. you may be forced to accept a lesser contract than what you'd ordinarily accept if you had your own say in the matter. In this sense, they can be control mechanisms, keeping their members hopes down. So as with anything else, no organization is better than the people in charge. I don't think unions have done much of anything useful or visionary for at least 40 years, but I'm principally not opposed to the concept of unions. The problem is that any big pot of money will attract the wrong sort.

 

LOL

You taste it first! I'll go right after you, I promise! :thumb: