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Monday morning, and it’s hard not
to smile at how hard TPTB are trying to make it to look good.
By the end of my workout, I had not
one, not two, but THREE potential titles for this RANT, as the
“horrible headlines” and criticism fodder kept piling up, at a
faster… and faster … and faster pace.
However, I’m going to stick with
my gut, the first thing I saw when I awoke this morning, the article below
about the exponentially widening gap between the haves and have-nots, in this
case depicted by the wealth disparity of the young and the old. In it,
the writer lays out a downright terrifying statistical analysis of the plight
of America’s youth, featuring the following:
The typical U.S. household headed by a
person age 65 or older has a net worth 47 times greater than a household
headed by someone under 35; nearly five times the 10-to-1 disparity of 25 years
ago, after adjusting for inflation
(Ranting
Andy note: Utilizing ACTUAL, not FABRICATED government inflation rates,
the gap is FAR WIDER).
The median net worth for under 35
households was $3,662, down 68 percent from 25 years ago
(Ranting Andy note: The U.S.
money supply has OVERTLY risen by 10x during this period, and, including
COVERT money-printing, risen by significantly more).
In all, 37 percent of under 35
households have a net worth of zero or less, nearly double the share in 1984
(Ranting Andy note: The Dow rose
from 1,000 in 1984 to 14,000 in 2007, yet twice as many people under 35 years
old are broke. Just four years later, in 2011, the economy is in
depression, debt and REAL unemployment at ALL-TIME highs, and the under 35 age
group carries, BY FAR, the highest student loan debt load, which by the way
is unforgivable, in HISTORY).
Older Americans are staying in jobs
longer, while young adults face the highest unemployment since World War II.
Consequently, the median income of over 65 households since 1967 has
grown at four times the rate of under 35 households.
(Ranting Andy note: Throw in REAL
income loss from government CPI inflation fraud, yielding lower Social
Security cost-of-living increases, and this statistic describes a lower standard
of living for ” the 99%”).
For young adults, their main
asset is their home. However, their housing wealth has dropped 31 percent
since 1984, the result of increased debt and falling home values
(Ranting Andy note: Even inclusive of
the 2007-2011 housing bust, the average U.S. home price is UP 22% since
1984. Thus, this horrible statistic is rooted SOLELY in the increased
real estate leverage stemming from the relaxed credit standards and easy
monetary policy of the early 2000s).
http://news.yahoo.com/us-wealth-gap-between-young-old-widest-ever-050259922.html
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=64935#axzz1d1quq0cu
Age group wealth disparity is a mere
subset of the bigger problem, the CLASS WARFARE instituted by “the
1%” on “the 99%” by Washington and Wall Street, which work
in concert care via an endless game of corruption, as described to a tee by
last night’s 60 Minutes piece about former Washington lobbyist Jack
Abramoff.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57319075/jack-abramoff-the-lobbyists-playbook/
Finishing the thought, the below
article depicts how the just 1% of Americans control 42% of the
nation’s wealth, while the top 20% control 93%. Civil, and
Revolutionary Wars have started over much less, and in this case, the CLASS
WARFARE issue is no different in the States than the majority of the
WORLD. That is why we have seen social unrest sprout from places as
far-reaching as Europe (Athens, Rome, London), the MENA Region (Egypt,
Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Bahrain) to the United States (OWS, etc.).
http://www.mybudget360.com/top-1-percent-control-42-percent-of-financial-wealth-in-the-us-how-average-americans-are-lured-into-debt-servitude-by-promises-of-mega-wealth/
The reason I chose this direction for
my RANT was perusal of excerpts from Gerald Celente’s Trends
Newsletter, one of the finest publications in the world. Celente, a
native New Yorker as I am, has seen much in his decades of market analysis,
and was among the first to forecast, 15+ years ago, that widening wealth
disparity would lead to social revolution. He could not have been more
prophetic then, and is now one of the top prognosticators in the world today.
This morning brings with it another 20+
“horrible headlines”, so as always I have to figure the best way
to present them, as well as which ones to save for a rainy day. But my
attention continues to be drawn to the CHAOS in Europe, a continent amidst
high-speed financial COLLAPSE, propped only by the untiring presence of
Washington/Wall Street/mainstream media PROPAGANDA and government market
manipulation.
The weekend commenced with the VOTE OF
CONFIDENCE in the Greek government Friday night, prompting CNBC and other
shills to prognosticate the “saving of Europe.” Of course,
just hours later the Greek Parliament was engaged in full-fledged verbal
warfare, eventually yielding the RESIGNATION of Prime Minister Papandreou.
Some confidence, huh?
Yes, I’m sure the NEW government,
essentially be the same people in different chairs, will do much better.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=47373
Then, of course, there was this
weekend’s CME margin change fiasco, prompting it to
“clarify” on Saturday that their Friday press release regarding
an INCREASE in margin requirements actually meant a DECREASE. Readers,
I follow MANY of the top trading minds in the business, and EVERY ONE OF THEM
believed the initial CME release referred to an increase, likely due to the
ramifications of the MF Global collapse.
The “clarification” cited
that instead of a margin INCREASE, a margin DECREASE was being instituted for
the following reason:
“… to decrease the size of
any margin calls resulting from the bulk transfer of MF Global customers to
new clearing members, not to increase them.”
OK, so they were trying to ease the
burden of those stuck with frozen, underwater trading positions held at MF
Global. But that doesn’t exactly gibe with the article below from
THIS MORNING, stating that ALL MF Global account holders face Monday margin
calls!
Yep, just another day in the theater of
the absurd. Drama aside, however, in this “financial
theater” the end result is ALWAYS the same – massive losses for
“the 99%” (UNLESS THEY OWN PHYSICAL GOLD AND SILVER), and massive
bailouts for “the 1%.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/every-former-mf-global-account-faces-margin-call-non-cme-mf-global-transfers-get-monday-blues
Next, we move on to Italy, in a state of
HIGH-SPEED COLLAPSE as we speak. Prime Minister and neo-mobster Silvio
Berlusconi is literally under siege from all directions, having faced tens of
thousands of public protestors this weekend and, in his words, the
“traitors” in government seeking to unseat him.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/silvio-berlusconi-we-dont-want-elections-we-want-govern-tens-thousands-protestors-disagree
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/berlusconi-tells-repubblica-ahead-confidence-vote-i-want-look-my-traitors-face
Italian bond yields EXPLODED this
morning to new ALL-TIME HIGHS, including a mind boggling 29 basis point surge
in the benchmark 10-year bond, to 6.62% from 6.33% Friday afternoon…
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20111107-705082.html
…while Italian CDS yields
rocketed to new highs as well. I guess CDS investors don’t doubt
the upcoming Italian bankruptcy will be deemed a “credit event”
by the ISDA…
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/europe-cds-update-all-wider
Despite this weekend’s
ECB’s ULTIMATUM that they would stop purchasing Italy’s debt if
it didn’t get its house in order, they did so again this morning
ANYWAY…
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/ecb-issues-ultimatum-italy-threatens-halt-bond-purchases
Proving, of course, that they can TALK
all they want, but in the end they can’t do the WALK, as doing so would
entail IMMEDIATE, ABSOLUTE, ECONOMIC ANNIHILATION. Not to mention, when
the new head of the ECB is ITALIAN!
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/italy-calls-ecbs-bluff-mario-draghi-forced-double-italian-bond-purchases-take-total-%E2%82%AC110-billio
Way to go, PPT! In the first 15
minutes of NYSE trading, an entire night of losses was reversed, although
they are seeing some pushback by REALITY as we speak.
Amazing how all-EUROPEAN problems are
saved by NYSE trading, isn’t it? Obviously, American
“investors” know what’s going on in Europe more than
Europeans, as they always do.
Just as was the case late last week,
when the PPT operated under the guise of “hopes of Papandreou
resigning” (which, in the end, didn’t boost markets at all), the
rumor this morning behind the PPT’s goosing was “hopes of
Berlusconi resigning”, as if that will have ANY impact on Italy’s
finances.
Oh well, I guess we’ll just have
wait a week or so for his actual resignation, when the PPT will then hype
“hopes of Sarkozy resigning” as a potentially bullish
event. I got news for you, PPT. After Sarkozy there are just
three “resignation hopes” left, and I assure you none will be
market-bullish. Those three, of course, being Merkel, Cameron, and
“Mr. Hope” himself, Obama.
Before I end today’s RANT, I want
to make sure the point of my writing is not forgotten, the aim of helping you
PROTECT YOURSELF from the accelerating, and potentially hyperinflation that
is the MATHEMATICALLY CERTAIN conclusion of the collapse of European,
American, and other global economies. That PROTECTION will be attained
by exchanging your depreciating fiat currencies for PHYSICAL gold and silver,
which are GUARANTEED to rise for generations to come, at least until the new
gold standard is created at MANY MULTIPLES of the current prices.
Per the 2010 Wikileaks document
disclosed this weekend, OFFICIAL German documents discussed plans for the
contingency of a EuroZone collapse as recently as February 2010. The
Germans have the strongest (though weakening) economy in Europe, the most to
lose from European bailouts, and the most notorious historical episode of
hyperinflation. I ASSURE you they won’t stick with the failing
Euro experiment if the EFSF fund cannot be “leveraged” by the
Chinese (who have already said no) or some other suckers (of which there will
be none), and instead will depart unceremoniously, yielding HYPERINFLATION to
the PIFIGS and the other weaker nations.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/wikileaks-exposes-german-preparations-eurozone-chapter-11
And speaking of gold, isn’t it
funny how something proclaimed so useless by TPTB is not only being acquired
AGGRESSIVELY by Central Banks worldwide (both OVERTLY and COVERTLY), but is
now becoming the FOCAL POINT of heated CENTRAL BANK VERBAL WARFARE?
Just this weekend, the pathetic PIFIGS
(sorry France, you are a PIG!) demanded that Germany, the supposed second
largest holder of gold reserves in the world, sell its gold to bail them
out. Germany responded with a resounding NO…
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/g-20-demands-german-gold-keep-eurozone-intact-german-central-bank-tells-g-20-where-stick-it
…and, in turn, demanded that
Italy, the supposed third largest holder of gold reserves (I say supposed as
there are allegations that both Germany and Italy may have leased some of it
out), should sell theirs!
Does this sound like an asset with no
use, one considered a “barbaric relic” by the world’s most
powerful bankers?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/germany-g20-german-gold-%E2%80%9Cmust-remain-limits%E2%80%9D-italian-gold-sale-again-proposed-germany
Readers, the wealth and income
disparity that is DRAMATICALLY WIDENING in the U.S. and much of the developed
world is the DIRECT RESULT of Central Bank MONEY-PRINTING, led, of course, by
the EVIL Washington/Wall Street Axis that has destroyed the world and created
the inevitable, hyperbolically destructive period of HYPERINFLATION and
CURRENCY COLLAPSE that is upon us.
Only by PROTECTING YOURSELF with
PHYSICAL GOLD, SILVER, FOOD, and OTHER LIFE NECESSITIES will you SURVIVE this
generational economic calamity and set the stage to THRIVE when the new
financial order emerges from the ashes.
HOW AMERICA DESTROYED THE WORLD IN A
DECADE
For the past decade, the U.S.
government navigated the treacherous waters of a collapsing economy with its
printing press. Many cite GLOBAL MELTDOWN I in 2008 as the commencement
of its economic malaise, but that is simply not the case.
THIS is what actually happened, all in
a measly decade…
America’s FINAL era of prosperity
ended with the Tech Wreck of 2000, yielding the first major recession since
the Greenspan-led Fed started juicing the money supply in the late
1980s. Pandora’s Box officially opened when Glass-Steagall was
repealed in 1999, urging banks to create dangerous investment products, and
investors to take the bait. Allowing commercial banks to invent risky
investments was like allowing Dr. Jekyll into a lab, an intoxicating
opportunity to create “free money” by experimenting with financial
fire. Even the world’s “leading minds” believed the
internet would render WORK obsolete and WEALTH ubiquitous, a fitting end to a
period in which the Eastern Hemisphere was handed a century’s worth of
U.S. manufacturing jobs. Most of them by U.S. companies themselves, VOLUNTARILY,
by the way.
To wit, General Electric,
‘America’s greatest company,’ at least before Apple emerged
as the smart phone king of the world. Over the past decade, GE has shed
34,000 U.S.-based jobs, while adding 25,000 overseas. More than half
its employees are now internationally-based, a percentage expected to
continue climbing. In 2010, GE’s $5.1 billion of U.S.-based
profit was not only untaxed, but the firm received a $3.3 billion tax
REFUND. To add insult to injury, GE was BAILED OUT from sure bankruptcy
in 2009 by a COVERT U.S. government bailout, fronted by its favorite
propaganda puppet, Warren Buffett. Those losses were 100% due to
DERIVATIVES EXPOSURE via its toxic finance unit, GE Capital, and you can be
sure GE Cap will be back in the news when the derivatives monster consumes
its next meal.
After the Tech Wreck, the U.S. was
faced with a recession and, simultaneously, enormous secular job
losses. The national debt had skyrocketed from $2.6 trillion when Alan
Greenspan took over the Fed in 1987 to $5.6 trillion at the peak of the
internet bubble in 2000, but no one was asking how that could occur if times
were so “prosperous.” The reason, of course, was the dollar
was peaking, and with it a frenzied period of borrowing and spending, ending
the strongest era of American purchasing power in its history. The
world thought the dollar was so strong due America’s
“greatness”, when in fact it had more to do with the collapse of
the Eastern Block than anything else. But Russia and Eastern Europe
eventually recovered, and with their resurgence the ERA OF CHEAP COMMODITIES
was over, FOREVER.
Around that same time, circa 2000,
Greenspan learned his printing press could be used to stave off recessions,
the consequences be damned. Sure, he was a disciple of the ultimate
capitalist, Ayn Rand, and wrote Gold and Economic Freedom in 1966. But
why go with your gut, or the lessons of history that made him write that
piece, when it’s so much easier to PRINT MONEY and espouse theories of
new banking paradigms?
Simultaneously, Sir Alan was exposed to
the growing strength of OTHER manipulation schemes (aside from money
printing), such as the “President’s Working Group on Capital
Markets”, i.e. the PPT, and the Gold Cartel, while “sects”
of “Greenspanism” emerged on the scene, such as Robert
Rubin’s “Strong Dollar Policy” and Larry Summers’
“Gibson’s Paradox.” The POWER of these manipulative
tools surged through his veins, and his journey to the DARK SIDE was complete
when Wall Street infiltrated Washington with its ill-begotten, post-Glass
Stegall profits.
Then came 9/11, the most important
inflection point in U.S. history, in my view. This was the day the
government OFFICIALLY took over our lives, under the pretense of
“national security.” Was it a false flag attack, of which
such evidence grows stronger each day, or a band of 20 highly talented,
borderline GENIUS Moslem terrorists? I’m not sure we’ll
ever definitively know. Irrespective, the loss of American FREEDOM was
far more damaging than 2,996 lives in the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and the
four downed planes. Not to mention, the 10,000 dead American soldiers,
and more than 1,000,000 civilians either directly or via terrorist bombings.
http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq
I know many people don’t care
about these deaths, or practically anything that doesn’t prevent them
from watching reality TV, playing video games, or texting gossip.
However, more than a million people have died because the Bush Administration
attacked Iraq with no credible reason, which REALLY PISSES ME OFF. And
not to show political favoritism, Obama campaigned heavily on a promise of
bringing soldiers home, lying through his teeth and proving to be just as warlike
as George Bush.
Back to my RANT, 9/11 represented the
time when the government took over our LIVES. The Patriot Act, the the
Department of Homeland Security, the TSA, you name it. Anything to
subvert the constitution in the name of “national security”, and
they did it. Moreover, with America’s quality jobs gone to China
(principally due to U.S. government policy, by the way), citizens started to
believe the government teat was its only hope of survival, as well as its
RIGHT. America’s work ethic withered with its manufacturing base,
and government entitlement programs literally EXPLODED, funded by an even
bigger EXPLOSION of lobbying dollars, particularly from Wall Street and the
military.
By the time the “American Dream
Down payment Act” was signed in 2003, Greenspan had successfully
usurped the economic cycle by substituting industrial production with MONEY
PRINTING, creating a housing bubble far larger, and with far greater
ramifications, than the tech bubble. European central banks figured this
game out as well, and thus the age of government and banker controlled
markets began.
The U.S. had a leg up on Europe because
the dollar was the “world’s reserve currency”, and thus
added incentive to blow its bubble up larger, greedily putting tens of
billions of bonuses and perks into the laps of Washington and Wall
Street’s “leaders.” The populace went on an
UNPRECENDENTED borrowing and spending spree, and was encouraged to do so by
government decree, such as the aforementioned “American Dream Down
payment Act,” and corporate greed, via monstrous, essentially
unregulated mortgage companies, supplemented by Wall Street-engineered
derivative products that “leveraged” the expansion of the real
estate bubble. Of course, that all ended when its “weakest
link,” the subprime segment, showed the real estate boom to be the
Ponzi scheme it was, and, in turn, the Wall Street banks to be the naked
emperors they really were.
By now, Ben Bernanke had taken over the
Fed, leaving Greenspan to slink into the shadows and spend his remaining days
rewriting history by warning of the things HE CREATED AND PRACTICED.
Bernanke had not a shred of private sector experience, but from DAY ONE
claimed to be an expert on the Great Depression, POSITIVE it could have been
avoided if only more money were printed. In this famous 2002 speech, he
suggested that, like Greenspan, he would ignore the Fed’s primary
mandate of PRICE STABILITY, in lieu of creating nominal GDP gains and
inflated stock prices.
The U.S. government has a technology
called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent) allowing it to
produce as many dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost. By
increasing the number of U.S. dollars in circulation, or even credibly
threatening to do so, the U.S. government can reduce the value of a dollar in
terms of goods and services, which is equivalent to raising prices of those
goods and services. We conclude that, under a paper-money system, a
determined government can always generate higher spending and hence positive
inflation.
It didn’t hurt that the means of
MEASURING GDP was mangled beyond recognition, nor the accounting rules
governing how corporations accounted for such. In other words, Bernanke
realized he not only had a printing press at his disposal, but “fully armed
and operational” manipulation teams in the PPT and Gold Cartel, as well
as full cooperation of Federal regulation groups such as the FASB, SEC, and
CFTC. Furthermore, by then Wall Street had COMPLETELY taken control of
the government, allowing it to UNITE its selfish, destructive goals with that
of the Fed, which, by the way, it already OWNED!
http://www.opensecrets.org/pres04/contrib.php?cid=N00008072
http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cid=N00009638
Throw in the EXPONENTIAL growth in
derivatives, High Frequency Trading programs, and the heightened belief that
ANYTHING can be papered over with freshly printed money, and the stage was
set for the coup de grace, the EXPLOSION of sovereign debt (which, of course,
trickled all the way down) that pushed the GLOBAL, dollar-based fiat currency
past the point of no return. As my readers are well aware, no currency
in HISTORY has survived this long without a major devaluation, or full-out
collapse, and thanks to the above “witches brew,”, the GLOBAL
monstrosity built over the past 40 years has been pushed to the precipice.
The ball started rolling downhill
during GLOBAL MELTDOWN I in late 2008, when the Fed, ECB, BOE, BOJ, et al
MAXXED their balance sheets in the name of SURVIVAL, pushing us so far past
the Maginot Line, it can no longer be seen in the rear-view mirror.
This brazen act of Weimar Era MONEY PRINTING, a slap to the fact of
“Mother Financial Nature”, bought TPTB two years of phony market
calm. Unfortunately, this deal with the devil ensured the END GAME will
occur SOONER rather than later.
http://www.nationofchange.org/first-federal-reserve-audit-reveals-trillions-secret-bailouts-1314633089
The MONEY PRINTING Ponzi Scheme must
mathematically end, and is doing so NOW. This is not your typical game
of musical chairs, in which one person is OUT while the rest remain IN.
In this case, “the 99%” will financially DIE while “the
1%” LIVE. And I do mean “LIVE” and “DIE”,
as the ramifications of a collapsed currency are certain to include shortages
of food, energy, and other vital life necessities.
In my mind, only one questions remains
– WHAT will be the flashpoint ending this lethal experiment in
UNFETTERED, GLOBAL MONEY PRINTING?
Will it be an Italian default…
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/10-year-btp-666-italian-treasury-cancels-november-10-bill-auction
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/five-times-not-charm-ecb-btp-intervention-today
…or chinks in China’s
armor…
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/meanwhile-global-bailout-fallback-plan-b-china-pumping-1-trillion-rmb-its-banks
…yielding PHYSICAL buying
powerful enough to destroy the Gold/Silver Cartel…
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/china-takes-advantage-september-gold-price-drop-imports-record-amount-gold
…or a “black swan
event” such as an Iranian military confrontation with Israel or the
U.S.?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/fears-iran-nuclear-weaponizing-lead-brent-break-out
Who knows, as what ACTUALLY happens
could be a “sixth-sigma event” one no one was even aware of (such
as MF Global)?
When it comes to LIFE and DEATH
financial matters, I don’t take UNNECESARY RISKS. That is why I
ONLY own PHYSICAL precious metals, which I view as the lowest risk investment
class in the world. PROTECT
YOURSELF, and do it NOW!
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