Despite their best efforts to convince us that we’re in a recovery, the establishment is running into a problem… reality.
This morning we learned that the Institute for Supply Management monthly report went kaboom, showing a large contraction in new production, indicating that retailers are pulling back on stocking their shelves. Perhaps the ISM report has something to do with consumer sentiment, which according to today’s Gallup survey on consumer spending suggests consumer are cutting spending wherever possible.
But that’s not all. Even the largest retailer in the world is having problems and seeing negative growth. Walmart announced that last November’s cuts to food stamp recipients hurt their fourth quarter sales, adding further credence to the notion that without direct government bailouts the stability of America’s companies comes into question.
Need we even mention that over 100 million Americans are not in the labor force, or that five million people may lose their unemployment benefits by the end of this year?
And, of course, let’s not forget that we’ve created more debt as a nation in the last five years than in all of the years from our country’s founding through the year 2008 combined.
Those investing in financial markets have certainly taken note. On top of the 326 point decline in the Dow Jones today, the market is down a combined 1,000 points from its peak just a month ago. And, with three well known bankers committing suicide in the last week, people are starting to pay attention.
No one really knows exactly why the market is falling or what happens next, but if you’re going to consider any prediction on the future of the financial and economic sector, why not consider what the elite have to say about it?
If there is a major financial collapse in the works as we speak, then Grady Means’ prediction should scare the hell out of you. If he’s right, then this isn’t just going to be a market crash.
We could well be facing the beginnings of an all-out financial Armageddon that will make 2008 look like a brief warm up.
This collapse, as noted by the US Treasury Department and Grady Means, is going to have generational effects – a depressive economic environment for our entire lifetimes.
Preparing for such a scenario is not easy. One must take into consideration everything from emergency supply lists to deal with the instantaneous collapse of our monetary system and financial markets, while also considering long-term strategies that involve the development of barterable trade skills and relocating to land that has productive capacity so you can grow your own food.
We had a reader recently comment about the coming collapse. She warned that preparing for a weeks- or months-long emergency is insufficient. She suggested that perhaps we need to consider the worst case scenario: years of joblessness, destitution and depression.
It’s happened before and it was so bad that we still talk about the Great Depression to this day.
Who’s to say it can’t happen again?
Preppers’ PING!!
Massive Crash in 2012.
I was there. Didn’t happen.
Watch out for them thar elite insiders...
Short of robbing a bank, I don't have the resources to prep to that extreme. Several months of food, a year's supply of our necessary prescription drugs, 6 months worth of supplies for basic needs along with appropriate self defense hardware and related consumables, plus some silver bars for barter.
The SHTF is probably coming, but damn it, I am not going to become so obsessed with it that I can't live & enjoy the life I have now.
We chose not to defend the borders and allow millions of new workers into the country to take jobs from Americans.
We chose to eliminate tariffs and quotas on imported goods to force American labor to compete with slave wages abroad while our trading partners continued their mercantilist trade policies.
We allowed the “free” market to operate and move the US manufacturing sector abroad along with millions of middle class jobs.
We allowed our education system to become a propaganda organ instead of a tool to sustain an informed and technically proficient population.
We confused diversity and self esteem preservation with achievement and lowered our standards of achievement in almost every endeavor.
Our corporations allowed the financial manipulators to become CEO’s, pushing aside the people who understood product development, production and customer service. As a result foreign competition almost destroyed the auto and other industries.
We turned over our monetary system to a cartel of Wall Street bankers who have debased the currency and eroded 95% of its value over the past century.
We became obsessed with sex without responsibility or love, confusing art for pornography and deviancy for self expression. In doing so we turned our back on our cultural roots and our God.
We tolerate lies and deceit from our elected and appointed officials. Our public officials exhibit no shame in their public and private behavior but neither do we.
We wonder what has happened to our once great nation and the opportunities it once afforded those who would work to be the best they could be.
Unemployment is already at “record levels” if you look past the official numbers. This is the worst economy since the 1930’s and is going downhill.
See this thread. Drudge tweeted “have an exit plan”:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3116484/posts
Matt Drudge Issues Warning: “Have an Exit Plan…”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3116484/posts
Did he give a time?
If I tee off at 7:00 should I play nine or the full 18?
However, to believe that one must ignore several important differences, with perhaps the biggest difference being that we've maxed out our national credit card.
We're in total uncharted territory, and those who are wise will do their best to prepare for a difficult future.
Why March 4th? Is it a secret command for some entity to “march forth?”
The obastard plan is coming to fruition.
Massive numbers of people are now even more up against the wall with rising health are premiums and deductibles to prepare for. They’re scared and not spending.
Taxes, big tax increases have not hit yet. They will soon and they are going to stifle spending even more at all levels.
Prices are going up in leaps for all things and most of it is because of unproductive costly government mandates. We have been made into a noncompetitive country. We are being forced to do too many things by the government that don’t make sense.
Massive layoffs of military people are hitting. Mor out of work people.
Electricity rates are going to go through the roof soon and there is no quick alternative to the loss of coal fired power plants.
On and on and on and on. We are simply not competitive or productive as a nation any more. Half the people supporting the other half in one way or another won’t cut it.
Things suck and will suck worse before this is over.
Interesting though how the euphoria of the market has so compeletely changed in just a month.
When a business can no longer raise it’s prices due to Extortion-Care, litigation protection, extortion regulations, rising scarcity costs of goods,....
because it’s consumers can no longer afford those resultant higher prices, purchases will grind to a halt, and earnings will floor....
then the full mask of deflation, fig leafed since 2008, will come off and ____________ ________________ ____________.
A lot of comments on this thread are about dead bankers. Here’s some info I found on a thread at another site. I cannot vouch for it’s accuracy, so put it in the category of interesting rumor.
The dead bankers:
1. Deutsche Bank executive Bill Broeksmit, 58, found dead at his home in Chelsea, south west London, on 26 January.
2. JPMorgan Chase & Company vice president in technology operations Gabriel Magee, 39, who died after falling from his London headquarters on 28 January.
3. Chief economist at Russell Investments (a VERY high profile investment advisory firm), and former US Federal Reserve economist, Mike Dueker, 50, found dead at the side of a highway that leads to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State on 31 January.
The “common link” between these bankers, MIGHT be:
A. Sometime in 2013 two JP Morgan whistleblowers confessed that their bank manipulates the gold and silver markets.
That whistleblowers have come forth is widely reported, and this part of the story can be considered confirmed.
B. The above scandal has recently led Europe’s largest bank, Deutsche Bank, to withdraw from the appropriately named gold and silver price “fixing”, as European regulators investigate the manipulation of precious metals prices by Western banks.
This part is also widely reported and confirmed.
C. The following is the part I CANNOT confirm:
Deutsche Bank executive Broeksmit, called among the “finest minds” in his field, and Russell Investments Dueker, ranked among the top 5 percent of economists by number of works published, were a big part of the European investigation into JPMorgan gold and silver price manipulation.
Their “inside man” was JPMorgan tech guru Magee who oversaw the banks computer systems, including the programs used to manipulate the gold price fixings.
If the above is true, then all three “suicides” are connected.
Ref bump
March 4th? OK, will it be before or after lunch?
I’m very, very leery of predictions that are made with that sort of “precision.” The author makes some good points with regard to the economy, including the point that a depression could last many years.
posted on a prepper site selling prepper supplies . what a surprise!
We are already in the midst of a great depression the way I look at it. We don’t have the breadlines, because we have EBT cards.
I have always had a way of life that tended toward stocking up and being independent. In 2007, I was fortunate to have liquidated half of my stocks, so I didn’t really feel too much pressure.
I would not be fully invested in stock at this point, because the valuations make little sense - most stocks are overpriced. If you can find a stock with a great product likely to be in demand no matter what, that has good cash flow, and no long term debt, that’s a buy provided the PE ratio is not too bad, and there’s no lawsuit on the horizon.
Makers of ammunition and hard liquor come to mind except for the lawsuit thingy - who knows about that? It is a strange world. The high valuations are actually due to inflation-ie the Fed’s money printing. It’s not because there has been some fantastic recovery.
At any rate, I decided that 6 months to one year is a good plan for stocking up on our normal foodstuffs. All the favorites can be saved to the max which is often more than a year. The basics in number 10 cans we aquire a box or two as we go for even longer term.
While we have dabbled in gardening over the years, we put a lot more effort into it. Trying new stuff, canning our own veggies and pickles and meats. We have been planting lots of berries, fruit and nut trees to go with those we already have.
We are a lot closer to independence now than when we started, but we have lots more we’d like to do, so of course we hope that we don’t get a big overnight crash. I do believe in keeping a little silver and some currency just in case the debit cards quit working or the banks take a holiday.
While I intend to continue my quest for independence, I don’t intend to worry. I have turned that over to God. I include our country in prayers, and ask for wisdom to prepare for whatever God may allow to come our way.
If things get worse, and no hope of getting better in my lifetime, C’est la vie. That’s the hand we are dealt. I’ll try my best to make things better for future generations.
Oh and I didn’t forget guns and ammo and such. I just don’t talk about them. What I have or don’t have or lost in the lake etc. Just not going to be posting it.