Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Economist Richard Duncan: Civilization May Not Survive 'Death Spiral'
Atlanta Journal Constitution ^ | August 10, 2012 | Terry Weiss, Money Morning

Posted on 08/10/2012 3:04:47 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

Richard Duncan, formerly of the World Bank and chief economist at Blackhorse Asset Mgmt., says America's $16 trillion federal debt has escalated into a "death spiral, "as he told CNBC.

And it could result in a depression so severe that he doesn't "think our civilization could survive it."

And Duncan is not alone in warning that the U.S. economy may go into a "death spiral."

Since the recession, noted economists including Laurence Kotlikoff, a former member of President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers, have come to similar conclusions.

Kotlikoff estimates the true fiscal gap is $211 trillion when unfunded entitlements like Social Security and Medicare are included.

However, while the debt crisis numbers are well known to most Americans, the economy hasn't suffered a major correction for almost 4 years.

So the questions remain: Is the threat of collapse for real? And if so, when?

A team of scientists, economists, and geopolitical analysts believes they have proof that the threat is indeed real - and the danger imminent.

One member of this team, Chris Martenson, a pathologist and former VP of a Fortune 300 company, explains their findings:

"We found an identical pattern in our debt, total credit market, and money supply that guarantees they're going to fail. This pattern is nearly the same as in any pyramid scheme, one that escalates exponentially fast before it collapses. Governments around the globe are chiefly responsible.

"And what's really disturbing about these findings is that the pattern isn't limited to our economy. We found the same catastrophic pattern in our energy, food, and water systems as well."

According to Martenson: "These systems could all implode at the same time. Food, water, energy, money. Everything."

(Excerpt) Read more at moneymorning.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News; Government
KEYWORDS: debt; deficit; economy; spending
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-99 next last
To: agere_contra

How’s that fraudulent LIBOR CDO NyLon A$$Paper digesting?


41 posted on 08/10/2012 5:37:26 AM PDT by OldEarlGray (The POTUS is FUBAR until the White Hut is sanitized with American Tea)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: ClearCase_guy

nearly everything that has happened in America since the civil war has been a mistake.


42 posted on 08/10/2012 5:41:22 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama lied .. the economy died.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife; agere_contra


A Republic is a system, of governance characterized by the Rule of Law -- and when the Law fails, the Republic fails.

"TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS, [American] GOVERNMENTS ARE INSTITUTED AMONG MEN"

Prosecution of fraud is well within the scope of governance intended by the American founders, but instead of prosecution, we get a farcical parade of laughable "settlements".

When the Law fails, the Republic fails.


43 posted on 08/10/2012 5:43:12 AM PDT by OldEarlGray (The POTUS is FUBAR until the White Hut is sanitized with American Tea)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: OldEarlGray
Honestly it’s no problem. It only takes a mouse click to seamlessly emulate your posts. Let OldEarlGray 2.0 take the strain!



“ Government is like fire. If it is kept within bounds and under the control of the people, it contributes to the welfare of all. But if it gets out of place, if it gets too big and out of control, it destroys the happiness and even the lives of the people” ~ Harold E. Stassen

HOW$ THAT CDO-DIGESTING WORKING OUT 4 U NYLON-TRAITER$$

Ok, my Perl Script can do this all day, but I think the rest of the thread have had enough.

44 posted on 08/10/2012 5:44:08 AM PDT by agere_contra (Vote ABO. Don't choose the Greater Evil and then boast about how principled you are)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: agere_contra

How’s that fraudulent LIBOR CDO NyLon A$$Paper digesting?


45 posted on 08/10/2012 5:48:09 AM PDT by OldEarlGray (The POTUS is FUBAR until the White Hut is sanitized with American Tea)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife
Obama & Co. have been holding themselves back, pending the election.

If they win again, God help us, they will go the full Hugo Chavez route, when Obama has all the "flexibility" he needs.


46 posted on 08/10/2012 5:50:30 AM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife
Thank you for allowing me to revisit that fabulous, enlightening essay about who Progressives really are, what they're trying to achieve and what they're willing to do to accomplish it!

The link for those that missed it

47 posted on 08/10/2012 5:52:12 AM PDT by doc11355
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: agere_contra

Peasant 1: How do you know he’s a king?
Peasant 2: He doesn’t have shyte all over him.

See now that’s a funny script. Yours is just lame and unoriginal.


48 posted on 08/10/2012 6:01:02 AM PDT by OldEarlGray (The POTUS is FUBAR until the White Hut is sanitized with American Tea)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: ClearCase_guy

Spain, like Greece, is on the verge of utter economic collapse. No way the government there could solve its problem.
...but “boots on the ground” visitors observe that people are handling it very well: knowing the official/formal system is about to collapse, people are just moving everything off-book, normalizing a new underground economy, and carrying on rather well.

Yes, the $0.2P of liabilities ain’t happening no way no how. The buck will stop somewhere. Knowing it will stop, most people will find a way to be elsewhere when/where it does. Those who don’t, well, sink or swim.

The Soviet Union collapsed when it couldn’t issue paychecks. We’re approaching that point. Funny, Russia and its satellites still exist and are doing pretty well. We will too; maybe a different demographic arrangement, but on the whole “we” will manage.


49 posted on 08/10/2012 6:08:22 AM PDT by ctdonath2 ($1 meals: http://abuckaplate.blogspot.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Travis McGee

I did a bit of gold prospecting for a while.
Doesn’t take much time hanging around the old timers to find out that the guys who really made the money during the gold rush weren’t the miners, well, a few did get rich, but mostly it was the suppliers. The guys who sold them the picks, the axes, the equipment...

might be time to buy a truckload of shovels.

Or, if you are a lady, get ready to get dolled up, because another group that made some pretty solid cash was the whores...

;-)

Trust me, I’m not re-writing history here!


50 posted on 08/10/2012 6:12:37 AM PDT by djf (The barbarian hordes will ALWAYS outnumber the clean-shaven. And they vote.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Travis McGee

I found it interesting that Comrade Chairman signed off on the continuation of the Stuxnet program that was initiated under W - leading to the destruction of those Iranian centrifuges.

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=les%3Bcaqth&gs_nf=1&cp=13&gs_id=7&xhr=t&q=Obama+Stuxnet

What do you suppose his motivation for doing that was? Just buying time? Trying not to reveal his hand too soon?

It’s also interesting that he seems to be reading from the same play book that the Wabbit Fisherman was reading from back in 1978 — when the ZBig (Obama’s mentor and Jimmy Carter’s National Security Adviser) policy funded and instigated the Islamic Revolution of ‘79.

And here we are again - backing the Muslim Brotherhood against the Russian backed regime in Syria.

Same ol’.


51 posted on 08/10/2012 6:16:36 AM PDT by OldEarlGray (The POTUS is FUBAR until the White Hut is sanitized with American Tea)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: OldEarlGray

His point, a valid one, is that we have no idea what the he11 you’re talking about.


52 posted on 08/10/2012 6:16:48 AM PDT by ctdonath2 ($1 meals: http://abuckaplate.blogspot.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife
Ummm, the auto industry's NOT doing great. Most large corporations are turning AGAINST Obama... Obama’s big solution is to borrow more... like a family hooked on credit cards. It won't work in the long run... it's starting NOT to work in the short run.
53 posted on 08/10/2012 6:17:47 AM PDT by GOPJ (Freeper Neveronmywatch's convinced - you put a compass in the hands of a liberal it'll point south.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: djf
[another group that made some pretty solid cash was the whores...]

Considering the fact that this gaping hole is...
 

 
South Africa: Anglogold Seeks 100
Percent of Cripple Creek

15 January 2008
Charlotte Mathews
GLOBAL gold producer AngloGold Ashanti was offering to buy Golden Cycle Corporation, its co-shareholder in the Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mining Company in the US, for $149m in shares, the companies said yesterday.
 
The transaction would increase AngloGold's ownership to 100% of Cripple Creek, its only US operation, from 67% previously, although it had a 100% interest in the mine's production until the initial loan it made to the joint venture was repaid. At the end of September the outstanding value of the loan was $336m.
 
...the largest gold mine in Colorado and, as of January 2008, was no longer owned by Americans - that's evidently still the case.

 


 


 

54 posted on 08/10/2012 6:29:58 AM PDT by OldEarlGray (The POTUS is FUBAR until the White Hut is sanitized with American Tea)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: ClearCase_guy

“I think the only thing to do is to cancel all debts”

This will be as much of a train wreck as riding the train over the cliff. Much of the world and Americans are holders of that debt.

Resetting spending to 2.0 trillion which is about the current tax take the federal government gets and freezing the spending at that level indefinitely would allow us to grow out of the debt. 1.6 trillion dollars cut in one year?

Pretty much all federal social programs go away. The only social program left are payments to our military service men and women for disability. All federal pensions are cut to what we can afford to pay. Any and all government pensions are immediately converted to a 401K type retirement plan.

Federal government take of GDP needs to be at 15% max with 7.5% of that 15% going to pay down our debts.

We’re still talking complete and utter chaos. What do you do with 100 million people that get payments or some sort of welfare from the government? 30 to 40 million have no concept of life without money from the government putting food in their bellies?

This is crazy strong medicine that few Americans have the stomach for.


55 posted on 08/10/2012 6:30:34 AM PDT by listenhillary (Courts, law enforcement, roads and national defense should be the extent of government)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife
I didn't need these economists to tell me this

Anybody with foresight can see it coming
56 posted on 08/10/2012 6:35:09 AM PDT by uncbob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: listenhillary
Riots will result in the deaths of tens of millions and those that survive are going to wish they didn't

Does anybody really think the world can go on at this pace without imploding
57 posted on 08/10/2012 6:40:15 AM PDT by uncbob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife
Conservatives who think progressives are misinformed idealists will forever be blind-sided by the malice of the left...

Wise words...

58 posted on 08/10/2012 6:41:18 AM PDT by GOPJ (Freeper Neveronmywatch's convinced - you put a compass in the hands of a liberal it'll point south.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: ClearCase_guy

Don’t forget - cancelling all debts also cancels all assets.


59 posted on 08/10/2012 6:41:24 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: ctdonath2
Oh.

You don't know what Fraud is?
 

fraud/frôd/

Noun:

    1. Wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain.
    2. A person or thing intended to deceive others, typically by unjustifiably claiming or being credited with accomplishments or qualities.
 
You don't know what LIBOR is?
 
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/europes-largest-insurer-allianz-not-amused-central-banks-are-involved-liborgate
 
You don't what CDOs are?
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=CDO+fraud
You don't know what a NyLon is?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NYLON
You don't know what a Quisling is?
 

quis·ling/ˈkwizliNG/

Noun:
A traitor who collaborates with an enemy force occupying their country.
Or how all of the above manufactured what's colloquially known as "A$$Paper" in a systemically corrupted global financial infrastructure?
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q="ass+Paper"+subprime+site:www.zerohedge.com
 
Well there.  Fixed that for ya.

60 posted on 08/10/2012 6:45:07 AM PDT by OldEarlGray (The POTUS is FUBAR until the White Hut is sanitized with American Tea)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-99 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson