Free Republic

In Debt Up To Our EyeballsOctober 18, 2011 The entire financial system of the western world is designed to be a debt spiral. The total amount of money and and the total amount of debt are supposed to continually expand. Today, we are in debt up to our eyeballs and it seems like nearly everyone is talking about "deleveraging" and reducing government debt. But in a world where the entire financial system is based on debt, is there any way for massive deleveraging to take place without plunging us all into a horrific worldwide depression? The governments of the western...

The Coming Collapse: “We Can Buy Time, But We Can’t Change the Outcome” By Aaron Task | Daily Ticker – Fri, Sep 16, 2011 1:23 PM EDT The Ayn Rand Institute held its annual "Atlas Shrugged Revolution" dinner Thursday night in New York City. In attendance were a number of financial luminaries and hedge fund managers, including Peter Schiff of EuroPacific Capital, John Tamny of RealClearMarkets, Dmitry Balyasny of Balyasny Asset Management and Scott Schweighauser of Aurora Investment Management. The setting was the tony St. Regis Hotel on Fifth Avenue but there was nothing pleasant about the primary message coming...

This latest micro documentary from New America Now discusses the many problems facing modern day American society, namely the US Dollar, our country’s ever growing debt, rising prices and the crisis that will ensue as a result – and how you can survive and thrive.

Here are 6 irrefutable reasons 1. Unemployment 2. Economic Armageddon 3. Natural Disasters 4. For your loved ones and those who depend on you 5. You’re not sixteen anymore 6. Don’t worry. You won’t look stupid

UPPER DARBY, Pa. - As police in Upper Darby, Pa., search for more young people involved in last week's flash mob, more adults are thinking about arming themselves with guns. People are talking about how afraid they are of being caught in the path one of these flash mobs while they're out minding their own business, and they want to be ready. Law enforcement officials say it's a nightmare in the making because ordinary, private citizens are getting gun permits. "We have people now that are fearful and carrying guns because of children. How sad is that?" Upper Darby police...

For my conservative and Tea Party brethren, there must now be an acknowledgment that the immediate future looks quite grim. We have a country in some stage of collapse, though I contend that like a free-falling elevator, the rate at which it's falling may not be entirely apparent to its occupants until it hits the ground. As this situation worsens, we must consider what's ahead, how we'll stop it if we can, and salvage it if we're able. For the country to be restored, we'll be compelled to adopt a more proactive stance, because it's probably going to get...

A couple of months ago, I analyzed the data from the Phillie Fed survey, which showed the fastest 3 month deterioration in the index since it began in 1968.  After a small bounce last month, the wheels have completely come off.  Expectations were for a reading of +2, signifying slight growth (more like a mild swelling), but it came in at -30.7!  That signifies a deep recession as those are the levels it was at in the November 2008-March 2009 period.  The future expectations index, which is generally more positive (as people are generally positive) came in at a paltry...

It begins with self-doubt; it ends with self-destruction. Historian Arnold Toynbee, who developed the theory of challenge-and-response to account for the survivability of civilizations, has said that great civilizations are not murdered, they commit suicide — by not meeting their challenges. A variation of this historical insight may be phrased thus: When a civilization or an empire feels inwardly that it is dying, or as Oswald Spengler put it in The Decline of the West, that it wants to die and “wishes itself into the darkness,” it begins to go mad. Collective madness is a sure portent that an end...

“Chronic unemployment is spilling over into civil unrest…” But I don’t need to see the police blotter to understand the forces at work here. Chronic unemployment is spilling over into civil unrest, as idled workers team with those who are simply too lazy to work and act out in rage and anger against those they perceive as privileged. As this latest incident of social unraveling played out right here at my own doorstep, I found my attention very sharply refocused. When it happens in your own town, you realize that yes, the you-know-what has officially hit the fan! The need...

Harry Truman, frustrated by economists who couched their opinions by saying "On the one hand...but on the other hand," wanted a one-handed economist. I've got one. James Fitzgibbon, director of the Highlander Fund, has been spot on in predicting the course of economic events for the past three years. As each estimate of GDP growth came in, I would e mail him and he would explain that the growth rate was materially overstated and then explain that it would soon be adjusted downward. And it was. He has been accurate in predicting a long, long term recession with only a...

Economic Collapse & Security: I Am Your Worst Nightmare By Jeff T. I am the leader of a band of 8-to-12 looters. I have some basic military training. We move from place to place like locusts devouring everything in our path. My group is armed with light weapons and can develop and follow simple plans of attack. We take what we want by force of arms. We prefer none of our victims survive because that could cause problems for us in the future. It has been six months since the grid went down. You and the other five members of...

While it’s too early to tell whether or not the destruction in stock markets will continue as it did in 2008, one thing is for sure – when the bottom finally falls out of this economy it’s going to come as a surprise to tens of millions of people who have been bamboozled by their trusted politicians and corporate elite. Today’s Dow Jones collapse of 350 points is but an indicator of the severe volatility and unmitigated destruction we can expect as this crisis enters the next phase. Former comptroller general of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) David Walker warns...

What you would be looking at would be civil unrest in most mayor US cities and thousands of minor ones as well. Once the images of people looting and getting away with it hit the TV you’re looking at thousands of bums thinking of doing the same thing and rushing out the door to the nearest store. That gets bad pretty fast. You’re talking about looting, fires, closed stores, destruction of vehicles and private property, and given US context some gang related activity taking advantage of the lawless situation as well to settle scores. While invasion of residential properties wont...

All of my usual stores are rearranging and changing what they put on their shelves. I'm sensing that the big uptick in prices will start to arrive shortly, maybe before Christmas. I'm interested to hear what the impressions of FRugal Freepers. What are you seeing? What will you be buying in quanity before TSHTF?

Gerald Celente, publisher of The Trends Journal, discusses why we are heading into the greatest recession, US is bankrupt by proxy, the inevitability of war, and the uselessness of higher education.

The Greater Depression Is Upon Us By David Galland 07/15/11 The phrase “Greater Depression” was coined by Doug Casey a decade or so back, as a way of describing the economic crisis he foresaw as inevitable, and which is now materializing. Doug Casey now believes that the unfolding crisis is going to be even worse than he first imagined, and the longer the rest of us at Casey Research study the tea leaves, it is hard to disagree that the Greater Depression is still ahead. Consider: * The eurozone is growing increasingly desperate. Watching the heads of Europe dither and...

Double Red Alert Posted by Ann Barnhardt - June 24, AD 2011 9:01 AM MST Two HUGE intel leads in my email box this morning from way-back contacts that I've had for years, that are actually somewhat connected concepts. 1. File this one under "Now It All Makes Sense". A Missouri farming and ranching contact just got off a conference call wherein he was informed that the federal government is sending out letters to all of the flooded out farmers in the Missouri River flood plain and bottoms notifying them that the Army Corps of Engineers will offer to BUY...

Rich Dad "Robert Kiyosaki" and his entire adviser team discuss how they have prepared for the coming depression: - Year's supply of food - Guns - Gold & silver - Cash on hand They speak of the coming depression (inflationary or not it's going to happen), shutting down the credit card system, and higher taxes no matter what. Budget-cutting police forces promotes lawnessness. What scares me now is these are not some local yocals on youtube speaking their wacky thoughts. Instead, these are calm, straight speaking, successful businessesmen in the know, telling us what they have done. We should take...

There are many survival preparedness items that you can store now, and “forget” about, which you may need later during varying degrees of an emergency. The following are 55 suggested items that you can store and have ready.

NASA head Charles Bolden issued a weekend statement through the NASA Headquarters of Emergency Operations advising employees and their families to prepare for unforeseen emergency and/or disasters. Some key excerpts from the video statement follow: They've given me a few minutes just to talk to all of you in our NASA family about emergency preparedness. NASA recently participated in a FEMA exercise called Eagle Horizon that was a part of a continuity of operations of government exercise that we do annually, and I became aware of some things that concerned me about family preparedness... ... So, what I'm asking all...