This week we witnessed the beginnings of the un-doing of the United States economy. On Thursday the Dow Jones plummeted over 350 points while gold vaulted up over 30 dollars. The glue that holds our fragile economy together is starting to come undone.

The useful idiots in congress are talking, more than ever, about preemptive warfare with the nation of Iran. This is the same sort of chatter that happened in the time leading up to the war with Iraq. The stupidity of the American public never ceases to amaze me.

There is no evidence that Iran is producing nuclear weaponry. They have been subject to surprise inspections and the inspectors have found nothing; yet Israel and United States wish to bomb them anyways.

The individuals who advocate this sort of behavior, pre-emptively destroying the lives of other people without even investigating why it is being done, are even worse than rapists and serial killers.

I don’t give a damn if you’re just ignorant, turning a blind eye, or whatever your excuse is.

Another war will impoverish the people even further. The price of energy will double or triple and the whole world will be brought into a massive depression.

Remember what happened when the economy of Germany was in shambles after WWI. They witnessed the Nazification of their nation, and we too shall witness the Nazification of the United States of America, if we just sit back and allow this slaughter to occur.

The American people have to get up off the couch, put the soda down, drop the TV controller, turn off the game console. Get up and do something about this before it is too late. We need fundamental changes in the lives of each and every one of us, if we are to hold off the forces of darkness.

If we fail here, then our children and grandchildren will live in a world that you wouldn’t wish on anyone.

What kind of a people are Americans? Are they the kind who would allow horrible things to happen to others for no good reason? Or do they have a spine and the will to stand up for something bigger than themselves.

Will they stop listening to McCain, Gore, Obama, Clinton and instead listen to their hearts? Are we going to fail the next generation or are we going to turn this situation around?

Our success or failure here will be looked at for generations…

The situation was already out of control to begin with. Now it is SEVERELY spiraling out of control. Whenever the counter-parties of these transactions fails to pay, it means the FED has to print up more money to bail them out. If they aren’t bailed out, then the whole charade crumbles to the ground, taking the rest of us with it as the economy swirls down the toilet bowl.

This is a situation that has no reasonable solution except, imo, to scale down these derivative positions. They are going to have to be made illegal, but the people that have them already have to be grandfathered in so that the system doesn’t collapse.

Total Notional Value Of Derivatives Outstanding Surpasses One Quadrillion

Jim Sinclair | JSMineSet.com

Dear CIGAs,

The notional value of all outstanding derivatives now totals approximately $1.144 QUADRILLION.

This appears to be Bank of International Settlement Spin to announce the largest gain in derivatives outstanding since they started to report. As of the last report it appeared that both listed and OTC derivatives was under $600 trillion. Now listed credit derivatives alone stood at $548 Trillion. The OTC derivatives are shown as $596 billion notional value, as of December 2007. One can only imagine what number they are at now.

Well we hit a QUADRILLION. We have more than $1000 trillion dollars in all derivatives outstanding. That is simply NUTS because notional value becomes real value when either counterparty to the OTC derivative goes bankrupt. $548 trillion plus $596 trillion means $1.144 quadrillion. Read the rest of this entry »

I had once thought it unstoppable, that the system of so-called “free trade” could be halted. This system is the same one that brought you NAFTA, which has virtually destroyed the economy of North America.

If nations can keep their own economies strong, not completely dependent on pillaging and slave labor, then there is not much that the globalists can do to enslave the people and subjugate the nation-states.

The globalists profit most by flooding a nation’s economy with cheap goods; causing the local infrastructure to deteriorate. If this process can be stopped then the globalists are going to lose their power.

“British Imperial Free Trade Doctrine” At a Dead End

The bad news from Rome, is that the FAO conference did not decide on any truly effective remedy for the worldwide hunger catastrophe. The good news, is that the “free traders” were likewise unable to put through their plans, and that the WTO’s Doha Round will, in all likelihood, end in failure. A commentary by Helga Zepp-LaRouche.

“British Imperial Free Trade Doctrine” At a Dead End And Now, for a New, Just World Economic Order!

by Helga Zepp-LaRouche | LaRouchePAC.com

Certainly the bad news from the FAO conference in Rome, is that the measures agreed upon fall far short of what will be necessary to solve the world hunger crisis. The final communique promised a mere $8 billion, without even specifying how it is to be spent. But despite this, the conference’s outcome can be termed a partial victory for the cause of humanity, because the champions of the “British Imperial free trade doctrine,” as Friedrich List once described them, have suffered a decisive defeat.

The so-called developed countries should nevertheless be ashamed that the dividing line between those states whose leaders spoke in favor of food security and protectionist trade measures, and the the partisans of unfettered free trade, ran more or less precisely between the G7 nations on the one side, and the underdeveloped nations on the other. And so, it’s hardly surprising that among the developing countries, the view was widespread, that the G7 is pursuing a neo-colonial policy, and is unwilling to help the world’s poor countries–a view which was already anticipated back in April by FAO Director Diouf. (At least the German delegation, as the conference was winding up, evinced “respect” for the positions of Argentina, Venezuela, and a few other countries.) Read the rest of this entry »

My friends, we are past the point of no-return, from which we could salvage the current monetary system. The present system is experiencing systemic world-wide hyper-inflation, which will only be stopped when a new monetary system is introduced.

Lyndon LaRouche believes that there is no more future for this monetary system. He says that we are at a cross-roads, where we can choose between two paths.

On the one hand, we could choose to use warfare and welfare to prolong the life-span of the current system. Such an approach would drag our world into another dark-age.

On the other hand, we could choose a new system, in which we have a stable monetary system, which rewards productivity and stability; a system which increases food production instead of fighting over the few scraps that are available.

Like Weimar Germany, the productive capacity of our real economy has been destroyed. However, we have done this to ourselves, through our adherence to the belief in globalization.

Dan Norcini | Jim Sinclair’s Mine Set

The US Treasury Department today released its monthly International Capital Flows data for the month of March 2008. Among the main highlights was a significant NET OUTFLOW of foreign capital of some $48.2 billion compared to a revised INFLOW of $48.9 billion in February. That is nearly a $100 billion swing in one month’s time and illustrates how severe the distress in the US financial system was which forced the hand of the Fed to bail out Bear Stearns at the expense of polluting their balance sheet. Wouldn’t you have loved to have been a fly on the wall in those hidden offices where the various machinations took place as the monetary authorities and their pals in the investment banks plotted and schemed to come up with a way to avert the consequences of their reckless greed and idiocy when it comes to the derivative daisy chain mess they concocted?

That net outflow occurred when short term securities were included in the numbers. When those were stripped out, the data showed a large NET INFLOW of $80.42 billion.

Using the short term measurement, the flows were insufficient to fund the trade deficit for that same month which was at $58.2 billion. That is a shortfall of $106.4 billion. Employing only the long term dated securities, flows were more than sufficient to fund the gap. Read the rest of this entry »

Alan Kohler | Business Spectator

I don’t know whether to lie awake at night worrying about over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives or not, so I lie awake at night worrying about whether to lie awake and worry.

I should just buy a worry default swap and go back to sleep. But what happens if the counter party can’t pay? Who IS the counter party? And how many trillions of worry default swaps are out there, ready to collapse like an Egyptian block of flats and turn my dreams to nightmares?

The Bank of International Settlements says there are $US681 trillion worth of over-the-counter derivatives in the world, which sounds like rather a lot. Is that more than there are stars in the sky and grains of sand on the beach?

In any case, what does it mean? Should I worry about that number, or is it like saying there were 59.6 billion cappuccinos produced in the world last year. Is that concerning or not?

Last month the Financial Stability Forum (FSF), which was set up in 1999 as an inter-government body to promote international financial stability, solemnly presented a paper to the G7 in which it recommended, among other things, reform of the OTC markets. Read the rest of this entry »

“There’s an unceasing wind that blows through this night
And there’s dust in my eyes, that blinds my sight
And silence that speaks so much louder than words,
Of promises broken”

~Pink Floyd

I hear a number of theories, regarding the future of our economy. On one side, we have the people who wear the rose colored glasses and live in a one season world. On the other side, we have the people who believe that society, as we know it, will break down completely; that it will be absolute chaos and anarchy.

I can’t say for sure that we won’t have a complete breakdown, but I do know that anyone who says the worst is over, or near over, has got their head way up their ass.

My research into the actual cause of the problems, indicates that the banks are holding about 20 trillion dollars worth of worthless debt-related derivative instruments. This was done, basically, in order for borrowers to get loans without having the collateral to back it up.

Once this practice took hold, huge amounts of debt were created, which lead to the housing bubble of the early 21st century. This debt is not likely to ever be repaid, as there is no practical way to come up with the 20 trillion dollars that would be necessary to unwind these positions. Read the rest of this entry »

This is an interesting conversation I had about the notion of a “depression,” with a friend of mine. Many of the thoughts that came to mind were inspired by a lecture by Michael Tsarion - 2012: The Future of Mankind.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

|insertnickhere|
4:04 so when do you think the depression will happen
4:05 granted its already starting to happen

Chris Case
4:05 welp… i think that the human race has been in the midst of a depression for over 10,000 years Read the rest of this entry »

Clyde Prestowitz recently warned that the United States may soon head into a crisis on the same proportion as the “Great Depression.”

Danger signs of global crisis

By HARDEV KAUR

Author and member of former President Ronald Reagan’s administration Clyde Prestowitz says the United States is “being completely irresponsible” with its growing budget deficit, which spells a crisis bigger than the Great Depression, unless it takes charge. HARDEV KAUR writes. “I AM less worried about Malaysia than the US,” Clyde Prestowitz, author of Three Billion New Capitalists: The Great Shift of Wealth and Power to the East said.

The US, the world’s greatest consumer, the world’s largest economy and the only driver of world economic growth, “was being completely irresponsible” and endangering the world economy. Read the rest of this entry »