New Reality For Many Baby Boomers Will Be To Work As Wage Slaves Until They Drop Dead

The Economic Collapse

All over America tonight, millions of elderly Americans are wondering if their money is going to run out before it is time for them to die. Those that are now past retirement age are not going to be rioting in the streets, but that doesn’t mean that large numbers of them are not deeply suffering. There are millions of elderly Americans that are leading lives of “quiet desperation” as they try to get by on meager fixed incomes. Many are surviving on Ramen noodles, oatmeal, peanut butter or whatever other cheap food they can find in the stores. There are some that are so short on cash that they will not turn on the heat in their homes until things get really desperate. As health care costs soar, millions of elderly Americans find themselves deep in debt and facing huge medical bills that they cannot possibly pay. A lot of older Americans would go back to work if they could, but jobs are scarce and very few companies seem to even want to consider hiring them. Right now caring for all of the Americans that have already retired is turning out to be an overwhelming challenge, and things are about to get a whole lot worse. On January 1st, 2011 the very first Baby Boomers turned 65. A massive tsunami of retirees is coming, and America is not ready for it.

Sadly, most retirees have not adequately prepared for retirement. For many, the recent economic downturn absolutely devastated their retirement plans. Many were counting on the equity in their homes, but the recent housing crash crushed those dreams. Others had their 401ks shredded by the stock market.

Meanwhile, corporate pension plans all across America are vastly underfunded. Many state and local government pension programs are absolute disasters. The federal government has already begun to pay out significantly more in Social Security benefits than they are taking in, and the years ahead are projected to be downright apocalyptic for the Social Security program.

So needless to say, things do not look good for the Baby Boomers that are now approaching retirement age.

More Flash Mobs in the news

Police scramble to fight flash-mob mayhem
By Ashley Fantz

This week in Germantown, Maryland, it took less than a minute for a flash mob of teenagers to descend on a 7-Eleven, ransack shelves and make off with hundreds of dollars worth of stuff.

It's going to take much longer for police in Montgomery County to figure out how to prevent it from happening again.

"We had always thought flash mobs happen in big cities. We are unprepared. We don't have anyone who has social-media expertise," said county police spokeswoman Janelle Smith. "Even if we did, our budget looks like every other law enforcement agency in the country. It's not pretty."

Police in Maryland are not alone in their scramble to find creative, affordable and efficient ways to fight mayhem from flash mobs -- groups of people who gather in one location quickly after being summoned online.

This summer, spontaneous incidents of group violence -- dubbed "flash robs" -- have happened in Minneapolis, Chicago, Cleveland, New York and Washington, among other cities. Most episodes involved groups of young people looting stores or assaulting pedestrians and then running off.

Read more:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/18/flashmobs.police/index.html?hpt=hp_bn1

Who is watching the watchers? Where did our Economy go?

If you want to know where our economy went, look no farther than those who were supposed to watch & protect it. And you're going to trust them to make it better?

Is the SEC Covering Up Wall Street Crimes?
A whistleblower claims that over the past two decades, the agency has destroyed records of thousands of investigations, whitewashing the files of some of the nation's worst financial criminals.

For the past two decades, according to a whistle-blower at the SEC who recently came forward to Congress, the [Securities and Exchanges Commission] has been systematically destroying records of its preliminary investigations once they are closed. By whitewashing the files of some of the nation's worst financial criminals, the SEC has kept an entire generation of federal investigators in the dark about past inquiries into insider trading, fraud and market manipulation against companies like Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and AIG

Under a deal the SEC worked out with the National Archives and Records Administration, all of the agency's records – "including case files relating to preliminary investigations" – are supposed to be maintained for at least 25 years.

But the SEC devised an elaborate and possibly illegal system under which staffers were directed to dispose of the documents... Amazingly, the wholesale destruction of the cases – known as MUIs, or "Matters Under Inquiry" – was not something done on the sly, in secret. The enforcement division of the SEC even spelled out the procedure in writing, on the commission's internal website.

[there is] a revolving-door dynamic that has become pervasive at the SEC. Over the past five years, former SEC personnel filed 789 notices disclosing their intent to represent outside companies before the agency – sometimes within days of their having left the SEC. Even a cursory glance at a list of the agency's most recent enforcement directors makes it clear that the SEC's top policemen almost always wind up jumping straight to jobs representing the banks they were supposed to regulate.

In [one] case, the inspector general found, an assistant director of enforcement was instrumental in slowing down an investigation into the $7 billion Ponzi scheme allegedly run by Texas con artist R. Allen Stanford – and then left the SEC to work for Stanford, despite explicitly being denied permission to do so by the agency's ethics office. "Every lawyer in Texas and beyond is going to get rich on this case, OK?" the official later explained. "I hated being on the sidelines."

Even if SEC officials manage to dodge criminal charges, it won't change what happened: The nation's top financial police destroyed more than a decade's worth of intelligence they had gathered on some of Wall Street's most egregious offenders.

How many investors might have been saved from crushing losses if Lehman Brothers had been forced to reveal its shady accounting way back in 2002? Might the need for taxpayer bailouts have been lessened had fraud cases against Citigroup and Bank of America been pursued in 2005 and 2007? And would the U.S. government have doubled down on its bailout of AIG if it had known that some of the firm's executives were suspected of insider trading in September 2008?

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/is-the-sec-covering-up-wall-street-crimes-20110817

Food Prices Could Hit Tipping Point for Global Unrest

Remember: Food prices and complaints on social media from just one farmer are what spared the underlying tensions and caused the "Arab Spring" uprisings and riots that spanned across the 30th parallel.

By Brandon Keim

When food shortages and rising prices drive people to desperation, social unrest soon follows. It’s as true today as it was in 18th-century France. According to a new analysis of food prices and unrest, the 2008 global food riots and ongoing Arab Spring may be a preview of what’s coming.

“When you have food prices peak, you have all these riots. But look under the peaks, at the background trend. That’s increasing quite rapidly, too,” said Yaneer Bar-Yam, president of the New England Complex Systems Institute. “In one to two years, the background trend runs into the place where all hell breaks loose.”

The Next Crash Will Be Much Worse Than 2008

by Dr. Marc Faber

(Editor’s Note: Please note that NO ONE in the media factors inflation of stock prices into the numbers that come out of the market. So when QE3 and more massive infusions of paper money get dumped into the world economy, it will be entirely possible to see world stock markets rally. But what is a Dow at 15,000 when the money is worth less and less, heading toward worthless? Get the hell out of the market, readers, and concentrate on wealth preservation and cash. No paper investments, only hard assets like gold and silver. Forsake earnings and protect what you already have.)



On August 8th, 2011 Dr. Marc Faber was interviewed on CNBC about the future of the US dollar-debt crisis and what investor’s can expect to take place in the markets.

During the interview, among several timey questions, Dr. Faber was asked, “What’s the end game here? Is it the collapse of Western civilization as we know it? … Where are we going here? How must It inevitably end in your opinion?”

To which Dr. Faber replied, “You have a computer and occaissionally the computer will crash and need to be rebooted. That will happen to the global economy. So basically, the central banks are willing to do that. By printing money the problems are not solved but they can be postponed and they become larger. … The next time we have a global economic crisis it will be much worse than 2008. Before this happens there will be money printing and war.”

Marc Faber, Ph.D, publishes a widely read monthly investment newsletter, The Gloom Boom & Doom Report, which highlights unusual investment opportunities. Dr. Faber is the author of several books including Tomorrow’s Gold – Asia’s Age of Discovery, which was first published in 2002 and highlights future investment opportunities around the world.

Dr. Faber describes himself as a free-market economist, but also notes that he uses other disciplines in his analysis as well. As an adviser he is not strictly speaking a value investor but uses a variety of tools. His clients, he says, expect some sort of profit on their funds every year. Simply beating market averages is not enough.

Here at the Daily Bell we are regular followers of Dr. Faber’s prescient work. In fact, Marc was interviewed at the DB recently. Here is a link to that interview: Marc Faber on 21st Century Investing, Why It’s too Late for the Dollar and Why Emerging Markets Look Good.

Dr. Marc Faber lives in Chiangmai, Thailand and is the author of Tomorrow’s Gold.

http://dumpdc.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/the-next-crash-will-be-much-worse-than-2008/

20 Signs That A Horrific Global Food Crisis Is Coming

I am posting a re-post here. I would encourage you to do the same, because this information is worth spreading. I have acquired this list from M.D. Creekmore at The Survivalist Blog. Its original source is the Economic Collapse Blog.

1. According to the World Bank, 44 million people around the globe have been pushed into extreme poverty since last June because of rising food prices. This was documented by The New York Times in February 2011.

2. The world is losing topsoil at an astounding rate. In fact, according to Lester Brown in Foreign Policy, “one third of the world’s cropland is losing topsoil faster than new soil is forming through natural processes”.

3. Due to U.S. ethanol subsidies, almost a third of all corn grown in the United States is now used for fuel. This is putting a lot of stress on the price of corn.

4. Due to a lack of water, some countries in the Middle East find themselves forced to almost totally rely on other nations for basic food staples. For example, it is being projected that there will be no more wheat production in Saudi Arabia by the year 2012.

5. Water tables all over the globe are being depleted at an alarming rate due to “overpumping”. According to the World Bank, there are 130 million people in China and 175 million people in India that are being fed with grain with water that is being pumped out of aquifers faster than it can be replaced. So what happens once all of that water is gone?

6. In the United States, the systematic depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer could eventually turn “America’s Breadbasket” back into the “Dust Bowl.”

7. Diseases such as UG99 Wheat Rust and Mad Soy Disease are wiping out increasingly large segments of the world food supply.

8. The tsunami and subsequent nuclear crisis in Japan have rendered vast agricultural areas in that nation unusable. In fact, there are many that believe that eventually a significant portion of northern Japan will be considered to be uninhabitable. Not only that, many are now convinced that the Japanese economy, the third largest economy in the world, is likely to totally collapse as a result of all this.

9. The price of oil may be the biggest factor on this list. The way that we produce our food is very heavily dependent on oil. The way that we transport our food is very heavily dependent on oil. When you have skyrocketing oil prices, our entire food production system becomes much more expensive. If the price of oil continues to stay high, we are going to see much higher food prices and some forms of food production will no longer make economic sense at all.

10. At some point the world could experience a very serious fertilizer shortage. According to scientists with the Global Phosphorus Research Initiative, the world is not going to have enough phosphorous to meet agricultural demand in just 30 to 40 years.

11. Food inflation is already devastating many economies around the globe. For example, India is dealing with an annual food inflation rate of 18 percent.

12. According to the United Nations, the global price of food reached a new all-time high in February.

13. According to the World Bank, the global price of food has risen 36% over the past 12 months.

14. The commodity price of wheat has approximately doubled since last summer.

15. The commodity price of corn has also about doubled since last summer.

16. The commodity price of soybeans is up about 50% since last June.

17. The commodity price of orange juice has doubled since 2009.

18. There are about 3 billion people around the globe that live on the equivalent of 2 dollars a day or less and the
world was already on the verge of economic disaster before this year even began.

19. 2011 has already been one of the craziest years since World War 2. Revolutions have swept across the Middle East, the United States has gotten involved in the civil war in Libya, Europe is on the verge of a financial meltdown and the U.S. dollar is dying. None of this is good news for global food production.

20. There have been persistent rumors of shortages at some of the biggest suppliers of emergency food in the United States. The following is an excerpt from a recent “special alert” posted on Raiders News Network:

Look around you. Read the headlines. See the largest factories of food, potassium iodide, and other emergency product manufacturers literally closing their online stores and putting up signs like those on Mountain House’s Official Website and Thyrosafe’s Factory Webpage that explain, due to overwhelming demand, they are shutting down sales for the time being and hope to reopen someday.

It is true that most American believe that they will never have to go hungry. They believe that their grocery store shelves will always be stocked with affordable food and they will never have to provide for themselves. People believe this because ignorance is bliss. Please, don’t be ignorant. As always, I encourage you to be smart and be prepared.

http://nogmoseedbank.wordpress.com/2011/04/22/20-signs-that-a-horrific-global-food-crisis-is-coming/

What is a Prepper?

No, not a “pepper,” as in a delicious veggie that you may be growing in your garden right now. A “prepper.” Have you heard this term before? A prepper is someone who prepares in advance for catastrophic events such as natural disasters, or social chaos as the result of economic collapse. So if have started a crisis garden, (as I have been urging you to for months now) you are a prepper. Little did you know you had this catchy little nickname.

Two decades ago, preppers were thought to be extremists- those who were militia members stockpiling guns and ammo in their basement crawl-spaces. This is no longer the case

Fortunately, the general social attitude towards preparation for crisis has really drastically changed in the last few years. People from all walks of life are embracing survivalism and crisis preparedness. This comes as a tremendous relief to me, as I firmly believe that a self sustaining way of life is integral to survival. The more people who realize and embrace this, the better.

Being a prepper is not about cutting yourself off from the “real world” and becoming a food-hoarding recluse. (People who perpetuate this stereo-type are unrealistic and foolish.) Being a prepper means that you have the ability to grow and preserve your own food. It also means that you have the ability to use herbs and natural remedies, rather than drugs, to treat illnesses. Preppers take the time to learn and teach important skills such as self defense, hunting, gardening, and how to locate fresh water. Preppers are those who strive towards self sufficiency, energy efficiency, and conservation.

If “prepping” still sounds like something you can’t get on board with, think of it this way: Being a prepper simply means that you believe it is better to be safe than sorry. Prepping allows you to take personal responsibility and control in the face of terrorist threats, war with two different nations, global warming, and natural disasters. Realistically, by growing your own food and medicine, you are taking no harmful risks. All you are doing is increasing your level of preparedness for crisis.

http://nogmoseedbank.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/what-is-a-prepper/

'Preppers' are not terrorists!

Feds Send Terrorist Hand-out to Military Surplus Stores
by Kurt Nimmo

The feds are at it again. Now they want military surplus store owners and employees to rat out their customers. The hand-out below was distributed in Colorado.

Government hand-outs like this are nothing new. However, this time around the government is targeting “survivalists.” People who purchase MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) might be terrorists, especially if they make “suspicious comments regarding anti-US, radical theology (sic) vague or cryptic warnings that suggest or appear to endorse the use of violence in support of a cause.”

According to the hand-out, you might be with white al-Qaeda if you purchase high capacity magazines or rifle tripods, weatherized ammunition, flashlights, gas masks, night vision devices, especially if you buy them “bulk,” that is if you buy more than one of each.

The hand-out suggests stores “require valid ID from all new customers” and ask questions, presumably to find out if they are with al-Qaeda (or defend the Constitution too adamantly).

Of course, this rat-on-your-customers policy is doomed to failure. Business owners understand customers value their privacy and don’t like to be carded to do business and asked all kinds of inappropriate questions. If they want to stay in business, they will leave their customers alone – and ignore this silly government hand-out.

For now – until the next false flag terror attack – the feds are not requiring business owners to inform on their customers.

The hand-out was originally posted on the Oath Keeper’s website: http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2011/08/10/7769/


http://www.prisonplanet.com/feds-send-terrorist-hand-out-to-military-surplus-stores.html

‘Preppers’ stock up on guns’n'gear as financial doom looms

With political instability spreading across the globe and fears of more Fukushima-style nuclear disasters, the number of doomsday believers is on the rise. But now it’s also the struggling global economy that’s increasingly making people stock up on basic neccessities. RT’s Anastasia Churkina met some Americans, who are ready for the worst.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/preppers-stock-up-on-gunsngear-as-financial-doom-looms.html

Shall we have another Civil War?

by danmillerinpanama

That would be a very bad idea.

The reasons for discontent go far beyond the dire economic consequences of the gross incompetence or worse of a failed but “blameless” and arrogantly narcissistic President. A link is available here to Ed Driscoll’s interview with Mark Steyn, conservative commentator and author of After America. Well worth listening to attentively, Mr. Steyn argues that our problems transcend mere economics and are grounded in our multicultural society where diversity has become the principal concern. Many have “gone Greek” and are consumed with self-loathing. It is contended here that President Obama despises the Constitution and the rule of law it embodies. Administration officials and our CongressCritters contribute their “fair share” to the problems as well. Other reasons for discontent include expansions of federal and global power incompatible with the Constitution, encroachments on the rights of citizens also incompatible with the Constitution, the Islamization of America, rioting and mob violence, race riots, redistributionist policies designed to maintain the dependence (and hence the perpetual servitude) of those who pay no taxes, voter fraud, federal refusal to protect our southern border while preventing our border states from dealing with illegal immigration by those with little interest in adapting to our culture but insistent that we adapt to theirs, a muddled, delusional and unsuccessful foreign policy incompatible with our national interests, a well justified sense that our elected officials, unelected apparatchiks and union thugs are expanding and using their positions of trust to “service” us as a raunchy bull does a cow, frustration that our society is going to Hell and a general sense that the government cannot be trusted to do what it ought to do and to refrain from doing what it ought not to do.

One Blogger's opinion on the enevitable outcome of America's Debt crisis

The author of this article is a hard-core secessionist. So his suggestions for a solution to our crisis is always to secede. But in this article, he makes some good points about our current situation, so I'll re-post it here. If you want to read more of his stuff, go to DumpDC.com

It Is All Bullshit...
By Russell D. Longcore

Unless you live in a cave in Papua, New Guinea, you’ve been inundated with the story of Washington’s dithering voodoo dance over the debt ceiling. This has been one of the best examples I’ve ever seen of sleight-of-hand by the DC criminals and their accomplices, the Media.

Unfortunately, none of what we’ve all been forced to witness has ANYTHING to do with the cause of this DC-manufactured problem. Simply stated, the Washington criminal political class has been over-spending since Reconstruction. DC has spent money on things clearly not authorized in the US Constitution.

The media have LOVED this story, since it has drama, conflict, winners, losers, a government default, and a cliff-hanger of August 2nd…they could hardly ask for more. The only things it lacks are sex and murder…and truth. Media have spun this story into an intricate web of lies purposefully meant to obscure the simple fact that the Federal Government is bankrupt, and that it cannot continue to spend profligately without borrowing more money to do so.

Am I the only one who has noticed that ALL the DC criminals have stated that in order to honor the obligations ALREADY MADE by Congress and the White House, the debt ceiling has to be raised? That’s saying that Congress has to use more borrowed money to pay what they already owe. Where is the outrage in America? Where are those who are ideologically opposed to allowing DC to borrow more money at all? Only the redoubtable Ron Paul is categorically opposed to more DC debt, and has never once voted in favor of raising the debt ceiling.

Congress is not willing to control spending. They are not willing to make real time cuts in this year’s budget. DC will not…CANNOT…REFUSES TO…live within its means. America does not have a lack of tax money pouring into Washington. It has a Congress with a lack of ability to only spend what it takes in and no more.

Over and over, I heard Congress people say, “We’ve raised the debt limit over 100 times over the past 25 years. Why is it a big deal THIS time?” Perhaps because there is a point at which the whole system falls apart, and Washington may have now reached that point.

The President and Congress have now agreed to “borrow” a couple trillion more dollars. Now think about this, friends. The Chinese already own about $1 trillion of our debt. Only a handful of nations of the world have economic output of $1 trillion per year. So who is going to buy all of this Treasury paper? I submit to you that most of the debt will be funded by the Federal Reserve by running the printing presses and “monetizing” the debt with new paper money created out of thin air. This will hasten the collapse of the dollar into Zimbabwe-like currency, and return the United States to a 19th-century lifestyle.

Think about the Titanic. What sank the vessel? Striking the iceberg did not sink the ship. The ship sank because the crew was unable to stop the water from coming into the ship. No ship can remain afloat when the weight of the water it displaces is exceeded by the weight of the ship and its cargo. And why did 1,517 people die in the chilly waters of the North Atlantic? Because the owners of the ship had not provided enough lifeboats to carry the 2,223 people on board. Those people believed in the “unsinkability” of that ship. It was too big to fail.

But the crew in Washington is not incapable. They are UNWILLING to stop the spending from flooding the ship of state. The crew members who would like to prevent the ship from sinking are incapable of gathering enough support to slash spending in any current fiscal year. And there are some crewmembers who are assisting pirates in looting the ship while it is sinking. All “spending cuts” are proposed for future years, and every Congressman knows that they are also incapable of forcing the next Congress to follow prior dictates. And millions of Americans who believe in the unsinkability of Washington will suffer a similar fatal fate as the passengers on the Titanic. Washington is not too big to fail. It deserves to be thrown on the ashheap of history with Roman Empire and other nations that have blissfully ignored Natural Law.

I’m not real big on quoting Scripture, but here’s a verse that fits this article well: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Galatians 6:7)

To say that God is not mocked is to say that Natural law will always triumph. You can ignore it for a while. You can fight against it for a time. You can sneer at it, show contempt for it, say it’s antiquated and ridicule it. But it will always triumph because it is universal, designed into the system.

The Federal Government of the United States of America has committed fraud on the entire population of the world. The FedGov stopped using real money in transactions, and resorted to using paper currency, and then devalued that currency. That’s theft by conversion. Washington promoted Fractional Reserve Banking, which is counterfeiting by another name. DC has sent its military around the world to kill innocent people. That is First Degree Murder. DC stopped protecting individual liberty and property rights long ago, thereby vacating its very mandate for existence.

Fraud, theft, counterfeiting, murder and tyranny are the seeds that Washington has sown. And by extension, the people of the USA are just as culpable for the seeds that have been sown as the politicians they elected. Natural law guarantees that eventually, these seeds will yield a harvest. That harvest now stands ripening in the fields, awaiting the looming harvest season.

It is the natural law of sowing and reaping that will bring down Washington, and turn America into a Third-World nation. Clearly, reform from within can never occur prior to The End Of The World As We Know It.

So my point is that all you will see will be bullshit until just ONE STATE SECEDES.

There is no external or internal force that I know of that will be sufficient to cause a return to the Constitution in America. There is only one event that can or will occur that will force Washington to stop spending. And in my opinion, that will not happen until after the economy and the dollar collapse.

That event is Secession. One state has to start the ball rolling.

Secession is the Hope For Mankind. Who will be first?

http://dumpdc.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/it-is-all-bullshit-until-one-state-secedes/

Quote of the day

“If the US Government was a family, they would be making $58,000 a year, they spend $75,000 a year, & are $327,000 in credit card debt. They are currently proposing BIG spending cuts to reduce their spending to $72,000 a year. These are the actual proportions of the federal budget & debt, reduced to a level that we can understand.”

– Dave Ramsey

Don't think riots can happen here? Think again.

Your upscale neighborhood is just as vulnerable to escalated violence as a 3rd world country. And you'd better believe it. We have a tenancy to think that such things cant or wont happen to us. This is called Normalcy Bias. It is the belief that everything will be OK, simply because things usually are OK, and therefore nothing bad can or will happen.

I'm pretty sure that's what the people in London thought too. But their tranquility was recently shattered with massive riots and arson.

Violent crimes and mass rioting naturally increase as the economy collapses and people are disgruntled, out of work, broke, and have nothing better to do with their time.

These riots were started over the shooting of a suspect who exchanged fire with police.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/05/man-shot-police-london-arrest

"...died instantly after an apparent exchange of fire when police attempted to arrest him in north London"

http://www.smh.com.au/world/london-riots-single-shot-killed-man-20110809-1ikym.html

Here is a map of london arson fires in last 3 days. Shocking how many there are:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?msid=207192798388318292131.0004aa01af6748773e8f7&msa=0&ll=51.558503,-0.055275&spn=0.114195,0

Imagine what will happen when the happy people of your city cant buy food or water.


For more information on the London riots, and pictures of the event use the following links:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023874/LONDON-RIOTS-David-Cameron-returns-home-police-face-gangs-petrol-bombs.html

http://www.prisonplanet.com/forced-to-strip-naked-in-the-street-shocking-scenes-as-rioters-steal-clothes-and-rifle-through-bags-as-people-make-their-way-home.html

Bank of America in Bankruptsy soon?

Here Comes TARP 2: Bank Of America Implodes, At $6.87, BAC CDS Up 20% To 260 bps As Bankruptcy Contemplated
by Tyler Durden

At this point there are just two options for BOA: the spin off of CFC as a bad bank, backstopped by the Fed, or Chapter 11, which for a bank is essentially liquidation (and with CDS trading up 50 bps to 260 a bankruptcy seems increasingly inevitable). It also means that another TARP is on the way. And once America realizes that another several trillion have to be put into its insolvent banking sector, it will get quite violent.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/here-comes-tarp-2-bank-america-implodes-687-bac-cds-20-260-bps-bankruptcy-contemplated

Pollster: Americans Are “Pre-Revolutionary”: Just 17 per cent believe U.S. government has consent of the governed

by Paul Joseph Watson

Amidst riots in central Europe that have now spread to London and a debt downgrade that threatens to plunge the United States into a double-dip recession, Americans’ lack of confidence in their leadership is so crippled that they are now “pre-revolutionary,” according to pollster Pat Caddell.

A new Rasmussen poll shows that just 17 per cent of Americans believe that the U.S. government has the consent of the governed, an all time low. This dovetails with a record low for Congress’ approval rating, which stands at a paltry 6 per cent, while 46 per cent of Americans think most members of Congress are corrupt, with just 29% believing otherwise.

“The number of voters who feel the government has the consent of the governed – a foundational principle, contained in the Declaration of Independence – is down from 23% in early May and has fallen to its lowest level measured yet,” according to Rasmussen.

The poll was conducted before Friday’s U.S. debt downgrade, indicating that the figures could be even more dire in the aftermath of what some analysts believe is a precursor to a new great depression.

The results of this survey indicate that Americans are now “pre-revolutionary” says pollster Pat Caddell, who described the outcome of the poll as “unprecedented”.

This conclusion follows Caddell’s observation last November that “a sea of anger is churning” amongst Americans who “want to take their country back” and that the nation stood on the brink of a “pre-revolutionary moment”.

Caddell’s conclusion that Americans are on the verge of rising up against a system in which they have lost all trust cannot be easily dismissed as partisan rhetoric. Despite working for numerous Democratic presidential candidates, including Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden, Caddell has been a vociferous critic of both Democrats and Republicans on several issues.

Back in early 2008, before the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the start of the financial crisis, we warned that inflation and economic uncertainty would cause a massive social dislocation, which would lead to riots globally. Gerald Celente and others repeated the warning in late 2008. Over the last 18 months, we have now witnessed such scenes across the Middle East and in France, Spain, Greece, Italy and most recently London.

Indeed, the only major western country not to experience significant social unrest since the economic collapse is America, although anecdotal evidence of rising crime and thefts suggests a turning point could be just around the corner.

Should violence plague American streets as a result of a deepening economic crisis, U.S. troops have already been prepared to deal with such a crisis.

As we reported three years ago, U.S. troops returning from Iraq were being re-allocated to occupy America, running checkpoints and training to deal with “civil unrest and crowd control” under the auspices of a Northcom program that revolved around deploying 20,000 active duty troops inside America to “help” state and local officials during times of emergency.

The date set for the completion of this program was 2011, just in time to deal with the “pre-revolutionary” fervor that many fear will now manifest itself in Greece-like mayhem as a result of the fallout from the debt downgrade and America’s slide towards economic collapse.

http://www.infowars.com/pollster-americans-are-pre-revolutionary/

Excerpts from "Katrina Experiences" (Similar to Expectations of Life in TEOTWAWKI)

What happened after Katrina hit may be similar to what will happen after TEOTWAWKI. This post if very long and very useful. I have taken only a few small excerpts from it and still it is very long.



The generator made life comfortable but it burned copious amounts fuel. My 300 gallons was supposed to last 10 to 12 days but 300 gallons was only a 7 day supply. I had to drive to Baton Rouge with empty drums to buy diesel. Gasoline was in very short supply but diesel was nonexistent for civilians for about a week. I had plenty of natural gas for the grill, seafood boiler, water heater and dryer but it was useless for the generator.

I made many forays into the city with friends and family. Some were clandestine and others were overt and authorized. I passed looters actively looting stores and was shot at on at least one occasion. I will never forget one trip I made. I hired 9 off duty police officers to go with me into a flooded area. This officer was an acquaintance and a true blue cop a real Joe Friday. However, before we left he said “Now if something happens and we shoot someone, we are just going to leave him there ok? Do you understand what I am saying?” It was clear to me that things like that happened and that is what was done. Why do you think there are so many missing people whose bodies were never found? Look at the ages and sex of the missing people, most were under 35, male and lived in areas subject to the unrest.

The ‘Unthinkable’ Could Happen

The ‘Unthinkable’ Could Happen
Wall Street Journal

More than 1 million Americans have heard the evidence for 50% unemployment, 90% stock market crash, and 100% inflation. Be prepared. Watch the Aftershock Survival Summit Now, See the Evidence.

VIDEO:
http://wpc.2A95.edgecastcdn.net/002A95/Media/Aftershock_Relaunch_Final1.mp4

I do believe we have some very tough times ahead for our country. And, most in Washington are refusing to address the true scope of the situation. And, millions of Americans will face some difficult hills to climb to avoid getting caught up in this economic disaster I see unfolding. There is no getting around that. We are past the point of no return. And, people are starting to realize this.

We definitely will NOT see hyperinflation. Hyperinflation is 50 percent a month, or thousands of percent a year. We aren't Zimbabwe. And don't listen to any economist who says it'll get that bad for us. But we absolutely could see 100 percent annual inflation for a three-year consecutive stretch. Which of course would be a complete disaster for those who are not prepared. But what many don't know, is that the most damage will be felt between 10, 20, maybe 30 percent inflation. After you get past 30 percent, it'll just be bad all over. You eventually become numb to the effects, because there isn't much left to take from you at this point.

High inflation, rapidly rising interest rates, and the heightened risk of U.S. debt will create a poisonous cocktail like we've never seen. Companies will also be spending more money on borrowing costs as opposed to business expansion costs. That means lower profit margins, lower dividends, and less hiring. Plus more layoffs.

In the first edition of "Aftershock," I laid out a situation where we could see as much as a 90 percent drop in the stock market and 50 percent unemployment rate. That is the worst-case scenario. And, I stand by that assessment.

Even if our GDP dropped in half, we would still be a $7.5 trillion economy. But many people's savings could be drastically lower. Just about everyone's home will be worth much less in five years. Bonds that back up a lot of pensions and insurance policies will be destroyed. Pensions will become unstable. Some forms of life insurance could be eliminated. The stock market will plummet. And, all of this equals more job losses

But people will not be rioting in the streets, although there will certainly be many angry demonstrations, like we recently had in Wisconsin. Remember, we didn't see rioting during the Great Depression. The pain was felt at home. And, that's where it will be felt this time as well.

And, this is all because our government has not learned that, as you've put it, money from heaven is a path to hell.


http://w3.newsmax.com/a/aftershockb/video.cfm?promo_code=C9C7-1

TEOTWAWKI Realities (The End Of The World As We Know It)

By Russell D. Longcore

The spot price of gold reached an all-time high as more countries and individuals turn to gold as an anchor of stability. This as the two major world currencies and the twin pillars of the international monetary system are under threat of collapse.

It is apparent that the majority of those in power in the United States refuse to recognize the dire circumstances the United States finds itself in and are captive to the false assumption that the worst case scenario could never happen here. If America continues on its present path, the citizens of this country will, to their detriment, find out that it can and will.

It is not just individual citizens worldwide that are turning to gold, but many countries now see that metal as their only safe haven.

China, therefore, has doubled its gold reserves in the past two years and there is active discussion in Beijing that the country should immediately embark on a program to increase those holdings by a factor of eight rather than buy paper IOUs from potentially bankrupt Western nations. Russia, India, the Persian Gulf states, the Philippines, and a variety of other nations have also embarked on a gold-buying binge.

Slowly but inexorably, the world is edging toward a quasi-gold standard as it become evident that most of the West and Japan have reached a debt saturation point and can no longer continue to debase the major reserve currencies without devastating consequences.

http://dumpdc.wordpress.com/2011/07/18/teotwawki-realities/

Web Comments

A Russian social commentator recently predicted the danger of disgruntled law enforce-ment personal merging with organized crime in the US as they have in Mexico! Don’t think it can’t happen, remember Al Capone had 40% of the Chicago Police Department on his payroll during the depression!

-Erick Tippett , Chicago

The next 72hs: What last minute preps to take?

The next 72hs: What last minute preps to take?
by FerFal

Lets say the US economy crashes in a day. What kind of specific things should we expect in the first 72 hours? How can we best stay safe and out of harms way? What quick last minute preps should someone who has followed your advice for years now take?

The worst case scenario would be one in which the debt ceiling isn’t raised by August 02. Even if that happens an actual default could take a few more days or weeks. In any case if you look at a worst case scenario it could be similar to what we saw in December 2001. Looks scary? Sure does. Can it be dangerous? Sure, even more so if you don’t know how to act in such cases. Is it the end of the world as Americans know it?

No, and eventually order would be restored, but the political and economic reality in USA would be permanently crippled if it happens. Then again many of the things that concern people are already happening, even if it’s not as dramatic as an outspoken default.

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 be as common as the looting of commercial property, it can happen in several cases.

In this context the worst thing you can do is getting on a vehicle and travel to wherever you think might be safer. Traveling and being out there is exactly what you want to avoid. For thousands if not millions of people staying put back during the 2001 collapse was the best choice, even if they saw all this pandemonium happening through the window and right across the street. For that reason that’s exactly what I’d recommend. Lock the doors, have a flashlight in case the power goes down and a weapon in case some two-legged vermin gets any ideas.

This anarchic situation can last a few days but it eventually calms down. After that you may see sporadic cases of rioting and looting starting again, an overall sense of greater danger and criminal activity in general, but other than that things go back to “normal”.

Of course the economy being purely a psychological matter the stock market will fall like a ton of bricks, the dollar will fall, and the economic scenario will be dire to say the least. You’re looking at decades worth of recovery if something this serious happens in USA. When Argentina collapsed it was just another country, if a giant like USA collapses it may never get back on its feet and simply be a shadow of what it once used to be from that moment onwards.

What to do tomorrow?

If you’ve been following my blog for some time now you already know the points I constantly insist on such as having food and water, weapons for protection and some cash and precious metals.

Lets say I’m in USA and looking to round up my preps in case of a worst case scenario. What I would do first thing tomorrow would be to drop by my bank and get some of my money out of the account. How much? It depends. If you only have a few thousand bucks or so I’d close my account, then look for a PM dealer near buy and put half of it in gold and silver, keep the rest in cash. If you have more money then maybe just extract 40% or 30% of my money and do the same thing.

Being able to defend yourself being a priority, I’d already have a gun. This would be the time though to get a few more boxes of ammo if the amount you have isn’t adequate. After that I’d fill up my gas tank, take any jerry cans I have and fill those up if they aren’t already full. I’d go to the supermarket and stock up on canned food and water if you haven’t done so already for some reason. I would also buy a good amount of fresh meat and vegetables to consume in the following days. If you don’t have any extra fuel for emergencies, tomorrow would be the day to buy some jerry cans (the equivalent of an extra gas tank) and get those filled up too so as to have two full gas tanks worth of fuel. Use your credit card for buying all this and keep as much cash as possible. It may come in handy later. Drop by the pharmacy and stock up on medications you may need.

If a trip to the bank isn’t possible, at least get as much money as you can out of the ATM. If there’s trouble expect the ATMS to run dry within hours.

Once I’m home again I’d prepare everything security wise in case there’s trouble: No tools left around the house that can be used to break in, lock any exterior buildings like sheds and such, lock any windows that don’t need to be open and in general prepare for the possibility of trouble.

Finally, I’d call my family and loved ones to check on them, tell them what I’ll be doing and ask them what they’ll be doing the next couple of days. You do this so as to have more info in advance, in case there’s civil unrest, you call them to check that they are ok and you don’t find them, when in reality they had planned to be out of town for some other reason.

Basically I’d make the common preparations we talk about and simply stay put if there’s any degree of civil unrest.
FerFAL

http://www.themodernsurvivalist.com/?p=1495