Thursday, August 26, 2010

Why America's Economy Is on the Brink of Going Down the Tubes ... for Good


Recessions, especially the deep downturn that started in 2008, always cause us to scramble. Companies routinely slash spending while governments do the opposite, trying to shock the country's economic heart into beating again through heroic measures such as the recent stimulus package. Concern about a possible "double dip" recession have the hands of corporate CFO's and Washington officials hovering over the panic button again, mere months after the last push.
But our scramble to reduce the impact of the latest disaster distracts us from addressing the deep-seated problems that inexorably create the next disaster, and the one after that. Why waste energy on the distant future, we reason, when we'll never get to that future if we don't solve the problem staring us in the face?
We all focus on addressing here-and-now emergencies because we have no choice. What limits our options are not outside events, such as economic downturns, but internal events that go on inside our brains. As a neuroscientist, I've learned that our brains are hardwired to avoid near term threats and to ignore long term opportunities , because our brains are identical to those of our distant ancestors who faced a daily struggle for survival. When our brains evolved into their present form, about 50,000 years ago, the environment was incredibly harsh and risky, limiting life expectancies to 20-25 years. Diverting attention from day-today survival in those Paleolithic times would have invited disaster. Neuroscientists call this hard-wired preference for quick fixes over long range pursuits temporal myopia: everything past the immediate future looks fuzzy, or even invisible, and is therefore irrelevant.
More Here..


Economy Like a 'Drunk That Keeps Drinking'
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7 comments:

  1. What is the "Panic Button" anyway? At some point one must realize that it is the 'Frog In The Pan' method they are going after and not the instantaneous wipe out. Yes things are in collapse mode, but they have been for a long time(since 1913?). Anyone seen pics of Detroit lately? You wouldnt know that Detroit was the center of creation not that long ago... Where did it go? It is like a Ghost Town now.

    Its not just the econnomy that is breaking down, it is family and society as well. What school indoctrination is teaching the youngest generation is blasphemy against all that is good. But, society is accepting of this failure and actually proclaims that its not that harmful to destroy the young. Which brings me to another point, a financial guy named Max Keiser was on a show recently talking about how he left America because its for the hyena's now. Also since he is a financial advisor he said he instructs those that want to make money to invest in "Prison Bonds" because that is all America has left. He had no reason to slant his argument and was quite sincere in saying it. What does a society as great as the US become when its only profitable industry is to imprison its own people and sell those Prison Bonds to foreigners so they can make a profit off our economy? Business is booming!

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  2. 9/11 is fast approaching. Prepare yourself mentally, now. They say lighting doesn't strike twice, but the Plutocrats are going to test the gullibility limits of the public with another red flag 9/11 event, and the public will lap it up and welcome martial law.

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  3. 8.25.10

    8.25.10

    Program repeating - enter

    8.25.10

    8.25.10

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  4. 6:20
    i repeat. there will not be an economic crisis like the one we had in sept. 2008. we will get economic decline and not economic collapse type of event. the decline will last 30 years before we hit the ground because that is long of bull market our economy was in. we should enter bear market for the next 30 years.

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  5. Our economy is going down. Yawn.

    Everyone here knows it and is taking measures.

    No one here wants to attack the roots of social disintegration by going out and taking back control of our schools or claiming back the media from the rot and perversion or pitchforking their local politicians onto the dung heap.

    Including me. Yawn

    Enjoy your picture show.

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  6. The USA will not be able to cover the interest alone on all our debt soon. Western, "civilized" countries don't default on their debt. They collapse their currencies. Look it up!

    That said, Americans are strong and resilient. Most people will be shaken out of their state of denial. You know, the ones who still say, "They would never let THAT happen." But we'll find a new normal during and after this mess. We just need to think "out of the box".

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  7. There is an astronomical difference between the Americans of the past and the Americans today. Americans of the past weren't in a mental anesthesia. Today not only are the older ones floating around in delusion but the young ones seem like it's in their DNA.

    You know people actually believe the 2,000 friends they have on myspace are actual friends? They've probably met one or two of them and that counts as family members! People will watch fiction shows on television and actually view it as a documentary. Shows about vampires are believed to be subliminal messages telling people about the real secrets of life. Teenagers or twenty somethings will watch porn and actually think girls like being treated like dogs. Girls in turn have such low self esteem today that they feel obliged to be with abusive guys. Mark your skin up with some drunken losers name on it because he demanded that you did so. In classrooms in grade school and college most students are actually text messaging the entire time. Education anyone!? Watch obese people come out of stores with diet soda - it's, contrary to their lack of education, worse for them and will make them fatter! They're so lazy to sacrifice by going to a gym and giving up soda they will fill their heads up such false notions and make believe it is working. My mother stares in front of a television all day long, the only time it comes off is if she is at work... her whole life is watching television. Why? She's trying to forget about her-SELF.

    Damn, there are few "Americans" really left among the youth who have brains, discipline, work ethic, moral courage, or just plain normalcy. For adults it's not much better. The country has gone to drugs, blissful ignorance, perversion, and corruption. It's gone like the wind.

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