Let's begin by thinking about this, a quote from The Daily Bell:
"The problem with where America is now is that the country has been built on one lie after another for the past decade and the lies show no signs of slowing down."
And then, there's this from Charles Hugh Smith via Marc Faber:
"The status quo would collapse were systemic fraud and complicity banished... They have become the foundation of the US economy and financial system..."
You will recall how Goldman Sachs wowed the whole world with its dazzling trading. Day in, day out...the traders at Goldman made money. The firm turned in "perfect" trading quarters, with not a single day showing a loss.
Surely, one of the junior traders would have miscalculated at least once? Or a seasoned old pro, after a well-irrigated lunch, take his fat finger and hit the wrong button? Nope. Not once did Goldman's trading machine err. It was uncanny. Almost unnatural.
Who was on the other side of those trades, we wondered? Trading is a zero sum game. One side wins. The other loses. So some poor schmuck must have taken a loss for every gain earned by Goldman's geniuses. Imagine him taking his lumps day after day...and still coming back for more. How could anyone stand so many losses? What kind of fighter could take that kind of beating and still be on his feet? And yet, there were no major new bankruptcies announced during that period. How was it possible? Who was losing all that money?
We were perplexed.
But now we know who the schmuck was...the poor sap was us! Had it not been for Senator Bernie Sanders from the Green Mountain State, who insisted that the Federal Reserve expose its shenanigans to the outside world, we would never have known what had happened to the Fed's $3.3 trillion in bailout cash. Now we know. Goldman helped itself 212 times - roughly every business day - during the 12 month period beginning in March '09, all the while telling the world that it needed no bailout.
Lies, lies, lies...
Corruption is not only at the top. Like a Christmas pudding steeped in rum, the whole economy - from top to bottom - reeks of it. Here's the latest proof from Bloomberg:
Interesting how the rest of the article complains that we want to balance the budget and save social programs by making the rich pay more. I'd call it making them pay their fair share.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that on my annual income of $12,000 I can afford to pony up as much in taxes as Steve Forbes the billionaire.
8:22 are you a baby boomer?
ReplyDelete9:51 Yes but don't blame me for Washington's ways over the years. I was busy raising 6 kids and building a business without any government handouts. Not even a fha mortgage. 3 jobs at one point and sold blood at the same time. For years I've been paying a total adjusted amount of 34% and the maximum in SS and now I shouldn't get it because losers want more for themselves even though they pay in pennies? It will just be another welfare program, again at my expense. Then to be thought of as the bad guy because I worked my ass off by these idiots that are always saying "Tax the rich!. Well if they can say that, I can say kiss my ass loser. I'm 61. I'm hiding my money from those leaches and I won't start another business to employ those losers even though I want to. Maybe Belize or Costa Rica, but not here. The liberals can steal from each other.
ReplyDeleteBe careful fighting with each other
ReplyDeletethe real enemy likes that to happen
because it keeps us all fighting with
each other instead of our common enemy.
10:24, Thank you, your soooo right. I just get tired of it.
ReplyDeleteWas chatting with a prepper friend yesterday...We both agree at this point evil has won.
ReplyDeleteEven with documents/video/confessions of the financial crimes that are being committed nothing is being done or will be done.
They might throw some sacrificial lambs out there but the super rich will get away with it.
I'm not being pessimistic...Just realistic...All I can do is prep for what evil comes my way.
In a way we deserve it...We've become useless, materialistic and self-absorbed...We're not the same America we were before.
I look at TV/Magazines or ever just go to the mall? These last 2-3 generations are slackers and useless...Hard times will make hard men and women.
It's going to be a mess for a long time...But hopefully ethics, morals, manners, volunteerism and real patriotism come back into fashion.
It's all a cycle so hopefully I make it to see it come back around.
We can focus on the bad or look for the silver lining in this very dark cloud that approaches.
8:22: good post. For your background, Sharonsj is a flaming old school liberal/progressive Democrat so her post doesn't surprise me in the slightest. She despises and rails against Republicans, conservatives, the Tea Party, big business, etc. She also has told us she's elderly, poor, rural but smart (a MENSA member!). However, she forgets that some of us have been reading this blog for a long time years and know her and her schtick all too well.
ReplyDeleteLet used the Devil's Advocate approach to your comment 12:02.
ReplyDeleteI'm almost sure that what's stolen by the upper 2% in way of straight manipulation is WAAAY more that what's used for social programs...Although I do agree that a large percentage of it is also in fraud.
All I know I rather my taxes (S-0 with no write offs) go to social programs rather than to defense companies/bankers.
Remember the ones harping about welfare are always the first to drink and eat from the trough when it comes to bail outs/subsidies/guaranteed loans and sweet heart deals.
The middle class such as 8:22 (Which technically I'm part of) are being squeezed out...The rich don't want to give and most poor are too stupid to change their lifestyles.
Which would you rather see? Good and bad recieving benefits or the very very rich walking away with everything while we still have the poor/hungry?
No black and white answer...Just the better of two evils.
Definitely 12:45 about the part of the benefits. For Obama to throw one of his white house parties, tens of millions of tax payer dollars, costs way more than probably all of those benefits received by those on them combined. Say perhaps 100 million altogether are on some sort of handout program. They'll probably be getting a hundred a month from them on average, 1200 a year times 100 million? 120 billion, not much.
ReplyDeleteMy attitude is a bit apathetic, ummm... this shit is so bad. lol
Well if the military industrial complex didn't help themselves to 3/4th's of the GDP of America to run their protection racket, you might actually have something America.
ReplyDeleteBut Hell no because you're going to SERVE your FASCIST BRUTAL MASTERS until you and your children are dead in their wars because YOU
are a USELESS EATER.
FREEDOM is just another word for propagandist BULLSHIT
12:45 Please remember your destroying the very people your trying to help. When you take in a wild injured animal you have to be careful to make them work for their food or when they're ready to be released back into the wild, they die because they have forgotten how to be able to feed themselves. Did you read the link 8:22 posted?
ReplyDeleteAs far as choosing between welfare and military at least the military is a legitimate government job. Ours is just out of control. Welfare destroys the country from within.
The bigger problem is that the public demands the lies. Like frightened children not wanting to admit the head of the house beats them they grasp at the lies spewing from the abuser's mouth.
ReplyDeleteEasier to swallow the lie in the hope the family stays together than to have the abuser removed from the equation.
Well kids, it's time to face facts.
America is dysfunctional and despite all your acceptance of the abuse. The family is imploding. One by one you see your toys taken away and finally your American Dream... Your house.
Is being all comfy in your jammies and being tucked in every night by the Govt Mafia been worth it?
Truth is truth and the American people are being enslaved by their own govt.
Maybe, but maybe we are heading into anarchy. A tiny flick on a bee hive sends a swarm of bees to come kill you, a bolt poorly designed can bring down an entire plane, an ignorant choice to indulge in a desire can annihilate an entire business, a great warlord drinking too much alcohol to the point of death can waste an entire empire. All things that have happened or happen often.
ReplyDeleteToday we are global, rather, more tightly intertwined. There is no way they will be able to install their little global government. Many of the fascist types will try, they have been trying. They're trying to buy time with the bailouts. The dollar and Euro are heading into the grave, so those who hold the power in the "free" nations (west) are in panic. The world is entering a Strange Attractor (see Chaos Theory) as far as the human condition is concerned.
We are in the End Times, Age of Confusion, the Quickening, the Great Purification, Omega Point, whatever you want to call it. There is no recovery, there is no global nation, there is no renormalization. This is horrible, I can't even comprehend that I'm alive in one of these periods.
What the hell is going to happen to us? Kind of fun. But I find it sad in a way, nostalgia everywhere, and there's little to look forward to in the future. People who bank on a future are really banking on nothing. Like I said, when people pay attention to news about the economy in 2010, it is totally irrelevant. In 2011 many new things will come about and alter that 2010 event so much that anything planned there will be in vain.
I watched some old movies, Pink Panther films, so sad how I missed out on a good time. I got stuck in Generation Y, I hope for a reason to be able to help fix the world. But I get really sad watching old things, I can't explain it. I get frustrated too knowing how wild the future might be in like, thousands of years, or in other universes. But here I am, in this human body in this crap era. Who the fuck knows? lol
"In the End Days the Devil will be in one's own household... father against son, mother against daughter..." - Jesus
"Let no alternating image of Maya distract you in the days of the Reckoning" - Yogananda
"The world has been destroyed many times over... In each cycle sages incarnate to help virtuous beings start the world over again." - Lau Tzu
"Before the Purification the world will grow increasingly strange... People will develop a dead look in their eyes as they lose their souls to material things and greed." - Hopi Prophecy
You think that stuff is weird people? The very reality we exist in is stranger than anything you can possibly imagine. Forget ETs, quantum philosophy, psychadelic trips, channeling... it gets really weird when you come to know you aren't an individual but a collection of trillions of individual living specimens in you. (Cells, organs, etc.) Not just that but you are an electromagnetic being which picks on a huge, impossible to even start defining flux of radiation coming from your local region, planet, solar systems, galaxies, universe, and multiverse (intertwined frequencies that come from subtle forces beneath the EMF).
The Truth hurts... I can no longer look in the mirror the same, I know the illusion that "I" am. I can no longer act like I own my destiny, I am very much at Mother's mercy and Father's guidance. I hope they have a use for me. I'd like to bring the Way of Heaven back here and I am willing to sacrifice my mind and heart for humanity as a whole. It will take a lifetime to cultivate within the physical personality.
Alright enough rambling.
4:33, many of us share parts of what you voiced. You appear to have 2 very valuable things going in your favor. First, you seem to have a mind that is open to all possibilities to consider. Second, you have intelligence. These seem to be in rather short supply in recent years. Continue to cultivate and nurture them. Those are what will truely be needed in the future no matter what comes our way. I will have no gold or silver to leave my children. But I am accumulating a small bookcase full of information that has been used by people for countless generations to live by, in all types of situations and localities. My hope is that with this information they will be able to fit it to their particular circumstances, if need be. Sometimes we just need a little 'spark' to ignite our thinking and imaginations. Please try not to become too disheartened, it only weakens you.
ReplyDelete1.35 Thinks the military is "a legitimate government" job for retraining and restraining all the wild american "animals" on welfare to teach them how to work hard to pay the "legitimate" salaries of the military and provide for the militaries masters ,the ruling elites continued incomes .
ReplyDeleteClearly there are no real problems with the economy but only psychological probems of lazy wild animals.
This view of economics views 'feeding useless mouths as too expensive and unssustainable .
Shovel ready jobs and caged re-training at FEMA gulag work camps would seem desirable for these welfare "animals" ,that a failed military backed empire capitalism can no longer profitably employ?
That would be "all legit" capitalism Right?
4:33 your post was eloquent and moving.
ReplyDeleteWise for your age. It's a shame the older ones here don't have one iota of your wisdom.
Why do these raging sheep froth at the mouth and get all self-righteous about working to stay on the farm and support the war-profit machine? They are the real problem, along with baby boomers kicking out 6 kids at a time and consuming this world into an unending hole.
ReplyDelete7:21 Sharon, there is a reason why these people are billionaires it's a combination of greed and connections and willingness to take advantage of certain situations that harm others. It takes a certain kind that succeeds to this degree. But many like to claim it was just hard work, I say non sense because there is a lot of hard working people that never succeed.
ReplyDeleteFor people to talk condescendingly against you or others of meager means shows they lack human skills/heart. They have no sense of Justice and feel comfortable in their present state in life and could care less of others or those who have been crushed by the system. At least GOD is not like this.. He is not impressed by the well to do nor the self confident people rather HE is interested in the lowly humble people and will come to their aid. Better to be poor and have GOD's attention than have all the wealth in the world and have GOD's displeasure or disinterest.. For the Meek shall inherit the earth and no rich man can ever change this coming reality..
Opinions are a dime a dozen but in the end it does not matter..
1:14 They are the real problem, along with baby boomers kicking out 6 kids at a time and consuming this world into an unending hole.
ReplyDeleteSo you are a good dog following what your master told you to think. It is funny reading immature comments like yours the world and the earth is in great shape. Only the gullible and weak minded believe Nazi propaganda like Al Bore spreads. Plenty of beauty in the world instead of crying about it learn some new skills. The new world coming is going to need skills not whiners.
Liberal Nazi! Conservative Nazi!
ReplyDeleteBahhh humbug...It's Elites vs. Everyone else.
If you think just because you have say 1-2-3 million dollars you are protected...You aren't.
You daughter will still be targeted, your son will be robbed, you lifestyle will be crimped.
Plus honestly millionaires are like fleas on a dog...We used to have 55,000 millionaires in Cali at one point...55,000!
Plus what good is millions in paper money if there is some sort of weird hyperinflation? What good is your nice home on the beach with no protection if police coverage drops?
What good is it without good health, or a stock pile of meds?...I live 10 minutes from Carmel Ca...Gorgeous area...Very rich area...Crime is trickling to the rich...Crimes are now being committed that "Shock the Community."
Most of those people have several millions of worth but it doesn't help them...As we fight over lables with idiots from BOTH SIDES...We forget the pig picture.
WE"RE BOTH F*CKED...Can't stop the train and the super rich have already got off at the last station...Sooooo prep, get ready, learn some skills...Everything else is as valuable as an anonymous message on a blog.
The rage I see here from the older folks as their savings and lifestyle crumbles is sad...When times were good you drank and ate...Why seem surprised that it was all based on lies...You've always kinda known...Just you thought you'd be dead before the crumble of the empire happened.
9:21 what's wrong, the self-righteous comment made you upset because it was so apt? I got skills! The world is a beautiful place. Of course! Stop pissing in it though. You act like your actions have no affect on the world. Guess what? Consuming the worlds resources unthinkingly is what has gotten us to this point of bankruptcy and corruption, you irresponsible fool. Who is the brainwashed animal now? Carry on, left-right-march.
ReplyDelete6.58 pleads for calm and acceptence .
ReplyDeleteBetter to be poor and have GOD's attention than have all the wealth in the world and have GOD's displeasure or disinterest.. For the Meek shall inherit the earth and no rich man can ever change this coming reality..
Opinions are a dime a dozen but in the end it does not matter.
One things for sure with this on your knees and praying god bless america view;
God and his capitalist mates sure loves the poor its why he creates so many of them and only a handful of ruling elites.
But the greedy ruling elites must suffer from gods dispeasure and be punished the sin of boring gluttony in this world, but the poor, especialy the third world hungry poor will surely be rewarded in heaven as long as they are baptised in the name of the lord and pray for forgivenessfor at being discontented with their lot.
Alls well that ends well
praise the lord and pass the ammunition.
Hey 10:35 I have a name Dave it was visible in case you did not notice.
ReplyDeleteI was merely expressing the reality of the true situation.. Oh yeah there are people who feel God is irrelevant. Well you will have to find that out for yourself when the whole system is ripped apart by him.
If you think humans will free themselves of the demons holding them you are deluding yourselves this has been this way for thousands of years and no one has been able to fix the world since has been in power, God says he will remove that power in due time.. What we see happening around us is evidence of that approaching time is near..