Editor’s Note: While our initial observations regarding the global stock market crash may suggest that the world’s central banks are out of bullets, Chris Martenson of Peak Prosperity argues that they have one very powerful weapon left in their arsenals. With the real threat of devestating deflation looming, The Fed knows what they have to do. They are absolutely terrified of what could happen if asset prices collapse like they did during the Great Depression. In coming weeks, months and years, argue Martenson, they will do what they do best, and they’ll do it on a scale never before seen. This time, however, they won’t just be printing money to bail out the banks. They’ll take their monetary easing directly to the end user, the consumer who drives the economy. So expect to be getting “free” money at some point in the near future.
The Deflation Monster Has Arrived (And it sure looks angry)
By Chris Martenson
As we’ve been warning for quite a while (too long for my taste): the world’s grand experiment with debt has come to an end. And it’s now unraveling.
Just in the two weeks since the start of 2016, the US equity markets are down almost 10%. Their worst start to the year in history. Many other markets across the world are suffering worse.
If you watched stock prices today, you likely had flashbacks to the financial crisis of 2008. At one point the Dow was down over 500 points, the S&P cracked below key support at 1,900, and the price of oil dropped below $30/barrel. Scared investors are wondering: What the heck is happening? Many are also fearfully asking: Are we re-entering another crisis?
Sadly, we think so. While there may be a market rescue that provide some relief in the near term, looking at the next few years, we will experience this as a time of unprecedented financial market turmoil, political upheaval and social unrest. The losses will be staggering. Markets are going to crash, wealth will be transferred from the unwary to the well-connected, and life for most people will get harder as measured against the recent past.
It’s nothing personal; it’s just math. This is simply the way things go when a prolonged series of very bad decisions have been made. Not by you or me, mind you. Most of the bad decisions that will haunt our future were made by the Federal Reserve in its ridiculous attempts to sustain the unsustainable.
In spiritual terms, it is said that everything happens for a reason. When it comes to the Fed, however, I’m afraid that a less inspiring saying applies:
Yes, it’s easy to pick on the Fed now that it’s obvious that they’ve failed to bring prosperity to anyone but their inside coterie of rich friends and big client banks. But I’ve been pointing out the Fed’s grotesque failures for a very long time. Again, too long for my tastes.
I rather pointlessly wish that the central banks of the world had been reined in by the public before the crash of 2008. However the seeds of their folly were sown long before then:
(Source)
Note the pattern in the above monthly chart of the S&P 500. A relatively minor market slump in 1994 was treated by the then Greenspan Fed with an astonishing burst of new money creation — via its ‘sweeps” program response, which effectively eliminated reserve requirements for banks .That misguided policy created the first so-called Tech Bubble, which burst in 2000.
The next move by the Fed was to drop rates to 1%, which gave us the Housing Bubble. That was a much worse and more destructive event than the bubble that preceded it. And it burst in 2008.
Then the Fed (under Bernanke this time) dropped rates to 0%. The rest of the world’s central banks followed in lockstep (some going even further, into negative territory, as in Europe’s case). This has led to a gigantic, interconnected set of bubbles across equities, bonds and real estate — virtually everywhere across the globe.
So the Fed’s pattern here was: fixing a small problem with a bad decision, which lead to an even larger problem addressed by an even worse decision, resulting in an even larger set of problems that are now in the process of deflating/bursting. Three sets of increasingly bad decisions in a row.
The amplitude and frequency of the bubbles and crashes are both increasing. As is the size and scope of the destruction.
The even larger backdrop to all of this is that the developed world, and recently China, have been stoking growth with debt, and have been doing so for a very long time.
Using the US as a proxy for other countries, this is what the lunacy looks like:
As practically everybody can quickly work out, increasing your debts at 2x the rate of your income eventually puts you in the poor house. As I said, it’s nothing personal; it’s just math.
But somehow, this math escaped the Fed’s researchers and policy makers as a problem. Well, turns out it is. And it’s now knocking loudly on the world’s door. The deflation monster has arrived.
The only possible way to rationalize such an increase in debt is to convince oneself that economic growth will come roaring back, and make it all okay. But the world is now ten years into an era of structurally weak GDP and there are no signs that high growth is coming back any time soon, if ever.
So the entire edifice of debt-funded growth is now being called into question — at least by those who are paying attention or who aren’t hopelessly blinkered by a belief system rooted in the high net energy growth paradigms of the past.
At any rate, I started the chart in 1970 because it was in 1971 that the US broke the dollar’s linkage to gold. The rest of the world complained for a bit at the time, but politicians everywhere quickly realized that the loss of the golden tether also allowed them to spend with wild abandon and rack up huge deficits. So it was wildly popular.
As long as everybody played along, this game of borrowing and then borrowing some more was fun. In one of the greatest circular backrubs of all time, the central banks and banking systems of the developed world all bought each other’s debt, pretending as if it all made sense somehow:
(Source)
The above charts show how hopelessly entangled the worldwide web of debt has become. Yes, it’s all made possible by the delusion that somehow being owed money by an insolvent entity will endlessly prevent your own insolvency from being revealed. How much longer can that delusion last?
All of this is really just the terminal sign of a major credit bubble — a credit era, if you will — drawing to a close.
I will once again rely upon this quote by Ludwig Von Mises because apparently its message has not yet sunk in everywhere it should have:
“ There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.”
~ Ludwig Von Mises
Well, the central banks of the world could not bring themselves to voluntarily end the credit expansion – that would have taken real courage.
So now we are facing something far worse.
I’m not just calling for another run of the mill bear market for equities, but for the unwinding of the largest and most ill-conceived credit bubble in all of history. Equities are a side story to a larger one.
It’s global and it’s huge. This deflationary monster has no equal in all of history, so there’s not a lot of history to guide us here.
At Peak Prosperity we favor the model that predicts ‘first the deflation, then the inflation’ or the “Ka-Poom! Theory” as Erik Janszen at iTulip described it. While it may seem that we are many years away from runaway inflation (and some are doubting it will or ever could arrive again), here’s how that will probably unfold.
Faced with the prospect of watching the entire financial world burn to the figurative ground (if not literal in some locations), or doing something, the central banks will opt for doing something.
Given that their efforts have not yielded the desired or necessary results, what can they realistically do that they haven’t already?
The next thing is to give money to Main Street.
That is, give money to the people instead of the banks. Obviously puffing up bank balance sheets and income statements has only made the banks richer. Nobody else besides a very tiny and already wealthy minority has really benefited. Believe it or not, the central banks are already considering shifting the money spigot towards the public.
You might receive a credit to your bank account courtesy of the Fed. Or you might receive a tax rebate for last year. Maybe even a tax holiday for this year, with the central bank monetizing the resulting federal deficits.
Either way, money will be printed out of thin air and given to you. That’s what’s coming next. Possibly after a failed attempt at demanding negative interest rates from the banks. But coming it is.
This “helicopter money” spree will juice the system one last time, stoking the flames of inflation. And while the central banks assume they can control what happens next, I think they cannot.
Once people lose faith in their currency all bets are off. The smart people will be those who take their fresh central bank money and spend it before the next guy.
In Part 2: Why This Next Crisis Will Be Worse Than 2008 we look at what is most likely to happen next, how bad things could potentially get, and what steps each of us can and should be taking now — in advance of the approaching rout — to position ourselves for safety (and for prosperity, too)
Click here to read Part 2 of this report (free executive summary, enrollment required for full access)
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Re: Why The Next Crisis Will Be Worse Than 2008
I believe it will be much worse.
The economy is A LOT weaker now. In recent years, many people have fallen out of the middle class and are now dependent on government assistance, such as food stamps.
History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.
– Mark Twain
Enquiring minds want to know: How much can I get, and are there unlimited refills?
Free Money! I can’t wait. Happy Days are here again.
I just puked on my keyboard for saying that.
I hope it’s delivered by the case on conveniently sized TP rolls so we can we can use it for the actual value it has.
Same shit, new day.
GMAFB
http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=7174
http://www.weeklystandard.com/larry-summers-creeping-totalitarianism-on-college-campus/article/2000635
My dream is to own my own PhD program free of government “accreditation” or racial quotas or feminist jazz hands or safe spaces or trigger warnings or mandatory diversity sessions or affirmative consent where real scholars can turn out productive research which adds value to society free of censorship by these fuckwitted deans. It’s not like there is any shortage of real dissertation topics.
Now youre gonna say my program isn’t valid because the government doesn’t accredit my degrees and I don’t charge $120,000 for some piece of fucking paper on the wall?
ITS BEEN SHOWN THAT HOME SCHOOLED KIDS COME OUT 10 MOTHERFUCKING YEARS AHEAD OF PUBLIK SKOOL KIDS. 10 FUCKING YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Our school system is a worthless fucking waste of time and money.
YOUR KIDS WOULD BE MUCH BETTER OFF READING SHTFPLAN ALL DAY THAN GOING TO SCHOOL.
I’ll say cheers to that– my oldest got her GED( which is much harder to pass than getting a HS diploma ) when she was 16, after being homeschooled for 10 years. Her younger sister was First valedictorian at the Christian school she attended for 4 years( I was divorced by then and couldn’t homeschool them) and went to Christopher Newport University( paid her own way) and graduated double major Business and English with Honors. She is still top dog at her job. 🙂 Son wasn’t homeschooled, but was supplemented, and is a voracious reader. Self educated, if you will. I encourage everyone who can to homeschool, or work with relatives and friends to get your kids out of the public indoctrination system!
Babycatcher,
YUP! schools were hi-jacked LONG time ago and have been brainwashing our kids for years, this country really needs LOTS of changes to survive, hope we can make those changes, but i am afraid it maybe to late! unless LOTS of us stand-up and get the ball rolling.
I like what you have to say. I just wish you would refrain from all the F-bombs. Pretty please? 😀
Found money? I guess that all depends on where it came from!
Thought for the day…
Written by Regina Brett, 90 years old, of the Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio.
The 45 Lessons Life Taught Me
1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.
8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.
12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ‘In five years, will this matter?’
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.
35. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative — dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
42. The best is yet to come…
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.
Thanks KY Mom. That’s pretty cool!
Now that I read this, I wonder if there’s a reason to post here?
Sure, you need to keep up with what the other idiots are up to.
I said it here before and I will say it again: “Chris is an idiot”.
The FED is NOT going to print a massive amount of dollars to bailout Main Street. Hyperinflation would destroy the currency. The same currency in which the PTB hold their wealth & power. They are NOT going to destroy their wealth & power.
Deflation on the other hand, destroys the wealth of people who are leveraged. People like the Middle Class trying to leverage their way up the chain.
Does anyone really believe the growing “inequality” between the rich and the poor is an accidental by-product of FED policy?
Additionally, printing dollars would give relief to the EM BRIC’s. The BRIC’s wanted to challenge FED hegemony. Now all of the economies of the BRIC’s are pissing into the wind or being flushed down the toilet.
You can see their intent if you watch their actions and understand the results. They know exactly what they are doing.
Its going to be a long time before the FED is going to give them any relief; and they will sacrifice YOU on the altar of Globalism to prove it.
Buckle up. 🙂
DK, whatever the author is smoking maybe I need to try some.
The Uber Rich (and/or those with cash & credit) will buy up distressed and foreclosed assets for pennies on the dollar. This is how it works.
The FED passed out free money to their Crony Capitalist friends and constituents for the past 7 years in anticipation of just this sort of thing.
This is how it has always worked. Chris is an idiot. 🙁
Stiner: John, $152 billion is CHUMP CHANGE in the scheme of things. These were essentially tax breaks anyway for those who could use them.
50% of the population do not file taxes.
The closest thing to “helicopter money” was when the government cut the payroll tax to put money directly into the pockets of Americans workers in the hope that it would stimulate spending and thus GDP.
It didn’t work. Instead Americans used the extra cash to pay down their debts. 🙂
George W. Bush gave a cash back tax refund Rebate. Some got the Lexus and some got the muffler.
Then the next year, they took it back with interest.
Oil Companies get dropped Billions every year in subsidies.
Im still waiting for the Trickle Down Reagan VooDoo Economics.
Keep in mind consumers started their credit card bing in the 70’s which should account for the massive personal debt problems.
You dont send the Alcoholic to the store to buy beer with everybody elses money. Thats what Congress has done with our money. Public Hangings are in order..
WWTI..
The FEDS did it in 2008, so why should we think they would not do it again?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_Stimulus_Act_of_2008
Good one KYM.
Always darkest before dawn.
eppe: Yes, but no one has cut the electricity yet. The carnage is just beginning. 🙁
Off-Grid Preppers laugh at the electric grid collapsing. In fact Im cracking a beer on that funny. Even if my Solar crashed. I still would have no problem maintaining a reasonable life style here in FL. Im prepared. Its the Sleepy Sheep that would die first. I would expect a 75% die off in the Northern Winter States. Every dexusion got you to where you are today. Cheers!!
~WWTI..
Us preppers in the Cold states hope you are wrong about that 75%. Here in the cold empty states we are hopeing for closer to 90%
WWTI, Florida is a huge sandbar in the Atlantic. Without A/C you would flee, just like everybody else. Before the 20th century, Florida was pretty much uninhabited for a reason.
Right WhoKnewIt- you would be living on the high until the next Hurricane came in. Then you would be wishing the govt was still around to save your ass. It really annoys me when smart asses like you come out tooting your horn about how “smart” you are and everyone else is “stupid”. Just like the other people who talk about how they are cocked, locked and ready to rock. They’ll blow away any sumabitch that tries to kick in their door…. Buncha blowhards you are. (Not EVERYONE here, just the annoying “I feel the need to brag” retards.)
Being prepared and informed does not mean we go around with a frown on our face. It just means we like to have a ‘heads up’ to the storms (weather related or economic) headed our way.
“A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.”
Proverbs 22:3
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Benjamin Franklin
Acid, BRAVO! One of your best posts ever! Keep them coming.
KY Mom, thanks for that. I was already familiar with it and everything in it is true.
I can sum all of that up in two similar statements.
~Life is what you make it.
~To predict the future, you need to create it.
I’m printing this out! It’s great!
Nothing new, W. Bush did this same thing, giving money to us, disguised as a stimulus package, during his Presidency. Didn’t work then and won’t work now. You people make yourselves dependent upon the ptb and your fall is richly deserved poverty.
Ill believe it when the cash is in my hand, of course it will most likely be accompanied by massive hyperinflation,
Didn’t G.W. already do this early in his presidency? I seem to remember getting $600 of the budget surplus. Didn’t work out well then.
No one said it will work. It will delay the inevitable. Its part of the kicking the can down the road process. When this doesn’t work took out because its the last straw.
“Its not the end. Its not the beginning of the end. It is however the end of the beginning”.
Winston Churchill
I never expect to get a deposit into my bank account that I didn’t put there myself, and getting a extra tax return is just silly to even give it a thought. In today’s world if any of those things happen; two thoughts 1. they have the wrong person, or 2. we all know they give with one hand and take back with the other so what do they want this time.
I never expect something for nothing and then I won’t ever be disappointed.
Back to sitting by the wood stove and my knitting very cold in our cabin this morning.
Wow. Like KF just said I’ll believe it when I see it.
This seems like literally the last thing in the world that would happen. In fact I would bet my rental home that taxes don’t go down this year and the irs will take money OUT of your account before they would ever ever ever ever think about putting money n your account. The irs exists to bankrupt this nation period.
Slow Death to them all
I would even go so far as to predict that the freakin feds do a one off tax on all property, they have had record intake from taxes and still manage to run hundreds of billions in beficit spending.
State governments and local governments are raising taxes, the time approaches, either people need to wake the hell up and shut this crap down or bend over
They could literally confiscate the wealth of the 1%, and run the government for about a week, maybe two weeks.
The only reason the left wants to tax the rich is so they can give it away for votes and power. They will squander it, just like the other side would.
They will never balance the budget. They will never pay off the debt.
Where I live there has been an uptick in counterfeit money.
Relax, it’s ALL counterfeit money. Only question is; can you find someone to take it?
The best counterfeit money I ever saw was a 5 dollar bill that had the ink bleached off. It was then reprinted with a $100 bill.
The stupid clerk looked at the water mark and approved the sale. The bill was then later caught by the electronic examination machine.
The clerk was too stupid to know the difference between Lincoln and Franklin.
Concerning the Fed, the article states “…they’ve failed to bring prosperity to anyone but their inside coterie of rich friends and big client banks.”
You mean there was somebody ELSE who was supposed to prosper?
Nahhh… didn’t think so.
By the way, Dictionary dot com defines ‘coterie’ as:
..a group of people who associate closely,
..an exclusive group,
..a clique
..or a group of prairie dogs occupying a communal burrow.
I’m not sure it’s fair to the prairie dogs to associate them with bankers, though. Even dogs have standards.
A coterie of Prairie Dogs, haven’t heard the expression before. Now I’m picturing a group of plump little rodents standing around socializing about the events of the day, top hats and vests all around.
If this happened, which it has in the past, I would take the money and pay down my small mortgage by whatever amount it happened to be. That said, I will pay my mortgage off anyway. The last piece of debt and almost done. Next, off grid cabin. Or should I say… off gridable. My property is already on grid. No matter what these criminals do, I am moving forward to my own goals.
By the way, the $1 quadrillion in derivatives is flipping government debt around just like the banksters flipped mortgage debt until they had to illegally foreclose 4.1 million homes in the US to cover their criminal activity. These criminal activities have once again been given the go ahead by the Republican bailout already shoved through by Boehner. Obama had to push the Democratic Senators a bit. Obama signed. American taxpayers holding the bag.
By the way, the last giveaway was tied to filing your income tax returns and an amnesty on prosecution. Non-filing has reached epidemic proportions.
“18. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.”
If it doesn’t leave you crippled and mentally impaired.
you know, my dad used to say “Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.”….but that was BEFORE the accident.
Nobody seems to consider that all the people that receive food stamps,welfare,ssi,ss or any other aid would have to report any money they receive and that amount would be deducted from there monthly payment therefore hurting them in the long run. Lets say I was to receive $2000. and because I get $700. a month for disability therefore I would not receive a payment for 2 months and the 3rd month I would get $100. this would hurt me more than help me.
Lots of lazy sheep work like hell to get on disability. Oh got the sniffles and stiff back. You qualify.. I know a lot of oeople in my area living EBT card to EBT card monthly. And they still complain they have no food. But smoke a few packs of coffin nails a day. Go figure. They will soon be very screwed.
~WWTI..
Anonymous I agree with you there are a lot and I mean a lot of free-loaders out there. I myself suffered 3 major back injuries while working, so lumping all legitimate injured people together is very narrow minded. As the old saying goes we see in others what we dislike in ourselves.
Check your math.
How does getting $600, or $100, hurt you?
Is this like reducing next year’s budget increase and calling it a budget cut?
Its the whole system,section 8 housing says for the months I don’t receive benefits I must make full rent payments that changes rent from 145 to 645 they even tie in all med bills and med’s as well as electric and phone(I have no obummer phone or mobile phone just a land line)that is how they they keep us from getting ahead, currently I’m left with 40 bucks a month to stock food and water for my wife and I plus our 2 kids and 2 grand kids that I know will be knocking on our door when shtf as they don’t believe in what is coming. Please don’t get me wrong I am a survivor and have been planning for quite awhile and we are prepared to share with them and the neighbors who are in there 80’s and in the same boat we are. I also don’t believe the gov. will bail out the people but if they did it would cause a lot faster collapse in this area of finance. Getting old can be tough but doing it with a broken back makes it a little tougher no worries though Jesus is in control.
OK, that wasn’t clear from your first post.
Forty bucks won’t feed 2 people for a month, what are you doing for grits and groceries?
You’ve heard the saying about the fat lady singing. Well I guarantee the magicians have picked up the microphone.
They won’t do this for the following reasons:
1) They have already corn-holed the middle class and ballooned the population not paying tax (because they are unemployed) and put them on benefits.
2) They would not trust giving money to this dependency class: what do you think they will do with the money? They certainly will not save it or create jobs/businesses with it: they will get high or get drunk. Public disorder would be the problem.
3) They have the population where they want them: this is about creating a ready-force of population that can be driven into conscripted service (military, munitions, farms, etc.). Many of the Muslims are actually being brought in to be cannon fodder for the coming war. It will be one of the few things that will put a smile on your face, watching these suckers get conscripted and shipped back to the ME to fight.
4) The stimulus will come in the form of government spending. It will be an epic push to switch the economy to alternative energies and to a war footing for WWIII.
Uh, Frank….on your second point: They give away billions every year about this time to the dependent class in the form of “earned income credit”…..but you are right….it flows thru their hands like water…which it was designed to do. Increase the velocity of money….free money to them.
Over our holiday to honor a communist, the banks in western Europe are announcing big trouble. France, Spain, and Portugal. Probably more. Probably all of them. It begins. China is in big trouble. USA is in bigger trouble. Only difference is China has bought 100’s of tons of gold.
Do you think being forced to sit in the back of a bus was an American value?
It made the White people safer. And that’s ok with me.
thanks for the info but as far as enrolling to read the next part? can’t afford it, Old guy on SS
Never give money to anyone who is going to tell you what you already know.
Hyperinflation, here we come!
Got silver,gold,beans,bullets,and band aids?
Last chance.
three most important prepping metals:
gold, silver, and lead.
Baltic DRy Index currently 373
When the Govt gives away money, it’s time to buy extra TP
Click here to read Part 2 of this report (free executive summary, enrollment required for full access)
Now there’s the Hook.
Hahahahaha! Don’t miss out.
Uncle Okie’s Advice Column
Counseling for the Lovelorn, The Hysterical and the Broke
.
Our first letter comes from Albuquerque–
Dear okie,
Last year, while walking downtown, I found a quarter laying on the sidewalk. I picked it up, pocketed it and went on my merry way. Unbeknownst to me, my neighbor, a CPA who works for the IRS, saw me pick it up.
He sent an alert to the division manager where my tax return was filed, along with a copy of his cell phone video showing me with the quarter.
Then, three months later, while wondering why I hadn’t received my puny little refund, I received a letter from the tax goons. They said I hadn’t reported all my income and an amended return would be necessary. They even mentioned the quarter. (I’d forgotten all about it)
So, I dutifully refiled. Only problem was, that quarter put my yearly gross income into the next higher bracket (by 13 cents!).
Now, instead of a small refund, the IRS says I OWE them $238.55! I’d hire a lawyer to fight these rascals, but that would cost even more. I’m really frustrated over this whole thing!
Help, okie, what do I do!?
Signed, In a Quandary Over A Quarter
.
.
Dear Quandary,
We all know you can’t fight the IRS. Have you ever considered relocating to South America? Now might be the time.
Or, go before some court official, like a judge or assistant DA or whatever, and file an affidavit stating that you also LOST a quarter during that same tax year. Then, it’ll all even out. Send a copy to the IRS and see if they’ll buy it.
Or, just pay the darned thieves the extra $238 and get on with life.
Now, on to the more important item. How are you going to deal with your neighbor the Certified Public Asshole? People like him obviously need to be dealt with. One suggestion, (not that I’m advising you do this) might be to hire the best hacker in town and plant some kiddie porn, terrorist threats and other assorted nasties on his home computer.
I lived in Albuquerque back in the ’80s and there is one other solution. Not that I would know first hand, but there are supposedly some great places to bury a body nearby. (Try the foothills just east of Tramway Blvd.) Best of luck, Quandry. Stay in touch.
Our next letter comes from 9 year-old Jimmy who lives in New Orleans.
Dear Mr. Okie,
I am writing to you because our teacher, Mrs. Curmudgeon, says we have to write to somebody. I’m in third grade and I guess this is so we can learn how to write letters or something, I don’t really know.
Anyway, I only have a small problem. It’s my baby brother Richie. He gets all the attention and I never get any. Unless something gets broken, or lost, or somebody needs to get yelled at. Then I get too much attention.
Richie is two years old and I’m nine. Mom says he’s too little to play most of the big boy games I want to play. And when I try to play his little baby games… well, they are soooo boring!
What can I do, Mr. Okie?
Signed,
Always in trouble.
.
Dear Always,
Have you ever seen those commercials on tv late at night? The ones where people are wanting to adopt children? Maybe you could hook Richie up with some nice new parents. Then you’d have the entire house to yourself.
Plus, think of all the other benefits. All the elbow room you’ll ever need in the back of the SUV. DOUBLE the normal allowance. Watching Bugs Bunny instead of boring old veggie tales. The list is endless.
However, I must caution you, you probably shouldn’t do this without your parents knowledge and consent. (if you don’t know what knowledge and consent means, that’s okay. we all struggle with big words sometimes)
And, this is important, if you send him to his terrific new home in a cardboard box, be sure and punch plenty of air holes in it. Also, you should probably pay the extra fee and send him FedEx. That way, he’ll be out before he starts cramping up. Glad I could help, Always. Good luck.
SO: that was funny! I have a little book put together by my grandmother and she used to have similar articles, poems, and quips.
Over by 13 cents ? Nah….if the author actually filled out his own tax forms he’d know you round up or down to the nearest buck at 50 cents. The breakpoints for increase or decrease of tax bracket is in whole dollars….no pennies.
Nice story, but bullshit.
Funny story. Rounding is really a pretty recent policy.
In an office I worked in, one of the guys there had a check from the IRS tacked to his wall, the check was for $39 cents. It cost about $100 for the IRS to process the refund and cut the check.
I got one once for something like $2, I tacked mine up, too, for a while, then someone told me it would be void in a couple of weeks, so I deposited it. Two bucks is two bucks, you know.
So tell me. Is this shit that is supposed to happen another five years down the road?
We all have been looking at the Dow, Nekkie, DAX. Oil, Gold, BDX, Interest Rates, National Debt, Derivatives, Bonds and so forth. Most of it looks like warmed over death.
Like Old Nam Vet says, buy more T.P.
Francois Hollande Admits Socialist Policies Failed, Declares “Economic State Of Emergency”
“Remember when showing ‘progress’ in Europe was as simple as pointing to your high stock market or low bond yields to “prove” everything is awesome.
Well for Francois Hollande, the days of hiding behind manipulated data are over and the open kimono reveals a nation whose stability is wracked by record unemployment.”
“In a desperate-for-re-election speech today, socialist leader Hollande admitted his policies needed reform and that France is an economic “state of emergency.”
Zerohedge
Direct link…
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-18/francois-hollande-admits-socialist-policies-failed-declares-economic-state-emergency
Thanks for the link. I read the article. Apparently there are 600,000 more unemployed people in France so this is the solution: “Under the plan, which takes effect immediately, companies with fewer than 250 workers will receive a €2,000 payout for hiring youths and unemployed people for contracts lasting more than six months at salaries below 1.3 times the minimum wage. After two years, the subsidy will become permanent in the form of a decrease in social security charges. The tax breaks previously announced will become permanent beyond 2017, he said.”
Bribery using other people’s money. What could possibly go wrong? /sarc off
What!!! The French work? I don’t think so.
So 600,000 workers, or more, will earn social security benefits while paying decreased taxes. That’s really kicking the can down the road.
We did the same thing here, that 2% cut in your SS taxes is exactly the same idea.
The Federal Reserve knows exactly what they are doing. Just as they did on Jekyll Island in 1913. They’re moves are carefully crafted.
…For their gain.
All the bankers are going to nestled in their bunkers while we sit with Cheech and Chong in their van going up in smoke.
The country is headed to the toilet so they might as well print out and give everyone $10,000.
At least we can all say we had money in our pockets before the SHTF!
By the way I’m not kidding around.
The Borders are open so the FED has an excuse to add money to the money supply every time a body falls across the Border.
That practice will not solve our problems so they might as well spread a little of the cash around before we hit bottom.
I know some of you think that idea is nuts, but what if we bought food and silver with our FRN?
If you knew in six months that you would purposefully default on all your credit cards, what would you do?
Would you try to pay them all off?
Would you do nothing?
Would you run up the credit to it’s maximum before the default?
This is what I think the federal government is doing. 20 trillion in debt up from 9 trillion just 7 years ago. The Republicans did not blink when they passed the budget a couple of months ago. They added 1.1 Trillion to the debt and nobody cared.
I think they are running up the debt just before the default.
Bullshit.
They’ll never give you a damned dime, even if that dime is worth 1/100th of a cent.
Get real.
Yet, as pointed out above, we did get a ‘refund’ during BushI years.
I didn’t get one.
You have file for income taxes first. I bet you haven’t paid taxes in years. The government probably thinks you are dead.
I have filed every single year since the early 1970s. I even have to pay taxes now after more than 10 years out of work because the people for whom I do side jobs file 1099s.
Perhaps you are the one not paying taxes.
We waited patiently for our check from Bush, but never received it.
I’ll take every penny they will give me. Then turn it into silver.
Remember back when… @55 yrs old you could start collecting Social Security?
By the rime I hit 62.5 ys old to collect, they will bump it up to 70. Just saying.. watch.
~WWTI..
By the time I hit 62.5 they will bump it up to 150. Just saying.
I mean hey that would be great and all. It sure saved my parents’ bacon.
If it happens I’ll be really happy. I’m not planning on it let’s put it that way.
Bring it on. I’ll take BACK MY TAX money and while the gibsmedat’s are buying sneakers and TV’s I’ll flip it over to my land and into gold.
Getting more gold this week, more food this week and more silver is on the way.
All rifles are sighted in and cleaned and go mags filled.
PLENTY of firewood and we’ve got sprouts going now too.
Helicopter me some muuunnnyyy Auntie Yellen!!! Yippeee!!!
I’m waiting for those inflated dollars so I can pay my house off with a zillion dollar bill …. and ask for change! 🙂
You will get screwed.
The FEDs will pass a law that says for every 1 dollar owed the new rate of exchange on the mortgage will be 10 dollars owed.
So your $150,000 mortgage will now be $1.5 million.
Latin America and Zimbabwe have been doing that for decades.
10,000 Old Pesos equal 1 Neuvo Peso. I think Argentina has gone through about six different currencies in the last 75 years. Pesos, Pesos Argentino, Neuvo Pesos, a couple of others, then finally back to Pesos.
Zimbabwe just dropped the zeros off their trillion dollar bills. The money was still worthless.
Seen on tv other day a new implant that goes under the skin it works as a debit card works or charge card where you just hold it up to the reader to pay all i could say is omg it was round and looked like one of the birth control implants that go under your skin it is in trial use now but showed a guy who was participating swipe his hand and walk off with his coffee its here like it or not now it wouldent be far fetched for tptb gov to give you 10k with the string attached to convert to cashless and take the implant due to the elimination of cash to control terrorism drugs crime theft identity ect. And there is a reason the gov gives phones to the ones on welfare so that every one could have a e reader and eliminate cash and every transaction buy or sell can be monitored im still haveing a hard time absorbing what i seen
The biggest mistake the Feds made was in 2008 when they went the bailout route rather than the S & L good bank/bad bank wind-down process. If they would have done that we would not have, today, five TBTF banks that are actually insurance companies underwriting credit default/derivative insurance while using depositor accounts and the FDIC to backstop their bad insurance bets. For the banks, it’s a juicy business because the premiums are free profit as long as their insurance bets don’t blow up.
As far as “printing money” to throw it at Main Street goes, it’s the least harmful thing they can do. Personally, I’d like to see that money come in the form of lifetime buyouts of the unemployment system.
How would it work? If you have worked and have social security credits to your name, you would be eligible for a 400-week lifetime buyout of unemployment benefits; first thing you do is file a claim with your state to find out what your benefit rate is. If you have 40 credits to your name, you would be eligible for a 100% buyout. If not, it’s based on a sliding scale of how many credits you have. If you have 32 credits, you would be eligible to collect 80% of the 400-week lump sum.
Not only does this put money into the hands of people who earned it and pay the bills in this country, it eliminates one of the biggest rat-holes in state government, namely state employees who “work” at the unemployment office. In my state, the people who are supposed to answer the phones “work” 25 hours per week, get paid $72k per year, and are eligible for full pension and benefits. Get rid of this dead weight and you would see an immediate improvement in state budgets.
As a follow-up step in the right direction, change Chapter 7 to allow for a quick and immediate discharge of all student loan debt. This is unsecured debt with zero underlying assets fabricated by the same people who caused 2008 by fabricating mortgages to people who never should have gotten approved, including illegal immigrants.
It was under skin between his thumb and index finger
Implants?
Implant THIS!!
For Main Street Banks…
More End Time News At:
http://www.shininginthedark.com/?page_id=4526
Think about it then the ones who dont go along with the program must have something to hide or at least thats how they would portray them its a bad road we are on and an emp would be good in that aspect but thats not gonna happen cus its ment to happen thats why it was written and we were warned about the end times and tribulation may be thats why they cast their silver and gold into the streets cant do any thing with it
No paying any property tax hmmmm
To those who are lusting for an economic collapse; it won’t be for quite awhile (sorry). We don’t have the power, the people who have the money or get the money have the power. They can bail out the banks, or Wall Street, or state/local gov’t., or major corporations, or bond holders, or any other entity. And they will again and again. Besides, who is going to stop them? The people are sheeple. They will be kept distracted with gov’t handouts and social media, and they’re dumb anyway. The worst that will happen are the posts written on this web site. There is not enough of us.
TPTB are still concentrating more and more vast wealth and power, life is still good for them, there is no point for them to end the party. So what if the BDI is down, or the market is down, or there is record debt, or whatever. You are interpreting these things as if the end is near.
Maybe for us, but not for them. Every country in the world has income inequality, some worse than ours, I don’t see mass global upheaval. Things will get much, much worse, and still little to nothing will be done about it. The only exception is when those on public assistance stop getting the goodies and start coming for our stuff.
Stop wishing for collapse, it doesn’t matter, the ones who decide will never be touched by it anyway. In less than a generation you, your families and relatives, friends, neighbors, and everyone you know will be existing in a third-world status of general deprivation. The best we can do is to separate ourselves from the system which keeps us captive, move to an area where one can form a community and basically live as well as possible with like-minded persons. Get real folks.
I agree: what counts is not your comfort (they do not care). What counts are the networks at the top that keep the money and power there. And those networks are thriving. I have the privilege of being able to live in both the world of the elites and to regularly visit my mom’s suck-ass community where pretty well everyone is on some government assistance and the area is being flooded with migrants. The elites are a blast: they party very well, they eat very well, the women are mind-blowing – genetically the best – the clothing is finely tailored, it goes on. But for the rest? They are nowhere close to putting together any intelligent social unrest.
There is no solidarity for one. About 10 years ago, the quantity of Africans and Muslims surged upwards. The local poor whites have no connection with these people nor any connection or resonance. The chances of them getting together to storm the government is zero, a pure joke. They would sooner fight with each other before that.
The only wild cards that count are the behavior of other countries and their elites. They dictate the terms of the future.
Nice prediction, but just a prediction.
QE for John Q Public ?
Will we see bailouts for the average Joe ?
Possibly.
This has one advantage that the good author touched upon.
By giving the American public a bailout (tax credit, free money etc.), the Rothschild-Khazarian-Mega-Felon-Mafioso gives all of us a taste of their potent narcotic: Money Printing.
These Mega-Felons are now thoroughly addicted to this drug: FEDERAL RESERVE OPEN MARKET OPERATIONS.
If these Khazarian-Mega-Felons can get the American public to drink from this contaminated nectar, then all of the TRILLIONS of dollars given to the Mega-Felon Khazars will be forgotten by the idiotic public.
The public will “forget” about the $23 TRILLION in Zero interest rate loans given to the shareholders of the FEDERAL RESERVE.
NO ONE EVEN KNOWS ABOUT THAT FRAUD !
I made two back to back posts here the day this article appeared. They both are gone when they were on the page. Am I being censored? This is the first I’ve seen this happen on this site.
I got that Bush rebate back in the day. I gave half to charity and the other half got stolen. True story.
Inflation and the growing debt issue is definitely the biggest issue I see in this country when it comes to SHTF. My only question is how much longer can this last before it really does HTF?
TPTB will direct you into CyberCash or some such digital money, as they are fixated on becoming a cashless economy…that is the carrot-on-a-stick give-away to Main-Street the article hints at…
best to stay clear of converting your Bank Account holdings into this Federal-digital money as there will be a EMP attack on that digital coins you have in that cyber bank account which will be wiped out just as clean as the computer-cloud is swept away on a clear skies day
beware the tricks & schemes of the well heeled elites