Charlie McGrath argues that we are One Nation Under Duress and makes some excellent points for why our corrupt political system is an enabler for Wall Street, why our economy is going down the tubes, and how the global trade war is getting into full swing:
The only people that win in this current system is Wall Street. Period.
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All you need to do is look at who’s winning right now, who’s winning in this country right now. Are you winning? Are you better off than you were two years ago, four years ago, six, eight years ago. Are you better off in this system that we have now? The answer is absolutely not. Even if you don’t know it. Even if you’re making the exact same amount of money you made last year. Even if you’re making more than you were last year, the value of your money has been eroded. The value of your future potential has been stolen from you in the form of quantitative easing and in the form of bailouts.
We are on the precipice of the world turning their back on the U.S.
If you don’t believe me, read the IMF story. It points out exactly what a lot of people have been saying, which is the Western economies are in depression – plain and simple. There’s no recovery. There’s no “V” shape or “W” shape. There is only despair heading down the road.
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You’ve got to understand. This isn’t for you. This isn’t for your future. It is for corporatocracy’s future. They’re going to pass laws and legislation that benefit them, while on the other hand telling you a pack of lies.
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Consmer spending habits are starting to tick back up because people are buying the lies that we can spend our way out of this…
…Just when you feel safe, just when you think that something is happening good in this economy is when the bottom is going to fall out and reality is going to smack you in the face like a ten pound sledgehammer. And I’m telling you something – it’s coming soon. There’s no more papering it over.
At the risk of sounding like doom and gloomers, we agree with Charlie’s assessment and believe we are now within the greatest depression. This is going to be one for the history books. In the early 1930’s, no one realized they were in a depression, especially since government officials and influential businessmen were telling the populace that everything was o.k. and the economy was in recovery. The same is true today, and we fear that this time is going to be much worse. We’re no longer a creditor nation like we were in the 30’s. We are no longer a producer. We are no longer on the gold standard.
Our world is one that was driven by excessive consumption and leverage. Leverage not just at the highest levels of finance – but down to the individual spender. We leveraged our homes at 100%, our cars, our kitchen appliances, vacations and anything else for which banks would give us credit. Now it’s time to pay the piper.
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thanks for being a voice of truth, Charlie.
Everyone needs to PAY ATTENTION.
Time grows short. Prepare NOW.
Store food, silver, and get a colloidal silver generator.
Sun Oven, propane, whatever you can get to cook food and have some electricity and light if we have power shut-downs.
HURRY!!
You are being played. Wall Street didn’t cause this problem and lack of government policies didn’t cause it. The housing bubble is 100% the fault of a handful of liberal senators who in 1999 forced Freddie Mac and Gennie Mae to make no money down loans.  The country’s major problem other then the housing bubble and the deep recession it created is our national debt. Liberal Politicians and their “welfare” constituency caused that problem. Honest people have been telling us for years that we cannot keep borrowing money and handing it out to anyone who will vote for you. We have been asleep while the looney left destroyed our country. Blaming Wall Street is the idea that the Looney Left have come up with to divert the attention from them. ÂÂ
Nah….Wall St didn’t have anything to do with bundling up mountains of crap mortgages into “securities”, getting the credit rating agencies to rate them triple A and then sell that crap to retirement funds and investors world wide. ÂÂ
Nothing to see here, folks…..move along.
Why debate the fraud and its repercussions when it is so much better to separate yourself from it and learn to take care of yourself?
The bankers and governments can only steal what you give them access to.  All they want is their bank notes back from those who have yet to discover their true value. Those who already know what they are worth will have little to offer.ÂÂ
Get your “money” out of the way before the hammer falls. As Peter Schiff said, “the box of Uncle Bens rice in my cabinet has done better than the DOW”. And neither of the thieving corporations want your box of rice.
Put your money into what you need and what the crooks don’t want and you will be fine.
Hey TN Andy, I live in the Nashville area (north of). Maybe we will hook up on the way out of town when TSHTF.
I’ve seen Charlie’s vids, he needs to smoke a joint and relax.
I already left town…..about 25 years ago….ahahahaaaaa.ÂÂ
In the mountains of East TN near the NC line.
Although I’m an avid reader of this site, I don’t typically post but I just have to respond to “GoneWithTheWind” with regards to the blame game. The problems the country is facing are so far from a “right/left” issue – that is one of the basic distractions keeping us from coming up with viable solution (probably too late at this point). An excellent source is “The Daily Bell” website that provides excellent analysis of social/political themes of the elites to distract us from the real cause of 90% of our ills – the Federal Reserve and fractional reserve banking. They keep throwing false issues — left, right, black, white, immigration, climate disruption, etc that we’re too busy to realize our liberty was highjacked in 1913 and our “money” has been losing value ever since. If you are an avid reader of this site, I’d have thought you’d have a clear understanding of that by now. Perhaps go back and read some stuff from the archives.
I was going to respond to GoneWithTheWind but looks like Will beat me to it!
Seriously – the looney left? Are you a Bill O’Reilly fan? The only thing looney is the fact that we elect the same party to office every 2 years yet we give them 2 different names.
AND somehow expect different results. The very definition of insanity.
Comments…..
“Atlas Shrugged” has so many contrasts with today and what’s happening; if nothing changes for us, in 10 years, the book will be our history.
“From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs” is pure collectivism and I ain’t gonna like it.
The “you have a choice” voting game is one of the most dearly held beliefs in the hearts of the uninformed masses. This delusion (I vote You save me) is all they have left now that their world is falling apart. Savvy observers see this and expect political activity to increase and to become more radical. There were a few good senators back in Rome 2000 years ago but they couldn’t stem the tide of history either.
I would advise anyone to read up on dark ages theory, and read up on the 500 year civilization cycle. Up until this point it was all just fireside nostalgia. But from my reading of the origins of the Spanish empire, the basis of our western Christian empire, we are now at 500 years.
On top of this, dark ages theory, which is based on archaeological and written records, points to a decline time-frame of 50~100 years (now probably in our history) and a final violent collapse which only takes about 10 years. These collapses have many aspects but food scarcity and political disintegration are at the top of the list.
Sorry for the long winded post again, but 10 years for total collapse? That’s the history of civilization I’m afraid.
Gods Creation
October 5th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Hey there….I loved 20 miles north of Nashville for 57 years…Imoved to the southern Ky state line now..or about 20 miles in.
Howdy!
Comments…..
Listen to wooba…it’s past our time and where do you think we are on this scale?? I’m guessing we’re at apathy slipping into dependency.
The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been two hundred years.
These nations have progressed through this sequence:
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From bondage to spiritual faith;
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From spiritual faith to great courage;
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From courage to liberty;
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From liberty to abundance;
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From abundance to selfishness;
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From selfishness to complacency;
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From complacency to apathy;
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From apathy to dependence;
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From dependency back again into bondage.
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—Sir Alex Fraser Tyler: (1742-1813) Scottish jurist and historian
Comments….. you’ll be able to get along fine in the coming years, as long as you can live as if you’re on an episode of “Little House On The Prairie”.ÂÂ
       As each day goes by, we are getting more and more indications that things are about to change like we’ve never experienced before. Some of the worst case scenerios seem to be more likely. The end result of our governments’ policy can’t end but in a bad way.
    When the SHTF, we will have millions standing around wondering when the government is going to give them their next handout. it won’t end well.
    your time to act is so very short now. Do what you will, because very soon, the choices will be elimanated by circumstances. Good luck.
A pretty acurate cycle there JJ.ÂÂ
This is interesting, everyone has a thought on where we are headed as a nation. Nobody on this site really knows, but we all have an opinion on where we are headed and a rough timeframe. We live in a free country (allegedly), have free will and yet we are not the captain of our own ship. We are waiting for a group of people, we have never met, to grant us the right to live a life in the “pursuit of happiness”. Does freedom exist for someone who does not choose their own road??
Comments…..@sd mule,
 I also thought we lived in a free country. We don’t really, and so many of the freedoms we take for granted are flying out the window daily.
    I have always thought we have the constitution to protect us, but the powers that be simply ignore it, and do what they want anyway. if you load the judicial system with a bunch of leftist loonies, then you know longer have the constitution to protect you.
    The many new laws being talked about that have been passed in the healthcare bill, and other horrendous bills, are just coming to the light of day. Now these idiot lemmings who blindly voted for this crap are finally finding out whats in this crap they voted for. We can only hope they pay the ultimate price, and never see public office again.
   There is a new terminology being used that everyone will soon be forced to get used to. It’s called, “the new normal”. Very appropriate, as very soon, nothing will ever be the same as it has been. We will all be subject to everything new. Some of it will be brought about by blindly accepting whatever the government dishes out, and some of it will come about through alternative methods. The alternative methods could get interesting.
     So, get used to the “new normal”, as it will be coming to a theater near you soon.
Things are really getting frenetic now, aren’t they? But the best advice is exactly what was already said in the post above. Step away from the distraction of parties. You will argue that nonsense till the cows come home, and you will be now better off for it. And I might add, when you really need to be focusing on your own situation.
I REALLY hope you’re not arguing the political issues while still having cash in the bank, taking government dole bennies, and without your metals, food and water at home. Focus on YOURSELF right now. The wheels are entirely likely to fall off this season. Japan has dropped it’s interest rates to 0%, which makes the currency war in full bloom. A SERIOUS short swueexe on metals may hit before this week is out! As investors take physical delivery against the greatly imbalanced paper they’ve been sold in ETFs. It’s happening now, all around us. Take care of YOURSELF now.
As a final note, silver just went up 4.5% just today! A full friggin’ dollar in a single day! And we ain’t seen nothin’ yet! A friend of mine says, “When the SHTF, people won’t be accepting metals. You can’t eat them!” I love the guy, but that’s plain, unadulterated ignorance. It has been widely accepted for 5,000+ years without fail. Why would that end now against worthless paper? Central Banks are gathering it up all across the globe. Why would they do that if it had no value?
Don’t jump ahead to Mad Max type-shit. Buy your silver, and for Cripe sakes, sell it back after the new year if you get panicked, back into the toilet paper FRNs, and make a bundle. Is that so bad? Hang on longer, and have enough to buy up all the land you ever wanted.
The time is now. Don’t freak. Just get to work on this.
Good luck all.
Price volatility is here to stay because no one has a clue what things are really worth anymore. What’s food really worth? What’s silver worth when traders can print up endless derivatives and options? What’s a home worth when you can buy it on credit at 4% interest? Even after these paper games have ended it will be quite a while before prices stabilize to their intrinsic values. The entire process hindered at every turn by false ideas and past guidelines.
That is why it’s smart for us little players to stock up on the things we will need for the next 10 years or longer and stock up on things that will be in high demand but are currently under priced.
I don’t mean hand tools either. Everyone has a shed full of tools that hardly get used, if they even know how to use them. But look at solar panels! Quality Chinese panels are now available at a third the traditional cost. With oil going ever higher and the Chinese currency possibly at its lowest value ever These are a great buying opportunity. Everyone will want electricity generation in the future and very few people currently have this capability in their own hands. I don’t worry about bulk storage batteries, they are and always will be expensive low tech items, but things like solar panels are very hi-tech, relying on high grade silicone in large quantities.
They also use silver for efficiency, which is the world’s best electrical conductor BTW. This is one of the main reasons I stockpile silver.
It may not yet end with Mad Max so cover the alternatives too.
Comments…..@ dennis
excellent post. we all need to concentrate on the matters at hand. All politics is a distraction right now. I believe that in a short time, we will all be going, ‘how could I have been worried about this or that’, as our little part of the world falls off the edge. Our lives are going to be forever changed very soon, and I think many aware people sense the same thing happening. Our so called leaders have let the foxes guard the hen house for too long. The government is NOT here to help you. whatever happens, you’ll be on your own very quickly.
    I tend to think things will eventually go very bad, once all the economic factors come into play. it takes a while for all the natural economic factors to take hold, but once things get rolling, the speed at which the SHTF will dumbfound people. I truly believe that people will be in total shock, and wonder how our leaders did this to us. it’s no wonder to me.
    Do what you will, as time is very short. Good luck.
That is excellent advice wooba, regarding electricity generation. May I add only that the knowledge to install such systems will also be invaluable. You may not possess solar panels, but if you know how to install them into a off-grid system your expertise may allow for general barter and/or payment in return. Same goes for general electricity knowledge, plumbing, and heating systems.
This  massive mortgage fraud via  MBS, CDO, SIVs, along with messed up REMCs  is going to bring the whole system down and quickly.  Can you say “Bank holiday?”  TPTB have f#cked the nation,  and they are now, actively buying gold in large quantities.
The seriousness of this news, is just now becoming widespread knowledge.  Many states are stopping foreclosures,  rendering the “asset” of the banks void and worthless.  ÂÂ
Every pension fund in the USA, are stuffed full of these now or soon to be worthless MBSs.   Look for Fed/Banksters to nationalize all the pensions and 401ks and IRAs,  for “your protection”
This may very well be the “Black Swan”  that will collapse our system, along with the world’s.
Watch the news….this can’t be kept quite any longer………..Christmas is likely to be very scary.
got gold?
Excellent point, ‘LostinMissouri’!
What astonishes me, is that the MSM all keep speaking in vague terms about ‘incomplete paperwork’. Uhhh…Hardly. It’s so much worse than many know!
During the uber-malfeasance of the banks back in the day, they started bundling up CDOs, or collatoralized debt obligations. Bundling bits and pieces of this mortgage and that as a ‘newly created’ Frankenstein mish-mosh of investments, sold to one party, to the next, and to the next. Selling paper, with no value whatsoever, and on and on it went.
Last year, in a court case, one gentleman refused to accept the bank’s decision to foreclose on him UNTIL that bank procured the deed to the property. Well guess what? They’ve never been asked that before, and NO ONE BANK now owns the deed to these properties! No deed, no foreclosure. The courts saw it this guy’s way!
This in turn, set up a WAVE of homeowners demanding to see their deeds first. Banks can’t do it! They’ve been sliced and diced into thousands of pieces!
So, imagine where this leaves us today if no bank can procure the deeds to these properties, and homeowners are hip to the law!
Good times, people. Good times! And you think the mainstream doesn’t know this? Incomplete paperwork you say? The understatement of the century!
A crash is most certainly coming. Buckle up. This is not a quiet, meandering malaise. This is not even the Japan of the past two decades. I’m not here to get political, but depending on what sources of media you follow, you may be told that we’re ‘slowing climbing out of this’. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are on the precipice. We’ve heard that before, I know. A lot, actually. But, things are accelerating now, no doubt.
Three examples of why. Just three:
1. The media will speak of ‘jobs gained this month for the ______ month in a row. They will tell you the 10,000 or so jobs we picked up, but not the other 390,000 or so that we lost. Net jobs: -380,000. Don’t you think that’s an important part of the equation? This is why people are in the dark, and continue to speak of recovery. Anything less than full reporting of such numbers is spin and deceit.
2. Precious metals are going through the roof. Not a bubble. Prices aren’t coming down until confidence in our system resumes. And that, I think we agree, is not in the cards in the foreseeable future! People are losing faith in the currency (as is the world), and government itself. And before this week is done, banks that have been selling gold and silver ETFs (or, paper gold and silver) are about to have to make good on physical delivery, as so MANY people are now calling for possession of their metals, currently in certificate form. Problem is, they’ve been selling the paper at 100:1 as compared to the actual physical they have! That means, very soon, starting this week, ‘someone’ is going to have to pay out on this. And in the end, 99 out of 100 people are NOT going to get their metals! How do you think that will go over with investors? It’s called a short squeeze, and today’s silver and gold performances suggest its already under way!
3. For anyone that thinks the stock market is actually going up, as has been so heavily touted on news reports, is simply deceiving themselves, or allowing themselves to be deceived by state run media. Forget the ‘greatest stock increases in 70 years’ and all that nonsense lately. You must know, the Fed is buying US treasuries (our own debt) from the banks with the agreement that those same banks put the money into the stock market! Up to 10 billion a week is being pumped into this market by our government. The average investor has long since gone! Want proof? Just the other day, 10 billion pumped into only a handful of S&P companies, and nothing else! All money went into Apple, Netflix, and Amazon to name a few. That will tell you, this system is about to crash. The games are spinning out of control. And more government money (or POMO, as its referred), is going in at this very moment. Can you really have monster stock increases, and all-time highs in metals? Seriously? Concerned investors leave one for the other. You cannot have HIGHS in both without manipulation and interventions from some other party (i.e. the Fed). And just before an election? C’mon, we are not that stupid. But they think we are!
If you deny all of this, you haven’t looked into it at all, and you’re letting partisanship blind you. No malaise. Crash.
BTW, just before the crash of ’29 that set off the Depression, we were told all was good, and the recovery has begun. Pay attention to such history. Do not ignore it. Prepare yourself now, and you’ll ‘be there’ to help your family and friends very soon when they need it. And those on this site KNOW they will need it, after the years of scoffing and dismissals toward such Armageddon talk.
Buy your silver. It’s cheap right now. No need to jump to the Mad Max scenario. Buy it today, and if you get antcy, sell it after the new year for a huge, paper profit. Stick with it, and you will be rewarded. Good luck.
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Nice read Dennis. Most here are on the blocks & ready for the run.ÂÂ
A neighbor lady that brags because she owns/rents 2 other condos along the river. I thought “you poor dear, didn’t you know that you should have sold at the top a few years back?” She’s a doctor & Lib. Pretty, but not so sure on the smart (better than you) outlook.
Comments…..@ dennis
 another great read dennis. I thing when this “thing” unravels to the max, so many people are going to be in absolute shock at the speed at which our very economic system falls apart. The chain reactions of chaos will be continuos. Our fairy tale leadership has told the same lie so many times, masses of his worshipers believe everything he says. Mostly, I see union people supporting him, as they got their bailout at the head of the line. Osama dares not speak to a non partisan crowd these days, as he might get an earfull.
   Soon enough, the spin meisters won’t be able to keep the wheels on anymore, and all will un ravel quickly. You can see this happening daily. It’s like watching a runaway train, as you know it’s going to crash at some point.
  what I think about often, is , what will be the one event that starts the chain reaction? or will it be several events in quick succession? I don’t think we have long to wait.  the blog world is burning up with speculation about when everything is going to go bust. we will see won’t we?
My wife works at a coin store that mostly sells gold and silver. She said today was absolutely insane. As soon as someone sold some pm’s they were gone to someone else.  Crazy stuff going on……
Get ready to duck.
Comments…..@ bill
 I frequent a coin and buillion dealer who has a large online presence, but also has a retail location near me. You would recognize the name if I mentioned it. I go there all the time, and he also says that sales have been insane recently. They can hardly keep up with the online orders, and the business in the retail location is thru the roof. Folks, many people are catching on, some of them first time buyers of PM’s. What ever you’rwe going to do, do it now. I know that saying is getting old, but it’s true. we all can see the dominos are stacked and about to fall. The visions of what’s to come gets clearer and clearer each passing day.
     As evidenced by what’s going on in coin shops across the nation, people know something is about to happen. A  collective consciousness is telling people that the SHTF is coming. Time is short–do what you will now.
Never before have I heard a Fed Chairman speak with such dire clarity. “Normal” speeches require PhD level dissertation to decipher…Seems the puppet masters are allowing their puppet to speak freely now.ÂÂ
This isn’t the ranting and raving of some Doom & Gloom Blogger…It’s Ben Bernake folks. The most powerful (financial) man in the world…
http://federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/bernanke20101004a.htm
Time is very short now.
Dad
Every mortgage made in the U.S. with less then 20% down is required to have mortgage insurance that the borrower pays for. This insurance pays off the lender in full if the mortgage goes into default.  So every mortgage is 100 insured. Does this sound to you as though they were “mountains of crap mortgages “???   The politicians caused this problem not the banks or Wall Street. In 1999 Barney Frank and Chris Dodd forced Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to make sub prime loans.  They also required Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to sell these loans to investors as fully insured loans so that Fannie and Freddie would have more money to make even more loans. The policitians did this, not Wall Street.  Barney and Chris were very sneaky and with the help of pelosi and Reed where able to convince the naive and ignorant that somehow Wall Street did it. And the Marxist/Socialist Obama used that meme to get us to buy into punishing Wall Street and “the rich”. You gotta pay attention folks! This is how they steal your country. Bait and switch. Give you something to hate and feed your biases.
To: GonewiththeWind
To clarify your comment, mortgage insurance is required on mortgages with <20% downpayment, but they do NOT fully insure the full value of the mortgate….Just the difference in the amount of the downpayment & 20%.
For example, a borrower puts down 5% on a $100k home. He is then required to obtain mortgage insurance for the remaining 15%. In the event of a default, the lender then files a claim on the mortgage insurance carrier for that 15%, and now has a reasonable 20% cushion to “dump” the house on the open market at 20% below market rates in an effort to regain his full investment.ÂÂ
In “normal” times, a 20% haircut on a home would be perceived as a “steal” by the market, and the home would’ve been gobbled up. Obviously, in today’s environment, that 20% threshold is peanuts, as homes aren’t moving with a 50% haircut. ÂÂ
BTW, in the old days, it was always easier for a borrower to secure the 95% financing then it was to get the lousy 15% “insurance” underwriting, as the 95% lien holder was in 1st lien position and still had collateral. The mortgage insurance company had no position, and no collateral, and was making a pass/no-pass bet solely on the borrower’s liklihood of repayment.
Dad
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@gonewiththewind; Your speaking of PMI insurance and Yourdaddy is absolutely correct. The banks and Fed created this problem by offering financial alternatives to the standard 20% down mortgage. For example we purchased our home with 10% down and the other 10% sourced from a home equity loan based on the assumption housing prices would continually rise. Alt “A’s”, Option adjustable, and Agency mortgages are collapsing and driving losses. Here’s a chart that clearly defines the number of mortgage resets that are coming due; not a pretty picture.ÂÂ
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2007/10/imf-mortgage-reset-chart.html