Right now you could say the US economy is being
battered by gale force winds.
Meanwhile, floods, snowstorms
cyclones and torrential rain have taken a huge toll
in lives, evacuations crop and economic losses
around the globe in the past week.
As climate change triggers devastation in many
countries, there is also new pressure on the US to
reveal what has happened to its Fort Knox gold
reserves.
Just as lives are being lost,
industry and agriculture are going to the wall in
various countries, and Nature itself seems to be in
turmoil, some economic analysts are saying the US
economy is also on the eve of destruction.
If they’re right (and they are) this
means unless you make yourself aware of what is
coming, you too will be badly affected by Depression
Two – except this time, it will be much bigger, much
worse and last longer than that other one (that
nobody seems to remember any more).
Having once done a stint as
Economics Correspondent for a national television
network, I know something about this subject –
though I do not have the credentials to pretend I am
an expert.
However, credentials do not
necessarily make anyone an authority. Only
experience does that.
THE HOUSE OF CARDS
Most of us have experience of the
effects of economic policies imposed by others. Some
go with the flow and do very well. Others simply
become dependent on others for their survival.
Which leads some of us to the realization that we’re
the observers of a very long game of Texas Hold’em,
or Monopoly, or Roulette – the Russian variety.
Before we pull that trigger though,
let’s deal quickly with natural disasters – most of
which are signals that earth changes are definitely
upon us.
But let’s ease into the bad news by
starting with some really good news.
“All those evacuated are being given
plots of land to build new homes in resettlement
areas…” –
Does that sound like a post-Katrina
move by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency?
Not a chance.
It’s actually what is being done for thousands of
people flooded out of their homes in Mozambique.
Over 90,000 people have been
evacuated from
flood-stricken parts of central Mozambique. On
Thursday alone, close to 3000 people were evacuated
- mostly from the district of Chinde, near the mouth
of the Zambezi valley.
And Zambia has declared a national
disaster after floods destroyed crops, roads,
bridges and killed at least 45 people and untold
numbers of livestock. (Those taken by crocodiles are
not included in the death toll because crocodiles
are a natural hazard year-round.)
________________________
China meanwhile is buckling under
what may prove to be its worst weather ever (so
far).
China’s Xinhua News Agency
reports that "The
worst snow in five decades has so far killed 60
people and forced nearly 1.76 million people to
relocate."
It has also demolished almost a
quarter million houses and damaged another 862,000.
(That means in less than six days
over one million people have been made homeless in
sub-zero temperatures, or find themselves without
power, heat, cooking facilities or sanitation).
Almost six million passengers were
stranded throughout China’s railway system, more
than 8,000 cargo trains were affected, and more than
3,250 flights were canceled.
However, airlines still carried 3.17
million passengers from the nation's 52 major
airports.
On Friday, the Ministry of Railways
started a 10-day emergency coal shipping campaign,
vowing to ensure a daily thermal coal delivery of
more than 40,000 cars.
On the Beijing-Zhuhai highway more
than 7,000 stranded vehicles backed up for 40
kilometers have finally started to move.
Economic losses are estimated at
about 53.8 billion yuan (7.5 billion U.S. dollars).
And the cold is expected to
continue.
(How many of those millions of
people had emergency packs with them? - Who knows).
In Afghanistan
nearly 300 people including women and children have
died in extreme cold wave conditions over the last
10 days.
Nearly 5000 animals have also frozen
to death. Officials say more than 200,000 families
are affected.
In Indonesia
more than 10,000 houses in 30 villages have
reportedly been flooded.
Torrential rains across Central and
East Java provinces at the start of the year
triggered landslides and floods that killed more
than 100 people and displaced tens of thousands.
Nearby a tropical cyclone with winds
gusting up to 140 kph (86 mph) hit Fiji's main
island of Viti Levu this week flattening houses,
causing flooding and bringing down trees and power
lines. Six people were killed.
In South America
Serious floods
have hit the
northern Argentine province of Salta, forcing some
15,000 people to evacuate.
Nearly 400,000 people
living in the Andean
city of La Paz, Bolivia (Google Earth image right) ,
have been forced to ration their drinking water
after mudslides damaged water pipes last week, and
the mayor says the shortages could last until March.
Norway has just come through an “extreme weather”
situation – the first time such gale force winds
have hit the Ostlandet region in 10 years. Waves
reached up to eight meters (25 feet).
In the UK winds of up to 60mph
forced the closure of the Port of Dover while
forecasters predicted a Force 10 storm in the
English Channel.
Massive waves and violent winds have
beached a ferry and driven a fishing boat on to
rocks .
Helicopters have been unable to
rescue 14 crewmen on a fishing boat that was trapped
on rocks underneath a cliff at St Kilda near
Scotland. But they were able to rescue the
passengers and crew of the ferry Riverdance which
ran aground after its cargo shifted.
Wrong.
MONEY.
Somewhere along the line, paper
money replaced gold. There's a big story behind all
that, but for the sake of brevity, let's just say
this particular image illustrates where paper money
is getting us (and Ben Franklin).
And (GATA Load of This) – A call for
an audit of USA gold reserves from the Gold
Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA).
They took out
an ad in the Wall Street
Journal to let us
know that there has been more than a little funny
money business going on behind the scenes.
The long game that started well
before we were born has actually had all of us
playing with a crooked deck. Or if you consider the
Monopoly analogy - it's a game in which in the long
run, only those who own the bank will win (unless
Nature does her thing and takes away all their real
estate and assets in an earthquake...).
Frivolity aside, the US housing
bubble is broken.
Banks are now looking for bail-outs or buy-outs
after creating their own problems by lending
policies that were utterly foolish from Day One.
The Federal Reserve and its Plunge
Protection Team are sticking their fingers in the
dike – trying to stem the incoming Depression by
cutting interest rates.
And over-extended consumers must be
cringing about their latest credit card statements.
Deluding themselves into believing that a 'credit'
card is something other than debt they have
buried themselves in loans that are heavier than
concrete boots.
From here, financially speaking, it
really does look as though next Christmas will
indeed be another cold day in hell.
Now I’d like to hand the microphone
over to another writer with a great style and even
better understanding of economics.
Under the headline
"The Coming Financial Collapse
of America (And Why Today’s Market Bloodbath is Only
a Small Taste of Things to Come…)"
Mike Adams spells out what can be expected in the
months ahead – how we got here, and how we can get
beyond it.
by Michael
Knight
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