There is no escaping the inevitable - if you aggressively debase your currency eventually you are going to have a currency crisis. The first one has now begun. Words: 350; Charts: 2

It’s been exactly two years since Standard & Poor’s did the unthinkable and downgraded the U.S. government’s debt rating...and yet, it’s as if it never happened…

History clearly shows that stocks don't fall during periods of rising interest rates. Sure, they might fall a little when a rate hike is announced - maybe for a week or so - but they usually bounce back quickly - and then they go higher.

Despite the preponderance of evidence that money printing doesn’t create jobs, Bernanke and his Central Bank colleagues continue to perpetuate the myth that the recovery is just around the corner, as long as we continue to print money. It’s complete and utter insanity as all it will accomplish is bankrupting the U.S. resulting in higher costs of living - and lower quality of life - for all of us. [Let me explain why I believe that is the case.]

Stocks have generally performed very well in rising-rate environments but the current rate cycle is unlike any other of the past 40 years, keeping investors on edge. A lot will depend on how inflation behaves.

Frankly, I cannot see how one can distinguish the Fed from the European banking system and looking at things in this way provides a very different picture of the international landscape. The Fed is dependent upon euro printing in order to ramp up dollar printing, yet they are both one and the same. All of the GS boys running over to Europe after the Fed banks defaulted on the OTC derivatives takes on a new light in retrospect. It was a family reunion!

All of this talk about a "bright future" for real estate is just a bunch of nonsense. The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasuries is starting to rise aggressively again and, because mortgage rates tend to follow such increases, mortgage rates are going up. As monthly payments go up less people will be able to afford to buy homes at current prices and this will force home prices down. As such, another great real estate crash is inevitable. Let me explain further. Words: 995 ; Charts: 1

One look at the chart below clearly illustrates that owners of Government bonds need all the help they can get right now!

Little has been done in the past six years to restructure economies and cut debt i.e. learn the lessons of 2008. Because we’ve partially recovered from that traumatic period, that’s led to complacency. All the while, the debt that caused the bust in the first place has compounded and threatens to undo the world again. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

So much has been written about what various authors refer to as the economic (in alphabetical order) abyss, apocalypse, Armageddon, avalanche, catastrophe, chaos, cliff, collapse, crisis, disaster, downturn, endgame, meltdown, pain, reality, risks, situation, train wreck, tsunami, turmoil that faces the nations of the world I thought a source article of what has been said about the situation would be of interest. Have a look.