The U.S. is about two years behind Europe’s pernicious path. We are now over 100% debt to GDP, and if we want to know our future, all we have to do is look across the Atlantic because that’s exactly where we are headed.

Our civilization would not be able to handle such a transition from an expansionary credit based economy where goods and services were readily available into a paradigm of credit contraction, supply shortages and destitution and this is what is coming. There is no way to prevent it – only to defer it until a later date - and that day will soon be upon us. Words: 590

Our civilization would not be able to handle such a transition from an expansionary credit based economy where goods and services were readily available into a paradigm of credit contraction, supply shortages and destitution and this is what is coming. There is no way to prevent it – only to defer it until a later date - and that day will soon be upon us. Words: 590

The July 2011 Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers (CPI-U) released yesterday puts the June year-over-year inflation rate at 1.66%, which is less than half the 3.82% average since the end of the Second World War. That being said the ShadowStats Alternate annualized rate of inflation is 9.26%. [Which is more accurate?] Words: 384

The July 2011 Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers (CPI-U) released yesterday puts the June year-over-year inflation rate at 1.66%, which is less than half the 3.82% average since the end of the Second World War. That being said the ShadowStats Alternate annualized rate of inflation is 9.26%. [Which is more accurate?] Words: 384

...[A]t some point they [the central banks] will all start printing money. At some point they will recognize we are not going to have a deflationary collapse, that we are not going to have a deflationary debt liquidation.... If we get some serious stock market weakness, on top of the economic deterioration, then I think the central banks of the world, and in particular the Fed, are going to panic and do something big....They are going to print money and try to inflate the debts away....[As a result, there] is going to be this big, unridable phase of the bull market in gold that’s going to take place. That’s in front of us. It’s probably closer than most people think.

The whole world of fundamental and technical analysis seems to be in a state of chronic confusion - confounded by this seemingly trendless stock market....[Usually] the stock market possesses the ability to forecast coming events but the periodic spates of Fed stimulation have thrown some sand into the stock market's delicate machine....Thus, we see the stock market ‘up on Fed-created stilts’ and at the same time we see depressing economic news in the newspaper headlines. Meanwhile, Treasury yields are sitting on near-record lows. We're seeing a strange paradox here.

Interest rates have been manipulated to keep them extremely low in an attempt to stimulate the economy but...unless deficits are dramatically reduced.... interest rates will eventually rise and government interest expense will double or triple from the amounts being paid today. That potentially triggers a debt death spiral, where government has to borrow more than otherwise expected. It also raises the credit risk and could ratchet interest rates up again. It has happened to Greece, Portugal, Spain and other European countries already this year and could well happen in the U.S. too. Words: 595

Interest rates have been manipulated to keep them extremely low in an attempt to stimulate the economy but...unless deficits are dramatically reduced.... interest rates will eventually rise and government interest expense will double or triple from the amounts being paid today. That potentially triggers a debt death spiral, where government has to borrow more than otherwise expected. It also raises the credit risk and could ratchet interest rates up again. It has happened to Greece, Portugal, Spain and other European countries already this year and could well happen in the U.S. too. Words: 595

I find the whole European thing tragic. This situation in Europe is only going to escalate. The problem for the central planners, in the not-too-distant-future, is the can is getting too big to kick down the road. What this means is that the chaos will accelerate.