...[F]iscal austerity will envelop most advanced economies this year, rather than just the eurozone periphery and the United Kingdom. Indeed, austerity is spreading to the core of the eurozone, the United States, and other advanced economies (with the exception of Japan). Given synchronized fiscal retrenchment in most advanced economies, another year of mediocre growth could give way to outright contraction in some countries. Words: 780

Why are so many politicians around the world declaring that the debt crisis is "over" when debt-to-GDP ratios all over the planet continue to skyrocket? The global economy has never seen anything like the sovereign debt bubble that we are experiencing today. This insanity will continue until a day of reckoning arrives and the system implodes. Nobody knows exactly when that moment will be reached, but without a doubt it is coming. Are you ready? Words: 1270

There is no recovery, regardless of what the elite and their minions in the media want you to believe. The economy is sick. It was made so by the malpractice of government and will become even weaker as government continues to administer the poison that got us to this point. The political class’s version of remedy is akin to the medical profession’s practice of bloodletting. Neither does any good and both, carried to extreme, are fatal. [Let me explain more fully.] Words: 548

Politicians foolishly believe they can bend the laws of nature. They are fools for trying. Sadly, the pain and suffering that will be incurred will be borne by the millions of citizens dependent on markets and the economy. The economy cannot recover without a complete cleansing of the excesses that have built up over the last half century plus. [This article spells out why that is the case.] Words: 710

[While] I am not a prepper in the traditional sense of stockpiling food, guns and the like, I have always considered myself a financial prepper...For anyone not familiar with how dicey matters are becoming, [however,] I suggest they read the 50 questions below. Words: 1323

We know that state-run central banks ALWAYS try to inflate their way out of debt [because, quite] simply, it's the easiest way to make debt go away....Ben Bernanke and Tim Geithner might call their inflationary measures by a different name - like quantitative easing - but the effect is the same [and,] make no mistake [about it,] these policies will destroy lives [on one hand, and make those in the know a small fortune on the other. This article explains the options].

Risk is inevitably mispriced when unprecedented intervention suppresses risk [and, as such, the] policies that appear to have been successful for the past four years may continue to appear successful for a year or two longer but that very success comes at a steep, and as yet unpaid, price in suppressed systemic risk, cost, and consequence. [This article identifies 8] key dynamics that will continue to play out over the next two to three years [and an] understanding of the eventual consequence of such influential trends - that risk is inevitably mispriced when unprecedented intervention suppresses risk. Words: 1299

Given the hectic lives we lead you may well have missed some excellent articles on the financial plight of the U.S. and recent developments in the economy. Not to worry. Below are introductory paragraphs and links to 5 of the “best-of-the-best” articles on the subject.

If you are clearly watching, listening and paying attention to what is going on around you, and not what the press 'conjures up' and the political apparatus 'spins', then the following lessons, in the following sequence, should resonate with you. [Unfortunately, however,] the captains of world monetary policy have not and, as such, they have put the world on a course that history has warned us against [and we will eventually pay the price of their ignorance and ineptitude. Take a look. These words of wisdom (lessons) are as timely today as when first spoken/written.] Words: 865

To any sane person who has a grasp of what is presently occurring, it is obvious that the current state of affairs is unsustainable. The question is how long can the monetary captains' misguided policies keep us off the shoals of our economic destruction. How long can policies of "extend and pretend", "kick the can down the road" or "fake it until you make it" continue? The answer is unknowable but...when something is UNSUSTAINABLE it is INEVITABLE that it will END. TIME is the only unknown. The certainty of it ending BADLY is not. Words: 1265; Charts: 6