If It’s Not Obvious Yet…

 

For lo these many years Catholic Rural Solutions Yahoo Group©, Catholic Rural Solutions WordPress Weblog©, and the now discontinued Saturday Updates© attempted to alert the readership to the pending but inevitable collapse of, not just the US economy, but the global economy as well. Initially, though the worst was foreseen, the presentations were soft-pedaled so as not to cause undue anxiety or worry. In fact, I rejected some of the comment postings back then because I did not want to unduly alarm the readership. I did, however, wish to present the situation without the rose-colored glasses so that ordinary working people could prepare in at least some small way for the economic tsunami that would soon engulf us. Unfortunately, people of our generation and younger are used to instant results and as the years rolled away and things maintained a level of acceptable status quo, the warnings were discounted and overlooked. In 2012 the true depth of economic turmoil will be sounded and many will not be as prepared as they could or should have been.

...off the economic rails!

2011 was a precursor to what is to come in 2012. Market saw-tooths, social upheaval and revolutions, austerity, international economic conflict, sabre rattling, self-imposed natural resource limitations, to name just a few were features of this past year, and harbingers of things to come. Meantime, the economic socio-political government and business leaders have managed to hold everything relatively together with spit and glue. Markets, be they stock, bond, or even precious metals, were manipulated to the optimum scope of these government and economic movers and shakers could achieve, but with the New Year I think things will start to unravel with relatively quick timing …certainly by the beginning of the second quarter.

As stated, past issues tried to sugar-coat the reporting to some extent and still maintain some sense of urgency. Sooner or later, however, it is necessary to be blunt and bold and that time is now. Just like, in the old black and white movies, there comes a time where the hero must smack his partner across the kisser to make him see the reality of the situation, here is that smack, that reality check so needed right now.

As we cross the threshold to 2012 there is sufficient evidence of what is looming ahead.

*  Energy prices are higher than ever before

*  The costs of most goods have increased steeply since 2007, this of course is the manifestation of inflation which was initiated with Quantitative Easing

*  Derivatives, which were the trigger to this whole situation back in ’08 – ’09 is up more than $100,000,000

* Government debt is exploding and soon will be beyond control, if this hasn’t already happened

*  Personal debt while restricted due to economic events is still higher than needed

*  Little to no Gross Domestic Product growth

*  The European Union in increasing difficulties with no viable long-term solution in sight

*  Shell-shocked small investors jumping ship and liquidating assets

*  China’s rapidly expanding economy suddenly hitting a brick wall

*  Increasing and blatant corruption in both government and business, sometimes even hand-in-hand

*  Finally, we are seeing a lack of confidence in fiat global currencies as people take flight and convert to hard tangible assets like precious metals and real property.

To substantiate my claims I reference the below web citation which is an article from Chris Martenson. While it is in two parts and the second part is via a paid subscription, there is enough contained in the entirety of Part 1 to present a clear picture of what is to come 2012. It presents in easily understood graphs and writing just what we are facing.

Franklin D. Roosevelt said: In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way. With the increasing muddle of business and politics the same statement can also apply to economics. Surely, while the current economic circumstances may have initially been planned, I believe that the powers in Washington and Wall Street and other comparable places throughout the globe are quickly losing control of the situation. Like the Frankenstein Monster, it will come back to haunt them.

Here is the web citation:

http://www.chrismartenson.com/blog/worse-2008/67136

Richard of Danbury, D.S.G.