Dancing on the Global Fiscal Cliff

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton – The NoisyRoom

And the depths of chaos beckon while the financial sands beneath our feet shift into oblivion. Today, we offer you a metaphor salad to describe the current progress of the financial apocalypse. Yep, more happy news from the economic war front.

To say we are skating on thin ice globally as well as here in the US is an understatement of epic proportions. It’s the new and improved walking dead economies – it’s the end of the economic banking world and I feel fine. In fact, it should leave all of us breathless.

While Wall Street manipulates the hell out of the markets and bankers play games with our future (and they have butter fingers by the way), we are told to chill… everything is under control and we are in a slow recovery. Black is white; up is down. And by the way, I have a bridge that is to die for — just sign here. Never mind the second Great Depression taking place. Pardon moi if confidence is in the toilet these days and if we don’t believe the powers that be any more. We’re fickle that way.

It was claimed that MF Global was a freak – that it would never happen again. That is until PFGBest came along and made lightning strike twice in the same spot. What? Nothing to see here sheeple… Quick, invest, invest, invest! From The Economic Collapse:

PFGBest is a brokerage firm in Cedar Falls, Iowa that mostly handles agricultural futures.

All hell broke loose when the National Futures Association discovered that a bank account that was supposed to be holding 225 million dollars of customer funds was only holding about 5 million dollars instead.

So where is the other 220 million dollars?

That is a very good question.

Of course it is not a promising sign that the head of PFGBest tried to commit suicide when this news came out.

Next, we were told a wave of city bankruptcies would NEVER occur in the US, we nodded and smiled like idiots and said that we believed the weasel politicians. California is turning into Greece at an alarming rate with three cities in the last 2 weeks going toes up and many more to follow — first came Stockton, then Mammoth Lakes and now San Bernardino. Just nod some more if you get it now. From The Los Angeles Times:

The city’s fiscal crisis has been years in the making, compounded by the nation’s crushing recession and exacerbated by escalating pension costs, lucrative labor agreements, Sacramento’s raid on redevelopment funds and a city reserve that is tapped out, officials said.

And this is not unique to California. It’s happening all over the US, you just don’t see it in the press because it makes Obama look bad. Take a long, hard look at Scranton, Pennsylvania where all city employees were just put on minimum wage. They wouldn’t raise taxes (who would want to?), so the mayor reduced wages. He had to do something because they are BROKE.

We were told to have faith in global interest rates, that they couldn’t possibly be manipulated by insiders — that is until the LIBOR scandal. Whoops! In fact, watch this scandal… it will literally rock the world and bring economies to their knees. Count on it. If financial dreamers dream, then it’s nightmares all around. Welcome to global collusion. More from The Economic Collapse:

It turns out that banksters have been colluding to fix global interest rates for years.

“Liborgate” is being called the biggest financial scandal in history. Libor is important because it is one of the key benchmarks used to set prices for hundreds of trillions of dollars of loans, securities and derivatives.

British banking giant Barclays has already admitted that they were involved in manipulating Libor.

Barclays has already agreed to pay $453 million in fines to British and U.S. authorities.

But the truth is that it would have been totally impossible for Barclays to have manipulated Libor by themselves.

So who else was involved?

The Wall Street Journal puts it this way:

At stake is both the integrity of the world’s financial system and the credibility of the U.K. authorities to police it. Long before the current scandal, many European policy makers had concluded that London during the boom was the Wild West, whose loose standards are a threat to European financial stability. The Libor scandal suggests U.S. regulators have reached similar conclusions. The Commodities Futures Trading Commission, the U.S. regulatory body that first started investigating rate-fixing, left little doubt how seriously it regards the abuses it uncovered.

Get the hell out of the system, right now. Don’t stubbornly stand on the deck of a fiscal Titanic as it sinks. Head for the lifeboats and nix the suicide folks.

We were also told that Greece was an anomaly. Just another twist of fate — couldn’t happen again. Until Spain that is, who looks an awful like a repeat of Greece only worse. And as has been foretold on this blog over and over, it’s a chain reaction and more catastrophe to follow and soon. It’s summertime in Fiscal Hell, don’tcha know.

Don’t let the austerity they are pushing in Greece fool you. It consists of taxes that no one can pay if they want to continue eating. It does reduce spending and government bennies, but it is too little too late. Europe is on the way down, big time. Spain will make Greece look like a walk in the fricking park. Again from The Economic Collapse:

Can anyone still possibly deny that Spain is going down the exact same road that Greece has gone?

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is proposing a huge slate of tough austerity measures including a 3 point increase in the Value Added Tax on goods and services. If that 3 point hike is implemented, the Value Added Tax will rise to 21 percent.

Could you imagine going to the store and paying a 21 percent sales tax?

Ouch.

Rajoy is promising that these measures will get Spain back on the right track.

Of course we have already seen how well such austerity measures have worked in Greece.

The unemployment rate in Spain is already up to 24.4 percent, and now these austerity measures will slow the economy down even more.

No wonder there is rioting in the streets. You can see high quality footage of the rioting that has been going on in Spain this week right here. At one point police were seen firing rubber bullets at the protesters.

But of course the citizens of Spain could not live way above their means forever. At some point every debt bubble ends, and when that happens the results are often incredibly painful.

You are looking into America’s not-too-distant future. Truth be told, if the Obama administration was honest about our unemployment rate, it would read over 15% and personally, I think it is closer to 23 or 24%.

So, as we gleefully dance ever closer to the global fiscal cliff — and a crumbling cliff at that — maybe just maybe we should actually look at what is going on around us globally and locally here in the US. It’s not just finances, it’s morality, ethics, our culture — the whole ball of wax and we are coming undone quickly. As a nation, we need to fall to our knees and declare a covenant with God and fast or we will realize a reckoning few can envision. Thus endeth the lesson.

Technorati Tags: economy,economics,economic meltdown,financial crisis,sheeple,smoke and mirrors,Greece,global financial collapse,New Economic World Order,unemployment,Spain,PIIGS,VAT,pay attendtion,educate yourself,covenant with God,prayer,banksters

The Fascist Boogie Fever

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton - The NoisyRoom

All hail, or should we say ‘heil,’ the rise of the Golden Dawn fascists in Greece. It’s all the rage (literally) in the streets of Greece these days. They now hold 21 seats in the Greek government – about 7% of the controlling body – and combined with the Communists, that control is closer to 20%. And their influence is not only growing there, but in Europe and the US. The darkness is rising once again and the Golden Dawn is telling those in power they should fear them now and indeed, they should take those threats to heart. Golden Dawn is demanding the respect of the Greek people and, with their violent stance, they may enforce it.

From The Blaze:

Golden Dawn leader Nikolaos Michaloliakos told The Associated Press in an interview that his party had delivered a blow against the country’s corrupt leadership.

“They slandered us, slung mud at us, and shut us out of all the news media – the TV channels of the corrupt elite – and we beat them,” the 55-year-old leader said as the votes came in. “The day of national revolution by the Greeks has begun against those who are selling us out and looting the sweat of the Greek people.”

History is repeating and a new horror is spreading its wings across the globe and few seem to be taking note of it. France just elected a Socialist leader (actually he’s a Communist; you say potato…) and Islamic fascism via The Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda is sweeping the Middle East. Look at history: Hitler and Islam joined hands in a Kumbaya moment of sociopathic murderous glee to slaughter the Jews last time and you are seeing the exact same moves today. Once again, America sits quietly by as the vilest of coalitions forms to engulf humanity while Satan laughs with delight. Iran is doing the nuclear bump as its evil imp of a leader boldly proclaims that war is not needed to defeat Israel. No… cutting ties and dirty looks should do the trick. Okay, you can stop choking with laughter now. Ahmadinejad is the ultimate trickster – I firmly believe he wants to nuke Israel into the afterlife and you are nuts if you can’t see that. We are on his enemies list as well – right at the top of it actually, with Israel a close second. A well placed EMP or two should take care of the US in the imp’s viewpoint and he may well be right. Millions would die in the aftermath of one second after.

America is not immune to the spread of Golden Dawn’s platform. Certainly, if Obama is reelected we will see it spread. Of course, the name will be different, but the sulfuric stench will be the same. If Romney is elected and then does not follow the will of the people in America, which is a conservative bent by the majority, and goes back to bailouts and stimulus games, you will see the rise of nationalism here as well and that is poison. We dare not go down that road. History shows we could easily do so. There were pro-Hitler movements here in the US the last time this rose from the depths of Hell. Look it up.

The Blaze explains the scenario that could unfold:

Beck explained that the situation in Greece was likely a direct result of something he calls the “Bubba effect.” To refresh your memory on what this theory entails, envision a scenario where, in the wake of an Islamic terror attack and subsequent government ineptitude — particularly as regards national security and immigration — an everyman, or, “Bubba,” pushed to the brink, shoots someone who appears to be Muslim. Citizens rally to Bubba’s defense, blaming the government, not the murderer, for causing the problem in the first place. When citizens’ frustration with government reaches critical mass, a contingent can all too easily use that as an excuse to lash out. As we examine the situation in Greece below, it seems the Bubba effect may have already arrived.

One component leading to the unrest across the eurozone has been the enactment of austerity measures. Billed as an answer to the European sovereign debt crisis, austerity measures focus on achieving reduced levels of spending primarily through cutting public services and programs. This is done so that taxes need not increase to compensate for deficits. Needless to say, whenever public and social services are cut, those who champion said programs, particularly on the left, are bound to pose strong resistance. Such has been the case across Europe, specifically Greece. With the exit of Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is perhaps the only pro-austerity leader left in Europe.

I never thought I would see this happen in my lifetime. It blindsided me and takes my breath away. When I face the evil developing, it causes me to cringe from within and begs me to turn away. I will not and I pray that America and the world will not either. The only way to beat back the darkness is to face it head on and fight with every bit of strength you have physically and in your soul. Death is not the worst thing that can happen to you. History is calling us – which side will each of us choose? I choose the light and will fight to my last breath defending Israel and what is good and right. My course is set, but the world’s is still very much in question. It has taken the world only 70 years to forget the last time we danced with this demon. Shame on us.

Listen to the hardline rhetoric of Greece’s Golden Dawn leader, Nikolaos Michaloliakos. Anti-immigration, isolation, nationalism… spouted with ear-assailing passion and vehemence. Remind you of anyone? All fanatical, charismatic psychopaths share certain traits – loud proclamations, soul-stirring speeches and gut wrenching inclusions meant to ensnare the soul and trap the individual with twisted, seductive language where up is down, wrong is right, death is life.

More is to be gleaned from The Blaze – the only one I know of that’s exposing this spreading cancer:

Vowing to “rid this country of the stench” — a.k.a. immigrants — Golden Dawn’s insignia is entirely too reminiscent of the swastika and its adherents, reportedly clad in black, are often seen physically abusing and intimidating immigrants across the country. Needless to say, Greece’s immigrant community is understandably concerned and opponents are preoccupied with how best to marginalize the Neo-Nazi group that has now gained legitimacy in the halls of government.

Michaloliakos, who is also no fan of the media, said the day of “national revolution by the Greeks has begun against those who are selling us out and looting the sweat of the Greek people.”

It might also be worth noting that “Golden Dawn” takes its name from a “magical order” of Freemasons who practiced in the late 19th and early 20th century Britain. The order has been cited one of the greatest influences on Western occultism.

The silence from the media and the world is deafening and beyond alarming. Israel sees what is happening. What happened to all of us who declared “never again?” Eternity beckons the world into darkness and we are too busy watching American Idol to care. Sigh.

It is true that the Nazis killed not only Jews and Gypsies, but Communists and Socialists. But in many ways, the Nazis shared common goals with the Communists. That is why they were killed – their ideology competed with Hitler’s vision. Particularly, their economic goals were similar.

From the TIME Magazine profile that named Adolf Hitler its 1934 Man of the Year:

“Most cruel joke of all, however, has been played by Hitler & Co. on those German capitalists and small businessmen who once backed National Socialism as a means of saving Germany’s bourgeois economic structure from radicalism. The Nazi credo that the individual belongs to the state also applies to business. Some businesses have been confiscated outright, on other what amounts to a capital tax has been levied. Profits have been strictly controlled. Some idea of the increasing Governmental control and interference in business could be deduced from the fact that 80% of all building and 50% of all industrial orders in Germany originated last year with the Government. Hard-pressed for food- stuffs as well as funds, the Nazi regime has taken over large estates and in many instances collectivized agriculture, a procedure fundamentally similar to Russian Communism.”

There was a direct correlation between poverty, the increase of unemployment and the rise of Nazism. Think it can’t happen here? If we don’t change our course, look in the mirror at Greece. She is our future on a larger, more deadly scale. It took only 30% to elect Hitler and put him in office with an iron-fisted control of the country.

The fascist boogie fever has hit Greece and is dancing its influence across the planet. Spreading anti-Semitism, hate and fear while dancing to the Nazi beat. It’s literally to die for.

Technorati Tags: Fascism,Progressivism. Communism,Socialism,dangerous alliances,Islam,watch the other hand. history,PIIGS,Greece,Bubba effect,EU,eurozonem Sarkowzy,aniti-semitism,watch the other hand

Nigel Farage: This is How Dictatorship Begins

Video: Nigel Farage: This is How Dictatorship Begins

UKIP Leader Nigel Farage MEP is interviewed by Claudio Messora of Byoblu.com (Italy) - aired 25 November 2011

Member States:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, United Kingdom

Italy’s welfare minister cries while announcing cuts

Monday, 05 December 2011

Italian Welfare Minister Elsa Fornero starts crying as she speaks during a news conference on the new austerity package. (Reuters)

By REUTERS
ROME

Italy’s welfare minister Elsa Fornero was reduced to tears at a press conference as she outlined tough reforms to pensions contained in the government’s plan to regain control of strained public finances and help solve Europe’s debt crisis.

Under the austerity plan unveiled on Sunday, Italy will raise the minimum pension age for women and men to 66 by 2018, and will scrap annual inflation adjustments for many pensions.

“We had to... and it cost us a lot psychologically... ask for a...” Fornero said, but was unable to complete her sentence as she wiped tears from her eyes.

Prime Minister Mario Monti finished the sentence for her, speaking the word “sacrifice” that she’d been unable say.

Monti has unveiled a 30 billion euro ($51.7 billion) package of austerity measures, raising taxes and increasing the pension age in a drive to shore up Italy’s strained finances and stave off a crisis that threatens to overwhelm the euro zone.

Packed into a single emergency decree which comes into effect before formal parliamentary approval, the measures followed growing pressure for sweeping measures to restore confidence in the euro zone’s third-largest economy.

Monti said the package, divided between 20 billion euros of budget measures over 2012-14 and a further 10 billion euros in measures to boost growth, was painful but necessary.

“We have had to share the sacrifices, but we have made great efforts to share them fairly,” he told a news conference, in which he said he had renounced his own salary as prime minister and economy minister.

The measures come before one of the most crucial weeks since the creation of the single currency more than a decade ago, with European leaders due to meet on Thursday and Friday in Brussels to try to agree a broader rescue plan for the bloc.

Source: Al Arabiya News – English

American should be asking herself… when is this us?  It will be us if we do not oust Obama and the Progressives!

Related:  The Right Planet – Soros And The Euro

The Most Important Movie of the Year

“Generation Zero” will do for the tea party movement--and the larger cause of controlling government spending--what Al Gore’s 2006 movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” did for the global warming debate.

If I told you that “Generation Zero” is the best movie about deficit spending and national debt that you will ever see, would you think I was making a joke? As in, how much competition can there be in such a category? OK, there’s not much competition in the “fiscal film” category. But “Generation Zero” would win, because it’s a brilliant movie; in reality, it’s a work of art that happens to be about red-ink spending.

“Generation Zero” is going to do for the tea party movement--and the larger cause of controlling government spending--what Al Gore’s 2006 movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” did for the global warming debate. There are some differences, however. As we now know, “Truth” was based on a deep fallacy, the idea that “global warming” is happening, even as the earth indeed is cooling. By contrast, “Zero” deals with one of the great struggles of our time; the trillions being spent and overspent are real. Down this wastrel road lies the chaotic fate of a banana republic--or maybe today’s Greece or Zimbabwe.

And of course, whereas “Truth” won an Oscar and helped propel Gore to a Nobel Peace Prize, “Zero” is unlikely to win a single prize from left-leaning Hollywood or from even lefter-leaning international organizations such as the Nobel Institute. But, unlike “Truth,” which caused no real change in American politics, “Zero” is certain to have a huge political impact here at home.

Written and directed by Stephen K. Bannon and produced by David Bossie, founder and president of Citizens United, the right-leaning activist group, “Zero” is undeniably a work of advocacy, featuring on-air appearances by everyone from Newt Gingrich to Lou Dobbs to Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) But the film should persuade any fair-minded observer that we have a problem.

“Zero” starts with the 2008 stock market crash, which led a Republican president, George W. Bush, to demand that Congress enact the Troubled Asset Relief Program, now ingloriously remembered as “TARP.” And TARP, of course, was only the beginning of trillions in bailouts and loan-guarantees that have disfigured and corrupted our economics and politics over the past year-and-a-half.

But “Zero” is less persuasive when it argues that the origins of the problem go back to the sixties, when Baby Boomers started changing our politics. It’s possible to blame the 60s generation for many excesses, but the roots of fiscal excess go far deeper. Some might note, for example, that Social Security dates back to 1935. Fannie Mae, the federal housing-subsidy agency, was established to 1938. Medicare, which is projected to consume more than a tenth of our national output later in this century, was enacted in 1965. And the fateful decision to index Social Security to inflation--putting a permanent cost-of-living escalator under entitlement spending, regardless of other economic conditions--was taken by Greatest-Generation politicians in 1972, when the oldest boomers were in their mid-20s. Our national problems would be a lot easier to solve if they could be isolated to just one bad-apple generation.

It is certainly true, however, that boomer politicians made the problem worse--much worse. The dramatic expansion of home mortgages, including subprime mortgages to unqualified buyers, was a bipartisan cause in the 90s and the 00s. And the 1999 repeal of the Glass Steagall Act, for example, which allowed Wall Street to gamble with bank depositors’ money for the first time since the early 30s, was signed into law by a boomer president, Bill Clinton. And George W. Bush and Barack Obama, two big-spending presidents, were also boomers--together with much of Congress.

But the larger point to be made is that overspending is the familiar fate of nations. Spain, the world’s leading superpower in the 16th century, defaulted on some or all of its debt 14 times from 1557 to 1696. And today, three centuries later, Spain is one of several European countries--others being Portugal, Ireland, Italy, and Greece, the so-called “PIIGS”--in danger of default.

And perhaps democracies face a special kind of danger, because the voters eventually figure out that they can vote themselves the treasury. That was a gloomy point frequently attributed to the 18th century Scots historian Alexander Tytler, although subsequent scholarship suggests that the quote is a composite from several different sources. But questions about provenance don’t change the warning power of the words:

“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years.

During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependence back into bondage.”

So the bad news is that no system, not even the best, is guaranteed survival. In fact, the historical odds seem to be against the long-term flourishing of our American experiment.

But the good news is that we have been warned--most recently, by “Generation Zero,” parts of which have already aired on Fox News and Fox Business News. Moreover, the entire film is also available online, click here to view it.

As “Generation Zero” reminds us, our fate is in our hands. We can learn from our mistakes, we can change our fate, we can save our country.

If we want to.

By James P. Pinkerton is a writer and Fox News contributor. He is the editor/founder of the Serious Medicine Strategy blog. – Posted:  Fox Nation

Related:

Fox Nation Must-See Film:  Generation Zero'

Generation Zero – The Real Problem… 

Wisdom: The Greatest Gift One Generation Can Give To Another - by Andrew Zuckerman

Everyone needs to see this movie (Preview): Generation Zero