Today's post is an update on the ill-health of the American Empire. Suffice it to say, the arrows all point in one direction - the wrong one.
Thanx to patrick.net for this superb piece (speech excerpts) as well as the Vanity Fair item further down.
dip PREDICTED CRASH YEARS IN ADVANCE OF '08 - SAYS MUCH WORSE TO COME Missteps to Mayhem - Michael Burry vanderbilt.edu 04-05-11
This piece is life-changing, or can be if you take action. I knew parts of this, just not in one razor-sharp, well-informed package, and never with such clarity for the rank chaos that is yet to come.
Dr. Burry's words, for those comprehending the urgent personal warning herein, provide you time to make serious plans for your future; especially whether or not to get off this fatally-blindered horse before it drops dead in its tracks.
Sorry, just calling it as I sees it.
If you are under 40, you need to ask yourself if you really want to pay the price (bear the burden) for the folly and greed of your leaders (and your, in-denial, parent's generation) for - literally - the rest of your days on this planet.
Make no mistake. You can run, but you can't hide. The end of this trail will bring enough misery to go round the planet, but America will be in the bulls-eye of this vortex to end all vortices.
"Burry was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome as an adult, which he credits with helping give him a unique perspective on the economy and financial markets" (sidebar mini-bio).
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From our economic viral metastasis, we go now to the big picture. Our guide is the always trenchant, Andy Kroll. Andy paints a dismal picture of the past 10 years' rampant avarice in league with a slew of retrogressive governmental policy changes from which, by all accounts, our misleaders and elites purposely wish to learn nothing. That, or things have gone exactly as planned, so shovel more coal in the boiler, Cap'n.
Either way, it means the same ol', same ol' in the 20-Teens.
rot EMPIRE's END America's Lost Decade - Andy Kroll tomdispatch 10-06-11
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Finally, finish your update on just where we are in our fall from grace by making sure you read this as soon as it's available. I know I will. (read the review)
read EMPIRE'S END The United States of Fear - Tom Engelhardt haymarketbooks 2011
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And finally (for real this time), for those who want a preview of precisely where the threat to your current (more of less) pleasant life will emanate, this lengthy article will do just that. Long before any state, or the nation, goes belly-up, we will witness our cities and towns (and counties) hollow out until - as in Vallejo, California - their dried up husks simply blow away.
Save this one for later, if you must, but make a point to read it soon. Knowing the most likely source of future societal distress in your life provides life-saving time for you to plan how to deal with it.
California is merely emblematic of the dire economic situation in about 3/4 of the states. It has also been the most adversely affected by the massive housing fraud conspiracy. As in the good times, CA is leading the way. Many states will follow.
A few excerpts:
All states may have been created equal, but they were equal no longer. The states that had enjoyed the biggest boom were now facing the biggest busts.
"So what's the scariest state?" I asked her. "California."
... A woman pushing a baby stroller and talking on a cell phone crosses the street right in front of him and does a double take. "Oh . . . my . . . God," she gasps into her phone. "It's Bill Clinton!" She's not 10 feet away, but she keeps talking to the phone, as if the man were unreal. "I'm here with Bill Clinton."
"It's one of those guys who has had a sex scandal," says Arnold, smiling.
The relationship between the people and their money in California is such that you can pluck almost any city at random and enter a crisis ...
Legally obliged to meet these costs, the city can respond only by cutting elsewhere. As a result, San Jose, once run by 7,450 city workers, was now being run by 5,400 city workers. The city was back to staffing levels of 1988, when it had a quarter of a million fewer residents.
By 2014, Reed had calculated, a city of a million people, the 10th-largest city in the United States, would be serviced by 1,600 public workers. "There is no way to run a city with that level of staffing," he said.
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Welcome to Vallejo, city of opportunity, reads the sign on the way in, but the shops that remain open display signs that say, we accept food stamps. Weeds surround abandoned businesses, and all traffic lights are set to permanently blink, which is a formality, as there are no longer any cops to police the streets. Vallejo is the one city in the Bay Area where you can park anywhere and not worry about getting a ticket, because there are no meter maids either. The windows of city hall are dark....
Back in 2008, unable to come to terms with its many creditors, Vallejo declared bankruptcy. Eighty percent of the city's budget—and the lion's share of the claims that had thrown it into bankruptcy—were wrapped up in the pay and benefits of public-safety workers.
What happens when a society loses its ability to self-regulate, and insists on sacrificing its long-term interest for short-term rewards? How does the story end?
dip WHAT WILL BRING DOWN AMERICA California AND Bust - Michael Lewis vanityfair 11-00-11
NjW 456
Nigel Watson freethinker 727.493.1990 skype orbizen2
Blog: ORBizen Memo http://orbizenmemo.blogspot.com/
Blog: ORBizen Memo http://orbizenmemo.blogspot.com/
"There is no greater disaster than greed." – Lao-tzu
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." - Krishnamurti
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