Category: Collapse

Posted on 27th February 2015 by theburningplatform.com

“At this juncture, the impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in the subprime market seems likely to be contained.” – Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, Congressional testimony, March, 2007

“Capitalism without financial failure is not capitalism at all, but a kind of socialism for the rich.” – James Grant, Grant’s Interest Rate Observer

The Federal Reserve issued their fourth quarter Report on Household Debt and Credit last week to the sounds of silence in the mainstream media. There were minor press releases issued by the “professional” financial journalists regurgitating the Federal Reserve’s storyline. Actual analysis, connecting the dots, describing how the massive issuance of student loan and auto loan debt has produced a fake economic recovery, and how the accelerating default rates in auto loans and student loans will produce the next subprime debt implosion, were nowhere to be seen on CNBC, Bloomberg, the WSJ, or any other status quo propaganda media outlet. Their job is not to analyze or seek truth. Their job is to keep their government patrons and Wall Street advertisers happy, while keeping the masses sedated, misinformed, and pliable.

Luckily, the government hasn’t gained complete control over the internet yet, so dozens of truth telling blogs have done a phenomenal job zeroing in on the surge in defaults. The data in the report tells a multitude of tales conflicting with the “official story” sold to the public. The austerity storyline, economic recovery storyline, housing recovery storyline, and strong auto market storyline are all revealed to be fraudulent by the data in the report. Total household debt grew by $117 billion in the fourth quarter and $306 billion for the all of 2014. Non-housing debt in the 4th quarter of 2008, just as the last subprime debt created financial implosion began, was $2.71 trillion. After six years of supposed consumer austerity, total non-housing debt stands at a record $3.15 trillion. This is after hundreds of billions of the $2.71 trillion were written off and foisted upon the backs of taxpayers, by the Wall Street banks and their puppets at the Federal Reserve.

The corporate media talking heads cheer every increase in consumer debt as proof of economic recovery. In reality every increase in consumer debt is just another step towards another far worse economic breakdown. And the reason is simple. Real median household income is still below 1989 levels. The average American family hasn’t seen their income go up in 25 years. What they did see was their chains of debt get unbearably heavy. Non-housing consumer debt (credit card, auto, student loan, other) was $800 billion in 1989.

The 300% increase in consumer debt, while incomes stagnated, has created a zombie nation of debt slaves. And this doesn’t even take into account the quadrupling of mortgage debt from $2.2 trillion in 1989 to $8.7 trillion today. This isn’t Twelve Years a Slave; it’s Debt Slaves for Eternity. And who benefits? The Wall Street bankers, .1% oligarchs, and corporate fascists pulling the levers of government and society benefit. An economic and jobs recovery for working Americans is nowhere to be seen in the chart below.

Total debt on the balance sheet of American consumers (formerly known as citizens) now tops $11.8 trillion, up from the $11.1 trillion trough in 2013. The peak was “achieved” in a frenzy of $0 down McMansion buying, Lexus leasing, and Home Equity ATM extraction in 2008, when the total reached $12.7 trillion. The $1.6 trillion decline from peak insanity had nothing to do with austerity or Americans reigning in their debt financed lifestyles.

The Wall Street banks took the $700 billion of taxpayer funded TARP, sold their worthless mortgage paper to the Fed, suckled on the Fed’s QE and ZIRP, and wrote off the $1.6 trillion. Wall Street didn’t miss a beat, while Main Street got treated like skeet during a shooting competition. Every solution proposed and implemented since September 2008 had the sole purpose of benefitting the criminals on Wall Street who perpetrated the largest financial heist in world history. The slogan should have been Bankers Saving Bankers Since 1913.

The Rest Of The Story Here

February 27, 2015

With the eyes of the world still focused on the war in Ukraine, today Dr. Paul Craig Roberts warned King World News that confidence between Russia and the United States has been destroyed and the specter of nuclear Armageddon now stalks the Earth. This is an ominous warning from the former U.S. Treasury official as he is warning global leaders the world is headed for nuclear annihilation.

By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts Former U.S. Treasury Official

February 27 (King World News) – This week I was invited to address an important conference of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. Scholars from Russia and from around the world, Russian government officials, and the Russian people seek an answer as to why Washington destroyed during the past year the friendly relations between America and Russia that President Reagan and President Gorbachev succeeded in establishing.

Putin Has Highest Approval Rating Ever Achieved By Any Leader In My Lifetime

All of Russia is distressed that Washington alone has destroyed the trust between the two major nuclear powers that had been created during the Reagan-Gorbachev era, trust that had removed the threat of nuclear armageddon. Russians at every level are astonished at the virulent propaganda and lies constantly issuing from Washington and the Western media. Washington’s gratuitous demonization of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has rallied the Russian people behind him. Putin has the highest approval rating ever achieved by any leader in my lifetime.

Specter Of Nuclear Armageddon Stalks The Earth

Washington’s reckless and irresponsible destruction of the trust achieved by Reagan and Gorbachev has resurrected the possibility of nuclear war from the grave in which Reagan and Gorbachev buried it. Again, as during the Cold War the specter of nuclear Armageddon stalks the earth.

Paul Craig Roberts: World Annihilation Threatened – Trust Now Shattered Between Russia And U.S.
February 27, 2015
Paul Craig Roberts: World Annihilation Threatened – Trust Now Shattered Between Russia And U.S.
With the eyes of the world still focused on the war in Ukraine, today Dr. Paul Craig Roberts warned King World News that confidence between Russia and the United States has been destroyed and the specter of nuclear Armageddon now stalks the Earth. This is an ominous warning from the former U.S. Treasury official as he is warning global leaders the world is headed for nuclear annihilation.

King World News Roberts I 2:27:2015

By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts Former U.S. Treasury Official

February 27 (King World News) – This week I was invited to address an important conference of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. Scholars from Russia and from around the world, Russian government officials, and the Russian people seek an answer as to why Washington destroyed during the past year the friendly relations between America and Russia that President Reagan and President Gorbachev succeeded in establishing.

KWN Roberts I 2:17:2015

Putin Has Highest Approval Rating Ever Achieved By Any Leader In My Lifetime

All of Russia is distressed that Washington alone has destroyed the trust between the two major nuclear powers that had been created during the Reagan-Gorbachev era, trust that had removed the threat of nuclear armageddon. Russians at every level are astonished at the virulent propaganda and lies constantly issuing from Washington and the Western media. Washington’s gratuitous demonization of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has rallied the Russian people behind him. Putin has the highest approval rating ever achieved by any leader in my lifetime.

King World News Roberts V 2:27:2015

Specter Of Nuclear Armageddon Stalks The Earth

Washington’s reckless and irresponsible destruction of the trust achieved by Reagan and Gorbachev has resurrected the possibility of nuclear war from the grave in which Reagan and Gorbachev buried it. Again, as during the Cold War the specter of nuclear Armageddon stalks the earth.

King World News Roberts III 2:27:2015

World Annihilation

Why did Washington revive the threat of world annihilation? Why is this threat to all of humanity supported by the majority of the US Congress, by the entirety of the presstitute media, and by academics and think-tank inhabitants in the US, such as Motyl and Weiss, about whom I wrote recently?

It was my task to answer this question for the conference. You can read my February 25 and February 26 addresses below. But first you should understand what nuclear war means. You can gain that understanding here: http://thebulletin.org/what-would-happen-if-800-kiloton-nuclear-warhead-detonated-above-midtown-manhattan8023 ***To Read The Paul Craig Roberts Address to the 70th Anniversary of the Yalta Conference, Hosted by Institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Moscow, February 25, 2015…Continue reading on page 2 by CLICKING HERE

23 Feb, 2015 by Dave Hodges

Knowledge is a precursor to action and self-empowerment. Subsequently, how and where we get our news is critically important. This article explores how America sits upon the abyss of total brainwashing and how the last vestige of unbiased truth is about to disappear.

The Digital Age of News

Just over 75% of Americans get news at least daily, including 60% of adults under age 30, from the Internet on a regular basis. Almost half of all American adults with access to the Internet subscribe to news alerts. Among smartphone owners, 78% use their device to get news. Seventy-three percent of tablet owners use their device to get news.

“The use of social media does vary by age group: 7 in 10 adults under age 30 say they learned news through social media in the last week, 6 in 10 of those age 30-39, 4 in 10 age 40-59 and 1 in 5 for those 60 or older. Social media, in other words, has become a significant part of the news consumption habits for many Americans across generations”.
Despite the omnipresence of the Internet as the predominant means that people under the age of 40 get their news and information, Americans are largely clueless that Obama’s FCC has produced a 322 page “net neutrality” document which is so ominous that it nearly guarantees the end of the Independent Media as we know it.

Last night, I interviewed Doug Hagmann about this threat to free speech and uncensored information. Just like Obamacare and the Trans Pacific Partnership, once again, even Congress is not allowed to see the 322 page document. However, leaks would indicate that Internet content will be controlled under hate speech legislation and is designed to promote a prevailing Obama-inspired social and political agenda and that the use of the Internet will soon become prohibitively expensive to use. This is a huge victory for the dying mainstream media and the corporate moguls who have hijacked our government and they are now ready to completely hijack the truth.

It is not surprising that the globalists would try and censor free speech on the Internet because people are increasingly preferring to listen to the Hagmann and Hagmann Report on the Internet, than they would prefer to watch CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on corporate controlled television. What is surprising is that Americans are seemingly taking this censorship lying down and not even putting up a semblance of a protest.

Three Psychological Reasons Why Americans Are Politically Paralyzed

For years, I have said that Americans would be motivated to take to the streets with pitchforks, if the government did two things: (1) try to confiscate guns; and, (2) take away the free and uncensored Internet. I may have been wrong on these two points, because, according to Doug Hagmann, we could be days away from losing the freedom associated with the Internet.

There is a set of psychological reasons why our people, even those that are seemingly more awake than most, would accept this latest tyranny from their government. We know about cognitive dissonance which prevents people from seeing the totality of a threat and thus inhibiting their personal ability to make the paradigm shift needed to accurately perceive the threat. We also know about bystander apathy which stands as an obstacle to getting involved because in this large country, “someone else will do it”. And there is a third psychological reason which prevents us from getting involved because we have been conditioned that our actions cannot make any difference which is reflective of a condition called, learned helplessness.

The Brainwashing of America

Americans have been brainwashed into believing that their government will care for them in their time of need. Has this time in American history been foretold? I believe that it has and that H. G. Wells was the prophetic messenger of the New World Order.

Wells actually understood a concept that modern day psychologists refer to as learned helplessness and he wrote about it in his book, The Time Machine, which was originally published in 1895 and the book was later made into a 1960 hit movie by the same name. The book prophetically told of a time in the distant future where the “normal” inhabitants of the earth would be docile, passive and suffer from the condition that modern day psychologists refer to as “learned helplessness.” What is learned helplessness?

The Rest Of The Story Here