US Solves Credit Rating Problem

To me this is one of the biggest scandals I have seen yet in all this mess. Read the numbers, print the truth, swimmin with Hoffa an the fishes....

When will it end? In theory, perhaps never as many of these crooked politicians will have children who follow in their footsteps into politics, with the same deranged views, lol. This really boggles my mind, but should anyone really be surprised, just as obvious as the nose in the middle of your face, lol....

I thot bubbles imploded?

Bubbles can explode also, if you continue to fill them. Try it next time you're chewing bubble gum.

Is this not yet another aspect of the funny munny / cooked books produced by a corrupt government and Fed? Sure looks that way to me. The people who have long believed that it is better to LOOK good than it is to BE good are in charge and have been since 2009. The economy has been created in their image... and it IS an ugly little spud too! Right now, we have a fake economy that has been created by artificial stimulus, juggling the books, and a rapidly declining currency. In this environment, there is no real economy, only this fake mess that looks good... on the surface, anyway.

Real inflation is running 10-11% right now... Fed says it is 2.5-3%. Real unemployment is running at 18% right now... Fed and Gov. say it is 9.2% or so. Real US debt rating should be about B to BB. Is there a repeating theme here? S&P had the temerity to say that it is less than perfect... AA+ instead of AAA... then the chief of S&P gets the ax as a reminder to Moody's and Fitch of just who is in charge of this circus.

Fed is keeping the short term interest rates at 0.25% when it should be in the 4-5% range. Saving is not being rewarded as it should be. Work, saving, and investing are what powers a REAL economy. Unfortunately, people are not being rewarded for this productive behavior. No, they are being rewarded for borrowing, spending, and consuming all that they can... none of which produces much of anything.

The odd part of all this is that the bond market, which controls the long term interest rates, is going along with this program. Bernanke is leading them around by the nose... and they ARE following! I can't think of any other time in US financial history when this has happened. One can only wonder what manner of arm twisting has been done behind closed doors to arrange this unique docility.

All of which adds up to a national downward spiral that will be difficult to reverse. It is clear that the empty suits and dresses in DC are not up to the task at hand. Every one of them who voted to raise the debt ceiling should be tossed from the ramparts of power, kicking and squealing all the way to the ground... SPLAT! Repeat as necessary until we have a government that is worthy of this GREAT Nation. 2010 was only the beginning. 2012 will make 2010's results look like... well, a tea party.

In the mean time, those of us who are not fooled by all this cooking of the books, slight of hand economics, and outright lies know what to do. We are exchanging this Federal Reserve funny munny for the REAL thing... as in any of the PMs. It really does not matter which PM you prefer. The thing is to get some of your wealth into physical PMs. These cannot be printed by the Fed and thereby shrunk in value. Silver, in particular, is a screaming buy at today's $35-45 price range.

In a few years, it will become impossible to maintain the current fiction that the US Gov. and the Fed have connived tp create. Like the house of cards that it is, it WILL come crashing down at some point. While we do not know when that will be, we DO know that it is inevitable. At a guess, look for a very serious US financial implosion to occur, probably during the 2013-2015 time span. The tiny ray of good news here is that we do have some time to get ready. Not a lot of time, mind you, but enough time to do the job. Build your hoard of food, useful manufactured articles, tools (especially hand tools), clothing, fuel, firearms & ammo, PMs, and farmland. These are the things that will have REAL value in a world gone insane.

Make no mistake, friends... inflation is caused by the Fed. Since it is their creation, do not look to them for a solution to it. Inflation from 1812 to 1912 was virtually nil. In those days, all US money was backed by gold and silver. Then, along comes the Fed in 1913. The fact that neither the US Congress nor the President had the constitutional authority to do this seems not to have mattered. Gold was removed from the hands of US citizens in 1933. Silver was removed from US coinage in 1965. In 1971 Nixon closed the gold window, removing the last trace of hard backing from US currency. If you are seeing a silent and invisible but powerful hand arranging all this in the background, you have your eyes open... unlike most of our fellow citizens! During the past 98 years, the value of the US dollar has been inflated down to about $0.03, so 3 cents in 1913 bought the same amount of goods as $1 does today. This continues today with no sign of abatement. So much for saving money in the bank over extended periods!

Back in the 1920s T.S. Eliot came up with the idea that the world would not end with a bang but with a whimper. Look around folks. This whimper is under final construction as we speak. If by some miracle, we manage to avoid a dollar collapse or other similar fate, being prepared for one will still have huge advantages. Being less dependent on the government is a GOOD thing. Having the ability to grow your own food is also a good thing. Protecting your wealth from inflation, which under even the most optimistic scenario possible, is still a VERY good thing. Being prepared is basically a no-lose scenario. Don't talk about it. Don't think about it. JUST DO IT!

What kills me are the way they relentlessly fake the numbers every Thursday or Friday. Two months down the line it's like " we miscalculated the figures for April, May and June. We meant to say .07% and now that we have had time to review we are revising the figure from 7% to .07%. Sorry about that. " It happens every time they need a bump to sir up a stagnant market. All they do is sit around and calculate the numbers, yet somehow they are always erring to the sweet side. At this point I wonder who they think that they're fooling. It's just really getting to be a joke.

Look, I understand things aren't too good right now (vast understatement). But those of us who are old enough to remember the late 70s early 80s also remember the sentiment that the end was near at that point as well. We now have the benefit of hindsight to tell us just how wrong that view was - 25 years of almost uninterrupted growth, and a fair bit of that could be termed "boom".

So what's different this time? Nothing, really, other than those occupying power in Washington. Well, we can fix that in a little over a year.

With another visionary like Reagan, who understands it's the private sector that creates growth and jobs, not the government; and a Fed chairman like Volker, who is willing to make the tough choice to drain liquidity to fight inflation, there's no reason to believe that we can't solve both problems of anemic economy and loose money the same way we did in 81-83.

I don't buy the "we've seen this before" theory either. We often forget the problems we face today are decades longer in the making than the 50-60 years of history we use to predict what's to come. And, that's not taking into account that the layers in complexity/dependence that we've built onto the system. What made the poker card tower unstable the first few stories up is not the same as what will tip the cards over at the top of the pyramid.



The difference IMO is that there are the hardcore doom-sayers that pour every available penny into PMs + food stores and what not, and also those that either do nothing or buy 10 oz in PM + a case of water/protein bars and think that they're prepared for anything. What's difficult is striking that balance of being covered however the world events shift.

Those of us who were adults back in the 1980s remember those days quite well and have no rose tinting on our glasses.



Those are not an apples to apples comparison. The government and the Fed are now using different ways to calculate their inflation and unemployment numbers. They are, in fact, cooking the books to make them and their policies look better than the facts actually show. REAL inflation, for example, is now about 10% and not the fake number of 2.5-3% that they keep tossing around. Same for unemployment. The REAL unemployment rate is around 17%, not 9%. These things used to be calculated in one way but are now calculated in a different way that are not comparable. Check out the shadowstats web site sometime. Some of it is for subscribers only but there is still quite a bit that can be read by anyone. Their financial analyses are some of the best I have seen. They are very thorough, clear, and concise.



Agreed. I just don't happen to think that such a change will occur to the extent necessary or with the speed needed to satisfactorily resolve these issues. If you do, that's fine... but don't bet the farm on it.

Having a public debt that is anywhere near 100% of GDP is insane, IMHO, regardless of what kind of debt is involved.



No credible agency saw the bursting of the tech stock bubble, the housing bubble, the sub-prime mortgage mess, or the collapse of Bear Sterns and Lehman Bros. either... but they all happened anyway. Watch and learn. We'll see how this all works out and who is in what shape then. Do take some steps to protect yourself physically and financially, however. Even under the best of scenarios, the government is NOT going to do that for us. Not that they should but some will assume that they will right up to the point where it finally becomes obvious to them that it just isn't happening.



No despair here, either. But there is some serious concern that IS being addressed by personal action. Those who prefer inaction in the name of everything being fine and not worrying about the situation can certainly do that... but I don't recommend it.