There have been a number of high-profile authors claiming that something grave would happen in September: that there would be some kind of economy crashing, chaos wielding, earth shattering, armageddon causing, CERN crushing crisis that would swallow up the entire world. Well, that didn't quite happen: the blood moon--at least in Ontario--was covered in cloud, the Pope's visit to America ended in a whimper, CERN's Hadron Collider did not cause the earth to explode, and we woke up October 1st wondering why we're all still here on earth.
But what has been happening? Well, more than we might think.
There are some financial analysts claiming that indeed the markets did get rocked in September, with a global stock loss of 11 trillion dollars, as a result of the simultaneous crashing of all major global economies over the past three months. This has taken place largely as a result of the following, according to Fortune:
The prolonged slump was due to low prices for commodities such as oil, instability in China's markets, and the anticipation that the U.S. Federal Reserve will soon raise interest rates.
The September dread scenarios seem to be taking longer to unfold, rather than a rapid smack-down of the earth. The recession seems to be more systematic, unfolding over a greater period of time, and impacting other countries that weren't part of the 2008/2009 crisis.
On Max Keiser's Financial War reports, there is a general sense among people that we are living in a time of zero-growth among the lower and middle classes, with only the upper 10% of citizens reaping the benefits. But it's not just decline in buying power, but also "political power, control of one's work and income-producing assets."
Accordingly, people in the middle and lower classes are more anxious, stressed-out, unhealthy, divorced, more unlikely to rise from state dependence to in-dependence, a decline in marriage, family, and independent households simply given the expense of doing so. As such, we are seeing the decline of values, hopes, and dreams, not only in North America but also other parts of the world.
In many conversations around the coffee bar or water cooler, at least one person is talking about the ills of the world and the times of conflict we're in. We don't know if we should buy gold, silver, both, and how much; if we should keep our money in the banks or pull it and invest it elsewhere; we saw what happened in Greece, at how the banks closed their doors and a definitive limit was placed on how much one could withdraw, and wonder not if but when that will happen in North America.
Many have also been following the Federal Reserve Bank proceedings, wondering if they will raise interest rates; for if they do, and they realize this, it will set off widespread bankruptcies, simply because of the extent to which businesses and individuals are over leveraged in debt. Incidentally, in Brazil and other parts of the world, governments are planning to offer 100-150 year bonds.
And the derivative market that was the target of the 700 Billion dollar bailout has not receded, rather there are even more of the junk investment packages in the marketplace than ever before--$1.5 Quadrillion! Derivatives are basically bets on other things: real estate, other stocks, etc. Some claim the global derivative market is 20 times greater than the global economy. And because it's unregulated, there's no way of tracking or controlling it--in spite of the rigmarole of the bailout hearings in 2009. Warren Buffet has called derivatives "weapons of mass destruction." The problem is, when that bubble bursts, there won't be enough money in the market to bail the issue out.
No, we may have made it out of September in one piece, but what we are in the midst of, and the experts are way ahead of us on these issues, is a systematic erosion of our society: economically, vocationally, morally, and psychologically/emotionally.
We all need to be vigilant and prepare accordingly. The links provided above are good places to begin. This is not a violent destruction we're in the midst of, but a gradual unfolding erosion of the lower and middle-class and the world at large.
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