What We’re Reading Frank Partnoy and Jesse Eisenger, What’s Inside America’s Banks and Should More Bankers Be in Prison Bretton Woods Project, The World Bank and Industrial Policy: Hands on or Hands off Michael Lim and Joseph Lim, Asian Initiatives at Monetary and Financial Integration Engelbert Stockhammer and Ozlem Oneran, Wage-Led Growth What We’re Writing C.P. Chandrasekhar, India’s Triumph in Rice Matias Vernengo, On the State of Macroeconomics Leonce Ndikumana, Austerity: A View From Africa Gerald Epstein, Rich Should Be Happy With Cliff Deal
Category: News
Solving Emerging Debt Crises
Martin Khor The issue of foreign debt has made a major comeback. This is due to the crisis in Europe, in which many countries had to seek big bailouts to keep them from defaulting on their loan payments. Before this, debt crises have been associated with African and Latin American countries. In 1997-99, three East Asian countries also joined the indebted countries’ club. This year, European countries, notably Germany, insisted that private creditors share the burden of resolving the Greek crisis. They had to take a “haircut” of about half, meaning that they would be repaid only half the amount they were…
Say Goodbye To The Good Life
Will this be the last normal holiday season that Americans ever experience? To many Americans, such a notion would be absolutely inconceivable. After all, in the affluent areas of the country restaurants and malls are absolutely packed. Beautiful holiday decorations are seemingly everywhere this time of the year and children all over the United States are breathlessly awaiting the arrival of Santa Claus. Even though poverty is exploding to unprecedented levels, most families will still have mountains of presents under their Christmas trees. Of course a whole lot of those presents were purchased with credit cards, but people don’t like to talk about that. It kind of spoils the illusion. Sadly, the truth is that our entire economy is a giant illusion. The…
Government Dependents Outnumber Those With Private Sector Jobs In 11 U.S. States
America is rapidly becoming a nation of takers. An increasing number of Americans expect the government to take care of them from the cradle to the grave, and they expect the government to dig into the pockets of others in order to pay for it all. This philosophy can be very seductive, but what happens when the number of takers eventually outnumbers the number of producers? In 11 different U.S. states, the number of government dependents exceeds the number of private sector workers. This list of states includes some of the biggest states in the country: California, New York, Illinois, Ohio, Maine, Kentucky, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, New Mexico and Hawaii. It is…
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly From The Fiscal Cliff Deal
The fiscal cliff deal contains more bad news than it does good news. Yes, the tax increases on the middle class could have been much worse, and we should be thankful that Congress at least did something for the middle class. Unfortunately, they didn’t do enough. Every American worker is going to pay higher taxes next year as a result of this deal. The fiscal cliff deal represents the biggest tax increase in 20 years, and it is also projected to increase the U.S. national debt by an additional 4 trillion dollars over the next decade. In the final analysis, U.S. government finances are still wildly out of control and we are …
50 Predictions For 2013
Are you ready for a wild 2013? It should be a very interesting year. When the calendar flips over each January, lots of people make lots of lists. They make lists of “resolutions”, but most people never follow through on them. They make lists of “predictions”, but most of those predictions always seem to end up failing. Well, I have decided to put out my own list of predictions for 2013. I openly admit that I won’t get all of these predictions right, and that is okay. Hopefully I will at least be more accurate than most of the other armchair prognosticators out there. It is important to look ahead and try to get a handle on what is coming, because I believe that the…
A Massive Electromagnetic Pulse Could Collapse The Economy In A Single Moment
What would you do if all the lights went out and they never came back on? That is a question that the new NBC series “Revolution” asks, but most people have no idea that a similar thing could happen in real life at any moment. A single gigantic electromagnetic pulse over the central United States could potentially fry most of the electronics from coast to coast if it was powerful enough. This could occur in a couple of different ways. If a powerful nuclear weapon was exploded at a high enough altitude, it could produce an electromagnetic pulse powerful enough to knock out electronics all over the…
Happy New Year Middle Class: The Fiscal Cliff Is Going To Rip You To Shreds
The middle class has quite a gift welcoming them as the calendar flips over to 2013. Their payroll taxes are going to go up, their income taxes are going to go up, and approximately 28 million households are going to be hit with a huge, unexpected AMT tax bill on their 2012 earnings. So happy New Year middle class! You are about to be ripped to shreds. In addition to the tax increases that I just mentioned, approximately two million unemployed Americans will instantly lose their extended unemployment benefits when 2013 begins, and new Obamacare tax hikes which will cost American taxpayers about a trillion dollars over the next decade will start to go into effect. If Congress is not able to come to some sort of a deal…
16 Things About 2013 That Are Really Going To Stink
The beginning of the year has traditionally been a time of optimism when we all look forward to the exciting things that are going to happen over the next 12 months. Unfortunately, there are a whole bunch of things about 2013 that we already know are going to stink. Taxes are going to go up, good paying jobs will continue to leave the country, small businesses will continue to be destroyed, the number of Americans living in poverty will continue to soar, our infrastructure will continue to decay, global food supplies will likely continue to dwindle and the U.S. national debt will continue to explode. Our politicians continue to pursue …
65 Percent Of Americans Believe That 2013 Will Be A Year Of Economic Difficulty
Do you believe that economic trouble is coming in 2013? If so, you have a lot of company. According to a brand new Gallup poll that was just released, 65 percent of Americans believe that 2013 will be a year of “economic difficulty” while only 33 percent of Americans believe that 2013 will be a year of “economic prosperity”. Gallup has been asking this question for a lot of years, and the percentage of Americans that are anticipating economic difficulty in the year ahead has not been this high since the early 1980s. And without a doubt, there are a whole lot of reasons to be deeply concerned about …
D-FOX: Please contact us if you can read this
To D-fox: if you’re reading this, please contact us at thecomingcrisis@gmail.com. It’s important — we believe.
British Parliament Erupts over State of Carpeting
Article by The Coming Crisis. Read entire story here.
Global warming, the tool of the West?
For years, the Elites of the West have cranked up the myth of Man Made Global Warming as a means first and foremost to control the lives and behaviors of their populations. Knowing full well that their produce in China and sell in the West model and its consiquent spiral downward in wages and thus standards of living, was unsustainable, the elites moved to use this new “science” to guilt trip and scare monger their populations into smaller and more conservatives forms of living. In other words, they coasted them into the poverty that the greed and treason of those said same elites was already creating in their native lands.What better way to staunch protests at worsening economic and…
Flu vaccine will NOT work for one in ten Americans, says CDC as fears grow over spread of flue across country
This year’s flu season is one of the quickest and most aggressive on record, and the evolving strain is causing problems for doctors as the vaccine will not work for one in ten cases.Doctors continually send samples of the flu cases that they treat to the Centers of Disease Control so that they can understand what strands of the flu are spreading rapidly, and they use that information to create the vaccine sent out nationally.’We did about as good as we could have done to put the right three strains of flu into the flu vaccines that are available on the market,’ CDC spokesman Thomas Frieden said.https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article…
Deadly Flu sweeps America: ‘Particularly aggressive’ strain of winter virus leaves 18 children dead as experts warn epidemic will worsen
The U.S. has been hit with a particularly aggressive early flu season this year with widespread reports of the illness across the country, hospitalizing 2,257 people and leaving 18 children dead before the end of 2012.And health officials say the numbers haven’t even peaked yet.’I think we’re still accelerating,’ Tom Skinner, a Center for Disease Control and Prevention spokesman, told reporters.https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2257597/Flu-infections-sweep-America-hospitalizing-thousands-leaving-18-children-dead-complications-going-worse.html
Paul Ali Slater Shot: Brave mother shoots home intruder five times in face after he cornered her in attic as she shielded her nine-year-old twins
As a home invader broke into her house in Loganville, Georgia, a mother of twins armed herself and hid with the children in an attic crawlspace. When Paul Ali Slater, pictured top left, reached the top floor, he found himself staring at the barrel of a .38 revolver. Protecting herself and her children, the unidentified mom emptied the chamber, missing only once. Slater tried to escape in his truck, but his injuries would not let him get far, and he crashed in a nearby wooded area, pictured right.https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2257966/Paul-Ali-Slater-Intruder-shot-times-face-neck-cornering-mother-kids-attic.html
Baton Rouge Mall Brawl: Flash mob at Mall of Louisiana goes horribly wrong when massive 200-person brawl breaks out instead
A flash mob at the Mall of Louisiana turned violent last night, causing the shopping center to be evacuated.As many as 200 young people were in the food court of the Baton Rouge mall for an apparent flash mob, but things turned ugly quickly.https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2258022/Baton-Rouge-Mall-Flash-mob-goes-horribly-wrong-massive-200-person-brawl-breaks-instead.html
Violence returns to the streets of Belfast
Article by The Coming Crisis. Read entire story here.
Earth is fucked.
After extensive mathematical modeling, scientist declares “Earth is fucked” IO9Brad Werner has a simple question: Is the Earth fucked? He also has a remarkably complicated methodology yielding a very simple answer: yes, unless people start a serious global rebellion….So, to sum up: even our best efforts at environmental management are doomed to fail, unless massive scale resistance movements start springing up and send our cultural personality back toward a pre-technological era. Science has given you your mandate, people: Go blow some shit up.Put more scientifically…Despite weak economy, CO2 emissions to grow 2.6 percent in 2012: study ReutersCarbon dioxide emissions …
Annoying IEA Report
I’m going to try to give y’all some tools to refute that annoying IEA report that just came out — the one that says the US will be the “new Saudi Arabia” and a net exporter of energy. I doubt this community has any new people reading it, and if you’ve been here for a while, you know this report is bullshit, but you need to know why because all these smug, optimistic cornucopians are going to be bringing the article to your attention in hopes of defeating everything you’ve ever told them about energy production.I’m going to skip the IEA report itself and go straight to the facts.US oil production has indeed surged in recent …
Dmitry Orlov: Peak Oil Lessons From The Soviet Union
Dmitri Orlov on peak oil and climate change.
Noam Chomsky — Peak Oil and a Changing Climate
Mostly, he talks about the stuff Chomsky likes to talk about, but still good.
Richard Heinberg: Peak Oil and the Globe’s Limitations
This is about a year old, but it’s still a good summary.Here’s a link to Chomsky from the same series on peak oil and climate change. (About 9 months old.)
Grappling with the Inexplicable – A Psychologist Looks at Newtown CT
A Reason to Kill It was a quiet afternoon, when the man walked in, holding a gun. He was looking for his wife’s therapist. He was angry, and was convinced that it was this therapist, not his wife’s own decision-making, that had led her to decide to divorce him. By the time he was finished shooting, one therapist was dead, another shot and permanently blinded. The man was a good shot. He was a police officer. I began working with couples in that same clinic several years later. There is a certain edge to a place that has experienced gross, unpredictable violence, even years earlier. That agency was lucky in some ways, because it had some excuse, some explanation for why it happened. The shooter …
With Visions of Sugar-Plums Dancing in My Head
I’m feeling pretty darn good about 2013. Economic crash be damned. Just had a barely awake chat with KMO over at the C-Realm Podcast’s special programming called “The Vault.” I was sleepy, as it was the day after Christmas, and DH and I did a crazy stint of driving, after we put our dino-dog-puppies to bed, then shot over to see my sister and extended family. It was a great holiday. The Shopping Gene? My sister, who has an incredible talent for picking out clothes for me, chose a fantastic hat as my gift. For those…
Post Peak Career? Forget Law, Consider Geology
In 2007, Byron King was chatting with Mr. Wang, a marine geologist from China, and what he learned knocked his socks off: “There are about 40,000 or 50,000 students studying geology in China today at the university level. Maybe more, but I do not want to give you a number that is too high.” That’s about 25 times the students studying in the US (and about half the US graduates are foreign nationals). For every geologist in the US, we have about 50-100 lawyers, King estimates. What about the population difference? China has 4 times our population, but 50 times the number of geologists. First year salaries: Lawyers: $38,118 – $91,256 Petroleum Geologists: $44,385 – …
Saying Goodbye to Tomorrow.
Today is the last day on Earth, according to some New Age interpretation of the Mayan calendar. This belief has caused endless suffering and useless expensive purchases by people trying to “beat the clock” and find somewhere safe to spend their last few hours. Cheap places have suddenly become outrageously expensive, because someone said “Hang out there!” during your final hours. This story caused one young woman to take her life. However, saying “Goodbye to Tomorrow” has a long history that goes beyond this moment in time. Humans are famous for planning the end of not only their own anticipated deaths, but because that is just too commonplace, they have to anticipate the death of everyone and everything around them. The End of the World…
Mike Ruppert on the Third Date
Hey Peak Shrink! I read your help-letter from the lesbian couple looking to relocate. My partner and I moved from Sacramento to Nevada County almost two years ago. It was very scary but it was a wonderful choice. We are super happy here. I would love to be put in touch with the writer. You can give her my email address. The letter inspired me to write a blog about our story. Feel free to post it to your website of refer it to other readers if you want. 🙂 Hillary Hodge ********************** My partner had “taken the red pill” and was hip to peak oil before I had …
Morning of the Magicians: Magical Thinking for a New Age
“I have no doubt that in reality the future will be vastly more surprising than anything I can imagine. Now my own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.” –J. B. S. HaldaneRationalists of a certain literal, materialistic mindset look at the world’s current state and its future trajectory, crunch the numbers and conclude that, with a high probability, we’re all doomed. It’s an understandable conclusion, too, if you project current capabilities and priorities linearly into the future. But what is missing from their equations — from their entire worldview, in fact — is the element of what I’ll call, for lack of a better word, “magic”.Magic…
Doom and the Dark Side of Cosmic Fecundity
The Cosmic Dance of Shiva, supreme Hindu god of destruction and creationLike many in the blogosphere, I have expended considerable mental energy in recent years studying and fretting over the various “doomer” scenarios that threaten humanity in the 21st century. There was a time when I found the apparent facts utterly depressing and was convinced that there was no light at the end of the tunnel for mankind – that the future offered nothing but total collapse and devolution. But some time during the past six months or so, and particularly with my recent turn to the “dark side”, I have …