Why the US is in an invisible Depression

[peetar]

America has not been an unregulated capitalist system for over 100 yrs at least. Look at the growth curve of government if you want to track our downfall. In America's greatest growth period where there were the greatest number of jobs there were the least number of regulations.

 

[ATCclears]

Rise of the "Redback"?

Yuan hailed as the world reserve currency | South China Morning Post

Peter

 

[knuckle Head]

We all knew that this would happen. None of us wanted it to, because it just leads us further down the Poop hole.

The sad part is, most will read and say awe, don't worry about it. All is good, we will be ok, nothing to worry about it. This too will pass.

I wish it were not true, makes my stomach turn and sink to think about what is coming.

 

[Burt Gummer]

Well we also all know that if/when the dollar is removed as the reserve currency it is over for the US. The fake ponzi petro dollar is all that is propping this corpse up. We have murdered a million Iraqis and Libyans to protect the dollar, but perhaps that only bought us time.

We WILL go to war with Russia and China (aka WWIII) if need be to stop that from happening. Whatever the central bankers have in store for us will happen. Hello draft and actual war HERE - I mean let's see how happy Americans are with war when they finally get to see it up close and personal. Something tells me perceptions about war and death might finally change a little.

 

[peetar]

In 1960, the wealthiest metro area in America was Detroit. Today, it's Washington DC.

If you want to solve the problem, start there.

 

[knuckle Head]

Yeah but Detroit was sucked dry by the officials that were elected to office, school board officials had limo's with drivers, Mayor Coleman Young had a private jet the city bought for him to use and he flew around world in. The city of Detroit was filled with leaches sucking off money and work that was never performed and kick back central.

Hmmmmmmmm, Oh O.k. I see your point now... After all what is DC now anyways, a façade, a corrupt kickback organization where insider trading is not legal but a requirement. Government personnel are required to inform congress and senate 72 hr in advance of major contracts so they claim it as something they had a part in, and less it is legal for them to buy in that company they are of is getting that contract. How else do people think they go into office broke and come out billionaires.

 

[rocky3]

Wait and see, like Fresno, Calif. the privization of water and sewer will lead to abdominal rates and Detroit will have many more citizens walking away.
I tried to explain that to my representative and senator but they didn't understand. Their noses are too short to see the writing on the wall.
Betcha no preppers there...just sayin"

 

[Burt Gummer]

The Tip Of The Iceberg Of The Coming Retirement Crisis That Will Shake America To The Core

 

[ATCclears]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/26/o...?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130726&_r=0

Come See Detroit, America's Future
By CHARLIE LeDUFF
Published: July 25, 2013 53 Comments

DETROIT — I KNOW an old woman who hasn't opened her windows in a decade, afraid that what's outside will climb inside. Inside, there is the stale odor of dead air.

I know another woman who called me about a corpse lying outside her window for six and a half hours. This was because of cutbacks at the morgue. No dignity in death here. They do it better in Baghdad.

The latest trend? When a person is murdered, he is thrown into an abandoned house, and it is set on fire. There are tens of thousands to choose from.

I know of an 11-year-old boy who was shot, the bullet going clean through his arm. The cops stuffed him in the back of a squad car and rushed him to the hospital. That's how we do it. There was no ambulance available. About two-thirds of the city's fleet is broken on an average day.

I know a cop who drives around in a squad car with holes in the floorboards. There is no computer, no air-conditioning, the odometer reading 147,000 miles. His bulletproof vest has expired. His pay has been cut 10 percent.

I knew a firefighter who died in a fire, but not from the fire. He died when the roof of an abandoned house collapsed on him and his brethren could not find him because his homing alarm was broken and did not sound. He suffocated.

In our town, the 911 dispatch system recently went down for 15 hours, and no one seemed to give a damn. When the system is running, the average wait is 58 minutes. Firefighters can't use hydraulic ladders on fire trucks to do their jobs unless there is an "immediate threat to life." In a fire — imagine that. The ladders haven't been inspected in years.

If this were New York, these stories would have ricocheted around the world. But this is Detroit and, of course, nobody gives a damn. Even here people have been conditioned to accept these things as normal, a nuisance, the buzz of a fly.

This numbness, in a peculiar way, is a sign of strength. People here manage to get along somehow.

So we went broke, bust, bankrupt. We've known that in Detroit for years. Only now it is official with a Chapter 9 filing last week. The biggest municipal default in United States history — at least $18 billion. Suddenly, America gives a rip.

How did it get this way, I'm asked? After all, it was just 99 years ago that Henry Ford offered the workingman $5 a day and profit-sharing. How, in less than a century, did it come to this?

The short answers: municipal mismanagement, race riots, white flight, black flight, dead flight (people routinely disinter their deceased and relocate them to the suburbs). There were the overreaching unions and management that couldn't balance a ball. Proof? The multibillion-dollar bailout of the auto industry. Thank you, American taxpayers!

Then there is our spectacular civic corruption: A former mayor, Kwame M. Kilpatrick, waits for a bed in federal prison, convicted of extortion, racketeering and bribery. He looted the city of millions of dollars and stole the future of thousands of children. They can send him to hell for all I care. I don't want to pay for his upkeep. But thank you, taxpayers! You will pay for it. And the ex-mayor's team of super lawyers will also be paid with the public dime.

So Detroit files for bankruptcy. What does this mean? Pay close attention because it may be coming to you soon, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia. In 2011, Moody's calculated the unfunded liabilities for Illinois's three largest state-run pension plans to be $133 billion. (It is expected to be even larger this year.) That's the size of six Detroit bankruptcies — give or take a few hundred million.

Of Detroit's debt of at least $18 billion, about $7 billion is secured by collateral like casino revenues and utility taxes. That means creditors — read: big banks — will get paid. Of the remaining $11 billion dollars or so in unsecured debt, about $9 billion is owed to retirees and current municipal workers, people like firefighters and police officers. These debts come in the form of promised pension checks and health care benefits, all backed by a false, unsecured promise. These are the people who are likely to lose out.

In simple math, do we sacrifice 30,000 former and current workers to save a city of 700,000 people and their progeny? Most Detroiters will tell you yes. Don't judge. We feel bad about it. But we're simply Americans. We are a gaunt dog. We are desperate. And you are watching and studying us.

Pension checks will be much smaller than planned and health care benefits will get foisted off on Medicaid and Obamacare. Thanks again, taxpayers!

There is hope up here on the Great Lakes. We have fresh water, profitable auto companies, more than $130 billion a year in trade with Canada crossing through our city, a world-class research university and, eventually, a clean balance sheet. Hey, it helps to be first. What do you have, Atlanta?

So come visit Detroit, my fellow Americans. Come take a look at your future. Come give the tires a kick. And if you want your money back, come strip copper pipes and wiring from the abandoned buildings — if you can find any copper. Chances are, someone beat you to it.

Charlie LeDuff, a reporter at the TV station WJBK and a former New York Times correspondent, is the author of "Detroit: An American Autopsy."
A version of this op-ed appeared in print on July 26, 2013, on page A23 of the New York edition with the headline: Come See Detroit, America's Future.

 

[ATCclears]

<broken link removed>

 

[Father of four]

In simple math, do we sacrifice 30,000 former and current workers to save a city of 700,000 people and their progeny?

No, the big banks.

 

[Father of four]

And the people in government who put Detroit there in the first place.

Its only wishful thinking though. The bad guys always stick it to the poor and the ones with no power or authority.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

How much more are we going to take from corporate traitors and the banksters who have neutered the USA and enslaved us?

Exclusive: 4 in 5 in US face near-poverty, no work

 

[knuckle Head]

How much more are we going to take from corporate traitors and the banksters who have neutered the USA and enslaved us?

Exclusive: 4 in 5 in US face near-poverty, no work

Been there twice myself, that is why I am such an avid prepper and believe in assisting other with knowledge on how to prepare in every way possible, food, skills, shelter building and defense of ones stores.

Anyone who thinks this will not happen to them, is only fooling themselves.

 

[Burt Gummer]

Even in the banker controlled MSM, some stories are slipping through about how bad it is ....

4 in 5 in USA face near-poverty, no work

 

[ATCclears]

'It's degrading': Bankrupt New England mill town offers Detroit a bleak preview - In Plain Sight

I'm not here to beat anyone up who has a Pension. However, much of these Pensions are shams in that they are underfunded, the actuaries and/or politicians are incorrectly assuming a rate of return of 8%+, and there will be insufficient money to bail them out as more fail.

Peter

 

[knuckle Head]

<broken link removed>

<broken link removed>

But hey wait, it cannot be all the bad look at what a lavish life style the Obama's and their staff are living Obama Vineyard vacation at $7.6m private resort, over 75 rooms booked for staff | WashingtonExaminer.com

This jerk off is wasting more tax payer money and I am sitting home today without pay on furlough and Hagel has announced that we can expect even more Furlough days, along with layoffs and RIF's for Fiscal Year 2014 and 2015. All the while when I left work on Friday I had people asking when I could get certain things finished. I told them I had no idea when I come in Tuesday I would see what I can do.

I also had people complaining they could not get things done, I said good. Because if you still get 40 hrs of work done in 32 you are screwing yourself and everyone else here. Come in do your job, get what you can done in your 8 hours and go home, I refuse to stay over even for a meeting or finish something and get off early the next day, the idiots in DC established the rules I am only playing by them. We all had to sign notice that if we work over that we are in violation of federal law and can be fined and fired. I am not going to be fined or fired for working late for people who cut my pay by 20% a week for eleven weeks.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Obongo is simply ruling like an African king does..

 

[unklekippy]

How much more are we going to take from corporate traitors and the banksters who have neutered the USA and enslaved us?

Exclusive: 4 in 5 in US face near-poverty, no work

I'm ready. Logistics are my thing. I was a dispatcher for years. Coordination on a large scale is necessary. I'm not taking any more. It's hard to do alone.

 

[unklekippy]

Escape from Detroit. Send in Snake Plissken and turn it into a giant prison...

Peter

Well, we're half way there. If only we could find Plissken.

Detroit used to be referred to as "The Paris Of The Midwest". WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!?! Oh yeah, unions were a big help.