It looks like the recent global disasters have stimulated one section of the economy. The story covers general survival sales as well as bunkers.
Showing posts tagged collapse
Trailer for Michael Ruppert’s “Collapse” film
Whatever you think of Michael, at least the Wall Street Journal gave the film a good review:
Directed by documentarian Chris Smith (“American Movie”), the film consists mostly of Mr. Ruppert speaking about the dangers of peak oil and the looming catastrophe that declining oil reserves could bring. The film opens Nov. 6 [2009] in New York and on the new video-on-demand channel FilmBuff.
“The power of ‘Collapse’ is that Ruppert … never sounds like a crackpot,” Entertainment Weekly critic Owen Gleiberman wrote after the movie’s Toronto International Film Festival premiere in September. “You may want to dispute him, but more than that you’ll want to hear him, because what he says—right or wrong, prophecy or paranoia—takes up residence in your mind.”
But as with “Fog of War,” the Oscar-winning documentary about former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, Mr. Ruppert comes across in the film as both authoritative and dubious, leaving the audience open to make its own judgment of the man and his ideas. The Wall Street Journal sat down with Mr. Ruppert to discuss oil, Wall Street and the “imminent collapse of human industrialized civilization.”
Warren Buffet: “Dollar in decline”
Let the word go forth: On Friday, March 25, 2011, Warren Buffett predicted the decline of the U.S. dollar.In a speech given in New Delhi (where he’s hunting up some cheap Indian stocks), the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway warned investors to avoid “long-term fixed-dollar investments” such as 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds. Buffett worries that the $2.3 trillion in new money our government has pumped into the economy, when combined with interest rates so low they’re practically giving money away, are combining to dilute the value of the dollar.
As a result, Buffett warns: “If you ask me if the U.S. Dollar is going to hold its purchasing power fully at the level of 2011, 5 years, 10 years or 20 years from now, I would tell you it will not.”
What’s more, he’s matching actions to words. Over the last couple of years, Buffett has been selling off longer-dated bond holdings, shifting assets into cash and shorter-dated paper. Berkshire’s holdings of debt dated longer than 10 years dropped 31% over the past 18 months, while Berkshire’s cash holdings leapt 56%.
“
Right from the beginning, Walker’s cancellation of a high speed rail link between Madison and Milwaukee sent a rail car business out of Milwaukee, abandoning a large factory. The removal of collective bargaining rights from public employees may lead to a serious catastrophe for the state’s forestry industry, as they are likely to lose their third-party “certified market” status. Now, his policies have sent other businesses throughout the state scurrying. A wind power project near Green Bay will be shuttered…
In fact, since Walker has been sworn in, 19 plants have closed down for a variety of reasons. And as you can see, some of them are directly related to Walker’s policies on regulations, public employee unions, renewable energy and high speed rail. Without including Talgo (the rail car maker) and Invenergy (the wind power company), 2,207 workers in Wisconsin have lost their factory jobs since Walker’s inauguration.
In fact, since Walker has been sworn in, 19 plants have closed down for a variety of reasons. And as you can see, some of them are directly related to Walker’s policies on regulations, public employee unions, renewable energy and high speed rail. Without including Talgo (the rail car maker) and Invenergy (the wind power company), 2,207 workers in Wisconsin have lost their factory jobs since Walker’s inauguration.
Scott Walker: Bad for Wisconsin Business | FDL News Desk (via robot-heart-politics)
Despite what you may think about the politics of these decisions, cutting budgets to decrease the deficit are going to have a profound impact on life as we know it. If the federal government succeeds in cutting more than the 15% they are fighting over right now, we will see more individuals and businesses being impacted negatively. We’re “damned if we do, and damned if we don’t”. Putting off the cuts only prolongs the arrival of the “check from the waiter at the end of the evening”. Whether sooner or later, eventually we’re all going to see the impact of the sky-rocketing deficit in our own lives - at the local, state, and national levels. Be prepared.
'Severe Threat': Deficit May Spark Crisis That Dwarfs 2008 Meltdown
The gaping deficits are threatening the economy to the point they can no longer be ignored by anyone in government and may lead “to a crisis that could dwarf 2008,” 10 former members of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers write in an open letter published by Politico.
The letter, written by former chairmen and chairwomen of the council serving both Republican and Democratic administrations, say recommendations by budget watchdogs Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson arguing that the long-run federal budget deficit will pose a serious threat to the economy need much more attention from both political parties. Bowles and Simpson co-chaired the White House’s deficit-reduction commission in 2010.“While the actual deficit is likely to shrink over the next few years as the economy continues to recover, the aging of the baby-boom generation and rapidly rising healthcare costs are likely to create a large and growing gap between spending and revenues. These deficits will take a toll on private investment and economic growth.”
Lenders, the authors point out, will run out of patience with Washington’s spending spree.
“At some point, bond markets are likely to turn on the United States — leading to a crisis that could dwarf 2008.”
Engineered Economic Collapse Approaching; Budget Cuts Will Only Accelerate the Inevitable - Activist Post
Ron Paul constantly reminds us that money is created out of thin air, which is to say it’s an illusion. Therefore, the debt must be an illusion too, correct? Yet, fiscal conservatives still use the debt as a tool of fear to make budget cuts that they selectively deem expendable.
Sure, they may think these cuts make them look “responsible,” but ultimately it is still collectivism — just more on their terms. Make no mistake; budget cuts in our corrupt system are just another form of wealth redistribution. After all, that money is being eliminated to pay off the debt, right? Thus, that money is removed from programs that employ people to pay off the issuers of credit (banks).
Additionally, the costs of the national debt, bank bailouts, war costs, and unfunded liabilities are fundamentally impossible to pay off. So, the notion that cutting a “historical” $100 billion will have any positive affect on the long-term economy is absolute fiction. And although many conservative lawmakers feel like it’s the right thing to do, they know it will have no measurable affect on the debt. It’s a scam, and if the history of modern lawmaking is any indicator, the establishment will surely stick it to the poor and middle classes with these cuts while the oligarchs continue to flourish.
