[FatherOfTwo]

One has to wonder if the majority of economic events taking place within the US aren't well under the control of, or at a minimum, anticipated by the administration. Many of us have speculated about the reckless run-up of the US debt, how it in combination with peak oil and other factors is creating the perfect storm. But I think that underlying this assertion is the assumption that either the administration is too stupid or reckless to know better. For instance it is the neo-cons over zealous pursuit of their ideologies which will ruin the country.

[Ludi]

The only real planning I can see is the plan to accumulate wealth among the fewest possible people.

[Jack]

Ludi, what if your premise is correct...but we add the possibility that Americans tend to be at the top of the food chain? Might the policy then be of benefit to many Americans, shifting the problems to the third world?

[Ludi]

I don't see any trend toward spreading wealth throughout the US population, quite the opposite, the trend is to concentrate it more at the top, and has been for years.

[PenultimateManStanding]

Right, Jack. Aren't third world countries geared to the production of cash crops and raw materials to service their debt and support the elites in those countries? Who will be hardest hit by skyrocketing transportation costs? (great analysis of this in Energybulletin) I could see a situation where the old debts and money system become irrelevant. The fact remains that we continue in our quarter share of global energy use without the means to pay for all of it. I think that is definately part of the plan and has been for a generation and will be right up to the point where the old world arrangements are gone and the new ones put into place - whatever they may be. Behind the scenes, nanotech is being worked out furiously by the Pentagon and the American miltary/industrial complex. Any solution to the upcoming crisis will be found in that direction, I think.

[threadbear]

Information that is presumed by many to be conspiratorial in nature is best left up to insiders who've been intimately involved with it.

From Financial Sense--Austin Fitts transcript.

And what I found out both as Assistant Secretary of Housing, and then what I found with my company … and with the group of honest guys kicked out of HUD, was you had an agency whose legal purpose and political purpose was to help finance the mortgage markets, whose mortgage insurance programs were increasingly caught up in financing black budget operations. And this is very much tied to what’s going on in the mortgage markets.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0405/S00268.htm


Interview on Coast to Coast--Fitts

The middle class is being "gentrified out of existence by a financial coup d'etat" and the subsidizing of this financial market is destroying the environment, she said. Fitts suggested that people vote with their resources, switch to local banks and stop backing people who are complicit with criminality. She also advised investors to look into gold and silver, as the dollar is losing its value as it falls in the world market.

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/shows/200 ... html#recap

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'T')he middle class is being "gentrified out of existence by a financial coup d'etat"

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('FatherOfTwo', 'M')any of us have speculated about the reckless run-up of the US debt, how it in combination with peak oil and other factors is creating the perfect storm.

[threadbear]

Peanut, I don't disagree. You should read the links I posted, you'll be fascinated.

[Jack]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'I') don't see any trend toward spreading wealth throughout the US population, quite the opposite, the trend is to concentrate it more at the top, and has been for years.

[Jack]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PenultimateManStanding', 'R')ight, Jack. Aren't third world countries geared to the production of cash crops and raw materials to service their debt and support the elites in those countries? Who will be hardest hit by skyrocketing transportation costs? (great analysis of this in Energybulletin) I could see a situation where the old debts and money system become irrelevant. The fact remains that we continue in our quarter share of global energy use without the means to pay for all of it. I think that is definately part of the plan and has been for a generation and will be right up to the point where the old world arrangements are gone and the new ones put into place - whatever they may be. Behind the scenes, nanotech is being worked out furiously by the Pentagon and the American miltary/industrial complex. Any solution to the upcoming crisis will be found in that direction, I think.

[Kingcoal]

Shsh! You've discovered the secret. The real secret to US power is the art of bluff and hustle. Like a pool hustler or professional poker player, the US is very adept at playing the suckers.

When I was younger, I used to really worry about the US because there have always been a great many voices, mostly from certain European countries, that predict the imminent fall or collapse of the US economy. In all those voices and there are a great many of them posting on this site, there is always a tone of superiority, often pointing out the idiocy and stupidity of American policies. All my life, I've seen their predictions turn out to not happen.

Then I began to realize that these nay sayers were blinded by their own arrogance, contempt, etc and as a result were not able to see through the cowboy facade, which they took as just an expression of unsophistication and weak mindedness. In reality, underneath it all is a steely cold, calculating poker player that makes huge bets and takes no prisoners. This player is the US Federal government which is made up of thousands of Phd level professionals who study and report to the president and others.

I'm not saying that the US does not have a problem with Peak Oil. I'm saying that the powers that be are well aware of it, have been for years and have been planning, plotting and executing all the while. They might not admit is publicly, but from their vantagepoint why should they? Remember that the game is poker and the stakes are very, very high. Why tell your fellow players anything unless it helps you to win?

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jack', '
')
Well, that wasn't what I was addressing. I was looking at the global perspective - and, from that perspective, many Americans are fairly well off.

So, perhaps disparities of wealth in the U.S. will become greater, as you suggest - but the difference between those inside the U.S. and the third worlders will expand also.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '
')
My point is that the relative wealth of Americans is only by accident and not intent on the part of those in power. That is, they are interested in their own wealth and that of their pals in power, not in the wealth of Americans in general.

[threadbear]

King Coal, Cross Tony Soprano with Einstein, that's what some of these poker players are like.