The Collapse

[pan]

OK, I'm an idiot - how do you upload video?

Watch this

[BO]

Fiat currency:

"The value of the money is based primarily on the faith that the money will remain relatively stable in value, continue to be accepted as a means of exchange, and will be accepted by creditors."

Essentially, we're witnessing the collapse of currencies around the world. Look to Japan to see what happens next.

[curt]

More & more people catchin' on. In the paper today, they said people are buyin' gold like it's goin' outa busyness. If that aint no sign, I dont know what is. The market over here is still pretty shaky. No trust no mo. People, institutions, banks pullin' out. Packin' up. All very low key you see. It's what you dont see that's interestin'. Little do they know, you can't eat gold. It may be pertty hangin' round your neck but you cant eat it.

[pan]

If the Republic Had Not Died a Long Time Ago, This Indeed Would be the death of the Republic
Chris Floyd , Empire Burlesque

[pan]

Closing the collapse gap

[littleoldme]

Oil hits new peak at $102 a barrel as commodities boom:

Oil powered to a new record above $102 a barrel on Wednesday, closing in on its inflation-adjusted peak, as a slumping dollar on lacklustre U.S. economic data triggered a surge across commodities markets.
http://tinyurl.com/ywwhmv

===

Dollar sinks to low ($1.50) against euro:

The dollar sank to a new low against the euro after the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank said Wednesday that the U.S. would encounter more sluggish economic activity in the coming weeks and months.
http://tinyurl.com/2g4y88

===

Manufacturing data fuel US recession fears:

US manufacturing orders on Wednesday recorded their biggest decline in five months and new home sales slumped to a 13-year low, compounding fears that the US economy may be sliding into recession.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bfe88122-e540-11dc-9334-0000779fd2ac.html

===

U.S. Economy: Confidence Falls, Producer Prices Rise:

U.S. consumer confidence fell to the lowest level in five years and wholesale inflation picked up, limiting the Federal Reserve's room to maneuver as it tries to avert a recession.
http://tinyurl.com/23uxfl

===

U.S. new-home sales for January fall 2.8%:

The decline marked a 13-year low and constituted the latest sign of prolonged weakness in the U.S. housing market. January's sales pace was down 33.9% compared with January 2007.
http://tinyurl.com/263vm7

===

U.S. Home Foreclosures Jump 90% as Mortgages Reset :

Bank seizures of U.S. homes almost doubled in January as property owners failed to make higher payments on adjustable-rate mortgages.
http://tinyurl.com/38uw2s

===

US mortgage finance firm Fannie Mae posts 2.1 bln loss:

Fannie Mae, a leading US financing provider for mortgages, said Wednesday it swung into a loss of 2.1 billion dollars in 2007 amid a deepening housing downturn and warned of "another tough year."
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/080227/8/47i6.html

===

Key home price index shows record decline:

U.S. home prices dropped 8.9 percent in the final quarter of 2007 compared with a year ago, Standard & Poor's said Tuesday, the steepest decline in the 20-year history of its housing index.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23350937/

===

Bush: US in 'slowdown' not recession :

US President George W. Bush denied Tuesday that the US economy was in recession or would go into one despite a spate of downcast reports and gloomy indicators.
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Bush_US_in_slowdown_not_recession_0226...

[waldopaper]

...and you probably saw this depressing newsoid factum: "...the 50 states spent more than $49 billion on corrections last year, up from less than $11 billion 20 years earlier. The rate of increase for prison costs was six times greater than for higher education spending...
Maybe that's why the studes had such trouble this week making the connection between euphemisms and cynicism.

"major repressive systems have succeeded in looking extremely stable almost until the day they have collapsed."

[littleoldme]

I think people are past the point where they believe everything is normal. If they grocery shop, buy gas for their cars, you name it, they see it. It's hard to hide every thing's goin' ta shit, when you can't afford toilet paper. hell they just raised my lot rent again. We're up to $400.00 a month for a lot just big enough for my trailer, with an eight foot clearance between mine and the next, 16 ft. altogether between mine and theirs. They have all of us over a barrel, cause it costs a small fortune to move one of these puppies. Between the lot rent and the trailer payment we're paying more a month then my son does for his 3 story, with basement, finished attic, on 1 acre house in Riverside, a hoitty , toitty, area of the city. Go figure.
This country sucks hard core!

[BO]

Time to move in with the son.

Gonna see a lot more extended families living together as the collapse progresses.

I don't understand how people can afford to support themselves these days. I just paid a $265 electric bill and a $154 gas bill on top of that. We must be paying $500 a week on groceries. Add to that our mortgage, insurance, phone, cable, car payment, garbage, water, sewer, private school (to keep our kid out of the local getto school), and we probably have less than a $1000 left over for everything else/ month.

Cry me a river, eh?

Point is, here in Seattle it takes an income of over 100k to remain in the middle class. What the fuck are the boomers gonna do when they retire? I think the average boomer has maybe 150k saved. That's a two year income in these parts.

And now, there aren't any cheap spots to retire to. Everything has gotten expensive 'cause the fed has killed the dollar.

And there's no reason to save. The system punishes savers. Better to max out your debt and walk away from your obligations. We now live in a world where everything has speculative value. We're all running around with butterfly nets trying to catch the next speculative bubble. It's truely a fucked way to live. Very few things actually have intrinsic value anymore. We've all become day-traders hoping to be get in on the bottom of the next investment bubble. It's all smoke and mirrors.

[littleoldme]

No thanks, I spent too many years trying to get them out of the house.

[waldopaper]

Bo;s right, .. ye know. Pretty soon, our "own space" is gonna be a luxury we not only can't afford... but it won't mean much to us in light of the alternative. One of the delicious ironies of life, I guess... we waiting for them to "grow up," them waiting for us to die. Both of us saying, "...all in good time, dearie... all in good time." For some reason, they understood the mystery of the transition as well as we did (do) didoo didoo....

Momma bird... Ms. Waldo... is already talkin about booting those objectionable parasites out of the nest... altho she takes better care of them and cuts them more slack than I ever did or will. She sees them as they are. I see them as they will always be (to me)... my Baby Punkin Seed and Mister Owl. I have no idea if they will even give me a cracker when I'm even more old and useless than I am now... up to them, I guess.

But I will feel no reservations about asking... and persisting.

[waldopaper]

"Retire???" heh heh heh... dats a hot one!! You mean, "not get paid anymore?" I guess I'm "retired"now. Too old, ugly and fucked up to get paid with the healthy young cuties... too young and healthy to get on the dole... and when I AM finally unable to do anything except be a doorstop, there won't BE any "dole." Bo- if your "work" experience is like mine... to the bean-counters, anybody who can make pictures is a "designer," just like anybody who can fill up a page with words is a "writer." Since everything is a commodity, everything is all the same... and only "cost" makes the difference. So if you can't hire the client's nephew, then hire the one with the nice butt. Cynicism? Yep- I got it.

As to the "economy," yeah- in the past it was greatly driven by "emotion" or perception. Well- kiss that shit goodbye. And here... once again... we are dealing with wildly divergent perceptions or "emotions" about reality... which i spoze is why we are here. I can no longer relate to patriotic murrikuns... because to me, they're from fucking Mars. Some bizarre kind of mind control... especially "compartmentalization." I believe there are solid neurological reasons for this, but until somebody "pays" me to research it, fuck it. It means we believe (unless we DISCIPLINE ourselves to do otherwise) what we WANT to believe.

I rarely talk to murrikan patriotz any more... unless they're one of the studes... and then they're too cautious to tell me they think I'm crazy. That's right... the people I think are from fucking Mars think I'm from fucking Neptune. Ain't that ironic? And even tho my fam aint murrikan patriotz, when I tell them money isn't real and the "country" doesn't exist... that there's no "political process," and that it's all an illusion that persists because we WANT to believe it (mostly, methinks, because we are incapable of imagining anything else)... they think I've seriously cracked. That's why... just like dogs... we'll follow the paradigm that (we think) feeds us. I can't explain to the critters that it's really the Purina company that makes their food and I trade imaginary paper to get bags of crunchies they eat. They don't care. Got any food?? Since they are as domesticated as I am, they are little more capable of getting their own food than I am. They can still live outside better. As soon as the murrikan patriotz gotta live outside, they'll abandon all this "patriotism" without a fare-thee-well.

I'm getting "dogmatic" about text.... seriously thinking about printing handouts of Two Intellectual Systems for people to read before I can even take them seriously. If they are capable of getting their brains around that, then they're ready for The Authoritarians. Otherwise, it's like talking to Skyler about the cat-food factory. When do we eat? Fact is, most of us have no more concept of where our daily bread comes from than the average domestic cat.

Recently, I was trying to explain to a really intelligent trade-agreement activist why I thought the whole question of "trade agreements" was moot. I started to feel like John Brown on acid. Naturally I sounded crazy. Oh... in my fucking DREAMS. If only I could BE such a catalyst.

As it is, I'm more of a "useless eater."

[littleoldme]

Damn, oil hit $110.00 today. Good thing we drive a little Kia Reo, 4 cylinder.
Ten bucks use to fill it to the brim, now it doesn't get ya a half a tank.