The Quiet Coup — How Bankers Seized America

The Quiet Coup — How Bankers Seized America (Mercola.com):

The economic crash has made many unpleasant truths about the United States apparent. One of the most alarming, according to a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the financial industry has effectively captured the U.S. government.

If the IMF’s staff could speak freely to the U.S. government, it would say what it says to every country in such a situation: Recovery will fail unless the financial oligarchy blocking essential reform is broken. And if the U.S. is to avoid a true depression, time is running out.

The article from The Atlantic linked below details how the U.S. financial crisis is shockingly similar to problems more commonly associated with the third world — and the harsh and necessary steps needed to get out of it.

Very interesting video with Bill Moyers and William K. Black linked on the article page and some great commentary by Dr. Mercola as well on this and an article from The Atlantic.

The Collapse of ’09 by Gerald Celente

The Collapse of ’09 by Gerald Celente (LewRockwell.com):

The “Panic of ’08″ will be followed by “The Collapse of ’09.” In 2008, when the world’s largest financial firms and equity markets crumbled, Wall Street’s woes preoccupied the media.

In 2009, the focus will broaden to include a range of calamities that will leave no sector unscathed. Next in line is retail, which accounts for some 70 percent of consumer spending, 26 percent of which is holiday sales.

After the numbers are tallied to reveal a dismal retail Christmas, more big chain bankruptcies will follow. Besides leaving masses unemployed, defunct retailers will leave behind thousands of empty stores. Who will rent them? Nobody!

Much more in the article. Must read.

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of ’09.”

I do not think he has overstated things as some will claim. I think we will see this and much more before it’s all said and done. Even areas of the country that seemed to be somehow charmed initially seem to be feeling it now. With people trying to hold on to their money … and who can blame them.

Many who had much to start with may not be feeling it as badly as those who had little to lose, but I think everyone is now feeling it.

I know some folks who have excellent credit and had very low interest rates, all of a sudden, and out of the blue, been told their credit card rates would be going from the single digits to double digits plus prime! For no apparent reason. Their credit score hadn’t changed. Nothing had changed except the state of the economy. If I personally know folks that this has happened to, how wide spread do you think it really is?

This is like getting slapped in the face. Financial institutions get obscene amounts of money, from our taxes, and still they raise interest rates for folks with excellent credit? It’s like getting slapped with double, no triple (due to the tax liability from the bailouts), whammy!

If this is happening to those with excellent credit, what of those who not so great credit?!?! My God.

“I have a bad feeling about this.” (quote from movie Star Wars)