Who’s Going To Eat The Losses?

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1

Unsustainable.

Many more people need to understand what that word really means, and how it applies to pretty much everything in the current human living arrangement. Especially the so-called 'developed' nations.

Here’s the dictionary definition:

Let's take these three definitions one at a time.

First: our entire economic model, which dependent on borrowing at a faster rate than income (GDP) grows, is something that simply cannot be maintained at its current rate or level. Check.

Second: depleting species, soils and aquifers are all wildly unsustainable practices that are accelerating. Check.

Last (and most glaring of all): the world’s leadership (and we use that term very loosely) continues to insist on adhering to the indefensible idea that infinite growth on a finite planet is possible  Checkmate.

Said another way, the daily comforting stories we are told about how all of this somehow makes sense are just a load of nonsense. Each is entirely unsupportable by the evidence, facts and data.

What happens when a culture’s dominant narratives are not just unsatisfactory, but entirely unworkable? 

Well, for one thing, the younger generations that are being asked (goaded?) to step into an increasingly flawed future begin to resist. Which is completely understandable. They have nothing to gain if the status quo continues.

At the same time, the older generations mostly just settle into a stubborn insistence that everything will be fine if everyone will just do more of precisely what got us into the mess in the first place. Younger people should step up to make sure Medicare/Social Security/pensions remain fully funded, and buy the financial assets and homes of downsizing seniors at top dollar. The boomers have everything to lose if the status quo changes.

Why do I bother to tell you all this?  Why have I spent the last ten years of my life trying to alert the public of risks they keep telling me make them uncomfortable?  Because I care. Because I hope to help a few people preserve their hard-earned wealth. Possibly even save a few lives with this information. And, ultimately, to help people lead lives filled with greater connection, aliveness and joy.

The key to all of these better outcomes is having a clear-eyed view of "what is", and then being able to predict "what’s next". Which means that understanding is the first step. Informed action follows from that.

Mind The Gap

In the US, through selfish over-consumption, the baby boomer generation has screwed the prospects for following generations. It's now doing everything to deny and defend its extraordinarily self-serving and short-sighted decisions, and delay the repercussions for as long as possible.

For the record, I seriously doubt the current younger generations would have behaved any differently were we to teleport them back in time  The boomers came of age when net energy from oil was still climbing and that ‘taught’ them about ‘how the world worked.’  When you have abundant resources, especially high net energy oil, you can pretty much do anything you want.

But today?

Not so much. A BIG fallacy of the past is that wars lead to rapid economic expansion afterwards. A more correct version of this is that the destruction of war leads to rapid recovery and rebuilding ONLY IF you also have access to abundant high net energy oil. If you don't, wars only lead to destroyed economies.

Think of it this way: an 18-year-old who injures his knee has the resources of youth to help them recover completely. But an 80-year-old? Not so much.

This fallacy of thinking that we can just have another nice major war (North Korea?), or a few major hurricanes (Harvey, Irma and counting...), and then not only recover, but return better than ever is a dangerous delusion to hold. It's no different than our 80-year-old thinking that taking up downhill skateboarding would be a safe and sensible thing to do. 

Self-deception is a process of denying or rationalizing away the relevance, significance, or importance of opposing evidence and logical argument. Self-deception involves convincing oneself of a truth (or lack of truth) so that one does not reveal any self-knowledge of the deception.

(Source)

The inter-generational resentment mentioned above is growing ever more extreme and it’s creating a significant social (and soon political) disturbance that will prove to be utterly disappointing for all. Already we see the signs in failing pensions having to cut benefits, young people opting out of such bulwarks of cultural stability as car ownership, marriage and having children.

If the DNC hadn’t straight up stolen the primary from Bernie Sanders, it’s quite possible that he’d have handily won the US presidential election and we’d already be feeling the effects of the political power of the next generation.

In this view, Trump is nothing more than the first (but not final) reflection of boomer denial backfiring badly. The sclerotic remnants of the past held fast and tried to jam Hillary down the throats of a very unenthusiastic electorate that long ago concluded that business-as-usual is literally a vision without a future. And so Hillary was rejected and Trump, the only alternative left standing, got the victory.

Who’s Going To Eat The Losses?

The US economic data to back up this decidedly dim view of things could not possibly be more robust and unassailable.

If we were allowed just one chart, just a single piece of data to back up this assertion, it would be this one:

The oft-cited and worried over ‘US federal debt’ of some $20 trillion is the lowest dark-blue shaded area on that chart .It’s not even 10% of the predicament the country faces

No country has ever dug out from under a debt + liability load anywhere close to that amount. It's just too big a hole to climb out of.

With GDP growth stubbornly anemic for going on 12 years now, and no fresh sources of high net energy to fund future GDP growth, we can say this very simply about the promises our politicians are soothingly singing to us:

Any thought that these promises will be kept is delusional.

They won’t be kept because they can’t be kept. It’s really no more complicated than that.

Only one question matters when presented with a chart like this: Who’s going to eat the losses?

The keepers of the status quo, such as Hillary and Trump and their cozy relationships with Goldman-Sachs, et al., want the answer to be ‘the taxpayers’ (and not ‘the banks’). But they'd never publicly admit to that. So they pretend that losses will never matter, and instead promise perpetual prosperity for all.

So people, companies, communities and the entire nation of the United States makes plans and investments as if the above chart didn't even exist.

This is no different than our 80-year-old refusing to draft a will because he simply can't face the reality that one day he'll need one. Such denial and self-delusion make a terrible strategy to live by.

The fact that you live in a world where the leaders of most countries are engaging in willful denial does not mean you have to be a victim to the consequences of their irrational delusion.

This is why having a clear-eyed view of the data, knowing your history, and forecasting the most likely outcomes are critical for positioning yourself for safety.

Those who do this empirically realize that the global economy is far more likely to contract, possibly viciously, before it expands. Given this, today's global equity prices and non-investment grade bonds are absolutely mis-priced for such an outcome -- instead they're practically priced for perfection, and thus due for a major correction.

Last week we issued a report warning of the multiplying number of important indicators signaling a coming market correction and economic recession.

Building on that data is next week's webinar featuring Grant Williams and Lance Roberts who will be presenting their latest indicators, analysis and forecasts at the Dangerous Markets webinar on September 13th -- where they will take ample questions live from the audience. For more information on the webinar, click here.

Stormy Outlook

In Part 2: How To Deal With Our Dangerous Markets And Failing Future, we explain why the fall from today's market highs will be so painful, and where today's concerned investor can look when seeking safe haven for their capital.

We have the world's central banking cartel for our situation, who have -- for the third time in less than 20 years -- blown a gigantic bubble.  Or rather, have blown a nested set of bubbles (stocks, bonds, housing), each of which will help accelerate the popping the others when the time comes.

As with a developing hurricane, the time to prepare yourself for these eventualities is well before they actual manifest.  Once they’ve arrived, your ability to respond and react will be hampered by the fact that your efforts will be accompanied by those of thousand and millions of other people. Don't be one of the panicked herd. Take prudent action today.

Click here to read the report (free executive summary, enrollment required for full access)

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://peakprosperity.com/whos-going-to-eat-the-losses/

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“In the US, through selfish over-consumption, the baby boomer generation has screwed the prospects for following generations.”

Yeah Martenson, that’s the ticket. It is all the baby boomer’s fault. We intentionally got born post WWII as the pig in the snake generation just to inconvenience future generations.
Never mind that when we got to school in the late 50’s and early sixties they were filled to standing room only.
Never mind that when we got to college those also were filled beyond capacity, and never mind that when we graduated there were NO freaking jobs.
And as usual your rant about the baby boom generation is long on criticism for things we could not help and very short on solutions that can actually have positive change. In fact no solutions, one gathers you expect us all to feel so sorry for the people younger than us that we should just collectively decide to commit mass suicide.
I was born in 1958, I have an IQ over 140, a college education worth about 7 years of semester hours, a bachelor degree in finance, I am a decent person with a great sense of humor, I have never earned more than $43,000 in any year, and the planet was pretty damned screwed up by the time I arrived.
Never mind that I have never been able to afford to buy a house, we were the first generation to experience downward mobility, never mind that most of my life has been spent in terror of homelessness and poverty.
Never mind that in spite of our best efforts the generations that came after us were cynical, sloppy, lazy, illiterate, and have really heinous taste in both clothing and grooming habits.
Here is a FACT for you, if man keeps overpopulating the globe it WILL die, and yet every generation (not just your favorite whipping boy) insists upon making more and more people. The wealth gap, now at the worst in human history just keeps galloping to the absurd conclusion where 10 or 12 people own everything and all the rest of us are their slaves who have nothing.
Guess what CM, the baby boomer generation did not INVENT these problems (most of which you exaggerate anyway) and I for one will NOT go along with accusations that it is my fault or my responsibility to fix it. I am OLD! I deserve a rest before death. The people you need to be convincing of your theories are the ones busily humping their way into yet another pig in the snake generation.

3

POKJBV has a point. Ultimately unsustainability is simply a feature of population exceeding resources. More should be said about it but then 90% of the PP reader base are parents who understandably refuse to believe having children is at the root of most of the world’s resource, environment and economic problems for which no pleasant solution exists past an us-or-them survival strategy.
The way forward therefore requires a profound shift in culture. Something a bit more pragmatic than transgender freedoms or whether we should rip down the statues that remind us of our history, good and bad, because they are no longer politically correct to a few short sighted ignoramuses.

4

Aloha! Government has grown thanks to government debt. Without the ability to print debt the US government and its elected political components could not possibly have made so many cradle-to-grave promises. The government in America started after the Revolutionary War was a Republic whereby only land-owners could vote because those were the only ones creating capital and whose assets had a stake in the economy. We all know the rest of US history where the slaves were freed and women and now we are at the point where even non-citizens can vote and even some news stories were extolling the idea of lowering the voting age to 16 based on the past election. This will end badly not because of babyboomers but because we have the best Kakocracy promises can buy! Nobody has ever voted for the best people in government because the best people are not narcissist psychopathic enough to want to run for office. Voters throughout my lifetime have always voted for the “lesser evil”! BEST does not major in political science! BEST does not do community organizing! We’ve got a Congress stacked with lawyers who live in their own bubble world whereby they get paid to fail, so moving that mentality to government will always produce failed policies. Then Congress backs their “lawyer bubble” with the CBO which is backed by another socialist bubble entity the Ivy League academic economists who have never seen a hypothesis they cannot manipulate into more money and more debt to fund more promises. The entire US higher education system lives in a permanent Stockholm Syndrome where up is down and down is up! The size of their halo is only exceeded by the size of their collective hypocrisy. You won’t find middle class poverty in the tenured faculty offices of UC Berkeley or Harvard!

We caught a glimpse of the “Silent Majority” on the last Presidential election, but more are waking up. The working class is too busy working to be able to don pink hats or black ninja garb to protest our plight. I guess our plight is we are “law abiding”! But I think that will change as the Kakocracy turns towards more socialism not less.
In 2005 when I was 52, I published a letter on another financial blog that I sent to George Bush(#43). The theme was Social Security and I offered myself as the first babyboomer guinea pig. In the letter I said I would forfeit all future social security benefits if he would refund me my contributions to date. Based on the first person in America to receive a social security benefit check I thought that might resolve the Social Security crisis. It was my part to reduce the tax burden on the younger generations.

Ida Mae Fuller(not a babyboomer) should have been the warning shot across the bow of the US Congress, but when you’re main goal is to be in power and control then logic and reality go out the window! Today’s crisis is based on yesterday’s follies!
Who’s going to eat the losses? The same people who have eaten the losses since the Roman Empire! Every Empire dies off because human nature is like that. The psychopaths always rise to the top. In this case and all others those who are the Kakaocracy now and in the past are their own worst enemy and ours too! If they were not such narcissists they would see our society today as it really is.

In reality there is no 1% and 99% there is only the 100%.
To change this dynamic we have to abandon almost everything we were taught and suspend our human nature long enough to first admit our addiction to debt. Nobody who is an alcoholic can ever become sober unless they first admit they are an alcoholic, admit they have a problem. For the current Kakocracy to do that they would have to volunteer to give up their power. Human nature dictates that has never happened in recorded human history. Empire never survives. If it did then we’d all be speaking Latin now!
It boils down to this … DEBT KILLS!

5

Correcting a serious misquotation:

In the US, through selfish over-consumption, the baby boomer generation has screwed the prospects for following generations. It's now doing everything to deny and defend its extraordinarily self-serving and short-sighted decisions, and delay the repercussions for as long as possible.

For the record, I seriously doubt the current younger generations would have behaved any differently were we to teleport them back in time The boomers came of age when net energy from oil was still climbing and that ‘taught’ them about ‘how the world worked.’ When you have abundant resources, especially high net energy oil, you can pretty much do anything you want.

It is very clear that the intent of Chris is not to vilify or blame a particular generation of people. He points out that this is how people behave when supplied with near limitless net energy reserves, an event that peaked during a specific time in history.

-------------

Population overshoot is a long time issue on PP. See the interview with Paul Ehrlich. (And to get a glimpse into the difficulty in discussing this issue, see the discussion thread that followed it.)

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Boy, I dunno. I was born a bit after the boomer group, but life didn’t seem all that hard to me. Back when I went to university, I could actually work my way through school. And so I did. I ended up with very little debt. That’s because wages were a lot higher back then relative to education costs.
The poor kids now have no chance of doing that. 3 quarters at a UC school when I went was $2000. Now its $13,600. And that’s for a CA resident. CA non-resident? Add $26,682. Per year. And that’s just tuition.
At minimum wage when I went, tuition was 600 hours/year. Most on-campus jobs were better than minimum wage. Today, even at $15/hr minimum wage, tuition is 906 hours/year. And that’s for a CA resident.
In 2016, I got the sense that HRC was “the boomer candidate” - who for me represented a whole group of people who were uninterested in looking real hard at the status quo. Lots of my friends fall right into this category. Both Bernie & Trump wanted to shake things up, but for HRC, things just needed some minor tweaking here and there. “All is well. We got ours. Change nothing.” I think that’s what Chris is reacting to.

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Chris I thought “He’s nailing it again.” Making almost unthinkable elements of reality clear is a gift and I appreciate that you have it! Mostly we seem live in a fog of expecting more of what we already know, without examining how it got that way or what a continuation of the familiar would require. I think it’s sooooo hard to apply our brain power to the situation partly because we mostly don’t have any other way to survive and that’s too hard to face emotionally. That said, a lot more people speak of the various predicaments our civilization faces now than 10 years ago, when I took the red pill. I give you credit, and Adam, and a few other clear-speakers out there.
I’m a tail-end boomer. I’m not planning on having a pension, though I may “get some”. My youth was hugely easier than what I see my niece and nephew experiencing. I was poor, uneducated, hard-working, thrifty and worked at minimum wage. On that, I was able to save for and execute 18 months cycling Europe, backpacking every summer weekend, and several years later, landing a better job with no training. Now that same job requires a multi-thousand dollar certificate, and there’s no way one could travel for a year and a half on savings from it, because there are no savings left after rent and bills. Eventually, I bought a tiny dump of a condo in Vancouver and that, plus 5 years of elbow grease making improvements, allowed me to become a rural land owner (of a tiny dump-becoming-homestead) 10 years later.
What I’m saying is that hard work in a rising economy got me there, but it will not get them there. They can’t do anything but a brief road trip on their savings. They will NEVER own anything in Vancouver, and probably not anywhere. They work as hard as I did (do), but something has changed, and what worked for me leaves them unable to amass any stored financial wealth. We older ones help, of course, but that’s not the point.
A question: how useful is placing blame in facing predicaments? It’s good to have a clue about what forces, human or planetary, are creating the predicaments so that we can draft intelligent strategies. But for choosing responses, it doesn’t matter a fig if Boomers were selfish, bad, blameworthy, or innocent, just like the youngsters, minus the devices. We still have to deal with the situation as it is now. It’s also good to remember that while many Boomers became wealthy beyond the hope of kings of past centuries, not all are.
My 2 cents.
Susan

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kaimu wrote:
To change this dynamic we have to abandon almost everything we were taught and suspend our human nature long enough to first admit our addiction to debt. Nobody who is an alcoholic can ever become sober unless they first admit they are an alcoholic, admit they have a problem. For the current Kakocracy to do that they would have to volunteer to give up their power. Human nature dictates that has never happened in recorded human history. Empire never survives. If it did then we'd all be speaking Latin now! It boils down to this ... DEBT KILLS!
Our addiction to debt is no mistake. It is the way our (soon-to-be-ex) elite masters have stripped us of our wealth and enslave us. The elites now own pretty much everything. Some average people are lucky enough to own their home and a few other things outright but it doesn't amount to much. The only way the average pleb can get title to a house is to go into debt ... to the banking elites. In other words, the plebs are literally owned by the Rothschilds. Which is the what all sociopathic dictatorships have strived for through history -- complete ownership and power over everything else. The difference is that today we have complex debt instruments and manipulation which make it all seem less oppressive, and many people have been brainwashed into thinking debt is a good thing because they think it enables people to buy houses they otherwise couldn't afford, and it stimulates economic activity (or so they believe). But that's only because debt is currently the only way plebs have access to tasting wealth. The real solution is to steal back all the wealth the Rothschilds have stolen, then divvy it back out to the 99%, and then people won't need to go into debt to buy a house because the middle class would once again own the wealth instead of being debt slaves to the bankers. The country could quite easily just extinguish all mortgage debt which would then transfer a huge amount of wealth back to the middle class. Of course the implications of this for the dollar wouldn't be good but the dollar is currently a fantasy anyways. I say it would be "easy" to do this, well the hard part would be relinquishing the Rothschilds of control. It's always hard to oust oligarchs. I disagree that government is too large. The problem is that government has been captured, corrupted and merged with the private sector. It doesn't have to be this way. Without government I don't know what half the population would do to support itself. As Chris rightly points out, GDP growth can't be sustained and it will go down. What implications does this have for profit (the driver of the private sector?). Growth is basically over except in oil-rich countries like Canada, robots have stolen half the historical jobs, so it is simply not possible to keep people employed in the private sector at full employment. Government assistance is needed. Or the work week must be reduced to better spread out the remaining jobs. One of those two options are required. No one seems to be talking about this because reducing the workweek would then reduce the incomes of those people who currently have jobs, which isn't politically acceptable. The solution to this is to augment those jobs with government handouts. Where should the funding come from for this required government support of the 99%? Why, from the Rothschilds and their banker servants on Wall Street, of course. They are worth trillions. And don't forget, if everyone could be given a home so that they don't have a mortgage payment, then the need to work full time would be reduced. It's all about debt slavery. If we get rid of debt slavery and transfer ownership of the real wealth back into the hands of the 99%, then many of the problems which currently seem intractable will just disappear. The complication with the USA which other countries don't have is that it has a 40 year trade deficit history which has seriously screwed up the economy so making such a transition in the USA would create much more upheaval than in pretty much any other country.
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Yeah, thanks for saying the necessary SP. WE human beings are very prone to emotional outbursts aren’t we? Ego defence mechanisms are definitely the enemies of knowledge, especially when they are arbitrarily adopted belief systems. And for detractors, please note the use of WE…

10

The first time I dropped my motorcycle at speed onto the blacktop I got about a square foot of road rash on my left side. (I also ruined a good pair of jeans and a tee shirt.) When I looked back at the accident and try to identify what to blame for my painful experience, it wasn’t the asphalt (bad pun intended.) We can cast blame for the current state of affairs in this country, but it won’t do a lick of good. We still need to deal with the results when they arrive.
Boomers reacted to the environment they grew up in. Lots of dice were already cast by the time Boomers could do anything about it. Social Security was instituted before any Boomers were born. Medicare was passed before the earliest Boomer could vote. It’s hard to realistically blame Boomers for those Ponzi schemes. Of course, that doesn’t mean that Boomers are blameless. We over consumed and voted for politicians who used creative financing to push the costs into the future wherever possible. Now, the Boomers are on retirement’s doorstep and expect the social promises that were made (and individually paid into the system for decades) to be fulfilled.
With declining per capita energy available, increasing usage of software and hardware robots, unprecedented levels of debt throughout society, and aging demographics, it is essentially a mathematical certainty that we won’t make it through this bubble unscathed. Here are 2 graphs that complement Chris’ graph in the article to illustrate the situation.
https://www.smarteranalyst.com/2015/03/31/us-become-nursing-home-economy/

If you want to see where you fit into the picture, add 65 to your birth year. Baby Boomers were born from 1946 to 1964. These folks turn 65 starting in 2011 until 2029. Because there was such a boom of babies, the graph shows a considerable vertical spike. The curve flattens out in the mid 2030s but it never drops to lower levels. We’re currently at about 15% of the total population retired. As the percentage increases, fewer workers will be supporting more retirees. At least, that’s what I get from the actuarial fantasy shown in this graph.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Medicare_%26_Social_Security_Deficits_Chart.png
File:Medicare & Social Security Deficits Chart.pngThis graph shows another projection along with a current reality. By the mid 2020s, Social Security and Medicare will eat up the entire Federal tax receipts. We won’t be able to fund any of the other “necessities” without taking on more debt, cutting costs, or increasing taxes. Taking on more debt just saddles the future generations with more taxes. Cutting costs (reducing payments to recipients) won’t get a politician reelected. At some point, increasing taxes is counterproductive. Why work when there aren’t any fruits from your labor to enjoy?
Another point about the above graph to notice is that Medicare is already in a cash deficit since 2007. Social Security changes from a cash cow to a cash hog sometime this year. Because LBJ set up the Unified Budget when he was President, surplusses from these “Trust” funds were used as slush funds for politicians who wanted to buy more reelection votes. Instead of having a “lock box” that has funds, we have irredeemable IOUs instead.
We can try to place blame … or we can deal with the upcoming reality. Saxplayer has been posting links to the Daily Digest for years that show the shambles of finances for cities, counties, States, and sovereign governments around the globe. The houses of cards eventually will tumble.
What will the world look like the day after? Actually, it is better to focus on your own world. What systems are currently functioning that require a safe, stable environment to continue operating? Will that safe, stable environment exist when government entities fold in bankruptcy? Will you be able to provide for yourself and loved ones? How will you get those items if the trucks stop bringing them?
Once the trucks stop rolling, cities will turn into self cleaning ovens. A community is too big when the immediately surrounding area cannot produce enough food, water, shelter, and clothing for the populace. If the local resources are sufficient, there’s a chance for cooperation. Where necessary resources are limited, competition will result until the local population declines to sustainable levels.
The heartwarming stories coming out of hurricane ravaged locations lead people to think that crises brings out the best in people. I agree with that as long as folks perceive the crisis to be temporary. Once it is evident that it isn’t temporary, folks will stop offering a helping hand to strangers.
As they say in real estate, the only 3 things that matter are “location, location, and location.” Put yourself in a situation that allows you to enjoy the fruits of modern life while it exists and allows you to thrive in a post-modern world and you’ve got the best situation. Think about it before it happens.
Grover

11

I agree with SP about Chris. In the years I’ve been reading PP the only group he’s attacked is the Fed and then with good reason. As a leading edge Boomer, I have long felt some guilt that our “Me” generation was at fault for the unbridled excess of debt that we now collectively own. However, I’ve come to see that all of us have been manipulated (though most willingly) into excessive consumption by the easy credit extended by TPTB. Our general ignorance of financial matters is due largely to an ineffective and controlled educational system but is also owing to a purposeful shrouding of how the system really works. From Jekyll Island on to present day, the financial system is a secret society that lives and conducts it’s business in the shadows. They know that they cannot stand the light of day.
But this serves to underline the value of PP which brings us truth and information on the subject in a way that is genuinely empowering, if you take it to heart. I understand and share the bitterness expressed by POKJBV but hasten to point out that his anger is misdirected. It should be reserved for those who are manipulating us and the system for their own gain. Their game is outrageous personal enrichment at the expense of society and power (control of the masses). .

12

In the US, through selfish over-consumption, the baby boomer generation has screwed the prospects for following generations.

This statement is a "generalization and an oversimplication" of the predicaments we face. It places blame and as we can see from pokjbv's comnents can offend the cohorts of that group. I don't know anyone in the baby boomer generation that have selfishly over-consumed as we have been told, and are STILL being told that we live in a time of energy abundance. Targeting a specific group to blame will not get us nearer to solutions. Instead let's talk about the narrative surrounding energy and the messages people are being told and believe. Why should people change, no one is shouting from the roof tops that "a crisis is coming"!!!!! Except Chris, but he is doing it politely and civilly, through discussions. Unless and until someone adopts the motto "a crisis is coming" people won't listen. But then he'd probably drown in his hot tub. (Matt Simmons) AKGrannyWGrit
13
Mark_BC wrote:
The real solution is to steal back all the wealth the Rothschilds have stolen, then divvy it back out to the 99%, and then people won't need to go into debt to buy a house because the middle class would once again own the wealth instead of being debt slaves to the bankers. The country could quite easily just extinguish all mortgage debt which would then transfer a huge amount of wealth back to the middle class.
Something that has long warmed my heart is that the majority of tertiary wealth is held by the elites. If we fast forward, they will take the biggest hit. Locally, the primary wealth (farmland) is family owned. Secondary wealth holders are represented by nut hullers, shellers, milk processors, and wineries. The majority of these are also family owned. I see no need the redistribute tertiary wealth. Move your own assets into primary wealth.
14

http://www.gallup.com/poll/218024/investor-optimism-rises-again-hits-year-high.aspx

A new surge of optimism among U.S. investors has pushed the Wells Fargo/Gallup Investor and Retirement Optimism Index to its highest level since September 2000. The index, after rising in every quarter since the start of 2016, leveled off in the second quarter at +124 before rising to its current +138 in the third quarter.
See? Here's the optimistic investors out enjoying a round of golf in the Western US:
15

Anyone -
What are the implications of catastrophic insurance losses for derivatives ?
Thanks,
Tim.

16
Nate wrote:
Mark_BC wrote:
The real solution is to steal back all the wealth the Rothschilds have stolen, then divvy it back out to the 99%, and then people won't need to go into debt to buy a house because the middle class would once again own the wealth instead of being debt slaves to the bankers. The country could quite easily just extinguish all mortgage debt which would then transfer a huge amount of wealth back to the middle class.
Something that has long warmed my heart is that the majority of tertiary wealth is held by the elites. If we fast forward, they will take the biggest hit. Locally, the primary wealth (farmland) is family owned. Secondary wealth holders are represented by nut hullers, shellers, milk processors, and wineries. The majority of these are also family owned. I see no need the redistribute tertiary wealth. Move your own assets into primary wealth.
you honestly believe the elites don't know what's coming and are not positioning themselves to make even more profits from it? Why has Jp Morgan amassed the greatest silver horde in history? Is Jp Morgan just going to turn around and vanish from North America on their own accord once the dollar dies? Of course not. They are currently plotting out a new system behind the scenes which will again make them masters of the new tertiary wealth system that is put in place. I'd love to get my hands on some primary wealth before the transition. Unfortunately I can't afford any despite my 6 figure income, unless I want to go even further in debt to the Rothschilds. Edit: cancelling mortgage debt is definitely not simply reshuffling tertiary wealth because houses are real primary things. Shifting ownership of those from the Rothschilds to the 99% would be one of the greatest ways to recharge the middle class with real wealth, not tertiary wealth. Of course I fully expect that after the dollar dies, existing mortgages will be repriced by mr. Rothschild in the new system so that the slavery can continue.
17
Mark_BC wrote:
Edit: cancelling mortgage debt is definitely not simply reshuffling tertiary wealth because houses are real primary things. Shifting ownership of those from the Rothschilds to the 99% would be one of the greatest ways to recharge the middle class with real wealth, not tertiary wealth. Of course I fully expect that after the dollar dies, existing mortgages will be repriced by mr. Rothschild in the new system so that the slavery can continue.
Let's turn our attention to another of the 3 E's. Energy. Even if mortgages were canceled and houses were debt free, only homes with access to long-term energy (heating and electric) and food will survive. Grover does a nice job of covering this in post #9.
Grover wrote:

What will the world look like the day after? Actually, it is better to focus on your own world. What systems are currently functioning that require a safe, stable environment to continue operating? Will that safe, stable environment exist when government entities fold in bankruptcy? Will you be able to provide for yourself and loved ones? How will you get those items if the trucks stop bringing them?

Once the trucks stop rolling, cities will turn into self cleaning ovens. A community is too big when the immediately surrounding area cannot produce enough food, water, shelter, and clothing for the populace. If the local resources are sufficient, there's a chance for cooperation. Where necessary resources are limited, competition will result until the local population declines to sustainable levels.

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Private funds are busy purchasing farming land here in Quebec. Farmers who owned primary wealth are paid with tertiary wealth while these funds replaces their thin-air-based tertiary wealth with hard-and-tangible assets.
This is an example on how the wealth transfer is occurring now, in front of our eyes.
The future market tumbling down will represent the collapse of a facade with nothing behind. All value will be transferred long ago.

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Grover wrote:
https://www.smarteranalyst.com/2015/03/31/us-become-nursing-home-economy/ If you want to see where you fit into the picture, add 65 to your birth year. Baby Boomers were born from 1946 to 1964. These folks turn 65 starting in 2011 until 2029. Because there was such a boom of babies, the graph shows a considerable vertical spike. The curve flattens out in the mid 2030s but it never drops to lower levels. We're currently at about 15% of the total population retired. As the percentage increases, fewer workers will be supporting more retirees. At least, that's what I get from the actuarial fantasy shown in this graph.
In all the years of both mainstream and alternative financial analysts hysterically shrieking about the catastrophic consequences of an aging population, I’ve never believed it; not once. It stinks like fish to me, and I work with fish so I’m good at smelling a rotten one. This irrational fearmongering is just another ploy to divert attention away from the real structural problems; another way to prod the middle class into casting blame among itself. Remember, it always comes back to “Divide and Conquer” – the middle class.
  • OMG, these old people are going to need FOOD! Who’s going to provide that and where will it come from????? It’s not like the USA has much food!!! (oh wait, the USA is the largest breadbasket in the world and it hardly takes any labour to produce it anymore. Hmmm…) While it does require fossil fuels to produce food, I would guess that this applies to food being eaten by all age cohorts, not just old people…
  • But… but… they will need HOUSING; where is that going to come from????? Hmmm, there is currently the greatest glut of real estate in history as a result of 20 years of low interest rates. Furthermore, old people previously lived in houses when they were young, and as far as I understand, those houses haven’t gone anywhere. Old people typically need LESS housing when they retire. Hmmm… where is this housing shortage coming from again?
  • But they need MEDICATION, which costs an ARM and a LEG!!!! How is society ever going to be able to shoulder the burden of keeping old people alive?????? Riiiiiiight. Those EXACT same pills that are sold in India for 100x less than in USA…. by the same pharmaceutical giants who are part of the corporo-government-middle-class-rape-and-pillage scheme. Nope, that one’s a red herring too.
  • What about CARETAKERS!!! Who is going to take care of all these old people????!!!!! Hmm, if you look at the real employment statistics which the alternative financial media is good at pointing out, it appears that the USA currently has one of the greatest unemployment rates ever. That seems like a great pool of labour to pull from!!! I’m sure they aren’t ALL deadbeats unwilling to work!!!
  • But who is going to PAY for all these caretakers???????? We’re broke!!!! Actually, no, we aren’t really broke, it just seems that way. The middle class is currently broke from 100 years of R&P’ing by the bankers. The funding to pay for caretakers could easily come from the productivity improvements made throughout the economy over the last 50 years by technology. You know, how technology is supposed to make our lives easier because it enables us to do more things per hour of labour and improves our “productivity” (a term which I don’t believe has ever been defined without using a circular reference to the word “produce”). Instead, we are being told that technological automation, along with all the old people, is going to destroy the economy because finding better, more efficient ways to get things done, which is what technological automation generally does, somehow hurts the economy. Umm… HUH??!?!?!
  • But old people will need to go see the doctor more than healthy young people do!!!! Who is going to pay for that?!?!?!?!?!? This is actually about the only argument supporting this anti-aging hysteria that has any merit behind it. Doctors are expensive. However, I have faith that SOMEHOW, SOME WAY, with all the genius of modern knowledge, a way could be found to provide for old people to go see the doctor without destroying the economy… Given that much of the cost of seeing the doctor doesn't even go to the doctor, instead getting funneled into the same “pharmaceutical giants who are part of the corporo-government-middle-class-rape-and-pillage scheme” as mentioned above, I think if that system was dismantled, seeing the doctor would actually become affordable again.
How absurd is it that we actually believe that caring for an additional 25% of old people is going to bring down the economy. Take a step back everyone and think about it from 10,000 feet up, look at the big picture. Don’t get hung up on $$$ charts because as we all know, $$$’s will soon go bye-bye and even today they have no relation to anything real. The bottom line is this: if technological automation and people getting old are enough to destroy the economy, then the problem lies elsewhere, structurally, with the wealth “distribution” system.
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We’re selling the place, taking the capital gains exemption and moving in with the kids