🚀 go-pugleaf

The liberal term "unsustainable" comes to mind!

http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/1112/1112eccoll.htm

Obama's reelection will ensure complete U.S. economic collapse

By Rachel Alexander
web posted October 29, 2012

This coming presidential election will determine whether the U.S. ends up 
in another Great Depression or pulls out of the economic slump. There are 
numerous signs indicating that the country is headed for economic 
Armageddon under Obama. Some analysts are predicting the crash could come 
as soon as next year. Obama is following the failed policies of President 
Herbert Hoover which led to the Great Depression.

Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh says the U.S. is on an unsustainable 
course; there isn't enough money from taxes to pay everyone lifetime 
healthcare, lifetime pensions, and hefty incomes. The federal government 
now spends 50 percent more than it takes in. Social Security and Medicare 
are on the brink of insolvency and are little more than government Ponzi 
schemes. Soon there will be more people on welfare than not. Borrowing and 
printing more money will no longer save the country from defaulting, 
because our debt will soon be so high other countries will not want our 
dollars.

Earlier this year, three financial analysts predicted financial meltdown 
will take place in less than a year. Author Robert Prechter, who wrote the 
book Conquer the Crash, sees economic parallels to the Great Depression and 
predicts the illusion of a recovery will fail like it did in the 1930s. Art 
Laffer, the economist who invented the Laffer Curve, predicted a crash in 
2011 if the Bush tax cuts were not extended. Since Obama backed down and 
extended the tax cuts through 2013, the crash has been delayed.

Economist John Williams predicts that a hyperinflationary Great Depression 
will take place by 2014. Investment banker Martin Hutchinson believes that 
the next stock market crash will be worse than Black Monday, the 1987 crash 
which dropped lower than the 1929 crash. The 1987 crash did not trigger a 
depression because there wasn't an accompanying collapse of the banking 
system. Hutchinson warns, �We are living in the greatest debt bubble in the 
history of the world and Wall Street has been transformed into a giant 
casino that is based on a massive web of debt, risk and leverage.� 

The U.S. is arguably in a depression, but the government won't admit it 
because it makes the government look bad. Thanks to welfare programs, it 
doesn't seem as bad as the Great Depression. 25 percent of adults may be 
out of work, but they have welfare instead of Hoovervilles. Instead of 
starving Americans standing in food lines, we see Americans obese from 
living on food stamps. An economic depression occurs when there is greater 
than 10 percent contraction in economic activity over a period of 12 months 
or more. By contrast, recessions usually last 10 months. The longest 
recession in history until now lasted 16 months. This recession began in 
December 2007 and supposedly ended in June 2009, but the recovery is the 
weakest in history after a recession. If this is only a recession, it is an 
extremely severe one.

The condition of the U.S. economy today mirrors the economic situation 
prior to the Great Depression. There is slow economic growth, massive 
deficits, high unemployment and foreclosures, and a shaky banking system. 
Real unemployment is at the same level it was during the Great Depression, 
around 25 percent. The drop in home prices and sales is actually worse than 
during the Great Depression. The stock market has been dropping, and stocks 
are currently overvalued by as much as 50 percent. Speculative greed 
precipitated the stock market crash, similar to the investors and 
homeowners of today who made risky investments they could not afford.

Like Obama, President Herbert Hoover used a heavy-handed government 
interventionist approach to deal with the bad economy. Hoover was 
criticized by his successor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, for �reckless 
and extravagant spending� and �thinking we ought to control everything in 
Washington.� Hoover raised taxes and slapped a tariff on imports. The top 
rate on personal income taxes rose from 25 percent to 63 percent. Taxes 
were increased on businesses and tobacco, and new taxes were added to 
telegraph and telephone use and checks.

Obama has put onerous regulations into place that are crippling the economy 
and allowing little room for recovery. There are environmental restrictions 
on offshore drilling, CO2 emissions, and Obama refuses to approve the 
Keystone Pipeline, which would have created 100,000 jobs and reduced 
dependency on foreign oil. Americans are already taxed to the hilt, and 
their taxes will go up even higher with Obamacare, the biggest tax increase 
in history. Buried under taxes and regulations, businesses are unable to 
create new jobs. Businesses are fleeing the country or outsourcing labor, 
due to the burdensome regulations and demands unions have placed on them. 
Because of the unions inflating the cost of production, it has been easy 
for China to shut out our overpriced products. China manipulates its 
currency, undervaluing the yuan in order to boost exports and limit 
imports. China's trade surplus helped bring about the  recession. When the 
crash comes, China may demand that the U.S. pay its debt, even if the U.S. 
does not have the money to pay it.

The Great Depression was triggered by the Federal Reserve's manipulation of 
money, the stock market crash and failure of financial institutions. The 
Federal Reserve manipulates interest rates by pumping new dollar bills into 
the economy through the banks. This lowers the interest rates, which 
prompts more risky investments. The Federal Reserve caused the last 
recession in this way, yet it continues to pump paper money into the 
economy, a manipulation known as �quantitative easing.�  All of this 
Federal Reserve activity only postpones the inevitable crash, ensuring that 
it will be a big crash.

How will the financial meltdown happen? Limbaugh predicts California will 
file bankruptcy under Obama, then other states will follow suit. There will 
be a stock market crash and Americans will lose their savings. Banks will 
fail as people rush to take their money out, and those who don't get their 
money out early on will find their accounts frozen. There isn't enough 
money to bail out all the banks if they all fail. The Federal Deposit 
Insurance Corporation was created in 1934 to avoid a repeat of banks 
failing during the Great Depression, but there is no longer enough real 
money left for massive bailouts. America's level of debt and deficit 
spending will cause other countries to lose confidence in the dollar, and 
they will start withdrawing their investments.

There will be rioting and major civil unrest. The violent Occupy Wall 
Street protesters are an indication that it is already starting. Economist 
John Williams predicts, �Trouble could range from turmoil in the food 
distribution chain and electronic cash and credit systems unable to handle 
rapidly changing circumstances, to political instability.� The government 
will finally be forced to choose what will no longer be funded.

Because of the global economy, the effects will be felt worldwide. Most 
European countries are already in a depression. Europe is headed for 
collapse. Countries like Spain, Greece and Italy have overvalued euros, 
making their economies uncompetitive. People are fleeing Spain, where 
unemployment is at 25 percent. They are pulling their money out of the 
banks and moving to England and other countries to find jobs. Seven percent 
of Spain's GDP was withdrawn from Spanish banks during July. Not only Spain 
is affected, banks are starting to collapse around the world, freezing 
customers' bank accounts. These things will happen in the U.S. too if our 
economy collapses.

What has brought the U.S. to the brink of economic collapse? Greed. As a 
result of the Federal Reserve flooding the market with paper money, 
interest rates artificially decreased, so people made investments and 
bought homes they couldn't afford, putting themselves way into debt. The 
banks continue to make reckless investments, despite the heavy regulations 
Obama has forced on the industry. When the Ponzi scheme fell apart, the 
government bailed out a few select banks and arbitrarily pumped billions of 
dollars into the economy, but it has only put a temporary band-aid on the 
problem.

If Obama wins reelection, Americans should pull their money out of the 
banks and stock market and put it into gold and other precious metals, 
where it will be much safer during a crash. Obama has indicated he will 
continue the failed policies of Herbert Hoover and FDR.  Obama said he 
wants a �New New Deal,� referring to FDR's socialist programs. Under Hoover 
and FDR, those big government programs slowed the recovery and prolonged 
double-digit unemployment after the Great Depression.

Fortunately, it looks like Mitt Romney is going to win the presidential 
election. If anyone can reverse the runaway government spending, it will be 
Mitt Romney with his successful business and investment background in the 
private sector. President Ronald Reagan faced a worse economy than Obama 
did when he entered office, but by cutting taxes and streamlining 
regulations, annual economic growth rates increased up to 8 percent, 
quadruple Obama�s record now. America needs a transformation from a high-
consuming, debt-ridden economy, to a manufacturing and exporting nation 
once again. Obama tells Americans the government will provide all kinds of 
things for them, even though it has been made painfully clear the 
government cannot afford to. Romney will tell Americans the truth, that 
greed is what got us into this situation. If Americans focus instead on 
taking pride in a day's work, the entire economy will turn around. ESR

Rachel Alexander and her brother Andrew are co-Editors of Intellectual 
Conservative. Rachel practices law and social media political consulting in 
Phoenix, Arizona. She has been published in the American Spectator, 
Townhall.com, Fox News, NewsMax, Accuracy in Media, The Americano, 
ParcBench, and other publications.