Getting very close.....

See this cartoon in the light of GFC2, 3,4 & 5 all together.....

Better waaaayyyyy early than a few seconds too late.....

Time.......................

So why have I not been active in this blog since last July?

Simple - what has there been to say?? Only more of the same old, more fingers found to shove into the crumbling dykes - and if there were a fiddle anywhere handy - someone would be playing it while all around falls to dust.
Until today, that is.

I am no fan of Trump, but what he DOES represent is that he gave a voice to the 99% who have been unheard and ignored for so long. What do the Elites (the less than 1%) fear most??

US !!! Our vast numbers.

But we have been fragmented by living in our fantasies, our delusions and yes - in our hopes and dreams.

Today is a pivotal day where the 99% have said ENOUGH !!!!!

So well done Trump. I have to give the man credit. Especially when running against an entrenched machine, a biased media, a corrupt and entrenched  bureaucracy, a massive corporatocracy & military/industrial complex...... and opponents who really didn't play very nicely with the other children. Not to mention $1 BILLION in campaign funds. Talk about buying a Presidency!!!!!

The next real test will be whether Trump can deal effectively with that entrenched and 'entitled' bureaucracy - I wish him all the best and Godspeed. Especially in scaling-back the Neocon objective of projecting American power over the rest of the world.

But ultimately, nothing can detract from the slap-in-the-face to the Elites that today brought.

It will be interesting to watch what happens from here..... as for me, I have for some time been looking forward to the world beyond all this nonsense, the world we always wanted to be in, the world that we deserved.

May we see it soon. ♥

At last - a voice making sense in amongst the mad-ness.....

Yes - some fundamental questions to ask ourselves.....

http://spiritlibrary.com/neale-donald-walsch/humanitys-most-critical-question?utm_source=Spirit+Library+Updates&utm_campaign=fc3804c2ff-Daily_Update&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ef6a5211f4-fc3804c2ff-120807486

Yep.......

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-14/reasons-why-globalists-are-destined-lose

The picture says it all :))

The 1% are getting really scared...

http://www.investordaily.com.au/regulation/39579-beware-the-power-of-the-crowd-medcraft

Good to hear some Truth.....

http://www.theautomaticearth.com/2016/06/murder-lifeboats-an-iceberg-and-an-orchestra/

Does anyone not realise how serious things are getting???

http://cluborlov.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/a-russian-warning.html

Where do they keep finding fingers to plug the dyke???

Just in case you think we are safer here in OZ.....


http://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/satyajit-das-says-the-big-four-banks-are-more-vulnerable-than-they-appear-20160529-gp6ucg.html

Is everyone getting the picture yet??

Let's see how it really is out there:

http://www.dailylife.com.au/dl-people/interviews/why-us-antipoverty-campaigner-linda-tirado-is-worried-about-australia-20160511-got2a8.html

.....after all - this is the Lucky Country, yes??

Is this ominous??? Is the smell of Bail-in's in the air??

http://wolfstreet.com/2016/04/12/what-in-the-worlds-going-on-with-banks-this-week-emergency-meetings-summits-crashing-eu-banks/

...and the politicians STILL say we have dodged a bullet ?????

https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/the-road-to-private-serfdom,8870

OOOOOPS.....SOMETHING THAT MAKES SENSE!!!

(from the Automatic Earth).....

“..basic income could remove the need for a welfare state that is patronising and humiliating..”

• Free Lunch: Basic Welfare Policy (Sandhu)

There are ideas that refuse to die no matter how many times they are rejected. One such idea is Universal Basic Income. Basic income is the proposal to pay all citizens an unconditional regular amount sufficient for basic needs, and then leave them to seek their fortune as best they can in the market. Few trials have been held and those have not led to large-scale adoption, but the proposal keeps recurring in social policy debates. That is largely because it is an excellent idea. In the past century the attraction for thinkers on the left and the right has been that basic income could remove the need for a welfare state that is patronising and humiliating, creates perverse incentives against working, and whose complexity means it often fails to reach those truly in need of help while subsidising the middle class.

Today, with deepening anxiety that we will all be put out of work (or, alternatively, be enslaved) by robots, the appeal of basic income has returned to its roots. More than 200 years ago, Thomas Paine advocated it as a way to fairly distribute the “ground rent” generated by concentrated landholdings to the landless — the idea being that the earth was humanity’s common property. If technological change today means markets tilt the distribution of income towards capital owners and away from workers, a similar argument can be made for the redistribution of “rent” due to humanity’s technological ingenuity equally among every citizen.

INTERESTING READING.....

http://economyandmarkets.com/economy/forecasts/the-u-s-is-in-for-much-greater-civil-unrest-ahead/


http://cluborlov.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/always-attack-wrong-country.html

A HEADS-UP.....on a different note.....

It seems as though there is quite a bit of discussion on the Internet about Asteroid 2013TX68.

Apparently it will shave by us extremely closely somewhere between the 5th-8th of March. For some reason it's exact trajectory can't be determined. Nor it's exact time. Interesting.....

There is an old expression - Trust in the Universe, but tie up your camel.

In other words, do your OWN research and take whatever actions you feel appropriate.

Please note that this is NOT a prophecy..... do your OWN study and make up your own minds.
All I am doing is giving a heads-up. I'm not interested in scaring anyone.....more the reverse, in fact.
I'd like everyone to be safe and happy.

A STRATEGY.......THAT NEEDS ALL OF YOU.....

How to bring the Banksters to heel?

Simple!!

We use their greatest tool - against them!!

Fractional lending.

As you know, for every dollar a bank takes in, they can then loan a further $9 out.

But what if we actively reverse the process?

For every dollar we REMOVE from their clutches, they have $9 LESS to play with.

Simple!!

Ergo, keep the absolute MINIMUM in a bank account. If many of us do that - then we can get a clear message across.....

For some reason, most people still feel that their money is safe when entrusted to a bank.

Well, here's the modern way of viewing it:

You are loaning your precious money to a corporation - INTEREST FREE. Even worse, they make charges against your balance as fees. And as for safe - you are now an UNSECURED CREDITOR of the corporation. Low man on the totem pole when it comes to being repaid.

Does that change your view a little??

Australian Property Market.....

Australia's property bubble could also be the lead domino.....

It bears no relationship to ANY reality anymore.....

https://www.ainsliebullion.com.au/gold-silver-bullion-news/-e2-80-9cbiggest-housing-bubble-in-history-e2-80-9d-e2-80-a6-/tabid/88/a/1174/default.aspx

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-22/one-sign-australia-s-housing-market-is-due-for-a-2008-moment   (watch the video)

I was living on the Gold Coast in the early 80's and saw how crazy the "buying off the plan" spree went..... and when it went poof, properties were selling for less than half of previous prices. One property was even resold 5 TIMES in the preceeding 12 months !!! And yes - I met the poor fellow who was the last one.

ALWAYS WORTH A READ.....

http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/repricing-reality/

http://cluborlov.blogspot.com.au/2016/02/what-are-we-smelling.html

(Sometimes the comments below the articles are worth reading, too.....)

http://wolfstreet.com/2016/02/15/im-in-awe-at-just-how-fast-global-trade-is-unraveling/

COULDN'T RESIST.....:))

A VERY SOBERING VIEW.....

https://realityparadigm.wordpress.com/2015/06/11/global-debt-and-the-human-bubble/


.....

WHERE WE ARE AT??

Very much worth reading..... just as instructive are the comments at the bottom. Always good to see other perspectives.....

http://www.theautomaticearth.com/2016/02/is-this-debts-last-rattle/

A MUST WATCH !!!

If you are reading these posts and still think that everything is fine and that the Government and the mainstream media have your best interests at heart - then I invite you to have a look at the video below for a "behind the scenes" peek at what is really happening.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdBZousMg8Y

.....and just in case you may think that it is an isolated case - there are dozens of people all saying the same things like Andy Hoffman. Try SG Report, Bix Weir, Gerald Celente, Peter Schiff, Gregory Mannarino etc etc etc.....

Real Tax Reform - Fabulously simple - and fair!!!

OK.....I'm going to repost this from last year because Tax Reform is in the air in many countries, and we need to put forward REAL suggestions - ones that don't lend themselves to corruption, manipulation - and benefiting a wealthy minority. Goodbye Corporatocracy.....goodbye Banksters :)

Imagine being able to partially/completely disband the ATO or the IRS.....wow !!!

If this sounds good to you, then please make this known to all and sundry.

Thank you for doing your part!

Real Tax Reform

By Michelle Lopert 

It’s the 21^st Century and we’re still paying Income Tax. This archaic system was devised back in the Industrial Revolution. Today, with the advent of computers, there are simpler, better, and more equitable ways to collect taxes.

Most governments are continually looking for new sources of tax revenue that are not politically suicidal. Obviously, the money raised through income tax isn’t enough so we now have GST, payroll tax, property rates, fuel excise, stamp duty, capital gains tax, land tax, company tax and more. Ironically, the wealthier you are, or the bigger your corporation, the more chance you have of avoiding tax through tax havens, Swiss bank accounts and creative accountancy.

A viable alternative to all these ridiculous complex taxes is to replace them with one tax - the DEBIT TAX. The National Debit Tax is the most efficient system of taxation ever devised. And it’s not new. The Debit Tax has been working successfully in Norfolk Island where there is no income tax.

Here’s how it works. Every hour of the day, money is withdrawn from savings accounts, cheque accounts, insurance companies, business and investment organisations, and financial institutions of all kinds.

Whenever a person, financial institution, or company withdraws money by cash, cheque or electronically, a 1% tax is automatically debited. That 1% is then electronically transferred to the Australian Federal Treasury.

The tax is collected electronically and continuously – not quarterly or annually – and without paperwork of any kind. You don’t have to do a thing.

Let’s say you have an annual salary of $30,000. With today’s cumbersome system, if you add up all the taxes including income tax, GST, house rates, fuel excise and other hidden taxes, you’ll be paying about $15,000 tax. Under the debit tax system, you would only pay $300.

On a national level, a 1% debit tax would provide Australia with a tax revenue of approx $470 billion annually. The current system only provides approx $215 billion.

It’s hard to believe that a tiny 1% national debit tax could replace all other taxes at the Federal, State and Local Government levels.

Unlike all other taxation systems, the National Debit Tax does not require you or any business or organization to give an account of transactions to the Government. Big brother will not be watching because it’s not necessary.

Tax collection becomes the function of a programmed computer linked to the banking system under the control of the Treasury Department.

Individuals, businesses, and corporations will no longer be required to be self tax collectors as they are today. This eliminates potential sources of injustice, corruption and tax evasion. Why would a company bother hiding money in tax havens that charge 2 or 3% when the Debit Tax is only 1%?

Imagine, we could eliminate the bureaucratic nightmare known as the Taxation Department, emancipating the thousands of glassy-eyed administrative slaves who sweat over mountains of income tax forms, deciphering a million petty laws.

The debit tax would erode the cash economy. With Big Brother not watching, who is going to risk keeping millions under the mattress in order to avoid a piddling amount of tax?

Likewise, the debit tax would see the demise of destabilising currency speculation. The debit tax would eat away the profits of speculators who move massive amounts of money around the globe in a bid to cash in on small currency fluctuations.

What company would complain about a 1% debit tax when it means not having to pay 3.75 % payroll tax?

After the Global Financial Crisis, leaders of Europe's three biggest economies, Germany, France and Britain, were promoting the Debit Tax as a way to fulfil commitments to domestic budgets, climate change and international development. Regrettably, our federal Treasurer, Wayne Swan, did not support the tax at the G20 finance meeting in 2009 possibly because Australia came through the global financial crisis relatively unscathed. But how will we fare in future crises?

They say the only certain things in life are Death and Taxes. The tedious Tax Pack booklet may be a great cure for insomnia but let’s make it a relic. Let’s push for proper tax reform and stop fiddling at the edges while Australia burns...or, should I say, floods.

 (Reprinted with permission - Thank you, Michelle!).

THE BIG SLIDE>>>>>

I think the following article pretty well sums it all up: especially the short-sighted view of the billionaire vultures. Not going to be much fun to own squillions but be stuck inside your own security enclave.....


http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/ground-control-to-captain-zhou-xiaochuan/

And many people STILL have their heads in the sand.....

https://www.ainsliebullion.com.au/gold-silver-bullion-news/shooting-out-of-control/tabid/88/a/1154/default.aspx 

NEED SOME PROOF WE ARE ON THE DOWNSLIDE??

Well here it is - the Baltic Dry Index......

"Nothing Is Moving," Baltic Dry Crashes As Insiders Warn "Commerce Has Come To A Halt"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/11/2016 13:05 -0500

• Baltic Dry
 
• China
 
• General Motors
 
• Reality
 
• recovery
 
• United Kingdom
 
• World Trade

inShare564

 

The continued collapse of The Baltic Dry Index remains ignored by most - besides we still have Netflix, right? But, as Dollar Vigilante's Jeff Berwick details, it appears the worldwide 'real' economy has ground to a halt!!

Last week, I received news from a contact who is friends with one of the biggest billionaire shipping families in the world.  He told me they had no ships at sea right now, because operating them meant running at a loss.

This weekend, reports are circulating saying much the same thing: The North Atlantic has little or no cargo ships traveling in its waters. Instead, they are anchored. Unmoving. Empty.

You can see one such report here.  According to it,

Commerce between Europe and North America has literally come to a halt. For the first time in known history, not one cargo ship is in-transit in the North Atlantic between Europe and North America. All of them (hundreds) are either anchored offshore or in-port. NOTHING is moving.

This has never happened before. It is a horrific economic sign; proof that commerce is literally stopped.

We checked VesselFinder.com and it appears to show no ships in transit anywhere in the world.  We aren’t experts on shipping, however, so if you have a better site or source to track this apparent phenomenon, please let us know.

We also checked MarineTraffic.com, and it seemed to show the same thing.  Not a ship in transit…

If true, this would be catastrophic for world trade. Even if it’s not true, shipping is still nearly dead in the water according to other indices.  The Baltic Dry Index, an assessment of the price of moving major raw materials by sea, was already at record all-time lows a month ago... and in the last month it has dropped even more, especially in the last week. Today BDIY hit 415...

Factories aren’t buying and retailers aren’t stocking.  The ratio of inventory to sales in the US is an indicator of this. The last time that ratio was this high was during the “great recession” in 2008.

Hey, Ms. Yellen, what recovery? The economy is taking on water at a rapid rate.

The storm has been building for some time, actually. Not so long ago, there was a spate of reports that the world’s automobile manufacturers were in trouble because cars were not selling and shipments were backing up around the world.

ZeroHedge reported on it this way:

In the past several years, one of the topics covered in detail on these pages has been the surge in such gimmicks designed to disguise lack of demand and end customer sales, used extensively by US automotive manufacturers, better known as “channel stuffing”, of which General Motors is particularly guilty and whose inventory at dealer lots just hit a new record high.  

Here is a photo of unsold cars in the United Kingdom from that article.

The world’s economy seems in serious trouble. You can’t print your way to prosperity. All you are doing is hollowing out your economy. Draining it. And sooner or later it’s empty and you have to start over after a good deal of crisis and chaos.

It’s no coincidence that China is struggling desperately to contain a stock implosion.  Reportedly, banks have been told they are forbidden to buy US dollars and numerous Chinese billionaires have gone missing.  And the markets have just opened on Monday and are again deeply in the red.

Here at The Dollar Vigilante we’ve specialized in explaining the reality of the global faux-economy and why it’s important that you not believe mainstream media lies.

In the meantime, keep your eye on this shipping story!  If it is true and worldwide shipping is disastrously foundering, it’ll only be a matter of days before grocery store shelves will reflect that with increasingly bare shelves.

Are people upset now? Just wait. Interruptions in goods and services, most critically food, almost happened in 2008 during the Great Financial Crisis.  For three days worldwide shipping was stranded due to shipping companies not knowing whether or not the receiver’s bank credit was good.

That crisis was staved off due to a massive amount of money printing.  It was a temporary stay of execution, like bailing out the Titanic with coffee cups, however, and one that may reach much larger proportions in 2016.

Sailors watch the weather to see if it is safe to set sail.  Investors should be watching the economic climate with the same intensity.

We are already sailing through very stormy waters.

AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

One comment I will make, is that I am very impressed with Mr Vladimir Putin of late.

I believe he has done much (and very well) to deflect/defuse/refuse the global ambitions of others.

I for one am very grateful.

Thank You !!

THE BEST SUMMARY.....

Think the roller coaster is over?


http://www.theautomaticearth.com/2016/01/why-this-slump-has-legs/

Read the above (even the comments at the bottom of the article are often instructive as well!), then go out and buy a tin hat.

Good luck to us all !!!

BE AFRAID - BE VERY AFRAID !!!

(At least until the end of the article!!) Then try angry..... after that, try smart....... as in, let's get smart and find better ways of doing things than being owned by less than 1% of the population).

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11575560


You are a sovereign body - believe it and get used to it !!!

Needs no explanation..... many other places there, too...

How Australian households became the most indebted in the world

The results are in: Australian households have more debt compared to the size of the country’s economy than any other in the world.

 The latest job figures are promising – but can they last amid the economic gloom?

Greg Jericho

 

Read more

Research by the Federal Reserve has shown the consolidated household debt to GDP ratio increased the most for Australia between 1960 and 2010 out of a select group of OECD nations. Australia’s household sector has accumulated massive unconsolidated debt compared with other countries. As of the third quarter of 2015, it now has the world’s most indebted household sector relative to GDP, according to LF Economics’ analysis of national statistics.

Denmark long held this unholy accomplishment, but has been slowly deleveraging over the last several years as its housing bubble peaked and burst during the GFC. The latest debt-financed boom in Sydney and Melbourne has resulted in Australia now overtaking Denmark, a comparison of official figures from Australia and Denmark has shown.

 Photograph: LF Economics

Australia has around $2 trillion in unconsolidated household debt relative to $1.6 trillion in GDP. Australia’s ratio is 123.08%, while Denmark’s fell slightly to 122.99% in the third quarter of 2015, a marginal difference of 9 basis points. Although Denmark holds the record in terms of peak debt of 140.14% in the last quarter of 2009, as Australia continues to leverage and Denmark deleverages the current gap between the two will widen. Apart from Switzerland (which alongside Denmark has a negative interest rate), no other country is close in terms of having such extreme household sector debts. The UK ratio is 85.9% while in the US it is 79.1%.

Due to Switzerland’s opaque financial accounts, it is impossible to calculate a figure for this quarter. Its ratio for the second quarter of 2015 is 121.3%, and household debt is rising very slowly, so it would take an extraordinary increase over the quarter to potentially beat Australia.

The final confirmation of the trend is expected when the Bank of International Settlements publishes its analysis of private credit statistics from the third quarter.

Australian property investors and homeowners are burdened with massive mortgages, especially new and marginal entrants. Unlike winning a gold medal at the Olympics, having the world’s most indebted household sector is not an achievement the nation should be proud of. This is where Australia’s real debt and deficit problem lies, not in the public sector.

Over the last two decades, Australia has been beset by rampant housing price inflation.

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Since 1996, prices have outpaced fundamentals such as inflation, incomes, construction costs, rents and GDP, making it difficult for potential first home buyers to enter the marketwhile lower income households and marginal groups struggle to afford decent shelter.

Between 1996 and 2015, housing prices (adjusted for inflation and quality) have boomed by 141%, without a large and obvious downturn. This surge has led to a heated debate over whether this constitutes an asset bubble. Unfortunately, the Australian housing market shares similarities with countries afflicted by such bubbles: the United States, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands and Ireland.

Government, the FIRE sector (finance, insurance and real estate) and the mainstream economics profession deny the existence of a real estate bubble, but Australia’s economic history demonstrates they occur repeatedly, with all signs pointing to one today.

Contrary to the analyses of the vested interests, the data clearly establishes Australia is in the midst of the largest housing bubble on record.

 Photograph: LF Economics

Government is caught between a rock and a hard place, as implementing needed reforms will likely burst the bubble, causing severe financial and economic problems as residential land prices decline. The FIRE sector, including the public caught in the fallout, will surely blame government for the bust and deflect attention away from the gargantuan amount of debt pumped out by lenders.

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One of the faults of real estate analysis is the failure to distinctly define an asset bubble, so debate on the matter is kept necessarily vague. Only a couple of housing market metrics is needed to identify a bubble, and are now considered commonplace: nominal price to inflation, price to income and price to rent. On all three, Australia is both historically and internationally at or near the top.

Since the advent of the GFC, it has become commonly accepted that the global real estate booms originated from rapidly expanding bank credit or private mortgage debt. It is not merely the growth of mortgage debt (the first derivative) but the acceleration (the second derivative), also known as the change in the rate of growth. Nevertheless, the simple growth of mortgage debt provides a strong indicator for housing price growth.

The future for investors and new homeowners is not good. Subdued capital price growth in the secondary capital cities, rental price growth at record lows, significant dwelling construction and a falling population growth rate leading to further oversupply all spell danger. The problems are compounded by the Reserve bank having little room for interest rate cuts, by weak macroprudential controls, minimal savings, low household income growth and anaemic GDP growth.

Captured by neoliberal ideology and the FIRE sector, government has no interest in stopping this immensely profitable yet dangerous gravy train, having enriched the already wealthy beyond avarice through privatisation of unearned economic rents rather than productive activity.

Philip Soos is the co-author of Bubble Economics: Australian Land Speculation 1830-2013 and co-founder of LF Economics. @PhilipSoos