Only a profoundly decadent society could blindly accept the inherent corruption of the status quo. Suffice to say, collapse will come like a bolt of lightning from the clear blue sky to the decayed masses - it will be a "stealth" collapse for a society with its head shoved up its own ass...
The Pre-Collapse Train is Already Leaving the Station
T-Bill yields are ALREADY negative. Next up, (longer-term) T-bond yields. It looks like the smart money is already half way out the door...
The One Stage of Collapse
Thanks to the de facto policy of Extend and Pretend, Orlov's Five Stages of Collapse are about to be condensed into one all-encompassing clusterfuck - financial, commercial, political, social and cultural. That's the way this society likes to deal with issues - delay as long as possible, package it all into one gigantic shit sandwich and then ram it down their throat. Delicious.
The Big Short
Contrary to today, Wall Street saw the 2008 financial collapse coming all-the-way. At first there were only a handful of "fringe" speculators shorting subprime, but by the end, half of Wall Street was betting that Main Street would default on their mortgages. Along the way of course, Goldman Sachs invented the self-imploding artificial CDO which they sold to European investors and then proceeded to buy insurance (from AIG) against the same "investments" that they had just sold. The whole fucking thing was beyond sleazy, and yet no one in government batted an eye. Far from it - government (Treasury+Fed) forced tax payers to pay off Goldman's bets 100 cents on the dollar when AIG went tits up. You can't make this shit up. Sorry, I realize I've gone over that about a dozen times, but I can't review that situation without shitting a brick...
Meanwhile, back then, first New Century Financial went bankrupt in 2007 which was a major subprime lender - it literally dissolved overnight. Then in the spring of 2008, two of Bear Stearns' hedge funds imploded. Then Bear Stearns imploded shortly after. Then by the end of that summer, Fannie Freddy imploded - in other words, there were A LOT of warning signs leading up to Lehman. Only the stewed masses watching American Idol were surprised when their 401k retirement accounts became 200.5K accounts.
Index Put/Call Index: Wall Street's favourite way to short the market
Notice back in 2007, at the top, Wall Street was loaded up with puts. They then proceeded to "monetize" (sell) those puts into the decline. For most of Wall Street, it was relatively orderly. There was only one major gap down day, in that entire period.
Zero Hedge:
As we see above, however, today is a different story. Wall Street hasn't figured out a way how to short this current fiasco because it's totally impossible to short anything right now. So just like everyone else, they have morphed into long only mutual funds, praying that the Fed can keep this party going forever and ever.
Where Was I...
The point of this post however, was to point out that a society this decadent would never expect all of this to end abruptly. With the amount of malfeasance that occurs on a daily basis, a total "surprise" collapse was always going to be the most likely scenario.
How Corrupt? Let Me Count the Ways...
What can you say about a de facto Idiocracy that has flushed $33 trillion down the toilet these past five years merely to propagate shopping sprees for a few years longer and otherwise paper over the massive economic crater left by Wall Street.
In the meantime, 22,000 children have died worldwide every single day for want of a few dollars worth of food and medicine.
That $33 trillion divided by 7 billion people amounts to $4,700 for every single man woman and child on this planet. For someone living on $1 per day that equates to thirteen years' worth of subsistence.
The UN Millenium Development Goals to alleviate global poverty equate to a mere 1% of Wall Street's never-ending bailout.
Millenium Development Goals (MDG):
No Accountability Wanted
Of course this nihilistic society detests accountability because that might require personal responsibility and worse yet a moral code. There is now no accountability in any direction save for the inner-city youth who steals a candy bar and winds up destroying his entire future.
Crack smoking mayors? No problem. The only question on the table is can he get re-elected?
(Path to Rob Ford's Re-election, not impossible)
Collapse the Global Financial System? No problem.
Give them $3 trillion of 0% hot money for continued speculation. Let overpaid CEOs walk away with hundred million dollar pay packages. Ensure no one is held accountable.
The Bennie Bernank decided to fix Wall Street's gambling addiction by giving them $3 trillion more public money. The stoned masses will be surprised again when this all ends in collapse...
Invade the wrong country under false pretense?
In the meantime, 22,000 children have died worldwide every single day for want of a few dollars worth of food and medicine.
That $33 trillion divided by 7 billion people amounts to $4,700 for every single man woman and child on this planet. For someone living on $1 per day that equates to thirteen years' worth of subsistence.
The UN Millenium Development Goals to alleviate global poverty equate to a mere 1% of Wall Street's never-ending bailout.
Millenium Development Goals (MDG):
Of course this nihilistic society detests accountability because that might require personal responsibility and worse yet a moral code. There is now no accountability in any direction save for the inner-city youth who steals a candy bar and winds up destroying his entire future.
Crack smoking mayors? No problem. The only question on the table is can he get re-elected?
(Path to Rob Ford's Re-election, not impossible)
New Jersey governors who screw over their own constituents?
The only question now is whether or not he would be a good president.
The only question now is whether or not he would be a good president.
Collapse the Global Financial System? No problem.
Give them $3 trillion of 0% hot money for continued speculation. Let overpaid CEOs walk away with hundred million dollar pay packages. Ensure no one is held accountable.
The Bennie Bernank decided to fix Wall Street's gambling addiction by giving them $3 trillion more public money. The stoned masses will be surprised again when this all ends in collapse...
Invade the wrong country under false pretense?
Camp out for 11 years and re-elect the same President. Make sure no one is held accountable.
Turn a blind eye to the civilian casualties and be sure to salute the troops at hockey games all while ignoring the veteran suicide rate now at one every single hour 24 x 7.
Elect a new President under the phony slogan of "hope" and "change".
Wait until he reneges on three quarters of his campaign promises, and then re-elect him all over again.
Nominate a vulture capitalist to run against the President
i.e. one who describes 47% of the country as lazy free loaders i.e. the half he and others just like him laid off. And who also describes Chinese slave factories like they are Club Med. Fences are to keep people out !!!
NSA overreach? No problem.
Blame the guy (Snowden) who leaked the news.
Blame the guy (Snowden) who leaked the news.
The fun hasn't even begun.
The main point in all of this is is that the real fun in exposing the underlying rot in this society hasn't even begun. On the other side of the reset, when mega-doses of Prozac stop working, we are going to find out who is who in this society. Who has been pretending to keep it together and who really can. In a world full of zombies, we don't know who is real and who is fake. Who can roll with the punches and who will curl up into the fetal position when the shopping mall closes down.
The greatest survival tactic isn't to stock up on guns and ammo and wait for drones to appear. The best tactic is to surround yourself with real people that you can trust, who can survive adversity and who are not wed to all of this fake bullshit. It's a known fact that the greatest indicator of survival is having the will to survive, because when the shit goes down, not everyone has it.
Life is Not a Competition
Therefore avoid shrink-wrapped consumption-addicted zombies as much as possible. Because aside from having no survival skills, given enough time their Borg-assimilated souls will destroy one's will to live just by proximity. Not a good survival strategy.
Finally: Toronto has nothing on "Lotus-land" Vancouver, anymore...
