Earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, nuclear meltdowns...all fade into insignificance compared to the coming whirlwind of financial Armageddon many of the world's top experts see directly ahead.
Economic Doomsday some are calling it. And now—they say—it's literally unavoidable. Starvation, collapse and death on an Apocalyptic scale.
Will it be as bad as the Great Depression or World War Two? Worse, say many economists. Those events were a walk in the park compared to the total economic collapse coming to scores of countries.
Fed Chairman Bernanke's monetary policy a 'complete failure'
What to expect
The world's financial experts...they almost sound like conspiracy theorists, but these are some of the most respected financial insiders.
Here's what they expect during 2012: civil wars breaking out all over the planet; currencies collapsing into worthless paper; and roving bands of desperate, violent thugs willing to maim or murder for gold, silver—or even cans of beans.
In essence, anarchy will be breaking out all over as governments desperately respond with tyrannical martial law attempting to restore a semblance of order to masses of frightened, starving citizens.
Widespread food and water shortages are expected and food and energy prices will soar.
Remember everyone celebrating the arrival of the Millennium? People wanting to put the upheavals of the 20th Century behind them? Welcome to the 21st Century.
Find the tallest building and jump off?
Although none of the experts are advising jumping off buildings, they don't have much advice about anything. Some are at a loss over what to do with their own portfolios let alone any assets others might have. That's because they predict almost everything will plummet:
Real estate: think it's bad? It'll get worse, they warn.
Stocks: the Dow was below 1,000 in 1982. It can reach that again say market pundits.
Bonds: may look good on the surface, but with highly inflated, illusory values they'll be about as worthless as paper currency. They might be good as pretty wallpaper, for those that happen to still live in dwellings with walls.
Banks: many more will fail including some of the largest in the world. Same goes for some of the top insurance companies.
Annuities: although the principal is guaranteed, the currency they're based on is not. If it takes a barrel of dollars to purchase a loaf of bread, think what the "money" in an annuity will be worth. That's right, almost nothing.
This time the sky IS falling
The 12 disciples of Doom
Here are just twelve of the thousands of financial experts that are predicting the worse case scenario is really going to happen this time. No Chicken Little among them—the sky IS falling.
Ann Barnhardt: The head of Barnhardt Capital Management, Inc.: "It's over. There is no coming back from this. The only thing that can happen is a total and complete collapse of EVERYTHING we now know, and humanity starts from scratch. And if you think that this collapse is going to play out without one hell of a big hot war, you are sadly, sadly mistaken."
Gerald Celente: Trends Research guru to Fortune 1000 companies, Celente's accurately forecasted hundreds of social, business, consumer, environmental, economic, political, entertainment, and technology trends over the decades. What does he see on the immediate horizon? "America is in for a Great Depression and riots by 2012."
Stefan Homburg: Dynamic leader of Germany's Institute for Public Finance: "The Euro is nearing its ugly end. A collapse of the monetary union now appears unavoidable."
And when Europe collapses, America, Russia, and China will soon follow.
George Soros: Evil genius to some, just insightful and hard-nosed to others, Soros says: "Financial markets are driving the world towards another Great Depression with incalculable political consequences. The authorities, particularly in Europe, have lost control of the situation."
And Soros always puts his money where his mouth is...he's dumped Europe's sovereign debt, calling it poison.
Mohammed El-Erian: The PIMCO CEO sees: "These are all signs of an institutional run on French banks. If it persists, the banks would have no choice but to delver their balance sheets in a very drastic and disorderly fashion...Europe would thus be thrown into a full-blown banking crisis that aggravates the sovereign debt trap, renders certain another economic recession, and significantly worsens the outlook for the global economy."
Since he spoke those words the crisis has accelerated.
Attila Szalay-Berzeviczy: the global head of securities services at UniCredit SpA (Italy's largest bank): "The only remaining question is how many days the hopeless rearguard action of European governments and the European Central Bank can keep up Greece’s spirits."
Nigel Farage: An EU Parliament Member: "I think the worst in the financial system is yet to come, a possible cataclysm and if that happens the gold price could go (higher) to a number that we simply cannot, at this moment, even imagine."
Carl Weinberg: Respected chief economist at High Frequency Economics: "At this point, our base case is that Greece will default within weeks."
Most economists agree that when Greece fails Italy, Spain, Portugal—and maybe France—will also collapse.
Alan Brazil: A top Goldman Sachs strategist thinks, "Solving a debt problem with more debt has not solved the underlying problem. In the US, Treasury debt growth financed the US consumer but has not had enough of an impact on job growth. Can the US continue to depreciate the world’s base currency?"
The short answer is No.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Brazil believes that "as much as $1 trillion in capital may be needed to shore up European banks; that small businesses in the U.S., a past driver of job production, are still languishing; and that China's growth may not be sustainable."
Josef Ackerman: One of the top, most savvy bankers in the world and CEO of Deutsche Bank: "It is an open secret that numerous European banks would not survive having to revalue sovereign debt held on the banking book at market levels."
Which is something that is happening even as this is written.
Alastair Newton: A world-renown strategist for the giant Nomura Securities, London office: "We believe that we are just about to enter a critical period for the Eurozone and that the threat of some sort of break-up between now and year-end is greater than it has been at any time since the start of the crisis."
Lakshman Achuthan: With ECRI: "When I call a recession...that means that process is starting to feed on itself, which means that you can yell and scream and you can write a big check, but it's not going to stop."
Falling dominoes
Financial experts across 60 countries are publicly warning of the impending global financial disaster. The world's politicians—and the governments they run—have painted their economies into a corner after decades of mismanagement and now there's no safe place to hide.
The dominoes will fall like this: the European Economic Union (EEU) has run out of options. Servicing debt with debt is a losing proposition. It's like flapping your arms wildly after you've fallen off the edge of the Grand Canyon.
The EEU's demise will cause the cracks in America to widen until everything tumbles into the gaping pit.
Massive trade disruption and lack of revenue will cause the Eastern European, the Russian Federation and Chinese economies to collapse.
Africa will become a seething hellhole and Australasia will fall as well. Another warning sign: New Zealand just had its sovereign debt downgraded.
Dead
Most of the world is broke. Dead broke. The stage after being dead broke is just dead.
Countries that are self-sufficient in the Southern Hemisphere might fare better—among them Chile, Brazil and Peru. The irony is not lost there, however, as just several decades ago Brazil had a shaky economy hovering near the bottom of the world's economies.
Yet if the dominoes do fall, Brazil may emerge as the "last man standing" and the world's new superpower.
For more on this story see Prophets Of Doom: 12 Shocking Quotes From Insiders About The Horrific Economic Crisis That Is Almost Here.
No comments:
Post a Comment