Civilization May Not Survive 'Death Spiral'

[whitewind]

http://moneymorning....death-spiral-3/

Economist Richard Duncan: Civilization May Not Survive 'Death Spiral'

By Terry Weiss, Money Morning

Richard Duncan, formerly of the World Bank and chief economist at Blackhorse Asset Mgmt., says America's $16 trillion federal debt has escalated into a "death spiral, "as he told CNBC.

And it could result in a depression so severe that he doesn't "think our civilization could surviveit."

And Duncan is not alone in warning that the U.S. economy may go into a "death spiral."

Since the recession, noted economists including Laurence Kotlikoff, a former member of President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers, have come to similar conclusions.

Kotlikoff estimates the true fiscal gap is $211 trillion when unfunded entitlements like Social Security and Medicare are included.

However, while the debt crisis numbers are well known to most Americans, the economy hasn't suffered a major correction for almost 4 years.

So the questions remain: Is the threat of collapse for real? And if so, when?

A team of scientists, economists, and geopolitical analysts believes they have proof that the threat is indeed real - and the danger imminent.

One member of this team, Chris Martenson, a pathologist and former VP of a Fortune 300 company, explains their findings:

"We found an identical pattern in our debt, total credit market, and money supply that guarantees they're going to fail. This pattern is nearly the same as in any pyramid scheme, one that escalates exponentially fast before it collapses. Governments around the globe are chiefly responsible.

This presentation shows how banks are escalating the collapse...

"And what's really disturbing about these findings is that the pattern isn't limited to our economy. We found the same catastrophic pattern in our energy, food, and water systems as well."

According to Martenson: "These systems could all implode at the same time. Food, water, energy, money. Everything."

Another member of this team, Keith Fitz-Gerald, the president of The Fitz-Gerald Group, went on to explain their discoveries.

"What this pattern represents is a dangerous countdown clock that's quickly approaching zero. And when it does, the resulting chaos is going to crush Americans," Fitz-Gerald says.

Dr. Kent Moors, an adviser to 16 world governments on energy issues as well as a member of two U.S. State Department task forces on energy also voiced concerns over what he and his colleagues uncovered.

"Most frightening of all is how this exact same pattern keeps appearing in virtually every systemcriticalto our society and way of life," Dr. Moors stated.

The work of this team garnered such attention, they were brought in front of the United Nations, UK Parliament, and numerous Fortune 500 companies to share much of their findings. Click on the short video above to see a sample. to see charts, facts, and details.

"It's a pattern that's hard to see unless you understand the way a catastrophe like this gains traction," Dr. Moors says. "At first, it's almost impossible to perceive. Everything looks fine, just like in every pyramid scheme. Yet the insidious growth of the virus keeps doubling in size, over and over again - in shorter and shorter periods of time - until it hits unsustainable levels. And it collapses the system."

Martenson points to the U.S. total credit market debt as an example of this unnerving pattern.

"For 30 years - from the 1940s through the 1970s - our total credit market debt was moderate and entirely reasonable," he says. "But then in seven years, from 1970 to 1977, it quickly doubled. And then it doubled again in seven more years. Then five years to double a third time. And then it doubled two more times after that.

"Where we were sitting at a total credit market debt that was 158% larger than our GDP in the early 1940s... By 2011 that figure was 357%."

Dr. Moors warns this type of unsustainable road to collapse can be seen today in our energy, food and water production. All are tightly connected and contributing to the economic disaster that lies directly ahead.

Keith Fiz-Gerald: Germany's military held a secret investigation into this unsustainable pattern and concluded it could lead to "political instability and extremism." Details here

According to polls, the average American is sensing danger. A recent survey found that 61% of Americans believe a catastrophe is looming - yet only 15% feel prepared for such a deeply troubling event.

Fitz-Gerald says people should take steps to protect themselves from what is happening. "The amount of risky financial derivatives floating around the globe is as much as 20 times size of the entire GDP of the world," he says. "It's unsustainable and impossible to unwind in any kind of orderly way."

Moreover, he adds: "People can also forget that the FDIC can only cover a fraction of US bank deposits. It's a false sense of security. Just like state pensions, which could be suspended at any time. A collapse could wipe out these programs. Entitlements like Social Security and Medicare are already bankrupt and simply being propped up."

We can see the strain on society already.

In two years, Congress won't have any money for transportation, reports the Washington Post. Cities like Trenton, NJ have layed off one-third of their police force due to budget cuts. And other cities like Colorado Springs, CO removed one-third of streetlights, trashcans, and bus routes, reports CNN.

Fitz-Gerald also warns of a period of devastating inflation. A recent survey, reports USA Today, notes that in the coming years it could take $150,000 a year in household income for a family to afford basic living expenses - and maybe go out to a movie.

Right now, in fact, "52% of Americans feel they barely have enough to afford the basics."

"If our research is right," says Fitz-Gerald, "Americans will have to make some tough choices on how they'll go about surviving when basic necessities become nearly unaffordable and the economy becomes dangerously unstable."

"People need to begin to make preparations with their investments, retirement savings, and personal finances before it's too late," says Fitz-Gerald.

What The Experts Say: The team has released their investigation to the public and for a limited time you can view a private airing of it online. Learn the steps you can take to prepare your wealth, investments and way of life for this looming catastrophe. Click here to learn how some of the foremost experts in the world recommend you position yourself for the uncertain time ahead. And receive a free copy Chris Martenson's ground breaking book.

 

[Stillman]

Its a crazy place full of guns, religious zeolots and racial tensions. I'm sure they will be fine. lol

[inti]

future looks great.

anyone got some sedative herbs after reading that article haha

or maybe shall i start stocking up tin food & weapons for survival of the fittest

[whitewind]

Depends what they mean when they talk about :"civilisation". If they mean the miltary industrial complex, I don't see that as a very good civilization, barely civil at all, just a workforce of slaves kept compliant with TV and some luxuries plus the promise of a better future and continual growth. The luxuries I don't mind, the rest is bullshit and can go AFAIK.

Guns to defend myself against the nutters who can't survive without fascism to keep them in check - but not guns to defend the military industrial complex please.

[Sallubrious]

All that shit going on and they can still afford to spend trillions every year making war with the rest of the planet.

[Stillman]

Or a couple Billion to elect someone who really doesn't have control over a governing system more inline with the Medieval Vatican than any form of Modern democracy.

Edited January 5, 2013 by Stillman

[Distracted]

The world is going to be a different place soon, make your allegiances wisely.

[WoodDragon]

There are many reasons for the US going down the plug hole but their ideological hatred of paying taxes is one of them, and their excursions into other countries is another. Oh, and inventing multiple pathways to obscene credit in order to build castles in the air helped.

I sometimes wonder if the country could sell what's left of itself to its creditors to try to keep from imploding - can you imagine the US being China's bitch, for example? Of course the citizenry wouldn't stand for it, and they'd shoot the government, their creditors, and themselves to oblivion first.

All they can do now is to stagger on from fiscal cliff to fiscal cliff, always creeping closer to the edge, and pillaging some foreign country's loose change in the process. They don't have much other choice - a new war won't work as their model for the last few has been to borrow to fund, rather than to tighten the belts and the budgets. There's really no feasible way to borrow like that again. And with any serious calamity now - whether war, or pandemic disease, or Peak Oil, or food crisis - there would be that 1% of rich people trying to escape by pulling their money, which would knock over the markets and force runs on the banks that would tip the economy into the bin.

And in the background will be many countries nursing a grudge against the US, just waiting for the weakness to show...

It's been too many decades since the States had a true statesman for a leader. All they have now are crazy fundamentalist Tea Partiers whose policies are structured exactly to make the problem worse, and a lame duck president who doesn't have the balls to tell his countrymen that they need to grow up and stop believing in their national fairystories.

It's not the Great American Dream for nothing.

[PositiveHAL]

the bigger they are the harder they fall...

the romans come to mind.

America needs to pull back from their quest for global dominance, maybe start by slashing NASA and halving their military spending

[Stillman]

chicken hawk nations need war to prop up there economy. America will have the most amazing depression very shortly, a depression they have been dodging since the second Gulf War.