Worse than the Great Depression

It's a minority but growing view, including from 86-year old former Goldman Sachs chairman, John Whitehead, at the November 12 Reuters Global Finance Summit in New York. As disturbing evidence mounts, he said: "I think it would be worse than the depression. We're talking about reducing the credit of the United States of America, which is the backbone of the economic system. I see nothing but large increases in the deficit, all of which are serving to decrease the credit standing of America.

www.reuters.com... d=B1UQUIqvYKlGBCTmg5ArtmrMCz6tJtskuQWnfCz7egMAhuek2d&bbParentWidgetId=B9IYAiV6g03xWUXstkq1JR

What Edelson is suggesting is that world economies together will do the same thing - "a simultaneous and universal currency devaluation" without confiscating gold. They don't have to and instead can "raise the current official central bank price from its booked ($42.22) value an ounce - to a price that monitizes a large enough portion of the world's outstanding debts."

If this happens, debts will be reduced to a fraction of re-inflated asset prices "led higher by the gold price." Further, Edelson believes, in place of the dollar as a reserve currency, "three new monetary units of exchange (will emerge) with equal reserve status" - a new dollar, euro and "a new pan-Asian currency" with the Chinese yuan likely surviving and linked to a basket of the other three.

The article is missing from the link you posted. Here it is again: www.opednews.com...

A must read! Star and flag for you.

Thanks for this info. I too have been listening closely to what John Whitehead is saying. It is interesting to hear from the others as well.

Not a good outlook. It has only reinforced my feelings that this is going to be a long hard road with no positive end in sight.

I don't have time now to comment further but I will come back and watch this thread closely. Anxiously awaiting comments from others. Thanks again.

A speaker in congress raised the concern of our AAA rating being compromised because of the TARP Program Bill - He was quickly cut off by a very angry chairman indicating that is was wrong to even raise the question as it could cause a panic among individuals and foreign nations who are buying our debt.

Those bying off the US debit are basically buying the US.

Didnt any of you realize that the US is a commodity that is for sale???




Cheers!!!!

Here we go again

Given the speed and severity of the current crisis, he believes something big is planned and puts it this way: "If we can't print money fast enough to fend off another deflationary Great Depression, then let's change the value of the money." In other words, devalue it, but do it globally. "It would be a strategy designed to ease the burden of ALL debts - by simultaneously devaluing ALL currencies (or at least all that matter) and re-inflating ALL asset prices."

Edelson is a NWO tool promoting a global currency.

One world government
One world army
One world bank

This plug pertains to the third point on the agenda

MoonMine

Worse than the Great Depression
I don't think you can get any worse then the Great Depression.
I think that's why they call it the "Great" Depression.
The DJI stopped trading at its original floating price.
I don't think you can go any lower than that.
Worse than the Great Depression in economic terms doesn't exist.
But I guess it could go on for longer which could make its impact on humanity worse.
Tell me how you can get any worse?

reply to post by CaptainCaveMan

What could possibly make a depression today worse than the Great Depression?

The amount of personal debt carried by such a large majority. In depression times people simply were not as indebted.

If the dollar tanks that could be worse. During the depression the dollar held despite the unemployment rate.

In addition our disappearing industrial/manufacturing base could make things worse.

I agree with this statement especially concerning unemployment numbers.

Crucial to understand is that these figures are grossly understated given the numbers of discouraged workers, part-time and occasional ones, and other ways the government cooks the books to soften or otherwise alter all types of "official" data. None of it, including GDP, inflation, and the rest is reliable. For unemployment, a good rule of thumb is to double the announced figures, so the Labor Department's reported 6.5% is, in fact, around 13% and rising.

If we can't believe what is being reported how can we know just how bad things really are. I suggest Mr. Whitehead is privy to far more accurate information than the general public not to mention the lifetime spent in the business makes him quite unique imo.

The way in which misinformation could make things worse for us could come with the many who for whatever reasons didn't see the early warning signs and made no preparations. Misinformation could make for more panic when reality does hit.

The fact that people today are by comparison in no way prepared psychologically or physically to live like the average American did during the Great Depression.

Imo certainly Mr. Whitehead considers many things before making such a statement. If a man with his longevity in the business has come to this conclusion I can see how he might possibly be right.

What a joke!

The whole "New World Order" was coined by the old guard which is too senile and perverted to deal with the consequences of its own incompetence, greed and other assorted traits that makes this world so "enjoyable" these days. Anything that comes from an 86-year old person who helped to create the global mess smells of rotten eggs. Any rescue design or changes to avert the demise of the Old Word Order is just another band aid to prevent the Old Word Order from bleeding to death.

Far more radical changes need to be implemented to stabilize global markets. The remedy offered will not help. Of course, you can defraud lots of people using stealthy techniques, but you eventually run out of available options. People won't forget all the ways they got screwed.

Let's mention just one example. When I see an investment bond rated AAA with a US postage on the envelope, then forget it. Surely enough, the next "financial opportunity" will be sent from Belgium. And how many countries are there in the world? Not enough to run the Ponzi scheme indefinitely to switch to other types of less risky investments.

If you catch someone devising plans to devaluate currencies, shoot that person, because he is about to steal from you.


[edit on 11/23/2008 by stander]

Poor by todays standars would be wealthy in 1929 standards. Just think the people as a whole can't survive the soup kitchens or the shack homes from circa 1932. Electricity was a luxury then but now failure to pay your power bill will get your children taken away by the government. My point is that the nation as a whole is one big titty baby and will implode itself when faced with true economic hardship. This is why it will be bad/worst than the great depression.

reply to post by CaptainCaveMan



many thought the same after the 'great war'

look how wrong we were.

Things can get much worse.

We have a 21st century economy running on a 1920's economy system, that failed in the 20's/30's.

the bigger they are the harder they fall?

we'll we've become massive, and its a long way down!

Ive often wondered what state the world have to be in for many of the end times prophecies to come to pass.

A depression greater than the great depression would fit the bill.

www.huppi.com...

This is a timeline from the 1st Great Depression

Here is the 1920's - It is interesting to see the correlations between then and now.

During World War I, federal spending grows three times larger than tax collections. When the government cuts back spending to balance the budget in 1920, a severe recession results. However, the war economy invested heavily in the manufacturing sector, and the next decade will see an explosion of productivity... although only for certain sectors of the economy.



An average of 600 banks fail each year.

Agricultural, energy and coal mining sectors are continually depressed. Textiles, shoes, shipbuilding and railroads continually decline.


The value of farmland falls 30 to 40 percent between 1920 and 1929.

Organized labor declines throughout the decade. The United Mine Workers Union will see its membership fall from 500,000 in 1920 to 75,000 in 1928. The American Federation of Labor would fall from 5.1 million in 1920 to 3.4 million in 1929.

"Technological unemployment" enters the nation's vocabulary; as many as 200,000 workers a year are replaced by automatic or semi-automatic machinery.

Over the decade, about 1,200 mergers will swallow up more than 6,000 previously independent companies; by 1929, only 200 corporations will control over half of all American industry.

By the end of the decade, the bottom 80 percent of all income-earners will be removed from the tax rolls completely. Taxes on the rich will fall throughout the decade.

By 1929, the richest 1 percent will own 40 percent of the nation's wealth. The bottom 93 percent will have experienced a 4 percent drop in real disposable per-capita income between 1923 and 1929.
The middle class comprises only 15 to 20 percent of all Americans.

Individual worker productivity rises an astonishing 43 percent from 1919 to 1929. But the rewards are being funneled to the top: the number of people reporting half-million dollar incomes grows from 156 to 1,489 between 1920 and 1929, a phenomenal rise compared to other decades. But that is still less than 1 percent of all income-earners.

while the talking heads (politicians, etc) fill the televisions of the planet with ideas of hope and security, the reality of the matter is that they are preparing for the worst.

Everything they are saying on TV is a lie, it wont get better, they can't fix things, they don't have answers and there is no way out.

Wake up and smell the coffee. Hope is not something you can feed your children with.

reply to post by warrenb


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Monday said the U.S. economy would recover from the current financial crisis and that the government stood ready to help the banking system as it did with the $20 billion capital injection into Citigroup.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Bush said the first step toward economic recovery is protecting the U.S. financial system.

"This is a tough situation for America, but we'll recover from it," Bush told reporters. "The first step to recovery is to safeguard our financial system."


I don't think there is 1 person who read this and felt relief...or hope

This country went bankrupt in 1913 and has been in bankruptcy ever since. his depression we are in now IMO is worse than the great one of the 30's. They are artificially propping it up with the fed printing more and more dollars, which makes each one worth less. When this thing finally falls, America will change drastically.

What would you do if you looked into the eyes of your starving child? Would you rob your local store, neighbor, would you kill? I think that when this country finally gets the depression we are in you will see the worst in people come out and fast.

I say the best answer is to be prepared that means food, water, weapons, toilet paper, water filtration system, alternate powered radios and such. Like they say, better to have gun and not need it than need one and not have it. This applies to all survival equipment...

They are just distracting people with empty promises, while the system slowly crumbles. How can they say it will take 14 or 18 months to get out of "the recession"? They just make these numbers up to placate the populace. If they can truly predict such things then you have to wonder why they couldn't predict and alleviate the current global crisis. Yes many people saw it coming but to those in power it was business as usual, nothing wrong and nothing to see here move along type ideology.

It will be quite scary to see what the crime rate is if we are in the throes of a Great Depression (I can not find any actual rate for the 1930's Depression to use as a comparison)

People are born with a survival instinct and although under ordinary circumstances you are a law abiding citizen you can't predict what you will do if you are starving or your children are starving - I imagine a person would steal a loaf of bread to feed their children if need be.

Unfortunately if you have stockpiled food and water you will be a definite target for theft. Heck it would be scary to go to a grocery store you'd probably be robbed at gunpoint for your groceries.

Originally posted by theindependentjournal

What would you do if you looked into the eyes of your starving child? Would you rob your local store, neighbor, would you kill? I think that when this country finally gets the depression we are in you will see the worst in people come out and fast.

Chimpy Bush thinks "fiat money" is what you use to buy an Italian car.

Chimpy thinks the "Amero" is a new car made by Fiat.