Originally posted by TheCoffinman
So it begins... a prediction: the great depression II followed by a world war III.

Well if we have a second great depression, or as celente would say the greatest depression, then we will need a world war to pull us out of it. Scarcity is the driving force for profit in capitalism (and all economies really). If we have another world war there will be less goods available for the people because every country would convert factories for war like during WWII. This will drive up profits for factories that still produce those goods. The unemployment rate would go down because most men would be drafted and all women would go to work in factories (again, WWII parallel).Then after the war the countries that took the least damage would have a huge advantage because they would (for a short time) be able to put out all the world's goods, which would allow them to have low unemployment. All of the other countries will employ the remaining people in rebuilding.
I think if we have a world war III it will be a combination of the 30s, 40s, and 60s. There is a deep seated mistrust of governments and corporations that wasn't as prevalent back in WWII, as well as a much stronger anti-war and anti-government movement.
Some believe that the conditions in Greece now will be in America in 3-4 years. Hopefully that will make people want to get rid of government instead of go kill other people (who are fighting for their govt.), when they have more in common with the average soldier of another country than their leaders.

Info I was looking at suggested if the Bund spread widened to more than a 450 handle Greece would basically loose control of their ability to refinance owing to the debt on their bank's books.

Apparently it closed today at a 468 (yet unconfirmed)

Ok so thats Greece done for, who's next,,, any bets??? caught ya,,, thats how it started right???

Greece will likely be the first domino. You've got other countries like Portugal, Italy, Spain and Ireland nearing that teetering point as well. The excrement will hit the rotating air circulating device one day before very long and when it does, it will be ugly.

Don't believe it won't happen here either, because the USA of less than one hundred years ago is not the USA of today. We have an artificially inflated standard of living that just about any other country in the world would be thrilled to have but it's smoke and mirrors. We have two generations raised on convenience or services that are taken for granted and when that convenience is gone, it will be hard for many to adapt.

I don't know that a WWIII would bring us out of it this time. WWII put a lot of people to work as factories changed gears from manufacturing cars, tractors or the like to military vehicles, planes or ships. While that could happen again, production is much more automated than it was then. You had people that could shift gears from fabricating one thing to another but so much fabrication now is automated that even if the plants changed direction, there wouldn't be a boom in jobs. It may benefit the companies but probably not regular workers. A forgotten part of WWII was rationing. Could people today cope with being restricted on what or how much they could purchase?

No, I believe that when/if TSHTF this time, it will be worse than the Great Depression/WWII era. The country, workforce and economy have changed too much from what they were then. People are just too dependent now and employment/industry has changed too much.