Celente on Obama's Plan to Tax Bank

Gerald Celente, the man who - unlike other "analysits" who are constantly "surprized" by what is going on in the economy - accurately predicted the timing and the extent of the current crisis, considers the plan to recoup $90 billion from the banks TARP program over 10 years but a populist facade aimed to placate the brewing public anger. Watch his 4 minute interview below:

10 Years in Capable Hands

A friend of mine just told me that her boss whose business is importing and selling German-made machinery to various US manufacturing plants had his most profitable year in 1998 (he has been in business for over 40 years). Last year his business was all but dead. The USA stopped being a country which manufactures anything. It only knows how to import and resell.

What struck me is that his best year was just 11 years ago. So it took this little for the richest country in the world to come from prosperity to a perpetual decline. It is really shocking how little time an idiot needs to ruin a country!

An old appliance repair guy who came to my house recently was talking wearily about his country and people who run it, "First they moved all the jobs overseas, and now they play shocked to find out that we have high unemployment." He also mentioned that since all appliances started being made in China, he noticed a drastic change in their quality for the worse. He gave me one example: before, some metal parts and contacts were made out of solid thick metal, and now they are so thin that even a small power surge fries them. The replacement pars also come from China and have the same quality.

Incidentally, a family member who was recently skiing in the Rockies, told me that there were very few other tourists in the hotels and on the slopes, compared to previous years. I told her to memorize everything she is seeing around her, for chances are this is all going to be gone before long. She laughed sarcastically and said, "Obviously! Now that Obama is going to build socialism in this country, everything is going to be ruined!" This family member has a much higher formal education than the appliance repair guy, but evidently, lacks his common sense.

The Year of My Discontent

I have been wondering why I am so at odds with the world around me lately. Why am I so upset by the realities around me? Why do I feel so disappointed in this country, so betrayed by it? After all, it is not even truly my country to begin with. What do I care if it turned out to be sold out to special interests, and that it lacks freedom of speech, and offers propaganda in place of the news, and substitutes moral values with money and religion?

This is not simply a mid-life crisis, although I concede that my sentiments may be particularly painful because of that, too. I realized after a while that what I am living through is the fall of my belief system, of a certain ideal I had in my mind, a crisis of consciousness. Many people experienced the same in Russia with the advent of perestroika which all of a sudden made it clear that people who had been glamorized throughout the history of the Soviet State were some of the worst and most savage criminals in history, that the society's value system was all based on a myth, that the very idea on which the country was built was stripped of its worth, flogged and spat at in front of our eyes. As a result, a huge void formed in the Russian society in the place where the soviet value system once stood. And that system was an exact equivalent of a religion with its iconostasis, Lives of the Saints, its own Bible and the religious texts. The iconoclasm of the 1990's did not bring in new values to the society, and the gaping hole is being filled with a mix of Orthodox Christianity, cynicism, cult of money and material success, and the emerging nationalism.

Anyway, I did not live through a crisis of consciousness back then because I was raised in an anti-communist household. It was clandestine anti-communism, and I knew from the early age not to repeat elsewhere what I heard at home. My Dad grew up in a village in the Russian North where many political exiles were sent to live. While growing up, he heard them tell stories about Stalin's atrocities, he imbibed the atmosphere critical of the current regime and its ideology. And he generously shared it with me. So I definitely did not partake of the culture of communist brainwashing, and thus the crash of that culture did not affect me as anything but liberation.

What I did believe in were the ideals of a free world. Of capitalist entrepreneurship, reward for hard work, talent, persistence. Freedom of speech, freedom of beliefs. Justice free from ideology. I thought that America was the country that lived and breathed those ideals. We came here in good faith, we worked hard, and without any public assistance ever we made a very good living for ourselves. I did not pay much attention to George Bush the 1st - we were too busy building our life in America back then. I was horrified and disgusted by the immoral rule of Bill Clinton with an orgy of materialistic excesses and consumerism we saw around us. The fact that the sleazy Bill could get away with anything did not sit well with us. We voted for George Bush both times thinking that his Republican ideas will usher in the era of personal responsibility, human decency, hard work. Instead he busied himself with enriching a few people at the top and completely pillaging the country destroying its manufacturing base, unleashing unnecessary wars under false pretenses and brainwashing, brainwashing, brainwashing us.

And then as a final blow and an eye-opener came Georgia. That is Georgian attack on Ossetia which historically has never been a part of Georgia as a country, and which declared its own independence of Georgia at the time when Georgia became a separate state after the fall of the Soviet Union. Georgian tanks rolled into the streets of the sleeping town on Tskhinval in the dead of the night on August 8, 2008 when the world was busy watching the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing. From the antiquity wars were stopped for the duration of the Olympics, so to start a war at the opening of the Olympic Games certainly was a new low in the international relations. And those tanks were shelling residential buildings killing peaceful population, as well as Russian peace keepers who were on the territory of Ossetia by the international mandate. As a response, Russia brought in its own troops, quickly overturned the "brave" US-trained Georgian forces and advanced into Georgia. It was VERY clear who was in the right, and who was in the wrong. But ALL AMERICAN NEWS SOURCES CHOSE to represent the story as a insidious attack of Russians against peaceful pro-Western Georgians. There were more balanced accounts in European mass media, but in the US there was no place for any other view of the situation except the officially endorsed one. That is when the last curtain fell from my eyes, and I realized that our mass media are not interested in reporting news to us, they are not interested in informing us, they are interested in indoctrinating us and carrying out orders coming from some masters invisible to us.

(Of course, in the time which has elapsed since the Georgian attack, an official European report has found Georgia as an aggressor, but that information, too, which made headlines in Europe, was printed in small print in the mid-sections of our newspapers and with the headers like "The report blames the war on both, Russia and Georgia." Lies, lies, lies. Seriously, no better than what the communists printed in Russia.)

Then I saw how our newly elected President is interested in solely saving his Wall-Street puppeteers, how he continues to escalate the wars which we cannot afford, and I realized that this country is not at all ruled by a democratically elected President and Congress, but rather by a few special interest groups behind the screens. And that those groups do not hold anything sacred - not their country, not God, not justice, not morals - except the Almighty Dollar. And this is when my internal crisis hit me.

Now I experience a void of values to believe in. Capitalism has disgraced itself in my eyes. Religion holds next to no appeal to me - I see it as an unverifiable tale employed by a religious establishment to provide a fairly good living for themselves. I do not see a change I can believe in. I am lost. I am disgusted. I am coming to realization that the only thing in life worth worshiping and admiring is art and human thought. I am preparing for the internal immigration. Good-bye, America! I believed in you. I was wrong.

How the Federal Reserve (Central Bank) Bankrupts the Nation

For anybody interested in the true history of the world - say, how Hitler came to power and rebuilt Germany from total ruins in 5 short years, who bankrolled the Russian Revolution, why we had the Great Depression, why President Kennedy was assassinated, who rules the USA, and who orchestrated the current economic crisis, read this short and informative history of the Federal Reserve. For anybody who prefers to not know what makes the world go round, just ignore it. I don't blame you - ignorance is bliss.

Imperial Decline is NOT the End of the World

A Harvard History Professor Niall Ferguson published an article in Newsweek today called "An Empire At Risk" about the obvious decline of the USA as a global superpower. Our greed and corruption on the high level of government is finally taking its well deserved toll and bringing the country to a logical end of its short by historical standards world dominance. In other words, the US has had its 15 minutes of fame on the world arena, and the time is up. Politicians can still be blah-blah-blahing about the need to send more troops here and there, to bankroll color revolutions in the former Soviet Republics, but the truth of the matter is, thankfully, that we are fiscally bankrupt, and are really already at the mercy of our creditors.

Far from perceiving it as a tragedy, I see it as a very liberating change. Empires have collapsed in the past, but it did not mean the end of the world for citizens of those countries. In fact, those societies acquired higher moral ground. Consider the case of the British Empire which was ruthlessly robbing half the world. Consider the German Empire under Hitler. Both Brits and Germans still live well now, but they are not ashamed to look in the eyes of the world any longer. The acute phase of the collapse is unfortunately going to hurt, but we will emerge as a society which can, hopefully, finally respect itself, and possibly even have some true respect in the world. Just like in Rome they literally built new structures of the old stones, so will we eventually rebuild, and possibly, like the Italians, even completely eliminate the "emperors" of our times who brought us to the destruction (the Rothschilds, Rockefellers and other shadowy rulers of the US pulling the strings behind the curtains). Maybe, like modern Roman, we will even be showing tourists ruins of our Wall Street for money.

P.S. Interestingly enough, a book called "The Decline of the Dollar Empire and The End of Pax Americana" was published in 2003 by two much ridiculed Russian economists, Kobiakov and Khazin. In it they talk about the exact scenario we are now seeing right in front of our eyes. The link is to the Russian text of the book - I am not aware of an English translation of it.

Shadow Government Statistics

A friend of mine brought to my attention an interesting website: http://www.shadowstats.com/. It offers interpretation of the US economic data devoid of government manipulations to make it look what it wants it to look like. The new materials are available to paid subscribers only, but the Archives are an open read to the general public. You can find their archives here (look on the right-hand site). For example, I found a report on their consumer liquidity of mid-September 2009 which demonstrates that in 2008 the inflation-adjusted household income was actually lower than that in 1973.

What I read on that site is more in tune with what I see around me: despite the omni--repeated mantra that the US economy has entered the growth phase, it feels like the real chill of the Great Recession is just setting in. As one oriental saying goes, "Even if you say the word 'sugar' a hundred times, it is not going to taste sweet in your mouth." The website http://www.shadowstats.com/ is not trying to sugar coat our statistics.

The Land of the Free?

The New York Times published an article today titled "Bailout Helps Fuel a New Era of Wall Street Wealth." It was with astonishment that I read a phrase there: "It may come as a surprise that one of the most powerful forces driving the resurgence on Wall Street is not the banks but Washington. " SURPRISE? It may come as a SURPRISE? If this is true, I am afraid I have underestimated the gullibility and lack of sophistication in my fellow Americans. And that is shocking in and of itself.

This is what the government has been doing for the past year, hasn't it? I mean, saving Wall Street. So why would it come as a surprise that the source of new wealth on Wall Street was actually Washington? Beats me!

Here is what may come as a surprise to you, though. We learned a few days ago that our senior citizens won't get a Social Security payment increase next year due to lack of money in the budget. Let us do simple math here. AIG alone was given $182.5 billion in bailout money. Now, there are 35,241,000 seniors aged 65 and older who receive only Social Security from the government. If we had let the crooks at AIG fail, how much money could we then have given to our seniors instead? It turns out the amount which EVERY senior citizen could have received would be $5,178.63. Considering that an average monthly Social Security benefit is $1,061.50, this means that EVERY SENIOR CITIZEN in this country could have received an additional $100 a month for 4 straight years (roughly, a 10% raise compared to the current level) if the money we doled out to the fat cats at AIG ONLY were instead given to the country's elderly.

What does that tell you about our priorities and our morals? And the fact that there are no protests... What does that tell you about our sense of freedom? Nowhere in Europe a trick like that would have worked. People would have been out in the streets protesting. They would have paralyzed their countries with strikes, they would have forced the government to stop saving their own kin at the expense of the most vulnerable citizens. But not in America. As long as we have our "American Idol" and a hamburger, we don't care. Land of the Free? Don't make me laugh!

Goldman-Sachs Allumni in the US Administration

I recently had an argument on one of the Internet forums with a rather recent Russian immigrant into the US who still has rose glasses on. He believed the President does not only mean, but will actually do everything he promised, he trusted that there is no corruption in the US government, he was convinced that our domestic and foreign policy is always dictated by the considerations of the common good. I maintained that the current Administration is so heavily dominated by people with the closest possible links to the Wall Street, that Washington turned into a Wall Street instrument of political power, and that all efforts so far have been aimed at saving only the top players in the financial sphere. Here is a concise list of people previously closely connected to one firm only, Goldman Sachs, who are serving or have served in a variety of leadership positions in the current and past Administration. This is just a quick reference guide in case you would need to look it up.

Epiphany from Ben Bernanke

This is a compilation of quotes by Ben Bernanke collected by Gerald Celente. A couple of months ago, on this website I shared my concerns that Mr. Bernanke would be re-appointed despite his woeful lack of qualifications and skills for the job (or maybe, brain or conscience - pick what you like more). He did get reappointed. He was recently reassuring the Congress that the recession is over and that we are returning to the pattern of growth. How much trust can be put in his words, can be seen from this document:

Economic Forecasts from
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke
2007 & 2008

May 17, 2007: “The effects of the troubles in the subprime sector on the broader housing market will likely be limited, and we do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy, or to the financial system.”

October 15, 2007: “The banking system is healthy… Rather than becoming more crisis prone, the financial system is likely to emerge from this episode healthier and more stable than before.”

November 8, 2007: “We have not calculated the probability of a recession. Our assessment is for slower growth, but positive growth going into next year. We think that by the spring, early next year, that, as these credit problems resolve and as, we hope, the housing market begins to find a bottom, that the broader resiliency of the economy, which we are seeing in other areas outside of housing, will take control and will help the economy recover to a more reasonable growth pace.”

January 10, 2008: “Thus, notwithstanding the effects of multi-billion dollar write-downs on the earnings and share prices of some large institutions, the banking system remains sound… The Federal Reserve is not currently forecasting a recession.”

April 2, 2008: “Monetary and fiscal politics are in train that should support a return to growth in the second half of this year and next year.”

June 3, 2008: “We may see somewhat better economic conditions during the second half of 2008, reflecting the effects of monetary and fiscal stimulus, reduced drag from residential construction, further progress in the repair of financial and credit markets, and still solid demand from abroad. This baseline forecast is consistent with our recently released projections, which also see growth picking up further in 2009. Futures markets continue to predict that commodity prices will level out.”

Clearly, we have the brightest and the most qualified leading us out of the recession which they could not even see and recognize.

Celente in Support of the Arts

Gerald Celente of the Trends Institute just released the new report forecasting the development of the world crisis. He anticipates the situation worsening significantly before it gets better. He does believe in the eventual American Renaissance, though, which would include economic and political revival of the country. But there is more to it. And here comes an unusual address to the readers from this very sober analyst:

"No Renaissance can occur without building its foundation upon the arts. Art is not entertainment or just a business. Art is a way of finding the true meaning of the human spirit. A comprehensive understanding and appreciation of art, in its most profound manifestation … aesthetic, religious, cosmic … defined every great civilization of the past and without it there will be no great civilization of the future.

For America to experience its Renaissance, it is incumbent upon everyone to do what they can within their means. For the wealthy, buy from and support living artists for the value of how the work hits the heart, not for its eventual resale value. For everyone else, give a holiday, birthday, wedding, graduation gift that is artisan made, not manufactured in a Chinese factory. And when buying for children, give gifts that will further their creative talents in arts and crafts rather than occupy their minds with disposable toys and electronic games."

"The Dancers Aren't Complaining"

Today, "The Independent" in Britain came out with the following headline: "The demise of the dollar. In a graphic illustration of the new world order, Arab states have launched secret moves with China, Russia and France to stop using the US currency for oil trading."

The article continues:

"In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar.

Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars. [...]

Brazil has shown interest in collaborating in non-dollar oil payments, along with India. Indeed, China appears to be the most enthusiastic of all the financial powers involved, not least because of its enormous trade with the Middle East. [...]

"These plans will change the face of international financial transactions," one Chinese banker said. "America and Britain must be very worried. You will know how worried by the thunder of denials this news will generate."

Iran announced late last month that its foreign currency reserves would henceforth be held in euros rather than dollars. Bankers remember, of course, what happened to the last Middle East oil producer to sell its oil in euros rather than dollars. A few months after Saddam Hussein trumpeted his decision, the Americans and British invaded Iraq."

To read the complete article, use this link.

I did not see anything about this most interesting and relevant information on MSNBC, and Fox News has the story ways down under behind all the blah-blah about our glorious war on terrorism and a fascinating story of corruption at ACORN. The Fox News twist is that the story is not true because it was denied by official sources in the countries named by the Independent. Sure, we all heard denials from official sources that Madonna is not getting a divorce, etc., etc. If these powerful countries are planning to pull the rug from under American financial supremacy, it would be a bit dumb of them to officially announce their course, wouldn't it? It would be stupid and complacent on our part to take their assurances at face value and instead continue being zombied by the likes of Ben Bernanke into thinking that we are on the mend, and that all is definitely under control.

The US reaction to this news reminded me of a recent experience we had here in North Carolina. For the first time ever in history, the Bolshoi Ballet came to Carolina. The Bolshoi said that until recently it was not even aware that anything existed in the vast space between Washington, DC and Miami. Lo and behold, they were coming to Chapel Hill, and we were up for a treat! They brought two performances, "Don Quixote" and the "Swan Lake." Tickets were sold out months and months in advance. We went to see both shows. "Don Quixote" was a rapture to watch despite the fact that the stage was obviously too small for this production, and at one point the soloist had to push away from the wall. Two nights later we were watching "The Swan Lake." I do not remember another ballet performance which I watched with a similarly sick feeling. In my mind, it was nothing short of a disaster. The stage was covered with some substance which obviously made it too slippery for the dancers, and it also produced a horrible squeaking sound each time they had to twist a foot on it, which was, essentially, all the time. About 5 dancers actually fell or slipped and nearly fell during the ballet. At one point the kneeling soloist had to make a visible effort to lift the foot he was resting on off the floor for his tricot stuck to the stage. It felt like the performers were dancing over a Coke spilled floor. We sat with a knot in our stomachs cringing at the squeaks, and filled with apprehension of future slips and falls. Anybody who is familiar with the Bolshoi would know that for a dancer to fall during their performance is a next to impossible event.

Anyway, during the intermission, we ran looking for a stage manager to see if the slippery covering could somehow been ameliorated during the short break. This was the evening when a red carpet reception for the patrons of the arts preceded the actual show. As a result, the theater was filled with ladies of all ages donning evening gowns. The lady we were told to talk to, was also fancily dressed up, and we apparently interrupted her small talk with an important guest. She sized me up (I failed to impress her), and after I related my concerns to her, she replied in a condescending manner that this was a special stuff they put on the stage surface for a ballet performance. Then when I assured her that (obviously, unlike her) I have been to many a ballet performance, and the stage never sounded this way, she gave me her last trump argument: "The dancers aren't complaining!" The performance concluded with the same accompaniment of squeaks and slips.

I later read in a published interview how concerned the dancers were about the slippery conditions on the stage that night. It was very evident that this was the first and last encounter of that stage manager's with the caliber of the ballet the Bolshoi offers. I am sure the troupe were very glad to leave the hospitable Carolina with no broken legs, and are probably convinced that there was a good reason why they were oblivious to the existence of human civilization between DC and Miami.

The parallel I am drawing here is in the attitude. The stage manager was convinced there was no trouble since she did not hear the dancers complain. The US media sources are also trying to placate us in this matter of vital importance to our collective "dance" that "the artists are not complaining," and therefore there is no cause for concern. Well, the artists may be plotting an escape to another troupe altogether. Ever heard about the BRIC countries? That may be the name of a new theater. I am not sure that when it opens we will have enough disposable income left in the currency they accept to purchase tickets to their performances.

Investing in Real Estate

I am far from thinking that the crisis is over. I think it will still take the best of us. Yet now is the moment I feel when buying investment real estate may really make sense. Here is why.

With the government printing additional $2 trillion, we know for a fact that the inflation is going to hit us some time soon. Everything will become more expensive, including mortgages and home prices. Regardless of the fact if the prices of the real estate market have bottomed out in each individual case or not, they are overall pretty close to the bottom. If you buy now, you can get a loan at around 5%, and it will remain a 5% interest loan for 30 years if you get a fixed rate (which you absolutely should). So your mortgage payment will remain the same whereas rental prices will be climbing inexorably and doubtlessly. Your income will be on the rise, too, with the inflation adjustments (it probably won't keep up with the inflation because now that they have pumped so much money into the system, they need to get it back, and they will be getting it back from us). So the payment on that very low interest rate mortgage will consume an ever smaller portion of your paycheck, or of the rental payment you receive from this investment property. And the price of the property will be increasing, along with the price of everything else.

During the inflation it makes no sense to simply save money. You need to invest it in some commodity to prevent it from losing value. They say that gold will be an excellent way of wealth preservation. I do not know about that. Gold is a thing that you have to buy and pay to store hoping it will appreciate. Whereas if you buy a piece of real estate, you can a) leverage your purchase, and b) put it to work for you deriving income from it as you wait for it to appreciate.

Right now I am helping a client of mine purchase a property in North Carolina which is listed for $17,400.00. That is right, just seventeen thousand dollars! It sold 9 years ago for $84,000 with a bank issuing a loan for that amount. Yes, it is a foreclosure. No, it is not in the best part of town. Yet, it has 3 Br/1.5 Ba sitting on a quarter of an acre of land with a fenced back yard. New vinyl siding, new vinyl windows, new copper pipes, and updated electrical system complete the picture. You better believe that this is going to be a good investment.

I just feel that with the approach of the inflation, loan rates are going to be considerably higher, and property prices will rise along with everything else. Now is the time to take advantage of the low prices and low mortgage rates to lock in your super low monthly payments for the 30 years to come.

By the way, I am about to launch a new website where you can search for NC foreclosures for free (this is a rare thing for those of you who tried searching for foreclosed properties online). The site is http://www.ncinforeclosure.com/. But this is not a self-promoting post. A nationwide free website for foreclosed properties is http://www.allhud.com/. Go ahead and work with any realtor you like. I just thought I would share what was on my mind.

The Myth of American Exceptionalism

I have been reading a new book by a British journalist Godfrey Hodgson "The Myth of American Exceptional ism". He has first studied and then worked in the US for most of his illustrious career for almost half the century, and he wrote extensively about American politics and history. He more or less concludes that at some point the America he loved and respected, the beacon of freedom, has slipped into the Messianism and the fallacy of believing in its own supreme greatness and uniqueness. Hence it not only is rapidly losing the respect of the world, but it is also refusing to see how this greatness and prosperity is slipping away from it. Complacency and greatness are two things incompatible.

Today, MSNBC is reporting about Americans going to China (mainland China) for jobs at a fast rate. It turns out that our recent graduates who have extreme difficulties finding even marginal jobs in the US, have a much brighter prospect of finding one in China. The article even goes on to quote one person saying that China today is what America used to be in the 1930s. Here is the link to that article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32937628/ns/business-world_business//.

In everyday life I see all the time that we are complacent and uninformed. The other day my hair stylist asked me how we felt about the health reform, and was dismayed that both my husband who is a physician, and myself felt it was timely and necessary. Unavoidable in fact. She went on to claim that we had the best health care in the world, and was truly amazed when I told her that we are trailing behind EVERY developed country on Earth in our life expectancy and outcomes of many diseases despite spending times more money on our medical system. I told her that Germans and French have a system which ensures better outcomes and longer life spans despite the fact that they eat butter, smoke, don't take cholesterol or pain pills and spend considerably less money as a society on their health care system while having everyone covered. She really has not heard that before. She asked in disbelief: "So-o-o... Why do they ALL want to come here for treatments???" And was again incredulous when she heard the answer: "Well, ... they DON'T!"

Some systems are better than others. I do not think there is much positive to be said about the Canadian system, or even the British one. Some of the things which make the British system dangerous are not going to apply in our situation anyway, like for example the fact that since they have joined the EU any doctor with a diploma from the medical school anywhere in Europe can come and practice medicine in Britain. Some countries' medical education is still substandard. This clearly is not going to happen in the US where licensing rules are very strict and religiously enforced. So I am not advocating blindly following some inferior models. But we need to recognize that there are models which are clearly superior.

We need to come to the realization that we are not the greatest in many respects. My father who is a math professor in one of the US universities has said long ago that a) if the US stops accepting foreigners into grad schools, all the US graduate schools in mathematics can be closed, and b) that it would have made much more sense economically for him to learn Chinese and to to go teach students in China rather than teach Chinese students math in the US in the language which is foreign to both the professor and the students. Like I said, he made this observation years and years ago, and the situation has not improved since then. There has long been a joke in Russian that American universities are places where Jewish professors from Russia teach Chinese students math in English. Every joke, as we know, is a joke only to a degree.

If we ignore the facts, and continue to pat ourselves on the back complacently basking in the myth of our greatness, we are going to irrevocably miss the boat into the future.

Gerald Celente calling our "recovery" a cover-up

What he says is making sense to me. Average people I talk with don't understand how we can have an economic recovery and a continued loss of jobs at the same time. It is interesting that Celente finds the hope of American Renaissance in going back to the basics on which this country was built - and those basics are not some Christian principles, or general humanitarian values - those principles are the rule of money.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhaEc_4zuFI