From C.S. Hayden's blog: http://cshayden.blogspot.com/
In his latest podcast, Lew Rockwell interviewed Gerald Celente of the Trends Research Institute. The interview is an excellent listen, a tremendous investment of 13 minutes and 39 seconds. If you prefer to read a summary instead of (or in addition to) listening to the podcast, I give this to you now:
Lew Rockwell (LR) asks how bad things will get? Gerald Celente (GC) says that current events form future trends. The headlines say that 75,000 workers were laid-off in one day, and there are more layoffs to come.
Last year was the panic of '08 in the financial sector. This year we will see the collapse of '09 throughout the economy. What we have seen so far is just the beginning.
The crisis has already spilled into retail, as we saw closings of Circuit City, Linens 'n Things, KB Toys, and other familiar chains. By mid-February or March, we will see other big name failures.
The big collapse in 2009, which will dwarf the subprime meltdown, will be commercial real estate. Who will take the empty spaces when all the retail stores close, not to mention the banks and financial institutions?
LR correlates Hoover and FDR with our day's powers that be in Bush and now Obama. As with the Great Depression of the 1930's and 1940's, from which our country took 17 years to recover, the government is directly making the crisis worse by subsidizing losers and penalizing producers.
GC discusses the buildup and plight of Citi Group and calls it a giant protected by Washington rather than a "too big to fail" institution. Wall Street has hijacked Washington and gained control. For example, the new Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, is former President of the NY Fed.
LR and GC agree that Washington cannot actually save the banks like Citi. The government is just draining money from the producers and letting the failed banks simply reinvent themselves. LR says that the losing banks are "too big to succeed."
Wall Street has now completely taken over the Treasury, which used to represent industry as well as finance. Now, Treasury is ripping off the producers and making all of us much poorer to enrich the losing financial institutions.
And there is no end in sight, says GC.
There will be a revolt. This is a clear trend they are forecasting. The government knows this. It is building detention centers and training the military for riot control. States are training their police forces to deal with riots as a fallout from economic calamity.
GC describes himself as a "political atheist," meaning he does not want to get caught up in anyone's "political religion." So, his forecast is not a knock against Obama per se, but he does believe that Obama will instigate a draconion measure such as a bank holiday, which will freeze all assets in banks, or a gold confiscation. The draconion move(s) will severely hurt the "little guy" and enrich the "too big to fails." The powers that be will justify these moves as a necessity during dire times.
LR says that Bush gave us a tremendous increase in the U.S. police state and fascism (government and corporate collusion to control the economy); Obama is giving us even bigger government, more spying, and so forth.
The last Great Depression took 17 years to overcome, and we are now on an even worse footing.
GC says that we need something to emerge like an amazing alternative energy source -- on the level of discovering fire or inventing the wheel -- that we invent, own, produce, and maintain ourselves in the U.S. Short of a productive capacity such as the U.S. dominance in engineering and manufacturing after WWII or the emerging internet in 1993, we will be living in the worst conditions ever.
GC is not an investment advisor, but he says he just buys gold. The governments of the world are just printing money and using old economic paradigms in this global economic meltdown. Buy gold to protect yourself. (In this podcast, GC predicts gold will reach $2,000.)
GC also recommends firearms to protect yourself, your family, and your assets from off-the-charts crime rates.
People are and will be increasingly out of their minds. Petty thievery, not to mention greater and more violent crimes, will be drastically on the increase. We have a growing underclass that we did not have during the Great Depression when we were a nation in ascendancy. Now, the large cities only turn out about 50% of students as high school graduates.
GC is not a "survivalist" in the crazy sense, just a close-combat practitioner. He has dried fruits and water that would last two weeks. He had an escape plan during 9/11 and has one now in case something really, really extraordinary happens. It will be hard to get money out of banks and even harder to redeem CDs, which are financial instruments.
Take protective measures, be alert, and be prepared to preserve your wealth.
LR agrees that gold, guns, and cash outside the banking system are wonderful to have in possession for these dire times.
Although he is certainly a fallible man, Mr. Celente has a remarkable track-record for analyzing and predicting trends and events. "A prudent man forseeth the evil and hideth himself," says Proverbs 22:3. Accordingly, let the reader beware and wisely judge what he should do to protect his family, his capital, and himself. This is a duty, not an option.
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