Financial topics

[Higgenbotham]

The process of destruction is underway in Detroit and this should spread across the G-7 as other urban areas go dark. The disadvantaged majority, when it becomes that, and it is getting close to being a majority, will work off its resentment by smashing and burning with impunity. I predict government control will be nowhere to be found and a Katrina-like state of affairs will exist in most places as they go dark. The muni bond market in the US has on average peaked out in late 2012 and should be the first major US market to go toward zero as city after city collapses. Likewise, not only will the infrastructure of roads, bridges and electrical systems not be maintained or replaced, vandals will rip up whatever they can salvage and cart it away - guard rails, manhole covers, or what have you, and smash up the rest with pick axes and sledgehammers, or destroy what they can't smash up with homemade bombs. When only 10% or less of the population can afford to drive, the other 90% will make sure they can't. I expect some of the destruction to be quite mindless and vengeful. Before the grid goes down due to nuclear accidents or plant shutdowns, it will probably be destroyed by clever folks who wish to get even with their tormentors, as folks are already doing in Detroit. Again, when only 10% of the population can afford full electric, the other 90% will make sure they can't access it either. The G-7 isn't really set up to give everyone free utilities as the Warsaw Pact was, so the collapse in the West from that aspect should be comparatively worse. Likewise, the Russians didn't build their country with African slave labor; the kind of resentments that are harbored here and are causing the demolition of Detroit didn't exist when the Warsaw Pact collapsed.

[aedens]

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2014 ... 570&rank=1

[aedens]

impossible to fix stupid http://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2014 ... ayout.html

[Higgenbotham]

Likewise, not only will the infrastructure of roads, bridges and electrical systems not be maintained or replaced...

America’s Highways, Running on Empty

By JOSHUA L. SCHANK
JUNE 1, 2014

WASHINGTON — IF you think your commute is getting worse, it’s probably not your imagination. And no, it’s not because there are more cars on the road. The potholes, the stalled construction projects, the congestion — it’s because the highway trust fund is almost empty and, without a fix, could run out of money this summer.

In the last 2 posts I kept the facts in the first post separate from my opinion in the second.

I found this recent article from the New York Times. It seems like there is no longer as much attempt by the media to hide the facts. The article states that there is no solution to this. Those two aspects may go hand in hand, indicating that the power structure doesn't know what to do.

Another point about the muni bonds. The massive QE was announced on September 14, 2012 and implementation would have started in late 2012. That was the time the muni bond fund MUB peaked. Coincidence? I don't think so because QE drains wealth out of the periphery of the world and into Washington and New York.

[aedens]

I was reminded there are five things essential for human beings to understand as they nail others
to crosses. Never will they understand or even pretend to care. The seal is real.

[aedens]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-0 ... ncy-speaks

In 1993 the rebels stated we deserve to win.

[John]

> http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-0 ... ncy-speaks
> In 1993 the rebels stated we deserve to win

Whether east Ukraine turns into a battlefield does not depend on
Strelkov, who obviously wants a war. It depends on Putin, and
Putin, as far as I can tell, does not want an east Ukraine
war because:

• It would be expensive for Russia.
• It would create a refugee crisis that would spill over into Russia.
• It could blow back into a war within the North Caucasus.
• It's far from clear whether the outcome would be favorable
  to Russia, especially given the unpopularity of Russia, even
  among Russian speakers in east Ukraine.

[Higgenbotham]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-0 ... ncy-speaks

In 1993 the rebels stated we deserve to win.

In sum, we are witnessing purposeful destruction of the industrial complex. You can draw an analogy to an old joke about a Ukrainian who says “Even if I can’t eat it, at least I’ll bite it.” In other words, if I can’t have you, no one can.

This is analogous to the idea that if only 10% can afford to drive, the remaining 90% will cart off the guard rails and manhole covers for scrap and destroy the roads.

This quote was interesting, obviously because it fits in with my worldview.

The real problem is not that we will be unable to defend ourselves or to withstand attacks by the Ukrainian forces, the problem is that if this war continues indefinitely, the region will fall to a humanitarian catastrophe. As a result Russia will become the recipient of millions of disenfranchised, impoverished and angry refugees. Everything that was built, created over decades, if not centuries, will be destroyed.

[John]

Ukraine's national anthem:

Ukraine has not yet perished,
The glory and the freedom!
Still upon us brave brothers,
Fate shall smile!
Our enemies will vanish
Like dew in the sun;
We too shall rule
In our country.

[aedens]

Deeper evil has been already unleashed...