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The Most Lipstick on the Biggest Pigs Ever!
Posted on 01/30/2012, 13:37
By Martin D. Weiss, Ph.D.
We've seen the political and financial elites paint lipstick on a pig before. But never anything like this!
Consider the pig in Washington: Uncle Sam continues to run the worst deficits — and borrow the most money — since America's war for independence.
And yet Congress has virtually given up on any semblance of a long-term solution.
In any other world or time, Uncle Sam would be paying through the nose to borrow money, driving interest up all over the U.S., and causing havoc in the stock market.
We've seen the political and financial elites paint lipstick on a pig before. But never anything like this!
Consider the pig in Washington: Uncle Sam continues to run the worst deficits — and borrow the most money — since America's war for independence.
And yet Congress has virtually given up on any semblance of a long-term solution.
In any other world or time, Uncle Sam would be paying through the nose to borrow money, driving interest up all over the U.S., and causing havoc in the stock market.
The lipstick: The Federal Reserve continues to paper over the disaster with the wildest money printing of all time ... PLUS ... the most sustained zero-interest policy in U.S. history.
The result:
• Conservative savers are being squashed, earning a pittance for their hard-earned funds.
• Investors are again being herded into highly speculative deals.
• And nearly the entire American economy is fundamentally destabilized.
Geithner Wants a Bigger European Firewall ... Why? In case you missed the Treasury Secretary's interview at Davos, he warned there's a BIG piece of the European financial framework still unfinished — the creation of a "credible firewall." But why would we need one? Is there a raging fire about to jump its barriers? You bet there is! And Geithner knows it ... so does the European Central Bank and the Fed. And YOU need to know about it too! The U.S. is about to get burned. But you can be ready with your own firewall ... watch Dr. Weiss' shocking new video. Click here NOW — it's FREE. |
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Next, take a look at the pig all across America: According to www.shadowstats.com, more than 22% of U.S. workers are now unable to get a regular job — one of the worst unemployment rates in the industrialized world.
The lipstick: In its headline unemployment number — now at 8.5% — the U.S. government conveniently excludes any unemployed worker who has given up looking for work or is forced to accept low-paying, part-time jobs.
Heck, even researchers at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics admit that 8.5% grossly understates the true unemployment in America. So they make a half-hearted attempt to figure out a broader unemployment rate — now at 15.2%.
But they're STILL sweeping at least half of the dirt under the rug! How? They deliberately avoid counting all those who have given up looking for work after a year's time — a huge group of discouraged workers who, in the real world outside the Beltway, still want and need a job.
The result: While Washington and Wall Street take credit for an "improving recovery," the majority of Americans continue to suffer from a Great Recession!
And don't forget the PIIGS in Europe: Everyone knows that the sovereign debt disasters in Europe have spread to all five of the PIIGS countries — Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain.
Everyone knows that France, Belgium, and even Germany are also extremely vulnerable.
Plus, nearly everyone — even at the highest echelons of euro officialdom — recognizes that the only solution is going to be many years of austerity, hard work, and saving.
The lipstick: Late last year, the European Central Bank (ECB) began running its own printing presses at breakneck speed to "save" the banks and avert a total collapse.
The folks at the ECB themselves admit that it's not a solution to the debt crisis, that it's prone to backfire. Yet they're doing it anyhow.
The result: The extra cash pouring into the global economy is helping to levitate stock markets to some degree and could continue to do so for a while longer.
But at best, it will backfire in a matter of weeks. And at worst, it will create a new dangerous bubble of mammoth dimensions, this time mostly in government bonds.
Why Risk Huge Losses in U.S. Stocks? Settling for the world's worst performing stocks makes no sense! In this presentation, we'll show you why we believe U.S. stocks pose substantial risks to your capital while offering pathetically low profit potential and why many Asian and South American economies pose far less risk and yet are beating the Dow by up to 26 to one! How can you harness this profit potential? Turn up your computer speakers and click here to view our presentation. |
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Rampant Official Hypocrisy
In the past, the world's leaders and elites typically had the backing of economists at major universities and governmental organizations:
If Washington, London, Berlin, or Brussels declared the global economy was mending, then it was because they were in synch with mainstream economists.
But now, hypocrisy in high places is so rampant — and so obvious — that even Establishment economists have rebelled.
They don't buy the official line. They don't even tone down their language like they used to.
Quite the contrary, they're now beginning to speak out about precisely the same danger we've been warning you about for months: a global recession — or worse!
Here are just a few prime examples ...
• Among mainstream economists, a whopping 93% now predict a major recession all over Europe! And it's widely recognized that, since the European Union represents the largest economy in the world, any European recession must mean a global recession.
• Economists at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warn of a series of financial shocks ... fresh market turbulence emanating from the euro area periphery ... major credit downgrades ... and signs of an economic slowdown.
• Economists at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development say that Europe already appears to be in a recession, stressing how the problem of massive long-term unemployment has become increasingly common.
• And economists for the World Bank make even more strident warnings. Their own words ...
"The financial turmoil generated by the intensification of the fiscal crisis in Europe has spread to both developing and high-income countries ...
"Capital flows to developing countries have declined by almost half as compared with last year, Europe appears to have entered recession, and growth in several major developing countries (Brazil, India, and to a lesser extent Russia, South Africa and Turkey) has slowed partly in reaction to domestic policy tightening."
My view: This statement alone should make investors everywhere stand up and pay attention. But there's much more ...
"Meanwhile," continue the World Bank economists, "the medium-term challenges represented by high deficits and debts in Japan and the United States ... have not been resolved and could trigger sudden adverse shocks."
My comment: See? Like us, the World Bank is warning that, although the sovereign debt crisis hit Europe first, Europeans are certainly not the only ones who have committed financial sins. If anything, the "sudden adverse shocks" that the World Bank is referring to could easily be larger than the shocks felt so far in Europe.
"Additional risks to the outlook," they write, "include the possibility that political tensions in the Middle-East and North Africa disrupt oil supply, and the possibility of a hard landing in one or more economically important middle-income countries."
This is what Weiss resource specialist Sean Brodrick has been warning us about. And the danger is now greater than ever!
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What About the Massive European Money
Printing to Turn This Situation Around?
At best, the folks at the World Bank see the ECB's efforts as a temporary patch:
"While contained for the moment," they write, "the risk of a much broader freezing up of capital markets and a global crisis similar in magnitude to the Lehman crisis remains.
"In particular, the willingness of markets to finance the deficits and maturing debt of high-income countries cannot be assured.
"Should more countries find themselves denied such financing, a much wider financial crisis that could engulf private banks and other financial institutions on both sides of the Atlantic cannot be ruled out. The world could be thrown into a recession as large as or even larger than that of 2008/09."
My Recommendation
First and foremost, don't be deceived by the abundant lipstick that Washington, Wall Street — and officialdom globally — have painted on pigs all over the world. So don't be lured into Wall Street's latest "hot investments."
Second, restrict your portfolio to investments that are most likely to rise despite bad times.
Third, go one step beyond: Buy some inverse investments that are specifically designed to go up because of bad times. The more the market falls, the more money you stand to make.
Most important, keep a big chunk of your money safe — such as with institutions meriting Weiss Ratings of B+ or better. (To check on your institutions, go to www.weisswatchdog.com.)
The yield you'll get on truly safe investments is minimal. But for the sake of true safety and peace of mind in today's crazy world, it's worth the sacrifice.
Good luck and God bless!
Martin
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