By now, you have surely heard that our elitist banks passed their recent government sponsored “stress test”? Forget about it! Relying on this incestuous bunch to grade themselves is like putting Madonna in charge of screening convent applicants. Take no comfort in shams of this nature.

There are bigger fish being fried. The entire American nation is in the crosshairs and will be severely tested like never before.

Very few people comprehend the scope of the problems that continue to unfold. The Dow is up a couple of thousand points so everything must be normalizing, no?

No! Look deeper.

The US Hits the Treadmill

The core of our problems lies deep in the roots of the overall system.

• The US economic model has been extremely flawed for more than an entire generation. Our “money” holds no intrinsic value. We follow the consumption mantra instead of the production model. The good times come only when credit expands in bubblical proportions (don’t look that one up in Webster’s). Credit contractions, like the historical one we’re now in, threaten to implode the entire edifice. The Fed is the master of the boom and bust cycle and they have really overdone it this time.
• Low interest rates are damaging to the key individuals that can rescue us … savers. Save the savers!
• There are consequences to failed economics. Our central planners are a scant few decades following in the footsteps of the Ruskies. It is definitely not free market capitalism that is crumbling. Ignorance, greed and fraud are simply meeting their inevitable demise.

Results- The patient literally fell off the treadmill.

The Telling Electrocardiogram (ECG)

There are some really weird heart rhythms on this now intensive care patient.

• This decade has been one of depression only disguised by official lies and distortions (altered statistics). A sustained recession is, in fact, a depression. The sustained recession started in 2001, with a brief interlude in 2004 and I’m sticking with that opinion regardless of how few see it. Check out the GDP chart at www.shadowstats.com for yourself. Any analysis is only as good as the documentation used.
• The collateral foundation is crumbling out from under all American banks. Real estate continues to deflate and this directly impacts the viability of banks. Their ability to lend disappears with foreclosed homes and non-performing shopping centers. Home prices were down 14% during the first quarter of this year compared to the first quarter of 2008. At least 30% of US households owe more on their homes than they’re worth. Real estate has not bottomed.
• Joblessness goes hand in hand with real estate failures. The Labor Department just fessed up to a 9% unemployment rate. The rule of thumb is to roughly double the propaganda figures that come out of DC/NY. We’re heading next for 20% unemployment and all but the most gullible know it. More reliable reporting, again, comes out of the Shadow Stats website.
• American debts are way, way past the point of ever being repaid. They will be defaulted on. I won’t bore you with excessive numbers here because eyes tend to glaze over. Our economic leaders are throwing down multiple trillions of dollars in between shots of tequila. Practically none of this funding is aimed at Main Street. Recent “stimulus” spending and desperate promises come to $29 trillion per Bill Buckler of the esteemed Privateer.
• Tax receipts for fiscal 2008-2009 are down 31% for individuals and 58% for corporations. Meanwhile, government is vastly expanding its spending and a collision is inevitable.
• Foreigners are balking at purchasing more American debt and the Fed, in an end game strategy, has stepped into the gap. Don’t try this at home.

Results- There is a dangerous cardiac arrest in progress. One more test to go.

The Dreaded Proctologist

This test is the most revealing one of all. You will need more than a Valium just to review these results. The creatures that have brought us to this fateful moment show no signs of seeing daylight anytime soon.

• Failed entities should be purged from the system. Fraud requires punishment. Instead, incestuous entities like Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, AIG, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and others were and are deemed too well connected to fail. A financial coup d’etat has transpired as Goldman Sachs refugees have overtly grabbed the ring of power. The banking elite continue to clutch their power.
• The shadow banking system that directly caused this American catastrophe continues to bring forth more and more derivatives. The BIS, the bankers’ bank in Switzerland, reports $684 trillion in these hidden, unregulated and dangerous instruments. Other sources report them as high as one quadrillion dollars. There’s a Zimbabwean number if there ever was one. There can be little doubt derivatives are continuing to fail behind the scenes, further compounding all these issues.
• The printing press is also found with this scoping exam and it’s obviously turned to malignant mode. How do you cure a problem caused by extreme amounts of credit and debt with unfathomable amounts of the same?
• No observed green objects resembled “shoots”.

Results- A massive surgical resection is mandated. Today.

Test Results and Prognosis

Grievously, this patient has abused its heart and lost its soul. It is unrecognizable from its original Constitutional form and very unlikely to revert back to it. It exhibits no free markets, no honest money and few brave and rational leaders. Short of a miracle, you’re looking at a terminal case.

The banks passed their stress test but you dare not rest easy. Al Capone would have given himself a glowing report card if given the opportunity. The times remain extremely precarious. Protect yourself by staying away from the Kool-Aid and heading for the precious metals.

Live Resourcefully,

Rusty