[Daniel_Plainview]

What time zone does Ruppert live in? If he's on the west coast he's still got 4 hours.

Ruppert is in Culver City, CA (Pacific Time Zone) ... so we have only another 3.5 hours of normal civilization remaining ... Oh boy ... OMG ... Oh boy ....

[Daniel_Plainview]

I'm going to hazard a guess that I'll wake up in the morning and go to work as usual.

No ... no ... it's all over ... phone the neighbors; wake the kids ... it's over ...

[Sixstrings]

You cornies are a hoot.

This debt ceiling crisis was serious business. Ruppert was very nearly right about July.

Anyhow.. just the fact there's even *talk* about a credit downgrade, how can you guys still be cornies. I must be pretty smart by the way, I was watching Fareed Zacharia today and he was interviewing the new IMF chief. The woman said the same thing I've been saying, how just a couple years ago it was unthinkable the rating agencies would consider downgrading US debt. It's off topic, but it was a great interview.. that lady is very smart, if cold.

She even acknowledged jobs aren't being created in the US because because of automation and efficiency gains. It's depressing when a banker says that.. coldly and without political spin or agenda.. just lays it out there as fact that joblessness is the "new normal."

[peeker01]

So a cornie is someone who thinks Ruppert is a crackpot?

[Sixstrings]

So a cornie is someone who thinks Ruppert is a crackpot?

You're poking fun at Ruppert when he's one of the few people out there raising awareness about some very serious issues. He's been more right than most people.. you cornies just keep moving the bar of what the newest "new normal" is, so that you always get to be right.

So who's the crackpot?

[peeker01]

I hope you are joking Six! If that's the best this movement can muster, I'm seriously disappointed.

[Sixstrings]

I hope you are joking Six! If that's the best this movement can muster, I'm seriously disappointed.

Watch the interview CNN did with the new IMF chief. Maybe it will be on youtube.

That woman knows what she is talking about and there was nothing cornie about what she had to say. Unless you're in the top 10%, then it will never be doom for you you'll still have steak dinner even if it costs $500.

You guys aren't really cornie at all, you're just insulated from Doom. So why are you even here? Go chat on a forex site.

[peeker01]

I'm not into currency trading, I enjoy talking about the environment, science and oil.

[Sixstrings]

I'm not into currency trading, I enjoy talking about the environment, science and oil.

Ok you sort of let me win the argument so I'll throw you a bone.

Ruppert is like a more serious / credible Alex Jones, but without the really crazy tinfoil. He's alarmist and shouldn't be picking doomsday dates, but that doesn't mean he's not right about the long term.

Only reason Ruppert is wrong is because he's a fast crasher.. most of us realize it's a slow crash. Are things not worse now than they were a year ago? Two years ago? Ten years ago? Thirty?

Look at everything from the debt to government budgets to lack of growth to all the financial mess.. how can you look at all this and be a cornucopian? I guess we have to define what cornie means to you. Are you cornie about future prospects for the rich, or the lower 90% of Americans?

[JohnRM]

I have to agree, to a certain extent, with Six.

Though I have a healthy level of skepticism concerning anything Mr. Ruppert has to say, I've found him to be mostly genuine and well within the ballpark regarding his feelings on the direction of the country and the world. I also very greatly agree with Six that his greatest weakness is his belief in the fast collapse. In my opinion, the majority of those who believe in the fast collapse base that belief more largely on their own hopes rather than the evidence. That is to say, they want a quick and painless end rather than something more long, drawn-out, and messy. The rest choose to believe in fast collapse, mostly, because it is the worst-case scenario and it is better to prepare for the worst and over-do it than to prepare for something less severe and fall short. In the end, though, I do not tremble at Ruppert's predictions. I do raise an eyebrow, though, because I know that there is something real that he sees and he should not simply be dismissed because his predictions overshoot reality.

One more thing I'd like to point out is that I believe a lot of us "doomers" are desensitized to bad news and 'collapse'. Again, as Six said, the things that are occurring right now were unimaginable just years ago. If you had predicted these things in 2005, it would have come off as an end of the world-type prediction. Today, it just is the way it is and we have quickly adapted. It actually makes me feel very optimistic that we might come out of this 'collapse' in better shape and with less pain than I previously thought; Because we have accepted the new reality so quickly, and it doesn't seem so end-of-the-world-like. But, we shall see.

[FarQ3]

I do agree also with Six, but the problem with a slow collapse is the 'slow boil effect'. This is that things get worse slowly and people do in fact not realise that the environment around them is slowly changing and therefore they don't change their behaviour/ways. In fact I was on the train this arvo listening to two guys in their early 30's complaining about the amount of rain we've had this July (I'm in Perth, Western Australia.) They were stating that they'd never seen a wetter July in Perth. I had to correct them with the fact that this July we still didn't quite make the monthly average rainfall figure, that Western Australia had in fact experienced it's driest 12 months on record. People in general have short memories and due to this we don't seem to notice subtle changes. Some of the global financial plans that are now coming to fruition have been 100 years in the making for this very reason.

[Sys1]

Ruppert is a great guy, we need more people like him on Earth if we plan to survive as a specie.
Now, pinpoint a date is not a wise move, and he should not have done that.
Whenever someone/group pinpoint a date for a bad event, in case it doesn't happen, they are ridiculize. It's abit like this story with a children calling for the wolf too often... until it really cames, but nobody cares any more.

We must look at global directions for debts, ressources, demography, environment. We are heading in a bad direction faster and faster. That sould be enough to alert us. On the other hand, saying for example :
"We have 50 years of oil and then we will shift to fusion energy or something else after" or
"Global warming will perhabs be bad in 2100 and after, except if we pollute less by driving electric SUVs and planes."
are exactly the kind of previsions that deny any coming problems and make the future ugly.

Olduvai's theory is what woke me up from the matrix. Back in the real world, I know not only our civilisation will fall apart, but actually that we are today in the middle of the collapse. In western world, doom is when you loose your job and can't pay the mortgage. I guess that most people on this site are not in this situation perhabs because they made the good decisions regarding their debt and their way of life... since they read this site. Doomers have more chance to survive, especially because they are ready, at least in their mind, to see this world collapse.

[Anvil]

Prepare for the unexpected or you will die. Thats the doomer motto.

This is why Ruppert is my hero.

[babystrangeloop]

Just that we are lying our heads off about it. How long can this condition last?

U.S. Q2 GDP The Numbers Don't Add Up
By: Tony Pallotta / The Market Oracle / July 31, 2011

Q1 2011 GDP was revised one final time from 1.9% to 0.4% and Q2 2011 GDP the first estimate was 1.3%. Before analyzing the data I have one very simple question.

Economic growth slowed during Q2 as acknowledged by the Fed and indicated by regional Fed surveys, ISM, durable goods, etc so how could Q2 GDP be higher than Q1 GDP? That would imply the economy accelerated and clearly that has not happened. In other words just as Q1 2008 was eventually shown as the start of the great recession so will Q2 2011 in subsequent revisions. ...

We lied about 2008 being the start of 2009 "great recession". Now we lie about 2011.

How long can this charade go on? Surely by October there will be a stock market crash. That's what happened back in 2008 and 2011 is just a rerun.

[Cloud9]

The market may never crash like it did in the thirties. Zimbabwe had a market that out performed the world. Where else could you live and everyman be a trillionaire.

[babystrangeloop]

The market may never crash like it did in the thirties.

It doesn't have to crash like it did in the thirties. It only has to crash like it did in 2008.

[Pops]

The market may never crash like it did in the thirties.

It doesn't have to crash like it did in the thirties. It only has to crash like it did in 2008.

The stock market isn't even close to what it was in the 20's is it?

I mean back then it was people buying and selling because they thought this stock or that had some value or they didn't or thought someone thought they did or didn't... today computers trade stocks because there is a difference in price. They do it a million times a second making a millionth of a cent on each trade. Maybe every millionth trade has a human decision behind it.

I have zero confidence in equities as barometer of anything.

I think we should start a thread comparing a frogs life in 2005 to his life ing 2011 to see if the water is boiling. Seems to me that on just about every count we can say things are much worse, normalcy bias is distorting our perception.

"Objects in mirror are closer than they appear"

[Oakley]

If I were to bet, I would say the stock market will zig-zag up until early 2014, the bond market will fall (interest rates triple) during that time frame, and gold and silver collapse to lower than they were in 2001.

Just my guesses.

[sameu]

Again, as Six said, the things that are occurring right now were unimaginable just years ago. If you had predicted these things in 2005, it would have come off as an end of the world-type prediction. Today, it just is the way it is and we have quickly adapted.

True
I mean, imagine if you would have said in 2006: "In five years, 100$ oil will be the normal, gold will be above 1600, banks will default, european countries will default, the euro will be in serious danger, the US will lose it's AAA credit rating." everybody would have thaught you're absolutely crazy.

I wonder what the new 'normal' in 2016 will be. I don't think the world can afford another round of QE, bailing out and stimulus of that order of magnitude. After the next crash (which is starting indeed about now I have the feeling) there will be no more 'recovery'.

[Armageddon]

I fear this Fall and Winter. MR was a little premature imo.