Paul B. Farrell: 6 reasons we can’t stop coming economic meltdown

[marmar]

By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch


SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — What a year. Rage in London, Egypt, Athens, Damascus. All real. Just a metaphor in the new “Planet of the Apes” film? No, much more. Warning: More rage is dead ahead. Across our planet a new generation is filled with rage. High unemployment. Raging inflation. Dreams lost. Hope gone. While the super -rich get richer and richer.

Listen to that hissing: The fuse is rapidly burning, warning us. Wake up before the rage explodes in your face. This firestorm is endangering America’s future. From forces outside, yes. But far more deadly, from deep within our collective psyche. We have lost our moral compass. We are self-destructing.

Crackpot warning? No. This warning comes from the elite International Monetary Fund. A recent IMF report looked at “the causes of the two major U.S. economic crises over the past 100 years, the Great Depression of 1929 and the Great Recession of 2007,” writes Rana Foroohar, an economics editor at Time magazine.

“There are two remarkable similarities in the eras that preceded these crises. Both saw a sharp increase in income inequality and household-debt-to-income ratios.” And in each case, “as the poor and middle-class were squeezed, they tried to cope by borrowing to maintain their standard of living.” .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tax-the-super-rich-or-revolution-will-rage-in-2012-2011-08-16?link=home_carousel

[SpiralHawk]

1. "Sneer." - RepuliCons, Inc. (R)

[lonestarnot]

2. I do not trust World Bank or IMF. I believe they are behind this stage of shock doctrine.

[nc4bo]

4. ?

Nothing seems to be official but anytime a President is willing to sacrifice our precious social safety nets like he did just screams :wtf: is really going on here and he's not letting up either.

Wouldn't an IMF's austerity plan call for a reduction of government spending along with an increase of taxes yet, Obama chose to extend the Bush Tax Cuts.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall.....

[lonestarnot]

8. Not if the social fabric and deep hatred can be created simultaneously.

[fasttense]

3. Would austerity programs of today have improved the 1st RepubliCON Great Depression?

I think not. In fact, wasn't austerity what was imposed on Germany after WWI?

Isn't austerity what the IMF always demands and imposes?

[qb]

5. Massive unemployment + crumbling infrastructure = new Works Progress Administration

It seems like a no-brainer to me.

[HughBeaumont]

7. Well, we gotta stop the eternal MIC occupations first.

Aaaaaand . . . yeah, good luck with that. The Pentasewer is a forever-money gobbler.

[Raksha]

6. K & R - Everyone sees it coming and yet no one can stop it. WHY???

[truedelphi]

9. Because our government is owned lock stock and barrel by the rich, and

They re not content until they have everything!

And when their end of things goes down, in this nation, under Bush/Obama we bail them out. With no repurcussions to them, and all repurcussions to the Middle Class here.

In Ireland, when the banks got bailed out, the banks were told that now, since the Irish people were forking over the money for the bailouts, that the bailouts securitized the home owner.

Which is how it should be handled. Here as well as in Ireland. (Of course, in Ireland, the government remains afraid of the people. Not the case here.)