I decided to split off my postings of economic links from Jim's Thoughts, so that I can get that topic back to what it was intended to be, a place for me to post trading ideas and thoughts I had that I felt could be of interest to the readers.

This topic is where I will post links to various economic articles, for those that find them interesting. If you want to read (or post) articles about the unfolding debaucle, this is the place to look. If you are a short-term daytrader or swing trader and have zero interest in the economy, you can now just read Jim's Thoughts and not have to wade through this type of dicussion.

At best I think this material only has a direct effect on longer-term plays, the bigger swings that make up the major legs of the bull and bear markets. I follow this stuff for that reason, and because I want to have a handle on things, if that is even possible in this era of lies and deception, so that I can make decisions on life issues.

For example, as I posted in the commentary on the website and discussed with many people well in advance, this was something that wasn't hard to see coming. I saw many people who told me as late as Oct 2007 that 'this thing is about to 'break out' to the upside, and that Dow 20,000, and then much higher, was 'just around the corner' '. The type of articles I am posting discuss the type of information that helped me form the viewpoints I had back then.

If this is far from over, as I suspect, we are in a similar postion now as back then. With the rally that is unfolding right now the talk is the bull is back, the bottom is in, and we are set. I'm not so sure. So, I try to weigh up all the factors and not get too sucked in by the hype. To that end, I will post things here I find interesting.

I just can't shake the feeling that we are totally and utterly screwed:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/whats-ben-gonna-do

If you have even a nickel in savings, this should scare the pants off you. This negative interest rate thing, I've been watching for this for some time now. I heard about it in Japan, where the banks charged you to keep money in there. Europe has been talking about it, where there is a 'tax' on savings, you fork over like 10% per year for any money you hold. That's basically what negative rates here mean. Not only are you not getting any rate of return on your money with the ZIRP (zero interest rate policy), but you will have to pay for the privilege of having that money. Maybe 6%-10% a year.

Keep in mind, too, that there really is inflation in staples during this bad deflation that is inducing the ZIRP and the possible negative rates. So, for staples like food, health care, and so on, your dollar is losing purchasing power (they are stealing maybe 10%-20% a year, by my estimates, from your savings even in this deflation), and now they may add another 10%, on top of all the increasing taxes we will all be paying. Cool. But the big banks will surely pay out another record year of billions in bonuses...

Now here's a great analysis in my opinion of some of the aspects of the flash crash, not that mainstream BS:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/how-hft-quote-stuffing-caused-market-crash-may-6-and-threatens-destroy-entire-market-any-mom

I really, really hope I'm wrong. I fear I'm not... Get ready.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-geWu-E9ys&feature=player_embedded

I know somebody will get a kick out of this :)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/your-money/04stra.html?scp=1&sq=elliot%20wave&st=Search

You can just read the intro, or all of it. I think it is all worth reading, if you have the time and want to know more of what is going on. But, it is starting to seem pointless, because the entire system has been captured in my opinion, and our fates seem pretty sealed at this point. We can all try to do what we can, but I rather suspect it will have little impact, even in trying to protect ourselves in any way from the coming onslaught.

http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/2010/07/july-17-2010-settlements-and-tragedies.html

Originally posted by mreiserer

I know somebody will get a kick out of this :)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/your-money/04stra.html?scp=1&sq=elliot%20wave&st=Search

I had read that shortly after it was put out, so when I just got to checking your link now I saw I had already seen it. The funny thing is, I think Prechter is way too optimistic. I say that because he suggests Treasuries and cash. I think Treasuries are the biggest bubble on earth and when they go, they will go by default. Since the U.S. will never actually default, they will simply 'monetize' the debt with money printing. That will drive the dollar to essentially zero. So, Treasuries and cash will be horrible places to be. But that phase should be way down the line.

Unless, Jim says, there is a wave of sovereign defaults that kicks it off, or kicks off a currency crisis, in which case the dollar may go to essentially zero, as the Russian ruble did, and they issue a new currency. This way two birds get killed with one stone. This latter scenario may even be engineered so it looks like we didn't even 'monetize' the debt away. Keep in mind, this is all just my opinion, and I make no recommendations, but my own personally held belief is that there is nothing that can stop the above from unfolding at some point, and it may even be engineered to happen.

As I was saying about no way out, perhaps no way to protect oneself, read this:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/rust-discovered-bank-russia-issued-999-gold-coins

So, fake gold coins are now among us? We knew there were fake gold bars, but no gold coins that couldn't be told from real using say a Fisch tester (I don't know if these coins would pass such a test, but the article implied to me that they would). Now we can't necessarily trust government issued gold coins? This doesn't even get into how the governments may be colluding to manipulate gold prices, and eventually may confiscate gold when things heat up. Like I said, they will leave us no way out, the taking of everying we have will be complete. Again, just one man's opinion.

Read just the first article on FNM and FRE. If you want more punishment, read some of the other articles. Those GSE's are a nightmare mess, I'll tell ya.

http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/2010/07/july-26-2010-extend-and-pretend-russian.html

We're so dead...

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/2011-the-year-of-the-tax-increase

I forgot, I do have another hero to go with Ron Paul and David Stockman, and that's Nigel Farage. Here's his latest:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-17/farage-unleashed-you-are-common-criminals