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.

This is long, but a 'must read', in my opinion:

http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=10725

Basic and simple overview, but what I have been saying since the first day of the crisis:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/sure-it%E2%80%99s-legal%E2%80%A6-it-right

And this is the idiot we put in charge of fixing this mess? Someone who has shown no clue whatsoever that any of this was coming, who was totally wrong in every thing he thought or did so far? What is the sense in that? It's like picking someone to manage your portfolio who has been wrong on every single decision up to that point in the previous management of said portfolio. And then you reappoint him. No one in their right mind would do that... As an aside, I have seen a similar workup with Greenspan, and he was just as totally clueless and equally wrong.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/say-what-30-ben-bernanke-quotes-that-are-so-stupid-that-you-wont-know-whether-to-laugh-or-cry

So, explain to me again how printing up trillions and trillions of dollars (stealing it from all the remaining savers, and that includes your trading and retirement accounts) and giving it to the Wall Street banksters is going to fix this???

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/21-signs-that-the-once-great-u-s-economy-is-being-gutted-neutered-defanged-declawed-and-deindustrialized

I know everyone feels powerless, and perhaps we are, but we must try. Everyone I talk to has given up, every last one says there is nothing we can do, so they are resigned to our fate. Every last one is a 'deer in the headlights'. I've never seen anything like it, the total resignation and powerless feelings. Not one will pick up a sign and protest around the capital buildings until they are directly threatened in an obvious way with cuts directly affecting them.

They have been conditioned for their entire lives to think of inflation and rising prices as 'normal', even 'good'. So, when their dollars are destroyed before their very eyes, their lifetime savings, they see nothing to be more than a just little upset about, surely no reason to protest, as those who would be protested against surely have nothing to do with such a natural and 'good' process as rising prices. So, they go back to watching American Idol, after paying yet another rate increase for their cable bill. And Bern-Qwacke keeps on printing, with a big fat smile on his face...

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-bernanke%E2%80%99s-unstoppable-self-reinforcing-feedback-loop

http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2011/03/03/its_taps_for_the_weakening_dollar_98894.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703313304576132170181013248.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/paul-farrell-4-bombs-would-ignite-wall-street-revolution

I think this is a must read:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/egon-von-greyerz-hyperinflationary-deluge-imminent-or-why-bernankes-motto-apr%C3%A8s-nous-le-d%C3%A9lu

Yes, this makes the case for hyperinflation, the side I am leaning towards. If you read the Automatic Earth, which I do regularly, they make the case, extremely well, for deflation first, and then the hyperinflation. The problem is, the two sides call for totally different approaches. In hyperinflation, cash is trash. In deflation, as they define it at AE, cash is king.

I think we can have a huge inflation on food and energy, and still have declining home prices. But, alas, they talk about how in deflation home prices can be falling but how they can actually be getting much less affordable for the average person, as cash becomes almost impossible to get a hold of. Hard to imagine, with all this printing, but I haven't seen any of that cash. So, it could be possible.

All I know (my opinion) is what is coming is going to be horrific, all they are doing is delaying things while they loot the country (for example, insiders have been massive sellers of stocks essentially every week since Mar '09, now why are they doing that, if things are so good, and who is buying all those stocks???), and the chances of any of us surviving this remotely intact is slim and none. They won't leave any options open to protect ourselves, or people would just do it and thwart their plans. Sorry to be so 'realistic', but I would feel wrong if I didn't warn people of what I see coming, in all its gruesome details.

BTW, notice the Zimbabwe stock market chart, and how it went up 3 billion percent, yet the buying power of the stocks was less after that increase, just as I mentioned I think will happen with our market. Notice how the buying power of the DOW, since 1999 and 2001, is down 82% and 86% in gold and silver, respectively. I just read the other day household buying power peaked in 1973 in real terms and has been declining ever since, which I totally believe. So much for increasing standards of living, it is an illusion...

I highly recommend the follow program now showing on The History Channel, called Prophets of Doom. The economics guy is superb. What is worth thinking about is how all the issues tie in together. One guy, for example, is concerned about water (which I think is a terrifyingly big concern). He mentioned that if we have a currency crisis and energy spikes, and/or if we have a spike from supply issues and peak oil, all this plays into water. How?

Our water teatment plants are highly energy intensive. They would simply not be able to run them in an energy shock, and surely not at $500 or $1,000 a barrel. So, our taps run dry. Food? All not only very energy intensive in the U.S., but also requires lots of fertilizer and pesticides, made from oil.

I saw that we have about three times the yield per acre for corn as most of the world. No problem, if we have to go back to simple farming, we'll just do it. And cut our yields by 2/3? How will we feed our people, and what will happen to the prices? Not to mention what will happen to the prices, especially shelf (delivered) prices, when gasoline is priced off the chart.

It all feeds on itself. And what about water for all those farms if tap water is a few bucks a gallon? It keeps going. I think the way it is all tied in together is far, far, far more terrifying than they will admit. Talk about the perfect negative reinforcement loop...

jim-..

last weekend i went to the WINTER SUCKS party at www.arrowheadalpines.com my favorite plant place. you and bob would get along... just read some of his commentary... while eating i was sitting with some farmers and greenhouse growers... one of them had just returned from a few hours trip to get a truck load of special potting soil for his operation.. when he asked the seller of the soil how much for delivery.. he said take the cost of the pickup price and double it.!!!imagine when that hits us all.now get this... a few years ago wild turkeys were an endangered species... now they have multiplied to the point that farmers can not grow some crops because the turkeys eat the whole crop.. guess what crop?watermelons!the truth is stranger than fiction...

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