Ten Years Ago We Died

Yup…its hard to believe, but its been a decade now since the disastrous collapse of Bear Stearns signaling the collapse of the financial markets and very nearly our entire financial system and economy as CONfidence in these institutions of power collapsed. End of the World doom porn prevailed by the end of the year in many households around the Western World and homeless tents sprang up outside many American cities. Liquidity was non-existent in most markets and fear prevailed.

And then came Mana from Heaven. After careful CONsideration and planning within a “new administration”, a plan was hatched. The life blood of an economy would be restored….liquidity. This was a simplistic decision…..hatched from necessity….and necessary if our Big Banks were going to survive and keep our “way of life” CONtinuing. We were placed on the Federal Reserve dole. Oh, you know…..”whatever it takes”. LOL and if we throw in a few more Trillion on top of “whatever it takes” then its even BETTER!

Really, it was just that simple. All of the Central Banks and Governments said “we gotz ta save da peeps”, so like any psychopath with a credit card, they said “Charge it Bitch”. And boy oh boy did they. EBT cards, Cash for Clunkers, Government direct corporate bailouts (including GM Chrysler AIG etc), …..but that was only the beginning. Then they started (admitting) they were buying stocks directly through Central Banks as our dollar printing placed in the reserves of “other” Central Banks found its way (accidentally of course) back to our stock market in the form of direct share purchases. 

The “Recovery” was steady and gradually CONfidence began to return to the downtrodden masses. Just one little problem, the “problem” was never fixed. In fact the “problem” was now magnified by a factor probably near TEN. We now have even more debt and an economy that is no longer capitalism or free market but encumbered by enormous debt and malinvestment. Take away the ultra low interest rates and this house of cards becomes a high density killing field. 

So when does our much discussed doom scenario start? It already has. Enjoy the extraction since you’ve been in it for ten years. You’ve been living off your children and their children. Doesn’t feel that bad does it? When they take you out of the water, they’ll probably put a little salt on you before they take their first nibble.