This Saturday would have been my grandmother’s 110th. Birthday. She was a member of what we now call the “greatest generation.” I am not sure that is accurate but over the years- knowing many from that generation- I believe it was the greatest generation that we will see in our lifetimes.

They lived through the great depression of the 1930s, World War 2 in the 1940s and the rebuild of America in America’s heydays in the 1950s and 1960s.

What they went through in the 1920s was a classic boom/bust cycle, similar to what we are seeing today. The roaring 20s featured rising stock markets and cheap, abundant money to fuel the upward trajectory. It appeared so easy to get “rich” that many threw caution to the wind and went into debt to get those easy profits. Today, we have “traders” who offer NOTHING to society but game the system to make profits for themselves. Most are just gamblers.

Of course, the leverage used on the way up to goose the returns is what led to the implosion in 1929.

Anyone who bought the DOW near the top in 1929 did not recover their original investment until 1954. That is longer than most people’s time horizons for their investments. The war that the US entered in 1941 was started years earlier. Many say that WW2 took us out of the great depression. I believe this is one of the many lies we have been told and since it has been said enough most people buy it.

Gerald Celente, a trends forecaster who puts out the Trends Journal has a saying “When all else fails they take you to war.”

The government tried many things including confiscating gold and revaluing it by +75% and works programs to stimulate the economy but nothing had any lasting effect. I think this is important to understand this as we look at our situation today.

I remember my grandfather sitting with me on his porch in the 1970s and him telling me that the economic environment reminded him of what he was seeing in the 1930s. I believe he was seeing the stagnation in the economy. At that time things were so bad they reported on the “misery index.” This was back when reporting was reporting and not propaganda 24/7. Today, while the misery index, if measured the same way it was then would be FAR higher (WORSE) you will NEVER hear a mention of that. The misery index was a measure of INFLATION and UNEMPLOYMENT. Since they have changed the way these metrics have been calculated over the years to keep us regular folks unaware of how bad things really are, the numbers may appear to be similar, but only because the calculations have changed. Our economy is FAR weaker than it was in the 1970s.

Another MAJOR difference is that our debts and deficits in the 1970s were manageable. Paul Voelker had the ability to raise interest rates to near 20% to tame inflation without imploding the entire economic system. Try that today and we would not recognize our country in a VERY short period of time.

The difference between the 1920s and today is stark. In the 1920’s the USA was a moral country. The rule of law was adhered to. The “money” created was at least partially, even though it was supposed to be 100%, backed by gold. This put at least a bit of constraint on how bad the bubbles could get.

Today, globally, hundreds of trillions of backed by nothing pieces of paper and computer blips masquerading as “money” has given us the illusion of a functioning economy. This depression that we are likely already in, is an inflationary depression rather than a deflationary depression like the 1920s.

This is the reason that I believe we have been in a depression since at least 2008 and possibly since the year 2000 and almost nobody recognizes it. In a deflationary depression people notice the lack of capital and the inability to earn enough to buy basic goods.

In an inflationary depression- like today- “money” is conjured up out of nowhere and allows people to buy what is needed through handouts, jobs programs and other schemes. This course of action masks the true state of the economy by allowing the public to continue to spend.

This has gone on for so long now that many think it could go on forever. The signs that they are GRAVELY mistaken are clear to anyone who is paying any attention.

#1 is inflation. This is too many currency units chasing too few goods which leads to rising prices. As “money” is conjured up out of nowhere with no productive assets to back it up, all it is, is an illusion. The money created out of nowhere allows us to purchase previously produced goods. That is great until we come to a point where we use up all of our stored-up goods and these goods become scarce. Basically, you cannot keep conjuring up cash with no VALUE to back it up. This leads to a lack of enough productive capacity and FAR higher prices. This is what has led to MASSIVE inflation and hyperinflation hundreds of times throughout history. This will end the same way.

#2 is the addiction we have to more debt. The debts at all levels from personal, to city, state and federal governments are rising at historical rates with no end in sight. We are even going deeper into debt to pay the interest on our existing debt. This is a spiral that cannot be stopped without some massive pain. Keep “printing” and look out for raging inflation. Stop and risk a total immediate collapse of the current system.

My main concern is that we are nearing an endgame. Inflation is raging. Money “printing” is at levels NEVER seen before and none of the answers appear to be helping our economy in any way other than making the current bubble even worse than at any time in history. There is nobody in our government (that I hear anyway) who is offering any solutions to our spiraling out of control debts and deficits, but MANY are clamoring for WAR. Keep in mind that in the 1940s with all of the destructive forces available the ability to destroy the planet still did not exist. Today it does.

While I believe that Gerald Celente is right about taking us to war, I also believe it is because those “in charge” know full well how this will end. That is why they are buying gold as fast as they can, and most nations are preparing for the war that will be blamed for all this monetary madness. Those “in charge” cannot be made the scapegoats even though the rise and fall of this current system rests on their shoulders. Let’s just hope that cooler heads prevail, and we can avoid history repeating itself in an unimaginable way this time.

Our grandparents must be rolling over in their graves if they see what a disaster we have made of the formerly the greatest country the world has known.

These next few months should be doozies!

Be Prepared!

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