Why the World Is Financially Doomed in Four Charts

written by Charles Hugh Smith - repost from Of Two Minds

Why the World Is Financially Doomed in Four Charts

The global economy is doomed to implosion, and here are four charts which explain why.

Though the complexities may appear endless, the global economy's coming implosion is really fairly easy to understand: here are four charts which do the heavy lifting. It boils down to these basics:

1. When money is dear and difficult to borrow, then productivity and capital accumulation are encouraged, speculation, malinvestment and debt-based consumption are discouraged.

2. When money is "free" (zero-interest rate policy) and liquidity is unlimited, then the opposite conditions hold: speculation in risk assets, malinvestment and debt-based consumption are all encouraged, and productivity and capital accumulation are heavily discouraged.

3. When debts exceed the value of the underlying assets, the only way out of the Tyranny of Debt is to write off the debt on both the borrower and lender's balance sheets, wiping out their capital via liquidation and bankruptcy.

4. The "extend and pretend" policy pursued by all major nations is simply transferring the impaired debt from private hands to the taxpayers (public debt), crippling the economy with higher taxes and higher debt service.

5. The Central State's "extend and pretend" policy requires heavy borrowing every year to prop up the status quo, pushing the Central State (or equivalent, i.e. the Eurozone) into an inescapable double-bind: either continue increasing public debt and cripple the economy with high taxes and high public-debt servicing costs, or let the financial status quo of "profits are private, losses are public" implode.

The first path leads to default, as the Tyranny of Debt cannot be masked for long, while the second path wipes out the Financial Power Elite which feeds the politicians.

Here are the charts. Note how the speculative economy created the illusion of rising wealth for the bottom 90%, an illusion stripped away by the Default Economy.

In essence, the Financial Power Elites profited immensely from creating this illusory wealth which gave the bottom 90% the false sensation that their declining earnings and purchasing power were being offset by the "magic" of asset bubbles.

Then, when the bubble popped, the Financial Power Elites transferred the impaired assets to the taxpayers, a process which is still underway. The politicos of both parties are complicit; behind the simulacra of toothless "reforms," this process proceeds in myriad ways (Bank of America transferring toxic debt to Fannie/Freddie, etc.) Behind the smokescreen of conjuring a "wealth effect" to foster more consumption, the Fed's purchase of Treasuries (QE2) serves this transfer-of-debt-to-the-public process.

This same process is playing out throughout the global economy: Greece, Ireland, the U.S., and eventually, in China when its monumental property bubble pops.

 

US banality 2k10: hopeless, disenfranchised, selfish

This time of the year-- although ripe with joyous family gatherings, (GMO) face-stuffing-fests, and generally 'good cheer'-- has a predicatably overfamiliar trait which has come to represent the downfall of our Western civilization. I am referring to the mindless consumerist attitude, mediating on all things mammon. The propaganda spews from all official sources that it is our "duty" as good citizens to fulfill the every want and desire of ourselves and our 'loved ones.' You may say to yourself..."no shit teej-- people self-soothe" -or- "for those first 15 minutes of playing with my new TOYS (after trampling over meemaw to get DEALZ) worry about our hellacious world was gone!" -or- "well it helps the economy if i buy buy buy!!" .... with that said, i must admit say that I do not disagree that we are lulling away in the land of the consumers, and our economic, ideological and political culture revolves around our social 'obligation' to "stimulate our economy." I also admit that the euphoria from purchasing the newest nifty gadget is definitely pleasurable on a subconscious level. These facts should not obfuscate the complex truth of the matter--just because we are collectively told by "experts" that it is our obligation to consume doesn't mean it is actually 1)beneficial to our economy 2) how all individuals and collectives function 3) and an undeniable truth because "officials" tell us so.

The Spending Culture permeates in both our personal and collective existence, and not only this, but it emphatically disseminated that If we do not have the past savings or current income to spend, than WE MUST use any and all financial tools available (29.99% APR anyone?) to acquire what we WANT. If various segments of our economy are not pleasing to our "representatives" in the government or the federal reserve then they will use their fiat super-powers to get what they WANT whether the collateral is there or not.

The biggest fraud of human history is the public regimentation of an elitist establishment agenda, which through introspective and objective coercion on both individual and collective arenas, calibrate mankind in the utilization of interest payments on exponential spending habits with a linear ability to produce debt repayment resources.
"hidden in plain sight"

Thinking of our collective propensity to spend from the context of our personal spending habits is very insiteful. Global-governance has a virtually unlimited line of credit (assuming financial-oligarchical-contractual terms are obeyed), often spending in excess exponentially above what has been provided for collateral (unless you consider social security our offering as chattel). Expenses information is disseminated in totally opaque ways with virtually no accountability (billions of undisclosed spending), all while paying bare minimum "monthly payments" to our overlord federal reserve creditors plus interest.

We are not meant to spend what capacities we do not have to fulfill our desires. We see nothing wrong with permanently indebting ourselves to seek ill-conceived arrangements from mammon-worshipping con-artists for supposed short-term artificial betterment (externalities ignored, of course). When we make such arrangements to get what we have not yet earned, than this fraud will eventually climax to economic pathological implosion.

On a long enough timeline, reality does simply not compute exponential usage of resources in linearly available production possibilities. If we create money out of nothing, with a misrepresentation of what assets we actually have as collateral, use these fiat resources exponentially faster than what valuable resources (monetary or natural) we can physically produce/extract, all the material products and revenues we gain are based off of a gigantic lie. Mises describes this in terms of malinvestments that will necessarily be liquidated. Denial of this FRAUD is intoxicating to the masses. This would also be a good opportunity to point out that deterrents from the surfacing of the obvious fraud are ingenious, including but not limited to...endless hypnotic propaganda to instill mainstream coercion and self-policing, the use of inflation to hide the economic failure and guide collective monetary decision calibration, and an education system which spawns elitist intellectuals whom (typically) unquestioningly pander to the status-quo in their "expertise"...just to name a few. Rest assured, this being the biggest fraud in human history, it WILL eventually surface to the public's consciousness, and the repercussions will be indeed painful for everyone involved.

Currently, our entire existence hinges on taking the less painful route of consuming what we do not have and forgetting/denying this fraud as opposed to recognizing our future inability to compensate for the current artificiality in collateral. Simply put, consuming and forgetting past inadequacies is much less painful (and euphoric?) than than saving and planning for the future.

A great cultural example of this is how many of us with baby-boomer parents grew up in an environment of constant praise in response to ANY EFFORT. It didn't matter if we were good at all as long as we had discipline to try, with praise equivalent to a masterful performance. There was an obvious 'talent deficit' for most of us, but we never the less NEEDED that IMMEDIATE praise for our efforts instead of facing the mature fact of "hey, i'm not that good and I don't deserve praise." This is a harsh reality to introspectively face, but it is where we are at... We are the bloated, overweight gymnast with the manic parent who gives us the untruthful praise we want instead of the criticism we need. This is absolutely too colorful of an example for the reality about to break, but the erroneous mental representation of our society is equivalent.

Our elite oligarchy have manipulated us to BELIEVE (and coerce others to believe) that it is completely normal (and innovative) for our economy to be based on the unrealistic and unsustainable assumption that we can forever push asside our inability to ever be accountable. We believe that our subconsciouscognitive dissonance-- our deep sense that we are sowing the seeds of our global-societal destruction, and simultaneously worshipping this grand establishment complex which fabricates EVERY facet of our very daily lives-- is nothing more than a feeling...We have self-propagated HOPE that we can kick the can of REMITTANCE down the road-- that our pathological fraud is actually a great historical achievement, and there (will never be) any cleansing required. For the bombshell-- our elite rulers have blinded us for millenia, and manipulated us to incrementally lead ourselves to be slaughtered and feel good about ourselves while we do it.

A great awakening is at hand. When the Great Fraud is exposed, do you want to be asleep?