Apokalyps Nu!

US 2020 Economic Collapse a Bonanza for Billionaires – Global Research

Posted by EN-ABon 23 oktober 2020in Economic

23-10-20 07:17:00,

US billionaires are cashing in big at a time of widespread unemployment, underemployment, and deprivation. More below on reported data.

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A previous article stressed that the disparity between super-wealth and growing poverty in the US is greater than any time since the 19th century gilded age.

For ordinary Americans, the hardest of hard times are indicative of what may prove to be a new normal.

Growing poverty, food insecurity, the threat of widespread evictions, collapsing small businesses, and overall deprivation may persist longterm.

For 31 straight weeks, over one million jobless Americans filed claims for unemployment benefits.

Each week since March, the number was more than double the total of any previous reporting period at a time when annualized inflation in September was 7.69% — not the phony 1.4% CPI figure.

At 26.9% — based on the pre-1990 calculation model — US unemployment is 26.9%.

Because of growing layoffs and extraordinarily high numbers of unemployment insurance filings, US joblessness is likely to rise in the months ahead.

Federal Reserve data show over 100 million working-age Americans without jobs.

In 2021, the number may be much higher because of what’s likely to be protracted Depression conditions.

A massive disconnect exists between bubble-level equity prices and dismal main street economic conditions gone largely unaddressed — Depression conditions exceeding the worst of the 1930s.

According to Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) and Institute for Policy Studies, “(t)he collective wealth of America’s billionaires has jumped by $931 billion, or nearly one-third, since mid-March…”

It’s at a time of economic collapse, mass unemployment, “and a collapse in taxes collected” at the federal, state and local levels.

“The total net worth of (America’s) 644 billionaires (rose) from $2.95 trillion on March 18 to $3.88 trillion on October 13…or 31.6%…”

Despite the hardest of hard times for tens of millions of US households, the White House and Congress failed to agree on extending financial help to needy Americans after earlier aid expired at end of July.

According to the ATF and IPS report, average wages for working Americans declined 3.5% this year.

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Economic War With China Is The Final Step Before The “Great Reset” – Activist Post

Posted by EN-ABon 12 september 2020in Economic

12-09-20 07:18:00,

By Brandon Smith

With the pandemic dominating the news cycle, the general public has been completely distracted from a much more important crisis; namely, the economic crisis. To be sure, economic decay is not as swift or exciting, but I doubt that’s why the mainstream media mostly ignores the issue. From my experience, the media tends to omit coverage of the things they don’t want the population to notice or think about.

Right now, the only word spoken on the economy is “recovery”. Of course, if you’ve been reading my recent articles, you know that the recovery narrative is nonsense. With the small business sector on the verge of collapse, the U.S. economy has no means to recover unless we see a sudden resurgence in industrial production and domestic factories built, and with corporate debt at historic highs, there’s simply no money for that right now. Good luck trying to bankroll a manufacturing renaissance in the middle of a stagflationary environment.

That’s not to say that the rest of the world is much better off, but the U.S. suffers from the added weight of its past financial and monetary “success”. Let me explain…

Recent generations have grown up conditioned to believe that, through the power of central bank fiat currency, all problems can be solved. There has even been a concerted effort within the media to support this lie. Remember when propaganda rags like The Atlantic claimed that central bankers like Ben Bernanke were “the real heroes” saving the economy?

That’s the narrative young adults and investors today have grown up with. Now, whether they believe it is another matter, but as we can see in the world of Robinhood stock trading, there has been little concern for the concept of “bubble markets”. These kids think that the party is eternal because they are backstopped by the Fed, and there’s a lot of shoe-shine boys in the media telling them they are right. However, what they are not being told is that we are in the middle of a collapse dynamic, and the structures they view as reliable are now crumbling.

According to history, here’s how this usually works: Investment chases profits,

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Chile, September 11, 1973: The Inauguration of Neoliberalism,”Shock Treatment” and the Instruments of Economic Repression: The Junta’s Deadly “Economic Medicine” – Global Research

Posted by EN-AGon 11 september 2020in Economic

11-09-20 09:07:00,

First published on September 17, 2016

“Workers of my country, I have faith in Chile and its destiny.

Other men will overcome this dark and bitter moment when treason seeks to prevail.

Keep in mind that, much sooner than later, the great avenues will again be opened through which will pass free men to construct a better society.

Long live Chile!

Long live the people! Long live the workers!” President Salvador Allende‘s farewell speech (before he was assassinated), 11 September 1973.

“It’s hard to find someone with the fighting spirit, courage and the story of Allende. He was a man who actually had the branded name in history: democratically the left came to power, and by bombs he was removed from government.” Senador Pedro Simon

Chile: “Shock Treatment” and the Mechanisms of Economic Repression

Immediately following Allende’s election in September 1970 and prior to his inauguration in November 1970:

“Kissinger initiated discussion on the telephone with CIA director Richard Helm’s about a preemptive coup in Chile. “We will not let Chile go down the drain,” Kissinger declared. “I am with you,” Helms responded. Their conversation took place three days before President Nixon, in a 15-minute meeting that included Kissinger, ordered the CIA to “make the economy scream,” and named Kissinger as the supervisor of the covert efforts to keep Allende from being inaugurated. (National Security Archive)

The CIA was the lead organization behind the imposition of a neoliberal economic agenda in Chile. In August 1972, a year prior to the coup, the CIA funded a 300-page economic blueprint to be implemented in the wake of the overthrow of the Allende government.

The ultimate objective of the September 11, 1973 military coup in Chile was the imposition of the neoliberal agenda (aka deadly “economic medicine”) leading to the impoverishment of an entire nation.

Wall Street was behind the coup, working hand in glove with the CIA, the US State Department and Chile’s economic elites. Henry Kissinger was the Go-Between.

After Allende’s election in November Wall Street’s major commercial banks (including Chase Manhattan,

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“Disastrous Economic Situation” – Small Firm Bust Goes Unnoticed As Economy Flounders

Posted by EN-ABon 13 augustus 2020in Disastrous, Economic

13-08-20 07:08:00,

The virus-induced recession has resulted in deep economic scarring that will be seen for years. Tens of millions of Americans remain unemployed, broke, and hungry. US bankruptcies of large companies are on pace to hit a 10-year high, with even more devastation seen among smaller firms.

The collapse of small business is absolutely shocking, considering firms with under 500 employees account for about 44% of US economic activity.

Bloomberg notes a “wave of silent failures goes uncounted in part because real-time data on small business is notoriously scarce, and because owners of small firms often have no debt, and thus no need for bankruptcy court.”

“Probably all you need to do is call the utilities and tell them to turn them off and close your door,” said William Dunkelberg, chief economist for the National Federation of Independent Business.

Dunkelberg warned: Small business closures “are going to be well above normal because we’re in a disastrous economic situation.”

Yelp’s latest data on business activity shows more than 80,000 companies permanently shuttered operations from March 1 to July 25. What’s concerning is that 60,000 of these closings were small firms.

We recently pointed out small restaurants across the country have listed their eateries for sale on Facebook Marketplace. The number of listings is stunning, a clear indication the bust cycle is far from over. Another round of closures could be seen later this year, or into next, as the recovery reverses and fears of a double-dip recession materialize.

A July report from the US Chamber of Commerce survey showed 58% of small business owners are worried about permanently closing. The problem today is that the economic recovery stalled in June and has started to reverse, a fiscal cliff has been festering underneath the surface in August, which could result in lower consumption among tens of millions of Americans that would pressure businesses sales.

A combination of firms going bust and depressionary unemployment levels have tremendous spillover effects in the mostly dominated consumer-driven economy.

President Trump’s orders to provide more direct transfer payments to broke Americans have tremendous consequences; first, a quarter of all US income is derived from the government,

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World Economic Forum: The Institution Behind “The Great Reset”

Posted by EN-ABon 12 juli 2020in Economic, World

12-07-20 09:28:00,

Authored by Steven Guinness,

In a recent article I briefly examined a number of advances that global planners made prior to the World Economic Forum’s announcement in June of a new initiative dubbed ‘The Great Reset‘. Taken together, the United Nation’s Agenda 2030, the Paris Climate Agreement, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Bank for International Settlement’s ‘Innovation BIS 2025‘ offer an insight into how elites want to turn the lives of every man, woman and child inside out over the course of the next decade.

Details of ‘The Great Reset‘ came as nations began to reopen their economies following a global lockdown. The extent to which Covid-19 has dominated every facet of existence – largely because of unrepentant media coverage – has encouraged people to focus exclusively on what life will be like after the virus. For many, what came before now seems inconsequential. It is anything but.

For example, three months before Covid-19 took hold, a global pandemic exercise – ‘Event 201‘ – was held in New York City which simulated the outbreak of a coronavirus that originated in Brazil. The scenario focused on a novel zoonotic virus that ‘transmitted from bats to pigs to people that eventually becomes efficiently transmissible from person to person, leading to a severe pandemic.’ Whilst initially some countries managed to control the outbreak, it ended up spreading and ‘eventually no country can maintain control‘.

The simulation culminated at the eighteen month mark with 65 million people having died and severe economic and societal repercussions. But that was not the end of it. As the scenario explained, ‘the pandemic will continue at some rate until there is an effective vaccine or until 80-90 % of the global population has been exposed. From that point on, it is likely to be an endemic childhood disease.’

Event 201 also used the exercise as an opportunity to warn that ‘the next severe pandemic will not only cause great illness and loss of life but could also trigger major cascading economic and societal consequences that could contribute greatly to global impact and suffering.’

That pandemic arrived in the shape of Covid-19,

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