Behind the official 9.6 percent unemployment rate (which is probably somewhere closer to 22 percent if computed as it was a few years ago), are the stories of millions of individuals who are struggling to get by or are coming to terms with a future of lower wages and a life with less. Many of these people will be completely without financial means once their 99 weeks of unemployment benefits run out.

“60 Minutes” profiled the underemployed and unemployed on Sunday in a piece titled “The 99ers.” The video, while interesting and well worth watching, is depressing as it documents that the current unemployment situation extends to a large number of college educated professional people who never dreamed in their worse nightmare that they would ever experience long-term debilitating unemployment.

One has to wonder that with the unemployment situation so bleak for well educated professionals, even those formerly working for Silicon Valley firms, what it must be like for those with only high school educations or general undergraduate college degrees. With 99 weeks of unemployment benefits due to soon expire, and with Congress unlikely to extend those benefits due to concerns about the ballooning national deficit, the future for those unemployed looks to be desperate indeed.

The strain upon free food kitchens and soup canteens across the nation is already severe as the ranks of the needy unemployed soar. With so many Americans in desperate need it is sad and discomforting that the top 10% or so of income earners in America have during the same time period experienced an explosion in income. These privileged elite, largely due to the unfair political system that has evolved over the past 30 years (which favors the rich), are doing better than ever.

A widening gulf between the resources of the wealthy elite, the struggling middle class, and the rapidly growing numbers of the long-term unemployed does not bode well for a harmonious period of peace and prosperity in America. There is an increasing risk that an army of the disenfranchised unemployed, in co-operation with the still employed but struggling fearful middle class, may lead to open class warfare within America. Those who are wealthy are already demanding increased security services. For the foreseeable future the security service industry will likely be one area of high growth in an otherwise poor economy.

As the ranks of the 99ers increases the risk of what would have been unthinkable in America only a few years ago becomes more of a probability than a possibility. As an explosive period of unemployment continues to build do not be surprised if America experiences periods of martial law. It will take many years work by courageous leadership to restructure America’s political and financial systems before the unemployment situation can the rectified. Unfortunately, in current day America the type of courageous leadership that is required is nowhere in sight.

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Upon shuttering his hedge fund in October of 2008 Andrew Lahde sent the following letter to his hedge fund clients. From the way things are going in the once good old USA it seems that his retirement and comments were well timed.

“Today I write not to gloat. Given the pain that nearly everyone is experiencing, that would be entirely inappropriate. Nor am I writing to make further predictions, as most of my forecasts in previous letters have unfolded or are in the process of unfolding. Instead, I am writing to say goodbye.

Recently, on the front page of Section C of the Wall Street Journal, a hedge fund manager who was also closing up shop (a $300 million fund), was quoted as saying, “What I have learned about the hedge fund business is that I hate it.” I could not agree more with that statement. I was in this game for the money. The low hanging fruit, i.e. idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale, and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking. These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government. All of this behavior supporting the Aristocracy, only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other side of my trades. God bless America.

There are far too many people for me to sincerely thank for my success. However, I do not want to sound like a Hollywood actor accepting an award. The money was reward enough. Furthermore, the endless list those deserving thanks know who they are.

I will no longer manage money for other people or institutions. I have enough of my own wealth to manage. Some people, who think they have arrived at a reasonable estimate of my net worth, might be surprised that I would call it quits with such a small war chest. That is fine; I am content with my rewards. Moreover, I will let others try to amass nine, ten or eleven figure net worths. Meanwhile, their lives suck. Appointments back to back, booked solid for the next three months, they look forward to their two week vacation in January during which they will likely be glued to their Blackberries or other such devices. What is the point? They will all be forgotten in fifty years anyway. Steve Balmer, Steven Cohen, and Larry Ellison will all be forgotten. I do not understand the legacy thing. Nearly everyone will be forgotten. Give up on leaving your mark. Throw the Blackberry away and enjoy life.

So this is it. With all due respect, I am dropping out. Please do not expect any type of reply to emails or voicemails within normal time frames or at all. Andy Springer and his company will be handling the dissolution of the fund. And don’t worry about my employees, they were always employed by Mr. Springer’s company and only one (who has been well-rewarded) will lose his job.

I have no interest in any deals in which anyone would like me to participate. I truly do not have a strong opinion about any market right now, other than to say that things will continue to get worse for some time, probably years. I am content sitting on the sidelines and waiting. After all, sitting and waiting is how we made money from the subprime debacle. I now have time to repair my health, which was destroyed by the stress I layered onto myself over the past two years, as well as my entire life — where I had to compete for spaces in universities and graduate schools, jobs and assets under management — with those who had all the advantages (rich parents) that I did not. May meritocracy be part of a new form of government, which needs to be established.

On the issue of the U.S. Government, I would like to make a modest proposal. First, I point out the obvious flaws, whereby legislation was repeatedly brought forth to Congress over the past eight years, which would have reigned in the predatory lending practices of now mostly defunct institutions. These institutions regularly filled the coffers of both parties in return for voting down all of this legislation designed to protect the common citizen. This is an outrage, yet no one seems to know or care about it. Since Thomas Jefferson and Adam Smith passed, I would argue that there has been a dearth of worthy philosophers in this country, at least ones focused on improving government. Capitalism worked for two hundred years, but times change, and systems become corrupt. George Soros, a man of staggering wealth, has stated that he would like to be remembered as a philosopher. My suggestion is that this great man start and sponsor a forum for great minds to come together to crea te a new system of government that truly represents the common man’s interest, while at the same time creating rewards great enough to attract the best and brightest minds to serve in government roles without having to rely on corruption to further their interests or lifestyles. This forum could be similar to the one used to create the operating system, Linux, which competes with Microsoft’s near monopoly. I believe there is an answer, but for now the system is clearly broken.

Lastly, while I still have an audience, I would like to bring attention to an alternative food and energy source. You won’t see it included in BP’s, “Feel good. We are working on sustainable solutions,” television commercials, nor is it mentioned in ADM’s similar commercials. But hemp has been used for at least 5,000 years for cloth and food, as well as just about everything that is produced from petroleum products. Hemp is not marijuana and vice versa. Hemp is the male plant and it grows like a weed, hence the slang term. The original American flag was made of hemp fiber and our Constitution was printed on paper made of hemp. It was used as recently as World War II by the U.S. Government, and then promptly made illegal after the war was won.

At a time when rhetoric is flying about becoming more self-sufficient in terms of energy, why is it illegal to grow this plant in this country? Ah, the female. The evil female plant — marijuana. It gets you high, it makes you laugh, it does not produce a hangover. Unlike alcohol, it does not result in bar fights or wife beating. So, why is this innocuous plant illegal? Is it a gateway drug? No, that would be alcohol, which is so heavily advertised in this country. My only conclusion as to why it is illegal, is that Corporate America, which owns Congress, would rather sell you Paxil, Zoloft, Xanax and other additive drugs, than allow you to grow a plant in your home without some of the profits going into their coffers. This policy is ludicrous. It has surely contributed to our dependency on foreign energy sources. Our policies have other countries literally laughing at our stupidity, most notably Canada, as well as several European nations (both Eastern and Western). You wou ld not know this by paying attention to U.S. media sources though, as they tend not to elaborate on who is laughing at the United States this week. Please people, let’s stop the rhetoric and start thinking about how we can truly become self-sufficient.

With that I say good-bye and good luck.

All the best,

Andrew Lahde”

The sad fact is that as Andrew Lahde stated some two years ago the United States government is broken to the point of no repair. Events over the next 1 to 2 years will probably prove this fact well beyond any doubt. No one really knows what the future will bring but it is really impossible for the United States to have a recovery to the old happy motoring and senseless consumption economy. The economy that we are attempting to recover to is gone forever. Rather than attempt to recover to something that no longer exists our government should acknowledge that old solutions to our many problems no longer work and that a new economic and political system will have to be created in order for solutions to be implemented.

Of course, it is highly unlikely that our present crop of self-serving politicians will be up to the task of even admitting to the public that our government is badly broken and that a true emergency is at hand. When one refuses to admit that a problem exists it is impossible to find solutions for the problem. I expect that is why Andrew Lahde wrote such a pessimistic letter to his hedge fund clients and why the outlook for the continued prosperity and world leadership position of the United States is today in such jeopardy.

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I’ve long been fascinated yet horrified about the conditions and processes that somehow transforms nations and the collective actions of highly civilized people into inhuman beings possessed by total madness. For example, Hitler’s Germany, Mao’s “Great Leap Forward”, and Pol Pot’s Cambodian killing fields are spot on examples of how evil can quickly be spread throughout a society by a powerful “leader” sociopath with a political agenda, as crazy as it may be.

An America under great stress could and probably will once again descend into madness. I say once again as we have been there before. Our Civil War is a good example of this as disagreements over States rights and the role of the federal government led to the unthinkable, a war between the States. The Senator McCarthy era of the 1950′s is another example of how a talented, if misguided, orator demigod gained control of the national dialogue, which led to the persecution of many people who just happened to disagree with the Sen. and his mad methods. Then in the 1960′s there were numerous riots and civil disturbances as one of the consequences of the unpopular war being fought in Vietnam.

The mass bombing of heavily populated civilian centers in Germany and Japan in World War Two is yet another example of how decent citizens can be manipulated by their leaders in government. The heavy bombing of German and Japanese population centers, occupied primarily by civilians, must have seemed horribly wrong to many American and British citizens, that is until their governments by control of the media were able to present the bombings as a necessary evil and a normal activity against a tough and entrenched enemy. Germans and Japanese citizens were presented by the American government to the American public as less than human as that made it easier to exterminate them. What is that other than leaders manipulating group think and tipping social mood into madness?

Some bombing runs against city centers were terrorist attacks in the sense that they were designed to terrorize the population for a political end, not to destroy military targets. Fighting evil by becoming evil may be effective but hardly keeps one on firm moral ground. The madness of killing hundreds of thousands of civilians was opposed by few Americans or Brits. The total fire storm destruction of major cities was celebrated by the allies. Throughout history, there are many such examples of how charismatic leaders who are media savvy can manipulate populations into a condition of madness.

Today the early stages of a financial melt down and the long term crises associated with the liquidation of unprecedented debt that most of the Western world, certainly America, faces sets up the possibility of yet another descent into madness. As unemployment remains at high levels and standards of living fall in America the hate filled dialog of even one media savvy sociopathic “leader”, probably not yet elected to public office, could tip America’s social mood into one of complete madness.

We are already experiencing early signs of this. The verbal and physical attacks against Congressman who voted for and even against the health reform act are an example of anger and rage felt by many American voters boiling to the surface. This anger has been fanned by politicians and talking heads in both the Republican and Democrat parties. People will become ever more angry and violent as their standard of living falls and then can be even more easily manipulated.

There is a real danger of a population where many people are living on the edge getting completely out of control. If the nation tips into a condition of national chaos and disorder it will be difficult for anyone living within the United States to escape the consequences. Those who think that a private horde of guns, ammo, water, and food will save them from national madness are dreaming unless they are completely hidden away far off the radar. In fact, anyone who is thought by the raving fired up mobs to possess anything of value or thought to be somehow “un-American” will soon come under repeated attack until the mob gets whatever it wants.

As resources become ever more scarce and the various media savvy “leader’s” voices becomes louder and more shrill the descent into madness may come faster than anyone now thinks. Who in the civilized Germany that existed prior to Hitler could envision the madness that would soon follow? In the early 1930′s Hitler was even admired and considered a great leader by many elite Americans and Brits.

Could America’s social mood tip into complete madness? What do you think? Is the process already underway? Could a greater depression take us over the edge of reason into madness?

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The December unemployment figures were released on January 8, 2010 and showed that 85,000 jobs were lost for the month. Since the pre-release guesstimate was for only a small loss for the month, or perhaps even a tiny gain, the figures disappointed Team Obama.

Or did they? President Obama is gearing up for yet another job stimulus program so perhaps with politics being as they are today it was decided that a loss of jobs in December might be helpful in proving that a further stimulus package is required. It really has become hard to believe that the government releases the unemployment report without taking into account political considerations.

However the government came up with the figures one telling statistic is the large number of people who have dropped out of the labor force. Over 900,000 former workers have decided that a job is impossible for them to get given current market conditions. Without this reduction in those seeking work and other adjustments the 10% unemployment rate and the loss of 85,000 jobs for the month would have been far worse.

Since President Obama has taken office approximately 4,200,000 jobs have disappeared. While President Obama can rightfully say that his administration inherited a tremendous mess from George Dubya Bush, one that will take some time to clean up, there is no doubt that unless the job market improves considerably before the midterm elections Obama and the Democrats will face a major hit in the 2010 elections.

The real problem is that the Obama team, along with many Americans, have yet to face up to the fact that we are in the early stages of a depression, not an ordinary recession. The talk is still about a recovery. There is no recognition at all that it is impossible to return to the happy motoring days of 2005. Valuable resources are being wasted by the government to prop up zombie banks, dinosaur automotive companies, and undeserving companies like AIG, while trying to bring back an economy that was built upon the wasteful largely unproductive back of consumerism.

It is highly unlikely that with crude oil once again in the danger zone above $80 dollars per barrel, and probably headed to above $100 per barrel by year end, that there will be any meaningful job recovery during 2010. In fact, there is a high probability that the economy will have a double dip recession. Should this prove to be the case team Obama could well face a bloodbath in the midterm elections.

While there are many items on Obama’s overfilled plate, such as healthcare, immigration issues, security issues, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it really comes down to how the job picture looks by the November 2010 elections as to whether the Democrats will take a real beating in those elections.

One can reasonably bet that the government will pull out all the stops in an effort to give the job market a boost during 2010. This means that Uncle Sam will be spending even more money that it doesn’t really have in an effort to save the economy. While increased deficit spending may well get some short-term relief the prospect over the long-term is downright depressing.

The United States is headed toward one of two things, neither one of them pleasant. One is that the government will eventually be forced to default on its obligations. In my opinion, this is highly unlikely but not impossible. The more likely event is that the government will attempt to control inflation in a way that allows them to pay off more debt with ever cheaper dollars. The danger here, of course, is that Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner, and President Obama are not quite as smart as they think they are and take the United States into an impossible to control hyperinflationary environment.

The loss of 85,000 jobs for the month of the December 2009 may turn out to be one of the more minor things for the administration to worry about in 2010. One thing is very certain. 2010 will turn out to be an extremely interesting year.

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Are you about to graduate from college and haven’t a clue as to how to find a job? I don’t mean a decent job. I mean any old rotten job at all. Are you a recent college graduate and getting tired of sending out resumes which seem to end up in a black hole? Are you worried about telling someone you hope to have a special relationship with that you are unemployed and living in the basement of your parents home?

Well, stop worrying. There is a way to look respectable even when you are really unemployed. Since everyone knows that the American and world economy is not in great shape just now and that for college graduates of the class of 2010 the job market will probably be pretty bleak it’s a great time to remain a student. Who can tell you that’s a bad decision?

Here are three good reasons why you might want to remain in or return to college, stay respectable, and earn that master’s degree.

1.) With only your undergraduate degree you can not get a job. Not even a lousy job. Attending college was much more fun than hanging around your parents house all day and all night. Especially when all they say to you these days is “get a job you lazy freeloader. What a waste it was to pay for your college education. And now all you do is eat, eat, eat, and sleep,sleep,sleep, and play stupid video games on your computer. Can’t you at least join the military?”

2.) In the long run having a master’s degree will likely help you to earn a lot more money. That is if you can get a job in this lousy economy. But buck up. Going for a master’s degree will buy you time. And it’s cool to tell everyone you are in a master’s degree program. Much better than saying that you are unemployed.

3.) You can improve your mind and better prepare yourself to work for a big dumb corporation. Besides, you have nothing better to do. You don’t have a job and no job means no money and no respect.

If the economy is still rotten after you earn your masters degree than why bang your head up against a wall? Just stay in school and go for that PhD. Maybe you should consider becoming a student in Sweden where you can attend college for as long as you like and the government will pay for most of it.

“The Swedish Institute grants hundreds of scholarships every year to help foreign students make their stay in Sweden more affordable. Currently, tuition fees for everyone are fully subsidized by the state.” Hey! Check it out. Study in Sweden

Masters degree anyone? It’s a great step out of the unemployment line and towards respectibility. For more information visit Master’s Degree Education

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Dubai has many symbols of excessive spending and wild consumption. Dubai has to be the world’s prime poster child for the thinking that anything can be built anywhere, that money is not a barrier, that humans are limited only by their imaginations. Only in Dubai is taking a skiing vacation in the middle of a desert entirely possible. Not only possible but considered entirely normal.

From its humble beginnings as a Gulf sleepy fishing village 20 some years ago Dubai came to symbolize what big dreams fueled with big money can do. A few years ago who would have dreamed that the world’s tallest building, the now completing Burj Dubai would be built in Dubai? Or who would have imagined that Dubai would be home to the world’s first seven star hotel, the fantastic $1,900 dollar a night and up Burj-Al-Arab.

Little concern was given to how much it would cost to cool a huge skiing facility and produce all of that snow within a monster of a building sitting under a blazing desert sun. But then no one seemed to be concerned about the amount of water it would take to keep a championship golf course going in a desert environment either. To reach the sky and beyond was the goal of Dubai.

But to create the miracle of Dubai took money, a lot of money. Dubai had money but then leveraged what they had to extreme levels in order to keep on rapid fire building. No one seemed to consider what would happen if property values fell rather than appreciate year after year. The Dubai powers that be made straight line projections that never varied. Everything would appreciate in value forever and forever and demand would never falter. Dubai was to be a heaven on earth.

Rumors have flown about for months that Dubai was in financial trouble. Those fears were realized this week as one of the State owned firms requested a six month holding period for soon to be due bond payments. The world’s stock markets did not react well to this notification of a bond default. Well, kind of a default. Dubai still promises to pay, just not quite yet. Estimates are that about 80 billion Dollars in debt have been incurred as Dubai created miracle after miracle in the desert sands. The immediate concern is that the impact of a Dubai default may reach far beyond Dubai in this interconnected world.

Here is one reaction to the Dubai story from the NASDAQ website The entire article is extremely interesting reading.
———————————-
Now, let me just pause here and say one of the implications of this story that I really like is that human beings, universally, are overshooters. And the people of the UAE have now shown themselves to be overshooters in classic fashion. The UAE obviously looked at its considerable resource inheritance of oil and gas and then got about the business of attaching as much possible debt to this wealth and future growth as the world could stomach. This is yet another example of an infinite debt philosophy on both the part of the borrowers, and the lenders. And by the way, if you think humanity is going to collectively decide to build sustainable, low-growth economies on a voluntary basis then I say dream on. We’re all overshooters now.
————————————

It’s the last sentence that really grabs my attention. Humans being all too human it is highly unlikely that a planned transition to a substainible low growth economy is going to happen in any developed nation or developing nation. Probably not until we are in full crisis mode will any meaningful action be taken by the governments of the world to rein in growth.

We are looking down the barrel of the consequences of climate change, peak oil, and a financial depression as excessive debt is squeezed out of the system. We are not in a recession, it is a depression and depressions take a long time to do their work of rebalancing debt and equity. Dubai follows Iceland as an example of what excessive leverage can bring on and we need to take it as another warning shot very close to the bow.

And as mentioned in the article from the NASDAQ website, another much larger State than Dubai faces massively increasing debt payments that eventually will have to be paid. What can’t go on forever, just doesn’t. Not even for the United States of America.

I wonder if this time next year if it will be possible to take a ski vacation in Dubai?

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A potential disaster is in the making for 2010 with a growing inventory of zombie commercial real estate buildings occupying commercial developments nationwide. A rapidly rising tide of troubled loans for vacant or almost vacant commercial real estate threatens the survival of hundreds of the nation’s small and medium-sized banks. It is not a good time to be a commercial real estate developer or to be holding loans due from those developers.

Financial reports this month from federal regulators and industry analysts outline a new cycle of defaults in commercial real estate that they fear could cripple the economic recovery. Billions of dollars in commercial debt will have to be paid back or refinanced at a time when property values have plummeted and huge projects are underwater. According to the Federal Reserve Bank about $500 billion of loans will come due in 2010 alone and an equal amount every year through at least 2012.

Many banks that escaped the residential mortgage crisis are facing huge numbers of possible defaults by builders who erected thousands of office towers, condominiums and shopping centers with the easy credit available five years ago. With few tenants under lease and the prospect of finding new tenants almost nil, those developments are full of empty buildings that are turning into what industry insiders call zombie buildings.

Zombie commercial real estate projects funded by zombie banks is a potent combination for further disaster in an already weak economy. 2010 will likely be a year that will end any talk of a recovery back to the bubble days of pre 2008.

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The disconnect between the rally in the stock market and what’s going on in the real economy is becoming extreme. One must prepare yourself for the great stock market crash of 2010. Perhaps sooner as we enter the holiday season.

Let’s consider a few indicators of the health of the real US economy and the nations financial affairs. For one thing the employment situation in the troubled United States is worse than anything seen in decades. As a matter of fact, were you to calculate the unemployment rate as they did before the government decided to manipulate and massage the numbers you’d have to look to the Great Depression to find a proper comparison.

Sure, I know that the unemployment rate is considered to be a lagging indicator, one of the last to recover as the economy improves. However, with personal bankruptcies at record highs, with another round of home mortgage resets due to kick in in 2010 and 2011, with the commercial real estate market going into free fall, and with so many consumers with no job or fearful of losing a job the potential for a fast full recovery in a consumer driven economy is just not realistic. The consumer is tapped out with no prospect of a fast repair of their debt laden balance sheets.

The way Wall Street is performing you would thing that the recovery is a sure thing. Certainly for now Wall Street is benefiting massively from the trillions of dollars poured into the banks and Wall Street firms by Uncle Sam. But stocks are now once again expensive and consumer confidence is once again declining. And what happens when the big Wall Street firms and banks decide that it is time to sell? With huge positions once again leveraged to high levels and spec trading once again king who are they going to sell to? To each other all the way down? Lead by our renowned Goldman Sachs con men Wall Street has managed to create a monster. The risk of a another bubble pop implosion is real and a clear and present danger. One Black Swan event will do it.

Prices are being ginned up based on a dream recovery with stock evaluations priced to perfection. As a famous economist once said “things that can’t last forever don’t”. We had best prepare ourselves for another great stock market crash as the government is forced by huge trillion dollar deficits to cut back on spending or to massively monetize the debt. Without life support the economy and stock market will tank.

One reason I’m so sure of this is that the US government has made no useful preparations for a transaction into a new world economy where nations must compete for resources, like crude oil and rare earth metals, that in usable affordable form are rapidly becoming in critical short supply. I say useful preparations as engaging in constant warfare is a tremendous mis-allocation of resources. Constant expensive warfare is speeding up the demise of the US dollar as well driving the nation into an impossible deficit spending situation. Probably the US has already reached a tipping point and nothing can be done to prevent a full scale disaster.

Rather than face the up to the fact that the world has changed and that the US is no longer the sole dominant player in the world economy the Obama administration is trying it’s hardest to bring back the old consumer, financial services, and based consumer driven economy that is so over and entirely late 20th century. That gig is over and done with. That is why a recovery to the economy that existed pre 2007 is impossible.

Without a serious effort to downsize many elements of the American lifestyle that lifestyle will increasingly suffer along with the stock market. Once again keep in mind that “things that can’t last forever don’t”.

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Me and Bobby McGee is a Janis Japlin song that she recorded only a few days before her death in October 1970. “Me and Bobby McGee” was written by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster, and originally performed by Roger Miller.

While the song was written in the early 1970′s the lines “freedom is just another word when you have nothing else to lose” is taking on a new grim meaning for millions of Americans.

With the official unemployment rate at 9.8% and unofficial “shadow economy” figures at twice that amount, millions of hard working Americans are finding that losing their job and not being able to find another of an equal pay level, or a job at all, is a harsh reality. Home foreclosures are at record levels, the double trouble storm of residential mortgage resets and commercial real estate defaults is about to break, and yet the US government is spending trillions of dollars in a futile effort to take the nation back to “the way it was”.

Rather than to plan for and build a new sustainable scaled down economy the nation is wasting resources in attempting to bailout all of the “too big to fail” businesses at taxpayers expense. Under such misguided efforts it has become easy to lose all that you have and to become “free”.

As economic conditions worsen the potential for violence in various ugly forms is high and increasing. Millions of unemployed and foreclosed upon Americans who are now free may also become unrestrained as they seek revenge on those who they think helped to bring on all of the trouble.

This would especially include the Wall Street crowd, their partners in crime the banksters, and just about every politician in Washington. Main street Americans will soon realize that at Christmas and New Years the Wall Street gang, lead by Goldman Sachs, are planning to reward themselves for wrecking the American economy and once again will pay out billions of dollars in bonuses to their executives and professional con men marketers.

As millions of those who have lost everything begin to understand that control of the United States government has in effect passed to elite financiers who just don’t get it as far as main street reaching a breaking point all bets are off as to where “freedom” will take the American newly set free.

As the song says “freedom is just another word when you have nothing else to lose”. The challenge for keeping civil order in truly distressed times is that those with nothing else to lose may decide that with their new freedom they are free to get mad as hell and start to do something about it. This year if I were a Wall Street executive about to receive a few millions as a bonus I would be thinking about spending a good chunk of that money for an armor plated automobile and Blackwater type security guards.

How to keep order and restore long term healthy growth in a nation that seems intent on destroying itself, and that has millions of disenfranchised citizens armed to the teeth, is an issue that deserves more attention from politicians and TV anchor newsmen who prefer to talk about green shoots and how strong our economy and currency are. People who have nothing more to lose are dangerous people indeed and will not be in the mood for more BS.

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Hotel California in Better Times

My brother Eugene loved this Hotel California song by the Eagles as do I. It seems fitting to place the video of one of the Eagle’s best performances on the Long Crisis as a reminder of the days when California was everyman’s American dream and in memory of my brother who loved the West coast.

Eugene passed away this September 15th in Portland, Oregon at age 64, an unfortunate statistic of a health care system that left him terrified of the expense of getting the care and treatment that he needed after his health care insurance was canceled in 2007.

That California dream has now turned into a nightmare for so many of California’s residents as housing values continue their long march to who knows where or what and unemployment just keeps on increasing. A once prosperous state is nearing complete insolvency and bankrupcy as state revenues fall and the need for once taken for granted services at all levels increase.

California has always been a bell weather state for the US. If that linkage still exists than we can expect really tough times ahead across the USA. The politicians by their actions are only adding to the problem. However, even in tough times one can enjoy listening to the Eagles, one of the iconic bands of all time.

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