"S&P 500 at 320, DOW at 2200, Gold $300/oz, and Corn $2/bu"

I agree, except for gold.

Gold is definitely in trouble here and the charts are warning reset...but $300 would be flirting with the all time lows back when everything was "good"...Everything will not be good and more than enough people will hoard gold to keep the price well above $300.

I will reassess when the price is $1200 and definitely at $1000...that may be the time to buy some physical coins...remember that collectable coins were the only ones to escape confiscation the last time gold threatened paper money here in the USA.

I'm almost 37, and have no illusions that I'll see any of the SS $ that I've put in since I started working at 16. What's more - I'd be ok with this, if they stopped taxing me NOW so I could invest my own **** to help save for retirement.

Pipe dream I know, but there's no alternative that I deem as 'fair' as this.

And for the record, my favorite part of KD's weekly BlogTalk is his intro line "I don't give a DAMN what you think you're entitled to!"

Debtpie, unless you can figure out how to turn gold into FOOD...it's worthless...and you're not getting any food from my garden for any of that heavy useless metal.

Dow at 2200 means things are bad enough that FOOD becomes an actual issue...

KD wrote..

Social Security is NOT a trust and is NOT a debt.

Further, when you get statements from SS, estimating what your benefits will be, they have in bold

Quote:

your estimated benefit are based on current law. Congress has made changes to the law and can do so at any time

Entitlements Schmitetlements, who is stronger the 2.8 trillion a year medical ponzi or the banker ponzi... or the beltway ponzi or the pension ponzi or or or...,
If the medical ponzi is weaker, then Medicaid and Medicare get thrown under the bus and the "death panels", i.e. revert to 1964 rules of economic health care and you can either go off and die or sell the family farm and leave them no estate, compared to today, when the doctors may treat you until you die and you leave no estate if you take too long.
Anyone one of these ponzis will take the US economy down if left to run long enough. The sad thing is, whichever ponzi is thrown under the bus, the banksters will run the country for a few more years.

Small correction:

losing 10% each year of purchasing power for 3 years is not 33% compounded.

You'll have (0.9)^3 = 0.729 left.
1.00 - 0.729 = 0.271 or 27.1% compounded loss over 3 years.

To top it all off...

When The Derivatives Market Crashes (And It Will) U.S. Taxpayers Will Be On The Hook


http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archi....

No we won't.

I believe I still have 600' of storm-grade anchor line in my garage.

The ivory tower acts like debasement makes a ponzi invincible, but the consequences of that debasement cannot be hidden indefinitely. In the end they'll have done the same amount of economic damage and dismantled the engines of capitalism by institutionalizing moral hazard. The "solution" of backstops doesn't just cause moral hazard, moral hazard is their "solution"!

Karl your opinion on this article?

The 'Geezers' are right this time

http://www.theleafchronicle.com/article/....

It's a nice try but it's a lie.

Never mind that Social Security isn't where the big problem is. That's Medicare.

The Geezers are right this time wrote..

But Simpson-Bowles had no business dragging Social Security into the operating room, and here’s why: Social Security is an independent, self-funding program. It is not welfare. The workers and their employers pay for all of it.

About 25 years ago, Social Security taxes were raised above that needed to support current retirees and the surplus put in a trust fund. The goal was to create a buffer to keep the program healthy as the number of retirees grew and lived longer. Left alone, Social Security can pay all promised benefits for the next 20 years and can continue doing so with some minor adjustments, such as raising the cap on income subject to payroll taxes.

Oh come on. That is nothing more then a regurgitation of the Big Lie

It'll be interesting to see if the average joe will turn on the media when they realize how well they've been duped.

Do you really think Mittens would have a chance at getting elected if he said he would cut ****. It just doesn't work that way in entitlement Merika. What we need is a group of Trojan Horse candidates who lie to get elected and then go in and fix this sinking ****. Mittens is not the one for the job and Obama has only put more holes in the ship.

Is there any doubt that you are seeing a rapid decay of western civilization (in a monetary sense and of moral values)? What can the governments do, other than to lie to us while secretly putting the currency printing presses into overdrive (to save those that destroyed a good system and don't deserve it).
Change the system, live within the system, or exit the system.
You can send your assets offshore (where is safe is a big question), and then put them into tangibles (and effectively exit the $US -- a hedge, if you will).
I have grown tired of the hidden and real taxes, and dealing with the corporatocracy.
We are exiting very soon... I see more following us

soontobeexpat: care you outline how you intend to do that? where are you planning on going?

debtpie wrote..

I still say this election is Obama's to lose.

Might as well start here. Recall in the last impasse what Obama said? The snippet out of the article came right out of his mouth last year. Republicans were ruining the credit of the US by not raising the debt ceiling. The man should have had every document he ever received that he had finished any grade level over kindergarten with that comment. WE HAVE AN ABSOLUTE MORON OR A UNASHAMED LIAR IN THE WHITE HOUSE We have an idiot running the Federal Reserve, save for the fact that his policies allow the political and banker class access to money before the rest of us get it. Thus, they front run trades in the stock market. They run corners in the commodity markets at zero, with demand created by the FSA. The Iphone craze runs off the Federal government deficit and the printing press of free credit. Where would AAPL be if the market supported a unit price $100 or $200 less? We are about to find out with Samsung kicking their ass(My brother in law has a Samsung and he is as fad prone as anyone).

The idea that if they don't allow us to borrow more money, we are going to go broke is as absurd as any that has ever been tossed out. Remember, there are millions every decade that had perfect credit until they couldn't get another credit card or home equity loan. Karl mentions $3000 per person. Really more like $5000 per person and $10,000 per person that has a job. Who is going to generate the revenue to support this debt? It won't be the money for and from nothing bankers. It will be the same class that was ****ed when they set up the US and its banker led aristocracy trashed the Articles of Confederation and rigged us under what was a solid and well meaning Constitution they never meant to follow. The merchants that fought the war for their commerical advantage turned around and billed the rest of the nation for the war, after gaining possession at a deep discount all the debt, which they voted to pay themselves out of our earnings.

The problem here is deep. If you take the average Joe and put him in debt $5000 on a credit card that has no higher limit, he is suddenly spending constrained and liable for a debt that could go on for decades. Yet, Ovomit and his henchmen have no shame in putting the same Joe in debt $10,000 a year. The bankers aren't going to pay this debt. They don't have to worry about worth of the money, as it is in our accounts, not theirs. So they earn a spread on government debt forever.

I listen to these guys and puke. Gas coming down and the guys on completely nothing but crap (cnbc) start talking what a boon for the consumer this is. The consumer is going to end up like the consumer in Japan. In fact, the Ovomit aim is to put in carbon taxes, which will do nothing but funnel more money out of the consumers pockets into the bankers and political classes pockets. America under Obama will look like administrative France. Our nation needs to move in the exact opposite direction.

Lastly, Obama doesn't any more have control of the election than an ant has over the log on which he is floating on the Mississippi. Take a look at this picture.

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=%5EGS....

Robert Prechter has done studies as to how social mood determines the direction of the stock market and the direction of elections. All the bull**** blowing, all the deficit spending, all the QE and the market never made it beyond the level from which it collapsed in May of 2008. A decline that took 9.5 months hasn't been recovered in well over 3 years. Nearly 50 points of this rally are AAPL alone. Obama had an entry opportunity equal only to the door Adolph Hitler entered. Anyone with a brain that listens to him can't buy his addled nonsense. If they do the impossible and stick save this market, he probably has a chance.

This moves us to what is happening in Europe. Note that this stuff came apart with the end of the expansion of the US credit bubble. Not only must the US look to Europe to see where they are headed, Europe is a symptom of what transpired in the US bubble. Don't forget it was Goldman that created the Greek scheme. Bubbles are popping all over the world.

Did anyone catch the latest episode of "Owe My Balls!" last night? It was great! A guy got kicked in the balls!

Idiocracy...we're there.

@ Docj

remember the last showdown. well john boner negotiated what was it.. 300m or was it 30m in "cuts"

**** the elephant mascot

... and they'd sincerely & deeply consider having a balanced budget amendment.

Quote:

Change the system, live within the system, or exit the system.
You can send your assets offshore (where is safe is a big question), and then put them into tangibles (and effectively exit the $US -- a hedge, if you will).
I have grown tired of the hidden and real taxes, and dealing with the corporatocracy.
We are exiting very soon... I see more following us

Exiting is no longer an option as the US taxes you no matter where you live and giving up citizenship hits you with an exit tax of 35% of total assets + 10 years of paying income tax. I'm still moving overseas as I won't raise a family in this ****hole, but don't kid yourself as there is no getting away from the US government.

"Exiting is no longer an option as the US taxes you no matter where you live and giving up citizenship hits you with an exit tax of 35% of total assets + 10 years of paying income tax. I'm still moving overseas as I won't raise a family in this ****hole, but don't kid yourself as there is no getting away from the US government. "

Send after tax dollars. At least you won't continue to get hammered by inflation (well, hopefully not as bad anyway...)
We are going to "break clean" (take care of tax and other issues), and are not giving up US citizenship.
As far as income, I don't have a job overseas so I won't have to worry about that.
Good luck.

'Good Lord, but reading the comments in the original Bloomberg probably cost me about 10-12 IQ points.' said Doc J.

Looks like a tf reader "Rick B_" posted 7 hrs ago to quell the stupid..