SEVEN BIZARRE TRENDS THAT PREDICT AN ECONOMIC COLLAPSE

No, this is not about the Euro crisis or the real signs of an economic collapse. After all, there's the word "bizarre" in the title of this post, not "alarming," "distressing" or the like. It's meant to shift to a much lighter note and add a bit of humour - albeit dry, weird, sexy, saucy, or even irrelevant, depending on one's taste or preference - to the dreaded phrase "economic collapse."

So read on...

7 BIZARRE TRENDS THAT PREDICT AN ECONOMIC COLLAPSE
By: Pauli Poisuo, Cracked.com.

If you popped out of a time machine at a random moment in history, how would you know whether or not the country was in a recession? There would be obvious signs, like lots more ads for payday loan joints and offers to buy your gold for pennies on the dollar. But there are less obvious, much weirder clues all around you.

After all, did you know that when the economy is bad ...

7. MOSQUITO POPULATIONS SURGE

The tanking economy is causing huge swarms of insects in suburban areas, namely mosquitoes. Now, if you're the clever type you might have already thought, "Well, that probably makes sense - cities are probably cutting their mosquito-control programs because they don't have the funding." And that is certainly happening. But there's another reason for the mosquito baby boom that we're betting you'll never guess.

It's all [about] the foreclosed houses.

Mosquitoes are very much into the real estate
market right now

Think about it. A lot of houses have pools, and when the bank comes a-knocking, pool maintenance falls to the lowest priority on everyone's list. And as anyone who has ever owned a pool or been involved in maintaining one will testify, those bastards will go rank in a heartbeat if left to their own devices. Even a drained pool can collect stagnant rainwater, after all. And whose job is it to patrol all of these thousands of pools to keep them disinfected?

Nobody.

And mosquit

So, a whole bunch of foreclosed houses end up with musky, slimy cesspits of hell-water in their backyards. If you know anything about swamps, you know that filthy, standing water is the perfect breeding ground for the little blood-sucking bastards.

Still, this is just an increase in annoying bugs we're talking about here. Surely, that's relatively harmless in the grand scheme of things. It's not like they're carrying any potentially lethal viruses or anything.


6. WAITRESSES GET PRETTIER

You're ordering at a coffee shop (or if you're fancy, a cafe), and you notice that the barista is surprisingly attractive. Ordinarily you would chalk that up to a nice moment in your otherwise mediocre day, but hang on a tick. As you look around, all the employees are really good-looking. What is going on? What time is it? Are you drunk already and you just forgot? There's no good reason why all this beauty should be wasted on angry caffeine junkies.

You've stumbled into a sci-fi universe,
that's all. Prepare to be culled, ugly!

Well, this phenomenon (assuming you aren't actually drunk) might be an incredibly reliable, vaguely sexist indication of how the economy is faring.

It's called the Hot Waitress Economic Index, and it goes like this: In our often unfair society, really attractive women are unlikely to work as waitresses, as they have an easier time finding other, better-paying jobs (we're not saying it's right, we're saying it's a statistical truth). When the economy goes belly-up, attractiveness isn't as valuable as actual skill, and attractive people get laid off just like everyone else - so they temporarily drift back to a job that doesn't require schooling but offers great tips if you have a nice smile. When the economy picks up again, they return to higher-paying jobs.

Like posing as a waitress for stock
photo libraries.

The Hot Waitress Economic Index was coined by New York magazine financial columnist Hugo Lindgren in 2009, and it has since received enough credibility and attention to feature in Investopedia, CNBC, Time Moneyland and Business Insider, to name a few. For obvious reasons, not everyone in the media takes it seriously, but the curious thing is that, apart from the odd blogger playing the sexism card, no one seems to be running to debunk it. In today's media environment, that speaks volumes about the plausibility of the theory.

So the next time you're at a restaurant and a swarm of models are mixing up orders or breaking plates, there's a chance that this may be one of the last times you have the luxury of eating out, because those women are the harbingers of an economic apocalypse.

The four horsewomen will ride tonight: Death,
Famine, Botulism and OSHA Non-Compliance.

5. TIE COLOURS TURN BLAND

Without even knowing it, every person wearing a suit to work is offering a daily barometer for their sense of financial security, right around their necks.

"We lost your 401k, but here's
an alternate retirement plan

Here's a quick crash course on Tieconomics: People have an inherent tendency to wear bright, bold colors when they feel good and confident. You know this already if you have done even a cursory study of pimps. But when those same people are anxious about their financial well-being, the opposite happens - they are naturally drawn to drab, bland colors. If that seems oversimplified, take a look at fashion through the last few decades (see picture below)

There's a good reason why the color changes in business are specific to ties. You're probably not going to replace your whole wardrobe based on how you feel about life, and it's not really acceptable to wear a bright yellow suit to work (again, unless this is a pimp situation). So the change tends to get restricted to ties.

Clockwise from left: '70s flop, '80s boom, early '90s flop.
Or: bargaining, denial, depression.

So, the next time you wonder whether big businesses are about to make it rain or drop the axe, take a walk and pay attention to the suits on the street. If the ties are all pink and bright, it's probably safe to breathe easy. If they're drab beige, however...well, it might be time to hone your boxcar-jumping skills.

"Man, that's really gray. Your business
must be doing terribly."

4. CRIME TAKES A TURN FOR THE WEIRD

Preconception-smashing assault
is eight to 10 years

It's no surprise that a failing economy affects crime rates. What is surprising, however, is the type of crimes committed...and not committed. We would expect crimes fueled by desperation and alcohol to be on the rise in hard times, but statistics say otherwise. DUI [driving under the influence, or driving while intoxicated] cases are actually on the wane, having gone down as much as 30 percent. Property crime, along with crime in general, is at the lowest it's been since the 1960s, thus handily slapping both common sense and criminal theory in the face.

And what crimes are up? Dognapping, of all things. Out there in the streets right now there are people stealing other people's pets for profit, somehow. There are perfectly logical reasons for all of these trends, if you know where to look.

For example, there's a negative correlation
between number of puppies and your level
of financial depression

The kind of people who drive under the influence are probably just as ragingly drunk as usual, but they're staying home because even a drunk knows that gas is goddamn expensive. The lower property crime rate is most likely explained by the complete and utter distribution of poverty. While some people have lost everything and were forced to turn to a life of crime to cope, their potential targets have been hit equally hard. It's hardly worth robbing a house when all that house has to offer are stacks of unpaid bills and an old 14-inch tube TV.

"Oh God. They took all the kindling."

As for the dognapping trend, the reason is as simple as it is sad: money. Turns out dogs are trusting, fairly easy to grab and lucrative, as the thief can either pretend to "find" the pooch and return it for reward or just flat out sell it to new owners. The fact that we now apparently have a freaking black market for secondhand dogs depresses us more than a recession ever could.

3. ADVERTISEMENTS GET NASTIER

During a bad economy, advertisers have figured out that the best marketing strategy is a big, fat [four-letter word] "F**k you."

Usually, there's a line drawn in the sand between competing companies that keeps everything fairly civil. Commercials tout how superior their product is without explicitly naming the competition. But when the economy tanks and times are tight, that line getserased and all bets are off. Livelihoods are on the line, and they need to capture the consumer's attention by any means necessary, sometimes even using murder. So traditional "Our product is the best" advertising becomes the much more sordid "Everyone else's product is the worst, and they probably give you gonorrhea."

"I've just got the clap, but that
Geico bitch has straight-up syphilis."

In January 2010, for instance, Unilever jumped in Smart Balance's throat with an advertisement in The New York Times that basically called Smart Balance a bullshit hack product. Weight Watchers and Nestle's Jenny Craig division have been publicly pile-driving each others' diet programs both in and out of court, what with the latter running TV ads that were pissing all over the former. And so on.

You may remember this Marine Corps TV spot from 2002. It featured a free climber in the desert scaling a vertical rock face. When he got to the top, it meant he was allowed to be a Marine. Sure, the commercial was a flimsy metaphor, but it was also pretty optimistic regarding the possibilities in military service:

Now compare that to the ad that debuted in 2009 that does everything it can to make the Marine Corps look like torture, stopping just short of calling you a pussy:

It's not like the Marines are competing with anyone. Well, their reason for nasty advertising is somehow even more dickish. They advertise that they don't need you. Military recruitment ads tend to evolve with the needs of the military itself, instead of the trends of the public. And since people join the army a lot more when times are tough, their ads also get tougher and more bile-inducingly realistic. Their recruitment market is pretty much saturated due to the job situation and they can afford to be picky. Or pricky. 

2. ROMANCE NOVEL SALES SPIKE AND PLAYBOY MODELS GET HEAVIER

It's all about escapism. Or rather, a very specific brand of escapism that is specific to tough economic times.

Soft core porn, it turns out, is the cockroach of publications; it just won't die no matter what happens. Producers of porn are remarkably good at adapting to all circumstances, so when faced with a crisis as big as an economic meltdown, they have contingency plans already in place. All those Fabio-embossed paperback fantasy stories slip into plots that are a little more real, and Playboy starts featuring bunnies with a little more girth and years under their belt (assuming they're wearing belts).

Eh, close enough

Let's start with the ladies: Romantic fiction has always been about providing affordable priced happy endings. And as lame as it may sound on paper, during tough times people are biting into it like there's no tomorrow. That's why instead of joining the slump that is the book industry during a recession, bodice-ripper novels enjoy a steady rise in sales. More importantly, the industry actively encourages buyers by setting the stories in more realistic circumstances...at least, realistic in the context of absurd hump-fantasy. The publishers expand their offerings from the basic Ye Olde Timey Romance and Italian villa settings to stuff that speaks to the economically depressed reader, like The Heart Surgeon's Baby Surprise and, we shit you not, The Aristocrat and the Single Mom.

Romance novels tend to
follow Snakes on a Plane-
style self-explanatory
titling.

Meanwhile, men also prefer a little more realism in their sexual fantasies when facing hardship. Sure, they're still reading their Playboy and doing some daydreaming of their own - but instead of dreaming about that impossibly measured Playmate, research suggests that under economic duress, men prefer drooling over taller, older and more realistically proportioned Playmates. Indeed, Playmates of the Year during crappy fiscal years have been consistently older and heavier, with larger waists and waist-to-hip ratios than their good-economy counterparts.

The researchers use this fact to support what they call the Environmental Security Hypothesis. It states that men who live in tough times prefer "women who are good at production, generally older, taller, heavier, less curvaceous women. In good times, they will prefer women who are good at reproduction, generally younger, shorter, lighter, more curvaceous women." Times will never be so tough that men stop masturbating to pictures of beautiful women, but it's kind of endearing to know that when the shit hits the windmill, guys fantasize about someone who's good with a shovel to help clean up the mess.

Cynthia Wood in the 1974 recession, Donna Edmondson in 1987.

1. MEN HAVE MORE AFFAIRS

You'd think that during times of economic distress, couples would stick together like glue, though admittedly sexless glue. After all, divorce is expensive, and if you're barely maintaining one household, splitting up would be like taking on yacht payments just as your unemployment runs out. Who has time to think about affairs when everything else is falling apart?

"Well, if this boat is getting seized,
then I may as well rub my dick all
over it

Lots of us, apparently. Because both men and womenare more likely to get their freak on outside the marriage during desperate times. The phenomenon is known as low survivability mode, and the logic behind it goes like this: When men are stressed, or their self-esteem is low, or they think things will never get better, they get super horny. It turns out there's this evolutionary push to spread those seeds as fast as we can when we think we're done for.

And in case you assumed men were the only ones having affairs during recession, there's a spike in female infidelity as well. Everybody loses, and no one wins, except for maybe extramarital affair websites, and possibly seedy motel tycoons.

That's why you ejaculate when
threatened

Curiously, though, research suggests that all this extracurricular banging isn't doing as much damage as you might expect. Forty percent of couples reporting infidelity managed to stick out the marriage. Surely those people just don't have enough money for divorce though, right? Actually, no: "About 30 percent think [unfaithfulness] only caused temporary tension," according to Reuters. 

Thanks, global recession!

Pauli Poisuo, presented economically: Writer. Freelance. More articles. Blog.

[Source: Cracked.com - page 1, page 2. Edited.]

EVERYTHING HAPPENING NOW WAS PLANNED BEFORE 9/11

Many 9/11 conspiracy theories surfaced shortly after the September 11th attacks, some bringing compelling arguments, and some not holding up at all. Nine years after the attack we may never know the entire story, but will always remember the people who lost their lives on this tragic day and subsequently the thousands of lives of those in far-flung Middle East. And not knowing the true story has kept the conspiracy theories alive to this day.

The following article however takes a different tack. It posits the view that 9/11 did not trigger the war on terror; rather, the war was planned well before the tragic event. The wars and unrest in the Middle East immediately after the event (Afghan and Iraq wars) and now (the Arab Spring) are products of the pre-9/11 plans.

EVERYTHING HAPPENING NOW WAS PLANNED BEFORE 9/11
By Washington's Blog.

We’ve been told that “9/11 changed everything” and that we’re living in “a post-911 world.”

We’ve been told that what our government is doing now has been rendered necessary by the urgent post-9/11 threat from terrorists.

 

In reality, however, virtually everything happening now was planned before 9/11. Please see for yourself:

1. The government’s spying on Americans began before 9/11 (confirmed here and here. And see this).

2. The Patriot Act was planned before 9/11 (and see this). Indeed, former Counter Terrorism Czar Richard Clarke [who served the ex-Presidents Clinton and Bush administrations] told Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig:

After 9/11 the government drew up the Patriot Act within 20 days and it was passed.

The Patriot Act is huge and I remember someone asking a Justice Department official how did they write such a large statute so quickly, and of course the answer was that it has been sitting in the drawers of the Justice Department for the last 20 years waiting for the event where they would pull it out.

(Watch this video at 4:30).

3. Government plans, exercises or drills to detain American citizens who opposed war were also drawn up before 9/11, as was a bill allowing the permanent detention by the Attorney General of aliens convicted of no crimes, with no judicial review.

4. The Afghanistan war was planned before 9/11 (see this and this).

 

5. The decision to launch the Iraq war was made before 9/11. Indeed, former CIA director George Tenet said that the White House wanted to invade Iraq long before 9/11, and inserted “crap” in its justifications for invading Iraq. Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill – who sat on the National Security Council – also says that Bush planned the Iraq war before 9/11. Top British officials say that the U.S. discussed Iraq regime change even before Bush took office. And in 2000, [Dick] Cheney [ex-Vice President under Bush] said a Bush administration might “have to take military action to forcibly remove Saddam from power.” And see this.

6. Cheney made Iraqi’s oil fields a national security priority before 9/11. And the Sunday Herald reported: “Five months before September 11, the US advocated using force against Iraq…to secure control of its oil.” (Remember that Alan Greenspan, John McCain, George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, a high-level National Security Council officer and others all say that the Iraq war was really about oil.)

7. The decision to threaten to bomb Iran was made before 9/11, and the Christian Science Monitor notes that the U.S. has been claiming for more than 30 years that Iran was on the verge of nuclear capability.

8. Wars throughout the Middle East and North Africa to effect regime were planned before 9/11.

9. Cheney dreamed of giving the White House the powers of a monarchy long before 9/11.

10. Cheney and Rumsfeld actively generated fake intelligence which exaggerated the threat from an enemy in order to justify huge amounts of military spending long before 9/11. And see this.

11. The government knew that terrorists could use planes as weapons — and had even run its own drills of planes being used as weapons against the World Trade Center and other U.S. high-profile buildings, using REAL airplanes — all before 9/11.

12. America played dirty games to justify wars before 9/11.

 

[Source: Washington's Blog. Images added.]

DEMISE OF THE EURO: PART OF A LONG-TERM PLAN FOR A GLOBAL "SUPER-CURRENCY" CONTROLLED BY THE BANKSTERS

There appears to be doom and gloom in the prevailing Euro crisis, even if there are still voices of optimism, for example here and here. As of today, with the Euro falling 0.8 percent versus the dollar to $1.3255 and with the European Union (EU), despite its intense efforts, having offered no clear steps to stem the crisis, the debt crisis is expected to intensify. There is also the view that the Euro is flawed from the start and therefore is doomed to fail.

The question that should be on everyone's mind is, if the Euro is doomed to fail, why did the European countries agree in the first place to have a single currency for all of Europe? In offering an alternative - but interesting - view, the following article attempts to provide the answers.

DEMISE OF THE EURO: PART OF A LONG-TERM PLAN FOR A GLOBAL "SUPER-CURRENCY" CONTROLLED BY THE BANKSTERS
By Adrian Salbuchi, Global Research.
 

Efforts by European leaders to shoe-horn a range of diverse countries into a rigid financial cage are doomed to fail. But that’s all part of a long-term plan for a global super-currency which can only bring more hardship to ordinary working people.

A question that more and more people are asking nowadays is, “What on Earth were the Europeans thinking when they agreed to have just one currency for all of Europe?”

In Greek mythology, Procrustes was the son of Poseidon, God of the deep blue seas. He built an iron bed of a size that suited him, and then forced everybody who passed by his abode to lie on it. If the passerby was shorter than his bed, then Procrustes would stretch him, breaking bones, tendons and sinews until the victim fitted; if he was taller, then Procrustes would chop off feet and limbs until the victim was the “right” size…

This ancient story of “one size fits all” seems to have made its 21st Century comeback when Europeans were coaxed into imposing upon themselves an oxymoron; a blatant and conceptual contradiction they call “the Euro”.

This common supranational currency invented by the French and Germans, boycotted by the UK, ignored by the Swiss, managed by the Germans and accepted by the rest of Europe in blissful ignorance, has finally dropped its mask to reveal its ugly face: an impossible mechanism that only serves the elite bankers but not the working people.

It masked gross contradictions as large, far-reaching and varied as the relative sizes, strengths, profiles, styles, histories, econometrics, labor policies, pension plans, industries, and human and natural resources of the 17 Eurozone nations, ranging from Germany and France at one end of the scale, to Greece, Portugal and Ireland at the other.

As we said in a recent article, the Euro carries an expiry date; perhaps the Eurocrats who were its midwives a decade ago expected that it would live a little longer, maybe even come of age… But they certainly knew that, sooner or later, the Euro would die; that it was meant to die.

Because the Euro is not an end in itself, but rather a transition, a bridge, an experiment in supranational currency earmarked for replacement by a far more ambitious and powerful global currency issued by a global central bank, controlled by a cabal of global private bankers, obeying a New World Order blueprint emanating from a private Global Power Elite.

The problem today is that what impacted Europe as a financial ripple effect in 2008 has now grown into a veritable financial tsunami threatening to swamp the whole Euro system… And more big trouble lies ahead!

In fact, today’s Euro-troubles are nothing more than one of many variations of sovereignty-troubles. Because when a country’s leaders irresponsibly cede a part or all of its sovereignty – whether monetary, political, financial, economic, judicial or military – it had better take a really good look at what it is doing and what the implications are for the medium and long term.

Ceding national sovereignty means that somebody else, somewhere else, will be taking decisions based on other people’s interests. Now, as long as everyone’s interests coincide, then we are OK. But as soon as the different parties’ interests diverge, then you are confronted with a power struggle. And power struggles have one simple thing in common: the more powerful win; the weaker lose.

 

Now, we have a huge power struggle inside the Eurozone. Who do you think will win? Who will impose new policies – Germany or Greece? France or Portugal? Britain or Spain? Germany or Italy?

And that is just on the public scene. You also need to look at the more subtle, less media-highlighted private scene, which is where the real global power decisions are made.

Will the new Italian PM, Mario Monti, cater for the needs of the Italian people or for the mega-bankers’ lodge sitting on the powerful Trilateral Commission of which he himself is European chairman? The same question goes for Greek president Lucas Papademos, also a Trilateral member. The same question goes for all the governments of the EU member states where the real power brokers are the major bankers, industrialists and media moguls sitting on the Trilateral, Bilderberg, World Economic Forum and Chatham House think-tanks and private lobbies.

Global elites will do everything to keep the Euro on its transitional path towards a global currency that will eventually replace both the Euro and the US dollar. This entails engineering the controlled collapse of both currencies, whilst preparing the yellow brick road for a “Global Dollar” or some such new oxymoron.

The US dollar will be easy to collapse: all that is needed is for the mainstream media to yell, “The dollar is hyper-inflated!!” and the Naked Emperor Dollar will fall swiftly. The Euro, in turn, will simply break up as its member nations revert to the old days of pesetas, lire, francs, escudos and drachmas…

Is the time ripe for that? Maybe not…yet. So, no doubt we will still see more “emergency treatment,” more “financial chemotherapy” to “bail out the Euro” just as we’ve seen them “bail out the banks,” even though most banks and the Oxymoron Euro cannot be salvaged but just kept artificially alive, like the “Living Dead…”

So, here’s a question for Greeks, Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Irish, even the French and Germans: will you accept the invitation by your Procrustean Leaders in Brussels to lie down on their bed?

Adrian Salbuchi is a political analyst, author, speaker and radio/TV commentator in Argentina. www.asalbuchi.com.ar.

[Source: Global Research. Images added.]

THE BEST KEPT SECRET OF THE WEALTHY

The video below explains how the best kept money secret has been the very nature of money, and our very monetary system itself, where our money comes from, and how it can be STOLEN right out from under us in plain sight.

For those already familiar with the history of how gold was taken out of circulation and replaced with paper money, this may not be a secret anymore. But, by explaining it in simpler terms, the video should be a good refresher nevertheless.

The lesson which should be obvious to the experts: In contrast to gold, the more money you print, the more useless it becomes. And this is exactly what may happen in the current Euro crisis: Plan B: Printing presses on standby to beat euro’s demise.

Source: Revolutionary Politics TV

TONY FERNANDES ACCUSED OF SHORT-CHANGING QPR FANS

Hero or villain? Tony Fernandes was welcomed with open arms by QPR fans

There have been so many news in the blog-sphere about Air Asia's Tony Fernandes lately, and judging from the following report, they may not be the last. Tony's image has been badly hit by blogs' and media reports about the MAS-Air Asia swap deal, his tiff with MAHB, etc. This latest news will certainly not help assuage that image. How will he respond to it? Will the euphoria over his "heroic" takeover of QPR be shortlived?

QPR owner Fernandes accused of short-changing fans after season ticket promises

By Joe Bernstein, Daily Mail.

QPR owner Tony Fernandes has backed down on plans to give 'significant refunds' to season-ticket holders and handed them vouchers for the club shop instead.

Fernandes earned plenty of good publicity when it was reported he would refund season ticket holders shortly after he bought the club from unpopular owners Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore in August. [Read here on Tony's refund announcement]

QPR fans were up in arms at the time about 40 per cent increases imposed by the Ecclestone regime that pushed up some season tickets to £999 and viewed Fernandes, owner of Asia's first cut-price budget airline, as an incoming hero.

But four months later, it appears Fernandes has watered down his original 'promises'. Instead, season ticket holders have been sent £50 vouchers that have to be spent by the end of the year.

John Reid, secretary of the QPR Loyal Supporters' Association (LSA), said: 'We have asked the club for a meeting to discuss pricing and other matters and we are still awaiting a reply.

'At the moment our club is going forward and the atmosphere has never been better. But euphoria is often shortlived.'

While Fernandes is viewed in a positive light, fans are keen to see the new owner live up to his promises.

Brian Beard, the club's chief executive, said in August: 'These changes show how serious we are about taking the fans' views on board.'

[Source: Daily Mail]

12 SIGNS THAT THE WESTERN POWERS ARE GETTING CLOSE - DANGEROUSLY CLOSE - TO WAR WITH SYRIA

Source: YouTube

EUROPE ON THE BRINK?

In our present era of globalization, anything that occurs outside our borders would have an immediate impact on our own - as well as the global - economy. We are well aware of the on-going economic crisis in Europe, but when I found several articles in cyberspace (mostly the alternative media, that is) that say Europe is on the brink of an economic collapse, they should naturally raise alarm. Or should they? European countries have recovered from such crises before, but can they recover from this?

Read the following excerpts from one of the articles and judge for yourself. 

22 REASONS WHY WE COULD SEE AN ECONOMIC COLLAPSE IN EUROPE IN 2012
By The Economic Collapse Blog

Will 2012 be the year that we see an economic Collapse in Europe? Before you dismiss the title of this article as "alarmist", read the facts listed in the rest of this article first. Over the past several months, there has been an astonishing loss of confidence in the European financial system. Right now, virtually nobody wants to loan money to financially troubled nations in the EU and virtually nobody wants to lend money to major European banks. Remember, one of the primary reasons for the financial crisis of 2008 was a major credit crunch that happened here in the United States. This burgeoning credit crunch in Europe is just one element of a "perfect storm" that is rapidly coming together as we get ready to go into 2012.

The signs of trouble are everywhere. All over Europe, governments are implementing austerity measures and dramatically cutting back on spending. European banks are substantially cutting back on lending as they seek to meet new capital requirements that are being imposed upon them. Meanwhile, bond yields are going through the roof all over Europe as investors lose confidence and demand much higher returns for investing in European debt. It has become clear that without a miracle happening, quite a few European nations and a significant number of European banks are not going to be able to get the funding that they need from the market in 2012. The only thing that is going to avert a complete and total financial meltdown in Europe is dramatic action, but right now European leaders are so busy squabbling with each other that a bold plan seems out of the question.

The following are 22 reasons why we could see an economic collapse in Europe in 2012...
 

1. Germany could rescue the rest of Europe, but that would take an unprecedented financial commitment, and the German people do not have the stomach for that...it would cost Germany 7 percent of GDP over several years in order to sufficiently bail out the other financially troubled EU nations...

2. The United States could rescue Europe, but the Obama administration knows that it would be really tough to sell that to the American people during an election season...[quote by the White House Press Secretary Jay Carney]

3. Right now, banks all over Europe are in deleveraging mode as they attempt to meet new capital-adequacy requirements by next June...

4. European banks are overloaded with "toxic assets" that they are desperate to get rid of...but virtually nobody wants to buy them.

5. Government austerity programs are now being implemented all over Europe. But government austerity programs can have very negative economic effects. For example, we have already seen what government austerity has done to Greece...

6, The amount of debt owed by some of these European nations is so large that it is difficult to comprehend. For example, Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain owe the rest of the world about 3 trillion euros combined...

7. Europe was able to bail out Greece and Ireland, but there is no way that Italy will be able to be rescued if they require a full-blown bailout. Unfortunately, Italy is in the midst of a massive financial meltdown as you read this. The yield on two year Italian bonds is now about double what it was for most of the summer. There is no way that is sustainable. 

8. An Italian default may be closer than most people think. As the Telegraph recently reported, just to refinance existing debt, the Italian government must sell more than 30 billion euros worth of new bonds by the end of January...
 

9. European nations other than just the "PIIGS" are getting into an increasing amount of trouble [Note: PIIGS is an acronym used to refer to the five Eurozone nations, which were considered weaker economically following the financial crisis: Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain]. For example, S&P recently slashed the credit rating of Belgium to AA. 

10. Credit downgrades are coming fast and furious all over Europe now. At this point it seems like we see a new downgrade almost every single week. Some nations have been downgraded several times...

11. The financial collapse of Hungary didn't make many headlines in the United States, but it should have. Moody's has cut the credit rating of Hungarian debt to junk status, and Hungary has now submitted a formal request to the EU and the IMF for a bailout.

12. Even faith in German debt seems to be wavering. Last week, Germany had "one of its worst bond auctions ever".

13. German banks are also starting to show signs of weakness. The other day, Moody's downgraded the ratings of 10 major German banks.

14. As the Telegraph recently reported, the British government is now making plans based on the assumption that a collapse of the euro is only "just a matter of time"...

15. The EFSF [European Financial Stability Facility] was supposed to help bring some stability to the situation, but the truth is that the EFSF is already a bad joke. It has been reported that the EFSF has already been forced to buy up huge numbers of its own bonds.

16. Unfortunately, it looks like a run on the banks has already begun in Europe...[quote from The Economist]...

17. Confidence in European banks has been absolutely shattered and virtually nobody wants to lend them money right now...[quote from a recent CNBC article]...

18. There are dozens of major European banks that are in danger of failing. The reality is that most major European banks are leveraged to the hilt and are massively exposed to sovereign debt...

19. According to the New York Times, the economy of the EU is already projected to shrink slightly next year, and this doesn't even take into account what is going to happen in the event of a total financial collapse.

20. There are already signs that the European economy is seriously slowing down. Industrial orders in the eurozone declined by 6.4 percent during September...the largest decline...since the midst of the financial crisis in 2008.

 

21. Panic and fear are everywhere in Europe right now. The European Commission’s index of consumer confidence has declined for five months in a row.

22. European leaders are really busy fighting with each other and a true consensus on how to solve the current problems seems way off at the moment...[quote from the Express]...

...The European financial system is in a massive amount of trouble, and when it melts down the entire globe is going to be shaken.

But it isn't just me that is saying this. As I mentioned in a previous article, there are huge numbers of respected economists all over the globe that are now saying that Europe is on the verge of collapse.

[Read the full article here. Edited. Images added]

While we may be engrossed with news on the Arab Spring and unrest in other volatile areas of the globe, let's not forget Europe is not in the best of shape either. Even if it recovers, as it should, the damage could be enormous and far-reaching. Men can plan all they want, but God is the best planner.

Read other related articles:

1. Financial red alert: Europe stands on verge of 'apocalyptic' debt crisis with only days remaining
2. Bankers Have Seized Europe
3. At Risk Eurozone Sovereign Credit Ratings
4. Eurozone Doomsayer Got it Right
5. Holding the EU together by Money Printing and Force
6. Financial Crisis Sparks Unrest in Europe
7. The Euro: Flawed From the Start

The Eurozone - Flawed and Corrupt

Source: YouTube