Economic Meltdown: America Implodes
Conditioned by a media that owes allegiance
only to corporate owners, never to the truth
Believing that the U.S. is a "light unto the nations,"
much of the public find the looming economic meltdown
inconceivable except in terms of "enemies" abroad
The dollar's implosion and the global banking spiral demand that Americans contemplate what was previously unthinkable: the toppling of the United States from its 60-plus years of economic dominance.The very idea of a greatly reduced U.S. world role is alien to most Americans, who "won't know what hit them when the hammer falls."
Conditioned by a media that owes allegiance only to corporate owners, never to the truth, and believing that the U.S. is a "light unto the nations," much of the public find the looming economic meltdown inconceivable except in terms of "enemies" abroad.
In a nation that increasingly produces nothing but weapons, "the response to the loss of domination will be more wars."
Lack of a real social safety net ensures that "economic upheaval will create crime, family disruption and untold psychic damage" as Americans' most basic understandings of their country" are "shaken to the very core."
"America Is Totally Unprepared for the Coming Catastrophe."
How will Americans react when their economy collapses? The story of the coming crisis is barely being told because the corporate media's information bubble gets thicker by the day.
Very few people know or understand the depths of the coming crisis. There is talk of recession, and falling home prices, but there has been little if any explanation of the havoc that will be played out across the country when the day of reckoning comes.
Banks all over the world are taking "write downs" in the billions of dollars. In plain English, a write down is a loss.
Not only are international investment banks losing money hand over fist, but the almighty dollar isn't so mighty anymore. Stores in New York City are accepting euros along with the greenback.
Humorous anecdotes of Manhattanites using euros are no longer funny. No nation on earth wants dollars anymore. Tourists can no longer use them at the Taj Mahal and oil rich Saudi princes would dump them if they could do so without hurting themselves.
"My feeling is that the mere mention that OPEC countries are studying the issue of the dollar is itself going to have an impact that endangers the interests of the countries.
There will be journalists who will seize on this point and we don't want the dollar to collapse instead of doing something good for OPEC."
"No nation on earth wants dollars anymore."
So said Prince Saud al-Faisal when he thought his microphone was turned off at an OPEC meeting. His words were stunning, so too is the fact that few Americans know he uttered them.
The average American knows about the subprime mortgage crisis and knows that the neighbors lost their house.
They think the problems were created by greedy banks and gullible home buyers who thought interest-only mortgages actually made sense.
They don't know much else. They don't know that the subprime mortgage crisis is part of a larger crisis in the derivatives market that has enveloped the entire world.
Neither the corporate media nor politicians are telling the country the true extent of our economic troubles. The country will be wholly unprepared for the coming catastrophe.
While foreigners are waiting for an opportune moment to drop the dollar like a bad habit, the presidential candidates say nothing and the people won't know what hit them when the hammer falls.
The three trillion dollar cost of the Iraq occupation, and giveaways to corporate cronies have sucked the treasury dry.
Bush will have won the day, and left the next president with no money for any new initiatives, regardless of any campaign promises.
What will be the human cost when the bottom falls out? Americans have no safety net, no job security, and no health insurance without the jobs they are about to lose.
There will be wide spread human misery among the people less prepared than any other to cope with the crisis.
"The response to the loss of domination will be more wars."
As always, black Americans will suffer more. The little wealth we had, real estate, has been taken away by the banking industry derivatives schemes that are at the heart of this crisis.
Those who were barely in the middle class won't be any longer without assets or jobs to sustain them.
Trouble will spread outside of the nation as well. America produces nothing but warfare with a military budget larger than that of every other country on earth combined.
The very existence of an Iran oil market, based on Iran's currency, not dollars, may be enough to instigate Uncle Sam to do the only thing it still can: wage war and kill many human beings. The response to the loss of domination will be more wars.
The most basic understandings that Americans had of their country are about to shaken to the very core.
Despite all evidence to the contrary, most still believe they have the best standard of living and the strongest economy.
Those beliefs have not been true for a long time and those foolish ideas will be put to the test in a painful way.
"The economic upheaval will create crime,
family disruption and untold psychic damage."
The crisis will not just be financial. The economic upheaval will create crime, family disruption and untold psychic damage.
Think New Orleans on a grand scale. If the corporate media function as they usually do, they will mislead and misdirect with useless distraction.
What of the new president? In all likelihood that person will not make any attempt to confront the situation honestly, but instead will drop bombs in a futile effort to win a losing battle.
Americans will be left to their own devices without knowing what has happened or why. That will be the true meltdown.
A nation that thinks it is on top will quickly be on the bottom with no way out. Euros in New York City will be the least of our problems.