I have followed the work (and warnings) of Dr. Martin Weiss, PhD for years. Some do not like the doom and gloom tone of his emails but if one pays attention, the man does his homework, his research and draws the correct conclusions well over 90% of the time. I even cited some of his research and prognoses in Chapter 4 of 'One-Way Ticket to Crawford Texas', because he was right then and now. What he was predicting back in 2003 and 2004 was to what extent the US policies were setting the stage for a massive collapse of the US economy. The key elements to break, crush and leave the US economy in shambles were being put into place all in the name of Free Trade, and globalization, but with no regards for job creation at home to keep the "consumer based economy" going. Even while the foundation of the US economy was crumbling, all DC and the Federal Reserve could come up with was cheap money and let Americans keep shopping to keep the illusion alive. Even the true CPI and inflation numbers were falsified in taking out the cost of energy and cost of food as being inflationary. Even the false but rapidly increasing prices of new homes were not factored in for the most part. Shop America, it is good for America! The problem was they introduced the Global War on Terror, too, and that caused the dominoes to start falling, the house of cards to come crashing down. Another problem was the fraud was running rampant and our gutless leaders did nothing about that. Sending Andy Fastow (ENRON) and Bernie Ebbers (WorldCom) to prison did not even slow down the real predators. These two men were just the fronts for much bigger predators and agendas behind the scenes. When rule of law means nothing, well, it means nothing. Too many Americans read the headline and not the facts. Those Enron assets did not just disappear. They were parked offshore, outside of the jurisdiction of the US Bankruptcy Court and a group of people walked off with tens of billions in assets that were paid for by the equity shareholders of that company. They got $0 in the bankruptcy and a group of predators walked off with tens of billions of offshore Enron assets. Well, uh, it has happened folks. The largest financial crash in history has happened due to the policies Bush and Congress pursued all in the name of US hegemony and trying to push the world back to a unipolar world dominated solely by the United States. That Unipolar World died when China was granted WTO status and the USSR disbanded and began rebuilding into an energy powerhouse. The world changed for the better and the pea-brained dinosaurs in Washington, DC kept pushing a bad hand. It was not just Bush; it was also these lying charlatans on the DNC side of the aisle too. They are all equally corrupt, and sadly, equally stupid, equally negligent. They have, literally, killed the American Dream. It will take many years for the US economy to heal and even after that.... things will not, cannot, be the same. There is a big difference between 'doom and gloom' when it is the unvarnished truth that people need to read and heed, and all you are hearing on MSM are an endless stream of DC and Wall Street lies to keep you from knowing the truth. Think back over the past 3 years of how many times the Federal Reserve, Bush, Congress, the talking heads on each major network, have all assured that the then current economic glitches were just that..... glitches. In a recent article, Dr. Weiss published his findings for how bad the losses were just in the third quarter of 2008.... in US households. Right at home where you and the rest of America lives and the losses are huge, staggering, economic devastation. Remember well that is when Bush finally started mumbling that the 'US economy is having some problems but overall the US economy is strong'. Remember that? Strong? Compared to what? A corpse? A bed-ridden patient in a coma? Glitches? I say that over $8 trillion in bailout is a tad more than a glitch. More like a black hole, total financial ruin, etc. I have watched this calamity building since 1994 and have come to the conclusion that George Bush cannot predict when he is going to foul his next diaper. I am not sure what his MBA is about, but economics and financial brilliance is not in that deck of cards. Well, the coroner's report is now in and folks, it is even uglier than most can imagine. http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/deflation-strikes-hard-what-to-do-2-28734 "Just in the third quarter alone, U.S. households lost $647 billion in real estate; $922 billion in stocks; $523 billion in mutual funds; $653 billion in life insurance and pension fund reserves; plus $128 billion in private business interests." "Total destruction of household wealth in the third quarter: $2.8 trillion, the worst in recorded history. That's four times more than the government's entire $700 billion bailout package (TARP)." Actually, Dr. Weiss left out two major things that are foreign in nature. The Federal Reserve has apparently paid out about $2 trillion to foreign banks and governments (undisclosed sources who received that money) to keep the US government, Federal Reserve and Wall Street from being sued for fraud and making this all a matter of public record. Also, the true costs of propping up this American Empire that are offshore related, black ops related, off-the-books dirty money related, make those Domestic Losses even worse than they are. Next in the wave of foreclosures will be commercial office buildings, strip shopping centers, regional shopping malls, and many more homes. The carnage will continue through 2009 and probably through 2010, 2011 and into the next major election cycle. If you are feeling poorer today, sadly, you are. Deflation is now gutting the wealth of Americans down at the home level, and the more the Federal Reserve prints money to bail out the thieves and banksters, the worse the deflation will become. This has happened before, as recently as the Carter Administration. The backside of that was US prime rates shot to 21% because the US government could not find investors for more US debt at low interest rates. In the early 1980s, there was a 'glitch' called the inverted yield curve where 10 year money was more costly than 30 year money, but there were no 30 year mortgages to be found. The only silver lining I see in these storm clouds is that this catastrophe might be the catalyst that wakes Americans up to the reality that the entire Band of Thieves in Washington, DC have to go. Whether by force or by vote, or by indictment, they have to go. America cannot suffer their pathetic leadership any longer. Karl

