I've made the prediction of an impending post-2008 Great Recession secondary (and much more consequential) market crash, which I though would have happened by now, but that was before I did additional research/reading about the workings of the quasi-private Federal Reserve Bank (the Fed) and realized that the reason the crash hasn't happened yet is because of the trillions of dollars in secret bailouts banks received from the Fed.

I was making my predictions based on several reports that point to the unreliability (and outright malfeasance) of banks' accounting filings which could be hiding trillions of dollars in bad assets: The Atlantic: "What’s Inside America’s Banks?"



A disturbing number of former bankers have recently declared that the banking industry is broken (this newfound clarity typically follows their passage from financial titan to rich retiree). Herbert Allison, the ex-president of Merrill Lynch and former head of the Obama administration’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, wrote a scathing e-book about the failures of the large banks, stopping just short of labeling them all vampire squids. A parade of former high-ranking executives has called for bank breakups, tighter regulation, or a return to the Depression-era Glass-Steagall law, which separated commercial banking from investment banking. Among them: Philip Purcell (ex-CEO of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter), Sallie Krawcheck (ex-CFO of Citigroup), David Komansky (ex-CEO of Merrill Lynch), and John Reed (former CEO of Citigroup). Sandy Weill, another ex-CEO of Citigroup, who built a career on financial megamergers, did a stunning about-face this summer, advising, with breathtaking chutzpah, that the banks should now be broken up.

The emphasis is mine

What these banking luminaries can't really bring themselves to say is that the financial system is being run like a criminal racketeering enterprise.

Before I go on to (try to) answer why Hartmann is predicting the crash of 2016, let me go over one more recent and blatant example about financial system racketeering at the highest levels... In a nutshell, as reported by ProPublica, Ms. Carmen Segarra, who was hired by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in the spring of 2012, concluded that Goldman Sachs wasn't in compliance with certain regulations that required it to have a policy addressing potential conflicts of interest.

Her bosses didn't like her findings, and basically asked her to lie. When she refused, she was fired. She's now suing the NY Fed. And why would the New York Fed be so protective of this bank?



Goldman is known for having close ties with the New York Fed, its primary regulator. The current president of the New York Fed, William Dudley, is a former Goldman partner. One of his New York Fed predecessors, E. Gerald Corrigan, is currently a top executive at Goldman. At the time of Segarra’s firing, Stephen Friedman, a former chairman of the New York Fed, was head of the risk committee for Goldman’s board of directors.

The emphasis is mine

Isn't that ironic? What was it that we were talking about regarding Ms. Segarra's focus? Conflict of interest, right? Just saying...

Anyways, let's get back to Thom Hartmann's recent book: The Crash of 2016



The United States is more vulnerable today than ever before-including during the Great Depression and the Civil War-because the pillars of democracy that once supported a booming middle class have been corrupted, and without them, America teeters on the verge of the next Great Crash. The United States is in the midst of an economic implosion that could make the Great Depression look like child's play. In THE CRASH OF 2016, Thom Hartmann argues that the facade of our once-great United States will soon disintegrate to reveal the rotting core where corporate and billionaire power and greed have replaced democratic infrastructure and governance. Our once-enlightened political and economic systems have been manipulated to ensure the success of only a fraction of the population at the expense of the rest of us.

Okay, here's my take on what's going on... The Fed, which is one of 60 central banks that are members of the largely secretive and uncountable Bank for International Settlements , is basically acting as a counterfeit money operation, pumping cash into the hands of "certain players." Another thing to keep in mind (before I continue) is that the culture within these banks, especially in the "investment' side is one of extreme predation, greed, and risk-taking (basically gambling addicts). It's a very sociopathic culture, full of coke fiends and outright criminals of the higher order (Check out "Inside Job" for a refresher on this).

Having these type of sociopaths running things guarantees that the banks are going to pile on on bad assets (sky high) because they are constantly trading on riskier and riskier instruments, and engaging in all manner of illegal activity (see the LIBOR scandal)...

But here's the thing. These folks are exactly the type of people those running things behind the scenes count on to bring about the massive market crashes that happened intermittently, with the last one being the 2008 financial crash.

Here's what happens: When the markets crash, it only does so in the "real economy." In other words, it crashes for you and me. It eats away at our pensions, at necessary funding for government operations, the social safety net, and the job market. Once that happens, it creates panic, fear, and confusion, and that's when the real powers that be swoop in... This happened in the early 1900's, in the 1930's Great Depression, and in every other crash since.

Here's how Thom Harmann described it during a Democracy Now! interview with Amy Goodman:



Well, the—some of the biggest fortunes in America over the last century were made during the last Great Depression. If you’re cash rich and everybody is desperately selling everything they have for almost nothing, because they—you know, they’re facing tax liens and they’re going out of business and things, it’s an enormous opportunity to get even richer. So, that’s—they’re benefiting—they are and will benefit from [inaudible].

The emphasis is mine

If you have any doubt about this, think about what just happened (2008). A huge bubble was quickly inflated (derivatives, collateralized mortgage obligations, etc.) by the coke fiends of the Wall Street criminal racketeering cartel (aided by corrupt-to-the-core rating agencies). When the bubble burst, what happened? Regular folks lost trillions of dollars (pensions, home values), communities were devastated, while at the same time there was a massive transfer of wealth to the top one percent, and especially to the top .01 percent.

I think that what Thom is arguing (something that I've also been arguing for years) is that that was child's play; a rehearsal. That the real crash is coming soon.

I don't really lose sleep over it, but I'm ready if it does happens (in 2016, before, or whenever). No, I haven't built a bunker, or bought an arsenal of weapons, and stuff like that, but I do have a little bit of a plan if or when it happens.

I think that those who see something like this happening as highly unlikely or impossible may be the most affected by it...

Here's some sage advice from Chris Hedges:







These issues are complicated. I remember having similar discussions in 2006, 07' in other venues about what was becoming clear by then was a highly speculative real estate bubble. The naysayers sounded pretty much like they do now, and the name-calling, personal attacks, and mockery against those who were asking questions and trying to figure out what was happening, was remarkably similar. It is healthy to ask questions, to engage in inquiry, to theorize, hypothesize, express opinions, etc. It is all part of the process of inquiry, especially when it comes to seemingly complicated issues. There is nothing wrong with people challenging assumption, conclusions, theories and opinions, especially when they put forward their own counter-argument. But when people engage in offensive name-calling, and mockery right off the bat, that's usually a sign of trollery. That's when some may start suspecting that those engaging in those site guideline blatant violations may not be good-faith commenters. Yes, some of them may just not know better (misguided true believers), but when the tactics are used over and over, you could start thinking about sock-puppets, political hacks, etc. The best thing is to ignore posts that exhibit those traits... Not to feed the trolls, IMHO. For more insight on this, check out The 15 Rules of Web Disruption

: SAT NOV 16, 2013 AT 12:25 PM PST