In the past few weeks fear has come back in full force complete with blown out credit spreads and crashing financial sector stocks. However, this time around the Fed does not have the fire power nor the market confidence behind them because every measure they have taken thus far has only drained their reserves, delayed the inevitable, caused other problems elsewhere for the US and global economies and has not fixed the problem.
The Fed and the usual gang of 'experts' will always spend their meager energy on the analysis of the economic cogs and gears rather than the state of the deus ex machina itself. The fact is that the world is experiencing the greatest transfer of wealth since the beginning of recorded history. Pax Americana is in decline and fall. Nothing can slow the decent and the chaotic consequences for human continuance per se. Behold a pale horse. The ultimate discontinuity is at hand and the results will not be pretty- interesting, but not pretty.
The Empire won't go quietly- not with a whimper but a bang. Perhaps that is why the Johannine prophecies seem so apt. This movie played out before in a much smaller theatre. It doesn't require a prophet to see the future anymore- just a bit of tweaking on the fine tune knobs. The future has never had such a compelling immediacy.
The world is being strangled by the Malthusian garrote. Desperate populations are about to become engaged in a war for remaining resources. That is what the Iraq war is all about. Self preservation will finally wring out the last dampness of altruism. It has happened before to a lesser degree and the remedy that it spawned- Christianity- will find itself finally eclipsed by it's opposite principles. This is the larger picture. All that's left are the tedious details, the footnotes- the various methods of mayhem and the hydra-headed fools, the walk-ons of history, that permit their use.
So what sound and fury do we see in the immediate future? The crash of the markets, unlimited war, local transfers of wealth and property- evictions, repossessions, the calling of social margin. Families squatting in the dross of their own foreclosed homes- the new huddled masses, their utilities disconnected, while the successors of the failed banks are unable to force them out. Transportation at a stand-still. Empty grocery stores. Gunshots in the night. And the foreign wars of our addled emperor coming home. The attack on Iran will result in the sinking of aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf. Saudi Arabia will be over-run by the gangs of it prodigal son. There will be no more oil shipped by those greedy sheiks. The ayatollahs will loose their missiles on Israel and taste the fruits of Samson's nukes. Persia will be no more. Israel will be no more. And then it all comes home. The scatterings of the Middle Eastern desperadoes will appear on our own streets, in our own buildings- and bring with them endless nine elevens. Of course there is more- much more- this is just a selective foretaste of the impending chaos. Let your imagination run wild to see the entire movie. Whatever disaster that you have the temerity to envision will come to pass. Shortly.
The billions that have gone before us, upon whose shoulders we stand, are here and now- new flesh on their bones- to witness the denouement of history. It could have been otherwise. The greatest fear shall now become- not death, but the inability to die. Perhaps John had it right after-all.
