{"id":99907,"date":"2013-12-19T08:18:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-19T08:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?guid=a4dc1ddba73166519c96e113bff2d04d"},"modified":"2013-12-19T08:18:00","modified_gmt":"2013-12-19T08:18:00","slug":"bracing-for-an-eventual-day-of-reckoning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/bracing-for-an-eventual-day-of-reckoning\/","title":{"rendered":"Bracing for An Eventual Day of Reckoning"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\"><b>Bracing for An Eventual Day of Reckoning<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">by Stephen Lendman<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Financial markets today reflect a total disconnect from reality. Former Reagan administration Office of Management and Budget director, David Stockman, calls the Fed &#8220;a serial bubble machine.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;It&#8217;s only a question of time before central banks lose control,&#8221; he warns. He expects &#8220;panic when people realize that (market) values are massively overstated.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">They&#8217;re &#8220;extremely dangerous, unstable, and subject to serious trouble and dislocation in the future,&#8221; he stresses.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">The Fed is responsible for &#8220;exporting lunatic policies worldwide.&#8221; All bubbles burst. They end badly. For sure this one. It&#8217;s a whopper. It&#8217;s just a matter of time until all hell breaks lose.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Market analyst Graham Summers sees dangerous equity market topping signs. They include:<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px;\">margin debt hitting new all-time highs;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px;\">bearish sentiment at all-time lows;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px;\">market leaders peaking or approaching it;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px;\">declining market breadth;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px;\">earnings are falling; and<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px;\">equities &#8220;diverg(ing) dramatically from earnings and revenues.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Topping takes longer than many people expect, said Summers. Recent market movements aren&#8217;t &#8220;promising.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;(F)or certain we are in a bubble. It&#8217;s just a question of when it bursts.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\"><span style=\"color: #1255cc; text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/theeconomiccollapseblog.com\/archives\/dent-faber-celente-maloney-rogers-what-do-they-say-is-coming-in-2014\">Economic Collapse blog.com <\/a><\/span>discussed 2014 forecasts by noted analysts. They warn about next year &#8220;shak(ing) America to the core.&#8221; They may be right or wrong.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Money printing madness kept party time going longer than most analysts expected. Eventually good times end.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">On December 13, the Wall Street Journal headlined &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/news\/articles\/SB10001424052702304477704579255540276033618\"><span style=\"color: #1255cc;\">Markets Get Set to Lose a Crutch,&#8221;<\/span><\/a> saying:<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;Investors are bracing for the Federal Reserve to reduce its market-boosting stimulus as soon as the coming week&#8230;&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Next Wednesday, Fed governors meet. They&#8217;ll &#8220;decide the fate of (their) $85 billion monthly bond-buying&#8221; binge.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">So-called tapering may be announced. If not now, perhaps early next year.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Harry Dent expects &#8220;another slowdown and stock crash accelerating between very early 2014 and early 2015.&#8221; He expects more trouble later on.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Marc Faber warned investors early. He did so numerous times before. He&#8217;s doing it again, saying:<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;You have to say that we are again in a massive financial bubble in bonds, in equities, in (other) asset prices that have gone up dramatically.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Mike Maloney calls the 2008 crash &#8220;a speed bump on the way to the main event.&#8221; The consequences will be &#8220;horrific,&#8221; he warns.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;(T)he rest of the decade will bring us the greatest financial calamity in history.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Jim Rogers said &#8220;what happened in 2008-2009 (was) worse than the previous economic setback.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">It&#8217;s because &#8220;debt was so much higher.&#8221; Now it&#8217;s &#8220;staggeringly much higher.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Whenever the next market disruption comes, it&#8217;s &#8220;going to be worse than in the past,&#8221; he stresses.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">It&#8217;s &#8220;because we have unbelievable levels of debt, and unbelievable levels of money printing all over the world.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;Be worried and be prepared,&#8221; he warns. He doesn&#8217;t know when trouble will arrive, he says. &#8220;(B)ut when it comes, be careful.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Robert Shiller is worried. At the same time, he&#8217;s &#8220;not sounding the alarm yet.&#8221; Stock price levels are high. So are other financial assets. Things &#8220;could end badly,&#8221; Shiller warns.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Economics Professor Laurence Kotlikoff said:<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;Eventually somebody recognizes (what&#8217;s happening), and starts dumping their bonds, and interest rates go up, and inflation takes off, and were off to the races.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Michael Pento said Washington &#8220;brought us out of the Great Recession, only to set us up for the Greater Depression, which lies on the other side of interest rate normalization.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Russel Napier believes we&#8217;re &#8220;on the eve of a deflationary shock\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00a6&#8221; It&#8217;ll &#8220;likely reduce equity valuations from very high to very low levels.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Market strategist Robert Farrell is best remembered for his &#8220;10 Market Rules to Remember:&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Number one: markets (always) return to their mean average over time.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Number two: excesses in one direction lead to opposite ones.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Number nine: when conventional wisdom agrees, &#8220;something else is going to happen.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Gerald Celente publishes his annual top 10 trends. He calls 2014 &#8220;a year of extremes.&#8221; His number one trend is &#8220;March Economic Madness.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Timing is one of the toughest aspects of forecasting, he said. No one knows precisely when things will happen. Often they&#8217;re when few expect them.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Celente &#8220;missed the mark with (his) Crash of 2010 prediction,&#8221; he admitted. Why, he asked? Because of worldwide money printing madness.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">It was unprecedented. Who could have predicted it? It can&#8217;t last. Celente believes &#8220;around March, or by the end of&#8221; 2014 Q II, &#8220;an economic shock wave will rattle&#8221; world equity markets. It remains to be seen if he&#8217;s right this time.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Market analyst<a href=\"http:\/\/www.moneyandmarkets.com\/monetary-madness-56217\"><span style=\"color: #1255cc;\"> Market Weiss<\/span><\/a> calls the US economy so addicted to Fed money printing madness &#8220;that just the thought of withdrawal (causes) market convulsions.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Since crisis conditions erupted in 2008, Bernanke made one excuse after another. He did so irresponsibly.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">He &#8220;smash(ed) the 100-year Fed prohibition against running the money printing presses 24\/7,&#8221; said Weiss.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">First he claimed conditions left him no choice, saying:<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;Unless we flood the banking system with money, megabanks will fail and global financial markets will collapse in a heap of rubble.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">When the worst of crisis conditions eased, his &#8220;new rationale&#8221; was &#8220;trillion-dollar federal budget deficits year after year,&#8221; said Weiss.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Former Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) head Neil Barofsky believes Wall Street perhaps got around $23 trillion.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Hundreds of billions more went to troubled European banks. Perhaps they&#8217;re still getting plenty. Open checkbook Fed policy assures Wall Street whatever it wants.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Fed policy reasons that &#8220;(u)nless we buy Treasuries (and mortgage-backed) securities by the truckload, the deficits will smash the bond markets and sabotage the economic recovery?&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">What recovery? It landed on Wall Street. It benefitted America&#8217;s super-rich. It missed Main Street. Protracted Depression era trouble persists.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Ordinary people struggle daily to get by. Many never had things worse. Improvement is nowhere in sight.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">A &#8220;long line-up of excuses&#8221; kept Fed policy &#8220;pedal to the metal on its giant money presses,&#8221; said Weiss. Fed chairwoman elect Janet Yellen promises more of the same.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Things improved from earlier, she said. They haven&#8217;t done so &#8220;enough.&#8221; The &#8220;not improved enough&#8221; mantra is the theme heading into next year.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Before Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, the Fed&#8217;s monetary base was $849.8 billion. On October 30, 2013, it exceeded $3.6 trillion.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">It expanded over threefold in six years. It did what no one thought possible. It did what honest analysts called irresponsible. According to Weiss:<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">If the Fed expanded the monetary base at the same pace it&#8217;s done since 1961, &#8220;it would have taken nearly 150 years to come this far.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Pre-2008, expanding the monetary base rapidly occurred only two other times:<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px;\">ahead of potential Y2K trouble; and<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px;\">post-9\/11.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">So far, post-2008 monetary madness exceeded Y2K expansion 43-fold. It&#8217;s nearly 70 times larger than post-9\/11 policy.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Most alarming, said Weiss, is that the Fed hasn&#8217;t &#8220;begun to resolve the underlying diseases&#8221; responsible for earlier crises. It &#8220;merely papered over their symptoms.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">They fester and grow. They&#8217;re worse than ever. They assure eventual day of reckoning trouble.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">The 2008 crisis resulted from excessive debt, derivatives and other toxic financial assets, unprecedented wealth concentration among powerful institutions, and reckless speculation fueled by monetary madness and near-zero interest rates.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Total credit market debt keeps rising. In 2008, it was $53.5 trillion. Through 2013 Q II, it&#8217;s $57.6 trillion.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">The notional value of derivatives held by US banks grew from $175.8 trillion in September 2008 to $231.6 trillion this year.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">According to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC):<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;Derivatives activity in the US banking system continues to be dominated by a small group of large institutions.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">It names four megabanks. They include JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank and Goldman Sachs. They control 93% of all banking industry derivatives.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Massive federal deficits persist. So does Europe&#8217;s debt crisis. Money printing madness doesn&#8217;t resolve things.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">It kicks the can down the road. It does so irresponsibly. It creates greater problems ahead. It papers over what desperately needs addressing now. It needed it years ago.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Weiss thinks the only Fed solution is &#8220;panicky retreat.&#8221; Consider history, he says. Fed policy created bond market trouble in the 1970s.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">In 1979, Treasury bonds rose to 13% yields. T-bills to 17%, and the prime rate to 21%.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">In the early 1990s, Fed policy kept short rates lower than normal. In 1994, things changed. The largest ever modern era calendar year decline in bond prices occurred.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Alan Greenspan wasn&#8217;t noted for accurate forecasts. Weeks before the 2000 market peak, he claimed:<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;The American economy was experiencing a once-in-a-century acceleration of innovation, which propelled forward productivity, output, corporate profits and stock prices at a pace not seen in generations, if ever.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">It was reminiscent of noted economist Erving Fisher. Shortly before the 1929 crash, he fell from grace. He did so claiming economic fundamentals were strong.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Stock market prices were undervalued, he said. An unending era of prosperity lay ahead. It took over a decade to arrive. It took WW II to deliver it.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">For years into the new millennium, Greenspan let growing financial trouble fester. In January 2006, he retired.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Ben Bernanke replaced him. Business as usual continued. Lehman Brothers collapse followed. So did hard times for millions. Things were never better for Wall Street.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Money printing madness continues. How will things change this time? Watch for telltale signs, Weiss advises.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">He promised to discuss them as they occur. The moment of truth approaches. No one knows for sure when it&#8217;ll arrive. It always did before. It will this time.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Watch bond prices. They&#8217;re experiencing the biggest interest rate reversal in 37 years, says Weiss. Yields are rising.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">How high remains to be seen. If history is a guide, the worst is yet to come.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Rising bond yields spell trouble for stocks. It remains to be seen how bad things eventually get.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; min-height: 22px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Note: On December 17, Fed governors announced tapering. Monthly bond buying will be reduced from $85 billion to $75 billion on January 1.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; min-height: 22px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Interest rates will remain near zero. Whether further tapering continues next year remains to be seen. So will how markets react going forward.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; min-height: 22px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Wednesday they celebrated. Bubbles have a way of bursting when least expected. This one imploding is long overdue.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">His new book is titled &#8220;Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">http:\/\/www.claritypress.com\/LendmanII.html<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">It airs Fridays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">http:\/\/www.progressiveradionetwork.com\/the-progressive-news-hour<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; min-height: 22px;\"><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">http:\/\/www.dailycensored.com\/bracing-eventual-day-reckoning\/<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div><b>Bracing for An Eventual Day of Reckoning<\/b><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>by Stephen Lendman<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Financial markets today reflect a total disconnect from reality. Former Reagan administration Office of Management and Budget director, David Stockman, calls the Fed &#8220;a serial bubble machine.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;It&#8217;s only a question of time before central banks lose control,&#8221; he warns. He expects &#8220;panic when people realize that (market) values are massively overstated.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>They&#8217;re &#8220;extremely dangerous, unstable, and subject to serious trouble and dislocation in the future,&#8221; he stresses.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Fed is responsible for &#8220;exporting lunatic policies worldwide.&#8221; All bubbles burst. They end badly. For sure this one. It&#8217;s a whopper. It&#8217;s just a matter of time until all hell breaks lose.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Market analyst Graham Summers sees dangerous equity market topping signs. They include:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>margin debt hitting new all-time highs;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>bearish sentiment at all-time lows;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>market leaders peaking or approaching it;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>declining market breadth;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>earnings are falling; and<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>equities &#8220;diverg(ing) dramatically from earnings and revenues.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Topping takes longer than many people expect, said Summers. Recent market movements aren&#8217;t &#8220;promising.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;(F)or certain we are in a bubble. It&#8217;s just a question of when it bursts.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span><a href=\"http:\/\/theeconomiccollapseblog.com\/archives\/dent-faber-celente-maloney-rogers-what-do-they-say-is-coming-in-2014\">Economic Collapse blog.com <\/a><\/span>discussed 2014 forecasts by noted analysts. They warn about next year &#8220;shak(ing) America to the core.&#8221; They may be right or wrong.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Money printing madness kept party time going longer than most analysts expected. Eventually good times end.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>On December 13, the Wall Street Journal headlined &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/news\/articles\/SB10001424052702304477704579255540276033618\"><span>Markets Get Set to Lose a Crutch,&#8221;<\/span><\/a> saying:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Investors are bracing for the Federal Reserve to reduce its market-boosting stimulus as soon as the coming week&#8230;&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Next Wednesday, Fed governors meet. They&#8217;ll &#8220;decide the fate of (their) $85 billion monthly bond-buying&#8221; binge.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>So-called tapering may be announced. If not now, perhaps early next year.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Harry Dent expects &#8220;another slowdown and stock crash accelerating between very early 2014 and early 2015.&#8221; He expects more trouble later on.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Marc Faber warned investors early. He did so numerous times before. He&#8217;s doing it again, saying:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;You have to say that we are again in a massive financial bubble in bonds, in equities, in (other) asset prices that have gone up dramatically.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Mike Maloney calls the 2008 crash &#8220;a speed bump on the way to the main event.&#8221; The consequences will be &#8220;horrific,&#8221; he warns.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;(T)he rest of the decade will bring us the greatest financial calamity in history.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Jim Rogers said &#8220;what happened in 2008-2009 (was) worse than the previous economic setback.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It&#8217;s because &#8220;debt was so much higher.&#8221; Now it&#8217;s &#8220;staggeringly much higher.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Whenever the next market disruption comes, it&#8217;s &#8220;going to be worse than in the past,&#8221; he stresses.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It&#8217;s &#8220;because we have unbelievable levels of debt, and unbelievable levels of money printing all over the world.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Be worried and be prepared,&#8221; he warns. He doesn&#8217;t know when trouble will arrive, he says. &#8220;(B)ut when it comes, be careful.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Robert Shiller is worried. At the same time, he&#8217;s &#8220;not sounding the alarm yet.&#8221; Stock price levels are high. So are other financial assets. Things &#8220;could end badly,&#8221; Shiller warns.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Economics Professor Laurence Kotlikoff said:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Eventually somebody recognizes (what&#8217;s happening), and starts dumping their bonds, and interest rates go up, and inflation takes off, and were off to the races.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Michael Pento said Washington &#8220;brought us out of the Great Recession, only to set us up for the Greater Depression, which lies on the other side of interest rate normalization.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Russel Napier believes we&#8217;re &#8220;on the eve of a deflationary shock&acirc;&euro;&brvbar;&#8221; It&#8217;ll &#8220;likely reduce equity valuations from very high to very low levels.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Market strategist Robert Farrell is best remembered for his &#8220;10 Market Rules to Remember:&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Number one: markets (always) return to their mean average over time.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Number two: excesses in one direction lead to opposite ones.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Number nine: when conventional wisdom agrees, &#8220;something else is going to happen.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Gerald Celente publishes his annual top 10 trends. He calls 2014 &#8220;a year of extremes.&#8221; His number one trend is &#8220;March Economic Madness.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Timing is one of the toughest aspects of forecasting, he said. No one knows precisely when things will happen. Often they&#8217;re when few expect them.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Celente &#8220;missed the mark with (his) Crash of 2010 prediction,&#8221; he admitted. Why, he asked? Because of worldwide money printing madness.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It was unprecedented. Who could have predicted it? It can&#8217;t last. Celente believes &#8220;around March, or by the end of&#8221; 2014 Q II, &#8220;an economic shock wave will rattle&#8221; world equity markets. It remains to be seen if he&#8217;s right this time.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Market analyst<a href=\"http:\/\/www.moneyandmarkets.com\/monetary-madness-56217\"><span> Market Weiss<\/span><\/a> calls the US economy so addicted to Fed money printing madness &#8220;that just the thought of withdrawal (causes) market convulsions.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Since crisis conditions erupted in 2008, Bernanke made one excuse after another. He did so irresponsibly.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He &#8220;smash(ed) the 100-year Fed prohibition against running the money printing presses 24\/7,&#8221; said Weiss.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>First he claimed conditions left him no choice, saying:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Unless we flood the banking system with money, megabanks will fail and global financial markets will collapse in a heap of rubble.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>When the worst of crisis conditions eased, his &#8220;new rationale&#8221; was &#8220;trillion-dollar federal budget deficits year after year,&#8221; said Weiss.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Former Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) head Neil Barofsky believes Wall Street perhaps got around $23 trillion.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Hundreds of billions more went to troubled European banks. Perhaps they&#8217;re still getting plenty. Open checkbook Fed policy assures Wall Street whatever it wants.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Fed policy reasons that &#8220;(u)nless we buy Treasuries (and mortgage-backed) securities by the truckload, the deficits will smash the bond markets and sabotage the economic recovery?&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>What recovery? It landed on Wall Street. It benefitted America&#8217;s super-rich. It missed Main Street. Protracted Depression era trouble persists.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Ordinary people struggle daily to get by. Many never had things worse. Improvement is nowhere in sight.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>A &#8220;long line-up of excuses&#8221; kept Fed policy &#8220;pedal to the metal on its giant money presses,&#8221; said Weiss. Fed chairwoman elect Janet Yellen promises more of the same.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Things improved from earlier, she said. They haven&#8217;t done so &#8220;enough.&#8221; The &#8220;not improved enough&#8221; mantra is the theme heading into next year.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Before Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, the Fed&#8217;s monetary base was $849.8 billion. On October 30, 2013, it exceeded $3.6 trillion.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It expanded over threefold in six years. It did what no one thought possible. It did what honest analysts called irresponsible. According to Weiss:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>If the Fed expanded the monetary base at the same pace it&#8217;s done since 1961, &#8220;it would have taken nearly 150 years to come this far.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Pre-2008, expanding the monetary base rapidly occurred only two other times:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>ahead of potential Y2K trouble; and<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>post-9\/11.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>So far, post-2008 monetary madness exceeded Y2K expansion 43-fold. It&#8217;s nearly 70 times larger than post-9\/11 policy.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Most alarming, said Weiss, is that the Fed hasn&#8217;t &#8220;begun to resolve the underlying diseases&#8221; responsible for earlier crises. It &#8220;merely papered over their symptoms.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>They fester and grow. They&#8217;re worse than ever. They assure eventual day of reckoning trouble.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The 2008 crisis resulted from excessive debt, derivatives and other toxic financial assets, unprecedented wealth concentration among powerful institutions, and reckless speculation fueled by monetary madness and near-zero interest rates.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Total credit market debt keeps rising. In 2008, it was $53.5 trillion. Through 2013 Q II, it&#8217;s $57.6 trillion.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The notional value of derivatives held by US banks grew from $175.8 trillion in September 2008 to $231.6 trillion this year.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>According to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC):<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Derivatives activity in the US banking system continues to be dominated by a small group of large institutions.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It names four megabanks. They include JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank and Goldman Sachs. They control 93% of all banking industry derivatives.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Massive federal deficits persist. So does Europe&#8217;s debt crisis. Money printing madness doesn&#8217;t resolve things.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It kicks the can down the road. It does so irresponsibly. It creates greater problems ahead. It papers over what desperately needs addressing now. It needed it years ago.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Weiss thinks the only Fed solution is &#8220;panicky retreat.&#8221; Consider history, he says. Fed policy created bond market trouble in the 1970s.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In 1979, Treasury bonds rose to 13% yields. T-bills to 17%, and the prime rate to 21%.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In the early 1990s, Fed policy kept short rates lower than normal. In 1994, things changed. The largest ever modern era calendar year decline in bond prices occurred.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Alan Greenspan wasn&#8217;t noted for accurate forecasts. Weeks before the 2000 market peak, he claimed:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;The American economy was experiencing a once-in-a-century acceleration of innovation, which propelled forward productivity, output, corporate profits and stock prices at a pace not seen in generations, if ever.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It was reminiscent of noted economist Erving Fisher. Shortly before the 1929 crash, he fell from grace. He did so claiming economic fundamentals were strong.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Stock market prices were undervalued, he said. An unending era of prosperity lay ahead. It took over a decade to arrive. It took WW II to deliver it.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>For years into the new millennium, Greenspan let growing financial trouble fester. In January 2006, he retired.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Ben Bernanke replaced him. Business as usual continued. Lehman Brothers collapse followed. So did hard times for millions. Things were never better for Wall Street.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Money printing madness continues. How will things change this time? Watch for telltale signs, Weiss advises.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He promised to discuss them as they occur. The moment of truth approaches. No one knows for sure when it&#8217;ll arrive. It always did before. It will this time.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Watch bond prices. They&#8217;re experiencing the biggest interest rate reversal in 37 years, says Weiss. Yields are rising.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>How high remains to be seen. If history is a guide, the worst is yet to come.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Rising bond yields spell trouble for stocks. It remains to be seen how bad things eventually get.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Note: On December 17, Fed governors announced tapering. Monthly bond buying will be reduced from $85 billion to $75 billion on January 1.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Interest rates will remain near zero. Whether further tapering continues next year remains to be seen. So will how markets react going forward.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Wednesday they celebrated. Bubbles have a way of bursting when least expected. This one imploding is long overdue.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>His new book is titled &#8220;Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>http:\/\/www.claritypress.com\/LendmanII.html<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It airs Fridays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>http:\/\/www.progressiveradionetwork.com\/the-progressive-news-hour<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>http:\/\/www.dailycensored.com\/bracing-eventual-day-reckoning\/<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-99907","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-editorials"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99907\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}