Without soap, antibiotics, electric power, gloves and x-rays, surgeons are struggling to keep patients alive.
Photos taken by New York Times photographer
Meridith Kohut offer a glimpse inside some of the most notorious
centers - while President Nicolas Maduro claims the socialist nation has
the best healthcare in the world.
Protesters are beaten back by riot police and military.
Food lines stretch for miles, people wait for days for the bare necessities and may go away empty-handed or be robbed after they make meager purchases.
No one knows how much longer the people will stand for the conditions they're being forced to endure.
U.S. intelligence experts have warned there could be all-out civil war at any moment.
LACK OF MEDICAL CARE MAY BE THE WORST OF THE PROBLEMS.
“My 4-year-old daughter is dying of cancer, and there’s no medicine here to treat her,” said Luis Avila, 42, a farm worker outside this industrial city. “What am I supposed to do? What can I do? Maduro has destroyed this country.”In the Caribbean port town of Barcelona, two premature infants died recently on the way to the main public clinic because the ambulance had no oxygen tanks.
The hospital has no fully functioning X-ray or kidney dialysis machines because they broke long ago. And because there are no open beds, some patients lie on the floor in pools of their blood.
It is a battlefield clinic in a country where there is no war.
“This is criminal that we can sit in a country with this much oil, and people are dying for lack of antibiotics,” says Oneida Guaipe, a lawmaker and former hospital union leader.
AN ENTIRE NATION IS IN ECONOMIC RUIN, ITS CITIZENS LIVING IN THE WORST CONDITIONS WE CAN IMAGINE, BUT IT WAS NOT THE RESULT OF WAR, OR NATURAL DISASTER, OR TERRORIST ATTACK.
SINCE THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ IN 2013, VENEZUELA HAS COLLAPSED INTO RUIN BECAUSE OF MASSIVE DEBT, DEPENDENCE ON OIL INCOME, CURRENCY MANIPULATION, AND EXTREME GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE.
The result has been a plunging economy and the world's highest inflation rate — above 700%.That might be an optimistic assessment, according to some local economic analysts, who expect the rate to reach as high as 1,200%.
Polls now show a majority of the country wants Maduro out as president.
His term expires in 2019.
Maduro, however, can suspend elections, and may well do so.
“Venezuela is a bomb that could explode at any moment,” opposition leader Henrique Capriles warned during a Saturday rally.
Maduro, the handpicked successor of the late Hugo Chávez and former bus driver, discounted the chances of a recall referendum being held this year.
“They don’t want a referendum, they want a coup,” Maduro said this week during meeting with foreign journalists.
“We have no obligations to hold any type of referendum in this country.”
THE GDP PER CAPITA INCOME OF VENEZUELA IS $16,615, BUT IT IS TAKING EVERY DIME TO SIMPLY FEED A FAMILY THERE TODAY, IF ONE CAN OBTAIN FOOD AT ALL, AND IF ONE CAN FIND A JOB AS EVERYTHING SEEMS TO BE SHUTTING DOWN.
VENEZUELA IS A CLASSIC EXAMPLE OF WHAT HAPPENS TO NATIONS WHEN THE ABOVE FOUR THINGS ARE ALLOWED TO DEVELOP UNCHECKED.
IN ONLY 3 SHORT YEARS, VENEZUELA WENT FROM THRIVING NATION TO A NATION OF HUNGRY, ANGRY CITIZENS WHO ARE FIGHTING EACH OTHER FOR FOOD.
AMERICA IS HEADED IN THE SAME DIRECTION AS VENEZUELA, FOR THE SAME REASONS.
THERE ARE LESSONS TO BE LEARNED, BUT FEW IN POWER IN ANY NATION ARE WILLING TO LEARN THESE LESSONS.
~ LESSON #1:
THINGS CAN CHANGE HORRIBLY FROM ONE DAY TO THE NEXT.
During an economic collapse, severe shortages of basic supplies can happen very quickly, even "overnight"...
While the Venezuelan tragedy has been developing for roughly 3 years, the extreme shortages appeared abruptly, taking everyone by surprise.
"There's
a shortage of everything at some level," says Ricardo Cusanno, vice
president of Venezuela's Chamber of Commerce.
Cusanno says 85% of companies in Venezuela have halted production to some extent.
Cusanno says 85% of companies in Venezuela have halted production to some extent.
At this point, even Coca-Cola has shut down production due to a severe shortage of sugar.
People report their pets missing as many turn to unusual sources for meat.
"People are hunting dogs and cats in the streets, and pigeons in the plazas to eat," Ramon Muchacho, mayor of the Caracas district of Chacao, said this month in a tweet that was reported in many newspapers.
The mayor, who is a Maduro opponent, made the comment while noting that six Venezuelan soldiers had been caught with half a dozen dead goats that they had stolen from a ranch because there wasn’t enough food in their barracks of Ft. Manaure, an army base in western Venezuela’s Lara state.
[SOUND FAMILIAR, AMERICA?]
LOOTING, STABBINGS, MURDERS
"Fifty-six incidents of looting and 76 looting attempts took place in the first half of 2015, according local NGO Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict, which based the figures on media reports and testimony of observers around the country.
July 31, 2015, one man was killed and 60 were arrested in Ciudad Guayana in southern Venezuela after shops were looted.
The government did not respond to a request for comment on the lootings but Maduro calls the shortages and the unrest a product of an opposition-led "economic war"
The problems, however, have not spurred a broader wave of protests like those led by the opposition in early 2014 that left 43 people dead.
Supporters of the ruling Socialist Party note that the network of subsidized state-run grocery stores created by late president Hugo Chavez and financed by plentiful oil revenue helped reduce poverty and hunger during his 1999-2013 rule.
But the combination of dysfunctional currency controls, which have limited Venezuela's capacity to import, and the end of a decade-long oil boom has left Maduro's government strapped for cash and struggling to maintain the largesse.
According to polls, his party is expected to do poorly in legislative elections later this year, its support hit by high inflation, the currency's collapse and food shortages.
“We have no food. They are cutting power four hours a day. Crime is soaring. And (President Nicolás) Maduro blames everyone but himself for the mess we find ourselves in,” said unemployed construction worker Roberto Sanchez, age 36. “We can’t go on like this forever. Something has to give.”
~ LESSON #2:
BE PREPARED AT ALL TIMES. If you have not stored food for a crisis situation, your diet could quickly become CRITICAL, during a major emergency.
But it isn't just food...it's everyday needs like toiletries, baby diapers, medicines, even water.
The Los Angeles Times recently covered the plight of a 42-year-old single mother in Venezuela named Maria Linares, and according to the story her family has not had any chicken to eat since last December...
One dozen eggs costs the equivalent of $150 U.S. dollars right now in Venezuela.
In
December, Linares was spending about half her salary on groceries. It now
takes almost everything she earns to feed her two children, who subsist
on manioc (also known as cassava or yuca), eggs and cornmeal patties
called arepas, served with butter and plantains.
Her monthly pay, including a food allowance, is 27,000 bolivars.
That’s $2,700 a month at the official exchange rate of 10 bolivars to the dollar.
But Venezuelans have so little faith in their currency -- or the government's ability to fix the country's deepening economic crisis -- that a dollar can fetch upward of 1,000 bolivars on the black market.
At that rate, Linares earns just $27 a month.
Either way, it’s not enough.
The best deals are generally at government-run stores, such as Mercal and Bicentenario, where the prices are regulated.
To shop there, however, Linares said, she has to line up overnight. Even then, she might come home empty-handed if everything sells out before she gets to the front of the line -- or if she is robbed leaving the store.
“The last time I bought food in a Mercal was three months ago,” she said. “They sold me one kilo [2.2 pounds] of rice, a kilo of pasta, a kilo of sugar and a liter of cooking oil for 1,540 bolivars. But to buy the basket of regulated products, I had to buy a watermelon for 400 bolivars.
I didn’t want the watermelon and didn’t have the extra money to pay for it.”
These days, she buys most of her food from illegal street vendors known as bachaqueros at enormously inflated prices because they are the only ones selling what she needs to feed her children a subsistence diet.
~LESSON #3:
DESPERATE PEOPLE TAKE DESPERATE MEASURES.
WHEN YOUR CHILDREN CRY FROM HUNGER, YOUR SENSE OF DESPERATION GREATLY INCREASES.
"If you don't have electricity, you don't have water, it's very difficult," David Smilde, an expert on Venezuela at Tulane University, said at a recent forum sponsored by the Washington Office on Latin America, a non-governmental organization that promotes human rights.
"It is hard to see how this ends ... without a more profound crisis," another U.S. intelligence official said.
In an impoverished hilltop neighborhood, a dense labyrinth of narrow alleys, mostly shuttered shops and cinder-block homes, residents trudge toward a protruding pipe discharging a trickle of murky water.Someone has switched on a pump to start the uphill flow to the area, where power blackouts and low pressure make running water a luxury.
People soon gather lugging their plastic pails and jugs.
The source is irregular, the quality substandard, and yet the residents here in this northern stretch of Caracas’ gritty Petare district still line up for the dubious privilege.
The lengthy, dehumanizing lines — a fact of life throughout the country — represent the most dramatic illustration of the human toll of Venezuela’s unforgiving economic breakdown.
One of the planet’s great oil producers is now unable to pay for basic commodities, like milk, flour and rice, which are mostly imported, triggering the severe shortages.
National guardsmen, rifles slung on their shoulders, and police are often deployed to prevent violence or incidents of line-jumping.
Government authorities limit purchases of basic items — nearly 4.5 pounds of pasta or rice per customer for instance — in a bid to restrict hoarding.
People are assigned certain days to shop based on the numbers on their government-issued IDs.
Rampant corruption in the scattered distribution network means price-controlled items are rerouted to the black market.
Outside the shops, a sense of despair looms over the snaking lines.
“I can’t find diapers, milk or sugar,” said an exasperated mother of an 8-month old child.
MAY 18, 2016
Venezuela, already reeling from shortages of basic goods and electricity, plunged further into chaos Wednesday as police and opponents of President Nicolas Maduro clashed on the streets of the capital Caracas after Maduro threatened to make the opposition-controlled National Assembly “disappear.”
Maduro’s threats, scattered looting and growing protests over hyperinflation and food scarcities underscored the deepening unrest and polarization in this oil-rich but cash-strapped country.
Maduro on Friday decreed a state of emergency, but the National Assembly subsequently voted it down as uncalled for.
In a news conference Tuesday night at the Miraflores presidential palace, Maduro said it is “just a matter of time” before the assembly “disappears,” although he didn’t offer details on how that might happen.
“I don’t think any Venezuelans expect anything good from the National Assembly,” Maduro said. Referring to the opposition, he said: “They don’t want a recall, they want an overthrow.”
PERHAPS THAT'S WHAT PROTESTERS ALSO WANT?
Marchers carried signs reading “dying of hunger” and “there is no food.”
Fearing a violent confrontation, stores along the march route were mostly closed.
On Tuesday, in the northwestern city of Barquisimeto, violence broke out and people in line exchanged gunfire.
A 26-year-old mother of two, Yoselin Perez, was caught in the crossfire and died of her wounds. Marchers attempted to breach a cordon set up by riot police but were repulsed.
Basic household items and medicines must be imported because the country no longer produces them.
“I can’t find any pills for my high blood pressure and I’m worried I will have a heart attack,” said Josefina Paredes, a retired Education Ministry employee. “We’re in a situation that is very difficult to overcome because we are lacking two essential things: food and medicine.”
Bloomberg reported last year that Trinidad & Tobago had offered to exchange toilet tissue paper for oil with Venezuela. It's unclear if the
deal ever came through.
[From articles I found, it appears that was agreed upon by the 2 nations.]
[From articles I found, it appears that was agreed upon by the 2 nations.]
HOW LONG BEFORE NEIGHBOR TURNS ON NEIGHBOR FOR A LOAF OF BREAD, A BUCKET OF CLEAN WATER, A BAG OF RICE?
NO ONE CAN SAY.
~ LESSON #5:
FORGET FINDING ACCESS TO MEDICAL CARE, EVEN IN EMERGENCIES.
THERE IS NO MEDICINE BEING PRODUCED IN-COUNTRY, SO MANY HOSPITALS AND CLINICS HAVE JUST CLOSED THEIR DOORS.
Patients can be seen balancing themselves on half-broken beds with days-old blood on their bodies
They're the lucky ones; most are curled up on the floor, blood streaming, limbs blackening.
Children lie among dirty cardboard boxes in the hallways without food, water or medication.
Without
electricity or functioning machines, medics have had to create their
own solutions.
Two men who had surgery on their legs have their limbs elevated by makeshift slings made out of water bottles.
“There are people dying for lack of medicine, children dying of malnutrition and others dying because there are no medical personnel,” said Dr. Yamila Battaglini, a surgeon at the hospital.
Samuel Castillo, 21, arrived in the emergency room needing blood.
But supplies had run out.
A holiday had been declared by the government to save electricity, and the blood bank took donations only on workdays. Mr. Castillo died that night.
MANY HAVE WARNED IT CAN HAPPEN HERE JUST AS QUICKLY AS IT HAPPENED IN VENEZUELA.
A lot of mainstream analysts will tell you that hyperinflation and currency collapse can’t happen today in an established economy, and they discount warnings about the dollar’s future by people like Peter Schiff.
But one only needs to look to the south to see that it not only could happen, it is happening to a nation which was the most affluent in all of Latin America just 3 years ago.
Venezuela was once the premier South American economy and enjoyed the highest standard of living in Latin America.
But mismanagement and socialist policies drove the once prospering economy into the ground.
Today, Venezuelans face rampant inflation, with their currency, the bolivar, now practically worthless.
As the Venezuelan economy continues its freefall, mainstream analysts go right on pretending it just can’t happen, at least not here.
They point to various economic reports out of Washington to justify their faith in US stability.
But what happens when you can’t trust the numbers?
According to Forbes, that’s a big part of the problem in Venezuela.
Bank of America and Barclays have created their own measures of the Venezuelan economy.
“I feel like a private detective. You have to try to find the data. At least the police have power to gather evidence — I don’t have any,” Francisco Rodriguez, a Venezuela analyst at Bank of America told Forbes.
The same type of thing is already happening in the US.
Simply comparing unemployment news released by the US government to the reality in the job market gives us plenty of evidence to believe the feds are cooking the books.
What happens when creditors like China stop trusting the figures released by the United States?
And with the current US debt load standing at $58.7 trillion – 3.3 times GDP – the Chinese certainly have reason for concern.
If they were to unpeg the yuan from the dollar, it would drastically devalue the US currency and America would suddenly look a lot like Venezuela, despite what the mainstream analysts tell you.
ALAN GREENSPAN RECENTLY TOLD THE CRAZIES AT FOX NEWS THAT AMERICA COULD BE NEXT.
He also mentioned martial law here in America.
"We have a global problem of a shortage in productivity growth and it’s not only the United States but it’s pretty much around the world and it’s being caused by the fact that the populations everywhere in the Western world, for example, are aging and we are not committing enough of our resources to fund that,” he said.
“Our problem is not recession which is a short-term economic problem.
I think you have a very profound long-term problem of economic growth at the time when the Western world, there is a very large migration from being a worker into being a of recipient of social benefits as it is called.
And this is legally mandated in all of our countries.
The size has got nothing to do with the rate of growth in economic activity, but if we stay down at the two percent economic growth in the United States and elsewhere, we’re not going to be able to fund what we are already legally obligated to spend,” he said.
Long term economic growth cannot happen if decent jobs keep getting off-shored/outsourced; that is one aspect of the problem about which Greenspan was noticeably reluctant to speak."
Between central bank monetary manipulation, managed trade, regulatory demands and currency debasement, modern Western economies are barely functioning at all.
Only the largest multinationals can manage to survive competitively in such an environment, and many of them are not exactly thriving.
Even Coca Cola has had to pull out of Venezuela and now Lufthansa has cut flights to the country.
Greenspan wants to blame the West’s industrial slump on a lack of productivity and “growth.” This is propaganda, and he knows it is.
The main cause of ruin over time is central bank money debasement – not some mysterious missing “growth.” And government generally makes things worse via regulations, taxation and debt.
Greenspan should know this. He’s not a stupid man.
But Greenspan is part of the central banking clique.
He does what he’s told to do.There is, in fact, worse to come, as we have often pointed out.
This year, Jubilee 2016, is a “building year” for world government.
The EU for instance is creating a pan-European army and is also “giving” all European residents tax ID numbers.
And China is adding the yuan to the International Monetary Fund’s SDR currency basket on October 1st, just the day before the Jubilee Year ends on October 2nd.
Things are not going to get any better in 2016, only worse. The idea is obviously to create convulsive economic chaos that will help usher in a new economic order.
In the meantime, Greenspan is supposed to distract your attention.
We’ve now had George Soros, Carl Icahn, Stanley Druckenmiller, Jim Rogers, the IMF and the World Bank warn that we are on the verge of a crisis of biblical proportions.
Greenspan even said that what is happening in Venezuela, complete with martial law, will come to the US.
At what point do you start to listen and begin to protect yourself?"
BOTTOM LINE...WHAT DOES AMERICA HAVE IN COMMON WITH VENEZUELA?
HOW COULD WE GO DOWN THE SAME PATH?
REMEMBER THE FOUR REASONS THE 'EXPERTS' GAVE FOR VENEZUELA'S ECONOMIC/SOCIAL COLLAPSE?
MASSIVE DEBT, DEPENDENCE ON OIL INCOME, CURRENCY MANIPULATION, AND EXTREME GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE.
DOES AMERICA HAVE MASSIVE DEBT?
ABSOLUTELY, AND IT HAS LONG BEEN CALLED "IRREDUCIBLE DEBT", MEANING THERE'S NO WAY WE CAN TAX OR EARN OUR WAY OUT OF IT.
Two men who had surgery on their legs have their limbs elevated by makeshift slings made out of water bottles.
Late
last fall, the aging pumps that supplied water to the University of the
Andes Hospital exploded. They were not repaired for months.
So
without water, gloves, soap or antibiotics, a group of surgeons
prepared to remove an appendix that was about to burst, even though the
operating room was still covered in another patient’s blood.
“There are people dying for lack of medicine, children dying of malnutrition and others dying because there are no medical personnel,” said Dr. Yamila Battaglini, a surgeon at the hospital.
Yet even among Venezuela’s failing hospitals, Luis Razetti Hospital in Barcelona has become one of the most notorious.
In
April, the authorities arrested its director, Aquiles Martínez, and
removed him from his post.
Local news reports said he was accused of stealing equipment meant for the hospital, including machines to treat people with respiratory illnesses, as well as intravenous solutions and 127 boxes of medicine.
Local news reports said he was accused of stealing equipment meant for the hospital, including machines to treat people with respiratory illnesses, as well as intravenous solutions and 127 boxes of medicine.
Around
10pm one recent night, Dr. Freddy Díaz walked down a hall there that had
become an impromptu ward for patients who had no beds. Some clutched
blood-soaked bandages and called from the floor for help.
THERE IS NO HELP WHEN THERE ARE NO MEDICINES, NO SUPPLIES, AND ALMOST NO STAFF.
In a supply room, cockroaches fled as the door swung open.
THERE IS NO HELP WHEN THERE ARE NO MEDICINES, NO SUPPLIES, AND ALMOST NO STAFF.
In a supply room, cockroaches fled as the door swung open.
Dr. Díaz logged a patient’s medical data on the back of a bank statement someone had thrown in the trash.
“We have run out of paper here,” he said.
On
the fourth floor, one of his patients, Rosa Parucho, 68, was one of the
few who had managed to get a bed, though the rotting mattress had left
her back covered in sores.
But
those were the least of her problems: Ms. Parucho, a diabetic, was
unable to receive kidney dialysis because the machines were broken.
An infection had spread to her feet, which were black that night.
She was going into septic shock.
An infection had spread to her feet, which were black that night.
She was going into septic shock.
Ms. Parucho needed oxygen, but none was available. Her hands twitched and her eyes rolled into the back of her head.
“The
bacteria aren’t dying; they’re growing,” Dr. Díaz said, noting that
three of the antibiotics Ms. Parucho needed had been unavailable for
months.
He paused. “We will have to remove her feet.”
Samuel Castillo, 21, arrived in the emergency room needing blood.
But supplies had run out.
A holiday had been declared by the government to save electricity, and the blood bank took donations only on workdays. Mr. Castillo died that night.
The day of a power blackout, Dr. Amalia Rodríguez said, the hospital staff tried turning on the generator, but it did not work.
Doctors
tried everything they could to keep the babies breathing, pumping air
by hand until the employees were so exhausted they could barely see
straight, she said.
How many babies died because of the blackout was impossible to say, given all of the other deficiencies at the hospital.
How many babies died because of the blackout was impossible to say, given all of the other deficiencies at the hospital.
“What can we do here?” Dr. Rodríguez said. “Every day I pass an incubator that doesn’t heat up, that is cold, that is broken.”
MANY HAVE WARNED IT CAN HAPPEN HERE JUST AS QUICKLY AS IT HAPPENED IN VENEZUELA.
A lot of mainstream analysts will tell you that hyperinflation and currency collapse can’t happen today in an established economy, and they discount warnings about the dollar’s future by people like Peter Schiff.
But one only needs to look to the south to see that it not only could happen, it is happening to a nation which was the most affluent in all of Latin America just 3 years ago.
Venezuela was once the premier South American economy and enjoyed the highest standard of living in Latin America.
But mismanagement and socialist policies drove the once prospering economy into the ground.
Today, Venezuelans face rampant inflation, with their currency, the bolivar, now practically worthless.
As the Venezuelan economy continues its freefall, mainstream analysts go right on pretending it just can’t happen, at least not here.
They point to various economic reports out of Washington to justify their faith in US stability.
But what happens when you can’t trust the numbers?
According to Forbes, that’s a big part of the problem in Venezuela.
Bank of America and Barclays have created their own measures of the Venezuelan economy.
“I feel like a private detective. You have to try to find the data. At least the police have power to gather evidence — I don’t have any,” Francisco Rodriguez, a Venezuela analyst at Bank of America told Forbes.
The same type of thing is already happening in the US.
Simply comparing unemployment news released by the US government to the reality in the job market gives us plenty of evidence to believe the feds are cooking the books.
What happens when creditors like China stop trusting the figures released by the United States?
And with the current US debt load standing at $58.7 trillion – 3.3 times GDP – the Chinese certainly have reason for concern.
If they were to unpeg the yuan from the dollar, it would drastically devalue the US currency and America would suddenly look a lot like Venezuela, despite what the mainstream analysts tell you.
ALAN GREENSPAN RECENTLY TOLD THE CRAZIES AT FOX NEWS THAT AMERICA COULD BE NEXT.
He also mentioned martial law here in America.
"We have a global problem of a shortage in productivity growth and it’s not only the United States but it’s pretty much around the world and it’s being caused by the fact that the populations everywhere in the Western world, for example, are aging and we are not committing enough of our resources to fund that,” he said.
“Our problem is not recession which is a short-term economic problem.
I think you have a very profound long-term problem of economic growth at the time when the Western world, there is a very large migration from being a worker into being a of recipient of social benefits as it is called.
And this is legally mandated in all of our countries.
The size has got nothing to do with the rate of growth in economic activity, but if we stay down at the two percent economic growth in the United States and elsewhere, we’re not going to be able to fund what we are already legally obligated to spend,” he said.
Long term economic growth cannot happen if decent jobs keep getting off-shored/outsourced; that is one aspect of the problem about which Greenspan was noticeably reluctant to speak."
Between central bank monetary manipulation, managed trade, regulatory demands and currency debasement, modern Western economies are barely functioning at all.
Only the largest multinationals can manage to survive competitively in such an environment, and many of them are not exactly thriving.
Even Coca Cola has had to pull out of Venezuela and now Lufthansa has cut flights to the country.
Greenspan wants to blame the West’s industrial slump on a lack of productivity and “growth.” This is propaganda, and he knows it is.
The main cause of ruin over time is central bank money debasement – not some mysterious missing “growth.” And government generally makes things worse via regulations, taxation and debt.
Greenspan should know this. He’s not a stupid man.
But Greenspan is part of the central banking clique.
He does what he’s told to do.There is, in fact, worse to come, as we have often pointed out.
This year, Jubilee 2016, is a “building year” for world government.
The EU for instance is creating a pan-European army and is also “giving” all European residents tax ID numbers.
And China is adding the yuan to the International Monetary Fund’s SDR currency basket on October 1st, just the day before the Jubilee Year ends on October 2nd.
Things are not going to get any better in 2016, only worse. The idea is obviously to create convulsive economic chaos that will help usher in a new economic order.
In the meantime, Greenspan is supposed to distract your attention.
We’ve now had George Soros, Carl Icahn, Stanley Druckenmiller, Jim Rogers, the IMF and the World Bank warn that we are on the verge of a crisis of biblical proportions.
Greenspan even said that what is happening in Venezuela, complete with martial law, will come to the US.
At what point do you start to listen and begin to protect yourself?"
BOTTOM LINE...WHAT DOES AMERICA HAVE IN COMMON WITH VENEZUELA?
HOW COULD WE GO DOWN THE SAME PATH?
REMEMBER THE FOUR REASONS THE 'EXPERTS' GAVE FOR VENEZUELA'S ECONOMIC/SOCIAL COLLAPSE?
MASSIVE DEBT, DEPENDENCE ON OIL INCOME, CURRENCY MANIPULATION, AND EXTREME GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE.
DOES AMERICA HAVE MASSIVE DEBT?
ABSOLUTELY, AND IT HAS LONG BEEN CALLED "IRREDUCIBLE DEBT", MEANING THERE'S NO WAY WE CAN TAX OR EARN OUR WAY OUT OF IT.
ARE WE DEPENDENT ON OIL AND THEREFORE OIL PRICES?
YES, YES, AND YES!
WHEN WE'VE SEEN WALL STREET PULLING THEIR HAIR AND SCREAMING FOR ALMOST 2 YEARS NOW BECAUSE OIL IS JUST "TOO CHEAP" AND WHEN CHEAP OIL DID NOT BRING PRICES DOWN ON CONSUMER GOODS, WE MIGHT WANT TO ADMIT JUST HOW DEPENDENT WE ARE ON HIGH OIL PRICES TO PLACATE THE MEGA-CORPORATIONS WHO LOVE TO PRICE-GOUGE THE REST OF US INTO BANKRUPTCY WHILE THEY GET FEDERAL SUBSIDIES TO KEEP THEM AFLOAT.
WALL STREET DEMANDS HIGH OIL PRICES...THAT'S THEIR REAL MONEY-MAKER.
THIRDLY, IS AMERICAN CURRENCY BEING MANIPULATED?
It blames mainly CHINA, and yet the Federal Reserve itself has been busted doing exactly what Forbes whines that other nations are doing TO us.
See the busts <here>, <here>, and especially <here>.
"Why would we even think central banks wouldn’t manipulate all markets to the benefit of their own member banks when two Fed officials have stated that by intention the Fed’s FOMC was front-running the stock market to create a “wealth effect”?
(Apparently the “wealth effect” is to make the wealthy vastly wealthier because that’s what happened.)
What if another corporation like GM that is too big to fail is failing, like back in 2008?
Is there any reason this time around that central banks should tell us they are going to bail it out by buying up its stocks now that central-bank intervention is standard procedure?
(The Fed would argue to congress, “It was important we did that quickly and secretively so as not to create a massive market scare that could have jeopardized the recovery.”)
Central banks run their national economies unsupervised by anyone.
You think they’re supervised?
By whom?
Certainly not by congress here in the US.
Congress merely asks the head banker some questions and then lets the Federal Reserve continue on with whatever its bankers were doing.
We audit corporations, and government even audits the government; but the largest financial institution on earth runs audit-free year after year, decade after decade, as congress grandstands in feigned outrage at times and at other times listens in awe, but always defaults to merely trusting the Federal Reserve.
Always.
There is NOTHING to stop the Fed — nor probably most central banks — from deciding to create $100 billion in the accounts of its member banks, saying, “We’ll deposit this money when you show us you’ve purchased that much in oil from companies being hit the worst.” There is no risk for the bank or the Fed because it was all free money anyway. They just suddenly own lots of oil.
American investment bank JPMorgan said in an SEC filing Friday that its holdings of potentially bad loans took a major jump over the past quarter.
JPMorgan reported on its holdings of “criticized” loans — a term used in the banking industry to refer to “substandard or doubtful” debts … leapt by 45 percent over the last quarter — to $21.2 billion as of March 31. (Oilprice.com)
Over twenty billion of bad debts — most of it in oil companies! “Oil and Gas Liquidity Stress Index” is a measure of the number of energy companies that are facing looming credit problems because of overextended debt…. In fact, that level is now considerably worse than seen during the last recession…. “This progression signals that the default rate will continue to rise as the year progresses.” (Pierce Points)
SO, AMERICA, WE ARE FACING EXACTLY WHAT VENEZUELA IS FACING.
WALL STREET IS CLAWING TO GET OIL PRICES HIGHER, BUT THINGS ARE NOT GOING AS PLANNED.
SO, WE HAVE #1, MASSIVE DEBT, JUST ASK CHINA HOW MASSIVE.
WE HAVE #2, DEPENDENCE ON OIL PRICES.
WE HAVE #3, CURRENCY MANIPULATION.
WHAT ABOUT #4, EXTREME GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE?
"The extent of government intervention in academic matters has become "
"Government intervention is taking away individuals decision on how to spend and act. Economic intervention, takes personal freedom away."
Keynesian economists argue that the government can positively influence the economy through fiscal policy.
CONGRESS, ALWAYS SEEKING LARGE CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS FROM INDUSTRY, IS ALWAYS HAPPY TO PASS LAWS AND INTERVENE TO KEEP THE BIG COMPANIES AFLOAT, CREATE NEW TAX LOOPHOLES, SUBSIDIZE THEIR MOVES TO CHINA, MEXICO, ANYWHERE THEY WANT TO GO.
Government has interfered with religion, schools, small communities' water management, large cities' construction projects, intervened in state after state to force compliance with what the federal government sees as the "RIGHT" way for states to conduct STATE affairs, something the Constitution strictly FORBIDS.
Government has stepped into our PRIVATE lives, monitoring our emails, phone conversations, what books we check out at the library, demanded we abandon our personal beliefs about things like vaccines, who shares our public bathrooms, how much a state can spend for school lunches.
Real business cycle theorists argue that, at best, government intervention makes no difference to the length of a recession, but may just create additional problems, such as the accumulation of public sector debt.
AND WE ALLOWED ALL THAT, BUT WHAT'S DONE IS DONE, SO YES, WE HAVE GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE IN EVERY WAKING MOMENT AND IN EVERY NOOK AND CRANNY OF OUR ONCE-UPON-A-TIME PRIVATE LIVES.
LIKE VENEZUELA, OUR STAGE IS SET AND IT'S ONLY A QUESTION OF WHEN OUR COLLAPSE IS SCHEDULED FOR.
THIS YEAR WAS LOOKING GOOD, BUT NEXT YEAR MAY HAVE BEEN DECIDED ON AS A BETTER CHOICE.
IT ISN'T "IF" WE'LL GO THE WAY OF VENEZUELA, GREECE, ETC, BUT WHEN.
YES, YES, AND YES!
WHEN WE'VE SEEN WALL STREET PULLING THEIR HAIR AND SCREAMING FOR ALMOST 2 YEARS NOW BECAUSE OIL IS JUST "TOO CHEAP" AND WHEN CHEAP OIL DID NOT BRING PRICES DOWN ON CONSUMER GOODS, WE MIGHT WANT TO ADMIT JUST HOW DEPENDENT WE ARE ON HIGH OIL PRICES TO PLACATE THE MEGA-CORPORATIONS WHO LOVE TO PRICE-GOUGE THE REST OF US INTO BANKRUPTCY WHILE THEY GET FEDERAL SUBSIDIES TO KEEP THEM AFLOAT.
WALL STREET DEMANDS HIGH OIL PRICES...THAT'S THEIR REAL MONEY-MAKER.
THIRDLY, IS AMERICAN CURRENCY BEING MANIPULATED?
Currency Manipulation: Why Something Must Be Done - Forbes
That article says currency manipulation is actually causing the trade deficit.It blames mainly CHINA, and yet the Federal Reserve itself has been busted doing exactly what Forbes whines that other nations are doing TO us.
See the busts <here>, <here>, and especially <here>.
"Why would we even think central banks wouldn’t manipulate all markets to the benefit of their own member banks when two Fed officials have stated that by intention the Fed’s FOMC was front-running the stock market to create a “wealth effect”?
(Apparently the “wealth effect” is to make the wealthy vastly wealthier because that’s what happened.)
What if another corporation like GM that is too big to fail is failing, like back in 2008?
Is there any reason this time around that central banks should tell us they are going to bail it out by buying up its stocks now that central-bank intervention is standard procedure?
(The Fed would argue to congress, “It was important we did that quickly and secretively so as not to create a massive market scare that could have jeopardized the recovery.”)
Central banks run their national economies unsupervised by anyone.
You think they’re supervised?
By whom?
Certainly not by congress here in the US.
Congress merely asks the head banker some questions and then lets the Federal Reserve continue on with whatever its bankers were doing.
We audit corporations, and government even audits the government; but the largest financial institution on earth runs audit-free year after year, decade after decade, as congress grandstands in feigned outrage at times and at other times listens in awe, but always defaults to merely trusting the Federal Reserve.
Always.
There is NOTHING to stop the Fed — nor probably most central banks — from deciding to create $100 billion in the accounts of its member banks, saying, “We’ll deposit this money when you show us you’ve purchased that much in oil from companies being hit the worst.” There is no risk for the bank or the Fed because it was all free money anyway. They just suddenly own lots of oil.
American investment bank JPMorgan said in an SEC filing Friday that its holdings of potentially bad loans took a major jump over the past quarter.
JPMorgan reported on its holdings of “criticized” loans — a term used in the banking industry to refer to “substandard or doubtful” debts … leapt by 45 percent over the last quarter — to $21.2 billion as of March 31. (Oilprice.com)
Over twenty billion of bad debts — most of it in oil companies! “Oil and Gas Liquidity Stress Index” is a measure of the number of energy companies that are facing looming credit problems because of overextended debt…. In fact, that level is now considerably worse than seen during the last recession…. “This progression signals that the default rate will continue to rise as the year progresses.” (Pierce Points)
SO, AMERICA, WE ARE FACING EXACTLY WHAT VENEZUELA IS FACING.
WALL STREET IS CLAWING TO GET OIL PRICES HIGHER, BUT THINGS ARE NOT GOING AS PLANNED.
SO, WE HAVE #1, MASSIVE DEBT, JUST ASK CHINA HOW MASSIVE.
WE HAVE #2, DEPENDENCE ON OIL PRICES.
WE HAVE #3, CURRENCY MANIPULATION.
WHAT ABOUT #4, EXTREME GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE?
"The extent of government intervention in academic matters has become "
"Government intervention is taking away individuals decision on how to spend and act. Economic intervention, takes personal freedom away."
Should governments save declining industries?
GOVERNMENT HAS AND WILL AGAIN.
Keynesian economists argue that the government can positively influence the economy through fiscal policy.
CONGRESS, ALWAYS SEEKING LARGE CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS FROM INDUSTRY, IS ALWAYS HAPPY TO PASS LAWS AND INTERVENE TO KEEP THE BIG COMPANIES AFLOAT, CREATE NEW TAX LOOPHOLES, SUBSIDIZE THEIR MOVES TO CHINA, MEXICO, ANYWHERE THEY WANT TO GO.
Government has interfered with religion, schools, small communities' water management, large cities' construction projects, intervened in state after state to force compliance with what the federal government sees as the "RIGHT" way for states to conduct STATE affairs, something the Constitution strictly FORBIDS.
Government has stepped into our PRIVATE lives, monitoring our emails, phone conversations, what books we check out at the library, demanded we abandon our personal beliefs about things like vaccines, who shares our public bathrooms, how much a state can spend for school lunches.
Real business cycle theorists argue that, at best, government intervention makes no difference to the length of a recession, but may just create additional problems, such as the accumulation of public sector debt.
AND WE ALLOWED ALL THAT, BUT WHAT'S DONE IS DONE, SO YES, WE HAVE GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE IN EVERY WAKING MOMENT AND IN EVERY NOOK AND CRANNY OF OUR ONCE-UPON-A-TIME PRIVATE LIVES.
LIKE VENEZUELA, OUR STAGE IS SET AND IT'S ONLY A QUESTION OF WHEN OUR COLLAPSE IS SCHEDULED FOR.
THIS YEAR WAS LOOKING GOOD, BUT NEXT YEAR MAY HAVE BEEN DECIDED ON AS A BETTER CHOICE.
IT ISN'T "IF" WE'LL GO THE WAY OF VENEZUELA, GREECE, ETC, BUT WHEN.
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