Bankers, governments and investors are preparing for Greece to stop using the euro as its currency, a move that could spread turmoil throughout the global financial system.
Category Archives: Global Economic Collapse
Doomsday 2012 Fact Sheet
There is widespread and unnecessary fear of doomsday on December 21, 2012. Some people worry about a Maya prophesy of the end of the world, others fear a variety of astronomical threats such as collision with a rogue planet. Opinion polls suggest that one in ten Americans worry about whether they will survive past Dec 21 of this year, and middle-school teachers everywhere report that many of their students are fearful of a coming apocalypse. Following are brief facts that address these doomsday fears.
Mayan Calendar: The Maya calendar, which is made up different cycles of day counts, does not end this year. Rather, one cycle of 144,000 days (394 years) ends and the next cycle begins.
Mayan Prophecy: The ancient Maya did not predict the end of the world or any disaster in December 2012. Such doomsday predictions are a modern hoax.
Planet Nibiru: Nibiru is probably the minor name of a god found in ancient Mesopotamian writing. There is no planet named Nibiru, and the fictional books by economist Zecharia Sitchin about a civilization on this planet are a hoax.
Rogue Planet Headed for Earth. For the past decade there have been reports of a rogue object (Planet X, or Nibiru, or Hercubolus, or even Comet Elenin) that will collide with Earth in December 2012. These claims are not true. If such a threatening world existed, it would be one of the brightest objects in the sky, and astronomers would have been tracking it for years. If it existed, its gravity would be distorting the orbits of planets, especially Mars and Earth. Astronomers know that it does not exist.
Planet Alignments: There is no alignment of planets in Dec 2012. There is an approximate lining up of the Earth and Sun and the center of our Galaxy in late December, but this happens every year. In any case, planet alignments have no effect on the Earth.
Pole Shift: There is nothing strange this year about either the magnetic poles or the rotational poles of the Earth. The magnetic polarity changes every million years or so, but that is not happening now, and it probably takes thousands of years when it does happen. A sudden change in the rotational axis has never happened and is not possible. If there were any change in the Earth’s rotation, it would be instantly apparent by failure of our GPS systems.
Increasing Disasters. Our planet is behaving normally in 2012, although we see more and more news stories about natural disasters. There has been no increase in earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. There has been an increase in extreme weather, including both droughts and floods, which are partly attributable to global warming, but this has nothing to do with a 2012 doomsday.
Solar Outbursts: The Sun’s ongoing 11-year activity cycle is expected to peak in 2013, not 2012. Solar outbursts (flares and CMEs) can damage orbiting satellites but will not hurt us on the surface. The strength of the 2013 solar maximum is predicted to be lower than average, not higher.
Bunker Conspiracy: Accusations of a massive government cover-up are nonsense. No government could hide an incoming planet or silence hundreds of thousands of scientists. Rumors that huge bunkers have been built in the U.S. or elsewhere to shelter the elite are lies. Apparently a few people are building private shelters, but their fear of 2012 is misplaced and they are wasting their money.
Scaring Children: The group most vulnerable to doomsday claims is children. Teachers report that many of their students are frightened and some are even considering suicide. This is the most tragic consequence of the 2012 hoax.
The End of the World: The idea of the sudden end of the world by any cause is absurd. The Earth has been here for more than 4 billion years, and it will be several more billion years before the gradual brightening of the Sun makes our planet unlivable. Meanwhile there is no known astronomical or geological threat that could destroy the Earth.
Cosmophobia: Many young people write to me that they are scared of astronomy. When they read about some new discovery, the first thing they think is that it might hurt them, even if it is happening in a distant galaxy. There is no reason for such fears, which I call cosmophobia (fear of the universe). This rash of concern seems to be the result of too many conspiracy theories and sensational stories featured on the Internet and irresponsible news outlets. Astronomical objects are so distant that they cannot threaten the Earth. Please don’t be afraid of the Sun or the planets or comets or asteroids. The universe is not your enemy.
DOOMSDAY 2012: A New Age or a New World Order?
I see two events as the most probable for this date. A terrorist attack, which will bring with it the Dawn of the New Age of Man, or perhaps the collapse of the world economy, which would bring about the New World Order spoken of since the time of Woodrow Wilson’s presidency.
A terrorist attack of some sort may occur on 12/21/2012 and is most likely the event that world leaders are trying their best to prevent. After the events of 9/11, nothing would surprise me. The architects of the events of 9/11, Al-Qaida, planned the event to be carried out on 9/11/2001 as the numbers 911 refer to the phone number we here in America and other places as well, use to report an emergency. 
So if one or more terrorist organizations were to plan and try to execute an event on 12/21/2012, the supposed end of the world according to the Mayan calendar, it may not be as unexpected as one might think. Actually, the end of the Mayan calendar signifies the dawn of a New Age, not the end of the World as we know it.
Terrorist groups the world over 
have been trying to acquire nuclear weapons of any kind for some time now. We don’t know if they have succeeded in acquiring them, but I think if they did, our government would do something about it, and then that information would be made public, so all the World would know. And I’m not sure if that type of information would be disseminated to the general public, as it may have unintended consequences.
Panic and hysteria may ensue, and this may be the reaction that those involved are after.
So if someone or some group of people manages to create a disastrous event on this date, just how crippling to our world this event will be should be examined.
A concerted effort by radical terrorist groups Worldwide to act
in unison on this date would be devastating. Mass bombings of buildings and infrastructure around the globe would be extremely debilitating. The worst case scenario in my opinion would be the detonation a nuclear device, or even multiple devices, on a global level. This would spell doom for the entire Planet.
Iran has been actively producing nuclear material for some time now, according to them, for peaceful purposes, i.e. nuclear power generation. But many in the International community, the
United States included, think that they are trying to create a nuclear weapon. They have been hell bent on the destruction of Israel for decades, and this scenario on this date would create Armageddon. This definitely would bring about the Dawn of the New Age of Man. And it is a distinct possibility.
Now let us talk about the other possibility referred to herein, the New World Order.
The term was first used during Woodrow Wilson’s presidency, in reference to his creation of the League of Nations, a
precursor to the United Nations, following the devastation of World War I. The term was used sparingly at the end of World War II when describing plans for the creation of the United Nations, in part because of the negative association to the failed League of Nations.
The most widely acknowledged use of the term in modern times was by President George H. W. Bush of the United States and President Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union to define the post-Cold War era.
The New World Order, and its possible enactment, has been deemed a conspiracy by several different groups of people to, in essence, start over, and Capitalists have been accused of leading the charge.
You see money, in my opinion, is a finite resource, and there is only so much of it to go around. Many will disagree with this statement, and it is only my opinion, not necessarily a fact. Be that as it may, Capitalists, since the dawn of time, want to make ungodly profits on their investments, for a multitude of reasons. One only has to look at Exxon/Mobil for an example. Our planet is in the midst of a global recession, and their profits are in the hundreds of billions. Ungodly indeed.
Have you ever wondered why our government appears to prop up some third world countries? That’s because one or more American businessmen probably has a factory there, and it’s there because the wages paid to the work force in these countries are a tenth or less than the wages in the US. That makes it cheaper to manufacture and ship a product to the US than to manufacture it here because of our prevailing wages. And it allows the Capitalists the opportunity to make ungodly profits.
So here’s the conspiracy scenario. On December 21st, 2012, a disaster on a global scale befalls the planet. Whether it is a natural disaster or an intentional event created by some group of people with ulterior motives is yet to be determined. In short order, the world economy crashes, and transportation of goods stops. No ships to bring goods to America. The food supply will also be interrupted.
Then at some point in time, the government announces that US dollars are no longer a valid currency
and USA bucks, or some similarly named item, will replace them. At ten cents on the dollar. So the $10,000.00 US dollars in your savings account will only be worth $1,000.00 USA bucks. The majority of the population in the US will exchange their US dollars for USA bucks because that’s all they can do. Black market buying of USD will begin as independent entrepreneurs realize what is happening and try to get in on the scam.
Capitalists and the wealthy will not exchange their US dollars because they already know the scam. Then when all the available
US dollars are accounted for and replaced by USA bucks, then and only then will our government announce that we are returning to the US dollar as our only form of currency, and everyone will have to re-exchange their USA bucks for US dollars. Except for the rich and wealthy, who were in on the scam from the beginning and never exchanged their money in the first place. They will have prepared for the event by stockpiling food and water and anything else they would need to last them for five years or longer. And now their US dollars are worth ten times more than before.
And the rich get richer. And let us not forget, your wages will only be worth 10 cents on the dollar as a 9 dollar per hour minimum wage is now only 90 cents per hour. Similar to the wages in those third world countries. And everything starts over. And thus begins the New World Order. Or is it the New Age of Man? Hang on a minute, let me look at my scorecard.
I know it sounds crazy, but it could happen, couldn’t it?
Maybe. Maybe not. Anyway, let’s hope not.
Surviving the event begins next week, I promise.
GLOBAL ECONOMIC COLLAPSE – STARTING WITH GREECE
How shock waves will reach the US if Greece drops the euro
Greeks will have to wrestle with a crucial dilemma when they go to the polls for the second time in as many months on June 17 to elect a new government.
Greeks will have to wrestle with a crucial dilemma when they go to the polls for the second time in as many months on June 17 to elect a new government.
A Greek election on Sunday will determine whether it happens. Syriza, a party opposed to the restrictions placed on Greece in exchange for a bailout from European neighbors, could do well.
If Syriza gains power and rejects the terms of the bailout, Greece could lose its lifeline, default on its debt and decide that it must print its own currency, the drachma, to stay afloat.
No one is sure how that would work because there is no mechanism in the European Union charter for a country leaving the euro. In the meantime, banks and investors have sketched out the ripple effects.
They think the path of a full-blown crisis would start in Greece, quickly move to the rest of Europe and then hit the U.S. Stocks and oil would plunge, the euro would sink against the U.S. dollar, and big banks would suffer losses on complex trades.
ACT I
What would Greece’s exit look like? In the worst case, it starts off messy.
The government resurrects the drachma, the currency Greece used before the euro, and says each drachma equals one euro. But currency markets would treat it differently. Banks’ foreign-exchange experts expect the drachma would plunge to half the value of the euro soon after its debut.
For Greeks, that would likely mean surging inflation — 35 percent in the first year, according to some estimates. The country is a net importer and would have to pay more for oil, medical equipment and anything else it imports.
Greece’s government and banks currently survive on international loans, and if it dropped the euro, the country would probably be locked out of lending markets, says Athanasios Vamvakidis, foreign-exchange strategist at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch in London. So the Greek central bank would need to print more drachmas to make up for what it could no longer borrow from abroad.
That’s one reason analysts say the switch to a drachma would lead the country to default on its government debt, possibly triggering losses for the European Central Bank and other international lenders.
Most assume foreign banks would have to write off loans to Greek businesses, too. Why would Greeks pay off foreign debts that effectively double when the drachma drops by half?
Say a small shop owner in Athens has a €50,000 business loan from a French bank. She also has €50,000 in savings in a Greek bank. The Greek government turns her savings into 50,000 drachma.
If the new currency fell by 50 percent to the euro as expected, her savings would suddenly be worth €25,000. But she would still owe €50,000 to the French bank.
European banks would take a direct blow. They’ve managed to shed much of their Greek debt but still held $65 billion, mainly in loans to Greek corporations, at the end of last year, according to an analysis by Nomura, a financial services company. French banks have the most to lose.