The King is Dying

Dear Sheep,

If you were semi-conscious in 1977 you may remember when Elvis died.



In early news reports they stated the King of Rock "collapsed in his mansion", which is a very eloquent way to put it. In reality we know from leaked information that the King died on his toilet from cardiac arrhythmia caused by an overdose of a medley of prescription drugs; codeine, Valium, morphine, and Demorol.

Artist's rendering:


Thanks to his father Vernon Presley, the rest of the details won't be available until 2027, two years before Kurzweil's Singularity. By that time no one will care for it is well known that robots do not like Elvis.

I know what you're thinking; "What does this have to do with me?" I knew you were thinking that because that's the first thing any sheep thinks about when confronted with an idea.

Looking back we can see the King's decline in the years before his death. In 1986 a book was released about his final years in which Elvis' guitarist John Wilkinson recalled:

"He was all gut. He was slurring. He was so fucked up. ... It was obvious he was drugged. It was obvious there was something terribly wrong with his body. It was so bad the words to the songs were barely intelligible. ... I remember crying. He could barely get through the introductions"

His doctor George Nichopoulos (aka Dr. Nick) later admitted he wrote the King prescriptions for 10,000 doses of narcotics in 1977 alone...because he cared.



Recently another King died of a drug overdose and just like Elvis, his doctor was named his murderer by many fans. In "This Is It", when Michael Jackson speaks during rehearsals he seems "not all there". After watching the documentary, the title had a whole new meaning for me; less "anticipation" more "evidence".

It's easy to make these claims in hindsight. It's harder to make the call before it gets really bad, unless you are paying close attention to the signs.

For Elvis it was:

a) Fat
b) Addicted to substances
c) Unable to stand up

For MJ:

a) Batshit crazy
b) Heavily In Debt
c) A comeback that never came

For both there was a self-destructive level of overindulgence that ultimately took it's toll on the Kings.

And now my point.

The US has been for the last 100 years a beacon to the rest of the world. America was one of the central governing bodies behind the bulging of the middle class that shot the global population up 700% in the last century. It fostered in a new era of technology, medicine, and commerce that gave a simple man the opportunity to live like a king.

That time is ending.

The signs are all there. In the macro sense, the US government has grown considerably. The military consumes nearly a quarter of the Federal budget leaving little money for funding domestic social services. Despite a necessary call for renewable energies and the threat of peak everything, the nation is still hopelessly addicted to oil. Because of emerging global markets, outsourcing and the internet the US is not producing and consuming as it once was. Despite large cash injections the future still looks uncertain and at times bleak.

In the Micro, the average American person matches the country as a whole. Here is the first result of a google image search for "average American":



Just like the other kings, most Americans are on some sort of pharmaceutical or drug. Cancer, diabetes and obesity are the leading causes of death. Many citizens are devoid of critical thought, participating and existing in a superficial world completely disconnected from the real one. This includes persons like corporations which based on their actions are often deemed psychopathic.

An then there are our elected leaders, who prove to us on a daily basis just how fucked up (normal) they really are.



Yes, it's a cock. Sit down, I'm not finished.

Last year I wrote a blog entry called "The US is Bankrupt". I'll let you sheep figure out the point of that.

Recently S&P, a leading US financial research company downgraded the US from a stable to a negative rating. Their reason?

"…very large budget deficits and rising government indebtedness and the path to addressing these is not clear to us."

And just yesterday a Chinese ratings house claimed the US has already defaulted on its massive debt.

You may remember the Chinese as the former principle holder of US debt.' The new top dog is...the US. Well, not exactly, we owe the Federal Reserve, which is a private organization, publicly governed (by it's friends).

"A year ago, at the end of June 2010, according to data released by the Fed and the U.S. Treasury Department, the Fed trailed China by a wide margin, owning $777 billion in U.S. Treasury securities compared to China’s $1.1121 trillion.
But in August 2010 the Fed started marginally increasing its holdings of U.S. debt, according the Fed’s monthly balance sheets. By the end of August, the Fed owned $784 billion in U.S. debt. By the end of September, it owned $812 billion. And by the end of October, it owned $838 billion."

To offset what is becoming a financial death spiral the Fed's solution is to inject more money into the system. Though this comes with a very real threat of inflation (which means a drop in individual purchasing power) it is the only solution short of a complete overhaul or an economic miracle. Though, historically, some miracles are not all they are cracked up to be.

"At first, the credit-expansion appears to be a stimulated process of economic growth. Interest rates fall, capital values rise and entrepreneurs profit by building up the capital structure. The capital construction cannot be completed, however, since genuine saving is insufficient. The boom rests on a lie, viz., artificially low interest rates, and once the lie is exposed, the boom must end and the bust must follow."
- Jeffrey M. Herbener

So there you have it. The signs are all around. This is it. We are fat, sick, broke and going crazy and no matter who we elect into office nothing is going to change. Just like anyone who is addicted, we have to quit the drugs, take better care of ourselves, and get away from the bad people who keep us addicted.

I'm not gonna end this article on a joke because this shit isn't funny anymore.

K

The US is bankrupt

I have found, if you want a clear picture of what is really happening in the world you need to follow the money. If you want to be lied to about non-issues, continue listening to the politicians. You need to look at the economic issues to understand the motives of these poo-slingers.

In July of this year Boston University Professor and economist Laurence Kotlikoff began warning "The US is bankrupt". Many of us non-sheep are aware of the official $13.5 Trillion US debt figure. Many don't seem too bothered by the fact that the debt is 60% of our Gross Domestic Product. Well according to Kotlikoff those numbers are a lie!

Writing in the September issue of Finance and Development (an IMF publication) Kotlikoff notes that the debt number is all about how you look at it. The US determines it's debt relative to GDP but when looking at the "fiscal gap" (the difference between the present value of government payments and receipts.) We are met with a much larger figure.

Kotlikoff cites a recent IMF report;

“Closing the fiscal gap requires a permanent annual fiscal adjustment equal to about 14 percent of U.S. GDP.”

With varied options of raising and lowering discount rates this figure can be pushed down to 12% or even 8%. I see the IMF wouldn't let you print an actual figure in your article, what does that mean in brass tax?

"In 2009, federal personal income taxes totaled 7.4 percent of GDP in the United States. To achieve present value fiscal balance would require a change in the present value of the government’s net cash flow equivalent to at least an immediate and permanent doubling of income taxes."

Oh boy. So how did this happen Larry?

"How did the United States reach its current state of what could effectively be considered bankruptcy? It spent six decades transferring ever more resources from the young to the elderly, under a variety of different programs described with a variety of labels. Many policies across many administrations from Eisenhower’s to Obama’s—cutting taxes, growing Social Security, enacting Medicare and Medicaid, spending to combat recession, and financing wars—added to the nation’s financial problems."

You mean I can't just blame Obama? But he's so smug! So what's gonna happen, will the sun explode?

"Once the world catches on to the true extent of U.S. fiscal insolvency, the ability of the United States to continue to finance its government borrowing could come to a halt."

But how do we solve the problem Larry my dear? How is Washington going to fix this?

:"One possibility, of course, is that the U.S. government will have come to grips with its fiscal problems."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Pull the other one!

"Another is that the government will print enormous quantities of money to cover its bills—with concomitant high inflation, declining confidence in banks and money market funds, and a serious test for deposit insurance. This scenario is extreme, but not improbable."

Hmm I don't know we did that in 2009 and we are planning on doing it again.

OK so what is the actual number here Lars baby? I have sheep reading this, words make their brains hurt.



$200 Trillion? Wow, if this were any other country we'd be back to living in huts. Indeed, unlike Greece or Argentina, the US is a unique example. The dollar is currently the reserve currency of the world, but signs are emerging from Asia that our time at the top of the hill is coming to an end. The only thing that can save us now is a big old neon distraction..

K