Have the Experts Spoken on our Approaching Future – The Documentation – /Part 2

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By: John G. Weldon PhD, DMin, MA; ©2011

The views in this article are solely those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views of the John Ankerberg Show. The following material includes 80-plus excerpts from a wide array of individuals which illustrate the ominous economic, political, and social situation of the American nation at the present time.

Disclaimer: The views in this e-book are solely those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views of the John Ankerberg Show.

Citation Documentation

“The American Economy is in collapse. Nothing the White House, Congress or the Federal Reserve tries to do to stop the crash will stop it. Bush’s TARP, Obama’s stimulus and Bernanke’s money-pumping schemes … none have delivered the recovery each had promised. The digital trillions injected by the government to keep financial firms afloat put America on temporary life-support, no more than that. When the plug is pulled and the money pump stops, the US economy will go down and much of the world will sink with it.” — Leading global forecaster Gerald Celente, August, 2011^[1]

Jim Rogers graduated from Yale and Oxford universities, teaches finance at Columbia University and became a Wall Street legend. He is a leading entrepreneur, chairman of Rogers Holdings, a self-made millionaire and cofounder with uber-liberal billionaire George Soros of the Quantum Fund. On the Glenn Beck show May 9, 2011 he said the following about the US government (which refers principally to President Obama and the Democrats who hold power):

“They’re trying to destroy the value of our currency… The debt is going straight through the roof.” “They don’t know what they’re doing; they don’t have a clue what’s going on (they are corrupt)… They’re not trying to do what’s good for the country.” As for President Obama and the Democrats Keynesian economic plan “[throughout history] it has never worked… [Treasury Secretary] Mr. Geitner has never been right, please look at his record for the 17 years he has been in Washington. And [Federal Reserve Chairman] Mr. Bernacke, Oh my goodness, he has never been right… He’s been wrong every month for eight years.” The US has become sufficiently socialist, while China is turning toward capitalism that Rogers could say and mean that “California is more communist than China right now. Massachusetts is more communist than China right now.”

Attorney Michael T. Snyder has worked for some of Washington DC’s largest law firms. He started “The Economic Collapse Blog” Website and has written a load of articles. Perusing some of the articles, he seems to know his stuff; the articles include such titles as the following: “18 Signs the Collapse of Society Is Accelerating;” “12 More Signs that Society Is Collapsing;” “The Coming Economic Hell for American Families;” “10 Tipping Points Which Could Potentially Plunge the World into a Horrific Economic Nightmare;” “Suddenly Everyone Is Warning about the Next Financial Collapse;” “When Faith in the US Dollar and US Debt Is Dead the Game Is over – and That Day Is Closer Than You Might Think,” “Extreme Paranoia,” “50 Things Every American Should Know about the Collapse of the Economy” and others.^[2]

The following material includes 80-plus excerpts (interspersed with occasional commentary) from Senators, Congressmen, statesmen, Governors, attorneys, entrepreneurs, intelligence leaders and analysts, ambassadors, former White House staff, military leaders, CEO’s, political advisors, investment bankers and other top investors/financial advisors, Institutes, leading forecasters, social commentators, academics, authors, consultants, mayors, authorities in business, economics, broadcast journalism, theologians, etc., which illustrate the ominous economic, political, and social situation of the American nation at the present time. These are only samples of those I have collected. (The citations are in no particular order; a postscript discusses the accompanying risk of a third American Civil War.)

1. Investor’s Business Daily, one of the most innovative sources of information for the investor community serving some 850,000 investors and readers globally:

“A perfect storm of statism is forming, and our economic freedoms are at serious risk.”^[3]

2. Judge Andrew Napolitano, former Superior Court judge, adjunct professor of law at Seton Hall Law School:

“[If America does not change the direction it is on, America will] be destroyed”^[4]

3. Wayne Rogers, Wayne Rogers & Company CEO:

“… he [Obama] is making us a fascist country [economically] where big government and big business are in cahoots together, that’s what’s going on.”^[5]

4. Dr. Thomas Sowell, Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University; awarded the National Humanities Medal for prolific scholarship in history, politics and economics, as well as the Bradley Prize for intellectual achievement; taught economics at UCLA, Stanford, Brandeis, Rutgers, and Cornell and has been hailed as one of America’s greatest philosophers; the author of many books including On Classical Economics, (Yale University Press).

Reflect on the following acknowledgment by Dr. Sowell in a recent interview:

Glenn Beck: “… could you design the collapse of our country any better than what we’re doing today…?

Dr. Sowell: “Absolutely not…”^[6]

Elsewhere, Dr. Sowell expanded on his comment:

“After many a disappointment with someone, and especially after a disaster, we may be able to look back at numerous clues that should have warned us that the person we trusted did not deserve our trust. When that person is the President of the United States, the potential for disaster is virtually unlimited…. if the worst that Barack Obama does is ruin the economy, I will breathe a sigh of relief…. He is heading this country toward disaster on many fronts, including a nuclear Iran, which has every prospect of being an irretrievable disaster of almost unimaginable magnitude…. Nothing has torn more countries apart from inside like racial and ethnic polarization…. This is a president on a mission to remake American society in every aspect, by whatever means are necessary and available. That requires taking all kinds of decisions out of the hands of ordinary Americans and transferring them to Washington elites — and ultimately the number one elite, Barack Obama himself…. Like so many before him who have ruined countries around the world, Obama has a greatly inflated idea of his own capabilities and the prospects of what can be accomplished by rhetoric or even by political power. Often this has been accompanied by an ignorance of history, including the history of how many people before him have tried similar things with disastrous results.”^[7]

5. Senator Jim DeMint, author, Saving Freedom: We Can Stop America’s Slide in the Socialism:

“If we don’t put the brakes on our president he’s going to break the country.” “It is special interests that are drawing up these [massive spending] bills.”^[8]

5a. Senator Lindsey Graham:

“Were going to run the country into the ground unless the public speaks up and demands change. And the only change that I can tell you will work his a balanced budget amendment ratified by three fourths of the states.”^[9]

6. Governor Tim Pawlenty on the Obama presidency:

“He ran as somebody who’s going to unite the country and now he’s governing as somebody who I think is very dangerous, [i.e.] has a very dangerous liberal agenda, …”^[10]

6a. Representative Ron Paul (R Texas), candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination:

“The national debt now stands at just over $14 trillion, while net total liabilities are estimated at over $200 trillion. The government is insolvent, as there is no way that this massive sum of liabilities can ever be paid off. Successive Congresses and administrations have shown absolutely no restraint when it comes to the budget process, and the idea that either of the two parties is serious about getting our fiscal house in order is laughable.” “Imagine the societal breakdown of Weimar Germany, but in a country five times as large. That is what we face if we do not come to terms with our debt problem immediately.”^[11]

7. Gordon Robertson, J.D., CEO, Christian Broadcasting Network:

“We are now in a situation where the government can impose whatever rights — or take away whatever rights — it sees fit.”^[12]

8. Gary B. Smith of Exemplar Capital argues that what the current administration is doing:

“sounds like Soviet Russia back in the 60s and 70s…”^[13]

9. Douglas Casey, international investor and entrepreneur (he has lived in seven nations and visited over 150), founder and chairman, Casey Research, LLC, founder of the Eris Society, author of Crisis Investing (1979), the largest selling financial book in history:

“What we’re facing right now is not just [a] depression… this isn’t the most serious thing since 1930; it’s the most serious thing since the founding of our country.”^[14]

10. Peter Grandich is Chief Commentator of the online investment community Agoracom.com and renowned globally for his predictions in the stock, bond and precious metal markets. He points out that, looking at the actuaries, even if the government were to tax everyone at 100% the US couldn’t pay off its debt:

“I’m beyond worried…”; “The Fed continues to monetize debt through some very sophisticated check kiting type [fraudulent] systems; … So it’s a very scary picture once we get into 2010 and beyond.”^[15]

11. Chuck Vollmer works regularly with senior officials of Congress and the Defense Department. He is founder and former Vice President/General manager for General Dynamics Corp.’s Defense Initiatives Organization, former senior engineer at McDonnell Douglas, founder and president of VII Inc., an investment capital firm specializing in government and business initiatives, chairman Triangular Integrated Systems, LLC, President, Quasar International, board member Alchem LTD, author of numerous publications including, Information Operations Vision For the Air Combat Command, recipient of six Distinguished Flying Crosses and 11 Air Medals. (See his full bio in World Affairs Monthly, December 2006: http://worldaffairsmonthly.com/images/scn/vollmer3.pdf)

In an interview, he pointed out that 20 countries in the last 20 years have gone into true hyperinflation, e.g. an inflation rate of 1000% to 1,000,000% + per month.^[16] For his analysis, see his PowerPoint presentation, “The Economic Crisis: The Tyranny of Trillions.”^[17]

12. Charles K. Rowley & Nathanael Smith. In “Economic Contractions in the United States: A Failure of Government” (Institute of Economic Affairs and The Locke Institute, 2009) noted economists Charles K. Rowley (General Director of The Locke Institute and Duncan Black Professor of Economics at George Mason University) and Nathanael Smith (Senior Research Fellow at The Locke Institute) argue that Obama and his administration are making the same errors of the Great Depression that altered a one-year recession in 1929 to a major depression that lasted a decade. James Buchanan won the Nobel prize for economics in 1986 and endorses Rowley and Smith’s view:^[18]

“As our monograph demonstrates, the path that Obama follows is not just the road to serfdom that Friedrich Hayek warned us against in 1944. It is the road to hell for an American people whose nation was forged on a Lockeian anvil of the inalienable rights to life, liberty and property.”^[19]

13. 100 Economists

“On Tuesday, 100 economists, including 5 Nobel Prize winners, all managed to agree on one thing: Barack Obama’s economic plan would be a disaster for the US Economy.  According to these economists, Obama’s plans “defy both economic reason and economic experience.”^[20]

14. Paul B. Farrell, J.D., Ph.D., former investment banker with Morgan Stanley, author of 1,100 columns for Dow Jones Market Watch and author of 5 books:

Time’s running out. We’re already at the edge. Add up the trillions in debt: Any collective solution will only compound our problems, because the cumulative debt will overwhelm us, make matters worse…”; “At a recent Reuters Global Finance Summit former Goldman Sachs chairman John Whitehead was interviewed. He was also Ronald Reagan’s Deputy Secretary of State and a former chairman of the N.Y. Fed. … He sees “nothing but large increases in the deficit … I think it would be worse than the depression….”; “… this is a road to disaster,’ said Whitehead. ‘I’ve always been a positive person and optimistic, but I don’t see a solution here.'”^[21]

15. Thomas H. Naylor, Professor Emeritus of Economics at Duke University, a international management consultant, has advised major corporations and governments in over thirty nations.

“No academic discipline has ever been so thoroughly discredited in such a short period of time as has economics over the past year. Virtually no business, government, or academic economists foresaw what may prove to be the greatest economic meltdown in history… Those employed by the Federal Reserve Bank, the US Treasury, the White House, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund are among the most inept. They appear to be clueless as to how to deal with the crisis. …. Now that the system is broken, neither Wall Street, the Fed, nor the Treasury knows how to fix it. It was simply too big, too unwieldy, too inflexible, and to conducive to mismanagement and fraud to survive….. Economics as practiced in the United States today is no science at all, but rather a political ideology disguised as a science. Economics is the “abysmal science,” and that’s a problem for all of us.”^[22]

16. Peter Schiff, President Euro Pacific Capital Inc., author of Crash Proof:

“Hyperinflation [like Zimbabwe] is a worst-case scenario… [but] if we don’t change our policies that’s what we’re going to have.”^[23]

17. Noted economist Art Laffer, referencing his book The End of Prosperity:

“He [Obama] is doing everything we worried about. It is probably the worst economic administration I’ve ever seen…. this guy is making every single economics 101 mistake you can make…. you name it, he’s making the mistake.”

“People deserve the governments they get. And if people are ill informed, they deserve a bad government.”^[24]

On Obama’s economic policies:

“There is not a policy that this administration is doing that makes any sense as far as I can tell.”^[25]

18. Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer of Missouri (R) was in the farming business for 27 years and in the financial services industry for 30 years:

“If you look at the problems and how they were attempted to be solved back during the Depression, we’re going down the same road, and making a lot of the same mistakes that were made then.”^[26]

19. Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and author of The Divided State of America: told Newsmax that President Obama is “very dangerous” in his economic policies and that his foreign policy is causing “severe damage” to U.S. standing in the world.^[27]

20. Mark Levine J.D., is President of the Landmark Legal Foundation and was an advisor to several members of President Ronald Reagan’s Cabinet. He was Chief of Staff to Attorney General Edwin Meese, deputy assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education at the U.S. Department of Education, and deputy solicitor of the U.S. Department of Interior. He is the author of the mega best seller Liberty and Tyranny and Men In Black: How The Supreme Court Is Destroying America. He says of President Obama:

[As almost everyone knows, Bernie Madoff is the convicted felon whose $65 billion Ponzi scheme ruined thousands of lives.] The President’s policies are “Bernie Madoff” times a thousand; he is taking a wrecking ball to this society… What the president is peddling is something utterly foreign [to the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence]. He is dragging us into what de Tocqueville called a “soft tyranny” [i.e., the departure of hope, leading to fascism] — and really, I don’t know what the limits of the power of the presidency are anymore… [Obama] is a real, live Imperial President who wants to dictate everything… He doesn’t have the constitutional authority to do all these things… he is the purest statist ever to sit in the oval office… he stands for all the wrong things.^[28]

21. Hilmar von Campe grew up under the Nazis and is author of Defeating the Totalitarian Lie:

“I lived through the Nazi nightmare and my family paid dearly. My elder brother fell in Russia and my father perished in a Soviet concentration camp without having committed any crime. The rest of the family was expelled from our home in East Germany and we came as refugees to West Germany. Everything I write or lecture about is based on my personal experiences in Nazi Germany. There is nothing theoretical about my description about what happens when a nation throws God out of government and society. I don’t want my children and grandchildren to go through the same. My writing is part of my restitution for the crimes of a godless government, of the evil of which I was a part. My restitution includes a commitment to the state of Israel and the God-given rights of the Jewish people.”

“Our nation has elected an anti-American left-wing radical if not Communist to be president of the United States.” “We better begin to plan now for the reality and not for a democratic daydream. The ideological war has reached us at the top of our power structure threatening our very existence from inside.”

“It may sound like I am exaggerating or over-dramatizing the situation, but I think that we have a repetition of Hitler’s policy to get total power developing in the United States. Obama’s massive expansion of the federal government will destroy the United States as a world power, make us even more dependent on our enemies, and will ruin a great part of the present population and their descendants. I believe his real purpose is not to get the United States out of the financial mess but to set the stage for a total takeover…. I am especially concerned about the dangers of a government-takeover of the media. Hitler didn’t need to do that because the Nazis already controlled the media-newspapers, radio and the film industry.^[29]

22. (Former Marxist) David Horowitz, referring to Obama’s $787 billion (wasted) stimulus:

“I don’t think his first priority was stimulating the economy — it’s funding radical change in America. The stimulus package is to fund leftists. And the health-care program is similar.” Speaking as a former committed Communist radical: “I’m appalled at the kinds of radicals he’s put in positions of power and it telegraphs what his agendas are… he is a radical; we have a president who is a radical.” Speaking of the Obama administration: “I think they’re arrogant, incompetent and radical.” “You cannot run so far to the left in this country and try to ram these things through and break so many promises you made in the campaign and not reap a whirlwind.”^[30]

23. Glenn Beck, businessman, best-selling author and host of the second or third most popular cable news show, on Obama’s massive government spending:

“It’s irresponsible, it’s criminal, it’s criminal.”^[31]

24. Randall Hoven, U.S. Navy from 1972-75, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory 1979-82, recently retired from Boeing Corporation as a Technical Fellow, currently adjunct professor in the Engineering School of Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville:

“Obama … was raised and educated by Marxists to be Marxist.” “A reasonable person could infer that the present aim of the Democratic Party is full implementation of the planks of the Communist Manifesto. Just look at the ten planks and look at the Democratic Party’s platform or its legislation waiting in the wings. You don’t need rose-colored glasses to see the red in either. In fact, the interesting question is no longer whether our politics in the US and Europe (not to mention Latin America) are leading to Marxism. The interesting question now is whether voters care. My guess is that almost half the people in the US, and probably more elsewhere, think Marxism is no worse or even better than “capitalism.” Isms is isms, in our post-rational world.” “Of course, Barack Obama has not even begun his Rule yet.” “Ready to play Communist Manifesto Bingo? Just get out your copy of the Manifesto and look at the 10 planks. Once Obama passes laws that enact or strengthen at least, say, five of them, yell “bingo.” That will be the sum total of your power to do anything about it.”^[32]

25. Peter Roff, Fellow, Institute for Liberty, Former Senior Political Writer, United Press International:

“Almost everywhere you look in the Obama administration you can find appointees whose beliefs are clearly outside the mainstream, who are, in a word, extremists.”^[33]

26. Representative Maxine Waters:

“Guess what this liberal will be all about, this liberal will be all about socializing… taking over and the government running all of your companies.”

(Waters made the CREW list [Citizen for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington] for the “Most Corrupt Members of Congress” in 2005. The above statement was in reference to a dialogue with Oil President John Hofmeister at the House Judiciary Committee’s Task Force on Competition Policy and Antitrust law.^[34]

27. Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas Moore Law Center

“I’m really concerned that we’re on our first steps toward a tyrannical government…” “The Obama Administration has declared war on American patriots and our Constitution.”^[35]

28. John Mackey, Cofounder and CEO of Whole Foods, the world’s leading natural and organic foods supermarket; Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year in 2003:

“It now appears that were going backwards — we seem to be moving backwards toward some kind of fascism where business is controlled by government or socialism where government owns business.”^[36]

29. Paul B. Farrell, J.D., Ph.D., former investment banker with Morgan Stanley, author of 1,100 coulmns for Dow Jones Market Watch and author of 5 books:

“The core principles of conservative economic ideology are grounded in Nobel economist Milton Friedman’s 1962 classic “Capitalism and Freedom.”…. So what happened? Are you guys nuts? Hey, I’m talking to all you blind Beltway politicians (in both parties) … plus the Old Boys Club running Wall Street (into the ground) … plus all you fat-cat CEOs (with megamillion parachutes) … and all your buddies scamming everybody else to get on the Forbes 400. You are proof of Lord Acton’s warning: “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”… You folks turned our America from a great capitalistic democracy into a meddling socialist economy. Still you don’t get it.” “Friedman’s economics requires leaders of moral character…. Friedman’s great conservative principles have been commandeered by myopic ideologues whose idea of leadership is balancing the demands of self-interest lobbyists with the need for campaign donations. Unfortunately, a new “change” president won’t be enough; there are 537 elected officials in Washington controlled by 42,000 special interest lobbyists.”^[37]

“The real democracy, what so many fought and died for since 1776, is dead. Lobbyists now run America, own America, rule America. Forget the 537 politicians you thought we elected to the White House, Senate and Congress to run America for us. No, they’re mere puppets, pawns for the “Happy Conspiracy,” an oligopoly, plutocracy, cabal, monopoly all-in-one — a private club of America’s richest few on Wall Street, in Washington and in Corporate America.” “Registered lobbyists may be 42,000 versus a mere 537 elected officials. American University political scientist James Thurber says there are actually 261,000 members of the “influence-lobbying complex” running your government.” “This anti-democracy trend was recently exposed in a BusinessWeek piece, “Don’t Call Them Lobbyists,” where we see this industry rebranding itself as cooperators, as “special policy advisors,” “crisis managers” and “strategic planners.” Reminds us of that fairy tale about a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” guarding the hen house. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans will never hear about all the day-to-day shenanigans: The buying, selling and bartering of sweeteners, earmarks, votes and senatorial seats. Most of the behind-the-scenes deals never cross the radar of Middle America.” “Stop kidding yourself. Wake up, you’re in denial, in fantasy world, dreaming of a new “American Democracy.” Wrong, you no longer live in a democracy.”^[38]

30. Bernard Goldberg a noted leader in broadcast journalism^[39] says of the president:

“Who he really is is an old-fashioned, at times downright nasty, Chicago politician who gives hypocrisy and cynicism a bad name.”^[40]

31. Simon Johnson, professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, chief economist at the International Monetary Fund during 2007/08:

“The conventional wisdom among the elite is still that the current slump “cannot be as bad as the Great Depression.” This view is wrong. What we face now could, in fact, be worse than the Great Depression-because the world is now so much more interconnected and because the banking sector is now so big.”^[41]

32. Paul B. Farrell, JD, Ph.D., author of 1200 columns and nine books, formerly Executive Vice President of the Financial News Network; Executive Vice President of Mercury Entertainment Corp; Associate Editor of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner; an investment banker with Morgan Stanley; head of the Crisis Management Group:

“There is a high probability of a crisis and collapse by 2012. The “Great Depression 2″ is dead ahead. Unfortunately, there’s absolutely nothing you can do to hide from this unfolding reality or prevent the rush of the historical imperative.” “Jack Bogle published “The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism” four years ago. The battle’s over. The sequel should be titled: “Capitalism Died a Lost Soul.” Worse, we’ve lost “America’s Soul.” And, worldwide, the consequences will be catastrophic. That’s why a man like Hong Kong contrarian economist Marc Faber warns in his Doom, Boom & Gloom Report: “The future will be a total disaster, with a collapse of our capitalistic system as we know it today.”^[42]

33. Chris Ruddy, a graduate of the London School of Economics and CEO and editor-in-chief of News Max and Money News:

“We’re looking at massive hyperinflation in years to come, I can guarantee you that.”^[43]

34. Michael Hampton

“The Great Depression will look like a small blip compared to the economic collapse the United States is about to suffer, according to several experts.”^[44]

35. Rudy Giuliani, former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York and Associate Attorney General, the third highest position in the Department of Justice, former mayor of New York during 9/11 (his record of 4152 convictions and only 25 reversals is almost unparalleled):

“So far the damage the Obama administration has done to our economy is very, very serious. I think more than any president has done ever in a short period of time, but most of it is [potentially] reversible [but with passage of Obama’s health care plan] this would be irreversible.”

36. French bank Société Générale has advised clients to be ready for a possible “global economic collapse” over the next two years, “mapping a strategy of defensive investments to avoid wealth destruction…. “^[45]

37. Warren Buffett, the wealthiest man in America, the world’s most famous investor, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway:

“I’ve never seen Americans more fearful. It takes five minutes to become fearful, much more time to regain confidence. The system does not work without confidence.”^[46] “Our economy is in shambles.”^[47]

In another interview, Buffett refers to the economy as “an economic Pearl Harbor” and as having “fallen off a cliff.” He said that in September 2008, the US economic system was hours or days away from collapse. The economic situation is “virtually as serious” as a war:

“I would not have thought there could have been a much worse case than what happened.” “We are in a very, very vicious negative feedback cycle.” “I’ve never seen consumers or Americans generally more fearful than this… and they’re also confused.” “People have really changed their behavior like nothing I have ever seen.”

He thinks things will turn around and that, hopefully, it won’t take five years. “This is truly an economic crisis” and “there are too many cooks in the kitchen.”^[48]

The same program noted Warren Buffett declared that the US would inflate the currency to pay its debt and according to Ruddy, in the past six months moved billions of dollars of his cash stockpile from Berkshire Hathaway into foreign securities.

38. Paul Zimmerman, United I-Cap:

‘There’s nothing else the Fed can do to try and improve things, everything that can be done has been done; it will either work or we will head into a depression/hyperinflation.’ — “This is a very, very difficult situation.”^[49]

39. Art Laffer, (Ph.D. Economics, Stanford University), a Democrat, was the first chief economist at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) when it was formed in 1970, a consultant to the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Defense under the Ford administration, and a member of President Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board. He is currently President, Laffer Associates, a Distinguished University Professor of Economics at Mercer University, co-author of The End of Prosperity. According to investment expert Peter Tanous (The Wealth Equation, Investment Gurus, Investment Visionaries), Laffer “is probably the best known economist in the United States.”

“This administration is probably the worst economics administration I’ve ever seen… boy, are they bad on economics.”^[50]

Laffer argues of the Obama administration that, “they don’t understand basic economics… [what they are doing] makes no sense;” he said he didn’t see how the US could ever pay off its debt, or how this current debacle could end with anything but Zimbabwe.^[51] He elsewhere pointed out that people have no idea of what’s coming and that things are currently much worse than in the Great Depression in terms of where we are in the cycle.^[52] On a different show, despite being extremely impressed with President Obama personally, “I think he’s wrong on every single issue.”^[53] Speaking of Obama’s political team, “These people rebut arguments that they know to be true in order to curry favors with their political benefactors.” He points out this is true of every administration which is why people can look at the same set of facts and come to different conclusions — the President says he wants such and such and the facts are creatively re-formed to justify it.^[54]

He points out that it is not that the economic crisis is impossible to fix, but that the Obama administration has no desire to do what is necessary to fix it. In addition, of the dozen or so “bubbles” that have broken (dot.com, Savings and Loan, housing, etc.) the current bubble that is getting set to break is the money bubble when the dollar is devalued and hyperinflation may erupt. He believes that the Federal Reserve is attempting to spend our way out of a depression, but that this is something that has never been successfully achieved in history. In fact, whenever it has been tried it has always failed. In addition something else that has never been successfully accomplished is the monetizing of one’s own debt without hyperinflation. The US is currently monetizing its debt; if it succeeds it will be the first time in history.

“The money supply of the US, the monetary base, has increased by the most its increased from revolutionary times to the present — times 13. It’s the biggest increase in the monetary base ever — actually it’s a huge, huge amount…” [This is what causes hyperinflation, printing unbelievable amounts of money.] “We have never had an experience like this in the US ever — it’s the first time.”^[55]

“By 2011 this economy is going to be a train that goes off the tracks.”^[56]

40. Senator Arlen Specter –

“We are on the brink of a depression.”^[57]

41. Texas Governor Rick Perry:

“We’re about to see hyperinflation, and the cost of doing business and living in this country is going to go through the roof.”^[58]

42. Patrick M. Byrne, Ph.D., CEO Overstock.com:

“A third side effect of this [Wall Street] crime is that it has created in our country’s financial system a crack so deep it could trigger a systemic collapse.”^[59]

43. Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital (europact.net) author of Crashproof, an expert on money, economic theory, and international investing:

“Everything the government is doing is making the problem worse…. if we keep pursuing the policies we’re pursuing now, we’re going to have a depression that lasts a long time.”^[60]

Peter Schiff at the Freedom Fest 2009 conference:

“The government is now in danger of creating an even worse depression than they did in the 1930s. And I think the reason that this depression could be worse, and will be an inflationary depression (unlike the one our grandparents had), is because the fundamentals of the economy are even worse and the government is already enormous.”

“There is the real risk that this [Zimbabwe style] hyperinflation is going to happen.”

“It is going to get a lot of worse and we’re going to lose a lot more of our freedoms. Because the government, every time they make the situation worse, they claim the solution is more government. It’s always more government.”^[61]

44. Col. Barry Johnson, U.S. Army Northern Command:

“[In the words of J.B. Williams] The US (and world) economy is hanging by a thread. Threats of renewed terror attacks on US soil are quite real. Government power is without any check or balance, and growing in unbridled evil by the hour. The American taxpayer is being driven deeper and deeper into unmanageable debt by the day. ‘We don’t have the luxury to wish these things away. We have to imagine the unimaginable,…’Johnson said.” ^[62]

45. Gerald Celente & Selections from The Trends Journal (TrendsResearch.com, with one of the best records on economic and social forecasting):

A “Depression, … is just around the corner.” “According to a June 8th [2011] CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, 48 percent of Americans believe that another Great Depression is likely to occur in the next year – the highest that figure has ever reached.” “Given the trends in play and the people in power, economic collapse at some level is inevitable.” “Conditions are rapidly deteriorating and it is imperative to remain on high alert. Another violent financial episode is looming. It may be triggered by economics (e.g., debt defaults and debt crisis contagion in Europe, a crashing US dollar, or commodity price spikes); it could be terror (false flag or real), a man-made disaster (another Fukushima) or one made by Mother Nature … or any combination of the above.” “Banks may close, currencies may be devalued and deposit withdrawals may be imposed. Remember Gerald Celente’s basic survival strategy, “GC’s Three G’s: Guns, Gold and a Getaway plan.” (Gerald Celente, “Trend Alert: Collapse — It’s Coming! Are You Ready?” Subscriber email, June 16, 2011)

“It was estimated that market declines destroyed 40 to 45% of wealth worldwide in 2008. By any standard, such losses reflect Depression.”^[63]

Celente & TJ predict a depression worse than in the 1930s, beginning sometime in 2009: “The Greatest Depression… is upon us.”; “The global financial system is in collapse. And neither stimulus nor spending packages will reverse it.”; “… collapse is inevitable, unremitting and will be long-lasting.”^[64] “… there is no hope of avoiding the crash or easing the impact.”^[65] “How bad will it get? Terrible.”^[66] “Never in its history has America fallen so low and so fast, after riding so high. And we forecast it will fall much further, and land harder, than almost any place in the world.”^[67] “We are going through a period of history, the likes of which have never been seen. What we face now has few parallels to anything experienced before.”^[68]

The Institute predicts a significant degree of social unrest as things deteriorate including marches, food riots, and violence. In 2012, they predict e.g., “Food riots, tax protests, farmer rebellions, student revolts, squatter digins, homeless uprisings, tent cities, ghost malls, general strikes, bossnappings, kidnappings, industrial saboteurs, gang warfare, mob rule, terror.”^[69] “On the evening of September 18, 2008, the American democratic system was replaced by a financial dictatorship. What was billed as a “Federal Bailout” was nothing less than a bloodless coup. The Wall Street gang had taken over the White House and control of Washington.” “Wall Street was Washington and Washington was Wall Street. There were no checks and balances, no accountability, and new rules were invented ad hoc: when the old rules didn’t give them what they wanted.”^[70]

Why this depression could be “The Greatest Depression

Back in the Depression era, people could grow their own food, owned their own homes, there were family farms and they weren’t dependent on electricity for survival. They were far more independent and self-sustaining.

Further, in the 1930s Great Depression, the following did not exist: 1) massive debt, $14 + trillion; 2) a $700 billion plus yearly trade deficit; 3) millions of outsourced jobs; 4) major global competition; 5) a crippled manufacturing base.^[71] After World War II, US manufacturing accounted for one in every three jobs; today it’s one in 10 and headed downward.

In addition, 6) in 1929 only a small fraction of Americans were invested in the stock market whereas today it’s virtually half the nation, and 7) as we saw earlier, there is some $150-$200 trillion in total national debt. Then again, if a $150-$200 trillion national debt is sobering, what about the alleged seven hundred trillion dollars in derivatives debt?^[72]

46. Judd Gregg, Republican Senator:

“We are headed toward a financial situation like a banana republic.”; “… we’re going to be running deficits of $1 trillion a year for the next 10 years. We are taking our public debt from 40% of GDP to 80% of GDP which is unsustainable. You put on top of that this massive new health-care program… which is going to cost another one $1-$2 trillion [per year] ; it’s going to break the back of our kids…”; “there’s a lot of Bernie Madeoff accounting going on here to try and make this health-care bill look palatable from a financial standpoint.”^[73]

47. Harry Dent, (alleged 60-70% accuracy in predictions) author of The Great Depression Ahead:

“If you thought 2008 was scary, 2010 to 2012 will bring on the greatest economic and banking crisis since the early 1930s,” Dent writes, forecasting that real estate, stocks and commodities will all fall much further than they have already.”^[74]

48. David M. Smick is Chairman and CEO of Johnson Smick International Inc., a strategic market advisory firm; Founder and Editor of The World Economy and author of The World Is Curved: Hidden Dangers to the Global Economy. In a recent interview he referred to “a roller coaster ride of financial terror that has recently threatened to return us all to the financial Stone Age.”^[75]

49. Rush Limbaugh, host of the most popular radio talk show:

“There is a lot of fear; there is a tremendous amount of fear in the country over what is happening in Washington to individual liberty and freedom.” “Every day you get a hand is a new potential threat to liberty and freedom being launched by this man [Obama] and his administration.” “I’m really, really worried — we’ve never seen this kind of radical leadership at such a high level of power in the country. I believe that the economy is under siege, is being destroyed — anybody with any economic literacy would not do one thing this administration has done to try and revitalize the private sector. They are destroying it. And I have to think that it may be on purpose, because this is just outrageous what is happening,…”^[76]

50. Daniel Mitchell, Ph.D. economics, George Mason University, economic and tax expert, currently a Senior Fellow with the CATO Institute, former economist for the Senate Finance Committee and Senator Bob Packwood and former Senior Fellow at the Heritage Foundation:

“In some sense were jumping past French style socialism to Argentinian style crony-capitalism where it’s the President’s buddies who make the decisions on who gets what resources in the economy… [this is] a potential rats nest for corruption… sort of the old-style Soviet commissar… [but in history this type of thing] never, ever works.” “[We] are on a path to economic ruin.”^[77]

51. Arthur Laffer, Ph.D. Economics, Stanford University, President, Laffer Associates, former economic advisor to President Reagan, named a Distinguished University Professor of Economics by Mercer University, author of The End of Prosperity:

“It’s shocking what they’re doing to our government; it’s terrifying.”^[78]

52. Newt Gingrich, one of the most informed people in America. Understanding the breadth of his background if just briefly, gives weight to his comments that follow. First, he is an internationally recognized expert on world history, military issues, and international affairs. Second, he is former Speaker of the House of Representatives and the architect of the critical “Contract with America.” Third, he is a noted author of over 20 books, including, Real Change: From the World That Fails to the World That Works; Saving Lives and Saving Money; Rediscovering God in America; The Government’s Role in Solving Societal Problems; Lessons Learned The Hard Way). Fourth, his positions and memberships include : Member of the Defense Policy Board; Distinguished Visiting Scholar and Professor at the National Defense University; serving on the Terrorism Task Force for the Council on Foreign Relations; Editorial Board Member of the Johns Hopkins University journal, Biosecurity and Bioterrorism; Advisory Board Member of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies; co-Chair of the UN Task Force to reform the United Nations; appointed to the United States Commission on National Security/21st Century; Chairman of the Gingrich Group which specializes in transformational change; General Chairman of American Solutions for Winning the Future; Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC; Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California; Honorary Chairman of the NanoBusiness Alliance, etc.^[79]

His noted speech to the Heritage Foundation, July 20, 2009, was part of an ongoing program from the think tank, “America at Risk,” which advocates the government reverses its budget cuts on national security programs. Gingrich discussed some of the key problems faced by America. He first pointed out that:

Our approach to national security and future military threats is “extraordinarily dangerous” and in many ways, “we are on the edge of a catastrophe.” “We are today running very big risks in the name of saving a few billion dollars that may end up killing several million Americans;” “… we are making decisions today that will unilaterally disarm us around 2025 or 2030.”

Then he summarized the specific threats facing America:

“In terms of these recent budget cuts and other problems relative to our national defense, as well as 1) the real threat of a nuclear terrorist attack; 2) the real threat of a nuclear pulse bomb, just one of which would eliminate most of the electrical power in America (“the greatest threat in potential catastrophic consequence” [but not the most likely, which is nuclear]; 3) a biological terrorist attack; 4) cyber terrorism, which is “only going to get worse and more complicated;” 5) national missile defense; 6) problems in our space and satellite programs, and 7) radical “breakouts” in our enemies scientific advancements which we aren’t prepared for, but which is something that is “virtually inevitable.”

In sum:

“I would argue that we are living at the edge of a catastrophe, and we need to understand that’s exactly where we are. What we are faced with is not simply a problem — it is potentially catastrophic.”^[80]

The day after his speech, Gingrich pointed out that “we are really underestimating how dangerous the world is” and that current policies could result in a catastrophic event that would “fundamentally change American life.”^[81]

“This administration is going to go down in history as a consistently anti-religious, secular group of people who are consciously trying to drive [religion] out [of society].”^[82] In March 2009 Gingrich referred to the dictator-like aspect of the Obama administration more than once. “I think dictatorial is a strong word, but it may, frighteningly, be the right word.”^[83]

“To try to take anything he [Obama] says as though it has meaning I think is very dangerous because … [it’s] even worse than in the Nixon administration — this is an administration that you had better look at what they do, not what they say, because is there’s no relationship between the two.”^[84]

53. Judge Andrew Napolitano: “… President Obama wants to control the salary of private businesses, change the provisions of private contracts, nationalize insurers and auto manufacturers and dictate to every person in the land what his or her medical choices shall be. This is theft of liberty and theft of property.” “… we now have a federal government whose only self-acknowledged limitation is whatever it can get away with.”^[85]

54. The late Lawrence Eagleburger, former Secretary of State points out that the Obama administration has little or no sense of history, is indecisive and inexperienced and unable to lead, e.g.,:

“This administration, it seems to me, has no understanding of the trends of American foreign policy and our position in the world [even going back to 1900]… I don’t think they have the least understanding of what it is that’s gone before us and what it is we need to keep in mind for the future.” “They don’t know what they’re looking for, they don’t know what they’re trying to get. This is true in foreign affairs and it’s certainly true on a lot of the domestic issues that were now facing.”^[86]

55. Senator Howard Dean on CNBC: “I think we’ve had quite enough capitalism in the last eight years. I think we need some regulation now.”^[87]

56. President Obama: “So today my administration is proposing a sweeping overhaul of the financial regulatory system, a transformation on a scale not seen since the reforms that followed the Great Depression.”^[88]

57. Thomas Sowell, Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University:

“The thing most associated with America– freedom– is precisely what must be destroyed if this is to be turned into a fundamentally different country to suit Obama’s vision of the country and of himself. But do not expect a savvy politician like Barack Obama to express what he is doing in terms of limiting our freedom. He may not even think of it in those terms. He may think of it in terms of promoting “social justice” or making better decisions than ordinary people are capable of making for themselves, whether about medical care or housing or many other things. Throughout history, egalitarians have been among the most arrogant people. Obama has surrounded himself with people who also think it is their job to make other people’s decisions for them…. No one is more of a political magician than Barack Obama…. Barack Obama’s escapes from his own past words, deeds and associations have been escapes worthy of Houdini.”^[89]

58. The Rutherford Institute-Virginia Themis Society Research Program

“While America may not be a surveillance state quite yet, the dangers of becoming one are far too great for citizens to simply ignore them, especially with the warning signs that have become so visible since September 11th, 2001. With the Constitution in danger of losing the values our great founders embedded within it over 200 years ago, it is time that we look towards the surveillance state as not just a far off possibility, but a reality that is already a part of our every move.”^[90]

59. Richard Viguerie, author, Conservatives Betrayed:

“This is the most serious opponent that we have ever faced…. He’s done nothing but select big government socialist types. People say sometimes, “Is Obama a socialist?” To me, that’s not a serious question. Of course he’s a socialist. The question is “Is he a Marxist?“… There are two institutions designed to keep politicians and government on the straight and narrow. The media — and we all know they have left the sidelines as the referees and have joined the other side. That leaves the nonprofit community. They are in serious danger of being totally silenced or co-opted by this administration. It is very serious; they [the Obama administration] know what to do with power…. You’re going to see the entire nonprofit community wanting some of this [federal] money and they’re either going to be silenced or co-opted. That’s just one of the hundred things they’re going to do to use our money to make this a one-party country.”^[91]

60. Dick Morris: (Bill O’Reilly speaking): “You think that he [the President] really just doesn’t care.” Dick Morris: No, I really don’t. I think that he has a standard of beliefs and they’re crazy and that’s what he’s going with.”^[92]

61. Jim Simpson is a former White House staff economist and budget analyst, businessman and Examiner.com columnist. He provides a cogent summary of President Obama’s “Cloward-Piven” strategy, excerpts below:

“It is time to cast aside all remaining doubt. President Obama is not trying to lead America forward to recovery, prosperity and strength. Quite the opposite, in fact. In September of last year, American Thinker published my article, “Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis.”^[93] Part of a series, it connected then-presidential candidate Barack Obama to individuals and organizations practicing a malevolent strategy for destroying our economy and our system of government…. These people are our enemies. They don’t use guns, yet, but they are just as dangerous, determined, and duplicitous as the communists we faced in the Cold War, Korea, Vietnam, and bush wa