The Wake Up Project

The Economic Collapse Blog Have you noticed that most Americans seem to know far more about American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, Justin Bieber and their favorite sports teams than they do about world affairs? Most Americans cannot even find Tunisia and Algeria on a map, and if you told them that food riots are happening in those nations right now most of them would not even care anyway. We have become a very self-centered, self-involved and self-absorbed nation. Quite a few people have accused this column of being obsessed with "doom and gloom", but the truth is that the world really is falling apart out there. What are we supposed to do? Are we all supposed to stick our heads in the sand and pretend that everything is going to be okay? Should we all not try to warn others so that they can prepare for what is coming? Until people understand that we are facing absolutely massive problems they are not going to be motivated to take significant action, and hopefully thos...

When was the last time you saw stocks decline 54% followed by a 55% rally? When was the last time you saw stocks (NYSEArca: VTI - News), bonds (NYSEArca: AGG) and commodities (NYSEArca: DBC - News) move in sync for nearly two years? When was the last time asset allocation did not really provide the diversification and protection it was supposed to? When was the last time, a ten year investment in the stock market delivered negative returns? Investors that care to harken back 80 years will find that the 1929 - 1932 era is the only period of time that compares to today. In fact, the parallels between now and then are bountiful and scary. But who cares about history when the market is up and the forecasts call for better days ahead. The Dow Jones (DJI: ^DJI) broke the 10,000 for the first time in over a year, the S&P 500 (SNP: ^GSPC) rallied over 55% and the Nasdaq (Nasdaq: ^IXIC) has soared nearly 70%. Wall Street is anxiously expecting another earnings season, which is expected to b...

The recession is starving the government of tax revenue, just as the president and Congress are piling a major expansion of health care and other programs on the nation's plate and struggling to find money to pay the tab. The numbers could hardly be more stark: Tax receipts are on pace to drop 18 percent this year, the biggest single-year decline since the Great Depression, while the federal deficit balloons to a record $1.8 trillion. Other figures in an Associated Press analysis underscore the recession's impact: Individual income tax receipts are down 22 percent from a year ago. Corporate income taxes are down 57 percent. Social Security tax receipts could drop for only the second time since 1940, and Medicare taxes are on pace to drop for only the third time ever. The last time the government's revenues were this bleak, the year was 1932 in the midst of the Depression. "Our tax system is already inadequate to support the promises our government has made," said ...