“THE DOOMSDAY VIEW OF 2012″
By Surly Trader
Just when you thought you have read the most negative articles and predictions possible, you stumble across a whole other level of negativity. James Petras, a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York, just released a piece called the “Doomsday View of 2012“.
He kicks it off with feel good Christmas Eve spirit:
The economic, political and social outlook for 2012 is profoundly negative. The almost universal consensus, even among mainstream orthodox economists is pessimistic regarding the world economy. Though even here their predictions understate the scope and depth of the crises.
And the highlights of the events to come in 2012:
- The Collapse of the European Union
- The US: The Recession Returns with a Vengeance
- Militarism Exacerbates the Economic Downturn
- New Wars in the Midst of Crises: Zionists Pull the Trigger
- China: Compensatory Mechanisms in 2012
- Russia Faces the Crises
- Europe: Deeper Austerity and Intensified Class Struggle
- The Coming Wars that Ends America “As We Know It”
And the conclusion:
All indications point to 2012 being a turning point year of unrelenting economic crises spreading outward from Europe and the US to Asia and its dependencies in Africa and Latin America. The crises will be truly global. Inter-imperial confrontations and colonial wars will undermine any efforts to ameliorate this crisis. In response mass movements will emerge which will move over time from protests and rebellions , hopefully to social revolutions and political power.
A merry christmas to you as well Dr. Petras. Does he have prescient knowledge, or has he learned from Roubini, Meredith Whitney, Peter Schiff, and Nassim Taleb that doomsday sensationalism sells? Hey, he got some free advertising on my site and 10 minutes of my time…..
Cullen,
I frequent reddit and there was a post and comments today in regards to the US debt. I posted as usual from the MMT perspective and got a decent amount of positive responses.
There are ask me anythings on reddit pretty frequently….perhaps an MMTer like Warren or anyone really, should do an AmA on there. It would be big and get a lot of reads if it took off. And a lot of people visit reddit heh
And every one of those crises is completely preventable, that’s the worst part. Such incompetent leadership. Makes me sad.
who is surly trader? he reminds me the talking heads in end 2007, I dont think 12 will be 08 redux – yet, but the complacency is just mind boggling.
The European crisis and China should make it an interesting year. One thing for sure, at least on the things we know the outlook is worse, including earnings. So despite the perceived safe heaven status of the USA, equities at levels we saw this time list year don’t Make much sense.
Is this really “doomsday sensationalism”? Most of these predictions are at least reasonably likely to occur in one form or another, but probably not all of them in 2012.
What’s there to draw optimistic conclusions from instead? Not that much, I say. Just look at who’s lining up to oppose Obama…
That is what I thought too. These events are the worst case, but they do have some probability, like 5% vs. the end of the world probability which has 1 in several billion chance.
This prediction is very consistent with my 2012 end of the world prediction which I learned about from the Mayan calendar….
But I must admit i missed on Y2K and the rapture of 2011.
This guy has a stealth fighter on his website. Love it
Surely These Things Will Never Happen: Sirca – 2008
1- Lehman Brothers Files For Bankruptcy
2- Bear Stearns Will Be Sold for $2 Bucks.
3- AIG will be rescued by the Government.
4- Fannie/Freddie will be put into Receivership.
5- A $770B TaxPayer Bailout will be introduced to save the Banking Sector.
6- A Black Man with a Muslin middle name will be elected President.
7- Housing Will Correct 30%
8- Credit Default Swaps Will Bring the credit economy to its knees.
Yada Yada Yada….Sounds So Crazy….
It is good you bring this list as it suggests an intersting question. In late 2007, early 2008, MANY knew a subprime crisis was brewing but didn’t know exactly what it would bring . BB said it would be contained. Instead, we got the gifts in your list.
The question now is given what we know now about the European crisis, what “list” of bad events it is reasonable to expect.
No one know what will happen exactly, but, IMO, most forecasters re settling for very mild outcomes given the gravity of the crisis. It would appear they are making the BB mistake all per again.
I think Petras draws the current “”economic/political lines”" only a little bit further.
And yes, Israel has spent A LOT OF money in order to get more and more influence in Washington D.C. The government in Israel are certainly a bunch of radicals. So, I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see things unfolding like Petras has described.
I read this guys article. Some of what he says about economics makes some sense but the rest is just typical “the Jews run the world” BS. I wonder why he’s on this website.
Whatever happens, there’s a chart or graph to show it has happened before and was predictable. The only certainty is that debt is not solved by more debt, unless the business model is strong. As for Europe, what is the strong business case for more debt, or for that matter, more US housing debt? IMHO, the consequences of more debt, for the balance sheet stressed, is historically very predictable.
Everything that is out of our field of experience is percieved to be unlikely.
Like most of the jews still thought during Nazi regime, that what was their destiny would never happen.
All this incompetetivness since the EUR installment, is screaming to the roof, that the EURO collaps is wanted from the beginning.There have been thousands of warnings and analysis around from the beginning of the EUR that this construction will fail.
That disorder is wanted. Cause as someone else told before. This shit what happened the last ten years could have been prevented,though politicians did all to enforce it instead to solve it. So why should we expect any different now.
Who thinks the shit that just sits there on thre edge to blow into our face is going to be prevented should be considered as naiv.
Sure fire way to restore demand worldwide – war.
All wars ever fought sourced from economic problems. Here we go again…
Financial martial law is quite likely given current US political leadership.
Of course Bruce Krasting of BI has much more benign predictions and explicitly contradicts some listed above. The big differences come down to the fate of the EU, and whether Israel will launch a nuclear war against Iran. I happen to think the EU can keep its “ever close union” project going for at least another year, if not ten, and if Israel has been too chicken to attack Iran by now, they never will.
If it comes down to the edge of collapse, the ECB will print Euros by the truckload. They will print and print and print. Like any government, they will go down fighting, and a central bank’s army is printing presses, so they print.
Israel has known about Iran’s nuclear weapons program for more than a decade. If they haven’t attacked Iran yet, they are not going to start now. A big difference between Jews and Muslims is that Jews are not into glorious suicide. Iran almost certainly has a small number of deliverable nuclear weapons already, and even if they don’t they must have doomsday quality bioweapons. If war erupts, it will be because the Iranians attack first, not the Israelis. I do think people seriously underestimate the probability of Iran striking first, or getting into a shooting war based on a miscalculation.
If you read the whole article it degenerates into the American/Zionist conspiracy that runs the world. They are also responsible for the Arab spring,and the arab revolutions in syria Eygpt and Lybia. Come on now he is a nut. Please, I read this blog to screen out the noise and nuts and give us a summary of the best thinking out their.
“The zionists will pull the trigger”…..poisoned antisemitic rat
Let’s not abuse the author.
All Americans need to read “WIKISPOOKS.COM 9/11.” The enemy is in ou midst. Time to wake up, and rise up.