Bleak Outlook for Stimulus

Optimism Opium By Gerald Celente



CELENTE_Gerald Kingston, NY -- In an Op-Ed piece in The New York Times 
(October 16, 1998), Trends Research Institute Director Gerald Celente 
predicted that government intervention to rescue private corporations 
deemed too big to fail, would result in the demise of free-market 
capitalism.


Back then he called it Capitalism for Cowards. (Click here to read Op-Ed 
piece.)

Today its called stimulus programs and rescue packages.

Back then, Mr Celente warned the bailouts wouldnt work.

Today, Mr Celente repeats the warning  they still wont work.

Back then, the government warned that if Long Term Capital Management, a 
hedge fund, was not rescued, the global financial markets would implode.

Today, with the markets imploding, the government warns that if favored 
banks, brokerages, leverage buyout firms, insurance companies, etc. are 
not rescued, the global economy will collapse.

Back then, Mr Gerald Celente accurately forecast, The global contagion may 
be temporarily suppressed by doses of monetary amoxicillin, but when an 
outbreak recurs, it will be in a bailout-resistant and far more virulent 
strain.

The global contagion was suppressed, the outbreak has recurred, and the 
more virulent strain is upon us. And, as Mr Celente predicted, it is 
proving bailout resistant.

Today, Mr Celente forecasts that no amount of monetary amoxicillin can 
cure the spreading virus.

Trend Warning #1: Whats being pitched today by the government has been 
tried before. It didnt work then, and it wont work now.

Following the Group of 20 summit, Barack Obama, while acknowledging there 
are no guarantees of success, declared, I have no doubt, though, that the 
steps that have been taken are critical to preventing us sliding into a 
depression.

Given that President Obama cannot provide guarantees, how can he have no 
doubt? Moreover, all of the bailouts, rescue packages, stimulus plans that 
he has supported/and or initiated to date, have already failed. And since 
the new plans are but variations upon tried, tested and failed policies, 
they, too, are destined to fail. The G-20 will not be a turning point and 
while the steps taken may slow, they will not prevent us from sliding into 
a depression.

Trend Warning #2: Dont be seduced by temporary equity market spikes or 
leading economic indicator upticks. Be especially wary of pitchmen 
claiming the markets have bottomed and headlines insinuating that the 
worst is over (Car sales not as horrid in March and Investors jump on good 
financial news, USA Today, 2 April 2009).

What is being sold as good financial news is, upon examination, news that 
is marginally less dismal than expected. Nevertheless, for insiders and 
professional gamblers, there will be opportunities to briefly ride the 
market waves.

There may also be ephemeral selling opportunities following accounting 
rule changes allowing banks to set their own prices for assets regardless 
of market values, and thus dramatically reduce their losses. This is not a 
step to recovery. This little reported Financial Accounting Standards 
Board (FASB) ruling is accounting flimflam, a capitulation that allows 
banks to set values to their own toxic assets.

Pessimism Porn

Back in 1998, Mr Gerald Celente was virtually alone in forecasting both 
increased government intervention, its inevitable failure and its 
catastrophic consequences. In the midst of the dot.com euphoria, with 
markets flying high, fortunes being made and optimism pandemic, any 
negative vision was ignored or sloughed off as gloom and doom.

Today, with every element in that decade-old forecast a daily reality and 
making global headline news, derision has replaced neglect. No longer able 
to dismiss, they attack. First it was TV clowns, now it is equally 
unqualified commentators.

Unwilling to face inescapable realities themselves, they try to deflect 
the publics attention away from uncomfortable truths with unhappy endings. 
In his New York Times Op-Ed piece, Ben Schott, having cited Celente for 
correctly forecasting The Asian Crisis and other calamities, sneers away 
his current predictions as Pessimism Porn. (NYT, 26 March 2009.)

Presumably, Mr Schott is more comfortable with the exhortations to Hope, 
Confidence and Optimism delivered by the Confidence-Man-in-Chief and his 
cadre of boosters. But if we are purveying Pessimism Porn, Schott & Co. 
are peddling Optimism Opium.

This pernicious panacea anesthetizes the public. Optimism Opium dulls the 
pain  lost jobs, foreclosure, financial ruin  relaxes anxiety, decreases 
alertness, impairs coordination, and is highly addictive. Repeated or 
chronic use results in mental deterioration. Overdoses can result in 
stupor, coma and death.

America is facing crises far beyond the financial. The implications are 
momentous. We are witnessing the decline of Empire America.

Learn more about Trends Research Institute online, or call 1-845.331.3500, 
ext. 1.

  MMIX The Trends Research Institute

From Yonkers Tribune April 3rd 2009

http://yonkerstribune.typepad.com/yonkers_tribune/2009/04/optimism-opium-by-gerald-celente.html