dollarvigilante.com / By Jeff Berwick / January 17th, 2013
In the December issue of TDV we took a brief look back at 2012. What a year. From the NDAA, to SOPA (which was defeated by one man in particular, anarchist, Aaron Swartz, who killed himself last week after being hounded by the US government and being extorted with threats of a million dollars and 30 years in a cage) to claims by media propaganda mouthpiece, Paul Krugman, of the US needing to fake an alien attack to get the economy on track. And then, in an encore, recently, coming up with a plan, Robert Mugabe style, to coin a platinum coin with a $1 trillion value to help pay off the US government debt… it was, and continues to be, a year of absolute insanity.
This is how systems fail. Especially, violent, thieving systems that are based on confidence.
As we look forward, in this January issue of TDV, to the year ahead we will start with some charts from the past that still hold true today and update a few charts to show the continuing death spiral that the US and most Western governments are in.
First, a chart we have used in the past but it needs to be re-asserted. This chart, all by itself, all but explains how out of control are the US government’s financial affairs.
Things appear to have gotten a little bit out of control since August 15, 1971 when the last vestige of gold backing was removed from the dollar and the US government defaulted on its obligations.
This chart of US government deficits shows the extremity of the situation relative to the past as well.
