Crash Course: Chapter 13 - A National Failure to Save by Chris Martenson

[bayleybomber]

in my country interest is taxed; for pesants" as secondary income(49%) If inflation is at 2 % and interest at a generous % 5 the interest does'nt cover inflation. if you put your lottery winnings in a bank your gaurnted to lose the value of your money. let alone if you spent your120,000 p a returnes. BANKS ARE SHADY. all western nations have incommon the lie based ecconnomy, inflation over 4% AND .unempolyment to the tune of ,' well" exsecive of 30 %

[christo930]

Notice that the peak in savings was in the early 80's when short term interest rates were very high and declined steadily as the short term interest rate fell. The high interest rate has 2 main features as to our savings, consumer credit is expensive and people are less likely to borrow and bank account interest is high encouraging people to save more (to earn high rates of interest).

[Standuble]

I guess its going to end up like what happened in the third century Roman Empire. Rampant inflation caused city dwellers to leave in floods for the country where they literally sold themselves into slavery to larger land owners. They became the first serfs, a business model for the poor for more than a 1000 years. Our children will be serfs again and the middle class will be no more.

[jackgoldman1]

Inflation, or currency debasement, leads to a separation of the classes as elites have their assets inflated into being "super rich". Banks benefit because they create debt and credit. Government wins with higher taxes. Worker bees who rent lose. The silver price of gasoline in 2011 is 14 cents a gallon. Banks and governments promote inflation. It makes them more money. End game? $4,000 gold, $128 silver, $4,000 Dow, massive defaults, before 2020. Protect yourself.

[Guarinbano]

1 moron watched this

[MacabreManifesto]

All of this is why I am a technocrat. When the gold standard becomes invalid simply because there is not enough gold to match the value of labor and resources in society, we have reached a new standard. Matenson is partly right when he says that money is a claim on human labor but consider this: The amount of calories expended by humans has significantly decreased ever since the industrial revolution, yet our growth rates have increased and our total output has vastly increased.

[darrellcheng]

I save like crazy, but what is a good way to avoid inflation?

[MacabreManifesto]

@darrellcheng If you personally, put money into the bank it will expand with interest, because usually the interest will cover the rate of inflation, and also grant you a sort of capital return. Banks earn money from your money and will thus give you your due of that money, that's why banks pay you if you give them your cash, because they use it as capital. A modest compound interest rate for a CD is 4%, so if you deposited $3,000,000 then you'd generate $120,000 dollars in that year. The...

[MacabreManifesto]

@MacabreManifesto ...lesson is: Become a millionaire retire immediately (that is if you are not such a pig that 120,000$ isn't enough for you [I personally feel that plenty of hedonistic desires would be fulfilled if everyone had their own $120,000 a year]).

[hitadjp]

@darrellcheng buy silver!

[qonf]

@darrellcheng invest in assets that do not decline in value, or at the very least do not decline in value at the rate of inflation.

Some people claim that gold/silver is the best option, others claim realestate (but as subprime showed, you have to be carefull here), others still claim stock in robust industry is best option. The wildest believers in the hard crash claim that survival gear is the only way to go. There are no easy answers.

[Ispamyounow]

Webfulcrum is right. By the time new federal reserve bonds are printed you're very lucky if the "value" of your savings even broke even. More people are listening to Ron Paul now, the mainstream media is finally giving him a little non smear campaign attention. Sadly most morons still believe his policies are "too out there". I guess we'll just have to wait and see what our current geniuses in Washington do for us then.

[webfulcrum]

the "failure to save" occurred because of the fed's "cheap money" policy. Printing dollars at the cyclic rate meant the cost of capital was reduced to virtually zero. However, the return on savings and investment was also reduced to zero as well. Have you seen rates of return for savings accounts, CD's, Money Market funds, etc?

That alone constitutes a disincentive to savings.

[FortNikitaBullion]

Savers are losers. No need to make fun of people doing the right thing.

[duende667]

Respond to this video...  so in twenty years the dollar will be worth about $0.15 against the yuan?it'll probably be on par with the euro then...

[fluffymcdeath]

Actually you CAN borrow from yourself and pay yourself back with interest IF you have your own currency. However, people are unlikely to want to trade with you in your currency if they find out that you are doing this without also building up your assets with which you can back up your currency.

[MrTheLOLOL]

06:29 or inflation!

[gunthaarz]

wrong. noone could save anything. because all have been earning too little to save anything when paying for housing , shelter has increased drastically, energy increases, etc.

[JAMESHI5]

this is really irrelevent, the reason for the recent modern debt and inflation is to prepare for ww3. China accumulating US dollar backed debts and bonds will be worthless in 30 years. The dollar exchange with oil and saudi arabia will be over. once the fed reserve has used the last of the dollars influence with china and the m iddle east, they will create a new centralized currency- the Amero. then we have ww3, fuck Ben Bernanke and those central banker dictators.

[hartleyjr]

people would be mad to save given current rates and given the erosion of saving capital value by inflation. the government want us to consume, not save. its not joe public's fault he's not saving when the Fed, BoE have forced savings rates down so low. Good videos. I had appreciated the gravity of the situation, but you explain the topics very eloquently.

[brandonpantano]

What if the US defaults on loans from China? War?

[nahhty]

@brandonpantano OR we can "liberate" them ... and our debt ;)

[zonsb]

Neither Walker or the Government Report take into account the 110+funds/assets listed in the CAFRs that have a 14% ROI. That shouldn't surprise you because they never tell the American people that they are the creditors, not debtors. The powers that be have inverted the creditor/debtor relationship to steal wealth from the value creators/producers.

[zonsb]

UNITED STATES corporation has been bankrupt since 1933. The American people are the ultimate creditors of UNITED STATES Inc. You have a trust receipt (birth certificate) as evidence of an underlying trust deposit.

[herbs814]

Social security is an evil pyramid scheme. It should be ended ASAP... or at the very least privatized through INDIVIDUAL savings accounts.

[soccerballtux]

10:25 is one of the weak points of this series; that's not an NPV that's total liabilities we owe over the next 50 or however many years.

That said, yes, SS+Medicare are cash-negative today, and that is not turning around.

However, we could just cut them entirely out of the loop-- no more SS or medicare for anybody. Tough luck.

[dsadasdaa10]

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[kikrlbs]

We are totally fucked.

[lovedalord88]

Great series of videos, God help us all when the dollar crashes...

Fed just announced it's gonna keep the interest rate at 0% another 4 months or so. Do you know what banks do when they get 1B? They turn it into 60B by the time it's done. They can borrow free money and lend it out at 60 times the rate plus interest and the expectation to be paid in full. These are dreadfull times to be on the Earth.

[3oMethylmorphine]

$50tn debt?? Where did all of this money go? Did this money ever even exist?

This system is going over my head a little (I will be re-watching the course) but it seems even to me that this system is broken.

[lovedalord88]

All the government has to do is push +1000 on a computer, only %3 of money actually exists as paper.

[phlashba]

@3oMethylmorphine

Simple: It is a giant pyramid scheme. As such, it MUST end. There is no other outcome.

[john5246]

Yeah it's going to be a rough time to say the least but when the baby boomers lose their power and the younger generations come in it will end up fixing the system.

[john5246]

It's so simple that it's hard to fathom. Re-watch it, you'll come to the same conclusion that the system is broken

[high5flyer]

How can people fail at saving when they live in a debt system that is designed/based on ever expanding growth like you have said? It is not the people, but the system, a system that rewards consumers and punishes those who are prudent and save.

[fluff125]

In a capitalist system, you get what you put in. If you want $100 dollars worth of benefit from society in the form of apples, healthcare, whatever, you need to contribute at least $100 to society.

You can't just lay around and collect welfare checks and not contribute to society at all. You get what you put in. Capitalism is the most fair and balanced system on the planet, rewarding the hard workers and entrepreneurs with money and better healthcare, and punishing the layabouts.

[pallatanga]

Look, invest in real estate of hard assets, you'll be fine!

[dak9779]

I'm scared because it can def happen. Look at Argentina. I think that's the closest example to what we are going through. Not only is it close in time, but it is close in it's nature. Big banks owned by government. Default on debt. I was there in the aftermath. Not a good situation.

[i99xx]

looks fucked up

[ScienceIsDead]

So what exactly happened in 1985?

[hatchls1]

This was the beginning of the tech stock booms. This is just an assumption but I believe that speculation of a strong market led to less saving. This is just my opinion but the tech boom began around that time. It eventually morphed into to DOTcom boom that burst in the mid to late 90's.

[Rustyshackleford08]

Inflation was getting higher too, the FED blew up a big bubble too but its nothing compared to the mess of today.

[mrzack888]

23 years of deregulation, of republicunt scum deregulation and globalization. I blame the corporate owned and run right wing neo liberal thinking. makes me sick.

[high5flyer]

How has there been deregulation when you have an ever increasing amount of quasi-government agencies over those last 23 years you reference? Fannie, Freddie, Ginnie, SEC, AIG, The Fed, GM, Chrysler, etc... The list just keeps going on. We have had the very opposite of deregulation.

[mrzack888]

you fool. it was deregulation that brought down the entire stock market . THEN, the government went in to bail those companies you named out.

[high5flyer]

Who's the fool? The one who gives facts about the matter or the one who immediately bashes someone to win their argument? The ratings of your comments speak for themselves! Are you saying that FNMA, Freddie, & GNMA were bailed out after the market fell? Learn about these organizations like, who they were created by & why they were created before you think there was too much deregulation. When big government & big business are in collusion, that is not deregulation. That is just a scapegoat.

[high5flyer]

Also, companies like GM and Chrysler would have had to of been bailed out regardless if the stock market fell. It was already baked in the cake and the only relevance the market falling had to do with their bailout is it gave government an excuse to do it now rather than sometime in the future.

[coreyk123]

regulation brought us down

[mrzack888]

glass stegall could've prevented this whole mess. what was ONE regulation that needed to be kept. it was private hands of the federal reserve that kept interest rates low. PRIVATE federal Reserve might I remind you.

[danno321s]

mrzack888 : No, Glass-Stegall would not prevent this, maybe only slow it down. The force of money creation to finance public debt is the fundamental power driving credit markets. The Savings and Loan Bubble and Long-Term Capital Managment (what a name!) happened with Glass-Stegall.

[mrzack888]

Glass stegall was to prevent commercial banks from speculating. it had nothing to do with savings and loan. savings and loan crashed because government bailed on them, which it never should have been involved with in first place, but glass stegall was a regulation law. simple and effective.

[danno321s]

@mrzack888: I didn't mean to imply G/S applied to the S&L's. My point is speculation pops up in many forms and many avenues because of FED/Government money policy. Where was the NY insurance commisser when AIG made its wild bets???

[mrzack888]

the government have been bought off by the new world order. but that doesn't mean the idea of government or proper regulations couldn't work.

[danno321s]

@mrzack888: For regulations to work incentives have to be properly aligned and they must not be too onerous. We could start by going back to bond investors paying the Credit Rating Agencies instead of the bond issuers. If this was never changed in the late 1970's, I am convinced the AAA rating of toxic CDO bonds could not have bubbled up to such a catastrophic extent.

[mrzack888]

if glass stegall was in effect regular cmmercial banks would not have bought these toxic derivatives. only investment banks would have failed, the mess would not have been as large.

[2freet]

haha

[abuahmed680]

every thing is alright do not listen to those gold lovers.

[ChesterFocus]

OMG What are we gonna have to do? Go into slavery in order to pay this off!

[Rustyshackleford08]

PRetty much, and I am not kidding either, thats what Globalism is about. Its forcing you to compete with the worlds poorest.

[sysopkc]

hahha well OF COURSE they are insolvent, theyve been insolvent for 20 years!

[3waybar]

Do u ppl. think that a USA civil war

and end of union spurred by the civil right to bear arms, is gonna solve these depth lvls and your way of consuming ?

The only outcome of this is that u will be owned, by the rest of the world.

If u fragment and fall into pieces, those pieces will be bought, cheap.

[WARDEN26]

How is the personal savings rate defined? Do contributions to a 401k count towards this rate? The rise of defined contribution retirement plans have risen dramitically in the last 20 yrs

[machinenation]

Can savings ever be a counter-productive thing though? Because I translate abstract money into tradeable goods and services, some goods and services go out of date or become obsolete so does it follow that money somehow becomes obsolete too unless used.?

I'm more or less sure it doesn't because of the nature of money as a currency but I've got this niggling feeling ...

[ThirdWorldHorn]

Once you are in an economy that is in the process of inflation, like we are, savings is a joke. Why would you save when the $1000.00 you put into today has less buying power in a month? If it takes 5 to buy a sandwich today but 10 tomorrow, then saving and investing is a joke.

[jammerdave]

You would probably invest that savings with the hopeful result of having the investment grow more than inflation.

[PorscheB06]

I think Gold and Silver will help you protect your buying power. Buy it on the dips, and hang on to it. If we go into hyperinflation, you will be much better off than the average person with a saving's account.

[cyclenut]

This is really eye opening.

Is there any connection with the fact we built a life style that was funded by our past massive oil reserves, and after the oil was gone we kept living like nothing changed? So to keep the american pig happy we screwed our children by passing the debt that funded the continued life style?????

[PorscheB06]

We also screwed ourselves by letting our polticians do all of the trade aggreements and send the majority of our blue collar jobs over seas. Now white collar jobs are going to India as well. WE ARE SCREWED.

[VinceP1974]

I couldn't think of a better generation for this pension disaster to affect.

[ClassicalRay]

"The next 20 years will be vastly unlike the last 20 years."  I totally agree, and these videos shed light on massive problem our government has created.

[PorscheB06]

It's not just the government, it is the Banks, and the Mega Billion Dollar Corporations who sold us out.

[shouldlistentoronpau]

It wasn't on the campaign trail???

Ron Paul practically shouted about the U.S. monetary problem and got shunned by the media.

[Elasaltaculos]

Absolutely right. Ron Paul addressed these issues and still does so today. People remain oblivious or mock him nonetheless.

If Ron Paul would have been voted in, life would still be hard, but at least we would be heading in the right direction. Now we are going from bad to worse.

[LazyOtaku]

@Elasaltaculos Yea, we we're fooled with Barrack Obama there.

[rsaathoff]

@Elasaltaculos I agree if Ron Paul had been elected we would at least be adressing the issues, but this country is controlled by forces behind the scene and they are so well funded that they control almost every media outlet and have completely brainwashed society into beleiving we have a two party system, That is a blatant lie. They are controlled by globalist think tanks like the CFR and TLC. No president wins the nomination inless they are a lap dog for the, The Fed must be ended now.

[rsaathoff]

@Elasaltaculos Also take a look at the bank of North Dakota. We must disolve the Fed and put all Treasury funds in state banks to disolve the fed. Isn't that how Andrew Jackson destroyed the 2nd United States Bank?

[DavidAKZ]

Looks like USA needs another war to plunder the wealth of other nations to balance the books. Like Iraq ?

[FranceParisian]

Are you talking about IRAN?

I think that will happen soon, perhaps even a stages conflict between China, Russia and USA!

I hate it when I sound like a conspiracy theorist....lmao

[Elasaltaculos]

If you have been paying attention to the whole series and if you study the real culprits, the american central bank or federal reserve, you will understand that wars have made us poorer and the "plundering" is of both the enemy and of US citizens.

Last I checked, Iraq has made the US poorer, not richer.

[DavidAKZ]

Yes, but if you are a US citizen how are you going to prevent the money changers making you poorer by further projection of military power while you are already debt slaves ? If you don't know what I'm talking about take a train trip up the Hudson form NYC and stop at Garrison. Have a look around the general area and you will see what the shadow government is trying to protect. Forget about everyone else.

[Elasaltaculos]

i dont have time for that, but I get the picture. I was a Marine not long ago.

Either way, I am investing in precious metals and arming myself to the teeth. And I am growing my own food.

Well, the tempest is nearing. I hope others will find shelter as well.

[DavidAKZ]

How about you take back your country instead of sticking your head in the sand ? 1776 least we forget.

[Elasaltaculos]

oh, wow. No need to point the finger here, bud. I am doing what I can, but what do you expect? for me to overthrow the government by myself?

I am very involved in what is happening, thank you very much.

I tell you this much. The day that Americans give up their arms like Australians did, that day you can forget about a revolution here.

[mooze967]

sure the united states' deficits are going to exponentially grow in the future . but is the us goin to go bankrupt? hell no. and this is due to 2 reasons and 2 reasons only.

1) the mighty american military empire which holds hostage the global community

2) the very fact that the us is a net importer and has that enormous debt( japan's debt to gdp ratio is bigger but they're a net exporter nation)

[mooze967]

when a borrower defaults on a $1000 dollar loan, that's the guy's problem. but when he defaults on a $1000000000000 dollar loan, then that's the bank's problem.

the united states will continue with the exponential lending and balooning of the national debt , and if the states is to be forced to default by the lender nations, then the lender nations themselves will go bankrupt.

what this means is that the us will continue to be allowed to occasionally  rape and pillage 3rd world nations

[mooze967]

what if any other nations on earth were to challenge the united states. thats where the mighty american military empire comes in .

now america is at a crossroad. the us' has lost all credibility in terms of leading the global community ( thank you bush ) . it is not whether the us is going to become a fascist state , it is to what degree of facism will the state subscribe to.

the answer to that lies in willingness of the industrial-military complex to temper their greed.

[viewer1112]

mighty American military empire?

ive never seen them before

things arnt just as simple as, we have a strong military, we win everything

if the us started bullying, what would that do to relations? how would that make American people feel about their country? theres enough unrest without America becoming some hostile state

[mooze967]

do you not know about the practise of placing dictators in foreign soil by the us ( case in point : saddam hussein )

america has always been a hostile state, economically and politically. heck what other nation dared to challenge the UN and absolutely break away from said international consensus to act unilaterally . there's a huge disparity between how the americans view their nation, and how everybody else thinks about the us.

[mooze967]

truth is it does not matter how many news channels there are, as long as the majority of the citizens watch networks such as Fox . even Al Jazeera isnt allowed to be aired in many of the states. ask the average american how they feel about their country, how they view the outside world, what do they know about other people .

the americans have to know to make the right decisions, since their votes shape not only the future of the states but also other nations.

[mooze967]

southeast asia was in the same shithole in the late 90s.when governments wanted to revive the economies ( bailouts amongst other things) they were unanimously condemned as being irresponsible and not letting market mechanisms to work.

a bunch of said asian leaders blamed the lawlessness of the global financial markets and currency speculators who were preditorial towards small asian countries.

[mooze967]

were these countries without blame? absolutely not. were they utterly chastised for their bailout efforts? yes

look how the tables have turned. but now we have congressional hearings . suddenly zero regulation seems like a bad idea. 1 trillion dollar bailout is morally justified.

if anything , i am more convinced that the us will come out stronger than ever from the crisis.bankruptcy is the last thing that's gonna happen

[mooze967]

oh right now the conservative medias are lauding schiff on his views about the stimulus package. they seem to leave out the fact that he is an ardent isolationist, an absolute critic of the american empire.

theoretically schiff gets it right. but the american phenomenan goes beyond the law of economics ( and physics ) that governs other nations on earth. they move unilaterally, making up laws as they move from one crisis to another.

[FranceParisian]

I agree!

[FranceParisian]

I do hope you are correct, however, a lot of signs, facts, statistic, world events and policies seem to be the opposite of what you are convinced about.

can you please keep me posted from now on till 2015 please.

I would like to know what will be your opinion by then.

[mooze967]

will do, good sir. but i dont think that the united states is going to attack iran anytime soon .they've secured enough oil to spend freely perhaps for another 10 years ( president bush was on the mark when he declared Mission Accomplished ).

in the coming years, what i think we'll see is the crumbling of the american influence . obama is now trying to salvage whatever pieces of goodwill that's left within the national community

[mooze967]

that's not to say that the us is going broke, on the contrary america will be wealthier given the fact that they no longer have to be the sole provider of moral leadership( we'll see the growing power of the EU within the next decade ), they ( the us) can ( purely) pursue the twin strategy of political and military manouverings to attain absolute wealth . all of this to be justified in the name of liberty .

[FranceParisian]

thank you very much, I am looking forward to a communication with you on the issue we agreed upon. Can you do me favor of not calling me sir, we are all equals so my take is we should call each other by name or in YouTube case by our username.

The crumbling of the American influence started in my opinion officially when George Bush was re-elected in 2004. The world was watching and was so dismayed by the death of the US Republic and was very scared by the prospect of US democracy.

[VinceP1974]

Oh the world.. what will the world think! Uh who cares.

American influence started to decline when the Democrats decided to go to war against Bush and undermined American will.

[inthebluescrossroad]

we are too busy watching the videos to comment rofl, its 1220 AM and i dont think im going to stop!

[gimmickless]

Audio quality seems much different here than the previous 12 videos. How was this recorded differently?

[panthy22]

It is true, its really one of the most useful videos i have evr seen

[hewsondion]

where are the comments people? this is awesome stuff...life changing information...thanks chris