Mike Stathis

splashes us in the face with ice water -- and ice cubes -- with It’s Time to Face the Facts, Part 1. His major points in this article:

* All Major Banks Are Insolvent
* We Are Witnessing the Largest Theft in World History
* There is NO Escaping the Depression.
* There Will Be No Real Recovery for 90% of Americans.

A sample:

Several generations of taxpayers are already on the hook for trillions of dollars handed out to these banks because Obama and his pro-Wall Street staff have convinced the public that they know what they’re doing. Sure they do. They’re pulling off the biggest heist of all time.
...
And yes, the market will advance as a result of this inflationary economic policy. However, it will be short-lived. Thereafter, the market is likely to fall below 6000 when reality sets in; perhaps even below 5000. The only recovery will be for those who stand to benefit from this epic fraud; the wealthy. The game is being played the way it always has, just on a much larger scale this time.

According to Stathis, Geithner is the naïve yes-man fallguy for Paulson, Summers, Bernanke, Rubin, and the whole Goldman-Sachs-Washington gang.

And Stathis warns us:

The sooner you accept the fact that America’s next Great Depression is here, the sooner you will be able to prepare for the difficult and permanent readjustment that lies ahead. You need to change your mentality as a consumer and employee. You need to become very frugal and stay that way. No more buying the latest gadgets. No more buying a new car every four years. You need to start acting like you don’t have job security because you don’t. You need to prepare for massive inflation because it’s on its way.

Finally, I urge you to minimize your dependence on banks; not just now, but forever. While it may cause an inconvenience, it will be well worth it. Banks are the most insidious enemy of American consumers.

Before you press your trousers, you might as well read Part II, which is broken into these topics:

* Most of the Lost Jobs Will Not Return.
* Washington Continues to Hide Economic Data.
* The Media is the Most Dangerous Force in America.
* Most of the “Experts” Are Absolutely Clueless.
* The Only “Change” Obama is Capable of is a Change of Face.
* There is Much More Risk than Opportunity.

and includes this cheery prediction:

What no one seems to understand is the fact that these job losses are not temporary. Most of them simply aren’t coming back. I’ll guarantee it. The only jobs that will return are those that no one wants; the low-paying, no benefit, dead-end jobs. It’s the same situation that played out after the dotcom collapse. This is part of the reason why there’s been no real recovery since 2001. As I discussed in “America’s Financial Apocalypse,” it was all an illusion fueled by a real estate bubble. It was another one of Greenspan’s bubble. And now Bernanke is creating his first bubble. But all bubbles eventually burst.

If one examines the data, since 2002 the vast majority of jobs created have been from the government and military. Furthermore, millions of lost white collar workers have had to settle for jobs for which they are overqualified and underpaid. Already, this has led to an underemployment rate of around 25% by my estimates. These trends will continue due to the toxic effects of America’s unfair free trade policies. The implosion of these economic bubbles has only hastened the effects of free trade. And you should expect the cycle of economic booms and busts to persist indefinitely as long as the Federal Reserve runs the show.

Holy smokes. Compared to Stathis, Peter Schiff and Gerald Celente are optimists.

I always wondered how we truly "get back to basics." This would certainly do it, however, I had imagined a more gradual and orderly transition.