Brzezinski Warns Of Riots in US

Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former national security advisor, has warned that the US could witness riots if economy continues its downward spiral.
"There's going to be growing conflict between the classes and if people are unemployed and really hurting, hell, there could be even riots!" said Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter's national security advisor, in a recent interview with NBC.

Economic Crisis Is No. 1 Security Issue: New Intelligence Chief
The governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan are losing ground to insurgents and terrorists but the most immediate threat to U.S. security interests is the festering global economic crisis, the nation's top intelligence official told Congress on Thursday.
His statement was a marked departure from threat briefings of years past, which focused on more traditional notions of national security worries.
He warned the Senate Intelligence Committee that if the economic crisis lasts more than two years, already unstable governments could topple. And a number of allies the United States depends on might no longer be able to afford to meet their own defense and humanitarian obligations, he said.
"Time is probably our greatest threat. The longer it takes for the recovery to begin, the greater the likelihood of serious damage to U.S. strategic interests," he told the Senate Intelligence Committee, as Congress prepares to vote Friday on a $789 billion stimulus package.

Ship of Fools
By Paul Craig Roberts
The unreality in which he US government operates is beyond belief. A bankrupt government that cannot pay its bills without printing money is rushing headlong into wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran. According to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Analysis, the cost to the US taxpayers of sending a single soldier to fight in Afghanistan or Iraq is $775,000 per year!

The world has never seen such total mindlessness. Napoleon’s and Hitler’s march into Russia were rational acts compared to the mindless idiocy of the United States government.

Obama’s war in Afghanistan is the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. After seven years of conflict, there is still no defined mission or endgame scenario for US forces in Afghanistan. When asked about the mission, a US military official told NBC News, “Frankly, we don’t have one.”

We Must Face the Music with Banks
If the government borrows money for the stimulus, it will either have to print money or raise taxes in order to pay it back. Raising taxes is in effect robbing Peter to pay Paul, and printing money means devaluing the currency and that is tantamount to robbing Paul to pay Paul back with inflated currency. That does not address the problem we are facing and is just a way to treat the symptoms and defer the real solution.

Bond market calls Fed's bluff as global economy falls apart
The yield on 10-year US Treasury bonds – the world's benchmark cost of capital – has jumped from 2pc to 3pc since Christmas despite efforts to talk the rate down.
This level will asphyxiate the US economy if allowed to persist, as Fed chair Ben Bernanke must know. The US is already in deflation. Core prices – stripping out energy – fell at an annual rate of 2pc in the fourth quarter. Wages are following. IBM, Chrysler, General Motors, and YRC, have all begun to cut pay.