by David Chu for the Saker blog
How often have the Irish started out to achieve something and every time they have been crushed politically and industrially. By consistent oppression, they have been artificially converted into an utterly impoverished nation.
~ Friedrich Engels, 1856
Look out, Ireland!
Financial debt-bergs, dead ahead!
The Irish “external debt to GDP” ratio is currently at 609%. In December 2010, it was well over 1,000% (1,091.5% to be precise). No other nation on Earth carries this much external debt to its GDP. The United States, the world champion of all debts for sure with an official national debt reaching almost $31 Trillion, only has 104% as its external debt to GDP.
What this means is that Ireland will be fleeced once again, meaning her people will be enslaved financially and economically . . . when interest rates rise. Interest rates are rising significantly and will rise dramatically. Ireland is the poster child of nations in debt slavery and what will happen to those who borrow way beyond their means.
Before we get into the nitty gritty of this unlucky Irish story, I want to state for the record that I am not an economist. Thank God! I am a mechanical engineer by profession and I understand numbers. Numbers don’t usually lie. Well, sometimes numbers can be manipulated. But most of the times, they also can tell the truth. We are going to take a 30,000 feet overview of this increasingly hot and very dangerous situation that is not adequately covered by the mainstream or the alternative media.
Great Black October
The financial and economic situation in Ireland will soon hit the debt-bergs dead ahead. By not managing and lowering her national debt and, more importantly, her external debts, Ireland is extremely vulnerable to upcoming dire world events.
October is always a month of karmic reckoning for the USA. Financially. Economically. And maybe even militarily this year.
The Great Depression officially started in October, 1929 with the Great Stock Market Crash on October 29, 1929. Other financial reckonings include the Black Monday of October 19, 1987 and the giant Bank Run aka the Bank Panic of October 14, 1907.
This year 2022 may be the Great Black October, officially precipitating the Great Depression 2.0. Incidentally, some nations like Argentina are already in an artificially-induced full blown Great Depression since at least 2020. Inflation in Argentina will probably reach 100% at the end of 2022.
If the USA manages to survive through this October, meaning no Great Stock Market Crash/es, look to December 5, 2022 when the USA and their G7 vassals, I mean partners, will implement the oil price cap on Russian oil exports. Russia has officially stated, President Putin that is, she will cease to export oil to any nation that implements this American-cartel oil price cap. Russian natural gas is for all intent and practical purposes ceased flowing to the EU due to the very recent American terrorist sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 underwater gas pipelines.
Starting shortly after December 5, 2022, prices of oil and therefore retail prices of gasoline and diesel in Ireland, Argentina and throughout the world will skyrocket.
Great Recession Dead Ahead?
New York University professor Nouriel “Dr. Doom” Roubini has recently predicted a “severe, long and ugly” recession dead ahead.
He made his dire prognostications in Bloomberg News which was reworked in a RT (Russia Today) article on September 20, 2022:
According to Roubini, large debt ratios of corporations and governments will lead to recession. As rates rise and debt servicing costs increase, “many zombie institutions, zombie households, corporates, banks, shadow banks and zombie countries are going to die,” Roubini said. “So we’ll see who’s swimming naked”
“It’s not going to be a short and shallow recession, it’s going to be severe, long and ugly,” Roubini said.
Dr. Doom is famous for, among other things, predicting the financial crisis of 2008-09. I also saw that one coming as early as 2004, and even wrote a self-published ebook in late 2008 on the housing market crash called, “NO Foreclosures! Guerrilla Principles to Save Your Family and Stick It to the Banks!”.
However, I do believe Dr. Doom is being a bit conservative this time around, even though he said, “the S&P 500 could fall by between 30% and 40%”. The reason is that it’s not going to be just a “severe, long and ugly” recession, but a Great Depression.
Great Depression 2.0 to be precise.
Debts, Debts, Debts Everywhere!
Let’s take a semi anal-retentive examination of national debts, shall we?
We are going to use the data from the World Debt Clocks provided by US Debt Clock.org. Here are some housekeeping parameters and some personal observations:
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- The data used is a snapshot taken as of September 22, 2022. Table 1 below is a summary of the world debts as listed on US Debt Clock (USDC) on September 22, 2022. All the data are constantly changing.
- National debt (or public debt) is defined as the money or credit owed by all levels of the government, from the local level to the central government.
- Private debt is the money or credit owed by private households or private corporations.
- External debt is the total of national (public) debt and private debt owed to nonresidents, i.e., foreigners or foreign nations.
- The Gross Domestic Product or GDP is the value of all goods and services a nation produces in a particular year (usually the calendar year).
- In Table 1, I have rounded off all the GDP numbers from USDC to the nearest Billion USD.
- USDC purposefully calculates the US “national (public) debt to GDP” ratio using some off balance sheet income that is not listed. This accounting trick is not used for any of the other nations. USDC’s US “national debt to GDP” ratio is listed as 97.71%. I calculated it as 103.50% which is the correct figure.
- I back calculated the external debts using (1) the “external debt to GDP” data and (2) the GDP data provided by USDC.
- I calculated the “national debt to population” ratios (national debt per capital) using (1) the national debt and (2) the population data of each nation provided by USDC.
- I also calculated the “external debt to population” ratios (external debt per capital) using (1) the external debt and (2) the population data of each nation provided by USDC.
- Taiwan, which is a province of China, is listed like a nation by USDC. Since Taiwan is not a nation, I deleted Taiwan’s data from Table 1.
- South Africa, for some reason, is not included in the list of nations by USDC. South Africa, one of the BRICS nations, has a GDP (estimated at $345 Billion for the end of 2022) greater than Portugal ($266 Billion) and Greece ($288 Billion) which are included by USDC.
Ok, now we can get started!
Here is Table 1 which is taken from USDC as of September 22, 2022 around 12 noon EST: 
Table 1 is not that interesting by itself. However, spreadsheets like Microsoft’s Excel and Apple’s Numbers allow us to sort these seemingly hodgepodge data into some very interesting extrapolations and observations.
Before we get bored with numbers and roll our eyes, there is a reason to be anal-retentive with these 7 tables. The last third part of this article goes to the meat of this article. So read on and stay focused!
Table 2, which is more interesting, is a list of the 10 largest national debts in descending scale, starting with the largest indebted nations first. 
Of course, the United States of America is #1!
Sometime in October, 2022, the national debt of the United States will blow through $31 Trillion. That’s a lot of zeros! To give some context on how exponential is this growing number: It took the USA 205 years to surpass $1 Trillion in total national debt on October 22, 1981; but it will only take 41 years to exponentially add another 30 Trillion!
Note to all the anal-retentive persons out there: Nothing survives exponential growth.
Nothing.
All 7 of the G7 nations (USA, Japan, Italy, France, Germany, UK, and Canada) are in the top 10 list of most indebted nations, as far total national debts are concerned.
Three of the BRICS nations (China, India and Brazil) are in this top 10 list.
Table 3 shows the “national debt to GDP” ratios for the top 10 nations, in descending scale.
One of the ways to understand what this “national debt to GDP” ratio means in layman terms is to use the “credit card to income” analogy. Let’s say that we have a credit card limit of $100,000 USD and our annual income is $50,000 USD. Because of hard times and all, we have maxed out our credit card and we owe $100,000 USD. Well, in our case then, the “credit card debt to income” ratio is 200%.
Question: How long can we maintain our lifestyle if our “credit card debt to income” ratio is 200%?
Answer: Not very long.
All ten nations listed in Table 3 are spending more than they produce in terms of GDP each year. Six of the G7 nations (Japan, Italy, France, USA, Canada, and UK) are spending more than they produce each year for quite a few years now. None of the BRICS nations are in the top ten of this list.
Question: How long can nations like Japan, Greece, Italy, Portugal, etc. continue to incur national debts way beyond their annual national income?
Answer: Not very long.
All these 10 nations with a “national debt to GDP” ratio over 100% are spending money beyond their means. Japan and Greece are spending money way beyond their means.
Table 4 is a list of the “external debt to GDP” ratios for the top 10 nations, in descending scale.
Ireland eats the cake!
At the #1 spot, Ireland’s external debt is 609% more than her GDP. There is something that we should note about Ireland’s GDP. Apple, maker of the iPhones and all things that begin with an “i”, launders its European sales through its Irish headquarters. Why? To avoid paying taxes as Ireland has one of the most preferential business tax polices in the world. However, Apple’s “contribution” to Ireland’s GDP, which has been as high as 25%, generates ZERO income for the Irish nation. How’s that for a GDP accounting trick? Therefore, this ridiculous 609% is even a lot higher!
Now, imagine if our credit card debt is more than 609% of our annual income! What happens when the credit card company demands that we pay off our credit card debt? That’s about to happen to Ireland, Netherlands, UK, etc.
At the #2 spot, Netherlands’ external debt is 455% more than its GDP.
Two of the G7 nations (UK and France) have “external debt to GDP” ratios greater than 200%. None of the BRICS nations are in this top ten list.
Table 5 is a list of the largest external debts for the top 10 nations, in descending scale. 
Again, the USA is #1!
Six of the G7 nations (USA, UK, France, Germany, Japan, and Italy) are in the top 10 list of most indebted nations, as far total external debts are concerned. Canada is not far behind with an external debt totalling almost $1.9 Trillion. None of the BRICS nations are in this top 10 list.
The significance of this data metric is that these debts are owed to foreigners. Therefore, the USA has over $25 Trillion of debts that are owed to foreign persons and nations.
Little Ireland is also in this top 10 list with almost $3 Trillion in external debts. My guess is that a lot of her external debts are owed to the wonderful parasites in the City of London.
Financial heroin is awesome to rebuild cities and produce shiny buildings. But like real heroin, there will be a hell of a hangover to reckon with!
How many times has Ireland been fleeced or genocided (newly invented word usage!) by the good folks in England throughout history? How about the so-called “Irish Potato Famine”, anyone?
The Irish never seem to learn, do they?
Table 6 is a list of the largest “national debt to population” ratios for the top 10 nations, in descending scale. This data metric is also called “national debt per capita”. 
Japan tops this list. This means that each Japanese citizen is indebted with $120,476 of national debt. That’s $120,476 for every man, woman and child in Japan!
Six of the G7 nations (Japan, USA, Italy, France, Canada, and UK) are in the top 10 list of most indebted nations, as far national debt per capita is concerned. None of the BRICS nations are in this top 10 list.
Poster child Ireland has $75,342 of national debt for each Irish person! That’s a lot of debt when the debt holders come calling.
We are getting real close to the end of these tables!
Table 7 is a list of the largest “external debt to population” ratios for the top 10 nations, in descending scale. This data metric is also called “external debt per capita”.
Like Table 6, the “external debt to population” ratios give an indication of the relative indebtedness carried by each citizen, except these debts are owed to foreigners.
Saint Patrick’s Ireland is #1!
That’s almost $600,000 for each Irish man, woman and child! Talk about bad luck.
This means that when the nice creditors aka financial parasites from the City of London or New York City come calling, the poor Irish are going to be a lot more poorer . . . they will be living on the streets and eating potatoes again, if they are lucky.
Four of the G7 nations (UK, France, USA, and Germany) are in the top 10 list of most indebted nations, as far external debt per capita is concerned. None of the BRICS nations are in this top 10 list.
We probably wouldn’t want to be living in Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland, UK, etc. when the Financial Shitstorm hits the preverbal fan.
And that’s what we are going to talk about next.
We are in the final lap, so stay focused!
Financial Shitstorm
We are purposefully led like sheep by the mainstream and alternative media to believe that the most important job for the Central Banksters, like the US Federal Reserve System aka the Fed, is to save the Stock Markets or to fight inflation or to grow jobs or whatever.
Bullshit.
The Fed’s dharma or purpose of existence is to keep the Financial Ponzi Scheme of Debts going until it’s impossible to do so when everything blows up.
Recently, RT posted an article titled, “Worst bond market crash in over 70 years coming – Bloomberg”.
Global government bonds are on course for their worst performance since 1949 as losses mount in the face of aggressive central banks, Bloomberg reported over the weekend citing Bank of America projections.
According to the [Bloomberg] report, the escalating losses reflect how far the US Federal Reserve and other central banks have shifted away from the monetary policies of the Covid pandemic, when they held rates near zero to keep their economies going. The reversal has hit everything from stock prices to oil as investors brace for an economic slowdown.
On Friday, the UK’s five-year bonds plummeted by the most since 1992 after the government rolled out a massive tax-cut plan. Two-year US Treasuries are in the middle of the longest losing streak since at least 1976, falling for 12 straight days.
“Bottom line, all those years of central bank interest-rate suppression – poof, gone,” Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group told the media outlet. “These bonds are trading like emerging market bonds, and the biggest financial bubble in the history of bubbles, that of sovereign bonds, continues to deflate,” he explained. [Bolded emphasis is mine.]
The Fed raised its policy-rate range to 3.25% on Wednesday, which is its third straight 75-basis-point hike, hinting further increases beyond 4.5%.
The worst government bond market performance or crash was NOT in 1949, but in 1980.
Financial Armageddon 1980
“The bond market bubble! If you thought the stock market crash was bad, wait till you see what a bond market crash feels like! And remember: When bonds crash, interest rates—and mortgage rates—go up. So think of what that could do to American families in debt.”
Martin D. Weiss wrote the above quote in his 2003 book, “Crash Profits: Make Money When Stocks Sink and Soar!”
No one has never heard about the Financial Armageddon in 1980 that almost killed the US government and its economy. It certainly killed the Peanut Farmer’s re-election in November, 1980.
Quoting from Crash Profits, the following are some of the juicy bits of confessions from a government bond dealer [all bolded emphases are mine]:
“[The] U.S. government is far bigger and more mission-critical for the whole economy than any single corporation. If the U.S. government has to virtually declare bankruptcy and close up shop, you can forget just about everything else. You can kiss goodbye nearly every stock, bond, or piece of real estate you’ve ever invested in. You can forget about triple-A corporate bond ratings; they’d be meaningless . . .
“[This] is the critical link. We are the government bond dealers [also called the Primary Dealers such as Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, etc.]. We’re private corporations, but without us the government can’t sell its bonds. We work just like automobile dealers. We buy the bonds from the Treasury or the government agencies at a discount in their big auctions. We put the bonds in our inventory. We mark ’em up a bit; then we sell ’em to investors in the United States and all over the world. Later, when the government auctions off another new batch of bonds, we do it all over again—buy ’em, stick ’em in inventory, mark ’em up, sell ’em . . .
“[When] the bonds are crashing in value, our bond inventories are also crashing in value. We take huge losses. Sure, we try to hedge against those losses, but in 1980 the crash hit so big, so fast, we got stuck with huge losses anyhow. The deficit was out of control. Inflation and interest rates were surging. No one wanted to buy [US government] bonds.”
Financial Armageddon started on February 11, 1980. Quoting again from Crash Profits [all bolded emphases are mine]:
If dealers can’t sell to the public—can’t even sell to each other—how the heck is the U.S. government going to sell its new bonds? Typically, a dealer can move hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. government bonds almost instantly. But on February 11, 1980, they can’t find a buyer for a relatively small lot of just $5 million. There are quite a few astute traders working that lot practically all day long, and they still can’t place it. There are no buyers. The entire government bond market is dead or dying . . .
“[The Primary Dealers] get together and run down to Washington to talk to [President] Carter and his advisers. I don’t know what they say exactly, but let me translate the basic message down to its bare-bones essentials. They say, in effect, ‘Either you do something drastic to end this bond market nightmare or it’s all over. If we can’t sell your bonds, the government won’t be able to finance the deficit. You’ve got to do whatever it takes to kill the inflation scare, even if that means sinking the economy’ . . .
“Of course, Carter doesn’t like that. He’s a Democrat and he’s up for reelection that year. The last thing he wants is a recession in an election year. But the bond dealers insist. ‘Look here,’ they say, ‘if you can’t raise the money, you can’t pay your bills. You can’t meet government payroll. The paychecks of all the senators and congressmen are gonna bounce. Your paycheck is gonna bounce!’ Carter likes that even less. He decides to do something to kill the inflation scare then and there . . . and take his chances with the election later. He gets Fed Chairman Volcker to slap strict controls on credit cards and other forms of credit—something that’s never been done before in American history. They virtually crush the economy, and Carter loses the election. But they save the bond market.”
The US government bond market collapse of 1980 bottomed in early March 1980. See the following graphic titled, “Bond Market Collapse of 1980”.
According to an AIM Capital report dated January 16, 2022, the runaway inflation rate also peaked in March 1980:
As a result of new policy and restrictive targets set for the money supply, the federal funds rate reached a record high of 20 percent in late 1980. Inflation peaked at 11.6 percent in March of the same year.
Mission accomplished!
Financial Armageddon 2022
Ladies and Gentlemen: THAT is one of THE biggest and most serious problem in the world TODAY. The so-called US “Treasuries” which I have often called the US “Toiletries” are Weapons of Mass Destruction . . . ready to blow up at any time.
It is also the real reason why interest rates are going up and up like in the late 1979 and throughout 1980.
This Financial Ponzi Scheme of Debts must continue at all costs.
Raise the interest rates! Save the US “Toiletries”! Damn the stock markets! To hell with the hundreds of millions of useless eaters!
October 2022 would be a perfect month for this Financial Shitstorm to happen.
When it does happen, it’s a question of when not if, poor little Ireland, along with the rest of the debt-enslaved nations and peoples of the World are going to be fleeced once again.
What can we do? I wish I had some simple solutions like buy gold or get out of debt, but that’s like putting on a lifejacket when the Titanic (we are on) is already sinking and the ocean (we are about to jump into) is freezing.
However, there is one solution, not necessarily a simple one but it can be simple if done correctly, that we should all do.
Starting right now.
We better start growing our own organic food (or network with our local farmers) before this Financial Shitstorm erupts. Growing food will be the hot topic of my next article . . .
I am not surprised there are no comments!!!These complications are mind-boggling.
They are but the author overlooks one very important statistic, and that is that all the numbers are managed by rising prices.
Its the rising prices that lead to social instability and the social instability that leads to toppled gvts.
Most all of these country’s have been through the cycle, some, a number of times.
The two primary ones that haven’t are the states and UK, so no other country can act until its elder has been admonished and replaced,(allowing the smaller country’s a moral way out), and this usually happens economically and can be a long or short duration, but todays people demand a quick, or short duration to resolving a problem.
Perhaps we are seeing this in Ireland, I thinks its all the tax breaks no one can afford anymore.
Never heard of the Blue Letter, the Lehman bailout?
https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/html/irish-letters.en.html
The Trichet letter forced, and shaped, the Irish bailout
https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/the-trichet-letter-forced-and-shaped-the-irish-bailout-31152446.html
hi eagle guy this is one of nicest articles I have read. it is explained with such simplicity that I love it. I have created account just to comment this. keep them coming eagle guy.
This is a great article as it clearly describes our current predicament in understandable terms. Where can we find more of the author’s work as I’d like to dig deeper.
Extremely well researched Article, but , Lagarde, ECB central banker chief, turned up on Ireland’s mainstream RTE TV a couple of days ago :
Lagarde says inflation crisis came from ‘nowhere’, describes Putin as ‘a terrifying man’
https://www.thejournal.ie/lagarde-inflation-5905973-Oct2022/
Not from Central Banker’s insane monetary policies since the 2008 crash, no, inflation came from NOWHERE.
There we have it, a financial version of the Big Bang. Next we will be told Dark Energy comes from Russia!
Senator Alexey PUSHKOV :
If we proceed from the sensational and untenable “discovery” of the head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, according to which inflation comes out of nowhere, then the doubling of the number of British citizens struggling to make ends meet has also come out of nowhere. From the sky, for example, it has come, and is not a consequence of the ruinous policies of the British governments, guilty of the energy crisis, rising fuel prices and the imposition of counter-productive sanctions against Russia, not to mention the risky enthusiasm for costly military and other assistance to Ukraine: https://t.me/banksta/30629.
Senator Pushkov correctly notes British inflation, not Lagarde’s ECB sandbox.
The 5 min Irish TV segment is here :
https://www.ukcolumn.org/video/uk-column-news-2nd-november-2022 at 12:15min,
Notice the green scarf – the green Irish are being prepared again for slaughter. The last time, ECB chief Trichet sent a ‘blue letter’ to Irish Finance Minister Lenihan (who died soon after) demanding a bail-out which resulted in the Article numbers above. Then the Irish said the Lehman blow-out was their own fault!!!
I have always found debt per every man, woman and child to be deceiving. The reason is that at any given point in time, a population will be made up of non-income earners. Non income earners include elderly, children and students.
To eliminate nonsense, debt per household would be a better starting point and subtract about 30% of that number for households receiving government money.
This would go a long way to showing exactly how unpayable the debs is.
The ultimate deception is to impose derivative debts of private outfits on the public.
With the 1934 FDR Glass-Steagall (in force until 1999, salami-wise weakened) there is no bail-out for these outfits. Commercial banking stays open, the others try to get a real job.
I notice the Author never mentions the most deadly financial weapon, derivatives, which amount to $2 QUADRILLION accross the transatlantic. This makes mere monetary aggregate data as above, petty cash.
With a deluge of financial data, the author end with a whimper about organic food ?!?
I suppose that is a result of the author having been in various Cults in the USA :
“while I was with the cult in Montana, called the Summit Lighthouse (TSL) and the Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT)”.
Sure, the Author finally saw through these cults, but the problem cannot be solved with organic farming – look what happened to Sri Lanka after the Gov’t imposed it to appease the IMF!
Organic Duck and Cover – been there an’ done That :
“Duck And Cover” – original TV advert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMnKNHNfznE
Having grown up in impoverished Ireland, it wasn’t uncommon to be faced with a few potatoes and one egg at supper time, split that between three…..me ma always made sure I got the egg….God bless her soul.
No one had any debt, no one had more than one pot to piss in (the lucky ones, some had to share communal outhouses)…..now everyone competes for a better Credit Score to access more debt.
Old Irish saying….”Slap it into you”….star gazers, lost trying to keep up with the Murphy’s.
Looking forward to your piece on organic farming……I’ve been ankle deep in horse manure the past three years trying to coach food from the ground north of 49, in a 90-100 day growing cycle.
A tip for the Irish, likely too late for them, but for anyone really ……live within your means, f the Murphy’s.
Cheers M
I see the same here in Canada, esp with immigrants, all trying to one up each other…. forgetting where and what they came from…chasing Credit Scores.
North of the 49th myself. I’ve got good yields out of haskap berries, raspberries, goji berries and kale. All outdoors in my small yard. They all handle the cold fine.
We also do some tomatoes, hot peppers and mint but they require care not to be left out on a cold night.
I need more land to grow stuff LOL. I’ve got every part of my yard already growing something.
Mmmmm…. I also am no economist. But… Haha my two cents, anyone with more knowledge please feel free to contradict me. What about Modern Monetary theory? I guess it boils down to debt does not have to be inflationary if the government borrows from itself and invests directly in the productive part of the economy. So in the case of the EU ( excuse again my profound ignorance) , they could decide to just write off all the government bonds the ECB bought to cover government spending. MMT claims this debt is a political decision made within the government itself, so this ‘internal’ debt can be cancelled as a matter of policy with consequences- counter intuitive I know… ( Of course this is no panacea for all debt BUT) What do you think of this?
Instead to save the economy from depression massive public works and Investment in industry, agriculture, innovation could take place that are revenue generating and job creating, strengthening the real economy.. A definancialization, could take place, ie money is not printed to pay debt, or bail out banks, but to rebuild the ‘real’ economy and generate wealth.
Perhaps I am misunderstanding, but I believe LaRouche and Glazyev proposed the same/ similar. It is possible to print money In a way that will not lead to inflation if it is invested in real commodities, labour, innovation and making the cost of living as low as possible in order for industry to remain competitive etc. Or as LaRouche put it the investment in the physical economy.
The EU will “write off” its debt, after it tries another scheme, CDBC. When that fails to save the say, they will default on all debt. This is part of the Great Reset, in the minds of the Davos Gang. Ideally, they want to cancel all debt (you will own nothing and be happy) and eliminate private property. But even not going that far, when they default, all the big private money will flee the EU for the least dirty shirt in the washroom, the US, but more likely for US stocks. But even that will be temporary when the US dollar fails. Governor debt will no longer interest investors as they can no longer trust it, and when people no longer trust government-issued currency, it adds to inflation as that currency fails. In the worst case, hyperinflation. MMT is a nightmare as it will only thrown fuel on the fire. 2023 will be a huge time of political and social instability. If the US Congress does not massively change next week, and of that new Congress does not seriously address social spending and pensions, the US will follow the EU into oblivion as the private wealth will move to China and Asia. It’s reasonable to predict that the USA will no longer exist in current form with by 2032. Europe will either break into nation states or will be communist.
One thing that we do have going for us here in Ireland is that we produce a very large food surplus . There are about 5 million people in the country and we produce enough food for 35 million. This could be increased substantially if you get rid of the EU’s agricultural policies like “set aside” etc. We import mainly wheat and fruit/veg . The first because it doesn’t grow very well here ( damp summers I think) and the second because Irish producers cannot compete with Dutch factory farms .
If the bond market collapses…
According to several MMT theorists, there is no reason whatsoever for a sovereign state government to sell bonds to finance itself. The bond market is just a holdover from the gold standard and only serves to enrich bond traders and complicate national and international finance. Not there is no reason for governments to use something to account for government to government monetary exchanges, but there is no reason for bonds to finance the Federal government.
Nixon went off the gold standard when it proved unwieldy and no longer conforming to national interests. Perhaps this bond market will result in more rational financial economics.
“We better start growing our own organic food (or network with our local farmers) before this Financial Shitstorm erupts.”
You’re so right. I just did my organic veg, milk and meat order this morning. Everything is local ie Dorset, Devon, Somerset, Wilshire (Kingdom of Wessex).
You might be interested in this from Lee Camp:
https://www.mintpressnews.com/the-truth-about-cargill-the-worlds-most-evil-company/282560/
The biggest supervillains in the world are not human: they’re corporations. And one of those corporations owns nearly our entire food system.
This year, food prices have soared and Americans are feeling it. For example, egg prices have doubled since last year to nearly $3 a dozen, which is especially difficult if you make your living as an egg-juggling busker down by the condemned jungle gym.
But the supervillain companies that set those prices aren’t struggling at all. The largest one is Cargill. And this year, Cargill’s revenue jumped to a record $165 billion. That’s $30 billion more than the year before.
Let’s learn a little more about Cargill. Known to friends as the evilest company in the world – and to enemies as even worse than that – Cargill Inc. is the biggest privately owned company in the U.S., and they own a large chunk of every portion of the food that ends up on your plate.
It’s tough to overstate just how much Cargill owns. According to their Wikipedia page, “Cargill’s major businesses are trading, purchasing and distributing grain and other agricultural commodities, such as palm oil; trading in energy, steel and transport; raising of livestock and production of feed; and producing food ingredients such as starch and glucose syrup, vegetable oils and fats for application in processed foods and industrial use. Cargill also has a large financial services arm…”
Okay. That’s enough. Basically, they had a hand in anything stuck to the inner wall of your colon. Not a hand in your colon, but you get it. And also, financial services is a euphemism for stealing your money via the stock market, like if someone stole your flat screen and called it “television relocation services.”
The foreign debt would be owed to ECB not UK. Ireland has had negative interest rates since 2019. The ECB has been printing billions since 2015 and then ramped up printing during covid. Irish politicians fought with each other for more EU funding to finance colossal spending programmes maybe half of which did not benefit the irish people. They paid out 350 euros to every person in Ireland during covid which is equal to someones wages working a full week in a restaurant. Even students and foreign people only arriving into ireland in March 2020 got it. So a Brazilian arriving in Ireland in March 2020 got the equivalent of a full month’s wages in Brazil for sitting at home.
Many households are dependent on government handouts in Ireland in some way and have been even when there was full employment! Many businesses cannot find staff yet the cost of social welfare rises every year. So this cannot continue.