Stories and reports about the global economic turmoil are easy to find. Even the mainstream media is beginning to admit the depth of the current crisis. But what does the state of world economies actually mean to the average individual, and moreover what are the legitimate implications of a total collapse scenario?

The following article will examine the situation and attempt to answer the core question: Is this the end of the world as we know it?

Quick Summary/Overview For Anyone Living In A Cave

If you’re not one to pay attention to the “news” media (can’t blame you there) and you’re out of the water cooler conversational loop of the past two years, you may not be entirely up to date on the global economic meltdown. It’s a robust, complex scenario on one hand but a relatively simple matter on the other.

In my view, the easiest way to explain this mess is…

The U.S. and Western elite (Wall Street, mega corporations, banker tycoons, etc.) and the politicians they employ have carefully driven the dollar-based economy to the brink of destruction via a wide range of tactics and exploits. From the ludicrous derivatives markets engineered by the joint efforts of Wall Street and the Clinton Treasury department, to the “epidemic” of mortgage lending fraud reported by the FBI in 2004, it’s abundantly clear those at the top of the market & monetary system have either acted with blatant disregard or deliberate malice.

Some alleged experts still claim the problem began with the “sub-prime mortgage crisis” in 2007. In reality, however, this was only the first public inkling of problems having festered for some time.

Accounting fraud and nonsensical investment schemes like derivatives are also noted as key catalysts. These vehicles are technically repackaged debt that is resold again and again, amounting to little more than zero sum (totally valueless) promises.

In response to the market panics of 2008, the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks around the world printed trillions of dollars/euros in currency in an effort to flood the system with liquidity and prop up the “too big to fail” companies and institutions. This mass production of currency obviously means inflated pricing and devaluing of the dollar, euro, etc.

All the while the obedient drones within the mainstream media have reported on the unfolding crisis as if it were a string of unfortunate, cyclic events. Talking heads on all the financial segments maintain a straight face while spouting utter crap about ups, downs, and trends.

Numerous credible economists outside of the mainline bubble, on the other hand, have diligently pointed out the absurd – if not self-destructive – policies of world central banks and investment houses over the decades. Speaking frankly, the creation of the Federal Reserve, abolishment of the Gold Standard, and myriad other foolish measures could ONLY end with the widespread economic catastrophe we’re seeing at this moment.

Let’s not forget about the wholesale offshoring of American industry to the lowest bidding third-world manufacturing contractor. This, coupled with massive profit-saving layoffs and shrewdly crafted spending recessions brought about by media scare tactics, has brought about the most dire unemployment debacle in U.S. history.

Add to all this critical demographic factors like the aging of the Baby Boomers, the biggest generation in history, and we have a perfect storm, to borrow a worn-out cliche’. As tens of millions of people reach an age of inevitable spending reduction, all market sectors feel the imminent burn of lowered sales and lost profits.

Because the entire world economy is – in one fashion or another – pegged to the U.S. dollar, a meltdown of the American economy quickly becomes everyone’s problem.

What Does This Really Mean?

In the past, grumblings and charts about financial trouble have been easy enough to ignore. the newspaper could say what it wanted, but you still had a job and enough spare cash at the end of the week to hit the bars with your friends or take your significant other out on the town.

This time, however, it’s different in a big ugly way.

The economic trouble of today is so real and deep-running that it affects the average citizen directly. Growing unemployment, tightening of consumer purse strings, and rampant foreclosures/homelessness now seem to clutch our society by the throat.

People are scared, and for good reason.

Banks are falling by the dozen in America. Hundreds of retail stores have also closed their doors, with many entire companies going under.

The FDIC teeters on the brink of bankruptcy, many states are totally out of money, and social programs like unemployment and Medicare are running out of funds quickly.

Tent cities are popping up everywhere. More Americans are on food stamps than at any time previously.

For months, even in the face of all this suffering, the major news channels have smilingly assured us that all is well and recovery is now in full swing. Even as these cheerful reports echoed, ammunition sold in record amounts and citizens began speaking in hushed tones about “FEMA camps” and “martial law orders”. Perhaps chillingly, now the corporate-controlled media system is openly discussing grimmer possibilities.

In the wake of riots and massive unrest in Greece, much speculation is underway about whether or not this nation will default on its debt. With the economic downfall of Iceland and Zimbabwe quite fresh and the desperate condition of France and Germany most evident, the obvious question for many Americans is: “could this also happen here?”

Chief Bankster of the nation, Fed Chairman Bernanke recently answered (according to video reports online) by saying clearly what happened in Greece could happen in the U.S.

As I write this on a Saturday, it’s going to be interesting to see how the stock markets respond on Monday.

Is Collapse Imminent?

Simple mathematics tells us a couple of things:

1. U.S. Debt is unrecoverable. Understand that every dollar printed in America is automatically face-value plus interest debt to the Federal Reserve, and at this time China is a huge buyer of U.S. bonds/debts. The current deficit is numerically impossible to pay back, and it’s only a matter of time before our government will be unable to manage the daily interest payments.
2. The recent currency inflation, combined with whatever further stimulus packages are forthcoming, will inevitably devalue the dollar even more and result in price tag inflation. Quite possibly price inflation will exceed what Americans can generally conceive; think in terms of gas at $10 per gallon and a loaf of bread costing $8 or more!

With two million people kicked out of their homes in 2009 – plus the foreclosures of 2007-2008 – and a (conservative?) estimate of 5 million further evictions by foreclosure in 2010, it’s not difficult to predict large civil unrest in the near future. Millions of Americans are already jobless, with millions more on the verge; again anyone can see the clear danger of elevated hunger, crime, and so forth.

Economists like Marc Faber put the total collapse of the dollar at 5-10 years.

Peter Schiff seems to hint at the next 2-3 years as being a plausible timeline.

Trends research master Gerald Celente says 2010-11 are the downward spiral of the greatest depression in history.

Paul Craig Roberts, economist and Reagan’s Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, paints an equally grim picture of the next few years.

In truth, of course, nobody can say with absolute clarity when the current economic system will collapse. It could happen tomorrow if confidence in the dollar is abandoned by China and other governments, or it could take another few years if the banking establishments of the world succeed in propping things up with additional stimulus, smoke-and-mirror tricks.

It is, however, nearly certain that the modern economic system will fall apart and crumble into dust.

So… Is This The End Of The World As We Know It?

In a manner of speaking, certainly it is. As one economic system dies and something else (or perhaps many new processes) replace it, vast change is unavoidable.

To be brutally honest, the world needs to usher the economic fraud and tyranny of the past 100 years out the door and welcome in something fresh. I know this means great pain, and distress, but any birthing process includes these experiences.

Ultimately, after the suffering and chaos have passed, humanity will be better off without the banking/corporate dominated economies of today. Yet it should be noted that our established governments may well have a replacement program ready and waiting, which will likely be no better than what we’re leaving through the pending collapse.

The dissolution of the dollar and it’s cronies is not, by itself, the end of the world, but it is a significant part of the larger shift now taking shape.

World War III or a series of natural disasters are more likely to end civilization than the meltdown of the U.S. economy and it’s global dependents.

Absent these calamities, some form of society will continue long after the financial institutions of the modern world have withered and died. Will this be a scientifically controlled global tyranny orchestrated by those who manage the current central banks of the world, or will it be the fresh start nurtured by those who survive the turmoil and unrest following the collapse?

Stay tuned for my next article, wherein I discuss the two primary possibilities of society after the full economic meltdown.