Celente is a outspoken critic of US policy on every front: financial, political, its militant imperialism and spying all over the planet. Perhaps that’s why he has such a strong following of LRCers. (18:58)

Comments open at YouTube.

The Best of Gerald Celente

The future is rushing toward us at a speed never before experienced. Can anyone forecast what the future will look like and what it will bring?

For two decades The Trends Journal has been doing just that, writing “History Before it Happens!”

Take a look at today’s news. It is a matter of record that we predicted just such headlines in our trend forecasts, long before they became news.

• On the economic front we have been forecasting systemic global failure for years. Contrary to mainstream financial industry and government experts, the insiders and pundits, we have insisted that the various cheap money/imposed austerity policies designed to restore “growth”would, at best, provide no more than temporary relief.
• Who else do you know that warned of bank holidays and predicted that recessions in troubled countries would spiral into full-blown depressions? Yet, even with adult unemployment at some 30 percent and youth unemployment over 50 percent in Spain and Greece, for example, the business media and politicians still don’t call it “Depression.”
• There is no “recovery”and, even according to “officials,”the economic future will be bleak: “Increased tensions at G-20, IMF meetings”reads one of today’s headlines. “World finance leaders say growth still weak.”says another.
• On the geopolitical front we warned of mounting public unrest culminating in widespread violence that would destabilize governments. For example, even as the mainstream media ballyhooed the “Arab Spring”and assorted presidents, prime ministers and chancellors commandeered the airwaves to blather on about the triumph of “Democracy,”our forecast read “Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss.”Today, the bloom of an “Arab Spring”has long since withered.
• On the Home Front we wrote “History Before it Happens”when we defined “Battlefield America”as one of the Top Trends of 2012. (Click here and read it for yourself.)
• We have been documenting and forecasting the ongoing erosion of America’s Constitutional rights, a trend that has been accelerating since 9/11. The martial law we predicted, that could, at any moment and under any pretext, be declared, was declared in Boston – but that’s not what it is being called.
• Instead, the state of siege that shut down Boston and extended 100 sq. miles beyond the city, paralyzed transportation, permitted warrantless door-to-door searches and saw police stopping civilians for questioning was celebrated as a victory over terror.

Yes, possibly it was, but more importantly it signals the beginning of an ominous trend that is not being recognized for what it is.

Beyond the economy, geopolitics and terror, the 40-page Spring Trends Journal also features important developments in alternative-energy, new millennium education plus the great “I don’t want to hear it”trend that no one else is talking about.

The spectacular showing by Beppe Grillo's Movimento 5 Stelle, which just won more votes in Italy's general election than any other single party, represents a brand new, powerful, double-barreled trend that will reshape the way political campaigns are run and, in so doing, will reshape the future.

The unanticipated results sent a shock wave across Italy and rattled world equity markets. Taking 180 of Parliament's 630 seats, Grillo's party amassed enough votes to not only deny front runner Pier Luigi Bersani the clear majority needed to form a working government, it also sent an even louder message to the entire eurozone: Adesso basta — enough is enough!

Faced with the prospect of still-higher taxes and more German-inspired austerity-as-usual, the Five Star Movement's anti-establishment/anti-austerity populist showing far exceeded the predictions of the media, pollsters and politicians.

The resurgence of the embattled and disgraced media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi was also unanticipated. But his strong showing was less a sign of popular support than the consequence of the mogul's overt multi-media-vote-buying campaign, promising amnesty for tax evaders and a $5 billion tax refund to property owners.

Trend 1: Media Doesn't Matter Beppe Grillo, unlike all the other candidates, spurned Italian TV and instead built his personal presence and party strength via a 73-stop barnstorming tour and a brilliantly orchestrated Internet campaign. Nine months ago he was polling only 5 percent nationally. With the largest social media following of any politician in Europe, Grillo's "head on the Internet, feet on the ground" rise to prominence was generated through his one million Facebook and Twitter friends and followers.

This is the trend of the future!

It is also a new millennium megatrend Gerald Celente forecast in detail in the December 1999 Trends Journal. Moreover, in terms of presence, platform and personality, it is as though Beppe Grillo had been invented for the role of the Italian version of the "Internet Candidate" Celente predicted:

The Internet Candidate

Starting in 1999, the opening salvos will be fired in the battle against the hegemony of America's two-party political system. A combination of technological advances and seething public opinion has set the stage for the Internet candidate — a political newcomer beholden to no one and able to reach everyone.

Free At Last

No longer bound by conventional political rules of engagement, freed from the necessity to raise mega-millions to wage campaigns and no longer solely reliant on media approval for coverage, the Internet candidate will be a new-millennium voice speaking a new-millennium language that appeals to the politically disenchanted and disgusted.

Just as the advent of television changed political campaign strategies forever, so the Internet will shortly revolutionize the entire political process.

The potential Internet candidacy awaits its real-life Internet candidates…. (The Trends Journal, Winter 1999)

Moreover, while The New York Times (and the rest of the mainstream media) now maintain that "Few experts anticipated the depth of anger displayed by Italian voters over the austerity" measures imposed by the Technocrat Monti, the fact is that nearly a year before the election Gerald Celente not only anticipated the "anger," he singled out Beppe Grillo as the man who would give voice to it and transform that anger into a coherent force. (Gerald Celente on CJAD, Montreal Canada, 29 May 2012) Trend 2: Throw the Bums Out The dire political conditions that made it possible for Grillo's ascendance in Italy also prevail in countries big and small around the world. The "politically disenchanted and disgusted" citizenry Celente postulated as a pre-condition for the trend he predicted all those years ago, has essentially become the norm: polls report that 88 percent of Italians distrust political parties, as do 80 percent of the British, while 85 percent of Americans distrust their government … and so on around the world.

Standard, entrenched political systems everywhere — ostensibly democratic, autocratic, left-wing, right-wing or monarchical — are ripe for revolution, non-violent or otherwise. The Internet Candidate is an "idea whose time has come." Adesso basta, the message from Italy is being heard around the austerity-ravaged world.

Perhaps it is no more than coincidence, but Italy, where the European Renaissance first took root and flourished, may be the breeding ground for Renaissance 2.0.

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

The Best of Gerald Celente

What a year 2012 was! The economic and geopolitical problems plaguing much of the planet at the beginning of last year have, without exception, intensified as we move into 2013.

Never in our 33 years of trend forecasting have we experienced a year that rang out on such a downbeat note and a New Year that is ringing in with so muted an upbeat.

Though we had forecast most of the troubling trends — and are well aware of the intransigent problems at their roots — we see positive solutions and opportunities even as the world lurches further into crisis; solutions and opportunities that you will read about only in The Trends Journal:

1. War: Call them what you will — civil wars, uprisings, protests, Arab Spring, terrorism, rebellions — when we add them up they equal the "The First Great War of the 21st Century." Yet, even now, as the conflicts proliferate, only The Trends Journal recognizes that they are not only connected, but also cumulative.

2. Peace: From our trends catbird seat we see the ships of state heading on a collision course that will wreak global havoc. But if the Captains (Presidents, Prime Ministers, Chancellors, Kings and Emirs) follow the course we chart, not only will much of the world escape the worst ravages of war, we will sail toward a prosperous and peaceful future.

3. The Next Great Awakening: The American Revolution had its roots in a powerful, little celebrated religion-inspired movement called "The Great Awakening." We, at The Trends Journal have already determined that the stage has been set for a Second American Revolution that will draw its inspiration from a new "Great Awakening." However, while the "New Awakening" we are forecasting will have a spiritual basis, it will not be "Christian specific," and the Revolution it engenders will be fought with hearts and minds, not bullets and armies.

4. A Fracking Future: Is energy independence in store for the United States and other nations with rich shale gas deposits? While it will certainly create the millions of high-paying jobs that fracking proponents promise, will it also create the environmental "Frackenstein" that opponents of fracking fear? In an agenda-free, in-depth report, our science editor weighs the complex pros and cons.

5. Millenials In Motion: The Millennials, born from around 1980 through 2000 and some 77 million strong, are slated to become the first American generation to be financially worse off than their parents were. We've labeled them "Generation "Eff'd.” For them, the perpetual growth and abundance once perceived as an American birthright has been replaced by a bleak future and an economy of constraint. We analyze what they want, how to sell them, and forecast what to expect from them.

6. Bonds Away!: The Bond Bomb is ready to explode … threatening to make the real estate and dot-com bubbles, even the Great Recession, look like "market corrections.” Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, economist and former assistant Secretary of the Treasury (under Ronald Reagan), sees a road to financial collapse that will make investors wish that the Mayan Prophesy had come true!

7. New Millennium Education: The digital revolution has clearly begun to reshape our brick-and-mortar education system. But the New Millennium Education trend we forecast is a megatrend in the making, one that will entirely reconfigure our schools and our ideas about what education "looks like" and can be. While there is general agreement that the education system must adapt to the Digital Age, the magnitude of the coming change is not fully appreciated. Entire new professions will develop and a range of creative entrepreneurial opportunities will arise to meet the challenges and profit from the opportunities.

8. Secession Progression: A year ago, we forecast secession movements springing up around the world. The trend has grown from ripple to groundswell as citizens become increasingly hostile to their unresponsive governments. Following the re-election of Barack Obama in the US, over a million people signed petitions in favor of seceding from the Union. Worldwide, there are some 250 secessionist movements. As governments focus upon saving only the too-big-to-fail, people will rise up against nations seen as "too-big-to govern" and "too-broken-to fix." The evidence for a secession trend is obvious, but the media and politicians ignore or deride it.

Plus Top Trends 2013 in technology, the Internet, cyberspace, food, wellness and nutrition that will present challenges for the off-trend while presenting opportunities to the trend-savvy.

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

The Best of Gerald Celente

Renowned forecaster Gerald Celente is the publisher of the Trends Journal. Celente has a history of spotting trends and predicting future events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall and the financial meltdown of 2008 long before they occurred. Celente is spotting new trends, and things do not look good. Gerald Celente thinks, “The banks are taking over the world.” That’s what is really happening in Europe with the sovereign debt crisis.

Celente says, “America has already turned into pre-World War II Germany,” and “A war with Iran will be the beginning of World War III.” Celente is predicting America will not fare well in this conflict. Celente lost money in the MF Global bankruptcy and says the lesson learned is “You don’t own your money unless you have it in your possession.” Greg Hunter goes “One-on-One with Gerald Celente.”

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

The Best of Gerald Celente

KINGSTON, NY, 26 June 2012 — Gerald Celente's forecast is clear — The 2nd American Revolution is on the horizon. And this American Patriot has done more than just sign up to join the fight, he's established its headquarters.

Inspired by its potent symbolic value, Celente has purchased the 1750s "Franz Roggen House," a stately stone colonial set on the northeast corner of John and Crown Streets, in Kingston's historic Stockade District. This is the only intersection in the United States that boasts pre-revolutionary stone buildings on all four corners.

"Kingston played a critical role in the 1st American Revolution and was, for a short while, the capitol of New York State," observes Celente. "Here is where I'm taking my stand to start the 2nd American Revolution."

"The 1st American Revolution was fought with armies and bullets," says Celente. "The 2nd American Revolution will not cost lives and limbs; it will be fought with mind and spirit."

Celente is unequivocal: "America's democratic political system is degenerate, corrupt and ineffective. It cannot be patched up or papered over. Rather, it must be renewed, revived, and reconfigured from the ground up," he says. "The potential for positive and sweeping change is there. It can happen, but it has to be made to happen."

How? First, "We the people" must be made aware of the urgent need for real change. Then "we" must learn to accept and embrace the concept of a full-scale intellectual revolution. "The time is ripe, Americans are u2018mad as hell and not going to take it anymore,'" says Celente, who predicts that the November election will be the turning point. "The polls prove it. There is little enthusiasm for either candidate and, once again, Americans will be left with no choice other than the choice of the lesser of two evils.

"Stay Home, Don't Vote!"

Celente's Revolutionary call to arms begins with a voter's strike. "Stay Home, Don't Vote" is his campaign slogan. "People have been conned into believing that if you don't vote you've lost the right to complain. That's political baloney," fumes Celente. "The true case is exactly the opposite. This is a two-headed, one party system. Republican or Democrat, considering their track records, it's clear nothing can be expected from either Presidential candidate other than the perpetuation of the destructive and criminal policies that have brought America to its current state of perpetual crisis and socioeconomic decline. Ditto for Congress."

"What self-respecting person would cast a vote for a lesser of two evils?" asks Celente. "Not only is it immoral and undignified, it's destructive. Lesser or greater, evil is evil. By supporting one evil or the other, the voter becomes an accessory to the crime. Only a true intellectual revolution can restore dignity, trust, morality, decency and compassion."

"Anything else is just more of the same. Stay Home, Don't Vote!"

As far as Celente is concerned, "We can change course, restore our country and regain our independence. United, the American people have the power to prevail and create a more u2018perfect Union.'"

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

The Best of Gerald Celente

A recent Newsweek cover provocatively depicted Barack Obama beneath a glowing rainbow halo and carried the bold headline, "The First Gay President." Days later, The New York Times broke the story of a billionaire-funded smear campaign that labeled the President a "metrosexual black Abe Lincoln."

The incendiary magazine cover and the revelatory Times piece set off a firestorm of commentary and accusations replete with racial overtones and sexual innuendos.

While the sensationalistic Newsweek cover can be brushed aside as an obvious sales gimmick, the metrosexual label applied to Obama (minus the "black Abe Lincoln") not only has merit, it aptly applies to Romney as well. Lost in the political mudslinging and shallow punditry are the deeper psychological aspects of the archetypal metrosexual that fit them both so well. Among these:

• Mr. In Between Neither outwardly effeminate nor aggressively macho, these two contestants in America's first "Battle of the Metrosexuals" manifest their metrosexuality as straight arrow, sensitive urban guys with a well-developed feminine side.
• Clean-cut, non-threatening, even-tempered, always dressed appropriately for the occasion, these physically fit soft-core jocks are as much at home on the basketball court or in the paddock as they are sipping tea with the ladies. "I like hanging out with women," beamed President Obama, as he ingratiated himself with the flattered ladies of "The View," this past week.
• Neither Man nor Mouse When it comes to business, Metromen can be as hard as nails, but when it comes to the wife and the kids, they're soft as kittens.
• As Commander in Chief, when it comes to making those tough military decisions about troop surges, drone strikes, and secret missions to take out Public Enemy No. 1, Obama alone calls the shots. But when it comes to social issues, such as gay marriage, not only does he talk it over with his wife, he consults his children.
• Analogously, for Metroman Mitt, on the rough and tumble business battlefield, nothing has ever stood in the way of the corporate vulture (who made his fortune raiding, looting and gutting businesses) in his pursuit of the bottom line. But when out on the campaign trail, he's just Mr. Mittens, married to the perfect wife and loving father of five perfect boys … all of whom he drags out of their mansions for every possible photo op, to prove what a sensitive and caring family guy he really is.
• Sissy Tough Like the dignified and well-groomed citified metromen they are, whether it's Obama declaring a war or Romney bravely declaring his willingness to start another, both talk tough, but never get tough … cravenly sending others do their fighting for them.
• Jekyll and Hyde The manicured metrosexual image — one that presents both contestants as all-around family men, the nicest, most trustworthy guys you'd ever want to meet — plays well to a junk food, junk news, junk entertainment-addicted audience.
• But the 2012 "Battle of the Metrosexuals," part sitcom, part reality show, is in fact, an American tragedy. The carefully crafted metrosexual campaign persona is merely a cover for the Jekyll that hides the Hyde … and part of the tragedy is that nobody seems to notice … or cares to notice.

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

The Best of Gerald Celente

If you had read the Winter 2012 Trends Journal, published in early January, you’d know that we accurately forecast, in detail, virtually everything going on right now in the financial world and in the geopolitical arena.

We respectfully submit that no other publication can make such a claim. It’s all there in black & white, brilliantly illustrated in full-color, award-winning graphics.

As a prelude to discussing the “Top 12 Trends” for 2012, we wrote:

“2012 is the year when many of the long-simmering socioeconomic and geopolitical trends we have been forecasting and tracking will climax.”

And climax they have.

We predicted the Greek debt crisis would not be solved, but would deteriorate, even as European leaders were insisting they had solved it:

“Thanks to our efforts,” bragged French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, “if there had not been an agreement … it was not just Europe that would have sunk into catastrophe, it was the whole world.”

“Agreement” notwithstanding, the whole world is now demonstrably heading toward “catastrophe.”

We predicted an economic development that virtually no one else was forecasting:

“The BRICS will not escape repercussions from the economic decline of the West. For example, as the US and Europe slip deeper into depression and their appetites for foreign imports slacken, China, which sells heavily into those markets, will take a severe economic hit. A weakened manufacturing-based China will adversely affect natural resource-rich exporters including Brazil, Russia and South Africa, among others.”

Those repercussions are now being felt worldwide: commodity prices have plummeted, strong currencies have weakened, and exports and imports have slowed dramatically.

Regarding Iran, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Arab Spring, the Spanish Indignados, the newly formed political parties – you’ll find our accurate commentary and projections, chapter and verse, in the Trends Journal: What would happen, why it would happen, and where it would lead.

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

The Best of Gerald Celente

Trend forecaster Gerald Celente, writing in the Spring Trends Journal, was virtually alone in his assessment of an Israeli/United States military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities as an act of folly that would have catastrophic consequences.

Now, weeks after his warning – which noted the irrationality of Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Barak’s determination to strike Iran – his conclusions are being echoed by some of Israel’s most prominent public figures:

Bombing Iran is "the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Anyone attacking Iran needs to understand that it could start a regional war which will include missile fire from Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon." ~ Former Mossad director Meir Dagan

"They [the Netanyahu administration] talk too much, they talk too loud. They are creating an atmosphere and a momentum that may go out of their control. There is no reason at this time … to initiate an Israeli military strike." ~ Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert

Iranian leadership is composed of "very rational people" who will not decide to build nuclear weapons. ~ General Benny Gantz, current Israeli Army Chief of Staff

"I don’t believe in a leadership that makes decisions based on messianic feelings . . . one of the results of an Israeli attack on Iran could be a dramatic acceleration of the Iranian nuclear program." ~ Yuval Diskin, former chief of the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency

Despite the public misgivings of these current and former highly placed Israeli authorities – who call into question the judgment, honesty, and even the sanity of Israeli leaders – the United States and its leaders remain united in their unwavering and unquestioning support.

Celente contends that should the US join Israel in an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, not only will it find itself embroiled in yet another losing war, but this time it will be a war without borders … World War III.

Moreover, he asks, "In light of the accusations and threats made by American leaders who ardently insist that "all options are on the table" regarding bombing Iran, why are there no highly placed American authorities castigating America’s war hawks for being messianic, stupid and deranged?"

Trends in the Making?

Can these ominous warnings by prominent Israelis lead to a shift in Israeli policy? If so, would it mitigate America’s otherwise unconditional support for Israel? Can anything impede the march to war with Iran, or is war inevitable? What role will the US Presidential elections play in this critical unfolding scenario?

Remember, for over three decades Celente and The Trends Journal have been ahead of the news and on top of the trends well before anyone else.

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

The Best of Gerald Celente

© 2011 Bull Source

Founder of the Trends Research Institute Gerald Celente discusses how conditions of this recession are similar to post-World War recessions.

Celente points out that currency wars are already happening and trade wars are heating up. “Seven of the last recessions were preceded by spikes in oil prices,” he says. Celente believes a war with Iran would trigger the beginning of World War 3.

The trends forecaster is invested 80% in gold. He expects the stock market to keep up as long as the Fed continues pumping cheap money into the system.

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

The Best of Gerald Celente

© 2011 Bull Source

Hold onto your hat, your wallet, and your wits.

After a tumultuous 2011 in which many of the trends we had forecast became headline news around the world, we are now forewarning of an even more tumultuous year to come.

While it would give us great pleasure to forecast a 2012 of joy and prosperity – all brought about by the wisdom and benevolence of our fearless leaders – since we are not running for office or looking to profit by gulling the people, we tell it as we see it in our 12 Top Trends 2012.

One megatrend looms on the near horizon. And we forecast that when it strikes, it will be a shock felt around the world. Hyperbole it’s not! Our research has revealed that at the very highest levels of government this megatrend has been seriously discussed. Read on:

1. Economic Martial Law: Given the current economic and geopolitical conditions, the central banks and world governments already have plans in place to declare economic martial law … with the possibility of military martial law to follow.

2. Battlefield America: With a stroke of the Presidential pen, language was removed from an earlier version of the National Defense Authorization Act, granting the President authority to act as judge, jury and executioner. Citizens, welcome to "Battlefield America."

3. Invasion of the Occtupy: 15 years ago, Gerald Celente predicted in his book Trends 2000 that prolonged protests would hit Wall Street in the early years of the new millennium and would spread nationwide. The "Occtupy" is now upon us, and it is like nothing history has ever witnessed.

4. Climax Time: The financial house of cards is collapsing, and in 2012 many of the long-simmering socioeconomic and geopolitical trends that Celente has accurately forecast will come to a climax. Some will arrive with a big bang and others less dramatically … but no less consequentially. Are you prepared? And what’s next for the world?

5. Technocrat Takeover: “Democracy is Dead; Long Live the Technocrat!” A pair of lightning-quick financial coup d’états in Greece and Italy have installed two unelected figures as head of state. No one yet in the mainstream media is calling this merger of state and corporate powers by its proper name: Fascism, nor are they calling these “technocrats” by their proper name: Bankers! Can a rudderless ship be saved because technocrat is at the helm?

6. Repatriate! Repatriate!: It took a small, but financially and politically powerful group to sell the world on globalization, and it will take a large, committed and coordinated citizens’ movement to “un-sell” it. “Repatriate! Repatriate!” will pit the creative instincts of a multitude of individuals against the repressive monopoly of the multinationals.

7. Secession Obsession: Winds of political change are blowing from Tunisia to Russia and everywhere in between, opening a window of opportunity through which previously unimaginable political options may now be considered: radical decentralization, Internet-based direct democracy, secession, and even the peaceful dissolution of nations, offering the possibility for a new world "disorder."

8. Safe Havens: As the signs of imminent economic and social collapse become more pronounced, legions of New Millennium survivalists are, or will be, thinking about looking for methods and ways to escape the resulting turmoil. Those “on-trend” have already taken measure to implement Gerald Celente’s 3 G’s: Gold, Guns and a Getaway plan. Where to go? What to do? Top Trends 2012 will guide the way.

9. Big Brother Internet: The coming year will be the beginning of the end of Internet Freedom: A battle between the governments and the people. Governments will propose legislation for a new “authentication technology,” requiring Internet users to present the equivalent of a driver’s license and/or bill of health to navigate cyberspace. For the general population it will represent yet another curtailing of freedom and level of governmental control.

10. Direct vs. Faux Democracy: In every corner of the world, a restive populace has made it clear that it’s disgusted with “politics as usual” and is looking for change. Government, in all its forms – democracy, autocracy, monarchy, socialism, communism – just isn’’t working. The only viable solution is to take the vote out of the hands of party politicians and institute Direct Democracy. If the Swiss can do it, why can’t anyone else?

11. Alternative Energy 2012: Even under the cloud of Fukushima, the harnessing of nuclear power is being reinvigorated by a fuel that is significantly safer than uranium and by the introduction of small, modular, portable reactors that reduce costs and construction time. In addition, there are dozens of projects underway that explore the possibility of creating cleaner, competitively priced liquid fuels distilled from natural sources. Plan to start saying goodbye to conventional liquid fuels!

12. Going Out in Style: In the bleak terrain of 2012 and beyond, “Affordable sophistication” will direct and inspire products, fashion, music, the fine arts and entertainment at all levels. US businesses would be wise to wake up and tap into the dormant desire for old time quality and the America that was.

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

The Best of Gerald Celente

"Wake-Up Call" Trend: The Decline of America trend is nowhere near bottom, and the worse is yet to come.

One year later: "Worse" has happened, as the country piles up more and more debt, politicians are gridlocked, paralyzed in some perpetual political traffic jam of inaction.

"Crack-Up 2011" Trend: Teetering economies will collapse, currency wars will ensue, trade barriers will be erected, economic unions will splinter…

One year later: The Sovereign debt crisis threatens both the European Union and Euro, currency wars are underway and the US and China are trading trade barbs.

"Crime Time" Trend: No job + no money + compounding debt = high stress, strained relations, short fuses. Hardship-driven crimes will be committed across the socioeconomic spectrum by legions of the on-the-edge desperate who will do whatever they must to keep a roof over their heads and put food on the table.

One year later: Thieves are stealing copper piping and cables, cooking oil and temple donation boxes; "Criminal recycling" is flourishing; in 2011 a record number of cyber crimes is reported to the FBI: more than 23,000 per month.

"Screw the People" Trend: As times get even tougher and people get even poorer, the "authorities" will intensify their efforts to extract the funds needed to meet fiscal obligations.

One year later: In the two-tier American justice system, the long arm of the law only reaches down to the low hanging fruit. Banks are slapped with slap on the wrist fines for billion dollar crimes, and like Jon Corzine, no crime time. But swift justice is readily dealt out for small time crimes. From closing down lemonade stands operating without a license to swat teams busting raw foods cooperatives, in America, Justice means "just us!"

"Students of the World Unite" Trend: "University degrees in hand yet out of work, in debt and with no prospects on the horizon, young adults and 20-somethings are mad as hell, and they're not going to take it anymore."

One year later: Occupy Wall Street is just one of the scores of worldwide student protest movements, some of which have proven powerful enough to bring down governments.

"Crackdown on Liberty" Trend: A national crusade to "Get Tough on Crime" will be waged against the citizenry. And just as in the "War on Terror," where "suspected terrorists" are killed before proven guilty or jailed without trial, in the "War on Crime" everyone is a suspect until proven innocent.

One year later: TSA strip searches of little old ladies; Obama backs bill “authorizing indefinite military detention of U.S. citizens.”

"Journalism 2.0" Trend: With its unparalleled reach across borders and language barriers, "Journalism 2.0" has the potential to influence and educate citizens in a way that governments and corporate media moguls would never permit.

One year later: Aleksai Navalny, an imprisoned young Russian blogger/Twitterer with some 200,000 followers, is "credited with mobilizing a generation of young Russians through social media, a leap much like the one that spawned Occupy Wall Street and youth uprisings across Europe this year."

"Cyberwars" Trend: The demonstrable effects of Cyberwar and its companion, Cybercrime, are already significant — and will come of age in 2011. Equally disruptive will be the harsh measures taken by global governments to control free access to the web, identify its users, and literally shut down computers that it considers a threat to national security.

One year later: Iran proudly displayed a sleek, white U.S. drone that was used for spying on Iranians; Iranians were able to capture what US military officials privately told Bloomberg was a Lockheed Martin RQ-170 by hacking into its security code; PayPal shuts off service to WikiLeaks.

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

The Best of Gerald Celente

MF Global’s former CFO, COO and Jon Corzine (former CEO, governor of the state of New Jersey, US Senator and illustrious Goldman-Sachs alumnus) testified before the Senate Agriculture committee and not one of them could answer the $1.2 billion dollar question: Where did that much customer money go? How could no one know? Celente believes the whole show on the Hill was whitewash. Indictments should have been issued instead. And he can’t find out anything about his own 6-figure account that was ripped off either.

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

The Best of Gerald Celente

Previously by Gerald Celente: Fourth Estate Pleads the Fifth

Trends analyst Gerald Celente joins RT to discuss the real state of unemployment as well as the passage of the Senate bill that repeals the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

“You need 125,000 jobs a month just to account for the new people moving into the economy and population growth,” says Celente. He believes the inaccurate unemployment numbers reported by the mainstream media are going to make President Obama look better.

Celente opposes S. 1867, which allows for the indefinite detention of Americans. “This is unprecedented in American history,” he comments. Celente points out that the people in charge have an agenda for war and the military industrial complex is taking over the country. “They’ve turned the whole country into one big homeland security and the priority is on military.”

The trends forecaster predicts economic martial law is coming. “When the new year comes, the winter of discontent is going to set in and reality is going to bite.”

Reprinted with permission from Bull Source. You can subscribe to Bull Source posts for free here.

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

© 2011 Bull Source

The Best of Gerald Celente

The MF Global bankruptcy (eighth largest in U.S. history) has all but destroyed confidence in the options and commodity markets. It is an event with enormous implications across the world’s economic spectrum.

However intricate the story may seem, in terms of rules, regulations, and legalities, there is one chief element that is crystal clear. But that one element – the role played by CME Group (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) in the debacle – has been all but ignored by the media. Instead, most of their attention has been focused on an estimated $1.2 billion of missing money, and allegations that MF raided segregated customer accounts, in violation of industry rules, to cover the bad high risk bets made by CEO Jon Corzine.

But why the hands-off, kid-glove treatment afforded CME, which has put itself on record as “guarantor” of transactions undertaken by its members … one of which was MF Global?

As evidenced in this video, CME’s Executive Chairman Terry Duffy has boasted, “No customer has every lost a penny as a result of a clearing member default.” Duffy goes on to state unequivocally, “Since we are the guarantor of every transaction that happens in our markets, we have to guarantee the performance of each and every one of these contracts.”

Chicago Mercantile Exchange or Chicago Mafia Enterprise? What’s holding back the media from reporting on this monumental breech of the public trust? The Trends Journal sent this video clip to nearly 50,000 people in the media, worldwide, on November 18th. Yet, not one of the major business, cable or mainstream news outlets has seen fit to call out Terry Duffy who had also confirmed that CME holds “more than $100 billion of collateral to support the transactions that are being done on our markets.”

People and business have been ruined by the MF bankruptcy and the failure of CME to honor its guarantee.

Where is the press? Is the Fourth Estate Pleading the Fifth? Is there a reporter out there that is “Without fear and without favor?” Where are Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN, Fox and all the rest?

Who has stopped the presses? The Chicago Mafia Enterprise?

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

The Best of Gerald Celente

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

The Best of Gerald Celente

The Trends Journal has uncovered critical information that – in light of the MF Global bankruptcy – casts doubt on the fitness of CME Group to serve as a trustworthy derivatives and commodities exchange, and on the credibility of its Executive Chairman, Terence Duffy. (Click here for "smoking gun" video)

Not only has the scandalous MF Global bankruptcy (the eighth-largest in US history) wreaked financial havoc on thousands of individuals, it has single-handedly destroyed faith in the commodity markets. CME’s reputation as the financial Rock of Gibraltar, upon which the commodity markets are anchored, has now been undermined. By its recent actions, CME’s claim of being committed to guaranteeing the transactions undertaken by its members has been called into question.

As recently as 2010, Terrence Duffy boasted, "No customer has ever lost a penny as a result of a clearing member default." Moreover, in the same press conference, Duffy stated unequivocally, "Since we are the guarantor of every transaction that happens in our markets, we have to guarantee the performance of each and every one of these contracts … To do this, we hold more than $100 billion of collateral to support the transactions that are being done on our markets."

The evidence is irrefutable:

• Mr. Duffy affirms that the CME Group is "guarantor."
• CME has a $100 billion reserve to make good any possible default by a member.

The MF Global meltdown, big as it is, is not "just another" major bankruptcy – another Lehman Brothers. It provides irrefutable proof of the tactics employed by top financial players in a prelude to the unraveling of the world’s financial system.

The Trends Journal has come up with a key, perhaps THE key. It is up to the Fourth Estate to publicize and expose CME Group, Terence Duffy, and MF’s former CEO, John Corzine, for what they are: not so much canaries, but the vultures in the mineshaft.

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

The Best of Gerald Celente

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

The Best of Gerald Celente

The passage below is not from a recent New York Times or Wall Street Journal reporting on "Occupy Wall Street" — it was written in 1995 by Gerald Celente. In Celente's best-selling book Trends 2000 (Warner Books,1997), he predicted a watershed event that lay a decade and a half in the future:

"They flooded the streets. Day and night, they marched … As the demonstrations mobilized and gained momentum, the students were joined by their uncollegiate peers — the unemployed, the underemployed, the unemployable…

No one was sure what had turned the protestors into marchers, or what had pointed them in the direction of Wall Street. All that was known for sure was that a mob of adrenaline-pumped young people funneled into the narrow streets of the Financial District…

In his prescient forecast of the march on Wall Street, Celente not only recognized, but analyzed what today's editorial writers and TV pundits are currently debating.

America was not supposed to be a country where the rich grew richer and everyone else grew poorer. Finally the well-publicized income disparity between the rich and the shrinking middle class and growing underclass served as the predicted flashpoint…"

Also in 1997's Trends 2000, Celente envisaged a new, Internet-based network he named "Technotribalism," which was "capable of uniting and galvanizing the world electronically."

"This time the news was posted on the StudentNet. Sympathy protests simultaneously combusted on college campuses and in cities around the nation."

Celente's "StudentNet" forecast would eventually surface as the social networking megatrend we now know as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.

FAST FORWARD A DECADE

In the Summer 2010 Trends Journal, Celente forecast a 21st century variant of "Workers of the World Unite."

"The people are fully aware of the enormous bailouts going to the u2018too big to fails' that they are being forced to pay for. We will see social unrest growing in all nations which are facing sovereign debt crisis, the most obvious being Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, the Ukraine, Hungary, followed by the United Kingdom and the United States."

And in the December 2010 Trends Journal, he wrote:

"The well publicized news of bank bailouts, billions in executive bonuses, and a spectrum of financial hardships heaped upon those who could least afford them — by those who could easily afford them — had the public seething … especially the young … They're mad as hell and aren't going to take it anymore."

Celente has been so right, so often, about so many trends, it's no wonder the New York Post said, "If Nostradamus were alive today, he’d have a hard time keeping up with Gerald Celente."

But since Nostradamus is long dead and since Celente has out-predicted him in unambiguous, quatrain-free language, it's easy to understand why so many people turn to him for insights into what in world is going to happen next.

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

The Best of Gerald Celente

Previously by Gerald Celente: Labor Day Market Bloodbath: GoldTops$1,900

Renowned trends forecaster Gerald Celente about the false flag op and the move toward World War Three. Celente forecasted that there will be a major war as the economy crumbles.

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

© 2011 Infowars

The Best of Gerald Celente

Previously by Gerald Celente: Labor Day Market Bloodbath: GoldTops$1,900

And the next President of the United States will be: teleprompter populist extraordinaire, Barack Obama.

Should the Republicans nominate one of the three current frontrunners – Mitt Romney, Rick Perry or Michelle Bachmann – Barack “Back-on-track” Obama wins (despite polls showing him with just a 41 percent approval rating) by playing the populist card he’s already begun to deal, forecasts Gerald Celente, Trends Journal publisher.

The President is already calling the bluff of his Republican foes, demanding a millionaire’s tax and daring a gridlocked Congress not to pass it.

“Warren Buffet’s secretary shouldn’t pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffet,” Obama moralizes. “It is wrong that in the United States of America, a teacher, or a nurse, or a construction worker who earns $50,000 should pay higher tax rates than someone pulling in $50 million.”

Obama began rehearsing his self-described role as “warrior for the middle class” some months ago. In the Summer 2011 issue of the Trends Journal, we alerted subscribers to Obama’s populist campaign strategy:

Undaunted by his string of broken promises, in the Summer of 2011, the born-again populist positioned himself to retain his core Democratic base, while wooing swelling legions of the hard-pressed, desperate for a government handout … the out of work and down and out were left with a Hobson’s Choice: either take Obama or be left out in the cold by Republicans.

So, in a classic reversal of his recent stance as “Accommodator in Chief,” Obama now vows not to cut the one program most Republicans want to either eliminate or drastically reconfigure, but which voters hold sacred: Social Security. “Obama Plan Won’t Include Changes to Social Security,” read the Sept. 15 Wall Street Journal headline. As for Medicare, Obama has promised to “fix” it sometime in the future … well after the election.

And who gets hurt if Social Security and Medicare get cut? The 78 million retirement-age baby boomers who need the entitlements most, who can afford the cuts the least – and who vote.

“Their health costs are going up; their investments are going down. They’re deep in debt, most without enough to retire on, and the Republicans want to give them less,” notes Celente incredulously. “It’s a suicidal strategy that’s stranger than fiction. It’s as though the Republican campaign has been devised by insidious Democratic infiltrators.”

This is why the new, tough-talking Obama is painting Republicans as the party that “does everything for corporate America and nothing for middle America,” says Celente.

The Presidential Reality Show

Reflecting back on the debates between Republican candidates, Celente says, “This isn’t politics as an exercise in Democracy in action, it’s politics as show business for ugly people. Anyone who saw the September 12th debate hosted by CNN witnessed an early episode of The Presidential Reality Show. It was a star-spangled, made-for-TV-spectacle appropriating the lowest common denominator elements of the World Wrestling Federation, the Miss America Pageant and American Idol.

“Given that this is what is passed off as political ‘debate’ in America, come Election Day, the American Idol winner (a.k.a. The President of the United States) will be the best performer. And Barack Obama has proven that he can out-perform and out-teleprompt them all – he will tell the teleprompted truth the audience wants to hear.

“Obama will blame Congress for everything that’s wrong with America. He’ll bring back the ghost of George W. Bush and the failed Republican fiscal policies – despite the fact that Democrats were in power for two years. He’ll avoid mentioning his role in keeping the Bush tax cuts in place and that he bailed out the banks, financial institutions and the too-big-too-fails and delivered nothing but empty promises to the foreclosed and unemployed he vowed to rescue.”

By the time the Republicans finally get around to choosing a candidate, Obama will have his “warrior for the middle class” message perfected.

The Leading Presidential Reality Show Contestants

Gerald Celente forecasts that Texas Governor Rick “Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme” Perry will not survive his many gaffes or be able hide his political baggage.

“On the hot button Obamacare issue, Mitt ‘Corporate Raider’ Romney has already out-Obama’d Obama with the Romneycare healthcare plan he pushed through as Governor of Massachusetts. And besides,” says Celente, “polls show that one third of Republicans won’t vote for a Mormon, which cancels out everyone who says they won’t vote for Obama because they think he’s a Muslim.”

As for Michelle Bachmann? In the highly unlikely event of her winning the nomination, she could never survive the heat or the intense personal scrutiny she’ll be subjected to on the campaign trail.

“Getting Elvis’s birthday wrong is surely forgivable, but warning that the rise of the Soviet Union is a great threat to America’s national security is borderline inanity. She makes Sarah Palin (who claimed she could see Russia from her backyard) sound like a sage,” observes Celente.

While Obama’s 41 percent approval rating is dismal, with 13 months before Election Day, it is not an insurmountable statistical gap to close. Ronald Reagan, the ultimate political actor, and Bill “Slick Willie” Clinton – at the same point in their presidencies – had only a 47 and 46 percent approval rating respectively, and they won reelection.

“As the teleprompter populist,” says Celente, “Obama’s every phrase will be carefully crafted. He rarely speaks off-the-cuff and seemingly never from the heart. And on a stage where performance counts more than the heart, fans (a.k.a. the electorate) will vote for the Best Actor. That actor will be the man who commands the stage, Barack Obama.

“If you can sell the American people Jersey Shore,” says Celente, “you can sell them another round of ‘Hope’ and ‘Change You Can Believe In.’”

Trend Forecast: In the Summer 2011 Trends Journal, Celente identified Jon Huntsman as the dark horse favorite, with Ron Paul next in line.

Over the long haul in the run for the nomination, the attacks launched by the three current frontrunners could succeed in discrediting them all. Under such circumstances it is not impossible that one or the other of the dark horses could win the race. Should that be the case, either one would have a better chance of beating Obama than Romney, Perry or Bachmann.

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

© 2011 Trends Research

The Best of Gerald Celente

Previously by Gerald Celente: Labor Day Market Bloodbath: GoldTops$1,900

Gerald Celente, director of the Trends Research Institute, speaks with RT on the rigged financial system, absurd cost-cutting measures at Goldman Sachs, and the lack of justice in America.

Celente calls Goldman’s cost-cutting measures a “joke” and believes the institution is going down. “Whether it’s the Goldman Sachs gang, the Credit Suisse swindlers or the Citigroup criminals, they’re all in trouble,” he comments.

Celente says the whole financial system is under attack and predicts we’re going into a volatile season. He points out that America has lost its freedom and justice. “The police in the United States have become nothing more than the enforcers for the crime bosses.”

Reprinted with permission from Bull Source. You can subscribe to Bull Source posts for free here.

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

© 2011 Bull Source

The Best of Gerald Celente

As Americans celebrate Labor Day (the worker’s holiday for workers lucky enough to have jobs), the financial news from across the pond is anything but celebratory. Today, the equity market meltdown – that saw US stocks logging their worst August in 10 years – hit Europe even harder and sank major Asian indices to yearly lows.

Today’s sell-off, which began with the Asian markets falling some 2.5 percent followed by a 5 percent drop in European markets, is setting off frantic alarm signals. Just two of the 45 markets tracked by Standard & Poor’s Indices rose during August, and September has begun on an ominous note.

The summer collapse I predicted is underway, and there is much worse to come. (See Trend Alert®, 13 June 2011, ‘COLLAPSE: IT’S COMING! ARE YOU READY?‘)

Trend-conscious Trends Journal subscribers around the globe take note: The world markets are in meltdown, and nothing, but NOTHING, that ‘policy makers’ make up will reverse it.

American subscribers, who may well be tuned out of the news and in a holiday mode today, could find – if Europe is a harbinger of what to expect tomorrow – the day after tomorrow bringing panic to the Street.

Do you know where your money is? And if you want it, will you be able to get it? European, American, Chinese … it doesn’t matter. The banks are taking a battering. Just today, The Royal Bank of Scotland fell 12.3 percent, Deutsche Bank 8.9 percent, and Societe Generale 8.6 percent. In the last six months, major US and European banks have lost about half of their value.

Fears are mounting that some European banks would not be able to meet their debt obligations if they were forced to recognize the existing losses in their balance sheets. Despite years of promises to remedy the sovereign debt problems by the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, it is becoming obvious they will not be able to do so.

Is that why, as ECB data reveals, European banks have been withdrawing their cash from the European banking system and transferring it to the US … as indicated in data released by the US Federal Reserve on Friday?

Take action as appropriate. With gold closing today above $1,900 an ounce, my forecast for ‘Gold $2,000,’ once roundly ridiculed, is now, for all intents and purposes, realized.

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

The Best of Gerald Celente

On June 13th, Trends Journal subscribers and the global media received this Trend Alert®: "Collapse It's Coming! Are You Ready?"

In that Trend Alert®, Gerald Celente accurately predicted that a global economic collapse was imminent. "The economy is on the threshold of calamity … another violent financial episode is looming," he wrote.

Celente warned that the trends of the Summer of 2011 paralleled those in play during August of 2007, trends that had culminated in the "Panic of '08."

He dismissed the assurances of world leaders that policies were in place to mitigate the escalating European and US debt crises.

He discounted "media experts" promoting an imaginary recovery or debating the prospects of a double-dip recession.

It was all bogus. Those assurances were hot air, and the "recovery" talk and "double-dip recession" debates were just red herrings.

In that Trend Alert®, Celente urged readers to resist the urge to lapse into a vacation state of mind. And he warned that the coming panic was going to be distinctly different!

In the Summer of 2007, before the "Panic of u201808" set in, the Dow had hit a high of 14,000, the real estate and credit bubbles had not yet burst, and unemployment was a manageable 4.7 percent. People actually still felt prosperous.

The "Collapse of 2011" follows four years of relentless economic decay. The combination of plummeting real estate values, intractable unemployment, and a US/European government debt crises dwarfs the banking/financial institution turmoil of 2008.

Back then, Washington and the Federal Reserve treated the critically wounded economy with trillions of stimulus dollars, low interest rates, and quantitative easing. But in 2011, those fiscal and monetary band-aids are not viable options.

It's a tale told in chapter and verse in Trends Journals, in Trend Alerts and Trends in The News: the promised recovery was no more than a "cover-up." We correctly forecast that gold prices would soar, the dollar would dive against the Swiss Franc, the European debt crisis would worsen dramatically, the vaunted emerging markets would submerge, and the "House made of BRICS" would not escape the turmoil.

In forecasting the collapse well in advance, Celente provided an accurate timeline and supported his conclusions with quantifiable data and in-depth analysis. However, now that the collapse is underway, history is already being brazenly reengineered, right in front of our eyes. Blaming the S&P downgrade for triggering the global sell-off/financial panic — as the majority of pundits are doing — is as bogus as blaming the onset of World War I on the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. The downgrade was no more than the proverbial last straw that broke the nation's financial back.

Trendpost: Trends Journal subscribers take notice. You know that Gerald Celente predicted the collapse. He now maintains there are no substantive DC/FED/ECB/IMF financial cards left to play to reverse the irreversible.

Despite today's Fed announcement to keep interest rates near zero through mid-2013 — and use policy tools to bolster the economy "as appropriate" — he forecasts that future Fed schemes will, at best, provide only temporary relief and, as with its previous attempts, are doomed to fail.

True to form, the economic propaganda mill is churning at full speed and the media coverage is mostly "bull." Tune into any business show, pick up any newspaper and what you will get is the economic equivalent of the notorious 9/11 advice from the authorities as people fled the World Trade Center: "Go back to your offices, the fire in the North Tower is under control."

So now, with some $8 trillion of equity destroyed in just a few days, the authoritative counsel is: "The market is oversold. Get back in. It's a buying opportunity."

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

© 2011 Bull Source

The Best of Gerald Celente

RT talks with trends forecaster Gerald Celente about the debt deal and what’s coming for the American and global economies.

Gold prices have gone up because of the devaluation of the US dollar, Celente points out. He argues that America is heading into the Greatest Depression and believes that everything Washington is doing will not salvage the economy.

“Why would any thinking adult look at the Republicans and the Democrats, the inepts and the incompetents, to come up with a program that’s going to salvage the nation?”

Reprinted with permission from Bull Source. You can subscribe to Bull Source posts for free here.

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

© 2011 Bull Source

The Best of Gerald Celente

After reading the newly-released SummerTrends Journal, no responsible journalist will be able, in good conscience, to paint Gerald Celente again as a purveyor of “Pessimism Porn,” a “gloom and doomer,” or an “alarmist.”

Celente will continue to make clear that “Happy Days” will not soon be here again. He will continue to explain that, budget deal notwithstanding, no future Fed quick fixes or DC schemes can reverse the “Greatest Depression”-bound economy. No bipartisan miracle will eliminate the budget or trade deficit, restore the dollar to its former glory, or bring back jobs lost to China, India, Mexico, etc.

Europe’s financial crisis is equally critical. And the EU, IMF and ECB rescue policies will prove as ineffective as America’s. Those warnings are not “alarmism” or “pessimism” – they are just a matter of drawing logical conclusions from hard facts and incontrovertible data.

Nevertheless, even with a major economic collapse ahead of us, Celente is convinced there is a basis for expecting positive global outcomes in the long-term. The potential “Game Changer” lies in a widespread recognition that the Industrial Revolution mindset and policies will not, and cannot, work in a 21st century world.

“It’s not just Model T economics that’s outmoded, so are our approaches to education, healthcare, politics and, yes, the military,” says Celente. “The old adage ‘Generals fight the last war’ is as valid as ever. While the technology may have changed, the mindset hasn’t. The conviction that brute force can prevail in an occupied country defended by guerilla combatants has proven a multi-trillion dollar, decade-long failure. Yet even as old wars drag on with no victory in sight, new wars are started such as ‘Operation Odyssey Dawn’ launched against Libya five months ago, a ‘kinetic military action’ that was supposed to end in ‘day’s, not weeks.’u201D

Celente Solution: Direct Democracy

“The government/political ‘system’ in place in America, and throughout much of the world, is obsolete and irreparable. The inept generals masterminding lost-cause wars are mirrored by warring senators and representatives in Congress. Anyone who watched weeks of the Washington Wrestling Federation’s (WWF) Reality Show, ‘Beltway Battle Over the Budget,’ and still trusts the judgment of politicians, is either delusional or ideologically trapped,” says Celente.

Yet, it is an undeniable fact that 535 elected members of Congress, despite their incompetence, pass laws that control the lives of over 300,000,000 citizens. “The problem isn’t just in the numbers,” says Celente, “it’s that the ‘Gang of 535? represents lobbyists and campaign contributors, not the constituents they claim to represent. ‘Representative Democracy’ is a cruel sham; it’s neither ‘representative’ nor ‘democratic,’ and people are getting wise to it. Polls show that only 17 percent of likely US voters say the country is heading in the right direction, while 46 percent believe most members of Congress are corrupt.

“In those beliefs rest the possibility for change, real change, not Obama-change. As Victor Hugo put it, ‘There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come.’ I believe that ‘idea’ is Direct Democracy, and I believe that the time has come for the entire world to wrest power from the hands of ruling political mobs and put it into the hands of the public. ‘Let the people vote!’ ”

Can Direct Democracy really work? It does in Switzerland! But is it a viable, realistic substitute for the many representative democracies, which, in practice, are not democratic at all? Or would it lead to mob rule? Can Direct Democracy really be u201CThe Global Game Changeru201D?

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

The Best of Gerald Celente

Read All About It!" You couldn't not read all about it! The media was full of reports about how happy stock market days were here again. After a stormy start, June closed and July began with US benchmark indexes racking up their biggest weekly gains in two years on good news: the US manufacturing index had unexpectedly risen, and the beleaguered debt-burdened Greeks were bailed out yet again — piling un-payable new debt on top of un-payable old debt.

Yes, there was some concern, but, as The New York Times reported on June 25th, "Two years into the official recovery, the economy is still behaving like a plane taxiing indefinitely on the runway. Few economists are predicting an out-and-out return to recession … analysts generally expect the economy to pick up in the second half."

The economists were forecasting strong job growth for June. But two weeks later, when the numbers came in, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that only 18,000 jobs had been created — not the 125,000 jobs projected … by those same economists who were also not "predicting an out-and-out return to recession."

Accordingly, without missing a beat, the Times changed its tune — writing new words to replace the old words they would never be forced to eat:

Feeble Job Numbers Show Recovery Starting to Stall

Defying Economists Forecast for Hiring, Unemployment Creeps Up to 9.2%

For the second consecutive month, employers added scarcely any jobs in June, startling evidence that the economic recovery is stumbling … The government also revised downward the small gain for the previous month to 25,000 new jobs, less than half the original estimate. (The New York Times, 9 July 2011)

"Dismal Jobs Data Rock US Recovery" and "Worries Grow Over Jobs," read the respective headlines in the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal on July 9th, dissipating the air of optimism that had recently rallied equity markets.

"Employment!" More than factory orders, GDP, corporate profits, retail sales, durable goods … employment was the one big number that counted. There was no way to spin the consequences of 18,000 mostly low paying health care and hospitality jobs into the hopeful message implied by the 125,000 jobs forecast by most economists.

The equation was simple; the more people out of work, the less they consume. And in the United States, where consumer spending accounts for an estimated 70 percent of the GDP, without increased consumer spending, the economy was again recession bound.

Virtually overnight, one dire employment report unraveled two years' worth of government spin and media complicity. In April 2010, Vice President Joseph Biden promised, "we’re going to be creating between 250,000 jobs a month and 500,000 jobs a month.” And in August 2010, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner declared that the "actions we took at its height [of the crisis] to stimulate the economy helped arrest the freefall, preventing an even deeper collapse and putting the economy on the road to recovery."

But almost a year later, talking on "Meet the Press," two days after the devastating employment data was released, the new, revised Geithner forecast was, "Oh, I think it's [the recovery] going to take a long time still. This is a very tough economy. And I think for a lot of people it's going to be — it's going to feel very hard, harder than anything they've experienced in their lifetime now, for some time to come."

Like the Biden boast long-buried and un-exhumed, the Geithner statement, a direct contradiction of his former projection went unchallenged, given the usual free pass by the "Meet the Press" Presstitutes.

There was, and is, no "return to recession." As The Trends Research Institute had been forecasting since the onset of the Great Recession and the "Panic of '08," all those “bold actions” proudly cited by Geithner were no more than financial Prozac — multi-trillion-dollar band aids, palliatives, placebos and cover-ups packaged as TARP, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, QE2, and so on. At best, the "bold actions" merely guided the Great Recession into a brief remission, and that is all.

Global Ponzi It was a cover-up, not a recovery. And while the US may have been the first, it was not the only nation to try to fraudulently finagle its way out of a crisis and into prosperity. Like the US bailouts, the Greek survival package — praised as an important stopgap success only last week — has neither guaranteed keeping the Greek banking system afloat nor guaranteed it won't default.

Now Italy has caught the contagion. Fattest of the PIIGS (acronym for Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain) — the eurozone's third largest economy — with its 120 percent public debt to GDP ratio, Italy is bleeding red ink all over its balance sheet. Borrowing more to service its debt load and imposing draconian austerity measures to reign in government spending will, at best, provide a respite from the financial crisis … or, at worst, foment a revolution. (See, "Off With Their Heads, 2.0, Trends Journal, Autumn 2010)

Then there's China, who panicked when the "Panic of 08" blew out their export driven economy, and, like the West, used cheap credit and huge stimulus packages to prevent a major economic contraction. While China's crisis differs from the West's in that it has large currency reserves and its debt is homegrown and home-loaned, it's still debt and has to be repaid.

And unlike the West, which pumped trillions into just keeping its economies afloat, the Chinese multi-trillion yuan infusions have created an immense, ready-to-pop property bubble. But this time, like the West, there will be no available fiscal or monetary government policies to re-inflate their faltering economy.

And as goes the US, Europe and China — so goes the rest of the world. From India to Israel, Brazil to Bangladesh, Chile to Russia, no nation will escape the economic fallout and few will escape the political consequences.

Yet, despite the widely available economic facts and the ample evidence of faulty forecasts and failed government policies, the mainstream media continues to sell the public the big lie. By providing cover for the politicians and financiers, the Presstitutes of the world — with their stable of "well respected" pundits — are accomplices in promoting the egregiously transparent cover-up as a "recovery."

Trendpost: After descending to $1,480 less than two weeks ago, as this is written, gold is flirting with $1,600. We see this surge as a recognition of the greater financial and socioeconomic collapse we have been forecasting since the onset of the "Panic of '08." We hold to our forecast of "Gold $2,000," and depending on how the coming crisis unfolds and the responses to it made by governments and central banks, $2,000 may prove but a temporary ceiling before climbing higher.

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

The Best of Gerald Celente

Continued from part one.

According to a June 8th CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, 48 percent of Americans believe that another Great Depression is likely to occur in the next year – the highest that figure has ever reached. The survey also indicates that just under half of the respondents live in a household where someone has lost a job or is worried that unemployment may hit them in the near future.

Suddenly, after years of obvious economic hardship experienced by tens of millions of Americans – only when the suffering and pain can no longer be cloaked in abstractions and cooked statistics – does an emboldened media dare utter the forbidden “D” word.

For Trends Journal readers, alerted to this emerging trend some three years ago, the prospect of Depression should come as no surprise. Neither should the idea that, when it hits and can no longer be denied, a long suffering public will take to the streets.

When I made this forecast back then it was written off by most of the major broadcast and print media. Now, however, when one of their own, belatedly and hesitantly, raises that possibility he is elevated to sage status and it becomes big news. In early June, Democratic strategist James “It’s the Economy, Stupid” Carville, having finally mastered the higher math of adding two plus two, warned that decaying economic conditions heightened the risk of civil unrest.

As I described it all those years ago: “When people lose everything, and have nothing left to lose, they lose it.”

Trend Forecast: The wars will proliferate and civil unrest will intensify. As we forecast, the youth-inspired revolts that first erupted in North Africa and the Middle East are now breaking out in Europe. Given the trends in play and the people in power, economic collapse at some level is inevitable. Governments and central banks will be unrelenting in their determination to wring every last dollar, pound or euro from the people through taxes while confiscating public assets (a.k.a. privatization) in order to cover bad bets made by banks and financiers.

When the people have been bled dry financially and have nothing left to give, blood will flow on the streets.

Trend Lesson: Learn from history. Do you remember when it first became apparent that the US economy was in deep trouble and heading toward the “Panic of 08”? Not many will. Most people were in a summer state of mind and in holiday mode. It was late July 2007 when the stock market suddenly plunged from its euphoric 14,000 high.

Though we had warned in our Summer 2007 Trends Journal (released that June) that “trends indicators point to a major crisis hitting the financial markets between July and November,” the diving Dow was downplayed as a mere “hiccup” … a time to pause between more mouthfuls of expansion.

Biggest mistake in a falling stock market

The huge swings in the Dow are giving investors pause. But taking your money out of the market now could be the gravest mistake of all.

NEW YORK – This past Thursday was the second worst day of the year for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. But remember, it was just a week ago today that the Dow closed above 14,000 for the first (and only) time.

Fluctuations in the market shouldn’t get to the 401(k) investor. Keep in mind your time horizon – most of us are going to be invested in the market until we retire, often decades from now. ~ CNN 27 July 2007

Four years and trillions of dollars in stock and 401(k) losses later, that typical “take a deep breath, stay the course” advice looks tragically misguided. The Dow would eventually lose more than half its value and now, in June 2011, it’s fallen below 12,000.

The moral of this story is to not let your mind take a summer vacation. Conditions are rapidly deteriorating and it is imperative to remain on high alert. Another violent financial episode is looming. It may be triggered by economics (e.g., debt defaults and debt crisis contagion in Europe, a crashing US dollar, or commodity price spikes); it could be terror (false flag or real), a man-made disaster (another Fukushima) or one made by Mother Nature … or any combination of the above.

Publisher’s Note: To excel in any field – from gourmet chef to concert pianist to close-combat warrior – you have to practice … endlessly, over and over, until finally the training sinks in and becomes a part of you.

In that spirit, I again repeat: preparing for financial survival is a “practice.” And it has to be treated as if you are preparing for battle; expect the unexpected and prepare for the worst, which in these perilous times could be a declaration of economic martial law. Banks may close, currencies may be devalued and deposit withdrawals may be imposed. Remember Gerald Celente’s basic survival strategy, “GC’s Three G’s: Guns, Gold and a Getaway plan.”

Reprinted with permission from the Daily Reckoning.

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

The Best of Gerald Celente

Everything is not all right. And things are going to get worse … much worse. The economy is on the threshold of calamity. Wars are spreading like wildfires. The world is on a razor’s edge.

Not so, say world leaders and mainstream media experts. Yes, there are problems, but the financiers and politicians are aware of them. Policies are already in place and measures are being taken to correct them.

Whether it’s failing economies, intractable old wars or raging new wars, the word from the top always maintains that steady progress is being made and comforts the populace with assurances that the brightest minds and the sharpest generals are in charge and on the case. On all fronts, success is certain and victory is at hand. Only “patience” is required … along with more men, more time and more money.

As far as these “leaders” and their media are concerned, the only opinions that count come from a stable of thoroughbred experts, official sources and political favorites. Only they have the credentials to speak with authority and provide trustworthy forecasts. That they are consistently, if not invariably, wrong apparently does nothing to diminish their credibility.

How can any thinking adult possibly imagine that the same central bankers, financiers and politicians responsible for creating the economic crisis are capable of resolving it? Within days of its announcement, we predicted that Bush’s TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) was destined to fail, and subsequently predicted the same for Obama’s stimulus package (The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act). They were no more than cover-ups; there would be no recovery.

Meet the New Plan, Same as the Old Plan

Democrat or Republican, it makes no difference. Despite the heated rhetoric, solving economic problems had less to do with the party in power and more to do with professional competence.Both sides had their turn in office. Both used their power to initiate policies that created the problems. Both sides had their shot at fixing the messes they were responsible for. Both sides failed, as we predicted. Given who they are and what they’ve done, we confidently predict an unbroken sequence of bipartisan failures in the future.

The Beltway Incompetents are in the driver’s seat. What person with a healthy instinct for self-preservation would believe the promises of politicians or trust the judgment of central bankers or Wall Street financiers whose only real interest is self interest?

Not “Business as Usual” In the 1920s, US President Calvin Coolidge declared, “The business of America is business.” Four score and 10 years later, the business of America has become war: The forty-year War on Drugs; The ten-year War on Terror; the Afghan War (longest in American history); the eight-years-and-no-end-in-sight Iraq War; the covert wars in Pakistan and Yemen; and most recently, the “time-limited, scope-limited kinetic military action” in Libya.

While the justifications for engaging in these wars were all different, all were murderous, immoral, interminable, ruinously expensive and abject failures. Why would anyone believe the optimistic battle communiqués issued by the “czars” in charge and the battlefield brass who keep reassuring the public that reapplying previously failed strategies would, this time, lead to success?

Yet even in the face of their proven failures and gross incompetence, anyone daring to challenge the party line or the conventional wisdom is dismissed as an “alarmist,” “fear monger,” or “gloom-and-doomer.” However unwelcome our forecasts may be – pessimism, optimism, like or dislike are all irrelevant – only their accuracy counts. We correctly forecast:

• Afghan and Iraq Wars would be debacles
• Bursting of the housing bubble
• The “Gold Bull Run"
• The “Panic of ’08"
• European Monetary Union crisis
• Failure of US bailout/stimulus packages to revive housing and create jobs
• Falling governments, spreading civil wars and social upheaval on a global scale

We also said that the Federal Reserve’s sighting of economic “green shoots” in March 2009 was a "mirage” and predicted that their much vaunted “recovery” was no more than a temporary solution, a quick-fix to be followed by “The Greatest Depression.” And now, in June 2011, with the Dow on a down trend and the economic data increasingly pointing in the direction of Depression, Washington and Wall Street remain in denial. The only debate among the “experts” is whether or not a “double dip” recession is likely.

However, for the man on the street – pummeled by falling wages, higher prices, intractable unemployment, rising taxes and punitive “austerity measures” – “Depression,” not “recession,” and certainly not “prosperity,” is just around the corner.

According to a June 8th CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, 48 percent of Americans believe that another Great Depression is likely to occur in the next year – the highest that figure has ever reached. The survey also indicates that just under half of the respondents live in a household where someone has lost a job or is worried that unemployment may hit them in the near future.

Suddenly, after years of obvious economic hardship experienced by tens of millions of Americans – only when the suffering and pain can no longer be cloaked in abstractions and cooked statistics – does an emboldened media dare utter the forbidden “D” word.

For Trends Journal readers, alerted to this emerging trend some three years ago, the prospect of Depression should come as no surprise. Neither should the idea that, when it hits and can no longer be denied, a long suffering public will take to the streets.

When I made this forecast back then it was written off by most of the major broadcast and print media. Now, however, when one of their own, belatedly and hesitantly, raises that possibility he is elevated to sage status and it becomes big news. In early June, Democratic strategist James “It’s the Economy, Stupid” Carville, having finally mastered the higher math of adding two plus two, warned that decaying economic conditions heightened the risk of civil unrest.

As I described it all those years ago: “When people lose everything, and have nothing left to lose, they lose it.”

Trend Forecast: The wars will proliferate and civil unrest will intensify. As we forecast, the youth-inspired revolts that first erupted in North Africa and the Middle East are now breaking out in Europe (See “Off With Their Heads,” Trends Journal, Autumn 2010)

Given the trends in play and the people in power, economic collapse at some level is inevitable. Governments and central banks will be unrelenting in their determination to wring every last dollar, pound or euro from the people through taxes while confiscating public assets (a.k.a. privatization) in order to cover bad bets made by banks and financiers.

When the people have been bled dry financially and have nothing left to give, blood will flow on the streets.

Trend Lesson: Learn from history. Do you remember when it first became apparent that the US economy was in deep trouble and heading toward the “Panic of 08”? Not many will. Most people were in a summer state of mind and in holiday mode. It was late July 2007 when the stock market suddenly plunged from its euphoric 14,000 high.

Though we had warned in our Summer 2007 Trends Journal (released that June) that “trends indicators point to a major crisis hitting the financial markets between July and November,” the diving Dow was downplayed as a mere “hiccup” … a time to pause between more mouthfuls of expansion.

Biggest mistake in a falling stock market

The huge swings in the Dow are giving investors pause. But taking your money out of the market now could be the gravest mistake of all.

NEW YORK — This past Thursday was the second worst day of the year for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. But remember, it was just a week ago today that the Dow closed above 14,000 for the first (and only) time. Fluctuations in the market shouldn’t get to the 401(k) investor. Keep in mind your time horizon – most of us are going to be invested in the market until we retire, often decades from now. CNN 27 July 2007

Four years and trillions of dollars in stock and 401(k) losses later, that typical “take a deep breath, stay the course” advice looks tragically misguided. The Dow would eventually lose more than half its value and now, in June 2011, it’s fallen below 12,000.

The moral of this story is to not let your mind take a summer vacation. Conditions are rapidly deteriorating and it is imperative to remain on high alert. Another violent financial episode is looming. It may be triggered by economics (e.g., debt defaults and debt crisis contagion in Europe, a crashing US dollar, or commodity price spikes); it could be terror (false flag or real), a man-made disaster (another Fukushima) or one made by Mother Nature … or any combination of the above.

Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of '09.”

The Best of Gerald Celente