NEWS

WIRES

OTHER

The Panic of '08: How Will We Survive America's Dive

By Gerald Celente

"In 2008, Americans will wake up to the worst economic times that anyone alive has ever seen." (Gerald Celente, 17 December 2007)
RHINEBECK, NY, 15 January 2008 - No one has ever seen anything like it. And few are prepared for what will happen next. The Panic is on. But the media won't report it and the politicians don't know about it.

Registering its third consecutive week of losses, the Dow is off to one of its worst New Year starts in history. Off 5 percent in the first two weeks of trading, the big board fell more than 200 points in four of eight trading days, and in just the first week of the New Year, it gave up half its gains from 2007. The Nasdaq dropped 8 percent since the New Year, finishing the week down more than 50 percent from its 2000 high.

Gold prices tipped $900 an ounce for an all time high and a basket of food based commodities set new records on speculation that the dollar will be worth less, inflation will intensify and some commodity shortages will persist.

Slumping retail sales, dire housing data, rising unemployment rates, gloomy consumer confidence, spiking oil prices, a ballooning trade gap, eroding wages, mounting credit card debt and delinquencies, mortgage defaults, record foreclosures. Day after day of disappointing data floods the wires and spreads the fear. From Tiffany's at the top to McDonalds on the bottom, they dropped 11 percent and 6.6 percent respectively on Friday from softening sales that have spread across the socioeconomic spectrum.

When we predicted "In 2008, Americans will wake up to the worst economic times that anyone alive has ever seen," we warned "Dismiss this trend forecast at your own peril." Some dismissed it and some still are trying to figure out what the future will hold. According to Bloomberg News, the majority of economists surveyed say the United States will avoid recession and 40 percent said there was a chance recession would occur in the next year.

On the political scene, the economic vision is murkier. Speaking on the Nevada campaign trail last week, Hillary Clinton said of the economy, "I think we're slipping toward a recession. A couple of people that I met on the street, they work in construction. They tell me it's slowed down."

In America's Presidential Reality Show, where staging and hype outweigh substance and competence, such insipid lines are rarely questioned and never analyzed for their banal quality and economic ignorance. Admittedly unfamiliar with the extent of economic deterioration, Ms. Clinton, who relied on "A couple of people on the street" to tell her the economy has "slowed down," is elevated by the media and looked to in the polls as the candidate best suited to solve the nation's economic turmoil.

On the Republican side, the five front runners mirrored John McCain's economic shortsightedness: "I don't believe we're headed into a recession. I believe the fundamentals of this economy are strong," McCain said last Thursday. And all five Republicans promised a bromide of economic solutions ranging from increased sales tax to tax cuts that are equally shallow, and in the context of the Panic's fallout, will do nothing. Across the political spectrum, there is no vision, no movement and no strategy for solving the threatening crisis or dealing with the dire consequences.

But there are strategies to consider and actions to take to avoid panic, loss and despair.

Gerald Celente provides trend based solutions on how to avoid the pitfalls, dead ends and wrong turns that lie ahead - and how to best to take advantage of new and emerging opportunities that will prevail.
www.trendsresearch.com