can you do a kidney transplant? Sorry friend some medical issues aren't as simple as getting pig insulin. Or storing 6 extra months of medicine.

I hear ya on that. I'm under long term treatment for Bartonella (got from the same tick that gave me Lyme's Disease), and I'm looking at 10-12 months of antibiotic treatment. What I need is not a commonly stocked size/strength at the local pharmacies - so every time I need a refill, it's a special order. Yes, it comes in the next day, but if the deliveries stop, I am up shit creek.

At $400 a month it isn't practical to stockpile the meds to any great degree. Stockpiling a month or two won't really help if I don't complete the whole regimen...it'll just come back.  And depending on how my treatments progress we may have to change the mix of antibiotics. SO if society goes into the shitter in the next year or so I'll probably die...I've had the Bartonella since 2004, but wasn't diagnosed til recently - it was getting pretty bad, and it can be fatal. Luckily we caught it in time it appears, but man w/o modern antibiotics I'd be a goner.

I have maintained that at some point either we will face reality square on and make hard choices, or reality will smack us in the back of the head as far as entitlement spending goes. What is really killing us is now and will surely kill us in the future (as demographics are largely unalterable) are the unfunded liabilities of social security, medicare, and medicaid - and soon to be Reidcare (I call it that since Obama actually had little to do with forming it). Social security is now paying out more than it is taking in, and its "lock box" is full of IOUs - there's really nothing there. Medicare is due to be in a similar state within the next decade. Medicaid is going to break the states' budgets, especially when Reidcare kicks in, and will force regular bailouts of the states to ensure solvency. The problem these programs face is largely demographic, and it is about to explode with the retirement of the baby boomers and an aging population.

The problem is truly simple: there is not enough money in the world to pay for this shit. But generations have been promised these entitlements (what a funny word, "entitlement"; like it's a birthright, or something) and have structured their lives around them. Problem is, if they are not scaled back dramatically into line with fiscal reality, then they are going to disappear entirely. And when that happens...

Blood in the streets. When the Uncle Sugardaddy checks stop flowing, there will be blood in the streets. I've been telling that to people for years, and they always look at me funny and say "That won't happen here". Well, look at Greece now. These protests are really over the austerity measures the Greek govt is proposing to bring them to some semblence of fiscal solvency, and the beneficiaries of govt largess that caused the problem are having none of it. Blood in the streets.

It will happen here too if we don't get our shit together, and fast. And it will be much much worse, because nobody's going to bail us out of our mess.

(early report) just heard on the radio that the gazzillian (dollar) Greek bailout still has to be voted on by the EU.
reports are that you know who persuaded Merkel to push the package.
also, the Fed is ramping up for more "Le Tarp"

and the hits just keep on coming...

today, gold hit an all-time high, ^
Ag ~ 19.40 ^

I hate to say it, if TPTB keep pushing the concept of printing money out of thin air, all countries doing that - then it will never happen...   The checks will still flow and the money will never be paid back as all countries devalue their currency through printing money out of thin air.

Zimbabwe failed because they were the only country printing money out of thin air, so their currency devalued down to nothing as compared with their trading partners - NOW EVERYONE is doing it so everyone will devalue, if at the same pace, then it becomes a matter of "who cares" to the sheeple.  Until the sheeple realize that their checks no longer buy the goods from China at Wal-Mart, because their income has not kept pace with the devalue of the currency = inflation.  Becomes the collapse of the middle class.

I will also hate to say,
but when everyone is broke, do we all become equal? sure is one way to spread the wealth.

not advice, just thinking out loud:
maybe - thinking outside the box - gather your wealth now (savings, investments, retirements) and take control of your own
I hate to say again, but my country is not looking like it did when I grew up, and is also headed outside the box.....

The poor and the middle class will probably be equal because TPTB want that.

The messiah and all his kind (congress) and the rest of the rich will always be rich. It is super easy to say share the wealth when you are rich beyond most peoples wildest dreams!

the quest for Global Dominance
Who's running Europe?

the Germans aren't happy at all

Messiah to the recue.

Thanks for the link. It is a good read.

And this is the real problem...who bears the tax burden?  The working middle class.  
As they become unemployed and displaced,  the tax revenues plummet.
At the same time Fed.GOV  keeps approving more money to prop up banks, prop up bad mortgages,  extend unemployment pay, etc. etc.

We're effectively bleeding from both ends.
Not enough revenue coming in AND the spending keeps going Up and Up.

it's utter madness.

Of course,  what better way to a 'New World Order' than to collapse the old one?   tinfoil, anyone?

The truth of the matter is that the top 5% of wage earners pay the largest chunk of all taxes and account for the majority of revenues the govt recieves. As the geniuses in charge increase the burden on that bracket, that bracket is going to make itself scarce and go Galt on everyone, or head to eastern Europe where tax rates are still amenable to businesses. Revenues are going to plummet - they already are, it has already begun.

The "deficit commission" that Dear Leader and the shitheads in congress worked up is very soon going to recommend raising taxes (they will probably avoid the correct answer, which is to reduce spending), and calls for a VAT (value added tax, a snowballing national sales tax from hell) will soon follow. The calls for this have already begun; Volker has said it is needed, and Dear Leader has said he's "open to it". Look at the period bnetween November (when the Dems lose Congress) and January (when they actually turn it over) to be a period where they try and slip the VAT in. The talk is about a VAT in the 10% to 20% range, as that is what would be needed to pay for Reidcare and all of the other bullshit that has been passed the past couple of years. If a VAT passes, expect the economy to take a massive hit; standards of living will rapidly decline, as the cost of everything will rise by 10-20%, and demand consequently deteriorates (and as that happens, expect rising unemployment... vicious cycle).

But hey! At least you'll have free fucking health care! (or at least a mandate to buy it...)

The answer to all of this is of course to cut spending. But that takes courage, as the unions - specifically public employee unions - will fight it tooth and nail. The dependent class will fight it tooth and nail. The Dems rely on them for votes - indeed, buying votes is the only way aside from perusing cemetary records that they know of to get votes. The Republicans aren't much better, although there are still some good ones there (whereas there is no such thing as a "conservative Democrat" anymore).

IMHO, the Tea Party is the country's last, best hope. If it is not reigned in soon - the spending, that is - then it will lead to either a crash soon, or more likely crushing taxes and an economy along the lines of those of western Europe's - and we all see how well that's working out. The welfare state is in its death throes in Europe, and we're trying to set up the Mother of All Welfare States here...

The EU is in the process of recieving a $1 trillion bailout now largely by the IMF (meaning us). It is a band aid. The crash is still coming, the can is just getting kicked down the road. Europe will fall first. We will try and prop it up, but ultimately it will fail because the problem is liberalism (a.k.a. socialism), not faulty currency, high interest rates, high unemployment, or high inflation (those are just symptoms of the disease). We will fall soon afterwards.

And there will be no one left to bail us out.

I too, am in the financial services industry and use Market Ticker and Zerohedge, the yahoo is new to me too. So, thanks. It looks like a good snapshot of the news before the open. Thanks.