Trends Journal Trends Research: http://www.trendsresearch.com
Breaking Point 2010: Top Trends with Gerald Celente
http://www.coasttocoastam.com
Interview by Linda Moulton Howe
Gerald Celente, Editor, Trends Journal, Trends Research Institute, Kingston, New
York: “We’re looking for Terror 2010. When it happens, where it happens and how it happens,
we don’t know, but we say it’s a very high probability.
The
Crash of 2010. All the stimulus
money – and it’s worldwide, not only in North America. It’s from Australia to
Japan, from China to the U. K. to the U. S. – they have been dumping trillions
of dollars worth of stimulus money to keep the bank crooks afloat.
So, the global 2009 stimulus money is
going to start drying up. When that happens, we are going to see another
economic collapse, the Crash of 2010. We had the Collapse of 2009 – it happened
in March. But what they did was paper it over with all this stimulus money. So
they kept the collapse from crashing. We are seeing the crash happen in 2010.
The other trends that we are looking
at - and it’s not all gloom and doom – we’re going to see Depression High. There is going to be a return to elegance and
quality. Those are the only things that make it in this kind of atmosphere. Go
back to the last Great Depression. People were dressed to the 9s and it was the
hottest, happiest music America ever saw. It was Swing Time! We’re going to see
the rebirth of that in a lot of ways. Quality is the only way people are going
to be able to make a profit. Average is not going to be able to cut it. Jobs
are scarce. People who go to find jobs and are going to be interviewed are
going to want to look the best, the brightest and the smartest. It’s a time to
regain dignity.
So, we’re looking at a very turn around
point in 2010. And along those lines, another one is Shape Up America trend. There is going to be a lot of money to be
made in this. We’ve hit a literal tipping point. Obesity rates are going to hit
43% in the next eight years! So, now we’re going to start seeing a reversal of
that in many different ways.
So, more than just a diet program and
fitness, it’s almost a new New Age. And that’s one of the other trends. The
only way people are going to understand how to make it through these very
difficult times that are coming ahead is to be in shape physically, emotionally
and spiritually.
The food you eat, everything, buy local!
That’s another trend: Not Made in China - huge trend! Everything I buy I turn it over and
look at the label. I don’t buy anything I don’t have to that’s made in China.
And I’m not only an American Firster. I’m a buy local guy. I support my
neighbor. And people better get wise to that thought because the government
sold us the biggest lie ever. It came out of the mouth of Bill Clinton and Al
Gore – how they shoved NAFTA down America’s throat. They told us all that with
NAFTA our quality of life would go up, more jobs would be created, and at
higher pay.
The exact opposite has happened. It’s not
‘fair trade.’ It’s dealing with the country that has the cheapest labor supply,
slave labor. Get it made over there, bring it back over here and mark it up! So
for us to increase our standard of living, we first have to support each other.
And so the Buy Local trend. The Shape Up America trend. The New New Age. These
are very positive movements.
And also as I said, it’s going to be
Depression High. People are going to move back up to elegance, quality and
might even rediscover etiquette. Treating people nicely. Doing things
respectfully. And do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
There are many more trends we see coming
and one of them is: Mothers of Invention. When there is chaos, you work from that and you find
a new form. You use it in a productive manner. You know that you can no longer
go on the same path. All these trends are interconnected. With chaos, when you
look at it in personal health, you hit a point where you have to turn around or
continue to decline.
With chaos, you lose a job. That job no
longer exists. You are in a chaotic state. What do you do? You re-formulate and
move to a new direction. So, the Mothers of Invention as we call this trend is
going to really create an America and world that is going to be much better
than the one we’re leaving.
We have to wash away the system’s
corruption - the greed and destruction. If we continue on this path, our
future will be clear. It’s going to decline worse. If we look at it for what it
is and move in new directions, we move into a much brighter future.
Dubai and
Global Commercial Real Estate - Crashing?
Dubai accumulated at least an $80
billion debt by end of 2009 through banking,
real estate and transportation expansions before credit markets seized up
in 2008. Image © 2009 by Bloomberg News.
ARE YOU SEEING ANOTHER ECONOMIC CRASH IN
THE UNITED STATES IN 2010 BECAUSE OF THE FAILING COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE NOW
SUCH AS THE DEBT CRISIS IN DUBAI?
Well, that was one of the trends we
forecast many months ago: ‘Bye Bye Dubai!’ That was the headline we
used at the Trends Journal. And this is the beginning of the
commercial real estate collapse. It’s only been held up by the funny money and
the fed programs.
[
Editor's Note: Wikipedia - Dubai is one of the seven
emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is located south of the Persian
Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula. The Dubai Municipality is sometimes called Dubai
state to distinguish it from the emirate. Dubai shares legal, political,
military and economic functions with the other emirates within a federal
framework, although each emirate has jurisdiction over some functions such as
civic law enforcement and provision and upkeep of local facilities. Dubai has
the largest population and is the second-largest emirate by area, after Abu
Dhabi. Dubai and Abu Dhabi are the only two emirates to possess veto power over
critical matters of national importance in the country's legislature. Dubai has
been ruled by the Al Maktoum dynasty since 1833. Its current ruler, Mohammed
bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is also the Prime Minister and Vice-President of the
UAE. The emirate's main revenues are from tourism, property and financial
services.]
For
example, one of them was called TALF – Term Asset-backed Loan Facility. And
what the government did was prop up the commercial real estate sector. They
can’t do that anymore. It’s collapsing and it’s worldwide.
And
let’s not forget – when Dubai first crashed, you heard, ‘Oh, it’s nothing. No
big deal. It’s covered. Only $60 billion bucks!’
‘Only
$60 billion bucks!’ (Now increased to more than $80 billion) Isn’t that what
President Obama got on stage for recently and said we were going to put $60
billion in rebuilding the American infrastructure? Like it was such a big deal.
That’s peanuts to rebuild an infrastructure!! It’s a lot of money when it’s one
commercial real estate flop. And we’re going to see much more of that.
Federal Reserve Can't Lower Interest Rates
and FDIC Is Broke
The
Crash
of 2010 is in the making. The
Federal Reserve cannot lower interest rates lower than zero and they are near
zero now. They can’t loan more money out. They don’t have it.
Oh,
by the way, folks, the FDIC – the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation – the
one that protects your money in case a bank goes bust. Well, guess what? The
FDIC is broke! They are $8 billion in the hole. They are going to the banks now
to pay them three years forward so they will have some money to pay other
failing banks and the number of failing banks is supposed to increase up into
the thousands in 2010.
IF
WE ARE HEADED TOWARD A SECOND CRASH IN 2010 WITH UNEMPLOYMENT AT THE HIGH
RATES THAT IT IS NOW, WHAT DO YOU THINK HAPPENS TO THE AVERAGE AMERICAN WHO
THINKS THAT 2010 IS GOING TO BE A TURNING POINT TO SOMETHING BETTER?
They
are going to be very disappointed! In November 2007, Fed Chairman Bernanke said
we were not going into a recession. That was in front of Congress in January
and April 2009! That’s not ancient history. Ben Bernanke was saying we were not
going into a recession – ‘we don’t see one coming.’
How
could anyone believe these people? In 2009 February, the Obama Administration
said that without his stimulus program we would face unemployment rates at 8%
in 2009. Well, guess what? We hit 10.2% in 2009 and that was with the stimulus
programs.
How
could anyone believe these people? They have a track record of failure. One
failure after the other. So anyone putting their hopes on them is going to be
very disappointed.
Physical, Emotional, Spiritual Survival
If
you’re not in shape physically, emotiionally and spiritually, then you’re going
to have a hard time facing a very difficult future because one of the other
trends that we are writing about is: Survival. People have to find within themselves the greatest
thing that they can do. So when we say you have to be fit physically,
emotionally and spiritually, until that happens, then nothing is going to
happen.
No
one knows what is going to happen next and that is the kind of survival
thinking that people need to take in mind. And also survival means wear it out,
use it up, make it do, do without. Be smart in what you do. Be lean and mean.
Be ready to move in any way. It doesn’t mean going into the woods with a gun
and pork and beans. It might mean that! But it also means how are you going to
survive the times ahead? How are you going to change your lifestyle and be
smart to keep what you have and build on that? Survival in every different way
is a major trend for 2010.
American Gap Between Rich and Poor
“Widest of Any Industrialized Nations”
IF
THE AMERICAN PUBLIC IS SHIFTING TO A SAVING MENTALITY AGAIN, WHICH SHOULD BE
INSPIRED AND ENCOURAGED, WHAT'S THE IMPACT ON WALL STREET AND THE HEDGE FUNDS?
These
are the criminals out there. They are robbing this country blind – hedge funds!
What do these people produce? The only thing they produce are giant profits for
themselves.
Now
because we have our President and Congress that are telling us we have to save
the Too Big To Fails and bow to Wall Street – or I should say ‘Bend over to
Wall Street’ – now the gap between the rich and the poor is the widest in the
United States than any of the industrialized nations.
China Owns America's Huge Debt
IF
CHINA CARRIED THROUGH SWITCHING FROM BASING ITS CURRENCY ON THE U. S. DOLLAR
AND SWITCHING OVER TO THE EURO, WHAT WOULD BE THE PRACTICAL IMPACT FOR THE
AMERICAN EVERY DAY?
The
cost of everything we buy is going to go up. And we’re very concerned about a
currency crisis. It’s not only the dollar - all of the currencies. There is a
problem worldwide, but not so much for the Chinese in the sense that they can
afford to do it at the moment because they have a currency surplus of about
$2.5 trillion. The other countries like the United States, the U.K. and others
are stimulating economies within deficits. But even the Chinese are going to
face problems because we’re looking at world trade in 2009 off more than 20%.
If the world doesn’t consume (their products), China doesn’t go forward.
What
is going to happen and we’re very concerned about it is that they are going to
start bailing out of dollars – everybody is! Because who wants to be stuck wit
dollars when our government is printing them – this isn’t real money! It’s
digital money not worth the fake paper it’s printed on! (laughs)
And
when that happens, there is going to be a devaluation of the dollar. Then
everything that Americans buy is going to cost more.
ESPECIALLY
IF THEY ARE PRODUCTS MADE IN CHINA OR OTHER COUNTRIES.
Exactly!
2010 - A Breaking Point for Whole World
DO
YOU THINK IT IS POSSIBLE IN 2010 FOR THE UNITED STATES TO END UP AS BADLY AS
ARGENTINA A DECADE AGO?
Worse!
Worse than Argentina because our debt problems are worse. This is classic empire
decline. Argentina was not even an empire. We’re fighting wars in foreign
countries as we are depleting the Treasury.…That’s why we are calling
it: Breaking Point 2010!”