Can we all call it “official” now? Now that the World Bank has issued a report warning of a severe global economic meltdown? They’re not even trying to deny it anymore.

And it’s not just the World Bank that’s reporting that the outlook is a lot bleaker than anyone wanted to admit. Every day, more and more prominent, mainstream figures in the financial world are now telling us we’re on our way to massive economic crisis and that we need to start preparing for the worst.

From the Bloomberg article: “Apocalypse How? Dire ’12 Forecasts“. 

-John Mauldin, president of Millennium Wave Advisors: “We’ve got a cancer. That cancer is debt”

-Mark Spitznagel of Universa Investments: “Too much malinvestment has been kept alive, and history shows an inevitable wipeout, which started in 2000.”

-Michael Panzner of Financial Armageddon: “The fundamental outlook is even worse now than it was a few weeks ago, given (the lack of positive) developments in Europe and growing evidence that the economies of major countries around the world are deteriorating fast.”

Originally it was thought that the economic problems in Europe could be contained to just a few countries, so nobody was too concerned about it, but the global economy is more interconnected today than ever. Back in 2008 the financial crisis that started on Wall Street ended up devastating economies all over the planet. The same thing will happen during this next great financial crisis. Now it’s looking like this global economic crash will leave no country unscathed.

At this point, almost everyone in the financial world is anticipating a Greek default of one form or another. The fact is, they’re already in default (after 2 bailouts), as well as a full-blown depression. The austerity measures imposed by Greece’s lenders were supposed to help Greece pull itself out (at least a little bit), but they’re actually making things worse.

Manufacturers are selling their products outside of the country where they can get higher prices. Twenty percent of the country’s retail stores have gone under. The unemployment rate rose to over 18 percent (from around 16 percent last summer). For those under the age of 24, 43.5 percent are now unemployed. The Greek economy is shrinking at at annual rate of 5.5 percent, and their national debt is now at 189 percent of their annual GDP.

Everybody is waiting for March 20^th, the day when Greece will either make its 14.5 billion euro bond payment or it will default. If they do, not only will it sink Greece’s own banks, but the banks of Germany and France will be hit hard and it would leave Spain and Italy (which are struggling in depressions of their own) totally dependent on a lifeline from the European Central Bank.

Trends forecaster Gerald Celente recently explained to ABC Australia that much of Europe is already essentially experiencing an economic depression….

“If you live in Greece, you’re in a depression; if you live in Spain, you’re in a depression; if you live in Portugal or Ireland, you’re in a depression,” Celente said. “If you live in Lithuania, you’re running to the bank to get your money out of the bank as the bank runs go on. It’s a depression. Hungary, there’s a depression, and much of Eastern Europe, Romania, Bulgaria. And there are a lot of depressions going on [already].”

This time, the U.S. economy is in much worse shape than it was back in 2008. Then, the “official” national debt figures were over $10T. In less than 4 years, we’ve gone past the $15T mark (though many believe the actual figures are much higher). 

So what are we going to do here in the U.S. when large numbers of banks fail and unemployment skyrockets? Where’s the bailout money going to come from this time for all those “too big to fail” institutions? What’s going to replenish the unemployment coffers?

We’re all afraid of socialism in America, but this country is already a socialist, welfare state. As I mentioned in an earlier post; nearly half of all Americans live in a household that receives some form of financial benefits from the government already. In the coming crisis, the number of people dependent on the government is only going to go even higher.

I’m afraid a global economic meltdown will be disastrous for us on more than just a financial level. In times like these, the government will always seek to distract us by creating a common enemy, upon which to redirect the anger and animosity of the American people, and in doing so, make another BOATLOAD of money for government contractors.

That’s right…  Another war.  Can anyone say…. Iran?

You can also expect to see civil unrest and rioting as millions of people lose their jobs, savings and homes. Gee, it’s a good thing Obama signed that NDAA into law, just in time to deal with all those starving, homeless, “domestic terrorists” that are suddenly going to be appearing out of nowhere. And if they run out of room at Guantanamo Bay, they’ve got plenty of fresh new FEMA camps in which to indefinitely detain them.

Again, Gerald Celente:

“…and the build up to social unrest, calamity and possible civil war can be seen a mile away…They just passed a law in the United states, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA),” he said. “It now gives the president the right to identify a person like me and call me a terrorist and that I’m against the government. And the military can come and break down my doors—the military—and arrest me, charge me with nothing, give me no trial, no rights of habeas corpus, no jury, no judge, and they can kill me if they so choose, torture me; they can send me to any country around the world.”

The ramifications of a dollar devaluation aren’t clear, but an enacted NDAA, FEMA camp readiness and scheduled TSA checkpoint expansion plans suggest the U.S. may enter a crisis on par with the lead up to the Civil War.

When even the World Bank tells us to hope for the best but to prepare for the worst, you know that it’s getting late in the game. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people out there are still asleep and will only believe what they want to believe. They don’t want to accept that a great economic crisis is coming, so when it does happen they’re going to be the ones who suffer the most.

If you’re just “waking up” to the real world, there’s no more time to wait. Start preparing now and spread the word as far as you can! To read more on how to prepare for the coming economic disaster, check out this article from the Economic Collapse Blog.

Never mind the Mayan calendar.  There are plenty of other real and demonstrable issues that are building to a “perfect storm” that threaten our infrastructure, society and general survival, that don’t require speculation or “belief” in invisible planets, lizard people, judgment day or the end of the 13th baktun.

That’s not to say I’ve ruled any of that out (well… except for the Mayan calendar. But that’s a topic for another article). Anything’s possible until unquestionably proven or disproven, but if I wasted my time and energy worrying about what may, or may not happen, I wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning. I may get hit by a bus the next time I go into town, or I may slip in the shower and break my crazy neck, but I’m not about to let that cripple me with fear and apprehension.

What I’m more concerned about are the trends and forces that have been building visible and quantifiable momentum over recent years (to those of us who are “awake”, that is), pushing us closer and closer to collapse on numerous fronts – or a “confluence of crises”, as some have called it.

When you consider problems such as the growing U.S. and Global economic crisis, the incremental destruction of our Constitutional rights and liberties, our unsustainable energy infrastructure, the world-wide dwindling of food production capabilities, the depletion of fresh water reserves, the increase of natural disasters (yes, climate change is happening… but it’s not all about carbon emissions) and the United States’ ever-expanding imperialist agenda of invasion and occupation – coupled with increasing socio-political unrest throughout the Middle East… You don’t need to make up more fantastic and implausible reasons to be prepared (and these are but a few examples).

In recent years, I have been somewhat reserved about being too emphatic in my warnings about the growing dangers. Mostly because I am too well aware that if you run around hollering “doom and gloom” and warning people about TEOTWAWKI, you’re typically going to be perceived as a nut-case, and whatever you say – no matter how valid – will be either ignored or taken with a grain of salt. So I tried to nudge people a little at a time… in bits and pieces… so as not to be a complete shock to their conditioned psyche.

But time is running out for those who are still waiting to see how things will “play out” before they decide to start prepping. Things are playing out right now, and have been for some time. What we are experiencing has been described as a “collapse in slow motion”, and as such, just like the proverbial frog, many aren’t even aware that we’re slowly being boiled. Don’t wait for the regretful epiphany of hindsight to make you aware of what’s going on all around you right now!

But don’t take my word for it alone. Recently, Gerald Celente’s Trends Journal has published their Top 12 Trends for 2012. Celente is one of the few economists and trends researchers out in the media who tells it like it is. He’s not beholden to the corporate owners or the powers that be, so he doesn’t deal in BS. He has an impressive track record of dozens of accurate trends predictions going all the way back to the 1987 stock market crash and is called by many the most trusted trends forecaster in the world.

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 (NDAA), granting el Presidente 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. In 2012, many of the long-simmering socioeconomic and geopolitical trends that Gerald Celente has been accurately forecasting will come to a climax. Some will arrive with a big bang and others less dramatically … but no less consequentially. What’s next for the world? Are you prepared?

5. Technocrat Takeover: “Democracy is Dead; Long Live the Technocrat!” A pair of 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 a 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. The “Repatriate! Repatriate!” trend will pit the creative instincts of a multitude of individuals against the repressive monopoly of the multinationals. 

CLICK HERE to read the entire list.

This is what an economic collapse looks like, folks, and we ought to pay close attention because this is where we’re heading in the U.S.  All the things that you take for granted, such as medicine,  will no longer be available.  Pharmacies in Greece right now are faced with shortages of over half of the country’s most used medicines.  Many of them for the treatment of chronic and life-threatening ailments.  You’re hard pressed to even find Aspirin in Greece, let alone asthma medication, blood thinners, insulin, etc.  The insurance companies are refusing to step up (as all insurance companies do when it’s time to actually follow through and make good on their policies) and are making pharmacies and hospitals pay up front for their medications, with the promise of reimbursement. Public insurers already owe pharmacists some $422.1M for drugs bought last April, and it could take up to a year for pharmacists to get paid back.  Some pharmacies can no longer accept patient’s insurance and are asking them to pay up front.

“Theodorakis said he already knows a few patients who can’t afford to pay and aren’t on treatment. If non-payment by public insurers continues, more will discontinue treatment, he said in an interview in his office in Athens, a few steps from where protesters lob Molotov cocktails and pelt police with rocks at Syntagma Square.”

Austerity measures that the Greek government have implemented to artificially lower the cost of pharmaceuticals have actually made the problem worse.  Now, suppliers are selling their products outside of the country, where they can sell their drugs at a higher price.

Novo Nordisk, based in Bagsvaerd, Denmark, is a case in point.

“We are competing with our own products,” said Mike Rulis, a spokesman for the company.

Novo stopped selling some of its higher-priced insulins in Greece for about a month in 2010 after the government cut prices by about 25 percent.

In a way, you can’t blame them.  When the insurance companies play games with pharmacies and make them pay up front, and wait a year to get reimbursed, the pharmacists can’t pay the suppliers, and the suppliers can’t stay in business if they’re constantly taking IOUs.

At one point the government was advising people to purchase their medications directly from state hospitals, but hospitals aren’t in much better shape than the pharmacies are.  Hospitals are not in the business of selling drugs to the general public and they don’t have enough supply to meet the demand, so people end up having to turn to pharmacies anyway.  Furthermore, many hospitals now have to pay suppliers upon delivery.

This is why it’s a good idea to start stockpiling the pharmaceuticals that you rely on now, before the U.S. economy finally goes under.  Or better yet, learn how to treat chronic conditions and diseases with the natural, homeopathic analogs and wean yourself off of synthetic drugs altogether (under your doctor’s supervision, of course). Since many of the drugs that are on the market are based on natural compounds found in nature, chances are very good that you can find a natural path that’s just as effective as the often toxic chemicals the pharmaceutical industry peddles.
To read more about the Greek drug crisis, CLICK HERE.