Occupy Induced Recession 2012?.

The catalyst events driving us towards another recession are occurring on a more frequent and consistent basis, the European debt crises, unemployment, slow growth, consumer spending, and now the Occupy Wall Street movement. Weekly demonstrations across the country and the globe are creating an unanticipated drag on already depleted revenue sources by blocking the flow of commerce, and the constant need for law enforcement to maintain the peace and remove established encampments in public areas. As governments bail out banks, corporations, and others that have been coined as the 1% a disconnect between middle America and its own government grows. Bubbles being created to offset today's problems will undoubtedly become tomorrows latest economic dilemma and will destabilize an already shaky world economy. Comprehensive and sustainable solutions are needed soon so that this nation can return to the healthy economic environment we have become accustomed to in recent decades. We have been viewed as innovative world leaders in the past and can achieve this again in the future.

Going Viral

A new dynamic is spreading fast in the form of accelerating video to the masses via the internet. Pictures taken at various rallies across the country and the globe are being broadcast at an extremely fast rate showing injustices made by law enforcement at relatively peaceful demonstrations. Students and others are being pepper sprayed and submitted by baton wielding riot police for such offences as disobeying an order to leave the area. These individuals are expressing their rights to the constitutional act of free speech and dissent. The most recent use of chemical weapons on U.C. Davis students has caused an uproar nationwide, and the demand for the resignation of the schools Chancellor Linda Katehi. This ability will undoubtedly foster a larger and increasingly disgruntled movement nationwide, just as it has done across the globe of late. Social networking will become the new nightmare scenario for governments trying to stem the tide of change. The transparency of greed has caused many an empire to fall, and technology is now its accelerant.

Dead Weight

Unfunded pension liabilities should become an even larger issue in the next few years, surpassing such problems as debt levels, unemployment, gross domestic product, and manufacturing. A massive number of boomers are on the cusp of retirement, and want the lions share of benefits. They believe that their responsibility as working taxpayers has come to an end, and a future of world travel and golfing is in the cards for themselves. Leave the problems of the world to the children and grandchildren to deal with. I find this ironic as they reaped huge financial rewards as active participants in unscrupulous hedge fund activity bolstering their portfolios. There is no way that you could convince even one retiree, that these lavish retirement lifestyles were achieved through any unethical business practices, and its just smart investing they would reply. Ask yourself why truly wealthy individuals like Warren Buffet and others find it necessary to continue to work well into their 80s and contribute when they could easily afford to retire, could it be that they realize that tax revenue from working is essential to a healthy an vibrant economy?. The fact is that if you have more takers than givers the numbers wont jive, and you are left with a depleted economic carcass of an economy.

China Syndrome

U.C. Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi's recently outlined a plan to bolster the foreign student population studying at the University, saying it is essential in developing new revenue to stave off future cuts, help hire 300 new professors, and make other improvements to the campus. According to a recent article in the Sacramento Bee Chinese students now make up the largest percentage of foreign students at U.C. Davis at 560 students with a total of 1,662 students from around the globe altogether. They pay as much as 22,878 a year more than resident students, and the foreign student population attending university's throughout the U.S. has increased ten fold since 2007. At this rate a huge disparity between American and foreign students being received by American University's should happen very quickly. I find this strategy of economic discrimination of American students that pay less, nothing more than pure greed, and it must stop. I can only see this change come as the result of litigation thus mitigating this unfair practice. This reminds me of the onslaught of outsourcing that has plagued the manufacturing sector in the last decade with the decimation of our job base as the net result. How much longer can this country continue to cannibalize its greatest assets in the name of profits?.

Backlash

The recent explosion of disgruntled Americans demonstrating at the occupy wall street rallies shows the extent of public disdain for inept decision making made by the Obama, and Bush administrations. People are as mad as hell and they are not going to take it anymore, and can you really blame them?. With the housing market still in limbo, unemployment at over 9%, student loan debt surpassing all combined credit card debt for the first time ever at over one Trillion dollars, and the never ending rise in the price of essential goods and services Americans are feeling the squeeze as never before. All the while they have endured the bailout and appeasement of banks, and public and private Titans alike. The situation could quite possibly take a turn for the worse, just as we have seen the recent overthrow of governments that have been in place for almost a half century in Egypt and Libya. We have sold out the value of our own currency, outsourced our morals and ethics as never before, and are now feeling the ramifications of such decisions. Anti-American sentiment is spreading at an alarming rate across the globe as we force our belief systems on other Nations in the name of Democracy. This process is not helping our own situation at home as this economy and country continues to decline.

The Only Answer.

There can only be one effective answer in dealing with the all out assault leveled on an affordable education in the State Of California. This must occur at the legislative level, thus mitigating the seemingly never ending fee increases implemented by such individuals as the Board Of Regents, and others that make students pay for the sins of risky wealth management decisions. These educational institutions blame the state and poor economic conditions as to why cuts and Fee increases must continue, as they give themselves huge pay raises and various other perks. The increase of out of state students that pay almost double compared to in-state students should be viewed for what it really is, a hedge strategy of endowment preservation. At the same time in-state students are turned away in a form of economic discrimination. Vital classes needed to graduate on time are suddenly unavailable increasing the time-span to a degree and bolstering student debt. In addition a new law for graduate degrees enables the Federal government to start interest on loans from the first day of classes as apposed to after graduation. New laws would provide the protection needed to achieve the goal of a higher education for those students with the desire and fortitude to do so.

Same Old Same Old.

This weeks economic summit in Jackson Hole Wyoming will yield more predictable results in the announcement of an additional round of quantitative easing coined QE3. Any investor that has watched the market in the last 14-months has seen a more market friendly pattern opposed to a dollar friendly pattern. Our government has always sided with the elite 1% at the expense of the poor, and when i say poor i am referring to anyone with net assets of less than 50 million dollars. Those in the higher end tend to have extremely diversified portfolios that technically hedge themselves against the ever present decline in value of paper asset classes. The inflation and the pain it brings to the lower end take a definite back seat to the unprecedented wealth generator that the market has presented and the wealthy have capitalized on. If you don't believe that it is all about the corporate and financial titans, petro dictators, and powerful politicians you are a fool my friend. What they seem to forget or be in denial of, is that this incompetent belief system is fostering a resentful and destabilizing element at a very fast rate. Simple math shows us all that a healthy economy needs more contributors than those that simply absorb valuable economic resources and this economy is desperate for a consistent revenue stream in the form of taxpayers, when most of the baby-boomer generation has chosen to simply fade into the sunset and let their children and grandchildren take the hit.