China releases first photos of DF-15C ‘bunker buster’, short-range ballistic missile

CHINA has released the first photos of its DF-15C “bunker buster” — a hi-tech ballistic missile designed to obliterate underground command centres.

The pictures of the a short-range missile, equipped with a powerful deep-penetration warhead, were published in Ordnance Knowledge, which is controlled by the People’s Liberation Army.

According Taiwan’s Want China Times , citing a report in the China’s Global Times, the missile can be directed using a terminal radar guidance system or infra-red imaging guidance system. It has a range of 700 kilometres — covering any point between Kyushu in Japan and the Indian capital of New Delhi — and a circular error probability of between 15-20 metres.

The report notes that the weapon, unveiled in 2007, was designed in response to Taiwan’s asymmetric warfare tactics.




Capable of reaching Kyushu in Japan and the Indian capital of New Delhi ... China shows off its DF-15C ballistic missile. Source: Supplied

Key targets are said to include the Heng Shan Military Command Center in Taipei — a wartime nerve centre designed to withstanding a 20 kiloton nuclear blast, a 2 kiloton conventional bomb blast or an electromagnetic pulse — and the Chiashan Air Force Base, located in the east coastal city of Hualien.

The aim of any such strike would be to disable the enemy’s command capabilities, eliminating its ability to coordinate an effective resistance.

Credit to Herald Sun

Grasshopper Swarms So Dense They Show Up on Radar

The worst grasshopper infestation in 20 years has become so thick around Albuquerque, N.M., that the airborne bugs are showing up on weather radar, officials said today.

“Albuquerque has not seen these levels of grasshoppers since the early-mid 1990′s,” said John R. Garlisch, extension agent at Bernalillo County Cooperative Extension Service.

The National Weather Service said the air is so dense with the bugs that they appear on its radar like rain.


Grasshopper infestation is so dense around Albuquerque, N.M., they show up on weather radar like rain. National Weather Service

“We have actually been noticing the insects on radar since about Memorial Day,” said NWS spokesman David Craft. “We have noticed the greatest impact on the radar during the evening, but they are noticeable at other times of the day, too.”

“It is a nuisance to people because they fly into people’s faces while walking, running, and biking. They are hopping into people’s homes and garages, they splatter the windshield and car grill while driving, and they will eat people’s plants,” Garlisch said.

The swarm, the worst in two decades, is being blamed on the drought.

“There wasn’t enough winter to kill the egg pots. Because of the dry winter the eggs survived, hence the outbreak of grasshoppers,” David B. Richman, professor emeritus at the Department of Entomology, Plant Pathology, and Weed Science, New Mexico State University said.

Garlisch also said that the lack of forage and food on the open range lands is pushing the grasshoppers to seek greener pastures. “What better place than the Rio Grande with its riparian vegetation and an urban center where people keep green lush yards and gardens?” he said.

Bernalillo County Cooperative Extension Service told ABC News that they received many complaints about the grasshoppers.

“Some people are freaked out about them, others fear they will bring disease, and some folks want different agencies to spray to control them,” said Garlisch.

While some people expect the state or the county to spray the grasshoppers, others protest any public spraying.

“Reality, spraying insecticide will be ineffective and will cause more harm than good,” he said.

Katie Goetz, spokeswoman of the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, said that the department is aware of people’s complaints. “The department determined that this is a homeowners’ issue rather than an agricultural… It’s localized in Bernalillo County,” Goetz said.

The damage the grasshoppers may do includes eating the young tender leaves of flowers and vegetables. “We are encouraging gardeners to cover plants. Insecticide sprays are ineffective and not recommended. Grasshoppers are flying upwards of 3-5 miles. If an insecticide for the home gardener is used, it may kill a few grasshoppers, but more will be flying in. The more the homeowner sprays, this will negatively impact other insect species as well as the plant growth,” said Garlisch.


Credit to ABC

Two Ukraine Helicopters Shot Down: Watch As Gunship Engages Eastern Militia In Intense Fighting

Earlier today, we read reports out of Russian Itar-Tass stating that east Ukraine militia had shot down a Ukraine gunship and a Su-25 fighter jet, as well as four APC. We were waiting for an official confirmation from Ukraine as the level of propaganda on both sides is somewhat tricky to filter. We got at least partial proof moments ago from Ukraine's military spokesman Seleznyov, who said via Bloomberg:

• UKRAINE SAYS 2 SOLDIERS DEAD, 42 WOUNDED TODAY IN EASTERN OP
• UKRAINIAN SEPARATISTS SHOOT DOWN 2 HELICOPTERS: SELEZNYOV

Here is what else Itar-Tass reported from a conflict which suddenly all Western media has forgotten:

People’s militia in the city of Sloviansk, east Ukraine’s Donetsk Region, have downed a fighter plane Su-25 and a Ukrainian helicopter gunship as well as four armored personnel carriers (APC), Sloviansk People’s Mayor Vyacheslav Ponomarev told ITAR-TASS on Tuesday.

Ukraine's military has amassed armored vehicles and self-propelled mortars and howitzers near the town of Sloviansk, Stella Khorosheva, spokeswoman for the Sloviansk people's mayor, told ITAR-TASS on Tuesday.

The military equipment numbering 100 units includes Grad salvo systems, Khorosheva said.

An An-30 plane has been sighted over Sloviansk, making periodic flyovers. According to Khorosheva, clashes began at around 6.00 am local time on Tuesday.

"A report said that Ukrainian troops had broken through in the area of the village of Semyonovka," she said, adding that Ukraine's National Guard was using tanks.

"It looks like they've brought here all their army and (military) equipment," she said.

Earlier, a people's militia representative told ITAR-TASS that Ukrainian military aircraft had delivered several missile strikes at Semyonovka and that the village of Cherevkovka had come under missile and machine-gun fire as well.

"There have been no casualty reports yet, because everybody is holding the line or is in shelter," the militia representative said.

It is unclear if the downed Ukrainian Su-25 is the same one as the one caught on tape launching bombs at Ukraine civilians in the town of Lugansk.

And while we don't have a clip which captures the latest downing of the two Ukraine helicopters (or the fighter jet) here is a YouTube video from earlier today showing two Ukraine helicopters engaged in heavy fighting with forces on the ground near the city of Slavyansk. 1:58 into the clip it becomes visible when the helicopter pilot engages his gun at ground targets.

Credit to Zero Hedge

BILDBERG...SEX ORGIES, AND THE NEW GLOBAL FEUDAL SYSTEM

By Paul McGuire
June 2, 2014
NewsWithViews.com

The Bilderberg Group’s 2014 meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark consists of the world’s elite participating in what is perceived as an informal discussion on global issues, where topics of discussion include “The future of democracy and the Middle Class trap” and “Is the economic recovery sustainable?” These topics indicate that the Bilderberg Elite are prepared to see the disappearance of the middle class in both the U.S. and Europe. In 2006 leaked information from Bilderberg revealed that the elite knew two years ahead of time about the 2008 economic collapse and were reinvesting trillions of dollars in assets to position themselves for the downturn.

However, behind the Bilderberg Group which was founded in 1952, largely through the efforts of card carrying Nazi Prince Bernhard, there exists a network of empire building, wars, occult secret societies, royal families, Satanism, and sexual orgies. In fact, some of the elite in Europe and America are up to their eyeballs in the occult and and sexual orgies, depicted in films like Eyes Wide Shut, directed by Stanley Kubrick. Kate Middleton, wife of Prince William, is good friends with the owner of the “Killing Kittens” sex clubs which offer exclusive orgies for affluent women in Europe and now in the U.S. The British Royal Family has a long history of alleged dark and deviant sexual activities. It appears that the elite in Europe and America live to a different set of standards than most of the rest of us. Behind some of the most elite names are allegations of massive heroin empires, celebrity sex slaves, and global criminal enterprises.

There are European news sources which allege the following:

That in 1946, Prince Philip became engaged to Princess Elizabeth through the coercion of Lord Mountbatten. European reports maintain that a secret pedophile network exists within certain royal families of Europe and suggest that Lord Mountbatten had first rights to sex with the firstborn of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, which was Prince Charles. Kate Middleton’s father supposedly participated in “sex hunting” activities with Prince Philip and some have suggested that she controls Prince William sexually.

After World War II the Nazis were buying up land in Argentina through a Nazi operation organized by Peter William, who was an Agent for Prince Philip, who planned the operation. It was Lord Louis Mountbatten who introduced Prince Philip to Princess Elizabeth when Prince Philip was 18 and Princess Elizabeth was 13. Prince Philip co-founded with Prince Bernhard the World Wildlife Fund.

Before the fall of Germany in World War II, Adolph Hitler planned for the Third Reich to continue, reborn as a Fourth Reich. Hitler told the man who would carry out this plan, Martin Bormann, “Bury your treasure….for you will need it to begin a Fourth Reich.” The treasure that Hitler spoke of was a highly sophisticated distribution of money and corporate assets to nations like America and other nations around the world. The Bormann Group, which was a global network of corporations run by trained SS veterans, constituted the greatest concentration of money power under the control of a single nation in history. This financial empire, consisting of largely stolen wealth from Europe, exceeded over $200 billion in 1943 dollars and that is only a part of the empire.

It is alleged that George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director heading a number companies that profited from their involvement with the financial investors of Nazi Germany. But these allegations are not just being made against the Bush family, but a who’s who of American and European business and political empires. Nazi money helped finance the Bilderberg Group, NATO and the IMF.

The Bilderberg system goes back for centuries; the elites have learned to manipulate the economy to enrich themselves and enslave ordinary people. Meeting at Bilderberg are the most powerful people from every important nation on Earth, heads of multi-national corporations, heads of global financial institutions, heads of intelligence agencies, and heads of internet / social media, all in bed together figuratively, if not literally.

At Bilderberg, the kings and queens of the new feudal system have gathered behind the moats of their “Bilderberg Castle” in Copenhagen, Denmark to expand their empire, continue their slave trade, indulge in sexual orgies, and rule the world. The feudal systems of ancient Europe have never really gone away except for that accident that was once called America where its citizens once understood that they were given certain inalienable rights such as Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, not by any government, but by Nature’s God.

At the 2014 Bilderberger meeting over 120 globalists are meeting to continue their 60 year agenda to centralize power into a one world political and economic system. A key component of that system is the Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership which makes the world one giant multi-national corporation under their total control.

Back in January, 1985, in Brussels, Wisse Dekker, CEO of Phillips, unveiled a plan, "Europe 1990," before an audience of 500 people including many of the newly appointed EC commissioners.

The Dekker paper was an internal Philips project led by Dekker's government affairs representative in Brussels, Coen Ramaer.

According to Ramaer, he instructed the men to:

"Imagine yourselves to be dictators of Europe and that you have decided that the job must be done in five years. And they [the experts] started out ‘but this is impossible! Be realistic!’ And I told them that I couldn't care less if we were realistic or not. Once they had picked up this idea, they found it fascinating. And they discovered that it could be done -- given the political will, of course."

(The Politics of Big Business in the Single Market Program, by Maria L. Green, The American University, Visiting Fellow, CSIA, Harvard University.) School of International Service, The American University, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington DC 20016. Paper presented for the European Community Studies Association, Third Biennial International Conference, May 27 1993, Washington DC.)

America was unique in that most of its Founding Fathers rejected what was called “the divine right of kings to rule” over the people. Kings have no divine right to rule over people; they organized and conspired to create the Babylonian system where they illegally granted themselves that right so that they could enslave other men and women for profit. In order to make that lie legitimate and brainwash the people into accepting it, they created elaborate costumes to wear, gold jewels and crowns, spectacular religious ceremonies, rituals, and temples to convince the common man that they were indeed divine. This is the essence of Luciferian and Satanic religions, the use of occult power, witchcraft, sex, ritual, music, drugs, and worship to create a magical system of power that goes back to ancient Babylon.

The modern feudal system template is an archetypical control program created by the Programmers who flourished on Earth prior to the Flood of Noah in places like Atlantis. These Programmers, who first descended upon Mount Hermon in ancient Phoenicia, were fallen angels who mated with human women and gave Mankind fallen angel technology and science. At the Tower of Babel, the globalist feudal system template was imbedded into the consciousness of the human race: Satanism, sexual orgies, international drug trafficking, and perpetual war. The Oligarchy established at Babylon remains in power.

Behind the scenes at Bilderberg and in the U.S. you see the proliferation of occult secret societies and the expansion of the slave state. The modern slaves who work in the new global feudal system have been scientifically programmed to believe that they are not slaves, but free people. This is a delusion that borders on madness, but is simply a fulfillment of Aldous Huxley’s call for the Scientific Dictatorship where people will learn to love their slavery.

The Opium Wars of Britain and Europe against China were an early example of the use of drugs to enrich the elites and enslave the people, continued by America’s phony “war on drugs.” Marijuana, meth, heroin, and cocaine travel freely across all international borders despite X-ray machines and X-rated pat downs. The Afghan Opium trade is worth trillions of dollars and globalists like George Soros are actively involved in the drug trade, including the decriminalization of marijuana.

Drug money is permitted to flow by the IMF and it is used by the new global feudal system to subjugate and control entire populations. Drug money props up the global financial system and flows through Wall Street, international banks, the Cayman Islands, Dubai and other financial systems.

In 1991 Governor Bill Clinton attended his first Bilderberg Meeting and met with David Rockefeller, who told him that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was of key importance to him. Clinton told Rockefeller he would support NAFTA, and quickly became President. NAFTA benefited the powerful globalists like Rockefeller but it literally killed the middle class in America by outsourcing jobs and manufacturing out of the country. Just about every key Republican leader and media outlet promoted NAFTA as they continue to support immigration, which will destroy any possibility of choice in free elections because 11 million plus people will always vote for socialism and that is the End Game!

The people who control the media, the Internet, and both political parties are the same people who control the Bilderbergers, and their agenda is a One World Socialist Government with two set of rules. One set of rules applies to the elite, who are exempt from all kinds of regulations and laws and another set of rules and regulations are forced upon the feudal slave class, formerly the middle class, which is in reality the new lower class. Henry Kissinger and many other members of the ruling elite are 91 years old or older and they are unusually vibrant and healthy. They are receiving special treatments through an elite class of doctors using secret technologies, medicines, and treatments.

They are not ever going to be “euthanized” in the slaughterhouse called universal health care where we serfs will be denied treatment by a computer and told we are too old to live. The Baby Boomer and other generations raised on Starbucks and the Internet are too brain dead to read the handwriting on the wall; the plan is for them to be euthanized, and their children will happily sign away their lives because they will lose their homes and retirement funds if they don’t!

There are very real plans with extensive documentation which I have placed in my book A Prophecy of the Future of America, plans for a New World Order that will have no middle class in the populations of Europe and America. There would be only two classes of people: the rulers and the feudal slaves scientifically brainwashed to accept a part time menial job, a Happy Meal with a smiling face, and virtual solo sex with computers. The latest neurological studies show that men and women who watch porn are having their brains rewired and they prefer virtual sex to real sex! The world of Bilderberg would remove any forms of Democracy. Just like in Nazi Germany there will be “cradle to grave” programs where government testing will determine what career you would be best suited for and you will have no opportunity to choose your own career or pursue your own dream in the hope of achieving a better life. This is not an overstatement; this is what your children are being taught right now! Only the ruling class will be allowed to accumulate wealth and power, just as it was in England during the time of Charles Dickens when children labored in factories.




Credit to Paul Mcguire

PROPAGANDA CONSPIRACY DESIGNED TO CREATE A CIRCULAR FIRING SQUAD

Tuesday, 27 May 2014: When I decided to run for delegate in the 99th District of Virginia, my mission was to change the debate from the mundane and inconsequential of local politics to focus on the alarming erosion of our Constitution and the Rule of Law, while working toward resurrecting the 10th Amendment. I knew whoever controls the dialog controls the debate, and few, if any, were addressing these issues at that time. Little did I know that my entire platform of Constitutional liberty and re-infusing religious expression in the public square in 2009 would make me Public Enemy #1.

The FULL COURT PRESS that followed was astounding. No one could have prepared me for the entire Republican Slate conspiring to publicly denounce me. Denounce me for what? Promoting liberty? The Rule of Law? Quoting the Founding Fathers? Yep.

Had I not personally experienced such bizarre attacks from the party I spent my life supporting I would find the demonization of our military, in particular, “returning Vets”, impossible to conceive of. The list of patently offensive remarks and publications denouncing our veterans are well documented, but most egregiously are those published by the Department of Homeland Security, aka, Obama’s SS.

In concert with the attacks on the character of our military is the propaganda warfare within the military against us.

Incredibly, an Army Training Manuel publication in 2013 identified “Evangelical Christians, Catholics, Mormons, and Jews as ‘domestic terrorists’. They were listed with Al Qaeda, Hamas, The Muslim Brotherhood, (which has been invited/allowed to completely infiltrate the White House and Pentagon…), and the KKK!

So while we are being propagandized to distrust our military, they are being propagandized to distrust us. The natural partnership and respect between us is being eroded. I contend that such a bond must be weakened, if not broken, for the militarization of our domestic police to rule the day when the final hammer comes down.

Is it any wonder that those who have demonstrated the most consistent patriotic fervor, willing to seal their commitment in their own life’s blood, are under attack by this administration? The Veteran’s Administration “Wait Lists” to delay/prevent veteran care is not an oversight, not an omission, it is deliberate in its wicked intent to kill off those who pose the greatest threat to prevent the over throw of America from within.

The 2012 NDAA, (National Defense Authorization Act), unconstitutionally authorized the arrest, detention, ‘rendition’ (torture), of American citizens ANYWHERE, ANY PLACE, ANY TIME WITHOUT DUE PROCESS, IF said American is SUSPECTED of associating with‘terrorists’.

In the NDAA 2013, The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 and Foreign Relations Authorization Act in 1987 that banned domestic propaganda was unconstitutionally ‘legalized’. Will the militarized domestic agencies, which are now legion, be implemented to round up demonized patriots while our military ‘stands down’ because they have beenpropagandized to view us as the enemy?

The CONSPIRACY of “DISINFORMATION”, (deliberately lying, misleading, deception….), AGAINST THE AMERICAN PEOPLE IS A DECLARATION OF WAR.

Yesterday, Memorial Day, I cornered the Key Note Speaker of our Memorial event, an extremely distinguished Active Military Officer. I asked him if he was concerned about the demonization of the military. Without hesitation, his wife nodding vigorously over his shoulder, he affirmed he was deeply concerned and offended. He declared that one could only imagine where all of this was leading.

As a “Conspiracy Theorist”, (Those who question known liars…), I am convinced this is designed to cause the majority of freedom loving, God-fearing Americans, those of us who should be natural allies, to be suspicious of one another.

This propaganda conspiracy is meant to create a circular firing squad.


Credit to Catherine Crabill / Hagmann and Hagmann Report

Rickards: Afraid of USD devaluation

The collapse of the monetary system awaits the world in the near future, says financial expert James Rickards. Russia and China’s desire to rid the US dollar of its global reserve currency status is an early sign of the “increasingly inevitable” crisis. As one of the key events in support of his forecast, Rickards points to the words uttered by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the 18th International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg that took place earlier this month. “Putin said he envisions a Eurasian economic zone involving Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Russia. 

The Russian ruble is nowhere near ready to be a global reserve currency, but it could be a regional reserve currency,” he said, as quoted by ETF Daily News. Rickards’ book about the demise of the dollar was released in April under quite an apocalyptic name – ‘The Death of Money.’ However, the author is surprised that the events are unfolding much faster than he predicted. “If anything, the tempo of events is faster than expected. 

Therefore, some of these catastrophic outcomes may come sooner than I wrote about.” Last Wednesday, China and Russia signed a historic US$400 billion gas deal which will provide the world’s fastest growing economy with the natural gas it needs to keep pace for the next 30 years. Experts say this could be the catalyst that dethrones the greenback as the world’s reserve currency. 

The best-selling author writes that the “linchpin” of the collapse is the approaching failure of the dollar since it is at the foundation of the system. Powerful countries such as Russia, China, Iran, and India do not rely on the US in their national security and would benefit from the US economy being weaker, thus desiring to break free from the dollar standard. He elaborates that the dual collapse “looks increasingly inevitable.” “The mistakes have already been made. 

The instability is already in the system. We’re just waiting for that catalyst that I call the snowflake that starts the avalanche,” he said, as quoted by ETF. There are three big international factors that are pressuring the dollar right now – Russia, China, and Saudi Arabia. “Since the 1970s, Saudi Arabia [has been] the leader in what’s called the petrodollar. It basically means that Saudi Arabia and, by extension, OPEC, price oil in dollars, so the world market is in dollars. “Russia is a major natural resource exporter; they price their exports in dollars as well. 

But Russia now is engaged in a financial war with the US around the issues in Crimea and Ukraine.” “China has three trillion dollars, but they are buying gold as fast as they can. China worries that the US is going to devalue the dollar through inflation so they want to have a hedge if the dollar goes down, so the gold will go up,” Rickards told RT.

Read More at inserbia.info/today/2014/05/rickards-afraid-of-usd-devaluation-china-is-buying-gold-for-3-trillion-dollars/ © InSerbia News

The COLLAPSE of J.O.B. Paradigm Is HERE

BRICS Countries Gearing Up to Launch $100Bln Multilateral Bank

BRASILIA — The five BRICS nations will likely agree to fund their $100 billion development effort equally, giving them the same rights in a new multilateral bank that could start lending in two years, a senior Brazilian government official told Reuters Thursday.

Capitalization of the bank was one of the main sticking points in the sometimes tortuous negotiations among the emerging powers to create a joint lender to finance infrastructure projects in developing nations.

The new bank would symbolize the growing influence of emerging economies in the global financial architecture long dominated by the United States and Europe through the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

Negotiations to create the lender have dragged on for two years, with some members growing weary of China's desire to have a bigger stake in the bank by putting in more capital. But this hurdle is being overcome.

"The majority wants an equal sharing of the capital and there is no other specific proposal on the table," said the official, who is directly involved in the negotiations. "This is not going to be a problem."

Leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are expected to sign a treaty to launch the bank officially when they meet at a BRICS summit in the northern Brazilian city of Fortaleza on July 15.

The bank, which will have start-up capital of $50 billion, will have to be ratified by the countries' legislatures and could begin lending in two years, said the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Of that start-up capital, the countries will put in a total of $10 billion in cash and $40 billion in guarantees, which will be used to raise capital on international markets.

The new development bank would help cover growing demand for project financing that has not been fully met by global multilaterals, which for years have been heavily criticized for meddling in the domestic policies of sovereign borrowers.

"The bank will look into the finances of borrowers, but never intervene in their economic affairs," said the official. "Any country can join the bank with a $100,000 share. The idea is to provide them loans at a lower cost than what they would individually get in markets."

The BRICS will also decide if the bank will be based in New Delhi, Shanghai, Johannesburg or Moscow. Brazil will not offer headquarters because of upcoming presidential elections that could delay negotiations, the official said.

Later, the group will have to choose an executive "with experience in the financial sector" to lead the bank in a five-year presidency that will rotate among the founding members.

In five years the bank's capital should double to $100 billion through capitalization from funding members, debt emissions or contributions from new members. The BRICS will hold a minimum of 55 percent of the bank's shares.

Credit to The Moscow Times

America’s Insatiable Demand For More Expensive Cars, Larger Homes And Bigger Debts

One of the things that this era of American history will be known for is conspicuous consumption. Even though many of us won't admit it, the truth is that almost all of us want a nice vehicle and a large home. They say that "everything is bigger in Texas", but the same could be said for the entire nation as a whole. As you will see below, the size of the average new home has just hit a brand new record high and so has the size of the average auto loan. In the endless quest to achieve "the American Dream", Americans are racking up bigger debts than ever before. Unfortunately, our paychecks are not keeping up and the middle class in the United States is steadily shrinking. The disparity between the lifestyle that society tells us that we ought to have and the size of our actual financial resources continues to grow. This is leading to a tremendous amount of frustration among those that can't afford to buy expensive cars and large homes.

I remember the days when paying for a car over four years seemed like a massive commitment. But now nearly a quarter of all auto loans in the U.S. are extended out for six or seven years, and those loans have gotten larger than ever...


In the latest sign Americans are increasingly comfortable taking on more debt, auto buyers borrowed a record amount in the first quarter with the average monthly payment climbing to an all-time high of $474.

Not only that, buyers also continued to spread payments out over a longer period of time, with 24.8 percent of auto loans now coming with payment terms between six and seven years according to a new report from Experian Automotive.

That’s the highest percentage of 6 and 7-year loans Experian has ever recorded in a quarter.

Didn't the last financial crisis teach us about the dangers of being overextended?

During the first quarter 0f 2014, the size of the average auto loan soared to an all-time record $27,612.

But if you go back just five years ago it was just $24,174.

And because we are taking out such large auto loans that are extended out over such a long period of time, we are now holding on to our vehicles much longer.

According to CNBC, Americans now keep their vehicles for an average of six years and one month.

Ten years ago, it was just four years and two months.

My how things have changed.

And consumer credit as a whole has also reached a brand new all-time record high in the United States.

Consumer credit includes auto loans, but it doesn't include things like mortgages. The following is how Investopedia defines consumer credit...


Consumer credit is basically the amount of credit used by consumers to purchase non-investment goods or services that are consumed and whose value depreciates quickly. This includes automobiles, recreational vehicles (RVs), education, boat and trailer loans but excludes debts taken out to purchase real estate or margin on investment accounts.

As you can see from the chart below, Americans were reducing their exposure to consumer credit for a little while after the last financial crisis struck, but now it is rapidly rising again at essentially the same trajectory as before...



Have we learned nothing?

Meanwhile, America also seems to continue to have an insatiable demand for even larger homes.

According to Zero Hedge, the size of the average new home in the United States has just hit another brand new record high...


There was a small ray of hope just after the Lehman collapse that one of the most deplorable characteristics of US society – the relentless urge to build massive McMansions (funding questions aside) – was fading. Alas, as the Census Bureau today confirmed, that normalization in the innate desire for bigger, bigger, bigger not only did not go away but is now back with a bang.

According to just released data, both the median and average size of a new single-family home built in 2013 hit new all time highs of 2,384 and 2,598 square feet respectively.

And while it is known that in absolute number terms the total number of new home sales is still a fraction of what it was before the crisis, the one strata of new home sales which appears to not only not have been impacted but is openly flourishing once more, are the same McMansions which cater to the New Normal uberwealthy (which incidentally are the same as the Old Normal uberwealthy, only wealthier) and which for many symbolize America’s unbridled greed for mega housing no matter the cost.

There is certainly nothing wrong with having a large home.

But if people are overextending themselves financially, that is when it becomes a major problem.

Just remember what happened back in 2007.

And just like prior to the last financial crisis, Americans are treating their homes like piggy banks once again. Home equity lines of credit are up 8 percent over the past 12 months, and homeowners are increasingly being encouraged to put their homes at risk to fund their excessive lifestyles.

But there has been one big change that we have seen since the last financial crisis.

Lending standards have gotten a lot tougher, and many younger adults find that they are not able to buy homes even though they would really like to. Stifled by absolutely suffocating levels of student loan debt, many of these young adults are putting off purchasing a home indefinitely. The following is an excerpt from a recent CNN articleabout this phenomenon...

The Millennial generation is great at many things: texting, social media, selfies. But buying a home? Not so much.

Just 36% of Americans under the age of 35 own a home, according to the Census Bureau. That’s down from 42% in 2007 and the lowest level since 1982, when the agency began tracking homeownership by age.

It’s not all their fault. Millennials want to buy homes— 90% prefer owning over renting, according to a recent survey from Fannie Mae.

But student loan debt, tight lending standards and stiff competition have made it next to impossible for many of these younger Americans to make the leap.

This is one of the primary reasons why homeownership in America is declining.

A lot of young adults would love to buy a home, but they are already financially crippled from the very start of their adult lives by student loan debt. In fact, the total amount of student loan debt is now up to approximately 1.1 trillion dollars. That is even more than the total amount of credit card debt in this country.

We live in a debt-based system which is incredibly fragile.

We experienced this firsthand during the last financial crisis.

But we just can't help ourselves.

We have always got to have more, and society teaches us that if we don't have enough money to pay for it that we should just go into even more debt.

Unfortunately, just as so many individuals and families have found out in recent years, eventually a day of reckoning arrives.

And a day of reckoning is coming for the nation as a whole at some point as well.

You can count on that.

Credit to Economic Collapse

Apocalyptic Rain Floods Istanbul Turkey