So how would you feel if one day, a political figure suddenly reached out to the public, dropped the act, and started telling you to prepare for a devastating economic collapse? What if someone with establishment credentials started talking like the end of the world was upon us? That would be kind of strange and unsettling right?
Well that's exactly what just happened in the UK.
A former adviser to Gordon Brown has urged people to stock up on canned goods and bottled water as stock markets around the world slide.Holy crap. I don't think I've ever heard that kind of candor from a public official. This is the same guy who was a special adviser to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who he credits with saving the UK's economy by nationalizing the banks and giving them bailouts. You can't get much more mainstream than that. And yet here he is calling for the population to gear up for an economic disaster. He's also gone on to compare the current crisis with the 2008 crash, and noted that "what's coming is on 20 times that scale."
Damian McBride appeared to suggest that the stock market dip could lead to civil disorder or other situations where it would be unreasonable for someone to leave the house.
"Advice on the looming crash, No.1: get hard cash in a safe place now; don't assume banks & cashpoints will be open, or bank cards will work," he tweeted.
"Crash advice No.2: do you have enough bottled water, tinned goods & other essentials at home to live a month indoors? If not, get shopping.
"Crash advice No.3: agree a rally point with your loved ones in case transport and communication gets cut off; somewhere you can all head to."
When establishment figures start talking like survivalists, you know something must be horribly wrong. What do you think? Are McBride's comments a taste of what the political and financial elites are feeling right now, or is this something else entirely?
That was sudden. After soaring at the open and holding big gains all day, US equities fell off the table in the last 15 minutes of trading, ending over 500 DOW points below the day’s high. Guess the, um, uncertainty isn’t over.
Looks like another central bank will have to step up this week. Since the Fed is already backtracking on its September rate increase, the simplest for all concerned will be a quick one-line press release saying “never mind.”
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