END OF DAYS I have developed a small following regarding my somber economic newsletters over the years especially post the financial crises whence now I receive more read receipts than deleted ones and my character has been elevated to economic oracle from doomsday wing nut. Hence it is with great trepidation that I decide to pen this newsletter which has absolutely nothing to do macro economics but all to do with a collective human consciousness in disarray. I fear that my new found "flock" will quickly abandon any further adoration and respect after reading this, and once more I will return to the realm of "that meandering lunatic". Anyway a lovely bottle of Graham Beck's finest merlot has assured me otherwise..so here goes. I've been accused of many things, being religious has never been one. That said I've always felt a connection to what I can only term as a spirituality which neither resides in any particular accepted belief but rather envelopes our existence. I sincerely believe that EVERYTHING is connected; be it inanimate or living..somehow. I also believe that somewhere over the millennia of our existence, we as humans have lost this connection together with all the knowledge, wealth, health and peace it so naturally endowed. Being a student of history I am still at a loss of where and when this mutation of the human equation transpired, but what I do know and feel is that we are fast approaching some sort of absolute answer. I am only in my mid 30's yet the society I remember whilst growing up seems world's away...I shudder to think how alien a 60+ person feels in society today. Due to globalism a singularity seems to have been reached over the last 20 years wherein cultures cultivated over thousands of years have melted into this single global consumeristic cauldron that puts profit and "service to self" above all else. We are now a society that measures wealth in the house value rather than the home it provides, in the label of the cloth rather than the warmth it provides, in our children's achievements rather than the joy they bring. Now despite the flowery analogies, I ain't no swami.yet I feel this hollowness that I am sure most of you'll reading this will too.if only you tune in. The last 5 years, I can only describe as the pinnacle of the vortex started years ago wherein we've all become thinking living robots hell bent on accumulation of wealth and the accompanying prestige. Our house prices have quadrupled, our stocks shone and we flipped cars like hamburgers and quenched our thirst with nothing but a Johnny Blue. Years from now with hindsight in hand, these years will be viewed as the "blow off" to a world gone mad. Before the current credit crises and any semblance of reality laid a world that any marketer of ages bye, would have died for wherein superficiality was in and functionality out. We lived in a world wherein air-conditioners, washing machines and fridges were works of art..and works of unbelievable price and whom amongst us cannot deny showing off that latest gizmo that made us one above our neighbor or relative and felt that all encompassing superiority that accompanied that latest credit card purchase...I know I'm guilty! Is this really the apex of human evolution??? I fear that there is a hefty price to pay for our "ascendancy" up the food chain and it lies dead ahead..I feel it in my bones. I reckon the Mayans and countless other ancient civilizations were onto something regarding 2012. I personally don't believe it to be the "end of the world" but rather the end of the world as we've come to know it. Our governments and financial elite (bankers) that bankroll them into power know it as well. The debt based monetary system that created slaves of the middle class via unending taxes and mortgages is at an end. If this depression does not abate as I suspect, what do you think will happen to the millions upon millions of once employed earning citizens??? Imagine "Dawn of the Dead" without the bloodthirsty zombies but millions of unemployed mindless people hell bent on revenge for a quality of life lost. The only reason why we do not see soup lines similar to the 1930's and widespread poverty amongst the middle class awashed in debt at the moment, is government spending. Back in the 30's they just could not print the money they needed as laws stipulated they needed to back every dollar printed, hence the depression. Make no mistake, we are CURRENTLY in a depression but since the governments around the world can print as much as they like with no collateral, providing they not Mugabe and have some "credibility" by towing the line, they can INITIALLY print their way outta it..but only for so long, until the belief in their toilet paper runs dry. The current system of society would never have been achieved with our grandparents and their parents as they were much wiser. Yes we may have the multiple degrees but common sense; we have not as Yoda would exclaim! Hence I say at the beginning of this newsletter that the coming downfall of humanity was entirely predictable and planned for a long time, but in order to make the plan workable, humanity had to be quickly dumbed downed. Lateral and natural questioning intellect had to be dosed at all costs and supplanted with grand dreams of a corner office job, a merc and a country club membership...and boy has it worked as the most brilliant minds have unknowingly due to the indoctrination of our modern schooling system hastened our downfall as a species. How often these days do you meet a postman, a shop teller, a government clerk, a nurse, etc who are really grateful for their job and approaches it with zeal and passion??? Empathy for fellow human beings and pride in what one does and creates are all but a legacy, all we are interested in now is how do we get the next foot up, irrespective of whose shoulders and at what cost. Now Graham Beck is dead so I'll have to surmise by way of some predictions...for your sake and mine...lets hope they are not as accurate as my economic ones of past. 1. The remainder of 2009 will be somewhat of a rollercoaster with an ebb and flow of prosperity and hope as governments the world over throw everything they have against an all out worldwide depression 2. 2010 will see the beginning of a mass onslaught of public unrest and violence as they tentacles of a worldwide depression scour every orifice on earth. 3. 2011 will see a tyrannical government against a people ungovernable. 4. 2012 amidst all the death and destruction will see shoots of a new society emerging. 5.2013 Those of us left will start to pick up the pieces.. 6. 2015...a new day dawns adios!