A New Year's Eve, A New Year's' Day and Same ol', Same ol'

Well its Monday, December 30th..  Less than 48 hours before the start of a new year for those looking forward to such things..

Before we begin, as we stated on Friday, we passed the 4 million views mark over the weekend.. very special considering we do not advertise so its all due to you and word of mouth..

Thank you.

Wouldn't it be interesting to take a time machine back to Dec 31, 1913 and observe all those Europeans in places such as Paris, Berlin and Brussels celebrating New Years' 1914 without a care in the world and utterly oblivious that six months later, their continent would be at war.

~ New Years Day postcard-- 1914 from Denmark

Or all those zany-crazy New Yorkers and other urbanites around the county getting utterly wasted on Dec 31st, 1928, completely ignorant to the fact that 10 months later most would lose their life savings in the crash and start a 12 yr Depression..

Definitely be interesting to see how those same people celebrated on Dec 31, 1930..

So many people are going to celebrate New Years Eve this year like things can only get better..

Its more our nature at A&G we admit to treat New Years Eve as a time of mourning and reflection...

We know this moment in time those we care about are here on Earth..  The relationships we have with others solidly intact and we don't naively assume things get better just because its time to purchase a new calendar.

And our nation while in a very bad place financially and run by an incompetent could be worse and we know at this moment the cracks in the economic dam have not yet caused a full breach..

Oh alas!  So much we could write about of substance but honestly we're not sure most readers are receptive yet..

That's really the bitch of the holidays.. This 7-14 day period at the end of the year where nothing of relevance matters to anyone outside of themselves and the news is either fluff or in yearly review mode.

The President is in Hawaii with family working on his tan, surfing or whatever.. Everyone in Congress is home with their families, both legitimate and illegitimate..

No one is actually doing anything constructive which really isn't a change from when they all are back in Washington..

And really few to none care because for the last five years, most have been well insulated from it all, which really is a shame..

It is a shame because only squeaky wheels get greased and as long as people have cash to piss away on eccentricities, cards to borrow from or worse, blind hope for a better tomorrow, nothing substantive is ever addressed and there's no pressure on politicians to fix anything..

Do you think medicare, Social Security and other forms of public assistance that tens of millions depend upon monthly for survival today just 'happened'?

It took the Great Depression.. It took massive suffering i.e. 25% unemployment and breadlines and desolate cities with boarded up buildings to force-push government to pass such legislation.

And that's why its been so frustrating that the government with the Fed in particular have been allowed to prop everything up for so long which only delays and ultimately increases the pain.

Take weather events as a comparison..

No hurricane is ever take seriously when it is out in the ocean somewhere with 4-6 days before landfall..  Ask those who dealt with Katrina in New Orleans how serious they took the weather reports prior when the skies were sunny n' bright

Those who inhabited the "Chocolate City" as its mayor at the time referred to it, really didn't want to be bothered with preparation and so many people living there were so poor, they didn't have the means to escape even with seriousness taken to warnings.

But which is better.. a quick moving Hurricane or a very slow moving one?

The quick moving storm hits the coast fast, can feel a bit traumatic sitting in the midst of one and then 12-24 hrs later, its gone and the cleanup and rebuilding can begin to take place.

The slow moving storms..those are the bitch..  They move gradually and sure they give people plenty of time to ignore... um.. we mean prepare.. and then once it hit lands, it just moves at a crawl..

The winds just as excessive.. the water flooding worse than a fast-mover and finally when its gone, it takes two full days and usually damage is greater and lingering.

No one wants to live through a hurricane but better a fast one than a slow..

And what happened in late 2008... Rrrrr!!

We still get SO G-D angry over what those two piece of bleeps Bush and Obama did to prevent the quick hurricane from happening so to protect the super wealthy and all those shits whose life savings were in the market..

Both Presidents-- utter bastards without the slightest clue or care to the general populace and the vast majority who will take the financial brunt when things do collapse quickly upon itself..

And if that is upsetting and the notion to defend one over the other is a strong urge in you, we respectfully and sincerely suggest you take off your partisan spectacles and step away from the R v D game that is playing you..

They were/are both Shit.  McCain and Romney too..  And yes Hillary too..

~ Times Square , New Years Eve 1941

And now with nothing fixed or even an attempt made at real job creation, and the middle class continually decimated (and its only getting worse) 2014 is going to be a very brutal year and be a terrible shock for many..

This will be the beginning of the slow hurricane.

We predict the partial government shutdown which was given a temporary 3mth reprieve will resume in late January with a flourish and be there for some time..   This time, there will be no elderly WWII vets visiting their Memorial while in 20 deg temps to embarrass anyone into compromise

~ New Years Eve, 1944 Norman Rockwell magazine cover

We also predict that the can-kicked debt ceiling fight in February will ultimately cause a lot of chaos particularly in the market because at least immediately there will be no motivation for either side to compromise.  

2014 is mid-terms and both sides feel a protracted fight will stimulate their party bases to donate money to the cause and get out to vote come November.

People do not get out of their homes to vote out of happiness and contentment.  Its done from anger and/or fear.

In addition this nation is due for another recession.

~ Quite a different world lived in 9mths before 9/11

Of course we've argued for many years we're still in one but recessions officially hit economies in 5-7 year cycles..

Even the Great Depression of the 30's wasn't 12 straight years of economic gloom..  There were periods of improvement then a recession would hit and cause everything to get back to another reset..

Also the Fed can't keep these low interest rates forever.. and even if they can, the banks, credit cards and mortgage lenders will continue raising on their end to increase profits and that is bad news for those who want things and don't have cash to buy outright.

So we don't feel optimistic or excited about 2014 and have no hope things will get better with the same people in charge of things in 2013 still running the show..

And we're not going to celebrate any ball dropping on New Years Eve.

We are going to be home, engaged with those we care about and who matter and just quietly enjoy a Tuesday night while taking stock of the good of 2013 and feeling grateful that any 'bad' could be far worse..

We will return Thursday or Friday with the next posting, then resume a normal schedule starting Mon. Jan 6th..

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