Celente — "Greatest Depression" Still Coming

Both Gerald Celente and I thought conditions would deteriorate as 2010 wore on. We were both right. Only economists—all of the them—expected things to get better. I first wrote about Gerald in my post Gerald Celente And The Greatest Depression. Now he's back, being interviewed on Tech Ticker by Aaron Task and Henry Blodget.

Celente still expects the "Greatest Depression" to show up soon at a theater near you. He's not kidding—

this ain't no party
this ain't no disco
this ain't no fooling around
no time for dancing
or lovey-dovey
I ain't got time for that now!

As things get worse & worse, Celente expects actual riots, first in Western & Southern Europe, and then spreading into Eastern Europe. Finally the contagion will hit the United States.

I still can't bend my mind around Americans, especially young Americans, rioting in the streets. Let's face it, they've got their heads so far up their asses with all the iPhones & iPads & Facebook & Twitter that it's hard to imagine them throwing stones through glass windows. A goodly proportion have to live with their parents.

"Yo, dad, I'm going out protesting tonight. Catch 'ya later."

"OK, son. Don't get arrested like last time. Bailing you out—that's real money!"

I think our civilization will fall apart in a more "orderly" manner. Eventually we'll be forced to wear Devo-like uniforms—light blue for the Haves, pale gray for the Have-Nots.

Welcome to the future! I don't agree with everything Gerald says—zero-point energy???—but I agree with a lot of it.

Comments

[Edward Boyle]

Celente sort of sounds to me (after hearing the video) like Matt Simmons, a really respectable guy who can get on to TV and say some pretty extreme things. But will it turn out like that or at least in the time frame he is talking about?

It would be better if they were willing to allow hard times like in early 80s with Paul volcker to cure the system (of the big banks). Problem is trying to keep everything totally under control, it just screws things up more with a "great moderation" / making a Japanese type solution. And on top of that only big guys getting paid out and we all pay for them by losing our houses, jobs, pensions. They pay the politicians and install the politicians then we get nothing but a DEVO uniform and maybe food stamps and extended unemployment benefits or similar.

Maybe riots chaos would lead to a control situation like fascist Italy as everybody would be scared of chaos and elect a guy like Mussolini. There is always a backlash wwhen things go too far in one direction. So maybe both you and Celente are right in the end. The same thing happened in Russia as Putin was definitely a reaction to the 90s breakdown(you could say it was an engineered KGB takeover). After a while almost anyone would welcome such a guy if he were as smart as Putin and not a crazy guy like Mussolini. I just don't think we would get that lucky.

I just don't want 1984 or the movie Brazil, a mindless bureaucracy where all rights and humanity are slowly crushed by a facelss system "like a boot stomping on our faces forever".

[Gail]

haha, thanks for that Talking Heads youtube! I never saw one before and it was great! I had forgotten that my kids used to subject me to their musci when I drove them in the car. I used to really like this one though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imWnuirIL8o&feature=related

Personally I think there will be riots, because there will be food shortages, soon.

[Ron Beasley]

I think a rapid collapse is more likely. It could be set off by any number of things:
-The Peak Oil brick wall
-Climate related natural disasters
-Non climate related disasters like earthquakes(most of the west coast of the US is over due for "the big one".)
-An antibiotic resistant bug that kills millions
Just a few examples!

[Brett]

Do any normal viewers of Yahoo take him seriously? Or just us crazies taking a backseat to decline?

[Gail]

Here is a graphic picture that portends what will happen when food becomes scarce:

http://www.desdemonadespair.net/2010/08/desperate-refugees-fight-over-food-as.html