These are the signs that the Ponzi is falling apart at the seams.

While this does not show up in Google news because Justin Bieber is obviously more important, look at Colin Powell distancing himself from the whole Iraq war deal:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/16/colin-powell-cia-curveball

I'm not sure whether Mr. Powell wants people to consider him a lying snake or a complete idiot because it's hard to see what other choice he leaves us.  Are we really to believe that Colin Powell, who was a key figure in building the case for the ridiculous and unnecessary 2003 invasion of Iraq, would engage in such activity without knowing every single possible detail?  Are we to believe that he would take someone else's word for anything in the matter of invading a sovereign country and the taking of more than one hundred thousand lives?  All I can say is that if this is true then I don't see how he qualifies to be the milkman much less Reagan's National Security Advisor, a 4 star general and GW Bush's Secretary of State.  Sorry Mr. Powell, I have seen you talk on TV many times and it is clear that you could not be that stupid.  I guess that leaves just one other option.

Why do you think Mr. Powell is taking the time to lament all these unfortunate happenings right now?  His involvement is long over so it just seems strange that he's going to all this trouble to do the big mea culpa.  Maybe he's just having trouble sleeping at night and wants to clear his conscience.  Or maybe, just maybe he is looking all around at things happening here and abroad.  Maybe he is sensing that the big debt Ponzi which fueled a heck of a lot of immoral and illegal behavior over the past 2 decades is coming to an end.  And maybe, just maybe he has read his history books and he has concluded that if people ever take to the streets in anger that he might find himself a target for his part in said activities. 

In fact, I predicted many times in past posts that when the Ponzi finally begins to collapse that one of the signs would be the elite turning on each other, ratting each other out, saying and doing anything they can to distance themselves from the big con job in the hope that they are spared the fate of despotic leaders once the people catch on.  It's the same thing that happens when mob members get caught and they realize they are on their own to sink or swim.  Keep dancing, Mr. Powell.  The music is still playing.  When they arrest GW Bush for war crimes you'd better start looking for a non-extradition country if you plan on sticking to your story that you didn't know the WMD "evidence" was just a trumped up excuse to go to war.  Nobody is going to buy that, sir.  Nobody.

In related news, the New York Times comments on Madoff's recent statements that big banks knew about his Ponzi scheme but they said nothing.  What's interesting is why Madoff is suddenly blabbing.  Where was all this chatter during his trial?  He didn't turn anyone in or even speak much in his own defense.  He decided to take the fall for everyone as if he could possibly pull off a 50 billion dollar heist like that all by himself in a vacuum.  That's about as believable as Colin Powell not knowing who the source of the WMD "intelligence" was that convinced the American people to back the Iraq invasion.

So why did Madoff take the fall alone?  Well, if you look at mob cases of the past this sort of thing used to happen all the time.  Guys would take one for the team.  But why am I talking about the mob?  We haven't heard anything from that sector since they put John Gotti away back in the early 1990s.  It's like organized crime sort of went into remission after that. 

Or did it?  Maybe the mob simply figured out that you can steal a lot more money with a briefcase than with a gun.  Maybe Bernie thought it would be safer to just keep quiet about the new face of organized crime made up of Wall St. criminals.  Ah, but then his son suddenly died, the victim of an apparent suicide.  You know, the mob used to "suicide" people too when they felt the need.   Not long after that, as if by some grand coincidence, Madoff decided for the first time to have an interview in which he would talk about the bad old days.  In the interview, Madoff yaps like a dog about how bankers basically knew what was going on but showed a "willful ignorance" to it.

Yeah, these are the kinds of things that happen during the wind down of any corrupt system.  All the dirty money that was available to be made has been made.  Now we are in cutting back mode, at least in speeches to the public.  In any case, some showing of austerity must be made in order to calm the herd and you can bet that some of the criminals out there are not going to get what they thought they were going to get and this fact will set them at each other's throats.   Watch and see.