Art Cashin: EU collapse would be "Cataclysmic"

Among the top headlines today on Google news are:

·         Results of the first round of the French elections.

·         Neil Diamond marries for the 3^rd time.

·         Czech coalition government falls.

·         More firings over the Secret Service prostitution scandal.

Over at MSN, the top headline is similar: “Secret Service, April storms, and top fashions you can wear day or night”.

In other words, drivel straight across the board as the main stream media pushes meaningless, un-actionable topics down onto the sheeple.  All of it suggests that the world is business as usual, no real problems.  Nothing to see here folks, move along please.  None of it is news.  All of it is noise; white noise that keeps the herd from hearing the sounds of collapse heading toward us.

In a different part of the web, over at web sites run by “conspiracy theorists and goldbugs” I see a completely different class of stories.  Unfortunately, these stories involve money, math and the unavoidable coming global economic meltdown.  The guests on these sites are becoming more and more credible and the stories they are telling are understood by only a very few people; perhaps 1 out of 1000 have any clue is going on.

I’ve been reading King World News for some time now but I recognize that each story they tell is prefaced or post scripted by an offer to sell shares in “junior” gold mining stocks.  Not exactly a sure fire investment IMO and so I don’t often point people there.  But as many of Bob Prechter’s predictions of “Conquer The Crash” begin to come true I am seeing more and more big names show up at KWN telling their stories.

One extremely credible recent interview was with Art Cashin, Director of Floor Operations for UBS.   This should be a top story for everyone yet you have to go to a backwater blog to read his important insights. He says that a Eurozone breakup would be “cataclysmic”.  Art basically says that the sky looks like it is cracking and that any prudent observer would be afraid that it is going to fall but that market participants are acting like nothing is wrong because they believe the government will backstop any failures. 

This is the sad lesson that people seem to have learned from the last 4 years of government intervention in the markets: “hero” Ben Bernanke is economically omnipotent.  People have been led to believe that governments are more powerful than the market even though history has proven that this has never been the case for very long.  History also shows that the level of panic and civil unrest that is tied to the inevitable collapse is generally commensurate with how many people were taken in by the fraud and to what degree they lost out.  When everyone believes the government is omnipotent it is a recipe for disaster.

Cashin goes on to say, “There are no easy answers (to Europe’s problems), there are no clear answers to solving the problem. That is why we’ve been reduced to buying time. There is postponement, rather than resolution. “   He says this at the same time many people are under the belief that “hero Bernanke” has actually fixed the global economic crisis.  The sheeple are just going about their business, completely oblivious to the risks. 

Unfortunately, even this understates the problem.  The very meaning of the term “risk” has been watered down by continuous government intervention in maintaining the status quo.  Unfortunately, the math tells us that the outcome is a certainty and that the only risk is in predicting the date and the hour.  It’s akin to playing Russian Roulette with a six shooter loaded with one bullet while talking about the outcome in terms of “risk” while squeezing the trigger 6 times in a row.  Yes, there is a ridiculously low probability that when the hammer finally hits the primer of the bullet that there will be a misfire but only a moron would bet his future on such an outcome.   The fact is that the hammer will hit the primer of a bullet and that should have people very concerned.  It should be front page news.

Governments are certainly concerned.  Per Prechter’s 2002 predictions, there is a growing trend toward nationalism and protectionism.  When the easy credit was flowing we could all just get along.  Now that the debt Ponzi is going bust in slo-mo, we are falling out of love with our neighbors.  The U.S. was a leader here with our border fence to keep Mexicans out.   More recently France and Germany are talking about implementing border controls.  Thinking people have to ask why.  The answer is simple: the richer countries of a region are worried that an economic collapse will send waves of homeless and starving across the borders into their countries looking for humanitarian assistance.  Governments are quietly preparing for Armageddon while the sleepy sheeple go about their lives, mostly oblivious.