Submitted by Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

Forecast 2016

There’s really one supreme element of this story that you must keep in view at all times: a society (i.e. an economy + a polity = a political economy) based on debt that will never be paid back is certain to crack up. Its institutions will stop functioning. Its business activities will seize up. Its leaders will be demoralized. Its denizens will act up and act out. Its wealth will evaporate.

A Colorado meat packing plant in Fort Morgan has fired 190 Muslim workers, most of them from Somalia, who were protesting their rights to pray during the day. The Independent reports: Staff at Cargill Meat Solutions in Fort Morgan, Colorado, were fired 10 days after the mass walk-out, according to the Denver Post. More than 200 workers, who are mainly Muslims from Somalia, took part in the protest along with the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), who negotiated with the company on their behalf.

Assuming that Ron Paul doesn’t run for President in 2016, who will you support? Select up to 3 candidates.

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Earlier today, in “Mid-East Melee: Sectarian Showdown Looms As Bahrain Cuts Ties With Iran, UAE Recalls Ambassador,” we brought you the latest from the war-torn Mid-East where a worsening spat between Saudi Arabia and Iran threatens to plunge the region into chaos.

Even as increasingly more parts of the economy, especially those with exposure to manufacturing and industrial production, sink into the recessionary quicksand, one sector that was seen as immune from the malaise gripping US manufacturing and was outperforming the overall growth rate of the US economy, was housing, and specifically spending on private and public construction: a direct input into the GDP model.