America

Whatever one thinks of Edward Snowden, the actions of the original NSA leaker - right or wrong - were dictated not by spite, but an ideology: his desire to expose the pervasive domestic spying apparatus of the NSA, even if meant a lifelong exile in Russia, was - in his view - for the greater good. His infamous successor, NSA contractor Reality Winner, who was recently arrested for providing The Intercept with a top secret document allegedly revealing Russian hacking of the US election, however had a far less lofty goal: to burn Donald Trump down to the ground.

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

The entire status quo is based on the delusion that rapidly rising debt will never generate any negative consequences.

Authored by Daniel Lang via SHTFplan.com,

A lot of people were probably thrilled today about Amazon’s latest announcement. The online retail giant has revealed that they are going to reduce the cost of Prime membership, which provides free shipping for more orders and unlimited streaming for many shows and movies. But it’s not just for anyone. The reduced rate will be reserved for low income households.

In the Fed's latest Flow of Funds report, today the Fed released the latest snapshot of the US "household" sector as of March 31, 2017.

The American Catastrophe

Paul Craig Roberts

This is my quarterly call for your financial support. Remember, this is your website.

This website was launched 5 years and 4 months ago on New Year’s Eve, 2011. Here is the inaugural column: http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2011/12/31/the-outlook-for-the-new-year/ The inaugural column remains an accurate description of the American Catastrophe.