These all caught my eye this morning as I was preparing for the day:

Crude oil prices may crash below $25 a barrel next year and gas prices could fall below $1 a gallon if the global recession spreads to China, an energy analyst and CEO said Thursday.

U.S. Sheds Over Half Million Jobs

Lower Rates Help Sell Houses, but Market Faces Broader Ills

Recession Clouds Chances for EU Climate Pact

Obama Hauls in Record $750 Million for Campaign

Retail Sales Are Weakest in 35 Years

China’s corrupt model produces toxic-baby formula but spic-and-span finances?


So with the world apparently on the verge of some kind of radical upheaval, what are we to do?  When "The Great Depression" fell on the United States, was there this kind of advanced warning?  You would think with all the big brains, statistical models and the benefit of history that a cataclysm of the proportions being intimated in the daily press would be completely avoidable.  Wouldn't you?

Here is my food for thought. 

Who is getting rich today off of this uncertainty? Let's follow the money and see if anyone is benefiting from the willy nilly shifts in the markets.  I would venture that, while there are a number of the typical power elite making serious coin on today's roller coaster ride, the real benefactors of this mess will ultimately be the political ruling class.  I will propose that there has never been a larger and more thorough power grab in American history.  I would further put out there for discussion that the "economic crisis" has been in large part manufactured to create an atmosphere that is conducive to government take overs of large parts of the economy.   History shows us that those who are afraid, who lack security, will trade buckets full of their liberty in exchange for the promise of security. .

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. - An Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania by Richard Jackson, published by Benjamin Franklin in 1759.

I am not claiming to have all the answers nor anything more than a moron's view of history and current events, but I am encouraging you to think about it and share your thoughts.  What does all this really mean?  Are we at a historical fork in the road with many paths to choose from or has the course already been charted and we are merely standing on the deck of the USS America watching the scenery unfold?