The United States is drifting further away from Free Market Capitalism and clinging onto Fascism and Corporatism instead, as Gerald Celente has put it himself.

Celente compares what the economy is today to what it was during the Great Depression. He even goes as far to say that this may be the Greatest Depression yet!

The U.S is simply pumping the country with excess money for its bailout schemes and too-big-to-fail financial institutions. This can only lead to a failed economic model.

This will not end nicely and the government will stop at nothing. As Celente puts it “Those who are prepared for the worst will not have been taken by surprise”.

Panic has already hit European countries. On April 4 in Rome, 200,000 workers rioted over the financial crisis. Over the last month in France, hundreds of angry workers took managers hostage at three different companies (Caterpillar, 3M and Sony) to protest mass layoffs and wiring concessions out of employers. The British have also seen riots as well. As reported by “The Guardian”, British police are expecting a “summer of rage”,which may soon engulf the country.

Can anything like this hit America?

Back in November 2007, Celente warned the media of “The Panic of 2008″. Proven correct, he predicts an even worse outcome for 2009 possibly up til 2012. Celente predicts food riots, squatter rebellions, tax revolts and job marches by 2012. “America’s going to go through a transition the likes of which no one is prepared for,” he said.

Is this country ready for such a hazard?

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Holidays are the new hope for the economy as he put it in December “Look what happened to Christmas. That whole Christmas thing of holiday gift-buying is only about 110 years old, and that was made up by the retail industry.
It’s a holiday retailers, in particular, are looking to now as it gets tougher and tougher to make sales.”

Now that the Easter bunny came around, Gerald Celente declared it as a spark of a new hope. Easter has recently been a day when people buy gifts for one another. Retail stores are aware of this and their sales will evidently rise as more holidays come down the road.

Celente sees this as a salvation since it gets tougher and tougher to make sales. “And remember, it’s spring,” Celente adds. “People want some enjoyment after the dreary winter, so it’s the perfect holiday to capitalize on, in that it’s bringing with it a new hope.”

Back then he called it “Capitalism for Cowards”. Today it’s called stimulus programs and rescue packages.

Celente says that what’s being pitched today by the government has been tried before and if it didn’t work then, it won’t work today. President Obama states that the steps taken will without a doubt prevent us from sliding into a depression. However, Celente disagrees and says that this may slow its process but it definitely won’t stop the economy to slide into a depression.

He further states that what is being sold as “good financial news” is upon examination.

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The “Panic of ‘08″ will be followed by “The Collapse of ‘09.” In 2008, when the world’s largest financial firms and equity markets crumbled, Wall Street’s woes preoccupied the media.

In 2009, the focus will broaden to include a range of calamities that will leave no sector unscathed. Next in line is retail, which accounts for some 70 percent of consumer spending, 26 percent of which is holiday sales

After the numbers are tallied to reveal a dismal retail Christmas, more big chain bankruptcies will follow. Besides leaving masses unemployed, defunct retailers will leave behind thousands of empty stores. Who will rent them? Nobody!

Add to these empties commercial space vacated by defunct financial firms and an array of troubled businesses, from restaurants to architectural firms, to high tech operations, to offset printers, etc., etc. The inescapable result (that we predicted over a year ago and is only now being discussed in the business media) is a commercial real estate bust that will be costlier, wreak greater havoc and prove more intractable than the residential market decline.

Because most people don’t live and shop on Wall Street, the “Panic of ‘08″ was viewed by Main Street as if from afar – even though many were losing money. But when commercial real estate crashes it will hit much closer to home. The depressive atmosphere of thinly shopped, half- vacant malls will strike emotional chords and all the senses.

In office buildings, vacant floors and empty cubicles will dampen the workday spirit of the still-employed; ever present reminders of laid- off friends and colleagues and of the fragility of employment.

Abandoned, untended business and industrial parks will highlight the already mournful scene. In cities studded with soaring towers and new construction predicated on eternal economic growth, streets lined with “For Rent/For Sale” signs will complement stilled cranes and uncompleted buildings.

As retail and commercial real estate collapse, the credit card sector and all its interrelated processing and back office support businesses will suffer and be forced to scale back. Hordes of consumers who have been living off credit cards and racking up debt to the limit will lack the funds to service their debt… much less pay it off, and they will be forced to default. Given the nearly $3 trillion in consumer debt at risk (excluding auto and mortgage) an inevitable default snowball will add momentum to the in-progress Collapse of ‘09.

While we alone predicted the “Panic of ‘08″ (and even took out the domain name “Panicof08.com” on 7 November 2007), we are not alone in predicting a Depression.

The “D” word is being uttered – in some cases by those who have the most to lose and whose best interests are not served by spreading gloom and doom. “The world and country are in a depression,” said celebrity tycoon Donald Trump. He then later softened the blow, downgrading it to a “virtual depression.”

The rest of the article is available at The Daily Reckoning

The Daily Reckoning offers an independent and critical perspective on the Australian and global investment markets. Slightly offbeat and far from institutional, The Daily Reckoning delivers you straight-forward, humorous, and useful investment insights from a world wide network of analysts, contrarians, and successful investors. Founded in 1999, The Daily Reckoning is published in 7 countries with a worldwide readership of almost 1 million people