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Transcript of 2010 Year End Wrap-Up — The Road Turns East [View the PDF]
By Catherine Austin Fitts
The center of economic and financial gravity shifted eastward in 2010. The decade began with North America and Europe leading the planet economically and culturally. It ended with them branded by aging populations, fraudulent financial sectors, and expensive military. The emerging markets, particularly Asia, flowered in no small part thanks to first world investment over the last two decades while Eurasia emerged as the hot spot reflecting the competition of the US, China and Russia for resources.
What was on our minds in 2010? It was the economy, the economy and then the economy. As predicted in last years wrap-up, the Slow Burn continued and unemployment grew. The value of tangibles exploded, including precious metals and agricultural commodities. Silver and gold prices ended the year up 83.5% and 29.5%. By comparison, returns for the S&P 500 and 30 Year Bond were 12.9% and 5.6%.. A deeper look at the securities market continues to reflect the shift of capital and investment returns to the emerging markets and eastward.
The big surprise in 2010 was the Gulf Oil Spill, a devastating blow to the Southern states and their extraordinary life and environmental resources, not to mention one of the richest sources of economic animal protein in the world. Combined with price increases, changes in US food regulation in the US, continued efforts by the WTO to industrialize farming world wide, and ongoing adoption of genetically modified seed, the centralization of the food system continued at breathtaking speed.
The deeper story is, of course, that geography & demographics rule. They always have, but it was easy to pretend otherwise during the bubble.
The good news is that those of you who took to heart the risks and opportunities we discussed during the last year did a good job of protecting and growing your assets during 2010. You were energized by the opportunities and not drained by events. I have been heartened throughout the year by your efforts and success stories. Our goal is to help you continue to thrive in these changing times. Indeed, the more who do, the greater the opportunity for us all.
In this week’s Solari Report (Thursday, January 6th), I’m doing my year-end wrap-up looking back at events in 2010 and discussing what they mean to our future. Here are some of the topics I will cover.
- The First Decade of the 21st Century
- The Economy
- Financial Coup d’Etat: Hey, Ho, the Status Quo
- Tangibles Explode
- The Weather Gets Weirder
- War in Eurasia
- An Invasive Combo: Technology & Regulation
- The Obama Myth Evolves
- The Gulf Oil Spill
- Space: The Breakaway Civilization & the Final Frontier
- Aging in North American & Europe: The Exit Game Cometh
- Disaster Capitalism & the Haiti Earthquake
- Food Fascism
- The US Dollar: Funding the Empire
- The Bond Bull Market Draws to a Close
- Vertical Charts Call for a New Story
- 2010 Predictions: How Did I Do?
- 2011 Predictions: Risks, Wildcards & Opportunities
- Our Heros
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This week’s Money and Markets charts will be posted at the blog.
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