Stock markets have had a couple of very bad days to start Q3. That's not a big deal in itself. In fact, it would be healthy for stocks to correct by 20 percent or more after an 11-year bull run.

That will not be allowed to happen.

Wait a minute, Chuck, didn't you just say that an economic collapse is imminent?

I did say that, and it has little to do with the stock market. The Venezuelan stock market has had stellar "returns" -- 200,000% over the past year! If you think stock index numbers matter, take a trip to Venezuela and see how their "booming" stock market has helped their economy.

The stock market can be propped up until the sun explodes and fries us all. It is irrelevant which is sad because in a healthy economy, the trading of equities is a great generator of investment and wealth.

This is not a healthy economy. The numbers that matter (manufacturing and shipping and even/especially the service sector) are falling off a cliff. A great number of zombie companies are chugging along on borrowed time, borrowed money, and fraudulent books. Nonviable businesses are going to start folding left and right. At that point, no matter what the Dow says, it will be obvious to all that this economy is dead.

But why, Chuck!?!? In the name of all that is holy, WHY?!?!

Same reason as Venezuela and the former USSR: because our money is fake

In a healthy economy, money is just grease on the axle. It's not something central ~~planners~~ ...err... bankers have to think about. Banks lend money in their local communities. This creates economic activity and wealth.

You know what doesn't create economic activity and wealth? "Rehypothecation." "Overnight repo loans." Derivatives. Kafkaesque levels of financialization resembling nothing so much as a grotesque carnival midway featuring a shell game, a Ponzi scheme, and a medicine show all designed to rip everyone who walks through it off of every dollar their wallet can hold.

This is going to collapse. It's going to collapse much worse than it did in 2008. The writing is on the wall. Be prepared.