In this week's Off The Cuff podcast, Chris and Charles Hugh Smith discuss:

• The Crashing Treasury Curve
  • Interest rates are on the move
• Get Ready For Interest Rates To Start Rising
  • The end of a 30-year downtrend
• When Rates Rise, Prices Will Fall
  • Bonds, stocks, housing — nearly everything
• What's Next For Bitcoin?
  • We're witnessing a historical moment

Charles and Chris discuss the implications to anticipate should interest rates indeed start rising. The quick summary? It will change everything…

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Right now, we humans are busy creating a major eco-tastrophe for ourselves. I’d be a lot more hopeful about our ability as a species to at least notice that, and possibly even do something positive and proactive about it; but ecological destruction is slow, complex, and doesn't change much on a day-to-day basis — making it poorly visible to the key decision makers. 

My lack of hope stems from our oft-demonstrated inability to rally around workable solutions for the serious predicaments that are blatantly near-term, obvious and straightforward.  Take for example the current Greek debt crisis.

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In this week's Off The Cuff podcast, Chris and Mike "Mish" Shedlock discuss:

• The Fed's Faulty Fears
  • The people running it are concerned about the wrong things
• Are We At A Market Top?
  • Hard to call it, but it sure feel so
• Europe's Woes Are Worsening
  • Capital is fleeing, while debts grow
• Our ""Markets"
  • Nobody but central banks and bots buying these days

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In this week's Off The Cuff podcast, Chris and Charles Hugh Smith discuss:

• We Live To Serve The Banks
  • Greece is now a nation of slaves for the banking system
• Instability Risk Is Sky-High These Days
  • When central planners lose control, it's going to be bedlam
• As Ever, Access To Resources Will Determine Everything
  • We're seeing the resource-poor countries now faltering first
• Debt-based Money
  • As long as we have it, we'll never be free

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Well, that went badly. For the Greeks in general and for Tsipras specifically. After many years and rumors and brinksmanship, and a powerful "No" referendum from the people of Greece, Tsipras managed to ‘secure’ for Greece a deal worse than any other offered to date.

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Executive Summary

• Energy plays a key role in sovereign economic (un)sustainability
• The export boom is imploding
• The neofeudal model is collapsing as 'serf' nations enter default
• Take preparation now, while it still matters

If you have not yet read Part 1: Why Greece Is The Precursor To The Next Global Debt Crisis available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.

In Part 1, we examined the core dynamics that expanded Greek debt to its current unmanageable size—currency/trade deficits and bailouts—and the enormous transfer of private bank debt to the public ledger via the Troika bailouts, only 10% of which trickled down to the Greek people.

There are two other dynamics beneath the surface theater, dynamics which are not unique to Greece but are characteristic of the most heavily indebted nations.

Food and Fuel Imports Drive Structural Imbalances and Debt/Currency Crises

In our recent podcast, Chris mentioned this chart of imported energy by nation. Note that the nations with crushing structural debt loads (the so-called PIIGS—Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain) also happen to be major importers of energy.

What does this have to do with Greece’s debt crisis? Let’s go back to the key driver of Greek debt—imports that far exceeded exports, not occasionally but structurally, year in and year out.  Money was borrowed to pay for those imports, interest accrued on the loans and then austerity was pressed on the debtor nations by the lenders as a means of extracting interest on the rising debts.

If a nation does not generate a significant percentage of its own energy and food needs, or export enough goods and services to offset its imports of energy and food…

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In this week's Off The Cuff podcast, Chris and Nomi Prins discuss:

• The Ghosts Of 2008
  • Are suddenly returning en masse to haunt us
• Growing Central Bank Insecurity
  • Beginning to realize that they've cornered themselves
• The War On Cash
  • Central planners continue to tighten restrictions
• No Solutions For The Status Quo
  • A massive reset is the best we can hope for

Click to listen to a sample of this Off the Cuff Podcast or Enroll today to access the full audio and other premium content today.

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