2012: Worse than 2008!

If you think 2008 was a bad year, wait till you see 2012!

The world’s largest banks have far less capital, the world’s largest governments have far less bailout power, and each is pulling the other into an abyss.

Yet, BOTH bankers AND government officials seem mostly oblivious to the dire realities, sleepwalking through daily life as if nothing had changed.

Burying the Truth

Over 100 years ago, novelist Émile Zola put it this way: “If you silence the truth and bury it underground, it will grow and gather such explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up everything in its way.”

This is a key reason why economies crumble, markets crash and entire empires wind up in the junkyard of history.

This is why investors lose fortunes.

This why lives are destroyed.

It’s why life-changing opportunities are left by the wayside.

And it’s why my mission is to give you a direct, immediate pathway to the truth no matter how lonely that endeavor may be.

Recent events are prime examples …

Sovereign debt downgrades: While the world’s Big Three rating agencies — Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch — stubbornly maintained stellar grades for the world’s largest sovereign nations, our Weiss Ratings was …

* the only rating agency in the world to challenge them to downgrade long-term U.S. debt (5/10/2010) …

* the first rating agency to assign a low grade and downgrade the United States (4/28/11, 7/15/11), and …

* the first to assign low grades and downgrade major European countries (4/28/11, 9/1/11).

Bank collapse warnings: Even as nearly everyone thought the world’s banks were safe and strong, we warned that

* there are still 2,707 banks and 2,584 credit unions in America vulnerable to future financial woes and even potential failure (4/18/11) …

* Bank of America plus 11 other giant banks are vulnerable to financial disaster (8/29/11, 9/26/11), and …

* major European megabanks could be among the first to collapse (10/10/11).

European crisis alerts: While nearly every pundit on Earth was singing the glories of “the European growth revival,” Money and Markets and Safe Money editor Mike Larson showed you …

* how the next European dominoes were going to fall (1/14/11) …

* how the European authorities were rapidly losing their battle against the debt crisis (5/27/11), and …

* why shocking new failures are possible in the U.S. and overseas (1/31/11).

Commodity market rout: While nearly every pundit on the planet was finally turning wildly bullish on gold, silver and natural resources, Weiss Research analysts were among the few that had the courage to buck the crowd by boldly warning of a temporary — but very dramatic — correction.

In August, Real Wealth and Uncommon Wisdom editor Larry Edelson wrote “silver is vulnerable to a crash” and “gold can fall back to … $1,359.” He stressed that “over roughly the next six to nine months, the Western world is at risk of a mini-2008 type panic. That means most commodities are also vulnerable to another shakeout.”

In November, Mike Larson warned: “After a long period of staying bullish on commodities, my outlook has been unabashedly bearish in the last few months. My reason is fairly straightforward: Government stimulus spending is drying up, and monetary policymakers can’t push through aggressive quantitative easing because of political resistance. … That’s a recipe for falling demand and falling prices.”

And for many months, Weiss Research currency expert Jack Crooks has been consistently warning of sharp declines in all currencies tied to commodity prices, especially the Australian dollar.

We cannot predict every trend. Nor can we always be unanimous in our views. But in each case, not only did our readers have abundant time to use the advance warnings to escape the dangers … but they also had many opportunities to profit from them handsomely.

Now, finally, others are beginning to
see what we saw many moons ago.

Fitch has warned that a comprehensive euro-zone deal is now “beyond reach,” placing six euro-zone countries on short-term downgrade watch.

Fitch has also downgraded Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and five others.

Moody’s has downgraded Belgium by two notches, warning that soaring borrowing costs are straining the finances of heavily indebted countries like Belgium.

Standard & Poor’s is now planning potentially traumatic and devastating ratings downgrades for France and possibly even Germany.

And in its strongest warning yet, the IMF itself has warned that the global economy could soon see another Great Depression.

Why a 2008-Type Scenario
Is Now Unavoidable!

In 2008, we witnessed a sinking global economy, sinking financial markets and a series of debt collapses.

Plus, in the months that followed, we saw solid investments selling at a fraction of their true value, opening up some of the greatest buying opportunities of our era.

Among the main causes of the next big decline: The vicious cycle between sinking banks and sinking sovereign countries.

Why? Because the world’s largest banks are up to their eyeballs in the bonds of failing countries. But, at the same time, the economies of those same countries are being dragged down by their failing banks.

Ironically, in response, all they can seem to do is point fingers.

* The banks accuse their governments of fiscal follies, demanding major budget cutbacks, while, at the same time …

* The governments accuse their banks of reckless risks, demanding they build more capital.

Fundamentally speaking, BOTH prescriptions are correct. But in actual practice, those same prescriptions merely accelerate the vicious cycle: The more that governments cut their budgets, the more it sinks the economy and the bigger the banks’ losses. At the same time, the more that banks seek to build their capital, the more they have to pull back on lending — a key factor driving the global economy into a tailspin.

Think I’m overstating the problem?
Then consider these horrifying facts.

Weiss Ratings has just completed a major study of global banking. The results won’t be ready for release until early next year. But here are the big-picture conclusions:

First, among the major banks in the world, the 16 largest that we have identified as weak and vulnerable now control a whopping $26 trillion of the world’s banking assets, far more than the TOTAL assets of all U.S. commercial banks.

Second, since their share prices hit their peak after the last debt crisis, these 16 banks alone have suffered stock price declines that equate to a whopping $535.6 billion loss in market capitalization.

In other words, the banks are HUGE — the primary source of financing for the entire world. But their ability to raise capital has been gutted by the decline in their share prices.

And yet, these are precisely the banks that must issue more stock to RAISE more capital in order to avoid bankruptcy!

How can they do that when their share prices are so low? And how can they avoid cutting back dramatically on their lending?

They can’t. They won’t. That’s why the global economy is headed for a 2008-2009-type scenario. And that’s why you MUST be fully prepared.

My advice:

Follow the steps my team and I have been recommending.

And stand by for urgent updates in the critical days ahead.

Good luck and God bless!

Martin