Financial Sense Newshour for Storm Watch

In this section, Jim’s Big Picture topics include an in-depth analysis of  "the Debt Super Cycle−the End Game−the Return to a Global Gold Standard" as well as this week’s "Market Bill of Health." In addition, Jim answers some of your Q-Calls this segment.

When the United States stopped backing dollars with gold in 1968, the nature of money changed. All previous constraints on money and credit creation were removed and a new economic paradigm took shape. Economic growth ceased to be driven by capital accumulation and investment as it had been since before the Industrial Revolution. Instead, credit creation and consumption began to drive the economic dynamic. In "The New Depression: The Breakdown of the Paper Money Economy," Richard Duncan introduces an analytical framework, The Quantity Theory of Credit, that explains all aspects of the calamity now unfolding: its causes, the rationale for the government's policy response to the crisis, what is likely to happen next, and how those developments will affect asset prices and investment portfolios.

Jim is joined this week by Robert Prechter, President of Elliott Wave International. Robert sees signs of a potential credit implosion, with borrowing and spending contractions in many foreign countries, as well as in US states and municipalities. He believes that the commercial bank "lending machine" is out of order, and the investment bank "leveraging machine" is at risk.

Jim welcomes back former United States Senator Alan Simpson to the program. Mr. Simpson sees the spiraling debt and trillion-dollar budget deficits as a problem that must be solved, or America’s finished. His message: "Wake up America!" (CLICK HERE FOR TRANSCRIPT)

Jim welcomes back Felix Zulauf, Founder and President at Zulauf Asset Management AG for another wide-ranging discussion. In the first of a two-part interview, Felix discusses the European debt crisis and believes the bailouts will be bigger than anticipated. He also sees money printing going global as central banks expand their balance sheets to equal or surpass the GDP of their respective countries. (CLICK HERE FOR TRANSCRIPT)

In this week’s first Big Picture segment, Jim takes on the elephant in the room, the US budget deficit, and discusses the recent Congressional Budget Office release of the annual Budget and Economic Outlook for the next decade. Jim also takes more of your Q-Calls this segment.

Jim welcomes back Ann Barnhardt for another compelling conversation. Going beyond the MF Global collapse, Barnhardt believes that the financial system is at risk, and we are living on borrowed time. She also adds that it’s time to go on strike against the big Wall Street firms.

In part II of "Looking Back at 2011's Main Events", Jim and John discuss dysfunctional politics and the age of discontent, ZIRP (Zero Interest Rate Policy) and the coming era of financial repression, the next rogue wave - the euro and its possible breakup, and lastly, monetary bazookas, helicopter drops, and B52 bombing runs.

Jim Puplava welcomes Felix Zulauf on Financial Sense Newshour to discuss the growing sovereign debt crisis in Europe, other global imbalances, and why he is not optimistic about the future.