The Debt Party Is Back: Somebody Has Clearly Turned the Lights Back OnMac Slavo With the nation as a whole taking on more debt than it can ever hope to repay, it only makes sense that the private sector would be engaged in the same kind of reckless behavior. We may be on the cusp of the worst financial and economic crisis in the history of the world, but that is not stopping Americans from taking on record levels of debt. This is going to end badly. Very badly. Whether its corporate loans, all quality levels of bonds or simple consumer credit, the debt party is back on in the U.S., whether its in the boardroom or the living room. Amid the financial crisis of 2008, the U.S. went into what economists call a debt deleveraging cycleakin to a credit hangover, where the party has ended and everyone there decides to quit drinking cold turkey. Somebody has clearly turned the lights back on, though, and corporate and individual buying is soaring. At $3.04 trillion, the total is up 22 percent over the past three years. Student loans are up a whopping 61 percent. [] As long as you can support that debt through growth, its really not a major concern. [] But with the U.S. economy growing at a steady, if unspectacular, 2.5 percent rate, economists are mostly dismissive about another debt crisis hitting. [] The building blocks for the consumer to grab the torch are being put together with each and every passing data point as of late, he said. Dont fight it. Embrace it. Free money, apparently, is being dished out to anyone whos willing to take it. But according to most economists we need to embrace all this excess cash and stop worrying about where its coming from or how its making its way into our pockets following a de-leveraging cycle that almost seized up the entire global economy just a few short years ago. Someone, has clearly turned the lights back on for your benefit, so that you can continue to gobble up new iPhones, cars, student loans, and over-valued real estate properties. Dont worry about how youre going to pay for it. Just buy it! Well figure out how to create jobs, reduce the 100 million people on monthly government subsidies, and balance our national budget later. It is a wholly unsustainable strategy that is actually impoverishing us further, even though it may seem like happy days are here again: When the limits of that persons ability to pay are reached they wind up homeless. You, America, most-particularly including those cheerleaders on CNBC, Fox Business and elsewhere in the financial sector are cheering on a daily basis the destruction of these people and celebrating their ruin. Via Karl Denninger of Market Ticker We have solved nothing. In fact, the government has made it worse by convincing the people that we should be doing exactly that which led to the crash of 2008. But this time around, when its realized that the leverage in the system has exceeded our ability to manage it, the collapse will be magnitudes worse than what weve already seen. The last crisis wiped out 40% of Americans wealth. The next one may well reset the entire paradigm of our consumer economy. Financier and a master of the global chessboard George Soros has warned of this real and present threat previously, recommending to those paying attention that they mustthink the unthinkable and prepare for scenarios that most cant even fathom: I am not here to cheer you up. The situation is about as serious and difficult as Ive experienced in my career. [] As anger rises, riots on the streets of American cities are inevitable.Yes, yes, yes, he says, almost gleefully. The response to the unrest could be more damaging than the violence itself. It will be an excuse for cracking down and using strong-arm tactics to maintain law and order, which, carried to an extreme, could bring about a repressive political system, a society where individual liberty is much more constrained, which would be a break with the tradition of the United States. [] At times like these, survival is the most important thing. Indeed. Collapse is coming. You can be a victim like the majority of our fellow countrymen will be, or you can take steps now to prepare for the great transition that will soon come to pass. The powers that be are telling us theres light at the end of the tunnel. What theyre not telling us is that its an oncoming train. RELATED ACTIVIST POST ARTICLE: You can read more from Mac Slavo at his site SHTFplan.com, where this first appeared. 