1999 will bring a level of chaos and instability unmatched in global history. And then the real fun will start when theY2k induced economic collapse happens. I'm afraid the best we can hope for out of Y2k is a massive and sustained depression. As for the worst case: get a weapon, learn how to use it and make sure you have plenty of ammo. But enjoy 1999, for Y2k and 2000 are soon upon us The following reflect my musings on the how the trends will flow, until the defining event of my life, a global computer collapse, takes place.

The first trend will be massive political instability resulting in the rise of populist and/or religious dictatorships in country after country. It requires no insight to write of political instability, just look at Russia's Yeltsin, America's Clinton or Israel's embattled Prime Minister. The results are less clear. Not that I won't write about them with reasonable certainty; after all, that's what pundits do. Think Venezuela and the popular election of an ex-military officer who led an armed coup attempt a few years back. Running on a campaign of screw the corrupt and arrogant elite's who have ruined the country-sound familiar? Well, he is now in the vanguard of a new type of global leader. Forget democracy, especially after Y2k induced chaos hits over the next few months and years. The current crop of corrupt, arrogant and soon to be proven abysmally incompetent political elitists will be replaced by corrupt, arrogant and eventually proven to be abysmally incompetent populist, military and/or religious dictators.

1999 will also see the continued rise of the Islamic religious dictator. These theocratic "Islamic Republics" are springing up everywhere Islam is predominant. From Algeria in North Africa, to Indonesia in the Pacific, expect increasingly virulent, anti-western and anti-American in particular, governments and leaders to increase in 1999. Indonesia will be the first major flash point between economic chaos, populist politics and religious fervor. Just last week several Indonesian soldiers were hacked to death in Eastern Sumatra by a mob seeking an Islamic state. Look for the continued disintegration of the Indonesian state into religious violence, ethnic war and political anarchy. Looks like the bow tie boys from the IMF really blew this one. Must have thought a little austerity program, reducing most of the population to abject poverty, wouldn't have political consequences in the real world.

The second trend will be the continued economic unraveling of the global economy. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall-Humpty Dumpty had a big fall-All the IMF wizards, hack politicians and lame economists couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again! Seriously, we will see Asia's economic depression continue to spread like an oil slick-coating any economy that lands in it like some unfortunate waterfowl. There is so much to follow-see the Asia section of gold-eagle.com-just a few informed comments, some would say snide, are warranted. First Japan, the grenade pin of Asia. It was recently reported that auditors now say three recently nationalized banks bad loans are three, yes that is three times, worse than originally reported. This implies that the semiofficial figure of 1 TRILLION dollars in bad bank loans is in reality closer to 3 TRILLION DOLLARS OR 50% OF THE UNITED STATES YEARLY GNP. Certainly puts Japan's 9 year economic collapse in perspective doesn't it, having to deal with a Savings and Loan bailout every single year for a decade. And in the rounding up the usual suspects category, it was also reported that Japan's central bank seems to have a corruption problem. We are SHOCKED-SHOCKED-SHOCKED. Really we are. This would be like accusing the Federal Reserve of manipulating the stock market.

The rest of Asia is beyond hope really despite what the flacks on MSNBC say. MSNBC, by the way, stands for More Sugar and nothing but @#$%$.

But read the wire reports on the Internet if you don't believe me. China can't expect to continue it's 45 billion dollar surplus with the United States, especially after the house report on their systematic spy effort is released. The political fallout from the collapse of US manufacturing will also factor in. So Japan and China will both tank in 1999. As for Russia, they are technically in default on their 145 billion dollars in loans. Maybe sometime somebody can explain to me why capitalist bankers loan money to people who don't believe in capitalism. Oh Yes, the taxpayers are the lenders of the last resort.

Then there is Brazil and our populist dictator in Venezuela, along with Mexico and the hurricane devastated Central America. Honduras just announced it was broke and wanted "debt relief", read default, on $4.3 billion in loans. A billion here and a billion there, eventually all this debt default is going to add up. In fact, South America's economic situation will soon come to the fore. For instance, Peru's President Alberto Fujimora sacked 10 cabinet ministers and appointed Peru's version of Trent Lott, Victor Joy Woy, to be his economic minister. The only thing possibly worse would be for the US to appoint Mr. Less, er Lott, to replace Alan Greenspan. Of course now the IMF and Wall Street are upset, since government spending might go way up before elections next year. The IMF "contract" with Peru expires in March and the corporate predators fear another South American economic crisis. As for Brazil, the state of Minas Gerais has suspended debt payments to the Central government, which uses the money to pay the IMF. Another technical default like Russia, but the stock market continues to go into the stratosphere. So the global economic condition is really quite serious, even before the IMF gets involved. But who knows, having destroyed Asia, Russia and Africa economically, the IMF will certainly get a funding increase in order to rape and pillage South America. At any rate, they will play a dominant role in the New World Disorder.

It is the particular conceit of the bankers that they believe their global economic "slash and burn" policies will not have political implications. This is because bankers feel they own the politicians and the system and what the rabble thinks doesn't matter. As such, the chagrin in elite circles must be immense as they watch their carefully crafted global order careen out of control. The banker's vision is to milk the cow, not have the starving rabble kill the dairy herd for meat. Or maybe the global banking elite is so arrogant they think this violence is also able to be controlled. If so, they are making the same mistake German business and political leaders made with Hitler. "Hitler will keep the Marxists in line, crush workers and unions and let the rich get richer". Unfortunately for them, Hitler proved uncontrollable because he marched to his own drummer. Likewise, one wonders if the current crop of "populist dictators" being allowed to bear fruit by the banking orchardists will turn and gnaw off the hand that created them.

Which leads us to trend number three, violence on a global scale. Aside from Indonesia, which is in the early stages of national breakup, there is the continuing North Korean threat and also China's military expansion and seizure of the Spatly Islands. Moving west we come to the nuclear tinged Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan, the tensions between Iran and Afghanistan, our own skirmishes with Iraq. As for Africa, virtually the entire continent is in a state of war, from Algeria and Sudan in the north to the Congo and Angola in the south. This doesn't include the nearly 25% of the sub-Saharan population which in infected with the AIDS virus. And then we come to the Mother Lode, namely Jerusalem-the Biblical Yerushalayim- and Yasser Arafat's often repeated desire to declare Palestinian statehood on May 4th,1999. Simply put, this act will trigger a Mid-East war. Even if Israeli elections weren't planned for May 17th, the Israeli reaction would be immediate and drastic. Israel will simply annex Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem. At which point, all hell would break lose in the Mid-East. At least we'll find out why some 40,000 "Palestinian Policemen" need AK-47's . Besides, three or four months of the Palestinian Airport being open should be enough to smuggle in all the shoulder fired anti-tank, and anti-aircraft missiles the "Palestinian Policemen" will need for their long planned war with the Zionists. It seems the 51st anniversary of the State of Israel will be very interesting indeed. One of the things which puts Y2k in perspective is that we have to get through 1999 first.