The key dynamics in Third World/Failing States:
1. The status quo protects insiders at the expense of everyone else.
2. There is no real accountability; failure has no consequences, bureaucrats are never fired for incompetence, reforms are watered down or neutered by institutional sclerosis.
3. Pay-to-play (Clinton Foundation) is the most cost-effective way to influence policy or evade consequences.
4. The status quo is incapable of differentiating between complexity that serves the legitimate purposes of transparency and accountability and complexity that serves no purpose beyond guaranteeing insiders' paper-shuffling jobs. As a consequence, complexity that adds no value chokes the economy and the government.
5. There are two sets of laws: one for insiders (Jesse Smolett and Kim Fox) and the super-wealthy, and another harsher set for everyone else.
6. The super-wealthy (Buffet, Gates, Corzine, etc.) fear nothing because the system functions to serve their interests.
7. The super-wealthy and state insiders control the media's narratives and the machinery of governance to serve their interests. Reforms are in name only; the faces of elected officials change but nothing changes structurally.
8. Insiders, well-paid pundits and the technocrats serving the corporate and state elites believe the status quo is just fine because they're doing fine; they are blind to the soaring inequality, systemic corruption, stupendous waste and the impossibility of real reform.
Does America's status quo protects insiders at the expense of everyone else? Yes. As for the other seven characteristics: yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes and yes.
And lets' not forget #9: the vast majority of the economic gains flow to the elite at the very top of the wealth-power pyramid: is this true in the U.S.? Definitively yes. Just look at this chart: this is a chart of an informal kleptocracy which cloaks itself in the faux finery of democracy and a (rigged) "market" economy.
That's the very definition of a Third World failed state.

Interesting theory. But just about all of those points could have been made 50, 100 or 150 years ago. For some of the points, things were worse in the past.

Also, that is not really the definition of a failed state.

erased

Putin Predicting US Dollar Collapse is Serious Warning



https://usawatchdog.com/putin-predicting-us-dollar-collapse-is-serious-warning-catherine-austin-fitts/

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
Investment advisor and former Assistant Secretary of Housing Catherine Austin Fitts thinks Vladimir Putin saying “the dollar is going to collapse soon” is a flashing warning for the U.S. dollar’s value in the not-so-distant future. Fitts explains, “What Putin is saying is the dollar is going into a steep decline, and what was interesting about his comment is he said ‘soon.’ . . . What is the ability of the U.S. military versus the Russian or Chinese military to defend the dollar’s position? That is intelligence that Putin has, and because Putin has this intelligence, people really stood up and I really stood up and took notice. If Putin has access to that intelligence, and I don’t, which is saying the dollar could go into a deep decline, we need to take a serious look at it. The dollar is clearly under pressure, and if you look at reserves, the central banks are buying gold and selling dollars, including the Russians and Chinese.”
Fitts also points out, “The dollar is holding, and yet, if you look at the price of household goods in America, where I live, it’s approximately 8% to 10% a year in prices of household goods (going up), and you can tell the money printing has been significant. If you look at what the Fed is doing in the repo market, we are really on the next QE. So, we’ve got a problem with currency debasement, and what Putin is saying is it’s going to go faster, a lot faster in 2020, and that is an issue I am looking at. . . . One of the scenarios I am looking at is the dollar declines significantly in 2020. . . . When you have real household inflation at 10% every year for the past five years, the dollar has really already taken a hit as are many fiat currencies around the world. . . . What has really supported the dollar is its huge market share both in trade and traditionally in reserves. . . . You need to withstand a scenario where in 2020, instead of getting 10% inflation, you need to withstand 20% or 25% inflation in real household goods. . . . I have been saying for many, many years the dollar is strong. This is the first time I started to see the potential for a crack in the armor. I think we have to be prepared for the potential for a more serious decline than we’ve been dealing with for the last five years.”
What adds to the uncertainty of the U.S. dollar is the “missing” $21 trillion that was discovered by Dr. Mark Skidmore and analyzed and recognized as a huge problem by Catherin Austin Fitts, publisher of the popular Solari Report. Also, analysis Fitts has done on the government making the “missing money” a “national security issue” with FASAB rule 56 (Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board) makes the secret money a hidden horror the general public is totally unaware of. Fitts explains, “The dollar is under pressure because we have been talking about the ‘missing money’ and FASAB rule 56, and the dollar is not what it used to be. If you look at the integrity behind the dollar, it’s not there. If you read “The Real Game of Missing Money,” which we did this big article for investors to do due diligence, the arrangements behind the dollar and the Treasury market do not have integrity. The deceleration of the integrity of the dollar is very significant and serious. . . . You’ve got to be more resilient, and it’s not just finances, you’ve got to be more resilient in terms of safety. If we have this kind of breakdown with the rule of law with FASAB rule 56, it’s not going to take long before it breaks into your neighborhood.”

I think it will be time to worry if nobody wants to come here.