There is a scent in the air, a smell familiar yet strange. It tingles the senses as it sends shivers down people’s spines. Carried on a cold wind it that seems to be blowing from everywhere, chilling both flesh and bone. Phenomenons of nature whose names are no stranger to human lips. The wind is called change and the scent is fear.

The economic conditions are not what they have been purported to be. In the United States the employment figures have been fluffed up by full time workers being turned to part-time. On the other hand, the unemployment numbers have been dragged down by large numbers of job seekers dropping out of the work force. Both have combined to induce a hallucinatory effect on the populous that the economy. is improving. It looks like those caught in hypnotic effect of misleading statistics could be about to get a rude awakening.

The fact is the world economies have all been hanging on for dear life for a long time. That all might be getting ready to change. The signs are there and the stars are starting to align. The famous Hindenburg omen has appeared and the employment situation is worsening. Based on signs of inherent stock market instability, the Hindenburg omen is an indicator of bad times to come. The more often it appears the more likely a crash. The last time it appeared with such frequency was before the housing bubble burst. Of course there are many other signs of impending disaster as well. Last month unemployment went up in 29 of the 50 states. Even more significant Gallup shows an unemployment jump from 7.7 to 8.9 percent over the last 30 days. In a poll of those that follow such matters, readers of The Economist too are predicting that things are going to get worse.

The Main Stream Media (MSM) might be ignoring the situation but others are not. The world’s movers and shakers have been taking steps to protect themselves. With little fanfare, they have been scooping up hard assets; exchanging cash for durable assets of less transient value. For instance, physical gold inventories at the major exchanges are dropping fast. Mints are having a hard time keeping up with demands for gold coinage as well. Real estate is yet another example, 30, 50 percent and sometimes more of U.S. house sales are cash buys. Purchased by hedge funds and corporate entities acting on the behalf of well healed men who prefer to work behind the scenes. They are the reason that although homeownership has plummeted and median incomes fallen that real estate has been rising. The shopping list of the world’s movers and shakers also includes collectable cars, art and rare items of all kinds; items that are being scooped up in mad buying sprees. Something that students of the Great Depression will find eerily familiar.

The source of much of the money financing these rainy day stashes of the world’s elite has come from central banks. The banks’ monetary easing programs have lined the pockets of the wealthy at the expense of the average citizen. Moving cash from printing presses, to financial asset purchases, to the stock market and finally to the accounts of those who could live a hundred lives with what they already have. It is little wonder that these same people are now exchanging their share of the central bank’s magic cash for hard assets before the balloon breaks.

Like a jungle that suddenly goes quiet or a sudden stampede of scared buffalo, there have been signs afoot for sometime that things are not what they seem. While many have been enjoying the growth of the stock market and the increase in their retirement funds, others are now turning to protecting what they have. What will happen next (or when) is anybody’s guess. A stock market crash seems inevitable. With trillions setting in corporate coffers and Wall Street bank ledgers, an inflation bomb awaits if that money starts to move in mass into the economy. This is not to mention government debt and what happens when the FED losses control of interest rates.

In truth not all of those in the know are crying out warnings of impending disaster. Some sit offices with rose colored glass that masks the signs of coming storms while others are too busy raking in cash to see the writing on the wall. There are even those that claim the wisdom to be able to ride the whirlwind until the last minute. Despite this, the trends and signs are going in one direction. Predicting the exact timing of economic storms is a fools game but knowing when the season’s are about to change is the art of the wise. Such is the time people are living in today. A time when the cold wind of change is blowing and the skies seem to be growing dark.

“The Conservative Mind”

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