By Money Morning Staff Reports
As the Fed gets set to pump billions into the economy each month - the so-called QE3 Infinity - inflation fears are spreading like wildfire.
Even a top Federal Reserve Bank officer is seriously concerned.
Speaking on Bloomberg Radio, Richard Fisher, the Dallas Fed Reserve bank president, ripped Fed chairman Ben Bernanke's new quantitative easing plan to buy $40 billion in securities a month -a massive amount of money printing - saying it would fail to create jobs while triggering higher inflation.
"I question the efficacy of these large-scale asset purchases, Fisher said. "What we are doing is not having the impact on employment."
Instead, Fisher added: "We have seen a sharp rise in inflation expectations. If you let this get out of hand, then I think we will have a [negative] market reaction."
Since the recession in 2008, noted experts such as Jim Rogers, Bill Gross and economist Richard Duncan have railed against the Feds money printing spree.
They say it has devalued the U.S. dollar so dramatically a massive inflation surge is a near certainty.
Americans have certainly felt higher food and gas prices. Yet inflation rates, as defined by the U.S. government, have remained stable.
So the question remains: Is the threat of hyperinflation for real? If so, when?
A new investigation by a group of scientists, economists and geopolitical experts says the threat is real and the danger imminent.
The work of this team garnered such attention, they were brought in front of the United Nations, U.K. Parliament, and numerous Fortune 500 companies to share much of their findings. Click the short video above to see a sample.
Even more alarmingly, their research not only points to a period of devastating inflation where the dollar becomes nearly worthless... but to complete collapse of the global economy.
One member of the team, Chris Martenson, a pathologist and former VP of a Fortune 300 company, explained their findings:
"We found an identical pattern in our debt, total credit market and money supply that guarantees they're going to fail. This pattern is nearly the same as in any pyramid scheme, one that escalates exponentially fast before it collapses. Governments and central banks of the world, which have spent and borrowed us into oblivion by wasting our tax dollars, are to blame."
Another member of this team, Keith Fitz-Gerald, the president of the Fitz-Gerald Group, went on to explain their discoveries.
"What this pattern represents is a dangerous countdown clock that's quickly approaching zero. And when it does, the resulting chaos is going to crush Americans," Fitz-Gerald says.
Dr. Kent Moors, an adviser to 16 world governments on energy issues as well as a member of two U.S. State Department tasks forces on energy also voiced concerns over what he and his colleagues uncovered.
"Most frightening of all is how this exact same pattern keeps appearing in virtually every system critical to our society and way of life," Dr. Moors stated.
"It's a pattern that's hard to see unless you understand the way a catastrophe like this gains traction," Dr. Moors says. "At first, it's almost impossible to perceive. Everything looks fine, just like in every pyramid scheme. Yet the insidious growth of the virus keeps doubling in size, over and over again - in shorter and shorter periods of time - until it hits unsustainable levels. And it collapses the system."
Martenson points to the U.S. total credit market debt as an example of this unnerving pattern.
"For 30 years - from the 1940s through the 1970s - our total credit market debt was moderate and entirely reasonable," he says. "But then in seven years, from 1970 to 1977, it quickly doubled. And then it doubled again in seven more years. Then five years to double a third time. And then it doubled two more times after that.
"Where we were sitting at a total credit market debt that was 158% larger than our GDP in the early 1940s... By 2011 that figure was 357%."
Dr. Moors warns this type of unsustainable road to collapse can be seen today in our energy, food and water production. All are tightly connected and contributing to the economic disaster that lies directly ahead.
According to polls, the average American is sensing danger. A recent survey found that 61% of Americans believe a catastrophe is looming - yet only 15% feel prepared for such a deeply troubling event.
Fitz-Gerald says people should take steps to protect themselves from what is happening. "The amount of risky financial derivatives floating around the globe is as much as 20 times size of the entire GDP of the world," he says. "It's unsustainable and impossible to unwind in any kind of orderly way."
Moreover, he adds: "People can also forget that the FDIC can only cover a fraction of US bank deposits. It's a false sense of security. Just like state pensions, which could be suspended at any time. A collapse could wipe out these programs. Entitlements like Social Security and Medicare are already bankrupt and simply being propped up."
We can see the strain on society already.
In two years, Congress won't have any money for transportation, reports the Washington Post. Cities like Trenton, NJ have layed off one-third of the police force due to budget cuts. And other cities like Colorado Springs, CO removed one-third of streetlights, trashcans, and bus routes, reports CNN.
A recent survey, reports USA Today, notes that in the coming years it could take $150,000 a year in household income for a family to afford basic living expenses - and maybe go out to a movie.
Right now, in fact, "52% of Americans feel they barely have enough to afford the basics."
"If our research is right," says Fitz-Gerald, "Americans will have to make some tough choices on how they'll go about surviving when basic necessities become nearly unaffordable and the economy becomes dangerously unstable."
"People need to begin to make preparations with their investments, retirement savings, and personal finances before it's too late." says Fitz-Gerald. 
