Monday, March 22, 2021

Joe South, "Walk A Mile In My Shoes"; "The Games People Play"

Joe South, "Walk A Mile In My Shoes" (1970)
"All sins, of course, deserve to be treated with mercy: we all do what we can, and life is too hard and too cruel for us to condemn anyone for failing in this area. Does anyone know what he himself would do if faced with the worst and how much truth could he bear under such circumstances?"
- Andre Comte-Sponville
Joe South, "The Games People Play" (1969)

The Daily "Near You?"

Sanford, Maine, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"We Don't Need The Great Reset"

"We Don't Need The Great Reset"
by Charles Hugh Smith

"The Great Reset is much in the news - the proposed top-down plan for combating climate change designed by the global elites, who then as now will be jetting around in private aircraft while dictating exactly how the rest of us will reduce our carbon footprints.

It's difficult for many people to imagine a world in which the incentives are to consume as little energy and resources as possible and waste as little as possible, but money and the economy are human constructs: they can be changed at will. Change the way money is created and people are paid, and you change the incentive structure and thus the outcome.

We are so accustomed to staggering waste that we cannot imagine how we could manage without burning 90 million barrels of oil a day (and vast quantities of natural gas and coal). What never ceases to amaze me is how many people seem to have forgotten that great civilizations and cities flourished without fossil fuels. The capital of the wondrous Tang Dynasty in China (near present-day Xian) contained upwards of 1 million people circa 700-900 A.D., and was a complex entrepot of trade and treasure from distant lands.

The great Thai capital of Ayuttaya also had nearly a million residents in the 1600s and early 1700s before it was sacked and burned by the Burmese army; Westerners had carved out their own small quarters in the sprawling city.

Neither Imperial Rome nor the Song Dynasty's capital, Hangzhou (circa 1100-1275 AD) consumed much hydrocarbon energy. For more on what daily life was like in Hangzhou, find a copy of the marvelous 1964 book "Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250-1276."

Paris and the other great cities of Europe thrived in the same timeframe (1600s and 1700s) with (by today's standards) extremely modest use of fossil fuels. Those who expect a decline in energy availability to immediately lead to civilization-ending chaos overlook how similar life was in 1906 San Francisco, when hydrocarbons generated (by today's standards) modest amounts of power and biofuel transportation (i.e. horses) were the common form of drayage.

The machinery of that era was terribly inefficient. With current technologies, very modest amounts of energy could power a very rich lifestyle if we measure lifestyle not by wasteful consumption but by having enough food to eat, useful work to do, mobility and access to various entertainments.

Consider this film of Market Street in downtown San Francisco shot a few days before the catastrophic earthquake and fire of 1906. A trip down Market Street before the fire (Library of Congress)
Full screen recommended.
"San Francisco, a Trip Down Market Street, April 14, 1906"
"Upscaled with neural networks trip down Market Street, San Francisco, 1906. This film was shot on April 14, 1906, just four days before the San Francisco earthquake and fire which killed an estimated 3,000 people and destroyed over 80% of the city of San Francisco. This is actually a staged shoot, so it's not actual traffic from that time: The film records a total of thirty cable cars, four horsecars, and four streetcars. At first there also appear to be many automobiles; however, a careful tracking shows that almost all of the autos circle the camera many times—one of them ten times. This traffic was apparently staged by the producer to give Market Street the appearance of a prosperous modern boulevard with many automobiles."

Yes, there are plenty of jalopies (autos) careening through the traffic, but note the wealth of transport options. An endless string of cable cars moves up and down Market Street (that they are cable cars is evidenced by the cable trough running between the rails). To the right, a procession of horse-drawn carts and wagons head down toward the Bay - the 1906 equivalent of today's diesel trucks.

Toward the end of the film, as the trolley approaches the Ferry Building, you can see a small horse-drawn trolley entering Market Street (the rear sign identifies it as a "Montgomery Street" trolley.)

Electric trolleys (note the overhead arm to the conducting wire) crossed the street numerous times. You will also see many people on foot - still a reliable mode of transport, as well as bicyclists and an occasional rider on horseback.

On several occasions, people are almost struck by cars; pedestrians, as in Developing World countries today, had to keep their wits about them. Those unfortunate enough to be struck very likely did not sue the city or the owner of the vehicle; if you couldn't manage crossing the street competently, then it was assumed you knew better than to try.

There are no street lights or even police guiding traffic. This is very much like the semi-chaotic traffic which is commonplace outside the First World.

To the First World resident accustomed to being told what to do and ordered about at all times, this seems like madness. But notice how it all works quite well without a huge costly structure to organize and control conformity. Indeed, it is a truism of city-street traffic control that people drive more cautiously and thus more safely when there are limited or no traffic controls.

Our present culture cannot grasp the potential of energy devolution. When I heard James Howard Kunstler speak a few years ago, he observed that many people approached him expecting a pat on the back for buying a Prius. Jim noted that these souls did not yet "get it" -the automobile-centric and suburban, auto-dependent economy and culture was the problem, and the Peak-Lithium auto is no different from the Peak-Oil vehicle. (Manufacturing the Peak-Lithium auto consumes even more oil than manufacturing the Peak-Oil vehicle.)

From a very basic point of view, the more decentralized options that are available, the better; just as monoculture crops lead to disease and crop failures, so mono-systems lead to extreme vulnerabilities. The "modern" (infinite growth, maximize profits) impulse is to "fix" the vulnerabilities created by mono-systems with more costly and complex "fixes." Then as these "fixes" trigger more unforeseen consequences, another round of ever-more complex and costly engineering is applied to "fix" the "fix." This is how systems become so high-energy, high cost and complex that the returns of further investments become ever more marginal, and the system eventually collapses under its own weight.

The idea that a great city could depend largely on human power, animal power, water/wind-based transport and energy-efficient transport strikes those inculcated with the "infinite growth" religion/mindset as "primitive." But if we were able to go back in time and ask the well-fed, well-dressed, well-educated (and oh-so-busy) passersby on the streets in 1906 if they were living a "primitive," "deprived" life in a "chaotic" city, they would very likely have reckoned that you had lost your mind.

Perhaps we have collectively "lost our mind." Perhaps what we need is not a new technology but a new way of living that uses existing technologies to echo "old ways" that worked rather well on much lower energy densities and much lower energy consumption."

"A Killer..."

 

"Next Stage of the Fed’s Hyperinflation"

"Next Stage of the Fed’s Hyperinflation"
By Tom Dyson

DRIGGS, IDAHO – They’re accelerating bond purchases… Between July 8, 2020 and January 13, 2021, the Federal Reserve grew its balance sheet at a pace of $15.3 billion per week. (A period of 27 weeks.) From January 13, 2021 until today – a period of nine weeks – the Fed has grown its balance sheet at a pace of $39.9 billion per week. It could be nothing. Or it could be the next stage of the balance sheet hyperinflation starting…

Gargantuan Demand for Dollars: For two years we’ve argued that there aren’t enough lenders to satisfy the Treasury’s gargantuan demand for borrowing dollars at the current low interest rates. By suppressing interest rates while the government runs $3 trillion annual deficits, we predicted the Fed would end up inviting large portions of the government bond market onto its balance sheet. We also predicted that inflation would further exacerbate this imbalance. And that’s exactly what’s happening…

Of the $4.4 trillion in net new debt the Treasury issued in 2020, the Fed purchased 54% of it, according to Tavi Costa of Crescat Capital. (Foreigners purchased 5.2% and U.S. banks bought 17%.) With the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan just signed into law this month and a big infrastructure bill slated for later this year, the Treasury’s gargantuan demand for borrowing dollars will only increase.

Meanwhile, inflation is soaring. The bond market expects the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to increase by 2.5% per year for the next five years, judging by the difference in yields between the 5-year Treasury and the 5-year inflation protected Treasury (TIPS). That’s a 12-year high.

The Wall Street Journal reports: "Prices are surging for the raw materials used to build American homes. Lumber, one of the biggest costs in home-building after land and labor, has never been more expensive and is more than twice the typical price for this time of year. Crude oil, a starting point for paint, drain pipe, roof shingles and flooring, has shot up more than 80% since October. Copper, which carries water and electricity throughout houses, costs about a third more than it did in the autumn. Prices for granite, insulation, concrete blocks and common brick have all pushed to records in 2021… Drywall and ceramic tiles are short of records but have also climbed."

Final Stages of the Greatest Financial Experiment: Inflation further reduces demand for government bonds, all else being equal. Last June, the Fed pledged to buy Treasury bonds at a pace of $80 billion per month… or about $17.5 billion per week. We've known this wouldn’t be enough… and we’ve been waiting for them to increase their bond buying. It looks like that time is now…

The Fed’s balance sheet is currently at $7.7 trillion. If we’re right, the Fed’s balance sheet could be about to inflate to $10 trillion… $15 trillion… even $25 trillion… much faster than anyone expects.

Powell says they have the tools to control inflation, should it keep rising (which I think it will). By tools, he means “tighter credit conditions.” But wait a minute. The last time the Fed started tightening credit conditions (in 2016), the stock market ended up having a 20% meltdown in the fourth quarter of 2018. (It probably would have gone down even more, but Powell relented on the tightening.)

Today, the economy is 22% more leveraged (on a debt-to-GDP basis) than it was at the end of 2018… the stock market is 24% more overvalued (per the S&P’s CAPE ratio, a common valuation measure)… and the unemployment rate is 59% higher (per the Bureau of Labor Statistics). Even if inflation keeps rising, there’s no way Powell will have the courage to tighten credit… and crash the stock market.

Our stance remains the same. We’re in the final stages of the greatest financial experiment in history. And it’s not going to end well."

"Freedom..."

 
- Virginia Woolf

"In the Shadows of Shadowland"

"In the Shadows of Shadowland"
by Jim Kunstler

"Is there some kind of game on in the USA? Have our public affairs ever looked so false and disordered? Is it ever more wondrous that Joe Biden somehow managed to win the Super Tuesday primary, let alone the national election?

The country has gotten exactly what it saw all through the autumn of 2020: the empty shell of a broken politician. Back in October, Ol’ Joe hiding in his basement was played as a bad joke in a nervous zeitgeist. Nothing to see, according to the captive news media. Wasn’t that exactly it, though? Nothing to see and nobody home, the essence of our now-president, Joe Biden. How on earth did this happen?

My own theory: it was the strange byproduct of the political establishment fumbling to cover up its crimes, an endeavor so transparently inept that the rest of the world goggles at us in nauseated incredulity, watching our leadership flounder, our institutions fail, our economy vaporize, and our power dissolve, like a some dying blob in an epic horror movie. Even our most devoted adversary, North Korea, marvels out loud at the spectacle of American collapse. They joke about it, but it must make them awfully uncomfortable to realize that the USA runs under a shadow government, and runs so ineptly!

Who or what is this shadow government? I’d say it amounts to a small group around former president Obama and former attorney general Eric Holder, plus a coterie of Intel Community figures led by John Brennan, all awkwardly funneling instructions through Susan Rice to the hacks in the White House, who form a flimsy cocoon around the barely-pulsating organism within: Mr. Biden. I will boldly suggest that this cabal is actually controlling the executive branch of the government, and doing it with stunning incompetence. If it sounds like a conspiracy, that’s probably because it is a conspiracy.

What were those crimes of theirs? Mainly the actions they took the past four years to cover-up their intense and sedulous ongoing corruption of previous years, especially all the channels of moneygrubbing that ran from Wall Street and K Street through the halls of Congress, and secondarily their political agenda to destroy by any means necessary the opposition vested in a weak and ineffectual Republican Party at odds with its own elected leader, Mr. Trump.

The “means” turned out to be one dishonest exploit after another aimed at disabling and eliminating the uncontrollable Mr. Trump: RussiaGate, the Flynn case, the Mueller Investigation, Ukraine Phone Call Gate (impeachment No. 1), Coronavirus hysteria, identity politics hysteria (including the 2020 summer riots), the social media companies’ censorship and “cancellation” initiative, and, finally, the engineered ballot fraud in the 2020 national election, with a re-play in the Georgia senatorial special election of January, 2021. How did you miss all this?

I think it worked this way: John Brennan’s CIA enlisted a desperately failing news media in an ideological campaign to propagandize and lie to the American public based on Brennan’s own past ideological disposition as a self-declared “communist.” Yes, he actually said that about himself, though his Marxism and that of his allies was a mash-up of foolish utopianisms used to cover a sheer wish to annihilate any opposition frustrating their will-to-power. I’d venture to suppose that Mr. Brennan continued to influence and even direct these agit-prop operations long after he was removed as CIA Director, even as he fought off accusations for his role in helping Hillary Clinton gin up RussiaGate.

Hillary’s crimes in particular, especially her Uranium One deal and the Skolkovo scam, involved large networks of accomplices in the State Department and in Intel, including the FBI when it was under Robert Mueller, and since they were conducted under the Obama administration, they implicated Mr. Obama too, and many around him. People-of-color and the gender-muddled were useful idiots in the game to bamboozle the public, and were allowed to turn their own grievances into lucrative hustles. Thus, everything became a “racist” and “sexist” boobytrap used to nullify anybody seeing through this game, while garnering new social advantages and large sums of money for the aggrieved, especially the Black Lives Matter org.

All of these cynical power games were, and still are, playing out against the very real collapse of America’s economy and culture. That is the part of the story that nobody controls or can even hope to control. The manufacturing part of the economy has been going-going-gone for forty years, but Coronavirus paranoia has been mobilized to destroy any remaining small business or service, leaving the shell of a commercial sector represented only by rapacious chain stores. The oil industry is on the ropes, confounded by the high costs of getting shale oil out of the ground and the shortage of investor money for an obviously profitless activity. All that’s really left are the financial rackets tied to the Federal Reserve and Wall Street — and they amount to the sheerest vapor given the de-linking of capital formation from genuine productive activity.

Last week’s antics featured two dazzling failures of American diplomacy under the Obama-Biden shadow government: the president’s stupid obloquies against Vladimir Putin, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s feckless negotiation with China — in which China nullified our “human rights” complaints involving the Uyghurs on account of America’s incessantly self-declared “systemic racism.” Coming up this week, Joe Biden’s long-delayed premiere “news conference.” Even though the “questions” are all pre-submitted and vetted, and the answers will be scrolling on a teleprompter, Mr. Biden will be working without a net. His handlers must be cross-eyed with anxiety over what might happen. Pretty soon, the game will be up. The election fraud story won’t go away against all efforts to suppress it. The shadow government will get outed as the nation sinks deeper into economic and civil disorder, and some people will have to do something."

"Truth..."

“Truth is always stranger than fiction. We craft fiction to match our sense of how things ought to be, but truth cannot be crafted. Truth is, and truth has a way of astonishing us to our knees, reminding us that the universe does not exist to fulfill our expectations. Because we are imperfect beings who are self-blinded to the truth of the world’s stunning complexity, we shave reality to paper thin theories and ideologies that we can easily grasp – and we call them truths. But the truth of a sea in all its immensity cannot be embodied in one tidewashed pebble.”
- Dean Koontz

Gregory Mannarino, PM 3/22/21: "Alert! Bitcoin/Crypto Validated By The Fed! And Free Donuts Too"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 3/22/21:
"Alert! Bitcoin/Crypto Validated By The Fed! And Free Donuts Too"

"Will the New World Order Succeed?"

Jacob Rothschild, David Rockefeller
“For more than a century ideological extremists at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents such as my encounter with Castro to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure - one world, if you will. If that's the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.”
- David Rockefeller, "Memoirs"

"Will the New World Order Succeed?"
by Jeff Thomas

"The concept of the New World Order first gained prominence at the turn of the twentieth century. It’s been in the works for quite a while but has ramped up considerably in recent decades. Not surprisingly, as its autocratic intent has become more apparent, people have become increasingly fearful that its coming will result in their subjugation. They are correct.

At one time, economic moguls, industrial leaders and even presidents proudly stated their support for a New World Order. In fact, as can be seen in the image above, David Rockefeller stated (in his "Memoirs" in 2002) that he was fully on board with the New World Order. He has since stated, "We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost 40 years… It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The super-national sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries."

And yet, increasingly, the push for the New World Order is now being hushed up, even as its implementation has now begun. Interestingly, Wikipedia now titles it as "New World Order (conspiracy theory)", where it once left off the damning disclaimer. But why should this be so? Well, if a people believe that unpleasant times are a long way off, they tend to ignore them. However, when they become imminent, people suddenly take notice. And here we refer to the more recent words of Mister Rockefeller: “This present window of opportunity, during which a truly peaceful and interdependent world order might be built, will not be open for too long. We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order.”

That major crisis has now arrived on our doorstep in the form of a virus and the rolling-out of the New World Order has begun. People have been conned into believing that a common seasonal flu has somehow taken on magical properties, with the potential to kill anyone who does not receive the government-approved vaccine. Although this vaccine is in the experimental stages and has not, in fact, gained the FDA approval to even be categorized as a vaccine, fear of death has made millions of people abandon their sense of reason and comply with anything the government demands, regardless of how irrational it may be.

Children cannot go to school, even though they’re almost certain to be unaffected by the virus. Those who don’t get the jab will not be allowed an immunity passport to travel, even though the vaccine doesn’t ensure immunity. And any place that people congregate to discuss issues – churches, bars or sporting events – are closed down or limited as to use. And yet, rioters have been tolerated – and even encouraged – in forty states.

The COVID hysteria has not been created by circumstances, but by governments and the media. All of this (and quite a bit more) has fast-tracked the coming of the New World Order.

Over the many years that the New World Order has been presented by the elites, it has always had one consistent feature: that when it was introduced, it would be uniform, throughout the world. And so, as that’s the predominant aspect of its presentation, it’s understandable if we presume that the Order is a given: that all countries will get on board and stay on board. That will not be the case.

For anyone who has studied human psychology in any depth, it’s understood that sociopaths make up roughly four percent of any population, anywhere in the world. And that the alpha rats of any society – those who seek to dominate over others – make up the ruling class, as they’ll pursue it with greater fervor than non-sociopaths. That, of course, ensures that the leaders of most all countries, but particularly the larger ones, will consistently seek to dominate their peoples and can therefore be expected to embrace the New World Order concept. And it is for this reason that we may assume that a New World Order will succeed.

But there’s a flaw in this reasoning. Just as a gang of criminals may join together to pull off a robbery, each agreeing to the plan, that tends to change in the aftermath of the robbery. Once it’s taken place, each robber tends to reveal that, all along, he had a hidden motive and intended to double-cross the others, so that his share of the spoils would be greater than he’d agreed. In world terms, the tendency is the same. All that’s different is the scope of the plan.

In actual fact, the New World Order is made up primarily of the leaders of First World countries. Their hope is to create a cabal that, following an economic collapse in the First World, the Order will somehow rise like a phoenix from the ashes. But this order cannot be complete without the cooperation of the other powers. The countries of the second world – in particular, Asia – have for many years kept their cards close to their vests. They’ve followed a path that in most ways mimics the New World Order. However, they have no intention of yielding their power to the West.

An interesting trait common to all sociopaths is that, like the gang of robbers, they may agree on the surface to a grand plan, yet, when the time comes to divide the spoils, it’s revealed that they had their own agenda all along. So, what does this mean as to the relative success or failure of the New World Order?

Well, the First World is on the ropes economically. They’ve reached an end-game condition and most certainly will crash. The first stages of that crash are now underway. The attempt to create a New World Order will be very costly. An enhanced police state will be necessary at home and expanded warfare can be anticipated away from home.

The First World will either self-destruct from a combination of debt and misadventure in the coming decade, or will at the very least, fall to its knees. Either way, when this occurs, other, stronger powers can be expected to step in. (Historically, world politics abhors a vacuum.) The world shall see a shift in dominance as it always does when one empire is relegated to the dustbin and others take its place.

Today, the United States is still the dominant power in the world. But, US dominance and the dollar hegemony isn't guaranteed in the months and years ahead. In fact, the US government has quietly launched the most dangerous economic experiment since communism, and it's taking place right before our eyes. This will take years to play out, but when the dust has settled, the New World Order will be yesterday’s news and the new concern will be whether the emerging powers will be able to dominate the entire world or only portions of it."
Related:

Freely download PDF: 
"Civil Liberties in the Age of COVID-19: Rutherford Institute 
Reports on the Year-Long Impact of Lockdowns & Restrictions"
Do you want to know, or do you want to believe?

"How It Really Is"

"Can the Fed Get Back Home?"

"Can the Fed Get Back Home?"
by Bill Bonner

“Go too far. Stay too long. Can’t get back.”
– Words of an old preacher.

YOUGHAL, IRELAND – "The bond market is on the move. It packed up in August of last year, which now appears to have marked the top of the bull market in bonds that began 41 years ago. And last week, Treasury yields (which rise and fall inversely with bond prices) topped 1.75% after Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell let it be known that he was okay with rising inflation threats. One-point-seventy-five percent doesn’t sound like much. It’s not… still barely zero in real terms. (Consumer prices are rising at a 0.4% rate.) But it’s more than three times what it was last August.

Cash is on the move, too. Last Thursday, $271 billion of it bolted from the feds’ vaults, mostly to fund the stimmy checks. That was more than the entire GDP of Finland. Has the Fed already gone too far and stayed too long? Now, with rising rates in the bond market, and an almost infinite demand for new cash, can it ever get back?

Trillion-Dollar Wonders: Just to remind readers, “inflation” refers to the act of increasing the money supply. And just to be even clearer, while there are many factors that come into play, as the quantity of dollars increases, eventually… sooner or later… before Hell freezes over… ceteris paribus – so should prices.

The money supply – using the Fed’s balance sheet as a convenient, though incomplete, measure – rose from under $700 billion in 1999 to $7 trillion today. That is, in two decades, the Fed inflated the money supply by 10 times as much as all the Treasury secretaries and Fed governors had done in the previous 21 decades. Meanwhile, the goods and services available to buy with this money, measured loosely by GDP, only doubled, from $10 trillion to over $20 trillion.

The idea behind the post-1971 “monetarist” scheme was that the Fed would control money growth, allowing it to rise by about the same measure as the general economy. This was supposed to maintain price stability as well as eliminate sudden credit shortages. But as you can see, so far in the 21st century, the money supply grew nine times faster than GDP. And now it will have to grow even more – to replace the cash that just got away. And more after that… to pay for the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan… and more still… to pay for new infrastructure… and all the other wonders that the feds have in store for us.

So, we shouldn’t be too surprised that prices rose, too. Money bids for goods and services. If the quantity of money goes up faster than the supply of available goods and services… logically, prices will rise.

Waste of Money: To this bare skeleton, we add some fat. Included in GDP is government spending. But the services offered by the government are not the kind that you are usually looking for. Few people wake up in the morning and say, “Today, I’m going shopping for an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.” Instead, they want the things the government doesn’t make.

Government spending is almost completely focused on the consumption of wealth, not the creation of it. In other words, it doesn’t add to the supply side of the supply/demand teeter totter. It subtracts from it. So, when government spending increases as a percentage of GDP, that too should be cause for higher consumer prices.

After WWII, total government spending – state, local, and federal – shrank to a bit more than 25% of GDP. Last year, it was over 40%.

Flood of Liquidity: Economists describe inflation as more and more dollars “chasing” consumer goods. But dollars are not always ready to run. Sometimes, people choose to save, rather than spend. And if the feds create a dollar and it goes nowhere, it has little effect on prices. Where it decides to go matters, too. Most of the additional money generated in the 21st century was dropped off in the capital markets.

The Dow rose from around 11,000 in 2000 to over 30,000 today. Bitcoin was worth nothing (it wasn’t invented until 2008) and now sells for more than $57,000. Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) didn’t appear until 2014. Since then, more than half a billion dollars’ worth of NFTs have been traded.

Don’t Fight the Fed: A flood of liquidity lifted most boats… but not all of them. Some 40% of U.S. stocks are still underwater from the washout of ’08-’09. As the feds pumped more and more liquidity (dollars) into the markets, the old timers – with their Graham and Dodd on their desks… and an autographed photo of Warren Buffett on their walls – were unsuited to it. They knew how gold provided protection from inflation, but they weren’t sure about bitcoin. Was it a protection against inflation… or just a measure of it? And NFTs? What the heck were they? Where were they going?

Nobody knew for sure… but they were on the move. But then, just about everything is on the move now – the bond market… the way we work… gender… politics… culture…but to where?

Wall Street legend Marty Zweig’s famous line – “don’t fight the Fed” – turned out to be the best advice of the last 20 years. The Fed was inflating. And like plastic bottles on a sour tide, up popped the lightest – and often the trashiest – assets.

What will happen in the next decade is our subject for tomorrow. Will the old-timers get another chance? Will the Fed keep inflating, even as bonds go down? Or will it be able to get back to a more “normal” monetary policy? We will see. Stay tuned…"

"Covid-19 Pandemic Updates 3/22/21"

"Covid-19 Pandemic Updates 3/22/21"

March 22, 2021 8:10 AM ET:
The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 123,268,600
people, according to official counts, including 29,842,972 Americans.
Globally at least 2,715,500 have died.

March 22, 2021 8:10 AM ET:
"The COVID Tracking Project"
Every day, our volunteers compile the latest numbers on tests, cases, 
hospitalizations, and patient outcomes from every US state and territory.
March 22, 2021 9:01 AM ET
Where I Live:
3/22/2021, 9:01 AM: "Pinal County is at a very high risk level.The test positivity rate in Pinal County is very high, suggesting that cases are being significantly undercounted. We’ve recommended additional precautions below."

"Economic Market Snapshot AM 3/22/21"

"Economic Market Snapshot AM 3/22/21"
"Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will
do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone."
- John Maynard Keynes
"Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
Your guide:
Gregory Mannarino, AM 3/22/21

"Updates; Fed. National Activity Index NEGATIVE"

"The more I see of the monied classes, 
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw
MarketWatch Market Summary, Live Updates

CNN Market Data:

CNN Fear And Greed Index:
A comprehensive, essential daily read.
March 21st to 23rd, Updated Daily 
Financial Stress Index
"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."
Daily Job Cuts

Musical Interlude: "Soothing Relaxation: Beautiful Piano Music 24/7 • Relax, Study, Sleep"

Full screen recommended.
"Soothing Relaxation:
Beautiful Piano Music 24/7 • Relax, Study, Sleep"
"Message from the composer and creator of "Soothing Relaxation": "I am a composer from Norway and I started this channel with a simple vision: to create a place that you can visit whenever you want to sit down and relax. I compose music that can be labeled as for example: sleep music, calm music, yoga music, study music, peaceful music, beautiful music and relaxing music. I love to compose music and I put a lot of work into it. Thank you very much for listening and for leaving feedback. Every single day I am completely astonished by all your warm support and it really inspires me to work even harder on my music. If you enjoy my work, I would be very happy if you decided to subscribe and join our community. Have a wonderful day or evening!"
- Peder B. Helland, composer for "Soothing Relaxation"

Sunday, March 21, 2021

“California Real Estate Nightmare; Swap Meets And Tent Cities; Beware Of Scams”

Jeremiah Babe,
“California Real Estate Nightmare; 
Swap Meets And Tent Cities; Beware Of Scams”

"There Is A Shortage Of Everything And Prices Are Soaring: Prepare Yourself For The Worst!"

Full screen recommended.
"There Is A Shortage Of Everything And Prices Are Soaring: 
Prepare Yourself For The Worst!"
by Epic Economist

"A perfect storm is sweeping across America as the trillions of dollars that were just pumped into the economy are driving consumer demand significantly higher. However, adding that to tight supplies and transportation issues, and the result we are getting is a massive shortage of everything, while prices reach astronomical highs. From steel and aluminum to electronic chips and control boards, from lumber to home appliances, cars, trucks, electrical equipments, and an enormously wide range of manufactured goods, industries are facing catastrophic supply disruptions, as production has been slowed down over the past few months, transportation problems continue to delay deliveries, and a sudden upsurge in demand is pushing the price of everything up at a much faster pace than people's income growth.

Although the $1,400 checks may be providing some short-term relief to millions of families, the mismatch between demand and output will make everything more expensive, which means the Weimar-like hyperinflation we warned about has just begun. If that's what authorities call "recovery", we must be prepared because we are about to face a generalized supply-chain breakdown and the rapid decay of our purchasing power. That's what we're going to expose in this video.

The arrival of stimulus money into the accounts of millions of Americans should come as financial relief for those who were deeply struggling during the recession. But soaring prices will cause the opposite effect since fewer people will be able to afford the same goods they used to consume. As we discussed in many of our previous videos, the Federal Reserve's constant liquidity pumps would eventually end up triggering runaway inflation, and that's exactly what's happening right now. As business owner Mike Shuler described in an interview, “people are making so much money being unemployed and then so much of the stimulus money, that a lot of people aren’t going back to work and it’s awful for the restaurant industry". Just as many other restaurant owners, he is having to face some difficult questions about the future of his business. But the restaurant sector is just one of the many dealing hardships right now.

The industry of electrical equipments, appliances, and components is also experiencing a major breakdown. According to Tim Fiore, who oversees the ISM survey, "things are now out of control. Everything is a mess, and we are seeing wide-scale shortages”. From steel and aluminum to electronic chips and control boards, there are shortages of everything. Over the past few months, after so many rounds of business shutdowns and the consequent deceleration of economic activity, several companies were forced to slow down production, and now in face of the growing demand, "shortages are way up," Fiore said. The unexpectedly strong demand for manufactured goods is providing a boom across many of the country's industries, but it is being followed by a big headache: as supply chains are getting the tightest they have ever been, critical industry components are proving a lot more difficult to procure.

Transportation problems are also leading to gas shortages all over the nation, and consumers are already feeling the impacts of it on their wallets. The latest AAA data suggests that gas prices in South Carolina are now trading at $2.64/gallon, a 36 cent raise from last month alone, and a 66 cent increase from last year. Even more worryingly, in the housing industry, shortages of critical materials used to build new homes are threatening to bring construction to a standstill. Shortages of cabinets, appliances, and vinyl to extrude windows have are halting the construction of new homes, as there was an 80% jump in copper prices. Homebuilders were already dealing with a major lumber shortage - which sent prices up by 180% and added roughly $30,000 to the cost of a smaller-sized home. Consequently, higher mortgage rates and rising prices of construction materials will “take some of the steam off the super-hot housing market,” according to Dr. Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors. “If we don't have adequate supply, it's going to simply push up prices much faster than people's income growth,” Yun said.

And as more money flows into the economy, we are about to experience more shortages of multiple other goods, while watching how the Fed-fueled inflationary spike will ravage our purchasing power. We're now on phase two of the economic collapse, or, what some like to call: "The Everything Collapse" - which means we just entered an era where everything will spiral out of control and result in the most dramatic crisis this country has ever seen. Now more than ever, you should start to get ready for the troubles that are coming next."

Musical Interlude: Ludovico Einaudi, "I Giorni"

Ludovico Einaudi, "I Giorni"
"It is only when we become aware or are reminded that 
our time is limited that we can channel our energy into truly living." 
- Ludovico Einaudi
Be kind to yourself, enjoy this...
Track List:
00:00​ ; Experience
06:17​ ; Giorni Dispari
11:55​ ; Una Mattina
15:21​ ; Nuvole Bianche
21:24​ ; Fly
25:48​ ; Oltremare
37:18​ ; Divenire
43:57​ ; I Giorni
50:51​ ; Le Onde
56:04​ ; Night

"A Look to the Heavens"

“NGC 253 is not only one of the brightest spiral galaxies visible, it is also one of the dustiest. Discovered in 1783 by Caroline Herschel in the constellation of Sculptor, NGC 253 lies only about ten million light-years distant.
NGC 253 is the largest member of the Sculptor Group of Galaxies, the nearest group to our own Local Group of Galaxies. The dense dark dust accompanies a high star formation rate, giving NGC 253 the designation of starburst galaxy. Visible in the above photograph is the active central nucleus, also known to be a bright source of X-rays and gamma rays.”

The Universe

“Believe me, I know all about it. I know the stress. I know the frustration. I know the temptations of time and space. We worked this out ahead of time. They're part of the plan. We knew this stuff might happen. Actually, you insisted they be triggered whenever you were ready to begin thinking thoughts you've never thought before. New thinking is always the answer.”
“Good on you,”
The Universe

“Thoughts become things... choose the good ones!”