Friday, November 19, 2021

"Who Could Have Seen That Coming?"

"Who Could Have Seen That Coming?"
by Bill Bonner

"Fish gotta swim,
Birds gotta fly,
Rain gotta fall,
And it’s gotta go somewhere..."
– Bill Bonner, with apologies to the writers of "Showboat"

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND – "When you see someone setting fire to a federal building, shouldn’t you say something? And what if the matches and gas can are in your own hands? The Federal Reserve printed up nearly 5 trillion brand-spanking-new dollars between August 2019 and today. Surely, there must have been at least one alert economist among the 1,000 Ph.D.s on the Fed’s payroll who noticed that they were about to cause the whole economy to go up in flames.

But what was he thinking? Was he thinking at all? This was classic monetary inflation on an unprecedented scale. Never before had any government “printed” so much money in such a short period of time. But nowhere in the history of the economics profession is there an instance where such prodigious effort on the part of the money-printers led to genuine prosperity. Instead, many centuries of history show us that monetary inflation leads to price inflation… which then leads to bubbles and busts… confusion… and finger-pointing. And if it’s not stopped, it can lead to hyperinflation, depression, hunger, poverty, riots, and revolution.

Obvious Question: The finger-pointing was on display on the front page of The Wall Street Journal yesterday: "President Calls for Inquiry Into Price of Gas." Biden, in letter, alleges wrongdoing by energy firms. There will be a lot more finger-pointing… as the real culprits try to divert attention from themselves. But… our aforementioned Ph.D… Shouldn’t he have asked the obvious question back when it started?

“Uh… Chairman Powell… I hate to be a Debbie Downer… but we’re, like, pumping $5 trillion into the economy. That’s, like, nearly a quarter of annual GDP. Uh… What is supposed to happen? I mean, isn’t it likely to cause some… well… distortions?”

Fish gotta swim. And dollars gotta buy something. And therein hangs the answer to the one question Fed economists should have asked… along with another they should be asking now.

Obvious Outcome: Supply chain disruptions were relatively unknown back in March 2020, when the spree of money-printing began in earnest. Now, they’re as common as strip malls. How came they to be?

When the offices, restaurants, and bars closed, people turned to their home computers… found that they had stimmy money from the feds in their accounts… and determined to spend it. Some ordered consumer goods. But since America doesn’t make much anymore, these had to be shipped from the other side of the world. And in a few months, the ships were backing up in the harbors… docks were stacked with containers… and trucks labored night and day to deliver them to every Middlesex, village, and town in the country. Hence, the “supply chain disruptions.” It seems so obvious, now. Shouldn’t our man at the Fed have seen it coming?

Deadly Combination: Then, shipping rates soared. Trucking costs, too. And so did prices on some items that were in short supply… as well as on other items that were plentiful. Milk, eggs, bacon… gasoline… houses. The supply of houses doesn’t change much, month to month. But by September of this year, new house prices in the U.S. were up 18% over the year before. And as prices bubble up… so do mortgage rates, a deadly combination for new homeowners.

Prices for investment assets also caught a bid. Zombie companies, meme stocks, NFTs, cryptos, options – people who didn’t know an option from a hole in the ground a year ago are now seasoned “day traders.” Tesla (TSLA) has doubled since this time last year. Grant’s Interest Rate Observer tells us that on November 5, the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of the S&P 500 went over 40 for the first time in 21 years. And at the beginning of the month, Grant’s reported that there were some 528 special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) with blank checks, looking for acquisitions. Wasn’t that, too, completely predictable? After all, the money had to go somewhere. Shouldn’t our man at the Fed have said something?

Big Quit: Perhaps less foreseeable… but with so much liquidity weeping from the clouds, many people just decided to stay home permanently. In what came to be known as the Great Resignation, some 4.4 million workers went AWOL, in September alone. And then businesses, eager to meet the increased demand, found they had to pay higher wages and benefits to keep their workers happy. Our friend David Stockman tells us that the latest Employment Cost Index figures show labor costs rising at a 6% annualized rate.

Compensating workers is the number one expense of U.S. industry. So, any rise in labor costs is important… and must be passed along. It is also the most “sticky” of cost increases. Prices for raw materials may go up and down, but once an employee gets a raise, it is hard to take it back; there’s nothing “transitory” about it.

Benefit of Hindsight: And thus it was that prices rose… not for any mysterious reason, but for an obvious one – people were buying stuff. But not with real money that they earned (which would have increased the supply of goods and services as well as the demand for them). They were spending fake money delivered unto them by the Fed.

It would have taken years of advanced study… and perhaps at least a master’s degree in economics… not to see it coming. And so, we’ll prompt our Ph.D. friend at the Fed. Here’s a question to put to your comrades now: “Well, what did you expect?”

"Crime is Running Rampant in the Economy"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, AM 11/19/21:
"Crime is Running Rampant in the Economy"

Gregory Mannarino, "And So It Begins: New Lockdowns, Now Be Ready For Anything"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 11/19/21:
"And So It Begins: 
New Lockdowns, Now Be Ready For Anything"

The Daily "Near You?"

Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa. Thanks for stopping by!

The Poet: gk thomas, “Wretched of the Earth”

“Wretched of the Earth”

“Poor kids,
wretched of the earth,
why should we feed you?
Why shouldn't we empty our sea of
bullets into your swollen bellies or
poison you with toxic chemicals
or depleted uranium?
Why should we care,
we who are living well?

Where is it written in stone
that you deserve better?
Or that we are not animals
subject to the law of nature:
kill or be killed?

You suspect us of being cruel,
but we are kind.
Our god tells us so.
It is yours that lies.

So you cry at night,
shivering in the cold
or sell yourselves
for a slice of bread.
What is that to those of
us who are living well?”

-  gk thomas

"Live All You Can..."

"Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much 
matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life.
If you haven't had that, what have you had?"
- Henry James

"The Road To Fascism: Paved With Vaccine Mandates And Corporate Collusion"

"The Road To Fascism: Paved With
 Vaccine Mandates And Corporate Collusion"
by John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead

“Man is born free but everywhere is in chains.”
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau

"We are moving fast down the road to fascism. This COVID-19 pandemic has shifted us into high gear. The heavy-handed collusion between the Techno-Corporate State and the U.S. government over vaccine mandates is merely the latest manifestation of the extent to which fascist forces are working to overthrow our constitutional republic and nullify the rights of the individual.

In early November 2021, the Biden Administration drew its line in the sand for more than 100 million American workers: get vaccinated against COVID-19 (by Nov. 22 for federal workers, and Jan. 4 for federal contractors and companies with more than 100 employees) or else.

Or else what?

For many individuals with sincere objections to the vaccine, either based on their religious beliefs or some other medical or philosophical concern, non-compliance with workplace vaccine mandates will mean losing their jobs and the possibility of no unemployment benefits. One survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management estimated that 28% of employed Americans wouldn’t get a COVID vaccine even if it meant losing their jobs.

Although OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) is requiring that employees be paid for the time it takes to get vaccinated and recover from any side effects, those who refuse to get vaccinated but keep their jobs will have to test negative for COVID weekly and could be made to shoulder the costs of those weekly tests. Healthcare workers are not being given an option for testing: it’s the vaccine or nothing.

To give the government’s arm-twisting some added strength, companies that violate the workplace mandate rules “can face fines of up to $13,653 per violation for serious violations and 10 times that for willful or repeated violations.” In other words, as Katrina Trinko writes for USA Today, “the government is turning employers - who are not paid by, nor work for, the government - into an army of vaccine enforcers.

You know who won’t suffer any harm as a result of these vaccine mandates? The Corporate State (manufacturers, distributors, and health care providers), which were given a blanket “get out of jail” card to insulate them from liability for any injuries or death caused by the vaccines.

While this vaccine mandate is being presented as a “targeted” mandate as opposed to a national mandate that impacts the entire population, it effectively leaves those with sincere objections to the COVID vaccine with very little options beyond total compliance or unemployment. This has long since ceased to be a debate over how best to protect the populace at large against an unknown pandemic. Rather, it has become a massively intrusive, coercive and authoritarian assault on the right of individual sovereignty over one’s life, self and private property. As such, these COVID-19 mandates have become the new battleground in the government’s tug-of-war over bodily autonomy and individual sovereignty.

Already, the legal challenges to these vaccine mandates are piling up before the courts. Before long, divided circuit court rulings will make their way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which will be asked to decide whether these mandates constitute government overreach or a natural extension of the government’s so-called emergency powers.

With every new court ruling that empowers corporations and the government to use heavy-handed tactics to bring about vaccine compliance, with every new workplace mandate that forces employees to choose between their right to bodily autonomy and economic livelihood, and with every new piece of legislation that insulates corporations and the government from being held accountability for vaccine injuries and deaths, our property interest in our bodies is diminished.

At a minimum, our right to individual sovereignty over our lives and our bodies is being usurped by power-hungry authoritarians; greedy, self-serving corporations; egotistical Nanny Staters who think they know what’s best for the rest of the populace; and a short-sighted but well-meaning populace which fails to understand the long-term ramifications of trading their essential freedoms for temporary promises of safety and security. We are more vulnerable now than ever before.

This debate over bodily autonomy, which covers broad territory ranging from forced vaccinations, abortion and euthanasia to forced blood draws, biometric surveillance and basic healthcare, has far-reaching ramifications for who gets to decide what happens to our bodies during an encounter with government officials.

On a daily basis, Americans are already being made to relinquish the most intimate details of who we are - our biological makeup, our genetic blueprints, and our biometrics (facial characteristics and structure, fingerprints, iris scans, etc.) - in order to clear the nearly insurmountable hurdle that increasingly defines life in the United States: we are now guilty until proven innocent. This merely pushes us one step further down that road towards a total control society in which the government in collusion with Corporate America gets to decide who is “worthy” of being allowed to take part in society.

Right now, COVID-19 vaccines are the magic ticket for gaining access to the “privileges” of communal life. Having already conditioned the population to the idea that being part of society is a privilege and not a right, such access could easily be predicated on social credit scores, the worthiness of one’s political views, or the extent to which one is willing to comply with the government’s dictates, no matter what they might be.

The government is litigating and legislating its way into a new framework where the dictates of petty bureaucrats carry greater weight than the inalienable rights of the citizenry. When all that we own, all that we earn, all that we say and do - our very lives - depends on the benevolence of government agents and corporate shareholders for whom profit and power will always trump principle, we should all be leery and afraid.

As I make clear in my book "Battlefield America: The War on the American People" and in its fictional counterpart "The Erik Blair Diaries", nothing good can come from totalitarian tactics - no matter how benevolent they appear - that are used to make us cower, fear and comply with the government’s dictates."

"There Is Always The Hope..."

“What happens to people living in a society where everyone in power is lying, stealing, cheating and killing, and in our hearts we all know this, but the consequences of facing all these lies are so monstrous, we keep on hoping that maybe the corporate government administration and media are on the level with us this time. Americans remind me of survivors of domestic abuse. This is always the hope that this is the very, very, very last time one’s ribs get re-broken again.”
- Inga Muscio

Musical Interlude: Soothing Relaxation, "Dance of Life"

Full screen recommended.
Soothing Relaxation, "Dance of Life"
Be kind to yourself, forget all the troubles 
for a little while and enjoy this beautiful video...

"Hope In a Time of Hopelessness"

"Hope In a Time of Hopelessness" 
by Washingtons Blog

"Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage;
anger at the way things are, and courage 
to see that they do not remain the way they are."
- Augustine of Hippo

"Several long-time activists have told me recently they are overwhelmed, worried, and think that we may be losing the struggle. One very smart friend asked me if there is any basis for hope.

Hope is an act of will, not a passive mood. Admittedly, things are easier when circumstances bring hope to us, and we can just receive the hopeful and inspiring news. But if we care about winning, we have to be able to decide to have hope even when outer circumstances aren't so positive.

I have children who are counting on me to leave them with a reasonably safe and sane planet. As I've said elsewhere, I care too much about my kids and my freedom to be afraid. I care enough about them that it gets my heart beating, connects me to something bigger than myself, and that gives me courage, even when the chips are down. 

If I allowed myself to lose hope about exposing falsehoods, about protecting our freedom and building a hopeful future, I would be dropping the ball for my kids. I would be condemning them to a potentially very grey world where bigger and worse things may happen, where their liberties and joys are wholly stripped away, where every ounce of vitality is beholden to joyless and useless tasks.

Many of us may be motivated by other things besides kids, and only you can know what that is. But we each must dig down deep, and connect with our most powerful motivations to win the struggle for freedom and truth.

I don't know about you, but I don't have the luxury of giving up hope. When I get depressed, overwhelmed or exhausted by the stunning acts of savagery, treason, and disinformation carried out by the imperialists, or the willful ignorance of far too many Americans, I will myself into finding some reason to have hope. Because the struggle for life and liberty is too important for me to give up." 
Full screen recommended.
Jason Mraz, "I Won't Give Up"

And don't you ever give up...

"How It Really Is"

 

"The OSHA Mandate May Be Stalled, But The Other Mandates Are About To Suffocate Economic Activity All Over America"

"The OSHA Mandate May Be Stalled, But The Other 
Mandates Are About To Suffocate Economic Activity All Over America"
by Michael Snyder

"You can thank Joe Biden for the madness that is about to unfold. As I discussed yesterday, the OSHA mandate that would cover more than 80 million American workers has been officially put on hold, but Biden’s other mandates are still in effect. So that means that vast numbers of patriotic young Americans are about to be kicked out of the military. We better hope that Russia and China don’t decide to suddenly make some big moves after our military is ruthlessly gutted. Countless numbers of federal employees are about to be forced out of their jobs as well, and that includes airport security screeners. If you plan on traveling by air during Thanksgiving week, you could potentially be facing some enormous delays

"As many as 40% of U.S. airport security screeners haven’t been vaccinated for COVID-19 as an immunization deadline for federal employees and the busy holiday travel season converge. Many Transportation Security Administration workers are resisting the requirement as the Nov. 22 deadline approaches, said Hydrick Thomas, president of the American Federation of Government Employees’ division representing front-line airport security officers."

Who was the genius that decided that the deadline should be right before the busiest travel days of the entire year? Someone should definitely be fired over that one.

Biden’s mandate for healthcare workers is also still in effect, and the CDC is telling us that approximately one-third of all healthcare workers in our hospitals are currently unvaccinated…"Nearly one third of healthcare workers in U.S. hospitals are still not vaccinated against Covid-19, according to research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as tensions escalate over a looming - and contested - nationwide mandate that officials worry will leave the sector with a shortage of critical workers."

So what are we going to do when a third of all of our hospital workers are suddenly terminated right in the middle of a pandemic? We can’t just pull random people off the street to be doctors and nurses. Someday soon, you may go to the emergency room and find yourself waiting for hours and hours because there is nobody to treat you. In fact, we have already been seeing people die in our emergency rooms as they wait for treatment that never comes.

This is America. This sort of thing isn’t supposed to happen here. But it is happening.

The good news is that some employers around the country are seeing the light and are now luring new employees with a promise that no vaccine will be required…"In the search for workers in this tight labor market, companies have courted new hires with the promise of higher wages, sign-on bonuses, ample vacation time, and childcare. The latest: “No vaccine required.” That three-word phrase is popping up across online job listings (sometimes emphatically in all caps and accompanied by exclamation marks) as businesses seek to turn the federal government’s proposed vaccine decree on its head and attract employees - notably those from a talent pool that’s been turned off by or turned away from employers that require a Covid-19 vaccination.

Of course CNN thinks that this is a horrible development, but in their article they also admit that this is working. Companies that openly advertise that no vaccine is required are being deluged with applications.

Speaking of vaccines, the FDA is asking a federal judge to keep certain Pfizer vaccine data under wraps until the year 2076… "The FDA has asked a federal judge to make the public wait until the year 2076 to disclose all of the data and information it relied upon to license Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. That is not a typo. It wants 55 years to produce this information to the public. As explained in a prior article, the FDA repeatedly promised “full transparency” with regard to Covid-19 vaccines, including reaffirming “the FDA’s commitment to transparency” when licensing Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine." Why would they want to hide this information from the public? There is so much about all of this that smells really, really bad.

Meanwhile, Biden’s mandates threaten to severely harm a U.S. economy that is already rapidly crumbling. On Thursday, we learned that CVS will be closing 900 stores… "CVS Health is closing 900 stores over the next three years, amounting to nearly 10% of its footprint, in response to the changing of “consumer buying patterns.” The drug store chain said Thursday that the closures will result in a retail presence that ensures it has the “right kinds of stores in the right locations for consumers and for the business.” A list of locations shutting down, which will happen beginning next spring, was not immediately released." 

Needless to say, CVS wouldn’t be closing hundreds of stores around the nation if we were on the verge of an economic renaissance. The months ahead are looking exceedingly bleak. A new wave of the pandemic has already begun, and some experts are warning that this could be the biggest wave of all. We are already seeing absolutely insane authoritarian measures being implemented all over Europe, and the Biden administration will undoubtedly try to push the envelope wherever it can. More lockdowns, shutdowns and mandates will crush economic activity, and the economic outlook for next year was already not very promising at all even before this new wave came along.

As I have said before, I have such a bad feeling about 2022. The stage is being set for so many of the things that I warn about in my latest book. If you have not been paying much attention to global events, you need to wake up, because it appears that things are about to start getting really crazy.

I hope that you are able to spend time with family and friends over the next couple of months, and I would encourage you to warn them about what is coming. Because the “good times” are almost over, and the vast majority of the population is going to be absolutely blind-sided by what is coming next."

Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up 11/19/21"

"Weekly News Wrap-Up 11/19/21"
"CV19 Vax Wearing Off, OSHA Calling Off Mandates, Inflation Keeps On"
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

"Dr. Tony Fauci is warning the CV19 vax is wearing off, and says a third booster shot is “absolutely essential.” What happened to “fully vaccinated” after shots from Pfizer, Moderna and J&J? I guess “fully vaccinated” is a moving target or simply a lie and confirmation the shots do not work to stop Covid. Bill Gates said similar things recently too. I told you the narrative was unwinding, and it is and they know it. This is the backdrop, and they still want you to be forced to get vaxed with an experimental drug. mRNA pioneer Dr. Robert Malone calls this the biggest human drug trial in history. What could go wrong? Look at the data, and plenty has gone wrong with deadly and debilitating events in the millions from the CV19 inoculations. “Stop the Shots.” Is President Trump listening?

There is good news on the vax mandate front. The Fifth Circuit Federal Court has called the Biden vax mandate for CV19 shots unconstitutional, and OSHA has suspended implementation of the mandates. The Fifth Circuit Court ripped to pieces the OHSA “Emergency Temporary Standard” (ETS) and basically said it was an overreach in a very big way. Does this case make it to the Supreme Court?

There is some consensus that the Federal Reserve is making a huge policy mistake by keeping the easy money flowing and interest rates suppressed. It all comes down to one very nasty word in the financial circles — inflation. It is not “transitory” as the Fed says, and many think it is not just here to stay, but it’s getting worse and could destroy the real estate market, the bond market and the stock market all at the same time. Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers is sounding the alarm, and he is a big-time Democrat. If he’s warning, you know it’s bad."

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he talks about these 
stories and much more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up 11/19/21:
Related:

Thursday, November 18, 2021

"Cooking Financial Books; Consumer Debt Explodes; Restaurant Survival"

Full screen recommended.
Jeremiah Babe, PM 11/18/21:
"Cooking Financial Books; Consumer Debt Explodes;
Restaurant Survival"

Gerald Celente, "COVID War 2.0- More Restrictions Will Destroy Economies"

Very strong language alert!
Full screen recommended.
Gerald Celente,
"COVID War 2.0- More Restrictions Will Destroy Economies"

As only Gerald can do...

"Panic Spreads Across Supply Chains As Port Congestion Leads Containers To Overflow Into City Streets"

Full screen recommended.
"Panic Spreads Across Supply Chains As Port 
Congestion Leads Containers To Overflow Into City Streets"
by Epic Economist

"Billions of dollars worth of holiday gifts and other goods ordered by US consumers are now stuck offshore, sitting on massive container ships, waiting for a slot to dock and finally unload at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Congestion has become so severe that much of the cargo arriving from Asia is being diverted to other ports in the country. But that has created an unprecedented traffic jam that no one seems able to solve and it also revealed some critical problems in the US supply chain.

What started as a shopping frenzy spurred by government stimulus checks, which fueled the growth of e-commerce amid stay-at-home mandates, has had persistent effects. Economists, retailers, and business owners are warning that the coming holiday season will be marked by widespread shortages, soaring prices, and millions of lost jobs unless the backlog gets cleared. Recently, the federal government introduced a series of new measures envisioning to ease the impacts of this ravaging crisis. But most industry executives say that the fines and penalties imposed by the White House have only aggravated the woes many companies were already facing. The shipping and supply chain crisis isn't just hitting US importers. American farmers trying to ship their goods overseas before the perishables go bad are getting hard hit just as well.

That's occurring because most ships arriving from Asia are either skipping smaller ports or immediately returning to the other side of the globe with hundreds of thousands of empty containers after spending several weeks waiting to unload, so that they can finally get back to Asia to load up on goods again. A new survey released by the Agriculture Transportation Coalition, which represents exporters, revealed that nearly 22% of agriculture exports are being lost due to transportation issues. Needless to say, those dismissed exports are already having a toll on the US economy, as farmers face a financial burden extremely difficult to recover from. Meanwhile, in the port of Los Angeles, at least 65,000 empty containers are on the docks, an increase of 18% from just a couple of weeks ago, said the port’s executive director, Gene Seroka.

For the longest time, the business of importing and exporting goods has had a very thin margin for error. Now, that margin is non-existent, but new disruptions erupt every day. Conditions are becoming so dire that due to the overflow at ports, containers are now being placed into residential streets. In California, Valerie Contreras, a board member of the Wilmington Neighborhood Council, told in an interview with Fox News that "the dangerous situation can’t continue".

Recently, one car that was parked on the street has been completely crushed by a container. "This particular container of the driver pulled around the corner," Contreras said. "It disconnected from his fifth wheel and fell completely and crushed this car." Given that the season of typhoons, and heavy storms is just around the corner, more supply chain bottlenecks triggered by extreme weather are expected to occur by year's end and intensify early in 2022. That's why pretty much anyone working in the industry is warning that shortages are about to considerably worsen. “It’s not inconceivable to think in the future we will have to start rationing things,” one executive said.

The situation is getting so absurd that tourists are now traveling to US ports to witness the backlog of cargo ships amid the growing supply chain chaos. According to a Georgia travel executive, the massive backup of cargo ships outside the Savannah port has become a tourist attraction. Hundreds of people are coming to the area specifically to witness the worsening situation after reports of the port struggling with high volumes of containers, and dozens of vessels waiting to dock.

Even though this is quite bizarre, it's understandable why this crisis is parking so much curiosity. We have never seen anything like this before. And, unfortunately, as conditions worsen, disruptions mount and extreme weather threatens to make the supply chain crisis spiral out of control, that means that what we've seen so far is just a hint of what is coming next. So don't just sit and wait for the situation to get better, because that may take a long, long time. Get ready for the worse and stock up while you still can because things are getting very crazy very rapidly."

"The Politics of Obedience"

"The Politics of Obedience"
by Brian Maher

“A people enslaves itself, cuts its own throat, when, having a choice between being vassals and being free men, it deserts its liberties and takes on the yoke, gives consent to its own misery, or, rather, apparently welcomes it.” We believe the 16th-century French political theorist Étienne de La Boétie hooked onto a truth here. We plucked this passage from his masterly work "The Politics of Obedience by" title.

We believe it enjoys high relevance in this, the 21st century. More from which: "It is incredible how as soon as a people becomes subject, it promptly falls into such complete forgetfulness of its freedom that it can hardly be roused to the point of regaining it, obeying so easily and so willingly that one is led to say, on beholding such a situation, that this people has not so much lost its liberty as won its enslavement." Thus the frog goes into its pot of gradually heating water - and never jumps out.

Perfectly Imperfect: Yesterday we wondered why so many continue to accept the verdicts of Dr. Fauci... his understrappers within the field of public health… and the elected officials who boss us. In nearly every particular they have proven mistaken - intentionally or unintentionally... Mistaken on masks. Mistaken on lockups. Mistaken on medicines. Mistaken on vaccines. What they claim one day is proven false the following day. What they deny one day is proven true the following day. If not the following day, then the following week. If not the following week, then the following month.

It is not the erring that flusters us. Sincere men - men of good faith - can botch badly. We are merely confounded and discombobulated that so many continue heeding them… and submitting to their blemished authority. And why do so many have such blistering heat against those who point to holes in official theories, who announce that the emperor is well and truly nude? Would they prefer to be foxed, conned and tricked - to believe the emperor is garmented? These are the questions we tackle today...

No Judgment: We do not hector, we do not preach, we do not badger, we do not hold forth today. Nor do we judge. A man shoots an accusing finger outward and three shoot back at him… as is said. We are merely out to solve a puzzle, the way a detective is out to solve a crime, the way an autopsist is out to solve a death.

For light, we turn to Professor Mattias Desmet. This fellow professes psychology at Belgium’s Ghent University. A people acquire an acute anxiety, he explains. In the case before us, acute anxiety of the virus. Coney-catchers, sharpers and opportunists - that is, political leaders - emerge in response, holding out salvation. The people accept the outstretched hand. It soothes and comforts them. Anyone who slaps away this hand is a hellcat, a hobgoblin, a menace to the public happiness.

“Mass-Formation: Here the professor speaks of “Mass-Formation.” As summarized: "In Mass-Formations people become radically intolerant of dissident voices. This person threatens to wake the people up and they get angry when confronted by the initial anxiety and discontent they experience by challenges to the official doctrine. The crowd directs all their aggression at dissident voices.

At the same time they are radically tolerant of their leaders who pronounce the mainstream narrative. These people can lie and cheat and do everything they want and will always be forgiven by the crowd. All the lying, dishonesty and misbehavior is seen by the crowd as doing it for their own safety."

We suffer the acquaintance of certain individuals who fit this description to a fare-thee-well… as perfectly and precisely as the size 10 foot fits the size 10 shoe. They, like your editor, are reasonably sane. They are reasonably reasonable, they are reasonably tolerant. They are generally pleasant and agreeable.

Jekyll and Hyde: But tell them that Dr. Fauci has been less than fully truthful. Tell them that masks are minimally effective. Tell them that lockups fail to jail the virus. Above all… Tell them that these vaccines are not as safe or as formidable as the drummers claim. Now you have a demon on your hands. They will scourge you as a conspiracy theorist… a delusional… an imbecile… a witless dupe of the bedlamite fringe.

Here we speak with the invincible authority of personal experience. We know such gentlemen and ladies. We had best keep the names dark, lest our attorneys receive a sharp note claiming character defamation.

No matter what you hurl against them, it bounces off unbreachable armor… spitballs off a tank. They simply will not listen. They are sunk in a sort of intoxicating hypnosis. And woe to anyone out to shatter the spell…

Why Facts Don’t Work: More: Similar to hypnosis, people in this hyper-focused state are narrowly focused. In hypnosis, only the hypnotized are focused in this way… In Mass-Formation, leaders emerge which are even more narrowly focused than the followers. When people experience this mental intoxication it no longer matters if the narrative is wrong or even blatantly false. What matters is that it leads up to this mental intoxication. This is why they will continue to go along with the narrative.

The resistance to understanding the narrative is false or wrong is driven by the fear of returning to the state of Free-Floating Anxiety and wanting to continue to experience the mental intoxication. This explains why arguing based on facts will not work. Facts no longer matter to them. Given the facts, they are unable to come to sensible conclusions, even in their own best interests.

Here we believe the author lowers his hammer square upon the nailhead. We believe his thesis holds vast explanatory powers. It is immensely plausible. Again: We do not judge or condemn whom we consider the entranced. They consider us entranced. They are of course correct.

For example: This editor of yours believes he is the reincarnated soul of the Emperor Nero. He believes that he is a masterful lover. He believes that he is nice. He accepts them as fact… though in honest moments he concedes he lacks all confirming evidence. But let it go...

The Real Blame: Our grievance is not with the entranced, but rather with the spellbinders who entrance them. That is, with those who would wreck a society over a virus rate with a survival rate in excess of 99%...

With those who would decry the use of safe and effective drug treatments because they would harpoon the legal justification for experimental, emergency-use vaccines… With those who promised us we could discard our facial masks once we took aboard the vaccines… With those who would torture statistics to declare a false “pandemic of the unvaccinated”...

With those who deny that these vaccines have murdered many thousands of people and mangled hundreds of thousands more… With those who would inform mothers-to-be that these vaccines will not injure their child… With those who would vaccinate young children, young children who face infinitesimal risk of sickness or death and who are far more likely to perish from the vaccine itself… With those who believe they can and should dictate the medical choices of free men and women.

It is they who frost our nose. It is they who wring our gizzard. It is they who rile our customary serenity and our detached indifference to the world’s events.

Time for Inaction: We conclude today’s issue where we commenced - with Monsieur Étienne de La Boétie. Here is how to break the hypnotist’s spell… for those who care to break it. His counterspell requires not action - but inaction: "You can deliver yourselves if you try, not by taking action, but merely by willing to be free. Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break into pieces. The time for inaction is now…"
Freely download "The Politics of Obedience" by Étienne de La Boétie here:

Gregory Mannarino, "Must Watch: Proof The Middle Class Wipeout Is Accelerating With An Economy In Freefall"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 11/18/21:
"Must Watch: Proof The Middle Class Wipeout Is 
Accelerating With An Economy In Freefall"

Musical Interlude: Josh Groban, "Remember When It Rained"

Full screen recommended.
Josh Groban, "Remember When It Rained"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"The Horsehead Nebula is one of the most famous nebulae on the sky. It is visible as the dark indentation to the orange emission nebula at the far right of the featured picture. The horse-head feature is dark because it is really an opaque dust cloud that lies in front of the bright emission nebula. Like clouds in Earth's atmosphere, this cosmic cloud has assumed a recognizable shape by chance. After many thousands of years, the internal motions of the cloud will surely alter its appearance. 
The emission nebula's orange color is caused by electrons recombining with protons to form hydrogen atoms. Toward the lower left of the image is the Flame Nebula, an orange-tinged nebula that also contains intricate filaments of dark dust. Two prominent reflection nebulas are visible: round IC 432 on the far left, and blue NGC 2023 just to the lower left of the Horsehead nebula. Each glows primarily by reflecting the light of their central star."

Chet Raymo, “Try To Remember…”

“Try To Remember…”
by Chet Raymo

“In a sleepless hour of the night, I was trying to remember the last name of a person I have known well for more than forty years. When my spouse stirred in her sleep, I asked her. She couldn’t remember either. One again I started mentally through the alphabet. “I think it starts with B,” I said. Ten minutes later she rolled over and said, “The next letter is R.” Bingo! The name popped into my head. Or I should say, “popped out of my head.” Because it was in there somewhere, recorded in a tangle of neurons as materially as if it were written on a piece of paper.

There was a time, back when I was a young man, when some scientists thought memory might be molecular – stored as proteins or RNA molecules that have somehow been modified by experience. The molecule theory of memory rested on experiments with worms (I remember the cover illustration on Scientific American). The worms were taught to navigate a simple maze. Then they were ground up and fed to untrained worms, which seemed to navigate the maze without training. Only molecules, it was thought, could have survived the transfer. Those experiments have been discredited. Scientists now overwhelmingly believe that memories are stored as webs of connections between spider-shaped brain cells called neurons. Each neuron is connected through electrochemical connections to thousands of others. According to the current view, experience fine-tunes the connections, strengthening some, weakening others, creating a different “trace” of interconnected cells for each memory.

But truth be told, memory is still deeply mysterious. How exactly are a lifetime of memories stored and retrieved at will? We know how it works for computers, but how for the human brain? What is self-consciousness? What are dreams? This is the primary scientific agenda for the 21st century. In the middle of the night I go fishing, in that sea of potentiated synapses that are the human soul, for a name that becomes ever more difficult to extract as I get older. I troll the alphabet: A, B, C, D… The name is in there, along with a face and more that forty years of interactions. The Nobel Prizes are waiting.”
Graphic: Salvador Dali, “The Persistence of Memory”

"My Task..."

“My task, which I am trying to achieve, is by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel; it is, before all, to make you see. That and no more, and it is everything. If I succeed, you shall find there, according to your deserts, encouragement, consolation, fear, charm, all you demand – and, perhaps, also that glimpse of truth for which you have forgotten to ask.”
- Joseph Conrad

The Poet: Matthew Schwartz, “Ex Obscurum”

Full screen recommended.
“From emotional turmoil, hatred, and addiction the miracle of recovery begins in this Spadecaller Video entitled “Ex Obscurum” (From Darkness). Featuring original poetry narrated by the author and visual artist, Matthew Schwartz. Composer Samuel Barber’s powerful musical score, adopted for the movie Platoon, (Adagio for Strings) sets the background for this spiritual exodus “From Darkness.”

“Ex Obscurum”

“Remnants of my arrogance
Crumbles like ancient paper.
Why have me suffer this way?
Knowing I’m unable to lift myself up?

My dreams of grandeur are dead.
Glory is no mortal treasure;
Only a mirage for a lost soul.
Booze and drugs do not know my pain.

My body is failing.
My skin yellow, my vision dim.
I come to you burned and beaten.
Still clinging to these toxic vines,
The last rays of sunlight fading.

Is something or someone listening?
Hear my prayer:
Cut from me these twisted limbs.
Or, let me perish and be free at last.

I’ve failed at both life and death;
Must I wallow in this hideous morass,
Giving back nothing of any worth?
Death should have come many times past.
Why have you thwarted my retreat?

This is no pardon for a man like me.
To change I’ve tried, but look at me:
On the floor begging for eternal peace.
Begging you for one final breath.

Is this the mercy that befits your loving omnipotence?
Should I live one more moment of one more day,
Let it be free from hate.
Let it be unspoiled by fear,
Unencumbered by shameful lies.

Let it be imperfectly human.

To the power of all powers I come here now.
Spirit over all spirits I need your help.
You have always known,
When like a burning match my life was flickering.

No mere accident has kept this heart beating.
Could these odds persist year after perilous year?
No! To your power I surrender. But what now?
The black spots on this leopard are many.
Only a stroke from your sacred brush could change me.

To one knee, I lift my broken body. 
Salty tears wet my parched lips.
My dingy railroad flat on Second Street glows.
The fog clears from my blurry eyes.
The burden of my regrets and guilt lift away.

Loneliness and despair evaporate,
Like a dewdrop in the midday sun,
A voice within me, but not within calls.
Like thunder after a passing storm
The rumbling echo speaks softly:
“You are never alone. I love you enough to let you suffer.
I love you enough to let you choose between
Light or darkness;
Love or hate.”

- Spadecaller

"Mortals All...

"We are mortals all, human and nonhuman, bound in one fellowship of love and travail. No one escapes the fate of death. But we can, with caring, make our good-byes less tormented. If we broaden the circle of our compassion, life can be less cruel."
- Gary Kowalski

The Daily "Near You?"

Penticton, British Columbia, Canada. Thanks for stopping by!

"Paul Volcker, Wherefore Art Thou?"

"Paul Volcker, Wherefore Art Thou?"
by Bill Bonner

"There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved."
– Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND – "The big showdown is coming. The moment of truth… when the Federal Reserve has to lay its cards on the table. This moment, when it comes, will determine the success – or failure – of your investments for many years to come. Will the feds voluntarily abandon their money-printing scheme? Or go on with it… until it results in a “total catastrophe”? Fire or ice? A bang or a whimper? Inflate or Die? We think we know the answer. The feds will keep at it until the whole system blows up. At least, that’s the answer we’ve been giving you for months… maybe years.

Reasonable Outlook: Of course, a lot of people think we are wrong – including some people whose opinions we take seriously. They believe the Fed will eventually do the right thing – raise rates in order to pinch off inflation. After all, the Fed is already talking about “tapering,” pledging to bring its “emergency” measures to an end. And Fed governors are not exceptionally stupid. They know their primary responsibility is to protect the U.S. currency. And if they neglect their duty now… runaway inflation will be even harder, probably impossible, to control later, leading to poverty, crashes, riots, and revolution.

Surely, faced with a nightmare, they’ll wake up and do “whatever it takes” to avoid it. This seems like such a reasonable outlook and expectation, we sometimes wonder why we don’t believe it, too. So let’s look more closely…

Clear Vision: David Stockman, Ronald Reagan’s former budget jefe, is of sound mind and clear vision. He sees the situation, as it has developed thus far, much as we do: The fake money and fake interest rates are ruining the country. He sees, too, that the interests of the moneyed elite – on Wall Street and in Washington – are not the same as those of the ordinary working stiff on Main Street. The former benefit from EZ-money policies. The latter suffer, sooner or later, in the form of higher consumer prices.

But David is much less cynical than we are. He must have a sunnier disposition and more faith in the democratic system.  That is, he thinks that when push comes to shove, the feds will do the right thing, if only to hold onto power: In short, in not too many months down the road a desperate White House will have no choice except to welcome in the next Paul Volcker, whoever that might prove to be, in order to douse the inflationary fires and forestall a monumental Democratic wipe-out in the 2022 mid-terms.

Good Politics: David knows a lot more about politics – and finance – than we do. Besides, he has a point we hadn’t fully considered. Politicians are either in office, desperately hoping to stay there… or they’re out of office, trying to get in. If they are in power, they want people to feel good. If they are out, they want them to feel bad. That is why, during the Trump years, the Democrat-leaning press portrayed the COVID-19 virus as an existential threat; it was just good politics.

On Tuesday, we noted that the Democrats may be changing course. They are in power now… They may stand a better chance of remaining in power by putting the voters in a better mood. Instead of making everyone fearful and panicky, as they did during the last two years, they may now want to see COVID-19 “in the rearview mirror.”

Super Power: But the inflation problem is very different from the COVID problem. The latter was caused by nature (apparently)… and there really wasn’t much the authorities could do about it. So, not doing much about it now won’t make much of a difference. Inflation, however, is caused by the government itself, for the purpose of shifting money from the public to the elite. And you can’t make it go away just by ignoring it.

EZ money – printing-press money – is the “super power” of the ruling elite. With it, they can pay for their jackass programs… pay themselves good salaries… fund their pet projects… and reward their donors and supporters… The trouble is, of course, that it leads to price increases. Voters get annoyed. And then, the ruling party is on the spot. It will lose the next election if inflation gets worse…

Monetary Restraint? But what can it do? Here’s David again: "…the Fed has truly painted itself into a corner. On one side is the rock of an egregiously inflated stock market that has the potential to implode like never before if the Fed is forced to move precipitously and unexpectedly into an inflation-fighting mode. On the other is a rapidly accelerating inflationary trend in wholesale and labor markets that will give it no choice except to belatedly lurch toward monetary restraint for the first time in more than a decade."

How likely is that? Probably not very. First, because there is no Volcker. The top candidate to replace Jerome Powell as head of the Federal Reserve is Lael Brainard. She is from the Bernanke-Yellen school, not the Volcker school. She is being considered for the post precisely because she is ready to go along with even more money-printing.

Second, it ain’t 1979 anymore. Then, the U.S. economy could afford a major recession and debt liquidation. Now, it can’t. The Fed’s key lending rate has been below zero for most of the last 11 years. Now, Wall Street… the federal government… households… and businesses – owe $85 trillion. They desperately need super-low rates to stay solvent.

Whatever It Takes: Third, the current inflation rate is, let’s say, 6%. In order to get ahead of it, as Volcker did, the Federal Funds Rate – the interest rate charged to banks on unsecured loans borrowed overnight – would have to go much higher (it’s currently 0.08%). In the late 1970s, consumer price inflation was running at about 13%. In order to stop it, Volcker realized he couldn’t just follow inflation… he had to get ahead of it. So he put the Fed’s key rate at 20%. A similar move today would leave the Federal Funds Rate at about 10%.

Imagine what a 12,400% increase – from 0.08% to 10% – would do to the leveraged traders… the options gamblers… the crypto market… and the millions of zombie businesses and households that rely on cheap finance. And imagine the Fed’s reaction to the inevitable crash. Would it just sit tight, like Volcker, as the stock market sank? In February 1980, Volcker stood stock stiff, as the Dow fell to around the price of a single ounce of gold. If that were to happen today, it would be the equivalent of a 95% wipeout in the stock market.

What Fed… what president… what Congress would allow it? Isn’t it more likely that the Fed’s back would bend… and it would immediately signal that it was ready and willing to provide “whatever it takes” to revive the economy?

No Choice: Fourth, a half-century of fake money and a decade of below-zero lending have softened Americans’ minds… and erased the habits that made them rich. A “Volcker” today would get no respect and no support – neither from the public, nor from the press, politicians, the Deep State, the clergy, economists… or any other influential group.

Fifth, and most important… the elite control the government. The government controls money policy. And the power and wealth of America’s elite rest on a foundation of fake money and fake interest rates. ‘Nuff said.

In short, the Democrats will have no choice. They could not “pull a Volcker”… even if they wanted to. And the country will stay on course for destruction."
Related:
"What we find is a stunning asymmetry: if the top 1%'s net worth has risen along with GDP since 2000, it would now be about $21 trillion. Instead, it's now over $43 trillion, a $22 trillion gain above where it would be had it tracked GDP growth."

"Supply Chain and Retail Nightmare - Walmart’s Are Even Closing"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, AM 11/18/21:
"Supply Chain and Retail Nightmare - 
Walmart’s Are Even Closing"