Bill Bonner, "The United States vs Spilt Milk"

"The United States vs Spilt Milk"

by Bill Bonner

Youghal, Ireland - "Yesterday, it was the Indians – as in, from India – who were blocking exports of wheat. Today, it is the Biden team that is diddling the supply chain. It’s judged baby formula of such strategic importance that it’s rolled out the Defense Production Act to force US companies to make more of it.

No kidding. AP: "President Joe Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to speed production of infant formula and authorized flights to import supply from overseas, as he faces mounting political pressure over a domestic shortage caused by the safety-related closure of the country's largest formula manufacturing plant." Congress has gotten onto the baby formula case too, authorizing $28 million to hire more people at the FDA!

Up until yesterday, traditional methods – supply-and-demand, give-and-take, private initiative and the profit motive – had kept up tolerably well with the demand for baby formula. But now, the feds have taken charge. Oh my! How did we get along for so long without the foresight and diligence of the feds? Mothers must have had to nurse their children themselves. How barbaric!

Again, the Argentines have something to teach us. Here’s our sidekick, Joel Bowman, writing from Buenos Aires: Here in Argentina, everyone knows that the moment the gov’t gets involved in a particular item at the store - usually through “precios cuidados” - that's the item that's about to become incredibly scarce. Yes, it’s another ‘teachable moment.’ And here’s more: You may wonder, what were Janet Yellen, Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi recently doing in Eastern Europe? Didn’t they know about the baby formula crisis back in the ‘homeland?’

To the Slaughter: And that’s not the only crisis in the USA. On Wall Street, for example, the slaughter of the little lambs continues. Barrons: "It was a day straight out of investors’ nightmares. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,164.52 points, or 3.6%, while the S&P 500 declined 4%, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 4.7%. The S&P 500 and the Dow had their worst days since June 11, 2020, while just seven S&P 500 stocks finished higher on the day."

Every rube and rascal with a Robinhood account seems to have the knife at his throat. The Dip Buyers… the Technophiles… the Crypto Lovers – the big bad bear market is having a feast. ‘And the ‘stable’ coins,’ you ask? ‘You mean, as in a place where Christ was born… where they keep horses?’ ‘No… as in a ‘money’ that was supposed to be solid… a crypto you could trust.’ ‘Uh… not so stable after all.’

Stable coins… unstable coins… big techs… little techs… and every tech in-between… all are getting whacked. This is a crisis of Biblical proportions. After all, the ARK is sinking… and the zombies, those creatures caught between Heaven and Hell, are dying. Goldman’s index of money-losing companies shows them going back into the crypt-o where they belong.

Meanwhile…Consumer prices are rising – almost all over the world. This week, the UK announced an inflation rate even higher than the US – at 9%. Sri Lanka is bracing for 40% price increases. Global debt has risen to $305 trillion. And the world’s central banks are squeezed between the irresistible force of falling asset prices – and the immovable object of rising consumer prices. If they try to do something about the market sell-offs, they will make inflation worse, leading to poverty and revolution. If they try to stifle inflation, asset prices will fall even more… leading to recession, joblessness, defaults and bankruptcies.

Those are things that occupy the minds of the thinking public, if there is such a thing. Polls show “inflation’ is its big concern. Nothing else even comes close.

Ample Dugs: But inflation is not such a big concern for the people who caused it. They can afford $6 gasoline and $7 lattes. What they’re worried about is the next election… in which the voters are likely to be sick of them all. They’re not too worried about baby formula either; they get their nourishment from the federal government’s ample dugs.

So, there they were on the Eurasian steppes – liberal as well as conservative… the Great and the Good… representing both political parties, Congress, and the Biden administration – on a bi-partisan mission to promote war with Russia.

Mitch McConnell claims to represent ‘conservatives’ and says he favors designating Russia a ‘terrorist state.’ The ‘terrorist’ label has been handy ever since George Bush II used it to justify his crackpot War on Terror in 2001. Now, it’s being applied like Round-Up, to wither convenient enemies at home and abroad. It is just a matter of time, we presume, before short sellers and hoarders of baby formula will be sprayed with the ‘terrorist’ epithet too. But for now, the Russians are terrorists. Here’s Mitch McConnell: “It is squarely in our national interest to help Ukraine achieve victory in this war…”

Really? How so? How does the typical American benefit from giving the Ukraine $40 billion? Of course, he doesn’t. So, why do it? Is it just a way to pay off the Pentagon and its suppliers? Or is it a way to distract the voters from their investment losses… higher consumer prices… and the baby formula crisis? Tune in tomorrow..."

- bonnerprivateresearch@substack.com

"How It Really Is"

Who is most responsible for this horrifying

increase in gas and diesel prices and why?

○

Related:

"High Gasoline And Diesel Prices Are Here To Stay"

○

Hat tip to The Burning Platform for this material.

Gregory Mannarino, "US Manufacturing Collapses, Economy In Freefall"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/19/22:

"US Manufacturing Collapses, Economy In Freefall"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"Empty Shelves Everywhere At Kroger! This Is Crazy! What's Coming?"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures with Danno, 5/19/22:

"Empty Shelves Everywhere At Kroger! 

This Is Crazy! What's Coming?"

"In today's vlog we are at Kroger with empty shelves everywhere! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices, and some food shortages! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products! "

Canadian Prepper, "Alert: Another Conflict Is Starting Soon"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 5/19/22:

"Alert: Another Conflict Is Starting Soon"

"There is a new conflict about to flare up and it 

will cause the price of oil to go through the roof."

Greg Hunter, "Third of Global Population Killed in Next War Cycle"

"Third of Global Population Killed in Next War Cycle – Charles Nenner"

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Renowned geopolitical and financial cycle expert Charles Nenner says his analysis shows the world will start a huge war cycle by 2023. This type of war is similar to WWII but much bigger. Nenner explains, “The cycle work I do on wars starts at the Mandarin Empire 3,000 years before Jesus came into this world. The long cycle only picks up the big wars. Wars in Korea and Iraq do not show up. So, I say the big War Cycle is up, and this is going to be a big war because the small ones don’t even show up. So, I am very worried. There was a Jewish prophet that once said, ‘The last war is going to take 8 minutes.’ Nobody took this serious because how can a war last 8 minutes? Now we have an idea why a war can only take 8 minutes. Things could calm down in the short term this summer. Then, next year, it can start full force again, and the whole thing is very dangerous.”

How many casualties will there be in the next world war? Nenner estimates, “It’s very interesting how you calculate something like that. It’s the same way you calculate a cycle in IBM. When you see IBM going down, you can get an upside price target, which we have. You can do the same thing on the war cycle. About one third of the population is not going to survive in this world.”

So, more than 2.5 billion people are going to die in the next world war that is just around the corner? Nenner says, “Yes, the numbers say if you have a world war, it’s going to take out 1/3 of the population.”

On the financial front, Nenner says, “There is a catastrophe going on in bonds. They lost their capital and are not going to get it back. It’s the same thing that is happening in stocks.” Nenner advised to get out of both the bond and stock markets at the beginning of the year, and he was on target. Nenner predicts it’s going to get worse for stocks and bonds. Nenner says the next downside target is “15,000 on the DOW,” and it will eventually hit around “5,000 on the DOW.”

Nenner says food will never be cheaper and expects food shortages and big price increases for years into the future. Nenner also says he thinks oil will keep rising and will hit $150 per barrel, and it could eventually hit “$250” per barrel.

Nenner is still long term bullish on gold and says it will hit “$2,500” in the not-too-distant future. Nenner says if the world goes back on a gold standard, “gold will hit $40,000 per ounce.”

Nenner says people who are getting a pension should expect big cuts in the future and also expect big inflation too. It will be the worst of both worlds.

On top of that, expect civil unrest in America to keep growing. There is much more in the 40 min. interview."

- https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with

renowned cycle analyst and financial expert Charles Nenner:

- https://rumble.com/

"35 Signs That Show The Supply Chain Is Dying Right In Front Of Our Eyes"

Full screen recommended.

"35 Signs That Show The Supply Chain 

Is Dying Right In Front Of Our Eyes"

by Epic Economist

"The global supply chain crisis is reaching catastrophic proportions. Since the burst of the sanitary outbreak, supply chains have never caught a break. Lockdowns, port closures, congestion, factory shutdowns, trucking delivery delays, shipping container shortages, and the lack of enough qualified workers have taken a toll on supply chain operations, global manufacturing, and business sales. On top of the problems we already had in 2021, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has caused severe damages to critical sectors of this gigantic trade network. The system has become extremely fragile, and the combination of dozens of unsolved problems is threatening to push global and local supply chains to a breaking point in 2022. For that reason, we decided to compile very alarming statistics that reveal the factors aggravating shortages, shipping disruptions, and other critical issues causing chokepoints all across the system.

Since 2020, the imbalances between supply and demand have only grown wider, resulting in a major inventory distortion as retailers struggled to anticipate consumer needs - oftentimes, overordering items to prevent shortages. After experiencing extensive shortages and delays, companies in many sectors have boosted their buffer stocks, filling warehouses with products and components as insurance against future disruption. However, consumer trends have greatly shifted, which has left global retailers with an estimated overstock of $626 billion in products that are not selling at the forecasted pace, while the estimated value for out-of-stock items consumers are looking for right now is $1.14 trillion, data from the IHL Group shows. On average, U.S. retail operations have a supply chain accuracy of only 63%. This can result in significant delays and re-stocking issues. For instance, in 2021, 34% of businesses shipped an order late due to selling a product that wasn’t in stock.

While port congestion data for March captures the early effects of the Ukraine crisis, it does not reflect the lockdown in Shanghai. With traffic jams having increased significantly in Chinese ports due to the zero-tolerance policy in China, and in the North Sea due to the conflict in Ukraine, global schedule reliability is expected to drop by 10 percentage points by June, according to Sea Intelligence estimates.

These numbers portray a very gloomy outlook for global supply chains in 2022. We've been witnessing continued disruptions for 24 consecutive months, and as if that wasn't already distressing enough, executives are bracing for much more turbulence this year, as conflicts worldwide escalate, global manufacturing slows down, and the imbalance between supply and demand gets bigger and bigger. The global supply chain breakdown is getting worse by the day, and this means that all of these problems will stay with us for years. Here are 35 Numbers That Expose The Global Supply Chain Breakdown Is Accelerating At A Breathtaking Speed."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com/

"Game Over, Economy Is Toast; Markets Take Huge Losses; FED Destroying Economy; Wealth Destruction"

Jeremiah Babe, 5/18/22:

"Game Over, Economy Is Toast; Markets Take Huge Losses;

 FED Destroying Economy; Wealth Destruction"

Gregory Mannarino, "Panic Selling On Wall Street! The 10-Year Yield NOSEDIVES; F..E..A..R.. Grips The Market"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 5/18/22:

"Panic Selling On Wall Street! 

The 10-Year Yield NOSEDIVES; F..E..A..R.. Grips The Market"

- https://traderschoice.net/

“The Year of Breakdown”

“The Year of Breakdown”

by Brian Maher

"The stairs up and the elevator down. Today the stock market boarded the elevator… again… The Dow Jones careened another 1,164 stomach-wrenched points today - the fifth collapse of at least 800 points this year - and the greatest single-day plunge since 2020. Both the S&P and Nasdaq were crowded into the identical box. Both endured the identical harrows. The S&P plummeted 165 points; the Nasdaq 566.

What accounts for today’s tumults? The consensus answer is inflation. Poor earnings reports by retail behemoths Target and Walmart indicate inflation has consumers on the defense.

Straws in the Wind: CNBC, grimly, despairingly: "Markets returned to heavy selling after two back-to-back quarterly reports from Target and Walmart stoked investor fears of rising inflation. It’s the fifth Dow decline of more than 800 points this year, which all occurred as the stock sell-off intensified within the last one month, according to FactSet data."

Adds Mr. Jack Ablin, founding partner of Cresset Capital: "Any company that relies on households and discretionary purchases will likely suffer this quarter because a lot of discretionary income has been funneled to food and energy prices." We are not one whit surprised.

Is Inflation Really 16%? The official inflation rate goes at 8.3%. Yet if government data-manglers tracked inflation by 1980’s standards - argues Mr. John Williams of ShadowStats - inflation exceeds 16%. Who can fault the consumer for pulling in his oars… and pinching his devalued pennies?

Today’s inflation fits precisely within the timeline of Johns Hopkins economist Steve Hanke: "The dramatic growth in the U.S. money supply… that began in March 2020 will do what increases in the money supply always do. Money growth will lead in the first instance (one–nine months) to asset price inflation. Then, a second stage will set in. Over a six–18-month period after a monetary injection occurs, economic activity will pick up. Ultimately, the prices of goods and services will increase. That usually takes between 12 and 24 months after the original monetary injection."

Within 24 months of the March 2020 unleashing - on schedule - we were treated to the inflationary deluges presently washing over us.

Americans Are out of Savings: We have held a deep distrust of reports claiming the American consumer is flush. For instance, of the recent New York Times article “For Tens of Millions of Americans, the Good Times Are Right Now.” 

For instance, of the recent Boston Herald article “Economy Shrinks but Job Market, Consumer Spending Remain Strong.”

For instance, of the recent Investing.com article “S&P 500 in Rally Mode on Signs of Strong Consumer; Tech Reigns Supreme.”

Recent credit card data validates our hesitancy. Consumer credit went skyshooting in March, to $52.4 billion. That astounding figure easily doubled the projected $25 billion forecast. It is also the highest figure in recorded annals. If Americans were to their ears in savings, would credit card debt run to record heights? The question is the answer. Let us hazard an additional theory to account for the stock market’s recent tumults.

Bye-Bye, Buybacks: As we have argued before…Stock buybacks accounted for much of the stock market’s lovely run since 2009. Corporations piled up cheap debt under stimulation from the Federal Reserve’s exorbitantly low rates. With this debt they often purchased their own stock… which reduced shares outstanding… and raised the price per share.

Corporations suspended buybacks during the hell days of the pandemic. But buybacks returned last year at a furious and delirious pace. Corporations repurchased $882 billion of stocks last year - a record. Is it then a wonder that the stock market likewise attained record heights last year? But last year is not this year. Stock buybacks (and dividend payouts) wallow at 12-year lows, claims Bank of America. Is it coincidence that the stock market is reeling this year?

Built on Quicksand: Inflation is on the jump… as are interest rates. And rising interest rates can shake the stock market. That is especially true if the stock market rests uneasily upon a quicksand foundation of artificially low interest rates - like this stock market.

Ten-year Treasury yields presently run to 2.88% - down from their recent perch above 3% - yet the highest in three years nonetheless. That 2.88% is nothing against the historical average. Yet it is miles from the historically low 0.53% of July 2020.

Millstones Around the Neck: Thus the cheap debt corporations took on to finance buybacks is no longer so cheap. Rising rates hang heavier debts upon them… millstones upon their necks. These corporations can no longer afford stock buybacks that levitate their stock prices. Who will take up their slack? The answer is very, very far from clear.

Our own Charles Hugh Smith appears prescient. In early January he divined that 2022 represented “the year of breakdown”: "2022 is the year that the second-order effects come home to roost: All the risk that has been transferred to the financial system as a whole will generate consequences the Fed and other central banks are unable to control. The stupendously toxic incentives to speculate will generate consequences the Fed and other central banks are unable to control. The stupendously toxic wealth inequality will generate consequences the Fed and other central banks are unable to control…"

If we look at the fragility and instability of essential systems, it’s clear that 2022 will be the year of breakdown. The year is but five months into the 12, it is true. Yet indications to date lean heavily toward Charles. The Nasdaq Composite is already sunk in a bear market. Both the Dow Jones and S&P have suffered “correction” - a tumbling of 10% or more from recent peaks.

How Come Stocks Only “Correct” Lower? As we have observed before: Stocks are never said to “correct” higher. Only lower. That is, corrections run in one direction only - down. But why? Is not an undervalued market by definition… incorrect? Then should not an accurate reappraisal - a rising market - represent a correction? But in the popular imagination it does not. Corrections only correct downward. Here is our theory…

Getting Away With Something: The term is a subconscious recognition of the market’s tendency to overexcitement, of its constant efforts to slip its leash… Of the animal spirits’ chronic ambition to go amok. When the market rampages, a fellow is dizzied by the thrill of it. And so he lets go. He lets his throttle out. But he is besieged by an inner suspicion. A suspicion, that is, that he is getting away with something…

It is as if his employer has mistakenly added a zero to his paycheck. Or that he has come into possession of stolen property. Or that the mailman has left the neighbor’s package at his door. He knows he must hand it back. And so comes the correction - the inevitable correction. He knows he must hand it back. He is presently handing it back and then some more.

Thus conclude our brief reflections on the word correction. Future reflections will center on the bear market likely to unfold within the coming months…"

- dailyreckoning.com

"Celente And The Judge", 5/18/22

Full screen recommended.

"Celente And The Judge", 5/18/22

"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."

- https://trendsresearch.com/

Musical Interlude: Afshin, "Prayer of Change"

Full screen recommended.

Afshin, "Prayer of Change"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"The first identified compact galaxy group, Stephan's Quintet is featured in this eye-catching image constructed with data drawn from the extensive Hubble Legacy Archive. About 300 million light-years away, only four of these five galaxies are actually locked in a cosmic dance of repeated close encounters. The odd man out is easy to spot, though. The interacting galaxies, NGC 7319, 7318A, 7318B, and 7317 have an overall yellowish cast. They also tend to have distorted loops and tails, grown under the influence of disruptive gravitational tides. But the predominantly bluish galaxy, NGC 7320, is closer, just 40 million light-years distant, and isn't part of the interacting group.

Stephan's Quintet lies within the boundaries of the high flying constellation Pegasus. At the estimated distance of the quartet of interacting galaxies, this field of view spans about 500,000 light-years. But moving just beyond this field, up and to the right, astronomers can identify another galaxy, NGC 7320C, that is also 300 million light-years distant. Including it would bring the interacting quartet back up to quintet status."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

The Poet: Wendell Berry, “Leavings”

“Leavings”

“In time a man disappears

from his lifelong fields, from

the streams he has walked beside,

from the woods where he sat and waited.

Thinking of this, he seems to

miss himself in those places

as if always he has been there.

But first he must disappear,

and this he foresees with hope,

with thanks. Let others come.”

- Wendell Berry

○

“Perhaps as he was lying awake then, his life may have passed before him - his early hopeful struggles, his manly successes and prosperity, his downfall in his declining years, and his present helpless condition – no chance of revenge against Fortune, which had had the better of him - neither name nor money to bequeath - a spent-out, bootless life of defeat and disappointment, and the end here! Which, I wonder, brother reader, is the better lot, to die prosperous and famous, or poor and disappointed? To have, and to be forced to yield; or to sink out of life, having played and lost the game? That must be a strange feeling, when a day of our life comes and we say, “Tomorrow, success or failure won’t matter much, and the sun will rise, and all the myriads of mankind go to their work or their pleasure as usual, but I shall be out of the turmoil.”

- William Makepeace Thackeray, “Vanity Fair”

"In A Word..."

“In a word, there are many thorns, but the roses are there too.”

- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

"MarketWatch Market Summary, 5/18/22: Live Updates"

Click image for larger size.

"MarketWatch Market Summary, Live Updates"

- https://www.marketwatch.com/tools/marketsummary

○

CNN Market Data:

- http://money.cnn.com/data/markets/

CNN Fear And Greed Index:

- http://money.cnn.com/data/fear-and-greed/

○

So they'd have you believe...

The Daily "Near You?"

Fort Mohave, Arizona, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Why Not Despair? "

"Why Not Despair?"

"To view our times as decadent and dangerous, to mistrust the government, to imagine that those in power as not concerned with our best interests is not paranoid but perceptive; to be depressed, angry or confused about such things is not delusional but a sign of consciousness. Yet our culture suggests otherwise. But if all this is true, then why not despair? The simple answer is this: despair is the suicide of imagination. Whatever reality presses upon us, there still remains the possibility of imagining something better, and in this dream remains the frontier of our humanity and its possibilities To despair is to voluntarily close a door that has not yet shut. The task is to bear knowledge without it destroying ourselves, to challenge the wrong without ending up on its casualty list. You don't have to change the world, the writer Colman McCarthy has argued. Just keep the world from changing you.

Oddly, those who instinctively understand this best are often those who seem to have the least reason to do so, survivors of abuse, oppression, and isolation who somehow discover not so much how to beat the odds, but how to wriggle around them. They have, without formal instruction, learned two of the most fundamental lessons of psychiatry, philosophy, and religion:

You are not responsible for that into which you were born..

You are responsible for doing something about it.

These individuals move through life like a skilled mariner in a storm rather than as a victim at a sacrifice. Relatively unburdened by pointless and debilitating guilt about the past, uninterested in the endless regurgitation of the unalterable, they free themselves to concentrate upon the present and the future. They face the gale as a sturdy combatant rather than as cowering supplicant."

- Sam Smith

“Life has no victims. There are no victims in this life. No one has the right to point fingers at his/her past and blame it for what he/she is today. We do not have the right to point our finger at someone else and blame that person for how we treat others, today. Don’t hide in the corner, pointing fingers at your past. Don’t sit under the table, talking about someone who has hurt you. Instead, stand up and face your past! Face your fears! Face your pain! And stomach it all! You may have to do so kicking and screaming and throwing fits and crying – but by all means – face it! This life makes no room for cowards.”

- C. Joybell C.

"Nothing Can Stop the Market Crash - Even Walmart Sees Problems"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly 5/18/22:

"Nothing Can Stop the Market Crash -

 Even Walmart Sees Problems"

"The problems with the economy are escalating. Mortgage lenders are trying to keep companies open with massive layoffs and higher interest rates. Even Walmart sees the writing on the wall. They say the biggest problem will be sourcing an expensive goods through the end of the year. Food prices and gasoline are the biggest problem."

Bill Bonner, "Blind Trust"

"Blind Trust"

"Incompetent elites leading the public into debt,

 off to war and over the cliff."

by Bill Bonner

Youghal, Ireland - "Wheat prices shot up 6% yesterday after India decided to keep its bread at home. Ever since Adam Smith published ‘The Wealth of Nations’ it has been common knowledge that trade makes us all better off. Otherwise, we don’t get the benefits of specialization and comparative advantage. But our hypothesis here at Bonner Private Research is that the ruling classes have become incompetent. It’s a special kind of incompetence; it punishes the public, but serves the elite well.

Little noticed in the financial press was the recent passing of one of the few economists who understood his métier. Axel Leijonhufvud died at 88. Mr. Leijonhufvud was never asked to join the Fed… nor was the professor emeritus at UCLA ever invited to advise the administration on fiscal policy. The professor scotched his chances for a Nobel prize and alienated himself from his whole ‘tribe,’ by noting the group was largely fraudulent: “The status of the adult male [economist, anthropologically speaking] is determined by his skill as making the ‘modl’ of his ‘field.’ The fact… that most of these ‘modls’ seem to be of little or no practical use, probably accounts for the backwardness and abject cultural poverty of the tribe.”

Dot to Dot: And here the dots come together. The ‘tribe’ goes far beyond Powell, Yellen, Christine Lagarde and the bogus economists advising them. It includes millions of busy bodies and bossy pants… Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal… all sharing the same goal – to keep the jig up.

Their economic modls have caused widespread poverty and inflation…their modls of the Covid 19 appear to cause far more deaths than they prevented…their race-based modls tell us that ‘people of color’ are the victims of mean White people… their climate modls tell us that we have to make a ‘Green Transition.’ At what cost… in money, in lives? The ‘modls’ don’t tell us… and no one asks…

What these modls all have in common is that they are the stock in trade of a technocratic elite, who claim to have expertise that the rest of us don’t have. “Don’t question ‘The Science.’” Trust the experts. Do as you are told.

Sydney Syndrome: The attitude is here summarized for us by the New York Times, in its praise for Australia’s low Covid death count: "Dozens of interviews, along with survey data and scientific studies from around the world, point to a lifesaving trait that Australians displayed from the top of government to the hospital floor, and that Americans have shown they lack: trust, in science and institutions, but especially in one another."

Really? Scientific studies tell us that Australians are more trusting? And that trust saves lives? What happened to those young men who trusted their leaders and went to war with one another in America’s War Between the States? Or those millions who went ‘over the top’ in WWI? And what about the Germans who trusted the Fuhrer and invaded Russia?

And now the geopolitical modlers tell us we must conduct a ‘sanctions war’ against Russia. Why? The modls don’t tell us. Nor do they tell us what will happen when the world turns away from the weaponized dollar. They’re not part of the modl!

Dogs are trusting creatures. Especially when you raise them from puppies. And if there is any place on earth where people are more trusting than cocker spaniels, it must be north of the DMZ on the Korean peninsula. There, people trust – or else! Alas, the Covid-19 doesn’t seem to respect the North Korean elite any more than we do. GentsideDE: "While in many parts of the world the pandemic is abating and even the mask requirement is being lifted, North Korea is currently struggling with over 1.2 million patients with fever symptoms and 50 dead within a few days, as RP Online reports.

The military has been tasked with distributing the drugs. Moreover, a lockdown has been imposed and the government is keeping track of infected patients. No matter the profession, if a person is found infected with the virus they will immediately be sent into quarantine. There are more than 560,000 people in quarantine at the moment."

Modl Soldiers: Another news story yesterday showed Janet Yellen visiting a food kitchen in Warsaw and sympathizing with the refugees, the displaced persons, the widows and orphans. “Please stop the war…” said one. But Ms. Yellen wasn’t there to stop the war, but to keep it going as long as possible. She was drumming up support – if any were needed – for the $40 billion in aid – so the Ukrainians can keep fighting.

Trust the experts? The ones in suits? The ones who aren’t deplorable? Who earn more than we do… and know better than we do? But what if the experts are paid to give the wrong answers? What if the ‘western’ elite has turned into a parasitic aristocracy… a nomenklatura… looking out for itself, at the expense of the general public? What if their silly modls caused the worst inflation in 40 years… got a million people killed in pointless wars since 1999… and now threaten civilization as we know it?"

Hmmm…"

- bonnerprivateresearch@substack.com

“Get Ready to Be Muzzled: The Coming War on So-Called Hate Speech”

“Get Ready to Be Muzzled:

 The Coming War on So-Called Hate Speech”

by John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead

“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation 

must begin by subduing the freedom of speech.”

- Benjamin Franklin

"Beware of those who want to monitor, muzzle, catalogue and censor speech. Especially be on your guard when the reasons given for limiting your freedoms end up expanding the government’s powers.

In the wake of a mass shooting in Buffalo, NY, carried out by an 18-year-old gunman in military gear allegedly motivated by fears that the white race is in danger of being replaced, there have been renewed calls for social media monitoring, censorship of flagged content that could be construed as dangerous or hateful, and limitations on free speech activities, particularly online.

As expected, those who want safety at all costs will clamor for more gun control measures (if not at an outright ban on weapons for non-military, non-police personnel), widespread mental health screening of the general population and greater scrutiny of military veterans, more threat assessments and behavioral sensing warnings, more surveillance cameras with facial recognition capabilities, more “See Something, Say Something” programs aimed at turning Americans into snitches and spies, more metal detectors and whole-body imaging devices at soft targets, more roaming squads of militarized police empowered to do random bag searches, more fusion centers to centralize and disseminate information to law enforcement agencies, and more surveillance of what Americans say and do, where they go, what they buy and how they spend their time.

All of these measures play into the government’s hands. As we have learned the hard way, the phantom promise of safety in exchange for restricted or regulated liberty is a false, misguided doctrine that serves only to give the government greater authority to crack down, lock down, and institute even more totalitarian policies for the so-called sake of national security without many objections from the citizenry.

Add the Department of Homeland Security’s “Disinformation Governance Board” to that mix, empower it to monitor online activity and police so-called “disinformation,” and you have the makings of a restructuring of reality straight out of Orwell’s 1984, where the Ministry of Truth polices speech and ensures that facts conform to whatever version of reality the government propagandists embrace. And this expletive deleted, expletive deleted, expletive deleted creature will decide what you see and hear:

After all, it’s a slippery slope from censoring so-called illegitimate ideas to silencing truth. Eventually, as George Orwell predicted, telling the truth will become a revolutionary act. If the government can control speech, it can control thought and, in turn, it can control the minds of the citizenry.

It’s been a long time since free speech was actually free. On paper - at least according to the U.S. Constitution - we are technically free to speak. In reality, however, we are only as free to speak as a government official - or corporate entities such as Facebook, Google or YouTube - may allow. That’s not a whole lot of freedom, especially if you’re inclined to voice opinions that may be construed as conspiratorial or dangerous. (As we learned personally on Sept. 10, 2020 when Google/Blogger suddenly and without warning simply disappeared "Running 'Cause I Can't Fly" blog 1. - CP)

This steady, pervasive censorship creep clothed in tyrannical self-righteousness and inflicted on us by technological behemoths (both corporate and governmental) is technofascism, and it does not tolerate dissent. These internet censors are not acting in our best interests to protect us from dangerous, disinformation campaigns. They’re laying the groundwork now to preempt any “dangerous” ideas that might challenge the power elite’s stranglehold over our lives.

The internet, hailed as a super-information highway, is increasingly becoming the police state’s secret weapon. This “policing of the mind” is exactly the danger author Jim Keith warned about when he predicted that “information and communication sources are gradually being linked together into a single computerized network, providing an opportunity for unheralded control of what will be broadcast, what will be said, and ultimately what will be thought.”

Yet what a lot of people fail to understand, however, is that it’s not just what you say or do that is being monitored, but how you think that is being tracked and targeted. We’ve already seen this play out on the state and federal level with hate crime legislation that cracks down on so-called “hateful” thoughts and expression, encourages self-censoring and reduces free debate on various subject matter.

With every passing day, we’re being moved further down the road towards a totalitarian society characterized by government censorship, violence, corruption, hypocrisy and intolerance, all packaged for our supposed benefit in the Orwellian doublespeak of national security, tolerance and so-called “government speech.” Little by little, Americans have been conditioned to accept routine incursions on their freedoms.

This is how oppression becomes systemic, what is referred to as creeping normality, or a death by a thousand cuts. It’s a concept invoked by Pulitzer Prize-winning scientist Jared Diamond to describe how major changes, if implemented slowly in small stages over time, can be accepted as normal without the shock and resistance that might greet a sudden upheaval. Diamond’s concerns related to Easter Island’s now-vanished civilization and the societal decline and environmental degradation that contributed to it, but it’s a powerful analogy for the steady erosion of our freedoms and decline of our country right under our noses.

We’ve already torn down the rich forest of liberties established by our founders. The erosion of our freedoms happened so incrementally, no one seemed to notice. Gradually, the freedoms enjoyed by the citizenry became fewer, smaller and less important. By the time the last freedom falls, no one will know the difference. This is how tyranny rises and freedom falls: with a thousand cuts, each one justified or ignored or shrugged over as inconsequential enough by itself to bother, but they add up.

Each cut, each attempt to undermine our freedoms, each loss of some critical right adds up to an immeasurable failure on the part of each and every one of us to stop the descent down that slippery slope. We are on that downward slope now.

America is approaching another reckoning right now, one that will pit our commitment to freedom principles against a level of fear-mongering that is being used to wreak havoc on everything in its path. Yet as I make clear in my book "Battlefield America: The War on the American People" and in its fictional counterpart "The Erik Blair Diaries," while we squabble over which side is winning this losing battle, a tsunami approaches."

- https://www.rutherford.org/

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Related:

"The Latest BS We Expect You To Believe!"

"Sitrep Operation Z 5/18/22: NATO Surrenders in Azovstal"

"Sitrep Operation Z 5/18/22: 

NATO Surrenders in Azovstal"

Nazi Azovites - from rats in a hole to fish in a barrel -  

This is what denazification looks like!

by Pepe Escobar

"The New York Times prevaricates as follows: Ukraine ended its “combat mission” in Mariupol and said fighters were being evacuated, signaling that the battle at a steel plant was over. https://nyti.ms/3sIon9B

Zelensky adds some Ukrainian/Cocainian dreams to that: “The evacuation mission from Azovstal continues. It is led by our military and intelligence officers.” (OK, Mr PianoDick, they’re being led straight into war criminal prison! - thank your military and intelligence officers for doing the job for the world!) Dmitry Polyansky says it differently: “I didn’t know English has so many ways to express a single message: the #Azovnazis have unconditionally surrendered.”

Nightfall did not stop the surrender process. Ukrainians are still surrendering in crowds without stopping. Sufficient forces to deal with this are on the terrain and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the DPR are kicking ass and taking prisoners. Illumination rockets are constantly launched into the sky, which at least somehow facilitates the crawling out of underground inhabitants :) These invincible heroes are emaciated, ragged, hungry and a pitiful sight.

Donetsk Defense HQ – 962 Azovites surrendered and the process continues. In the meantime, 11 servicemen of the 25th airborne brigade and seventeen of the 54th mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine voluntarily laid down their arms and went over to the side of the DPR. We hope this is the start of a mass surrender. This is denazification and movies will be made and books will be written. After this major loss of prestige, expect a doozy of a false flag."

"Starting point today is the MoD report, 

and somewhat reformatted for ease of use."

Please view this complete, lengthy and highly informative article here:

- https://thesaker.is/

○

Related:

"$40 Billion More the Ukraine War: 

A Wakeup Call for Those Who Still Believe in Lesser-Evilism"

○

Hey! Yes, YOU, Good Taxpayer Citizen! YOU'RE paying for this! $53 billion while our country falls apart! Don't you want to really know what's happening? Or are you truly so stupid and willfully ignorant that you believe all the lies and propaganda about this situation, while idiotically waving your oh-so-cutesy Ukranian flags? I don't think you are, or you wouldn't be here reading this... - CP

○

"Most of one's life is one prolonged effort to prevent oneself from thinking. 

People intoxicate themselves with work so they won't see how they really are."

 - Aldous Huxley

"How It Really Is"

"Massive Price Increases At Aldi! What Now?"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures with Danno, 5/18/22:

"Massive Price Increases At Aldi! What Now?"

"In today's vlog we are at Aldi and are noticing massive price increases! We are here to check out rising prices, and a lot of empty shelves! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"

Gregory Mannarino, "Middle Class People Are Being Deliberately Eliminated- FASTER!"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/18/22:

"Middle Class People Are Being Deliberately Eliminated- FASTER!"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"Should You Buy A Home Today? Don't Be A Sucker! Home Builders Begin To Worry; Historic Crash Coming"

Full screen recommended.

Jeremiah Babe, 5/17/22:

"Should You Buy A Home Today? Don't Be A Sucker!

 Home Builders Begin To Worry; Historic Crash Coming"

"Get Ready for Battle... Its Gonna Get Ugly"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 5/17/22:

"Get Ready for Battle... Its Gonna Get Ugly"

"The world is going to hell! Gas prices projected to rise 37%!

 "Apocalyptic" food prices..."

Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind, "Moment of Grace Part 1"

Full screen recommended.

Liquid Mind, "Moment of Grace Part 1"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"From our vantage point in the Milky Way Galaxy, we see NGC 6946 face-on. The big, beautiful spiral galaxy is located just 20 million light-years away, behind a veil of foreground dust and stars in the high and far-off constellation of Cepheus. From the core outward, the galaxy's colors change from the yellowish light of old stars in the center to young blue star clusters and reddish star forming regions along the loose, fragmented spiral arms.

NGC 6946 is also bright in infrared light and rich in gas and dust, exhibiting a high star birth and death rate. In fact, since the early 20th century at least nine supernovae, the death explosions of massive stars, were discovered in NGC 6946. Nearly 40,000 light-years across, NGC 6946 is also known as the Fireworks Galaxy. This remarkable portrait of NGC 6946 is a composite that includes image data from the 8.2 meter Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea.”

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180224.html

"Your Standard Of Living Is Being Systematically Destroyed"

Full screen recommended.

"Your Standard Of Living Is Being Systematically Destroyed"

by Epic Economist

"Our standard of living is being destroyed right before our eyes. Many Americans still don’t realize that the damages caused to the U.S. economy won’t be reversed anytime soon. Soaring food prices, lower buying power, and rising living expenses are only a few of the distortions caused by the exceedingly foolish decisions made by our leaders over the past few years. Now, our quality of life is decaying, and our standard of living is steadily being eviscerated. And we’re being told that a lot more financial pain is on the horizon. 

Each week it passes by, Americans face some unpleasant new surprises at the pump. In May 2020, we used to pay $1.96 for a gallon of gasoline in most stations across the U.S. In May 2021, that price jumped to $3.08, marking an over 50% increase in just 12 months. But, of course, that wasn’t the end of the story. Last Sunday, Americans were paying on average $4.47 for a gallon of gas. On Monday, gas prices hit another all-time high of $4.48 per gallon. And today, that figure surged to $4.52. 

Needless to say, our paychecks aren’t rising at the same rate gas prices are. That means that the price of gasoline has jumped by almost another 50 percent since May 2021. Has your paycheck gone up by 50 percent during each of the last two years? If it did, you’re certainly very lucky, because the vast majority of Americans cannot answer that question affirmatively.

At the same time, food prices in America are going through the roof. Over the past 24 months, they’ve been rising at a pace that is unlike anything most of us have ever seen before. Last week, a new report showed yet another broad-based rise in the cost of food at the wholesale level, with grains up 41.3 percent from a year. On top of that, the price of eggs skyrocketed 161.3 percent, as a result of a bird flu outbreak that led to the depopulation of 10 percent of chickens in the U.S. By the way, chicken prices went up 24.1 percent from a year ago. Fresh vegetables also soared, up 45.7 percent while fresh fruit rose 17.3 percent.

Eating fresh vegetables is essential to maintaining good health. But to do so, now you have to pay 45% more. Has your paycheck gone up by 45 percent over the past year? Meanwhile, homes are becoming significantly less affordable too. The combination of extremely inflated home prices and higher interest rates — driven by the Federal Reserve’s more aggressive efforts to fight inflation — has pushed monthly mortgage payments on the typical U.S. home up by 19.5 percent in the first three months of the year, according to real estate listing service Zillow. Compared to a year ago, payments are 38 percent higher. Has anyone’s paycheck gone up by 38 percent over the past year? We keep asking these questions to highlight the fact that our standard of living is being systematically destroyed.

This is a real crisis, that will not only affect us here and now but impact our future generations. We’re headed to a horrific inflationary meltdown that will shake this country to the core. Now it is time to reap what we have sown, and it will not be fun at all."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com/

Gerald Celente, "Trends Journal", "Good Violence, Bad Violence"

Full screen recommended.

Strong language alert!

Gerald Celente, "Trends Journal",

"Good Violence, Bad Violence"

"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."

- https://trendsresearch.com/

“We Are on the Precipice”

“We Are on the Precipice”

by Jim Rickards

"I don’t believe many people grasp the enormity of the global food crisis we’ll be facing in the months ahead. But the world could be on the verge of a massive humanitarian crisis. Let’s dive in…

The supply chain collapse preceded the war in Ukraine, but the war has only intensified the problems. You can see it with your own eyes when you walk into a supermarket and find long stretches of empty shelves in stores that used to be chock-full of food and other merchandise. Even goods that are available such as gasoline are being sold at much higher prices. Prices for gasoline (and diesel, which is critical for goods transportation) have more than doubled in the past nine months. All of this is clear. The question is will it get worse from here? Unfortunately, the answer is yes.

Bob Unanue is the CEO of Goya Foods, which is one of the largest food distributors in the world. Few people are better positioned to assess the global food situation than Unanue, who deals with raw food deliveries on the one hand and retail customers on the other. Unanue is now warning, “We are on the precipice of a global food crisis.” Other experts are quoted making a similar point. That’s not hyperbole or fearmongering, but a serious analysis. Here’s why…

29% of All Wheat Exports in Jeopardy: In the Northern Hemisphere, the planting season for 2022 is well underway. Crops were planted (or not) in March and April. Based on that, you can already form estimates of output next September and October during the harvest season (subject to some variability based on weather and other factors).

Plantings have been far below normal in 2022, either due to a lack of fertilizer or to much higher costs for fertilizer where farmers simply chose to plant less. This predictable shortage is in addition to the much greater shortages due to the fact that Russian output is sanctioned and Ukrainian output is nonexistent because it’s at war.

Russia and Ukraine together account for 29% of global wheat and 19% of global corn exports. Russia and Ukraine together produce 29% of all the wheat exports in the world. That doesn’t mean they grow 29% of the wheat in the world. It means they grow 29% of the wheat exports.

The U.S., Australia, Canada and others grow a lot of wheat but consume most of it themselves. They export relatively little. Importantly, they don’t simply eat it. They feed it to their farm animals. People don’t often make the connection between grain and animal products, but it’s critical.

Many countries get 70–100% of their grains from either Russia or Ukraine or both. Lebanon gets 100%. Egypt is over 70%. Kenya, Sudan, Somalia, many central African countries and Jordan and other Middle Eastern countries receive much of their grain from Russia or Ukraine.

No Planting, No Crops: But it’s worse than that because not only are many Ukrainian exports shut down now, but the planting season is nearly over. And you’re not going to get any grain in October if you didn’t plant it in April or May. And they didn’t for obvious reasons. What that means is you project ahead to October, November, December of this year, those countries I mentioned are not going to be able to get their grain supplies. There simply aren’t going to be any, or they’ll be greatly reduced. The combined population of countries that get between 70% and 100% of their imports from Russia or Ukraine is 700 million people.

That’s 10% of the global population. So you’re looking at mass starvation. You’re looking at a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented proportions, probably the worst since the Black Death of the 14th century. That’s coming down the road, even if most people can’t see it coming or fully fathom the depths of the coming crisis. In short, we know enough now to predict much higher prices, empty shelves and, in some cases, mass starvation in the fourth quarter of this year and beyond.

Beyond the humanitarian aspect of the coming food shortages, there are also potentially serious social and geopolitical ramifications.

Another Arab Spring? You remember the “Arab Spring” starting in 2010. It started in Tunisia and spread from there. Well, it was triggered by a food crisis. There was a shortage of wheat, which triggered the protests. There were underlying problems in these societies, but a food crisis was the catalyst for the protests.

Now, many poorer countries in the Middle East and Africa are facing a much greater crisis as the impact of shortages manifests itself later this year and into next year. Will we see even more social unrest than in 2011? It’s very possible, and it could be even more destabilizing than the Arab Spring. We could also see waves of mass migration from Africa and the Middle East as desperate and hungry people flee their homelands.

Europe endured a wave of mass immigration in 2015. Many migrants were attempting to flee the war in Syria, but there were great amounts of people who weren’t affected by the war. They were just seeking better lives in the welfare states of Europe. Mass starvation could trigger an even greater migration, which would present Europe with enormous challenges.

The United States could also witness another wave of migration at the southern border, which is currently being inundated by migrants. A global food crisis could send the numbers spiraling to uncontrollable limits.

What if the War Drags On? And what if the war in Ukraine drags on well into next year? Next year’s growing season would also be disrupted and the shortages could extend into late 2023 and beyond. Well, maybe some would argue that other nations could pick up the slack and grow additional grain. That’s nice in theory, but it’s not that simple.

Russia is the largest exporter of fertilizer, and sanctions are cutting off supplies. Many farmers cannot get fertilizer at all, and those who can are paying between twice and three times last year’s price. That means that crops actually produced will have much higher prices because of the higher price of inputs such as fertilizer, and the higher transportation costs due to higher prices for diesel and gasoline.

Like I said earlier, we’re looking at a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented proportions, probably the worst since the black death of the 14th century. And we’re not prepared to handle it."

- dailyreckoning.com

Gregory Mannarino, "Is The Market About To Melt Up Or Melt Down? What's Next? Here We Go..."

Gregory Mannarino, PM 5/17/22:

"Is The Market About To Melt Up Or Melt Down? 

What's Next? Here We Go..."

- https://traderschoice.net/

Bill Bonner, "The Fed's Asylum"

"The Fed's Asylum"

$40 billion for the Ukraine, Powell's reappointment 

and more from the Incompetents Hall of Fame...

by Bill Bonner

Youghal, Ireland - "Congress did two amazingly idiotic things last week. First, the House passed a $40 billion aid package for the Ukraine. (The Senate is on the case today.) Second, the Senate approved Jerome Powell for another stint at the Fed. How the two are related… and what it means for the Fed’s promise to stop inflation… are the dots we’re trying to connect.

It was only a few months ago that Americans didn’t give two figs about the Ukrainians. But now, every red-blooded heart beats with them… every sturdy pair of legs stands with them… and every dollar of federal spending includes a few centimes for the Zelensky government. And why not? Ukrainians are minted in the likeness of Washington and Jefferson… defenders of democracy and freedom, one and all. But wait… all Great Causes, like sewer systems, look good in diagrams; they get messy and malodorous when you get into the details.

After all, the people of the Donbass and Lubansk regions – Russian speakers – voted to leave the Ukraine. Shouldn’t democracy lovers support them, rather than the strong-arm centralizers of Kyev? And if Zelensky is such a democracy and freedom lover, how come opposition parties have been banned? Who’s right? Who’s wrong? We don’t know. Neither does the Biden Administration.

But as to $40 billion, we know this: it is money the feds don’t have… and, if they had it, they shouldn’t give it away. The US is most likely on the threshold of a huge crash and a recession; this is no time to be squandering money on foreign policy malarkey. Of course, $40 billion won’t bankrupt the nation and the Russians won’t sink it. Which is why the second thing Congress did is even more important… and more foolish.

Another Stab: We’re ready to forgive almost anything. Lincoln forgave the rebels for trying to assert their independence, after killing a quarter of them. And Isaac forgave Abraham, after the latter nearly carved him up. But forgiving is one thing… asking him to take another stab at it is another.

In the news recently was the story of a member of Congress who was caught watching porn during a House session. Our sympathies were with the politician. Anyone who has spent any time in Washington knows that Congress is one of the dullest, emptiest, most puerile places on the planet. Everything said is either a lie or a buffoonery. No honest man lasts very long – unless he can find something to distract himself. Maybe dirty pictures are just a way to keep things in perspective. The man denied the charge, but was condemned nevertheless and would have been taken behind the toolshed if there were one.

There are some things you can do in public office. And some things you can’t. Use the ‘n’ word… and your career is over. Pinch your secretary’s derriere and you will be handed a loaded pistol. But fumble, rob, cheat, lie… cause millions of deaths – and you get reappointed!

The make-believe battle between the two wings of the ruling class – ‘conservative’ and ‘liberal’… Republican and Democrat – occupies the press and satisfies the public. But when push comes to shove, both wings of the Deep, Deep State flap together. They carry the elite aloft… and leave ‘the people’ behind.

In both acts of Congress last week, Republicans and Democrats acted in unison… and solemnly voted to rip off the public. In the first instance, the American public has no real interest in the country where Hunter Biden earned $50,000 per month. Surely it is a coincidence that this very same country is now getting more in US aid than any other country in the world. Indeed, the Ukraine is now getting twice as much as the next biggest rathole – Israel. But much of the money ends up in good hands – the US ‘defense’ industry. And keeping the war going is also a priority because it helps distract the public from inflation, which was caused by Congress and the Fed.

The Fed’s Asylum: Which brings us to the second and more destructive of last week’s blunders – the confirmation of Jerome Powell’s reappointment as capo di tutti capi at the Fed. We now suffer the highest inflation rate in 40 years. And the public despises it. It is a ‘tax,’ but a particularly painful and insidious one. It falls like an unmoored window unit on the heads of the poorest among us. As we showed yesterday, higher food prices will likely condemn millions of the poorest people on the planet to starvation.

So, why leave the man most responsible for causing it at his post? You could set up a roadblock outside a Kentucky Fried Chicken joint and find dozens of people who would make better Fed chiefs. That is no salute to the genius of those ensnared, but to the fact that their minds are unpolluted by the Fed’s economic claptrap. No greasy talk of ideal 2% inflation… no hallucinations about the ‘wealth effect.’ And no orgasmic thrill at the thought of providing more ‘stimulus.’

Which is to say, most people have not spent their whole careers in the luxury wards of the Fed’s asylum; instead, they’ve had a chance to see the real world in action. Markets correct mistakes. Politics, rarely. In the Incompetents Hall of Fame are the generals who led America’s 20-year losing war in Afghanistan; they are treated with the respect normally reserved for successful people. There are the retired presidents, too – Bush, Obama, Trump. Despite their failures, they are rarely threatened by lynch mobs. Former Fed chiefs are there too. Greenspan, Bernanke, Yellen, Powell – together they helped cut the US growth rate in half… and multiplied US debt 5 times. And yet, they are still invited to give speeches; some – such as Janet Yellen – get to do even more damage as Secretary of the Treasury.

And Powell? In Washington, he has street cred. With a $30 trillion debt, the feds are going to need a lot more inflation in the years ahead; Powell may be a cretinous counterfeit, but he’s proven he can do the job. More to come…"

- bonnerprivateresearch@substack.com

The Daily "Near You?"

Wichita Falls, Texas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!