So, we rise from the rubble...
Thursday, February 23, 2023
"Things Are About To Get Chilly"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, 2/23/23:
"Things Are About To Get Chilly"
"Southern California is under a blizzard warning right now. It is unbelievable that things are as cold outside as they are in the economy right now."
Comments here:
"Price War At Kroger! The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly! Price Increases"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 2/23/23:
"Price War At Kroger! The Good, The Bad,
And The Ugly! Price Increases"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Traveling With Russell, 2/23/23:
"Russian Typical Hypermarket After 1 Year of Sanctions"
"What does a Russian typical hypermarket look like after 1 year of sanctions. Walking in Moscow shopping mall, then taking a walk inside a German owned hypermarket to see what affects sanctions against Russia have done to the retail and grocery industry."
Comments here:
Wednesday, February 22, 2023
"The Biggest Super Bubble In Human History Is Leaking Air"
Jeremiah Babe, 2/22/23:
"The Biggest Super Bubble In Human History Is Leaking Air"
Comments here:
Gerald Celente, "US Government: Reckless, Immoral, Illegal, and Unconstitutional War"
Gerald Celente, Judge Andrew Napolitano, 2/22/23:
"US Government: Reckless, Immoral,
Illegal, and Unconstitutional War"
"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."
Comments here:
Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind, "Moment of Grace Part 1"
Full screen recommended.
Liquid Mind, "Moment of Grace Part 1"
"A Look to the Heavens"
“What powers are being wielded in the Wizard Nebula? Gravitation strong enough to form stars, and stellar winds and radiations powerful enough to create and dissolve towers of gas. Located only 8,000 light years away, the Wizard nebula, pictured above, surrounds developing open star cluster NGC 7380. Visually, the interplay of stars, gas, and dust has created a shape that appears to some like a fictional medieval sorcerer.
The active star forming region spans 100 about light years, making it appear larger than the angular extent of the Moon. The Wizard Nebula can be can be located with a small telescope toward the constellation of the King of Aethiopia (Cepheus) Although the nebula may last only a few million years, some of the stars being formed may outlive our Sun.”
"For Nothing Is Fixed..."
"For nothing is fixed, forever and forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out."
- James Baldwin
Chet Raymo, “Telling Stories”
“Telling Stories”
by Chet Raymo
by Chet Raymo
"When the pulse of the first day carried it to the rim of night, First Woman said to First Man, "The people need to know the laws. To help them we must write the laws for all to see"...And so she began, slowly, first one and then the next, placing her jewels across the dome of night, carefully designing her pattern so all could read it. But Coyote grew bored watching First Woman carefully arranging the stars in the sky: Impatiently he gathered two corners of First Woman's blanket, and before she could stop him he flung the remaining stars out into the night, spilling them in wild disarray, shattering First Woman's careful patterns."
This episode from the Navajo creation story of is from "How the Stars Fell Into the Sky", a children's book by Jerrie Oughton. It is a lovely story, full of ancient wisdom. For centuries, Navajo children heard the story at an elder's knee. The story was taken literally, or at least accepted with a willing suspension of disbelief. I heard a similar creation story in my youth - of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Serpent. I accepted the story with a willing suspension of disbelief.
All cultures, everywhere on Earth, have stories, passed down in scriptures, traditions or tribal myths, that answer the questions: Where did the world come from? What is our place in it? What is the source of order and disorder? What will be the fate of the world? Of ourselves? No people can live without a community story. The problem comes when the community story becomes so disconnected from empirical experience that it no longer commands a suspension of disbelief. For many of us in the West, that is the case with the creation stories that have undergirded Western civilization.
Today, a New Story exists for those who choose to accept it. It is the product of thousands of years of human curiosity, observation, experimentation, and creativity. It is an evolving story, not yet finished. Perhaps it will never be finished. It is a story that begins with an explosion from a seed of infinite energy. The seed expands and cools. Particles form, then atoms of hydrogen and helium. Stars and galaxies coalesce from swirling gas. Stars burn and explode, forging heavy elements - carbon, nitrogen, oxygen - and hurling them into space. New stars are born, with planets made of heavy elements.
On one planet near a typical star in a typical galaxy life appears in the form of microscopic self-replicating, carbon-based ensembles of atoms. Life evolves, over billions of years, resulting in ever more complex organisms. Continents move. Seas rise and fall. The atmosphere changes. Millions of species of life appear and become extinct. Others adapt, survive, and spill out progeny. At last, consciousness appears. One of the millions of species on the planet looks into the night sky and wonders what it means. Feels the spark of love, tenderness, responsibility. Makes up stories - of First Woman and Coyote, of Adam, Eve and the Serpent - eventually making up the New Story. The New Story places us squarely in a cosmic unfolding of space and time, and teaches our biological affinity to all humanity. We are inextricably related to all of life, to the planet itself, and even to the lives of stars.
This episode from the Navajo creation story of is from "How the Stars Fell Into the Sky", a children's book by Jerrie Oughton. It is a lovely story, full of ancient wisdom. For centuries, Navajo children heard the story at an elder's knee. The story was taken literally, or at least accepted with a willing suspension of disbelief. I heard a similar creation story in my youth - of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Serpent. I accepted the story with a willing suspension of disbelief.
All cultures, everywhere on Earth, have stories, passed down in scriptures, traditions or tribal myths, that answer the questions: Where did the world come from? What is our place in it? What is the source of order and disorder? What will be the fate of the world? Of ourselves? No people can live without a community story. The problem comes when the community story becomes so disconnected from empirical experience that it no longer commands a suspension of disbelief. For many of us in the West, that is the case with the creation stories that have undergirded Western civilization.
Today, a New Story exists for those who choose to accept it. It is the product of thousands of years of human curiosity, observation, experimentation, and creativity. It is an evolving story, not yet finished. Perhaps it will never be finished. It is a story that begins with an explosion from a seed of infinite energy. The seed expands and cools. Particles form, then atoms of hydrogen and helium. Stars and galaxies coalesce from swirling gas. Stars burn and explode, forging heavy elements - carbon, nitrogen, oxygen - and hurling them into space. New stars are born, with planets made of heavy elements.
On one planet near a typical star in a typical galaxy life appears in the form of microscopic self-replicating, carbon-based ensembles of atoms. Life evolves, over billions of years, resulting in ever more complex organisms. Continents move. Seas rise and fall. The atmosphere changes. Millions of species of life appear and become extinct. Others adapt, survive, and spill out progeny. At last, consciousness appears. One of the millions of species on the planet looks into the night sky and wonders what it means. Feels the spark of love, tenderness, responsibility. Makes up stories - of First Woman and Coyote, of Adam, Eve and the Serpent - eventually making up the New Story. The New Story places us squarely in a cosmic unfolding of space and time, and teaches our biological affinity to all humanity. We are inextricably related to all of life, to the planet itself, and even to the lives of stars.
It has been the task of many of us gathered here on this cyber porch to help wed the New Story to the spiritual quest, to create what Thomas Berry calls an "integral story." In his introduction to Kathleen Deignan's collection of Thomas Merton's nature writing, Berry writes: "Today, in the opening years of the twenty-first century, we find ourselves in a critical moment when the religious traditions need to awaken again to the natural world as the primary manifestation of the divine to human intelligence. The very nature and purpose of the human is to experience this intimate presence that comes to us through natural phenomena. Such is the purpose of having eyes and ears and feeling sensitivity, and all our other senses. We have no inner spiritual development without outer experience. Immediately, when we see or experience any natural phenomenon, when we see a flower, a butterfly, a tree, when we feel the evening breeze flow over us or wade in a stream of clear water, our natural response is immediate, intuitive, transforming, ecstatic. Everywhere we find ourselves invaded by the world of the sacred."
Berry reminds us that we will neither love nor save what we do not experience as sacred. The older creation stories locate the source of the sacred outside of the creation. The New Story, the scientific story of creation, provides unique opportunities to experience the creation itself as holy and good.
We should treasure the ancient stories for the wisdom and values they teach us. We can praise the creation in whatever poetic languages and rituals our traditional cultures have taught us. But only the New Story has the global authority to help us navigate the future. Of all the stories, it is certainly the truest. It is the only story whose feet have been held to the fire of exacting empirical experience.”
- http:www.sciencemusings.com/
"On These Faces..."
“The barbarian hopes, and that is the mark of him, that he can have his cake and eat it too. He will consume what civilization has slowly produced after generations of selection and effort, but he will not be at pains to replace such goods, nor indeed has he a comprehension of the virtue that has brought them into being. We sit by and watch the barbarian. We tolerate him in the long stretches of peace, we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence; his comic inversion of our old certitudes; we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond, and on these faces there are no smiles. “
- Hilaire Belloco
"Something Like Reverence..."
"When I see the blind and wretched state of men, when I survey the whole universe in its deadness, and man left to himself with no light, as though lost in this corner of the universe without knowing who put him there, what he has to do, or what will become of him when he dies, incapable of knowing anything, I am moved to terror, like a man transported in his sleep to some terrifying desert island, who wakes up quite lost, with no means of escape. Then I marvel that so wretched a state does not drive people to despair."
- Blaise Pascal
Ahh, but it does...
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“When the pain of leaving behind what we know outweighs the pain of embracing it, or when the power we face is overwhelming and neither flight nor fight will save us, there may be salvation in sitting still. And if salvation is impossible, then at least before perishing we may gain a clearer vision of where we are. By sitting still I do not mean the paralysis of dread, like that of a rabbit frozen beneath the dive of a hawk. I mean something like reverence, a respectful waiting, a deep attentiveness to forces much greater than our own.”
- Scott Russell Sanders
Folks, I fear our time for such reverence has arrived.
God help us, God help us all...
"Retail is Broken"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 2/22/23:
"Retail is Broken"
"It was just announced that another 800 retail stores will be closing across the country. Retail giants are suffering all over the country. The final stop is the shopping mall. It is completely broken."
Comments here:
"Economic Market Snapshot 2/22/23"
"Economic Market Snapshot 2/22/23"
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Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
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"It's a Big Club, and you ain't in it.
You and I are not in the Big Club."
- George Carlin
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A comprehensive, essential daily read.
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Financial Stress Index
"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."
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Job cuts and much more.
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Commentary, highly recommended:
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"The more I see of the monied classes,
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw
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Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...
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And now... The End Game...
"The Economy Is Crashing Even Faster Than A Lot Of The Experts Had Anticipated"
"The Economy Is Crashing Even Faster
Than A Lot Of The Experts Had Anticipated"
By Michael Snyder
"It’s happening. Throughout 2021 and 2022, a whole host of experts were warning that we were going to see another economic crisis like we witnessed in 2008 and 2009, and now it is here. In fact, it is unfolding at a pace that is even more rapid than most of the experts had anticipated. The housing market is crashing, hordes of retail stores are closing, the commercial real estate market is headed for a colossal disaster, food prices continue to surge, and the worst wave of layoffs in more than a decade just continues to get even worse. So many of the economic trends that I have been tracking on The Economic Collapse Blog are now reaching a crescendo, but most Americans still don’t understand how bad things will eventually become.
On Tuesday, we learned that existing home sales in the United States have now fallen for 12 months in a row…"U.S. existing home sales slowed for the 12th consecutive month in January as high mortgage rates, surging inflation and steep home prices sapped consumer demand from the housing market. Sales of previously owned homes tumbled 0.7% in January from the prior month to an annual rate of 4 million units, according to new data released Tuesday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). On an annual basis, existing home sales are down 36.9% when compared with January 2021."
It is the slowest pace since November 2010, when the U.S. was still in the throes of the housing crisis triggered by subprime mortgage defaults. Just think about these numbers for a moment. Existing home sales have dropped every single month for an entire year. That is catastrophic. Overall, existing home sales are a whopping 36.9 percent lower than they were at this time last year. We haven’t seen anything like this since the last housing crash.
Meanwhile, rapidly rising interest rates and the work at home trend that began during the pandemic have combined to create a giant mess for the commercial real estate industry. At this point, projects are starting to fail at a furious pace…"The giant investment manager Brookfield Asset Management recently defaulted on a total of over $750 million in debt for a pair of 52-story towers in Los Angeles, according to a February securities filing. Real-estate firm RXR is in talks with creditors to restructure debt on 61 Broadway, a 34-story tower in Manhattan’s financial district, according to people familiar with the matter. Handing over the building to the lender is among the options under consideration, these people said."
In another sign of distress, a venture of an investment manager affiliated with Related Cos. and BentallGreenOak is in similar debt-restructuring talks over a $150 million warehouse-to-office conversion project in Long Island City, N.Y., that hasn’t filled up as much space as expected, according to people familiar with the matter.
Sadly, this is just the tip of the iceberg. As I discussed the other day, I believe that we will eventually see the worst commercial real estate crisis in the entire history of our nation.
Of course the whole economy is moving into very troubled times. The Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators has now dropped lower in each of the past ten months. The last time we witnessed a streak of this magnitude was in 2008. Even Walmart and Home Depot are acknowledging that a very challenging economic environment is in front of us, and bleak forecasts from both companies helped to spark another round of panic selling on Wall Street…"US stocks plunged on Tuesday after fourth-quarter earnings and forecasts from mega-retailers like Walmart and Home Depot raised concerns about the strength of the US consumer. The Dow and S&P 500 each closed with their worst day since December 15 – the Dow fell about 696 points, or 2.1%, while the S&P dropped by 2%. The Nasdaq Composite closed 2.5% lower."
Consumer spending accounts for about 70% of America’s gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the US economy, so a slowdown could weigh on growth and even send the United States into a recession. As economic activity slows down, major retailers are closing hundreds of locations all over the country…"America is bracing for a mass exodus of retail stores across the nation this year, with more than 800 big box locations set to close from California to New York. Among the iconic names to announce they are downsizing includes Bed Bath & Beyond, Walmart, Gap and Party City. At least 803 stores are set to be shuttered over the rest of 2023, with many forced into desperate cost cutting measures amid rampant inflation and declining bottom lines."
Sadly, there will be more. A lot more. Needless to say, a lot more layoffs are coming too. In fact, we just learned that McKinsey & Co “plans to eliminate about 2,000 jobs”…"McKinsey & Co. plans to eliminate about 2,000 jobs, one of the consulting giant’s biggest rounds of cuts ever. The firm known for devising staff-reduction plans for its clients is taking the ax to some of its own, with the move expected to focus on support staff in roles that don’t have direct contact with clients, according to people with knowledge of the matter."
So many people are going to lose their jobs in the months ahead. The tech industry is supposed to be one of the backbones of our economy, but they have been laying off workers faster than almost any other sector. And the numbers tell us that the pace of tech layoffs in 2023 is already way ahead of last year. If you do not have a job right now, I would recommend grabbing one while you still can. And if you do have a job that you value, I would try to hold on to it as hard as you can.
These are the times that we have been warned about, and eventually economic conditions will be even worse than they were in 2008 and 2009. Those running our economy were able to keep things propped up for quite a while by pushing interest rates all the way to the floor and by flooding our system with mountains of fresh money. But in the process they created a tremendous amount of inflation, and meanwhile our long-term economic problems just continued to get even worse. Now a day of reckoning has arrived, and our leaders are all out of solutions."
"Strange Prices At Sam's Club! Stock Up Now! What's Next?"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 2/22/23:
"Strange Prices At Sam's Club! Stock Up Now! What's Next?"
Comments here:
Bill Bonner, "On Quality"
"On Quality"
Plus, fibbing GDP numbers, F-35 flops and half
a century repose on a small, Greek island...
By Bill Bonner and Joel Bowman
Salta, Argentina - “There’s only one law that works in Argentina, the law of gravity.” Investors are still trying to make sense of it. If inflation is going away…why is the Fed threatening more rate increases? And if the economy is so great, why are wages and corporate profits slipping? Fox News: "The Fed’s been trying to put the brakes on, and it doesn’t look like the brakes are getting much traction," [Larry Summers] said."
Summers has a point. Inflation is easing…but not much. And debt is still going up. In other words, so far, the Fed has failed to turn the ship around. And it’s still taking on water. Here’s the latest from USA Today: "US credit card debt hit a record high as inflation leaves consumers financially stressed." "The latest data is a major reversal from two years ago when Americans were rapidly paying off credit card debt with stimulus money they received. And at the same time, they weren't taking on more debt to pay for big-ticket expenses such as vacations because of the pandemic."
Real Mischief: Additional debt means that additional money has been put in the system. More money in circulation means more inflation. Remember, it is borrowing that brings new money into existence. The money only disappears when the debt is paid. Or not paid and written off. Meanwhile, higher prices and lower real wages do their mischief. Here’s another tell-tale item from The Wall Street Journal: "Some 9.3% of auto loans extended to people with low credit scores were 30 or more days behind on payments at the end of last year, the highest share since 2010, according to an analysis by Moody’s Analytics."
But wait. These are just numbers. And here in Argentina, for example, the numbers are almost all bad. But the quality of life can still be very high. Quality is different from statistics. The statistics tell us that more cars are being repossessed. But first, the Repo man comes for the unemployed guy’s car. Then, he comes for your neighbor’s car. So what? It doesn’t really matter until the Repo man drives off in your car. That’s quality.
We’re reaching for a point, here. But we’re not sure what it is…so we will stretch out our arms and see what we can grab.
Time After Time: A few years ago, we saw an interesting story in The New York Times. A man in Chicago, a recent immigrant from Greece, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He decided to go home to die. So, he moved back in with his parents on a small Greek island. To fill the time, he began working in his garden. Gradually, he felt stronger, and worked more and more. And then, in the evening, he got together with his neighbors at the local bar. They drank wine and danced. Time went by. And he didn’t die; he lived for almost another 50 years.
This was altogether good news to him. But it was bad news to the US GDP. No heroic efforts to save him; the medical system earned nothing from him. No funeral was held. No flowers were bought. No wake was held. No hearse was hired. No casket was bought. No grave was dug and no lawyer got to read the will to the bereaved relatives. All in all, it was a very disappointing time for US GDP.
But thank God for the F-35. Odometer reports: "At a whopping $1.7 trillion, America’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is the most expensive weapon in human history. The highly advanced vertical take-off and landing aircraft was supposed to be the low-cost fighter of the future. But after numerous delays, costly overbudgeting, and international partners dropping out, the price tag of the plane has only ballooned. Things got especially bad when in 2015 the 5th Gen fighter lost in numerous dogfights to older F-16 and F-15 fighter jets."
The Cost of War: The cost of the F-35 program is now estimated – if all goes well – at about the same as Canada’s GDP…including all its new houses, its salaries, its government spending and maple syrup consumption. That money, in Canada, keeps people warm, fed, housed and entertained. Is it really equal to the value of a misbegotten fighter plane? GDP tells when the economy is ‘growing’ or when it is in ‘recession.’ If the F-35 were canceled, GDP would take a hit. Would we be worse off?
Numbers don’t fib intentionally. A 3 is fairly reliable. You can even trust a 5 most of the time. But put them into a BLS formula and they become a Congressman. Then, all the prime numbers, and all that are derived from them, become liars. Especially when they have decimals in them. More to come…"
Joel’s Note: "Speaking of quality… over the weekend we promised dear readers/listeners a full transcript of the latest Fatal Conceits podcast episode, which we recorded last week with long-time friend of Bonner Private Research, Mr. Byron King. We talk shadow Russian tanker fleets… where to next for gold… BRICS nations and the trend toward de-dollarization… potential war in the South China Sea… and plenty more during our hour-long discussion.
In case you missed it the first time around, you can listen in here… or read the complete transcript (just added under the recording, along with one of Byron’s essays, also promised in the episode, titled: "Gaming America’s Next War"). There’s plenty of material in there to help you while away the breezy afternoons as you’re relaxing, stress-free, on your small Greek Island…"
"Is The End Of The Road Nearly At Hand?"
"Is The End Of The Road Nearly At Hand?"
By John Wilder
"Pa Wilder was a banker, and when we communicated via a while back, I’d send him long-ish messages about most everything. One time, I broached the economy with him. As a small farm banker with more than 50 years of experience, he was familiar with the way the system worked.
When I first heard that the Federal Reserve™ wasn’t owned by the government, but by the member banks, I asked him. I figured he’d tell me, “Nah, John, it’s really owned by the government, aliens aren’t real, go back to sleep – we won the war.” Nope. He then went through how each member bank was required to buy stock in the regional Federal Reserve Banks (as I recall) with at least 6% of their deposits.
Whoa. His bank owned a tiny part of the Federal Reserve Bank®. Certainly not much, but part of it. The Federal Reserve Bank© is a private institution. It was the 1913 mechanism to get the politicians out of the economy. The Great Depression shows how well it worked.
After World War II, there was a time of relative stability – Europe and Japan were shattered, and the United States had industry that was just waiting to stop making weapons and start making washers. The sudden influx of labor with the demobilizing G.I.s made a combination for economic growth. After they drank the bars dry and made a zillion babies.
Even with the added costs of Social Security, it worked. The economy was working so well that we could build an interstate highway system without breaking a sweat. The highway system even added to the economic boom by lowering the cost and time required to move goods, effectively shrinking the country.
However, every good party has to end. Johnson’s Great Society and financing for the Vietnam War out of “money we just made up” caused Nixon to end the last tether between gold and the dollar. Sure, the Fed® had been cheating about the amount of cash it had been printing, but when the bluff was called, Nixon had the option of sending all our gold to France or saying “just kidding”.
He chose the latter. I think it was a good idea, because it wasn’t like France was going to do anything about it, anyway. The result was the petrodollar – the idea that all international transactions in oil would take place in dollars. That also resulted in almost all transactions taking place in the dollar. The inflation of the 1970s was the result – it was before we figured out how to tax the world by printing dollars in a sorta responsible way.
So, people all over the world needed dollars, even though we were printing them like we were, well, the Fed™. As long as the Soviet Union existed, there was a counterbalance to the United States, so at least there was some check. But after they went tango uniform? That’s when the responsibility completely ended, the cash was printed, and the instability really started.
The Dotcom Bubble was the first – fed by cash from the Fed® with no place to go. And then it tanked. So the Fed™ printed a few trillion bucks. That led directly to . . .
The Housing Bubble. You probably have heard of it. But this was different – it actually lead to protests against the banks. A reprogramming was necessary – “put the bankers in jail” had to be stopped, because bankers like to use our money to buy themselves nice things like that tiny part of France where they don’t let Muslims in. Except the Saudis.
A reprogramming was needed – Occupy Wall Street™ had to turn to...something. That reprogramming of the Lefty rank and file was into “white people are awful” and it got the heat away from the bankers. And made movies suck.
Meanwhile, the money hijinks led to country after country having revolutions, from Libya to Egypt to Syria. Why? Because inflation in the United States (at that point) meant that people had to pay a nickel more for Cheetos®. In Egypt, that meant that one of the children had to be sold into medical experimentation.
The key to all of this was keeping the dollar as the key currency used in international transactions. To be clear, Russia was a big threat in this. Sure, Russia is ruled by corrupt folks who kill people who threaten them, but I can raise you a Jeff Epstein, a Hunter Biden, and Hillary.
The Russians certainly threatened all of this with Nordstream® and Nordstream II©. These pipelines pushed natural gas straight from Russia to Europe. Now, Russia could take euros for gas. Dollar not required. And scary. All the investment of the Left in Green Energy® led them to shut down nuclear power plants (Germany, I’m looking at you) and replace them with natural gas plants. And you see the results. (hint: Ukraine and certain underwater explosions.)
Now we find that we have a currency that’s becoming worth less every day, foreign folks are building ways to not take the dollar. So they need fewer of them. And want fewer of them in their pockets.
It doesn’t help that we’re in debt by (spins wheel) over $32 trillion bucks, the economy is distorted, and that Medicare® and Medicaid™ will soon cost more than Joe Biden’s hair plugs. And we’re going to double that in the next eight years, and double it again in the next eight. That’s $100 trillion dollars. Does anyone reading this believe we can last that long?
Pa Wilder said 20 years ago that he didn’t see how it could last. But many folks have gone broke by betting against the Fed™. That one day they can’t paper it all over? Nah. Don’t worry. It’ll be fine."
Greg Hunter, "Neocons Need War Because Monetary System Collapsing"
"Neocons Need War Because
Monetary System Collapsing"
by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
"Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong said at the end of last year the U.S. is being set up for a “nightmare fall.” Train derailments and political problems are spinning out of control, but the biggest threat is war. Armstrong explains, “They want a war, but they also need it because the monetary system is collapsing. You have had interest rates at negative since 2014. So, suddenly interest rates are rising. Any bond owned by any institution in Europe is a loser. They have lost so much money, it’s incredible. What happens? Nobody is interested in long term debt – period. If you have interest rates rising, and rates are going to be going up because the Fed cannot stop this kind of inflation. Then, you got war. You have untold billions of dollars being shipped into Ukraine which is absurd. This is what you have.
You also have to look at what Janet Yellen said, and she was concerned with the tons of new debt coming out. You are exceeding the balance sheets of the Primary Dealers. To be a Primary dealer you have to be able to guarantee you will be able to buy X amount of debt. If you can’t sell it, what happens? The bank is stuck with the debt, and then, they go bust. So, we have a real problem here. They cannot continue to issue this kind of debt in perpetuity. They have been borrowing money since WWII with no intention of paying anything off. The Fed is independent, and they don’t want the long term debt. They have been moving towards the short end of the curve. How do you continue to fund a government if there are no buyers for the debt? This is on a global scale.”
So, war checks all the boxes? Armstrong says, “Absolutely. They get to default on all this debt which is the real objective. That’s why (Klaus) Schwab is out there saying you’ll own nothing and be happy. He’s trying to make it sound like they are doing this for you. We are going to default on all debt and relive you of all your debt. This is because they are going to wipe out everything. Pension funds will be all gone. That’s why they are coming out with guaranteed basic income to replace your pension. They’ve got this all worked out. That’s what the end goal is here because they cannot continue to function this way. They cannot continue to borrow whatever they need with no intention of ever paying it back.”
Armstrong reveals why the 2024 elections may not happen. Can the Deep State commit enough voter fraud to keep Biden and the rest of the Neocons in power? Armstrong says most of what is happening today is the fault of the Neocons, and they have control of both parties. Armstrong points out Democrat Hillary Clinton paid for the phony Trump/Russia dossier, and Republican John McCain delivered it to the FBI. Armstrong calls it the “Uni-party,” and goes deep on the problems the Neocons are causing on purpose.
Armstrong also talks about the dollar, gold, civil unrest, tangible assets and the Ukraine war. Armstrong’s sources say the real number of casualties of Ukraine Army stands at a whopping 250,000 dead. Armstrong says Russia is NOT losing the war. It is winning." There is much more in the 47-minute interview.
Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with Martin Armstrong, cycle expert and author of the upcoming new book “The Rise of the Neocons.”
Tuesday, February 21, 2023
"Alert! Russia Summons US Ambassador; Nuclear Tests To Begin; China "Joins Forces"; Hell Broke Loose"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 2/21/23:
"Alert! Russia Summons US Ambassador;
Nuclear Tests To Begin; China "Joins Forces"; Hell Broke Loose"
Comments here:
Judge Napolitano, "Ukraine Russia War - One Year in Col. Doug Macgregor"
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 2/21/23:
"Ukraine Russia War - One Year in Col. Doug Macgregor"
Comments here:
"Commercial Real Estate Collapse Trigger 80% Loss In Property Value & Enormous Surge Of Bankruptcies"
Full screen recommended.
"Commercial Real Estate Collapse Trigger 80% Loss
In Property Value & Enormous Surge Of Bankruptcies"
by Epic Economist
"A cataclysmic commercial real estate collapse is happening in plain sight and no one seems to be talking about it. We’ve just recorded the biggest month-over-month property value drop since the global financial crisis. The sector is facing an increasingly dire situation fueled by weakening demand, record storefront vacancies, a shift to remote working, and souring credit conditions. Experts say that the slump in the world’s biggest asset class has spread from the housing market to commercial real estate, and now a flood of distressed loans can result in an 84% value destruction and unleash serious turmoil all across the U.S. economy.
A recent study by NYU scholars is using the word “apocalyptic” to describe the crisis that is now unfolding before our eyes. By analyzing data provided by research firm Green Street, commercial property prices have already dropped by 13% in 2023, the largest monthly decline since it began tracking this data in 2007, in the run-up to the global financial crisis. NYU professor Arpit Gupta and his team point to a looming “commercial real estate apocalypse,” with office prices declining 84% in less than five years. Since 2020, commercial property values have fallen by 45%, and according to their projections, another 39% collapse is going to take place by 2025. That represents a “$453 billion value destruction”.
Moody’s Analytics documented that Securities backed by commercial mortgages saw “a huge spike in elevated delinquency rates” in the past quarter. “What we have in this downturn is a fairly unique set of economic circumstances. Interest rates are tightening instead of softening the blow for real estate and other corporates,” said Ian Guthrie, a senior managing director at the loan advisory team at Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., a real estate broker. The Federal Reserve has already hiked interest rates seven times, and it’s not finished yet, which means that the environment for borrowers and lenders is expected to deteriorate even further as the months go by.
Right now, one of the biggest risks in commercial real estate is older and less desirable office and retail space. New reports indicate that private equity investors are walking away from the sector due to rising uncertainty about the future of commercial properties amid raging inflation and construction and financing costs during the recession.
Almost $175 billion of real estate credit is already distressed, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. At the moment, about one in 10 corporate loans in the U.S. is already underperforming and showing increased credit risk, Bank of America reported. The combined meltdown of both commercial and residential real estate is unprecedented in all of U.S. history. The amount of wealth that can be wiped out from the system can reach the trillions before this is all over.
We are in for a very rough ride, and we have very limited alternatives. The resilience of U.S. businesses and consumers is at stake, and while thousands upon thousands of companies can disappear in that process, Americans can lose everything they have ever fought for. This is not just a housing and commercial real estate collapse. This is a reflection of a broken economy and a decaying society. While the sector’s apocalypse looms over us, now more than ever, we need to keep one eye on the danger."
Comments here:
"We Are In A Major Crisis, Stop Ignoring It; Economy Headed For Hell; Walmart Prepares or Slowdown"
Jeremiah Babe, 2/21/23:
"We Are In A Major Crisis, Stop Ignoring It;
Economy Headed For Hell; Walmart Prepares or Slowdown"
Comments here:
Musical Interlude: Tron Syversen, “Moonlight Reflections”
Full screen recommended.
Tron Syversen, “Moonlight Reflections”
Musical Interlude:The Rolling Stones, "If I Was A Dancer (Dance Pt. 2)"
The Rolling Stones,
"If I Was A Dancer (Dance Pt. 2)"
Turn it up! lol
Attitude. In Philly, pronounced at-tee-tood...
- CP
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Large galaxies and faint nebulae highlight this deep image of the M81 Group of galaxies. First and foremost in the wide-angle 12-hour exposure is the grand design spiral galaxy M81, the largest galaxy visible in the image. M81 is gravitationally interacting with M82 just below it, a big galaxy with an unusual halo of filamentary red-glowing gas.
Around the image many other galaxies from the M81 Group of galaxies can be seen. Together with other galaxy congregates including our Local Group of galaxies and the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, the M81 Group is part of the expansive Virgo Supercluster of Galaxies. This whole galaxy menagerie is seen through the faint glow of an Integrated Flux Nebula, a little studied complex of diffuse gas and dust clouds in our Milky Way Galaxy."
Chet Raymo, “Not Known, Because Not Looked For”
“Not Known, Because Not Looked For”
by Chet Raymo
“A reader shared with us those well-known lines of T. S. Eliot (“Little Gidding”). It is not quite what Eliot is up to, but I was reminded of some lines of Pascal that I shared here several years ago: “Scientific learning is composed of two opposites which nonetheless meet each other. The first is the natural ignorance that is man’s lot at birth. The second is represented by those great minds that have investigated all knowledge accumulated by man only to discover at the end that in fact they know nothing. Thus they return to the same fundamental ignorance they had thought to leave. Yet this ignorance they have now discovered is an intellectual achievement. It is those who have departed from their original condition of ignorance but have been incapable of completing the full cycle of learning who offer us a smattering of scientific knowledge and pass sweeping judgments. These are the mischief makers, the false prophets.” (“Pensees” V:327)
It took almost three centuries for Pascal’s remarkable insight to become the common opinion of scientists. The 20th-century philosopher Karl Popper expressed it this way: “The more we learn about the world, and the deeper our learning, the more conscious, specific, and articulate will be our knowledge of what we do not know, our knowledge of our ignorance. For this, indeed, is the main source of our ignorance- the fact that our knowledge can be only finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.”
It is an odd, unsettling thought that the culmination of the scientific quest- the long slow gathering of reliable empirical knowledge of the world- should be confirmation of how little we understand about the universe we live in. A willingness to say “I don’t know” is a prerequisite of scientific discovery. Only in the silence of acknowledged ignorance can we hear - half hear - the thing that calls us to attend.
Click image for larger size.
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