“'Mad Max' Conditions Are Coming: Desperation Is Rising As The Economy Rapidly Deteriorates And Food Costs Soar"

“'Mad Max' Conditions Are Coming: Desperation Is Rising

 As The Economy Rapidly Deteriorates And Food Costs Soar"

by Michael Snyder

"How far would you go to feed your family? Hopefully that is a question that you will not have to answer any time soon, but right now we are seeing millions upon millions of people become more desperate as economic conditions rapidly deteriorate and food costs soar. At this point, most Americans are just barely scraping by from month to month, and in poorer countries on the other side of the world there are people that are literally starving to death. As I have detailed previously, the UN has reported that 2.4 billion people did not have enough food to eat last year, and 900 million of them were facing severe food insecurity. Sadly, those numbers will inevitably be even higher for 2023. A global rice crisis has erupted, and the collapse of the Black Sea grain deal has greatly restricted the flow of agricultural goods from that part of the globe. Food costs are spiking all over the planet, and that is really bad news for all of us.

For those of us that live in the United States, the good news is that nobody is starving at this stage. But food prices have become extremely oppressive, and economic conditions are quickly moving in the wrong direction. 670,000 full-time jobs have been lost in just the past two months, and on Friday we witnessed the worst unadjusted payrolls report for the month of August since the Great Recession. Yes, things really are that bad.

One recent survey discovered that 61 percent of Americans are currently living paycheck to paycheck, but I expect this number to go even higher in the months ahead…"Inflation, mortgage rates over 7% and credit card APR’s north of 20% have pushed all income brackets into living paycheck to paycheck, according to a new survey from Lending Club Bank.

“In July 2023, 61% of U.S. consumers live paycheck to paycheck, unchanged from June 2023, but 2 percentage points higher than July 2022. Generally, more consumers of all income brackets reported living paycheck to paycheck in July 2023 than last year,” Alia Dudum, a money expert at LendingClub told FOX Business."

Things are particularly dire for low income workers. That same survey discovered that a whopping 78 percent of those that earn less than $50,000 a year are living paycheck to paycheck at this point…"Lower-income workers have been the hardest hit by higher prices, particularly for food and other necessities, since those expenses account for a bigger share of the budget, studies show. Now, 78% of consumers earning less than $50,000 a year and 65% of those earning between $50,000 and $100,000 were living paycheck to paycheck in July, both up from a year ago, LendingClub found. Of those earning $100,000 or more, only 44% reported living paycheck to paycheck."

As I discussed last week, U.S. households that are feeling financial strain are increasingly turning to debt to make ends meet, and this has pushed debt levels to unprecedented heights…"Total household debt climbed to a new high in the second quarter of 2023, reaching $17.06 trillion, with credit card debt exceeding $1 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. As interest rates stay high, costs continue to rise for expenses like housing and cars, and student loan payments resume, the amount of debt may rise, according to economists who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“The amount of debt outstanding, and in particular the surpassing of the $1 trillion mark, is significant and worrisome,” Peter Earle, an economist at the American Institute for Economic Research, told the DCNF. “It owes to a combination of several factors. The initial response to the pandemic, which prominently included the Fed setting policy (interest) rates at essentially zero for several years, made the amount of credit and the price of taking on debt extraordinarily cheap.”

As economic conditions get worse, people are becoming more desperate. This is helping to fuel a crime wave all over the nation, and retailers are being forced to implement extreme measures. According to the Wahington Post, a Giant Food store in Washington D.C. is actually going to be taking all Tide, Colgate and Advil products off the shelves completely because theft has become such a problem…

"In the coming weeks, a Giant Food market in D.C. will clear its beauty and health aisles of all national labels. No more Tide, Colgate or Advil, only store brands. Shoppers also will have to present their receipts to an employee before exiting the store. It’s the regional supermarket chain’s most overt gambit against the rampant theft that’s plaguing retailers of all sizes. It’s also a potential last-ditch effort to avoid shutting down the unprofitable store on Alabama Avenue — the only major grocer east of the Anacostia River in Ward 8.

An executive for the chain told the Washington Post that the company has “no other choice” and she noted that other stores in the area have done similar things… “We have no other choice,” Diane Hicks, senior vice president of operations said Thursday during a walk-through with officials from the D.C. mayor’s office, the Metropolitan police and fire departments, and Chamber of Commerce. She added that other nearby stores have locked up all their product on those aisles or removed them altogether. “I’ve been leaving it out for our customers and unfortunately it just forces all the crime to come to us.”

This is where our entire society is heading. It is just a matter of time before we see armed guards stationed in grocery stores and on food trucks all over America. Desperate people do desperate things, and right now we are seeing things happen that are absolutely nuts.

Just a few days ago, an extremely shocking incident that happened in broad daylight at a Home Depot store in California made headlines all over the nation…"Brazen thieves were caught on camera casually walking out with $9,000 worth of goods from separate California stores as lawlessness in the state governed by Gavin Newsom continues. A group of masked thieves stormed into a Home Depot store in Signal Hill on August 27 and stole $5,000 worth of power tools in full view of shocked staff and customers. The seven men loaded two shopping carts with expensive goods and carried as much as possible in their arms before walking out."

These sorts of robberies have become so common that I couldn’t possibly cover them all. We really are starting to become a “Mad Max” society. Of course the truth is that the entire world is moving in that direction. Global supplies of food are getting tighter and tighter, and the recent spike in rice prices has created a tremendous amount of concern…

"Countries worldwide are scrambling to secure rice after a partial ban on exports by India cut global supplies by roughly a fifth. Global food security is already under threat since Russia halted an agreement allowing Ukraine to export wheat and the El Nino weather phenomenon hampers rice production.

Now, rice prices are soaring, and it’s putting the most vulnerable people in some of the poorest nations at risk. Vietnam’s rice export prices, for instance, have reached a 15-year high. Even before India’s restrictions, countries already were frantically buying rice in anticipation of scarcity later when the El Nino hit, creating a supply crunch and spiking prices."

Civil unrest has already started to erupt in various parts of Africa, but if current trends continue things will get a whole lot worse around the globe in 2024. Are you prepared for what is ahead? Right now, a lot of people are apparently asking that question. In fact, according to Zero Hedge the number of Americans searching for the term “live off grid” on the Internet has hit the highest level in years…"What’s piqued our interest is the sudden panic by some Americans searching ‘live off grid’ on the internet, hitting the highest level in five years. The driving force behind finding a rural piece of land for dirt cheap, buying or building a tiny home, installing solar panels, and sourcing your own food and water might have to do with the worst inflation storm in a generation while Democrat cities implode under the weight of soaring violent crime."

I have been relentlessly warning my readers that “Mad Max” conditions are coming for years. Anyone that took an honest look at the long-term trends should have been able to see that. Global leaders have been making absolutely disastrous decisions for a very long time, and now we are all going to reap the consequences."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

Jeremiah Babe, "Desperate People Will Get A Lot More Desperate"

Jeremiah Babe, 9/4/23

"Desperate People Will Get A Lot More Desperate"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Memory Of The Sky"

Full screen recommended.

2002, "Memory Of The Sky"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Sculpted by stellar winds and radiation, a magnificent interstellar dust cloud by chance has assumed this recognizable shape. Fittingly named the Horsehead Nebula, it is some 1,500 light-years distant, embedded in the vast Orion cloud complex. 

About five light-years "tall", the dark cloud is cataloged as Barnard 33 and is visible only because its obscuring dust is silhouetted against the glowing red emission nebula IC 434. Stars are forming within the dark cloud. Contrasting blue reflection nebula NGC 2023, surrounding a hot, young star, is at the lower left. The gorgeous featured image combines both narrowband and broadband images."

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150513.html

"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.

"Something Like Reverence..."

“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

"If Only You Knew"

"If Only You Knew"

by Teresa Marchese

"This morning, I saw a young man, hanging dead from a tree. It started out as a typical  morning. It was 6:45 am. I brought the "toys" today; weights, bars, balls and boxing gloves, to have my clients work at stations. I run Rock Solid Fitness, a women's outdoor fitness club, at San Francisco's Land's End. We run trails and hills and stairs on this rocky park of cypress and redwood. But this morning, the first client to arrive begged for a "wimpy" workout, so we headed out to Land's End trail. It was a beautiful morning, and I thought some deep stretching overlooking the Golden Gate as the sun rose was in good order.

Walking that path shoulder to shoulder with three of the amazing women with whom I begin each day, whose stories I learn, whose lives weave through mine with soft, smiling, shimmering threads. An evening at the theater was recounted, a daughter was praised, a mention of Bill Clinton's charm (if you were to meet him in person), a reference to Vince Neil. Setting a quick pace, marching on, the stories continued. Looking forward, as I tend to do, I noticed an unfamiliar silhouette in those well-known woods. My stomach lurched, but only slightly, as I was unbelieving. A body hung from a tree, heels in the leafy ground. "Is it real?" I asked, as we moved toward him. Hands. Face. Body. It looked almost an effigy, a sick waxy joke, at the end of a rope.

We moved closer. And we moved quickly. There was no doubt he was real. There was no doubt he was dead. Clearly trained in knots, he had hung himself well in the night with a brand new electrical cord. A suicide. Finished.

He was young. Early twenties? Looking back, I wonder if he was younger, maybe in his teens. I don't meet Death often, but I suppose his mask makes one look older. Apart from being lifeless, he was everything a young man should be - handsome, well-heeled, sporting backpack and iPod. Hood up over dark curly hair - a San Francisco kid. His hands rested, resolute, at his sides.

Not one of us hesitated to touch him, to hold him, to relieve the tension that took his last breath. We four women strongly played our part - mother, sister, tender, friend - released him from his hold. Normally, I'm in charge. I'm the teacher. I'm the trainer. I give the orders. But something else took over here - a solidarity among women. One a doctor, another a mother, all of us upright and bold. We didn't speak. We didn't need to, I guess. We understood that we wanted to get him down and we moved accordingly. The thick branch that held him was about seven-and-a-half feet off the ground. I got underneath him and lifted his weight as the tallest of us lifted the smallest of us to reach and unwrap the cable. We laid him on the soft, grassy earth. Our doctor checked his pulse, his pupils. I felt his fingers, tried to open his stiff hand.

I looked at the group, I knew none of us was carrying a phone. Addressing the three of them, I said, "You'll stay? And I'll go for help." Help? There was no helping this one. I would take the next proper step. I spotted a morning hiker, ran to him and explained the situation. I took his phone while he went to the parking lot to direct the first-responders to the trail.

911 answered immediately, but wanted an address. Frustrated, I asked to be connected to San Francisco dispatch, to someone who could listen to my instructions and understand where I was. I heard sirens within two minutes, hung up the phone, and waved the paramedics to the trailhead. The first jumped from the engine to walk with me. "How do you know he's dead?" he asked me. "He's dead," I answered.

We left them to their work and deferentially gave a park police officer our statements. We were commended for staying - merely for staying on the scene. Most people call and leave, he told us. Really? How can someone just walk away from the dead? Because we took him down, we had to give detailed written statements. Our foursome huddled together in one car and rode in silence. There was a deep sadness and reverence among us - among all of us. Even the paramedics and the police officers, who surely meet grief often, were dejected and mindful. Because of the hour and "remote" location, the scene was respectfully not tainted with gawking onlookers and gossip-hungry voyeurs. For this, I was grateful.

We handed over our statements, hugged each other hard, and dispersed. It was 7:58 a.m. I canceled my next class and the day's remaining appointments and sat in my truck for a while, looking out over the edge of the world. I wanted to shout out to everyone I love, "We belong on this earth! We are here for a reason! Stay here with me!" I decided I would do just that, in my own way. I would start with my husband. I drove home, vowing to better love those I love, as well as those I don't yet.

To the family of the nameless one, I am sorry I could not speak his name. Please know he was carefully and lovingly tended to when he was found. Four gentle, but rock-solid women, took him from that tree and laid him down to rest.

To the nameless one, whom I briefly held, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the loss of those who loved you. (They did, of course, you know.) I'm sorry that it wasn't enough for you, here, now. Alas, you've moved on, young friend. You left your sorrow in that tree. Let your despair roll down those rocky cliffs, and be taken with the tide, pummeled and churned in the pacific surf, sprayed and splayed on the horizon, metamorphosed into air and light. Now do you see that you interrupted the rhythm of all things? If only you could have known how important you are to the fabric of this life, this place, you could have stayed, and lived your short life longer. You surely would have cried more tears, but you would have laughed more, you would have loved, you would have learned and lost and traveled. You might have started a business, a revolution, a country. You might have saved a life. I wish you would have. And now I wish I would have." 

- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

"Who Wants to Live Forever?"

"Who Wants to Live Forever?"

by Mark Manson

"Each week, I send you three potentially life-changing ideas to help you be a slightly less awful human being. This week, we’re talking about topics that are a matter of life and death. No seriously, we’re talking about life and death this week: 1) the scientific progress in "treating" aging, 2) what a vastly longer lifespan would mean for culture and society, and 3) why do things die in the first place? Let’s get into it.

1. Can aging be reversed? - One of the more quietly controversial and interesting areas of scientific progress today is around the idea that biological aging can be treated as a disease and potentially be reversed. For years, researchers have been pioneering methods to limit cellular deterioration, stave off chronic diseases, and help older individuals stay healthy and independent as life expectancies rise.

A new study found that a cocktail of drugs not only slowed biological aging (measured by markers on the individual’s genome), it reversed it by approximately 2.5 years. To my knowledge, this is the first time an aging reversal has been shown in human subjects. This is a stunning result that even the researchers did not expect. (Note: it was a small study and had no control group, so don’t wet your panties just yet. As always, more studies need to be done.)

As with most bleeding-edge technologies, the idea that we can defeat aging, like most controversial ideas, has inspired reactions from experts that range from utopian to apocalyptic.

I was first exposed to the idea that aging could potentially be conquered by science in Ray Kurzweil’s book "The Singularity is Near." In it, Kurzweil's’ views are beyond utopian. They're like the religious rapture. In the book, Kurzweil makes the argument that not only will we cure death, but it will likely happen in most of our lifetimes.

Kurzweil points out that over human history, not only has life expectancy been increasing, but the rate at which it increases has been increasing as well. So, maybe centuries ago, life expectancy increased at a rate of 0.01 years per year. Then, it increased to 0.1 per year. Then 0.2 per year. Then 0.3 per year. He argues that eventually, life expectancy will hit a tipping point where it increases by at least one year per year, meaning that for every year that goes by, humans are expected to live at least one year longer. Ergo, we all become immortal. The end.

Maybe Kurzweil hasn’t spent much time investing in financial markets, otherwise, he’d be aware of the ubiquitous warning that accompanies every exciting chart: "Warning: Past performance is no guarantee of future results."

Indeed, there seems to be a "low-hanging fruit" effect on human longevity. It turns out that giving most of the world running water, sewage treatment, and, you know, food, vastly increases lifespan. So that "exponential curve" of increasing life expectancy that forever increases into the future is more likely an "S-curve" where life expectancy jumps massively as countries industrialize and modernize and then begin to level off at around 75-80 years old.

But regardless of the murky science and controversial implications, the lure of immortality is too strong for many to ignore. Companies have emerged that offer to cryogenically freeze your body when you die, promising to keep you frozen until the technology to "cure death" emerges in the future.

No, I’m not making this stuff up. Apparently, some notable people such as Larry King and Peter Thiel have signed up for it. But don’t get too excited. Freezing your body indefinitely after death starts at around $200,000 USD. Better start saving today!

2. Who wants to live forever? - In my book, "Everything is F***ed: A Book About Hope", I argued that one of the dangers of consumer culture is that we often equate "giving people what they want" with progress. Given that we so often want things that are terrible for ourselves (not to mention others), I point out that this is a pretty flimsy standard for measuring the social good.  

To me, curing aging (and maybe even death) is the ultimate question of, "Okay, we definitely want it… but should we?"

It’s hard to imagine the social and psychological repercussions of a population where the average life expectancy is, say, 250 years old. Would we overpopulate the planet? When would the retirement age be? Would our healthcare systems collapse? Would bridge and bingo become Olympic sports?

I joke, but I do think there are some serious philosophical questions here. Our ability to value things is driven by scarcity. We often care about things in our lives because we have an abiding sense that we will never experience them again. If we live forever, all experience becomes abundant, therefore much of it loses its meaning. Everything becomes more superficial—there’s no sense of legacy, no sense of, "I lived for that."

Or what about family? Will it become standard for everyone to have half a dozen marriages and a dozen kids? Will people have brothers and sisters 70 years younger or older than themselves? Will we appreciate our parents more or less knowing that we’re stuck with them for another two centuries and will end up sharing them with dozens of other people?

The perceived costs of things like traffic accidents, disease, and war would become much larger. Far fewer people would want to risk getting shot or dying in a car accident if they know they’re giving up hundreds of years of life. People would oddly become much more risk-averse. Pandemics would be waaaay scarier. The power of compound interest would become far more valuable, creating much more of a culture around saving and learning rather than spending and doing. Expertise would reach a point where people spend 30 or 40 years getting educated before starting their careers. Forty really would be the new twenty!

3. The evolutionary value of death - You might read all this and throw your hands up in the air and shout, "What are they doing? This isn’t natural!" But you’d be wrong.

Although they are rare, there are "immortal" species on the planet (in this case, "immortal" means that they do not biologically age.) The jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii doesn’t die. Neither does the bristlecone pine tree. Many species of lobster technically don’t age and could theoretically live forever, the problem is that they outgrow their shells which then decay and fall apart, leaving them vulnerable to predators (talk about tragic).

Lifespans vary widely across the natural world. Some sharks and tortoises live for half a millennia. There are species of apes that only live to be about 15 years old. There are several species of flies that live for 24 hours or less.

It turns out that death is not inevitable. In fact, death exists for a specific evolutionary purpose. Ideally, by mixing and matching genetics, a species becomes more robustly adapted to its environment. The quicker individual creatures die, the faster they must procreate new generations, and the faster the rate of genetic mutation and adaptation within the species.

Therefore, each species has a "sweet spot" for lifespan based on the necessary evolutionary adaptation to its environment. If a species needs to adapt quickly and often, it dies quickly and often. If it needs to adapt slowly (or never), then it dies slowly (or never).

That "sweet spot" for humans seems to be every 2-3 generations, or every 80-100 years. The telomeres on our chromosomes appear to "run out" soon after that, effectively putting a limit on how long we can live naturally. This sweet spot probably exists because it’s short enough to stay ahead of the quickly mutating infectious diseases that threaten us, but long enough to have some grandparents around to help raise kids (for more on this idea, see Matt Ridley’s excellent book, "The Red Queen").  

A lot has been said about the scientific potential to alter our own species - genetic engineering, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, etc. But perhaps nothing would be so fundamental as altering our ability to age and die. Our psychology, our biology, and our societies seem to be largely based on it. Changing it could change everything. The question is, will we be around to see it?"

- https://markmanson.net/

The Daily "Near You?

Wimberley, Texas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Do You Wish To Know..."

“So you think that money is the root of all evil.

 Have you ever asked what is the root of all money?” 

- Ayn Rand

"Then you will see the rise of the men of the double standard - the men who live by force, yet count on those who live by trade to create the value of their looted money - the men who are the hitchhikers of virtue. In a moral society, these are the criminals, and the statutes are written to protect you against them. But when a society establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law- men who use force to seize the wealth of disarmed victims- then money becomes its creators' avenger. Such looters believe it safe to rob defenseless men, once they've passed a law to disarm them. But their loot becomes the magnet for other looters, who get it from them as they got it. Then the race goes, not to the ablest at production, but to those most ruthless at brutality. When force is the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket. And then that society vanishes, in a spread of ruins and slaughter.

Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion- when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing- when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors- when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you- when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed."

An excerpt from “Atlas Shrugged,” by Ayn Rand.

Full text of “Francisco’s Money Speech” is here:

- https://www.capitalismmagazine.com/

o

"Evil Is The Root Of All Fiat Money"

"A September Stock Market Crash Is About To Burst And It Is Worse Than You Think"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist, 9/4/23

"A September Stock Market Crash Is About 

To Burst And It Is Worse Than You Think"

"Investors should fasten their belts for a volatile fall as September begins. This month is historically known as the cruelest for stocks, with data going all the way back to 1928 showing that Wall Street reports significant losses and enters into “correction mode” as soon as the autumn kicks off. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 have been on a tear in the first half of the year, but since late August, the indexes started to falter. Anthony Denier, CEO of Webull, a commission-free trading platform, says that there are significant risks adding pressure on the September outlook. The period is considered the weakest for stocks as seasonal patterns come into play in a highly tense market environment.

Tech stocks still pose the greatest threats. With some, such as Nvidia and Tesla, reporting a valuation of 250 times earnings, it won’t take much bad news to frighten investors and spark a brutal sell-off this fall. Given that seven tech stocks, known as the Magnificent Seven, account for 30% of the S&P 500 market value, and 50% of the Nasdaq’s, downside risks are getting increasingly higher, and persistent losses are likely to trigger some nasty contagion this month.

On top of that, with bond yields rising and the lack of clarity from the Federal Reserve on interest rates, there is still a lot of uncertainty about the state of the U.S. economy. Another factor impacting the outlook for stocks is the inversion of the U.S. Treasury’s yield curve, which started to worsen in June. Inverted yield curves are an omen for economic meltdowns, and this particular inversion has “been screaming recession for over a year now”, highlights Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

Many other big names in the investing world made some gloomy statements about the stock market over the past few weeks. Citigroup actually predicted the S&P 500 would lose around 10 percent of its value by the end of the quarter. Notorious Wall Street strategists, including Mike Wilson from Morgan Stanley and Marko Kolanvovic from JP Morgan Chase, also shared downbeat forecasts for September.

More recently, Societe Generale’s chief global strategist Albert Edwards pointed to the rising number of bankruptcies as the next catalyst for the imminent S&P 500 downturn. In the face of all of these gloomy signs, Michael Burry, the “Big Short” investor who became famous for correctly predicting the historic collapse of the housing market in 2008, has bet more than $1.6 billion on a Wall Street crash. Insiders are aware of the systemic risks that can spark a September stock market crash unlike any other. They’re taking precautions right now because they know something big is about to break. Many determinants are creating a dangerous environment of risk exposure, and those who are still ignoring the emerging threats could face painful losses this month. An era of volatility is already upon us, and all that it takes to bring the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 down is the realization that the U.S. economy is doomed to fail.

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How It Really Will Be"

 

Happy Labor Day!

Happy Labor Day, folks! Hope you enjoy a peaceful,

 happy day, and thanks always for stopping by!

Bill Bonner, "The Fall of the Fourth Estate"

"The Fall of the Fourth Estate"

Where once a mighty pillar stood is now 

a cesspool of gossip, tattle and outright lies...

by Bill Bonner

“The American press exists for one purpose only, and that is to convince Americans that they are living in the greatest and most envied country in the history of the world. The Press tells the American people how awful every other country is and how wonderful the United States is and how evil communism is and how happy they should be to have freedom to buy seven different sorts of detergent.” - Gore Vidal

Poitou, France - "Have you noticed? The “news” no longer even pretends to be newsworthy. And surveys show that “journalism” is the college major most likely to be regretted. For years we’ve wondered: what’s going on? The headlines are often preposterous. The political accounts are absurdly partisan. And the ‘news’ stories have no news in them. Why?

It’s the logic of the electronic media. It tempts…lures…distracts, always trying to capture a person’s attention so it can sell some detergent. When we click on “She was a beauty in the ‘70s…but look at her now” or “fans were shocked when they saw her bank balance” – we know what we’re getting. But much of what passes for serious ‘news’ reporting is just as insipid.

Lies…There’s no guarantee of quality in a headline. Readers have no way of knowing whether it is serious or silly. Let’s look. Here’s a whopper from Alternet: "The Shocking Republican Plan To Dismantle The American Government." Whoa…hit the pause button for just a moment. Is there a ‘Republican plan to dismantle the government’? Of course not. But the headline entices Liberals – eager for more dirt on evil Republicans – and Republicans too, eager to see what jackassery the liberal press is getting up to. As Alternet develops the idea, we see that it is complete claptrap: "The modern administrative state, sometimes called the “welfare state” by Republicans, was largely created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in response to the Republican Great Depression of the early 1930s. And every day since FDR was sworn into office on March 4, 1933, the GOP has worked feverishly to dismantle his legacy."

Really? Did the American government only appear with Franklin Roosevelt? Would removing his add-ons ‘dismantle’ the entire government? And then, Eisenhower, Reagan, the Bushes, Trump…did these Republicans work “feverishly” to undo Roosevelt’s legacy? Well…they certainly weren’t very successful at it! The record shows that the government grew under Republicans as well as Democrats…with its biggest growth spurts under Reagan and Trump.

The narrative – Democrats as world improvers…Republicans as knuckle-dragging Neanderthals – is false and stupid. Both parties have worked to strengthen the power and wealth of the ruling elites.

Damned Lies…"And here’s Newsweek, which has lost all pretense of journalistic integrity: "Sudden Shifts From Drought to Floods Are Getting More Common in the U.S." The findings… also found that so-called feedback loops - a process that can either increase or decrease the effects of greenhouse gases - are likely contributing. Whoa…whoa…whoa…there are ‘feedback loops” that can either “increase or decrease” the effects of “greenhouse gases.” Well, that pretty well nails it down, doesn’t it? But wait…what is the evidence for these startling finds?

“Over time, from 1980 to 2020, researchers found that such whiplash trends in the weather increased approximately A QUARTER OF A PERCENT [you can guess where that emphasis comes from]…"Climate change is fueling back-to-back droughts and floods which have caused widespread devastation, resulting in loss of life and damage to property, infrastructure, and the environment," said co-author Shuo Wang, an associate professor at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. "Our findings provide insights into the development of early warning systems for mitigating the impacts of rapid dry-wet transitions."

Really? How? Perhaps the researches will give out a warning…something like this: ‘Hey ho…you’re having a dry spell. Watch out…you could have a wet spell soon.” “What are the odds?” “I don’t know…but a flood could be 0.25% more likely.” “You’re saying the odds of a flood are up by one quarter of one percent…that’s all?” “Well, they’re not really odds. We were just measuring recent past activity…past results may or may not be predictive.” “Oh…What should we do?” “Buy a boat? Or sun-screen. “ “Thanks.”

And the Mainstream News…And here’s another shocker: "Scientists Discover Continent That Had Been Missing For 375 Years." The article refers to a vast continent – connecting Australia, Antarctica and New Zealand – most of which sank under the ocean 500 million of years ago. Supposedly, Abel Tasman should have recognized its remnants when he explored the South Seas in the 18th century. But the whole idea – that it has been ‘missing for 375 years’ is just nonsense.

Wait. Here’s time-waster posing as financial analysis, from Fortune: "Morgan Stanley Analyst Predicts S&P 500 Could Leap Another 11% This Year, Boosted By Gains To ‘Magnificent Seven’ Stocks." "Despite a nightmarish cocktail of economic headwinds, the S&P 500 has enjoyed a surprisingly strong 2023 - up 18% for the year to date. And according to one expert that tally could go even higher, spiking again by as much as 11% as the summer season comes to a close. Morgan Stanley analyst Andrew Slimmon believes there's more growth to be had in the S&P 500, boosted largely by 'Magnificent Seven' stocks."

What is especially idiotic about this is the misleading precision. Eleven percent. Not 12%. Not 10%. The phrasing of it, too, – “could go [up]…as much as 11%” – is the kind of absurdity you find in advertising, not in honest reporting. Of course, it could go up 11%....or 150%. Or down 11%. Or not move at all. That’s the nice thing about ‘could;’ it doesn’t leave much out.

Oh, and A Hairdresser from Brooklyn: And here’s an example of a new clickbait genre – “I moved to Alabama, but I can’t stand rednecks.” Business Insider: "I regretted moving to France. The cost of living was too high for my low salary and I experienced xenophobia - so I moved back to the US.

Don’t expect the insights and amusements you find in “Innocents Abroad.” These writers are not Mark Twain. They are morons. But this one is particularly dim. She, working as a hairdresser, noted that the French were not very forthcoming with compliments; “receiving only critical comments (and never anything positive) didn't make me feel good at all.” It is a cultural difference. The French believe good work should be taken for granted. They reserve their comments for disappointments.

But then, she applies an American fantasy: “I experienced xenophobic comments made against me.” Do the French like Americans? Not particularly. Why should they? We were at a dinner party on Saturday. A companion made this remark: “Here in Europe, we are obsessed by climate change. It is our great bugaboo…our bete noire. But you Americans have your own délires; you think we should all like each other – gays, trans, blacks, Arabs, masons….Jews. It’s not going to happen.”

But the American can’t imagine that her ‘values’ are neither universal nor eternal. Asked why she decided to leave: “It was a hard decision: a part of me wanted to stay and be a part of some kind of change in Paris. But the truth is, I didn't love France enough to stay and try to change it.” She probably made the right decision. The last group to make a serious effort to change the city were the Germans, 1940 to 1944. They had thousands of troops…and machine guns. Still, Paris remained Paris. The French remained French. Brotchen did not replace croissants. The hair stylist from Brooklyn was not likely to succeed where the Wehrmacht failed.

One of our favorite recollections from the two decades we spent in France was when we visited an island off the coast of Brittany. Our car was registered in Paris…and each “department” is indicated on the license plate. Paris is “75.” In small town traffic, a man on the sidewalk yelled at us: “Dirty Parisians; go back where you came from.” It was then, after many years, that we finally felt accepted; we were treated just like the French treat each other."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

"Adventures With Danno, 9/4/23"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, 9/4/23

"Shopping At Ollie's! Bargain Hunting! 

Checking Prices! Grocery Discounts!"

"In today's vlog, we are at Ollie's and are seeking out some bargains on grocery items. With massive price increases continuing at grocery stores, we are searching for some good deals during these times of high inflation. We will go over quality and prices of items that we shop for in the store."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com

o

Full screen recommended.

Finance Daily 9/4/23

"Winter Food Shortages Are Going To Be Very Different"

"The U.S. shipping industry is facing major disruptions with 40% of its container traffic stalled, potentially rivaling the impact of a UPS strike. This paralysis is largely due to a labor dispute involving the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, causing significant cargo worth over $5.2 billion to remain undelivered. Additionally, there's significant concern over the Panama Canal's current situation due to low water levels, which might exacerbate the shipping delays. On the agricultural front, poor weather conditions from excessive rains in Quebec to droughts in the U.S. Midwest have led to failing corn yields and the potential for increased pasta prices. Canada's durum wheat reserves, crucial for pasta, have plummeted 47% from last year. These combined factors hint at possible food and goods shortages and significant price hikes, echoing scenarios of resource scarcity often depicted in dystopian narratives."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 9/4/23"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 9/4/23

"Labor Day Special Edition: 

Then And Now - US Involvement In Ukraine"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com

o

Related, highly recommended:

"Bad Omens For The Ukrainians"

o

Scott Ritter, 9/4/23 

"Game Over for Ukraine as 

Russia Defeats the Neocon Agenda"

Former UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter discusses what he learned traveling to Russia and how reality on the ground completely contradicts the neocons' narrative of Russia's weakness, spelling doom for their agenda in Ukraine.

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Jim Kunstler, "Party! Party!"

"Party! Party!"

by Jim Kunstler

""The only difference between the Republican and Democratic parties is the velocities with which their knees hit the floor when corporations knock on their door. That's the only difference." - Ralph Nader

"If you are shocked and bewildered that totalitarian tyranny creeps through our country without opposition, the reason is simple: there is no official opposition. The capture of government looks nearly complete by a party that lusts to punish its citizens for the pleasure of watching them suffer, while it steals everything they’ve worked for and forecloses their future. At least half the country objects to this. Where is a party that stands for them?

In the natural order of the American system, a Republican Party would have stepped up to check the wretched excesses of a Democratic Party bent on breaking everything that has allowed people to thrive in this land: property law, economic liberty, free speech, now even your physical health. This Labor Day Monday is the last moment in this epic political psychodrama that the Republican Party has an excuse to kick back and do nothing about the parade of insults flung in the nation’s face by persons who believe in nothing, and who will stop at nothing.

These insults lately include especially the perversion of law to harass and hinder political opponents, the prosecution of a foreign war by proxy in a corner of the world where America has no explicable national interest, the deliberate failure to defend the country’s borders against hordes of invaders, the rigging of elections with ballot fraud and hackable machines, the censorship of information of all kinds, and the weaponization of public health authority against the people. These are all campaigns carried out by the Democratic Party.

This fall season will be a dreadful time of testing whether the country can endure any more of this. Congress is back in session this week. Congress is the only place in the federal government where an opposition party has the authority to direct events. Mr. Comer who chairs the House Oversight Committee has assembled enough evidence of bribery and treason for Speaker Kevin McCarthy to commence an impeachment inquiry right away into the conduct of President “Joe Biden.”

I’ve used quotation marks around Mr. Biden’s name since he ascended magically to this office in 2021 because it is obvious that he is only pretending to run the executive branch, and has been since day one on January 20, 2021. His March 5, 2020, Super Tuesday victories, after a drubbing in the Iowa Caucuses (4th place) and New Hampshire primary (5th place), had an odor of supernatural contrivance. His campaign from “the basement” was a joke, and it’s still entirely possible, despite three years of massive gaslighting, that his victory in the 2020 election was a fraud.

I believe the reason “Joe Biden” was installed in the White House was to allow Barack Obama to run the executive branch and all its agencies in secret from his headquarters across town in the DC Kalorama district, and the reason he is allowed to do this is because the Democratic Party has committed so many crimes against the country that a tremendous effort had to be made to cover them up, or else scores of figures in high places could have been subject to investigation and prosecution, including Mr. Obama.

It’s also possible that an impeachment inquiry in the House will lead to evidence of Mr. Obama’s role in the Biden family’s bribery adventures abroad, including the participation in one way or another of high diplomatic officials under Mr. Obama such as US Ambassadors to Ukraine Jeffrey Pyatt and Marie Yovanovitch - as well as their nefarious roles in the first impeachment of Donald Trump. Expect former Secretary of State John Kerry to surface in that mix, too. His stepson, Christopher Heinz was in business for a time with Hunter Biden and Devon Archer during the Burisma caper.

You might hear a lot about the coming fiscal year 2024 spending crisis again starting this week. It must be resolved by the end of the month or the government supposedly runs out of money to pay for all the things that government wastes our money on, from underwriting drag-queen story hours to paying the pensions of retired Ukrainian government officials. Wouldn’t that actually be a fine opportunity for some vigorous de-funding of government activities, such as the DOJ’s special prosecutor operation, Homeland Security’s censorship office, every dollar apportioned to Ukraine, the FBI’s continuing Jan 6 witch-hunt, the Department of Health and Human Services Covid-19 hoodoo, and probably a hundred other trespasses against the public’s sense of decency and good faith?

Or else, isn’t the country ripe for a new party that actually represents the interests of the country? More than a year remains before the 2024 election - if it is even allowed to happen. We can’t go on with no party opposed to the degeneration and destruction of the thing known as the USA. Take this final day-off of the summer to think about that. And think about the emblematic frozen face of Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, a human deer-in-the-headlights waiting to collide with an implacable force. You are that force."

- https://kunstler.com/

o

"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. For the traitor appears not a traitor - he speaks in the accents familiar to his victims, and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation - he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city - he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared. The traitor is the plague"

- Cicero

Dan, I Allegedly, "AM/PM 9/4/23

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly AM 9/4/23

"Reality Is About To Set In"

So much is happening in the corporate world. This will affect all of us because businesses are going to have a real problem refinancing debt. It’s just a matter of time until this goes public.

 Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly PM 9/4/23

"People Are Pulling Back"

The numbers do not lie. Durable goods purchases are down. People are not spending money on big purchases. Labor Day sales were out there, but people didn’t act.

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "Markets, A Look Ahead"

Gregory Mannarino, 9/4/23

"Markets, A Look Ahead: 

A Loud And Clear Sign From The Debt Market"

- https://traderschoice.net

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

The Atlantis Report, 9/4/23

"Bank Of America Runs Damage 

Control As Over 1100 Banks Close"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Financial Talk 9/4/23

"Prepare For An Unprecedented Car Market Crash 

As a Historic Car Price Collapse Is Here"

Join us as we embark on a deep dive into the factors driving this impending catastrophe. We'll dissect market trends, scrutinize economic indicators, and decode shifting consumer behaviors. Get ready to weather the storm with us as we candidly discuss the potential repercussions on car manufacturers, dealerships, and buyers worldwide. This is a critical analysis of the automotive market that you simply can't afford to miss. We'll take you right into the heart of this crisis, revealing what it means for the future of the industry. Knowledge is power, and in these uncertain times, understanding the dynamics at play in the car market is essential.

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Economic Market Snapshot 9/4/23"

"Economic Market Snapshot 9/4/23"

Market Data Center, Live Updates:

- https://www.marketwatch.com/market-data 

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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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- https://www.asktraders.com/analysis/

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A comprehensive, essential daily read.

- http://www.shadowstats.com/

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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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- https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

Job cuts and much more.

○

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

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- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

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- https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

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- https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

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Commentary, highly recommended:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

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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...

o

Jeremiah Babe, "Get Ready, Things Are About To Get Real'

Jeremiah Babe, 9/3/23

"Get Ready, Things Are About To Get Real;

 Is The Burning Man Disaster A Warning?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Canadian Prepper, "Well... That Escalated Quickly"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 9/3/23

"Well... That Escalated Quickly"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Gov't Mule, "Forevermore"

Gov't Mule, "Forevermore"

Singer Warren Haynes

Some songs you just feel in your soul...

Musical Interlude: Moody Blues, "Land of Make-Believe"

Full screen recommended.

Moody Blues, "Land of Make-Believe"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"On an August night two friends enjoyed this view after a day's hike on the Plateau d'Emparis in the French Alps. At 2400 meters altitude the sky was clear. Light from a setting moon illuminates the foreground captured in the simple vertical panorama of images. Along the plane of our Milky Way galaxy stars of Cassiopeia and Perseus shine along the panorama's left edge.

But seen as a faint cloud with a brighter core, the Andromeda galaxy, stands directly above the two friends in the night. The nearest large spiral galaxy, Andromeda is about 2.5 million light-years beyond the stars of the Milky Way. Adding to the evening's shared extragalactic perspective, the fainter fuzzy spot in the sky right between them is M33, also known as the Triangulum galaxy. Third largest in the local galaxy group, after Andromeda and Milky Way, the Triangulum galaxy is about 3 million light-years distant. On that night, the two friends stood about 3 light-nanoseconds apart."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap211106.html

"What Might Have Been..."

“Space I can recover. Time, never.” 

-  Napoleon Bonaparte

“Lands can be reconquered, indeed in the course of a battle, a hill or a certain plain might trade hands several times. But missed opportunities? These can never be regained. Moments in time, in culture? They can never be re-made. One can never go back in time to prepare for what they should have prepared for, no one can ever get back critical seconds that were wasted out of fear or ego. Napoleon was brilliant at trading space for time: Sure, you can make these moves, provided you are giving me the time I need to drill my troops, or move them to where I want them to be. Yet in life, most of us are terrible at this. We trade an hour of our life here or afternoon there like it can be bought back with the few dollars we were paid for it. And it is only much, much later, as they are on their deathbeds or when they are looking back on what might have been, that many people realize the awful truth of this quote. Don’t do that. Embrace it now.”

- Ryan Holiday