Friday, September 15, 2023

Dan, I Allegedly, "A New Warning We Can’t Ignore; Sphere"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 9/15/23
"A New Warning We Can’t Ignore; Sphere"
"Now that we’ve seen the shut down of one of the world’s largest casinos, we have to look at the fact that central bank digital dollars could be shut down at a moment's notice. We cannot let these get started. Ray Dalio issued a warning as well. Plus, today I went to the Las Vegas Sphere."
Comments here:

Gregory Mannarino, "They Are Propping Up A DE@D System, And This Will End Very Badly"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 9/15/23
"They Are Propping Up A DE@D System,
And This Will End Very Badly"
Comments here:
o
Gregory Mannarino, PM 9/15/23
"Goldman Sachs Warns Surging Debt 
Will Cause Economic Challenges"
Comments here:
- https://www.youtube.com/

Thursday, September 14, 2023

"Russia - Ukraine War Update 9/14/23"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 9/14/23
"Alert: Massive Strike In Moscow Very Likely; 
US Military Takes Over Starlink"
Comments here:
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The Revelation, 9/14/23
"Douglas Macgregor - 
A Direct Counterattack on Western Ukraine!"
Comments here:
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So, we're providing the Ukrainians long range missiles and encouraging them to attack Russia, now the US military takes over the Starlink system to guide those missiles. How is this not an act of war? We're just begging for a Russian preemptive first strike and a nuclear war, and we'll get it, too...

Musical Interlude: Vangelis, "Space, Time Continuum"

Full screen recommended.
Vangelis, "Space, Time Continuum"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Here in the Milky Way galaxy we have astronomical front row seats as M81 and M82 face-off, a mere 12 million light-years away. Locked in a gravitational struggle for the past billion years or so, the two bright galaxies are captured in this deep telescopic snapshot, constructed from 25 hours of image data.
Their most recent close encounter likely resulted in the enhanced spiral arms of M81 (left) and violent star forming regions in M82 so energetic the galaxy glows in X-rays. After repeated passes, in a few billion years only one galaxy will remain. From our perspective, this cosmic moment is seen through a foreground veil of the Milky Way's stars and clouds of dust. Faintly reflecting the foreground starlight, the pervasive dust clouds are relatively unexplored galactic cirrus, or integrated flux nebulae, only a few hundred light-years above the plane of the Milky Way.”

“Alea Iacta Est”

“Alea Iacta Est”
“Alea iacta est is a Latin phrase attributed by Suetonius to Julius Caesar on January 10, 49 B.C. as he led his army across the Rubicon river in Northern Italy. With this step, he entered Italy at the head of his army in defiance of the Senate and began his long civil war against Pompey and the Optimates. The phrase, either in the original Latin or in translation, is used in many languages to indicate that events have passed a point of no return.

The historian Frances Titchener has given a stylized description of the context of Caesar’s pronouncement: “We know from [Caesar's journals] that Caesar is not taking this lightly. He knows that if he marches on Rome with his armies, then he is a public enemy, and that he will either have to win, or die. For a Roman patrician like Julius Caesar there is no life without military service; there is no life without service to the state. He cannot simply ‘go native’ and stay in Gaul, and he does realize that if he goes back to Rome, he would be killed. At this time the northernmost border of the Roman territory in Italy is the River Rubicon. Once someone crosses the River Rubicon, he’s in Roman territory. A general must not cross that boundary with his army – he must do what the Romans call lay down his command, which means surrender his right to order troops, and certainly not be carrying weapons.

Caesar and his armies hesitate quite a while at this river while Caesar decides what to do, and Caesar tells us that he informs his soldiers that it’s a little tiny bridge across the river, but once they cross it they’ll have to fight their way all the way to Rome, and Caesar is well aware that he’s risking not just his own life, but those of his loyal soldiers, and he might not win. Pompey is a formidable enemy. It’s also impossible to avoid the fact that Caesar was attacking the state, and as a patrician Roman this would have been very difficult for him, equivalent to beating up your father. He wouldn’t have done any of this lightly. Finally he makes a decision, it’s time to go, and he uses a gambling metaphor: he says ‘Roll the dice’, ‘Alea iacta est’. Once the dice start rolling they cannot be controlled, even though we don’t know what the outcome will be as the dice roll and tumble. Julius and his men swiftly cross the river and they march double time toward Rome, where they almost beat the messengers sent to inform the Senate of their arrival.”
"Life's a gamble. Courage is to roll the dice and go
for the gusto when all odds and bets are against you!"
- Bobby Compton
Charles Bukowski, "Roll The Dice"
Read by Tom O'Bedlam

"The Unthinkable Has Begun As A Major Bank Warns Of A Deep Dark Winter"

Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist. 9/14/23
"The Unthinkable Has Begun As A 
Major Bank Warns Of A Deep Dark Winter"

"What JPMorgan just said should serve as a warning for all Americans. Yesterday, speaking at an industry event organized by Barclays, CEO Jamie Dimon sounded the alarm on a slew of headwinds that will hit the U.S. economy hard in the next couple of months, and pointed to several risks that could deal heavy blows to consumers, investors, businesses and banks. On Monday, he weighed in on how new regulation by the Fed will impact customers in the coming months. The changes will certainly not make them happy. Dimon explained how plans for new capital rules in the United States could damage the attractiveness of bank stocks, and make banking costs go even higher for consumers.

He argued that the Fed’s “'Basel III Endgame' reforms” would make loans even more expensive, and would force banks to reduce the amount of money they lend, which could drive banking activities into less regulated sectors. Dimon stressed that more lenders could run into problems just like Silicon Valley Bank did this spring. “Any crisis that damages Americans’ trust in their banks damages all banks — a fact that was known even before this crisis,” he wrote. “Even when it is behind us, there will be repercussions from it for years to come," he emphasized.

He also said that it is “a huge mistake” to think that the U.S. economy will boom “for years” given that there are so many risks out there. With interest rates still going up, conditions will become even more recessionary, and “you are going to see more people out there with problems”.

It is for that reason that JPMorgan has just reiterated its bearish stance on the stock market, urging its clients to stay defensively positioned. Analysts at the firm also adjusted the bank's investment strategy in response to rising commodity prices and the potential spike in inflation. JPMorgan strategist Marko Kolanovic also noted that the increased potential for bank turbulence, an oil shock, and slowing growth is poised to send stocks back toward their 2022 lows, as reported by Bloomberg News.

We still have three more months to go before this year is done, and a lot more can happen in financial markets. One of the biggest concerns right now is the real estate sector. Warren Buffet’s investment partner and vice president of Berkshire Hathaway, Charlie Munger recently observed that hundreds of banks are exposed to commercial real estate loans that are at risk of going into default. He thinks there is trouble ahead for the U.S. commercial property market. “A lot of real estate isn’t so good anymore,” Munger said. “We have a lot of troubled office buildings, a lot of troubled shopping centers, a lot of troubled other properties. There’s a lot of agony out there.”

These are the very early chapters of this crisis. But when even the head of one of the biggest financial institutions on the planet is worried about growing risks, we should definitely brace for pain because much worse is yet to come. Although it may take a while for all the dominoes to fall, we won’t be able to avert a decline that is already in motion. The clock is ticking, and time is running out for the U.S. financial system."
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Dan, I Allegedly, "Las Vegas is Under Attack"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly PM 9/14/23
"Las Vegas is Under Attack"
All of the MGM Grand properties have been under a cyber attack for the last four days. An American hacking organization has done a real number on this casino. Check this out. This place is completely a shell of what it normally is and there is no end in sight.
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The Daily "Near You?"

Ottawa, Illinois, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Crude Reserves"

"Crude Reserves"
Oil leads all prices higher, more BS from
 the BLS and dirty tankers get busy...
by Bill Bonner and Joel Bowman

London, England - "We took the train up to London to attend a conference. Too busy to put thoughts together carefully, today, we will just toss them into a heap.

First, Dan reported yesterday, “two pieces of unpleasant data. August CPI up 3.6% year-over-year. And oil prices at 10-month highs. Good for our Trade of the Decade. Bad for CPI readings in the next few months as higher energy prices hit the index. From BLS: "The all items index increased 3.7 percent for the 12 months ending August, a larger increase than the 3.2-percent increase for the 12 months ending in July. The all items less food and energy index rose 4.3 percent over the last 12 months. The energy index decreased 3.6 percent for the 12 months ending August, and the food index increased 4.3 percent over the last year."

Here's USA Today with the same story: "Inflation accelerated for a second month in August on a spike in gasoline prices and an underlying measure of household expenses rose more than anticipated, highlighting that the Federal Reserve's battle to tame consumer prices may not be over."

More Jiggling: There was another quirk in the inflation numbers worth mentioning. According to the BLS, the cost of health insurance went down – a remarkable 6%. Did the price of health insurance really go down? Apparently not. What really happened was more ‘ledgerdemain’ by the number crunchers. They took a 2% increase and turned it into a 4% decrease – by jiggling the numbers. And as rising prices become a bigger and more persistent nuisance, we expect to see more jiggling.

And here’s the inevitable effect. Breitbart reports: "Real Household Income Suffers Biggest Drop In 12 Years". Real median household income was $74,580 in 2022, a drop of 2.3 percent from the prior year, the Census Bureau said Tuesday. This is the biggest drop in household income since 2010, when it fell 2.6 percent. That means it is worse than the pandemic decline of 2.2 percent. It is the fourth worst year in records going back to 1985.

In our comments this week and last, we focused on how that is possible. Is this not the greatest economy, in the greatest country, in the greatest period in human existence? Apparently not. But why not?

Progress… of a Kind: Over the last 40 years, the US economy produced plenty of material progress for the capitalists – increases in their stock and bond portfolios. But few gains – other than those (most unmeasurable gains from technology) – for the proletariat. The median man in 2023 earns the same real, median wage he did in 1975. Is that progress? Maybe, but not the kind of progress we were looking for.

A rise in the cost of energy was cited as the primary cause of the higher inflation reading. Did you notice that the price of oil is back over $90 a barrel? In the midterm election cycle, Joe Biden drained the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to try to keep gasoline prices down. Now, another election cycle is coming up…and there’s little oil left in the SPR to pump out. The nation’s inventories are said to be lower than they’ve been at any time in the last 40 years. So, supplies are likely to be tight…with higher prices at the pump.

The fight against inflation is not going to be so easy after all. Stansberry Newswire: These recent price movements are largely due to the ongoing oil-production cuts from Saudi Arabia and Russia. On Tuesday, the two nations announced they're continuing their cuts of 1.3 million barrels per day through the end of the year.

The last time that oil prices were near $90 a barrel, the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve ("SPR") had 250 million more barrels of crude oil than it does now. The SPR is currently at its lowest level since 1983. This means that the U.S. no longer has the slack to offset rising energy costs when a geopolitical event happens.

Panic on the Pampas: Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson goes to Argentina to discover where inflation leads. Argentina has 47 million people, explains an economist he interviews on Twitter, and what they don’t know about inflation isn’t worth knowing. But of those 47 million only 11 million are employed…and take out those who work for the government, and you are left with only 7 million who have actual, wealth-producing jobs.

The inflation rate is now about 10% PER MONTH. “Every month,” Carlson reports, “people get 10% poorer.” That has left the country with a lot of very poor people. The ‘child poverty rate,’ for example, is 60%. And Argentina has slipped from being one of the world’s richest countries to being an economic ‘no man’s land.’

But the most interesting thing coming from Argentina is the ‘Milei phenomenon.’ Would you believe it, Dear Reader…a politician who is proposing to shrink the size of government, reduce taxes, return to real money, get rid of thousands of do-nothing government employees and dismantle the country’s central bank? For the first time since the American Revolution, comes a substantial political movement that aims for less government, not more. Most amazing of all…he’s winning! In the recent primaries, Milei came out in front. Tucker Carlson says he will broadcast his interview with Milei, later today."
o
Joel’s Note: Dear readers noticing their gas bills sneaking higher are not crazy… even if they are being gaslit by the clowns in congress. As you can see from the chart below, forwarded by our man up in Laramie, Dan Denning, the rising oil price is once again leading gas prices higher…
At $3.84 per gallon for regular, prices at the pump are at their highest they’ve been this year. “This is good for the stocks on our Official List,” wrote Tom Dyson in yesterday’s note to BPR’s members. “Demand for crude oil is probably the highest it’s ever been… around 102 million barrels per day. But Saudi Arabia and Russia are choking back their oil production.

According to a report out today by the International Energy Agency, global oil demand is eclipsing supply by 1.2 million barrels per day which is causing record inventory draws. Unless there’s a recession, or OPEC opens the taps again, oil prices should keep rising.”

Of course, price movements like this are both a burden… and an opportunity. As Tom outlined in yesterday’s note, more and more refining capacity is being added nearer to production. That is, away from the “NIMBY” west – think Europe, North America and Australia…where it’s considered “dirty” – and closer to the greasy origins over in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). So not only can oil exporting countries capture more of the profit from their own natural resource, western countries can pat themselves on the back for being “environmentally friendly”… all while outsourcing the dirty work to places most people can find on a map. Umm…win-win?"

"The World Ends in 16 Days"

"The World Ends in 16 Days"
by Brian Maher

"On Sept. 30… in a mere 16 days…The United States government will “shut down” barring fresh congressional funding. Uncle Samuel’s doors will swing shut - and Pandora’s notorious box will swing open. Horror upon horror will ensue. The ranger patrolling the National Park of American Samoa will be thrown into idleness…The Federal Theatre Project will be thrown into darkness…And the visiting seventh-grader from Topeka, Kansas, will be thrown from the Washington Monument.

These are merely examples. Many additional privations would enter existence. How the nation can possibly endure such dark days… we do not know. Yet take some solace…

A Glimmer of Light: Federal workers deemed essential to the safety of the Republic will remain on in event of shutdown - the customs official at Ketchikan, Alaska, for example. The Transportation Security Agency will continue guarding the aerial ways against infants, great-grandmothers, wheelchair-riders and related hellcats.

In event of armed invasion, we are assured the Marines will leap from their barracks. Social Security checks will still go issuing through the mails. That is, the nation will peg along substantially uninterrupted.

Yet we are warned we stand perched upon the devil’s shovel - unless the two political parties at Washington can sink their differences - and agree to keep the government in funds. Warns Goldman, for example: "A government-wide shutdown would directly reduce growth by around 0.15 [percentage points] for each week it lasted; including modest private-sector effects, the hit to growth could be around 0.2 [percentage points] per week. In the quarter following reopening, growth would rise by the same amount." Yet would a government “shutdown” - again, the quote marks are necessary - represent the devastation it is presented to be?

We harbor the gravest doubts. Any discomforts would likely be brief. And we hazard the long-term rewards would outdo whatever short-term hells that attend it.

Government Is a Parasite: It is claimed that federal expenditures constitute some 25% of GDP. Government at all levels is credited with a thumping 36% of United States GDP. Let we must return to a fundamental understanding. We must recognize that governments lack all resources. Imagine a parasite dining on a host. Now imagine a government. You have imagined the very same thing.

You may argue that portions of government’s parasitic enterprise are useful… even necessary. The parasitic arrangement obtains nonetheless. Before government can ladle out one meager dollar for guns, for butter, for bread, for circuses… it must first pluck it up from private pockets - directly or indirectly. That is, directly through taxes or indirectly through credit - borrowing. That is, through taxes or taxes.

Pay Me Now or Pay Me Later: The dollar borrowed is merely a delayed plucking, a plucking at one remove. It is a plucking nonetheless. It represents a future plucking of the taxpayer’s pocket. Explains “Austrian” school economist Peter St. Onge: "We have to remember where [the money comes] from. The government, after all, doesn’t actually create anything. Every dollar it spends came out of somebody else’s pocket. Whose pocket? Part of the [money is] bid away from private borrowers like businesses, and the rest [is] siphoned from people’s savings by the Federal Reserve creating new money."

And if this money is not siphoned away? If it stays unsiphoned and in taxpayer pockets? This means that, yes, GDP would decline sharply. But wealth would actually grow, perhaps substantially. The businesses would be able to buy things they need, while the savers keep their money that was doing useful things like paying their retirement. So GDP drops, wealth soars… Kind heaven, can it be? Wealth soars as the gross domestic product drops?

Who is this St. Onge heretic? Paul Krugman would denounce him as an arm of Satan, rope him to a stake and set him aflame. Yet like a Hollywood movie set… a false set of teeth… or a politician’s word… GDP often gives a deceptive appearance. The numbers tell fantastic lies.

GDP and the Torture of Statistics: Assume the government pays a fellow to shovel a hole. Assume further this government pays him to shovel it back in. In the official telling, you have just witnessed an increase to the gross domestic product. Have you? Or have you merely witnessed an idiocy? You have witnessed an idiocy. You have witnessed a juiceless pursuit. You have witnessed a squandering of time, of effort, of resources.

We maintain that vast amounts of government enterprise sort into this category. Take the example cited. What if the resources to fund this idiocy had remained in rightful hands? The world would be that less idiotic. The world would likewise be that much richer. Alas, this is not the world we inhabit. Yet we begin to stray from the central topic under consideration. Let us then come back. Will the federal government “shut down” on Sept. 30?

Three Possibilities: NBC news sketches three possible outcomes:
1) Congress does nothing and shuts down the government at midnight on Sept. 30;
2) Congress passes one or more continuing resolutions (“CR”) that extend FY2023 funding at current levels until a certain date, moving a potential shutdown date further down the calendar, likely around the Christmas holiday.
3) Congress passes some or all of the 12 separate appropriations bills to fund the government through Sept. 30, 2024, averting a shutdown for some or all of the federal government.

Which will it be? We wager high on outcome 2. Congress will hand down another continuing resolution, so-called. That is, Congress will boot the soda can further down the roadway. “Never underestimate the ability of Washington to kick the can down the road,” affirms one Republican congressman. We do not, Congressman. We do not.

They’d Never Allow a Real Government Shutdown: Congress will never allow a true government shutdown worthy of the expression. Too many would stand to lose too much. There are simply too many angling to get a bucket in the stream. To get a snout in the trough. To catch a penny…To pick a pocket… or two pockets… or 330 million pockets.

Thus the combats before us reduce to theater. They resemble a professional wrestling bout - with its artificial blows and false blood. They are a staged affair. In the congressional example one fellow attempts to wring concessions from the other… to make his eyes blink first. The other fellow pursues an identical result. Each knows that to get, he must give. And so horses are traded, backs are scratched, palms are greased. A deal is reached.

Honest Men Need Not Apply: What about the honest few who demand a square and honest accounting? Their arms are twisted and their skulls are bashed. Thus we expect a continuing resolution to come issuing on Sept. 30. That is, we expect another can-kicking on Sept. 30. If you expect officials to make courageous choices guided by principle… if it is statesmanship you seek… you will not find it in Washington. It is the wrong address."

"Here And Now..."

"That we can never know," answered the wolf angrily. "That's for the future. But what we can know is the importance of what we owe to the present. Here and now, and nowhere else. For nothing else exists, except in our minds. What we owe to ourselves, and to those we're bound to. And we can at least hope to make a better future, for everything."
- David Clement Davies

"The Gods Laugh At Your Plans: Chekhov, Jaspers, And Life-changing Moments"

"The Gods Laugh At Your Plans:
Chekhov, Jaspers, And Life-changing Moments"
The most momentous and significant events in our lives are the 
ones we do not see coming. Life is defined by the unforeseen.
by Jonny Thomson

"You’re in the shower one day, and you feel a lump that wasn’t there before. You’re having lunch when your phone rings with an unknown number: there’s been a crash. You come home and your husband is holding a suitcase. “I’m leaving,” he says.

Life is inevitably punctuated by sudden changes. At one moment, we might have everything laid out before us, and then an invisible wall stops us in our tracks. It might be an illness, a bereavement, an accident or some bad news, but life has a habit of mocking those who make plans. We can have our eyes on some distant shore, some faraway horizon, only to find everything come crashing down by the most unseen of events. As the Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote, “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men. Gang aft agley” (often go wrong).

In Anton Chekhov’s remarkable play, "The Seagull," we meet a cast of characters who are all, in some way, in love with something. The young, idealistic artist Konstantin is in love with the idea of pure art. Arkadin, his mother, is in love with her fans and her celebrity. Konstantin’s girlfriend, Nina, is in love with becoming rich and famous. Everyone in the play has some kind of ambition and plan, or they live in regret over the life they chose. They rail against how misguided or mistaken their life has been, while longing for something else.

They are each like a seagull, flying over the sea or a great lake, and aiming purposefully for the shore. The view up there is wonderful. But the longer the seagull flies, the more oblivious they are to how they tire or weaken. They’re so fixated on some distant horizon that they’re at the mercy to life’s sudden changes. They’re blinkered and distracted, and the gods love nothing more than the hopeful hubris of mankind.

At one point in the play, Chekov has the character Trigorin recount a short story about a gull flying over a lake who’s, “happy and free.” But in the next moment, “a man sees her who happens to come that way, and he destroys her out of idleness.” The seagull is killed, its flight and plans annihilated, in one instant of random thoughtlessness.

Boundary Situations: While so much of our lives are spent in planning and preparation, the most transformative and significant moments are those which come at us out of the blue. These are what the psychiatrist Karl Jaspers called “boundary situations” - the ones we cannot initiate, plan, or avoid. We can only “encounter” them. These are not the mundane, everyday parts of our life - what Jaspers calls “situation being” - but rather they are things which thunder down to shake the foundations of our being. They change who we are. Although these “boundary situations” (sometimes called “limit situations”) change a bit in Jaspers’ works, he broadly sorted them into four categories:

Death: Death is the source of all our fear. We fear our loved ones dying, and we fear the moment and fact of our own death. When we know grief and despair, or when we reflect on mortality, we are transformed. We always know about death, but when it’s a boundary situation, it comes crashing into our lives like some grim scythe; an unforeseen curtain call. The awareness and subjective encounter with death transforms us.

Struggle: Life is a struggle. We work for food, compete for resources, and vie with each other for power, prestige, and status in almost every context there is. As such, there are moments when we are inevitably overcome and defeated, but also when we are victorious and champion. The final outcomes of struggle are often sudden and great, and they make us who we are.

Guilt: Hopefully, there comes a moment for each of us when we finally accept responsibility for things. For many, it comes with adulthood, but for others it comes much later still. It’s the awareness that our actions impact all around us, and our decisions echo into the world. It’s seeing the damage or tears we’ve caused. It’s to recognize that, however small or big, we’ve hurt and upset someone. It’s a profound pull of the heart that changes how we live, and it often comes on unexpectedly.

Chance: No matter how neat and ordered we might want our world to be, there will always be a messy, chaotic, and unpredictable exception. We can hope for the best, and make the plans we want, but we can never take a steering handle on the facts that will affect our existence. According to Jaspers, we each prefer, “assembling functional and explanatory structures… whose central axis lies in sufficient reason” and yet, “despite this, it is not possible for man to control and explain everything. In fact, day by day he faces events that he cannot call anything else other than coincidences or hazards.” We want order, and regularity. What we get is the mercurial and capricious throes of chance.

The best laid plans: What Chekhov’s Seagull and Jaspers’ “boundary situations” get right is that we are each much more vulnerable than we might want to allow. A wedding, three years and a fortune to plan, is ruined by a stomach bug. An hour-long journey home for Christmas winds up getting you stuck in the traffic of a freak snowstorm. A lifetime achievement is overshadowed by a national disaster. Our lives are defined by the unforeseen. We have our dreams, hopes and are flying to some faraway shore. Yet life doesn’t care. Around every corner, at every flap of our wings, everything can change."
If you caught a glimpse of your own death,
would that knowledge change the way you live the rest of your life?"
- Paco Ahlgren, "Discipline"

"How It Really Is"

 

"A Video Metaphor: Black Swans And Perfect Storms"

Full screen recommended.
The Good Ship "World Economy" meets the perfect 
storm of the $2.3 QUADRILLION derivatives wave.
o
"Global Debt Bubble Of $2.3 Quadrillion"
by Egon Von Greyerz

"As I have outlined in many articles, these towers mentioned above have been instrumental in creating a global debt bubble of $300 trillion plus derivatives and unfunded liabilities of around $2 quadrillion, most of which will turn into debt in the next decade or less. So even if the world can avoid a major nuclear war, it is likely to suffer massive repercussions from the financial calamity coming next. As Gandhi said: “There is sufficiency in the world for Man's need but not for his greed.”

To create $2.3 quadrillion of global liabilities has nothing to do with man’s need but only with the greed of a few at the expense of mankind. When the nuclear financial bubble bursts we will see an implosion of asset prices in real terms by 75-90% as I have outlined in many articles like here.

In my article “In The End The $ Goes To Zero And The Us Defaults” , I also explain that “there is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion” as von Mises stated.

So even if the world survives the threat of a nuclear war, a collapse of the financial system is absolutely inevitable. The greed and the adoration of the golden calf that some parts of the world have practiced in the last 50 years, will not go unpunished. This major transformation coming will be like a financial nuclear event. After a difficult transition, the world will not only come out of it with a much sounder foundation but also based on much better human values than currently."
o
Full screen recommended.
"US Debt of $30 Trillion Visualized in Stacks of Physical Cash"
For conceptualizing the amount of debt being discussed. This was 2 years ago when the debt was only $30 trillion. Now it's $33 trillion, and about to explode higher. Try to imagine $2.5 QUADRILLION of derivatives, an impossibility really, inconceivable. As the glorious Mogambo Guru said, "We're so freakin' doomed!" Oh, we are...
Comments here:
o
"Derivatives Time Bomb - 
Is YOUR Bank On This List?"
by Hal Turner

For years there has been much talk about how "Derivatives" are a gigantic problem, and if Derivatives Markets collapse, it is the end of the financial world as we know it. We looked at Bank exposure to "Derivatives" and below is a list that will likely frighten you. US Banks are on the hook for two Quadrillion dollars, in "Derivatives." Is **YOUR** bank on this list? If it is, ask yourself "If they LOST all this money, would MY money still be safe in this bank?" Act accordingly.

Below is the list of United States banks and how much exposure they have to "Derivatives." Two quadrillion dollars is the total notional value of derivative contracts off-balance sheet. Need collateral. It’s notional. Not sustainable. Triffins dilemma. Dollar shortage. More collateral. But from where?

Of course, net notional value is completely different than directional risk. Just seeing these numbers does NOT indicate how much the bank itself is on-the-hook for. Moreover, there is still value in the underlying commodities for many of these derivatives. People that think these are all bilaterally netted (Hedged) and those people are partially correct. But that bilateral netting will lead to the complete collapse of equities markets.

The numbers are utterly staggering and logic dictates the banks with the highest exposure, have the most to lose. Being that derivatives are interest rate sensitive, for most of these banks, it’s a doomsday scenario.

The majority of people don’t understand monetary inflation let alone derivatives. So think of it like this: Derivatives are IOU’s backed by other IOU’s. Hustling fast money by selling chickens before they hatch, 5 generations in advance, hoping all the eggs hatch because the money was already spent on fees for a loan to pay interest on credit card debt.

Below is a graphic known as Exeter's Pyramid. It shows financial risk from the safest, GOLD; to the least safe: Derivatives.
Banks Ranked by Derivatives: The following is a ranking of all banks in the United States in terms of "Derivatives". This comparison is based on data reported on 2022-06-30.
View complete, shocking, list here:
Related:
So, if it's truly hopeless, and it is, then why bother?
If you were facing a firing squad, and we all are...
wouldn't you at least want to know why? 
And who stood you against the wall? I would...

Dan, I Allegedly, "Is a Black Swan Coming?"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 9/14/23
"Is a Black Swan Coming?"
"A real estate expert a stepped forward to say that he feels there’s going to be a black swan in the next few months. He feels that this will completely take down the real estate market, which will affect everything else in our economy."
Comments here:

"This Isn't Just A Car Loan Crisis, It's A Perfect Storm"

Full screen recommended.
The Atlantis Report, 9/14/23
"This Isn't Just A Car Loan Crisis, 
It's A Perfect Storm"
"Do not buy any cars, market crisis continuing into December! As the future is fast approaching, virtually all the automobile manufacturers are experiencing economic problems in the industry. Many automotive dealership owners are now revealing that while high-end vehicle sales are robust, the affordable line is facing a dramatic price increase. Even what were once considered budget-friendly, older vehicles now command an average price of $9,000, which is far from a buyer's market.

Recent reports from automotive finance experts highlight the industry's excess inventory problem. Dealerships are not merely dealing with high inventory levels; they are completely overwhelmed by them. This poses a significant challenge for manufacturers as they grapple with what to do about this mounting surplus. It's highly likely we can now expect substantial discounts in the very near future. A vehicle sale extravaganza is on the horizon, unlike anything we've seen before, and it's coming by the end of December."
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Gregory Mannarino, "AM/PM 9/14/23'"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 9/14/23
"Alert! 'Liquidity Crisis', Banks are 
Seeking Another Lifeline From The FED"
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Gregory Mannarino, PM 9/14/23
"Critical Updates, Markets, Another C-O-N Game"
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"Grocery Prices Are About To Skyrocket And More Food Shortage Report!"

Adventures With Danno, 9/14/23
"Grocery Prices Are About To Skyrocket
 And More Food Shortage Report!"
"We are discussing the recent surge in grocery prices and new reports coming in on more food shortages! It is getting crazy out here as more families are struggling to put food on the table!"
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Wednesday, September 13, 2023

"Breaking! Emergency Messages Sent, Nuclear Sabotage, Russia Readies Full Scale Mobilization!"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper 9/13/23
"Breaking! Emergency Messages Sent, 
Nuclear Sabotage, Russia Readies Full Scale Mobilization!"
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Related:
Redacted, 9/13/23
"'Ukraine's counter offensive has been a total failure', 
Col. Douglas MacGregor"
"Col. Douglas MacGregor says no one should take General Mark Milley seriously when he says Ukraine has a chance to see real progress in a counter offensive. MacGregor says Ukraine is out of men and is out of time. He also says Russian President Putin is facing pressure at home to launch a full 300,000 soldier attack instead of his hold back approach which is currently bleeding Europe and NATO dry." 
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Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Loving Touch"

Full screen recommended.
Deuter, "Loving Touch"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Stars are sometimes born in the midst of chaos. About 3 million years ago in the nearby galaxy M33, a large cloud of gas spawned dense internal knots which gravitationally collapsed to form stars. NGC 604 was so large, however, it could form enough stars to make a globular cluster.
Many young stars from this cloud are visible in the above image from the Hubble Space Telescope, along with what is left of the initial gas cloud. Some stars were so massive they have already evolved and exploded in a supernova. The brightest stars that are left emit light so energetic that they create one of the largest clouds of ionized hydrogen gas known, comparable to the Tarantula Nebula in our Milky Way's close neighbor, the Large Magellanic Cloud.”

"Hope..."

“Hope is always about the future. And it isn’t always good news. Sometimes, hope can imprison us with belief or expectation that something will happen in the future to change our lives. Similarly hopelessness isn’t always about despair. Hopelessness can bring us right into this very moment and answer all of life’s most difficult questions. Who am I? Where am I? What does this mean? And what now?”
- Daniel Gottlieb

Gregory Mannarino, "Devolving Into Full Blown Neo-Feudalism"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 9/13/23
"Devolving Into Full Blown Neo-Feudalism"
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"15 Shortages That Will Affect Everyone This Fall"

Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 9/13/23
"15 Shortages That Will Affect Everyone This Fall"

"Industry experts say it's official: another supply chain crunch has begun right ahead of the busiest shopping period of the year. Several essential products will be in short supply this fall, and the shortages will have a serious impact on many folks out there. From life-saving medications to firewood, from fuels to traditional foods, companies are facing widespread availability issues, and shoppers will inevitably miss on things they want and need to purchase this season.

For example, many parents are familiar with the struggle of having to change baby diapers over a dozen times per day. Since the pandemic, short supplies of diapers have been pushing prices up, making the purchase of other baby supplies incredibly tough for financially stressed families. Worldwide shortages of plastic, wood pulp, and paper tissues, the three main components of regular diapers, are contributing to empty shelves, and the trend is expected to intensify this fall. The average price for a package of disposable diapers was $16.54 in 2019, according to NIQ data on U.S. sales of disposable diapers. Now, the average price is $21.90. Parents are spending almost $100 just on diapers every month, according to the National Diaper Bank Network, a nonprofit that helps groups collect and give out free diapers to those in need. The organization, which works with hundreds of diaper banks coast to coast, reports that 47% of American families are struggling to afford diapers in 2023. Buying in bulk at warehouse clubs or checking for online sales can help you save some money. But this situation will likely extend for another year or until the production of the product’s main components stabilizes.

Meanwhile, shortages have already begun in some areas of the country, as reported by GasBuddy this week. Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana are set to face some serious sticker shock at the pump over the next few days. The firm predicts that fuel prices will rise by as much as $1 a gallon before the end of the next week due to falling inventories. “We have a very large squeeze in the market,” said Patrick De Haan, the company’s head of petroleum analysis. GasBuddy says refinery outages in Texas are causing a shortage of fuels because other refineries are in the process of switching over to winter fuel blends. “Gasoline prices are about to spike in a significant way and motorists should be prepared for increases that could last until a waiver is issued,” de Haan warned. According to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, two major Texas refineries, The Alon Big Spring Refinery and the Marathon Petroleum Corporation – El Paso Refinery are dealing with outages caused by mechanical issues in the last several weeks that reduced gasoline production and are causing a short supply of fuel in many stations across the U.S. right now.

You'll probably only hear about this in the conventional media when the situation is already out of control. By acting now, you may still find alternatives and more time to plan ahead. Some of these shortages will be more than an incovenience for families, but they can actually disrupt people's lives. Before inventory problems get even worse, we advise you to prepare for this winter as well because soon everyone will start looking for the same things, and prices jump even higher. So don't forget to share this message with everyone you care for so they can get prepared too. That's why we compiled some popular supplies that will become incredibly hard to find over the next few weeks and months."
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"Making the Chicken Run"

"Making the Chicken Run"
by Doug Casey

"'Making the chicken run' is what Rhodesians used to say about neighbors who packed up and got out during the ’60s and ’70s, before the place became Zimbabwe. It was considered "unpatriotic" to leave Rhodesia. But it was genuinely idiotic not to.*

I’ve written many times about the importance of internationalizing your assets, your mode of living, and your way of thinking. I suspect most readers have treated those articles as they might a travelogue to some distant and exotic land: interesting fodder for cocktail party chatter, but basically academic and of little immediate personal relevance.

I’m directing these comments toward the U.S. mainly because that’s where the problem is most acute, but they’re applicable to most countries. Now, in 2023, the U.S. is in real trouble. Not as bad as Rhodesia 50 years ago - and definitely a different kind of trouble - but plenty serious. For many years, it’s been obvious that the country was eventually going to hit the wall, and now the inevitable is rapidly becoming imminent.

What do I mean by that? There’s plenty of reason to be concerned about things financial and economic. But I personally believe we haven’t been bearish enough on the eventual social and political fallout from the Greater Depression. Nothing is certain, but the odds are high that the U.S. is going into a time of troubles at least as bad as any experienced in any advanced country in the last century.

I hate saying things like that, if only because it sounds outrageous and inflammatory and can create a credibility gap. It invites arguments with people, and although I enjoy discussion, I dislike arguing.

It strikes most people as outrageous because the long-running post-WWII boom has been punctuated only by brief recessions. After 78 years, why should it ever end? The thought of a nasty end certainly runs counter to the experience of almost everyone now alive - including myself—and our personal experience is what we tend to trust most. But it seems to me we’re very close to a tipping point. Ice stays ice even while it’s being warmed - until the temperature goes over 32° F, where it changes very quickly into something very different.

First, the Economy: That point - economic bankruptcy accompanied by financial chaos - is quickly approaching for the U.S. government. With deficits over a trillion dollars per year for as far as the eye can see, the U.S. Treasury will very soon be unable to roll over its maturing debt at anything near current interest rates. The only reliable buyer will be the Federal Reserve, which can buy only by creating new dollars.

Within the next 24 months, the dollar is likely to start losing value rapidly and noticeably. Foreigners, who own over 7.3 trillion of them (including T-bills and other IOUs), will start panicking to dump them. So will Americans. The dollar bond market, today worth $51 trillion, will be devastated by much higher interest rates, a rapidly depreciating dollar, and an epidemic of defaults.

And that will be just the start of the trouble. Since the U.S. property market floats on a sea of debt (and is easy to tax), it’s also going to be hit very hard, again, this time by stifling mortgage rates. The next step is up for interest rates. Forget about property owners paying their existing mortgages; many won’t be able to pay their taxes and utilities, and maintenance will be out of the question.

The pain will spread. Insurance companies are invested mostly in bonds and real estate; many will go bankrupt. The same is true of most pension funds. If the stock market doesn’t collapse, it will only be because money is looking for a place to hide from inflation. The payout for Social Security will drop significantly in real terms, if not in dollars. The standard of living of most Americans will fall.

This rough sequence of events has happened in many countries in recent decades, and they’ve survived the tough times. But it has the potential, at least in relative terms, to be more serious in the U.S. than it was in Argentina, Brazil, Serbia, Russia, Mozambique, or Zimbabwe for two main reasons.

First, many people in those countries knew they couldn’t trust their government and acted accordingly, even in contravention of the law, by accumulating assets elsewhere. So, there was a significant pool of capital available for rebuilding. Americans, on the other hand, tend to be much more insular, law-abiding, and trusting in their government. When they lose their U.S. assets, they’ll have lost everything.

Second, those societies were significantly more rural than the U.S. is today. As in the America of 100 years ago, much of the population lived quite close to the land and had practical skills and habits that helped them get through the tough times. For 21st-century Americans, it’s a different story. Shortages and disorder are going to hit commuters who live in suburbs, and urban dwellers who think milk appears in cartons magically, like a ton of bricks.

One thing you can absolutely count on is that everyone will look to the government to "do something." Americans really do think governments control the way the world works. Another certainty is that the U.S. government will "step in" massively, because everyone will want them to, and the politicians themselves believe they should. This will greatly aggravate the crisis and make it last much longer than necessary.

Then It Gets Serious: But that’s just over the short run. The long run is much more serious because the next chapter of the Greater Depression has every chance of radically, and at least semi-permanently, overturning the basic character of American life. Ice turned to water - suddenly and unexpectedly - in Russia in 1918, Germany in 1933, China in 1949, Vietnam in 1954, Cambodia in 1975, and Rwanda in 1995. Those are just the first examples that come to mind. There are scores more.

The economic events I’ve outlined are going to mean serious hardship and unpleasantness for many people. But that doesn’t concern me nearly as much as the social and political reaction.

Everybody gets hurt in a serious depression, but if you understand what’s going on and prepare for it, you can do well enough. Of course, political and social change always follow economic and financial upheaval, but I think it’s going to be much more drastic this time because the U.S. has been on the road to becoming a police state for quite a while. I know it seems asynchronous to think of a police state in a suburban country dotted with shopping malls. But not really.

Think in terms of science fiction, a genre that has far more predictive value than the work of any futurist or think tank. Reality is mimicking art. In 1932, Aldous Huxley described a highly controlled utopia in Brave New World, where drugs made everybody think (actually feel, because thinking could only make you unhappy) that they were happy. The U.S. has pretty much done that drill, consuming massive quantities of everything on credit, watching reality TV in every spare moment, and using plenty of Ritalin and Prozac along the way. Sixteen years later, George Orwell described an even more tightly controlled dystopia in 1984. Everybody knows that story, even if they haven’t read the book.

Interestingly, like good sci-fi writers, both authors were just a generation or so ahead of events. What we’re likely to see in the next few years is elements of both their worlds.

Actually, we’re seeing it right now, or at least a preview. Whenever I return to the U.S., dealing with Immigration and Customs makes my skin crawl. And they’re no longer just at airports and the border; they now range many miles inland and make random stops to see if your papers are in order.

They’re almost as objectionable as the TSA, which has developed a highly dangerous corporate culture, even as it’s grown in numbers and power, now reaching into buses, trains, and soon the highways. The FBI, the CIA, the DEA, the ATF, the Secret Service, the Federal Marshals, FEMA, and literally scores of other national law enforcement agencies are all expanding rapidly.

They’ve long constituted a veritable Praetorian Guard, but now truly have lives of their own. Homeland Security has a 400-acre campus in Washington, D.C. Police forces all over the country are increasingly militarized in both equipment and attitude. And the military itself, bloated on a budget of hundreds of billions a year, has come a long way from the slapstick world of Beetle Bailey, full of steroid-pumped Black Ops wannabes who’ve picked up plenty of bad habits in the government’s numerous undeclared wars. All these types endorse the dozens of "fusion centers" that have been created across the U.S. to collect and correlate information from every source imaginable, for some purpose.

All these organizations are bureaucracies. They serve themselves first. Their prime impulse is to grow and increase their budgets. They tend to attract the wrong kind of person and drive out people of good will. And it’s reached a stage where even if John Galt were elected president, he’d find them not just impossible to uproot but dangerous to confront.

So, here’s another prediction. Riding the economic and social disorder, these new Praetorians, oriented as they are toward professional paranoia and the "national security" state, are going to become truly virulent. They’re going to use the continuing economic crisis to increase their power, like it or not. The American people will demand it, since they are so degraded that they really do prefer the appearance of security to the prospect of having to take personal responsibility.

If I’m right (and I feel as sure about this as I ever have about anything), then it’s not going to go well for libertarians, classical liberals, old-line conservatives, individualists, freethinkers, non-conformists, people who subscribe to letters like this or cruise suspicious websites, or gamma rats, generally. It was a dangerous environment for these types (not to mention those of Japanese or German descent and members of various religious groups) during America’s past crises. When the chimpanzees are hooting and panting, you’d better join them, or they’ll start wondering why not.

I expect what we’re looking at is going to be much more serious than any past crisis, partly because America has already evaporated, like the morning haze on a hot summer’s day. You’re not in Kansas anymore. Kansas isn’t in Kansas anymore."
o

The Daily "Near You?"

Oneonta, New York, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"It Is Our Fate..."

"Well, it is our fate to live in a time of crisis. To live in a time when all forms and values are being challenged. In other and more easy times, it was not, perhaps, necessary for the individual to confront himself with a clear question: What is it that you really believe? What is it that you really cherish? What is it for which you might, actually, in a showdown, be willing to die? I say, with all the reticence which such large, pathetic words evoke, that one cannot exist today as a person – one cannot exist in full consciousness – without having to have a showdown with one’s self, without having to define what it is that one lives by, without being clear in one’s mind what matters and what does not matter.”
- Dorothy Thompson

"I Know...'

“I know the world seems terrifying right now and the future seems bleak. Just remember human beings have always managed to find the greatest strength within themselves during the darkest hours. When faced with the worst horrors the world has to offer, a person either cracks and succumbs to ugliness, or they salvage the inner core of who they are and fight to right wrongs. Never let hatred, fear, and ignorance get the best of you. Keep bettering yourself so you can make the world around you better, for nothing can improve without the brightest, bravest, kindest, and most imaginative individuals rising above the chaos.”
- Cat Winters

"The Minister of Truth!"

"The Minister of Truth!"
by Allan Weisbecker

"I strongly urge you to pick up "Forgotten Civilization; New Discoveries on the Solar Induced Dark Age," by Robert Schoch. Schoch: In "Forgotten Civilization" covers a lot of ground, including the very important issue of the cataclysm that ended the last ice age, approximately 12,000 B.P. (before the present). Schoch shows (to my satisfaction) that it was almost certainly a solar eruption that did in the ice age mega-fauna (and almost all of our ancestors), and not a comet. Schoch is almost certainly right. Read Schoch’s book if you’re interested in this. But be forewarned: Schoch doesn’t pull any punches about the coming cataclysm. He gives us multiple lines of evidence that mean it’s overdue."

Hueyatlaco is an archeological site in the Valsequillo Basin near the city of Puebla, Mexico. After excavations in the 1960s, the site became notorious due to geochronologists‘ analyses that indicated human habitation at Hueyatlaco was dated to ca. 250,000 years before the present (my emphasis).[1][2]

These controversial findings are orders of magnitude older than the scientific consensus for habitation of the New World (which generally traces widespread human migration to the New World to 13,000 to 16,000 ybp). The findings at Hueyatlaco are the subject of continued debate by the scientific community, and have seen only occasional discussion in the literature." [3]

References:
Freely download "Forgotten Civilization; New Discoveries 
on the Solar Induced Dark Age," by Robert Schoch, here:
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