"In a closed society where everybody’s guilty, the only crime is
getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity."
- Hunter S. Thompson
So, we rise from the rubble...
Wednesday, November 8, 2023
"Doug Casey on the Imminent Bankruptcy of the US Government"
"Doug Casey on the Imminent
Bankruptcy of the US Government"
by International Man
"International Man: Everyone knows that the US government has been bankrupt for many years. But we thought it might be instructive to see its current cash-flow situation. The US government’s budget is the biggest in the history of the world and is growing at an uncontrollable rate. Below is a chart of the budget for the most recent fiscal year, which had a deficit of nearly $1.7 trillion.
Before we get into the specific items in the budget, what is your take on the Big Picture for the US budget?
Doug Casey: The biggest expenditure for the US government are so-called entitlements. It’s strange how the word "entitlements" has been legitimized. Are people really entitled to the government paying for their health, retirement, and welfare? In a moral society, the answer is: No. Entitlements destroy personal responsibility, legitimize theft, destroy wealth, and create antagonisms.
The fact is that once people have an "entitlement," they come to rely on it, and you can’t easily take it away. The Chinese call that breaking somebody’s rice bowl. In the case of the American welfare state, it’s more a question of breaking a whipped dog’s doggy bowl. It’s a shame because many have come to rely on their mother, the State, not entirely through their own fault. The US has become pervasively corrupt.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) - a pox upon them - isn’t entirely incorrect when it arrogantly calls most people "useless mouths." An increasing number produce absolutely nothing but only consume at the expense of others. Courtesy of the State.
There’s little doubt in my mind that the government’s expenses are going way up as people demand more. While receipts go down as the Greater Depression deepens. Which it will, as the economy is burdened by evermore taxes, regulations, and currency debasement. That’s on top of the gigantic debt the government and country are buried under.
The government reminds me of a poker player on tilt, betting more and more crazily in hope of magic or luck to bail him out. It always ends badly. We’ve watched this progression accelerate since at least the 1960’s - a slow motion train wreck. But the inevitable has finally turned into the imminent.
International Man: What are your thoughts on Social Security, Health, and Medicare? With an aging population, it seems politically impossible to make any meaningful cuts here. On the contrary, spending in these areas is likely to explode.
Doug Casey: They should be abolished. I’ve said this many times before, but it bears repeating as often as possible because everybody forgets the most basic of the basics. Namely, the government, as an instrument of force, should be limited to protecting people from physical force. And nothing else.
That implies a police system to defend people from force within, a military to defend against foreign aggressors, and a court system to allow people to adjudicate disputes without resorting to force. I’d further argue that those three things are so important to the conduct of a civil society that they shouldn’t be left to the kind of people who inevitably gravitate towards government. But that’s a different subject.
Looking at these three things you mentioned in particular, they’re complete disasters. They’re fiscally unsound, will bankrupt the US government, and, therefore, bankrupt the country itself, especially with an aging population. Social Security seemed like a good idea at the time so that poor people wouldn’t be left totally without an income in old age. But the fact is that Social Security is a classic Ponzi scheme. Its taxes have gone from a trivial percentage to 12.4%. It’s so high that people are on the bottom end of society, who it’s meant to help, are precluded from saving on their own. Social Security is both a practical and moral disaster.
As for Medicare, how is it your problem if another has failed to take care of his body? Your body is your primary possession. Should it also be your problem if somebody fails to take care of his car? Should the State fix all your property? Should the government have anything to do with health? No. It’s strictly a matter of personal responsibility. Of course, if the State believes it owns you, like a milk cow, the cattle can expect food to show up, as will medicine if they get sick.
Government entitlement schemes encourage everyone to try to live at the expense of his neighbors. They’re intrinsically dehumanizing, corrupting, and degrading. They’re a bad deal all around.
International Man: With the most precarious geopolitical situation since World War 2, "National Defense" seems unlikely to be cut. Instead, so-called defense spending is all but certain to increase. What is your take?
Doug Casey: The United States’ "defense" spending exceeds that of the next 10 nations combined, including Russia and China. Most of that spending goes into the maw of five major defense companies. A decade or two ago, there used to be 30 or 40 defense companies. But they’ve now consolidated, the better to deal with Big Government.
They increasingly make only expensive high-tech weapons, which may prove totally useless in today’s environment. For instance, the US is currently suffering an invasion of feet people across the southern border - millions and millions of young males, of alien race, language, religion, and culture, in the last two years alone. We may yet wind up with a civil war in the US, on top of several insane foreign wars.
These high-tech weapons, in the process of bankrupting the US and enriching the defense establishment, will prove largely useless. Meanwhile, military personnel are being gutted. It’s no secret that the services can’t recruit enough people to keep their numbers where they want them. That’s in good measure because ESG and DEI have been insinuated throughout the military like slow-acting poisons. The military is no longer a meritocracy. Now, it’s critical to be the right color and gender. George Patton would quit in disgust.
On top of all that, defense spending is a provocation to other countries. It’s like waving around a giant golden hammer. They’re correctly afraid that everything has started to look like a nail to the US.
International Man: The net interest expense on the national debt was $659 billion in FY 2023, which is sure to rise. The US government needs to roll over a significant portion of its existing debt issued when interest rates were 0% in an environment of much higher and rising rates. What are your thoughts on this item?
Doug Casey: Interest on the debt is the next big thing, in addition to entitlements and out-of-control "defense" spending. They used to say, "Don’t worry about the national debt; we owe it to ourselves," which was always ridiculous because some specific people always owed it to other specific people. But the US can no longer generate adequate capital to fund the government’s debt. And I hasten to point out that the government is not "We the People." The government is a separate entity, with its own interests, as distinct as General Motors.
In the recent past, the national debt has been financed not by Americans, but by foreigners. At this point, however, foreigners no longer want to own the debt of a bankrupt entity whose currency is nothing but a floating abstraction. The government can only finance its debt by selling it to its central bank, the Fed, which creates new dollars to buy the debt.
As the dollar inevitably loses value, interest rates will rise. That’s regardless of what the Fed does or doesn’t want. The market will demand higher interest rates to finance the debt. You don’t want to own bonds.
International Man: US government expenses seem to have nowhere to go but up. Is there any chance the US government can reform and return to a sustainable basis? If not, what are the implications?
Doug Casey: The US government is bankrupt. It’s not just the official $34 trillion. The real number is several times higher, considering contingent liabilities. It’s probably more like $100 trillion. This debt will never be repaid. The US government is like Wiley Coyote after he runs off a cliff. In addition, the average American is deeply in debt—student loans, mortgage debt, credit card debt, auto debt, and much more. The country is in big trouble. Frankly, there’s no practical way out at this point except to officially declare bankruptcy. I realize serious change is impossible since the situation is so out of control. But here are six things to imagine - for a start:
1. Allow the collapse of all bankrupt entities. No bailouts, subsidies, or guarantees for banks, insurers, corporations, or anything. There will be plenty in the coming years. Bailout money is always wasted. Most of the real wealth now owned by the bankrupt entities will still exist. It will simply change ownership. But that’s not nearly enough. At this point, it would be a half-measure, a 3-foot rope over a 12-foot gap. If you allow the collapse of unprofitable enterprises without changing the conditions that created the problem, recovery is going to be even harder. So…
2. Deregulate. Contrary to what almost everyone thinks, the main purpose of regulation is not to protect consumers but to entrench the current order. Regulation prevents new institutions from arising quickly and cheaply.
Does the Department of Agriculture really need 100,000 employees to regulate fewer than two million farms in the US? Abolish it. Has the Department of Energy, created in 1977 to somehow solve a temporary crisis, done anything of value with its 110,000 employees and contractors and $32 billion annual budget? Abolish it. How about the terminally corrupt Bureau of Indian Affairs, which has outlived whatever usefulness it might have had by 100 years. Abolish it.
The FTC, SEC, FCC, FAA, DOT, HHS, HUD, Labor, Commerce, and many more, serve little or no useful public purpose. Eliminate them, and the entire economy would blossom – except for the parasitical lobbying and legal trades. There are hundreds of agencies like these. Most aren’t just useless. They’re actively destructive.
3. Abolish the Fed. This is the actual engine of inflation. Money is just a medium of exchange and a store of value; you don’t need a central bank to have money. In fact, central banks are always destructive. They benefit only the cronies who get their money first. What would we use as money? It doesn’t matter as long as it’s a commodity that can’t be created out of thin air. Gold is the obvious choice. Bitcoin may turn out to be excellent. The whole idea of a central bank is a swindle. Massive bailouts and optional wars can’t be done without it.
4. Cut taxes by 50%… to start. The economy would boom. The money won’t be needed with all the agencies gone. Certainly not if the next two points are followed.
5. Default on the national debt. I realize this is a shocker unless you recall that the debt will never be paid anyway. Why should the next several generations have to pay for the stupidity of their parents? A default sounds dishonorable - and it is in civil society. But government is different. It hasn’t been "We the People" for a long time; it’s now a self-dealing behemoth run by cronies. It’s like a building with a rotten foundation - better to bring it down with a controlled demolition than wait for it fall unpredictably.
Governments default all the time, though most defaults are subtle, through inflation. In an outright default, however, the only people who get hurt are those who lent money to an institution that can only repay them by stealing money from others. They should be punished.
6. Disentangle and disengage. The entanglements the US needs to escape prominently include the UN and NATO. Spending could easily be cut 50%. The US combat troops now in over 100 foreign countries can come home. They’re not "defending" anything but local collaborators while picking up bad habits and antagonizing the locals. Spending on the military and its sport wars significantly adds to the economy’s problems."
Bill Bonner, "The Big Loss"
"The Big Loss"
Avoiding irreparable damage as the storm clouds gather...
by Bill Bonner
Paris, France - "First up: Bloomberg, with another milestone on the road to ruin: "U.S. Debt Interest Bill Soars Past $1 Trillion a Year." The combination of high levels of debt and higher interest rates has pushed the annualized interest cost of government debt past $1 trillion, an analysis from Bloomberg showed Tuesday. The cost of servicing US debt has doubled in the last 19 months. Interest rates are up. And so is the amount of debt. Together, like a ship caught in polar ice, they crush the hull. US debt is now $33.5 trillion. And there’s a lot more where that came from. Federal deficits of $2 trillion per year are becoming ‘the norm.’ By 2030, they’ll probably be around $3 trillion per year." And that is without any emergency spending!
“The Big Loss”: But rising debt levels and soaring interest payments are bound to set off alarms somewhere – subprime debt? Stocks? Real estate? Which brings us back to yesterday’s question: where is the next Big Loss coming from? The ‘Big Loss’ is the biggest financial danger older people face. It can wipe out a whole career of earning, saving, and investing. And if you’re over 55, you’re not likely to have time to recover.
So, what threatens a big loss now? Remember, it has to come as a big surprise. So, where’s the surprise? Stocks are still expensive…by some measures they are as expensive as they’ve ever been (especially the huge, leading tech stocks). Would it surprise us if they went down? Or even crashed? It shouldn’t. And what about houses? They’re at the top of their range too; shouldn’t they go down? It seems almost inevitable that they will. The average household can no longer afford the average house; something’s gotta give. No surprise there, either.
And what about AI? It’s the latest tech fad that is supposed to make us all rich. Just as the internet brought the whole world’s knowledge to our fingertips, now AI will help sort it out. “Experts” say it will increase productivity so much we’ll be able to pay our debts…finance our sprawling firepower industry…and get every member of Congress re-elected. And the best thing; it’s the perfect new technology for a declining, mentally-enfeebled empire. We don’t have to think about how to ‘Make America Great Again.’ AI will figure it out for us.
The Steepest Decline: But our guess is that AI will prove to be a big flop, just like the internet itself. People will use it routinely. Will it improve productivity? Yes…and reduce it too. Users will waste their time with it…playing games and talking to sex robots. Some tasks will be easier. Others will be made more complicated by AI-enhanced thieves, incompetents and propagandists. Overall, it will make little difference. Will it make some investors rich? Surely. But most of the claims and promises made for AI will prove false…and many people will take losses. Still, the Big Loss will probably come from elsewhere.
What about the bond market? It’s just endured the longest, steepest decline in its history. That alone suggests that the worst is over. Investors expect a bounce. Or even a complete turnaround. And here is where it becomes interesting. Everybody knows, you don’t ‘fight the Fed.’ And everybody knows the Fed has completed its tightening cycle.
Barron’s: "The Fed is done raising rates. The October employment report did it. The Federal Reserve’s tightening cycle is over. After 11 rate increases since March 2022, totaling five percentage points, the Fed ought to be finished raising rates. Inflation is falling and growth is slowing… Friday’s employment report confirmed what a host of other indicators are telling us, namely that the U.S. economy is finally slowing after an 18-month onslaught of Fed rate hikes. Together with falling rates of headline and core inflation, as well as moderating wage pressures, a clearer picture has emerged. The Fed will soon accomplish its goal of reducing U.S. inflation to the 2% core rate that it defines as “price stability.”
Everybody knows, too, that the Fed will soon begin to loosen up. The Fed Funds Futures market tells us that investors expect the Fed to “Pause” until May of next year…and then begin to cut rates. There’s a time to be a lender…and a time to be a borrower. Borrowing was a lay-up for most of this century. Especially in the depths of the Covid Panic. If you’d locked in a 3% mortgage rate then, you might have made the best financial move of your entire life. Your house payments would be fixed at an extremely low interest rate…while both principal and interest payments are reduced, year after year, by inflation.
Even at an inflation rate of only 4%...you’d make a profit on your borrowed money of 1% per year. And your gains are cumulative. After inflation, both the principal and the payments on your mortgage have gone down about 20%. But while the giddy, glory days of borrowing money are over…have the happy days of lending already arrived? Is it time to buy bonds again? Or is that what ‘everybody knows’…that just ain’t so? More to come…"
"There Are A Lot Of People..."
"Thomas Edison said in all seriousness: "There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the labor of thinking"- if we bother with facts at all, we hunt like bird dogs after the facts that bolster up what we already think- and ignore all the others! We want only the facts that justify our acts- the facts that fit in conveniently with our wishful thinking and justify our preconceived prejudices. As Andre Maurois put it: "Everything that is in agreement with our personal desires seems true. Everything that is not puts us into a rage." Is it any wonder, then, that we find it so hard to get at the answers to our problems? Wouldn't we have the same trouble trying to solve a second-grade arithmetic problem, if we went ahead on the assumption that two plus two equals five? Yet there are a lot of people in this world who make life a hell for themselves and others by insisting that two plus two equals five - or maybe five hundred!"
- Dale Carnegie
"Don’t Fear The Reaper"
"Don’t Fear The Reaper"
by John Wilder
“No. Not like this. I haven't faced death. I've cheated death. I've tricked my way out of death and patted myself on the back for my ingenuity. I know nothing.”
- James T. Kirk, "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan"
“Death is the only wise advisor that we have. Whenever you feel, as you always do, that everything is going wrong and you're about to be annihilated, turn to your death and ask if that is so. Your death will tell you that you're wrong; that nothing really matters outside its touch. Your death will tell you, 'I haven't touched you yet.'”
- Carlos Castaneda, "Journey to Ixtlan"
"When The Soon To Be Mrs. and I were just dating, I was cooking something or other. I think it was eggs. I like eggs sunny side up, and don’t particularly care if they’re cooked all the way. The Soon To Be Mrs.: “Aren’t you worried about salmonella?” John Wilder: (Laughs in full Chad manifestation.) The Soon To Be Mrs.: (Swoons.)
Seriously, she swooned. I’ve never seen it before in my life, but in that moment I think that was what sealed the deal, the moment in time that The Soon To Be Mrs. realized that this one is different. He’s not like the others. Here is a man who has zero fear of The Current Thing, and knows that salmonella won’t be the thing that punches his ticket out of having a functioning circulatory system.
No. I’m not afraid of salmonella. I would spit in its tiny little eyes or flagellum or tentacles and say, “Not today, my bacterium friend! My Danish-Scots-Germanic blood is far too strong for the likes of you!” And then I would attack Poland. Oh, wait, that’s been done.
I know I’m not going to die like Hemingway, and I’m not going to die like the comedy greats Belushi, Twain, or Nietzsche did. Nope. I think I’m gonna go out like Elvis. On a toilet after having eaten a fried peanut butter, jelly and bacon sandwich covered in cheddar cheese and mayo. Nope, I’m gonna die on a toilet. I mean, after all, a king should spend his last moments on the throne, right?
A lot of people worry about dying. I suppose I did, in my 20s, when I was worried about carrying out my responsibilities as a dad. Those are serious responsibilities – because those kids are going to be the legacy that I leave on Earth. That and my writing, collection of PEZ® dispensers and velvet Elvis paintings.
Again, a lot of people worry about dying. I’m not sure why. Of things that are more-or-less predetermined, that’s the big one. We’re all going to die. All of us. And I’m not sure I care.
Oh, sure, I want to live. I have no particular desire to die. If given the preference, I suppose I’m in favor of my continued heartbeat. But I don’t fear death. I don’t go to sleep at night wondering if this pain or that pain or that thing might be the symptom I look up on WebMD® that seals the deal that Wilder is going up to irritate Jesus in Heaven with bad puns.
I don’t worry about some future point when I’m going to enjoy life. I’ve achieved nearly every goal I’ve ever set for my life. End. Full stop. It’s like when a baseball game goes into extra innings, “Hey, free baseball.” And me? Free life. I’ve done nearly everything I’ve ever wanted to do.
What do you give a man who has everything? I mean, besides another bottle of wine. You give that man: Today. I’ve got Today. The only moment I live in is right now. And right now isn’t all that bad. I’m sitting in the sitting room (question: is any room I sit in, by definition, a sitting room? Discuss.) with the cool night air blowing in the window, some songs I love playing on the laptop, a cold beer by the keyboard, and the knowledge that at this moment, everything is fine.
Literally, in my life, Every Single Thing Is Fine. I could go into details, but you already know how awesome I am. So, I live for today? Hell no.
That’s YOLO. The idea that “You Only Live Once” is a free pass to act in any fashion has corroded society. It’s really at the root of many of the problems we have today. It is, in many ways, the absolute inverse of the philosophy I’m trying to describe. YOLO seeks to elevate hedonism and the passions of the moment as the highest good. YOLO is Tinder® times Planned Parenthood© times SnapFaceGramInstaChat® times Rwanda®.
t’s the inversion of beauty: it consists of being positive about, well, any old thing that feels good. I could list these “pleasures”, but you know the list as well as I do. We see it every day, with vice being paraded as virtue, and the continual demand going out for people to celebrate it, because, “Can’t you see? This horrid abomination that no healthy society or people in the entire history of the world has tolerated, iS BeAuTIfUL!” No, I think living a life built on YOLO is one doomed to fail – inevitably it will fail based on two reasons: it is materialism or a faith based on the nihilism of the material world writ large, and it is based on needs, like youth, wealth, sensation, or, yes, even life. So, not YOLO.
One thing I’ve tried to preach is outcome independence. Indeed, since the final outcome of life on Earth is fixed, all the intermediate steps lead there. Instead, I try to focus on virtue and faith. I write not because of YOLO, and not because it’s easy. Some nights it’s hard as hell to get the post to “close” and feel right. There are dozens of posts where, even after 1600 words, I still didn’t say exactly what I meant to say. That’s okay, it’s on me. I’m learning, and if I were perfect at this, I wouldn’t have more work to do.
For me, it’s the work. It’s getting better. It’s finding ways to add value to those people around me. There are those who pull their weight in the world, and those that don’t. I want to be one that pulls his weight, who has contributed as much as I can to helping my family and the wider world.
I don’t always do it. And I’m not always right, either. I’ve produced some stuff in my life that was really, really good, but not perfect. Thankfully, that’s not my mark, either, since just like immortality here on Earth, searching for perfection is a lonely and silly pastime. I want to make the world a better place with my family (first) and my work (now second) guided by God. And I want people to laugh hard while learning and thinking about the things I write.
The beauty of this is to win, all I have to do is the best that I can do every day. To win? All I have to do is be the best person I can be every day. See? Each night, I go to bed and sleep soundly if I know, in that day, that I gave it my all. Do I take time for me? Sure. But that’s not the goal – I serve a higher purpose.
So, what do I fear? Not death. It’s coming whether I like it or not, and, honestly, I’d rather not return my body in factory-fresh condition – I’d like all the parts to fail at once. On the toilet. I think Elvis would have wanted it that way. Oh, wait... I wonder if Elvis ate eggs sunny-side-up? Hang on, I’m sure he did. Elvis ate everything."
○
Full screen recommended.
Blue Oyster Cult , "Don't Fear The Reaper"
"How It Really Is"
"If only"... you don't stop because you can't stop.
If you do it's all over. It's all over anyway, you're just buying time.
Tell me I'm wrong...
"They Don't Always Do That..."
"When people pile up debts they will find difficult and perhaps even impossible to repay, they are saying several things at once. They are obviously saying that they want more than they can immediately afford. They are saying, less obviously, that their present wants are so important that, to satisfy them, it is worth some future difficulty. But in making that bargain they are implying that when the future difficulty arrives, they’ll figure it out. They don’t always do that.”
– Michael Lewis, “Boomerang”
"Americans Are Absolutely Drowning In Debt, And This Really Is The Worst Debt Crisis In All Of U.S. History"
"Americans Are Absolutely Drowning In Debt,
And This Really Is The Worst Debt Crisis In All Of U.S. History"
by Michael Snyder
"I truly wish that headline was an exaggeration. Unfortunately, for decades Americans have been extremely irresponsible with their finances. As a result, credit card debt is at an all-time high, auto loan debt is at an all-time high, mortgage debt is at an all-time high, corporate debt is at an all-time high, state and local governments all over the nation continue to get into absurd amounts of debt, and the federal government has piled up the single largest mountain of debt in the history of the world. Our whole society is absolutely drowning in debt at this stage, and the only way out is for the entire system to collapse.
On Tuesday, we learned that the total amount of credit card debt in the U.S. has now reached a new record high of 1.08 trillion dollars…"Americans now owe $1.08 trillion on their credit cards, according to a new report on household debt from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Credit card balances spiked by $154 billion year over year, notching the largest increase since 1999, the New York Fed found. “Credit card balances experienced a large jump in the third quarter, consistent with strong consumer spending and real GDP growth,” said Donghoon Lee, the New York Fed’s economic research advisor."
Credit card debt has always been one of the most insidious forms of debt, but now the banks are pushing credit card interest rates to unprecedented heights…"The rise in credit card usage and debt is particularly concerning because interest rates are astronomically high right now. The average credit card annual percentage rate, or APR, hit a new record of 20.72% last week, according to a Bankrate database that goes back to 1985. The previous record was 19% in July 1991.
If people are carrying debt to compensate for steeper prices, they could end up paying more for items in the long run. For instance, if you owe $5,000 in debt — which the average American does — current APR levels would mean it would take about 279 months and $8,124 in interest to pay off the debt making the minimum payments. It should be illegal to issue a credit card that has an interest rate higher than 20 percent. But banks are going to keep doing it because our politicians will not stop them. So don’t fall into their trap.
Other forms of debt are rapidly growing as well…"Auto loan balances also contributed to the uptick, climbing by $13 billion over the course of the third quarter to $1.6 trillion. Student loan debt, meanwhile, increased by $30 billion while mortgage balances jumped by $126 billion to $12.14 trillion."
Overall, U.S. households are now more than 17 trillion dollars in debt. I can’t even begin to describe how foolish we have been. The only way to keep the party going is to borrow even more money, but thanks to higher interest rates we are not going to be able to purchase as much. This is something that Kevin O’Leary pointed out in a recent interview…
“We’re looking at a downsized America. I tell it like it is,” O’Leary said on “The Big Money Show.” “Three years ago, even 24 months ago, you get a mortgage at 4.5%. You’re lucky to get one at eight today. So that means the size of the house you’re going to buy is 20 to 25% smaller. That’s a downsize. You want to borrow for a car? Sorry, that’s 8 to 9%. Used to be five,” the O’Leary Ventures chairman added. “So, smaller, less expensive car. That’s happening at the same time.”
He is right. But we just can’t help ourselves, and so we are going to continue to borrow more money. The same thing is true for our corporations. Today, corporate debt is at the highest level ever recorded. And state and local governments continue to borrow money as if tomorrow will never come. But the biggest offender of all is the federal government. The national debt is currently sitting at 33.6 trillion dollars, and it is constantly going higher. You can watch the national debt clock race upwards right here. To me, that debt clock is actually a countdown to the financial destruction of America.
Once upon a time, I warned that the U.S. would be paying a trillion dollars in interest on the national debt by the year 2030. Well, guess what? We got there early. According to Bloomberg, we have already crossed that ominous threshold…"Estimated annualized interest payments on the US government debt pile climbed past $1 trillion at the end of last month, Bloomberg analysis shows. That projected amount has doubled in the past 19 months from the equivalent figure forecast around the time. The estimated interest expense is calculated using US Treasury data which state the government’s monthly outstanding debt balances and the average interest it pays.
Wow. As usual, things are even worse than many of us were originally projecting. Before I end this article, there is one more thing that I wanted to mention. The “glitch” that affected the direct deposit of so many paychecks all over the nation still has not been resolved five days later…"Federal Reserve officials are urging banks to work with customers hurt by ongoing deposit delays that have prevented some people from accessing their paychecks and other funds.
A number of customers still haven’t received their direct deposit paychecks following a “human error” that damaged the plumbing of America’s banking system. The deposit delays are linked to a problem that emerged on Friday with the Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments system, causing headaches for consumers and employers. “The Federal Reserve encourages banks to work quickly to resolve issues for customers experiencing delays in receiving direct deposit payments as a result of operational issues at a private sector payments provider,” a Fed spokesman told CNN in a statement."
Was it really a “human error” that caused this? If someone just hit a wrong button, you would think that would be relatively easy to fix. Keep a close eye on the banks. As I discuss in my new book entitled “Chaos”, the banks are the beating heart of our economy and enormous trouble is brewing.
Without healthy banks, our entire system will go haywire very rapidly. We need to borrow money for just about every major purchase that we make, and it is the banks that make the vast majority of those loans. If the flow of credit starts to dry up, so will our standard of living. Unfortunately, a credit crunch has now begun, and that is going to have very serious implications for all of us."
Col. Douglas Macgregor, "Major Events Occurring This Week"
Col. Douglas Macgregor, 11/8/23
"Major Events Occurring This Week"
Comments here:
Gregory Mannarino, "More Runs On Banks; Expect Price Distortions to Worsen, Faster"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 11/8/23
"More Runs On Banks;
Expect Price Distortions to Worsen, Faster"
Comments here:
Adventures With Danno, "Stocking Up At Sam's Club!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, AM 11/8/23
"Stocking Up At Sam's Club!"
"In today's vlog, we are at Sam's Club and are stocking up on some of these great sales going on for the month of November 2023! We take you with us as we show all the different deals and things we are adding to our stockpile!"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
The Atlantis Report, 11/8/23
"15 Shortages That Will Hit
Grocery Stores Hard In December"
"As we approach the end of the year, we see an unprecedented increase in product shortages, with daily needs getting more and more expensive. The global supply chain is under tremendous pressure and the everyday life of people is being affected ridiculously. Due to these pressures, the food items at stores are getting rare. Here are 20 grocery items that will be impossible to find in 2024."
Comments here:
Canadian Prepper, "New Emergency War Bill Introduced; German Troops Move To Russian Border; Iran/Israel WW3"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 11/7/23
"New Emergency War Bill Introduced;
German Troops Move To Russian Border; Iran/Israel WW3"
Comments here:
Tuesday, November 7, 2023
MUST VIEW! Gerald Celente, "Crusades 2000: Whose Side Are You On?"
Very Strong Language Alert!
Gerald Celente, Trends Journal 11/7/23
"Crusades 2000: Whose Side Are You On?"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present facts and truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for what’s next in these increasingly turbulent times."
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'Yet To See Our Full Might': Hezbollah's Chilling Threat To Israel After Deadly Border Strike"
Full screen recommended.
Hindustan Times, 11/7/23
'Yet To See Our Full Might': Hezbollah's Chilling
Threat To Israel After Deadly Border Strike"
"Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah has warned Israel of “double” revenge after it accused that Israeli strikes killed Lebanese civilians. Hezbollah, backed by Iran, also fired a barrage of rockets in response, which Tel Aviv claimed killed an Israeli civilian. The Israel-Hamas war has escalated border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah. Around 60 Hezbollah fighters and 10 civilians have been killed since October 7, while more than half a dozen Israeli soldiers and a civilian have also died in border clashes."
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"A Look to the Heavens"
"Fans of our fair planet might recognize the outlines of these cosmic clouds. On the left, bright emission outlined by dark, obscuring dust lanes seems to trace a continental shape, lending the popular name North America Nebula to the emission region cataloged as NGC 7000. To the right, just off the North America Nebula's east coast, is IC 5070, whose avian profile suggests the Pelican Nebula. The two bright nebulae are about 1,500 light-years away, part of the same large and complex star forming region, almost as nearby as the better-known Orion Nebula. At that distance, the 3 degree wide field of view would span 80 light-years.
This careful cosmic portrait uses narrow band images combined to highlight the bright ionization fronts and the characteristic glow from atomic hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen gas. These nebulae can be seen with binoculars from a dark location. Look northeast of bright star Deneb in the constellation Cygnus the Swan."
"Point Of No Return..."
”There is a point of no return, unremarked at the time, in most lives.”
- Graham Greene
o
“When swimming into a dark tunnel, there arrives a point of no return when you no longer have enough breath to double back. Your only choice is to swim forward into the unknown… and pray for an exit.”
- Dan Brown
○
“And it was pointless… to think how those years could have been put to better use, for he could hardly have put them to worse. There was no recovering them now. You could grieve endlessly for the loss of time and for the damage done therein. For the dead, and for your own lost self. But what the wisdom of the ages says is that we do well not to grieve on and on. And those old ones knew a thing or two and had some truth to tell… for you can grieve your heart out and in the end you are still where you were. All your grief hasn’t changed a thing. What you have lost will not be returned to you. It will always be lost. You’re left with only your scars to mark the void. All you can choose to do is to go on or not. But if you go on, it’s knowing you carry your scars with you.”
- Charles Frazier
○
“Never be ashamed of a scar.
It simply means you were stronger than whatever tried to hurt you.”
- Unknown
Judge Napolitano, "Scott Ritter: Why Israel Is Losing Its War"
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 11/7/23
"Scott Ritter: Why Israel Is Losing Its War"
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o
Full screen recommended.
"Turkey Succeeded This Time:
The US Abandons Israel's Side! Israel Is Now Alone In Gaza?"
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"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
"One Trillion $ Per Year To Service US Debt; US Trade Deficit Balloons; War Is Expanding"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 11/7/23
"One Trillion $ Per Year To Service US Debt;
US Trade Deficit Balloons; War Is Expanding"
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o
Full screen recommended.
ThisisJohnWilliams, PM 11/7/23
"Millions Are Sinking;
What's Coming is Worse Than A Housing Crash"
A Shocking Chain of Events is Coming For America.
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"Food Shortages, Price Increases, And A Terrifying Recall! This Is Not Good!"
Adventures With Danno, 11/7/23
"Food Shortages, Price Increases,
And A Terrifying Recall! This Is Not Good!"
"In tonight's coffee rant, we are covering food shortages, grocery price increases, and a terrifying recall on an applesauce due to heavy amounts of lead found in it."
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o
Full screen recommended.
ThisisJohnWilliams, PM 11/7/23
"A $10 Trillion Dollar Food Crisis is Coming"
The Entire Food Supply is Now Changing in USA.
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"15 Pizza Chains Collapsing All Around Us"
Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 11/7/23
"15 Pizza Chains Collapsing All Around Us"
"It's been a rough couple of years for America's struggling pizza companies, with some of the country's largest pie chains reporting waning demand and mass store closings. Not even big brands like Domino's, Papa John's, and Pizza Hut are stepping on solid financial ground as we approach 2024.
For instance, take-and-bake Papa Murphy's is being forced to rethink its business due to changing consumer trends. Although its approach helps to save money on delivery, labor, and store size, fewer people seem interested in ordering pizza that isn't hot and ready to eat. On top of that, whereas delivery accounts for a big part of sales at other pizza chains, it's a pretty small fraction of Papa Murphy's profits in 2023. Despite having an almost 95 percent franchised empire, the company is carrying a multimillion-dollar debt, that has put pressure on struggling franchisees to rapidly expand and increase their margins, but that has left them ill-equipped to handle competition from other pizza chains — which is now resulting in several closings. As industry experts pointed out, it's never a good sign when a company has 13 straight quarters of sales declines. Over the past year alone, parent company MTY Brands shuttered 108 Papa Murphy's locations, and more are expected to occur in 2024 because pizza lovers want convenience, and Papa Murphy's isn't being efficient enough.
Also facing profitabily issues, Little Caesar's is struggling ever since the brand introduced its Hot-and-Ready deal that offers customers pizza for $5.55. While the idea behind it seems interesting, in real terms, the new prices have been squeezing franchise owners. In fact, since 2018, dozens of franchisees ceased operations and closed all stores, including 21 Kansas City locations owned by businessman Alan Knox. He said that the chain's stores couldn't make a profit at that price point. Operators in South Carolina, Texas, and Washington closed a total of 58 stores over the past twelve months alone. Still, the company didn't roll back the deal and insists that the strategy will pay off in the near future, but franchisees disagree. "The $5 price point has become an unprofitable business model for many and is fast becoming unprofitable for many more," warned Todd Messer, a spokesperson for the Independent Organization of Little Caesar Franchisees.
After experiencing a pandemic boom, many pizza chains are now facing challenges to bring consumers back. Americans continue to reduce their spending amid inflation and rising energy prices, leaving little money to order delivery or eat out. Changing consumer habits, profitability issues, and ongoing labor shortages are pushing dozens of beloved U.S. pizzerias to the brink this year. In a crowded pizza market, only the best of the best will remain in business. These company’s underwhelming performance is a sign of trouble for the entire industry. With over 35,000 pizza restaurants across the country, it's easy to understand why businesses are having to make the difficult decision of reducing their store count. The market is clearly saturated, and there isn't enough demand to support all these locations, especially as another economic downturn unfolds. In the coming months, we're going to see many more restaurant closing announcements because the real carnage has only just begun.That means your favorite pizza place may be on the list of closings announced by companies in the third quarter. For that reason, we listed some of the brands that are being battered in the market right now."
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"Target Is Staring At A Complete Collapse Now"
Full screen recommended.
The Final Economy, 11/7/23
"Target Is Staring At A Complete Collapse Now"
"Target has lost over 14 billion dollars in market valuation in 10 days due to a cocktail of controversies and economic challenges. As a result their stock has lost about a fifth of its value, after going on a nine day losing streak and hitting a three year low in October. The stock price dropped from 161 dollars to 126.99 dollars in just a month. This decline came after a third Wall Street firm downgraded the shares due to worries about slowing sales. The company announced that it will close one store in New York City’s Harlem neighbourhood, two locations in Seattle, three stores in the San Francisco-Oakland area and three more in Portland, Oregon. The discounter said it will shut down the stores for good on Oct. 21. Experts predict that more store closings will occur as the retailer faces political controversies along with threats of recession."
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"Helpless People"
"Helpless People"
"Almost all Americans have had an intense school experience which occupied their entire youth, an experience during which they were drilled thoroughly in the culture and economy of the well-schooled greater society, in which individuals have been rendered helpless to do much of anything except watch television or punch buttons on a keypad.
Before you begin to blame the childish for being that way and join the chorus of those defending the general imprisonment of adults and the schooling by force of children because there isn’t any other way to handle the mob, you want to at least consider the possibility that we’ve been trained in childishness and helplessness for a reason. And that reason is that helpless people are easy to manage.
Helpless people can be counted upon to act as their own jailers because they are so inadequate to complex reality they are afraid of new experience. They’re like animals whose spirits have been broken. Helpless people take orders well, they don’t have minds of their own, they are predictable, they won’t surprise corporations or governments with resistance to the newest product craze, the newest genetic patent — or by armed revolution. Helpless people can be counted on to despise independent citizens and hence they act as a fifth column in opposition to social change in the direction of personal sovereignty."
- John Taylor Gatto
o
Big Brother & The Holding Company,
"Heartache People"
"The Courage To Meet Eddie"
"The Courage To Meet Eddie"
by Alex Noble
"Life, like good theater, is full of surprises and unexpected twists in the plot. How satisfying it is when we can surprise ourselves, break through "stereotypes," and move beyond fear to embrace more compassionate points of view. I experienced this on a trip to Los Angeles.
I drove into the city at sunset, into the older part of downtown where turn-of-the-century office buildings barely hold their own against the rising tide of urban decay. As the sun gilded skyscrapers, broken neon signs flickered in the windows of delicatessens and novelty shops on Spring Street. Old newspapers blew up and down the sidewalks, fluttering like wounded birds in debris-laden corners. Winos and addicts slumped against buildings or lay down on the sidewalk to catch a few moments of merciful sleep. Drugs were being sold on the street corners. Disoriented men and women wandered listlessly about, some of them shouting, some of them just staring blankly ahead. An old woman pushed a broken-down supermarket cart filled with faded clothes and torn shopping bags. A tired-looking man held up a sign scrawled on cardboard: "Will work for food." Shiny BMW's and Mercedes whispered through the darkening streets, bearing tired executives home to well-watered gardens.
I was early, and the parking lot next to the theater was still almost empty. A bored-looking attendant stood by the gate to keep the homeless and drunks from accosting the arriving theatergoers. A restless, warm wind tossed newspapers in front of my car.
An angry-looking man in a black coat three sizes too large for him shuffled by, trying to get the attention of anyone who might listen to his litany of complaints about the government. I felt uncomfortable and looked forward to getting inside the marble foyer of the theater, and then into the performance itself. There, for a few hours, we the audience would suspend our disbelief and enter into an imaginary world where we would laugh and cry and be entertained. For a few hours, we would forget our own problems and the problems of the world, which in this immediate area appeared to be a vivid reality of suffering that pressed upon one at every turn.
I drove to the back of the lot and parked, dreading the walk to the theater entrance, haunted by questions. Should I hand out dollar bills to those in need? Should I stop and try to talk if someone seemed rational? Should I carry a supply a supply of Salvation Army meal tickets for occasions like this?
I gathered my courage and got out of the car. As I locked the door, I heard a voice calling to me. "Hey, can you spare some change?" I froze with dread and looked up. On the other side of the 10-foot chain-link fence I saw a man. His hands gripped the wire. His head was shrouded in the navy-blue hood of a stained, torn jacket. Suddenly I was painfully aware of my glistening car and colorful clothes. I felt frightened and awkward, even with the fence separating us. Was I in danger? Did he have a gun? Was he going to shout at me, ask questions I could not answer, make me feel guilty for having so much when there are so many who have so little?
I saw in my mind's eye a sunset scene from the airport in Jakarta, where the plane I was on had stopped to refuel. There was a similar fence, but against that fence hundred of people crowded, looking hostile, saying with their eyes and in a language I could not understand. "You are the enemy. We do not want you here. Go home." Even with the fence as a barrier between us, I could feel the hatred, and I felt helpless to do anything about it except send back thoughts of peace, respect, and compassion.
Now I had a choice. I could turn and walk away. I could move closer, perhaps say a kind word. The man called again, "Hey, Beam!" I was startled for a moment, but then I realized that he could see my license place, "BEAM 1." "Hey, Beam, I need to eat. Can you help me out?"
A force larger than my intellect or my sense of danger drew me toward the fence. I was painfully aware that the total cost of what I was wearing could feed this man for several months. I kept my eyes on the ground. I seemed to be moving slowly, as if in a dream, wanting to help but not knowing how, my feet feeling heavy yet moving ahead anyway.
I reached the fence and looked up. I looked first, as the stained hands holding onto the fence, then I looked into the eyes. They were kind, even friendly. The man smiled a shy smile. "What's your name?" I asked. My feet felt lighter. My fear hung in the air between us. In my imagination, I watched it evaporate, like a cloud of steam. "Eddie," he replied. I handed him a $10 bill. "Get yourself a good dinner, Eddie." "Thanks, Beam. I really appreciate this." I felt tears trembling behind my eyelids, and I turned to walk away. "You be good, Eddie," I said over my shoulder.
In two minutes, I was in the crowded theater lobby, threading my way through well-dressed theatergoers. I was detached, remembering Eddie's kind eyes, his hands holding the fence, his playful smile. I realized, with some sadness, that it was quite possible I'd just given an addict the money for his next hit of crack or worse, and I did not feel very good about this. The play began, and for three hours I disappeared into a mythic world of illusion, transformation, and redemption. The basic message: Within every dragon is a princess, and within every inferno there is a paradise, if we know what to look for and if we have the eyes and the heart to see.
I found myself thinking kind thoughts about Eddie, sending him kindness in the night, knowing all was well with him. As I left the theater, there was a gathering of rumpled, untidy street people at the theater entrance. Some people stopped to visit with them, give them a few dollars. Others walked by, lost in their own worlds. By the time I got to the parking lot, many of the cars had left, and the attendant was no longer there.
As I walked to the back of the lot to get to my car, I noticed a man, leaning against the fence, right where Eddie had been, and my heart froze. I stopped. The man called out: "Hey, Beam, come here a minute."
I felt as though I had no choice. My humanity, compassion, or maybe just sheer craziness would not let me turn away. I walked to the fence and looked Eddie in the eyes, those kind brown eyes. I felt my fear dissolving again, watched that imaginary cloud disappear. "I had a great dinner. I waited around for you because I wanted to thank you. I don't need any more money. I just really appreciate your kindness. It helps. I was a medic in 'Nam."
We visited for a few moments. I began to feel badly about the fence. I was safe. There was not danger. I thought about the many kinds of fences we put up in our lives, and about how much we shut out. My fear was gone. We laughed and joked a bit. I told him I had to get on my way, as I had a long drive home. "You be good, Eddie," I said. "God loves you a lot." "God loves you, too." I got in my car and looked back at the place where he had been, but there was only a pool of light from the streetlamp. "
- Alex Noble passed away in December 2018. Her website is gone.
Her real first name was Alexandria, hence Alex.
"The Magician's Sheep"
"The Magician's Sheep"
GI Gurdjieff
"There is an Eastern tale that speaks about a very rich magician who had a great many sheep. But at the same time this magician was very mean. He did not want to hire shepherds, nor did he want to erect a fence about the pasture where the sheep were grazing. The sheep consequently often wandered into the forest, fell into ravines and so on, and above all, they ran away, for they knew that the magician wanted their flesh and their skins, and this they did not like.
At last the magician found a remedy. He hypnotized his sheep and suggested to them, first of all, that they were immortal and that no harm was being done to them when they were skinned; that on the contrary, it would be very good for them and even pleasant; secondly he suggested that the magician was a good master who loved his flock so much that he was ready to do anything in the world for them; and in the third place, he suggested that if anything at all were going to happen to them, it was not going to happen just then, at any rate not that day, and therefore they had no need to think about it. Further, the magician suggested to his sheep that they were not sheep at all; to some of them he suggested that they were lions, to some that they were eagles, to some that they were men, to others that they were magicians. After this all his cares and worries about the sheep came to an end. They never ran away again, but quietly awaited the time when the magician would require their flesh and skins."
-GI Gurdjieff
"We May Know..."
“We may know that the work we continue to put off doing will be bad. Worse, however, is the work we never do. A work that’s finished is at least finished. It may be poor, but it exists, like the miserable plant in the lone flowerpot of my neighbor who’s crippled. That plant is her happiness, and sometimes it’s even mine. What I write, bad as it is, may provide some hurt or sad soul a few moments of distraction from something worse. That’s enough for me, or it isn’t enough, but it serves some purpose, and so it is with all of life.”
- Fernando Pessoa
Col. Douglas Macgregor, "A Dangerous Regional Conflict"
Col. Douglas Macgregor, 11/7/23
"A Dangerous Regional Conflict"
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"How It Really Is"
Oh, but these swine aren't asleep thinking about themselves...
"Congress Sneaks Through $34,000 Pay Raise For Itself"
"Democrats quietly tucked a provision into internal House rules that grants lawmakers access to an optional $34,000 annual subsidy to pay for their Washington, D.C., housing and meal expenses," the report explained." The $34,000 is on top of their base pay of $174,000! If anything they should have their pay cut. It is way past time to go back to the days of citizen legislators... they go to D.C. for a few months, take care of the people's business then go back to their districts, to their real jobs. They're all grifters, looking out for no one but themselves."
"A Buddhist Prayer of Forgiveness"
"A Buddhist Prayer of Forgiveness"
"If I have harmed anyone in any way
either knowingly or unknowingly
through my own confusions
I ask their forgiveness.
If anyone has harmed me in any way
either knowingly or unknowingly
through their own confusions
I forgive them.
And if there is a situation
I am not yet ready to forgive
I forgive myself for that.
For all the ways that I harm myself,
negate, doubt, belittle myself,
judge or be unkind to myself
through my own confusions
I forgive myself."
o
"It’s forgiveness that makes us what we are. Without forgiveness, our species would’ve annihilated itself in endless retributions. Without forgiveness, there would be no history. Without that hope, there would be no art, for every work of art is in some way an act of forgiveness. Without that dream, there would be no love, for every act of love is in some way a promise to forgive. We live on because we can love, and we love because we can forgive."
- Gregory David Roberts, "Shantaram"
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