"When to Fix the Roof"

"When to Fix the Roof"

By Bill Bonner

"Now is not the time to worry about shrinking 

the deficit or shrinking the Fed balance sheet."

– Steven Mnuchin, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, September 14, 2020

SAN MARTIN, ARGENTINA – "If not now, when? If not us, who? When is the right time to fix the leaking roof? The sun was shining in 2017 when Mr. Mnuchin joined the White House team as Secretary of the Treasury. Then, unemployment was low… and U.S. GDP had been growing for eight years straight.

At this point in the cycle, Keynesian theory tells us that the prudent thing to do is to run a budget surplus and pay down your debt. That is the essence of contra-cyclical policy; as if taken directly from the Old Testament, it seeks to flatten out the booms and busts by running deficits in the lean years and surpluses in the fat years.

Exact Opposite: Instead, the deficit for the 2017 financial year was $665 billion (inherited from the Obama team). In other words, the feds were doing the exact opposite of what Joseph recommended to Pharaoh and what Keynes recommended to policymakers. They were exaggerating the trend, not moderating it. In 2018, when the Trump team was fully in charge, unemployment went even lower. The boss said the skies had never been clearer. But instead of taking advantage of the good weather to repair their balance sheet, the feds cut taxes… and the deficit rose to $779 billion. And in 2019… it still didn’t rain. What a gift! But nobody got up on the roof. And the deficit rose to almost $1 trillion.

Time to Normalize: The gist of the following words is that the feds will never fix the damned roof. This house will fall down first. Here’s how… During those 10 sunny years from 2009-2019, instead of fixing the leaks in federal finances, Mr. Mnuchin and his predecessors punched more holes. You’ll recall that by 2015, the Federal Reserve was getting out its ladder and strapping on the tool belts. Since 2009, it had maintained that its zero interest rate and vast bond-buying scheme were “emergency measures.” The emergency over, it was now time to “normalize” its policies.

Big Mistake: But when Mr. Trump arrived, he fiercely opposed any attempt at normalization. He saw, correctly, that “normal” was a thing of the past. He wanted abnormally low rates and more printing-press money from the Fed to keep the “recovery” going. By then, it was obvious that the whole shebang was in trouble. The crisis of 2008-2009 had been followed by the most aggressive money-printing campaign in U.S. history – in which the Fed added $3.6 trillion to its balance sheet. But this produced the weakest recovery in history.

A thoughtful person might have wondered, “How come? What’s wrong with this money-printing scam?” But neither the Eccles Building (Federal Reserve headquarters) nor the White House is a safe place for thinking people. They are now places for action figures – cartoonish characters, who take action without thinking.

In 2017 and early 2018, Mr. Trump repeatedly insisted that it was a big mistake to try to “normalize” interest rates or reduce the Fed’s balance sheet. He and Mr. Mnuchin hoped to extend the boom further – at least through the 2020 election. But the Fed continued its timid baby steps up the ladder toward “normalization”… until October 2018. Then, with the federal funds rate barely above the official inflation rate… under pressure from the Trump team… and with a 3,000-point sell-off in the Dow… the Fed decided to climb down. It never got close to normal.

Four months later, the stock market crashed… the feds shut down large parts of the economy… GDP fell 32% in the second quarter… and the Fed cut rates back down to zero, and then went on another money-printing spree.

Stormy Weather: And now what? Now, there are clouds everywhere – cumulus, cirrus, and an occasional killer funnel, too. We saw on Friday that nearly 100,000 businesses have closed their doors – permanently. As for jobs… millions have been lost. Eleven million? Thirty million? The numbers are fishy.

But if these jobs come back at the same rate that they did after the crisis of 2008-2009 – 1.6 million per year, on average, over five years – it will take until 2027… or to 2038, if we base our calculations on the 30 million figure… to get them back. Most likely, many are gone for good. An economy evolves. It finds new ways of doing business. It needs new skills… new businesses… new people. The old ones are left behind… each one with a cloud over his head.

Hot Market: “It’s amazing what’s happening out here,” said friends calling from Deer Valley, Utah. “People are buying houses sight unseen. The realtors say they’ve never seen such a hot market. Everybody wants to get away from the big cities. They’re coming in from California… New York… Baltimore…” Wealthy people are enjoying their new digs. The rest are standing in lines waiting for handouts from the government. Or, they’re waiting for the helicopters.

In 2019, U.S. GDP was $21.7 trillion. This year, the Federal Open Market Committee says the final tally will be about 6.5% less. Rents are not being collected. Mortgages are not being paid. There are still some 30 million Americans on unemployment… and 44 million with student loans totaling $1.5 trillion. Senators Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren now propose forgiving $50,000 of student loans per person… (This must make students who didn’t borrow really feel good!)

No Chance: The clouds are not going away any time soon. And no matter who is in the White House, he is not going to get out on the slippery roof any time soon, either. Heck, he might get struck by lightning! 8 million people lost their jobs in the crisis of 2008-2009. And while the economy recovered over the following decade, the feds never had the brains or guts to return monetary policy to “normal.” This time, as many as 50 million people signed up for unemployment benefits. And there is almost no chance – in the next 10 years, anyway – that deficits will be reduced and interest rates will be normalized.

No Trust: So, the money-printing goes on… And it inevitably leads where it always leads – to a drop in the value of the money itself. And then, people will look for alternatives. Traditionally, in the “sh*thole” countries and banana republics, they found it readily – in the U.S. dollar. But what happens when you can’t trust the greenback either? That is what we will look at tomorrow…"

- www.rogueeconomics.com

The Daily "Near You?"

 
Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada. Thanks for stopping by!

"I Have Accepted The Fact..."

"One can fight evil but against stupidity one is helpless. I have accepted the fact, hard as it may be, that human beings are inclined to behave in ways that would make animals blush. The ironic, the tragic thing is that we often behave in ignoble fashion from what we consider the highest motives. The animal makes no excuse for killing his prey; the human animal, on the other hand, can invoke Gods blessing when massacring his fellow men. He forgets that God is not on his side but at his side." 

 "There is no salvation in becoming adapted to a world which is crazy." 

- Henry Miller

“Now Is the Time of Monsters”

“Now Is the Time of Monsters”

by Jeff Thomas

“In ancient Rome, interregnum was the term given to the period between stable governments when anything untoward might occur, and sometimes did – civil unrest, warfare between warlords, power vacuums and, finally, succession wars. But eventually the dust would settle and the victors, whoever they might be, would at some point restabilize the empire, often with a new map, showing the latest lines of geographic possession.

In 1929, the Italian Antonio Gramsci was in a fascist prison, writing about what he considered to be a new interregnum – a Europe that was tearing itself apart. He anticipated civil unrest, war between nations and repeated changes in the lines of geographic possession. At that time, he was attributed as saying, “The old world is dying and the new world struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters.”

And, of course, looking back from our vantage point in the twenty-first century, we have no difficulty in confirming that he was correct in his prognosis. The world war that followed brought forward the worst traits in mankind. The sociopaths of the world came centre-stage. By the time the dust had settled, tens of millions were dead.

What we do have difficulty with is recognizing that the same pattern is again with us. National leaders and their advisors are spoiling for war, building up weaponry, creating senseless proxy wars in other nations’ backyards and playing a dangerous game of “chicken” with other major powers. This will not end well. It never does. Once the shoving-match has begun, it only escalates. At some point, whether it’s the false-flag assassination of an Archduke, as in World War I, or the false flag invasion of Germany by Poland, as in World War II, we can always count on some excuse being created to justify diving headlong into war.

It’s also true that, when empires get into economic trouble that’s too far gone for any viable solution, a trick that’s always employed by political leaders to keep the citizens from removing them from their seats of power, is to start a war. A people will, if they believe their homeland is in peril, accept the “temporary” removal of their freedoms. Even in the United States, the famed “Land of the Free,” political leaders have routinely imprisoned dissidents in times of warfare. People tend to get behind their leaders in wartime, no matter how undeserved that loyalty might be.

And so, now is the time of monsters, as Mr. Gramsci rightly stated. A time of uncertainty, when countries are in turmoil and would-be leaders are jostling for power with existing leaders. An interregnum.

Troubled times tend to bring out all the crazies – all the sociopathic-types that would find it hard to succeed in stable, prosperous times. In such times, the average person becomes worried that things are not going to turn out well. That’s perfectly understandable. Unfortunately, most people lack both the imagination and the courage to cope with how the times are impacting their lives. They instead rely on others to provide a torch that might help them escape from the darkness. Not surprising then, that every snake-oil salesman in town sees an opportunity to offer big promises – promises that he has neither the ability nor the inclination to fulfill.

At such times, the people of a country tend to become polarized, placing their faith in one political party or another, hoping that their party will “make the bad stuff go away.” In the US we see, on the liberal side, promises for “free health care for all,” a guaranteed basic income, housing for those who cannot afford it, and an endless stream of promises that, if the government were to implement them all, they will not be able to pay for them, even with 100% taxation from those who presently pay tax.

On the conservative side, we see promises such as “Make America Great Again,” with tax rebates that do not rejuvenate the economy, breaks for firms that have expatriated, but do not fool them into returning, claims to cut budgets, only to increase them, and promises to eliminate debt, only to expand it.

We see presidential elections in which one of the two leading candidates is a textbook narcissist, whilst the other displays all the traits of senility. And we see a waitress elected to Congress by a substantial margin, raised to the status of heroine merely for promising all things to all people, whilst offering no plan as to how that might come about. Record numbers of candidates pour into the political arena, seeking a last grab at power prior to systemic failure.

To be fair, the US is by no means alone in delivering incapable people with nonsensical solutions to the higher offices. In the UK, each leading party states emphatically that a hard Brexit would be a disaster, yet neither party can come up with a working alternative. What they can do, as in America, is point fingers and shout invectives at each other.

In France, riots have become a weekend staple, whilst the disconnected president essentially says, “Let them eat cake,” serving only to create further fury on the street. To be sure, the problem begins at the top. But it doesn’t end there. It sifts down to the proletariat, who, unable to come up with constructive solutions, create their own monsters, trashing the shops and burning the cars of people who had no hand in creating the problem.

But surely this is just a one-off phase, in which the best and brightest are temporarily pushed offstage, but will soon return, yes? Well, unfortunately, no. Historically, a period such as this one is followed by one of increased madness. Historically, the next step is societal breakdown. Riots, secessions and revolutions become commonplace, accompanied by economic collapse.

Out of these events come the worst monsters of all. It’s in the wake of such developments that the people of any country then turn away from those that made the empty promises and toward those who promise revenge against an ill-defined group who are characterized as having caused the problems. That’s when the Robespierres, the Lenins, the Hitlers – the greatest monsters – are swept into power. They invariably deliver the same message – that they’ll seek out the aristocracy, the gentry, the patricians, and strip them of their positions and possessions.

Invariably the way that this shakes out is not that the average man rises up, taking his “fair share” of the spoils. Instead, the leaders take the spoils and the proletariat are reduced to an equality of poverty. Our friend Mr. Gramsci found himself imprisoned by Benito Mussolini and died from illnesses incurred in prison. Unfortunately, his approach was to complain, but remain, as his country deteriorated around him. This proved, for him, to be the worst of choices. And, so it is today.”

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

"The Many Ways Our Brains Are Broken"

"The Many Ways Our Brains Are Broken"

by Mark Manson

"Each week, I send you three potentially life-changing ideas to help you become a slightly less awful human being. This week, we’re talking about: 1) cognitive biases and how they can make you an asshole; 2) that new Netflix documentary about social media; and 3) how people are mostly the same, even if we never realize it. Let’s get into it.

1. The many broken ways of the brain - A couple of months ago, in response to the rising protests for racial justice, I spent much of that week’s newsletter discussing cognitive biases and how they distort the way we see the world. I spent a few paragraphs going over some of the major biases that seemed relevant to reading news: negativity bias, confirmation bias, impact bias, recency bias, etc. That newsletter ended up being one of the most popular and shared emails since this newsletter’s inception. In the couple months since then, I’ve been meaning to write a more thorough article about cognitive biases but never got around to it… until now.

Read: "The Cognitive Biases that Make Us All Terrible People" (or read it in the iOS app)

For those who don’t know, cognitive biases are basically inherent “flaws” in our psychology—they're the predictable ways we misjudge situations, filter information incorrectly, or jump to irrational conclusions about people or events. We all have them. We all succumb to them. And it’s only in understanding them that we can develop the self-awareness to guard ourselves against them. Therefore, I’ve come to believe that they are one of the most important subjects to get out into the world right now. So, please read the article. Coming to grips with these biases is crucial if we’re going to survive the age of social media clickbait without killing each other… maybe literally…

2. The Netflix Dilemma - A few weeks ago, Netflix released a new documentary called "The Social Dilemma" that has since taken the internet by storm. About two dozen readers have emailed me since it came out wanting to hear my opinion on it. I finally got around to watching it this past week and I have a few thoughts.

The main thesis of the documentary is nothing new or surprising at this point: that social media presents a lot of challenges and threats to the social order and Big Tech has not been held accountable. The documentary employs the “throw everything at the wall and see if something sticks” strategy of airing grievances about fake news, political polarization, mass surveillance, anxiety and depression, creepy advertisers, and so on.

I should start out by saying that I agree with the intent of the documentary — there are risks to social media, many of which we are just starting to understand. This is something I started writing about back in 2013. I then continued to write about it in 2014, 2016, 2017 (twice), 2019, as well as the beginning of this year. Social media and its effects also gets quite a bit of treatment in my book "Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope."

So this is not a new subject for me. I bring this up simply to say that in the years I have been studying this issue, I have learned that this is a far more nuanced subject than most of the treatment critics give it.

For example, despite all of the kvetching about social media making people more anxious or depressed, the most solid research we have shows that it does not make people more anxious or depressed (the exception here might be teenage girls.) After all, anxiety, depression, and suicide have been increasing for decades. So has political polarization. So has mass surveillance. Fake news was a thing as far back as the 1800s. And while fake news may travel faster on social media than real news, evidence suggests that, by and large, most people who read and share these stories don’t actually believe them. They’re just trying to score points for their ideological team. None of this is to say that social media doesn’t have problems. It certainly does. It’s just to say that, as always, it’s complicated.

So, on the one hand, I’m glad a documentary is out there bringing these questions to more people. We do need to be aware of these issues and, as I’ve argued for years now, we need to take a proactive approach to how we use technology. On the other hand, Netflix has become the master of producing documentaries with a hysterical, “sky is falling!” tone to them. And this documentary was no different.

Speaking of which, while watching, it was impossible to ignore a brutal irony: Here I am, on Netflix, watching a 90-minute documentary about how addictive these algorithms are by big tech companies, how they steal our time and feed us disinformation and give us skewed perceptions of the world, how the companies are so big and powerful no one can keep them accountable — Wow, Netflix, tell me more!

3. Everyone is the same in that they hate those who are too different - But let’s try to end on a positive note. Let’s talk about the truths that are right in front of us, but we seem to be perpetually unable to see them.

A reader passed along a cool study he found a couple of weeks ago. Whereas most studies attempt to calculate the differences between populations, this study decided to take a massive dataset and calculate the similarities between the populations. The study took a large international survey of 86,272 people and categorized them by age, gender, education, nationality, education, and religion. The survey asked them all questions to gauge their values around 22 different topics (trust in science, the importance of education, morality, etc.)

The researchers then cross-analyzed the data in every way they could to determine which groups of people around the world are the most similar and dissimilar. In all, they ran over 168,000 comparisons and found that, on average, people’s values were 93.3% the same. Of all of the comparisons, only 0.66% of them produced results where populations were more dissimilar in their values than they were similar.

Basically: the vast majority of the time, in the vast majority of circumstances, people are the same. They want the same things. They value the same things. They see things in the same way. Anyone who has traveled extensively to other cultures has probably noticed this themselves.

Yet, why do we focus so much on our differences? If we’re basically the same 93% of the time, why do we have so much war and bigotry and prejudice and anger over the other 7%? It makes no sense. Freud called this phenomenon “the narcissism of the slight difference.” He argued—long before we understood what cognitive biases were—that the small differences between us are magnified in our minds and thus drown out our similarities. We take our common humanity for granted and instead obsess over subtle divergences in culture and character as if they are world-ending.

And I think this is what is driving the social problems that social media gets blamed so much for: The internet takes the narcissism of the slight difference and multiplies it a thousand times before you can get out of bed in the morning. Our minds are already primed to loathe any dissimilarities we spot between ourselves and others. The internet simply gives us millions and millions more dissimilarities to spot.

As I put it in an article six years ago, reflecting back on my years traveling across the world: “Humans are by and large the same with the same needs, the same values, the same desires... and the same awful biases that pit them haplessly against each other.” Until next week,"

- https://markmanson.emlnk1.com/lt

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Also by Mark Manson:

Full text of "The World In The Turmoil, Climate Change, Fake News, 

Kids and Screens, Big Tech and Uncertainty: Exploring How We Got There"

“5 Tips to Get Out of Your Own Head and Free Your Mind”

“5 Tips to Get Out of Your Own Head and Free Your Mind”

by Joe Mirelli

“Editor’s Note: Today we are taking a step back from politics to motivate a different kind of freedom. The base of a free society is free individuals, confident in their abilities, and secure in pursuing their happiness. Joe Mirelli is a passionate musician and creative writer from the UK. Previously, he worked in various engineering organizations and 9-5 ‘dead end’ jobs until he realized– if he really wanted to be happy, he must free himself from this way of living. When participating in an apprenticeship in Mechanical Engineering, he was once ‘reassured’ that in years to come he would be on a great wage in the factory. Forget the ‘great wage’, nothing scared Joe more than the idea of still being in that environment in ‘years to come’. Not that engineering cannot be great, of course it can. But he knew he was destined for something different. Since 2013 he has been following his dreams and pursuing his passions as a Musician, Creative Writer, and Visionary. You can find examples of his musical work on his website JoeMirelli.com.”

“How do you define freedom? Sit back for a second and ponder it.

Freedom.

What do you think?

There are many aspects to achieving true freedom. Most importantly and where to start is freedom of the mind. We must first free our minds from the shackles that society has kept us in. At birth, we are a blank canvas. We have no knowledge of school or college. We know absolutely nothing about the money we must give to various governments when we start earning money. At that point in our lives, we know nothing. Ignorance is bliss as they say. From then on, however, things change. We learn to walk and talk, to eat, to laugh, to cry. Before we know it, we are being bundled off into an unknown environment and left by our parents with many other confused, crying and crazy characters. School.

1. Choose Your Course, Don’t Let Others Dictate: We pick up various habits and characteristics throughout our school journey. The education system seems to neglect crucial life skills, for example, the importance of following our passions and focusing on the things we love to do.

One of the flaws in the public education system is that the mindset acquired through this method of learning is far from free thinking. It prevents us from reaching our true potential. To reach optimum creativity we must be in an unchained environment. We must have the freedom to think and create without restriction. Public school systems support the standard: work hard, take few risks, get a good job, slave away for years, retire, and die.

Once you step out of the rat race mentality you realize how important it is to reject that programming. Nowadays, the pupils are treated as statistics based on how they perform on tests. The most effective ways of learning have slipped down the drain. The fun and willingness involved with passionate creativity are minimal.

How can you force somebody to do something well, if they have no interest in the outcome? With students valued only as ‘percentage of grades achieved,’ the pressure imposed on the administration by the government, the teachers by the administration, and the pupils by the teachers is ridiculous. Does that sound like efficient learning to you? The goals and incentives are all wrong.

Surely, a real key to feeling freedom is to be actively involved and passionate about something in our lives. It gives us a sense of purpose and encourages us to improve ourselves. Finding and pursuing our passions can really ignite our happiness levels and the people around you will notice. Energies are powerful!

2. Be Careful Who Influences You: To free the mind further, you could evaluate the company that you keep. As the motivational speaker Jim Rohn famously said, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with,” meaning we pick up traits and habits from them. This can be great! On the other hand, it might not be so beneficial.

Aim to spend time with people you can build with, people who are in a place where you would love to be. If you want to become successful at something, spend time with people who are succeeding at the same thing you wish to. Yes, some things are easier said than done, but where there’s a will, there’s a way! Send that email. Call them. Approach them in the street and say hello! Start building a relationship. Network! At least take the first step, however small. Remember – life really does begin at the other side of your comfort zone.

And tune out the mainstream media if you want some real freedom of mind!

3. Exercise: Exercise is a major part of accessing mental and physical freedom. It is proven to reduce risk of illness, to increase confidence, it increases mental clarity, reduces stress and depression and the list goes on. Gym memberships cost money, but exercise is free. Walk, jog or a bike if you don’t know where to begin. Get out into nature! Just be as active as possible – the benefits are incredible. Try and exercise in some way at least three times per week, but ideally, every day. Habit helps.

4. The Law of Attraction: Have you heard of an exciting subject called ‘The Law Of Attraction’? As the Greek philosopher Plato noted, ‘like attracts like’ meaning that whatever you are feeling at any given moment you are attracting more of. Simply put, if you feel happy, you are on a positive vibration, (good vibes) attracting more positive experiences to yourself. If you’re sad, guess what? The same applies.

It almost sounds ‘magical’, doesn’t it? But it actually makes sense when you think about it. Being in a positive mindset means you are more likely to connect with others, and notice opportunities. Networking by meeting others and showing interest in what they are doing has an uncanny way of bringing the people we need into our lives. But again, it isn’t magic. It is being in the mindset to notice paths forward, instead of focusing on the negatives.

Studies in areas such as neuroscience, psychology and philosophy show masses of evidence proving it exists. Scientists at the Welcome Trust Centre at the Institute of Neurology in London discovered that people who visualize a better future have much more chance of creating it. That doesn’t mean you can achieve only by visualizing. It is just a good place to start. And it really isn’t all that different from having a plan.

A great introduction to the Law of Attraction is a book called “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne. Byrne takes the reader on her own journey whilst explaining the law alongside talented and successful individuals, such as Bob Proctor and Marci Shimoff. Admittedly, it can seem very surreal at first glance. Applying it increases confidence, instills self-belief and fuels motivation. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. You believe you can achieve something, so you work harder toward achieving it.

5. Believe in Yourself: If you think you can’t do something, you are right. There is no point in being negative about things. Even when you fail, learn the lesson, but don’t dwell on it. Successful people are successful because they moved on after their first, second, or tenth failure. Self-belief is a huge key to unlocking the door to freedom. And while it is great to consider others’ opinions, don’t let people drag you down from trying to achieve.

Look at some of the most successful people in the world – the likes of Sir Richard Branson, Eminem, Steve Jobs. All of these people have had to undergo hardships and leap over ridiculous obstacles to reach ‘the top’. Virtually nobody believed in them at first, apart from themselves.

Did losing his hearing stop Beethoven from creating beautiful musical masterpieces? Thankfully, it didn’t. Did being told there was “no place in modern music for three guitarists and a drummer” stop The Beatles? Nope. Did being turned down one thousand and nine times before finding a taker for his chicken recipe prevent Colonel Sanders and the creation of KFC?! If you’re a chicken lover, you definitely know the answer! Practice self-belief as much as possible and you’ll see massively positive improvements in your life.”

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

"Briefly..."

“A person who has not been completely alienated, who has remained sensitive and able to feel, who has not lost the sense of dignity, who is not yet ‘for sale’, who can still suffer over the suffering of others, who has not acquired fully the having mode of existence – briefly, a person who has remained a person and not become a thing – cannot help feeling lonely, powerless, isolated in present-day society. He cannot help doubting himself and his own convictions, if not his sanity.”

- Erich Fromm

Gregory Mannarino, "Special Report: Another Financial System Crisis?"

Gregory Mannarino,

"Special Report: Another Financial System Crisis?"

- https://traderschoice.net/

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Related:

SEP 21, 2020 7:50 AM: "Global Stocks Plunge On Bank, Election, Virus Fears; Treasuries, Dollar Spike"

"How It Really Should Be"

 

"The Bill for America's $50 Trillion Gluttony of Inequality Is Overdue"

"The Bill for America's $50 Trillion Gluttony of Inequality Is Overdue"

by Charles Hugh Smith

Do you hear the pathetic bleating of America's billionaires and their army of toadies? If not, you soon will, for a remarkable report has been released that documents the $50 trillion in earnings that's been transferred to the Financial Aristocracy from the bottom 90% of American households in the past 45 years. The report was prepared by the RAND Corporation, and has a suitably neutral title: "Trends in Income From 1975 to 2018." (The full report can be downloaded for free.)

Just as remarkable is the no-holds-barred coverage of the study by Time magazine, an iconic publication of the mainstream media: "The Top 1% of Americans Have Taken $50 Trillion From the Bottom 90% -- And That's Made the U.S. Less Secure."

Longtime readers know I've reported on the astounding increase in America's economic inequality for the past 15 years, and addressed the eventual banquet of consequences this imbalanced, destabilizing state of affairs will serve up. But with few exceptions, the corporate media has ignored this fundamental reality of American life, and blown off the consequences as easily ignored speculation by marginalized bloggers and commentators. ("Would somebody please shadow-ban these sites going on and on about soaring inequality? Thank you, Facebook, Google and Twitter -we'll return the favor directly.")

The extreme rarity of paragraphs like these in the corporate media cannot be over-emphasized. The corporate media has carried water for the billionaires and America's Financial Aristocracy for decades. (No surprise, given that the vast majority of America's media / social media is owned by the billionaires and Financial Aristocracy. Why bite the hand that feeds you, especially when the risk of losing your career is so high?)

Excerpted from the Time.com article linked above: "There are some who blame the current plight of working Americans on structural changes in the underlying economy - on automation, and especially on globalization. According to this popular narrative, the lower wages of the past 40 years were the unfortunate but necessary price of keeping American businesses competitive in an increasingly cutthroat global market. But in fact, the $50 trillion transfer of wealth the RAND report documents has occurred entirely within the American economy, not between it and its trading partners. No, this upward redistribution of income, wealth, and power wasn't inevitable; it was a choice--a direct result of the trickle-down policies we chose to implement since 1975.

We chose to cut taxes on billionaires and to deregulate the financial industry. We chose to allow CEOs to manipulate share prices through stock buybacks, and to lavishly reward themselves with the proceeds. We chose to permit giant corporations, through mergers and acquisitions, to accumulate the vast monopoly power necessary to dictate both prices charged and wages paid. We chose to erode the minimum wage and the overtime threshold and the bargaining power of labor. For four decades, we chose to elect political leaders who put the material interests of the rich and powerful above those of the American people.

That this level of incendiary outrage is now seeping into the mainstream media tells us that the bill for America's $50 Trillion gluttony of inequality is long overdue and the pendulum of reckoning will swing to political, social and economic extremes equal to the extremes of wealth and income inequality engineered by America's Financial Aristocracy and their toadies/lackeys in government, the Federal Reserve, Wall Street, Silicon Valley and the media.

The rallying cry to claw back a significant percentage of the $50 trillion is just beginning. The billionaires have the money and power, of course, and the best government that money can buy plus the loyalty of a vast army of well-paid toadies, lackeys, factotums and apparatchiks.

But once the citizens no longer accept their servitude, the pendulum will gather momentum. America's Financial Aristocracy has reached extremes not just of wealth-income-power inequality, but extremes of hubris. Their faith in luxury bug-out estates/private islands is evidence that even if the way of the Tao is reversal, they'll have their private bodyguards and stashes of fuel and other essentials.

The clawback might not be as easy to rebuff as they anticipate, nor will the pendulum swing that's just starting necessarily arrive at the opposite extreme in the orderly, predictable fashion they're accustomed to controlling.

Here's a few of the many charts you've seen over the years here that illustrate rising inequality:

- https://www.oftwominds.com/

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The 1% swine would do well to remember where this delicacy comes from...

We are many, they are few...

"Market Fantasy Updates 9/21/20"

"Market Fantasy Updates 9/21/20" 

Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...

Only the consequences are real - to you!

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"The more I see of the monied classes, 

the better I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

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Updated live.

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

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- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

"3-Count Felon, JPMorgan Chase, Caught Laundering More Dirty Money"

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Daily Update (September 21st to 22nd)

- http://www.shadowstats.com/

"Covid-19 Pandemic Updates 9/21/20"

  

By David Leonhardt

SEP 21, 2020 1:26 AM ET:

 Coronavirus Map: Tracking the Global Outbreak 
The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 31,038,100 
people, according to official counts, including 6,825,761 Americans.

      SEP 21, 2020 1:26 AM ET: 
Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count

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- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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Updated 9/21/20, 2:22AM ET

Click image for larger size.

- https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

"If Liberty Means Anything At All..."

"He who dares not offend cannot be honest."

- Thomas Paine

Under the Weather

 

Apologies for the abbreviated blog today, one of those rare days...

Normal again tomorrow hopefully. :-)

Musical Interlude: Kevin Kern, "Emerald Legacy"

 

Kevin Kern, "Emerald Legacy"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Large galaxies grow by eating small ones. Even our own galaxy engages in a sort of galactic cannibalism, absorbing small galaxies that are too close and are captured by the Milky Way's gravity. In fact, the practice is common in the universe and illustrated by this striking pair of interacting galaxies from the banks of the southern constellation Eridanus, The River. 

Click image for larger size.

Located over 50 million light years away, the large, distorted spiral NGC 1532 is seen locked in a gravitational struggle with dwarf galaxy NGC 1531 (right of center), a struggle the smaller galaxy will eventually lose. Seen edge-on, spiral NGC 1532 spans about 100,000 light-years. Nicely detailed in this sharp image, the NGC 1532/1531 pair is thought to be similar to the well-studied system of face-on spiral and small companion known as M51."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200108.html

Edward Abbey, “Benedicto”

 “Benedicto”

"May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. May your rivers flow without end, meandering through pastoral valleys tinkling with bells, past temples and castles and poets’ towers into a dark primeval forest where tigers belch and monkeys howl, through miasmal and mysterious swamps and down into a desert of red rock, blue mesas, domes and pinnacles and grottos of endless stone, and down again into a deep vast ancient unknown chasm where bars of sunlight blaze on profiled cliffs, where deer walk across the white sand beaches, where storms come and go as lightning clangs upon the high crags, where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you – beyond that next turning of the canyon walls.”

- Edward Abbey

The Daily "Near You?"

Commerce City, Colorado, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

Gregory Mannarino, “Markets, A Look Ahead: Big Week Coming”

Gregory Mannarino,

“Markets, A Look Ahead: Big Week Coming”

- https://traderschoice.net/

"It's A Terrible Thing..."

“It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you’re ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. And you may as well do it now. Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any.” 

 - Hugh Laurie

"How It Really Is"

 

"A Textbook Case Of Treason"

"A Textbook Case Of Treason"

by Mike Whitney

“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.”

- Marcus Tullius Cicero

"The Transition Integrity Project (TIP) is a shadowy group of government, military and media elites who have concocted a plan to spread mayhem and disinformation following the November 3 presidential elections. The strategy takes advantage of the presumed delay in determining the winner of the upcoming election, (due to the deluge of mail-in votes.) The interim period is expected to intensify partisan warfare creating the perfect environment for disseminating propaganda and inciting street violence. The leaders of TIP believe that a mass mobilization will help them to achieve what Russiagate could not, that is, the removal Donald Trump via an illicit coup conjured up by behind-the-scenes powerbrokers and their Democrat allies. 

Here’s a little more background from an article by Chris Farrell at the Gatestone Institute: “In one of the greatest public disinformation campaigns in American history — the Left and their NeverTrumper allies (under the nom de guerre: “Transition Integrity Project”) released a 22-page report in August 2020 “war gaming” four election crisis scenarios: The outcome of each TIP scenario results in street violence and political impasse. Is it possible that the leadership of the American Left, along with their NeverTrumper allies, are busy talking themselves into advocating and promoting street violence as a response to a presidential election? The answer is: Yes… expect violence in the aftermath of the election, because now that is the new ‘normal.”

– (“How to Steal an Election”, Gatestone Institute)

Please view this complete article here:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com

"Covid-19 Pandemic Updates 9/20/20"

   

By Remy Tumin and Sandra Stevenson

"The U.S. is approaching another staggering number: 200,000 people dead from the coronavirus. Above, each flag at a memorial in Austin represents a Texan who died from Covid-19. The country is expected to cross the threshold any day now. More than 6.7 million people have been infected with the virus. Case numbers remain persistently high across much of the country, though reports of new cases have dropped considerably since late July, when the country averaged well over 60,000 per day. We’re tracking the latest case count and map here.

Vaccine development is underway, but wide distribution is still months away. Once they’re produced, how do you ship millions of vaccine doses at minus 112 degrees Fahrenheit? That’s only one logistical challenge in efforts to end the pandemic."

SEP 20, 2020 8:08 AM ET:

 Coronavirus Map: Tracking the Global Outbreak 
The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 30,816,400 
people, according to official counts, including 6,747,516 Americans.

      SEP 20, 2020 8:08 AM ET: 
Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count

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- https://www.zerohedge.com/

09/20/2020 - 12:09: "Madrid Braces For Lockdown As UK Nears COVID-19 "Tipping Point": Live Updates"

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Updated 9/20/20, 5:22AM ET

Click image for larger size.

- https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html