'Life, Eh?"

"We said together, wistfully, 'Life, eh?' It says everything without having to say anything: that we all experience moments of joyful or painful reflection, sometimes alone, sometimes sharing laughs and tears with others; that we all know and appreciate that however wonderful and precious life is, it can equally be a terribly confusing and mysterious beast. 'Life, eh?"

- Miranda Hart

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Full screen mode suggested.

“In America Money Does Grow on Trees”

“In America Money Does Grow on Trees”

by MN Gordon

"Full Commitment: This week provided additional confirmation that America is fully committed to a program of currency destruction. Decades of terminal intelligence have gotten us to this special place. We will have more on this in a moment. But first some words on being fully committed.

Say hello to the provider of bacon… lots of bacon, in this case. [PT]

We have never gutted a hog. But we hear it is a bloody mess. The volume of blood that gushes out – as in, ‘bleeding like a stuck pig’ – is profuse. Contemplating a bacon and egg breakfast plate reveals two types of commitments. That of the chicken. And that of the pig. You may know this allegory. The chicken is involved in providing for the breakfast. It provides the eggs. But the pig is fully committed to it. For the pig must perish to provide the bacon.

America is presently bleeding like a stuck pig. Public and private debts are hemorrhaging a bloody mess. For example, the budget deficit for fiscal year 2020 which concluded on September 30 was $3.3 trillion. By this, the federal government spent double what it generated via tax receipts and other confiscatory measures. And the federal debt held by the public is now well over 100 percent of GDP.

Click image for larger size.

The federal budget deficit, quarterly, as of Q2 2020. [PT]

There is no way the debt will be honestly paid. It is mathematically impossible. Nor will it be paid through an honest default. That is politically unacceptable. The debt, however, will be paid dishonestly. It will be paid through dollar debasement. America is fully committed to this. Here’s why…

Words of Omission: Last Tuesday’s presidential debate has been called many things. Most descriptions have cast it in a negative light. Some political pundits used French to describe, in colorful terms, what type of show it was. Here at the Economic Prism we offer a different assessment. Namely, we found the presidential debate to be invigorating. Like a New Year’s Day polar bear plunge, or a predawn distance jog, it was so painful that it was enjoyable.

President Trump’s grumpy bombast and bluster. Biden’s scratching attempt to overcome his slide toward senility. Utter disregard for facts. And Chris Wallace, once again, striving, yet failing, to be Mike Wallace.

Presidential faith healers… [PT]

It was the sort of spectacle that demonstrates public degradation is integral to democratic government. To be president, you must simultaneously sell your soul and roll around in the gutter. For this reason, we give the debate a five star seal of approval. However, the debate also offered another critical insight… There were words that should not have been said. There were also words that should have been said. You see, words, and the absence of words, can be distractions. And within a sequence of words there are sometimes obvious omissions.

Nowhere within the 98 minute presidential debate was there a single word of the country’s burgeoning $3.3 trillion budget deficit. Nowhere was there a single word of the great $26.8 trillion national debt default that is conflagrating like a savage windblown California wildfire.

Nowhere was there mention of the fake money system and the insidious way it concentrates wealth in the upper most end of the wealth spectrum. Nowhere was there mention of the $157.7 trillion in unfunded liabilities, which includes the sacred cows of social security and Medicare.

Not from Trump. Not from Biden. Not even from Wallace the Younger. What gives? Where is the opposition?

The real issue at hand – the one omitted from debate – is the present crisis brought on by 50 years of relentless debt accumulation. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, the federal government has spent more than it takes in. Now the debt has piled up past the point of no return; there is no longer an expedient way to reverse course. This is the real topic for debate. This is the story that is entirely ignored by both presidential candidates. This is the story of America’s decline. This is a story that is too grim to mention. And this obvious omission from Tuesday’s debate is what makes the affair nothing more than a great big distraction.

“In America Money Does Grow on Trees”: The U.S. government, and by extension the American people, are fully committed to a program of currency debasement to inflate away the debt problem. They believe executing an implicit default via inflation is the easier and softer way.

Intelligent minds, from John Law to Charles Ponzi to Bernie Madoff, from John Maynard Keynes to Milton Friedman to Ben S. Bernanke, from Benjamin Strong to Alan Greenspan to Jerome Powell, and everyone in between, have promised something for nothing. They have put their intelligent minds to the task…

Counter-cyclical stimulus spending. Interest rate suppression. Quantitative easing. Elastic currencies. Money shuffling. Inflation targeting. Smoke and mirrors… all so governments, and individuals, can spend well above what they can afford, and then welsh on the debt without consequences. The ultimate gift of this intelligence is terminal.

Click image for larger size.

At the end of Q2, the US debt-to-GDP ratio has reached a new high of 135%. [PT]

But why stop now? Americans, like a pig supplying bacon, are fully committed. The hottest incarnation of terminal intelligence is Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). According to its purveyors, the USA can print all the money it needs to amplify the economy – debts and deficits be damned. MMT, no doubt, is a system of big government statists. A system where governments can hatch boondoggles without limits. The whole theory, or lack thereof, is absurd. But a growing base of supporters finds it alluring.

Well, here it is – the money tree! 

Apparently the government has been hiding it all these years… [PT]

The latest MMT messiah, Stephanie Kelton, has a new book. It is called, “The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People’s Economy,” and it is getting rave reviews from unlikely places.

Ms. Kelton explains MMT: first take this pile of free money, 

then add that pile of free money, and presto, there’s free sh*t for everybody! [PT]

Upon reading the book, gangsta rap pioneer, Ice Cube, for example, tweeted the following means of salvation: “America loves to cry broke. But in America money does grow on trees.”

You can already see what is coming… When financial markets crack and the economy collapses and the populace pleads for someone to “do something,” the President and Congress will oblige with full commitment. MMT – or QE for the people – will be granted with money from nothing. Debts will be paid in full. And like the pig, the dollar will perish. Enjoy the bacon while it lasts."

- https://acting-man.com/?p=55356#more-55356

“FED Calls For Help; Greatest Depression Upon Us; Holiday Shopping Catastrophe; US Economy Hurting”

Jeremiah Babe,

“FED Calls For Help; Greatest Depression Upon US;

 Holiday Shopping Catastrophe; US Economy Hurting”

Moby, "Love Of Strings"

Moby, "Love Of Strings"

Please view in full screen mode.

"I Have Hope..."

 

"Corruption Is Now Our Way Of Life"

"Corruption Is Now Our Way Of Life"

by Charles Hugh Smith

"Social and economic decay is so glacial that only those few who remember an earlier set-point are equipped to even notice the decline. That's the position we find ourselves in today. Many Americans will discount the systemic corruption that characterizes the American way of life because they've known nothing but systemic corruption. They've habituated to it because they have no memory of a time when looting wasn't legalized and maximizing self-enrichment by any means available wasn't the unwritten law of the land.

If you don't yet see America as little more than an intertwined collection of skims, scams, frauds, embezzlements, lies, gaming-the-system, obfuscation of risk and exploitation of the masses by insiders, please read "How Corruption is Becoming America's Operating System." (nakedcapitalism.com, via Cheryl A.)

Here on oftwominds.com, you might want to read "No Wrongdoing Here, Just 6,300 Corporate Fines and Settlements". (May 2015)

When JP Morgan Chase engaged in fraud and was fined a wrist-slap $1 billion, nobody went to prison because nobody ever goes to prison for corporate fraud and criminal collusion: "JPMorgan to pay almost $1 billion fine to resolve U.S. investigation into trading practices."

Simply put, corruption is cost-free in America because most of it is legal. And whatever is still illegal is never applied to the elites and insiders, except (as per Communist regime corruption) for a rare show trial where an example is made of an egregious fall-guy (think Bernie Madoff: whistleblowers' repeated attempts to expose the fraud to regulators were blown off for years. It was only when Madoff ripped off wealthy and powerful insiders did he go down.)

There are three primary sources for the complete systemic corruption of America. One is the transition from civic responsibility for the social contract and the national interest to winner-take-most legalized looting. This transition is visible in the history of empires in the final stage of collapse. The assumption underlying the social order slides from a shared duty to the nation and fellow citizens to an obsession with evading civic duties: military service, taxes, and following the rules are all avoided by insiders and elites, and this moral/social rot then corrupts the entire social order as elites and insiders lean ever more heavily on the remaining productive class to pay the taxes and provide the military muscle to defend their wealth.

That corruption is now everywhere in America is obvious to all but those adamantly blinded by denial. The JP Morgans pay fines as a cost of doing corrupt business, while "public servants" game the system to maximize their pensions with a variety of tricks: colluding to boost the overtime of the retiring insider; finding a quack physican to sign off on a fake "heart murmur" so the insider pays no taxes on their "disability" check, and so on in an endless parade of lies, scams, skims and insider tricks.

The excuse is always the same: everybody does it. This is of course the collapse not just of the social contract but of morality in general: anything goes and winners take most. Insiders look the other way lest their own skims and scams be contested, and elites and insiders view those who aren't skimming and scamming as chumps to be pitied.

The second dynamic is that financialization has completely corrupted the American economy, and that corruption has now spread to the political and social orders. Once the financial sector conquered the real economy, it began siphoning 95% of the economy's wealth to the top .01% and their toadies, lackeys, apologists, enforcers and technocrats. As they hollowed out the real economy, distorted incentives and made moral hazard the guiding principle of the American way of life, the recipients of financialization's domination gained the wealth to buy political power from the pathetically corruptible political class.

The corruption that we call financialization corrupted democracy and undermined the social contract by eviscerating the value of labor and creating a pay-to-play political order that's a mockery of democracy.

The third factor is the decay of America's institutions into fronts for personal gain. While Higher Education insiders are masters of self-serving PR, the truth is they're not concerned about their debt-serf "customers" (students) learning the essential skills needed in the tumultuous decades ahead--they're worried that the revenues needed to pay their enormous salaries and benefits might dry up.

"Education" is nothing but a front for the corruption of self-enrichment by the elites and insiders at the top. The same is true of "healthcare." The concern of insiders isn't the declining health of America's populace, it's the decline in revenues as fewer "customers" come in for the financial scalping of emergency care. "Healthcare" is nothing but a front for the corruption of self-enrichment by the elites and insiders at the top.

Thanks to the Federal Reserve's endless free money for financiers and endless federal borrow-and-blow deficits, the unstated belief is since there's endless "money", my petty frauds and skims won't even dent the feeding trough--there's always another trillion or three to skim and scam, and there will never be any limit to the feeding trough.

There is no limit until the system implodes. Then the collapse becomes limitless. Ironic, isn't it? The oh-so convenient belief that America's wealth and power are eternal and godlike in their glory fosters the crass corruption that has weakened America to the point of no return: systemic fragility and brittleness.

American Exceptionalism has been turned on its head: America is now as perniciously corrupt as any developing-world nation we smugly felt so superior to, and with extremes of wealth and income inequality that surpass even the most rapacious kleptocracies. This destabilizing "exceptionalism" is now the defining characteristic of the American economy, society and political order. Systemic corruption and the implosion of the social contract have consequences: It's called collapse, baby, and the rot is now too deep to reverse."

- http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/

"Movie Industry Collapsing, Airline Companies Falling, Retailers Closing, Gigantic Lines At Food Banks"

"Movie Industry Collapsing, Airline Companies Falling, Retailers Closing, 

Gigantic Lines At Food Banks"

by Epic Economist

"Many determinant events will likely boost another round of economic collapse. The US GDP has dropped to levels never seen before in history. And despite the belief there will be a rebound in the third quarter, there is plenty of reason to believe things will get worse. In this video, we discuss how the recent unfoldings will create another economic meltdown.

Considering the generalized lockdowns drastically collapsed the economic activity, the GDP dropped to rates last seen in 1958. But as states started to reopen, regaining a few jobs, the third-quarter GDP is expected to show a significant rebound. However, as we approach the end of the year, many aggravating events, such as another round in bankruptcy files and lay-offs, and another surge of viral cases are still going to resonate their effects in the beaten US economy. 

Recent evaluations indicate that even if we record a rebound on the third-quarter GDP, the US economy will shrink this year, for the first time since the Great Recession. In the April-June quarter, the GDP declined at a rate of 31.4%, the largest decline in U.S. history.

The unprecedented economic plunge documented in the spring may lead to a reversal effect, in which the GDP could register a record rebound. However, this only means the drop was so deep that to get out of the economic rock bottom a major spike had to happen. That is to say, since some businesses have reopened and people have gone back to work, a significant bounce could be seen, but economists affirm it is still a longshot and it will not be translated into economic growth.

Quite the opposite, forecasts suggest that economic growth will dramatically fall in the final three months of this year to 4%, leaving America on the brink of another deep recession if Congress doesn’t approve another stimulus bill or if there is a resurgence of viral cases. Right now, there are spikes in infections occurring in some regions of the country, including New York.

The estimated 4% GDP fall would mark the first annual decline in GDP, signaling an end to an almost 11-year-long economic expansion. Moreover, as the economic momentum is cooling, fiscal stimulus expiring, flu season approaching and election uncertainty rising, all the pressure is now on the fragile labor market, which can lead the country to a lot of trouble, because as jobs are being recovered, job losses are mounting, pointing the critical deterioration of the labor market.

Many workers that were re-hired are being let go once again, and others who thought their dismissal was temporary are now being permanently laid-off. 787,000 initial claims for unemployment insurance were filed last week, but the real numbers are likely to be much bigger than that. So far, almost 60 million people have sought benefits, but as the health outbreak lingers, employers continue to lay off hundreds of thousands of workers. 

The unemployment figures track the course of the virus, and the rate of positive viral tests has been staying high. This can induce states to pause or roll back plans to reopen businesses, slowing the rehiring of workers or laying off workers for a second time, as they run out of federal aid, and businesses struggle with sharply reduced revenue.

To make things worse, companies are announcing massive lay-offs to take place before December. As many as 50,000 airline employees will be laid-off starting Thursday. Collectively, American Airlines and United Airlines will let 32,000 employees go. Allstate communicated that it will be laying off 3,800 employees, and Disney has scheduled 28,000 lay-offs to happen by December, at least a quarter of those job losses will come from Florida, counting 6,390 dismissals and the numbers could get even bigger. 

We also analyzed the stories of some workers to illustrate the instability of the labor market, giving us reason to imply that much more distress is coming for us. In short, the gain in jobs from the recall of workers on temporary layoff is hiding an increasing number of permanent job losses, and none of these second layoffs are reflected in the most recent numbers from the Labor Department. Furthermore, the situation of many workers many not allow them to find a job in their field any time soon. So everything points to the fact that things are not going to "come back to normal" any time soon. By the year-end, we will witness a colossal breakdown of the American economy."

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind, "Shadows of White"

Liquid Mind, "Shadows of White"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Peculiar spiral galaxy Arp 78 is found within the boundaries of the head strong constellation Aries, some 100 million light-years beyond the stars and nebulae of our Milky Way galaxy. Also known as NGC 772, the island universe is over 100,000 light-years across and sports a single prominent outer spiral arm in this detailed cosmic portrait. Its brightest companion galaxy, compact NGC 770, is toward the upper right of the larger spiral. 

NGC 770's fuzzy, elliptical appearance contrasts nicely with a spiky foreground Milky Way star in matching yellowish hues. Tracking along sweeping dust lanes and lined with young blue star clusters, Arp 78's large spiral arm is likely due to gravitational tidal interactions. Faint streams of material seem to connect Arp 78 with its nearby companion galaxies."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200918.html

"Lemons..."

"When life hands you a lemon, say

"Oh yeah, I like lemons. What else you got?"
- Henry Rollins

Chet Raymo, “Examination of Conscience”

“Examination of Conscience”
by Chet Raymo

"I have been reading Stephanie Smallwood's “Saltwater Slavery,” a close examination of the trade in human beings between the coast of West Africa and the Americas in the 17th and 18th centuries. It is a sobering read, but if there is one thing I came away with, it was this: We have an enormous capacity to rationalize the most horrendous crimes. Everyone involved in the slave trade - the European owners of the ships, the masters of the trading companies, the ship captains and crews, the plantation owners in the West Indies and the Chesapeake, the African tribal chiefs who captured and sold their neighbors to the European merchants - knew in some part of their souls that what they were doing was wrong. All of them - good Christians among them, pillars of their communities - found ways to rationalize their participation.

Who among us is immune to self deceit? To what extent am I implicated in the horrendous tragedies that are Darfur and Iraq? What do I owe to the global environment? Is there such a thing as innocence when we are so intimately connected that people in Fiji and Japan will read these words only moments after I write them?

What about science, the favored subject of this blog? Here is Smallwood: “The littoral [of the West African coast]...was more than a site of economic exchange and incarceration. The violence exercised in the service of human commodification relied upon a scientific empiricism always seeking to find the limits of human capacity for suffering, that point where material and social poverty threatened to consume entirely the lives it was meant to garner for sale in the Americas.”

Even science, like religion and democratic politics, can be pressed into the service of evil. We are all of us to some extent in the grip of economic forces as powerful and sometimes as pernicious as those that drove the saltwater slave trade. Few of us are required to personally face the direst evils. We are saved from moral anguish only by the fact that our acts of commission and omission ripple outward until their consequences are diluted and lost in the general happiness or unhappiness of humankind.”

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

"Once We Begin To See..."

"The apple cannot be stuck back on the Tree of Knowledge; once we begin

to see, we are doomed and challenged to seek the strength to see more, not less."
- Arthur Miller

The Daily "Near You?"

 

Philomath, Oregon, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

Greg Hunter, "Super Exponential Money Printing & Debt Phase"

"Super Exponential Money Printing & Debt Phase"

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

"Financial and precious metals expert Egon von Greyerz (EvG) stores gold for clients at the biggest gold vault in the world buried deep in the Swiss Alps. This year, EvG’s company, Matterhorn Asset Management, has seen “a major inflow, a massive inflow of big amounts of gold” being vaulted by his wealthy clients. Why the big spike in people wanting physical gold? EvG says, “You have seen this year incredible money creation around the world by central banks along with the massive debt increases. You are looking at the money supply, which has been going up for 50 years, but now it’s going up in a straight line. So, we are now entering into the exponential phase of this financial system. We are seeing unlimited money printing, helicopter money like Ben Bernanke (former Fed Head) called it. Then we are going to see accelerated debasement of the currency. The real moves in gold and silver haven’t started yet.”

This next move, according to EvG, is going to be a global phenomenon. EvG explains, “The bond market is going to collapse, and interest rates are going to go a lot higher. Inflation is going to go a lot higher, and, eventually, the currency collapses, and it is a collapsing currency that leads to hyperinflation. When the currency falls, we will see hyperinflation. The next group of people that are going to come into this are the institutional investors. We’ve already seen signs of that. The risk I would say is the highest ever in history. You have never had a situation in history where basically every country in the world is in the same position. In the past, you have had individual countries that have had problems, economic collapse and hyperinflation. You have never had a situation where the whole world has had an insoluble debt problem. That is now about to collapse. That’s never happened in history, and that’s why it’s going to be on a much bigger scale than before. I am not a prophet of doom and gloom. I am just someone who analyzes risk, and I say it is inevitable. This has to happen. It’s not a question of when, it’s just a question of how long will it take.”

What also has to happen are dramatically higher gold and silver prices? EvG says, “Silver at $25 per ounce is incredibly cheap. In my view, silver is going to go to at least $600 per ounce. Gold should be at least $10,000 per ounce right now. Gold should be $20,000 per ounce on an inflation adjusted basis. When gold is $100,000 or $100 million (per ounce) or whatever it reaches, then everyone is going to be talking about gold. Gold is going to reach an ultimate peak, but that depends on the amount of money printed. America has had a budget deficit for 90 years. What’s your forecast? It’s so easy. It’s going to get worse because now you are getting into the crisis situation. That’s why it’s going to accelerate. Nobody can believe these forecasts of gold and silver. People just like to extrapolate a few percent a year. That’s not where we are now. We are not at a point now where it’s going to happen gradually. We are at the exponential point, and the super exponential point of money printing, deficit and of currency collapse. That’s why this will be reflected in the precious metals prices.”

-https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he goes One-on-One with

 Egon von Greyerz of Matterhorn Asset Management. 

"The Feds Dominate Your Life"

"The Feds Dominate Your Life"

By Bill Bonner

SAN MARTIN, ARGENTINA – "The news this morning is focused on a remarkable development. Let’s begin with the press coverage. Here’s USA Today, reporting on the reaction to President Trump’s tweet on returning to the White House from the Walter Reed Medical Center: "Celebrities, political pundits, and critics responded to President Donald Trump’s tweet to not “be afraid of Covid,” calling the message “preposterous” and “dangerous” for the leader of a nation that has surpassed 210,000 deaths to spread." And The New York Times: “Don’t be afraid of Covid,” he wrote. “Don’t let it dominate your life.”

Scientists, ethicists and doctors were outraged by the president’s comments about a disease that has killed nearly 210,000 people in the United States. “I am struggling for words – this is crazy,” said Harald Schmidt, assistant professor of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania. “It is just utterly irresponsible.”

Even his Secret Service agents – according to the Palmer Report – have turned against him… "Current Secret Service agents are privately lashing out at Donald Trump over his reckless disregard for their safety, and those conversations are now leaking to The Washington Post. They’re saying that it’s “so obvious” that Trump has 'never cared about us.'”

Black Death: When POTUS got the coronavirus, the country held its breath. Here was the proof so many had hoped for. The threat was real! All of the hardships and sacrifices of the last seven months were worth it after all. The Donald… after scoffing at the coronavirus… was now getting the divine retribution he had coming. Nearly half the population got down on its knees and beseeched the Almighty. “Please take him away,” they prayed. Trouble was, the threat was not what they had cracked it up to be.

The coronavirus was advertised as an existential threat… a scourge of humanity… a Black Death. Nicholas Kristof, writing in The New York Times back in March, passed along the grim, but dizzy, forecast: "Dr. Neil M. Ferguson, a British epidemiologist who is regarded as one of the best disease modelers in the world, produced a sophisticated model with a worst case of 2.2 million deaths in the United States."

Sophisticated? Maybe. But so far, the worst case is way off the mark. And the way the statistics are compiled – counting everyone who dies “with COVID” as a “COVID death” – probably greatly overstates the actual results.

Lethal Reputation: For most people, the virus is not much of a threat at all. An elderly person might want to check his will. But Trump is right; a healthy person under 60 probably shouldn’t worry about it. And when the fat, 74-year-old President Trump walked out of the hospital after only three days, the cat was out of the bag. Mr. Trump joined a growing list of world leaders – almost all of them old – who had contracted the virus and survived, including the presidents of Brazil, the UK, Bolivia, Honduras, Guatemala, and Belarus. Despite its lethal reputation, the virus couldn’t kill any of them.

So why make such a fuss about it? Why not just treat it like any other health problem – cancer, heart disease, pneumonia, allergies, murder, or accidents? Why make a federal case out of it? Or to put it in Donald Trump’s words, why let it dominate your life?

No Hard Proof: The goal of politics is to scare people… China, Russia, disease, poverty, racism, alcohol, terrorists, noisemakers, markets, the reds, the reefers – whatever the threat, the feds offer protection. Ban, prohibit… tax, fine… go to war!

Party politics is essentially a contest in which the Democrats and Republicans each claim to be able to protect you better. Of course, in exchange, you give up your money, your privacy, your dignity, and your liberty. The most popular bugaboo du jour is COVID-19. It’s a killer (joining a long list of homicidal ailments; ultimately, nobody beats them all). And there’s no hard proof that the feds can do anything about it.

Lockdown, lockup, face masks, social distancing – a vulnerable person may or may not be able to take precautions and protect himself. But there’s no reason to think that forcing a healthy person – or a whole society – into house arrest has any benefits at all.

Power Grab: Still, the COVID Crisis offers the protection racket a powerful new weapon. The feds can confine you without trial, outlaw popular assembly, close schools, and restrict travel. They’ve already used it to make a breathtaking power grab. In March, they closed down much of the U.S. economy… and then “printed” some $4 trillion fake dollars to protect people from the economic damage. And we’re getting used to it…

Here in Argentina, for example, we have been locked down for seven months. A permanent roadblock has been set up near here. Each time we go to town, we are expected to tell the police where we are going and why… as well as have a travel permit ready for inspection. It almost seems “normal.”

Fact of Life: In the U.S., too, normality dives to the downside to escape the dreaded disease. Soon, it wouldn’t be surprising to find a new CDC “health police,” like the TSA, requiring temperature checks or COVID tests before entering a public building (even though they did nothing to stop the virus in the White House). And the fake money? That’s becoming a fact of life, too. And like a virus, or even the threat of one, it attacks the soft tissue of the brain… Regards."

- www.rogueeconomics.com

"How It Really Is"

 

"So We Never Live..."

“We do not rest satisfied with the present. We anticipate the future as too slow in coming, as if in order to hasten its course; or we recall the past, to stop its too rapid flight. So imprudent are we that we wander in the times which are not ours, and do not think of the only one which belongs to us; and so idle are we that we dream of those times which are no more, and thoughtlessly overlook that which alone exists. For the present is generally painful to us. We conceal it from our sight, because it troubles us; and if it be delightful to us, we regret to see it pass away. We try to sustain it by the future, and think of arranging matters which are not in our power, for a time which we have no certainty of reaching. Let each one examine his thoughts, and he will find them all occupied with the past and the future. We scarcely ever think of the present; and if we think of it, it is only to take light from it to arrange the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means; the future alone is our end. So we never live, but we hope to live; and, as we are always preparing to be happy, it is inevitable we should never be so.”

- Blaise Pascal

Gregory Mannarino, "Situation Critical: The US Economic Collapse Is Accelerating"

Gregory Mannarino,

"Situation Critical: The US Economic Collapse Is Accelerating"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"Market Fantasy Updates 10/6/20"

"Market Fantasy Updates 10/6/20" 

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

Only the consequences are real - to you!

○

"The more I see of the monied classes, 

the better I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

○

Updated live.

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

○

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

○

- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

10/6/20: "As 98,000 Businesses Permanently Closed, the Fed and

 Treasury Have Sat on $340 Billion of Untapped Money from the CARES Act"

○

Daily Update (October 6th to 8th)

- http://www.shadowstats.com/

○

Insane...

Musical Interlude/Comment: Gary Jules, “Mad World”; Pet Shop Boys, “Numb”

Gary Jules, “Mad World”

Sometimes it feels like the whole damned world has lost its mind; words like “insane” and “crazy” just don’t work anymore. Something like this:

“We work in the dark. We do what we can to battle with the evil that would otherwise destroy us. But, a man’s fate is defined as not a choice but a calling. Yet sometimes the weight of this burden causes us to falter, breaching the fragile fortress of our mind, allowing the monsters without to turn within and we are left alone, staring into the abyss… into the laughing face of madness.”

- David Duchovny as “Fox Mulder”, “The X Files”

If you've dealt long enough with this “Mad World”, as we all have been forced to, after all these months of relentless economic destruction and pandemic terror, maybe you're feeling it too, and if you're not very, very careful, you’ll wind up like this… listen to the words.

Pet Shop Boys, “Numb”

You do not want to go there…

“Bank Runs Are Coming; Stock Market Overheating; Rents Unpaid; Store Closures”

Jeremiah Babe,

“Bank Runs Are Coming; Stock Market Overheating; 

Rents Unpaid; Store Closures”

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Memory of the Sky"

2002, "Memory of the Sky"

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"A Look to the Heavens"

“M13 is one of the most prominent and best known globular clusters. Visible with binoculars in the constellation of Hercules, M13 is frequently one of the first objects found by curious sky gazers seeking celestials wonders beyond normal human vision. 

M13 is a colossal home to over 100,000 stars, spans over 150 light years across, lies over 20,000 light years distant, and is over 12 billion years old. At the 1974 dedication of Arecibo Observatory, a radio message about Earth was sent in the direction of M13. The featured image in HDR, taken through a small telescope, spans an angular size just larger than a full Moon, whereas the inset image, taken by Hubble Space Telescope, zooms in on the central 0.04 degrees.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160727.html

Chet Raymo, “We Are Such Stuff...”

“We Are Such Stuff...”

by Chet Raymo

“Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,

Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not.

Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments

Will hum about mine ears, and sometimes voices,

That, if I then had wak'd after long sleep,

Will make me sleep again.”

"Caliban is talking to Stephano and Trinculo in Shakespeare's “Tempest”, telling them not to be "afeard" of the mysterious place they find themselves, an island seemingly beset with magic, strangeness, ineffable presences. And you and I, and, yes, all of us, find ourselves inexplicably thrown up on this island that is the world, and we too, if we are attentive, hear the strange music, the sounds and sweet airs, that seems to come from nowhere and everywhere

No, I'm not talking about the usual ubiquitous clamor, the roar of internal combustion, the blare of the television, the beeping of mobile phones. I'm not talking about the Limbaughs and the Becks, the televangelists, the blathering politicians, the twitterers and bloggers (including this one). I'm not even talking about the exquisite music of Mozart, the poetry of Wordsworth, the theories of Einstein.

I'm talking about the sounds we hear in utter silence, in moments of repose, in the heart of darkness, when we are a little bit afraid, disoriented, off kilter. A strange music that comes from beyond our knowing, a felt meaning. You've heard it. I've heard it. You'd have to be deaf not to have heard it. 

Where we differ is how we describe it. Mostly, we give its source a name. Angels. Fairies. Gods or demons. Yahweh. Allah. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Nixies, E.T.s, shades and shadows. Naiads, dryads, Ariel and Puck. A host of invisible creatures who are, in one way or another, images of ourselves. And, in naming, we are a little less afraid.

And some of us are just content to listen, to take delight. Having woken to the inexplicable mystery of the world- the sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not- we let the music lull us back into a sweet slumber, a kind of dreamless dream, a reverie. Does reverie share a deep root with reverence? I don't know.”

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

Thee Poet: Galway Kinnell, "Another Night in the Ruins"

"Another Night in the Ruins"

"How many nights must it take

one such as me to learn

that we aren't, after all, made

from that bird that flies out of its ashes,

that for us

as we go up in flames,

our one work is

to open ourselves,

to be the flames?"

~ Galway Kinnell

“8 Things to Remember When Everything Goes Wrong”

 “8 Things to Remember When Everything Goes Wrong”

by Marc Chernoff

“Today, I’m sitting in my hospital bed waiting to have both my breasts removed. But in a strange way I feel like the lucky one. Up until now I have had no health problems. I’m a 69-year-old woman in the last room at the end of the hall before the pediatric division of the hospital begins. Over the past few hours I have watched dozens of cancer patients being wheeled by in wheelchairs and rolling beds. None of these patients could be a day older than 17.”

That’s an entry from my grandmother’s journal, dated 9/16/1977. I photocopied it and pinned it to my bulletin board about a decade ago. It’s still there today, and it continues to remind me that there is always, always, always something to be thankful for. And that no matter how good or bad I have it, I must wake up each day thankful for my life, because someone somewhere else is desperately fighting for theirs.

Truth be told, happiness is not the absence of problems, but the ability to deal with them. Imagine all the wondrous things your mind might embrace if it weren’t wrapped so tightly around your struggles. Always look at what you have, instead of what you have lost. Because it’s not what the world takes away from you that counts; it’s what you do with what you have left. Here are a few reminders to help motivate you when you need it most:

1. Pain is part of growing. Sometimes life closes doors because it’s time to move forward. And that’s a good thing because we often won’t move unless circumstances force us to. When times are tough, remind yourself that no pain comes without a purpose. Move on from what hurt you, but never forget what it taught you. Just because you’re struggling doesn’t mean you’re failing. Every great success requires some type of worthy struggle to get there. Good things take time. Stay patient and stay positive. Everything is going to come together; maybe not immediately, but eventually.

Remember that there are two kinds of pain: pain that hurts and pain that changes you. When you roll with life, instead of resisting it, both kinds help you grow.

2. Everything in life is temporary. Every time it rains, it stops raining. Every time you get hurt, you heal. After darkness there is always light – you are reminded of this every morning, but still you often forget, and instead choose to believe that the night will last forever. It won’t. Nothing lasts forever.

So if things are good right now, enjoy it. It won’t last forever. If things are bad, don’t worry because it won’t last forever either. Just because life isn’t easy at the moment, doesn’t mean you can’t laugh. Just because something is bothering you, doesn’t mean you can’t smile. Every moment gives you a new beginning and a new ending. You get a second chance, every second. You just have to take it and make the best of it. 

3. Worrying and complaining changes nothing. Those who complain the most, accomplish the least. It’s always better to attempt to do something great and fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed. It’s not over if you’ve lost; it’s over when you do nothing but complain about it. If you believe in something, keep trying. Don’t let the shadows of the past darken the doorstep of your future. Spending today complaining about yesterday won’t make tomorrow any brighter. Take action instead. Let what you’ve learned improve how you live. Make a change and never look back. And regardless of what happens in the long run, remember that true happiness begins to arrive only when you stop complaining about your problems and you start being grateful for all the problems you don’t have.

4. Your scars are symbols of your strength. Don’t ever be ashamed of the scars life has left you with. A scar means the hurt is over and the wound is closed. It means you conquered the pain, learned a lesson, grew stronger, and moved forward. scar is the tattoo of a triumph to be proud of. Don’t allow your scars to hold you hostage. Don’t allow them to make you live your life in fear. You can’t make the scars in your life disappear, but you can change the way you see them. You can start seeing your scars as a sign of strength and not pain.

Rumi once said, “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” Nothing could be closer to the truth. Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most powerful characters in this great world are seared with scars. See your scars as a sign of “YES! I MADE IT! I survived and I have my scars to prove it! And now I have a chance to grow even stronger.”

5. Every little struggle is a step forward. In life, patience is not about waiting; it’s the ability to keep a good attitude while working hard on your dreams, knowing that the work is worth it. So if you’re going to try, put in the time and go all the way. Otherwise, there’s no point in starting. This could mean losing stability and comfort for a while, and maybe even your mind on occasion. It could mean not eating what, or sleeping where, you’re used to, for weeks on end. It could mean stretching your comfort zone so thin it gives you a nonstop case of the chills. It could mean sacrificing relationships and all that’s familiar. It could mean accepting ridicule from your peers. It could mean lots of time alone in solitude. Solitude, though, is the gift that makes great things possible. It gives you the space you need. Everything else is a test of your determination, of how much you really want it.

And if you want it, you’ll do it, despite failure and rejection and the odds. And every step will feel better than anything else you can imagine. You will realize that the struggle is not found on the path, it is the path. And it’s worth it. So if you’re going to try, go all the way. There’s no better feeling in the world… there’s no better feeling than knowing what it means to be ALIVE. 

6. Other people’s negativity is not your problem. Be positive when negativity surrounds you. Smile when others try to bring you down. It’s an easy way to maintain your enthusiasm and focus. hen other people treat you poorly, keep being you. Don’t ever let someone else’s bitterness change the person you are. You can’t take things too personally, even if it seems personal. Rarely do people do things because of you. hey do things because of them.

Above all, don’t ever change just to impress someone who says you’re not good enough. Change because it makes you a better person and leads you to a brighter future. People are going to talk regardless of what you do or how well you do it. So worry about yourself before you worry about what others think. If you believe strongly in something, don’t be afraid to fight for it. Great strength comes from overcoming what others think is impossible.

All jokes aside, your life only comes around once. This is IT. So do what makes you happy and be with whoever makes you smile, often.

7. What’s meant to be will eventually, BE. True strength comes when you have so much to cry and complain about, but you prefer to smile and appreciate your life instead. There are blessings hidden in every struggle you face, but you have to be willing to open your heart and mind to see them. You can’t force things to happen. You can only drive yourself crazy trying. At some point you have to let go and let what’s meant to be, BE.

In the end, loving your life is about trusting your intuition, taking chances, losing and finding happiness, cherishing the memories, and learning through experience. It’s a long-term journey. You have to stop worrying, wondering, and doubting every step of the way. Laugh at the confusion, live consciously in the moment, and enjoy your life as it unfolds. You might not end up exactly where you intended to go, but you will eventually arrive precisely where you need to be.

8. The best thing you can do is to keep going. Don’t be afraid to get back up – to try again, to love again, to live again, and to dream again. Don’t let a hard lesson harden your heart. Life’s best lessons are often learned at the worst times and from the worst mistakes. There will be times when it seems like everything that could possibly go wrong is going wrong. And you might feel like you will be stuck in this rut forever, but you won’t. When you feel like quitting, remember that sometimes things have to go very wrong before they can be right. Sometimes you have to go through the worst, to arrive at your best.

Yes, life is tough, but you are tougher. Find the strength to laugh every day. Find the courage to feel different, yet beautiful. Find it in your heart to make others smile too. Don’t stress over things you can’t change. Live simply. Love generously. Speak truthfully. Work diligently. And even if you fall short, keep going. Keep growing. Awake every morning and do your best to follow this daily TO-DO list:

Think positively.

Eat healthy.

Exercise today.

Worry less.

Work hard.

Laugh often.

Sleep well.

Repeat…”

- http://www.marcandangel.com/

"Retail Apocalypse Gets Much Worse: Bankruptcies & Store Closings Are Creating An Apocalyptic End Game"

"Retail Apocalypse Gets Much Worse: Bankruptcies & 

Store Closings Are Creating An Apocalyptic End Game"

by Epic Economist

"The retail apocalypse is causing bankruptcies, liquidations, and store closings that are fast spreading across the nation, and celebrated iconic brands are witnessing the inevitable collapse of their businesses as they shut down permanently. In this video, we analyzed a study that indicated that the catastrophic retail crisis reached record bankruptcies in the first half of 2020, and the economic collapse boosted by the sanitary outbreak is pushing the sector to the edge. In that sense, millions of jobs are permanently gone due to lockdown restrictions that deeply affected this industry.

In this video, the Epic Economist crew examined the impacts of the generalized retail meltdown and also listed some of the most popular stores that are closing doors for good. Mandatory store closures enacted by the government, social distancing rules, supply chain issues, and the upsurge in e-commerce sales have contributed to accelerate the collapse of brick-and-mortar retailers, provoking a massive wave of bankruptcies that is diving into the second half of the year as well. The reduction of foot traffic in shopping centers have affected stores in malls, which, as a consequence, also put their lives in jeopardy.

That is to say, the retail apocalypse has become so extensive that is causing a downfall of historical proportions. With almost no prospects for a recovery during the 2020 Recession, the sector is facing major challenges, and economic experts have been emphasizing that this is almost certainly the worst year in recent history for retail. By the end of August, 29 big retailers filed for bankruptcy.

In the first half of 2020, 18 major retailers filed for chapter 11 protection. Then, From July through mid-August, 11 more retailers filed, and the number of store closures is catastrophic. Moreover, the excessive debt, store saturation, high unemployment, and changing shopper behaviors can also be added to the reasons why stores in malls were hit particularly hard. Small businesses are struggling to survive until the holiday season, and many retailers are still relying on their physical locations to stay afloat during this recession. However, market experts indicate that critical changes should be put into place to prevent their extinction. The retail bankruptcy trend has been going on for a long time, which proves that despite the eruption of the health crisis, the US economy was already deteriorating long before.

Last year there were 22 retail bankruptcies filed. From 2017 to 2018, over 5,000 stores were closed as well. Historically, the most recent record for bankruptcies in this sector came in 2010 when 48 retailers filed for bankruptcy in the wake of the 2007-09 recession. this year is that the spike in bankruptcies was recorded immediately after the recession started in February, signaling that most of these companies were already experiencing difficulties, or - as people say - they already had “one foot in the grave”, the viral outbreak implications just drove them further down.

With that said, it is expected more bankruptcies to be filed in the coming years, even renowned specialists have stated that it’s very unlikely this is going to stop anytime soon. Amongst the brands that are cutting the number of their stores down, moving into online retail, or completely liquidating their assets are Tesla, Abercrombie & Fitch, Starbucks, H&M, Target, Gap, Forever 21, and many others.

Additionally, as bankruptcies are expected to climb, the financial pain will resonate in shopping malls and in the commercial mortgage-backed securities market, while forecasts suggest that more than half of all mall-based department stores will close by the end of 2021. These factors will pile up to higher the pressure on the markets, possibly prompting a financial crash, because there is a huge bubble that could burst due to the enormous rates of rental delinquency. Yet, another blow on the fragile US economy would severely affect its future, knocking it down into a deeper, scarier, and more complex depression.

The retail apocalypse is only one of the problems in the American economy, there are many other areas that we should also be watching. The downfall of retail is just a sign of the deterioration of the economy. The nation has been crumbling for years, only accumulating economic and financial trouble, but at some stage, the reckoning day will arrive.

In the meantime, keep in mind that the failure of many other sectors will only come later in the cycle, which means the US has gotten itself into a large-scale solvency crisis that it is beyond the Fed’s ability to overcome it. Taking all factors into account, it seems like nothing can stop this ship from sinking."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com

The Daily "Near You?"

 
Bottineau, North Dakota, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

Above, the "Tommy Turtle" statue.