"Brace For Dangerous Prices: Global Supply Chains Are Shrinking And Causing Starvation On The Planet"

Full screen recommended.

"Brace For Dangerous Prices: Global Supply Chains 

Are Shrinking And Causing Starvation On The Planet"

by Epic Economist

"Every day it goes by we are learning that things are getting even worse than we originally thought. Global supply chains are in utter chaos and the situation is being aggravated by a number of different factors, so it doesn't seem this crisis will be reversed any time soon. Now, widespread crop failures are being registered across several key agricultural countries, and, as a result, global supplies of corn, wheat, and soybeans have been shrinking.

More worryingly, prices for all three commodities are soaring and hunger is fast spreading all over the globe, threatening to spark more social turbulence and unrest over the coming months. Those three supplies are the world’s most important grains. They are used for almost everything you can imagine. From food for both animals and humans to fuels like ethanol and biodiesel, from cooking oils to wheat for bread and pasta.

On top of that, recent reports have been exposing that the impacts of the crop failures that happened in China last year have just started to show on global markets. China is far from alone. Over the past 17 months, extreme weather has destroyed millions of acres of crops and distressed agricultural production all over the globe. Conditions have been particularly dire in Brazil right now due to unusually dry weather conditions. As a consequence, Brazil’s coffee and orange crop are registering a decline for the second consecutive year. Brazil’s current orange crop shrunk 31% from the previous season, the sharpest drop in three decades, and production of arabica coffee is also dwindling.

Here in the United States, just like throughout much of the rest of the world, agricultural production will be well below initial expectations as a megadrought is ravaging the western half of the country, causing key reservoirs to hit dangerously low levels. As farmers' supply of irrigation water drops, they're having to choose which crops will survive and which ones will be destroyed. And the worse the drought gets the more severe the government's water restrictions will be. According to the official forecast, we're headed to the worst crop season in nearly four decades and the next wildfire season has the potential to be one of the most destructive ever.

Meanwhile, hunger is the one spreading like wildfire as global food supplies get increasingly tighter. The 2021 Global Report on Food Crises is warning that there's a remarkably high severity and an exceedingly high number of people facing deep food insecurity in 55 countries. The study found that at least 155 million people are acutely food insecure and in need of urgent assistance - the highest level in five years of GRFC reporting. It marks an increase of roughly 20 million people compared to pre-outbreak levels.

All of those issues are already contributing to an explosion in grocery prices all over America. Yesterday, the US Department of Labor divulged an update in the Consumer Price Index, and overall consumer prices climbed 4.2 percent from a year earlier, the fastest pace since 2008, and considerably above economists’ forecasts. However, “core” consumer prices increased by 0.9 percent between April and March in the largest monthly increase since 1982.

At this point, US workers are finding it increasingly impossible to make ends meet, even those who are employed full-time. Stagnant wages and elevated food inflation are a threatening combination in a world recovering from a global economic recession. Periods of high inflation have previously sparked the rise of conflicts between the population and governments, with workers demanding higher pay to keep up with rising prices - and the same narrative has started to happen once again.

When the majority of the population starts to feel the financial impacts of higher food prices, we will undoubtedly see chaos taking over this country. Food inflation alone is plunging the entire globe back into a horrific economic crisis. That, in addition to rampant inflation for all consumer goods, widespread shortages, an upsurge in hunger, poverty, and unemployment, will escort us to an era of constant conflict and social tensions.

Don't be mistaken thinking things will eventually turn around in 2022 or 2023 because we just started experiencing the effects of so many disruptions, and one thing we can tell for sure is that global supply chains will continue to face meltdown after meltdown due to extreme weather, dwindling supplies and rocketing demand. In other words, it means that we're about to see distress erupt in every corner of the globe."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com

Gregory Mannarino, PM 5/20/21: "Alert: World Central Banks ARE ALL About To Issue A 100% DIGITAL CURRENCY... BE READY!"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 5/20/21:

"Alert: World Central Banks ARE ALL About To 

Issue A 100% DIGITAL CURRENCY... BE READY!"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Musical Interlude: 2002, "A Divine Encounter"

Full screen recommended.

2002, "A Divine Encounter"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“While drifting through the cosmos, a magnificent interstellar dust cloud became sculpted by stellar winds and radiation to assume a recognizable shape. Fittingly named the Horsehead Nebula, it is embedded in the vast and complex Orion Nebula (M42). A potentially rewarding but difficult object to view personally with a small telescope, the above gorgeously detailed image was recently taken in infrared light by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope in honor of the 23rd anniversary of Hubble's launch.

The dark molecular cloud, roughly 1,500 light years distant, is cataloged as Barnard 33 and is seen above primarily because it is backlit by the nearby massive star Sigma Orionis. The Horsehead Nebula will slowly shift its apparent shape over the next few million years and will eventually be destroyed by the high energy starlight.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130422.html

"Some Very Big Problems..."

"We have got some very big problems confronting us and let us not make any mistake about it, human history in the future is fraught with tragedy. It's only through people making a stand against that tragedy and being doggedly optimistic that we are going to win through. If you look at the plight of the human race it could well tip you into despair, so you have to be very strong."

- Robert James Brown

"No Smooth Road..."

"Life has no smooth road for any of us; and in the bracing atmosphere

of a high aim the very roughness stimulates the climber to steadier steps,

till the legend, over steep ways to the stars, fulfills itself."

- W. C. Doane

The Daily "Near You?"

Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

The Poet: John O’Donohue, “In These Times”

“In These Times”

“In these times when anger

Is turned into anxiety,

And someone has stolen

The horizons and mountains,

Our small emperors on parade

Never expect our indifference

To disturb their nakedness.

They keep their heads down,

And their eyes gleam with reflection

From aluminum economic ground,

The media wraps everything

In a cellophane of sound,

And the ghost surface of the virtual

Overlays the breathing earth.

The industry of distraction

Makes us forget

That we live in a universe.

We have become converts

To the religion of stress

And its deity of progress;

That we may have courage

To turn aside from it all

And come to kneel down before the poor,

To discover what we must do,

How to turn anxiety

Back into anger,

How to find our way home.”

~ John O’Donohue,

from “To Bless the Space Between Us”

○

“Do not lose heart. We were made for these times.”

– Clarissa Pinkola Estes

"No Room For Cowards..."

“Life has no victims. There are no victims in this life. No one has the right to point fingers at his/her past and blame it for what he/she is today. We do not have the right to point our finger at someone else and blame that person for how we treat others, today. Don’t hide in the corner, pointing fingers at your past. Don’t sit under the table, talking about someone who has hurt you. Instead, stand up and face your past! Face your fears! Face your pain! And stomach it all! You may have to do so kicking and screaming and throwing fits and crying – but by all means – face it! This life makes no room for cowards.”

- C. Joybell C.

"An Elegant Flimflam"

"An Elegant Flimflam"

By Bill Bonner

YOUGHAL, IRELAND – "The super-rich must be the loneliest, most miserable people on the planet. They are in a class by themselves… separated from the masses by nearly $32 trillion. That’s the difference between what the top 1% of Americans own and the wealth of the bottom 50%. And the 1% knows something the rest of humanity doesn’t: Even a billion dollars won’t make you happy.

Easy Come, Easy Go: But getting big money fast is still a thrill. Think of all the young people who were suddenly enriched after Satoshi Nakamoto invented bitcoin in 2009. Crypto hustlers and speculators saw their “wealth” increase from nothing to $2.5 trillion. Of course, it can be breathtaking on the other side, too. At one point this week, crypto investors were on their way to losing $1 trillion. Easy come. Easy go.

Stimmy Scam: Here at the Diary, what interests us is not how much or how little money a person has, but how it comes and goes. Yet, as we reported yesterday, in this same Plague Year, billionaires gained some $8 trillion in a 12-month period (up until April of this year).Whether a man earns $5 or $5 million hardly matters. If he earned it from an honest, win-win deal, he should be proud of it. A bricklayer… or auto salesman… or even a lawyer… can hold his head up. He earns his money.

But what about the man who just got a stimmy check that he neither earned, deserved, nor needed? Somewhere deep down, he must know the whole thing is a scam. That is the problem with most rich people, too. They’ve gained trillions in filthy lucre. And now, they pretend that they earned it. But a few know the truth – it was stimmy money!

Stimmy Wealth: Over the last 12 months, almost all the world’s economies were partly shut down… GDP growth turned negative… Sales were off (in leisure and hospitality industries, they practically disappeared)… Profits fell… And millions of people were prevented from working. Yet, as we reported yesterday, in this same Plague Year, billionaires gained some $8 trillion in a 12-month period (up until April of this year).

How was that possible? Did they add $8 trillion worth of products and services? Did they invent whole new industries? Did they find ways to increase the happiness of their fellow humans by $8 trillion? No, of course not. What really happened? It was stimmy in the morning, stimmy in the evening, and stimmy at suppertime…

Central banks increased the money supply, worldwide, by $9 trillion. And the super-rich copped 88 cents of each dollar.

Public Scam: Let’s just look at the last 20 years. When the 21st century began, the top 1% of Americans owned about $12.5 trillion in assets. The bottom 50% owned about $3.5 trillion. Today, the top 1% has assets worth nearly $39.5 trillion – more than three times as much as in 2000. And the bottom half has about $7.5 trillion – just over double what it had 20 years ago.

Meanwhile, U.S. GDP – a very rough approximation of the goods and services being traded – doubled in those two decades. It went from about $10 trillion in 2000 to $22 trillion today. So, the top 1% saw its wealth increase by more than twice as much as GDP… and by nearly seven times as much as the lower 50% of the population. That new wealth can be seen in the market averages.

The Dow, for example, ended 1999 at a bubble high of 11,497. Now, it is about three times higher… while the aforementioned output of real wealth – GDP – only doubled And we can see where this new “wealth” – both in the Dow and in the pockets of the top 1% – came from.

The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet (the monetary foundation of the dollar system) stood at only $600 billion at the end of the 1990s. Now, it is over $7.8 trillion. In an honest economy, wealth is earned before it is spent. In a dishonest economy, wealth is never earned at all. It comes from scamming the public.

Elegant Flimflam: And here, we back up to look at the basics so we can understand it all better. The real goal of government is to protect the people who control it – their property, their status, and their power. An elite always controls the government… and naturally tries to use it to gain more power and money for itself.

In this regard, the stimmy program is the most elegant flimflam ever devised. No new taxes to annoy the voters. No heavy borrowing to drive up interest rates. Instead, the feds “print” the money and transfer it to the most privileged parts of the society – Wall Street, Washington, the rich, big business, the well-educated, the education/health/military complex, the cronies, and the well-connected get trillions...all while claiming to be helping the little guy by “saving jobs,” “stimulating” the economy, and “making sure it has the liquidity it needs.”

And surprise, surprise! Most of the money ends up with… are you ready for this?… the elite themselves!

Another Problem: And now, wouldn’t you know it, they have another problem to solve – inequality. Thanks to all the stimmy, the top 1% now owns 31% of the nation’s wealth. The top 10% have 70%. Something must be done, say the elite, to level it out. And wouldn’t you know it again… they’ll address the problem as they do all the problems they create – by bringing in their big bulldozer… and pushing more money and power… over to themselves! More to come…"

- www.rogueeconomics.com

Musical Interlude:Two Steps From Hell, "Downstream"

Two Steps From Hell, "Downstream"

"How It Really Is"

"Everything Is On Fire"

"Everything Is On Fire"

by Egon von Greyerz

“Everything is on fire.” 

– Heraclitus (535-475 BC)

"What Heraclitus meant was that the world is in a constant state of flux. But the big problem in the next few years is that the world will experience a fire of a magnitude never seen before in history. I have in many articles and interviews pointed out how predictable events are (and people). This is particularly true in the world economy. Empires come and go, economies boom and bust and new currencies come and without fail always go. All this happens with regularity.

A GLOBAL FIRE IS COMING: But at certain times in history, the fire will be cataclysmic. And that is where the world is now. Explosive fires have started everywhere already. Stock markets are on fire and so are property markets, as well as bond and debt markets. The problem is that fires are initially explosive but always end up implosive. So right now we are in the explosive phase of the fires with markets all going parabolically exponential or should it be exponentially parabolic!

We are now at the end of a secular bull market in the world economy which on a global level has reached extremes never seen before in history. Never before has the world seen an explosive fire of this magnitude, fuelled by uber-profligate money printing and credit expansion by central and commercial banks.

We have talked about inflation running wild and it is not just happening in stocks. Property markets are literarily exploding, especially the high end. We see this all over the world and not just in the US. In the UK for example, HSBC stated that March saw the highest number of mortgages EVER issued. In Sweden properties sell for up to 40% above asking price in a frenzied bidding war and second hand leisure boats are in such demand that they cost virtually the same as a new boat. And if you want a new boat, there is none available until 2022. It also seems that people are desperate for company after the lockdowns as prices for puppies in the UK are up to 100% higher than last year.

Yes, everything is really on fire as people are desperate to just spend, spend, spend after a year of lockdowns and restrictions.

AN ECONOMIC BUBBLE OF AIR: But explosive fires always end in everything burning down or imploding eventually. And this is just what is going to happen in the next few years. A massive forest fire is not just totally inevitable but is also an absolute necessity. Because economic bubbles consist primarily of air and lots of it.

When empires or countries run out of money all they have to replace it is air to keep the economy going. The air consists of false promises combined with lots of air in the form of fake money. Since air is free, governments can produce unlimited amounts of it. And without exception, gullible people want to believe that it is actually real money and not just empty air. The beauty for the government is that they can just produce and borrow trillions of dollars at ZERO cost. And by manipulating interest rates they can borrow this money also at virtually ZERO cost.

THE ULTIMATE OF ALL PONZI SCHEMES: So first the government manufactures the money at no cost and then they pay NOTHING for the privilege of borrowing that money. This is the ultimate of all Ponzi schemes. No wonder that bank(er)s, hedge funds and wealthy investors are raking it in.

The money obviously creates massive bubbles in stocks, bonds, houses, used cars , boats, puppies and other massively overvalued investments and consumer items. Just look at how, for example, the Dow has gone up exponentially and parabolically in the last year in an historically unprecedented straight line.

THE US IS BANKRUPT: But let’s face it, the US is totally bankrupt. With less than a handful of exceptions, US federal debt has gone up every year since 1930. So here we have the biggest economy in the world which can only hold on to this position by printing itself to a false prosperity at an ever faster pace. Just look at the table below to understand what a government can create out of thin air.

After the Gold window was closed in 1971, US federal and total debt as well as money supply has gone Exponentially Parabolic and the dollar, the world’s reserve currency has lost 98%.

• US Federal Debt up 74X

• Total US debt up “only” 49X

• M2 Money Supply up 29X>

• Debt to GDP 1971: 37% – 2021: 127%

But like all exponential curves of a big sample, this one will end in tears. Bubbles are called bubbles because they consist of air. And when bubbles become too big, they ALWAYS and without fail burst and implode. And this is what the US economy as well as the rest of the world can expect next.

Fundamentally, US and global stocks are massively overvalued. But we know that overvaluations can last longer than we expect, especially when you are talking about the end of a very long super-cycle which could be 300 years old or even 2,000 years old.

Technically markets are giving very clear signals that THE END IS NIGH. Whether that means days weeks or a few months, is totally irrelevant. We know that we are at the end of the most remarkable period in history in regards to money, investments and the economy. Also socially, morally and politically we are reaching a low point in history.

THE WORLD NEEDS A BIG FIRE: So back to the fire. We really need a proper very big forest fire that gets rid of all the excesses, be they financial or social. Only then will the world again create new green shoots, free from debt and false values, both moral and financial. But before that the implosion of most debt and asset values will create a very difficult period of transition for the world. It could last one decade or several. How long it will actually last, only future historians can tell us.

There will be major suffering around the world which will not just be financial but also social. We will see wars, civil wars, famine, disease and migration. But there will be virtually no money for social security or aid of any kind. Nor will there be any pensions and very limited Medicare.

We know that cycles are part of life. And some cycles are more extreme than others. What has made this one worse than the world has ever experienced is that governments and central banks have interfered with the natural cycle of ebb and flow. Gordon Brown, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister) famously stated in 1999 that he had abolished “Boom and Bust”. A few months later, stocks and the economy crashed.

This fatal interference in the natural cycles, especially by the US, will be very costly for the world as I have outlined above. By foolishly trying to abolish cycles, governments have exacerbated the problem to a degree that will create unnecessary suffering for the world.

The most important remedy in a crisis is family and friends. That is one of the advantages of difficult times that people support each other rather than just chase material values. And in addition to family and close friends, there are so many wonderful things in life that are virtually free like nature, music and books. We will find that these past times are much more fulfilling than our iPads or Netflix.

GOLD, SILVER AND WEALTH PRESERVATION: As regards securing your finances in periods of crisis, gold and silver have always been critical to hold. Everyone can afford some gold or silver. An ounce of silver is $30 and one gramme of gold is $60. So saving in precious metals will not only be very useful but essential at whatever level you can afford. For bigger investors, physical gold and silver will be one of the few ways to avoid a total destruction of your wealth. As I have shown many times, gold is currently as cheap as it was in 1970 at $35 and 2000 at $290 in relation to US money supply.

THE DOW TO FALL 97% AGAINST GOLD: Stock investors have already seen a major destruction of their wealth since 2000 although most people are unaware. The Dow has lost 60% against gold since the year 2000. That trend will accelerate in the next few years and I expect the Dow/Gold ratio to reach the long term trend line as shown on the chart below. This means that the Dow will lose another 97% from here against gold.

Gold and silver have not at all reflected the massive creation of money in the last 50 years. That catchup phase is likely to start very soon based on both fundamentals and technicals. The upside potential for gold and silver is multiples of the current prices and that is at today’s price levels. Hyperinflation could take the metals to unfathomable heights. But holding physical gold, as opposed to Bitcoin, should not be seen as a speculative investment but as the best protection against the coming destruction of paper assets and the imminent disorder in the financial system."

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/20/21: "The Economic Meltdown Continues"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/20/21:

"The Economic Meltdown Continues"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"It Is Our Fate..."

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

- Dorothy Thompson

"A Nation of Sheep, Ruled By Wolves, Owned By Pigs: Americans Have Tamely Surrendered Their Liberties"

"A Nation of Sheep, Ruled By Wolves, Owned By Pigs: 

Americans Have Tamely Surrendered Their Liberties"

by Gen Z Conservative

"Americans, by and large, have not kept themselves informed, and adhered to the limits the Constitution imposes upon our government, which has resulted in more than half the problems we face today as a country, a nation of sheep. And, because the voters themselves do not know, or care, what the Constitution says, they elect candidates who have no intention, or desire, to support and defend it — believing in “the end justifies the means”. It is a vicious cycle that repeats itself every election cycle and won’t stop until the people take the time to learn what the drafters of the Constitution intended when they wrote it.

So, as Lysander Spooner so aptly said, “But whether the Constitution really be one thing or another, this much is certain – that it has either authorizes such a government as we have had or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.” I could almost stop right there, saying that is how I feel about our system of government and the document that established it…but I won’t.

Even though the Constitution outlined a fundamentally sound system of government, in theory, the problem is that it was the creation of a group of men who held differing views on what government should look like and what powers it should hold.

Ben Franklin explained it best when he said: “For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded like those of the Builders of Babel; and that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another’s throats. Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure, that it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors, I sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered a syllable of them abroad. Within these walls they were born, and here they shall die. If every one of us in returning to our Constituents were to report the objections he has had to it, and endeavor to gain partizans in support of them, we might prevent its being generally received …” (Source: Franklin’s Final Address to the Constitutional Convention.

There were many concerns expressed by these patriots who opposed the Constitution, but the underlying theme that can be found in most of their writings is that the Constitution created a consolidation of the States into a Union under a strong centralized government.

In a more perfect union, a more perfect Republic, our sovereign and independent states would reassert the 9th and 10th Amendments more forcefully, since they have been abrogated out of existence by federal laws and judicial activism; the states should unite themselves together by a perpetual confederacy, without ceasing to be, each individually, a perfect state. They will together constitute a federal republic: their joint deliberations will not impair the sovereignty of each member, though they may, in certain respects, put some restraint on the exercise of it, in virtue of voluntary engagements. A person does not cease to be free and independent when he is obliged to fulfill engagements which he has voluntarily contracted.

One of the primary concerns of the anti-Federalists was: Did the Constitution do away with the status quo and create a consolidation of the States into a single, indivisible Union; or Republic, or did the States still retain all powers which were not expressly given; allowing the government to intrude into and interfere with the lives and liberties of the people.

On June 5, 1788, in a speech opposing ratification of the Constitution, Patrick Henry expressed those exact sentiments as follows: “I rose yesterday to ask a question which arose in my own mind. When I asked that question, I thought the meaning of my interrogation was obvious: The fate of this question and of America may depend on this: Have they said, we, the States? Have they made a proposal of a compact between states? If they had, this would be a confederation: It is otherwise most clearly a consolidated government. The question turns, Sir, on that poor little thing-the expression, We, the people, instead of the States, of America.“

It should be obvious, that the people had already established republics by their having created their own State Legislatures, so they actually had no need to create another Republic for the purpose of governing them all. The purpose for which the delegates were sent to Philadelphia was to arrive at suggestions for amendments, in order to make the existing Confederation Government adequate for the needs of the country; not to toss the existing form of government in the trash heap and replace it with one of their creation.

If the powers given to this new form of government were to be exercised primarily upon the States, then why did the drafters of the Constitution demand that it be ratified by the voice of the people; as it was the States whose authority would be further restricted, or usurped, by the creation of this new form of government. However, if this new system of government was, in fact, a consolidation and a diminishing of the sovereignty of the States, then it would make sense that the people must give their consent to it.

Yet, in Federalist 45 James Madison attempted to ensure the people that the States would retain their authority over the lives and liberties of the people by saying: “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected.

The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.”

Most Americans believe the Bill of Rights protects certain rights against governmental interference. That is only partially true since the Bill of Rights are amendments to the Constitution which created our federal government; not the constitutions which framed the various State governments. Therefore, technically they only apply to the federal government. However, an argument can also be made that, since the Constitution itself is the Supreme Law of the land, any amendment to it could be implied to apply to the States as well.

Keeping things simple, let’s just say that the Bill of Rights only applies to the federal government. How is it then that the government can dictate what kind of guns private citizens may own; how is it that the Supreme Court — which is PART of the federal government — decides whether a State may display the Ten Commandments, or that children be prohibited from praying in school; how is it that the federal government can violate the 4th Amendment by spying upon the private conversations of every man, woman, and child in this country, just to keep us safe from terrorism?

There exists a whole list of things the federal government has done which are not among the powers listed in Article 1, Section 8 as those powers are given to Congress; which in case you have forgotten, is the lawmaking body of our government; not the President as so many seem to think.

This has all been done because of the concept of implied powers; something introduced while George Washington was President. That occurred because the Constitution itself did not provide specific enough limitations upon the powers it was granting government; leaving loopholes by which government has expanded its power well beyond those originally intended. So, if that is true, then the Constitution itself failed the people as it did not provide sufficient means for the people to resist the encroaching powers of government and to ward off tyranny and oppression.

Not one individual can provide me with the Article and Clause that grants any of us the authority to arrest and charge any of our elected officials, for the crime of violating the Constitution, because such a clause simply does not exist. And, it is this oversight that has resulted in the Constitution’s failure, by not providing the means to oppose a government that no longer adheres to any kind of limits upon their power and authority.

I only care whether the party that is in control adheres to the Constitutional limitations imposed upon them and seeks to protect and defend my rights…that and nothing more, and both parties have failed miserably in this duty. If the government does not do this, then I revoke my consent to being governed by it.

Why do Americans still support a government that no longer resembles or represents the ideas and beliefs which led our Founders to seek their independence from a tyrant? Why do they so meekly submit to tyranny and oppression today? Is there not a drop of patriotic blood left in their bodies?

One certainly must wonder what has kept Americans from marching on D.C, with rifles in hand and sixteen feet lengths of rope, so criminals like Obama, Biden, Hillary Clinton, Loretta Lynch, James Comey, John Brennan, Samantha Power, Andrew McCabe, Robert Mueller, John Kerry, Susan Rice, Alexander Vindman and so many others can be hung from the highest tree or the balcony of the Capitol Building; especially in light of the current double standard of “law” applied in America.

All I see is a nation of sheep who meekly obey the commands of their masters. What has become of the land of the free and the home of the brave?

I seek and work to restore America - along with any and all like-minded Americans - to Her Founding Principles and more of an Originalist approach towards the implementation of the U.S. Constitution, which has been bastardized far and away from anything ever intended by the Founding Fathers.

If Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, and Thomas Jefferson were alive today they would either have fled the country, or they would be serving time in Guantanamo Bay as domestic terrorists, because our government has become a soul-sucking, liberty killing monster and the bulk of the people of this country no longer seem to truly care about limited government or individual liberty, seeking only comfort and security, whether it’s the Democrats or Republicans providing it.

And it makes me sick to death to watch."

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

"Breaking! Fourth Stimulus Check Update Today 2021: Monthly Huge 4th Stimulus Checks Bill Vote Soon!"

EVENINGS LALATE, PM 5/19/21:

"Breaking! Fourth Stimulus Check Update Today 2021:

Monthly Huge 4th Stimulus Checks Bill Vote Soon!"

"It Just Happened... $2000 4th Stimulus Check Update Today + Unemployment Benefits"

Ron Yates, PM 5/19/21:

"It Just Happened... 

$2000 4th Stimulus Check Update Today + Unemployment Benefits"

"In this video, we will cover the new dates $1400 third Stimulus Check Update today 2021 as well as the latest details of the stimulus package update and developments on the stimulus check 3 update, student loan forgiveness and related daily news as well as rent assistance programs and mortgage assistance. 4th stimulus check update today. Today I’ve got much more to cover in this video, like: the $200 monthly increase in social security raise, SSI, SSDI, VA, survivor benefit, and railroad benefit. I’ll be updating you on where we stand today on the social security $200 per month boost for ssi raise, ssdi, and really good news regarding COLA today in this video! We will discuss mortgage forbearance, relief and mortgage forgiveness. $2500 student financial aid."

"There Is A Shortage Of Everything And Global Supply Chains Are In A State Of Complete & Utter Chaos"

Full screen recommended.

"There Is A Shortage Of Everything And Global 

Supply Chains Are In A State Of Complete & Utter Chaos"

by Epic Economist

"It wasn't that long ago that our economy was running like a clockwork. Wherever you went, you could find what you needed, and whatever you wanted to order, you knew it would arrive in time. Prices were low and global supply chains were perfectly functional, and everyone expected things to continue that way for the foreseeable future. Then, the health crisis hit. And alongside with it, it came chaos. The media alarmed the population as if the apocalypse was here. Led by fear, people started wiping out grocery shelves in multiple waves of panic buying. Shortages became a common thing. At that time, we thought that they were only going to be temporary. Now, we are not so sure about that anymore. Meanwhile, our leaders keep telling us that this is a "recovering" economy, but how can that be true if economic conditions continue to get worse and shortages are spreading across more and more industries with each passing day?

If this is a recovery, does it mean that shortages and explosive prices are the new normal? At this point of 2021, we're experiencing a level of scarcity of products far worse than anything that we experienced in 2020. Now, even those who rely on prescription medication to survive have been struggling to find dozens of important medicines, given that pharmaceutical companies are facing major supply chain problems. According to the FDA, there are currently about 120 medicines listed as having a shortage in the United States.

At first, although shortages hit essential items and food staples, it was possible to live without them. But now, it has evolved into a life-threatening situation for millions of people who can't find the critical medicine needed to ensure their survival. This wasn’t supposed to happen. And supply shortfalls are being registered in pretty much every sector of the economy. For instance, the home building industry is coming to a halt due to the lack of materials and skyrocketing prices. “Builders are delaying starting new construction because of the marked increase in costs for lumber and other inputs,” explained Mike Fratantoni, senior vice president and chief economist with the Mortgage Bankers Association. He also mentioned that "supply shortages for appliances are also putting a damper on new home building activity".

When asked about these shortages, Sue Wastell, home building executive and president of Wastell Home, stressed that “it’s getting worse and worse every day. Literally every day, we’re finding out something else is not arriving when it was scheduled to. We’ve never seen anything like this". According to the president of Homex Development, Matt McCurrach, “the whole supply chain is out of whack." And what has been concerning experts the most is the ongoing global semiconductor shortage, because just about every industry that you can name is highly dependent on equipment that requires computer chips.

However, recent CNN reports are telling us that "a growing number of manufacturers around the world are having trouble securing supplies of semiconductors," which has been delaying the production and delivery of goods and threatening to hike the prices paid by consumers even further. "The shortage is going from bad to worse, spreading from cars to consumer electronics," says the report. And with most part of chip production concentrated in a small group of suppliers, analysts are warning that the crunch will persist for a long time. Automakers have been in total despair as the chip shortage is forcing the shutdown of many of their plants. Ford Motor, which is one of the automakers feeling the shortage most acutely, has announced that production in the second quarter will decline by about 50 percent.

According to Bloomberg, the world economy is suddenly running low on everything. The main difference between the 2021 supply chain crisis and past disruptions is the magnitude of it and the fact that there isn't a clear end in sight. Big or small, few businesses are immune to the crunch. On top of that, transport costs have been more volatile than ever and shipping problems won’t lighten up until demand does.

Many Americans have never witnessed such widespread shortages in their entire lives. If this is the "recovery" our economy will get, we seem to be doomed to a perpetual state of recession, especially considering that several other crises are erupting all over the country. It is just hard to believe our leaders when they say that "everything is going to be just fine". Well, you can believe them if you want, but in case you don't want to wake up to a crumbling nation and find yourself extremely disappointed, you should start getting ready for the most brutal paradigm shift in the history of America right now."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com​

“Big Trouble Is Coming; Crypto Collapse? Run To Cash”

Jeremiah Babe,

“Big Trouble Is Coming; Crypto Collapse? Run To Cash”

Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind, “My Orchid Spirit (Extragalactic)”

Full screen recommended.

Liquid Mind, “My Orchid Spirit (Extragalactic)”

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 is truly a majestic island universe some 200,000 light-years across. Located a mere 60 million light-years away toward the chemical constellation Fornax, NGC 1365 is a dominant member of the well-studied Fornax galaxy cluster.

This sharp color image shows intense star forming regions at the ends of the bar and along the spiral arms, and details of dust lanes cutting across the galaxy's bright core. At the core lies a supermassive black hole. Astronomers think NGC 1365's prominent bar plays a crucial role in the galaxy's evolution, drawing gas and dust into a star-forming maelstrom and ultimately feeding material into the central black hole. The position of a bright supernova is indicated in NGC 1365. Cataloged as SN2012fr, the type Ia supernova is the explosion of a white dwarf star.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121124.html

"And Never, Never..."

"To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget."

- Arundhati Roy

Paulo Coelho, "Be Like a River"

"Be Like a River"

by Paulo Coelho

“A river never passes the same place twice,” says a philosopher. “Life is like a river,” says another philosopher, and we draw the conclusion that this is the metaphor that comes closest to the meaning of life. Consequently, it is always good to remember during all the year to come:

A] We are always doing things for the first time. While we move between our source (birth) to our destination (death), the landscape will always be new. We should face these novelties with joy, not with fear – because it is useless to fear what cannot be avoided. A river never stops running.

B] In a valley we walk slower. When everything around us becomes easier, the waters grow calm, we become more open, fuller and more generous.

C] Our banks are always fertile. Vegetation only grows where there is water. Whoever comes into contact with us needs to understand that we are there to give the thirsty something to drink.

D] Stones should be avoided. It is obvious that water is stronger than granite, but it takes time for this to happen. It is no good letting yourself be overcome by stronger obstacles, or trying to fight against them – that is a useless waste of energy. It is best to understand where the way out is, and then move forward.

E] Hollows call for patience. All of a sudden the river enters a sort of hole and stops running as joyfully as before. At such moments the only way out is to count on the help of time. When the right moment comes the hollow fills up and the water can flow ahead. In the place of the ugly, lifeless hole there now stands a lake that others can contemplate with joy.

F] We are one. We were born in a place that was meant for us, which will always keep us supplied with enough water so that when confronted with obstacles or depression we have the necessary patience or strength to move forward. We begin our course in a soft and fragile manner, where even a simple leaf can stop us. Nevertheless, as we respect the mystery of the source that gave us life, and trust in eternal wisdom, little by little we gain all that we need to pursue our path.

G] Although we are one, soon we shall be many. As we travel on, the waters of other springs come closer, because that is the best path to follow. Then we are no longer just one, but many – and there comes a moment when we feel lost. However, “all rivers flow to the sea.” It is impossible to remain in our solitude, no matter how romantic that may seem. When we accept the inevitable encounter with other springs, we eventually understand that this makes us much stronger, we get around obstacles or fill in the hollows in far less time and with greater ease.

H] We are a means of transportation. Of leaves, boats, ideas. May our waters always be generous, may be always be able to carry ahead everything or everyone that needs our help.

I] We are a source of inspiration. And so, let us leave the final words to the Brazilian poet, Manuel Bandeira:

“To be like a river that flows

silent through the night,

not fearing the darkness and

reflecting any stars high in the sky.

And if the sky is filled with clouds,

the clouds are water like the river, so

without remorse reflect them too.”

Chet Raymo, “Asperges Me, Domine”

“Asperges Me, Domine” *

by Chet Raymo

“Greystone Books publishes a series of "Literary Companions" to natural environments- mountains, rivers and lakes, deserts, gardens, and the sea, so far. Now they come to my environment- night- and have been kind enough to include a chapter from “The Soul of the Night”, the chapter called "The Shape of Night." I am in lovely company, admired companions of several generations- Diane Ackerman, Timothy Ferris, Annie Dillard, Henry Beston, Loren Eiseley, Louise Erdrich, Pico Iyer, and Gretel Ehrlich, to name but a few - all connoisseurs of darkness.

Our earliest mammalian ancestors were presumably nocturnal- to escape the predations of dinosaurs- but for most of human history we have been afraid of the dark, huddling in caves around stuttering fires, curled together in darkness like mice in a burrow. Night belonged to animals with big, dark-adapted eyes and sharp teeth, to footpads and graverobbers, to werewolves and vampires. Ironically, it was with the coming of electric illumination that it became reasonably safe to go out and about at night, even as the illumination erased the best reason to do so.

William Blake called day Earth's "blue mundane shell... a hard coating of matter that separates us from Eternity." At night we peer into infinity, awash in a myriad of stars. We creep to the door of the cave and look up into the Milky Way and catch a glimpse of divinity - everlasting, all-embracing, utterly unknowable. Night - that cone of shadow, that wizard's cap of spells and omens- is the chink in Earth's shell through which we court Ultimate Mystery the way Pyramus courted Thisbe.

Which is why, I suppose, that whenever I think of "the porch" of people who visit here, I imagine Carolina rockers on a southern summer verandah, far from city lights, Vega, Deneb and Altair swimming in the Milky Way, fireflies flickering on the lawn. At some point the conversation ceases and we simply sit, rock, and listen to the sounds of the night - the whippoorwill, the bullfrog, the cricket and the owl- and let starlight fall upon our heads like a sprinkling of holy water.”

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

•

* “Wash me, Lord. Sprinkle me with hyssop and I shall be clean.”

- The Catholic Mass

The Daily "Near You?"

Acerra, Campania, Italy. Thanks for stopping by!

"COVID and the Noble Lie"

"COVID and the Noble Lie"

by Brian Maher

“Unethical”... “dystopian”... “totalitarian”... These are the words of the British government’s primary scientific advisory bunch — the "Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviour," by title. These scientific advisors presently droop their heads in shame. For these are the very words they employ to describe their own conduct. They concede: Last March their wicked counsel encouraged government officials to wildly inflate the true viral threat. Only a pitiless torturing of facts — argued these men and women of science — could terrify the public into locking themselves in, locking themselves up, locking themselves down.

The London Telegraph: "In March [2020] the Government was very worried about compliance and they thought people wouldn’t want to be locked down. There were discussions about fear being needed to encourage compliance, and decisions were made about how to ramp up the fear." Fear came ladling out by the ton. Millions and millions would perish in agonies scarcely describable, they howled. The hospitals would overflow into the streets, they screeched. Only the near-cessation of all public life could cage the menace. The halfway men, the men counseling a measured response… were drummed out of court.

“Using Fear Smacks of Totalitarianism”: Group psychologist Gavin Morgan, confessing his atrocities: "Clearly, using fear as a means of control is not ethical. Using fear smacks of totalitarianism. It’s not an ethical stance for any modern government. By nature I am an optimistic person, but all this has given me a more pessimistic view of people."

A pity, it is, that this fellow is not a Daily Reckoning reader. We would have squeezed the optimism from him long ago… and pumped in an implacable pessimism. It would have spared him an awful letting-down, a massacre of his innocent delusions.

Here another (unnamed) scientific advisor enters the confession booth: "The way we have used fear is dystopian. The use of fear has definitely been ethically questionable. It’s been like a weird experiment. Ultimately, it backfired because people became too scared." Another member was “stunned by the weaponisation of behavioural psychology.”

Yet another head-shrinker likens his witchcraft to mind control: "You could call psychology ‘mind control.’ That’s what we do…” Might we suggest another term for what they do? Might that term be… ‘propaganda?’

Propaganda: Let us consult Mr. Webster and his famous thesaurus. He defines propaganda this way: "Information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view… ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause."

We will assume the Telegraph’s reporting in this instance is authentic. If true... has not the British government… purposefully broadcast propaganda? We are compelled to conclude it has. And since the United States government let out similar shrieks, can we conclude it too has broadcast propaganda — and for identical reasons? ‘Maybe it did,’ you argue. ‘But the government needed to exaggerate the threat, else too few people would take it seriously. More people would have died. They did what they needed to do.’

That is, you give a wink and nod towards what Plato labeled “the noble lie.” It may be a lie, you allow. But it is a lie conscripted in the service of a higher good. Perhaps your argument has juice in it. But is not a noble lie… nonetheless a lie? And should democratic governments lie to We the People, however nobly? As well heave the civics books into the hell box.

Noble Lies: The men gathered at Philadelphia in 1787 lacked authorization to draft a Constitution. Their mandate was to sand down the rougher edges of the Articles of Confederation, to rub on some polish, to give a slight renovation. They instead dynamited the thing to bits and pieces. The public was denied all knowledge of their mischiefs, denied all voice in the outcome. It represented — in essence — a coup, a treason against the United States. Yet it glows in history as the Miracle at Philadelphia. We label the plotters “Founding Fathers.” And they mounted Olympus rather than the gallows.

The Good Guys Don’t Always Sport White Hats: Mr. Lincoln was no more determined to banish slavery than a bought policeman is determined to banish the narcotics trade. He would look away from Southern evil so long as he could count his tariffs at the ports of Charleston, Savannah and New Orleans.

What does the noble lie mistell us? That Old Abe was monomaniacal against the scourge of chattel slavery… and that “every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword.”

Here is another noble lie: The Kaiser’s soldaten bayoneted Belgian babies during the First World War. In August 1914, the British scissored the undersea German communications cables running west to American shores. All trans-Atlantic flows would therefore issue from the British Foreign Office… the same British Foreign Office that sweated mightily to enlist the United States in its cause. Hence the dreaded Hun’s skewering of poor Belgian infants and similar atrocities. Come now to Dec. 8, 1941…

Dastardly, Yes. But Unprovoked? Roosevelt — Franklin Delano — raged against Japan’s dastardly and unprovoked attack the morning prior. Yet was it entirely unprovoked? In July 1941, the United States government froze all Japanese assets in its possession. In August 1941, the United States government embargoed oil and gasoline exports to Japan. Over 80% of Japan’s supply shipped in from the United States. Officials knew well that Japan might take a desperate armed lunge in response. These men believed war was all but assured. But it was critical that Japan deliver the initial blow… to incense the American public.

United States War Secretary Henry Stimson, on the wrecks of Pearl Harbor: “My first feeling was of relief ... that a crisis had come in a way which would unite all our people.”

Picking Fights With Germans: Prior to Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy had also been initiating jousts against German U-boats along the Atlantic convoy routes. Was the United States a neutral power prior to December 1941? And did razzing German U-boats constitute a breach of this neutrality?

Many historians will tell you Mr. Roosevelt was attempting to lure the Germans into another Lusitania trap. But Herr Hitler saw the worm wriggling upon Roosevelt’s hook. He ordered his men to avoid all tangles with vessels flying the neutral flag of the United States. He laced into any U-boat man who gobbled the American bait — even in strictest defense.

Not Defending Japan or Germany: Let it go immediately into the record: We do not throw in with the Japanese Empire… or with the Austrian corporal’s National Socialist German Workers’ Party. In our residence, Victory in Europe Day and Victory Over Japan Day are events of high revelry. They are third only to Independence Day and Flag Day.

Once, under the heavy instigation of liquor, we even hung Herr Hitler in effigy — and set his mannequin aflame. We additionally made a voodoo doll of Tojo… and gave his ghost a frightful jabbing. We merely wish to illustrate that truth is war’s first battlefield fatality. The lie may or may not be noble. But a lie it often is. Examples multiply and multiply.

The Noble Lie of Climate Alarmism: The noble lie lives yet… as the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviour demonstrates. In recent years, the noble lie has also covered the planet itself — climate change. Alarmists insist we perch perilously upon the devil’s shovel. If man continues coughing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, Earth will catch a raging fever. Thus the world no longer confronts “climate change.” It confronts a “climate crisis.”

The noble lie writes the warrant for the mass merchandising of alarm. Stanford climate scientist Stephen Schneider: "On the one hand, as scientists we are ethically bound to the scientific method... On the other hand, we are not just scientists but human beings as well. To do that we need to get some broad based support, to capture the public’s imagination. That, of course, means getting loads of media coverage. So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we might have. Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest." There, in a walnut shell, you have the noble lie.

Crying Wolf: The noble liars have yelled wolf so often, so loudly, they have cashed in their credibility. Here is the danger: One day the wolf may truly snarl at the door. An authentic plague or environmental cataclysm may menace us. But they have already squandered their credit. They will shout wolf and shout wolf and shout wolf again… telling a noble truth... Only this time… no one will heed them."

- dailyreckoning.com

"Doug Casey on the Labor Shortage and Other Disturbing Distortions in the Economy"

"Doug Casey on the Labor Shortage and 

Other Disturbing Distortions in the Economy"

by International Man

"International Man: According to the recent Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) jobs report, only 266,000 new jobs were created in April - well below the one million new jobs that was expected. At the same time, American businesses are desperately seeking to fill job openings which they can’t fill. A survey by the National Federation of Independent Business found that 44% of small businesses had jobs they couldn’t fill, which is a record high. What’s going on with these seemingly contradictory trends?

Doug Casey: First of all, I don’t trust the government’s statistics. Some are surely better than others, but especially when we’re looking at monetary and economic numbers, it’s increasingly apparent that the US government’s statistics are only marginally more reliable than those of the Argentine government at this point. As the US is increasingly politicized, they’ll deteriorate further, fudged and adjusted for propaganda purposes. Eventually, they’ll approach the inaccuracy of those in the old Soviet Union. It’s understandable, I suppose, because people believe in, and love to quote, that old saw of Franklin Roosevelt’s: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." It’s nonsense, of course; you can ignore reality, but you can’t ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.

The government likes to publish happy, optimistic numbers for lots of reasons. A belief that economic health is based on psychological smiley faces is prominent among them. Unfortunately, optimism can blow away as easily as a pile of feathers in a hurricane. That said, there are huge distortions that have been cranked into the economy because of the ongoing COVID hysteria, compounded by the government’s reaction to it. It appears there are over 16 million workers collecting unemployment bennies, while there are about 8.5 million job openings, 13% more than in the before times. How is that possible? Lots of fast-food chains are paying $15 an hour, plus recruiting bonuses—and that’s for unskilled labor. There are loads of highly-paid manufacturing and construction jobs going begging. Anyone who wants a job can have one.

There are several reasons for this. One is that COVID hysteria is slacking off somewhat but still in high gear. A high proportion of the population wear masks when driving alone, walking alone, or even participating in a Zoom call (presumably to virtue signal). Needless to say, these types are afraid to go to work or be among other people. They want to self-isolate out of fear. They won’t work, or will work less, from hypochondria. Those that will work have to be induced with hazard pay.

Meanwhile, a combination of state unemployment benefits, $300 Federal unemployment, and Federal stimmy checks means that a lot of them can take home more not working than working. It’s easier to stay home, get up late, binge-watch Netflix, and collect tax-free money than commute to work. After a year, it can turn into an ingrained bad habit.

International Man: Since the beginning of the pandemic, the US government has been sending stimulus checks to Americans - mostly to those who experienced no reduction in their income or job loss. This flurry of free money has led to people choosing not to work. What’s your take on this?

Doug Casey: You get what you pay for. And if you pay people to stay at home, they'll do that. People are consuming more than ever. Retail sales are way up because of all the funny money the government is practically helicopter dumping, while a lot less people are producing. This is a guaranteed formula for economic disaster. And it's not just an economic failure but a moral failure. They’re being told it’s all right to take free money and not produce anything in exchange. In the long run, the moral failure is even more serious than the economic consequences. The public is being induced to act like children - or even criminals.

There is, however, one favorable consequence to all of this. Some of the smarter people collecting their stimmy and unemployment checks can see there’s high demand for labor. I’ll bet lots of Americans are working off the books - unofficially, for cash - so that they don’t compromise their unemployment and stimmy checks. Is it illegal, and arguably immoral? Perhaps. But it’s demonstrating what a massive lie government bailout programs are to millions of people. On the other hand, maybe I’m just a perpetual optimist, always looking on the bright side.

The development of a large informal economy, an untaxed shadow economy, is almost inevitable when billions in extra cash, lots of government regulations, and a generally declining standard of living come together in a witch’s brew. It causes huge distortions in the marketplace - and in the way people think the world works. Whole new classes of people will use the government as a milk cow, as well as a predator. This is the way it works in corrupt Third World countries, which the US is increasingly emulating. We no longer have an implicit social contract of fair play; it’s become a war of all against all.

This trend is another reason why the government wants to eliminate cash. When everything goes digital - as it already has in China and Sweden - it will be much harder to work off the books. They’ll know about everything you make, everything you spend, everything you own, because it’s all computerized. Let’s hope Americans will resist the trend. But, based upon their bovine acceptance of orders during the COVID hysteria, I doubt it.

International Man: It’s clear that the government response to COVID decimated many small businesses. What do you think the government’s further actions will do to the small businesses that survived the pandemic?

Doug Casey: It’s part of the phenomenon of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. A big government prefers dealing with big businesses, for lots of reasons. Big government helps big businesses like Amazon, Facebook and Google get much bigger. Little businesses don't have the capital, the lobbying power, and the bribing power to compete. Government, and the type of people who work for it, are naturally antagonistic to entrepreneurs. They want to see everyone as a regimented employee.

I've long been of the opinion that 80% of this COVID disaster is a scam. It’s the best means of controlling the masses since the invention of central banking and the income tax. Better, actually, since everybody cares about their health, but not everybody cares about money.

That may sound like a conspiracy theory, though I’m not partial to conspiracy theories for a number of reasons. But the fact that this hysteria took over the world so quickly, exclusively benefiting the people in charge, makes me very suspicious. Scared people are much more prone to look for leadership promising to solve a problem. Even if it’s an artificial one they created.

The slavish psychology of the average human is a real problem. The capite censi believe they live in a democracy where legislators represent their interests. So they do what they’re told by the representatives of our phony democracy. These busybodies and power grubbers get together to pass new laws. The new laws don’t enshrine wisdom. They simply tell people what they must do and must not do.

Every day the legislature is in session further limits the freedom of its subjects. And increases costs - because every new law requires paid enforcers. People who look to legislators to solve their problems are complicit in their own throats being cut. In our recent book Assassin, John Hunt and I highlight the way this works. No government department wants to lose its funding. They have an interest in manufacturing problems simply in order to justify their existence. COVID may turn out to be a classic example of that.

International Man: Is Universal Basic Income (UBI) already here to stay for good in the US? What are the investment and other implications?

Doug Casey: I believe it is. And it’s going to cement in place the distortions that we were talking about earlier. It's going to encourage whole new groups of people to do nothing and expect free stuff from the State as their moral right. Americans will increasingly resemble Cargo Cult natives in the South Pacific.

The near-term consequence of the trillions of dollars of funny money showered on America is probably going to be a crack-up boom. It’s a paradoxical situation where - in the midst of a declining standard of living - there’s a mad flurry of economic activity. So much new money being pumped into the economy encourages everybody to go out and buy stuff. They have lots of depreciating currency and want to spend it ASAP. But fewer and fewer people are producing, even while more are consuming. It’s called living out of capital.

The UBI, free money just for existing, is going to be very hard to take away. Everybody is encouraged to consume promiscuously because that will stimulate the economy. It’s idiotically said to be patriotic to consume. But nobody has to produce.

One big question is what will happen to millions of renters now in "forbearance." They're not paying the rent, and several million homeowners are also in forbearance. The landlords are going to be looking for back rent, and the banks are going to be looking for mortgage arrears. Are millions going to be kicked out of their apartments and houses? Does this mean we're going to have a new wave of homeless people? Or will the State just take over their obligations, so we have overtly socialized housing? The small landlords, in particular, will be hurt worst. I’m not sure what the way out is. The country has been painted into a corner.

I'm shocked that I don't see any of this being discussed anywhere. The country is sleepwalking into a living nightmare, and we’re just scratching the surface of all the problems that will have to be confronted in the years to come."

- InternationalMan.com