"Economic Market Snapshot AM 10/11/21"

"Economic Market Snapshot AM 10/11/21"

"Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will

do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone."

- John Maynard Keynes

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"The more I see of the monied classes,

the better I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

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MarketWatch Market Summary, Live Updates

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

CNN Market Data:

- https://money.cnn.com/data/markets/

CNN Fear And Greed Index:

- https://money.cnn.com/data/fear-and-greed/

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A comprehensive, essential daily read.

- http://www.shadowstats.com/

 October 10th to 12th, Updated Daily

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Financial Stress Index

"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."

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- https://www.freightwaves.com/

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Daily Job Cuts

- https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

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- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

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- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

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- https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

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- https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

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Commentary, highly recommended:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

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And now, the End Game...

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Oh yeah...

"Desiderata" - A Life Changing Poem for Hard Times

"Desiderata" - A Life Changing Poem for Hard Times

Read by Shane Morris

"Max Ehrmann was an American attorney and poet who often wrote on spiritual themes. During his life, he contributed great thoughts to our literary lexicons, blending the magic of words and wisdom with his worthy observations. Desiderata, which means “things that are desired,” was written by Max Ehrmann “because it counsels those virtues I felt most in need of.”

"The Test..."

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.”

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Do You Believe..."

“Do you believe,’ said Candide, ‘that men have always massacred each other as they do today, that they have always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates, brigands, idiots, thieves, scoundrels, gluttons, drunkards, misers, envious, ambitious, bloody-minded, calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, hypocrites, and fools?”

“Do you believe,” said Martin, “that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they have found them?”

- Voltaire

Columbus Day

“A lot of the nonsense was the innocent result of playfulness on the part of the founding fathers of the nation of Dwayne Hoover and Kilgore Trout. The founders were aristocrats, and they wished to show off their useless eduction, which consisted of the study of hocus-pocus from ancient times. They were bum poets as well.

But some of the nonsense was evil, since it concealed great crime. For example, teachers of children in the United States of America wrote this date on blackboards again and again, and asked the children to memorize it with pride and joy:



1492



The teachers told the children that this was when their continent was discovered by human beings. Actually, millions of human beings were already living full and imaginative lives on the continent in 1492. That was simply the year in which sea pirates began to cheat and rob and kill them.



Here was another piece of nonsense which children were taught: that the sea pirates eventually created a government which became a beacon of freedom of human beings everywhere else. Actually, the sea pirates who had the most to do with the creation of the new government owned human slaves. They used human beings for machinery, and, even after slavery was eliminated, because it was so embarrassing, they and their descendants continued to think of ordinary human beings as machines.

The sea pirates were white. The people who were already on the continent when the pirates arrived were copper-colored. When slavery was introduced onto the continent, the slaves were black.

 Color was everything.



Here is how the pirates were able to take whatever they wanted from anybody else: they had the best boats in the world, and they were meaner than anybody else, and they had gunpowder, which is a mixture of potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulphur. They touched the seemingly listless powder with fire, and it turned violently into gas. This gas blew projectiles out of metal tubes at terrific velocities. The projectiles cut through meat and bone very easily; so the pirates could wreck the wiring or the bellows or the plumbing of a stubborn human being, even when he was far, far away.



The chief weapon of the sea pirates, however, was their capacity to astonish. Nobody else could believe, until it was much too late, how heartless and greedy they were.”

- Kurt Vonnegut, "Breakfast of Champions"

“A Prayer for the World”

“A Prayer for the World”

“Let the rain come and wash away the ancient grudges,
the bitter hatreds held and nurtured over generations.
Let the rain wash away the memory of the hurt, the neglect.
Then let the sun come out and fill the sky with rainbows.
Let the warmth of the sun heal us wherever we are broken.
Let it burn away the fog so that we can see each other clearly,
So that we can see beyond labels, beyond accents, gender or skin color.
Let the warmth and brightness of the sun melt our selfishness,
So that we can share the joys and feel the sorrow of our neighbors.
And let the light of the sun be so strong that we will see all
people as our neighbors.
Let the earth, nourished by rain, bring forth flowers to
surround us with beauty.
And let the mountains teach our hearts to reach upward to heaven.”

- Rabbi Harold S. Kushner

"Catastrophic Property Sales Mean China's Worst Case Scenario Is Now In Play"

Full screen recommended.

"Catastrophic Property Sales Mean China's

 Worst Case Scenario Is Now In Play"

by Epic Economist

"A financial disaster is now underway in China: Its trillion-dollar real estate market is on the verge of a catastrophic crash as the Evergrande crisis intensifies and sends shockwaves to global markets. The Chinese property market has been scrambling ever since Beijing launched new policies tightening financial conditions and imposing new strict regulations in an attempt to tackle its housing affordability crisis. But that resulted in a significant contraction over the past year, and left some property giants, including Evergrande, struggling to adapt to the new measures.

The Evergrande collapse only added fuel to the fire, and at this point, it doesn't even matter how it plays out - whether it sparks an uncontrolled, chaotic default and distressed asset sale liquidation, a controlled restructuring where bondholders won't face acute financial losses, or with Beijing bailing out one of the foundations of China's housing market - because by now its downfall has already triggered a cascade of systemic failures that may not only end up in a major default crisis but compromise China's economic growth.

As Goldman explained in a recent note, a default contagion stemming from the Evergrande crisis and the ongoing turmoil sweeping across China's heavily indebted property sector will not only impact the banks -- which are all state-owned entities and whose exposure to insolvent developers will require an extraordinary amount of liquidity -- but the property sector itself. According to Goldman's estimates, the sector alone is worth $62 trillion, which makes it the world's largest asset class, and it contributes a staggering 30% of Chinese GDP (compared to 6.2% in the US) and accounts for 62% of household wealth.

However, as Goldman has recently noted, China doesn't need Evergrande to officially trigger a property market crisis: one is already here. In September, the bank projected three scenarios for China's housing sector -- a base case, a severe scenario, and a third "hard landing" scenario. This week, Goldman strategists suggested that the worst-case scenario has started to unfold. "In the third and most bearish scenario, land sales and housing starts fall 30% and property sales, house prices, and completions drop 10% from 2021 to 2022," the bank's strategists wrote, adding that in this scenario, at least 4% of China's 2022 GDP would be wiped out, leading to "a full-year contraction at the second-largest economy in the world, an outcome that would have catastrophic implications for the rest of the world," according to Goldman. The bank's warning that this scenario would result in even tighter financial conditions means that the Evergrande default contagion would spark a ripple effect in global markets and economies, and it would set off a massive wave of bankruptcies by the end of the year.

A recent report released by Shanghai Securities News, citing China Real Estate Information Corp., has shown that Goldman's predictions were actually right, and a disastrous collapse has begun in the Chinese property sector. The report found that more than 90% of China’s top 100 property developers’ sales declined by an average of 36% last month compared to the same period last year, deepening a downward spiral that started in July. While Beijing, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou saw transaction volume of residential properties drop by 30% y/y, Shanghai declined by 45%.

These are absolutely terrifying numbers, much scarier than Goldman's "worst-case scenario". To make things worse, this collapse has started before Evergrande even hinted that it could default its giant debt, which means that China's property market is headed to a glacial freeze that will likely end in firesales as the developer gets liquidated. In case they end up being left out of the market and unable to rollover coming maturities, and operating cash flow continues to dry up, the only alternative is the feared liquidation firesale, now seen as the pin that will burst China's housing bubble.

Since the eruption of the Evergrande crisis, experts have been comparing the property developer's woes to the epic collapse of Lehman. But in reality, this default crisis is much more dangerous to the global economy and it is merely the trigger event that could push down the entire Chinese house of cards, something the latest housing data suggest has already begun. China's enormous real estate sector seems to be rotten to the core. And this isn't just a "Lehman Brothers moment," it's the beginning of a global economic and financial collapse that may change the world as we know it, but while most people still remain unaware of the dangers that lie ahead."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com​

“Welcome To The New Banana Republic; Economic Disruption Everywhere; Small Business Disruption”

Jeremiah Babe, PM 10/10/21:

“Welcome To The New Banana Republic; 

Economic Disruption Everywhere; Small Business Disruption”

Musical Interlude: Il Divo, "Wicked Game"

Full screen recommended.

Il Divo, "Wicked Game" 

Melanconia, Live In London 2011

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Fans of our fair planet might recognize the outlines of these cosmic clouds. On the left, bright emission outlined by dark, obscuring dust lanes seems to trace a continental shape, lending the popular name North America Nebula to the emission region cataloged as NGC 7000. To the right, just off the North America Nebula's east coast, is IC 5070, whose avian profile suggests the Pelican Nebula. 

The two bright nebulae are about 1,500 light-years away, part of the same large and complex star forming region, almost as nearby as the better-known Orion Nebula. At that distance, the 3 degree wide field of view would span 80 light-years. This careful cosmic portrait uses narrow band images combined to highlight the bright ionization fronts and the characteristic glow from atomic hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen gas. These nebulae can be seen with binoculars from a dark location. Look northeast of bright star Deneb in the constellation Cygnus the Swan."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210916.html

“Raise Positive Vibration – 528Hz Positive Energy, Self-Healing, Healing Miracle Music.

Full screen recommended.

Spirit Tribe Awakening,

“Raise Positive Vibration – 528Hz Positive Energy,

 Self-Healing, Healing Miracle Music.” 

”Music is tuned to 528Hz and contains the 417Hz Solfeggio frequency. These frequencies have a specific healing effect on your subconscious mind. Peaceful, empowering and soothing music and nature to nurture your mind, body, and soul. Supporting and empowering you on your life journey.”

- https://www.youtube.com/

Simply beautiful, and effective…

“Why Not Despair?”

“Why Not Despair?”

“To view our times as decadent and dangerous, to mistrust the government, to imagine that those in power as not concerned with our best interests is not paranoid but perceptive; to be depressed, angry or confused about such things is not delusional but a sign of consciousness. Yet our culture suggests otherwise. But if all this is true, then why not despair? The simple answer is this: despair is the suicide of imagination. 

Whatever reality presses upon us, there still remains the possibility of imagining something better, and in this dream remains the frontier of our humanity and its possibilities To despair is to voluntarily close a door that has not yet shut. The task is to bear knowledge without it destroying ourselves, to challenge the wrong without ending up on its casualty list. “You don’t have to change the world,” the writer Colman McCarthy has argued. “Just keep the world from changing you.”

Oddly, those who instinctively understand this best are often those who seem to have the least reason to do so – survivors of abuse, oppression, and isolation who somehow discover not so much how to beat the odds, but how to wriggle around them. They have, without formal instruction, learned two of the most fundamental lessons of psychiatry, philosophy, and religion:

You are not responsible for that into which you were born..

You are responsible for doing something about it.

These individuals move through life like a skilled mariner in a storm rather than as a victim at a sacrifice. Relatively unburdened by pointless and debilitating guilt about the past, uninterested in the endless regurgitation of the unalterable, they free themselves to concentrate upon the present and the future. They face the gale as a sturdy combatant rather than as cowering supplicant.”

- Sam Smith

“Incidit In Scyllam Cupiens Vitare Charybdim”

“Incidit In Scyllam Cupiens Vitare Charybdim”

by Steve Candidus

“One of the great things about ancient Greek Mythology is that the stories all teach a lesson. They don’t end with – and the moral of the story is – though. They leave it to the reader to figure them out. So in addition to being just plain fun to read they are wonderful teachers about life. Perhaps the best thing about this one is that we still use the expression it contains exactly the same way that the ancient Greeks intended it almost 3,000 years ago. That almost never happens. Language is fluid and the meanings of words and expressions changes from one generation to another, but this one is an exception. The everyday expression it contains is one that we often refer to without really knowing where it came from.

This is one of the tales of Odysseus who was the heroic king of Ithaca and of whose ten-year journey back to Greece after the Trojan War was immortalized in Homer’s ‘Odyssey’. There was a point in his journey when his ship had to enter a narrow straight. It was a passage so narrow that it could only be made under special conditions. They had to have both the wind at their backs and the current in their direction. However, once committed it was impossible to turn back.

Unknown to the sailors the straight was guarded by two deadly perils. On the one side, it was guarded by Scylla. Scylla was a six-headed monster that disguised itself as a rock. On the other side, it was guarded by Charybdis, a terrible deadly whirlpool born of the sea god Poseidon.

In olden times, it was common to refer to any place that a ship came to rest on land as being in a hard place. It didn’t matter if it was blown on shore by a storm, grounded on a reef or brought up intentionally for repair. If it was on shore, it was on a hard place as opposed to the soft place – water.

It also applied to a ship that had foundered. A ship that sinks will eventually rest on the bottom. The land at the bottom of the ocean is therefore called a hard place. It used to be a common term, but it has since pretty much fallen out of practice in common language today. A deadly whirlpool such as Charybdis could take a ship and send it straight to the bottom – a hard place.

So, now as we return to the story of Odysseus we see that their ship had entered a narrow straight and that straight was guarded by two evil perils with hardly enough room for a ship to pass between them. They were forced to choose between the six headed monster ‘Scylla’ disguised as a rock or the dreaded whirlpool ‘Charybdis’ that would surely send them to a hard place and they could not turn back.

There is a Latin proverb from this story, “Incidit in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdim” which translates to, “He runs on Scylla, wishing to avoid Charybdis.” In modern day English, we simply say, “They were between a rock and a hard place”. And now you know…”

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Janesville, Wisconsin, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

The Poet: Maya Angelou, “When Great Trees Fall”

“When Great Trees Fall”

“When great trees fall,

rocks on distant hills shudder,

lions hunker down in tall grasses,

and even elephants lumber after safety.

When great trees fall in forests,

small things recoil into silence,

their senses eroded beyond fear.

When great souls die,

the air around us becomes

light, rare, sterile.

We breathe, briefly.

Our eyes, briefly,

see with a hurtful clarity.

Our memory, suddenly sharpened,

examines, gnaws on kind words unsaid,

promised walks never taken.

Great souls die and our reality,

 bound to them, takes leave of us.

Our souls, dependent upon their nurture,

now shrink, wizened.

Our minds, formed and informed by their radiance,

fall away.

We are not so much maddened

as reduced to the unutterable ignorance

of dark, cold caves.

And when great souls die,

after a period peace blooms,

slowly and always irregularly. 

 Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration.

Our senses, restored, never to be the same,

 whisper to us.

They existed. They existed.

We can be.  

Be and be better. 

For they existed.”

~ Maya Angelou

“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.  When 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/

"The Mystery Of The Millions Of 'Missing Workers'”

"The Mystery Of The Millions Of 'Missing Workers'”

by Michael Snyder

"Something really strange is going on, and none of the “experts” can explain why it is happening. Right now, there are more jobs available than ever before. In fact, according to one recent measure there were nearly 11 million job openings in the United States during the month of July. There are literally “help wanted” signs all over the place, and so if you want a job you can go get a job. It may not be the job that you want, but the truth is that there are millions upon millions of jobs available. We are in the midst of the greatest labor shortage in U.S. history, and companies are absolutely desperate to hire people. Wages are being raised to unprecedented levels, signing bonuses are often being offered, and some companies have completely waived drug testing requirements. Labor has become one of the hottest commodities in America, and you would think that in such an environment we would see huge numbers of people being hired.

But that isn’t happening. Instead, the number of Americans that are employed only rose by 194,000 last month…"U.S. job growth fell to the slowest pace of the year in September, a sign the Delta variant and a persistent shortage of workers weighed on the economic recovery. The economy created 194,000 jobs in September, the smallest gain since December 2020 and down from 366,000 jobs added in August, the Labor Department said Friday."

Needless to say, that is a terrible number. When it was revealed on CNBC, the talking heads were stunned…"CNBC’s Squawk Box expressed astonishment on Friday with September’s jobs report, which came less than halfway to meeting projections. The moment began with Steve Liesman, who looked down at the report and said, “194,” reflecting the 194,000 new jobs reported over the last month. “Whoa!” Becky Quick responded."

Before the pandemic, we needed to add between 150,000 and 200,000 new hires each month just to keep up with population growth. So this is definitely a “treading water” number. But we shouldn’t be “treading water” when nearly 11 million jobs are open.

At this point, employment in the U.S. is not even close to returning to pre-pandemic levels. As you can see from the chart below, the total number of Americans that are employed is still about 5 million below the peak that we reached just before the pandemic hit.

If just the people that were employed before the pandemic decided to go back to work, we would have about five million more Americans working. So what happened to them? The civilian labor force is also way down from pre-pandemic levels. In fact, right now it is currently at a level that is about 3 million lower than the pre-pandemic peak.

And according to the latest number that we just got from the government, the civilian labor force actually decreased by 183,000 last month…"Curiously, even as the unemployment rate dropped, the participation rate also declined from 61.7% to 61.6% as the civilian labor force somehow shrank in September by 183K to 161.354 million."

Because of population growth, over time the number of Americans that are employed and the civilian labor force should both steadily grow. But instead, in both cases it is as if millions of people have completely disappeared from the system. So where did all the people go?

Some conservative pundits are telling us that Joe Biden’s policies have given many unemployed workers a reason to stay home and not work, and I agree that Joe Biden’s economic approach has been completely and utterly disastrous. But this isn’t just happening in the United States.

Right now, there is an epic shortage of labor all over the globe, and this is something that I have covered a number of times. For much more on this, please see my previous article entitled “What Is Causing The Global People Shortage?” So where did all of the “missing workers” go?

Millions upon millions of people all over the world that were working before the pandemic are now seemingly unavailable to work now. If we simply had enough workers to do all of the jobs that needed to be done, a lot of our global supply chain problems would disappear very rapidly.

Before I end this article, there is one more thing that I would like to discuss. According to the OECD, 136 nations have all approved a new global agreement on corporate taxation…"A group of 136 countries have agreed to a global treaty that would tax large multinationals at a minimum rate of 15% and require companies to pay taxes in the countries where they do business.

Estonia, Hungary and - most notably - Ireland joined the agreement Thursday. It is now supported by all nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the G20. The countries that signed on to the international treaty represent more than 90% of global GDP. Four countries that participated in the talks - Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - have not yet joined the agreement."

Even in the midst of all the craziness that is going on out there, globalism continues to march forward. Now that the world has come together on this, what other types of “global tax agreements” could they come up with in the future? Of course most Americans will never even hear about this new global agreement on taxation, and it will never become a major political issue in this country. This is by design, because the globalists prefer to move their agenda forward without much public debate if possible.

Our world is being transformed at a pace that is breathtaking, and the road ahead is filled with peril. Most people simply trust our leaders to do the “right thing”, but the truth is that the biggest criminals in our society can often be found walking the halls of power. We have already witnessed so much chaos and death over the past couple of years, and much more is on the way in the months ahead."

- http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

Gregory Mannarino, "Markets, A Look Ahead"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 10/10/21:

"Markets, A Look Ahead: What To Watch For This Week"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Jim Kunstler, "The Mark of the Beast"

"The Mark of the Beast"

by Jim Kunstler

So, you’re feeling down and blue about the Woke Luciferian madness shading our American life under its baleful bat-wings? A lot of my friends and loved ones are down and blue. At this darkest of dark hours, I have some advice for you. Say ‘okay’ to whatever shade the universe is throwing on you. Rise! Go with it. Run with it and mount it. Ride it until you exhaust the beast that has made itself your enemy. Ride it until it goes to ground and whimpers. Because that’s is how it ends and you get your life back.

The frightful swans, black, white, and gray, are circling in the sky like those old air-traffic jams above the runways of O’Hare in bad weather. They are looking to land, and as they do, they will change everything. Enough people around the country will finally get their minds right. They will come back to themselves wondering… where have I been? This is what is coming at us (let’s count the ways):

The Covid-19 spell breaks. The beast thought it was a good idea to deprive millions of their livelihoods just to get its way and force them to submit to a medical experiment conceived in the utmost bad faith. You say your “vaccine” is defeating the plague that you schemed to create and beset the world with? We know exactly what you did. We know that most of the people getting sick now are the “vaccinated.” Look what happened in Israel. Too far to see? Look right here in Vermont. Your “vaccine” makes people sick. Soon, it will be self-evident everywhere that this “vaccine” is just another side of your boutique sickness.

Meanwhile, you’ve cleverly destroyed medicine itself by forcing the firings of nurses, doctors, and the people who clean up the hospitals. The people will not forgive you for this reckless and craven stupidity. And, of course, nobody knows the long-term effects of your jabbing spree. Has every vaxed-up person got a controlled demolition underway in their organs and blood vessels? Why are there suddenly a striking number of heart attacks and strokes tallied in Great Britain? Concerning, ya think? They’re counting, at least. In America, we’re not even tracking. This now-sinister enterprise called “The Science” doesn’t really want to see any numbers, and if any happen to come up, its minions like to play games with the math, which can tell any story they want it to.

Suddenly, as if from nowhere an energy crisis is upon us — but you knew it was there all along, or you should have known. Things don’t work well when the fossil fuels get scarce or pricey or have to come from so far away that getting them is beyond your control. When these things happen, everything you need costs more and some things quit working altogether.

The EU bureaucrats thought they would force a dozen countries to go “green” by sheer force of will. They thought that blocking the Nordstream 2 pipeline — designed to bring Russian natgas to the West — was a good idea. “Joe Bidens” first act in office was to shut down the Keystone pipeline. Look now, there’s color in the treetops and the temperatures are falling. That frost on the pumpkin isn’t so charming when there’s also frost inside your windowpanes. The lights may be going out in your house, but that will finally switch on the light in your brain. You’ve been played.

The global economy of interdependent super-systems is breaking apart. It seemed like a good idea at the time when the beast put it together… the Lexus and the Olive Tree and all that reassuring bullshit… and now times have changed. Now the supply lines are choking on their own hyper-complexity as each nation in the global “community” has to contend with its own bad decisions and the fragilities they have exposed. Chinese factories don’t work so well without Australian coal. Here’s an idea: maybe someday Australia will get back to work and learn how to make something with its own coal. (America, are you alert?)

The beast has decimated small business everywhere, leaving the people at the mercy of gigantic chain stores — with their dying business model — and now they can’t get any stuff because it comes from so far away, and the ships transporting it can’t dock because there’s nobody to unload it and there aren’t enough truck drivers to take it anywhere, all because of the beast’s reckless and craven stupidity. Let me light your fire, America: think about making your own stuff again, maybe not as much as before, but, honestly, we don’t need ten-foot-tall inflatable Santas and a lot of other plastic crap.

Sooner or later the capital markets are going to see how badly the beast has been playing them and the shock will make them roll over harshly. The markets will reach a painful insight: that there is, after all, a direct relationship between capital and what people do on-the-ground in their daily lives — either honestly and earnestly making things, and usefully serving their fellow human beings, or else becoming a multitude of Hunter Bidens, moving from one grift to the next in a haze of drugs, making nothing of value and serving no one. That clarifying bolt of insight will, alas, leave a lot of people broke and just a little farther along, as the old gospel song goes, they will understand why.

We’re in for another wave of invasion down on the US-Mexican border. This one, with hundreds of thousands marching north, will make the previous episode at Del Rio, Texas, look like a mere yoga class in comparison. Is there any doubt that this is happening because the figures behind the phantom “Joe Biden” want it to happen? The “optics” are already atrocious, but how do you think it will play with ever more Americans thrown out of work, and the prices of food, home heating, and gasoline surging upward, and as citizens are hassled at every turn to show their vaccine papers (while the border-jumpers get free bus tickets to Oshkosh, Bangor, and Spokane, along with a package of re-settlement goodies paid for with tax dollars)? It might be enough to even awaken the Woke. Played again!

How do you like your FBI and DOJ turning on the citizens of this land, you mothers of and fathers of schoolchildren getting the Woke business from the cadres of Saul Alinsky, Susan Rice, and Barack Obama? How dare you foment domestic terrorism in the town offices where the school boards meet? Were you just sucking it up before, all these months, while your kids were subjected to the Drag Queen Reading Hour and the malicious inanities of anointed MacArthur Fellow Ibram X. Kendi? Now is your time to rise and respond.  No, Merrick Garland, you depraved little prick, we will not stand this anymore. We rise against you! We dare you to send your goons in!

Are you ready, perhaps for war? Other nations may be, sensing America’s signal weakness. How would you rate our most recent military performance in Afghanistan? Does it give you a warm inclusive feeling to know that our top brass ordered flight suits for pregnant pilots? And that they are on vigilant watch to prevent any white privilege from contaminating our tactics and strategy? Things are heating up and pulsing red in the Straits of Taiwan. Will China dare to seize the island as they dared to seize Hong Kong a year ago? We probably won’t have to wait for long to find out.

Daunting times for sure. But they are our times and we must own them. A lot of this is truly beyond our control, but not what happens here in our country among ourselves. And one thing you can begin to do right away, right now, is to defy the regime that affects to be running your lives. We may even, very suddenly as events unspool, arrive at a surprising consensus that we need to get rid of it."

- https://kunstler.com/

Musical Interlude: Alan Parsons Project, "Eye In The Sky"

Full screen recommended.

Alan Parsons Project, "Eye In The Sky" 

"A Look to the Heavens"

"These two mighty galaxies are pulling each other apart. Known as the "Mice" because they have such long tails, each spiral galaxy has likely already passed through the other. The long tails are created by the relative difference between gravitational pulls on the near and far parts of each galaxy. Because the distances are so large, the cosmic interaction takes place in slow motion - over hundreds of millions of years. 

NGC 4676 lies about 300 million light-years away toward the constellation of Bernice's Hair (Coma Berenices) and are likely members of the Coma Cluster of Galaxies. The featured picture was taken with the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys in 2002. These galactic mice will probably collide again and again over the next billion years so that, instead of continuing to pull each other apart, they coalesce to form a single galaxy."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap211004.html

"A Refining Process..."

“Life is a refining process. Our response to it determines whether we’ll be ground down or polished up. On a piano, one person sits down and plays sonatas, while another merely bangs away at “Chopsticks.” The piano is not responsible. It’s how you touch the keys that makes the difference. It’s how you play what life gives you that determines your joy and shine.”

- Barbara Johnson

"The Scariest Economy Ever Is Getting Worse; Store Closures Pile Up; Job Creation Is A Joke"

Full screen recommended.

Jeremiah Babe, PM 10/9/21:

"The Scariest Economy Ever Is Getting Worse; 

Store Closures Pile Up; Job Creation Is A Joke"

"Unreal Economic Activity - The Meltdown is Here"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly, PM 10/9/21:

"Unreal Economic Activity - The Meltdown is Here"

"We have never seen economic problems like this. From Inflation to the job numbers there is no end in sight for the bad news. The stock market continues to hang on and see gains when business is horrific."

The Daily "Near You?"

Tillsonburg, Ontario, Canada. Thanks for stopping by!