Paulo Coelho, "Killing Our Dreams"

"Killing Our Dreams"

by Paulo Coelho

"In 1986, I went for the first and only time on the pilgrimage known as the Way to Santiago, an experience I described in my first book. We had just finished walking up a small hill, a village appeared on the horizon, and it was then that my guide, whom I shall call Petrus (although that was not his name), said to me: "We must never stop dreaming. Dreams provide nourishment for the soul, just as a meal does for the body. Many times in our lives we see our dreams shattered and our desires frustrated, but we have to continue dreaming. If we don’t, our soul dies.

The Good Fight is the one we fight because our heart asks it of us. The Good Fight is the one that’s fought in the name of our dreams. When we are young our dreams first explode inside us with all of their force, we are very courageous, but we haven’t yet learned how to fight. With great effort, we learn how to fight, but by then we no longer have the courage to go into combat. So we turn against ourselves and do battle within. We become our own worst enemy. We say that our dreams were childish, or too difficult to realize, or the result or our not having known enough about life. We kill our dreams because we are afraid to Fight the Good Fight.

"The first symptom of the process of our killing our dreams is the lack of time. The busiest people I have known in my life always have time enough to do everything. Those who do nothing are always tired and pay no attention to the little amount of work they are required to do. They complain constantly that the day is too short. The truth is, they are afraid to fight the Good Fight.

The second symptom of the death of our dreams lies in our certainties. Because we don’t want to see life as a grand adventure, we begin to think of ourselves as wise and fair and correct in asking so little of life. We look beyond the walls of our day-to-day existence, and we hear the sound of lances breaking, we smell the dust and the sweat, and we see the great defeats and the fire in the eyes of the warriors. But we never see the delight, the immense delight in the hearts of those who are engaged in the battle. For them, neither victory nor defeat is important; what’s important is only that they are fighting the Good Fight.

And, finally, the third symptom of the passing of our dreams is peace. Life becomes a Sunday afternoon; we ask for nothing grand, and we cease to demand anything more than we are willing to give. In that state, we think of ourselves as being mature; we put aside the fantasies of our youth, and we seek personal and professional achievement. We are surprised when people our age say that they still want this or that out of life. But really, deep in our hearts, we know that what has happened is that we have renounced the battle for our dreams – we have refused to fight the Good Fight.

When we renounce our dreams and find peace, we go through a short period of tranquility. But the dead dreams begin to rot within us and to infect our entire being. We become cruel to those around us, and then we begin to direct this cruelty against ourselves. That’s when illnesses and psychoses arise. What we sought to avoid in combat – disappointment and defeat – come upon us because of our cowardice.

And one day, the dead, spoiled dreams make it difficult to breathe, and we actually seek death. It’s death that frees us from our certainties, from our work, and from that terrible peace of our Sunday afternoons."

- http://paulocoelhoblog.com/

"We All Know..."

“We all know that something is eternal. And it ain’t houses and it ain’t names, and it ain’t earth, and it ain’t even the stars… everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you’d be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There’s something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being.”

- Thornton Wilder

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“I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge.

That myth is more potent than history.

I believe that dreams are more powerful than facts.

That hope always triumphs over experience.

That laughter is the only cure for grief.

And I believe that love is stronger than death.”

- Robert Fulghum

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“For Those Who Have Died”

“Eleh Ezkerah” (“These We Remember”)

“Tis a fearful thing

To love

What death can touch.

To love, to hope, to dream,

And oh, to lose.

A thing for fools, this,

Love,

But a holy thing,

To love what death can touch.

For your life has lived in me;

Your laugh once lifted me;

Your word was a gift to me.

To remember this brings painful joy.

Tis a human thing, love,

A holy thing,

To love

What death can touch.”

- Chaim Stern

Statue: “Into The Silent Land”, 

by Henry Pegram, 1905

○

“We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of Infinity. Life is Eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in Eternity.”

- Paulo Coelho

○

“Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”

- Dr. Seuss

And we shall meet again…

Full screen recommended.

Moody Blues, “The Day We Meet Again"

Musical Interlude: Moody Blues, "Isn't Life Strange"

Full screen recommended.

Moody Blues, "Isn't Life Strange"

"We're All Susceptible To It..."

"We're all susceptible to it, the dread and anxiety of not knowing what's coming. It's pointless in the end, because all the worrying and the making of plans for things that could or could not happen, it only makes things worse. So walk your dog or take a nap. Just whatever you do, stop worrying. Because the only cure for paranoia is to be here, just as you are."

- Dr. Meredith Grey, "Grey's Anatomy"

"Are We Living In A 'Matrix'-like Superhologram?"

"Are We Living In A 'Matrix'-like Superhologram?"

by David Talbot

"In 1982 a remarkable event took place. At the University of Paris a research team led by physicist Alain Aspect performed what may turn out to be one of the most important experiments of the 20th century. You did not hear about it on the evening news. In fact, unless you are in the habit of reading scientific journals you probably have never even heard Aspect's name, though there are some who believe his discovery may change the face of science. Aspect and his team discovered that under certain circumstances subatomic particles such as electrons are able to instantaneously communicate with each other regardless of the distance separating them. It doesn't matter whether they are 10 feet or 10 billion miles apart. Somehow each particle always seems to know what the other is doing. The problem with this feat is that it violates Einstein's long-held tenet that no communication can travel faster than the speed of light. Since traveling faster than the speed of light is tantamount to breaking the time barrier, this daunting prospect has caused some physicists to try to come up with elaborate ways to explain away Aspect's findings. But it has inspired others to offer even more radical explanations.

University of London physicist David Bohm, for example, believes Aspect's findings imply that objective reality does not exist, that despite its apparent solidity the universe is at heart a phantasm, a gigantic and splendidly detailed hologram. To understand why Bohm makes this startling assertion, one must first understand a little about holograms. A hologram is a three- dimensional photograph made with the aid of a laser. To make a hologram, the object to be photographed is first bathed in the light of a laser beam. Then a second laser beam is bounced off the reflected light of the first and the resulting interference pattern (the area where the two laser beams commingle) is captured on film. When the film is developed, it looks like a meaningless swirl of light and dark lines. But as soon as the developed film is illuminated by another laser beam, a three-dimensional image of the original object appears.

The three-dimensionality of such images is not the only remarkable characteristic of holograms. If a hologram of a rose is cut in half and then illuminated by a laser, each half will still be found to contain the entire image of the rose. Indeed, even if the halves are divided again, each snippet of film will always be found to contain a smaller but intact version of the original image. Unlike normal photographs, every part of a hologram contains all the information possessed by the whole. The "whole in every part" nature of a hologram provides us with an entirely new way of understanding organization and order. For most of its history, Western science has labored under the bias that the best way to understand a physical phenomenon, whether a frog or an atom, is to dissect it and study its respective parts. 

A hologram teaches us that some things in the universe may not lend themselves to this approach. If we try to take apart something constructed holographically, we will not get the pieces of which it is made, we will only get smaller wholes. This insight suggested to Bohm another way of understanding Aspect's discovery. Bohm believes the reason subatomic particles are able to remain in contact with one another regardless of the distance separating them is not because they are sending some sort of mysterious signal back and forth, but because their separateness is an illusion. He argues that at some deeper level of reality such particles are not individual entities, but are actually extensions of the same fundamental something.

To enable people to better visualize what he means, Bohm offers the following illustration. Imagine an aquarium containing a fish. Imagine also that you are unable to see the aquarium directly and your knowledge about it and what it contains comes from two television cameras, one directed at the aquarium's front and the other directed at its side. As you stare at the two television monitors, you might assume that the fish on each of the screens are separate entities. After all, because the cameras are set at different angles, each of the images will be slightly different. But as you continue to watch the two fish, you will eventually become aware that there is a certain relationship between them. When one turns, the other also makes a slightly different but corresponding turn; when one faces the front, the other always faces toward the side. If you remain unaware of the full scope of the situation, you might even conclude that the fish must be instantaneously communicating with one another, but this is clearly not the case.

This, says Bohm, is precisely what is going on between the subatomic particles in Aspect's experiment. According to Bohm, the apparent faster-than-light connection between subatomic particles is really telling us that there is a deeper level of reality we are not privy to, a more complex dimension beyond our own that is analogous to the aquarium. And, he adds, we view objects such as subatomic particles as separate from one another because we are seeing only a portion of their reality. Such particles are not separate "parts", but facets of a deeper and more underlying unity that is ultimately as holographic and indivisible as the previously mentioned rose. And since everything in physical reality is comprised of these "eidolons", the universe is itself a projection, a hologram.

In addition to its phantomlike nature, such a universe would possess other rather startling features. If the apparent separateness of subatomic particles is illusory, it means that at a deeper level of reality all things in the universe are infinitely interconnected.The electrons in a carbon atom in the human brain are connected to the subatomic particles that comprise every salmon that swims, every heart that beats, and every star that shimmers in the sky. Everything interpenetrates everything, and although human nature may seek to categorize and pigeonhole and subdivide, the various phenomena of the universe, all apportionments are of necessity artificial and all of nature is ultimately a seamless web.

In a holographic universe, even time and space could no longer be viewed as fundamentals. Because concepts such as location break down in a universe in which nothing is truly separate from anything else, time and three-dimensional space, like the images of the fish on the TV monitors, would also have to be viewed as projections of this deeper order. At its deeper level reality is a sort of superhologram in which the past, present, and future all exist simultaneously. This suggests that given the proper tools it might even be possible to someday reach into the superholographic level of reality and pluck out scenes from the long-forgotten past.

What else the superhologram contains is an open-ended question. Allowing, for the sake of argument, that the superhologram is the matrix that has given birth to everything in our universe, at the very least it contains every subatomic particle that has been or will be - every configuration of matter and energy that is possible, from snowflakes to quasars, from blue whales to gamma rays. It must be seen as a sort of cosmic storehouse of "All That Is." Although Bohm concedes that we have no way of knowing what else might lie hidden in the superhologram, he does venture to say that we have no reason to assume it does not contain more. Or, perhaps the superholographic level of reality is a "mere stage" beyond which lies "an infinity of further development."

- http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~sai/hologram.html

"Such Paradox..."

“How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one’s culture but within oneself? If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.”

- Barry Lopez

"The Light Of The World..."

"Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth – more than ruin – more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man."

- Bertrand Russell

Greg Hunter, "Money Printing Gone Off the Rails"

"Money Printing Gone Off the Rails"

by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Renowned gold expert James Turk says, “Federal Reserve money printing has gone off the rails, and they are in a situation of inflate or die.” Inflation is not the only problem because as the money loses buying power, the general public loses liberty. In Turk’s new book “Money and Liberty,” he lays out a direct link between sound quality money and liberty. What we have now is basically increasing inflation, or a decrease in the quality of money, and increasing tyranny. Just look at what has been happening with the CV19 pandemic. Turk explains, “In the system that we have, in order to make it work, you need inflation and regimentation. When you have regimentation, that means cutting back on liberty. They are trying to keep the system going, and as they keep the system going, there is more and more regimentation. The system has come to its end, and we have to recognize that nature gives us everything humankind needs to advance and that includes natural money, which, of course, is gold.”

Turk says, “The Fed can’t raise rates because only a 1% interest rate hike would raise the borrowing cost the government would have to pay out to $300 billion more per year.” What the government can do is spend more money, and that is the problem for all Americans. Turk explains, “Hyperinflation results from government spending at the end of the day. When the government is out of control, its spending is out of control and the central bank turns that spending into currency, and that’s where we are. We are on the path to hyperinflation.”

Turk warns, “There is a coming disaster. I think we are in the early days of a potential financial crisis nearing what we saw in 2008, but it’s likely to be worse this time around because there is a lot more debt in the system than there was back then. Back then, the government bailed out the banks, but this time around, who is going to bail out the government?"

Turk also talks about the huge debt problems in China and how this makes the next financial crisis even worse than 2008. He also talks about why gold and Bitcoin complement each other and why he calls Bitcoin an “Escape Currency.”

In the end, Turk warns this is not a time to try to make tons of money. This is a time to prepare and protect what you have. His simple advice is that those who lose the least will be the winners after the next financial crisis is finished. Turk explains in detail in the 35 min. video interview."

- https://usawatchdog.com/

"Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he interviews James Turk, founder and Director of GoldMoney.com and author of the new book “Money and Liberty.”

- https://rumble.com/

Chet Raymo, "Starlight"

"Starlight"

by Chet Raymo

"Poor Calvin is overwhelmed with the vastness of the cosmos and no small dose of existential angst. He is not the first, of course. Most famously the 17th-century French philosopher Blaise Pascal wailed his own despair: "I feel engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces whereof I know nothing and which know nothing of me. I am terrified...The eternal silence of these infinite spaces alarms me."

And he didn't know the half of it. Not so long ago we imagined ourselves to be the be-all and end-all of creation, at the center of a cosmos made expressly for us and at the pinnacle of the material Great Chain of Being. Then it turned out that the Earth was not the center of the cosmos. Nor the Sun. Nor the Galaxy. The astronomers Sebastian von Hoerner and Carl Sagan raised this experience to the level of a principle - the Principle of Mediocrity - which can be stated something like this: The view from here is about the same as the view from anywhere else. Or to put it another way: Our star, our planet, the life on it, and even our own intelligence, are completely mediocre.

Moon rocks are just like Earth rocks. Photographs of the surface of Mars made by the landers and rovers could as well have been made in Nevada. Meteorites contain some of the same organic compounds that are the basis for terrestrial life. Gas clouds in the space between the stars are composed of precisely the same atoms and molecules that we find in our own backyard. The most distant galaxies betray in their spectra the presence of familiar elements.

And yet, and yet, for all we know, our brains are the most complex things in the universe. Are we then living, breathing refutations of the Principle of Mediocrity. I doubt it. For the time being, Calvin will just have to get used to living in the infinite abyss and eternal silence. He has Hobbes. We have each other. And science. And poetry. And love."

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

Musical Interlude: Ludovico Einaudi, "Luminous"

Full screen recommended.

Ludovico Einaudi, "Luminous"

Gregory Mannarino, "Alert! Expect Inflation To Now Surge Even Higher Faster! You Are Being Lied to"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 12/15/21:

"Alert! Expect Inflation To Now Surge

 Even Higher Faster! You Are Being Lied to"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"A Look to the Heavens"

"The many spectacular colors of the Rho Ophiuchi (oh'-fee-yu-kee) clouds highlight the many processes that occur there. The blue regions shine primarily by reflected light. Blue light from the Rho Ophiuchi star system and nearby stars reflects more efficiently off this portion of the nebula than red light. The Earth's daytime sky appears blue for the same reason. 

The red and yellow regions shine primarily because of emission from the nebula's atomic and molecular gas. Light from nearby blue stars - more energetic than the bright star Antares - knocks electrons away from the gas, which then shines when the electrons recombine with the gas. The dark brown regions are caused by dust grains - born in young stellar atmospheres - which effectively block light emitted behind them. The Rho Ophiuchi star clouds, well in front of the globular cluster M4 visible here on the upper right, are even more colorful than humans can see - the clouds emits light in every wavelength band from the radio to the gamma-ray."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201014.html

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Full screen recommended.

Well, where did you think we go when we die?

The Poet: James Kavanaugh, “Searchers”

"Briefly..."

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

- Erich Fromm

“A Disaster-Like Scenario for Stocks Unfolding in Slow Motion”

“A Disaster-Like Scenario for Stocks Unfolding in Slow Motion”

by Brian Maher

"It is the ides of December. Seers have been poring over the entrails of birds… scanning the heavens for astronomical indications… and reading leaves of tea… in search of portents. The Federal Reserve’s comically titled “Open Market Committee” has been huddled in somber conference these past two days. And today it would announce its intentions. Yet it hangs from the hooks of a gorgeous dilemma…

Inflation is galloping away at its highest rate in 40 years — 6.8% — officially. The Federal Reserve has stowed the word “transitory” as it relates to inflation. At the going pace, Wharton Business School number-grinders estimate inflation will plunder $3,500 from the average American household this year. Yet according to Mr. John Williams and his ShadowStats, inflation goes at a rate far higher than officials concede.

15% Inflation? Measure inflation with 1990’s yardstick and inflation exceeds 10%, argues Williams. Measure inflation with 1980’s yardstick and inflation nears 15%. Is your income going up 15%? You must then multiply inflation’s thieving to arrive at a truer figure. You find the heist will seize much more than $3,500 from the average American household.

Thus the angels sob for the poorer among us. Inflation is backing them into a corner that is very, very tight. They must now gutter along on even less, their dollars burning away in wallets already lean. Yet even the official inflation numbers have the Federal Reserve in a horrible sweat. Would it signal today it is ready to get water on the inflationary brush fires… before they fuel an inferno?

Damned One Way or the Other: You are aware naturally of the Federal Reserve’s conundrum. Its monetary deliriums since last spring have blown combustible fluid into every asset going — stocks, bonds, cryptocurrencies, real estate — thus fueling the “everything bubble.” This frothy enclosure requires additional fluids, additional kerosene, to remain aloft. Absent a continual pumping in… gravity works its wicked will... and the thing comes back down to solid earth… where it comes to grief.

Here are Mr. Powell’s two choices:

1) Let things go and inflation could burn on through the dollar.

2) Call a halt to things and watch gravity work its wicked will.

That is, damned if the Federal Reserve does, and damned if it does not.

Powell Does, or Will Do: Would Jerome Powell do today — or not do? He did. More accurately, he signaled that he will do. At 2 p.m. Eastern, word came down…Mr. Powell and his mates held rates even. Yet they telegraphed as many as three hikings next year, beginning in March. They will also calibrate the kerosene pumps to a lower setting. The stuff will still come in, but with much less ferocity.

CNBC gives the particulars: "The Federal Reserve provided multiple indications Wednesday that its run of ultra-easy policy since the beginning of the COVID pandemic is coming to a close…The Fed will be buying $60 billion of bonds each month starting January, half the level prior to the November taper and $30 billion less than it had been buying in December. The Fed was tapering by $15 billion a month in November, doubled that in December, then will accelerate the reduction further come 2022.

After that wraps up, in late winter or early spring, the central bank expects to start raising interest rates, which were held steady at this week’s meeting. Projections released Wednesday indicate that Fed officials see as many as three rate hikes coming in 2022, with two in the following year and two more in 2024."

The Stock Market Does the Expected: How did the stock market take the news? Exactly as you might expect — the 180-degree opposite of what you might expect. The major averages wallowed much of the day in red numbers. But when the Federal Reserve mumbled its announcement, they took a good jump.

The Dow Jones was soon up and away 200 points. It closed trading 383 points up and away in all. The S&P 500 bounced a full 75 points. The Nasdaq went amok, gaining 328 points on the day. Gold gained $7. But Bitcoin put the yellow metal far in its shade, gaining $2,611 (at writing).

Certainty: Why did the stock market leap this afternoon? Because the Federal Reserve provided certainty, argues Mr. Jim Caron — chief strategist with Morgan Stanley: "Now I have seen how high rates are going and how fast it’s going to happen. The uncertainty is removed from the market. From an equity perspective, now they just have to focus on earnings, margins and growth. It’s kind of a sigh of relief to the equities market who thought it might be much more aggressive. It’s kind of what we were thinking anyway."

Just so. Yet is this certainty… or the mere illusion of certainty? Should equities truly prefer a focus on earnings, margins and growth? By certain metrics stocks are second-most costly in history, lagging only the year 1999–2000. Today’s stock market drummers assure us that today’s low interest rates have warranted these Himalayan valuations. They tell us stocks are not nearly so costly as valuations indicate. Yet what if interest rates go jumping? Will today’s obscene valuations find justification in the facts? We are not the least bit confident they can. We hazard they are in for a severe letting down.

“A Disaster-Like Scenario for Stocks Unfolding in Slow Motion”: Mr. Michael Kramer, Mott Capital founder: The equity market is forecast to see a massive drop-off in earnings growth in 2022 while trading at a historical high P/E, all as the Fed is pulling back on QE, which is already tightening financial conditions. It is a recipe that continues to be a disaster-like scenario for stocks unfolding in slow motion."

Today’s impossible valuations can only be justified by the prospects of double-digit economic growth. Yet we do not expect the economy and corporate earnings to grow at double-digit rates for years. Especially, that is, if the Federal Reserve is pulling in its oars and clamping financial conditions. We must consider the message of the bond market…

A Faint Signal, but a Signal: Rising bond yields, as a rule, indicate hale economic conditions ahead. Falling bond yields, again as a rule, indicate dimming prospects. The Federal Reserve has distorted the bond market beyond all reasonable semblance. This market’s signals are not nearly as true as they once were. Yet if you work your way through the Federal Reserve’s jamming, if you penetrate its fogs and statics, you can still discern a faint signal. And the bond market is signaling leaner economic times to come.

A Great Recalibration: In late October 10-year Treasury yields scraped 1.67%. In mid-December — today — the same 10-year yields gutter along at 1.46%. Again: The signal may have lost much in the way of fidelity, yet it can still be wrung from the Federal Reserve’s bedlam of interference. And it is telegraphing that double-digit economic growth is not in prospect. We must conclude today’s stock market valuations are preposterous.

We further conclude a great recalibration is ahead. Mr. Michael Kramer, in reminder: "The equity market is forecast to see a massive drop-off in earnings growth in 2022 while trading at a historical high P/E, all as the Fed is pulling back on QE, which is already tightening financial conditions. It is a recipe that continues to be a disaster-like scenario for stocks unfolding in slow motion."

A Prediction: Here is our prediction, clad in iron and as sure as sugar: The Federal Reserve will raise its rates and throttle back its quantitative easing. Sometime next year the stock market will yell blue murder and threaten collapse if Mr. Powell insists upon sticking on. He will relent. He will yield to the Wall Street paymasters in whose pockets he sits. He will resume slashing interest rates and inflating the balance sheet. This he did late in 2019 confronting these very circumstances. He will do it again — depend on it."

- dailyreckoning.com

Celente & The Judge, "Christmas Cheer Or Christmas Fear?"

Celente & The Judge, 12/15/21:

"Christmas Cheer Or Christmas Fear?"

"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."

- https://trendsresearch.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Horton, Michigan, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"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 Reality Of Life..."

"Despite my firm convictions, I have been always a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth."

- Malcolm X

Gregory Mannarino, "Must Watch! Economic FREE-FALL. Retail Sales GO NEGATIVE! Morgan Stanley Warns On The Market AGAIN"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 12/15/21:

"Must Watch! Economic FREE-FALL. Retail Sales 

GO NEGATIVE! Morgan Stanley Warns On The Market AGAIN"

- https://traderschoice.net/

The Daily "Near You?"

Växjö, Kronobergs Lan, Sweden. Thanks for stopping by!

"Pit-Bull Inflation"

"Pit-Bull Inflation"

by Bill Bonner

YOUGHAL, IRELAND – "Two headline stories this morning point to the Winter Catastrophe we imagined two weeks ago.

First up, it’s Reuters: "New York City set to ban natural gas in new buildings."

And here’s Stansberry’s Newswire: "Producer Price Index (“PPI”) data for November came in at 9.6%, beating the expectation for a 9.2% rise and the prior month’s upwardly revised 8.8% bump. That marked a record high for PPI, which the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has been tracking since 2009."

Our friend David Stockman has worked out that the PPI for FINISHED goods actually came in at 13.6%: "Today’s report happened to put us firmly in double-digit land at 13.6% year over year – a reading that beat all the monthly prints back through the 12.9% posting of October 1980."

What could go wrong? Let’s see… Restrict supplies… increase prices… What happens when you hit the brakes and the accelerator at the same time? We’ll soon find out! Meanwhile, smart investors… like our dear readers… have figured out that the Federal Reserve is stuck in an “Inflate or Die” trap. They know it can’t seriously curb inflation – not without causing the very “hard landing” it is trying so desperately to avoid.

But let’s come back to that in a moment. First, we have some big news for our long-suffering dear readers…

Our New Venture: We’ve been writing every day for more than 22 years. Heck, we practically invented the modern newsletter genre when we began writing one of the first internet-based blogs in the 1990s… before the word “blog” was even invented. And despite many supplications from our dear readers, mainstream economists, kibbitzers, nitpickers, and world improvers… we’ve been writing ever since.

Our goal, then as now, is not to change the world… but only to understand it, to “connect the dots” so we have a better picture of what is going on. We leave it to others to figure out what to do about it. We are sometimes right… sometimes wrong… always in doubt. But now, it’s time to try something new… a new adventure.

Beginning on Monday, we’re leaving Legacy Research Group to try a different way of staying in touch with you. Before we go, however, we’d like to thank the good folks at Legacy Research Group for hosting us these past few years, and especially Emma Walsh and Maria Bonaventura, who have worked so diligently to catch our many errors, challenge our slipshod reasoning, and correct our numbers. If we have stayed more or less in line with the facts, it is thanks to them.

But wait… Why leave Legacy? Our goal is to deliver a message that is simpler, less distracting, and less ambiguous. At this stage in our late, degenerate bubble economy, we think dear readers don’t really need more ideas, more information, or more advice. Instead, they need fewer voices… and a clear, unrelenting focus on the major threats and opportunities they face. Yes, Dear Reader, like it or not, we are all unwitting or unwilling soldiers, following our golden-haired general out to the Little Big Horn. It’s going to take all of our skill and concentration not to get scalped.

Here at the Diary, we are not vain or foolish enough to think we know exactly what pin will pop this bubble. Rising interest rates?… A stock market crash?… Another COVID variant?… A new war? But at today’s level of nuttiness, Mother Nature must surely be looking for it.

And we are confident she will find something sharp enough to do the trick. When things get out of whack… they must get back in whack one way or another. Our guess is that it is going to be a long, hard, nasty slog back to the fort. And that is likely to mean huge losses for many people; we don’t want to be among them.

So, if you want to stick with us… click here to sign up for information on our new service… and let’s see what we can do together.

Inflation on the Loose: Back to the dots… The Fed’s epic-low interest rates over the last 12 years encouraged everyone to borrow. Now, everyone – households, businesses, and especially the U.S. government – is loaded up with epic-high debt. How could the Fed raise rates now? Everyone depends on its low rates… from here to eternity. And what’s the problem with a little inflation? The federal debt goes down. The assets of the rich… the elite… go up. It’s only the ordinary voters who suffer; and who cares about them?

So what’s the problem? The problem with inflation is that it won’t stay on the leash. It runs off… tears open the trash bags… and bites the neighbor. Several times, we’ve recalled the example of Paul Volcker’s run-in with the pit-bull inflation of the late 1970s. Consumer prices were rising at a 13% annual rate in 1979. (Note that yesterday’s PPI reading for finished goods, year-over-year, was at 13.6%.)

But in order to bring inflation to heel, he couldn’t just chase it all over town… He had to lead. He moved the Fed’s key lending rate up to 20% – far ahead of the consumer price inflation (CPI) rate. Even the rich couldn’t escape. Bonds were almost wiped out. Stocks fell to their lowest level since the Great Depression. (An equivalent drop today would put the Dow under 2,000 – a 94% loss.)

So, what will happen this time? Stay tuned."

- www.rogueeconomics.com

"The Fed Finally Created Inflation… And Now It’s Going To Blow Up the Financial System"

"The Fed Finally Created Inflation… 

And Now It’s Going To Blow Up the Financial System"

By Graham Summers, MBA

"The Fed finally succeeded in creating its much-desired inflation… and the great irony is that it will likely blow up the financial system. For decades now the Fed argued that it should keep interest rates at zero… and continue printing hundreds of billions of dollars, because it wanted inflation to hit “2%.” This is why the Fed did what it did after the Tech Crash, the Housing Crash, and the C-O-V-I-D-19 Crash. Anytime someone pointed out that the Fed’s monetary policies were creating another, even larger bubble, the Fed told us, “We need to keep doing what we’re doing until inflation hits 2%!”

The whole thing was a joke. After all, how can you create inflation of 2%, and make sure it stays at 2%? Inflation isn’t like a car where you can hit the desired speed and then press “cruise control.” Regardless, the Fed has spent well over $7 trillion pursuing this goal. And now that inflation has arrived, it’s clear the Fed has no idea what it’s doing.

The official inflation numbers claim inflation is at 6.8%. However, everyone, including the Fed, knows this is fiction. The real inflation number is well over 9%. The Bureau of Labor Statistics get away with stating that inflation is just 6% by claiming housing/ shelter prices are only up a mere 3% over the last 12 months. The reality, using actual data shows housing prices are up 19% and apartment rents are up over 8%. Put simply, real inflation is much higher than 6%. But even the 6% inflation number is systemically problematic.

The Fed now claims it needs to tighten monetary conditions to stop the very inflation it has been trying to create. Stopping inflation means the Fed needs to raise rates. But the world is awash in debt and quite a bit of it was issued based on rates being at EXTRAORDINARY lows. Some $2 trillion in corporate debt was issued in the U.S. last year alone. The U.S. Government issued another $5+ trillion. So right off the bat, you’ve got $7+ trillion in debt that was issued while rates were effectively at zero. How is this going to adjust to rates at 1%? 2%? Higher?

For bonds with yields this low, every time the Fed raises rates, there is a dramatic impact. Remember, the yield on U.S. Treasuries represent the “risk free” rate of return against which the entire financial system is valued. So, when the Fed raises rates, that $7+ trillion must adjust accordingly. This means those bond prices FALL and their yields RISE. And if they rise enough, the investors begin to default. And we’re just getting started here.

As Lawrence McDonald recently noted, globally there is $30+ TRILLION MORE debt with sub-2% yields than there was the last time the Fed attempted to raise rates. How is all that debt going to handle higher rates? What if the Fed has to raise rates way over 2% to stop inflation? What happens to the mountain of debt that was created BASED on yields being at 0%?

If you think the Fed can navigate this successfully, I would like to point out that the Fed wasn’t able to deflate the Tech Bubble nor the Housing Bubble without creating full-scale crises. What are the odds the Fed can successfully deflate this current Everything Bubble… which is exponentially larger than the first two? Look at the below chart and you tell me."

- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

“Is the Economy in a Recession or a Depression?”

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly, AM 9/15/21:

“Is the Economy in a Recession or a Depression?”

"There are worsening signs all around us with the economy. I am in Laguna Beach California and I’m going to show you the retail that has been completely destroyed down here. Is this a recession or the beginning of a depression?"

"If..."

“If you work for a living, why do you kill yourself working?”

- Tuco, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”

"All men and women are born, live suffer and die; what distinguishes us one from another is our dreams, whether they be dreams about worldly or unworldly things, and what we do to make them come about... We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time and conditions of our death. But within this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we live."

- Joseph Epstein

"I Can Pretend..."

“I like the stars. It's the illusion of permanence, I think. I mean, they're always flaring up and caving in and going out. But from here I can pretend... I can pretend that things last. I can pretend that lives last longer than moments. Gods come and Gods go. Mortals flicker and flash and fade. Worlds don't last; and stars and galaxies are transient, fleeting things that twinkle like fireflies and vanish into cold and dust. But I can pretend...”

- Olethros, in “Sandman”

"How It Really Is"

 

"Upbeat Study Music Deep Focus Electronic Mix - Beta Isochronic Tones"

"Upbeat Study Music Deep Focus Electronic Mix - 

Beta Isochronic Tones"

by Jason Lewis - Mind Amend

"Listen to this track with your eyes open while doing the task/activity you want to focus on. This is a high-intensity audio brainwave entrainment session, using isochronic tones. Isochronic tones produce a stronger and more powerful brainwave entrainment effect when compared to binaural beats or standard music. Listen to this when you need a strong burst of intense focus to concentrate and study things like advanced mathematics, scientific formulas, financial analysis or any other complex mental activity.

Headphones are NOT required. Although headphones are not required you may find they produce a more intense effect, because they help to block out distracting external sounds."

- Jason Lewis - Mind Amend

○

About me: https://www.mindamend.com/about-mind-amend/

How isochronic tones work: https://www.mindamend.com/

How the amplitude effects work: https://www.mindamend.com/

"Holy Books"

"Holy Books"

"Holy Books is the largest collection of high-quality sacred texts, holy books, spiritual texts as PDF ebooks you will find on the Internet. Download Spiritual Texts as free PDF e-books. Download PDF’s: holy books, sacred texts, and spiritual PDF e-books in full length for free. Download the Bible, The Holy Quran, The Mahabharata, and thousands of free pdf ebooks on Buddhism, meditation, etc. Read the reviews and download the free PDF e-books.

Use the search function to find our free PDF ebooks or use the category list to browse books. All books on HolyBooks.com are Public Domain texts and free to download as pdf-files. This online library project is still under development and we are adding new e-books often. Suggestions are welcome. We are also maintaining Moral Paradigm – a similar site about moral and ethical questions."

- https://holybooks.com/

"Huxley's Ultimate Revolution: The Battle For Your Mind & The Relativity Of Madness" (Excerpt)

"Huxley's Ultimate Revolution: 

The Battle For Your Mind & The Relativity Of Madness"

by Cynthia Chung

"The relevance of the Esalen Institute’s “revisioning of madness” needs to be acknowledged as having been entirely spear-headed by the Tavistock Institute, and clearly, not for our benefit.

"America is the prophetic image of the rest of the urban-industrial world as it will be a few years from now – recent public opinion polls have revealed that an actual majority of young people in their teens, the voters of tomorrow, have no faith in democratic institutions, see no objection to the censorship of unpopular ideas, do not believe that government of the people by the people is possible and would be perfectly content, if they can continue to live in the style to which the boom has accustomed them, to be fueled, from above, by an oligarchy of assorted experts. That so many of the well-fed young television-watchers in the world’s most powerful democracy should be so completely indifferent to the idea of self-government, so blankly uninterested in freedom of thought and the right to dissent, is distressing but not too surprising.”

–  Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World Revisited” (1958)

As discussed in Part 3 of this series, Aldous Huxley would be mentored in the ways of Monte Verità, Ascona through the mentorship of D.H. Lawrence. It was through Lawrence’s teachings that Aldous Huxley, Gerald Heard and Christopher Isherwood would form the core of the group, Sonnenkinder (The Children of the Sun). Lawrence’s teaching of Ascona to the Sonnenkinder (greatly influenced by Mikhail Bakunin and Otto Gross, a disciple of Freud) would go on to shape the Human Potential Movement and the Esalen Institute to which this paper will focus on. [Note: Carl Jung was also a significant member of the Monte Verità, Ascona.]

Monte Verità became the international meeting place for all those who rebelled against science, technology, and the rise of the modern industrial nation-state. As already discussed in Part 3, the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) had established their headquarters in Basel, Switzerland as the “Anational Grand Lodge and Mystic Temple” (aka Verità Mystica) and at Monte Verità as the “Hermetic Brotherhood of Light.”

In August 1917, Outer Head Theodor Reuss issued a manifesto for his Anational Grand Lodge (O.T.O), called “Verità Mystica.” He then held the “Anational Congress for Organizing the Reconstruction of Society on Practical and Cooperative Lines” at Monte Verità August 15–25, 1917. He wanted to create a new ethic, a new social order, and a new religion, to be achieved through the establishment of utopian-bohemian colonies and settlements throughout the world that was to run counter to the world of science and technology and the industrial nation-state.

Recall from Part 3 that Light is a common theme (Children of the Sun, Brotherhood of Light). It is also mentioned by the Theosophical Society, a sister organization of Monte Verità, started by Madame Blavatsky, in her “The Secret Doctrine,” where she references the mystery of the “fall” to Earth of the rebellious angels – the solar angels or agnishvattas, to which Lucifer is the best-known representative.

[Note: see “Descent and Sacrifice” by the Lucis Trust, originally titled Lucifer Publishing Company, a major public player within the United Nations, which was founded by prominent Theosophical Society member Alice Bailey.]

In the words of Alice Bailey, from her book “Rays and the Initiations,” we must add “darkness unto light so that the stars appear, for in the light the stars shine not, but in the darkness light diffused is not, but only focussed points of radiance.”

Thus we must bring forth the darkness…"

Please view this complete, lengthy, article here:

https://www.zerohedge.com/

https://www.strategic-culture.org/

○

Related:

Freely download “Brave New World”, by Aldous Huxley, here:

- https://www.bookyards.com/

Freely download “The Secret Doctrine”by Madame Blavatsky here:

- https://www.holybooks.com/

Musical Interlude: Procol Harum, "A Salty Dog"

Procol Harum, "A Salty Dog"

"Small Business In Big Trouble; Wealth Destruction; Homeowners Will Get Wiped Out"

Jeremiah Babe, PM 12/14/21:

"Small Business In Big Trouble; 

Wealth Destruction; Homeowners Will Get Wiped Out"

Gerald Celente, "Silent Night, Holy Night, All Is Not Well, All Is Not Bright"

Full screen recommended.

Strong language alert!

Gerald Celente, "Trends Journal":

"Silent Night, Holy Night, All Is Not Well, All Is Not Bright"

- https://trendsresearch.com/

"Chinese Lockdowns Trigger Panic Across Supply Chains: Prepare Your Self For Shortage Of Everything"

Full screen recommended.

"Chinese Lockdowns Trigger Panic Across Supply Chains: 

Prepare Yourself For Shortage Of Everything"

by Epic Economist

"Widespread port shutdowns and factory closures in China are threatening to push already-stressed global supply chains over the edge. Chaos is fast spreading at Chinese ports as new lockdown mandates have started to be put in place after another wave of virus cases has been confirmed.

The measures are aggravating port congestion all across the country just as operations started to be resumed last month. Many sources on the shipping industry said the new port shutdowns are likely to bring a repeat of the shipping disruption experienced earlier this year, when the nation's key ports, Ningbo and Yantian, suspended all export operations for weeks. That event has contributed to the aggravation of shortages worldwide. And as several nations continue to struggle with empty shelves, including the UK and the US, the scarcity of consumer products may hit its worst level on early 2022.

With approximately 350 ships waiting to dock at Chinese ports to either load or unload goods, almost 4 million containers remain stranded at sea. And as shipping prices climb, some Chinese manufacturers have stopped exporting goods to the U.S. Inflated costs for shipping and ocean freight are inflaming the export crisis in China and causing severe import delays all over the globe. Industry executives are warning U.S. retailers to brace for inventory shortfalls, significant price increases, longer production times, shortages of materials and delays in order delivery.

Higher shipping costs are also adding to overall inflationary pressures for the global economy in 2022. Unfortunately, this means that if consumer prices are already nearing absurd levels right now, next year, price hikes are going to be even more shocking. Meanwhile, in the U.S. cost, the cargo ship logjam has never been worse. Despite claims from officials that the number has dwindled in recent weeks, an analysis published by the firm MarineTracker exposed that the number of ships stuck outside the California coast is still at an all-time high.

The analysis also has shown that dozens of ships have been waiting to berth since October, leaving thousands of sailors stranded at sea as they wait to be allowed on dry land. The contradiction in the official number of ships comes as a result of a new policy recently introduced by shipping trade groups that encourage incoming vessels to wait out in the open ocean amid the worsening logjam - rather than at the congested ports.

MarineTracker data revealed that hundreds of ships are sitting more than 100 miles away from the California coast, nearing the coast of Mexico or Taiwan. The impact of our domestic port crisis, the ongoing container shortage, and the new Chinese restrictions are disproportionately hitting American farmers, who are having an extremely difficult time in getting their goods out of the country to foreign buyers.

In a recent statement, Rep. Dusty Johnson explained that the situation is leading to the "destruction of millions of dollars in value". Johnson argued that Asian ocean carriers are "unfairly discriminating against American cargo." He noted that "shipping companies offload foreign goods in U.S. ports and then simply head back to Asia, so they can bring more goods back to the U.S., rather than taking the time to fill up with American goods to sell abroad". "Unfortunately because it's an oligopoly, you've got to take it or leave it if you're an American agricultural shipper," he added. "The terms often say that liquidated damages for you canceling a container is $100. Well there can be $100,000 of goods in each container."

The U.S. food industry has already been struggling with shortages of workers, drivers, and rampant inflation that has driven up the price of energy, feed and ferrilizer. Consumer food prices in the United States have just jumped to their highest levels in nearly 40 years. Last Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that food prices have rose an additional 6 percent in November, the highest month-to-month spike since 1982, with beef prices leading the rise, facing a dramatic 20.9 percent increase.

Needless to say, this is very bad news for American consumers who are seeing their purchasing power sharply collapse as inflation runs wild. We're effectively headed to a very painful winter that will bring food insecurity back to millions of American families. Sadly, we haven't seen the worst of shortages and price increases just yet. Now more than ever, we should get ready for the challenges that are coming for us. A perfect storm is on the horizon, and all of our problems are about to get out of control."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com