Thursday, January 13, 2022

"Coming Market Madness Could Take 70 Years To Recover From"

"Coming Market Madness Could
 Take 70 Years To Recover From"
by Egon von Greyerz

"Cervantes famous classic novel "Don Quixote" can in simple terms be described as a fight for liberty and freedom against oppression and against the state. This book is from 1605 and considered to be one of the best books ever written. In the midst of market madness, risk doesn’t exist because lunatics neither see, nor worry about risk. And still, 2022 will be more about risk and survival than anything else. So I will obviously talk more about “The Triumph of Survival” which I discussed in a recent piece.

“When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies.” 
– Don Quixote

The year 2022 will most likely be the culmination of risk. An epic risk moment in history that very few investors will see until it is too late as they expect to be saved yet another time by the Fed and other central banks. And why should anyone believe that 2022 will be different from any year since 2009 when this bull market started? Few investors are superstitious and therefore won’t see that 13 spectacular years in stocks and other asset markets might signify an end to the epic super bubble.

The Great Financial Crisis (GFC) in 2006-9 was never repaired. Central bankers and governments patched Humpty up with glue and tape in the form of printed trillions of dollars, euro, yen etc. But poor Humpty Dumpty was fatally injured and the intensive care he received would only give him a temporary reprieve.

When the GFC started in 2006, global debt was $120 trillion. Today we are at $300t, rising to potentially $3 quadrillion when the debt and derivative bubble finally first explodes and then implodes as I explained in my previous article.
It is amazing what fake money made of just air can achieve. Even better of course is that the central banks have manipulated interest rates to ZERO or below which means the debt is issued at zero or even negative cost.

Investors Have Found ShangriI-La: Investors now believe they are in Shangri-La where markets can only go up and they can live in eternal bliss. Few understand that the increase in global debt since 2006 of $180t is what has fuelled investment markets. Just look at these increases in the stock indices since 2008:

Nasdaq up 16X
S&P up 7x
Dow up 6X

And there are of course even more spectacular gains in stocks like: Tesla up 352X or Apple up 62X.

These type of gains have very little to do with skilful investment, but mainly with a herd that has more money than sense fuelled by paper money printed at zero cost.

To call the end of a secular bull market is a mug’s game. And there is nothing that stops this bubble from growing bigger. But we must remember that the bigger it grows, the greater the risk is of it totally wiping out gains not just since 2009 but also since the early 1980s when the current bull market started.

The problem is also that it will be impossible for the majority of investors to get out. Initially they will believe that it is just another correction like in 2020, 2007, 2000, 1987 etc. So greed will stop them from getting out. But then as the fall continues and fear sets in, investors will set a limit higher up where they intend to get out. And when the market never gets there, the scared investor will continue to set limits that are never reached until the market reaches the bottom at 80-95% from the top. And thus paper fortunes will be wiped out. We must also remember that it can take a painstakingly long time before the market recovers to the high in real terms.

As Ray Dalio shows in the chart below, the 1929 high in the Dow was not even recovered in real terms by the mid 1960s. Finally it was surpassed in 2000.
Click  image for larger size.
This means that it took 70 years to recover in real terms! So investors might have to wait until 2090 to recover the current highs after the coming fall. So looking at the chart, the market is now at a similar overvalued level it was in 1929, 1972 and 2000. Thus the risk is as great as at some historical tops in the last 100 years.

The Epic Bubble Might Not Recover Until 2090: The chart above shows that the 1929 top in the Dow was not reached in real terms until 2000.

As the world is being ever more oppressed and controlled by the state, Cervantes’ message in Don Quixote could not be more appropriate. I am quite convinced that Don Quixote would also have fought against the wokeness that today has become the guideline not only for human behavior but also for justice.

In the UK last week, a court acquitted four people accused of pulling down a statue of a historical figure who had been a major benefactor of the city of Bristol. Yes, he had made money on the slave trade in the late 1600s but where do we stop rewriting history? With today’s woke interpretation of history, virtually every historical king, emperor, government leader, general or businessman, to mention a few, should be put on trial even if they are all dead.

For example, Great Britain, France, Spain were all part of invading North America killing a major part of the Indian population and taking their land. So if we rewrite history, shouldn’t all these Europeans as well as the Africans be pulled out of North America and the land handed bank to the Indians. The same goes for South America of course. The Spanish and the Portuguese must all return and give the land back.

And where do we stop? We should really go back to the Han Dynasty, the Roman, the Mongol, the Ottoman, Spanish, Russian or British Empires. Why just deal with the slave trade in Africa when all these empires ransacked and conquered major land areas, took slaves and stole the riches of the countries they invaded. In a woke and fair world, all these actions must be reversed too. If the world decides to rewrite history, it must be done properly with major restitutions. There must of course be a UN Commission, and EU Commission and many more to deal with this properly. As Don Quixote said: “Who knows where madness lies”.

Easy Money Madness: But it is most probably the total market Madness in the financial world which will have the biggest effect on the world economy in 2022 and onwards. As I have pointed out many times, the US has not had a budget surplus since 1930 with the exception of a couple of years in the 1940s and 50s. The Clinton surpluses were fake as debt still increased.

But the money and market Madness started in the 1970s after Nixon couldn’t make ends meet and closed the gold window. The US federal debt in 1971 was $400 billion. Since then the US debt has grown by an average of 9% per year. This means that the US debt has doubled every 8 years since 1971. We can actually go back 90 years to 1931 and find that US debt since then has doubled every 8.3 years. What a remarkable record of total mismanagement of the US economy for a century!

The US has not had to build an empire in the conventional way by conquering other countries. Instead the combination of a reserve currency, money printing and a strong military power has given the US global power and a global financial empire.

Even worse, since the sinister smart coup by private bankers in 1913 to take control of the creation of money, the US Federal debt has gone from $1 billion to almost $30 trillion. As Mayer Amschel Rothschild poignantly stated in 1838: “Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation and I care not who makes its laws”. And that is exactly what some powerful bankers and a senator decided on Jekyll Island in 1910 when they conspired to take over the US money system through the creation of the Fed which was founded in 1913. Ever since that time the bankers have helped themselves from the self-filling honeypot.

Controlling the Fed has given the bankers an unlimited supply of money and credit to finance their activities. They have used this to acquire assets around the world as well as power. As is the general rule today, debt is never repaid since new debt always makes the old debt insignificant as the currency is constantly debased with all the new money issued.

The debt issued was not only used for the direct financial gain of the bankers. No debt buys enormous power and by creating money to finance profligate governments, the bankers are also buying power and controlling the politicians. What a wonderful position as Rothschild made clear almost 200 years ago."
Freely download "Don Quixote (The Ingenious Gentleman 
Don Quixote of La Mancha)" by Miguel de Cervantes here:

"Are You A "Terrorist"? Take This 50 Question Quiz And Find Out!"

"Are You A "Terrorist"? 
Take This 50 Question Quiz And Find Out!"
by Michael Snyder

"Could you be the kind of person that the government is looking for? The U.S. Justice Department has just announced that it will be creating a brand new unit “to counter domestic terrorism”, and they are going to need something to show for all of the time, money and energy that they are going to be putting into this new project. You may be tempted to think that they will be going after the people that have rioted and burned buildings hundreds of times all across this nation over the past couple of years, but that simply is not going to happen. Instead, they are telling us that this new unit will specifically target “extremist anti-government and anti-authority ideologies”. So if you have been critical of the Biden administration, any of our government agencies, or any of our top public health officials, you could be in really big trouble.

To help you out, I have created a 50 question quiz to help you determine if you are a “terrorist”. Most of these questions are based on statements made by Biden administration officials or on specific government documents that have been publicly revealed. So are you ready? Here we go. For each of the following questions, answer either “yes” or “no”…

#1 Do you ever criticize the government?
#2 Have you ever been banned, shadowbanned or censored on social media for a political opinion that you expressed?
#3 Are you a parent?
#4 Do you attend school board meetings?
#5 Have you ever expressed concern about the education of your children at a school board meeting?
#6 Do you believe in “conspiracy theories”?
#7 Are you suspicious of the FBI?
#8 Do you know who Ray Epps is?
#9 Do you wonder why Ray Epps has never been arrested?
#10 Are you unvaccinated?
#11 Have you ever questioned the efficacy of the COVID vaccines?
#12 Do you have a negative opinion of Dr. Fauci?
#13 Would you consider yourself to be a “constitutionalist”?
#14 Do you believe in “individual liberties”?
#15 Do you know what the 10th Amendment says?
#16 Have you ever referred to anyone in the Democratic Party as a “communist”?
#17 Have you ever referred to any public official as a “globalist”?
#18 Do you know what the “Great Reset” is?
#19 Would you consider yourself to be an opponent of the LGBT agenda?
#20 Have you ever said anything on social media that was critical of illegal immigration?
#21 Have you ever referred to yourself as a “patriot”?
#22 Have you ever used the wrong pronouns when addressing a member of the trans community?
#23 Do you believe that global leaders are conspiring to create a “New World Order”?
#24 Are you a “climate denier”?
#25 Are you opposed to Agenda 21?
#26 Have you ever belonged to a militia group?
#27 Are you worried about “gun control”?
#28 Are you ever critical of the IRS?
#29 Do you ever visit “extremist websites”?
#30 Have you ever attended rallies that promote “extremist causes”?
#31 Do you have “right-wing bumper stickers” on your vehicle?
#32 Would you consider yourself to be a “nationalist”?
#33 Do you believe that your “way of life” is under attack?
#34 Would you consider yourself to be an opponent of Critical Race Theory?
#35 Are you a “prepper”?
#36 Have you ever had any “survivalist training”?
#37 Would you consider yourself to be a “fundamentalist”?
#38 Do you believe that religion should influence politics?
#39 Are you “anti-abortion”?
#40 Are you a military veteran?
#41 Do you believe in a “right to bear arms”?
#42 Have you been involved in stockpiling ammunition?
#43 Have you ever protested at an abortion clinic?
#44 Do you have a negative opinion of the United Nations?
#45 Would you consider yourself to be an evangelical Christian?
#46 Do you ever have questions about the legitimacy of our elections?
#47 Have you lost faith in public health officials?
#48 Are you resentful when you are ordered to wear a mask?
#49 Have you ever said anything negative about the big pharmaceutical companies?
#50 Are you opposed to vaccine mandates?

If you answered yes to none of these questions, you are exactly the kind of citizen that the federal government wants and you have absolutely nothing to worry about.

If you answered yes to between one and ten of these questions, you have some anti-government tendencies but if you start watching CNN a lot more you can still probably turn things around.

If you answered yes to between eleven and thirty of these questions, you are clearly a “troublemaker” and you may be on your way to becoming a terrorist. You are going to need to watch endless hours of MSNBC and playing glowing documentaries about Dr. Fauci over and over again will be very helpful as well.

If you answered yes to between thirty-one and fifty of these questions, there is no hope. You are clearly a terrorist and the government is eventually going to be coming for you. In fact, they are already holding exercises that simulate what it will be like to confront “extremists”. The following is just one example… "A “realistic” guerrilla war will be fought across two dozen North Carolina counties in the coming weeks, with young soldiers battling seasoned “freedom fighters,” according to the U.S. Army.

According to MSN News, The two-week “unconventional warfare exercise” will be staged from Jan. 22-Feb. 4 on privately owned land. And it will be realistic enough to include the sounds of gunfire (blanks) and flares, the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School said in a news release. Exact times, locations, and exercise specifics were not provided. However, advance publicity is intended to make sure civilians - including law enforcement officers - don’t mistake the fighting for terrorism or criminal activity, which has happened in the past."

Let me be serious for a moment. I find all of this to be extremely sad. We should be finding ways to come together as a nation, but instead the Biden administration just keeps finding ways to make our divisions even deeper. A house divided will surely fall, and I am deeply concerned about the future of our country. If we don’t find a way to unite as a nation, we simply are not going to make it. Unfortunately, our leaders in Washington and the mainstream media just continue to stir up more anger and more hate, and that is a recipe for national suicide."

"The Dollar Has Entered A Death Spiral, And A Lot More Inflation Is On The Way" by Michael Snyder

"The Dollar Has Entered A Death Spiral, 
And A Lot More Inflation Is On The Way"
by Michael Snyder

"Did anyone out there actually expect things to turn out differently? When the federal government kept borrowing and spending trillions upon trillions of dollars that we did not have, we were warned that this day was coming. And when the Federal Reserve kept pumping trillions upon trillions of fresh dollars into our financial system, we were warned that this day was coming. So why is anybody surprised by what is happening at this point? On Wednesday, it was being reported that in December the U.S. consumer price index rose at the fastest pace in nearly 40 years…

"Inflation rose at the fastest pace in nearly four decades in December, as rapid price gains fueled consumer fears about the economy and sent President Biden’s approval rating tumbling. The consumer price index rose 7% in December from a year ago, according to a new Labor Department report released Wednesday, marking the fastest increase since June 1982, when inflation hit 7.1%. The CPI – which measures a bevy of goods ranging from gasoline and health care to groceries and rents – jumped 0.5% in the one-month period from November."

They keep telling us that the consumer price index was actually increasing at a faster rate back in 1982, but whenever the corporate media makes such a claim they are not being honest. The way that the consumer price index is calculated has been changed more than two dozen times since 1980, and every single time it has been changed the goal was to make the rate of inflation look smaller.

According to John Williams of shadowstats.com, if the consumer price index was still calculated the way it was back in 1990, the official rate of inflation would be above 10 percent right now. And if the consumer price index was still calculated the way it was back in 1980, the official rate of inflation would be above 15 percent right now. But 7 percent sounds a whole lot better than 15 percent, doesn’t it?

We can get a better picture of what is really going on out there when we start looking at individual categories. The following category numbers were posted earlier today by Citizen Free Press…

Gasoline up 56%
Heating oil up 42%
Used cars: 37.3%
Car rental: 36%
Natural gas up 31%
Hotels: 27.6%
Beef: 18.6%
Pork: 15.1%
Furniture: 13.8%
New cars: 12%

Unfortunately, it looks like the price of gasoline will soon go even higher. In fact, Reuters is telling us that some analysts are projecting that the price of oil could soon exceed 100 dollars a barrel… "Oil prices that rallied 50% in 2021 will power further ahead this year, some analysts predict, saying a lack of production capacity and limited investment in the sector could lift crude to $90 or even above $100 a barrel." It takes energy to transport virtually all of the goods that we purchase on a regular basis, and so a higher price for gasoline will cause inflationary pressure throughout our entire economy.

Some companies are responding to this crisis by giving their customers less for the same price that they were charging before. For example, if you order chicken wings from Domino’s Pizza you will only get a package of eight from now on… "Domino’s Pizza customers ordering chicken wings will soon get fewer of them for the same price. The pizza chain said it’s cutting the number of wings in its $7.99 carry out offer from 10 pieces to just eight because of rising food and labor costs. Wings will also become an online exclusive, meaning customers can no longer order them via phone."

All around us, there is evidence that our standard of living is rapidly going down. The cost of living is increasing much, much faster than paychecks are, and that is an extremely alarming trend. According to Zero Hedge, real average hourly earnings have now declined for 9 months in a row… "Finally, and perhaps most importantly for Main Street, real average hourly earnings fell (down 2.4% YoY) for the 9th straight month…"

So the next time a politician tries to tell you to be grateful that your wages are going up or you can move to a new higher paying job, just remind him that the surge in the cost of living is outpacing wage gains, thanks to The Fed’s money-largesse and Congress’ lockdown policies and helicopter money have crushed the quality of life for millions. In other words, most Americans are getting poorer.

Meanwhile, the appalling nationwide shortages that have erupted continue to make headlines all over the nation. According to USA Today, the following are some of the most severe shortages that we are witnessing right now…

- Baby formula shortage
- Cream cheese shortag
- Aluminum shortage
- Cat food, dog food shortages
- Chicken tender shortage
- Lunchables shortage
- Toilet paper shortage
- Beer shortage

And it turns out that fear of Omicron has also sparked a really bad shortage of cold medicine… "Stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth area are facing cold medicine shortages as flu season picks up and the omicron variant of the coronavirus continues. “The new toilet paper shortage,” an employee at an East Dallas pharmacy told Fox 4 of the empty shelves.

One pharmacist at a CVS location in East Dallas said that customers with symptoms appearing to be the coronavirus or flu have been buying up cold medicine and cough syrup, while others are coming in to just stock up. So if you were thinking of stocking up on Benadryl for some reason, I would go out and grab some while you still can.

The corporate media seems absolutely stunned that our politicians in Washington and the magicians at the Federal Reserve have lost control of our economy. But we were warned for years that what they were doing would kill the U.S. dollar, and the death spiral that we have now entered is going to become exceedingly painful.

What we are experiencing now is not just another short-term economic crisis. This truly is the beginning of the end for the U.S. economy, and I would recommend that you prepare accordingly."

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

"There Are Days..."

"There are days, there are times, when you feel like you've walked so far, when the voice inside you is complaining that it's all uphill, that it always will be. And then, after all that, way beyond your blue horizon, you see the biggest mountains you've ever seen, and you think, I can't do that. Well, I hope you always have somebody who tells you that you can. Like I'm telling you now."
- Windy Ariestanty

"Sometimes..."

"Sometimes even to live is an act of courage."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

"Life is an end in itself, and the only question as to whether 
it is worth living is whether you have had enough of it."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

That ultimately is the question...
Adrian Lester as Hamlet: "To be or not to be..."
William Shakespeare, "Hamlet", Act III, Scene I

"There Arrives A Point..."

"When swimming into a dark tunnel, there arrives a point of
no return when you no longer have enough breath to double back.
Your only choice is to swim forward into the unknown and pray for an exit."
- Dan Brown

“And It Was Pointless..."

“And it was pointless… to think how those years could have been put to better use, for he could hardly have put them to worse. There was no recovering them now. You could grieve endlessly for the loss of time and for the damage done therein. For the dead, and for your own lost self. But what the wisdom of the ages says is that we do well not to grieve on and on. And those old ones knew a thing or two and had some truth to tell… for you can grieve your heart out and in the end you are still where you were. All your grief hasn’t changed a thing. What you have lost will not be returned to you. It will always be lost. You’re left with only your scars to mark the void. All you can choose to do is to go on or not. But if you go on, it’s knowing you carry your scars with you.”
- Charles Frazier

"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

"The Real Revolution Is Underway But Nobody Recognizes It"

"The Real Revolution Is Underway But Nobody Recognizes It"
by Charles Hugh Smith

"The general assumption is that revolutions are political. The revolution some foresee in the U.S. is the classic armed insurrection, or a coup or the fragmentation of the nation as states or regions declare their independence from the federal government.

By focusing on the compelling drama of political upheaval we're missing the real revolution, which is social and economic: the Great Resignation, a global movement which in the U.S. has largely unrecognized American characteristics.

The Great Resignation is the real revolution which few if any recognize. The status quo is going to great lengths to dismiss it, for example, "The Great Resignation: Historical Data and a Deeper Analysis Show It’s Not as Great as Screaming Headlines Suggest, because this revolution is not controllable with force and is therefore unstoppable."

The sources of the revolution are in plain sight: you rig the economy to enrich the already-rich top 10% and super-size the already bloated wealth of the top 0.1%, and then you wonder why the bottom 90% are indebted, broke, burned out and disgruntled? The hubris of the ruling elites and their lackeys is off the scale, as this structural exploitation is presumed to be not just acceptable but delightful to the bottom 90%.

Alternatively, the more cynical view of those at the top looking down is: they have to work at the wages we pay in inhuman conditions because they have to: all the debt-serfs and tax donkeys must accept our pay and conditions or starve.

This is neoliberal neofeudalism with the kid gloves of PR removed.

Secondly, it's rather obvious what happens to public protests against systemic exploitation and disempowerment of the bottom 90%: they go nowhere. Anyone remember Occupy Wall Street? This is the fate of any quasi-political movement: co-option, suppression, etc., and then benign neglect as the full-court press eventually wears out the peasants.

So the real revolution takes place out of the spotlight, as one person at a time opts out. They opt out of the unwinnable rat-race, of burnout, of debt-serfdom, of powerlessness, of accepting exploitive work conditions and all the tiresome trappings of neofeudalism.

After 45 years of losing power, the workforce finally has a bit of leverage. Some of the leverage results from demographics - the Baby Boom generation is retiring en masse and so the workforce is shrinking - and from the revolution of opting out, as millions of individuals quit, creating a labor shortage unlike any in living memory.
As millions of workers opt out of conventional employment/exploitation, individuals have leverage due to the labor shortage to reverse the game employers have been winning for 45 years. Corporate America dropped the pretense of rewarding loyalty long ago, and nobody believes the corporate PR about "we're a family" - unless Corporate America is referring to an abusive, dysfunctional "family."

Here's a depiction of the typical corporate workplace: a "torture room" where the overlords are obsessed with bogus feedback from employees and customers.
American workers are awakening to the reality that they only way to get ahead is to get out. Stop playing the rigged game and start playing the players.

Workers are now in a position to quit and demand better pay and conditions, and then quit again to gain more, and then quit again. The employers are gnashing their teeth at this loss of power, but that's what happens in revolutions: the pendulum swings from one extreme to the opposite extreme.

Workers are realizing that they are powerless to change a rigged system at the ballot box or by conventional means. The only freedom that's still available is to quit amd game the system to the hilt, or drop out into the informal economy, try one's hand at the rigged casino of rampant speculation or give up the whole unattainable dream of the McMansion on the golf course and build yourself a micro-home on a cheap rural parcel and work your own micro-enterprise.

A great many workers are done dealing with the abusive American public who seem to feel they have a right to abuse employees. The government has the monopoly on force but it doesn't have the power to force individuals to tolerate abuse from employers, co-workers or customers.

Those quitting give conventional reasons, obfuscating the revolution. The structural dynamics driving the Great Resignation are not entirely conscious; the awareness that the ground has shifted beneath our feet is not easily discernable or described, but we sense it and act on it nonetheless.

American ingenuity is increasingly turned to playing the players via individual initiative. While the financial elite focuses on stripmining the next rigged game, the workers are focusing on bailing out in one form or another.

Revolutions have a funny characteristic: they're unpredictable. The global revolution is being written off as "transitory" because it's terribly inconvenient for the rigged-against-the-bottom-90% status quo. But it isn't transitory, it's gathering momentum."

Musical Interlude: Gnomusy, "Dolmen Ridge"

Gnomusy, "Dolmen Ridge" 

"A Look to the Heavens"

"No, hamburgers are not this big. What is pictured is a sharp telescopic view of a magnificent edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 3628, a puffy galactic disk divided by dark dust lanes. Of course, this deep galactic portrait puts some astronomers in mind of its popular moniker, The Hamburger Galaxy.
The tantalizing island universe is about 100,000 light-years across and 35 million light-years away in the northern springtime constellation Leo. NGC 3628 shares its neighborhood in the local Universe with two other large spirals M65 and M66 in a grouping otherwise known as the Leo Triplet. Gravitational interactions with its cosmic neighbors are likely responsible for the extended flare and warp of this spiral's disk.”

"One Summer Night..."

"One summer night, out on a flat headland, all but surrounded by the waters of the bay, the horizons were remote and distant rims on the edge of space. Millions of stars blazed in darkness, and on the far shore a few lights burned in cottages. Otherwise there was no reminder of human life. My companion and I were alone with the stars: the misty river of the Milky Way flowing across the sky, the patterns of the constellations standing out bright and clear, a blazing planet low on the horizon. It occurred to me that if this were a sight that could be seen only once in a century, this little headland would be thronged with spectators. But it can be seen many scores of nights in any year, and so the lights burned in the cottages and the inhabitants probably gave not a thought to the beauty overhead; and because they could see it almost any night, perhaps they never will."
- Rachel Carson

Greg Hunter, "2022 Wild Unpredictable Year – Craig Hemke"

"2022 Wild Unpredictable Year – Craig Hemke"
by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Financial writer, market analyst and precious metals expert Craig Hemke says there is only one certain thing you can say about the economy in 2022, and that is “Don’t buy the lie, the Fed does not have inflation under control.” Everything else is a huge wild card. We start with the stack of unpredictable things that Hemke sees, and he explains, “I think, economically, you can tell where we are headed, but anyone who can predict what 2022 is going to be like politically is crazy. This is going to be a wild unpredictable year. It will be volatile. If anything, this is an election year in Congress. All of the House and a third of the Senate and control of that agenda is up for grabs. You know we are going back down the path of allegedly ‘peaceful demonstrations’ that come with it. 

Then you’ve got inflation, supply chain disruptions and all these empty shelves. What if that gets worse? Then you have societal disruptions from hungry people. Then everybody around the world has been sold this story that the vaccines are going to keep you out of the hospital, and they are going to keep the disease mild. All that is being walked back now. What if it turns out the vax has done more harm than good? God only knows how the whole world will revolt. If it is discovered in 2022 that the vaccines globally have done more harm than good, which is entirely possibly because it is new technology being used for the first time. If it turns out that way, people are going to freak out. If there are millions of people marching in the streets, the governments are not going to say, oh well, we screwed up. You think they are cracking down now? What do you think the crackdowns are going to look like nine months from now?”

So, it’s safe to say the entire CV19 vax and virus story is going to be the wildest of wild cards. What Hemke can predict is the actions of the Fed in terms of fighting inflation and ending the easy money policies. Considering the trillions of dollars in exponential money creation and debt, can the Fed make a wrong move and blow up the system cutting off liquidity and raising rates? Hemke says, “Could they lose control? Yes. Will they? Well, not yet, and that is all part of the challenge in forecasting, and that is you don’t know when that rubber band will reach that breaking point. We’ve got $30 trillion in debt, and they have been able to reduce the interest rate paid on that debt. The interest on that national debt is about $500 billion with an average interest rate of 1.6%. So, when people say interest rates are going to go to 3% or 4%, what’s the interest going to cost - $1.2 trillion? The whole thing spins than much out of control. They cannot, cannot afford for that to happen. Don’t buy the lie that the Fed has this under control and they are going to raise interest rates.” The bottom line is Hemke says expect more inflation because the Fed cannot raise interest rates to fight it."

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with Craig Hemke of the popular website TFMetalsReport.com. (There is much more in the 43 min interview.)

"Struggling To Survive; Wages And Savings Crushed; Stock Market More Important Than You"

Jeremiah Babe, PM 1/12/22:
"Struggling To Survive; Wages And Savings Crushed; 
Stock Market More Important Than You"

Celente & The Judge, "Big Brother's Watching You, Our Rights are Being Stolen"

Full screen recommended.
Celente & The Judge, 
"Big Brother's Watching You, Our Rights are Being Stolen"
"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."

"Highest Goods Inflation Since 1975"

"Highest Goods Inflation Since 1975"
by Brian Maher

"Today we are thunderstruck, lightningstruck, tonguestruck and dumbstruck… That is because - by a marvelous miracle of God - the economic experts have finally struck bull’s-eye. They had divined that December’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) would register 7% year over year. Word came issuing from the United States Department of Labor this morning. December’s CPI did in fact register 7% year over year.

This 7% acceleration represents the greatest yearly consumer price inflation since 1982… 39 years distant. Reports CNBC: "Inflation plowed ahead at its fastest 12-month pace in nearly 40 years during December, according to a closely watched gauge the Labor Department released Wednesday."

The Consumer Price Index, a metric that measures costs across dozens of items, increased 7%, according to the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics… Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting the gauge to increase 7% on an annual basis… "The annual move was the fastest increase since June 1982 and comes amid a shortage of goods and workers and on the heels of unprecedented cash flowing through the U.S. economy from Congress and the Federal Reserve."

Highest Goods Inflation Since 1975: Adds Mr. Brian Price, director of investment management at Commonwealth Financial Network: "The December CPI report of a 7% increase over the last 12 months will be shocking for some investors as we haven’t seen a number that high [in nearly 40 years]. The cost of services increased 3.7% year over year. That is the highest rate since January 2007. The cost of goods - meantime - sped ahead 10.7% year over year - the liveliest pace since May 1975. Nearly 47 years!

Let us now heap Pelion upon Ossa, let us sketch the scene in colors darker yet… We learn today that real average hourly earnings - that is, inflation-adjusted hourly earnings - decreased 2.4% year over year. The average man is going backward.

Incidentally, this time last year 1% of small businesses claimed inflation represented their primary menace. One year later? Twenty-two percent of small businesses presently claim inflation represents their primary menace.

Stocks Shrugged: How did the stock market take today’s news? It took the news standing up, rather easily. The Dow Jones gained 38 points on the day. The S&P 500 added 13, the Nasdaq Composite 34 points of its own.

Inflation is widely considered a menace to stocks. Why weren’t stocks routed today? The aforesaid Mr. Price: "However, this print was largely anticipated by many, and we can see that reaction in the bond market as longer-term interest rates are declining so far this morning."

Long-term interest rates maintained their retreat clear through to closing whistle… "The 10-year Treasury note yielded 1.74% at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. The identical 10-year Treasury note yielded 1.72% at 4:30 p.m. Eastern." But why? Barreling inflation generally sends bond yields jumping.

A Refresher on Bonds: Recall: Bond prices and bond yields represent opposing ends of a playground seesaw. If bond prices rise, bond yields fall. If bond prices fall, bond yields rise. Longer-term bonds are particularly sensitive to inflation’s corrosions. Inflation munches through the value of their bonds as a termite munches through spruce. Ten years of inflation will reduce their bonds to sawdust.

Thus long-term bondholders demand a sort of insurance. That is, they demand higher bond yields to compensate them for the termite’s mischief, to keep ahead of inflation. The longer dated the bond, the more compensation they demand. A 10-year Treasury bond yielding 7% might reel you in, for example. But what if inflation averaged 8% across the same period? Inflation would gobble your 7% yield - and some more. You would require a 9% yield just to paddle ahead of inflation.

Meantime, you may balk at a 10-year Treasury bond yielding 3%. But if inflation runs at 2%… then your 3% Treasury yields you 1%. A slender gain, yes. But you escape with a whole skin - and a bit of blubber into the bargain. Your 3% 10-year Treasury, under these terms, infinitely bests a 7% Treasury if inflation is 8%.

With this brief reminder of bond dynamics in back of us… we must ask why 10-year Treasury yields went sliding down on today’s inflationary news. Since early December, 10-year yields had been galloping ahead at the briskest pace in 20 years. They attained a peak 1.78% on Jan. 10. These past two days they have lost their zeal. And so we wonder: Perhaps the bond market rejects the going wisdom that inflation will persist?

Yet it is easier to ask the question than to answer the question. That is because the Federal Reserve’s massive mischief has distorted the bond market out of semblance. Its signals are not as true as they once were.

Let us assume for the moment that inflation is up and doing, that it is up upon its legs and on the stretch. What is the Federal Reserve to do?

The Lowest Real Rates Since the 1970s: It cannot permit inflation to go amok - if only to salvage a rag of institutional self-respect. It is tasked, after all, with maintaining price stability. Seven of the last nine CPI reports have exceeded consensus estimates. People are beginning to talk. And so the central bank must act - appearances must be maintained.

Prognosticators estimate the Federal Reserve will impose perhaps four rate increases this year. They would begin their work at a very, very low level - zero. But the true interest rate, the real rate, the inflation-adjusted rate, is far lower than zero. The real interest rate is the nominal interest rate, inflation subtracted. The federal funds rate has been riveted in at zero.

Yet headline inflation goes along at 7%. Now go ahead and subtract the inflation rate from the nominal rate. You learn that the real federal funds rate is negative 7% (0% minus 7%). Not since the 1970s have real interest rates plunged to such impossible depths. Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid, here summarized by Zero Hedge: "The real fed funds rate in December was around minus 7%, which for reference is lower than at any point in the 1970s, when the lowest the fed funds rate got in real terms was around minus 5%."

Negative interest rates? Here you have negative interest rates - and in heaps. Again, what will the Federal Reserve do? How many rate increases will it declare this year? How will it attack its balance sheet? We do not know. Yet this we do know: We are profoundly, resolutely, unequivocally with Rabobank’s Michael Every: “The Fed will be wrong, as usual. The only question is how bad the damage is as a result.”

The Daily "Near You?"

Bristow, Oklahoma, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

Gregory Mannarino, "Alert! The Federal Reserve Is Involved In Yet Another Grand Deception, You Need To Know This"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 1/12/22:
"Alert! The Federal Reserve Is Involved In Yet Another 
Grand Deception, You Need To Know This"

"We Are All..."

"You’ve got to be crazy! It’s too late to be sane, too late. 
You’ve got to go full tilt bozo... 
‘Cause you’re only given a little spark of madness... 
and if you lose that, you’re nothing."
- Robin Williams

"Lifes Impermanence..."

"Lifes impermanence, I realized, is what makes every
single day so precious. It's what shapes our time here.
It's what makes it so important that not a single moment be wasted."
- Wes Moore

"SARS-COV-2 Vaccines and Neurodegenerative Disease" (Excerpt)

"SARS-COV-2 Vaccines and 
Neurodegenerative Disease" (Excerpt)
By Stephanie Seneff and GreenMedInfo

"Since December 2020, when several novel unprecedented vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 began to be approved for emergency use, there has been a worldwide effort to get these vaccines into the arms of as many people as possible as fast as possible. These vaccines have been developed “at warp speed,” given the urgency of the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic. Most governments have embraced the notion that these vaccines are the only path towards resolution of this pandemic, which is crippling the economies of many countries."
This is a lengthy, highly technical and informative article that
 I highly recommend. Please view the complete article here:
Free Download: "The Vaccine Death Report"
by David John Sorenson and Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, MD

"Purpose: The purpose of this report is to document how all over the world millions of people have died, and hundreds of millions of serious adverse events have occurred, after injections with the experimental mRNA gene therapy. We also reveal the real risk of an unprecedented genocide.

Facts: We aim to only present scientific facts and stay away from unfounded claims. The data is clear and verifiable. Over one hundred references can be found for all presented information, which is provided as a starting point for further investigation.

Complicity: The data suggests that we may currently be witnessing the greatest organized mass murder in the history of our world. The severity of this situation compels us to ask this critical question: will we rise to the defense of billions of innocent people? Or will we permit personal profit over justice, and be complicit? Networks of lawyers all over the world are preparing class-action lawsuits to prosecute all who are serving this criminal agenda. To all who have been complicit so far, we say: There is still time to turn and choose the side of truth. Please make the right choice."
Freely download "The Vaccine Death Report" here:
"Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi: Organs Of Dead Vaccinated
 Proves Auto Immune Attack" 

"How It Really Is"

 

"Shopping At Big Lots! No Toilet Paper! - Empty Shelves! - What Now!?"

Adventures with Danno, AM 1/12/22:
"Shopping At Big Lots! No Toilet Paper! - 
Empty Shelves! - What Now!?"
"In today's vlog we are shopping at Big Lots to find another grocery 
option as stores across the country are struggling to get in products."

Gregory Mannarino, "The Middle Class Wipeout Is Accelerating; The Economy Is Collapsing"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 1/12/22:
"The Middle Class Wipeout Is Accelerating; 
The Economy Is Collapsing"
Related:

"The Financial Headlines Keep Getting More Ridiculous"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, AM 1/12/22:
"The Financial Headlines Keep Getting More Ridiculous"
"From the Fed to JP Morgan you can’t get away from the ridiculous headlines. The same news sources are giving conflicting stories on the good news and bad news of the economy."

"Acceptance..."

"Acceptance is a crucial step forward for those who prefer the idea of living this life over simply existing within it. Accept all that you've said and what you've done, because you cannot change your past. Accept the idea of the unknown, because the future is the unknown waiting patiently to reveal itself. Accept the person you have become thus far in your journey, because you are the only person who will be there with you when you finish it. Do all of this so that you may never find yourself having to accept regret that haunts you at two a.m., leaving you sweaty and broken hearted. All you have is this minute; not this hour, or this day, or this year. Live in this minute so that you won't get stuck simply existing with your guilty past, or with nothing but anxiety for the future."
- Margaret E. Rise

"In Human Society.."

"When a bull is being lead to the slaughter, it still hopes to break loose and trample its butchers. Other bulls have not been able to pass on the knowledge that this never happens and that from the slaughterhouse there is no way back to the herd. But in human society there is a continuous exchange of experience. I have never heard of a man who broke away and fled while being led to his execution. It is even thought to be a special form of courage if a man about to be executed refuses to be blindfolded and dies with his eyes open. But I would rather have the bull with his blind rage, the stubborn beast who doesn't weigh his chances of survival with the prudent dull-wittedness of man, and doesn't know the despicable feeling of despair."
- Nadezhda Mandelstam

"Government’s Grip is Tightening - 15 Signs Of An Abusive Relationship"

Full screen recommended.
Chris Martenson, Peak Prosperity,
"Government’s Grip is Tightening - 
15 Signs Of An Abusive Relationship"

Tuesday, January 11, 2022

“It’s Like A Soviet Store”: Americans Are Absolutely Horrified By Empty Shelves From Coast To Coast"

Full screen recommended.
“It’s Like A Soviet Store”: Americans Are Absolutely
 Horrified By Empty Shelves From Coast To Coast"
by Michael Snyder

A year ago, we were promised that the Biden regime would be leading us into a new golden era of prosperity. Obviously, that has not happened. Instead, we are dealing with bare store shelves and painfully high prices from coast to coast. Many are comparing this crisis to the Jimmy Carter era of the 1970s, but we didn’t have persistent shortages for months on end back then. At this point, nobody can deny what is happening. Even the Washington Post is admitting that “social media is swamped with pictures of empty grocery shelves”. The Biden administration promised to resolve our supply chain problems, but they just keep getting worse. When Fox News asked one grocery shopper about the empty shelves, he delivered a chilling response that many of us will not forget any time soon: “It’s like a Soviet store during 1981. It’s horrible.”

Prior to the pandemic, many Americans believed that it was impossible for something like this to ever happen in the United States of America. But it is happening.

Another shopper that was interviewed by Fox News actually used the word “starving” in his response… "Larry, another D.C. shopper, told Fox News: “Whatever it is, I know they need to hurry up and get this straightened out because people will be starving. It’s going to get rough if it keeps on continuing like that.”

Multiple shoppers rattled off a litany of groceries they couldn’t find, ranging from milk to beverages to produce. “Everything, meat, egg, dairy, certain breads were out, most vegetables, it was all fresh items,” one man said as he left a Giant grocery store.
Full screen recommended.
No, nobody in this country is going to be “starving” in the near future, but without a doubt things are starting to get really crazy. In fact, things are so bad that even CNN has been forced to admit that our store shelves are being “wiped clean”… "Grocery store shelves across America are wiped clean, and they’re staying empty as stores struggle to quickly restock everyday necessities such as milk, bread, meat, canned soups and cleaning products. Disgruntled shoppers have unleashed their frustration on social media over the last several days, posting photos on Twitter of bare shelves at Trader Joe’s locations, Giant Foods and Publix stores, among many others."

If fear of Omicron can do this, what would our country look like during a major long-term national emergency? You might want to start thinking about that.

Grocery chains are very much aware that a wave of “panic buying” has erupted around the nation, and so they are trying to do what they can to keep it from getting even worse… "Grocery stores certainly are aware of the empty shelves, Lempert said, and they are trying to mitigate panic buying, which only worsens it the situation. One strategy: Fanning out products. They’re doing this by putting out both limited varieties and limited quantities of each product in an attempt to prevent hoarding and stretch out their supplies between deliveries." But fanning out products isn’t really going to fool anyone. We can all see what is going on, and all of the photos that are going up on social media are just going to fuel the frenzy even more.


The good news is that at least things are better in this country than they are in much of the rest of the globe. For example, people in Cuba are now waiting up to 11 hours in line just to get some food… “I spent almost all night here just to buy something. It is not easy, it is a big sacrifice just to be able to eat,” shopper Edelvis Miranda, 47, told AFP at a market in Havana last week. The homemaker had taken her place in the queue at about 1:00 am, and finally left around 11 hours later, just before noon."

So be thankful for the blessings that we still have. Hopefully we will get some short-term relief and store shelves will start to look better once this wave of Omicron fades and warmer temperatures arrive.

But nothing is going to keep inflation from continuing to spiral out of control. According to CNBC, the median income in this country has actually fallen over the past two years even as the cost of living has risen substantially… "As consumers pay more for everything from groceries to gasoline, household income is failing to keep pace with a higher overall cost of living, according to recent reports. Over the past two years, median income fell 3% while the cost of living rose nearly 7%, due, in part, to rising housing and medical costs."

In an attempt to keep making ends meet, U.S. consumers have now gone into more debt than ever before… The average U.S. household with debt now owes $155,622, or more than $15 trillion altogether, including debt from credit cards, mortgages, home equity lines of credit, auto loans, student loans and other household obligations - up 6.2% from a year ago.

In America today, most people are just barely scraping by from month to month. Living paycheck to paycheck is not a good place to be, but that is reality for the vast majority of our population. So when economic conditions get extremely bad in this country, most Americans are not going to have any sort of a financial cushion to fall back on. And since the vast majority of our population is not “prepping” in any way, shape or form, any sort of long-term food shortage would get exceedingly painful very, very quickly.

For years, I have been encouraging my readers to make common sense preparations for the time when economic chaos would rock our nation. Now that time has arrived, and most of our fellow citizens are completely and utterly unprepared for what is happening. But if you think that this is the worst that can happen to us, just wait, because the truth is that what we have experienced so far is just the tip of the iceberg."

“You Have No Money Left; Banks Are Ripping You Off; IRS Issues”

Jeremiah Babe, PM 1/11/22:
“You Have No Money Left; Banks Are Ripping You Off; IRS Issues”

Gerald Celente, "Chock Full Of Nuts" - "Trends Journal"

Full screen recommended.
Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, "Chock Full Of Nuts" - "Trends Journal"
"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."

"Food Industry Insiders Are Warning That Supplies Will Get Even Tighter In The Weeks Ahead"

Full screen recommended.
"Food Industry Insiders Are Warning That Supplies 
Will Get Even Tighter In The Weeks Ahead"
by Epic Economist

"This is where we are again. In December, the US government stood in front of the American people and bluntly announced that they had defeated the supply chain crisis. But of course, now it is clear that they have lied to us once again. We have been facing persistent shortages for months on end. Some of them emerged during the first wave of panic buying in 2020 and were never resolved up until this point. And now, the emergence of a new variant and the threat of lockdowns and businesses shutdowns are pushing things to an entirely new level.

US consumers have been increasingly frustrated with the bare shelves they see, and many have resorted to social media to expose the situation of their local supermarkets. From coast to coast, shortages continue to spread at an alarming pace all across the country. But our leaders keep insisting that this is just a "temporary" crisis that will be gone soon. That was the same thing they said when nationwide shortages first began to pop up in early 2020. So we shouldn't hold our breaths waiting for them to fix these bottlenecks and turn things around because that probably won't happen.

The truth is that executives and experts in the food industry are sounding the alarm over more shortages and rising prices in the coming weeks as food supplies get tighter and tighter. For instance, in a recent interview with Fox News, the billionaire supermarket CEO John Catsimatidis is alerting that more supply chain disruptions are occurring as we speak, and food retailers are going to pass along increased transportation and logistics costs to consumers in the weeks ahead. The United Refining Company owner revealed that The United States, in particular, is seeing the price of a wide range of products, such as eggs, poultry, and beef soar to record levels because of low supply and high demand.

Egg Innovations CEO John Bruunquel echoed Catsimatidis’ sentiment and cautioned that a surge in demand coinciding with labor, freight, and vendor issues is about to hamper the national egg supply and push prices to skyrocket. According to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, last month, the price of beef jumped nearly 21 compared to a year prior, while pork and chicken prices rose 16.8 and 9.2 percent, respectively. A new report published by ZeroHedge has compiled dozens of photos that Americans have been posting on social media to expose the bare shelves they're witnessing in recent days.

ZeroHedge analysts reminded of the President's statement issued right before Christmas eve, declaring that his administration’s efforts to eliminate supply-chain bottlenecks ahead of the holiday season had succeeded. "Ten days into the new year, we can firmly say that is not the case," they wrote. If only we had enough workers to keep things running nice and smooth in our supply chains, this crisis could be solved much faster than anticipated. But that's not the case. In industry after industry, a huge number of workers seems to have disappeared from the system, and their absence is causing a myriad of problems.

Many people out there want to believe that a prosperous future is awaiting us, particularly considering that the last couple of years have been extremely distressing. A new poll analyzed the words Americans used to describe what they experienced over the past 12 months. 23% of the respondents used the terms "awful, terrible, or bad", while 12% described it as "chaos, confusion, or turmoil", 11% said it was "challenging, hard, or rough", 6% saw it as a "disaster, train wreck, or catastrophe".

While more and more shelves go empty, once again, the President's job approval rating continues to sink. People are extremely dissatisfied with unbearable shelter, power, and food inflation. Our population wants and needs the supply chain crisis to be resolved, inflation to fade away, and life to return to the way that it used to be. Sadly, none of these things are within our reach, and it has become exceedingly clear that our leaders are utterly and completely incapable of defeating our problems, controlling the virus outbreak, and readjusting monetary policy to start putting our country back on track.

At this point, it honestly seems like they do not care about fixing the economy. And if you think that things are chaotic now, just wait a few more months and you'll see real chaos. If you are waiting for the government to save us from this mess, you are going to be waiting forever. Decades of very reckless decisions have brought us where we are now, and it would take a miracle to turn things around."

Gregory Mannarino, "Today The Fed. Set The Stage For The Economy And Markets: This Is What You Need To Know"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 1/11/22:
"Today The Fed. Set The Stage For The Economy
 And Markets: This Is What You Need To Know"

Musical Interlude: Mecano, "Hijo de la Luna"

Mecano, "Hijo de la Luna"