"Farming Insider Warns The Coming Food Shortages Are Going To Be Far Worse Than We're Being Told"

"Farming Insider Warns The Coming Food Shortages

 Are Going To Be Far Worse Than We're Being Told"

by Michael Snyder

"The information that I am about to share with you is extremely alarming, but I have always endeavored to never sugarcoat things for my readers. Right now, there are shortages of certain items in grocery stores across the United States, and food supplies have gotten very tight all over the globe. I have repeatedly warned that this is just the beginning, but I didn’t realize how dire things have already gotten until I received an email from a farming insider that I have corresponded with over the years. I asked him if I could publicly share some of the information that he was sharing with me, and he said that would be okay as long as I kept his name out of it.

According to this farming insider, dramatically increased costs for fertilizer will make it impossible for many farmers to profitably plant corn this year. The following is an excerpt from an email that he recently sent me…

“Things for 2022 are interesting (and scary). Input costs for things like fertilizer, liquid nitrogen and seeds are like triple and quadruple the old prices. It will not be profitable to plant this year. Let me repeat, the economics will NOT work. Our plan, is to drop about 700 acres of corn off and convert to soybeans (they use less fertilizer, and we also have chicken manure from that operation). Guess what? We are not the only ones with those plans. Already there is a shortage of soybean seeds, so we will see how that will work out. The way I see it, there will be a major grain shortage later in the year, especially with corn. I mean, we are small with that. What about these people in the midwest who have like 10,000 acres of corn? This will not be good.”

Once I received that message, I wrote him back with some questions that I had. In response, he expanded on his comments in a subsequent email… "As for the farming, I see it getting bad. Things like fertilizer and liquid nitrogen have tripled and quadrupled in price. Yes commodity prices are up, but that certainly wont cover the new increased input costs. We are in NC, so while certainly not like the midwest, we still grow grain. The midwest of course will have these same higher input costs as well.

Corn for example, typically takes about 600 pounds of fertilizer per acre, plus 50 gallons of liquid nitrogen. Times that by many acres and thats a lot of money. Soybeans take much less. The plan for us, and most others around here, is to drastically cut corn acres and switch to soybeans. Problem is, there is apparently a soybean seed shortage because others have this plan as well. We were lucky enough to pre buy enough to do it. However, most people, especially younger farmers, or farmers where that is all they do, probably don’t have the money to front like that.

The way I see it, a corn shortage will come. I guess there could possibly be a glut of soybeans, but remember that could depend on the seed being available. I guess there are other alternatives, maybe milo, oats, or barley. Of course the corn market is much larger. Think animal feed and ethanol. I mean for animals, soybeans are used too, but its a mix. What happens to the animal producers who depend on reasonably priced corn? I just don’t see how it can end well. I mean, even if we end up with plenty of soybeans, even a glut, then you have a busted market for that. I don’t know. There just isnt much history to base any of this on. I just see it hurting both grain farmers, and animal farmers, and also translating to more shortages and price increases for consumers who buy the end products."

I was stunned when I first read that. Corn is one of the foundational pillars of our food supply. If you go to the grocery store and start reading through the ingredients of various products, you will quickly discover that corn is in just about everything in one form or another. So what is our country going to look like if a severe corn shortage actually happens? I don’t even want to think about that.

Of course fertilizer prices are not just going through the roof here in the United States. In South America, high fertilizer prices are going to dramatically affect coffee production… "Christina Ribeiro do Valle, who comes from a long line of coffee growers in Brazil, is this year paying three times what she paid last year for the fertilizer she needs. Coupled with a recent drought that hit her crop hard, it means Ms. do Valle, 75, will produce a fraction of her Ribeiro do Valle brand of coffee, some of which is exported. There is also a shortage of fertilizer. “This year, you pay, then put your name on a waiting list, and the supplier delivers it when he has it,” she said." If you love to drink coffee in the morning, you will soon be paying much more for that privilege.

Over in Africa, fertilizer prices could result in “30 million metric tons less food produced”… "Fertilizer demand in sub-Saharan Africa could fall 30% in 2022, according to the International Fertilizer Development Center, a global nonprofit organization. That would translate to 30 million metric tons less food produced, which the center says is equivalent to the food needs of 100 million people. “Lower fertilizer use will inevitably weigh on food production and quality, affecting food availability, rural incomes and the livelihoods of the poor,” said Josef Schmidhuber, deputy director of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s trade and markets division."

Where in the world are we going to get enough food to replace “the food needs of 100 million people”? This is beyond serious. Basically, the stage is being set for the sort of historic global crisis that I have been relentlessly warning about. Many Americans had assumed that even if the rest of the world was suffering that we would be immune. But now there are widespread shortages all over the nation, and the Wall Street Journal just published a major article entitled “U.S. Food Supply Is Under Pressure, From Plants To Store Shelves”.

This is really happening. In Washington D.C., residents are being instructed to “just buy what you need and leave some for others”… “If you’re hitting the grocery store to prepare for winter weather, please just buy what you need and leave some for others! You may have noticed empty shelves in some stores due to national supply chain issues, but there is no need to buy more than you normally would.”

What would have been unimaginable just a few years ago is now making headlines on a daily basis. Of course it isn’t just our food supply that is under threat. As Victor Davis Hansen has aptly noted, our country is now in the process of undergoing a “systems collapse”…"In modern times, as in ancient Rome, several nations have suffered a “systems collapse.” The term describes the sudden inability of once-prosperous populations to continue with what had ensured the good life as they knew it. Abruptly, the population cannot buy, or even find, once plentiful necessities. They feel their streets are unsafe. Laws go unenforced or are enforced inequitably. Every day things stop working. The government turns from reliable to capricious if not hostile."

A lot of people are going to be caught off guard by the pace of change. Things are shifting so rapidly that it really is hard to keep up with it all unless you are paying very close attention. Now that you have been exposed to the information in this article, please don’t go back to sleep. This is not a drill. We really are heading into a nightmare scenario, and I strongly urge you to act accordingly."

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

"Skyrocketing Fertilizer Prices Could Spark Widespread Global Famines Unlike Anything We Have Seen In Modern History"

"Skyrocketing Fertilizer Prices Could Spark Widespread 

Global Famines Unlike Anything We Have Seen In Modern History"

by Michael Snyder

"I am going to try to make as much noise about this crisis as I can, because we have never faced anything like this in modern times. Global fertilizer prices have tripled, and we are being warned that this is going to have a catastrophic impact on food production all over the world. On Monday, an article that I wrote about this went viral all over the Internet. On Zero Hedge alone, my article has been viewed more than a quarter of a million times. The reason why the article is so popular is because the corporate media in the United States is largely ignoring this story. But it should be front page news all over the country, because this is going to affect every man, woman and child on the entire planet.

Some experts did warn us about this in advance. For example, a European CEO told the media the following all the way back in November…“I want to say this loud and clear right now, that we risk a very low crop in the next harvest,” said Svein Tore Holsether, the CEO and president of the Oslo-based company. “I’m afraid we’re going to have a food crisis.”

Holsether says that a food crisis is coming because the cost to produce a ton of ammonia has gotten nearly ten times higher…"In Europe, the natural-gas benchmark hit an all-time high in September, with the price more than tripling from June to October alone. Yara is a major producer of ammonia, a key ingredient in synthetic fertilizer, which increases crop yields. The process of creating ammonia currently relies on hydropower or natural gas. “To produce a ton of ammonia last summer was $110,” said Holsether. “And now it’s $1,000. So it’s just incredible.”

In order to fix this, we need to solve the global energy crisis. Unfortunately, as I have been repeatedly warning my readers, the global energy crisis is only going to get worse. So we have a really, really big mess on our hands.

In Africa, many farmers are not going to be able to afford fertilizer at all this year, and it is being projected that this will reduce production by enough “to feed 100 million people”…"With prices tripling over the past 18 months, many farmers are considering whether to forgo purchases of fertilizers this year. That leaves a market long touted for its growth potential set to shrink by almost a third, according to Sebastian Nduva, program manager at researcher group AfricaFertilizer.Org."

That could potentially curb cereals output by 30 million tons, enough to feed 100 million people, he said. To make sure that their people won’t starve, African governments will need to import massive amounts of food from elsewhere…“We are likely to see a scenario where yields are depressed and this will mean that either the government will have to readjust their budgets and import food or there will be food shortages,” Nduva said."

But agricultural production is going to be way down all over the globe. So almost everyone is going to be looking to import food, and there won’t be a lot of exporters. Many of you may not realize this, but the food crisis has already become quite severe in some parts of Africa… "Food scarcity is already reaching desperate levels in many regions. On Wednesday, Frédérica Andriamanantena, the World Food Program’s Madagascar program manager, appeared on a COP26 panel to describe the severity of the country’s drought and resulting famine. Andriamanantena, who is from Madagascar, said drought had this year reduced the harvest to one-third of the average of the past five years. Where families had once had comfortable meals, children are now subsisting on foraged plants and cactus leaves."

How would you feel if your own children were eating plants and leaves just to survive? Of course this is just the beginning. As I have warned for a very long time, we will soon get to a point where there is not nearly enough food for everybody. What are we going to do then?

And if Russia and Ukraine go to war, that will take this crisis to a completely different level very rapidly…"A major casualty could be even higher food prices. Ukraine and Russia together are heavyweights in global wheat, corn and sunflower oil trade, leaving buyers from Asia to Africa and the Middle East vulnerable to more expensive bread and meat if supplies are disrupted. That would add to food-commodity costs that are already the highest in a decade."

Markets may be remembering what happened in 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and wheat prices jumped even though shipments weren’t substantially affected. Russia and Ukraine’s share of world exports has increased since, with nations like Egypt and Turkey reliant on the Black Sea breadbasket. But even without war, global food prices just keep going higher and higher and higher.

In fact, global grain prices have risen approximately 70 percent just since the middle of 2020…"Food inflation in the OECD hit 5.5% in November, the highest reading since 2009, data published by the Paris-based organization show. Grain prices have jumped roughly 70% since mid-2020 as bad weather curbed harvests, China scooped up supplies and a fertilizer crunch added to farmers’ costs."

Sadly, most people don’t even realize that this is happening, because the mainstream media is not really talking about it. Eventually, however, everyone will be talking about this crisis because it is going to be a really, really big deal. There is no way out, and global food supplies are going to get tighter and tighter. I would act on this information while you still can. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the population is going to be absolutely blindsided by what is coming."

- http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

"A Geology Insider Explains Why The Global Energy Crisis Is Going To Get Much, Much Worse"

"A Geology Insider Explains Why The Global 

Energy Crisis Is Going To Get Much, Much Worse"

by Michael Snyder

"It is becoming clear that we are in far more trouble than we are being told. In recent months, all forms of traditional energy have become significantly more expensive, and this is fueling price increases all over the planet. This new global energy crisis is directly responsible for the astounding rise in fertilizer prices, it has resulted in a tremendous amount of pain at the pump for millions of average Americans, and since virtually everything that we buy has to be transported it is a major contributing factor to the “inflation boom” that we are currently witnessing. Unfortunately, this is just the beginning.

I was recently contacted by a geologist that worked in the oil industry for more than a decade. He patiently explained to me why things aren’t going to be getting any better. I asked him if I could share some of what he sent to me with all of you, and he agreed. After reading this, I think that you will agree that it is quite a sobering assessment of the current state of affairs…

"I am a geologist who has worked in the oil industry for over ten years. I was just coming out of school in time for the shale revolution and worked in Denver on the Bakken play in North Dakota, and then I worked the Permian out of Midland. These were the two major shale plays, so I have firsthand knowledge. I now teach environmental science for high-schoolers in Amman, Jordan.

Anyway, back in 2015 I was starting to see reports coming out from analysts that the shale industry would run out of new places to drill shale oil wells in the Permian in 2021. These reports weren’t telling me anything new, just giving me a likely date. You see, shale drilling is drilling in poor rock quality. Prior to shale, we didn’t have to frac wells because the rock quality was great, but we drilled all that good rock up. So, it is really scraping the bottom of the barrel now and way back then, there was a recognition that it wouldn’t last forever. Oil is a limited resource. For a time, it was barely economic to drill shale wells because the margins of drilling in such poor rock was slightly better than what you could make on interest due to quantitative easing policy. Most of the shale companies however, were simply Ponzi schemes and the shale industry lost billions as a whole. 

But the result of this loss of capital was record production. Needless to say, Wall Street figured it out eventually that they were not making money and so the industry has been capital starved. That is one problem, the other is that there really aren’t many more drilling locations. All the good places have been drilled up which is why you don’t see a rush of shale companies returning to drilling even though oil prices are rising fast. This lack of investment will continue to push oil prices higher.

So much of America’s oil production now comes from shale wells. The problem with shale wells is that the oil production declines much faster than wells drilled in what we call “conventional” rock. Conventional oil production has been on the decline for a long time and shale as helped make up for production. The problem is, that now that drilling new wells slows, the rate of decline in oil production will be much steeper. Around the world, many countries that have not invested in shale (because it is sub-economic) have had their conventional resources continue to decline. Venezuela was a major oil exporter, so were Columbia and Mexico. Expect Saudi Arabia to not be far behind. They have been lying for years about just how much oil they really have left.

As you keep pointing out, add wars or natural disasters to this and we are in really big trouble. Oil is the number one resource upon which the entire global economy is built. High oil prices lead directly to bread riots and collapse of governments (think the Arab Spring). Politicians need cheap oil but we won’t be seeing it again. Some people in the industry keep thinking new technology will save us and help us develop new oil plays. They couldn’t be more wrong. The technology for frac’ing was first developed in the 60’s. I can tell you that there is no new technology being developed right now in the oil industry that will save us. Physics and geology are against us on this one, even if we could develop some technology. Wind & solar won’t save us either, it would require a larger investment of materials and energy than we have."

There is no way we are getting out of this. What this means is that you are going to be paying much more to heat your homes. And it means that you are also going to be paying much more to fill up your vehicle at the gas station.

Needless to say, you will be paying a lot more for food too. In fact, food prices are already starting to go bananas. Last week, Kraft Heinz announced that it will soon be raising prices on many of their most popular products by as much as 30 percent… "Kraft Heinz (KHC) said in a recent letter to its customers that it will raise prices in March on dozens of products, including Oscar Mayer cold cuts, hot dogs, sausages, bacon, Velveeta cheese, Maxwell House coffee, TGIF frozen chicken wings, Kool-Aid and Capri Sun drinks. The increases range from 6.6% on 12oz Velveeta Fresh Packs to 30% on a three-pack of Oscar Mayer turkey bacon. Most cold cuts and beef hot dogs will go up around 10% and coffee around 5%. Some Kool-Aid and Capri Sun drink packs will increase by about 20%."

Of course Kraft Heinz is definitely not alone. As our colleagues over at Zero Hedge have aptly pointed out, other major food companies will soon be jacking up prices as well… "Kraft Heinz is just the latest consumer manufacturer to announce plans to boost prices early in the year. Last week, P&G said that it would raise prices on Tide and Gain laundry detergents, Downy fabric softener and Bounce dryer sheets by an average of about 8% in February. Conagra, which makes such brands as Slim Jim, Marie Callender’s and Birds Eye, has said it plans to raise prices later this year."

For a long time, I have been specifically warning that food prices would go completely nuts, and now it is starting to happen right in front of our eyes. And according to a new Gallup survey that was just released, a whopping 79 percent of all Americans expect even more inflation in the months ahead… "Gallup highlighted that the 79% surveyed in their Jan. 3-16 poll, who said they expected inflation to rise, was the highest they’ve measured in the two decades they’ve been asking the question. “In the past, Americans have always been more likely to say inflation will increase rather than decrease, but the current expectation is higher than usual - in fact, it is the highest Gallup has measured in its trend,” the polling organization wrote in its release.

The “experts” at the Federal Reserve thought that they could absolutely flood our financial system with money without any severe consequences. Similarly, our politicians in Washington thought that they could borrow and spend trillions upon trillions of dollars without wrecking our currency. They were both wrong, and now the American people are going to be absolutely shocked by the level of economic pain that we will soon be enduring."

- http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"Goldman: Brace For A Huge Market Crash; A Lot Of Turmoil Is Coming"

Full screen recommended.

"Goldman: Brace For A Huge Market Crash;

 A Lot Of Turmoil Is Coming"

by Epic Economist

"The U.S. stock market continued to plunge today after Goldman Sachs reported bleak quarterly corporate earnings, which accelerated the downward trend for stocks as financial and economic results disappoint. According to Goldman Sachs flow trader Scott Rubner, the nail-biting sentiment is fast spreading across the market after several indexes started to tumble last week and closed on negative again today. The veteran trader forecasts more volatility this week as liquidity gets removed from the market. During Goldman’s trading desk, analysts answered some of the most asked questions and shared some indicators showing that more losses are coming. The analysts argued that the current market consensus remains bearish given that equities cannot sustainably hold a rally during the day, and most gains fade away when the market’s about to close.

“The sell the Rally mode is still in place,” they noted. Goldman also explained why indexes have not been able to hold gains over the past few weeks. Of course, the stock market crash has just begun, but the fact that stocks are not being able to retain their gains and recover means that something is systematically broken in the market, and a reversal, at this point, seems unlikely. First, the Wall Street bank notes that as the sell-off intensifies, the equity supply is much more elevated than investors’ demand for stocks. Goldman’s estimates point out that $15.8 billion of selling happened last Thursday alone, and at least $69.9 billion will be removed from the market by the end of the week.

Adding more turbulence to that scenario, corporate earnings have been quite disappointing, which is inflaming the correction in some sectors and triggering a crash in others. The sharp losses are turning sentiment from negative to “panic-y”. “Since 1987, the Bull vs. Bear index has been at .45, and it is currently at .44. This has only happened 51 times out of 1,799 readings or 2.8% of times,” he said. Rubner says that another catalyst that can potentially spark another sell-off is CNBC’s “Markets in Turmoil” warning. If it sounds the alarm, a broader crash can be set off pretty much overnight, considering that the last time CNBC’s financial experts shared their prediction of an imminent collapse, the downturn followed right away, so that’s one key indicator investors are paying close attention to.

Additionally, as the global economy starts to slow down again and supply chains seem to be grinding to a halt, inflows from foreign countries to U.S. markets have also been compromised, with earnings reports signaling that major global industries are faltering. What’s more, according to Goldman Sachs’ chief U.S. equity strategist, David Kostin, the “substantial” disconnect in the U.S. tech sector is going to bring about a lot more chaos over the next few days. The tech selloff is inflating the market with unprofitable stocks. That has already pushed the Nasdaq into correction territory and several other indexes to the edge of a meltdown.

“The single greatest mispricing in the U.S. equity market is between companies that have high expected revenue growth but low or negative margins, and on the other hand high growth companies with positive or very significantly positive margins. That gap has adjusted dramatically in the last year,” Kostin said. In other words, Kostin believes that tech firms that have had “huge returns but produce little profit are going to continue to be sold by investors after a period of being highly sought after,” and he says that trend will accelerate as the tech bubble deflates.

“That’s a big issue, and so the gap between those two, I’d say, is the single biggest topic of conversation with clients. You’ve had a huge derating of the fast expected revenue growth companies that have low margins, and the argument is probably that there is more to go in that readjustment.” Derating is the term used to define the correction or crash triggered when investors start to rethink the price or value of any given asset, especially when there’s growing uncertainty regarding its prospects.

As more and more traders take off their rose-colored glasses to see reality as it is, bearish sentiment is making a comeback, and that’s a huge sign that a bigger meltdown is approaching. We’re currently witnessing the last stages of a superbubble that can burst at any time – and when it does, stocks will face a brutal crash, to the tune of 80 to 90 percent in the most overvalued sectors. The checklist for a catastrophic bubble burst is now complete, and the countdown for a financial disaster like no other has begun."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com​

“Stock Market Euphoria Returns, No Fear; Central Banks Have Rigged The World; Cheap Money Has A Price”

Jeremiah Babe, PM 1/31/22:

“Stock Market Euphoria Returns, No Fear; 

Central Banks Have Rigged The World; Cheap Money Has A Price”

"The Narrative Is Collapsing"

"The Narrative Is Collapsing"

by Jim Rickards

"Let’s face it: The public health policy response to the pandemic has been abysmal. I realize I’m not exactly breaking news here, but it can’t be said enough. Even those on the political left, like Bari Weiss, formerly of The New York Times, and comedian Bill Maher are beginning to publicly question mandates and other anti-COVID measures.

Of course the mainstream media have its dutiful lapdogs who still fawn over Dr. Fauci, but what do you expect? Let’s start at the beginning… In January 2020, Dr. Fauci said there was no danger the COVID-19 virus would strike the United States. We were soon overwhelmed with it. Then Fauci told the public not to wear masks. Then he said wear two masks, indoors and out. Fauci and others favored lockdowns and quarantines. Then they said the vaccines would prevent infection and stop the spread of the virus. You could throw away your masks and return to normal living. At the same time, they warned against early treatment with drugs like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, despite numerous studies proving that they’re both safe and effective. And the sooner they’re administered, the better.

Killer Medical Advice: But the public health authorities told COVID sufferers to just wait it out at home until they had trouble breathing. Only then should they go to the hospital. But guess what? By the time you’re having trouble breathing, it’s already too late in many cases because the disease process is so advanced. Besides, if you went to the hospital, there’d be a real chance you’d end up on a ventilator and be treated with remdesivir, a drug that’s shown little effectiveness but that has potentially serious side effects, including heart and kidney damage.

There are a lot of conspiracies surrounding the suppression of early treatment. There’s no need to get into them here, but it’s clear that the public health authorities decided that mass vaccination was the solution, and they knew that effective therapeutics would undermine the rationale for the vaccines.

Remember, the vaccines were granted Emergency Use Authorization, a requirement for which was that no alternate treatments existed. By claiming that there were no effective therapeutics (relying on badly flawed studies a junior high biology student could pick apart), they cleared the way for emergency authorization. They feared that people wouldn’t take their experimental mRNA vaccines if they knew they could take these safe and effective medicines if they got sick. So they went all out to discredit the therapeutics and those who promoted them. They said quacks were pushing a “horse dewormer,” which is ridiculous because people have been taking ivermectin for decades.

But the authorities, colluding with Big Tech, wanted it to appear that vaccination was the only legitimate option. Well, pretty much everything they said was wrong.

You Can’t Vaccinate Your Way out of a Pandemic: The vaccines don’t prevent infection and do not stop the spread. Remember when Fauci and others were calling it a “pandemic of the unvaccinated”? That wasn’t true at all, as statistics from the most highly vaccinated countries like Israel have demonstrated. The vaccinated are getting sick at very high rates, and it appears that they’re more likely to acquire the Omicron variant than the unvaccinated.

It’s not that the vaccines should have no role whatsoever. But they should be targeted toward the elderly and those with serious comorbidities. They shouldn’t be forced on the population as a whole, especially on children who face practically no risk from COVID whatsoever. And it’s entirely possible that mass vaccination is actually creating variants because it forces the virus to evolve rapidly in order to perpetuate itself. Many vaccinologists will tell you that you can’t vaccinate your way out of a pandemic because of that strong possibility. It could actually make it worse.

Aside from the vaccines, masks don’t work because the weave is not tight enough and they’re not worn properly. Lockdowns create indoor incubators for the disease. They don’t stop the virus from spreading. Lockdowns also lead to social isolation and so-called diseases of despair, including those produced by drug and alcohol abuse.

A Tale of Three Cities: Needless to say, lockdowns are also economically destructive. Here’s some dinner reservation data, comparing January 2022 with January 2020: In Manhattan, reservations are down 64%. In San Francisco, they’re down 66%. Both New York and San Francisco have vaccine mandates. Here’s one city that doesn’t: Miami. And reservations in Miami are up 14% compared with January 2020.

See a pattern here? You might, but the politicians running cities like New York and San Francisco don’t, or they simply won’t admit that they’ve been wrong. I’ll leave that for you to decide. The best approach is to be outside without a mask, getting exercise and fresh air. Boosting your immune system is probably the best thing you can do.

All of these lies and incompetence have cost lives, ruined economies and destroyed trust in science and public health officials. Real science (as opposed to THE SCIENCE of phonies like Fauci) shows clearly that the best defense against the virus is natural immunity.

Fauci Has Blood on His Hands: If you’ve had COVID, you have natural antibodies that are far more effective in preventing a severe case than the vaccines. In fact, that’s how human populations have always survived pandemics and plagues — by just recovering and relying on herd immunity to eventually shut down the virus.

Independent medical studies show that, as Dr. Marty Makary of Johns Hopkins wrote for The Wall Street Journal, “natural immunity was 27 times as effective as vaccinated immunity in preventing symptomatic illness” from the COVID virus. But because the government ignores natural immunity and insists on ineffective vaccines, thousands of nurses, doctors and emergency workers have been fired from their jobs for not getting the vaccines. In turn, this depletes hospitals and clinics of much-needed staff, including highly experienced clinicians who have worked with tens of thousands of COVID patients.

Ignoring natural immunity is not just stupid — it’s a death sentence for some sufferers who cannot get the help they need because medical professionals have been fired for no good reason. Preventing early treatment with repurposed drugs like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, among others, is also criminal. Potentially hundreds of thousands of lives could have been saved if early treatment options were made widely available. They weren’t.

For many, waiting around at home until they had trouble breathing, i.e., following Fauci’s advice, cost them their lives. Fauci and his vax-at-all-costs gang have blood on their hands. Hopefully, one day they’ll be held to account. When they are, I think they’re going to need good lawyers."

- dailyreckoning.com

Musical Interlude: Neil H., “Candlelight Dreams”

 

Neil H., “Candlelight Dreams”

"A Look to the Heavens"

“This colorful skyscape features the dusty, reddish glow of Sharpless catalog emission region Sh2-155, the Cave Nebula. About 2,400 light-years away, the scene lies along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy toward the royal northern constellation of Cepheus.

Astronomical explorations of the region reveal that it has formed at the boundary of the massive Cepheus B molecular cloud and the hot, young, blue stars of the Cepheus OB 3 association. The bright rim of ionized hydrogen gas is energized by the radiation from the hot stars, dominated by the bright blue O-type star above picture center. Radiation driven ionization fronts are likely triggering collapsing cores and new star formation within. Appropriately sized for a stellar nursery, the cosmic cave is over 10 light-years across.”

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

"Assumptions..."

 

Chet Raymo, “Caught In The Middle”

“Caught In The Middle”

by Chet Raymo

"It doesn't take a genius to recognize that human males have a propensity for intergroup violence, and that the killing is often accompanied by rape. One need only read the newspapers. The only question is to what extent these tendencies are innate or culturally inculcated. Nature or nurture? Or both? A new book, "Sex and War: How Biology Explains Warfare and Terrorism and Offers a Path to a Safer World," by population biologist Malcolm Potts and science writer Thomas Hayden, dishes up a bit of both. The violence is in our (male) genes, they maintain, but it is susceptible to cultural control.

What the authors calls "behavioral propensity to engage in male coalitional violence" evolved as far back as the common ancestor of humans and chimps, they claim, although our other close relations, bonobos and gorillas, seem to have found more peaceful ways of living. Genes predispose, say Potts and Hayden, but cultural forces can alleviate the worst of male nastiness. By empowering women to be leaders in cultural, social and political spheres, the violent propensities of men can be restrained. Further, empowerment will give women control of their reproductive destinies, and will therefore result in fewer offspring. Less population pressure will reduce other factors fueling violence and conflict, the authors claim.

Anthropologist Hillard Kaplan reviews the book in the October 9, 2009, issue of "Science." He agrees that the available evidence suggests that male intergroup violence has a long evolutionary history. He believes this tendency was exacerbated into large scale warfare with the development of agriculture and the associated larger population groups and competition for fertile land. Kaplan believes that male group violence is stoked by poor economic prospect for young males. To the empowerment of women he would add education and jobs as a way to reduce antisocial behavior.

There is nothing particularly new or revolutionary about any of this. Progress? Yes, I suppose so, but we clearly have a long way to go before women exercise equal power in society, or before young men in the developing world, especially, have an economic stake in social stability. Meanwhile, as the painting above by Jacques-Louis David, "The Sabine Women," suggests, women and children will continue to be caught in the middle.”

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

"The Tragedy Lies..."

It must be borne in mind that the tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. It is not a disaster to be unable to capture your ideal, but it is a disaster to have no ideal to capture. It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for. Not failure, but low aim is a sin.

- Benjamin E. Mayes

Gregory Mannarino, "Must Watch: If The Federal Reserve Fails To Act Again The Stock Market Will Crash"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 1/31/22:

"Must Watch: If The Federal Reserve Fails 

To Act Again The Stock Market Will Crash"

- https://traderschoice.net/

The Daily "Near You?"

Fife Lake, Michigan, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Contrarian? Or Damned Fool?"

"Contrarian? Or Damned Fool?"

by Bill Bonner

Dublin, Ireland - "We’ve come up to Dublin for a few days to help take care of a grandchild. Before leaving home, we decided to spend a couple of days working alongside Mick and Connie, the local stonemasons. They were building a wall on the side of our garden until Mick came down with COVID. Then, the project stalled for almost a year. Here, we’re helping them to pick it up again:

(Photo: Your editor - right - contemplates the next stone)

(Photo: Securing the perimeter)

We’ve done masonry work for 50 years… but very little stone masonry. Mick is a real old-time pro. We thought we might learn something from him. “It’s not the stone you’re laying that you need to worry about,” he said. “It’s the next one that gives you trouble. “ Thus had Mick brought into focus the problem of all human life. Actions have consequences. Today is followed by tomorrow… which is when the troubles arrive.

Mick was merely pointing out that a poorly laid stone makes it difficult to pose the next one on top of it. But the principle is universal: problems always reveal themselves later. It may be fun, for example, to have a fling with the hat-check girl. But then what? Rob a liquor store? Same problem.

Try to goose up the US economy with artificially low interest rates (below zero in real terms) and printing press money? Yeah… there will be Hell to pay.

The Cost of Doing Business: But we are going to desist from our usual old-school, middle-American moralizing…instead, we take up a practical Dear Reader’s question. Our reader has noticed that we own a lot of non-performing real estate. He guesses, correctly, that they must cost us money: "From following you all these years, I know that you own many properties around the world including several hundred thousand acres of land. Having been involved in the real estate business for 40 years, I know that without substantial rental income these properties become a drain. So my question is, does someone in your position think about the effects of negative cash flow or does it continue to be the cost of doing business?"

Our reader puts it politely, but the gist of his question is: what kind of fool are you; what about the consequences? Herewith… an explanation. And we begin by taking the high road: not everything we do is intended to make money. We have farms in France, the US, Nicaragua and Argentina. None were bought as serious farm investments (although… we had hopes!) We lose money on all of them.

Is this a good idea? Probably not. Each one makes us poorer. But, heck… we have no other expensive tastes or hobbies. No fast cars. No corporate jet. No art collections. No racy girlfriends. No yachts. We rarely travel for fun (besides, it’s not much fun anymore.) Our houses are modest. We drive a Ford F-150. We wear Lee blue jeans.

If we have a weakness, it’s property. We like owning it. We like fixing up old houses and restoring old fields, fences and gardens. And we tell ourselves: after all our improvements, maybe… when we finally shake the clods off of our boots… maybe the grandchildren will be able to sell them at a profit.

Or maybe not. And since, as our reader points out, these properties produce ‘negative cash flow’ we have to be careful. Annual negativity could overwhelm the eventual positivity, such as it may be.

Contrarian Farmers: We’re also getting older. In the final innings of our career, we’re learning how to bunt and walk – how to cut costs… increase income… and invest in better land. And, overall, we’re almost at breakeven! Yes, while we own a lot of ‘non-performing’ farmland, we are also buying performing farmland. And here is where our globe trotting gives us at least a broader perspective. We’ve become ‘contrarian farmers.’ No… we do not plant backwards to fool the crows. Instead, we are buying land in Argentina.

Here in Ireland, we were bidding on an adjoining farm. The bids went up and up… until the price was over $12,000 an acre. We gave up, figuring that the local bidder wanted it more than we did. At that price, it’s hard to see how it could ever be profitable. But like us, the Irish like owning land. Perhaps it brings a psychic benefit that doesn’t show up on an income statement.

Meanwhile, in France, in Poitou, land sells for only about $5,000 a hectare… or about $2,000 an acre. It was always poor land. Still is. And the rental income is running about $50 per acre/year – a rate of return of about 2.5%... not enough to cover the taxes and maintenance.

In the US, in the Upper Midwest, rental rates are running about $225 per acre. Iowa farmland is trading hands at about $7,000 an acre. So, the return on investment is only a bit better than in France.

Crop yields are heavy in the US. And prices are high. Farmers should be doing well. Trouble is, costs are rising sharply too. Potash, nitrogen and phosphates approximately doubled last year. Costs for fuel, pesticides, herbicides and seeds are also going up. Farming is no clear winner in an era of rising inflation.

Meanwhile, down in the Northwest corner of Argentina, there may be a unique opportunity. A terrible drought has wreaked havoc. And whatever damage nature leaves undone, the Argentine government fills the gaps. Effectively, farmers cannot sell their land to foreigners – substantially lowering market demand. And even if they could buy, non-Argentines would find that they couldn’t repatriate their profits except at the ‘official rate’… which would wipe out at least half the value of their earnings. The peso is getting cut in half each year. Shortages of machinery, fuel, and chemical products bedevil the hard-pressed gaucho farmers.

There is not yet any light visible at the end of this tunnel. And it’s rather amazing that there’s any market at all for Argentina farmland. But there is. And prime cereal land – good for wheat, soy, corn or other field crops – sells (up in Salta province) at about $1,200 per acre, an 80% discount from US prices.

Crop yields are lower than in the US. But so is the dependence on fertilizers and pesticides. This leaves, we believe, the Argentines in a strong position among the world’s low-cost producers. And in recent years, returns to investors have been running between 5% and 10% (not counting farmland capital appreciation).

In any case, our goal is modest. We only seek to make enough to cover the losses on our other Argentine farming ventures. Then, we can leave the farms to our children with a clear conscience; at least, they won’t be a burden. We’ll be heading back down to the pampas in March… to have a closer look – stay tuned for an update."

- bonnerprivateresearch@substack.com

"Things Are Not Getting Better - It's a Global Problem"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly 1/31/22:

"Things Are Not Getting Better - It's a Global Problem"

"Everything is going up in price. The value of everything is dropping. We do not get our money's worth for what we are paying for right now. Everything is over priced. This is a worldwide problem. Today I am at Swami’s Beach in Encinitas, California."

"The Revolt Begins"

"The Revolt Begins"

by Jim Kunstler

"The Canadian trucker rebellion, rolling east across the vast, frozen Canadian prairie, blew into the country’s Woked-up capital city, Ottawa, like the scalding wrath of history, forcing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to skulk off punkishly under cover of night - after bad-mouthing the big-rig invaders as “a fringe minority” in a nation of otherwise obedient hypnotics sleepwalking into Big Pharma’s spike-protein fun-factory of all-causes early death.

The news media is working super-hard to avoid reporting the event, of course. Canada’s leading paper, The Toronto Star, put up a peevish little item complaining that a protester hung an upside-down maple leaf flag on a statue of national hero Terry Fox (a cancer-stricken athlete who ran across most of the country on a prosthetic leg in 1981 to raise cancer-awareness). The paper also mentioned that “[a] discordant symphony of truck horns blared across downtown Ottawa as demonstrators geared up for their second full day on local streets.” Beyond that, the paper lost interest.

Canada under the Trudeau government has been more restrictive on Covid-19 than the Big Gorilla to its south, with the population compliantly following all the insane, economy-wrecking rules, until a recent mandate to vaxx-up every last trucker in the land finally sparked-off a revolt. Mr. Trudeau’s Liberal Party failed to win a parliamentary majority in last September’s federal election, and he heads a flimsy coalition potentially facing a no-confidence vote that would drive the PM out of office.

For now, the truckers seem determined to stick around and disrupt the Canadian capital. Their estimated 50,000 rigs could surround the city and create siege conditions, where food supplies and other goods won’t get in, starving the government into surrendering on its mandates and restrictions. So far, the local Ottawa police have stood by with a very light hand, and there are rumors that they are on the same page as the truckers against federal overreach.

Will Mr. Trudeau resort to using the military to break up the revolt? Good luck with that. Like virtually every other “advanced” nation, Canada depends on trucks and truckers to move everything needed for everyday life. The truckers can just say no… we don’t feel like working this month. No poutine or Cornish pasties for you, Ottawa! Then what? Throw them all in jail? How will that help move stuff from Point A to Point B? It kind of looks like they have Mr. T over a Molson barrel. For now, it’s a stand-off, but it looks to me like the Prime Minister must resign and whoever takes charge next will have to rapidly rethink the country’s entire Covid-19 policy in a not-insane direction.

The Canadian revolt appears to be inspiring similar operations in the US, where a movement has started for a massive trucker convoy from California to Washington, DC - the swampy pivot-point of Covid tyranny under the phantasm known as “Joe Biden” - as a very general way of saying we’ve had enough of being pushed around by political grifters and their bureaucratic subalterns.

The Covid-19 saga gets darker every day, while the official alibis, cover-stories, and disinfo ops bend ever deeper toward an arc of criminality. The US government has lied about every plot-line in the two-year horror show. In fact, a conscientious observer would have to conclude the following: That the government’s highest-paid employee, Dr. Anthony Fauci, led surreptitiously in the creation and release of a bioweapon; that he and his cohorts, along with the pharma companies, and other interested parties such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Health Organization, enabled the release of so-called “vaccines” (genetic treatments) that were at least as deadly as the disease itself; that as a result of the shots many people of all ages will die before their natural time; that the process is already underway as documented in the all-causes death data tallied by insurance companies; that the same government officials maliciously suppressed viable, inexpensive, FDA-approved treatments for Covid-19 in order to herd the populace into receiving dangerous “vaccines”; that said officials have worked strenuously to muddle and fake the statistics that would show who is actually dying of what; and that the entire fiasco appears to have been ginned up in order to systematically control the population in ways contrary to our natural rights while killing off a substantial number of us.

Let the trucks roll from Fresno to DC if they still want to play rough. Think the “Joe Biden” gang will try to divert attention by starting a war in Ukraine? They don’t dare. Think the financial markets will tank? Well, of course they will, no matter what, because the markets and the money are detached from reality. Face it: what America needs most of all is to reconnect with reality, and you can be sure that the process will be uncomfortable, having sojourned so far from it for so long. (“Let’s Go, Brandon!”) And Let’s go, Canadian truckers!"

- https://kunstler.com/

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Loza Alexander, "Lets Go Brandon"

"Economic Market Snapshot 1/31/22"

"Economic Market Snapshot 1/31/22"

Updated as available.

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"The more I see of the moneyed classes,

the more I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

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MarketWatch Market Summary, Live Updates

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

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CNN Market Data:

- http://money.cnn.com/data/markets/

CNN Fear And Greed Index:

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

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Latest market analysis 1/31/22

- https://www.asktraders.com/analysis/

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A comprehensive, essential daily read.

Jan 28th to 31st 2022

- http://www.shadowstats.com/

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Financial Stress Index

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

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Daily Job Cuts

- https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

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- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

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- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

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- https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

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- https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

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Commentary, highly recommended:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

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And now, the End Game...

Gregory Mannarino, "Important Updates: Market Drivers Remain Intact"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLyV6j2V55M

Gregory Mannarino, AM 1/31/22:

"Important Updates: Market Drivers Remain Intact"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"How It Really Is"

 

"30 Survival Skills Everyone Should Know Before The Imminent Economic Collapse"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist, 1/30/22:

"30 Survival Skills Everyone Should Know 

Before The Imminent Economic Collapse"

"The 2021 economic collapse has demonstrated its ability to wipe out supply chains, drive grocery store prices sky high, and cause massive shortages of everything. If it wasn’t that clear before, now we all can certainly see that our modern society is rapidly crumbling. Every single structure we rely on has proven to be incredibly vulnerable to external disruptions, and with global tensions rising by the day, we must be ready because dark times are coming for us. Corrupt governments are leading the world to the brink of financial ruin, and their reckless monetary policies have set the stage for a brutal economic collapse that has just begun.

At the same time, every link of our supply chains is breaking down, and global production continues to decline, widening the imbalance between supply and demand. So as global supplies get increasingly tighter and inflation pushes the price of everything to insane levels, people’s purchasing power has never been so compromised. Food prices are going through the roof, while housing and rent prices are making it harder for families to afford a roof over their heads. This is exactly the type of scenario that made empires fall apart and triggered widespread chaos in every corner of the planet.

Since our entire system is built like a house of cards, and several pieces have already fallen, it’s only a matter of time until we witness the end of the world as we know it. This is a chain reaction -- and at this point, so much damage has been done that it would take a miracle to reverse this coordinated downfall. If you think our leaders are going to rescue us from the mess they created, you’ll be totally unprepared for what’s coming next. Many still don’t know that we’re headed to an era of food shortages, power cuts, bankruptcies, cyberattacks, and devastating geopolitical conflicts. For that reason, learning primitive skills is just as important now as they were 10,000 years ago.

The global economic and societal collapse is accelerating at an alarming pace, but the worst is yet to come. That’s why we must do whatever we can to survive the challenges that are fast approaching, so today we gathered 30 primitive skills you should learn before the total collapse of our modern civilization.

For example, one of the skills that changed life on Earth and led to the advance of humanity was knowing how to build a fire. Today, most people have become accustomed to having devices to help them do it effortlessly. Many people have never learned how to start a fire without lighter fluid and a lighter. However, being able to find and collect natural materials to build a fire from scratch is the number one prepper survival skill. It can definitely save lives during an emergency. There are many techniques you can learn, such as the fire bow or fire spindle. But it’s very important to practice first to prevent potential accidents.

Learning and practicing these skills will definitely be very handy to get through the challenging times ahead. We must protect ourselves while we still can, because those in positions of power will not be there to save us when things go south. There are many blogs that can guide you through your prepper journey. We would like to give a special shout-out to Ask A Prepper, whose writers always share prepping secrets, tips, and tricks that we all will need at some point. The world is changing must faster than most of us realize. And we should be paying very close attention to what happens next."

- https://www.youtube.com/

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"30 Primitive Skills Every Prepper Should Know"

MUST WATCH! "Economy Slams San Diego, Looks like A Wasteland; A Depression Has Begun; Market Crash Next; Survival"

Full screen recommended.

Jeremiah Babe, PM 1/30/22:

"Economy Slams San Diego, Looks like A Wasteland;

 A Depression Has Begun; Market Crash Next; Survival"

Musical Interlude: 2002, “Sea of Dreams”

2002, “Sea of Dreams” 

"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.”

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170503.html 

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“When I consider the brief span of my life absorbed into the eternity which precedes and will succeed it - memoria hospitis unius diei praetereuntis (remembrance of a guest who tarried but a day) - the small space I occupy and which I see swallowed up in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I know nothing and which know nothing of me, I take fright and am amazed to see myself here rather than there: there is no reason for me to be here rather than there, now rather than then. Who put me here? By whose command and act were this place and time allotted to me?”

Freely download "Pensées", by Blaise Pascal, here:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18269