Friday, March 11, 2022

"Believe Them..."

"When people tell you who they are, Maya Angelou famously advised, believe them. Just as important, however, when people try to tell you who you are, don’t believe them. You are the only custodian of your own integrity, and the assumptions made by those that misunderstand who you are and what you stand for reveal a great deal about them and absolutely nothing about you."
- Maria Popova

“A Life Worth Living: Albert Camus on Our Search for Meaning and Why Happiness Is Our Moral Obligation”

“A Life Worth Living: Albert Camus on Our Search for
Meaning and Why Happiness Is Our Moral Obligation”
by Maria Popova

“To decide whether life is worth living is to answer the fundamental question of philosophy,” Albert Camus (November 7, 1913–January 4, 1960) wrote in his 119-page philosophical essay “The Myth of Sisyphus” in 1942. “There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest – whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories – comes afterwards. These are games; one must first answer. And if it is true, as Nietzsche claims, that a philosopher, to deserve our respect, must preach by example, you can appreciate the importance of that reply, for it will precede the definitive act. These are facts the heart can feel; yet they call for careful study before they become clear to the intellect. Everything else… is child’s play; we must first of all answer the question.” 

One of the most famous opening lines of the twentieth century captures one of humanity’s most enduring philosophical challenges – the impulse at the heart of Seneca’s meditations on life and Montaigne’s timeless essays and Maya Angelou’s reflections, and a wealth of human inquiry in between. But Camus, the second-youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature after Rudyard Kipling, addressed it with unparalleled courage of conviction and insight into the irreconcilable longings of the human spirit.

In the beautifully titled and beautifully written “A Life Worth Living: Albert Camus and the Quest for Meaning” (public library), historian Robert Zaretsky considers Camus’s lifelong quest to shed light on the absurd condition, his “yearning for a meaning or a unity to our lives,” and its timeless yet increasingly timely legacy: If the question abides, it is because it is more than a matter of historical or biographical interest. Our pursuit of meaning, and the consequences should we come up empty-handed, are matters of eternal immediacy.

Camus pursues the perennial prey of philosophy – the questions of who we are, where and whether we can find meaning, and what we can truly know about ourselves and the world – less with the intention of capturing them than continuing the chase.”

Reflecting on the parallels between Camus and Montaigne, Zaretsky finds in this ongoing chase one crucial difference of dispositions: “Camus achieves with the Myth what the philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty claimed for Montaigne’s Essays: it places “a consciousness astonished at itself at the core of human existence.”

For Camus, however, this astonishment results from our confrontation with a world that refuses to surrender meaning. It occurs when our need for meaning shatters against the indifference, immovable and absolute, of the world. As a result, absurdity is not an autonomous state; it does not exist in the world, but is instead exhaled from the abyss that divides us from a mute world.”

Camus himself captured this with extraordinary elegance when he wrote in “The Myth of Sisyphus”: “This world in itself is not reasonable, that is all that can be said. But what is absurd is the confrontation of this irrational and wild longing for clarity whose call echoes in the human heart. The absurd depends as much on man as on the world. For the moment it is all that links them together.”

To discern these echoes amid the silence of the world, Zaretsky suggests, was at the heart of Camus’s tussle with the absurd: “We must not cease in our exploration, Camus affirms, if only to hear more sharply the silence of the world. In effect, silence sounds out when human beings enter the equation. If “silences must make themselves heard,” it is because those who can hear inevitably demand it. And if the silence persists, where are we to find meaning?”

This search for meaning was not only the lens through which Camus examined every dimension of life, from the existential to the immediate, but also what he saw as our greatest source of agency. In one particularly prescient diary entry from November of 1940, as WWII was gathering momentum, he writes: “Understand this: we can despair of the meaning of life in general, but not of the particular forms that it takes; we can despair of existence, for we have no power over it, but not of history, where the individual can do everything. It is individuals who are killing us today. Why should not individuals manage to give the world peace? We must simply begin without thinking of such grandiose aims.”

For Camus, the question of meaning was closely related to that of happiness - something he explored with great insight in his notebooks. Zaretsky writes: “Camus observed that absurdity might ambush us on a street corner or a sun-blasted beach. But so, too, do beauty and the happiness that attends it. All too often, we know we are happy only when we no longer are.”

Perhaps most importantly, Camus issued a clarion call of dissent in a culture that often conflates happiness with laziness and championed the idea that happiness is nothing less than a moral obligation. A few months before his death, Camus appeared on the TV show Gros Plan. Dressed in a trench coat, he flashed his mischievous boyish smile and proclaimed into the camera: “Today, happiness has become an eccentric activity. The proof is that we tend to hide from others when we practice it. As far as I’m concerned, I tend to think that one needs to be strong and happy in order to help those who are unfortunate.”

This wasn’t a case of Camus arriving at some mythic epiphany in his old age – the cultivation of happiness and the eradication of its obstacles was his most persistent lens on meaning. More than two decades earlier, he had contemplated “the demand for happiness and the patient quest for it” in his journal, capturing with elegant simplicity the essence of the meaningful life – an ability to live with presence despite the knowledge that we are impermanent: ”We must” be happy with our friends, in harmony with the world, and earn our happiness by following a path which nevertheless leads to death.”

But his most piercing point integrates the questions of happiness and meaning into the eternal quest to find ourselves and live our truth: ”It is not so easy to become what one is, to rediscover one’s deepest measure.”
Freely download “The Myth of Sisyphus,” by  Albert Camus, here:

The Poet: Henry Austin Dobson, “The Paradox Of Time”

“Time passes in moments. Moments which, rushing past, define the path of a life, just as surely as they lead towards its end. How rarely do we stop to examine that path, to see the reasons why all things happen? To consider whether the path we take in life is our own making, or simply one into which we drift with eyes closed? But what if we could stop, pause to take stock of each precious moment before it passes? Might we then see the endless forks in the road that have shaped a life? And, seeing those choices, choose another path?”
- Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully, “The X-Files”
“The Paradox Of Time”

“Time goes, you say? Ah no!
Alas, Time stays, we go;
Or else, were this not so,
What need to chain the hours,
For Youth were always ours?

Time goes, you say? – ah no!
Ours is the eyes’ deceit
Of men whose flying feet
Lead through some landscape low;
We pass, and think we see
The earth’s fixed surface flee:-
Alas, Time stays, – we go!

Once in the days of old,
Your locks were curling gold,
And mine had shamed the crow.
Now, in the self-same stage,
We’ve reached the silver age;
Time goes, you say? – ah no!

Once, when my voice was strong,
I filled the woods with song
To praise your ‘rose’ and ‘snow’;
My bird, that sang, is dead;
Where are your roses fled?
Alas, Time stays, – we go!

See, in what traversed ways,
What backward Fate delays
The hopes we used to know;
Where are our old desires?-
Ah, where those vanished fires?
Time goes, you say? – ah no!

How far, how far, O Sweet,
The past behind our feet
Lies in the even-glow!
Now, on the forward way,
Let us fold hands, and pray;
Alas, Time stays, – we go!”

- Henry Austin Dobson

"Sometimes..."

“Not knowing you can’t do something
is sometimes all it takes to do it.”
- Ally Carter

"$10-a-Gallon Gasoline?"

"$10-a-Gallon Gasoline?"
by Bill Bonner

San Martin, Argentina - "CBS News reports: "Inflation around the U.S. reached a new 40-year high in February, with consumer prices jumping 7.9% from a year ago - the fastest annual rate since the Reagan administration. Rising costs of energy, housing and food drove the increase, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The price of energy has surged 26% over the last year, sharply increasing the cost of gasoline, fuel oil and natural gas for home heating. Groceries were up 8.6% from a year ago, while clothing rose 6.6%."

America can stand a lot of things. Cheating politicians. Goofball wars. Incompetence. Money-printing. Market rigging. Facebook. Can it stand $10-a-gallon gasoline too? Maybe. But only if it can blame it on someone else. Our beat here is money, not politics. But everywhere we look, politics intrudes. And the purest expression of politics is war. Yesterday, we discussed America’s new way of war. Today, we explore it further.

Flat Earth Mentality: After 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the ‘liberal world order’ stood astride the world. Its globalized markets delivered cheap goods and services. Its financialized economies made the elites (who own stocks and bonds) richer and richer. Its technocrats, coming out of international business schools and top universities, turned the knobs, while making sure the deplorables were kept away from the controls.

Francis Fukayama described the triumph of the Western, democratic model as the ‘End of History’ essay in 1992. Then, New York Times columnist Tom Friedman laid out this economic Valhalla in his 2005 book, “The World is Flat.”

But lo… suddenly, the world is full of dangerous cliffs and treacherous canyons. In the three… now four… epic bamboozles of the 21st century – the War on Terror, the Billionaire Bailout, the Covid Panic, and now the Russia-Ukraine war – history sprang back to life.

Like it or not, the world is full of humans and homo sapiens sapiens does not lie flat for long. Instead, he is prone to volcanic eruptions, tectonic hallucinations, and Everest-like vanities. We all want to feel superior, the heroes of our own stories. Individually, it is hard to feel superior to others. Whether we are stout or skinny… swift or slow… we go with what we’ve got. And if we are lucky, we have someone near and dear to us ready to remind us that we have a spot of mustard on our shirt.

But on a collective level… our bibs are spotless. And we join with others to flatter ourselves in remarkable ways. If the Ravens win the SuperBowl, every cripple and half-wit in Baltimore feels he has kicked the winning field goal. And if our boys kick butt in some godforsaken dogsh*t country, we all feel like locking and loading for the next mission.

And now cometh a new way to kick butt. Tom Friedman explains: "Putin has now figured that out - and said so explicitly on Saturday: The U.S.- and E.U.-led sanctions are “akin to a declaration of war.” (Vladimir, you haven’t felt the half of it yet.) Because the world is now so wired, superempowered individuals, companies and social activist groups can pile on their own sanctions and boycotts, without any government orders, amplifying the isolation and economic strangulation of Russia beyond what nation-states are likely to do. These new actors - a kind of global ad hoc pro-Ukraine-resistance-solidarity-movement - are collectively canceling Putin and Russia. Rarely, if ever, has a country this big and powerful been politically canceled and economically crippled so fast."

Friedman is a fan. He sees the world in child-like, Rams vs. Bengals, good vs. evil, terms. And for him, the ‘liberal world order’ is good: "The free world has been aroused. America and liberal societies in general can often look and act dumb and divided - until they aren’t. Ask Adolf Hitler."

Or ask Saddam Hussein. It doesn’t matter whether we are the aggressor or the defender… (Friedman backed the invasion of Iraq in 2003 too.) The point is, for Friedman, along with Entire Establishment Elite (EEE) the ‘liberal world order’ – is the home team. And the sanctions program – with all of its social media cluster bombs – is like a new Manhattan Project. Moscow is the new Hiroshima. Friedman:

Barron’s reported, but “the dollar-denominated secondary listings of Russian companies in London are still trading. The destruction of market value is astonishing.”…"On Thursday the rating agencies Fitch and Moody’s “downgraded Russia by six notches to ‘junk’ status, saying Western sanctions threw into doubt its ability to service debt and would weaken the economy,” Reuters reported."

Yes…the radioactive fallout is killing Russia…or so Friedman believes. Oh, and by the way, in this wired world, guess who owns a significant portion of Russia’s commercial airline fleet.

Not Russia. Roughly two-thirds of Russia’s commercial airliners were made by Boeing (334 jets) or Airbus (304), Reuters reported. A significant portion of those are owned by Irish leasing companies. The Dublin-based AerCap, the world’s biggest airplane-leasing company, owns “152 aircraft across Russia and Ukraine valued at almost $2.4 billion,” The Irish Times reported. In addition, the Dublin-based companies SMBC Aviation Capital and Avolon own 48 aircraft between them that are leased to Russian airlines…. "On Saturday, Russia’s state airline, Aeroflot, said that it would suspend all international flights because of “additional circumstances that prevent the performance of flights.” Domestic flights are sure to follow."

Hooray! We’re winning. He’s right, of course. A new kind of war is underway. A powerful new weapon has been brought out; the dollar and the US-dominated money system have been turned against the Russians. The press, social media, Hollywood, and Wall Street’s ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) movement have all reported for duty, too.

On Monday, we’ll look at what kind of collateral damage this new brand of war inflicts… and how it proliferates. Enjoy your weekend..."

The Daily "Near You?"

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

"It Is About To Happen (And Probably Will)"

Full screen recommended.
City Prepping, "It Is About To Happen (And Probably Will)"
Things are playing out in real-time that are beyond our control. These life-altering events have moved from the likelihood of happening to being a reality. But what can we do? Download the FREE Prepper's Get Started Guide: https://www.cityprepping.com/getstarted/

Jim Kunstler, "Crashing’ and Burnin’"

"Crashing’ and Burnin’"
by Jim Kunstler

"Historians of the future, boiling acorns over their campfires, will wonder that amidst all the global strife of the 2020s, Americans barely noticed that the US government went to war on its own citizens. Was there something in the water - or, more specifically, in the Pepsi Cola? Or did those “vaccines,” which were so popular as an emblem of their obedience to The Science, turn their brains into something like an Oreo McFlurry? However it happened, said citizens marched themselves ardently into the VAERS database to receive gold stars on their vaxx passports thinking: jabs will make us free!

Speaking of The Science, the nation learned this week, via a strangely staged colloquy between Senator Marco Rubio and Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, that contra to official denials days before, our government was indeed running quite a few - I believe the actual number was 29 - science projects in the foreign land called Ukraine, discovered in the course of Russian military operations there. Loose talk about “bioweapons labs” was efficiently quashed by Ms. Nuland, who styled the work as an inventory of “biological research materials.” These included such science-y playthings as ebola, bubonic plague, anthrax, and sundry viral curiosities of nature. It looked like she was trying to get ahead of the story, as they say in the agit-prop industry.

Speaking of Russia and agit-prop, that’s all we hear on the air-waves, the cable channels, and the webstreams. “Russia, Russia, Russia.” And “Putin, Putin, Putin.” American news reporters must be living in Vladimir Putin’s head because they are so adept at reading his thoughts. Putin thinks this, Putin thinks that, they declare so brashly. They are all so sure of Mr. Putin’s every thought that Mr. Putin must have to check-in with American news media to find out exactly what he’s thinking. Lately, according to CNN, The New York Times, and the rest of the gang, Mr. Putin - or maybe it’s The Putin, as in The Science - is thinking of gobbling up all the other quaint little countries at Russia’s border like so many tater tots.

For your consideration: is it possible that Russian intel knew a little something about those Ukraine labs before February 24, 2022 and became concerned that another concocted freak-of-nature pestilence might get loose there on the Eurasian frontier? And you must wonder: America saw Russian troops mustering along Ukraine’s border for many weeks before their dastardly operations got underway, and yet nobody in those bio-labs thought to maybe stuff their bio-playthings in the incinerator? Weird, little bit. But, notice, of-a-piece with the sloppy-ass way that the US has handled the entire Covid-19 fiasco: a Chinese fire-drill inside a clusterf**k garnished with the rankest dishonesty from start to finish.

And to what purpose, after all? The cartoon character Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum crowed repeatedly about what a fine opportunity Covid-19 was to smash the operating system of Western Civ in order to Build Back Better: a new system in which the zombified masses would have nothing and be happy - at least for the weeks and months they remained in the earthly plane of existence before the “vaccines” they were induced to take infarcted their livers and lights, finally carrying them off to sprout wings and receive their issued harps and halos in cloud-land. And then Herr Schwab and his tiny band of ubermenschen would be free to enjoy their transhuman nirvana free of the swine-like multitudes previously cluttering up the planet.

Yes, life in the early twenty-first century looks more and more like a bad horror movie. And now the critics are moving in, savaging the production. “A massive murderous fraud,” many are saying of the Covid-19 extravaganza, and the audience, once back out in the blinding, clarifying daylight, are saying to themselves, Yeah, kinda seems like it was. Fraud vitiates liability protection. It is a well-known principle among the artisans of law. Moderna stock is down 70 percent and Pfizer more than 20. Wall Street has sniffed out a motherlode of rot, according to Mr. Edward Dowd, BlackRock investment advisor emeritus, who is saying it loudly over the alt-streams, making a whole lot of public health officials and doctors nervous as roaches when the lights flash on. 

Mom impersonator Rochelle Walensky, chief of the CDC has concealed much dire information about the number of “vaccine” injuries and fatalities of the past year, while still importuning everybody to vaxx-up and boost-up, knowing they might be harmed by it. Does she just skate on that? And then, of course, there is Dr. Fauci, missing in action lately. (Anybody look for him down in Paraguay?) The clock is ticking on when the millions of lawsuits might commence along with prosecutions for crimes against humanity.

Cue “Joe Biden,” then, to crash the global economy and give folks other things to think about — like, how am I going to keep driving sixty miles each way to work with gasoline at $8 a gallon? How, indeed, is anything like an advanced economy going to stagger forward now that nobody in the world will sell each other anything? Well, it probably just won’t. All that’s left is the sound of money being shot out of cannons, and nobody seems to notice that it gets shredded in the process. America has gazed into the abyss and apparently decided to sign a lease and move in."
Related:
"Life in the early twenty-first century looks 
more and more like a bad horror movie:

"Massive Increase In Gas Prices! What Now? What's Coming?"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 3/11/22:
"Massive Increase In Gas Prices! What Now? What's Coming?"
"In today's vlog we are witnessing massive price increases on gasoline! We discuss how much the gas prices are already hurting the country, and how it will ultimately affect the prices at the grocery stores. It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"

"Here Comes the Global Inflationary Record - Crime is Spiking"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, 3/11/22:
"Here Comes the Global Inflationary Record - Crime is Spiking"
"It makes no difference where you live in the world everything is going up in price. We were just told that inflation has it 7.9%. There’s no way that it’s that low. The supply chain shortages and fuel prices are going up around the world. Crime is spiking."

Gregory Mannarino, "Russian Debt Default... Is This The 'Black Swan?' US GDP Downgraded Again!"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 3/11/22:
"Russian Debt Default... Is This The 'Black Swan?' 
US GDP Downgraded Again!"

"The Dark Years Are Here" (Excerpt)

"The Dark Years Are Here" (Excerpt)
by Egon von Greyerz

"A Global Monetary & Commodity Inferno Of Nuclear Proportions: When the sh-t hits the global fan, it often does it at the optimal time for the maximum amount of damage and with the worst kind of sh-t to soil the world. For years I have been clear that the world is reaching the end of an economic, financial and monetary era which will affect mankind catastrophically for decades.

The world will obviously blame Putin for the catastrophe which will hit every corner of our planet. But we must remember that neither Putin nor Covid is the reason for the economic cataclysm that we are now approaching. These events are catalysts which will have a major effect because they are hitting a gigantic debt bubble of a magnitude that has never been seen before in history. And it obviously takes very little to prick this epic bubble.

What is unequivocal is that all currencies will finish the 100+ year fall to ZERO in the next few years. It is also crystal clear that all the asset bubbles – stocks, bonds and property – will implode at the same time leading to a long and deep depression.

We had the warning in 2006-9 but central banks ignored it and just added new worthless debt to existing worthless debt to create worthless debt squared – an obvious recipe for disaster. So as is often typical for the end of an economic era, the catalyst is totally unexpected and worse than anyone could have forecast."
Please view this complete, highly recommended, article here:
Related, highly recommended:

"How It Really Is"

 

"The American Empire Self-Destructs"

"The American Empire Self-Destructs"
By Michael Hudson

"But nobody thought that it would happen this fast. Empires often follow the course of a Greek tragedy, bringing about precisely the fate that they sought to avoid. That certainly is the case with the American Empire as it dismantles itself in not-so-slow motion.

The basic assumption of economic and diplomatic forecasting is that every country will act in its own self-interest. Such reasoning is of no help in today’s world. Observers across the political spectrum are using phrases like “shooting themselves in their own foot” to describe U.S. diplomatic confrontation with Russia and allies alike.

For more than a generation the most prominent U.S. diplomats have warned about what they thought would represent the ultimate external threat: an alliance of Russia and China dominating Eurasia. America’s economic sanctions and military confrontation has driven them together, and is driving other countries into their emerging Eurasian orbit.

American economic and financial power was expected to avert this fate. During the half-century since the United States went off gold in 1971, the world’s central banks have operated on the Dollar Standard, holding their international monetary reserves in the form of U.S. Treasury securities, U.S. bank deposits and U.S. stocks and bonds. The resulting Treasury-bill Standard has enabled America to finance its foreign military spending and investment takeover of other countries simply by creating dollar IOUs. U.S. balance-of-payments deficits end up in the central banks of payments-surplus countries as their reserves, while Global South debtors need dollars to pay their bondholders and conduct their foreign trade.

This monetary privilege – dollar seignorage – has enabled U.S. diplomacy to impose neoliberal policies on the rest of the world, without having to use much military force of its own except to grab Near Eastern oil.

The recent escalation U.S. sanctions blocking Europe, Asia and other countries from trade and investment with Russia, Iran and China has imposed enormous opportunity costs – the cost of lost opportunities – on U.S. allies. And the recent confiscation of the gold and foreign reserves of Venezuela, Afghanistan and now Russia, along the targeted grabbing of bank accounts of wealthy foreigners (hoping to win their hearts and minds, along with recovery of their sequestered accounts), has ended the idea that dollar holdings or those in its sterling and euro NATO satellites are a safe investment haven when world economic conditions become shaky.

So I am somewhat chagrined as I watch the speed at which this U.S.-centered financialized system has de-dollarized over the span of just a year or two. The basic theme of my Super Imperialism has been how, for the past fifty years, the U.S. Treasury-bill standard has channeled foreign savings to U.S. financial markets and banks, giving Dollar Diplomacy a free ride. I thought that de-dollarization would be led by China and Russia moving to take control of their economies to avoid the kind of financial polarization that is imposing austerity on the United States. But U.S. officials are forcing them to overcome whatever hesitancy they had to de-dollarize.

I had expected that the end of the dollarized imperial economy would come about by other countries breaking away. But that is not what has happened. U.S. diplomats have chosen to end international dollarization themselves, while helping Russia build up its own means of self-reliant agricultural and industrial production. This global fracture process actually has been going on for some years now, starting with the sanctions blocking America’s NATO allies and other economic satellites from trading with Russia.For Russia, these sanctions had the same effect that protective tariffs would have had.

Russia had remained too enthralled by free-market ideology to take steps to protect its own agriculture or industry. The United States provided the help that was needed by imposing domestic self-reliance on Russia (via sanctions). When the Baltic states lost the Russian market for cheese and other farm products, Russia quickly created its own cheese and dairy sector – while becoming the world’s leading grain exporter.

Russia is discovering (or is on the verge of discovering) that it does not need U.S. dollars as backing for the ruble’s exchange rate. Its central bank can create the rubles needed to pay domestic wages and finance capital formation. The U.S. confiscations thus may finally lead Russia to end neoliberal monetary philosophy, as Sergei Glaziev has long been advocating in favor of MMT.

The same dynamic undercutting ostensible U.S aims has occurred with U.S. sanctions against the leading Russian billionaires. The neoliberal shock therapy and privatizations of the 1990s left Russian kleptocrats with only one way to cash out on the assets they had grabbed from the public domain. That was to incorporate their takings and sell their shares in London and New York. Domestic savings had been wiped out, and U.S. advisors persuaded Russia’s central bank not to create its own ruble money.

The result was that Russia’s national oil, gas and mineral patrimony was not used to finance a rationalization of Russian industry and housing. Instead of the revenue from privatization being invested to create new Russian means of protection, it was burned up on nouveau-riche acquisitions of luxury British real estate, yachts and other global flight-capital assets.

But the effect of making the Russian dollar, sterling and euro holdings hostage has been to make the City of London too risky a venue in which to hold their assets. By imposing sanctions on the richest Russians closest to Putin, U.S. officials hoped to induce them to oppose his breakaway from the West, and thus to serve effectively as NATO agents-of-influence. But for Russian billionaires, their own country is starting to look safest.

For many decades now, the Federal Reserve and Treasury have fought against gold recovering its role in international reserves. But how will India and Saudi Arabia view their dollar holdings as Biden and Blinken try to strong-arm them into following the U.S. “rules-based order” instead of their own national self-interest? The recent U.S. dictates have left little alternative but to start protecting their own political autonomy by converting dollar and euro holdings into gold as an asset free of political liability of being held hostage to the increasingly costly and disruptive U.S. demands.

U.S. diplomacy has rubbed Europe’s nose in its abject subservience by telling its governments to have their companies dump the Russian assets for pennies on the dollar after Russia’s foreign reserves were blocked and the ruble’s exchange rate plunged. Blackstone, Goldman Sachs and other U.S. investors moved quickly to buy up what Shell Oil and other foreign companies were unloading.

Nobody thought that the postwar 1945-2020 world order would give way this fast. A truly new international economic order is emerging, although it is not yet clear just what form it will take. But “prodding the Bear” with the U.S./NATO confrontation with Russia has passed critical-mass level. It no longer is just about Ukraine. That is merely the trigger, a catalyst for driving much of the world away from the US/NATO orbit.

The next showdown may come within Europe itself. Nationalist politicians could seek to lead a break-away from the over-reaching U.S. power-grab over its European and other Allies, trying in vain to keep them dependent on U.S.-based trade and investment. The price of their continuing obedience is to impose cost-inflation on their industry while relinquishing their democratic electoral politics in subordination to America’s NATO proconsuls.

These consequences cannot really be deemed “unintended.” Too many observers have pointed out exactly what would happen – headed by President Putin and Foreign Secretary Lavrov explaining just what their response would be if NATO insisted in backing them into a corner while attacking Eastern Ukrainian Russian-speakers and moving heavy weaponry to Russia’s Western border. The consequences were anticipated. The neocons in control of U.S. foreign policy simply didn’t care. Recognizing its concerns was deemed to make one a Putinversteher.

European officials did not feel uncomfortable in telling the world about their worries that Donald Trump was crazy and upsetting the apple cart of international diplomacy. But they seem to have been blindsided at the Biden Administration’s resurgence of visceral Russia-hatred by Secretary of State Blinken and Victoria Nuland-Kagan.

Trump’s mode of expression and mannerisms may have been uncouth, but America’s neocon gang has much more globally threatening confrontation obsessions. For them, it was a question of whose reality would emerge victorious: the “reality” that they believed they could make, or economic reality outside of U.S. control.

What foreign countries have not done for themselves – replacing the IMF, World Bank and other arms of U.S. diplomacy – American politicians are forcing them to do. Instead of European, Near Eastern and Global South countries breaking away out of their own calculation of their long-term economic interests, America is driving them away, as it has done with Russia and China. More politicians are seeking voter support by asking whether they would be better served by new monetary arrangements to replace dollarized trade, investment and even foreign debt service.

The energy and food price squeeze is hitting Global South countries especially hard, coinciding with their own Covid-19 problems and the looming dollarized debt service coming due. Something must give. How long will these countries impose austerity to pay foreign bondholders?

How will the U.S. and European economies cope in the face of their sanctions against imports of Russian gas and oil, cobalt, aluminum, palladium and other basic materials? American diplomats have made a list of raw materials that their economy desperately needs and which therefore are exempt from the trade sanctions being imposed. This provides Mr. Putin a handy list of pressure points to use in reshaping world diplomacy, in the process helping European and other countries break away from the Iron Curtain that America has imposed to lock its satellites into dependence on high-priced U.S. supplies.

But the final breakaway from NATO’s adventurism must come from within the United States itself. As this year’s midterm elections approach, politicians will find a fertile ground in showing U.S. voters that the price inflation led by gasoline and energy is a policy byproduct of the Biden administration blocking Russian oil and gas exports. Gas is needed not only for heating and energy production, but to make fertilizer, of which there already is a world shortage. This is exacerbated by blocking Russian and Ukrainian grain exports, sending U.S. and European food prices soaring.

Trying to force Russia to respond militarily and thereby looking bad to the rest of the world is turning out to be a stunt aimed simply at demonstrating Europe’s need to contribute more to NATO, buy more U.S. military hardware and lock itself deeper into trade and monetary dependence on the United States. The instability that this has caused is turning out to have the effect of making the United States look as threatening as Russia."
Related:

"The West Declared Economic War On Russia, And Now Russia Is Striking Back In A Major Way"

"The West Declared Economic War On Russia, 
And Now Russia Is Striking Back In A Major Way"
by Michael Snyder

"Did you think that the Russians were just going to sit back and take whatever economic sanctions that western powers decided to dish out? Of course the Russians were going to strike back, and they definitely have the ability to cause quite a bit of pain. Unfortunately, economic wars have a way of becoming shooting wars, and if leaders on both sides continue to escalate matters we could soon cross a point of no return. As it is, relations between western governments and the Russians have totally broken down. The Russians are never going to forgive us, and western governments are never going to forgive them. So that means that many of the economic “punishments” that are now being implemented are likely to be permanent.

Without a doubt, the sanctions that have been imposed on the Russians have done a lot of harm. The Russian ruble has collapsed, there have been extremely long lines at ATM machines and banks, and economic activity inside the country has been greatly disrupted. But anyone that thought that we would get out of this unscathed was just being delusional.

In recent days, a whole host of western corporations have announced that they are pulling out of Russia, and the Russians are now saying that they could simply seize all of their assets…"Russia said it could seize the assets of Western companies that have suspended operations in the country. Dozens of American, European and Japanese companies from almost every sector of the economy have abandoned joint ventures, factories, stores and offices in the last two weeks in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ensuring sanctions. Over the past few decades, western corporations have built up an enormous presence in Russia, and now much of that could be taken away without any compensation at all."

Ouch.

The balance sheets of some companies are about to get “adjusted” in a major way. Do you think that their shareholders will feel good about achieving a “moral victory” even though it means losing so much shareholder value?

Many major financial institutions in the western world are about to get hammered as well. According to CNN, very little of the $121,000,000,000 that Russian entities owe to western banks is likely to ever be repaid now that war has started… "International banks are owed more than $121 billion by Russian entities, according to the Bank for International Settlements, which suspended Russia’s membership on Thursday. European banks have over $84 billion total claims, with France, Italy and Austria the most exposed, and US banks owed $14.7 billion. Goldman Sachs (GS) earlier disclosed that it had credit exposure to Russia of $650 million in December 2021."

U.S. banks only stand to lose 14.7 billion dollars, and that will definitely hurt. But the amount of exposure that European banks have could potentially be absolutely devastating.

The Russians are also hitting back by restricting exports. On Thursday, the Russian government released a list of over 200 different items which will not be allowed to be exported… “The list includes technical, telecommunication and medical equipment, vehicles, agricultural machinery, electrical equipment – more than 200 items in total, including railway cars and locomotives, containers, turbines, metal and stone processing machines, monitors, projectors, consoles and panels,” the Kremlin statement says. “This measure is necessary to ensure stability in the Russian market.”

A lot of the items on that list don’t really matter, but the fact that Russia has now decided to suspend fertilizer exports is a really, really big deal… "On Thursday, Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov said Russia decided to suspend fertilizer exports. This comes when global food prices are at record highs, and European fertilizer makers are struggling to produce nutrients ahead of the spring growing season, increasing global food inflation risks.

President Vladimir Putin said the fertilizer export ban was a move to ensure stable domestic food prices. This is another sign of growing protectionism worldwide as countries grapple with soaring food prices. Putin said fertilizer markets are deteriorating, making food a lot more expensive."

In previous articles, I have explained that even before the war started some types of fertilizer had doubled in price, some had tripled in price and some had actually quadrupled in price. Now fertilizer prices are likely to soar even higher, because the Russians are a major player in the fertilizer industry… "On the eve of the sowing season, European (& American) farmers are left w/t Russian fertilizers. RUS share in the world market is a little less than a 1/3 of the world production of potash fertilizers, about 10% of nitrogen fertilizers & about 20% of complex fertilizers."

This move is especially going to be painful for farmers in Europe. Without fertilizer from Ukraine or Russia, they are going to be facing a “supply shock” of epic proportions.

We will also want to watch how Russian export restrictions affect the tech industry… "Today, #Russia accounts for 80 % of the market for sapphire substrates – thin plates made of artificial stone, which are used in opto- & microelectronics to build up layers of various materials, such as silicon. They are used in every processor in the world – AMD & Intel are no exception. #Russia’s position is even stronger in special chip etching chemistry using ultra-clean components. RUS accounts for almost 100% of the world’s supply of some rare earth elements used for these purposes."

When I ran for Congress, developing U.S. sources of rare earth elements was a hot button issue for me. Sadly, not much progress has been made since that time. Today, the U.S. remains exceedingly dependent on foreign sources. China actually dominates the global market far more than anyone else does, and so if we ever go to war with China we are going to be really, really hurting in this area.

Before I end this article, I want to give an update on the price of gasoline. The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States has now shot up to $4.31, and in Los Angeles some consumers are now paying nearly 8 dollars a gallon…"Gas prices are now nudging $8-a-gallon in Los Angeles, with drivers forming lines at Costco pumps across the US to fill up ahead of potential further increases. Snaps taken at a Mobil gas station beside on the border of Beverly Hills and West Hollywood on Wednesday afternoon displayed eye-watering prices of $7.95 for premium gas."

In this case, this is something that we have largely done to ourselves. Ever since he entered the White House, Joe Biden has pursued policies that have driven up the price of gasoline, and now the war has caused worldwide panic. Biden is trying to beg the Saudis to pump more oil, and he may be successful. But as I have repeatedly warned, the long-term outlook is exceedingly bleak. Gasoline prices will eventually go much higher than they are now. Food prices will eventually go much higher than they are now. And the shaking of our financial system has only just begun.

The Biden administration wanted a showdown with the Russians, and now they have it. Unfortunately, their foolishness is going to cost all of us dearly."

Thursday, March 10, 2022

"Majority Of Americans Make "Lifestyle Changes" As Gas Prices Hit Record Highs"

"Majority Of Americans Make "Lifestyle Changes" 
As Gas Prices Hit Record Highs"
by Tyler Durden

"President Biden's disastrous economy shows signs of stagflation as growth wanes, and commodity prices stage the largest weekly gain ever. Today's inflation printed at a 40-year high as soaring commodity costs hit the working poor the hardest, who have been forced to make lifestyle changes to offset additional costs.

First, let's begin with a new report from LendingClub. It shows a staggering 64% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, up from 61% in December. As costs skyrocket, the working poor see their wages stripped away by inflation. "You've got to eat, you've got to commute; these are not discretionary expenses," Anuj Nayar, LendingClub's financial health officer, said.

New research from Yardeni Research estimates the average household will spend an additional $2,000 per year in gasoline on top of an extra $1,000 in food expenses. Adding this all up, the typical household will spend $3,000 less this year on other things. This means that people living paycheck to paycheck with no savings or other safety nets will have to make abrupt lifestyle changes.

According to American Automobile Association (AAA), 59% of Americans are making lifestyle changes as the national average for regular gasoline at the pump hits a new record high of $4.318. If gas hit $5, three-quarters of the respondents said they would need to make lifestyle changes to offset the spike at the pump. Among the respondents who said they would make changes in response to higher gas prices, 80% of them said they would drive fewer miles, with some differences among different generations:

18 to 34 year-olds are almost three times as likely as those 35 and over to consider carpooling (29% vs 11%), which would likely involve major changes to their daily travel plans.

Those 35 and over are more likely to favor combining trips and errands (68% vs 52%) and to reduce shopping or dining out (53% vs. 43%).

Prices in some parts of the country have spiked to just under $8 a gallon. "Gas prices this morning at a station in West Hollywood. Premium is just under $8 a gallon. https://t.co/s9J8YHg8Lm pic.twitter.com/YFvPEiMTUS
— CBS Los Angeles (@CBSLA) March 10, 2022

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, gas prices have risen more than 74 cents to $4.318 per gallon, a record high. The Biden administration has launched a media blitz to blame soaring prices on Putin.
However, when Biden was elected, gas prices averaged around $2.30 and jumped $1.230 over the last year before the attack several weeks back. That means prices jumped 53% even before the invasion, but the administration insists in their messaging that President Putin is responsible for why prices of everything are rising."

Must Watch! Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up 3/11/22"

"Weekly News Wrap-Up 3/11/22:
Globalists Want War; Ukraine Lies & Propaganda; Economy Tanking"
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

"Even though Russia and Ukraine have been talking, zero agreement has been reached in stopping the three-week-old war between the two countries. There is no good faith effort to end it, and it appears the Deep State globalists want this conflict to continue. The only conclusion you can come to is, ultimately, this leads to war, and that’s what they want. Be prepared for this conflict and escalating sanctions to continue for some time to come. Maybe this is why Martin Armstrong sees a big war cycle coming in 2023.

It’s been difficult reporting on Ukraine because of the lies and propaganda. For the past few weeks, the Biden/Obama Administration has been denying there are U.S. bio-weapons labs in Ukraine. They called it conspiracy theories and “fake news.” They should have told that to State Department Under Secretary Victoria Nuland because in Senate testimony under oath, she basically confirmed the U.S. did indeed have bio-weapons labs in Ukraine. Nuland said she was worried about the labs falling into the hands of the Russians, and she was not talking about the Russians finding out about a cure for cancer. This breaks a 1992 agreement by the U.S. and Russia on bio-weapons. Another example of propaganda in Ukraine is many of the videos you are seeing contain old video from other battles and even video game footage that simulate war. A big percentage are fake or total misrepresentations of what is going on in Ukraine. It’s all used to sway public opinion against Russia and for NATO. Even globalist George Soros is shilling for Ukraine, and that alone is a huge red flag.

As the sanctions on Russia increase, the economy continues to tank. The big issue is supply of goods and commodities causing spiking inflation. Just look at wheat prices. Last fall, when winter wheat was planted, the grain was around $5.50 per bushel. Today, thanks to sanctions on Russia, it is averaging more than $11.00 per bushel. Expect the free bread at Outback and every other restaurant to not be so free in the future. All indications are the tanking of the global economy will keep going because the Russia/Ukraine conflict has no end in sight. and that’s what the Deep State globalists want."

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he talks about these
 stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up for 3.11.22.

"Animal Disease And Energy Supply Shock: Prepare Yourself For Meat And Egg Shortage!"

Full screen recommended.
"Animal Disease And Energy Supply Shock: 
Prepare Yourself For Meat And Egg Shortage!"
by Epic Economist

"Animal diseases are fast spreading all across America. Shortages of eggs, chicken, turkey, and meat are becoming more extensive by the day. A new outbreak of bird flu is decimating millions of commercial flocks. threatening to impact food supply chains all over the country, and send prices to unforeseen levels.

Cases are being reported in a dozen states since February 8, but the situation has been particularly alarming in Iowa and Missouri, where nearly 2.8 million birds – almost entirely chicken and turkeys – have died last month due to a highly pathogenic avian influenza, according to the Agriculture Department. At this point, the viral disease has already been identified in over 40 poultry farms and backyard flocks.

According to officials with the Delmarva Chicken Association, this is the first time since 2004 that avian influenza was identified in broiler farms. They said that all affected flocks are being isolated and ensured that infected birds will not be distributed to the food system. This means that our domestic food supply chains are going to lose millions upon millions of chickens and turkeys at a time shortages are already driving food prices to stratospheric levels.

Right now, the Consumer Price Index, which measures the average change in prices paid for things like food, clothes, housing, and transportation is up by 7.5%. The national average price for eggs rose by 13.1% last month, while chicken went up by 12.5%. At one point last year, the cost of eggs surged by 61%, chicken increased by 41%, while skinless turkey breasts jumped 75%. It’s safe to say that we’re headed to an era of skyrocketing prices for eggs, chicken, and turkey again.

Unless you are a vegan or a vegetarian, you are probably used to eating a considerable amount of meat on a regular basis. However, now we are being told that Americans are going to have to cut back on meat consumption as well due to global supply problems. Meat supplies are also becoming more scarce everywhere, and prices continue to reach new records.

According to a recent Yahoo Finance article, U.S. consumers are going to be forced to cut “steaks and burgers from their diets as inflation soars”: “Processors like Tyson Foods Inc. and JBS USA are making the least amount of money per head of cattle slaughtered in more than two years, according to data from HedgersEdge LLC. That’s a sign that demand for the luxury meat is flagging,” it reported.

A couple of years ago, calling beef a “luxury meat” would have raised some eyebrows. but now that the cost to grow cattle is soaring all across the globe, and consumer prices are skyrocketing, eating meat has become a privilege and a luxury for those who can afford it.

As it becomes more unprofitable for farmers and processors to get their products to the stores, global meat supplies are tightening like never before. Global events have really started to spin out of control, and conditions are changing at a pace that is absolutely breathtaking. Brace yourself, America. None of these trends are going to be reversed any time soon, and that means the pain is just beginning."

Gerald Celente, "Trends in The News"

Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, PM 3/10/22:
"Trends in The News"

"Hanging On By A Thread"

"Hanging On By A Thread"
by Jim Rickards

"Despite the happy talk from the mainstream media, the U.S. economy is hanging by a thread. The U.S. economy is stalling out. The latest estimate of first-quarter 2022 U.S. GDP growth prepared by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta shows growth of 0.5%. That’s dangerously close to recession. Of course, we still have three weeks left in the quarter, and we won’t know the actual first-quarter figure until the end of March, but the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow estimate has a good track record, and it uses real-time data rather than model-based estimates.

TV talking heads will brag about how real incomes have gone up, according to the latest employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The most recent employment report showed weekly earnings rose to $1,096 from $1,092 the month before and the year-over-year change in average hourly earnings last month was 5.1%. Great news, right? That sounds healthy, but it’s important to know that those numbers are nominal and not real.

American Workers Are Losing Ground: When you take the 5.1% annualized gain in hourly earnings and subtract the 7.0% inflation currently hitting Americans, the real wage gain is negative 1.9% (5.1 – 7.0 = -1.9).

Not so healthy after you factor in inflation. Talking heads may not know the difference between nominal and real gains, but everyday Americans do, at least intuitively. They’re the ones paying more at the cash register. Consumer price inflation is the highest in 40 years.

But the story gets worse. With or without inflation, there are certain things Americans must buy regardless of price. Gasoline for the car is near the top of the list. Prices for regular gasoline have risen nationwide from $2.76 per gallon to $4.01 per gallon in the past year. That’s a 45% spike in prices. Just in the past month, gas prices have jumped 17%. The price spikes for mid-grade and premium gas are even higher. And this surge is not over. The administration is trying to blame it all on Putin, but those price increases were mostly before the war in Ukraine.

Less Money to Spend on Everything Else: With the recent and expected price hikes as a result of the war, gas will soon be $4.50 per gallon. The price is even higher in places like California and New York. At current prices, the average consumer is spending almost $2,000 more on gas today than a year ago. And when Americans spend more on gas, they have less to spend on everything else. It’s that simple.

When it comes to cutting back, things like vacations, movies, dining out and other forms of entertainment are cut in order to leave enough for gas, food and heating bills. This is true even if there is no recession and gets even worse if there is. That has a negative ripple effect on the economy. These trends were in place before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. When you add in the economic impact of the war, the likelihood of recession increases significantly.

Making the Global Energy Shortage Worse: I mentioned gas prices. One drag on global energy output is the fact that major energy companies are reducing their investments in new exploration and development. Because of sanctions, Exxon Mobil has announced that it is pulling out of an oil and gas project in the Russian Far East. Energy majors BP, Shell and Total have announced similar pullouts from Russian energy joint ventures.

These shutdowns come on top of what was already a global energy shortage. There are numerous suggestions being offered for how Europe can deal with an energy shortage if they are unable to buy Russian oil and gas or if Russia imposes an embargo on energy exports.

None of these solutions is practical in less than three or four years. Biden suggested that Europe could obtain natural gas from the Middle East, particularly Qatar. This ignores the fact that China has been buying all of the natural gas available under long-term contracts, so spare capacity is minimal. Moreover, spare import capacity for liquified natural gas (LNG) in major countries including Spain, France, Italy and the U.K. is quite low compared to the amount needed to replace Russian exports.

The U.S. could alleviate the global energy shortage and help Europe in the short run simply by opening its fracking capacity, authorizing new drilling on federal lands, finishing the closed Keystone XL pipeline and authorizing new drilling in Alaska. None of these policies is likely to happen.

And that leads me to the administration’s dirty little secret…

Biden’s Dirty Little Secret: The dirty little secret among White House policymakers is that they like high energy prices because they help to promote the Green New Deal (really the Green New Scam) goals of wind and solar power to replace oil and gas. The more expensive gas is, the more feasible alternatives become. That represents the triumph of ideology over common sense. They may outwardly complain about high gas prices, but inwardly, they’re smiling. High gas prices fit the Green New Deal agenda perfectly.

There’s a role for wind and solar, but even if you favor them, one has to recognize that they’re non-scalable and intermittent and cannot come online fast enough to close the gap between existing energy supplies and growing demand for energy.

Given the opposition to oil and gas from climate alarmists and do-gooder ideologue investors like BlackRock’s Larry Fink, major oil companies are reluctant to invest large amounts in projects that may be deemed unwanted or even banned in years to come. This can be reversed in future years, but not in time to alleviate the current shortages. Again, these trends were underway before the war in Ukraine, but they are greatly exacerbated by the war. But the war in Ukraine will impact more than energy prices...

More Supply Chain Disruptions: While Ukraine is well known as an agricultural nation and energy transit hub, its role as a major manufacturing center is not as much appreciated. Going back to the former Cold War economies in the 1970s and 1980s, much of the manufacturing capacity and high-technology development of the former Soviet Union was based in Ukraine. Today, Ukraine has an important role in global manufacturing supply chains both in terms of finished products and intermediate manufacturing to supply parts to German auto manufacturers and other key industries in Western Europe.

The most long-term legacies of the war in Ukraine will be disrupted supply chains, shortages of consumer goods and much higher prices. Modern supply chains took 30 years to build and are being blown up in a matter of months. They will take years to rebuild. Fed monetary policy will not stop the inflation because the coming inflation is not “demand pull” inflation from consumers; it’s “cost-push” inflation from the supply side that the Fed cannot control.

In the end, we may have 1970s style stagflation which includes both weak growth (due to monetary tightening) and higher prices (because of supply disruptions). That’s literally the worst of both worlds."

Musical Interlude: Spirit Tribe Awakening, "Raise Positive Vibrations"

Full screen recommended.
Spirit Tribe Awakening, "Raise Positive Vibrations".

"528Hz Positive Energy, Self Healing with 417Hz Solfeggio frequency. Peaceful, empowering and soothing music and nature to nurture your mind, body, and soul. Supporting and empowering you on your life journey." I can't praise this visually beautiful, and very effective, video enough. In these incredibly highly stressful times, please be kind to yourself and take the time to savor this exquisite work in full screen mode. Headphones suggested but not necessary. It works, as simple as that...
- CP