Jim Kunstler, "Playing Chicken with the Fates"

"Playing Chicken with the Fates"

by Jim Kunstler

"Who is surprised that he US government’s war on the American people is not going any better than its sponsored war in Ukraine? The only thing the government is really good at is covering up its crimes, which mainly requires them to do nothing - don’t investigate anything, don’t furnish documents to anyone, don’t answer official letters, slow-walk every required action, and otherwise dodge, duck, deny, deflect, and dissemble.

Now, even that game-plan is falling apart. Some senior officials in the FBI turned whistleblower this week, perhaps desperate to preserve their self-respect, and finally cleared up one of the great mystifications of our time, namely: How is it that the Hunter Biden laptop, stuffed with incriminating memoranda of bribery, treason, and diverse felonies, and in the FBI’s possession for two-and-a-half years now, just sat gathering dust in some sub-sub-basement cubby-hole - while “Joe Biden,” the putative president (or, more likely, the enigmatic claque behind him) was allowed to carry out a demolition of America’s economy and culture?

The answer is one Brian Auten, FBI Senior Analyst, who engineered a scheme to label Hunter’s laptop “Russian disinformation,” which allowed FBI Director Christopher Wray to throw a switch that turned off any further inquiry in the matter beginning in August before the 2020 presidential election. In turn, other senior FBI officials had all the documents pertaining to the decision process on that matter locked up in a special file that would never see the light of day. Auten’s action led to the release of a letter signed by “fifty former intelligence officials” labeling the laptop as a Russian disinfo op - which became the basis for social media to conspire to censor any discussion of the laptop and its contents. And so it was that a political puppet deeply in the pay of foreign interests, got shoehorned into the White House. Well, that and widespread election fraud.

Turns out that Agent Brian Auten was also involved in favorably vetting the Steele Dossier when it was used to justify FISA court warrants against figures in Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign, part of the RussiaGate operation that disordered and disabled President Trump’s entire four-year term. Well now you know. Perhaps Special Counsel John Durham knows this, too. (If he didn’t before, he must now.) Eventually, Mr. Auten will have to answer for all this, maybe after the mid-term elections. We must imagine that he will implicate many other familiar figures in the process who were on-the-scene at the time, including Peter Strzok, Andrew McCabe, and James Comey, comfortably sitting on the sidelines lo these many years enjoying their book royalties and cable news salaries.

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, says he will hold hearings about this. When? The Senate is scheduled to be in recess August 6 to September 6 for politicking back home. Maybe after that Senator Grassley will actually produce his whistleblowers in open session - unlike the 2019 first impeachment of Donald Trump, in which chief whistleblower CIA agent Eric Ciaramella, amazingly, never made an appearance. That will be refreshing.

It would also be nice to hear from FBI Director Wray. Did he approve of the decision to label Hunter’s laptop “disnformation?” Was he familiar with the contents of the laptop, the emails between Hunter and his business associates and agents of the CCP? Did Mr. Wray happen to examine any of the pornographic videos of orgies with Hunter’s stable of Russian whores plus the crack-smoking? Did Mr. Wray wonder whether equally bad or worse material was in the hands of Uncle Xi’s regime? Did it occur to Mr. Wray that all this might compromise “the Big Guy” in the Oval Office?

It also would be edifying to hear from Mr. Wray’s boss, Attorney General Merrick Garland. During his 20 months on-the-job, has he ever inquired of his FBI what’s up with that Hunter Biden laptop? Was he acquainted with the contents. Half the country has seen the videos of Hunter cavorting naked in hotel rooms and lighting up the crystal meth, but not Mr. Garland? There’s rumored-to-be more depraved material on the laptop involving minors that even conscientious auditors outside of government have seen and deemed too atrocious to release. (Copies of Hunter’s hard-drive are in possession of many people outside government.)

I hope Senator Grassley also calls Lisa Monaco, the Deputy Attorney General, now at Mr. Garland’s right hand, who was formerly President Barack Obama’s White House Homeland Security Advisor - a fancy way of describing her role in weaponizing the apparatus of the security state against the Democratic Party’s political opponents. Lisa Monaco’s current role is the DOJ Fixer - the person who makes sure that federal law enforcement does nothing about the crimes carried out by Mr. Obama, former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and many other now well-known names in the RussiaGate cosmos, as well as continuing to squelch any inquiry on the Biden family’s criminal operations.

All of this is going to blow open, of course, and all at the same time that two other big things blow up: 1) the realization that the government lied about everything in the Covid-19 story, including especially covering-up the harmful effects of their vaunted mRNA shots, and 2) deepening US economic chaos, including the implosion of markets, derivatives, banks, and the US dollar.

Some observers say that “Joe Biden” has nothing left except to shove the USA into a hot war. Kind of looks like he’s trying - sending US Special Forces to Ukraine’s border, and all. I don’t think he’ll dare cross that line, though. To me, it’s more likely that our government will summon, shall we say, a special sort of doctor from the Intel Community to administer a permanent sleeping med to the Big Guy. Did you see how bug-eyed he was on video the other day? Didn’t even blink for the longest time. Looks like he badly needs sleep… a big sleep… the biggest sleep there is. Wait for it."

- https://kunstler.com/

Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up 7/29/22"

"Weekly News Wrap-Up 7/29/22"

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

“Died Unexpectedly” is fast becoming the new term to try and cover up all the deaths from the bioweapon “vaccines.” Now, bloggers are keeping track of stories where deaths are unexplained, mysterious or simply died without any reason whatsoever each and every week. This “died unexpectedly” phenomenon is being called a propaganda campaign by legacy media to cover up the alarming deaths that many think are coming from the vaxed, such as three perfectly healthy Canadian doctors who dropped dead one week after the hospital they worked at required a fourth CV19 injection. The hospital denied the shots had anything to do with the “unexpected deaths.” No way they can keep this propaganda up as we are just getting started with the vax injection carnage. According to one top UK Doctor, “Everybody who has an mRNA injection will die in 3 to 5 years even if they have had only one injection.” Could Ivermectin be the drug that buys years of time when taken routinely?

Russia is turning up the heat in Ukraine and turning off the natural gas to Europe. Fresh attacks are happing around Kyiv as the war grinds on and Ukraine’s army gets decimated. Forget the propaganda where you are told Russia is losing. It’s not. Russia is winning. Ukraine is having their tails handed to them. Meanwhile, the gas is being cut back to 20% of capacity in the Nord Stream #1 pipeline by Russia. They say it’s maintenance, but no matter what you call it, it’s killing off business in Germany and Europe, and it’s not even winter yet. Europe has taken poison and is expecting Russia to die. Can EU banks stay solvent if many cannot pay their loans back?

The Biden/Obama Administration is saying the USA is NOT in recession, but the facts say otherwise. In economic textbooks, two quarters in a row of negative growth is a recession. It was just reported that the second quarter has shown a -.9% downturn in GDP. That spells RECESSION - period the end, and Biden owns it. That did not stop the Fed from raising a key interest rate by .75% to fight inflation. The Fed can either fight inflation and kill the economy or let interest rates remain low and kill the U.S. dollar. It is that simple. It looks like, for now, the dollar lives."

- https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he talks about these 

stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up for 7/29/22:

- https://rumble.com/

"How It Really Is"

"I fear the day technology will surpass human interaction. 

The world will have a generation of idiots."

- Albert Einstein

"You can never underestimate the stupidity of the general public”

- Scott Adams

Canadian Prepper, "New York Warning, "Get Your Bugout Bag Ready" "New York is preparing its citizens. US Navy prepping to fight the Chinese"

Canadian Prepper, 7/28/22:

"New York Warning, "Get Your Bugout Bag Ready"

"New York is preparing its citizens. US Navy prepping to fight the Chinese"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gerald Celente, "Stock Market: It's Officially 'Dragflation,' Economy Down, Inflation Up"

Strong language alert!

Gerald Celente, 7/28/22:

"Stock Market: It's Officially 'Dragflation,' 

Economy Down, Inflation Up"

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

- https://trendsresearch.com/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Simon & Garfunkel, “The Boxer”

Simon & Garfunkel, “The Boxer”

"A Look to the Heavens"

“A now famous picture from the Hubble Space Telescope featured Pillars of Creation, star forming columns of cold gas and dust light-years long inside M16, the Eagle Nebula. This false-color composite image views the nearby stellar nursery using data from the Herschel Space Observatory's panoramic exploration of interstellar clouds along the plane of our Milky Way galaxy. Herschel's far infrared detectors record the emission from the region's cold dust directly.

The famous pillars are included near the center of the scene. While the central group of hot young stars is not apparent at these infrared wavelengths, the stars' radiation and winds carve the shapes within the interstellar clouds. Scattered white spots are denser knots of gas and dust, clumps of material collapsing to form new stars. The Eagle Nebula is some 6,500 light-years distant, an easy target for binoculars or small telescopes in a nebula rich part of the sky toward the split constellation Serpens Cauda (the tail of the snake).”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160728.html

They Don’t Always Do That...”

"When people pile up debts they will find difficult and perhaps even impossible to repay, they are saying several things at once. They are obviously saying that they want more than they can immediately afford. They are saying, less obviously, that their present wants are so important that, to satisfy them, it is worth some future difficulty. But in making that bargain they are implying that when the future difficulty arrives, they’ll figure it out. They don’t always do that.”

– Michael Lewis, “Boomerang”

Gregory Mannarino, "Sh!t$how: Economy Freefalls And Stocks Rally! A New $280 BILLION Dollar Stimulus Plan For The Rich!"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 7/28/22:

"Sh!t$how: Economy Freefalls And Stocks Rally! 

A New $280 BILLION Dollar Stimulus Plan For The Rich!"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Danger! Markets Juiced With Free Money As Economy Crashes! Homebuilders Have No Buyers"

Full screen recommended.

Jeremiah Babe, 7/28/22:

"Danger! Markets Juiced With Free Money As 

Economy Crashes! Homebuilders Have No Buyers"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Recession!!!"; "A Literal Depression Is Already Here"

"Recession!!!"

by Brian Maher

"It is (un)official - the United States economy has descended into recession. Government data, this morning released, revealed that second-quarter GDP contracted at a 0.9% annualized pace. This, after first-quarter GDP contracted at a 1.6% annualized pace. A recession is generally defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction. And so there you are.

Experts being experts, most polled economists had projected second-quarter growth - if only minimal growth. Not for the first time we wonder: How can a humble, disreputable publication as ours continually cough out a truer forecast than a body of professional economists? Yet it makes no nevermind.

Of course, the American economy has not officially entered recession. The preliminary verdict will only be affirmed if the National Bureau of Economic Research stamps it valid. And these gentlemen and ladies of the jury often deliberate for months and months - at times longer - before pronouncing verdict. The administration has already voiced a loud objection. They retort that the economy is not in recession at all, that the prosecutor’s case is riddled through with holes.

For example, defense counsel Janet Yellen vaults from her seat to plead that: "Most economists and most Americans have a similar definition of recession - substantial job losses and mass layoffs, businesses shutting down, private-sector activity slowing considerably, family budgets under immense strain. In sum, a broad-based weakening of our economy. That is not what we’re seeing right now when you look at the economy. Job creation is continuing; household finances remain strong. Consumers are spending and businesses are growing.

Co-counsel Jerome Powell then rises to claim: "I do not think the U.S. is currently in a recession and the reason is there are just too many areas of the economy that are performing too well.

Lead counsel Joseph Biden… upon snapping to after a lengthy snooze… and wiping the drool from his necktie… mumbles that: "Coming off of last year’s historic economic growth - and regaining all the private-sector jobs lost during the pandemic crisis - it’s no surprise that the economy is slowing down as the Federal Reserve acts to bring down inflation. But even as we face historic global challenges, we are on the right path and we will come through this transition stronger and more secure… We're not coming into recession, in my view… I don't think we're going to - God willing - I don't think we're going to see a recession."

Just so. Perhaps there is even some justice here. An economy is a delirium of activity, some pulling this way, some pushing that way. Deciphering the signal from the noise and channeling rival information through the proper filters is complex business. The defense may possibly hang the jury. They may even earn an acquittal from the NBER. Yet we wonder if the defense team would cling to the conventional definition of recession if… perhaps… Donald Trump was president.

We merely raise the question in the spirit of open inquiry. It is an election year of course. And recession generally proves fatal for the incumbent party - justly or unjustly. The Democratic Party is the incumbent party. And so they are hot to have the recessionary charges dismissed. Yet what if the third quarter’s gross domestic product reveals further contraction? Will they heave up the identical defense?

Peter Boockvar, of the Bleakley Advisory Group: "I think it’s still just a game of semantics. The trajectory of the economy is clearly lower, whether we’re going to define it as [a recession] or not. If anything, the third quarter is going to show further weakness. So you could have three quarters in a row of contraction for GDP. Does that technically mean we’re in a recession?" It would likely require a crackerjack attorney, a real Philadelphia lawyer, to convince a jury in that case.

Yet bad news for Main Street is often fantastic news for Wall Street. Today furnished additional evidence. The stock market was in joyful spirits today, the three major indexes up and away. That is because recession means the Federal Reserve hawks will be doves sooner than later. That is, the worse things are… the better things are…

Below, Jeffrey Tucker presents the prosecution’s case that the economy is in fact in recession today. Moreover, that it is in a literal depression with little relief in prospect. Read on for the indictment."

○

"A Literal Depression Is Already Here"

By Jeffrey Tucker

"It’s been amusing, or tragic, to see the White House this week doing its dance. They’ve been preparing the way to deny, deny, deny the recession that today’s second-quarter GDP numbers indicated. Doesn’t matter that our conditions will likely qualify by any definition of the term you read in a textbook. These people are shameless. They invent their own reality, in accord with post-structuralist thinking. Or I could put it in plainer terms: They are lying.

The White House says that even with two consecutive quarters of negative output, we are not in recession. That’s because the labor markets look strong. But that is pretty twisted because it only looks at the unemployment rate, which doesn’t count those who are out of the workforce. In labor participation, right now millions have gone missing, just having given up on life and personal ambition. That’s the truly chilling part of all of this.

We are not just in recession but depression and this is not just about economics. It’s about the human spirit itself. Hope has been drained away, and you can see it in the data or you can see it in the faces of those around you. The lockdowns were catastrophic enough but they were followed by brutal mandates, educational losses, cultural destruction plus an enormous devaluation of the currency that has already drained away 14% of the purchasing power of the dollar.

Let us have a look at consumer confidence surveys as measured by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which has been tracking it since the 1960s. It has fallen off a cliff. I can’t even see how the line could be more vertical.

Confidence has never been this low in anyone’s record. But let’s zoom in a bit closer to see how things went. It crashed after lockdowns and then made some effort toward restoration. Do you remember those days? You remember thinking: Maybe these people are not utterly and completely sadistically insane? Maybe the Biden administration will see the light and restore basic social and market functioning? That did not happen. It got worse. Much worse. Now our present times give new meaning to the word “worse." 

So yes, there is every reason to reject the term “recession.” Let’s bring back the word “depression.” That was the common term for a fall in economic conditions before World War II. It was changed only after the war to make the word less ugly as if to say we will never go back to that. The word-game thing has been going on for a very long time.

A drill down into the labor market problem produces some terrifying realities. Hotels cannot find workers. Restaurants are cutting hours because they cannot find servers. Airline flights are being canceled because many pilots and flight attendants just left. We’ve never seen this odd combination of high consumer demand, resources available to spend yet physical bodies in grave shortage actually to do what is necessary.

What these times have unearthed is an already existing corruption in the American labor markets. There are far too many people out there with high educational credentials and absolutely no skills and no market for those skills. And yet these people have set their reservation wage so high that they are unwilling to do anything that someone is willing to pay for.

This worked out well for many people for a very long time as corporations fattened up their administrative apparatus and every company built out a massive back office, dedicated mainly to compliance and paper pushing. As technology improved and their jobs became ever easier, they worked less and less. After a while, it just seemed like money would flow forever even if millions only pretended to work.

My prediction is that these back-office jobs will be gradually gutted over the coming several years. And these people will have a very difficult time being repurposed in a labor market that wants actual workers rather than PJ-clad zoomers. They will not downgrade their expectations. It will come as a devastating shock to millions of people who had come to believe that they could get money for nothing forever.

Be clear on the following. The labor shortage is not in administration or management or people who have learned to be in the right place at the right time and watch the money flow in. The labor shortage is for people willing to cook the food, change the sheets, transport the goods, make the software, fix the code, stack the dishes and so on. In other words, people who actually do stuff will be in high demand but at low prices.

Looking back, the widespread appearance of books on bullshit jobs, boss hatred, work dissatisfaction and an overall explosion in labor-related litigation were all signs of a coming crisis. All they needed to explode was some one thing to introduce an element of chaos.

The same could be said of government debt, congressional spending, Federal Reserve money creation and so on. The U.S. as a country has lived off its capital accumulated in the 1980s for a very long time, while president after president has squandered it on wars, welfare and wild sprees of payoffs to special interests.

After decades of this nonsense, it truly seemed like nothing could break the system. Crazy theories began to circulate, such as “Modern Monetary Theory,” which speculated that the central bank could print all the money it wanted without any real consequences on the value of money or the stability of the economy. That has turned out not to be true, as the devaluation is taking place at a record pace right now.

What remarkable times! The experts are left sputtering. The ruling class lies with impunity. Everyone contradicts everyone else. And everyone seems to be out of ideas on how to fix things or even cover it up anymore. This is the whole reason for the wild political drama on Capitol Hill today: The only way to distract people from the national catastrophe is political persecution. They have a convenient voodoo doll in the person of Donald Trump, who often seems like he was sent by central casting to be their preferred enemy.

For years now, we kept thinking things would get better, that someone would save us from the emerging hell, that cooler heads would prevail and that someone in charge would rediscover wisdom and truth. That is not happening. We’ve got a population today that is drowning its troubles in substances while the way of life we once knew is being stolen from us piece by piece. A temporary recession may be the least of our worries."

- dailyreckoning.com

"We Are Going To See Energy Prices Go Absolutely Nuts This Winter As We Face A Global Economic Crisis"

Full screen recommended.

"We Are Going To See Energy Prices Go Absolutely 

Nuts This Winter As We Face A Global Economic Crisis"

by Epic Economist

"The United States is facing a historic energy supply shortage, and a total cut-off of Russian gas is threatening to create a severe energy crunch that will have enormous consequences for the entire world. But even before the Russia and Ukraine crisis broke out, the whole planet was already moving towards a major energy crisis, and now we’re being told that countless people in the western world will experience a really cold and harsh winter, and confront some of the most expensive prices in history.

Russia is weaponizing energy supplies in retaliation for western sanctions. On Monday, Moscow announced another supply cut to the European Union, triggering panic in western markets over potentially severe gas shortages heading into winter, according to US officials. European officials argue that it is only a matter of time before Putin decides to cut off nat gas supplies completely. Last Wednesday, an energy rationing plan for the member states of the European Union was introduced. The plan sets a target for the 27 member states to reduce their gas demand by 15%. However, experts argue that this plan won’t be easy to enforce, and even if all of the member states meet their goals it still won’t be enough if the Russians stop the flow of gas entirely.

That leaves America in a very critical position. The U.S. has already been ramping up natural gas exports to Europe in an effort to ease the disruptions caused by this crisis, but that is shrinking In fact, one U.S. official has openly admitted that this will result in a dramatic increase in energy prices in the coming months. In some markets, new rate hikes are simply shocking. For instance, in New Hampshire, Eversource is raising its energy supply rate by about 50% on Aug. 1. “With customers using, on average, 25% more energy in the summer, a typical customer could expect to see a $70 monthly increase,” the utility said. On top of that, the energy service rate for New Hampshire Electric Co-op will go up 77%, Liberty Utilities will jump 100% and Eversource’s rate will rise by 112%.

This means that the rest of the country will soon face similar rate hikes. Needless to say, many Americans aren’t ready to see their power bill soar into the stratosphere. Looking ahead, authorities expect conditions to deteriorate even further, especially considering that the U.S. is already in a recession. The IMF is actually warning that the entire world could soon follow, noting that risks keep piling up. In a report released last week, the International Monetary Fund lowered its world economic forecast as it predicted major slowdowns in the three biggest economies: the United States, China, and Europe.

Unfortunately, there isn’t any short-term help on the horizon, and if we continue on this same path the new global energy crisis is just going to get worse and worse. By the winter, the global energy supply shortage may have evolved into a global energy nightmare of unprecedented proportions. So let’s enjoy this relatively quiet summer while we still can because all evidence is suggesting that a very dark winter is coming."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com/

Musical Interlude: George Harrison, "What Is Life"

Full screen recommended.

George Harrison, "What Is Life"

"Sometimes you will never know the value of 

a moment until it becomes a memory."

- Dr. Seuss

"A Look to the Heavens"

“This shock wave plows through space at over 500,000 kilometers per hour. Moving toward to bottom of this beautifully detailed color composite, the thin, braided filaments are actually long ripples in a sheet of glowing gas seen almost edge on. Cataloged as NGC 2736, its narrow appearance suggests its popular name, the Pencil Nebula.

About 5 light-years long and a mere 800 light-years away, the Pencil Nebula is only a small part of the Vela supernova remnant. The Vela remnant itself is around 100 light-years in diameter and is the expanding debris cloud of a star that was seen to explode about 11,000 years ago. Initially, the shock wave was moving at millions of kilometers per hour but has slowed considerably, sweeping up surrounding interstellar gas.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120924.html

"Any Life At All..."

"In a universe devoid of life, any life at all would be immensely meaningful. We ARE that meaning. "And what we see, "says the poet Mary Oliver, "is the world that cannot cherish us, but which we cherish." As though life itself is the great, universal, unrequited love of all time. But there is even more to this. Deep mystery. We are the universe aware of itself. We let the miracle get lost in distractions. On a planet so rich with living companions, much of humanity sentences itself to solitary confinement. Late at night, I used to lie in my boat listening to radio calls from ships to families ashore. There was only one conversation, and it boils down to, "I love you and I miss you: come home safe." Connections make us individuals. Ironic, isn't it? The more connected, the more unique our life becomes."

- Carl Safinao

The Poet: Stephen Levine, "Half Life"

"Half Life"

 "We walk through half our life

as if it were a fever dream,

barely touching the ground,

our eyes half open,

our heart half closed.

Not half knowing who we are,

we watch the ghost of us drift

from room to room,

through friends and lovers

never quite as real as advertised.

Not saying half we mean

or meaning half we say,

we dream ourselves

from birth to birth

seeking some true self.

Until the fever breaks

and the heart can not abide

a moment longer

as the rest of us awakens,

summoned from the dream,

not half caring for anything but love."

- Stephen Levine

"There Arrives A Point..."

"When swimming into a dark tunnel, there arrives a point of

no return when you no longer have enough breath to double back.

Your only choice is to swim forward into the unknown and pray for an exit."

- Dan Brown

Judge Napolitano, "Col. Doug Macgregor - Ukraine, Russia Latest"

Full screen recommended.

Judge Napolitano, Judging Freedom 7/28/22:

"Col. Doug Macgregor - Ukraine, Russia Latest"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands. Thanks for stopping by!

Bill Bonner, "The Fed's Secrets"

"The Fed's Secrets"

Plus, what China wants to know,

 $280 billion pigs, Madoff's playbook and more...

by Bill Bonner

"Yesterday was a big news day. First, the Fed did not “pivot” away from its tightening program. The BBC: "US makes major rate rise to tame soaring prices." That news was widely anticipated. It leaves the Fed’s key rate about 7.5% BELOW the consumer price inflation level. So, the Fed may be properly described only as making the noose… it’s still a long way from putting it around his elite friends’ necks. Investors bid up stocks on the news, probably guessing that the Fed chief might change his mind before he actually hangs anyone.

Which brings us to our second big headline: “Senate Passes Bill to Pork Up Semiconductor Industry.” Don’t bother to look it up. As far as we know, no reputable media outlet wrote an honest headline on the subject. It fell to us to clarify what was really going on.

Spooky Money: But empires need enemies. China is a good one. It’s big. It’s powerful. And it’s a plausible candidate to replace the US as the world’s number one hegemon. The whole military/industrial/media/academic/think tank/surveillance complex is all a-flutter over the possibilities – hundreds of billions’ worth of new weapons… research and analysis reports up the kazoo… and, of course, the aforementioned boondoggles for high tech industries.

And don’t forget the spooks. Already, FBI agents are looking under the beds for Chinese agents. The Wall Street Journal was on the case yesterday: “China tried to build a network of informants inside the Federal Reserve System…" Oh those wily, inscrutable, clever Chinese. They’re going to steal the Fed’s secrets… and infiltrate its policymaking… steering it to dumber and dumber policies.

Excuse us… but we need to take a break to laugh… and catch our breath. The idea that the Chinese may learn Fed secrets, or pervert Fed policy, is like suggesting that it might be trying to steal Bernie Madoff’s business plan. How it worked was obvious; its failure was inevitable. Besides, why bother? Want to know something about the US economy? Just go on the Internet. There are reams of data... tomes of theories… endless research. Almost all of it free.

All They Want: The Chinese can have all they want – all the scientific-sounding formulas, the large numbers, the Greek symbols and the crackpot theories. The public gets the wrong idea from all this folderol; apparently, the Chinese do too. People think the Fed team are like nuclear engineers… or maybe surgeons. They believe the Fed must have expertise… some tricks… some gnostic awareness – above and beyond normal humans – that enables them to pull the right lever at exactly the right time. That’s why the mainstream press refers to Powell’s ‘skill’ as a central banker that will be needed to avoid a recession.

But Mr. Powell has no known skill. And he has only one thing to work with – liquidity, both cash and credit. He adds it. Or subtracts it. Everything else is detail. And if he had any idea of what he was doing he wouldn’t have been adding liquidity when the economy was entering an inflationary cycle… and wouldn’t now be 750 basis points ‘behind the curve.’ He’d be ahead of it… inflation would be under control… and he could lower rates when the economy goes into recession.

But here’s Senator Rob Portman, missing the point completely: “I am concerned by the threat to the Fed… the broad threat from China to our monetary policy. The risk is clear.” Risk? If the feds were really afraid of Chinese competition, they’d give them keys to the Fed’s inner sanctum… and hope they would learn all they could."

Joel’s Note: "News across the wires this morning tells us what everyone without a PhD. in economics and a pay stub from the Federal Reserve already knew… the economy is shrinking. Data from the Commerce Department showed the US economy contracted by 0.9% in the second quarter (the “experts” had forecast a 0.4% increase).

For those keeping score at home, that’s two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. If it looks like a recession… and it sounds like a recession… and it hurts like a recession… just remember, it’s definitely not a recession. In fact, things couldn’t be rosier. “America is better positioned to lead the world than we ever have been,” said the president himself just a few weeks ago. “We have the strongest economy in the world.” Recession? What recession?"

- bonnerprivateresearch@substack.com

"I Do Not Say..."

"I do not say that democracy has been more pernicious on the whole, and in the long run, than monarchy or aristocracy. Democracy has never been and never can be so durable as aristocracy or monarchy; but while it lasts, it is more bloody than either. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty."  

- John Adams

"Why the Fed Can’t Stop Inflation"

"Why the Fed Can’t Stop Inflation"

by Brian Maher

"Consensus opinion projected the Federal Reserve would elevate its target rate 75 basis points yesterday. The monetary authority greeted expectations, precisely - 75 basis points it was, announced at 2 p.m. Eastern. Thus the federal funds rate presently ranges between 2.25–2.50%. This rate of course falls miles and miles beneath the 9.1% (official) consumer price inflation currently going. Assume today’s blazing inflation endures. Mr. Powell and mates will need to get much better water on the inferno. This, they intend to accomplish. Today they muttered that they “anticipate that ongoing increases in the target range will be appropriate”... as inflation “remains elevated.” Yet the stock market was up and away on the news…

Powell Gives the Market Hope: The Dow Jones closed the day 436 points higher than where it started the day. The S&P 500 closed 102 points higher, while the Nasdaq Composite enjoyed itself a truly lovely spree - up a delirious 469 points on the day. Why did the stock market react to yesterday’s 75-basis-point hike with such bounce?

The Federal Reserve did telegraph additional hikes yesterday, it is true. Yet they also hinted they may soon back off, that they may kink the hoses some. Fire Chief Powell: "As the stance of monetary policy tightens further, it likely will become appropriate to slow the pace of increases while we assess how our cumulative policy adjustments are affecting the economy and inflation… recent indicators of spending and production have softened." There you have your explanation for yesterday’s stock market extravagance - by our reckoning at least.

Bad News Is Good News Again: Affirms BlackRock’s Gargi Chaudhuri: "The reason this is providing some relief to the equity market is the Fed is acknowledging that there can be an impact on growth, to the economy, based on their policy. They’re recognizing there are two sides of this: There’s a growth trade-off to fight inflation. That recognition is something we had today that we didn’t hear before."

Adds Goldman strategist Christian Mueller-Glissmann: "The market has shifted to bad-news-is-good-news again, the whole idea that central banks will pivot because the data is so bad. We’re going back to a template that we know well." We do know the template well - overly well. But is the Federal Reserve throwing water on the wrong target?

It’s a Supply Problem, Not a Demand Problem: It is attempting to throttle demand. Yet as Jim Rickards has noted, today’s inflation owes primarily to supply chain delinkages, not overabundant demand - that is, to supply limitations. The Federal Reserve can attempt to choke demand all it pleases. Yet it is incapable of mending the shattered supply chains. It is akin to taking aspirin for a bellyache or penicillin for a broken jaw. It is the wrong fix. So long as supply chains are discombobulated, inflation will run loose.

Rate increases will therefore fail to douse inflation’s flames. They will likely, however, give a good soaking to the economy. The required gallons would overtake, inundate and drown the thing.

Toward a Hair-Curling Recession: Recession is a near inevitability. As our former colleague David Stockman styles it: "[What we’re seeing] is powerful inflationary momentum that will take years to vanquish… The only thing that can slow down the inflationary freight train, therefore, is gobsmacking three-digit rate increases capable of shutting down new borrowing completely, thereby materially draining demand from overheated domestic product and labor markets."

Today’s 0.75% elevation therefore fails Mr. Stockman’s rigid requirements. This noted Cassandra continues, wringing troubled hands: "That’s not about to happen, of course. Instead, what lies ahead is a tangle of start-and-stop anti-inflation maneuvers by the Fed that will only prolong the inflationary disaster now upon us, even as the latter is inexorably destined to end in a hair-curling recession."

Can the Federal Reserve attain rates much above 3% - perhaps 3.5% - without lethal economic consequences? We are not half so convinced it can. We therefore believe 3–3.5% will represent high water. Levels will drop thereafter. Incidentally - or not incidentally - the market believes the Federal Reserve will commence rate cuts in Q1 2023. 

The Economy Can’t Breathe on Its Own: Like a man hooked to a respirator, the economy cannot breathe on its own. It is too dependent on central bank oxygen. The Federal Reserve plugged in the oxygen during the Great Financial Crisis… and never took it out. It attempted a weaning some years back but in late 2018 the market began to gasp and wheeze dreadfully. To yank the oxygen now - after even greater respiratory support - is to commit a suffocation, a murder.

The Lost Opportunity: The economy might breathe freely today had Dr. Bernanke and his successors only let the economy recapture its own wind post-crisis. The initial gasping might have been frightful, it is true. Yet the market would have coughed out the excesses of the previous boom - and gradually filled its lungs with the invigorating oxygen of honest capitalism - of profit and loss, of creative destruction. Alas, it was not to be. And so the economy remains on artificial ventilation, where it will likely remain until the end of the chapter, world without end.

We have likened Jerome Powell to the ancient Sisyphus of Greek mythology. The poor fellow kept pushing his boulder up the steep hill, only to have it roll back down with each attempt. He can never summit the hill. Unfortunately, neither can the economy…"

- dailyreckoning.com

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Related:

"Welcome to STAGFLATION:

FED Forced to Hike Rates Into a Slow Economy"

"Oh Goody! Now We Get To Have Rampant Inflation And A Housing Collapse At The Same Time!"

"Oh Goody! Now We Get To Have Rampant Inflation 

And A Housing Collapse At The Same Time!"

by Michael Snyder

"Under normal circumstances, this would never happen. Normally, you would never have raging inflation and a housing crash at the same time. But thanks to the Federal Reserve that is precisely what we are now facing. The Fed has created a colossal inflation monster which is going to be exceedingly difficult to tame, and meanwhile the most epic housing bubble in the history of our country is starting to burst. This combination is going to cause immense pain for U.S. consumers in the months ahead, and there is no short-term hope on the horizon.

If you have been to the grocery store lately, you have probably noticed that prices are a lot different than they were just a few short months ago. Unfortunately, some of our largest corporations are telling us that they are going to continue to pass cost increases along to consumers…"Consumers looking for relief from higher prices might have to wait a while. The makers of Coca-Cola beverages, Dove shampoo, Huggies diapers and Big Macs have been raising prices as their costs increase on everything from wood pulp to wages. The executives behind these global brands on Tuesday said they would keep passing along those costs to shoppers, for now. Consumers are continuing to buy even as inflation takes a toll on households, these executives said."

In a desperate attempt to get the inflation spiral that they created under control, officials at the Federal Reserve keep raising interest rates. In fact, on Wednesday we witnessed another historic interest rate increase…"The Federal Reserve on Wednesday enacted its second consecutive 0.75 percentage point interest rate increase as it seeks to tamp down runaway inflation without creating a recession. In taking the benchmark overnight borrowing rate up to a range of 2.25%-2.5%, the moves in June and July represent the most stringent consecutive action since the Fed began using the overnight funds rate as the principal tool of monetary policy in the early 1990s."

Fed officials seem to think that they can tame inflation just like Paul Volcker and his minions did in the early 1980s. But the truth is that the environment is completely different this time around. In the early 1980s, the money supply was relatively stable. Today, we are coming off two years in which our leaders behaved very foolishly. Our politicians borrowed and spent trillions of dollars that we did not have, and the Federal Reserve pumped trillions of fresh dollars that they created out of thin air into the financial system. No matter how high the Fed pushes interest rates, it isn’t going to make all of that new money magically disappear.

In addition, we are dealing with some very serious long-term supply issues that would have been unimaginable in the early 1980s. I expect that those supply issues will intensify over time, and this will especially be true if more military conflicts erupt around the globe.

If officials at the Fed think that they can solve our inflation crisis by just crushing demand, they are simply being delusional. But raising interest rates will certainly do one thing. It will absolutely eviscerate the housing market, and that is already starting to happen. "On Wednesday, we learned that pending home sales in the U.S. were 20 percent lower this June than they were last June…"Signed contracts to purchase existing homes dropped 20% in June compared with the same month a year ago, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday."

That is the slowest pace since September 2011, with the exception of the first two months of the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns, when sales plunged briefly and then rebounded sharply. On a monthly basis, pending home sales fell a wider-than-expected 8.6% in June. A Dow Jones survey of economists had predicted a 1% drop. Those numbers are absolutely horrible, and they were much worse than expected. And everyone agrees that this is happening because the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates.

At this point, things are particularly bad in “Zoomtowns” such as Boise, Idaho…"During the pandemic-fueled housing boom, Boise emerged as one of America’s hottest “Zoomtowns,” communities that experienced a spike in population from an influx of remote workers. Now, the housing boom around Idaho’s capital city has ground to a halt. Buyers are balking at record prices and mortgage rates that last month hit a 13-year high. Sixty-one percent of listings in the Boise metro area had a price cut in June, the highest rate out of 97 metro areas surveyed, according to brokerage Redfin Corp. Home builders who couldn’t keep up with demand last year are cutting back on construction."

If you are trying to sell a house right now, I feel really bad for you. As mortgage rates go even higher, even more potential buyers will be pushed out of the marketplace. Meanwhile, we are starting to see an alarming surge in foreclosures as the overall economy slows down. Just check out these very alarming figures…"Looking specifically at foreclosure starts, this metric was up 26.6% in June on a monthly basis, but up 440.91% year-over-year. Starts also represented the highest share (4%) of serious delinquencies since March 2020, but less than half the rate in the years leading up to the pandemic."

440 percent on a year over year basis? Are you kidding me? We haven’t seen anything like this since 2008. And we all remember what happened in 2008. A new housing crash is here, and the Federal Reserve is making things even worse by dramatically hiking interest rates. What in the world are they thinking? You don’t raise interest rates when a recession has already begun. That is completely and utterly insane. But that is precisely what they are doing.

I am concerned that economic conditions in America could soon very closely resemble my first novel. Economic activity is slowing down everywhere that you look, layoffs are on the rise, the housing market is collapsing, but meanwhile prices for essentials such as food and energy continue to keep rising. The people that are going to get hurt the most by all of this are those at the bottom of the economic food chain. A very dark chapter in American history has begun, and the months ahead are going to be filled with pain."

- http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"Bank Run at Sydney Bank - When Will This Come to the US?"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly 7/28/22:

"Bank Run at Sydney Bank - 

When Will This Come to the US?"

"It was just a matter of time until China’s banking problem affected another country. Now Sydney, Australia is having problems with banks. People are desperate to get their money out. When will this come to the United States? The fed raised interest rate 3/4 of a point and businesses have accepted the fact that we have an economic slowdown."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How It Really Is"

Any questions?

"Stocking Up At Kroger! Massive Couponing!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures with Danno, 7/28/22:

"Stocking Up At Kroger! Massive Couponing!"

"In today's vlog we are at Kroger, and are buying things! We shop around Kroger showing what we think are the best deals with a massive variety of digital coupons! With grocery prices increasing due to inflation, and other reasons, we are traveling around to find the best sales, and deals, so you don't waste your money! It's getting rough out here with prices skyrocketing, and stores struggling to get in products."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "The Economy Is Now Officially In A Recession, And It's About To Get Much Worse"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 7/28/22:

"The Economy Is Now Officially In A Recession, 

And It's About To Get Much Worse"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gerald Celente, "Our Freedom Is Lost; The Government Lies, Cheats and Steals"

Gerald Celente, "Trends Journal"

"Our Freedom Is Lost;

 The Government Lies, Cheats and Steals"

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

- https://trendsresearch.com/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Canadian Prepper, "This Is Downright Terrifying. They Finally Got Me"

Canadian Prepper, 7/27/22:

"This Is Downright Terrifying. They Finally Got Me"

- https://canadianpreparedness.com/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Deep Still Blue"

Full screen recommended.

2002, "Deep Still Blue"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Stars can be like artists. With interstellar gas as a canvas, a massive and tumultuous Wolf-Rayet star has created the picturesque ruffled half-circular filaments called WR23, on the image left. Additionally, the winds and radiation from a small cluster of stars, NGC 3324, have sculpted a 35 light year cavity on the upper right, with its right side appearing as a recognizable face in profile. 

This region's popular name is the Gabriela Mistral Nebula for the famous Chilean poet. Together, these interstellar clouds lie about 8,000 light-years away in the Great Carina Nebula, a complex stellar neighborhood harboring numerous clouds of gas and dust rich with imagination inspiring shapes. The featured telescopic view captures these nebulae's characteristic emission from ionized sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms mapped to the red, green, and blue hues of the popular Hubble Palette."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210208.html 

“The Immutable Laws of Nature, and Murphy’s Other 15 Laws”

“The Immutable Laws of Nature, and Murphy’s Other 15 Laws”

by Peter McKenzie-Brown

“The Immutable Laws of Nature”

• Law of Mechanical Repair: After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch and you’ll have to pee.

• Law of Gravity: Any tool, nut, bolt, screw, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible place.

• Law of Probability: The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act.

• Law of Random Numbers: If you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal; someone always answers.

• Law of Variable Motion: If you change traffic lanes or checkout queues, the one you were in will always move faster than the one you are in now.

• Law of the Bath: When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone will ring.

• Law of Close Encounters: The probability of meeting someone you know increases exponentially when you are alongside someone you don’t want to be seen with.

• Law of the Damned Thing: When you try to prove to someone that a machine or device won’t work, it will.

• Law of Biomechanics: The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.

• Law of the Spectator: At any theatrical, musical or sporting event, the people whose seats are furthest from the aisle always arrive last. They are the ones who will leave their seats several times to go for food, for beer, or to the toilet and who leave before the end of the performance or game. Those who occupy the aisle seats come early, never move once, have long gangly legs or big bellies and stay seated beyond the end of the performance. The aisle people also are very surly folk.

• Law of Coffee: As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your partner will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.

• Murphy’s Law of Lockers: When only 2 people are in a locker room, they will have adjacent lockers.

• Law of Plane Surfaces: The chance that a slice of marmalade toast will land face down on a floor is directly correlated to the newness and cost of the carpet or rug.

• Law of Logical Argument: Anything is possible when you don’t know what you are talking about.

• Law of Physical Appearance: If clothes fit, they’re ugly.

• Law of Public Speaking: A closed mouth gathers no feet

• Law of Commercial Marketing: As soon as you find a product that you really like, it will cease production or the store will stop selling it.

• Law of Psychosomatic Medicine: If you don’t feel well, make an appointment to see to the doctor and by  the time you get there, you’ll feel better. If you don’t make an appointment you’ll stay sick.

“Murphy’s Other 15 Laws”

1. Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

2. A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.

3. He who laughs last, thinks slowest.

4. A day without sunshine is like, well, night.

5. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

6. Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don’t.

7. Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.

8. The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there’s a 90% probability you’ll get it wrong.

9. It is said that if you line up all the cars in the world end-to-end, someone would be stupid enough to try to pass them.

10. If the shoe fits, get another one just like it.

11. The things that come to those who wait, may be the things left by those who got there first.

12. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

13. Flashlight: A case for holding dead batteries.

14. God gave you toes as a device for finding furniture in the dark.

15. When you go into court, you are putting yourself in the hands of twelve people who weren’t smart enough to get out of jury duty.”

- http://www.24hgold.com/